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A Case For Throwing Out The Oscar’s Script

MisterD — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 13:12:34 +0000

New York Times
Academy Awards 25 Years Ago: Not So Different From Today
By Bruce Fretts
Feb. 24, 2017

From the moment the host Billy Crystal was wheeled onstage wearing a straitjacket and a face mask à la Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” viewers knew the 1992 Oscars were not going to be normal.

“It was a bit like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,” Jodie Foster, the “Silence” star who won best actress that year, recalled in a telephone interview. “You were being catapulted from one surreal experience to the next.”

The circumstances surrounding the Academy Awards 25 years ago were not so different from the ceremony set for Sunday: Presidential politics served as the backdrop (in that case, Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown, whom Mr. Crystal jokingly compared to that year’s self-destructive cinematic rebels Thelma and Louise, were trying to unseat President George Bush). Major social issues played out at the podium (then it was homophobia and sexism), and black filmmakers were making inroads. But in 1992, four of the five best-picture nominees were among the year’s top 20domestic box-office hits; this year, that’s true for only two of the nine contenders (“Hidden Figures” and “La La Land”).

“In those days, people still believed the recipe to make a popular film was to make a good film,” Ms. Foster said. “The way the economy has shaped the industry over the last 25 years, it’s ghettoized films into either big, dumbed-down mainstream movies that are trying to attract as many audience members as possible, and movies that are substantial and meaningful, which are relegated to a different sphere.”

I asked winners, nominees and one of the show’s writers about that year’s most memorable moments.

The Show Opener

A review in The New York Times described the 1992 ceremony as “uncharacteristically lively,” and that began with the first bit the writers devised for the host. “It’s a great entrance for Anthony Hopkins in the movie, so we knew it would work with Billy,” Bruce Vilanch, one of the telecast’s writers, said in a recent telephone interview. “It was kind of irresistible.”

Billy Crystal’s Hannibal Lecter Entrance: 1992 OscarsCreditVideo by Oscars

One-Armed Push-Ups

The bizarre mood was struck early when best supporting actor went to Jack Palance, Mr. Crystal’s co-star in the western comedy “City Slickers.” Mr. Palance gave, as The Times put it, a “cheerfully unprintable acceptance speech.”

“It was an odd thing to say at the Academy Awards,” Mr. Vilanch said, recalling a specific line in the speech. “But that was Jack. He was a genuinely strange and scary guy.”

Then, in a display of his virility, the 73-year-old character actor dropped to the floor and did one-armed push-ups. Backstage in the writers’ room, “we looked at each other and said, ‘We have to go with this — it’s too funny.’” Thus began a run of on-the-fly jokes from Mr. Crystal (“I was just given a bulletin: Jack Palance is now on the StairMaster”) that stretched through the night.

Jack Palance Wins Supporting Actor: 1992 OscarsCreditVideo by Oscars

A Family First

For supporting actress, Mercedes Ruehl won for “The Fisher King,” but it was one of her competitors, Diane Ladd, who made Oscar history. She was the first mother to be nominated along with her daughter (Laura Dern) for the same film, the Southern drama “Rambling Rose.” Ms. Dern and Ms. Ladd also presented the award for best visual effects to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

“When I was standing on that stage, and I looked out at my peers and then over at Laura, it was a great honor,” Ms. Ladd said. “I had to fight to keep from crying.”

A Surprise From Space

More emotional moments played out as George Lucas received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from his old friend Steven Spielberg and, in a bit of technical wizardry, the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, complete with a floating Oscar. Another satellite link allowed the acclaimed Indian director Satyajit Ray to accept his honorary Academy Award from his hospital bed in Calcutta; he died 24 days later at 70. “Gil Cates, who produced that show, loved technology,” Mr. Vilanch said. “He always had remotes.”

Gay-Rights Protesters

Many Oscar ceremonies come with some controversy, and the 1992 show had its share. Gay-rights advocates picketed over villainous characters in “Silence” as well as in “J.F.K.”(Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for best supporting actor for his turn as a gay man put on trial and acquitted for an alleged conspiracy to kill the president) and in the just-released “Basic Instinct,” which starred Sharon Stone, who was also a presenter. “It was a good discussion, but it was also very stressful,” Ms. Foster said.

The protesters could take solace in the fact that Howard Ashman — who had died a year earlier at 40 — became the first person lost to AIDS to win an Oscar: best original song for “Beauty and the Beast.” His longtime companion, Bill Lauch, accepted the award on his behalf.

A Toon Dispute

Disney’s wildly popular “Beauty and the Beast” stirred up discord when it became the first animated film nominated for best picture, which didn’t sit well with some Oscar purists. “They created the best animated feature category after that because they didn’t want more cartoons nominated for best picture,” said. Mr. Vilanch. (Only “Up” and “Toy Story 3” have managed the feat since.)

Streisand Slight

The night’s loudest contretemps surrounded Barbra Streisand, who was passed over for a best director nomination even though her drama “The Prince of Tides” snagged a best picture nomination. The group Women in Film cited sexism. “In some circles, they said I took her slot,” said John Singleton, who at 24 became the youngest and first African-American best director nominee, for his searing debut, “Boyz N The Hood.” “What people don’t know is that I’m a huge Barbra Streisand fan. She signed my application to get me into the Directors Guild.”

Mr. Crystal gracefully defused the situation with a satirical lyric during a musical number. Referring to “The Prince of Tides,” he crooned, “Seven nominations on the shelf, did this film direct itself?” The cameras quickly cut to Ms. Streisand, laughing appreciatively.

Rookie Mistake

Mr. Singleton lost best director to Jonathan Demme for “Silence,” but he had higher hopes of winning best original screenplay. Yet the award went to another first-timer, Callie Khouri, for the feminist road-trip saga “Thelma & Louise.”

“I was trying not to jinx myself, so I wrote an acceptance speech in pencil,” Ms. Khouri said. “By the time I opened it up, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I just winged it. I forgot to thank the producer, so that was fairly horrifying.” (For the record, Mimi Polk Gitlin produced the film.)

A ‘Silence’ Sweep

The biggest winner, of course, turned out to be “The Silence of the Lambs,” which became only the third film in history, after “It Happened One Night” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” to sweep the top five awards: best picture, director, actor, actress and adapted screenplay (by Ted Tally, based on Thomas Harris’s novel).

“Three years earlier, I had won best actress for ‘The Accused,’ and I was the only person nominated from the film, so I was by myself,” Ms. Foster said. “But for ‘Silence,’ it was really extraordinary — we kept winning, one after the other, and we all met backstage. I remember everybody was really hot and sweaty, and we all had our arms around one another.”

Postscript

That wasn’t the only happy ending. Five months later, Mr. Crystal, Mr. Vilanch and his fellow writers Hal Kanter, Buz Kohan, Robert Wuhl and David Steinberg took home Emmys. “We won for throwing out the script and rewriting it on the spot,” Mr. Vilanch said. “That’s Hollywood.”

The post A Case For Throwing Out The Oscar’s Script first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bruce Vilanch Hosted “Love Don’t Need a Reason: A Benefit for Marsha Malamet” on Tuesday, May 29th at Catalina’s Jazz Club

MisterD — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:20:38 +0000

Mister D: Yes, I missed this one, but wanted to get up in the news section for posterity. Sorry I was late. Don

Clifford Bell, Hillary Rollins and Lampkin Music Group present:

“Love Don’t Need a Reason: A Benefit for Marsha Malamet” on Tuesday, May 29th at Catalina’s Jazz Club.

Hosted by Award winning writer/actor/personality, Bruce Vilanch

VIP Tickets are $75.00. General Admission: $50.00. Ticket Link: Click Here

At press time, Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter, Melissa Manchester; Golden Globe/MAC Award winner, Amanda McBroom; Award Award singer/songwriter, Michele Brourman; Actress/ singer, Mary Jo Mundy; Singer, Ken Stacy, Singer, Kimaya Seward; Award winning singer/musical director/pianist, Todd Schroeder, Former Harlette and Hairspray Star, Charlo Crossley; Pop Producer Greg Wells; Actress/singer, Patricia Whiteman; Songwriter, Alan Roy Scott; Songwriter, Matthew Levine and Award winning producer/songwriter and Marsha’s producer, Stephan Oberhoff have all signed on to perform. More to be announced.

Directed by Clifford Bell.

This special show will showcase an array of performances, video and written testimonials and comments on the Life and Music of Marsha Malamet.

Explanation: This benefit is to help pay for all medical needs and some living expenses, due to the fact that what Marsha suffers from (we still don’t know exactly) is not covered by insurance. Whether it is an autoimmune disorder, or a metabolic disease, treatments are expensive. In 2015 she was diagnosed with early stage Parkinson’s, then a year later, Lyme Disease. She has spent a lot of money to see different doctors, who’s treatments have not been successful.

Now she is under the care of a new doctor who treated Kris Kristofferson successfully who was challenged by something similar. Right now, she has a 24/7 caregiver, and is mostly disable, using a wheelchair and walker.

The unfortunate thing is that she lost the muscle strength and coordination, and can’t play the piano, sing, or write. The performers honoring Marsha with their appearance are all friends of her’s, having known her or written with her.

Malamet Biography: At the age of 21, Marsha made her solo recording debut, “Coney Island Winter,” on Decca Records. It was engineered by Brooks Arthur. She performed at top venues in New York supporting the CD, including Lincoln Center, and her songs have been featured on Broadway: first, in Peter Allen’s “Up in One,” and then “The Boy from Oz,” based on Peter’s life.

Marsha’s songs have been recorded by the best in the business, artists include Barbra Streisand, Faith Hill, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Meatloaf, the late Barbara Cook, Judy Collins and Sheena Easton. Marsha’s top ten international hit single, “I Am Blessed,” sung by the UK’s pop group, Eternal, moved the Pope to invite them to perform the song at the Vatican.

Her song “Love Don’t Need A Reason,” co-written with the late Peter Allen and Michael Callen, has become an iconic theme for the Aids/HIV epidemic, recorded by over 35 performers and gay choruses worldwide.

Marsha was Grammy nominated for her songwriting involvement on the original Broadway cast CD “The Boy from Oz,” starring Hugh Jackman.

Marsha’s music takes root in people’s hearts and minds.

VIP Tickets are $75.00. General Admission is $50.00. Two Drink Minimum.

Tickets can be purchased by online @: Click Here

Catalina Jazz Club. 6725 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California. 90028.

To hear Marsha’s music or to purchase, please visit: Click Here

www.MarshaMalamet.com

For interviews and other information, please email Ralph at: Lampkinmusic@gmail.com

The post Bruce Vilanch Hosted “Love Don’t Need a Reason: A Benefit for Marsha Malamet” on Tuesday, May 29th at Catalina’s Jazz Club first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Motown & More, An Evening of Music, Dance & Comedy with Special Guests Bruce Vilanch and Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy September 12, 2016

MisterD — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 13:25:39 +0000

San Francisco Weekly
Bruce Vilanch on Whether It’s OK to Make AIDS Jokes (Yet)
Quentin QuickTue Sep 6th, 2016 5:47pm

No one speaks of [HIV/AIDS] anymore and that truly saddens me, to paraphrase comedian Sandra Bernhard. But in 1981, it replaced hepatitis and mono as the topic on everyone’s lips.

That’s how Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Tonys comedy writer and actor Bruce Vilanch (Hollywood Squares, Hairspray) remembers it.

“This thing came, but the devastation was so total,” Vilanch told SF Weekly. One week someone had a cough and the next week they were dead. No one knew what was happening, but there seemed to be so many gay people that it was happening to. And it resembled pneumonia, so we called it the gay pneumonia. It wasn’t even identified as AIDS till years later, so it was this horrible, baffling thing.“

While HIV cocktails have turned the deadly virus into a more manageable one, those who live with it still struggle to pay for cost-prohibitive medications and in some places to acquire safe housing. That’s why events like The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation’s one-night-only cabaret benefit Motown & More, An Evening of Music, Dance & Comedy with Special Guests Bruce Vilanch and Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy remain vital.

Vilanch spoke to SF Weekly about the continued importance of AIDS benefits, holding out for a cure and whether it’s too early for AIDS jokes.

What can you tell us about Motown & More?

I’ll be cohosting and doing comedy mostly. I don’t have any plans to do any musical stuff, but you never know. Between now and then, we might cook something up. I just hate to pin myself down.

This is also a great opportunity for the kids singing Carol King eight times a week to sing anything but Carol King. Since Carol King wrote a lot of stuff for rhythm and blues acts during her Brill Building period, there’s a lot of Motown-y stuff in that show, and they’re going to get to sing that stuff that they can’t sing in her show. So that’s what makes it so much fun.

How did you first get involved with Richmond/Ermet’s One Night Only shows?

Well, I’ve been doing stuff for Richmond/Ermet for a long time. They do two big shows a year: Help is on the Way in the summer and Help is on the Way for the Holidays around Christmas. I’ve done a bunch of those at the Palace of Fine Farts. When I was in Hairspray, we toured the country for a year and we made it our business to take our Monday nights, which were dark and turn them into AIDS benefits for local charities, and Richmond/Ermet does the same thing.

When one of these musicals comes into town, they get the cast on a Monday night to sing everything else. The cast loves it because they get to sing something else and Richmond/Ermet is such a wonderful, close-to-the-ground charity, where all the money goes directly to the people who need it. They have a very low overhead. They’re not in the charity business. They’re really doing a great public service, so you get a great feeling of contribution.

People are still struggling with HIV/AIDS, yet there isn’t a single awareness-raising red ribbon to be seen at major awards shows anymore. People don’t talk about AIDS to the extent that they used to.

That’s because of the cocktail. With the drugs that are available, people are living longer. They’re not dying at the rate they were years ago. But at the same time, those cocktails are incredibly expensive and people need the support. Of course, the thing hasn’t been cured yet and it would be nice if one of these drugs was actually like a polio vaccine and could wipe it out. So, of course, the research and the work continue and that needs financing, too.

But Richmond/Ermet is not about research. They’re about helping people who have it and live with the financial burden and providing services for them. I think when people find out what this organization is about they see how worthwhile it is and begin talking again. When you stop the dying, then people’s attention shift to something else. That’s what we’re like.

How did the gay community handle the epidemic 45 years ago?

There was panic in the community because it seemed to be happening to so many of us and, of course, panic outside of the community because anyone dealing with us suddenly viewed us as a pariah.

As the contours of it became clearer, the gay community realized that the only way we were going to do anything about it was if we banded together. What had been the beginnings of a political liberation movement that had been gathering steam since Stonewall transformed into an AIDS movement. The government wasn’t going to do anything because they were as scared as anybody else, so it was up to us to force them to do things.

Talk to us about your own personal involvement.

I got involved on the show business level, because show business is the great fountain of money when it needs to be, and you do that by putting on shows and raising a lot of money. That’s what we did with the people who were willing to identify themselves with it and that was generally people whose lives had been affected by it like Joan Rivers, Bette Midler and Nell Carter. Once Rock Hudson identified as an AIDS patient, then the floodgates opened and Elizabeth Taylor got involved and real charities began to be formed.

Are you still haunted by the ghosts of loved ones lost to AIDS?

All the time. I live now in a loft in West Hollywood and through one of my windows can look up at the Hollywood Hills. I point out houses of people who are dead. I knew them all. It’s a visceral reminder of all the people who used to be here who aren’t anymore. I think, as you get older, visions of people who you’ve lost begin to appear to you at the oddest times. But in the case of people like me, we lost so many people when we were young that we were not supposed to lose that it’s double what it would be for most people. To have a mass of people go at the same time was devastating and unprecedented.

What are the challenges, aside from overpriced medications, still faced by HIV-positive people today?

There’s still discrimination. People ask me why I continue to do benefits, and I say because no one with breast cancer was ever forced to leave an apartment because they have breast cancer. This is one of the few conditions in the world where you’re still made to feel like a leper in some places.

Will we see a cure in the near future?

Yeah, of course. I may be a cockeyed optimist, but we do have cures for things that used to be the scourge of the planet and I think we can find a cure for this. I suspect that we’re close because they have already found a way to contain and manage it, so they’re just a couple of hills away.

We often look for humor in the things that most distress us. That said, since you’re a comedy writer, I have to ask … Is it still too early for AIDS jokes?

I think people who have it can do that. But I think it’s difficult for anybody else to try and do it unless they’re going to make a comment about the fact that they’re doing it and that it’s too soon.

There are AIDS jokes that we always tell each other that we’d never do publicly. But then there are a lot of jokes that we tell each other that we’d never do publicly, so it falls into that category. I can’t think of one that I would do generally, because it ain’t fittin’.

Motown & More – An Evening of Music, Dance & Comedy, Monday, Sep. 12, at Marines’ Memorial Theater, $36-$75, 609 Sutter St, 415-273-1620 or ONO-Beautiful.eventbrite.com.

The post Motown & More, An Evening of Music, Dance & Comedy with Special Guests Bruce Vilanch and Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy September 12, 2016 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Annaleigh Ashford, Bruce Vilanch & More Set for VILLAIN: DEBLANKS at Rockwell Table & Stage, 7/27

MisterD — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 19:48:38 +0000

Broadway World
Annaleigh Ashford, Bruce Vilanch & More Set for VILLAIN: DEBLANKS at Rockwell Table & Stage, 7/27
June 15, 2015

(VERB)____ until your sides hurt on Monday, July 27 at The Rockwell Table & Stage, where Villain: DeBlanks will be performed to benefit the ASPCA.

Starring six-time Emmy-winner Bruce Vilanch (Get Bruce!, “Hollywood Squares“), stunningly prolific Missi Pyle (Gone Girl, The Artist), three-time Tony-nominee Kevin Chamberlin(Disney‘s “Jessie”), Tony-winner Annaleigh Ashford (“Masters of Sex,” Kinky Boots), omni-present voice artist/actor Robin Atkin Downes (How to Train Your Dragon, “The Strain”), and Tony-winner Daisy Eagan (The Secret Garden, Sunday Brunch of Shame), proceeds will benefit the ASPCA.

A Time Out NY Critics’ Pick written by Billy Mitchell, Villain: DeBlanks is an uproarious improvisational comedy where the cast says words you put in their mouths! The audience provides nouns, adjectives, and verbs (the wilder, the better), and the actors provide the laughs — uncensored and unrehearsed — as they enact the story of Philip DeBlanks’ untimely demise. It’s “Clue” meets adult “Mad Libs,” performed by some of the funniest people in show biz. Like a ride to summer camp in the back of a station wagon, this hilarious performance will be ridiculously one-of-a-kind.

Villain: DeBlanks benefit for ASPCA will play The Rockwell Table & Stage (1714 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA) on Monday, July 27. Show: 8pm. Cover charge is $10.00-$25.00 and there is a 2-item minimum per person.

For tickets & information, call 323.669.2550 ext. 20, or visit: villaindeblanks.com

The post Annaleigh Ashford, Bruce Vilanch & More Set for VILLAIN: DEBLANKS at Rockwell Table & Stage, 7/27 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bruce Vilanch To Play ProvinceTown Theater This Summer

MisterD — Thu, 07 May 2015 12:10:32 +0000

Bruce Vilanch; Special Guests: The Barbrashop Quartet (Aug. 20-22). Vilanch, joins The Provincetown Theater for Carnival week to share funny stories alongside The Barbrashop Quartet, a new concert written by Vilanch, featuring four of Broadway’s hottest men honoring the one and only Streisand.

VIP $80 (First 2 rows)

RESERVED $65 (Middle rows A-D)

BACK $50 (Back 2 rows)

$3.50 is added to each ticket to support The Provincetown Theater Foundation. Select row AA or BB for handicap accessibility.

To purchase tickets: Click Here

The post Bruce Vilanch To Play ProvinceTown Theater This Summer first appeared on We Got Bruce!.