Jack Valenti is featured in Presidents' Movies DVD

Jack Valenti, an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson who went on to leadie Motion Picture Association of America and devise the voluntary film-rating system, died yesterday at 85, days before his recollections and anecdotes about the White House theatre and LBJ’s movie tastes will be featured on the DVD version of Frozen Pictures’ monumental documentary series, All The Presidents’ Movies, narrated by Martin Sheen.

“I had an advertising, political consulting agency in Houston. And I had known the vice president and the Senator for years before that, and my agency was handling the press during the visit of President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to Texas, and I was in Houston and Fort Worth and Dallas. We were going on to Austin. And I was in the motorcade in Dallas when president Kennedy was murdered. And then I was ordered aboard Air Force One by the new President. And I was, I guess, the first of his newly-hired special assistants, and flew back with him on Air Force One, from Dallas to Andrews Field, up at Washington on November 22nd, 1963.

“I left the White House in mid 1966. And from then on out, we were supplying movies. I wanted to make sure that every president and his family could see any new movie that came out. And we would immediately ship it to (projectionist) Paul Fischer at the White House.

“I think it’s useful and valuable for a President to watch a film that the people that he has, by solemn oath, sworn to serve, are also watching. And there is that relevance, that rapport, that connection. I think it’s very helpful to be aware of the popular culture."

Jack Valenti appears in All The Presidents' Movies

Cloud 9's breakout star inspires campus craze

Cloud 9, the hilarious sports comedy motion picture starring Burt Reynolds, is exhibiting all the qualities of a cult classic and campus craze-- thanks, in part, to the performance of its breakout star.

Not only are kids photoshopping the well-known Cloud 9 DVD cover to put themselves in place of Burt Reynolds as the king of beach volleyball strippers (above)-- but Cloud 9 viewing parties in rec rooms and dorms feature a new drinking game centered on Katheryn Winnick, who plays the world-weary Russian dancer named Olga.

"Every time her character speaks, we drink until she's finished," a campus source tells us. "Olga rocks!"

Maybe it's because she of the way she says "wodka." But whatever the reason, it's Katheryn whose star has been on the rise since Frozen Pictures' movie about a man's dream to turn a group of strippers into a beach volleyball powerhouse was released last year by 20th Century Fox. And she did it among an impressive, legendary cast that includes Reynolds, D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Tom Arnold, Tony Danza, Gary Busey and a host of young talent.

First it was her performance as Ivana Trump in ABC's biopic, Trump Unauthorized, then well-received roles in films like Failure To Launch and TV dramas like CSI: NY and House.

And last month, after she was replaced in the pilot for a Fox comedy series called Nurses, Fox turned around and signed her to a new, six-figure talent deal-- with plans for Katheryn to star in a new dramatic series.

"Olga was originally written as 'Inga,' the stereotypical Swedish bombshell," says Brett Hudson, who wrote and produced Cloud 9 with his Frozen Pictures partner Burt Kearns and Academy Award winner (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy. "It was a tribute to the dumb blondes of the Sixties. We were looking at Victoria Silvstedt to take the role when Katheryn showed up and played it Russian. The director convinced the rest of us to make the change."

"Katheryn's no dumb blonde. She's an actress," Kearns adds. "And I think it's a combination of our comedic writing and her intense delivery that resulted in comic gold. We knew when we were filming on the beach in Malibu that she had real star power.

"She reminded us of a young Sharon Stone."

When Hudson and Kearns wrote the script for their upcoming film, Psych House, they had Winnick in mind for a major role in the psychological horror.

"No announcements yet," Hudson cautioned. "But Katheryn's a horror fan. And we're fans of hers."

"And we don't encourage underage drinking," Kearns adds.

First promo trailer: The Venice Walk

The original series The Venice Walk is coming to the Internet in May, written and directed by and starring Robert Hegyes of Welcome Back, Kotter fame, and featuring Kotter star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Martin Kove (Hegyes' co-star in Cagney & Lacy). The webisode series revolves around a Venice Beach probation officer and the seven Venice High School juvenile delinquents who must report to him.

Hegyes created and wrote the series with Craig Titley. The series is produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures, who executive produce with Hegyes under the Frozen banner.

Go to TheVeniceWalk.com for more.