A SNUB FOR THE PRESS

In death, as in life, Frank Sinatra snubbed the press. His family ordered a total news blackout for the singer’s “invitation-only” funeral. No reporters or pool cameras were allowed in and no audio feed or transcript was provided of the ceremony. Sinatra famously battled, berated and snubbed the press for nearly 60 years. He boycotted women reporters for 10 years and was reported to have tangled with Hollywood columnists. Sinatra proved so elusive to writers that journalist Gay Talese wrote a magazine piece, “Frank Sinatra has a Cold,” on his attempts to interview the crooner. That piece is taught in journalism schools as an example of how to write something from nothing. Even though he once wanted to be a sportswriter, Sinatra denounced gossip columnists as “pimps and whores” who could not write their own names properly. One of the few journalists he ever spoke to, retired columnist Jim Bacon, said he got along with the singer “because I treated him like I would any other God.”

LIZARD MAKES AN EARLY LEAP
Godzilla opened in many cities, a day earlier than announced, expanding onto a record 7,363 screens at 3,310 theatres. Sony said that some theatres will run the movie round-the-clock, on as many as ten screens. Despite early trade reports that some exhibitors had reacted less than enthusiastically after seeing the movie at a special screening, Jeff Blake, Sony’s head of releasing, told the press that the number of screens that the exhibitors had agreed to provide speaks for itself. “This is all based on exhibitor demand,” he stressed.

THE PRIMARY COLOR IS BLACK
Despite the fact that Primary Colors, which cost $65 million to make, has earned only $40 million at the domestic box-office, director Mike Nichols said at Cannes that he is confident that the film will wind up in the black. Speaking at a news conference, during which he decried Hollywood’s obsession with box-office performance, (“No one ever asks the question, ‘Is the movie good?’ Instead, they want to know, ‘How did it do in the first weekend?’”), Nichols said that the real-life White House scandal, which most thought would help the film, hurt it instead. “People see it on TV and everytime they open a newspaper. They think, ‘Who needs to pay to see it in a movie?’”

THE NATURAL SUPERIORITY OF BRITISH ACTORS?
Good Will Hunting’s Ben Affleck has told an audience at Oxford that British actors have an inherent advantage over Americans in Hollywood. As reported by BBC Radio 1, Affleck remarked, “It doesn’t matter if you’re good. In America, if you’re British, you’re just good. They just think that you’re smart and better than we are.” The Radio 1 reporter said that Affleck encountered heckling about Gwyneth Paltrow, who sat beside him but refused to take questions. When he was asked, “How do you get a girlfriend like Gwyneth?” he replied, “If you work for Miramax, actually you get issued a girlfriend.”

WHERE ARE THE CASABLANCA WRITERS?
Screenwriting guru Robert McKee, whose seminars have been attended by the diverse likes of Lawrence Kasdan, William Goldman, Joel Schumacher, Keenan Ivory Wayans, David Bowie, John Cleese and Kirk Douglas, lashed out at the quality of current film-writing. McKee insisted that 95 percent of films produced today are mediocre, and that classic works are being “cannibalized” when they fall into the hands of a hack adapter who is “likely to drag the genius down to his level.” He also attacked Hollywood’s current concentration on effects-laden spectacles and Europe’s on “painterly photography,” each of which sacrificed fundamental elements of drama, he claimed. McKee’s first feature, based on Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, is being promoted at Cannes.

JACKIE CHAN FORECASTS HONG KONG PHOENIX
Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan who said that he had agreed to star in a U.S.-made film, Rush Hour, because the Hong Kong film industry was in a downward spiral, has indicated that he has not turned his back on his homeland. According to reports in Yomiuri Shimbun, Chan, speaking at the Hong Kong Film Awards, remarked, “Big casts no longer guarantee box-office success. I feel the present Hong Kong movie slump is a good thing because it will make us find ways to rise from the ashes.” The newspaper also observed that numerous speakers at the awards ceremony alluded to a flood of movies, stamped out on DVDs, hitting the black market in Hong Kong and the mainland. “Thanks to those who didn’t pirate our film before we had a chance to show it in the theaters!” exclaimed director Fruit Chan, whose Made In Hong Kong received the best film and best director awards.