Peter Bart Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

What do writers do when they can’t write? It’s an exasperating question, since some write anyway – even in risky ways.

Navigating the frenzied Cannes Film Festival scene can prove perilous for a first-timer, even if he’s boss of the Oscars.

This is a dark moment for frazzled members of the writing fraternity.

What is Rupert Murdoch up to? At age 92 he confronts the challenge of re-energizing Fox News, yet his stewardship remains as enigmatic as his politics.

Tom Hanks has expertly re-invented himself over the years, moving from rom-com star (Big) to war hero (Saving Private Ryan) to character actor (Elvis), and as a writer-director with That Thing You Do! and Larry Crowne. His newest chapter: novelist.

“Show me the money” was the memorable battle cry in Jerry Maguire, the 1996 movie about a sports agent who must “deliver” for his manic client.

One was fiercely focused, the other accident-prone. They both made it.

“I never set out to play the hero, but since I’m usually cast as one I want to be the best paid hero.”

A.O. Scott this week ends his 23-year run as film critic for the New York Times and most movie people are glad to see him go. So is he.

Now that the noise has subsided, were there any helpful takeaways from the Oscars?

The verdict seems clear: Mel Brooks continues to thrive as the auteur of disorder. Further, his blasphemies on Hulu this week serve as a welcome distraction from the numbing debates that usually dominate Oscar Week.

With today’s “urgent reminder” directed to its membership, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences again is doing its damnedest to get out the vote. The Oscar event is still a battlefield of “gold, sweat and tears” as portrayed in Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman’s new book, despite the ominous industry challenges.

The annual Oscar melee always reminds us of this mandate: Never believe the “buzz.” Every important movie arrives with an aura – and it’s usually wrong or misleading.

From the outset, Sumner Redstone was a curiosity.

The classic New York vs. Los Angeles tension is playing out on several fronts at the moment, much to the discomfort of those of us who align with both sides.

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.

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.

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.