Big night for Michael Moore last night: “Where to Invade Next” got its first real airing for top filmmakers at a private screening and a cool dinner at Shun Lee West. Among the guests: DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Barbara Kopple, and Laura Poitras, last year’s Oscar winner for “CitizenFour.”

Craig Unger, author of “House of Bush,” the book that inspired Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911,” and legendary journalist Gay Talese with publishing star wife Nan Talese were also in attendance, as well as award winning filmmakers like Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon.

There was a lot of talk about the film company releasing “Where to Invade Next” on December 23rd. They have no name. Tom Quinn and Jason Janego were the guys behind Radius, an off shoot of The Weinstein Company. They had a bunch of hits and an Oscar for “20 Feet to Stardom.” Now they’re being bankrolled by Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League, and starting a new company. “Invade” is their first release. But they still haven’t clear a name or logo.They assured me they will by the time Moore’s film is released.

And what of Moore? Everyone at the dinner had ideas for his next film. I told him I thought a “Bowling for Columbine” sequel was needed as the mass shootings in the US have become an international disgrace. “That film is more relevant today than ever,” he said in agreement.

While we talked, reps for The Criterion Collection approached Moore and talked to him about exactly that film. “We just made a deal,” Moore said, with a broad smile. So “Bowling for Columbine” will get a new life after all. And not a moment too soon.

As for “Where to Invade Next”– Moore in his most hopeful film yet traveled to dozens of countries in just four months and made the movie instantly. It was totally stealth. “We kept thinking we’d be found out,” he told me, “but we got away with it. It was the best experience of filmmaking I’ve ever had.”

Moore importantly: Michael owns two movie theaters in rural Michigan. This past weekend, he tells me, “Steve Jobs” sold out. The movie didn’t do so well across the country. Why was it a hit there?  “I charge $8.50 and $6.50, and we hand sell each ticket.” Does Universal know he’s their success story? “Oh yeah,” he replied.

Rutanya Alda has done what no brave actress has done before. She’s dropped a bombshell on Amazon, self-publishing a memoir of the making of Frank Perry’s cult 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest,” the film that launched a million Halloween costumes and parodies and brought Oscar winner Faye Dunaway’s then-thriving career to a halt. Alda’s “Mommie Dearest Diary” recounts for the first time the making of this memorable film, and serves as well as an eagle eye backstage account of Hollywood during the swinging 70s and 80s. I couldn’t put it down!

Alda, a respected supporting and character actress, has worked just about every year for the last 40 in some of the best films ever. In “Mommie Dearest,” her most famous, she played Carol Ann, the devoted assistant of crazy legend Joan Crawford, played by Faye Dunaway.

But Alda’s other credits (she’s no relation to Alan Alda) include “The Deer Hunter,” “The Fury,” and HBO’s “Too Big To Fail.” She is the perfect definition of what the Screen Actors Guild would describe as a “working actress.” She is never the star, but the important third person who supplies honesty and consistency to a film’s foundation. Alda has also done tons of series television, from soap operas to “Law and Order” and every quality show. Her late husband, Richard Bright, played Al Neri, Michael Corleone’s personal enforcer in all three “Godfather” movies.

Alda’s book is excellent for many reasons. Even though Dunaway acts as badly as she could during the making of “Mommie Dearest,” Alda is incredibly fair to her. She even likes the diva Oscar winner even though Dunaway is loathed on set by cast and crew and continually upstages Alda in their scenes. Dunaway herself stops production a couple of weeks in until the studio gives her boyfriend, photographer Terry O’Neill, a producer’s credit on the film.

And Dunaway isn’t the only one Alda recalls as difficult. Mara Hobel, the nine year old who played a young Christina Crawford, grills Alda on Day 1 about her past credits and resume like a pro.

Meantime, Alda herself has a surprising few stories to tell about her own life, including affairs with directors Brian DePalma and Robert Altman and actor Neville Brand, friendships with a range of people from director Elia Kazan to “Cheers” actor Nicholas Colasanto (who played Coach), and amusing encounters with many A-listers from Sam Peckinpah to Bob Dylan to John Wayne. There’s also a revealing section about Walter Matthau’s wars with Barbra Streisand on the set of “Hello, Dolly!”

There’s also a personal side to Alda’s book. She doesn’t wallow in it, but her story as a Russian-Latvian immigrant to the U.S. is absolutely hair raising. No one who meets her now– she is charming at Academy events, movie premieres– would ever guess the abuse she suffered in her early years. Her marriage to Bright, which produced a son, Jeremy (who edited this book), was marked by his heroin addiction, too.

I don’t know why “The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All” is self published. It’s one of the best intimate memoirs of Hollywood I’ve ever read, genuine, funny, authentic. Alda not only took good notes, but she has an excellent eye for small details. Like Joyce Johnson in the Kerouac memoir “Minor Characters,” Alda was a fly on the wall who was very observant. It’s to our advantage now.

Sienna Miller can fillet a turbot like a pro journalists learned at a press conference the other day for “Burnt,” a darkly interesting character study that shows off some great acting by Miller, Bradley Cooper, Matthew Rhys and Daniel Bruhl.

“I now have a solid and well rehearsed technique as to how to cook fish pretty well and it’s pretty impressive at a dinner party,” she told us.

But if there was a “Top Chef” cook-off between her and her co-star Bradley Cooper, I’d put my money on the “Silver Linings Playbook” star. In the opening scene of the film alone he shucks – for real – about a thousand oysters. “Only 10 of them were loosened” by the professional chefs on set, said Cooper. “We got through them in like half a take. That was the first day of shooting. If you’re ever going to slice your hand it’s shucking an oyster.” (Turns out as a teenager Cooper worked as a prep chef in New Jersey.)

The “Burnt” press conference in midtown Manhattan was moderated by Mario Batali, who was a consultant on the film tasked with making sure “the food seem legitimate and relatively current.” Batali then introduced Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and fellow cast members, Uma Thurman – who plays a food critic and has two small but notable scenes in the film – Daniel Bruhl and Sam Keeley. (Director John Wells and Matthew Rhys, who plays a snooty chef, didn’t participate, although we caught up with them on the red carpet in the evening at the premiere at the Museum of Modern Art.)

In “Burnt,” Cooper plays Adam Jones, a brilliant but impossible chef, who once ruled over the kitchen of a top Paris restaurant only to flame out on booze and drugs. After shucking a million oysters – he kept count – in a New Orleans sea food joint, he resurfaces in London and in a bid for redemption obsessively pursues a third Michelin star at a ritzy restaurant run by Tony (Daniel Bruhl), who is in love with the bad boy chef. The scenes of Bradley’s character throwing plates against the wall and abusing the kitchen staff were “actually pretty tame” compared to the real thing said the actor, who researched the backstage rarified culinary scene he said.

The actors told us they are “really into food and like to eat.” Cooper related to his characters “obsession to do the best you can.” Miller drank the beef sauce, which is basically butter, but didn’t gain weight because “you’re working so intensely and it’s physically exhausting” and “boiling hot, so the kind of anxiety and adrenaline and focus that takes is probably burning off the beef sauce”…blah, blah.

Spoiler alert: one pivotal scene in “Burnt” will be controversial. If you don’t want to know more, stop here.
Asked about the most challenging scene to shoot, things got more interesting; Cooper said it was a scene with Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who plays Reece, a frenemy chef with the three-star Michelin rating Jones craves. In the scene, which is near the end of the film, Bradley’s character shows up at his rival’s restaurant drunk and pulls a plastic bag – believe it or not some sort of cooking aide – over his head in what looks like a suicide attempt.

Cooper said of the scene, “It was late at night and we didn’t have much time and the bag thing just sort of happened in one of the takes. It just feels vulnerable doing something like that in front of 12 people you don’t know at all, but ultimately it was beautiful,” he said, “because Matthew Rhys who plays Reece was just incredible. We didn’t really know each other at all and next thing you know, he’s caressing me and calmed me down. We’re bonded forever. Matter of fact I haven’t really seen him since and I look forward to seeing him tonight because we looked at each other after and we, why we both love doing what we do is to be able to really put yourself in imaginary circumstances and hope that accidents like putting an bag on your head and realizing you can kill yourself happen.”

photo c2015 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz

This is a shock. Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk” is over after 30 days and just about $10 million at the box office. “The Walk” was a passion project for new Sony chief Tom Rothman. The movie opened the New York Film Festival, was highly praised by critics, and seemed poised for an Oscar run.

But now, it’s over. No one walked, let alone ran, to see Joseph Gordon Levitt balance being Philippe Petit as he toed the high wire between the late World Trade Center buildings. Amazing computer graphics, good acting, the Zemeckis legacy– he’s made so many great films from “Back to the Future” to “Roger Rabbit” and “Forrest Gump,” not to mention the recent “Flight.”

Still, “The Walk” drummed up a total of $27 million worldwide, maybe a little more. We don’t know since Sony didn’t report figures today for the final weekend. What a shame for everyone involved. There will be plenty of finger pointing and blame. I do think Sony rushed the film into theaters after the New York Film Festival. But no one asked me. Maybe “The Walk” will be rediscovered at some point. I hope so.

So: how are doing on October 25th, with many of the films poised for the Oscar race having been seen? Of course, there are stragglers, like Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and Alejandro Innaritu’s “The Revenant.” We don’t know what will be from Angelina Jolie’s “By the Sea” or Will Smith in “Concussion.” Ron Howard has “In the Heart of the Sea” and David O. Russell has “Joy.”

This will be a highly competitive year, with a lot of campaigning and jockeying for position. Nothing is a lock so far. Two films that everyone liked, “Black Mass” and “The Walk,” have not caught on at all at the box office. I don’t know what will happen to them.

The names will change, but if we had to go by what we’ve seen so far, here are some short lists. More to come, as they say…

BEST PICTURE:
Bridge of Spies, Carol, The Danish Girl, Steve Jobs, Truth, Youth, Son of Saul, Inside Out, Room, The Martian, Straight Outta Compton, Spotlight

BEST ACTOR
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Jake Gyllenhaal, Southpaw
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies
Michael Caine, Youth
Matt Damon, The Martian
*Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight (I’d put him here, but he wants to be in Supporting)

BEST ACTRESS
*Cate Blanchett, Truth (in the end she can only be nominated in this category once)
*Cate Blanchett, Carol
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Lily Tomlin, Grandma
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Brie Larson, Room
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Patricia Clarkson, Learning to Drive

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jason Mitchell, Straight Outta Compton
Robert Redford, Truth
Sam Elliott, Grandma
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Harvey Keitel, Youth
Jacob Tremblay, Room
Joel Edgerton, Black Mass
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Michael Keaton, Spotlight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jane Fonda, Youth
Rooney Mara, Carol
Jessica Chastain, The Martian
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Joan Allen, Room
Marcia Gay Harden, Grandma