Pixar/Disney’s “Brave” was a big hit over the weekend, bringing in $66 million. Audiences loved it. A bunch of kids went from a barbeque I was at to see a 4pm show, and were already talking about seeing it again. There were doubters, but a strong female lead character blazed the trail. Meanwhile, both the Tom Cruise “Rock of Ages” and Adam Sandler “That’s My Boy” continued to die slow deaths. They’re now both at $28 million total with no foreign interest really. Each one took in $8 million for the entire weekend. Another actor who should be drawing an audience, Steve Carell, did very poorly as well. His “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” did a lowly $3.8 million even in semi-full release. That movie has no traction; it’s over. It’s also a studied bad imitation of a great movie from years ago called “Last Night.” Carell without “The Office” is not soaring. “The Office” is dying without him. I’m just saying…Meanwhile, Woody Allen did just fine with “To Rome with Love” in limited release. In 5 theaters it did a total of $379,000. Woody’s fans are going to make a big effort here, and they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Barbara Walters Had A Secret Meeting with Rielle Hunter In Her NYC Apartment Three Years Ago
So. Barbara Walters had Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, over to her posh New York City apartment three years ago. It was a secret meeting. Hunter writes in “What Really Happened”: “She was really angling hard for me to talk to her.” The whole thing was off the record. Hunter went because she wanted to see how Barbara lived. Barbara wanted Rielle for “20/20.” She brought her friend Mimi Hockman and baby Quinn. Walters she says, used the fact that Hunter knew the daughter of her agent, Mort Janklow, as bait to get Hunter come to lunch at all.
Hunter writes in her book, “What Really Happened,” that she backed off of Walters’ advances when “20/20,” she says, “rolled out the red carpet for the Youngs”–Andrew and Cheri–“allowing them to spew their BS on national TV. Of course, Barbara screaming at me on the phone, trying to bully me into doing her interview, also didn’t do her any favors.”
Ironically, Hunter has now been on “20/20” and has a deal with ABC for multiple appearances. Elsewhere in the book. Hunter writes that John Edwards was obsessed with comments George Stephanopolous made around that time about Edwards being the possible father of Hunter’s baby. Now this week, Hunter will appear with Stephanopolous on “Good Morning America.” That should be pretty interesting.
Rielle Hunter: Elizabeth Edwards “Was In A Constant Tirade, Using Her Cancer As a Weapon…”
If we’re appalled enough by Rielle Hunter, now we know who to blame: Cary Woods, the producer of many indie films including “Scream” and “Swingers.” A very active presence in the 1990s and early 200s, Woods went on to start Plum TV in the Hamptons, According to Hunter in her non-informational book, ‘What Really Happened,” it was Woods who she went to in 2006 when she wanted to make documentary “films” or webisodes about then Senator John Edwards so she could stay near him. Years ago, Hunter’s friend Mimi Hockman told me there had been a Hollywood connection but never named Woods. Hunter trots him right out in the book–one of the few names she does give–and the guy who set everything up.
That’s all we know of Woods’s involvement because he–like her ex husband Kip Hunter and ex boyfriend Jay McInerney–makes the briefest of appearances in “What Really Happened.” Hunter gives little background in this book. So don’t fork over 20 bucks or more thinking you’re getting the whole story. You’re getting what Rielle Hunter wants you to know. She has one sister she likes and one she doesn’t talk to. Her father died in 1990, and she had his ashes. I couldn’t find any mention of a mother. Or how she morphed from Lisa Jo Druck to Rielle Hunter. She doesn’t say a word about her father’s scandals, or her life in the 80s in New York. It’s as if she just appeared one day, like Mary Poppins, to save John Edwards from a life of drudgery with wife Elizabeth and their three kids. (There’s just a thank you to her parents at the end.)
Hunter does list among her thank yous John Edwards’ two younger children with Elizabeth. There is no mention of Cate Edwards, his eldest surviving child, who was her own mother’s staunchest supporter. Indeed, there’s no mention of Cate at all in the book, or of Wade, the 16 year old son whom the Edwardses lost.
Hunter does go on and on about one thing: Elizabeth Edwards, how crazy and awful and obsessed she was. She doesn’t care that the woman is dying of cancer. You see, it’s bigger than that. From page 205: “And while Elizabeth paraded around on TV as the poor victim wife who had overcome her husband’s one time only shortcoming…She was in a constant tirade, using her cancer and Emma and Jack as weapons in the war against a father trying to take care of his daughter [Hunter’s new born illegitimate child with Edwards]…All the pain she was experiencing was because of Rielle Hunter. She drilled that into their heads. My heart broke for those kids. How sad for them to grow up in a household like that.”
Rielle Hunter ABC Interview Doesn’t Do Much for Book Sales
Rielle Hunter’s interview with Chris Cuomo on “20/20”? It pushed her self-aggrandizing book, “What Really Happened,” all the way up to 94 this morning on amazon. com. Not exactly a pre-publication swarm for the cash registers. Chris Cuomo, I thought, did a pretty good job of looking incredulous throughout the proceedings. He was skeptical and didn’t hesitate to push Hunter on her series of ridiculous answers. And all of that seemed highly improbably given that ABC has obviously made some kind of overall deal with Hunter: she’s on “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” and “The View” next week. I’m surprised she didn’t also get a walk on on “General Hospital.” She doesn’t seem to mind being cross examined. Whatever deal she’s made, she’s happy– to be famous, to have helped wreck John Edwards’ life, the life of his kids, and to speak negatively about his dead wife, Elizabeth, at length.
It’s utterly fascinating, as long as it’s free. Pay for her book, “What Really Happened”? Not on your life. Why would anyone give this woman money, especially after zillionaires Bunny Mellon and the late Fred Baron did just that? It’s not like it helped their reputations. I say, the confessions of Rielle Hunter–real name Lisa Jo Druck–are best obtained without opening your wallet.
But look–“20/20” did gloss over a lot. Asked why Hunter put up with Edwards and his shenanigans, she said she something about coming from a wealthy Southern family. No one mentioned the infamous scandal involving her late father allegedly attempting to collect insurance money after having her thoroughbred horse killed. That was just erased. Or that Hunter is not her name. It’s the last name of her first husband, a lawyer who does not talk about her. The ABC overview is that she had a “career” in Hollywood. That’s one way of putting it. This much we know: She was a regular visitor to the set of the TV show, “24.” She made a short film no one ever heard of in 2000 called “Billy Bob and Them.”
There was no mention, really, of her hard partying Druck days. Of her life in New York in the 1980s. Of Jay McInerney’s bad short novel, “Story of My Life,” and how the character Alison Poole is based on her.
There was a good story about Hunter on abcnews.com back in 2008: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lives-rielle-hunter/story?id=5560261&page=2#.T-VnLvU1Oa8. I wrote about her, too, right before that: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400663,00.html
Also: no mention how in 2009, after the Baron and Mellon dried up, she and baby Quinn were abandoned by Edwards. That she lived with her best friend and the friend’s family in New Jersey, waiting for Edwards to pony up. There was a long stand off. And Hunter/Druck has not actually held a job or earned a paycheck since at least 2006 that didn’t involve Edwards. She wasn’t employed when she met him, then she went to work for his campaign, and then a series of people funded her. Now she wants us to fund her by buying the book. I think not.
Oscar for Best Song? Could Go to Peter Asher, The Man Who Discovered James Taylor
Peter Asher celebrated his 68th birthday Friday night by doing two shows at Feinstein’s at the Regency. He’s got two more shows tonight (Saturday) and if you’re a Beatles fan or a fan of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, or Peter & Gordon, the British singing duo of the mid 60s, get over there. Not only that: Peter Asher wrote the main song– “Love Always Comes as a Surprise” from “Madagascar 3” with Hans Zimmer. Trust me: It will be nominated for Best Song this winter for the Oscars. He was also there in his own house in London when Paul McCartney and John Lennon composed “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on his mother’s piano.
McCartney dated Peter’s actress sister Jane for years, and lived with the Ashers in their posh home. It’s where he wrote tons of songs including several for Peter (Asher) and Gordon (Waller) that became international hits, like “A World Without Love.” All of this Asher tells in his highly entertaining mixed media show at Feinstein’s that features a top notch L.A. rock band. With the band he sings his own hits, and the band plays Badfinger’s classic hit, “Day After Day.” (Badfinger was on the Beatles’ Apple Records, which Asher ran for McCartney.)
Asher’s show should be filmed as a feature documentary, and he should write a book. He’s reluctant to do either. But the former child star turned pop singer of the 60s turned manager-producer of Taylor and Ronstadt has a lot of great stories. (He also discovered Taylor. And he’s the only rock manager I can think of who was ever on the cover of Rolling Stone.) He tells them compellingly in his show, and it’s really almost unbelievable how much rock history he has witnessed or created. But it’s all true, which makes it very cool. Also, his daughter Victoria is lead “keytarist” and singer for the band Cobra Starship. The apple (or Apple) doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Last night actor Michael Murphy and Kathryn Altman, widow of director Robert Altman, and comic Taylor Negron, were among the guests at Feinstein’s. Maureen van Zandt, wife of E Streeter Steve van Zandt, brought go-go girls to help celebrate Asher’s birthday. Catch one of those last two shows tonight. The next ones are in August on Martha’s Vineyard, with special guest Kate Taylor (sister of James).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i5JAPrulNQ
Susan Lucci Back on TV with New Show from “Desperate Housewives” Creator
That didn’t take too long. Susan Lucci, who ruled daytime TV for 41 years on “All My Children,” is coming back. Lucci will star in “Devious Maids,” the new show from “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry. Ironically, the comedy–an “Upstairs Downstairs” for the 2010s–comes from ABC Productions. “All My Children” was unceremoniously dumped by ABC last year, and not even given a proper send off.Lifetime has ordered 13 episodes, scheduled to start airing in 2013.
Lucci is a survivor, and a popular presence on TV. Her character, Erica Kane, was probably the best known soap diva of all time. In the new show, La Lucci will play one of the wealthy employers of the devious maids of the title. Among the show’s other stars are Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Judy Reyes (The Pregnancy Project), Dania Ramirez (Entourage), Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace), Edy Ganem (Livin’ Loud) and Grant Show (Melrose Place).
Re Sarah Palin: Julianne Moore Thanks the Republicans for “A Great American Story”
The week went by so fast, but the highlight in L.A. was the Critics Choice Television Awards, presented by Broadcast Television Journalists Association. Our LEAH SYDNEY reports that when Julianne Moore won Best Actress in a Movie or Mini Series for playing Sarah Palin in “Game Change” she had a great acceptance speech. Julianne said: “You can’t give a great performance without a great story. So I thank the Republican Party for fostering such a truly amazing American Story.”
The big story of the night was the win for “Homeland” as Best Drama and “Community” for Best Comedy. Will these choices cross over to the Emmys? I doubt it. “Mad Men” is still the Best Drama. But “Community” could turn out to be the surprise.
There were plenty of celebs at the Beverly Hilton for the awards. Judd Apatow came for HBO’s “Girls” and brought his 14 year old daughter, Maude, with him. (Her mother of course is Leslie Mann.) In Apatow’s new movie, “This is 40?” Maude plays the daughter of Mann and Paul Rudd. It’s the sort-of sequel to “Knocked Up,” a very funny movie.
What does he think of the state of comedy in show business now?
“It’s a great moment in comedy in Hollywood now,” Apatow said. “It’s the Golden Age of Comedy now in my mind. So many amazing things happening in Film and TV. It’s blowing my mind on a daily basis. I’m really loving what I’m seeing now.”
More notes from Leah:
Don Cheadle told me about his current job starring on Showtime’s hit “House Of Lies.” Don told me, “The dialogue is so quick. We have great writers and we improvise too. I love having a TV gig like this. ”
Jimmy Kimmel, who later lost to his pal Jimmy Fallon for Best Talk Show, told me that “I love being here. It’s the first time in ten years I’ve gone to an award show that I’m not hosting or presenting. I’m just going to have a good time. ”
The night was fast and funny. Presenters were typically irreverent. “New Girl”‘s Zooey Deschanel and “Glee’s” Chris Colfer got wrapped up in tablecloths because Zooey thought, “the critics won’t like my dress. ” They proceeded to kowtow to the critics throughout. Must have worked because Zooey later won! She tied with Amy Poehler for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
Cloris Leachman, 86 and getting younger, scored the biggest laughs of the night. As she presented for Best Talk Show, she recited without missing a beat, every talk show she had been on since the beginning of her storied career.
Talented actress Natalie Zea previewed for the VIP crowd Kevin Williamson’s new Fox series, “The Following,” starring Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy and lovely Natalie. “The Following,” premieres in January and is already garnering raves from critics.
I also caught up with “Breaking Bad’s” terrific Giancarlo Esposito who was named Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Giancarlo told me, ” It’s nice when especially the Broadcast Critics Association regards your work because they see everything. They know the good and the bad, and what could be and what didn’t make it. This is like silver and gold wrapped up in a polished diamond.”
After the event I spoke with BFCA President Joey Berlin who told me, “The whole thing has grown so expediently over the last year and the future looks even brighter. We couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s just an industry thing, so we have talent, executives and show runners. It’s a real inside look on the business. We take it very seriously. It’s a great night.”
Miami Heat Win, Also A WIn for Sam & Dave Circa 1969
The Miami Heat are the NBA champs at last. But another group from Miami will come out a winner from these NBA finals. Sam & Dave–the greatest singing duo in the history of R&B– were featured in an NBA clip that used their hit “I Thank You” from an Ed Sullivan show in 1969. In the new version, Big Heads of NBA all-stars were superimposed on Sam Moore, Dave Prater and their band. Ironically, Sam & Dave were from Miami and generated just as much heat. Now Sam Moore, who plays the City Winery July 17th in New York and is getting ready to record a new album, will have a nice pay day along with every one who was on that clip. Here’s a link to the NBA commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1FGelSyqEo. The original 1969 video –which shows what soul music is supposed to be from the real Soul Men (not Cedric the Entertainer, thank you)–is in our video player at the bottom of this page.
Lily Rabe is The New Queen of Shakespeare in the Park
Lily Rabe stole the show last night as Rosalind in “As You Like It,” the 50th anniversary production of New York’s Shakespeare in the Park. Joe Papp was smiling from heaven as his Public Theater triumphed in 90 degree heat, putting on a hell of a fun season opener. As current director of the Public Oskar Eustis noted, Papp had to battle the formidable Robert Moses in 1962 to get the city to allow free Shakespeare in Central Park. Now we couldn’t live without it. On Monday night there was a big expensive fundraiser honoring Al Pacino with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Christopher Walken reading “Romeo and Juliet” to wealthy patrons.
But last night it was back to “for the people.” And the star was Lily Rabe, daughter of playwright David Rabe and the late great actress Jill Clayburgh. She co-starred with Pacino in “Merchant of Venice” previously, but now she’s in the spotlight in Shakespeare’s rigorous comedy that puts her on stage for most of the show. Oliver Platt, Stephen Spinella, Renee Elise Goldsberry and David Furr are her immediate co-stars. But it’s Rabe who holds the stage for all of the second act, and kept the audience so rapt that they didn’t mind the scorching night heat. Bravo!
In the audience: Patricia Clarkson, new Tony winner Judith Light, Julia Stiles and actor boyfriend David Harbour, Mickey Sumner (actress daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler), Platt’s “The Big C” co-star John Benjamin Hickey, proud papa David Rabe, and loads of New York actors fanning themselves with the program. (It doesn’t work!) Clarkson, by the way, heads to the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts for two weeks this summer. She’s going to bare her best in “The Elephant Man” with Bradley Cooper and Alessandro Nivola. I’m sure it’s already sold out! On Saturday the three actors are meeting at Clarkson’s place to run through their lines for the first time. See what actors do for us? You’ll be at the beach.
Today Show’s Ann Curry Unpopular? She’s Got Over A Million Twitter Followers
The Today Show wars: someone wants to get rid of Ann Curry. The stories being planted in the press are like mini assassinations. Ann Curry is not the reason for the erosion of ratings at the Today show. Here’s some facts: Ann Curry has nearly 1.2 million followers on Twitter. Matt Lauer has 144,000. Matt’s only sent out five Tweets of his own. And all of them were to support Justin Bieber’s appearance on the show. He actually told his followers to go out and buy Bieber’s album.
Curry’s Q rating is very high. “People love Ann,” says an observer, which is true. In Cannes this year, I had a long talk with Ann –who I don’t know very well– about the state of journalism today, celebrity, and the Today show. What I liked about her was her total candor. and her devotion to the show.
I got the feeling Curry would step aside if she thought she was harming the show’s ratings. She’s not. Several things factor into the ratings of the morning shows. One of those things is the prime time ratings of each network. Believe it or not, people start the day with the network they left the night before. Once upon a time, NBC was must see TV on Thursdays, a lot of “Law & Order,” and many 10pm hits. Then Jay Leno was put in the 10pm slot, and dramas were cancelled. It’s taken NBC eons to try and repair that damage.
Am I missing something here? Ann Curry is popular with the viewers. Before NBC makes a terrible mistake, they’d better stop and think about this. The viewers are already drifting toward “Good Morning America.” They’re sympathetic to Robin Roberts’ recent terrible health news. They don’t need an excuse to go. But tossing Ann Curry, in whom they’ve invested many years, could do the trick. If Matt Lauer were looking for the brave, smart, or chivalrous thing to do, he’d come to Curry’s support right now. He’d look like the hero of the day.