ion from the transaction will Ire counted as
profit for the stock-holders.
Davis will remain as head of Arisia with
the new owners. Once near the pinnacle at
(ailumhia Records, Davis fell from grace
with that label because of business prac
tices disputes, but his acknowledged bril
liance won Davis a second chance. Much of
Arista's sutress has come with fully de
veloped artists who had escaped stagnant
situations with their previous labels —
(iraham Parker, Lou Reed, Dionne
Warwick and the Kinks being standout
examples. Arista now has a respectable
twelve albums in Billboard's Top 200 and
Davis predicts the label will continue to
grow.
Smith Draws
intellectual Crowd
READ1NC EOETRY AT THE FOX VENICE
Theater on the eve of her recent I..A.
concert. Patti Smith drew an audience the
likes of which even her mystic sense
couldn't have foreseen. Smith wanted io
read from The Ticket That Exploded and
asked if anyone present had a copy. “Oh,
wow.” a woman in the twelfth row
exclaimed. "I’ve got it at home. Can you
wait while I get it?" Moments later her date
put forth this observation: "The reason
we're full of shit is because we're only here
right now!" loiter, a panel of gag writers
agreed they couldn't create such pure
nonsense at any price.
\fcah. But Who Plays
The Blonde?
Moviola, anb-hour miniseries for NBC
based on the not-yel-published book by
Garson Kanin, will present some factual
reminiscences of real-life Hollywood
giants. No one has been cast as Garbo,
Marilyn Monroe, or David Selznick. but
the inside Garbo track is reportedly
crowded with Dominque Sanda, Isabelle
Adjani and Marthe Keller, not one of
whom is Swedish.
Strange Bedfellows Dept.
Barry Manilow and Ian Hunter.
Strange enough combination for you?
“Ships," taken from the ex-Mott the Hoople
limey rocker’s recent hit l.P, You’re Never
Atone with a Schizophrenic, will be woven into
the sweeping romantic schlock of Barry
Manilow's next release, One Voice. It may
even be the first single released. Hunter
might find it hard to face his friends
afterward, but at least he’ll be able to af
ford darker sunglasses.
#1 with a Bullet
Morbid people may recall the January,
1978 case of Brenda Spencer, a San Diego
miss accused of wasting two people and
wounding eight children with rifleshots at
a local elementary school because she was
in a stormy Monday mood. The flam
boyant Hoomtown Rats wove Spencer’s
quote —“I don’t like Mondays”— into a
song of the same name. Now, with the song
Number One in Kngland and being con
sidered for the Rats’ next U.S. album,
attorneys for Spencer want it stopped.
"It adds hre to a very volatile situation,”
says attorney Michael D. McGlinn, "It
makes fun of a tragic case.”
Bob Geldof, ex-rock critic mastermind
of the Boomtown Rats, claims the song
“does not exploit” the Spencer incident, but
rather attempts “to understand why it
happened.” Actually, it neither adds hre,
makes fun nor attempts to understand. It
tells Spencer’s story in a most oblique
fashion, not mentioning names or gunfire,
framed by choruses of "Tell my why/I
don't like Mondays.”
Still Working
Robert Sticwood. the Australian
music/movie mogul, will produce four
films in New Ybrk over the next 18 months,
with a total budget of $25 million. Stiggie
will oversee the productions from his yacht
Sartna, anchored in New Ybrk harbor (such
a rough life). I he films: Times Square, a
"youth-oriented contemporary drama with
a heavy emphasis on music”; The Fan, star
ring Lauren Bacall, based on the best
selling Broadway thriller; Angel, about a
girl in Spanish Harlem, to be directed and
choreographed by Patricia Brich, who de
signed the dance steps in Grease; and
Stayin' Alive, a familiar phrase from a Nor
man Wexler sc reenplay (he wrote Saturday
Night Fever : get the connection?). Oh yes,
RSO will release four soundtrack albums,
no surprise.
Paul Michael Glaser, Starsky of TV
fame, finally found a movie he wants to
make, called Phobia, to film in Canada, di
rected by John Huston, with a screenplay
by Ronald Shusett, who co-wrote A hen. Yfcs,
it's supposed to be scary.
Mariel Hemingway is currently working
out with a UCLA track coach to prepare
for her upcoming role of Olympic track
star in Personal Rest, with script by Robert
low lie (Shampoo, Chinatown).
Harry Reems, the porno actor who was
arrested and tried (later acquitted) in
Memphis for his performance in Deep
Throat a few years back, has finally landed a
f ully-clothed role in a lion-porno Hick. In
The Squad, to be filmed in Montreal,
Reems' character. Mr. Clean — leader of a
police vice squad — will be a parody of the
Memphis district attorney who busted
Reems. Stay out of Tennessee, Harry.
Brian de Palma, who last perpetrated
The Fury, will next direct Dressed to Kill, yet
another thriller/murder mystery.
James Garner has already signed up for
another N BC series when his Rockford Files
runs its gamut. If this season is Rockford's
last, Garner will take a year off and return
with an as-yet-unannounced series.
Meanwhile, Garner has separated from
wife L/m and taken up with Lauren Bacall;
they co-starred in Robert Altmans Health.
Random Newts
The Cars have a STRANGE cleanup cam
paign: Any girl who wants to get backstage
and next to a Car must First take a shower
with the group. Does any of this have a
purpose? “Just to see if the girls will go for
it," said a bemused Elektra spokesman.
Perhaps the Cars think VD can be washed
away.
Nicaragua will be a film based on the
four-year diary of a Nicaraguan journalist,
set against the background of the recent
revolution. And who better to star in a Film
about Nicaragua than an actual Nicara
guan, Bianca Jagger?
Warren Zevon, reportedly still on the
wagon, recently came in second place for
the “Best Poet" Balrog Award at the World
Fantasy Convention. Veteran tale-spinner
Ray Bradbury nosed Zevon out. Balrogs,
Tolkein fans will remember, are a form of
Lord of thf Kmgs creepy-crawly.
Skates on the skids?? Seen passed out,
mid-day, on a bus bench at Hollywood and
Vine: a bum, thirty-ish, in a dirty t-shirt, a
stabbed heart tattoo —and roller skates!
Re-associated
The Association is re-forming with all its
original members (except the late Brian
Cole): Terry Kirkman, Russ Giguere, Jules
Alexander, Jim Yester, Ted Bluechel,
Larry Ramos. One of the Sixties’ most suc
cessful groups (Cherish, Along Comes Mary)
and one of the most effective vocal groups
of any decade, the Association’s original
members have been pursuing solo careers
for several years while an ersatz group cal
ling itself the Association still tours the
country. According to Jim Yester, “Ted
Bluechel was the last to leave; he leased the
name to that other outfit. We’ll get him for
that." tester said they decided to regroup
last Christmas when they reunited for a
Home Box Office Artists of the Sixties
show. “It sounded so good, we all decided
to give it a shot.” They’re rehearsing now,
with several labels anxious to hear the re
sults. As for that other Association: “We’ll
have to work that out; we may have to end
up calling ourselves the Original Associa
tion or something like that.”