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Bill Clinton, McCartney, Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Mellencamp Turn out for Bill Murray’s New Movie

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The movie is called Rock the Kasbah, so rockers turned out last night to celebrate Barry Levinson’s new comedy starring Bill Murray and Bruce Willis. And I do mean the ultimate rock star, former president Bill Clinton, was front and center, mixing and mingling at East Hampton’s Blue Parrot with — are you ready– Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, and Roger Waters all in the same, small private space.

Yes, this really happened, I wasn’t dreaming.

Rock star publicist Peggy Siegal assembled this crowd of crowds, which also featured actor Bob Balaban and many Hamptons luminaries including Tribeca Films’ Jane Rosenthal and Open Road Films’ Tom Ortenberg.

Not only that: screenwriter Mitch Glazer invited a friend, someone I really always wanted to meet, rocker Jenny Lewis, formerly of the band Rilo Kiley and now on her own. Jenny and partner Johnathan Rice wrote “Cold One,” that wonderful song Meryl Streep sings in “Ricki and the Flash.”

Plus Christie Brinkley, looking more gorgeous and younger than ever, brought her burgeoning actor son Jack.

“Rock the Kasbah” is a hilarious and timely comedy opening October 23rd, also featuring Kate Hudson and Zoe Deschanel. There’s also a few classic hits from Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, produced by Peter Asher and approved by Yusuf himself.

But back to the party, where Bruce mixed and mingled chatting with Paul McCartney intensely. Bruce told me he rarely comes to the Hamptons but was accompanying his equestrian daughter Jessica to the Hamptons Classic. We talked about Bruce’s cameo in Darlene Love’s new video. “Have you seen it?” he said, laughing. He and Steve van Zandt are clowning around in Asbury Park.

McCartney brought his beautiful wife Nancy, and they were introduced to John Mellencamp, who’s mentioned as a punchline in the movie (he’s friends with Glazer). Bon Jovi accepted compliments on his new album, “Burning Bridges,” which debuted in the top 5 this past week.

Meantime, Bill Clinton — looking very well, sun tanned and speaking in that buttery Southern accent– met everyone. He told actor-director Bob Balaban, who introduced himself: “I know who you are. I’m a big fan.” Balaban floated away.

More on Clinton in my next item…

photo c 2015 Showbiz411

VMAs: Get the Popcorn, This Will Be One Loud, Low Class, Fun Awards Show

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If all these people act out, and MTV certainly hopes they will, adults will be outraged. Can’t wait! Sunday night can’t come fast enough!
Here’s the line up:

STARRING:
•Miley Cyrus, Host
•Kanye West, Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award Recipient
•Nicki Minaj, VMA Performer and Nominee
•Justin Bieber, VMA Performer and Nominee
•Pharrell Williams, VMA Performer
•Demi Lovato, VMA Performer
•Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, VMA Performer
•The Weeknd, VMA Performer and Nominee
•Tori Kelly, VMA Performer
•A$AP Rocky, VMA Performer
•Twenty One Pilots, VMA Performer
•Taylor Swift, World Premiere of “Wildest Dreams” music video and Nominee
•Nick Jonas, VMA Pre-Show Performer and Nominee
•WALK THE MOON, VMA Pre-Show Performer and Nominee
•Kelly Osbourne, Sway and “Girl Code Live” stars, Carly Aquilino, Nessa Diab and Nora “Awkwafina” Lum, Pre-Show Hosts

CONFIRMED PRESENTERS:

Britney Spears, Presenter Rebel Wilson, Presenter Ice Cube, Presenter
O’Shea Jackson, Jr. Presenter Emily Ratajowski, Presenter John Legend, Presenter
Jussie Smollett, Presenter Kylie Jenner, Presenter Miguel, Presenter
NE-YO, Presenter Rita Ora, Presenter Serayah, Presenter

CONFIRMED ATTENDEES:

Big Sean, Nominee Bruno Mars, Nominee Charlie Puth, Nominee
Colbie Caillat, Nominee E-40, Nominee Fall Out Boy – Pete Wentz & Patrick Stump, Nominee
Fifth Harmony, Nominee FKA Twigs, Nominee Mark Ronson, Nominee
OMI, Nominee Nick Jonas, Nominee Taylor Swift, Nominee
Vance Joy, Nominee Wale, Nominee WALK THE MOON, Nominee

Miley Cyrus: Robin Thicke “Wanted Me Naked as Possible” in Famous Raunchy Performance

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Miley Cyrus is one smart cookie. She tells like it is. On Sunday she hosts MTV’s Video Music Awards. In an interview with the New York Times today, Miley says her famous raunchy TV performance with Robin Thicke on the VMAs just two years ago was rehearsed and conceived by him. It was not an accident.

“I didn’t really know him too much before, and I don’t really know him now. It was funny, because I got so much of the heat for it, but that’s just being a woman. He acted like he didn’t know that was going to happen. You were in rehearsals! You knew exactly what was going to happen. And he was actually the one that approved my outfit, so I thought that was very funny. He wanted me as naked as possible, because that’s how his video was. It was very much a collaboration. My part — “We Can’t Stop” — was all me. But when it went into “Blurred Lines,” that was his performance.”

Miley also says she doesn’t know about the nominees this year. She says she doesn’t have a TV. She says just has Apple TV.

(Watch-Listen) Justin Bieber’s Social Media Campaign Leads to Single Release “What Do You Mean?”

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What does Justin Bieber mean? This morning we find out. Bieber lucked out when Skrillex and Diplo took his demo of a piano ballad and turned it into “Where Are U Now?”

Today, in advance of an album release on November 13th, Bieber releases a single called “What Do You Mean?” He’s had an incredible build up from social networking. Whoever thought of putting a hashtag in front of the title, and then getting lots of celebrities to Tweet it out, gets a prize. The single has very high recognition.

But is it good? We’re about to find out.
UPDATE– The song is not very interesting except that Skrillex and Diplo have created fake African sounds a la Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” The song isn’t very substantial. What does he mean?

Anyway, his fans will break the internet this morning. I listened to it on Elvis Duran’s show. The deejay is just about pleading with his audience to like the song. God bless Clear Channel…

Watch: “Star Wars” Releases New Teaser “There has been an awakening”

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“There has been an awakening.” I’ll say. I am jazzed for “The Force Awakens.” Here’s the new teaser from Instagram:

There has been an awakening… #StarWars #TheForceAwakens

A video posted by Star Wars (@starwars) on

Oscars: No Humanitarian Award This Year, Special Statues to Spike Lee, Debbie Reynolds, Gena Rowlands

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Interesting: no Jean Hershholt Humanitarian Award this year, or Thalberg award to a producer. But the Oscars will give Lifetime awards to director Spike Lee, and actresses Debbie Reynolds and Gena Rowlands. Doris Day was passed over again, which is a shanda.

Spike Lee has so many great movies, and no Oscars to show for them. He deserves it.

Rowlands is a popular choice, and legendary for her work with husband John Cassavetes among others.

Debbie Reynolds literally IS Hollywood. The Oscar statue should be recast in her image. And Carrie Fisher giving her the award at the winter Governor’s Ball will be hysterical.

No male actor this time around, and no fourth inductee. Surprising.

Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt Movie “By the Sea” to Open AFI Fest November 5th (Watch Trailer)

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At last we get news of the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt movie “By the Sea.” Angie directed it, and we’ve been waiting for festival news. Now comes word that “By the Sea” will open the AFI Fest in Los Angeles on November 5th. The Universal Pictures release comes out eight days later, on November 13th.

“By the Sea” is not a sequel to “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” the last movie the couple appeared in. Or maybe it is– it’s about a married couple going through angst in their relationship at a French seaside resort. It does sound a little like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” We’ll see. Jolie (now Jolie-Pitt) is a very savvy filmmaker. And Melanie Laurent is in the film, so that’s value added.

Audi is the sponsor of the AFI Fest. And the premiere is at what we used to call Grauman’s– now TCL–  Chinese Theater. Maybe Brad and Angie will put their handprints in the cement outside. (And Lucy and Ethel can steal them!)

Love AFI. They do a lot of good work.

Ann Romney Book Coming Mid-September Addresses Her MS, Sex Life, 2012 Campaign

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Ann Romney is a fighter and a survivor. I’m told that the new memoir coming from Mitt Romney’s outspoken wife is a doozy with plenty of revelations about her fight with multiple sclerosis, the effect on the Romneys’ sex life, and how she coped with the 2012 presidential campaign.

ann romney bookThe book is called “In this Together: My Story,” to be published by Tom Dunne/St. Martins Press on September 29th. All the proceeds are going to the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Mrs. Romney talks in the book about how she would come and go quietly throughout the 2012 campaign, never playing up her illness. She would “disappear” for a few days at a time.

One anecdote sure to get attention. According to spies, the first question Mitt asked when he and Ann got her MS diagnosis was about intimacy. My source says: “The doctor told them, ‘Couples find their own way’. Mitt was pretty dubious. The doctor said one couple would just clasp pinky’s to feel connected.” It’s unclear if the Romneys settled for that. But apparently they do exactly that now when they’re in public. Sweet stuff.

The timing of the book couldn’t be better. By September 29th, the Republican field should be in a frenzy. Ann Romney on the publicity circuit is going to be just what we need!

 

Murder, Mayhem, Movies: Ansel Elgort Circling “Billionaire Boys Club” Remake

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Everything old is new again! Now I hear that teen heart throb Ansel Elgort, fresh from “Fault in Our Stars,” “Divergent,” and so on, is circling a remake of the 1987 “Billionaire Boys Club.”

This is not to be confused with Pharrell Williams’s line of hoodies and caps that bear the same name. Somehow the “Billionaire Boys Club” over the years has become a fun reference.

But the real “BBC” was a real story about a bunch of sinister young Wall Street type white collar guys who participated in a Ponzi scheme in the early 80s. It ended in the murders of two people.

Elgort would play Joe Hunt, the leader of the group. He went to jail in 1987 for the murder of Ron Levin, a con man who swindled the BBC out of millions. Hunt represented himself, which is pretty unusual in itself. He’s been trying to get out of jail ever since, and even wrote a book out it. Hunt (real name Joseph Gamsky) is considered either a psychopath or a sociopath, depending on your view. There’s a good story about him and the BBC here.

The original “BBC” film was a TV movie. (The Menendez brothers said it inspired them to kill their parents, btw.) Judd Nelson played Hunt, and he was pretty good. But so much has happened, and Hunt is still in the news. Elgort, if played right, could really jump ahead in his career with this project. This is really like a young “Wolf of Wall Street” with very dark twist or two.

Stay tuned…

Celine Dion in Real Life “A Star is Born” Performing in Vegas As Husband Lays Dying

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What a night in Las Vegas! Forget the boxing matches. The real drama is at Caesar’s Palace where superstar Celine Dion is starting three nights of shows after a year’s hiatus.

But there’s more: as Celine sings, her husband and the father of her children, Rene Angelil, lies in his deathbed nearby, just about to succumb to throat cancer after a valiant battle.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Celine is giving interviews saying this is it, she’s done her grieving, and has already said goodbye to Rene.

She could be on stage when Rene passes away. The phone call could come just as she finishes her encore.

Celine’s interview with USA Today indicates she may be in a bit of denial. Was there no way to cancel these shows? Well, the show must go on, and Celine has made her peace.

Rene crafted Celine’s career from top to bottom. During her heyday on the charts in the 90s he was her Colonel Parker. Their story will make quite a dramatic movie.

Wait: Rene may come to the show tonight. Stay tuned…