Monday, September 30, 2024
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UPDATE Missing Actor Julian Sands Dead as Discovered Human Remains in San Bernardino Mounts Are Confirmed As His

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UPDATE TUES NIGHT 6.27: Julian Sands’ remained have been found in the San Bernardino Mountains. Condolences to his family and friends. This was a long saga for them and a tragic one.

EARLIER It’s been a little over six months since actor Julian Sands went missing on a hike on Mount Baldy in the San Bernadino mountains.

Searches yielded no results then, and nothing has changed. A new search conducted on June 17th also found no evidence of his body. There were originally 8 unsuccessful searches when Sands disappeared but weather became an issue.

The 65 year old British actor had starred in dozens of movies and TV shows, including “A Room with a View” and “Boxing Helena.” Sands’ devoted family has posted a statement supporting the search efforts on the same Tweet as the Sheriff’s Department.

Ed Sheeran Is Selling Out His Tour, But His “Subtract” Sold Out Just 250K Copies–One Tenth of His Last Album

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Ed Sheeran’s had a weird spring in America, that’s for sure.

First there was his copyright infringement trial. He won the case, but it seems like the whole saga left a bad taste.

From the trial he went to judge “American Idol” in place of Lionel Richie, who was playing at King Charles’s coronation. How weird was that? Sheeran is British, Richie is American.

On May 5th, as he was also launching a US tour, Sheeran released a new album, called “-“. Or “Subtract.” A couple of singles came with it. Ed’s last album, released in 2021, sold 2.5 million copies. The tour was selling well. So you’d think “Subtract,” the latest in a series of math albums, would do well.

Alas, “Subtract” is now dead, after just seven weeks. Total sales according to Luminate: 252,000 albums. It’s like it never happened.

After one big week, “Subtract” just disappeared. Like the Jonas Brothers new album, it just vanished. What happened? Was it so bad no one wanted it? And if so, why did Sheeran sell out Giants Stadium? Why is he playing two nights at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass? Why didn’t these fans who bought tickets also pick up the album?

It’s a headscratcher.

PS Sheeran tickets are pretty cheap. On Ticketmaster you can buy good tickets anywhere for about 100 bucks. Much different than Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, or Beyonce. It’s kind of refreshing.

Paramount, In the “Star Trek” Biz for 50 Years, Abruptly Cancels Animated Show After One Season, Plus Four Other Shows, Too

Paramount Plus is joining Warners/HBO/Max in the axing of programs. It’s also wiping them from their streaming service.

Despite being in “Star Trek” game for 50 years, Paramount is canceling the animated “Star Trek Prodigy” after one season. The producers were renewed for Season 2, but that’s not happening. And “Prodigy” is being wiped from the Paramount Plus platform.

Other shows cancelled include “The Game,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” and “Queen of the Universe.” They’re also being wiped from the system.

I don’t understand this rush to erase shows that have already aired, from a digital system. They’ve been paid for, and can exist for eternity taking up no space.

All four shows will be shopped by CBS Productions to other platforms. In the case of “Prodigy,” that might be the first time a “Star Trek” show went to another network. Doesn’t that defeat the whole branding thing?

Ethan Coen’s Gay Thelma and Louise Comedy with Margaret Qualley Looks Like Darling of Toronto, Telluride Fall Film Festivals

This is a little unexpected.

Ethan Coen, working solo and not with brother Joel, has made a movie with his wife, Tricia Cooke, the Coens’ film editor. “Drive Away Dolls” is described as a “queer comedy,” a kind of kooky “Thelma and Louise” for the 2020s.

“Drive Away Dolls” premieres September 22nd, so look for it to be front and center at the Telluride and Toronto film fests. It’s almost curious that it’s unspooling a few days before the New York Film Festival.

The film stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, with Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon, Colman Domingo, and Bill Camp. This Ethan’s first movie without brother Joel, who made his own award winning film, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” two years ago.

Cooke, who’s been married to Coen since 1990 (they have two children), told Variety: “I’m queer, and I’ve always identified as queer. Making a queer movie that was fun, playful and didn’t take itself too seriously especially back when we wrote it in 2002 seemed like a really fun and interesting idea.”

The trailer looks like a lot of fun, with the energy of “Raising Arizona” and other off beat Coen comedies. It’s going to be a hot ticket. Ethan also tells Variety that there’s a lot of sex in it, a first for a Coen movie.

Box Office: Sony Should Have Put Spider Man in Jennifer Lawrence Movie, All-Star “Asteroid” Up to $1.2 Million, “The Flash” Crash

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Thursday box office:

Sony should just put Spider Man in every movie and be done with it. They’ve got the number 1 film with
“Spider Man: Across the SpiderVerse,” making money like crazy.

But everything else they try is a disappointment. That brings us to Jennifer Lawrence, an Oscar winner, getting naked and running around a beach in “No Hard Feelings.” Apparently there are a lot of soft feelings. The raunchy comedy took in $2.1 million on Thursday night (which includes last week’s sneak peeks). Per theater was just $783.

Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” made $60,000 last night. It’s up to $1.2 million. Going wider this weekend.

“The Flash” is fading. It only made $2.8 million last night, not so different than “No Hard Feelings” but in more theaters. If only we could go back in time and fix so many things here.

Watch the Trailer for New Documentary about Director Roman Polanski’s Early Life in Krakow, Poland During World War II and the Holocaust

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“This documentary follows Roman Polanski in the city where he lived as a child, in the company of his lifelong friend, photographer Ryszard Horowitz, a Holocaust survivor, whom he met in the Jewish ghetto of Krakow during the Second World War. Together, they walk the streets and confront their memories…

Controversial director Roman Polanski had a life before his legal troubles.

He grew up in Krakow, Poland during World War II. His navigation through the war and the Holocaust have been written about but now Polanski talks about his memories of the time with Ryszard Horowitz. “Promenade a Cracovie” is being released abroad on July 5th. Mateusz Kudla et Anna Kokoszka-Romer are the directors. I hope someone in the US has the good sense to bring it here.

Kelly Clarkson Releases Tuneless, Unforgiving Dark Divorce Album Comparing Ex Husband to Tragic Movie Star Rock Hudson

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Not since Marvin Gaye released his “Here My Dear” album in the late 70s has anyone been able to top him.

But now Kelly Clarkson has dropped “Chemistry,” a divorce album that should have been called “Vendetta.” The cover features her as Jesus on the cross, so you know up front what’s coming, and it won’t be good.

Clarkson had a nasty breakup with husband Brandon Blackstock, father of her two children. She wound up paying a lot of money to get rid of him after he broke her heart on a number of fronts. Now we get to hear all about it on “Chemistry,” a dark, unpleasant album that twists Clarkson’s tremendous voice until it’s shrieking.

Did we need this? (Apparently not. The first track is called “Skip this Part,” and believe me, you’ll want to.)

The song everyone is talking about this morning is called “Rock Hudson.” Clarkson compares Blackstock to the closeted gay movie star who died of AIDS. She says in interviews today that she didn’t mean the song to have that connotation, just that Blackstock was her “hero” in the movie of her life. But the damage is done. There were plenty of movie star names to choose from. This was one is specific.

Years ago, Clarkson ran afoul of music mogul Clive Davis when she turned in an album full of tuneless warbling. It was her third release, called “My December,” and featured a terrible single called “Never Again,” which was a flop. Initial sales — and this was before streaming and Clarkson’s TV show — were slow. It took 10 years for the album to sell 800,000 copies. And she wound up leaving RCA Records for Atlantic Records.

“Chemistry” debuts at number 1 this morning on iTunes. But there are no singles for radio play, and so far only one — “Lighthouse” — a shrieker– has made it to 31. Other songs with titles like “Me, “Mine,” “High Road” — which she didn’t take, “My Mistake,” and so on, all cover the same territory. It’s what we call “on the nose.” There’s no allusion or imagery. It’s just “I hate you.” In fact, there’s a track at the end — the only good one– called “I Hate Love” with Steve Martin on banjo.

It’s too bad Clarkson wasted her high profile from her talk show, and her insanely good voice– on this nonsense. She could have had a summer of hits just releasing album of her “Kelly-oke” covers from the show. Or she could have worked with Atlantic’s Pete Ganbarg — who steered her to hits on RCA — to come up with some great pop songs like “Since U Been Gone.” But the only audience for “Chemistry” is the Glenn Close character from “Fatal Attraction.” And we know what happened to her.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5YRNvne3B0E

Geraldo Rivera OUT at Fox’s The Five: He Walked a Tightwire for Years and Finally Fell Off — Roger Ailes Would Never Have Allowed This

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Roger Ailes loved Geraldo Rivera. He respected his honesty, his showmanship, and contacts. He didn’t care if Geraldo was not a hard core conservative. He helped make Fox News fair and balanced.

I knew Roger, and he’d be horrified to hear that Geraldo has been shoved off his show, “The Five.” Rivera has a year and a half left at Fox News, and my guess is he’ll be paid out and eased off the network now. It’s not the old Fox News. Whatever that was.

It was Ailes who produced Geraldo at America’s Talking, the original CNBC, and then brought him to Fox. Geraldo walked a tightwire at Fox, trying to seem conservative, often taking odd positions. He was once friendly with Donald Trump and supported him. But Rivera is no dummy. Trump can’t be defended anymore.

Back in early May, Geraldo announced that his appearances on The Five had been cancelled. He wrote: “My appearances today and tomorrow on The Five have been canceled. I’m sure there’s a good reason. Never fear, I’ll be back week after next. Stay safe and happy. Thanks.”

He’s been locked in a tug of war with Fox News class clown Greg Gutfeld. who runs The Five and has a hit late night show. Gutfeld is a joke, but like Jesse Watters he’s the new power at Fox. Geraldo, 80, is the old guard. Rivera has fought in recent times with Sean Hannity and disagreed on the air with many crazy things that have been said on the network. He told the AP today that he’d been suspended many times.

On Wednesday, Geraldo announced to his Twitter feed that his time at The Five was over and he would continue at Fox in some capacity. He wrote:

“Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity. Being odd man out isn’t always easy. For the time being, I’m still Correspondent at Large.”

“It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I hope it’s not my last adventure.”

It probably won’t. Geraldo’s in great shape for 80 and can still do a lot. But it seems like his time at Fox, trying to be the level headed one, is over.

Paul McCartney Explains New Beatles Single to Worried Fans: “Nothing has been artificially or synthetically created”

Beatles fans have been a little worried about the ‘new’ single Paul McCartney kind of announced on British TV last week. He made it seem like artificial intelligence was used to resurrect John Lennon and George Harrison.

Sean Ono Lennon tried to explain it all in a Tweet, which I reported the other day. But now Sir Paul is reassuring everyone with this Tweet.

Been great to see such an exciting response to our forthcoming Beatles project. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year.

We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.

We hope you love it as much as we do. More news in due course – Paul

Demi Lovato Doesn’t Want a Hit Single: Drops a Foul Language Punk Single About Female Empowerment Called “Swine”

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Demi Lovato does not want hit records.

And she definitely doesn’t want to be America’s Sweetheart.

Instead, Demi;s dropped a really foul mouthed, offensive single called “Swine.” It’s a punk rock ode for female empowerment. The single came out this morning and it’s number 31 on iTunes. No one wants it. It also sounds like her last punk rock single, “Heart Attack.”

I doubt Demi takes advice from anyone. But female empowerment got more from Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” than anything remotely in this vein. Sorry. And this song is radio repellent.

Lovato’s last album was called “Holy F**k,” but it was spelled out.

And sold just 132,000 copies.