Monday, November 17, 2008

Today's Blind Items

I think it was last week that I wrote about the actor who was going to lose his home if his friends had not chipped in. Tough times for everyone, but sometimes they are of our own making. This female best selling author got into some serious debt because she is addicted to gambling. With casinos hounding her for payment, she turned to a "friend" to help her out. The friend gladly paid off the entire debt to the casinos, but in return got our author to sign over any and all future rights from her books. This author has always been reluctant to have her books appear as films because of some bad previous experiences, but now, she really has no choice because she gave up all the rights. I would predict a flood of made for tv type fare over the next few years all based on her books. Oh, and she is still gambling.


51 comments:

  1. jackie collins is married to a rich real estate guy? i think.

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  2. Jackie Collins was my first guess maybe Mary Higgins Clarke

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  3. I wouldn't think Jackie would be reluctant to see her books made into film. I think Jackie would do whatever took to make $$$'s and get her face on TV or the mags.

    I know Sandra Brown had a couple of books turned into Lifetime movies. Maybe she had the bad experience? The "made for tv type fare" made me think of Sandra Brown.

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  4. Danielle Steele popped into my head, but I honestly know nothing about the personal lives of famous authors.

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  5. Jackie Collins husband Oscar Lerman died years ago and she is known for living in the casinos in Vegas. After the terrible depictions of her books, The Stud, The Bitch, (both starrign her sister) Hollywood Wives, she vowed never to let them appear as films again.

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  6. How about Patricia Cornwell? Boy do I wish it WERE Danielle Steel.

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  7. OOOH, Grace, great guess! I always wondered why Sue Grafton's series never made it to film/tv.

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  8. that's terrible, motana. damn. one's hard work being solely owned and controlled by another.

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  9. amazonblue,

    is ms steele a tool? lol.

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  10. with all the made for tv movies danielle steel has done, i doubt it's her.

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  11. The last thing Collins did was Hollywood Wives: The New Generation

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  12. Could be Steele. Comment from 11/2005 from IMDB.

    For years, a decision by studio executives to release a film only to video has been viewed as something akin to sending it to the trash bin. Now, New Line Home Entertainment has signed a deal with Danielle Steel, writer of trashy romance novels, to produce films that will go directly to video. In a statement, Kevin Kasha, the company's chief of acquisitions and programming, said that Steel's books "have enjoyed unparalleled popular success, and this partnership is certain to yield films that will excite her existing fans and capture many new ones." Steel herself said, "I have found the perfect home for the film adaptations of my novels."

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  13. but what about the 22 made for tv films she's already done?

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  14. I am out of it on female writers... I thought of Nora Roberts (isn't she a fairly popular writer?).

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  15. Anne Rice? Just throwing it out there without doing any research. Can only think of three movies that were made - Vampire, Lestat, and Exit to Eden.

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  16. Lestat was never a movie. I think it was a Broadway musical.

    The third movie was Queen of the Damned.

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  17. Terry McMillan? She lives near me and (it's only rumor) is that she's had money issues but her house was for sale, the sign in the lawn is hard to hide. Now it's not on the market, and she is clearly still living there. It might not be her because she had one huge movie made on her book, and one that sucked a little that went to cable.

    I don't think it's Jackie Collins, she's had a bunch of her books into movies, and I liked the Lucky/Chances miniseries. Danielle Steele barely gets a book into paperback before Lifetime is on it to give to Lynda Carter or Morgan Fairchild.

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  18. Anonymous3:10 PM

    Anne Rice is now devoted to Jesus. She's abandoned her homoerotic goth love fests. I don't think she'd care about it. And Interview With the Vampire was pretty successful/popular.

    At first I thought Stephenie Meyer but she wouldn't be promoting the shit out of Twilight if it were her (if she'd make no money off it).

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  19. I agree with the Patricia Cornwell guess, especially because of the "friend" comment. Could that be making a reference to her lesbian-ism?

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  20. Jodi Picoult? Just a guess, nothing to base it on.

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  21. Anonymous3:22 PM

    Actually, Charles, excerpts of the story contained in her second Vampire Chronicles book, The Vampire Lestat, were contained in the beginning portion of Queen Of The Damned, the movie. Which was an atrocity by the way. That movie was akin to making creme brulee out of Jello custard mix.

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  22. Carrie Fischer was the first name to come to mind....

    A friend of mine ran into her in Las Vegas....

    Hmmm.....??

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  23. Didn't Carrie Fisher make a bundle by taking a % on STARWARS...? And wouldn't that be actress/author ?

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  24. Marry Higgins Clark- I think she had one or 2 movies go to lifetime a while back, although she's a little on the older side and i dont see her gambling...

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  25. Yes actress/author true. But Carrie's mom managed to lose all of her fortune too, right? And Carrie has an "addictive personality." For some reason she's just who came to mind and I think I remember that she wasn't happy w/the way Postcards from the Edge came out. But I guess she hasn't written a ton of books either so I'm probably off track. (Betting pun unintentional.)

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  26. I can confirm that it is NOT Nora Roberts.

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  27. Sue Grafton does the alphabet books and I don't think any of them have been turned into movies or a mini-series. Not sure how she could have been burned on 'bad previous experiences'

    She lives in Santa Barbara and there's a casino nearby, and Vegas is just a stones throw.

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  28. Anonymous4:37 PM

    shazzzba - Alec Guiness was the only one who took a %...so Carrie could well be skint. but i guess she would be more of an writer/actress. though would that have made it too obvious? how many writer/actresses are there that have had film adaptations?

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  29. Janet Evanovich? There's been a lot of questions as to why her Stephanie Plum books haven't been turned into a movie. Starring Sandra Bullock, of course.

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  30. what about the gal who did the "shopoholic" series?
    i know they're making a film out of the first one as we speak...

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  31. K, Janet Evanovich's options to the movie have been bought, they just can't find anyone to make it apparently. Or rather, they can't come up with the money to make it and to pay for the A list talent they want to cast.

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  32. I'll toss out Toni Morrison and Phillipa Gregory. Both are best selling authors with film adaptations that were less than stellar.

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  33. Then of course, you have the woman who wrote Sex and the City.

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  34. SUE GRAFTON...I think there was one movie starring Kathleen Turner.....

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  35. I don't think it's Sue Grafton. She's told her kids that she'd haunt them if they try and sell the film rights after she dies. Plus, her books still make a ton of money.

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  36. Patricia Cornwell! Previous bad experiences = Demi Moore?

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  37. I can confirm that it is NOT Carrie Fisher. (She'll be the first to tell you that gambling is about the only addiction she doesn't have!)

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  38. Anonymous8:56 PM

    kari b-rum: between your answer and muppet babies miss piggy I'm laughing up a storm over here.

    Maybe we need to look at the "friend" in this situation. Suzanne mentioned Toni Morrison, who partnered with Oprah to make Beloved... though her books are a little too wild to make made-for-tv movies.

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  39. The woman who writes the Sex and the City novels.

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  40. My first thought was Ann Rice, but then she's a born-again, so she's probably not gambling.

    Love, love, LOVE kari b-rum's guess! Alas, Austen is dead.

    I think the evidence points to Jackie Collins, though I would have thought she would be rolling in the dough, both self-made and inherited (from her husband).

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  41. I love love love anne rice .. and I would be heartbroken if it were her ..i have been to her house and her museum in new orleans .. and alco the casino there .. :) Her vampire, witches and mummy books are a must read ...

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  42. Maeve Binchy. Wrote "Circle Of 'Friends'".

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  43. Which was made into a really good movie, so maybe not...*L*

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  44. Kathleen Turner starred in a movie adapted from a Sara Peretsky book/character.

    Grafton hasn't had any books adapted into movies.

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  45. i don't know if this was stated but the movie The Perfect Murder is adapted/based from the book M is for Murder...i only know this bc i caught the end credits a few days ago.

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  46. Two words
    Keira Knightley.

    OK If it's not Jane Austin

    I say JK Rowling. The cinematic mess they made out of her books. I don't think she wants anyone to mess with Beadle the Bard.

    Anne Rice has no one to blame but herself for Queen of the Damned, she had final script approval. Interview was OK except for the acting, the script, the direction, the cinematography, the location. The one redeeming thing was Tom Cruise as Claudia.

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  47. LMAO! It would take 100 years to gamble away Rowling's fortune. Plus, most of the public consider the movies to be adequate and I've never heard her complaining.

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