BITS AND PIECES 11/15 Part 2
Billie
--Controversial rapper-turned-movie star Eminem snagging Best Hip-Hop, Best
Male and Best Album award for The Eminem Show at the MTV Europe Music Awards
Thursday night. Kylie Minogue, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Linkin Park each
picked up two honors. Meanwhile, Em's uncle putting up for sale the his boyhood
home where he group up in Detroit on eBay for a minimum bid of $120,000 even
though city records show it's worth only about $47,000.
--Tim Allen returning to ABC to produce a sitcom about the state of the
American male, circa 2002. The untitled comedy will revolve around four guys
who've been friends since high school, and how times have changed since then.
--Ben Affleck in talks to star in Paramount Picture's sci-fi thriller Paycheck,
a futuristic tale based on a Philip K. Dick story about an amnesiac whose
trying to piece together his last paycheck. John Woo is attached to direct.
--Comedian Howie Mandel, who frequently contributes hidden-camera pranks to The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Live With Regis and Kelly, refashioning those
stunts into a sitcom for NBC that would star Mandel as himself -- a family man
with three kids who spends his work days crafting hidden-camera bits for a
major NBC talk show.
--Steven Soderbergh winning his appeal with the Motion Picture Association of
America over the rating on his upcoming Solaris. Soderbergh convinced the panel
to give the film a PG-13 instead of an R and keep its shots of George Clooney's
bare butt.
--The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denying actor Robert Blake bail.
Blake has been jailed since April on charges of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee
Bakley.
--The TV Academy voting Wednesday to keep the Primetime Emmy Awards on the Big
Four networks instead of HBO. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox will pony up $52 million
over eight years for the right to take turns airing the show. HBO had offered
more than $50 million over five years.
--Upon accepting the Governor's Award for outstanding contribution to Jersey
Arts from the New Jersey State Film Festival, actress Susan Sarandon saying she
would like the state to name a rest stop after her. "I have all my other
awards," Sarandon quipped," but I want a rest stop named for me."
--Rival campaigners lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to
block Paramount Classics' critically praised Bloody Sunday from Oscar
consideration because it aired on TV within six months of its theatrical bow in
Ireland and Britain. Paramount has appeal to the Academy president, saying it
aired the movie as a public service because it retells the sensitive subject of
the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre.
--Legislation discounting the royalty small webcasters will pay for streaming
music resurrected Thursday after music industry execs reached a compromise with
Senator Jesse Helms, allowing final action during this week's lame-duck
session. A new version was approved by the Senate late Thursday and appeared to
be on its way to passing in the House.
--The 1996 Telecommunications Act having an adverse impact on radio nationwide,
resulting in heavy industry consolidation by the likes of Clear Channel and
shutting the door to independent voices making it more difficult for emerging
artists to get airplay, according to a survey conducted by the non-profit The
Future of Music Coalition.
WENN NEWS...
--Oscar winners Die Another Day beauty Halle Berry and Training Day star Denzel
Washington are in the frame to take the lead roles in a remake of hit eighties
British comedy Educating Rita. The original 1983 film starring Billy Elliot
actress Julie Walters and Alfie legend Michael Caine is set to be remade in the
US with an all African-American cast. Original director Lewis Gilbert is set to
helm the new version. He says, "My view was that you couldn't make a new film
as good as the original unless you did something very different to it. That's
why I find the idea of making it with a black cast so appealing. Making it a
black film will take it sufficiently away from the original to make it fresh,
but not too far away. There are so many good black actors in America. You only
have to think of the two black actors who took the best actor awards at this
year's Oscars (namely Berry and Washington)."
--Red Dragon star Anthony Hopkins has one film in the can that will never top
the box office charts - because there is not enough money to finish it. The
legendary star worked on The Devil And Daniel Webster, a version of Stephen
Vincent Benet's supernatural short story, alongside screen beauty Jennifer Love
Hewitt and under the direction of Pearl Harbor star Alec Baldwin. However,
despite it's a-list credentials, the flick faces a bleak future, after filming
wrapped in March 2001. Hopkins says, "They pulled the money out, apparently, so
it'll never be seen. The producers have no money to finish it. (Alec's) good, a
fine director. He's good to work with, but I don't know if Alec is even
interested in (completing) it. We finished filming it a long time ago."
--Hollywood hunk Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted locking lips with a species far
less attractive than his usual leading ladies - a gorilla. The Titanic star's
inter-species kiss was part of his promotion for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund,
an organization attempting to protect the species, for which he serves as a
patron. The Gangs Of New York star says, "I'm truly honored to be a patron of
this organization. They do so much good for a vanishing species that we have
truly taken for granted."
Las Vegas Review-Journal/NORM CLARKE
--Britney Spears' life in the fast lane topped out Wednesday at 118 mph during
four hours at the Richard Petty Driving Experience on the Las Vegas Motor
Speedway oval. That's the word from our spies after the recording artist showed
up to prepare for another big-screen venture. She will play the daughter of a
successful, modern-day NASCAR team owner. Spears, who turns 21 on Dec. 1,
burned up the 1.5-mile track in No. 36, a yellow Winston Cup stock car with M&M
decals on it. Hey, the kid can drive. She didn't stall the car once while
exiting the pit area. She took 30-some laps, about 20 solo.
--Tiger Woods has mastered the game of money management. The golf gazillionaire
was gambling at $10,000 a hand Tuesday at the MGM Grand's Mansion when a
cocktail server brought drinks to him and his girlfriend. Woods fished in his
pocket, came up with a $5 bill and placed it on the server's tray. Then his
girlfriend pointed out he already had tipped her. Without a word, he reached
over and took back the tip.
--Marriage rumors are all the rage: Hilton headliner Sheena Easton reportedly
tied the knot Saturday with local plastic surgeon John Minoli, and there's a
buzz out of Los Angeles that Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal is eyeing a Las
Vegas wedding.
--With the Rolling Stones at a private party Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel,
and the Palms celebrating its first anniversary, it will be celebfest weekend.
Plus there's the star-studded event at Light (Bellagio) being hosted by
supermodel Naomi Campbell. Invitees include Leonardo DiCaprio, Benecio Del
Toro, J.C. Chasez of 'N Sync, and the cast of "That '70s Show." Sunday night:
DJ Hurricane from the Beastie Boys.
--DiCaprio and his posse, celebrating his 28th birthday with a memorable bash
Thursday night in the "Real World" (high roller) suites at the Palms. First
they dined at N9NE, the Palms' steakhouse. ...
--LaToya Jackson, back in town after spending almost a year in Los Angeles and
Europe working on an album.
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
--When Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse" hit record shelves
Tuesday, many members of the media - and even employees at the Grammy-winning,
platinum-selling rapper's Roc-A-Fella Records label - didn't have copies of the
album in their possession. Declares a source at the recording company, "Damon
(as in label owner Damon Dash) didn't want to take any chances on the album
getting bootlegged. A lot of people in the music industry were calling to get
advanced copies, but we didn't have any to send out. People were really mad
about it, but we didn't even have copies for ourselves." Bootlegging and
Internet piracy have become two of the biggest problems in the music industry
today. As we recently reported, Whitney Houston's "Just Whitney" CD, not due
for release until Nov. 26, was pirated in its entirety and made available on
the Internet late last month. And this summer, Interscope Records had to take
the drastic measure of moving up the release date of Eminem's "The Eminem Show"
by nearly a week to combat Internet piracy and bootlegging. The situation is
causing many record labels to rethink their release practices. Some, for
instance, now refrain from sending members of the press who are interviewing
artists a copy of the artist's upcoming recording, allowing writers to hear the
music only via telephone - to cut the risk of illegal copying. Hey, ya gotta do
what ya gotta do.
--The set where Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Jennifer Beals and John Cusack
are making the big-screen adaptation of the John Grisham courtroom drama
"Runaway Jury" has been, she says, nothing short of fun. Among other things,
Beals says, Dustin has been showing up on the set with a boom box and a jump
rope and jumping around to music. I'm trying to teach him how to jump
double-Dutch. I haven't done it since I was about 8, but he seems to be rather
skilled at jumping rope, and he's a fast learner." According to Beals, "It's
important to keep the set fun when you're working on a movie with heavy
material that could make you depressed. Otherwise you really burn yourself out
and aren't as effective."
--Pierce Brosnan has taken off for Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin and
Stockholm as part of his extensive promotional push for "Die Another Day."
Pierce will wing back to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and then will resume
Bond-pushing anew. Stops in Australia and Asia will also be included on the
007-tubthumping trek that will keep him busy until mid-December, when he and
his family kick back for two weeks at their recently purchased Hawaiian home.
--Casting breakdowns say director Brett Ratner and producer Jon Peters are
looking for an actor at least 5-foot-8, "who's 25-30 and physically fit" to
play a man who's "seemingly unassuming and has an edge, who's always tried to
be normal and fit into his small Midwestern town and who, as he grows up,
realizes he has special powers: tremendous strength, X-ray vision and the
ability to fly." Production of the latest "Superman" is slated to start in May.
--Since becoming a series regular on the F/X series "The Shield" has added some
structure to CCH Pounder's life, the actress is now able to give more time to
her other love - Musee Boribana. That's the museum she and husband Boubacar
Kone' have founded in Senegal that "showcases contemporary and traditional
African and African Diaspora art." Declares the Guyana native, "Senegal was the
last place I expected to be opening an art gallery. When we started the
project, we thought it would just be for us. But once we started collecting all
this great work from local Senegalese artists, we knew it was something that
had to be shared with the rest of the community. The space we have is quite
small, but our goal is to expand it as time goes." Pounder, who is also a
painter, says she gets back to Senegal - her husband's homeland - "three or
four times a year," and finds time to put her own paintbrushes to canvas
whenever she can. "I've used painting as my personal therapist when dealing
with some of my personal issues. A lot of my work revolves around being an
immigrant to the U.S. and how that influenced my childhood."
By Elizabeth Snead and Jenny Peters
--What do international refugees, movies and $20,000 platinum cell phones have
in common? Julia Ormond, Rosanna Arquette, Benicio Del Toro, Christian Slater,
Daryl Hannah, Lisa Marie and Julie Delpy, that's what. They all showed up at a
bash in Beverly Hills Tuesday night to benefit FilmAid International, an
international humanitarian organization that educates, entertains and inspires
refugees uprooted by violent conflicts around the world, by showing them
movies. The party was hosted by Vanity Fair - whose beauty and photography
editor, SunHee Grinnell, mixed with the stars in person - and sponsored by
Vertu, maker of handcrafted gold and platinum cell phones priced from $5,000 to
$20,000. OK, wait. Movies in refugee camps? Ormond has been working with
FilmAid for three years and explains the seriousness of the venture. "Right now
we're showing films in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and we're moving into
Tanzania and hopefully to Afghanistan." So what kinds of films do refugees want
to see? "If we do show American or European films, we make sure they have
strong family values and are culturally appropriate," Ormond says. " 'E.T.' is
in our library and 'Gandhi' has been very popular, as well as films on Nelson
Mandela and on health issues like AIDS, teenage pregnancy and domestic
violence." Film may sound frivolous, but, according to Ormond, it's not. "Food,
shelter and medicine is vital, but it's not enough for people who have spent
decades in camps. We want to do more with our technology. And it's great that a
high-tech company like tonight's sponsor, Vertu, is helping support our
efforts."
--Although it is unknown how much BEN AFFLECK spent on JENNIFER LOPEZ's massive
pink diamond engagement ring, ET has learned the details on the ring itself.
Custom-made by Harry Winston jewelers, the intense, pink radiant-cut diamond is
a whopping 6.1 carats and one of the most sought after in the world; it's rare
to find one that's even one carat. The diamond is mounted on a classic platinum
and 18-carat-pink gold band with two, white-diamond, trapezoid-shaped, side
stone accents. No date has been made public for the star couple's wedding,
although J.Lo has said she'd like to be married in a church.
--SHARON STONE, KIM BASINGER, SALMA HAYEK and CHRISTIAN SLATER have done it,
now you can too. Beginning Friday, the nationwide search is on for models to
appear in a print ad for the Gap. "We're looking for real people who personify
the Gap brand -- intriguing people with personal style," says VP of Marketing,
KYLE ANDREW. Ultimately, winners in six categories (men, women, boys, girls,
baby boys and baby girls) will be chosen by the public, but first hopefuls have
to enter. Aspiring models can click onto www.gap.com from Nov. 15 - December 1
for an entry form.
ASSOCIATED PRESS...
--Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1952 classic "Ikiru," about a dying man's
efforts to make a difference before he goes, is being remade at DreamWorks.
"Ikiru" is the third Kurosawa film to be set up as a remake, following
Miramax/MGM's endeavor to retell "The Seven Samurai" and Disney's making a deal
for Brazilian director Walter Salles to direct a redo of "High and Low." In
"Ikiru," a low-level bureaucrat learns he has terminal stomach cancer and
leaves his job after 30 years to find the meaning of life while he still has
time. After some decadent pursuits, the man becomes fixated on a campaign to
build a park before he succumbs to his illness.
--Rob Cohen, who most recently directed "The Fast and the Furious" and "XXX,"
is negotiating to shoot "Warrior" for Columbia Pictures as his next project.
The W.D. Richter-scripted action film is about a pilot's effort to bring down a
computerized fighter jet that has gone awry and is wreaking havoc. Cohen is
also attached to Columbia's biopic of Hawaiian King Kamehameha, which will star
the Rock. He is also developing a "XXX" sequel, again starring Vin Diesel,
which is expected to begin production after Cohen completes "Warrior."
--The Fox network picked up a full season of rookie comedy "Cedric the
Entertainer Presents" on Thursday, while UPN has found a home for midseason
comedy "Abby." "Cedric," a sketch comedy showcase led by the comedian known as
Cedric "the Entertainer," has become the No. 1 series in African-American homes
and adults 18-49 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. "Cedric" has
held on to 100% of its "Bernie Mac" lead-in among adults 18-49, averaging a 3.8
rating/10 share after five original episodes. The series has attracted 8.3
million viewers overall on Wednesday nights. "Cedric has a unique voice, which
is perfectly suited for Fox," Fox Entertainment president Gail Berman said.
"The series is unlike any other, and this pickup is an acknowledgement of the
belief we have in both the show and Cedric as a television star." The "Cedric"
pickup came two days after Fox gave the thumbs up to fellow fall newbies
"Fastlane" and "John Doe." Network executives were still determining the fate
of Friday drama "Firefly." Meanwhile, UPN will premiere "Abby" with a special
airing on Monday, Jan. 6 at 9:30 p.m., following "Girlfriends." The show will
then get a second airing, following another episode of "Girlfriends," the
following night. "Abby" moves to its regular Tuesday 9 p.m. slot on Jan. 14.
UPN will air a wheel of repeat and original episodes of its Monday night
comedies in the Tuesday post-"Abby" slot for the time being. "Abby" will air in
the hour following- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" that was recently vacated by
"Haunted." The series stars Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Kadeem Hardison as an
ex-couple who still live together.
--Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett, the creators of "Ed," have signed a deal with
NBC to develop new series. The two-year deal allows them to continue working on
"Ed" as they generate new shows for the network. Burnett also remains as an
executive producer of CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." (Letterman's
production company, Worldwide Pants, produces "Ed.") "Rob Burnett and Jon
Beckerman are among the most creative and talented showmen in the television
business," NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker says. "We couldn't be
happier that they've chosen NBC as their home base for developing new shows."
"Ed," now in its third season, earned rave reviews when it debuted in 2000.
Although it's fallen from critical grace somewhat recently -- mostly due to the
protracted will-they-or-won't-they relationship between Ed (Tom Cavanagh) and
his unrequited love, Carol (Julie Bowen) -- it still performs solidly in the
ratings. The show is averaging about 10.4 million viewers a week so far this
season, and Wednesday's (Nov. 13) episode drew 12.6 million viewers, its
biggest audience in more than a year.
--UPN, which has had trouble with the post-"Buffy" timeslot on Tuesday nights,
will try to establish a new comedy there in January. "Abby" stars Sydney Tamiia
Poitier (NBC's short-lived "First Years"), the daughter of acting giant Sidney
Poitier, as a woman trying to balance her career and personal life after
breaking up with a longtime boyfriend. Kadeem Hardison ("A Different World,"
"Showtime" ) plays Abby's ex, Will, who shares a posh (and rent-controlled)
apartment with her in San Francisco. Realizing that neither one of them could
afford as nice a place on their own, they decide to remain roommates. That, of
course, complicates Abby's re-entry into the dating scene. Tangie Ambrose (The
WB's "Brutally Normal"), Randy J. Goodwin ("Girlfriends") and Sean O'Bryan also
star. The scheduling of "Abby" on Tuesdays closes the book on "Haunted," which
lasted seven episodes on UPN and was the lowest-rated new series of the season.
Since "Buffy the Vampire" moved to UPN last season, the network has struggled
to find shows that will hold its audience in one of the most competitive hours
of the week. The primary occupant of the spot last season, "Roswell," lost a
third of the "Buffy" viewers on average, and the two-week experiment of "As If"
and "The Random Years" was a disaster. "Abby" will debut at 9:30 p.m. ET
Monday, Jan. 6, bumping "Half and Half" on that night. UPN will air an original
"Girlfriends" at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan 7, followed by another "Abby." The show
will move to its regular home of 9 p.m. Tuesday the following week. Reruns of
the network's Monday comedies will fill the second half of the hour.
--The painfully funny comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has earned a fourth season
on HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show, which stars "Seinfeld"
co-creator Larry David as more or less himself, has been drawing good-sized
audiences this fall on Sunday nights following "The Sopranos." About 4.8
million people watched Sunday's (Nov. 10) episode. "Curb" also earned its first
two Emmy nominations this year, including one for best comedy series. The
series, which is improvised off of detailed story outlines, follows David as he
navigates through his life as a wealthy and fairly well-known ex-sitcom
producer who manages to turn seemingly minor social gaffes into major blowups.
Cheryl Hines and Jeff Garlin also star, with Richard Lewis, Ted Danson and
others making frequent guest appearances.
"STUPIDITY IS NOT A HANDICAP. Park elsewhere!"
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