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Michael Fassbender: Choice Between Spider Man and X Men

Roger Friedman
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57
Michael Fassbender: Choice Between Spider Man and X Men

Michael Fassbender had a hot year last year, in Quentin Tarantino‘s “Inglourious Basterds,” and in Steve McQueen‘s “The Hunger.”

He also proved himself a good dancer in Cannes with Robin Wright Penn at the big “Basterds” party.

Now Fassbender is in–as his “Basterds” David Nivenish character might say, a bit of a pickle.

He’s being pursued, I hear, for two different Marvel comics movies. Matthew Vaughn is said to want him for “X Men: First Class.” Fassbender would play young Magneto, the precursor for Ian McKellen‘s later character. (Because of early senility, I mixed Magneto up with Professor X/Charles Xavier in an earlier version of this story. This is also largely due to my hearing Paul McCartney singing “Magneto and Titanium Man” in my head. Sorry.) James McAvoy is already signed to play Young Xavier.

At the same time, Fassbender is being pursued to play the villain in “Spider Man 4,”  aka “No Toby Maguire Here.”

Two different movies from Marvel, but two different studios: Fox for the first, and Columbia for the second. He can’t do both.

Either way, Fassbender can’t lose. He’s got four films coming out in 2010 alone including “Jonah Hex.” By the time he’s a supercomic villain, he’ll be a bona fide movie star.

Empire State of Blog: Keitel Sups, Soap Spoofs, IPad Scares

Roger Friedman
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2
Empire State of Blog: Keitel Sups, Soap Spoofs, IPad Scares

Yes, that was Harvey Keitel having dinner at the Waverly Inn the other night. The Waverly remains the hot spot of the West Village despite losing our pal, chef John deLucie to the new Lion, east of Sixth Avenue…

Hilarious: “One Life to Live” ‘s ad-libbing Tuc Watkins got a dig in on Scientology on Monday, claimed he was the minister who married Tom and Katie, and wore Joseph’s amazing technicolor dreamcoat from a road production; the show played Sam & Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming” during a great wedding episode as well. Star Bobby Woods (pictured) is a big friend/fan of legend Sam Moore…

…Megabillionaire Ron Burkle seen at T-Bar at Savanna‘s in Southampton…No idea if his Miramax deal is on or off…Phillippe Chow in Easthampton hosted an eclectic group: Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwartzman, Stavros Niarchos, Vito Schnabel, Devon Aoki, and deejay Paul Oakenfold…Not, believe me, at the same table…

Vice President Joe Biden‘s Secret Service shacked up at the Southampton Inn and had lunch at the restaurant Oso. Where was Biden? Being Vice President…

…the new food destination for those heading back to the city from the Hamptons is Gregory Baumell‘s amazing Stone Turtle in Island Park, just off the L.I.E. past Rockville Centre. Baumell is the star who made the Half King such a hit in Chelsea…He serves something called a Chocolate Ashtray stuffed with vanilla ice cream…

…Last Friday night, stopped into the Apple store on Fifth Avenue around 1:40am after decamping Elaine‘s. Manager Amy insisted she’d never heard that AT&T’s unlimited data plan was ending on Sunday. I told her it had been in the New York Times. “Unless Apple tells us so, I don’t know anything about it.” IPads may be the greatest thing ever invented, but those staffers come off like cult members…Weird…

And like the Lost City of Atlantis, AT&T World Net Service disappeared a few days ago. AT&T fobbed off their email business on Yahoo. No notice to the customers. The result was that all Blackberry’s and other devices were disconnected and had to be re-validated. I lost all the emails on my Blackberry. There is no one to call. The AT&T 800 number is gone. Email to the press rep, one Mark A. Siegel, went unanswered…

Update: Helen Thomas Resigns, Leaves White House Press Corps

Roger Friedman
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5
Update: Helen Thomas Resigns, Leaves White House Press Corps

Helen Thomas has retired. Her career ends in disgrace thanks to comments she made on May 27th to Rabbi David Nesenoff at a White House event.

Thomas was criticized today at a White House press briefing. Here’s the link: http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=19407224001&bctid=90405445001

The New York Times, which did not even mention what was going on previously, now reports the story online.

The Times has simply ignored the entire Thomas fiasco, even though: Thomas’s lecture agent has dropped her, her co-author has disavowed her, and there’s an open letter to her in today’s Jerusalem Post.

The Times–and all the New York newspapers–have completely ignored the fact that man who interviewed Thomas and posted the now infamous video on You Tube is a rabbi who lives right here on Long Island. Considering how much the papers want to increase their local coverage, you’d think they’d be camped out on Rabbi David Nesenoff‘s front yard. Nada.

See the video at www.rabbilive.com.

The last reference to Rabbi Nesenoff in the New York Times was in 1996.

Maybe it didn’t happen. Maybe the eldest member of the White House Press Corps didn’t insist on video that the Jews in Israel “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to “Poland or Germany.”

Meantime, the Times story today on jailed money manager Ken Starr reflects a complete lack of knowledge of anything in that story. Starr’s been in jail since June 1st, but the Times can only get movie director Robert Benton to say he can’t help but feel sorry for him. There’s curiously no mention of Starr’s business partner and connected at the hip pal, Marvin S. Rosen, former Democratic National Party fundraiser from 1995-97 for President Clinton.

Business writer Nelson Schwartz also somehow missed the point of the lawsuit brought by the estate of Joan Stanton against Starr. The other defendant was film producer and Planet Hollywood owner Keith Barish, who settled with the estate. Starr, the Stanton lawyers complained, had directed Stanton’s millions into Barish’s failing Planet Hollywood despite instructions not to make that investment. Barish isn’t even mentioned in today’s Times story.

As a Democrat and a liberal, I’d hate to think these omissions are because Thomas has stood for progressive politics and Rosen is a Democrat.

PS The Washington Post has equally avoided the Thomas story, making passing reference in a blog (written by someone from the Conservative right) and a short summary of it in Howard Kurtz’s column today.

Golden Globes Re-elect Same President for 8th Time

Roger Friedman
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3
Golden Globes Re-elect Same President for 8th Time

Is it the Hollywood Foreign Press or Cuba? The organization that administers the Golden Globes has re-elected Philip Berk for the 8th time. And they’re proud of it.

Berk says he’s a correspondent for Australia’s FilmInk and Malaysia’s Galaxie magazine. The former carries just one of his stories, an interview with Johnny Depp, on its website, from 2008. The publisher, Dov Kornits, tells me via email this is because FilmInk’s website is really just news and reviews, and that Berk writes features for them.

FiilmInk has two other correspondents in Los Angeles and two more in New York. None of them belong to the Hollywood Foreign Press, only Berk.

Over at Galaxie, the only reference to Berk on their website is his role as Golden Globes president. Their correspondent posted a story about meeting Berk and his family in Berk’s Beverly Hilton Hotel suite on the day of the Globes. There’s also a long description of the backstage green room, to which no other press person is allowed.

According to Galaxie: “Furnishings in the Presenters Lounge include vintage Lalique pieces shipped from France valued at US$800,000 including an antique dining table from 1920 with the signature of Renea Lalique, exquisite furniture from Moura Starr including a leather sofa and black crystal coffee table valued at US$400,000, and hand-embroidered black and white silk drapes valued at US$25,000. There are also art masterpieces on loan from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and the Yehoshua Kovarsky Family Trust estimated to be worth more than US$1,000,000.  There are also bronze sculptures by famed sculptor Gilad Ben-Atzi in addition to a crystal chandelier.

“It’s only fitting that they be pampered with luxurious and glamorous accommodations before they venture on stage to present a Golden Globe before multimillions of viewers in 160 countries worldwide,” said Mr. Berk.”

He’s right; it’s only fitting.

Anywho, here’s a picture of a very happy President Berk backstage with Alfre Woodard and her daughter, Mavis, last season’s Miss Golden Globes. The HFPA pays its president approximately $72,000 a year.

The Berk election, by the way, was not without controversy. Berk lackey Jenny Cooney was not elected with him. Neither were a couple of other candidates whom the President endorsed. According to sources, Berk himself was unopposed as he is really serving the second year of a two year term. No word on the whereabouts of Berk waterboy Munawar Hosain, party animal extraordinaire.

Exclusive: Helen Thomas’s Rabbi- Interviewer Speaks

Roger Friedman
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9
Exclusive: Helen Thomas’s Rabbi- Interviewer Speaks

The rabbi-journalist who got the explosive interview with veteran reporter Helen Thomas spoke to me tonight exclusively.

Rabbi David Nesenoff is a journalist and filmmaker from Long Island who has his advanced degree from the Jewish Theological Seminar. He went to the White House on May 27th with his 17 year old son and the son’s 18 year old friend on a press pass. Both boys as well as the Rabbi wore yarmulkes and tsi-zit. They were obviously religious Jews.

And that’s what shocked Nesenoff when Helen Thomas told him — as he filmed her on his Flip camera– the Jews should “get the hell out” of Israel and go “home” to Poland or Germany–places they’d been tortured and killed in, and escaped from during the Holocaust.

“There’s anti-Semitism in the world,” Nesenoff told me. “And it’s sitting a foot from the president.”

Nesenoff says he isn’t aligned with any political party or ideology. He’s basically pro-Israel and is happy to meet any politician who agrees with him. Thomas surprised him, he says, because she knew who she was talking to. “She must have felt comfortable to just tell us how she felt.”

“It was shocking,” he said. The reason it took a week or more to post the video interview on his site, www.RabbiLive.com, or YouTube? “My 17 year old son is my webmaster and this week was finals,” he laughs. “So we had to wait.”

Nesenoff says there’s a little more that he’ll post, including a conversation with Thomas on the state of journalism. Once she made her “Poland” remarks, Nesenoff says there wasn’t much time to respond. Thomas was whisked away by a helper or page.

The Rabbi, by the way, has credentials: one film he worked on went to Sundance a few years ago, another garnered several prizes. A few years ago Nesenoff worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as an intervention consultant on a famous racial hate crimes case with Denny’s.

More recently he’s consulted Mel Gibson on the aftermath of his DUI arrest and anti-Semitic crimes. The rabbi says, by the way, that Gibson still has not really apologized for what he did. “You can’t just say you’re sorry for what you’ve done. You have to become the Poster Boy for apology, and he hasn’t done it,” Nesenoff says.

As for Helen Thomas, Nesenoff is all for sitting down with her and talking this out. “I’m into expose and propose,” he says.

Helen Thomas Self Destruction: Rabbi Has More on Tape

Roger Friedman
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4
Helen Thomas Self Destruction: Rabbi Has More on Tape

Has Helen Thomas destroyed her career after 50 years of covering the White House?

It doesn’t look good. I am told the Rabbi who videotaped her anti-Semitic comments has more that he hasn’t posted yet.

Thomas’s video taped anti-Semitic comments have rocked the internet. Thomas, speaking directly to a camera, tells a roving reporter that the Jews should get out of Palestine, and return to Poland and Germany. And America. And everywhere else. She’s sort of forgotten about why they left Poland and Germany, but that’s another story.

Subsequently, Thomas has sort of apologized on her website. (Who knew she even had one? But it’s for the 89 year old member of the White House Press Corps to hawk her books. Thomas currently works for Hearst Publications.)

Her initial comments were made at an event in Washington for Israel on May 27th. The apology reads: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

When I first saw the Thomas video, I thought: she’s old, she’s confused. She doesn’t understand. But watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14

Thomas seems to be talking about Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian state. Maybe, you think, she’s talking about West Bank or Gaza settlements.

But that’s not what she’s thinking when she says the Jews should go back to “Poland, Germany, America or anywhere else.” That’s not Israel she’s criticizing. And in that split millisecond, her entire career comes crashing down. All the good Helen Thomas did, sitting in those White House press conferences, asking tough questions of president after president–it’s all gone. Over. Done.

You wonder now, what else has been on her mind all these years?

Can she survive what she’s done? Others have managed come backs from similar situations, but they were younger, or in show business, and not held to a very standard. Thomas has been a flag bearer for nearly a century, and has come to represent what they think of a honesty and integrity in journalism. But I do think that’s it. A legacy has been destroyed. In the process, we learn something very grave and deeply disappointing.

Billionaire Producer Still Shooting Jazz Movie, Three Years Later

Roger Friedman
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5
Billionaire Producer Still Shooting Jazz Movie, Three Years Later

Dan Pritzker is the heir to the Hyatt fortune. He’s also a jazz fan, and a big one. He’s been writing and directing his first film, “Bolden!” a jazz movie set at the turn of the last century, since 2007. Shooting re-commences on June 14th for three more weeks.

“Bolden!” is billed as a “mythical interpretation” of the life of legendary New Orleans cornet player, Charles “Buddy” Bolden, considered the King of Jazz from around 1900 to 1907.  After that, Buddy Bolden, only 30, succumbed to schizophrenia.

Pritzker has been shooting the film since 2007 at studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. This week he resumes new shoots–not re-shoots–as star Anthony Mackie is finally available. The in-demand actor has just finished his run on Broadway in “A Behanding in Spokane.”

“Bolden!” has no distributor, no finish date, a fuzzy release date of sometime 2011, and a $30 million budget, according to sources. It co-stars Jackie Earle Haley and Wendell Pierce, as well as a name not heard so often these days, Michael Rooker. It’s not an expensive cast, but it’s a big one.

The big money has been spent behind the scenes. Wynton Marsalis wrote an original score. Vilmos Zsigmond is the cinematographer. Brothers and Steven and Derick Martini, and David Rothschild wrote the screenplay.

Not only that: an hour long second film has only been made by Pritzker. “Louis,” about Louis Armstrong‘s early days on the cornet, is a silent film with overlapping actors and characters from “Bolden!” The silent film, supposedly finished, is set to debut on August 25th in Chicago as part of Wynton Marsalis ‘s tour. (The presentation comes to our beloved Apollo Theater on August 30th.)

PR people who didn’t want to be quoted said that finishing “Louis” was what had stalled “Bolden!”

AOne insider told me: “We don’t this movie to end. It’s like a perpetual paycheck. When they say it’s time for more shooting, we just say where and when.”

Pritzker did not respond to calls, but publicists fell over themselves trying to explain all of this. The 51 year old Tufts grad is the grandson of A.N. Pritzker and the son of Jay Pritzker, who died in 1999 at age 76. Jay pritzker took the family’s massive wealth and built the Hyatt Hotel chain. They also own Royal Caribbean.

Dan Pritzker was listed in 2008 as the 246th richest American on Forbes 400,so he can definitely afford to make any movie he likes.And while jazz movies always welcome, they are not traditionally successful. Both Robert Altman‘s “Kansas City” and Clint Eastwood‘s “Bird” were more admired than attended by paying ticketholders.

Six Weak Films In Search of An Audience

Roger Friedman
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5
Six Weak Films In Search of An Audience

Chemistry is everything in the movies, and everything at the box office.

The current low ebb of films and audiences is just a bad mix. Currently a half dozen films are just mediocre enough to cause not a scintilla of a spark anywhere on this hot, humid weekend.

They are: “Sex and the City 2,” “Killers,” “Prince of Persia,” “Marmaduke,” “Splice,” and “Get Him to the Greek.” One or two of these would be bad enough for most weekends, but the combination is deadly.

As it turns out, “SATC2” will do well enough, and cause the filmmakers to really give some thought as to how they’ll wrap up the trilogy in two years.

“Get Him to the Greek” is showing a blah response from the audience. Its first weekend will be its best, by far.

But “Killers” is DOA, “Prince of Persia” is an overblown mess, “Marmaduke” is barking up the wrong tree, and “Splice” is still born.

I’,m still not sure how “Splice” came out of Sundance a winner. There was no feel for it at the actual festival. It seems like it was a cabin-fever buy, purchased by people who let the snow get to them.

“Killers” has been discussed ad nauseum. It’s a bad TV version of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a movie that would not have merited much attention had not the main players been romping romantically in real life. I do mean, Brangelina.

“Prince of Persia” remains a quandary. It’s made $50 million in America, and another $100 million abroad. It cost at least $200 million, excluding the massive amount of promotion. Jake Gyllenhaal, a talented actor, as inflated for the role. His pictures have been on the internet for what it seems like a year. By the time the movie was released, Jake was back to normal. The movie fell flat. So it will rake in Euros and other currencies. Are we really going to depend on it not mattering that films aren’t good or coherent, just noisy, in foreign languages? (Answer: I guess so.)

What’s coming next Friday won’t help matters much: “The A Team,” also advertising a star’s Soloflex program (Bradley Cooper) and “The Karate Kid” remake with Will Smith‘s precocious son, Jaden.

It may be a good month to read a book.

Katherine Heigl Leaves “Grey’s Anatomy” for Worst Movie of the Year

Roger Friedman
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4
Katherine Heigl Leaves “Grey’s Anatomy” for Worst Movie of the Year

So far, Katherine Heigl’s movie career is not what you’d call a march to the Oscars.

Today, someone (Lions Gate) is releasing “Killers” starring Heigl and Ashton (Mr. Demi Moore) Kutcher. It’s the worst movie of the year, maybe including 2008 and 2009. No one’s reviewing it today because there were no critics screenings. Rotten Tomatoes can’t rate it because it has just four reviews. They are not positive.

On the imdb.com website, there’s a good review of “Killers” from, of all places, Egypt.

“There are two kinds of bad movies: The so-bad-it’s-good, and so bad-it-hurts. But then, there is Killers; an amorphous blob that exists in a vacuum where no films has ever been made before. It’s not a comedy in the sense it’s assembled out of jokes and humorous conflicts — Killers constructs its own parallel universe reality and giddily makes fun of it. And it’s not an action in the sense that good guys and bad guys chase one another — Killers’ has a snake-eating-its-tail moral stance. Killers is Meta in the truest sense of the word, and it’s not even aware of it.”

Haisam Abu Samra continues: “Critically analyzing Killers is like reasoning with an alligator before it eats you alive; it’s a waste of precious time better used for self reconcile. The only shining piece of the film is Heigl’s teeth. The script seems to have begun its existence as a Mr. & Mrs. Smith book report, rewritten by a conspiracy theorist, and finally polished by an ESL student.”

Now, why isn’t this man in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association? He’s the Roger Ebert of the Nile!

Seriously, Robert Luketic is the culprit here. The director of Heigl’s awful “The Ugly Truth” started his career with “Legally Blonde,” a flukey hit that shower promise. But “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” and “Monster in Law” are not exactly “The Palm Beach Story” and “Annie Hall.”

And then there’s Ashton Kutcher, Twitter expert and producer of “PunkD” on MTV. The former “That 70s Show” star should stick to game shows and the cult of Kabbalah. Acting is not his forte.

I took 14 producers, and at least $75 million, to cook up “The Killers,” a movie I will see in August, no doubt, on American Airlines. Until then, Katherine Heigl–who is talented and gorgeous–should consider looking for a great TV series.

Exclusive: Mariah IS Preggers…With New Album!

Roger Friedman
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9
Exclusive: Mariah IS Preggers…With New Album!

Mariah Carey is expecting a bundle of joy this December! It’s a…new Christmas album!

While People, US Weekly, Radar Online and the rest of tabs hound the 40 old year songstress for news of a blessed birth, Carey is busy indeed gestating.

She’s working hard on a Christmas album, with all new versions of her hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” That song is now the most peopular of all holiday songs, downloaded more and played more than even “White Christmas.” So Mariah has smarted up, brought in best pals Jermaine Dupri and Randy Jackson, and they are hard at work getting together their Christmas surprise.

As for the alleged baby–kids, Mariah is not going to tell us anything until the time is right and she’s comfortable with it. A 40 year old woman is not going to announce a pregnancy before the fourth month. If you remember, Jennifer Lopez never did announce she was with child. Her twins are on their way to college now! (Just kidding.)

Anyway, Mariah’s Christmas album is said to be very lush, with lots of strings and no hip hop. A lot of it is said to be “live” and there’s an ochestra. So let’s chew on that news, and calm down about the other. And believe me, she won’t be announcing anything at Radar Online owned by the National Enquirer. That won’t be happening!

And PS: It’s not like Mariah’s sitting at home with her feet up. She’s doing a special gig for Wal Mart tonight outside of Los Angeles.

(photo, like most of our pics, courtesy PR Photos. My caption: “Her lips are sealed.”

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