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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 25
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Clarkston’s soccer dispute heads for film
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The announcement issued Thursday by Hollywood trade paper Variety probably won’t increase tourism in Clarkston.
Universal Pictures has netted the rights to make a big-screen version of a story in last Sunday’s New York Times. The lengthy article by Warren St. John chronicled the struggles of the Fugees, a youth soccer club made up of international refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan, who now live in Clarkston.
Universal shelled out “$2 million against $3 million for the rights” to the St. John article, according to the trade bible. St. John is also set to turn the story into a book. And the studio snapped up the life rights to the team’s coach, Luma Mufleh.
Placed by resettlement agencies, the boys were banned from playing on a grassy field in the local town park. Last summer, Clarkston Mayor Lee Swaney famously fanned the flames of controversy when he told the AJC: “There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor.”
If Universal has its Hollywood way, however, the future could be looking less muddy for the 9- to 17-year-old players. As part of the movie deal, the studio has agreed to finance a new soccer field for the players via a $500,000 check.
According to Variety, a bidding war erupted this week on the Left Coast over the story. Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and Disney vied for the rights before Universal emerged the winner.
Since the film is at least two years away from hitting your local megaplex, Clarkston’s Swaney and any longtime residents resistant to multicultural change, who will inevitably be cast as the villains of the piece, still have time to change the current town slogan: “Clarkston: Small Town, Big Heart.”
A call placed to Clarkston City Hall seeking comment from Swaney was not immediately returned. Buzz was told a news release will be forthcoming, however.
Battle of the briefings?
Flipping through the press kit for this Saturday’s Honda Battle of the Bands (which showcases the best marching bands at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities) at the Georgia Dome downtown, we came upon a curious event.
At 2 p.m., an “African-American Press Briefing” is scheduled. And it’s the only press briefing listed. We rang up the event’s media rep Ronald Childs for details.
“Nobody is being excluded,” Childs explained. “Since the event now attracts press attention from the BBC, NPR, The New York Times and other big media outlets, we just wanted to do something special for media representatives from smaller presses and the college publications. But anyone can attend, I want to make that clear.”
Five-year extension for ‘Bert Show’ star
Bert Weiss, the head of “The Bert Show” on Q100, has agreed to a new five-year deal that will keep him on the station into 2012, according to John Dickey, executive vice president at Atlanta-based Cumulus Broadcasting, which owns the top 40 station.
Management “made an extremely compelling offer for him to stay with the company,” said Weiss’ agent, Bob Eatman. (Weiss is on vacation and couldn’t be reached for comment.)
“The Bert Show,” which has been on Q100 since 2001, regularly outperforms the rest of the station in the ratings and had strong fall numbers, finishing top five in two key demographic groups: 18- to 34-year-olds and 25- to 54-year-olds.
Eatman said Weiss was actively recruited by other radio stations in Atlanta and outside the market. Dickey claims Star 94 chased after Weiss, but Star General Manager Mark Kanov denied that assertion.
The other three core members of “The Bert Show” — Jenn Hobby, Melissa Carter and Jeff Dauler — are under separate contracts.
Sick bay
Actress Nicole Kidman was taken to a hospital Thursday after the Jaguar she was driving crashed during downtown Los Angeles shooting of the science-fiction thriller “The Invasion,” police said.
Kidman was examined at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and released a short time later. She returned to work Thursday.
Kidman plays a psychiatrist who unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, and she was filming a scene depicting an escape from zombielike characters who are on the hood of her car.
Or as Buzz commonly refers to it, Friday night.
Overscene
“Big Brother” reality TV contestant Mike “Boogie” Malin at Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo” at Atlantic Station being reprimanded by an usher for using his BlackBerry during Wednesday night’s performance. Malin is a co-owner of Dolce, a new Atlantic Station eatery. We’re told that Malin somehow resisted the urge to “CrackBerry” during Act 2.
Celebrity birthdays
Actor Paul Newman is 82. Actor David Strathairn is 58. Singer Lucinda Williams is 54. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen is 52. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres is 49. Guitarist Andrew Ridgeley (Wham!) is 44. Actor Paul Johansson (“One Tree Hill”) is 43. Gospel singer Kirk Franklin is 37. Country guitarist Michael Martin of Marshall Dyllon is 24.
Contributing: Rodney Ho, Elizabeth Cobb and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Spice may lose its new chef, get new owner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With practically every news cycle of late, a different, more salacious rumor regarding Midtown’s Spice restaurant trickles into Buzz Central. So, on Wednesday we rang up owner Bruce Patterson to try to separate fact from fiction. “We’re open, we’ve been open, and we’re staying open,” Patterson told us jovially while whipping up a gourmet feast in his home kitchen.
Whether the Juniper Street dining destination’s future includes Turner South “Home Plate” celebrity chef Marvin Woods, however, is less certain. Last summer, Patterson successfully lured Woods to the property to inject some flavor into the 6-year-old restaurant with his Low Country-Island-African-influenced dishes. Woods officially debuted in the Spice kitchen last fall to mostly positive reviews.
But in recent weeks, Woods has been a vapor trail. “Marvin’s on a break,” Patterson confirmed. “He’s hasn’t formally resigned, and he hasn’t been terminated. He’s on a leave of absence.”
Attempts to reach Woods via his cellphone and e-mail by Buzz were not successful. Patterson said about 50 percent of Woods’ menu remains intact at Spice, “but we’re not featuring Marvin in any of our new advertising.”
One of the wilder rumors of late involves Atlanta rapper-actor Ludacris as a potential buyer of Spice. Patterson confirmed that “people representing Ludacris have been in touch, but there is no signed deal on the table.”
Reps for the rapper-actor strongly hint to us that Luda may be interested, but no deal has been struck.
Patterson told Buzz he owns both the business and the lucrative property at 793 Juniper St. Since he first gutted the former crack house and turned it into a heat-seeking eatery, the neighborhood has gone decidedly upscale, boasting a flurry of other restaurants and boutiques. “I don’t know that we were solely responsible for [the redevelopment], but I’d like to think that Spice helped,” Patterson said.
‘Runaway Bride:The Musical’
Twenty-one months later, the Runaway Bride drama still keeps running. Thanks to Duluth’s Red Clay Theatre, plans are, er, afoot to stage “The Runaway Bride,” tagged as an “unauthorized rock opera.” Writer Jamie Heck, a Duluth resident, said the musical will not be a satire or spoof of the nonwedding between Jennifer Wilbanks and John Mason in April 2005.
Rather, Heck said, the plot revolves more around the community’s reaction to that week’s events — Wilbanks’ disappearance, the search, her return — that turned Duluth into a national soap opera.
Heck said that Wilbanks’ and Mason’s characters will have minor parts and, for legal reasons, won’t even be named. He has not spoken with the parties involved, he said.
“I really want it to be a good story about the community,” Heck said, “and a positive story about the community without it being sappy.”
The musical is scheduled to premiere in October.
A Deen taste test
Paula Deen’s boys are in Atlanta this week filming segments for the second season of their popular Food Network series “Road Tasted.” Savannah’s the Lady & Sons restaurant managers and TV hosts Jamie and Bobby Deen spent Tuesday at the Atlanta bakery of Breadwinner, a brother-sister-wife-owned business started by Geoff Melkonian, his sister, Wendy, and his wife, Katie.
For more than seven hours, the Deens and the Melkonians filmed segments, whipping up loaves of the family’s signature Papa Don’t Peach and Better Than a Bubble Bath Mocha Chocolate Chip breads. The baked goods are available locally at Souper Jenny in Buckhead, Metro Fresh in Midtown, Muss & Turner’s in Smyrna and online at getloafed.com.
“Since they built a family business up as well, they were incredibly supportive and humble,” Geoff Melkonian told us of the Deen brothers Wednesday. “They were guys you would totally watch the game and have a beer with. We spent a lot of the day cutting up with them.”
The segments should air in April.
Neither Geoff nor Wendy is exactly a stranger to the spotlight. As a musician for Five Eight and Josh Joplin, Geoff has appeared on “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” Wendy, meanwhile, left the taping session this week to don a nun’s habit as Sister Mary Gabriel in “Sister Act: The Musical” at the Alliance Theatre, which officially opened Wednesday night.
Quote of the day
“I’m only going to fly United from now on.”
— Oscar-nominated “Jesus Camp” documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing extolling the virtues of the airline in The Washington Post Wednesday. Ewing was flying Tuesday when a United pilot announced to passengers that Ewing had scored the nomination.
Celebrity birthdays
Blues singer Etta James is 69. Actress Leigh Taylor-Young (“Peyton Place”) is 63. Guitarist Matt Odmark of Jars of Clay is 33. Singer Alicia Keys is 26.
Contributing: Ken Sugiura and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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