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Valerie Plame Spy Movie with Sean Penn is “Fair Game”

Roger Friedman
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10
Valerie Plame Spy Movie with Sean Penn is “Fair Game”

Valerie Plame’s exposure by the Bush Administration premiered as a big Hollwood movie today in Cannes. The press applauded Doug Liman’s thriller “Fair Game” and rightly so. It’s a good movie. But the filmmakers are clearly scared of the press. Star Sean Penn has elected to stay away fron Cannes altogether. And the press has been excluded from any contact with Valerie Plame.

Still Naomi Watts turns in a powerful performance as the blonde bombshell spy, the kind of work that Jane Fonda or Julia Roberts would have done in their prime. She’ll be in the Oscar mix, certainly. Her career is notched up significantly.

Will audiences flock to this story? The truth is hard to take, especially about Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. And they may not want to receive it from Sean Penn, who gets to vent and be angry as Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, at all the perceived bad guys (including press). Penn as Wilson may be called out for being particularly abusive to a female reporter. It seems like a set up, frankly.

“Fair Game” is going to need a lot of enthusiasm from that very press if it’s going to make any money. But it’s a solid film that deserves an audience.

Jagger’s Edge Gets Sharper with Age

Roger Friedman
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3
Jagger’s Edge Gets Sharper with Age

Is it possible? The Rolling Stones have shut down a whole side street in Cannes. The lines outside the Palais Stephanie hotel movie theater are deep, long and wide.

Is it 1972? No, it’s 2010. The Stones are re-releasing their seminal album, “Exile on Main Street” this week, remastered and with six new old tracks.

But there’s also a one hour movie, “Stones in Exile” fashioned from unseen footage, and clips from two little known films: the cultish “Cocksucker Blues” and the long ago vanished “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.”

This is what is driving Cannes crazy a week after the film festival has opened.

“Stones in Exile,” directed by Stephen Kijak, is a one hour romp into decadence and genius. As much as drugs are such a part of the Rolling Stones lore, you also see how organized and ambitious they were; they were out to top their previous success with “Sticky Fingers” and make a classic recording.

Kijak is good at telling the “Exile” story. But of course there’s a hitch: irrelevant interviews with Benicio del Toro, Sheryl Crowe, will.I.am, etc. Who cares? They would have been better off talking to Clapton, McCartney, and other peers.

But in the end “Stones in Exile” a most welcome chronicle of a lost world, when rock musicians weren’t just packaged in plastic and shipped soulessly to customers. Even if it sometimes seems like an hour long commercial, it still gives a sense of the Stones’ authenticity.

How Madonna Got One Million Bucks Out of AmFAR

Roger Friedman
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8
How Madonna Got One Million Bucks Out of AmFAR

AmFAR: that’s the celebrity studded fundraising group for AIDS research. When Dr. Mathilde Krim started it over 20 years ago. AmFAR was alone and a pioneer in bringing the plight of AIDS and HIV to the world.

Two years ago Madonna made an appearance here in Cannes for AmFar’s annual “Cinema Against AIDS’ dinner. Madonna was in town to promote her self-important Africa documentary. She’d never been to Cinema Against AIDS before. Sharon Stone, as usual, was the emcee and auctioneer. Madonna–who has not donated money to AmFAR at least through her charitable Ray of Light foundation–auctioned off a couple of handbags she owned, a signed guitar, and some miscellaneous items from the stage, even some used tissues.

For her time, and the publicity, this column has now learned that Madonna received an in-kind donation to her then brand new Raising Malawi charity, of $1 million.

Raising Malawi was started in 2007 as an arm of the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles. The group is busy inculcating Malawian children with Kabbalah curriculum. Says one former Kabbalah Center member: “They’re very good at going into poor countries and getting a foothold.”

Raising Malawi had so much trouble getting a 501 c 3 designation that in early 2008, Gucci had to start its own foundation to accept money for it at a fundraiser. Everything about Raising Malawi is tied to the Kabbalah Center and Kabbalah’s real estate arm in Los Angeles.

Never before Madonna picked up that million dollar check had AmFAR given such a large donation to any organization. In 2008, in fact, the second largest amount given to one entity was a total of about $350,000 to the University of New South Wales in New Zealand. The average amount AmFAR hands out is $10,000 with a few exceptions.

In 2007-2008, AmFAR did wind up giving grants totalling $6.7 million according to the same federal tax filing that lists the million dollar contribution to Raising Malawi. But they also list nearly the same amount of money in salaries, wages and associated fees. Their top staff fo six people makes a total of over $1 million a year. Working for AmFAR isn’t a bad career. The two top execs earn about $300,000 apiece.

By contrast: the Elton John AIDS Foundation also gave grants of about $6.7 million in 2008. They list the expense of staff all-in at  just about $400,000 approximately.

In 2008, the Elton John AIDS Foundation also sent AmFAR a check for over $350,000.

One of AmFAR’s execs, Kevin Frost, emailed me: ” Next to Elizabeth Taylor and Sharon Stone, I am hard pressed to think of a celebrity that has done more to help further our cause.” He added that the event Madonna attended raised $10 million, although that’s still anecdotal. Actual reported figures won’t be available until at least the end of this year. He says the board approved the award.

Frost did not specify any more about how Madonna ranks with Stone and Taylor. It’s not an entirely accurate depiction. Stone has worked tirelessly for AmFAR for over a decade, taking over when Taylor went into retirement.

But in the last couple of years Stone’s role has been severely diminished. This year she told me (in front of witnesses) that she had not been asked to help out in Cannes, and so took a film role. (The AmFAR people have angrily disputed this story.)

There’s no doubt that AmFAR raises money for AIDS reseach and does many good things. But the Madonna pay off is an eye raiser. AmFAR, it could be argued, might have used the money elsewhere or in many different places. Frost says the group works with other Malawi aid organizations. But none have ever received anything close to a million dollars.

Ryan Gosling Made New Film Without a Net, Literally

Roger Friedman
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3
Ryan Gosling Made New Film Without a Net, Literally

The Weinstein Company didn’t make any announcements last night about getting back the Miramax name or library. The deal is still being hashed out by the lawyers.

But Harvey Weinstein made a bigger statement when “Blue Valentine,” the Derek Cianfrance drama Harvey bought at Sundance, premiered in the Directors Fortnight.

As I wrote in January, “Blue Valentine” is a brilliant dissection of a young married couple’s history and romance. Stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams do exceptional work. They will be nominated for Oscars and heaped with praise. Cianfrance has taken a conventional saga of love and loss and reinvented it. “Blue Valentine” is just spectacular.

It was so interesting to see the film five months later. Cianfrance has done some trimming; eight minutes are now gone. The result is that Williams’s Cindy is more sympathetic, and the roles are now more balanced. Gosling’s Dean is still a happy go lucky but often inarticulate lover. His pursuit of Cindy seems noble and courtly. But now Cindy’s story has been fleshed out, and her motivations are explained. Williams takes a giant leap forward in her career.

It was also interesting to watch the post-screening eruption. All the magazines now want Gosling and Williams for covers. They are going to be hot this winter, as “Blue Valentine” sails through the awards season.

By the way, there’s an amazing scene that Cianfrance shot on the Manhattan Bridge in New York. He sent the pair up there but without scripts. Williams knew something about her character and had to tell Gosling. Gosling was only told not to come down off the bridge until he’d gotten the secret out of her character. Williams’s Cindy couldn’t bring herself to spit it out, so Gosling starts climbing over the side of the bridge. There’s no stunt double or net. Ryan told me at Sundance, “Jamie Patricof [the producer] was freaking out. There goes one of my stars!”

But it’s that kind of daring that makes “Blue Valentine” exciting and immediate. You fgel all the way through that there’s no net, and anything can happen to these people. And it does.

NBCs New Shows Look Frighteningly Bad and Possibly Racist

Roger Friedman
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5

You can see a bunch of clips from NBC’s fall line up at www.defamer.com. I can’t bear to transfer the clips over here.

Here’s the bottom line: they look just beyond awful. The network cancelled “Law & Order,” and put thousands of New Yorkers out of work, for this tripe.

For one thing, the shows feature almost exclusively young, attractive white people. Multi-cultural is obviously not a term that’s come into play in Burbank.

Second, “Outsourced,” about a white guy who goes to India, looks pretty damned racist. “Northern Exposure” it’s not. And India is really Burbank. I felt so sorry for the Indian American actors in the clip. It’s all jokes at their expense.

“Friends with Benefits” and “Perfect Couples” should be cancelled now. Why wait? Just more thirtysomething white people, whining, playing Charades, drinking white wine in the suburbs. Why didn’t they just call it “White Whine”? Black people should just not watch NBC. I guess they don’t anyway, unelss it’s to see Tracey Morgan.

Only “Harry’s Law,” with Kathy Bates, has potential. Of course, it’s from David E. Kelly. Ben Chaplin is in the trailer, which is a good sign. And Bates gets to use the word “asshole.” Ooh. Very cutting edge. I think she’s playing Denny Crane from “Boston Legal.” But ok, why not?

Why do viewers prefer HBO and Showtime, F/X, TNT, etc? Because some actual thought goes into the creation of their shows. NBC has totally jettisoned the 10pm Thursday slot that once belonged to “ER,” “Hill Street Blues” and “LA Law” to some crappy “Sex and the City” meets “Love, American Style.”

And then there’s the whole deal with Jerry Seinfeld. “The Marriage Ref,” which I liked and I know that actually viewers liked, may not return if at all until sometime in 2011. I know that Seinfeld and co. expected to come back in the fall, like a real show, since they saved NBC after “The Jay Leno Show” got pulled.

The network needed 10pm programming, and Jerry came through with A list guests like Madonna, Larry David, and Gwyneth Paltrow. If I were Jerry, I’d be pissed. And you know what? Those “Marriage Ref” shows are going to wind up being video classics one day. I hope Jerry owns them and not NBC. Those clips of the stars are going to be valuable.

Here in Cannes it’s funny to read all these “breaking news” alerts from the network schedule announcements like they mean something. They mean nothing. Almost all the shows look just pathetic; most of them will be cancelled soon after their second or third episode. Real creativity is dead at the networks. Why would anyone watch this crap when Edie Falco is so sublime in “Nurse Jackie,” Jason Schwarzman and Ted Danson make “Bored to Death” a treat, and Debra Winger is coming to “In Treatment”?

The answer is: they won’t.

Gordon Gekko’s Blue Star Jets: Art Imitates Life

Roger Friedman
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0

Talk about a product plug. Remember Blue Star Jets from the original “Wall Street”?

In the new “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox tells Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko he made fortune with the company. There is much discussion of the fabled private airline.

It turns out there is real Blue Star Jets, a company named for and inspired by the fictitious firm. You can read about them and owner Todd Rome at www.bluestarjets.com.

Who made the connection? It was a chance meeting in 2009 at the Waverly Inn, where Blue Star publicist Norah Lawlor ran into director Oliver Stone. He was just about to start prepping “WS2.” Lawlor told him there was now a real company named for the original. Stone went wild. The result was not only the Blue Star story resurrected in the film, but the real Blue Star also flew Stone and others from the film as needed.

Art imitates life, and we always love that!

Image: PRphotos.com

Lindsay Lohan Hits Cannes (Duck!)

Roger Friedman
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5

Around 8pm on Monday night, when no one was looking, even the paparazzi were out of it: famed international tabloid gossip princess Lindsay Lohan descended on the Hotel Martinez in Cannes. She had a posse, a bunch of young people who didn’t know it but looked like they were imitating “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Lohan is on her way to the World Music Awards in Monaco, where she’s a favorite annual guest. A few years ago she did me a big favor when the WMA’s were in London. She was my stringer while Michael Jackson was there for his presentation. Lindsay did a great job, too!

Where will La Lohan land next? And will someone on the Croisette give her a job? She’s hard to recognize, sporting jet black dyed hair. I miss the red Lindsay.

Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins Together Again

Roger Friedman
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2

Morgan Freeman must not have been satisfied to co-star with one heavyweight, Jack Nicholson, in a box office hit.

Seeing that “The Bucket List” attracted droves of audiences, Freeman now will make a film with Sir Anthony Hopkins. Details are still being worked out.

The pair did appear together years ago in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” which was more of an ensemble piece. This time, it’s a star vehicle. Maybe they’ll call it “Driving Hannibal Lecter.” Just kidding! But I am told this is a comedy, and a not a brooding drama, a “Dead Poets Society” but featuring college professors… 

Stay tuned for more details…

Image: PRphotos.com

Ellen, Barkin’ Up Wrong Tree in “Sh!t Year”

Roger Friedman
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2

Ellen Barkin either lost a bet or she’s being blackmailed. Either way, her presence in “Shit Year” at the Cannes Directors Fortnight is puzzling.

Cam Archer’s movie isn’t really even a movie. It’s a self indulgent raft ride into outer space, in which improvisation and meaningless yabbering take the place of movie making. I actually started to think during the interminable hour spent in the theater that “Cam Archer” might be a pseudonym for “Yoko Ono.” Looking at a fly would have been more fun.

Barkin is rockin’ the body of a teenager. She’s also smart as a whip. She can be proud of films like “Sea of Love” and “Diner.” She took some time off to raise kids and be Mrs. Ronald Perelman. Her choices now that she’s returning to acting have to be wiser.

In “Shit Year” –which doesn’t have a linear plot or a cinematographer–Barkin (I think) has an ill fated affair with a young from the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. It doesn’t work out so she retires (she plays an actress) to the country, where she walks around in overcoats and army boots. She has nonsensical conversations with a neighbor (Melora Walters) until the audience gets up leaves in frustration. Luke Grimes, who annoyingly almost killed the TV show “Brothers & Sisters”–plays the mannequin. Archer/Ono shoots beautiful Barkin in harsh light.

Where is that Neuralyzer from “Men in Black” when you need it?

Oh yeah, PS: the title. Are they kidding?

Image: PRphotos.com

Salma Hayek Wants “Ugly Betty” Broadway Musical

Roger Friedman
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2

I am happy to report that Oscar nominee Salma Hayek (“Frida”) is ready for her return to film.

Hayek has been mostly AWOL since having baby Valentina two years ago with husband Francois Pinault.

But she’s been back in force here at Cannes as Pinault–handsome. blonde, blue eyed– has been underwriting  few events as the head of Gucci (and just a few other famous brands). Gucci sponsored Vanity Fair’s Saturday night soiree at the Hotel du Cap’s splendiferous Eden Roc restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean.

Pinault, in fact, told me over the weekend that he will continue the Alexander McQueen fashion line as a tribute to the late designer.

But it’s Hayek who people want to know about. In fact, there was such a crush on the red carpet one night that Hayek was pushed up against me. The top of this reporter’s hand was slashed by accident by Hayek’s bracelet. There was some blood and now a long scab.

“You should tattoo Salma’s name over the scar,” Pinault joked. Well, Cannes is war, we all know that!

As for Hayek: she’d like to see a Broadway musical of “UglyBetty,” the now cancelled beloved sitcom she brought from Mexico and produced on ABC. Hayek did lament the cancellation. “ABC just kept moving it around. No one knew what night it was on!” She praised one “Betty” star who’s already on Broadway–Vanessa Williams, who stars in “Sondheim on Sondheim.” “She’s ready!” Salma said.

Hayek next appears in two comedies, each with a connection to Adam Sandler— “Grown Ups.” in which she co-stars with Sandler. And another, “Here Comes the Boom,” in which she plays the love interest of unlikely movie star Kevin James. a Sandler crony. Only in Hollywood could Kevin James get Salma Hayek!

Meanwhile, the Vanity Fair party was its usual knockout. There were three major directors–Martin Scorsese (whose film restoration foundation was honored), Oliver Stone, and Pedro Almodovar. Vanity Fair parties reverberate with stars, and so it was everyone from Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony to Frank Langella, Meg Ryan, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale to Julie Taymor, Pharrell Williams, Harvey Weinstein, Ellen Barkin, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Benicio del Toro (who now likes to be called “Benny” by his friends). Michael Douglas opted to stay on the yacht of friends, which was too bad. He missed a good time. And no Mick Jagger, despite the presence of his consigliere, auto heir and road manager Johnny Pigozzi.

Image: PRphotos.com

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