Music
When the Irish punk band the Pogues tour North America this
fall, there'll be a familiar face behind the microphone: Joe
Strummer, former front man for the Clash. The Pogues' managers say
the group has ''parted company'' with its toothless lead singer, Shane
MacGowan, ''for the immediate future'' because of his ''ill health,''
which could refer to his notorious drinking and drugging habits. But
Strummer's certainly no stranger to the Celtic band's wild jigs and
rocking reels: He produced their last studio album and stepped in on
tour once before when guitarist Philip Chevron had ulcer problems.
Movies
Pals since last year's Postcards From the Edge, Meryl
Streep and Carrie Fisher have written a script together, tentatively
titled The Other Woman, which is being packaged with Streep as the
star and Fisher as producer. Set in Hollywood, the plot centers on a
married actor and actress and their respective careers. Mike Nichols,
who directed Postcards, wants to helm this one, too, but according to
sources, his price tag is too high for Universal, which is one of the
studios interested in the project (Nichols received $3 million for
Regarding Henry). Meanwhile Streep, post-Postcards, wants to sing
again, this time as the Witch in the upcoming film version of the
Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine Tony Award winner Into the Woods.
Books
Reaching a new level in vanity publishing, Italian couture
designer Gianni Versace has created and financed a hardcover
coffee-table book, Vanitas, to showcase images shot for Versace ad
campaigns. The $103 tome includes the work of seven top
photographers, including Herb Ritts, Irving Penn, and Bruce Weber,
with quotes from Versace's favorite style setters, among them Sting
and Kim Basinger. Written in Italian, the book is available only in
Versace boutiques and European bookstores, and while the book may
eventually be sold in the U.S., there are no plans for a translated
edition.
TV
In the old days Warner Bros. specialized in turning out the
best biographies of Great Men. Today the biopic is the province of TV
and the specialty of Home Box Office, which has won a raft of Emmys
for such cable movies as The Josephine Baker Story and Murderers
Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story. Now HBO is moving on to the
Great Bad Men of history: Robert Duvall's stint in Moscow as Stalin
begins Oct. 28. James Woods plans to star as New York power lawyer
Roy Cohn in Citizen Cohn, to be directed by Frank Pierson (A Star Is
Born).
Written by: Jeffrey Ressner, Andrea King, Marla Matzer, Anne Thompson
