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Steve Jobs Movie Getting Centerpiece Treatment from NY Film Fest in September

Roger Friedman
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Steve Jobs Movie Getting Centerpiece Treatment from NY Film Fest in September

We won’t get the line up for the Toronto Film Festival until tomorrow morning. But we already know the three big movies for the New York Film Festival, which comes two weeks later in September.

The opening night film is Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk” with Joseph Gordon Levitt playing aerialist Phillipe Pettit. Announced today: the centerpiece film is “Steve Jobs” with Michael Fassbender as the creator of Apple, from Universal Pictures after Columbia bobbled their version. Aaron Sorkin wrote the script and Danny Boyle directed. Closing night film is Don Cheadle’s much anticipated Miles Davis bio, “Miles Ahead.”

Three great choices. NYFF and Film Society of Lincoln Center have gotten very aggressive in the last couple of years with terrific tent pole films. Those three are all potential Oscar bait with loads of possible nominees. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming; Marian Masone, FSLC Senior Programming Advisor; Gavin Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Film Comment; and Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Film Comment and Sight & Sound.
 

Watch Keith Richards’ New Video for “Trouble”

Roger Friedman
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Watch Keith Richards’ New Video for “Trouble”

Keith! Here’s the video for “Trouble,” first single off his September release album “Crosseyed Heart.”:

photo c 2013 Showbiz411

UPDATE: EXCLUSIVE Joseph Jackson “Heart Stopped for 10 Seconds” Just Out of Surgery

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE: EXCLUSIVE Joseph Jackson “Heart Stopped for 10 Seconds” Just Out of Surgery

Joseph Jackson is just now out of surgery at Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paolo Brazil. I am told exclusively that he had permanent pace maker surgery this morning after having a temporary pace maker installed last night.

Mr. Jackson was in a perilous situation yesterday after his “heart stopped for 10 seconds” according to my sources. His heart stopped while he was being examined for a burst artery behind his eye. “He’d been feeling fatigued even after the doctors told him that he could wait to have the eye looked at in the US,” says my source.

Plans are unfolding to fly Mr. Jackson home to the US as soon as possible. I’m told that the Michael Jackson estate has offered to help in any way. “They’ve been incredibly cooperative and generous,” says my source.

Luckily, Mr. Jackson is traveling with two business associates. “If he’d been alone, he wouldn’t have made it.”

More to come…

Michael Jackson’s Father, Joseph Jackson, Has Stroke While Visiting Brazil

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson’s Father, Joseph Jackson, Has Stroke While Visiting Brazil

All the details aren’t in yet, but I’ve confirmed with an associate of Joseph Jackson: he did have a stroke yesterday in Brazil while preparing for his 87th birthday party gala.

Jackson annually participates in his own birthday extravaganzas that involve sponsorships, cost a fortune, and reap him some fees. He’d been in Brazil for a few days, attending parties and ribbon cuttings as “patriarch of the Jackson family.”

He’s been traveling with an assistant and with a French woman described as his latest “find.” From time to time Jackson, who did manage the Jackson 5 to international fame, “manages” a young female singer.  Now he’s in a Sao Paolo hospital after complaining about dizziness and temporary blindness. He suffers from diabetes.

As yesterday was her father’s birthday, Janet Jackson posted this on Twitter before the stroke news came. This is really interesting considering her history with her father:

On his website before the stroke, Jackson had this message posted:

“Back in the 70s when I was touring with my sons in Brazil. We had just done a show in Rio and traveled to Sao Paulo for the next show. We run into a problem because our music equipment from Rio did not arrive in time. It had been sent out late from Rio, very late. So we waited, and the crowd waited. Finally the crowd’s patience run out. They became hostile and started throwing stuff at us. I remember all of us with the school teacher “Miss Rose Fine” in tow, running for cover onto a Bus. The crowd was upset. Wow, that was something. Our music equipment finally showed up around 8pm, and we still went out there and put on a show. My boys worked hard and won the crowd back over. But, boy was it tough. From there it was off to Bahia. A few years ago when I visited Brazil, i made it a point of mine to visit “Bahia”. Michael filmed one of my favorite music videos “They don’t care about us” in Bahia. Coming full circle from the 70s.”

Keep refreshing for updates…

Whitney Houston’s Daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, Dies at 22, Surrounded by Aunts and Family

Roger Friedman
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Whitney Houston’s Daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, Dies at 22, Surrounded by Aunts and Family

Exclusive: Bobbi Kristina Brown died tonight at 8:17pm. I’m told there will be a funeral in Atlanta, and a burial in New Jersey sometime later this week. Exclusive: Bobbi Kristina’s devoted aunts, Pat and Donna Houston, were with her. It’s unclear if Bobby Brown made it in time.

bobbi kristinaHere’s the official posting on Whitney Houston’s Facebook page: “It is hard to say goodbye. On Sunday, July 26, Bobbi Kristina Brown made her transition peacefully. The family thanks everyone for their loving thoughts and prayers.

As Bobbi Kristina would say: “The wind is behind me and the sun is in my face.”

Music: Kennedy Center Must Choose Its Eagles, Julia Fordham’s Pipes Better than the Public Theater’s, Sam Moore Digs Muscle Shoals

Roger Friedman
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Music: Kennedy Center Must Choose Its Eagles, Julia Fordham’s Pipes Better than the Public Theater’s, Sam Moore Digs Muscle Shoals

THE KENNEDY CENTER  is inducting THE EAGLES this December. The group is the first to present the austere Center with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame type issue– which members get in? The original group that had all the hits we love consisted of Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Don Felder. Joe Walsh came later. Leadon and Meisner left over the years following “Hotel California” (the end of the real Eagles era), and Felder departed acrimoniously. The group now is Henley, Frey, Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmidt, who only joined in 1979 for “The Long Run” but returned when the Eagles re-grouped in 1994. Will all these guys be in the artists’ box in December? Or will Henley and Frey, who agree on very little, pick and choose who’s a real Eagle? Or will everyone just ‘take it easy’?….

…Famed British pop and jazz singer (transplanted to Santa Monica) JULIA FORDHAM has great pipes, but the Public Theater-Joe’s Pub evidently does not. Fordham sold out her first show on Friday night with no problem, so Joe’s Pub added a show. She gave a bravura 25th anniversary performance of all the songs from her classic 1990 album “Porcelain,” plus threw in a few other hits.  Fans flew in from around the world for a second show after putting their requests on Facebook. But during the break between shows, a funny smell quickly arose from the Public Theater’s basement. A sewage line had burst, and the Public– which was thoroughly renovated not long ago– began to flood with not very agreeable looking liquids. Fordham, ever a trouper, seized the moment and saved the day. She came into the lobby of the Public– which has very good acoustics– and sang a capella for the 100 or so fans. Luckily Julia is in the best voice ever, so the couple who’d come to hear their wedding song– “Something Right”– got to hear it close up and personal. Fordham heads to her native UK next week for a string of sold out shows– hopefully with better pipes….

…Legendary soul man SAM MOORE had waited almost 50 years to sing Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and had rehearsed it for last Tuesday’s Lincoln Center out of doors opening night. Moore was there with Bettye Lavette, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham and the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section for a celebration of Muscle Shoals soul from the 1960s. (Dozens of hits were recorded there.) Even original members Jimmy Johnson and David Wood were on hand to perform with the band, which sounded amazing. Moore– famous for “Soul Man,” “Hold On I’m Coming” and other hits– almost got his big number cut. After performing “Don’t Pull Your Love” with Jimmy Hall, Moore was told by the show’s “producer” that because of a curfew, “When a Man Loves a Woman” would be cut. Chaos ensued as Lavette, who’d heard Moore slaughter the song at soundcheck, went nuts. Bettye and husband Kevin Kiley made let’s say a heated argument lobbying for Moore– who did the song to a massive standing ovation. A grateful Moore next performs August 12th at the Hollywood Bowl in an all star tribute to the late Jaco Pastorious with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter (please bring this to New York guys!)…

Box Office: Adam Sandler’s “Pixels” Failure Adds to Sony’s Terrible Year– Can James Bond Save Them?

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: Adam Sandler’s “Pixels” Failure Adds to Sony’s Terrible Year– Can James Bond Save Them?

Poor Sony Pictures. They are under siege. First came the bruising hack into their emails that forced out studio chief Amy Pascal. The embarrassments keep echoing over the misguided Korea spoof “The Interview.” And you never know when a new dump of information is coming.

Now Adam Sandler’s “Pixels” has opened to a disappointing $24 million weekend. The animated film cost at least $88 million and probably more like $100 million given Sandler’s expenses. Thanks to the Sony email leak we know Sandler likes riding around on Sony jets.

So far this year, Sony has not had a good time. They’ve released four other films that were lackluster at best.

1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 Sony $70,709,001
2 The Wedding Ringer SGem $64,460,211
3 Chappie Sony $31,569,268
4 Aloha Sony $20,991,497

Totals: $187,729,977– that’s less than many films this year have made all together. Ouch!

The big hope now is that James Bond “Spectre” will be such a big hit that it erases these bad memories. The specter of “Skyfall,” the last — and maybe best– James Bond film looms large. A billion dollar world wide hit will certainly assuage all this pain.

Meantime, big Sony (not Sony Pictures Classics) has two films coming that are promising at least artistically– Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash” with Meryl Streep will be entertaining. And Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk” with Joseph Gordon Levitt has a lot of promise.

But “Pixels” is going to smart for quite a while after this initial weekend. For Adam Sandler at Sony, Game over.

Really True: Mel Gibson Reduced to Working as Art Director on Chinese Movie

Roger Friedman
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Really True: Mel Gibson Reduced to Working as Art Director on Chinese Movie

You may have missed this story. I know I did when it broke on July 13th as a press release. You remember Mel Gibson? He won the Oscar for “Braveheart,” then destroyed his career by driving drunk, getting arrested, and hurling anti-Semitic and racist epithets. Around the same time other aspects of his life emerged that were unsavory and damaging.

After that, Mel appeared in “The Beaver” with a puppet on his hand, which few people saw. Also, “Get the Gringo.”

Now Gibson, reviled in Hollywood, has been reduced to working as art director and “creative producer” on a Chinese movie. The film is called “The Bombing,” and it’s directed by Xiao Feng, who has one other credit. Bruce Willis stars in an otherwise all-Chinese cast as an American pilot sent to China in World War II to teach pilots how to defend themselves against the Japanese.

This goes against Mel’s assertion to policeman James Mee during his DUI arrest that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

Gibson, who sold his Icon studios a few years ago, is said to have put money into the production and signed on as “art director.” This is supposed to be his “back door” back into the film business. It’s unclear if the plan will work.

Gibson’s cinematographer is 85 year old Vilmos Zsigmond, who made a name for himself in the 1970s with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Long Goodbye, The Deer Hunter and the Rose. But then he shot Heaven’s Gate, one of Hollywood’s greatest flops. After that, Zsigmond made dozens of bad films including three in a row– Sliver, Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Two Jakes. All he’s missing from his resume is Ishtar.

“General Hospital” Replaces Head Writer After Three Months of Sinking Ratings

Roger Friedman
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“General Hospital” Replaces Head Writer After Three Months of Sinking Ratings

The world of soap operas is volatile. Just watch the movie “SoapDish” for a primer. It’s brutal, with more bodies littering backstage than in front of the camera.

So ABC has replaced Ron Carlivati, head writer of “General Hospital.” They’ve endured three months of sinking ratings without a turnaround. During his reign, Carlivati had very high ratings, was credited with saving the show from cancellation, and brought back a lot of favorite actors who’d been treated badly during the preceding decade.

But everyone burns out, and this was Carlivati’s turn. It’s hard to imagine writing a soap– five days a week, 40 or so characters, some of whom contractually have to be on all the time even if there’s nothing for them to do. And someone has to remember what happened when, otherwise you get people coming back from the dead without organs, or houses revisited that recently exploded.

I do tune in to “General Hospital” occasionally, when the news is slow on CNN or the box office numbers are still coming in. I do love Finola Hughes, but she took the summer off. Genie Francis is back, so it feels like old times. Anthony Geary is leaving on Monday after 37 years, but I think he’ll be back.

Oh well, soaps are old news when you see the crazy people on the court shows coming in with man bites dog stories. In five years they will probably be gone, but you never know. My guess is, Carlivati will back before that. At least he brought in Donna Mills. He gets a lot of thanks.

This got cut off: Carlivati is replaced by Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman, two smart veteran soap scribes. They’ve got to clean house, get rid of a bunch of extraneous characters who never gelled, and somehow restore heroine Elizabeth to sainthood. I do hope they retain some of Carlivati’s hip humor, though. He always threw in funny one liners from the real world.

Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes Movie May Surface at Fall Film Festival

Roger Friedman
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Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes Movie May Surface at Fall Film Festival

Stop the presses. I am told that Warren Beatty’s still untitled, still unseen Howard Hughes movie may surface at one of the upcoming film festivals.

A source close to the production says nothing is solid. But “there’s a chance” that Beatty may give in and show his film at either Venice, Telluride or Toronto. Schedules for those festivals haven’t been announced yet. And even when they are, the Beatty film could be a “surprise” screening — especially in Toronto.

Shooting on the Hughes project ended over a year ago, and editing has been going on ever since then. Beatty is a noted perfectionist who doesn’t like to commit to anything. In the past, he’s waffled for some time before letting a film go.

So far there’s no trailer, no teaser, not a single production photo, nada. Not title. Beatty has done a good making the film as mysterious as Hughes himself.

But this time Beatty does have substantial financial backers including New Regency and James Packer-Brett Ratner’s RatPac. He also has stars who’d like to see themselves on screen before too much time passes, including his own Oscar nominated wife Annette Bening.

I have a strong, good feeling about this movie despite knowing almost nothing about it. I am counting on Warren Beatty. We need him now more than ever!

PS I strongly object to that BBC list of all time best American films. They left off “Reds,” one of the greatest epics of all time, as well as “Shampoo” and “Heaven Can Wait”– not to mention Warren’s work in “Splendor in the Grass.” Feh on Brit crits!

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