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Liza Minnelli: Former chauffer sues for rape, assault and battery

June 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The Addams Family in happier times

What good is sitting all alone in your limo? Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli fought and won the battle to personally defend herself against claims she sexually forced herself on her former driver.

M’hammed Soumayah is suing the 62-year-old superstar for $50 - $100 million. Soumayah claims that in 2004, Minnelli wanted him to drive more than just her limo. According to Soumayah, the Rent-A-Cop star forced him to have sexual relations “without his consent.” In reality, he probably found it impossible to follow Martin Scorsese. (It has always been my contention that the only reason Scorsese went with her was because he wanted to f–k old Hollywood.)

Soumayah is also alleging that he suffered assault and battery and that his pay was withheld until he performed…err…uhh… certain services for the star. It’s enough to make a cuckoo sterile!

As reported on WENN, “Soumayah’s lawyer suggested the star give testimony by video, as Minnelli ‘has been known to have professional commitments to meet.’ But Minnelli’s rep has insisted the request is’ just a way to embarrass’ the singer and would suggest she isn’t sound enough to appear for the deposition in person.”

If Soumayah really wants to embarrass her, all he has to do is bring a copy of Stepping Out to court.

Minnelli is scheduled to make a pre-trial statement in Manhattan Supreme court on August 15. Minnelli’s lawyers have previously called the Liza Driver’s lawsuit “a quicksand of untruths and misstatements” and accused him of an attempt to “shakedown” Sid Luft’s step-daughter for financial gain.

This is not Minnelli’s first experience dealing with a sexual harassment lawsuit. Liza’s suit against her former husband David Gest was thrown out of court by a New York federal judge in 2006 before the couple’s divorce was finalized the following year. Gest later accused his ex-wife of physical brutality.

Can’t wait to see what Liza wears on the stand. The judge had better allow cameras in the courtroom.

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New Photos Added: Dolly Parton, Cary Grant, Mae West, John Ford, WRITTEN ON THE WIND, Sexy Smokers, Pope John XXXIII, Travis Bickle, etc.

June 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

Drew Barrymore - 2 Photos from Cat’s Eye (1985)

Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby (1938) - 5 New Photos Added

Celebrity Endorsements

Travis Bickle for Underhill Records
Dolly Parton Wigs

Cary Grant - 10 New Photos Added

Howard Hawks’ Land of the Pharaohs (1955) - 1 New Photo Added

Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin & Harpo Marx

Logos
Shaw Scope Logo

All-Star Myra Breckinridge Lobby Card (1970) - John Huston, Raquel Welch, Mae West, Rex Reed and “director” Michael Sarne

Shine a Light (2008) Berlin Film Festival premiere

Smokey the Bear - “Don’t Play With Matches” bookmark

“Which one of you criminali has a match?”

Smoking is Sexy

Asia Argento, Lauren Bacall, Ana Beatriz Barros, Linda Blair, Cher, Bette Davis, Francoise Dorleac & Catherine Deneuve, Sasha Grey, Rita Hayworth, Grace Jones, Carole Lombard, Virginia Madsen, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Pare, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robin Wright Penn, Michelle Phillips, Nikki Reed, Anna Nicole Smith, Liv Tyler, Evan Rachel Wood, Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed,

John Ford’s The Sun Shines Bright (1953) - 7 Lobby Cards

Taxi Driver Insert Poster

Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956) - 8 Lobby Cards

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Movie dads that won’t make father’s day

June 15th, 2008 by Scott Marks

1. The Butcher in Gaspar Noé’s I Stand Alone (1998)

Part of the reason I adore this movie is because I have always believed it to be a revisionist version of Taxi Driver only darker. This baby takes everything Travis has to give, pumps up realism — when The Butcher (Philippe Nahon) goes to a porn theater, you’ll witness more than some R-rating-friendly shadows dancing on the screen — and never stops moving towards its ghastly conclusion(s). Everybody steals from Scorsese, but few are capable of making it their own, thereby demonstrating an advanced state of cinematic enlightenment. Transplant Travis to Paris, have him hack meat instead of fares, give him a retarded daughter and ouila - out pops one of the vilest, most repugnant movies ever made (and my vote for feel-good picture of eternity!). After pulling a Joe Kennedy and throwing his daughter in a mental institution, The Butcher returns to Paris to find her. Alone in a hotel room with his daughter, the director provides his audience with two alternate conclusions: rape or murder. Rent the DVD and play along at home.

2. “The Lieutenant” in Abel Ferrara’s The Bad Lieutenant (1992)

If you haven’t already, go back and study the dialog during the opening car ride. We know nothing about “The Lieutenant” (Harvey Keitel) and Ferrara and screenwriter Nick St. John want to make a solid first impression. “The Lieutenant” and his two young sons (both sporting blazers that scream parochial school) make a hurried dash for the car. The boys whine that they were late because Aunt Wendy keeps hogging the bathroom. Turning on them as though they were refugees from Police Academy 5, Harvey barks,

“Hey — Listen to me. I’m the boss, not Aunt Wendy. When it’s your turn to use the bathroom, you tell Aunt Wendy to get the f–k out of the bathroom! What are you, men or mice?…Call me. I’ll throw her the f–l out!”

A few reels later he’s buck naked, smoking crack and crying like a baby. When was the last time you really saw your father?

3. Joey LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980)

Jake (Robert DeNiro) is by no means Judge Hardy, but the father of the year award goes to the younger LaMotta brother. Unfortunately there isn’t enough quality screen time devoted to Joey (Joe Pesci) and his kids, but the thirty seconds we do get to spend around the family dinner table is magic. Joey points a knife at his young son and threatens, “If I see you put your hand in the plate one more time I’m gonna’ stab you with this knife. You hear me?” We never learn if Joey, Jr. got the message for no sooner is his dad about to bludgeon the tot with a butter knife, Uncle Jake saves the day by bursting into the house and putting his brother’s head through a glass door. Every day is Father’s Day in the LaMotta household, ya’ son of a bitch!

4. Wade Hunnicutt in Vincente Minnelli’s Home From the Hill (1960)

There were two venal Minnelli patriarchs to choose from, neither of whom had Liz Taylor as their on-screen daughter. Arthur Kennedy is pure scum in Some Came Running. On the surface he’s Parkman, Indiana’s #1 son, but his heart pumps silt. As much as he sickens me (in a good way), he is no match for Mitchum in Home From the Hill. Minnelli asks us to accept George Hamilton in the role of Robert Mitchum’s son. (And I goof on spielberg’s inability to suspend disbelief!) It’s great to watch Mitchum belittle the ever-fledgling actor, but all roads lead to Bob’s heated moment of comeuppance. Eighty-seven minutes in, Hamilton enters dad’s study/arsenal to make it known that he’s hip to the fact that one of the ranch hands is his half brother. Cool Bob easily deflects the news. After all, he sewed some oats with a tramp that gave birth by the side of a ditch. Hamilton follows with the line of his career: “She must have been some pig to crawl into bed with you.” Thawing momentarily, Bob stammers, “We’ll just let that…We’ll just let that pass in the heat of the moment.” Flustered Mitchum seldom appears on the menu. When it does savor it!

5. Jasper Hadley in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956)

“A great man! A giant of a man!” To hear his family speak you’d half expect Glenn Langan to walk in the room with Jonas Salk in hand. (Which reminds me, look at the size of the gusher on that guy! Talk about being oil-well hung!) Instead of a titan, Douglas Sirk portrays Jasper Hadley (Robert Keith) as an emaciated mouse. The inheritors to his throne are an impotent lush (Robert Stack) and a slutty daughter (Dorothy Malone) that makes Mitchum’s “sand hill tacky” look like Amanda Bynes. Halfway through the picture Old Man Hadley’s ticker gives out forcing him to take a fatal plunge down the family’s grand staircase. If a puny man falls in the middle of a mansion, does anybody hear? Are the chances worsened if his harlot daughter is blasting a molten version of Temptation on her Victrola? In honor of the day, let us end with a bit of patroclinous trivia: Milquetoast Robert Keith is the real life sire of strapping TV father (and dad to both Hayley Mills), Brian “Uncle Bill” Keith. Hmmm…Does that mean a Hamilton can father a Mitchum?

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Clint Eastwood to Spike Lee: “Shut your face!”

June 6th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Taking time away from his busy schedule of making movies that no one sees, Spike Lee decided to generate much needed publicity by broadsiding master filmmaker Clint Eastwood.

Spike is miffed because Clint failed to include African American actors in his Oscar-winning World War II films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Never mind that Letters, which assumes the Japanese point-of-view, is one of Hollywood’s few intelligent productions aimed at pointing up the ignorance in racism, to Spike it simply wasn’t the right race.

Spike’s energy would have been to better use were he to have complained about the timeworn drunken Indian stereotypes littered throughout Flags’ screenplay.

Clint explained that the black troops that did take part in the 1945 battle were assigned to munitions companies and had no part in the flag-raising moment that is the focus of Flags. “The story is Flags of Our Fathers,’the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go: ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.” Referring to Lee, Clint added: “A guy like him should shut his face.”

Lee quickly responded, telling ABC News on Friday that Eastwood’s comments surprised him.

“First of all, the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation either,” he said. Remember, telling someone to shut up is tantamount to endorsing slavery.

“He’s a great director,” Lee continued. “He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn’t personally attack him. And a comment like ‘a guy like that should shut his face’ — come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there.”

And you don’t listen well, do you aaaaaaasshole!

Spike Sharpton told AOL News, “If he wishes, I could assemble African-American men who fought at Iwo Jima and I’d like him to tell these guys that what they did was insignificant and they did not exist. I’m not making this up. I know history. I’m a student of history. And I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II.”

Than why not make a movie about them, Spike? Oh, you did! And Miracle at St. Anna is currently in post-production due for US release in October? Looks like Lee’s way of starting the promotional bandwagon is to crap on two-year old films in order to make his upcoming gift look better.

As these pictures from The National Archives prove, Spike was certainly correct about their being African American soldiers on the beach at Iwo Jima. (According to the site, “over 2.5 million African-American men registered for the draft.”) Eastwood’s films never set out to prove that World War II was an all-white battle, nor were any of the characters intrinsic to his story black.

When asked how St. Anna will stack up against Saving Private Ryan, Lee said “Steven Spielberg’s a great filmmaker. I’ve always respected his work but this is totally different.” (Why isn’t Spike up in arms about the lack of African Americans in Schindler’s List? From what I’ve read, as far as Hitler was concerned, blacks were third in line behind Jews and gays.)

Student of history Lee dumps all over Clint and goes on to call the man that made The Color Purple “a great filmmaker.” Anyone want to buy my copy of Bamboozled?

“Ooooohh! What the f@#&’s wrong with you? Where do you get your balls big enough to say that to him? Are you out of your f@#&ing mind? He eats s%@# like you for breakfast. Now I want you to go over there and f@#&ing apologize to him, you hear what I’m saying? And personally I don’t give a f%$@ what color you are. if I ever catch you speaking out of line to Mr. Eastwood again, I’ll f@#&ing kill you myself, pure and simple.”

Links
Clint Eastwood photos

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Mazel Tov: Emulsion Compulsion is One Year Old Today!

June 1st, 2008 by Scott Marks

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a crappy AOL blog that even I didn’t read. What a difference a year makes. Now there are ads for Spike Lee and Indian dating services. Look how far we’ve come from the river, Charlie.

Thanks to a merry band or irregulars that hang on my every review and bit of sordid gossip, and whose comments frequently outshine The Master’s (John Schultz’s choice of words…and mine).

Look! I got a birthday card from Jean-Luc Godard!

So long as celebs keep dying, you can rest assured that Emulsion Compulsion will continue to deliver the finest obituaries anywhere on the net! And pictures? You don’t want to know what goes on in the bowels of the Image Vault!

As a gift to you, Martin Scorsese’s first film What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

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Jonathan Demme replaces Scorsese on Bob Marley documentary

May 23rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Martin Scorsese had agreed to direct the authorized biography of reggae legend Bob Marley after completing Shine A Light, but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts.

Jonathan Demme has replaced Marty as director on Tuff Gong Pictures and Shangri-La Entertainment’s documentary.

The untitled film is slated to be released worldwide on February 6 2010, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the reggae icon’s birth.

Demme, who won an Academy Award in 1992 for The Silence of the Lambs, previously collaborated with Shangri-La on the Neil Young documentary Heart Of Gold. Demme said he was “thrilled and humbled” and will meet the Marley family to discuss the project.

“I am truly joyful about being included in this project and by the chance to team up with Ziggy Marley and my good friends at Shangri-La Entertainment,” Demme said. Marley’s eldest son Ziggy will act as executive producer.

“My family and I are very excited to have Jonathan on board,” Marley said. “His empathy with my father’s body of work and his unique understanding of the musical documentary form makes me confident that this film will be the ultimate celebration of my fathers’ life.”

Demme, who is no stranger to music documentaries, said Marley was “one of the greatest human beings of modern times” and that he hoped the film would be a “worthy vessel” for Marley’s “spiritual and musical brilliance”.

Famous for such reggae classics as No Woman, No Cry and I Shot the Sheriff, the Rastafarian performer died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 36.

Scorsese, who is currently filming the drama Ashecliffe, is also preparing films about Beatles guitarist George Harrison and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

Links:
Martin Scorsese photos

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