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Much (Michael Madsen) ado about nothing
This is a long item, a shaggy-dog story that’s just goofy enough for a groggy Monday mention.
So we get a random phone call Friday about gruff, extra-crispy-voiced actor Michael Madsen shooting the low-budget political thriller “Conflict of Interest” in Lockhart and Caldwell County. The movie co-stars Francesco Quinn, Martin Sheen’s younger brother Joe Estevez and, good lordy, the brilliant Lee Majors. It’s Masden’s last day on the set, but still, there’s news here.
This person — who happens to be another of the film’s co-stars, Connie Nelson, ex-wife of Willie — has me call one of the film’s producers (who is also a co-star). I do.
The producer, Kerry Wallum, makes great efforts to modify charges by a raft of tabloids, including The New York Post and New York Daily News, that Madsen had made a public ruckus in London earlier in the week and that his misbehavior had set the film’s production schedule behind by weeks, messing up everything.
First we’d heard about any of this. And when we scoured for evidence, we found a handful of mentions about the incident, with nothing about the brouhaha impacting the movie.
Here’s a report from Aceshowbiz.com:
(Because he) threw such a hissy fit inside London’s posh Dorchester Hotel this weekend, Michael Madsen was booked by the authorities. The actor was then transferred to hospital after staff at the top hotel became concerned for his mental health following fits of screaming and shouting from his room.
Madsen, best known for his role as psychopath Mr. Blonde in “Reservoir Dogs,” had been staying at the Dorchester hotel and checked in on Saturday, June 7 with a woman believed to be his wife and his 5-year-old daughter. Police were called after a guest complained to have heard screaming coming from the actor’s room.
The authorities arrived to find Madsen covered in cuts and bruises and an ambulance was called shortly thereafter, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said no arrests were made following the incident and no further action would be taken.
Certain that local Texas papers should have the story first — that Madsen’s mischief did not upset the shoot — Wallum confirmed that the London incident did happen. He just didn’t want people to think the incident affected things here.
“You’ll do nothing but good for us, right?” Wallum asked.
Um. Sure.
Consider this a pre-emptive strike against any potential tabloid scuttlebutt. Sigh.
Wallum tried to get Madsen on the phone, but the actor was as eager as a kid getting a booster shot. When he finally got on the line, Madsen played dumb.
“I’m wondering what all the mystery is about,” Madsen said. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about.”
We then read him a tabloid headline: “‘Reservoir Dogs’ Star Taken to Hospital After Hotel Bust-up.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Madsen said, haltingly. “I’m in Austin, Texas, shooting a picture!”
It’s all over the tabloids, we tell him.
“Oh, you guys can’t jump on stuff like that, reading all these crazy things,” he said.
He hands the phone to Wallum, who says, “The New York Post told somebody that they’r e doing a piece about how Madsen shut us down for four weeks because he was on this drunken binge coming back from London and this and that. It’s just not true. What his publicist and everyone wants to do is just get the truth out.
“I thought you guys could get the story in before the Post does, because the Post is calling us like crazy.”
So, we ask, what’s the bottom line? What’s the point?
“He’s got a little bit of a black-eye, had a little problem, but it’s all worked out,” Wallum said. “But they’re trying to say he came back all drunk and belligerent and shut down the production.”
The point: He did not. That’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it.
Another version of the tabloid tale HERE.
Madsen in ‘Kill Bill’
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