I’m getting a lot of mail, and there’s a lot of discussion about Friday’s movie, “White House Down.” Those who’ve seen it are quick to point out its many similarities to “Olympus Has Fallen,” the Antoine Fuqua thriller that made $98 million domestically this past March for Millennium Films. Here’s one insider’s take on the back story: it turns out that the “Olympus” script went around in January-February 2012. Sony and Millennium each wanted it. Millennium won the rights because they promised to make it right away. And they did. By July they were in production with Gerard Butler starring in it, and Fuqua directing.

Almost simultaneously, they say, Jamie Vanderbilt– who had written scripts for Sony– offered a script about a terrorist takeover of the White House. Sony and Paramount went after it, and Sony won.

“At the time,” a source says, “they probably figured Butler wasn’t a big star, and Fuqua was cold. So they could afford to be the ‘second movie.'”

Millennium moved fast, made the movie, and readied it for March 2013 release. They were way ahead anyway, but things just clicked, a source says.

“Olympus Has Fallen” is pretty much the same movie as “White House Down.” The main difference is in tone. No one can figure out why “WHD” becomes so jokey about half way through the story. It gets very glib. Roland Emmerich seems to lose control. A “21 Jump Street” jivey-ness comes in.

“It could be,” says one observer, “that when they saw how serious but similar Olympus was, they had to do something to change it.”

“Olympus” cost $60 million, and will do $200 mil total internationally. “WHD” is said to have cost $170mil-$200 mil. Abroad, a second movie about blowing up the White House will probably still have power. But domestically: the rule of thumb is, first movie on a subject wins. Sony and Millennium will be paying close attention this Friday.

It’s the fourth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death. So of course there’s a lawsuit. Richard Arons, Joe Jackson’s original partner and lawyer, has sued Sony Music. Arons managed Michael Jackson with his father, Joseph, signing the last of his management agreements in 1976. Now Arons is 75 years old and says he’s not getting paid for the pre-“Thriller” albums. It’s an 87 page complaint filed in Los Angeles by a Century City law firm. The lawsuit goes back to the beginning of the Jackson 5, and the subsequent move from Motown to Columbia Records, followed by Michael’s solo career with “Off the Wall.”

Does Arons have a case? Could be. During the days of Walter Yetnikoff’s reign at Columbia-Sony, the music business was like the Wild West. More importantly, the Jacksons have never been particularly loyal to the people who helped them in the early days. I will never forget my visits with Bill Bray, the trusted security guy and surrogate father to Michael, on his death bed in 2005. The Jacksons simply ignored him. That same year, Michael had also unceremoniously dumped Bob Jones, his long time — lifelong, actually– p.r. man, who’d covered up Michael’s many odd episodes.

Arons signed a settlement agreement with the Jacksons in 1978, but it was breached. The agreement was reaffirmed in 1981, giving Arons 7.5% on all Jackson master recordings at Columbia, then CBS Records. The company was supposed to pay him from Michael’s royalties. In 1990, Michael cut Arons off. A new Settlement Agreement was arrived at, with Arons getting his 7.5% on all Michael Jackson releases at CBS-Sony through and including “Thriller.” But he says that Sony–which inherited the deal after it bought Columbia Records– stopped paying him in 2011.

Now Arons wants his money. His lawsuit has all the agreements attached as exhibits, and they have all the Jackson signatures including Michael’s. What’s kind of interesting is that the 1981 agreement only covered the Jacksons’ CBS recordings and “Off the Wall.” By 1990, the new agreement included “Thriller.” Michael was represented in that agreement by Lavely and Singer, not John Branca, his once and future attorney and now executor. Lavely and Singer are supposed to be real sharks. But they gave Arons a stake in Michael’s biggest moneymaker for all time.

Uh-oh. It does look like Mariah Carey is postponing the release of her new album. It was due for release on July 23rd, with the single “#Beautiful.” But Carey just announced on Twitter that she’s not ready. Whoops. Island Def Jam had been poised for the release.

All day I was trying to get three different people on the phone– not about this. They were all weirdly tied up. Now I see that their respective silences all had to do with this. There had been a big problem with this album. No title. Every time I asked, there was a vague answer. I actually suggested, as a joke, “Meezus.” Anyway a title went viral on Twitter but the label told me it wasn’t correct.

Hmmm….Keep updating. This is going to get interesting. This is just a guess but I do think that Mariah wants to keep singing hip hop while others around her are imploring her to sing more songs like “Beautiful.” They would be correct. What Mariah doesn’t have his an album that showcases her voice a la “Vision of Love.” “#Beautiful” is a step in that direction. She needs to– as they say– throw down. There is no record of her doing classics, whether American songbook (Ella, Sarah) or R&B (Aretha, Gladys). The time is now.

While making this album, I got so immersed in the creative process that I just don’t feel I would be doing it justice to release it on 7/23.

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) June 25, 2013

I’d rather not exclude meaningful songs. I want to give you this album as it’s meant to be heard.When I’m ready, you’ll be the first 2 know!

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) June 25, 2013

 

Show him the money: Cuba Gooding, Jr. is changing agents. After a long run with CAA, Gooding today is joining ICM Partners, where the legendary Boaty Boatwright and the intrepid Adam Schweitzer will be guiding his career. Gooding won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1997 for “Jerry Maguire.” His memorable role as football player Rod Tidwell featured the now classic line “Show me the money.”

Flash forward to 2013, the 45 year old Gooding is on Broadway in the hit revival “The Trip to Bountiful” with Tony winner Cicely Tyson and gorgeous Vanessa Williams. In August Gooding stars in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” in which he plays an integral role alongside Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. Is he hot right now? I’d say so. And word is Gooding is so happy in New York, he’s considering a move to the East Coast. His eldest son starts at a top university here this fall.

PS Did you know that Gooding got the part of Rod in “Jerry Maguire” after a reading with Robin Williams, not Tom Cruise? Williams did the reading as a favor. And Gooding’s break came when two other actors couldn’t or didn’t show up.

“Mad Men” went out with a bang last night. The show scored its highest season finale rating ever with 2.7 million viewers. That’s more than all the other seasons so far including last year’s brilliant closer with Don getting hit on at the bar. And last night was action packed for “Mad Men,” with a few cliffhangers designed to keep us chomping at the bit for more in March 2014. It’s hard to believe that “Mad Men” will end, but Matt Weiner is determined to wrap it up in 14 hour long episodes.

So much was made last week of Michael Jackson not sleeping for the last 60 days of his life. First of all, it was an overstatement. He may not have been sleeping at night, but he slept during the day. You may recall an interview I did with a long time friend of Michael’s who ran into him at Dr. Arnold Klein’s office one afternoon in May 2009. It was clear he was sleeping there. He also looked and felt great, very refreshed. http://www.showbiz411.com/2009/07/01/20090701jacko-michael-jackson-joanne-horowitz-studio-54-arnold-klein

More to the point: one look at Frank Cascio’s excellent and revealing book, “My Friend Michael,” describes Jackson’s sleep problems, his use of Demerol and Propofol early on. Cascio was with him for a good part of the 90s into the early 2000s. I think, frankly, it undermines the testimony from last week. Cascio traveled with Jackson extensively, and knew all of his peccadilloes. His book lays out Jackson’s life in minute detail. I wonder if all the lawyers in the current case have read it.

Cascio wrote: “Now, on tour, and again in deep physical pain, Michael turned back to those drugs. Maybe he was simply following doctors’ orders: his adrenaline was so high after each show that it was the only way he could sleep. For all I really know, the treatments may have been his idea. However it came about, over time Michael began to rely on Demerol to wind down after the shows, and most likely to escape from the overwhelming stress, pressure, and responsibilities of his extraordinary life…How impossible it must have been to dial down from the hyper mode of the show to the complete calm of sleep….him. The doctor came, and then Michael went right to bed. I understood that he was taking medicine to help him go to sleep. I knew nothing about prescription pain medicine….

“…an anesthesiologist started showing up two or three times a week, some weeks, to help Michael sleep. I paid the man in cash, because all of Michael’s medical issues had to be kept from the public and their cost off the books. The doctor was perfectly straightforward with me. “What I do,” he said, “is put Michael to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I ease him out of sleep.” It was the same treatment I had witnessed after Michael’s accident in Munich. The doctor would set up equipment and an IV in Michael’s room, and would stay with him, the door closed, for about four hours. He said that the treatment was risky, but he assured me that he knew what he was doing…”

“On those nights, he couldn’t sleep unless this dangerous drug— the drug that would eventually kill him— was administered. For a long time I thought it was okay and normal. I didn’t think he had a drug problem. Over the years, I had grown accustomed to seeing doctors coming and going, particularly during tours, when Michael was under great stress and needed help falling asleep. I thought he was simply someone who had serious medical problems and used drugs to treat them.”

And this is just a little bit of it. The idea that AEG’s concert rehearsals caused Michael to lose sleep– and thereby be vulnerable to dying– doesn’t ring true. Not when you hear that Jackson was living like this for two decades.

Lady Cora Grantham is getting a brother. The mistress of Downton Abbey already has an American mother, played by Shirley MacLaine. Now Paul Giamatti has been added as Harold, Cora’s playboy brother. We can presume his name is Harold Levinson, since that’s Martha’s last name and that of her late husband Isidore. The Levinsons bailed the Granthams out financially when Cora married Robert, and there was a proposal afoot for Martha to do that again when Robert made bad investments.

And this raises once again the pressing question of whether or not Lady Cora is actually Jewish. It sure sounds like it. And now casting Giamatti– who, let’s face it, doesn’t look patrician in any way–brings the question forward. For if the Levinsons are really Rothschilds in disguise, this makes the Grantham children Jewish by default. And that puts a definite twist on “Downtown Abbey.” Good lord, what will the Dowager Countess say about this? Giamatti will appear in the season finale, a double episode.