Tag: DOMINIC PATTEN

Few in Hollywood pull out of Barbara Walter’s interviews, especially when they have an upcoming project. But Lindsay Lohan’s new PR representatives Rogers & Cowan confirmed tonight that the actress will not be appearing on ABC’s 20/20. Lohan was scheduled to be on the show November 16 for an interview with Walters. A source tells Deadline that Lohan’s new flackery was dissatisfied with the direction ABC wanted to take the interview. The 20/20 stint was to promote Lohan’s upcoming  Lifetime movie Liz & Dick in which she portrays Elizabeth Taylor and her stormy romance to two-time husband and co-star Richard Burton, played by Grant Bowler. Liz & Dick premieres November 25th. Meanwhile, what a Herculean task it must be to flack Lindsay Lohan.

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/lindsay-lohan-pulls-out-of-2020-interview/

Hollywood heavyweights and their money will once again be out in force for President Barack Obama today. This time it’s a $35,800 a ticket fundraiser at Harvey Weinstein’s oceanfront 8,900 square-foot Westport, Connecticut house. Obama wii be in attendance. A major donar to Obama’s reelection, Weinstein is co-hosting the intimate dinner tonight for 50 guests along with The Dark Knight Rises’ Anne Hathaway, Paul Newman’s widow Joanne Woodward and Araon Sorkin, creator of HBO’s The Newsroom and NBC’s The West Wing, according to the Hartford Courant.

RELATED: Harvey Weinstein Guest-Hosting CNN’s ‘Piers Morgan’ With Bill Clinton: Live-Blog

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was originally reported to be co-hosting tonight’s dinner as well but it is unclear now if she still is or even if she will be there. The White House says Obama is expected to speak to the guests at Weinstein’s house at around 5:30 PM, after attending another campaign event in Stamford, Conn. earlier in the day. The last time Obama was in that part of the country for some Hollywood cash was on June 14 for a similar swanky fundraiser at Sarah Jessica Parker’s house in New York City’s West Village. That event was co-hosted by the Sex In The City star and Vogue’s Wintour. Tickets that night were $40,000 per person. Obama has had some more marquee Hollywood financial help since then. On June 29, it was announced that George Clooney would appear at an Americans Abroad dinner for Obama in Geneva on August 29. Earlier in the year, Clooney had raised a record-breaking $15 million for the Obama campaign with a dinner at his LA home with the President on May 10. Also on June 29, there was a Gen44 fundraiser for Obama, who was not in attendance, at Soho House here in LA. That event featured Young Hollywood types such as Jared Leto and Olivia Wilde and not-so-young Hollywood types such as David Fincher and Peter Frampton plus many more. Anne Hathaway’s participation in today’s event isn’t the first time a Dark Knight Rises actor got behind Obama. On July 19, it was revealed that Morgan Freeman had donated $1 million to the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action. The Dark Knight Rises star’s donation matched one made to the same Super PAC by Bill Maher in February. Obama is expected to raise around $2.5 million today at the Weinstein event and the Stamford event. That one day haul will beat the $2.22 million the incumbent has raised in Connecticut so far this year. The money raised Monday is to be shared by the Obama Victory Fund and the Democratic National Committee. Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney, who received a Hollywood endorsement of his own from Clint Eastwood this weekend, has raised $4.78 million in the state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. After leaving the fundraiser at Weinstein’s tonight, the President is scheduled to be heading back to the White House via NYC’s JFK Airport around 7:05 PM.

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/barack-obama-harvey-weinstein-aaron-sorkin-anne-hathaway-the-dark-knight-rises-hollywood-fundraiser-mitt-romney-clint-eastwood/

NBC says they hear the criticism of their XXX Summer Olympics coverage. “Some of it is fair, and we are listening, said NBC Sport’s Mark Lazarus today. “We knew it wasn’t going to be perfect,” added the Group Chairman. Asked about NBC editing out the fall of Russia’s Ksenia Afanasyeva in Tuesday’s gymnastics event to create suspense for a U.S. team Gold win, Lazaus said it was cut “in the interests of time”. He added that “it was immaterial to the outcome” of the U.S. team’s Gold win. “All of the drama was about the US performance, not what the Russians did or did not achieve, said Lazarus. “It did nothing to alter the suspense”. In a conference call from London, Lazarus and NBC Research’s Alan Wurtzel sought to address the criticism that the network has received for its tape delay of the XXX Summer Olympics from London, most noticeably the Opening Games on July 27. Noting time zone difference and other limitations, the NBC Sports boss said “our preference is to do things live”. Lazarus added that he hopes the 2016 Olympics Opening Ceremony from Rio will be live.” Lazarus also said that it was a “regretful” moment when a promo was shown on the East Coast of Missy Franklin winning a gold medal before the race was actually broadcast in the States and the network has installed a back-up system to ensure such a mistake doesn’t happen again. “We will continue to innovate our coverage”, Lazarus noted later “There is no way for us to show all live action in the US in primetime,” he said. “With so many simultaneous events going on, you cannot physically show everything live”, added the Group Chairman. “The ratings are strong and our business partners are pleased”, said Lazarus, reiterating that NBC will break even on the Games and predicting they might even make “a little bit of money.” NBC are “over delivering in all areas” on air, online and social media, Lazarus also noted. During its first days, the London Olympics have consistently beaten the 2008 Beijing Games in the ratings. The Olympics from the UK drawing over 35.8 million viewers on the opening weekend, making it the most watched Summer Games opening weekend ever. Wurtzel predicted that the London Games could well end up being in the Top 5 most watched TV events ever.

Related: NBC Edited Out Women’s Gymnastics Fall To Create Fake Gold Medal Suspense
NBC ‘Today’ Promo On Missy Franklin Spoils Net’s Coverage Of Swimming Win
No Fury Like Live Olympics Viewers Scorned
NBC Hammered Back Home For Not Airing Live From London

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/nbc-sports-summer-olympics-coverage-criticism-gymnastics-misssy-franklin/

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign today got yet more Hollywood fundraising help. Young stars like Jared Leto, Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki and Oliva Wilde have joined with a few more established figures like David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and Peter Frampton for what is being called a “Gen44″ fundraiser on June 29 here in LA. This will be the fifth time the Obama campaign has reached into Hollywood’s starpower pockets since raising a record-breaking $15 million at George Clooney’s house on May 10.

Leto chairs the Gen44 host committee with Galecki, Wilde, Fincher, Aronofsky, Frampton, Maria Bello, Zach Braff, former Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton, Sophia Bush, The Game author Neil Strauss, and Jim Toth among those on board. Several of the committee members, like Leto and Braff, met quietly with the President the last time he was in LA fundraising on June 7.

The campaign announcement today made no mention if President Obama, the First Lady or anyone else from the administration would be there or even where there actually was. All that is known is that the event is at 9 PM on June 29 in LA and that tickets are $500 each for attendees and $2,500 each for Host Committee members like Leto and Galecki. That’s considerably cheaper than the $40,000 a ticket intimate dinner at Clooney’s house last month. It is also cheaper than the $40,000 per couple tickets for the June 6 event at Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s Beverly Hills home or the June 14 dinner at Sarah Jessica Parker’s New York brownstone. Ticket prices for the June 29 Gen44 fundraiser are also less than the $1,250 it cost to attend the LGBT Leadership Council Gala at the Beverly Wilshire on June 7 and far less than the $10,000 a ticket it cost to go to the Mariah Carey hosted gala at the Plaza Hotel in New York on June 14. There is no word if there will be a small donor lotto at the June 29 event like there was at the Clooney and Parker dinners.

With donations from Wall Street to Obama substantially down from what they were in 2008 and the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, expect a lot more Hollywood fundraising from the incumbent this election. Speaking on background to a gathering of Washington, D.C.-based reporters, Obama officials predicted a $1 billion combined anti-Obama effort from Republican super PACs, nonprofit entities and the Romney campaign itself. The presumptive Republican nominee alone, they predicted, would raise more than $100 million in June — a sum that would be both historic and demoralizing to Democrats, who went into the 2012 election expecting the president to retain his 2008 fundraising advantages.

The full Gen44 host committee is Jared Leto, Johnny Galecki, Olivia Wilde, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Peter Frampton, Steve Aoki, Donovan Leitch, Allan Loeb, Samantha Millman, Maggie Q, Maria Bello, Zach Braff, Pete Wentz, Connie Britton, David Morin, Jason Weinberg, Beau Flynn, Jodi Gomes, Chris Hanley, Eric Ortner, Catherine Park Jason Putorti, Jordan Brown, Sophia Bush, Maegan Carberry, Pankit Doshi, Chris Kantrowitz Todd Hawkins, Zachary Quinto, Ian, Somerhalder, Neil Strauss, Jim Toth, Kenna, Marc Webb and Pat Magnarella.

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/obama-enlists-young-not-so-young-hollywood-for-latest-la-fundraiser/

Refresh for updates …2nd UPDATE: 7:40 PM - President Obama arrived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the LGBT Leadership Council gala to big applause and chants of “four more years!” The first President to openly support same-sex marriage, Obama was scheduled to start speaking to the crowd of several hundred at around 7:15 PM. Cher has been sighted in the room.

UPDATE: 4:43 PM Air Force One has landed at LAX. Obama is in Marine One and heading over towards Beverly Hills where he will drive to his first event of the night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Street closures on Santa Monica Blvd, Century City and Beverly Hills have now gone into effect.

PREVIOUS: President Barack Obama is coming back to LA today for some more Hollywood campaign cash. Less than a month after raising a record raising a record breaking $15 million at George Clooney’s house in a fundraising dinner, Obama is back tonight for the LGBT Gala and a $40,000 per-couple intimate dinner at Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s house. Air Force One is expected to arrive at LAX at around 4:20 PM from campaign events in San Francisco earlier today.  That means snarled traffic for Westsiders as the Secret Service and the police close down streets both tonight, until around 10 PM, and Thursday morning. The first event of the evening for Obama is the LGBT Leadership Council Gala. The gala was originally scheduled for the SLS Beverly Hills Hotel but was moved to the larger Beverly Wilshire Hotel due to a surge in demand after Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage on May 9. Obama is scheduled to speak at the $1,250 per-person event at 7:15 PM. Ellen DeGeneres is hosting with Glee’s Darren Criss, replacing a sick Pink, providing the tunes for the audience of about 600. After that the President will drive on over to Ryan Murphy and his fiancé David Miller’s Beverly Hills home. Like the Clooney event on May 10, the dinner at the Gleecreator’s house is smallish. About 70 people are expected to be in attendance. Couples paid $40,000 for their tickets and single guests paid $25,000. Obama is expected to speak at the dinner at around 8:55 PM. The President will be playing to a very different audience on TV tonight. Both Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney will both be appearing in videos segments on the CMT Music Awards. The President has another LA fundraiser early Thursday morning at the View Park home of developer Charles Quarles and his wife. Tickets for that event are $2,500. All the money the President raises during his time in LA goes to the Obama Victory Fund. Obama will leave LA for more events in Las Vegas in the later part of Thursday morning.

Not that there isn’t more glitz money in Obama’s near future. The President and the First Lady will be in NYC on June 14 for a fundraiser at Sarah Jessica Parker’s house co-hosted by the Sex and The City actress and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Like the May 10 dinner at George Clooney’s house, the Parker/Wintour event will include a raffle for donors who give $3 to the campaign to win two tickets to attend. No word on how much the face value price of the tickets to Parker’s house are or how many people are expected. Obama was in the Big Apple earlier this week fundraising with former President Bill Clinton and Jon Bon Jovi by his side.

 

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/obama-back-in-la-for-donor-dinner-with-glee%e2%80%99s-ryan-murphy-lgbt-gala/