“Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” is coming soon with new performances of old ABBA songs, some which you’ve never heard of. In this video, Lily James– of “Downton Abbey” fame — sings “When I Kissed the Teacher.”
An all star cast, this time including Cher, premieres in the movie on July 20. I never thought “Waterloo” would turn into this when I first heard it on the radio in the 70s. But you never thought Donald Trump would be president.
“Law & Order: SVU” has its hard core fans. So they will be thrilled to know that their show, starring Mariska Hargitay, has been renewed for its 20th season.
This means they’ve tied the run of the original “Law & Order,” which ran 20 seasons before getting abruptly cancelled after ratings fell out in the final season.
“SVU” is planning a cliffhanger season finale for May 22nd, by the way, so they’d better be coming back this fall!
What a tribute to Hargitay, who assumed the starring role when Chris Meloni left several years ago. Her mother, the late great star Jayne Mansfield, must be smiling in heaven. Mansfield’s life was cut short in a terrible car accident in 1967. Mariska was just three years old. She’s gone on to be such a success on “SVU,” as well as being a tireless advocate for women as a documentary producer.
NBC also renewed producer Dick Wolf’s three Chicago shows– police, fire and post office. (Just kidding.) It’s actually kind of amazing that Wolf had all those New York shows that were hits, then changed the locale to Chicago and had hits all over again.
Today, Wolf also formally announces his branching out to CBS, as well, where his new “FBI” rolls out in the fall with 13 episodes. Jeremy Sisto, an alum of “Law & Order” and “Six Feet Under,” stars with hot newcomer Zeeko Zaki as the lead FBI agent. Zaki is going to be The New Guy this fall who everyone’s talking about. His six foot five and of Egyptian descent although raised in the US.
UPDATED AUGUST 23RD with corrections:
You may remember the name Helly Nahmad. He’s the son of the Madison Avenue art dealer and BFF to Leonardo DiCaprio. (Correction: Mr. Nahmad’s attorney says his father is not involved in the art gallery. We regret the confusion.)
Back in 2013, Helly received a one year prison sentence and three years’ probation for being part of an international gambling scandal. He was portrayed in Aaron Sorkin’s movie, “Molly’s Game,” based on the book by Molly Bloom’s book, in which Nahmad is mentioned several times concerning Bloom’s high stake poker games.
CORRECTION: Helly was accused (but not convicted) of laundering millions of dollars along with two Russians and more than two dozen others in a scheme that included seven-figure card games, international sports betting rings and mixed martial arts fighters as debt collectors. He also had to pay a $30,000 fee. He also coughed up over $6.4 million and rights to the 1937 painting “Carnaval à Nice” by Raoul Dufy as part of a plea deal.
Nahmad got out of jail on November December 8, 2014, five months early. From there he went to a halfway house where he remained until May March 2015. But he still had the three years’ probation. It ends on May 14th. But I’m told there may be a last minute twist in the story before Nahmad can put all this behind him. There’s some static about what Nahmad may have been up to during the probation.
Nahmad is the latest DiCaprio pal to serve time or be involved in a financial scandal. The first was his late manager Dana Giacchetto who ran an infamous Ponzi scheme with Hollywood clients and spent 14 months in prison. Giacchetto committed suicide a couple of years ago. DiCaprio is also still caught up in the Malaysian public fund scandal known as 1MBD in which that government’s money was tied up in the financing of “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Nahmad has long been part of what used to be called DiCaprio’s “Pussy Posse” and more recently goes by the name “The Wolf Pack.” This is a real thing, complete with a club medallion worn around the neck on a chain by members, divided into East Coast and West Coast, according to sources. The medallion has a gold W with a drop of blood, for wolf’s blood. (Yes, this is real.) It can be seen in some photos of members including DiCaprio and friends like actor Lukas Haas.
One member of the Wolf Pack is–and that may now be past tense–magician David Blaine. Blaine was the subject of a 2017 Daily Beast story in which he was accused of rape by model Natasha Prince just two weeks after the Harvey Weinstein story broke in the New York Times and New Yorker.
It’s unclear right now what may impede Nahmad’s exiting his probation, if anything. So we’ll stay tuned…
Bringing on Muslim neighbors didn’t do much for the “Roseanne” ratings last night. They were pretty much the same as last week, with 10.1 million viewers tuning in. The good news is that there wasn’t a huge drop off. But “Roseanne” did lose 300,000 viewers from last week, and that’s significant.
Still, for the night, “Roseanne” was not the biggest event. That honor went to “NCIS” with nearly 15 million people tuning in for the season finale and exit of two characters. So five million more people went for Pauley Perrette’s goodbye over Roseanne and co.
“Bull” on CBS followed with 11.8 million viewers, pushing “Roseanne” to third place for the night.
Roseanne Barr Maryland Show for This Month Canceled Due to Poor Ticket Sales
“NCIS” fans are crying this morning over the exit of actress Pauley Perrette after 15 years. She played forensic scientist Abby Scuito with verve and humor and was the de factor leading lady of the series.
There was no reason Perrette should leave. and she’s never given an adequate explanation. But last night’s episode was meant for reading between the lines. Perrette and the series’ difficult leading man, Mark Harmon, never shared a scene or spoke to each other for the whole hour.
NCIS Scores Huge Numbers for Finale
This was cleverly accomplished. Right until the end, Abby and Harmon’s Gibbs weren’t even in the show together. For the final moments, the producers cut together two close ups as the characters waved goodbye in sign language.
Otherwise, Abby and Gibbs had no contact with each other. She told her pals at NCIS she was leaving and hugged them all– except Gibbs, who wasn’t even in the room. Think about it: Abby was shot and Gibbs didn’t even visit her in the hospital.
Years ago, when Lauren Holly was the female star of the show, sources told me in detail how badly Harmon treated her. She was forced to leave the show. Perrette has been very diplomatic about her exit. She hasn’t said a word about Harmon. But silence speaks volumes. She’s posted a lot of photos and Tweets to other fellow stars of the show, but none about or with Harmon.
In addition to Abby’s exit, another character left “NCIS” last night, the MI6 agent Clayton Reeves. He was played by so well by black British actor Duane Henry. So, “NCIS” managed to shed a woman and a black man. Was this part of CBS’s diversity program? On a network that has one female (Tea Leoni) and one black dramatic lead (Shemar Moore) for its series, this news should be pretty upsetting.
EXCLUSIVE
I’ve been telling you that Roseanne Barr wasn’t selling tickets for her May 17th date at MGM National Harbor in Maryland.
Tickets were lowered to $18 for the cheap seats. But still no momentum occurred. Roseanne’s TV show is dropping in the ratings, and fans weren’t biting.
Now, very quietly, the date has been yanked from the National Harbor schedule and moved to next fall, on October 12th. A notice on Ticketmaster.com says that tickets already sold will be honored.
It’s unclear if the move will change anything. National Harbor could have just cancelled altogether, but this way Roseanne saves face. For now. There’s no way of knowing if she’ll be hotter in six months.
On Wednesday we’ll get the ratings for “Roseanne” from Tuesday night’s episode in which the Conners– much like the Bunkers on “All in the Family” 40 something years ago– got new neighbors. This time, though instead of “The Jeffersons,” it’s Muslims. If “Roseanne” were really a Trump show, the family would be broken up and deported. But the reality is, “Roseanne” has spurned the Trump base it courted in its premiere week and headed for more moderate ground.
Yesterday, Melania Trump announced her Be Best cyber bully campaign.
This afternoon, to kick it off, the Trumps attacked soon to be former daughter in law in the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post.
Vanessa Haydon Trump is divorcing Donald Jr. after fifteen years of marriage and five children. Don Jr. has been accused of cheating on Vanessa, repeatedly.
So this afternoon comes this “bombshell”: “Vanessa Trump’s First Love Was Member of Street Gang.”
It’s a hilarious attempt to besmirch the mother of five children by the President of the United States and his dopey son. At 15 Vanessa was friendly with a kid who became a member of the Latin Kings and went to prison for 16 months.
The Post writes: “And in an exclusive interview, Rivera told Page Six how Vanessa would help him drop off weed to friends by driving him around in her stepfather’s convertible with an illegal gun in the trunk.”
Does anyone really think a judge in this divorce won’t bunch this newsprint up and toss it in the garbage?
The Post — aided by Trump’s PR minions– reached back to Vanessa’s junior high school years to look for a scandal. This is what they got. They’ve connected her to the Latin Kings at the age of 15. Translation: she must be a bad mother and deserves no Trump money.
After her walk on the wild side, Vanessa Haydon dated Leonardo DiCaprio for a half second, then married Donald Trump Jr. Instead of joining the Latin Kings as a young Maria from West Side Story– ha ha– she had five children. Now she wants out from the Trump Mafia, but they’re not going to let her take the money and run without a fight.
What’s next in Vanessa’s dark history? Shoplifting in a mall? Knitting while driving? Jaywalking?
And don’t think this article didn’t come straight from the White House to the Post. It was a great way to kick off the Be Best Campaign!
Yes, it’s been 27 years since Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter went on “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” — and 29 years since their “Excellent Adventure.”
And now, for some reason, they will reunite to “Face the Music” in a sequel no one needs or wants — except maybe the original filmmakers, who see a chance to cash in one more time (or at least get on Netflix).
This time, Bill and Ted will have daughters, and maybe even wives. Original creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have written the script, with Dean Parisot set to direct. MGM owns the rights to the film and will release in the U.S. under their Orion Pictures banner.
The plot? Well, Bill and Ted are failed songwriters. So they’re going to time travel with the girls and write the greatest song ever. Fer sure. I guess it’s time for a new “Wayne’s World” movie, too.
By the way, Reeves is 53 years old and Winter is 52.
We’re going to have to endure the Met Gala aka Met Ball all over again next month. It’s the featured plot point in “Ocean’s 8,” the Warner Bros. movie with an all star cast.
But where were all the stars from that movie last night? Missing in action, mostly. The cast members that did show up were Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, and Mindy Kaling.
The rest of the cast? Sandra Bullock, who’s the leader of the all female heist gang, was MIA. She’s not shooting a movie. Maybe she was just wise enough to stay home with her kids.
Cate Blanchett is the head of the jury in Cannes. So she had better things to do. Also missing were Matt Damon, Sarah Paulson, and Helena Bonham Carter, as well as director Gary Ross. No sign of any Warner Bros. brass either.
Meantime, former Met Ball planner Stephanie Wolkoff and Anna Wintour insider (and ex-Melania Trump aide after she waltzed off with $26 million from the First Lady’s budget last year) didn’t exactly deny this morning on Fox 5 that Wintour is exiting soon from Vogue and the Met Ball.
Last, and most important, Cardinal Dolan told Rosanna Scotto on this morning’s Good Day New York that he skipped Madonna’s performance. He was “somewhere else” in the Met when Madge was performing “Like a Prayer.” Smart.
PS Best line of the night on Twitter came from Mark Harris, who’s married to “Angels in America” playwright Tony Kushner. When Katy Perry showed up with gigantic feathery white wings a la “Angels,” Harris Tweeted: “All right, you can have house seats!”
This just in from SAG-AFTRA: “Please be advised that GO2 Z 5, LLC., the producer of the Basic Cable Television series Z Nation has not completed the signatory process by failing to provide adequate financial assurances. As such, SAG-AFTRA members are hereby instructed to withhold any acting services for this production until further notice. Please note, accepting employment or rendering services on Z Nation may be considered a violation of Global Rule One.”
“Z Nation” stars DJ Qualls, et al. is in its fourth season on Syfy. It sounds like a low rent “Walking Dead” described on its website as “A group of survivors must cross the country with a possible cure for the zombie apocalypse. The holder of the cure, a zombie-human hybrid named Murphy, may not be so cooperative.”
Jodi Binstock and Steve Graham are chief partners in Go 2 Digital Media, the company cited in the SAG notice. Obviously, something is very wrong in Zombie land. This is not common for a series going into its 5th season. If you know anything, please email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.