Michael Moore will release his anti Trump doc “Fahrenheit 11/9” on September 21st. He’ll announce it tonight on Colbert. Tom Ortenberg, who gave us Spotlight, will distribute under a new banner.
More to come
Ed Sheeran Sued for $100 Mil on “Thinking Out Loud,” Righteous Bros. Will Be Next for “Perfect”
Ed Sheeran is being sued again for his hit, “Thinking out Loud.” Last year, co-writer of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On sued Sheeran. Now it’s a music firm that owns part of the copyright, Structured Assets. They want $100 million. Gaye’s heirs, who won a $5 million case against Robin Thicke for “Blurred Lines,” haven’t filed yet. But they will.
Sheeran loves to nick pieces of other songs for his hits. His big hit, “Perfect,” sounds so much like the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody,” that YouTubers have mixed videos for it. Alex North and Hy Zaret wrote the song in 1955, and it was covered by several artists. But the Righteous Brothers had the biggest hit in the 60s. Their version was rediscovered for the movie “Ghost” in 1989.
Hy Zaret, who wrote the lyrics, died in 2007 but presumably his estate has a lawyer. PS The song is called “Unchained Melody” because it was written for a movie called “Unchained.” Zaret never used that word, but the song became the melody from “Unchained.”
As for “Let’s Get it On,” poor Marvin Gaye. I used to hear “Thinking Out Loud” on the radio and say, “Damn, that sounds just like Let’s Get It On.” Just like Blurred Lines” sounds just like “Got to Give it Up.” Sheeran may have to sell one of his tattoos to pay for this mess.
“General Hospital” Star Maurice Benard Books 5th Movie Role in 2 Years: Does He Know Something We Don’t?
Maurice Benard has been playing gangster Sonny Corinthos on “General Hospital” since the early 90s. He’s on screen almost every afternoon. His Michael Corleone like character, improbably, has been centrai to the soap for years.
Today Bernard announced that he’s filming a movie role this summer on the East Coast. It turns out this is fifth such job since 2017. The movies are “B movies,” straight to video, not big productions. Except for one, called “The Ghost and the Whale,” Benard is never the star. He takes secondary roles that require a week or two off from the soap.
But still, one wonders, what exactly is going on? Does Benard know something we don’t? Prior to this little run he did almost nothing outside of “General Hospital” for more than a decade. His best known role was playing Desi Arnaz in a TV Movie about Lucille Ball and her late, famous husband in 1991.
Benard could be planning, very smartly, for the future. “General Hospital” ratings are down. There’s general chaos in what’s left of the soap world, with the four remaining shows letting go of tenured actors and not offering raises to actors.
Stay tuned…
EXCLUSIVE Scarlett Johansson, the Real Story: Auditioned for “MI:3,” Not to Be Tom Cruise’s Girlfriend, At Scientology Center in 2005
Some cockamamie story emanated from Megyn Kelly’s awful TV show yesterday that came out all botched like a whispered part of a “telephone” game.
I can tell you what really happened: Johansson, like a lot of actresses, were brought to the Scientology Celebrity Centre in the spring of 2005 to audition for “Mission Impossible 3.” Many of them realized later that they’d also been brought there as potential girlfriends for Tom Cruise. Katie Holmes was one of those actresses. She got the girlfriend job. Michelle Monaghan got the part.
Other actresses who told stories later like this included Jennifer Garner. If you recall, later, it was reported that Cruise started calling Garner with an idea of dating her. Ben Affleck told Cruise to buzz off, or else. (This was back before Affleck and Garner’s marriage and divorce.)
All these stories turned up years later in Lawrence Wright’s award winning book, “Going Clear.” Cruise also had a Scientology fix up with actress Nazanin Boniadi.
Johansson herself told me that she’d been brought to the Celebrity Center to meet Cruise for “Mission Impossible 3” and and kept there for around eight hours. There was a lavish meal set with her and Cruise. They showed her around the facility and offered to give her an e-meter test. (I can’t remember if she took it.)Â Johansson was horrified. She sensed something else was going on, had no intention of becoming a Scientologist or Cruise’s girlfriend. She’s a New York girl. She bolted. End of story.
Scarlett certainly didn’t “go on an audition to become Tom Cruise’s girlfriend.” No one did. No one new that’s what Cruise or Scientology had in mind. The Cruise marriage to Nicole Kidman had ended five years before. In that time, there had been public “fix ups” with Penelope Cruz, and with Sofia Vergara. Cruise was about to embark on publicity for “War of the Worlds.” He needed arm candy. After he “obtained” Katie Holmes, of course, there was a ton of publicity. Eventually Cruise went couch jumping on “Oprah” and fought with Matt Lauer on “Today.”
The rest, as they say, is misery.
Here is what I wrote on June 21, 2oo5:
The newly engaged Katie Holmes still has some explaining to do to her friends and family.
There were 16 days in April during which no one seems to know where she was.
Holmes made a public appearance on April 4 at the premiere of “Steel Magnolias” on Broadway.
She came with her publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, and a couple of other friends. They were there to support Rebecca Gayheart, who was making her Broadway debut.
I know this because I spoke to Holmes at length during the play’s intermission. She said she had just moved into her New York apartment and was looking forward to seeing the city.
I also know that on April 4, she had not yet made the acquaintance of Tom Cruise. She briefly dated Josh Hartnett after breaking up with actor Chris Klein.
Hartnett, Klein, Cruise: Which of these three is not like the others?
Klein and Hartnett are young and tall. Cruise is middle-aged and height-challenged.
On the other hand, he’s the biggest movie star in the world. They are not.
Holmes was busy during that first week in April. On April 7, she was photographed at the Fragrance Foundation’s FiFi event.
Four days later, Holmes was still in New York and was photographed at VH1’s “Save the Music” concert. She still had not met Cruise.
Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in “Mission: Impossible 3.” The meeting took place after April 11.
The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise’s girlfriend and love of his life.
Where was she during those 16 days?
Somewhere during that time, she decided to fire both her manager and agent, each of whom she had been with for years and who were devoted to her.
The manager, John Carrabino, also handles Renée Zellweger and is beloved by his clients.
Holmes also acquired a new best friend, Jessica Feshbach, the daughter of Joe Feshbach, a controversial Palo Alto, Calif., bond trader.
The Feshbach family, according to published documents, has donated millions to the Church of Scientology. Jessica’s aunt even runs a Scientology center in Florida.
According to Richard Behar‘s now famous 1991 story in Time magazine about Scientology, the Feshbachs were the subject of congressional hearings in 1989.
Behar wrote: “The heads of several companies claimed that Feshbach operatives have spread false information to government agencies and posed in various guises — such as a Securities and Exchange Commission official — in an effort to discredit the companies and drive the stocks down.
“Michael Russell, who ran a chain of business journals, testified that a Feshbach employee called his bankers and interfered with his loans. Sometimes the Feshbachs send private detectives to dig up dirt on firms, which is then shared with business reporters, brokers and fund managers.”
The risk-taking Feshbachs, known the world over for making their fortune “shorting” stocks, and the level-headed, conservative Holmeses would be a difficult mix at a dinner table.
Katie’s father, Martin Holmes, is the senior partner in a large and respected Toledo, Ohio, law firm. His son, Martin Jr., has recently joined the firm. He’s a Harvard graduate. Katie’s mom, Kathy, is frequently cited in Toledo for her charity work.
There is some fear among Holmes’ close circle that her instant romance with Cruise is not as organic as portrayed.
For one thing, Holmes was raised a strict Catholic. Also, gone from the picture are two close Holmes friends who used to be with her when she did publicity for a film.
One of these is Meghann Birie, a childhood friend who has suddenly disappeared from Holmes’ world. Another, a local TV producer here in New York, was too afraid to discuss the situation with me.
We know that Cruise auditioned several actresses for this role before settling on Holmes. This column reported a story about Jennifer Garner. There have been published stories about Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba being approached.
A newer one involves Scarlett Johansson, who ran for her life when presented with a fait accompli dinner at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood.
And history has been rewritten since the April 27 unveiling.
Curiously, since the Cruise-Holmes situation popped up, we have heard over and over again that Cruise was the young actress’ idol when she was growing up.
That’s certainly interesting because all of the publicity that used to run on Holmes — still found all over the Internet — lists another Tom as her favorite actor.
That would be Tom Hanks.
Jackson Patriarch Dead: Wife Filed for Divorce Twice, Children Accused Him of Abuse
Joseph Jackson’s family is mourning his death. His grandchildren have seen a different side of him than his actually children. His wife, Katherine, tried to divorce him a couple of times. His children– Michael and LaToya especially– accused him of abuse on many occasions. The Jackson grandchildren will never know what really happened unless their parents admit them. Luckily, the grandchildren have had such different lives, with mostly a lot of support from their parents.
In 2001, I asked Joseph Jackson about punishing his children.
I asked him though about his parental philosophy. “You have to be strict with kids,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with punishment as long as you know how to punish.”
What would be a typical punishment? “Beat his back,” Joe Jackson replied before I could even get the question out.
This is what I wrote on October 29th, 2004:
Michael Jackson’s teen years have been profiled in books and movies. But until now, it’s never been revealed that his parents, Katherine and Joseph, were nearly divorced when he was 15 years old.
According to legal documents obtained by this column, Katherine Jackson, disgusted by her husband’s philandering, obtained a petition for divorce on March 9, 1973, and filed it with the Los Angeles County clerk.
According to several people I’ve spoken with in the last few days, Katherine Jackson was finally convinced to rescind the divorce papers at the urging of elders at her Jehovah’s Witnesses church.
Katherine also attempted to divorce her husband in or around 1979, but again was persuaded to drop the action, my sources said.
One motivation for Katherine’s unhappiness, at least in the second instance, was the revelation that her husband had fathered a love child with his mistress.
That child, a girl named Joh’Vonnie Jackson, is now 30, lives with Joseph Jackson in Las Vegas and for some time worked at that city’s McCarran International Airport. Joh’Vonnie’s mother is Cheryl Terrell.
Joseph Jackson’s extramarital affairs, including one with a Motown Records assistant named Gina Sprague, have been detailed in a TV movie about the Jackson family as well as in several books, including one by the Jacksons’ daughter La Toya.
In her 1990 memoir “Growing Up in the Jackson Family,” La Toya wrote that during the tumultuous early ’70s, when the Jackson 5 were busy accumulating hits and touring all over the world, her mother never considered divorce. The papers indicate otherwise.
“That was all in La Toya’s book,” Jackson’s spokeswoman told me yesterday and promised to get back to me.
Joh’Vonnie Jackson, according to my sources, has held several positions at McCarran Airport, including working as a baggage handler. She is not included in Jackson family events and has never visited Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.
When the Jackson siblings appear in court together to show solidarity for Michael, Joh’Vonnie is not present. As far as I can tell, neither Michael nor Janet has ever referred to Joh’Vonnie in any interviews.
On Katherine Jackson’s 1973 divorce petition, she listed the five of her nine children who were still minors at the time: La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Steven (aka Randy) and Janet.
Rebbie, Tito, Jackie, and Jermaine were all over 18 by that time. Joh’Vonnie, the youngest child of Joseph Jackson, is eight years the junior of Janet, who was born in 1966.
Even though neither of Katherine Jackson’s divorce petitions was ever finalized, the couple do not live together, insiders say.
Katherine spends most of her time in Encino, Calif., and Joseph lives in Las Vegas. His wife was not present this year when he had his annual birthday bash in Sin City.
Joseph Jackson Dead at 89, father of Michael, Janet, Jackson 5 Ruled with an Iron Fist
The word from L.A. is that Joseph Jackson is dead at age 89. He missed the anniversary of Michael’s death by two days. His family will receive condolences but the truth about Joseph is not good. He ruled with an iron fist. He was a mean son of a gun who abused his children. He hounded Michael into his grave. He cheated on his wife and produced an illegitimate daughter.
For the last two decades, Joseph and Katherine Jackson didn’t even live together as Joseph schemed ways to get money from her, from Michael, from Michael’s estate. Lovable? no. But he saw an opportunity in the 1960s to take his large family and create, basically, the first boy band. Joseph literally pulled them up and out of Gary, Indiana and made them international superstars.
Joseph, they say, died with family around him. I hope that’s true. Most of the time he was estranged from family. He had a “team” of interlopers and hustlers who helped him make money off of Michael’s legacy. In turn, the team made money off of him. It was a devil’s pact, certainly.
More to come…
Record Industry Coup as Prince’s Entire Catalog Moves to Sony from Warner Bros., Singer No Longer a “Slave”
Prince hated Warner Bros. He changed his name to a symbol to get away from them, and then wrote “Slave” on his face to indicate his unhappiness.
Eventually he made up with them, maybe out of necessity at the time. It was a shock when, just before his death, it looked like he’d be back in the Bunny Den.
But today Sony/Legacy announced they’ve taken the whole catalog from WB. They’ve taken 35 albums including all the classics from the 70s and 80s through the mid 90s and then some. Right away they’ll reissue everything from 1995 forward. Then, in 2021, they’ll have everything else. The only exception is “Purple Rain,” which may be tied to WB because of the movie. But “1999” and all the others go to Sony.
Spotify’s Troy Carter, who oversees the Prince estate, made the deal. But Carter may not be with Spotify much longer. After weeks of rumors that Carter was leaving, today Spotify announced the appointment of Dawn Ostroff as chief content officer. There was no word about Carter, who just stood in for Spotify founder Daniel Ek when they were honored at the annual UJA Federation luncheon for the music industry.
(Watch) Amazon Pictures Stake Academy Award with Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet in “Beautiful Boy” Trailer, Evokes “Ordinary People”
Steve Carell has been looking for an Oscar nomination and maybe a win since “Foxcatcher.” Timothee Chalamet is already fast tracked from “Call Me By Your Name” and his appearance in “Ladybird.”
Now watch them in the trailer for Amazon’s “Beautiful Boy.” This is based on the memoirs of father and son David and Nic Sheff each of whom wrote about Nic’s battle with drug addiction. The trailer is enough to kill you– it reads like “Ordinary People.” So many families have been through this kind of thing– the dialogue in the trailer is going to make people think the writers followed them around.
Amazon has come close to the Oscar with “Manchester by the Sea.” They’re back with this movie, obviously. Telluride, Toronto, here they come? (NY Film Festival maybe not after last year’s Amazon strike out.)
Chaos at “Young and Restless” as Emmy Winner Eileen Davidson Reportedly Quits After Actors’ Longtime Pay Freeze Revealed
UPDATE Davidson confirmed her departure on Twitter this morning. It’s all about money. But she gives a classy farewell. Angelica McDaniel and Margot Wain, heads of CBS Daytime, are responsible for this.
Yes I am leaving my second home @YandR_CBS in September. I’ve been so blessed to be able to play Ashley Abbott and work with the amazing people on the show and have nothing but gratitude and love for all!!! Time for a little more control over my day to day! ❤️❤️💋
— Eileen Davidson (@eileen_davidson) June 27, 2018
There’s chaos at the CBS’s number 1 soap, “The Young and the Restless.” Reports tonight say recent Emmy winning Best Actress Eileen Davidson has quit the show. She’s played Ashley Abbott on and off since 1982 and is wildly popular.
But there’s a lot of bad stuff going on at the soap. I told you last week that they’ve lost between 600,000 and 1 million viewers since December. That’s pretty crazy.
Then also last week came news that one of the show’s breakout stars, Mishael Morgan, quit the soap after five years. Morgan, who is African American, has been on the show’s front burner since she arrived, and seemed like a keeper if she didn’t jump to prime time or movies. She’s a star.
But also last week, Morgan’s manager, David Ritchie, told a soap magazine that Morgan has not had a raise since she arrived five years ago. He also claimed that many of the actors on “Y&R” have not had pay increases. (This would certainly explain a lot of things since “Y&R” has had a high rate of attrition.)
Ritchie said: “… in the first negotiation there was no increase in pay. For various reasons, Mishael and her team, we accepted that and we signed on for two more years. But for this third contract, the series offered no increase in pay.”
As for the other actors, Ritchie– who is in Canada and refreshingly honest–said: “Also for the record, I did a lot of investigating and I found out that, per my sources, a lot of the other cast on the show did not receive raises in their contract negotiations either.”
When I emailed Ritchie, this is how he responded to my query: “I appreciate your interest and thanks for reaching out. I respect what all of you do for the industry as a whole. At this point, I think it’s best to move forward in search of other endeavours for my client rather than continue to discuss past projects. Thank you for understanding.”
“Y&R” is owned by Sony Television and broadcast by CBS, similar to the relationship CBS had with Procter and Gamble with the cancelled soaps “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.” P&G conspired to kill those shows in 2010 when CBS didn’t want to pay high fees to keep them going. Their modus operandi was to cut popular actors in order to shoo off fans. When the ratings went down, CBS was able to claim a reason for cancelling the shows.
Now it would seem CBS is taking that position again. It’s unclear what they would replace “Y&R” and its sister show, “The Bold and the Beautiful” with if they did pull the plug. ABC is certainly toying with using an expanded “Good Morning America” to knock off their remaining soap, “General Hospital.” But not only is CBS third in the morning news race, “The Talk” is second to ABC’s “The View.” So they don’t have a ready replacement if they’re trying to kill the show.
Morgan’s exit can be dealt with; she’s been there a relatively short time. But Davidson’s is more problematic. Even though she’s left before, she’s a mainstay, and has often done double duty on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives,” which is also produced by Sony. It’s possible after her Emmy win she asked for more money and was told ‘no.’ If she’s leaving, this time it’s with an Emmy and a high profile from a stint on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Davidson has removed all mention of the soap from her social media.
If Ritchie is right, the “Y&R” cast been treated pretty badly for a long time. And you know, soap actors never speak up unless they’re prepared to walk, because their industry is small and blacklisting by networks and producers is a regular problem. If they ever started talking, they’d make quite a noise. #Themtoo
Stay tuned…
Grammy Whammy: Music Awards Will Increase Nominees in Main Categories to Eight!
The Grammy Awards are making some changes to this year’s contest.
There will be eight– yes, eight– nominees in the categories of Best Album, Record, Single and Best New Artist.
This is a little weird. It’s been hard enough to find five candidates in each category in recent years.
Quick, who won Best Album this year? Yes, I, too, cannot remember. Oh yes, Bruno Mars, not Kendrick Lamar. The latter got a Pulitzer Prize instead.
So which albums would comprise the Big 8 this year? I guess the top contenders would be Kanye’s “Ye,” Jay Z and Beyonce’s “The Carters,” are the likely candidates. If the Grammys really looked at “the best” and not “best selling” we’d also have David Byrne’s “American Utopia” and the Sting/Shaggy collection “44/876.”
Paul McCartney’s coming “Egypt Station” is going to be a big deal.
Left over from last year, Taylor Swift’s “Reputation.” You know it will be in the mix. Who wouldn’t want a Kanye vs. Taylor redux?
Some names who released excellent albums this year? I’d like to see in the mix: Keith Urban, Janelle Monae, Leon Bridges, James Bay, Charlie Puth, Sugarland. How about Judith Owen’s album of covers? What about Ry Cooder’s knockout, “Prodigal Son”?
But 8 Albums of the Year? Hmmmm….