BITS AND PIECES 0514 Part 1
AGC Queen
--Ben Affleck has nabbed the lead role in Martin Brest's quirky drama Gigli.
The Revolution Studios film centers on Affleck as a hit man who kidnaps the
mentally challenged brother of a powerful district attorney. The two then hide
out in a one-bedroom apartment with an eccentric woman whom Affleck believes is
a contract killer. Production dates are still being negotiated.
--Kung-fu action star Jackie Chan is a sharp-dressed man in his next feature,
Tuxedo. Chan plays a wacky spy who constructs a special tuxedo, which aids him
in fighting crime. The Dreamworks/Vanguard project most likely begins shooting
this fall.
--Rachel Griffiths is set to play Guy Pearce's unfaithful other half in the
prison comedy Blood and Guts. The Alibi Films feature follows the adventures of
three bank-robbing brothers who find a way to make cash, even when locked
behind bars. Writer-director Scott Roberts helms the larceny laffer, which
begins its two-month shoot in Australia this July.
--Actor Kevin Spacey prevailing over a cybersquatter Friday when the National
Arbitration Forum ruled against John Zuccarini, a Pennsylvania man who was
holding onto the rights to the slightly misspelled www.kevinspacy.com.
--Latin Access, a weekly syndicated TV show dedicated to Hispanic entertainment
and culture, will launch this fall on NBC. The half-hour program will target
mainstream audiences with coverage of the Latin entertainment world in the
United States.
NY POST/MICHAEL STARR....
--VETERAN ABC News correspondent Sylvia Chase is out at the network after her
contract was not renewed. Chase, who appeared on the inaugural broadcast of
"20/20" in 1978, will continue working for ABC on a freelance basis as the
narrator of "24/7," its real-life documentary series. She narrated "Hopkins
24/7" last year. Chase's contract was not renewed "as part of the network's
downsizing," according to an ABC News spokesman. Also out at ABC is David
Tabacoff, executive producer of "20/20 Downtown," who has accepted a buyout
offer and "has decided to pursue new broadcast opportunities," said the ABC
News spokesman. Tabacoff was with ABC News for 24 years and is said to be
leaving on good terms. Chase is the latest in a series of high-profiles newsies
let go at ABC including Sheila McVicar and Morton Dean. Chase, who began at ABC
in 1977, left the network from 1985-90 to anchor at KRON in San Francisco
before rejoining ABC as a "PrimeTime Live" correspondent. She began her TV
career at CBS News.
--Ricki Lake and her syndicated talk show, "Ricki," are celebrating their
1,500th episode today. In other words, that translates into 85 different Ricki
hairstyles and over 21,000 guests who've been on the show since it began in
those halcyon first days of the Clinton Administration back in 1993. "And Ricki
is still very grounded," says Steinberg. "In eight years, of course, Ricki's
world view has expanded. She's now married, and when the show started she was a
24-year-old girl about town. And now she's expecting her second son." Lake,
who's nine months pregnant, is finishing the first year of a four-year deal
(two years guaranteed and the chance for two more after that). "I know how
lucky I am," says Lake. " I get to wake up every morning and go to a job that I
love. My plan is to continue hosting the show and eventually go back to school
for midwifery. "I'm having natural childbirth at home with a midwife, and I've
always been fascinated by midwifery," she says. "It's a passion of mine, and
one I plan to pursue. But that will be in the future. I never get tired of
hosting our show."
--Last Thursday, "The Starr Report" told you that "Power of Attorney" Judge
Andrew Napolitano could be leaving the show. Consider him gone. 20th Television
will announce today that Napolitano is leaving the show and will be replaced by
Judge Lynn Toler, who's with the Cleveland Heights Municipal Court District. A
20th Television spokesman says that Napolitano is leaving due to "timing and
scheduling" conflicts and because of his expanded role at Fox, where he's been
named Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News Channel. "There are no hard feelings
[towards Napolitano]," says one insider, adding that Napolitano's exit from
"Power of Attorney" has nothing to do with his long-standing feud with Howard
Stern. Stern had "POA" co-host Dominic Barbara on his show last week, but
refused to publicize the show because of his feud with Napolitano, which dates
back several years. Toler, meanwhile, will make her first on-air appearance at
the beginning of next season. She's 38, a native of Columbus, Ohio and graduate
of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
NY POST/PAGE SIX...
--THE spring air has gone to Moby’s head. This week, the bald DJ, staying at
the Gershwin Hotel, invited several pals up for an impromptu roof party. The
motley crew proceeded to strip buck-naked and frolicked in a tent they used as
a makeshift sauna. But the noisy nudes disturbed guests, who called the cops.
"The air in good-old N.Y.C. is soft and hot and, in the evenings especially,
that makes me happy," Moby explained to the London Sun. "Just walking around
wrapped in warm, velvety air. Naked. With friends."
--MICHAEL Jackson may not want to sell his rights to the Beatles catalogue just
yet - sources say his new album is definitely premiering in September to
coordinate with his live megaconcert on Sept. 7, and it’s sure to sell. "The
album is done," one insider assures us, "and it’s so good that people will
forget all about the pedophilia allegations. When the public hears this record
. . . it’s amazing." But will it sell enough copies for Jackson to repay Sony
the many millions he borrowed to make the record, said to be the most expensive
ever made?
--KEVIN Bacon and his two kids (wife Kyra Sedgwick was working) jumping out of
their seats to dance at the Janis Joplin musical "Love, Janis" . . .
--GEENA Davis hosting a wrap-party for "Stuart Little 2" at Whiskey Park.
NY POST/CINDY ADAMS...
--San Fran Mayor Willie Brown, still legally wed, just fathered a daughter with
longtime lady Carolyn Carpeneti.
--LeAnn Rimes' actor beau Andrew Keegan came up with a diamond ring. Both say
it isn't an engagement "yet" . . .
--
Kevin Sorbo (TV's "Hercules") and wife Sam expecting. The Rock, now in "The
Mummy Returns," to be a daddy. Lisa Rinna and actor hubby Harry Hamlin expect
No. 2 June 16. Another girl . . .
--Jennifer Love Hewitt to her Waco hometown to celebrate grandma Brenda's 74th
birthday . . .
--Prince William's had a secret holiday. Vacationing with a pal on Madagascar .
. .
NY DAILY NEWS/MITCHELL FINK...
--"Moulin Rouge" may look like an iffy bet at the box office, but that's not
stopping the Fox executives behind the movie from congratulating themselves in
advance. As the film opened the Cannes Film Festival last week, 50 new Palm
Pilot 5X's were handed out to Fox VIPs and the stars of the movie. Each gadget
came in a theatrical looking red leather case engraved with the "Moulin Rouge"
logo and designed by Christian Blanken of Dior. Recipients included Fox
President Tom Rothman, as well as Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and John
Leguizamo.
--For Stanley Tucci, shooting the conclusion of "Conspiracy" was the roughest
part. Tucci plays Nazi Adolf Eichmann in the HBO movie, which co-stars Kenneth
Branagh and Colin Firth, and is based on the 1942 secret meeting convened by
the German high command in Wannsee, near Berlin. The gathering cemented the
plans for Hitler's extermination of the Jews. There were 30 top-secret copies
of the meeting's minutes, all of which had either disappeared or been destroyed
by the time the Third Reich fell. All except one, which is the basis for
"Conspiracy." After the premiere of the film last week at the Council on
Foreign Relations on E. 68th St., the Emmy Award-winning Tucci explained that,
just as the film's creators did extensive research for the project, he studied
his character's background by reading the Israeli police transcripts collected
in "Eichmann Interrogated." "You can't put it down, but sometimes you have to
put it down. It was painful to read." He said the crew went to Wannsee to film
final scenes outside the villa where the actual meeting took place. "I went
through the museum [there]. Then I went to my makeup trailer, got dressed, put
on my uniform. And when I walked in my uniform through the front gates, my
stomach turned over and I felt ill. It all came spiraling down into a vortex of
reality. It was just truly horrifying." The drama runs on HBO Saturday.
USA TODAY...
--High noon is approaching for country singers Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney in
the case of a police horse ride gone awry. Jury selection was scheduled to
begin Monday in Orchard Park Town Court. McGraw and Chesney were arrested last
June after performing at the George Strait Country Music Festival near Buffalo.
Erie County Sheriff's deputies said Chesney rode away on a police horse and
McGraw tussled with police who tried to pull Chesney off the horse. McGraw, the
husband of country star Faith Hill, is charged with assault, resisting arrest,
obstructing governmental administration and harassment, misdemeanors punishable
by up to a year in prison. Chesney was charged with harassment. McGraw road
manager Mark Russo, who joined the fray, was charged with obstruction,
resisting arrest, harassment and disorderly conduct. Attorneys expect to choose
a jury in a day and then present a case that will hinge largely on testimony of
eyewitnesses.
--Mixed results from New York's spring auctions suggest art buyers are in a
selective mood. At Thursday's sale of impressionist and modern art at
Sotheby's, a star lot failed to sell: A Cézanne still life, Pichet et fruits
sur une table, had been expected to fetch $14 million to $20 million, but
bidding peaked at $12.5 million. On the other hand, a Max Beckmann
self-portrait sold for $22.5 million, a record for the artist. At Christie's, a
Picasso portrait of his first wife didn't sell.
--Supermodel Kate Moss accepted libel damages Friday from a tabloid newspaper
that accused her of turning up for a photo shoot incapacitated with drugs or
alcohol. The allegations published in the Daily Mail in July 1999 were "false
and completely unfounded," Moss's lawyer, Gerrard Tyrrell, told London's High
Court. Moss did not even attend the photo shoot in question, he said. The
newspaper's lawyer, Rebecca Jackson, said the Daily Mail accepted that the
allegations were false and apologized unreservedly for any distress and injury
caused to Moss. Moss accepted an undisclosed sum in damages from Associated
Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. The 27-year-old model has long had a
reputation for wild party-going. Last year she was briefly hospitalized with a
kidney infection. In 1999, she checked herself into prominent west London
psychiatric hospital The Priory for six weeks, saying she was suffering from
exhaustion.
--Kid Rock has filed a lawsuit against a man who claims the Detroit rap rocker
signed a contract with him in 1989, agreeing to split the proceeds of all
future record album sales. Kid Rock, 30, whose real name is Robert Ritchie,
filed suit against Alvin Williams in U.S. District Court this month, claiming
that a purported Feb. 10, 1989, contract is a fraud. Horton said Kid Rock's
involvement with Williams was limited to his role as an investor in one album
in 1989 released on the Jive label. Since then, they have had no business
relationship, Horton told The Detroit News for a story Friday. Gregory Reed, an
attorney for Williams, said his client and two other Detroit men spent $100,000
to fund Kid Rock's career, and had no less than six signed contracts with the
artist. Asked why Williams hadn't sought money in the last 12 years, Reed said
Williams had previously hired an attorney, but never filed a lawsuit.
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SEvener226
newspaper that accused her of turning up for a photo shoot incapacitated with
drugs or alcohol. The allegations published in the Daily Mail in July 1999 were
"false and completely unfounded," Moss's lawyer, Gerrard Tyrrell, told London's
High Court. Moss did not even attend the photo shoot in question, he said. The
newspaper's lawyer, Rebecca Jackson, said the Daily Mail accepted that the
allegations were false and apologized unreservedly for any distress and injury
caused to Moss. Moss accepted an undisclosed sum in damages from Associated
Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. The 27-year-old model has long had a
reputation for wild party-going. Last year she was briefly hospitalized with a
kidney infection. In 1999, she checked herself into prominent west London
psychiatric hospital The Priory for six weeks, saying she was suffering from
exhaustion.>>>>
This is why I take everything I read with a grain of salt. No matter one's
past it doesn't give newspapers/magazines the right to MAKE stuff up.
Sheri
Ron Turner
>"Power of Attorney" has nothing to do with his long-standing feud with Howard
>Stern. Stern had "POA" co-host Dominic Barbara on his show last week, but
>refused to publicize the show because of his feud with Napolitano, which
>dates back several years.
What's the dirt on Howard Stern's feud with the "Power of Attorney" judge?
**************************************************
Reading "A Kiss Of Shadows" by Laurell K. Hamilton
K. Parsons
agcq...@aol.comBillie (AGC Queen) wrote:
> NY POST/CINDY ADAMS...
> --San Fran Mayor Willie Brown, still legally wed, just fathered a
daughter with
> longtime lady Carolyn Carpeneti.
Actually, the baby was born Sunday APRIL 8. Glad Cindy keeps up with the news.
Parsnips