Thompson On Hollywood

HBO Gives Polanski Doc Oscar Qualifying Run

It's the HBO way. The fuss is all about the HBO launch--and getting an Oscar nom, natch--not building a successful theatrical release. Marina Zenovich knew this when she made her rich HBO deal for Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The movie quietly slipped into New York for an Oscar-qualifying run, reports Spout and Defamer.

UPDATE: Manohla Dargis' review is in Monday's NYT, for a movie that opened without press screenings--although it was launched to great fanfare at January's Sundance-- last Friday in one theater each in Manhattan and Pasadena. Here are the review's opening graphs.

The Judge, the Director and the Vagaries of Justice By MANOHLA DARGIS

The sharply argued documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" isn't about the innocence or guilt of its title subject, who after pleading guilty in 1977 to having "unlawful sexual intercourse" with a minor flew from Los Angeles to London, never again to return to America. Neither is it about Mr. Polanski's likability, his tragic past, morals, short stature, brilliant and bad films, the sleaze factor or your personal feelings on whether there's anything wrong with a 43-year-old man's having sex with a 13-year-old girl. All these elements come teasingly into view here, but really this is a movie about a very different kind of perversion.

"Wanted and Desired," which opened on Friday without advance press screenings, was bought by HBO at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Its one-week theatrical run will make it eligible for Academy Award consideration, though given that organization's often pitiful record when it comes to nonfiction film, it seems unlikely that a movie this subtly intelligent would make its short list. That's especially true because the director, Marina Zenovich, refuses to wag her finger at Mr. Polanski, even when presenting the sordid and grimly pathetic details of his crime, like the Champagne and partial Quaalude he furnished the 13-year-old girl and her repeated nos.

In Treatment's Byrne Thinks While He Listens

While In Treatment's half-hour sessions have been messing up HBO's numbers, the series is compelling to watch because of compassionate and sexy shrink Gabriel Byrne, profiled in today's LAT. His patients mess him up so much (especially seductive Melissa George) that he runs to his own shrink, Dianne Wiest.

Here's Byrne on Charlie Rose:

[photo courtesy LA Times]

Weekend Boxoffice: Holdover Horton vs. Perry and Madea

So this weekend I will be catching up with new openers The Grand (on screener DVD) and Drillbit Taylor (at a screening).

Otherwise, I will be watching my cache of DVDs and saved TiVo stuff, including HBO's John Adams. (I love it, the marriage especially; it's too dark, but it feels real to me.)

If I were going to a theater I would also see Horton Hears a Who! which actually scored good reviews. Here's the Variety weekend forecast. Tyler Perry anyone? Well, I have yet to check him out, something I hate to admit. It's about time I did.

The Wire: Real Thugs Comment

This NYT posting on what real thugs think of The Wire is choice.

TV Watch: The Wire

As of tomorrow, my Sunday nights are going to be devoted to the best TV series out there: The Wire. (Here's Brian Lowry's review.) Time Magazine lays out the series' many virtues. Nora is still catching up with Season 3 on DVD, while David and I have kept current. Obviously, the WGA strike is going to boost The Wire. There's not a whole lot else to watch!

Chris Albrecht Announces New Chapter Post-HBO

Ex-HBO chief Chris Albrecht, who was first raked over the coals and then ardently wooed, is respected as a creative entrepreneur. He's returning to his roots as an agent, reports the NYT, and joining agency IMG in a deal brokered by Endeavor's Ari Emanuel, who inspired Emmy-winning Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold on Entourage.

Flight of the Conchords: It's Business Time

Nora's a huge Flight of the Conchords fan, both of the music and the cult HBO show. But ever since my friend Jane showed me their Barry White-influenced "I'm so sexy" song, "It's Business Time," I can't get it out of my head. I keep hearing it on KCRW, and it makes me laugh. This concert version was posted on YouTube a year ago. OK, so I'm late to the party! Enjoy.

Emmys Announced: HBO Scores

Here's Brian Lowry on this morning's Emmy noms. Today's a good a day to check out Cynthia Littleton on the Air for pithy analysis. Her new TV blog is taking off!

Hollywood Politics: Clinton Promo Spot Apes Sopranos

It's been a long time since pop culture has shared a national watershed moment like the finale of HBO's The Sopranos. People are still deconstructing that episode. Hillary Clinton's people have wasted no time in concocting a viral video that is sure to travel far and wide. But do they know that the current wisdom holds that the blackout ending was the moment of Tony Soprano's death?

Entourage Premieres, Movie Coverage Moves Online

Oddly enough, I didn't make it to the Entourage premiere Thursday night because I was honoring my commitment to manager Joan Hyler (who reps Diane Lane and Alfred Molina, and coaxed Peter O'Toole to come west for the Oscars) to help her teach her graduate USC film class in the super-moderne orange on white conference room at Endeavor (whose chief, Ari Emanuel, inspired Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold, and whose offices remind me of the airport in 2001: A Space Odyssey). She told them about mold-breaking ICM agent Sue Mengers; I talked about the subject of this week's column about the demise of Premiere Magazine and how movie coverage is migrating from print onto the web. This much Joan's proteges, the next generation of industry execs, agents and producers, already knew. UPDATE: Jeff Wells, Glenn Kenny and Kim Voynar respond.

Meanwhile, my colleague Cynthia Littleton, who will launch her new blog, Littleton On Air, next week, reports from the premiere:

"We may be whores...but we're not pimps." So says Ari Gold in a declaration of principle that is genuinely stirring, and laugh out loud funny, as only Jeremy Piven in his tenpercenter alter-ego can deliver in the second of the fresh batch of "Entourage" episodes set to bow Sunday on HBO. The first two episodes of the new season played very, very well for the receptive home town crowd that gathered Thursday night at the ArcLight for a screening followed by a premiere party down the block afterward at the Ivar. The life-imitates-art-imitates-TV tone was set by all the corporate branding on display at HBO's party, as skillfully mocked in the first of the new "Entourage" installments. (Vodka was the pour of the night, and this non-vodka lover warmed up to the concoction dubbed the Turtle, featuring a blend of orange and pomegranate juice.) The Ivar's many rooms were sprinkled with items from the show, including the life-size golf practice screen and practice putt set-up, a pool table and, of course, a few go-go dancers in itty-bitty metallic bikinis. Boys will be boys....

[Photo by Wireimage]