Last night’s Jimmy Kimmel was a rerun, I guess. But this interview with Eddie Murphy was so good, it could win an award.
Murphy hates doing press and interviews. He’s rarely candid about his life. But this story about his friendship with Dick Cavett, and a bet Richard Pryor made with him, is spectacular.
Elon Musk certainly wants to warn off whatever advertisers are left at Twitter.
On the platform he signaled “OK” when a crackpot right wing account published a poll saying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should be allowed back on Twitter.
Musk wrote “OK.”
A new low, certainly. This may do the trick. Jones, whose “InfoWars” is still out there somewhere, currently owes the parents and families of Sandy Hook Elementary $965 million after a jury in a now famous defamation found he’d lied repeatedly to his listeners that the 2012 Connecticut school shooting was a fake.
“All made up. Hilarious,” Jones said when the jury read the outcome in October 2022. “So this is what a show trial looks like. I mean, this is the left completely out of control.”
The shooting rampage took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults. Immediately Jones began saying that the shooting never took place, and that the deaths were lied or staged. The Sandy Hook families sued him for defamation. InfoWars was removed from almost everywhere, and Jones became a pariah to everyone but his uneducated followers.
Since the $965 million decision, Jones has filed for bankruptcy and continues to evade having to pay the Sandy Hook group.
Musk’s comment is going to have a severe blowback. But on what? He’s already decimated Twitter? Will his Tesla car sales be affected? You’d think after this that Tesla owners would be embarrassed to be seen driving them. Is this the breaking point, or will it go lower? Musk is already in a deep set back after approving an anti-semitic Tweet that resulted in dozens of major advertisers leaving Twitter.
Musk’s response to unhappy advertisers: “Go f*ck yourselves.”
The Sundance Film Festival announced its movies for the January powwow in Park City, Utah.
Now “The Morning Show” actor Mark Duplass has posted a comforting note to filmmakers whose works were not selected.
“We’ve been rejected so many times, and it always hurts,” Duplass says and cites three movies he’s made including “Biosphere,” which played at the Cannes Film Festival this year. He says of movies that didn’t make it, “If you think it’s great, keep pushing.”
Duplass can be seen in the Apple TV hit, “The Morning Show,” and in dozens of indie films, Next he’ll appear in “Hurricanna” about Anna Nicole Smith. He might be playing Anna’s friend, Howard Stern.
In the meantime, this is a nice thing to do.
Annual Sundance reminder… pic.twitter.com/pLo7cnw8t4
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) December 9, 2023
Ryan O’Neal has died, and it’s sad, of course. But there is a bright side.
O’Neal got a New York Times obit written by legendary Times Hollywood reporter Aljean Harmetz.
Aljean covered Tinseltown for the Times from the mid-70s through 1990. Her byline was constant and her scoops were spot on. This was before the internet and rumors flying around all day on Twitter. If you wanted to know the breaking news in Hollywood, it was all from Harmetz.
The brilliant reporter turns 93 this December 30th. Before she left the Times it seems like she stockpiled some obits for the morgue, or library of celebrities. The last one that appeared was two years ago, was for Jane Withers, aka Josephine the Plumber in Comet cleanser commercials.
Harmetz’s obits appear once a year or two. Who knows when they will run out? Her previous obits were for Sean Connery, Doris Day, Tab Hunter, Dina Merrill, Mickey Rooney, and Shirley Temple Black. Some of her older ones included Paul Newman, Shelley Winters, and Lena Horne. In other words, only Big Stars.
So congrats to Ryan. No Oscars but the top movie writer maybe in the history of the Times. Not bad!
ABC is closing “Station 19” this spring after 7 seasons.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” spin off about a firehouse in Seattle will close its doors during May Sweeps after moving from 8pm to 10pm on Thursdays. Clearly, the time change, announced earlier, was a sign that ABC wasn’t interested in continuing anymore with the Shonda Rhimes show since the creator moved on to Netflix.
Now the big question is, What happens to “Grey’s?” This is its 20th season, and star Ellen Pompeo will not be around much. Showrunner Krista Vernoff has already left, too. “Grey’s” has pretty much done its job, and without a star central character, the end may be near, too.
Ironically, “Station 19″‘s ratings are better than “Grey’s.” The former show averaged 3.86 million viewers a week vs. the latter’s 3.5 million. Neither number is spectacular. You want to get 5 mil and up to stay on the air. A real hit is in the 6 to 7 million range, although those days may be over for good.
“Grey’s” might get one final full season after this, but the whole show is in the ER at this point and will soon be transferred to hospice. Two decades is a rare thing for TV. But remember the days when Shonda Rhimes ruled Thursdays on ABC with “Greys,” “Scandal,” and “How to Get Away with Murder.” It was a great run!
Ryan O’Neal is dead at age 82.
He burst onto the scene with TV’s “Peyton Place” opposite Mia Farrow in the mid 60s. In 1970, he and Ali McGraw became the It couple in the nuge hit, “Love Story.”
Over the years, O’Neal was in the tabloids as much as he was on the screen. His movies included “Paper Moon,””The Main Event,” “Chances Are,” and others.
But his real fame came when he married “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett. This was after a tempestuous relationship with Anjelica Huston. Her sister wrote in a memoir that they had to call Jack Nicholson to save them from a bad situation.
O’Neal and Fawcett fought like cats and dogs until they were broke up. He had trouble with alcohol and other demons. His daughter, Tatum, from his first marriage, who co-starred with him in “Paper Moon,” won an Oscar for that film. He raised her as if she were an adult, exposing her to sex and drugs and rock and roll.
O’Neal had other tragedies. His son Griffin had a boating accident in 1986 with GianCarlo Coppola, son of director Francis, resulting in Coppola’s death. Alcoholism and substance abuse have been a theme in the O’Neal family since the 60s.
When you look at Ryan O’Neal in a movie like “What’s Up Doc?” you see all the potential recognized by director Peter Bogdanovich. He was an immediate hit and held on for more than a decade. But the drugs, Studio 54, escapades with various women, wrecked him.
O’Neal’s son, Patrick, posted this to Instagram. It’s pugilistic, just like Ryan.
Not all tours can be translated into film.
Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” movie keeps chugging along. It’s made over $250 million worldwide.
But Beyonce’s “Renaissance” movie is another story. On its second Thursday, “Renaissance” dropped a whopping 74%. Last week it was $5 million. Last night it was $1.279 million.
The total now is $23 million. Beyonce and Jay Z spend that on lunch.
Where is the audience for “Renaissance”? Maybe they’re waiting for home video,
Editor’s note: Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” opens today. A kind of docudrama, “Origin” is like a PBS miniseries of ideas. -RF
Here’s our report from the premiere:
As the swanky premiere of Ava DuVernay’s new film, “Origin,” at Alice Tully Hall last week, made evident: this director is fearless. Taking “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” a 2020 best-selling book by Isabel Wilkerson, DuVernay created her own genre, taking the lessons of the book, folding them into the narrative of the writer writing the book, and adding elements ripped off the headlines.
The film starts with the actual soundtrack of Trayvon Martin’s murder, significant because this horrible killing put the situation of innocent black men at risk on the proverbial map. But on the geographic map, DuVernay’s reach brings together key far flung places — Germany, India, the United States — to show how caste, not race, is instrumental in understanding how the powerful subjugate others, dehumanizing, creating cultural divisions, separating targeted groups from equal status.
Lately, research into the Nazi agenda illustrates how antisemitism of the 1930’s was informed by the study of how Americans constructed slavery. Filming in Berlin, DuVernay’s fictional Isabel, in a fine performance by Aunjanue-Ellis Taylor visits the famed Jewish Museum archive. The film transitions to a story about a Nazi party member who refused to signal “heil” because he was in love with a Jewish woman. Having stripped Jews from citizenship, confiscated their property, murdered them, the concentration camp system seems a logical consequence of this ideology—if you claim supremacy–no matter how baseless, heartless, inhumane, and self-serving.
The caste system in India works on a similar level of dehumanization. Focused on the Dalits (Untouchables), the film depicts men neck deep in sewage—an image you cannot unsee.
The story of artist Al Bright makes for a riveting mini-movie, when as a 9-year old he was not permitted into a swimming pool with his teammates. That he was led around the pool on a rubber float, repeatedly told not to touch the water, is hilarious in its pointlessness, if it were not a sad reminder of the basic stupidity of segregation.
A party hosted by Darren Walker, head of the Ford Foundation followed at the penthouse with David Remnick, Charles Blow, the exonerated Central Park Five, Brigitte LaCombe, Linda Jablonsky, RosaLee Goldberg, Myles Frost who plays Trayvon Martin, and Finn Whitrock, the movie’s German lover, attending. Stan Walker, from an indigenous tribe in New Zealand, wrote the movie’s final song, and sang it for the audience. Slimmed, impeccably coifed, and gorgeous in a sequined gown, DuVernay greeted guests. When asked how she got the title, “Origin,” she was quick to respond: “If I called it Caste, no one would come.” Smart, just like this important film.
Good news for Madonna fans: her European tour has been a hit, and so far we haven’t heard about any missed shows or cancelled performances.
A few years ago, Madonna’s Madame X tour became infamous for axed shows.
And here’s ticket news: there are plenty of seats available for Madonna’s four upcoming shows at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Regular seats are shown on Ticketmaster with highest price of $400 for each night.
Resale tickets are all over Stub Hub. There are many, many empty rows, particularly in the nosebleed areas, where you can buy 21 seats at a time! There are also plenty of 10 seat blocs available. Can you see from up there? Well, there are huge video screens. Bring binoculars! (Do they still make them?)
This means there will be a lot of action on the plaza in front of Barclays on December 13, 14 16, 18, and 19. Bring lots of cash and make your deal as close into the entrance as possible. Tell them George Costanza sent you!
PS There seem to be a lot of radio giveaways, plus some record label sponsored events with raffles.
Here’s a taste of the action:
Sorry to say the Gayle King-Charles Barkley ratings on CNN are beyond awful.
On Wednesday night, for its second week, “King Charles” scored just 466,000 viewers. That was down 50K from last week, or 7%.
Second place Alex Wagner on MSNBC had 1 million more viewers. Sean Hannity on Fox had 1.5 million more.
“King Charles” is a bad idea, and apparently no one wants to see it. King is a great broadcaster, and Charles is a sports hero. But why they are together, and what they are doing is a mystery.
I’m sure Gayle knows this is a disaster. But what is she going to do? King runs the CBS Mornings five days a week. Her plate is full. If she’s planning headline making interviews, they’ll be on CBS, not here. So far CNN isn’t really promoting “King Charles” because they don’t what it is either.
Last night, King and Barkley interviewed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. It sounds like when Joe Franklin used to interview, say, Henry Kissinger and Loni Anderson, something so desperately inappropriate and unequal in importance. Pick one or the other. I don’t think anyone wants to hear Charles Barkley interview Blinken on any subject except may be his guitar playing.
Bring back Don Lemon. Give him celebrities at 9pm. Or give it to Anderson Cooper. The only solution to knocking off Hannity and Maddow is a Larry King-like show with the right person hosting.