Lisa Marie Presley | John Travolta | Johnnie Cochran
Elvis has left the building.
After a huge publicity build-up with network interviews and magazine covers, Lisa Marie Presley has made only a small dent in her first week record sales.
To Whom It May Concern will likely do about 125,000 copies and barely make the top five this week when her CDs are counted. The zillions of rabid fans of her dad, Elvis Presley, did not queue up to support her after all.
Presley's album will finish only a whisper ahead of the amazing Cher, whose greatest hits album continues to astound in its second week on the charts.
Ironically, Presley sold out former husbands Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage to get publicity for herself, ratting out secrets from their marriages in exchange for coverage. It didn't work.
In most cases, a massive concert tour would be the next way to go for an under-performing artist. But Presley -- who has no experience performing live -- is unlikely to go that route.
So who did hit number 1 this week? Don't ask. A group called Godsmack, which, if you're lucky, you will never have to hear.
Sony/Columbia Pictures is certainly in a schizophrenic situation today. They have the hottest movie and the coldest movie. That's a distinction few can claim.
Anger Management, the Meet the Parents-type set up starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler, is zooming at number 1. The low-budget comedy is on track for a $100 million plus plus take. The biggest winners will be the stars who no doubt have a piece of the action.
But down and nearly completely out is Sony's Basic, starring John Travolta. The widely disliked film is now at $23 million, which barely covers the former Vinnie Barbarino's buffet chits. This will be a huge write-off for Sony, which spent $65 million on this misguided project.
Such is the ying and yang of the business. But for Travolta, who flies his own planes and has lots of real estate to maintain, the budget crunch may be here. He's unlikely to find new investors in these throwaway big-money flops.
Johnnie Cochran, Not on the Jury
Johnnie Cochran, the famed defense attorney who got O.J. Simpson off the hot seat, has been in Bermuda all weekend at the island's sixth annual film festival.
Last night I ran into him at a screening of the Miramax film I co-produced, Only the Strong Survive, directed by Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker.
Cochran, according to festival organizers, heard about the weeklong event and called up offering to buy tickets. He's here with his wife and friends, staying in a posh resort on the west end of the island.
He is not on the festival jury, and doesn't have to defend anything on this trip.
But Michael Douglas may have to. Festivalgoers were disappointed that Douglas missed the local opening of his film, It Runs in the Family, on Friday night. Douglas not only owns a home here, his mother is a native. His family also owns a resort on the island called Ariel Sands.
Also missing from the festival was New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, who owns a lavish estate in a gated community far from the noisy world of municipal layoffs and $2 subway fares.
But there was much to see at the festival, including several exciting documentary premieres including Drowned Out by Frannie Armstrong and Condoms, Fish and Circus Tricks by Robert and Brenda Rooney, both of which deserve exposure on PBS or HBO and a run at next year's various awards.
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