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Kristen Stewart: How She Got $500,000 from a Middle East Sheik

Leah Sydney
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Kristen Stewart: How She Got $500,000 from a Middle East Sheik

Harvey Weinstein hopes so.  At the Los Angeles DGA premiere of the “12-12-12,” Amir Bar-Lev and Charlie Lightening’s terrific insider look at the concert that was held to benefit Hurricane Sandy, also has none other than Sir Paul McCartney as an Executive Producer.  The film features music’s finest, including: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Dave Grohl, Roger Waters, Eddie Vedder, Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, Adam Sandler, Eric Clapton, Jon Bon Jovi, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Kanye West and more.

Sir Paul ends the show and is shown throughout the film.  In fact his team was filming their own version until Amir and Paul’s team got together at the last minute and joined forces. Harvey told the crowd that, “Paul, whom I spoke to today, is involved in every detail of this movie.  If God willing we ever got an award, Paul and Amir would be up there.”

Harvey then went on to thank Irving Azoff and native New Yorkers MSG’s James Dolan, Clear Channel’s John Sykes, Weinstein’s Victoria Parker and Sir Paul’s longtime manager Scott Roger, all who helped to make the concert  and the film happen.

“I grew up going to Rockaway,” Harvey explained.  “This was so important for all of us to do.  People were in need.”

Harvey then told the story of how Kristen Stewart agreed to meet a Middle Eastern Sheik for a half hour for $500.000. Harvey quipped, “I don’t know if we reported it to the IRS, but who gives a shit.”

I then spoke with the Amir Bar-Lev who told me that, “The film was an editing challenge.  It could have been a nine-hour movie; there was that much happening.  We wanted to keep the cameras moving so that the audience can experience the night in all of its honeycomb splendor.  We wanted it to be a democratic film.  It was New York taking care of itself, so if we didn’t move the camera around and meet roadies, fireman, fans, the people outside, as well as staying onstage, it all came together because of that. ”

How did he wind up making this film?  Amir answers, “I ran into Harvey at a ‘Django Unchained’ event, I had done the ‘The Tillman Story,’ for him.  He told me. ‘You gotta make this movie for me, you gotta be ready in a week!’  Paul McCartney also had the idea to immortalize the event in a film, and to the run up to the concert there were two different films being made. It culminated in a stand off between their crew and our crew and was very acrimonious. At a certain point in this argument, I said, why are we making two films? Why don’t we make one film?  This is crazy, it’s a charity event, and we shouldn’t be fighting over this.  Besides it’s a Beatle.  The guy I was fighting with and I hugged, we then had a production meeting right before the concert and joined forces.  The finished film is a combination of both of our footages.  So all is well.”

“12-12-12” opens in New York and Los Angeles on November 15th.

The Beatles Get 1st Feature in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 Years

Roger Friedman
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The Beatles Get 1st Feature in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 Years

The Beatles are getting their first mention in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 years. Next February 2014, also the 50th anniversary of the group’s arrival in America, the EB has a feature on the group in their annual Book of the Year. It’s the first time since 1964. Martin Lewis, Beatles expert, wrote the entry which can be found at http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2013/10/2013-birth-of-beatlemania/

The annual volume, that surveys the most significant world events of each year, deemed the group’s global breakthrough in 1964 sufficiently noteworthy to merit a report in its Book Of The Year for that year.  But the Beatles have never warranted a second “Special Report” in that prestigious book.  Nor to the best of recollections have any other popular entertainers had a second bite of the Britannica cherry.

I’m told this is rather unusual for many reasons. The Encyclopedia Britannica primarily covers topics such as geography (26%), biography (14%), biology and medicine (11%), literature (7%), physics and astronomy (6%), religion (5%). Only 4% of the book is allocated to the arts.  Making this second “Special Report” about the Beatles all the more  prestigious.

And more Beatles news: the annual BeatleFest for collectors has been moved to NYC and the Grand Hyatt Hotel for February 7, 8. and 9th, 2014.

 

Exclusive: Forrest Gump Director Robert Zemeckis Reuniting with Movie’s Producer Wendy Finerman

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Forrest Gump Director Robert Zemeckis Reuniting with Movie’s Producer Wendy Finerman

Robert Zemeckis is getting ready to do a very low budget movie with his Forrest Gump producer Wendy Finerman. The two of them worked magic on the 1994 Best Picture. This one, I am told, is very low budget. “They’re essentially working for nothing,” Finerkan told me last night at the premiere of “Last Vegas.”

They’ll be making the film version of “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” a best selling children’s book by Kate DeCamillo.

What’s interesting about Zemeckis’s project is that it will be as innovative as my favorite of his films, “Who’s Afraid of Roger Rabbit?” New Line Cinema at Warner Bros. will be the official studio. Edward Tulane, like Roger, is a rabbit.

UPDATE Since I saw Wendy, I’ve heard that “Forrest Gump” itself is getting a big 20th anniversary rollout next year from Paramount. The Oscar winner will even have an anniversary theatrical run. Life is like a box of chocolates after all!

 

The picture is from Roger Rabbit. That’s Bob Hoskins.

New Scorsese “Wolf” Trailer: DiCaprio in “GoodFellas” Meets “Wall Street”

Roger Friedman
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New Scorsese “Wolf” Trailer: DiCaprio in “GoodFellas” Meets “Wall Street”

The new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf of Wall Street” looks pretty good, and that’s an understatement. Leonardo DiCaprio narrates in a very Henry Hill-“Goodfellas” meets “Wall Street” way. Jonah Hill and Matthew McConnaughey are also tantalizing. Is “Wolf” an Oscar spoiler? May be. PS The white beach house looks like Sean Combs’s sort of reverse. Take a look:

Oscar Winner Mary Steenburgen: How She Became a Hit Singer, Songwriter Overnight

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Winner Mary Steenburgen: How She Became a Hit Singer, Songwriter Overnight

Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Best Supporting Actress, 1981, for “Melvin and Howard”) is pretty well known for doing drama and light comedy. She’s 60, she’s married to Ted Danson, she’s worked for about 40 years in movies and I still have a crush on her from “Ragtime.”

And here’s something no one knew: She’s recently signed a contract with Universal Music Publishing as a songwriter. She has 46 songwriting credits already registered with ASCAP.

But until last year, no one knew she could sing or write songs. Not even Mary herself knew it. She sings like a bird in “Last Vegas,” even one of her own songs, as she’s busy stealing the movie from four other Oscar winners: Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline. Not easy to do.

Turns out, Mary says, she’s had a phenomenon. She didn’t even realize that “Last Vegas” director Jon Turtletaub directed John Travolta in a great movie called “Phenomenon” much along the same lines. I reminded her about it last night at the 21 Club dinner for “Last Vegas,” a home run of a studio comedy– very funny, smart, likeable, and a real romp.

In 2007 she had surgery on her forearm. She was under anesthesia. Soon after, music started playing in her head day and night. “I couldn’t turn it off,” she said. She took music lessons. “I figured I’d better do something.” She likened it to what Dr. Oliver Sacks described in a recent book as “Musicophilia.” It just came pouring out of her.

This explains why Steenburgen and Danson moved to Nashville. She’s been writing and recording songs for the last five years. Her guests last night at the premiere included Oscar nominated hit songwriter Troy Verges, with whom she’s been collaborating on new material.

In “Last Vegas,” she’s the only woman, really, in a movie that might be called a “Hangover” for the older set. But it’s a really a hilarious film about friendship. Director Turtletaub has done a wonderful job. And the screenplay — while contemporarily smutty– is smart. The characters like each other, the audience likes them.

At last night’s premiere: all of the cast except for Kline, who’s shooting a movie. DeNiro with wife Grace, Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, the latter coming off a terrific career year with this film and “Beyond the Candelabra” for HBO. The director of that film, Steven Soderbergh, put in an appearance, and I had a long talk with Douglas’s college roommate from UC Santa Barbara, now an art teacher at Brooklyn College. They are still great pals after 50 years, just like the guys in “Last Vegas.” Nice.

Frank Sinatra Leaves Reprise Records, Which He Started, After 53 Years

Roger Friedman
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Frank Sinatra Leaves Reprise Records, Which He Started, After 53 Years

Fifty three years after he left Capitol EMI to start Reprise Records, Frank Sinatra is coming home. Capitol EMI is now part of powerhouse Universal Music Group. And UMG has offered Frank’s heirs– Frank Sinatra Enterprises– a bundle to leave Reprise and all that history. This will unite Sinatra’s two main catalogs under one roof. UMG will start a Sinatra Signature series.

Warner Music Group, which owns Reprise, is a big loser in this deal. They’ve always relied on the Sinatra catalog. But Warner Music was hobbled under Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen. With very few resources left, they simply couldn’t expect the Sinatra family to stick around. Now Frank joins the Beatles, Katy Perry, and the massive UMG enterprise.

Sinatra — who is not the father of Ronan Farrow– started Reprise in 1960 to give himself and other artists more freedom of expression. In the 1970s Neil Young became a force at Reprise and the label had lots of hits including T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong.” During the 90s Reprise foundered, and under the Bronfman-Cohen regime it died.

Does Sinatra still sell? The answer is that Sinatra, like the Beatles, is forever. A new issuing of box sets and other material will refresh sales quickly. There’s supposedly a remastered Sinatra Duets album coming soon.

What’s in Your Wallet? Alec Baldwin Has Given Away Almost $3Mil so Far this Year

Roger Friedman
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What’s in Your Wallet? Alec Baldwin Has Given Away Almost $3Mil so Far this Year

What’s in Alex Baldwin’s wallet? Not the money he’s made from Capital One commercials. Baldwin has donated all of the proceeds to charity. He can be contentious, belligerent, pugnacious, and hard to take, but at least his (liberal) heart is in right place. Baldwin has posted a list of his 2013 donations to Facebook. He’s very loyal to the arts, and to his community in the Hamptons. He also does an excellent imitation of Tony Bennett. And he even paid for a pair of tickets to “Orphans,” the Broadway play he was in last spring. I don’t know if that’s a write off. But the rest of it is quite magnanimous.

01/08/13: Lincoln Center Theater – $5,000.00
01/08/13: Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation – $5,000.00
01/08/13: Southampton Cultural Center – $1,000.00
01/08/13: Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives – $500.00
01/08/13: KPCC Southern California Public Radio – $2,500.00
01/10/13: Guild Hall – $5,000.00
01/15/13: The Drama League – $650.00
01/17/13: NBC Studios (Autographed Wall) = $2,581.00
01/31/13: SAG Foundation – $100,000.00
02/01/13: Screen Actors Guild – $4,500.00
02/13/13: Arthur Ashe Learning Center – $50,000.00
02/13/13: GMHC – $2,500.00
02/13/13: The Writer’s Almanac – $500.00
02/19/13: Stony Brook Foundation – $2,500.00
02/21/13: Police Athletic League – $1,000.00
02/27/13: PAWS – $50,000.00
02/27/13: New York Public Radio – $25,000.00
03/04/13: Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc. – $1,000.00
03/11/13: St. Monica Catholic Community – $10,250.00
03/12/13: Roundabout Theatre Company – $500,000.00
03/12/13: Roundabout Theatre Company – $25,000.00
03/12/13: New Dramatists Inc. – $2,000.00
03/15/13: WSHU Public Radio – $10,000.00
03/27/13: Leadership Rhode Island – $2,500.00
03/29/13: New York Philharmonic – $11,209.50
04/09/13: Roundabout Theatre Company – $50,000.00
04/10/13: Group For The East End – $5,000.00
04/11/13: PEN American Center – $2,500.00
04/12/13: The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp – $5,000.00
04/18/13: generationOn – $1,000.00
04/18/13: The Drama League – $1,700.00
04/18/13: Theatre World Awards, Inc. – $1,000.00
04/18/13: Central Park Conservancy – $2,500.00
04/22/13: Orphans Broadway Co., LLC – $264.00
04/22/13: Schoenfeld Theatre – $518.00
04/29/13: Canine Companions for Independence – $5,000.00
05/01/13: Death Penalty Focus – $2,500.00
05/09/13: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – $10,000.00
05/09/13: Maysles Documentary Center – $1,000.00
05/09/13: New York Public Radio – $75,000.00
05/16/13: Schoenfeld Theatre – $234.00
05/16/13: West 90th Street Park Block Association – $500.00
05/16/13: Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Inc. – $2,500.00
05/17/13: Group For The East End – $5,000.00
05/17/13: New York Philharmonic – $10,000.00
05/23/13: East Hampton Day Care Center – $2,500.00
05/23/13: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS – $2,500.00
05/23/13: Southern Poverty Law Center – $2,500.00
05/23/13: Century Association Archives Foundation – $1,000.00
05/23/13: The Fresh Air Fund – $1,000.00
05/28/13: Two River Theater Company – $2,500.00
06/03/13: Long Island Pine Barrens Society – $5,000.00
06/03/13: Amagansett Village Improvement Society, Inc. – $1,000.00
06/03/13: Stony Brook Foundation – $2,500.00
06/10/13: Group For The East End – $5,000.00
06/11/13: WNET – $10,000.00
06/11/13: The Springs Improvement Society – $60,000.00
06/15/13: Singers Forum Foundation – $1,000.00
06/15/13: New York Innovative Theatre Foundation – $2,500.00
06/19/13: RPHP – $10,000.00
06/19/13: Group For The East End – $10,000.00
06/19/13: Group For The East End – $5,050.00
06/26/13: Guild Hall – $117,000.00
06/26/13: Guild Hall – $25,000.00
07/02/13: The Perlman Music Program – $5,000.00
07/02/13: PCRM – $5,000.00
07/02/13: WCPE Radio – $1,000.00
07/10/13: East Hampton Historical Society – $500.00
07/10/13: East Hampton Library – $5,000.00
07/10/13: Guild Hall of East Hampton – $1,000.00
07/10/13: Hamptons International Film Festival – $1,200.00
07/10/13: Young Chicago Authors – $1,000.00
07/10/13: Amagansett Fire Department – $1,000.00
07/10/13: East Hampton Library – $20,000.00
07/16/13: New York Philharmonic – $500,000.00
07/16/13: Roundabout Theatre Company – $500,000.00
07/16/13: Coalition For The Homeless – $100,000.00
07/17/13: Hayground School – $2,000.00
07/18/13: Peconic Baykeeper – $2,500.00
07/18/13: East Hampton Town PBA – $2,500.00
07/18/13: Island Institute – $1,000.00
07/18/13: East End Hospice – $1,000.00
07/18/13: Avon Walk For Breast Cancer – $500.00
07/24/13: Hayground School – $3,000.00
07/24/13: Rosie’s Theater Kids – $10,000.00
07/29/13: Hampton Lifeguard Association – $1,000.00
07/29/13: Guild Hall of East Hampton – $2,500.00
07/29/13: Hamptons International Film Festival – $2,500.00
07/29/13: Baby Buggy – $10,000.00
07/29/13: New York Philharmonic – $50,000.00
07/29/13: Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund – $2,500.00
08/07/13: Peconic Land Trust – $5,000.00
08/12/13: East Hampton Library – $300.00
08/13/13: Amagansett Village Improvement Society, Inc. – $1,250.00
08/13/13: The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp – $100,000.00
08/15/13: Brennan Center For Jusitce – $5,000.00
08/15/13: Workers Defense Project, Inc. – $10,000.00
08/15/13: USTA Services – $5,000.00
08/15/13: NYU Tisch School of the Arts – $50,000.00
08/22/13: Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons – $2,500.00
08/22/13: NOFA – NY – $1,000.00
08/28/13: NRDC – $1,000.00
08/30/13: The Hamilton Partnership for Paterson – $2,500.00
08/30/13: Atlee High School – $500.00
08/30/13: Two River Theater Company – $5,000.00
09/03/13: Hamptons International Film Festival – $10,000.00
09/09/13: Fractured Atlas – $10,000.00
09/09/13: People for the American Way – $25,000.00
09/10/13: Arthur Ashe Learning Center – $10,000.00
09/19/13: Elton John AIDS Foundation – $10,000.00
09/19/13: Young Concert Artists, Inc. – $1,000.00
09/19/13: Bay Street Theatre – $15,000.00
09/19/13: Freer & Sackler Gallery – $50,000.00
09/19/13: The Harlem School of the Arts – $2,500.00
09/19/13: First Presbyterian Church of Amagansett – $1,000.00
09/19/13: The Doe Fund – $2,500.00
09/19/13: WCPE Radio – $500.00
09/19/13: Exploring The Arts – $10,000.00

ABF YTD Total Giving as of 9/30/13 = $2,835,706.50

“Entourage” The Movie Is a Go: And Here’s the Original Story

Roger Friedman
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“Entourage” The Movie Is a Go: And Here’s the Original Story

Gosh– to think I broke the news about an “Entourage” movie waaay back on December 3, 2009! And now finally the deals are done, and the big screen version of HBO’s popular comedy will be made starting this January. Let’s hope it’s supercharged and a lot of fun, and not incredibly misogynist or a big part of the audience will not show up. At least, unlike “Sex and the City,” there won’t be over the top consumerism.

Here’s the original link:

http://www.showbiz411.com/2009/12/03/20091203wahlberg-entourage-lovely-bones

 

 

Nicole Kidman on Tom Cruise vs Husband Keith Urban: “I’ve Met My Great Love Now”

Roger Friedman
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Nicole Kidman on Tom Cruise vs Husband Keith Urban: “I’ve Met My Great Love Now”

Nicole Kidman is on the cover of Vanity Fair and gives them a great interview. The big pull quote: “And you know, with no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now. And I really did not know if that was going to happen. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it for a while, because I didn’t want to jump from one relationship to another. I had a lot of time alone, which was really, really good, because I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up.”

No disrespect, but that’s Nicole: honest and forthright. Good for her. She and Keith Urban seem like an exceptionally happy couple to me, proud parents of two beautiful little girls. Urban is one of the good guys, as normal as a rock star can be, and incredibly talented. She tells writer Sam Kashner: “My husband and I are in uncharted territory because we’re trying to find artistic expression but also we’re incredibly connected as a family—we’re very, very tight, very, very close, and I have a very, very primal protection of my family.”

The Vanity Fair interview was timed to the release of “Grace of Monaco.” The movie has since been moved to 2014. These things happen. But frankly, Nicole for any reason is welcome!

 

Apple Invades New Holocaust Film with Jarring iMac Product Placement

Roger Friedman
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Apple Invades New Holocaust Film with Jarring iMac Product Placement

It’s a bit of a shock, but probably not so much to regular movie goers. Toward the end of Brian Percival’s adaptation of “The Book Thief,” there’s a jarring image. The camera sweeps over a group of framed family photos on a piano with vistas of Central Park West just beyond. The pictures are of people we’ve seen in the long period piece of a movie: the main character, her family, Holocaust survivors and victims.

And there, among the misty memories, is a sleek new iMac computer.

The black and silver of the computer, with the Apple logo, shine in the gauzy afternoon sun as the audience is asked to recall, sentimentally, all these people who suffered horrors at the hands of the Nazis.

Yes, I do believe it’s a 17″ inch screen. I didn’t get a chance to check the model and serial numbers. But I was thinking, as “The Book Thief” came to an end, I am ready for an upgrade.

Wipe away those tears.  Apple has turned “The Book Thief” into iHolocaust.

The meaning of this is clear: Apple has paid a handsome amount for a prominent product placement. “The Book Thief” runs at least two hours, and for most of that time it takes place in Germany from 1940 to 1945. Based on the bestselling novel, it tells the implausible story of how a 12 girl survives the deaths of everyone around her.

In the last few minutes–this isn’t a spoiler since 10 million people have read the book–we learn that she became a great writer with a magnificent Fifth Avenue apartment. And placed prominently in that apartment is one well known high tech piece of equipment: an Apple computer.

Lots of movies have product placements. They are obvious. Papa John’s pizza, regularly sneaked into movies, is all over Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Apple and Dell are frequently seen logos on laptops that turn up in TV series and movies. But they’re usually in context of someone using a laptop. In certain kinds of projects, the product placement is begrudgingly accepted. In so-called serious movies, however, this is a no no.

In the case of “The Book Thief,” there is no context. The black and silver Apple logo is just dropped in. The iMac is like a spaceship among lavender and lace. Did I mention that the owner of this iMac was 90 years old? A manual Underwood typewriter might have been more believable as a prop. Or some lovely pens.

I rather doubt director Percival was trying to convey the message that a new iMac is the reward for surviving the Holocaust. But the crassness just explodes, especially at the end of a movie that requires total suspension of disbelief in order to buy the story.

I was just thinking, How would they have handled this in “The Reader”? Could Ralph Fiennes’s son have recounted the trial of  Kate Winslet while showing pictures on his iPhone? Maybe in a revised “Schindler’s List” Oskar Schindler’s grandson could have listened to interviews with survivors on an iTouch. Even better: in “12 Years a Slave” Solomon Northrup’s great great daughter could have done research about his experiences on the iPad mini. Or better yet, asked Siri for advice.

 

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