Joe Berlinger, the award winning documentary filmmaker, has been covering the West Memphis 3 story since 1994. His first film, “Paradise Lost,” came out in 1996. The third in the series is coming next month, wrapping up 18 years of work. But Berlinger tells me he’s against a feature film being made. There are reports today that Canadian director Atom Egoyan has been working for all of six weeks to turn a book about the West Memphis 3 into a film. But the real story, and all the real material, comes from the two existing “Paradise Lost” films and the one that will debut in Toronto and at the New York Film Festival next month. Berlinger says, “I’ve had offers to turn a lot of my films, like Brother’s Keeper, into a feature film. I don’t think you can reduce these complexities to a dramatic structure.” Egoyan, I’m told, isn’t the only Johnny come lately trying to horn in on Berlinger’s work. An L.A. based filmmaker has been in town, according to sources, trying to make her own documentary. But in the end, the “Paradise Lost” films –with 18Â years of blood, sweat and tears — are the only ones that matter.
‘West Memphis 3’ Story May Bring Released Defendants to New York Film Festival
The big news yesterday out of Little Rock, Arkansas was that the so called West Memphis 3 were finally released from jail. Award winning documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have been on the case since 1996 when his first film about this wrongly accused trio, called “Paradise Lost,” was shown on HBO and won a lot of awards. Berlinger followed it up with a sequel in 2000, and is now readying the third and final part of the saga for the Toronto Film Festival, Oscar consideration, and many HBO showings.
Berlinger tells me a couple of things: one–that the new “Paradise Lost” will premiere in Toronto without the three exonerated* defendants because of passports issues. But he expects that when the film comes to the New York Film Festival later in September, Damien Echols, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin will be on hand. New York should roll out the red carpet for these guys.
Why an *? Because instead of just granting them amnesty or admitting that the state was wrong, Arkansas forced these men to plead guilty while asserting their innocence under an arcane law. Since Echols was on death row, Baldin and Misskelly reluctantly went along with the deal to keep their buddy from the electric chair. In other words, they were strong armed. Word to the wise: stay out of Arkansas if at all possible.
Berlinger didn’t think anything was happening this summer with the West Memphis 3 because a court hearing was scheduled for December. At that time it was expected that a new trial would be ordered to over turn the 1996 decisions. It’s all based on DNA testing that has proved none of the defendants were involved in the brutal slayings of three 8 year olds in 1993.
Berlinger says, ironically, that the lawyers have been fighting about the DNA for almost ten years. But now, with the hearing looming, he feels political motives forced the attorney general to try and get rid of the case. AG Dustin McDaniel is a rising star in Arkansas Republican circles and will likely run for governor in 2014. Berlinger thinks McDaniel didn’t want to chance the embarrassment of a retrial of the West Memphis 3 which the state would lose.
Meantime: while Berlinger was waiting for the court decisions in Little Rock, the filmmaker went to Africa with Paul Simon and filmed a reunion show of all the “Graceland” musicians. The film may be ready to be shown at Sundance.
As for the West Memphis 3, I am told they are going to be low profile for a while. Celebrities like Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks have plans to help them celebrate and re-enter life after nearly 20 years.
People Mag Reverses Money Position on Kardashian Wedding Photos
I reported on June 22nd that a top level People magazine insider said the magazine “would never” pay anything like $1 million for photographs of the dreaded Kardashian wedding. But now the word is out that People actually forked over a total of $1.5 million for the pictures of this hideous extravaganza. The magazine’s website is already featuring lots of minute details about the nuptials, including the size of the cake and the hemming on the dress.
The bigger question is, Who are these people? Why is the tabloid media fascinated with them? Fiance Kris Humphries is an athlete, but he’s not Michael Jordan. Kardashian is just part of a publicity and attention seeking family hellbent on being famous for being famous–and getting paid for it. I don’t get it. Who cares about these people? Aside from their late father knowing how and why O.J. Simpson killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, they are utterly useless.
But maybe it’s the time of year. Last year, it was the Chelsea Clinton wedding. Remember it? The whole media was clamped onto that thing and wouldn’t let it go. Here’s the funny thing: the one year anniversary was barely noticed. So, too, will the Kardashian frenzy seem ridiculous in a year’s time. Meanwhile, the couple will rake in media bucks for reasons so bewildering. Consider that most of Somalia is dying of starvation.
ABC Soaps: One Life to Live Now Highest Rated, and Cancelled
“One Life to Live” has posted its highest ratings since 2008 according to ratings site, www.tybythenumbers. “One Life to Live” is now ABC’s number 1 soap and set for cancellation next January. Taping is set to end in the late fall. But wait: “One Life” has posted whopping gains in the last few weeks. The soap gained 641,000 viewers over the same week compared to last year. It was the only of one the remaining six soaps on air to post any gain at all, and is solidly number 3 behind CBS’s “Young and the Restless” and the highly weird “Bold and the Beautiful.” It also picked up 116,000 viewers last week year-to-year in the crucial 18-49 women demo. And still, ABC has it on the chopped–not chopping–block. How crazy is that?
And even though “One Life” is as wacky as any daytime drama, it’s also probably the best one of that half-dozen. Now this may all change because in the next couple of weeks, several key actors are leaving either by their own volition or thanks to budget cuts. Robin Strasser, who’s played Dorian Lord for a million years, recently gave TV Guide an interview and an earful about how she’d been cut. Another popular actor, Trevor St. John, who’s been part of the ratings climb in the “Two Todds” story, has also been given the heave-ho. So it’s unclear if the “One Life” campaign to the top will be short lived.
Meanwhile, Jeff Kwatinetz‘s Prospect Park Productions has still yet to give any details about moving “One Life” and “All My Children” to the internet. There’s supposedly going to be a cable TV component to their deal, as well. Last week, Prospect Park added another executive to their who’s supposed to help effectuate these scenarios.
One last thing: I’ve never understood why the soap actors don’t speak out about what’s going on. They rarely have real publicists, and never give interviews until it’s too late. Wake up, guys. Your industry is dying.
“Health” Magazine Happily Shills for Scientology, Gives Kelly Preston a Forum
One of this week’s most oft picked up pr lines from a magazine article came from Health. Health, owned by Time Inc, featured Kelly Preston, aka Mrs. John Travolta, on its current cover. Celeb (low level, i.e. Michael Lohan) writer Alison Prato did the Q&A, which featured Preston extolling the virtues of dangerous sect Scientology. It’s a Q&A and not an actual reported feature, which means that there’s no work done around any of the assertions.
Preston tells Prato that the thing that helped her get ove the death of son, Jett, was Scientology. The quote got picked up everywhere, and Tweeted and retweeted over and over. Prato was so proud that she tweeted out all her pick-ups, too. How nice. No mention is made of the dangers of Scientology or its controversy. And Prato doesn’t ask Preston whether Scientology rules actually might have caused Jett’s death.
Prato does say that Jett suffered from Autism, an assertion Preston and Travolta denied up to and after his death. It was only when the Bahamas police released Travolta’s initial statement to them did the movie star’s admission of Jett’s Autism finally surface. Indeed for years the Travoltas insisted Jett suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome. He didn’t. Prato doesn’t ask Preston about any of that.
I don’t know what helped Preston get over Jett’s death. Everyone deals with grief differently, and Jett’s loss is not to be minimized. But I do know that three months later she was back at work shooting “Casino Jack” with Kevin Spacey.
PS If only Prato could have asked Preston to explain how Jett died, and why a Florida wedding photographer with a history of taking Scientology courses for drug abuse, was his “manny.” http://gawker.com/5122788/travoltas-rumored-gay-lover-discovered-dead-son
Also: I’m told that Breitling watches, for whom Travolta gets paid millions to promote, recently flew the actor to Europe. In interviews, sources say, all “Johnny” (as Preston calls him) wanted to talk about was Scientology. On the record. Those publications, unlike Health, excised those comments.
Another Arrest in Hacking Scandal: Hollywood-Based UK Reporter
The UK Guardian reports that the first US arrest in the Murdoch hacking scandal has happened. James Desborough, who won awards in Britain for getting amazing scoops, has been charged by Scotland Yard. He’s the 13th person arrested in the News of the World scandal, but the first in the U.S. Desborough was rewarded for all his scoops by being made head of the L.A. office of the News of the World in 2009. He was arrested in London, presumably because Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World no longer exists. He was praised for getting information so good that even the subject’s family members didn’t know about. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/18/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world
Jerry’s Kids No More: How Jerry Lewis Got Pink Slipped by MDA
EXCLUSIVE: Jerry Lewis–the Hollywood legend–has been kicked to the curb by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. After 45 years, he’s out as their public face, and the host of their annual TV telethon. Indeed, the telethon itself is pretty much cooked: it’s been reduced to six hours from its traditional twenty one and a half and air just on Sunday night, not even on Labor Day itself. All the drama of staying up overnight, will Jerry make it, will they reach their goal: it’s all over.
What you don’t know is that no one ever told Jerry. And that last fall, after the Labor Day telethon was over, the MDA people made the decisions and never informed Lewis.
Lewis finished last year’s MDA telethon with a flourish. He was 84, and had done the show since 1966. He’d actually been hosting MDA telethons since 1952–fifty eight years, folks, since before he was in the Rat Pack with Dean, Frank, and Sammy!
So it was more than a surprise when in early October the MDA board issued a press release about the following year. Did you miss that press release? So did Lewis. No one told him about it beforehand. And the release didn’t mention his name. It was then that the MDA board signaled they were ditching Lewis, who made awareness of Muscular Dystrophy an international phenomenon.
Here’s the link to it: http://www.mda.org/news/101006telethon-format.html. You’ll notice that Lewis’s name is mentioned only in passing, as a reference to his on camera reunion one year with Dean Martin. Otherwise, it’s like he had nothing to do with MDA or the telethon at all.
Earlier this summer, MDA announced, tersely, that Lewis would not be appearing on this year’s Labor Day telethon. This was after a statement from Jerry in May that this year would be his last.
It’s more than a little dispiriting. Lewis worked like crazy for MDA for most of his life. Many times he had to fight accusations that he was pocketing the dough that came in. The MDA kids became known all over the globe as “Jerry’s Kids”– it was shorthand that built from grassroots efforts. Was he a high maintenance front man? Undoubtedly. But like Sharon Stone with AmFAR, Lewis gave a high profile to a disease and a cause that most people didn’t care about.
The facts: Lewis is not mentioned anywhere on the MDA’s Form 990 tax filing. No salary, no expenses. The head of MDA, a man named Gerald Weinberg, got $373,000 last year. All told, in 2009 MDA disbursed $53.5 million in grants. They claimed $75 million, however, in salaries and other compensation. The top executives earned a total of about $1.4 million. The main outside consultants reaped a total of $6 million. Again, Lewis’s name doesn’t appear at all.
The one disturbing thing about the MDA’s Form 990: sixteen cash disbursements totaling almost $3 million. There’s no indication where that money went or what it was used for other than, vaguely, “research,” in Europe and Asia. Similar unspecified cash payouts have appeared on previous tax filings.
Now the clock is ticking down to Labor Day weekend. MDA says Lewis will not be on the show, which indeed will run just from 6pm to midnight. When I spoke to him yesterday, Jerry told me: “I can’t talk about it until after Labor Day.” Will he beam himself into the broadcast, like the Green Goblin in “Spider Man”? Frankly, why bother? Jerry Lewis is bigger than MDA. He’s a legend. But it is true, no good deed goes unpunished. And in today’s culture, you’re not rewarded at the end of a great, long run. You’re kicked in the ass. But Lewis knows how many kids and families he helped. And they know it, too.
The whole real MDA Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon is over, my friends. In its place will be this sort of lame, lackluster generic show with a bunch of blond commentators who have no history with Las Vegas or entertainment. It’s another sign of the times.
Woody Allen Celebrates $50 Mil with Wide Release Again
Woody Allen is going wide again. “Midnight in Paris” will hit $50 mil domestically either tonight or tomorrow. To celebrate, on Friday Sony Pictures Classics will send the comedy out wide again. It’s currently playing in around 338 theaters. At its height it was in 1,038 locations. Now SPC will go back to a big release to capitalize on fans who want to see the comedy a second time, or are now getting around to it. “Midnight in Paris” is Woody’s biggest hit ever, and destined for many awards and nominations this winter. Go Woody!
Meantime, “The Help,” the only other Oscar worthy pic so far of 2011, is building steam. It has taken over the Number 1 slot from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and is building nicely. Through Tuesday its box office take was $44.1 million. That’s for an sophisticated, adult-minded film featuring African American actors. Nice going!
Black Eyed Peas Will Try Central Park One More Time
Remember the rained out fiasco of a concert that the Black Eyed Peas were supposed to do in Central Park? Well, it’s back on. The Peas will try again on September 30th. The concert is for the press-averse Robin Hood Foundation. Last time around, the Peas played a private show for really well heeled Robin Hood donors as a “dress rehearsal” the night before the rained out show, at the Apollo Theater. No word on what’s planned this time, although I have heard rumblings of a big show the next night in New York, with some attachment to Robin Hood. We’ll see what the buzz is on that soon. Anyway, the Peas were supposed to have Carole King and a few others help them out originally. No word on who might make it this time around. Maybe this time the Parks Department can sort out what was called enormous disorganization from the first night. People are still talking about how hard it was to get in and out of the park.
James Franco Art Exhibit Shut Down by “Three’s Company” Creators
There’s been a lot of speculation about why James Franco’s art installation in New York was shut down last week. His “High Low/Rob Lowe” show at the Asia Song Society in Soho (aka ASS) had a hot (literally) opening night, but then was suddenly put out of business. The show included readings from Rob Lowe’s recent autobiography on video. But it also included the “Three’s Company” installation that Franco put together last winter at Sundance. That piece was fun and a big hit. Actor Richard Kline, who played Larry on the show, even came to Sundance to check it out.
But apparently the creators of “Three’s Company” had only given permission for use at Sundance, and didn’t realize it could go on to other venues. Franco’s astute manager Miles Levy realized this too late, and decided it was best to shut down until it was all worked out. Franco had gotten the right to re-shoot the first three episodes of the 70s sitcom as a kooky drama, then show it in the installation. It was a lot fun at Sundance, and certainly should be seen. Odds are the rights situation will get worked out soon.
Meantime: Franco is taking his “Sal Mineo” movie to the Venice Film Festival. He’s also going to introduce the finished version of Nicholas Ray’s posthumous masterpiece, “We Can’t Go Home Again.” Ray, of course, directed another masterpiece, “Rebel without a Cause.” This year he would have been 100 years old. Franco of course starred in and won awards for the “Rebel” star James Dean’s biopic. So he’s also got an art project being shown in Venice called “Rebel.” It’s a collaboration Franco has with Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Ed Ruscha and Aaron Young. Gucci and The Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles (MOCA) are involved in that too.
And yes, all this while Franco shoots “Oz, the Great and Powerful” in Detroit. And his “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is number 1 at the box office.