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“Mad Men” Gets 3 Year Renewal, Deal Done, Hallelujah

Roger Friedman
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“Mad Men” Gets 3 Year Renewal, Deal Done, Hallelujah

Our long period of national suffering is over. Matt Weiner has a three year deal, “Mad Men” goes back into production, and we get three more seasons of the show. The deal was announced right after I went in to see Robin Williams in “Bengal Tiger” on Broadway, of course. It turns out that’s what the vibrating was about.

I started writing about the “Mad Men” ordeal months ago, everyone else jumped in the pool, and by the time it came to an end a publicist was involved who made everything just a little bit worse.

But it’s good news because “Mad Men” will return a year from now, and then again maybe in the fall of 2012, and the spring of 2013. Don Draper will be wearing mutton chop sideburns by the time it’s all over, and bell bottoms. Sally Draper will be Patty Hearst, and — good news–Betty will burn her bra. My prediction: the show will end at my bar mitzvah, June 13, 1970, with Don and Betty, reunited, as part of the candle lighting. Note to Matt Weiner: the band played “Sunshine of Your Love” all the kids drank screw drivers.

Kabbalah Leader Warns Against “Those Who Have Turned Against Us”

Roger Friedman
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Kabbalah Leader Warns Against “Those Who Have Turned Against Us”

Karen Berg, leader of the Kabbalah Centre, sent a private note out last night to her followers. That would mean Madonna, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Lucy Liu, James van der Beek, and all the celebrities who’ve been roped into being part of her for profit “religion.” Berg–who is being investigated by a grand jury and is in the middle a scandal about her Raising Malawi foundation–signed the email herself. There is no mention of her husband, Philip Berg, with whom she founded the organization. She does make mention of “those who have turned against us.” She also warns about “an internet blogger who regularly trafficks in rumors about the entertainment industry…”

I think she means this column. Anyway, it makes it seem like Kabbalah is part of the entertainment industry. I thought it was a religion.

Here’s her letter, and it’s unlike anything Jews, Christians or Muslims have ever received from their religious groups:

Dear all,

I appreciate the opportunity to give you an update on the recent news and rumors you might have heard recently regarding the Kabbalah Centre. It is especially painful and disappointing that there appears to be a small group of individuals who are trying to discredit The Kabbalah Centre.

We consider all our students to be part of our family—including those who have now turned against us. We have faced many challenges in the past and we will also face this one with dignity.

The Kabbalah Centre, the teachers, the Rav and I know the meaning of challenges. In sharing Kabbalah with the world for the last 40 years, we learned the many ways chaos and darkness can manifest themselves. And although it is very difficult, we understand that the darkest part of the night is just before the dawn.

The removal of pain and suffering from the world has always been the Rav’s dream. And no matter what we have faced in the past, his unshakable certainty and conviction gave him the power to accomplish what kabbalists have sought to achieve for centuries.

Today, as in all the times before, I receive my strength from the Rav’s words and wisdom. Only a few days ago, the Rav said to one of our teachers, “All that we see happening around us is giving us an opportunity to take more responsibility.”

As for The Centre, we will keep on pushing to bring more Light from the darkness that exists in this world.

We are working hard these days, maybe more than ever before, to share Kabbalah. We have all been travelling the world over—the teachers, Yehuda, Michael and I—from London to Mexico, from Brazil to Moscow. During our travels, we have been meeting many new students, reaching people in areas where there are no physical Centres. We have been giving out free books and Zohars; giving people access to the wisdom so that they can turn the Light on in their own lives.

We are thankful for this new challenge, because through it we will build our strength and certainty. When the storm passes, we will see the truth.

The Rav and I understand that it is a test for you as well, of your certainty and conviction. We understand how hard it must be for you and we want you to know that we are with you, as I know you are with us. We all face it together, as did the generation of kabbalists before us.

Please remember that in every difficult situation there is potential value—a gift. Believe this and begin looking for it.

With regard to the other issues, we wanted to inform you of the following:

First, a new Board of Directors has been appointed to manage the Raising Malawi International Foundation. Moving forward, this new Board and Raising Malawi’s management team—the Global Philanthropy Group—will be managing the activities of the Foundation. The transition of the new board has been a completely cooperative effort. The Kabbalah Centre will maintain a strong relationship with the new Board. Although The Kabbalah Centre’s formal role with Raising Malawi has come to a conclusion, we are all very proud of the work that the Foundation has already accomplished. Thousands of children have and will continue to receive daily nutritious meals, access to clean water, secondary school support, and life-saving medical treatment as a result of the work. There is still much more to be done, and Raising Malawi is resolute in its commitment to ending the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi’s orphans and vulnerable children.

Second, an internet blogger, who regularly trafficks in rumors about the entertainment industry, has written that there is a federal inquiry underway that involves The Kabbalah Centre. We have received no formal or official notification from the government of any such investigation, but we fully intend to work cooperatively to support an examination of our activities so that we may come through this, even stronger and sounder.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us; your teachers, The Kabbalah Centre staff is here for you always.

Thank you all for your endless support and understanding.

Robin Williams Lets Real Tiger Blood Loose on Broadway

Roger Friedman
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Robin Williams Lets Real Tiger Blood Loose on Broadway

Robin Williams has a stunning hit on Broadway: he’s the star and main character in “Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo.” He opened Thursday night to rave reviews and thunderous applause from friends like Billy and Janice Crystal, Sting and Trudie Styler, Bob Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Peter Asher and wife Wendy, Barry Levinson and wife Diana, Susan Sarandon, Neil Simon and Elaine Joyce and dozens of wowed theatergoers who didn’t know what to expect including The New Yorker’s veteran writer, Lillian Ross. Moises Kaufman directed this experimental and cool new play by Rajhiv Joseph, and it’s a thing of beauty. “Bengal Tiger” takes place in 2003 in Bahgdad, in a zoo, as American soliders are searching in vain for weapons of mass destruction.

Most of the characters including Robin’s, are ghosts. But Robin is also a tiger. And very very funny while the play delivers multiple images and layers with anti-war statement. At the party afterwards, Billy Crystal could not stop kvelling, And it was a big deal for him, too. “I missed opening day at Yankee Stadium,” he conceded. “But I know you have to stay up late for Broadway!” Williams was overwhelmed, I think. When someone told him the review in the New York Times was a rave, he said: “I guess that will be good for business.” An understatement. The Tony Award nominations for Best Actor in a Play are going to be wild this year, with Williams facing off against at least Al Pacino, Brian Cox, and a bunch more big names on their way!

Don Hill, Owner of Famed West SoHo Rock Club, Passes Away

Roger Friedman
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Don Hill, Owner of Famed West SoHo Rock Club, Passes Away

Word is just getting out that Don Hill, who ran his self-named famed rock club on Spring St. for almost twenty years, died today. There’s a memorial at midnight, 12 am Friday. No official word has come out yet but everyone from Moby to Bebe Buell is spreading the news with great sadness. Don was somewhere, I’d guess, between 65 and 75. He was ageless, though. With the end of CBGB and the Bottom Line and dozens of other clubs, Don Hill’s was the last original rock club. Recently Nur Khan and Paul Sevigny bought in and spruced the place up, but it was still Don Hill’s. All the great and legendary restaurateurs and club owners, from Elaine Kaufman to Don Hill, are disappearing now. We are at the end of not just an era, but maybe an eon. Rock on, Don.

Billy Joel Pulls Memoir, Tells Publisher at Last Minute

Roger Friedman
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Billy Joel Pulls Memoir, Tells Publisher at Last Minute

Billy Joel pulled the plug on his memoir this morning. He told his publisher, Harper Collins, simultaneous to releasing a short statement. The book company is gob-smacked, as they say.  The book was scheduled for a Jule release. It was all but signed off on, completely edited and ready to go. There aren’t too many instances of this sort of thing happening. Years ago Oprah Winfrey did the same thing to Knopf. More recently, movie producer and former hairstylist Jon Peters did the same thing. What it generally means is that the subject of the book has been too candid, and is too young to live with the repercussions of telling the truth about their lives. That last read through of the galleys says it all. In Billy’s case, he’s had a tough few years personally with his daughter, Alexa, his own bad marriage to Katie Lee, accidents and rehab. The last straw may have been Elton John’s odd, unprovoked attack recently, calling Billy out for his drinking. Joel probably didn’t want to hit the interview circuit to defend himself. It’s his decision. What I wish Billy would do is channel all that energy into a new collection of songs. An autobiography can wait a while, like until he’s in his 70s. Billy, stay just the way you are. But give us some music!

John Travolta Plans Another Career Ending Movie

Roger Friedman
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John Travolta Plans Another Career Ending Movie

John Travolta has career longevity, that’s for sure. Just when you think he’s finished–with stuff like “Battlefield: Earth”–he comes bouncing back with an off the wall hit like “Wild Hogs.” Scientology, gay rumors, toupees, the National Enquirer–it’s all there, but Travolta just bounces along. Now he’s announcing a new film that’s his latest career ender: he’s going to play John Gotti in a film about the dead, disgusting mobster and his living, disgusting son. Yikes. Someone–maybe former comic and husband of Shirley Jones, Marty Ingles; or Jonathan Krane, Travolta’s sometime manager–has convinced Vinnie Barbarino that this will be his “Godfather.” You can hear the pitch–look at what this kind of thing did for Brando! Ahem. A couple of differences. “The Godfather” was put together by a Dream Team, and director by Francis Ford Coppola. “Gotti” is going to be directed by Nick Cassavetes, who’s lacking in the success department. Also, “The Godfather” was a solid bestselling novel by Mario Puzo. It was fiction, so we could distance ourselves from it. The Gotti’s are real, and really horrendous. There’s no upside to this story, no morality tale, and no poetry. The people killed by Gotti had relatives in real life. I can’t wait for that premiere. I guess the main thing for Travolta is that he can lose his wig toward the end. Some movies should not have been made. Recently, “Valkyrie” and “The Beaver” are on that last. Here comes the next one.

George and Barbara Bush Steal Hollywood Mogul’s Movie

Roger Friedman
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George and Barbara Bush Steal Hollywood Mogul’s Movie

Lately, George and Barbara Bush are everywhere. But they’re also in Doug McGrath‘s wonderful HBO documentary about Hollywood mogul, mover and shaker Jerry Weintraub. An A list crowd came to the Time Warner Center screening room last night to watch the film, called “His Way,” based on Weintraub’s memoir. And just like the Bushes are so friendly with Bill Clinton, they also have a connection to Weintraub through his wife, singer Jane Morgan.

Like the witnesses in “Reds,” the Bushes give a hilarious on camera testimonial to Weintraub that has to be seen the film airs this coming week. (Barbara Bush has impeccable coming timing.) They rattle off a list of celebrities to whom the gregarious Weintraub has introduced them over the years. Barbara pauses, then remembers, suddenly: “John Travolta!” Her eyes light up.

There’s a long history between the Bushes and the Weintraubs not mentioned in the film, but it’s in Weinraub’s book. McGrath recalled the story for me last night. Apparently, Weintraub was denied admission into the Bushes’ country club in Kennebunkport because he was Jewish. Bush was so upset he arranged for Weintraub to play in a foursome with him (this was many years ago). McGrath said, “Now Jerry is a member.”

“His Way” is the second documentary produced by Graydon Carter recently for HBO, following Martin Scorsese’s “Public Speaking,” about Fran Lebowitz. Carter, editor in cheif of Vanity Fair, presided over the dinner following the screening at The Porter House steak restaurant in the Time Warner Center. Who wasn’t there? Nobody. Candice Bergen, Barry and Diana Levinson, Joan Juliet Buck, Liz Smith (looking snazzy in a red leather jacket), HBO doc chief Sheila Nevins, Hearst magazines chief  Ellen Levine, People mag editor Larry Hackett, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

“His Way” is not to be missed, especially for Matt Damon’s and George Clooney’s imitations of Weintraub, rare footage of Frank Sinatra and Elvis performing together, early clips of John Denver, and Julia Roberts squirming on camera when asked to comment about Weintraub’s unusual domestic arrangements.

Kabbalah Founder’s Son Wants to See Father, “Get Him Out of There”

Roger Friedman
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Kabbalah Founder’s Son Wants to See Father, “Get Him Out of There”

On Tuesday I sat down with an interesting person in the Kabbalah-Madonna saga: Avraham Gruberger, the 53 year old son of Kabbalah Centre founder Philip Berg, nee Fievel Gruberger. Avraham is the third of the eight children Philip Berg had with his first wife, Rivka, who is now deceased. He left her and the eight kids around 1969 for Karen, who worked for him in his office.

Forty years later, with Philip Berg in his 80s, Avraham Gruberger is concerned and his father’s health and well being. He hasn’t seen him in four years. He says Karen Berg, his stepmother, has barred him and his siblings from seeing their father. None of the original eight children are involved in Kabbalah, by the way. When they were growing up, their father was a life insurance salesman. But he followed their mother’s uncle, Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein, a Kabbalah scholar.

“Karen saw that it would be a good business,” Avraham tells me. And so the Kabbalah Center was born. Now with rumors that Karen Berg has a paramour, Muki Opphenheimer, and that Philip Berg has been hobbled by strokes and old age, his son wants to rescue him.

It’s not about money, either, although none of the original Gruberger children have profited from Philip and Karen Berg’s unique abilities to earn millions from creating a religion. It’s not like Avraham has much support within his family, either: their father has never attended any of their weddings, or had much to do with them since his departure and divorce. Two of the children are deceased from cancer, leaving just six. In Florida, Avraham says, he and his family were actually told to leave the local Kabbalah Centre.

For most of Avraham’s childhood, he didn’t see his father. Philip–aka Fievel–had moved the family to Israel. He commuted back and forth to New York, leaving the family in the dark about his other life. At 12, Avraham was sent back to New York and spent some time with Berg. There was another brief meeting a few years ago. But other than that, nothing.

Avraham Gruberger says his only wish now is to “free” his father. “There’s no vendetta. I do believe he’s been drugged up. I’d like him to come live with us and fulfill his mission.” Indeed, Gruberger says that if Karen Berg were to just hand over Philip without discussion, and without money, Avraham would just take him. “We can take care of him,” he says.

PS Avraham knows nothing about Madonna or Raising Malawi, and doesn’t care to hear about what’s gone on since Karen Berg took over the Kabbalah Centre. “I just want to see my father and get him out of there.”

“The Office”: Ricky Gervais Odds Get Higher as Possible Head Honcho

Roger Friedman
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“The Office”: Ricky Gervais Odds Get Higher as Possible Head Honcho

There’s news today that Will Arnett has joined the cast of a Lorne Michaels-produced pilot co-starring Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph. That most certainly means that Arnett will not be the new boss on “The Office,” even though Ricky Gervais first told me on Golden Globe night that he wanted him. And so the mystery of who will succeed Steve Carell deepens. With Arnett scratched from the list, it seems more and more possible that Gervais himself will take the spot. (Will Ferrell, coming in for four episodes, returns to films.) Gervais re-appears in the final episode of “The Office” after making his debut back on January 27th as a sales guy looking for a job.

Gervais had told me that the January 27th episode would give a big clue about who’s going to run Dunder Mifflin. Gervais has his animated show with HBO, “The Ricky Gervais Show,” but that certainly wouldn’t preclude joining “The Office.” And as I reported recently, Gervais’s production partner, Stephen Merchant, who helped develop “The Office” in Britain, recently visited the American set. We’ll keep an eye on this, because with Arnett signed up for something else, all bets are off now.

PS Last week’s episode of “The Office,” called “Garage Sale,” was Emmy worthy for acting, writing, and directing. A perfect episode. The engagement of Michael and Holly was just sublime. Carell deserves Best Actor, and I do hope Amy Ryan is nominated for Best Actress. Can’t wait for tonight’s episode!

“Spider Man” Using Understudies as Leads Go to Rehearsals

Roger Friedman
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“Spider Man” Using Understudies as Leads Go to Rehearsals

“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is now using understudies instead of its leads for regular performances. Two sources tell me that an announcement was made to the cast and crew that Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker, Jennifer Damiano (Mary Jane), and Patrick Page (Green Goblin) are all out of the main performances for the next two weeks. The reason is they’re rehearsing new material on dawn til dusk. (A spokesman for the show insists that the performers can work all day and all night, and that understudies will not be used.)

The good news might be that audiences will see Matthew James Thomas as Peter Parker. He’s very good. What’s unclear is how this affects the character of Arachne, played by T.V. Carpio. She’s been out because of an injury. Her understudy, America Olivo, has been playing Arachne. Who is rehearsing Arachne’s new material is a big question. But that role, sources tell me, is being cut way down anyway.

“The whole second act has been rewritten,” says a source. “And there are new songs.” The show closes down after the April 17th performance, for three and a half weeks. The whole first week, I’m told, is just to make technical changes without the actors.

Meantime, the “Spider Man” producers still have no signed deal with creator Julie Taymor. Sources say that legally she may still have power to veto the new work that’s being done.

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