Director Roland Emmerich– who’s got the bewildering “White House Down” coming out Friday– tells the New York Daily News that Will Smith won’t be in the “Independence Day” sequel. He’s too expensive. And Emmerich says Smith told him he wanted to do other things. Oh really? Like what? “After Earth 2”? “Eight Pounds”? The fact is: Will Smith has not had a hit in a long time. “After Earth” and “Seven Pounds” were insufferable. The best thing he could do, frankly, is get himself into “ID4, Part 2” ASAP. For Smith, the thing he must do now is reconnect with his audience. They’re about to move on without him. Can it happen? Ask Eddie Murphy or Tom Cruise. Audiences change with new generations. “After Earth” did a lot of damage to Smith’s popularity. And “ID4” is beloved. Emmerich may have gotten lost on “WHD” but he knows these initials– “ID4” — a lot better. Smith could do a lot worse than cut his price and jump onto a popular project. Urgggh.
Oscars at the Halfway Mark: What We’ve Seen, What We Know
I wasn’t going to do this, but I see everyone else has– make some lists of Oscar hopefuls and potentials at the year’s halfway mark. So this is what we know: So far in 2013, as usual, there’s not much among the movies that have been released. Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper were very good in “Place Beyond the Pines.” The movie is top notch too. But Focus hasn’t done much with it, and I don’t see it making a huge awards impact.
“The Great Gatsby” is going to get a huge Oscar push– Best Picture, Director, Actor (DiCaprio), Supporting Actor (Maguire), Supporting Actress (Mulligan), as well as score and technical lines. Right now, it would make the cut. But by October: problematic at best. I’d say that “42” has a chance at some action. But the Golden Globes I’m sure didn’t like it. Harrison Ford has a shot at Best Supporting Actor, however.
Now, to the films I’ve seen and you haven’t: Cannes produced two or three Best Picture nominees. They are the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska,” and maybe JC Chandor’s Robert Redford solo shot, “All Is Lost.” From these films you could find three Best Actors– Oscar Isaac, Bruce Dern, and Redford. Plus, of course, Picture, Director, Screenplay. Cannes and Sundance gave us “Fruitvale Station,” a sleeper, a great film that may be more Indie Spirit minded than Oscar. We’ll see.
Some things we know about:
Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” with Cate Blanchett is going to be an Oscar contender. Blanchett is a lock for a Best Actress nomination.
John Wells’s “August: Osage County” will produce a raft of nominees starting with Meryl Streep.
Lee Daniels’s “The Butler” should put Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey in the running. Of the many supporting actors, we’ll have to wait and see.
Martin Scorsese’s trailer for “Wolf of Wall Street” suggests that Matthew McConnaughey will be in the running for Supporting Actor. McConnaughey also has “The Dallas Buyer’s Club,” for which he lost a lot of weight.
Tom Hanks has two movies with good buzz: “Captain Phillips” and “Saving Mr. Banks.”
George Clooney directs an allstar cast in “Monuments Men.”
Nicole Kidman may have caught lightning in a bottle with “Grace of Monaco.”
So hold on. It’s impossible to predict anything until the movie has been seen. And we have a long hard road ahead.
Cyndi Lauper on Gay Marriage Ruling: “History has been made today”
The great Cyndi Lauper sent me a statement about today’s Supreme Court rulings. Cyndi fights for human rights with her True Colors Foundation, the musical “Kinky Boots,” and endless fundraisers and concerts.
“History has been made today and justice has prevailed. To all of you who have been waiting on the sidelines for years, for lifetimes, it’s a huge day. I am so, so happy for you.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of loving and committed gay couples and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act has been ruled unconstitutional. Not only that, but California’s Proposition 8 was struck down, restoring marriage equality to the state of California.
Both of these decisions not only impact the lives of gay couples, but of gay and transgender youth who struggle to find acceptance from their family and friends. Every step closer we get to equality ensures that these kids have the futures that they deserve and are entitled to.
Thank you so much to the inspiring plaintiffs, attorneys, and everyone across the country who have worked so hard for so many years. Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we keep working for full equality for all and to bring the freedom to marry for gay couples to the 37 states that still remain. “
Oprah Changes Mind, Will Air Soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” on OWN
Oprah Winfrey said she didn’t want the ABC soaps when they were cancelled. But now her OWN network will air both “All My CHildren” and “One Life to Live” for 10 weeks beginning July 15th. It’s great news for soap fans but almost comical considering how many press releases Prospect Park, which licensed the soaps for online viewing, produce in a single day. Only earlier today Prospect Park, which had changed their schedule, sent out a new missive about online viewing that made no sense. Now they’re going to air the first 4o episodes of each show on a daily basis, at 1pm and 3pm respectively. I think. Meanwhile. om Hulu and iTunes they’re going to release two new episodes of each show on Mondays. Or something. Won’t the cable versions eat into the online viewing? It would seem like it. But the soap belong on TV so it’s a good thing. Whatever it is.
See Oprah’s video where she said she didn’t want the soaps:
Marc Rich Did Business With US Enemies from the US Despite Being a Fugitive
Did Marc Rich even need a pardon? He did business in the United States with our enemies and banned countries. And he did it from here, from New York, even though he was a federal fugitive. I wrote this on February 27, 2001 in my old (and the real) Fox411 column:
EXCLUSIVE Did he even need a pardon? Former fugitive financier Marc Rich has been operating out of 17 offices in the United States for years—despite his status as the world’s most wanted white collar criminal.
The 17 offices of Novarco Ltd., which is Rich’s oil, grain, and commodity trading house in the US, are listed in New York, Connecticut, Texas, Kentucky, the District of Columbia, Missouri, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. The offices have been in existence since at least 1996. Novarco’s listed US executives include Mike Hopkovitz, Mary Ellen Yacura, and Clyde Meltzer–the latter being the same Rich lieutenant who pled guilty, went to jail, and paid a $5000 fine in the 1980s for being a Rich associate.
When I called Hopkovitz at home in Staten Island NY on Sunday afternoon to ask him about Novarco’s US operations and offices, he said, “No comment, no comment, I have to hang up on you.” And did.
Meltzer and Yacura did not return calls.
In some places, Novarco also operates as something called Global Commodities, which is run by a Joseph Novotny of Potomac, Maryland. The listed phone number for Novarco in Washington DC produces a changed number which is in turn listed under Novotny’s home address in Potomac. Novotny did not return calls.
Novarco functions in the US as a foreign company that exports American grain and oil around the world for exorbitant profits. Its headquarters is in Zug, Switzerland, home of Marc Rich since his exile in 1983. So Novarco is handily escaping paying taxes as a US outfit. Seems that Rich—who left the US and “renounced” his citizenship over a big tax bill—has never changed his tune.
Novarco is registered with the US Department of Agriculture as a licensed exporter since 1995-96. Before that, in the mid to late 80s, Rich used another corporate name—Richco.
But the government suspended Richco from operations in 1989 when it figured out that Rich, the most wanted white collar criminal, owned the company and was making a fortune by exporting US grain. Rich benefited from doing business with the government surreptitiously and received $65 million in subsidies. When he was halted from doing business, Rich evidently changed the Richco name to Novarco and went right back into business.
Novarco AG is just the latest in a long line of names Marc Rich has used to do business around the world and in the US in secret. His original company was called Clarendon, and then morphed into the current Glencore Ltd. of Pennsylvania.
Rich has become infamous for inventing new companies with new names, then pulling the plug on them and starting over under new guises. He is currently rumored to be thinking of selling Marc Rich AG to a Russian company called Crown that operates out of—coincidentally—Zug, Switzerland.
During 1988-92, Rich—under the name Clarendon—made $45 million from doing business with the US government by selling copper, zinc, and nickel to the US Mint for making nickels. That was until then Rep. Bob Wise, now governor of West Virginia, got wise and helped put a stop to the practice.
Rich was personally listed on the General Service Administration’s procurement black list. Clarendon also was on the Defense Logistics Agency’s debarment list for three years from 1984-87, right after his exile. Clarendon, however, was removed from the debarment list in January 1988 and six months later it submitted a low bid on solicitation by the mint. Clarendon subsequently won 19 other contracts for copper, zinc and nickel.
Beginning in November 1990—seven years into his fugitive status– Rich was also involved in a high profile labor dispute at the Ravenswood Aluminum plant in West Virginia. A total of 1,700 Steelworkers have were locked out of their jobs in a nasty long running fight in which it was proven that Rich had bought Ravenswood from Kaiser Aluminum in 1989. Aluminum is one of Rich’s favorite commodities to deal in internationally.
Rich also owned at least one Texas oil company called Channel Refining, which bought up refineries from Charter Oil in the early 90s and then disappeared. Rich had also been in business with former 20th Century Fox owner and international oil billionaire Marvin Davis.
Additionally, Rich has close ties to United Refining of Pennsylvania owner John Catsimatidis. In the last year United Refining, which has grown quickly over the last 15 years, attempted but failed to buy Getty Oil. Catsimaditis, a large donor to Denise Rich’s charity and to Democratic causes, also owns the Red Apple, Gristede’s, and Sloans New York supermarkets.
Marc Rich has extensive worldwide interests in oil, gas, metals, and grain. For example, Syria—a country that would be thought of as an enemy of Rich’s beloved Israel—lists Marc Rich AG as one of the companies it has term contracts with to process, refine and sell its oil. Other listed companies include Agip, Bay Oil, Chevron, Conoco, Marc Rich, OeMV, Shell, Total. You’ll notice that one of those corporations is named for a single man.
Marc Rich Is Dead at 78– Received Controversial Pardon from Clinton
Marc Rich is dead. It’s a little hard to believe considering how completely evil he was. Reports say he died in Lucerne, Switzerland after a stroke. He was 78. Back in January 2001, Rich made international headlines when he received an unwarranted presidential pardon from Bill Clinton. Rich — a billionaire with absolutely no ethics– had fled the United States in 1983 and became a federal fugitive over not paying millions in taxes.
Over the years he’d made enemies all over the world. But the working theory back in 2001 was that Rich had feared George W. Bush would be elected president. The result would be the appointment of Paul O’Neill, the former head of Alcoa, as Treasury Secretary. O’Neill despised Rich and would attempt to bring him to justice. So Rich used his socialite ex wife, Denise, to get the Clinton pardon. She entertained Clinton, raised money for Al Gore, and donated $450,000 to the Clinton library fund.
It all worked. On January 20, 2001 Clinton issued the pardon for Rich. A firestorm ensued. Denise Rich, a songwriter and popular New York hostess, was called before Congress. But in the end nothing came of the questioning. Marc Rich was free to roam around the world but with a caveat: if he set foot in the United States, the IRS could have him arrested for hundreds of millions owed in back taxes.
Last year, Denise Rich surprised everyone when the Boston-born New York institution gave up her U.S. citizenship and joined her married daughters in Europe. There was speculation that she did so over paying high taxes. But the United States had entered into an agreement with Switzerland making it possible to look into Swiss bank accounts. And Marc Rich’s many secrets might be revealed.
I wrote a lot about Marc Rich back in 2001. It turned out that the whole time he was banned from doing business in the United States and was a fugitive, he was in fact doing business right here. Reagan, Bush and Clinton had turned a blind eye to Rich’s massive international shipping business, letting him make billions. The company was based 45 minutes from New York, in White Plains, in an industrial park on the Cross Westchester parkway. It was kind of remarkable. I’m going to dig out those stories and post them in a few minutes…
“Yeezus” Debuts at Number 1, Universal Music Has 4 of the Top 5
Kanye West’s “Yeezus” album debuts at number 1 this week with 328,800 copies sold. Kanye squeaked out a win over J. Cole, another rapper, whose “Born Sinner” album came in at number 2 with 297,922. Both albums are through Universal Music and Jay Z’s Roc Nation. Universal would have the entire top 5 this week, and 7 of the top 10. Amazing. However: J Cole’s Roc Nation album is still part of Jay Z’s deal with Columbia. Numbers 3, 4, and 5, respectively, are Mac Miller (his Rostrum label is through Universal), plus Kelly Rowland on Motown, and Black Sabbath’s brilliant comeback on Republic.
Wait: Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child? That’s right. Beyonce doesn’t get to have all the fame and money. You go, Kelly.
Chris Brown Quotes Bible in Twitter Meltdown: Misdemeanor Charge in Hit and Run
Singer Chris Brown has just seen the world unravel since his incident with Rihanna four years ago. The latest: he’s been charged with a misdemeanor in Los Angeles, for an alleged hit and run. The specifics don’t matter right now–the girl driving the other car says she was hurt, her car was damaged. Brown says he gave her the proper info. But the authorities say he was driving without a valid license.
Now Brown is having a Twitter meltdown. He just cited the Bible: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
He also said that he was contacting his lawyers, he “won’t stand for bullying and yellow journalism.” TMZ keeps changing its mind about whether he’s guilty or not. It’s sort of funny, and very sad.
19-24 years of age. I don’t have all the answers and you can’t show me a person that age who has it figured out.We live and grow.Let me live
— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown) June 25, 2013
It's not a hit and run if u get out the car, exchange information (who has NO DAMAGE to either cars).This is really ridiculous
— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown) June 25, 2013
“White House Down”: Will It Suffer “Second Movie Syndrome” to “Olympus Has Fallen”?
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.
Kennedy Family Won’t Be Too Happy with Marilyn Monroe References in “White House Down”
Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” gets its New York premiere tonight. But many people saw it last week and know at least one thing: the Kennedy family will not be in the audience at any screenings. A big part of the “White House Down” story has to do with fabled tunnels that supposedly run beneath the White House. It’s where Channing Tatum takes Jamie Foxx, who plays the president, when the White House is attacked. How do they know about the tunnels? “It’s where John Kennedy took Marilyn Monroe to have sex,” says someone in the movie– I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it. Later, Tatum asks someone else if this is true, and he is assured that it is. Well, of course, it’s not. But at that point “White House Down” has unexpectedly become a comedy anyway, so we’re supposed to laugh it off. The whole tunnel thing, like JFK and Marilyn, is a myth. The latter is offered as anecdote through the ages. On the season finale of “Veep,” the best comedy on TV right now, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Selita makes reference to it also. It’s a brief but pungent moment.