Among the overflow at the overbooked Eccles Theatre premiere of the Andy Samberg-Rashida Jones romantic comedy "Celeste and Jesse Forever" on Jan. 20 were WME's Robert Newman, a major CAA agent and several other top reps.
David LanzenbergWho’s Got Pull at Sundance: Top agents can open every door in L.A. — but apparently that doesn’t always cut it at Sundance. Among the overflow at the overbooked Eccles Theatre premiere of the Andy Samberg–Rashida Jones romantic comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever on Jan. 20 were WME’s Robert Newman, a major CAA agent and several other top reps. What followed was a series of temper tantrums from some of the assembled directed at a clearly overwhelmed volunteer staff. Newman managed to talk himself in, but the others were left out in the cold. … Meanwhile, among the movie machers who made sure they had their Park City experience exactly as they wanted it were Jeffrey Katzenberg and his former DreamWorks Animation COO Helene Hahn. A source at Deer Valley Resort tells THR that the two paid a pretty penny to participate in the lodge’s “fast tracks” program, giving them guided private access to the mountain an hour before it opened to the hoi polloi. And on Jan. 22, while Harvey Weinstein and crew were throwing a Giants-49ers party at the Stein Eriksen Lodge, producers Roy Lee and John Middleton one-upped them by taking friends (including Management 360’s William Choi) via chartered G4 to watch the NFC title game live at Candlestick Park.
Related Stories
Michael Douglas: Piano Man
Michael Douglas will be in concert this spring, but you are not invited and you cannot get tickets. Douglas will be putting on a show of musical numbers in March for his old friend and Traffic director Steven Soderbergh, who cast the actor as Liberace in his next movie. “We won’t see Michael’s hands all that much, but he’s studying piano like a maniac. He can only play piano a little bit now,” Soderbergh tells THR. “Marvin Hamlisch is doing the score, and he told me Liberace was an amazing pianist. Michael decided to debut his Liberace in a little concert venue for me.” Soderbergh’s Ocean’s protegee Matt Damon will play Scott Thorson, Liberace’s younger lover. “Michael told me all the way back when we were shooting Traffic in 2000 that he’d like to give Liberace a go — if he could get the music right. I have a feeling he’ll nail it.”
Homeland Insecurity
Showtime’s PR department is hopping with requests for DVD sets of Homeland‘s first (and Golden Globe-winning) 12-episode season, already a favorite of President Obama. Before Christmas, Diane Sawyer requested DVDs, saying she and her husband, Mike Nichols, would cancel their holiday vacation if they couldn’t catch up. More recently, a Bill Clinton staffer requested a set for the former prez as well.
Rags to Riches Ruling
Guests at the no-press-allowed Park City afterparty for the doc The Queen of Versailles marveled that star Jackie Siegel — the busty former Mrs. America whose real estate mogul husband, David, is building the country’s largest home (a $75 million Orlando estate) — had shown up. After all, David, who lost his shirt in the housing crash, is suing director Lauren Greenfield and Sundance for defamation; he takes objection to Greenfield and the fest hyping the movie as a “rags to riches to rags” story. But it did not escape the audience that David uses that exact phrase in the doc, which has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures for a summer release. Dressed at the party in a leopard-print outfit and slurring her words, Jackie smoked on the snowy patio while Greenfield hobnobbed inside. Before she could be asked to comment on David’s quote, Jackie got whisked away.
A Naming Fuhrer
Jaws are dropping over Top Chef alum Jamie Lauren‘s new German gastro pub Wolfslair, which bowed in Hollywood on Jan. 12 — and it’s not over the food. Wolf’s Lair was the name of Adolf Hitler‘s infamous bunker headquarters. Reached for comment, owner Art Davis claimed to be unaware of the connection. “I named it after the Wolf’s Lair property near Lake Hollywood, which is currently owned by Moby,” Davis told THR, referring to the French-style castle built in the 1920s by Hollywoodland real estate developer L. Milton Wolf. “I’ve tried to buy it myself in the past.” Davis notes that he’s Jewish and that his bratwurst is served with a side of warm challah bread. So what’s Moby’s take? “It does seem a bit odd,” says the musician, himself half-Jewish. “But my Wolf’s Lair predated Hitler’s by about 15 years.”
Power Lunch
Tom Cruise took his son Conner to Cut in the Beverly Wilshire for steak frites for his 17th birthday; they apparently celebrated the same way last year. David Beckham was already in the house when they arrived and gave Cruise a big hug. … New Superman star Henry Cavill flew into Katana for sushi and sashimi with friends. … Kevin Dillon and Jessica Capshaw shared the same room, but not the same table, at Giorgio Baldi. … Meanwhile, at Il Covo, it was a Jaws reunion with screenwriter Carl Gottlieb breaking bread with producers Jeffrey Kramer and Jonathan Filley. … Neal Baer, showrunner/exec producer of A Gifted Man, at Magnolia lunching with two screenwriters. Sean Hayes also in the house. … Gabrielle Union, Henry Winkler and Vanessa Williams all have been in to Casa Vega for the famed guacamole and chips and more. … Owen Wilson was lunching at Ray’s & Stark Bar this past week. He sat on the patio outside. … Oscar host Billy Crystal and wife Janice Goldfinger dined Italian at Locanda del Lago in Santa Monica. … Writer-director Amy Heckerling and publicist-turned-producer David?Lasky talking shop at Le Pain Quotidien in West Hollywood as Lasky prepares to produce his first film. … Olivia Wilde and new boyfriend Jason Sudeikis ordering take-out from the deli at Little Dom’s. She snapped a photo of the two of them on her iPhone before they headed out. They’re not really trying to fly under the radar. … Aziz Ansari visited the very happening Caulfield’s at the Thompson Hotel with a female friend. … Adam Sandler stopped by the Jerry’s Deli in Woodland Hills with his wife, Jacqueline Titone. … Steven Tyler, always living large, is making a habit out of Petrossian and its very fine beluga. Also spotted there of late: Laurence Fishburne.
