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You’d have to go back five years to remember when Shawn Mendes was hot on the pop charts.
It was 2019 when he and Camila Cabello were number 1 with “Senorita.”
Mendes — who turned 26 yesterday — had two more hits in 2020, one with Justin Bieber, and then started a fade out. He stopped touring and mostly recording or having a career while he dealt with mental health issues. (He also had trouble, and still does, finding a shirt.)
Now Mendes is back today with two new songs preceding an album release in October. So far this morning, “Why Why Why” has had an uneasy launch, currently at 74 on iTunes. The other song, “Isn’t that Enough,” hasn’t charted yet.
Mendes apparently played a small show last night in Woodstock, NY. He has a few more coming up including one on the album’s release, October 18th, in Brooklyn. He’s coming back in small steps.
Mendes has pretty much missed four years of his career. That’s okay when you’re older, but when you’re establishing yourself four years is a high school cycle. So now he has turn to more adult listeners and rebuild. He’s a very good songwriter. I was at his actual first show years ago at the then Nokia Theater in Times Square (my nieces, who were 14, insisted on it).
How will this all play out? Last night, Mendes played a birthday show in Woodstock. He’s taking it easy, starting with small shows in London next, then back here.
“House of the Dragon” had a season finale on Sunday up by 20% in total viewers.
The final episode, in which almost nothing happened, brought in 1.47 million people. That was up from 1.2% the week before.
The last episode helped boost the season overall, but “Dragon” still finished an average of 31% down from Season 1.
HBO just announced there will be two more seasons, and then they’ll wrap up this slow moving spin off of “Game of Thrones.”
“House of the Dragon” has so far just not caught on like its predecessor. Maybe the next two seasons can be more fun and outrageous and not just a series of wars among characters few care about.
There’s a coup going on at Atlantic Records, the formerly great music label of Ahmet Ertegun.
It’s not 1980 anymore.
Long time chief Julie Greenwald — a huge success for 20 years — has been ousted. She announced it at a company town hall, according to hitsdailydouble.com.
Greenwald saw the writing on the wall. Last week, Elliot Grainge — son of Universal Music chief Lucien Grainge — was given her job. Greenwald was sent — as we used to say about Conde Nast — “to the 34th floor.” This is amazing.
Grainge is 30 and married now to Lionel Richie’s daughter, Sofia. He’s been a music manager, with some success from Ice Spice and a bunch of hip hop artists we’ve never heard of. Oy vey.
According to hitsdailydouble, all this volatility within the Warner Music groups is attributed to Val Blavatnik. Who he? The young son of WMG owner Len Blavatnik. In April, 25 year old Val was put on the Warner board by his dad. Seems like he called another Elliott and formed an alliance of young sons of moguls.
Atlantic is part of the Warner Music Group, which recently put Robert Kyncl in charge after he wrested power from Max Lousada, who was successful and popular.
Hits points out that Atlantic — which was booming a short time ago with Ed Sheeran and hit soundtracks from “Hamilton” and “The Greatest Showman” — has fallen behind. So change was in the wind. Atlantic doesn’t have much going on this summer aside from Charlie XCX and her “Brat” album. Pointing that out to Blavatnik Sr. was probably enough to get the ball rolling for major changes.
Greenwald is far from ancient. She’s 54, and among her finds was Cardi B. Bruno Mars is also on her resume, although he’s not released anything new in a long time, and seems to be embroiled in vast personal financial drama.
Atlantic has never been pacific. Just read former exec Jerry Greenberg’s book about the label’s history, “Whole Lotta Music.” That will tell you the whole bloody story.
All this and there are no new artists be played on radio, the charts are frozen with Taylor Swift, and there will four different awards shows this coming year celebrating the same small group of acts. Unreal.
Apple Studios has cut “Wolfs” down to one week in theaters.
Two enormous movie stars — George Clooney and Brad Pitt — star in the buddy comedy from “Spider Man” director Jon Watts. But “Wolfs” will be sent to the Apple streaming platform after 7 days in movie houses.
There will never be a box office report, because streamers don’t report numbers.
Apple issued this news couched as secondary to the idea that they’ve greenlit a sequel to “Wolfs.” A sequel? To a movie that won’t be strong enough to have a theatrical run?
This is trouble, no matter how you slice the Apple.
The seven day run just barely covers Oscar eligibility, although that seems unlikely given this news.
What could have gone wrong here? Even if it’s just a popcorn pleaser, “Wolfs” should be able to attract an audience to theaters.
One problem might be the concept: there are no women or romantic interests for these two leading men. It sounds like “Butch Cassidy” without Katherine Ross. Or more like “Lethal Weapon” without Renee Russo and Darlene Love.
Apple is also apparently doing this one week in theaters thing with Steve McQueen’s “Blitz.” Set in World War II London, “Blitz” stars Saoirse Ronan and Harris Dickinson — two hot young actors — and The Jam’s’ Paul Weller — a great rock star — in his film debut.
McQueen won Best Picture for “12 Years a Slave” but can’t have a movie in theaters for more than a week?
If only a Marvel character could have been in these films! It’s really a new world.
To kick off the 50th anniversary season of “Saturday Night Live,” here comes a movie.
Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” is all about the first episode of “SNL” in the fall of 1975.
The ensemble cast making up the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” are not unknowns, but they’re all young and newish to movies.
Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and JK Simmons are the most recognizable names, playing executives.
The movie will be released on October 11th, which might be the night before the “SNL” Premiere on NBC.
No one knew what to call this movie, I guess. “Saturday Night’ was actually the original name of the TV show because there was already a “Saturday Night Live” on ABC with Howard Cosell.
It was a little strange a couple of nights ago at the premiere for “It Ends with Us.”
Blake Lively, the star, brought along husband Ryan Reynolds, and his work husband, Hugh Jackman, to the red carpet.
Lively took a lot of pictures with them but none with director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
In fact, no one from the cast has done interviews with or spoken about Baldoni at all.
It almost seemed like Lively brought the Deadpool and Wolverine stars along to distract the press from whatever is really going on with the “It Ends with Us” cast.
There are 224 photos from the premiere on WireImage and not a single one of Baldoni with any of his actors. That alone raises a lot of questions.
Online, in social media, plenty of people have noticed and posted stories about the underlying tensions aimed at Baldoni. In the film he plays a violent and abusive husband. Is it possible that the feelings toward the character have spilled over into real life?
On the red carpet Tuesday night, Jenny Slate really gave a diplomatic non answer when an interviewer asked about working with Baldoni as a director and actor. She basically sidestepped the whole thing, and talked about herself.
Baldoni is already a TV star from “Jane the Virgin,” and he’s a great looking guy who you’d think would be all over the talk shows, etc.
“It Ends with Us” starts tonight in previews and opens tomorrow everywhere. It has a low 54% Rotten Tomatoes.
Roman Roy and Saul Goodman are coming to Broadway.
Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk will top line David Mamet’s short but sour “Glengarry Glen Ross” next spring on the big stage. Comedian Bill Burr co-stars.
Culkin is loaded with awards from TV’s “Succession.” Likewise, Odenkirk has been praised up and down for “Better Call Saul.”
Patrick Marber will direct.
The saga of a bunch of nasty real estate agents in their office has had many incarnations on stage, as well as a great movie. Mamet’s script is oft-quoted, and the play itself has become a staple.
Culkin and Odenkirk are inspired casting. Burr might actually be playing himself.
In real life, Mamet has gone from being a critics darling to a PR nightmare as he’s expressed more and more right wing, off the wall political views that have startled his former friends
Sometimes the two time Oscar winner has made errors of judgement, but none like “Borderlands.”
There are 11 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes of Eli Roth’s adaptation of a game. The critics are unanimous: they hate it. AwardsWatch wrote: “Borderlands is the worst kind of bad movie; the type devoid of any offbeat quirks that could propel it to a second life as a cult classic, feeling insufferable and overlong at a brisk 102 minutes because of its sheer lack of originality.”
“Borderlands” has a unique zero so far. That’s 0. It’s by far the lowest rating Blanchett has received in her nearly 30 year career. The worst before this was for George Clooney’s convoluted “Monuments Men” which had 31%.
It’s been a little more than a decade since Blanchett won her 2nd Oscar, for Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” She’s made consistently odd choices since then of mostly B level material. “Borderlands,” however, is the worst by far. What’s gone wrong? First of all, there is not a lot of quality material for women. But also, obviously, there is some miscommunication. Blanchett should be doing only top quality material with A list directors and writers. She’s on the level of Meryl Streep and Viola Davis.
“Borderlands” reviews will no doubt rise slightly before it hits theaters tonight. But it’s time for Blanchett to do a reset. One movie might be to come to Broadway in a great play and pick up a Tony Award. That usually works!
Fifty years ago on Wednesday (last night) Philippe Petit made history walking on a highwire between the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. It was illegal, of course, but it made headlines around the world.
Last night, exactly five decades later, Petit — a few days short of his 75th birthday– commemorated his magical moment. This time it was inside, at New York’s majestic, soaring Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he produced an evening called “Towering” that left the audience breathless.
Petit’s long time friend, the musician Sting, provided the music, accompanying the great artist with two songs, “Fragile,” and “Fields of Gold,” with a classical ensemble. At the end of the evening, Sting returned with a gorgeous new song from a musical work in progress about Petit called “Let the Great World Spin.”
There were other performers, as well, all of whom were greeted with cheers by an audience that included Sting’s wife, Trudie Styler, plus the legendary singer Judy Collins, actors Griffin Dunne and Tony Danza, plus author Susan Cheever, and everyone’s favorite rapper, Shaggy.
After a selection of musicians and dancers opened the show, Petit himself climbed several dozen feet in the capacious cathedral, took a balance bar, and began his first walk back and forth along the wire. The first walk was done slowly and with precision, and I think the audience was satisfied he still had his game on.
But then came subsequent walks in which Petit abandoned any apprehension, walking sprightly and sometimes sitting down in the center of the suspended wire. A couple of times, he lay down on his back as if he were on chaise longue and kicked one leg with abandon. He was mesmerizing, to say the least.
As for this fellow, Sting, he certainly has a career in front of him. Considering that he is always on tour, the famed rock star’s voice proved to be as supple as Petit’s athletics. They’re a good match. And Sting’s acoustic guitar, made up of strings not unlike the one Petit crosses, provided a poetic juxtaposition, although not quite as dangerous. So did the choice of one song in which he sings, “How fragile we are.” Indeed.
After he’d dazzled the crowd, Petit spoke of his 1974 walk. He said he had some confessions to make. The principal one was that he had not practiced for six years before pulling off the Twin Towers feat. He admitted he’d only arrived in the US six months before the event.
Petit also corrected the record regarding his best friend, Jean-Louis Blondeau. He said that Blondeau did shoot the arrow between the towers — mapping out the path — and was responsible for holding one end of the wire when others had given up. The admission may be late, but it’s here.
It was a sublime night, and will be performed again tonight (Thursday) for those lucky enough to score a ticket.
Released on Friday night, it’s over by Wednesday afternoon. No one is streaming it. The tracks haven’t caught on.
“Vultures 2” debuted on iTunes at number 1, but has quickly fallen to number 2. It’s been toppled by female phenom force that’s been building for months: Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess” — released last September — is now finally number 1.
What’s worse for “Vultures 2” is that is has no streaming. None of its tracks are on the iTunes top 100 for downloading. But on Spotify, the the numbers are sad. “Field Trip” has done the best, with 8.5 million streams. All the other tracks are way below. If this were a hit album, streaming business would be booming.
As I wrote a few days ago, “Vultures 2” is tepid and timid. The tracks are throwaway. The album sounds like sketches for an album that will never be heard.
But on a larger scale, the response to “Vultures 2” may have more to do with the public being done with West, his antisemitism, his right wing politics, and overall hubris. He’s photographed wife Bianca — who is almost completely naked — while his head is covered in masks or netting. No one takes him seriously, and he’s offended Blacks (“slavery is a choice”), Jews, and everyone else.
We’ll wait til hard numbers come in on Friday.
PS Wait til Taylor Swift wins at the Grammys next winter, and West is ignored once again.
