m
Rape by Instrumentality
Preliminary hearings were recently
held in the case of composer/producer/
musician Jack Nitzsche, who was charged
with rape by instrumentality, burglary;
assault with intent to commit murder,
assault with a deadly weapon and false im
prisonment, all stemming from his alleged
June 29 visit to actress Carrie Snodgress,
who says she and her son zeke, 7 (by Neil
Young), were asleep when Nitzsche arrived
at 2 a.m., brandishing a handgun. Guest
Paul Williams (the director, not the song
w riter) fled into the night while Nitzsche
reportedly pistol-whipped Snodgress,
threatened her son, and then committed
rape with the barrel of his revolver. Snod
gress suffered a fractured cheekbone,
bruises and abrasins, and had an 18-stitches
cut on her thumb. This case will be one of
the first to apply a new California statute
which outlaws rape by instrumentality —
using an object other than sexual organs.
(The new rape law is sometimes called the
Born Innocent law ; a 9-year-old San Fran
cisco girl was raped with a beer bottle by
four kids who were inspired by a similar
assault in that TV movie). Nitzsche, 42,
pleaded not guilty to all counts. Nitzsche
worked w ith Neil Ybung and Crazy Horse
during the six years that Snodgress lived
with Young; Nitzsche did the music for One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Sest and Performance.
Earlier in his career, Nitzsche worked as an
arranger for Phil Spector, had a 1963 hit
single, “ The Lonely Surfer,” and appeared
as pianist and arranger on a few Rolling
Stones album. Snodgress, 33, was nomi
nated for anOscar for her performance in
Diary of a Mud Housewife, and recently ap
peared in The Fury
Whatever Happened to ...
Paul Simon who hasn’t released an album
since Still Crazy After All These Years in 1975,
is now at work on his First movie (still unti
tled). He wrote it and he stars in it, playing
a contemporary musician “in conflict w ith
changing times”; other cast members are
Blair Brown as his wife and Dan Stern
(who plaved Cyril in Breaking ,4awy). There
w ill be concert footage of various big
name acts of the Sixties — such as Peter,
Paul & Mary, the Byrds, Sly Stone — but
none of these has actually been signet!
(yes, there will be new Simon tunes, at last,
and a soundtrack album). Director is
Robert M. V>ung, who did Ruh Kids, and
filming started a few weeks ago in ...
Cleveland. Cleveland! Short people got no
reason.
No Knack for Humor
Every Saturday in Hollywood there is a
post-midnight musical memorabilia swap
meet in the parking lot across from Capitol
Records’ Vine Street headquarters. Until
recently, San Francisco artist Hugh Brown
had the hottest items on the lot — an array
of “Knuke the Knack” shirts, bumpier stic
kers and buttons ridiculing the well-hypied
Capitol “new wave” group. One hilarious
night, leader Doug Fieger and other
Knack members grinningly purchased
armloads of Brown’s satiric goodies, but
the joke was referred to the Knack's legal
eagles soon after “Honk if You’ve Slept
with Sharona” bumper stickers became
Brow n’s top seller. Under a salvo of
charges — “trademark infringement,
copyright infringement, unfair competi
tion, defamation and invasion of
privacy” — Brown has knuckled under.
Thus Saturday night collectors are dep
rived forever of what was to be Brown's
next comment on the Knack
phenomenon — little voodoo dolls of
everyone in the group, pins included.
Energy' Drain
Estimated receipts from the MUSE.
(Musicians United for Safe Energy) ton
cert, held September 19-23 at Madison
Square Garden, have dropped from
$750,000 to “less than half a million,”
according to concert spokesman David
Fenton. Spearheaded by John Hall,
former leader of Orleans anti now a solo
artist, the MUSE shows were brightened
by a hot Bruce Springsteen performance,
along with appearances by James Taylor,
Carly Simon, the Doobie Brothers,-Ry
CotxJer, Chaka Khan, lorn Petty, Bonnie
Raitt, Paul Simon, Peter losh and others.
What went wrong is that the concert went
so right: overtime fees to the huge Garden
staff were necessary because the shows
cooked on till 1:30 some nights. However,
notes Fenton, a film of the event and a
soundtrack alburn may boost the take back
up. Flektra-Asylum, which has the record
rights, has not yet set a release date. An
outdoor rally near the World Trade
Center, held on the last day of the concert
series, drew approximately 200,000 anti
nuke demonstrators.
But what about the lonely pro-nuke de
monstrators? A pair of them was recently
Black Sabbath has <ancetled its tall lour;
in fact, the group ha1* cancelled hall its
members, with guitarist 'lorry lomrni and
drummer Bill Ward remaining. Vocalist
Ozzy Osbourne has been replaced by
Ronnie James Dio (formerly with Rain
bow), and bassist Geezer Butler was re
sighted at Ins Angeles International Air
port, separately, of course. One, a young
woman reminiscent of Gilda Rad net's I.isa
Uoopner character, wore a sign that read
“More People Have Died in led Kennedy’s
Car Than in Nuclear Accidents." A few
days later het place had Ireen taken by a
blond and pudgy young man whose slogan
was “Nuclear Plants Are Built Better I ban
Jane Fonda.”
Big Deals
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda (build or no
build) are both much richer these days;
Alda signed a deal with Universal that gives
him total atiistit control of any film hr
wants to make, providing he stays under a
$7 million budget. His fust project, TAeFour
Seasons (which he wrote), traces the friend
ships of three couples in a one year period.
Only Woody Allen has su<h a good deal, at
UA. Fonda, meanwhile, gets $2 million
from Columbia, her biggest salary yet, for
Her Hr other's Keeper, about a woman prison
guard.
The Illustrated George Carlin is the
comedian's first starring/producing film
venture, for whit h Carlin sent out this call
for supporting players: “male, varied age,
300-400 lbs, femme, varied age, 300-400
lbs; males (2) and femme, varied age,
midgets.”
Ken Russell, the British director who
gave us Lisztomania, The Devils, Valentino
and others, will next make I he Monster of
Loch Ness, no less, in which said monster
plac ed by (aaig (.ruber lommi repot trdly
wants to make more polished noise, like
Queen or Foreigner, while < Hbourne — in
I.os Angeles auditioning musicians
recently —claims he’ll carry on with the
pulverizing tiffs and a new hand. SaMiath
hopes to re-schedule for mid Frbtuary.
emerges as a mutant victim of radiation
fallout — just like all those- ants, frlolis, and
I lungs of the Fifties. More bad news:
screenwriter is John Bytum, who wrote
the vs tetc lied Xinhogrin}
John Contardo, after nine years as Sha
Na Nia s ballad specialist, has scored a solo
album deal. Plans call lot a touch of disco,
a heavy serving of romantic balladry and
absolutely no “oldies but goodies,' of
whic h tHe- handsome (amtaido seems to
have become pretty sic k. But he won’t
hang up the gold lame pantsuit just yet.
"Sha,” as he c alls the durable ae t, still makes
tidy sums from its louts and television
show
lucrative KbvvOff
As HER MARRIAGE to Kiss’ c uddly Petet
(aiss veered toward the rocks, Lydia (aiss
did as so many of today’s smai t women do:
site- hired attorney Marvin Mitehelson,
mouthpiece of choice in several recent
celebrity alimony and living-togcther
no-longer settlements, Mic belle Frieda
Marvin’s and Britt Ekland’s among them.
How did the former Mis. (aiss make out?
“All I can say,” gloated Mitehelson, “is that
she’s glad to be a millionaire.”
Don’t Fall In
Disney Studios is sending Dr. William J
Raid maim III on a ten-university lecture
(Continued on page 22)