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Here’s a name we’re going to get used to, fast: Travis Garland.
The 20 year old singer songwriter is about to get a big push now that’s he’s split from his group NLT.
Garland is now being managed, sources say, by Joe Simpson–father of Jessica and Ashlee. And also co-managed or co-something by gossip blogger and wannabe record mogul Perez Hilton.
The result of all this is that Travis is said to be appearing on “American Idol” possibly on May 18th. Is this really happening? I think so. Why not? Justin Bieber is a pop star, so anything can happen. Plus, Garland seems like he might actually be talented. Plus. Joe Simpson is an interesting guy. He’s made a lot of money with Jessica and Ashlee. When I ran into him in Washington, he was wearing a platinum and diamond men’s bracelet, cufflinks, watch, the whole thing. Tasteful bling. He’s not fooling around.
Joe has been telling people that Travis is the next Justin Timberlake. Again, why not? Justin isn’t doing anything really, and his fanbase is aging. Bieber isn’t going to replace him. So, enter Travis Garland. Let the starmaking machinery begin!
Oliver Stone is a busy man. On Friday, May 14th, he’ll debut “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps” at the Cannes Film Festival.
But he won’t be sticking around Cannes for long.
Stone will take his documentary about South American dictators, called “South of the Border,” to Madrid on May 18th for its worldwide premiere.
Ten days later he’ll show “South of the Border” in Caracas, Venezuela, to film buff and evil dictator Hugo Chavez and other officials at a premiere in that country.
From there, Stone will be all over South America with the film, described as a “political road movie.” The tour includes the “first-ever film premiere” in Cochabamba, Colombia. (A red carpet always seems more official with machine guns!)
“South of the Border” features “intimate conversations” according to a press release with Chávez, Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Néstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba).
So far, there are premieres set for each of these countries except for Cuba. But that’s the one–should it occur, and why not?–that would be the hot ticket.
The presidents of these countries will no doubt have controversial, anti-American things to say, many of which will then be ascribed to Stone himself. But I want to hear every word these guys have on their minds. “South of the Border” should be powerful and memorable, to say the least!
Helen Wagner passed away on Saturday at age 91. As Nancy Hughes, she uttered the first words on “As the World Turns” in April 1956. Her last episode aired just last month, marking the return of Oscar nominee Julianne Moore as her granddaughter.
It’s ironic, because “World Turns” only has about fifty episodes or fewer left to tape. It was canceled last year by CBS and will end its 54 year run on September 17th.
Somehow, I think, Wagner didn’t want to give CBS and Procter & Gamble the satisfaction of sticking around. Now they will be forced to make almost the end of the run a tribute to her.
Wagner’s character, Nancy Hughes, started out as a meddling mother-in-law and sister-in-law. But over the years, she mellowed and become a matriarch to generations of crazy stories and a variety of characters. Nancy, however, never lost her edge. Wagner, according to people I’ve spoken to over the years, had one, too. That’s probably why she lasted so long. She’s in the Guinness Book of Records for playing the same character the longest on television.
With Wagner’s passing, the era of soaps and in particular P&G’s role in them, is coming to a close. Just recently, Frances Reid of “Days of Our Lives” passed away, as did James Mitchell of “All My Children.” The few remaining soaps rarely feature people with white hair. Older people are not welcome as they once were on daytime. It’s one of the mistakes that’s cost the business of daytime dramas its future.
During the show’s heyday, from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, Wagner played some juicy stuff, too. She was the main actor in scenes with a very green Lauryn Hill, believe it or not. It might be nice to hear from the Fugees singer about her pre-fame era.
Let’s hope that CBS gives Helen Wagner a proper send off. They’ve canceled the show; there’s nothing to lose. And everything to gain.
One more thing: Julianne Moore did tell me recently that on the day she made her appearance, Wagner was still giving her direction about where to sit, and how not to cast a shadow or block the elder actress. You have to love it. We should all be that way at 91! Nancy Hughes, rest in peace.
Michael Jackson recorded a whole new album of material in the fall of 2007. The information about the album was only recently revealed by sources close to the late pop star.
Readers of my old column will recall that I reported on November 19, 2007 that Jackson spent three months with the Cascio family in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey after decamping from a Northern Virginia home he’d been renting courtesy of then manager Raymone Bain.
Jackson, his kids, nanny and tutor landed on the Cascio doorstep at the end of the summer of 2007 and stayed until November 7th. During that time Michael was not idle, as some thought. He recorded at least a dozen tracks with Eddie Cascio, who is also known as Angel.
I’m told that Jackson’s manager and adviser, Frank DiLeo, knew that Jackson was working on a new album. DiLeo and the Cascios all declined to comment for this article.
The song titles that I’m aware of include: “Water,” a song Michael actually sang a little bit of in the movie, “This is It” (Jackson fans have commented on this on fan blogs), plus “Breaking News,” and “Burn Tonight.”
According to one source who’s heard the material, Michael’s vocals are “perfect.”
The question now, of course, is what happens next. The Jackson estate just signed a record deal with Sony Music that could be worth $200 million, but it includes re-releases of previously recorded music, live albums, and an album of unreleased songs that were in the Sony vaults or recorded during Jackson’s contracted time with the label.
That deal does not include newly discovered material. This could mean that other record companies could bid for the collection of songs.
Eddie Cascio, who’s 28, is the second oldest son of Dominick (Sr.) and Connie Cascio, who were friends of Jackson sincethe 1990s, Dominick Cascio Sr. met Jackson in 1984-85 when he was the general manager at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York City. Jackson recognized the Cascios immediately as a “normal” family, and quickly befriended them. Since Jackson’s death, the Cascios have been frequent visitors at Katherine Jackson’s home in Encino, California.
Over the years, Jackson reciprocated the Cascios’ hospitality with enormous generosity. Although the Cascios were not named in Jackson’s will, the song tracks should prove to be multi-million dollar bonanza—and a lasting gift to people whom he really considered family.
The Cascio’s were so close to Jackson that a message from them, written by Eddie, was included in the booklet distributed at Jackson’s Staples Center memorial service in July 2009. Here’s what it said:
“Doo Doo, It is only once in a lifetime where you meet a true Angel sent
from the Heavens above. I count my blessings each day for I have experienced Heaven on
Earth. The wisdom, guidance, and knowledge will always be remembered and put into
action. I thank you for the memories, for they will remain in my heart forever and ever.
Our friendship will always be treasured. I write on behalf of my family.
We promise to always remain ‘The First Family of Love’.
From the Bottom of our Hearts
WE THANK YOU and will love you FOREVER and ALWAYS.
ANGEL ‘Dr.Heat’ Cascio and the Cascio Family”
Jay Leno‘s comedy routine at last night White House Correspondents dinner was indeed a bomb. You can see it all over the internet, but there was nothing like hearing the silence in the ballroom at the Washington Hilton. Leno was just really off his usual rhythm.
Meantime, President Obama had all the right stuff. He even went after Leno. And that was the problem. Obama’s material–largely written and shaped by Jon Favreau (the speechwriter not the actor/director) and David Axelrod-– was so good and comprehensive that it left Leno with no place to go. You could sense that he sort of it knew it, too. He was not happy when he reached the podium.
Anyway, Leno will be forgiven. (Except for Conan, but that’s another story.)
Meanwhile, the WHCA dinner was notable for its flood of celebs. As one insider said, during the Bush administration you had to beg people to come. Last night, and all weekend, we were tripping over bold face names.
The big “get” at Jason Binn‘s after party for Niche Media and Microsoft Bing, I thought, was actor Ewan MacGregor. Very cool. The party was at the Mayflower Hotel, where disco music pounded from one end. The place was filled with attractive young people who read Jason’s “Capitol File” magazine. He also managed to land both Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews, plus Ashley Judd, Kim Kardashian, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Ben Silverman, Chris Tucker, and so on. Mike Zimet did a bang up job with security, considering so many official Washington types showed up–many bedecked in military awards…This was the the heavy DC crowd…
Meantime, Vanity Fair set up shop at the French Embassy on spectacular Kalorama Road, a sort of astounding mansion built in the early 1900s and set on a little hill. It was quite magnificent. There was no sign of Leno or Obama, but plenty of A listers to keep the night rolling well past 2am.
Just in the grand marble foyer, we saw Katie Couric sitting on a cushioned bench, her shoeless legs extended and being massage by…Morgan Freeman.
Jimmy Fallon, hanging out a few feet (get it?) away, with producer wife Nancy Juvonen, exclaimed, “That’s Morgan Freeman!” He was filling in for the President. “I don’t think he has any idea who I am,” Jimmy said sheepishly.
Freeman did, in fact. And he overheard us discussing a recent brilliant Fallon show–which will go out for Emmy consideration–in which Jimmy did charades with Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, and Tina Fey. It was a sublime, Jack Paar-like effort. Fallon’s show is outstanding.
But back to Morgan Freeman: Katie cooed and wiggled her toes. It had been a long night of standing.
And then, as we left the Fallons and Katie and Morgan and headed inside, they all came whirling around:
Michael Douglas, Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, likely Tony Award nominee Scarlett Johansson, Dee Dee Myers and Todd Purdum, the Oscar gang from ’10–Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, Jeremy Renner, Gaby Sidibe from “Precious,” — as well as Mariska Hargitay–who had Tim Daly and Steven Weber–the Wings brothers–fighting for her attention (husband Peter Hermann was home in New York); George Stephanopolous and Ali Wentworth (she is very funny even in person), my buddy Joy Behar and her great producer Todd Polkes, plus Julianna Margulies, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba and Cash Warren, Brad Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, Cynthia Nixon and ChristineMarinoni, Kristen Davis, Jeremy Renner, the Jonas Brothers, Jessica Simpson and manager dad Joe; Chelsea Handler, Senator Chris Dodd, and so on…
I mean, it was very hard to get through this gang quickly. Everyone had a good story. Of course, it was also well after midnight…
Later the Vanity Fair publicist asked me, “So what did you think? Was it all right?”
I ean, like, yeah. And in typical VF style, they featured micro mini hamburgers and tater tots among the gourmet food. You gotta love it…
Wait, more!Christiane Amanpour, John and Elaine Mellencamp (John using a gold knobbed walking stick to very classy effect), T Bone Burnett and Callie Khouri (“Thelma and Louise”), Paris Match’s Dany Jucaud with New York florist to the stars Olivier Guigni, and of course the hosts–French Ambassador Pierre Vimont and his wife, our old friend from the French Embassy in New York, the elegant Catherine Verret.
Keep reading this week as I will sprinkle in a few bon mots from this eclectic, electric crowd…Also thanks to WireImage. They took my picture with the Ambassador. I think this was just as I was threatening to move in!
And PS: everyone loves Vanity Fair publisher Ed Menicheschi. Not that Graydon Carter isn’t a standout at all events, but Mr. Mensicheschi was getting a lot of attention on one of the grand outside staircases from admiring guests…He’s kept VF awash in ads during the worst period in magazine publishing history..
Thanks to everyone who wrote in on a couple of Broadway subjects.
There was talk of Sarah Jessica Parker. She was indeed the final Rosemary of the last production of “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” on Broadway. She succeeded Megan Mullaly, and starred opposite Matthew Broderick. Following the show’s run, SJP did really succeed in business, with “Sex and the City” and fashion and perfume and lots of endorsements….
But readers were correct about Michele Lee not originating the role of Rosemary on Broadway in the 60s. The original actress was Bonnie Scott. She was replaced by Michele, who of course then went on to star in the film version of “Succeed” with Robert Morse, did loads of other movies, starred in “Seesaw” on Broadway, and had a 14 year run in “Knots Landing” on CBS. Bonnie Scott did no more Broadway, but made a few appearances on 60s TV shows like “That Girl” and then must have retired…
Maybe Bonnie Scott will turn up in Marlo Thomas‘s much anticipated autobiography coming soon to stores. You never know…
Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum. I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part.
I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.
I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else. It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States.
This affair was roused from its slumbers of over three decades by a documentary film-maker who gathered evidence from persons involved at the time. I took no part in that project, either directly or indirectly. The resulting documentary not only highlighted the fact that I left the United States because I had been treated unjustly; it also drew the ire of the Los Angeles authorities, who felt that they had been attacked and decided to request my extradition from Switzerland, a country I have been visiting regularly for over 30 years without let or hindrance.
I can now remain silent no longer! I can remain silent no longer because the American authorities have just decided, in defiance of all the arguments and depositions submitted by third parties, not to agree to sentence me in absentia even though the same Court of Appeal recommended the contrary.
I can remain silent no longer because the California court has dismissed the victim’s numerous requests that proceedings against me be dropped, once and for all, to spare her from further harassment every time this affair is raised once more.
I can remain silent no longer because there has just been a new development of immense significance.
On February 26 last, Roger Gunson, the deputy district attorney in charge of the case in 1977, now retired, testified under oath before Judge Mary Lou Villar in the presence of David Walgren, the present deputy district attorney in charge of the case, who was at liberty to contradict and question him, that on September 16, 1977, Judge Rittenband stated to all the parties concerned that my term of imprisonment in Chino constituted the totality of the sentence I would have to serve.
I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie. In the same statement, retired deputy district attorney Roger Gunson added that it was false to claim, as the present district attorney’s office does in their request for my extradition, that the time I spent in Chino was for the purpose of a diagnostic study.
The said request asserts that I fled in order to escape sentencing by the U.S. judicial authorities, but under the plea-bargaining process I had acknowledged the facts and returned to the United States in order to serve my sentence. All that remained was for the court to confirm this agreement, but the judge decided to repudiate it in order to gain himself some publicity at my expense. I can remain silent no longer because for over 30 years my lawyers have never ceased to insist that I was betrayed by the judge, that the judge perjured himself, and that I served my sentence. Today it is the deputy district attorney who handled the case in the 1970s, a man of irreproachable reputation, who has confirmed all my statements under oath, and this has shed a whole new light on the matter.
I can remain silent no longer because the same causes are now producing the same effects. The new District Attorney, who is handling this case and has requested my extradition, is himself campaigning for election and needs media publicity!
I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago.
I can remain silent no longer because I have been placed under house arrest in Gstaad and bailed in very large sum of money which I have managed to raise only by mortgaging the apartment that has been my home for over 30 years, and because I am far from my family and unable to work. Such are the facts I wished to put before you in the hope that Switzerland will recognize that there are no grounds for extradition, and that I shall be able to find peace, be reunited with my family, and live in freedom in my native land. Roman Polanski
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’…
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
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/3953n9cHer 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.
Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum. I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part.
