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Coming Home: Bruce Dern Film Gets 10 Minute-Plus Standing O in Cannes

Roger Friedman — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:13:55 +0000

Bruce Dern’s long and complicated career in Hollywood got new wind and a major boost Thursday night in Cannes. Dern’s starring role in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” received a 10 minute or more standing ovation at its black tie premiere, with hoots, hollers, stomping and clapping. Unlike The Great Gatsby, “Nebraska” had a rare Cannes premiere– where they stop the credits and turn up the lights because the audience is going crazy. Payne–director of “The Descendants,” “Sideways,” and “About Schmidt: among others–has made a unique drama of genuine Americana, a gem of a film in black and white that explores many serious themes but has just enough off beat laughs to lighten the mood. Like all of Payne’s films, this is a road trip movie. Dern’s Woody Grant maybe has onset dementia. He is a lifelong fucntioning alcoholic, still married to the same woman and father to two adult sons (Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk). He receives a scam letter from a contest company congratulating him on winning a million dollars. The result is a trip from Billings Montana to Omaha [...]

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RFK Daughter Kerry Kennedy To Speak at Hollywood Scientology Salon

Roger Friedman — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:07:12 +0000

This is just about as weird as it gets. I’ve just been sent a copy of an invite to top Scientology couple Anne Archer and Terry Jastrow’s Hollywood home. It seems as though on May 1 the Jastrows are hosting a salon at which Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy Jr and ex wife of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, will address the crowd. Kerry Kennedy is the featured speaker. The other hosts are all Scientologists including composer Mark Isham and actress Kelly Preston (aka Mrs. Travolta). Archer and Jastrow have held this kind of salon before, and I’ve reported on it. The invitation says it’s for a group called Artists for Human Rights, which is a Scientology group. Kennedy is coming a spokesperson for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, named for her late father. The story was first reported by the indefatigable Tony Ortega on his website, www.tonyortega.org. Kennedy is still awaiting word about her car crash last July 2012 in Westchester County. She claimed she’d mistakenly taken an Ambien and had fallen asleep at [...]

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AMBUSH! Did ABC Just “Leno” Barbara Walters? She Has No Plans to Retire from “The View”

Roger Friedman — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:26:24 +0000

UPDATE: Barbara Walters was totally ambushed by ABC today, my sources say. And the reality is, if she were even contemplating retirement of some kind, either Liz Smith or Cindy Adams would have reported it first. Now every media outlet has picked up this crazy story, and it’s quickly becoming “fact.” Stay turned to see if Walters rebuts. Interesting timing too since “The View” is not live tomorrow, but taped for Good Friday. ABC really played it well. Earlier: A couple of stories popped up this afternoon in Hollywood columns claiming Barbara Walters was set to announce her retirement. Ha ha. It seems ABC News may have done to Walters what they did to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and what NBC just did to Jay Leno and Matt Lauer. My source says that Walters had only discussed retiring officially from ABC News, not “The View.” She actually owns a piece of that show. also read: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/03/29/barbara-walters-is-not-leaving-the-news-the-news-is-leaving-barbara-walters But ABC may have decided that the only way to make Walters retire was to announce it and see what happened. It’s too convenient that the [...]

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Downton Abbey’s Matthew, Dan Stevens, Still Alive, Shows off New Look at NY Observer Party

Roger Friedman — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:57:45 +0000

Yes, Matthew Crawley is still alive. That is, actor Dan Stevens has survived his fatal car crash in the final episode of “Downton Abbey” season three. He would have been mobbed at the posh Four Seasons restaurant last night during the New York Observer’s 25th anniversary party. Would have, except Stevens– now living in Brooklyn and filming Scott Frank’s “A Walk Among the Tombstones” with Liam Neeson, arrived sporting an entirely new look. He’s lost maybe 10 or 15 pounds. His hair, dyed blonde for the hit British drama, is now dark, dark brown. And spiky. He seems a little gaunt compared to fleshy hail-fellow-well-met Matthew. But Matthew is no more. “I asked for extra blood in that final scene,” the absolutely charming Stevens told me. “I wanted to make sure people knew Matthew was dead. There was no question.” Stevens spent last fall and this winter on Broadway with Jessica Chastain in “The Heiress.” He knew when he arrived on Broadway he was not returning to the Crawley family. In the UK, fans found out on Christmas Day that [...]

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Boston Phoenix Said to Be Closing, Alternative Weeklies Now a Thing of the Past

Roger Friedman — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:41:19 +0000

The Real Paper in Boston died a long time ago. Now Stephen Mindich, scourge of Boston publishing is finally shuttering the once beloved Boston Phoenix. Imagine that Boston, once the hippest college area in the U.S., now sustains no alternative weekly paper to the feeble Globe and the even sadder Herald. In New York, the Village Voice is a ghost wandering around the neighborhood making sounds that can only be heard in crazy people’s heads. Recently my cousin asked me if I could help find her daughter an internship in “journalism.” What’s that, I wondered aloud? Back in my day (IBM Selectrics, pay phones, long nights in the library research room), papers like the Phoenix, Real Paper, VV, and Soho Weekly News were where you started out, learned the ropes, eventually got a piece published, networked. The “journalism” was real, it was reporting, is wasn’t “blogging,” snarking, opinionating, bloviating–and for free, no less. I don’t know how Mindich finally killed the Phoenix. But I do imagine that everyone’s on their mobile device, and that stopping to buy a paper at [...]

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“Today” Show Beaten By Fox5′s Local “Good Day New York” in Key Age Group

Roger Friedman — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:44:17 +0000

More people in the New York area watched “Good Day New York” on local Fox 5 than they did the “Today” show on national NBC. That seems to be the ratings report. In the 25-54 key demo, “Today” lost significant viewership. Of course, nationally it lost to “Good Morning America.” That’s like Le Cirque being beaten by McDonalds because “GMA” has become a game show posing as news. “Good Day New York” got a 1.3 rating as opposed to the “Today” 1.2 rating. But the “Good Day New York” news is troubling. First it’s local. Second, the show actually changed anchors right before sweeps began, swapping out Dave Price, mysteriously, for former host Greg Kelly. Rosanna Scotto, the captain of the ship, remains as Fox’s standard bearer– and thank goodness. because she tells it like it is! There are rumors that this ratings debacle at “Today” means the end of Matt Lauer, but I don’t think so. If he wants to stay, he’d better wake up and do some image polishing– hire a spin doctor, go on the offensive, and [...]

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Robert DeNiro in Tears on “Katie”: A Good Fella Breaks Down (Video)

Roger Friedman — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:18:05 +0000

We rarely see Robert DeNiro’s vulnerable, personal side. But yesterday on Katie Couric’s talk show, DeNiro spontaneously burst into tears during an interview alongside “Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell and co-star Bradley Cooper. Russell had been talking about his own teenage son who suffers from mood disorders. When Katie asked DeNiro if he identified with Russell’s description of what he goes through as a parent, DeNiro started crying. It comes at about 5:10 in the video below. Back in September, when “Silver Linings” debuted in Toronto, DeNiro — I wrote this then– came out of the screening with tears in his eyes. DeNiro is just the nicest guy, and he does not ever sell his life’s problems to get attention. It’s the last thing on his mind. But “Silver Linings” is about fathers and sons, a father who is highly sensitive to his adult son’s emotional issues. DeNiro had that with his father and has it with his own teenage son. It’s one reason, I think, he held off doing much press on “SLP” until now. Again, a [...]

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The Next Super Bowl, in New York: Who Should Perform the Half Time Show?

Roger Friedman — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:23:11 +0000

Super Bowl 47 is over, and the entertainment was excellent overall– Beyonce, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson with the Sandy Hook school chorus were so good they blew out the electricity. (Not really!) So now, the next Super Bowl comes to New York, er, New Jersey, the Meadowlands, in 2014. And who do we want in the half time show? For New Jersey, everyone wants Bruce Springsteen, but he just did it in 2009. A natural choice: Bon Jovi as at least one of the acts. And Billy Joel would be a likely other candidate. Those two would be big nods to local heroes. And you could Wyclef Jean to that mix for a great, great halftime. Who would sing “The Star Spangled Banner”? A Broadway voice, perhaps? Anne Hathaway, who’s from New Jersey? Here’s who still hasn’t performed the halftime show: Elton John. Or Tina Turner, if she’d come home for the weekend. How about those acts together? Sting or a reunited Police? Led Zeppelin? Or it is time for a bunch of newer acts: Maroon 5, matchbox twenty, [...]

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Beyonce Sings the Star Spangled Banner Live for Reporters (Video Here)

Roger Friedman — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:34:01 +0000

Beyonce sang The Star Spangled Banner today for reporters in New Orleans. She explained about her inaugural debacle. But as I said the other day, the pre-tape stuff is normal. Plus, Beyonce doesn’t care what people think. She is rich and famous. She doesn’t need us telling her what to do. No one sings at the Super Bowl without a back up tape. Let’s hope the game is more interesting than all of this nonsense.

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Scientology Sued Over Never-Opened ‘Money Pit’ $100 Million Building in Florida

Roger Friedman — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:23:56 +0000

In the end Scientology will be taken down over money. Interesting, huh? A wealthy couple from Irvine, California are suing the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige for fraud. Long time members of the cult, Luis and Rocio Garcia filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida. They say they’ve invested in something Scientology calls the “Super Power Building” in Clearwater, Florida that was begun in 1998 and has never opened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Power_Building The Garcias have found a high powered Tampa attorney, Theodore Babbitt, who’s already held a press conference down there and started up a P.R. machine. The story– with a video you should watch– appears in today’s Tampa Tribune. http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/couples-lawsuit-accuses-church-of-scientology-of-fraud-deception/1271893 Scientology, of course, denies all the accusations. But the lawsuit comes at a propitious moment, as Lawrence Wright’s book, “Going Clear,” is a bestseller and sheds new light on the religious cult that has been accused of all kinds of things from fraud to brainwashing to torture. All of the last year has been a bad time for Scientology. Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie “The Master” depicted a fictitious [...]

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