June 2nd, 2005

  When we learned that A Chorus Line, one of our all-time favorite Broadway musicals, would be getting a lavish re-mounting in San Francisco with an eye toward a return to the Rialto, we were absolutely thrilled. The musical ran forever, first off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp, then on the Great White Way at the Shubert. We saw it probably 50 times. Our enthusiasm at the prospect of seeing a revival of this glittering, bittersweet, backstage musical and hearing the great Edward Kleban-Marvin Hamlisch score took a nose dive when we heard that pop princess Jessica Simpson would be singing and dancing the role of Cassie, the part so poignantly played by the triple-threat, Tony-winning Donna McKechnie.
  We mean no disrespect to the undeniably beautiful Mrs. Nick Lachey, who we have just learned did actually play Cassie in a production at her Dallas high school. But with the redoubtable Ms. McKechnie so firmly ingrained in our consciousness, there’s probably no known star who could or would meet with our complete approval.
  Fortunately, the Simpson story was just that: a story. Though there is indeed a new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, long-running musical (6,137 performances in 15 years) being put together in the City by the Bay prior to a run at the Big Apple next year, the cast will consist of unknowns, as was the case in the original. And that’s as it should be. Can you imagine someone with Jessica Simpson’s firmly established diva-dom singing in a chorus with 25 other gypsies: “I really need this job?”

 
  Writing of Jessica Simpson prompts us to share a little story that may lend credence to her reputation for dim-wittedness, something that we have long suspected is a carefully thought-out, artfully orchestrated invention designed for her public persona. The Petersen Auto Museum in L.A. hosted an auction of famed movie and television cars, most of them designed by George Barris, like the Batmobile, KITT, and the Starsky & Hutch red-and-white Ford Gran Torino, among others. Jessica recently starred as hillbilly sexpot Daisy Duke in the big-screen remake of The Dukes of Hazzard. In addition to Duke cousins Bo and Luke, portrayed by Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott, the film also stars a bored-out, souped-up, 1969 red/orange Dodge Charger, the “General Lee.” As is the norm, several of these models were made and stood at the ready to substitute for any of those that were disabled in the endless, mind-numbing car chases.
  At the Bonhams and Butterfields auction, Jessica offered a bid on one of the General Lees (as a present for husband Nick), but went away empty handed when she was out maneuvered by another bidder. As it turns out, all she had to do was ask the producers to give her one of the prized autos. That’s how Knoxville and Scott got theirs: by simply asking the producers. However, if Jessica had done the same thing and stayed away from the auction, we would not be writing about her, would we? Smart lady.   How does Hugh Jackman keep up with himself? He is definitely an equal-opportunity, show-biz go-getter. With his time divided pretty evenly among movies, Las Vegas-style cabaret, Broadway, and television on three continents, it’s a wonder he doesn’t meet himself coming and going. He recently participated in the re-naming ceremony of two of the Shuberts’ 45th Street theatres in N.Y.C.—the Schoenfeld and the Jacobs (formerly the Plymouth and the Royale)—then flew off to Berlin to continue the filming of the movie, Good, based on the C.P. Taylor play. Then it was back to N.Y.C.’s Radio City Music Hall to emcee the Tony Awards, which CBS telecasts Sunday night where he’ll sing a song or two (but wouldn’t tell us their titles so as not to spoil it for our readers).
  Before all of this, the jet-setting Jackman completed filming The Fountain for director Darren Aronofsky, calling it “the greatest, most fulfilling experience” he’s ever had working in film. Appearing with Jackman in the romantic sci-fi drama are Ellen Burstyn, Sean Patrick Thomas, Donna Murphy, and Rachel Weisz. After wrapping this movie, he performed a prevue showcase of his cabaret act at Steve Wynn’s brand-new luxury hotel in Las Vegas—one night only, for a reported million bucks —the same show that he’ll be doing in New York City for the Shuberts. Lots of numbers from the Peter Allen songbook, we’re told. No surprise there, given Hugh’s Tony-winning impersonation of the late iconic Australian pop star in The Boy from Oz a season or so ago. Hugh’s Aussie fans will get to see the hard-working actor/singer/dancer strut his exuberant stuff in this smash Broadway hit for eight weeks next summer.

  We quizzed Hugh about his Tony choices, but he wouldn’t reveal them. He did say, however, that he couldn’t understand how the Tony nomination process managed to overlook Cheyenne Jackson, who does an incredible Elvis Presley turn in All Shook Up, calling the six-foot-three performer “just brilliant,” something that was echoed by syndicated columnist Liz Smith: “[Cheyenne Jackson] is the sexiest man to hit the boards since Hugh Jackman.”
  Also touching all bases, distaff-wise, is our friend Kristen Chenoweth, who is just about as busy as Hugh Jackman. A Tony winner—for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown—and a Tony nominee—for Wicked—this tiny soprano with the mighty voice will do six performances of The Apple Tree for the City Center Encores! opposite Michael Cerveris and Malcolm Gets. She had a continuing role in the NBC drama series, The West Wing, this year. And with the series now on hiatus, she’ll take on a feature film, the biography of soul singer, Dusty Springfield. In fact, when we ran into her at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills recently, she was there to buy “lots of black mascara” and ’60s-inspired clothing to complete the hippie look of the “finest white soul singer of her era,” in Kristen’s words.
  “I am going for big, panda eyes like Dusty did,” adding that the film will concentrate on that period in the singer’s life up to the time she recorded Dusty in Memphis, an album that yielded the classic Son of a Preacher Man. And yes, she said, when we asked her about Dusty’s other hits: I Only Want to Be with You and I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself will both be in the film. A Universal Pictures release, produced by Marc Platt and Kristen, it is a logical follow-up to the studio’s successful bio-pic of last year, Ray, which earned Jamie Foxx an Oscar. (Following years of substance abuse and a decline in her artistic fortunes, Dusty Springfield died in 1999, at the age of 59, after a long bout with cancer.)
  Kristen is being seen this summer at the nation’s cineplexes in Bewitched as the good friend of Nicole Kidman’s character, Samantha. She’ll also put in an appearance this weekend at the Tony Awards, no doubt wearing one of the dresses she purchased at Neiman Marcus. She has already wrapped The Pink Panther, the Steve Martin-starring remake of Blake Edwards’ old chestnut in the role of Inspector Clouseau, scheduled for a fall release. And there’s more: She’s just finishing Running with Scissors and Stranger Than Fiction and begins filming RV next month. Whew!
  Kristen and Nicole formed a close bond during the filming of Bewitched and the two will be doing some serious shopping right after the Tonys at the three “B’s”—Bergdorf’s, Bloomie’s, and Bendel’s. (Nicole is in N.Y.C. filming Fur, the Diane Arbus film bio, co-starring Robert Downey, Jr.) Naturally, we asked Kristen about her being spotted at parties and around town with the wonderful actor-singer Patrick Wilson, who was so good in the film version of Phantom of the Opera. “Oh, no. We’re just friends,” she insisted. Like Kristen, Patrick seems to be on the fast track to an important film career, having recently signed to star in writer/director Todd Field’s relationship drama Little Children, opposite Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly. There were many high-profile actors who were interested in the role, but said Fields, “I was so impressed [with Wilson] that I instantly offered him the part,” that of a sexy, young father, a former college football quarterback. Patrick Wilson created a sensation a year or so ago in the TV miniseries, Angels in America. And the good-looking actor recently completed work on American Gothic. He’ll next be seen in the Sundance Film Festival fave, Hard Candy.

  Not long after seeing Kristen at Neiman’s, we spotted Patrick and a lady having coffee in our neighborhood. We have seen the two of them since then, holding hands, walking in the area, very lovey-dovey, and assume that they are living nearby. So Kristen’s “just friends” designation about Patrick must really be the way it is.   Friends of Lindsay Lohan were telling us that she, too, will be attending the Tony Awards on Sunday. We asked them about another Lohan rumor—that she’s considering the lead role in the Main Stem musical Clueless in the part that launched Alicia Silverstone’s movie career. They merely shrugged their shoulders and a glazed look came over their faces. In the current issue of W, producer Barry Weissler says he “would die” to have Lindsay star in the musical. Barry and his wife Fran are planning this with Amy Heckerling, who directed the hit film, and, according to our sources, have already been in discussions with Lindsay about starring in the musical. Will Lindsay be asked to regain some of the poundage she’s dropped in recent weeks? The once zaftig popster recently was spotted boogeying down with Jake Gyllenhaal and we had to wonder where all her energy has been coming from.   Since so much of this week’s column deals with musical theatre, we might as well share something that just came to us: Andrew Lloyd Webber wants blonde movie queen Scarlett Johansson to star as Maria in his West End revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, which Trevor Nunn is directing for the 2006 season. Scarlett, in case you didn’t hear, pulled out of Mission Impossible III because of delays and script changes. The film’s star, Tom Cruise, now wants his new gf, Katie Holmes, to take over the role, after she completes her star-turn in Factory Girl. We also hear that scenarist Bob Harling would like Katie for the role of Pamela Barnes Ewing in the big-screen movie he’s written based on the television series Dallas.   Speaking of Katie Holmes, we continue to be impressed by the maturity of this young woman. On her relationship with Cruise, she said that she herself chose to be in the public eye and that the pressure she is under is her own. “I just don’t want to get into the celebrity couple trap where your relationship is the subject of a lot of nasty speculation. You read so much about some couples and how their lives come under so much scrutiny and you know it must be terrible for them.”

  Right after the news broke about Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney’s unexpected Virgin Island wedding, we ran into Russell Crowe at the Four Seasons and asked him for a comment. “What a surprise and hurrah for them,” he said of his Cinderella Man co-star’s marriage to the hunky country singer. We asked him if it were true that he’d gifted the couple with an Elvis Presley guitar, as we’d heard. “No, I am keeping the few Elvis Presley guitars I own for myself.” Then he added, “Sure, I got them a wedding present, but I am not telling you what I got them.”
  As long as we had the attention of the usually tight-lipped Aussie actor, we asked him what he thought of the play Killing Russell Crowe. (This is about a bartender who thinks the actor is a cheapskate and never leaves tips, just autographed headshots of himself.) The question clearly took the actor by surprise, but he responded with uncharacteristic calm: “This reckless accusation that I do not tip drains the last drops of credibility from this desperate plea for attention. [Beat] “Can we talk about Cinderella Man?” Okay, Mr. Crowe. Talk.
  “[The film] is set in the early ’30s at the height of the Depression, and charts the life of James J. Braddock, who with the support of his wife (played by Renee Zellweger) rose from extreme poverty of the New York City slums to win the world heavyweight boxing title. It was physically the hardest thing I’ve ever done...three or four times more difficult than Gladiator. I was in massive pain on a daily basis, but I was enjoying the hell out of it because I loved the guy that I was playing.” The film was directed by Ron Howard.
  There’s Oscar buzz already being generated about the film and about Crowe’s performance, after an industry-only preview recently. It has been 25 years since a boxing film about a real person—Raging Bull about Jack La Motta in 1980, which earned an Oscar for Robert De Niro—has been the subject of so much optimism and blockbuster expectations. Not even Denzel Washington’s much lauded, Oscar-nominated performance as Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in The Hurricane (1999) nor Will Smith’s equally respected turn as Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001) were able turn their movies into unqualified hits. (Rocky and Million Dollar Baby were very successful boxing movies, but they were both fictional characters.)   In an article about Tom Cruise in the current Readers Digest, the actor speaks—obviously pre-Katie Holmes—about marriage and kids, among other things. “I’d like to get married,” Cruise is quoted. “I’ll tell you what I love. I like being in a relationship. That’s who I am. You know, sex means something to me. When I’m with a woman, I feel that, you know?” Tom is also quoted as saying he wants more kids. “I’m a great parent! I want to be my kids. Really, they get to do all the stuff that I wanted to do when I was growing up.” Right after news of the relationship first came out, tabloids had Kate and Tom already heading for the altar, citing that the recent Zellweger-Chesney “elopement” was serving as their model. They were even reporting that Carolina Herrera, who designed Renee’s stunning wedding gown, was also designing Katie’s. Taint so. We asked our friend Carolina and she said she hadn’t heard from anyone about Katie Holmes’ wedding dress.   Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, vacationing at the Plush Hotel in the resort town of St. Jean Cap Ferrat, giving Justin’s pipes some much needed healing time—some say it’ll require about three months—got a cool million ($, that is) to perform at Brit billionaire Philip Green’s son’s bar mitzvah. The key word here is “perform.” The former Back Street Boy is voice-less since his surgery a month ago. Lip-syncing has been an alternative to singing “live” for years from Madonna to Ashlee Simpson, though Milli Vanilli did have to give up their Grammys when the duo was busted “singing” to someone else’s voice tracks.

  We ran into Cameron at Neiman Marcus a while back and she was buying some handbags and Manolo Blahnik shoes, which we now assume were for her trip to the South of France. We understand she also bought a number of bikinis at Neiman’s. Someone told us that Cameron and Justin were looking at a villa to rent for the remainder of the summer. It is near Villa Mauresque, the home of socialite Lynn Wyatt, which once was the Riviera home of Somerset Maugham. We understand that Lynn already invited Cameron and Justin to a dinner party. If true, they are in for a treat. We too were once at Villa Mauresque, attending one of Lynn’s absolutely fabulous self-hosted birthday parties. On that occasion, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld dressed the smashing Houston blonde like an 18th century maharajah, all in blinding white satin, from pearl-decorated turban to tiny shoes with turned-up toes. She was spectacular and so was the party.   When you’re beautiful, rich, and famous in Hollywood, you’re a tabloid target and there’re no two ways about it. Take Charlize Theron. Not only were they reporting a rift between the talented Oscar-winning star and her boyfriend of four years, Stuart Townsend, but they also had her making whoopee with the co-star of her latest (untitled) film, Woody Harrelson. According to the supermarket scandal sheets, Charlize was upset with Townsend because he failed to visit her during her two-month, New Mexico location film shoot. Another rag had her partying with Jennifer Garner’s ex and Alias co-star Michael Vartan at the new Wednesday night hot-spot Mood in Hollywood.
  These reports sent us scurrying to Charlize’s publicist, Heidi Schaffer, who just shook her head in disbelief. We believe Heidi because we spotted Charlize and Stuart looking very much the happy couple having a romantic dinner at the Bel-Air Hotel. And a couple of days later, some friends of ours reported seeing the couple ascloseasthis at the beach, with the couple’s dogs at their side.   Another celebrity we spied at the Bel-Air Hotel on the same evening we saw Charlize and Stuart: Val Kilmer, taking a break from his starring role on the London stage in The Postman Always Rings Twice. His dinner partner was Zeta Graff, Greek-born actress and ex-wife of Francois Graff, heir to a diamond fortune said to be in the neighborhood of $157 million, some of which was awarded to Zeta in their divorce. A little background on Zeta: She co-starred with Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element and was once involved romantically with Paris Latsis, now making the scene with Paris Hilton. Zeta denied one of the diamond rings she was wearing came from Val. The 35-year-old actress smiled and said, “They’re all from Francois.”

  Having successfully scaled the ladder of success in Hollywood with the American Pie franchise, among other films, director Paul Weitz has set his cap for the theater, with his play Privilege about a pair of rich Manhattan brothers, now on view at Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre. As a former rich kid himself, the son of the legendary fashion designer John Weitz and actress Susan Kohner, Paul knows of which he speaks (or more correctly, writes). Now pushing 40, Paul has outgrown his rich-kid origins, becoming a self-made, rich adult, along with his four-years-younger brother, Chris. The drama draws heavily on the brothers’ background—an Upper East Side apartment, private schools, and enviable wealth—who are 16 and 12, whose lives are torn apart when their father is arrested for insider trading. Bob Saget plays the out-of-touch dad. Privilege received a strong recommendation from The New Yorker, calling it “excellent.”
  Meanwhile, the Weitz brothers are keeping their connections to Hollywood in force with a new film, American Dreamz, and have signed Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid as stars. The film is a satirical look at how politics and show business converge in America and impact on each other today. Grant plays a disaffected British TV personality and Quaid portrays the U.S. president going through a nervous breakdown. The film also stars Chris Klein and Mandy Moore and starts shooting in July. Grant is looking for East Hampton digs for girlfriend Jemima Kahn to occupy while he’s before the cameras in Los Angeles.