Bret Easton Ellis - FishbowlLA

James Deen Wins ‘Best Male Performer of the Year,’ and Isn’t Retiring from Porn Any Time Soon

Pandora Young — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:28:23 +0000

Our porn crush James Deen won top honors tonight at the 30th annual AVN Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, landing the award for Best Male Performer of the Year. He gave his acceptance speech directly to the porn actresses presenting the award, with his back to the audience, and thanked all his female co-stars, as well as the many women he’ll get to work with in the future.

Deen may be a crossover success, starring in the upcoming Bret Easton Ellis film The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan, but porn is clearly his first love. When Sundance rejected The Canyons, Deen said he wasn’t bothered by the snub. “It coincides with AVN. Priorities man!!!!!” Works for us.

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Gavin Polone Proposes a Nikki Finke Experiment

Richard Horgan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:00:37 +0000

Move over, Bret Easton Ellis. You’ve been replaced on the Nikki Finke media hit list by Gavin Polone.

In a Vulture essay that is a must-read for anyone who follows behind the scenes at the Hollywood trades, contributor Polone shares some good Nikki anecdotes as he charts the rise of her fear factor. Leading up to this:

I think we should run an experiment and see if Nikki Finke does have any power. The first step in this test is my making the following public statement: I think Nikki Finke’s manner of writing nasty personal attacks, threatening people, and exhibiting general incivility is unacceptable, and I am asking those who read this to “unfavorite” Deadline from their browser, read it less often, and stop tipping her…

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Nikki Finke Coverage of TDKR Tragedy Sparks New Levels of Twitter Outrage*

Richard Horgan — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:45:46 +0000

Nikki Finke has never been interested in winning a popularity contest. Be that as it may, fellow journalists and many others are absolutely livid at her Deadline.com coverage of the Aurora, CO tragedy.

In an early morning update to her rolling post about TDKR box office returns, Finke wrote: “It is a very real possibility this terrifying tragedy may affect The Dark Knight Rises opening box office today and this weekend.” She may not have immediately realized at around 3 a.m. PT how offensively this would read, but she and-or her nighttime editor should have – upon review – understood the inherent crassness of such a comment and deleted. [Editor's note: As we were writing this item, that portion of the TDKR box office update appears to have been removed.]

Then there’s Finke’s second item this morning about being tipped and alerting Warner Bros. to the suddenly disastrous pairing with TDKR of a trailer for the upcoming Sean Penn period drama Gangster Squad. At the very end of the trailer, the bad guys shoot up a movie theater.

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Finke-Easton Ellis Feud Gets a Whole Lot Uglier

Richard Horgan — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:30:06 +0000

Reclusive blogger Nikki Finke appears to be foolishly going after someone who has no fear of her.

In the latest bit of news connected to the public feud that erupted last Friday between Finke and author Bret Easton Ellis thanks to an article on Gawker and quick echo at the New York Observer end, the Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the author’s agency ICM has engaged lawyers Howard Weitzman and Lawrence Iser to counter her threats:

The lawyers have fired off two separate letters to her website’s owner demanding that she stop harassing agency employees…

Sources who have seen the cease-and-desist letters say the letters also claim that Finke has told top ICM employees she would reveal their home addresses and where their children go to school. Finke also is alleged in the letters to have told at least one agent that she would write things damaging to the agency on the Deadline blog that the agency’s executives believe to be false.

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Coincidence? Finke Fires Back at THR Hours After Bret Easton Ellis Exclusive

Richard Horgan — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:45:33 +0000

TheWrap – or, as Nikki Finke prefers to call it, TheCrap – remains number one on her list of direct-competitor enemies. A close second is The Hollywood Reporter.

This afternoon, just hours after the Reporter posted an exclusive statement from author Bret Easton Ellis about his own war with Finke, she takes dead aim at a July 20 magazine issue item by Kim Masters. Finke torpedoes the article’s claim that Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Barry Meyer turned down a request by Jeff Bewkes to stay on past his scheduled December 2013 departure date:

THR hangs it on “a knowledgeable source.” Time Warner explained to me, “This story is a complete fabrication. We could not lie about it. Why would we lie about this? Because it’s going to come out one way or the other. Everybody who talked to the Reporter explained that no part of this is true – but they kept writing. How ridiculous.”

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Bret Easton Ellis Fills In the Nikki Finke Blanks

Richard Horgan — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:05:08 +0000

In case you have not been paying attention, Gawker did a rather dishonorable thing the other day. They picked up on one old and two new tweets from @BretEastonEllis to pinpoint the alleged exact residential street and West Hollywood condo unit address of Nikki Finke.

In an exclusive statement published this morning by The Hollywood Reporter, Ellis makes no apologies for sparking this latest Finke scandal. (It appears that Gawker reporter John Cook’s emails to Finke for comment before his story went up last Friday not only alerted her to the impending article, but also precipitated a separate rant unleashed on Ellis’ ICM agency staff.) From the THR item:

“I had no idea her ‘privacy’ was so important considering her feelings about revealing the lives of others. Come on, N.F., if you’re going to call out others, then expect it in return…”

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Porn Star James Deen & Lindsay Lohan to Star in New Bret Easton Ellis Film

Pandora Young — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 05:30:07 +0000

Bret Easton Ellis is making the dreams of straight girls the world over come true by putting porn star James Deen on the big screen. Ellis tweeted the news that both Deen and Lindsay Lohan were both set to star in his upcoming flick, The Canyons, an erotic thriller about 20-somethings navigating life in Los Angeles.

The film will be directed by Paul Schrader and produced by former Lionsgate producer Braxton Pope. In an effort to retain creative control the trio are partially funding the film themselves, with the rest coming from a highly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised almost $160k. No doubt some of that dough came from Deen fans eager to see their porno heartthrob make his mainstream film debut.

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Porn Star James Deen to Star in New Bret Easton Ellis Movie?

Pandora Young — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:17:41 +0000

Our favorite male porn star may just crossover into mainstream film. Bret Easton Ellis has been tweeting about a film script he is writing with James Deen in mind:

Ellis describes the project he’s writing as as an “LA noir micro budget Paul Schrader movie,” and it’s clever of him to want James Deen involved. Deen has a large following of young women, and we’re willing to bet they’d come out in droves to see him in a mainstream film.

What do you think, dear readers? Could the next teen heartthrob be a porn star?

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Mark Haskell Smith: Kids Don’t Read the Classics

Kate — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:23:27 +0000

Over at GalleyCat , LA-based writer Mark Haskell Smith thinks that Bret Easton Ellis is in the same category as Herman Melville. Well, there’s no accounting for taste, said the old lady when she kissed the cow.

Smith’s on strike, but he’s busy enough, commenting around.

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Trade Round-Up: August 30, 2007

Guest Blogger — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:55:21 +0000

Atonement Wows Venice Fest
A-list celebs and their filmmaker friends are causing a commotion in the canals right now at the Venice Film Festival, which kicked off its 75th anniversary yesterday with the premiere of Joe Wright’s war romancer Atonement. Variety gives complete coverage, calling the fest’s opening “an invigorating shot of youth.” The news story, by Nick Vivarelli and Ali Jaafar, says the pic received a positive reception, a rare occurrence in Venice. Reviewer Derek Elley agreed with the report in his own critical account of “Atonement,” writing “rarely has a book sprung to vividly to life” in a “smart, dazzling” film. He continues that its stars – Keira Knightley and James McAvoy – show “impressive star poise and physical elan.” Speaking of physical, the tabs are likely to have a field day with Knightley’s presence on the red carpet with early chatter criticizing on her gaunt appearance. Those starlets never seem to catch a break do they?

Easton Ellis Novel Headed to Big-Screen
Another Bret Easton Ellis novel is being prepped for the big-screen with the packaging of his The Informers almost fully formed thanks to the addition of cast-members Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Brandon Routh, THR reports. Ashley Olsen, Jon Foster, Austin Nichols and Lou Taylor Pucci are also in the mix for the adaptation to be directed by Gregor Jordan. The story centers on seven stories taking course during a week in the life of a movie exec, his wife, his mistress, a rock star, a vampire and a kidnapper. Oh my!

Innovative Agents Show Fortitude
That interesting lawsuit sitch at Innovative Artists – two agents sued the firm’s partner to get out of allegedly unfair employment contracts – continues to play itself out with Michael McConnell and Ben Press announcing in THR today that they’ve launched their own fully-financed agent. The duo has formed a new shingle, fortitude, bringing a client list that includes Chevy Chase, Gina Gershon, Lara Flynn Boyle and Cybill Shepherd, among others. Rosters aside, Innovative honcho Scott Harris says in the story that his former employees’ claims are “disappointing.”

Zellweger Headed to Miami
In casting news, Variety reports that Renee Zellweger will team up with Harry Connick Jr. in the fish-out-water comedy Chilled in Miami for Gold Circle Films. Pic will find the Oscar-winning actress starring as a Miami businesswoman who is transferred to Minnesota. Jonas Elmer is directing and funny enough, his last film was a Danish pic called Nynne which was often referred to as the Danish Bridget Jones.
- CHRIS GARDNER

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