A slice of Travolta at ‘Saturday Night Fever’ pizziera
John Travolta has been celebrated at the New York City pizza joint made famous in his hit movie Saturday Night
Fever. In the 1977 film, Travolta’s Tony Manero character orders two slices from Lenny’s Pizza and eats them one on top of the other as he walks down the street. The restaurant has become a popular tourist spot with people still ordering the double-decker slices. Travolta joined hundreds of fans on Tuesday at a special ceremony outside Lenny’s, which named a slice in his honour. The New York
Daily News said the event also promoted Travolta’s new movie, Gotti, in which he portrays the late Mafia boss John Gotti.
Streisand approves of Lady Gaga’s ‘Star’ and adds an edit of her own for Netflix
Barbra Streisand’s A Star Is Born is being reborn online with a scene the singer cut from the 1976 movie. Long known as a perfectionist, Streisand tinkered with the film to restore an exchange between the star-crossed lovers played by her and Kris Kristofferson as well as an instrumental version of the Oscarwinning song Evergreen. The romantic drama, coming to Netflix along with other Streisand projects, isn’t the only Star on the horizon: A new version with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, below, will be in cinemas this autumn. Streisand is giving an early thumbs-up to the fourth remake of the romance between a rising young performer and a fading one, which Cooper has directed. “What I saw of it was very good,” Streisand said. “It’s just it feels reminiscent of mine, but they added some new things which I liked, too ... I’m sure it’ll work.” Streisand’s revised Star will be available on Netflix as part of a deal that includes her 1960s TV specials My Name Is Barbra, Colour Me
Barbra and Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park, among other projects. Release dates were not announced. The singer, filmmaker and Oscar-winning actress took the opportunity with A Star Is Born to right an error of omission for the film that was directed by Frank Pierson but on which she had the final edit. “It’s a scene that never should have been cut out in the first place and I cut it out, so I have only myself to blame. I was trying to move the picture along,” Streisand told Associated Press. In the restored sequence, Streisand’s aspiring actress-singer Esther takes guitar in hand to play Evergreen for Kristofferson’s character. Streisand wrote the music, with lyrics by Paul Williams. Streisand said she realised the moment helped to illuminate the pair and their relationship. She also added footage to the movie’s finale that features a medley of the songs With One More
Look At You and Watch Closely Now.
Mozart score and letter from Vincent van Gogh among Paris auction lots
A score by Mozart and a letter from Vincent van Gogh are among hundreds of lots up for grabs this month in auctions of items by composers, artists and writers. They are going under the hammer in Paris as part of a series of sales to liquidate a 130,000-item collection of art, music and literary works put together by French group Aristophil, which was set up in 1990 and raised funds from investors in exchange for a share in the pieces. The group went bankrupt in 2015 and Aristophil founder Gerard Lheritier was put under investigation for fraud, a charge he has denied. The first sale took place in December and the next round starts this week, with the Mozart score estimated to fetch between €120,000 and €150,000 (Dh518,082 to Dh647,603) and a letter with illustrations from van Gogh to his friend Anthon van Rappard to sell at about €250,000300,000. “The market is awaiting these sales because Aristophil bought everything for several years,” Claude Aguttes of Aguttes auctioneers said. “Now all of these works are available again, so people are happy first to be able to see them at various exhibitions and then to bid on them and maybe acquire them.”