WITH THE MOVIE STARS.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17586, 15 December 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

WITH THE MOVIE STARS.

£IOO,OOO for Orohestra, Mr Paul Whiteman, the jazz conductor, and his band of more than 30 instrumentalists, have, it is stated, been offered £IOO,OOO for six weeks' work in a talking and sound fllm to be entitled "The King of Jazz." The offer is said to have been made by Universal Pictures. Pola Persuades Bernard Shaw. Coupled with the suggestion that her vamping powers were worked their hardest, Pola Negri announces that, after two hours' persuasion, she has induced George Bernard Shaw to permit his play "Antony and Cleopatra" to be lilmed. "Mr Shaw will assist in the production, and must approve the cast. With his co-operation, I shall giv° my very life, my very blood, to make the picture a success," says Pola. Film Star in Many Lawsuits. Caught in a whirlwind of lawsuits. Miss Mao Murray, the famous fllm star, came through one successfully the other day when Santa Monica court in California failed to And any evidence in support of the charges that she forcibly entered the house of Mr Jack Donovan, a Hollywood architect. All Miss Murray's troubles have arisen out of the purchase of a Hollywood house and furniture. On charges that he had misrepresented the house and furniture in the sale made to her, Mae Murray won an action for £65,000 against Mr Donovan. The grand jury was then invited to consider a perjury charge against the actress arising out of this case. The inquiry was dismissed for lack of evidence. Forcible entry into the architect's home was next alleged against Miss Murray. Free now of this charge, the fllm star must face three more lawsuits. One is that she has failed to pay for a dog which, it is alleged, she purchased from the architect; another for alleged neglect to pay for furniture bought from Mr Donovan; and a third legal battle in which the star is still engaged opened in conjunction with a suit for damages for £22,000.

Chevalier in Hollywood. H. d'Abbadie d'Arrast is to direct the forthcoming Paramount sound picture starring the famous French musical comedy and vaudeville star Maurice Chevalier. d'Arrast, who is a young Frenchman, made a specialty of light French comedy-drama, and has directed Menjou in a number of such pictures.

News from the Studios. James M. Barric's "Half-an-Hour" is to be produced as an all-dialogue picture at the Paramount studios. "Condemned to Devil's Island," Blair Niles' story of the French penal colony in the Guianas, has been selected by Samuel Goldwyn as the next Ronald Golinan picture to follow "The Rescue."

Chester Conklin has completed a prominent feature role in the mystery play '"The Haunted House." "In Old Arizona" will be the new title for Raoul Walsh's first all-talking feature for Fox Films. Walsh is playing the lead as well as directing, and other members of the cast include Edmund Lowe, Maria Alba, Farrell McDonald, Ivan Linow, and Elena Llota.