Inqlings: 'Standing O' for an impresario
Filmmaker Diane Kirman grew up in awe of Sal Dupree, the Linwood, N.J., singer-producer who trained a generation of young singers, including Bianca Ryan, Lou Gazzara and Mark Indelicato.
Filmmaker
Diane Kirman
grew up in awe of
Sal Dupree
, the Linwood, N.J., singer-producer who trained a generation of young singers, including
Bianca Ryan
,
Lou Gazzara
and
Mark Indelicato
.
"I always wanted to do a story with Sal and his kids," says Kirman, whose projects include The New Swiss Family Robinson. She enlisted her husband, writer-director Stewart Raffill (Mannequin 2: On the Move, The Adventures of the Wilderness Family), to write a musical film about young performers competing in a national music video contest.
Everybody got into the act for Standing Ovation, which tomorrow will end five months of production at the Jersey Shore by shooting its opening scene in Wildwood.
Raffill brought in a friend of his, actor-producer James Brolin, who told me that he was amazed that the area's "270,000 dance schools all pulled together for this one."
"We use real kids ages 7 to 17," Kirman says. "Not 23-year-olds playing teenagers." (High School Musical, take that.)
The movie - aimed at tweens and their parents - potentially is "a gold mine," says Brolin, an investor thinking of overseas audiences as well as domestic. He will arrive on set today.
The project, which should be ready for screening in the summer, was led by William Lewis, chief of surgery at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, who plans to earmark proceeds to the hospital's children's wing.
Bar imitates life?
Rob McElhenney
, Philly-bred creator and star of FX's
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
, is among investors in deep talks to open a bar in his hometown, says a source close to the situation. In the comedy, McElhenney and friends (poorly) run Paddy's Pub in South Philly.
Impresario Brett Perloff won't disclose the opening date of Strongbox, his lounge at 2029 Walnut St. Hours before, he plans to announce it online. He hopes potential customers and the curious will join Strongbox's fan page on Facebook or follow it on Twitter (twitter.com/strongboxlounge). The idea, of course, is to build a marketing database.
Musically inclined
Saxman
Grover Washington Jr.
was the 76ers' go-to "Star-Spangled Banner"-ist. At Friday's final Sixers game at the Wachovia Spectrum, he'll be there in spirit. Eleven-year-old
Immanuel Wilkins
- who brought to mind Washington the last time he played before a game - will perform. Stage fright? "No," says Immanuel, a sixth grader at Beverly Hills Middle School in Upper Darby; his parents met the jazz great before he became famous. "What happens is you get up there and you kind of forget it." He performs with the Christian Stronghold Baptist Church Orchestra, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz, the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble, and his middle school's marching band, orchestra, and jazz band.
Nine "lost" candid photos from the mid-1960s - five of the Beatles and four of the Rolling Stones - are part of the annual 102.9 WMGK Classic Rock Art Show at the Shops at Liberty Place through March 29. They're part of a recently discovered trove of shots taken by Bob Bonis, the bands' onetime U.S. tour manager. Bonis died in 1991, and his children opened Not Fade Away Gallery in New York to sell the prints. Among the candids (priced at $950): Mick Jagger sleeping on a sofa while the Stones perform on TV, and the Beatles tossing a ball poolside.
On the tube
America's Top Model
contestant
Teyona Anderson
is not the Jersey girl that her bio on the CW advertises her as. She told the Salem County newspaper Today's Sunbeam that although she grew up in Woodstown, she moved to Elkton, Md., when she was 14.
Malinda Sagrestano and her physician, Mark Sussman, will turn up tomorrow on Mystery Diagnosis (10 p.m., Discovery Health). She credits him with curing her blinding headaches.
Radio activity
Sports-talk 950 ESPN will shuffle part of its lineup beginning March 16. ESPN's
Mike & Mike in the Morning
will add an hour, wrapping at 10 a.m., followed by an hour of ESPN's
The Herd With Colin Cowherd
. Starting at 11 a.m. will be an 11-hour local block, opening with
Jody Mac and Harry Mayes
until 3 p.m. Staying put are
Mike Missanelli
(3 to 7 p.m.),
Dan Schwartzman
(7 to 10 p.m.), and the syndicated
Tony Bruno
(10 p.m. to 1 a.m.).
Joey B, who was Chio's producer and sidekick in his Q102 days, is back at Chio's side on the morning show at Wired 96.5. Joey B replaces Justice, who was let go.
Cherry Hill's FMQB Productions is behind the three-night, three-city U2 radio concert that WMMR (93.3) will broadcast locally at 9 p.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
Cinema notes
Reel nice. DreamWorks has bought the screen rights to
The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish
, the new book by Haddonfield's
David Kinney
, a former Inquirer correspondent and husband of Inquirer columnist
Monica Yant Kinney
.
The Big One
covers the annual Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby on Martha's Vineyard.
Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel's dinner partner the other night at Continental Midtown was his mother, Anita. The 18-year-old is rehearsing for the M. Night Shyamalan flick The Last Airbender.
A role as an extra on Law Abiding Citizen, the currently shooting Jamie Foxx-Gerard Butler movie, sold for $1,300 last week as part of CityStyle, a benefit for the Gershman Y. Greater Philadelphia Film Office head Sharon Pinkenson worked the gavel. Buyer Juliet Spitzer is a singer-songwriter and a board member of Theatre Ariel; her scene will be shot this month in a graveyard.
CN8 alumna Connie Colla portrays a TV reporter in Law Abiding Citizen. "They put me in the highest, sexiest suede boots I've ever worn," Colla reports, quipping: "Standard wear for a prison live shot." Captive audience, for sure.