newsmakers

April 13, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

Rock Hall responds to Axl Rose’s request

LOS ANGELES

Guns N’ Roses founding member Axl Rose had a message Wednesday for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which will have its induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday without him.

“I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia and please know that no one is authorized nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me,” Rose wrote in a letter sent to the Los Angeles Times. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has heard Rose’s declaration and now responded.

“We are sorry Axl will not be able to accept his induction in person,” read a statement from a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame spokeswoman.

So ... that settles that? Probably not, as the spokeswoman noted that “other members” of the band are still on the guest list. As of Thursday after-noon, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash was still planning to attend, and longtime bassist Duff McKagan will be in Cleveland promoting a book.

Gibson fires back at screenwriter

LOS ANGELES

Mel Gibson has fired a return volley toward Joe Eszterhas in the jousting over why Warner Bros. rejected the screenwriter’s screenplay for a proposed movie about Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee.

The studio said Wednesday that it was not proceeding with Eszterhas’ script and was “analyzing what to do with the project.”

The news prompted the “Basic Instinct” writer to allege in a letter posted by the Wrap (http://www.thewrap.com) that Gibson, who was to produce and possibly direct the film, never wanted to make it because, as Eszterhas said of Gibson, “You hate Jews.”

The actor and filmmaker, in response, sent Eszterhas a letter of his own, also sent to the Los Angeles Times, alleging that Eszterhas’ script was “substandard” and “a waste of time.”

Writer William Boyd to pen next 007 novel

LONDON

Acclaimed British novelist William Boyd said Thursday he hopes to bring James Bond back to his roots when he pens the next installment of the suave superspy saga.

HarperCollins Publishers said Boyd will be the next hired gun to step into Ian Fleming’s English-made shoes. Fleming died in 1964 after creating the enduring 007 character, who has been celebrated in the longest-running film franchise of all time.

Boyd, known for “Restless,” “Any Human Heart” and other books, will follow successful novelists Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver, who also have written recent authorized Bond novels.

The Boyd book, which does not have a title yet, is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2013, 60 years after the publication of “Casino Royale,” the first in the series.

Boyd said he plans to pattern the new novel on “classic Bond” and to set it in the late 1960s.

Associated Press