Afternoon Briefing:
The Boss signs on: After lots of Springsteen speculation, it seems Bruce is going to join a group of musicians in a mega-concert -- sponsored in part by MoveOn.org and America Coming Together. He'll be joined by the Dixie Chicks, Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., James Taylor, John Mellencamp and Bonnie Raitt on five dates of a 34-city tour that kicks off Oct. 1. Tickets are due to go on sale Aug. 21. (E! Online)
Wag the Bush: John Sayles is making a movie in which Chris Cooper plays a verbally challenged politician loosely modeled after a certain U.S. president. The film, "Silver City," is being called a "political thriller with the tone of Barry Levinson's 1997 political lampoon 'Wag the Dog'" and also stars Daryl Hannah, Tim Roth and Billy Zane. Sayles says he hopes it will motivate audiences to question their elected officials. He says, "What you hope is that people can extrapolate a little bit," he said. "Shit doesn't just happen. It happened because someone made it happen." (N.Y. Observer)
In other movie news: Steven Spielberg has postponed his latest project because he's afraid it will be targeted by terrorists. The film, "Vengeance," is about the Palestinians who attacked the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games in Munich. But one of the terrorists is believed to be still at large and the director is playing it safe. (IMDb)
Hit woman: Mob daughter Victoria Gotti's reality show, "Growing Up Gotti," debuted Monday and so far it's doing well, with more than 3 million viewers tuning in to watch the ballsy blonde, who makes Carmela Soprano look like Jackie Kennedy, raise her three boys in a wise-gal version of "My Three Sons." It's been a boost for A&E, which ordered seven more episodes. (TV Guide)
A good eye is closed: R.I.P. Henri Cartier-Bresson, who died Monday in France at 95. You know his work even if you don't know you do. He founded Magnum and elevated photojournalism to new heights -- his were the first photographs to be displayed in the Louvre as art. (AFP)
-- Karen Croft
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Turn On:
You'll miss them so: Wednesday night brings the season finales of "Next Action Star" (8 p.m. ET, NBC) and "The Ashlee Simpson Show" (10:30 p.m. ET, MTV). And if you need an antidote to those, "Great Performances" presents "From the Acropolis: A Salute to the Games With the Berlin Philharmonic" (PBS, check local listings) in honor of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, featuring Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, with conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim as a soloist.
-- Amy Reiter
Morning Briefing:
Food frenzy: Mary-Kate Olsen is eating again and she wants everyone to know it. In a weeklong post-rehab diary to be published in an upcoming issue of Us Weekly, the recovering anorexic chronicles her breakfasts, lunches and dinners in her quest to pack on 10 pounds. "I'm doing great," she tells the magazine. "I'm just getting back into everything now. It's great to be home." (Us Weekly via Lloyd Grove's Lowdown)
Feeling flush at the New Yorker: Two years ago, the New Yorker magazine posted an annual profit for the first time in decades. Now, its circulation has climbed to more than a million for the first time in its history, with subscription renewal rates at up over 80 percent. "When the numbers rise like they have -- steadily and consistently -- you can't attribute it to any one piece or even an all-encompassing event like Sept. 11 and its prolonged aftermath," editor in chief David Remnick commented. "As hard as the New Yorker is to define, there's obviously a hunger for it. And thank God for that. It sure as hell isn't our acute coverage of the Paris Hilton situation. We are pitiful on that." (Keith Kelly)
Moore's Oscar hopes safe after all: "Fahrenheit 9/11" will not be banned from Oscar contention after all due to its broadcast last week on Cuban TV. Turns out the copy that aired on the state-run station was illegally obtained, thus keeping the airing from violating the Academy's rules against honoring films broadcast on TV within nine months of their theatrical release. "As far as we are concerned, if this was a bootleg, as we believe it was, then we will not penalize them," Academy director of communications John Pavlik told Variety. (Guardian)
The non-story heard round the world: Stop the presses! Tom Cruise says he'd like to get married again. "I love women," the 42-year-old twice-divorced actor told the London Daily Mirror on Tuesday in a report picked up by papers across the globe and back again. "I'm the guy who's going to get married again. I'm not going to give up on that. I really love that kind of friendship and intimacy." (Daily Mirror via the Xinhua News Agency)
Oh and also ... Christian Slater has come down with a particularly virulent case of chicken pox, forcing him to postpone his appearance in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Reuters) ... Dave Chappelle has signed a $50 million deal with Comedy Central to continue "Chappelle's Show" for two more seasons (The Hollywood Reporter via the Boston Globe) ... Tobey Maguire finished 15th and Gabe "Welcome Back Kotter" Kaplan third out of 281 players at the $10,000 no-limit hold-'em main event at the Mirage Poker Showdown in Vegas (Page Six) ... Edie Falco was diagnosed with breast cancer -- and has beaten it, according to her rep (Page Six) ... And Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock have been hanging out again (Page Six).
Money Quotes:
Gloria Vanderbilt, recalling -- in her new memoir, "It Seemed Important at the Time" -- what Marlon Brando said to her after their one-night stand back in the day: "Thank you for the tender feelings." (Rush and Molloy)
Gen. Tommy Franks on President Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" aircraft-carrier press conference: "When I saw that, I said, 'That's great!' The President of the United States is doing just what I asked him to do." (Rush and Molloy)
John Garrett, the manager at a Wendy's in Newburgh, N.Y., where the Kerry-Edwards campaign stopped this week for a bite and a photo op, on Teresa Heinz Kerry, who ordered a Frosty: "You could tell she wasn't familiar with the menu. [But] Mr. and Mrs. Edwards [who celebrate their wedding anniversary at Wendy's every year] knew what they wanted right away, a single combo and a single combo with cheese." (Page Six)
-- Amy Reiter
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