ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S POSSESSIONS TO BE AUCTIONED

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S prized collection of jewelry, art, designer clothing and other memorabilia will go on an international three month tour before it is sold in New York in December, CHRISTIE’S auction house announced Wednesday.

The tour will begin in September and includes stops in Moscow, London, Dubai, Geneva, Paris and Los Angeles.

It will end in New York, where CHRISTIE’S plans a museum quality exhibition of the late actor’s collection that will fill its entire gallery space DECEMBER 3 – 10.

The auction will be held DECEMBER 13 – 16.

Ms. Taylor, who was infamously married eight times to seven husbands and remembered for her roles in A PLACE IN THE SUN, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, CLEOPATRA and WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, was also known for her passion for opulent diamonds.

She passed away in March at age 79.

She published a book in 2003 entitled ELIZABETH TAYLOR: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH JEWELRY. Her collection has included some of the world’s most expensive stones.

A portion of the proceeds from the exhibition admissions and publications related to the sales will be donated to THE ELIZABETH TAYLOR AIDS FOUNDATION.

The screen icon’s impressionist and modern art collection will be sold in February at CHRISTIE’S in London and will include a group of works she inherited from her father, art dealer FRANCIS TAYLOR, CHRISTIE’S said.

The auction house said details of the sales, exhibitions and tour dates would be announced in the fall. But it stated that Ms. Taylor’s magnificent jewelry by some of the world’s top design houses will range from white diamonds to elaborate custom designed jewels. They will be sold in three sessions DECEMBER 13 and 14.

Some of the biggest names in fashion, including VALENTINO, GIANNI VERSACE and GIANFRANCO FERRE, designed the star’s haute couture and ready to wear fashion.

Classic ELIZABETH TAYLOR looks will be offered in an evening sale on DECEMBER 14, followed by three sessions of fashion, handbags, shoes, accessories and fine luggage the following day.

Film memorabilia from Ms. Taylor’s Bel Air home, furniture and 20th century decorative arts will be offered on DECEMBER 16.

CHRISTIE’S first announced it was selling the actor’s collection in April after an agreement with her family. At the time, it didn’t release any details.

Ms. Taylor won three ACADEMY AWARDS, including a special OSCAR for her advocacy for AIDS research and other humanitarian causes.

She also won an OSCAR for her performance in VIRGINIA WOOLF, in which she played an alcoholic shrew in an emotionally sadomasochistic marriage opposite RICHARD BURTON, whom she married twice in real life.

FROM HEART TO HEARTBREAKER WITH A SIDE OF CANUCKS: CHATTING WITH LOVERBOY’S MIKE RENO

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Hey Mike. It used to be everybody was WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND. Now, everybody is working on the weekend.

MIKE RENO: Yeah, when we wrote the song, we wrote it:
Everybody’s working for the weekend. But now it appears that everybody is working on the weekend. You’re absolutely right, Mike.

MR: One of the joys of the 80s was exploring songs on MTV before they were in heavy Top Ten rotations and I imagine that’s where many LOVERBOY fans discovered your songs. In fact, MTV played your videos so often, you guys should have been paid as hosts.

M RENO: You know, I figured out what it was. We turned in three videos the week they opened and MTV didn’t have much content. So, just by process of elimination, it was like, “What have we got?” and they said, “Well, we’ve got these three Loverboy videos.” Actually, back then, we didn’t really know what to call them – they were music performances that were filmed. We didn’t even have the term video back then. But it was great that we did three, which we did all in one weekend in Albany, New York and we handed them to MTV and became TV heroes, I guess.

MR: Do you remember which three they were?

M RENO: I believe it was TURN ME LOOSE, WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND and LUCKY ONES.

MR: That’s one of my favourite eras for music. Not so much because of the production values, but because everybody was having fun.

M RENO: The 80s were a riot. I even talk about it when I do my concerts. I say, “Anyone remember the 80s?” and they all go, “Yeah!” I say, “Yeah, that was a good decade,” and it truly was a good decade. It was all about having fun and there weren’t a lot of the issues back then that there are now. So we were pretty lucky back then.

MR: Now, you started the ball rolling on a solo, or rather, duet career, becoming a hit maker with ANN WILSON on the song ALMOST PARADISE from FOOTLOOSE.

M RENO: I was asked to do the song and they asked me to choose the singer that I would sing with. So it was all up to me. I chose ANN WILSON because I’ve always loved HEART. I love the way she sings and she’s a wonderful person – the whole band was great. They used to be a Vancouver band. They were up here in the 70s. They came up from Seattle and I think some of their boyfriends and roadies were trying to avoid going to Vietnam or something – it’s been long enough I can mention that now.

So they were considered a Vancouver band and when I was young I used to come down to Vancouver from where I lived – it was like a four or five hour drive – and I used to go see HEART playing in nightclubs and I thought they were awesome. So, I picked ANN WILSON to sing that with and it only took us like one recording session…and it wasn’t even a long one. I just walked in and sang it with her facing each other. We both had a mic. But they were facing each other and we just banged it off and had a lot of fun doing it.

The pleasure was in that it didn’t take us more than one take to get through the whole thing. I knew she’d pull it off because she’s always been so great and she still is great live. I don’t know if there’s any better singer out there than ANN WILSON.

MR: I know what you mean. She’s got an incredible rock voice. And HEART still has one of my favourite sounds. Their last album was RED VELVET CAR and it sounded like yet another classic HEART record to me.

M RENO: You know, that’s the one record I haven’t got in my collection. So thanks for reminding me. This interview is helping me figure out things that I’ve forgotten to do. (laughs) I was listening to some track from that record on iTunes and was going to order it and then something came up. Thanks for reminding me. I’m going to go order it right now.

MR: (laughs) You got it. Mike, you also did HEAVEN IN YOUR EYES for an obscure little movie called TOP GUN.

M RENO: Boy, that’s a funny story. Do you want to hear it?

MR: Ya, do it.

M RENO: I got called into the office of these two famous people, JERRY BRUCKHEIMER and DON SIMPSON, who produced major movies and they were in this big office space with a popcorn machine. They were walking by as if I wasn’t in the room, flashing ideas back and forth, both on telephones talking to different people and finally one of them stops and says, “Can I help you?”

I said, “You wanted to see me. My name’s Mike Reno,” and they went, “Oh, good. Sit down here and watch this little piece.” So, I sat down in this chair and they started playing me this piece of a movie starring TOM CRUISE and KELLY McGILLIS.

It was Tuesday morning and they said, “Could you write a song for this scene right here?” I said, “Play it again.” They ran the scene and I said, “Yeah, I can do that. When do you need it?” They said, “Friday.” “This Friday?“ I said and they went, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, I’d better get out of here.”

I flew back home and got together with PAUL DEAN and another guy that I work with sometimes, JOHN DEXTER and we banged it out. We just kind of came up with the concept loosely around a paradise kind of a vibe because that’s what they wanted – they wanted a song that was ALMOST PARADISEish, but not necessarily a duet. So, we came up with this, banged it off and there goes another big one. I think that album sold over twenty three million copies.

MR: And, of course, they both paled in comparison to another solo of yours CHASING THE ANGELS from IRON EAGLE 2.

M RENO: Oh stop. You’re just saying that, aren’t you…?

MR: (laughs) Mike, as a soloist, duet or with LOVERBOY, it seemed like there was always something with your sound on the radio at all times for a period, you know?

M RENO: Here’s the deal. When I open my mouth to start singing, people think of LOVERBOY because I created the sound thirty years ago. PAUL and I decided to keep it pretty simple and not get too crazy on the overdubs and we did these Everly harmonies and we kept it simple. I think it must have caught on because it’s just been like work, work, work…ever since we started.

MR: It also didn’t hurt to have songs with titles like HOT GIRLS IN LOVE and QUEEN OF THE BROKEN HEARTS. I remember there was a big MTV contest for QUEEN OF THE BROKEN HEARTS. I don’t remember any of the specifics, but I do remember there was a big contest.

M RENO: Oh, I remember the specifics. A lucky winner of this contest, which was whoever wrote in with the best explanation of why they should be in a video with LOVERBOY, won a spot in the video and then they got to hang out with LOVERBOY for a day. It was a pretty cool prize, if you think about it – it would be like hanging out with somebody you really love for a whole day and then being in a video that will probably last forever.

MR: Speaking of videos again, some of the guest spots of the day were wild. For instance, I remember at the end of CYNDI LAUPER’S video for GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN in steps STEVE FORBERT, one of my favourite artists of all time. The pairing of these two was absolutely ridiculous to me because they were nowhere near the same musical genres, but it was a lot of fun to see him show up at her house.

M RENO: (laughs) Well, CYNDI’S pretty quirky. She’s pretty cool that way. She’s over the top. She’s out of the box.

MR: And that brings us to the latest news, which is that you guys got together recently and did a couple of recordings: HEARTBREAKER and also NO TOMORROW.

M RENO: We got a call from BOB ROCK, who wanted to go in the studio and cut some songs and we said, “Absolutely.” For those that don’t know, BOB ROCK was actually our engineer for out first four albums or so and he is the one who kind of gave us that sound – simplistic recordings of a bunch of high energy young guys. He got into producing and now he’s a world famous producer who has worked with an amazing list of artists. He’s always been a friend of ours and he asked us to get together shortly after Christmas in Vancouver. So, we got together in BRYAN ADAMS’ recording studio in Vancouver called THE WAREHOUSE and we banged off a couple of tunes during the weekend…and really enjoyed it. We did the whole thing in two days.

MR: HEARTBREAKER has more than enough of the signature LOVERBOY sound. But it also feels contemporary.

M RENO: Well, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we were working with a couple of other guys. BOB ROCK and his partner were writing some songs and we helped him finish the songs. As soon as BOB was working on the song, he said, “I know a band that would love to play this.” So, we got the song and PAUL and I finished it up and made it really kind of LOVERBOY, so it’s got that whole LOVERBOY thing. When we record something – and I mean anything – it generally ends up sounding like LOVERBOY for all the obvious reasons and that is basically that we are LOVERBOY.

MR: Well, the fact that it doesn’t sound like METALLICA or THE CURE, other acts BOB’S worked with, I think is the sign of a really good producer. It’s always nice when the sound of the act doesn’t mimic the sound of the producer.

M RENO: I agree. When he gets a room full of musicians who can actually play their instruments, he just stands there and lets you go for it. He may throw in a few suggestions about an arrangement, but he just lets you go for it. He had a big smile on his face, and he was going, “Yeah man, this is great.” We did a few takes of each song and it was done.

MR: Now, you were also in the group MOXY for a while, right?

M RENO: Wow, you’ve done your homework. That seems like half a lifetime ago…actually it was a half a lifetime ago. That was in the late 70s just before I decided to go back west and find a new group of people to work with. Luckily, after I made that decision, I ran into PAUL DEAN and then my whole world got turned upside down. That’s when we created LOVERBOY.

MR: I have to ask you about some of these lyrics from HEARTBREAKER. The line is: She may be from heaven/She may be from hell/She may be from Jersey…

You know my next question, right?

M RENO: Jersey’s great. It’s The Garden State, my friend. What it was is that the girl could be from anywhere, it could be any couple and it happens all the time. It’s just what we do best – we do relationship songs and here’s another one for you.

MR: Yes, why it’s another HOT GIRLS IN LOVE.

M RENO: It’s just like that. It’s the same. But different.

MR: (laughs) Let’s go over some of the latest stuff that’s been going on with LOVERBOY. You were inducted into THE CANADIAN MUSIC HALL OF FAME in 2009.

M RENO: That was a wonderful experience – a little bit humbling for sure. They did it at THE JUNO AWARDS, which is Canada’s GRAMMYS and they took fifteen minutes out of the whole show to honour LOVERBOY and basically give us a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD and enter us into THE CANADIAN MUSIC HALL OF FAME. They had interviews and big congratulations from all these people we’ve worked with over the last thirty years. It was really quite an honour. DICK CLARK was talking about us and all the promoters, producers, engineers and record company people – it was actually kind of humbling. Then they handed us this beautiful award and all of us were up there just going, “Thank you.”

MR: Given his physical challenges now, how did it feel seeing DICK CLARK?

M RENO: We got to know DICK CLARK many years ago, when he was the first one to recognize that we had a chance to really do something with ourselves. He invited us to AMERICAN BANDSTAND to play our first television appearance doing a live song, so it was pretty neat to get to know him over the years. After that, he started inviting us to THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS as presenters and all kinds of interesting things. It was sad to see him have his stroke and have to slow down a little bit because he was always – and probably will be forever – this young guy in our imagination. He’s this guy that never seems to grow old. But like you’ll realize in life, it can happen to anybody, anytime, so you’ve really got to grab life and enjoy every moment of it.

MR: Yeah, I think the recent passing of CLARENCE CLEMONS is a big wake up call for baby boomers as well as slightly younger generations.

M RENO: I recently had a realization and decided to do something about it. I had high blood pressure and my cholesterol was through the roof. I spent three months making some life changes and I got my blood pressure back to perfectly normal and my cholesterol down and I shed forty pounds. I knew I had to do this and stay healthy because you get to a point in your life when you can really experience the other side – there’s going to be an end to this show at some point – and you don’t want it to happen any sooner than it has to.

MR: Of course, but weren’t you also training for the Olympics for which you played at the ceremony in Vancouver in 2010?

M RENO: (laughs) I know, but I wasn’t on the hockey team or anything. I was just playing a concert for those people.

MR: And you love your CANUCKS, don’t you?

M RENO: Oh, you’ve got to love the CANUCKS. We nearly won the STANLEY CUP! We were in it right to the seventh game and the whole town went crazy afterward, as you probably heard. I think the CANUCKS in the seventh game of the STANLEY CUP playoffs was maybe even a bigger event than the Olympics, believe it or not.

MR: Do you notice hockey spiking as far as people’s awareness of it?

M RENO: Oh, one hundred percent, for sure. I’m even noticing it down in the States and even in the south they’re paying attention to it. Heck, Tampa won the STANLEY CUP a few years ago.

MR: Back to your music, sir. Is NO TOMORROW going to be your next single?

M RENO: Yeah, probably. We’re going to cut songs every once in a while and to be honest with you, I’ve been watching what’s going on in music and in my opinion, a good new song that is being played and enjoyed everywhere is almost the way to go now rather than recording a whole twelve song album and putting it out as a whole. I think one song at a time is kind of a new way of doing things. So we’ve decided to record some songs every once in a while, put them out and just have new songs coming out all the time from now on. That’s kind of a new way of thinking, but that’s kind of how we feel.

MR: It’s a return to the old days of rock & roll, when you’d have singles and then when you had enough singles together, you’d put out an album.

M RENO: Exactly.

MR: What’s cool about this is that the idea of a concept album is gone. Unless you’re an act that’s really trying to prove a point with an arc of music, it doesn’t seem like it’s necessary any more. This method that you’re talking about is also really good for the whole DIY movement in music.

M RENO: I’ve got a feeling that this is the way it’s been and we got off track, but now we’re coming back to it. Like you eluded to, they used to put out singles all the time and then you’d take your singles out and play concerts and people would go, “Oh, this is a great song,” or “This song is on the radio,” or “This is my favourite song.” If you have twelve songs on an album, what are the chances that people are going to like all twelve of those songs? So, why not just put a song out every once in a while, when you feel confident about it, you know?

MR: Well, we had vinyl that allowed forty five to fifty minutes of playing time before it sounded horrible. That was the delivery system for a while. Then, with the CD you could go up to eighty minutes and you could have WAR & PEACE as your release. When it gets right down to it, like you said, it’s the two or three songs that people remember and are going to want to come back to. So these long, and in some cases, oppressive projects really don’t make sense a lot of the time.

M RENO: I agree with you, Mike. I think that people are moving so fast and they’re receiving their information so fast that a twelve song disc seems like such an archaic way to go. I say give them fresh songs all the time. Put new artwork on each new song, throw it out there and really keep it fresh and moving.

MR: There’s also the immediate gratification of being able download a single from iTunes or from a website instantly.

M RENO: Absolutely. I love that.

MR: The sound takes a hit, of course. You know, the group LESS THAN JAKE has a business model where you have to order their latest release through their site, which means they keep 100% percent of the profit, as opposed to sharing it with an iTunes or whatever.

M RENO: I kind of had a similar vision and it goes even one step further. It’s not anything you could easily implement, but how about you could never hear a new song by a group unless you go see them live? Wouldn’t that be interesting?

MR: Here’s how I look at it. When LIVE NATION populated every concert hall in the country, it just saturated everybody – I mean, how could you keep up with all of these major acts in all these major places? DIY acts play everywhere as well, but at smaller, less expensive venues. They’re almost an antidote to seventy five dollar and above ticket prices since fifteen dollars buys you a local café or club, its atmosphere or vibe and much of the time, great new music.

M RENO: I’m with you. I think there are a lot of changes going on in the music business and you’ve got to keep up with it. I love some of those new, fresh ideas that are going around. Let’s say there was a new VAN HALEN album and you couldn’t even buy it because they didn’t record it. If you wanted to hear a bunch of new songs by them, you’d have to go see it live. Wouldn’t you go to that concert? I would.

MR: Right…and since we’re on the subject of the music business and new artists, what advice do you have for new artists?

M RENO: It’s quite simple. Find a person or a group of people that you really enjoy being around and like to work with and concentrate on your songwriting and practice your craft. If you’re a player of some sort, keep playing all the time, but concentrate on making the songs interesting, fun and whatever it takes to make them something people want to hear over and over again. You have to spend some time with this because crafting songs is not easy. Crafting good songs is really hard, but it’s really worth the effort.

MR: Mike, when you look back at yourself in the early days of LOVERBOY and looking at yourself now, what do you see as the key differences?

M RENO: Well, I don’t know if there are a lot of changes, but I’ll tell you one thing – I’m starting to get pretty darn good at it. People are coming up after the show and they go, “I swear you’re sounding better than you used to. Is that possible?” I tell them, “If you really think about it, we’ve been getting a lot of practice over the last thirty years.” You’re bound to get better and if you’re not, there is something seriously wrong, dude.

MR: Can you hear it in your voice? Can you hear it in your playing?

M RENO: I do. When we do live shows, which is all the time, I notice the songs have come to a better place. They were originally written and recorded many years ago and now we’re playing them a little differently. I honestly think they’re sounding better – a little bit edited here and there. Some are a little shorter and some are a little longer. They’re played a little differently, but the catalyst is the same. I think things are exciting and better that way and we really enjoy that kind of thing.

MR: I used to be prejudiced about it, always wanting to find the absolute original recording of everything back when I was doing compilation work. I’m surprised at how much I’ve gotten over that. Now it’s like, “We’ve all ready heard the original version. I want to hear something more.”

M RENO: I’m with you and that’s a learning curve. I went in one time when we were doing some new stuff and I said, “After we get done with these new songs, I want to try singing a few of our old songs again to see if we can get them sounding the same.” I started singing them and I said, “I sing it different, but I like it better.” So, I have to agree with you. (laughs)

MR: Especially after having taken a little break because then it’s like getting back together with old friends and checking out everyone’s changes.

M RENO: Being in a band is kind of like being on a team. We all kind of go together, take this team and try to make it as good as we can. Everywhere we go, we try to make it look good and sound good. We love these songs – they’re part of our DNA and they’re part of a lot of people’s DNA. People send us a lot of love and we end up loving them back, so it’s just a big lovefest really.

MR: For LOVERBOY…how appropriate.

M RENO: I know. Go figure.

MR: Mike, since you brought up DNA, could you have done anything else or was this the only thing you could have done with your life?

M RENO: I could have done a lot of things. I have a lot of interests, you know? I read a lot and I feel like I could probably write books. I could probably be a good manager or producer. I’m a good songwriter. I’m a good singer. I’m a good friend. I’m a good dad. I’m good at a lot of things. I can say that because I’ve done it for so long. It’s not that I’m bragging, it’s just that after a while, you start getting good at these things. I could have been a lawyer, I think, even though it definitely wouldn’t have been as much fun as being in a rock band, but I have those sensibilities.

MR: That’s what I was going to ask – do you think you would have had as much fun doing anything else than you’re doing right now?

M RENO: Oh, there’s no way you can top being in a rock band. It’s the best job on earth.

MR: Mike, this has been a lot of fun and I’m really glad we got to spend some time together.

M RENO: Thank you, Mike. You’re always a pleasure to talk to and I’m glad we got a chance to share some stories, my friend.

EMMA WATSON: CREATIVITY IS HER DRVING FORCE

Finding her niche outside of HARRY POTTER has been EMMA WATSON’S most challenging role to date.

“I have lived in a complete bubble,” she admitted in the JULY issue of VOGUE.

“And now I’m desperately trying to find my way through it.”

A stint as an Ivy Leaguer, seeking refuge in the arts (“I love it and have a need to do it,” she said of painting) and side projects have helped define her off screen character.

“I was Warner Brothers’ pain in the butt. I was their scheduling conflict,” she said of making time for extracurricular fashion projects, including designing three collections for PEOPLE TREE.

“I was doing twelve hour days on Harry Potter and then coming home to work for two more hours, sizing and cutting designs.”

But her time on set inspired her, too; she grew close to makeup head AMANDA KNIGHT and would spend hours experimenting with cosmetics in the makeup trailer.

“That was my playground. I would sit and play with lipsticks, foundations and eye shadows and every now and then Amanda would let me do the extras’ face paint for the Quidditch matches.”

Perhaps not so coincidentally, EMMA is now the face of LANCOME. But despite her busy off set schedule, she is still finding time for new projects. She recently landed the role of SAM in THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.

“Sam is such a different girl than who I am. Hermione is so close to who I am as a person that I’ve never really had to research a role. I’m literally rediscovering what it means to be an actress.”

PETER FALK DIES

I adored this man. I’ll miss him a great deal. There will never be anyone like him again.

The inimitable KEN TUCKER of EW has a wonderful tribute right here.

PETER FALK, who marshaled actorly tics, prop room appurtenances and his own physical idiosyncrasies to personify COLUMBO, one of the most famous and beloved fictional detectives in television history, died on Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills.

He was 83.

His family announced his passing in a statement, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported. He had been treated for Alzheimer’s in recent years.

Mr. Falk had a wide ranging career in comedy and drama, in the movies and
on stage, before and during the three and a half decades in which he
portrayed the slovenly but canny lead on COLUMBO. He was nominated for two OSCARS; appeared in original stage productions of works by PADDY CHAYEFSKY, NEIL SIMON and ARTHUR MILLER, worked with directors FRANK CAPRA, JOHN CASSAVETES, BLAKE EDWARDS and MIKE NICHOLS and costarred with the likes of FRANK SINATRA, JACK LEMMON, BETTE DAVIS and JASON ROBARDS.

But Mr. Falk’s prime time popularity was founded on a single role.

A lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, COLUMBO was a comic variation on the traditional fictional detective. With the keen mind of SHERLOCK HOLMES and PHILIP MARLOWE, he was cast in the mold of neither. He wasn’t a gentleman scholar or a tough guy. He was instead a mass of quirks and peculiarities, a seemingly distracted figure in a rumpled raincoat.

He drove a battered Peugeot, was unfailingly polite, was sometimes
accompanied by a basset hound named DOG and was constantly referring to the wisdom of his wife (who was never seen on screen) and a variety of relatives and acquaintances who were identified in Homeric epithet like shorthand – an uncle who played the bagpipes with the Shriners, say, or a nephew majoring in dermatology at UCLA – and who were called to mind by the circumstances of the crime at hand.

It was a low rent effect that was especially irksome to the high society
murderers he outwitted in episode after episode.

Mr. Falk had a glass eye, resulting from an operation to remove a cancerous
tumour when he was 3 years old. The prosthesis gave all his characters a
peculiar, almost quizzical squint. And he had a mild speech impediment that
gave his L’s a breathy quality, a sound that emanated from the back of his
throat and that seemed especially emphatic whenever, in character, he
introduced himself as LIEUTENANT COLUMBO.

Such a deep well of eccentricity made COLUMBO amusing as well as incisive, not to mention a progenitor of later characters like TONY SHALHOUB’S MONK. And it made him an especially suitable central figure for the detective story niche in which he lived, where whodunit was irrelevant and how it was done was paramount.

From 1968 to 2003, Mr. Falk played the character dozens of times, mostly in
the format of a 90 minute or two hour television movie.

“What are you hanging around for?” Mr. Falk wrote, describing the appeal of the show in JUST ONE MORE THING, an anecdotal memoir (2006), whose title was a trademark line of COLUMBO’S – usually indicating the jig was up.

“Just one more thing. You want to know how he gets caught.”

When COLUMBO, the ordinary man as hero, brought low the greedy and murderous privileged of Beverly Hills, Malibu and Brentwood, they were implicit victories for the many over the few.

“This is, perhaps, the most thoroughgoing satisfaction Columbo offers us,” JEFF GREENFIELD wrote in THE NEW YORK TIMES in 1973, “the assurance that those who dwell in marble and satin, those whose clothes, food, cars and mates are the very best, do not deserve it.”

PETER MICHAEL FALK was born on SEPTEMBER 16, 1927 in New York City and grew up in Ossining, N.Y., where his father owned a clothing store and where, in spite of his missing eye, he was a high school athlete. In one story he liked to tell, after being called out at third base during a baseball game, he removed his fake eye and handed it to the umpire.

“You’ll do better with this,” he said.

After high school, Mr. Falk went briefly to Hamilton College in upstate New York before dropping out and joining the Merchant Marines as a cook. He later returned to New York City, where he earned a degree in political
science from the New School For Social Research before attending Syracuse
University, where he received a master’s degree in public administration.

He took a job in Hartford as an efficiency expert for the Connecticut budget bureau. It was in Connecticut that he began acting, joining an amateur troupe called THE MARK TWAIN MASKERS in Hartford and taking classes from EVA LE GALLIENNE at the WHITE BARN THEATER in Westport. He was 29 when he decided to move to New York again, this time to be an actor.

He made his professional debut in an Off Broadway production of MOLIERE’S
DON JUAN in 1956. In 1957 he was cast as the bartender in the famous
CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE revival of THE ICEMAN COMETH, directed by JOSE QUINTERO and starring JASON ROBARDS; he made his first splash on screen, as ABE (KID TWIST) RELES, a violent mob thug, in the 1960 film MURDER INC. That performance earned him an OSCAR nomination for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR and a moment of high embarrassment at the awards ceremony. When the winner was announced – it was PETER USTINOV for SPARTACUS – Mr. Falk heard the first name and stood, only to have to sit back down again a moment later.

“When I hit the seat I turned to the press agent and said, ‘You’re fired!”’ Mr. Falk wrote in his memoir.

“I didn’t want him charging me for another day.”

The next year, newly married to his Syracuse classmate ALYCE MAYO – they would have two daughters and divorce in 1976 – Mr. Falk was again nominated for a SUPPORTING ACTOR OSCAR for playing a mobster, though this time with a more light hearted stripe, in the final film to be directed by FRANK CAPRA, POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES, starring BETTE DAVIS and GLENN FORD.

From then on, Mr. Falk, who was swarthy, squat (he was 5’6″) and
handsome, had to fend off offers to play gangsters. He did take such a part
in ROBIN & THE 7 HOODS, alongside FRANK SINATRA, DEAN MARTIN and SAMMY DAVIS JR., but fearful of typecasting, he also took roles
in epic comedic japes like IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD and THE GREAT RACE.

He returned to the stage as well, in the title role of Stalin, in PADDY CHAYEFSKY’S THE PASSION OF JOSEF D, which earned him solid reviews in spite of the show’s brief run (14 performances). Mr. Falk played Stalin “with brilliant unsmiling ferocity,” HOWARD TAUBMAN wrote in his largely positive review in THE NEW YORK TIMES.

His life was forever changed in 1967 when, reportedly after both BING CROSBY and LEE J. COBB turned down the role, he was cast as COLUMBO in the television film PRESCRIPTION: MURDER.

The film, about a psychiatrist who kills his wife with the help of one of his patients, was written by RICHARD LEVINSON and WILLIAM LINK; they had adapted it from their stage play, which opened in San Francisco and Boston in 1964 and which itself was an adaptation. Mr. Levinson and Mr. Link first wrote the story in 1960 for a series called THE CHEVY MYSTERY SHOW. It was on that program – the episode was titled ENOUGH ROPE – that COLUMBO made his debut as a character, played by BERT FREED.

But it was Mr. Falk who made him a legend.

During the filming it was he who rejected the fashionable attire the costume shop had laid out for him; it was he who chose the raincoat – one of his own – and who matched the rest of the detective’s clothes to its shabbiness. It was he who picked out the Peugeot from the studio motor pool, a convertible with a flat tire and needing a paint job that, he reflected “even matched the raincoat.”

And as the character grew, the line between the actor and the character grew hazier. They shared a general disregard for nattiness, an informal mode of speech, an obsession with detail, an irrepressible absentmindedness. Even COLUMBO’S favourite song THIS OLD MAN, which seemed to run through his mind (and the series) like a broken record was one that Mr. Falk had loved from childhood and that ended up in the show because he was standing around humming it one day, in character, when COLUMBO was waiting for someone to come to the phone.

Three years passed between the first COLUMBO movie and the second, RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN, which became the pilot that launched the show as a regular network offering. It was part of a revolving wheel of Sunday night mysteries with recurring characters that appeared under the rubric NBC MYSTERY THEATER. The first set included McCLOUD, with DENNIS WEAVER and McMILLAN & WIFE, with ROCK HUDSON and SUSAN ST. JAMES.

In between, Mr. Falk made HUSBANDS, the first of his collaborations with
his friend JOHN CASSAVETES. The others were A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE in 1974, a brutally realistic portrayal of a marriage undermined by mental illness, directed by Mr. Cassavetes and costarring GENA ROWLANDS and MIKEY & NICKY in 1976, a dark buddy comedy directed by ELAINE MAY in which the two men played the title roles.

In 1971 he once again returned to Broadway, in NEIL SIMON’S angry comedy THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE.

In later years, Mr. Falk starred in several notable films – MURDER BY DEATH (1976), THE IN LAWS (1979), THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) and
TUNE IN TOMORROW… (1990) among them – and in 1998 he opened Off Broadway in the title role of ARTHUR MILLER’S play MR. PETER’S CONNECTION, a portrait of an older man trying to make sense out of his life as it comes to an end.

By that time, however, Mr. Falk and COLUMBO had become more or less interchangeable as cultural references. Mr. Peters, BEN BRANTLEY wrote in his review of the play in THE TIMES, “is as genuinely perplexed as Columbo, his aggressively rumpled television detective, only pretends to be.”

Actor/comedian MICHAEL McKEAN said, “Peter Falk’s assault on conventional stardom went like this: You’re not conventionally handsome, you’re missing an eye and you have a speech impediment. Should you become a movie star? Peter’s correct answer: Absolutely.”

“I got to hang with him a few times and later worked a day with him on a forgettable TV movie,” MICHAEL went on, calling PETER “a sweet, sharp and funny man with a great soul. Wim Wenders called it correctly in Wings Of Desire: He was an angel if there ever was one on earth.”

“There is literally nobody you could compare him to. He was a completely unique actor,” commented ROB REINER, who directed PETER in THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

“His personality was really what drew people to him…He had this great sense of humour and this great natural quality nobody could come close to.” PETER’S work with ALAN ARKIN in THE IN LAWS represented “one of the most brilliant comedy pairings we’ve seen on screen.”

“We lost someone who is very special and dear to my heart. Not only a wonderful actor but a very great friend,” stated the legendary GENA ROWLANDS.

Mr. Falk is survived by his second wife, actor SHERA DANESE and his two daughters JACKIE and CATHERINE.

RESPECT THE QUEEN…OR PREPARE TO HAVE IT BEATEN OUT OF YOU

It’s a wicked shame that courtesy and consideration for others is practically nonexistent nowadays.

No matter. Everybody has to answer to someone.

It’s inevitable. Just the way of the world.

Our Friday musical highlight is NOT READY TO MAKE NICE by THE DIXIE CHICKS.

But let’s not kid ourselves.

From my perspective, time heals nothing…and there is no forgiveness whatsoever.

For anyone.

That’s all I have to say.

And now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

MORGAN FREEMAN: ON HIS AFI AWARD, CLINT EASTWOOD & ACTING NATURALLY

This article is written by JORDAN ZAKARIN at THE HUFFINGTON POST

Hollywood is based on a star system, launching actors to leading men status and then hitching scripts and hopes to their tails. It’s how movies get made and box office victories are won, the releases and cash counting so often refreshing with the rise of the next big thing.

Then there are the fixed lights in the sky, more their own stellar systems, with legends and memories and all time classics spinning in their orbit, their gravitational pull supporting the weight of generations of admirers.

In the Hollywood as outer space analogy (which seems oddly appropriate), MORGAN FREEMAN is the red giant, the tremendous incandescent star deep into its light giving career.

An ACADEMY AWARD winner (MILLION DOLLAR BABY) and five time nominee (STREET SMART, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, DRIVING MISS DAISY, INVICTUS), he’s proven one of the greatest actors of the modern era, tackling race, hatred, love and humour with a certain genteel grace that is inimitable.

MORGAN FREEMAN was recently given a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from the AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE to commemorate his unbelievable career, and despite the stature he holds in the film community, he said he was humbled by the honour.

“That is an extraordinary honour. That was one of the seminal moments of my entire life. It says that you’ve been somewhere and done something,” he told The Huffington Post.

“I think my favourite role is the role that sort of catapulted my movie career into being – the role of Leo Smalls in Street Smart,” he said of the 1987 film in which he played a tough pimp.

“I particularly enjoyed that part.”

He also had great things to say about his three time director CLINT EASTWOOD.

“I also greatly enjoyed making Invictus. I greatly enjoyed working with Clint Eastwood in all three movies we were on, but Invictus was outstandingly fun. He’s great fun to work with. He’s not a challenge at all. He just leaves it up to you.”

Perhaps, though, he didn’t find CLINT to be particularly challenging to work with because acting just comes naturally to him.

“I don’t find acting difficult,” he said when asked which role was most difficult for him.

“I can’t tell you.”

Quickly, though, one came to mind. It just wasn’t a film.

“It wasn’t in a movie. I did Othello once. On stage. Dreadful. In Dallas, Texas in 1983. That was tough. I came on stage and someone in the back of the theatre said, ‘Sing Purple Haze!‘ I looked exactly like Jimi Hendrix.”

“The audience…This was a public theatre. It’s free theatre. So the audience comes. They’re ready to have a good time. They’re ready to welcome you. But you better have it right.”

From that moment on, it’s fair to say the legendary performer did just that.

The actor appears every Wednesday night at 10 PM in the science discovery show THROUGH THE WORMHOLE on THE SCIENCE CHANNEL.

CHRISTINA HENDRICKS’ FUN FACT: SHE’S A NATURAL BLONDE

She looks ravishing with red hair, but CHRISTINA HENDRICKS has a secret: that’s not her real hair colour.

“Yes, the rumours are true — I’m naturally a dark blonde,” she revealed to ELLE.com.

“I couldn’t tell you what shade because I haven’t seen it in ages.”

That’s because CHRISTINA’S quest for auburn locks began quite some time ago.

“I started playing with red hair when I was 10 years old. I recognize how odd it is now, but my mom let me do it. I was obsessed with Anne Of Green Gables and Ginger of Gilligan’s Island…and lusted for that red hair.”

And even though she was just a kid, CHRISTINA got exactly what she wanted.

“My mom said, ‘Well, let’s throw a rinse on it,’ and the next day, my teachers asked what had happened when I arrived at school with red hair.”

But it wasn’t just red that the actor was experimenting with; she tried several colours of the rainbow before settling on her current hue.

“In high school, I started experimenting with permanent colour. My mom nearly cried one day when I came down the stairs in jet black hair. I got purple, pink and black out of my system during those years.”

SILENCE AT THE CINEMA: A QUAINT ARTIFACT OF YESTERYEAR

This article is written by CHRISTY LEMIRE at THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

It seems like such a simple notion: Folks would go to the movie theatre, buy their tickets at the box office, then sit down, shut up and pay attention for two hours to what was on the screen.

Now, the piercing glow of cellphones lights up the darkness like so many pesky fireflies and people talk to each other in a packed auditorium as if they were sitting in the privacy of their own living rooms.

THE ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA in Austin, Texas did something about this trend by kicking out a patron who refused to adhere to the theatre’s rule against talking or texting, then turned the ranting, profane voice message she left into a hilarious public service announcement. It’s gotten over 1.75 million hits on YouTube in just a couple of weeks.

But what happened to our attention spans? Why must we talk, text and tweet in the middle of a movie? And what — if anything — can theatres do to stop this erosion of cinema civility?

MATT ATCHITY, editor in chief of the ROTTEN TOMATOES film review website, crafted 10 COMMANDMENTS FOR MOVIE AUDIENCES, including Thou shalt not text. But the ubiquity of cellphones makes these sensible suggestions hard to enforce.

“Even 10 years ago, not everyone had a phone, not everyone was text messaging. The younger generation grew up and the kids who were texting in class are now the kids who are texting in movies,” MATT ATCHITY said.

He added that Hollywood’s focus on the 18 – 24 demographic is also a factor.

“A big opening release is like going to Chuck E. Cheese.”

While adults might believe what’s on screen deserves their full attention, kids nowadays view the moviegoing experience as interactive, said BILL GOODYKOONTZ, film critic for THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC and father of four.

“They can’t imagine seeing anything, including a movie, without immediately supplying their reactions,” stated Mr. Goodykoontz, who’s also chief film critic for GANNETT.

Producer BARRY MENDEL believes the reliance on social media and 24/7 information has bled into every part of our lives — even places that are meant to provide an escape.

“It’s very rare in our society to sit and stare at something intensely and without distraction for two hours. People just don’t have that muscle any more,” remarked Mr. Mendel, a two time OSCAR nominee for BEST PICTURE for THE SIXTH SENSE and MUNICH.

“It makes me worry for my profession, for making movies. In order for a movie to be good, someone needs to sit down and read a screenplay and help the writer make it better. Instead they start reading a script, then they stop reading it and pick it up later.”

RACHAEL HARRIS (THE SOLOIST) said a guy recently walked in late to a private screening of NATURAL SELECTION – the new independent film she stars in – sat down next to her and immediately checked his BlackBerry.

“As an actor, you do have a sense of: ‘How dare I not be riveting enough that you have to check your email?’ You react personally but then you realize it’s not personal. It’s just bad manners.”

But many of the young people who engage in these practices don’t think it’s a problem because everyone does it. Thirteen year old WILL BARNES of Frisco, Texas said that he texts sometimes during movies, but tries to be courteous.

“I didn’t really like Thor. So I just pulled out my phone and texted a little bit. It was during the day so nobody was really in the theatre at the time. I’m just looking at the screen. I’m not paying attention to what other people are doing. But you see adults doing it and I think it’s a little immature for their age to be texting during a movie.”

Fourteen year old ANDREA LOPEZ of Newhall, California leaves her phone on during movies but keeps it on silent: “Normally I’ll just text during the end of the movie to have my mom or dad come pick me up.”

But when others are blatantly using their phones, ANDREA said, “That’s ridiculous. Then they’re just ruining the movie for everyone else. The least they can do is go outside and talk.”

But not all offenders are adolescents.

“I am the worst. It annoys my kids,” remarked TRACY TOFTE, a real estate agent and mother of two in Santa Clarita, California.

“If it’s a slow part of the movie I can’t help looking at my phone and going, ‘Oh, I have an email.’”

Theatre owners have tried a variety of methods to get folks to keep quiet and stay off their phones, from showing amusing messages beforehand to having ushers sweep through the auditorium during the show, commented JOHN FITHIAN, president of THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE OWNERS. Some have experimented with dividing moviegoers into over 21 and under 21 auditoriums, but that can get disorganized.

“It’s an educational process but we and our members and the people who write about our industry know that the beauty of cinema, first of all, is that it’s a shared experience. That means there are shared responsibilities,” stated Mr. Fithian.

With the expansion of the international movie market, mobile phone etiquette has also become an issue in overseas theatres.

Before a movie starts in India, warnings flash on the screen asking people to switch off their phones or put them on silent, yet some folks continue to chat anyway and theatre workers don’t kick them out.

Compliance is far better in Hong Kong, where patrons generally heed a message urging them to turn off or silence their phones before the movie.

In Britain, peer pressure usually keeps theatres quiet. Moviegoers are familiar with a long running series of ads shown beforehand under the slogan: Don’t Let A Mobile Phone Ruin Your Movie.

The comic promos feature well known actors having their movie projects destroyed by a clueless mobile phone executive.

Theatres in China range from plush auditoriums in large cities to basic theatres in smaller towns that may even lack concession stands. So the demographic of moviegoers tends to vary, too, along with their attention to etiquette, with audiences in the higher end theatres typically more compliant.

Around 2004, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE OWNERS investigated technology that would block cellphone signals in U.S. theatres. When word of that got out, responses came flooding in, said JOHN FITHIAN.

Sixty per cent were in favour of the idea with forty per cent against it. “But the forty per cent was violent.”

“Parents have to stay in touch with their babysitters. People are so focused on how important their jobs are that they had to be in touch 24/7. I felt like asking these people, ‘What did you do fifteen years ago?”’

THE PLOT

Our Friday musical highlight is MY LOVIN (YOU’RE NEVER GONNA GET IT) by EN VOGUE.

Two thoroughly appalling mentally unstable motherfuckers genuinely need to hear it. So I’ll make that the definitive choice this glorious morn.

Get ready, kids. It’s just starting to get good.

And now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

EMMA ROBERTS: ON CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS, SUSHI, MEAN GIRLS & RIDICULOUS NOTIONS OF NEPOTISM

FROM POPEATER

In THE ART OF GETTING BY, EMMA ROBERTS plays a popular high school teen who begins a relationship with a lonely misfit played by an all grown up FREDDIE HIGHMORE. The daughter of ERIC (and niece of JULIA) has been working since she was a kid and is whip smart in interviews.

She spoke to POPEATER about highs (school and heels), her love of thick eyebrows and the ridiculous chatter on the blogs that she has benefited from her famous kin.

“I think [talk of nepotism] is so ridiculous considering it’s obviously not true…I’ve auditioned for so many things and never gotten the part,” she said, before challenging bloggers intent on bashing her to lay their asses on the line.

“I would actually have more respect for them if they said it to my face. Then I would probably not say anything back.”

NICKI GOSTIN: Did you go to school?

EMMA ROBERTS: I went to school till seventh grade and then I was home schooled through high school.

NG: Was it strange to play a high school student?

ER: I mean, no…because high school is such a big part of American culture. It’s so prevalent in music and TV and movies. I think I get the jist!

NG: Do you feel cheated that you didn’t go?

ER: No, I got to travel all over the world and work with really cool people. So I think that was an education in itself.

NG: Were you popular in school?

ER: I was popular. I had a lot of friends but I wasn’t like a mean girl. I was also always the shortest person in my class. I’m 5’2″.

NG: Do you wear big heels to compensate?

ER: I wear heels 24/7. I can run faster in heels than I can in sneakers. I trip all the time but it’s nothing to do with heels. I trip all the time but I haven’t taken a bad spill. Knock on wood.

NG: In the beginning did everyone accuse you of nepotism because of your dad and aunt?

ER: A lot of people think that and they talk about nepotism which I think is so ridiculous considering it’s obviously not true, because I’ve auditioned for so many things and never gotten the part. Also it’s like, you know, maybe someone can get you one part but they can’t really get you ten parts.

NG: I think she could probably get you a part playing her daughter. But that’s about it.

ER: Exactly.

NG: Would you want to work with her?

ER: Yes, I would love to. I think it would be really fun for us.

NG: You know you’ll be accused of nepotism if it happens.

ER: Oh well, if someone wants to say that to my face…If someone blogs about it I’ll be annoyed. I think it’s so funny people will blog stuff but they won’t say it to your face. I would actually have more respect for them if they said it to my face. Then I would probably not say anything back.

NG: Are you immune to nasty comments on line or do you still get upset?

ER: I don’t read them any more but obviously you know that they’re there. For me I can’t let it bother me because for me anyone hiding behind a computer is kind of irrelevant.

NG: Or a loser.

ER: Uh huh. Also I can handle it. But there are some people with the whole bullying thing can’t handle it and do horrible things to themselves.

NG: I feel a kindred spirit with you. I have thick eyebrows too.

ER: I had a total unibrow. Literally I had a total FRIDA KAHLO unibrow. When I was younger I got made fun of. I think I was 12, I was on a TV show and afterwards kids in school were like, “You have a unibrow,” and I remember I was so embarrassed. It’s funny because now I love thick eyebrows. I think they’re so beautiful…Not a unibrow. Now I just make sure to wax in the middle.

NG: What’s your favourite guilty pleasure?

ER: I eat so much junk food. What I eat most is chocolate croissants. I’m eating one right now. I probably eat them more than I eat anything else. I’m obsessed and I love a midnight MILKY WAY.

NG: How come there are no photos of you tripping outside a nightclub?

ER: I love going to Europe because you’re allowed to go out. I’m not trying to go out to be a mess but I love to go dancing and in Europe I’m old enough to be allowed to go out dancing with my friends. I love London. It’s my favourite place.

NG: Do you go to raves?

ER: Oh no no. I’m not a raver.

NG: What do you do when you’re not working?

ER: I love to read and go to the movies. I love to go out and eat sushi. I could eat sushi every day.

NG: So sushi and chocolate croissants are the way to win your heart…?

ER: Actually, yes!