Mel Gibson’s mouth gets him in trouble again

The Internet and Hollywood are buzzing about Actor/Director/Producer Mel Gibson’s latest foot-in-mouth performance.  An audio recording of Gibson using the “N-word” in a tirade against his ex-girlfriend, Russian singer, Oksana Grigorieva, was followed by reports that the entertainer is being investigated for domestic violence. And there’s more. WME agency has confirmed it recently fired Gibson as a client.

Remember, Gibson was hit by an onslaught of bad publicity after a tape revealed the drunken actor making anti-Semitic remarks during a DUI stop in Malibu, back in 2006.

Gibson is working on a number of projects right now. It will be interesting to see if Hollywood will again be forgiving of Gibson in order to keep the money and projects flowing.  Nikki Finke over at Deadline.com/Hollywood has a post about Gibson’s latest troubles, with over 200 comments, check it out  here.  The Wrap covered the story as well.

Summer reading:  Bestsellers at Barnes & Noble and Amazon

At the top of the Barnes & Noble bestselling paperback list, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Millennium Trilogy Series #1). The thriller/murder mystery is about the disappearance of a Swedish heiress and it’s by Journalist, Stieg Larsson. The novel was a big smash in Europe. Now it’s a hot seller here.

Number two on the list, Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played with Fire”  (Millennium Triligy #2), and in third, the romance  ”One Day,” by Screenwriter/Novelist,  David Nicholls.

Over on Amazon, Larsson’s hardcover thriller,”The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is number one, followed by the paperback version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” in second place.

Man plays same lottery numbers for two years and wins $10 million

It took two years, but a Southern California player finally hit the jackpot in the SuperLotto Plus game on June 20, 2010.  Last Wednesday, July 7, the man, who wants to remain anonymous, cashed in the winning ticket worth $10 million.

Lottery officials say he told them the numbers came to him in a dream two years ago. He played them religiously and it paid off.  The ticket was bought at Jack’s Liquor, 3720 West Olympic Boulevard in L.A. The store gets $50,000 for selling that winning ticket.

Meanwhile, a winning lottery ticket bought more than two months ago at the El  Mexicano Market, 6625 South Avalon Boulevard in L.A., has not been cashed in yet. That ticket is worth $179,428.

It had five of the winning numbers, but not the Mega Ball, from that historic May 4, 2010 Mega Millions draw. Those numbers are: 21, 9, 36, 43, 31, and the Mega Ball 8.  You might remember, the jackpot of $266 million was won by a producer at NBC-4 here in Burbank and her husband.

Speaking of Mega Millions, the jackpot today stands at $52 million. No one had all of last night’s winning numbers: 1, 31, 33, 34, 50, and the Mega Ball 41. However, three lucky tickets sold in the Golden State are each worth $178, 516.

 A Southland lottery winner cashed in that missing $7 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot winning ticket last Monday, June 14. This is the unclaimed jackpot I posted about a few days ago. The ticket was bought in the 7-Eleven store at 3450 Overland Avenue in Los Angeles for the June 5 draw. Oh, the 7-Eleven gets a $35,000 bonus for selling that winning ticket.

 The owner of the lucky ticket wants to remain anonymous. According to lottery officials, the winner chose the annuity option and will receive increasing payments over 26 years, beginning with the first for $175,000. What are his plans?  The winner disclosed he intends to pay off some credit cards, some other bills, and take a long-awaited trip to Disney World!

Actress Demi Moore nails a $2 million book deal

Movie roles have been pretty slim for Actress, Demi Moore, lately, but she just scored a huge deal in the publishing biz. Over on Deadline.com, Mike Fleming reports Moore’s reps are working on the fine points of a book contract with HarperCollins. The word is this will not be a trip down memory lane. More here.

Screenwriting duo hook a deal to write “Monster High” musical

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are very busy screenwriters/producers these days. And they are making a lot of dough at it. Gough and Millar are the showrunners for the TV hit, “Smallville.” Also, they wrote such male-focused films as ”Lethal Weapon 4,” “Shanghai Noon,” and “Spider-Man 2.”  For a some variety, they produced last year’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which rang up $80 million at the domestic Box Office.

Now Gough and Millar are working on a monster musical about the trials and tribulations of high school — as experienced by the off-spring of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. “Monster High” is based on a new entertainment/toy line from Mattel. The Hollywood Reporter has a nice write up on the project. 

The domestic Box Office is on fire again, thanks to the remake of “The Karate Kid.” Over the weekend the re-do of the 1984 hit, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, demolished the competition with a debut of $55.7 million – to become the number one movie in the country.

The updated “Karate Kid” probably should have been called, “The Kung Fu Kid.” In the plot, a 12-year-old kid from Detroit and his single working mother move to China, where he’s bullied and eventually hooks up with a Kung Fu master who teaches him the art of self-defense. Oh, the producers of this new Box Office smash include the celebrity parents of Jaden Smith, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The other big movie of the weekend, “The A-Team” got slammed by a kid not yet old enough to drive.  The film version of the old TV series of the same title, managed to ring-up only $25.7 million. The budget, according to Box Office Mojo, was somewhere around $110 million. This expensive action flick is about four US-Special-Forces-type soldiers who complete a mission in Iraq only to ended up framed for a crime and must then fight to clear their names. It was in development for more than 10 years. The cast includes Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Jessica Biel.

After three weeks at number one, the animated 3D movie, ”Shrek Forever After,” dropped to third place with $15.8 million. The comedy “Get Him to the Greek” earned $9.9 million, good enough for fourth. Rounding out the top five, the action/comedy/romance “Killers” with $8 million.

Sunflowers for the King of Pop  

Photo: Lisa Burks/Freelance photographer — A generous flower merchant donates hundreds of sunflowers to brighten the Glendale crypt of Michael Jackson

The late King of Pop’s tomb is now filled with a huge collection of sunflowers — thanks to Jason Levin who runs a San Diego company called Sunflowerguy.com. On Friday, May 14, Levin loaded up a truck with 15-hundred happy face sunflowers and drove to Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale to deliver the special gift. 

Levin’s company is known for donating bunches of what the website calls “the happiest flower on Earth” to good causes. So it’s no surprise, that Levin took action after hearing a report that Jackson’s ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, was asking fans to send sunflowers to brighten the resting place of the legendary entertainer.  Apparently, the sunflower was Jackson’s favorite flower.

Local writer/photog Lisa Burk was there when Levin unloaded 30 large containers of gorgeous flowers at the Great Mausoleum Holly Terrace. Later, Forest Lawn personnel carried the flowers inside to Jackson’s crypt.

Photos: Lisa Burks/Freelance Photographer — Dozens of containers filled with hundreds sunflowers  are shown outside the tomb of the late Superstar Michael Jackson 

Burks has more great flower photos here. Also, you can check out Burks’ posts on Michael Jackson and his fans on her website.

A great line from Director/Actor/Producer Woody Allen

At 74, filmmaker Woody Allen has slowed a bit, but he’s still in the entertainment business. Allen and some of his cast from his latest movie, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” are at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera, this weekend.  

Sharon Waxman of The Wrap is in Cannes and was there yesterday when Allen made this comment about the final curtain call: “My relationship with death is the same, “ he quipped at the news conference after the film’s first screening. “I’m strongly against it.”  

Waxman has more on Allen, his film, and the festival here.

The final launch of Atlantis

Photo courtesy NASA TV: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its final mission from Kennedy Space Center on Florida last Friday, May 14

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is on its farewell mission. Atlantis blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday, May 14, with a six member crew and supplies for the International Space Station. Atlantis is scheduled to come home on Wednesday, May 26.  

It will be end of the line for Atlantis, after 25 years and more than 115 million miles. Details and updates on the last space journey of Atlantis on the NASA website. 

Adventures in gardening and yard care

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Master Gardener Jessica Craven gives instructions on composting to a workshop at the Burbank Recycle Center on May 1, 2010

I’m in a compost groove: recycling garbage into a rich organic soil amendment in a compost bin. Actually, I’m just getting started with this whole composting thing. The Burbank Recycle Center dropped off my compost bin last Thursday. On May first, I attended a free one-hour composting workshop at the Burbank Recycle Center on South Flower Street with around 50 adults and 10-12 youngsters.

Compost Expert & Master Gardener, Jessica Craven, taught the fundamentalists. The basic elements for producing compost are nitrogen, air, oxygen, and moisture. Also, you need brown stuff (such as dried leaves, twigs), green stuff (such as grass clippings, green leaves), kitchen scraps (all sorts of fruits, veggies, breads, paper towels, paper napkins, egg shell, coffee grounds, tea bags ..etc).  

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Two compost workshop participants check out a sample of the finished product

Burbank residents in the class received free compost bins to store their brown and green stuff where it can “cook,” and microorganisms can turn the garbage into a dark, nutritious matter that’s an excellent food for your yard, gardens, and plants.

There are a lot of websites with information on different methods of composting and the assorted goodies that can be dumped into your mixture. By the way, more composting workshops will be held at the Sheridan Gardens Nursery on North Hollywood Way in Burbank next month. Call the Burbank Recycle Center for details and to RSVP (818) 238-3900. 

Photo: Pete Souza/White House — President Barack Obama speaks to an audience in the Family Theater of the White House just before the screening of the first hour of a new HBO World War II mini-series,”The Pacific,” last Thursday, March 11, 2010. In the front row, the two executive producers of the mini-series, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

The 10-part mini-series, “The Pacific,” began airing on HBO last night. The cable TV mini-series focuses on the stories of three U.S. Marines during America’s World War II battle with Japan. It’s from the same folks who created the highly acclaimed World War II mini-series, “Band of Brothers,” which aired on HBO back in 2001.  “The Pacific” reportedly cost somewhere around $195 million.   

Corey Haim: Photo courtesy Bree Bailey

Another young actor gone way too soon. Corey Haim reportedly died this morning at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank. According to The Wrap, a drug overdose is suspected. Haim, a former teen idol during the 1980s, has had a well-known struggle with drugs.

Haim starred in a number of films including “Lucas” (1986), “The Lost Boys” (1987), and ”License to Drive” (1988). Also, he appeared on television in the TV series “Roomies” (1987), and more recently the reality show, with Actor Corey Feldman, called “The Two Coreys” from (2007-2008). Haim was only 38.

The Verve Agency is beefing up its clients list. Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood is reporting that last month, the newbie agency signed some high-profile screenwriters, directors, and producers among them, Rob Edwards, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated animation “The Princess and the Frog.”  More here.

Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters– Director/Producer Kathryn Bigelow and Screenwriter/Producer Mark Boal of “The Hurt Locker”

She did it!  Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the best director Oscar at last night’s 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood. Bigelow’s name was announced by Superstar Entertainer/Filmmaker Barbra Streisand, who was overlooked as a contender for the award back when she directed “Yentl” (1983), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “The Mirror Has Two Faces” (1996).

Bigelow’s best director Oscar was one of six wins for “The Hurt Locker,” which included  best original screenplay, picked up by screenwriter/producer Mark Boal, and best picture. 

The winners in the other top categories were Sandra Bullock, best actress for her performance in “The Blind Side,” Mo’Nique best supporting actress for her role in  “Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” best actor trophy went to Jeff Bridges for his performance in “Crazy Heart,” and best supporting actor award to Christoph Waltz for his role in “Inglourious Basterds.”     

 A complete list of the winners on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.

Good coverage of the Oscars on Reuters, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, and a ton of photos and video moments from the telecast over on oscars.org  

UPDATED:  Latest figures from the rating giant Nielsen shows 41.3 million people watched Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony. That’s the best rating for the Oscars since 2005. Last year, 35.3 million tuned into the Academy Awards to see ”Slumdog Millionaire” win best picture.