Jerry Weintraub, left, with George Clooney at an "Ocean's Eleven" event in Japan.
Reuters/Yuriko Nakao/LandovTHE PRODUCER IN CHIEF: “Mr. Weintraub?” we asked, phoning the flamboyant producer. “He’s dead,” a voice said. “But this is Jerry.” THR called the best-selling author of When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead (out soon in paperback) to discuss His Way, the Douglas McGrath-directed docu about him showing April 4 on HBO. The title is inspired by the fact that when Weintraub was just 26, he produced a tour for Frank Sinatra, on the heels of one for Elvis Presley. Fab footage of these tours is in the film, which has big credentials: Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter produced, and Steven Soderbergh (who directed Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen for Weintraub) exec produced. While Ocean’s 11 stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts all make appearances, the biggest gets were President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara, whom Weintraub says he met through friends. “We’re very close,” Weintraub, 73, says. “We speak every day. Yesterday’s call was him saying: ‘You know I was president of the United States, right? Do you think you could send an advance copy of your movie?’ ” On March 22, Carter, CAA’s Kevin Huvane and Bryan Lourd and HBO’s Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler will host the premiere at Paramount. “You think they volunteered? I asked them,” Weintraub says. “They know I don’t hear ‘no,’ so they couldn’t say it.”
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Royal Pains
As the royal wedding looms, media outlets are looking for ex-pats to cover it, in true Hollywood style. Entertainment Tonight reached out to Joan Collins to be its correspondent. But when she asked for a first-class L.A.-to-London ticket (20 grand), ET balked. Don’t they know you can’t treat a queen like a princess? The actress’ rep didn’t respond. ET denies asking Collins, but producer Linda Bell Blue told THR exclusively that Sharon Osbourne is going to the wedding for The Insider and Jane Seymour for ET.
Lindsay in the Hot Seat
Lindsay Lohan’s continuance in her court case over an allegedly stolen $2,500 necklace wasn’t the only extension she had in her head March 10. Post-court appearance, the troubled star was spotted sitting in a chair at Byron & Tracey salon in Beverly Hills, patiently having very long blond extensions replaced in her hair. After all, a girl’s got to look good in the courtroom. Her sister Ali was with her, and when they left the salon, 15 paparazzi chased and snapped until a police car came to shoo them all away. FYI, those extensions cost almost as much as that necklace.
Scent and Sensibility
Bertrand Tavernier’s well-reviewed French period film The Princess of Montpensier opens April 15 in the U.S., and the veteran director recently flew to L.A. with his star Gaspard Ulliel, who plays the ultimate lover of a princess every man in Paris is chasing. “Virility at the time of the 16th century was measured by how much a man’s feet smelled,” Tavernier tells THR. “And his armpits. If a man washed, he was thought to be homosexual.” Interstingly, Ulliel is also the face of Bleu de Chanel, the brand’s newest men’s fragrance. “Gaspard had 200 girls a day chasing him on the set,” Tavernier reveals. “But in the 16th century, Chanel would not be a chick magnet.”
Like Father, Like Daughter
“From the time I was young, I always dreamed my father would direct me in a movie,” Bryce Dallas Howard tells THR. Instead, her first job working with dad Ron Howard is as a helmer herself. Howard’s Imagine Entertainment is producing The Originals, on which his daughter will make her directorial debut. When did Dallas Howard — who has already appeared in 15 films (The Village, Hereafter) — turn filmmaker? She’s also producing another movie for Disney, all while shooting three new films she’s acting in. “I just really love movies,” she said at a Chateau Marmont lunch celebrating her as the new face of Kate Spade (she’s shooting the fall campaign with Ellen von Unwerth). Dallas Howard, with her father and Brian Grazer, is also a producer on Restless, a dark romance Gus Van Sant is directing for Sony Pictures Classics, and she’s writing another film. As for working with Imagine, she says: “It really was the company that had the best perspective on the movie. Really.”
Power Lunch
Dan Tana’s, as usual, had a good week: One day it was Paul Rudd and Channing Tatum, the next Jay Leno, plus Kathy and Rick Hilton. A few days later, director Todd Phillips, plus Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Dabney Coleman and Harry Dean Stanton also confabbed at the legendary boite. … Soho House saw a lot of action on one day: Ben Silverman with former MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe; WME’s John Burnham, Kelly Lynch, StarShape’s Nikki Haskell and Eric Idle; Interscope-Geffen-A&M chair Jimmy Iovine lunching with exec vp Larry Jackson, who yelled into his phone, “It’s gonna be music on TV like no one’s ever seen.” What’s he got up his sleeve? … Sean Penn at Chateau Marmont, with Johnny Knoxville at the next table and Kathryn Bigelow at the next. … Real Housewife Lisa Vanderpump and The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg dropped in to try brand-new Fig & Olive on Melrose Place. … Al Pacino and Audia Tulloch lunching on salmon with lemon butter at Madeo. …Felicity Huffman and David Lasky at Le Pain Quotidien West Hollywood, discussing a script.
