Innholdsfortegnelse for March 3, 2017 i The Hollywood Reporter

Growing up, the Oscars meant one thing in my family: Chinese food. Initially, my parents used chicken fried rice to lure my sisters and me into watching, mostly in disbelief, as three-hour biopics like Gandhi and Amadeus won all the awards over the truly deserving films like Gremlins and The Goonies (which weren’t even nominated!). Then it became a tradition. We’d open the moo shu pork and root for the stars we liked, howl in disbelief at those mid-’80s Cher outfits and admire how even a rich and famous actor could be brought to tears by the recognition of his peers. As I got older, and my taste caught up with the Academy’s (though I like to think it was vice versa), the Oscars became somewhat of an inspiration. When…

TELEVISION GOES BLACK AND WHITE: RACE-BASED PROJECTS ALL THE RAGE Deal of the Week The country’s racial tensions have moved beyond the news hour to become a subject du jour in primetime. Showtime revealed Feb. 17 that it is developing The Ali Summit, a limited series about the momentous June 4, 1967, gathering of 11 of the nation’s top black athletes (plus Ohio state representative Carl Stokes) to vet and ultimately to support Muhammad Ali’s conscientious objection to the Vietnam War draft. The drama, from Jeff and Michael Zimbalist (The Two Escobars), is the latest scripted project explicitly to tackle the topic of race relations in the U.S. and, to a lesser degree, abroad. Two other such projects already are a go at Showtime: Lena Waithe’s coming-of-age drama The Chi,…

FRIDAY, FEB. 24 United Voices Rally Instead of a party, UTA is organizing a protest outside its HQ and donating $250,000 to the ACLU and the International Rescue Committee. … Women in Film WIF’s Cathy Schulman and Brie Larson host its 10th annual cocktail event at Nightingale Plaza. … Common’s Toast to the Arts The rapper/ actor’s intimate dinner has seen the likes of Oprah Winfrey dancing with BFF Gayle King, Jay Z and Beyonce. … CAA and WME will host private events. SATURDAY, FEB. 25 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nick Kroll and John Mulaney will host. … ICM Partners’ private bash this year is a dinner. … MPTF Night Before Party THR is a sponsor of the 15th annual event at Fox Studios, with food from Jon Shook and…

An Unforgettable Evening Beverly Hills, Feb. 16 A Surprise Act and $1.8 Million Raised After a three-year hiatus, the 17th installment of the Unforgettable Evening event returned to L.A. with proceeds — all $1.8 million of them — benefiting the Women’s Cancer Research Fund, a program of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Chris Martin surprised the sold-out Beverly Wilshire ballroom with an unannounced appearance that saw the Coldplay rocker sidle up to the piano and perform songs by recently deceased artists, including George Michael, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and Prince. To keep the music going, honorary co-chair Tom Hanks (2) went table to table with a giant glass, requesting tips to keep Martin at the mic. Breast cancer survivor Tig Notaro hosted the Saks Fifth Avenue-presented event and kept the…

Forget Obamacare and the Keystone Pipeline — what’s really dividing America is Mel Gibson and Taraji P. Henson. Judging by THR’s exclusive new poll of average moviegoing Americans — conducted by the National Research Group, which in early February surveyed about 800 people, half Donald Trump voters, half Hillary Clinton supporters — this nation is as split on its cinema preferences as it is on its politics. “The ideal Oscar night for Trump voters would have Hacksaw Ridge winning best picture, zero acceptance speeches and President Trump in attendance,” says NRG CEO Jon Penn, succinctly summing up the poll results. “For Clinton voters, Hidden Figures would win, every acceptance speech would rip into Trump’s temperament, and he would be home tweeting. The only thing that both sides agree on is…

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A year ago, in early 2016, writer and composer Justin Hurwitz made his first tentative trek down the red carpet in a $300 tux from Men’s Wearhouse at the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for best score soundtrack for visual media for Whiplash. Since then, Hurwitz, 32, has donned Burberry on the Golden Globes carpet and Zegna Couture at the BAFTAs. Now, as he preps for this year’s Academy Awards with three nominations for La La Land, the composer, who already has won two Globes — for best song (“City of Stars”) and best original score — and a BAFTA for original music, has enlisted the services of Hollywood executive style consultant Andrew Weitz of The Weitz Effect. “It’s been an exciting few months and also a little exhausting…

How Twitter Reacted LOVE HATE CRAZY GOLDEN GLOBES Jan. 8, 2017 Trump’s divisive rhetoric and the dearth of A-list talent slated to perform at his Jan. 20 inauguration were hot topics at the ceremony. Jimmy Fallon Host “The character [Florence Foster Jenkins] has been dubbed the world’s worst opera singer, and even she turned down performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration.” Hugh Laurie Best supporting actor in a series, miniseries or motion picture for TV “It’ll be made more amazing by the fact that I’ll be able to say I won this at the last-ever Golden Globes. I don’t mean to be gloomy; it’s just that it has the words ‘Hollywood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title. ... I accept this award on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere.” Meryl Streep Cecil B. DeMille Award…

Thirty-nine years ago, the late legendary publicist Renee Furst introduced me to Carrie Fisher. Renee was representing my company, Atlantic Releasing (later Atlantic Entertainment) on a French-language movie starring Simone Signoret that we had co-financed and were distributing in the U.S. under the title Madame Rosa. Against huge odds, the clever Ms. Furst managed to get Madame Rosa an Academy Award nomination in the best foreign-language film category. I was thrilled; this was a pretty big deal for the little movie business I had founded in Boston just two and a half years earlier. When Renee asked me if I planned on attending the awards show (the 50th), I told her no. Madame Rosa was scheduled for its New York premiere only a few days before the April 3, 1978,…

Most Oscars sit on living room shelves. This one has traveled the world. In 1989, Barry Morrow and Ron Bass nabbed best adapted screenplay statuettes for Rain Man, which revolves around an autistic savant inspired by Morrow’s “mega-savant” friend Kim Peek. “Kim asked to hold my Oscar and then spent the day carrying it everywhere we went,” says the scribe, recalling a visit from the Peek family that occurred a year later. “He just loved the Oscar, so I let him take it.” Peek took Morrow’s statuette to speaking engagements all over the world, using it to help build acceptance of special-needs individuals. By Peek’s count — and he could count — it traveled nearly 3 million miles, was seen by 1.3 million people and was held by 400,000 before Peek’s death in…

If the oddsmakers are correct, La La Land will be the first original musical to win the best picture Oscar since 1958’s Gigi, an MGM production about a singing-and-dancing Parisian courtesan that THR called “a gaily naughty fairy tale for adults.” Along with best picture, Gigi took home eight other Oscars, including best director for Vincente Minnelli, in a record-breaking sweep (that lasted exactly one year, until Ben-Hur took home 11). Liza Minnelli credits the film’s success to her father’s knowledge of “art, painting and literature — he was an expert at bringing all the arts into the movies,” she tells THR. “Not many directors in Hollywood have that talent. Gigi is really smart big-studio entertainment.” At the time, though, THR’s coverage was fixated more on the Oscars’ not-sosmooth telecast,…

Film Angie’s Choice Jolie is back in the spotlight with Cambodia pic p. 34 Television Judge Judy Payday How a shrewd move could lead to $200 million p. 36 Heat Index Donald Glover The Atlanta creator’s wins for best new series and comedy series at the Writers Guild Awards position the FX show as a frontrunner to end Veep’s streak in the Emmys comedy race. Matt Damon His $150 million The Great Wall topples with an $18.5 million U.S. debut, which followed a disappointing run internationally for the Chinese epic. Keith Cox The TV Land executive will take over Viacom’s rebranded Paramount Network as longtime Spike TV exec Sharon Levy exits. Jack Ma The Chinese mogul’s film unit, Alibaba Pictures, warns investors of a possible $140 million loss due to…

CASEY AFFLECK, 41 Manchester by the Sea He’ll star in and direct Light of My Life, then shoot David Lowery’s The Old Man and the Gun with Robert Redford. MAHERSHALA ALI, 43 Moonlight Now shooting Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel, he joins Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier. JEFF BRIDGES, 67 Hell or High Water Bridges has three films in 2017: The Kingsman sequel, Joseph Kosinski’s Granite Mountain and Marc Webb’s The Only Living Boy in New York for Netflix. VIOLA DAVIS, 51 Fences She’ll star in Steve McQueen’s Widows, while ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder has been renewed. ANDREW GARFIELD, 33 Hacksaw Ridge He’s got Andy Serkis’ directorial effort Breathe and David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake in the can. He’s onstage…

Rise of the Dungeon Master (NATION, MAY 9) BY David Kushner AGENCY The Gotham Group This graphic novel follows Gary Gygax, the imaginative misfit who created Dungeons & Dragons in his basement, then faced a broken friendship and backlash from morally outraged parents as his fantasy role-playing game became a worldwide obsession. Hillbilly Elegy (HARPER, 2016) BY J.D. Vance AGENCY WME This timely memoir, a No. 1 New York Times best-seller, has been cited to help explain the outcome of the 2016 election. The former Marine and Yale Law grad uses his childhood in Rust Belt Ohio and Appalachia to depict the plight of the white working class.…

The AVN Awards, which bills itself as “the Oscars of porn,” with such honors as best anal and best girl/girl sex scene, held its 34th ceremony Jan. 21 in Las Vegas. While some of the adult stars show more skin on the red carpet than do mainstream talent, the events actually have a lot in common. The AVNs even have their own #OscarsSoWhite-style debate, with “a lot more barriers for people of color to get into the porn industry,” says black performer Chanell Heart. Just like an Oscar, an AVN boosts a star’s quote — but its nominees are less likely to bring Mom to the show. AWARDS Of 100-plus awards, 19 were given out at the Hard Rock ceremony. All 24 competitive awards will be given out Feb. 26…

Each year around this time, I sit down with an Oscar voter who, under the warm cloak of anonymity, spills his or her true feelings about the current season’s crop of contenders. Not just whom he or she voted for, but exactly why and how that person came to those decisions. It’s not meant to be a scientific survey; it’s just the candid, unsugarcoated opinions of one member (out of 7,000) of the most important and powerful movie club in the world. Below is an edited transcript of one such conversation: This year it was with a longtime female member of the 1,158-member actors branch who — this season, anyway — is not associated with any of the nominees. — SCOTT FEINBERG BEST PICTURE I hated Arrival — it just…

T he political battle lines of our wardrobes have been drawn: #MakeAmericaGreatAgain cap versus pink pussy hat; pendulous necktie versus power pantsuit; Donald Trump versus Nordstrom. Now more than ever, you are what you wear. Which begs the question, as Hollywood gets ready to walk the most rarefied of red carpets on Oscar Sunday, what will it wear? Can you seriously take to the podium and plead to “Let them in” or remember that “America is for everyone” while dressed like a sparkle parrot in priceless haute couture? And if you do, do you risk the Marie Antoinette comparisons that befell Ivanka Trump when she posted a shot of herself on Instagram dressed in a silver-foiled gown while protesters stormed the streets over her father’s travel ban? Maybe that’s why…

1. Avoid collar crimes “When going on the carpet, check that your collar is tucked underneath the jacket and that the jacket is sitting on your shoulder properly,” Weitz says. 2. Bow tie check “Make sure it’s not crooked.” 3. Unclasp the hands The often-photographed hands-clasped-in-front pose for men is to be avoided, says Weitz. “You’re already rounding your shoulders so you’re not standing full in your power.” 4. Hands down If facing the cameras head on, Weitz says, let your hands hang clearly down by your sides. 5. Pocket pose For the most flattering shot, Weitz advises angling yourself away from the cameras with one hand in your pocket — make sure your jacket nicely covers it. — V.B.…

Elton John and husband David Furnish used to sit together but now hold court at separate tables. “It means Elton and I can look after more people by having two tables in the center. It gives more of a chance to make others feel special,” says Furnish, who adds that musicians sit with John. Regulars include New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, actors Alec Baldwin, Jane Fonda, Ryan Kwanten and Chris Colfer, UTA’s Tracey Jacobs and Billy Lazarus, WME’s Sean Grumman, musicians Smokey Robinson and Sheryl Crow and producer Steve Tisch.…

Donald Trump is not an idiot. I know some people see him that way — sitting in the White House, firing off angry tweets because he’s crazy. And maybe he is half crazy, but he’s half genius, too. When I began reviewing the tweets he’s sent out regarding the entertainment industry, I expected they would be a lot of people tweeting “You suck” at him, and Trump tweeting back, “You suck more.” But he surprised me. The narcissism and the ego are definitely there, of course, but I’m seeing Trump as a Hollywood geek. He’s very into stagecraft. He has strong opinions about set design and production. He thinks he has some expertise for putting on shows — maybe as a result of Celebrity Apprentice and the Miss Universe Pageant…

With its enormously high pressure-to-payoff ratio, hosting the Academy Awards long has been considered one of Hollywood’s riskiest jobs. But taking on the first Oscars of the Trump era — where tensions are sure to be high and speeches politically charged — is an even dicier proposition. If Jimmy Kimmel is nervous, however, he’s a master at hiding it. Sitting with THR in his dressing room following a Jan. 17 taping of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 49-year-old funnyman (who also hosted the 2016 Emmys in September) is relaxed and effusive. Not even the impending mayhem in Washington, D.C., seems to rattle him — “My guess is that there will probably be some new crazy thing we’re all talking about,” predicts Kimmel, well before “alternative facts” and national security adviser…

Mahershala Ali Moonlight CHOOSES Janelle Monae Andre Holland Trevante Rhodes Moonlight Michelle Williams Manchester by the Sea CHOOSES best friend Busy Philipps Viggo Mortensen Captain Fantastic CHOOSES Meryl Streep Florence Foster Jenkins Jeff Bridges Hell or High Water CHOOSES Bill Mechanic Hacksaw Ridge producer HARRIS “I would love to sit with Oprah Winfrey. My mom is coming with me. She’s the hugest fan ever, and it’s her dream to meet her. I met Oprah at an event in London, and I thought about calling my mom and saying, ‘Just get in the car and get over here!’ She is so calm and collected, but she will lose it while meeting Oprah. I want to see that moment!” Ruth Negga Loving CHOOSES Michael Shannon Nocturnal Animals Michael Shannon Nocturnal Animals CHOOSES wife Kate Arrington WASHINGTON “Other than my wife? (Laughs.) My…

F resh off their hit fourmonth run of Oh, Hello on Broadway, Nick Kroll and John Mulaney will host Film Independent’s Spirit Awards on Feb. 25 under a tent at Santa Monica Beach (the ceremony will be televised live at 2 p.m. PT on IFC). Kroll, 38, and Mulaney, 34, joked with THR about emceeing the awards and why their elderly stage alter egos probably won’t appear at the show. Are you awards show fans? JOHN MULANEY Oh yeah. The Nobel Prize awards are great. NICK KROLL John and I grew up watching the Kids’ Choice Awards, and obviously the Spirit Awards are that stepping-stone to get that surfboard. MULANEY The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony is the only valuable awards show left because you get to see…

Box-office source: comScore; estimates in $ millions as of Feb. 20; ( )Weekends in release; *Territories. Broadcast source: Nielsen, live-plus-3, week of Feb. 6. Cable TV source: Nielsen, live-plus-3 scripted series, week of Feb. 6. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Sony Pictures Classics, TBA) The critical hit of Sundance, director Luca Guadagnino’s erotic tale of gay summer love amid the Italian countryside stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet (Homeland) in a breakout role. THE CURRENT WAR (The Weinstein Co., TBA) AC or direct electrical current? Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse stake out opposing turf in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s drama. DOWNSIZING (Paramount, Dec. 22) Having directed three successive best pic nominees, Alexander Payne will go for four with this sci-fi comedy starring Matt Damon and Kristen…

I vory Aquino came out publicly as transgender during an emotional January press conference for ABC’s upcoming LGBTQ miniseries When We Rise. “With how powerful the show is and its message of being united amidst diversity, I felt like it was important to share my story,” says the Filipina actress, who makes her TV debut in Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black and director Gus Van Sant’s ABC event series as real-life trans activist Cecilia Chung alongside Guy Pearce and Mary-Louise Parker. Up until now, the theater actress, who came to the U.S. at age 18 and transitioned in her mid-20s, only had played cisgender or nongender- specific characters, without most around her knowing she’s trans. “Someone who’s divorced would never meet you and say, ‘Hi, I’m so-and-so and I’m divorced,’…

“My sexual orientation is up for grabs, I guess you could say.” SUSAN SARANDON The Feud star, who describes herself as a “serial monogamist,” on being open to whatever comes her way in the romance department. “Little boy Kushner, tough guy who’s supposed to achieve Middle East peace, is complaining about me to CNN. Boo-hoo!” ANA NAVARRO The cable news contributor, tweeting taunts at Donald Trump’s son-in-law/adviser, who groused to CNN parent company Time Warner about harsh criticism from her and Van Jones. “She’s not the person you hire when you need to explain what a crazy man meant. She’s the person you need to get when you want to get rid of your daughter’s cheerleading rival.” LEWIS BLACK The host of the WGA Awards East Coast ceremony, on Trump…

Births Loreto Rodriguez, a producer at FishCorb Films, and her husband, director and film editor Rafa Garcia, welcomed daughter Vera Garcia on Jan. 20 at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Hayden Goldblatt, counsel at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz, and his wife, Sally Chetrit, welcomed son Julien Harris Goldblatt on Feb. 2 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Congrats David George was promoted to president of ITV America on Feb. 15. Universal Pictures promoted Megan Bendis to executive vp national publicity Feb. 14. Bron Studios named Anjay Nagpal senior vp production and distribution and tapped Danielle Reardon vp television development Feb. 15. Anthony Galloway was named executive producer of programming for digital video at Conde Nast Entertainment on Feb. 17. First Look Media named Jason Fisher senior…

S hortly after Melanie Griffith was nominated for an Oscar in 1989 for Working Girl, she was browsing in London’s Beauchamp Place when a fairy-tale white gown with an enormous skirt at Emmanuel Boutique caught her eye. “I thought it was just beautiful, and I bought it,” she says. When she took the stage that April to present the best supporting actress trophy with then-beau Don Johnson, her decolletage was nearly as impressive as the billowing skirt, she recalls: “I didn’t know I was pregnant with Dakota at the time I bought it, and my boobs barely fit into the dress.” It was the perfect princess gown for Griffith, though now it seems over the top, says red-carpet critic and author of 100 Unforgettable Dresses Hal Rubenstein: “You look at it…

A select group of doctors and beauty experts in L.A. and New York are working overtime with awards-night attendees. Koji Nakano of NYC’s Salon Ishi helps Zoe Saldana’s tresses maintain luster with a deepconditioning Sherpa treatment ($250), followed by an amino acid ($450) that works similar to a Brazilian blowout without harsh chemicals. “It keeps her hair shiny and helps prevent damage that can be seen under lights,’’ says Nakano. … During Oscar week, aesthetician Mia Belle, whose clients include Gerard Butler and Sophia Amoruso, uses a three-tiered approach at her Beverly Hills boutique. “I keep the jawline tight for photos with microcurrent [$300] and keep the eyes open with ThermiSmooth [$400], a radio-frequency device that stimulates fibroblasts [connective-tissue cells that produce collagen] and elastin. This is important because they…

While many guests are glued to the Oscar telecast, others have an eye on their pocketbooks during the auction. Sharon Stone’s Corvette once snagged $1.1 million, while Helmut Newton’s Naked and Dressed, a signed print with four nudes, went for $700,000. Other top sellers: Private lessons with tennis great Rafael Nadal and a supermodel print from Herb Ritts; both went for $190,000.…

As a child, I had two pagan high holy days every year. The first was Halloween, where I advertised my transgender soul by masquerading as a matador, a Roman soldier, Napoleon or Hamlet. The second was Oscar night, when Hollywood put its dazzling glamour on heady display for the whole world. As I was growing up in the drearily conformist 1950s and early ’60s, it was hard to find information about popular culture, which wasn’t taken seriously. Deep-think European art films were drawing tiny coteries of intellectuals to small, seedy theaters, but flamboyant mainstream Hollywood was still dismissed as crass, commercial trash. Confidential magazine, a splashy rag specializing in steamy innuendo, was my main news source about all things Hollywood. I avidly followed the lurid adventures of my favorite movie…

Five nights before the Oscars, George W. Bush began his carpet-bombing of Baghdad and invasion. That was on Wednesday. By Thursday, there was talk of canceling or shortening the Oscars (by dumping categories like feature documentary). On Friday it was decided to do the show and keep documentaries in the program. It was a very tense night in the Kodak Theatre. It came time in the program for our category and Diane Lane walked onstage to announce the five documentary nominees. She opened the envelope and said, “Bowling for Columbine ... Michael Moore!” On the way up the aisle, because I hadn’t prepared anything, there were two voices in my head, sort of like the character in Lord of the Rings who’s both Smeagol and Gollum. One voice was going,…

SO WHAT DO MICHAEL DE LUCA and Jennifer Todd, who are producing the 89th Academy Awards telecast, need to know? First, don’t ignore events in the outside world. “One of the issues any year, but certainly this year, is how to place the show in the context of the current climate, so I’m sure that’s an issue Michael and Jennifer are wrestling with,” says Bruce Cohen, a producer of the 2011 ceremony. But don’t ignore the audience at the Dolby. “To me, the big rule is: Make sure it’s good in the room first. You can’t have someone who’s too hip in that job as host, because with all those nervous people in the audience, if you have someone who has a kind of snark, it shuts something down,” says Bill…

With the long list of Hollywood deaths in 2016, from Gene Wilder to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the mysterious Academy committee that chooses subjects for the “In Memoriam” segment has a tough task as it strives to include as many names from different branches as possible. Editor Chuck Workman, who is compiling this year’s montage and has done previous ones, says it can be longer than other parts of the show “because there’s so many people you want to get in,” adding that audiences “want to know all these people, but I don’t think they want to sit for 10 minutes.” The number of those featured has grown since 1994, when editor/producer Michael Shapiro set the tone for future shows by including 30 names, mostly actors. The longest list came in…

You may recall the story, but you don’t know the punchline. In March 2000, 55 Oscars were stolen from a loading dock in an L.A. suburb just weeks before the 72nd Academy Awards ceremony. The disappearance of so many iconic statuettes caused a media frenzy, and a public response came fast. R.S. Owens, which had been making the statuettes since 1982, raced to manufacture a new batch of 55. Roughly 20 factory workers worked 24/7 to re-create the entire inventory and shipped them west in time for the curtain call. Within days of the theft, Willie Fulgear, an unemployed junk scavenger, alerted the LAPD that he’d found 52 statuettes while rummaging through a dumpster behind a Food 4 Less near Koreatown. He later quipped that he had “more Oscars than…

During the first four days of Sundance, the annual THR Studio premiered at a brand-new location: Sky Strada on Main Street. Scores of Sundance stars and breakout talent — from actors and directors to breakthrough filmmakers and documentarians — made sure the studio, presented by American Airlines, was on their festival agenda. More than 400 guests, including Jack Black, Woody Harrelson, Kristen Stewart and Salma Hayek, stopped by the photo and video lounge at THR Studio, where they discussed feature films showing at the festival.…

R yan Murphy has had a fluid relationship with the term “showman.” For much of his early career, being described as one — which he often was — was a nod to his interest in theatricality, be it on Popular or on Glee. “I was the P.T. Barnum, razzle-dazzle guy,” he says with a chuckle. But with the understated, nine-Emmy winner The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story came a shift in Murphy, 52. Rather than be the kind of showman who shines a light on costumes and sets, he says he’s now considerably more interested in putting social causes center stage. During a break from promoting his forthcoming FX series Feud — which stars Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, respectively, and premieres…