Despite the efforts of federal mediators, negotiations between actors and the advertising industry collapsed Wednesday, dashing hopes of an imminent end to the bitter 5-month work stoppage. “The unions are now expected to intensify their strike. SAG president Daniels has threatened to ‘unleash celebrities’ in a massive public relations blitz against advertisers. ” – Backstage
Tag: 09.28.00
ODD COUPLE
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s collaborative musical opens in London’s West End. “Sadly, hopes that The Beautiful Game might prove a Northern Irish West Side Story are hardly realised. Indeed, at worst the piece comes over like Grease-meets-Riverdance with the odd bit of earnest Eltonesque moralising thrown in. Working with Elton has certainly loosened Lloyd Webber up as both composer and producer.” – The Telegraph (UK)
UNLIKELY PARTNERS: “Well, they don’t come together quite as successfully as they clearly hope that peace-loving Ulster Catholics will come together both with Protestants and with their own more bellicose elements.” – The Times (UK)
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS MOVIE STAR
Julian Schnabel winters in New York, and summers in the Hamptons. And in between, he makes movies. People were lining up to slam it, but his first film, a bio-pic of the short life of the artist Jean Michel Basquiat, was outrageously well received. His second, Before Night Falls, is about the exiled Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. It has just taken second prize at the Venice Film Festival. Schnabel is on a roll. – The Independent (UK)