More Lord Of The Rings
'Corn'
From ''The Two Towers''....
''After the Darkness was overthrown the land of the Entwives blossomed richly,
and their fields were full of corn.''
If I can throw in my $0.02 worth on the corn thing, Tolkien was English. In
England, corn is a synonym for grain, whereas what we call corn they call
maize.
I don't remember where I read that but I think it's true.
~~ John
Thanks, John...think I read the same thing on the grain/corn/maize thing, too - just don't remember when or
where....
Long time ago my parents took in a German foreign-exchange student. The episode that I remember
best was their trying to interest Herr Deutschland in eatting corn. He kept calling it 'duck food', and
had the most contemptible attitude. Eventually, not only did he 'learn' to love corn, he took back packages
of seed to try to grow his own crop.
Wo ist Achim (jetzt)?
Demographics & Median Household Incomes
NBC On Top
Planning a Maui vacation? Heading out to the Ivy for a quick bite? Buying another Lexus? Apparently
you also regularly tune in to ``The West Wing'' and ``Law & Order.''
The two NBC dramas are the only primetime series to attract an adults 18-49 audience with a median
income of more than $70,000, according to a study conducted by Magna Global USA's Steve Sternberg.
Besides ``West Wing'' and ``Law & Order,'' NBC's ``Will & Grace,'' ABC's ``NYPD Blue'' and ``The
Practice,'' and Fox's ``Ally McBeal'' consistently draw viewers with fatter wallets, Sternberg reported.
NBC managed to pull the highest median household income among all six networks in every demo.
Last fall, the median household income among NBC's adults 18-49 viewers was $63,600, compared to the
median income of the U.S. population of $57,200.
CBS' adults 18-49 viewers brought home a median income of $58,100 -- up from $53,900 and better than
ABC ($57,500, up from $55,200) and Fox ($52,900).
As for the weblets, the WB's median household income among adults 18-49 jumped to $50,000 from $42,100,
while UPN also gained a few more wealthy viewers (from $38,800 to $44,800 in the demo).
While the adults 18-49 demographic remains a key barometer for advertisers, the networks increasingly have
touted their performance among the more affluent of those young adults. At their annual presentations to
advertisers, many execs now stress a new golden demo: adults 18-49 earning $75,000 a year.
The right audience composition also can help keep a show on life support. While not a ratings bonanza, for
example, Fox's ``24'' attracts an adults 18-49 audience with a median income between $60,000 and $64,000.
Demos, Incomes & NBC
Next Issue Of 'Talk' Magazine
Sean Penn
Some people may view Bill O'Reilly and Howard Stern negatively, but few would go so far as to compare either of them to Osama Bin Laden.
Sean Penn does precisely that in the next issue of Talk magazine.
"I think that people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O'Reillys and to a lesser degree the Bin Ladens of the world are
making a horrible contribution" to society, says the 41-year-old star of "I Am Sam," who saves his most scathing remarks
for the Fox News Channel host.
"I'd like to trade O'Reilly for Bin Laden," says Penn, calling "The No Spin Zone" author "an embraced pariah, that's what he is."
And Penn is just getting started on O'Reilly.
"This is not a man sitting on the toilet with a smile on his face. He's a grumpy, self-loathing joke," says Penn.
"There's a long history of people who capitalize on the lowest common demominator of people's impulses, Adolf Hitler
being one of them. Not everybody wants to hit the wall in a violent rage and break their knuckles, so [O'Reilly] does
it for them. He'll get very rich and get his rocks off that he's powerful."
Penn then comes up with yet another notorious historical figure with whom to link the outspoken TV personality:
1950s red baiter Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.).
"These guys — Joe McCarthy, Bill O'Reilly — die like everyone else," says Penn. "And when they do, their legacy is
one of damaging the spirit of good things, and they become rather broken, pathetic figures. And that is going to
happen to him." O'Reilly was on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment.
Of Stern, Penn says only, "He's just a guy making poo-poo jokes."
Nor is Penn enamored of George W. Bush, despite the President's 86% approval rating. "He doesn't provoke thought
or challenge my head or my spirit," Penn says of the commander in chief. "I don't think he does the country's either."
Sean Penn
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Started out on ABC with the FedEx Orange Bowl, but, after a while, there was no game there, so
ended up on CBS and '60 Minutes II'.
Watched 'Bernie Mac' on Faux, and came away with the feeling that whoever wrote the episode actually
had kids in their lives, as opposed to someone 'imagining' what it must be like. Stuck around for 'Titus', too.
Also re-watched some of the Lucy rerun on CBS.
Tonight, Thursday, the Rose Bowl finally happens. No Nebraska fans in this household.
CBS has a fresh 'Survivor: Africa', followed by a rerun 'CSI', and a rerun 'The Agency'.
NBC has nothing but reruns, unless it really airs the episode of 'Inside Schwartz' - how bad is that...the
cancelled show is the only fresh one.
Faux 'counter-programs' the Rose Bowl with a re-re-re-run of 'Mrs. Doubtfire'.
The WB has a fresh 'Popstars 2' and a repeat on 'Charmed'.
AMC has an interesting selection of 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid', 'The Parallax View',
and 'Conrack'...All 3 movies 'star' men thought to be of a more liberal mindset.
Earlier, TCM shows Howard Hughes favorite movie - 'Ice Station Zebra' (which I thought was
rather lame as a movie - but, the book! First 80 pages are slow, and then whoa, it gets really hard to put down).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Cool Dad
George Lucas
If "Star Wars" fans have any faith left after the creation of Jar-Jar Binks, they may throw in the towel when
they get a load of the latest casting news from "Attack of the Clones." The boys of *NSYNC have a cameo in the
upcoming prequel, according to various fan sites.
It seems George Lucas is slipping the teeny-poppers in to please his two adopted daughters, who worship the boy
band. The kids appear for only a nanosecond, as anonymous Jedi knights in the background of a climactic battle
scene. Then they get blown up by "battle droids."
Cool Dad
At least they get 'blowed up' in the end.
Updated!
BartCop TV!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot' never seems to rest - and doesn't let little things like laundry or
housekeeping get in the way!
Damn near every show on TV must is listed - days & days worth of great reading.
If you have any questions about nearly any tv program, check out
BC TV!
'Aidan' In ``Sex and the City''
John Corbett
John Corbett won't give any hints as to whether his ``Sex and the City'' character, Aidan, will actually marry Carrie this season.
Aidan and Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, got engaged before the HBO comedy went on hiatus last summer.
``You have to watch it just like my mom. My mom asked the same question, so don't feel bad,'' Corbett told
reporters. ``I love my mom much more than you all.
And speaking of his mother, Corbett said he's not embarrassed if she sees the racy show, for which he's been
nominated for a supporting-actor Golden Globe. He just doesn't watch it with her.
``As long as I'm not naked, I don't care who she sees naked,'' he said. ``I don't care who's naked in anything
I do as long as it's not me. But it's classy, so I don't have any problem with that.''
John Corbett
Nice Pay Raise
Jane Leeves
The BBC reports that Jane Leeves, who plays wacky Daphne Moon on the NBC sitcom 'Frasier', has inked a deal worth $30
million over the next three years - or about $455,000 an episode.
It's still not as much as David Hyde Pierce, who last month signed a deal reportedly paying him about $750,000 an episode.
Kelsey Grammer, who plays lovelorn Seattle psychiatrist Frasier Crane, earns $1.6 million an episode as
TV's highest-paid sitcom star.
Leeves has earned an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe nomination for her work on "Frasier," where she plays
the physical therapist to Martin Crane (John Mahoney) and the love interest for Niles Crane (Hyde Pierce).
Nice Pay Raise For Jane Leeves
Nuptials In The News
McEnery - Clapton
British guitar legend Eric Clapton has secretly married 25-year-old American Melia McEnery, the mother of
his baby daughter, according to a newspaper report on Thursday.
Clapton, 56, tied the knot with McEnery, from Columbus, Ohio, in a low-key ceremony at a church near his
Surrey, southern England, home on New Year's Day, The Sun reported.
Guests were told they were attending the christening of the couple's six-month-old daughter Julie Rose.
But after the baptism, Clapton and McEnery were called forward by the vicar and exchanged vows.
Clapton was married for nine years to Patti Boyd, whom he stole from former Beatle George Harrison. They divorced in 1988.
Clapton met McEnery, a graphic artist, on a trip to Los Angeles.
McEnery - Clapton Nuptials
Looping 'Queen Of The Damned' Dialogue
Aaliyah's Brother Rashad Haughton
Aaliyah may be gone, but her sultry voice lives on...through her older brother?!?
That's right, the late R&B singer is getting some help from her family so that Warner Bros. can release The Queen
of the Damned, the big-screen adaptation of Anne Rice's novel starring Aaliyah in the title role.
Before she died in an August 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas, the 22-year-old singer had nearly completed her
work in the film. But to prep it for a February 2002 release, Time magazine reports that her brother, Rashad
Haughton, stepped in to rerecord some of his sister's dialogue.
In the film, Aaliyah plays a 6,000-year-old Egyptian vampire named Akasha. Because she spoke with an Egyptian
accent, her dialogue needed some work so that the audience could understand her better.
That's where her brother stepped in. Haughton--who, surprisingly, speaks with a soft, smooth tone much like
Aaliyah did--rerecorded "a small number of words and stray lines," according to Time's Christopher John Farley,
author of the new book Aaliyah: More Than a Woman.
This is hardly the first time producers have used special effects wizardry to finish work by an actor who
died before a film's completion. After James Dean died in an auto accident in 1955, Dean's friend Nick Adams
recorded parts of the dialogue for his film Giant. More recently, Oliver Reed died before he had finished
work on Gladiator, so director Ridley Scott used digital effects to place his head on another actor's body.
Aaliyah's Brother Rashad Haughton
Her Feet Are Too Big?
Macy Gray
When asked to describe herself in one word, Macy Gray says she's ``impossible.''
In an interview in the January issue of Rosie magazine, Gray tells Rosie O'Donnell that her favorite food
is ``three scoops of sorbet - lemon, raspberry and mango,'' and that if she could change one thing about
herself, it would be her feet.
``I wish my feet were smaller,'' she says.
Gray won a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance for ``I Try,'' which is on her 1999 CD, ``On How Life Is.''
Macy Gray
Moving To Faux
Greta Van Susteren
CNN personality Greta Van Susteren is jumping to Fox News Channel, continuing the lively rivalry between
the two cable news networks.
Van Susteren, who rose to prominence at CNN as an on-air legal analyst during the O.J. Simpson trials, had
until recently been host of two daily programs on CNN.
Fox News Channel plans to install Van Susteren as host of its 10 p.m. talk show. It has been looking for
a regular host there since Paula Zahn left for CNN in September, a move that caused some bitterness at Fox.
Kate Snow will replace Van Susteren on "The Point," at least temporarily.
Greta Van Susteren
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
''Last Call''
Carson Daly
Can Carson Daly, the eternally boyish MTV host, make people forget Bob Costas?
Daly, 28, takes over as host of the on-again-off-again, late, late "Last Call" on Monday night.
It is a gamble for both the network - which is trying to revive an hour that no other network has been able to make
work - and Daly - who is seeking to break out of his straightjacket role as teen-TV host of MTV's "Total Request Live."
"Last Call" will air at 1:35 a.m. after "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" Monday through Thursday. It'll be taped
earlier in the afternoon at NBC's Studio 8H, home of "SNL," and feature one or two guests and "lots of live
musical performances" according to an NBC rep.
About 10 years ago, the success of NBC's late night schedule, especially David Letterman (who until 1993 aired
after Johnny Carson) spawned a host of failed late night shows during the late '80s and early '90s with hosts ranging
from "Wheel of Fortune's" Pat Sajak, Rick Dees, Chevy Chase and even more recently NBA star Magic Johnson.
But in 1988 at 1:35 a.m., it was Costas - literally moonlighting as a talk show host - who made the
strongest in-roads on network TV.
When Costas left "Later" in 1994, he was replaced by Greg Kinnear who is less associated with his
two-year stint on "Later" than he is for hosting the campy show "Talk Soup" on cable's E! Network.
When Kinnear quit in 1996, the show was helmed by a succession of celebrity guest hosts until actress Cynthia
Garrett took over in Jan. 2000.
But after Garrett fell into the habit of referring to almost every one of her guests as "simply amazing,"
the network pulled the plug in December 2000.
''Last Call''
Costas has been gone from this time slot for 7 years now...for the last year the hour has been filled with
20 year old reruns of SCTV, which is still funnier than anything currently on primetime.
Largest Private Landowner In The US
Ted Turner
Billionaire media mogul Ted Turner wants the state's permission to release rare swift foxes on his 138,000-acre South Dakota ranch.
The Turner Endangered Species Fund of Bozeman, Mont., has asked the state's Animal Industry Board to allow for
the release of the threatened animal - the smallest of North America's wild dogs - on Turner's ranch in central South Dakota.
The Turner group wants to release 180 swift foxes over the next several years. The animals, about the size of
house cats, would be trapped in Wyoming and moved to South Dakota.
If the Animal Industry Board approves the Turner group's request, the first foxes could be released late this
winter or early spring, Phillips said.
Turner, the 63-year-old CNN founder, is the largest private landowner in the United States with about 1.75
million acres in New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. His ranch empire, based in Montana, raises bison.
Largest Private Landowner In The US
Oldest Apartment Building On Hollywood Boulevard
Hillview Apartments Burn
A historic Hollywood apartment complex built by movie mogul Jesse L. Lasky in 1917 and once owned by Charlie
Chaplin was heavily damaged Tuesday by a blaze.
The vacant four-story Hillview Apartments is the oldest apartment building on Hollywood Boulevard, city historians say.
Lasky, who founded one of Hollywood's first movie studios, Famous Players-Lasky, built the Mediterranean-style
apartment building to provide housing for his actors, according to Historic Resources Group, a California-based preservation firm.
The cause of the fire, which caused an estimated $500,000 damage, was under investigation.
Oldest Apartment Building On Hollywood Boulevard Burns
LOTR's 'Boromir'
Sean Bean
British actor Sean Bean is known to American audiences for the villains he's played, so he says it's nice to
be able to show his sympathetic side in ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.''
Bean plays the regally flawed human Boromir in the Peter Jackson-directed film, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy.
``Over here I'm sort of seen as the villain really,'' he told reporters recently. ``This film has given
(me an) opportunity to move away to more sympathetic roles.''
Sean Bean
End Of An Era
Bill Tush
Bill Tush's exit from Cable News Network marks the end of an era that predates even his 18 years on ``Showbiz Today.''
Tush was working for Ted Turner before CNN was ever thought of, back when Turner's Channel 17, a future superstation
destined to blanket the country, was seen only by Atlantans, few of whom watched it.
During nearly three decades at Turner Broadcasting, Tush served his audience in a variety of on-air roles.
At the same time, he served his boss as a steadfast confederate, an easygoing wise guy who, early on, was nothing less
than the public face of Turner's scrappy fledgling empire.
``I went from working for a broken-down TV station to working for one of the largest entertainment corporations in the
world - and never changed my resume. I mean, my resume says I weigh 155 pounds and I'm single. That was three wives ago!''
It was in 1974 that the Pittsburgh-born radio personality broke into TV by wangling a part-time job at Atlanta's
WTCG (grandly signifying ``Turner Communications Group''), a local non-network UHF outlet with a minuscule audience
and scant programming besides pro wrestling and old movies.
Hired to tape announcements an hour each day, he soon was on camera as the overnight newscaster, reading wire
copy between the movies that ran until dawn.
``Then, one night, someone in the studio threw a balled-up piece of paper at me,'' Tush recalls. ``It bounced
off my head while I kept on reading. And one thing led to another.''
With Turner's amused blessing, Tush and his cronies pushed to come up with new foolishness night after night.
``I had my own TV station to play with,'' he says. And, with it, a mandate to play out the whims of his mercurial
and charismatic boss.
Bill Tush
I was in Alaska when Bill Tush was doing the 'overnight foolishness' on WTBS. Literally, I would power
down the transmitter at KTVA, CBS for Alaska and if not for the then-recently arrived Visions cable
system, my choices when I got 'home' were listening to bad AM radio or listening to bad 8-track tapes (although there was this one
Harry Nilsson album I'd love to replace).
Yes, I remember Bill Tush, and wish him only the best for the future.
AKA Salman Rushdie's Girlfriend
Padma Lakshmi
Padma Lakshmi, model, chef and girlfriend of novelist Salman Rushdie, is trying to regroup after making her
acting debut in the box-office bomb "Glitter."
She doesn't think the film flopped because star Mariah Carey had "shortcomings as an actress, but because
the movie was released just too close to the 9/11 atrocities, and the public wasn't in the mood for a showbiz story."
Lakshmi has now optioned Norma Klein's novel "Domestic Arrangements," which she plans to direct.
As for the script, she told Webster Hall curator Baird Jones, at a recent screening of "Fellowship of the
Ring," that "I know Salman won't help me in the least because he will make me pay him, and no matter how
big a budget I can come up with, there will still be no way that I can afford him."
Padma Lakshmi
New Year's Resolutions
Cameron, Sarah Jessica...
The New Year is here and celebs are zeroing in on personal growth.
Cameron Diaz vows she's going "to wear a bra more."
Sarah Jessica Parker wants to stop biting the inside of her cheeks. "It's born of insecurity," says the "Sex
and the City" star. She resolved to stop her cheek-chewing last year, "but 20 minutes after the New Year began,
I was gnawing away in there like a demon."
Janeane Garofalo, whose 19-pound weight gain after the September terror attacks made her consider quitting
acting, wants "to become thin." Rosie O'Donnell also promises to "eat food that has some sort of nutritional
value, along with the crap I normally eat."
Jon Stewart and John Mellencamp are both trying again to kick nicotine. But Jeremy Irons reckons, "I might smoke more."
Then there's husky-voiced Brenda Vaccaro, who says, "I've given up smoking. I've given up alcohol. I just lost,
like, 38 pounds. I'm exhausted with all these resolutions, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna go out and be bad."
New Year's Resolutions
New! Updated!
(10 Dec., 2001)
The official BartCop Astrologer, Geneva, has done good, again!
Very interesting reading!
A Little Dip In The Self-Pity Pool?
Dennis Quaid
In the '60s, the Shirelles sang songs dedicated "to the one I love."
But different times call for different dedications, as those at Moomba in Los Angeles found out Saturday night.
The place was packed with a lot of young women who had come to swoon for the evening's main attraction, actor
Dennis Quaid and his band, the Sharks.
Obviously feeling like the wronged party in the breakup of his 10-year marriage to Meg Ryan, Quaid introduced
one particular song by dedicating it, he said, "to all of you who have been f----- over."
Dennis Quaid
Commemorating Queen Elizabeth II's 50 Years On The Throne
New Five-Pound Coin
Britain is minting a new five-pound coin to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's 50 years on the throne, officials said Wednesday.
Engraved on the Golden Jubilee coin are the Latin words ``Amor Populi Praesidium Reg,'' or ``the love of the
people is the queen's protection.''
The front shows the monarch riding a horse; on the back she is depicted in profile. Commemorative coins
minted for her coronation and its 25th anniversary had similar designs.
The Royal Mint made the coin available to collectors on Wednesday and said it would go into general circulation in May.
To celebrate her 50 years as monarch, Elizabeth plans to tour the commonwealth of former British colonies
beginning in March and travel through Britain during the summer. A long weekend of celebrations is
planned at the beginning of June.
New Coin Of The Realm
A Real Journalist Or Does She Just Play One On TV?
Andrea Thompson
Elitist media snobs were horrified when former "NYPD Blue" babe Andrea Thompson was tapped to anchor CNN's
Headline News. They shrieked when PAGE SIX uncovered nude pics of her on the Internet.
Now tabloidbaby.com, has named Thompson its Person of the Year for 2001. "Through perseverance, sacrifice
and an ability to communicate," Kearns writes, "she managed to overcome prejudice against her past."
Andrea Thompson
Echostar Vs. Disney
''Hush Money''?
The war of words between EchoStar Communications Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. escalated Wednesday, with EchoStar
saying it would not pay Disney "hush money" to keep it from opposing its proposed merger with DirecTV.
The nation's second-largest satellite television operator said its dispute with Disney goes beyond EchoStar's
decision to drop Disney's ESPN Classic and ABC Family channel from its Dish Network.
The company said Disney's decision to charge high fees for popular channels such as ESPN means satellite and
cable distributors must drop other, less popular channels to avoid huge rate increases.
EchoStar also blasted Disney for applying "heavy-handed tactics of trading political support for rate increases."
"In the end, EchoStar refuses to pay hush money to Disney, and believes that interested government
officials and the public will see through Disney's self-serving tactics," the company statement said.
In court filings, EchoStar has said Disney officials threatened to oppose its merger with Hughes
Electronics, which operates the DirecTV network, if a deal could not be reached to keep ABC Family on the Dish Network.
"Disney wants to dominate every market they have and charge the maximum price," said Larry Gerbrandt, chief
content officer at Kagan World Media, a media research and consulting firm.
Analysts say the kind of hard-nosed business negotiations between Disney and EchoStar happen all the time,
but rarely become as public as the current spat.
Echostar Vs. Disney
BC Entertainment Favorite Link
Moose & Squirrel Information One-Stop
http://geocities.com/mooseandsquirrel1
What a great site! Information and reference materials of the first order!
Between 'Moose & Squirrel'
and 'Google', who needs daddy drudge!
Contract Being Bought Out
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey may be crying all the way to the bank. Just weeks after it was reported that her $100 million,
five-album contract with Virgin was in jeopardy - she would either have to leave or renegotiate because her
"Glitter" flopped - spies said her lawyers have reached a deal with the label that will buy her out for $50 million.
Mariah toasted the news while dining at the St. Regis hotel in Aspen, where she and her on-again boyfriend,
Luis Miguel, spent Christmas. Carey's rep, Cindi Berger, said, "I don't know. I have not been able to
reach Mariah's attorneys."
Mariah Carey
Aspects Not Covered In Film
``A Beautiful Mind,''
Certain aspects of John Nash's life weren't explored in the movie ``A Beautiful Mind,'' in which Russell Crowe
stars as the tortured mathematician who overcame schizophrenia and won the Nobel prize.
One of them, Crowe said, was ``a certain adventurousness in his sexuality,'' which Sylvia Nasar suggests in her biography of Nash.
``And that was a big question for us, how far to go into that,'' Crowe tells Entertainment Weekly for its
Jan. 4 issue. ``It was relevant to his character, but we didn't want to imply that there was any possibility
that schizophrenia and homosexuality are related. That would be ridiculous.''
``A Beautiful Mind''
Guardsman Accidentally Shoots Self At SFO
Barney Fife In The Guard?
A National Guardsman accidentally shot himself at San Francisco International Airport while trying to remove
his gun from his holster.
Louis E. Alvarez, a National Guard Specialist, was going off duty at about 11:00 p.m. Friday when the accident
happened, according to Sgt. 1st Class Tom Jacobs.
He was going through a procedure to make sure his M-9 pistol was clear of ammunition when he had trouble removing
the gun from its holster and it went off. The shot went through his hip and exited at his buttocks.
The shooting happened at a courtyard in the international terminal away from passengers. Jacobs said the National
Guard had opened a formal investigation. He said he couldn't discuss whether Alvarez should have had a round in
the chamber because of security concerns.
San Francisco Airport Incident
Sure makes me feel safer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Memory
Julia Phillips
Julia Phillips, a tough-talking movie producer who became the first woman to win a best-picture Oscar, has died of cancer, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.
Phillips, who was 57, died on Monday in her Hollywood home, the trade paper said.
Phillips produced three of the most iconic movies of the 1970s, ``The Sting'' (1973), ``Taxi Driver'' (1976) and ``Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977).
``The Sting'' was named best picture at the Academy Awards in 1974, and Phillips shared the award with her fellow producers, her husband Michael and their partner, actor Tony Bill.
``Taxi Driver,'' which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976, was also nominated for a best-picture Oscar.
After conquering Hollywood, she succumbed to a raging cocaine habit, and did not produce another movie until 1988's ''The Beat,'' the last film she would ever make.
Phillips won Hollywood's attention again in 1991 by writing the juicy memoir, ``You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again,'' which invoked the names of luminaries like Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty and Martin Scorsese. The title debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, and yielded the 1995 sequel ``Driving Under the Affluence.''
Phillips, described by Daily Variety as a brilliant but intimidating raconteur who swore like a stevedore and smoked nonstop, was unworried about burning her bridges with the books.
``She always said, 'It turned me from an old producer into an icon,''' the paper quoted her son-in-law Modi Wiczyk as saying.
She is survived by two children, Kate and Matthew.
Julia Phillips
For a better obit, Julia Phillips Obit In The LA Times
Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"
