There’s no place like home, there’s no place like homeBy Jeff Freedman
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/17/08 — We’ve got very good news for four NBA teams trying to make it into the Conference Championships: The Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets in the West and the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons in the East should start making hotel reservations now. (I know, Detroit has already clinched its spot). So far in the second round of this year’s NBA Playoffs the home team has won 20 of the first 21 games played, and by an average of nearly 14 points. So, if you believe the numbers, the score of tonight’s game should be: Home Team 102 and Visitors 88. There truly is, no place like home.
Is there any real reason for such a point disparity? Let’s take a closer look at several factors which may or may play a part. First, let’s examine the crowd. Sure each home team’s fans are loud and supportive. They can try and be distracting to a free throw shooter (although I’ve never heard of a player who blamed the crowd for a miss). Yet as far as I know, no fan has ever scored a point in a playoff game. No fan has stolen a pass, sunk a three-pointer or brought the house down with a slam dunk. For those out there who believe that there’s extra incentive to win when playing in front of the home crowd, may I remind you that THESE ARE PLAYOFF GAMES. There should be no extra incentive needed. These are all good teams who have followed Dorothy down the yellow brick road throughout the season to the promised land of Oz and are now trying to just get back home with the Championship Trophy. Still, it’s hard to ignore the facts that there is a “home team” advantage. We will assign this 5 points.
The officiating. We all know they are supposed to be unbiased, blind to where they are and who is playing. And who are we kidding. The players on the home team assume, and have probably been conditioned, to expect that borderline calls (or non-calls) will go their way when they are playing at home. Nonsense will say NBA officials. But even the Scarecrow knows better, and he doesn’t have a brain. We will assign this 3 points.
Familiarity with the playing surface. Forget that each basket is the same height and the court is the same for both teams. Players will tell you there are subtle differences that only they can detect in each arena. And, of course, the home team will know these better just by virtue of experience. It’s a well-oiled machine that knows these particular characteristics. Give the Tin Man a value of 4 points.
HOLLYWOOD TODAY (Hollywood, CA) 5/17/08 – Some may recall the famed, local Hollywood Canteen Club that opened during World War II on Cahuenga Boulevard. If you were alive back then, you are probably familiar with it. It was started by legendary actors Bette Davis and John Garfield, and a movie was even made where they played themselves, along with then – ingénue, Joan Leslie. It’s title? “Hollywood Canteen.” Well on Sunday, May 18, actors Jon Voight, James Caan, and a good number of other celebrities will participate in The Hollywood Canteen’s Veteran BBQ at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration. They are scheduled to serve lunch to 12,000 veterans and their families. It is hosted by The Beverly Hills Creative Arts Temple, led by Jeff Cutler and Joann Roth-Oseary. It’s an “unorthodox congregation,” that promotes social service.
According to Rabbi Jerry Cutler, head of the Creative Arts Temple, “The veterans have unselfishly given of themselves – it’s about time we give something back.” It will be a memorable day of fun, and will draw together veteran’s families from all over Southern California. Entertainment will include Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
Notorious Hollywood private detective to face September sentencingBy Matthew B. Zeidman
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 5/16/08 – It wasn’t a quick verdict, with the Los Angeles jury taking nine days to deliberate, but Thursday’s decision was crushing to Hollywood private detective Anthony Pellicano. He was convicted of 76 of the 77 counts against him, including racketeering- and wiretapping-related charges.
Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine were among the Hollywood elite Pellicano was accused of wiretapping, and Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon were included in a list of names Pellicano had illegally checked against law enforcement records.
Pellicano, 64, potentially faces the rest of his life in prison, depending on the length of each sentence to be handed down Sept. 24. Several of his high-profile clients, including talent agent Michael Ovitz and Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, have avoided charges, but other big-name associates were implicated during the investigation. Director John McTiernan and Pellicano’s girlfriend, actress Sandra Will Carradine (ex-wife of Keith Carradine), both pled guilty in separate cases in 2006 to lying to investigators about Pellicano’s illegal activities.
Pellicano has been behind bars since pleading guilty in 2002 to illegal possession of dangerous materials—two modified hand grenades and a large supply of C-4 explosives found by the FBI during a raid on his offices. Officials initiated the search to look for evidence related to threats against entertainment reporter Anita M. Busch, who was investigating some of Pellicano’s high-profile clients at the time. A civil suit brought by Busch against Pellicano is ongoing.
One day before the scheduled end of his initial sentence on Feb. 4, 2006, Pellicano was transferred from federal prison to a Los Angeles jail to face the new charges of racketeering and wiretapping.
“I’d like to thank the judge and jury for their patience and wisdom on this case, as well as the honest people in law enforcement who stopped others from being relentlessly attacked and terrorized,” Busch said in a statement to Hollywood Today following the verdict. “For that, I am eternally grateful.”
Though not accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the case, other famous clients of Pellicano over the years have purportedly included Roseanne Barr, Tom Cruise, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Chris Rock.
Record-setting make-up effort creates epic sequel to ‘Narnia’
By Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/16/08 – “It’s a wonderfully nostalgic story,” says ‘Prince Caspian’ director Andrew Adamson. “Basically the children have come back to a place that they’ve longed to be, the place they ruled for 15 years. Cair Paravel is in ruins. The people they know have been driven into the wild. Aslan hasn’t been seen for a thousand years. Everything has changed.”
Everything has changed, that is, except for the creatures of ‘Narnia’.
“We ended up applying 4,600 make-ups by the end of the shoot, which is, I believe, a world record,” says ‘Prince Caspian’ creature supervisor Howard Berger. “We were chomping at the bit to go back for the next film and get a chance to revisit all the Narnian inhabitants we helped create for the first film.”
“In ‘Prince Caspian’, we had heavy set fauns, old age fauns, female dwarves, African-Narnian centaurs and their families,” says Berger. “The minotaurs are now Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
‘Prince Caspian’ Narnia sequel uses family appeal and nothing opening against it to woo box office - Indiana Jones looms.
By Robin Rowe
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/16/08 – “I blow the magic horn and summon the Pevensies back to Narnia,” says ‘Prince Caspian’ star Ben Barnes. “Prince Caspian’ is betting that skewing a bit older using a British heart throb in the lead will broaden it’s appeal. Will the magic horn work at the box office?
‘Prince Caspian’ has going for it that ‘Narnia’ is one of Disney’s strongest franchises, with $785 million from the first movie. It also has a Christian appeal and the PG rating gives it legs to bring in family numbers. ‘Speed Racer’ presents no obstacle, as that family film opened weakly at $21 million opening last week.
‘Iron Man’, even in it’s third week, has a higher theater count (4,154) than ‘Prince Caspian’ (3,929). Expect ‘Iron Man’ in its third week to take $30 million. Last week I predicted $340 million for ‘Iron Man’ worldwide, and that’s about what it did. It now stands at $353 million, on it’s way toward $400 million worldwide this weekend. Expect $21 million domestic for ‘Iron Man’ this weekend. It’s looking like a $700 million film.
‘Indiana Jones’ opens next week in the U.S., a black hole that will hurt ‘Prince Caspian’. But Jones skews older, with a PG-13 to Caspian’s PG. Caspian is looking like good programming strategy, going up a week before Indy when nothing else is opening.
Weekend Theater Counts
Iron Man (Paramount) 4,154 (+43)
Prince Caspian (Buena Vista) 3,929
Speed Racer (Warner Bros.) 3,606
What Happens in Vegas (Fox) 3,255 (+40)
Made of Honor (Columbia) 2,816 (+82)
Baby Mama (Universal) 2,500 (-127)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) 1,604 (-772)
Harold and Kumar 2 (New Line) 1,403 (-861)
The Forbidden Kingdom (Lionsgate) 997 (-727)
Nim’s Island (Fox) 894 (-707)
Redbelt (Sony Classics) 862 (-517)
Prom Night (Screen Gems) 567 (-898)
Headbangers rejoice worldwide for reunited band tour
By Jeffrey Mitchell
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/16/08 — Heavy Metal kings Metallica are expected to officially announce a tour in October, a month after the rock titans release their first album in nearly five years, drummer Lars Ulrich revealed during a rare club show in Los Angeles Wednesday.
“We have this phrase in Metallica lore which is ‘no-brainer,’” drummer Lars Ulrich told journalists backstage of why the band returned to the stage after a near four-year absence at a benefit for the Silver Lake Conservatory, a music school for kids, spearheaded by Flea. “It’s for Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it’s for inner-city, underprivileged kids who need access to instruments and to be around musical education,” he went on to say.
For the 2,000 or so fans who forked over $200 a ticket to see Metallica in the intimate setting, they certainly got what they paid for. The band took the stage at 9:30pm to a thundering ovatio
