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Patricia Arquette Has a Capitol Idea for Haiti

Roger Friedman
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Patricia Arquette Has a Capitol Idea for Haiti

Emmy winning actress Patricia Arquette, star of CBS’s “Medium,” is one of many well known personalities who’ve come to Washington, DC this weekend for the White House Correspondents Dinner.  But unlike some, Arquette has a cause: Haiti.

She’s very involved in water filtration was waste management projects. She’s not working with either Paul Haggis or Sean Penn. Arquette is on the job with a separate group, and they’re about to test 500 “green” tents that were donated to homeless earthquake victims.

Arquette started the Give Love Foundation in March at www.givelove.org by donating $100,000 of her own. She told me at Friday night’s elegant cocktail party given jointly by Time and People magazines–at the St. Regis Hotel near the White House– that once she wrote the check for aid, she had to get involved personally.

“I had to be hands on,” she told me. Arquette will be returning to Haiti soon to see her donations implemented. “The first time, we didn’t have enough tents to go around, and I had to explain it to each family. It was terrible.” Arquette is concerned, as are many, that Haiti is prone to another earthquake soon.

Arquette was joined af the Time-People party by the mag’s respective editors in chief, Rick Stengel and Larry Hackett, as well as Dana Delany, Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Elisabeth Shue and husband director Davis Guggenheim, Gayle King, Gabby Sidibe, Richard Schiff, i.e. the Hollywood contingent.

But I was happy also to see Andrea Mitchell, Ann Compton, Savannah Guthrie, and some other Washington media. After all this is their Oscars, so to speak! My new favorite person: Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. She’s a gem.

PS Gossip hounds: Arquette says she is still married to Thomas Jane, and it would seem like they’re happy. Just sayin’…

Rielle Hunter: “24” And There’s So Much More

Roger Friedman
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Rielle Hunter: “24” And There’s So Much More

Tonight is the wrap party for the Fox series “24.”

Who won’t be there: Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’s mistress and babymama.

As I told you a couple of weeks ago, before she met Edwards, Hunter was very busy in Hollywood. She was a regular behind the scenes at “24,” where was incredibly close to one of the gang (not Kiefer). I’m told there were substantial benefits to this friendship.

My sources also say that Hunter certainly was also a close friend of actor Jeff Goldblum.

Oprah Winfrey didn’t ask Hunter about any of this yesterday on her show. She did sit in Hunter’s living room in a house paid for by John Edwards and look like she was smelling something very bad. It was classic Oprah. I thought she was going to spray the room with Oust.

Hunter expressed no remorse for breaking up a home with two children and a dying wife. She did seem to act like it was her blessed assignment to do so, and that collateral damage was to be expected.

This much I know: Elizabeth Edwards is tough, and she was no pushover when she was fighting to save her family. Hunter did not flinch at pushing back. Maybe this is because, as I wrote several times between 2008 and 2009, sources told me that John Edwards was constantly leading Hunter on. It was conveyed to me over and over that Edwards was telling Hunter just to hang in there. He told her his wife was micromanaging him, but eventually they’d get what they wanted.

Does John Edwards know that his career in politics is over? We’ll see. Rielle Hunter would not be in GQ or on Oprah without his assent. It’s almost like a plot line from “24.” Almost.t

Is Madonna’s New Spiritual Leader Named Muki?

Roger Friedman
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Is Madonna’s New Spiritual Leader Named Muki?

Madonna’s new spiritual leader may be a man named Muki.

According to sources, Israeli Moshe “Muki” Oppenheimer–who does not speak English– has left his home in Efrat, a settlement in the West Bank, to globe-trot with Kabbalah Center leader Karen Berg in glitzier places like New York, Los Angeles, and even Brazil.

Five years ago, the 67 year old Berg was described in a British newspaper profile as seeming “lonely.” http://tinyurl.com/3953n9c Her much older husband, Philip (they call him “the Rav”) had had a devastating stroke. Karen had taken the reins of the worldwide, money hungry “religion” that sells red strings for $26 and books for learning at $500. She was operating the business– with millions in real estate holdings– with her two sons, Michael and Yehuda. She was spending her time buying expensive jewelry and getting plastic surgery.

But now I’m told that Karen may be lonely no more. According to several people I’ve spoken to who are quite conversant in the ways of the Kabbalah Center, Karen has become incredibly close to the mysterious “Muki.” He has come to occupy a powerful new place in the Kabbalah world.

But Muki, an Israeli, is so under the radar it’s unclear if even the group’s celebs—like Madonna, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher—know what’s going on. When I asked for him at the Los Angeles office, I was told he had no phone extension. In New York, the receptionist said she didn’t know who he was even though I’d been told he’d recently taught some kind of class there.

Oppenheimer, said to be in his late 40s, has gotten so powerful at Kabbalah that there are reports of him sitting in Rav Philip Berg’s chair during religious readings. This is considered blasphemy by Kabbalah insiders.

The word in Kabbalah is that Karen Berg travels with Oppenheimer (first class, ‘natch, as the Bergs may be worth north of $25 mil corporately) and that they are attached at the hip. Meanwhile, Philip Berg has basically been unseen since at least 2006 or earlier. “He’s kept in the basement,” says one former Kabbalah member facetiously. Oppenheimer, a source says, has a wife and “many children” back in Efrat.

Not much is known about Oppenheimer. According to a source who knew him in Israel, Muki was brought in to help run the centers in Israel, and then after meeting Karen Berg migrated to the United States. What is known is that he runs a motivational website called Ethika at www.ethika.co.il, which requires visitors to answer questions as they enter.

Some of the questions are: Do you think you know yourself?  Do you think people around you know you? Is it important for you that the community around you recognize you?

When they’re answered, Muki Oppenheimer writes back: Yes, I’d love to meet you, you’re good, but still drop me a line.

More to come shortly on Kabbalah, which apparently has developed an inner upper echelon society somewhat akin to Scientology’s Sea Org. People who are drafted into it are called “Hevre,” and they see themselves as elite and chosen. They are also duty bound to Kabbalah and unable to leave at will without threat of reprisal. “You give your life to the Center,” explained one former member unwilling to have her name published. “They control your life, and your money.”

Lisa Kessler, spokesperson for Kabbalah, did not return a call or email for comment.

Chris Noth Gets Tantric for Rainforests; Carly Simon Judges

Roger Friedman
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Chris Noth Gets Tantric for Rainforests; Carly Simon Judges

Chris Noth raised a lot of money last night for the Rainforest Action Network. He had some help, too, from Trudie Styler, who spoke on behalf of the Rainforest Foundation. RAN, as it’s known, celebrated its 25th anniversary at the old Village Gate, now known ridiculously as Le Poisson Rouge, on Bleecker St. (Bleecker St. is overrun now by huge ugly neon-lit banks. Where are all the clubs and cool shops? NYU has really done a job on the Village.)

Anyway, with Styler’s help, and Noth’s prodding, a few of the more well heeled banker types at the cocktail party ponied up. Four tickets to see Sting perform at the Met this July went for a total of $25,000. A weekend at the Plaza Athenee plus tickets to “Sex and the City 2” were bid at $36,000. It didn’t hurt that Noth promised a lot of tantric sex to the winners–a  little inside koke for Styler and Sting!

The evening’s surprise guest was Ecuadorian activist and lawyer Pablo Fajardo. He was the subject of Joe Berlinger‘s highly praised documentary, “Crude,” about Chevron‘s poisoning of that country’s water supply. This morning Berlinger has to answer a subpoena from Chevron to say why he shouldn’t produce outtakes from “Crude.” Chevron will do anything it can not to pay what a court has decreed and clean up Ecuador. It’s unbelievable…

…Meanwhile, over at 1Oak, legendary singer Carly Simon selected a first prize winner from the 10 finalists who made videos for her 1972 hit, “You’re So Vain.” The AKA Hotels sponsored the event for the Tribeca Film Festival. Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff dashed over from the Festival’s awards ceremony to help Carly announce the winner and watch her sing songs with her son, Ben, friends John Forte and David Saw, and even an oldie with sister Lucy, composer of “The Secret Garden” and the upcoming “Dr. Zhivago.”

Here’s the winning video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHWrudgCc3Q by Brett Bisogno. There are plenty of good ones, too. In fact over 150 were submitted!

Addams Family Could Bring TV Land to Broadway

Roger Friedman
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0
Addams Family Could Bring TV Land to Broadway

“The Addams Family” got some of the worst reviews ever seen for a new Broadway musical when it opened two weeks ago.

Guess what? It doesn’t matter.

The Nathan Lane-Bebe Neuwirth extravaganza topped “Wicked” last week and landed at number 1 with the highest capacity sell through of any show on the Great White Way. For the week of April 18-25, it was at 100.7%.

In real box office numbers, “Addams” took in $1.4 million and finished third after “Wicked” and “The Lion King,” and ahead of “Jersey Boys.” Mind you, it was hot on the paws of “The Lion King.”

All this for a reviled show, even by its producers and insiders. Privately, they all acknowledge the show’s flaws. But who cares? From the minute the audience starts snapping its fingers to the late Vic Mizzy‘s theme music, the show is a hit. It doesn’t matter that the rest of the songs are terrible and that the plot is simply recycled from a half dozen other movies and plays. “The Addams Family” offers a live re-creation of beloved TV characters. Nostalgia kicks in. And so does Nathan Lane.

What I’m hearing now is that a bunch of other TV shows are being considered for Broadway treatment. My guess would be “Green Acres,” which also had a famous Vic Mizzy theme song with which the audience can sing along. But there’s been talk of “The Munsters.” (Imagine Jim Carrey has Herman, Reese Witherspoon as Marilyn.) Why not “The Beverly Hillbillies”? Or “I Dream of Jeannie”? First it was Disney on Broadway. Now it’ll be TV Land on the Rialto.

Matt Damon’s Adjustment Bureau Will Need Adjustments

Roger Friedman
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Matt Damon’s Adjustment Bureau Will Need Adjustments

Matt Damon‘s next film, “The Adjustment Bureau,” just got moved from July to September. The reason given: Universal Pictures thought it would make a better fall film, with some possible award potential.

But I’ve heard the overriding reason is re-shoots. The semi sci-fi film, based on a 1954 short story by Philip K. Dick, needs adjustments before it can be unleashed on to the world.

No need to panic; this happens all the time. But the cast of “The Adjustment Bureau”–Damon, Emily Blunt, Daniel Dae Kim, Anthony Mackie–could not be reassembled until the last week of June. First time director George Nolfi, who’s written for Damon before and is currently penning a new Jason Bourne thriller, might have made the July 30th release date. But the new date gives him breathing room. Maybe, possibly, “The Adjustment Bureau” will be shown in Toronto.

Candy Spelling May Be the Next David Merrick

Roger Friedman
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Candy Spelling May Be the Next David Merrick

Candy Spelling is in New York and taking it by storm. And just like they sing in the Mel Brooks musical, she “wants to be  producer…”

On Tuesday Candy hit Michael’s, where Barry Diller was reaching the tipping point with Malcolm Gladwell, and uber literary agent Lynn Nesbitt was listening to Shirley Lord Rosenthal. On Wednesday, it was the Four Seasons. In the Grill Room: no less than Henry Kissinger (dining with uber literary agent Lynn Nesbitt), Mort Zuckerman, Michael Ovitz and the Pace Gallery’s Arne Glimcher. Liz Smith broke bread with two editors from Good Housekeeping. Carly Simon wandered in, looking for musician John Forte. It turned out he was at the Four Seasons Hotel. Who knew they had lunch there?

Candy is turning into a Broadway angel. She has money in “Promises, Promises.” Next year, she’s invested in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” also directed by Rob Ashford. For opening night of “P,P” she sent the cast a life size solid dancer’s leg made of chocolate. She’s getting involved in the whole process. Since the opening, she’s gone to the box office, dressed down in jeans and diamond earrings the size of small comets, to see what’s happening. “I like to see who the audience is, and what they’re saying.” She knows that the show is good, but that it’s Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes who are selling tickets. She’s thrilled with the notices for Katie Finneran, a cinch Tony nominee for Featured Actress.

Yes, she’s in touch with scripted reality show star daughter Tori. Her son, Randy, is living in Portland, Oregon, working as a Life Coach, and is getting married to a psychic. It’s just Candy and her dog, Madison, rambling around her infamous 80-plus room manse in Beverly Hills.

This is what I liked the best about Candy Spelling: her dog has a website: www.madisonspelling.com.

Far from being what she even calls a “trophy wife,” Candy is no fool. “I handled all the books and finances at home,” she says of her long marriage to late TV legend Aaron Spelling. She ran their mega mansion in Beverly Hills, which is now for sale. Eventually she will move to a lavish townhouse condo in Century City. This is called “downsizing.”

Why the interest in Broadway? “Aaron didn’t fly and didn’t like to travel. I never left L.A.,” she said. Now she’s finally able to do some things that interested her. Musicals will be a priority. Don’t be surprised if she winds up taking a place in New York. Candy Spelling is going to be a force on Broadway, and quickly.

PS Just a few tidbits from her past. Candy does not get along with Aaron Spelling’s old partner, Leonard Goldberg, or his wife Wendy. (“She doesn’t like me,” Candy said.) Mrs. Spelling sort of concedes to being the model for Linda Evans‘ character on “Dynasty.” She admires Evans, she says, and also has a great relationship with Joan Collins. She talked about how she and Aaron met John Forsythe, and how he became Charlie to the Angels. Candy Spelling is a veritable encyclopedia of TV history. Frankly, she should write a book!

Bret Michaels: Is the Media Ignoring Good News on Purpose?

Roger Friedman
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Bret Michaels: Is the Media Ignoring Good News on Purpose?

Bret Michaels is going to recover from his brain hemorrhage. But the media doesn’t seem much interested.

I am told by a source that Michaels will recover, that the recovery will take a few months and involve rehabilitation. He is not having seizures. He is not dying. He is not dead. He did not have surgery yesterday to relieve pressure on his brain.

These are the stories, however, that are getting attention. Reuters carried the right news last night, but no one picked it up. Instead, most of the searches about Michael turn up news that he’s critical and in peril.

“Because he went straight to the hospital, Bret got the proper treatment quickly,” says an insider.

Will he make it to the final episode of “Celebrity Apprentice” on May 23rd? It seems unlikely, but you never know. Don’t discount a last minute showing. Think of the drama!

Michaels’ doctors will hold some kind of press conference on Monday. Until then, it’s going to be radio out. Recovery and tests. Anything else is just designed to get publicity and attention for the sources.

“Enron” Pulls In Mr. Big, Stars to Broadway

Roger Friedman
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“Enron” Pulls In Mr. Big, Stars to Broadway

The Broadway awards season is almost done, with the Tony Awards deadline looming on Friday. The Outer Critics Circle issued its list of nominees on Monday, and made mostly good selections. The OCC covers both Broadway and off Broadway, so some slots were filled by people who won’t be at the Tony’s. The OCC didn’t pick Alfred Molina from “Red” for their Best Actor list, but he’ll turn up later. They did like Jude Law‘s excellent Hamlet, and reached back to Jan Maxwell‘s memorable star turn in “The Royal Family.”

(Full disclosure: my mother, Rosalind Friedman, a well respected theater critic from Fairfield County, Connecticut, is on the OCC board. It doesn’t give me any leverage or influence. The OCC are serious theater people. All my lobbying for a couple of actors fell on deaf ears, I’m afraid.)

The OCC didn’t like “Enron,” a British import. Now that it opened last night, we can see why. “Enron” must have played great in London, where theatergoers probably thought it was clever to rip apart American corporate culture. Unfortunately, the long, talky play is a buzz kill. By the time it’s over you start to feel bad for Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay. That has a lot to do with good performances from Norbert Leo Butz and Gregory Itzin, as well as Stephen Kunken as Andy Fastow, and Marin Mazzie.

But “Enron” had buzz, so the audience was filled with interesting types. Chris Noth, Eric Bogosian and Tamara Tunie headed up the “Law & Order” area. Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy were among those who followed the action, along with Candice Bergen, Cherry Jones, Jim Dale, Mamie Gummer, Alec Baldwin, Kathleen Chalfant, and Zeljko Ivanek.

Happy Anniversary, Rudy and Judi

Roger Friedman
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Happy Anniversary, Rudy and Judi

Ten years ago tonight I happened upon Mayor Rudolph Giuliani out on a date with his girlfriend, Judith Nathan.

It was April 28, 2000, a Friday night, around 11:30pm. I’d been eating dinner in Elaine‘s on Second Avenue and East 88th St. when two people who knew the Mayor and his entourage came in for a bite. They told me, “Do you want a scoop? The mayor is across the street at Cronie’s on a date.”

I jumped up. Rushing through Elaine’s bar, I grabbed a friend. “I need a witness,” I told her. We crossed 88th St. and walked past the Mayor’s idling SUV and another car from his entourage. We entered Cronie’s–now called Cafe d’Alsace. It was an old fashioned pub that smelled faintly of beer.  Along the dimly lit bar, members of the Mayor’s staff were having drinks.

At the bar, I ran into a friend who was trying to pick up a cute blonde. Trying to look non chalant about my business, I tried to strike up a conversation. My friend, Tommy, shot me a dirty look that said, Get away, you’re bothering me.

The Cronie’s bar ended in a space that led to a romantic alcove in the back. There, sitting side by side, were the Mayor of New York, who was married, and a middle aged brunette. The mayor had just announced the day before that he had prostate cancer.

“If that isn’t his oncologist,” I said to my companion, “he’s in big trouble.” We lingered, long enough to ascertain that the Mayor was not receiving medical advice.

Back in Elaine’s, everyone wanted to know what happened. I told them, and Sid Zion, the lawyer and journalist who has since passed away, jumped up. He put on his hat and hustled out the door to see what was going on. I recall thinking, it looks like a movie from the Forties, like “The Front Page.” This was news.

We followed Sid back to Cronie’s, only to find that the Mayor’s staff had whisked him out of the place in seconds. They knew he’d been “made.”

I remember talking to the owner of Cronie’s, a tall man with white hair. He asked us, “Are you Rudy groupies?” I was shocked. I responded, “Does he have groupies?” I asked him if the Mayor was a regular customer. “Yeah, he comes in here all the time,” he said. With this woman? I asked. “Yes,” he said. “Sometimes they bring his son.” That meant Andrew, who was 14 years old in 2000.

So I had my story. The only problem was, no one knew who this woman was– and Fox News, for which I wrote a daily column, didn’t want it. “Roger Ailes has a close relationship with Rudy Giuliani,” I was told. “Someone else would have to run the story first. Then we can quote it.”

I turned to my friend Mitchell Fink at the New York Daily News. He ran a story on Tuesday, May 2nd after I called him to explain the situation. In the meantime, knowing that Fink was going with the story, Page Six in the New York Post ran pictures that day that had been taken recently of the Mayor and Judith Nathan, a divorcee, and her 16 year old daughter having Sunday brunch. Now the cat was out of the bag. Here’s a clip from the Daily News on May 4, 2000: http://tinyurl.com/2w5gycs

I finally was able to claim the story on May 3rd, even though the “scoop” was lost thanks to Fox News’s reticence. Still about ten days later, Joyce Purnick graciously gave me credit for it in the New York Times. http://tinyurl.com/2claccr

The result, of course, was marital mayhem at Gracie Mansion. Within days, Donna Hanover –who obviously knew her marriage was in trouble four years earlier when Rudy was picking out dresses for his press aide–appeared at the foot of the driveway at the Mayor’s home for a press conference. Her years of public humiliation were over. Rudy went to live with a gay couple on the Upper East Side (no joke). Donna filed for divorce.

It’s hard to believe a decade has passed. Rudy’s philandering, his subsequent marriage to Nathan, etc, all pretty much ended his political career. His next bad relationship was with ex Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik. Now he’s raking in millions in private practice. Donna Hanover married her childhood sweetheart, and presumably lived happily ever after. Cronie’s closed a couple of years ago. Too bad–it was a nice, out of the way pub where members of the Yankees went on secret dates. It looked the place described in Billy Paul‘s song, “Me and Mrs. Jones.” If you remember, they “had a thing going on.”

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