Carrie Fisher died with cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin in her system. She also died of sleep apnea. All of it caused a heart attack. The tragedy is that Carrie had everything going for her. She had the renewed success with Star Wars. It didn’t matter. She herself said she suffered from mental illness. It turns out were lucky to have her as long as we did. RIP at last, Carrie.
Megyn Kelly’s Alex Jones interview was trounced. It came in fourth last night, after “60 Minutes,” golf championships, and a rerun of America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Kelly raked in a puny 3.53 million viewers. By contrast “60 Minutes” had 5.31 million. The rerun had a 3.71. The golf championship had 6 million viewers.
It’s hard to say if anyone started with Kelly and then switched when she was done. Then you would have missed Keith Morrison’s bizarre travelogue of New Zealand. I didn’t check the fine print to see who paid for it.
As for Kelly, Jones is just a despicable mad man. No one right minded person was interested. They were happier watching dogs, cats and babies doing silly things.
Bette Midler? She’s outta here. She promised Dolly would never go away again. But Dolly Levi, matchmaker, is taking a two week vacation from June 27th-July 9th. Bette Midler will be lighting sparklers with her hefty paycheck while Tony winner Donna Murphy plays her role. Murphy also started playing Tuesday night shows beginning this past June 13th.
You have to go all the way into Telecharge, about to buy tickets, when this warning comes up in red:
“On Tuesdays beginning June 13, 2017, the role of Dolly Levi will be played by Donna Murphy. Donna Murphy will also perform the role of Dolly Levi on June 27 – July 2, July 5 – 9, Sunday evening – July 30, September 6 – 10, Sunday evening – October 15, Monday evening – October 30, November 1 – 5, Friday – November 24 at 2pm, and Sunday evening – January 7. “
Yes, “Hello, Dolly!” only opened six weeks ago, and Midler just won the Tony Award. She didn’t perform on the Tony broadcast, but she needs that vacation. She’s the second oldest actress ever to play Dolly. (The second time Carol Channing did it, she was slightly older. Channing was famous for never missing performances.)
And yes, once Midler is gone, there are plenty of seats at all performances. Murphy is one the best ever Broadway stars, and perfect for Dolly, too. And if Murphy is out for some reason, maybe Channing– who’s 96– will fill in! (Actually, it would be funnier if Dolly Parton stepped in. Why not?)
Leonardo DiCaprio’s annual swanky St. Tropez gala and auction may be affected by the latest turn of events in the “Wolf of Wall Street”-Malaysian fund scandal involving billions.
The government has forced Oscar winner Leo to return pieces of art given to him by associates, bought–they say– with missing money from a Malaysian public fund called 1MDB. Leo says he was going to auction the pieces off at the end of July at his foundation soiree in St. Tropez. But now he may have to sign autographs instead.
The art includes a $3.2 million Picasso, a $9 million Basquiat collage and an Oscar that once belonged to Marlon Brando. The scandal involves the funding of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and rights to the movies “Daddy’s Home,” and “Dumb and Dumber To.” Not only has the art been turned over to the government, but Leo also had to give back the Oscar. The US government believes they are all tied to a money laundering scheme in Malaysia.
Leo is knee deep in this scandal. The government filed a federal forfeiture case last week against several of Di Caprio’s associates who funded “The Wolf of Wall Street.” They include Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, founder of Red Granite Productions, that’s caused trouble. Aziz is Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stepson. Aziz is accused of allegedly looting 1MDB to fund movie making, large scale art buying, and purchases of luxury real estate.
What makes this even more curious: this is the 3rd time in 20 years that Di Caprio has been thisclose to wildly illegal activity that involved government investigations or the sending of associates to jail. First was Ponzi schemer Dana Giacchetto (went to jail, now dead, a suicide); then there was art dealer Helly Nahmad. Nahmad, freshly out of jail from a gambling scheme, is mentioned in the new complaint because his gallery handled the transfer of some of the art to DiCaprio.
What is wrong with this picture?
The Malaysian scandal: basically what’s alleged is that Malaysians invested hundreds of million in what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. The money was disbursed by Aziz, now it’s gone. The 1MDB scandal includes two unsolved murders two murders in that country. One of the victims was a local prosecutor. It’s literally like a real life James Bond movie or “Mission Impossible.”
In the middle of it is the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which has no transparency because it’s hidden under a California umbrella group of charities. So no one really knows about the money that’s gone in and out of it.
All we do know, besides DiCaprio’s involvement with Aziz and his associates, is that his St. Tropez gala is underwritten by Julius Baer private bank of Switzerland. Last year I reported that Julius Baer had to pay the US government $547 million in fines for fraud. This year, Julius Baer was accused of massive embezzlement.
Turning over the art and the Oscar and jewelry isn’t the end of this for the star of “The Revenant.” The complaint for recovery is 251 pages long. There’s more to come.
Meantime, Julius Baer is sponsoring the DiCaprio Foundation dinner again, and there’s still no public record of the foundation’s financials. You ask, Is this common for big movie stars? The answer is no.
DiCaprio, despite making millions on his movies, has always been attracted to rich patrons. In this case, he didn’t think it odd that he received as a belated birthday gift a $3.2 million Picasso painting from Eric Tan aka Tan Kim Loong, an associate of Aziz via fellow 1MDB participant Jho Low, or on another occasion a $9 million Basquiat collage. (DiCaprio peers like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey must be wondering where they went wrong.)
The Basquiat collage raises even more questions since Low et al bought it as a gift for DiCaprio from Leo’s BFF, Helly Nahmad, only recently sprung from jail himself.
As they say, to be continued…
Richard Perry turns 75 today out in L.A. Happy Birthday! Perry is regarded as the most successful record producer of the 1970s and 80s, with plenty before and after.
Among Richard’s hit records: nearly all the hits by Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, and the Pointer Sisters. He revived Rod Stewart’s career with the Songbook albums, produced Barbra Streisand’s only rock hit– “Stoney End,” worked with legends like Fats Domino.
In 1971, it was Richard who organized the Beatles’ “reunion,” bringing John, Paul, and George onto the “Ringo” album– the album with smash hits “Photograph” and “Oh My My.” John Lennon wrote Ringo’s “I’m the Greatest,” which you can hear on Sirius XM’s Beatles channel almost constantly. Richard also persuaded Paul and Linda McCartney to record with Carly Simon and James Taylor. He also got Mick Jagger to do the famous backing vocals on “You’re So Vain,” which was a coup.
Perry has always been one of the most popular guys in Hollywood. He dated Cher and Tina Turner. He and Jane Fonda have been significant others for the last 7 years, living together for most of that time.
Maybe you noticed– Richard and Paul McCartney share the exact same birthday. So this was all meant to be.
Happy birthday, Richard! Here’s to more music– and to maybe seeing your memoir published in the next year. (I’ve read some of it, and it’s a real history of hip rock from that era.)
The box office was as bad as predicted this weekend. Sony’s “Rough Night” did worse than expected with just $8 million– not even the multiple of its $3.5 million Friday night. It’s deserved, though.
Scarlett Johansson is often mentioned as the number 1 female at the box office. But that’s because she’s been in all the Avengers movies. She’s going to have to decide what her career will be now, as her last standalone, “Ghost in the Shell,” was a bust. She won a Tony Award and was on the Oscar track for a while. Time to reboot. Scarlett, call Woody.
No tomorrow for Trevorrow: “Star Wars 9” director’s “Book of Henry” was last seen leaving town on a rail. The Force Naps.
The good news: “All Eyez on Me,” the Tupac Shakur movie, did very, very well despite lousy reviews. This shows the audience is there, even if the filmmaking isn’t so good.
Amazing: “Wonder Woman” took in another $40 million. Warner/DC is up to $274 million. Sue Kroll, Juli Goodwin, Susanne Fritz and the WB team will win the Publicists Guild Award next March. Excellent job!
Well, that was a fun night!
At 4:11pm Eastern time Saturday afternoon we broke the story that Beyonce had had her twins on Monday night. No one else knew this. We did. We had excellent sources. There was a lot we couldn’t write, and we omitted the name of the hospital to give the family privacy.
Around six hours later, other outlets started reporting the story. At first only US Magazine gave us credit. Soon after, the Daily Mail and Variety followed suit and linked back to Showbiz411.com
People magazine, once considered the “serious” celebrity magazine, simply stole the story without credit. Many others did the same, including the infamous thieves at the Hollywood Reporter.
This is how it works now. It’s exhausting. And it adds to the accusation of “fake media.” The so called MSM has no respect for itself. Why should Trump and his followers feel any different?
As for People, this just follows their debacle a couple of weeks ago with Jennifer Garner. Something has gone really wrong at People. I’m sorry to see that.
As for Beyonce and Jay Z, let’s hope they get their kids home soon. TMZ says the reason they’ve been in the hospital so long is because there was a “minor issue.” But the whole family should be in ‘formation’ soon.
Happy Birthday Sir Paul McCartney. The great singer songwriter of the Beatles and Wings fame turns 75 today. He’s the most youthful septuagenarian you could hope to find.Â
Here are some of my favorites of Paul’s incredible catalog. What are yours? My longer tribute runs at the end of this week on the cover of Hamptons Sheet magazine.
EXCLUSIVE There’s a less than 1 percent chance we’re wrong but… Sources say that Beyonce gave birth to twins on Monday night or Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. That’s the reason Jay Z didn’t turn up on Thursday night for the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in New York. He had his hands full. The source is good. Those kids are here. They’re going to Run this Town.
There’s plenty of press set up at the hospital. Most of them spotted a woman coming in on Friday with a balloon and flowers baby gift that you wouldn’t bring unless the mother had given birth. Those keen spotters were correct.
Blue Ivy is already setting up trademarks and patents for the twins.
Congrats to the family. And thank goodness the twins didn’t have to be sampled. They’re original!
It was a rough night for “Rough Night.” This very, very bad movie was rejected wholesale by the audience. Scarlett Johansson and pals made just $3.35 million, and hope for a $9 mil weekend. Yes. it’s disaster, but all the people involved deserve it. There is nothing funny or witty about “Rough Night.” It’s just vulgar and stupid. Demi Moore should sue the cinematographer. Ty Burrell is lucky he’s got his detergent commercial.
Even worse news for Colin Trevorrow’s “Book of Henry.” In semi limited release, the dramedy took in $507,765. This is quite a comedown from “Jurassic World.” It also bodes ill for “Star Wars 9.” Will Trevorrow be replaced? It could happen. The star of the week is apparently Matt Reeves, whose “War of the Planet of the Apes” may be the blockbuster breakout of the season.
The big story of the night was “All Eyez on Me.” Very poorly reviewed, the Tupac Shakur biopic still made $12.8 million. No stars, bad reviews, no soundtrack CD. But there was obviously an audience for this following “Straight Outta Compton.” A $30 million weekend is outstanding under these conditions.
The number 1 release of the weekend is “Cars 3.” Disney/Pixar picked up $19.5 million last night. They’re honking horns over at the Maus Haus. Kids are swarming theaters, parents are napping. All is good in Toon Town.