BITS AND PIECES 06/14 Part 3
Billie
--NICK AT NITE ON DADS: It's a four-hour tribute to the guys who put the pop in
``Pop'' when Nick at Nite presents its ``Pop-stars Father's Day Salute'' on
Sunday. Beginning at 9 p.m. EDT, the tribute includes George Jefferson, Mike
Brady and Archie Bunker.
--SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Roger Williams completed a 12-hour marathon
recital at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that included special
requests from Nancy Reagan. More than 2,000 people attended Tuesday's recital,
which included more than 400 requests. The 76-year-old pianist played ``Our
Love Is Here to Stay'' and ``Nancy With the Laughing Face'' for the former
first lady. Williams also donated a $100,000 Steinway concert grand piano to
the library honoring the nation's 40th chief executive. ``It's my favorite
piano. And I thought, it deserves a special home in honor of two of my favorite
people, the president and Mrs. Reagan,'' Williams has said. Williams is known
as the ``pianist to the presidents'' because of his many presidential
performances. His hits include ``Autumn Leaves,'' ``Born Free'' and ``Near
You.''
--Meredith Vieira doesn't lead a glamorous life. Like many women, she's trying
to balance a career and family. ``I got my sweat pants on and my clogs and my
T-shirt and I'm going home. ... And make sandwiches for a picnic for my son's
fourth grade,'' said Vieira, one of the hosts of ABC's ``The View.'' Vieira,
the mother of three children, is also the host of Lifetime Television's
``Intimate Portrait'' series. ``When I say that I really do drive a beat-up
minivan, I really do,'' she told AP Radio. ``I think, you know, we have this
image of ... everything (being) done for us or whatever, and most of the people
I know who are in the business lead relatively simple lives outside of it.''
The new season of ``Intimate Portrait,'' which begins Monday, will include
profiles of Calista Flockhart, Liz Smith and Sela Ward, among others. Other
stars who have been profiled include Cindy Crawford, Mia Farrow and Judy
Garland. ``Because so many of the portraits that we do involve real struggle, I
think that women who watch it feel a little bit like they can relate to the
person as something other than the movie star,'' she said. ``They've been
through struggles themselves or are going through it.''
--Jane Kaczmarek has learned this about parenthood: ``You can't live with a
white couch when you've got kids.'' As Lois on Fox's ``Malcolm in the Middle,''
Kaczmarek is the mother of four sons, including Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), who
provides sharp-witted commentary on the family's zany middle-class lives. In
real life, the 45-year-old actress is married to Bradley Whitford of ``The West
Wing.'' They have two young children. ``One of the nice things about the show
is the relationship between the parents,'' Kaczmarek told Ladies' Home Journal
magazine in its July issue. ``They have great kindness and forgiveness for the
kinds of things they're each trying to do.'' And she insists her TV family
isn't dysfunctional. ``I've gotten a little heated under the collar about that
description,'' she said. ``This family has dinner together every night. They
function extremely well as a unit. ``I often think of dysfunctional families as
those in which no bounds are being set; there are definitely bounds in this
family. They survive by common sense.''
--Pearson Television wanted to honor game-show host Bob Barker with an
endowment fund that would be named after him. Harvard University decided the
price - $500,000 - was right. Barker visited Harvard Law School Wednesday and
presented officials with a $500,000 gift that will establish the Bob Barker
Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. The 77-year-old Barker has
agreed to stay on as host of ``The Price Is Right'' through 2006, the durable
game show's 34th season on CBS. He's signed a new five-year contract with the
daytime program he took over in 1972 and for which he's won 14 Emmys. The show,
which started in 1957 on NBC, is among the highest-rated on daytime television.
--The Art Museum at Princeton University has reached an agreement allowing it
to keep an Italian Renaissance painting that was taken from the collection of a
Jewish resident of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The agreement with
the heirs of Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe was announced Wednesday by the
university. Financial terms were not disclosed. The circa-1500 painting, ``St.
Bartholomew,'' has been in the Princeton collection since 1994. The university
acquired it from French and Co., a New York art dealer, which also participated
in the compensation agreement with the family. Gentili di Giuseppe died of
natural causes in 1940. In 1941, his art collection was sold at public auction
in Paris under the order of a French court. In 1998, the man's heirs brought
legal action to nullify the auction sale. The Court of Appeals of Paris held
that the then-living heirs of Gentili di Giuseppe had been prevented from
attending to the administration of his estate and voided the sale of five
paintings. After the court's ruling, the Princeton museum and the heirs began
discussions about ``St. Bartholomew,'' which came from the family collection
but was not one of the five paintings involved in the French court decision.
The heirs acknowledged that the museum had acquired the work in good faith and
expressed a willingness to allow the painting to remain in the Princeton
collection. The museum and the heirs commissioned independent appraisals, and
the museum agreed to compensate the heirs for the agreed-upon value. Frederico
Gentili di Giuseppe's prior ownership of the painting will be acknowledged by
the art museum. ``The Princeton University Art Museum is fully committed to the
responsible resolution of ownership claims concerning World War II-era cultural
property,'' Susan M. Taylor, director of the museum, said in a statement.
VARIETY.....
--Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's true-life drama about slain Irish journalist
Veronica Guerin has gotten the greenlight, with Walt Disney back on track to
distribute the film and Cate Blanchett in early talks to star as the gutsy
reporter. In September, Joel Schumacher signed on to develop and direct
``Chasing the Dratgon: The Veronica Guerin Story.'' He remains attached, with
production expected to begin in Dublin, Ireland, next spring. The Mouse House
had shelved the project, and it was believed that Bruckheimer would set it up
at another studio. Now it's again with Disney, subject to an undisclosed budget
figure. Guerin, a reporter for the Dublin Sunday Independent, was gunned down
in 1996 by the drug dealers about whom she frequently wrote. Her story struck a
nerve in the United States, spawning a half-dozen TV and magazine pieces. In
1997, Disney hired former Texas Monthly staffer Helen Thorpe to work on the
Guerin project, dispatching her to Dublin for a month-long research trip.
Bruckheimer subsequently supplemented that material by optioning Mike Sager's
GQ article ``The Martyrdom of Veronica Guerin.'' Several writers have penned
drafts of the script, including Irish scribe Carol Doyle, who wrote the first
draft, and Mary Agnes Donahue, whose rewrite attracted Schumacher. Blanchett
next appears in the Miramax film ``The Shipping News,'' opposite Kevin Spacey,
and in New Line's ``The Fellowship of the Ring,'' the first installment of the
Peter Jackson-directed ``Lord of the Rings'' trilogy, to be released Dec. 19.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.....
--Dean Devlin's Electric Entertainment, Roland Emmerich's Centropolis
Entertainment and Bob Cooper's Landscape Entertainment will produce a Ron
Bass-penned thriller tentatively titled "Cyber Love Story." The script -- based
on an original idea by Landscape senior vp Michael Birnbaum, who will also
produce -- was originally bought from Centropolis' discretionary fund during
its deal with Sony's Columbia Pictures, which ended in February. Sony will have
first crack at the project, which Bass is expected to begin writing in the
summer. Devlin described the thriller as having "elements of a 'Fatal
Attraction' but set in a cyber environment." The story involves online dating
in the near future, when chat rooms have become "totally synthetic
environments," Devlin said. "The genre offers (Emmerich and me) a playground
that we're familiar with, but the subject matter and the fact that Ron Bass is
writing it can really deepen this kind of genre film," Devlin said of the
project. The film is the first announced involving both Devlin and Emmerich
since Devlin announced the formation of his own Electric Entertainment last
month. Devlin said he and Emmerich "still have a lot of stuff we're going to be
doing together" following the restructuring of Centropolis. "Cyber" reunites
Devlin and Emmerich with Cooper, who was president of TriStar when the
filmmakers came on board to do "Godzilla" for the studio. Also while at
TriStar, Cooper worked with Bass on "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Stepmom."
LAUNCH....
--Hole's Courtney Love and former Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum will
play a benefit for Scott Elliot's New Group Theater on June 18 at New York
City's Russian Tea Room. Fans at the $500-a-plate dinner will have the
opportunity to be the first to hear tunes the duo are working on for the film
and the soundtrack to Hello Suckers.
--Fan response to Smash Mouth's cover of the Monkees' song "I'm A Believer,"
from the soundtrack to Shrek, has prompted the band to release the song as a
bonafide single and shoot a video. The San Jose, California group will tape the
clip next week in Los Angeles, while the single itself was ushered to radio at
the beginning of this week. "We weren't planning on this song being a radio
single, but the movie is so good and people are requesting the song like
crazy," says the group, on its official website (smashmouth.com). Meanwhile,
Smash Mouth continues to work on the follow-up to its 1999 hit album, Astro
Lounge, scheduled for a fall release. The band has composed three new tunes and
will enter a studio next week to record them, according to the website. The
working titles are "Whole Lotta Love," "Holiday In My Head," and "Mr. Lucky."
At least a dozen songs have now been recorded for the unnamed album, including
"Spooky Thing," featuring vocals from funk legend George Clinton. The album
will also include "I'm A Believer." In the interim, the website reports, "Greg
[Camp] is taking a few days vacation in Santa Barbara before getting back into
it all. Steve [Harwell] is doing the same at his home in Las Vegas, and as
always Paul [De Lisle] is on his surf board in Santa Cruz. Michael Urbano is
busy programming drums for the new songs."
--The U.S. Open kicks off today (June 14) at the Southern Hills Country Club in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, with Tiger Woods defending his win at last year's event in
Pebble Beach, California. One person who's sure to keep an eye on the action is
avid golfer Alice Cooper, who plays five times a week, whether on tour or at
home in Arizona. LAUNCH asked Cooper why he and so many other musicians have
taken up a game that they probably wouldn't have been caught dead playing when
they were younger, and he said it serves as a useful distraction while on the
road. "It gets you out of the hotel rooms when you're on long tours," he said.
"It's something to look forward to. You do the show, the next morning--what are
you gonna do, sit in the hotel room all day? No, you get to go out and hit the
golf ball around. But it's certainly nothing that I would...I would never give
up rock 'n' roll for golf." For the record, Cooper said he's a three handicap.
"And I play really good," he added.
--Hip-hop icon and veteran rapper LL Cool J is headed back into the studio to
record the follow-up to his last album, G.O.A.T. The rapper shared how he is
approaching the new set when LAUNCH caught up with him recently at the Hudson
Hotel in New York City.
--Vanilla Ice, famous for his pop-rap hit "Ice Ice Baby," is one of the acts
confirmed for the Insane Clown Posse-sponsored festival Gathering Of The
Juggalos, which is set for July 13-15 at Seagate Center in Toledo, Ohio. ICP
will play the final day of the festival and will sign autographs.
ROLLING STONE....
--British pop superstar Robbie Williams is planning an album of big-band cover
songs in the style of Frank Sinatra. Williams, who released Sing When You're
Winning last October, will be taking a break from contemporary fare in order to
deliver the vintage set, which is promised for late 2001 or early 2002.
--"You're gonna see me like you've never seen me before," promises Nelly
Furtado about the multicultural mishmash in the video for her second single,
"Turn Off the Light." Under the direction of Sophie Mueller (of No Doubt's
"Sunday Morning" and Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" fame), who Furtado has wanted
to work with for years, Nelly is "jazzed" about showing off a montage of her
musical influences.
--Prince will wrap up his weeklong birthday bash in his hometown of Minneapolis
this week with two performances at the Xcel Energy Center on June 15th and
16th. The pair of shows will mark the beginning of the Prince: A Celebration
Tour, a twenty-nine-date jaunt that will keep the funk soul legend on the road
into August. The lengthy summer itinerary follows a series of spring dates
Prince called his Hit and Run Tour.
--Da Brat avoided going to trial and the prospect of jail time on Monday when a
plea bargain was approved by Atlanta's Fulton County District Attorney for her
2000 assault charges. In exchange for a guilty plea, a felony aggravated
assault charge was reduced to misdemeanor reckless conduct.
"STUPIDITY IS NOT A HANDICAP. Park elsewhere!"
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