BOP Daily News
November 18, 2005
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 a move that surprised...well, pretty much everyone who's been watching his recent behavior, Tom Cruise has reportedly dumped sibling Lee Anne DeVette as his publicist and instead signed with top PR firm Rogers & Cowan. Cruise put his sister in charge of his publicity almost two years ago, after dumping his longtime PR maven and since then, his carefully-controlled public image has pretty much gone down the crapper. His antics whilst on the War of the Worlds PR tour were unusual to say the least, from his couch-jumping display on Oprah Winfrey's show regarding his then-suspect romance with Katie Holmes to his confrontation with Matt Lauer on the Today show through his dressing-down of now-former friend Brooke Shields to his ill-tempered demeanor regarding two pranksters at a WotW premiere. The spin being put on the change is that although DeVette has done a "wonderful job", she has always been more interested in assisting Cruise in his charitable works, and that she will now devote herself to that full-time. Since Cruise's charities basically consist of Scientology, Scientology and various aspects of Scientology, DeVette will likely have a fair amount of free time on her hands. We hear that Sylvester Stallone is looking to return to the limelight; maybe she can work up a phony romance between Sly and Betty White to promote Rocky VI.
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Since Madonna is racing TomKat to see who can appear in the news the most often this year, there's another story about her upcoming album, at least tangentially. Reportedly the Material Girl was hurt recently by criticism that she often lip-synchs during live shows. Specifically, the barbs thrown by Elton John - who isn't all that when it comes to vocal ability - wounded the poor girl, and now Madonna is out to prove that she really does do all her own singing. John's remarks were regarding Madonna's Reinvention tour, where the excuse given for Madonna faking it was that she couldn't sing whilst mimicking a contortionist during the more athletic dance numbers. As Sir Elton put it, "Nobody's paid to come and see (her) do yoga; they've paid to hear (her) sing." Madonna is supposedly going to prove John and many another critic wrong by giving her "best ever" vocal performance at a London club, according to one of the Material Girl's spokespeople, where Madonna will appear with a live band and no back-up singers. Of course, the very fact that the performance is being touted as Madonna's "best ever" in the singing department would tend to support the idea that there will be some technological...let's call them "enhancements", shall we? - at the show. However, reports that Madonna had consulted with Ashlee Simpson regarding stage techniques could not be confirmed at press time.
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Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe has apparently dismissed reports that he will be leaving the lucrative franchise due to fears he will be forever typecast. According to the teen, he enjoys playing the young wizard far too much to give up the part, and feels that he can demonstrate his versatility by doing other roles in between the blockbuster films. Radcliffe was quoted as saying that his decision came down to whether he was "still enjoying (playing Potter)" and that if he was, then it would be "sort of stupid" to quit. He went on to say that he will "always be Harry Potter". Son, you have no idea. Current book on how long before Radcliffe is doing soft porn is four years.
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Sometimes it's nice to see a story about a star that doesn't fall in line with the typical reporting on said star, even when the item does nothing to repair a public image. Seems ill-tempered Russell Crowe fancies himself a singer, and is eager to prove his prowess during the upcoming Christmas season by hiring himself out for musical performances. Yes, you too can book Crowe for your holiday party...as long as you've got the long green. Crowe has set his fee at $900,000 per gig, plus air fare to and from the venue and accommodations at a five-star hotel. Oh, and the (un?)lucky fan who snags Crowe for his/her Christmas bash has to cover the star's expenses, too. Whether said expenses include flying phones and making assault-and-battery charges disappear wasn't mentioned, but it might almost be worth the dosh for the image of Crowe singing about peace on Earth whilst pummeling the unfortunate Santa whose cell phone rang during a performance. We'd inquire as to the Guinness record for chucking a crèche through a window, but we're loathe to give Crowe any ideas.
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"Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window."
Previous edition's quote: Rhinestone
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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