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Mel Gibson in Guatemala for Profit, And (Oh, Yes) Charity

Roger Friedman
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Mel Gibson‘s trip to Guatemala isn’t just to help raise awareness for the plight of the rainforest. No way. Mel is there with the Petra Group, and is an investor in one of their companies called Green Rubber. The purpose is to make money by creating a recyclable rubber. In other words, Mel wants to save the rainforest and make a bundle from it at the same time.

Green Rubber has its own problems. A couple of years ago, Bruce Willis, an other celebrity investor, sued them to get back $900,000 of his $2 million investment. Willis sued Petra and its leaders Datuk Vinod B. Sekhar and Malaysian Prince Tunku Imran. The “Die Hard” star said that he invested $2 million in Green Rubber because the pair promised him there would be an IPO. When it didn’t materialize, Willis got back only $1.1 million. He wanted the other $900,000, too. He claimed he had  Vinod evaded him. The case was settled “amicably” in 2008– meaning Willis got his money back said he supported Green Rubber.

Vimod — who is on the Forbes list of richest people in the world–has his own issues.

Last month in Malaysia, the Department of Insolvency tried to jail him for contempt of court. According to the MalaysianInsider.com, Vinod, who was declared a bankrupt by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 8, 2005, committed two offences when he became a director of 25 companies and left the country without the permission of the Director-General of Insolvency, under Section 38 of the Bankruptcy Act. Vinod was declared a bankrupt for failing to settle his debt totalling RM12.376 million with credit company Orix Credit Malaysia Sdn Bhd and 11 other companies.”

“Spider Man” Will Likely Shut Down for Re-tooling; Taymor Sidelined by Producers

Roger Friedman
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2
“Spider Man” Will Likely Shut Down for Re-tooling; Taymor Sidelined by Producers

So: Julie Taymor has been sidelined by the producers of “Spider Man.” Ousted? Yes. Gone altogether? Not quite. “Spider Man” remains her show, no matter what they do to it. First on the agenda: a shut down of two to three weeks so they can re-tool and give the cast a chance to rest. Certainly to be rethought: the so called Geek chorus of four kids who –as a framing device–narrate the show as if they were writing a comic book.

The shut down will happen. One source told me: “We’d rather spend the money and fix it so it plays a long time.”

Philip William McKinley and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will come in to re-stage and re-write, respectively. (The NY Post got it all wrong on Wednesday.)

Also to be determined: what to do with the character of Arachne, the Spider woman who appeared in the first “Spider Man” comic book but has come to occupy too much of the musical. TV Carpio is great as Arachne, but her time will no doubt be cut as Arachne is reimagined as a villain and not the entirety of the show. The quick fix: pull her out of Act 1 altogether and make her the Act 2 antagonist. Get right into Peter Parker’s story in Act 1 and end the act with a clifhanger of the Green Goblin holding someone–Peter or Mary Jane–hostage. And for god’s sake, write a romance between Peter and Mary Jane with some humor.

Is Taymor’s situation her own fault? To some degree. but not all. Sources tell me that most of the “Spider Man” investors have never even seen the show. Instead of coming in and checking it out, they’ve depended on hearsay and gossip items. Also, Bono and The Edge are late arrivals to the scene. They say they’re adding maybe two new songs. But they may soon see they have more to do than just that. Must cut: the dancing shoe number. Must must must. Must add: either three or four tuneful new songs or — and I mean this– add “With Or Without You,” “Mysterious Ways,” and “Stay” from the U2 catalog to anchor the show. There is nothing wrong with this. Really.

One can only hope that after a cooling off period, Taymor, who is a genius, will return as part of the team and adapt to the changes. But “Spider Man” definitely needs its upcoming time out if it’s going to return in June.

Will Mel Gibson’s Plea Bargain Help His “Beaver”?

Roger Friedman
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0

Crime pays in Los Angeles, as usual. Mel Gibson, according to TMZ and other sources, has cut a deal with the Los Angeles District Attorney in his domestic abuse case with former lover and baby mama Oksana Grigorieva. He gets no jail time, just counseling, and, of course, pays up for admitting to “battery.”

Thus, Gibson gets rid of the case six weeks before he must do promotion for his new movie, “The Beaver.” You can just imagine those junkets: Mel will likely bar reporters from asking about this, or the custody case, Oksana, plus all his other stuff including DUI, anti-Semitism. his father or the Holocaust. Or his church. Or his divorce. Or “sugar tits.” During promotion last year for “Edge of Darkness,” Mel verbally attacked several reporters. These will be short interviews!

Gibson — as a movie star not bound by the usual laws– is in Guatemala on what’s described as a charity mission to save the rainforests. It doesn’t matter that he’s had no connection to rainforest preservation in the past. Or to the main groups–like the Rainforest Foundation and the Rainforest Alliance. It’s a photo op, or a pr stunt, to dilute the news of the plea.

According to TMZ “Mel will plead no contest to simple battery, a lesser charge than corporal injury on a spouse.  Although battery is a misdemeanor, under the law, since it involves “a person with whom the defendant is cohabiting” and “a person who is the parent of the defendant’s child,” Mel must appear in person.”

Gibson will be back from Guatemala and in court on Friday.

Mel’s neighborhood is getting to be an interesting place. A couple of years ago I ran into another star who’d beaten the system, Robert Blake, having lunch at a bikers’ bar jusr down the road from Mel’s personally funded church. Stars in Agoura Hills!

Gwyneth Paltrow: No Record Deal, Press Reports Were Premature

Roger Friedman
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2

Gwyneth Paltrow — contrary to reports from the UK Sun newspaper–does not have a deal with Atlantic Records. And she certainly hasn’t got one for their quoted number of $900,000. It’s all fiction, apparently. Atlantic’s Craig Kallman apparently had some conversations with Gwyneth, who had a great success again last night on “Glee.” It was Kallman who put together Paltrow and Cee Lo for their rousing Grammy performance of “F— You.” But there’s no deal so far, and no money. Paltrow can probably get a deal from Atlantic or another company, but it hasn’t happened. (Atlantic would make sense, however.) In any case, Paltrow’s burgeoning music career seems a little like a rebuke to her (possibly) ex friend, Madonna. It’s also kind of interesting that Gwyneth, who’s married to rock star Chris Martin of Coldplay, choose this path instead of trying to do some serious films and get another Oscar. But more power to her! She looks like she’s having a ball.

“Spider Man” Civil War: Negotiating Taymor Exit and Saving Troubled Musical

Roger Friedman
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0

Two hours ago, a lead investor for “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” told me: “We want Julie Taymor to stay.” He said that it was his opinion that it would be good for her and good for the production. An hour ago, the New York Times posted a blog saying that Taymor was out, and was negotiating her exit. “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is in turmoil. Getting rid of Taymor is an pr nightmare since it’s her show. Bringing in new creative people to re think a $65 million show that was already created by someone else has run for 100 performances? This is a nightmare. What’s going on? It does seem as though Michael Cohl, who comes from a rock and roll background, has cut ties with Taymor and headed in the direction of Bono and The Edge. Taymor knows Broadway and opera; Cohl knows rock and roll (he’s currently fighting with Live Nation over who has the rights to the next Rolling Stones tour). Is “SpiderMan” a Broadway show or a rock concert? Is it a musical or a spectacle? These are questions that have never been answered. But maybe the answer is coming, depending on who triumphs in turning off the chaos that has plagued this show from the beginning. My source says: “We want this to run 20 years, not 2 years. We want Julie to stay and be part of the team, but we have to fix this thing.”

Bradley Cooper Says “Hangover 2” Will Be “Epic”

Roger Friedman
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2

May interrupt the Charlie Sheen show for a sec? Bradley Cooper is now a bona fide movie star. He carries “Limitless,” which has strong supporting roles played by Robert DeNiro and Abbie Cornish. The Neil Burger directed thriller is very comic book like and lots of fun. It premiered last night in New York, with lots of star power in the audience including Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson, Giancarlo Esposito, Chaz Palminteri, Matthew Settle, Jason Bateman, Alyssa Milano as well as Richard Branson, Denise Rich and Mary Kennedy. But it was Brad who stole the show–minus Renee Zelleweger, who had to stay in L.A. Brad brought him mom (his dad recently passed away) and she was pretty excited to realize that her Actors Studio graduate is now a leading man on his own. So was “Inside the Actors Studio” chief James Lipton who congratulated Cooper on a job well done. At the after party, yours truly live blogged the Charlie Sheen UStream show from the office of Buddakan restaurant–their food is delicious, but producer Ryan Kavanagh wanted a vegan pizza. So calls were made to Two Boots around the corner, and Kavanagh’s tastebuds were saved.

But Brad–what about “Hangover 2”? “I think it will be epic,” he told me. “I really do. Wait til you see it.”

There’s No “Spider Man” Without Julie Taymor; It’s Her Vision

Roger Friedman
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No one wants to stand up for Julie Taymor. “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” has played 100 previews, and mostly received poor reviews for its book– or lack of one. But if Taymor exits the show–as has been suggested today–it would be a terrible mistake. “Spider Man” is her show. Anyone who comes in will have to face that fact. The flying, the costumes. the sets, the 3D comic book life of the show-all belong to her. The tragedy in this is that Taymor, like most creative geniuses, may  have gotten lost along the way. She needs a collaborator–an editor, really– to shorten the first act, create a cliffhanger, and rearrange TV Carpio’s wonderful Arachne so she joins the plot organically and isn’t a speed bump in Act One. Can “Spider Man” be saved? Yes, easily. But in its transformation I wouldn’t want to lose the flying, the breezy fun of Green Goblin, or the Sinister Six beauty pageant. The best of the latter is the scientist who turns himself into a giant lizard. The great fun of “Spider Man” is still in Taymor’s vision. Lose that now and the show’s main purpose will be gone too. One more thing: I am a big U2 fan and have great respect for Bono and The Edge. But let’s not forget, when “Spider Man” debuted in November, they were on tour. It’s almost not fair to come in at this late date and blame Taymor for the show’s inefficiencies.

Charlie Sheen: “Screw Les Moonves”

Roger Friedman
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46

“Les- than-Goonves, Screw Les, or better yet, Screw more.” is the way Charlie Sheen began his latest video diatribe on Ustream tonight. He then attacked all the executives involved in “Two and a Half Men.” But that’s what he said about the head of CBS. He’s lucky that all they did was fire him.

“Where are you hiding you silly clown? I see you you little worm,” he said to Chuck Lorre. If Sheen was trying to ingratiate himself to his bosses, this was not the way to do it. He might as well have inflated a slide on a parked airplane and jumped out. Oh, yeah: that’s been done. He was vicious and totally inappropriate to Lorre, baiting the recovering alcoholic to take a drink. It was mean, not clever, and low, like a grade school taunt. It was maybe the most unbecoming moment of Sheen’s spiral down into madness.

Otherwise, this was typical Sheen. He called his firing “unconscionable.” Tonight it did seem like Sheen was more prepared, reading from either cue cards or some kind of notes or Prompter. “F–k Borre” is what he called Lorre. The crazy thing is this wasn’t over an international crisis. It’s over a TV show. But Sheen doesn’t see the difference between any realities. He’s delusional. But in the end, the counter on his UStream page read that only 58,000 viewers tuned in at the height of Sheen’s shpiel. Is that it? Is Charlie done?

The funniest thing tonight was the idea that he’s been so wronged. Charlie, it’s just a TV show. It’s a sitcom. It’s funny, but it’s not “MASH” or “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “Seinfeld” or even “The Office.” So you were fired. It was not unconscionable. Move on already.

“You are no match for this warlock,” Sheen concluded.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13191495

Charlie Sheen Surfaces, Plans 10PM EST Broadcast; Also: His Phone Number Gets Out

Roger Friedman
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50
Charlie Sheen Surfaces, Plans 10PM EST Broadcast; Also: His Phone Number Gets Out

Now it’s like getting ready to watch a fresh train wreck. Charlie Sheen will return to UStream.tv tonight at 10PM eastern for yet another broadcast. After last night’s debacle, the only place to go is up. He just sent out a Tweet, his first in 24 hours, that reads: “The Warlock is hungry. Hungry for corporate flesh.” His attorney, Marty Singer, must be cringing. All of this, every word of it, will come back to haunt Charlie in court. I spoke to the people at UStream and they’re anticipating a massive audience since this is the last scheduled episode of “Sheen’s Korner.” And then what? One can only imagine. Some topics tonight: how Charlie would feel if his good friend Rob Lowe took over his spot on “Two and a Half Men.” And how he feels about taking down an entire hit TV series. Of course, there’s always the subject of his health. But we seem to be beyond that now.

PS Seems that Charlie’s phone number is now all over the web. Someone pulled it off one of his videos.

Bono Tells Julie Taymor He’ll Do Spider Man “With Or Without You”

Roger Friedman
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1

Many months after “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” started previews in New York, its composer–Bono of the group U2–is here. Sources tell me that even though he’s not in the Foxwoods Theater every day, Bono has taken a firm grip of the show. He’s essentially telling director Julie Taymor that he’ll do the show–to paraphrase a U2 hit–“with or without you.”

“They’re writing lots of new songs,” a source tells me, and as I reported on Sunday. “They’re not going to have show open that they’re not proud of.” As such, “Spider Man” will not be opening on March 15th, although there will be a celebration party anyway–something to give the cast and crew a boost, if nothing else. “They’re not concerned about the Tony Awards,” said the source, just as I reported on Sunday also. “Missing that date won’t matter.”

The source says “everyone has known about this for at least two weeks.”

Meantime, even though OSHA gave fines to “Spider Man” last week, the Department of Labor continues to be a backstage presence to monitor the aerial and special effects, Luckily, that part of “Spider Man”‘s history seems to be over. Everyone has straightened up and is flying right.

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