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NY Times Picks Up Our Scientology Mag Sale Story

Roger Friedman
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The New York Times’s Tim Arango must have liked our story from Friday morning about Scientology buying “Governing” magazine.’

He ran his own version on Sunday, but without any credit to this column for first exposing what was going on with the owner of Governing, The St. Petersburg Times.

True enough, the St. Pete Times ‘ which has run many exposes about Scientology ‘ didn’t feel bad about taking the sect’s money when it sold them the magazine. The new owners, called e.republic, then fired 60% of the staff. Will they be replaced by Scientologists? Time will tell.

Andrew Corty, publisher of the Times, refused to call us back on Friday so we couldn’t ask him about the ethics of what he’d done. Arango didn’t bother asking him that question. Arango also didn’t ask him about what I reported on Friday: that the Times also accepted $1 million in advertising from Scientology, and that video ads from the group were running on the newspaper’s business pages alongside news of the Governing sale. There was also no mention in the St. Pete Times business story of e.republic’s ownership.

I don’t know what’s worse: the New York Times’s omissions, or the St. Pete Times’s omissions. By the way: the St. Pete Times is owned by the Poynter Institute, which hosts Jim Romenesko’s popular media blog. The latter, at least, gave this column credit (kinda) and mentioned the Scientology aspect.

But doesn’t it raise questions of ethics and propriety when a newspaper’s publisher is doing business with one of its editorial targets? I should think so. How can readers of the St. Pete Times, who’ve just read these massive Scientology exposes, feel when told that the paper has accepted money from the object of the investigation?

Meantime, my sources in DC say that Scientology is on the warpath to buy more publications like Governing. Having been ridiculed in Hollywood, Scientology is looking for new inroads. Thanks to the St. Petersburg Times, it’s succeeding.

Brad & Angie Send More Than $6.4 Mil to Charities

Roger Friedman
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pitt brad jolie angelina 341x182 300x160 Brad & Angie Send More Than $6.4 Mil to CharitiesBrad Pitt and Angelina Jolie don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. According to the 2008 tax return for the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, the Hollywood couple sent over $6 million to charities last year.

Indeed, they more than doubled what they gave in 2007, which is pretty impressive.

In 2008, the pair parked just over $13 million in their foundation, and gave away half of it.

The biggest recipients of their largesse were: Global Health ($2 million), Human Rights Watch ($1 million), Brad’s Make it Right Foundation ($1 million).

Some other notable contributions: $500,000 to the Armed Services YMCA of the U.S. Army; $50,000 to the Springfield, Missouri Public Schools (Brad’s hometown); and roughly a million dollars to projects in Cambodia, the country from which they adopted their first child.

The nice thing about Brad and Angelina’s donations: there are no cults, no crazy projects, private religions, nothing untoward or wacky. It’s all about human rights initiatives and helping people. They’ve also kept their promises to places like Cambodia and Iraq. All together, the fair market value of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation is just over $12 million.

No scandals here. Just a nice story. By the way, Brad and Angie each put about $6 million into the foundation last year. Their lawyer, Robert Offer, added $10,000 out of his own pocket. And all they paid in expenses was $224,564 for grant management to Global Philanthropy Group. No one’s aunt or cousin got a salary, and there were no expenses laid off to “travel,” “conferences,” or “other.”

Nice!

“Soapdish” Next Movie Headed to Broadway with Music

Roger Friedman
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Do you remember the magnificently funny 1991 film, “Soapdish”? It’s being workshopped for Broadway as a musical, written by Brits George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the guys behind “Mary Poppins.”

The tip comes from my U.K. colleague Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail, who also writes extensively today about the upcoming Oscar-buzzed movie musical, “Nine” in his Friday column.

“Soapdish” sent up the world of soap operas ‘ a world now, ironically, dying. But it was a hoot, with Sally Field as Celeste Talbert, who was meant to be a parody of Susan Lucci on “All My Children.” Celeste was the star of a soap opera, Elisabeth Shue was her long-lost daughter, and the film featured Kevin Kline as a long-lost love, Carrie Fisher, Robert Downey Jr, Garry Marshall, and Teri Hatcher had hilarious roles.

My two favorite “Soapdish” moments will be included in the musical, Stiles assured me the other day. In one of them, head writer Rose Schwartz, played by Whoopi Goldberg, reacts to having to reactivate Kevin Kline’s long-gone character. She laments:

“The guy was killed in an auto accident! I looked it up! He was driving in the Yukon, in a pink convertible, to visit his brother who’s an ex-con named Frances, when a tractor trailer comes along and decapitates him. You know what that means?, it means he doesn’t have a head. How am I suppose to write for a guy who doesn’t have a head? He’s got no lips, no vocal cords. What do you want me to do?”

The other great “Soapdish” scene is known as “Mall Therapy,” when Rose and Celeste ride a mall escalator simply so Rose can drum up autograph seekers to assuage Celeste’s bruised ego. It’s beautiful.

The movie, by the way, was written by Robert Harling (”Steel Magnolias”) and’ directed by Michael Hoffman, whose new film, “The Last Station,” is about to be released to much acclaim and a possible Oscar nomination for Helen Mirren.

Here’s an idea for the actual production: why not hire some of the real soap stars who are in and out of work these days? As the networks botch soaps completely, there are plenty of talented people out there up for consideration.

Diddy 40th Birthday Party: No Red Carpet, Just Chaos

Roger Friedman
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115424 diddy sb Diddy 40th Birthday Party: No Red Carpet, Just Chaos

Sean “Diddy” Combs aka Puff Daddy threw a party last night at the Plaza Hotel and everyone came. And no one could get in.

A black tie birthday fete for 40 year-old Combs was set for 9 p.m. in the Plaza’s main ballroom. But by 10:20 or so, the only guests who’d made it inside were Spike Lee and his wife Tonya, “Cosby Show” star Malcom Jamal Warner, Regina King, and Martha Stewart.

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Hundreds of guests, gussied up in all kinds of “formal” attire, stood under a makeshift tent in front of the Plaza waiting to be allowed in. But the crush was a circus until famed security man Mike Zimet showed up with his phalanx of guards. They quickly brought in barricades, established queues and some order to the insanity. Thanks to Zimet’s plan, the hotel’s actual guests were allowed to come and go.

Meantime, the rain drizzled down.

But there was no red carpet, oddly, on the outside. VIP guests had to find clever ways of entering the event. Luckily, there weren’t too many of them. Bono and Herbie Hancock were at the high end. Some Kardashians were at the low. These were the people who didn’t go to the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, the IAC Barry Diller media party, the Matt Damon thing, the party for Ethan Russell’s book about the Rolling Stones, or half a dozen other Thursday night events.

Combs, hotel insiders insisted to me, actually did pay for the party. Or rather, Ciroc Vodka sponsored the party, so the whole thing was an advertisement. (For the life of me, I’ve never seen or been offered Ciroc Vodka. What is it?)

What would the party be like? “Loud,” said one hotel employee. The only food expected would be in the form of desserts. The whole thing didn’t look too appetizing though, especially for us old folks who already had headaches! But it was fun to watch. No word yet on when, or if, Combs showed. I’m sure he did. R&B legend Al Green was hired as the night’s entertainment.

In the end, one observer opined, Diddy put the “ho” back in “ho-tel.”

Many years ago at one of his other big birthday parties ‘ at Cipriani downtown ‘ Combs had a huge number of dancers and singers perform “Hey Big Spender” for him. Mariah Carey arrived in a wedding dress. At a summer party, I met Lil Kim, neighbor Donna Karan took a tour, Diddy passed out funny brownies, and hired strippers danced on a platform above the pool. You couldn’t top any of it now if you tried!

St. Petersburg Times Sells Magazine to Scientology Publisher

Roger Friedman
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The St. Petersburg Times in Florida has been running lots of hard-hitting stories about Scientology lately.

So guess what? They are in the midst of selling a magazine they own in Washington, D.C., called Governing, to e. Republic, a Scientology publisher located in Folsom, Calif. E.Republic has four publications including one called Government Technology.

And there’s more: On the website page for the story about the sale in today’s St. Petersburg Times there’s a video ad for… Scientology! A source familiar with the paper and its workings says Scientology paid $1 million for the ads on the paper’s website.

A 2001 Sacramento News & Review story from 2001 about e.Republic explains more about its history.

The story, by Jim Evans, recounts the history of e.Republic and its connections to Scientology. Evans writes: “All new hires at e.Republic, a publishing company based in Folsom, California, are required to not only read [a basic Scientology manual], but also take a course based on its contents, which — notwithstanding the grandiose description above — reads much like the same kind of hokey training materials that millions of workers try to avoid daily, except Hubbard’s methods have the higher goal of ‘improving conditions in your business, your life and on Earth in general.’”

What the heck is going on here? Are publishers so hard up for cash that they’ll take money from the subjects of their exposes? Calls to Andrew Corty of the St. Petersburg Times and Christopher Swope of Governing were not returned. But the strangeness of the situation cannot be overlooked. The Times has run several exposes about abuses in Scientology just this year.’ They can be found here.

More to come…

Oprah Rep: Blogs Are Wrong, Chicago Still Home

Roger Friedman
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You know, Oprah’s not leaving us for two years, folks. Let’s get a grip. We are still in November 2009. She’s not shutting down her show until June or September 2011.

Meanwhile, Oprah’s rep Don Halcombe and I have been in touch. He says rumors of Winfrey abandoning Chicago are completely wrong.

Halcombe says in response to Nikki Finke’s frantic cry that Winfrey is leaving Chi-town because it’s too cold: “We are ending the show, but not shutting our doors.’ In addition to the show, Harpo has other divisions headquartered here as well: Harpo Radio, Oprah.com, The Oprah Store, the charitable foundations like Oprah’s Angel Network, our development group which created and launched ‘The Dr. Oz Show’ amongst other projects.’ It’s our intention to have a full slate of programs in production at our studios in Chicago.”

Halcombe continues: “She loves Chicago and has been very proud to call Chicago her home these last 24 years. ‘Certainly, she will reside here during the final season of her show.”

Yes, but wait: next year is just 2010. Oprah’s not leaving next June. She’s leaving a whole year later, unless Winfrey’s gang has miscalculated. She will be on the air with new shows for the next six to seven months, then take the summer off, return in September with nine more months of shows at least. That’s a lot! We can all adjust in that time. That is a long goodbye, kids! So let’s relax.

And frankly, this was a story that was known a year ago. I cannot figure out why it’s being treated now like a doomsday scenario. Are memories this short?

Bill O’Reilly Secretly Loves Bono, the Kennedys, Human Rights

Roger Friedman
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I don’t know what was better last night: seeing Bono join Wyclef Jean on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” or Ethel Kennedy boogie with Wyclef on stage to an extended version of “Guantanamera.” Each was kind of outta sight.

Even weirder: all this took place in front of right wing antagonist Bill O’Reilly, who seemed be betraying his public persona by digging the whole deal. He bought a whole table ‘ eight seats ‘ at the Chelsea Piers dinner for the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation Ripple of Hope Award. That’s right, RFK, one of the most famous liberal Democrats in history, a man who would be appalled by O’Reilly’s nightly shredding of Barack Obama and his policies.

Maybe O’Reilly wants to switch places with Lou Dobbs and go to CNN!

The dinner honored both Bono and Wyclef Jean of the Fugees for their humanitarian efforts around the world. But the room was full of the kinds of people O’Reilly eviscerates over and over on his radio and TV shows. Dinner guests waited to see if the combative host would cross paths with Alec Baldwin, but the latter was a no show. He may have been stuck shooting “30 Rock.” But actors Matthew Modine and Gloria Reuben showed up and helped out with a portion of the show. Peter Gallagher was emcee for the evening. Charles Grodin was in attendance, too. So was Harry Belafonte, the anti-thesis of O’Reilly. Weird!

The night’s speakers ‘ musicians! ‘ were eloquent. Bono, who has the Irish blarney and a gift for extemporaneous gab ‘ told the wealthy crowd at Chelsea Piers how he ‘ as a Dubliner ‘ idolized the Kennedy family. “They’re our royal family,” he said, a rebuke to Britain’s royals.

Wyclef, who was honored for his massive humantarian efforts in Haiti and Africa, responded how he’s idolized Bono and U2 as a kid. He talked about growing up in Haiti until the age of 10 with nothing, and how he and his family fantasized about coming to America. He said sometimes he and his brother tried killing birds in Haiti with slingshots to get dinner. Then he did some clever free-style raps supporting Obama and civil rights. O’Reilly must have been popping the Mylanta over at his table!

During a pause in Wyclef’s poignant speech, Unik Ernest, the Haitian fundraiser and famous event organizer, shouted something in jest, in Haitian, startling the corporate audience of donors. Wyclef got a kick out of it. What did he say? I asked Unik: “I said, Stop your crying! And let’s have some music!”

Bono, by the way, brought a table of his Red supporters (www.joinred.com), but he was a little jealous that Wyclef’s Yele (www.yele.org) table was rowdier.

By the way, Wyclef”’ the underrated genius musician of hip hop ‘ will release his new album next April. He’s still on Sony/Columbia, although the label may not be aware of it. They’ve never done much for him. If you’re new to the Wyclef world, go on amazon.com’s MP3 Music downloads, and make an album for yourself of “If I Was President” ‘ which will give O’Reilly quite a headache, “911,” “Gone ’til November,” “Two Wrongs (Don’t Make a Right),” “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill),” “Take Me As I Am,” “Heaven’s in New York,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and of course,”Hips Don’t Lie” (with Shakira). That’s an excellent starter package!

Jennifer Hudson to Play Winnie Mandela

Roger Friedman
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We told you back on October 21st, that Jennifer Hudson was going to play Winnie Mandela.

This morning came the press release, only a month late. It’s ok! The Oscar-winner will be directed by Darrell Roodt in an indie production. More casting will be announced shortly…

…Members of Aerosmith are now giving joint interviews stating the obvious: they’re sick to death of lead singer Steven Tyler’s behavior. His surprise appearance at a solo Joe Perry show this month didn’t win him any friends. Perry says Tyler walked in, took over his stage, sang, and left. They still haven’t spoken…

…’The Twilight Saga: New Moon” will break all kinds of records this weekend, and bring in millions of teenage girls. It’s really a terrible movie, though, just picks up where the first one ended with no explanation. It reminded me of a Saturday afternoon adventure film. If you’d never seen episode 1 you’d have no idea what was going on. It also looks as cheap as “Mamma Mia,” and that’s saying something. Filmmakers skipped ‘depth of field’ and concentrated on bad dialogue. The whole thing had less appeal than a “Gidget” movie. Rob Pattinson, the star, is a poor man’s Luke Perry. Yikes…

…Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” got some of the best reviews ever for Moore. But it tanked at the boxoffice and now it’s been eliminated from Oscar competition. What went wrong? One word: Marketing. One more word: hubris. Moore was paid upwards of $25 million for this one. That left the distributor out of funds for anything. It’s too bad. Considering the state of the economy, Moore’s film might be of interest to a lot of people. But the commercials showing him clowning around on Wall Street with “crime scene” tape didn’t help. This was a serious film. It wasn’t treated that way…

Oprah’s End: As Predicted in November 2008

Roger Friedman
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Old news is new news this evening: Oprah Winfrey wraps up her syndicated talk show in 2011. She’ll announce it tomorrow on the show. I wrote about it in November 2008.

Winfrey’s extraordinary 25-year run has made her a multibillionaire. She also leaves a mostly knockout legacy for supporting and promoting the right causes. She’s also become one of the world’s biggest and influential philanthropists.

But all things must come to an end. And with Winfrey, it just means a beginning. She will move her show and her power to her own cable channel — called OWN — jointly owned with the Discovery Channel. The word “own” is the most important one here. No one will ever own Oprah but Oprah.

Not everything Oprah’s done has been perfect. As I reported last year, Winfrey’s Achilles Heel is her interest in power. When the paperwork was filed for her Leadership Academy in South Africa, it turned out she’d accepted $5 million from the same Republican who’d sponsored anti-Obama commericals in 2008 and anti-John Kerry commercials in 2004. She’s even good friends with the guy — even though it was Oprah who launched Obama on her show.

Still unresolved from Oprah’s run is her autobiography. She almost published the book several years ago with Knopf, then called it back at the last minute. Winfrey believes in a shallow transparency: She wants her audience to know which throw pillows she likes bes, but as little about her personal life as possible. It’s quite a change from the original Oprah, who talked about being raped and molested and used to do interviews from the audience. She built her show’s success by identifying with the audience. Eventually, she dropped that stance, and the populist program.

Last year, Oprah may have jumped the shark when she went a little too crazy for gobbledygook New Age guru Eckhart Tolle. She promoted his books and conducted online seminars about his flaky philosophies. It seemed like she was starting a cult.

But the real cult is of Oprah. And on OWN or wherever she goes next, her audience will follow her. And with a few missteps here or there, she will lead them someplace worthwhile.

Broadway Donuts via “Spinal Tap” Taste Good

Roger Friedman
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The best play to see right now on Broadway: Tracey Letts’s’ “Superior Donuts” It’s superior in every way.

Letts wrote the award-winning “August: Osage County,” which was much different, a classic drama about a family.

“Donuts,” however, is a laugh out loud comedy. Last night, on a Tuesday night of all things, when Broadway is usually sleepy, I got a kick out of listening to the “Donuts” audience burst into laughter over and over.

And why not? Michael McKean, best known from “This Is Spinal Tap,” the Christopher Guest movies, and as Lenny (his partner was Squiggy) on “Laverne and Shirley” plays the owner of a well established Chicago lunch counter. He’s also a widower with a sad past, but he makes great donuts. Jon Michael Hill makes his stunning Broadway debut as’ Franko, a 21 year-old black kid who comes to work for McKean’s Arthur and changes his life with a fresh perspective. The play is about family and friendship; it’s deceptively simple, but it resonates.

Last night we got another treat ”Marilyn Dodds Frank, sister of well known journalist Allan Dodds Frank (CNN, Bloomberg. The Daily Beast) ‘ made her debut as understudy to fluish Jane Alderman. Alan brought his twin 15 year-old daughters to kvell over Aunt Marilyn. Brava!

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