The late Alvin Sargent was one of Hollywood’s finest and classiest 20th Century screenwriters, especially in the realm of adult relationship dramas. On the same level as Bo Goldman, William Goldman, Ben Hecht, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, David Rayfiel, Paul Schrader, Robert Towne, etc. Ordinary People was the peak, but the runners-up were The Sterile Cuckoo (’69), Paper Moon (’73), Julia (’77), Straight Time (’78, w/ Jeffrey Boam), Dominick and Eugene (’88), Hero (’92 w/ Laura Ziskin and David Webb Peoples) and Unfaithful (w/ William Broyles Jr. — ’02). Toward the end of his career Sargent wrote or co-wrote three or four Spider Man scripts. Alas, his kind of movie had fallen out of favor and paychecks were there for the taking.

If a film’s second weekend grosses are down less than 20%, it’s definitely caught on to some extent. That’s what Lionsgate’s Long Shot is managing as we speak — a “sweet hold of -18%, or $8M, for a 10-day total of $21.6M,” according to Deadline‘s Anthony D’Allessandro. Nothing to necessarily pop champagne over, but better than anticipated. HE hereby apologizes for a 5.9 box-office story that was titled “On The Death of Long Shot.” Everyone spoke a little too soon.

I’m sorry but this morning’s Variety story about veteran hotshots Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan launching Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. put me to sleep. “$400 million public offering, a means for investors to participate in new players in the media and digital sector”….wilt.

I’ve been reading trade stories about Sagansky since the early ’80s, and the only one that ever sunk in was unsubstantiated and most likely made up. Which is too bad.

The story concerned an alleged 1982 or ’83 meeting between Sagansky, at the time an NBC executive, and legendary director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here To Eternity, A Man For All Seasons, The Day of the Jackal). Those who told the story explained that Sagansky was a 31-year-old executive whippersnapper at the time, full of beans and ’80s attitude. So Zinneman walks into Sagansky’s office, they shake hands and sit down, and Sagansky says, “So, tell me about yourself!” And Zinneman replies, “You first.”

Earlier today I googled “Sagansky Zinnemann” and found nothing that verified the story. I tried to discover if Zinnemann had met with some other whippersnapper around this period…zip. But I distinctly remember the story kicking around.

Hollywood Elsewhere disappeared this morning due to the gentlemen geniuses at WP Engine, a cloud-linked ISP that I’ve been with since 2017. Five hours of simulated death due to the failure of a shared server + “miscommunications” + largely incompetent WP Engine staffers who did absolutely nothing to improve the situation for hours on end.

WP Engine tried to explain the problem with a lot of bullshit techno-jargon.

While fretting and whining I came upon an eye-opening essay by internet marketer Matthew Woodward, titled “Why Your Business Must Avoid WP Engine At All Costs.” Woodward knows whereof he speaks, and he’s convinced that they’re really bad news.

One way or another I’m separating myself from WP Engine at the first available opportunity. Hollywood Elsewhere has suffered through the usual issues and outages over the years, but the site has never been unconscious for a five-hour stretch. On top of which these jerks tripled their monthly fee from $99 plus overages to $300 last January, and that was for putting me on a shared server with 100 other clients.

I love that this happened a day before leaving for France. And I haven’t begun to pack yet.

Woodward is advising alienated, WordPress-using WP Engine clients to sign up with a Bulgaria-based ISP called WPX Hosting. They have a server in Chicago but they won’t offer phone chats of any kind, even in an emergency.

Is Renee Zellweger doing her own singing here?” Because the singer (whoever it is) sounds only vaguely like Judy Garland. Even a withered version. Does anyone know anything? I’ve read nothing.

Garland was only 47 when she died on 6.22.69. She looked like she was nudging 60.

Boilerplate: “An adaptation of the Olivier- and Tony-nominated Broadway play End of the Rainbow, Judy is an upcoming British-American biographical musical-drama film directed by Rupert Goold. It’s based on the life of American singer and actress Judy Garland, focusing on the late 1960s as she arrives in London for a run of sell-out concerts at the Talk of the Town. Zellweger as Garland; Rufus Sewell and Michael Gambon in supporting roles.

“Principal photography for the film began on 3.19.18, in London. The film will be distributed in the UK by Pathé, and in the US by Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment. The film will be released in the US on 9.27.19.”

As Hollywood Elsewhere will depart the Cannes Film Festival at midday on Friday, 5.24, I was concerned by Thierry Fremaux’s 5.1 statement that Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo, the four-hour, sexually frank Abdellatif Kechiche film, would screen at the tail end of the festival “so the DCP has time to get there.”

Most of us presumed that the first showing would happen on Friday, 5.24 — a no-go pour moi.

Well, the press and public screening schedules appeared online a few hours ago, and the first press screening of Intermezzo will be on Thursday, 5.23 at 10 pm. Obviously a tough screening (breaking at 2 am) but good news all the same.