Showbiz411

Jeff Bridges– you remember, he won the Oscar last March for playing country singer Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart”?

I know, it seems like a long time ago.

But you’ll be interested to know that Bridges is set to record an album of songs written by him and/or by Ryan Bingham, the singer songwriter who penned the hits from “Crazy Heart.”  T Bone Burnett, who produced the “Crazy Heart” music, will produce the tracks.

Bridges’ deal is with EMI/Blue Note Records, headed up by the valiant Ian Ralfini, one of the last great music men in the industry.

EMI is otherwise really a mystery at this point. Although Katy Perry has been a big seller for them, and the Beatles, of course, EMI/Capitol etc is suffering through the current trial that pits Guy Hands and his Terra Firma fund against Citigroup.

(I should say that Capitol Nashville is doing great with Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker.)

When the trial is over, expect even more layoffs at the beleaguered company. I was surprised to learn that recently Jeanne Meyer, the long time head of corporate PR was gone.  Jeanne has gone out on her own, and will do spectacularly, I am sure. But she’s been the mainstay of EMI as far as I can recall.

One last thing: I was wondering what happened to Ryan Bingham. He won so many awards for “Crazy Heart,” you’d think he’d have exploded. Turns out he released an album in August on Lost Highway called “Junky Heart.” Some of the song titles were “Depression” “Yesterday’s Blues” and the title track. His group is called the Dead Horses. So now I know what happened: he could cheer up a bit, right?

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.