“I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me,” New Line chief Robert Shaye said in January about Lord of the Rings maestro Peter Jackson, even though Jackson sued only with the goal of forcing a third-party audit to determine if New Line had been on the up-and-up regarding Rings revenues.

Asked about this contretemps, director James Cameron has recently told Premiere magazine’s Tom Roston that Shaye’s reluctance to submit to an aduit is “bizarre.”

Cameron adds that 20th Century Fox, with which he’s had a 20-year history, “has always been very transparent financially…it’s almost automatic that you do an audit.” Admitting that he’s speaking out of turn, Cameron intimates to Roston that “the easiest explanation for New Line’s behavior is that it has something to hide.”

After months of hemming and hawing, Saul Zaentz cutting a Goya’s Ghost distribution deal with the Samuel Goldywn Co. is a kind of capitulation. In so doing, Zentz is saying, “Fuck it…this is the best I can get…if Goya’s Ghost stays on the shelf any longer it’s going to become a permanent embarassment so I have no choice…down to the sea in ships.”

I linked yesterday to a Robert Novak story about Steven Spielberg back-assing away from a perception that he’s more or less behind Sen. Barack Obama in order to sidestep into an open-minded posture about Hilary Clinton, etc. According to Slate‘s Kim Masters, a suspicion in the Obama faction is that the story (which Masters ridicules) “came from the Clinton camp, eager to put a stop to the ‘Hillary Hemorrhages Hollywood Support‘ stories.

“In a recent visit to town, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe conveyed the notion that folks should pick sides now. Most aren’t. In fact, McAuliffe’s admonishment prompted Norman Lear, who, like many, is contributing to multiple candidates, to ask a Los Angeles Times reporter, ‘What’s Hillary going to do? Jail me?'”

I take a deep breath every time I click on a story on MTV.com, because I know what a groaning pain in the ass it is to wait for all the slick-ass visual razmatazz to load. But I did it anyway today because I wanted to read about Judd Apatow‘s (and Jake Kasdan‘s) Walk Hard, a put-on musical biopic in the vein of Ray, Walk the Line, Selena and Great Balls of Fire. It’s about a fake music-industry giant called Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly), and I’ll tell you right now it’s going to be obvious and arch and not terribly funny, and the songs aren’t going to be all that hot either.

The whole The Number 23 mystique goes right out the window if this all-media screening at the Grove starts at 7:26 or 7:28 pm. As far as the media people attending are concerned, that is. It has to start at exactly 7:23 pm or nothing.

It’s a four-day weekend coming up (i.e., President’s Day on Monday) so the figures will be that much higher. Mark Steven Johnson‘s Ghost Riders (Sony, 2.16), the Nic Cage-with-a-bad-wig fantasy-actioner, will be through the roof with roughly $40 million — 91 general awareness, 42 definite interest, 25 first choice. Music and Lyrics, a reasonably decent romance that’s opening tomorrow, will do modest to decent business ($15 million?) over the four days. Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls is tracking okay for a film appealing to a niche audience (i.e., not expected to get across-the-board support) — 42,37 and 6.

Breach is at 30. 31 and 4….not so hot. Disney’s Bridge to Terabithia is tracking well for a famil film…63 general, 29 definite interest.

Paramount’s Zodiac opens on 3.2.07 (two weeks from this coming weekend), and is at 47, 27 and 3. It’s not looking like a disaster but nether is it expected to do better than fair-to-decent business. The expected rave reviews could help to change things somewhat. Paramount clearly doesn’t believe in it all that much — they’re looking for an opening-weekend fast-burn by lying to people that it’s the latest hot-stuff thriller from the Se7en/Panic Room/Fight Club guy, when the truth is that Zodiac is a richer, artier, much more high-level adult work than any of these films. Paramount has a gold-pedigree film on their hands and they’re looking to sell it as an amped-up popcorn thriller, which is a one-weekend-and-you’re-done strategy.

Joel Schumacher and Jim Carrey‘s Number 23 (opening 2.23, or the weekend after next) is at 55, 37 and 5.

Stax at IGN has “exclusively learned that J.J. Abrams is poised to direct The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King literary series.” Imagine going ahead with a project that sounds so Tolkien-esque and not feeling the least bit chastened or embarassed about it. Remarkable. “Sources also added that Abrams is indeed only producing Star Trek XI,” Stax also reports. “It was recently reported that Abrams would not direct Trek XI, as many had assumed, but would instead turn his attention to a secret Paramount project titled Cloverfield.” Am I misreading things, or is Abrams looking to become like Joss Whedon II, i.e., a seemingly stuck-on-himself, cheeseball sci-fi/fantasy schlock whore?

I know when to leave well enough alone so I’m not posting this diseased music video out of an inability to restrain myself — Bilge Ebiri did and I’m merely linking to it. Nonetheless, I trust this won’t inhibit anyone from writing belittling responses in the direction of HE. And by all means, ignore what this video portends.

As Ebiri puts it, “The man is on his way to winning an Oscar and he’s got the Number 1 movie in America [i.e., Norbit]. So now’s as good a time as any to resurrect Eddie Murphy‘s bizarre Michael Jackson collaboration ‘Whatzupwitu.’ No, those aren’t shrooms you just ate. The video really is that weird.”

I realize there are haters out there, and I think we all need to hold hands and shut them out of our consciousness. It’s my earnest belief that any person who hangs, consorts and cross-promotes with Jackostein deserves the full respect and support of his entertainment-industry peers.

N.Y. Times “Screens” blogger Virginia Heffernan has offered a comparison between “the astringent story about Anna Nicole Smith‘s death that appeared in the paper on Friday with the Times‘s misty obit for Marilyn Monroe” that ran on August 6, 1962. What a difference.

“The only thing that separates me from being up here and living in my mother’s basement is Bill Weinstein,” Michael Arndt said after winning the the WGA award for Best Original Screenplay the night before last. The Little Miss Sunshine author noted Weinstein’s steady, early enthusiasm for LMS and his support through the four or five years of trying to get the movie made. (Note: this item was stolen from Anne Thompson‘s Riskybiz blog.]

With ’08 election fever starting to heat up, James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo‘s …So Goes The Nation, which is out on DVD today, might attract fresh interest. As I noted last fall, the doc “explains in the frankest terms imaginable how the John Kerry campaign blew it big-time with the middle American voting public, and how cagey and brilliant the Bushies were at almost every turn.”

Distributed/produced by IFC First Take and Genius Entertainment.

The two things that come through on the doc are the fact that (a) many millions of Americans out there are living in states of appalling ignorance and religious superstition and are therefore ripe for shrewd exploitation, and (b) the Kerry people made so many mistakes it’s hard to keep track of them all, even in a doc as lucid and well-organized as this one.”

On Monday, 2.26 (i.e., the day after the Oscars), Manhattan’s Museum of Television& Radio is presenting “The Unseen Dylan: Newly Restored Outtakes from Don’t Look Back,” with an introduction by Patti Smith and “rare footage” presented by the doc’s director D.A. Pennebaker. MTV exec vp Bill Flanagan and On The Road with Bob Dylan author Larry Sloman will also attend. (A NY staffer said there are no plans for this presentation to happen at MTR’s Beverly Hills location.) It’s all a promo for the Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back — 65 Tour Deluxe Edition DVD that “streets” the next day.