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Remember when she canceled 13 weekends in Vegas because she had stage fright?
Since then she’s taken over Sin City and can’t stop extending her run
Why? Money! She’s making it, hand over fist.
Now she’s booked five nights in Munich this August. Amazing. It won’t stop there. She’s got the rhythm of it, plus the adrenaline rush of screaming fans. Will she ever make another record? Why bother?
PS anyone know what happened to her original hitmaker, Paul Epworth? Asking for a friend.
The Pineapple Express is coming, and it’s not a stoner movie.
It’s a weather event that will hit Los Angeles tomorrow and Thursday, and then really come for Southern California on Sunday.
Sunday is also the Grammy Awards, which means chaos is looming. One thing LA cannot deal with is weather. They lose their minds. On the west coast, it’s spelled Whether, as in bad news is coming, whether or not.
Luckily, the Grammy red carpet at the Crypto Center is tented (there was a time when it wasn’t). But that doesn’t mean ladies getting soaked in their gowns, and so on. High heels and inappropriately mini skirts — often seen in the higher sections — are going to be dripping. It will be a mess, especially when the show is over and guests disperse to parties.
Also, no one in LA wears a raincoat and few of them have umbrellas. Years ago during a surprise rain event I went from store to store looking for a raincoat. Sales people just gaped. They’d never heard the word before!
There’s already a lot of grumbling about the Grammys from the lesser nominees regarding seating in the Crypto Center — formerly the Staples Center — because the show is sold out. So let’s hang on and hope the meteorologists are wrong. They often are.
Beach Boys founder and genius Brian Wilson has announced the death of his second wife, Melinda. They were married for 28 years. She was 77, and basically saved his life.
At the time that Melinda came into Brian’s life he was under the thumb of Dr. Eugene Landy. Landy had isolated Wilson and wrecked his career. But once Melinda got involved, Brian broke free of Landy and went on to have a big solo career. Their story is seen in the excellent movie, “Love and Mercy.” She was played by Elizabeth Banks.
I met and talked to Melinda many times over the years. She was just lovely. I am really sorry that she’s gone. Condolences to everyone including their five children.
The Grammys should really include Melinda in their In Memoriam. Without her, there would have been no more Brian Wilson.
Brian wrote on Twitter:
My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us. Please say a prayer for her. Love and Mercy Brian
Billionaire David Rubenstein, whose name and imprimatur is on the Center, the Washington Monument, and many other institutions, is stepping down. At 74, he says he’s had enough and will concentrate on buying the Baltimore Orioles. Because, why not?
Rubenstein is said to be worth $4 billion, all of it derived from his work at the secretive private equity firm, The Carlyle Group, which he founded.
In 2014, Rubenstein made news when he unceremoniously dismissed the beloved creator of the Kennedy Center Honors, producer and director George Stevens Jr. Rubenstein was determined to turn the Honors into something more resembling the Grammy Awards than a real salute to all the arts.
Rubenstein leaving now, before the fall presidential election, makes sense. This way there can be a transition to a Biden- backed successor rather than gamble on something unforeseen happening after the election. Meantime, Deborah Rutter, who’s very popular, will remain CEO.
Chita Rivera seemed like she’d live forever. She died today at 91, but will live on forever in Broadway history.
She starred in the original “West Side Story” on Broadway and caused a sensation. Chita Rivera won two Tony Awards and had eight other nominations. She also was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Chita had an indomitable spirit. She loved the audience, and the shows themselves. She was Broadway’s Queen. Several years ago, the Chita Rivera Awards were established in her name. They’ll be held this year on May 20th here in New York.
Condolences to her family, friends, and fans. The latter includes everyone!
Celine Dion is getting what some people call a documentary.
“I Am: Celine Dion” is produced by Sony Music, so it’s more of an infomercial than an objective non fiction film. It’s going to tell the story of a girl who came from a very large family and fought her way to the top of show business. Amazon MGM has bought it, and the movie will play on Amazon Prime.
It really should have been titled, “It’s All Coming Back to Me.”
Celine has gone through a lot health wise lately. It’s hard to say how much of her Stiff Person Syndrome will be discussed, or her bouts with depression or anorexia since the death of her husband and manager, Rene Angelil. A real documentary would be about Rene and how he became a huge player at Sony over the years when Celine was selling buckets of records every hour. You forgot about that? Well, it’s all coming back to me now.
What we will see is a lot of performance and singing, which for Celine Dion fans will be worth the whole thing.
The film is directed by Irene Taylor, who was co-nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Doc in 2009.
CBS says The NFL ON CBS scored the most-watched AFC Championship Game ever, averaging 55.473 million viewers in the early window (3:03-6:12 PM, ET).
The previous record was 54.850 million viewers for Jets-Steelers in the late window (6:42-9:54 PM, ET) on Jan. 23, 2011.
That’s the Taylor Swift effect, which then spilled over to Fox, which had an almost identical number. NFL football was dead? It just shows you, all these things are cyclical.
The games are good, but they’re not better than ever. The fact is, Taylor Swift has turned a whole generation onto football. The love story of Taylor and Travis Kelce is American pie, it’s the saga everyone needs after the pandemic, Trump, and the onslaught of horror every night on TV.
Will the Chiefs win the Super Bowl? Who knows? Will Taylor endorse Joe Biden? Probably, in some way. But imagine a ticker tape parade with Taylor and Travis in a big open convertible! Then they go to the White House, where they’re married in the Rose Garden. It’s going to happen!
Britney Spears has rescinded her apology to Justin Timberlake and others for what she dictated into her book, “The Woman in Me.”
The Instagram post is gone after less than 24 hours and making headlines everywhere. (We were the first to report it over last night.)
Spears had posted a video of Justin playing a medley of his hits on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show with school instruments. She said she was sorry if she offended anyone in the book. Also, she really liked Justin’s new music.
This was after she drew Timberlake as a villain in the book, putting her through an abortion at age 17 and then dumping her.
But that was last night, which was full of regret and nostalgia. Tonight, either Spears or someone in her camp pulled the post. She was getting a very negative reaction from her fans, who had worked themselves into a frenzy hating Timberlake.
Yes, we have wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, over 100 Israeli hostages missing, the specter of a madman running for President again. But this is what we are worried about.
Below, please find the original post, now without music. But you get the idea. Tears for Spears. The circus continues, albeit without that apology.
Timberlake performs a one time only show tomorrow night at Irving Plaza in New York, to promote his new single, “Selfish,” and album coming in March.
It was short and sweet. But Britney Spears’ run on the charts is ending as fast as it began.
On Friday, Spears’ fans fished out a 2011 track of hers called “Selfish” — the same title as Justin Timberlake’s new song. The fans pushed it up to number 3 on iTunes, planning to go to number 1.
Alas, neither the fans nor Timeberlake could predicted the other disturbances on the weekend chart. Other people were also plotting ways to game the system.
Also released on Thursday was a record called “Facts” from right wing singer Tom McDonald, whoever he is. The record features right wing agitator Ben Shapiro. It’s not a good record, and I can’t imagine any radio stations will play it. There are no “Facts” involved. But someone in a red state is pressing “Buy” over and over. McDonald’s record is number 1.
Then comes the feud between Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion. Megan released a foul mouthed diatribe called “Hiss” on Thursday. Nicki responded with “Big Foot” — two versions. This means that four spots on the iTunes top 5 are taken up with these kerfuffles. Timberlake’s “Selfish” — the only actual song of the bunch — is stuck at number 5, despite his compelling performance on “SNL” over the weekend.
And Britney? Her “Selfish” has dropped to 10, and should be back off the charts soon enough. It was a fun play by her fans, who got the satisfaction of knowing they’d slighted Justin for a few hours. That’s all it was about in the first place. Britney, in the meantime, apologized to Justin for the bad things she said about him in her book. That angered fans who thought she should hold a grudge. But Britney is too big for that! Lesson learned.
