Hollywood

The search is on as 1,500 show-business hopefuls audition for parts in "Bandstand," a new movie being filmed here. On Saturday, Richard Logan took his turn in front of the Hollywood moviemakers, who included director and Germantown native Mark Rosenthal (third from right) and casting director David Ruben (second from right). They were at Temple's Conwell Hall, looking for local talent to appear in this romantic comedy about teenagers who reached the national spotlight on a televised dance party during the 1960s.

From the halls of Congress to the shores of south Florida, a 60-year-old city and a world-famous film community fight for the right to call themselves Hollywood. U.S. Rep. Larry Smith, D-Hollywood, Fla., took to the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday to protest the request by Hollywood, Calif., to trademark its name. "If Tinseltown is successful, what next?" Smith asked. "Rome, Georgia, vs. Rome, New York? Portland, Oregon, vs. Portland, Maine? We may have a war between the cities starting on the steps of the U.S. Patent Office.

The NC-17-rated "Showgirls" stumbled out of the starting gate its opening weekend, but Hollywood's steam quotient is still rising. Spike Lee says his upcoming "Girls 6" got an NC-17 but probably will be edited to an R. Greg Araki's "The Doom Generation," with a walk-on by Heidi Fleiss, will go the unrated route, a la "Kids. " Meanwhile the upcoming "Jade" has escaped with an R.

The last 3-D movie the Hit Man saw left a lot to be desired. He was subjected to wearing those silly paper glasses, and the movie seemed out of focus, not three dimensional. He left the theater disgruntled and unhappy. This week you can see a bit of moviedom up close, and you don't have to wear silly paper glasses. The "Hollywood on Tour" exhibit, with memorabilia valued at more than $1 million, is at Willow Grove Park and Mall today through Aug. 28. It features a collection of costumes, props and original posters from some of Hollywood's most famous movies.

SO, IF Hollywood is all "pinko commie leftists," what does that make Bruce Willis, Bo Derek, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Britney Spears, Gene Simmons, the late Johnny Ramone, et al? They're Republican. Many country artists are GOP. Even former actors turned governors - Reagan and Schwarzenegger were/are Republican. Don't think all entertainers are liberal. I have discussions with conservatives who don't resort to name-calling. The venomous tone just feeds into stereotypes that all Republicans are stodgy and incapable of accepting other points of view.

Concerning Michelle Malkin's 11/17/03 OP/ED piece, entitled "Just Another Dumb-Blonde Joke," about Jessica Simpson and other Hollywood "dummies" as poor role models for our children. Aren't conservatives cute when they're self-righteous? I'll be the first to admit that I have never watched Jessica Simpson's show, nor do I plan to, and all I know about it is what I have read in the paper. But as I read Ms. Malkin's "fair and balanced" rant, I thought of some other Hollywood "dummies" that she neglected to mention . . . perhaps intentionally.

Below is Modern Maturity magazine's list of the most powerful people over 50 in Hollywood. The list was compiled by historian Aljean Harmetz. Her definition of "powerful people"? Those who can "(1) get a movie made and (2) get people into the theater, particularly on a movie's critical opening weekend. " 1. Clint Eastwood (67) 2. Harrison Ford (55) 3. Michael Douglas (53) 4. Robert Redford (60) 5. Arnold Schwarzenegger (50) 6. Sean Connery (67) 7. Morgan Freeman (60)

If you just looked at the demographics, at the swimming pools and stunningly landscaped lawns, you might mistake this for Republican country. But as Democrats move from one studio bash to the next, mingling with stars and moguls, it's clear that the party is on home turf. "This is such a Democratic community that I think it's actually hard for a film celebrity to stand up and say they're Republican," said Dan Jinks, coproducer of last year's Oscar-winning film American Beauty.

Hollywood needs to stop marketing sex and violence to our nation's children. I'm young enough to have felt the full force of Hollywood's marketing machine. By the time I entered high school, I had seen countless murders on the screen. I had seen women degraded and family values mocked. And I had heard enough swearing to make even the crudest sailor blush. Only recently was I able to unlearn some of the "lessons" I received. For example, for years I thought zombies were evil flesh-eating creatures who only wanted to destroy the human race.

The whole world is going Hollywood. But is this a good thing? Florida-based Digital Domain Media Group, the special-effects company that brought the "Transformers" movies and the Tupac Shakur hologram to life, is setting up a studio in oil-rich Abu Dhabi. The deal signed Monday between Digital Domain and Abu Dhabi's government-backed twofour54 deepens the Emirati capital's ties to Hollywood as it accelerates its efforts to become a media hub. Digital Domain plans to establish an animation, visual-effects and motion-capture studio and a media school in Abu Dhabi as part of the deal.

The news hit hard. Bunny Gibson was a kid when Dick Clark came into her life - or, rather, when she entered his world in Studio B at 46th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia. "When I walked through those doors, that was the only place I wanted to be," said Gibson, 66, an actress who now lives in Los Angeles. She was 13, but lied about her age. American Bandstand only allowed dancers from 14 to 18. "I put a lot of my mom's makeup on and stuffed my bra," said Gibson.

It was Thanksgiving 2010 when Steven Rea decided to do something with the pile of photographs of Hollywood movie stars riding bicycles that he'd collected over the years. That day, Rea, who has been an Inquirer movie critic since 1992 and a biking enthusiast for even longer, started to archive the pictures of silver-screen darlings on two wheels for a blog, which he named "Rides a Bike. " The response to the images came in fast and strong. By the end of the weekend, Rea says, more than 1,000 people "liked" "Rides a Bike" on Facebook.

Gowns in sparkling nudes and vibrant shades were the major red-carpet trends Saturday evening at the 155th Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball. Off-the-shoulder gowns seemed just as popular as strapless ones. And A-line silhouettes were preferred to ball gowns. In fact, Philadelphia's doyennes stepped up the glamour quotient to such heights that some of the dresses were dead ringers for gowns worn by celebrities on red carpets past. For example, first lady Lisa Nutter was particularly radiant sailing up the Academy of Music steps in a deep purple Nicole Miller gown.

WHEN THE Oscar nominations were released last week, the silence was deafening. Three actors were nominated for saying virtually nothing - two for the silent movie "The Artist," and Max Von Sydow, who was anything but extremely loud in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. " He plays a mute. Von Sydow was mum on the subject of his nomination, but issued a photostat of a handwritten note: "I don't know what to say. " Last year, everyone was talking about performers who didn't talk.

PARK CITY, Utah - Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, who met as Temple film students in the mid-1990s, last week prepared for the world premiere of their first feature, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, at the Sundance Film Festival. But just before Sundance began, terrible news broke: They'd been Rango 'ed. "Sundance gang," Heidecker posted on his Twitter feed, "B$M [Billion Dollar Movie] got Rango 'd (large portions of our movie replaced with Rango outtakes)

LOS ANGELES - Call it a forgotten paradise, a little brush-covered canyon pushed up against the majestic "Hollywood" sign. This week, everyone's been calling it a crime scene. The seclusion may have led a killer to think that it was the perfect spot to cut up a victim's body. And get rid of it, quick. A head. Feet. And hands. Whoever left the gruesome scene may be long gone now. That's one mystery, in a town that thrives on them and often rings up millions of dollars making up tales filled with gory scenes just like the one discovered Tuesday.

THE WINTER Classic was an appropriately theatrical and thrilling affair. From the underdog backup goalie starting in place of the highly paid but slumping starter to the Flyers' striking first then allowing the Rangers to score three unanswered goals to take the lead. Then finally, the dramatic, last-minute penalty shot that could have sent the game into overtime. That's how hockey games end in Hollywood movies, not in real life. Yet, with snow falling to create the perfect set, Danny Briere really did skate out to center ice and actually did take a penalty shot on Henrik Lundqvist with 19.6 seconds left.

NEW ORLEANS - Sitting near the New Orleans streetcar line aboard a van equipped with video screens and a speaker system, tourists watch actress Vivien Leigh ride the city's vintage electric rail vehicles in a scene from the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire. In the French Quarter, passengers look on as Bruce Willis escapes attackers outside a praline shop in the 2010 film Red. They also watch a young Kirsten Dunst bite into a woman's neck in Jackson Square in one of her early roles, as a bloodthirsty child vampire in 1994's Interview With the Vampire.

LOS ANGELES - The crew of NCIS: Los Angeles was in the middle of filming a scene on the Venice boardwalk when a man wearing only his underwear and a cape rode by on his bicycle shouting obscenities. On another occasion, a stranger wielding a plastic light saber showed up on the set and challenged one of the actors to a duel, temporarily halting production. "Those kind of things continually go on in Venice, but we love going down there because it's so colorful and captures the essence of what people think Southern California is - the beaches, the sunshine, the palms and the craziness," said Tony Salome, location manager for the crime drama starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J. Venice Beach, a storied cinematic backdrop since the silent film era, continues to play a starring role in Hollywood.