Broadway’s newest hit play is a revival of the David Mamet three-hander that served as Madonna’s Broadway debut 20 years ago:  “Speed-the-Plow.” 
With Jeremy Piven of “Entourage” making his Broadway debut, Broadway musical and dramatic star Raul Esparza (Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” Sondheim’s “Company”) and “Mad Men”’s Peggy Olson, Elisabeth Moss, also in her Broadway debut, the compact (85 minutes, no intermission) inside-Hollywood comedy is being treated as if the actors were rock stars with cheers and applause at their entrances and a wild, wooly standing ovation for their curtain calls.
At Tuesday night’s performance I bumped into Mike Nichols, who was going back a second (or maybe third time).  With sudden panic I worriedly asked, is he the revival’s director?  “No,” he answered smiling, “I think I would have remembered if I’d done it.”  Fergie, not the Duchess but the singer, was also reported to be in the crowd.
It’s funny but of that first production the only thing I remember was the bland set and Madonna’s entrance, nothing about what happens or what her role was. 
“Speed-the-Plow” is simple and ferociously paced.  Piven’s Bobby Gould is a producer who’s just been named the production chief of a Hollywood studio and his producer friend of 11 years, Esparza’s Charlie Fox, arrives with a proposed deal.  Fox can deliver the town’s biggest star for a prison movie but only if a deal is made within 24 hours.  Bobby sets up the meeting with the studio boss the next morning. 
The studio boss has also asked Bobby about a book that is being offered to the studio.  Bobby asks his temporary secretary Karen (Moss) to deliver to his house that night her reaction – or “coverage” – of the novel, a pretentious sci-fi end of the world exercise.  Bobby has no intention of making this book into a movie but he wants to bed Karen and bets Charlie $500 he will do it.
As the office swivels into Bobby’s Hollywood living room Karen is revealed to be an impassioned advocate of making films that make a difference, not just starry commodities that make money.  By the time Charlie meets Bobby in his office the next morning, things have changed considerably.  Will Bobby greenlight the novel and find a meaningful life with Karen?  Will Charlie let that happen? 
In this production directed by longtime Mamet associate Neil Pepe “Speed-the-Plow” is vividly immediate, seamlessly commenting on our world today.  The actors are airborne heat-seeking missiles, looking for their target to maim and destroy.
I spoke with Piven at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel just as he was beginning rehearsals for “Speed-the-Plow.”  Here’s what he had to say about taking on Broadway after winning three consecutive Emmys playing Ari Gold, his career-changing role as Hollywood’s most colorful obnoxious agent in “Entourage”:

QUESTION: JEREMY, ARE YOU DOING SPEED-THE-PLOW ON BROADWAY?
PIVEN: I am indeed.  I start rehearsing Monday and we go up October third.
QUESTION: THAT OF COURSE WAS MADONNA’S BROADWAY DEBUT.
PIVEN: Indeed.
QUESTION: DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE DOING THAT WHEN YOU DID THIS MOVIE?
PIVEN: I didn’t.  I didn’t at all.  But yeah, it’s the 20 year anniversary and it might be interesting to have her come and check it out. 
QUESTION: DO YOU WORRY ABOUT TYPE CASTING AT ALL? THIS IS A HOLLYWOOD AGENT LIKE “ENTOURAGE”.
PIVEN: Well, actually you know that was my first fear.  This guy [Bobby Gould] is a producer, an independent producer and his energy is completely different and the arc is kind of incredible and Mamet writes musically like a symphony and it’s all very premeditated, his writing.  So this guy is really very different than Ari Gold, the character that I play on “Entourage.”  So I look forward to you know people you know having a preconceived notion about it and whatever it takes to bring people in.  I just want to either introduce or re-introduce people to David Mamet.
QUESTION: DID YOU FINISH SHOOTING THE NEXT SEASON OF “ENTOURAGE”?
PIVEN: We just wrapped and we had our premier last night in New York.  Yeah. 
QUESTION: ANY SURPRISES THAT YOU CAN TALK ABOUT?
PIVEN: Any surprises, well yeah my character takes mushrooms and goes to Joshua Tree and while he’s peaking on mushrooms has to speak to his wife and his child and the only way that he can make it through it is when Lloyd, his gay Asian assistant, calms him down and walks him through actually what it’s like to be on mushrooms.  And that was one of the high points of my life, actually.  I had done a great deal of research.  Honestly.
QUESTION: HIGH WAS UNINTENDED?  ONE OF THE HIGHPOINTS OF YOUR LIFE?
PIVEN: Indeed.  Are you from the Midwest? 
QUESTION: YEAH.
PIVEN: Chicago?
QUESTION: MICHIGAN.
PIVEN: Michigan, okay. 
QUESTION: YOU WERE WORKING SINCE YOU WERE A TEENAGER, BUT IT WASN’T REALLY UNTIL “ENTOURAGE” THAT YOU BROKE THROUGH. DID YOU EVER THINK THAT IT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN?   AND HAVE THINGS CHANGED TREMENDOUSLY?  
PIVEN: I feel like I’m better looking now.  I smell better, you know.  Those type of things.  No, I don’t, you know you don’t, being a stage actor in Chicago, you don’t, the brass ring is like being a working actor.  So I love being a working actor and doing my thing.  And I don’t kind of get ahead of myself and I’ve learned a lot what not to do from and what to do from those that came before me so hopefully I won’t become a huge asshole.
QUESTION: WHAT SHOULD WE NOT DO?
PIVEN: What should we not do?  You should just, you know, do and do not unto others as you would do and do not unto yourself.  We’re getting deep, aren’t we?  

The weekend’s sizable box-office numbers for “Madagascar 2” — $63 million – and “Role Models” — $19 million – show that after all the seriousness of thinking about America’s future with the Obama election, moviegoers were ready to sit back and laugh and be silly with entertainments that had very little on their mind beyond your funny bone.

NOW IT GETS SERIOUS
Why, my colleagues constantly wonder, are all the year-end awards contenders not being screened?  Why has no one seen“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Australia,” “Cadillac Records,” “Gran Torino” or “Seven Pounds”?
Well, the most obvious answer is the rise of the viral online community.  That means once a movie is screened, instant judgment awaits.  It’s not posting early reviews online, it’s the buzz.  And when you have a risky $150 million prestige picture like “Button” or a risky epic like “Australia” with a star like Nicole Kidman who hasn’t had a domestic hit in far too long or Clint Eastwood’s latest bid to continue his amazing record with the Oscar voters or Will Smith’s reunion with the director who guided him to his Oscar nomination with “Pursuit of Happyness,” well, you have a lot of fear.  Right now the studios can build buzz for all these movies, they can say they’re in the race for Best Picture and not be contradicted.  But once they’re seen, reality immediately take over; the studios no longer have control.  Weeks before a movie opens, its Oscar (but not necessarily its Golden Globe) chances could be over.
That said, how does the Best Picture Oscar race stand with six weeks to go?

In the running:
“The Dark Knight”  The year’s box-office behemoth, a popcorn movie with class and something to say, buoyed by Heath Ledger’s last complete performance.
“Slumdog Millionaire”  Danny Boyle’s wildly entertaining rollercoaster ride, a completely engrossing, often funny, very Dickensian chronicle of three Bombay slum kids as they grow up.

Out of the running:
“Milk” Sean Penn’s a lock for a Best Actor nomination but Gus Van Sant’s well-played biopic is a very long shot.
“Australia” Despite not being seen Baz Luhrman’s risky Aussie epic, his first since “Moulin Rouge” eight years ago and troubled by reports of fights with the front office over the ending and the length, is being written off as a serious contender.
“Valkyrie”  Tom Cruise’s controversial casting as Germany’s single Nazi hero – the esteemed general who tried and failed to kill Hitler – isn’t the only issue here.  I’ve been told MGM will not be holding screenings for Academy members “because this is a commercial picture,” not an awards-style movie.
“Wall*E” Disney/Pixar’s adventurous sci-fi tale is still a kids’ movie, not as “Beauty and the Beast” was, a movie for all ages.

In the mix until –
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” With an auteur helmer in David Fincher, an F. Scott Fitzgerald story as its source, and millions and millions of dollars for an art film, Paramount Pictures is to be congratulated for having the stamina to take a flying leap into the unknown.  Obviously they’re thinking back to “Forrest Gump.”
“Gran Torino”  After “Changeling” won mixed reviews but did good business, Clint Eastwood returns as both star and director in a ‘50s drama that has the buzz saying he will do it again and land Best Picture, Best Actor and maybe Best Director nominations.
“Doubt” and “Frost/Nixon” and “Defiance” Take your pick.  This trio exemplifies what Oscar voters supposedly like best:  Serious movies made in the traditional way with important themes.  It would be amazing if all three were nominated.
“Revolutionary Road” Director Sam Mendes has been here before with his Oscar-winning debut for “American Beauty.”  The teaming of Kate Winslet (his wife) and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since “Titanic” adds glamour and Richard Yates’ gutsy source novel could deliver the fireworks that turns this domestic ‘50s drama into a younger update of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” which might be great for Kate.  “Woolf”won Elizabeth Taylor her second Oscar.

ANIMATED TIMES
Fourteen films have been submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category. That means only three films total, not five, will be eligible for nominations. At this point that means the three will be:
“Wall*E” (Disney/Pixar) which is easily the front-runner.
“Kung Fu Panda” (DreamWorks Animation) which was praised more for its inventive visuals than its routine story.
“Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” (20th Century Fox) tale was a hit.

This doesn’t mean “Bolt” another Disney/Pixar comedy/drama opening for Thanksgiving or “Waltz with Bashir,” an animated documentary from Israel, or “Madagascar 2” won’t be in the running.

Oscar nominations are announced Thursday, 22 January 2009.

As expected “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” topped last weekend’s box-office, but it dropped a whopping 64 percent according to final figures in Variety.  Will this election week mean audiences abandon the multiplex?  We’ll know by Friday.
Among last weekend’s newcomers, no movie managed to rise above the $5,000 per screen benchmark that signals a real hit.  Harvey Weinstein’s Kevin Smith – Seth Rogen starrer “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” came in second but with a lackluster $3,680 per screen and “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” was much worse with its $2,045. 
Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” with Angelina Jolie ablaze amid talk of a Best Actress Oscar nomination expanded from 15 screens to 1,850 and did an impressive $9,351,560 for $5,055 per screen.  The only other movie in the Top 20 to rank above $5,000 per screen is “Rachel Getting Married” which is on just 133 screens and will have I predict a slow rollout through the awards season.

COMING UP
This weekend should be a monster mash for the merry penguins of “Madagascar 2” who are expected to rule at the box-office.  For those wanting some R-rated silly escapism there are two new choices:  “Role Models” with its raunchy talk from kids and (supposed) adults is a genuinely funny teaming of Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd in a Judd Apatow-style formulaic comedy, while “Soul Men” with the supremely nuanced pairing of Bernie Mac in his final bow and Samuel L. Jackson feels like a genuine update of a ‘70s black comedy with its go-for-broke humor, sparring stars and musical numbers.

There’s a reason I could not watch Jeffrey Donovan in USA cable’s second season of their summer hit “Burn Notice.”  Where I had been a big fan of the show, whenever I tried to watch Donovan in his series — where he’s a special op government agent unceremoniously and mysteriously set loose in Miami — I couldn’t take with humor or appreciation his smirks, his arrogance, his smug self-satisfaction.
  The reason was all too clear:  I had seen Donovan’s tone-perfect turn as an arrogant, smug, hypocritical L.A. cop in Clint Eastwood’s terrific “Changeling” at Cannes last May and now I can’t get that image out of my head.
The irony is that the film’s serial killer Northcutt played by Jason Butler Harner is probably going to be Oscar-nominated for his showy supporting role (and wrenching execution by hanging) while Donovan will go back to working as he’s always done.  But it’s going to be a while before I can see him as a good guy.
Actors can never know what roles might change their careers.  Tony Perkins, a matinee idol as hot good looking guys were called then, was forever typed by two movies.  “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock’s biggest hit ever in 1960, put Perkins in the nut house permanently with viewers as a deranged momma’s boy.  Then came “Phaedra,” an artsy adaptation of the Greek tragedy, which had moviegoers laughing as he surrendered to his stepmother’s embrace before a roaring, flickering fireplace and ruined Perkins’ status as a romantic leading man.
The normal or at least hoped for route for change in an actor’s career is the Big Break where a role spotlights you and suddenly you’re Somebody.  That happened last year with another “Changeling” costar Amy Ryan when Ben Affleck cast her as the dopey, strung out mother of a kidnapped child in “Gone, Baby, Gone.”  Ryan got an Oscar nomination and pops up – where else? – in a nut house in “Changeling” to give fellow unjustly incarcerated inmate Angelina Jolie some practical advice.
There are actors this year who’ve gotten their Big Breaks:  Rosemarie DeWitt who is luminous as Rachel in “Rachel Getting Married,” Elizabeth Banks, who has come into her own with the double whammy of “W.” and this week’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” ditto for Anna Faris as “The House Bunny” and Boston’s own Ari Graynor whose comic timing and unforgettable sweetness steals every moment she’s onscreen in “Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist.”

There is nothing quite like a $42 million opening weekend to quell a studio’s jitters.  That seems to be the case with Zac Efron’s remake of “Footloose” getting a spring start from Paramount Pictures after “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” opened globally to $84 million, half of that its domestic gross.  If on the other hand, “HSM3” had somehow bombed, it’s doubtful Efron would be stepping into Kevin Bacon’s sneakers quite so fast.

Christmas books?
Is it too early for Christmas gifting ideas?  I’ve come across three picture books that seem ideal for short and long attention spans.

“The Story of the Supremes” with a foreword by original Supreme Mary Wilson (V&A Publishing) is basically a photographic record of the stand-out exhibition London’s Victoria & Albert Museum mounted.  Anyone truly interested in a Sixties revival would do well to pore over the many color and black-and-white shots of the world’s best-selling female trio for the clothes, the hair, Diana Ross’ smile.  Befitting its British provenance there’s even a shot of the Supremes meeting Queen Elizabeth II.

“Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and the Rise of M-G-M” (Abrams) is the latest of Mark Vieira’s superb series on Hollywood’s early Golden Age.  Viera, a photographer who can magically restore the luminous black-and-white glamour images of yesteryear with books on Greta Garbo and Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits, has uncovered 200 never-before-seen photographs that help chronicle the Boy Wonder Thalberg’s too-short tenure as Hollywood’s Prince of production.

“Vanity Fair Portraits” is THE coffee table book of the season.  Hefty in its large format, this 95-year archival retrospective by VF’s current editor Graydon Carter covers the magazine’s 1930s heyday that ended when it shuttered in 1936 and then following a nearly 40-year-gap jumps to its present incarnation embodied most often in Annie Leibovitz’s portraits but also includes the work of Bruce Weber, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bill King, Herb Ritts, David LaChappelle, Snowdon and Helmut Newton.  At L.A.’s County Museum of Art there is a must-see parallel exhibition that includes actual Vanity Fair covers. 

Winners
Happy are these movies for even in limited release they have found an audience:
“Let the Right One In”
“I’ve Love You So Long”
“RocknRolla”
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
“Synecdoche, New York”
“Changeling”
“Rachel Getting Married”