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George Washington University Dean Proud That Scientology Founder Was a Grad

Roger Friedman
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George Washington University Dean Proud That Scientology Founder Was a Grad

Did educator Peter Konwerski out himself tonight as a Scientologist? The dean of student affairs at George Washington University took to Twitter to announce how proud he is that L. Ron Hubbard, the crazy science fiction writer who invented the dangerous cult, was a graduate of the school. He even gave a link to the cult’s website.

Konwerski Tweeted:

This wasn’t the first time Konwerski showed his cards, so to speak. In 2013 he Tweeted

Peter KonwerskiIn actuality, Hubbard is not an alumnus; he dropped out. But if I had a kid at GW (and I was once one myself) I’d be seriously alarmed. Konwerski would be better off running the Miscavige Clinic for the Criminally Insane on “General Hospital.”

Konwerski’s Tweet was in response to a $4.5 million ad Scientology took during the Super Bowl. They are obviously spending like crazy on advertising and public relations, knowing that Alex Gibney’s documentary “Going Clear” will air in March on HBO. The cult leaders are panicked. Konwerski, meantime, will have a lot of explaining to do this morning. There are plenty of responses to his enthusiastic Tweet, and none of them are positive.

Super Bowl Commercials: Nationwide Most Depressing and Inappropriate

Roger Friedman
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Super Bowl Commercials: Nationwide Most Depressing and Inappropriate

Nationwide is not on your side. They just aired a commercial in which a young boy announces that he’ll never ride a bike or get cooties or travel the world or get married or fly because — he’s dead. And he died in an overflowing bathtub. Depressing and kinda sick. And also inappropriate considering Bobbi Kristina Houston is in a coma and is in peril because she was found face down in a bathtub.

Good work Nationwide. I’ll stick with All State thanks. Oh, and loved the Julia Roberts voice over.

Box Office: “American Sniper” is the Whole Story, with $32 Mil Breaking Super Bowl Weekend Record

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: “American Sniper” is the Whole Story, with $32 Mil Breaking Super Bowl Weekend Record

Box office: “American Sniper” now hovers over $250 million as it kicks in $32 million this weekend. It broke a Super Bowl weekend box office record (previously held by a Miley Cyrus-Hannah Montana concert movie). Moreover, “Sniper” is the whole box office story, defying gravity and all other forces. This is Warner Bros’ reason to cheer as it braces for “Jupiter Descending.”

All the new movies are dreck that no one wanted to release in the first place, and no one went to see. All of them will be on planes, in DVD bins, and free on some digital service quickly enough.

And yes, the “mort” in “Mortdecai” continues. Waiting for final numbers. Keep refreshing.

Movies: Universal Basically Pulls “Blackhat” from Circulation, Johnny Depp’s “Mortdecai” MIA

Roger Friedman
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0
Movies: Universal Basically Pulls “Blackhat” from Circulation, Johnny Depp’s “Mortdecai” MIA

So much good news about “American Sniper” — heading to $250 million this weekend at the domestic box office. Biggest hit of Clint Eastwood’s career. A real bonanza for Warner Bros.

But then: Universal has yanked Michael Mann’s “Blackhat” basically from all but 236 theaters. It had been in 2,568. It’s the 6th biggest drop in history for a third week film.

And no one knows where Johnny Depp’s “Mortdecai” is. Lions Gate didn’t give box office results for Friday night. It’s probably being quietly euthanized as we speak.

The “Blackhat” situation is more dire than the “Mortdecai” episode. Mann is a serious filmmaker. He’ll come back in a big way. But this has to be a blow to him.

UPDATED Whitney Houston’s Daughter Bobbi Kristina: Twitter Account Shows Signs of Trouble

Roger Friedman
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UPDATED Whitney Houston’s Daughter Bobbi Kristina: Twitter Account Shows Signs of Trouble

UPDATE SUN 5:55PM: TMZ and other outlets report that Bobbi Kristina has been placed in an induced coma by doctors. Keep refreshing…

EARLIER: I used to write a lot about Whitney Houston, whom I knew quite well. I never write about her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who is not a celebrity and in deep emotional distress. Her family has been constantly worried about her since Whitney’s death three years ago and Bobbi’s marriage to Nick Gordon, a young man Whitney had taken into their home.

Now come reports that Krissie was found unresponsive in a bathtub in her Atlanta home. Reports say she was revived and taken to the hospital. Her mother died of a heart attack and drugs in a bathtub in February 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The parallels can be drawn.

I follow Bobbi Kristina on Twitter. Most of her Tweets are about how much she’s in love with Gordon, and how people are criticizing them. They are largely illiterate and full of emoticons.

Gordon himself has not Tweeted since Christmas Day. Krissie has been Tweeting regularly, but there have been signs of distress.

Under a tweet on Janaury 14th she pasted in a quote from a website: “You know what I absolutely fucking hate? When people choose a person over you and then then when they have no one else they come running back to you.”

In the last few days, Krissie posted pictures of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. One of them was of the actor in a romantic clinch with some young woman, maybe a pr still from a movie. Bobbi wrote: “This would be perfect right now” and directed the Tweet to Gordon’s account.

Her Tweets are often fueled by anger, and are largely unintelligible. What does come through is some desire, perhaps not based in reality, that she could have a music career like her mother’s. She writes a lot about being in the studio, or starting a career, but there’s never been a sign that she had those talents. How frustrating that must be for a young woman with no mother, a sketchy father, and little education.

Hopefully, if it’s not too late, her uncles and aunts can step in– Pat and Gary Houston, Michael and Donna– and get Bobbi Kristina some much needed help.

Super Bowl: NFL Orchestrates Annual Release of Roger Goodell’s $44 Mil Salary til After Game

Roger Friedman
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Super Bowl: NFL Orchestrates Annual Release of Roger Goodell’s $44 Mil Salary til After Game

Sunday is the Super Bowl. But in the next couple of weeks will come bigger news from the NFL: whether or not Roger Goodell exceeded his 2012 compensation of $44 million in 2013. Last year, the NFL orchestrated the release of their financials– they’re unbelievably a not for profit foundation– until February 18th, two weeks after the game.

I emailed their pr guy Brian McCarthy this past week to get the 2014 Form 990, but received no response. No big surprise. After Goodell’s press conference yesterday, news that he took home even more millions in the year of Ray Rice and Deflategate would have started a riot. Indeed, I’m surprised no one at the press conference asked Goodell about his compensation.

Yes, last year his total package was $44 million, up from $29 million the year before. We know this because the NFL is indeed an organization that pays no taxes on the $326.8 million plus it has in its coffers. Most of the teams run as not for profits, too. Talk about a good deal.

The NFL is a good place to be an executive. Steve Bornstein, EVP of Media, made $26 million in the last report. A bunch of other exec make between $1mil and $4mil.  The total salaries paid in 2013 to key trustees and employees were over $25 million. Another $31 million went to more employees.

But listen, the NFL is charitable, they’re a foundation. They handed out $1.4 million in grants in 2013. The largest recipients: themselves. Over $1 million of that $1.4 mil went to the NFL Foundation and the NFL Alumni Association. Charity begins at home!

James Marsden in “The Loft” Opens to a Rare Zero (0) Rating Among Critics

Roger Friedman
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0
James Marsden in “The Loft” Opens to a Rare Zero (0) Rating Among Critics

We see low numbers on Rotten Tomatoes. But zero– that is, 0– the goose egg, is rare. But such is the rating for “The Loft,” a lamentable release starring James Marsden (X Men, Hairspray), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy on the rebooted “Star Trek” movies), Wentworth Miller (“Prison Break”) and Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”).

This is the first American movie for Belgian director Eric van Looy. Open Road and Universal are releasing “The Loft” here, although they will regret it. The budget is listed at $14 million.

Currently there are 13 reviews, and they are all negative. Steve Golin and Anonymous Content are listed as the producers.

Recently, “Mortdecai,” “The Boy Next Door,” and “Taken 3” all scored very low, but at least in the teens. A real zero is hard to get. Congrats to all involved!

Despite the horrid reviews, Open Road put “The Loft” in over 1,800 theaters this weekend. Compare that to Barry Levinson’s wonderful film “The Humbling” starring Al Pacino. Millennium/Alchemy had it in just 19 theaters last week. It’s not even listed in the boxofficemojo system as a release. Oscar winning actor, Oscar winning director, based on a book by legendary writer Philip Roth, costars are two time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest, hot young up and comers Greta Gerwig and Nina Arianda, herself a Tony winner. And Millennium/Alchemy just killed it, threw it overboard, buried it alive, drove a stake through its heart.

And “The Humbling” had at least a 52%. Go figure. I worry for Nicole Kidman’s “Strangerland” which just sold to Alchemy.

James Franco Will Make “Dubious” Movie Based on John Steinbeck Novel

Roger Friedman
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0
James Franco Will Make “Dubious” Movie Based on John Steinbeck Novel

James Franco is going to direct an all star cast in a feature film based on John Steinbeck’s “In Dubious Battle.” This might be called a dubious move since Franco’s previous directing attempts based on novels by William Faulkner’s and Cormac McCarthy’s works haven’t turned out so great.

Indeed, Franco’s take on Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” still hasn’t been released. His version of “As I Lay Dying” managed a meager 41% on RottenTomatoes and was barely released. It made just under $17,000. His “Child of God” (McCarthy) garnered a 38% and made $38,400.

“In Dubious Battle” will star Selena Gomez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston and Danny McBride. Really? Selena Gomez? Danny McBride? Until Franco can get real about casting, these things are not going to work. I love Selena Gomez’s pop songs, but seeing her in a John Steinbeck movie is not plausible.

Franco is very enthusiastic about film, which is always appreciated. But you can almost anticipate the tedious screenings at film festivals, and so on.

The producers include Franco’s producing partner Vince Jolivette, Andrea Iervolino (“The Humbling,” “All Roads Lead to Rome”), Scott Reed,  Ron Singer, Iris Torres, and someone named Lady Monika Bacardi. The latter is for the fizz. Gucci had been backing a lot of Franco projects, but it’s possible that since they’ve changed creative directors, that may be over.

Report: Jay Z Buys Digital Streaming Service Available Only In Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark

Roger Friedman
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Report: Jay Z Buys Digital Streaming Service Available Only In Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark

Reports from Bloomberg and elsewhere say Jay Z has bought Aspiro AB, a media company that has a digital music streaming service in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Denmark.

OK, why not? It cost his holding company $56 million. That’s what he and Beyonce spend on vacations.

Aspiro has WiMP (really, a terrible name for the US) and Tidal. The latter sells and streams high end audio files which could only be appreciated fully on Sony’s excellent new Walkman A17 or Neil Young’s Pono player. The latter took quite a beating this week on Yahoo with a scathing piece by David Pogue.

Meantime, if Jay Z had wanted a library of high definition tracks, he could check out hdtracks.com, the single best service which already has a huge catalog.

But a challenger to Spotify? Not here in the U.S. Maybe WiMP and Tidal are the future for Europe. But my sense is that Spotify is entrenched at this point, with Pandora right behind.

Oscar Move: Fox Searchlight Puts “Birdman” Into the Ziegfeld for Two Weeks

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Move: Fox Searchlight Puts “Birdman” Into the Ziegfeld for Two Weeks

Fox Searchlight is putting “Birdman” into the Ziegfeld for two weeks starting today. What better way to say We have the Best Picture? They’re going to show it in the world’s most famous movie theater. That is a great idea. And a great Oscar move– especially if they send Academy members in there for free. Imagine seeing Michael Keaton fly around on that huge screen! Is “Birdman” the Best Picture of the Year? Well, SAG and the Golden Globes have given it a good push. Better than “Boyhood,” “Imitation Game,” “Whiplash” or “Foxcatcher”? Who’s to say? I still think “Boyhood” is a masterpiece. But all the nominees are terrific.

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