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Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie scored $2.8 million last night in surprise previews at 2,700 theaters.
Swift only announced the previews on Wednesday, throwing a curve ball into the release set for today. Most fans had already bought their tickets for this weekend. Many shows last night were empty-ish.
Predictions are “Eras” will reap $100 million this weekend. Advance sales indicate a wild three day run.
Swift has been very canny otherwise promoting the film. She’s appearing every few days on NFL games with boyfriend Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. The pairing has generated ticket sales for, ratings for the NFL, and possible personal upsides that are none of our business!
Billy Joel and Sting, or rather Sting and Billy Joel, will play a mega show in Tampa this coming February 2024.
I’m getting my plane ticket now.
This show will be memorable for many reasons. But one connection the two have is hard to ignore. They each lived in the same apartment.
Years ago, Billy and Christie Brinkley had a magnificent apartment on Central Park West. But as we know Billy the Kid and the Uptown Girl divorced.
The couple sold the apartment to Sting and Trudie Styler, who lived there for eons very happily raising their huge family.
A few years ago, the first couple of rock — Sting and Trudie — sold the place for around $20 million bucks. They decamped down the boulevard near Lincoln Center, and now live on Central Park South.
Maybe Sting and Billy, who’ve remained good friends ever since then, will share stories of the building. Their neighbors included Paul Simon and Robert De Niro!
PS would love to hear Sting sing “New York State of Mind.” And Billy on “King of Pain.”
JUST ANNOUNCED: Billy Joel and Sting – two of the most respected recording artists in history at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. on Sat, Feb 24, 2024. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Mon, Oct 16 at 10 am. Public on sale Fri, Oct 20 at 10am. pic.twitter.com/bbEK4aEi5b
Kitson is the hot hot hot back from the dead boutique in Los Angeles.
The gem of Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood, Kitson sells high priced stuff you can’t get anywhere else — and is made for very thin, young people.
Owner Fraser Ross — whose business has been on a roller coaster but managed to survive the pandemic and bad partners — has never shied away from controversy. On social media, he is now attacking his favorite targets — John Legend and wife Chrissy Teigen — over Black Lives Matter supporting Palestinians and not backing Israel.
“Do we all remember John Legend gave an impassioned speech at UPenn’s commencement that peace will come when we can see a Palestinian child on a beach as child and not a threat? 40 babies were just found dead – some beheaded – we shouldn’t have to ask you now to make the same statement. Where is the world’s outrage? You’re a mother, Chrissy Teigen.”
EXCLUSIVE “Suffs” is coming to Broadway this spring.
The Public Theater’s hit musical from 2022 is aiming for opening this spring with eyes on the Tony Awards.
Shaina Taub wrote and stars in the show which features Tony winner Nikki M. James and Tony nominees Phillipa Soo and Jenn Colella leading a stellar cast. Leigh Silverman directs. “Suffs” tells the story of the womens’ suffragette movement of the early 1900s. It won raves at the Public.
Broadway’s fall season is a little soft despite hits like “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Gutenberg!” But the winter and spring are going to frantic, I’m told, with a lot of musicals arriving.
Meanwhile, “Shucked” is closing until it can find a new home — New World Stages? — and “Some Like it Hot” may be close to going cold.
Paul McCartney wrote and produced this new song for Ringo Starr. Yes. it’s 53 years since the Beatles broke up!
“Feeling the Sunlight” sounds simple and jaunty when you first hear it but it’s an earwig. Very very catchy and on second listen you’ll hear Paul all over it. Of course, Ringo put in his own drums!
The Motion Picture Academy Museum has called off Saturday’s annual gala.
“Out of respect for the devastating conflict and loss of life happening overseas, we have made the decision to postpone the Academy Museum gala this Saturday. We look forward to rescheduling at a later date. We thank everybody deeply for their support.”
This year’s gala honorees included Meryl Streep, Michael B. Jordan, Oprah Winfrey and Sofia Coppola.
The guest was all A list with expected guests like Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Goldie Hawn.
But the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza makes it impossible to have a huge celebration. Earlier in the day the Academy Museum call off the red carpet. But now they’ve scuttled the whole event until sometime in the future. The Museum certainly needs this fundraiser to be a success but having it now is obviously unwise.
Right now, the Academy has also moved its Governors Awards to early January because of the SAG strike. But now that the studios have walked away from negotiations, the fear is that event will also have to be moved. It’s hard to imagine the SAG strike continuing past the end of the year, but the union is adamant that they must be paid fairly. The longer the studios hold out, the less chance of new content existing for 2024.
Tony winning beloved Broadway star Nathan Lane sat behind yours truly for two hours last at the star studded premiere of “Gutenberg! The Musical!” We talked before the show and during intermission. He never gave away why he was really there.
Then at the end of the show, stars Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells — who spend their time on stage auditioning a fake musical about Johann Gutenberg to unseen Broadway producers — ask for a real producer to help them. Up jumped Lane onto the stage where he introduced himself as Max Bialystock — his character from “The Producers.” Lane also exclaimed, “This show is fantastic. I had the same feeling when I saw Cats!”
The audience went wild laughing and clapping, although they’d been doing that all night anyway. In the house besides Lane were Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul having a “Breaking Bad” reunion, producer director JJ Abrams, and the stars’ “Book of Mormon” Tony wining co-star Nikki M. James, plus Busy Phillips, and Jane Krakowski and David Rockwell.
With all the bad stuff going on in the world, I needed a laugh last night. Gad and Rannells are fully invested in playing these two guys who’ve put all their money into the “Gutenberg” idea. They know almost nothing about the inventor of the printing press, and confuse it with a wine press. They say they did some Googling and came up with some “historical fiction.”
The whole premise is ridiculous, of course. They duo play dozens of characters by changing an array of yellow truckers’ hats with different names on them. They’ve given Gutenberg a Gal Friday named Helvetica, named for the type font. Gad wears that hat. The songs are throwaway mostly but advance the plot although at some point they admit they have no idea how to end the show.
There are lots of Broadway send ups, and explanations of how a show works, as well as spoofing of the price of tickets. (A car is sold so they can buy their first ever Broadway tickets.) Gad and Rannells starred in the original “Book of Mormon,” have gone to other things but remained close. Their real life friendship seeps into the characters, you can see how fond they are of each other. Their characters’ determination to pull off the loony “Gutenberg!” musical is underscored by their blissfully ignorant passion.
Stay til the end! Not just for the guest actor of the night (Lane was doing a one off) but also for the most expensive plot twist maybe in Broadway history. It lasts two seconds and cost a pretty penny, but makes the show very satisfying.
I’m told the Rolling Stones will come to New York next week to promote their excellent new album, “Hackney Diamonds.”
Each of the principals — Jagger, Richards, and Woods — will appear on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show separately, sources say. They will not be playing music, at least as of now. This makes sense because Fallon interviewed them live from London a few weeks ago when the album was unveiled.
I am told that there is a 99% chance the Stones will put on a live show in New York for fans next week. “It will be a small club, like a nightclub,” says an insider. The Apollo would make sense. I guess Terminal 5 would, too.
The Stones are famous for playing small clubs when they’re launching an album. They did it years ago in Toronto, and Chicago. They’ve done it twice in Los Angeles in the last decade. It’s New York’s turn!
The Stones know they have something special in “Hackney Diamonds.” I just hope I Heart Radio and other corporate radio entities will give it some radio play. The album is stuffed with hit singles. Why not go back to the old ways of radio just for this release? It may be the Stones’ last one.
