Quibbles & Bits

. . . Screen International reports that Columbia will open “Ishtar” on Jan. 15 in Japan, where there are “hopes that the peculiar Japanese market will be more receptive to it than other audiences.” Like sushi, some movies are an acquired taste.

. . . We had to repeat this classic exchange of Hollywoodese--as blurbed in a recent Publisher’s Weekly. It happened when Joseph Koenig was told by his agent that his upcoming crime thriller, “Little Odessa” (about a Russian-born topless dancer working in Brooklyn) had been purchased by Tri-Star as a property for Demi Moore. Koenig: “Demi who?” Agent: “Demi Moore. They’re grooming her.” Koenig: “How much?” Agent: “A hundred thousand option against five hundred thousand.” Koenig’s response: “She’s perfect for the part!”

. . . In its recent huge double ad for “Wall Street,” Fox quotes the Her-Ex’s Peter Rainer (“Raucously enjoyable . . . Michael Douglas has never been as entertaining as he is here”) and the NY Times Vincent Canby (“Mr. Douglas, in the funniest, canniest performance of his career”). Please note that Canby called the movie itself “a muddle” that “crashes in a heap of platitudes . . .” and Rainer dubbed it “the sort of bad movie that’s more entertaining than some good ones.”

. . . Calling all buxom actresses--willing to bare all! A recent MPAA listing reveals Atlantic Pics just registered “The Life and Times of (stripper) Candy Barr.

. . . KABC radio’s Michael Jackson must not think too much of that adage about a picture being worth 1,000 words. Why else would he have dubbed the pictorial-crazy People “the National Enquirer for people who can’t read.”

. . . Here’s a long quibble--but you have to get the context: The NY Times promotes its “100 Neediest Cases” with articles and little reminders through the paper during the holiday season. Well, the other day Peter Boyer had this Page 1 article on how the new “people meter” rating devices are showing that the networks are losing huge numbers of TViewers. But projections have it that the nets will record a 1987 gross of $8 Billion with a capital B .

Anyway, at very end of the article, it read . . .

REMEMBER THE NEEDIEST!