Downey cancels book contract
'Milk' will open on Oct. 29
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The sizzling star of "Iron Man" signed up with Harper Collins last year but now he is handing back his advance. Maybe he feels there are just too many of those "how I came back from addiction" memoirs out there. And with "Iron Man" such a hit -- sequels to follow! -- Robert may also feel he doesn't need to write about himself to remind people he's around. He's seen it all, he's still here, and he's a big deal again, my dears.
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WE ARE on the verge of receiving a movie titled "Milk." It will open on Oct. 29 in the Castro District of San Francisco with a great cast playing the roles of the real-life protagonists in the story of the late Harvey Milk. In case you've forgotten, Milk was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco. He was assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, in 1978, becoming a martyr to the cause against sexual discrimination.
The 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk," won an Academy Award and was then made into an opera. But this is the feature film and what a cast! Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk. Josh Brolin assays his killer, Dan White. James Franco and Diego Luna are two of Milk's former boyfriends... Emile Hirsch plays an aide and my longtime friend, Howard Rosenman, is the self-described "rich, arrogant Jewish New York bully, owner of the Advocate and a gay kingmaker for the Democrats."
Focus Features will give "Milk" a general release in November. The men behind it are Michael London as well as Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, who won an Oscar for "American Beauty." The director is Gus Van Sant.
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THE FAMED Rodgers & Hammerstein Music Publishing business, run by Ted Chapin, has put itself on the market for a mere $250 million. This seems like as good a time as any, what with R&H a hit again at Lincoln Center in the brilliant revival of just one of their famous musicals, "South Pacific."
But Chapin isn't selling his other goldmine -- the music of Irving Berlin.
