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Michael Jackson: Neverland Kid Told Me in 2005 “Nothing Happened” to Him or to Wade Robson

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Wade Robson is the young man who is now suing Michael Jackson’s estate. He claims Jackson molested him from age 7 to 14.  Thanks to the re-surfacing of old “files” from the old “National Enquirer” in the British press today, I had go to back and look through my files from 2005. And what I found is pretty interesting.

I met with a young man named Bobby Newt, a kid from the files whom National Enquirer reporter Jim Mitteager targeted as a Michael Jackson “victim.” By 2005 he was an adult, and I met with him. He told me nothing happened to him. He also added that nothing happened to Wade Robson, who was then going to be a witness in the trial.

Bobby Newt and his two brothers, who wanted to be the next Jackson 5, spent two weeks with Michael at his Hayvenhurst house in Encino (this was before Neverland). This is what I wrote:

“…nothing about what Bobby Newt hears now about himself or others makes sense.

“I don’t know what to believe. He had prime time with me and my brother in the guest room for two weeks,” he said. “And he didn’t try anything.”

As a footnote to all of this: In the small world of the Los Angeles music business, Bobby Newt recently worked with choreographer and alleged Jackson “victim” Wade Robson on tracks for his first album, a potential hit compendium of original R&B ballads.

“Wade is straight as they come. He’s getting married. And nothing ever happened to him, either,” Newt said.

Published April 7, 2005
Former Protege Vouches for Jackson

No matter who testifies next in Michael Jackson‘s alleged “prior acts” of sexual abuse mini-trial, the prosecution will have to deal with the fact that only one boy will show up to say he was molested many years ago by the pop star.

Now comes Robert Newt, 30, long a “Holy Grail” for The National Enquirer from its investigation into Jackson circa 1993.

Newt and his twin brother Ronald Newt Jr. (now deceased) were aspiring performers and spent two weeks as guests in the Jackson family home in Encino, Calif., around 1985. They were about 11 years old. This all occurred before Neverland was completed. Michael, Janet Jackson and LaToya Jackson were all there, as well as the Jackson parents.

Fast-forward to December 1993. The National Enquirer, desperate to get a scoop that Jackson has abused children, heard that the Newt kids once spent time with Jackson.

The tabloid offered the Newts’ father, Ronald Newt Sr., $200,000 to say that something happened between his kids and Jackson.

Newt, a San Francisco “character” and filmmaker whose past includes pimping and jail time, considered the offer.

A contract was drawn up, signed by Enquirer editor David Perel. Enquirer reporter Jim Mitteager, who is also now deceased, met with Newt and his son at the Marriott hotel in downtown San Francisco.

It seemed that all systems were go. But the Newts declined the offer at the last minute.

Ron Newt Sr., to whom $200,000 would have seemed like the world on a silver platter, wrote “No good sucker” where his signature was supposed to go. The reason: Nothing ever happened between Jackson and the Newt boys.

Indeed, no kids, no matter how much money was dangled by the tabloids, ever showed up to trade stories of Jackson malfeasance for big lumps of cash after the first scandal broke in 1993.

“Maybe there aren’t any other kids,” a current Enquirer editor conceded.

I met Bobby Newt yesterday near the office where he works as a mortgage broker in suburban Los Angeles.

Just as his dad promised me a few days earlier, he’s a good-looking kid. He’s half black and half Chinese.

Robert and his twin brother were likely very cute kids. They have the same features as other boys advertised as alleged Neverland “victims.” But all Bobby Newt remembers of his encounter with Jackson is good times.

And all he remembers about the man from The National Enquirer is that he wanted Bobby, then 18, to lie.

“He said, ‘Say he grabbed you on the butt. Say he grabbed you and touched you in any kind of way,'” Newt said. “He told us he took all these people down. Now he was going to take Michael down. That he would really destroy him. He told us he took all these other famous people down. All the major people that had scandals against them. He said, ‘We take these people down. That’s what we do.'”

Prior to Bobby’s meeting with Mitteager, Bobby’s father met with him and brought along an intermediary, San Francisco politician, businessman and fellow jailbird Charlie Walker.

Walker is infamous in San Francisco circles for being “hooked up” to anything interesting cooking on the West Coast.

“My dad said these dudes are offering this money to take Michael Jackson down. And the guy [Mitteager] said, ‘Say he touched you. All you have to do is say it. But you might have to take the stand. You might have to go on ‘Oprah’ in front of all these people. You have to be prepared for this thing. Just say it. And we’ll give you money,'” Newt said.

Two pieces of evidence confirm the Newts’ story. One is the actual contract proffered by the Enquirer and signed by Perel, who declined to comment for this story.

The contract, written as a letter, says it’s an agreement between the tabloid and the Newts for their exclusive story regarding “your relationship with and knowledge of Michael Jackson, and his sexuality, your knowledge of Michael Jackson’s sexual contact and attempts at sexual contact with Robert Newt and others.”

Mitteager expected them to sign, even though it was completely untrue and there was, in fact, no story.

He knew you were lying, I reminded Bobby Newt.

“Exactly! And he didn’t care! He was like, ‘Just say it and we’ll give you the money.’ And I was like, ‘He [Jackson] never touched me!” Newt said. “He [Mitteager] was really fishing and really digging. Think about it — most people you say it to, ‘We’ll give you this money,’ even [if it’s not true]. And they’d take it.”

Bobby Newt recalled more details of the 30-minute meeting with The National Enquirer’s reporter:

“He was trying to coach me — if I decided to take the money, what would happen. He said ‘You know, it’s going to be a huge scandal. You’ll probably have a lot of people not liking you. You’re going to be famous!’ But to me, you’d be ruined. And the truth is Michael didn’t do anything even close to trying to molest us.”

Ironically, the second piece of evidence also backs up the Newts’ story. Unbeknownst to them, they were taped by Mitteager.

I told you last week that Mitteager did more surreptitious taping than Richard Nixon. When he died, the tapes were left to Hollywood investigator Paul Barresi. His dozens of hours of tapes include a conversation between Mitteager, Ron Newt Sr. and Charlie Walker.

When I read some of the transcript back to Newt the other day, he was shocked.

“I said all that,” he observed, surprised to have his memory prodded some 12 years later.

Back in the mid-’80s, Ron Newt Sr. put his three sons together as a singing group much as Joseph Jackson did. He called them The Newtrons.

After much pushing, he got the attention of Joe Jackson, who agreed to manage the group. Joe Jackson got the Newtrons a showcase at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

Michael showed up and loved them. The result was a two-week stay for the boys at the Encino house on Hayvenhurst Ave., where they were supposed to work on their music.

“We would see Michael in passing. We didn’t see him, maybe, because he was working on an album. We saw him downstairs in the kitchen and we talked to him,” he said.

The Newtrons eventually got a record contract and recorded the Jackson 5 hit “I Want You Back” at Hayvenhurst. They also spent the night at Tito Jackson‘s house. But nothing about what Bobby Newt hears now about himself or others makes sense.

“I don’t know what to believe. He had prime time with me and my brother in the guest room for two weeks,” he said. “And he didn’t try anything.”

As a footnote to all of this: In the small world of the Los Angeles music business, Bobby Newt recently worked with choreographer and alleged Jackson “victim” Wade Robson on tracks for his first album, a potential hit compendium of original R&B ballads.

Jackson’s former maid Blanca Francia implicated Robson in the case during Monday’s testimony. Robson is not testifying for the prosecution.

“Wade is straight as they come. He’s getting married. And nothing ever happened to him, either,” Newt said.

He shakes his head, thinking about those who have made claims against Jackson.

“You have to look at these people, go back and see when their relationship with Michael fractured. The calls stopped coming,” he said.

And Newt should know. After the adventure in 1985, the Newts never saw Jackson again. It didn’t bother them, Bobby says, as much as it might have others.

“They probably didn’t like it. And this is their way of getting back at him,” he said.

 

Michael Jackson: “FBI Files” Are From People Discredited Long Time Ago

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Those “FBI” files in the UK Daily Mirror are from people who were discredited a long time ago. The so-called files that belong to an assistant to Anthony Pellicano come from Paul Barresi. I like Paul, he’s a nice guy. He was left a cache of files and tapes by Jim Mitteager, a “reporter” for the old National Enquirer which was under different ownership (not the same people who actually do ferret out some news now like the John Edwards story).

Mitteager, RIP, had no ethics or integrity. He often offered people money to make up stories about celebrities. I know this because I went back and interviewed a lot of the people he made files on concerning Michael Jackson. This was all in 2005, when Barresi shared many of the files with me during Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial. Some of the files were useful but most were not. And they weren’t because they weren’t true.

The Mitteager files were only interesting if you were going to check out their veracity. But apparently the Mirror — which come on, doesn’t care– just accepted the whole thing at face value. But all those people, like the La Marques and all the other ex Neverland employees, were totally discredited several times over. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/04/11/jacko-major-domo-lied-about-cashing-in/

Read that link above: even Barresi told me that the LeMarques made stuff up as they went along.

And then there’s this story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/03/25/was-there-unknown-jacko-accuser/

 

 

Michael Jackson Slimed By British Press: Here’s the REAL Story from 2005

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I’ve been alerted to a story in the British press about Michael Jackson paying off 24 families of children he supposedly molested. Readers of this column must know that I have almost a PhD in Michael Jackson. The story is not true. It’s based on files left behind by a National Enquirer reporter, now dead, called Jim Mitteager. In 2005 I went through tons of Mitteager’s files, re-reporting them. A lot of it was just poppycock.  Read this whole column I published back then. I did a lot of work on it. As devil’s advocate, I tried to find someone who would say they were molested by Michael Jackson. No one would because, I think, no one had been.

From March 2005, c2013 Showbiz411.com

Was there a kid who made a deal with Michael Jackson before his first accuser settled with the pop star for $20 million in 1993?

Tape recordings left behind by a deceased National Enquirer reporter would suggest there was, but on closer inspection, it turns out there probably wasn’t.

In fact, the tapes show that there was a zealous push on the part of the supermarket tabloids 12 years ago to find any boy who might have been abused by Jackson.

This will be a disappointment for Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who has not been able to produce any other Jackson “victims” so far.

On Monday, Judge Rodney Melville will hold a hearing to determine whether or not Jackson’s “prior” acts can be brought into this trial.

If they are allowed, what could they be and where did they come from? And are they real?

Sneddon is prepared to subpoena every ex-Jackson employee and cop who was involved in the first case, even those who’ve since sold their stories to the tabloids. The result could be a veritable list of the supermarket tabs’ sources and leakers from a dozen years ago.

Like a tabloid Richard Nixon, National Enquirer and Globe writer Jim Mitteager taped most of his conversations about Jackson when he covered the story in 1993-94.

Mitteager, who was later dismissed from the papers for sexual harassment, talks to his sources and his editors very candidly.

The result is a revealing look at how the tabs salivated to get the most salacious story about Jackson, often disregarding the exact truth for kernels of plausible items that could be inflated into screaming front-page headlines.

Mitteager bequeathed the tapes to Paul Barresi, a self-styled investigator, trusting him to “do the right thing with them.” Barresi thought the tapes had value, but could not have guessed what historical importance they would acquire.

Mitteager inadvertently kept a record of much of what is in the news today concerning Hollywood’s underbelly. The tapes include anecdotes about many celebrities and lawyers, as well as incarcerated private eye Anthony Pellicano, who once worked for Jackson.

Barresi has a long history of involvement with the Jackson story.

In 1993, the pop star’s former cook and housekeeper, Philip and Stella LeMarque, asked him to sell their story about sexual abuse at Neverland.

The LeMarques, who were slight acquaintances of Barresi, had only worked at Neverland for about 10 months and left after the first molestation case broke in 1991.

Like many disgruntled former Jackson employees, the LeMarques are now on Sneddon’s witness list. The Quindoys, another couple who also sold their story, are ready to testify as well.

But Barresi realized early on that the LeMarques were probably not telling the truth.

“I concluded that it was all about the money and not about protecting a child from a predator,” he told me.

The couple, he said, began embellishing their story when they came to believe they could get $500,000 for it. In the end, they received nothing.

Barresi wound up turning over his taped interviews with the couple to then-Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti. They are now in the hands of Jackson’s prosecutor.

The coup de grace, Barresi says, happened later, when he listened to Mitteager’s tapes. On one of them, it’s noted that the LeMarques had tried to sell their story of child molestation at Neverland long before the first case broke in 1991.

“They couldn’t get any takers,” recalls Barresi. “But why didn’t they just go to the police?”

Often the Globe printed stories, written by Mitteager, that were based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Mitteager, at least in the case of Jackson, relied heavily on a sketchy stringer named Taylea Shea. Her veracity consequently became integral to a lot of tabloid reporting at the time.

Shea, who seems to have gone by a number of aliases and had a long list of addresses and phone numbers, could not be contacted for this story, despite many tries.

Neighbors at the Los Angeles address at which she lived the longest do not remember her fondly. They recall a hustler and con woman who was always on the take.

“She should be in jail, if she hasn’t been already,” one former friend and neighbor said.

On one tape, Shea reads what sounds convincingly like a legal document drawn up between Jackson and a 12-year-old boy named Brandon P. Richmond, who is represented by his mother, Eva Richmond.

Brandon, according to the document, received $600,000 from Jackson. He and Jackson would no longer have any contact with each other.

Shea read the document, which is dated July 1992, to Mitteager the following year.

This would have been a blockbuster, if true, because it would make Brandon, not the differently-named boy who settled with Jackson in 1993, the first of Jackson’s accusers.

Shea also says on the tape that the legal document came from the offices of famed Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields, Jackson’s attorney at the time.

No reason is given why Jackson and Brandon Richmond should be separated. The implication, however, is clear.

The Globe published the story without using names. Over time, it was assumed that Brandon P. Richmond was in fact Brandon Adams, a boy who had appeared in Jackson’s “Moonwalker” video.

Discussions on the tapes indicate that the tabloids also believed the two Brandons were one and the same. But there’s a problem with Shea’s story: Nothing adds up.

For one thing, a source close to Fields says the document uses language uncommon to their usual agreements.

Then there’s the actual family.

According to the Adamses, whom I met in January, they don’t know an Eva Richmond.

Brandon Adams’ mother is named Marquita Woods. And Brandon’s grandmother assures me she knows nothing of a $600,000 payment. The family has lived in a modest home in Baldwin Hills, Calif., for 30 years.

Brandon Adams, who is now 25, is a struggling actor. He appeared in “D2: The Mighty Ducks” and the indie film “MacArthur Park,” and is currently working on building a music career.

“I wish I had $600,000,” he said. “I’m broke.”

The Adamses pointed out that Brandon never visited Neverland, just the Jackson family home in Encino.

For a short time they were friendly not only with the Jacksons, but with Sean Lennon and his mother Yoko Ono, who were also part of “Moonwalker.” But the relationship seems to have ended well before Taylea Shea’s big scoop.

Was Shea simply lying to Mitteager to collect a big fee? It would seem so.

On the tapes, Mitteager tells an editor that Shea also has “shocking” material about David Geffen and Keanu Reeves, among others. None of it would turn out to be true, but all of it was tabloid fodder that spread to more mainstream publications for a short time.

Curiously, nobody I spoke with who worked at the tabloids could remember Shea. And her own alleged main source — an attorney then associated with the office of Larry Feldman, the first accuser’s lawyer — insists vehemently that she did not know Shea and had little knowledge of the case anyway.

Suddenly, the value of the Mitteager tapes takes on a new meaning.

Barresi, a sometime investigator and tabloid source in the past, is aware that he’s in possession of materials that demonstrate how the supermarket tabloids operated in their heyday — the era of O.J. Simpson, Jackson and other scandals.

But one tabloid editor still in the business cautioned, “Don’t paint all of us with the same brush. We did a lot of excellent work on Simpson.”

Indeed, though it’s hard to separate them in our minds, the Globe — then under a different owner — had a much lower standard of proof than did the Enquirer in the early 1990s. And Mitteager came from the Globe’s mentality, according to sources with whom I have spoken.

At one point, in running down lists of kids who’d spent time with Jackson, Mitteager rattles off the name of a boy with the conviction that Jackson, who had befriended him, must have also acted inappropriately with him.

But it was only wishful thinking on the part of a tabloid reporter.

It turns out that the boy was 9 years old in 1993 and died shortly thereafter from leukemia. He’d met Jackson through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Even Jackson’s staunchest critics would agree that it is hard to fathom how this boy could have been the object of the singer’s romantic interests.

Read also: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/04/11/jacko-major-domo-lied-about-cashing-in/

and this: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/04/07/former-proteacutegeacute-vouches-for-jacko/

Jenny from the Communist Bloc: JLO Plays Dictator’s Birthday Party

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Jennifer Lopez is performing tonight for the dictator of Turkmenistan. Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow is celebrating his 56th birthday by having Lopez and her crew put on a set. She’s the first entertainer from the West to accept the money– which will be in excess of $1 million plus expenses– to accept such an invitation.

Here’s Jenny from the Communist Bloc:

jlo in turkmenistanTurkmenistan has been described by the Human Rights Watch as “one of the most repressive regimes in the world.” But Lopez won’t see any of that. She’s performing at a $2 billion resort on the Caspian Sea built for Gurby’s pleasure. Lopez’s manager, Benny Medina, knows how to book a good gig, that’s for sure. AFP Agence France Presse confirmed that Lopez is there, and she’s probably in mid show right now.

You can read all about Turkmenistan here: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/22/turkmenistanuzbekistan-abuses-international-spotlight

It’s not like Lopez needs the money. She was paid $12 million just to appear on “American Idol.” She has lots of endorsement deals, some kind of recording contract with Capitol Records, and a new movie deal. But she does have twins, and they must be fed.

jlo stage turkmenistan

Funny Females: “The Heat” Squashes “White House Down” to 3rd Place

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“The Heat” — with its funny female cops– squashed other box office newcomer “White House Down” on Friday night. But “Monsters University” beat both of them, thanks to school finally being out. “The Heat” made $13.6 million compared to $9 million for “WHD.” The “Monsters” flick was at $14.3 million. “The Heat” stars movie vet and Oscar winner Sandra Bullock with comedienne Melissa McCarthy as FBI agents. It’s supposed to be funny, and is. “White House Down” is supposed to a be a serious film about the White House being invaded. It’s funny, unintentionally. “WHD” almost finished fourth last night. It beat “World War Z” by a mere $39,000.

White House Down and Sony, Too? Movie’s Failure Could Fuel Major Spin Off Proposal

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UPDATE SUNDAY 12:10PM: “White House” down came in at 4th place for the weekend, taking in a meager $25million. That’s about a tenth of what it cost all-in.

EARLIER: It does look like “White House Down” will be the second blockbuster failure of Sony Pictures in less than a month. The studio is already dealing with Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan’s “After Earth” after-birth. Now “WHD” aims for 3rd or 4th place this weekend in its debut.

Many things combined for its failure but mainly the story I told the other day about the earlier movie “Olympus Has Fallen” and how Sony, failing to buy that script, went after this similar one. Then, seeing the similarities, joked it up until it became as one Twitter follower declared “hillarible” (hilariously horrible). http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/06/25/white-house-down-will-it-suffer-second-movie-syndrome-to-olympus-has-fallen

But these developments aren’t good for Sony’s beloved Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton. They are faced with increasing demands from shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC. Loeb– the third biggest shareholder in Sony–has been sending letters to the company demanding a spin off of Sony Entertainment from the rest of the company. (Loeb is also a minority investor in Penske Media, which own industry trade magazine Variety.)

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“White House Down” won’t be the last straw, but if it’s a massive failure–and things don’t look good– Loeb will use that. Third Point is a $13 billion hedge fund owned by Loeb. In May, Loeb launched a campaign to break Sony up. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/14/sony-breakup-hedge-fund-daniel-loeb

In his latest letter he wrote: “While the Entertainment businesses are top performers within Sony, profit margins fall short when benchmarked versus their US-listed competitors despite superior scale and leading market positions. We believe the underperformance would be remedied by a more disciplined management approach to Sony Entertainment.”

All of this comes as Sir Howard Stringer, who supported and protected Pascal and Lynton, retires. He’s succeeded by Sony’s new CEO Hazou Kirai. At long last, the Japanese, who own Sony, are going to run it from New York.

Of course, Sony’s financial woes aren’t really tied to Sony Pictures. The film division had a monster hit with “Skyfall” last year and they have “Spider Man,” who will always save the day. “Zero Dark Thirty” was impressive, and Sony Pictures Classics, their jewel, has lots of Oscars and even a new Woody Allen film that will make for a sweet summer.

Sony’s biggest problems are in electronics. They were never able to turn the Walkman from tape to digital, so iPods rule the world. And while Sony makes a good laptop (the VAIO, which I bought this spring and love), MacAir is the dominator. The company banked on 3D TV, which failed. And the Sony Bravia TVs have been up-ended by Samsung, Sharp, and Panasonic.

Pascal and Lynton have one more shot this summer: “Elysium” starring Matt Damon, and directed by 32 year old wunderkind Neill Blomkamp of “District Nine” fame. This is the big one, and much anticipated. Everyone has high hopes for its release on August 9th. Blomkamp is young and a recent Oscar nominee. He has none of the bloat or hubris yet that comes with Smith, Shyamalan, and Emmerich. And “Elysium” may save Sony Pictures this summer.

 

 

 

New York Rock Icon Garland Jeffreys Turns 70 Tonight with a Big Party-Show

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I can’t helieve Garland Jeffreys turns 70 today. Happy Birthday Garland. You look maybe 50. And Garland, a New York rock icon, plays the Highline Ballroom tonight to celebrate by jumping on tables and rocking the rafters with his amazing story-songs that combine delicious modern R&B and cutting edge rock. Garland burst onto the scene circa 1977 with Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Joe Jackson. His debut was “Wild in the Streets,” still an inflammatory anthem of youth sung by a man who never seems to grow old. There have been lots of great records since then, but I do love his most recent album, “The King of In Between.” (There is promise of a new album this fall.) Garland is New York’s great success story. We’re so lucky to have him. And he’s just getting started!

Motion Picture Academy Invites 276 New Members Including Prince, JLO, Lena Dunham

I love the annual invite list from the Motion Picture Academy. This year is no exception. There are real veterans like Emmanuella Riva and Charles Grodin, a smattering of cool new young people like Lena Dunham amd Jack Huston (his uncle, aunt and grandfather have all been members), and oddities like Prince and Jennifer Lopez. It’s good to mix things up. Now all these people will be campaigned, sent DVDs, invited to countless parties and screenings, slept with, drugged and chauffeured around on sedan chairs. Check out the list of writers. It’s especially good. Welcome, everyone! And don’t let your dogs or maids vote your ballots!
The 2013 invitees are:

Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,” “Chaplin”
Lucy Liu – “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “Chicago”
Jennifer Lopez – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Selena”
Alma Martinez – “Born in East L.A.,” “Under Fire”
Emily Mortimer – “Hugo,” “Lars and the Real Girl”
Sandra Oh – “Rabbit Hole,” “Sideways”
Paula Patton – “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Michael Peña – “End of Watch,” “Crash”
Emmanuelle Riva – “Amour,” “Hiroshima, Mon Amour”
Jason Schwartzman – “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Rushmore”
Geno Silva – “Mulholland Drive,” “Amistad”
Danny Trejo – “Machete,” “Heat”
Chris Tucker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Rush Hour”

Cinematographers
Luca Bigazzi – “This Must Be the Place,” “Certified Copy”
Benoît Delhomme – “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “The Proposition”
Simon Duggan – “The Great Gatsby,” “Killer Elite”
Greig Fraser – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”
Jonathan Freeman – “Remember Me,” “Fifty Dead Men Walking”
Greg Gardiner – “Race to Witch Mountain,” “Elf”
Eric Gautier – “Into the Wild,” “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Agnès Godard – “Sister,” “Beau Travail”
Eduard Grau – “Buried,” “A Single Man”
Jess Hall – “The Spectacular Now,” “Brideshead Revisited”
Fred Kelemen – “The Turin Horse,” “The Man from London”
Mark Lee Ping Bing – “Norwegian Wood,” “In the Mood for Love”
Reed Morano – “Little Birds,” “Frozen River”
Oleg Mutu – “Beyond the Hills,” “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”
Alex Nepomniaschy – “Narc,” “Safe”
Christian Sebaldt – “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” “Race to Space”
Ben Seresin – “World War Z,” “Unstoppable”
Adam Stone – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Checco Varese – “Girl in Progress,” “The Aura”
Ken Zunder – “Bending the Rules,” “That’s What I Am”

Costume Designers
Paco Delgado – “Les Misérables,” “Biutiful”
Sophie de Rakoff – “This Means War,” “Legally Blonde”
Carlo Poggioli – “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Cold Mountain”

Designers
Lori Balton – “Argo,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Judy Becker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Fighter”
Simon Bright – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Martin T. Charles – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Artist”
David M. Crank – “The Master,” “Lincoln”
Stefan Paul Dechant – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “True Grit”
Tracey A. Doyle – “The Muppets,” “21”
Anna Lynch-Robinson – “Les Misérables,” “An Education”
Maria Nay – “Identity Thief,” “Ray”
David Smith – “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” “The Holiday”

Directors
Nikolaj Arcel – “A Royal Affair,” “Truth about Men”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow”
Paul Feig – “The Heat,” “Bridesmaids”
Catherine Hardwicke – “Twilight,” “Thirteen”
Kirk Jones – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Waking Ned Devine”
Ken Kwapis – “Big Miracle,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”
Pablo Larraín – “No,” “Tony Manero”
Steve McQueen – “Shame,” “Hunger”
Kim Nguyen – “War Witch (Rebelle),” “City of Shadows”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle”
Todd Phillips – “The Hangover,” “Old School”
Joachim Rønning – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Espen Sandberg – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Tim Story – “Think Like a Man,” “Fantastic Four”
Benh Zeitlin – “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Glory at Sea”

Documentary
Orlando Bagwell – “Citizen King,” “Malcolm X: Make It Plain”
Rebecca Cammisa – “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” “Which Way Home”
Yung Chang – “China Heavyweight,” “Up the Yangtze”
Michael Chin – “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple,” “In the Shadow of the Stars”
Christine Choy – “In the Name of the Emperor,” “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”
Bonni Cohen – “The Island President,” “Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic”
Eduardo Coutinho – “As Canções,” “Cabra Marcado Para Morrer (Twenty Years Later)”
Miriam Cutler – “Kings Point,” “Ethel”
Andrea Nix Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Sean Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Robert Frank – “Cocksucker Blues,” “Pull My Daisy”
William Greaves – “Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey,” “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One”
Lauren Greenfield – “The Queen of Versailles,” “Thin”
Patricio Guzmán – “Nostalgia for the Light,” “The Battle of Chile”
Vivien Hillgrove – “Symphony of the Soil,” “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee”
Heddy Honigmann – “El Olvido (Oblivion),” “Crazy”
Vikram Jayanti – “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” “Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine”
Peter Kinoy – “Poverty Outlaw,” “When the Mountains Tremble”
Claude Lanzmann – “Le Rapport Karski (The Karski Report),” “Shoah”
Kim Longinotto – “Rough Aunties,” “Sisters in Law”
Stanley Nelson – “Freedom Riders,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”
Jehane Noujaim – “Control Room,” “Startup.com”
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – “Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret,” “Saving Face”
Marcel Ophuls – “Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” “The Sorrow and the Pity”
José Padilha – “Secrets of the Tribe,” “Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle”
Elise Pearlstein – “Last Call at the Oasis,” “Food, Inc.”
Raoul Peck – “Fatal Assistance (Assistance Mortelle),” “Lumumba: La Mort du Prophète”
Kevin Rafferty – “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” “The Atomic Cafe”
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire”
Bob Richman – “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” “Waiting for ‘Superman'”
T. Woody Richman – “How to Survive a Plague,” “Fahrenheit 9/11”
Veronica Selver – “Berkeley in the Sixties,” “You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South”
Jon Shenk – “The Island President,” “Lost Boys of Sudan”
Ricki Stern – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Robert Stone – “Earth Days,” “Radio Bikini”
Annie Sundberg – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Renee Tajima-Pena – “Who Killed Vincent Chin?,” “My America (Or Honk If You Love Buddha)”
Agnès Varda – “The Beaches of Agnès,” “The Gleaners and I”
Roger Ross Williams – “God Loves Uganda,” “Music by Prudence”
Pamela Yates – “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator,” “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court”
Amy Ziering – “The Invisible War,” “Derrida”

Executives
Holly Bario
Jeb Brody
Eric d’Arbeloff
Dean C. Hallett
Lynn Harris
Jeff Ivers
Jonathan King
Robert Kirby
Dylan Leiner
Nick Meyer
Andrew Millstein
Hannah Minghella
Angela Morrison
Brian Roberts
Mark Roybal
Tucker Tooley
Kevin Tsujihara

Film Editors
Michael Berenbaum – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Sex and the City”
Jeff Freeman – “Ted,” “Cruel Intentions”
James Haygood – “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Fight Club”
Stuart Levy – “Savages,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”
Mary Jo Markey – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Super 8”

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Luisa Abel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception”
Anne Aulenta-Spira – “The Place beyond the Pines,” “Drive”
Terry Baliel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “J. Edgar”
Thomas Floutz – “The Call,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
Kay Georgiou – “Promised Land,” “Lincoln”
Bernadette Mazur – “Men in Black 3,” “The Campaign”
Kim Santantonio – “Gangster Squad,” “Frost/Nixon”
Lisa Tomblin – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
Kelvin R. Trahan – “Argo,” “Memoirs of a Geisha”
Lisa Westcott – “Les Misérables,” “Shakespeare in Love”

Members-at-Large
Victoria Alonso
Fred Baron
Ben Bray
Pieter Jan Brugge
Jackie Burch
Leo Davis
Susie Figgis
Lori Furie
Glenn S. Gainor
Joe Gareri
Lance Gilbert
Andy Gill
Mindy Marin
Laray Mayfield
Jeanne McCarthy
Neil Meron
Gary Powell
Ned Price
Michelle Satter
Stefan Sonnenfeld
Cindy Tolan
Brent Woolsey

Music
Ramiro Belgardt – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Lincoln”
Ramin Djawadi – “Safe House,” “Iron Man”
Jennifer Dunnington – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Hugo”
Siedah Garrett – “Rio,” “Dreamgirls”
Joe Hisaishi – “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away”
Henry Jackman – “This Is the End,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
Cliff Martinez – “Drive,” “Traffic”
Prince – “Purple Rain,” “Happy Feet”
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire”
Aaron Lael Zigman – “Peeples,” “Sex and the City”

Producers
Stefan Arndt – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Jason Blum – “The Purge,” “Paranormal Activity”
Finola Dwyer – “Quartet,” “An Education”
Jack Giarraputo – “Anger Management,” “The Wedding Singer”
Veit Heiduschka – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Lloyd Levin – “Green Zone,” “Watchmen”
Julie Lynn – “Albert Nobbs,” “Nine Lives”
Margaret Menegoz – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Andrea Sperling – “Smashed,” “Like Crazy”

Public Relations
Rachel Cadden
Theresa Cross
Jeff S. Elefterion
Julie Fontaine
Jackson George
Anne Globe
Michael Lawson
Dennis O’Connor
Blair Rich
John G. Sabel

Short Films and Feature Animation
Marc Bertrand – “Gloria Victoria,” “Hollow Land”
Bryan Buckley – “Asad,” “The Wake-Up Caller”
Shawn Christensen – “Curfew,” “Brink”
Eric Darnell – “Madagascar,” “Shrek”
John C. Donkin – “Ice Age Continental Drift,” “Gone Nutty”
Ken Duncan – “9,” “Shark Tale”
Danielle Feinberg – “Brave,” “WALL-E”
Sam Fell – “ParaNorman,” “The Tale of Despereaux”
Matt Groening – “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare,'” “The Simpsons Movie”
Vicky Jenson – “Shark Tale,” “Shrek”
Travis Knight – “ParaNorman,” “Coraline”
Steve May – “Brave,” “Up”
Rich Moore – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
Robert Neuman – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Tangled”
Brandon Oldenburg – “Rise of the Guardians,” “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
PES – “Fresh Guacamole,” “Western Spaghetti”
Steve Pilcher – “Brave,” “Shrek the Third”
Normand Roger – “Hollow Land,” “The Banquet of the Concubine”
Clark Spencer – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Bolt”

Sound
Bobbi Banks – “The Call,” “Hustle & Flow”
Jose Antonio Garcia – “Argo,” “Babel”
Simon Hayes – “Les Misérables,” “X-Men: First Class”
Edward J. Hernandez – “Real Steel,” “Basic Instinct”
Daniel S. Irwin – “Prometheus,” “Little Children”
Drew Kunin – “Life of Pi,” “Lost in Translation”
Michael W. Mitchell – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Tom Ozanich – “Project X,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 2”
Mark Paterson – “Les Misérables,” “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
Richard Pryke – “127 Hours,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Erin Michael Rettig – “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Ann Scibelli – “Prometheus,” “Inglourious Basterds”
Brian T. Slack – “Chéri,” “Crossover”
Bruce Tanis – “Gangster Squad,” “X-Men: First Class”
F. Elmo Weber – “Identity Thief,” “The Kids Are All Right”
Christopher T. Welch – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “(500) Days of Summer”
Dave Whitehead – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “District 9”
Stuart Wilson – “Skyfall,” “War Horse”

Visual Effects
Jason Bayever – “Life of Pi,” “The Wolfman”
Mark Breakspear – “The Great Gatsby,” “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Brennan – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Minority Report”
Tony Clark – “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
David Clayton – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Michael Dawson – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Devil’s Double”
Erik-Jan De Boer – “Life of Pi,” “Night at the Museum”
Donald R. Elliott – “Life of Pi,” “Seabiscuit”
John Goodson – “Red Tails,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Charley Henley – “Prometheus,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
John McLeod – “Django Unchained,” “The Aviator”
Mark Noel – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “Transformers”
David Prescott – “Transformers,” “X-Men”
Guillaume Rocheron – “Life of Pi,” “Sucker Punch”
Wendy Rogers – “Puss in Boots,” “Shrek”
David Alexander Smith – “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Wayne Stables – “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Avatar”
Richard Stammers – “Prometheus,” “Angels & Demons”
Richard Stutsman – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Independence Day”
Christopher Townsend – “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “The Day after Tomorrow”
Stephan Trojansky – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Hereafter”
David Watkins – “Ali,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”
Jeff White – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
Trevor Wood – “Prometheus,” “The Golden Compass”

Writers
Jessica Bendinger – “Aquamarine,” “Bring It On”
Reggie Rock Bythewood – “Notorious,” “Get on the Bus”
Tina Gordon Chism – “Peeples,” “Drumline”
Julie Delpy – “Before Midnight,” “2 Days in Paris”
Lena Dunham – “Nobody Walks,” “Tiny Furniture”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow”
John Gatins – “Flight,” “Coach Carter”
John Hamburg – “I Love You, Man,” “Meet the Parents”
John Lee Hancock – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Blind Side”
Rian Johnson – “Looper,” “Brick”
Jeff Nichols – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Sarah Polley – “Take This Waltz,” “Away from Her”
Chris Terrio – “Argo,” “Heights”

Associates
Lorrie Bartlett
Paul Bronfman
Markham L. Goldstein
Robert Harvey
Gregory S. Laemmle
Sandra Marsh
Adam Schweitzer
Kimberly Snyder
Matthew L. Snyder
Les Zellan

Three individuals (noted above by an asterisk) have been invited to join the Academy by multiple branches. These individuals must select one branch upon accepting membership.

Each year Academy members may sponsor one candidate for membership within their branch. New member application reviews take place in the spring. Applications for the coming year must be received by March 20, 2014.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception in September.

Alec Baldwin’s Wife Didn’t Tweet During Funeral: Reporter Confused Time Zones

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As far as I can tell, Hilaria Thomas Baldwin didn’t Tweet during James Gandolfini’s funeral. I think the reporter for the Daily Mail, who is in Los Angeles, got the time zones confused. According to the time stamps on Hilaria’s Tweets, which are clearly marked for anyone to see, she Tweeted before and after the service. She re-Tweeted Rachel Ray, but the time stamp on that Tweet was from the original Tweet which Ray had sent out.

The funeral ran from 10:05am-to about 11:30am. Hilaria has a Tweet at 11:47am about making smoothies. I know that I was out of the church by 11:55am and I left after they did. I stopped and had long talks with Vince and Maureen Curatola, and with Aida Turturro.

The time stamps for the rest of Hilaria’s Tweets are 1:17pm and 2:09pm. I think the reporter thought these were at 10:17am and 11:09am. They were– but translated into his time zone. The funeral was long over by then.

Hilaria: The poor woman is seven months pregnant. It was sweltering in the church. I spoke to the Baldwins a few minutes before the service. She already looked like she was suffering from the heat. They had no air conditioning in St. John the Divine, just big fans that didn’t help. Occasionally there was a breeze.

Of course, I can’t address Alec Baldwin’s response. He clearly has anger management issues. But this constant nitpicking on people by so-called reporters with nothing better do must stop. I don’t know Hilaria Baldwin beyond small talk. But she seems like a very nice person. She certainly doesn’t deserve this treatment.

Bert and Ernie Gay? New Yorker Magazine Cover References Banned Short Film (See Video)

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The New Yorker magazine has gone where almost no one has dared to go before. The new cover depicts Bert and Ernie from “Sesame Street” lovingly watching the Supreme Court on TV rule in favor of gay marriage. Bert and Ernie gay? When director Peter Spears went there in his 2002 short film “Ernest and Bertram,” Childrens’ Television Workshop shut him down instantly. I know because I was in the new yorker coveraudience at the Eccles Theater at Sundance the one and only time it was shown. I wrote about it a few minutes later. CTW sent a cease and desist letter over copyright violation. I’d be surprised if CTW doesn’t do the same for The New Yorker. Anyway. it turns out “Ernest and Bertram” has been on YouTube all this time. Here it is. And frankly more timely than ever:

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