What year is it? 2011? I remember when Glenn Close‘s daughter Annie was a baby. Now she’s following in her mom’s hallowed footsteps and joining the cast of Nora Ephron’s “Love, Loss, and What I Wore”– a hit off Broadway show that just keeps going, Producer Daryl Roth has been very smart about this show, rotating in and out name actresses from eclectic backgrounds–she’s had the great soap actress Kim Zimmer in there recently. And this is no rumor, just Rumer: When Annie Starke (that’s Glenn’s kid) comes in, she’ll be joined by another famous child, Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. Rumer is a nice kid who’s gotten a bad tabloid rap hanging out in LA. Maybe she’ll get serious once she’s in New York. Also in that cast which starts March 23rd, is Anne Meara, now known as Ben Stiller’s mom. Donna McKechnie, the Tony Award winning star of “A Chorus Line,” rounds out that group. More names to come…
Charlie Sheen: Best Friend/Advisor Made Money Off of Gandhi
Charlie Sheen’s Tweetmaster and best friend Bob Maron–the guy who’s omnipresent throughout Sheen’s meltdown–once made nearly a million bucks off of India’s most revered leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Two years ago this very week Maron, as head of Antiquorum Auctioneers, sold Gandhi’s eyeglasses, drinking cup, and other personal possessions in a controversial auction that set off an international furor. According to the New York Times in March 2009, Maron took half the selling price–$900,000–plus a commission that came to just over $1 million.
The owner of the items, James Otis, a Los Angeles filmmaker and collector, decided at the last minute not to sell the Gandhi collectibles. But Maron–who deals in expensive watches like rare Rolexes- refused to stop the auction. It went through, and the owner of India’s biggest beer company bought them. In the end, Vijay Mallya said he would start a foundation with Otis that would tour the possessions around India. It’s unclear whether that’s ever happened.
Maron, meanwhile, appears to be the motor behind Sheen’s new deals with Twitter, etc. On Friday, which is eons ago in Sheen’s lightning fast world, Maron told a radio interviewer that he thought Sheen was ok and that everything would work out. That was before Sheen was fired from “Two and A Half Men,” and had two video meltdowns on the internet.
PS Strange coincidence? Otis has another Sheen connection: he told reporters in 2009 that he was making a documentary with Charlie’s dad, Martin Sheen.
Seinfeld’s “Marriage Ref” Disappears from NBC Schedule
Maybe like me you thought “The Marriage Ref” was supposed to air on Sunday night, March 6th. Certainly there are press releases about it all over the web, and one of the local New York papers mentioned it was airing that night. But poof! all gone. No “Ref.” Instead we got the inane “America’s Next Restaurant.” Jerry Seinfeld cannot be happy. “The Marriage Ref” not only didn’t air, but on the NBC website it barely exists, if at all. It’s not included in the list of current shows. I found “April 3, 2011” listed as one possible launch date, but it’s unclear where that came from. As late as the end of February, “The Marriage Ref” was still looking for real life couples to come on the show and expose their personal lives. I know a lot of people disliked this show, but maybe they didn’t get it–it wasn’t about the couples. It was about the celebrity panelists coming on and riffing about their own lives. I got more out of Madonna’s appearance than in any interview she ever did. I hope “The Marriage Ref” isn’t dead, but I’d be concerned at this point. New NBC chief Steve Burke doesn’t have the allegiance to Seinfeld that past network players did–it will be interesting to see if this causes a permanent rift.
Zach Braff Goes Off Broadway Again; John Slattery Waits for “Mad Men,” Too
“Scrubs” star Zach Braff is heading back to off Broadway. The “Garden State” director-writer appeared last summer at the Second Stage company in “Trust” and got great reviews. Now he’s written a play that Second Stage will produce this coming August. No cast announcements yet. But Braff is connected to lots of good actors in New York, where he’s resumed residence after success in Hollywood. Actually, as he said the other day, “I’m back and forth.” I’m sure this play, like “Trust,” will have all the summering Hamptonians making the trip into the city…
…Meantime John Slattery, who co-stars in “The Adjustment Bureau,” opening in movie theatres next week, is also waiting for the “Mad Men” situation to be resolved. Slattery– aka Roger Sterling–Â was at last night’s premiere of “Good People” on Broadway with wife actress Talia Balsam, whose famous mother, Joyce van Patten, will soon open at Studio 54 in “The People in the Picture,” a musical. Slattery has absolutely no inside info; no one does. Balsam had a funny observation though (she plays Roger Sterling’s ex wife on “Mad Men”): “As a fan, I used to get really angry when it took so long for The Sopranos to come back–like a year and a half. Now we know how it really feels!”
Spider Man, Charlie Sheen Top Overnight Headlines
“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark”– as I reported on Sunday morning, there’s turmoil within the embattled Broadway show. A source says the show is going to be rewritten from top to bottom, that it won’t make the Tony Awards deadline of April 28th. and instead open in June. The New York Times is reporting that Julie Taymor might be replaced, which I hope is not true: it’s her show. Hopefully, a compromise can be worked out to bring in collaborators…
…And then Charlie Sheen: who made an 11 minute appearance on UStream.tv tonight, looking and sounding worse than ever. Before the plug was pulled he ranted, raved, and sweated. Meantime, the Hollywood Reporter is saying that “Two and a Half Men” creator Chuck Lorre has hired Howard Weitzman as his attorney. Warner Bros. lawyered up with John Spiegel. Sheen has Marty Singer, who’s famous for more bark than bite. But what’s clearer than ever is that Sheen has to be sacked by someone in his family or something truly tragic is going to happen. During the 11 minute show he sank out of camera sight and drank some liquid he called “tiger’s blood.” Trust me, it wasn’t Snapple.
Charlie Sheen 11 Minute Internet Broadcast: Drinking, Ranting, Sweating
Looking gaunt and sounding crazier than ever, Charlie Sheen is back on the internet. He went live on UStream at 10:07pm EST. “Are you recording this?” asked his first caller, who I think is Bob Maron, one of his sycophants. Sheen said he’s going to reach out to Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon.com. He wants him to publish his memoir, “Apocalypse Me: The Jaws of Life.” He wants the Book on Kindle to save trees. Sheen rants that people should “marry a tree.” “Marriage didn’t work for me, so marry a tree.” He’s upset about people calling in and interrupting him. And helicopters buzzing over head. “Notice how hell is in the word helicopter?” Basically, it’s the sad spiral down to the bottom of a man no one cares enough about to stop him from completely imploding. As I write this, the broadcast has now stopped. So maybe someone in that house did care enough to pull the plug.
Charlie Sheen: Conspicuous Silence Since Firing
Where is Charlie Sheen now? The news of his being fired from “Two and a Half Men” broke around 4pm EST. Since then, he hasn’t made a noise.Not even a Tweet. His last tweet was around the same time, 4pm, when he said he needed an intern. Earlier he’d responded to another tweet, saying “I invented Tulsa, OK…in my sleep.” Now, when all the word is waiting, there is silence. No silence from Warner Bros.’s lawyers, however. They hired powerhouse firm Munger, Tulles and Olsen. Attorney John W. Spiegel wrote Sheen’s lawyer, Marty Singer, a seven page missive that details all of Sheen’s antics for the last two years, recounts many specific quotes that Sheen himself probably doesn’t remember–gratuitous name calling rants that can’t be taken back, about CBS, Les Moonves, Chuck Lorre, everyone. The letter also observes that Warner TV chief Bruce Rosenblum and Les Moonves visited Sheen at home in February, and have bent over backwards to accommodate him even though 10 episodes of the show had been lost. Let’s face it: if anyone in a real job had done what Charlie Sheen had to their employer, they’d have been fired summarily long ago.
Charlie Sheen Fired by CBS: “They continue to be in breach, like so many whales”
Our long national nightmare is over. Charlie Sheen has been fired from “Two and a Half Men.”Here’s what Charlie supposedly said upon getting the news: “This is very good news. They continue to be in breach, like so many whales. It is a big day of gladness at the Sober Valley Lodge because now I can take all of the bazillions, never have to look at whatshiscock again and I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in the terrestrial dimension.”
Sheen’s weekend announcements that he and the show and creator Chuck Lorre were all going to get back together and smoke something– a peace pipe?– were just hallucinations. The show does not want him back. Assertions from “experts” that the show just made too much money to actually let Sheen stay were wrong. It didn’t seem possible that CBS or Warner Bros. (Les Moonves runs the former and used to run the latter) would bring Sheen back.
Frankly, from our polls on this site, and other opinions voiced elsewhere, CBS could easily replace Sheen and keep “Two and A Half Men” going–whether with John Stamos or half a dozen other actors who could be introduced as Jon Cryer’s cousin or an absent brother. They did it with Darren on “Bewitched”; it can be done. Now we wait for Sheen’s response–which should come quickly and loudly. So far his last Tweet was at 4pm EST; he’s looking for an intern.
Broadway Spider Man: Show May Avoid Tony Awards, Open in June
That March 15th opening for “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark”? It’s now called a “Hope-ening.” It will not be the official opening night, according to sources.
One source says every time the show doesn’t open they call it a “Faux-pening.”
Anyway, what I’m told is that “Spider Man” will simply not deal with the Tony Awards and their April 28th deadline. Instead, work is being done to rewrite the show as much as possible within its mechanical parameters.
“Bono and Edge are writing new songs,” says my source. They do, contrary to rumors, have some good songs already in “Rise Above,” “Say Now,” “Boy Falls From the Sky” and a couple of others. But between the songs and the story fixes, the show will not open officially until June–right around Tony time. This would be the fourth or fifth postponement, depending on who’s counting.
I am told that the feeling is that week to week the show is selling well enough ($1.55 mil last week.) that opening now, getting panned again, and then getting snubbed by the Tonys–which is likely–is worse than just staying the course and continuing to make improvements. I wrote on Saturday that the show has improved tremendously. Audiences enjoy it, and the aerial stuff is spectacular. (Now that it’s all working, it looks like fun.)Â Some changes have been made for the better, but my source says “many, many more” are coming.
PS Without “Spider Man,” the bumper crop of original musicals competing for the Tony would include “Catch Me If You Can,” “Baby It’s You,” “The People in the Picture,” “The Book of Mormon” and “Sister Act”–all opening between now and April 28th.