Dog bite, BMI, Car Dent, Big Wired Traffic

August update: I got bit by a dog - - my own sweet Huck - - the other morning. A rival dog off the leash came racing over to attack us. I got between the two, and Huck accidentally took a piece out of my calf. Ouch.

Oh, then I had an allergic reaction to echinacha. I've been taking it ever since a great Method actor (Sopranos) told me it prevented colds. I forgot to shake up a new bottle and choked, eyes tearing, coughing, all that. So, no more echinachea. I supsect it of being a placebo type thing anyway.

Then I posted Wired.com's most popular "gallery" story in July, and took the Amtrak down to Comic-Con and had pork chops with my editor at a restaurant that supposedly used to be Wyatt Earp's whore house. On the train back, I sat across from French director Michel Gondry and his girlfriend.

Last week I found out from BMI in New York that I'm a finalist for their musical workshop. I go there Sept. 8 to audition.

Watching "Mesrine" tonight, about French criminal. Gripping stuff. The guy channels young robert De Niro.

Happy new year. All purpose round-up: My former band The ODD (pictured) is being included in a documentary about Chicago's music scene. Details to come.

Another one of my bands, Huge Hart, will be featured in a history of Chicago's music scene being written by Dean Milano. The book, from Arcadia Publishing, is tentatively slated to hit bookstores late 2009.


And on the Wired.com front, you can link to a year's worth of my blogs covering all things geek including my favorite movie review headline of 2008: The Flesh is Willing but the Spirit is Weak.

www.hughhart.com/hoopla

Hugh Goes Sci-Fi for Underwire

Apologies for the light--okay, nonexistent -- week of posting. I've started to cover sci-fi and related movie and TV stuff for Wired.com's Underwire site. Spooky creatures and all that. Speaking of which, I had an interesting chat in Manhattan Beach with comic book artist Mike Mignola, the creator of "Hellboy," a few days ago. Bits from that conversation coming soon.

Marianne Faithfull: As Years Go By

I swapped emails with Marianne Faithfull a few days ago. She's the London "It Girl" from the sixties best known for "As Tears Go By." Now she's into Shakespeare. I liked what she had to say about time, voice and the Bard.

"I just came back from Germany where I performed 27 Shakespeare sonnets accompanied by a cellist. As you get older, you understand the sonnets more because they're about time. That's what I've always needed most. Even though I started at 17, I wasn't ready. It never occurred to me to become a pop singer. It just happened. I had no control.

It took until my album 'Broken English' before I realized I could put to use the all the things I'd learned from sitting in on sessions with the Stones, Bowie, the Beatles. Not to put down my early work, but there was a time before I finally found my true voice. That's how Sofia Coppola used me in Marie Antoinette - - that was primarily about my voice. It's a precious commodity.

More on Faithfull in Hugh's San Francisco Chronicle story.

More Celebs: Sighted

Celeb sightings: the sequel. Dog walking in the hills south of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks where all the rich people live: "CSI Miami" star David Caruso, dressed in black shirt and blue jeans, cooing with a toddler. We said hi. He said "hi guys" back.

Janel Maloney, that actress who used to play Donna on "West Wing," at Pane Dolce (three times) on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. She stood in front of me once to buy a muffin and coffee. I thought of saying, "I like your work," but her vibe seemed kind of closed-off so I left it alone.

Tall, beak-nosed actor / liberal James Cromwell from "Six Feet Under" and "Babe" also frequents Pane Dolce. I'd interviewed him on the phone just three days earlier about Schwarzenegger running for governor so I said hello. He was having lunch with a younger woman. It turned out he was about to get a divorce.

Tiny Selma Blair, actress and wife to Dweezil Zappa, stood in line at the Studio City Ralph's wearing jeans and a big old hooded parka. I told her I was a fan. Though she usually plays really dark characters, Selma seemed sweet, down to earth and genuine, though I don't remember exactly what she said back to me.

On Ventura Boulevard late one night when I was walking the dog I literally ran into comedienne Rhett Butler, who used to star in the "Grace on Fire" sitcom. She said "I love you dog." I told her he was adopted. Butler said she had adopted a bunch her self. I almost called her "Grace" which the only name that sprang into my mind - - I was tired!

The back of Ed Begley's head bobbed around at a table full of people inside an Indian restaurant in Studio City where we used to get carry out. The waitress told me he goes there all the time.

I spotted Dwight Yoakum at "Bedfellows" on Ventura Boulevard, roaming up and down the aisle checking out sofas. Without the cowboy hat, he's a normal looking dude.

Jerry Seinfeld's mom - - in the sitcom, not real life - - wolfing down tacos at the most excellent Tony's Mexican Grill located at a Sherman Oaks strip mall.

Also at Tony's Grill -- Corbin Bernsen, the playboy lawyer on "L.A. Law," chowing down with a teenaged looking kid - his son?

For Letterman fans: Johnny Dark, at the Starbucks. Low key and friendly, the complete opposite of the bitter sidekick he plays on "Late Show With David Letterman"

SIGHTED IN THE LAND BETWEEN VALLEY AND OCEAN: Jerry Seinfeld, sitting at the next table at the Kate Mantilini's restaurant, wearing neatly pressed blue jeans and oxford blue shirt while finishing off a a bowl of cherry cobbler.

Lauren Graham of "Gilmore Girls" fame, smoked a cigarette outside the ArcLight Cinema on Sunset Boulevard. She was relaxed and friendly when i said hi, and introduced her "friend" named Sam. I reminded her that I'd actually interviewed her and "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Palladino three years earlier in a trailer on the Warner Brothers Burbank lot.

Dustin Hoffman, standing quietly in line in Century City waiting to see "Momma Mia."

Celeb Sightings: Part II

The first week I arrived in California I saw somebody walking their dog past a gas station in Pacific Palisades and said to the wife, 'Gee, that guy looks like George Clooney. Being from Chicago I meant, 'Here's a man who bears a resemblance to the famous actor.' Of course, it actually was George Clooney. That's when I realized how many famous people walk around doing mundane crap in this town.

Landing from the Old Country in Pacific Palisades, the Redhead and I paid way too much rent for canyon views and ocean blue before we ran out of money and fled to The Valley. Here's a few of the people I spotted during my posh phase.


Ally Walker, the willowy star of late-nineties TV series "Profiler" admired my afghan hound in an Italian deli on Montana Street in Santa Monica.

"Dances with Wolves" star Mary McDonnell now on "Battlestar Galctica," stood in line to buy a video in Pacific Palisades.

Martin Short, like a lot of comedians, is REALLY off when he's not "ON." He stood in front of me while picking up Italian carry out in Pacific Palisades. Pre-occupied and not particularly friendly to the help or anyone else.

Keri Russell, in jeans and a peasant top, walked down the street one Saturday towards Starbucks with her then-"Felicity" co-star Scott Speedman next to her. They both looked happy.

Scientologist / sitcom actor Jeffrey Tambor ("Larry Sanders Show," "Arrested Development") must have thought I was stalking him because I actually saw him three times in one day. First in Pacific Palisades, buying coffee. Then on Sunset Boulevard at a Tea Bean and Leaf, buying coffee. Then at the Ventura Boulevard Starbucks, located across the street from the Sherman Oaks Scientyology Center, buying, uh, coffee. I guess that makes us both pretty serious caffeine addicts.

"When Harry Met Sally" star Meg Ryan jogged down Temecula Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

Goldie Hawn picked through a rack of clothes in a Montana Avenue boutique.

Arnold Schwarzenegger roaming a vacant lot looking for the perfect Christmas tree for wife and kids.

Rick Schroeder, all grown up and pre-occupied, sailing off in an SUV after shopping at Ralph's.

Anthony Minghella: Dead

Stylish "English Patient" director Anthony Minghella died, age 54, after routine neck surgery. Such a shame. I talked last year to Minghella, who had one of this great purring British accent. Subject was "Breaking and Entering," about immigrant thiueves who break into Jude Law's office.

"The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me that this is what I do for a living: In the course of a play or a film, we're allowed to walk around a problem and examine its consequences from more than one side, which is exactly the way these officers described conciliation meetings to me," he says. "It's that idea of conciliation that binds the movie together. Can a couple reconcile? Can a city reconcile itself to its progress, to its migrant people, to its class divisions? Everybody in this movie is striving to find some form of conciliation."

Talented guy and a mensch to boot. His movies will live on.

AP story.

Variety


link to Hugh's San Francisco Chronicle story

Adam Carolla Survives Dentist, Makes Movie

Professional loudmouth Adam Carolla just came back from the dentist the first time I met him and had me practically in tears laughing at his stories about the bloody mess. Even in agony: funny guy. I visited Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel at their "Crank Yankers" office to talk about that show, where they had puppets dramatize audio tape of professional comedians torturing strangers over the phone.

Anyway, Carolla has his first movie out "The Hammer" when i caught up with him last week. He pretty much hates the studios who passed on his idea:

" Fuck them, is my feeling. they turned us down, so what are they, my buddies? I have to kiss up to them? They already passed on our movie and secondly, I've seen the work that they do. it's horrific . so fuck them. I don't want to be in business with them. Why do I give a fuck what they think

Carolla now has gleaming white chompers by the way. He popped up on "Dancing with the Stars" tonight.

link to Hugh's San Francisco Chronicle story

Hugh to Flu: Drop Dead

Can the flu actually kill people, or does it just feel that way? Two weeks, dead to the world, but I've come out of the tunnel of hell and feel normal again. Wheee! In recovery, took in "The Band's Visit" - lovely little picture about an Egyptian orchestra stranded in a dusty Israeli village.