Jude Law went bald and wore so much make-up to play Vladimir Putin in “The Wizard of the Kremlin” that one of the movie’s executive producers, Thomas Pierce, didn’t recognize him.
“He was in full prosthetics. His head was shaved. And he was speaking with a Russian accent,” Pierce told me. “It was as if Vladimir Putin had walked into the room.”
The movie, shot in Latvia, will premiere Aug. 31 at the Venice International Film Festival.
Law wasn’t happy to shave his head, but was committed to the role. “He gained 20 lbs.,” Pierce said.
“Wizard” co-stars Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright and Alicia Vikander.
Pierce, who also produced “The Brutalist” with Adrien Brody, co-financed “The Queen of Fashion” starring Emilia Clarke as Isabella Blow.
Blow, a Brit who worked for Vogue and discovered designer Alexander McQueen, suffered from bipolar depression and committed suicide in 2007 at the age of 48. McQueen also died by suicide three years later at 40 years old.
Blow’s friend Daphne Guinness, who bought her collection of clothing at auction, provided fashion for the film.
Guinness once explained, “She was upset that Alexander McQueen didn’t take her along when he sold his brand to Gucci. Once the deals started happening, she fell by the wayside. Everybody else got contracts, and she got a free dress.”
Pierce will host a party for the film Sept. 1 in a private palazzo in Venice to benefit his charity Children’s Oncology Support Fund.
“It’s a fashion feast for the eyes,” he said of the biopic.
****
Sean Combs — in jail in Brooklyn until at least October — will be able to resume his rap music career once he is freed, said DJ Prince Hakim, son of Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang.
“I think he’ll be richer and bigger,” Hakim said. “We are forgiving people.”
Hakim and his Kool Kids Foundation just hosted its sixth annual golf outing at the Cedar Hill Country Club in Livingston NJ where Lawrence Taylor and Ja Rule competed.
Preparing to perform, the cover band Yani was doing a sound check and played Ja Rule’s “Always on Time” when he grabbed a mic and started rapping with her.
“He put it on Instagram and got a million views, and she posted it and got a million more,” Hakim said.
The outing raised $100,000 after expenses to provide musical instruments and uniforms to marching bands in Newark.
Ty Muse, the CEO and President of Visions Federal Credit Union, donated $20,000 and put up another $10,000 after meeting the kids in the band who played three Kool & the Gang songs.
Hakim, whose new song “She Bad” was inspired by Janet Jackson, said he met the icon twice. “We love Janet. She’s still bad.”
****
Tina Brown remembers Sept. 14, 2001, when as editor-in-chief of Talk magazine, she was able to “get in to report on the barricaded, cop-crawling site of Ground Zero in lower Manhattan,” she writes on Substack.
With her was her former Talk partner Harvey Weinstein, whom she describes as “a lifelong news junkie” who had to see the site for himself, “as if it was a VIP area at a U2 concert.”
She recalled seeing the smoky remnants of the buildings and the “ghostly figures of ash-covered first responders” while Weinstein seemed to have something else on his mind.
“It was here, in this epic site of tragedy and loss, that I heard Harvey yell at his Afghan driver, ‘Assan! Get me a Diet Coke!’” Brown says he later complained the soda was “‘not cold enough.’”
****
The geniuses who created the American Eagle ad starring Sydney Sweeney as someone with great jeans/genes knew the campaign would be controversial.
“It was a calculated set-up in order to attain millions upon millions in free media,” said one public relations exec. “No way American Eagle didn’t think this through.”
American Eagle shares were up 25% following the ads’ launch.
****
Southampton will be crowded Aug. 26 and 27 when 700 people converge on the Parrish Art Museum for the Opal Group’s Family Office & Private Wealth Legacy Summit.
Among the 100 speakers are David Petraeus, the US Army general who headed the CIA, former Yankee Johnny Damon, Candace Bushnell, Julia Haart, independent mayoral candidate Joseph Hernandez and Wilbur Ross, the former US Secretary of Commerce who wrote “Risks and Returns.”
The well-heeled guests, seeking guidance on how to handle their fortunes, will take side trips to see horse show jumping at the Hamptons Classic and to meet Jacques Cousteau’s grandson Fabian aboard his research vessel.
“It’s a summer camp for millionaires,” said Abe Wellington, who founded the Opal Group.
****
Prince is back in the public eye. His 1987 film “Prince: Sign o’ the Times,” that he directed and starred in with Sheila E., has been re-released and is now in IMAX theaters.
This has increased the demand for items owned by the rock god. Last year, his “Cloud 3” guitar sold for $910,000, and the white ruffled shirt he wore in “Purple Rain” went for $75,000.
Now, the Lenox china set that Prince personally designed for his wedding to Mayte Garcia on Valentine’s Day in Minneapolis in 1996 is being offered for sale by M.S. Rau in New Orleans for $12,500.
This five-piece dinner set fuses his legendary Love Symbol with the letter “M” for Mayte, encircled by a stylized piano keyboard border. See them at rauantiques.com.
****
Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, Cher, and the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson were all patrons of the legendary J-Bar in the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado.
The Aspen Art Fair just wrapped up its show in the hotel’s gilded ballroom that was built in 1889.
Isabelle Bscher’s 57th Street-based Galerie Gmurzynska brought masterworks by Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson, Tom Wesselmann, Will Cotton and Andy Warhol’s late protégé Ronnie Cutrone, which proved to be the standout pieces at the fair.
****
Opera diva Radmila Lolly has big plans for a trilogy of stylish thrillers based on a femme fatale character named Karina she created on a long flight.
“Karina is a seductive mastermind,” said Lolly, who is already in talks with streaming services about a possible series based on “Life Is a Bridge.”
“The story is like nothing you have read before,” she promised. Now back to your keyboard.
