Joe Simpson, father and manager of singer-actresses Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, is out to reinvent himself as the Andy Warhol of Los Angeles, having taken on a new career as an artist.
“For 20 years I was the manager and my daughters were the artists,” said Joe, 58, whose art and new look both appear Warhol inspired. “This is the first time I’ve done something as me. It’s never too late to dream. Without dreams, men die. This has saved my life.”
Joe Simpson created 200 digitally enhanced photographs in a studio at his Malibu home, many of them pop-art pieces featuring images of his daughters and celebrity friends.
His collection, called “Dreams Work,” has been displayed for the past two weeks at Culver City’s Bruce Lurie Gallery, where his daughters joined him on opening night May 14. The display of 50 artworks will soon move to a gallery on New York’s Long Island as part of a national tour.
The pieces range in price from $500 to $5,000 and Simpson is confident of big sales both online and at art shows.
“Money follows passion and I’m very passionate about this work,” he said.
Artful Host
“Artbound,” a series on KCET (Channel 28) that explores the art scene in Los Angeles, has a new host.
Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina A. Miranda, who covers art, architecture, design, and music for the paper, will do the same for the show.
“Carolina is so embedded in our arts and culture community, and we are thrilled to be able to leverage her presence and reporting expertise,” said Juan Devis, KCET’s senior vice president of content.
Miranda will begin regularly hosting the hourlong program this summer and plans to investigate the role local creatives have in shaping the future of the region and nation.
Staying Home
The upcoming movie version of classic California Highway Patrol TV series “CHiPs” was nearly filmed in Louisiana, far away from the Golden State.
“We almost had to call it ‘LiPs,’” said writer-director and star Dax Shepard, whose film only stayed at home thanks to receiving state tax credits aimed at preventing runaway production.
“CHiPs” is on track to spend $24.4 million in California on what are deemed “qualified expenditures,” making the film eligible to receive $5.2 million in tax credits under the state’s expanded incentive program. Qualified expenditures are funds paid to below-the-line crew members, vendors, and equipment providers.
The movie, which will be released by Warner Bros. in summer 2017, features motorcycle chases through Long Beach, Silver Lake, Pomona, downtown Los Angeles, and across local freeways.
“We were able to embrace the local environment and showcase it. California is a key character in the movie and this film would have been very different without that tax credit,” added Shepard, speaking at last week’s Film in California Conference in Studio City, where he declined to reveal the film’s budget.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed the five-year Film and Television Tax Credit Program into law in 2014, which allocates $330 million in tax credits each year. The law is designed to stem the tide of film and TV projects moving out of state due to cheaper production costs.
Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission, said the program was working precisely as it was intended.
Queen of Kings
After 10 seasons as composer for the Los Angeles Kings, Megan Cavallari is going from hockey to Hollywood.
She has landed an off-season job composing the soundtrack to new animated movie musical “Jacob Marley,” about the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge’s late business partner from Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, “A Christmas Carol.”
“I’m full of new ideas and super lucky to be asked to do things like this,” said Cavallari, who has no plans to abandon her work with the Kings, which involves writing the music for the team’s entrance onto the rink, TV commercials, and various promotional footage.
She describes herself as “one of only four female composers working in Los Angeles and the only one who loves hockey.” She’s so keen on the sport that she even plays in a men’s hockey league in her spare time.
“Hockey reminds me of life,” she explained. “You fall down hard, you get up, things change in a second, there’s usually a huge man in a tiny net trying to stop you and sometimes a miracle happens.”
Role Model
Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment, will be the keynote speaker for the annual commencement ceremony at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television on June 10. Dungey has been instrumental in the development and success of hits such as “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Quantico,” and “Scandal.”
Managing editor Sandro Monetti can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 200.
