Prince Michael Uncovers Oz the Great and Powerful Casting Secrets

While on his first assignment as an ET correspondent, Michael Jackson's 16-year-old son Prince Michael got the scoop on who else was in the running with James Franco for the lead role in Oz the Great and Powerful.

PICS: Bewitching Oz the Great & Powerful Posters

Despite director Sam Raimi's decade-long friendship with Franco (they worked together on the Spider-Man trilogy), Raimi revealed that he initially didn't even consider the 34-year-old actor for the part.

"When I first read the script, I heard that Robert Downey Jr. was attached to star in it," said Raimi. "I met with Robert a few times. It turned out not to be right for him. And then briefly Johnny Depp considered the project. It turned out not to be right for him either. And then I heard that James had read it and liked it, and I hadn't even thought of James."

Franco's reactions to Raimi's comments suggest that he was hearing this for the first time.

"What?" Franco said with a chuckle.

The movie imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved character from The Wizard of Oz. After Oscar Diggs (Franco) is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he first thinks he's hit the jackpot -- until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting.

Oz the Great and Powerful hits theaters March 8.

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Realtors waiting for spring

Don’t call it a shortage — but the number of homes on the market has shrunk to a 13-year low.

The decline, coupled with a double-digit increase in buyers in some parts of the country, and you have Realtors itching for the spring selling season to begin.

“With fewer homes available, and more buyers’ demand, it’s easy to see that home prices have only one way to go — up,” said Tricia Chirco, market analyst at the Long Island Board of Realtors, covering Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

“We had one home on the market in East Meadow last week at $399,000 and it got six offers during the weekend, some over the list price, ” she said. “That’s demand.”

“Homeowners are going to be putting homes on the market in March and April, which is what they’ve wanted to do for a long while,” she said. “Flowers are out and it’s easier to show a home.”

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, which yesterday said the US inventory of homes hit a 13-year low, declared:“We’ve transitioned into a seller’s market.”

Indeed, the number of homes for sale in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk shrunk by 21 percent in the past year, while traffic of home-hunters has soared by as much as 40 percent, even in the frigid winter months, said Chirco.

Statewide, inventories of homes for sale tumbled 19 percent to 74,731 in the past year while demand is up by the double digits,

“This is going to push up median home prices,” said Sal Prividera, a spokesman for the New York State Association of Realtors.

“Homeowners who were sitting on the sidelines waiting for prices to rise will now have a change to make their moves,” said Prividera.

The NAR said the median price for homes in the New York-Northern New Jersey area is up 3.6 percent to $392,000 from a year earlier. In the Northeast, home sale deals were up 12.1 percent in January from a year ago, to an annual pace of 650,000 deals, said the NAR.

The nation's inventory of existing homes for sale dropped 25.3 percent past year to 1.74 million homes, for a 4.2-month supply of homes at the current sales pace.

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National Hotel nears end of long renovation

A panel of frosted glass puts everything in perspective for Delphine Dray as she oversees a years-long, multi-million dollar renovation project at the National Hotel on Miami Beach.

“Chez Claude and Simone,” says the piece of glass stationed between the lobby and restaurant, a reference to Dray’s parents, who bought the hotel in 2007.

“Every time I am exhausted and I pass that glass, I remember why,” said Delphine Dray, who joined her father — a billionaire hotel developer and well-known art collector in France — to restore the hotel after the purchase.

After working with him for years, she is finishing the project alone. Claude Dray, 76, was killed in his Paris home in October of 2011, a shooting that remains under investigation.

In a recent interview and tour of the hotel’s renovations, which are nearly finished, Dray did not discuss her father’s death, which drew extensive media coverage in Europe. But she spoke about the evolution of the father-daughter working relationship, the family’s Art Deco obsession and the inspiration for the hotel’s new old-fashioned touches.

The National is hosting a cocktail party Friday night to give attendees a peek at the progress.

Dray grew up in a home surrounded by Art Deco detail; her parents constantly brought home finds from the flea market. By 2006, they had amassed a fortune in art and furniture, which they sold for $75 million at a Paris auction in 2006.

That sale funded the purchase of the National Hotel at 1677 Collins Ave., which the Drays discovered during a visit to Miami Beach.

After having lunch at the Delano next door, Dray said, “My dad came inside the hotel and fell in love.” The owner was not interested in selling, but Claude Dray persisted, closing the deal in early 2007. Her family also owns the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez, which reopened Thursday after a complete overhaul overseen by Dray’s mother and older sister.

Delphine Dray said she thought it would be exciting to work on the 1939 hotel with her father, so she moved with her family to South Florida. She quickly discovered challenges, including stringent historic preservation rules and frequent disagreements with her father.

“We did not have at all the same vision,” she said.

For example, she said: “I was preparing mojitos for the Winter Music Conference.” Her father, on the other hand, famously once unplugged a speaker during a party at the hotel because the loud music was disturbing his work.

“We were fighting because that is the way it is supposed to be,” she said. “Now, I understand that he was totally right.”

She described a vision, now her own, of a classic, cozy property that brings guests back to the 1940s.

Joined by her 10-year-old twin girls, Pearl and Swan, and 13-year-old son Chad, Dray pointed out a new telephone meant to look antique mounted on the wall near the elevators on a guest floor. She showed off the entertainment units she designed to resemble furniture that her parents collected. And she highlighted Art Deco flourishes around doorknobs and handles.

“It’s very important for us to have the details,” she said.

With those priorities in mind, she is overseeing the final phase of the renovation, an investment that general manager Jacques Roy said will top $10 million. In addition to the small details, the renovation includes heavier, less obvious work: new drywall in guest rooms, for example, and new windows to replace leaky ones.

Painting of the building’s exterior should be finished in the next two to three weeks, Roy said. Dray compared its earlier unfinished state to resembling “a horror movie — the family Addams.”

And the final couple of guest room floors, as well as the restoration of the original Martini Room, should be done by the end of April.

“At the end, I will be very proud,” Dray said.

The National’s renovation wraps up as nearby properties such as the SLS Hotel South Beach and Gale South Beach & Regent Hotel have been given new life. Jeff Lehman, general manager of The Betsy Hotel and chair of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, said the National has always been true to its roots. He managed the hotel for 10 years, including for a few months after Dray bought the property.

“I think historic preservation and the restoration of the hotels as they were built 70, 80 years ago is such a huge piece of our DNA,” he said. “It’s a lot of what sets us apart from any other destination on the planet.”

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U.S. Supreme Court ruling affects many immigrant convicts in South Florida

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday shuts the door on appeals for hundreds of Floridians convicted in the past of crimes for which they could be deported.

The high court, in Chaidez v. United States, ruled that immigrants convicted of certain crimes before 2010 cannot appeal their cases if their criminal defense lawyer did not properly warn them of deportation.

Wednesday’s decision followed up on the court’s 2010 ruling throwing out the conviction of military veteran Jose Padilla, whose lawyer failed to warn him he faced deportation to his native Honduras when pleading guilty to marijuana smuggling in Kentucky.

After the ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky, thousands of convicted immigrants — fearing deportation, or some ordered deported — asked lower courts across the country to throw out their convictions. That included Roselva Chaidez, a longtime U.S. resident from Mexico convicted in Chicago of auto insurance fraud.

But seven of nine justices said Wednesday that the Padilla ruling established “new law” and was not legally “retroactive.” Under federal law, non-citizens convicted of an “aggravated felony” can be deported.

The U.S. Attorney General’s Office had also argued that applying Padilla retroactively “would be overwhelming to the administration of justice” — flooding the courts with thousands of cases, most of them so old that witnesses or evidence in the cases have disappeared.

South Florida defense attorneys greeted Wednesday’s ruling with dismay.

“There will be an increase in voluntary departures, only the ‘voluntariness’ will be based on the fact that there is no recourse if the person’s case pre-dated Padilla ... an increase in orders of deportations and in increase in money spent to supervise people who cannot be deported to countries such as Cuba,” said defense attorney Maggie Arias, who along with Benji Waxman argued the issue before Miami’s appeals court.

“They’ve cut the legs out of anyone who would have recourse in criminal court based on bad advice — or no advice — from a criminal defense lawyer.”

Two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented.

The issue of “retroactivity” had been particularly vexing in immigrant-rich South Florida, and several Miami cases had made their way through the appellate courts.

One such case: Gabriel Hernandez, who arrived in the United States from Nicaragua when he was 2 years old. Now 30 and a legal resident, he boasts a bachelor’s degree and works as a successful computer network administrator for a Miami bank group.

His one blemish occurred when he was 19 years old. He was arrested on charges of selling LSD.

In an outcome typical for first-time offenders, Hernandez pleaded guilty and accepted a year of probation in return for a promise that no felony conviction would appear on his record. But Hernandez insists he never understood that the plea deal could wind up getting him deported to Nicaragua.

Miami’s Third District Court of Appeals denied Hernandez’s bid to throw out the conviction based on the Padilla case. The Florida Supreme Court, in November, upheld the ruling.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Michael Vastine, was chagrined by Wednesday’s court decision.

“From here on out, Florida immigration judges are going to be deporting people for crimes that are constitutionally suspect,” Vastine said. “I find that a little bit galling.”

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Independence Party nominates Carrion to run for mayor

There’s going to be a three way race for mayor.

The Independence Party shook up the race for City Hall tonight by unanimously nominating former Bronx President Adolfo Carrion as its standard bearer.

Carrion will face against whoever the Democratic and Republicans elect in their respective party primaries.

“Today the Independence Party gave New Yorkers a real choice. I will not let you down,” Carrion told about 50 of the party’s delegates following their vote at the Scholastic Book Store in Soho.

Carrion, 51, served in the Obama administration as the White House director of urban affairs and later as regional director in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, after his tenure as borough president.

He switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent last fall.

“The issues are more important than any political party,” Carrion said.

It’s a change of strategy for the Independence Party, who backed Mike Bloomberg in the last three elections. But Bloomberg also ran on the Republican line – and the votes from the two lines combined helped him defeat his three Democratic opponents.

It will be a much more difficult challenge for Carrion to win as a third party candidate – and without Bloomberg’s financial resources . He is also seeking Republican Party support. But because he is not a registered Republican, he needs the backing of three GOP county leaders to run in a Republican primary and that support hasn’t materialized..

But Independence Party political strategist Jacqueline Salit was enthused about Carrion running as a “third force.”

“This is going to be a three way race that’s going to chage the dynamics of politics in New York. Adolfo’s candidacy is defining the race,” Salit said.

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Caribbean cell phone company asks South Florida relatives to buy minutes for family back home

An Irish billionaire’s telecommunications company, which has revolutionized cell phone usage in some of the world’s poorest countries, is bringing it’s latest marketing pitch to South Florida.

Digicel is tapping into South Florida’s close ties to Haiti and Jamaica in a campaign that asks families stateside to send minutes home.

Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien has staked a claim in the telecommunication industry by building his cell phone company in developing countries in the Caribbean and South America The South Florida Digicel campaign includes bus bench ads, billboards and television spots. The message is simple: “Send minutes home.”

Customers stateside can pay to send airtime minutes to family and friends’ pre-paid cell phones in the Caribbean. The concept is not new, but Digicel is seeking to broaden it’s reach.

It is a nod to South Florida’s ties to the Caribbean and the financial influence of the region’s diaspora. Families in Haiti and Jamaica rely heavily on remittances from abroad.

Haiti received $2.1 billion in remittances in 2011, which represents more than one quarter of the national income, according to the Inter-American Development Bank . In 2011, Jamaica received nearly $2 billion in remittances.

“We understand the value of the diaspora,” said Valerie Estimé, CEO of Digicel’s diaspora division. “They are our lifeline.”

Typically the company relies on ethnic media outlets like radio programs and niche publications for advertising, but there was a gap in reaching second- and third- generation Caribbean Americans, who are more plugged in to mainstream media, said Andreina Gonzalez, head of marketing in Digicel’s diaspora division.

“There was an opportunity to step up and go a little further,” Gonzalez said.

The campaign comes at a time when the company is facing some public relations backlash in Haiti and Jamaica. Customers from both islands have taken to social media to decry shoddy connections and poor customer service.

In Haiti, the problems were so acute that Digicel released an apology letter to its customers in December. When the company tried to integrate Voilà, a competitor Digicel acquired, into its network, the integration caused system failures.

“Quite simply, we did not deliver what we promised and we did not communicate effectively with customers through the problem times,” Damian Blackburn, Digicel’s Haiti CEO wrote in the apology.. “We apologize for letting our customers down and want to thank them for their patience and understanding.”

In South Florida, the marketing pitch is family-centered and draws on the diaspora’s need to stay connected. Digicel representatives say airtime minutes are as valuable as the cash remittances families send to the Caribbean.

The advertising features members of a culturally ambiguous animated family smiling and talking on cell phones.

The ads that appear in Little Haiti, North Miami and North Miami Beach are largely targeting the Haitian community. In South Broward, the focus shifts to the Jamaican population.

A similar campaign has also been launched in New York.

Prices range for $7 to $60 to add minutes to a relative’s Digicel account. Transactions can be made online or at participating stores in South Florida.

“You’re able to make a very big difference with a very small amount of your disposable income,” said Estimé. “We know how important it is to be able to get in touch with a mother, a sister or a brother.”

The company recognizes that some of its older customer base prefer the retail model, while younger and more savvy consumers would rather send pay for minutes directly from their computers or cell phones.

“It was really impressive to see Digicel online,” said Geralda Pierre, a Miami Gardens resident who sends minute to Haiti. “It’s so convenient to add minutes for my dad in Haiti who is sick. It makes it easier for me to get in touch with him.”

For now, Digicel says it will continue to mix the old and new. The Creole-language advertisements on Haitian radio and Island TV, a Creole language cable network, are here to stay.

“We are bringing first world convenience in some cases to third world countries,” Estimé said. “Digicel has in a way improved the lives of our loved ones back home.”

Follow @nadegegreen on Twitter

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Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez to speak at Miami’s Freedom Tower

Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who is on a world tour after 10 years of being barred from leaving her homeland, plans to visit Miami April 1 and speak at the iconic Freedom Tower.

“It is such an honor to not only have Yoani speak at what we affectionately call Democracy’s College, but also at the Freedom Tower. I can think of no better venue for this historic conversation in Miami,” said Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College., in an email Tuesday night.

The Freedom Tower, which is located on the MDC campus, was the old headquarters of The Miami News but went on to a second life as a center for processing and offering services to Cuban refugees who fled the Castro regime in the 1960s.

The federal government sold the Mediterranean Revival style building in 1972 and after changing hands a few times, it was donated to Miami Dade College.

Sánchez will take part in what is billed as a special conversation with community leaders and students at 2 p.m. on April 1. The conversation will be live-streamed from the tower, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Cuban blogger, who began an international tour this week that will stretch to nearly three months, will receive the Miami Dade College Presidential Medal for championing human rights.

Past honorees have included President Bill Clinton; Lech Walesa, former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity Movement, and Mikhail Gorbachev, who brought economic and political change to the Soviet Union..

“I think it’s wonderful that she’s coming,’’ said Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

“It will give her the opportunity to see how embracing the Cuban-American people are to Cubans on the island and how much we care about them. I hope she will go back and tell this to the Cuban people.’’

More importantly, he said, it will give people here and at the other venues Sánchez plans to visit the ability to see Cuba from the point of view of a journalist, “a simple blogger’’ and help them understand the hardships of daily life in Cuba.

“We need to listen to their voices; a lot of times the voices on the island are different but they are so important in building bridges between here and there,’’ Gomez said.

But he added, “I think too much pressure is being put on the shoulders of Yoani. She’s not a politician; she’s not an academic; she’s not a public figure by design and people abroad have made her into a public figure.

“She’s one of the many — many dissidents on the island. I hope she doesn’t burn out,’’ said Gomez.

But during her first stop in Brazil this week, Sánchez proved resilient in the face of pro-Cuba hecklers who disrupted the screening of a film about press freedom in which she appears. On her arrival in the Brazilian state of Bahia, protesters also threw fake dollar bills at her and accused her of being financed by the CIA.

But during a news conference Tuesday, Sánchez, 37, said, “I’ve found something here like what Cuba could be in 20 years in terms of diversity of opinion.’’

Asked about her future role in Cuba, she said she hoped to work in a Cuban newsroom free of censorship.

“I have a dream of founding a media outlet in my country because I believe in the power of journalism as a regenerative force,” said Sánchez.

Her critical blog posts, tweets and columns are followed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, although because Internet access is so limited in Cuba, she is not well-known on the island.

Through the years, Sánchez has had to turn down many invitations to visit abroad because the Cuban government wouldn’t give her an exit visa.

But under a travel and migration reform last month, Cubans are no longer required to obtain the so-called tarjeta blanca to leave the island. And they are allowed to stay outside the country for extended periods without losing their Cuban citizenship rights.

Sánchez requested her passport soon after the reform went into effect and began planning an itinerary that includes several stops in the United States, an appearance at an Inter American Press Association meeting in Mexico, and visits to a number of European nations.

Sánchez, who also plans to visit her sister while in South Florida, appeared at the 2011 Miami Book Fair International — but via a phone call and a pre-recorded video message. Earlier this month she participated in the live program Avanza Cuba — a collaboration of MDC and TV Marti, via phone.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage Get Animated for The Croods Movie

Emma Stone will soon make her very first foray into the world of CGI with DreamWorks' caveman comedy The Croods, and the starlet tells ET that the project got her animated in every sense of the word.

"I didn't really realize that there was going to be so much movement playing an animated character," laughs Stone about lending her voice to adventurous teen cavegirl Eep in the film. "It was pretty fun."

Pics: Stars on Set

In fact, Eep's rambunctious zest for life made accepting the role, opposite Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds, a no-brainer for the actress.

"I liked her rebellion and I liked her strength physically," said Stone, who adds that she was especially impressed by Eep "being able to physically pull people over her shoulder" as cave people are apt to do. "There's a lot I could relate to about her."

Video: Watch Andrew & Emma's 'Spider-Man' Screen Test

Watch the video for more from Emma Stone and her co-star Nicolas Cage, who play's the Crood family's over-protective patriarch.

Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman also star in the family-friendly film, in theaters March 22.

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Judge blocks city from Ken Burns film footage

Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns today beat back an effort by the city to obtain raw footage and outtakes from his recent movie on the infamous "Central Park jogger" rape case.

A judge granted the PBS icon's request to quash a subpoena for the unused material on grounds that his production company, Florentine Films, is covered by the "reporter's privilege."

Manhattan Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis ruled that Florentine proved its "journalistic independence" when Burns' daughter and collaborator on the film, Sarah Burns, "presented specific facts demonstrating an intent to publish at the time newsgathering commenced."

Ellis also said city lawyers were "misleading" when they claimed that Ken Burns told the trade magazine Variety that the "purpose" of last year's "The Central Park Five" was to spur settlement of a $250 million civil-rights suit filed by the five men whose convictions were tossed in 2002.

"Burns does not indicate what the film's 'purpose' is, and the quoted portion by defendants mischaracterizes the quote and Ken Burns' position," Ellis wrote.

The city claimed that it needed what Burns left on the cutting-room floor to help defend itself against wrongful-conviction claims by Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kharey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, whose pending suit was filed 10 years ago.

Ellis said upcoming depositions "will provide full access fo the main plaintiffs" and give city lawyers "the opportunity to pose questions concerning contradictions in the edited film and elsewhere."

Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel for Public Safety Celeste Koeleveld said the city was "disappointed" and considering its options.

"While journalistic privilege under the law is very important, we firmly believe it did not apply here," Koeleveld said.

"This film is a one-sided advocacy piece that depicts the plaintiffs' version of events as undisputed fact. It is our view that we should be able to view the complete interviews, not just those portions that the filmmakers chose to include."

Burns said he, his daughter and her husband, David McMahon -- who also worked on the film -- "are grateful for this important decision; we feel the judge made exactly the right ruling."

"We are also mindful that this ruling goes far beyond our current situation; this adds a layer of important protection to journalists and filmmakers everywhere," Burns added.

"We recognize too that this attempt to subpoena our outtakes and notes only further delayed the nearly decade long efforts by the plaintiffs to seek redress. We hope this serves as a positive impetus to move that original suit to a resolution."

bruce.golding@nypost.com

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Best photo apps for Android devices

Whether you want to slap a simple filter on your photo or get granular and change attributes like color levels and saturation, we’ve got a list of the Android apps you’ll want to use.

Snapseed

The good: With its unique gesture-based interface, this offers an incredible level of control over its effects and filters.

The bad: The tools and interface aren’t intuitive, so it could take a while to get familiarized. Also, the lack of a zoom function makes it difficult to see finer adjustments.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: If you’re a serious mobile photographer looking for an app with which to fine-tune your photos, Snapseed is your best choice.

Pixlr Express

The good: Offers more than 600 effects that all work well and are easy to use. Auto Fix and Focal Blur (tilt-shift) are particularly effective.

The bad: The app doesn’t warn you before backing out, which can result in lost work. A Recent Files picker upon launch would be nice.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: One of the most powerful Android apps in its category. Despite its minor flaws, it should be your go-to mobile photo editor.

Instagram

The good: An excellent way to turn mundane images into cool-looking photos you can share with friends. Mapping features mean people can easily browse all your geotagged shots.

The bad: Photo Map features default to showing all your geotagged shots, which could be dangerous under some circumstances.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: If you like taking retro-looking shots and sharing them, Instagram is tough to beat. Mapping features and frequent updates to the app mean your pictures will have a longer browsing life span.

Photo Grid

The good: Offers a huge menu of grid templates and a dead-simple interface for combining photos into framed collages.

The bad: The app unfortunately doesn’t let you customize the thickness of collage borders or the level of curvature on rounded panels.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: Even though it’s missing a couple of nifty customization tools other collage apps have, Photo Grid’s simple interface and outstanding menu of predesigned grids make it the best collage app on the market.

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