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I told you in June that Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” was no stroke of luck — it was a real hit/
Now the press in Venice has seen it and agrees. There was applause at the end of the press screening there today. Then even more at the press conference that followed.
Allen is a controversial filmmaker, yes, because of baseless accusations. But he is not “disgraced,” in any way, shape, or form. He is one of our premier filmmakers and auteurs. If he chooses to end his 50 film career with “Coup de Chance,” it will be on a high note.
Jimmy Buffett fans are certainly paying tribute to him after his untimely death.
Right now, Buffett has 9 of the top 10 albums on iTunes and 17 of the top 20.
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All of his singles are on the top 100 starting with 4 of the top 5 including, of course, “Margaritaville” at number 1. In all, he’s commanding 27 positions of the top 100 on iTunes singles.
It’s the same on Amazon, where Buffett has the top 3 albums and then about 20 more scattered through the top 100.
So much for naysayers who claimed Buffett has just one hit. It isn’t true.
On Twitter so many singers and friends have posted fond eulogies. James Taylor wrote this one:
“Jimmy Buffett invented his own character, which, in a sense we all do: invent, assemble, inherit, or fall into our inner identity. But Jimmy was the founder of an actual tribe: tens of thousands of us made our way to where he was holding court, just to be near him.
“People say he was a lord of life and that’s true: somewhere between Falstaff and the pirate, Jean Laffite. But to me, my friend Jimmy Buffet was a real example of a man: no puffed up defensive macho bullshit, but a model of how to enjoy the great gift of being alive.
“And that’s what he shared so generously with us: a positive enthusiasm at being here. That so few of us knew how ill he was is essential Jimmy Buffett: he had no intention of burdening us with his illness.
“He told me a story about him & Savannah wake surfing in a harbor somewhere: there was a huge freighter leaving port & Jimmy got the captain on the radio. The guy was a ParrotHead & he adjusted his course & speed to give Jimmy the perfect ride. And what a ride it’s been.
On social media he’s either waving the white flag of surrender or someone has taken his phone away from him.
Either way, Trump’s posts on his Truth Social in the last few days have slowly diminished to rants about Joe Biden or MAGA declarations that voters would be better off with him as president. Yesterday he praised Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orban despite the fact that Orban is racist, anti-Semite, and basically, a dictator.
Gone are the attacks calling Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special US Prosecutor Jack Smith “deranged.” On Thursday, Trump waived arraignment and pleaded guilty in the Georgia case. He won’t appear on September 6th in Atlanta. (Rudy Giuliani, fresh from forfeiting his libel case in Georgia, did the same thing.)
Trump’s lawyers have obviously convinced him that the constant attacks on the people prosecuting him in his four cases will not do well for him once the trials begin. Trump did attack New York AG Letitia James this week, but it was toothless and not nearly up to his ad hominem rants of the past.
The surrender — no matter how temporary — comes as Truth Social itself may be on the brink of shutting down. The financing, according to reports, is imploding. This could send the orange man back to Twitter, where he will only cause unhappiness.
Paul McCartney and Jimmy Buffett don’t seem like two people who would be friends, let alone know each other.
But they did, from the Hamptons, and really had a lovely friendship. Paul has posted a poignant remembrance this afternoon. It’s below.
Condolences.
It seems that so many wonderful people are leaving this world, and now Jimmy Buffett is one of them. I’ve known Jimmy for some time and found him to be one of the kindest and most generous people.
I remember once on holiday when I had forgotten to bring my guitar and was… pic.twitter.com/k5B6xgpAh7
The reviews are coming in for Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic and they are raves.
“Maestro” is being applauded by all the major review outlets from what I call PenskeWorld –Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Deadline.com. Vanity Fair and the UK reviews are all glowing.
“Maestro” is Netflix’s big Oscar movie for this fall. They’ll debut it on October 2nd at David Geffen Hall in New York, formerly Avery Fisher Hall, where the Philharmonic plays. The Hall will be turned into a state of the art screening room. At least two parties — one for the paying public and one for the Lincoln Center donors — are planned.
The big question is, if the strikes aren’t over, will anyone other than Cooper attend?
Some reviews are so enthusiastic they say that for actor Cooper his second directing venture is even better than Cooper’s much awarded hit, “A Star is Born.” David Rooney writes in THR: “It’s intended as no slight to Cooper’s A Star is Born remake, his impressive first turn in the director’s chair, to say his follow-up is a considerable leap in terms of accomplishment.”
And, yes, the prosthetic nose is not a problem says Variety’s Owen Glieberman. Let’s move on. Sounds like we have another Best Picture nominee after Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, AIR, maybe Barbie.
By now you may have heard the extremely sad news that Jimmy Buffett has died at age 76.
I was told last week that Buffett was gravely ill, but the news was being held. Jimmy was diagnosed four years ago with skin cancer which progressed quickly. It’s a terrible irony. His whole career was about having fun in the sun, and it killed him.
Condolences to his family especially his wife, Janie. The Buffetts are a popular couple everywhere, especially in the Hamptons.
Since the announcement of Jimmy’s death fans have sent 16 of his tracks onto the iTunes top 100. “Margaritaville” leads the pack but there are so many others. I became a fan with the release of his first album and the songs, “Come Monday,” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” That was 50 years ago! That’s how long Jimmy Buffett has been part of the cultural landscape.
Of course, “Margaritaville” was his smash, and it just continued to grow and grow, especially as Jimmy turned the song into successful businesses. The New York Times says he was worth a billion dollars. Remarkable.
A lot of Margaritas will be be mixed and poured today in Jimmy Buffett’s honor. I expect the Grammys will give him a proper send off this winter.
Keith Richards says the new Rolling Stones album, called “Hackney Diamonds,” will be announced next Tuesday. A clip of the first single, called “Angry,” was also released.
We already know many stars make cameos including ex Stones Bill Wyman and (UPDATED no Mick Taylor,) plus Paul McCartney and (UPDATED no Ringo Starr). There are no doubt others, including the last playing of drums by the late great Charlie Watts. As I exclusively reported, the Stones finished recording in the Bahamas this past spring.
Will the album include their pandemic hit, “Living in a Ghost Town”? No, says a source. And does this mean another US tour? Again, fingers crossed!
You may have heard that legendary actor Dick van Dyke has joined the cast of “Days of our Lives” for a short run.
DvD is 97 years old, so you’d think he was the oldest actor on the show. LOL. Not so. Bill Hayes, who’s 98. has been playing Doug Williams since 1970.
Pretty amazing. The reason DvD is on the show is because he works out at a Malibu gym. That’s where he met longtime “Days” star Drake Hogestyn, who plays John Black. van Dyke says he asked Hogestyn if he could get some work on his show! Haha! Why not? And you know. the strikes don’t effect soap actors. So van Dyke is safe.
Who does he play? SPOILER ALERT. He plays Hogestyn’s long lost father. His character, John Black, has had numerous fathers over the last almost 40 years. Fans have lost track by this time, and soaps rewrite history every day. Of course, the character could have taken a blood test or DNA sample, even gone on 23andMe. But now he’s going to call Rob Petrie “daddy.”
The story one day of Taylor Swift as a moneymaker, forget musical artists, will be legendary.
When Swift’s “Eras” tour movie was announced yesterday. her fans went crazy. AMC Theaters sold $26 million worth of tickets in one day pre-sales. Exhibitor Relations is predicting a $100 million opening weekend beginning October 13th.
For AMC, this is a remarkable turn of events. Their stock has risen 3.5% so far today, up $2 a share. And the day isn’t over! Look here for updates this afternoon.
Other studios are now moving their films off the October 13th weekend because they can see the Swift tsunami coming fast.
How AMC pulled off this coup is the real story. They got Swift’s people to bypass a studio distribution and just do it themselves. AMC theaters will be flooded with young people for days on end, buying popcorn and soda, and maybe checking out other movies, too.
Donald Trump is really rattled by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Before she even gets to Trump’s trial, James is suing Trump saying he over inflated his net value by $2.2 billion in order to get big loans at favorable rates.
Trump’s civil trial begins in October. James’s goal: to keep Trump him and his trio of adult children from running the Trump Organization, and to require him to pay a fine of around $250 million.
On Wednesday, James argued that a trial is not necessary to find that Trump et al inflated the value of their assets in company financial statements.
James says in a a court filing that Trump lied and said his net worth was more than it was by between $812 million and $2.2 billion each year over the course of a ten years.
Are we surprised that he’s lied about his net worth? No. In New York, we know the real story. And the reveal of that is what scares him — enough that he posted the below no less than three different times this morning on his social media.
