film

You're Welcome, R.J. Cutler!

cityfile · 07/29/09 09:27AM

Remember back in January when we posted amusing little ringtones of Vogue's Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley? It was a resounding success, we must admit: something like 30,000 people downloaded the clips thanks to the flurry of press that followed, including a shout-out in French Vogue. Well, one of those people must have been R.J. Cutler, the director of The September Issue, the documentary about Vogue opening next month. Because as part of the promotional campaign for the movie, Cutler just released ringtones of—you guessed it—Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley.

The Valedictory Address of the Future?

cityfile · 07/28/09 02:05AM

Meet Kenya Mejia, this year's valedictorian at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. If her remarks at last month's graduation ceremony strike you as a bit forced, there's a good reason for that. Mejia may be the first high school student in history to insert a product placement into a graduation speech, a plug for the romantic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper for which Twentieth Century Fox paid her $1,800.

Walter Cronkite's Death & Harry Potter's Big Win

cityfile · 07/20/09 11:31AM

• News of Walter Cronkite's death on Friday evening didn't generate a Michael Jackson-like reaction, but the hour-long CBS News special honoring him on Sunday proved a ratings winner. In related news, the network will continue airing Cronkite's voice-over introducing the CBS Evening News. [NYT, NYT]
• Is Janice Min leaving Us Weekly? That's the rumor, at least. [P6]
• Fashion magazines are looking a little thin this fall, not surprisingly. [MW]
Padma Lakshmi is in talks with NBC to star in a sitcom. [Variety]
• More changes are afoot at Interview: Evan Schindler is the troubled mag's new president. And Stephen Mooallem has been named editor-in-chief. [NYT]
• As expected, the new Harry Potter movie mopped up at the box office this weekend with $79.5 million in ticket sales. The big loser? Brüno, which fell to fourth place as sales plummeted 73 percent. [EW, Variety]

BusinessWeek, Brüno, Bernie & Jared Kushner

cityfile · 07/13/09 12:39PM

• Looking to buy a struggling business magazine that's losing advertisers right and left? You're in luck. McGraw-Hill has put BusinessWeek up for sale. [BN]
• The hottest interview in TV-land right now? Bernie Madoff, naturally. [B&C]
• Not such great news for the television biz: Most networks are experiencing a double-digit drop in summer ratings compared to last year. [USAT]
• MySpace is no longer a "place for friends." (That's what Facebook is for.) It's a Web site "for accessing entertainment and related information." [WSJ]
• Former Observer reporter Gabriel Sherman takes a look at Observer owner Jared Kushner in this week's issue of New York. Among other things, Kushner says he found the paper "unbearable" until he bought it. [NYM]
Brüno's $30 million gross made it No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [THR]

A Recession-Friendly Vogue, Another Transformers Win

cityfile · 07/06/09 11:37AM

• It looks like Vogue is finally taking note of the recession. The July issue features a $40 Gap hat and $50 pair of J. Crew shorts. Ouch. [NYT]
• The Transformers sequel topped the box office once again this week, raking in $42.4 million to edge out Fox's 3D movie Ice Age by a smidge. [THR]
• Some retailers have been covering up the new issue of GQ featuring a semi-nude Sacha Baron Cohen. Not that GQ minds the "controversy." [NYT]
• Casey Kasem counted down the hits for the last time this weekend. [ABC]

Layoffs, Closings & The Birth of New Network

cityfile · 07/01/09 12:36PM

• Cablevision is planning to launch an entire cable network devoted to nothing but wedding shows. So now you'll be able to watch Bridezillas 24/7. Yay. [B&C]
• It may not be over for Vibe. Quincy Jones, who founded the magazine in '93, says he's looking into buying it back and keeping it alive as a website. [Ebony]
Spin reportedly laid off 20 percent of its staff yesterday. [Gawker]
• Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. by circulation, is reportedly cutting between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs at the company. [WSJ]
• More bad news for CNN: MSNBC is now in front on weeknights and Campbell Brown's nightly show continues to plunge in the ratings, too. [NYT, TVBTN]
• CNBC's Dennis Kneale doesn't like it when bloggers mock him. Will acting like a nut on TV fix that? No, but it sure makes for amusing TV. [Dealbreaker]

Make Way For the Man In the Yellow Sunglasses

cityfile · 06/17/09 03:40PM

Exciting news about pharmaceutical billionaire Stewart Rahr landed in our inbox today: "Stewart Rahr produced his first feature film, Shannon's Rainbow starring an award winning cast including Julianne Michelle, Daryl Hannah, Louis Gossett Jr., Eric Roberts, Claire Forlani, Krista Allen, Charles Durning, Steve Guttenberg, Stephen Colletti, Scott Eastwood, Jason Gedrick, and Melissa Spielberg Katz. Rahr is King of Hollywood now!" Does that make Lisa Maria Falcone the queen? Possibly! All you info you need about Rahr's exciting new film—"the story of a 17-year-girl who faces and overcomes hardship with the love of a horse and the mother she never knew she had"—available here.

Trouble For the Weinsteins?

cityfile · 06/05/09 03:30PM

This can't be good news for Harvey and Bob: "The Weinstein Company, the studio behind Academy-Award winning film "The Reader," has hired financial adviser Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC to explore possible restructuring or refinancing, according to people familiar with the situation." [WSJ]

Lydia Hearst Denied

cityfile · 06/04/09 03:27PM

Have you seen those bus posters featuring a scantily clad Lydia Hearst? The ads are promoting an indie movie called The Last International Playboy and while the stick-thin socialite only has a minor role in the movie—she strips and gets hot and heavy with a guy and a girl in the opening scene—she's front and center in the press campaign, not surprisingly. Tragically, though, the oft-nude publishing heiress reports she's been the victim of censorship! Although the ads appear on NYC buses, they've been banned in Seattle, Chicago and Dallas, she says. Guess we have a different tolerance level when it comes to these things! [NYO]

Casting Bernie

cityfile · 06/04/09 10:46AM

The man cast to play Bernie Madoff in the upcoming docudrama, Madoff: Made Off with America, is Jersey City resident—and non-professional actor—Paul Cohen. The movie's director, Edmund Druilhet, says he picked Cohen because he "had the best lips." But they share other traits, too: "Both are Jewish, have April birthdays and attended school in the Far Rockaway section of Queens." So, you know, there's that. [Forward, Page Six]

Twitter, CNN, Fox News & Facebook

cityfile · 05/26/09 12:04PM

• How is Twitter going to make money? With a reality TV series, naturally. The show will involve "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format," in case you were wondering. [Variety]
• The primetime lineups for next year "are chockablock with shows meant to make recession-weary viewers laugh and feel better." How encouraging! [NYT]
• Ratings are down for CNN's Anderson Cooper as well as for Roland Martin, who has been subbing for Campbell Brown recently. [Page Six]
• Bravo's next Real Housewives installment: Washington, DC. [Daily Intel]
• Fox News nut Greta Van Susteren may not be around for long. Rumor has it her contract won't be be renewed and Megyn Kelly will replace her. [NYT]
New York lost close to $5 million last year; with ad pages down 37 percent thus far in 2009, "losses are expected to be even higher this year." [NYP]
• A Russian investment firm has dropped $200 million into Facebook's bank account in return for a 1.96 percent stake in the company. [NYT]
• Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum sequel beat out the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise with a four-day pull of $70 million. [Reuters]

Playboy For Sale; Cannes and Upfront Week Wrap Up

cityfile · 05/22/09 11:58AM

• Want to buy Playboy? Mail a check for $300 million to Hugh Hefner. [NYP]
• A look at the "highlights, lowlights and sidelights" from upfront week. [NYT]
• The Cannes Film Festival didn't stir up as much buzz as in years past, although industry types are hoping/praying that the worst is over. [WSJ]
Tyra Banks will have 12 hours of airtime a week on the CW this fall; if she "gets hit by a car this year, the CW will have to go out of business." [NYP]
Bruce will be the last act at Giants Stadium before it's demolished. [AP]
T+L's new pro-travel ad campaign suggests people "please go away." [WWD]
• Vintage Books is promoting Netherland with a blurb by Barack Obama. [NYO]
• Jon Peters' tell-all about Hollywood sure sounds interesting! [DHD]

Bob Weinstein's Inglourious Trip Home From Cannes

cityfile · 05/22/09 11:34AM

The situation at the Weinstein Co. is getting pretty dire: Poor Bob Weinstein was forced to fly home from Cannes on a commercial plane. In coach, no less. To make matters worse, he was seated at the rear of the plane, "leaving the mogul to stew in the back of the cabin while the minutes to his next plane ticked by, instead of in the front of the line, where he's more accustomed to stand." The gentle, generous demeanor he shares with his brother is unchanged, though. As he left the plane, a woman asked him to help her reach her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. Weinstein's response: "That'll be ten bucks." Too bad he was kidding! Ever little bit helps when you've blown through $1.2 billion and you still haven't managed to come up with a winner at the box office. [The Wrap]

Magazine Award Winners, Hollywood's Best Year Ever

cityfile · 05/01/09 10:41AM

Esquire, The New Yorker, Backpacker, and Wired were all big winners at last night's National Magazine Awards, although the mood was much more subdued this year, not surprisingly. [ NYT, WWD, NYP]
Portfolio's Joanne Lipman reflects on what went wrong. [Newsweek]
• Hollywood might be on track for its best year ever at the box office. [WSJ]
• A roundup of the winners at the Tribeca Film Festival. [NYT, THR]
• White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers appears on the cover of the new issue of WSJ. The idea of having her pose in an Oscar de la Renta gown in the First Lady's garden was vetoed by the powers-that-be, wisely. [WWD]

Wall Street, Part Deux

cityfile · 04/29/09 10:42AM

Greed is good... again! 20th Century Fox has confirmed that it will be resuscitating the 1987 classic, Wall Street. Oliver Stone, who is probably still licking the wounds from his recent string of embarrassing films (Alexander, World Trade Center, W.) has signed on to direct, and Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of soulless fat cat Gordon Gekko, will also be returning. Shia LaBeouf is in talks to join the cast, too, which would make him the only person under 60 involved in the project.

Box Office Gets a Boost, Redstone Catches a Break

cityfile · 03/02/09 11:58AM

• The recession hasn't been all that bad as far as Hollywood is concerned: Ticket sales this year are up 17.5% and attendance is up 16%. [NYT]
• Viacom and CBS chieftain Sumner Redstone will have until the end of next year to sell off assets in order to repay his enormous pile of debt. [WSJ]
• Hearst is looking to charge readers for online access to its newspapers. [WSJ]
• Univision has laid off 300 people, or 6 percent of its workforce. [AP]
• Hachette is planning to reorganize its collection of women's titles. [WSJ]
• The recession has forced food mags to focus on cheap dining options. [NYT]
• Sarah Silverman's Comedy Central show hasn't been renewed yet and now the show's executive producers have threatened to quit the network. [THR]
Madea Goes to Jail was No. 1 at the box office again this weekend. [NYDN]
• Another Bernie Madoff-related book is in the works. [NYP]