Tom Hanks is on a roll right now. He’s got “Captain Phillips” in theaters, well reviewed, good box office, Oscar buzz. Coming in a few weeks: “Saving Mr. Banks,” much anticipated, with Emma Thompson, on how Walt Disney made “Mary Poppins” into a movie musical.

But this morning I saw a casting call for a new Hanks movie. It’s based on Dave Eggers’ novel “A Hologram for the King.” Considering that Hanks has two big movies in awards contention, right away it doesn’t sound good: he’s supposed to be shooting from January through April in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and Germany.

As far as I know, Peggy Siegal does not do Oscar screenings in any of those places. Sony (Phillips) and Disney (Banks) must be sweating this one. You can’t do an effective Oscar campaign that far away from New York or L.A.

And then there’s the description of this movie. (I know, it’s based on a novel, but things change): Alan Clay has been invited to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on business, eager for his company to make an IT presentation to the King. At his disposal is the cheerfully opinionated and
often unnerving YOUSEF. In the process of waiting for the King, he meets and falls in love with a Saudi surgeon whose beauty and calming influence he finds intoxicating…

And here are the descriptions of those characters:

YOUSEF Late 20s – early 30s, a chubby (not too tall) Saudi wearing a cream-white thobe (robe) and
smoking a thin cigarette, he is the driver/guide for American businessman, Alan Clay who has come to
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to make an IT presentation to the King. Breezy, forthright, with a sense
of humor and a playful side, Yousef is a Muslim, with a casual approach to potentially alarming
situations that has Alan a bit unnerved. Nonetheless, the two get along famously, and Yousef is more
than willing to have Alan join him at his family home in the desert when he must flee for life…

DR. ZAHRA HAKEM Female, Saudi, around mid-late 40s to early 50s, with a peculiar beauty and
warmly charismatic persona, she is an intriguingly complex woman, in the throes of a difficult divorce.
A surgeon, she treats Alan when he comes to the hospital regarding a bleeding cyst on his back.
Reassuring, grounded and genuinely concerned for Alan’s peace of mind, she makes him understand
that the cyst is benign. Later, when he suffers a panic attack and it is learned that the cyst must be
excised, Zahra performs the operation. A strong bond forms between the two that soon blossoms into
romance. The chemistry between the two is palpable and Alan is soon making plans to stay in Saudi
Arabia indefinitely…

The “bleeding cyst” is considered a new “meet cute” in Hollywood. “A Hologram for the King” is written and directed by Tom Twyker. He gave us the incomprehensibly interesting “Cloud Atlas” a couple of years ago for the Wachowskis, starring Tom Hanks. No one understood it, but everyone admired it.

Stay tuned…

Bill Condon’s “The Fifth Estate” opens on Friday, right after Julian Assange wrote an open letter to actor Bendedict Cumberbatch on his website.  Thank goodness because the movie, which slows down in some areas, is desperate for a scandal or any other kind of publicity. The WikiLeaks episode already seems very old and something vague that happpened in the past. The movie doesn’t help.

Part of the problem with “The Fifth Estate” is that there’s no one to root for. This isn’t Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, or “All the President’s Men.” There are no heroes. Assange, played very well by Cumberbatch, comes as a composed lunatic. The US government– well represented by Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci– seems more sympathetic but not much. The journalists involved aren’t very likable and never make a good case for their release of the Wikileaks material.

I did worry about Alexander Siddig, who plays an Arab diplomat whose cover might be blown by the WikiLeaks reveals, but I was mostly wondering why he doesn’t work more. He’s a very good actor.

One thing about Laura Linney: she’s like a bright spot in dark dream. She lights up the conference room where she plays a higher up at the Department of Justice. Anthony Mackie also stands out in a smaller role.

The only possibly sympathetic character: Daniel Berg, the WikiLeaks spokesperson, played with usual understatement by Daniel Bruhl. Along with his performance in “Rush,” Bruhl is making a big splash this fall in American cinema.

Unfortunately, Berg is no better than Assange. The two of them, along with Bradley, er, Chelsea Manning, and now Edward Snowden, are enemies of all states (except Ecuador and Russia). Their revelations did not instigate a revolution or the toppling of a president. They come off the movie as troublemakers. And Assange, ultimately as a made man.

But there is some disconnect in “The Fifth Estate.” We’re never sure why we should care about all this. Obviously, we’re watching the film. The unleashing of thousands of secrets has had no immediate effect on the American people. We are more upset that Kris Jenner may have been cheating on Bruce. The secrets of governments? Not so much.

This should be interesting: on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court the issue of the guardianship of Michael Jackson’s children will be addressed. The petitioner is Christine LeRoux, who said that so far neither party whom she has served– Katherine Jackson and her son, Tito, has filed an answer to her motion.

Christine LeRoux told me last night by phone that she met Michael Jackson when she was three and he was seven years old. She was living in Massachusetts. Years later, Ms. LeRoux told me, Michael asked her to donate eggs so he could have children. “Debbie Rowe was the surrogate,” she said. Ms. LeRoux also says she’s also the egg donor for Blanket, Jackson’s third child.

You would think Ms. LeRoux would be a raving maniac but she sounds pretty collected on the phone. She told me that there is evidence of her long relationship with Michael Jackson. “I called in to the Phil Donahue show in 1988 and Michael spoke to me,” she said. She is researching how to get that tape.

She told me that over the years she has had access to Jackson’s children through another friend from Neverland. She visited with the children in Massachusetts and then in Ohio, where was living. For “safety” reasons she has not come forward until because she was “threatened by several people” especially “powerful people” in Massachusetts.

Ms. LeRoux says she has an older daughter in Massachusetts who “doesn’t want to be part of this.” When I asked her how she, a three year old, met Michael, a seven year old who was not yet famous, she replied: “I’m trying to remember how we met. I was very precocious. I thought he was cute.”

As for Debbie Rowe, the official acknowledged mother of Prince and Paris, Ms. LeRoux said, “She’s very convenient for the Jacksons.”

Ms. LeRoux also mentioned that she’s “destitute” and living in transient housing while in Los Angeles.

Ms. LeRoux is not the only one who’s filed for a change in the Jackson children’s guardianship. “Billie Jean Jackson” has a petition in, There’s actually a lot of activity on this front. Someone did file for change in guardianship back on June 10th, five days after Paris Jackson’s suicide attempt. And on November 4th, there’s another motion in front of Judge Mitchell Beckloff to seal all the files regarding guardianship.

Sandra Bullock’s “Gravity” beat “Captain Phillips” with Tom Hanks at the box office this weekend. But it doesn’t matter to the stars. They played Chopsticks on Jonathan Ross’s chat show this weekend in the UK. Watch this fun video:

Mariah Carey took a spill in June, and her album was postponed indefinitely. When I saw Mariah backstage at the MLB Central Park show in July, she showed me her gigantic bruise. She was a mess. Now word is that Carey, who’s just hooked up with manager Jermaine Dupri, is gearing up for some action. Here’s the note she put on Facebook this weekend:

Hiiii lambs!!

I’m so happy to be able to catch up with everybody here on Facebook. The last three months of my life have not been easy. Getting through this injury has been the toughest experience of my life. It took me three months to get to this point but thank God I was able to recover and get my arm back. It’s a huge deal, it should have taken eight months and even my doctors can’t believe it. It’s been a long journey, the physical therapists have been incredible and I am very grateful to all of them for helping me.

When people expected me to go “Here I am, I’m back and everything’s great!”, it didn’t happen because my hand was still in tremendous pain and it took this long for it to heal. I’ve been working day and night, and it took a lot of rest (though I did sneak in to the studio a couple o’ times!) but I can finally say that I am on my way to a full recovery.

There’s a lot of excitement that I’m going to reveal to you very soon, and sooner than you know it, you’re going to understand why but more than that, you’re going to feel what I’ve been feeling for the past- not three months- but three years.

This is, to me, one of the most important albums I’ve ever made in my life. If you’re a lamb, a fan, or just a human being that needs to feel good, happy, sad, miserable, joyous… “I gotcha” (said like Roc- you haven’t heard how he says it yet but you will soon, it’s a complete+total classic!)

It’s that time of the year. Academy Award buzzed movies are opening. And with them comes the negative campaigning. To wit: the New York Post is leading the charge against Paul Greengrass’s “Captain Phillips.” And “Gravity” is being attacked for its bad science. Can these movies be destroyed by all this? I don’t think so.

First “Captain Phillips”: some members of the Maersk Alabama’s crew have filed a screwy lawsuit, claiming that the real Capt. Phillips purposely ignored warnings and steered them into pirate infested waters. This makes no sense whatsoever. It also has nothing to do with the movie, which is exciting and beautifully produced. Back in 2009. there were plenty of interviews with the crew, especially Shane Murphy, who is depicted in the film.

Murphy and many of the crew came to the New York Film Festival last month for the premiere. They all sang Capt. Phillips’ praises. I think it will come out that the dissident crew members weren’t paid for their stories by the production company. But until then, we’ll have to endure the accusations.

As it happens, a friend of mine and I shared a cab with Shane Murphy and his wife on the opening night from the screening to the party at the Harvard Club. We asked Murphy all about the movie’s veracity. He said, “The movie’s very good. It’s funny to see five days compressed into two hours. But mostly, they’ve got it.” He did NOT say, Listen, Phillips tried to kill us and himself so one day there would be a movie.

As for “Gravity”: who cares if the science is bad? The 3D is amazing, the actors are great, and it’s damn exciting. You want to re-enact the whole thing and see if it works?

What’s next? That the man who wrote “12 Years a Slave” was a volunteer, that he did it all to write a book, and was only down south for 6 months in 1841. That nothing in “Mandela” is right, that Nelson Mandela came and went from Robbens Island by helicopter. How about “American Hustle”? Is there enough time to get all the ABSCAM people together so they can rat it out? And so on.