TWO CAPTAIN KIRKS, TWO DARTH VADERS

‘Star Trek’ fans were disappointed that William Shatner wasn’t in the new J.J. Abrams hit tribute. Actually, Shatner was, too.

But in a new animated sci fi film scheduled for next February, both Shatner’the old Capt. James T. Kirk’and Chris Pine‘the new one, Kirk’s younger self’are not only featured but have scenes together. (The dialogue was recorded separately, however; the Kirks did not meet in a sound booth.)

The film is called ‘Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey.’ Written and directed by Dr. Harry Kloor, ‘Quantum Quest’ also has the distinction of featuring two Darth Vaders’James Earl Jones and Hayden Christensen. There’s also a vocal appearance by Luke Skywalker, aka Mark Hamill.

I spoke to Harry Kloor yesterday about ‘Quantum Quest.’ He says the release date is set for February 2010, although he thinks he’ll be ready to start screening it in the fall. ‘We had to wait to do our [sound] mixing until August,’ he said. That’s why the delay.

(John Carrabino, who’s managed Pine to ‘Star Trek’ fame and fortune, told me he knew just about nothing about the movie, however.)

Kloor’a physicist who’s also written scripts for ‘Star Trek Voyager’ and other sci fi TV series’told me the plan now is to self-distribute ‘QQ.’ So far, he says, he’s brushed off the advances of major studios who want a piece of the action. Of course, the film is problematic to program: it’s just 45 minutes long. It’s going to be shown in IMAX theaters, ‘natch, where kids and spaceniks should go nuts for it.

‘QQ’ was initiated and sponsored by NASA, including footage from actual space missions. Kloor got a grant from the Jet Propulsion Lab via its Saturn robot rocket mission’Cassini Huygens.

Featured along with the actors is Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon. It’s the first time he’s been in a movie of any kind.

You can see a clip from the film, featuring a voiceover by legendary Casey Kasem, at http://www.qqthemovie.com/. The producers had better update their MySpace page, however. It still lists John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson among a few actors who didn’t ultimately work on the film.

‘STAR TREK’ BEAMS UP A TOTAL $30 MIL

The box office numbers are in for Friday night. “Star Trek” according to showbizdata.com took in over $26 million on Friday night, beinging its grand total from Thursday night showings to a smidge over $30 million. It finished at number 1.

“Star Trek” easily trounced “Wolverine: X Men Origins.” The second Friday for that film was $8.2 million. Last Friday the Hugh Jackman sci-fi thriller took in over $34′ million. Its box office has declined every day since then.

“Star Trek” didn’t break any records, but considering the new film revived an old franchise it’s pretty impressive. If the numbers hold up, expect a $75-$90 million weekend. And that’s also pretty good considering it has no stars in it–just knowns and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. “Wolverine” has Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Stewart, and the advantage of three recent films with the character in it.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS’ PR CAMPAIGN WORKING

You have to hand it to Elizabeth Edwards. The put upon, physically ill wife of ex Senator John Edwards has decided to turn her lemons into lemonade.

Elizabeth officially publishes her second book, ‘Resilience,’ today. And resilient she is. By using her husband’s affair and his possibly illegitimate child as a hook, she’s driven sales of what is a pretty otherwise dull book through the roof.

Today, ‘Resilience’ stands at number 11 on amazon’s best seller list. That’s 11 of all books, hard and soft cover. You go, girl!

Edwards’ pr campaign is sort of brilliant: use the husband’s ex mistress and the whole scandal to her own benefit. There’s hardly a person alive in this country who doesn’t know that Elizabeth wouldn’t allow Oprah to say the mistress’s name on her show.

For the record: it’s Rielle Hunter.

There’s also hardly a person alive who doesn’t know that Edwards purposely waffled about whether Hunter’s baby daughter was fathered by the ex-Senator. Elizabeth, a brilliant woman with a law degree, can’t see a resemblance between this baby and pictures of her own. But, hey, maybe, who knows? It’s too bad she’s not selling subprime mortgages.

The National Enquirer has a cover story on Hunter this week. But my guess is it wasn’t planted or supported by Hunter. A source close to her adamantly denies that Hunter has ever spoken to the Enquirer. Right now, you wonder: what good would it do her? The only person who makes out from an Enquirer story is: Elizabeth Edwards. She’s got a book to sell. Hunter has remained silent.

And, for the record, she doesn’t need a paternity test for baby Frances. As Hunter has said: she knows who the father is.

Meantime, Hunter’s sister, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years, has been doing the syndicated rag show circuit. She also may be the source for quotes in the Enquirer.

And lest we all think that the Enquirer has a new picture of Hunter and baby Frances on its cover, guess again: that’s the same photo they’ve used for months and months. Frances is now over a year old. That picture is of a baby. The most recent photo of mother and child was published by this reporter at his old column back in March.

MARIAH SET TO BE A CANNES CANNES GIRL

The Cannes Film Festival welcomes all celebrities, but this year it’s going to be a little more fun than usual.

Mariah Carey is set to descend on the famous Croissette’the strip along the beach in Cannes’as star of a hot movie called ‘Precious.’

‘Precious,’ of course, was called ‘Push’ when it had a sensational debut in Sundance this year. But there was another movie called ‘Push,’ which no one will even remember by the time someone releases ‘Precious’ this fall.

By someone, I do mean’who knows? It’s a Lions Gate movie, but The Weinstein Company thought it had a deal first at Sundance. There will be some legal wrangling before the movie is released.

In the meantime, Mariah hits Cannes with thunder and lightning starting next week promoting ‘Precious’ and its popular director, Lee Daniels, previously the producer of ‘Monster’s Ball’ and the director of ‘Shadowboxer.’ Daniels has quickly established himself as a force in the industry. He also directed Mariah in the less successful ‘Tennessee.’ Other ‘Precious’ cast that should be showing up includes Lenny Kravitz.

And plenty more big names are headed to Cannes despite the bad economy. Brad Pitt stars in Quentin Tarantino‘s “Inglourious Basterds.”’ Director Terry Gilliam has Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law finishing up Heath Ledger’s role in ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.’ The legendary director Francis Ford Coppola is going to debut his new ‘Tetro’ at the Directors Fortnight arm of the Festival with actor Vincent Gallo in the lead role.

So the Festival de Cannes begins next Wednesday, with Pixar/Disney’s ‘Up,’ a highly anticipated animated film from the people behind ‘Wall E.” And on Thursday of the following week, at the Hotel du Cap, Sharon Stone, Kenneth Cole and Harvey Weinstein come in for their annual AmFar dinner, Cinema Against AIDS, the most glittering night of the Festival, with Annie Lennox performing and Bill Clinton making a special appearance. Not too shabby!

MCCARTNEY, BONO: PAY THESE MUSICIANS, PLEASE

Yesterday I noted that in the Warner M(usic) analysts’ call, Edgar Bronfman Jr was all excited about the Performance Rights Act coursing its way through Congress right now. That’s House Bill 848 and Senate Bill 157.

Why not? If the bill passes, and radio stations are forced to pay a royalty for song play to performers, record companies’the copyright holders’will get a small percentage of the take.

But more importantly, and this is really important, the performers’who’ve collected nothing during the FIFTY years of rock and roll on radio’will receive the lion’s share of that royalty.

Right now, when you hear a song on the radio, only the writer(s) of it, and the publisher, get paid.

Under the new act, which the radio companies object to, the singers and musicians will get paid, too. All of them, not some of them.

The Bill is supported by tons of musicians like Paul McCartney and Bono, who already get paid a writers’ royalty but have rallied to support all musicians. ‘Soul Man’ Sam Moore and Judy Collins, as well as Sheryl Crow and plenty of others have already gone to Congress to plead this worthy cause.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) is a prime supporter of the bill. And so is Senator Orrin Hatch.

I’ve written about this a lot in my old column. But basically, the lack of a performance royalty is why so many older performers are forced to hit the road every year looking for audiences. While record sales may dry up when a performer is past his/her prime, their songs are still played on radio day and night. This is why Las Vegas is filled with pop stars whose records don’t sell but whose songs we love like Cher, Bette Midler, even Celine Dion.

Fifty years of free radio seems like enough: it’s time to get the Performance Rights Act passed. It’s legislation for artists who’ve been denied for too long.

STAR TREK ALREADY HAS $7 MIL IN TILL

J.J. Abrams’s reboot of “Star Trek” is set to devour Hugh Jackman in “Wolverine” this weekend.

Last night, “Star Trek” took in $7 million at advance screenings–$2 mil more than “Wolverine” did during its advance screenings last week.

Meanwhile, “Wolverine” has declined in its box office take every day since its $34 million opening last Friday. The numbers have gone down every day this week, suggesting that the fervor for metal claws has dulled.

Maybe it’s just a case of brains over brawn.

One thing “Star Trek” has over “Wolverine”: you want to see it again almost as soon it’s over. Fans are going to return at least once to find “easter eggs” that are hidden in the film.

“”Wolverine” has few of those easter eggs. Its ending has already been reported, and Aint-it Cool-News website let loose earlier this week that Patrick Stewart, of “X Men” fame, makes an uncredited appearance.

So it’s off to the races, with “Star Trek” looking to do what damage it can before next Friday, and the release of Tom Hanks in “Angels and Demons.”

SPECTER: RAISED FUNDS A WEEK BEFORE CHANGE

Senator Arlen Specter must have really been on the fence about changing political parties’right up to the end.

On Monday, April 21st’one week before he announced his shift from the Republican party to the Democratic party’Specter had a fundraising lunch in New York.

The lunch was hosted by Wilbur Ross, owner of private investment group W.L. Ross (part of Invesco, an even bigger major global investment firm) at the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th St.’ The lunch took up the largest banquet room, on the 2nd floor of the fabled hotel.

Ross, who was once married to New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey, has been a regular contributor to Republican candidates like John McCain and Rudolph Giuiliani.

As a political donor, Ross has a lot in common with Specter: According to public records, Ross gave to Democrats during the Clinton years, then switched to Republicans during the Bush administration. Invesco also contributes heavily to Republican causes.

In 2005, Wilbur Ross, Jr. was ranked #347 on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. He has been heavily invested in the coal and steel industries in Specter’s state, Pennsylvania, over the years. His returns have been plentiful, too, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Major Republican donors were said to be in attendance at the lunch. It’s unknown how much money, if any, was raised. But one guest said afterward that he was ‘shocked’ when, a week later, Specter switched sides.

Neither Ross nor his press rep has responded to calls or emails. Specter’s office pointed out that in his announcement on April 28th the Pennsylvania senator said he’d return any campaign funds to disgruntled supporters. So far, according to reports, several donors have made the request including fellow Congressmen.

FRIENDS SAY SITUATION IS MORE DIRE THAN THOUGHT

Farrah Fawcett, a sex symbol, icon, cultural symbol, and great lady may not live to see the finished documentary about her battle with cancer.

I;m told that Fawcett’s days may really be hours, and that she is gravely ill–moreso than previously thought. That’s the reason her son Redmond was allowed to visit her last week. But even now, the situation is dire.

At the same time, her best friend, Alana Stewart, is racing to finish their documentary about Fawcett’s fierce fight against what started as rectal cancer. The documentary is set to air next Friday, May 15th, on NBC. Friends and loved ones are praying that Fawcett will be able to see the broadcast, but at this point it’s unlikely.

In the last few days, I’m told, ex partner Ryan O’Neal has stepped in and taken over all of Fawcett’s business, etc. The couple was never married, and always had a tempestuous relationship. Aside from son Redmond, who’s had tremendous legal and substance abuse problems, the couple also produced a short lived funny sitcom together called “Good Sports.”

Fawcett, of course, came to prominence in “Charlie’s Angels” in the mid 1970s. Not since Marilyn Monroe had there been a Hollywood starlet who appeared with the force of a cultural A bomb. Her poster hung in every young boy’s bedroom in the world–and many young girls, too. Her haircut lives to this day.

Fawcett was married at the time to Lee Majors, but they were soon divorced. Her career would always be underscored by “Charlie’s Angels.” but she eventually had two more serious credits– a TV movie called “The Burning Bed,” and a Broadway play called “Extremities.” Each of these did much to shore up her reputation away from sexy crime fighter Jill Munroe. She also had a string of successes at the time with TV Movies, playing in succession Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld, photographer Margaret Bourke White, and poor little rich girl Barbara Hutton.

Farrah was nominated four Emmy Awards, six Golden Globes, and an Indie Spirit Award in 1997 for her work in Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle.”

Life is strange, isn’t it? Beautiful, vital Farrah is 62. John Forsythe, who was the voice of Charlie, turned 91 last January.

Stay tuned…

JESSICA SIMPSON GETS A SECOND CHANCE

Jessica Simpson is on the cover of Vanity Fair. You would think for June that Vanity Fair would bestow such an honor on an actress from a big summer movie, someone who’d earned such an honor.

But let’s face it: VF, like all magazines, is a dogfight for circulation. Oscar winners aren’t going to cut it. Simpson is a stroke of genius: she’s just tabloid enough to bring in new readers, and attractive enough to make the cut.

She’s also borderline enough that the magazine sidesteps its usual puff piece attitude and is a tad rougher on this celeb than they’ve been to others in the recent past. But Simpson and her manager dad Joe can take it. There’s nothing here we haven’t heard before about either of them.

The fact is, the Mario Testino pictures are sensational. And no matter how you slice it, this girl is not going anywhere. She’s young, hot, and she can sing. She’s also got a famous football player boyfriend. Jessica Simpson is going to be around long after we’re gone!

So kudos to her pr team. Getting the cover of VF is a coup. And VF shows its savvy: by turning her into an icon apart from the other US Weekly cuties, the magazine has probably scored a circulation triumph for itself. Everybody wins.

PS All this talk of who’s fat and who isn’t: glass houses, folks. That’s all I’m sayin’…

JANE FONDA GETS HER TONY NOMINATION

It only took 40 years, but Jane Fonda has a Tony nomination this morning. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for “33 Variations.” This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Fonda not only deserves it, but she could win. And she’s in a formidable category, with two theater heavyweights–Janet McTeer and Harriett Walter from “Mary Stuart”– and two Hollywood favorites — Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis from “God of Carnage.”

Fonda emailed me today she’s particularly proud of the other four nominations for “33 Variations” including the set designer Derek McLane. His set for the Beethoven archives is dazzling.

The Tony nominations are otherwise mostly expected. There are other a couple of surprises and snubs, though. The Tony nominators completely ignored “Irena’s Vow” and actress Tovah Feldshuh–this was a mistake, I feel. The play is wonderful, and the audiences love it.

On the other hand, the Tony’s were kinder to “Pal Joey” and “Guys and Dolls” than those shows deserved. The group also didn’t do a lot for “West Side Story,” snubbing the men from the show while rewarding only the ladies.

But 2009 has been great on Broadway, better than in years and years. CBS may finally have a hit Tony show in the ratings come June 7th, what with all the familiar Hollywood faces who’ve held forth this spring. In the end though expect lots of wins for “Billy Elliott,” nominated deservedly for 15 awards. It’s going to clean up!

‘STAR TREK’ REVIVED: SIZZLING, SEXY, AND COOL

The new “Star Trek,” movie directed by J.J. Abrams of ‘Lost’ and ‘Mission: Impossible 3’ fame, is buoyant, sexy and cool. It’s hard to imagine, but Abrams has completely revived a moribund movie idea, reinvented it and pointed in a direction no man has gone before.

Well, maybe once before: this is akin to what happened with ‘Spider Man 2.’ The new ‘Star Trek’ is a revelation.

I saw ‘Star Trek’ with an audience last night in a big theater. When you see it this way, this weekend, you’ll be thrilled: there is lots of spontaneous applause, laughter, and communal ‘uh-huhs’ as Abrams and crew reference the original TV series and the best of the early ‘Star Trek’ films.

It helps that they’ve cast it perfectly, because this is the story of all the ‘Star Trek’ characters before we met them on the Enterprise in 1967. What a genius idea, and how clever as the characters assemble one by one: Spock (Jeremy Quinto), Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Bones (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho).

There are even some unusual choices for peripheral characters. Winona Ryder makes a welcome appearance as Spock’s mother. Ben Cross, from ‘Chariots of Fire,’ plays his dad. (Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard played them originally on TV.) Tyler Perry makes his acting debut outside of his own films as an admiral.

Abrams et al have also revived a character from the TV show pilot, Captain Pike, who preceeded Kirk. This time he’s played dead on by the estimable Bruce Greenwood. Eric Bana‘nearly unrecognizable in makeup’is Romulan bad boy Nero. Clifton Collins Jr. (from ‘Capote’) is terrific as Nero’s sick sidekick, Ayel.

And there are numerous ‘Easter eggs’ buried throughout the film for fans and fanatics. One that I caught: At the Vulcan council there’s an admiral named James Komack. (He has the only name plate, and it’s big.) The real Komack was the beloved producer/director/actor who directed the ‘Star Trek’ pilot for TV. He was also Bill Bixby’s best friend on ‘Courtship of Eddie’s Father’ way back when. He died in 1977.

I also thought I saw, toward the end of the movie, someone who looked like a young Walter Koenig, the original Chekhov, matted into the background. Maybe, maybe not.

And, of course, Leonard Nimoy makes a long cameo as Spock himself. It’s a device that works, since he’s visiting from the future. William Shatner has complained about not being asked back as Kirk. But in this episode, it would have been too much. Maybe next time, since Abrams has made time travel’do you watch ‘Lost’?’his recurring them.

But the most important thing about Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ is that it’s the rare combination of total crowd pleaser and a work of movie art its makers can be proud of. They’ve breathed life into a well known concept with respect and originality. They’ve also avoided making it campy, or sending it up in any way. These new players take talk of Romulans, Klingons, Vulcans, warp speed and the rest of it quite seriously.

So just wait: if you thought ‘Wolverine’ had a good weekend, get ready for this ‘Star Trek’ to steal all the thunder starting Thursday in its IMAX edition. The movie will break records, set new ones, and inspire more lunatic Trekkie frenzy than ever before. What a tribute to Gene Roddenberry that 43 years after his TV series was cancelled three seasons in, ‘Star Trek’ in all its glory is still here and better than ever. I won’t be the first to paraphrase the Vulcan salute this week, but ‘Star Trek’ should live long and prosper!

ELIZABETH EDWARDS ON OPRAH: WHO’S TELLING THE TRUTH?

Either John Edwards hasn’t told his wife, Elizabeth, the truth about anything, or Elizabeth has reworked the truth for her own peace of mind.

Either way, whatever she’s telling Oprah this week on her syndicated show doesn’t jibe with the reality of how hubby John met ex-girlfriend Rielle Hunter.

Elizabeth, promoting her new book, ‘Resilience,’ tells Oprah that Hunter’whose name is not uttered on Oprah’s show lest she become ‘real’ to the audience– was more or less a stalker who preyed on the ex-Senator and possible presidential candidate until she got what she wanted.

Elizabeth Edwards tells Oprah, according to one report, that she thought Hunter waited for her husband when she spotted him in a New York hotel restaurant. She says Hunter told her husband, ‘You are so hot.’

The delusional part of this is that the wife believes the husband was a passive participant, an unwitting victim, in all of this. She’s somehow forgotten her husband is a former US senator and trial lawyer who’s so rich that they’re now living in a 28,000 square foot house.

In fact, as I’ve heard it over the last year from sources, Hunter and some friends literally bumped into Edwards outside the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue and got into a conversation. ‘There was no loitering,’ says a source. The meeting was a coincidence.

And then Elizabeth also tells Oprah that she ‘has no idea’ whether or not Hunter’s 15 month old baby girl Frances was fathered by John Edwards. She’s an attorney and former law clerk to a federal judge, the author of two books, makes thousands of dollars on the lecture circuit, is supposed to have been a reckoning force in Edwards’ political campaigns. Yet, Elizabeth Edwards wants us to believe that she doesn’t know the truth about her husband’s illegitimate child, the half sibling of her own children.

Maybe the title of the book should have been, ‘Denial.’

KARL AND ANNA AT ‘LAGER’-HEADS?; TIME’S 20

Are famed designer Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue editor Anna Wintour at ‘Lager-heads,’ so to speak? I’m told Lagerfeld backed out of Wintour’s annual Met Museum Costume Ball at the last minute. Maybe he got test pictures of what Madonna was planning to wear. Wintour was said to be furious since so many other regulars skipped the event this year. For the record, the Costume Ball and dinner are a big loser in and of itself for the Museum, costing over a million bucks. The upside, of course, is contributions to the museum and support for its programs. But still, does it have to run so deep in the red during a recession year?…
‘Time Magazine’s 100 dinner produced a lot of stars who didn’t make the list. They looked good, anyway, from Liv Tyler and Kate Hudson to Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy. For some reason, movie comedy factory producer Judd Apatow (‘Superbad,’ ‘Knocked Up,’ etc) was there with his comedienne wife Leslie Mann even though neither of them was on the list. It’s possible he thought the Jon Favreau who was honored was the director of ‘Iron Man.’ He’s not. He’s President Obama‘s wunderkind speechwriter. PS The big stars were Oprah, and of course, Michelle Obama’