Variety On the Town

Minghella's 'Truly' Tribute

According to the late-director Anthony Minghella's daughter Hannah, “Truly Madly Deeply” was not only the helmer's first film, but one of his most personal.

Hannah Minghella, along with several of the helmer's close colleagues gathered at Hollywood's Egyptian theater Sunday for a screening and discussion of the film as one of many events during BritWeek 2008.

“I think this film achieves what great films achieve — it makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it also brings a bit of humanism to it, which dad was always so good at,” Hannah
said, also revealing that the film was originally meant to be titled “Cello,” an instrument
her father loved. She was joined on stage by actor Julian Sands and producers Colin Vaines and Bill Horberg, in a conversation moderated by filmmaker Nick Redman.

“Seeing (“Truly Madly Deeply”) again on a screen, I was struck at how much a self portrait
it was,” Sands said of the film about a woman grieving over the death of a loved
one. “I'm overwhelmed by his presence on the screen tonight.” — Libby McCarthy

(Pictured: Bill Horberg, Hannah Minghella and Julian Sands/ WireImage)

Burton's 'Barber' Talk

The Film Society of Lincoln Center feted director Tim Burton at Gotham’s Rose Hall on Wednesday, naming the offbeat helmer “The Demon Barber of Cinema” in honor of his new film adaptation “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Although Burton hasn’t made any of his enemies into pies as Sweeney Todd has been known to do, he has had his share of troubles, which he discussed with interviewer Richard Pena during the evening's Q&A.

The helmer wryly expressed admiration for one-time subject, “worst director in the world” Ed Wood. “There’s a weird sort of poetry to it,” said Burton of Wood’s work. “You’d watch his movies and day would accidentally turn to night, and you’d be like, ‘wow, that’s avant-garde filmmaking. You could have made big money in Europe.’ You get the French medal of honor for that kind of thing. He’s not the worst director in the world — the worst director in the world is somebody you’ve never heard of.”

Burton also spoke of his collaboration with Johnny Depp on “Sweeney.” “We tried to make it like an old horror movie where there’s a lot of music under the action. It changes everything; it changes the way the actors walk across the set.” said Burton.  (S. Thielman)

Deneuve's Lesson Learned

Catherine Deneuve chatted with film critic Kenneth Turan, before the unspooling of "Persepolis" at Sunday's AFI fest's tribute in her honor at the Arclight. The thesp said helmer Francois Truffaut gave her the most valuable acting tip while shooting a marital fight she was struggling with in the film "Mississippi Mermaid."  "I went up to him and told him I couldn't do it right because it didn't seem logical to me," Deneuve remembers.  "And he said to me, 'Listen, if it all made sense, we would just take normal people to do these scenes, not actors.'"  She added with a laugh, "He sounded a little nuts but what he said actually explained a lot of things to me." (E. Bertet)

Carrie and Princess Leia's Worlds Collide

While auditioning for the role of Sue Snell in Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror pic, “Carrie,” Amy Irving revealed that she was simultaneously auditioning for the role of Princess Leia. “It was like a cattle call to meet George Lucas for “Star Wars” and Brian De Palma for “Carrie,” Irving said during a Q&A following a screening of “Carrie” as part of The Academy’s Monday Nights with Oscar series. “They had every kid in town going to the office (they shared) where the two of them were sitting there deciding who gets which part.” De Palma said joint casting with Lucas was like killing two birds with one stone.  “George and I were looking for young people for (“Carrie” and “Star Wars”). We had kids auditioning from all around the world. With so many people we thought lets do this together.” (A. Morfoot)

A Tasteful Tea with Ang Lee

What better time to discuss sex and politics with Ang Lee than over afternoon tea? Speaking to On the Town Tuesday at an intimate Focus Features tea party at Tea’s Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium, the helmer bared his inspirations for the pungent scenes in “Lust, Caution.”

“People mix sex and politics together metaphorically.  Eileen Chang, who wrote the short story of ‘Lust, Caution’  said that the ultimate relationship between man and woman is that of the occupier and the occupied,” explained Lee, “In her own life story, Chang’s one true love dumped her while working as a high official in the occupied Chinese government.  In some ways, she felt that the collaborated government was like a prostitute to the Japanese." (A. D’Alessandro)

Jeff Garlin Serves Up Laughs

Not even Jeff Garlin could curb the enthusiasm of the crowd at Busby's East on Sunday where the HBO show's exec producer and thesp was on hand for the Jewish Federation hosted event. Following a screening of Sunday's episode, Garlin took part in a Q&A session, which quickly turned to talk about “Curb’s” creator and star Larry David. “Everyone busts Larry up,” said Garlin. “When you watch the show our little secret is to watch how quickly when someone says something, we cut to Larry and see how quickly we have to cut away from Larry because he laughs a lot.” Garlin seemed to enjoy the Q&A before he had to rush off to host his Sunday night comedy show “Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood. “I’ve already seen this episode probably five times," he said. "But I love seeing it with an audience because that’s rare.”          (J. Marks)

Jack's Movie Memories

Wearing a lime green shirt and his trademark sunglasses, Jack Nicholson was on hand to introduce "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Wednesday night at the Target presents AFI's 40th Anniversary celebration. Nicholson amused the crowd with some anecdotes from the set.  “The first time we shot the basketball game, Danny DeVito took the ball and threw it against the fence where the camera was. I couldn’t stop laughing," he said. “I also improvised a lot during this period,” Nicholson recalled, saying that the scene in which his character reenacts the boxscore of a baseball game was heavily improvised.

And though the film was based on Ken Kesey's critically acclaimed novel, "The studio didn’t put up the money until they saw a couple of days worth of dailies. They were in once they saw it, but that’s the business part of it." (J. Sneider)

Lucas Talks About Makin' Wookie

At the Target Presents AFI’s 40th Anniversary screening of "Star Wars" on Wednesday at the Arclight, the original Jedi master George Lucas was on hand to introduce the film. Flanked by stormtroopers, the helmer entered the theater to thunderous applause and took a place at the podium to talk about the challenges of bringing “Star Wars” to the bigscreen.

"We were out in Tunisia, and it was very, very cold. I was there for 10 days and I was four days behind. Out of nowhere a storm swept in and knocked down all of our sets." recalled Lucas. "That day was one I'll always remember because that was probably the most fun we had.”

Lucas also explained that the secret to the film's longevity was the script, not the effects. "When the movie came out, everyone said, 'Oh, that's fantastic. It's all about the special effects.' That has nothing to do with it. It really does have to do about a story, the psychological underpinnings and the fun characters. After ‘Star Wars,’ there was about a hundred special effects movies that were boring as hell. Even today, they don't seem to get it." Before concluding, Lucas added. "I have given you the secret," he said. "Go make good movies."                      (E. Maxwell)

Eva Mendes Plays the Waiting Game

If one word could be used to describe the making of "We Own the Night," it would be “perseverance.” At the Variety screening series on Thursday, director James Gray shared his difficulties in casting the cop drama. "I never once had an actor say, 'Yes, I want to do your movie.'" said the helmer. "I was in New York researching the movie and saw a cheesy talkshow that Eva [Mendes] was on. She was obviously a thousand times brighter than the person interviewing her," said Gray. "We sent her the script. And we got the answer: 'NO!'"

The lovely Eva was on hand at the screening to explain her decision at time. "A year goes by, and he's relentless. It's amazing," said the thesp. "Then I heard he might offer it to another actress that shall remain nameless, and suddenly I'm like, 'What?'"  Luckily for Gray, his persistence paid off and Mendes finally hoped on board.  (E. Maxwell)

On The Town Photo Gallery Nicole Fiscella, Jessica Szohr, Blake Lively and Nan Zhang attend the "Gossip Girl" •View Photo Gallery • All Variety Photo Galleries

Gosling's Latex Love

At the Variety screening of “Lars and the Real Girl,” on Wednesday at the Arclight, director Craig Gillespie and thesp Ryan Gosling chatted about their unconventional story that follows the courtship of a man and his latex love.

After a four-year battle to get the film made, Gillespie got the pic off the ground. Nabbing Gosling was the easy part.  “The fact that I was crying at the end of the script…I couldn’t believe that this writer [Nancy Oliver] took me to that place,” said Gosling. “It reminded me of some of my favorite films in a way, like ‘Harvey,’ or a Hal Ashby film.”

Although a pic about a man finding true love with a 125 lb. Barbie is not a classic theme, the director found that auds can still relate to the story. “In the first focus group, there was one guy who was really annoyed and he said, 'I don't get it. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? What is it?' And a guy at the other end yelled, 'It's called life.'” (E. Maxwell)

Uwe Boll Goes 'Postal'

On the Town spent a surreal evening with infamous German director Uwe Boll on Wednesday following a UCLA screening of his latest pic, the 9/11 satire "Postal." Based on the popular violent vidgame of the same name, "Postal" has generated plenty of controversy for being unabashedly politically incorrect. It's opening scene features a pair of 9/11 hijackers arguing about the number of virgins they'll receive in the afterlife as they fly a plane into the World Trade Center.

Variety's Peter Debruge hosted the post-screening Q+A featuring Boll and several cast members including Zack Ward, Chris Coppola, Jackie Tohn, Chris Spencer and Larry Thomas, who plays a Bush-loving Osama Bin Laden.

"Even if I offend everybody, I think it's necessary to do this now. 'Postal' reflects what is really going on. The world is going down the drain. It's time to wake up," said Boll. "With 'Postal,' I was lucky with the actors. They really went for it and all of them agreed it was time to make a movie like this," explained Boll, whose first film was the comedy "German Fried Movie."

Thomas, himself no stranger to comedy having played The Soup Nazi in a memorable episode of "Seinfeld," also weighed in on the controversy. "I read the script on a plane and after the first few pages, I stopped and just sat there. Another passenger asked if I was alright and I said, 'I'm not sure.' But The Three Stooges were making fun of Hitler in 1938. If you can't make fun of things then they get the better of you. The things that terrorize us, if we can laugh at them, we're much better off."

Boll went on to address what some critics have perceived as anti-American sentiments in the film. "The film isn't anti-American. What the government used 9/11 for, to start the Iraq War, was anti-American. I hope people see 'Postal' and discuss it," said Boll, who made international headlines last year when he challenged four of his harshest critics, including yours truly, to a boxing match during a break in the filming of "Postal." Clips from the fights were supposedly going to be edited into the film but the footage didn't make the final cut. After deflecting blame to his publicist, Bill Wanstrom, Boll admitted the publicity stunt "was a mistake." It's unclear whether Boll's attitude towards his critics will affect "Postal's" reviews, but so far reception has been more positive than negative, including from Variety's own Dennis Harvey. (J. Sneider)

Shatner and Zeus' Similarities

Arianna Huffington moderated a spirited discussion with the cast and creators of “Boston Legal” Tuesday night at the Writers Guild Theater. Her purpose was to investigate the Emmy-nominated show’s relationship with contemporary politics, but the conversation gravitated toward celebrating the dramedy’s accomplishments. “It’s the most relevant show on TV,” William Shatner said. “We, the actors, learn from what the writers have written.”

Huffington, a self-described addict of the show, praised its ability to thrive as both a gripping drama and a droll comedy. The program’s dual-nature was a frequent topic. "Life is dramatic and has a sense of humor, so why not put all that into an episode?” said creator David E. Kelley (pictured with Huffington and 20th Century Fox Television topper Dana Walden). At one point, Huffington said that Shatner’s character resembled the Greek god, Zeus. As Shatner lit up with pride, co-star James Spader quipped, “He’s Zeus? You have no idea what you’ve just done!” (J. Young)

Reflective Reunion for "Amadeus"

Tom Hulce admitted it wasn't his musical talents that earned him the role as Mozart in the 1984 film "Amadeus" during the Academy's "Monday Nights With Oscar," event in Gotham, which reunited the cast including F. Murray Abraham and helmer Milos Forman for a special screening followed by an on-stage panel discussion.

"I played a little guitar but couldn’t play piano at all," explained Hulce. "So I said ‘get me a piano teacher who specializes in children.’ They did, and to make sure I worked on it every day for six weeks, the teacher stayed in the room with me while I practiced. Unfortunately for Milos, the practice room was right above where he took his naps." As for Mozart's signature high-pitched laugh heard often in the film, Hulce said: "Milos described it as an animal-like sound. I worked on it and worked on it and just couldn’t get it right. It was Jack Daniels that finally helped liberate me to have new possibilities for the laugh. Of course, that was never in rehearsals, only in my own private exploration of the role."

Spacey Speaks on Sullivan

At the Grand Classics screening of "Sullivan’s Travels" on Monday night sponsored by Land Rover, host Kevin Spacey not only introduced the pic but also took time to discuss a little movie trivia as well as praise the man behind the movie, Preston Sturges.

"[Sullivan's Travels] is one of the first movies that Veronica Lake, who became a kind of symbol of Hollywood, one of her very first leading roles and its notable to say that when she accepted the movie, she failed to tell Preston that she was five months pregnant. So Edith Head, who was the costumer and a great, Academy-Award winning costumer, had to design costumes that hid the fact that she was in fact, in full-bloom and she is beautiful in the movie and extraordinary to look at in the film but they managed to hide it.[Sturges] went on to have an extraordinary career and he is one of my favorite filmmakers. It was not unusual in any Preston Sturges movie to hear a character say the most eloquent line of dialogue you’ve ever heard and then turn and fall flat on their face. He was a man who believed in comedy and believed in its power."

Networking With Lumet

"Peter Finch was not our first choice for the character of Howard (Beale)," Sidney Lumet admitted after a special screening of his 1976 film "Network" on Monday as part The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' "Monday Night with Oscar" film series. "Everyone else in the cast was our first choice. I wanted an American to play Howard. We considered Gregory Peck. We also thought about Spencer Tracy but there was no way he would leave California. But Peter was so intent on the part. He called one day and said, 'I can do the American accent.' He said 'send me today's New York Times and in 48 hours you will have a tape.' In 48 hours, I received a tape of him reading the entire front page of The Times with an American accent. It was perfect." Lumet, who watched the movie for the first time "in years" with an audience at The Academy's Lighthouse International Theater, noticed audience reaction had changed when it came to certain aspects of the script. "The word 'terrorist' always got a laugh (30 years ago). Now I don't hear anything." (A. Morfoot)

Bening Talks Art

When Annette Bening introduces someone as "one of the best things to come out of the Bush Administration," audiences perk up. That was how the thesp announced Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, at a Town Hall Los Angeles event at the Hammer Museum in Westwood Wednesday night.

Event was titled "A Conversation with Dana Gioia and Annette Bening."  Bening, who was welcomed by Town Hall Los Angeles and Arts for LA to the discussion, left much of the talking to Gioia, who touched on subjects like the growing budget of the NEA, stating that "we are one of the success stories in Washington right now."

Bening, and close to a hundred art patrons, listened intently to Gioia as he spoke about how to convince the rest of society that art is important. "I think American artists and American cultural leaders have done a terrible job explaining to the rest of society why art is important,” said Gioia. “We have to create a dialogue with society -- we need to change our rhetoric.” (D. Seif)

Harbert's Words of Wisdom

The Museum of Television and Radio welcomed Ted Harbert, President and CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group on Wednesday night as part of the fourth season of its Industry Forum, the Museum’s executive speaker series for the next generation of media, entertainment, and business professionals.

An exclusive group of fewer than 50 guests ranging from network execs to William Morris agents to CAA mailroom employees schmoozed while sipping Hypnotiq cocktails and dining on bruschetta-wrapped breadsticks, Vietnamese noodles and lobster paste cakes. Gary Newman, President of 20th Century Fox TV, introduced Harbert, who spoke about current industry trends and business models including the Comcast brands of  E!, Style Network and G4TV.

The effects of new media can be seen clear as day, even in Harbert’s own home. “My son, who sits upstairs in his room watching television on his laptop, isn’t seeing advertising and that’s bad news for the networks. If he was a good American, he’d be downstairs watching network TV. What the public is supposed to do is make me rich by watching advertisements. But advertisers need to make more executions of a spot. They should treat commercials like programming and try harder to entertain the viewer. If they don’t, this place (the MTR) could get really dusty if we’re not careful, because we’re in the brand, content and experience business. We have to push a firm brand, otherwise we’re up the creek in a boat captained by Britney Spears, who I might add, has been giving us fantastic ratings. I hope she keeps the insanity up,” Harbert quipped. (J. Sneider)

Headline News Revisited

Legal firebrand Nancy Grace and nice-guy conservative Glenn Beck were on hand to give Time Warner's "Home to the Future" another workout Tuesday night to fete the second anny of "Headline News'" metamorphosis.

It’s been two years since topper Ken Jautz tore a page from the Fox News handbook, taking a just-the-facts news service and stocking it with opinionated hosts talking about the news.

In its second year, the net is distancing itself further from CNN mothership, dropping the name of big sister net from its tagline and branding around "Headline Prime."

The net's aud is younger and more downmarket than CNN, skewed heavily to the southeast, in no small part to the appeal of Grace, the former Atlanta prosecutor.

Her flacks were on hand to peddle the angle that its been 10 years court TV founder Steve Brill discovered Grace and plucked her out of Atlanta. Grace arrived in New York, she said, with an overnight bag and $200.

On a hot night on the crime-and-justice beat she can take down CNN’s Paula Zahn in the ratings. But perhaps a bigger measure of her cultural impact is she's providing regular material to “Saturday Night Live.”

But unlike MSNBC’s Chris Matthews or the senior George Bush, Grace has yet to embrace her tormentor. Amy Poehler was not on the guest list. (M. Learmonth)

New Neighborhood

CAA, you're not in Beverly Hills anymore.

On first glance, the "premiere" party of 2000 Avenue of the Stars on Thursday night was perfectly suited to its marquee tenant, CAA.  Two white clothed avant-guard models swayed to a live band while caterers ushered canapés and bubbly to and fro.

But on closer inspection, one noticed a decided lack of denim and many more suits than at regular industry events. In fact, few agents or even new tenants roamed the glistening halls, but financiers, realtors, architects and politicians, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa abounded.

Then there was the small talk. One curious banker asked, "What is Variety?" While another young buck, gleefully informed me, "There's a modeling agency upstairs." Outside a group of older gentleman touted the buildings proximity to Los Angeles Country Club.

You can take the agency out of the city but can you take the city out of the agency? Probably not, but when the dust settles CAA culture is bound to energize the building. And won't those bankers be surprised when they figure out just who that agency upstairs represents. (L. Repstad)

Edwards' Hollywood Endeavor

Former Sen. John Edwards spoke before a packed conference room of agents, industry executives and celebrities at the Endeavor agency on Tuesday, raising money for his presidential campaign in one of the first Hollywood fund raisers for a declared 2008 presidential candidate.

His white short-sleeves contrasting with the dark-suited tenpercenters, Edwards vowed to do "anything I can" to oppose President Bush's plan for an increase of some 21,000 troops in Iraq. Edwards invoked the term he has used to describe the new policy -- "the McCain doctrine" -- becaus e it has strong support from Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), who may soon join him in the field of 2008 contenders. He also sounded some of his campaign themes, like universal healthcare and alleviating poverty.

Among those who attended the event, hosted by Endeavor's Adam Venit and former MCA and iFilm executive Skip Paul,  were Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Diane Keaton, Tracy Ullman, Delroy Lindo and Mike White. Edwards also met with other potential donors on the trip and planned to make an appearance this evening on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The coming months promise to be a vigorous period of '08 fund raising in Hollywood circles. Laying the groundwork for a possible run, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spoke at a meet-and-greet event last month at the home of another Endeavor partner, Ari Emanuel.

In fact, Los Angeles could be of even greater importance if Hillary Clinton gets into the race, given that she would have a lock on a lot of support in her home state of New York, another big destination for campaign money. (T. Johnson)

Maslin's Borat Moment

Though he may have dropped character, “Borat” mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen has not lost the ability to wind people up in an interview.

New York Times vet Janet Maslin discovered that after gamely agreeing to interview Cohen and Borat producer Jay Roach at a Golden Globes stump event Saturday night in Gotham.

Maslin asked Cohen if he thought he had “hurt anyone’s feelings” with riffs on anti-Semitism, particularly in the film’s notorious bed-and-breakfast scene, in which the proprietors transform into cockroaches.

“I recently got a note from the Jewish couple in that scene,” he said. “They saw the movie and really liked it, which I was glad to hear.”

Pressed Maslin: “Did they say they liked that scene?”

Countered Cohen: “Well, they couldn’t really write that much with their skinny little insect legs.”

That exchange, typical of the hour-long Q&A session, drew a big laugh from the near-capacity crowd that stayed after a screening on the Upper East Side and a cocktail party at Le Cirque.

When Maslin took questions from the audience, one hand that went up belonged to Court TV anchor Ashleigh Banfield.

“With all the litigation surrounding this film, will you have to change your methods in the future?” she asked.

There was a long pause as Cohen and Roach shifted in their seats.

“It’s a pickle,” said Roach finally.

“It’s been so warm in New York, I didn’t even wear a coat,” added Cohen, in a non-sequitur he used all evening whenever the subject of lawsuits, release signatures or the filmmakers’ methodology was broached.

As to the announced plan for a movie based around his Bruno character, Cohen said he’s “exploring it, but it’s not a definite thing at this point." (D. Hayes)