Israel's President Shimon Peres &
French 1st lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy
French 1st lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
DIOR ENCORE:
Fashion's favorite First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy does seem to adore Dior.
Arriving on an official visit in honor of the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence on Sunday, the former top model wore a cotton camel day dress, complete with the house's accessories.
Karl Lagerfeld & Road Safety....in style
LAGERFELD PLAYS IT SAFE:
Could Karl Lagerfeld do for fluorescent vests what he did for fans, dark glasses and fingerless gloves?
Road safety experts in France hope so.
They've tapped the designer to appear in a new road-safety campaign for summer, geared to encourage drivers to equip themselves with security vests and triangles.
In it, Lagerfeld is pictured wearing dark glasses on a road at night, clad in a reflective safety vest over a black suit and bow tie.
LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:
****Make that $2 billion.
The Associated Press reports today that India's Reliance and other investors are in talks with DreamWorks to raise as much as $2 billion for the latter's new movie venture as it looks to get out from under Paramount.
Previous reports put the figure at or around $1 billion with Reliance ponying up as much as $500-$600 million.
***Nike founder Phil Knight is making a run for Hollywood.
Plans are in motion for his Portland-based animation studio to partner with a Hollywood major in a slate of toons, says Variety.
Knight's outfit, Laika, which does both CG and stop-motion features, will wrap production on its first self-financed feature, "Coraline," this fall and is now shopping three pitches for 50-50 partnerships.
Sacha Baron Cohen has been invited to become a member of the Academy. So here’s one way to revive those pathetic ratings for the Oscar show:
Borat as host.
Very Very Late Night, to be sure.
LBN-NOTICED:
***Mega Los Angeles realtor Donald Sterling having drinks at McCormick and Schmick's on Rodeo, while suspiciously watching the Lakers.
**Hulk Hogan having dinner at Louise's Trattoria in West L.A.
***FHM model Chanel Ryan signing her calendar at the iCandy Expo in Los Angeles. 
The DreamWorks link with Reliance, the giant conglom from India, dominated conversation in Hollywood this week, giving everyone an excuse to avoid thinking about the de facto strike triggered by SAG.
Some common-sense questions were the focus of the “day-after” dialogue:
Here they are, along with some purely speculative answers:--
Why would Reliance invest half a billion dollars in Hollywood when foreign-based entities like Matsushita that previously spent big bucks on studios all took a bath?
The likely answer: Reliance operatives believe they’re a lot smarter.
They’re also betting on a great filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, not just an anonymous company, like MCA (which Matsushita acquired in 1990).--
Why would Spielberg involve himself in these intricate maneuverings when he can make any movie he wants and already has all the money he (or anyone else) could possibly need?
Answer: Because he’s probably still hooked on the DreamWorks dream.
He set out to create something unique and it’s never quite happened the way he wanted.--
Since everyone knows Spielberg and Stacey Snider would like to return to Universal with a mega distribution deal, why doesn’t Universal make it happen quickly?
Answer: Universal already has abundant product and some of its top executives are leery about the complexities of “managing” DreamWorks.
More important, what happens if GE unloads NBC-Universal and its dealmaking mobility is suddenly inhibited?--
Could Paramount refuse to part with any of the DreamWorks projects that it’s put in development and how would Spielberg cope with an empty slate?
Answer: Spielberg could render these projects essentially unmakeable by invoking provisions of his production deal –
7½% of the gross till break, then 50% of the profits.
Two parties – Paramount and DreamWorks – would have to do some nimble negotiation.
The end result: Major legal fees and possible impasse.--
Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, is also putting up development money for stars like Hanks, Clooney, Carrey and Pitt.
He’s supposedly the world’s sixth richest person, but doesn’t he realize no one ever wins by funding development?
Answer: If any of his projects are made, he has the option of providing half the production funding for the films.
He also wins the eternal love and gratitude of CAA, which brokered the deals.
On the other hand, only one in 20 projects developed by studios ever makes it to production – will the stars have a better batting average?
The bottom line: The Indians can afford the gamble.
So can Spielberg and his irrepressible partner, David Geffen.
And Hollywood could certainly use a fresh infusion of both capital and optimism.
Posted: Thu., June 19, 2008,
June 18
Aside from DreamWorks, a number of top stars including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey and George Clooney also are benefiting from the Indian largesse.
The stars, along with filmmakers like Jay Roach and Chris Columbus, quietly closed financing deals this week under which Reliance (the company that hooked up with DreamWorks) will fund development slates for stars and star filmmakers.
Engineered by CAA, the deal provides renewable funds of $1.5 million per star that will be used to develop scripts.
The projects then will be shopped to the studios with Reliance having the right to put up 50% of the production funding on each project.
The deals are important for CAA as well as for the stars.
As the studios resist expansive gross participation, agents have been having a tough time carving deals with the majors.
With fully developed material and half the funding, CAA is in a far stronger position to make the deals it has coveted in the past and counter the studios’ belt-tightening.
LBN COMMENTARY By JERRY SEINFELD:
George Carlin with comedy was like a train hobo with a chicken bone.
When he was done there was nothing left for anybody.
LBN-DID YOU KNOW:
***More books are sold on the internet than any product.
***43%of people who go to a bookstore are looking for a specific title.
***77%of people who go to a bookstore make additional purchases when looking for a specific book.
***In 2007, sales of fiction titles were up while sales of business, sociology, economics, history, and religion titles were down.
***There is an estimated 117,467 libraries nationwide, representing public, private, academic and specialized library.
LBN-CURRENTLY READING:
Television show host, Connie Martinson (of Connie Martinson Talks Books), is reading America in the Post-World, by Fareed Zakaria.
LBN-QUOTE:
"When someone is impatient and says, 'I haven't got all day,'
I always wonder, How can that be?
How can you not have all day?"---George Carlin.
LBN-HISTORY:
On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released a report on the so-called "Roswell Incident," suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.
Interview: Smith and Charlize in ‘Hancock’
Interview: Smith and Charlize in ‘Hancock’
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Will Smith and Charlize Theron say Hancock not your father’s superhero - 4 stars
****By Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today)
6/24/08 -
“There hasn’t been a new superhero in maybe forty years,” says Will Smith who plays the title character in Columbia Pictures ‘Hancock’.
“Spider-Man, Iron Man and Batman and Superman, those were our fathers’ superheros.
It’s very hard to create a new superhero.”
“It’s so hard to come up with something original,” says Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron.
“I think that it’s always brave to take something that’s a quintessential loved genre, which is the superhero,
especially in the American culture, to kind of turn that upside-down and say, let’s look at that from a completely different angle.
What if superheros weren’t perfect?”
“Hancock doesn’t know everything about Hancock,” says Smith.
Theron says, “We have to get him into a situation where he can turn his life around.”
“We looked in the creation of Hancock at Greek mythology,” says Smith.
“There were gods and everything, but they had regular problems.”
“What if they were actually closer to us as human beings?” says Theron.
“What if they were alcoholics and they were tired of saving people?
What if they were actually lonely and wished they had love?
Basically, a superhero on Dr. Phil.”
“He drinks a little too much,” says Smith.
“He’s an alcoholic superhero.
He can fly, but he flies drunk.
He flies into buildings.
The only difficult part was the flying.
We built these flying rigs.
A lot of the flying stuff is real, practical, in the air, gravity.”
“The technology out there today is just incredible,” says Theron.
“And what they can do is absolutely insane.
I think it’s become a little safer, especially since I did ‘Aeon Flux’.”
The star had to take a month from filming ‘Aeon Flux’ after she injured her back doing her own stunts.
“I like that we were creating a new superhero, and I like that he was flawed,” says Theron.
“What I liked about this is it was the most human story that I’ve read in a long time.
It really dealt with the human condition.
As actors you’re always inspired and excited to delve into a world that deals with human behavior.
I thought it was flawed and interesting.”
“Hancock said everything he wanted to say and did everything that he wanted to do,” says Smith.
“It’s so opposite of how I lead own life.
There’s so much concern and care to say and do things right in the press.
I just love that Hancock doesn’t care at all.”
“My character gets to really fall on her face and learning what that means for her,” says Theron.
“I’m always interested to play women who are conflicted and find themselves in environments where they don’t always get to make the best decisions.
Where life takes over and emotion takes over and human behavior takes over.”
“She likes being a teacher and loves driving her stepson to soccer until the day this guy drops in,” says Theron.
“Hancock. She hates him. She absolutely hates him.
There’s a real animosity instantly towards him, which of course means she’s crazy about him, in girl terms.
Boys don’t realize that.
The meaner we are, the more we’re into you.”
“It was a great time,” says Theron.
“It was a pleasure.
Will and I had done a film eight years ago called the legend of Bagger Vance.
We had a great time on that.
We didn’t get to work together as much on that as we did on this.
Jason and I worked on Arrested Development together.
I knew him and fell in love with him a bit on that.
Peter is great energy.
He’s crazy, but really smart.”
“The cast was hugely important,” says Smith.
“He likes to ‘find it’.
“The way that Pete Berg likes to shoot is unrehearsed.
The cameras are all handheld so everybody can move.
If you do something, great, he can go in and get it.
There’s an improvisational free-form feeling.
Hancock owes a lot to ‘Spider-Man’, another superhero who was an ordinary guy who had power thrust upon him.
For Hancock, a superhero with no mission, with great power comes great irresponsibility.
A drunk Hancock still saves lives.
However, the collateral property damage is extensive.
An idealistic publicist takes Hancock under his wing to give him a make-over
Will Smith brings likability and rough charm.
Charlize Theron looks beautiful and a tremendous actress, as always.
Jason Bateman plays the straight man, setting up the laughs.
The title ‘Hancock’ was thankfully changed from the working title of ‘Tonight, He Comes.”
‘Hancock’ is funny with lots of action, although a bit violent and derelict.
Great for superhero fans.
Release Date: July 2nd, 2008 (USA)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and language
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Filming Locations: Los Angeles
Duration: 90 minutes
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