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.
This summer. “The Bachelorette” has been a bummer.
Maybe it’s because the people have been fairly normal, and not the usual jackals who compete in this crap fest.
Last night’s episode fell 11.6% from the prior Monday, and this was the one where all the guys come on and gossip about the previous episodes. This season’s ratings have averaged 2.3 million viewers, down about 1 million from the last season.
Next week is the finale, and it seems like anyone who’s interested already knows the ending. The Bachelorette, Charity Lawson, is smart and has a career as a child and family therapist. She’s not the show’s usual airheads. She’s also a college graduate whose primary focus isn’t on her nails or volleyball. So that may have turned off the TV audience.
Isn’t it time all of this ended? I know it’s cheaper to produce than real TV shows, and doesn’t need writers because no one would take credit for this junk. The ratings suggest the audience has lost interest. Time to cut bait.
This is not the way to win friends and influence people.
On social media, Donald Trump is calling Joe Biden the “Manchurian candidate.”
Trump is also reprinting his son’s post that cites indictments of Trump Sr. and Mark Meadows a “sham.”
Trump also reprints his son — Don Jr. — calling the Atlanta prosecutors “psychopaths.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Trump began the day shouting “Witch hunt!” He’s also attacked Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Trump has 10 days to turn himself in to Fulton County for arrest, arraignment, fingerprinting, and mug shot. These will not be 10 days of atonement, but just continued squealing like a pig.
Francis Ford Coppola has shown 30 minutes of his new film, “Megalopolis” to Spike Lee down in Atlanta.
Spike announced the meeting on Instagram just now. The movie, which should premiere in Cannes next May, stars a bunch of famous people including Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwarzman, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LaBeouf, Adam Driver and many others.
The tour was scuttled when the singer fell ill last spring. She was hospitalized after being found “unresponsive.”
But since then she has responded, and the tour is back on. It starts in the UK on October 14th and winds it way through Europe.
On December 13th, Madonna finally appears in the US, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, for three shows. She works right up til Christmas, takes a two week break, then resumes in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum on January 8th. She plays in Boston on the same date, so it’s clear that there are glitches still in the system! (There are a couple of other situations like this, too.) You know Madonna: she can do anything! Check her website for more info.
Ed Sheeran played a celebrity show last night in the Hamptons at the tiny Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.
Lots of A listers turned up according to reports including Paul McCartney, who lives down the street, plus Angelica Huston, Stella McCartney, Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, John Mayer, Howard Stern, Jon Bon Jovi, James Corden, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, Brooke Shields, and Christie Brinkley. That’s everyone although it seems hard to believe Jimmy Fallon was absent. Also didn’t Corden return to the UK?
I hope some of these people bought a copy of Sheeran’s “Minus” album or “Subtract.” Released in May, it’s Sheeran’s first album not to go gold. According to Luminate, “Minus” has sold the equivalent of around 320,000 albums. This follows the singer being exonerated in a plagiarism lawsuit over the song “Thinking Out Loud.” Sheeran played the song, but there was no word on whether he mentioned his triumph over the families of Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend.
Ex-NFL player Michael Oher has made at least $22 million playing football. There are some estimates that he’s worth $34 million.
That’s swell, except Oher — now suing the Tuohy family, the ones who raised him and were featured in the movie “The Blind Side” — has not reciprocated with charity himself.
Oher runs The Oher Foundation, which is supposed to “provide individuals both in need and disadvantaged with empowering opportunities” according to its mission statement. He’s the president, and his wife, Tiffany, is the vice president.
The Ohers’ original foundation, called Beating the Odds, was formed in 2011 in Mississippi. But three years later it had never filed a tax return and its 501 c3 status was revoked by the IRS. It seems like this second iteration was formed in 2016 in Tennessee. The IRS didn’t catch that it was the same group starting up again in a different location.
So far, the Ohers haven’t done much to fulfill their mission. Three years of Form 990 tax statements from the Oher Foundation show little in the way of interest from the athlete in helping anyone. This is odd considering in his new book, “When Your Back’s Against the Wall,” Oher talks about his struggles as a young man including poverty, starvation, and homelessness. But from the Form 990s not filed and then filed under a different name, it would seem Oher is just about lip service and no action.
For example, in 2021, Oher showed $10,520 in revenue for the foundation. Grants to people who might have needed his help: zero (0). Nothing. Nada. And that’s down from $500 the previous year.
The foundation claimed net assets for 2021 of just $11,272.
I don’t know what the reality is of Oher’s issues with the Tuohy family, or the money that was made from “The Blind Side.” That will have to be dealt with in court. But when it comes to “paying it forward,” Oher hasn’t done much. The foundation has been in business since 2017. In those five years, he’s distributed less money than the average NFL player spends on dinner.
Bradley Cooper looks and sounds amazingly like composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in the teaser trailer for “Maestro.”
Cooper is coming back for more Oscar attention after making the excellent “A Star is Born.” Carey Mulligan plays Felicia, Leonard’s long suffering wife. In this teaser, you just see their love story. But there will be dramatic fireworks when Felicia discovers the rest of Leonard’s life.
Netflix is sending “Maestro” to the Venice Film Festival, and we’ll see where else it turns up before its November release. It does look like a Best Picture nominee, making it the fourth perhaps in a group with “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “AIR.”
This message was posted by Donald Trump around 10:20pm before the entire indictment document was read. He will surely have more to say later. He’s clueless.
10:58PM UPDATE: Rudy Giuliani has been indicted along with Trump, plus Sidney Powell and Mark Meadows. There are 10 indictments, 41 charges in all, 19 people named in 98 page document.There are 161 different acts of racketeering. Lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, and John Eastman are also included.
The charges include violating the Georgia RICO Act—the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.
Updating: The Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has apparently gotten 10 indictments regarding attempted fraud in the 2020 elections.
Donald Trump is certainly indicted. The other nine indictments are unknown although Rudy Giuliani could be included, and so could Lindsay Graham* (he wasn’t ultimately). The 10 indictments will be unsealed sometime later tonight, triggering detailed news analysis and headlines everywhere.
“Abba Voyage,” is a technological wonder kind of spectacular show featuring the phenomenon that was/is the Swedish band Abba. I recently got the chance to see this dazzling spectacle in London, where producers built their own state of the art theater. ; The technology draws you into an, entrancement like stupor. Watching gargantuan screens in an equally huge custom-built arena, the 90-minute concert is overflowing with their addictive mega hits. Combine seeing the holographic “Abbatars” with a terrific live 10-person band, well you can’t help but have literally the best time. The Abbatars become real people, they chat and laugh with the audience, even come back for an eager encore. The audience, some seated, some standing, dance, clap with joy and mega enthusiasm. Pure Abba appreciation! Don’t miss it!
Andrew Lloyd Webber currently has no show playing in New York for the first time in modern memory. But his revival of his “Aspects Of Love,” now playing at London’s lyric theater, is proving to have the Webber touch, as it’s a huge hit in the West End. The musical, about complicated, tangled love triangles, was before it’s time when it first premiered in 1989. Inspired by David Garnett’s 1955 novella, this raunchy, romantic, story of passion, love and heartbreak , directed by Jonathan Kent, takes place in ravaged post war France. The production value is gorgeous, and Weber’s score, with lyrics by Charles Hart and Don Black, is poignant and powerful. The sublime Michael Ball singing the shows signature song “Love Changes Everything” brings you to tears. A definite must see for theater lovers.
Rose Byrne is having a moment. Long known as a comedic powerhouse, “Bridesmaids,” she also shines in dramatic roles i.e. “Damages.” She has combined both skills in the Apple TV + dark comedy hit “Physical” which just dropped its first two episodes of its third and final season. Byrne plays Sheila Rubin, an ex 60’s hippie, with deep seated personal demons, now a tormented ( vicious inner voices) San Diego fitness instructor who is trying to build a fitness empire. Zooey Deschanel is one of the newcomers this season, playing a rival fitness star who taunts Sheila, and she’s terrific. Byrne is also on the Apple TV + comedy “Platonic” with her good buddy and “Neighbors” co-star Seth Rogen. Byrne’s Sheila adds another level to her impressive career with this portrayal. Byrne is simply one of our most versatile, finest actors working today. If you haven’t seen “Physical” yet, binge it. Without giving spoilers, “Physical” ends the series on the artistic high bar.
