Her Rock Groupie Memoirs Will Finally Get a Movie Gig

After a long, storied history, Pamela Des Barres’ 1987 memoir, “I’m With the Band”--the colorful, definitive account of the L.A. rock world of the ‘60s and ‘70s from a young girl’s, um, intimate perspective--is on its way to the screen. Des Barres is co-writing the screenplay, with Allison Anders (“Grace of the Heart”) set to direct for the Starz! cable channel.

“It’s all about a groupie girl growing up in the Valley and heading over the hills to Oz, to meet all the rock stars,” Des Barres says.

Where Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” (a similar story, from the view of a male teenage tyro journalist) fictionalized Crowe’s real-life experience, Des Barres’ book names names, unflinchingly detailing her relationships (sexual and otherwise) with rockers including Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, Gram Parsons and Frank Zappa, as well as her experience as a member of the Zappa-produced groupies group the GTO’s (Girls Together Outrageously).

“What I love about Starz! is they have the guts to do that,” Des Barres says.

“In earlier treatments that have been done for the book, names have been changed. But they’re public figures--or unfortunately in rock ‘n’ roll heaven. No one has sued me about the book. It’s all the truth.”

The book has been the subject of several previous attempts to put it on film. Ally Sheedy once optioned the rights with the intention of playing Des Barres, and later Drew Barrymore and Christina Applegate each explored the role. But it wasn’t until Des Barres started working on a screenplay with high school friend Iva Turner that the project really got moving, as Anders signed on and Starz! came on board.

Anders thinks the time is right for the story.

“When the book came out, I remember everyone focused on the groupie aspect of it,” Anders says. “It’s funny that to me now it actually seems far more innocent.

“The more Pamela and I talk,” Anders adds, “I don’t really see it as a groupie story, but a fan’s story and the story of the GTO’s. That’s what really draws me to it.”

Casting will begin once the script is finished, although Des Barres is eyeing at least a cameo for herself.

“Iva and I both want to dance in the love-in sequence,” she says.

CIVILIAN DUTIES: Speculation is heating up over which manager will land the revived project teaming Chris Cornell with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk.

The group, which formed a year ago and had been using the name Civilian, split recently, reportedly over disputes stemming from working with two management companies. Cornell is handled by Laguna Beach-based Jim Guerinot, the Rage contingent by New York-based Q Prime.

In recent weeks, though, the group is said to have reformed to move forward with an album targeted for fall, on the condition that the members find new, neutral management.

Word inside the music business is that the front-runners are the Firm (the powerful home of Korn and Limp Bizkit) and Irving Azoff (the Eagles manager who has revitalized his company by taking on the Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera). Pat Magnarella (Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls) and Arthur Spivak (Tori Amos) also are said to have their hats in the ring.

It’s unclear whether the band intends to tour. Guerinot was on vacation and unavailable; Q Prime declined to comment.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR: Wyn Cooper became an accidental hit lyricist when Sheryl Crow revamped a poem of his into her 1993 breakthrough single, “All I Wanna Do.” Now Cooper is helping acclaimed veteran novelist Madison Smartt Bell become an accidental pop singer.

The main character of Bell’s new novel, “Anything Goes,” is a musician, and Bell and Cooper teamed to write Americana-tinged songs that the character would sing.

Working with a handful of musicians and a few singers, a demo-quality CD was recorded to send to reviewers and film producers as a casual companion to the book.

Now a small North Carolina record label, Gaff Music, wants to produce a real CD from the songs. Based on two songs Bell sang on the demos, the label wants him to be the featured performer.

Plans call for the album to be recorded in December (the first opportunity Bell would have between book tours and his duties teaching creative writing at Goucher College in Maryland). Don Dixon, who co-produced R.E.M.’s first two albums, is expected to produce some of the songs and play on the sessions.

“I’ve worked with several songwriters after the Sheryl Crow thing, wrote some good songs with good people, but nothing panned out,” says Cooper. “Working with Madison, who I’ve known for years, really made a difference .... He’s probably more shocked than I am.”

Still, Bell would rather hear other people sing his songs.

“My idea was to create this stuff for other people to perform,” he says, citing Bonnie Raitt as his ideal choice for the “Anything Goes” songs. “I’m not giving up on that.”

SMALL FACES: Tori Amos, following the “Strange Little Girls” album in which she reworked male-written songs from a female perspective, has finished “Scarlet’s Walk,” which traces in song an eastbound trip across the U.S. post-Sept. 11. It’s her first album for Epic Records, it’s due Oct. 15, and it will be preceded by the single “A Sorta Fairytale.” ...

The annual Sunset Junction festival, set for Aug. 24 and 25 in Silver Lake, has scored two strong headliners: Sonic Youth tops the first day’s bill, with Sleater-Kinney finishing the second. Mudhoney, Pansy Division and an all-star tribute to the Gun Club organized by Keith Morris are among others scheduled for the event....

R&B; singer Blu Cantrell is working on her second album, due in late October, with Missy Elliot, Dallas Austin and the team Soul Shock & Karlin....

A national Plea for Peace/Take Action Tour benefiting the suicide-prevention National Hopeline Network will embark Sept. 13 in Worcester, Mass., with Jimmy Eat World, the Promise Ring, Cave In and the (International) Noise Conspiracy among the regional headliners.

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Steve Hochman is a regular contributor to Calendar.