Now that I have the full manuscript of Henry Bushkin’s tell all about Johnny Carson, I thought we’d get some insight into brutal falling out between Carson and Joan Rivers. And we do. Bushkin essentially lays the blame for the 1986 war of the comics at the feet of Joan’s late husband Edgar Rosenberg.

Skipping to the end of the tale, Bushkin says that Rosenberg lied to Rivers about trying to reach Carson and discuss her offer of moving to Fox and starting her own show. Bushkin says he never received a call from Rosenberg to put Johnny and Joan on the phone. But Rosenberg swore that he’d called Bushkin and received no answer.

Carson never spoke to Rivers again after she left her Tonight show guest hosting spot for Fox. He banned her from being on any NBC show. Her Fox show was canceled, and Rosenberg, sadly, committed suicide.

Bushkin notes that if Rivers had only contacted Carson before the announcement of her Fox show was made, he would have congratulated her. Bushkin says that Carson always admired Rivers as a great comedian. But he did not “fear her.”

Ironically, Carson and Edgar and Joan had already had a history. In the spring of 1979, when Carson was declared a free agent and suddenly had no contract with NBC, it was Rosenberg who stepped in. He set up two meetings for Carson with ABC executives. One of the meetings, Bushkin writes, was held in “international waters” on a yacht in the Mediterranean.Carson, Bushkin writes, called Rosenberg “Inspector Clouseau” because everything he did was clouded in mystery.

At the time,, Carson was so angry with NBC and almost made the move. ABC offered to double his salary and let him own his show. He could also control the time period following the show.

But NBC intervened. In the spring of 1980 they gave Carson a $25 million a year contract for 3 days of work a week, 37 weeks a year. The rest was time off and vacation. And Joan Rivers was his guest host on Monday nights until she left for Fox.

Bushkin’s book, titled “Johnny Carson,” is published next Tuesday by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Madonna didn’t show up but she did send an email as her mentor, Seymour Stein, received the first ever CBGB Icon Award last night. A couple hundred record industry types came down to the Bowery Hotel, where Stein’s long long time friend and colleague producer Richard Gottehrer  presented the award to Stein, founder of Sire Records.

Madonna was more interested in being photographed at the “12 Years a Slave” premiere than showing up for the man who discovered her and made her what she is today. But she did send that email.

No less an eminence than former Warner Music Group owner Edgar Bronfman, Jr, paid his respects, and I ran into all sorts of people including Lyor Cohen, Craig Kallman of Atlantic Records, famed rock photographer Bob Gruen, rockers Bebe Buell and Jim Walls, former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum chief Terry Stewart, musician Andy Paley, and New Radicals singer songwriter Gregg Alexander, who’s co-written the music for next year’s hit film “Can a Song Save Your Life?”

Mandy Stein, Seymour’s daughter and the director a CGBG’s documentary called “Burning Down the House,” read Madonna’s email tribute to Stein. He signed her at Sire Records in 1983, and the rest is history. Gottehrer told the story of how Sire Records was born, and how and he Stein used to travel to Europe to pick up acts no one wanted. The result was a lot of hits from “Ode to Billie Joe” to Sweden’s Focus playing the instrumental “Hocus Pocus.”

Eventually Stein picked up the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, and the Pretenders. Now all of them including Stein himself are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After the awards ceremony, everyone headed over to the Sunshine Landmark Theater for the premiere of Randall Miller’s “CBGB” movie and opening night of the CBGB Film and Music Festival. The movie is a tribute Hilly Kristal, who’s played with perfect eccentricity by Alan Rickman. There are several outstanding supporting performances, too, from Freddy Rodriguez as a junkie Hilly takes in at CBGB, to Mickey Sumner’s ragged, spot on turn as Patti Smith. Ahna O’Reilly is quite good as Mary Harron, and I really liked Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint and Jusin Bartha, respectively, as Cheetah Chrome and Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys.

The music is great, and it was fun for me to relive some personal history. But Miller and screenwriter Jody Slavin have made more of a docudrama and than a movie. After a while, the whole thing just sort of dribbles down to an ending. Very little is really fleshed out. And there are time line errors– Patti Smith was not singing “Because the Night” at CBGB in 1975. Sumner is so good I wish they’d let her do something from “Horses.”

At least there is a movie, and Hilly Kristal will not be forgotten. The people who put him out of business will never have a movie made about them, that’s for sure. And the CGBG spirit lives on.

I guess Conrad Hilton’s already flipped in his grave a few times. This is nothing new. Paris Hilton’s new video “Good Time” with Lil Wayne features several F bombs. It’s a dance single meant to be provocative. Is it really? No. Just the language is coarse and vulgar. What else is new? That’s hot!

Paul McCartney introduced a new song from his new album called “New” last night on Jimmy Fallon. “Save Us” is a straight ahead rocker. Paul is a wonder of energy and melody at 71. His voice sounds pretty good, too.

June Squibb– you may remember her from Alexander Payne’s “About Schmidt” as Jack Nicholson’s wife. She was so good in that 2002 movie that her career took off. The now almost 84 year old actress moved to Los Angeles and became a regular on “The Ghost Whisperer,” “The Young and the Restless” and lots of TV shows.

But now she’s back with Payne and stealing the show in his wonderful “Nebraska.” This black and white gem showed in Cannes and opens tonight at the New York Film Festival. Squibb is spot on as the wife of Bruce Dern’s Woody Grant. Dern, Squibb, and Will Forte, who plays their son, are all easily Oscar candidates. So is the film, Payne, and the screenplay. And let’s not the black and white cinematography.

Squibb is so hot now she’s been signed to play Hannah’s– Lena Dunham’s– grandmother in “Girls” for the coming season. I hope she has time for it. She’ll be doing a lot of promotion for “Nebraska.”

Last night Paramount screened the film, then hosted a spur of the moment gathering at their HQ pre-NYFF. All the principals were there. I also ran into two beloved and favorite New York theater (and often TV) actresses, Harriet Harris and Jan Maxwell, as well as the great Jessica Hecht. Plus, the film was introduced by legendary Mary Louise Smith, who plays Squibb’s sister in law in “Nebraska.” The movie opens November 15th.

Bruce Dern is 77 and seems like a lock for Best Actor nomination. Best Actor is now a dogfight. We have Dern, Hanks, and Redford. We also have Forest Whitaker, Chewitel Eijofor, and Idris Elba. Then there’s newcomers Oscar Isaac and Michael B. Jordan. Wait! What about Matthew McConnaughey. This is going to be insane. They all deserve, each one of them.

Dern told me he watched “Nebraska” last week with some old friends– Jane Fonda and Haskell Wexler. They made “Coming Home” together in 1977. He was nommed for Best Supporting Actor, his only Oscar nomination. So he screened “Nebraska” with them for good luck. I think it will work.