Exclusive: Paul McCartney has made a deal with HBO for animated feature for kids. I’m told that the HBO team is working just with McCartney’s solo songs, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Silly Love Songs,” working up proposals to stitch the whole thing together. At the same time, McCartney is still working with Bob Shaye and Michael Lynn of Unique Films–the guys who made New Line Cinema a stunning success for over 25 years.

I told you some months ago that they were all putting together an adult animated feature. But that one has all new music. This one for HBO is an attempt to use McCartney’s vast solo catalog, which is a great idea. There are tons of great songs like “Another Day” and “Uncle Albert” that would be perfect for such treatment.

Meantime, I am told that Paul has lots of tracks with many different producers like Mark Ronson and Paul Epworth– who made Adele’s big hit “21” album- that he’s fiddling with for a new album. “There are many producers involved,” says my source. McCartney currently has a new live album and DVD out from his “Kisses on the Bottom” project from last spring, called “Live Kisses.”

My source also laughed at recent reports that Paul might retire. “Never,” he said. “He’ll just take more vacations.” McCartney loves to perform live and makes millions from it. He’s got four dates in Canada next week, all sold out.

photo c2012 Showbiz411

TV Land has renewed the mostly awful series called The Soul Man. The series does not star the actual person who is called the Soul Man, R&B legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sam Moore. Cedric the Entertainer is the star, and he’s starting to brand himself “The Soul Man,” which is a no no. Sam Moore has been “the Soul Man” since 1966 when his hit with Dave Prater established them as the most famous R&B duo of all time.

Since Prater’s death, Sam has been immortalized in countless movies, by all the living presidents, at the Kennedy Center several times, at international awards shows like MOJO, by the Grammys. and by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and by Bruce Springsteen.

Last weekend, Moore was a guest at Reggie Jackson’s charity event in Las Vegas where Cedric was hired to entertain the crowd. Cedric, I am told, made very sure to stay away from Moore out of sheer embarrassment. Nevertheless, Robin Leach featured Moore in his column about the event. Singer Jeffrey Osbourne, also there to entertain the audience, flipped out when he saw Sam. Osbourne’s original band, LTD, once worked as Sam’s back up band, and Osbourne remains a devoted fan.

And no, Sam is not calling himself “Sam Moore the Entertainer” to get back at Cedric. He’s too classy for that.

Watch this kids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTplny76s7M

photo c2012 Showbiz411

And so “Crossfire Hurricane,” the documentary about the early days of the Rolling Stones, had its premiere last night at the Ziegfeld Theater. The Stones appeared– Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts. Their combined ages are 405. Anyway, they looked pretty good. Interestingly, as they were exiting up the aisle at the Ziegfeld, someone started yelling, “Ronnie Wood!” Keith Richards, the most amiable of the group, chuckled right back: “Hey Ronnie, you’ve been recognized!”

Standing before the crowd, Jagger spoke for the group–natch. He joked about the low price HBO paid for the film, directed by Brett Morgen. The film is an editing triumph that starts very strong and kind of tails off at the end. It finishes really in 1972 with “Exile on Main Street,” then lurches forward to “Miss You” in 1978 and shows a bit of Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light” from 2008. What happened to all the other years since ’72? No one knows. It just ends. But Stones fans will see a lot of great lost footage creatively combined to make for an entertaining film. “Crossfire Hurricane” debuts on HBO on Thursday.

Afterwards, the Stones had a strictly no press party at the Top of the Standard. That doesn’t bode well for the three dates they’re playing in the New York area. It’s hard to say who exactly attended the party since there were no celebs at the screening.

The Stones may not have known they were being skunked, celebrity wise, about 14 blocks south. Paul McCartney’s son-in-law, Simon Aboud (married to successful photographer Mary), was screening a feature film he directed at the Bryant Park Hotel.  So it was really a Stones vs. Beatles night in New York, although no one knew it.

I would tell you about the film but the incompetent weasels handling it, called Hook PR ( as in ‘get the hook’) botched the whole deal. These weasels even lied about having screeners. I’m sure the film is good, whatever it is, since Aboud is said to be an advertising whiz from London. He’s made a couple of interesting short films, too. I do know that McCartney, wife Nancy, Elvis Costello, and Steve and Jo Buscemi were all supposedly there. I hope they enjoyed it. If Aboud wants someone to distribute his film and buy tickets to it, he’d better hire PMK or 42 West or Falco, pronto.

LEAH SYDNEY reports on the West Coast memorial this afternoon for our great friend and mentor Lois Smith, the beloved publicist and leader of PMK for years. The New York memorial is set for December 4th.

A memorial for Lois Smith was held today at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood CA.

Speakers (in order): Robert Redford, Mara Buxbaum, Sean Penn, Brianna Smith (grandaughter), Norman Jewison, Brooke Smith (Actress and Daughter)

With a screen-sized picture of Lois in red, the VIP’s of Hollywood came out to pay tribute to her.

Other attendees:  Michelle Pfeiffer, Bryan Lourd, Daniel Kellison, Sid Ganis, Peter Bart, Paul Bloch, Marvin Levy, AFI’s Jean Picker Firstenberg, Lois’s former partner Pat Kingsley, and many agents and publicists who have worked with her throughout the years.

Robert Redford first spoke. He described how they first met in 1963 when he was doing his first play on Broadway.  “I didn’t really understand the value of publicity then.  I wasn’t the easiest client.  But Lois knew how to deal with me.  She would say yes, I would say no, she would say yes, Iwould say no, she would say yes, I would say no.  Then she would say yes, then I said yes.  Lois was humble and down to earth. She was a part of my family.”

Publicist Mara Buxbaum then spoke lovingly of her mentor, saying, “I learned what I know from her.  It was like learning painting from Rembrandt.”  Mara went on to say that even when she went out on her own, Lois was always supportive.  Mara continued, “She was a bright, shiny beam of light to anyone she came in contact with. I treasured my relationship with her. ”

Sean Penn then came on to say, “She had a dignity which is rare in this business.  She was plainspoken and sophisticated at the same time.  Lois would always tell me, “You have to think how the unwashed masses would think,  I would say to her, “that’s difficult for me, because I am one of the unwashed masses.”  Sean then went on to read a quote from William Saroyan.

Her lovely granddaughter, Warner publicist Brianna Smith then spoke about how fun her grandmother was to hang out with.

Norman Jewison then said of his friend and publicist for many years, “The warmth and strength of her character was astounding. I met her before she was married.  She was New York based. New York was her town, she knew everybody and she knew the business.  She had uncanny insight and she had the common sense of every situation.”

Referring to her trademark red jackets, Norman quipped to the laughter of the crowd, “Just today, I looked in the paper and I saw that that red coats were in. She wore them at these premieres and events for her clients.  She wanted them to see the beacon that was her.  Amidst all the tumult, she was tall and imposing, you couldn’t miss her.  It made you feel safe somehow. ”

Norman then went on to tell the funny story of how when he was filming “Fiddler On The Roof,” in Pinewood Studios in London, Lois literally made him go into town to Sotheby’s and by an original Marc Chagall drawing of 1905 of the original Fiddler.  “I told her I couldn’t afford it, she made me go and buy it anyway.  I bought it because she made me and now I think of her every time I look at it.  It’s one of my most treasured possessions.  My relationship with her was one of my most treasured as well.  I can’t think of anyone I had more respect for.”

Her talented actress daughter Brooke Smith said that, “My Mom was everybody’s biggest fan.  She really meant it.  She would see the best in all of us.  My Mom loved talent. She loved her job.  Meryl Streep wrote me a note and said that my Mom was one of the last gentlest women in the business.  She loved this business.  The best way to honor her is to treat everyone with kindness and respect.”

The memorial ended with a glorious photo montage of Lois and her family, along with her clients and the famous along the way, Marilyn Monroe,  JFK, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfieffer, Winona Ryder, Meryl Streep and more.  What a lady. What a class act.

OK, so one of our favorite people, Nancy Jarecki, introduced me to her 20 year son Maxson last night at the “Silver Linings Playbook” premiere. A jolly looking kid, I seem to remember him before he was born. Oh well, time flies, and he’s got a bunch of buddies with him, some of whom are seniors at Dalton. Maxson is at Princeton, and they all look like a cross between the early Beatles and the group in Tom Hanks’s “That Thing You Do.” They have a band, called Crab Corps, and placed a song on the “Silver Linings” soundtrack.

What’s the song I asked? Says 20 year old Max, “Oh it’s an old song you might not know called The Monster Mash.”

Yup, heard of it, I said. Feeling old now. Do you see where this is going?

They are sweet kids. They have four songs on iTunes, and also on cdbaby.com. “One of them is a piece of classical music,” they say, “called Pacelbel’s Canon. Do you know it?” http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/crabcorps

Yeah, I know it.

Don’t you hate families where everyone is talented? Nancy has her own business, husband Andrew (who plays drums on these tracks) made “Capturing the Friedmans,” his brother Nick just directed “Arbitrage,” and their father, Henry, invented Moviefone before he sold it to AOL for zillions. According to Wikipedia, he also owns an island.

Bobby “Boris” Pickett did “The Monster Mash” originally, and so did beloved NY radio personality Zacherle. Now it’s Crab Corps’s turn. They’re pretty good, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTffIUrgU7Q

Director Martin Scorsese turns 70 on Saturday, which seems impossible to us and must feel the same way to him. What a career–and he’s busy filming “The Wolf of Wall Street” right now with Leonardo DiCaprio. Scorsese means lots of things to lots of cinephiles, from “Taxi Driver” and “Are you talkin’ to me?” to  Juliette Lewis sucking Robert DeNiro’s thumb in “Cape Fear” to Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn bringing Howard Hughes home to meet the folks in “The Aviator.” And let’s not forget the lost masterpiece of “New York, New York,” with its 11 minute musical number, “Happy Endings.” Or Sandra Bernhard coming on to Jerry Lewis’s Rupert Pupkin in “King of Comedy.”

One of my personal favorite scenes: Marty’s mom Catherine playing Joe Pesci’s mom in “GoodFellas,” and the meal that’s served at 3 am in her kitchen while a body is stuffed in the trunk of a car. And then of course there’s “After Hours,” a movie that perfectly summed up what life in Soho was like back in 1979 before big money turned it into a shopping mall.

What are your personal faves? Send ’em in, and we’ll forward them to Scorsese. Happy Birthday, Marty, and thanks for so many great films. Looking forward to many, many more!