Demi Lovato has posted her first statement about her recent overdose, to Instagram. She writes: “This illness is not something that disappears or fades with time… I will keep fighting.”
Good to luck to her. Everyone hopes she gets the help she needs, and gets rid of the people in her life who are enabling her problems.
On June 2nd, “Black Panther” crossed the mark of $699 million. It had already been in release since February, was playing on airplanes, had a DVD, could be seen by just thinking about it.
But Disney would not give up. And now, 171 days after its release, “Black Panther” has just crawled over the $700 million line. For weeks Disney has been putting it back in theaters just to get to this number. What an effort! By no everyone in Wakanda has seen the movie 10 times!
There’s a price that comes with this, of course. Disney wants the magic number but you have to pay theaters, and do some advertising. So it’s not like it’s a clean kill. But now they can withdraw from theaters with honor this Thursday. It was a noble effort.
A lot of news from CBS and some of it about CBS News.
The big jolt this morning is that Jeff Fager, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” will not be back to work this week. They say he’s extending his vacation. But after the New Yorker article last week slammed Fager for a misogynistic work environment at the network’s jewel in the crown, Fager may not be back at all. With the Les Moonves scandal sitting on Black Rock like a black storm cloud, Fager may be the sacrifice in this story. It’s key that he’s not returning to work since the rest of the staff is coming back from their vacations. “60 Minutes” is the one thing CBS cannot afford to have sullied in any way. My guess is that Fager leaves, but who knows at this point.
“Tbe Big Bang Theory” is coming back for another season after the one that begins in September. This was announced at the TCA’s this morning, that the network and Warner Bros are negotiating. Well, Johnny Galecki certainly isn’t going to be counting on “The Conners” for income. And with “Young Sheldon” such a hit, there’s lots of incentive to keep the “Big Bang” on until Sheldon is in a nursing home.
CBS also said they’re trying to revive “Code Black.” Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden is the star, and the show gets no critics love or Emmys or anything like that. But she’s so good, and CBS doesn’t have a hospital show otherwise.
As I wrote last night, CBS All Access scored a victory as well with a new “Star Trek” series starring Patrick Stewart as Capt Picard. This is not a sequel to “Next Generation,” they say, but the next part of Picard’s life. We will follow him in retirement to Boca Raton, where he’ll golf and drink and regale young women with stories of his life in space.
Yes, yes. “Mission Impossible: Fallout” added $35 million to the till and Cruised to its second week at number 1. Disney’s Christopher Robin, as opposed to Troma’s Christopher Robin, came in second with $25 million. This was the second Christopher Robin movie in the last year, and the second one that no one really wanted.
More important: what is Kate McKinnon doing with her career? You know from day 1 when McKinnon arrived on “Saturday Night Live” I said she’d be a superstar. On the series, she is without a doubt. She’s won a bunch of Emmys, all deserved, but even the awards don’t completely elucidate her subtle, superior performances. From Hillary to Jeff Sessions to Justin Bieber…and her performance on “SNL” singing “Hallelujah” after the election– brilliant!
So why has she fallen into this trap of making crappy cheap comedies on her breaks? Last year’s “Rough Night” was unwatchable. Un-watchable. Now “The Spy Who Dumped Me” has eked out $12 million on its opening weekend. It’s cheesier looking than Velveeta. McKinnon is too good for this.
It’s possible she’s just going through the same hazing as many talented comics before her– trying to figure out her venue. Kristen Wiig finally figured out with “Bridesmaids.” But McKinnon is more like Lily Tomlin. She needs a Jane Wagner, a Robert Altman, maybe a Judd Apatow a la Amy Schumer. McKinnon is listed in Danny Boyle’s “Beatles” movie filming now. That could be something. But please, no more of this stuff. We don’t even have discount DVD bins anymore! Where do there movies go digitally?
CBS has Star Trek Discovery and The Good Fight on its All Access Netflix-like streaming system. But it needed something even bigger, and so: Patrick Stewart will reprise his role as Capt. Jean Luc Picard in a new “Star Trek” series that follows “Star Trek: Generations.” Stewart posted this to Twitter Saturday afternoon. Les Moonves actually wins the week after we thought he’d completely lost it. CBS could just turn All Access into the Star Trek channel with different new iterations. Doesn’t Desi Arnaz, Paramount and CBS look smart now? Welcome back, Capt. Picard! Minds are being blown!
It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Read my full statement in the photo. #StarTrek @cbsallaccess Photo: @shervinfoto pic.twitter.com/8Ynuj3RBNm
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) August 4, 2018
Sean Spicer wasn’t a very good White House communications director. And he’s not a best selling author.
Spicey’s book, “The Briefing,” has dropped below number 700 on amazon.com after 1 week. It never cracked the top 100.
Spicer probably thought he’d have a big bestseller after his infamous run at the job. After all, Melissa McCarthy won an Emmy for playing him. But Spicer is loathed by both sides in this story– the press hates him, the Democrats know he lied to them, Republicans think he sold Trump out.
Now we’ll see how Omarosa does when her book comes out. I hope everyone remembers she’s a nut job. When she was on “The Apprentice” she was mocked. She should never have been in the White House. Her attacks on Trump, while no doubt fun, add nothing to the current conversation.
Is it the summer of 1967? Or 2018? The hottest car commercial of the summer– the one you actually like hearing over and over– comes from the mind of Gabe McDonough. He’s the L.A. based creative exec at MAS (Music and Strategy) company in Los Angeles who got a great idea for a Lincoln SUV ad.
“They had the man and the woman driving toward each other,” he told me. “They already had the girl’s song– “Havana.” But they needed something from the guy’s side.”
Luckily, McDonough is a huge fan of classic soul, particularly Memphis’s Stax Records. Only one song popped into his head– R&B greats Sam and Dave singing “Hold On I’m Coming.” The opening horns written by Isaac Hayes are a signal that crosses generations, and Sam Moore’s voice is like a laser beam the way it cuts through everything around it.
McDonough told me: “I’m just glad the universe was open to us doing it.” McDonough creates a cute little 30 second rom com that should sell SUVs like crazy.
(A nice touch– eagle eyed viewers will notice that on the dashboard of the male driver listening to Sam & Dave there’s a picture of the original “Hold On I’m Coming” album cover.)
What McDonough didn’t know was that the universe was pushing him to do it. Back in the mid 60s, Moore– on tour with partner Dave Prater– was in Detroit when the Lincoln Continental Mark 3 first rolled out of the factory. Moore’s pal, James Brown drummer Clayton Fillyau, had a friend over there. Sam got one of the first Mark 3’s on opening day. It was ruby red, he remembers. “And someone stole it not too long after that.”
The commercial has been such a hit that “Havana” has been driven back into the iTunes top 20. And “Hold On I’m Coming” is heard constantly on oldies stations and on Sirius XM’s Soul Town 49. Requests are coming in now for a full length mashup. Did they make one? “I’m sure someone did,” says McDonough.
This is the summer of 50th anniversaries in the music world.
It was 50 years ago over this last three days that the Beatles recorded “Hey Jude.” When they released it at the end of August, “Hey Jude” spent 7 weeks at number 1.
This is also the 50th anniversary of the zenith of Aretha Franklin’s amazing recording career at Atlantic Records. In January 1968, the Queen of Soul released “Lady Soul,” with the hits “Chain of Fools,” “Natural Woman,” “Ain’t No Way,” and “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You Been Gone.”
If that wasn’t enough, in June Aretha issued “Aretha Now,” solidifying her royal role. There was no one bigger in R&B or pop or just music. Any kind of music.
“Aretha Now” kicks off with “Think,” which she herself wrote (she penned a number of her own hits, and does not get enough credit. She also wrote “Daydreamin'” and “Rock Steady,” among others.) “Think” is followed by Aretha’s cover of her friend Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer” — written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, “Prayer” had been a million seller the previous autumn for Dionne. Aretha’s version was supposed to be a B side for “The House that Jack Built.” But it took off on its own, and today it’s a classic. It’s different enough from Dionne’s take that the two can live side by side.
There are only five tracks on side 1 of “Aretha Now” and those are the first two–what would be instant classics. The third track is a cover of Don Covay’s “See Saw,” which would itself see saw up the singles charts. Although Covay’s original was cemented in history, Aretha takes the song and makes it her own– just as she did on so many, in particular Otis Redding’s “Respect.” In coming years she’d reinvent Simon * Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem.” Her interpretations were the key readings songs never knew they needed.
Two more covers grace side 1– Ray Charles’ “Night Time is the Right Time” and Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me.” They are her waxed seals of approval.
Side 2 starts with “You’re a Sweet Sweet Man” was one of four songs Aretha recorded by Ronnie Shannon. Two of the others were big, big hits– “I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You” and “Baby I Love You.” This one may be its lesser cousin, but Aretha sings it with abandon– there’s a lightness in “Sweet Sweet Man.” She sounds happy, relieved.
“I Take What I Want” is a nod to Aretha’s birthplace, Memphis– written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter from Stax, with Hi Records’ soon-to-be legend Teenie Hodges. Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations sing background as they do on all the tracks. Following the Shannon song, Jerry Wexler finds another deceptively light track. Side 2 is much less ponderous because of it. King Curtis’s tenor sax finds just the right attitude.
Track 3 is a bit of a lost gem, co-written by Curtis with Jimmy Cliff, who was not yet a star. “Hello Sunshine” in retrospect sounds like a top ten hit. But who knows? Wexler was already overwhelmed with riches. Maybe he let it sit there for five decades and a re-discovery. The same goes for the fourth track, “A Change,” a hand-clapping, foot stomping upbeat pop-gospel number that shifts the side’s tone on a dime.
Aretha charges forward. Wexler puts it there to remind you she’s not resting on her laurels. He lets “Aretha Now” end with a uptempo ballad, again by Shannon, that shows off Aretha’s range. Wexler, who’s also shepherding Dusty Springfield at this time, can out-Dusty with “I Can’t See Myself Leaving You”– her second declaration of freedom after “Think.” “I say we’re through,” Aretha sings. She’s not begging anyone to come back.
The Queen of Soul goes from “Aretha Now” to a two year period of thrilling, live recordings, key covers. Nothing prepares you, though, for a stunning new album of originals in 1970, “Spirit in the Dark,” which would kick off a second decade of Aretha landmarks.
Jennifer Aniston, who’s just terrific, is feeling nostalgic. She tells InStyle magazine she’s up for a “Friends” reunion or reboot. Aniston says:
“Before that show ended, people were asking if we were coming back. Courteney [Cox] and Lisa [Kudrow] and I talk about it. I fantasize about it. It really was the greatest job I ever had. I don’t know what it would look like today, but you never know. So many shows are being successfully rebooted. I know Matt LeBlanc doesn’t want to be asked that question anymore. But maybe we could talk him into it. Or we just give it some time and then Lisa, Courteney, and I could reboot The Golden Girls and spend our last years together on wicker furniture.”
“Friends” is now more popular than ever in reruns thanks to their deal on Nickelodeon. And imagine a reboot two decades later. All the kids are college age– Phoebe’s triplets, Ross’s kids, etc. Plus there were probably more after the show went off the air. They should do it as a one hour comedy-drama.
As for Aniston: she jokes about the tabloids, her “being pregnant three times a year,” and so on. I’ll say this about Jennifer Aniston– every time I’ve seen her or talked to her she’s been one of the most gracious, “real” actors. I think she has a terrific sense of comic timing– I wish she’d do a series where she can be acerbic and sexy. We need to see her on a weekly basis!
Here’s a nice August story.
Remember nasal, annoying self-absorbed Janice from “Friends”? She was Chandler’s girlfriend in the early seasons of the show. It turns out she’s half-sisters with Kim, the cop from “Chicago PD.” It makes sense since both shows are from NBC. Right?
So Janice’s portrayer is named Maggie Jakobson Wheeler. Her father, the late John Jakobson, was a wealthy Wall Streeter who died in 2017 at the age of 86 from pneumonia.
Apparently, Jakobson had an affair and fathered another daughter. She’s actress Marina Squerciati, who plays Det. Kim Burgess on “NYPD Blue.”
According to a NY Post story, Jakobson provided for Squerciati and her mother from Day 1 until his death. He paid their bills and funded Marina’s education at the swanky Dalton School on the Upper East Side. He kept the whole thing a secret from his family. He also forgot to add Marina to his will. Now that he’s dead, she wants her fair share.
Jakobson didn’t just cheat on his wife with Marina’s mom. He also had a public affair in 1979 with former Miss America Bess Myerson. Myerson’s legacy is affairs with married guys including her final lover, Andy Capasso, which turned into a scandal because Bess hired the daughter of the judge in Capasso’s case, Hortense Gabel, as her assistant. But I digress…
The Post spoke to Jakobson’s widow, who feigned ignorance of the whole situation. But that seems unlikely. The Upper East Side is a small town, and the society people know all their own gossip. It’s like when Nan Kempner insisted her husband, Tom, had a one night stand with his mistress of eight years, Iris Sawyer. Right.
Marina Squerciati– aka Kim– and Maggie Wheeler Jakobson — aka Janice– bear a close resemblance. They should really clear this up and get the movie made at this point.