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Clarence Clemons’ Funeral: Bruce, Jackson Browne, and Tributes

Roger Friedman
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I’m a little off kilter because of traveling back and forth to Los Angeles during the week. But I didn’t want Clarence Clemons’ funeral to go unremarked upon here. According to reports in the Palm Beach newspaper and from the AP, the funeral– held on Tuesday–featured a beautiful eulogy from Bruce Springsteen, plus a solo acoustic rendering of “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” Nils Lofgren also played an instrumental solo, and Jackson Browne led the E Street Band on “You’re a Friend of Mine,” the 1985 hit he had with Clarence. Everyone was there, including Little Steven van Zandt. Here’s what Bruce said, according to the Palm Beach Daily News: “Clarence was a man of unconditional love, but his love came with a lot of conditions… He was a complex guy … an ongoing project. But when you were in his presence, it was like being in a sovereign nation.” According to the reports, Clarence’s ashes will be scattered in Hawaii. Condolences to the whole E Street family.

Thanks for everything, Big Man.

Scoop Saves: Warren Beatty as Howard Hughes, Jamie Foxx to Tarantino

Roger Friedman
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It’s hard to know what to say at this point about Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood. Most of their copy is either press releases they’ve slapped up on the internet or stories they’ve taken from other places. Finke is a corrosive figure in Hollywood. Her worst behavior has rubbed off on her employees. Earlier this week, they reprinted a press release about Warren Beatty signing to do a comedy at Paramount. This column-Showbiz411–told you it was a Howard Hughes movie. Now Deadline has just wormed its way into that story. I love the fact that they say Beatty is talking to a lot of actors, including Annette Bening. Yes, do they know that Beatty and Bening have been married for 20 years?

What Deadline does is list a bunch of names. When one of them sticks, they declare themselves a winner! It’s hilarious. Yesterday they decided that because Jamie Foxx was listed in one of their stories about Quentin Tarantino‘s “Django Unchained,” he was “theirs.” His was a name “in the mix” with several others.

But I told you on June 13th that Jamie was joining the cast.

I don’t mind giving credit to anyone who’s written about something first. But the whole gestalt of Deadline, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter has become incredibly tiresome. They receive the same press releases, reprint them, declare exclusives. They fight over the minutiae of ‘breaking news’ about TV pilots–shows that won’t get made, or sold, or broadcast, featuring actors  no one’s ever heard of. Little known executives are switching jobs! Alert the media!

Anyway: Warren Beatty is making his Howard Hughes movie, Jamie Foxx is going to be in the Tarantino film. I told you that. Today Deadline is scooping the following: NALA Sets Steve Carr To Direct Rob Riggle And Thomas Lennon In ‘The Boondoggle’. It’s theirs exclusively. I don’t know what it means, but I’m sure it’s a big deal.

Lady Gaga Saga of Sales Spiral Down Continues

Roger Friedman
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Poor Lady Gaga. Her saga of continued downward sales continues. In the fourth week of release for “Born this Way,” her latest release sold a mere 68,935 copies. That brings her to a total of 1,254,484–less, of course, the 440,000 copies that amazon gave away for 99 cents. If those are removed, the total is 854,484. That’s a lot of CDs, of course, no matter what the parameters. But with the amazon deal and no real second breakout single, “Born this Way” is quickly vanishing. This week it fell to number 4. I always like to contrast it with Adele’s “21” album, which had a zero percent change last week and sold well over 100,000 copies. Lady Gaga also finished behind a child, Jackie Evancho. Why anyone wants to listen to an 11 year old sing classical music is beyond me, but that’s the story right now. In each of the last three weeks, Gaga has dropped about 40,000 units. This means that this week she could finish with around 25,000 copies sold. She has to be making big bucks from endorsements and touring because CD sales are not going to support her lavish lifestyle.

There’s No Million Dollar Deal for Kardashian Wedding at People Mag

Roger Friedman
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Oy vey. Lots of reports this week about People magazine paying a million bucks for the photos of celebrity hound Kim Kardashian‘s wedding to hoopster Kris Humphries. It’s not true. Sources tell me definitively that People has not made a deal with Kardashian, and that they certainly will not pay $1 million for those pictures. The price, if it ever happens, is more in tune with like $100,000. But again, there is no deal. I’m not even sure why anyone cares about this woman, her family, or this wedding. The Kardashians are brutal self promoters whose only talent is in flogging themselves. No one ever asks them during their ceaseless publicity about their late father, Robert Kardashian, who may have helped O.J. Simpson cover up a double murder. Before Robert Kardashian died, he actually did hint that Simpson was guilty–in a book with Larry Schiller. Also no one’s asking how weird it is that Kim is marrying a man whose first name is the same as that of her mother, Kris Karsdashian Jenner.

PS If this couple does get some money for what will undoubtedly be their tacky wedding, I hope they give it to charity.

DeNiro, Keaton Comedy Gets Robin Williams and New Title

Roger Friedman
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“Gently Down the Stream,” a wedding comedy starring Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton, has a new title and an added player. Robin Williams has joined the cast that also includes Katherine Heigl and Topher Grace, as well as Susan Sarandon and Amanda Seyfried. According to the imdb, the title may have also changed to the generic sounding “The Wedding.” How original! This means that Justin Zackham’s movie now has four past Oscar winners–DeNiro, Keaton, Williams and Sarandon. The weirdest thing is that Heigl is billed with DeNiro and Keaton in the most recent poster. Getting older is just full of indignity, isn’t it?

Anyway, I ran into beautiful, fun and wide-eyed Amanda Seyfried last night in Hollywood at the premiere of HBO’s “True Blood.” HBO gives the best parties on both coasts, don’t cha know. All the “True Blood” stars were there–Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alex Skarsgard, etc. Even show creator Alan Ball, who expressed his dismay at my review of one his films, “Towelhead.” “Your review destroyed that film,” he said. Alas, I am a fan of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.” You can’t like everything! Anyway, Ball is a nice guy and tells me has a bunch of projects being readied for placement.

Oh yes, Amanda Seyfried: “I just heard about Robin Williams joining Gently Down the Stream,” she said, perhaps unaware of the movie’s title change. She told me spent Monday with pal Dominic Cooper at his Los Angeles Film Festival premiere of “The Devil’s Double.” “He should get an Oscar nomination,” Amanda observered, and she’s correct. Cooper is superb in this LionsGate release about Uday Hussein, son of Sadam. It’s like the Iraqi “Scarface.”

Also at the “True Blood” premiere, a lovely couple: Patrick Fischler, the actor who was so great as a nasty comedian a couple of seasons ago on “Mad Men,” and actress wife Lauren Bowles, a knock out, who also happens to be the half sister of Julia Louis Dreyfus (they share a mom). Lauren plays a witch on “True Blood.”  They’re just like Darrin and Samantha, I said. “Only we won’t be recasting Patrick half way through,” retorted a clever Lauren. Nice kids!

Warren Beatty Readies Howard Hughes Movie at Paramount

Roger Friedman
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Big news today but under-reported: Warren Beatty has indeed signed to make a movie at Paramount Pictures. He’ll write, direct and star. But what hasn’t been said: Beatty will finally deliver his Howard Hughes biopic, in the works for at least 25 years. Beatty first got involved with a Hughes project in the mid 1980s. He even had a script back then, written with Elaine May–with whom he’d endured the interminable “Ishtar.”

But Beatty, the perfectionist, moved on to other things–like “Bullworth,” “Love Affair,” and “Town and Country.” Now he’s ready. I had even heard a story recently that he was offered a chance to act in a romantic comedy that sounded very promising. But Beatty declined, saying he was embarking at last on “Hughes.”

At least two studios were interested. But I do think Warren made a great choice with Paramount–he’ll need a big, organized studio to pull off this ambitious film. He could have another “Reds” on his hands–one of the great films of all time, and one for which he won an Oscar.

PS The casting for “Hughes” should be pretty competitive. The script would call for a younger Hughes to be cast at least for flashbacks, if nothing else. A young Warren Beatty–that’s a tall order for any actor!

James Franco Unveils “Broken Tower,” Wraps “Sal,”

Roger Friedman
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Oscar nominee and post-grad student James Franco is fast becoming his generation’s answer to John Cassavetes, the legendary indie filmmaker. He and his Rabbit Bandini production crew wrapped their Sal Mineo movie at 5am on Monday–it was a nine day shoot. Then, last night, the gang–including Franco–unveiled “The Broken Tower,” Franco’s latest feature directing effort (his other credits including “Good Time Max” and “The Ape”) at the LA Film Festival, followed by a karoake party at The Brass Monkey.

This morning, Franco and manager Miles Levy flew up to San Francisco for a days’ worth of work on “Cherry,” an indie film about a porn actress–not the Linda Lovelace story. Franco is doing a cameo in “Cherry” as a favor to writer-director Stephen Elliott. Got all that?

So what of “The Broken Tower”? Franco introduced the film by reminding everyone: “This is not Pineapple Express.”

Shot in gorgeous black and white, the intimate film is a character study of 1920s poet Hart Crane, a very public homosexual and troubled writer who committed suicide at 32 in 1931. (He jumped off a cruise ship off the coast of Florida.) Franco and crew shot the film in New York, Mexico (substituting as Cuba), and Paris–the latter in a 48 hour adventure that included Notre Dame and other locations gotten on the fly.

The shock is that for no money they’ve made quite a fascinating, well crafted piece that will be a favorite in art houses. Franco knows where to get actors–his mom, children’s book author Betsy Franco, plays Crane’s mother. Franco’s literary agent, Richard Abate, plays his father. Younger brother Dave Franco plays Crane at a younger age. Michael Shannon, a good friend, is in there, too, as are Franco producer Vince Jolivette and other pals.

As Franco himself said during a Q&A following the invite only screening, two scenes will be talked about–one in which Crane (Franco) is shown giving oral sex to another young man. (It’s a prosthetic, don’t worry.) And then there’s a reading Crane gives of one of his poems that goes on, uninterrupted, for ten minutes.

What’s interesting is that Hart Crane is not a particularly sympathetic character, but in Franco’s rendering you come to care about him. Franco’s camera work shows a real style of his own, too, and one that would work well for his planned adaptation of “As I Lay Dying.” The film has a neat cinema verite aspect–not a shaky camera but closeups and angles that suggest a you-are-there feeling. More importantly, Franco the actor melts into the Crane character. He loses himself in the poet.

So what’s next? Rabbit Bandini is shooting some kind of short film concerning Gus van Sant. They’re also attempting a documentary about Gucci’s famed creative director Frida Giannini. There’s also that “Rebel” film I told you about last week. It’s guerilla filmmaking on a very tight budget–Cassavetes must be smiling.

“Mad Men” Named Best Drama, Starts Shooting Next Month

Roger Friedman
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“Mad Men” won Best Drama from the Critics Choice Awards this afternoon, and stars Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks won Best Actor and Supporting Actress respectively. The show’s creator, Matt Weiner, and the actors told me that shooting for the next season finally begins in mid July. Does Hamm know what’s happening? “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Matt doesn’t tell me anything.” Weiner says he does know what will happen.

Remember–Weiner told me a while ago that Hamm’s Don Draper would marry secretary Megan. “He told you that?” Hamm asked me, surprised. “Maybe all you have to do is ask.” In person, Hamm and Hendricks are just as good looking as they are on TV. Outside the Beverly Hills Hotel ballroom, on the patio, they chatted like two old friends. Hendricks’s red hair shined in the sun. Hamm kept up his movie star look with a beard and matte black sunglasses. They are startled by their success.

Other winners today: “Modern Family,”  Tina Fey, the cult show “Fringe” (for best supporting actor, Neil Patrick Harris. The latter actor appeared in the press area clutching his crystal award, and shouted to Hamm. “You won! So did I!” It was kind of nice. Jane Lynch from “Glee” went around the room and chatted up Neil Flynn, late of “Scrubs,” who plays the husband on “The Middle.” He looked lonely, and Lynch–very much not like her character on “Glee”–is the epitome of gracious.

Lots of other interesting people, in an intimate room–very relaxed, sort of a throwback to old awards show. Of course Joey Berlin, who runs the Broadcast Critics, knows this will turn into a bigger deal every year. But for now, we savor the low key feel–and talked to Zoe Deschanel, Ioann Gruffudd, DannyDeVito–whose Lifetime Achievement Award speech may prove raunchy even for the Reelz Channel when the show is broadcast in two days, a dazzling Katey Sagal, Michael C. Hall, Scott Bakula. etc.

Now watch as the winners start advertising–and using their wins as publicity to influence the Emmy Awards. The Critics Choice TV Awards are quickly going to become a player in the Emmy race.

PS I am told that my old pal, Lisa Albert, has left the “Mad Men” writing staff to work on a pilot for a new show. But Matt Weiner says it’s a good thing, and that Albert may very well return part time. No scandals.

Regis Philbin’s Replacement: Not so Fast, Despite Reports

Roger Friedman
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The Wall Street Journal has jumped the gun on Regis Philbin‘s possible replacement. Today they named three likely candidates from their  own imagination: Kelly Ripa‘s actor husband Mark Consuelos; Andy Cohen of Bravo; and Ryan Seacrest. While Disney and ABC may be wondering what they’ll do next, I can tell you that it is quite doubtful any of these three will be taking Reege’s chair after he leaves in November.

For one thing, Consuelos is already out of the picture. A husband-wife team–with three kids at home–is not possible. Plus, as Kelly has said, she doesn’t need to spar at home and on TV with her husband. Seacrest has “American Idol” in Los Angeles from January through May, so that crosses him off the list. Cohen is really a TV executive who’s made a name for himself in a niche market. He’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t have Philbin’s showmanship.

Indeed, no one does. Anderson Cooper had the inside track for a while, but that was scotched when he took his own syndicated talk show. Pat Sajak was always a good Reege fill in, but he’s got “Wheel of Fortune” and zillions of dollars in the bank. As insiders have said, why would he want to give it all up and come to New York for a 6am wake up call?

No, finding someone to succeed Regis–he can’t be replaced–will be difficult. And there will be no announcement before Regis’s final day, the Friday before Thanksgiving. The good betting is that Kelly Ripa goes it alone with guest co-hosts through January 2012. A new person–man or woman–will probably be introduced in February 2012 sweeps after a big promo push to guess the winner. Again, the qualifications should be someone with a strong entertainment history, a New Yorker, someone who has a great sense of humor and some edge. But not too much edge. Maybe The Edge. (Just kidding.)

Good luck, execs. You’re going to need it.

 

Joss Stone Kidnap Plot May Have Been Anti-Royal Celeb Scheme

Roger Friedman
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You may have heard that British R&B singer Joss Stone was targeted for a kidnapping and maybe worse last week in London. Two men were apprehended in her neighborhood after sharp eyed observers noticed strangers lurking about. The men had rope, a body bag, and a sword, according to reports.

But why Stone, an amiable figure without controversy? A source who spoke with Stone tells me that the men–and this has not been reported yet–also had a list of other celebrities who’d attended the April 29th royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Their plan, the source says, was to attempt something with each of these guests–a list that would include Elton John, the Beckhams, director Guy Ritchie and Rowan Atkinson. Stone just seemed the easiest to get at, the singer was told by police.

My source says that Stone was told the potential kidnappers were anti-royalists who objected to the international spectacle of the wedding. Luckily, Stone was not home at the time. She thanked her astute neighbors, and is basically unfazed by the incident.

The anti-royalist movement does exist in Britain. We don’t hear much about it here. But before the big wedding, a proposal for anti-wedding parade by republicans (lower case) was rejected in Camden Town. http://www.republic.org.uk/

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