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Diane Keaton has posted a Tweet to support her pal Woody Allen, ex boyfriend and director who she won an Oscar with in 1978. Keaton is one of many actors from Woody’s original ensemble who’ve always supported him including Tony Roberts, Michael Murphy and others. Back in 1993, when the Mia Farrow scandal first broke, Diane stepped in and starred in a great Woody comedy “Manhattan Murder Mystery.”
Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him. It might be of interest to take a look at the 60 Minute interview from 1992 and see what you think. https://t.co/QVQIUxImB1
The best Grammy party? Universal Music Group nailed it at Spring Studios in Soho, with Quincy Jones holding court, Dave Chappelle joking around, and Erykah Badu DJing. (No mention of her Hitler mess.)
Sting and Trudie Styler took a swing through the room and talked to everyone. “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah was just happy to be out late at night.
The rooms — there were many– airy and light– a very cool environment– were filled with UMG stars like Luis Fonsi, the guy behind “Despacito”– and Lorde, who was enjoying herself despite not performing on the Grammy show. She still had a great credit from Friday night’s MusiCares benefit. She sang Stevie Nicks’s “Silver Spring.” She didn’t know — I told her– that Courtney Love had a hit with it years ago. Also in the house: Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, singer Julia Michaels, and “Colbert” bandleader Jon Batiste.
Q– Quincy, by the way– is very excited about like 19 projects including a new app called Zig that he just invested in. He’s 84 years young and looks terrific– “I gave up drinking!” he declared, “it saved my life.” He is still interested in dating, however. Q is a role model!
UMG chairman and chief Lucien Grainge still commands the biggest of all the record companies with panache and style!
Paul McCartney wasn’t at the Grammys and didn’t win anything officially.
But he’s the surprise winner of the night. That’s because the producer of his new record, Greg Kurstin, won Producer of the Year.
Kurstin is one of a couple of producers including Ryan Tedder working with McCartney on his first new album in several years. I’m told the songs are “amazing” — as in maybe we’re amazed.
Kurstin is best known for working with Adele, writing her hit, “Hello,” and producing her zillion selling “25” album.
Tedder, of course, has written hits for everyone on the charts and fronts his own hit band, One Republic.
For whatever reasons, the 2018 Grammy Awards scored the lowest rating ever for a Grammy show, down 24% from last year. And this was without competition of any notable kind.
It was also the lowest-watched show since 2009. The total viewers came to just under 20 million.
There will be plenty of speculation about why this happened. But it can’t really be that the show was too political since no one could have predicted that going in. And the now famous video spot of various celebs reading “Fate and the Fury” aloud was in the second half of the show.
Everyone will be a Monday morning quarterback. But I did wonder why the show began with an extended performance piece by Kendrick Lamar– clearly announced as a satire– in which a lot of people were killed on stage. Not exactly upbeat. The next segment, after James Corden’s introduction, was Lady Gaga singing about her dead aunt. From there, you were either interested in the very depressing, or you were gone.
On top of that, the Grammys faced several obstacles. The biggest one was the snubbing of Ed Sheeran, whose “Divide” album is still at the very top of the charts. Sheeran would have been the main attraction of the show, but he received no major nominations and wouldn’t appear because of it.
Then there was the Lorde issue: she was not offered a spot on the show because of her stand on Israel. Then to obscure that fact, they let it seem like it was some kind of anti-female thing, which it wasn’t. But that’s what it became.
There were a lot of weird choices made by the production team. Right after Lady Gaga sang two dirges, Pink appeared and sang another one. Oy vey. There were no thrilling moments. There were moving moments– like Kesha– but there was no fun, no sense of humor, a taped segment from U2 that was palmed off as a live one…
As Sam Cooke sang, a change is gonna come to the Grammys for next year after this debacle. When the show returns to Los Angeles, there’s going to be a lot of re-thinking about how this happened. It can’t happen again.
It’s not a surprise that Bruno Mars swept the Grammys with Album, Song and Record of the Year. The album, “24K Magic,” won the award for Best Engineered album during the afternoon session hosted by Paul Shaffer. From that moment on, Bruno was a cinch.
The biggest surprise was that “Despacito” didn’t win Best Record. It was the biggest selling single of the year, and ubiquitous on radio, etc. But once voters ticked off Bruno Mars for one category, they went for the others, too.
There was some irony that Sting presented Bruno with Best Song, since Mars’s older hit, “Locked out of Heaven,” eerily imitates the Police sound.
But Sting — and Shaggy– actually turned out to be big winners of the night anyway. When Sting hit the stage and sang “Englishman in New York” it was the first time during the 60th annual Grammys that I felt a sense of relief– an adult was in the room, an actual musician. It was 36K magic. When he and Shaggy segued into “Don’t Make Me Wait” the crowd at MSG literally roared.
Other excellent performances including Elton John and Miley Cyrus singing “Tiny Dancer,” Lady Gaga’s moment, and Pink. I was very impressed with SZA and with Donald Glover.
Ken Ehrlich turned lemons into lemonade, putting the spotlight on Broadway. Diva of divas Patti Lupone and newcomer Ben Platt were terrific. Kudos to whoever did the sound mix in MSG– it was warm and bright, very well balanced.
Some people grumbled that the show was too safe, that there was no big unforgettable moment. But that moment may have been the complete shutting out of Jay Z. The rap mogul was rendered moot after getting the Industry Icon award on Saturday night. That he and Beyonce were in the Garden but were not the center of attention was fairly interesting. It was like an anti-moment.
And then there was Lorde, who was totally ignored. There’s not much more to say on that subject, for now.
There was a lot of singing on the Grammys but not a lot of musicianship. U2’s segment was taped, and felt it. Gary Clark Jr. and Jon Bautiste got short shrift in their segment. There was no rock played, so we missed any virtuoso stuff on any instrument. That was kind of glaring.
James Corden almost got out of the show without making much of an impression. But then there was his comedy bit of celebs reading “Fate and Fury.” It was just what the show needed, mostly because it made Nikki Haley crazy. Fun stuff.
So much interest in Lorde, the New Zealand pop star who became famous with the song “Royals” three years ago.
Despite an Album of the Year nomination for “Melodrama,” an album that shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place, Lorde is not performing at the Grammys.
Various reports say she wasn’t offered a solo spot on the show. I’m told she wasn’t offered any spot. This, after Republic Records pushed to get “Melodrama” nominated despite very low sales– only 160,000 copies since its release last June. “Melodrama” was a non starter.
But then Lorde made headlines recently, after her nomination, when she decided to drop Tel Aviv from her next tour. She’d been influenced by anti-Israel forces like Roger Waters, who are endorsing anti-Semitism by bullying artists into not performing in Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves.
I wrote then that there would be repercussions for Lorde, who is 21 and is probably not much of a world scholar. So she’s flown 8,800 miles with her parents and she’s not on the Grammys. Big surprise. She can sing, you know. She appeared on stage for MusiCares on Friday singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Spring.” She sang at another event, too. She came last night to Clive Davis’s dinner as the date of producer Jack Antonoff, who just broke up with Lena Dunham.
So why isn’t Lorde on the Grammys– even though she’s one of the few female nominees? I think you got the answer.
Meantime, Lorde posted a Tweet last night as she was off to the Clive Davis dinner:
Clive Davis truly outdid himself with his annual pre-Grammy dinner, in New York for the first time in 15 years, at the Sheraton ballroom with literally hundreds of stars in the audience, dozens on stage, and wild stuff going on all over the place.
First of all, Clive accidentally “outed” Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes when he introduced them, then realizing it said: “If you’re going to sit together what better night than tonight.” Katie tried to hide, she’d come to the dinner with Tribeca Films’ Jane Rosenthal, it was all very funny. Katie, by the way, has a new short bob haircut, and is glowing, so Jamie’s doing something right.
But wait– the audience! Sting and Trudie Styler, John Legend and Chrissie Teigen, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, Pink, Zayn Malik, a table of funny people— Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Rob Reiner all with spouses, Paul Shaffer, Dick Cavett, Martha Stewart, Ivana Trump with her great pal Nikki Haskell, Denise Rich, CNN’s Don Lemon. More: Kathie Lee, Hoda, Lorraine Bracco with daughter Stella Keitel, Tommy Hilfiger and wife Dee, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nick Jonas, Shawn Mendes, the legendary Valerie Simpson, Gayle King, Anthony Hamilton, Verdine White and Philip Bailey of Earth Wind & Fire.
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There were Broadway people everywhere, and some performed like Ben Platt and Leslie Odom, Jr. But also the Oscar-Tony-Grammy songwriting duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Billy Porter of “Kinky Boots,” and so on. Platt, star of “Dear Evan Hansen,” brought the very talented Beanie Feldstein, sister of Jonah Hill. Beanie just finished “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway and is in “Lady Bird” about to take off like crazy.
Plus Songwriter Diane Warren, who just got her ninth Oscar nomination– for “Stand Up for Something”– was being congratulated by everyone!
Did I mention Wyclef Jean? Quincy Jones? Maxwell? The Chainsmokers? OneRepublic star writer/producer Ryan Tedder? Rita Ora? Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer! DJ Khaled! Puff Daddy!
How about Lorde with producer Jack Antonoff as her date! Cardi B, Peter Asher, John Oliver, Shaggy. Timbaland…
Katie Couric opened the night with a toast to Clive, calling him the “original American Idol.” Clive, wearing a custom made red velvet Armani jacket, took the stage and was on the money more than ever as he guided these 1,000 people through a magical mystery tour that began with Barry Manilow singing “This is My Town” and “New York, New York.” Then came Luis Fonsi with the biggest hit of the year, “Despacito.” Migos followed, then Platt, and Odom, and a surprise sensational moment with another legend, Gladys Knight, singing “Stand By Me” and driving the place crazy with “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Clive’s been doing this party in L.A. for 15 years so I’m, you know, jaded– I expect all this. The New York people who were seeing it for the first time, and looking around the ballroom at all the stars, were absolutely gobsmacked. They had no idea…
And then Alicia Keys took the stage as a tribute to Jay Z, who’d arrived with Beyonce, and was being awarded the NARAS Icon Award by Neil Portnow. Alicia– who debuted at Clive’s party in 2001 and went on to superstardom– created a medley of songs Jay Z has sampled or used in his rap albums over the years. It was genius, just brilliant, everything from “Hard Knock Life” from “Annie” to “Empire State of Mind.” Just, wow.
By then we’d seen Nancy Pelosi shimmying and just, like, everything. What do you do for an encore? Khalid came over from his Radio City show to sing “Young, Dumb, & Broke.” Then he and Logic performed their hit, “800.273.8255.” They are two young performers who will go the distance. Very very impressive.
And then we get Jennifer Hudson with the big finale– a medley of Aretha Franklin songs that sent everyone into the stratosphere– Sting couldn’t get over how great she was. Clive announced that JHud will indeed play Aretha in the Queen of Soul’s official movie (more about that soon). That was breaking news.
As Leslie Odom sang from Hamilton, we were lucky to be in the ‘room where it happens.’
And then, as JHud is winding down, who appears in the ballroom out of nowhere? Mariah Carey and her boyfriend. She had carefully missed seeing ex husband Tommy Mottola and his wife Thalia. Apropos of nothing, she said to me, “Roger Friedman, you’re always somewhere, but not with me.”
I should have replied, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” But I was trying to thank Neil Portnow for letting NARAS back yet another once in a lifetime adventure.
The rebooting of old TV series is now an epidemic, and it’s one that could be more deadly than the current flu. Plus, there’s no shot that can fix it.
Yesterday came news of reboots of “Magnum, P.I.” and “Cagney & Lacey” at CBS. Those are two shows no one needed to see again. The originals were just fine. CBS is also bringing back “Murphy Brown.” There was some talk of “All in the Family” reappearing. Producer Norman Lear has a Latino version of “One Day at a Time” on Netflix.
For CBS, the reboot is nothing new. They’ve just had a seven year run with “Hawaii 5-0.” And they had an unsuccessful one with “The Odd Couple.” Can a new “Murder, She Wrote” be far behind?
There’s also an idea of the hit show “Charmed” coming back. That announcement got star Holly Marie Combs to tweet: “While some may not get why I take issue with the network that didn’t want to renew Charmed 12 years ago ‘reimagining’ it now let me just say I understand it perfectly. Also this kinda stuff given all that Rose and Alyssa have done lately…um no. Just No”
Plus, there’s a version of “Dynasty” running on the CW, which I’m sure is tepid fun but really, the Carringtons of Denver aren’t the stuff of Shakespeare. Wasn’t it possible to think of a new premise and characters?
All of this comes as “Will & Grace,” exhumed, is back on NBC. And “Roseanne” is about to re-launch on ABC. “Fuller House” thrives on Netflix.
Is it just laziness on the part of the networks? Yes. Someone obviously said, these are are brand names. What the heck? Why try to sell something new to anyone?
I say ‘enough,’ and you say it too but it’s not going to stop. This has just become too easy for the networks. And so this will be what rap music’s sampling did to the last generation of music fans. There will be a small legacy of new works from this generation. It’s sort of like TV Fracking. Drill down into your resources now. Tomorrow they will be gone. Fear the Viewing Dead.
It was a quarter of a century ago when Bill Clinton took Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” as his campaign song. It was a brilliant move, although for a while the song suffered from the association and wasn’t played on the radio so much.
So tonight it was only fitting that Clinton showed up to present Fleetwood Mac with their Person of the Year award from MusiCares, one of the Grammy Award charities. After a night songs from other stars and from the Mac themselves, Clinton made a special appearance at Radio City Music Hall to hand Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham their awards.
Clinton revealed that in 1991 a 19 year old driver in Los Angeles flipped a cassette in the car radio and played Dont Stop for him. “This should be your campaign song.” That’s how it happened.
Clinton said he owed so much to Fleetwood Mac he had to be here.He brought a date too: Hillary.
The former President was preceded by performances featuring Miley Cyrus, Jared Leto, Little Big Town, Brandi Carlisle, Alison Kraus and Jerry Douglas, Imagine Dragons, and so on. After Clinton spoke and each member of Fleetwood Mac spoke, the group took the stage and played a half dozen or so hits including “The Chain,” with Harry Styles as guest star.
It was a different kind of night for MusiCares, which usually puts on its whole event– a big gala dinner and the concert– all in one spot at the LA Convention Center. But with no comparable venue in New York, they decided to have a proper concert at Radio City followed by a buffet at the New York Hilton in a ballroom. Even with the changes. they raised $7 million for indigent musicians and/or those needing help with housing and health issues.
PS at the live auction, someone paid $170,000 for a boxed signed set of lyrics from the “Rumours” album.
