Saturday, September 21, 2024
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Great News: WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovitz Released by Russia, Paul Whelan, Too in Massive Swap

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There are reports this morning that Russia has released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitz, and Paul Whelan, in a massive prisoner exchange.

Gershkovitz was recently sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison for “Spying.” Whelan, a former US Marine, holds U.S., British, Irish and Canadian citizenship. He was arrested in December 2018 while traveling on an American passport in Russia and also accused of espionage.

The families of both men and all the prisoners who are being released, will be front page news today. Their freedom is a huge story.

It’s also big news for the Biden administration. Donald Trump will not be able to hold this story over the Harris campaign anymore. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has pulled off a coup that will resonate for the rest of the presidential campaign. Bravo!

The full story is on www.dailymail.co.uk. The Journal has yet to report it although their cousin, the New York Post, has. Weird.

Box Office: “Deadpool and Wolverine” Will Hit $300 Mil Thursday Night, Capping a Record Week

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The record books are being rewritten right now for “Deadpool and Wolverine.”

Shawn Levy’s MAD Magazine send up of Marvel superheroes will start Friday with $300 million, just a week after it opened.

The Ryan Gosling-Hugh Jackman cape comedy already has over $500 million logged worldwide. The $600 million mark also looms on that front for Friday morning.

There is no competition coming any time soon, either. Releases for August are innocuous at best. “D&W” is the last of this summer’s big movies. It has a clear shot through Labor Day. Some films will be of secondary interest. But by and large, it’s a “D&W” month and nothing will get in the way.

The next big studio release is “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” on September 6th, from Warner Bros.

One note: other than “Dune Part Two” we still have no potential Oscar nominees.

Right Wing Pundit Warns Trump, MAGA Not to Use D List Celebs In Their Fight Against Dems’ A Listers

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Matt Walsh is a conservative right wing pundit who runs the Daily Wire. He’s all in on MAGA and Trump.

In a new post to Twitter, Walsh warns Republicans that it’s useless for them trot out D list celebrities to help their cause.

Walsh is obviously referring to a few things that have just happened. One is Megan Thee Stallion performing at a Kamala Harris rally.

Also, night before last, a bunch of stars including Jeff Bridges and Mark Ruffalo helped the Harris campaign raise $4.4 million on their @DudesforHarris Zoom call that attracted 100,000 participants.

Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and other A list stars are lining up to help Harris and the Democrats. Julia Louis Dreyfus is using social media to support down ballot candidates.More and more of Hollywood is coming out for Harris — although George Clooney, who pushed to get Joe Biden to step away, hasn’t said a thing publicly. What’s up with that?

Walsh warns the GOP and MAGA, probably referring to the dreadful Lee Greenwood, as well as Ted Nugent, Scott Baio, Dennis Quaid, etc:

“Note for Republicans: Kamala has all of the big name entertainers on her side. All of them. And she hasn’t even pulled out the big guns yet (the Taylor Swift rally appearance will happen soon enough). Please do not try to counter this by parading around a bunch of washed up or obscure entertainers that nobody cares about. That just makes us look sad and irrelevant. Best to bow out of the celebrity competition and argue that we should focus on policy instead. It’s the only hand we have to play. It can work, but you undermine it if you make fun of Meghan Thee Stallion and then two days later start fan girling over some third rate celebrity endorsing Trump. We need consistent messaging on this.”

Hollywood: Penske Civil War as Deadline Attacks Variety Reporting of Coppola Scandal Scoop

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Just when you think you’ve seen everything:

Deadline.com, owned by Jay Penske, is attacking the reporting of sister publication, Variety.

Variety reported last week that “Megalopolis” director Francis Ford Coppola was seen kissing extras on the set of his movie. Variety portrayed this with exclusive video of Coppola planting one on an extra.

Now Deadline.com has gotten to the extra, who’s refuted the whole thing. Reyna Menz says it was all innocent, she’s appalled there was a video, that Coppola’s late wife, Eleanor, was right there.

“He did nothing to make me or for that matter anyone on set feel uncomfortable,” Menz told Deadline. “I felt disgusted, I was blindsided by it because it was a closed set. That someone had video of that is just ridiculous and super unprofessional. It’s gross because he only ever spoke about how wonderful his wife is. His wife was on set with us, most days. It feels gross, seeing that video and they way they were trying to convey a message. Just gross.”

Menska even published a statement on Instagram. (see below)

For Deadline to attack Variety’s journalism in public, that’s more of a Civil War than the movie. After all, they all work in the same building out west. This is going to be a bigger earthquake than anything those people have ever experienced.

Here’s the link to the Deadline story and the Variety story.

What’s the history here? Deadline’s Mike Fleming was invited to the first screening in LA of “Megalopolis.” It was his exclusive, and he was the only journalist there. He raved about it. This was followed by Penske’s Hollywood Reporter reaming the whole thing out, declaring the movie unreleaseable. Then Variety came with the sexual harassment story. Now Deadline has fired back.

Hang on, kids. Only in Hollywood, only in Hollywood!

Fox News’ Jesse Watters: “When a man votes for a woman, he transitions into a woman”

Fox News’s Jesse Watters is now a sarcastic comedian, slyly supporting the Democrats.

But what he said last night on his Fox News show will go down in history as his audition for “Saturday Night Live.”

He told his panelists that the Democratic party is not the party of families. He continued: “Scientists say when a man votes for a woman he actually transitions into a woman.”

Weekend Update must include this clip when the show resumes this fall.

Rupert Murdoch must be so proud. No wonder son James is trying to bring all of this down.

Roger Ailes is rolling in his grave.

Kevin ‘Kostner’ Sequel to “Horizon” Flop Will Play Venice Film Festival on Closing Day

Kevin ‘Kostner’ Sequel to “Horizon” Flop Will Play Venice Film Festival on Closing Day

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Kevin Costner’s “Horizon” part 1 is a total flop, out of theaters after a month, and not even doing well on home video. It had terrible reviews.

Nevertheless, for some reason, the Venice Film Festival is going to show Part 2 out of competition on September 7th. This news makes no sense, but there it is.

To add insult to injury, the email that came from the festival this morning spelled the director and actor’s name wrong, with a K. Kevin Kostner. Not just in the press release, but captioning his photos.

Maybe they think “Horizon” is a spaghetti western!

Venice is also going to show Part 1, which means six hours of “Horizon,” a movie about the Civil War, is going to unspool for audiences who could be outside enjoying one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Definitely a head scratcher. But Venice is opening with Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” so maybe it’s a favor to the studio. They canceled plans to release “H2” on August 16th and have no date for it in the future — except maybe on MAX.

Trump Media Stock Continues to Fall, Dropping 4.54% Today in Non Stop Slide

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Nate Silver thinks Donald Trump is still doing ok.

But the price of Trump Media stock continued to collapse today, falling to $28.80.

Trump Media stock rose dramatically on July 15th, the first day of the RNC and Trump’s first appearance since the shooting in Butler, PA. That day it got as high as $46 and closed at $40.

But it’s been a downward spiral ever since. Posts to Truth Social have consisted of racist takes, fake news, and unmitigated hate. The posts are, to put it simply, stupid. And weird. They reflect no actual facts or truth.

Trump himself battles to overcome the rising popularity of Kamala Harris. He calls her names, but they don’t stick. He can’t get a hold of the situation. The stock price reflects his frustration.

Today’s graph is fairly alarming. Call “Dr.” Ronny Jackson, or Johnson, or whoever he is!

Shock: Norah O’Donnell OUT As Anchor of Low Rated CBS Evening News After Elections

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Being good isn’t enough, you know.

Norah O’Donnell is being dumped as anchor of CBS Evening News, according to reports.

O’Donnell will remain until after the November elections. A new anchor will appear after New Year’s.

O’Donnell has the quality news show, but it runs third in the ratings after ABC and NBC. Now that CBS has been sold as part of the Paramount deal to David Ellison’s Skydance, it was probably understood that the CBS Evening News will get a revamp.

O’Donnell will stay with CBS, contributing to “60 Minutes” and other shows. She did a great job. But it’s likely the new regime will bring in a man to do battle with NBC’s Lester Holt and ABC’s David Muir. CBS Evening News is loaded with female correspondents. That will likely change, too.

Vanna White’s Son Likes the AR-15 for Hobbies, Preferred Rifle of Assassins Like Thomas Michael Crooks

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It’s not often that you spot a real estate broker using the preferred rifle of assassins.

But Nikko Santo Pietro, son of “Wheel of Fortune” star Vanna White, likes the AR-15 for fun.

The lightweight semi-automatic rifle is very popular with crazy people, mass killers (tragedies like Uvalde, TX countless others), and, yes, assassins. It’s not exactly a hunting rifle, unless you’re hunting people. Thomas Michael Crooks used one a couple of weeks ago to graze Donald Trump’s ear, killed fire chief Corey Comperatore, and wound two other people in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Santo Pietro — a Los Angeles real estate broker whose father is restaurateur George Santo Pietro — posted pictures of himself on Instagram using an AR-15 for backyard target shooting. We’re not suggesting he’s committing a crime. But maybe think twice in light of everything that’s happened recently. You could buy a vowel for less trouble.

Sony Music Gets a $700 Million Infusion from Apollo Management: Just to Pay Adele?

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Curious announcement from Apollo Management.

They’re supplying Sony Music with $700 million.

“We are pleased to provide a bespoke capital solution to an affiliate of one of the world’s leading companies. This investment allows our clients to invest in high grade securities while helping Sony to execute its business plans,” said Apollo Partner Jamshid Ehsani in a statement.

Apollo says it’s for investments in the music industry.

Is this to buy Beyonce lunch? Bruce Springsteen dinner?

Or does Sony Music have something else up its sleeve, like buying another record company?

You wouldn’t think Sony Music needed $700 million. They own a ton of music publishing including the Beatles catalog. They also have a lot of hit artists including Beyonce, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and Bob Dyland. They have a lot of younger music acts, as well.

Sony would love a new album from Adele. It’s three years in November since she released her last one. But Adele is notably lazy, and now that she’s wrapping up her live performances she says she’s taking time off. Maybe Sony needs the money to pay her an advance before another three years go by! They’re a little chart-deprived at the moment, lagging far behind Republic/Universal, etc and even Warner Music.

Sony