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Twenty three deserving Americans received Presidential Medals of Honor yesterday from Joe Biden.
A lot of press was given to Bruce Springsteen, who we all love and Biden does, too.
But I was most excited about Gladys Knight, whom Biden dubbed “The Empress of Soul,” getting her medal. No one deserves it more. I love the fact that Gladys is finally getting incredible recognition. She just received a Kennedy Center Award.
Some of the others in yesterday’s group included journalist Walter Isaacson, “Just Mercy” writer Bryan Stevenson, actress Julia Louis Dreyfus, novelist Amy Tan, and writer Mindy Kaling.
Ben Affleck, director of the excellent movie, “Air,” coming April 5th to theaters, has one of the best soundtracks of all time.
There are dozens of hit songs in “Air,” and Affleck chose them all himself, not using a music supervisor. The music, all from the early to mid 80s, moves along the story of how Michael Jordan became Nike’s sports mascot before he was even an NBA star perfectly. In fact, there are several nods to the theme from “Beverly Hills Cop.”
And it all works, just like in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies. It’s unclear so far if there will be a CD or iTunes collection. If so, it would be a smash hit.
One song that should get a big push is one of my all time favorites: “Tempted,” by Squeeze, the most under-rated group in pop history. The great Squeeze duo Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford wrote the song. You can hear them and Elvis Costello singing back up on the record to Paul Carrack’s soulful lead. It’s one of the greatest pop songs of all time.
So how did “Tempted” from 1982 wind up in “Air”?
Affleck told me this week at the “Air” Party in New York: “Originally I had Jump by Van Halen in that spot. But you can’t license Jump or any Van Halen song. Apparently they’re all fighting with each other and no one can agree on anything. So we gave up. I’m much happier with Tempted anyway.”
When “Air” launches, it would be swell if “Tempted” goes the way of Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill” and gets discovered by a whole new generation.
So you know “Smash” was a TV series about a Broadway show that finally opened on fictional Broadway after many soap opera like developments. Along the way, “Smash” became a cult favorite, although not a ratings hit.
Now “Smash,” very meta- meta, will come to Broadway in the 2024-2025 season. The great Susan Stroman is directing. Rick Elice and Bob Martin, who know how to meta- meta anything, are writing the show about a show called “Bombshell,” based on the novel by Garson Kanin. Steven Spielberg and Neil Meron are producing it, along with Bob Greenblatt. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are writing the songs.
What could go wrong with that gang?
So who will play all those TV roles? The TV series starred Angelica Huston, Debra Messing, Will Chase, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, and so on. The last two could actually wind up being in the Broadway show, who knows? And Donna Murphy should play the Huston role. Otherwise, maybe there will be a documentary about the making of “Smash” about the making of “Bombshell” about the making of….It could go on and on!
Who were the Marcuses? A dentist and his wife who escaped the Holocaust just barely, came to America to start their lives, and lived in Great Neck, New York. Howard and Lottie Marcus are the subject of an unusual documentary that connects them to billionaire investment adviser Warren Buffett, to Israel, and climate activism.
The large part of “Who Are the Marcuses?” is not about them, per se, but why they left a stunning $400 million to Ben Gurion University for research about water science when no one knew who they were or that they had any money at all. The donation doubled the size of the university’s endowment.
Howard died at 104 years old in 2014 and Lottie shortly after in 2015 at age 99. Their lovely, and unassuming daughter does a lot of the talking for her parents, and there are clips of interviews with Howard talking about growing up in Germany and seeing the Nazi tide rise toward him. He was smart to leave, although his trip to America and under the radar financial success was not a straight line.
But who does remember the Marcuses? Of all people, Warren Buffett, who is not Jewish but came to meet them through a mutual college friend in 1962. He was just starting to advise investors when the Marcuses put their lives in his hands. To say they had a successful relationship is an understatement. His small firm blossomed into Berkshire Hathaway, bringing the Marcsus along for the ride of their lives.
Buffett was devoted to the Marcus family and still is: He’s not only interviewed quite thoroughly in the film, but Buffett has been turning up at screenings about the couple and their extraordinary donation. From the beginning he was on the same wavelength as them. It’s interesting that he says their quiet collaboration could “only have happened in America” and that a lot of it was just luck. It also feels like some kind of divine intervention.
An Israeli professor interviewed in the film says, “Howard felt the next World War could be fought over water.” It was a visionary thing to say considering issues the US itself has had in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi over access to clean water for everyone. Israel’s David Ben Gurion also saw this as the country began to populate, and turned his attention to finding revolutionary new ways to make that happen through science and education.
So “Who Are the Marcuses?” is kind of brilliant as it shows how this couple, after surviving near death and coming to America, set their sights on the future of the Earth. No one had heard of them when they died and that they made the single biggest donation ever in Israel, revealed in 2016. They didn’t have a mansion — their last few years were spent in a two bedroom apartment in San Diego. They didn’t have fast cars, or a vast collection of jewelry or art. They were the anti-Kardashians.
It’s a fascinating doc, making the festival rounds right now. It belongs on PBS, where I think an audience will be thrilled to see it.
There’s a scandal brewing at Rolling Stone magazine, reported by NPR’s estimable David Folkenflik.
There are a lot of players here so bear with me. Last fall Rolling Stone investigative reporter Tatiana Siegel wrote a piece about an ABC News journalist called James Gordon Meek. She said he’d suddenly disappeared after the FBI raided his home in April 2022 and found classified documents on his computer.
Siegel had only recently joined Rolling Stone from The Hollywood Reporter, also owned by Penske Media, after she brokered a deal to write for the trade and also do podcasts for Janice Min’s The Ankler newsletter. The whole negotiation was a big deal in a small circle who knew all these people.
Are you following me? Suddenly at the end of the year it was announced that Siegel was “ankling” both Rolling Stone and The Ankler and going to another Penske vehicle, Variety, as film and TV editor. It didn’t make sense, but what does anymore? Siegel had fought so hard to get that RS-Ankler combo. Why didn’t it work out?
Now Folkenflik says that Siegel left because Rolling Stone editor in chief Noah Shactman spiked info in the Meek story because of his friendship with the ABC contributor. It wasn’t government classified info on Meek’s computer. It was child porn, and it was so bad that when you read it you might, as I did, gasp. Siegel had said in her original piece the raid turned up info that Meek had on his computer that wasn’t work-related. The charge is that Shactman removed that line, and the material on the computer seemed like it was indeed work related.
So got that? Shactman, newish to RS after running The Daily Beast, is being accused by Folkenflik and sources of protecting an alleged child pornographer. This is stunning. You can read Folkenflik’s story here. Turns out that Siegel’s mother was dying as she turned her original piece on Meek in. Folkenflik says Shactman changed the story without Siegel’s knowledge. When she found out she insisted on leaving Rolling Stone.
Many questions arise here: if the raid was last April, how much did they know at ABC News? When Siegel reported the story in October, weren’t Penske and Rolling Stone alerted to the real nature of the FBI discoveries? Why did it seem in Siegel’s story (which was changed from her original) that this was the work of the Biden government to repress a story about them? It had nothing to do with Biden or classified documents.
All of it too bad, also, since Siegel is a reporting barracuda. She won’t comment now, but she goes for the jugular. I can imagine how upset she must have been. And Rolling Stone has been doing some great stuff lately. It would be a shame if this tainted them. And more importantly– where is Meek? What happened to him? He sounds like a very disturbed guy.
The movie everyone wanted this Oscar season and couldn’t find is here. “Air” is the first movie made by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon since we first met them in 1997’s “Good Will Hunting.” It’s also the first potential Best Picture nominee of the new season.
“Air” opens April 5th in wide release in theaters around the country even though it was made by Amazon Studios for their platform. Amazon realized they’ve got an old fashioned hit, the kind of film audiences will adore, and changed the release plan. You want to see this movie in a theater. There are super heroes, but none of them wear capes. They wear sneakers (bring yours). “Air” is funny, and moving, and surprising with tremendous acting from an A-list cast.
We kind of forget that Ben Affleck is a good director. Recently all his headlines have been about Jennifer Lopez. But remember, Ben made “Argo,” “The Town,” and “Gone Baby Gone” — three films most directors would want on their resumes. “Argo” won Best Picture. But this is the first movie he’s directed starring himself and Damon, reuniting them on screen. (They appeared in a 2021 Ridley Scott movie, “The Last Duel,” not exactly together and best forgotten.)
We heard and read that “Air” had a standing ovation at South by Southwest this past weekend, but you always wonder if that acclaim comes from festival madness. Well, “Air” got the same ovation tonight at the Warner Discovery theater for a packed, invited audience that included all kinds of influencers, actors, showbiz types I spotted “SNL” star Heidi Gardner in the huge room.
“Air” is the story of how Nike landed Michael Jordan as their celebrity spokesperson before he even began playing in the NBA. A sneaker movie, you say? No, a “sneaky” movie because it’s about the people, not the footwear, and it’s constructed in such a way that you come to care about these people tremendously during the two hour run.
Affleck himself playing Nike founder Phil Knight but he’s supporting several gigantic performances. Matt Damon stars as Sonny Vaccaro the pudgy non athlete who brought the Jordans into Nike, Viola Davis and her real life husband Julius Tennon as Jordan’s parents, plus Chris Messina as Michael Jordan’s volcanic agent, and Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Marlon Wayans, and Matthew Maher as the Nike team.
The group of them are sensational– watch for Best Ensemble nods in 2024. Just as he did in “Argo,” Affleck knows how to move these people through tight spaces like offices and warren like rooms, bringing out drama and comedy at the same time. There are no car chases or bank robberies or daring escapes. Affleck simply plays them like a chamber orchestra, building and building momentum as Vaccaro chases the Jordans and appeases Phil Knight, who doesn’t think he has the money to lure Michael Jordan away from Adidas and Converse.
Of course we all know what happened in 1984: Nike rebranded with Air Jordans and the rest was history. Vaccaro was right (so was Michael’s mother Deloris) that Jordan would become the greatest basketball player of all time. They made millions together, and do so to this day. But “Air” the movie has no commercial connection to Nike. The athletic company has no investment in the film and wasn’t even so keen on it when the idea was first floated. But Affleck met with Jordan, who ultimately gave his approval. (He also has no financial interest in it or editorial control.)
The screenplay is by Alex Convery, it’s his first. The cast and director added to it and shaped it up but it’s his. and has the luxury of taking its time when needed. You can feel the movie is full of “air,” giving each actor big moments and enough backstory that they make an instant connection with the audience. The film is also helped by a very smart jukebox of early 80s hits that help position us in a time and place before cell phones and when Apple computers were just boxes blinking with promise. Damon is at the top of his game, so is Davis, and Chris Messina finally gets a showcase no one will forget.
Four stars, two thumbs up, 21 gun salute. If this doesn’t get Matt Damon an Oscar for acting (he and Ben have them for writing “Good Will Hunting”) I don’t know what will.
Watch the Q&A following the screening here. Yes, that’s me toward the end asking Matt Damon about gaining and losing weight for the role.
Yes, it’s Monday. And while we wait to celebrate Donald Trump’s possible perp walk tomorrow…
WARNER BROS. box office prognosticators were over zealous yesterday reporting weekend numbers for “Shazam 2: Zachary Levi Sinks His Movie.” The guesstimate given by the Big Bunny was $30.5 million. But this morning that’s been narrowed to $30.1 million. They were $400,000 off. The Furry of the Gods was less popular than thought…
THE TODAY SHOW was anchored by everyone on NBC this morning except Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. Where were the show’s main hosts? Two weeks ago, Hoda returned after her youngest kid had been in the hospital ICU for a week. Let’s hope there was no setback. Around that time, Savannah had to leave the show when she tested positive for COVID live on the air! She can’t have it again! Maybe she’s in training for the Trump arrest. Later, at 10am, Willie Geist co-hosted the third hour of Today with Jenna Bush Hager and looked bewildered…
THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS soap opera celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. Long time star Eric Braeden, never shy on Twitter, has expressed his anger at former Y&R actress Eva Longoria. Eva did an interview with Chris Wallace on CNN where she made fun of her time on the soap years ago. She said she had to keep a 2nd job that she ran out of her dressing room because they didn’t pay her enough. Also, she mocked the show in general. Braeden was not amused.
Braeden wrote: “EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors! You simply weren’t good enough to survive the pressures of this medium! You were very lucky to get on that “housewife” show! You did one show in 8-12 days, with mediocre but salacious dialogue! Our actresses would run rings around you!! And they did then!! From Robert DeNiro to whoever they all are, many of them started in the medium you denigrate! It shows a complete lack of class!!”
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is becoming a quasi-musical in London. Starting in May, Mike Faist, of “West Side Story,” and Lucas Hedges, of “Manchester by the Sea,” are going to play the two cowboy lovers from the Annie Proulx story that was made into a movie by Ang Lee. And there’s music! Eddi Reader, a female singer songwriter from Scotland who’s unknown in the US, will on stage warbling tunes about the harsh winter and romantic spring of these two fellas. This is either a great idea or…something else.
The great Cindy Adams reports this morning that Rupert Murdoch is getting married again.
The 92 year old coot media mogul, head of a company that he says lies for a living, is just a romantic at heart. So he’s wooed a 66 year old named Ann Lesley Smith and popped the question. What’s she going to say: No? He’s very, very rich.
Rupert just recently wiggled out of marriage number 4, to famed model Jerry Hall, mother of four of Mick Jagger’s children. She herself is now age 66. Previously he was married to Wendi Deng, and before that Anna Murdoch, and before that someone else.
His mother lived to be 103, so Rupert does not want to be lonely,
The announcement is timed with coincidence. Tonight HBO has a premiere in New York for “Succession,” which is loosely based on Murdoch and his adult children. Logan Roy, head of a media empire, fights with his kids and top employees and treats them like pawns on a chess board. All the kids are messed up. Sound familiar?
So who is Ann Lesley Smith? She’s been married a couple of times. Divorced from her first husband, she said in an interview, who abused her. Second husband was Chester Smith, who died in 2008 at age 78 after just three years of wedded bliss. He was born in 1930, which makes him the same age as Rupert — if he’d lived. Chester Smith presumably had a lot of money. He was a former country singer who had a hit somewhere called “Wait a Little Longer, Please, Jesus.”
Chester Smith was a mini-Murdoch. He started buying up TV stations in the 60s and made a mini-fortune. Ann Lesley branded herself a songwriter. More recently she’s called herself “Reverend Ann” and became a volunteer police chaplain. She inherited a lot from Smith although it’s unclear what his three daughters from his first marriage had to say about that. (Presumably they’ve talked to the Murdoch kids.)
I kid you not.
Those Murdoch kids — er, Roy kids — must have hammered out quite a pre-nup. And to think “Succession” is ending with season 4. It could certainly go on now!
I’m probably late, but I’ve just finished the best new series of this TV season, “Poker Face,” from “Knives Out” director Rian Johnson.
A sort of nod to “Columbo” mashed up with “The Fugitive” and “Murder She Wrote,” this series stars Natasha Lyonne in what will be her Emmy winning performance come September. Lyonne plays Charlie Cale, a fast talking husky accented tough girl with a heart of gold on the run from mobsters. From week to week, there are no full time recurring characters. It’s all guest stars with the exception of Ron Perlman, Benjamin Bratt, and Simon Helberg, who turn up occasionally.
But that’s the genius of the show. It’s witty, and very well written by Johnson and co. It’s also well cast with lots of A list guest stars including Clea Duvall, Chloe Sevigny, Judith Light. Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, and new Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu. In the end, though, it’s all Lyonne with her beautiful big eyes and her lack of hesitance to do anything she’s asked to, from getting completely messed up to slinking around like a mob moll.
Aside from the acting and directing, my favorite part of the show is the music. In the 10th and final episode, called “The Hook,” we do get a joltingly hip, ironic surprise: Bob Dylan;s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Only, it’s not sung by Dylan. I;m not sure if his recording was too expensive to license, or the showrunners thought this was just weirder. But this version is sung by Burl Ives.
No young person knows the name Burl Ives. Their only reference to him might be from the 1964 animated cartoon shown annually called “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” He sang “Holly Jolly Christmas.” Otherwise, Burl Ives is a memory from the 1950s and 60s. He was a folk singer and he was never, ever hip. In fact, his contemporaries loathed him for singing to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. To escape Blacklisting he named names of other entertainers suspected of being Communists. It got Ives, literally, off the Hook.
And there he is, in “Poker Face,” warbling Bob Dylan. Ives released his cover in 1968 on album that he thought would make him hip. It included five Dylan tracks as well as songs by Paul Simon, Jimmy Webb, Tim Hardin, John Hartford, Charlie Daniels and Johnny Cash. In an era of long haired hippies, if you were into older fat men wearing cardigans, Ives’ “The Times They Are a Changin'” album would have been a hit. Most music fans were listening to the Beatles, the Stones, and Sly and the Family Stone. Or even the Monkees.
So there’s the tribute to Burl Ives, just another piece of the sharp edged jigsaw puzzle called “Poker Face,” easily the Best TV Drama of 2023.
On Thursday night, Taylor Swift dropped four new singles onto iTunes. They’re all in the top 10 today Sunday, and one of them has been number 1 all week– “All of The Girls You Loved Before.”
Nevertheless, on the first two nights of Swift’s Eras tour, Friday and Saturday, none of the songs was on the set list. She didn’t play them. Also, the set list is grouped by albums, building to really…nothing. Most concerts make a turn in the last half hour to big hits, ending with the biggest one. But for Eras, the show just ends with a bunch of songs from “Midnights,” her current album. Indeed, the biggest chart hit from that album, “Anti-Hero,” isn’t the finale. It’s sixth from the end.
It’s a curious way to go, but maybe the show will take a different shape as Swift tries it out.
The next two shows are on March 24th and 25th in Las Vegas. The Eras tour has huge breaks between cities. At this rate, it could take years to go around the world!
Here are the set lists for the first two nights:
“Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” “Cruel Summer” “The Man” “You Need to Calm Down” “Lover” “The Archer” “Fearless “You Belong With Me” “Love Story” “Tis the Damn Season” “Willow” “Marjorie” “Champagne Problems” “Tolerate It” “…Ready for It?” “Delicate” “Don’t Blame Me” “Look What You Made Me Do” “Enchanted” “22” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” “I Knew You Were Trouble” “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” “Invisible String” “Betty” “The Last Great American Dynasty” “August”/ “Illicit Affairs” “My Tears Ricochet” “Cardigan” “Style” “Blank Space” “Shake It Off” “Wildest Dreams” “Bad Blood” “Mirrorball” (acoustic) “Tim McGraw” (acoustic) “Lavender Haze” “Anti-Hero” “Midnight Rain” “Vigilante Shit” “Bejeweled” “Mastermind” “Karma”
