5 Shocking Truths About the Making of Pulp Fiction

Daniel Day-Lewis as Vincent Vega? Almost two decades after the release of Quentin Tarantino's game-changing Pulp Fiction, it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role made famous by John Travolta. But in a new Vanity Fair expose on the making of the 1994 Oscar winner, Travolta's career was so "cold" that producer Harvey Weinstein fought it tooth and nail.

Here are five shocking truths about the making of the movie, taken from the March issue of Vanity Fair, on newsstands in New York and L.A. on January 31 and nationally and on the iPad, Nook, and Kindle on February 5.

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1) Producer Harvey Weinstein was dead-set against giving the role of Vincent Vega to John Travolta and suggested Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn or William Hurt. When Weinstein saw the finished film, he reportedly said facetiously, "I'm so glad I had the idea to cast John Travolta."

2) Samuel L. Jackson was under the impression that the part of Jules Winnefield was his, but found out he might lose the role to Paul Calderone and flew to L.A. for a last-ditch audition with Tarantino. "I sort of was angry, pissed, tired," Jackson recalls, and insulted too, when a person related to the production told him, "I love your work, Mr. Fishburne." Richard Gladstein, then head of production at Miramax, recalls, "In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. Me and Quentin and Lawrence [Bender] were sitting on the couch, and he walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was scared shitless. I thought that this guy was going to shoot a gun right through my head. His eyes were popping out of his head. And he just stole the part."

3) Despite a scene where she overdoses and later has an adrenaline-filled needle jammed into her heart, Uma Thurman says she was most nervous about dancing with Travolta, "because I was so awkward and embarrassed and shy." Travolta says of the scene: "Quentin recommended the Twist. And I said, 'Well, Little Johnny Travolta won the Twist contest when I was eight years old, so I know every version. But you may add other novelty dances that were very special in the day.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'There was the Batman, the Hitchhiker, the Swim, as well as the Twist.' And I showed them to him, and he loved them. I said, 'I'll teach Uma the steps, and when you want to see a different step, call it out.'"

4) Every major studio passed on making Pulp Fiction, but producer Harvey Weinstein couldn't close the deal fast enough. At the time he was running Miramax under Disney, and he says, "When I read the Pulp Fiction script, I went to [then chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg] and said, 'Even though I have the right to make this, I want to clear it with you.' He read it and said, 'Easy on the heroin scene, if you can, but that is one of the best scripts I have ever read. Even though you don't need it, I am giving you my blessing.'"

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5) Bruce Willis wanted to be involved with the film even though the role of Vincent Vega was taken – but the role of Butch the boxer had already been promised to Matt Dillon by Tarantino. But Dillon said that although he loved the script, he wanted to "sleep on it." According to Tarantino's agent, Mike Simpson, the director said, 'He's out. If he can't tell me face-to-face that he wants to be in the movie -- after he read the script -- he's out.'" The role then went to Willis. Says Tarantino, "Bruce Willis made us legit. Reservoir Dogs did fantastic internationally, so everyone was waiting for my new movie. And then when it was my new movie with Bruce Willis, they went apesh-t."

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Colombo underboss gets 63 months in jail

The underboss of the Colombo crime family was sentenced to 63 months in prison today on mob racketeering charges.

Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 75, will also have to pay $400,000 in restitution and serve three years probation.

The wiseguy - who's the second highest-ranking member of the Colombos - began his 55 year-long criminal career in 1958.

Castellazzo had pleaded guilty to a mob extortion stemming from a dispute over a stolen red sauce recipe from Brooklyn's L&B Spumoni Gardens pizza restaurant. He also admitted shaking down of a construction company.

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Mompreneur jumps into the ‘Shark Tank’

It all started with a 4 a.m. email nearly a year ago: “Do you think a baby bib could change the world? I do...”

Then Susie Taylor included a link to her website, bibbitec.com, and off it went to Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors on the show — and by extension, 7 million viewers.

Four months later, as the “mompreneur” was leaving her Biscayne Park home to pick up her kids from school, she got a call from the show asking her to pitch on the spot. Driving with her phone on her shoulder, she told the Bibbitec story.

Shark Tank bit. After a few more back and forths, her segment was filmed last summer.

Friday night, Taylor is scheduled to be on the show pitching Bibbitec’s main product, “The Ultimate Bib,” a patented generously sized, stain-resistant and fast-drying child’s bib made in the USA — Hialeah, to be exact. Bibbitec’s $30 bib can be a burp cloth, changing pad, breast feeding shield, full body bib, place mat, art smock and more, Taylor says.

We won’t be getting any details on what happens Friday night when she and her husband, Stephen Taylor, get into the tank with Daymond John, Mark Cuban and the other celebrity sharks; Taylor has been contractually sworn to secrecy. But whatever the outcome, she believes it will be worth it for the marketing pop.

Taylor was inspired to create her bib after a long and very messy plane ride with two young sons and started her company in 2008. She and her team — her husband is CFO, her sister, Heather McCabe, handles sales and marketing, her uncle, Richard Page, is in charge of production, and her aunt, Marcia Kreitman, advises on design — have expanded the line to include The Ultimate Smock for older children and the Ultimate Mini for babies. Coming soon: a smock for adults.

Taylor already got a taste of what a national TV show appearance can do for sales. In September, Bibbitec’s sales jumped 40 percent after she was on an ABC World News "Made in America" segment. “Within 30 seconds, we started getting sales from all over the country and they didn’t even mention our name on the air,” Taylor says. She said that confirmed her belief that a Shark Tank appearance would be worth it.

Plus, Taylor has been hooked on Shark Tank since the first time she watched it in 2008 as she was developing her product. Trained in theater, she admits she didn’t know much about business and learned from the show. She would practice how she would answer the questions.

“I’m all about empowering women who are sitting on the couch watching, because that’s what I was four years ago,” says Taylor. “All I wanted to do was to be on Shark Tank because I believed if I got on Shark Tank the world will see what I am trying to do and that’s all I need. I know it’s a great product.”

Will that theater training come in handy Friday night? Stay tuned. Shark Tank airs at 9 p.m. on ABC and Taylor hopes viewers will join in on Twitter using the hashtag #sharkbib.

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Rick Ross raps about ducking hail of bullets

Rapper Rick Ross was keeping a low profile Tuesday, one day after his brush with bullets on the streets of Fort Lauderdale.

Though he has yet to comment on the incident, the self-proclaimed “Boss,” did what he does best: He rapped about the incident.

“I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said, dropping a rhyme about his near-death experience into a recording by a fellow rapper, Kendrick Lamar, titled “B---- Don’t kill my Vibe.” The verse was distributed through social media by his record label late Monday, and spread quickly over the Internet. Ross, whose real name is William L. Roberts II, also posted a link to a story about the shooting on his Facebook page. His publicist did not return phone calls.

Social media sites, however, were abuzz about the incident, mostly skeptical that he was the target of an attempted assassination. Many tweeters theorized the gunfire was staged to help boost his “street cred,’’ which has been a source of contention in the rap community. The timing of the episode also raised eyebrows, coming a little more than a week before the Grammy Awards. Ross is nominated for “Best Rap Album,’’ and referred to his nomination in the verse released Monday.

Rapper 50 Cent — who knows something about street violence, having been shot nine times in a single incident — declared the shooting a hoax, saying “lol it looks staged to me. No holes in the car,’’ referring to the 37-year-old Ross as “Fat Boy.”

Ross has frequently feuded with fellow rappers. He admitted to placing Young Jeezy in a choke hold at BET’s music awards last year and had reportedly received death threats from a group called “Gangster Disciples” a Chicago street gang that felt he disrespected one of their leaders by using his name in a song without paying him. Following the threats, Ross cancelled the second leg of his 2012 tour, though he denied he pulled the plug because of the threats.

In a move that may have further antagonized the gang, at a concert in Chicago, he made producers turn off the sound system as he arrived on stage in a $40,000 black Chinchilla coat.

“I told them to cut the music off. I wanted them to just look at me for a while,” he said in a December interview with Miami’s 99 Jamz. “Look at the beard, look at the coat, look at the walk. I’m here to make money.’’

The bulky, tattoo-covered rapper, who graduated from Carol City High and attended Albany State University on a football scholarship, formerly worked as a corrections officer, leading some to ridicule him for producing urban lyrics that seem to contradict his stable upbringing and law enforcement background.

Fort Lauderdale police were reviewing video surveillance tapes of the scene Tuesday, but released no new details of the shooting, which happened early Monday on Las Olas Boulevard, near the landmark Floridian diner. Witnesses said anywhere from five to 20 shots may have been fired, but they missed Ross, his girlfriend and the Rolls Royce they were riding in — no small target. Ross crashed the Rolls into some trees, but was not injured. His girlfriend, Shateria Moragne-el, is a native of Maryland who has her own fashion line.

Miami Herald staff writer Nadege Green contributed to this story.

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BlackBerry 10 said to be inadequate for helping RIM overcome its ‘demons’

After hitting a seven-year low of $ 6.22 this past summer, shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) have rebounded and climbed more than 100% in the past six months. The company that was previously written off by Wall Street investors has seen a significant boost in recent months as anticipation grows for its BlackBerry 10 operating system. But while a number of analysts have voiced their support for RIM, not everyone is convinced.

[More from BGR: Apple’s 128GB iPad shows the world exactly what Apple does best]

Jan Dawson of Ovum explained, per Benzinga, that RIM continues to “face the twin demons of consumer-driven buying power and a chronic inability to appeal to mature market consumers,” and he believes BlackBerry 10 won’t change this. The analyst said that due to a strong user base of 79 million subscribers and profitability still in the black, the company will remain for years to come. He was quick to note, however, that its glory days are in the past and “it is only a matter of time before it reaches a natural end.”

[More from BGR: Apple unveils new 128GB iPad]

Dawson previously wrote that RIM’s strategy seems to be focused on building the best devices for current BlackBerry users “rather than something that will necessarily win converts from other platforms.”

“The points of differentiation RIM has focused on in teasers for the new platform confirm this – better multitasking, productivity, email, contacts and calendar applications and so on, rather than a better gaming, content consumption or social networking experience,” he said.

Shares of RIM are down more than 6% on Monday, a day before the company is set to unveil its BlackBerry 10 operating system.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Ashley Judd and Husband Dario Franchitti Divorcing

After more than 10 years of marriage, Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are calling it quits.

"We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish our relationship based on the special love, integrity, and respect we have always enjoyed," said a spokesperson for the couple to People on Tuesday.

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Judd, 44, tied the knot with Scottish race car driver Franchitti, 39, in 2001 after two years of courtship. The couple have no children together.

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American Airlines jet carried thousands with its emergency exits blocked

An American Airlines jet ferried thousands of passengers in December and January with its emergency exits blocked by misaligned passenger seats, sources told The Post.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the misplaced seats – which blocked the exits over the wings -- on the Boeing 757, which an aviation expert said would have endangered passengers’ lives in an emergency.

“It’s extraordinarily difficult to evacuate an airplane when everything goes perfectly, because of the sheer numbers and small space and minimum exits that exist,” said aviation lawyer Brian Alexander of the Manhattan firm Kreindler and Kreindler.

“When you take away an exit row by virtue of not being able to remove an exit door, that’s a very significant safety issue.”

The misaligned seats were discovered at Kennedy Airport on Saturday by an American Airlines crew during a routine maintenance check.

The seats were about 2 inches out of line — enough, said sources, to prevent the emergency hatches from properly opening.

American said the seats were only “slightly out of configuration,” and denied that the exits were blocked.

After all-day repairs by American workers at Kennedy, the plane was put back in service on Sunday morning.

Sources said the seats were aligned improperly when the plane was sent to a TIMCO Aviation Services Inc. facility in North Carolina early in December for interior cabin work.

TIMCO declined comment.

TIMCO was also blamed last fall for allegedly failing to properly bolt down the seats on several American 757s.

In that case, two of the planes were forced into unscheduled landings at Kennedy Airport because their seats were sliding around the cabin. Those incidents also resulted in an FAA investigation.

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Marlins hire new PR firm

Maybe a new slogan will help?

The Miami Marlins on Tuesday announced the hiring of a new public relations firm to help with the team’s battered image on the heels of jettisoning star players and renewed backlash against tax dollars used to build the team’s new baseball park.

Miami’s Jeffrey Group won the account. The company replaces RBB and founding partner Bruce Rubin, a longtime friend of owner Jeffrey Loria whose Coral Gables firm represented the team since it won the World Series in 2003.

“The client engagement is over,’’ Rubin said Tuesday. “I never discuss why a client engagement ends.”

The PR switch comes after a bruising debut season for the Marlins in the new $640 million ballpark. The team’s manager caused an international uproar when he declared his admiration for Fidel Castro, management slashed payroll by jettisoning star players, and now the Marlins’ stadium deal with Miami-Dade is under fire again as the Miami Dolphins use it as a foil for the subsidies they want for Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens. At a recent debate on the Dolphins plan, one county commissioner cited a “stench” that lingers from the 2009 Marlins deal, where taxpayers borrowed about $560 million for the project.

Mike Valdes-Fauli, president of the Jeffrey Group, declined to get into the details of the planned strategy for reviving the Marlins’ image. But he conceded his firm of about 100 employees has some work to do with their new client’s messaging.

“Definitely the Marlins are cognizant of how important it is moving forward that they communicate better with fans and stakeholders across the community,’’ he said. “I think it will be important for the Miami Marlins to communicate their point of view on a whole host of issues, including on the upcoming season, some of the challenges they’ve faced in the past, and even the current comparisons with the Miami Dolphins.”

DOUGLAS HANKS

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Related developers find themselves in court over tactics

His company on trial over its tactics in a controversial condo project, Jorge Perez, the celebrated developer, found himself on the witness stand Monday answering to an unexpected foe: Jorge Perez, the author.

Perez, the chairman of the Related Group, testified in the trial of a lawsuit brought against his company by The Vizcayans, a fundraising and support group for the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. The Vizcayans have accused Perez’s company of secretly manipulating the zoning process at Miami City Hall to win approval in 2007 for a three-tower condo project next to Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove — forcing the Vizcayans to spend more than $1 million in legal fees in its successful effort to kill the project.

The Vizcayans, who objected to the project because it would have intruded on the views from the historic property, have also accused the developers of quietly buying the approval of two local neighborhood associations by offering them $8 million in exchange for their support.

William Davis, a lawyer for the Vizcayans, questioned Perez about the arrangement by citing passages from Perez’s 2009 book, Powerhouse Principles: The Ultimate Blueprint for Real Estate Success in an Ever-Changing Market (foreword by Donald Trump). In the book, Perez discussed his efforts to build the Mercy Hospital project, and said his team decided to keep the payments to the neighborhood groups secret because “we gave them a lot of money,” and he feared other groups would ask for more if they got wind of it.

Perez sheepishly conceded that he didn’t exactly write his book — it was the work of a ghostwriter with whom he worked. “They were my thoughts interpreted by a person that was writing,” he said.

Davis also tried to hoist Perez on one of his powerhouse principles from the book: “neutralize the opposition.” He suggested that Related sued the Vizcayans seeking public records in an effort to harass them. Perez denied the allegation and said he had no recollection of that lawsuit.

Perez insisted that there was nothing sinister about the deals with the neighborhood groups; he said the payments to the groups were simply a routine practice his firm follows when it seeks community support for its projects.

“I’m doing that on probably 10 projects right now,” Perez said.

Yery Marrero, the president of the Natoma Manors homeowners’ association, told jurors that her group supported the condo project not because of the promise of money, but because they thought the condos would prevent Mercy Hospital from expanding and bringing even more traffic to their already congested neighborhood.

“Our issue in our neighborhood is traffic,” Marrero told jurors. “Per day we have so many cars going through there.”

The Vizcayans’ lawyers have portrayed the payments as part of a larger scheme to win over the Miami City Commission, which had to endorse zoning and land-use changes for the condo project. They have accused Related’s staffers, lawyers and lobbyists of working behind the scenes to essentially rig the commission vote.

In one January 2007 e-mail, a Related vice president told Perez that they had confirmed the votes of three commissioners in favor of the condo deal — days before the first public hearing on the project.

The city commission ultimately approved the project in a 3-2 vote. But following a suit from The Vizcayans, an appeals court later overturned the decision, finding that the city ran afoul of state zoning laws and that then-Mayor Manny Diaz had improper contact with Perez during the veto period after the vote. Diaz is expected to testify Tuesday.

Related’s lawyers, John Shubin and Israel Reyes, have asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick to throw out the case, saying The Vizcayans have failed to prove that the developers set out to deliberately harm the nonprofit.

The developers’ lawyers also called Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado as a witness Monday. Regalado, who was on the commission at the time of the 2007 vote, said he never heard anything suggesting that the developers were trying to harm The Vizcayans.

Shubin said the Vizcayans are wrongly seeking to punish the developers for simply petitioning the government for a zoning change.

“This is all about petitioning activity,” Shubin said. “They can’t even cite to you a case that looks remotely like this one that has been brought.”

Perez took his day on the witness stand with good humor. “I’m glad someone is reading my book,” he said when his testimony ended.

The trial, now in its fourth week, is expected to end this week.

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Yahoo revenue rises on search advertising

(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc posted a 4 percent gain in net revenue to $ 1.22 billion in the fourth quarter, when an increase in search advertising sales offset weakness in the Web portal’s display ad business.

The company forecast net revenue — which excludes fees shared with partner websites — of $ 1.07 billion to $ 1.1 billion in the current quarter, trailing the $ 1.1 billion that Wall Street analysts expect on average.

Shares in Yahoo, which is trying to stave off declines across much of its business and revive growth, were up 1.5 percent in after hours trade. They had risen 4.5 percent before the revenue projections were disclosed on an analysts’ conference call.

“We got the revenue acceleration we were hoping for. Display was down, but search is doing better” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley Caris.

“As long as in the near-term things are not bad, I think the stock will generally act positively while we wait for Marissa Mayer to deliver,” said Sinha.

The company said on Monday its fourth-quarter net income was $ 272.3 million, or 23 cents per share, versus $ 295.6 million, or 24 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Yahoo said it had earnings per share of 32 cents, versus the average analyst expectation of 28 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is moving to revive the company’s fortunes after several years of declining revenue. Yahoo’s stock has risen roughly 30 percent since she became CEO, reaching its highest levels since 2008.

Yahoo said it repurchased $ 1.5 billion worth of shares during the fourth quarter. Shares in the company were up 1.5 percent at $ 20.61 in extended trading from a close of $ 20.31 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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