LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. – A relative says Beverly Roberts, who co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1936 film "Two Around the World," has died. She was 96.
Her second-cousin Christina Baker says Roberts died Monday at her home in Laguna Niguel of natural causes.
A Warner Bros. contract player from 1935, Roberts made her first film with Al Jolson in "The Singing Kid."
She also appeared with Bogart and Pat O'Brien in "China Clipper" and with Errol Flynn and Joan Blondell in "Perfect Specimen."
After leaving Warner Bros. in 1940, she toured the country as a singer with the Dorsey Brothers band.
In 1950, she became administrator of Theater Authority, a post she held for 25 years.
In her later years, she worked in watercolor painting.
She never married and had no children.
Google Search
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Beverly Roberts, Bogart co-star, dies at age 96
Friday, July 17, 2009
Danish Nazi movie an irresistible thriller
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – From the opening black-and-white footage of Nazis invading Copenhagen, "Flame & Citron" draws you into its doom-laden atmosphere and keeps ratcheting up the tension.
This searing, stylish account of World War II heroism from Denmark's Ole Christian Madsen avoids period realism, conveying the story of two heroes of the Danish resistance as a noir thriller, complete with shadowy alleys, double-crosses galore and the requisite femme fatale.
Beneath its stylized surface, "Flame" is also a provocative film of ideas, exploring the notion of heroism. Although based on true events, it unspools like a fever dream, circling back to the hero's opening voiceover, which at the end takes on new poignancy.
This icy portrait of two assassins shooting Nazis point-blank offers no Hollywood-style uplift to mollify mainstream viewers. But "Flame" should pull in a niche group of World War II connoisseurs and will delight art-house and fest audiences with its innovative mix of drama and history filtered through genre. The IFC Films release opens in New York on July 31, then in L.A. and a other markets August 14.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Robert De Niro victim of New York art scam
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Several paintings by actor Robert De Niro's late father were sold without the actor's permission as part of an art scam by a New York gallery, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said on Tuesday.
Art dealer Lawrence Salander, 59, was indicted on additional charges for stealing $5 million from several estates on Tuesday after he was arrested in March for orchestrating a sophisticated $88-million art investment scam that also duped former tennis champion John McEnroe and Bank of America.
Salander and other dealers at his New York gallery sold the works by Robert De Niro Sr., an abstract Expressionist painter who died of cancer in 1993 aged 71, and did not pay out the majority of the sales to his estate, according to the charges.
As a result of the scam, De Niro Sr.'s estate lost more than $1 million, the DA's office said.
Other victims relating to the additional charges include the Lachaise Foundation, who consigned the works of French-American sculptor Gaston Lachaise, as well as the estate of Elie Nadelman, an American sculptor who died in 1946.
Robert De Niro has organized exhibitions of his father's works around the world and has said he keeps many of his works at home.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Studio system still alive with Henry Jaglom
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – There's little that's independent about indie filmmakers since they're dependent on distributors and financiers.
Exception: writer-director Henry Jaglom, whose 17th film "Irene in Time" is expanding after its mid-June L.A. launch. Jaglom has achieved his own form of independence by recreating on a mini scale at his Rainbow Film Co. the studio system that prevailed in Hollywood's Golden Age.
First, he's got an actress under contract, Tanna Frederick, whose career he's developing. He introduced her in his 2006 romantic dramedy "Hollywood Dreams" and now she's starring in "Irene." They're already on their second three-year contract.
"In four years she's done three plays, two movies that have come out and a third that we've shot," he explained, referring to his upcoming "Queen of the Lot." "I'm trying to find roles that excite what I think is her talent."
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Media players plot survival in Sun Valley
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The global recession, shrinking advertising sales and fears that the Internet could render big media empires obsolete provide an ominous backdrop for executives at this week's Sun Valley conference.
Herb Allen's boutique investment bank Allen & Co has organized this retreat in the affluent mountain resort town in south-central Idaho every summer for 27 years, inviting guests such as Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone and Barry Diller.
But never before have the media elite been harder pressed to find ways to survive and grow, whether through acquisitions or alliances that they forge over hikes, horseback rides and after-dinner drinks at this historical meeting ground for media and technology deal makers.
"People in the traditional media world are terrified," said Ken Auletta, a New Yorker magazine media writer and author of several books about the media industry, who will chair a panel on new media at this week's conference.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Concert promoter expects to erase Jackson's debts
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The concert promoter for Michael Jackson's canceled London shows said on Thursday that audio and video tapes made before the King of Pop's death could generate hundreds of millions of dollars and erase debts on the singer's estate.
Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, said his company has recorded enough of Jackson's songs to release two albums and video to make a movie, DVD, or both from Jackson's recent rehearsals for concerts planned for London's 02 arena.
A lot is at stake for AEG and Jackson's family, because Phillips said the King of Pop's death would likely leave his estate liable for more than $25 million AEG spent on production costs and the singer's expenses ahead of the London shows.
"If we all do our jobs right, we could probably raise hundreds of millions of dollars just on the stuff we have worldwide," Phillips said.
"And then the estate could eradicate its debt and move forward with the restructuring of the Sony/ATV deal, and all these other things that they're dealing with," he said.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
"Passenger Side" a poignant road movie
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The notion of the writer as life's observer rather than participant is a common movie trope. "Passenger Side," a low-key comedy-drama that had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, begins with that familiar proposition but takes it beyond the usual bromides.
The film is a road trip through Southern California, sparked by the reluctant bond between two brothers in their mid-30s as they set off on a vague mission. The specifics behind their trek gradually reveal themselves, with unexpected poignancy, and the story's final twist could lure fest and art house audiences back for a second look.
Writer-director Matthew Bissonnette, himself a transplanted Canadian, brings a fresh perspective to the horizontal stretch of Los Angeles and environs, presenting them as they're usually experienced -- through a windshield. His well-etched characters are also Canadians who have moved south.
