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Cannes Exclusive : “DSK” Movie “Welcome to NY” Eyeing Surprise Midnight Screening

Roger Friedman
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Cannes Exclusive : “DSK” Movie “Welcome to NY” Eyeing Surprise Midnight Screening

EXCLUSIVE: Director Abel Ferrara is such an indie director that boxofficemojo.com doesn’t even index him by name. His most successful movie might be “The Bad Lieutenant.” It made $2 million in 1992. Most people probably don’t know who he is.

But that’s all about to change. The word from France is that Ferrara’s “DSK” movie, “Welcome to New York,” will get a surprise screening, probably a midnight show, on May 16th. That’s because Wild Bunch lets “Welcome to New York” loose all  over Europe on May 17th.

Just a couple of days earlier, on May 14th, Wild Bunch is releasing “Welcome” on Video on Demand and the internet all over France. They decided to bypass theaters and go straight out to as many people as possible as quickly as they could. It’s a very clever idea. (IFC Films will release it in the U.S.)

Famed French actor Gerard Depardieu and 2014 Golden Globe winner Jacqueline Bisset star in “Welcome to New York,” a thinly disguised version of the real life story of former IMF director Dominique Straus-Kahn and his journalist wife Anne Sinclair. DSK, as he is known, was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York in mid May 2011, exactly three years ago. He was prevented from leaving New York while his fate was decided. The result was an international scandal. His wealthy wife stood by him until they returned to France, and then dumped him.

In Ferrara’s film, Depardieu plays a professor named Devereaux married to a wealthy woman who fuels his political ambitions. He winds up in a New York hotel room, and we know the rest.

One description of the film, on the IMDB, reads: “Mr. Devereaux is a powerful man. A man who handles billions of dollars every day. A man who controls the economic fate of nations. A man driven by a frenzied and unbridled sexual hunger. A man who dreamed of saving the world and who cannot save himself. A terrified man. A lost man.”

I am told that the screening remains shrouded in secrecy because DSK’s lawyers are said to be sniffing around, looking for trouble. They haven’t seen the movie so far. But I guess they will on the 14th, on TV, the same day Cannes officially opens. Sacre bleu!

Other cast members include Drena DeNiro, stepdaughter of Robert DeNiro and daughter of Diahnne Abbott, as well as veteran actors Ronald Guttman and Paul Hipp.

NBA Scores: Turns LA Clippers Over to Richard Parsons, Former Time Warner Chairman

Roger Friedman
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NBA Scores: Turns LA Clippers Over to Richard Parsons, Former Time Warner Chairman

Stick a fork in Donald Sterling. There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Richard Parsons. Dick Parsons, as we know him, is the former chairman of Time Warner, a guiding light of the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and owner of two cool restaurants on West 118th St. Now Adam Silver and the NBA have put him in charge of the Clippers while they sort out forcing Sterling to sell the team. Parsons is the perfect choice. He will restore confidence in the team, the league and the sport. Another good move by Silver.

Here’s the release:
NBA NAMES DICK PARSONS INTERIM CEO OF LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The National Basketball Association has named former Citigroup chairman and former Time Warner chairman and CEO Dick Parsons the interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers, effective immediately, it was announced today by Commissioner Adam Silver. Parsons is currently a senior advisor at Providence Equity Partners and sits on the board of directors for the Commission on Presidential Debates.

“I believe the hiring of Dick Parsons will bring extraordinary leadership and immediate stability to the Clippers organization,” said Silver. “Dick’s credentials as a proven chief executive speak for themselves and I am extremely grateful he accepted this responsibility.”

“Like most Americans, I have been deeply troubled by the pain the Clippers’ team, fans and partners have endured,” said Parsons. “A lifelong fan of the NBA, I am firmly committed to the values and principles it is defending, and I completely support Adam’s leadership in navigating the challenges facing the team and the league. The Clippers are a resilient organization with a brilliant coach and equally talented and dedicated athletes and staff who have demonstrated great strength of character during a time of adversity. I am honored to be asked to work with them, build on their values and accomplishments, and help them open a new, inspiring era for their team.”

After attending the University of Hawaii, where he played basketball, Parsons earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1971 and began his distinguished legal career as a staff lawyer for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. When Rockefeller was appointed Vice President of the United States, Parsons followed him to Washington, where he also worked closely with President Gerald Ford.

Parsons returned to New York in 1977 and became a partner and ultimately managing partner of the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. In 1988, Parsons left his law firm to become president and then chairman and CEO of Dime Bancorp, Inc. Parsons began his long and distinguished career at Time Warner in 1995, joining as president and then becoming chairman and CEO from 2002 until 2008. In 2009, after retiring from Time Warner, he served as chairman of Citigroup until stepping down from that position in 2012.

Parsons’ extensive list of accomplishments also includes having served as a member of President Barack Obama’s economic advisory team.

“American Idol” : 900K Viewers Tune out from Wednedsay to Thursday

Roger Friedman
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“American Idol” : 900K Viewers Tune out from Wednedsay to Thursday

Last night’s “American Idol” results show scored such low ratings even I can’t believe it– a 1.6 in the key demo and just 7.07 million viewers. The demo was down from Wednesday’s 1.8 rating. But the total viewership is now threatening to sink below 7 million. This means around 900,000 people decamped from Wednesday to Thursday. What happened? Didn’t they want to know who was eliminated and who stayed? Crazy.

 

Broadway News: Hugh Jackman, Holly Knight’s “Battlefield,” “On the Town”

Roger Friedman
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Broadway News: Hugh Jackman, Holly Knight’s “Battlefield,” “On the Town”

Some notes from Broadway: Holly Knight wrote Pat Benatar’s big hit “Love is a Battlefield.” She also wrote Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” and “Better Be Good to Me” and at least two dozen more radio staples. So why not try a jukebox musical? “Battlefield,” directed by Dan Knechtges, will get a workshop reading in New York in mid- June. Greg Jackson and Erin Quinn Purcell wrote the book. Could this be a sequel of sorts to “Rock of Ages”? Could very well be…

Hugh Jackman’s coming back to Broadway this fall. The once and always Wolverine will segue from hosting the Tony Awards to rehearsing for a new straight play — no music– called “The River” and written by Jez Butterworth. He’s the author of the acclaimed “Jerusalem” and “Mojo,” which played last year in the West End as a revival and I wish would come to New York also.

“The River” co-stars newcomers (at least to Broadway) Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo. And it’s going to be in the smallish Circle in the Square theater, a theater in the round, so to speak. The crush for tickets will therefore be terrifying.

You’ve got to give Hugh Jackman credit. Like Daniel Radcliffe, he just keeps coming back every other season and trying interesting material. And of course, the fall season has become the time to do that…

…Here comes a revival of “On the Town.” The Comden-Green-Leonard Bernstein musical opens October 16th at the Lyric Theater. No cast yet, but let’s hope whoever’s singing “New York New York”– the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down-– is great. This means that “On the Town” will open week before Sting’s much anticipated “The Last Ship” on October 23rd. And a couple of weeks before Hugh Jackman. The fall season is suddenly getting crazy since we’ll also have James Earl Jones in “You Can’t Take it With You”…

Robin Hood Foundation: At Least a Dozen Execs Make Over $250K a Year Including Brother of Amazon Founder

Roger Friedman
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Robin Hood Foundation: At Least a Dozen Execs Make Over $250K a Year Including Brother of Amazon Founder

This weekend it’s time for the annual Robin Hood Foundation gala. This is a dinner for multi-billionaires who donate large chunks of money, place humungous bids on auction items like a week on a remote island while being serenaded by the Rolling Stones. Stuff like that. The Foundation dispensed around $135 million a year to causes in the New York area in 2012

But it’s also good to work at the Robin Hood Foundation. It’s not like their executives are Mother Theresa. At least a dozen people on the staff earn more than $250,000 a year– a lot more. One of them is Mark Bezos, brother of Amazon founder and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos. He gets $371.000 a year according to the Robin Hood tax filing for 2012.

Mark Bezos is often written about because he’s a volunteer firefighter in Westchester County, New York. (He lives with his family in way upscale Scarsdale, far from the not exactly Sherwood Forest.) He may be the highest paid volunteer firefighter in the world. Mark Bezos is also on the board of the Bezos Family Foundation.

Bezos is not the highest paid Robin Hood exec. That distinction goes to David Saltzman– $646,406.  Runners up are Michael Weinstein at $523,328; and Deborah Winshel, $502,377. The lowest salary among the dozen is $256,599.

Total salaries for Robin Hood come to $15 million.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Michael Jackson May Appear as Performing Hologram on TV Music Awards Show

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson May Appear as Performing Hologram on TV Music Awards Show

EXCLUSIVE He isn’t dead five years, but Michael Jackson is coming back to perform on TV. I’m told that Jackson will appear on the Billboard Music Awards as a dancing, singing hologram to promote his new “Xscape” album. Sources say Jackson will appear “through an amazing new technology.” The show airs on May 18th. Is it exploitation or just something cool? Or ghoul?

The technology for this “once in a lifetime event” that was referred to in a press release this morning may be coming from a Japanese company in which Sony Music is an investor. There are already hologram music videos on YouTube. There’s also been speculation that soon holograms would be used by living performers. But dead ones? The possibility of seeing Elvis and all other deceased stars is a startling one at best.

Something similar was done with Tupac Shakur as a CGI kind of hologram at the Coachella Music Festival in 2012. But as far as I know, no one’s done that on TV.

Production staff associated with the Billboard Music Awards have been sworn to absolute secrecy– and say they haven’t been told very much at all. But an insider tells me that the description of Michael as a hologram “is not wrong.”

It’s unclear whether Jackson’s hologram or technological self would perform alone or interact with someone from his new album– like Justin Timberlake. Timberlake was grafted onto a 30 year old recording of Jackson singing a Paul Anka song on the new album. I guess anything is possible.

And how will Jackson’s family feel seeing their father, son, brother back on stage?

Here’s the Tupac ‘holgram’:

Fox TV Forced to Renew “American Idol” As They Cancel Many Shows

Roger Friedman
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Fox TV Forced to Renew “American Idol” As They Cancel Many Shows

Fox TV is renewing “American Idol.” Why? They have no choice. Today they also cancelled a bunch of shows including “Dads,” “Enlisted,” “Surviving Jack,” and “Rake” with Greg Kinnear. They had already cancelled “Almost Human.”

If they weren’t in total bind, Fox would probably cancel “The Mindy Project” and “Brooklyn 999.” At least those shows are considered hip. But their ratings are terrible. “Idol” ratings are in the toilet, as we all know. But Fox can’t just show test patterns all night– or more science classes with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

As for “Idol,” there aren’t too many more changes that can be made to pump up ratings. The show is what it is. It will die a slow death unless they find better contestants. In all likelihood, the judges (Lopez, Urban, Connick) will return along with Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson as a mentor.

Johnny Depp’s Recent Failures Won’t Hurt Him Says Blockbuster Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

Roger Friedman
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Johnny Depp’s Recent Failures Won’t Hurt Him Says Blockbuster Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

Big party at the Monkey Bar on Wednesday night– swanky, I’d say– for beloved producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his 800 page coffee table book about his many successes. Many. From “Top Gun” to “Flashdance” to “CSI” on TV and the new possible “CSI Cyber” set in Washington DC starring Patricia Arquette. (Editor’s note: count me in on that, we are big PA fans.)

None other than Michael Douglas hosted, and toasted, with Blaine Trump, organized by Peggy Siegal. Among the guests: Bruckheimer’s equally popular wife Linda, plus actors Sigourney Weaver, Cuba Gooding Jr, Hugh Dancy and Clare Danes, Josh Lucas, director Paul Schrader, Sony Pictures Classics’ Tom Bernard, plus Hoda Kotb, Deborah Norville, super book agent Lynn Nesbitt, and huge star of the moment, the shockingly beautiful Gugu Mbatha-Raw from the hit indie movie “Belle.”

Wait– and yes, Shep Gordon, star of Mike Myers’ documentary “SuperMensch,” whom we’ve been lucky to have hang around New York for a few weeks. Wait til you see “SuperMensch.”

And wait til you see Jerry’s mammoth book, a great Christmas present for next winter, a must-have for film buffs right now. This is the man who invented Tom Cruise, let’s not forget that. “Top Gun” and “Days of Thunder” put Cruise on the map forever.

Bruckheimer told me he’s starting to think about a new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. Why not? The first 4 have made $3.7 BILLION dollars. But will Johnny Depp’s recent box office failures (Lone Ranger, Transcendence) affect him now?

“No,” insisted Bruckheimer, who knows his business better than I. “Before Pirates, Johnny did a lot of small movies. He even said, as the box office was coming in on the second Pirates, that all his previous movies hadn’t added up to that one at the box office. That’s not what he’s about. He’ll be fine.”

Michael Douglas was brave to make the scene. He was limping. After everything he’s been through, he either has a hernia or a pulled muscle in his groin. Jeez Louise. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor.

But Douglas was otherwise in fine form. He even read an email (used to be it was a telegram) from basketball legend Miami Heat coach Pat Riley. The trio are old pals.

Meantime, Bruckheimer told me casting is under way for the new “Beverly Hills Cop” with Eddie Murphy. Brett Ratner directs. No names are official yet. I did ask whether we will see Judge Rheinhold back on the job as Billy Rosewood. The answer is cloudy still, apparently. But how can you have “Beverly Hills Cop” without him?

At any rate, Bruckheimer’s book is called “When Lightning Strikes,” which sounds a little humble since the producer’s long list of hits is not just from luck. You can buy it on amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Jerry-Bruckheimer-Lightning-Filmmaking-Editions/dp/1423130693

Josh Hartnett Makes a Comeback with Broadway’s Spider Man and a Former James Bond

Roger Friedman
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Josh Hartnett Makes a Comeback with Broadway’s Spider Man and a Former James Bond

Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” made a big splash last night with a star studded premiere in New York. No less than Sting and Trudie Styler, as well as CBS chief Les Moonves, turned out to applaud “Penny” creator John Logan and his formidable cast. They include Josh Hartnett, making a comeback after a short time out, plus former James Bond Timothy Dalton, Broadway’s “Spider Man” Reeve Carney, and the beauteous Eva Green.

Hot stuff indeed. The entire “Penny Dreadful” premiere took place at the new Highline Hotel, built onto the grounds and into some of the buildings of the famed Episcopal Seminary on West 20th St. and Tenth Avenue. Yes, a hip hotel has been grafted onto a religious order on a tranquil campus.

It was pretty amusing last night as a red carpet, kleig lights and a step and repeat backdrop were laid out in front of Seminary offices. Collared clergy of both sexes hung out on the side as entertainment press, photographers, camera crews and paparazzi clamored for the cast.

Inside a tented area set up for VIPs, Sting and Trudie mixed and mingled with guests. They were there because Logan did a polish on Sting’s forthcoming musical, “The Last Ship,” which starts previews June 10th in Chicago.

I chatted with them, and with Josh Hartnett, an amiable guy I hadn’t seen in quite a while. After some disappointments in big budget films, he wisely retreated to some indies. Now it looks like he’ll have a hit with “Penny.” He’s still tall and handsome, and just a lot wiser about Hollywood. Was he burned out, I asked?

“I wouldn’t say burned out,” Josh replied. “I just know more.”  Wait til you see his opening scene as a traveling Buffalo Bill-type in the Wild West. It’s a reboot for his career that should take him back to movies in no time.

Reeve Carney, still waiting for a green light to play Jeff Buckley in “Dream Lover,” just finished three years playing Spider Man on Broadway in Julie Taymor’s legendary production. “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” was a trial by fire. Before that, he’d had a rock band. He’s happy to be a supporting player in “Penny.”

“This is giving me time to get used to being in front of the camera,” Reeve said. By the time “Dream Lover” is ready to roll, he’ll have had this experience too. But really, it’s time for Jeff Buckley’s mom to let that movie commence. Carney’s a natural in “Penny.” He will make her proud.

“Penny Dreadful” starts on Showtime on Sunday night. But you can watch it right now on www.sho.com. For free!

Pop Music Sales Plummet As Top 10 Sells Around 300K Copies Total

Roger Friedman
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Pop Music Sales Plummet As Top 10 Sells Around 300K Copies Total

Pop, pop pop music. Everyone used to want pop music. But now, not so much. With very little new product, and nothing at all from name acts. the pop sales of CDs last week was dismal. The top 10 sold a total of around 320,000 copies– and a third of those were “Frozen” soundtracks. The rest was pretty much a loss, with everything from number 20 down selling fewer than 10,000 copies each– all the way to number 50, by some act called Schoolboy Q. They sold 5,545 copies– that’s not enough to buy lunch at their school.

This week’s new releases didn’t amount to much. Next week, May 13th, gives us Michael Jackson’s
“Xscape” album. All eyes will be on that release. If Jackson doesn’t knock “Frozen” off, there will be a lot of sobbing. Coldplay comes on Monday the 19th, and Mariah Carey is set for May 27th.

Otherwise, there is very little going on. No releases from real marquee names. Nothing exciting or buzz worthy. The senior set — McCartney, the Stones, Elton, — are all out working. All the Usual Suspects– Rihanna, Eminem, Beyonce, Jay Z, et al– had their releases. “American Idol” isn’t producing superstars anymore. There isn’t much in the way of artist development.

The whole business waits for Adele. It’s like waiting for Godot. Or “Frozen 2.”

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