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Detective Munch’s Dog Sniffs Out Spitzer, For Real

Roger Friedman
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Detective Munch’s Dog Sniffs Out Spitzer, For Real

“Law & Order” overlord Dick Wolf ‘had better pay Richard Belzer overtime.

Belzer, who plays Detective John Munch on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” may have been doing some police work at lunch on Friday at Michael’s.

Belzer arrived to join friends including literary agent David Vigliano, mid-way through their neighboring diners’ meal. The occupant of the adjoining table: former New York governor, the quite disgraced Elliot Spitzer. Spitzer was lunching with noted flack Lisa Linden, who’s been seen in Michael’s previously dining with Spitzer’s beleaguered wife, Silda. Linden is bi-partisan, too: she donated $2,300 to Rudy Giuliani’s 2007 presidential bid. Go figure.

But I digress.

Belzer brought a date, his dog, a cute, sort of white poodlish mix named Bebe. The dog goes everywhere with Belzer. He carried it into the restaurant and placed it on a square white linen napkin that had been laid out on the carpet between his chair and Spitzer’s. Of course, Bebe knows that working for Dick Wolf is a full time job. The dog immediatetly started investigating Spitzer, sniffing his pants leg and circling his chair. This happened not once but several times, as Belzer would scoop up Bebe, then place him down again and the dog returned to Spitzer.

Eventually Spitzer and Linden left. Someone joked to Belzer, “Your character works in sex crimes. The dog must have suspected something.”

Indeed.

Also in Michael’s on Friday: Gibson Guitar hero Henry Juszkiewicz with composer Shelley Palmer (whom I hadn’t seen since college days!), Kerzner Resorts music chief Jerry Inzerillo with gospel and R&B great Bebe Winans. Yes, another Bebe! This one, however, will overseeing a 75th anniversary national tour of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

AND MORE STARS IN RESTAURANTS

Chris Noth, in town to shoot his “The Good Wife” series, and Christopher MacDonald, guest starring in the as yet unseen big fall HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” were at Elaine’s last night with Noth’s pal, Steve Walter of the soon to be revived Cutting Room. Elaine’s has music on Sundays, a hot jazz trio. The Chrises sang along and snapped fingers to “King of the Road.” What did they talk about? I heard the whole thing, but was sworn to secrecy. I did hear George Clooney’s name mentioned, and a few other famous names, plus some stuff that can’t be repeated in a family style gossip column!…Father Pete Colapietro did take the mic for a swell rendition in German of “Mack the Knife”…

Kirstie Alley Diet Scheme: Scientology Front?

Roger Friedman
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Kirstie Alley Diet Scheme: Scientology Front?

The blogs are alive with speculation that Kirstie Alley’s new diet scheme, called Organic Liaison, is a front for Scientology.

It sure seems that way.

Let’s not forget that Alley is a devoted member of the sect. She fronted a PR pamphlet for them in 2007 called “Keep Scientology Working.”

Organic Liaison’s advisory board includes a prominent Scientologist named Michelle Seward. Seward is also the CEO of Protege Financial, a Scientology-based company. The two other execs at Protege — Mark Francovich and Scott Foulk – are longtime, high-ranking, practicing Scientologists. Not only that: The corporate office for Organic Liaison is in Clearwater, Fla. — headquarters, not coincidentally, of Scientology. Organic Liaison is in the same building in Clearwater as the World Institute of Scientology.

Another member of the advisory board, Thomas Lovejoy, has a long association with Scientology through its so-called “Artists for Human Rights.” That group includes noted sect members Kelly Preston and Anne Archer. Archer’s son, Tom Davis, is chief celebrity wrangler for Scientology. Preston, of course, is married to Scientology cheerleader John Travolta. Coincidentally, a Tom Lovejoy was one of the earliest teachers of Scientology, way back in 1954. (Click here [PDF download])

Also: Organic Liaison’s accountant is Saul Lipson, a highly placed Scientologist.

Another member of the advisory board, Soram Khalsa, MD, is also considered something of a “quack to the stars.” Khalsa is a Beverly Hills doctor who has a clinic for alternative medicine. According to his bio on Khalsa’s website:’ “In his private medical practice, he integrates phytotherapeutics, homeopathy, acupuncture and environmental medicine with traditional internal medicine.” Here’s a good piece on Khalsa by freelance journalist Alex Pareene.

Oprah Winfrey recently let Alley shill her diet plan on her show. It’s not the first time Winfrey has devoted a massive amount of time to Alley or Scientologists like Cruise and Travolta. It’s certainly a bewilderment.

Even more bewildering: that anyone would sign up to pay money for Alley’s latest weight-loss program. She was a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, lost weight and gained it all back. She is now morbidly obese.

Rielle Hunter Still Has Hollywood Tales To Tell

Roger Friedman
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Rielle Hunter Still Has Hollywood Tales To Tell

Rielle Hunter fesses up to a lot in her new GQ interview. If Elizabeth Edwards doesn’t die from the cancer, this should kill her.

But there’s a lot Hunter doesn’t tell my old pal Lisa DePaolo, about her life in Hollywood just prior to meeting John Edwards in 2006.

Hunter, I was told a couple of months ago, has a lot of frenemies in the TV business, especially on one still-active network show. If the writers and producers of said show start doing their own fessing up, Hunter may have a lot of explaining to do.

Rielle was married to Kip Hunter, son of the Boulder, Colo., D.A. who handled the Jon Benet Ramsey case. They divorced in 2000. Rielle headed to Hollywood, where she made fast friends.

She wrote and produced a 20-minute comedy called ‘Billy Bob and Them,’ which she also acted in and self-distributed.

George Mooradian, now an Emmy-nominated cinematographer, worked on ‘Billy Bob and Them.’ When he met Rielle, he said, she was just getting or had gotten a divorce.

Mooradian conceded he was paid about $50, if that, to shoot the low-budget film in Hunter’s ‘very nice’ Brentwood home that he supposed she’d gotten in the divorce.

The film, he said, didn’t have much of a plot. ‘It was very New Age-y. It had something to do with altars and temples and crystals.’ The shoot lasted two days.

Mooradian told me: ‘She definitely had some connection to the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere, and there was an offer to meet the Dalai Lama.’ It was after that that Hunter started pitching ideas around Hollywood for various shows. She started a writing project with a producer who introduced her to the set of one particular TV drama. From what I was told, the plot thickened pretty quickly.

In 2006, Hunter — back in New York after her private Hollywood dramas proved too taxing — and producing partner Mimi Hockman needed help to make their John Edwards campaign videos. They brought in Colin Weil, an experienced ad man whose company created AIDS Walk in Los Angeles in 1984 and has a long list of impressive credits. He was introduced to Hockman through a mutual Hollywood friend, Weil told me last year, declining to give a name.

It was Weil’s expertise that actually got the Edwards films made. Weil told me that the filming of the segments occurred from October 2006 to the end of that year. ‘In January [2007] the campaign decided to shelve them. I thought it was a wimpy move. The whole idea was to show Edwards not as a Ken doll — which he looks like — but in a more relaxed setting.’

More to come…

Kate Winslet Was ‘Bored’ With Mendes, Says Source

Roger Friedman
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Kate Winslet Was ‘Bored’ With Mendes, Says Source

Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes each have Academy Awards, but it wasn’t enough to keep their marriage intact.

They’re ending their marriage, according to their representatives.

I am told, believe it or not, that the split actually came last summer. “Kate was bored with Sam,” says a source who knows the inside scoop. “They drifted apart.”

It didn’t help that Mendes directed Winslet in “Revolutionary Road,” a good movie that failed. Simultaneously, Winslet was starring in “The Reader,” for which she won the Academy Award. The 2008 awards season was grueling because Winslet wanted that best actress prize for Mendes’ movie. It didn’t happen.

The word is that Winslet and her kids are in Mexico on holiday while this storm blows over. When she returns to New York, she’ll be filming a miniseries for HBO based on “Mildred Pierce.” Mendes will have no end of projects in theater and film. And that, as they say, is showbiz.

Michael Jackson Deal: $225 Mil Just for Records, Nothing Else

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson Deal: $225 Mil Just for Records, Nothing Else

The new Sony deal for Michael Jackson’s new records is actually worth $225 million according to my sources.

That means that Jackson attorneys John Branca (a co-executor) and Joel Katz, with the help of co-executor John McClain, have cut for Michael Jackson’s estate the richest deal ever in recording business history. It far exceeds the deal Sony made with Bruce Springsteen a couple of years ago for $100 million.

The deal is only for records for the next seven years. It already includes the soundtrack to “This Is It.” Come November, the first scheduled release will be a collection of unreleased tracks perhaps including a duet with Paul Anka and one or two songs left off of “Thriller.”

Two more releases will be anniversary editions of “Bad” and “Off the Wall” which will include extra and remixed tracks a la the 25th anniversary edition of “Thriller.” McClain and hopefully Jackson’s longtime manager Frank DiLeo will be involved with those.

There are also enough tracks for at least one or two live albums from various Jackson tours.

The Sony deal does not include anything to do with Michael’s publishing, live shows still to be arranged, or merchandise. A show with Cirque du Soleil, as I’ve written before, will be announced shortly for Las Vegas.

But all of that is separate. What happened: Since his death Jackson has sold 31 million albums worldwide. Sony, which had parted company with Jackson before his death, wants to remain in the Jackson business. With this contract, they will be in business with his estate for at least seven more years.

Insiders say that Jackson’s estate will retain the rights to all the master recordings, too. This is highly unusual. Also: Branca, Katz and McClain also, apparently, renegotiated Jackson’s royalty rate with Sony for this deal. “It’s the highest rate anyone’s ever had,” says a source.

At this rate, the prediction is that Jackson’s huge debt leveraged against his own MiJac Music Publishing will be paid off in a short time. His even bigger debt, secured against his one half interest in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing company–also known as the Beatles catalog–will be refinanced and reduced. When Jackson died, sources point out, he was $500 million in debt.His estate is now solvent, and his children are well taken care for their lives.

It is the sad irony of the Michael Jackson story that for years he suffered financially, and drifted in his career. Since his death. his career and finances have flourished.

Kristen Stewart’s Next Bite with Julianne Moore

Roger Friedman
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Kristen Stewart’s Next Bite with Julianne Moore

“Twilight” star Kristen Stewart–so good as Joan Jett in “The Runaways” and in “Welcome to the Rileys”– has her next project lined up.

Stewart will co-star with Julianne Moore in “Backwoods.” Sources say the film, directed by Moore’s husband, Bart Freundlich, concerns the end of the world.

“Backwoods,” still to be fully cast, should start sometime this summer. By then, Stewart will be starring in “Twilight:Eclipse.”

Freundlich has three features under his belt including a gem called “The Myth of Fingerprints.” He also recently directed four episodes of “Californication” for Showtime.

Moore, who was denied an Oscar nomination for her wonderful work in “A Single Man,” opens shortly in Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe,” with Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried.

The menschy Moore also pays a rare visit to her alma mater, the CBS soap “As the World Turns,” on April 5th, to help celebrate her fictional parents’ (Don Hastings, Kathryn Hays) anniversary and give a nod to the 54 year old soap’s scheduled end this fall.

Moore won a Daytime Emmy playing lookalike cousins on the show. She will only play one for the return. What happened to the other one? “I’m not in touch with her,” the four time Oscar nominee quipped at the “Chloe” premiere last night in New York.

She says she loved being reunited with her soap family, including 92 year old show matriarch Helen Wagner, who plays her grandmother. “She’s still giving us acting tips,” Moore recalls.

Shutter Island: Scorsese On Track for Biggest Hit Ever

Roger Friedman
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Shutter Island: Scorsese On Track for Biggest Hit Ever

It’s an amazing story with a happy ending: Martin Scorsese is on track to have his biggest hit ever with “Shutter Island.”

The Hitchockian like saga should finish this weekend with $106 million in domestic box office receipts. Scorsese’s Oscar winning “The Departed” made a total of $132 million in the US.’ Right now, “Shutter Island” is Scorsese’s second biggest hit ever in his long and illustrious career.

Everyone scoffed when “Shutter Island” was held out by Paramount from its fall 2009 release. But now the decision seems very wise. Some of the reasoning for the wait was to give Leonardo DiCaprio a chance at a Best Actor nomination and win. For this past season, with Jeff Bridges in the lead and George Clooney very hot in “Up in the Air,” DiCaprio would have struggled. But now he’s got a clear path and an early start.

Ditto Scorsese and the movie. They will wind up in the Winner’s Circle next fall, most definitely.

And no, “Shutter Island” isn’t in 3D, and no one is blue. It’s just good old fashioned movie making, with strong characters, a good plot, and a twist that knocks the audience out.

Meanwhile, Tim Burton’s having his biggest hit in a long time. “Alice in Wonderland” is up to $165 million already, with no end in sight. Will it surpass Burton’s “Batman” from 1989, which finished its run at $251 million? We’ll see. I still think the best Tim Burton movies were the ones that made the least money: “Beetlejuice,” “Big Fish,” and “Edward Scissorhands.”

Michael Jackson Death Anniversary Sell Off

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson Death Anniversary Sell Off

What better way to celebrate the first anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death than with an auction of his things!

And–even things he never saw or touched.

Julien’s Auctions of West Hollywood has just announced a three day auction beginning on June 25th in Las Vegas. Most of the items, they say, are furniture that was commissioned for the house when Jackson was supposed to live outside London while doing his “This Is It” shows at the O2 Arena.

However, Jackson didn’t live long enough to sit on the couches and chairs. So Julien’s will recreate, they say, what might have been. Julien says the furniture was never paid for. Jackson ordered it over the phone. The furniture designer didn’t want to pursue getting its money back from the estate.

There are also 200 other items including gloves, jackets, shoes, outfits, etc that are supposedly from Michael ’s estate. The jury’s still out on that one. Julien’s says two charities will get a percentage of the take. The objects come from friends like Corey Feldman who’ve decided to cash out of trinkets Jackson gave to them over the years.

Last year around this time, Jackson fought a Julien’s auction of his memorabilia and belongings that was set up his erstwhile manager, Tohme R. Tohme. That auction was aborted. Mr. Tohme has not been heard from since last summer, after Jackson died. But a warehouse of Jackson objects was supposedly returned to the Jackson estate by Tohme after his death.

“Everything we have comes from legit sources and has been verified,” says Darren Julien.

Madonna Charity Paper Trail Back to Cult

Roger Friedman
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Madonna Charity Paper Trail Back to Cult

Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity has a paper trail now that leads it right back to the Kabbalah Center cult in Los Angeles.

Kabbalah Centre is the “religion” that charges on its website $26 for a spiritual red string to be worn on the wrist, and $500 for a “special package” of materials to get started in the sect. Madonna actually wore the red string on Jerry Seinfeld’s “The Marriage Ref” last night. (More on that above.)

I’ve said since Raising Malawi first reared its ugly head that it was merely a front for Philip Berg’s Kabbalah Centre. Berg’s son Michael started it, drafted in Madonna, who then went to Malawi and adopted, with much controversy, two children. Malawi does seem like an odd place to bring Kabbalah since the country is very poor. But it’s also a great way to train thousands of new disciples who can go out in the world and sell more red strings.

In February 2008 Madonna got Gucci to help her stage a massive star-studded fundraiser in New York for Raising Malawi. Because the organization had not yet registered as a charity, Gucci had to start its own foundation to collect the $3 million that came in around that time.

Nearly everyone associated with Raising Malawi is also connected to the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles. The Bergs actually brought Malawi teachers to Los Angeles to learn the expensive Kabbalah “teachings,” then sent them back to inculcate orphans with its Spirituality for Kids curriculum.

Now Raising Malawi has finally filed a form 990 tax filing for 2008, and guess what? The Kabbalah Center and Spirituality for Kids is all over it. Really all over it. Under the heading “Identification of Tax Related Organizations,” there are three groups listed: Spirituality for Kids, Kabbalah Center of the United States, and Kabblah Center International.

The three groups are identified as educational and religious. But under the heading “Identification of Related Organizations as a Partnership,” there is only something called KAF, LLC. Its primary purpose is listed as Real Estate, and KAF LLC has the same address as all the other Kabbalah groups mentioned. Under another heading, “Identification of Related Organizations Taxable as a Corporate Trust,” there is one listing: Kabbalah Enterprises, Inc.

Under Part 1, Section h: “Provide information about the organizations this organization supports” there is one listing only: “Kabbalah Center International, Inc.”

Even more organizations are listed as related: The Kabblah Centres of New York and of Florida; a group called Success for Kids; and the Research Center of Kabbalah. The tax return is signed by, as are all other Kabbalah Centre filings, chief financial officer Yael Avnet.

Phillipe van den Bossche, who ran Raising Malawi until recently, received a salary of approximately $132, 000 in 2008. Another $36.000 went to unspecified salaries.

At the same time, Raising Malawi says it gave $600,000 to groups in the U.S., and $2.4 million to groups outside the U.S. Another $120,000 went to travel expenses.

Madonna Did Not Have a Pre-Nup with Guy Ritchie

Roger Friedman
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Madonna Did Not Have a Pre-Nup with Guy Ritchie

Madonna: the popular entertainer appeared on Jerry Seinfeld’s “The Marriage Ref” last night, with Larry David and Ricky Gervais. The show was a classic, on the level, maybe, of David Susskind’s legendary Mother’s Day special a hundred years ago with Mel Brooks, George Segal and David Steinberg.

For whatever time is left for “The Marriage Ref,” this will be its classic episode.

Madonna revealed that she didn’t have a prenup with Guy Ritchie. That was enough payback for watching the entire episode. She brings it up at around 38 minutes in. And makes a face that gives away the whole story between her and Ritchie. If she’s acting, it’s the best job she’s ever done. But it seems too spontaneous.

What else? The Material Mom, now designing clothes with her teenage daughter, fiddled with her $26 red Kabbalah string. But she was also feisty, funny, and sarcastic. It was the most real she’s ever been on TV, and she was just herself. She hated Larry David and told him so. She indicated that she liked the idea of marriage. She doesn’t care for housepets but warned everyone not to be “Pet-Ist.” She conceded that when “you hook up with someone” you show your best side. The bad stuff comes later.

Larry David also showed off his well-known persona. He hates women and marriage. He’s self centered and wears ugly socks with sneakers. He’s also completely hilarious. He also didn’t care what Madonna thought about anything. And told her so. That must have been a first.

Ricky Gervais was really there to mediate between them. With his soothing British accent and good manners, Gervais always pretends to be shocked by everything weird or lascivious. It works. His favorite word is “lovely.” He likes to hide his head in his hands when he’s mock appalled. You can’t help but love him.

The actual host, Tom Papa, reminded me of Jerry’s old comic nemesis, Kenny Bania, from his sitcom. “The Marriage Ref” is a show created as if Bania finally made it in show business. Papa has a weird, childlike wave. He dismisses each contestant couple, “Let’s say good bye to the [fill in the blank].” The contestants aren’t stupid. By the time they’ve heard the panel (in this case, these three) dissect them, the people look angry. You almost hope they’re actors and not real life dupes.

But Madonna had no pre-nup? That’s the headline. Maybe that’s what Guy Ritchie was discussing last week at a pre-Oscar party at CAA agent Bryan Lourd’s house with none other than Sean Penn. I heard they had their heads together for some time. Oh, to be a fly on that wall. Maybe Sherlock Holmes can get to the bottom of that!

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