Category: Peripherals (Page 12 of 22)

David Geffen's biopic airs November 20th. Last week Cher was at the premiere in support.

On the red carpet she spoke of their relationship saying she was crazy about him and they were in love. When asked if Geffen was gay at the time, Cher responded that at that time in his life, she was the right person for him.

Watch the video and see more pics on Cher World: http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-attends-american-masters-inventing-david-geffen/

Producer Susan Lacy talks about making the film and Cher's input:

It was a
long process. During a period of four years, I was doing interviews [off
and on] whenever I could. It turned out it was a really good thing that
I could do that. Because the people I really wanted took two years to
schedule. It took a long time to get Neil Young, for example, who tours a
lot. I think Cher is a huge addition to the film, another person who's very difficult to schedule.

Reviews of the documentary:

• http://siouxcityjournal.com/entertainment/television/american-masters-shines-light-on-david-geffen/article_2159fd64-acd4-5edf-b117-0f8b2bbc0775.html ("Inventing David Geffen — which makes its television debut Tuesday on
  most PBS affiliates as part of the American Masters series — serves as a
  de facto history of the entertainment business over the past 45 years.")
• http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/american-masters-inventing-david-geffen-review-1.4231026 ("Hugely entertaining profile, especially for show-biz junkies.")
• http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/18/3923335/american-masters-highlights-david.html ("Inventing David Geffen doesn't gloss over the public tantrums
  Geffen had after Gregg Allman entered the picture; it ignores them
  completely. No mention is made, either, of Geffen's involvement in
  severing Cher's business ties from Sonny Bono. After a lot of
  Cher-related therapy sessions, Geffen decided he needed a change, so he
  went to work as an executive for Warner Bros.' movie division, stepping
  on toes left and right.")

List of A-Listers at the event: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/inventing-david-geffen-premiere-la-stars-390374 

Another PBS must-watch is tonight and tomorrow's Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl. It's as relevant today with its arguments over science and man-made disasters.

So the fact that Cher watched part of X-Factor is the most shocking piece of this story for me. Maybe someone on staff alerted her to the clip of Ella Henderson singing "Believe" from YouTube. In any case, Cher watched it. did she also see Adam Lambert's Hollywood Week version on American Idol?

 Ella Henderson's version can be seen here. It is pretty swell ballad version.

Cher said:

“Went on Utube 2 c young girl sing Believe!Tears came 2 my eyes! So Touching! a Great version of a Great Song.”

Okay…it was Utube after all. Then Ella said:

“I’m still pinching myself! To have the actual Cher tweet that she’d seen my performance was mind-blowing. “I’ve been smiling all day. It is quite frankly unbelievable. I can’t believe she cried.”

Adam's version was pretty good too. I think it serves this song to be slowed down to a dirge.

Stories:

• http://entertainment.stv.tv/tv/192373-ella-henderson-is-stunned-by-news-that-she-made-cher-cry/
• http://www.towleroad.com/2012/09/cherxfactor.html (Ella's amazing audition she wrote herself)
• http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/09/cher-on-ella-hendersons-x-factor.html
• http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-praises-x-factor-hopeful-ella/

Excuse my confusion but this morning I woke up to The Bill Press Show on my iPhone radio and was amazed to hear Bob Mackie talking about the Romney campaign.

The same voice, the same laugh, the same vocal patterns and pauses. I couldn't believe it.

Only it wasn't Bob Mackie at all!! It was his vocal doppelganger, a man named Peter Fenn. 

So weird!

More about Peter Fenn: http://fenndaily.com/

Cher scholar Rob in Michigan sent me the link to a new David Geffen documentary airing soon on PBS:

American Masters: Inventing David Geffen, premiers nationally on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 on PBS (check local listings). It’s an unflinching portrait of Geffen, who narrates his unorthodox rise from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power broker in extensive interviews.

American Masters explores the highs and the lows in Geffen’s professional and personal life through more than 50 new interviews with his friends, colleagues and clients, as well as other media luminaries. Irving Azoff, Jackson Browne, Cher, David Crosby, Clive Davis, Barry Diller, Maureen Dowd, Rahm Emanuel, Nora Ephron, Tom Hanks, Don Henley, Arianna Huffington, Jimmy Iovine, Elton John, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Calvin Klein, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Mike Nichols, Yoko Ono, Frank Rich, Slash, Steven Spielberg, Jann Wenner, Neil Young, and many others illustrate Geffen’s riveting story.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/david-geffen/inventing-david-geffen/2146/#.UErkRH

To take a step back down memory lane…here are a few photos of Cher and David (many with cowboy hats):

Burt Bacharach and Hal David composed many awesome hits of the 1960s including Dionne Warwick's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and Herb Albert's "This Guy's In Love with You." They also made it into the 1980s charts with Naked Eyes'  version of "Always Something There to Remind Me."

Cher recorded Bacharach/ David songs in the 1960s as well. In 1966 she recorded the first version of "Alfie," later made into a hit by Warwick. And in 1968 she tried them again on her album Backstage with the song "This House is Not a Home."

To be honest, I do love Bacharach/David songs but I did not think they were well suited to Cher and her image at the time. Bacharach/David material, although catchy and infectious, seemed very suburban and mainstream. Cher's image was a bit too groovy and even her version of the lite-hippie was still too gritty for these songs. She scored more when she was covering sounds more "alternative" like Sonny's songs, Dylan's gems and other folk-rock ballads.

Personally, I will never forget moving to Los Angeles in early 2002 and ingratiating myself to the streets of the city while singing "and all the stars are parkin cars and pumpin gas."

Boom boom boom!

Nora Ephron, screenwriter for the movie Silkwood, has died of Leukemia.

From the Wall Street Journal:

As a screenwriter, Ephron was nominated three times for Academy Awards, for "Silkwood," ''When Harry Met Sally …" and "Sleepless in Seattle," and was the rare woman to write, direct and produce Hollywood movies.

Ephron was once married to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, one of the two reporters to break the Watergate story and she wrote about their marriage in the movie Heartburn.

Many celebrities tweeted about Ephron's passing, including Cher who said:

"Im Extremely Sad ! We had Wonderful times on Silkwood ! She told HILARIOUS STORIES"