Showbiz411

Exclusive: Last night in New York: Billy Joel gave a private master class for Universal Music Publishing execs, a few select record industry folks, and Sting. Jimmy Webb was the moderator at the new Cutting Room on East 32nd St. and Park. Long time friend Sting (they each lived in the same apartment on Central Park West at different times), actress Lorraine Bracco, Revlon’s Ronald Perelman and his wife Anna were among the guests from the non-exec side as Billy played some hits, talked about pop music and dissected Webb. Billy signed a deal in August for Universal’s Rondor Music– run by the esteemed Lance Freed–to be administrator of his huge catalog. Joel and Universal will do a similar event in Los Angeles coming up…

Paul Rudd hosted a bowling event at Lucky Strike lanes last night for Our Time with lots of well known friends including Amy Ryan, Matt Dillon, “Once” star Steve Kazee, Noah Emmerich, Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann, Eve Plumb from “The Brady Bunch”–who’s looking for an apartment in New York, Daphne Rubin Vega, Everett Bradley — who plays in the E Street Band, Jack McBrayer from “30 Rock,” Fisher Stevens, David Alan Basche and Alyssa Reiner. Our Time helps kids with stuttering problems and they run a very popular camp. A great charity: http://www.ourtimestutter.org

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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.