Peter Bart Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The “what if?” game has always fascinated me: What if Donald Trump had been cast in Shark Tank rather than The Apprentice (it was Mark Burnett’s call)? He likely would have been broke rather than president.

The Oscar nominations this week set off a new round of speculation about corporate image: Does it matter that Netflix’s potential Oscar take had dropped to 16 from 36 in 2020?

The season of rambling acceptance speeches is at hand, prompting that nasty question: Why can’t award winners learn how to edit their gratitude? Or find an editor to help?

In his new ad campaign, former Navy prosecutor Ron DeSantis dons an aviator outfit replete with goggles, billing himself as “Top Gov” and spoiling for a dogfight against the liberal-leading media. Those who disagree with his positions are promptly dis-invited to future speeches or press conferences. 

The curtain is being raised Thursday night on what looks to be an idiosyncratic festival awards season, as organizers of the Palm Springs Gala to kick off the Palm Springs Film Festival with a hope that audiences somewhere, somehow, will start talking about movies.

A brilliant negotiator, Lew Wasserman was the ex-agent who presided over the vast MCA Universal media empire from his black tower. He favored black suits and austere offices and seemed to convey stress as he strolled about his kingdom.

Avatar: The Way of Water‘s mega-publicized opening has brought movies back into the conversation, but movie-makers seem to have been lost in the mist. James Cameron’s persona is ablaze across the media but, by contrast, the very personal work of Sam Mendes, James Gray and even Steven Spielberg has done a fade-out in recent weeks.

When James Cameron delivered Avatar in 2009, none of us quite grasped that this was not a movie but a constellation of movies – one that will represent a multibillion-dollar investment in the coming years. One iteration is even booked for 2028.

Holiday parties are usually a mix of people and purposes but hosts this year are intent on cross-pollinating the stars of film with those of Hollywood’s exo planets – YouTube and TikTok. So will Robert DeNiro enjoy trading secrets this year with PewDiePie? What will Leonardo Di Caprio confide to MrBeast or Liza Kushy or Bryan Lourd to FaZeApex?

Having just arrived in Los Angeles, Prince Philip faced a covey of reporters with photographers snapping away. “You asked about my mission to America,” he said. “The Queen and I are dedicated to helping the underprivileged. Mind you, we realize that an underprivileged child in Los Angeles is one who doesn’t have his own swimming pool.”

When Michael Eisner was making a ceremonial exit as Disney’s CEO in 2005 he acknowledged that the intrigues of succession had become “Shakespearean.” Rival corporate factions were vying for power. Some insiders were persuaded that Eisner never would actually depart.

Tom McCarthy is a very clever writer who has succeeded in drawing audiences to a difficult genre: thrillers about newspapers. He won an Original Screenplay Oscar for Spotlight, made in 2015, was a riveting movie about how the Boston Globe exposed a cover-up involving a defrocked priest. His new ABC series Alaska Daily focuses on a hot New York journalist (Hilary Swank) who is exiled into covering crime in Anchorage.

Three rite-of-passage movies are vying for attention this week at a moment when the rewards of maturity seem to be offering more gratification than the agonies of youth.

I had just arrived at a small dinner party several years ago when a surprise guest, Johnny Carson, seated himself across from me and promptly invoked the dreaded “L” word. “We haven’t met before, so I should explain that I’m not a very ‘likable’ dinner companion,” he advised. “I’m paid to be entertaining on TV but dinner is a ‘no laugh’ zone.”

He spoke in a raspy monotone that was at once commanding, yet menacing. Howard Strickling officially was the public relations boss of MGM during its heyday, but his real responsibility, he would explain, was protection more than publicity.

A team of painters were at work this week restoring the mega-photographed Hollywood sign, a mission that carries a perverse irony.

“Every movie needs a rabbi,” the great and grumpy Robert Altman once warned fellow filmmakers. “You need at least one important critic to champion your cause.”

Cynics have tabbed them “The Doomsday Summits.” To believers, however, their mission is to re-energize the Oscars at a moment when award shows in general are in massive retreat.

Paramount’s horror movie Smile struck up $2M in Thursday night previews that started at 7 p.m., a figure that’s just above M. Night Shyamalan’s Old from summer 2021, which did $1.5M in its previews, and just under Universal/Blumhouse’s Black Phone Thursday previews which were $3M in June.

Her first film was Booksmart, and her second should have been titled Mediasmart. Instead it’s Don’t Worry Darling, and it’s been a worry from the outset.

The TV ratings were celestial, the crowds unprecedented and the media downright reverential, so in purely show business terms the British monarchy’s new boss, King Charles III, should feel thrilled for having survived an historic week.

While the Emmys drew mixed reviews, the film festivals closed to strong applause this week, not only for their movies (we’d forgotten some) but for their star turnout (forgot a few of them, too).

The rules of survival in Hollywood have always fascinated me. “Consistency is the key – always present yourself to studios as a total bitch,” Bette Davis once confided. “Never delude yourself into thinking that a star can become a loyal personal friend,” advised Billy Wilder. “Since studios always lie, a producer’s mandate is to come up with bigger lies,” said David O. Selznick.

News junkies this week are agitated over the disappearance of CNN’s Reliable Sources, but cable news network chiefs have a deeper concern: the disappearance of reliable anchors.

As actors ponder their Emmy acceptance speeches for Sept 12, one wonders whether some incipient Adrian Lester envy might creep into their thoughts. Lester, the Black British actor, won a Tony nomination for playing both a German Jewish banker and a female character in The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway. At the Emmys, actors like Jennifer Coolidge and Steve Martin will likely win kudos for essentially playing themselves, with great aplomb.

David Zaslav is a busy man, but I think he would benefit from a meeting with Alfred Hitchcock. They had this in common: Facing cycles of disruption, each decided to call a “time out” to gain perspective and design new strategies.

A growing number of consumers are defying the media maze by paying a visit to their neighborhood movie theaters. It’s simpler to buy a ticket than re-subscribing to Netflix or Disney+.

Hollywood is spending a lot of time and money in its effort to steer around the culture wars, but some contend it’s a hopeless mission: A growing sector of society is so polarized that “left” and “right” have melted into a blur. Hence a same-sex kiss between Lightyear power rangers stirs angst in Florida and bans in the Middle East, while Elon Musk goes viral when he confusingly announces he’s no longer “a liberal” (he’s still the world’s richest man).

Where do great movies come from? When Netflix started creating its own shows a decade ago, Ted Sarandos and his colleagues put that question to select creatives around town. It was a smart exercise – but most respondents insisted there was no answer.

With our nation increasingly divided, several media gurus over the July 4 break decreed that Hollywood owed filmgoers a “feel-good-about-America” movie. Something unifying and patriotic, like a contemporary Yankee Doodle Dandy.

“It was like a palace of pitching. There’s never been any place like it.”

“Unless you happen to be Tom Cruise, launching a new movie today is a study in frustration. Or self-destruction.”

Having paid my $8.50 to see Top Gun: Maverick last weekend, my local cineplex inadvertently improved my appreciation of the film. For three minutes the sound clicked off and, minus dialogue, I was instantly caught up in the soaring jets, hyper-caffeinated cast and the durable charisma of its star. Then sound returned, the story unfolded and reality set in: This is not really a plot but a superbly crafted business plan, half video game and half military recruitment film. It’s the perfect structure for a Tom Cruise genre-bashing blockbuster.

It was an intimate cocktail party. Tom Cruise wore a cheerful smile so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to test it. “For someone who’s just been fired, you look very happy,” I said. “Sumner Redstone figured you would be angry by the press release.”

Box office is big news this week, not so much for its totals as for its totemic significance. Throngs will greet Top Gun: Maverick, but will kids join the grownups to see a nearly 60 year-old actor starring in a sequel to a 36 year-old hit? At the other end of the audience spectrum, will seniors conquer their torpor to catch the new Downton and even lure their kids – the movie is dubiously titled Downton Abbey: A New Era to motivate the youth quadrant.

The American Cinematheque has announced David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, is the newest addition to the group’s board of directors.Zaslav spearheaded the recent transaction between AT&T and Discovery, Inc.