Screening Gotham: Putting the "Wack" in "Waxman"

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--To some degree, it hardly bears mentioning (again) that New York Times film business writer Sharon Waxman has less chops than a kosher deli, but that doesn't let her off the hook for her self-serving, where-are-all-the-gifted-young-directors, Rebels on the Backlot coda in Sunday's paper. Surely feeling had for squandering all those '70s comparisons on guys like David Russell and David Fincher, Waxman goes straight to the studio source for the, ahem, "real" scoop. I defer to David Poland's sage analysis: "Each of these directors has a very different story. And in trying to tell them all, none of them are told accurately or with any real insight. ... Ass to Notion: 'Thanks for getting out of me.' "

--Industry Detox of the Month: indieWIRE reports that Cinetic Media veteran Erin Heidenreich is leaving the company "to travel and volunteer at an orphanage in Southeast Asia." Best of luck, Erin, but keep your BlackBerry handy.

--A pair via Movie City Indie: Ray Pride's Sundance portfolio (see if you can spot the New York hook) and a link to Suicide Girls' fabulous interview with Maniac/Vigilante filmmaker Bill Lustig: "(W)e were a low budget movie and I was trying to stuff 20 pounds of bologna into a 10-pound bag. As a result of that, you always get your tit in the ringer. [sic]"

--Of course, no day would be complete without Factory Girl news, and while I appreciate Ben Widdicombe keeping tabs on Sienna Miller's tongue, I am far more intrigued by the critic who pissed in the theater at the film's lone NYC press screening. David Edelstein is certainly one hell of a classy guy, but methinks he doth protest too much.

Posted at February 6, 2007 9:11 AM