FRANK SWERTLOW
It’s no secret that stars and their families want to control their public personas, even after death. But when HBO announced (prior to Frank Sinatra’s death) that it was doing a TV movie about Ol’ Blue Eyes and his notorious Rat Pack pals Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis Jr. Sinatra refused to allow any of his original music to be used in the docudrama.
How did HBO outwit Sinatra and his clan? Most of Sinatra’s songs were written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, not Sinatra. “We bought the publishing rights,” said “Rat Pack” Director Rob Cohen.
The director then went out and hired Michael Dees, a singer who had warmed up the orchestra for Sinatra on his two “Duets” albums, to record a new batch of Ol’ Blue Eyes songs. During filming, Ray Liotta, who plays Sinatra in the HBO movie, lipsynched the newly recorded ballads, which were “re-orchestrated” to bring a contemporary feel to the music, Cohen said.
Had Liotta merely tried to lipsynch Sinatra, it would have been “mimicry, more like an impersonation,” said Kario Salem, who wrote the screenplay.
Why was Liotta chosen? “I got blue eyes, I’m from Jersey, close enough?” Liotta said.
Reports that the networks are going to populate prime time with even more newsmagazines this fall are chilling to the producers of prime-time dramas. NBC will be producing five nights of “Dateline” and CBS will have two nights of “60 Minutes,” in addition to “48 Hours.” ABC News will have four nights of “20/20.”
“It is a very bad trend,” said Dick Wolf, producer of the NBC prime-time series “Law & Order.” “The heart of the network experience is the series.”
Wolf said “Dateline” will now be averaging 525 stories a year. “You know, there haven’t been 525 good stories this century,” he said.
NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield isn’t moved to change that trend. “The audience seems to be coming to ‘Dateline’ in pretty good numbers and it has allowed us to be able to focus on what we have to do to maintain a winning performance,” he said.
The TV Critics Association, which has been holding its annual press tour for the upcoming fall TV season, voted to prohibit critics and writers who cover the TV beat from pitching scripts and asking for jobs during the convention. The move is part of a code of conduct the TCA has adopted. Although such behavior is considered unethical, a number of critics have attempted to cross the line in recent years.
Many of the more-ethical critics also pressed that network and cable channels refrain from handing out souvenir T-shirts, caps, watches, stuffed animals and even luggage during the biannual press tour at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. About 100 critics from around the country attend these conventions. TV writers from out-of-town papers receive more booty, which is sent directly to their rooms to bypass the scrutiny of media watchers.
So how does News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, known for his free-spending ways when it comes to business deals, save a few dollars when it come to his personal life? He takes his British-made Turnbull & Asser shirts, which sell for about $200 in the United States, and has them copied in Hong Kong at a fraction of the price, according to The New Yorker magazine. Sighting: Single mom Sandra Bernhard, who just gave birth to her first child, recently showed up for a screening of “The Mask of Zorro” at the Sony lot in Culver City, dressed in a very clinging slip dress.
