Agent to the Stars Part 33

Mich.e.l.le got up, grabbed a script, and walked over to Avika. "I'll tell you what, Avika," Mich.e.l.le said. "I'll admit I could be wrong about you being a b.i.t.c.h. I'm entirely convinced you are, but it is within the realm of possibility that I'm wrong. But the only way you can prove it is to admit you might be wrong about me not being able to do the part."

Mich.e.l.le slapped the script on Avika's chest. "The only way you're going to do that is to let me read. Come on, Avika. It can't hurt."

"I don't have to prove anything to you," Avika said, grabbing the script.

"Sure you do," Mich.e.l.le said, turning around and heading back to her seat. "Because there's one difference between you and me, Avika. You see, I couldn't give a s.h.i.+t that you think I can't act. But it's clear that it bothers you that I think you're a b.i.t.c.h."

"Hardly," Avika said.

"Really?" Mich.e.l.le said, sitting down. "Then why are you still here?"

Avika's mouth dropped open. Roland, a strapping man, looked like he wanted to curl up into a fetal ball.

"Come on, people," Mich.e.l.le said. "Let's s.h.i.+t or get off the pot. Read me or don't, but let's make a decision."

Roland snapped out of it before Avika could utter another word. "What scene would you like, Miss Beck?"

"Your choice," Mich.e.l.le said. "I really did memorize the script this time."

"The whole script?" Roland said.

"Sure, why not?" Mich.e.l.le said, and glanced over to me mischievously. "Elvis did it."

Avika flipped the script open and read. "'How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do,'" Avika said. "'You are my wife, not my master.'"

"'I am your master's instrument, Josef,'" Mich.e.l.le said, the words ripping out of her with an intensity that took us all by surprise. "'Go on the Judenrat and you turn your back on your people and your G.o.d. And you turn your back on me. For I am your wife, Josef. But cooperate with the Germans and we are not married. You will be as dead to me now as you will be soon enough by the hands of the Germans.'"

There was dead silence. We all stared in disbelief. Even me.

Mich.e.l.le smiled sweetly. "Got your attention, didn't I?" she said.

Avika opened the script at random and quoted line after line. Line after line was responded to with the sort of stunning display of acting that you get to see one or twice in a lifetime. It was flabbergasting. It was impossible. It was the most incredible acting experience I'd ever seen. And it was just a line reading. We were all beginning to wonder what was going to happen once Mich.e.l.le actually started acting for the record.

After an hour and a half, Avika dropped the script at her feet. "I wouldn't have believed it," she said, simply.

"I know you wouldn't," Mich.e.l.le said, as simply. "And I thank you, Avika, my friend, for finally letting me show you."

Avika burst into tears and headed towards Mich.e.l.le. Mich.e.l.le burst into her own tears and met Avika halfway. They stood in the middle of the room, crying hysterically. Roland and I looked over at each other. Both of us had these incredibly smug smiles on our face.

We were in business.

Chapter Twenty-One.

A montage of the next year, as told through headlines: Daily Variety, March 5th.

MICh.e.l.lE BECK VOWS "HARD MEMORIES"

Mich.e.l.le Beck, wasting no time after her near-death experience during the pre-production of Earth Resurrected, signed today to star in Hard Memories, a biopic of civil right activist and Holocaust survivor Rachel Spiegelman. Spiegelman became famous for her a.s.sociation with Martin Luther King during the late 50s and early 60s. Hard Memories is to be directed by Roland Lanois, and produced by Lanois in a.s.sociation with the Spiegelman family. Compensation package was not discussed, though with a total budget of less than $18 million, Beck is undoubtedly taking much less than the $12.5 million she scored for the ill-fated Earth Resurrected. Filming in the Czech Republic and Alabama is expected to begin in April for an Oscar-look release date of December 19th in New York and Los Angeles.

Beck is repped by Tom Stein of Lupo a.s.sociates.

Los Angeles Times Calendar Section, March 11th.

Jewish Groups Protest Casting of "Promises."

Decry casting of Mich.e.l.le Beck as "stunt"; producers, family stand firm behind their star.

BEVERLY HILLS -- Mich.e.l.le Beck is 25. Blonde. Blue eyed. Gentile. Rachel Spiegelman was brown haired. Brown eyed. Jewish. And at the height of her notoriety, she was well into her fifties.

So how did Mich.e.l.le Beck get the call to play Spiegelman, noted civil-rights lawyer and Holocaust survivor, in the upcoming Roland Lanois-directed biographical film Hard Memories? It's a question that several Hollywood Jewish groups would like to have answered.

One of these groups, the Jewish Actors a.s.sociation, went so far as to place a full-page ad in film industry trade magazine Variety on Friday, decrying the movie as "stunt casting" and calling upon director Lanois and the Spiegelman family to drop Beck for a more suitable actress.

"It's not about Miss Beck being Jewish or not," said Avi Linden, communications director for the JAA. "What bothers us is the fact that here is someone who is so clearly cast for box office purposes. She's made $300 million in her last two films, and that's what the producers are looking at -- not how truthful the casting is to reality. The fact is, there are dozens of actresses, Jew and gentile, who are more suited to the role."

Roland Lanois, the Oscar-nominated director and producer, acknowledges that his selection of Beck was bound to be controversial.

"We understand that this casting is not intuitive at first blush," he said, noting that Beck was not the first choice, landing the role only after actress Ellen Merlow dropped the role to take on a television series. "We ourselves were hesitant at first. All we can say at this point is that it was Mich.e.l.le's performance, not any other consideration, that got her the role."

Avika Spiegelman, spokesperson for the Spiegelman family, which had unusual veto rights on the casting of the role, issued a terse press release. "Mich.e.l.le Beck is the best person for the role, period," The release said. "She has the full support of the Spiegelman family."

Entertainment Weekly, March 17.

Jim Mullen's Hot List.

3. Jim Carrey's Poodle: They say you shouldn't work with dogs or children. Well, the poodle was warned.

4. Mich.e.l.le Beck: 25-year-old beach babe cast as serious, 50ish civil rights crusader. Next up for Beck -- playing Jim Carrey's poodle.

5. Roseanne's Country Alb.u.m: Stop her before she sings the Star-Spangled Banner!

Variety, March 24.

JUST FOR VARIETY.

BEVERLY HILLS -- The atmosphere was electric at the Fine Arts theatre on Wils.h.i.+re avenue, but not for the usual reasons. On Sat.u.r.day night, the Fine Arts was the scene, not of a movie, but of an unprecedented SRO reading of Hard Memories, the film made controversial by the casting of Mich.e.l.le Beck in the central role of civil rights activist and Holocaust survivor Rachel Spiegelman. The guest list for the reading included the cream of the film industry and several members of the Jewish groups that had criticized Beck's casting. It was a tough crowd, and Hard Memories director-producer Roland Lanois knew it. "If I were in their shoes, I would have the same reaction that they have had. Absolutely. No doubt," Lanois said prior to the reading. "What this is about is helping them into our shoes. I think they're going to be surprised." Beck, in the center of the storm, waded into the crowd before the reading, thanking folks for coming and chatting directly with those who had opposed her casting, as if to show there were no hard feelings. At 8:30, Beck, co-star and noted legit theater star David Grunwald, and Lanois and producer Avika Spiegelman sat up front on simple stools and read the script, Beck as Rachel Spiegelman, the other three trading off the other roles. By 9, there were already tears. At 10:30, when the reading was finished, Beck and her crew were treated to an ovation the likes of which I have not seen in many a year. It was a tough crowd, but Beck won them over in spectacular fas.h.i.+on. Next up: the audience at large.....

Hollywood Reporter, April 30th.

Young Ankles Lupo a.s.sociates.

Elliot Young, star of the mid-rated ABC series Pacific Rim, has dropped agent Ben Fleck of Lupo a.s.sociates in what insiders call an acrimonious split. Young was apparently disappointed in Fleck's inability to transfer Young's moderate television stardom into a film career.

"Fleck had come in promising Elliot the moon," said Pacific Rim director Don Bolling. "Then he of course experienced trouble delivering. Elliot dropped him and, I think, rightly so."

Young is currently being repped by Paula Richter of Artists a.s.sociated.

Daily Variety, May 22nd.

DISH: MERLOW'S FURLOUGH FROM 'GOOD HELP'

Dish hears that the already legendarily tense set of Good Help is Hard To Find has had the tension cranked up another notch, when two-time Oscar winner-turned-would-be-sitcom-comedienne Ellen Merlow jetted back to her Connecticut horse farm during the middle of taping, placing the show in jeopardy of making its series debut September 9th. This latest flare-up follows last month's standoff between Merlow and co-star Garrison Lanham (who played Weezix, the alien butler), that resulted in Lanham's replacement by Bronson Pinchot, and by last week's ma.s.s crew walkout, protesting their treatment by Merlow and her entourage. The Dish hears that Merlow's latest act might have placed her in violation of her $20 million contract, giving exasperated producers Jan and Steven White the excuse they need to bounce her from the show....

Daily Variety, June 16.

MILESTONES.

Tom Stein, 29, of La Canada married Miranda Escalon, 28, of Manhattan Beach, on Sat.u.r.day, June 14th at the Vivian Webb Chapel in Claremont. He is an agent at Lupo a.s.sociates. She is also an agent, newly-promoted, at the same firm. Stein's best man was Lupo boss Carl Lupo; Escalon's maid of honor was Mich.e.l.le Beck, who flew in from the Czech Republic for the wedding.....

Ad in Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter, July 10.

Lanois Productions.

and.

Century Films.

Are proud to announce the completion of princ.i.p.al photography on.

HARD MEMORIES.

Starring Mich.e.l.le Beck and David Grunwald.

Written by Connie Reiser & Larry Card.

Directed and Produced by Roland Lanois.

LIMITED RELEASE: DECEMBER 19 IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES.

WIDE RELEASE JANUARY 23.

Entertainment Weekly, August 8.

Stingless 'Scorpion'

Mindless Summer Explode-Fest Rings Hollow.

......Inquiring minds want to know: in this utter loss of a movie, does anything work? Well, the explosions are pretty. Apologists may note the presence of Mich.e.l.le Beck, whose upcoming performance Hard Memories is one of the most intensely awaited of the Oscar season. Maybe some of that alleged intensity rubs off here? No such luck. This Mich.e.l.le Beck, at least, is scene decoration, hardly onscreen before her helicopter is blown out of the sky by a preposterous string of coincidences. Don't worry, this revelation won't ruin the plot for you: there'd have to have been a plot at all for that to happen.

Rating: D.

Daily Variety, August 11.

'SCORPION' VENOMOUS TO COMPEt.i.tION.

$19.7M takes tops BO report; 'Gold Master' takes silver at $6.2M.

Scorpion's Tail proves that some films are critic-proof; the widely panned action flick stung the compet.i.tion with a $19.7 million take, injecting a boost in the severely lagging summer box office......

Entertainment Weekly, September 22nd.

OSCAR WATCH.

....Oscar-nominated director-producer Roland Lanois (The Green Fields) may have another contender on his hands with Hard Memories. Insiders at a Century Pictures rough cut screening say the film caused notoriously thick-skinned Century head Lewis Schon to cry into his trademark Goobers. Of special note is Mich.e.l.le Beck's performance, which those at the screening labeled "revelatory". Century's marketing department is already getting in high gear for the Award season....

The Arizona Republic, September 25th.

Obituaries.

Sarah Rosenthal, of Scottsdale, of complications from a stroke, at 3:15 pm, September 23rd. Mrs. Rosenthal born in Hamburg, Germany on April 3, 1911 and emigrated to the United States in December of 1945. She is survived by daughter Elaine Stein, also of Scottsdale, and grandson Thomas Stein, of La Canada, Ca.

The Chicago Sun-Times, October 8.

Hollywood Star, Agents to Endow U of C Chair.