AEI CLIENT GLEN PITRE AND HIS WIFE MICHELLE BENOIT PREMIERE FLOATING PALACE ON THE BAYOU!

Straight out of the bayou! From the pen of renowned Louisiana moviemakers Glen Pitre & Michelle Benoit and under the direction of acclaimed master of the stage Perry Martin, a world premiere play…

FLOATING PALACE

In a hilarious love letter to the naughty comedy of burlesque, during the Roaring ‘20s, when a down on his luck impresario sees his paddlewheel showboat run aground in a forgotten Louisiana bayou, he uses the interlude to rebuild his vaudeville troupe. With his pockets empty, all he can offer is love, as he simultaneously romances the local piano teacher, a Cajun farmer’s daughter, and his own high-strung, ready-to-quit diva of a headliner. Whose heart will he win? More to the point, which woman will murder him first?

FLOATING PALACE by Glen Pitre & Michelle Benoit Directed by Perry Martin, Produced by Karissa Kary World Premiere MAY 15 - JUN 14 at Bayou Playhouse Buy Tickets Online > >

BAYOU PLAYHOUSE IS NOT AS FAR AS YOU THINK!

This new, already-acclaimed regional theater --- dedicated to only Louisiana works --- sits hanging over the water in historic old Lockport, a picturesque one hour drive from downtown New Orleans, a little more than half an hour from Houma or Thibodaux. Across from the Bayou Lafourche Folklife Museum and cattycorner to the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boatbuilding, yes, it’s true, during intermission from the theater’s outdoor deck, you can often spot alligators swimming in the bayou. For directions, go to http://www.bayouplayhouse.com/id25.html

See photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/karissakary/FloatingPalaceAtTheBayouPlayhouse?feat=email#

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS!

Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit will try to attend each performance the first two weekends, so if you can make it, please come say hello and chat with them. But make your reservations soon (www.bayouplayhouse.com )! Performances at the Bayou Playhouse often sell out.

May 15/09: Come and join us for a party hosted by the Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum! Our opening night parties include a chance to meet and greet the cast and crew. We hope to see you there!

MOVIES TOO!

The Bayou Playhouse is also showing some of the favorite films by Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit each Sunday after the matinee performance of Floating Palace (separate admission: $5.) including some of the rarely seen, early Cajun language dramas (subtitles provided) as well as their most recent Gumbo Western starring Billy Zane, Oscar winner George Kennedy, and Emmy-winner Eric Braeden (Victor Newman from The Young and the Restless). See the complete list and schedule below.

IT’S SHOWTIME!

May 15 - June 14, 2009, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, Sunday Matinees at 2:30
Featuring the films after Sunday shows. For tickets or information

call 1-888-99-BAYOU (22968) ext 1

or visit: www.bayouplayhouse.com

MOVIE SCHEDULE:

All films by Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit
All showings are at Sunday, 5 PM at the Bayou Playhouse

Program 1: Sunday, May 17th, 2009 - La Fievre Jaune & Huit Piastres et Demie! In Cajun French with English subtitles. Two movies both shot on Bayou Lafourche: La Fievre Jaune about a family battling quarantine during a yellow fever epidemic and Huit Piastres et Demie! about the Shrimp War of 1938. “Moviegoers were caught from the first scene... Scenes on the bayou are beautiful and dramatic.”- New Orleans Times-Picayune. Unrated but family safe.

Program 2: Sunday, May 24th, 2009 - Belizaire the Cajun. Award-winning romantic adventure set in 1859 Louisiana. Belizaire Breaux (played by Armand Assante, in what many say is his best performance) must save a friend's life, win a woman's heart, outfox a crooked sheriff, stop marauding vigilantes, expose an evil villain, and rescue the inheritance of three orphaned children in a picture that blends suspense and humor. Called "a wonderful movie, two thumbs up" by Siskel and Ebert and credited with “the looniest hanging scene ever” by the Hollywood Reporeter. Rated PG-13.

Program 3: Sunday, May 31st, 2009 - Haunted Waters & Good For What Ails You The award-winning Haunted Waters, Fragile Lands follows immigrants to the Louisiana wetlands to show how history and ecology transform each other. Good For What Ails You goes along with respected "treaters" as they gather wild teas, brew home-made cough syrup, invoke the saints at their home altars, and most of all, heal the sick. Unrated but family safe.

Program 4: Sunday, June 7th, 2009 - The Scoundrel's Wife Rated R. As young men leave to fight World War II, German P.O.W.s arrive to work in the Louisiana sugarcane fields. Night after night, explosions light up the sky as enemy U-boats just offshore torpedo American merchant ships. Against the real dangers and explosive paranoia of this besieged home front, a fisherman’s beautiful widow (Academy Award-winner Tatum O’Neal) somehow find love. Grand Prize Winner, San Diego Film Festival. Filmed in Lafourche Parish, including scenes in the building that is now the Bayou Playhouse! Rated R.

Program 5: Sunday, June 14th, 2009 - The Man Who Came Back Inspired by the Thibodaux Massacre, when thousands of former slaves went on strike against plantation owners, the film stars Emmy Award-winner Eric Braeden, Billy Zane (Titanic), Sean Young (Blade Runner), Armand Assante (American Gangster), Academy Award-winner George Kennedy, Carol Alt (for whom the word "supermodel" was first coined), and --- out of retirement --- former heavyweight champ and star of Mandingo, Ken Norton. Rated R”for disturbing violence, sex, nudity, language, and racial slurs in a historical setting.

Jeff Katz bows genre label

Bases multiplatform shingle on comics
By MARC GRASER

After shepherding installments of several high-profile franchises including "Friday the 13th," "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "X-Men" at New Line and Fox, Jeff Katz has ventured off on his own to launch genre label American Original.

Referring to the company as a "nerd machine," American Original will produce movies, TV shows, Web projects and graphic novels. Katz has inked a deal with Top Cow Prods. -- which was behind "Wanted" and vidgame "The Darkness" -- to publish the comicbooks.

Company will initially launch two divisions. American Original Press will publish up to 10 comicbook titles per year, with the goal of adapting them as films, TV shows, Web series or games; American Original Entertainment will serve as the production arm.

Ben Austin, a former New Line, Fine Line and Fox staffer, will be director of development.

Katz will own and produce all titles under the American Original label, with Top Cow's Matt Hawkins and Marc Silvestri exec producing select books.
Company's advisory board includes director Richard Donner, producer Ralph Winter and former New Line distribution chief David Tuckerman.
Aim is put more control in the hands of creatives by pairing up with them to publish a library of graphic novels in order to generate a fanbase around the properties, and then use that established awareness to set the projects up at studios.

Strategy isn't that unusual from that those of other companies that have ventured into the comicbook space, but Katz's shingle will share ownership of the properties with the creators and pay out a percentage of any coin generated by the projects across the various platforms on which they appear.

"The genre audience has been derisively labeled with a variety of names -- 'fanboys,' 'geeks' and the like," Katz said. "While the bad news is that we are only a niche, the good news is that the future of entertainment is a future built on niches. This audience is expanding and is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new entertainment model."

Katz recently exec produced "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" at Fox, where he served as VP of production. He ankled the studio last year to set up the new shingle.

He landed at Fox after rising up the ranks at New Line, where he began as an unpaid intern after becoming pen pals with company topper Bob Shaye. While there, he shepherded such pics as "Freddy vs. Jason," "Snakes on a Plane" and "Shoot 'Em Up," also as VP of production.

Katz also has established himself as a comicbook scribe, having written "The Wicked West" for Image Comics and co-written DC Comics' "Booster Gold" and Wildstorm & Dynamite's "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash."

NEW HUFFINGTON POST FROM AEI CLIENT DENNIS PALUMBO:

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Posted May 8, 2009 | 04:33 PM (EST)

HOLLYWOOD ON THE COUCH: R.I.P.,

Movies for Grown-Ups?

Well, it's that time of year again, when Hollywood begins rolling out the big-budget "tent-pole" movies. Last week saw the huge opening for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and this weekend brings Star Trek, also expected to deliver big box-office returns. Not to mention the upcoming Transformers sequel, Night at the Museum 2, Angels and Demons, and other high-profile summer fare.

Not that I have a problem with any of these films. I expect to be standing in line myself for a number of them.

My concern here---as both a movie-goer and a therapist who treats many noted Hollywood writers, directors, producers and actors---is that the number of big-budget, comic book-derived, fantasy-oriented films is on the rise, at the same time that fewer mature, adult-oriented films are making it to the screen. And that those which do come out are doing so poorly. Recently, we've seen the release of State of Play, Duplicity, and The Soloist---among others---none of which, despite good-to-great reviews, did much business.

Of course, I'm not alone in pointing out this sober fact. Industry pundits are mostly in agreement that movies have become primarily vehicles for urban teens, who are not only inclined to see their favorite films more than once, but are also avid consumers for merchandise and video games derived from those films. Whether on dates or in fan-groups, these teens are the primary target for Hollywood movies nowadays, which is why we see either big-budget films based on pop culture icons like Spider-Man or Harry Potter, or else low-budget horror films and R-rated comedies.

Not to mention how infrequently adults are taking the trouble to go to the movies in theaters. In this uncertain economy, with prices for everything from parking to theater tickets to baby-sitters on the rise, many adults are opting out of what used to be an almost weekly entertainment excursion.

This phenomenon is on my mind because I just learned that my friend Bobby Moresco (Oscar-winning writer/producer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby) is making a new film detailing the story of Fidel Castro's exiled daughter, Alina Fernandez. The result of a love affair Castro had prior to taking power in Cuba, Alina grew up to become a dissident who spoke out against Castro and the Revolution. Moresco will be producing, directing and co-writing the film with Nilo Cruz, a Cuban-American who was the first Hispanic to win the Pulitizer Prize for drama.

Sounds like a great project, that will probably make a great film. But will adult film-goers support it?
In recent years, we've had terrific films like Michael Clayton, Zodiac and Charlie Wilson's War go unsupported by the very same literate adults who routinely complain about the lack of quality entertainment coming out of Hollywood. Even Oscar-winning Kate Winslet couldn't get people into the theater to see Little Children.

Maybe now it's time for all of us to put our ticket-buying money where our mouths are and show up in support whenever Hollywood provides a movie for grown-ups. Rare as they are---and more rare they surely will be, if current trends continue---it's the least we can do. After all, we've pulled other endangered species back from the brink of destruction. Hopefully, we can do the same for grown-up movies, now assuredly on the Cinematic Endangered Species List.

AEI CLIENT STUART CONNELLY RIDES THE ‘A’ TRAIN TRIBUTE TO DUKE ELLINGTON

WHICH OF THESE TRIPLETS IS THE YOUNGEST?

Me with Teman and Teran Evans after reality-show pitching at Rockefeller
Center.

AEI CLIENT STUART CONNELLY WITH ME IN SPRING NEW YORK

FINAL COVER FOR DRACULA THE UN-DEAD COMING FROM DUTTON OCTOBER 13!

Visit the Dracula the Un-Dead website.

TRULY EXCELLENT WRITING (TEW): Lincoln's Dream

SELLING POWER INTERVIEWS KEN ATCHITY

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LAUREN (ATCHITY) SCHUMACHER INTERVIEWS HEIDI/SPENCER FOR TV.COM

It ain't easy being Heidi Montag, says Heidi Montag

By Lauren Schumacher

The Hills' Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt discuss what it's like being reality TV stars, where their relationship is headed, and Heidi's mom.

From Brad and Angelina to J-Lo and Puff Daddy (remember?), people have always been fascinated by celebrity couples. In the case of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, you either love them or you hate them. The pair has been making headlines since they joined forces on The Hills by getting in some nasty catfights, making some YouTube-friendly music videos, and almost getting married (twice).

The Hills pair (well, mostly Heidi) talked to us about the future of their tumultuous relationship, life on reality TV, and the special romantic gesture(s) Heidi is looking for from Spencer--full length body tattoos, anyone?

TV.com: At the end of last season it seemed like everybody was on Spencer's side because he gave an amazing, romantic speech to Heidi about giving her the wedding of her dreams. Jump to this season, Heidi's mom hadn't really jumped on the bandwagon, despite the romantic gesture. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Spencer: Yeah, it's probably one of my main problems with Heidi's mom is she goes off of what she reads and she sees a little piece of me on TV and she doesn't go to the source and never asks Heidi how well I treat her 99.9 percent of the time, except for that .1 percent when I'm sleazy, which I'm not anymore. We're in couple's therapy now and I'm making some great progress.

TV.com: Well, that's great to hear. So, although last week it looked like you two were done, you're telling me that you aren't breaking up but you're working through your differences?

Heidi: Yes, we are definitely trying to work through it and figure out what we're going to do.

TV.com: Well, kind of going along those same lines, do you think there will be a Hills wedding at any point?

Heidi: I don't know. I would need a ring before that. And a big one, to make up for everything I've been through.

TV.com: Well, we would all love to see a Hills wedding.

Heidi: Thank you, that is so sweet. It's so nice to talk to someone who's nice. I'm so sick of meeting mean people, there's too many of them. It's like, ahhh.

TV.com: I can imagine. So, is it hard to have your relationship on TV and have the camera in your face all of the time? Because, we kind of only get to see one side of you, and I'm sure that they omit a lot of what goes on.

Heidi: Yeah, sometimes it is. Especially with this scene and people are just getting so crazy about the show, judging you one way or another. I'm really not about judging. It's not something I like to do to other people or have people do to me. So, I'm not too into that.

TV.com: It must be frustrating if they jump cut and make you seem like someone you're not.

Heidi: Yeah, people are just so critical. Like, it's just such a lose-lose situation with so many people. But you've just got to put it in the back of your mind and try to not let it affect you and move on in a positive way.

TV.com: Is there a side of you guys behind closed doors that we don't really get to see, because they don't show it?

Heidi: Yeah, I mean, it's not The Truman Show, and you only see a couple of minutes of our lives in a certain time period. So, you don't get to see us every day, and we're not always in our element. But our favorite nights are DVD nights and pizza nights but I don't think people really want to watch that.

TV.com: It's not, "We go to the club every night and that's all we do."

Heidi: Yeah. I'm not so into the clubs anymore. Well, at least you hope you get over them fast. If you don't, then you might have a problem.

TV.com: Have you ever watched an episode and seen something you didn't want to see, something that Spencer didn't tell you about?

Heidi: That happened to me. I didn't know Spencer told the bartender to get on a table and she said "pour some sugar on me." I was so mad! I couldn't talk to him for a couple of days, it so infuriated me that he would be so sleazy behind my back like that.

TV.com: Right. And seeing it on TV for the first time makes it worse, I'm sure.

Heidi: That made it so much worse. If he would have just told me, and if I would've known that happened, it would've been easier. Like, "Look, I said this line, blah, blah, blah." But when that communication isn't happening, it just makes you madder, because you think someone's just trying to hide that from you.

TV.com: Of course. So, do you think that at any point there will ever be a spinoff series that would focus more on you and Spencer? Or would you even be interested in that kind of spinoff series?

Heidi: You know, eventually, one day, I'm sure. But we love The Hills and we're not trying to go anywhere right now, because that's our home.

TV.com: Do you think that your friendship with Lauren is on the mend?

Heidi: You know, Lauren and I are definitely in the best place we've been in a long time. I would call her a friend. We're not best friends, or anything like that, but we definitely get along a lot better than we have.

TV.com: That's good to hear.

Heidi: I just want it to be positive. I just want all good stuff and to be the best person I can be. That's all we have in life, you know.

TV.com: And it seems like you're in a good place with Spencer.

Heidi: I mean, we'll see. He has a lot of making up to do and good behavior to start.

TV.com: Can you let us know anything he's done to try and make it up to you?

Heidi: I mean--he hasn't really done anything to make it up to me yet, that's what I'm waiting for.

TV.com: I think you need to hold out for some dinner and flowers, or something.

Heidi: Oh, you're telling me. I want an island named after me.

TV.com: Don't settle for anything less.

Heidi: No way. [Having] "I Love Heidi Montag" tattooed from head to toe, no slutty bartenders here.

TV.com: That would be some good television.

Heidi: That's what I'll make him do.

TV.com: Thanks for your time.