Jersey Films

There's something about Jersey Films and projects named after heroic women. The powerhouse production company is in the throes of Oscar fever with "Erin Brockovich," which is up for best picture and could earn Julia Roberts an Academy Award for her portrayal of the feisty single mother. On Saturday, the production company will unveil its television division's first offering, "Kate Brasher," a CBS drama about a single mother struggling to keep her head above water.

Seeing him sitting in a cramped trailer on a film set, dressed in all black except for a pair of purple-flower patterned socks, his cell phone constantly chirping, it's hard to imagine that Michael Shamberg has ever been anything but a movie producer. If you were making "Get Shorty" today, you'd cast him as the producer--until you remember he actually produced the original movie.

There's something about Jersey Films and projects named after heroic women. The powerhouse production company is in the throes of Oscar fever with "Erin Brockovich," which is up for best picture and could earn Julia Roberts an Academy Award for her portrayal of the feisty single mother. On Saturday, the production company will unveil its television division's first offering, "Kate Brasher," a CBS drama about a single mother struggling to keep her head above water.

One of Danny DeVito's favorite lines in his new film "Get Shorty" comes when the main character--a Miami loan shark trying to break into Hollywood--explains to a low-level mobster, "I don't think the producer has to do much, outside of maybe knowing a writer." Sitting in his trailer on the Sony Pictures lot, where he's directing the children's movie "Matilda," DeVito and his two producing partners, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, find that notion particularly amusing.

Seeing him sitting in a cramped trailer on a film set, dressed in all black except for a pair of purple-flower patterned socks, his cell phone constantly chirping, it's hard to imagine that Michael Shamberg has ever been anything but a movie producer. If you were making "Get Shorty" today, you'd cast him as the producer--until you remember he actually produced the original movie.

It was like the film "Top Gun," Jim Lindelof once told a reporter, "only we were the targets." He was talking about Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in 1985 and the daily bombing raids by MIG jets that rocked the village where he was working undercover as a medic tending to the sick, the wounded and the dying. He never forgot the sound, or the smell, or the simple fear that gripped his stomach during those three months.

Jimmy Hoffa never drove a truck for a living but he turned the Teamsters into the largest and strongest union of its day. He trafficked with thugs but used a sophisticated grasp of the intricacies of trucking industry economics to consolidate his gains. A devoted family man who never developed champagne tastes, he disappeared on July 30, 1975, probably a victim of organized crime. He was a complex, contradictory personality whose life might have made an exceptional movie. It hasn't quite.

More than three years have passed since Kasi Lemmons made her feature directing debut with "Eve's Bayou," not exactly a typical entree into the world of movie-making. With an all-black cast headlined by Samuel L. Jackson (who also co-produced) and a challenging story line infused with magical realism and hallucinatory imagery, "Eve's Bayou" was 1997's most commercially successful independent film.

He walks with a slight limp. In a twisted way, that's refreshing: At 67, a man should show some wear and tear, and when you're dealing with Dick Clark, you take that wear and tear wherever you can find it. Even if it's nothing more than the lingering effects of a mishap when he stepped out of an RV. * At any rate, Clark limps slightly as he mounts the stairs to the stage of the Shrine Auditorium.

One of Danny DeVito's favorite lines in his new film "Get Shorty" comes when the main character--a Miami loan shark trying to break into Hollywood--explains to a low-level mobster, "I don't think the producer has to do much, outside of maybe knowing a writer." Sitting in his trailer on the Sony Pictures lot, where he's directing the children's movie "Matilda," DeVito and his two producing partners, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, find that notion particularly amusing.

It was like the film "Top Gun," Jim Lindelof once told a reporter, "only we were the targets." He was talking about Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in 1985 and the daily bombing raids by MIG jets that rocked the village where he was working undercover as a medic tending to the sick, the wounded and the dying. He never forgot the sound, or the smell, or the simple fear that gripped his stomach during those three months.

Young Hollywood abounds in the Sunset Strip area where this house is located. Leonardo DiCaprio lives down the street in one direction; Tobey Maguire lives nearby in the other. The neighborhood has been described as "the quintessential, high-end Sunset Strip celebrity row." About this house: The owners, who are developers, rebuilt this 1956 house during the past two years with quiet in mind. They wanted to evoke the atmosphere of Bali outdoors combined with a Zen simplicity inside.

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You'll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.