More from Seth Abramovitch
How Michelle Rodriguez Foresaw Blockbuster Success for ‘Fast & Furious’ Franchise
With one movie, Michelle Rodriguez went from a Toys “R” Us employee with zero acting experience to a bona fide movie star. That movie was 2000’s Girlfight. Karyn Kusama, the writer-director of that indie — which tied for the grand jury prize at Sundance — joined The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast to […]
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Pet Shop Boys on Their Favorite Hollywood Memories: “So Gorgeous. So Elegant”
Look around and you just may find yourself amid a Pet Shop Boys renaissance. Of course, the English duo — consisting of Neil Tennant, 69, and Chris Lowe, 64 — never went anywhere. They have been steadily putting out music since their landmark 1984 debut, Please, which instantly established them with timeless songs like “West […]
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Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone Take a Ride on the Wild Side as TV’s Cringiest Couple
The Curse began with an actual curse, or at least the threat of one. When Nathan Fielder first moved from Canada to L.A. in 2009, a woman approached him on the street asking for a handout. He told her he had no money. She replied, “I curse you.” That anecdote, described by Fielder to pal […]
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Magic Castle Trial: ‘America’s Got Talent’ Magician Charged With Revealing Secrets
On the East Coast, all eyes are on Donald Trump and his criminal trial over alleged hush-money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels and others. And on the West Coast, another hearing is happening. Yet it, too, involves a beautiful, blond woman and a charismatic showman with a penchant for pulling the wool over […]
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O.J. Simpson Death Could Change Equation for Goldman, Brown Civil Suit Payouts
The death of O.J. Simpson at 76 leaves the fate of his estate — whatever of that exists — in question. The football great turned acquitted murderer said in recent years that he subsisted entirely off of his NFL and private pensions. Many of his most valuable possessions were seized following a 1997 civil trial that […]
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Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Faces Uphill Battle for Mega Deal: “Just No Way to Position This Movie”
NBCUniversal chief content officer Donna Langley was there. So was Sony head Tom Rothman. Bob Iger was one of the few Hollywood heavyweights who couldn’t make it, but at least he had a good excuse, still in the midst of a vicious proxy battle with investor Nelson Peltz. The event: The grand unveiling of Megalopolis, the […]
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‘It Happened in Hollywood’ Podcast: How George Lucas Saved ‘Return to Oz’
Return to Oz, Disney’s 1985 dark take on Dorothy Gale (played by a then-9-year-old Fairuza Balk), shares its creative DNA with Star Wars. Not only that, George Lucas saved writer-director Walter Murch’s job after Disney fired Murch from the Oz shoot. Lucas and Murch were old friends and collaborators, having met in the film department […]
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Stockard Channing Recalls a Lovelorn Will Smith on ‘Six Degrees’ Set: “I Felt Very Motherly Towards Him”
Will Smith may have fallen in love with Stockard Channing on the set of 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation, but Channing only felt “motherly” to the rising star, who was 23 and a newly married, first-time father at the time. Channing — who earned an Oscar nomination playing a New York socialite who connects with […]
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Jeffrey Jones Not in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ Despite Easter Egg
Will Jeffrey Jones appear in Tim Burton’s hugely anticipated Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? That’s the question on the mind of eagle-eyed fans of the upcoming Warner Bros. film’s trailer, who noticed a glimpse of the actor on a headstone in a funeral scene. But a rep for Jones confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that the […]
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Elizabeth Berkley Makes Peace With ‘Showgirls’ at Academy Museum Screening: “You Always Believed”
A sold-out crowd of 1,200 Showgirls lovers gave the film’s star Elizabeth Berkley three standing ovations during her introduction of the much-maligned, then adored 1995 camp classic at a screening at the Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater on Wednesday. Berkley, 49, looked radiant as she addressed the audience in glittery eyeshadow and a tailored tuxedo. […]
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Why Robert Redford Was “Chronically Late” to ‘The Sting’ Set
Screen legends Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s second and final screen pairing, in 1973’s The Sting, proved even more popular at the box office than their first, 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The film — about a syndicate of confidence men planning cons in the Great Depression — was a dream shoot on […]
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Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park Sells to Investment Group
One of Los Angeles’ most famous attractions is under new ownership. Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park, the amusement park on stilts that has been featured in films like Forrest Gump and Iron Man and in the opening titles of Three’s Company, has sold to SC Holdings. The investment firm, which specializes in sports, entertainment and […]
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