BOP Daily News
May 6, 2004
The spirit of BOP News lives on in
This is So Last Week,
our pop culture week-in-review,
presented in a pleasing quiz form.
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In what is either a savvy marketing ploy or the biggest bonehead maneuver Michael Eisner has made in...well, about a week, the New York Times is reporting that Disney has forbidden Miramax from distributing Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11. The Oscar winner's latest effort, which is highly critical of the Bush Administration's actions both before and after the World Trade Center attacks, was originally slated to be released later this year - before the November presidential elections - but Disney forced Miramax to pull the plug for fear, according to the New York Times article, of angering Dubya's baby brother Jeb, and thus endangering the tax breaks Disney receives from the state of Florida. Disney's spokespeople are claiming this decision was made a year ago, and Miramax's people are saying they are "discussing the issues" with Disney. Meanwhile, Moore is loudly proclaiming, both on his Web site and to any media outlet that will listen, that the film will be seen "if (he) has anything to say about it", and is also praising Miramax and Harvey Weinstein for supporting him. Now, we're not saying that this is all sound and fury signifying nothing, save perhaps a bid for a bigger bite of the box office pie upon release, but we will admit we have a hard time accepting as objective fact any story that makes Harvey Weinstein into a sympathetic character.
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Yet more evidence that test screenings are ee-vil is this report regarding The Stepford Wives. Seems the film is running into even more delays, possibly even endangering its scheduled release, because director Frank Oz decided to do reshoots after a recent test screening returned negative reviews. The delays are due to Oz trying to work three days of reshoots into star Nicole Kidman's busy, busy schedule. Oz is now making a habit of reshooting a film if the test audiences don't like it; he changed the ending to his film version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors when it tested poorly. Rumors that Oz is considering using Miss Piggy and a soft-focus lens if he can't get Kidman back could not be confirmed at press time.
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David Hasselhoff has hit yet another snag in his quest to bring his Knight Rider TV series to the big screen. Hasselhoff, who has reportedly been working on this project for many years, has apparently parted company with the studio where he had the film due to the ever-popular creative differences. According to one insider, the nameless studio didn't want the car to talk, proving once again that studio execs are about as clueless as they come. Meanwhile, K.I.T.T. has been working on his own big-screen version of the series. In that script, the guy behind the wheel doesn't talk.
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The answer to the question "Whatever happened to Mariah Carey?" - certainly not one you'd hear around the halls here at BOP - is that the former diva is planning her own line of children's clothes. The star of the former titleholder of Worst Movie Ever Made until it was unseated by Gigli has decided that kids desperately need the change to dress like her, and is planning a line of jewelry and accessories as well as clothes. Like much of Mariah's work, the clothing and jewelry are expected to be banal, overly-long, not make a lot of sense, and be bogged down by scads of extraneous pieces that add nothing to the original item.
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"I'd like to make her look a little more attractive, how far can you pull back?"
"How do you feel about Cleveland?
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Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
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