Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

'Shark Tank's' Daymond John Quicker To Go for Jugular These Days/Former 'Sopranos' Co-star Hesitant To Take on Mob Movie

"Shark Tank" entrepreneur Daymond John and his fellow shark, $2.5 billionaire Mark Cuban, are working out the details for their planned "Twittch" — that is, Twitter pitch — event April 9 at the Reality Rocks Expo at the L.A. Convention Center. Business wannabes will have the chance to pitch their products to the potential investors in 140 characters or less while the duo talk about the use of social media to build brands.

The FUBU founder and CEO admits that when he was starting out, he couldn't have sold an investor on anything in 140 characters.

"I got turned down by 27 banks, so it didn't matter whether I had 140 words or 140,000."

Still, he's into social networking for fun and profit now. He gets around 200 pitches via Facebook, Twitter and email per week, and "I do look at most of them. Mark Cuban says he's backed products by people he's never met through Twitter and email. I'm not going to do that. I want to meet people before I give them any money."

As for whether any of those pitches have been effective, John says he's consulting with a handful of people who began with an unsolicited pitch to help them develop their goods or services. Products from another few "are in my portfolio in case I meet with a company that might work a good deal with them."

With Season 2 of "Shark Tank" under way, John has sharpened his game. Now, when he sees a product that he wants that other sharks also want, "Whether I have a good or bad feeling about the shark, I'll go for the jugular quicker." Now, he has attorneys at the ready "so I'm better equipped to structure these deals." John also has "strategic partners in place" to help him carry through deals faster.

He tells us he's glad for the addition of recurring sharks Cuban and Jeff Foxworthy. "It makes it more fun and brings more eyeballs. When Jeff came in, we didn't know what to expect, his having been in show business for more than 25 years. But you can't be an idiot and be as successful as he is. We were like, 'Wow. He gets it. He understands. He's a businessman.' We were pleasantly surprised.

"And with Mark, we expected him to come in and start throwing chairs and screaming," he says of the fiery founder of HDNet and owner of the Landmark Theatre chain and the Dallas Mavericks.

But that can be used against him, John believes.

"I'll say to people, 'When you have to pay for the gas in his jumbo jet for him to come in for a meeting, what's that going to do to your budget?' And when you need to reach him and can only get his secretary, what are you going to do then?' It's all about playing a smart game."

And for the sharks, it really is about the fun of playing the game, for, as John notes, none of them "has to work another day of our lives."

MARRIED TO THE MOB: After eight years on "The Sopranos," actress Kathrine Narducci admits she hesitated to return to that world when she was paged to join the cast of the Frank Vincent-Armand Assante film, "Chicago Overcoat."

"I always wanted to work with Frank, and I love Armand Assante, and I wanted to do it because of them, but I've been pigeonholed since playing De Niro's wife in 'A Bronx Tale,'" she acknowledges. "Sometimes you feel like you're doing the same role over and over with a different name."

However, Narducci says, "I enjoy doing these roles if they have substance and a good arc and a good storyline. You try to bring something different to it and make it interesting for yourself. Even though it's the same type of movie, it's a different story. I've never played a kept woman before. I've known women who were involved with married men. They're in their 20s, and he's going to leave his wife, in their 30s, their 40s; he's still going to leave his wife. They wait their whole lives."

The well-done — but very violent — film, in which Vincent plays an aging hit man on an assignment that turns out to hold surprises, was a hit with film-festival audiences and gets its home video release April 19 via Netflix, RedbBox, iTunes and Amazon.

MERRY, MERRY: It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas, especially when you're casting about for a movie called "Annie Claus is Coming to Town." That would be Annie Kringle, Santa's daughter, who takes a sabbatical down south to Los Angeles, and her adversary at the North Pole is determined to cause Annie to fall in love while in sunny Southern California — thus getting her to stay away forever. Can't trust those happy little elves. Larry Levinson, who has produced many a Christmas-themed TV movies, is exec producer.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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