Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

It's Philly film crunch time. Ritz/Land/Mark/Cuban Theatres took out the Jeanne Moreau bust from the Ritz 5. Ish Klein — poetess, puppeteer, filmmaker — still hasn't been heard from after spending April Fools' Sunday shooting, for 24 hours straight, "a folk musical": something where anyone could share their song and their dance. No wonder we can't find her. Everyone smells funny from rushing through their bits of the 48 Hour Film Project and showing the damned things at I-House last Sunday. "The funniest thing about Rule#437 was having Scotty Yelity and Cozmo as murderous cannibals singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' while bloody lasagne dripped from their mouths," says Uncut Productions director Jen Serbu about her company's 48 Hour flick. (Uncut — as much about party-balling as camera-rolling — is having a Drunken Spelling Bee at Bob & Barbara's April 9 to promote 437. ) Most particularly, there's that 16th Philly Film Fest. Good stuff, even great stuff going on. Giving Dermot Mulroney — the ultimate chick-lit-flick magnate — an Indie Spirit Award? Noice. I interviewed him for some men's mag about playing the boyfriend in The Wedding Date, My Best Friend's Wedding and Must Love Dogs, and Dermot said blithely, "I'm playing the girlfriend, I know. It's not reverse sexism or anything — it's the same exact amount of unimaginative film writing." It ain't his fault — get it. And even if you don't like that answer, don't fuck wit' Dermot. His dad teaches law at Villanova and his sister's a Philly ADA. They'll get y'ass busted. So while we're excited about PFF16 and the Penthouse-party opener April 5 with gloomy Stephin Merritt DJ-ing (see Brian Howard's interview), one thing is making me sad: We kept hearing that Philadelphia Film Society type/PFF grand mamoo/really-long-colorful-scarf-wearing Thom Cardwell might be leaving PFF after 16. Even higher-ups at TLA/PFF claim Cardwell's claimed he might go. TLA boss 'n' festival impresario Ray Murray mentioned he had heard as much from Cardwell. "Then he said he wasn't leaving," says Murray. I don't always know what Thom does there. But dammit, Cardwell does it with panache. "No comment further at this time," says Cardwell. "When there's something to say, I'll say it." Such a tease. Buy him a white wine and make him stay. Or make him tell me. OK. There's tons more film stuff, too. Like Philly film company Belvedere Ent. Inc. that launched with Blur the other night. What's up, CEO Nick Briscoe? Why Philly? "We have an overdeveloped sense of hometown pride," says Briscoe, who wants to make moments forever associated with Philly, "like Rocky climbing the Art Museum steps." Uh oh. At least his company is making Philly flicks advertently funny (Meal Ticket) and scary (Portal, Method Mollie). Is the gal behind drag king "Wang Newton" coming out — literally, figuratively and bare-assedly? In her first feature flick, 2 Minutes Later (April 13, PPF16) Mei-yann Hwang has a spicy, girl-on-girl bathroom tryst with Jess Graham. "Not sure how the final edit went," says Hwang. "But I show a bit of my yellowtail." Though Philly kid Charlie McDermott's got a role in The Ten that's dropping at PFF16, he's already snagged his next flick: Frozen River. Stay away from co-star Michael O'Keefe — he's creepy. Despite having wrapped with Bam's Unholy Union on MTV, that particular West Chesterian Margera is set to start filming his own feature, Minghags. And nothing you can do will stop him. As we speak, the paranormal history of Fort Mifflin — as if there was a normal one — was being docu-drama-ed by Lou Gentile with Carmen Martella III as one of its serial-killing stars. Even rival Philly film companies are getting in. Sure, Cara Ricci Gaul left Terry Hines' THA film PR firm to join Philly's American Red Cross. But THA got Katie Green to step into her shoes. And while Allied Advertising dude Patrick McHugh is doing maximum R&B (Grubstake) and releasing acid-head CDs (The Bestest), Allied just got once-departed Nicholas Tarnowski back in its clutches. Mwahahaha.

► In the not-so-moving-picture department: Photog Dominic Episcopo snagged Ellie Dillon from her role as head agent at Reinhart Modeling as his studio director. In Philly fashionista news, that's as big as ARCWheeler opening that too-tony Barneys Co-op in RittSquare. Honest.

► FIRSTFRIDAY: Art-smart designer/painter/Jill Rabbit singer Nicole Porter Willcox of Creative Karat Inc. is hosting a whole boatload of lady photogs, drawers and such (Kat Johnston, Jenna Amoroso, more) for Glam Gallery @ S. Second's "ART THERAPY" happy-hour exhibit April 6.

► RitRow rumor: Pete Antipas-etc./something (some unpronounceable Greek last name), the guy who was going to open Level (prolly not) and owns Tragos and Bleu Horseshoe, has bought into the Mansion and has his son Chris managing it — which means GM Adam Solomon might'nt be there.

► We know the not-so-typical Old City kids love that new Gigi club at 319 Market — those Friday house soundsystem nights. So what's with this dark-themed gay-black disco on the down-low vibe we hear coming every third Thursday with Gervase Petersen, Butch In-Bed-With and Stephen Durkin?

► And what's better than choosing well? Choosing GOOD, my fave new national pop culture magazine, which, though barely a year old, holds its entrée soiree into Philly April 5 at Reading Terminal with DJs Diplo and ?uestlove. "With you having so thriving an arts and music scene, we identified Philly as a city that we think our audience resides in," says GOOD's party boss, Liza Vadnai. "GOOD loves Philly." Aw.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)