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Category: Film (Page 14 of 16)

Cher Sues Record Company (but doesn’t let that ruin her shopping trips)

Some quick news items and links this week – however, I have some good things are cooking for the end of the month. Next week I’ll be gone on a trip to Arizona for my bfs birthday and to shop for silver wedding rings. We’re excited about staying at an old refurbished Harvey House hotel.

Bodyprods Meanwhile Cher has been shopping in Kailua Hawaii.

Cher and well-known L.A. interior designer Martin Bullard made a stop last Thursday with their entourage at Kailua's Lanikai Bath and Body — known for its all-natural, made-in-Hawaii collections of lotions, creamy butters and sea salt and cane sugar scrubs. The two picked up lavender lotion with essential oils of lavender plumeria lotion and body butter, Tahitian gardenia butter, lip balms, Hawaiian bath salts, poi dog shampoo, naupaka massage oil and pohaku body wash.

Sweet…lavender. But now I predict Franz will be demanding poi dog shampoo now.

Vboc Cher last week Cher also filed suit against Universal Music Group for trying to hide her royalties:

Although it must be a major pain in the tukus to deal with litigation, this actually rocks that Cher is fighting back for her cash. As an established artist with some money and heft to hurl, she might break ground for many other artists currently getting screwed.

Among other things, the suit claims:

… the label's creative accounting has shortchanged her and the heirs of her late ex-husband Sonny Bono to the tune of $5 million. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims an audit of UMG's accounting to the singer-actress from 2000 to 2003 showed that UMG execs "engaged in wrongful tactics" designed to hide revenue from two hit compilation albums.

….breach of two recording contracts Cher had with UMG predecessors, one with MCA division Kapp Records in 1972 and another 1987 deal with the David Geffen Company. Cher claims that those deals entitled her — and, in the case of the 1972 deal, Bono — to receive up to 50% of net royalties received by UMG. But the complaint alleges that UMG later made a deal with Warner Music U.K. to distribute a 1999 compilation called "Cher The Greatest Hits," then funnelled the money through UMG's international arm to conceal the amountof royalties owed to Cher and the Bono heirs.

Cher also challenges accounting on a second compilation, 2002's "The Very Best of Cher." UMG allegedly allowed the album to be distributed by a division of Warner Music Group but accounted to Cher on a royalty basis as though UMG had sold the records itself, thus decreasing her share.

When Cher and Bono divorced in 1977, they agreed to split revenue from the songs recorded together. When Bono died in a ski accident in 1998, one-third of his interest passed to wife Mary Bono-Mack, and one-sixth interests were split amongst his kids. Bono-Mack, as well as Cher's daughter with Bono, Chastity Bono, are plaintiffs in the case, as well as Bono children Christy Bono, Chianna Bono and son Chesare Bono.

Music producer Snuff Garrett is also a plaintiff. He claims he is entitled to a 50% pro rata share of royalties from some of the recordings based on a producers deal with MCA Records.

This reminds me of reading the story of Allman Brothers earlier this year (which I need to review soon) and Cher’s many attempts to get Gregg and the Gang to investigate and stand up for what money was due to them and they weren't getting paid. They didn't heed the advice for a long time and were royally screwed. It's great that Cher is ON it.

Chandilier Other news:

Cher’s Augustus Pugin chandelier is up for sale again if anyone has 24,000 spare dollars. Is that the chandelier…to the right?

Phil Spector was sentenced last week: 19 years to life.

A blogger apologizes to Cher and Adam Lambert.

Sonny & Cher's ‘Stangs have been harshly critiqued â€“- but hey, what wasn’t tacky in the 1960s? The link has lots of pictures of the interiors.

We get it, the times were weird, everybody was experimenting with things other than music, and free expression was the mark of the day, but stuff like Bobcat fur upholstery is way too much for our tastes.

From a sheetmetal perspective, the cars are basically identically modified. Each gets a twin grille, Frenched Thunderbird tail lights, relocated and flush-mounted door handles, rolled and flared fenders, faux hood scoops and 40 coats of hippy-tastic paint. Each was a 289 car with the automatic transmission, but there the similarities end. Inside, the "Sonny" car has some nasty shag "Bobcat fur," antique leather and funky suede. Cher's car got Ermine fur and Scottish leather upholstery, trimmed in pink suede, oh and a white fur trunk. Gag, times two.

The two cars are being sold as a pair with an asking price of… get this… $400,000.00. We could have named this post "Nice Price or Crack Pipe: Columbian Drug Lord Edition."

Columbian Drug Lord Edition–very funny. But what's up with this chandelier and these mustangs being resold? Are these former Cher items haunted or something? Late-bea-arthur-and-estelle-getty

And last for news/links, dearly departed Estelle Getty and Bea Arthur do a Golden Girls send-up of Sonny & Cher.

More about Burlesque

Vamp

More news on Cher's interest in the movie Burlesque
http://www.myparkmag.co.uk/articles/celebrity/cher/cher-ready-for-burlesque.html

Okay, it’s a musical—even better!  It’s

“reportedly based on Bob Fosse's iconic musical 'Cabaret' – was written by Pussycat Dolls producer Steven Antin, who will also direct the project. It will be produced by Donald De Line, who previously worked on 'I Love You, Man'. Filming will start in September and the movie is due for release late next year.”

News reports are again jumping the gun saying Cher has been cast — but stay tuned.

But Movies to Cher, call me! 
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/movies-to-cher.html

That's the tune of this very funny Popwatch’s analysis:

"the film will tell the story of a small-town girl (Aguilera) who gets in touch with her inner hussy with the help of the owner of a strip — ahem, burlesque — club, played by Cher. My only problem with this casting is that they didn't just dump Aguilera and have Cher play all the parts (something tells me Michael Slezak would agree…). But barring that, I'm just excited to have Cher back on the big screen in what could be her first real role since 2003's Stuck On You (unless Johnny Knoxville's The Drop-Out makes it to theaters first).

And really, would it be unreasonable of me to hope that the movie will be book-ended by an updated version of the "Vamp" song from the Sonny & Cher Show? I mean, it would fit the theme so perfectly…. "Stuck in a nowhere town/Thought she didn't have a choice/until the day that she discovered/Little Stina had a big old voice!"

They had me at hello with this one.

New Movie Rumor

Christina There are rumors this week that Cher may star in a new movie called Burlesque with pop star Christina Aguilera. (This reminds me strangely of that rumor of the early part of this decade about Cher in a movie with Britney Spears). But anyway, this one is about "a singer from the boonies who comes to L.A. and performs in a sultry nightclub run by Sin City vamp expert" who may or may not end up being Cher.

I actually like the sound of this rumor…it would be nice to see something raw and edgy again.

  

Where Cher and I Have Been

Shower There’s so much news to chat about I think my head will explode. I just had my bridal shower. A beautiful day and at the house of my friend Julia (who I met years ago when I first moved to LA and worked at Agribuys, a now-defunct agribusiness technology company). Her house has awesome harbor and ocean views off the coast of San Pedro. We had fabulous Mexican food made by her husband and played three games– one trivia game about us that my mother won (I was honestly surprised by that), another game where everybody filled out a list of their likes and dislikes. Then all the women lined up behind the groom and all the men behind the bride and the person with the most in common with each one was deemed their “perfect match.” My bf ended up with a co-worker (who I suspect wasn’t really paying attention to the game and so in confusion never sat down) and I ended up with a childhood friend from Albuquerque. Then we played The Newlywed Game with five couples which included my parents. The last question was “What is the last day of the week you made whoopee.” When it came to me I said emphatically that I was indeed a virgin. My Dad’s card read “What is whoopee?” My parents ended up winning the game. No cards were slammed on spouses heads.

While my parents were in town we also visited Catalina (more quiet and quaint than you’d think on a weekday), Seal Beach for lunch at Walt’s Warf, Pasadena to view some possible wedding program paper, Huntington Library to see The Blue Boy and the HUUGE gardens, and The Charles Lummis House. Talk about a contrast in gardens! The poor Lummis house is dilapidated! He was such a founding part of California history…quite a shame. My parents also helped us planting flowers, and we showed them our future wedding site and talked over wedding favor chocolates we want to get from Wilburs Chocolates, my parents’ local chocolatier.

My most recent opinions on news events:

1. Torture: you can’t be for the sanctity of life and for torture.

2. Susan Boyle: the subtext of this story offends me. To get excited about it presumes that we are so surprised that homely people have talent…when it’s obvious to everyone and their dog that talent comes in all shapes and sizes. So on behalf of all homely, unusual or average looking people, and Susan Boyle,  FU!

Cherhudson2 Speaking of pretty people….Cher was at Kate Hudson’s birthday party (in case you live under a rock, Hudson is Goldie Hawn’s daughter). Cherhudson5

 

 

 

 

News items on the Hudson party:

http://www.themedpartysupplies.com/party-news/cher-timberlake-get-hudsons-party-started-world-entertainment-news-via-yahoo-uk-ireland-news/

http://celebs2day.com/celebrity-news/cher-amp-timberlake-get-hudsons-party-started/

http://sify.com/movies/hollywood/fullstory.php?id=14882012

Cherjewison2 Cher also attended an Norman Jewison tribute in LA and gave good speech. She allegedly also defended her choice of lobbying for Nicholas Cage for his role in Moonstruck.

Normal_cherjewison7

Normal_cherjewison18

 

 

 

 

News items on Jewison tribute:

On a related note, here is a Nicolas Cage Movie Plot Generator: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bkFIPLIOGL8/Sd6OQbdcsxI/AAAAAAAAfZU/FKFtOHBxnJI/s1600-h/nicolas-cage-movie-plot-generator.jpg
 

Cher is Not Sorry

Stern Why do I scan the Internet…err…rather read my daily Cher RSS Yahoo feed and leach off the Cher research of CherGroups posters  🙂 …for news of Cher every week? For blogs like this one, that's why.

Sure, some years I coast by…keeping up with the latest Cher deeds and automatically regurgitating some inane thoughts about them week to week. But then once in a while I get re-engaged in the ever-interesting topic of “what cultural phenomenon is going on with our fascinations and, for some, negative attitudes, about Cher." Deep thoughts is what I mean.

I’m always looking for some Cher Scholarship out there on the wires. Which is why I’m excited about my new Cher Scholar section Expert Corner – two new posts will be going up this week, too. But this blog below was not written by a Cher Scholar;  she's an everyday-Jane-Cher-appreciator nicknamed Pilgrium Soul. And it’s a pretty smart Cher theory she speaks of.

http://www.harpyness.com/2009/04/30/youve-got-me-cher/

The article begins by talking about her conflicting like and dislike of the movie Moonstruck and its “weird gender issues.” I would love for her to elaborate about this. I suspect there is something to this, and it might be an Italian cultural thing in play. But then she defends her love of Cher (against claims of commercialism, plastic surgery and the silly costumes thing – familiar proclamations of Cher’s lack of seriousness). But she loves Cher anyway. Why? Because…

“Before I knew I was a feminist I knew Cher was not sorry. She was not normal, she was not what people expected and she did not seem to care.”

Cher isn't (publicly) sorry and that's something to chew on. I think this explains a lot about why certain fans have gravitated to her. Fans who, for whatever reason in their lives, have been made to feel or have made themselves feel sorry.

And Pilgrim Soul verifies that this hearkens back her to own childhood of sorryness (as opposed to sorrow) and her own feelings of guilt and sorryness over her self-perceived flaws.

“I grew to love women who grew tired of making apologies for themselves.”

That is so awesome. It reminds me of what an influence my 11th grade English teacher was on me, someone who got married later in life, was having a kid later in life, and had a “why worry” attitude about pretty much everything. She also had a Tyne Daily air about her.  She too wasn’t sorry.
I wanted to be like her. What a life that would be, I thought. Empowered and unapologetic.

I feel like Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck right now: “That’s it!…No, that’s it!”
  

Cher Link Zoo

For quite some time there has been a ton of links clogging up my blog to-do list. I’m just gonna throw them all up here now just so I can move on with my life. You can link wherever strikes your fancy. My take for must see items have a star (or two) next to them.

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Cher mentions around the Net

Cagecher Headline: Nicolas Cage grateful to Cher for his Hollywood stardom

Thank you.

My bf was flipping channels and came across Moonstruck the other day and he asked me how the hell Nicholas Cage was miscast in it. I blamed Cher. Bf suggested someone older and more road-weary would have been better. I replied that I agreed but that Moonstruck gave him his break into the "big leagues."

And it’s like Nicholas Cage was listening in!

Nicolas Cage says that he is indebted to Cher for helping him become a Hollywood star. The ‘City Of Angels’ star has said that he is thankful to the singer-cum-actress because she fought to land him a role alongside her in the Oscar-winning movie ‘Moonstruck’.

Studio bosses were not very keen on casting the then-23-year-old Cage as Cher’s love interest in the film.  But it was the ‘Believe’ singer who dug her heels in, and landed him the part of New York baker Ronny Cammareri.

The movie won Cher a Best Actress Oscar, and made Cage an overnight sensation in Hollywood and the actor is eternally grateful. “She really was a champion for me. At a time when people didn’t see me as a romantic actor, she fought for me,” Contactmusic quoted Cage as saying. (ANI)

Oscar1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headline: Wear or Die: Cher's Oscar Fashion Edition

Neither are outfits for the faint-hearted, but what if you HAD to wear one of them – or die? Which one would you choose?

The outfit on the left may look initially more frightening, but the one on the right reveals much more skin. Just to level out the playing field a little, we're going to allow you to ditch the hat/wig/whatever the hell that thing is shown in picture one. Don't say we're not good to you.
What's it going to be, then, readers: which outfit will you wear – or die!

Chercelin Celine Dion visits Cher

 

 

Celine met with Caesars Palace and AEG/Concerts West executives, watched Cher’s show and then went back to her own former dressing room to meet her successor on Feb. 25. Celine’s team wouldn’t confirm or deny my questions about the reported pregnancy but did send the Cher photo for us to run on Vegas DeLuxe.

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A New Movie

Cherobama Another Cher comedy. Oh goody. With the Jackass dude Johnny Knoxville. Oh boy. And it’s called Drop Out. Sounds swell. Well, at least the writer is one of the former writers from The Family Guy – it may just be alright. But then again early Family Guy was pretty unfunny.

I’m worried again.

To read more:
http://www.joez.org/cher-acts-again/

http://screencrave.com/2009-01-21/cher-and-johnny-knoxville-cast-in-blitts-drop-out/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/19/cher-johnny-knoxville

   

Ask Cher Scholar: Loretta’s Wisdom

Moonstruck-Cher_l On Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Anna Pansini wrote:

How did Loretta, Cher’s character in “Moonstruck”, get to be so wise? I am referring to the scene in the kitchen with Nicholas Cage who says he is miserable because he has no life, but Loretta tells him that he’s afraid because deep inside he knows he’s a wolf that isn’t afraid to cut off his own hand to keep him from getting what he wants in life. My wonderment is from Loretta’s own life – she was married for a short time and then moved back in to live with her parents and has a ho-hum job for a mortician. In the beginning scenes of the movies, she looks and appears drab. She even agrees to marry a drab man with an equally blah life. So where did she get her wisdom?

Loretta is actually a freelance accountant working for a few clients, including her Aunt and Uncle’s convenience store, the mortician and a florist (remember Loretta kissing the rose?). This isn’t spelled out overtly but you can see her jumping from client to client in the first few scenes.

I don’t actually think Loretta is very wise in the beginning of the movie. The movie is really all about her process of getting wiser about the true nature of real love vs. a practical relationship of convenience. The scene in Ronny’s kitchen was really projection and her beginning to think about love in her own life. She can easily tell Ronny what his fears are but she can’t see her own. So she is telling Ronny what she needs to hear herself. Her life has been painful and she has responded by making safe choices or hiding from pain, precisely what she glibly criticizes Ronny for doing. This conversation is the catalyst that gets her to reconsider her choice to marry Johnnie. But at this point, she’s not really wise; she’s just a big talker.

John Updike Talks about Witches of Eastwick

Updike The week before Halloween I went to Lucha Vavoom downtown at the awesome Mayan Theater.

By the way, I love Halloween in LA, so many awesome things to do from the fabulously scary mazes on Queen Mary or at Knotts Scary Farm, to the West Hollywood Parade to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Day of the Dead: so many creative LA-types (from Hollywood on one side and the Latino art community on the other) creating really inspired altars, costumes and mazes.

Anyway, on my way to Lucha Vavoom, I was listening to NPR and John Updike was on talking about his Eastwick_200 sequel to his book Witches of Eastwick. The new book is called The Widows of Eastwick, which confused me because I thought the gals were already widows in the first book, having killed their first husbands. In the movie, they were simply divorced, a lot less dangerous – their witchery was almost accidental.

Updike talked about being asked to be a consultant on the movie and deciding not to be, not even attending any premiers. He saw the movie only once, alone with his wife in Danbury, Massachusetts, after it was released. His wife whispered to him during the movie that he should get his name taken off of the credits. He laughed and said he didn't think it was that bad. But he was embarrassed about the rewrites, that the actors were wonderful (Cher was "lovely as always") but that Jack Nicholson didn't really have enough to do, especially at the end of the movie.

The show's host asked Updike about the new novel and Updike said that the little town of Eastwick becomes more of a character unto itself in the next book, and Updike explains his love for New England, its "brininess and antiquity" which was different from his Pennsylvania landscape growing up.

Updike admitted that Witches of Eastwick was his attempt to appease the feminist criticism of his earlier books but that this effort failed. Feminists didn't like WOE. Making his female protagonists witches does seem misguided if you want to appease feminists, but I think Updike was heartfelt in his attempt. Just clueless about why depicting women as tricksters and borderline malevolent in fact ties in to negative female stereotypes instead of being sympathetic to modern women.

Updike humorously depicts the "half-baked suburban witchcraft" of his witches with the materials of boxes of Cascade to make magic circles.

A caller asked about the short story "Pigeon Feathers." Updike said this was "a heartfelt" personal story about growing up and coming to terms with religion. I read this story in a reading group once and loved it. It is an example of some amazing and skilled American writing.

Another caller asks about his story "The Christian Roommates" a true account of Updike's experiences with his roommates at Harvard I'd like to read.

Cher's big WOE speech: http://www.blinkbox.com/Movies/1241/Witches-of-Eastwick?Scene=12474

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