Factory Seal Broken as Critics, Gossips Pile On

It seems such a waste that George Hickenlooper's spectacular meltdown on Hollywood Elsewhere came three days before the rest of the world had its noisemakers ready, but that's the way it goes vis a vis the filmmaker's troubled Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl. The mix today comprises all kinds of nifty discord and drama, if no actual film (at least in New York):

--Jeff Wells, whose server still drips acid from Hickenlooper's attack, noted Monday that at least three different versions of Factory Girl have been screened for review. One includes interviews with former real-life associates of the title character, one features Sienna Miller as Sedgwick in an interview with a therapist, and the most recent stars Sedgwick/Warhol sock puppets animated and voiced by Harvey Weinstein himself. The latter cut earned huge accolades from NYC test audiences; Bob Dylan's lawyers are considering litigation.

--Over at Fox late last week, Roger Friedman channeled Cindy Adams' hairspray for a full-length, free-associative bender:

Sienna Miller and Guy Pearce give truly great performances, and the movie -- at least the version that’s going to play now -- works. What about Andy Warhol? He was crass, commercial, mean and disloyal. Sorry, but that’s the truth. He was smart about real estate. ... Pearce is astounding as Warhol. You know Pearce from Memento and L.A. Confidential. In those films, he plays the square-jawed hero. As Warhol, he really shows off his chameleon-like qualities. ... As Edie, Miller is part Judy Carne and part Liza Minnelli. She’s incredibly charming, and can run the range from cherubic to brittle. ... You can only wonder which parts of James Brown’s life will make it into the film announced yesterday about the recently deceased star. Will his PCP addiction be reduced to an undefined, quickly mentioned tic? ... (A)ctress and TV star Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon's wife, is Edie’s cousin in this long legacy of a wealthy American family that reaches back several centuries. Kyra was born in 1965, the same year in which Factory Girl takes place.

And the same year this column feels like it started. Christ almighty. Bleary-eyed and necktie-loosened, Bob Dylan's lawyers are considering litigation.

--Via Page Six, Sedgwick's brother Jonathan goes on the record about Edie and Dylan. Naturally, Harvey's got the tape:

"She told me she was totally in love with him ... she also explained ... she lost a child which she claims was Bob Dylan's child. She had gotten into an insane asylum, and she was so wacked out on drugs that they aborted her because the child would've been just strung out ... she said that was the saddest moment of her life."

Dylan's lawyers, etc. etc.

--The Observer (via The Guardian), meanwhile, got a hold of Miller last week while she was holidaying in Kenya for her 25th birthday. She said she basically heard the same thing from Jonathan Sedgwick, adding:

"I'm Bob Dylan's biggest fan. I'm mortified that he's pissed off." She denied that the film implicates Dylan in Sedgwick's death. "It doesn't do that at all. It blames Warhol more than anyone, because he did abandon her. She was fucked up, there was a friendship there, she needed help and no one helped her. It's not that Dylan drove her to heroin addiction."

Dylan's lawyers, themselves proclaiming to be his biggest fans, caught the first plane to Nairobi and threatened Miller with a defamation suit.

--Finally, an actual review! In Variety, Robert Koehler complains that Miller portrays Sedgwick as "too whiny and narrowly focused to be a genuinely tragic figure," though Pearce provides a reasonably authentic turn as Warhol. The final verdict? Not pretty:

With last-minute reshoots and editing, the pic feels rushed, and it will have a hard time registering with target auds until impending vid release.

Dylan's lawyers take the afternoon off, George Hickenlooper fires up his computer.

Posted at January 2, 2007 1:01 PM