November 11, 2011
NY accountant admits bilking ‘SVU’ actress Tunie
By Jennifer Peltz
NEW YORK (AP) – An accountant admitted Thursday he made “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actress Tamara Tunie a real-life crime victim by stealing more than $1 million from her, the Kansas City Symphony’s music director and other clients.
Joseph Cilibrasi, who was Tunie’s business manager for more than a decade and cultivated other clients in the arts, pleaded guilty to grand larceny and other charges. He used some of the stolen cash to finance his own forays into entertainment, including investing in movies and Broadway shows and hiring a screenwriter to pen a script about a historic building, prosecutors say.
Cilibrasi’s plea deal calls for 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years in prison. He is free, pending a Jan. 4 sentencing.
Cilibrasi, 51, told a Manhattan judge he secretly opened a credit card account in Tunie’s name – and got his own card on the account by falsely listing himself as her husband – and wrote checks to himself from her accounts without her permission.
“I stole over $1.4 million from Ms. Tunie Generet by converting funds from her (business accounts) to my personal use,” he said, using the actress’ married name. Tunie, who plays medical examiner Melinda Warner on the NBC series, is married to jazz singer Gregory Generet.
Cilibrasi also admitted he stole $75,000 from the Kansas City Symphony’s Michael Stern by pocketing checks he told Stern to write to cover some federal and Missouri state taxes. Stern was hit with tax penalties because the money never got to authorities, Cilibrasi said.
The accountant also acknowledged opening a credit-card account in the name of another client, screenwriter Janet Roach. Her credits include 1985’s “Prizzi’s Honor,” starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner.
Cilibrasi used some of the proceeds of his thefts to back such shows as “Legally Blonde: The Musical” and the Tony Award-winning “Spring Awakening,” and films including the Tunie-directed “See You In September,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said when the case was unveiled last December.
The accountant also used some of the ill-gotten cash to vacation in Italy, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, and to hire a writer for a script about Bannerman Castle, an elaborate building on an island in the Hudson River, prosecutors said.
Representatives for Tunie and Stern didn’t immediately return calls Thursday. Roach didn’t immediately respond to an email message.
Cilibrasi declined to comment as he left court.
“He accepts responsibility and wants to move on with his life,” his lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said later.
Eddie Murphy follows Ratner and quits Oscar gig
By David Germain, Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Eddie Murphy has bowed out of his gig as host of the Academy Awards, following pal Brett Ratner’s decision to leave the show as producer because of an uproar over a gay slur.
The news of Murphy’s departure came Wednesday, a day after Ratner quit as producer of the Feb. 26 show.
Ratner left amid criticism of his use of a pejorative term for gay men in a question-and-answer session at a screening of his action comedy “Tower Heist,” which opened last weekend and stars Murphy and Ben Stiller.
Murphy’s exit deprives Oscar organizers of a top star for an often thankless job that’s tough to fill, since some past hosts have found little to gain from the gig and plenty to lose if they do a poor job as emcee of Hollywood’s biggest party.
The two sides departed with cordial words, though.
“I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony,” Murphy said in a news release from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”
Ratner had apologized for the gay slur, saying his comments had been “hurtful and stupid.”
Murphy himself has a history of homophobic humor in his early standup years. His 1983 comedy special “Delirious” includes a segment in which Murphy jokes about being afraid of homosexuals and worrying that gay men are staring at his butt.
Academy President Tom Sherak bid Murphy farewell graciously.
“I appreciate how Eddie feels about losing his creative partner, Brett Ratner, and we all wish him well,” Sherak said.
Still, losing Murphy is a blow to a ceremony that has struggled to pep up its image amid a general decline in its TV ratings over the last couple of decades and a rush of hipper awards shows that appeal to younger crowds, such as the MTV Movie Awards.
Oscar planners have sought to shorten the sometimes interminably long show and have tried new ways to present awards in hopes of livening things up.
They also have experimented with unexpected choices as hosts, which worked nicely with the song-and-dance talents of Hugh Jackman three years ago but backfired at last season’s show, when perky Anne Hathaway was paired with lackluster co-host James Franco.
When the academy picked Murphy in September, it marked a return to the traditional funnyman as host, a formula that delivered some of the best-remembered Oscar pageants when Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal ran the show.
Academy officials would not discuss the personnel changes or plans to replace Ratner and Murphy. Ratner’s producing partner for the upcoming ceremony – Don Mischer, who co-produced last year’s Oscars – remains on board for the show.
Any decision on who will replace Murphy as host likely will not come until Oscar planners make a decision on whether to bring in another producer to work with Mischer.
Organizers still have plenty of time. The show is more than three months away, and much of the work in staging it has to wait until Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 24, anyway.
There’s also no great rush to name a new host. The academy did not announce Hathaway and Franco as hosts until the end of November last year, while the announcement on Jackman three years ago did not come until mid-December.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Brett Ratner resigned Tuesday as producer of next year’s Academy Awards, one day after apologizing for using a gay slur at a screening of his latest film.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed Ratner’s departure. President Tom Sherak said in a statement that the 42-year-old filmmaker “did the right thing for the academy and for himself.”
“Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable,” Sherak said.
Ratner used a pejorative term for gay men during a question-and-answer session at a screening of his film “Tower Heist.” He also discussed his sexual exploits on a recent episode of “The Howard Stern Show.”
Ratner issued a lengthy statement Tuesday apologizing for his behavior and explaining his resignation as producer of the 2012 Oscar telecast. The academy had announced in August that Ratner would produce the show with TV veteran Don Mischer, who helmed the 2011 broadcast.
In a letter beginning, “Dear Colleagues,” Ratner apologized for “the hurtful and stupid things I said in a number of recent media appearances.”
“As difficult as the last few days have been for me, they cannot compare to the experience of any young man or woman who has been the target of offensive slurs or derogatory comments,” he said.
Ratner went on to say that he is “taking real action over the coming weeks and months in an effort to do everything I can both professionally and personally to help stamp out the kind of thoughtless bigotry I’ve so foolishly perpetrated.”
The director, whose credits also include the “Rush Hour” films, said that being asked to produce the Oscar show “was the proudest moment of my career,” but he didn’t want to distract from the academy “and the high ideals it represents.”
Ratner thanked the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation “for engaging me in a dialogue about what we can do together to increase awareness of the important and troubling issues this episode has raised.”
GLAAD said Tuesday that it was working with Ratner to arrange public discussions with those in the entertainment industry about fair portrayals of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in film and television.
“Hollywood has the power and responsibility to grow acceptance of all communities,” said GLAAD Acting President Mike Thompson. “We look forward to working with Brett and the industry in promoting positive, culture-changing images of our community and sending a message that such slurs, used to belittle gay and lesbian youth and adults every day, have no place in mainstream popular culture or the industry that creates it.”
There was no word on whether Ratner will be replaced.
Davidson, Akins named BMI songwriters of the year
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Good friends and songwriting partners Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins share this year’s BMI country songwriter and song of the year awards.
Many of country music’s top stars were on hand to celebrate songwriters, including Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton, on Tuesday night at the BMI Country Awards.
Davidson and Akins each had five of the year’s most-performed songs. The Georgia natives, also part of a songwriting trio called The Peach Pickers, collaborated on four of those hits, including song of the year “All Over Me,” a No. 1 for Josh Turner. They also wrote hits for Shelton, Joe Nichols, Luke Bryan and Rodney Atkins.
BMI, the performing rights organization, also saluted songwriter Bobby Braddock. The writer of classics “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” two of country’s most important songs, was named a BMI Icon.
Shelton, who Braddock discovered and produced early in his career, his wife Miranda Lambert’s group Pistol Annies, Vince Gill and LeAnn Rimes sang his songs in tribute.
The 71-year-old Braddock has had quite the year. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this spring and has spent a lot of time walking red carpets, something the usually private Braddock has found unsettling.
“I wouldn’t say private as much as I’m a hermit,” Braddock joked before the ceremony. “Being in a crowd scares the daylights out of me. But I can do an impersonation of an extrovert. It’s fakery, though.”
Julie Taymor sues ‘Spider-Man’ producersBy Mark Kennedy, Drama Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Director Julie Taymor sued the producers of “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” Tuesday, saying they violated her creative rights and haven’t compensated her for the work she put into Broadway’s most expensive musical.
Charles Spada, an attorney who filed the suit on behalf of the Tony Award-winning director, said Tuesday in a statement that “the producers’ actions have left her no choice but to resort to legal recourse to protect her rights.”
Rick Miramontez, the show’s spokesman, was not immediately aware of the copyright infringement lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Taymor was not available to comment.
The lawsuit seeks half of all profits, gains and advantages derived from the sale, license, transfer or lease of any rights in the original Spiderman book along with a permanent ban of the use of Taymor’s name or likeness in connection with a promotional film without her written consent. It also seeks a jury trial to determine her share of profits from the unauthorized use of her book, which the lawsuit said was believed to be in excess of $1 million.
Taymor, who had been the “Spider-Man” director and co-book writer, was fired from the $75 million musical that features music by U2’s Bono and The Edge in March after years of delays, accidents and critical backlash.
Philip William McKinley, who directed the Hugh Jackman musical “The Boy From Oz,” in 2003, was hired to steer the ship. He was billed as creative consultant when the musical opened in June.
The show has been doing brisk business ever since, most weeks easily grossing more than the $1.2 million the producers have indicated they need to reach to stay viable. Last week, it took in $1.4 million and 86 percent of the 1,930-seat Foxwoods Theatre was filled.
According to Spada, “producers have failed to compensate Ms. Taymor for their continued use of her work to date, despite the fact that the show has consistently played to capacity or near-capacity houses since its first public performance in November 2010.”
The lawsuit said the producers continued to “promote, use, change and revise” her work, including the book of the musical, without her approval. It said that her contracts called for no changes to be made without her consent.
According to the lawsuit, the producers’ lawyers belatedly sent Taymor a check for $52,880 on Nov. 4, purportedly as payment of her co-bookwriter royalties for performances of the musical through April 17, the last performance of the show before the revisions.
“The producers, however, continue to refuse to pay Taymor any royalties for performances after April 17, 2011,” the lawsuit said. It said she is owed more than $70,000 additional book royalties to date, along with royalties of nearly $3,000 per week for performances.
The lawsuit said nearly one quarter of the new “Spider-Man” book is copied verbatim from Taymor’s original book.
Taymor’s lawsuit comes less than a week after the Tony Awards Administration Committee ruled that only Taymor will be considered eligible for the show’s Tony for best direction of a musical category. The lawsuit said the awards committee rejected the producer’s contention that McKinley had changed the musical into a “new” production.
Taymor is also seeking compensation from the union that represents theater directors. The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society filed an arbitration claim in June against the show’s producers over unpaid royalties.
The legal fights are in contrast to the wide smiles and hugs shared by the creative team on opening night. In the months since then, Taymor hasn’t spoken at length about the behind-the-scenes turmoil, but has said she is still proud of the show and is not bitter.
National Writer Jocelyn Noveck and Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
Hollywood comedy writer Hal Kanter dies at 92LOS ANGELES (AP) – Hal Kanter, an Emmy-winning comedy master who wrote for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, directed Elvis Presley in “Loving You” and created Diahann Carroll’s ground-breaking TV sitcom, has died. He was 92.
Kanter died Sunday, according to the Writers Guild of America, where he had been a member since 1950 and served on the union’s board of directors. Daughter Donna Kanter told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/vXH8Ck) he died from pneumonia complications at Encino Hospital.
His three Emmys included back-to-back wins for 1991-92 as a writer for the Academy Awards, a ceremony on which he contributed material on 32 separate shows over the decades.
Kanter also won an Emmy in 1955 for “The George Gobel Show,” and he received four other nominations, including one as executive producer of “All in the Family” in 1976 and another for outstanding comedy series for Carroll’s “Julia” in 1969.
“If there was a funnier writer than Hal I never knew him,” said “All in the Family” creator Norman Lear. “The irony is laughing at him added time to my life.”
“Julia” was a television landmark, depicting a black professional woman as a series lead in an era that generally cast black actors as domestic help.
“If I could do a television show that depicted blacks as people and not as black people, it might do some good,” Kanter recalled in a 2002 interview.
Kanter also wrote the 1952 Hope and Crosby adventure “Road to Bali,” and his 1950s big-screen work also included Hope’s comedies “My Favorite Spy” and “Casanova’s Big Night.” In 1976, Hope hired Kanter as his head writer.
Born Dec. 18, 1918, in Savannah, Ga., Kanter broke into show business as a gag writer, contributing material to Crosby’s radio show, “The Danny Kaye Show” and other radio programs before moving into television as a writer on “The Ed Wynn Show” in 1949.
Kanter wrote for another big-screen comedy team, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, on 1953’s “Money from Home” and 1955’s “Artists and Models.” He ventured into drama with the 1954 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.”
As he moved into directing in the late 1950s, Kanter initially was reluctant to take on one of the era’s biggest stars.
“Somebody had asked me if I wanted to do a picture with Elvis Presley. I said, ‘Oh God, no. Why?'” Kanter recalled in 2002. “And my three daughters said, ‘Daddy, Elvis Presley!’ And I realized I was in big trouble if I didn’t do that picture.”
Kanter wound up directing and co-writing 1957’s “Loving You,” which featured the title track and Presley’s hit “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.” He later wrote another Presley musical romance, 1961’s “Blue Hawaii.”
Among Kanter’s other credits were Marilyn Monroe’s “Let’s Make Love” (1960), Bette Davis’ “Pocketful of Miracles” (1961) and Doris Day and James Garner’s “Move Over, Darling” (1963).
In 1999, Kanter published an autobiography, “So Far, So Funny: My Life in Show Business.”
Kanter is survived by his wife of 70 years, writer Doris Kanter; his daughters Donna Kanter, Lisa Kanter Shafer, and Abigail Kanter Jaye; his sister, Saralea Emerson; and a granddaughter.
MSNBC to air film on Michael Jackson’s doctorNEW YORK (AP) – Just days after the guilty verdict for Conrad Murray, MSNBC will broadcast a documentary that promises to give the inside story of Michael Jackson’s doctor.
MSNBC says Murray, who did not take the stand at his trial, breaks his silence in the program, “Michael Jackson and the Doctor,” which has been two years in the making. Murray reveals personal details of his relationship with the King of Pop, as well as untold events that led to Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.
The network announced the film will have its U.S. premiere on Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern time. It will be repeated on Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Murray was found guilty Monday of involuntary manslaughter for supplying Jackson with a drug he craved for sleep.
Director Brett Ratner Apologizes for Gay SlurBy Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Brett Ratner said Monday that he’s sorry for using a gay slur during a question-and-answer session at a screening for his new film.
The 42-year-old filmmaker, who is set to produce next year’s Academy Awards, issued a statement apologizing “for any offense my remarks caused.”
Ratner used a pejorative term to describe gay men in response to a question asked at a screening of his latest movie, “Tower Heist.”
“It was a dumb way of expressing myself,” Ratner said in his statement. “Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words.”
Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Monday that Ratner’s remarks were “inappropriate” but the academy isn’t planning to remove him from his Oscar-producing position.
“The bottom line is, this won’t and can’t happen again. It will not happen again,” Sherak said. “The apology he gave I truly believe comes from his heart. … This is about integrity and honoring the Academy Awards, but we all make mistakes and I believe he didn’t mean it.”
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said Monday it wants to see more from both Ratner and the academy.
Herndon Graddick, GLAAD’s senior director of programs, called the academy’s response “insufficient.”
“The Academy and Hollywood need to send a clear message that such slurs, used even once, have no place in mainstream popular culture or at the helm of the industry that helps create it,” Graddick said.
“Tower Heist” opened Friday. It stars Eddie Murphy, who is set to host the 84th Academy Awards in February.
Oscars, Jones to honor Vanessa Redgrave in LondonBy Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) – Decades after her provocative Oscar acceptance speech, Vanessa Redgrave will be honored at the film academy’s first European tribute to an actor.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it will honor Redgrave Sunday in London, where she is starring with James Earl Jones in the stage production of “Driving Miss Daisy.”
Jones, who is to receive an honorary Oscar Saturday at the academy’s Governors Awards, will fete his co-star in person. The 80-year-old actor is skipping the Governors Awards ceremony in Los Angeles to continue the play’s run without interruption.
He plans to participate by video in the Governors Awards, where veteran makeup artist Dick Smith is also receiving an honorary Academy Award for his distinguished career in film and Oprah Winfrey will be presented with the academy’s humanitarian award.
Meanwhile, across the pond, the academy will honor Redgrave for her five decades in film. The 74-year-old actress has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won for her supporting role in 1977’s “Julia,” playing an anti-Nazi activist murdered by the Germans. This latest honor does not involve an Oscar statuette.
Redgrave’s win for “Julia” led to one of the most startling moments in Oscar history. The Jewish Defense League had objected to her nomination and picketed the ceremony because Redgrave had narrated and helped fund a documentary, “The Palestinian,” which supported a Palestinian state.
In her acceptance speech, Redgrave praised the academy for not being intimated by “a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.” Her comments were met by gasps, boos and growing applause.
Redgrave and Jones played Miss Daisy and her loyal chauffer, Hoke, on Broadway before the production moved to London.
The academy honored producer Jeremy Thomas in London last year. Previous London honorees include Terry Gilliam, Harold Pinter and Lewis Gilbert.
Ebert says show in danger of being canceledBy Don Babwin
CHICAGO (AP) – Film critic Roger Ebert is telling his readers that he may have to cancel his television show “Ebert Presents: At the Movies” unless someone steps up and helps him and his wife pay for it.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic wrote on his blog Sunday night that after an initial contribution of $25,000 from Kanbar Charitable Trust, he and Chaz Ebert have been paying virtually all the bills for the show, which began airing on public television in January.
Ebert said he has been pleased with the program, which is hosted by Associated Press movie reviewer Christy Lemire and Mubi.com film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky.
But after months of paying for everything from screen tests to interns to lunch on taping days, “We can’t afford to support the show any longer,” wrote Ebert, who can no longer speak after cancer surgery. “That’s what it comes down to.”
Ebert wrote that he had hoped foundations and others would step forward to underwrite the show, but that nobody has. And now, he wrote, American Public Television is asking him whether the show will be back next season, and he has to have an answer by the end of this month. He wrote that Chaz Ebert, the executive producer, will continue to seek funding for the show.
“Unless we find underwriting, I’m afraid our answer will have to be ‘no,'” he wrote.
Lou Ferrara, the AP managing editor who oversees entertainment coverage, said Lemire has reviewed movies for the AP throughout her tenure with the Ebert show.
“Even if the show ends, Christy will continue providing film reviews and other movie coverage for The Associated Press,” Ferrara said.
Court won’t hear ‘Ghost Hunters’ appealWASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from some television networks being sued by a paranormal investigator who claims his idea was stolen and turned into the television show “Ghost Hunters.”
Without comment, the court turned away an appeal from NBC Universal, Inc., Universal Television Networks and Pilgrim Films & Television, Inc.
Parapsychologist Larry Montz and producer Daena Smoller unsuccessfully shopped around an idea for a show about paranormal investigators in 1981. “Ghost Hunters” appeared on the Sci Fi Channel – now known as SyFy – in 2004.
Montz and Smoller sued in federal court. The courts threw out their copyright claims, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that they could sue for breach of an implied contract and breach of confidence claims.
