SNL Meets BLT. Is Michaels Adapting McNally’s Memoir?
Looks like Lorne Michaels may have found his next prestige project — and this one comes with steak frites and a side of passive-aggressive Instagram feuding. Sources tell Rambling Reporter that the Saturday Night Live creator has optioned Keith McNally‘s dishy new memoir, I Regret Almost Everything, which charts the legendary restaurateur’s rise, fall, stroke, suicide attempt, recovery and general disappointment with humanity. In other words, comedy gold.
McNally, of course, is the onetime Brasserie King of Manhattan — the man who, as The New York Times once put it, “invented downtown” with such ’80s and ’90s hotspots as Odeon and Balthazar. More recently, he’s drawn attention for his unfiltered Instagram account — a kind of running off-off-Broadway one-man show where he’s taken aim at everyone from James Corden (banned from Balthazar in 2022 for alleged omelet-related rudeness) to Jessica Seinfeld and Lauren Sánchez (“Of course it’s wrong to criticize someone you don’t know — sorry Hitler”).
Michaels appears occasionally in the memoir — the two became friends in the ’70s, when the SNL cast would decamp to aftershow parties at One Fifth, where McNally, newly arrived from England, was working as maître d’. So it’s no huge surprise that Michaels would scoop up the rights. There’s no word yet on what shape an adaptation might take (McNally’s publisher would neither confirm nor deny the deal, and Michaels’ reps did not reply to THR‘s inquiries), but given Michaels’ recent run of memoir-to-series projects — The Last Girlfriend on Earth became FX’s Man Seeking Woman, Hulu’s Shrill spun out of Lindy West’s Notes From a Loud Woman — it’s easy to imagine The Balthazar Diaries, a darkly funny, semi-fictionalized half-hour about a British expat hipster navigating sex, power, celebrity and seafood towers in ’90s New York.
The Least Desirable $61 Million Mansion in Beverly Hills
It’s got a 35-seat theater, a recording studio, a full spa — and a former owner facing federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. All it’s missing is a buyer.
Nearly a year after Sean “Diddy” Combs listed his 17,000-square-foot Holmby Hills estate for $61.5 million, the place sits unsold. One investor reportedly offered $30 million — less than half the asking price. Still no takers.
“I don’t know which one I’d rather have — this or Jeffrey Epstein’s,” quips Million Dollar Listing star Josh Flagg, who knows the property well. “The house was never a good house to begin with. It’s ugly.” The lack of interior photos in the listing? “That either means it’s a terrible house or there’s so much stigma they don’t want anyone seeing the inside.” He adds, “I think the new owner would be terrified to take a black light to that place.”
Still, Flagg shrugs, “There’s a buyer for everything. Even Epstein’s house sold. At least his was tasteful.” If Combs’ place does move, it’ll likely be for land value — the ultimate teardown. “Look,” Flagg says, “you could buy Casa Encantada for $175 million and get one of the greatest homes west of the Mississippi. Or you could buy this.” — Hadley Meares
The Face Is Familiar, But the Playbill Bio Doesn’t Ring Any Bells
Playbill bios used to be all about humblebrag. Lately, they’re just humble.
Take George Clooney, who’s closing out his Broadway debut in Good Night, and Good Luck. You’d think the two-time Oscar winner, four-time Globe winner and Kennedy Center honoree might mention … literally any of that. Instead, his Playbill bio reads: “George’s last time in an Equity theatre was in June of 1986, a play called Vicious at Steppenwolf Theatre. He has never appeared on Broadway so … buckle up.” Then there’s Stranger Things breakout Sadie Sink, who’s leading the Tony-nominated John Proctor Is the Villain; she casually drops this gem about her pandemic-era acting: “Her turn as Grizabella in a 2020 living room production of the musical Cats has been described as ‘spellbinding’ and ‘distressing.’ ” Megan Hilty, now in Death Becomes Her, reportedly borrowed Meryl Streep’s Playbill bio verbatim — a power move if ever there was one.
Of course, this isn’t entirely new. During her 1964 run as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand was described in her bio as “a top recording star, a talented interior decorator, dress designer and portrait painter” who also “plays field hockey.” For more personal information, it advised, “write to her mother.”
Still, not everyone’s playing it for laughs. Denzel Washington’s Othello bio? “Denzel Washington is the most lauded stage and screen actor of his generation.”
“It’s like a Rorschach test,” says Playbill CEO Philip Birsh. “What you see are windows into their souls.” — Andrew Zucker
David Lynch’s Damn Fine Coffee Makers Up for Auction
Turns out FBI agent Dale Cooper wasn’t the only one who appreciated a “damn fine cup of coffee.” Twin Peaks creator David Lynch, who died in January at 78, was clearly bewitched by the brew himself.
Among the items up for grabs during a June 18 Julien’s auction are the usual collection of directorial detritus — film reels, cameras, typewriters — but also an eye-popping lineup of drip machines and espresso contraptions. Lynch owned no fewer than five coffee makers stationed throughout his L.A. home.
“I don’t think [he was] ever more than 15 feet away from a coffee station,” says Julien’s executive director Martin Nolan. “His love for coffee was real.” — Laurie Brookins
This story appeared in the June 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
