This story reminds me of some stories I’ve heard about the Cannes Film Festival and how some lower-tier actresses can make lots and lots of money by doing some “escorting” at the festival, especially when the Middle Eastern princes come around in their yachts and start throwing money around. First, let’s do some backstory. Harvey Weinstein is currently at TIFF promoting the documentary/concert film 12.12.12, all about what it took to get the Sandy Relief Concert off the ground, with Harvey as the organizer. Harvey has organized these kinds of mega-concerts for charity before, and Harvey does know how to work it. Well, an unnamed “prince of an Arabian country” said he would donate a substantial amount of money to the Relief Fund if only the prince could spend some time with… Kristen Stewart.
Music and film fans may have come to the Toronto International Film Festival’s world premiere of “12.12.12” for the documentary’s flashy mix of live performances and backstage footage from the star-studded Hurricane Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Gardens, but they stayed for the post-screening gossip.
That’s not necessarily a slight against the film itself, which was chock full of stunning footage of performances from concert stars like Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, The Who, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney — and the remaining members of Nirvana, who get a surprisingly passing mention — and augmented with a number of delightful and often unexpected backstage moments.
Paul McCartney’s efforts to convince Alicia Keys that he’s as cool as his daughter Stella are particularly amusing. And Chris Martin’s stunned delight when Michael Stipe says that he wants him to sing along to “Losing My Religion” during the performance is almost enough to obliterate any Coldplay and/or GOOP-related stigma the singer has accrued over the years.
But nothing came close to torrent of named names and unbridled bitterness that the concert promoter and Hollywood bigwig Harvey Weinstein dished in the post-screening Q&A with his fellow event organizers James Dolan and John Sykes and doc producers Amir Bar-Lev and Meghan O’Hara. Some of the things that Weinstein willingly shared with the sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Wintergarden Theatre left Bar-Lev, the film’s director, visibly stunned at some of the things he’d missed while he was filming the event.
First of all, Weinstein gleefully confessed that he’d sold a sit-down with “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart for charity funds. Apparently the “Prince of an Arabian country” was offering to pay top dollar for a fifteen-minute chat with the chronically awkward actress.
Weinstein called Stewart and filled her in on the situation. “She said ‘How much?’ My kind of girl,” he quipped. The mogul and the prince were eventually able to agree to a $500,000 donation. In cash. The prince, Stewart and a number of bodyguards enjoyed a lovely fifteen minutes together during the concert. (The concert went on to raise $30 million.)
“She said ‘How much?’ My kind of girl.” That was enough to make my skin crawl a little bit. Harvey sounds less like a world-class organizer and more like a flesh-peddler. As for Kristen… I mean, what she did was nice. She spent some time with a prince and those 15 minutes meant $500,000 for charity. But I do have to wonder… are Arab princes really into Twilight? Or did the prince just hear about the Mini Coopering situation and thought, “Well, maybe Harvey can organize this Mini Cooper girl for me”?
Also at HuffPo – Harvey bitches about how he asked Led Zeppelin to perform at the concert but Jimmy Page was a dick to him and then Page’s lawyer was a dick to him. Harvey asked Hillary Clinton to intervene (SERIOUSLY) and Hillary suggested Bubba for the task and still Jimmy Page gave Bubba a flat-out NO. Who says no to Bubba?!
Photos courtesy of WENN and Joe Alvarez/WENN.
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