boomp3.com

The Mummy: Tomb Of the Dragon Emperor star Brendan Fraser used the oldest excuse in the book ("I'm the star of the films that this ride is based on!") to get ahead in line for the "Revenge Of The Mummy" ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Fraser flexed a few muscles and signed some autographs for the park's guests until his pen ran out of ink. Fraser then explained that the ride needed his final approval before being officially opened to the public, then cut in front of a whole pack of 9-year-old boys who had slept in line for the ride overnight.

[Photo Credit: Splash Pics]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

And while they're not quite as bad as they sound at first, an e-mail sent Monday to repertory bookers around the country (and forwarded our way) indicates they're definitely true:

It is with great sadness that I must inform you that yesterdays fire destroyed nearly 100% of the archive prints kept here on the lot. Due to this we will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here. Over the next few weeks and months we will be able to try and piece together what material we do have and if any prints exist elsewhere. For the time being please check your rental confirmations and look under shipping instructions. If the print was set to ship from the studio then you date is now canceled.

We double-checked with folks at Universal, who confirmed the damage but hastened to add that the casualties didn't include negatives or original archival prints — only circulating prints shipped out to rep houses. No one could confirm how many prints were in fact destroyed or their collective value, however, nor has the studio set a timetable for replacing them (or if all of them will even be replaced).

We know we were pulling for Howard the Duck to bite it and everything, but if you're a Universalite who happens to spot its gooey melted remains amid the wreckage or on the tram tour one of these days, please do say a little prayer — and don't hesitate to tell us what else didn't survive.

[Photo Credit: AP]

Los Angeles County fire officials said two workers and a supervisor were putting up shingles in an alley on the New York Street set. They finished at 3 a.m., spent an hour watching for any sign of fire, then took a break. At 4:43 a.m., just as the crew was returning, a security guard saw flames and reported the fire.

Roofing shingles? Really? At 3 o'clock Sunday morning? Join our skepticism after the jump.

As previously reported, dodgy water pressure on the backlot prevented a speedier extinguishing of the blaze, whose casualties have been revised to include New York Street and the King Kong tour exhibit but only part of the historic Courthouse Square set (the lame part, natch; the Courthouse façade remains). The studio's video vault was another confirmed kill, as were "master copies of reel-to-reel audiotapes of music from the 1940s and 1950s" belonging to Universal Music Group, which leased vault space from the studio. But UMG had made copies "as the site was being phased out," a spokesperson said, "so in a sense nothing was lost."

But we do mourn King Kong, whose odds for restoration appear slight at best:

"We plan to rebuild and replace everything that was lost," the Uni spokeswoman said. "Will we replace the King Kong attraction? I don't know, because it was a 20-year-old exhibit. But we will create some guest experience in its place."

Allow us to suggest The Universal Backlot Inferno of Convenience, in which every Sunday's first 10 studio guests receive a souvenir blowtorch, fire extinguisher (empty, of course) and roofing shingle to "heat" before placing it on a wood façade specially constructed to mimic the highly flammable, 20-year-old structures that burned over the weekend. Guests can then "phase out" their visits by dropping by Hollywood's only non-fireproof "vault," where the bulky, obsolete audio master of their choice will be made available for torching. (No photography, though!) Finally, they can wind down with a "Aftermath Brunch," where actors portraying studio brass provide talking points for explaining what just happened if or when they're asked by friends and family back home.

Seriously, this could be huge! Are we on to something here or what?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Workers' blowtorch sparked Universal Studios fire [LAT]
• Workers Started Universal Fire [THR]

Alas! "Firefighters managed to remove some of the videotapes," reported today's LA Times. " 'Nothing is lost forever,' Universal President Ron Meyer said of the videos." Which got us thinking: If we hadn't drunkenly slept through the fire bell at Defamer HQ yesterday morning, but instead had dutifully raced to battle the flames, what would we have saved? And what would we have ceremonially thrown atop the pyre? Play along with our moral quandary after the jump.

We know, we know: "How dare we play God with art?" It's actually pretty easy when you think about chucking the negative of Patch Adams into the conflagration, or sprinting through the stacks and smoke in a quest to save Slap Shot. What if we only had time for one of each, though? Do you run straight for Vertigo, which MCA-Universal bought from Paramount in the 60s along with Psycho and Rear Window? The Last Movie, which has yet to be suitably released on DVD? Imitation of Life? E.T.? The Deer Hunter? Frankenstein? Jaws? Melvin and Howard? The volunteer firefighter in us has to bypass them all and head directly for Orson Welles's Touch of Evil; no opening sequence or Charlton-Heston-as-Mexican performance so towering or bold could conceivably go by way of flame. If it all but killed Welles, the least you could do is risk your life to save it.

But despite a back catalog of such wretched fare as Jaws: The Revenge, W.C. Fields and Me, Flash Gordon (soundtrack notwithstanding) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, all of whose disappearances would assuage our conscience beyond measure, we'd most actively seek out the ritual sacrifice of Howard the Duck. Yes, it features the historical interest of Lea Thompson getting frisky with a billed, feathered dwarf and Tim Robbins's early starring role as a spastic scientist, but still: We wouldn't be surprised if we'd have to move on to our second choice — the Damon Wayans vehicle Major Payne — because Thompson and/or Robbins actually got to burning Howard before us.

That leaves a lot of classics to lament on both sides, but also a lifetime of decent sleep knowing we did the cosmos this cinematic solid. Your results may vary; tell us about it below, if so.

• What burned in the Universal fire [LAT]

UPDATE (8:30am): E!'s Marc Malkin is reporting that the MTV Movie Awards will go on and that the hilltop theme park will remain open today. While we would never bet against the power of commerce, we will predict that not too many visitors at the park today will be lining up to "endure the blazing inferno of heart-pounding heat and fury in a 10,000 degree blast of searing pyrotechnics" that the Backdraft ride promises.

UPDATE #2 (8:50am): The power of contextual advertising never ceases to amaze (in red)!

• Large fire burning at Universal Studios in LA {Reuters]