Rosanna Arquette plans to bring us a big screen documentary about a subject she says has been pretty much kept secret -- male menopause. It's a condition, she says, that 'No one ever talks about. But it's there."
The project won't happen for a while. Right now Arquette is toiling up to 17-hour days on the set of her ABC "What About Brian?" series with Barry Watson, and she says her filmmaking efforts will be on hold until work on the series lets up.
"It's coming along great, with a lot of surprises and plot switches," she says of the program that starts its new season Oct. 9. But, she says, "No one realizes how much of your life an hour show like this takes up."
Arquette, whose filmmaking credits include the pop documentary "All We Are Saying" and "Searching For Debra Winger, "had intended to continue to concentrate on producing and directing when the offer for "Brian" came along.
Of her male-change-of-life project, she says, "Women are always the ones blamed for having the symptoms of menopause, when the fact is a lot of men go through menopause, too -- it's called 'manopause' (cq), and comes about when men start losing testosterone." She adds, "It's the reason a lot of men want younger women -- because they're insecure about their own ages."
Rosanna doesn't mention the age of Jonathan Elias, the composer/producer who has been her significant other for several years, but she does say the relationship, "won't necessarily lead to marriage. He has children; I have a daughter who's entering the 6th grade. He was married before. I was unsuccessfully married -- twice legally -- and don't need to do it again."
THE INSIDE TRACK:
Patti LaBelle, Ciara, Brian McKnight, Chris Brown, Branford Marsalis, Mary Mary and Ray J are among the artists multi-Grammy-winning megaproducer Rodney Jerkins finally corralled to perform with Sister Sledge on the new Hurricane Katrina fundraising recording of the group's '70s hit "We Are Family." But it's proving difficult getting everyone together to do a video, he admits.
"We're hoping to get everybody back in, but it was so hard just to finish this," says the producer responsible for some 160 million in record sales worldwide, with such artists as Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige. "I was trying to wait on Mariah and Mary, but their schedules were just too crazy."
The "We Are Family" CD single and DVD will be released tomorrow (8/29) to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Jerkins is heading out on a three-week road tour with Sister Sledge to push the single that will support disaster relief funds through such charities as the Points of Light Foundation and the Volunteer Center National Network. For more information, visit www.wearefamily2007.com.
HARD TIMES:
Social critic/activist/author Barbara Ehrenreich has nothing but kudos for "Waging a Living," Roger Weisberg's alarming film, airing tomorrow night (9/29) on PBS's P.O.V. series, about America's downwardly mobile. "Waging a Living" shows a range of citizens who've found themselves squeezed from comfortable middle-class living into the ranks of the poor despite working full time. "There certainly have been no improvements, and we've seen more programs being cut," says Ehrenreich, referring to the situation since she wrote of her 2001 book, "Nickle and Dimed." She adds, "Roger Weisberg has made a very powerful film."
Ehrenreich notes, "I've become very interested in college-educated white-collar people whose jobs get outsourced and who end up in the low-wage workforce." Some of those will certainly be involved in the organization she has been working to create, United Professionals. "There will be a website," she says. "The official rollout will be in early September."
SEEING EYES:
A mid-September production start has been slated for "Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes 2" -- the sequel to this year's remake of the horror meister's 1977 original "The Hills Have Eyes" -- with the project planned to roll in Morocco. The story has to do with National Guard soldiers answering a distress call at a desert outpost, only to find themselves confronting a tribe of mutants damaged by nuclear testing.
(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)
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