Actress Martha Stewart dies at 89

Actress Martha Stewart, who came out in film, television and musical theater, died of natural causes in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on Feb. 25. She was 89. Stewart carried out Joan Crawford's nearest friend in Otto Preminger's 1947 romantic drama "Daisy Kenyon," also starring Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda. The actress also stood a significant supporting role in Nicholas Ray's "In the Lonely Place" (1950), starring Humphrey Bogart. Stewart made her feature debut in Fox's 1945 musical comedy "Toy Face," an adaptation from the play of Gypsy Rose Lee through which she completed with Perry Como, then roles in World war ii aftermath drama "Johnny Comes Flying Home" and musical "I Question Who's Kissing Her Now." Furthermore with a "Lonely Place," she came out inside the Broderick Crawford-Glenn Ford film noir "Billed" in 1950. Stewart came out on Broadway inside the musical comedy "Park Avenue" in 1946-47. Inside the 19 fifties the actress moved on to television, making looks on "The Jackie Gleason Show" and "The Red-colored-colored Skelton Hour" after which on "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" just before making her final screen appearance inside the 1964 film "Surf Party." Stewart's first husband was the famous comedian Joe E. Lewis, too as with 1957 Lewis biopic "The Joker Is Wild," starring Frank Sinatra, Mitzy Gaynor referred to Stewart. Stewart was produced in Bardwell, Ky., but spent her childhood in Brooklyn. She started singing in nightclubs carrying out a favorable reception when she required part within an invisible singing contest. A Hollywood talent scout spotted Stewart throughout her appearance within the Stork Club within the mid nineteen forties. After ending her showbiz career, Stewart spent decades just like a school librarian, retiring from that profession in 2002. Furthermore to Lewis, Stewart was married to actor-author George O'Hanlon also to Jonathan Crowne, who died in 2004 after 53 years of marriage. Stewart is managed to get by two sons. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Open Call for Extras for 'The Lone Ranger' in Colorado

Want to spend some quality time in the desert with Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer? Sande Alessi Casting is holding open calls for Disney's "The Lone Ranger," a new movie starring Hammer in the title role, with Depp as his sidekick Tonto. Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean") is directing the film, which will begin shooting in Colorado and Utah this summer.The casting director is primarily seeking Native American and Asian men at these calls, but men and women of all ethnicities are needed. Actors must be at least 18 years old to be considered. No experience is necessary for background roles.The open calls will be held Friday, March 23 in Durango, CO; Sunday, March 25 in Alamosa, CO; and Monday, March 26 in Colorado Springs, CO. For more information and audition details, view the full casting notice on BackStage.com. (Subscription required.)Sande Alessi is a Los Angeles-based casting director who has cast extras for dozens of films and TV series, including "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Entourage," "There Will Be Blood," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Catch Me If You Can," and more."The Lone Ranger" is scheduled to be released Summer 2013.

British invade WME

The WME legit department has signed a trio of British people towards the roster, while using tenpercentery now becoming Stateside repetition for helmer Timothy Sheader and scribes Mike Bartlett and Nick Payne. The a.d. in the London outdoors venue Regent's Park Outdoors Theater, Sheader was recently attracted onto helm the arrival Shakespeare neighborhood revival of tuner "To the Forest," following inside the actions of his much-famous 2010 staging in the show at Regent's Park. More youthful crowd directed last year's "Crazy deeply in love with You," which moved for the West Finish. Bartlett may also be searching for a Gotham stint along with his London hit "Cock," that the team of yank commercial producers is steering toward an Off Broadway bow later this year. Scribe's plays have "13," "Earthquakes employed in londonInch and "Love Love Love," playing the Royal Court later this year. Payne, meanwhile, recently acquired a slew of plaudits for "Constellations," another play envisioned having an approaching NY run. Also on his resume are plays "Should There Be I have Not Think It Is Yet" and "Wanderlust." The Three creatives it's still repped inside the U.K. by their Brit tenpercenters, with Sheader and Payne both on Curtis Brown's list and Bartlett repped with the Agency. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Safe House Director's Previous Feature Finally Striking Theaters

It's only taken a few years, however the wealth of director Daniel Espinosa's Safe House suggests that Harvey Weinstein is finally ready to permit the filmmaker's Swedish-language hit Quick Money -- ne Snabba Cash -- off his shelf about this summer time 27. The distributor reported the eventual Stateside publication in the film's source novel (rather than Safe House's $83 million-and-counting domestic haul) as his motivation: We love to the film, but we needed it being out here, he told the LAT. Right. Obviously with Harvey, all release dates are inclined to change and/or cancellation anytime, so make certain to mark your calendars in pencil. [LAT]

Sony nabs 'Invertigo' script

Sony has picked up script "Invertigo" from "Transformers" scribe Ehren Kruger. Kruger co-wrote the screenplay with Bradley Cramp and will also exec produce with partner Daniel Bobker. Neal Moritz, who brought the pic to Sony through his first-look deal with the studio, is set to produce, and Andrea Giannetti is overseeing for Sony. Logline is being kept under wraps. Kruger, whose previous credits include the last two films in Paramount's "Transformers" franchise, is currently at work on the series' next installment. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com

Inside Tennis Channel's fight with Comcast

Tennis Funnel topper Ken Solomon, center, with Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova within the U.S. Open this past year.Inside the nation's capital, Golf Funnel can be found on funnel 11 in the Comcast selection Tennis Funnel reaches 735. It may seem it is simply an indication of the Beltway, but to Ken Solomon, in charge of Tennis Funnel, the disparity is certainly an injustice carried out out nationwide. And he's succeeding to be able to convince authorities physiques, in this particular situation an administrative law judge in the FCC, the Goliath in the cable biz has discriminated against one of the Davids on the planet. Comcast has Golf Funnel, but doesn't have a very stake inside the individually possessed Tennis Funnel. The problem, Solomon states, is about greater than making sure a legal court can get equal footing while using club, but in the evolution of cable programming itself, where it's harder for indie systems to deal with people possessed by conglomerates. Tennis Funnel, according to him, remains "thrust in it of moving the flag for nearly any independent voice." "Inside the cable world, there is a time that it stops being a free of charge market," Solomon states. "Inside the cable world, we blew with this point a really very long time ago." Clearly, that isn't how Comcast sees it. Although administrative law judge Richard Sipple ruled in December that Comcast reaches breach of Section 616 in the communications act -- a "program carriage" law controlling cable provider control over channels through which they don't own a stake -- they think the supply continues to be familiar with rewrite the regards to a contract private contract between parties. The regards to that 15-year agreement, Comcast highlights, gives Comcast the legal right to carry Tennis Funnel "on any tier, like the sports tier." Furthermore they condition that Tennis Funnel filed the complaint after seeking bigger carriage, including offering cable operators equity stakes, but Comcast declined. The very best fight is finished when Comcast must immediately follow Sipple's ruling. Although FCC staffers have mentioned that Comcast must implement it now, the cabler states it shouldn't have to until it exhausts other administrative remedies, like taking their situation fully FCC. Carrying this out now, it states, might be "time-consuming, complex and pricey to implement." In addition, it may be confusing to clients it reshuffled its make to produce room for Tennis Funnel inside the lower tiers, then ultimately won within the claim on appeal. "Comcast's First Amendment rights will probably be infringed, as having the ability to speak through its systems will conditioned on bigger distribution of Tennis Funnel, an option that both usurps Comcast's editorial discretion and penalizes its speech," the business mentioned inside an FCC filing. Solomon thinks the liberty of expression argument is "specious." "We didn't awaken and pressure Comcast to put Tennis Funnel on air,Inch he mentioned. "They selected to get this done on their own volition. What they have to accomplish, once they make that determination, they have to give to us fair treatment once they get similar situated systems." Solomon, who before Tennis Funnel founded Fine Living and was leader of Universal Television, talks concentrating on the same showman's eagerness in regards to the situation he is doing in the channel's capacity to win rights to major competitions. Tennis Funnel, founded in 2003, is possessed having a consortium of traders including Apollo Partners, Bain Capital Endeavors, DND Capital Partners, sports management firm IMG and Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. According to Derek Baine, SNL Kagan senior media analyst, the funnel has close to $100 million in annual revenue and went to the black this season. Although a completely new positioning on Comcast systems could eventually lead to an uptick in advertising dollars, in addition to a large rise in clients, the problem continues to be snapped up on by other individually possessed channels like a kind of hangover around-extended controlling wrangling that introduced for the government's approval of Comcast's along with NBCU. Bloomberg LP, which along with Tennis Funnel will be a critic in the NBCU transaction, snapped up on Sipple's ruling to call concentrate on its FCC complaint against Comcast inside the positioning of the business funnel within the same "neighborhood" as news channels, one of the conditions situated around the transaction. Again, Comcast disagrees. Prior to the FCC and Justice Department gave the merger the greenlight, it had vowed to incorporate 10 individually possessed channels towards the selection over the following eight years. But to Solomon, it's less determined by adding new channels but finding them. There's a voluminous situation file inside the criminal history round the situation, but according to him it is kind of grade-school clear to see: "Everything you do by yourself, you must do for some individuals.In . Contact Ted Manley at ted.manley@variety.com

Spicy sales for Salt

London-based sales outfit Salt has guaranteed a raft of pre-sales on Adam Brody and Jean-Claude Van Damme starrer "Thanks for visiting the Jungle."Pic, that is presently lensing in Puerto Rico, has offered to eOne for Canada, Ascot Elite for German-speaking Europe, Transmission for Oz and Nz and Pasatiempo for South America.Other worldwide sales include Scandinavia (Mis Label), A holiday in greece (Tanweer), Poultry (SPI), Eastern Europe (Freeman), CIS (Super Music), China (HGC), India (Pictureworks), Indonesia (PT Amero) and Middle East (Front Row).Pic, helmed by Take advantage of Melzer, follows an ex-boy scout, Chris, who's regularly cajolled in the place of work. Once the whole office is distributed on the backwoods retreat inside a team development exercise headed up by an ex-Marine (Van Damme) who's soon assaulted with a wild cougar, chaos develops and Chris needs to get out of his spend.Justin Kanew and Luillo Ruiz for Pimienta, Salt's Puerto Rico based sister production company, make the pic while Shaun Kauffmann pens the script.The Salt Company guaranteed financing and it is handling worldwide sales around the pic. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com