January I February. 197!)
Ampersand
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First, the Important News
Fleetwood Macs Christine McVie is
keeping steady company with Beach Boy
Dennis Wilson. Stephen Stills, poised to
launch a new band with Bonnie Bramlctt.
is blissful in Bel Air with actress Susan
Saint James. And Bill Spooncr, leader of the
Tubes, and wife Cindy, a Tube dancer, are
expecting their first child any minute. All
together now: a test Tube baby! The group's
new album, Remote Control, produced by Todd
Rundgren, is also expected any minute.
Talk About Culture Shock
THE FIRST FILMS requested by China now
that the arts of the western world are avail
able to them were those made by Charlie
Chaplin. The first recent American film the
Chinese people will see is . . . Futureworld .
Because American International Pictures
raced to Peking with a contract in hand,
that's why.
Transitions
Drummer Aynsley Dunbar has been
hired by Jefferson Starship to replace John
Barbata, who is still recuperating from in
juries incurred in a serious auto accident last
year. Dunbar is not temporary; the group is
not even pretending to wait for Barbata's
recovery.
J. D. SOUTHER was dropped by Klektra
Asylum after he spent some $300,000 on his
new album and recorded only five songs.
But KA has gained Martin Mull; his first
effort for the label (his third) is titled Mull
Becomes Klektra. It cost about $1.98 to record.
CAT STEVENS has reportedly abandoned all
personal appearance plans in the foreseeable
future; he's living in Rio de Janeiro where he
recently joined the Moslem faith, changing
his name to Yusef Islam. That's his third
name so far; hi started out in life as Steven
Dimitri Giorgio.
Animal-Hippie-White
House?
IN A QUICK MANEUVER to match the
megabucks generated over at Universal by
Sational lampoon's Matty Simmons and Ani
mal House, Paramount Pictures signed Rolling
Stone editor and publisher Jann VVenner to a
three-picture deal to "develop" youth
oriented movies Obviously, no one at
Paramount ever saw The Rolling Stone Tenth
Anniversary TV Special. The first Wenner
project whic h Wenner will not produce, so
his role in all this is vague at best will be
scribbled by Stone's Senior Kditor Ben
Kong- Torres, to whom we wish boodles of
luck. Feng- lorres is not quite a movie- v irgin;
he recently did a brief acting stint in
AmfTuathon. in which he plas a Chinese
tourist stealing mementos 1mm the White
House. " I tasting." savs Kong- 'lorres.
Amttuathnn which is not a Wenner
project sounds like a logical succ essor to
Animal Huu mindless humor. It takes place
in Vfti when America is $41(0 billion in de bt,
bankrupt, totally kaput 'The Western W hite
House is a condominium in Manna de l Re.
all our oil is dr. we re a nation of bicyclers. A
r -A
California Rock Party
At a gala fete honoring publication of their new book, California Rock,
California Sound (which was the source of Ampersand's October Joni Mitchell
cover story) and also celebrating display of the book's photographs in the
Mirage Gallery, author Anthony Fawcett and photographer Henry Diltz
watched hungry press hordes devour insufficient quantities of enchiladas
and margueritas. Jackson Browne, who is featured in the book, dropped by
and apparently surprised Diltz (right).
bunch of crazy, nutty folks present a telethon
to pull America out of the hole; Harvey Kor
man is the smarmy telethon emcee, Peter
Riegert (Boon of Animal House) is a media
consultant, Fred Willard is the dastardly
Vice President, John Ritter is Prez. Elvis
Costcllo appears briefly, exhorting the
English to pledge money for America. This
bit of fun was filmed at Mount St. Mary's
College in downtown Eos Angeles, mas
querading as Eondon's Hyde Park. Proving
we don't have to wait until 1998 for a budget
crisis.
Remakes, Spinoffs &
Cop
les
AFTER MONTHS OF on-off bargaining, Neil
Diamond has finally agreed to play AI Jolson
in a remake o(The Jazz Singer, for which he'll
earn $5 million $1 million in cash, $4 mil
lion in soundtrack rights (to be forked over by
Capitol, not Diamond's label, Columbia).
STAYING ALIVE, THE television scries based
on Saturday Night Fever, is now called Makin ' It.
about a family's survival or, as one spokes
person said, "Happy Days in the Seventies.'
The parents are played by Lou Antonio and
Ellen Travolta, a name we've seen some
where before.
B ARNEY MILLER, ONE of Ampersand s favo
rite television series, may have one less detec
tie in the squalid squad room: Maxwell
Gail, who plays Wojehowicz, will have his
own series if an hour-long spinoff segment
sells; half of the show w ill Ik- Wojo at work,
the other half Wojo at home . . . with a re
formed hooker, no less.
George Harrison's new album, so far
called Ceotge Harrison, actually has a song
c alled "Here Comes the Moon."
Do These Plots Sound
Familiar?
TAKE DOWN, a new film from Disney star
ring Lorenzo Lamas (son of Fernando), re
counts the hapless adv entures of a losing high
school wrestling team which is sparked to
greatness by the prowess of Lamas, who finds
self confidence and respect through superior
grappling.
THE RAMONES AND their music are featured
in Rock and Roll High School, a wild, silly battle
of "wits" betwen the "good" rowdy students
of Vlnce Lombardi High and the "bad" prin
cipal, all leading to an explosive conclusion:
the high school blows up.
Flick Fax
Steve Martin's first film, Money to Burn,
will be directed by Carl Reiner . . . Peter
Frampton will star in two films for Orion
Pictures, the first descrihed as a "comedy
drama concerning a rock star . . . but not a
musical." Thanks for small favors . . . Mac
Davis makes his acting debut in North Dallas
Forty, starring Nick Nolte . . . Playwright
Sam Shepard, who made his acting debut in
Days of Heaven, will co-star opposite Ellen
Burstyn in Ressurection, about a female christ
. . . Monty Python's Life of Brian is finally fin
ished, and Graham Chapman (the (all one) is
now in Los Angeles collaborating on a new
film script and planning his first I S college
lecture tour . . . Ralph Bakshi's next feature
length animated film will be American Pop.
with 17 musical numbers illustrating the his
tory of Americ an music as witnessed by a
ten-year-old boy who arrives in this country
in 1910 and bops along to 1980 . . Bill Mur
ray of Saturday Night Live may play gonzo
journalist Hunter S. Thompson in Where the
Buffalo Roam, also starring Peter Boyle.
Ample Angst
MlCHAELANGLO ANTONIONI'S NEXT proj
ect is called Suffer or Die, appropriate for this
angst-laden Italian director; it stars Gian
carloGiannini (in a role turned down by Jac k
Nicholson, Richard Gere, and Ryan O'Neal)
as an architect caught up in the eerie history
of a monastery he is hired to convert into a
mansion for rich owner Mick Jagger. The
screenplay by Anthony Burgess, an angst
laden Britisher, is being rewritten by Buck
Henry, who has no angst to grind at all.
You Mean We'll Actually
Have To Read Books?
Classics Illustrated, "great literature in
comic book format," a staple with students
since the Forties, is out of business. Collec
tors, take note: an original (-lassies Illus
trated Three Musketeers is worth a fast $75.
Our Heroes
Budding historians, sociology
students and anyone with an abiding
interest in rock and roll would be well
advised to park themselves in front of a
TV set on Friday night, February 9.
when ABC will broadcast Heroes of
Rock and Roll, a two-hour prime-time
documentary (9 P.M. nationwide) that
is light years ahead of the standards
normally associated with TV rock.
Narrated by Jeff Bridges, Heroes is a
chronological history of 25 years of
rock and roll presented in a snappy,
fast-paced montage that's highly
entertaining, often hilarious and
enormously informative. It's the first
time the "Big Four" Presley, Bea
tles, Stones and Dylan have been
featured on the same show and the
action is spiced with rare footage of
Hank Williams, Buddy Holly and
never-before-seen clips of the Beatles
performing at the Cavern in Liverpool
in 1962.
The program is particularly strong
in detailing the early years of rock,
emphasizing its roots in black music
and illustrating the social climate of
the era from which it sprang. With
rock and roll such an integral part of
the current cultural landscape, it's
both amusing and eye-opening to wit
ness the fear and loathing with which it
was originally viewed by the guardians
of public morality and decency.
The least interesting part of the
show and the one containing the
most glaring omissions in terms of ar
tistic selec tion is the section dealing
with the Seventies (which may reflect
more on the quality of this decade's
performers than anything else). Still.
Hemes of Rink and Roll is easiK the most
knowledgeable and thorough look at
the subjec t ever presented on telei
sion. Don't miss it.
Don Snowden