NEW YORK — Mark Wahlberg is set to make a docuseries on the life of jailed drug kingpin Owen “O-Dog” Hanson.
Wahlberg’s unscripted production company, Unrealistic Ideas, has acquired Hanson’s exclusive participation and may have a possible feature in mind, too.
This story is filled with sex, drugs, sports, gambling and rock ‘n’ roll — all on steroids.
It’s not clear whether Wahlberg will play Hanson, a former University of Southern California football player, who forfeited $5 million in cash when he pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy charges in 2017.
“This is a working-class guy who worked hard to get into USC and then used the business skills he gained through his education there to create a global drug empire,” Unrealistic Ideas president Archie Gips told Deadline.
“We’re looking to explore how that happened and how it all fell apart.”
Hanson was friends with football star Reggie Bush and former New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey.
Shockey was reportedly interviewed years ago by the FBI about his relationship with Hanson, and apparently denied he knew anything about any criminal activity.
Hanson is serving a 21-year sentence in federal prison in Englewood, Colorado, thanks to the efforts of professional gambler RJ Cipriani, aka Robin Hood 702, who helped the FBI bring down Hanson and 22 confederates.
Netflix is also working on a docuseries about Hanson’s international drug ring to be released in 2023.
Get your popcorn ready!
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Don Perlis, the artist who painted George Floyd for a national billboard campaign, is fighting eviction from the rent-stabilized Tribeca loft where he has lived and worked since 1979.
Perlis, 81, is now painting a billboard of Matthew Zadok Williams, who was gunned down in his home by police in Georgia last year.
“A neighbor reported a burglary,” Perlis said. “Cops came and shot him dead in his own living room.”
Meanwhile, Perlis is fighting his landlord, his lawyer Ron Hariri said.
“Laws are designed to protect longtime tenants. We’re working hard to keep him there.”
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Dan Harary never had the nerve to speak with Barbra Streisand, but he did have a silent staring match with the star.
The longtime publicist ran into Streisand at Burbank Studios in 1986 when she was filming “Nuts,” he writes in “Flirting with Fame: A Hollywood Publicist Recalls 50 Years of Celebrity Close Encounters.”
“She turned, saw me, and stared at me as though I was her long-lost brother from a past life. This staring contest went on for such a long time, I actually started to laugh out loud.
“I’d love to say I had the balls to introduce myself to her, but I didn’t. We simply bore holes through each other with our eyes, until a production assistant came out from the soundstage door and called for her to return for her next scene.
“I came to the conclusion that perhaps it was the Brooklyn in my blood that she could smell from a distance, like a vampire. Both she — and my parents — were Brooklynites!”
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Our limelight-loving mayor is now on Showtime.
Mayor Eric Adams appears in “Supreme Team,” the three-part docuseries directed by Nasir “Nas” Jones and Peter J. Scalettar about the notorious Queens crime syndicate and its leaders, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and Gerald “Prince’' Miller.
Adams, who was a cop in the ‘90s, said, “You saw street corner CEOs popping up all over our city.”
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For actress Natali Yura, lightning does strike twice.
When she was making “Reprisal” with Bruce Willis in a small town outside of Cincinnati, Yura filmed a fight scene in which she was beaten up.
She made the mistake of walking home from the set late, covered in faux scars and bruises. The cops stopped her and gave her the third degree, thinking she was an abuse victim. They had her show her ID, her hotel room key and prove she was an actress on the set.
Cut to several years later on the set of “Cash Back” with John Travolta. She was walking home from filming when she was stopped by the police.
“Oh no,” thought Yura, “not this again!”
This go-round, the cop knew she was making a movie. Not only did he give her a ride home, but he called all his cop buddies to take pics with her.
“Cash Back,” which just wrapped, is executive produced by Noel Ashman.
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Mogul CJ Boogatti of MTRX and socialite Anna Rothschild co-hosted the debut series of music events at the MTRX Meta Mansion in Sag Harbor.
The soiree boasted the DJ duo Discloser with a noble assist from Cuba Gooding Jr., who got behind the DJ booth to help spin.
Guests included author Candace Bushnell, “Real Housewives” Dorinda Medley and Kelly Bensimon, skin care mogul Peter Thomas Roth and model Sophia Sumner.
“It was an spectacular event,” said Boogatti. “Great vibes and music leading us to our December MTRX MetaWeek, Miami music festival and the launch of our music metaverse.”
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New Yorkers need to go to Detroit to smoke stogies apparently.
Some 1,500 well-heeled smokers dropped by Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights recently for the annual “Cars and Cigars” event to raise money for the Fuente Family Charity in the Dominican Republic.
Tom Celani is a Bloomfield Hills car collector who dreamed up the idea with New Yorker Jude Barbera.
“We’ve been doing this for eight years and we’ve raised over $9 million,” Celani said.
“Bringing New Yorkers here just brings more sizzle to us because we don’t get a lot of New Yorkers coming to Detroit and they’re just very giving people.”
On hand admiring vintage Detroit steel were Carlos Fuente Jr. and sister Cynthia, musician Arturo Sandoval and Bill McCuddy, who quipped, “Whenever I want a cigar my wife orders me out of the state.”
Well, it’s for a good cause this time.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Richard Johnson has been covering the rich and infamous for decades, and was once called by the New York Times “a journalistic descendant of Walter Winchell.” Having grown up in Greenwich Village, Johnson is proud to call himself a New Yorker.
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