CREEPY ACTOR FACING MULTIMILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT "Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard allegedly assaulted composer Tex Allen in a backstage beatdown as they worked together on Broadway's 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' last winter, according to a lawsuit. Now Allen, a jazz pianist and the brother of Debbie Allen - who directed the play - is demanding $5 million for his alleged fat lip, according to court papers. Allen claims the alleged assault ruined his music playing. The suit alleges that Howard confronted Allen … during a Jan. 24 rehearsal … and punched him repeatedly in the face and head. The suit does not divulge the reason for the fight."
Brett Easton Ellis' most famously depraved novel, American Psycho, is heading to the stage. The book and subsequent film prominently feature monologues about 80s Reagan-era bands, which will play a large part in the musical production's development.
Though taking a gamble on theater, producers Craig Roessler and Johnson-Roessler have high hopes that a satirical look at murder on Wall Street will strike a gallows-humor chord with the ex-Lehman brother crowd.
Below, one scene from the film version of AP that will definitely be a highlight of the dance numbers:
Katie Holmes' Broadway debut in All My Sons last night was not without incident. No, Tom didn't beat a man bloody with his small but lightning-fast balled fists. As has become the norm at any event attended by noteworthy Scientologists, 'twas those funny, funny, funny Anonymous weirdos keeping it interesting:
About 30 protesters lined up at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre and chanted “Scientology kills!”
Some wore masks like in the movie “V for Vendetta,” and one poster read: “FREE KATIE.”
'ALL MY SONS' STRIKES BACK "Producers of the Broadway revival of 'All My Sons' are countering rumors that co-star Katie Holmes is not selling tickets by announcing advance sales of $3.5 million. … Since box office opened for the play, speculation has appeared in the press that Holmes may not be the draw producers had hoped. … However, if the advance figure released by producer Eric Falkenstein is accurate, 'All My Sons' looks to rank alongside 'Equus' as one of the fall season's biggest nonmusical box office performers."
'SAVE KATIE' "When Katie Holmes’ Broadway show 'All My Sons' opens Oct. 16, ticket holders won’t be the only ones in attendance. The anti-Scientology group Anonymous will be on hand for Holmes’ Broadway debut as well. The group confirms that a protest will take place opening night. 'We aren’t looking to shut it ('All My Sons') down, we don’t have the power to do that, we just want to prove a point,' one spokesperson (who remains anonymous, natch) confirmed via phone. … Of the group’s plans to picket the 'Sons' opening, the spokesperson said their main aim was to 'save Katie.'"
HE'S ALL GROWDS UP"David Mamet's 'American Buffalo,' a robbery tale set in a Chicago junk shop, has found its third partner in crime — Haley Joel Osment, who will be making his Broadway debut in the production. The 20-year-old Osment, who was an Academy Award nominee for 'The Sixth Sense,' joins John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer in the revival that opens Nov. 17 at the Belasco Theatre. Preview performances begin Oct. 31."
The Holmes backlash has been in effect for quite awhile now, what with her marrying that crazy guy and bearing his creepily-perfect alien love baby. But give credit where credit is due, Holmes isn't the worst actress in Hollywood today. (Melanie Griffith still gets work.)
Although fans of the Dark Knight were relieved when Maggie Gyllenhaal took over to play Katie's role, Holmes has always been one of those young actresses whose performance can best be described with words like "decent," "acceptable," and "passing." She was very good in Thank You For Smoking, actually. Unfortunately, as Mrs. Cruise tries to take Xenu's gospel to the Great White Way, her acceptable mediocrity isn't bowling over the Broadway audiences:
'MAMMA MIA!' UPS THE IRRITATING ANTE "Moviegoers who can't resist singing along to 'Dancing Queen' are in luck. Universal aims to pump up Labor Day weekend grosses for its hit movie musical 'Mamma Mia!' by presenting 'Mamma Mia! The Sing-Along Edition' in select theaters nationwide. … For the sing-along engagements, the movie's prints will include subtitled lyrics to all the songs so that audiences can sing along."
WEST END IT LIKE BECKHAM "David Beckham is coming to a stage near you — sort of. British playwright Mark Archer is in talks with West End producers to bring the soccer god's life story to the London stage … David Beckham — The Theatre of Dreams will focus on the 33-year-old's 'rise from obscurity to international stardom, his universally acknowledged gifts as a supreme sportsman, and his Hollywood lifestyle all have the elements of an aspirational fable,' Archer told the paper."
Oh no! Julia Roberts couldn't do it; nor could Amanda Peet or Denzel Washington. And it looks like Katie Holmes' chance to do it was over before it even began. But we had such high hopes for Morgan Freeman! He was supposed to be The One, the major movie star that would take Broadway by storm with a performance hailed by critics and ticket buyers alike. Alas, it was not to be:
… if Mr. Freeman [in The Country Girl] was still unsure of his lines, it was undetectable in the performance I saw, which exuded a low-key confidence and charm. (This is not, I hasten to point out, what the part requires at all times.) And if you compare this version’s script with Odets’s published text, the deletions and discrepancies don’t change the sense of things, though the word substitutions are often bizarrely capricious. I would happily have put up with flubbed lines if real runaway feelings accompanied them.
…
In theater as in film Mr. Freeman is a quietly commanding presence. When Frank auditions for Bernie, the producer (Chip Zien) and the playwright (Remy Auberjonois) in the opening scene and begins improvising, you get a flash of the wild-card artistry that makes Bernie prize him. Otherwise he seems natural, affable, occasionally irritable, but not like a man wrestling with demons.
We've known for years that we hate Perez Hilton, and it's quite obvious that Perez Hiton hates Perez Hilton, but who knew that Perez Hilton's readers also hate Perez Hilton?
After the jump, some fan reactions to the news that the Gossip Gangster is the subject of an upcoming musical.
CONTINUED »
Thank Allah we're in Saudi Arabia:
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are moving to the Big Apple!
As Holmes preps to make her Broadway debut this fall, "[Katie] and Tom are committed to keeping the family together, so they have to get an apartment here [in New York]," All My Sons producer Eric Falkenstein tells the New York Post.
It will never happen, but what we wouldn't give to see Tom Cruise turn curtly toward some guy on the A train to say, in that trademark nasal whine: "You're not supposed to have bikes down here!"
Yesterday's New York Times profile of Morgan Freeman was, for me, akin to learning Santa's not real all over again:
"I really spent 20 years in theater trying to get into the movies," he said. "From childhood that’s what I wanted to do. Mostly I don’t want to do stage. It’s too much work. Movies, you do a little work, make a lot of money and move on. I like that."
When she finally leaves that damn husband of hers, Katie Holmes will reportedly flee to New Yawk City, where she already has a role lined up in a Broadway revival of All My Sons. An Arthur Miller masterpiece, Sons depicts a few days in the life of a deceitful patriarch whose guilt and lies gradually erode his sanity and that of his loved ones. Katie should find the part cathartic.
The 1980 Dolly Parton hit 9 to 5 is going to be reborn on the Great White Way. Finally, a musical for straight women and gay men! Allison Janney (West Wing), Megan Hilty and Stephanie J Block (both currently in Wicked) have already been cast as the female leads, and Mark Kudisch has been tapped for the Dabney Coleman role. And though she says she knows very little about Broadway, Dolly, inspired genius that she is, has already banged out 85 percent of the show's score. "I got a lot of snacks and went for it," she said, awesomely, and probably a little sassily.
• Sometimes tall buildings improve one's view. [CityRag]
• MUMIA'S BEING FREED! Just kidding, hippies, but there's now a chance he won't be executed. [SH]
• Lindsay Lohan has signed on to play one of the Manson family. We think her history has made her more than "adequite" for the part. (Yes, we're bringing the "adequite" jokes back.) [DListed]
• The nicest way we can put it: Amy Winehouse's face looks to be comparable to that of the wondrous Sphinx. [INO]
• In total lies news, Britney Spears is being considered for the role of Blanche in a West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire. [ICDYDK]
• Janice Dickinson still has none of it. [HT]
We're not sure which is more surprising: That Jane Fonda said "cunt" so casually on national television or that people are still staging The Vagina Monologues. Can't we get Suzan-Lori Parks to pump out some new stuff? Or what about a guy version called Cock Talk?
Sorry to be such haters, ladies, but we're all vagina'd out. (Is that gay?)
Rosie O'Donnell is taking her harrowing personal trials and turning them into a play. The as-yet-untitled project is a one-woman show and is already in rehearsals somewhere outside of New York.
Cindy Adams, the New York Post's craziest doting mother, says, "It's based on her life story - her first one. She's lived many lives." Certainly that sentence is more complicated than the play will be. Reserve your ticket now! (Yes, singular, you have to see something like this alone.)
Editor
