DRUDGE REPORT 11/17/95; CASINO MADNESS, 60 MINS. GETS 60 MINS. TREATMENT
Matt Drudge
November 17-19, Dow Jones 5000
Hollywood, California
60 MINUTES GETTING THE 60 MINUTES TREATMENT
'No comment! No comment!' pleaded the usually talkative CBS NEWS press
spokesman, Tom Goodman. Goodman -- who usually has something to say about
the color of air -- has been told to keep it all quiet. Just what was in
that spiked 60 MINUTES story on tobacco that had the lawyers saying 'this
will never air?' The snickers over at the DAILY NEWS claim to know.
The New York DAILY NEWS is having some week. First it was their 'NEWT: CRY
BABY' savage headline that received big play-- now it is the 60 MINUTES
transcripts. Hot and smuggled. <Just who leaked the banned broadcast
transcipts to the DAILY NEWS is of great concern to CBS at this hour. Who
is trying to bring the ship down over there?>
Jeffrey Wigand -- a former vice president at Brown & Williamson Tobacco --
told the ticker 60 that his bosses knowingly used a pipe tobacco additive
that causes cancer in lab animals. B & W also altered documents in an
attempt to delete any references to the company's efforts at making a safer
cigarette. Wigand said the company continued to use a pipe tobacco flavoring
additive -- known as coumarin -- despite evidence that it caused tumors in
mice and was 'hundredfold the safety level for humans.'
B & W's scrapping of plans to develop a safer cigarette was the bottom line.
Now, is the DAILY NEWS worried about a lawsuit from reporting the story?
'No way -- we are journalists -- unlike the stuffed suits over on West
57th!' laughed a DAILY NEWS rat. <60 MINUTES gets the 60 MINUTES treatment.>
__________________________________________________________
A press release that I recently stumbled on revealed that MURDER, SHE WROTE
has hit a landmark. Lansbury has now stumbled on 267 murders.<
>NBC burned and angry that Princess Di and the BBC have given ABC NEWS the
right to air 'the interview.' ABC can thank Barbara Walters' relationship
with the princess for the scoop. Also -- eyebrows went up on Broadcast Row
at the cheap $1 million price tag for the rights to air the BBC interview.
Diana reveals in the chat that she will not be asking for a divorce.
Walters is packing and getting set to fly to Londontown to add some American
trash-slant to the dry [?] BBC interview.
The CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Washington Bureau Chief -- James Warren looked good on
this morning's C-SPAN JOURNALIST ROUNDTABLE. Warren -- who also does CNN's
SUNDAY CAPITOL GANG and writes a column in the TRIBUNE on Thursday and
Sunday -- is slowing becoming a media superstar. <But of course faithful
DRUDGE REPORT readers already saw it coming -- back in March -- I wrote
about the Warren launch. Watch him.>
Top singles in next week's BILLBOARD?
1."Exhale (Shoop Shoop)," Whitney Houston (Arista)
2."Fantasy," Mariah Carey (Columbia)
(Only one can be #1)
____________________________________________________________
CASINO MADNESS
She gets her star on the Blvd. -- he gets his rave review
HOLLYWOOD (DR) -- This is the big one this year. This is the film that
will get most of the chew -- will cause the most gas. 'An extraordinary
piece of filmmaking,' screams DAILY VARIETY this morning, in what has to be
their most favored film of the year. The premiere of the flick last night
in Beverly Hills -- had 'em standing up in the aisles to get a sneak at that
sneak Martin Scorsese's new picture -- CASINO.
It is all coming up 21 for UNIVERSAL this time around. Or is it?
Yesterday, this reporter strolled down the boulevard to the Sharon Stone
star unveiling on the Walk of Fame. (The 2,057th star) I should have worn
black. It felt more like a funeral than a star ceremony. Nobody of
industry substance showed. Of course there was Stone's best friend Faye
Dunaway -- of course there was Director Scorsese -- but that was it. The
guest list had three columns of names on it -- who knew? 'She must be alone
in the business. It would appear by the lack of V.I.P. turnout that nobody
likes her,' said a street-fan in the crowd. (The anti-Stone sentiment in
H'wood will hurt the film come awards time. However -- the DRUDGE REPORT
has learned that Sharon Stone is highly favored to receive this year's
GOLDEN GLOBE Best Actress award. The GLOBES are voted on by the foreign
press -- they have crowned Stone queen in recent months. By the time the
upcoming awards season is over -- Stone may want to move to Europe.
Stubborn H'Wood types just don't like her -- they will withhold the OSCAR.
Will cause pain.)
During the star's unveiling -- the clever ones at UNIVERSAL passed out
CASINO T-shirts (in funeral black) to the waiting street-fans who gathered
in front of the Mann's Chinese Theater. 'Put the shirts on!' ordered a
UNIVERSAL pusher. (So when SKY-TV beams the ceremony live to Europe -- it
looks like Hollywood is packed with CASINO wearing fans.)
Now to the ink.
REVIEW/FILM: "Casino" An Extraordinary Piece Of Filmmaking
Casino (Drama, R, 2:57) -- Color)
By Todd McCarthy
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - In fascinating detail and with dazzling finesse,
CASINO lays out how the mob controlled and ultimately lost Las Vegas.
Martin Scorsese's intimate epic about money, sex and brute force is a
grandly conceived study of what happens to goodfellas from the mean streets
when they outstrip their wildest dreams and achieve the pinnacle of wealth
and power.
An extraordinary piece of filmmaking, the picture is rough and unflinching
in ways that won't be to all tastes and, from a commercial point of view, it is
certainly open to criticism for its great length and unsavory violence.
Film will be a must-see for cinema-savvy audiences, but will make heavy
demands on more casual viewers, meaning that a major push by Universal,
aided by some strong reviews, will be needed to make this a solid performer
outside of upscale urban situations.
Scorsese's technique here is dense, assured and utterly exhilarating.
Lensed entirely at the Riviera Hotel casino and on other real locations, the
film possesses a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually
matchless.
Sharon Stone is simply a revelation here. No part she's had to date has
made remotely such heavy demands on her, and she lets loose with a corker of
a performance as the beautiful, unstable, ultimately pathetic moll with no
inner life.
Technically, "Casino" is virtually beyond compare, with Robert
Richardson's virtuoso camera taking every possible approach to making the
material come vibrantly alive while bringing out the lushness of the
locations, Dante Ferretti's production design and Rita Ryack and John
Dunn's great '70s costumes. Thelma Schoonmaker's editing is dazzlingly
propulsive, as is the music and sound work overall. Deterioration of the
relationship between Ace and Ginger is keyed to Georges Delerue's haunting
theme from Godard's "Contempt," also about the breakup of a marriage
****
Just a taste of the CASINO hype that is in the water we are drinking here in
Hollywood. Back at the star -- a fan who was standing next to me asked
Scorsese for an autograph. Scorsese said 'no' -- he was in a hurry. I
yelled out 'chicken' to Scorsese's face. (He was in no hurry -- in fact --
he proceeded to stand around for another 10 minutes.) He looked at me like
a mean school teacher might look at a class clown. Like Ace might look at
Ginger for blowing on some other guy's dice.
To be stared-down by Scorsese at high noon on Baloney Boulevard. Now that's
a DRUDGE moment.
________________________________________________________
"The plastic surgery days are totally over -- that was part of a real ugly
time in my life" -- Roseanne to the recently improved Barbara Walters.
Send all comments, tips or subscription requests to: dru...@lainet.com
The DRUDGE REPORT is filed when circumstances warrant.
Matt Drudge P.O. BOX 1171, Hollywood, CA 90078
http://www.lainet.com/~drudge for flashes and gashes
(c) Matt Drudge 1995 not for reproduction without permission of the author