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Stephen Dorff Now Speaks Hebrew, Considers Opening a Car Wash

Leah Sydney
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Stephen Dorff Now Speaks Hebrew, Considers Opening a Car Wash

LEAH SYDNEY reports from the west coast: Actor Stephen Dorff was last seen in Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” enjoying a private pole dance in his room at the Chateau Marmont. Since then? What would come next? Well, he’s learned Hebrew for a movie called “Zaytoun,” which screens at the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles. Stephen told me at the festival’s opening: “I spent over fourth months in Israel, and I learned Hebrew for the movie.  My Dad is Jewish, my Mom is Catholic but I was raised neither, which was probably for the best.  But I always wanted to go there, I felt a paid a tribute to that side of my family and my grandparents.”

Dorff is picky about his roles. “The really good films are few and far between. I have really intense tastes that make it hard to kind of play ball.  But it’s all good, it always works out.”  Dorff joked: “If I keep reading these bad scripts, and they’re big movies too, I might open a car wash.”

Martin Landau was among those honored on the opening night, which was emceed by funny comic Elon Gold. Former Paramount chief and now philanthropist Sherry Lansing was also honored. She told us that she’s been traveling with her husband, noted director William Friedkin, to promote his latest book, “The Friedkin Connection:  A Memoir.”  The great singer and actress Lainie Kazan (just watch her in “My Favorite Year”) told us that, “I’m singing all over the place.  I’m just finished an indie film called, ‘Finding Joy,’ I’m busy all the time.”

Elsewhere in L.A.

The Producers Guild of American is getting into the digital age as we all are by holding their inaugural ‘Digital V.I.P’ awards, honoring nine Innovators, Visionaries and Producers, hence V.I.P, who have made their mark on in digital entertainment.  Held at the home of Entrepreneur Elon Musk, who founded no less than PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, the event featured bedazzled dancers hoisted from the ceiling pouring Champagne to anyone asking.  Guests included the President of the PGA Mark Gordon, Morgan Freeman was there with is producing partner Lori McCreary,  John Lasseter, Lawrence Bender and more.

The Troubadour continues to be one of LA’s most venerated and plugged in venues.  Rod Stewart is playing there tonight, partaking in a fan Q and A to hawk his new album. ‘Time.’  Depeche Mode follows on Friday put on by the popular LA station, KROQ, and no other than the swinging Troubadour himself, Tom Jones, plays there on May 11th and 12th.

Tonight starts the swanky ‘Paris Photo Fair,’ showing international celebrated photography, which is taking place on the Paramount Lot throughout the weekend.  The private opening night tonight, or ‘Vernissage,’ will include bashes thrown by Armani  hosted by Sean Penn, The French Embassy, The Wall Street Journal and BMW.  Phil Collins, Catherine Opie and Mad Men’s Matthew Weiner are among the speakers set for this cool weekend.

Weaving in Politics with Hollywood, ‘Chasing The Hill,’ Creator Brent Roske’s talked about web series, what the DC publication ‘The Hill’, says has a cult like following in DC, now has caught on in LA.  Emmy award winner Richard Schiff plays a scheming Democratic Karl Rove like character in the cutthroat world of politics.  Sharon Lawrence, Robin Weigert, Melissa Fitzgerald round out the cast in this critically acclaimed series which was just nominated for a Webby award, opposite Tom Hank’s Electric City, and AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Roske, a longtime writer and director also got some cool cameos from MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, VA Governor hopeful Terry McAuliffe and Political Consultant and former Clinton White House staff Ian Alberg.  Alberg, who has been with the Clintons for years, has a clever stint as Schiff’s right hand man.  Check it out at: www.chasingthehill.com

Bette Midler Plans Girl Group Album After Conquering Broadway

Roger Friedman
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Bette Midler Plans Girl Group Album After Conquering Broadway

Exclusive: Now that Bette Midler has conquered Broadway– and without singing a note– there are plans afoot to revive her recording career. Midler has had tons of hits over the last 40 years including “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “Do You Wanna Dance?” But she’s been absent from the charts for far too long. I’m told that there’s a plan afoot for The Divine Miss M to be resurrected with an album tribute to girl groups like the Crystals, the Chiffons and Motown acts like Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and the Marvelettes.  The plan also includes possibly recording some Phil Spector-like Christmas songs with notable back up singers and stars like Darlene Love and others from the current documentary “Twenty Five Feet from Stardom.” Back in the days of Midler’s early recordings, she often had people like Cissy Houston backing her up on girl songs such as “Uptown” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.” It’s a great idea, and I hope it comes to pass once Midler has finished up “I’ll Eat You Last” and accepted–no doubt– many awards.

Phil Donahue Leads Protest in Dallas At Bush Library Dedication Over Iraq War

Roger Friedman
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Phil Donahue Leads Protest in Dallas At Bush Library Dedication Over Iraq War

Phil Donahue is 77 years old. But that’s not stopping him. The celebrated talk show host turned activist and filmmaker is down in Dallas this morning where he’s going to lead a protest against George W. Bush and the ceremony to open his presidential library. Donahue– like many– still holds Bush accountable for the Iraq War. His excellent documentary, “Body of War,” released in 2008, graphically depicted what happened to American soldiers who were grievously wounded. The film is remarkable and important. While Bush faithful gather for the ribbon cutting today, Donahue will be right across the street giving voice to millions who don’t get a chance to express their feelings. Last night Donahue screened “Body of War” for free at the Angelika Theater in Dallas.

Here’s the facebook entry:

THE PEOPLE’S RESPONSE (PLEASE WEAR BLACK!): Thursday, April 25, 8:30 a.m. – Rally/March/Demonstration. 6116 N. Central Expressway, Dallas (SE quadrant, I-75/Central Expy & SMU Blvd, map). In contrast to the festivity of the Bush Presidential Center dedication, we will be dressed in black as the March of the Dead, along with veterans, will lead a slow, respectful procession toward the Bush Center in remembrance of those tortured or killed. Signs and banners will be provided. If you bring your own, please keep them on-message and coordinated with the dramatic black and white visual. 6116 N. Central Expressway, Dallas (SE quadrant, I-75/Central Expy & SMU Blvd, map). Speakers include Col. Ann Wright, Phil Donahue, Coleen Rowley, Leah Bolger, TX State Representative Lon Burnam, Medea Benjamin, Chas Jacquier, and more.

…coinciding with the dedication of the library on April 25, 2013 in Dallas.

Bette Midler On Broadway: A List Hollywood Comes East to Support One of Its Own

Roger Friedman
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Bette Midler On Broadway: A List Hollywood Comes East to Support One of Its Own

Hollywood came east last night and mixed with Broadway—a not always easy alliance. But they did it for their late pal Sue Mengers, and star Bette Midler who uncannily channels Mengers in a 90 minute one act monologue called “I’ll Eat You Last.”

And what a group: everyone from Ali McGraw, Ryan O’Neal and Alana Stewart to Anjelica Huston and actor nephew Jack Huston, Marlo Thomas, Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch, not to mention newer stars like Mad Men’s Jon Hamm with Jennifer Westfeldt, plus Sandy Gallin, Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close and Sting.

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter held court later at the Russian Tea Room, where Midler was bowled over by Mengers’ good friends like super agent Boaty Boatwright and Broadway producer Francine LeFrak. The most unusual ticket holder: New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley, who never attends opening nights. But he had a rave review ready to go in the paper, and was greeted warmly by the show’s producers.

One person who wasn’t there, and maybe should have been: Barbra Streisand. In a supreme irony, Streisand had her own 71st birthday party down at Donna Karan’s Ubran Zen studio. But “I’ll Eat You Last” is really all about Streisand, who was Mengers’ main client until she wasn’t. When Streisand left her in 1981 after 10 wild years, Mengers’ career unraveled almost overnight. This is the essence of this one woman show. The conceit of John Logan’s script is that Mengers has just been fired by Barbra, and is awaiting her call.

Midler sits on a couch in a set recalling Mengers Beverly Hills living room and tells the story of her life. But mostly she gossips about all her clients, their successes, failures, love lives, and careers. Ali McGraw was stoic in the audience as Midler-Mengers describes how Ali left Robert Evans for Steve McQueen and saw her career destroyed. Logan, using Mengers’ words, has no use for McQueen, whose legacy is pretty much demolished in this monologue.

There are stories about everyone, and lots of minute Hollywood history. Jane Fonda almost played the female lead in “Chinatown.” Faye Dunaway was paid only $75,000 for it, but the movie led to “Network” and the Oscar.

Mengers was the toast of Hollywood in the late 60s, all the way through to 1981. She was truly a legend. Read Julia Phillips’ incendiary memoir, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again” for dozens of stories about Mengers as she handled directors and studio chiefs for her A list clients.

Midler is sensational. She doesn’t leave that couch for 90 minutes. But by the time she’s done, you actually want to hear more. It is a tour de force performance. And it’s so interesting to hear Midler – as Mengers—talking about Streisand. After all, when Midler burst onto the scene in 1973, she was immediately hailed as the new Streisand.

Now on stage she recounts the infamous Hollywood saga of how Mengers got Streisand $4 million—more than any actress had ever received—to star opposite Gene Hackman in “All Night Long.” Mengers husband was the director. The movie tanked, lost $10 million, and triggered the end of Mengers career as an agent. She was blamed for putting her most important client into a dog of a movie to save her husband’s non existent directing career. She and Streisand had a bitter break up. It would be about 20 years or more before they made up. Mengers died in 2011 of cancer.

But what a night in the theater, and what theater was the after party at the replicated Russian Tea Room, where so many deals went down in those days. Boaty Boatwright said to Bette Midler, as they cried together after the show: “Sue is smiling down on us right now.”
ood came east

NYC Dueling Divas Tonight: Streisand vs. Midler for the Championship

Roger Friedman
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Tonight the man you don’t want to be is Ken Sunshine. He’s the pr flack for both Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand (here on the East Coast). And tonight it’s a deathmatch diva duel as Midler opens on Broadway in “I’ll Eat You Last” and Streisand celebrates her birthday with a big party. Today is her actual birthday and she turns 71.

Midler is playing Sue Mengers, who was Streisand’s pal and agent at one time. Streisand just got her Lincon Center award. Now there’s a swanky soiree for her at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen tonight in the West Village. The Midler show kicks off at 6:45pm, produced by (among others) Graydon Carter. The show is 90 minutes, no intermission. Then everyone heads to the faux Russian Tea Room on West 57th St.

Cocktails for Streisand begin at 7:30pm, just as Bette starts the second half of her 90 minute monologue. Word is she’s great, and ticket sales are through the roof.

Overlap in invites? Without a doubt. How will it work? Where will everyone go? Will anyone sing? (Doubtful.)

Happy Birthday, Barbra!

Good luck, Bette!

Pierce Brosnan Says He Was Not Invited to Oscars James Bond Tribute

Paula Schwartz
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Pierce Brosnan Says He Was Not Invited to Oscars James Bond Tribute

“No one invited me.” Pierce Brosnan is setting the record straight about this year’s Oscars the James Bond tribute. He told me this at the junket at the Waldorf Astoria Monday afternoon for his new movie “Love is All You Need.” (Later that evening he attended the Barbra Streisand tribute at Lincoln Center.)

“I was at the market, which I go to every Sunday and one of these chappies from TMZ said, ‘So Pierce, are you going to be there?’ I said, ‘Well I’m not going to be there. No one invited me.’ I didn’t even say no one invited me. I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll be there. It’s another man’s job.’ It got blown into something else. Anyway it became I snubbed them. I didn’t. I didn’t’ get invited.”

Pierce Brosnan, who will turn 60 in May, is still as charming and handsome as he was when he played 007.

The women journalists – as well as a few of the men – were smitten by the Irishmen’s charm and warmth. He was passionate about talking about his new film, sang a little – off key – when told the movie is sort of “Mamma Mia” without the music, and at the end of the roundtable heartily embraced a woman who told him her husband had recently died of a heart attack.

Brosnan wore a white shirt, a few buttons undone, and a dark, tailored suit. His waist looks like it’s still 32 inches.

“Love is All You Need,” is a romance directed by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, whose last film in 2010, “In a Better World,” received an Academy Award for best foreign film. Brosnan plays a work obsessed Englishman and lacking father, a widower living in Denmark, who falls for Ida (Trine Dyrholm), a Danish hairdresser, who is battling breast cancer and who has just been dumped by her husband.

She and Brosnan’s character meet at the airport-parking garage where she accidentally rams into his car; coincidentally they are both off to the Amalfi Coast to attend the wedding of his son and her daughter. Underneath her wig Ida is completely bald. It was originally called “The Baldheaded Dresser” Brosnan said, “and remained that in Denmark, which is so blunt, truthful, honest, up front, but I don’t think it would fly here.”

Another thing that would be lost in translation if made here is the story, which is very European in sensibility. Could this movie have been made here, Brosnan was asked? “The studio would have just hammered this to death. Executives would have gone in there with their little kind of moral values and cut the balls out if.” He added, “Their shortcomings are evident in the produce that they present to the great American public in the guise of romantic comedies, which are rather thin and they don’t have any real bite or humanity or substance.”

Brosnan plays a man still shut down emotionally after his wife’s unexpected death years earlier. There are parallels that will be made between his life and the role he plays. “I do remember someone living through an illness a long time ago, who had the greatest of grace and dignity, and the cup was always half full,” Brosnan said, referring to his late wife, Cassandra Harris, who died of ovarian cancer in 1991.

So what made him believe in love again?

“Me? Pierce? There you go, keep it simple please. My wife, Keely, that’s who.” He married Keely Shaye Smith in 2001.

“The widower’s world is not so groovy,” he said dryly, “when you lose someone who you really love, and then you have to go out and date again and you bump into the furniture. As a guy you go out and you trip the light fantastic and you come home and you just go, ‘Wow! What was that about?”

Yes, I know, who talks like that and who buys Pierce Brosnan is a klutz? But it’s what he said.

He’s been with his wife for 19 year,s he said. “We just had lunch together and we’re celebrating this movie,” Brosnan said. “She allows me to go off and do what I do. She calls it legal cheating.”

He has a trifecta of films coming out. The next one is with Emma Thompson, a romantic comedy called “Love Punch.” He and the late night television host Craig Ferguson are producing a thriller called “Last Man Out,” set in Belfast. And he’s next off to make a spy thriller in Serbia for his production company Irish Dreamtimes called “November Man,” directed by Roger Donaldson. “I play a man who’s been out in the cold for some time,” he laughed. “And then there’s the younger guy. There’s always the younger guy.”

How Old Is Cicely Tyson? A Real Mystery Exists. Is She “Benjamin Button”?

Roger Friedman
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How Old Is Cicely Tyson? A Real Mystery Exists. Is She “Benjamin Button”?

How old is Cicely Tyson really? Her official age on the imdb.com and other sources puts her at 79. That would seem about right. An article from People magazine’s archives, published in 1974 when she was nominated for an Oscar for “Sounder,” would seem to agree. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20064128,00.html

But today’s New York Times says she’s 88 years old. A publicist for “The Trip to Bountiful” tells me: “She doesn’t dispute it.” At the premiere last night, another sider said the cast of the play asked her, and again, she didn’t quarrel with 88. The publicist said that both the Times and CBS had done comparisons, looking at old stories to figure it out.

I looked at this woman up close last night under photographers’ bright lights. If she’s 88,  I want the name and number of everyone involved. She’s discovered the fountain of youth.

So which is it? Seventy nine or eighty eight? I checked with some databases today that are based on census and tax records. I was convinced I would come up with 70. And lo and behold, I’m getting the higher number. Gasp. Tyson is on stage for two hours, in almost every scene of “Bountiful.”

Her famous husband, Miles Davis, was born in 1926. That would have him made seven years older than Tyson in the original thinking. But if she’s 88, Tyson–born as Cicely Richards in Harlem–was born in 1924. If so, she was around 50, not 40, at the time of “Sounder.” And she was two years older than Davis.

They do say age is just a number, and it’s all about how you feel. Last night I asked her if she got tired during the show. (It took at least an hour or more to get her over from the theater to the party, making us wonder if she hadn’t just gone to bed.) Tyson, eyes sparkling, said: “The character gets tired, but I don’t!” She added: “I’m tired now!”

Zach Braff Kickstarter Campaign Raises $1.5 Mil in 24 Hours for New Film

Roger Friedman
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Zach Braff Kickstarter Campaign Raises $1.5 Mil in 24 Hours for New Film

UPDATE Thursday 11:45 am: Zach Braff has raised $1.5 million in 24 hours. He’ll hit his goal of $2 million today.

Earlier: I can tell you exclusively that former “Scrubs” star Zach Braff’s long in the works indie film “Wish I Was Here” is finally coming together. And it will co-star Katherine Heigl. Braff has decided to launch the film on Kickstarter today, but I’ve known about it for some time. “Wish I Was Here” will be Braff’s first directing effort since the beloved “Garden State” with Natalie Portman.

The goal on Kickstarter is $2 million. Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg, who produced “Garden State” but are also well known for Quentin Tarantino’s movies, are back as producers. Of course, “Wish I Was Here” will cost several million more than $2 mil, but this is a good way to show public enthusiasm for the project. It will attract investors.

When you put a project on Kickstarter, the way to get donors is to offer trinkets, etc. “Donor incentives: here range from personal copies of the script to access to weekly behind-the-scenes video to invitations to the premiere and even a speaking role in the film. I was going to make a joke about win a date with Katherine Heigl, but she’s married and is a mom, so that wouldn’t work out.

Here’s the press release info on “Wish I Was Here”:

“Wish I Was Here” is the story of Aidan Bloom (to be played by Braff), a struggling actor, father and husband who at 35, is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he’d always dreamed he’d be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids (5 and 12) and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. The result is some funny chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn’t find.

American Idol Source: No Truth to JLO Replacing Mariah, Carly Rae Jepsen Will Perform on Finale

Roger Friedman
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American Idol Source: No Truth to JLO Replacing Mariah, Carly Rae Jepsen Will Perform on Finale

Sources connected to “American Idol” tell me there’s no truth to rumors that Jennifer Lopez was being wooed back to the show to replace Mariah Carey mid-season. “That would be the stupidest move in the history of television,” an Idol insider told me late tonight. “And it’s never been brought up, I’ve never heard of it. Someone planted that item before a live show to cause trouble.”

The story is in the online Hollywood Reporter. But on the face of it, it’s crazy. The story claims that Carey caught wind and threatened litigation. Not only that: the story says Lopez might perform on the show’s finale. I don’t think so. Carey and Lopez are not exactly bff’s. Lopez, working with Tommy Mottola after Carey left for EMI Records, helped instigate a dark time in Carey’s life.

The two have also at different times had the same manager, Benny Medina. There is no love lost there. Just not happening. For the record, off the record: Carly Rae Jepsen is on the finale. And Carey could perform, too.

Keep reading…More to come….

Cicely Tyson, Age 79 (or 88), Rocks Broadway, in Return After 30 Years

Roger Friedman
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Cicely Tyson, Age 79 (or 88), Rocks Broadway, in Return After 30 Years

There are a lot of good actors onstage at the Sondheim Theater in the revival of Horton Foote’s “Trip to Bountiful.” Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, Condola Rashad– all excellent. But let’s face it, the story is about Cicely Tyson. She’s either 79 (likely) or 88 (not possible) and hasn’t been on Broadway in thirty years.

She picks up the role of Carrie Watts– for which Geraldine Page won an Oscar in the 1980s, and Lois Smith got accolades seven years ago on Broadway– and marches away with it like it was nothing. Tyson is on stage in almost every scene for two hours. At one point she’s supposed to be sleeping on a bench in a train station. She never shows fatigue. Her stamina and enthusiasm are unceasing.

Think she won’t win the Tony Award for Best Actress? The standing ovation in Radio City Music Hall has already begun.

How does she do it? At the after party last night at the “Copacabana” (I used quotes because the real Copa is long gone; this is just a name on the old China Club), Tyson said: “If you drove a Bentley what would you put in it? I know everything that goes inside me. And it’s the best. I’ve been a vegetarian for years.” Why did she come back to Broadway? “One word,” she said. “Bountiful.”

It does like Foote wrote the part for her. Of course, he didn’t. Lillian Gish played the role in 1953. Lois Smith played Carrie in 2005. Page did the movie. There are countless productions over the years all over the country no doubt. But this version may quickly become the template under the direction of Michael Wilson.

“Bountiful” is a slow starter, an old fashioned play. But give it a minute to warm up and you find you’re totally drawn in to Carrie Watt’s quest to see her childhood home one more time. And Tyson’s scenes with Condola Rashad, playing a young woman she meets on the bus, are just outstanding. Condola is the daughter of Phylicia Rashad and Ahmad Rashad. She won a Tony nomination last year for “Stick Fly.” One more great performance and she will be ready for leads. Kudos to Vanessa Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr., too.

Tyson and the cast are in for a 14 week run. They agreed to do 20 weeks if needed. This is an historic production. No one will ever want to say they missed Cicely Tyson. And last night, the celebs include former Mayor David Dinkins, opera great Jessye Norman, Al Roker and Deborah Roberts, Suzanne dePasse, Deborah Cox, and Tony winner Steve Kazee from “Once.”

By the way, Knicks star center Tyson Chandler and his wife Kimberly signed on yesterday as added producers on the show. I met Tyson. He’s like 7′-2″, okay? He towered over the other producers. He gets an aisle seat.

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