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Taylor Swift Stakes Her “Reputation” on American Music Awards, Basically Concedes the 2019 Grammy Awards

Roger Friedman
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Taylor Swift Stakes Her “Reputation” on American Music Awards, Basically Concedes the 2019 Grammy Awards

It looks like Taylor Swift is conceding the 2019 Grammy Awards for her album, “Reputation.”

Swift has agreed to open the American Music Awards on ABC next Tuesday. She’ll perform “I Did Something Bad” at the start of the show, which will be ironic. The ‘something bad’ will be the act of going against the Grammys.

Swift obviously felt she couldn’t wait to top off the Reputation tour and project that began a year ago, after the last Grammy deadline. The Grammys, on CBS, usually do not allow performers who’ve been on the AMAs to be on their show next February.

Swift’s last album, “1989,” was a Grammy tsunami, winning Album of the Year and many other awards. But “1989” was a much bigger hit than “Reputation,” and times have changed.”1989″ has sold 8 million copies including streaming according to Buzz Angle since its release in 2014. “Reputation” has sold 3 million copies.

It may be that Swift and her team can already sense that this coming Grammys was not going to be hers to lose. Also, Swift is at a contractual crossroads. Her deal with Big Machine/Universal is running out, and there’s a lot of jockeying to keep her there, move her to to big Universal, or maybe accept a larger offer somewhere else. The odds are she’ll stay where she is, but it may be that February 2019 is too long to wait, and she needs some impact now.

If that’s the case, the Grammy Album of the Year category suddenly opens wide. Look for big pushes for Drake’s “Scorpion” and Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener” to fill the Swiftian void.

PS One irony of all this: Kanye West never delivered his album, which he called “Yandhi,” on September 30th. Grammy eligibility is over. His EP, “Ye,” wouldn’t be an Album of the Year nominee. So now they’re both out of the running!

 

 

Cardi B’s First Act as a Global Citizen Spokesperson: Turned Herself In for Injuring Two Bartenders in a Strip Club Fight

Roger Friedman
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Cardi B’s First Act as a Global Citizen Spokesperson: Turned Herself In for Injuring Two Bartenders in a Strip Club Fight

Rapper Cardi B performed at the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday night. She was chosen as a role model to fight global poverty.

But the peeps at Global Citizen, a sketchy organization to begin with, thought Cardi B was an appropriate spokesperson and standard bearer despite an August 29th bar fight in Queens for which she was arrested.

On Monday, with the Global Citizen mandate behind her, Cardi B turned herself in at the 109th Precinct in Queens for the fight at the Angels Gentlemen’s Club. She faces charges of of reckless endangerment and assault after throwing a chair at an “unintended victim.” She was “throwing chairs, bottles and hookahs [smoking pipes] in the club at 3 a.m.,” according to a police spokesman. She hit two bartenders.

Even though she’s a new mom, Cardi B has been several fights lately including one with Nicki Minaj during New York Fashion Week.

It’s unclear if she earned “Global Citizen points” in any of these episodes.

Ansel Elgort Will Play Tony in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” Remake, I Told You That Twice This Year

Roger Friedman
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Ansel Elgort Will Play Tony in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” Remake, I Told You That Twice This Year

Twice this year I told you the only Tony for Steven Spielberg in his “West Side Story” was Ansel Elgort. I told you on January 25th, and again in July. No one listened to me except, I guess, Spielberg, although I also mentioned it to casting director Cindy Tolan when she was having open auditions. (I also told her I’d play Officer Krupke, but that should go to Tony Danza.)

Today, Ansel Elgort was announced as Tony.

In July I also said Camilla Cabello and Selena Gomez should be in the movie. Let’s see if that works out.

Ansel has been making his own records, he can sing just fine, and he’ll be a perfect Tony. It was only when I saw him move in “Baby Driver” that I knew he was the one.

I don’t know why “West Side Story” needs a remake, but if this is the direction Spielberg is taking– along with the Tony Kushner screenplay– it sounds promising. My only question is– how will Spielberg work Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance into the movie?

 

 

Ellen Barkin’s Tongue in Cheek Response to Fire at Ex-Husband Ronald Perelman’s Hamptons Estate: “I did it”

Roger Friedman
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Ellen Barkin’s Tongue in Cheek Response to Fire at Ex-Husband Ronald Perelman’s Hamptons Estate: “I did it”

Big fire at The Creeks in Wainscott, Long Island over the weekend. This is the massive (60 acres) spread of Revlon chief Ronald Perelman. Perelman is also the ex husband of actress Ellen Barkin. They were married from 2000 to 2006, had no children but a contentious divorce. Seeing the NY Post story of The Creeks fire, Ellen had one thing to say on Twitter: “I did it.” Well, no she didn’t. But you know what she meant.

Review: Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet Look for Answers in “Beautiful Boy”

Leah Sydney
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Review: Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet Look for Answers in “Beautiful Boy”

I expected to cry copious tears at “Beautiful Boy,” an Amazon addiction drama based on two memoirs, one from journalist David Sheff, played by Steve Carell, the other memoir  by his son, Nic. Both books chronicle David’s fierce battle to save his beloved son Nic — played by Timothee Chalamet —  from the scourges of drug addiction.

But I didn’t cry, nor did I laugh, either.  Which is part of the problem with Belgian director’s Felix van Groeningen’s detached, humorless and way too cold adaptation.  Felix co-wrote the screenplay with Luke Davies, who wrote the much more warmer 2016 film, “Lion.” Carell gives a sensitive and affecting performance as the elder Sheff. The always-wonderful Chalamet shows us the manipulative, seductive and tormented life of an addict.

But this is where the director gets it wrong.  He doesn’t use Carell’s gift for humor or pathos or Chalamet’s inherent charm.  The audience I saw it with laughed at inappropriate parts simply for relief, or in advance of scenes where humor should have been used wisely. Steve Carell, an expert, is off track; this is a miss on his part. Maura Tierney as Nic’s stepmother Karen, and Amy Ryan as his mother are terrific and provide ballast.

To be fair, there are some tear jerking and genuine moments. But the editing is clunky, the story takes place in non chronological order giving us a peak at Nic’s childhood with his obvious artistic talent, then goes right into his crystal meth addiction. The clichéd music isn’t quite a right fit either.  The performances are too be admired for sure, the rest of “Beautiful Boy,” not so much.

Amazon Studios Struggles to Find a Hit, Wipes Out at Least $10 Mil Spent for Box Office Office Disaster “Life Itself”

Roger Friedman
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Amazon Studios Struggles to Find a Hit, Wipes Out at Least $10 Mil Spent for Box Office Office Disaster “Life Itself”

Even Amazon is learning: Life, itself, is expensive.

Last year Amazon Studios fought off two other studios to buy Dan Fogelman’s “Life Itself.” Reports say they ponied up at least $10 million to buy the movie from the creator of NBC’s hit TV show “This is Us.” Hot stars Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde, as well as Antonio Banderas, led the cast.

But “Life Itself” is now dead. Two weeks into release, the poorly reviewed, incoherent ensemble film has about $3.7 million in the bank. This past weekend, its second, the take was just $770K in 2,355 theaters.

Amazon, which isn’t about theaters in the first place, will have to cut the number drastically for the next two weeks. They will also have to differentiate it from “Life Itself,” the documentary about Roger Ebert that now comes up in the Amazon search for Movies with that name.

For Amazon Studios, the movie is a total write off. Jeff Bezos’s company has so much money it doesn’t matter to them, probably. But in the competition with Netflix, Amazon is suffering. Last fall they struck out entirely except for “The Big Sick.” The year before they had “Manchester by the Sea.”

But this year, Amazon Studios has made around $8 million at the box office on three releases, including “You Were Never Really Here” and “Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot.”

The company has had several changes of leadership in a short time. Jason Ropell stepped in for Roy Price when he was fired for sexual harassment issues. Ropell has left recently, replaced by Jennifer Salke. Amazon isn’t clear what kind of movies they want– indie Oscar nominees or blockbusters. In the meantime, they have really great people like Ted Hope and Bob Berney to release and market the heck out of whatever the product is.

Broadway Review: Janet McTeer Soars in Tony-Certain Performance for Topical, Funny “Bernhardt-Hamlet”

Roger Friedman
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Broadway Review: Janet McTeer Soars in Tony-Certain Performance for Topical, Funny “Bernhardt-Hamlet”

Janet McTeer is a frustrating performer. With “Bernhardt/Hamlet” she’s only starred in five Broadway productions since 1997. How is that possible? To date, if you mention her Nora in “A Doll’s House”  from 21 years ago, groups of people start talking about how it was one of the greatest things they’ve ever seen. She won all the awards for that one, and was nominated again in 2009 for “Mary Stuart.”

We are so lucky she’s back, this time in Theresa Rebeck’s original– and best– play ever, “Bernhardt/Hamlet.” McTeer plays the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, the Meryl Streep of 1899. She played Hamlet that year in a gender bending London production. She was 55 years old, already a huge star, and still to appear in the hot new play “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostand, then 29 and a burgeoning playwright.

Rebeck gives a bang for your buck. Not only do we get her new play of Bernhardt trying to stage her “Hamlet,” we all get the famous chunks of Shakespeare’s play as Bernhardt (McTeer) rehearses it. In Act Two, we get sections of “Cyrano,” because as Rostand is sleeping with Bernhardt and re-writing “Hamlet” for her (it didn’t work, he was replaced), he is also staging his famous work–dedicating Roxane to Bernhardt.

The other characters in Rebeck’s are all real life people from the time: Constant Coquelin, the French actor who played the original Cyrano in Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac; Rosemonde Gérard, a poet and playwright married to Rostand; Maurice Bernhardt, Sarah’s only child; and Alfonse Mucha, an artist who created iconic Art Nouveau posters of Sarah’s stage roles. They are played to perfection by the excellent as always Dylan Baker, Ito Aghayere, Nick Westrate, and Matthew Saldivar, Jason Butler Harner is perfect as the self-obsessed Rostand. Tony Carlin ditto, as well as Aaron Costa Ganis.

The heavily named Moritz von Stuelpnagel excels at moving groups around. His credits include Kevin Kline and co. in the 2017 “Present Laughter” and the zany gang from “Hand to God.” Costumes and sets here are rich and lovely. Toni-Leslie James and Beowulf Borritt, respectively, make you feel like you’re at a real Broadway production, that’s how good they are.

I don’t know what the Roundabout Theater is planning for this play because they’re scheduled to close on November 11th. What a shame that would be. “Bernhardt/Hamlet” couldn’t be more timely as Sarah fights for the right to be not just an independent woman, but a person who will answer to no one. The sexual politics from 1899 make you realize we haven’t gotten that far at all some 119 years later. Janet McTeer is a treasure, commanding the stage like few others these days. It’s time for her to be celebrated. Let’s hope the Roundabout moves this production somewhere really good, or juggles their schedule. “Bernhardt/Hamlet” should stick around for a while.

Rapper Rich the Prince Beats Kanye West to Release with Song Called “Yandhi”

Roger Friedman
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Rapper Rich the Prince Beats Kanye West to Release with Song Called “Yandhi”

Rich the Prince? I don’t know anything about him. But he’s beaten Kanye West to the punch. Three days ago he released a single called “Yandhi.” It’s on Amazon.com. His real name is Cesar Ibarra. Your move, Kanye.

Here’s the link.

“Saturday Night Live” Scores Second Highest Season Premiere Since 2012 with Anti-Trump, Kavanaugh Material,

Roger Friedman
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“Saturday Night Live” Scores Second Highest Season Premiere Since 2012 with Anti-Trump, Kavanaugh Material,

“Saturday Night Live” scored huge ratings last night.

The comedy program had its second highest season premiere since 2012. In metered Nielsen markets that had a 4.8.

In the key demo “SNL” did an impressive 2.3– which means half their audience as between 18 and 49.

The show had a killer opening, with Matt Damon playing beleaguered Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh. He was hilarious, as were Kate McKinnon as squirrel like Lindsey Graham and Aidy Bryant as prosecutor for hire Rachel Mitchell.

Later in the show, McKinnon was a hoot as Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The whole show was spot on with the exception of Kanye West, who was brought on at the last minute to replace Ariana Grande. The latter pop star wasn’t emotionally ready after the death of her ex-fiancee Mac Miller, and a lot of other upheaval.

Donald Trump made a disparaging Tweet about “SNL” after the show, but the ratings clearly show he was outnumbered.

Harvey Levin, TMZ Ready to Exploit Kanye West’s Mental Illness, Rapper Doubles Down on Slavery Proclamations

Roger Friedman
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Harvey Levin, TMZ Ready to Exploit Kanye West’s Mental Illness, Rapper Doubles Down on Slavery Proclamations

Kanye West is mentally ill and no one is protecting him.

West, clearly on a manic tear, announced the launch of an album for last night while he appeared on “Saturday Night Live.”

He appeared, doubled down on his career-killing support of Donald Trump, and dropped no new album. The idea of the album, called “Yandhi,” has all but disappeared.

At the same time, Kanye– who announced that he changed his name to Ye– Tweeted that the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, should itself be abolished. Then he amended the Tweet, and said the 13th amendment should be amended. He wrote: “the 13th Amendment is slavery in disguise meaning it never ended We are the solution that heals…”

Tomorrow, Harvey Levin will welcome Kanye to TMZ Live. The last time Kanye was on TMZ, he proclaimed that “slavery is an option.” Levin, who is no friend of anyone except maybe Donald Trump, was happy to let Kanye hang in the wind. Now it will happen again. TMZ is exploiting a man with a mental illness.

Thanks to the original TMZ appearance, as well as Kanye’s continued support of Trump, West has lost much of his music career. His “Ye” album, which only cost $7.99, sold just 52,000 hard copies. Streaming brought another 200K in sales. But that total–250K–is a disaster for a rap star who spends like Kanye and lives at his level.

One African American friend of mine said, when I mentioned this, “Are you kidding? No black person is buying a Kanye West album.”

If “Yandhi,” a ridiculous title, is ever released, Kanye may have completely undermined its sales in advance.

 

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