267 stories by "Ken Levine"
I understand tickets were going for $2000 a pop. And people were saying it was a bargain. Bruce Springsteen was on Broadway. In a theatre that sat 975, which is somewhat more intimate th…
On January 1st I posted my New Year's Resolutions. Let's see how well I did. Throw out my Miramax DVD's.They're gone. Sorry Harvey.Finally watch THIS IS US.Next year for sure.Get ALMO…
This is the week in LA and New York when movies that hope to be contenders for the Oscars must run in theaters. Being a member of the WGA and DGA, I've received a lot of screeners of the ho…
Take a break from Christmas shopping to check out some Friday Questions.MikeKPa starts us off.A lot of William Goldman's work was adaption. Have you ever done adaptations and did you find it…
It seems like every twenty years or so someone remakes A STAR IS BORN. There was the original with Janet Gaynor in 1937, Judy Garland took the stage in 1954, and then Barbra Streisand in 1…
Mike Nichol's & Elaine May were two improv performers in Chicago who really clicked. So much so that they became a comedy team. And a sensation! This was in the late '50…
Ricky Jay passed away last weekend. He was... too young. I loved Ricky Jay but never knew him. My good friend Tracy Newman did and graciously offered to write her own perso…
In honor of Turkey Day, Ken spins one audio trainwreck after another. You'll laugh till you cringe.Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY. S…
And not just because I want him to direct one of my movies... or even say hello to me.Got a missive from reader "Laura" who asked:Ken, can you please give your opinion on what Steven Spielbe…
For me, if there's a Mount Rushmore of screenwriters it's Billy Wilder, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, and William Goldman. And now all four have passed. William Goldman died yesterday. He w…
I haven't done this in awhile, so what the hell? Again, thanks to everyone who answered the call last week and gave me your feedback. I got a very interesting suggestion from reader Janet Y…
It's typical for a movie to take years to get made. Ken takes you through the saga of VOLUNTEERS, from the initial idea to all the studios, ups and downs, production, release, and how …
Tourism is always big in Los Angeles. Local residents on the Westside are used to seeing kids stand out on Sunset Blvd. selling maps to the stars' homes. Hollywood locals take it for …
Since a number of people who read my post yesterday asked about my brush with Jacqueline Onassis, I thought I would reprise a post I wrote on this a few years ago.Yes, I went to the theatre …
As a playwright, one of my main objectives is to see my plays produced. I have full-length, half-hour, and ten-minute plays. All comedies, some award winners. So in an attempt to make my …
I've posted this before, years ago, but it's one of my all-time favorites. Do you remember a comedian named Gallagher? His basic act was smashing watermelons. When …
Oh, the humanity! The heartbreak! Imagine if she had slept with a roadie. Or worse -- a writer.Let this be a cautionary tale. Never sleep with a celebrity until you'…
TCM in tribute to Neil Simon played a number of his movies last night. A few years ago I hosted a month-long Neil Simon film festival on TCM. Although they didn't use my intros a…
Lost in all the horrors of 9-11 is that I lost another dear friend who died on that date. Larry Gelbart in 2009. Were it not for 9-11 I might have saluted him every year on…
Having a show on network televisionBeing on televisionRadioHaving a hit songBeing an NFL team in Los AngelesThe Rose BowlThe Polo LoungeAirline travelLibrary cardThe Universal TourMovie prem…
This is another crazy story that happened along the way in our career. This was on a pilot rewrite.In 1976 there was a somewhat popular movie called MOTHER, JUGS, & SPEED about ambula…
scene from GOING GOING GONEI love writing plays. It's liberating to write whatever I want, characters of any age, and no network executive insisting I make my antagonist more "likeable." …
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG does pretty much everything right. It started in England and continues on Broadway. For all the heavy "important" plays that have come and gone over the past yea…
Friday Questions everybody. Come and get 'em.Dsull leads off with a question about the five sitcoms I listed as my all-time favorites. With the exception Seinfeld, all your favorite sitcoms…
I was going to do a post about Kathleen Turner's JEWEL OF THE NILE comments but with the Motion Picture Academy drastically changing Oscar rules I thought I would address that today and save…
