I told you weeks ago that Ariana Grande was making a new album with help from famed songwriter Max Martin.
Now she’s announced it unofficially on Instagram. She’s also got two “Wicked” movies coming out in 2024 and 2025.
Ariana has a beautiful voice that still has potential to further past her hits. This coming year is going to be hers.
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Sorry to report the death of Tommy Smothers, age 86. The report says he died from a recent bout with cancer.
Tommy and Dickie Smothers will always be the subversive, banjo playing comedy duo who burst onto the scene in the 60s. Their CBS variety show in the later 60s launched the careers of people like Glen Campbell, Steve Martin, and musician Mason Williams. It also instigated the career of dry- witted comedian Pat Paulsen, who ran for president in 1968 and many times after.
But the CBS show was also vehemently anti war as the Vietnam War became the hottest topic in the world. Even with tremendous ratings, CBS cancelled it, causing an uproar that went on for a long time. Ironically the show returned in 1988 for two seasons and was a big success.
Here are some clips. The Times has a fuller obit. Condolences.
The day after Christmas and all through the country…
Warner Bros. held onto the top 3 for a second day. “Wonka” and “The Color Purple” switched spots with the former rising to number 1 — kids are in the house. “The Color Purple” dropped to number 3 with a very healthy $7 million. It’s up to $25 million, which is amazing. Go see it — one of the most joyous and wonderful films of the last few years.
George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” from MGM is the family film of the holiday. It’s Clooney’s best work in years. If you love sports movies, it’s for you. Extremely well made and very entertaining. “The Boys” added $3 million last night.
Really not doing well: A24’s “The Iron Claw,” which has good reviews and Zac Efron but is a total downer of a movie for Christmas. Also, the studio’s “Zone of Interest” is of little interest considering its subject matter. Who wants to see a movie about the Nazis who lived outside a concentration camp ignoring what’s going on inside? Also, the sounds of the killings is constant on the soundtrack. Not a long film by today’s standards, but repetitive and off putting.
What’s going on here?
Three years ago, Business Insider interviewed Chris Columbus, director of “Home Alone 2.” He told them that Donald Trump bullied his way into the movie because he owned the Plaza Hotel, where a scene was shot.
I’m not even sure that was the first time Columbus told that story.
Anyway, this week Rolling Stone is running the same story, with recycled Columbus quotes, using the word “bullied” in the headline.
And everyone is picking it up like it’s new.
I thought I was having a deja vu. Hadn’t I already read this story? I guess Rolling Stone didn’t.
Here’s the link to Business Insider’s story by Jason Guerrasio. I’m told the anecdote may have originated in The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. If you don’t have a BI subscription, you can read it here.
And here’s the link to Rolling Stone’s scoop.
In Canada, CBC TV has apparently cut the scene from the broadcasts. In the US, star Macaulay Culkin is among those who’ve asked for it to be removed from the film now.
Lee Sun Kyun is dead. The famed Korean actor played the father of the affluent family in the recent movie, “Parasite,” winner of the 2020 Academy for Best Motion Picture.
Kyun is reported to have taken his own life after nearly a year of investigations concerning drug use and the actor’s participation in a strip club or some other kind of “adult entertainment” club.
The actor was found dead in a car in a park in central Seoul, according to the AP. Police had been looking for Lee after his family claimed he wrote a suicide note and left home early on Wednesday.
The story has been a scandal in South Korea because Kyun was always portrayed in real life as a family man married to another South Korean star. They had a “perfect life.” This would be here as if Tom Hanks lost his mind and were living a double life.
A lot of this is unclear but for background here’s a helpful video explaining what has happened up to this point.
What a shame. It’s totally unclear if this man was guilty of anything. You can hear in this report that marijuana is discussed as if it’s crack cocaine or heroin. Also as the video points out, the evidence against Kyun was shaky. Was he railroaded? What a terrible story. If anyone knows more about this, please email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
You’re probably aware that Apple is in hot water over its watches.
The ITC — Intermational Trade Commission — has ruled that Apple must cease selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, among other newer models, because they violate patents registered to Masimo, a medical device company. The patent involves a pulse oximeter light that Masimo holds the patent on.
The whole era of the Apple watch is now in doubt. The company can only sell their older, lower tech Watch SE. But this isn’t want people want now. They want the Ultra 2 and Series 9, which might tell them if they’re dead or alive.
So this is not the first time Apple got in trouble for helping themselves to another company’s patent.
Back in 2006, Apple had to pony up $100 million to Creative Labs, of Singapore. You see, the whole iPod and Nano line of music devices was derived from Creative’s Zen music jukebox system. It was Creative that gave us what we now think of the iTunes system. Apple liked it, so they took it. At the time, Creative had several portable MP3 players out, all reasonably priced and marketed well. But they couldn’t fight off Apple, which bigfooted them. The result was the $100 million license fee.
Creative took the $100 million, got out of the MP3 player business and because better known for its excellent sound systems for computers. After a long lull, they’re finally back with highly regarded headphones, soundbars, small speakers, and so on. The company’s creator has since passed away, but they are forging ahead.
I miss the Zen players. They were far easier to use than iPods or iPod Touch, etc. You didn’t have to get mixed up in the iTunes system. But the Goliath beat David, not a new story by any means.
The price of Apple stock has fallen a little bit since last week when this was all announced about the watches. But year to date, Apple is up around $70. If they can’t come up with a new design for their Watch, approved by the ITC, maybe there will be consequences. But probably not. Masimo’s stock has fluctuated all year, but it’s up a little bit on this news. They’ve got their own smart watch with their own patent.
It was 60 years ago today: the Beatles released “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It would soon be number 1, pulling with it a half dozen Beatles singles into the top 10.
Everything in music was changed forever.
Kenneth Womack observed in his essay series, “50 Years of Beatles,” John Lennon’s recollection of writing the song.
“We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u/got that something …’ and Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that — both playing into each other’s noses.”
When the Beatles played the song on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, that pushed it over the edge.
Womack writes: “At one point, the single was selling a phenomenal 10,000 copies an hour in New York City alone; by March 1964, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had sold an astounding 3.4 million copies in the U.S.”
I still remember walking home from school on the Monday afternoon after the Sullivan appearance, and it was all anyone could talk about. Six decades later, the Beatles are bigger than ever, considered the “classical music” of our time.
Here’s the holiday greeting Donald Trump posted this afternoon. Peace on Earth? No way. It’s “economy power revenge dictatorship.” I’m surprised he left out fascism. He does keep the word ‘retribution.”
Yesterday, he told prosecutor Jack Smith and all his enemies to “ROT IN HELL” in third of a series of unhinged messages.
If you point these out to Trump fans they tell you this “just politics.” They have no idea that he’s serious, that if elected he will follow through on all of these threats and take away basic civil and human rights. How could anyone look at this stuff and say they were going to vote for this maniac?
It’s time to pay the piper.
Starting on January 29, Amazon Prime says it will start inserting commercials into their movies and TV shows.
The only way out is to pony up $2.99 a month, or basically, an extra $36.
Yes, this is streaming, not TV. But that’s how the cookie crumbles. Amazon, owned by the richest person in the world, needs some revenue to keep the stream flowing.
They aren’t alone. All the streaming platforms offer commercials or commercial free viewing of their programs. Spotify does it for music. And the prices keep going up.
Some of the streamers are offering bundles. Disney grouped their Disney Plus with Hulu and ESPN. Soon, Apple will join in. But to get a deal you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it all out. Yesterday I took on BritBox to get the Cary Grant series. Add that to all the ones above and the monthly price for all this stuff is astronomical. And that doesn’t include the cable package with HBO, TCM, and Showtime/Paramount.
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime costs $139, so add $36 to that if you don’t want Nespresso commercials popping up in the middle of movies! Of course Amazon Prime includes shipping on things you buy in the store. But for movies, most cost something to rent, and that won’t change.
Hmmmm. Maybe just read a book? Or watch the fireplace for entertainment.
“The Color Purple” opened at number 1 yesterday by a wide margin.
The tremendous reimagining of the Steven Spielberg classic film scored $18.15 million on Christmas Day and won the box office. It was the biggest Christmas Day opening since 2009 and the 2nd biggest of all time.
What a triumph! I told you this film was going to be big and that its cast and director for headed for a lot of awards.
The huge box office comes from a ton of promotion helped by Oprah Winfrey, “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg (who starred in the original film), and lots of media including a big appearance on The Jennifer Hudson talk show.
Early reviews were incredibly enthusiastic, as well. Yesterday’s showings proved them right as Cinemascore gives “The Color Purple” an A from first day audiences. Warner’s says the audience was 65% African American. Atlanta led the way among urban locations, followed by New York, LA, Chicago, and Washington DC. When word spreads the film should “cross over” into other audiences, too.
The box office win also means that Warner Bros. has the numbers 1, 2, and 3 movies on Christmas Day with “Color Purple,” “Aquaman 2,” and “Wonka.”
The other new Christmas films — “The Boys in the Boat” and “Ferrari” — came in at less thrilling numbers 4 and 6. Of the two, “Boys” has a chance of capturing family audiences this week.
For “The Color Purple,” opening day is really exciting. Stars Fantasia, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins et al, led by director Blitz Bazawule now get a huge boost for the Oscars and SAG Awards. They are absolutely headed to Best Ensemble at SAG and a Best Picture nomination from the Oscars. The actors should all make it in easily.