[Hammer:] Once again, tonight`s "Entertainment Weekly" "Great American Pop Culture Quiz." What`s the highest-grossing documentary? Is it, A, "Bowling for Columbine"; B, "March of the Penguins"; C, "Fahrenheit 911"; or perhaps D, "An Inconvenient Truth"? The answer please reveal it C11". That`s a Michael Moore film that has made more than $222 million worldwide. Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, TV`s most provocative entertainment news show. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York. And it`s time now for a little story that made us say...
[Unidentified Group:] "That`s ridiculous!"
[Hammer:] All right. Nothing like some monkeying around for a good laugh. Look at this.
[Unidentified Male:] Gabob, you must help me. You come to me on my daughter`s wedding day and say I must help you. But have you ever once invited me into your house for coffee or savory sponge cake?
[Hammer:] I love monkeys. And those are monkeys doing "The Godfather." It`s called "Monkey Minutes," 60-second shorts complete with chimps acting out scenes from hit flicks like "Austin Powers," "Ghost," "Die Hard," and many more. If you go ape for this kind of stuff and you love monkeys like me, you will find it on AOL`s In2TV broadband channel. But still, we think it`s bananas and say, "That`s ridiculous!" Well, it is day two of Tom Cruise`s war of the words. And, what`s this? Mel Gibson is pulling out his phone, and you won`t believe who he`s been reaching out and touching. Joining us tonight from Glendale, California, Harvey Levin, the managing editor of the entertainment news Web site tmz.com. Hello, Harvey.
[Harvey Levin, Managing Editor, Tmz.com:] Hi,
[A.j. Hammer:] All right. Let`s deal with Tom Cruise right away here. You know, stars and studios, they break up all the time. Usually not a lot of fanfare, maybe a press release that goes out, say, "We`re parting ways," whatever the reason. This is totally different. You have Sumner Redstone, who is the head of the company that runs Paramount Studios not the head of Paramount Studios, but the head of company that runs Paramount coming out swinging with some personal statements against Tom Cruise. This is like a big bltattle of the egos, isn`t it?
[Levin:] It`s a big battle of the egos. And frankly, it`s really kind of amazing. At first, I thought that Tom Cruise must have said something that totally ticked Sumner Redstone off. I don`t believe that anymore. What I`m hearing is Sumner Redstone just wanted to flex his muscles, and basically he did this without telling any of his people at Paramount that he was about to completely antagonize Tom Cruise. A.J., what`s really funny about this is that Sumner Redstone said, "We don`t want someone behaving badly who works for Paramount." Well, the guy who runs his movies his movie division is under federal investigation for illegal wiretapping. So kind of interesting.
[Hammer:] Yes, good point to make there. And, of course, everybody is talking. And everybody has something to say. Burt Fields, who is Cruise`s lawyer, you know him, I know him. This is a guy who chooses his words extremely well, and he said of Sumner Redstone and I want to quote it now that he`s lost it completely, or he`s been given breathtakingly bad advice. So what you were saying kind of alludes alludes to that.
[Levin:] It does. And, you know, let me take the other side now. The other side is Tom Cruise has behaved kind of like a nut case over the last year. So what Sumner Redstone is saying in some ways does have validity because Tom Cruise is really too risky business, if you will, to really carry a movie and that kind of money on the line for Paramount Studios. He`s just alienated too many people.
[Hammer:] Yes. In fact, an executive for the company that calculates those Q scores, determining how popular stars are, says that Cruise`s positive perception has fallen about 40 percent in the last year. But listen to this. His negative perception has jumped nearly 100 percent. You`ve got to believe somewhere in that Cruise mansion, along with baby Suri and Katie Holmes, if they are indeed really there, they`ve got to be freaking out a little bit in trying to see how they should fix this.
[Levin:] You would think, but I think not. And the reason I say that is, Pat Kingsley, who is his longtime publicist who he canned a year ago, really kept Tom Cruise under wraps and made him look like a real normal guy. As soon as he fired her, he became Tom Cruise.
[Hammer:] Yes.
[Levin:] And he was kind of nutty. And in some ways this is vindication for Pat Kingsley. But I think Tom Cruise is happy with who he is, and he`s to the point where I think he`s basically looking at the world and saying, you`re all crazy.
[Hammer:] Yes, and I`ll do whatever the heck I want. And as you mentioned, publicist Pat Kingsley coming out shining here. All right. Let`s move on to this thing about Mel Gibson. Explain what`s going on here. You`re hearing that Mel is actually calling Hollywood heavyweights personally and actually begging forgiveness? Do I have that correct?
[Levin:] Yes. So he`s almost kind of going door to door to all the Jews, if you will. I mean, what he`s done is initially he said he was going to kind of make good with the Jewish community. He`s picking up the phone and he`s calling a lot of the executives in Hollywood who he`s worked with in the movies and he`s saying, "Look, I really apologize with what I did. I`m dealing with my problem," he said. And I know of at least two people who he called who aren`t really picking up what he`s putting down. They are just not buying it. They don`t believe it`s sincere. That is not to say that everybody feels that way, but some of Hollywood remains unconvinced.
[Hammer:] Well, I haven`t heard from him yet, and I don`t think you have either, Harvey.
[Levin:] Have not. Have not.
[Hammer:] Harvey Levin from TMZ.com. Thanks, as always.
[Levin:] Bye,
[A.j. Hammer:] Time for tonight`s "Showbiz Showcase." "Marie Antoinette," starring Kirsten Dunst, the classic story of a naive young woman who becomes the queen of France at the early age of 19. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT with your first look. [Begin Video Clip, "marie Antoinette"]
[Unidentified Female:] Friendship between Austria and France must be cemented by marriage. My youngest daughter Antoine will be queen of France.
[Unidentified Female:] Is it a custom that the bride retain nothing belonging to a foreign court? You represent the future. All eyes will be on you. She looks like a child. So, I`ve heard you make keys as a hobby. Yes. It will be interesting to see how long she lasts.
[Unidentified Male:] What on earth is going on with that young couple?
[Unidentified Female:] It`s a disaster. This is ridiculous. This, Madame, is Versailles. Ooh. I`ve heard the queen has a somewhat artistic temperament. Not too much, is it?
[Unidentified Male:] No.
[Unidentified Female:] She spends like mad.
[Unidentified Male:] People in France are hungry. The king and queen are complete
[Unidentified Female:] Don`t they ever get tired of these ridiculous stories? How do you do something? I`m not going to acknowledge it. She was in the shrubs at dawn with various men. She has quite a reputation. She`s a terrible queen. Letting everyone down has been my greatest unhappiness. The Bastille fortress was stolen.
[Unidentified Male:] There`s a mob of hundreds on their way. [End Video Clip, "marie Antoinette"]
[Hammer:] Marie Antoinette comes to theaters October 20th. Well, an "American Idol" finalist is robbed at gunpoint. I`m going to tell you what happened coming up next. We`ll also have this...
[Unidentified Male:] He`s not profiting from anything. He`s not getting any of the money.
[Hammer:] John Mark Karr`s trial hasn`t even started, but the wheels are already in motion for a movie. Coming up, a look at how Karr`s story is made for TV. Plus, surviving Katrina. As the one-year anniversary of the devastating hurricane approaches, one of the first responders is telling his story in a new documentary. He`s going to tell us what he saw coming up. But first, here`s a look at what`s new at your local movie theaters this coming weekend. Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear hit the field in "Invincible". Now, this is a true story about a teacher who makes his professional football dreams come true. "Idlewild," two 1930s musicians who have to deal with gangsters want to take over their club. Big ensemble cast in this one, Big Boi and Andre 3000 from Outkast, Cicely Tyson and Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard. And one we probably all read growing up, "How to Eat Fried Worms". A boy stands up to a bully`s challenge and eats 10 worms in one day. But who hasn`t?