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Ice Cubes
You have to admire Bart Blatstein’s confidence. After an hour-long happy hour at his grand Tendenza Hall in Northern Liberties — just doors from his Piazza at Schmidt’s — the developer announced plans for his $700 million casino, resort, and entertainment complex at the legendary former home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News on North Broad Street, with Hard Rock International as its gaming operator, called The Provence.
Blatstein doesn’t have that gaming license yet (he has until Nov. 15 to submit an official proposal for Philly’s second casino license). He faces steep competition from Penn National Gaming, Inc. (for land along the Delaware River just north of SugarHouse Casino) and Cordish Co. of Baltimore (they want the Philadelphia Turf Club on Packer Ave. in South Philly, supposedly) to say nothing of opposition from Casino-Free Philadelphia.
That isn’t stopping Blatstein. In his mind, his epic design for the block-long enterprise — a casino at Callowhill between 15th and 16th streets at 120,000 square feet, with table games in the one-time newsroom of The Inquirer and a 125 room hotel in its legendary tower — was just the start. Blatstein traveled from China to Macao (it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it) to France for inspiration for his Provence and promised it would be “no casino in a box,” a phrase repeated several times throughout the presentation.
On Tuesday night I had two delicious options — the tony family and friends dinner at still-unopened Red Owl Tavern at Hotel Monaco or hanging with Kevin James as he premiered his new mixed martial arts/teaching comedy Here Comes the Boom at the Prince Theater.
My dad St. Alfonso is a big Kevin James fan and wanted to meet him.
Dinner had to wait.
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M. Night Shyamalan is still slaving away on After Earth, his upcoming apocalyptic-world flick with the Smith men, Fresh Prince Will and young Jaden (the latter was all over Made in America’s VIP area with Jay and Bey). But even a diabolical auteur gets hungry. That’s why he took a break on Saturday night to hit up the barely-one-year-old Tashan with his wife, Bhavna.
Since Tashan opened in the fall of 2011, other filming-in-Philly folk have stopped into the adventurous eatery. A heaping helping of director David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook lot (save stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro) hit up Tashan last November. Just weeks ago, as written up in an Ice Cube thespians Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman ate together at Tashan while on break from filming Paranoia with Liam Hemsworth.
Just this week though, it’s Tashan’s Munish Narula who has been in the foodie spotlight for turning his West Girard Avenue Indian eatery Tiffin on its ear with a bold new Indo-Chinese menu. For anyone who thinks Chinese cuisine doesn’t make sense at an Indian restaurant, guess again. Chinese food in all its kung-pao glory holds a similar place in Indian culture as it does in America (comfort food, really) and uses many of the same hot-and-zesty spices.
Now that the Made in America weekend is over, we can laugh about the things that did and didn’t happen.
Neither the Barnes nor the surprisingly-shut-down-for-the-holiday Rodin crumbled under the weight of the unwashed masses. Oddly enough, the masses weren’t that unwashed.
Beyonce didn’t sing with her husband. Bruce Springsteen didn’t sing with Pearl Jam.
Jay-Z and Beyonce never made it to Stephen Starr’s Barclay Prime on Friday night though they made reservations (the pair did get food served to them and their crew by Starr’s Buddakan and Morimoto on saran-covered china on Sunday in the VIP deck).
Somehow Kanye and Kim Kardashian had the headspace to go see a movie in Union Square in Manhattan then helicopter themselves respectively onstage and in the wings of Made of America.
And your city didn’t burn or blow up just because 80,000+ people ran roughshod along Art Museum Row.
Two weeks ago, we dropped a cover story on Philly MC Beanie Sigel, his new label contract with Conshohocken’s Ruffhouse to go with his new album This Time and mentioned how he had set up pre-prison live gigs for New York City and Los Angeles to start. But I still hankered for a proper hometown send off for Sigel before he goes away for a spell. My prayers got answered by Live Nation’s Stacie George who claims that Sigel’s going-away live bash will occur Sat., Sept. 8 at the TLA. No word yet on when tickets go on sale but expect them to drop and sell out quick.
Liam Hemsworth and Harrison Ford got arrested outside 12th and Walnut's Beasley Building late on Tuesday afternoon. No, it didn’t involve Ford having boozed it up several nights prior at Village Whiskey or Hemsworth running out on his Morimoto tabs. The two got nabbed by FBI agents as part of their characters’ storyline in Paranoia, mere yards from the Union League where Republican VP nom Paul Ryan was speaking with his own Secret Service retinue gathered 'round (yes, the streets were a mess from morning until early evening as Ford, Hemsworth and Julian McMahon were spied working the block between the Beas and Caribou Café).
Director Robert Luketic’s corporate espionage thriller will be filming in Philly until early next week when it takes a break until its December return. While Hemsworth was busy getting handcuffed repeatedly, his pop star fiancée Miley Cyrus was touring Old City's Betsy Ross House. Aw.
This is the last week of Paranoia-filming in Philly until December when the crew returns for additional 
scenes and re-shoots. No more truck drivers cutting off traffic on Broad and Washington while they park their rigs in the open lot. No more taking over my neighborhood and yours with catering tents. No more paps calling Miley Cyrus mean names. The early part of this week, they'll be filming at Walnut and Sansom from 10th to 13th (Catacombs anyone?) then, poof, Paranoia is gone in a cloud of silver halide and editor-bay smoke.
So where did the film's stars spend their last few days in Philly? R2L held a dinner for most of the cast (including Liam Hemsworth’s fiancé Cyrus) on Saturday night. Hemsworth hit up Morimoto with his gal on Friday and Monday; as I reported last week, Gary Oldman had dinner at Tashan; and Harrison Ford was nearly ready to hit up Davio’s when, instead, he opted to stay closer to home and stopped at Village Whiskey (pictured right, thanks to anonymous tipster). Once there, Ford had a drink or two at the bar with the burger boite’s bartenders and managers and had a rousing good time. Yay him.
See anyone acting Paranoia-d this week? Write/tweet me.
In August 1982, Billboard’s R&B charts were littered with top tracks from Stephanie Mills, Zapp and Aretha Franklin. Vanity 6 just released their first Prince-produced album. That’s also around the same time Patty Jackson, the soon-to-be mid-day radio queen of Philadelphia, started her reign at WDAS-FM. She’s been a sassy lass and a community presence ever since she started talking and spinning at Philly’s classic soul-phonic station. Someone should build a statue in her funky-funky name for all that she’s accomplished. That includes being named “Communicator of the Year” by the National MBA Association and “Favorite Radio Personality” by the Philadelphia Tribune for the last four years straight. Until the day a sculptor sets chisel to marble, Sunday’s 30th-anniversary party for Jackson at the Dell Music Center will have to do. Dancing with the Stars’ queen Gladys Knight was joined by Freddie Jackson, Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, The Delfonics, Glen Jones, Enchantment and Breakwater to sing for the original Ms. Jackson, and a good, grooving time was had by all. Here’s to the next 30 Lady Jackson.
(a_amorosi@citypaper.net) (@adamorosi)
Photos courtesy of Scott Weiner
My quest to a shot of Gary Oldman snapped before anyone else ended last night when Icepack pal George Polgar caught Commissioner Gordon/Sid Vicious/Lee Harvey Oswald dining at Tashan with his Paranoid co-star Harrison Ford, a man who once threw Oldman off an airplane (in Air Force One). The two play corporate rivals in Paranoid with star Liam Hemsworth stuck in the larceny between them. Last night, the thespians were stuck between Tashan owner Munish Narula and executive chef Sylva Senat. Apparently no one was hurt during the filming or dining sequence.
Another South Philly afternoon. Another day of shooting for the film Paranoia. Only this time, it was my 
block, the 10th and Carpenter area and the boccie-ball-friendly Bardascino Park, which doubled for Brooklyn and “Old Library Park” in the corporate thriller filming throughout the city through September. For this scene, the area was quieted (no simple feat according to the crew, but more amenable were we than the crowd at last week's Fifth & Morris locale) and the immediate blocks barricaded as Liam Hemsworth, wearing a blue-on-blue-suit-and-shirt combo, stood and spoke with an insistently slouching Richard Dreyfuss, who mostly sat on a park bench.
While conflicting reports have them staying in Bard Park for another day, the Paranoia team is supposed to film a few scenes farther down in the Italian Market in the next several days. And while Hemsworth and his fiancé Miley Cyrus can be seen eating at a.kitchen (Cyrus alone has popped into Morimoto and Butcher & Singer) when they’re not posing with fans. Also, be on the look out for a bald man with an angry leer. That’d be Harrison Ford who left Los Angeles this weekend and shaved his head for his role as a corporate CEO raider type in Paranoia, according to this.
(a_amorosi@citypaper.net) (@adamorosi)
Photo by Glamorosi
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