Hollywood to Tony Kaye: Welcome Back
By Tim Stack
By the end of 1998, it was looking like director Tony Kaye would never work again. His battles with New Line Cinema and star Edward Norton over the final cut of his acclaimed neo-Nazi drama American History X (which he loudly disowned) became the stuff of Hollywood legend — and transformed Kaye into a veritable pariah. Now the iconoclast is back: After a positive reception at Toronto for the abortion documentary Lake of Fire, the director has nabbed a gig helming the upcoming thriller Blackwater Transit, which will feature Black Snake Moan star Samuel L. Jackson. ''I think [the producers] thought maybe I could bring some modernity with my music-video [experience],'' says Kaye, 54, who begins shooting Transit in New Orleans next month.
What's more, Kaye says he's now mended his relationship with New Line — ''I'm eternally grateful to them'' — and says he's trying to get Norton to appear in Humpty Dumpty, a docudrama he's been making about his ''descent into inner chaos'' during the troubled AHX shoot. What's with the sudden change of heart? ''I'm the sort of person that makes lots of mistakes and then I tend to learn from them,'' he says. ''But my endeavors last time were passionate — and about making the film better. I've been in a holding pattern and I'm just very happy to be working. I want to do my bit to benefit mankind and end the chaos.''
Posted Mar 16, 2007 | Published in issue #926 Mar 23, 2007
Entertainment Weekly
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Chemical Reaction
The transformation of My Chemical Romance -- How the rock band made ''The Black Parade'' by Whitney Pastorek
After midnight on a rainy highway somewhere between Liverpool and Glasgow, My Chemical Romance are coming down from a fiery set in front of more than 2,000 devout fans. Bathed in the eerie green light of the tour bus, frontman Gerard Way, 29, is typing on his Sidekick, excited about tomorrow's lunch with one of his heroes, Scottish comic-book writer Grant Morrison (The Invisibles). Frank Iero, 25, is texting too, while his fellow guitarist Ray Toro, 29, grabs a box of Gilmore Girls DVDs and disappears. Gerard's brother, bassist Mikey Way, 26, is already in his bunk. It's an oddly domestic scene, until drummer Bob Bryar, 26, launches into what sounds like a typical story of rock-star excess. ''I puked for, like, two days,'' he says as his bandmates chortle. ''I was so sick.'' Tales of debauchery are to be expected. On tour in Britain a few weeks after their critically lauded third album, The Black Parade, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and its first single, ''Welcome to the Black Parade,'' hit No. 1 in the U.K., these guys should be living it up.
After all, My Chemical Romance are a rock band at the height of their careers, building on the momentum of their 2004 platinum breakout, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
But despite their name — taken from a 1996 collection of novellas called Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvine Welsh* — this quintet finds no better living through chemicals. Turns out, Bryar's puking was the result of a bad smoothie, and these days the band rarely indulges in anything stronger than Marlboro Ultra Lights and coffee. There was a time when things would have been very different, but they've learned their lessons about excess the hard way. Now they save their energy for what's important: the show, the fans, and the music. An hour into the bus ride, silence is punctuated only by the wheezing of the wheels on the road, and by 2:20 a.m., everyone is in bed.
Earlier that day, Gerard Way is smoking a cigarette backstage in Liverpool. Dressed in jeans and a strangely optimistic white oxford shirt, the singer is discussing one of his favorite topics: destiny. ''I knew I was special,'' the Belleville, N.J., native says earnestly. ''But there was no battle for me to join, no epic struggle. I was like, What am I supposed to do? '' He found the answer on Sept. 11, 2001. Then a fledgling animator commuting to New York City, he stood on a Hudson River pier, watched the towers fall, and thought, ''I need to feel immediately better. I need to immediately help people.''
So Gerard started a band inspired by Britpop, punk, and New Jersey's post-hardcore scene. But his motives weren't entirely altruistic. ''It was ultimately for me,'' he says. ''I wanted to feel a part of something. I wanted to be in a gang.'' You'll hear a similar story from every member of My Chemical Romance, shy twentysomethings rescued from their dark bedrooms, unhappy jobs, or college careers, and propelled by a sense of purpose far bigger than the VFW halls where they got their start. ''We went to go see the Smashing Pumpkins at Madison Square Garden,'' Mikey Way recalls. ''Me and [Gerard] were both like, This is the band we want to be. We want to save people's lives.''
After releasing their indie-label 2002 debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, MCR toured for two years. Painfully shy, Gerard dealt with stage fright by transforming himself into a thrashing, spitting Gollum, hiding behind a mask of red eye shadow and fake blood — and consuming vast amounts of alcohol and pills. By the time the band signed to Reprise for 2004's Revenge, the singer was a wastoid — and the others were too drunk to care. ''He was saying some f---ed-up s---,'' Iero remembers. ''Like, 'I'm walking around this venue looking for a pipe to hang myself from.' And you would laugh...because you kind of felt the same way.''
As Revenge took off and the crowds got bigger, Gerard fell deeper into drug-fueled depression. It was a suicidal breakdown during a Japanese tour in 2004 that forced him to get help. As soon as he got back to the States, he saw his therapist. ''He said, 'When you leave here, you're going to go buy Brian Eno's [ambient classic] Music for Airports, and it's gonna calm you the f--- down,''' Gerard remembers. ''I had a bottle of vodka in the trunk just in case, and I listened to [the CD] in a parking lot and felt a lot better. So I threw the bottle out and went to AA.'' He gave himself a week to get clean before returning to the tour — and somehow pulled it off thanks to his bandmates: ''I got in the van with these dudes. That's what got me through it.'' He says he's been sober ever since, and his over-the-top stage persona hasn't suffered one bit. ''I'm actually a lot crazier sober,'' he insists, flashing his impish grin.
From the stage of Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom, the audience looks like a surging mob. Imperiled teens are hauled out of the mosh pit by bouncers at an alarming clip; the hardier ones sway in the crush, screaming along with lyrics like ''When I grow up, I want to be nothing at all!''
That cheery sentiment — from The Black Parade's opener, ''The End.'' — is typical of the album, a soaring epic that tells the story of a young man dying of cancer. To realize their vision, MCR brought in Rob Cavallo, who produced Green Day's Grammy-winning American Idiot (2004). The results are stunning in scope: Full of marching bands, string sections, nods to Queen and Pink Floyd, and even a guest vocal from Liza Minnelli, The Black Parade presents an intense and bleak worldview. ''If it wasn't like staring into the sun with your eyelids cut off,'' Gerard says, ''it wasn't good enough for the record.''
During recording, the band found themselves dealing with the emotional breakdown of another Way sibling. ''I lost my goddamn mind,'' says Mikey, a skinny, gregarious guy with a sloppy smile. He'd fallen off the wagon in 2005 (''When you know everyone in New York City, you walk in [to a bar] and they're like, Here's 80 drink tickets!''), and the combination of booze and antidepression meds created a nearly bipolar reaction in early 2006. Recalls Mikey: ''It was like, I'm either gonna leave the band, or I'm gonna leave the planet Earth, or I'm gonna disappear and nobody's gonna hear from me again.''
Fortunately, this time the others noticed their man down before it got too out of hand, and they encouraged Mikey to leave the sessions and get help. ''You always have to pay a price if you're going to go really deep into the creativity of a band,'' Cavallo says. ''It makes a band stronger.'' Having been through this twice now, Toro agrees. ''Great things come from tragedy,'' he says. ''We seem to always work out pretty well with it.'' As a result, My Chemical Romance's latest and best-received effort is a blazing portrait of a group falling apart — and coming back together. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the bombastic first single, ''Welcome to the Black Parade,'' where Gerard belts, ''We'll carry on.''
As will their fans: While early U.S. sales for The Black Parade have been decent but not huge (it slipped to No. 42 on this week's Billboard 200, with almost 500,000 copies sold), the response to their live show has been, according to the band, like nothing they've ever seen before. Though the hits from Revenge get the U.K. audiences going, it's new tracks like ''Welcome to the Black Parade'' and ''Teenagers'' that fuel the frenzy of the crowd.
After the Glasgow show, hundreds linger near the tour bus, hoping for one last glimpse of MCR. Grant Morrison, Gerard's comic-book hero, is outside their dressing room, praising their ability to bring light from darkness. ''You gotta embrace that stuff, and absorb it,'' he says. ''Steal it back, make it life-affirming again.''
And that, according to Gerard, is the real message of The Black Parade. ''It's that you can survive,'' he says. ''Life is very, very short, and you can choose to live it how you want. You can choose to dumb yourself down and not express yourself just so you can fit in, just so people won't dislike you.
''Or,'' he concludes, voicing what might as well be his band's motto, ''you can f---in' live.''
Parade of Influences
My Chemical Romance on a few of The Black Parade's biggest inspirations:
PINK FLOYD, The Wall
Black Parade's most obvious forebear; MCR are planning their own big stage show for 2007.
BENNY GOODMAN & HIS ORCHESTRA, Sing, Sing, Sing
Bryar cribs from Goodman's famed drummer Gene Krupa.
CURSIVE, The Ugly Organ
The Omaha band's fourth album shares MCR's gothic theatricality and instrumentation.
GREEN DAY, American Idiot
An epic punk concept album that sold millions, it showed them rock still matters.
(Posted:12/01/06)
*http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_/103-6259713-4374257?url
=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=irvine+welsh&Go.x=0&Go.
y=0&Go=Go
Thu Oct 26
NEW YORK (AP) - Broadcast news personality Jane Pauley has sued The New York Times, saying she was misled to believe she was being interviewed for a mental health news article when she actually was being featured in an advertising supplement.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Pauley seeks unspecified damages and to stop use of her name and image for advertising purposes.
The former co-host of NBC's "Today" show and "Dateline NBC" named The New York Times Co. and DeWitt Publishing as defendants, saying they published a full-page photograph of her on the cover of an advertising supplement in October 2005.
Pauley, who in September 2004 made public her fight against biopolar disorder, said in the lawsuit that she was duped into believing she was being interviewed by a Times reporter for a news article about mental health issues. Instead, the lawsuit said, she was being interviewed by telephone by a DeWitt employee for an advertising supplement for manufacturers of psychotherapeutic drugs.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said Wednesday she did not believe the case had merit.
"Ms. Pauley's assistant was told that the article for which Ms. Pauley was to be interviewed would appear in a special advertising supplement, and Ms. Pauley agreed to participate," Mathis said in a statement.
A telephone contact number for DeWitt Publishing could not immediately be located Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges the Times and DeWitt intentionally misrepresented the distinction between news and advertising to Pauley and her staff in an effort to disguise the advertising supplement as news.
Thursday November 2
By WENN
Moby: 'gay men are superior to straight men'
Dance star Moby has no time for overly-heterosexual males, insisting gay men are far superior to their straight counterparts.
The heterosexual music-maker is so appalled by macho male culture he hopes his future children will be gay because "they are less likely to get into a fight and less likely to date rape people".
The Play hitmaker says, "I'm straight but I've grown up around gay people and gay clubs. They are superior to straight people. If you have a gay child you're more inclined to be a prouder parent."
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Wednesday November 1
By WENN
George Michael 'has no gay fans'
Pop star George Michael is convinced he has no gay fans, because he's open about his homosexuality.
The Fast Love hitmaker, 43, 'came out' in April 1998 after he was arrested for "engaging in a lewd act" in a Beverly Hills, California public toilet.
Speaking on last night's George Michael - I'm Your Man: A South Bank Special show, Michael said, "I don't have many gay fans.
"Gay fans are only interested when you're 'in the closet'.
"Once you're out, they don't give a toss."
E Weekly Monitor
The Turcotte family, whose alleged antics were documented by Augusten Burroughs in his best-seller, Running With Scissors, reached an undisclosed settlement with Sony Pictures on Oct 17. They argue they're inaccurately portrayed and will continue their lawsuit against Burroughs and his publisher
EW
Twin Peaks was something Daddy [Russ Tamblyn, who played Dr. Lawrence Jacoby] was part of, but I wasn't allowed to watch. What he doesn't know is that I had a Hello Kitty compact, and I'd watch the show in the mirror while my parents did. I had a crush on David Lynch. I wanted to invite him for a tea party. I thought he sounded like what my stuffed rabbit would if it could talk.
- Amber Tamblyn
(Posted:10/06/06)
EW
(excerpts)
(worst rationalization ever?)
(Forest) Whitaker then turned to directing (Waiting to Exhale, Hope Floats, First Daughter). He was interested in stories about ''healing, personal dignity, and pride,'' he explains, and those female-oriented films fit the bill. Still, he says, ''I was losing being an artist. I needed to figure out what it was I needed to say. So I went back to the source — I started acting again.''
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...a return to directing next year with a gritty drama about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army.
(Posted:10/06/06)
Entertainment Weekly
August 30, 2006
Tom Cruise and Paramount part ways -- Cruise plans on starting his own operation by Daniel Fierman
What's next? One possible route: comedy. We're not kidding. EW has learned that in the past few months, the actor has been meeting with Judd Apatow, co-writer and director of The 40 Year-Old Virgin and producer of Anchorman and Talladega Nights, to bounce around ideas for a film. Yes, 10 years after Jerry Maguire, the Mission: Impossible III star could be ready to show us the funny again.
''He's quietly one of the great comedic actors in the country,'' Apatow says, citing Risky Business, Jerry Maguire, and Rain Man as ''some of my favorite movies of all time.... We've had great conversations — I hope something real comes out of it,'' Apatow adds.
(Additional reporting by Josh Rottenberg and Adam B. Vary)
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(via EW's Monitor)
Jared Leto, 34, has been diagnosed with gout, a form of arthritis. Doctors say his affliction resulted from dramatic weight loss after gaining 65 pounds to play John Lennon's assassin in the upcoming film Chapter 27.
EW
You know Ricky Gervais as the creator/star of the original British The Office and HBO's Extras, but over the last year, he's given himself a new nickname: The Podfather. That's because The Ricky Gervais Show, his hilarious weekly online audio program, claims to be the most downloaded podcast on the Internet, with about 8 million downloads to date, he says. With a third season launching Aug. 22 and past shows available for purchase at audible.com, Gervais called EW.com from London to talk about his many projects, but especially The Ricky Gervais Show. Which could just as easily be called The Karl Pilkington Show since, as Gervais is quick to point out, the comedy in each half-hour podcast consists largely of Gervais and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant simply allowing their friend Pilkington to spout off on space travel, sideshow freaks, monkeys, and whatever else crosses his mind.
Does he get self-conscious about the way he comes off on the show?
He doesn't understand it. He doesn't understand the websites that have cropped up about him or why people like the things he says, because that's how he talks. He doesn't know why some of the things are funny or controversial. They're just his opinions. But we won't let him stop, even if he wants to. [Meantime, a book of Pilkington's musings, Ricky Gervais Presents: The World of Karl Pilkington, will be published in the U.S. on Oct. 3.]
How planned, structured, and scripted are the podcasts?
It's not scripted at all. It's all stuff that happened to us. Karl will have a Monkey News because he looks at the Internet and finds something out about monkeys each week. So we never script anything as such, but we all come armed with what we've done that week.
Does a lot get edited out?
Well, we stop sometimes for a cup of tea because it gets hot in that little studio. But it's not contrived. We don't do anything twice. We don't edit like that. We just get the best half hour out of the hour we're in there. It's pretty much as it is, really. There's no manipulation. There's no, ''That would be funnier if you said this.'' It's all real, just tidied up.
(Posted:08/17/06)
Wed Aug 16
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Troy Lee Gentry, half of the country music duo Montgomery Gentry, has been charged with killing a tame bear and then making it look as if it was a hunting trophy, authorities said on Wednesday.
A top country act since the late 1990s with such hits as "Good Clean Fun," Gentry, 39, was arraigned in federal court this week on a charge of conspiracy to falsely label an animal.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
According to an indictment unsealed this week, in October 2004 Gentry paid $4,650 to shoot the "trophy-caliber" bear named "Cubby" at the Minnesota Wildlife Connection in northern Minnesota, which advertises itself as a place where animals can be photographed in the wild.
After using a bow and arrow to kill the animal inside its pen, Gentry and the owner of the preserve tagged the bear and registered it with the state as if it had been killed in the wild. A videotape was edited to make it appear that Gentry had hunted down the bear.
Attempts to reach Gentry, who was freed on bond, were unsuccessful.
August 14, 2006
The Hollywood Reporter says that Oscar-nominated screenwriter Julie Delpy (Before Sunset) has written and is directing 2 Days in Paris.
She stars opposite Adam Goldberg in the European romantic comedy set over a 48-hour period in the City of Lights.
Delpy's original screenplay portrays two days in the relationship of an extremely neurotic New York-based couple. She stars as French photographer Marion, while Goldberg plays American interior designer Jack.
The stressed-out couple make a misguided attempt to re-infuse their relationship with romance in Paris -- Marion's birthplace as well as the home of several of her ex-boyfriends and high-maintenance, non-English-speaking parents.
(EW)
Gillian Anderson, 37, and businessman Mark Griffiths will have their first child late this year. The actress, who separated from second husband Julianne Ozanne, 43, in April, has a daughter, Piper, 11, from her first marriage.
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The Sydney Morning Herald
Damien Murphy & Lisa Pryor
July 19, 2006
One door closes, another opens. Last week Darren Hayes, the former Savage Garden frontman, parted ways with his Australian label, Sony BMG. This week he has announced he has married his British boyfriend, Richard Cullen.
Hayes, who wed his university sweetheart, Colby Taylor, in 1995 and separated in 1999, has pirouetted around the question of gaydom for a while.
In May, several Australian gay publications pondered the question in interviews with the singer. He even stayed mum about the marriage on the Ten Network's Rove Live last month.
"I very rarely make comments about my private life," Hayes said on his website. "On June 19th, 2006, I married my boyfriend of two years, Richard, in a civil partnership ceremony in London. I can honestly say it was the happiest day of my life."
Observant concertgoers could have seen a gold ring on Hayes's wedding finger when he performed at the Opera House on July 4 and 5.
The singer indirectly dissed the Howard Government's opposition to same-sex marriage, saying: "I feel lucky to live in an era where my relationship can be considered legally legitimate and I commend the UK Government for embracing this very basic civil liberty."
(EW)
(Posted:07/28/06)
The Descent has a horrific ending—too bad you'll never see it in theaters.
With the eye gouging, disembowelments, and pickaxes to the neck, the upcoming British gorefest The Descent doesn't leave much to the imagination. But there's one thing you won't see in the theater on Aug. 4: the horror flick's original ending. While our friends in the U.K.—where The Descent has already come, gone, grossed $5 million, and been released on DVD—loved the film, they weren't digging its überhopeless finale. So when the U.S. debut rolled around, Lionsgate decided to release it without the downbeat finale.
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(Posted:07/28/06)
First announced in 2005, production on Rambo IV (final title to be determined) is finally expected to commence Oct. 1 in Thailand. But while America braces for Balboa's arrival on Dec. 22, Rambo has yet to land a domestic distributor. Why have studios had a tough time picturing the old guy back in battle? Maybe because the writer-director — that would be Mr. Stallone — couldn't figure out which war he'd be waging.
''You know, it's hard,'' says the 60-year-old star. ''Politics have changed so much. Who do we fight? The Finns? You can't do that. The Dutch? That's not gonna work. Wooden shoes are not gonna look cool.'' Stallone may be joking, but finding Rambo a fresh foe was actually a serious problem for the Nu Image/ Millennium Films production. After ruling out the Mideast, Africa, and Korea, the actor finally hit on a solution. ''I called Soldier of Fortune magazine and said, 'What is the most critical man-doing-inhumanity-to-man situation right now in the world? Where is it?''' The answer was Burma.
So, the script that emerged — a ''first draft'' Stallone has written with Art Monterastelli (The Hunted) — finds Rambo living a monastic lifestyle in Bangkok and salvaging old PT boats and tanks for scrap metal. (''It's like he's stripping himself down,'' says the actor, pensively. ''That old piece of military equipment.'') When a group of volunteers bringing supplies into Burma disappears, a relative of one of the missing missionaries begs Rambo to find them. He heads off with a team of young guns, a plot point required by the financiers, who wanted to hedge against Rambo's possible mono-generational appeal.
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(Posted:07/28/06)
Ouch. What else can you say? Just four years after Newsweek anointed him ''The Next Spielberg,'' M. Night Shyamalan watched as Lady in the Water took a swan dive into an empty pool. His dark fairy tale, starring Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard, lapped up a mere $18 million last weekend, making it the worst wide opening of Shyamalan's career and a virtual lock to become his lowest-grossing film since The Sixth Sense, perhaps by as much as $50 million. It only gets grimmer. Not only was Lady critically savaged, but CinemaScore testing data indicate that audiences didn't dig the flick, which dropped like a stone from Friday to Sunday. (By the way, if you're in the market for a movie exec, ring up Nina Jacobson: The ex-Disney production chief spotted this disaster early and told Shyamalan exactly what she thought. Naturally, she was fired last week.)
So what should Shyamalan do? It's no secret that the 35-year-old director has become better known for relentless self-promotion than his considerable talent. Now that he's stumbled, the long knives will be out. All the more reason, then, that he should take some time off. Once this storm subsides, we suggest Shyamalan wrest control of Yann Martel's award-winning novel The Life of Pi back from Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The project offers everything he needs. High prestige factor? Check. No supernatural monsters? Check. A script written by someone other than Monsieur M. Night Shyamalan? Check. And while he licks his wounds in the meantime, the director might do well to remember that even Spielberg made a little movie called Hook.
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EW Public Service Announcement
Dear Men of Hollywood, especially those named, Vaughn, Ferrell or Wilson:
We get it. You are doofy & juvenile. You crash weddings, couch-surf, and still live with your mom. It was funny. Now it's just sad.
Australian actor Hugh Jackman performs during a photo call for the musical 'The Boy from Oz' in Sydney August 2, 2006. REUTERS/Will Burgess
(AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Wed Jul 26
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Lance Bass, a singer in the boy band 'N Sync, has revealed that he is gay and in a relationship with a former star of a U.S. reality television show, People magazine said on Wednesday.
Surely I could not have been the only person who immediately guessed Clay Aiken.
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Wed Jul 26
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Veteran funk rocker Prince and his second wife are ending their marriage, People magazine reported on Wednesday.
Does this mean he won't be so boring & uptight now?
Also, you think he'll be coming out soon?
Thursday, 6th July 2006, 11:46
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Hilary Swank has claimed her marriage to Chad Lowe failed because he allegedly had a drug addiction.
The 'Million Dollar Baby' actress - who divorced the film producer earlier this year after eight years of marriage - has previously refused to reveal the reason behind the couple's split.
The 31-year-old Oscar winner now claims their marriage was ripped apart by Lowe's addiction to narcotics.
Swank says 38-year-old Lowe has been battling substance abuse problems for years and admits finding out was a major shock to her.
She told America's Vanity Fair magazine: "I knew something was happening but I didn't know what.
"When I found out, it was such a shock because I never thought he'd keep something from me.
"I don't want to make it seem like that's the sole reason, there were other factors. But that just kind of blew it open. It made me look at things a lot deeper. That's when you realize it's not going to work."
Swank - who insists she unsuccessfully tried to help her husband overcome his drug addiction - says she is glad her former spouse has managed to kick the habit after their divorce.
Fri Jun 23
LOS ANGELES - Selma Blair has filed for divorce from actor-writer Ahmet Zappa after two years of marriage.
(headline)
Tue Jul 4
(Reuters)
Keith Richards may appear in third "Pirates" film.
tmz.com
Posted Jun 26th 2006 by TMZ Staff
Exclusive Story: John Cusack has asked a judge to issue a restraining order against a woman who he says has been stalking him.
In documents, filed June 23 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Cusack claims 31 year-old Emily Leatherman has been "showing unusual interest [in him] by stalking, throwing long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside, making unannounced visits to offices of people I work with in an attempt to meet with me and listing my address as her own during a recent arrest. Mail addressed to her has been arriving at my residence without my permission. I have never met this person." The documents also say Leatherman "threatens to commit acts of violence against herself if I do not help her."
According to the documents, Leatherman is a transient with no known address.
NY Daily News
June 15, 2006
Don't ask for Cristal at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club. The rapper-turned-Def Jam CEO has been drinking the top-shelf Champagne for years. But he's taken it off his club's menu after Cristal managing director Frédéric Rouzaud told The Economist that he resented the "unwelcome attention" to the bubbly from the hip-hop community. Nets investor Jay, whose June 25 Radio City concert sold out in one minute, said: "I view his comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands."
Are Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn inching toward the altar? If they ever do get to a honeymoon suite, it better have plenty of room. Our man in Paris saw Vaughn having breakfast with his entourage at the Plaza Athenee. "Then Jennifer arrived with her entourage and sat at another table," says the spy. "They were eating separately till Vince came over and held her hand under the table" ...
By Jeannette Walls
MSNBC
June 15, 2006
What on earth was Jenna Elfman referring to when she asked film director John Roecker, “Have you raped a baby?” The “Keeping the Faith” star reportedly asked the question of Roecker when she saw him wearing a T-shirt mocking her religion, Scientology. “It’s one of the questions Scientologists are asked by Scientology leaders when they’ve misbehaved,” a source familiar with the religion explains.
Wed Jun 14, 1:41 PM ET
E! Online
David Lynch has filed for divorce from his third wife, Mary Sweeney. The duo, longtime colleagues and the parents of a 14-year-old son, Riley Sweeney Lynch, were only married for a month.
Lynch cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split, according to the petition filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Sweeney's first major collaboration with Lynch was as an assistant editor on 1986's Blue Velvet. Over the next 20 years she edited episodes of Twin Peaks and the films Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway and The Straight Story, which she also co-wrote.
Not to make things weird or anything, Sweeney is also producing Lynch's next big-screen venture, Inland Empire which, unlike some of the director's other projects, is a mystery about a woman in trouble. The film, not finished in time for Cannes, will likely screen at the Venice Film Festival this summer, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Inland Empire stars Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons and
Harry Dean Stanton.
Lynch was married twice between 1967 and 1987 with each union ending in divorce, and then he romanced Blue Velvet star
Isabella Rossellini for awhile before hooking up with Sweeney.
New York Daily News
Originally published on June 9, 2006
For ex-M.I.T. student James Woods, the best revenge is the Revenge of the Nerd.
"This is my whole entourage right here," the 59-year-old Woods told Lowdown at Wednesday's "Entourage" premiere, gripping his bodacious 20-year-old girlfriend, Ashley Madison, nee Myrick, apparently the daughter of one of Woods' golfing buddies.
"That's it!" Woods added, laughing on the red carpet at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. "What more do I need?" Good point.
Ashley, whose low-cut halter top offered an ample view, was buoyant in more ways than one. "It was my birthday yesterday!" she gushed with cheerleader enthusiasm.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal accepts the award for best kiss for his role with Heath Ledger in 'Brokeback Mountain' at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California June 3, 2006. REUTERS/Phil McCarten
NY Daily News
A Summer weekend wedding
The couple has oceanfront property in Savannah, Ga., but surf and turf probably wasn't on the menu at the nuptials of Casey Affleck and Summer Phoenix. Both are vegans.
The longtime pair reportedly got hitched over the weekend after being engaged since Christmas 2003.
A spokeswoman for Affleck, who, like his big brother Ben and sister-in-law Jennifer Garner, lives part of the year in the charming Southern town, told us: "I can confirm that Casey and Summer are married."
The actor, 31, and Phoenix, 27, who co-owns the vintage boutique Some Odd Rubies on Ludlow St., have a 2-year-old son, Indiana.
(IMDb)
Jenny McCarthy uncomfortably dodged questions yesterday when she was asked about her new relationship with comedian Jim Carrey while appearing on US talk show The View. She said, "No comment. Does that ever work? The funny thing is I've never said it in my whole life!" The View co-hosts Star Jones and Joy Behar asked McCarthy if she could confirm that she was dating "a well-known comedian who makes funny faces who is not Jerry Lewis." McCarthy deferred and said people who were interested in who she is dating could "look it up online," hastily adding, "Let's move on to the next topic." The Truman Show star was recently spotted enjoying an intimate dinner with McCarthy on May 20 at Los Angeles hot spot M Cafe de Chaya. The celebrity couple have been romantically linked since December, but have not confirmed they are dating.
BBC News
Tuesday, 30 May 2006
Comic book heroine Batwoman is to make a comeback as a "lipstick lesbian" who moonlights as a crime fighter, a DC Comics spokesman has confirmed.
Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month.
In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.
52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007.
http://www.myspace.com/fredgoss
Friday, May 12, 2006
Sons & Daughters was Cancelled Today
To anyone making their way to this blog from the ABC blog "Out On A Limb" welcome.
My opinions and mood are not regulated by the network here. I'm sad and angry about the show. The real sting is that they felt it was more important to bring back According To Jim for another season (even though they got their 100 episodes for syndication) WHY WHY WHY. Nobody wants to watch According To Jim!!!! Do they? Am I the crazy one? I watch that shit and it makes my chest hurt. I want to go back to cable. FX, Showtime...the land of Weeds, HUFF, Rescue Me...
I shouldn't be writing now because I sound like a bitter cry baby.
I'm sorry ABC. I'm sorry we didn't prove ourselves to be a better business model against American Idol.
I'm in a very bad mood, can you tell?
Tomorrow is another day.
I'm going to bed.
9:29 PM
(NY Daily News)
New York was awash in parties last week for the TV industry upfronts, at which networks parade their brightest stars from the coming season's shows.
One of the most exclusive tickets was the William Morris agency bash at Buddakan. Among the guests was New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who had a member of his security detail ask a friend of mine how he might be introduced to actor Kevin Spacey.
"I was like, 'New Jersey has another gay governor?
That's amazing,' " laughs my pal.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 22, 2006
The body of an unidentified middle-aged man was discovered yesterday behind a bar, the Suffolk County Police said. Employees at the bar, the Cafe Bada Bing, found the body about 8:45 a.m. in a courtyard behind the building, the police said, and it appeared that the man had been beaten.
(gawker.com)
Anderson on Oprah
...Oprah’s weird fixation on, of all the details in Anderson’s life, his brother’s suicide in 1988. She talks about it with him, she talks about it with his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, and she even goes so far as to bring him up to the East Side building where he grew up, and from which his brother jumped, which Anderson hasn’t visited in something like 15 years. “What was that like for you, going back?” Oprah asks after showing the clip. “Yeah, it wasn’t really pleasant,” Anderson answers.
Yo! Nice tits!
A vulture makes its way down the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film 'Over the Hedge,' at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
(gawker.com)
Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger better watch out the next time he runs into Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. Hilfiger and Rose got into a heated argument last night at the trendy Chelsea nightspot Plum, sources told The Post. Rose, who was there to put on an acoustic guitar show, got into a heated row with Hilfiger for reasons that remain mysterious. Not happy with how the verbal exchange was going, Hilfiger punched Rose in the face, leaving a red mark under Rose’s eye, witnesses said. Hilfiger was promptly escorted out of the club by security guards. Rose stayed and eventually performed for the crowd.
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Axl was on KROQ (a local mainstream pop/rock station) this morning doing an interview, appaearntly G&R is headlining a concert they throw every year in Septmember. Anyways what AXL HIMSELF said about the scuffle was that he was simply moving Tommy’s girlfriends drink so it wouldn’t get knocked over. Tommy flipped, yelling “What the fuck?!?!” at Axl and then told him not to “fucking touch her fucking drink” and things just went south from there. Axl also said that Kid Rock saw the whole thing and told him it was “totally Detroit.”
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Tommy Hilfiger was carried away by his own security people kicking and screaming after attempting to pick a fight with Guns N’ Roses main man Axl Rose at The Plumm on Thursday night.
According to The Plumm owner Noel Ashman, Hilfiger who took two swings at Rose, was fortunate that he found Rose in good spirits and a forgiving mood. Ashman said “Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger.”
Bluth Family Estate Sale
http://therealestate.observer.com/2006/05/bluth-family-estate-sale.html
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Jon Voight Ent. looking for Interns/PA's/ Assistants
Reply to: job-161786379@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-05-17, 1:32PM EDT
Jon Voight Entertainment is looking for Interns / PA's / Assistants to help promote the release of his new film on June 2nd. Looking for hardworking, energetic, creative individuals to start immediately for one month of work and possible future work with Jon Voight Entertainment in Production, Marketing & PR. Please email your resume ASAP.
* Job location is The Village/Soho Area
* Hiring Organization:
* This is a part-time job.
* This is an internship job
161786379
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mar/161786379.html
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Access Hollywood sends daily press releases plugging whatever will be on that night’s show. Tonight, it’s an interview with O.C. starlet Mischa Barton. Well, that’s nice. Except that the email completely spoils tomorrow night’s season finale. IN THE SUBJECT LINE. No warning, no looking away, no escape — if you so much as glance at your inbox, Access is going to fuck up your Thursday.
Sure, the season’s outcome was rumored in a few publications, but to have it confirmed by the show’s star? Via Access, of all places? That’s just not right. It’s like when the Times spoiled Million Dollar Baby. Except more retarded.
Want the spoiler subject line for yourself?
From: NBC flack
To: Gawker
Sent: 4:14 PM
Subject: ON THE NEXT “ACCESS HOLLYWOOD:” MISCHA BARTON CONFIRMS HER CHARACTER ON “THE O.C.” DIES AND REVEALS WHAT THE SHOW HAS IN STORE FOR FANS
(entertainment weekly)
A Pearl Jam Affair
''We were studying the Grateful Dead model,'' says the band's longtime manager, Kelly Curtis. ''We just went and hung out in their offices and looked at how they did things. It was so grassroots and so great.''
At the Vancouver show, a 44-year-old fan named Rob Bleetstein was wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt. ''I consider myself extremely fortunate that I can have another musical experience like this,'' said Bleetstein, who'd seen the Dead 264 times and was on his 77th Pearl Jam show. ''Because I have a lot of Deadhead friends who can't find it anywhere else.''
But with the release of 2004's greatest-hits album, they completed their Epic deal, and they were free to go elsewhere.
At first glance, J Records — home of Barry Manilow, Kenny G, and several American Idol singers — seems like an odd home for a supposedly antiestablishment band. Why not join forces with an indie, or start their own company? ''Infiltration from within?'' Vedder half-jokes. Curtis offers a more practical explanation, citing the band's international distribution needs.
(In a bonus twist, Clive Davis signed the Grateful Dead to Arista in 1976 and worked with them for the rest of the band's life.)
The final piece of the label puzzle is J Records VP of A&R and marketing Matt Shay, who, like Bierman, is an old friend (he worked with Gossard at the Sony-distributed label Loosegroove in the mid-'90s). That's the way Pearl Jam do business: Keep it within the family and, whenever possible, within the warehouse. ''There's a lot of control in this organization,'' says former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, who joined Pearl Jam in 1998. ''We don't look outside of our core group for opinions."
...during the Vs. track ''Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.'' When Vedder gets to the line ''I just want to scream...'' every voice in the place joins in to bellow ''...helloooo!'' He often allows the crowd to carry not just words but entire verses.
''It's kind of like a tree that keeps growing,'' he says. ''Having the music heard by new people, we're seeing that as a...healthy prospect.'' He stares at the ceiling for a while before continuing with a sly smile. ''And you know — we can always chop it down.''
*
Eddie Vedder
Born: 23-Dec-1964
Wife: Beth Liebling (m. 3-Jun-1994, div. Sep-2000)
Girlfriend: Jill McCormick
Daughter: Olivia (b. 11-Jun-2004, with McCormick)
Jill McCormick (born August 1977) is an international model. She has appeared in Vogue UK and USA, ELLE UK and USA, Cosmopolitan UK and USA, and Harper's Bazaar UK.
McCormick is dating Eddie Vedder, lead singer for the band Pearl Jam. Olivia, their daughter, was born June 11, 2004.
Teflon Tom
It was a widely circulated piece of gossip from Fox News' Roger Friedman (citing a Paramount insider) that at an early test screening of Mission: Impossible III, during a scene in which Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt, is being beaten within an inch of his life, the audience did something that once would have been unthinkable: They clapped.
*
A recent episode of the cult TV series Veronica Mars had Veronica making a face at the idea of Cruise appearing in her bedroom: ''Now I won't be able to sleep. I hope he doesn't try to marry me.''
*
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Pay $70 million**
Gross $181 million
War of the Worlds (2005)
Pay $100 million**
Gross $234 million
* All grosses are domestic
** Includes back-end points