one hell'of a fan

yes we cannes

A scant 16 films playing in official competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival — far fewer than usual — were revealed at a Thursday morning news conference held at the Grand Hotel. In announcing the lineup, festival director Thierry Fremaux reiterated comments that he's recently made to the media, saying that it has been a difficult year to put together the list of films but that he does intend to add to it in the coming days.

Among the most high-profile films to make the grade are Doug Liman's political thriller "Fair Game" — about the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame incident — starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, and the only U.S. film in the main competition. Ridley Scott's " Robin Hood," starring Russell Crowe, will open the festival out of competition, while Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" was, as expected, given an out-of-competition screening slot.

Other out-of-competition screenings are Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe" and Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," which also stars Watts and "Wall Street's" Josh Brolin. Fremaux noted that he had asked Allen whether the film could screen in the main selection but that the competition-shy director refused yet again.

Back in the competition this year is Alejandro González Iñárritu, who last appeared in 2006 with "Babel," for which he won the directing prize. This year's film is the drama "Biutiful," starring Javier Bardem. Iran's Abbas Kiarostami will walk the red carpet with his "Certified Copy," marking the fourth time he appears in competition.

Japanese auteur Takeshi Kitano appears in his "Outrage," which marks his return to competition for the first time since 1999. In total, there are four films hailing from Asia in competition, including Im Sang-soo's "Housemaid," Lee Chang-Dong's "Poetry" and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "A Letter to Uncle Boonmee."

Also making a return appearance is Mike Leigh with "Another Year," starring Jim Broadbent. This is Leigh's fourth time in the main competition. Nikita Mikhalkov is also back for the first time since winning the Grand Jury Prize with "Burnt by the Sun" in 1994. The Russian maestro's latest film is a sequel of sorts to that epic, "Burnt by the Sun 2."

By Nancy Tartaglione, Special to the Los Angeles Times

the re-make

What does Hollywood consider sacred?

With Hollywood hot on the trail of remakes, is there any film that's untouchable?

Producers have yet to move forward with updates of "Casablanca" or "The Maltese Falcon" at Warner Bros. And if Ridley Scott truly likes epics, why not have him try his hand at "Gone With the Wind?"

For now, studios are steering clear of the classics, for a myriad of reasons, and instead finding new potential in overlooked or failed concepts of the past.

The politics surrounding a project can play a significant part in remake decisions. For example, it wouldn't make sense for Fox to attempt a remake of "Titanic" anytime soon, says one insider, because the studio is still in business with James Cameron, and most of the original execs are still on the lot.

By contrast, something like the Coen brothers' upcoming remake of "True Grit" is far more palatable. With 40 years having elapsed since the original, Paramount didn't have to worry about politics with past execs or its original helmer coming into play.

Then there are the broader expectations that films are expected to deliver on these days. Classic titles aren't necessarily classic brands, which can sell on multiple platforms.

"You look at a lot of the titles being made today, many of them are moving toward youth like "Conan" or "(He-Man and the) Masters of the Universe" where there is a lot of revenue, says one producer. "Classics like a "Casablanca" don't carry that type of brand."

Money issues and the right creative team also can make or break a remake deal."Studios are never afraid of offending anybody, but they are afraid of losing money," says an agent. "If the right actors and directors aren't banging down a studio's door to get something made, then no studio is just going to give such a project to a fresh-faced USC grad."

Still, some classic projects have surmounted the hurdles to get a modern makeover, but wound up helping to make the case that such concepts need to be carefully considered in the first place.

Fresh off the heels of his "Good Will Hunting" Oscar nomination, Gus Van Sant and Universal decided to take on the Hitchcock classic "Psycho" -- in a shot-by-shot remake, no less. Crix were not moved and auds hardly showed up at the box office.

Sony saw potential in remaking the 1949 best picture winner "All the King's Men" with Oscar darlings Sean Penn and Kate Winslet in the leads and "Schindler's List" scribe Steve Zaillian helming. But the pic was rescheduled from a December 2005 bow to a September 2006 slot, and after receiving lukewarm responses from critics, auds passed.

So, unless the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Winslet start banging on Warner Bros.' door to do a remake of "Casablanca," auds will have to make do with the Bogie and Bergman original.

By Justin Kroll

Sex and the Cribbie

THE HOUSE SEX AND THE CITY BUILT:

John Melfi, a New York producer of "Sex in the City," "Rome" and the upcoming Showtime series "Nurse Jackie," called on Culver City architect Steven Shortridge of Callas Shortridge Architects to design a new home for him in L.A. Shortridge proposed an unconventional design for a 30-by-80-foot lot in Venice: Rather than small rooms stacked three stories high, the architect wanted seven levels of living space that rose like a zigzag through the house.

"the suspects wore louboutins"

Alexis Neiers told cops that she and Nick Prugo had been drinking at Beso, a trendy bar-restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard, when Prugo got a call from Rachel Lee telling him to come and meet her. It was July 13, 2009. Neiers said she knew that Prugo and Lee—both 19 and former classmates at Indian Hills, an alternative high school in Agoura Hills, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles—had been burglarizing the homes of celebrities. This “included Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge, and others she was not sure about,” according to the L.A.P.D.’s report.

Neiers, 18, said that she was drunk and “not sure what was going on” as Prugo parked his white Toyota on the road by a house in the Hollywood Hills. Later, she said, she would find out that it was the home of Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom. Her friends knew that Bloom was in New York shooting a movie; they researched this kind of information on celebrity Web sites like TMZ. They discovered the locations of stars’ homes on Google Maps and celebrityaddressaerial.com.

Neiers said that Lee and another girl, Diana Tamayo, 19, got out of Lee’s white Audi A4, and the four kids walked uphill to Bloom’s residence, a stark, black mansion. Neiers didn’t want to go inside, she said, but still she followed. She told police that Prugo, Lee, and Tamayo seemed to be covering their faces with their hoodies, apparently in order to hide from security cameras. Lee cut a section out of the chain-link fence surrounding the property, Neiers said, and the kids crawled through it.

She said they went around the house, checking windows and doors, finally finding an unlocked door by Bloom’s pool area. They went inside and the other kids started to “ransack” Bloom’s home, according to Neiers. That night, they would allegedly steal close to $500,000 in Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton luggage, clothing, and artwork. “What are you doing? Get me the fuck out of here,” Neiers said she screamed. Then she went outside and threw up and peed in the bushes.

The Fame Monster

On November 16, Neiers arrived at Los Angeles Superior Court for her arraignment with an E! reality crew in tow. Her show, originally intended to be about her life as a party girl on the Hollywood scene, had now become a chronicle of her effort to stay out of jail. She was being charged that day with one count of residential burglary of Orlando Bloom’s home. In the media, she was being called a member of “the Burglar Bunch,” “the Bling Ring,” nicknames for the most successful and outrageous burglary gang in recent Hollywood memory: a gang of well-off kids from the Valley.

Camera crews from local news stations, Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, and TMZ were waiting outside Department 30 on the third floor of the courthouse. Producers from various shows murmured as Neiers—a former hip-hop- and pole-dancing instructor—sat calmly on a bench, allowing a makeup woman to touch her up.

A leggy girl with long, dark hair and shimmering blue-green eyes, Neiers was wearing a tweed miniskirt, a pink sweater, and six-inch Christian Louboutin heels. “I have a pretty cool shoe collection going on right now,” she said.

The L.A.P.D.’s report on the Bling Ring states that Nick Prugo told cops that Rachel Lee—a Korean-American girl from Calabasas, a wealthy suburb in the Valley—was “the driving force of the burglary crew and that her motivation was based on her desire to own the designer wardrobes of the Hollywood celebrities she admired.” Charged in the case are Neiers; Prugo; Lee; Tamayo; their friend Courtney Ames, 19; and Roy Lopez Jr., 27, a bouncer Ames knew from a waitressing job. (All have pleaded not guilty, except for Lee, whose arraignment was pending at press time.)

Between October of 2008 and August of 2009, the alleged members of the Bling Ring collectively stole more than $3 million in jewelry and high-end designer goods from a number of Young Hollywood players: Hilton, Lohan, Patridge (a regular on the reality show The Hills), Bilson (former star of The O.C.), original Beverly Hills 90210 cast member Brian Austin Green and his girlfriend, actress Megan Fox. They are said to have tried to rob High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale too, but fled when discovered by a female houseguest.

The thieves apparently had a taste for luxury brands: Chanel, Gucci, Tiffany, Cartier, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent. They allegedly stole clothes, shoes, handbags, makeup, perfume, underwear. They also took Green’s Sig Sauer .380 semi-automatic handgun.

At her lawyer’s office, a week before her arraignment, Neiers denied any involvement in the burglaries. “I’m a firm believer in Karma,” she said, “and I think this situation was attracted into my life because it was supposed to be a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being. I see myself being like an Angelina Jolie,” she said, “but even stronger, pushing even harder for the universe and for peace and for the health of our planet.” She was sounding almost like a real celebrity. “God didn’t give me these talents and looks to just sit around being a model or being famous. I want to lead a huge charity organization. I want to lead a country, for all I know.”

Moments before her arraignment began, a news producer approached, asking Neiers for an interview. “I’m going to make a statement on the courthouse steps,” the pretty defendant promised. She runway-walked into the courtroom as the cameras started rolling.

By Nancy Jo Sales for VF

behind the oscars 2010

ryan kavanaugh.

Ryan Kavanaugh's office lobby, on the fifth floor of a formerly modern building in West Hollywood, looks like a lot of office lobbies: Under a battered foam ceiling, a receptionist sits behind a high counter, answering a phone that never stops ringing; on either side of her there are some neglected potted plants, dusty in the fluorescent light; in front of her a glass table has been covered with the type and vintage of magazines normally found at a dentist's. The only difference between Ryan Kavanaugh's office lobby and your office lobby is that Ron Howard is sitting in his, in hiking boots, declining politely the receptionist's offer of a bottle of Yosemite water. "I'm A-okay," Howard says. He's come here this afternoon looking for more than something to drink.

The chances are good that Howard has come here, like many of the people who come here, looking for money. For the most part, money has become hard to find in Hollywood, even for men like Ron Howard. Plagued by a combination of rising costs, the credit squeeze, investor flight, digital piracy, the repeal of arcane German tax laws, and too much crap, the usual vaults have gone empty. The Weinsteins have been told by consultants to cut back their slate to ten films a year, New Line has all but disappeared into the maw at Warner Bros., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, founded in 1924, is on the verge of bankruptcy. No one has any money anymore — no one, it seems, except Ryan Kavanaugh: a thirty-four-year-old onetime venture capitalist and wannabe rock star with messy red hair, a man who refuses to wear anything on his feet but blue Converse All-Stars, even on those rare occasions when he wears a suit. About thirty feet away from the chair presently occupied by Ron Howard, Kavanaugh sits behind a curved zebrawood desk and on top of an estimated $2 billion in liquid assets, much of which comes courtesy of Elliott Associates, a venerable New York — based hedge fund that has $13 billion more where that came from. Which means that if you see a movie sometime in the next twelve months, it's even money that it's been financed at least partly by Kavanaugh through his company, Relativity Media, LLC.

The majority of the movies made by giants Sony and Universal — three quarters of them, in fact — rely on his financing. Warner Bros. has been known to dip into his kitty, and so has Marvel. Atlas Entertainment, where Batman was born, recently struck a coproduction deal with him. Earlier this year, Relativity bought Rogue, Universal's horror imprint, and it will also put out a dozen of its own films — "single pictures," in the local lexicon — next year. All told, Relativity, and thus Ryan Kavanaugh, will produce or coproduce as many as thirty-five movies in 2010.

But what separates Kavanaugh from most producers is not just that he's making movies, it's how he's making movies. Ron Howard has to wait in the office lobby because, at the moment, Kavanaugh is delivering his own pitch to an author who has written a book that a lot of people want to turn into a movie. The author has been making the Hollywood rounds and has spent the last several minutes dropping the names of the famous directors he has met. (Kavanaugh seems unimpressed: He has 10,476 numbers stored on his phone; later, when he goes to the Chateau Marmont for dinner, it takes maybe sixty seconds for Baz Luhrmann to appear out of the foliage and give him a hug.) Kavanaugh counters by telling the author that he, too, knows lots of famous directors — there might even be one waiting in the office lobby — and then he explains to the author why he would be foolish to sell the rights to his book to anyone else. "We might not give you $10 million up front," Kavanaugh says. "But if we tell you we're going to make a movie out of your book, we'll actually make a movie out of your book."

sir kingston.

the kid has impeccable style.

hollywood ink.

when sleeves work.