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Whitney Houston May Be Back with “The Cleaner”

Roger Friedman
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At last, Whitney Houston is in an out patient rehab. The fact is, she’s needed this for some time. Last year, her Europe and Asia concert tour was a disaster. Her voice was shot, although to her credit she missed almost no dates. She was like Mark Wahlberg in “The Fighter.” She refused to give up.

But the trouble has been there for a while. Whitney arrived and performed seemingly stoned at Clive Davis’s pre Grammy party in February with her cousin, Dionne Warwick. On stage, it was obvious. Whitney wandered about and had little idea of what she was doing. Dionne was very upset. At the end of the aborted performance, Whitney just sort of fell into Clive Davis’s arms. It was terrible.

More recently I asked someone close to Whitney, who’d not been seen since Davis’s party, what was going on. The word was that Whitney’s family and friends were trying to bring her back to Warren Boyd, the drug counselor who’d worked with her before. Boyd is known as “The Cleaner,” the name of the TV show in which Benjamin Bratt played him. Boyd is famous for cleaning up Courtney Love. When he worked with Whitney a few years ago, he’d literally lived with her in Southern California. It  saved her life.

But this is now a long time ago. Back then, we all blamed Bobby Brown for Houston’s problems. But Bobby is long gone, married to someone else. I am told that Whitney and her mother, the great singer Cissy Houston, have been on the outs for months because of Whitney’s drug addiction. Whitney’s story is tragic, because she had the greatest voice of her generation, and a future full of promise. All of it has been squandered by drugs.

If you catch her appearance with Chaka Khan at a recent Prince show,(on YouTube)  you can see Whitney barely singing, handing the microphone to Chaka. She looks terrible. Maybe if Warren Boyd is back with her, there will be improvement. I’m not kidding when I say that everyone roots for Whitney Houston.

Woody Allen Heads for Midnight Madness in Cannes

Roger Friedman
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Woody Allen, long a favorite of the French, is heading to a big success this week. His “Cannes-opener” so to speak, “Midnight in Paris,” opens the Festival on Wednesday with a bang. This highly anticipated film has great buzz, with my sources telling me from advance screenings that “Midnight” is Woody back in form a la “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and his classics from “Match Point” reaching back to “”Hannah and her Sisters,” “Annie Hall,” “Alice,” “Zelig,” and so on. “Midnight” has an all star cast featuring a cameo by Carla Bruni, first lady of France, as well as star turns by French sensation Marion Cottillard, Michael Sheen, Rachel McAdams, and two current Broadway stars–Nina Arianda and Allison Pill. I’m also looking forward to seeing Mimi Kennedy, who should have been in a Woody Allen movie years ago. Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson also co-star. PS There’s talk that Woody will be on screen again in his next film, to be shot in Rome, along with Roberto Benigni. Woody also turns up in a French film going to Cannes, called “Paris Manhattan,” in which he plays himself.

Brad Pitt, Sean Penn vs. Kanye West, Quincy Jones

Roger Friedman
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The Cannes Film Festival remains a olly schedule nightmare. Why for example are there three films — “We Must Talk About Kevin,” “Restless,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” all on for the first Thursday? And virtually nothing on Friday and Saturday? There are other crazy conflicts. The premiere of Pedro Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In” spills up the red carpet at the Palais just as AmFAR lures celebrities to the Hotel duCap for “Cinema Against AIDS.” Now comes word that Terrence Malick’s highly anticipated “Tree of Life” will be scheduled against Quincy Jones and Kanye West’s mega show for the Maybach Foundation. This is a good charity, matching young people with mentors in their fields. But really: Brad Pitt and Sean Penn vs Kanye and Q? Sacre bleu! The Maybachs, by the way, are very nice people who happen to make those super luxury cars with drapes along the back windows. Charlie Sheen has one. He bought it with Tiger Blood.

Showbiz411 Scoops: Kabbalah, Madonna, Paula Abdul

Roger Friedman
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It’s Sunday night, and time to take stock of the week.

First: I told you last August that Paula Abdul would be a judge on Simon Cowell’s “X Factor.” It was known then, but this latest contract stuff was contrived for publicity. A lot is going into “X Factor.” Sony Music is counting on lots of hits from as yet undiscovered talent. That helped Paula when it came to her contract with CBS for her failed dance show. The reunion of Simon and Paula is the only real publicity hook for “X Factor.” When the show starts airing, get ready for lots of stories about Simon and Paula fighting, and no one getting along with host Steve Jones. It’s all a PT Barnum like machine, designed to stoke tabloid headlines. And the public falls for it more often than Charlie Brown reaches in vain for Lucy’s football.

Second: So nice that the L.A. Times acknowledges a grand jury investigation of the Kabbalah Center. I told you this three weeks ago. I’ve been writing about malfesance at Kabbalah for years, about the Raising Malawi fundraising and Madonna’s role as the group’s patsy. The IRS and grand jury will do well to look into the vast real estate holdings of the Centre, and into an explanation for how the Berg family lives if they don’t have earned income.

One explanation will be that as leaders of Kabbalah, they’re entitled to parish houses. That argument has been tested in the past, mostly with failure as a result. Soon Hollywood will be owned by Kabbalah and Scientology–sort of wall to wall cults in a real estate monopoly.  Only in Hollywood kids, only in Hollywood.

Mel Gibson Film Makes Scant $104K in Limited Release

Roger Friedman
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“The Beaver” is dead. No matter of life saving technique will revive cinema’s first and last hand puppet psychiatrist. Jodie Foster’s movie about a suicidal man, played by a man who’s already committed career suicide and a kind of personal Hari Kari, earned just $104,000 over three days at 22 theatres.

They were the kinds of theaters where depressed people might go. But they didn’t. They didn’t want to see an anti Semitic, Holocaust denying son of a neo Nazi, anti Pope essayist who threatened to harm his girlfriend and their baby–in a movie about a man who has no responsibility for his family, continually plots to off himself, has violent outbursts, and looks like he’s been sleeping on a park bench. Imagine that.

The movie got middling reviews but not enough, I hear, to bring Gibson to Cannes for an out of competition screening. Jodie Foster continues her tour as Joan of Arc, defending Gibson, the title of the movie, and the sullen tone of of the film she created. But if she comes to Cannes, she’ll be welcomed, even though she told our Q&A audience last week after the Lincoln Center screening, “I don’t care if the movie doesn’t make any money.”

Luckily, Summit Entertainment has made so much money on vampires that a mere beaver won’t get in their way.

Michael Jackson’s Father Coming to Cannes, Looking for $$$$

Roger Friedman
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In death, as in life, Michael Jackson cannot get away from his father. Joseph Jackson, the same man who brought a Michael Jackson imitator to the BET Awards four days after his superstar son died in 2009, is coming to the Cannes Film Festival. Why? He’s bringing his “Jackson Family Foundation” to the Playboy Manson, known in Cannes as the Villa Oxygene. This not exactly hot ticket is designed to raise money–for what, exactly, it’s unclear. (There’s no record I can locate on GuideStar of such a 501 c 3 registered charitable organization.)

But Jackson and the promoter, named Richard Nilsson, are obviously hoping no one cares. The date is Tuesday, May 17th, and the tickets range from $1,500 euros (for a VIP pass) to 150 euros each for a Jackson Family Pool Party and/or Jackson Family Night. http://www.richard-nilsson.com/jacksonfamilynight.html The websiite promises “bikini bunny servers”–and I don’t think they mean mainframes when they say servers.

Sources also tell me that Jackson arrives on May 15th. “He’s selling some movie idea, and maybe a biography,” Jackson is also reportedly asking for money for interviews.

Yikes. It’s a good thing Michael perfected the dance spin because he must be doing it in his Forest Lawn vault every day.

I wish I could attend this event, but the real business of Cannes will be at hand. Still, there’s nothing like a Joe Jackson press conference for a business or event that will never take place. I have fond memories of the one he called on September 7, 2001, the morning of Michael’s 30 th anniversary show at Madison Square Garden. Joe wanted us to know he was starting an online video service to sell clips of Michael and the Jackson 5. Or how about at that BET event, when he announced he was starting a new record company? Or better yet, what about the restaurant he started on Sunset Boulevard in his family’s name back in 2004? It closed before the menus had stains on them.

As for the press conference, dig this advisory: “We reserve the right to accept or refuse any registration request. No legal action may be taken in this regard.”

You cannot make this stuff up.

“Spider Man” Returns to Broadway Next Week With a Face Lift

Roger Friedman
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“Spider Man” Returns to Broadway Next Week With a Face Lift

“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” returns to Broadway next Thursday, May 12th after a three week break. It still hasn’t opened officially and won’t until June 14th. Still, the “reviews” will come on Thursday of the “new” version of Julie Taymor’s show.

What will be different? There are said to be three new songs from Bono and The Edge. Gone completely are the “dancing shoes.” Much diminished is the role of Arachne, the fabled “Spider woman” character. Also gone are the Geek chorus. The whole Act 2 battle among six other villains is completely changed, I am told.  And: “There’re more of a romance between Peter and Mary Jane,” a source tells me.

Expanded: Patrick Page’s role as the Green Goblin. Page was the standout performer from Spider Man I.

 But much of “Turn off the Dark” is the same, just rearranged. It’s still Julie Taymor”s show, with her concepts, costumes, puppets, characters. The new songs, I am told, are still at the piano stage and haven’t been fully played. So far they sound “eh,” says a backstager. And the new choreographer, Chase Brock? “He’s not very good,” my source–who is impartial–reports. The entire production is scrambling to make the new advertised dates for preview and opening, however.

Bottom line: “It’s never not going to be Julie Taymor’s show. The question,” says my source, “is whether reviewers will see it as different or just more of the same.”

“Sparkle” Remake Will Reprise Curtis Mayfield Hits

Roger Friedman
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“Sparkle” Remake Will Reprise Curtis Mayfield Hits

“Sparkle,” a great but forgotten musical film from 1976, is getting a remake. Howard Rosenman and Joel Schumacher–they wrote the script for the original–are producing it, with husband/wife team Mara Brock Akil and director Salim Akil running the show. “Sparkle,” from Sony, preceded “Dreamgirls”–it was on screen before “Dreamgirls” made it to Broadway. Now with its remake, I’m told the film include several of the original songs Curtis Mayfield wrote for the 1976 movie including the hit “Giving Him Something He Can Feel.” Aretha Franklin sang all the songs from “Sparkle” and had a hit soundtrack album. The new producers are keen on Aretha participating again. My guess is they will also want either Jennifer Hudson or Beyonce to be included as well– even though they were each featured in the “Dreamgirls” movie. Making “Sparkle” is a gamble, especially with an all black cast. “Dreamgirls” turned out to be a harder sell than anyone thought. But Rosenman and Schumacher can pull it off, believe me. And there are lots of talented actols to take the parts originated by Lonette McKee, Irene Cara, Philip Michael Thomas and Dorian Harewood–like Montego Glover, Melinda Doolittle, Anthony Mackie, and Derek Luke–and that’s just for starters!

Paul McCartney, Congrats on Engagement to Nancy Shevell

Roger Friedman
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Paul McCartney, Congrats on Engagement to Nancy Shevell

It looks like Paul McCartney popped the question to Nancy Shevell, and they’re getting married. Shevell, who was married to New Yorker Bruce Blakeman (a failed Republican candidate for different positions) and has a teenage daughter, is terrific. I’ve gotten to know her a little bit over the last couple of years. Shevell, who’s 51 but looks ten years younger, has taken her time getting to be a Beatle girlfriend. Slowly but surely she’s adapted to being with an icon, and maybe the most famous rock and roll star in the world other than Mick Jagger. Good for Paul. After his long and happy marriage to Linda Eastman, McCartney tried a second marriage to Heather Mills. We all know how ill fated that was; I’ll never forget Mills telling me she knew no Beatles song but was a big fan of Colin Hay of Men at Work. Yikes! Shevell is more like Linda in many ways: from a good family, smart, and has her own money.They also each went to college in Arizona, which is pretty unusual. Nancy sits on the board of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority and works for her family’s trucking company. Obla Di, Obla Da, life goes on. Congrats!

Oprah Fires the Head of Her OWN Network, At Last

Roger Friedman
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Oprah Fires the Head of Her OWN Network, At Last

It’s never a nice story when someone loses their job. But Christina Norman, head Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, probably had it coming. At MTV she was well known for never returning calls. I was a little surprised when Oprah put her in charge of OWN, but maybe she saw something no one else did. Maybe she never called Christina Norman at MTV. Anyway, Norman is out at OWN. Discovery’s Peter Ligouri is in. With the exception of Gayle King‘s show, OWN is a desert strewn with junk. Certainly after producing her own show for 25 years, Winfrey can bring more important, enlightened, and hip material to a whole cable network. Otherwise, she s just contributing more garbage to the heaps of it already existing — and coming soon thanks to the cancellation of soap operas in favor of cooking and makeover shows.

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