Thursday, October 3, 2024
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Sexual Harassment? 95 Year Old Legend Rose Marie Says She Was Cut Out of 1954 Film Because She Turned Down Producer’s Advances

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Think sexual harassment in Hollywood is a new thing? In an extraordinary new documentary that should absolutely be nominated for an Oscar, legendary comedienne  and singer Rose Marie tells how she was cut out of a 1954 movie because she wouldn’t accept a proposition from the producer.

You know Rosie Marie from “The Dick van Dyke Show” and “Hollywood Squares.” But the feisty 95 year old has been a star since she was FIVE years old. In “Wait for Your Laugh”– which opens around New York this weekend and is marvelously narrated by “Squares” host  89 year old Peter Marshall — we get the whole story and it’s a doozy. Beautiful, talented Rose Marie — Sally Rogers on “The Dick van Dyke Show”– was mobbed up like crazy. She came to us thanks to mobster Busgy Siegel!

But that’s another story. “Wait for Your Laugh” is very detailed about how Las Vegas started and who was behind it. Great stuff.

Around 1950, Rosie Marie co-starred with Phil Silvers on Broadway in a musical called “Top Banana.”The show was a hit, Silvers won a Tony Award, but Rosie Marie was disappointed the critics didn’t mention her.  She says one fan was Marlon Brando, who reassured her she was great. “Eff ’em,” he told the actress.

When the show closed, Silvers invited her to be in the movie of the musical. Rose Marie accepted. “It wasn’t very good, period.”

More importantly, during her interview with Wise on camera she says  that one of the producers of the film told her during production: “I could show you a few positions if you’re interested.”

A married woman with a young daughter, Rosie Marie replied: “Oh that’s funny, you’re really funny.”

The producer responded: “I’m not kidding, this could be your picture.”

“And in front of everybody I go, You couldn’t get it up if the flag went by,” Rose Marie shot back. She continues: “Which didn’t set too well with him. All my numbers were cut. There isn’t a single number with me in it.”

Rose Marie’s daughter observes: “I think after my mother’s experience with Top Banana, it pushed her away from doing movies.”

No kidding.  Kudos to filmmaker Jason Wise. Hollywood has always been the same.

More later on this terrific doc…

Source: Kevin Spacey’s Career Now Being Handled by Former One Hit Wonder 90s Pop Star

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“House of Cards” is crumbling. Production has been suspended. And Kevin Spacey also a big studio movie directed by Ridley Scott scheduled for December release. So who’s representing him?

On the agent side, Spacey has the capable CAA. But on management, it’s a bit weird.

For the last couple of years Spacey has relied on a one former teen pop star from the 90s with no other clients as a his manager.

You may remember Evan and Jaron, twins who had a hit with “Crazy for the Girl” in the 1990s. After their debut album the twins slowly vanished.

But last year, Spacey started showing up at awards shows and events with a tall, handsome stranger. (That was no surprised as Spacey — who everyone in the entertainment press knew was gay– always traveled with chiseled young men.)

The stranger turned out to be Evan Lowenstein (who is married and has children). A smitten Spacey was now taking his advice from the ex pop idol. Spacey got rid of most of his support team in 2016 and put Lowenstein in place.

Lowenstein’s other business is a company called Stage It, an “online concert venue” for unknown, aspiring pop stars. In the four years since Stage It was introduced, none of its acts have had any chart success.

Meanwhile, I’m told that Spacey may really not have any recollection of the 1986 Anthony Rapp incident– and wasn’t prepared for the revelation.

“Kevin had no preparation when the Rapp interview hit,” a source says. “And he probably doesn’t remember it anyway. His drinking was so bad he had blackouts all the time.”

Spacey, I’m told, eventually stopped drinking when he realized how out of control he was. His dry period lasted 20 years. It’s unclear how he’s handling his drinking now.

 

Will Frank Underwood Be Killed Off? Netflix Suspends Production of “House of Cards,” Two Episodes Into Season Six

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Forget finishing up Season Six of “House of Cards.” Netflix has just announced they’ve suspended the show’s production after shooting two episodes.

Originally the company was going to finish Season Six and end the series because of Kevin Spacey’s  sudden scandal. But even that looks impossible now.

This could give the writers a chance to rewrite the season and the show’s ending. Even though Netflix claimed yesterday that they had already decided to end the show with Season Six, my sources say that’s not so.

“They were preparing for a seventh season,” says an insider. “All the contacts were going to be renegotiated.  The seventh season was when the cast was going to make big money.”

When Season Five ended, Spacey’s Frank Underwood had been replaced by his wife Claire (Robin Wright).  I’m told one option now is to kill Frank off and make the final season a who dun it. At this point, Wright could carry the show easily to the end without Spacey. Stay tuned…

Review: Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” is the Most Assured and Enjoyable Film of the Oscar Season

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With a dearth of award winning films so far this year, A24’s “Lady Bird” —  written and directed by actress Greta Gerwig —  has deservedly garnered raves so far on the festival circuit.  The film just had its first LA screening for Academy members including Dustin Hoffman, to a rapt reception.  This movie hits every heartwarming, funny, sentimental and uncomfortable note.  Set in Sacramento (Gerwig’s hometown) the movie tells the story of high school senior Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, who turns 18 during the telling of the story.

Is it a coincidence that Saorise Ronan’s first name includes the word soar? Ronan, 23, is transcendent as Lady Bird. Her love-hate relationships with her town, the Catholic school she attends, her friends and her family, mostly with her mother, wonderfully are played with pathos but never pity. Bad cop Mom Laurie Metcalf, and her struggling Dad, the good cop (Tracy Letts) and her older sullen adopted brother Miguel, (Jordan Rodriques) all weave into a narrative that you want to go on and on.

The film completely captures the fraught nature of the mother-daughter relationship, including the choices Lady Bird makes to go to school back east and her mother not wanting to let her child go.  The casting is just a wonder.  Besides the main cast, a stand out is Beanie Feldstein (Jonah Hill’s younger sister) playing the best friend, her heartbreak and honesty just leap out at you.  Lucas Hedges also delivers a lovely performance as her trying to be conflicted boyfriend.  Timothee Chalamet (star of this season’s “Call Me By Your Name”) is a droll hoot as a too-cool-for-school faux hipster.

“Lady Bird,” is in its own movie making lane, and does it all without missing anything.  Congrats to Greta Gerwig. She and her actors deserve all the kudos this quirky, deeply felt terrific film is getting.

PS Without a doubt, Oscar nominations for the film, Gerwig as director and writer, Ronan and Metcalf in lead and supporting actress, maybe Letts in supporting actor. Ronan and Metcalf may have already won. What a gem of a film– Roger Friedman

“House of Cards” Collapses with Kevin Spacey Scandal: This is the Last Season for Netflix Hit

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UPDATE: We called it. “House of Cards” is over. The final season is shooting now.

EARLIER: A house of cards is sort of made to finally cave in, collapse, crumble. And that’s what may happen to the Netflix hit.

With news of the Kevin Spacey scandal hitting today, Netflix will likely pull the plug at the end of the season currently filming– season six. Production is already underway on the season, with two episodes just about finished. Episode 3 of 13 shoots from November 6th – December 8th.

Already the show’s creator, Beau Willimon, says he finds the Spacey revelations “troubling.” Willimon, however, is no longer with the series.

It’s hard to imagine, however, that Netflix would want to go on to Season 7. So quick rewrites would have to be applied now to wrap things up.

Even if it ends this season, “House of Cards” will live forever on Netflix. But an ignominious end now would mean foregoing a huge ending marketing plan, a follow up movie and so on. The rest of the cast and crew would suffer from Spacey’s behavior.

 

Report: One of Harvey Weinstein’s Victims Was Daughter in Law to Be of Hollywood Royalty Walter Matthau

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The New York Times has added several new names to the list of women allegedly harassed or raped or otherwise allegedly preyed upon by Harvey Weinstein.

But they didn’t realize something when they reported that Ashley Matthau was one of the victims. Ms. Matthau is married to Charlie Matthau, son of the late Walter Matthau, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner and beloved member of Hollywood royalty, star of “The Odd Couple” and “The Fortune Cookie.” Charlie was named for his godfather, Charlie Chaplin.

At the time, in 2004, according to the New York Times, Ms. Matthau was engaged to Charlie Matthau and went by her maiden name, Anderson.

The reports says that Ms. Matthau retained John S. West, a  partner of Gloria Allred. This means that Allred and likely her daughter, Lisa Bloom, knew something of Weinstein’s history when these new stories launched months ago.

Weinstein hired Daniel Petrocelli, who’d represented the Goldmans in the OJ Simpson civil case. Ms. Matthau says Petrocelli told her he could prove she was promiscuous and that “We’ll drag you through the mud by your hair.” Petrocelli declined to comment to the Times. I don’t know why. I only know him through the Simpson case, but I’m incredibly disappointed. She accepted a settlement in the end.

Among the other Weinstein accusers is my old friend Annabella Sciorra. When I read this over the weekend, my heart sank. Not that all the women aren’t great people with true stories. But Annabella was/is someone I know, a popular New York presence, a talented actress. I remember exactly when she was in a Miramax movie, a charming comedy called “The Night We Never Met.”

This was long before “Shakespeare in Love” and a couple of years before “Pulp Fiction.” I have a distinct memory of the party following the screening, at which Harvey Weinstein walked around with his baby daughter on his shoulders. Everyone was all smiles. And now, it’s hard to describe the revulsion that has taken the place of that picture. I am sending Annabella all the good wishes I can.

 

At BAFTA Britannia Awards, Oscar Nominated Ava Duvernay Advises Crowd: “Until we are all safe, no one is safe”

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Oscar nominated director (Selma, 13) Ava DuVernay made clear her message to Hollywood Saturday night at the British Academy Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton. She spoke bluntly about what is currently going on about the abuse of power in Hollywood. This awards season will probably follow suit.  

Funny Brit comedian Jack Whitehall started the night with a lighter touch.  He noted, “the Brits in this room love England so much that they moved here.”  He continued about his life in LA, “I always forget that sobriety is something to be proud of.  A friend told me that she thought I should go to a sober camp. I asked what that was.  She answered, ‘a place to go to work out your issues.  Oh yeah, I replied, we have that in England; it’s called a pub.” He went on to talk about honoree Claire Foy who plays Queen Elizabeth in Netflix’s mega hit “The Crown. “I’ve read that the Queen herself has actually seen “The Crown.”  What’s more amazing that that?  The Queen has a Netflix account. “ 

John Lithgow then presented his co-star Claire Foy with the British Artist of the Year. Claire quipped, “The problem is that I really am British, so I just want to say this is completely ridiculous and run off the stage. “  Kate Mara then presented her “Martian” co-star Matt Damon with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.  Matt appeared on tape as he had to go back to Boston to tend to his gravely ill father.  Kevin Spacey took his turn giving the Brittania Award for Excellence in Television, presented by Swarovski, to his long time friendvDick Van Dyke.  “Dick can tell a story and make us laugh with no dialogue at all. The 158 episodes of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show,’ will run forever,” Kevin noted.  Dick came up and immediately melted the crowd’s collective heart. Commenting on his most famous British accent, that of his character Bert the street sweeper in “Mary Poppins,” Dick offered a mea culpa. “After 60 years of bad jokes I am off the hook.  I am sorry for that excoriating Cockney accent. But you know at the time it as an all-British crew and they all said nothing.  I blame Julie Andrews as much as anyone.” He continued as the audience cracked up, “I had one hour with a voice coach at my house, and it was an Irishman named Pat Mahoney.” Director  “Baby Driver’s” Edgar Wright then gave the Charlie Chaplin Brittania Award for Excellence in Comedy to his longtime pal Aziz Ansari.  Aziz joked that being up after Dick Van Dyke was not easy. “Hey thank you Bafta for making me follow the most charming adorable shit I’ve ever seen.” 

Aziz told the crowd that he was actually over the pond and had to fly back to his hometown to accept this award. “I was in London and had to fly back to LA to accept a fucking British award, that is not cool.”

The most meaningful speech of the night though belonged to the next honoree, filmmaker Ava Duvernay, who received from Disney boss Alan Horn the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing.   She had much to say about the power that directors in Hollywood yield.“ I regard the bond between a director and an actor as sacred because if we do it right, we’re in a union, a creative marriage, creating life together.  So to imagine what’s been in the news this week, the harmful manipulation and harassment and emotional violence towards actors in my view is sinful. Sinful because I’ve held the innermost feelings of an actor in my hand. Actors give more of themselves than anyone else in the process of telling stories on film. So how dare someone enter into that sacred space with an aim to do harm? It’s an abuse of a very singular kind. It should be entirely unacceptable in our industry. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We don’t have time to work on these dark behaviors, these ‘isms’ one by one…we should be outraged by all of it, all of the time. Until we are all safe, no one is safe. 

 

Kenneth Branagh then ended the night with his Albert R. Broccoli Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Entertainment, which was given to him by his “Dunkirk” director Christopher Nolan. the ceremony was presented by American Airlines and Jaguar Land Rover.

 

Kevin Spacey’s Strange Charitable Foundation: His On Screen Lover from “House of Cards” on Board of Directors

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A few years ago, Kevin Spacey started a charitable foundation. As with most celebrities, that was probably a mistake. The financial filings are a little strange.

Let’s start with the board of directors. The latest filing shows Kevin, his accountant, and actor Nathan Darrow. “House of Cards” fans will recognize Darrow’s name. He played Spacey’s secret service agent, Edward Meechum, lover of both Spacey’s Frank Underwood and his wife Claire (Robin Wright) for three seasons until he was killed off.

As far as I can tell, Darrow has no experience with running charities. He has since appeared on “Billions” and a few other shows.

In 2015, the fourth director of the Kevin Spacey Foundation was Todd Rosen, who was paid $114,583 to be fundraising director. Rosen is now the managing director of the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. But it’s unclear what funds Rosen raised. According to the Form 990, the one event sponsored by the charity ended up in the red. There is no listing of donors to the charity.

The expenses of the Kevin Spacey Foundation are very non specific. In 2015, they wired $615,388 to Europe and Iceland for “general support,” whatever that is. Pace University received $50,000.

The foundation’s mission statement is “establishing and supporting programs that discover, train, mentor and fund emerging artists…”

Flashback: Kevin Spacey’s Family Secrets Included a Neo-Nazi Father, Porn and Sexual Molestation

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Flashback to April 28, 2004: I wrote this column about Kevin Spacey’s tortured family background. Every single press person knew Spacey was also gay back in 2004, but it was open secret. Spacey was also just creepy, which didn’t make things any easier.

Here’s the 13 year old column:

Years ago I was told by a confidant of two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey that his father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, had been a member of the American Nazi party.

“He had Nazi memorabilia everywhere, and was completely devoted to the party,” said the source.

Spacey, the source said, had made this shocking revelation during his early years on Broadway when he appeared in “Lost in Yonkers.”

It was fascinating because close-mouthed, secretive Spacey — whose premiere party for “American Beauty” was composed of dozens of angular young men in dark, expensive suits — never discussed his father or his personal life in interviews.

Now my old friend, journalist Sharon Churcher, has published an interview with Spacey’s older brother Randy Fowler about their father in the British newspaper the Mail on Sunday.

I have to give her credit for handling the story with sensitivity, because it is quite awful and a definite betrayal of family secrets. But there is also a shocking bit buried at the end: Spacey’s mother, Kathleen, whom he regularly took to the Oscars and premieres as his “date,” apparently died last year. Spacey has never spoken a word about this monumental event.

Indeed, the last time Kathleen Fowler was in public, as far as I know, was at the premiere of “The Shipping News” in December 2001 at the Museum of Natural History. She was wearing a large wig, glasses and a bulky sweater.

When I spoke to her, Spacey freaked out. He refused to give any interviews with any press and carried on in a very unpleasant way.

According to Randy’s interview, his mother died in March 2003. There is nary a mention of it on the Internet, either, with the exception of a short obituary on Variety’s Web site that was put up three weeks after her death.

In that write-up, Spacey’s father is said to have passed away in 1993. According to Randy’s interview, Thomas Fowler died on Christmas Eve, 1992.

Of course the big scandal in London concerning Spacey’s “mugging” in a park two weeks ago no doubt inspired all parties to this commerce. But what a story it turned out to be.

Randy, shockingly, tells Churcher that he was regularly raped by his own father, whom he also recalls as a pornographer. It sounds like living torture from the descriptions.

Randy insists, however, that his father never touched Spacey, who nevertheless shut down emotionally. When he became an actor, Spacey took his mother’s maiden name and dropped all connections to his father. You can see why.

According to Randy, Thomas Fowler — or Geoff, as he calls him — was a Holocaust denier who railed against Jews at the dinner table and never held a full-time job. He collected Nazi memorabilia, was a full-time member of the American Nazi Party, and even made Randy quit Cub Scouts because the troop leader was Jewish.

“He began to abuse a teenage girl who was a relative,” Churcher writes of Thomas Fowler.

There is also a graphic description of the first time Thomas Fowler raped his eldest son. Spacey and Randy nicknamed their father The Creature.

I’ve no doubt money was exchanged between the Daily Mail and Randy. He and his wife Trish live in Boise, Idaho, where he is a Rod Stewart impersonator. I guess he decided to finally trade off his family misery while Spacey is in London getting ready to run the Old Vic theatre.

When I called the Fowlers for comment the other day, Randy’s wife said, “We have no comment.” Randy told me last night he’s precluded in his deal with Churcher from speaking any further until next week. And of course he’s writing a book.

How all this will affect Spacey’s acting career is hard to say. He has no need to worry about his status in Hollywood. After all, he has two Oscars and a Tony award. His next film is the Bobby Darin story, which doesn’t seem promising — but you never know.

Of course, Spacey was never much of a leading man; his real business is as an outstanding character actor. In a way, these revelations may actually be a relief to him. The secrets are all out at last.

Kevin Spacey Comes Out as Gay, But His Apology to Anthony Rapp Makes Everything Worse

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Overnight, Kevin Spacey issued a statement about Anthony Rapp’s recollection of being molested by the Oscar winner at age 14. Spacey also came out as gay– probably the worst kept secret in the history of Hollywood. But now Spacey has a bigger problem as his critics say he’s equating the attack with being gay. The internet is going crazy.

First, Spacey’s statement:

 

I’m filing this at 7am. Things are going to get worse very quickly this morning, I assure you. Twitter and Facebook are blazing with denouncements of Spacey not because he’s gay but because he used his announcement as a shield against Rapp’s story.

Meanwhile, Rapp has issued his own statement on Twitter, saying the BuzzFeed story contains everything he has to say.