Is Harvey truly crazy about 'Bobby'?
"Don't worry!" Harvey Weinstein roared to his staffers when he finally stopped obsessing over the loss of Felicity Huffman as best actress in "Transamerica." "Next year we've got 'Bobby'!"
It took Harvey eons to stop obsessing over Huffman's loss. In fact, he's still wringing his polar bear paws over it and pouting to pals, but insiders say that his manic negative fixation is mostly lifted now thanks to his new Oscar faith in "Bobby," Emilio Estevez's drama about the day Robert Kennedy was shot. The $10 million indie focuses on the lives of 22 people who witnessed the assassination, portrayed by a host of superstars, including Anthony Hopkins (as the Ambassador Hotel doorman), Elijah Wood (draft dodger), Lindsay Lohan (Wood's wife), Demi Moore (hotel's lounge singer), Ashton Kutcher (a hippie), Martin Sheen (Democratic financier), Helen Hunt (Sheen's wife) and William H. Macy (hotel manager). Sharon Stone is said to be especially good as Macy's neglected wife, who runs a beauty salon.
For months Harvey's been planting buzz all over Hollyweird, insisting — pssssst! pssssst! — it's a major best pic contender.
Heck, "Bobby" features so many academy members that, if most of them just vote for their own work, that should push it into the top race, eh?
Now that Miramaxless Harvey and brother Bob are out on their own, without the Disney media conglomerate behind them, they're desperate to get back in the Oscar game and relive the thrill they knew when "The English Patient," "Shakespeare in Love" and "Chicago" struck mother lodes of industry gold. This year they have a shot at the best actress trophy again with Renee Zellweger as "Peter Rabbit" author Beatrix Potter in "Miss Potter" plus best actor with Jude Law as a spoiled British architect in "Breaking and Entering," but Harvey has something to prove now that he's ballyhooing his new shingle, the Weinstein Company. He wants to demonstrate that it's a top player by winning the top industry prize again: best picture.
But has he just gone all Harvey on us again? You know, just plain Oscar mad? When that happens, delusions can set in.
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Photo: There are as many Hollywood stars in "Bobby" as you'd see at a real Democratic Convention.
(Weinstein Co.)
Basically — let's be cattily honest — people are hissing behind his massive back: how can a movie written and directed by Emilio Estevez be any good? Emilio not only suffers from the presumption that screen heartthrobs must be shallow, but there's still the lingering stench of "Men at Work," a murder farce about two garbage men that he penned and helmed for himself and brother Charlie Sheen.
Some Hollywood gossipmeisters who've already seen "Bobby" say it's good, but not as great as Harvey thinks it is. Others insist it's a masterpiece that has the Oscar advantage of feeling important, even urgent, because it's about the tragic loss of an American hero. One of Harvey's soldiers told me the other day that there's no question that the next best pic race is a squeaker between "Bobby" and "Flags of Our Fathers."
Ah, don't you just love The Harvey Hype Machine?
Soon we will see for ourselves when "Bobby" finally unspools a few weeks from now at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Stay tuned. The Envelope will be in Toronto, filing constant updates about reactions to all of the Oscar contenders debuting there.
how dare you??? my father is dead now, lets just jump on the band wagon and trash him????????
Posted by: keri | April 02, 2007 at 11:22 PM
Obviously, "Bobby" could up and surprise a lot of people, but there just doesn't seem to be the sparkle around this one that there was around Harvey's pics from back in Miramax's heyday. Maybe that's just because the field is so crowded now with studio-backed indies snapping up all the smart little pictures that there's little left for the Weinsteins to play with, but still, a Best Picture nod for this one (or any film currently on their slate).
Posted by: Chris | August 16, 2006 at 11:37 AM
Special Attention "Andy" (?)
The reallife name of The Ambassador Hotel's "Manager" on 6-5-68 was William Gardner, who was in charge of providing "security" for the Kennedy campaign's
overall entourage; in fact, it was Gardner who arranged for Ace Secutiry Guard Service to replace suspiciously absent (sic) LAPD officers that night, one (or
more) of Ace Guard's contingent actually participated in what amounted to an "ambush" of Robert F. Kennedy, according to long-suppressed LAPD and FBI
files currently on file at The California State Archives, Sacramento; when word
first surfaced vis-a-vis a so-called "Second Gunman" in the early 70s, Gardner
turned up stone-cold dead, which LAPD near-instantly determined "a suicide."
Incidenatlly, "Marian Daniels" (aka Mrs. Daniel Petrocelli) twice left her spouse
to be with your's truly (circa 1975-1985). I dearly do cherish our times together.
Jonn G. Christian, LV
libven05@yahoo.com
Posted by: Jonn G. Christian, LV | August 13, 2006 at 10:47 AM
There's a rave review for Bobby at the Oscar site theoscarigloo.com, the writer is pretty much on the BP bandwagon for this film.
I'm still skeptical though
Posted by: Andy | August 12, 2006 at 11:06 PM
John, What's your source for this info? In the cast credits at IMDB.com, Macy is listed as "Paul" -- that's the name of the hotel manager in the script, as far as I know. If you have other source info, let us know and I'll make the correction! TX
Posted by: Tom O'Neil | August 12, 2006 at 01:16 PM
Mr. O'Neil:
It appears William Macy has been cast in the role of a "retired" LAPD Homicide
detective, whose "role" in Bobby Kennnedy's assassination was that of "a key
CIA operative" who helped set up RFK's "ambush" (he committed "suicide" a
few years later). So much for Emilio's vaunted "passion" for American history.
Also, The only "lounge singer" (of record ) of that era was "Marian Daniels,"
aka Mrs. Daniel Petrocelli, Esq. (of "OJ" and "Enron" infamies-to-come), a
gorgeous, green-eyed, 23-year--old brunette, whose singing voice rival(s)
that of Mme. Streisand, herself (Word has it she's still living in West LA...)
Jonn G. Christian, L.V.
libven05@yahoo.com
Posted by: Jonn G. Christian, LV (Author, "Fatal Connections" -- 200?) | August 12, 2006 at 11:21 AM