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This list was originally published in April 2024. It has since been updated with new films from Guadagnino.

A curious thing happened when the first trailer for “Challengers” came out: People started getting really, really weird online about the suggestion that the three main characters — played by Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor — have a threesome. It prompted memes and hand-wringing alike, as if this was the first time any actor in film history had ever pretended to engage in sex onscreen — never mind that the film ultimately doesn’t have an actual sex scene at all, instead withholding from the audience in order to build up the lingering sexual tension that eats away at all sides of its love triangle. The fervor around the possibility of sex in “Challengers” affirmed something that has been obvious for years now: Cinema, especially American cinema, is starved for films that sizzle with genuine sensuality.

Mamma mia, another Luca Guadagnino project?! The man's schedule is beginning to look a lot like Sydney Sweeney's. He's recently been in production for After The Hunt with Andrew Garfield and Julia Roberts and he's also got Separate Rooms with Josh O'Connor and Léa Seydoux and he's also supposed...

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An old Cadillac hearse parked on Sunset is a portal into the town’s dark past, and Dec. 12 marked the revival of Grave Line Tours, a ghost and celebrity-murder tour company.

The “Divas, Drag Queens and Decay” experience begins at the Chancellor Apartments, where the Black Dahlia once lived; passes by the former Richfield Gas Station at 4777 Hollywood Blvd., where gigolo and pimp to the stars Scotty Bowers plied his trade; moves on to El Coyote, where Sharon Tate had her last meal; stops at a storefront on Beverly Boulevard that was once a bathhouse frequented by Rock Hudson; idles in front of the WeHo apartment where Sal Mineo lived and was fatally stabbed in the driveway; and passes by The Beverly Hilton, where Whitney Houston was found.

Qr codes inside the limos direct riders to photos and audio clips — everything from a...

By Lee Pfeiffer

"Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood" is an acclaimed 2017 documentary by director Matt Tyrnauer, that centers on one Scotty Bowers, who passed away in 2019 but who lived to see the release of the film, which chronicles his rather eyebrow-raising adventures in Tinseltown. Who was Scotty Bowers? To the average person, his name won't ring any bells unless they read his autobiography, "Full Service" which was considered to be a "must" among movie fans who relish stories about the sex lives of legendary actors, actresses and directors. The film opens with Bowers, then in his 90s but seemingly as fit as a fiddle, enthusiastically promoting his book at signing sessions where he engages with appreciative admirers. Just what made Bowers unique enough to merit a feature-length documentary? He was always open about his experiences in old Hollywood in terms of providing sexual favors for both men and women,...

Luca Guadagnino is conjuring a reunion with some of his favorite collaborators for a new film titled “Bones & All.” Deadline first reported the news that the upcoming “horror love story” will star the director’s “Call Me By Your Name” muse Timothée Chalamet and will be written by “Suspiria” scribe David Kajganich. Little details are known about the project just yet, other than “Waves” breakout Taylor Russell is currently being eyed to co-star alongside Chalamet. While no start date has been set, Deadline reports that buyers are already lining up to bid on the title.

“Bones & All” would add to Guadagnino’s busy slate. He’s already working on a modernized version of “Scarface” at Universal Pictures, featuring a script from the Coen Brothers, and a “Lord of the Flies” adaptation at Warner Bros., plus a Scotty Bowers gay hustler film pairing him with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Last year,...

Documentary director Matt Tyrnauer, who in 2019 profiled Donald Trump’s late legal fixer in the documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn?, has turned to The Reagans, a four-part series debuting Nov. 15 on Showtime.

Tyrnauer examines how the machinery and milieu of Hollywood helped the couple reinvent themselves and Ronald’s presidency and how it in turn continues to define the conservative moment today.

Tyrnauer — whose other subjects have included fashion designer Valentino Garavani, urbanism activist Jane Jacobs and “male madame” to the stars Scotty Bowers — sees the titular couple as crafty charlatans, backed by wealthy right-wing ideologues and engaged ...

Documentary director Matt Tyrnauer, who in 2019 profiled Donald Trump’s late legal fixer in the documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn?, has turned to The Reagans, a four-part series debuting Nov. 15 on Showtime.

Tyrnauer examines how the machinery and milieu of Hollywood helped the couple reinvent themselves and Ronald’s presidency and how it in turn continues to define the conservative moment today.

Tyrnauer — whose other subjects have included fashion designer Valentino Garavani, urbanism activist Jane Jacobs and “male madame” to the stars Scotty Bowers — sees the titular couple as crafty charlatans, backed by wealthy right-wing ideologues and engaged ...

Boasting a 15-year career as a set decorator, Matthew Flood Ferguson found his first major TV design job in Netflix miniseries Hollywood, on which he took a deep dive into the minutiae of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the starry drama is set in Post-World War II Tinseltown, following a group of actors and filmmakers who will do whatever it takes to realize their dreams. Spotlighting biases toward race, gender and sexuality that exist to this day, it considers what might have happened, had inequality in entertainment been addressed decades ago.

First working with Murphy on the 2006 film Running with Scissors, Ferguson subsequently joined the prolific creator on a number of projects, including The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, getting one of his first opportunities in production design on the upcoming Ratched. “Judy Becker, the production designer, had to leave to do another project,...

Seth Rogen and his writing/producing partner Evan Goldberg are set to team up with ‘Call Me By Your Name’ filmmaker Luca Guadagnino to tell the story of a marine who turned to hustler Scotty Bowers.

Based on Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary ‘Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood’, the story is set to follow WW2 Marine combat veteran Scotty Bowers. Having fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima, Bowers then became a legendary bisexual male hustler and date-arranger for gay Hollywood stars from the 1940s through until the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The documentary is based on Bowers’ book ‘Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars’, a dishy tell-all that was so titled because Bowers arranged these liaisons from a gas station he ran in the shadow of the Hollywood studios. Despite the prurient nature of his business,...

More than 70 years since he first arrived to Hollywood, Scotty Bowers is finally having his moment on screen. Recently his alleged exploits inspired the frothy fun of Ryan Murphy’s revisionist Netflix series, Hollywood, but now Bowers himself is getting a more prestigious biopic treatment in Searchlight Pictures’ narrative adaptation of Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, a 2017 documentary about Bowers made at the end of his life. Genuinely, how can this not be a major, awards-friendly affair with Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Suspiria (2018), now attached to direct?

The news comes out of Deadline, which reports Gaudagnino signed on to helm this week, and that he will be working from a script by none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. It’s an odd pairing given Guadagnino’s generally naturalistic approach to storytelling, and Rogen and Goldberg’s penchant for raunchy free-wheeling studio comedy,...

In an unexpected pairing and surprising announcement, Searchlight Pictures, has slated “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino to direct the dramatic adaptation of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.” The twist? Searchlight also set Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogan to adapt and write the screenplay.

Read More: The Best Films Of 2020… So Far

“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” is a 2017 documentary from Matt Tyrnauer, originally based on Scotty Bowers’s 2012 tell-all book “Full Service.” Searchlight obtained the rights to the narrative adaptation of the documentary last year.

Continue reading Luca Guadagnino To Direct ‘Scotty & The Secret History of Hollywood’; Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogan Writing Script at The Playlist.

In his post-Call Me by Your Name career, Luca Guadagnino seems keen to do the unexpected. After remaking Dario Argento’s Suspiria, he became attached to a Coens-scripted Scarface reboot, co-wrote and directed an 8-hour HBO series, helmed a Venice-bound documentary about a famous shoemaker featuring Martin Scorsese, and now, he’s uniting with a famous comedic duo for a Hollywood biopic about a legendary hustler.

Deadline reports the Italian director has come aboard a narrative version of Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, scripted by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Set up at Searchlight Pictures, the biopic will follow Scotty Bowers, the bisexual Hollywood pimp who worked for numerous major stars from the 1940s through the 1980s, including Rock Hudson, Katherine Hepburn, and Bette Davis. He also claimed he slept with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who dressed in drag during their sexual escapades.

“Call Me by Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino will direct Searchlight’s untitled Scotty Bowers project with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg writing the script.

Matt Tyrnauer and Corey Reeser are producing through Altimeter Films, with Rogen and Goldberg producing through their Point Grey Pictures.

The project is based on the 2017 documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” by Tyrnauer, a portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Bowers, whose memoir chronicled his decades spent as a sexual procurer to the stars.

Fox Searchlight began developing the movie project two years ago after the documentary was released by Greenwich Entertainment. “Scotty” follows Bowers, a World War II Marine combat veteran who fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima and became a legendary bisexual male hustler and all-purpose date-arranger for Hollywood movie stars from the 1940s until the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

Bowers’ memoir “Full Service” was published...

“Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino is set to direct a film about the life of Scotty Bowers, a legendary Hollywood figure who secretly procured sex partners of all stripes to Old Hollywood stars, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

The project, currently untitled, is set at Searchlight Pictures. The studio has set Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to write the script based on “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood,” Matt Tyrnauer’s 2017 documentary film that profiles Bowers, a WWII vet, and how he not only helped straight stars fulfill lustful desires but also allowed secretly closeted LGBTQ stars to live out their lives.

The documentary shows how Bowers worked behind the scenes in Hollywood arranging partners for gay stars between the 1940s through the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s. The documentary is also based on Bowers’ own memoir called “Full...

Luca Guadagnino is adding another project to his growing list of upcoming directorial projects. Deadline reports Searchlight Pictures has attached the “Call Me By Your Name” and “Suspiria” director to helm its narrative feature adaptation of Matt Tyrnauer’s 2017 documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.” In an unexpected and enticing move, the Searchlight release will pair Guadagnino with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The comedy duo are best known for writing and/or directing projects such as “This Is the End,” “Superbad,” “Pineapple Express,” and more.

Similar to the documentary, Searchlight’s feature will tell the true story of Scotty Bowers, a World War II veteran who became a notorious gay male hustler in Hollywood starting in the 1940s and ending in the 1980s during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The documentary was based on Bowers’ book “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret...

Exclusive: Searchlight Pictures, which last year acquired rights to make a narrative film from the Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, has set Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to write the script and Luca Guadagnino to direct the film.

Tyrnauer and his Altimeter Films partner Corey Reeser will be joined as producers by Point Grey Pictures.

The film focuses on Scotty Bowers, a World War II Marine combat veteran who fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima and became a legendary bisexual male hustler and date-arranger for gay Hollywood movie stars from the 1940s until the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The docu is based on Bowers’ book Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, a dishy tell-all that was so titled because Bowers arranged these liaisons from a gas station he ran in the shadow of the Hollywood studios.

The director behind the Oscar-winning drama Call Me by Your Name and the comedy duo behind Pineapple Express are teaming for an Old Hollywood biopic.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino will helm from a script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg a movie about Scotty Bowers, the supposed "male madame" to stars like Rock Hudson, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis.

Bowers' best-selling 2012 memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars. The feature film will be based on the 2017 documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood by Matt Tyrnauer. 

According to a 2019 THR obituary, Bowers' claims ...

The director behind the Oscar-winning drama Call Me by Your Name and the comedy duo behind Pineapple Express are teaming for an Old Hollywood biopic.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino will helm from a script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg a movie about Scotty Bowers, the supposed "male madame" to stars like Rock Hudson, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis.

Bowers' best-selling 2012 memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars. The feature film will be based on the 2017 documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood by Matt Tyrnauer. 

According to a 2019 THR obituary, Bowers' claims ...

Dylan McDermott has a juicy supporting role as gas station owner Ernie West in Netflix’s limited series “Hollywood.” This is the actor’s latest collaboration with Ryan Murphy, previously working with the producer on “American Horror Story” and “The Politician.”

McDermott recently spoke with Gold Derby contributing writer Tony Ruiz about how he characterized Ernie, why “Hollywood” is the series we need right now and whether he would do another season. Watch the exclusive video interview above and read the complete transcript below.

See‘Hollywood’ Emmy interviews: Jim Parsons, Jeremy Pope, Patti LuPone and more [Watch]

Gold Derby: Dylan, one of the things when I was watching the show is Ernie is so multifaceted. He starts off as one thing and by the end of the series he in many ways seems to be the heart of the series. When Ryan Murphy first came to you with this, what did he tell you about Ernie?...

David Corenswet studied acting at Juilliard, but not even the most meticulous research into the history of showbiz could prepare him for Netflix’s “Hollywood.” Ryan Murphy’s miniseries is set in the 1940s golden age of moviemaking, pulling back the curtain on the repressed desires of the executives and stars who ruled Tinseltown.

But it is done with some major liberties. On the show, Corenswet plays Jack Castello, a World War II veteran who dreams of making it big on screen. While the character is not based on a real actor, he’s a composite — borrowing from James Dean and Montgomery Clift, among others. As the series opens, Castello is a gas station attendant who moonlights as a male gigolo (a story line plucked from the 2012 memoir “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Lives of the Stars” by Scotty Bowers). Jack’s first client is the...

Caution: This story contains mild spoilers for the first episode of “Hollywood.”

Ryan Murphy’s limited series “Hollywood” is a mixture of fiction and fact, with its fictional characters set against actual events and people in the movie industry during the years after World War II. And because of the way the Netflix limited series approaches its story, it can be tricky to tell the truth from the fantasy, particularly since the whole idea of “Hollywood” is to tell a story of what could have been, not what was.

But that alternative history uses real history as a jumping-off point, so viewers are bound to wonder about some of the events and settings depicted in the miniseries — particularly the first few episodes, before the story veers into obvious invention.

One of the prime settings for the series is a Hollywood gas station run by a suave operator named Ernie West...

Although Netflix's Hollywood borrows from history, its lead character, Jack Costello, was not a real person. The aspiring young actor, played by David Corenswet, is the entry point into Hollywood's alternate history of Tinseltown, but unlike many of the other characters, he's wholly the creation of the show's writers. Still, he plays an important part in highlighting what Hollywood was really like.

The character of Jack Costello is fictional, but he's something of a stand-in for an archetypal young actor trying to make it in that era of Hollywood. During the movie boom, countless young (and not so young) people flocked to Hollywood in hopes of being "discovered" and making it big. Like many young men of the era, Jack is a young veteran, having fought in World War II and come home to try to figure out his new normal. In fact, several of the biggest stars of the time were WWII vets,...

Hollywood, Ryan Murphy’s jaunty fantasy of 1940s Tinseltown, is a reimagining of film history featuring both real-world and fictional silver-screen luminaries. And according to many of the critics who’ve reviewed it thus far, it leans more heavily toward fiction, arguably whitewashing history in a problematic fashion.

The gas station sex ring run by the debonair pimp Ernie (Dylan McDermott), however, is not a product of the Hollywood imagination. It’s fully based in fact — or at least, one longtime Hollywood man-about-town’s version of it. Ernie is partly based on Scotty Bowers,...

Netflix's Hollywood puts a new spin on old Hollywood, with plot lines that never could have happened in real life. One, though, did: the famous gas station in Hollywood is real - or, at least, based on reality. In the show, a very special gas station serves as a cover for a very different kind of "service": hooking up wealthy and famous clients with prostitutes or other clients. Although it might sound like the kind of thing made up for TV scandal, it's actually a famous part of the underbelly of old Hollywood.

The premise of a gas station with special "services" is based on the real story of a man named Scotty Bowers, a former Marine who owned a gas station in Hollywood in the 1940s that had a similar reputation. Bowers is not an actual character in Hollywood, but there are two original characters who fill a similar role.

This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find our easter egg guide for the previous episode here.

If you wanted a star-gazing episode from Ryan Murphy (or perhaps a different four-letter word to do with stars), then this is it. In one episode we get Vivien Leigh, Tallulah Bankhead, Alfred Hitchcock, Noel Coward, and some juicy gossip about Errol Flynn. So get ready to go to a George Cukor party!

Hollywood Episode 3

-The third episode begins to the sound of Ella Fitzgerald’s “I’m Beginning to See the Light.”

-Ernie reveals to the boys that they’re going to a George Cukor party. While I was aware that Cole Porter and, at this point, retired director James Whale enjoyed scandalous pool parties, I’d been under the impression that Cukor was more deeply in the closet, preferring urbane Saturday night parties with celebrities. Which is still true, but according to Scotty Bowers,...

This article contains major spoilers for Netflix’s Hollywood.

Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series is here. And as Hollywood begins tripping the light fantastic on your streaming service, we’re here to provide you with some texture, color, and insight on all the little easter eggs about the Dreamland that was. We’ve already gone further in-depth here with regard to the real historical players bouncing around Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan’s fantasy, but here we begin a nice overview of all the little nods (and perhaps come-hither stares that accompany their winks) in the show. Go here to find all our coverage, including more episodes’ easter eggs.

Hollywood Episode 1

-Ryan Murphy begins his Hollywood show where else but at the movies! We meet David Corenswet’s Jack Castello as he watches a newsreel in awe. It tells him to go west, young man, and find his start in Hollywood’s boomtown!

When Ryan Murphy announces a series, there is an immediate intrigue that is often associated with it. Take a look at his track record: Popular, Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, 9-1-1 and Pose. With each series, he delivered relatable stories with outsized characters through a hyper-stylized lens. He pushed the envelope and slowly doled out stories about misfits, characters we haven’t seen on TV before and allowed those in the margins to shine. His series Feud put the spotlight on a very specific era in Hollywood — an era he loves. This would essentially be a beta version of his and Ian Brennan’s Netflix series Hollywood, which gives a look at the inclusive film and TV industry that could have been during the glitz and glamour of post-World War II Hollywood.

“I grew up reading about Hollywood and being obsessed about it and there were...

Ryan Murphy's latest project is the Netflix limited series Hollywood, and after seeing the first trailer, it's easy to wonder if it's based on a true story. The answer to that question is actually a little bit complicated. We're breaking down what's pure fiction and what's based on reality - or, at the very least, real gossip.

What Is Hollywood on Netflix About?

At first glance, it looks like Hollywood is just your typical showbiz drama, set in the glamorous and dangerous world of post-World War II Hollywood. But there's a twist: it's set in a "what if?" sort of alternate timeline where many of the prejudices of the real world don't exist, exploring instead all the creativity that could have come from the kinds of people that the real Hollywood of the 1940s overlooked.

"With the present so fraught and the future uncertain, we turned to the past for direction,...

Robert Evans, the legendary Hollywood producer of “Chinatown” and many more and the head of Paramount Pictures between 1967 and 1974, has died. He was 89.

An individual from Evans’ camp confirmed the news to TheWrap. He died on Saturday.

While at Paramount, Evans led a string of box office hits and critically acclaimed smashes that helped turn a struggling studio around, putting out classics such as the first two “The Godfather” films, “Harold and Maude,” “Serpico,” “Chinatown,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Great Gatsby,” “True Grit,” “The Conversation” among many more.

Also Read: Paul Barrere, Little Feat Singer and Guitarist, Dies at 71

In 1974, Evans stepped down from the head of the studio to serve as an independent producer, including a hot streak that included “Marathon Man,” “Black Sunday,” “Players” and “Urban Cowboy.” He later produced the “Chinatown” sequel, “The Two Jakes,” “Silver” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”

Born in New York City,...

Boxer Patrick Day (above right) died Wednesday from head injuries sustained during a match over the weekend. He was 27.

Day was box against Charles Conwell during the Super-Welterweight bout Saturday night at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. He was knocked unconscious during the tenth round and carried out of the ring on a stretcher. The New York-native later slipped into a coma after undergoing brain surgery but never woke up. The fight was streamed on Dazn, an on-demand sports streaming service.

Promoter Lou Dibella confirmed Day’s passing via an online statement.

“He was surrounded by his family, close friends and members of his boxing team, including his mentor, friend and trainer Joe Higgins,” the statement read. “On behalf of Patrick’s family, team, and those closest to him, we are grateful for the prayers, expressions of support and outpouring of love for Pat that have been so obvious since his injury.

Scotty Bowers, whose 2012 memoir Full Service gave an insight into the secretive sex lives of high-profile movie stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, has died at the age of 96.

Bowers, whose Twitter account confirmed his passing, died of natural causes at his home in Laurel Canyon, California, on Sunday (October 13).

Bowers’ colorful life saw him work as a marine and gas station attendant before meeting the Oscar-nominated actor Walter Pidgeon, who paved the way for the young Bowers to become a sexual companion and facilitator to many of the era’s biggest stars. In Full Service, he claimed to have had relationships with the likes of Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Spencer Tracy, Charles Laughton, Cole Porter, and Laurence Olivier.

He also claimed in the rip-roaring book to have slept with female stars including Bette Davis and Lana Turner, and arranged female companionship for Katharine Hepburn, who he said was...

Scotty Bowers, a “sexual matchmaker” for dozens of stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood who wrote about his colorful — and sometimes unbelivable — life in his memoir “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” died at his Laurel Canyon home on Sunday. He was 96.

The story of his experiences was told in the 2017 documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood,” directed by Matt Trynauer, who confirmed his death.

A former U.S. Marine and gas station attendant, Bowers also worked as a bartender and as a go-fer to friend such as George Cukor. But the most notable part of his life was as a helpful procurer for everyone, he claimed, from Rock Hudson, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Elsa Lanchester to Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Spencer Tracy and Charles Laughton.

The actors and filmmakers, who were often bound by morality clauses in their studio contracts,...

Scotty Bowers, the legendary Hollywood sex-fixer who was the subject of the 2017 documentary film “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood,” has died at the age of 96.

“Scotty Bowers July 1, 1923 – October 13, 2019,” read a tweet from Bowers’ official Twitter page posted Monday, followed by a quote from the film: “And remember… it’s as good as it gets right now, baby.”

Bowers first told his story in his 2012 memoir “Full Service,” which detailed his days running a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1940s, from whence he connected male and female sex workers to gay and bisexual Hollywood types across the industry.

Also Read: Tell-All Bares Sex Secrets of Hollywood's Golden Age

Whether his clients were hooking up in the station’s bathrooms (or in a convenient on-site trailer), or going back up to their mansions for a “dip in the pool,” Bowers claims to have personally serviced or provided companions for hundreds,...

Matt Tyrnauer's Where's My Roy Cohn? on the streets of New York: "Cohn, I think, was the person who sat between those two worlds and was the gatekeeper between the underworld and the overworld of politics and money and power." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

There is only one filmmaker who has documented Valentino Garavani (Valentino: The Last Emperor); Scotty Bowers (Scotty And The Secret History Of Hollywood); Jane Jacobs (Citizen Jane: Battle For The City), and Ian Schrager (Studio 54). And now Matt Tyrnauer has added Roy Cohn to the list with his insightfully dark Where's My Roy Cohn? Last fall, Matt told me that the idea for the film came out of his Studio 54 work, as Roy Cohn was the lawyer for Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, and showed up prominently in the archival of the infamous club.

Matt Tyrnauer on Gore Vidal: "He was prescient and brilliant.

The story of Scotty Bowers’ sexual adventures in Hollywood could easily fill a 10-volume set. For the time being, people can find his exploits chronicled in a single book, his 2013 memoir Full Service, or the Starz documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, which is now in the running for Emmy consideration.

Together, the memoir and film reveal a side of the movie capital long relegated to the shadows—a cloaked world where closeted stars of the 1940s, 50s and beyond, desperate for sexual release and intimacy, turned to Bowers for services.

“He’s the most notorious gay hustler in the history of Hollywood,” says director Matt Tyrnauer of Bowers, who turns 96 in a couple of months. “The experience of interviewing Scotty on and off over a two-year period was amazing, extraordinary and unique. It gave me a memory map, really, his map of a lost city.”

The key...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired multi-territory rights to Matt Tyrnauer’s “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”, individuals familiar with the deal told Variety.

The film premiered in the U.S. documentary competition from Tyranuer, known for tackling culture-shapers like designer Valentino Garavani, Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager and Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers. The sale includes U.S. rights, and will include a theatrical release.

Using rare archival footage, “Where’s My Roy Cohn” looks at the infamous New York attorney — a man who represented power brokers, Catholic church leaders, and mobsters. Cohn exploded onto the stage as a top lieutenant of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. He later became a mentor of none other than future President Donald Trump, advising him to always “punch back” when the real estate developer was being sued for housing discrimination. A closeted homosexual, Cohn died of AIDS-related complications in 1986.

“Donald Trump learned literally everything he knows from Roy Cohn,...

Starz announced on Thursday that it has acquired four new documentaries, including “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution,” about a controversy surrounding the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and the Oscar-shortlisted documentary feature “Of Fathers and Sons.”

“Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” is a behind-the-scenes story of how the original Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders became a controversial pop culture phenomenon at the height of the sexual revolution. The documentary originally premiered at the SXSW film festival in 2018, and it will be available for download or streaming via the Starz app on Jan. 14. at 9 p.m. Et/Pt.

“Of Fathers and Sons” won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance in 2018, and it is now on the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. It’s about a man who gains the trust of a radical Islamist family and follows them over the course of two years.

Starz has acquired four new documentaries, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the behind-the-scenes story of how the original Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders became a controversial pop culture phenomenon at the height of the sexual revolution, Of Fathers and Sons, currently on the Oscars short-list for 2019 Documentary Feature, along with Inside My Heart and Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, for premiere this spring on the premium cabler. They join previously announced Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood and White Boy.

“Starz has acquired an exceptional slate of documentary films spanning a wide range of topics – from empowered feminists in the ‘70s, to life inside a jihadist military household and a groundbreaking artist who would change the future of fashion,” said C. Brett Marottoli, Head of Program Acquisitions for Starz. “These films will no doubt engage our audience as we continue our commitment...

Documentaries managed to find an even broader audience this year, with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu doubling down on non-fiction, both as producers and distributors of new unscripted films and TV shows. But whether they screened in theaters, at home or at film festivals, these documentaries were the best of the best:

10. “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood”: Matt Tyrnauer’s portrait of legendary Tinseltown “procurer” Scotty Bowers had plenty of vintage show-biz dish, but it also raised interesting questions about who decides when and how Lgbtq history is “appropriate” to share with the masses.

9. “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”: Equal parts visual poem and ethnographic documentary, RaMell Ross’ debut film examines a handful of residents of the titular Alabama county as his camera turns quotidian moments into something breathtaking and magical.

8. “Bathtubs Over Broadway”: Besides providing a fascinating glimpse into the industrial musical...

Director Matt Tyrnauer finds himself in contention for awards this year with not one but two feature-length documentaries. Taken together, they offer a unique social and cultural history of America from the late 1940s into the 1980s.

Studio 54 centers on the latter end of that time period, when entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager transformed an old theater space in Manhattan into “the greatest nightclub of all time,” as Tyrnauer and many others consider it.

“You could look at other genres of nightclub like the Stork Club and say, ‘That was great, too,’” the director notes. “But there was certainly nothing in the modern era that ever approached Studio 54, as hard as everyone tried.”

From 1977 to 1979—the height of the disco era—the club became a magnet for celebrities and the non-famous, who cavorted in a drug-fueled atmosphere of revelry and wild abandon.

“It was the perfect expression of...

Matt Tynauer’s frank, unrated documentary about the wild times of gay and straight hustler-procurer Scotty Bowers is built around his 2012 tell-all book about the Hollywood sex underground of the late ’40s and ’50s. Scotty tells his own story in a way that compels belief. It’s a fine docu but not for all audiences, as some hardcore content is included.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

DVD

Kino Lorber/Greenwich Entertainment

2017 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date November 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Scotty Bowers, Peter Bart, Stephen Fry, Robert Hofler, William Mann.

Cinematography: Chris Dapkins

Film Editors: Bob Eisenhardt, Daniel Morfesis

Original Music: Jane Antonia Cornish

Produced by Josh Braun, Corey Reeser

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer

And now for something completely different. This well-produced and convincing documentary is about George ‘Scotty’ Bowers, a remarkable man who was ground zero for the Hollywood gay subculture of the post-war years.

The Broadcast Film Critics and the Broadcast Television Journalists associations had a good feeling about “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” on Saturday at their third annual Critics’ Choice documentary honors event. They bestowed the evening’s top prizes, both Best Documentary and Best Director — as well as Best Editing — to Morgan Neville‘s moving portrait of beloved children’s show TV host Fred Rogers.

According to Box Office Mojo, the winner is the highest-grossing doc of the year so far, raking in $23 million.

Among the other winners at the Brooklyn-based event hosted by Bill Nye the Science Guy:

Best Sports Documentary: “Free Solo,” about the first free solo climb of El Capitan at National Yosemite Park.

Best Limited Documentary Series: “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling”

Best Ongoing Documentary Series: “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”

Best Political Documentary: “Rbg,” about Supreme Court Justic Ruth Bader Ginsberg

SEECheck out the...

Ever since the Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” brought audiences to tears at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it has been the frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar. Sure enough, the Focus Features release, the highest-grossing biodoc of all time, took home Best Documentary and Director for Morgan Neville as well as Best Editing at the Third Annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards on Saturday, November 10.

Its closest competitor, NatGeo’s vertiginous climbing movie “Free Solo,” also took home three Critics’ Choice documentary awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (Btja). Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, “Free Solo” won Best Sports Documentary, Best Innovative Documentary, and Best Cinematography.

During the awards show hosted by Bill Nye at Bric in Brooklyn, filmmaker Michael Moore gave a rousing political speech as he accepted the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award,...

Ever since the Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” brought audiences to tears at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it has been the frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar. Sure enough, the Focus Features release, the highest-grossing biodoc of all time, took home Best Documentary and Director for Morgan Neville as well as Best Editing at the Third Annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards on Saturday, November 10.

Its closest competitor, NatGeo’s vertiginous climbing movie “Free Solo,” also took home three Critics’ Choice documentary awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (Btja). Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, “Free Solo” won Best Sports Documentary, Best Innovative Documentary, and Best Cinematography.

During the awards show hosted by Bill Nye at Bric in Brooklyn, filmmaker Michael Moore gave a rousing political speech as he accepted the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award,...

Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” has been named the best documentary of 2018 at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, which were handed out on Saturday evening at Bric in Brooklyn, New York.

The film about “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” star Fred Rogers won in a category whose other nominees were “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hal,” “Hitler’s Hollywood,” “Minding the Gap,” “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Wild Wild Country.”

Michael Moore received a lifetime achievement award from Robert De Niro, who called him “an American hero.” Moore new film, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” was not nominated in the Best Documentary category, instead receiving a mention only in Best Political Documentary, where it lost to “Rbg.”

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Leads All Films in Nominations for Cinema Eye Honors

“Quincy” won the award for best music documentary, while “Free Solo” won for best sports documentary and most innovative documentary.

Cinema Eye Honors revealed the first awards announcements for the organization’s 12th annual awards on Thursday.

Audience choice nominees include recent documentary awards-circuit players such as “Free Solo,” “Minding the Gap,” “Quincy,” “Rbg,” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The group also unveiled its list of “The Unforgettables,” honoring notable and significant nonfiction film subjects, such as rock climber Alex Honnold (“Free Solo”), recording artist M.I.A. (“Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.”), Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“Rbg”), and television legend Fred Rogers (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”).

Joining the broadcast film category is a new field this year, broadcast series, which features contenders such as Netflix’s “Evil Genius” and “Wild Wild Country,” and Showtime’s “The Fourth Estate.”

In the Heterodox category, recognizing fiction films that actively blur the line between fiction and documentary, The Orchard and MoviePass’ “American Animals,” Magnolia’s “Skate Kitchen,” and...

Matt Tyrnauer on Norma Kamali in Studio 54: "She looks extraordinary and she's articulate and so real and was very open and had great insights." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

There is only one filmmaker who has documented Valentino Garavani (Valentino: The Last Emperor), Scotty Bowers (Scotty And The Secret History Of Hollywood), Jane Jacobs (Citizen Jane: Battle For The City) and Ian Schrager (Studio 54). In the second half of my conversation with Matt Tyrnauer, we discuss those films, the work of cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, Michael Jackson, Ron Galella, a Steve Rubell - Roy Cohn connection, and why he choose not to interview Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross and Sylvester Stallone for Studio 54.

By "total coincidence", Matt Tyrnauer had seen The Lifespan Of A Fact, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale at Studio 54, the evening before we met at Kino Lorber.

Matt Tyrnauer on Valentino Garavani with Giancarlo Giammetti...

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s “Free Solo,” which captured rock climber Alex Honnold’s hair-raising ascent of Yosemite National Park’s 3,000-foot El Capitan rock formation, led the nominations for the third annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, it was revealed Monday. The film netted six nominations including best documentary and best director.

Close behind with five mentions each were “Minding the Gap” and “Wild Wild Country,” from Hulu and Netflix respectively.

Voted on by the Broadcast Film Critics and Television Journalists Assns., the awards will be presented at a gala event hosted by science educator and television personality Bill Nye on Saturday, Nov. 10 at Bric in Brooklyn, New York.

The nominees are:

Best Documentary

“Crime + Punishment” – Director: Stephen Maing (Hulu)

“Dark Money” – Director: Kimberly Reed (PBS)

“Free Solo” – Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (National Geographic Documentary Films)

“Hal” – Director: Amy Scott (Oscilloscope)

“Hitler’s Hollywood” – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland...

The perilous attempt by climber Alex Honnold to become the first person ever to scale and solo climb Yosemite’s 3000 foot high El Capitan Mountain with no ropes or safety gear is chronicled in the documentary Free Solo, a film that has climbed the list of nominees with six nods (and one honor) for the 2018 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The awards take place on Saturday November 10 in Brooklyn.

Bing Liu’s skateboarding docu, Minding The Gap, and the Emmy winning Netflix limited docu series Wild Wild Country follow with five nominations each. All three films are nominated in the Best Documentary category which includes theatrical features and streaming/television entries.

In what has been an outstanding year for docus, both critically and at the box office, three films that have earned big dollars in theaters are also well represented on the list – Morgan Neville’s poignant Mr. Rogers docu, Won...

In the past few years, Matt Tyrnauer has made it his stock-in-trade to pry into the seamy undersides of glitz and glamour — and all the sexy secrets that go along. Earlier this year, his documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood attempted to shock and awe with the tales of Scotty Bowers, legendary “pimp to the stars,” and his potentially scandalous conquests of famous men and women. He also delved into the backstory of fashion royalty with Valentino: The Last Emperor. But let’s not forget he also gave...