Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
The famed synth pop dance duo say the rapper did not clear a sample of their mega hit “West End Girls” on his new song “All the Parties.”
The Pet Shop Boys write on Twitter: “Surprising to hear @Drake singing the chorus of “West End girls” in the track “All the Parties” on his new album. No credit given or permission requested.”
Drake, like almost all rappers, does not write songs. All of his tracks are sampled from old hits. His biggest hit, “Call Me On Your Cellphone” came from the 70s R&B smash “Why Can’t We Live Together” by Mel & Tim.
What he’s done here (see below at 2:35) is kind of like when Alicia Keys sang a couplet from “Hey There Lonely Girl” in her “Girl on Fire.”
I’m surprised the clearance lawyers at Universal Music didn’t catch this, unless Drake didn’t tell them. But it happens all the time. That’s why are there are almost no actual songs from the hip hop era of music. Time to pay up!
Academy Award winner Alex Gibney’s three and a half hour documentary about Paul Simon played tonight at the Hamptons Film Festival in its full glory.
Masterpiece, masterwork, masterclass are words to describe “In Restless Dreams” (a phrase from “The Sound of Silence.”) Even at that length Gibney could not cover the “entire” Paul Simon, and really, this monumental undetaking should be a miniseries.
Nevertheless the very packed audience at HIFF had no problem watching this epic saga that tackles the musical genius of Simon from A to Z. There’s a lot to digest, or unpack — as they say now — but every bit of it brings Simon into sharp focus after 60 years of being in the spotlight.
Whether Gibney set out to or not, he divides Simon’s life into two major sections — his soaring career and relationship with childhood friend Art Garfunkel and every remarkable thing that happened after including albums like Grammy winners “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “Graceland.”
The relationship with Garfunkel is enlivened by rare archival footage of these young hip guys from the 60s whose five years together registered a deep emotional place in pop culture. From “The Sound of Silence” to “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” their success was right up there with the Beatles, Dylan, and the Stones. Later Simon would go toe to toe with Stevie Wonder in the 70s as the pop poet laureates of the US.
Gibney has to wrestle a lot of information to the ground and does so with tremendous skill. Even when Simon & Garfunkel part in 1970, they are not over. Gibney skips their first reunion in 1976, but picks up with the 1981 Concert in Central Park, the subsequent tours in the 80s, and the torturous deterioration of their unending association. Childhood friends who experienced an unusual collaboration and then had to move on, they are like Martin and Lewis, Lennon and McCartney, Sonny and Cher. You rarely think of one without the other, and they are keenly aware of it.
Throughout the film, we see Simon, now 80, living with singer wife Edie Brickell improbably in Texas (you can’t imagine this kid from Queens even goes outside) after decades in Manhattan, Connecticut, and Montauk. But he has a recording studio there where he’s showing making his recent “Seven Psalms.” Prominent in that story is Simon’s recent hearing loss in his left ear, which at first depressed and then challenged him to overcome it. He observes, “It took Beethoven ten years to get used to it.”
Gibney’s film skirts Simon’s personal life, although we get a little bit about his first marriage, his short marriage to Carrie Fisher, how he and Brickell met, and a sense that “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels is very close friend. His eldest son, Harper, is seen only as a child, and the kids with Brickell aren’t mentioned.
The bulk of the second part of “In Restless Dreams” has to do with the making of “Graceland,” (1986) and its follow up “Rhythm of the Saints” (1990). There were complaints then about cultural appropriation, and criticism of Simon for working with South African musicians during apartheid. But the music has held up, the musicians from all countries in Africa and South America defend Simon, and the clips of the performances underscore that he opened the door to world music to Americans who had never heard it.
My favorite moment in the film is Simon singing one of his best songs, “American Tune,” in full. Gibney was smart not to cut it. There’s also a section in which Simon shows Dick Cavett — back around 1970 — how he wrote “Mrs. Robinson.” It reminded me of the Beatles’ “Get Back” doc when McCartney composes “Let it Be” on the spot. Disarming doesn’t begin to describe how these things could happen to mere mortals in public with people watching. You know their gift is beyond us, and everything else is just quibbling. (Missed opportunities include not showing Simon dressed as a turkey on “SNL” and not including the Grammy speech where he thanked Stevie Wonder for not making an album that year.)
PS There was applause several times for various performances including Aretha Franklin’s live version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Taylor Swift is going to wipe away all superstitions with her magic wand.
Her Eras Tour movie will open next Friday the 13th and everything looks good. AMC has already sold over $100 million of tickets around the world.
AMC says all theaters will have a 6pm Eastern start time on the 13th, but there will be shows all day and maybe even the night before in previews. That part is unclear.
If there’s a red carpet premiere, it will be coordinated with that 6pm show. So far no one from AMC will speak about press screenings or the red carpet.
What about Travis Kelce? The Kansas City Chiefs have a home game on Thursday the 12th at home. If he’s not beat up he could certainly make it to the premiere. Maybe AMC can have it in Kansas City itself!
AMC stock has been in the dumps all year. Right now it’s trading at $8.82 but it’s also up almost 7% for the day on the news of the enormous ticket sales. In the last year it was up to $91.50 and down to just $7.05.
The Canadian rapper says today that he’s about to close the door to his studio for a year. The reason? Health. He’s having stomach issues.
Luckily, Drake’s new album, called “For All the Dogs,” hit number on the iTunes chart overnight after its release. So he’ll have nothing to worry about while these dogs are barking up a storm the next few months.
“I probably won’t make music for a little bit,” Drake said during an episode of his show “Table for One” on Sirius XM’s Sound 42, per Hot97. “I’m going to be real with you. I need to focus on my health, first and foremost, and I’ll talk about that soon enough. Nothing crazy, but just like, you know, I want people to be healthy in life.”
“I’ve been having the craziest problems for years with my stomach. I’m just saying what it is,” the rapper continued. “So, I need to focus on my health, and I need to get [that] right, and I’m going to that.
“I have a lot of other things that I would love to focus on. So, I’ma lock the door in the studio for a little bit. I don’t even know what a little bit is,” he continued. “Maybe a year or so, maybe a little longer.”
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will hit the road again next March 2024. The dates are to make up the ones they missed this fall as Bruce recovers from peptic ulcer.
In the meantime, Bruce and wife Patti Scialfa have a new single called “Addicted to Romance,” from a new movie called “She Came to Me.” They will be in the mix for Best Song consideration for the Oscars this year.
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s postponed U.S. tour dates have been rescheduled and announced for 2024:
March 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center (rescheduled from Nov. 30, 2023)
March 25 – San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena (rescheduled from Dec. 2, 2023)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame broke ground yesterday in Cleveland for a new wing.
Plenty of celebrities and music stars were there except for one: co-founder Jann Wenner.
Wenner was removed from the Rock Hall board of directors last month after giving an interview in the New York Times that destroyed his legacy.
Promoting his new book, “The Masters,” Wenner declared that no female or Black artist was worthy of being included in the mix. He said they were “inarticulate.”
The result is that the book — which includes interviews with Bono, Bruce Springsteen and only white men — is DOA, dead on arrival.
According to Circana BookScan, “The Masters” sold just 800 copies in its first week of publication. It has fallen below number 20,000 on amazon.com. The 800 buyers could have been people who just bought the book to use for target shooting.
Little Brown — even if they had planned a small first run ever — is left holding the bag on this one. Whatever advance Wenner got will never be paid back.
In the Times — just three weeks ago — David Marchese asked Wenner:
In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going — not in your zeitgeist? What do you think is the deeper explanation for why you interviewed the subjects you interviewed and not other subjects?
Wenner responded:
When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate. The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.
He added:
It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.
Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.
A furor followed. Not only did the Rock Hall oust Wenner but his own magazine, Rolling Stone, distanced themselves from him with a statement signed by his son, Gus Wenner.
Since then Jann Wenner has tried to explain his comments but the damage was done.
The people he missed in this book: Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Gamble and Huff, Joni Mitchell. Carole King, Valerie Simpson, Carly Simon, and so on, not to mention James Brown and Janis Joplin. The latter two Wenner never bothered with when they were alive, so it’s too late now.
It took the Rolling Stones 17 years to put together “Hackney Diamonds,” their first album of all new original material since the not great “A Bigger Bang” in 2005.
The new album releases October 20th but the Stones know they’ve got something special. In an unusual move they’re letting reviews break two weeks early.
It’s all good news, “Hackney Diamonds” is their best album since “Tattoo You” in 1981, by far. It’s leaps and bounds beyond the half dozen albums that followed like “Steel Wheels” and “Dirty Work” and “Bridges to Babylon.” Most of the songs from those records are forgotten, not even included in the Stones’ live sets except for a handful (like “Rock in a Hard Place” or “You Got Me Rocking.”)
Every song on “Hackney” is a hit starting with its two launch singles, the clarion call cousin to “Start Me Up called “Angry,” and “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” which features Lady Gaga. The group knows what an extraordinary collection this is, too: they’re allowing reviews two weeks before release. This is unprecedented.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been listening over and over again to this rock revival produced by Andrew Watt as Mick, Keith, and Ronnie — with special guests like Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Charlie Watts (joining in from heaven). and Bill Wyman– simply have discovered the fountain of youth. The songs have echoes of their greatest hits but still sound fresh as ever. You can’t imagine a current band with this kind of energy, skill, and insight.
The lyrics tell the story of men who have unaccountably — after a wild shared journey — walked upright into their 80s looking forward but contemplating what’s behind them. Jagger sings the central theme of the album in the chugging second track, called “Get Close,” He declares, “I walk the city at midnight with the past strapped to my back.” And doesn’t he? And Richards? After 60 years the past is most certainly strapped to their backs.
The songwriting duo even become romantic poets in the magnificent “Depending On You”:
Your fingerprints in the dark, your past and present tangled up in my arms Our secrets sealed in our scars, sharing a smoke on the steps of a bar.
Are we turning into Bob Dylan here?
The album is a mix of pop, blues and out and out rock. I defy any current band to match the ferocious mix of heart thumping rock and blues of “Bite off My Head” featuring their frenemy Paul McCartney blasting away on bass, for old times. The track rips through the album. I was thinking if they perform this on stage as recorded, they’ll all have heart attacks!
Maybe my favorite track right is “Whole Wide World,” which sounds like a hit single (if any radio station would try it– they’re too regimented now to acknowledge this is the best record out.)
Again Jagger and Richards are touring their shared journeys as young men of mayhem:
The streets I used to walk on, are full of broken glass And everywhere I’m looking, there’s memories of my past The filthy flat in Fulham, the smell of sex and glass I never ever really knew, where I was sleeping next
The smell of sex and gas? Navigating the streets of broken glass? You wonder if they all drank Ayahuasca before they set pen to paper.
It’s not all nostalgia. Modern times creep in to “Mess it Up” when Jagger sings:
You stole my numbers. you stole my codes You took my keys and then you nicked my phone Seduced my landlord, broke in my home Don’t get excited, why don’t ya leave alone
Of course, no Stones collection is complete without a spotlight on Richards. He has one of his best vocals ever in “Tell Me Straight” maybe because he finally gave up smoking. It’s accompanied by a lovely guitar solo that makes for a sharply perfect heartbreaking three minute ode of love and loss.
The album soars until it crescendos in the masterwork seven minute and twenty two second gospel number “Sweet Smell of Heaven” with Lady Gaga doing her best Merry Clayton “Gimme Shelter” counterpoint to Jagger, sending shivers up the spine. Jagger and Gaga sing, euphorically: Let the music play loud, let it burst through the clouds. They sure do, and while Gaga is the perfect spice for this meal, it’s Jagger who really bursts through the reverie. The seven minutes fly by.
It’s only fitting that what could be the final Rolling Stones ends with a capper: Muddy Waters‘ “Rolling Stone Blues.” That’s where it all started for them, singing homages to great blues musician.That they never recorded this one is surprising. It’s where they got their name. Knowing Keith Richards, he probably always saved it so Jagger’s last words on Rolling Stones record would be these:
Well my mother told my father just before I was born She said “I got a boy child coming, he’s gonna be, he’s gonna be a rolling stone
And so he was, all of them were, thank god.
The craziest thing about “Hackney Diamonds”? You know the band can’t wait to play it live. They could do it from beginning to end in the middle of their show, bookended by hits, and everyone would be happy. These songs demand to be heard that way– and I’ll be they will be. As Jagger sings in “Depending on You”: I’m too young for dying and too old to lose.
Showtime is almost completely gone. It will soon become part of the Paramount Channel.
Never big on promotion, the last act for Showtime is to kill of “Billions” unceremoniously.
The terrifically written, acted, and directed drama should have won dozens of Emmys. But it has none because Showtime never did anything for it.
In the last few months, there’s been talk that spin offs like “Millions,” “Trillions,” and “Zillions” will be spun off.
But why bother? In its final season, “Billions” is off 30% from season 6. It’s averaging 222K viewers per week. If that were converted into a pulse, the patient would be dead.
The sad part is that “Billions” this season is better than ever. Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff, David Constabile, Corey Stoll — they’re all on their game. Damian Lewis is on the edges again as Bobby Axelrod. Jeffrey DeMunn should get an Emmy Award. “Billions” was the original “Succession,” and it’s held up right to the end.
A movie called “Bezos: From Zero to Hero,” is playing right now on Amazon’s free channel, Freevee.
Also called “Bezos: The Beginning,” the movie is based on a non-existent 33 page children’s book called “From Zero to Hero” self published by a woman named Tanesha Ebanks. No information can be found out about the book — which is not available on Amazon — or its author.
The movie. which I watched in horror. is one of the worst ever made. It features acting so wooden you could frame a house with it, stilted dialogue, and a cockeyed revision of history that makes Bezos look like a saint. You probably won’t see it. But you’ve never seen anything like it.
Involved in this enterprise is Emilio Estefan, husband of singer Gloria. who plays Bezos’s Cuban father. Estefan is a talented drummer but he is not an actor. Neither is anyone else involved in this film.
“From Zero to Hero” actually seems like a movie for adults transferred from children’s source material. It’s almost recited more than acted, and the notion is that Bezos is a genius, everyone around him is an idiot who doesn’t understand him. At the end of the movie, when Amazon is taking off, one of his original partners is told that if he had known his original worth, he’d have gotten it. The implication is that Bezos has been right to defraud and ignore the people who supported him.
There is no mention of Bezo’s subsequent bad marriage, affair with a cheesy married woman, divorce, scandal in the National Enquirer, transition from shlub into gym rat, or purchase of the Washington Post or MGM.
This may be why “From Zero to Hero” is now available on FreeVee. It was earlier part of Amazon Prime and was on Apple TV. But Bezos clearly wants everyone to see it easily. IIt’s a press release for two year olds.
Only four people have reviewed “From Zero to Hero” on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a 50. I’m not sure anyone else has ever seen it.
We all know Kevin Costner is gone from “Yellowstone.” He’s been in a civil war with creator Taylor Sheridan for a year. When “Yellowstone” returns, John Dutton will do some brave thing and gox six feet under.
Now comes word that Costner and Warner Bros. will gamble on the “Yellowstone” fame next summer. They’re releasing two chapters of Costner’s Civil War saga, “Horizon,” on June 28th and August 14th. The movie are rated R and they are long. They’re cast with good, strong actors but no STARS who would draw audiences to theaters. If the first one isn’t a hit, what will happen to the second one?
Originally “Horizon” was set for TV, and really, it’s better suited to HBO Max or HBO than theaters.
The whole thing is a big bet because Costner hasn’t had a movie theater hit in decades. His heyday was in the 90s, Back then his big gamble paid off with “Dances with Wolves.” But he’s since then made some of the worst movies in history including “Waterworld” and “The Postman.”
The two-part cinematic event, Horizon: An American Saga, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, is coming to theaters June 2024 and August 2024. pic.twitter.com/GkjjG62UVh
