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Cate Blanchett is going to play Lucille Ball in a feature film written for the screen by Aaron Sorkin. (Maybe with help from Paul Rudnick.) Jeff Sneider broke the story and everyone’s picked it up. No director has been named yet.
In the past, Lucy’s been portrayed on TV beautifully by Frances Fisher. A lot of people thought Debra Messing would get the job one day– including Lucy’s daughter Lucie Arnaz, who wanted her. Australian two time Oscar winner Blanchett can do anything, so this should be good– she will really get the pre-“I Love Lucy” Lucy who was a wise cracking ingenue in movies before becoming the First Lady of TV.
But who should play Ricky, Ethel, and Fred — Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley? Not to mention Mrs. Trumbull?
I always thought Andy Garcia should play Desi, but he may be too old now. (Andy is actually 59. Time flies! He looks like he’s 35.) Whoever plays Desi had better be a damn good singer and musician. Bruno Mars is too young and too short. And the actor should really be Latino.
As for Fred and Ethel– Melissa McCarthy and Zack Galifinakis come to mind. Don’t take either Vance or Frawley for granted. They were geniuses.
Lucie Arnaz and her brother Desi Arnaz Jr. are producing, and they will be characters, too. As for Mrs. Trumbull, Caroline Appleby, and Betty Ramsey– I hope we see the minor players too. “I Love Lucy” is the template for all TV comedy right up through now. Those five writers– Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf– really deserve some special group award.
EXCLUSIVE Get ready: TV’s biggest current phenomenon is about to get the royal treatment. “Empire,” Lee Daniels and Danny Strong’s hot as a pistol series about the music world, is coming to Carnegie Hall. I’m told that Fox will launch the new season with an all star screening and a huge party at the famed Hall on Saturday, September 12th.
They’re going to screen the first new episode in the hallowed, historic main theater. Then the guests– which will include Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, and loads of this season’s guest stars like Mariah Carey and Marisa Tomei– will take over the event spaces on the upper floors. That includes the new Carnegie Hall roof space. The first new episode of “Empire” airs on September 23rd, three days after the Emmy Awards.
And PS don’t worry– there will be plenty of Terrence Howard’s Luscious this season. It’s his “Empire”!
If you don’t know this already, Ashford and Simpson’s Sugar Bar on West 72nd St. is the place to hear great live music.
Last night, superstar guitarist Felicia Collins of Paul Shaffer’s Letterman band fame played a blistering set of blues numbers, some she wrote, and one new one– a collaboration with Valerie Simpson. You know Val and late husband Nik Ashford wrote all the great Motown hits like “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” as well as “Solid (as a Rock)” and so many more!
Turns out Felicia cannot only play the guitar but she can saing, as Rufus Thomas would say. She and Val debuted “Code Blue,” the first real song Simpson has attempted since her collaborator and life partner/husband Nik passed away two years ago.
It’s a hit, don’t cha know. (Keep refreshing as I try to embed a clip)
Felicia has a mini album out you can get on her website.
Here’s a taste that I found on You Tube:
Felicia and her band come back to the Sugar Bar in December. In the meantime, I hope she tours. And I thank them all, including the great Tee Austin, for letting me hear some real music. It wiped clean that mess from Sunday night on MTV. Those kids should trying listening…’cause ain’t nothing like the real thing.
Oh and thanks Felicia’s mom. She missed “Code Blue” the first time they did it, so they had to do it again!
The ratings for the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday were dismal. Down 38& from last year if you were watching the actual MTV channel.
However, all totaled from all MTV platforms, they were up 10%. But that’s a stat only MTV can use for spin. The reality is, millions didn’t return from last year. And millions had already left from the year before.
Drawn conclusions? The current crop of pop pap isn’t as appealing to the fans as it is to the tabloids and paparazzi. This is borne out in sales of records– they are nil. All the hype and costumes and four letter words and drug references are a turn off.
The reality is — the music is bad and all sounds the same. The videos are self-referential tributes to celebrity kids spending lots of money with nothing to show for it. Miley Cyrus looked like Cher acting like Lady Gaga. And apparently her constant references to weed and smoking marijuana were cool just to her.
I watched the whole show. My take away was that Taylor Swift won a lot of awards, and has great legs. Only Tori Kelly seemed like she took the music seriously. I’d like to see more of her.
As far as Justin Bieber crying, please. Grow up already.
Eddie Redmayne is on a roll. He won the Oscar last winter for playing Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”
Now comes the trailer for “The Danish Girl,” directed by Tom Hooper, director of “The King’s Speech” and “Les Miserables.” Eddie will be nominated again for playing transgender. He could win again. On top of that, as a woman he bares a great resemblance to Jessica Chastain.
Hollywood is impressionable. The year of Caitlyn Jenner is upon us. You can already hear the words “brave” and “courageous” in the ad quotes. The trailer looks amazing. Alicia Vikander is a shoo in for something, lots of something. She’s luminous.
“The Danish Girl” will top off Universal Pictures’ record setting year at the box office.
One Direction, thank your marketing team. “Drag Me Down” has had 533,000 digital sales in its first four weeks according to Nielsen. That’s more than their biggest hits “What Makes You Beautiful” (337,000 in first four weeks) and “Story of My Life” (429,000 in first four weeks).
Even though the single is down to number 17 on iTunes, “Drag Me Down” had its biggest sales just in the last week. This coincides with the rampant rumor and news that they would break up or take a break, and the release of a video that’s now had 38 million views.
Prior to all that publicity “Drag Me Down” was kind of a non starter. Maybe now the group will be more energized about their fifth album.
Natalie Cole didn’t want to be left out of all that rock star talk this weekend in the Hamptons. I got to hear the magnificent pop-jazz-R&B legend sing like an angel at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton on Saturday night. The occasion was a glitzy dinner to raise money for Mike Milken’s Prostate Cancer Foundation held in conjunction with the 11th Annual Charles Evans PCF Pro-Am Tennis Tournament.
They raised over $4 million with the help of a lightning round five minute auction in which Milken, ever persuasive, got a bunch of good Samaritans to pony up $75,000 apiece to support young scientists. Bonnie Pfeifer Evans, who runs the Charles Evans Foundation in memory of her husband, was among the hosts. Her late husband Charles, brother of famed movie producer Robert Evans, owned the fashion line Evan Picone. Bonnie is a top top top real estate broker at Corcoran.
“American Idol” grad and former winner Ruben Studdard — one of the sweetest guys in the world with a big heart and a big voice– also performed. He told me he’s thinking of moving from Alabama to Harlem. Why? He wants to be where Langston Hughes once lived. Just for that poetic response, Bonnie Evans should find him a free abode! Ruben came courtesy of record producer David Foster, who also performed and introduced some of his regular singers to the crowd.
Natalie has just returned from a big tour of Asian resorts with Foster and Ruben et al. She told me the elevations were so high she could barely breathe, but her voice sounded better than ever. She is “Unforgettable.” She’s on her way home to L.A. now to get some much needed R n R. Natalie is one of our national treasures, folks.
By the way, that’s Natalie’s original 1976 hit “This Will Be” which we hear on the ubiquitous e-Harmony commercials on TV. She wrote it, sang it, and it holds up like a motha 40 years later. (She was very young when it hit.) For every date on e-Harmony who hums that song, Natalie should get a gift from Neil Clark Warren. They’re a $300 million company, and the amazing Natalie is their standard bearer!
SIGHTINGS: What are people doing with their summer?
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire star Anatol Yusef pulled up to the bar at the Bobby Van’s in Times Square, enjoying an afternoon martini…
New York Jets’ Geno Smith tackled a friend and brought them to lunch in the wine cellar at Philippe on East 60th St. Scrimmaging at a separate table: St. John’s University Coach Chris Mullins and his staff.
Thank goodness Sotto Sopra opened in Amagansett, the quaint village east of East Hampton and the last stop before the hunt for Montauk on Route 27. In the last week, I’m told, Alec & Hilaria Baldwin were seen dining on with 4 guests while producer Scott Rudin was eating with a guest. You might call this place the Nick and Toni’s of the East, as Sir Paul McCartney accompanied by his wife, Nancy and a group of 3 adults and 6 children were spotted there last week.
And Gwyneth Paltrow? She knows where to shop:Christopher Fischer’s Southampton Boutique and salon of high end cashmere. She was browsing his new Fall collection recently even in 90 degree heat. Paltrow plans ahead…
Bruce Willis– kids, I saw him off Broadway in “Fool for Love” back in the 80s. He was a super theater actor, and will acquit himself nicely in “Misery” coming to Broadway this fall with Laurie Metcalfe.
But Bruce’s Broadway debut will be eclipsed by that of his daughter Rumer Willis. She starts September 14th in “Chicago” as Roxie Hart.
“I’m so proud of her,” Bruce told me Friday night at the premiere of “Rock the Kasbah.” He plays a kind of jaunty vigilante who helps Bill Murray from starting World War III in Afghanistan over a TV singing competition.
“Here’s a scoop no one knows,” Bruce told me. “Rumer just finished a role in ‘The Bombing.’ I had nothing to do with it. They cast her as a nurse. She said to me, I’m going to be in a Chinese movie. I said, So am I? Then I said, How many Chinese movies are there? Wait a minute.”
“The Bombing” is being produced by our old ‘friend’ Mel Gibson, who’s also acting as art director. The actual director is Xiao Feng.
“Now you can ask, how many fathers and daughters have been in movies together and didn’t even know it?”
Bruce, by the way, had only nice things to say about Woody Allen. Willis just dropped out of Woody’s new movie a day into shooting. “He’s a great guy, a great guy,” Bruce said. “Maybe next time.” It was just too hard to prepare for “Misery” and shoot a movie at the same time–particularly when your daughter is beating you to a Broadway debut. Steve Carell stepped in and replaced him.
I can tell you that Bruce, a musician who’s had bands and videos and even a minor hit record years ago, was pretty impressed Friday night by that murderer’s row of rock stars at East Hampton’s Blue Parrot: McCartney, Bon Jovi, Springsteen, Mellencamp, Roger Waters, and Jenny Lewis. He stayed til the end, chatting them all up and vice versa.
Miley Cyrus has put a new raunchy album on SoundCloud for free. The album is a collaboration with the Flaming Lips, but it’s a Miley Cyrus album. Make no mistake. It’s unclear how it will appear beyond free streaming.
The song titles include “Bang Me Box” and “Fuckin Fucked Up.” Another is called “I’m so Drunk.”
This album is full of X rated dialogue and some incredible melodies.
The lead track is called “Dooo It.” The refrain is “I don’t give a fuck.” There are a lot of lyrics about smoking pot.
Hannah Montana is dead.
The music is pretty cool, I’ll say that. And so is the idea of a free release announced at the last minute. There’s a potentially great track called “BB Talk.” Beautiful melody. Lyric: “Feeling like I’m going to vomit.”
Legendary film director Wes Craven has died at age 76 of brain cancer. His last movie was Scream 4, in 2011. Hugely influential in the horror genre, Craven created Freddy Krueger and “Nightmare on Elm Street.” He also created the “Scream” series that sent up his own career. Tributes are going to pour in shortly. I met Wes when “Scream” first started up, and he was the nicest guy. And brilliant. Condolences to his family. Keep refreshing…
