A
montage of the next year, as told through headlines:
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Daily Variety
, March 5
MICHELLE BECK VOWS “HARD MEMORIES”
Michelle Beck, wasting no time after her near-death experience during the pre-production of
Earth Resurrected
, signed today to star in
Hard Memories
, a biopic of civil rights activist and Holocaust survivor Rachel Spiegelman. Spiegelman became famous for her association with Martin Luther King during the late 50s and early 60s.
Hard Memories
is to be directed by Roland Lanois, and produced by Lanois in association with the Spiegelman family. Compensation package was not discussed, though with a total budget of less than $18 million, Beck is undoubtedly taking much less than the $12.5 million she scored for the ill-fated
Earth Resurrected
. Filming in the Czech Republic and
Alabama is expected to begin in April for an Oscar-look release date of December 19th in New York and Los Angeles.
Beck is repped by Tom Stein of Lupo Associates.
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Los Angeles Times
Calendar Section, March 11
Jewish Groups Protest Casting of “Promises.”
Decry casting of Michelle Beck as “stunt”;
producers, family stand firm behind their star.
BEVERLY HILLSâMichelle Beck is 25. Blonde. Blue eyed. Gentile. Rachel Spiegelman was brown haired. Brown eyed. Jewish. And at the height of her notoriety, she was well into her fifties.
So how did Michelle Beck get the call to play Spiegelman, noted civil-rights lawyer and Holocaust survivor, in the upcoming Roland Lanoisâdirected biographical film
Hard Memories
? It's a question that several Hollywood Jewish groups would like to have answered.
One of these groups, the Jewish Actors Association, went so far as to place a full-page ad in film industry trade magazine
Variety
on Friday, decrying the movie as “stunt casting” and calling upon director Lanois and the Spiegelman family to drop Beck for a more suitable actress.
“It's not about Miss Beck being Jewish or not,” said Avi Linden, communications director for the JAA. “What bothers us is the fact that here is someone who is so clearly cast for box office purposes. She's made $300 million in her last two films, and that's what the producers are looking atânot how truthful the casting is to reality. The fact is, there are dozens of actresses, Jew and gentile, who are more suited to the role.”
Roland Lanois, the Oscar-nominated director and producer, acknowledges that his selection of Beck was bound to be controversial.
“We understand that this casting is not intuitive at first blush,” he said, noting that Beck was not the first choice, landing the role only after
actress Ellen Merlow dropped the role to take on a television series. “We ourselves were hesitant at first. All we can say at this point is that it was Michelle's performance, not any other consideration, that got her the role.”
Avika Spiegelman, spokesperson for the Spiegelman family, which had unusual veto rights on the casting of the role, issued a terse press release. “Michelle Beck is the best person for the role, period,” the release said. “She has the full support of the Spiegelman family.”
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Entertainment Weekly,
March 17
Comebacks We're Not Looking Forward To
⦠. .
3. Jim Carrey:
Cast as a poodle in a live action flick. Insert your own “It's gonna be a dog” joke here.
4. Michelle Beck:
25-year-old beach babe cast as serious, 50ish civil rights crusader. The makeup artist is an automatic Oscar nominee.
5. Roseanne's “Comeback” Album:
Stop her before she sings the Star-Spangled Banner!
⦠. .
Variety,
March 24
A SEAT AT SOMETHING SPECIAL
BEVERLY HILLSâThe atmosphere was electric at the Fine Arts theatre on Wilshire Boulevard, but not for the usual reasons. On Saturday night, the Fine Arts was the scene, not of a movie, but of an unprecedented SRO reading of
Hard Memories
, the film made controversial by the casting of Michelle Beck in the central role of civil rights activist and Holocaust survivor Rachel Spiegelman. The guest list for the reading included the cream of the film industry and several members of the Jewish groups that had criticized Beck's casting. It was a tough crowd, and
Hard Memories
director-producer Roland Lanois knew it.
“If I were in their shoes, I would have the same reaction that they have had. Absolutely. No doubt,” Lanois said prior to the reading. “What this is about is helping them into
our
shoes. I think they're going to be surprised.” Beck, in the center of the storm, waded into the crowd before the reading, thanking folks for coming and chatting directly with those who had opposed her casting, as if to show there were no hard feelings. At 8:30, Beck, costar and noted legit theater star David Grunwald, and Lanois and producer Avika Spiegelman sat up front on simple stools and read the script, Beck as Rachel Spiegelman, the other three trading off the other roles. By 9, there were already tears. At 10:30, when the reading was finished, Beck and her crew were treated to an ovation the likes of which I have not seen in many a year. It was a tough crowd, but Beck won them over in spectacular fashion. Next up: the audience at large â¦
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Hollywood Reporter
,
April 30
Young Ankles Lupo Associates
Elliot Young, star of the mid-rated ABC series
Pacific Rim,
has dropped agent Ben Fleck of Lupo Associates in what insiders call an acrimonious split. Young was apparently disappointed in Fleck's inability to transfer Young's moderate television stardom into a film career.
“Fleck had come in promising Elliot the moon,” said
Pacific Rim
director Don Bolling. “Then he of course experienced trouble delivering. Elliot dropped him and, I think, rightly so.”
Young is currently being repped by Paula Richter of Artists Associated.
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Daily Variety,
May 22
DISH: MERLOW'S FURLOUGH FROM âGOOD HELP'
Dish hears that the already legendarily tense set of
Good Help Is Hard to Find
has had the tension cranked up another notch, when
two-time-Oscar-winner-turned-would-be-sitcom-comedienne Ellen Merlow jetted back to her Connecticut horse farm during the middle of taping, placing the show in jeopardy of making its series debut September 9th. This latest flare-up follows last month's standoff between Merlow and costar Garrison Lanham (who played Weezix, the alien butler) that resulted in Lanham's replacement by Bronson Pinchot, and by last week's mass crew walkout, protesting their treatment by Merlow and her entourage. The Dish hears that Merlow's latest act might have placed her in violation of her $20 million contract, giving exasperated producers Jan and Steven White the excuse they need to bounce her from the show ⦠.
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Daily Variety
,
June 16
MILESTONES
Tom Stein,
29, of La Canada married
Miranda Escalon,
28, of Manhattan Beach, on Saturday, June 14th at the Vivian Webb Chapel in Claremont. He is an agent at Lupo Associates. She is also an agent, newly promoted, at the same firm. Stein's best man was Lupo boss Carl Lupo; Escalon's maid of honor was Michelle Beck, who flew in from the Czech Republic for the wedding ⦠.
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Ad in
Daily Variety
and
Hollywood Reporter,
July 10
Â
Lanois Productions
and
Century Films
Â
Are proud to announce the completion of principal photography on
Â
HARD MEMORIES
Â
Starring Michelle Beck and David Grunwald
Written by Connie Reiser & Larry Card
Directed and Produced by Roland Lanois
Â
LIMITED RELEASE: DECEMBER 19 IN NEW YORK
AND LOS ANGELES
WIDE RELEASE JANUARY 16
Â
Entertainment Weekly,
August 8
Stingless âScorpion'
Mindless Summer Explode-Fest Rings Hollow
⦠Inquiring minds want to know: In this utter loss of a movie, does anything work? Well, the explosions are pretty. Apologists may note the presence of Michelle Beck, whose upcoming performance in
Hard Memories
is one of the most intensely awaited of the Oscar season. Maybe some of that alleged intensity rubs off here? No such luck. This Michelle Beck, at least, is scene decoration, hardly onscreen before her helicopter is blown out of the sky by a preposterous string of coincidences. Don't worry, this revelation won't ruin the plot for you: there'd have to have been a plot at all for that to happen.
Rating:
D
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Daily Variety,
August 11
âSCORPION' VENOMOUS TO COMPETITION
$49.7M takes tops BO report; âGold Master' takes
silver at $16.2M
Scorpion's Tail
proves that some films are critic-proof; the widely panned action flick stung the competition with a $49.7 million take, injecting a boost in the severely lagging summer box office â¦
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Entertainment Weekly,
September 22
OSCAR WATCH
⦠Oscar-nominated director-producer Roland Lanois (The Green Fields) may have another contender on his hands with
Hard Memories.
Insiders at a Century Pictures rough cut screening say the film caused notoriously thick-skinned Century head Lewis Schon to cry into his trademark Goobers. Of special note is Michelle Beck's performance, which those at the screening labeled “revelatory.” Century's marketing department is already getting in high gear for the Award season ⦠.
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The Arizona Republic,
September 25
Obituaries
Sarah Rosenthal,
of Scottsdale, of complications from a stroke, at 3:15 pm, September 23rd. Mrs. Rosenthal was born in Hamburg, Germany on April 3, 1922 and emigrated to the United States in December of 1945. She is survived by daughter Elaine Stein, also of Scottsdale, and grandson Thomas Stein, of La Canada, Ca.
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The Chicago Sun-Times,
October 8
Hollywood Star, Agents to Endow U of C Chair
CHICAGOâ
The University of Chicago, normally the most staid of places, received a little Hollywood sparkle on Tuesday as Michelle Beck, star of the smash hit
Summertime Blues
, and the upcoming
Hard Memories,
arrived on campus to announce a $3 million gift to endow a chair in Holocaust Studies.
Speaking in the University's cavernous Mandel Hall, Beck alluded to her experience working on the Holocaust drama
Hard Memories
as a motivating factor in the gift.
“We must not be so worried about history repeating itself as simply rubbing itself out of existence,” she said. “Each year that passes rubs off a little more of the memory. This is a way to keep the memories fresh, and to refresh the story for each generation of students that walks through these halls.”
The chair, formally known as the Sarah Rosenthal and Daniel Stein Chair for Holocaust Studies and Jewish History, will be filled the next year, following a nationwide search. The chair is named for Sarah Rosenthal, a survivor of the Holocaust, and her son-in-law Daniel Stein, a graduate of the university.
Besides Beck, other endowers of the chair include Carl Lupo, CEO of Lupo Associates, a talent agency in Los Angeles, and Tom and Miranda Stein, also agents at Lupo Associates. Tom Stein is the son of Daniel Stein.
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Entertainment Weekly,
November 17
WINTER MOVIE PREVIEW
DecemberâHard Memories