Rosie O’Donnell’s Theater Kids raised $850,000 last night with the help of Z100’s Elvis Duran, Fox5’s Rosanna Scotto, and the kids and instructors from Rosie’s amazing pet project, The Maravel Arts Center, on West 45th St. The kids–the sixth year of kids who’ve passed through Rosie’s incredible program–made their first music video ever recently, written and directed by Broadway and TV star B.D. Wong. The video is in our main page player at the bottom of the home page. Rosie’s Kids are a knock out as usual. The program has not only saved lives, but changed them. A great night at the Marriott Marquis, as usual. And Rosie’s Kids are still threading their way through the New York City school system. Bravo! Watch the video. PS The economy may be coming back. The MM Ballroom was very full, the fullest I’ve seen it in three years. Maravel is a marvel!
Elton John Planning Return to Broadway as Composer
Elton John is planning a return to Broadway as a composer with Bernie Taupin, and partner/husband David Furnish as producer. Furnish confirmed this last night at a glittery black tie fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation here in New York at Cipriani downtown. The only thing I know is that the musical will be an original book, with new and old songs by Elton and Bernie. Of course, this team has had mega success with “Billy Elliott,” and Elton had a hit years ago with “Aida.” No word yet on who will direct, but Stephen Daldry can’t be so far away.
Meantime, the EJAF– one of the very best foundations– was celebrating several things including a major donation from Lady Gaga via Yoko Ono. Gaga won of Yoko’s LennonOno Peace Prizes that came with a cash award. Gaga immediately donated the money to EJAF. Furnish told me how pleased and grateful he was. “We have a wonderful relationship with Lady Gaga,” he said.
Anderson Cooper emceed the event last night (for the sixth straight year) which later was set to feature a performance by Stevie Nicks. But in the crowd were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was an honoree; Matt Lauer, Brooke Shields, Tony winner Judith Light, Lance Bass, Courtney Love, Julian Schnabel, Alan Cumming, Cheyenne Jackson, Ingrid Sischy and Sandy Brandt of Vanity Fair, and Viacom chief Phillippe Daumann.
And who stopped by? Madonna’s legendary publicist, Liz Rosenberg. Elton and Madonna have buried the hatchet. Anyway, Sir Elton and Liz are friends from waaay back. “I love Elton, I’m not fighting with him!” exclaimed a widely smiling Liz.
Everyone loves Elton John, kids. The people came in tuxes and gowns through a monsoon rain storm that would not let up. I was very happy to see old pals Bill and Tani Austin of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which does reciprocal work with EJAF. You can read all about the foundation and see why it’s so effective at www.ejaf.com. They issue regular reports about their many grants and proved to be incredibly effective. Elton and David, and foundation director Scott Campbell have done a great job with lots of transparency (unlike some other groups): http://ejaf.org/2012-grants/
PS I don’t know why, but for weeks the same Elton John song has been in my head. I think it’s because it was on the Pnau remix album. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyBJoj1zK_4
Elvis Costello, Tom Morello, Darlene Love on Deck for Tomorrow Night’s Little Steven Tribute
It’s quite a list for tomorrow night’s Little Kids Event, a tribute to Little Steven van Zandt of the E Street Band. Little Kids benefits music education for children. Everyone from Elvis Costello to Tom Morello, Darlene Love, Dion, Ruben Blades, Southside Johnny and many special guests are going to perform songs by Little Steven. And you never know who might show up (hint. hint). You can read it all about it at www.littlekidsrock.org
Rolling Stones Confirm Our Concert Exclusive Reports– On You Tube!
The Rolling Stones posted a video on YouTube this morning with no fanfare–about the concerts I’ve told you about exclusively. The London O2 arena shows are on November 25th and 29th. The Prudential Center shows in Newark are December 15th and 19th. No word on the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, where they’re still trying to make a deal. Weird way to make an announcement? Yes. According to You Tube, the video only has 302 viewings so far. The single “Doom and Gloom” was also offered up in an odd way, and it’s suffered. I’ve no doubt the concert tickets will sell out quickly.
http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/05/exclusive-rolling-stones-will-play-prudential-center-in-newark
Already huge blocks of tickets marked way up in price have found their way to UK re-seller ViaGogo for all four shows. They’re asking upwards of $6,500 for front row seats at the Prudential Center. This is what I told you was going to happen, last week.
Anyway, it’s all as has been described here for weeks and weeks. I told you the tickets were going on sale this week. Etc. http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/10/exclusive-rolling-stones-concert-tix-will-go-on-sale-next-week
I also told you that Richard Branson would be launching his VirginLive with these shows. Back on August 30th: http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/08/30/exclusive-rolling-stones-dates-in-new-york-and-london
Broadway Musical “Rebecca” Investor Arrested in “Producers”-Like Scam
Mark Hotton has been arrested and will be arraigned this morning in New York in the scam surrounding the Broadway musical “Rebecca.” The government says Hotton faked the investor named “Paul Abrams” to Broadway producer Ben Sprecher. Sprecher thought he was getting $4.5 million from “Abrams,” who he never met or spoke to. “Rebecca,” a bad show anyway, is now dead, which is just as well. Gerry Shargell is representing Hotton. He’s who you go to when things look bleak; Shargell always has a way of limiting the bad things that can happen to a guilty looking defendant.
Here’s the press release from the US Attorney’s office:
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Mary E. Galligan, the Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), today announced the unsealing of a Complaint charging Long Island businessman MARK HOTTON with defrauding the producers of the Broadway show “Rebecca – The Musical” (“Rebecca”) by fabricating the prospect of $4.5 million in financing commitments and the possibility of a $1.1 million loan, so that they would pay him, and entities he controlled, more than $60,000 in fees and commissions. HOTTON is also charged with a second fraudulent scheme in which he tricked a Connecticut-based real estate company into paying him and entities he controlled $750,000 by using some of the same deceptions he employed in the “Rebecca” scheme. HOTTON was arrested this morning at his Long Island residence, and is expected to be presented in federal court in Central Islip, New York.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As described in the criminal complaint, Mark Hotton perpetrated stranger-than-fiction frauds both on and off Broadway. As part of one alleged scheme, Hotton concocted a cast of characters to invest in a major musical – investors who turned out to be deep-pocketed phantoms. To carry out the alleged fraud, Hotton faked lives, faked companies and even staged a fake death, pretending that one imaginary investor had suddenly died from malaria. As also alleged, Hotton enlisted his same cast of invisible men to carry out a real estate scam. Ultimately, Hotton’s imagination was no match for the FBI which uncovered, with lightning speed, his alleged financial misdeeds.”
FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Galligan said: “In his alleged scheme to defraud investors, Mark Hotton wrote, directed and starred in the work of fiction he took to Broadway. He even allegedly played the supporting characters – phantom investors who existed only in fictitious emails and Hotton’s bogus assertions about them. A convincing portrayal on stage can earn you a Tony. A convincing act that fleeces a production’s backers can earn you a prison term.”
The following allegations are based on the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
From September 2011 to October 2012, HOTTON, a businessman and stockbroker with ties to numerous corporate entities, engaged in two separate schemes involving fictitious individuals and entities that he created in order to defraud his victims – the producers of “Rebecca,” a musical based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, and a Connecticut-based real estate company.
The “Rebecca” Fraud
The budget for “Rebecca” was between $12 million and $14 million. In January 2012, the show’s producers (the “Producers”) realized they were $4 million short of their minimum capitalization goal, and began looking for new ways to raise the money. On February 7, 2012, the Producers’ company entered into an agreement with TM Consulting, Inc., a company controlled by MARK HOTTON, in order to raise the additional funds. Under the agreement, HOTTON received a fee of $7,500, and a guarantee of 8% of any funds he raised in excess of $250,000, plus tiered percentages of “Rebecca’s net profits.”
Over the course of the next few months, HOTTON led the Producers to believe that he had secured $4.5 million from four overseas investors: “Paul Abrams,” of Hawthorne, East Victoria; “Roger Thomas,” of St. Peter Port, Guernsey; “Julian Spencer,” of Crocker Hill, Chichester, Sussex; and “Walter Timmons,” of London, United Kingdom (the “HOTTON Investors”). HOTTON provided the Producers with purported email contact information for the four men and gave them investment agreements the HOTTON Investors had purportedly signed. The Producers also received emails that supposedly came from the HOTTON Investors.
Under the terms of the agreement between HOTTON and the Producers, they paid him over $15,000 in fees and commissions between March and June 2012. In April 2012, HOTTON also demanded and was paid an additional $18,000 “advance” against his 8% commission, claiming that he needed the money to cover the costs of a purported safari he had taken with “Paul Abrams,” and Abrams’ eldest son.
The investigation, which began in late September 2012, quickly revealed that HOTTON had concocted an elaborate fraud and that the HOTTON Investors did not in fact exist. For example, the purported HOTTON Investors’ email addresses were controlled by HOTTON, and some of the IP addresses used to access their email accounts traced back to a location in Manhattan where HOTTON did business. The businesses associated with some of the email addresses for the HOTTON Investors also have websites, the domain names of which were registered to HOTTON and which he apparently created shortly before and during the fraud. The investigation revealed that HOTTON used the email addresses to fabricate correspondence between himself and the HOTTON Investors, which he then forwarded to the Producers. In some instances, he used the email addresses to communicate directly with the Producers.
When the Producers began pressing for the HOTTON Investors to wire the money they had promised to send by July 31, 2012, HOTTON orchestrated the false illness, hospitalization, and untimely “death” of one of the main HOTTON Investors, “Paul Abrams.” HOTTON then fabricated correspondence with a man named “Wexler,” who had purportedly been named the executor of the estate of “Paul Abrams,” and with whom he claimed to be meeting in England in August 2012 in an effort to ensure that the contribution to “Rebecca” was still made. However, travel records indicate that HOTTON has not left the United States since April 2012. Further, the email address used by “Wexler” is associated with a domain name that was set up and registered to HOTTON.
As it became increasingly apparent that the commitments of the HOTTON Investors would fall through, HOTTON then purported to try to broker a $1.1 million loan for the Producers, even offering up his own real estate and brokerage account as collateral for the loan. But there was no real loan or lender. Rather, HOTTON had created a second set of apparently fictional individuals and entities. He created the domain name of the title company he said could assist the Producers in obtaining the loan; invented the business, SPS Equity, that was purportedly making the loan; manufactured email correspondence with individuals, including “Gus” and “Robert Phillips” who purportedly worked for the lender; and invented a company that he said was a “commercial lending affiliate” of the bank that would facilitate his phony offer to put up collateral for the loan. HOTTON used this part of the scheme to lure the Producers into paying him and entities he controlled in excess of $35,000. This included $10,000 paid to him personally, as half of a fee for helping to broker the loan, and $23,000 paid to a bank account for the “lender,” but which was really controlled by HOTTON’s sister and administrative assistant.
The Connecticut Real Estate Fraud
Beginning in September 2011, HOTTON agreed to help the president of a Real Estate Company (the “President”) obtain financing for various business ventures. He told the President that a California-based group called “Pacific Ventures” and its affiliate, “Mezzanine Capital,” would assist in providing a $20 million loan. HOTTON provided the same email address he told the Producers in the “Rebecca” scheme was supposedly used by “Paul Abrams,” Abrams’ assistants, and “Walter Timmons” as the email address for “Pacific Ventures.” He also provided the same email address that was used by “Roger Thomas” in the “Rebecca” scheme as an email address for a contact at “Mezzanine Capital.”
In March 2012, HOTTON told the President that a third company, “CPS Equity,” would be able to process the loan, but required a $200,000 upfront fee, which the President paid. CPS Equity was the company associated with the email address used by “Paul Abrams” when communicating with “Rebecca’s Producers.” Following the initial $200,000 payment, HOTTON further instructed the President to make additional payments in order to secure the loan. The President did so, providing payments totaling $101,685.43 in May, and an additional $450,000 between May 2012 and October 2012. Some of that money was wired to the same bank account into which “Rebecca’s Producers” wired $23,000 – a bank account controlled by HOTTON’s sister and administrative assistant.
To date, the Real Estate Company has still not received any of the funding that HOTTON promised to arrange. Furthermore, HOTTON has continued to send messages to the President in connection with the scheme, and has done so as recently as October 11, 2012.
* * *
HOTTON, 46, of West Islip, New York, is charged with two counts of wire fraud. He faces a maximum term of twenty years in prison on each count.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah E. McCallum, Edward B. Diskant, and Zachary Feingold are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges and allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Mary Wilson Still Rules Supreme with First Film, Costume Tour and More
Mary Wilson is the hardest working woman in show business after more than 50 years. Yes, Mary, 68, and looking like a million bucks, has managed to outlast her Motown curse. The original Supreme, she hung in there after the dismissal of Florence Ballard, the departure of Diana Ross, and countless fights to keep her name. Now Mary is still cooking hot. This summer, and even now, she’s touring with former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and his big band across Europe. She’s recorded her a new single, available on iTunes, and has a jazz album out that contains her stunning versions of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”–a smash in her live show.
This week, Mary was featured in the New York Times for her traveling show of Supremes costumes. It’s gone to Philadelphia for an exhibit. http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/reliving-the-glamour-of-the-supremes/?ref=style
And, Mary is also filming her first movie, in her hometown of Detroit. It’s an indie called “Golden Shoes,” with a typically eclectic cast including Eric Roberts, Vivica A. Fox, and Montell Williams. “It’s only a small part, a couple of lines, really,” Mary told me before a sold out show she performed in Fairfield, Connecticut. “But it’s a beginning. This way I can see how it’s all done.”
Unflagging optimism has kept her going through tough times. She has a big family, but lost a son in a car accident years ago. He’s always on her mind. But she’s practical, and a survivor. It helps that her voice has gotten richer and deeper over the years. She just found out about the death of Frank Wilson, (no relation) the Motown songwriter who saw her through the post-Ross days with hit singles like “Nathan Jones” and “Up the Ladder to the Roof.” Frank Wilson gave the group a chance to shine without Ross.
In concert, she performs “Someday We’ll Be Together”–the song that Diana Ross recorded as the Supremes, but Wilson or Cindy Birdsong– it was Ross’s surprise farewell from the group. It’s a poignant reminder of what was and what could have been.
Exclusive: A “Roger Rabbit” Sequel May Happen After All, Says Director
Robert Zemeckis is in town for the premiere of his excellent drama, “Flight,” the closing film of the New York Film Festival. Yes, “Flight” could be a Best Picture nominee, Denzel Washington is a cinch for a Best Actor nod, Zemeckis has done a fine job and the original screenplay is very, very good. But wait–all that in a minute.
Zemeckis told me last night that, although he’s sad about the retirement of Bob Hoskins, he has a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” ready to go. The brilliant 1988 combination live action and animation film has been begging for a sequel forever. “I have a script at Disney, and we’re just waiting for all the executive changes to settle down there,” Zemeckis told me. If I know Alan Horn, that’s a project he’ll get moving quickly. What great news!
Now, to “Flight,” in which Denzel plays a pilot who has to land a jumbojet in an open field when his plane–full of passengers–suddenly breaks apart. The crash sequences are startling realistic, and his character–Whip–is a hero for saving lives.
But “Flight” turns out not to the Sully Sullenberger story at all. It’s a far richer, more textured story. And once it starts playing out, Washington and Zemeckis take us on a brilliant but harrowing ride. The movie is so perfectly cast that every part of it works. It’s also kind of a breakthrough because Washington is joined by Don Cheadle, the other top African American actor in Hollywood for drama. Cheadle plays the lawyer who has to keep Whip from destroying his own life and career. And the cool thing, in this very well crafted screenplay by John Gatins, is that race is never mentioned. “Flight” may be remembered as a watershed film.
Other terrific actors: the very fine Tamara Tunie as a flight attendant who may play an integral role in Whip’s future; Bruce Greenwood as the airline rep; James Badge Dale as a character in what can only be thought of the as the movie’s surreal moment; Brian Geraghty as the copilot, Melissa Leo, Kelly Reilly, and John Goodman in what may be his Oscar turn of the year.
The movie also has an excellent soundtrack including few songs by the Rolling Stones and a sly scene in which the Muzaked version of the Beatles “With a Little Help from My Friends” is playing in an elevator.
“Flight” isn’t perfect, but it’s very well played as a search for truth even when no one really wants to find it. The question is whether or not Whip, albeit a hero, is also lying to himself and to others about his demons. And Denzel is great at playing bad. Just as in “Training Day,” he sort of beams the worse his characters behave. And Whip behaves very badly.
Great party followed the screening, at the Stone Rose, but for some reason neither Denzel nor Don Cheadle showed up at accept kudos. The rest of the cast was there, as well as Paramount chief Brad Grey, Debra Winger, who brought her 15 year old son Babe Howard (father is actor Arliss Howard), director James Toback, New York veteran actors Bob Dishy and Judy Graubart, Celia Weston, Mitchell Lichtenstein, and Marisa Tomei. Marisa and Tamara (a “Law & Order” vet for years) are both graduates of “As the World Turns”–although Marisa preceded Tamara by a couple of years. They reminisced about the show and another grad who Marisa had run into earliert that day, Julianne Moore.
Tamara, by the way, married to singer Gregory Generet, starts her gig singing at Feinstein’s at the Regency beginning October 30th. The photo with this story was taken by Greg, who was tall enough to get it while fans and other photogs crowded around the actresses.
James Franco Will Join Supporting Actor Race with “Spring Breakers”
Exclusive: James Franco, already an Oscar nominee in the lead category for “127 Hours,” is throwing his hat in this year’s race. I’m told Annapurna Pictures will give Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” a qualifying run in December so that Franco is eligible. His character, Alien, is a runaway hit, and a surprising centerpiece of Korine’s as-usual saga of sex among teens–this time on spring break in Florida.
Alien turns out to be some of Franco’s best work, and certainly one of the top 5 supporting performances by an actor this season. At first when you see Franco with his cornrows, tattoos, and grillwork, you think he’s playing some run of the mill cheeseball drug dealing pimp. Then you realize that it’s a real character Franco has created, and Alien becomes quite the layered persona. Annapurna (owned by Megan Ellison, who also has “The Master” with TWC this season) will have to get screeners into voters’ hands, and or get Academy members into screening rooms ASAP.
Franco will be going up against a strong crowd that starts with Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master” and includes Alan Arkin and John Goodman in “Argo,” Robert DeNiro in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Jim Broadbent in “Cloud Atlas,” and as yet to be determined players from “Les Miserables” and “Django Unchained.” And those are just the top tier names. Roberto Benigni was a standout in “To Rome with Love,” Bill Nighy was memorable in “Exotic Marigold Hotel,” and Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln.”
The always busy Franco has just wrapped directing and acting in “As I Lay Dying,” the Faulkner classic. He’s off to film “Homefront” in New Orleans, with Jason Statham and Winona Ryder, and written by Sylvester Stallone.
Jon Hamm, Adam Scott Are Mad Men in “Simon & Simon” Opening Remake
I don’t know why, but Adam Scott has directed himself and Jon Hamm in a remake of the “Simon & Simon” opening sequence. It’s from the Adult Swim channel. Paul Rudd plays the director of the sequence, which costs around $10 million. Gus van Sant and Megan Mullally make appearances. The whole thing is a goof, and pretty funny. There’s also a making of segment that precedes the actual video, hosted by Jeff Probst.The making of is longer than the actual video.
Tagged as “The Greatest Event in Television History,” the whole thing runs as the main video on our home page. Some people sure do have a lot of time–and money– on their hands. Idle minds are indeed the devil’s workshop.
PS Gerald McRaney works all the time. But whatever happened to Jameson Parker? Please let us know.
Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton Coming to Support Obama in Ohio
Bruce Springsteen is joining the presidential race. He’s coming to an Obama rally in Parma, Ohio on October 18th, where he will no doubt put on a great performance. Springsteen’s appearance in Ohio, a swing state, maybe the first of several in places where Obama supporters need reassurance and a little entertainment. Previously, the Boss said he was staying out of the race. But he helped Obama in 2008 and it worked. The Obama campaign uses Bruce’s “We Take Care of Our Own” as one of its rallying cries. Bill Clinton will also speak at the Parma event. Maybe he’ll play a little sax with Bruce. It’s unclear whether Bruce will be on his own or joined by members of the E Street Band.
Meanwhile, E Street’s Steve van Zandt is in the last leg of raising money for his Rascals reunion shows on Kickstarter.com. van Zandt needs $20,000 more in donations. The Rascals — and I’m told this is a scoop– were the first band Stevie and Bruce ever saw. And both at the same time, and before they knew each other. This was at the Keyport Roller Drome Battle of the Bands in 1965.
So contribute already, says my source– to Obama and to the Rascals!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevenvanzandt/the-rascals-once-upon-a-dream-reunion-shows?ref=live