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Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton Returns to Cleaning School in Scotland

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton Returns to Cleaning School in Scotland

So many movies, so little time, so much confusion: the Peggy Siegal Company is so busy throwing screenings-and… parties for all the movies opening this season, this was bound to happen. After the premiere for Simon Curtis‘s “My Week with Marilyn,” some of us also received invites for the premiere of Lynne Ramsay‘s “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” What else could happen, but Siegal’s office sent a follow up on the Curtis premiere. The subject title of the email? “We Need to Talk About Marilyn.” A dazed Siegal herself told me, with a chuckle: “I think I’ve combined “War Horse and The Iron Lady into Iron Horse.”

Peggy’s associate, Melanie Blum, realized the error and corrected it within 30 seconds. But this may be a time when a mistake is welcome.

“Kevin” star Tilda Swinton told me at last night’s Pomellato-sponsored premiere of her film that it was one of the funniest things she’d head on her endless promo tour to launch the new film. Swinton, an Oscar winner, is in the mix for her extraordinary performance in “Kevin.” There is technically one spot open, with Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, and Glenn Close almost certain to have locks on spots 1-4.

Swinton is heading to Spain today and then back home. What will she do this weekend? “Clean my children’s school,” she said, and yes, with a straight face. One of Swinton’s great pleasures is actually cleaning –mops, pails, dusters–her kids’ small primary school in Scotland. Can’t she pay someone to do that, I asked? “Oh no. We’re very small. We do it ourselves.”

PS Thursday night, while the new and dreaded “Twilight” vampire movie opens somewhere, Peggy hosts the opening of Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Artist”–the film that’s headed to the Oscars in a big, big way…

19 Year White Jewish Rapper From Pittsburgh Has Number 1 Album

Roger Friedman
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19 Year White Jewish Rapper From Pittsburgh Has Number 1 Album

The number 1 album this week is “Blue Slide Park” by Mac Miller, real name Malcolm McCormick. He’s a 19 year old white Jewish rapper from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I know, this is unbelievable. Miller records for Rostrum Records, an indie label from Pittsburgh owned by a guy named Benjy Grinburg. It’s the same label that launched Wiz Khalifa on Atlantic Records. For the Mac Miller album, which is hip hop with melodies, Rostrum is distributed through Universal Music Group. The songs, such as they are, are mostly juvenile rap: “f— the police” is a chorus line. But apparently Mac actually plays instruments, and is a serious musician. So give him props. And he told one radio interviewer that he loves all kinds of music including the Beatles and Sublime. It does seem like Mac Miller’s success comes from hard work and social networking on Facebook, where he has more than a million “friends.” He also has million Twitter followers. All that translated into about 149,000 CD sales, however. (Interesting, huh?) If you’re 50, and you’ve been working all your life, stay away from open windows today. Mac Miller says, “I’m full of love. I love music.” You can’t be against that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zMC_XD-Eug8#!

Exclusive Audio: Frank Cascio Reads the Prologue to “My Friend Michael”

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive Audio: Frank Cascio Reads the Prologue to “My Friend Michael”

Today Frank Cascio publishes his extraordinary book, “My Friend Michael,” about his life with Michael Jackson, from Harper Collins. The publisher has shared with this site exclusively Cascio reading the prologue of the book. (Official publication date is today.) Michael Jackson fans have almost as much trouble with the Cascio family as the Jacksons and co-executor John McClain. Dominic Cascio, his wife Connie, and their kids became Jackson’s second family some twenty years ago. Michael loved the Cascios. As far as I can tell, the family never took advantage of him. They housed him when he was homeless. They accepted him. When Jackson needed people around him who didn’t want anything, he went to the Cascios. Jackson fans are making a mistake, I think, when they don’t appreciate that the Cascios are Michael’s true heirs. He spent vastly more time than with anyone else starting in the early 90s. Press the play button to hear Frank, exclusively.

[audio:http://www.showbiz411.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/My-Friend-Michael-Prologue.mp3|titles=Exclusive: Frank Cascio Reads the Prologue to His Book “My Friend Michael”]

From the book:

“When Michael and I had free time at Neverland Ranch, his 2,700-acre fantastical home/amusement park/zoo/retreat near Santa Barbara, we liked to kick back and relax. Sometimes he would ask me if we should just get some movies, stay in, and “stink.” (Michael had a particular affinity for juvenile jokes about body odor.) On one of those days, when the sun was just about to set, Michael said, “Come on, Frank. Let’s go up to the mountain.” Neverland was nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley, and mountains surrounded the property. He named the tallest one Mount Katherine, after his mother. The property had numerous paths that led up to the peaks, where the sunsets were extraordinary. We drove up one of those paths on a golf cart, sat down, and watched the sun flame out behind the mountains, shadowing them in purple. It was there that I finally understood the “purple mountain majesties” of “America the Beautiful.”

Sometimes helicopters flew over the property, trying to take pictures. Once or twice they saw us up in the mountains, and we sprinted away from them, trying to hide behind trees. But this time all was still. Michael was in a reflective mood, and he started talking about the rumors and accusations that plagued him. He found it all both funny and sad. At first he said he didn’t think he should have to explain himself to anyone. But then his tone changed.

“If people only knew how I really am, they would understand,” he said, his voice tinged with equal parts hope and frustration. We sat there in silence for a bit, both of us wishing there were a way for him to reveal himself, to have people truly understand who he was and how he lived.”

Audio and text c2011 Frank Cascio courtesy of HarperCollins

Sting Swings With New IPad “Appumentary”

Roger Friedman
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Sting Swings With New IPad “Appumentary”

Rocker Sting made a surprise appearance to the Apple store on the Upper West Side Monday night–and debuted his new “Appumentary” from Radical Media. The app– a knockout–features key performances from his all star 60th birthday show on October 1st at the Beacon Theater–with Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and Lady Gaga featured. There’s also tons of rare photos, clips from every song on every solo album, and sections dedicated to the Police and his charitable work. Rock journalist Anthony DeCurtis interviewed Sting on a makeshift stage before the Englishman in New York performed two songs with bassist Ira Coleman--“Message in a Bottle” and “Fragile”–the latter dedicated to late Apple founder Steve Jobs. The app, called “Sting 25 Years,” is free, underwritten by American Express as part of both the company’s and Sting’s big contribution to the Robin Hood Foundation. By the way, as usual, Springsteen–funny man–gets the best line in: “He has too many chords in his songs!” PS In the Apple audience: Sting’s adoring wife and companion of almost 30 years, the beautiful Trudie Styler, and their 16 year old son, Giacomo--youngest of his six remarkable children.

also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXcM25Yj42c

Michael Jackson Not A Pedophile, Says Author Who Grew Up with Him

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson Not A Pedophile, Says Author Who Grew Up with Him

Michael Jackson was not a pedophile. So says Frank Cascio, who grew up with Jackson as a kid along with his siblings. Cascio, now in his early 30s, details his life with Jackson in “My Friend Michael,” officially published tomorrow. It’s the first real, true account of Jackson, including recent books by his brother and sister, Jermaine and LaToya.

Cascio, who knew Jackson from age 5, knew Jordy Chandler and Macaulay Culkin and all the kids who passed through Neverland, writes: “Michael’s interest in young boys had absolutely nothing to do with sex. I say this with the unassailable confidence of firsthand experience, the confidence of a young boy who slept in the same room as Michael hundreds of times, and with the absolute conviction of a man who saw Michael interact with thousands of kids. In all the years that I was close to him, I saw nothing that raised any red flags, not as a child and not as an adult. Michael may have been eccentric, but that didn’t make him criminal.”

Cascio details all the times he and his brothers and sister slept in Jackson’s bedroom, and shares stories of other kids who got the Neverland treatment. Cascio has always maintained this stance, since I met him in 2000. His accounts jibe with those of Culkin and other young men who visited Neverland. Cascio recounts Jackson’s reluctance settle the Chandler case out of court. And he details the story of the greedy, scheming Arvizos.

This past weekend, some press accounts concentrated on Cascio’s admission that Jackson was hooked on a variety of drugs. Fair enough. But as a historical chronicle, “My Friend Michael” is about so much more. Because Cascio and his whole family had a unique place in Jackson’s life. He lived in their homes as an adult, and the Cascios were regular visitors at Neverland, and in Bahrain when Jackson went into self imposed exile. It was Frank Cascio’s minute record keeping in 2003 during the Gavin Arvizo scandal that exonerated Jackson from child molestation and conspiracy charges.

What makes Cascio’s book so compelling for Jackson fans aren’t the drug revelations. Cascio tells the story in minute detail of Jackson’s financial situation and the machinations of various people around him during a key period–from 1994 and the Jordy Chandler scandal through 2000, the “Invincible” album, and the arrest in 2003.

Cascio has no love lost for John McClain, Jackson’s sometime manager and now, by fluke of a 2002 will, the co-executor of his estate. According to Cascio’s account, which I reported at the time, McClain was a constant thorn in his side, undermining their friendship. Years later, in 2010, it would be McClain who would make a mess of the posthumous “Michael” album by encouraging fans to doubt the veracity of tracks produced by Cascio’s brother, Eddie.

“My Friend Michael” is a must read for any Michael Jackson fan. I’ll have some more bits from it as the day goes on.

 

 

James Franco Has A Seance, Lady Gaga Impersonator Participates

Roger Friedman
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1
James Franco Has A Seance, Lady Gaga Impersonator Participates

Tennessee Williams, the late and legendary playwright of “Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Glass Menagerie,” approves of actor James Franco. I know that because Williams was summoned twice on Sunday afternoon in seances held by Franco and filmmaker/artist Laurel Nakadate. In each of two shows–the second show had to be put on spontaneously because such a big crowd came for the first–the seance preceded clever monologue readings from “The Glass Menagerie” by aspiring actors and actresses found through a vaguely worded ad on Craigslist.

The very fun and spot on “Three Performances in Search of Tennessee” took place at the Abrons Art Center way downtown on the Lower East Side in the Henry Street Settlement as part of Performa-Arts. Franco was on a 24 hour pass from work in Detroit on “Oz, the Great and Powerful,” which has been shooting since July and won’t end until right before Christmas. He and the cheerful but intense Nakadate came up with this way to present Tennessee Williams uniquely. And so they did. A cynic such as this reporter certainly though the “seance” was staged, but the mediums on stage acted in earnest. When I mentioned to one between shows that I had better questions for Williams if he also returned for the second, the man looked aghast.

For about twenty minutes, Franco and Nakadate sat on stage in a pool of spotlight, flanking the two mediums. Their “cast” members formed a semi circle behind them in darkness. And Williams was “reached” by spiritual contact. The most we learned? He really likes James Franco, and missed a certain amount of love from his mother. He didn’t say who his favorite Blanche has been from “Streetcar,” whether he liked the Monkey Bar, or what was up with him and Truman Capote in the after life.

The second and third parts consisted of Franco pre-filmed, projected on a video screen, trading lines with actresses who took the stage one by one. They read their dialogue from lines printed on the video screen. All the ladies were found on Craigslist, and were successful to varying degrees. One was the official Lady Gaga impersonator, Lauren Francesca, who wore a leather bikini. Another swooped on stage like a female Zorro, with a cape. A third tried to upstage the event; instead of reading the dialogue she took out her cell phone and called her mother. It didn’t work.

For the men, which included performance artist Kalup Linzy as a drag queen, there were ups and downs. A highlight was Ryan McNamara, who spontaneously called Franco and Nakadate on stage to help him read his “Menagerie” soliloquy.

I can think of worse things to have done on a Sunday afternoon.

Don Murray, Hollywood Vet: “No one killed Marilyn Monroe”

Roger Friedman
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1
Don Murray, Hollywood Vet: “No one killed Marilyn Monroe”

Last night’s swanky premiere of “My Week with Marilyn” brought out stars Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh, Zoe Wanamaker and Dominic Cooper, the film’s director Simon Curtis, and a bunch of interesting people to the Paris Theater and to dinner at the four star La Petite Maison. director Stephen Frears (just finishing a cool sounding new film with Bruce Willis), Marisa Berenson (just published a dazzling book of photographs from her amazing life), Alana Stewart (visiting from L.A. with her book publisher), Ann Dexter-Jones (reveling in her kids’ successes), and actress Cody Horn (hot as a pistol in Jake Gyllenhaal‘s new cop film).

But my favorite was Hollywood vet leading man Don Murray who played Marilyn Monroe’s lover in “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan in 1956. After “Bus Stop,” Monroe filmed “The Prince and the Showgirl” with Sir Laurence Olivier –it’s the film that she’s making in “My Life with Marilyn.” Murray–now 82 and still looking like a matinee idol–was quite the star in 1956. He had a ton of films for the next years, all well regarded, with great directors and terrific casts. In 1979, he starred in the first season of “Knots Landing,” then opted out of the nighttime soap and even wrote his own on screen death.

Despite his long career, Murray is still asked about working with Monroe all the time–and occasionally gives lectures about her. At La Petite Maison, Murray –who’s from East Rockaway, Long Island!–was with his wife of 50 years, Bettie–who he wed after a shocking three year marriage to actress Hope Lange-–this was hot stuff in 1959, kids. He did tell me that Michelle Williams has gotten Marilyn “just right.” He’s so impressed with her performance that he came to New York to help her launch the film. Nice.

So was Monroe as spacy and difficult as seen in “My Week”? “Oh yes,” said Murray, who’s writing a book and a screenplay about his Monroe doctrine. “Josh Logan used to say, don’t do anything until I say ‘cut.’ We’re going to have to piece together this performance.” On the other hand, during “Bus Stop” Monroe, says Murray, “was very happy. She was having an affair with Arthur Miller. No one knew it, and she was enjoying the silence.” Within two years, she and Miller would marry and divorce, Marilyn would get involve with the Kennedys, and die a tragic death.

But–says Murray–“I don’t believe anyone killed her. I think she took one too many pills by accident.” And for more, we’ll have to wait for the book.

 

Help MusiCares Help Musicians This Christmas

Roger Friedman
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0
Help MusiCares Help Musicians This Christmas

Six music bloggers are competing for tickets to this year’s MusiCares Person of the Year dinner honoring Paul McCartney. Now you can read all their entries and vote to send some lucky writer to Los Angeles next February. Here’s the link: http://blog.musicares.com/2011/11/03/vote-musicares-blogger/ MusiCares is also running its Be A Part of the Heart campaign this Christmas, accepting donation from $1 up from all music fans. This is all to help musicians in need. The people who play on your favorite records don’t necessarily have health insurance, and often need assistance. They’re not Madonna. They’re the people who make Madonna’s–and other artists like Rihanna, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Carrie Underwood– sound so good.

Conrad Murray Tries to Kill Michael Jackson Again in “Documentary”

Roger Friedman
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Conrad Murray Tries to Kill Michael Jackson Again in “Documentary”

So MSNBC on Friday night broadcast a really pathetic, sort of disgracefully one sided documentary about Michael Jackson’s murderer, Dr. Conrad Murray. Obviously “Michael Jackson and the Doctor” was filmed with the hope that Murray would be acquitted. They were wrong. Creepy “journalist” Gerald Posner, who was bounced from Tina Brown’s Daily Beast after it was discovered he was guilty of plagiarism, seems to be behind the whole thing. He not only has a credit but appears on camera with Murray riding home from court. That should tell you everything: stay away from this one hour.

What did we learn? That Murray found god about three weeks after Michael died. That his lawyers fought among themselves. Lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff, who came with Murray from Houston, actually got kicked out of the house where he was staying–with Beverly Hills co counsel Michael  Flanagan–after the two of them fell out over a witness’s examination. Their on camera blow out reminded me of something from “The Real World.” The lawyers for Murray are also seen eating a lot.

Murray himself blames Michael for this whole situation, accusing him of “betrayal.” The one hour report backfires. Murray simply appears self-serving as he tries to lay the blame for Jackson’s death on concert promoter AEG Live, his lawyers are incompetent, and MSNBC should be ashamed of itself. Good thing the jury was smart. The judge should sentence Murray, his lawyers, and MSNBC to a long term.

Beatles: Universal-EMI Deal Still Has Gray Areas

Roger Friedman
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1
Beatles: Universal-EMI Deal Still Has Gray Areas

The $1.9 billion deal to sell EMI to Universal Music Group is apparently done. The decade-old plan to merge EMI with Warner Music is over, kaput, forever. EMI’s biggest group, The Beatles, now goes to Universal Music Group. Or does it? The Beatles’ Apple Corps has unique arrangements with EMI, very different than most artists. A Beatle insider talked to me about this a few weeks ago. Apple Records and EMI are partners in their deal for Beatles albums. It’s not like the Beatles are simply part of the EMI inventory. So it will be interesting to see how Apple, which has been notoriously aggressive since the day it was conceived in 1968, will just play along. For example, Apple exacted a $500 million settlement out of Steve Jobs for infringement of the Apple trademark. As well, in order to bring the Beatles to Apple’s ITunes one year ago, it’s understood that ITunes pays the Beatles directly, and then the Beatles’s Apple pays EMI. If you don’t think this adds up to a lot of money, let me tell you: the Beatles stereo box set is still a top seller at $179. With a paucity of music created by rappers, hip hoppers, and pop samplers from 1985 on, older catalogs are worth more and more. The Beatles’ is worth the most. So we’ll wait and see if Apple (Records, that is) is happy with the EMI deal in the long run. “They could just as easily buy out their portion and move on,” said my source. True enough. At this point, the Beatles could be their own label without any trouble. And they do plan more releases in the next few years under their innovative leader, Jeff Jones.

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