Observer » Brett Ratner

Morning Memo: The Eldridge Opens; Lindsay Lohan Defends Bristol Palin; Brett Ratner Gossips About Miley Cyrus

Caroline Bankoff — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:41:12 -0400

Lindsay Lohan thinks the media's extensive coverage of the Bristol Palin scandal is "distracting from the real issues." She would know! [US Weekly]

Ever-decorous director Brett Ratner told the press that 15-year-old Miley Cyrus’s latest single—he directed the music video—is about her ex-boyfriend, Jonas Brother Nick. [People]

Invites to the new, infamously exclusive Eldridge bar on the Lower East Side went out today—though they're apparently slightly easier to come by than owner Matt Levine would have us believe. [Down By The Hipster]

Arthur Sulzberger has been deposed by Donald Trump's lawyers, who believe the New York Times publisher's testimony will strengthen their defamation suit against TrumpNation author Timothy O'Brien. Among the "reputation damaging" allegations: Mr. O'Brien listed Mr. Trump's worth as $250 million, rather than $150 million. [P6]

Paul McCartney visited the Amagansett library with his daughter to watch a lecture called "Eric's Big Bugs" and the librarian made an obvious—but cute!—Beatles pun. [NYDN, second item]

Musician John Legend is likely dating model Christy Tiegen—the two reportedly looked very close at a Soho party for football players Kerry Rhodes and Reuben Droughns. [P6]

Brett Ratner Wants to Make ‘Guitar Hero’ Movie

Matt Haber — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:55:20 -0400

It's not enough that Brett Ratner, Hollywood's least admired superstar director, has already made commercials for Activision's Guitar Hero videogame featuring those two guys from American Idol whose names you already forgot pretending to be Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Now, according to MTV's Multiplayer blog, Mr. Ratner wants to direct a movie based on the game. (This comes via New York's Vulture blog.)

Here's what the humble Rush Hour director and Entourage self-satirizer told MTV's Stephen Totilo:

I love 'Guitar Hero' and I think it’s a part of pop culture. I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie.

Ignoring his impossible to live up to injunction against making "a bad movie," here's Mr. Ratner's napkin-sketched plot, according to MTV: "It could be about a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the 'Guitar Hero' competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts."

Brett Ratner and Roman Polanski Visit Auschwitz

Gillian Reagan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:36:35 -0400

Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour trilogy, X-Men: The Last Stand and the new New York, I Love You, was the guest editor of this month's issue of Heeb magazine. Mr. Ratner decided to take his buddy Roman Polanski to the site of his mother's murder over half a century ago: Auschwitz. Mr. Polanski was guest photographer for other articles in the Heeb issue, but for this feature, Mr. Ratner got behind the camera. The pictures are here.

In a recent interview with The Onion's A.V. Club, Mr. Ratner explains his friendship with Mr. Polanski, who called him after he saw Rush Hour to praise the young director:

Roman became my friend. He called me, I went to Paris and visited him, and he was like, "Oh man, you don't understand, I love Rush Hour." He was asking me questions. I was like, "Wait a second, you don't understand. You're Roman Polanski, let me ask you some questions," and we've kept in touch all these years. All these years, we've kept in touch since Rush Hour. I was in Paris, getting ready to shoot, and I had lunch with him, and he said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I'm here shooting Rush Hour 3," and he said, "Oh, man, I love Rush Hour." I said, "Listen, you should be in it," just as a joke. So he said, "Well, what would I do?" And I said, "I'll get back to you tomorrow night." I call up the writer Jeff Nathanson and I say, "You've got to write up a scene for Roman Polanski!" He said, "He's not being in the movie." I said, "Yes, he is! I'm telling you he's doing it!" So he faxed me the pages to the hotel, and the next day I met with Roman, gave him the pages, and he said, "Let's do it."

We wonder if Mr. Polanski was so enthusiastically convinced for this somewhat tacky stunt.

Brett Ratner: Our Brand is Copy

Matt Haber — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:55:29 -0400

Brett Ratner, perhaps the most maligned filmmaker this side of Uwe Boll, is getting into branding. According to Variety's Marc Graser, Mr. Ratner is "launching Brett Ratner Brands as a consultancy to infuse a dose of pop culture into clients' marketing campaigns."

The imaginatively named company has already created two nearly identical commercials for Activision's "Guitar Hero" that ran during the season finale of American Idol. Like much of Mr. Ratner's work, it's an homage to an already established work, specifically, Tom Cruise's iconic underwear dance to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" from Risky Business.

"The ad agency serves a specific purpose," Mr. Ratner told Variety. "It's all about connecting with audiences through the use of storytelling." Even, apparently, if it's someone else's story being told again.

Morning Memo: Out on a Limb With Olivia Thirlby; S.J.P. is Down on N.Y.C.

Irina Aleksander — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:00:52 -0400

Brett Ratner is not allowed to use the trees in New York City parks to dangle 80-pound starlet Olivia Thirlby from for a sex scene. [NY Daily News]

Sarah Jessica Parker is down on the New York she helped create. [NY Mag]

Former owner of Gramercy Park Hotel says New York celebrities used to go there to hide out, instead of to put themselves on display as they do today. [NY Mag]

And in news you probably wish you didn't know: Norman Mailer was into role play. [P6]

During a Christie's pre-auction party for Andy Warhol's "The Double Marlon" silkscreen of Marlon Brando attended by Agyness Deyn, Derek Lam, Rumer Willis, Paul Sevigny, and Mark Ecko, someone stole a $3,000 Schott jacket similar to the one Mr. Brandon wore in the photo. [P6]

Diana Ross is second to no one! The singer arranged to have first choice of a seat at a screening of Iron Man, before the actors in the film like Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow came in to take theirs. [P6]