Tuesday, October 8, 2024
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RIP The Great Charles Koppelman, 82, Legendary Music Man, Once Managed Michael Jackson, Oversaw Prince’s Estate

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I am so sorry to hear of the death of the great Charles Koppelman. He was one of the true stars of the music industry, a mogul who shunned the spotlight but had a great impact on the culture. My condolences to his family including son Brian, who writes and produces “Billions,” daughters Jennifer Hutt and Stacy Koppelman Fritz.

You will see long obits for Charles because he started out in the era of the Brill Building as a writer-producer-publisher. Eventually in the mid 70s he became a huge publisher through his firm. The Entertainment Company, in which he partnered with Marty Bandier (late the CEO of Sony Music Publishing). The Entertainment Company logo was printed on dozens of hits at Columbia Records including Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer’s “Enough Is Enough.”

Let me jump ahead here. In the late 80s Charles’s wife, Bunny, heard Phoebe Snow singing what became an iconic Bloomingdale’s commercial on TV. Phoebe’s career had been in a lull for some time. Charles had started SBK Records with Bandier, and signed her up. The result was a comeback album called “Something Real.” SBK also piled on hits from plenty of other artists including Smokey Robinson and Boy George. The publishing side of the business was so successful that they sold SBK Entertainment to EMI for $300 million (SBK had been formed from the ashes of what was then called CBS Songs).

Charles was a music publishing visionary and so respected that when Michael Jackson ran into real trouble in the early 2000s, he chose Koppelman to co-manage him. Koppelman and his partner, Al Malnik, almost rescued Jackson until he was conned by brother Randy and the Nation of Islam into a convoluted deal. But it was Charles who helped me navigate Michael’s business dealings in those days and I will always be grateful to him. Years later Charles also helped manage Prince’s interests. He also at different times ran Steve Madden’s shoe business when he was in jail and Martha Stewart’s Omnimedia.

Charles Koppelman was one of the great gentlemen of the music business, and he will be sorely missed.

Jennifer Lopez is Releasing a New Album in 2023 Whether You Like it Or Not

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Jennifer Lopez, aka JLo, won’t get the message. She’s a great dancer, an ok actress, but recording star?

Her last album, released in 2014, sold just 81,000 copies. That should have been a sign.

But no, JLo persists. She announced today she will release a new album in 2023 called “This is Me…Now.” So get ready.

“This is Me…Now” will be released on LA Reid’s Hitco Records, possible via Warner Music. The announcement today comes exactly 20 years after her last actual hit album, “This is Me…Then.” Since then she’s recorded several albums that have sold an average of about 250,000 copies apiece or less.

Lopez is not a great singer. On TV shows, at least, she’s famous for lip synching. On records, she’s often been accused of mixing her voice with other singers to make it sound better. That was certainly the case years ago when Ashanti was her singer on “I’m Real,” her big hit with Ja Rule.

There’s a tracklist of upcoming songs, but no credits yet (they will all have Lopez as co-writer, don’t worry). One of them is called “Letter to Ben,” because the marriage to Ben Affleck must be exploited in some way.

Brace yourselves…

Stop the Presses! Netflix Reports Box Office Grosses for Second Time Ever! “Glass Onion” a Hit in Very Small Release

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I just did a spit take. Netflix has reported box office grosses, maybe for the first time ever. (No , it’s the second time. The first was a move no one ever heard of called “After Ever Happy.” It made $900K in the US and $12 million internationally.)

I guess they’re happy that “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” has made $3.88 million in two days. The film is playing for one week in 600 theaters.

This is the equivalent of a press release from the Kremlin, or Kim Jong Un reporting how many enemies and family members he killed over the weekend. Amazing.

Reports from theaters show that “Glass Onion” showings are at least 80% full. My advice: as long as you’re in the theater, go see “The Fabelmans.” That’s how I saw these two movies in Toronto, back to back, and it was an excellent double feature!

Box Office Carnage for Timothee Chalamet Cannibal Movie: Audience Finds ChompCom Indigestible for Holidays

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FRIDAY UPDATE: Thanksgiving diners found the movie indigestible. Dropped a whopping 53%, took in only $430,000 on Thursday.

EARLIER: “Bones and All” is dead at the box office.

Did I say in my review that Timothee Chalamet reveals in the film that he killed and ate his own father? Spoiler alert. At that point, you’ll be wretching.

“Bones and All” expanded on Wednesday to 2,727 theaters and made just $921,168. The total for six days in release is now just over $1 million. This movie is dead. The audience couldn’t swallow it without retching.

What could have been clever is so off putting there’s no place for “Bones and All” to go. Strange that cannibalism was so “in” this year. Another film, “Fresh,” starring Sebastian Stan, was just as disgusting if not more so. I’d say they’re tied. No one wants to sit in a theater and see people munching away on human flesh, fake blood flying, bones crunching, etc.

What are Mark Rylance and Michael Stuhlbarg doing in this movie? It couldn’t have been a payday.

Kanye West Posts 19th Nervous Breakdown: Voices Support for White Supremacist Nick Fuentes, Says Trump Severely Denigrated Kim Kardashian in Meeting, Asked Trump Why He Didn’t Free J6 Rioters?

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Kanye West’s Thanksgiving Tweets are part of his 19th nervous breakdown. Now pushing his “Ye 2024” presidential run, Kanye posted one Tweet claiming Adidas has frozen his accounts and is suing him for $275 million.

West can be seen in the video below voicing support for white supremacist Nick Fuentes, calling him a “loyalist,” saying Trump really likes him. (Fuentes has suggested in videos that the Army just go in and kill all the Blacks.)

West says in the video when he met with Trump he said, “Why when you had the chance didn’t you free the January 6th-ers?”

In the other Tweet Kanye recalls to a toadie his meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Kanye says Trump told him not to run for president because he will lose. He also called Kim Kardashian a name that had to be bleeped from the video. West responded, “Hey, that’s the mother of my children.”

From this video, it appears Kanye wants some kind of approbation from Trump, who he even offered his running mate position to as a peace offering.

Here are two of the Tweets. There’s a third one issued in the last hour that includes a clip from Tucker Carlson. I can’t post it because I can’t stand Carlson, but you can find it if it’s important to you.

What’s clear is that Kanye West is going down in flames. No one can stop him from self destructing. If he weren’t an anti-semite racist you might feel sorry for him. He’s clickbait but soon things are going to be much worse for him.

Bruce Springsteen Calls R&B Legend Sam Moore “The Greatest Living Soul Singer Right Now” on Seth Meyers

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R&B legend and Rock Hall of Famer Sam Moore is featured on Bruce Springsteen’s new album. Last night Bruce sang Sam’s praises on Seth Meyers. See the video below, you can find those comments beginning at 4:34.

This Thanksgiving I give thanks for a lot of things, but also to Bruce for saying all these wonderful things. Sam & Dave were forgotten for a bit in the mid to late 70s after having such massive hits in the 1960s. “The Blues Brothers” brought them back, but Sam Moore didn’t get the proper recognition as a solo singer until later on. He’s since sung for all the living presidents and has been a regular at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Sam sang on Bruce’s “Human Touch” album and is also featured on various live performances. Bruce guest starred in 2006 on Sam’s “Overnight Sensational” album. Their friendship has been long and fruitful.

Box Office: Disney in a Very “Strange World” as New Animated Film Flops with $3.4 Million Opening

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Disney is going to posing a question first spoken by the Dowager Countess on “Downton Abbey.” The question is: “What is a weekend?”

The Mouse House’s new animated film had previews on Tuesday, and “opened” on Wednesday. Box office for the latter was $3.4 million, making a $4.2 million “opening.” Now it’s Thursday, the beginning of a long weekend.

But at this rate, “Strange World” will reap around $20 million from Tuesday- Sunday. That will be the lowest first week, or six days, probably in Disney modern history. Families are obviously waiting for this film to be on Disney Plus, or they just don’t care at all.

Luckily, Disney doesn’t have to care either. They have “Wakanda Forever” at $313 million, but slowing down precipitously. Maybe audiences will move on to the half dozen or more adult movies in which no one flies except maybe on an airplane.

Review: Timothee Chalamet Bites Off More than He Can Chew in Utterly Disgusting “Bones and All”

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Just because you have good actors in a movie doesn’t mean you’ve made a good movie. Alas, that’s the problem Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” a movie about real cannibals who go around eating people, graphically, on screen.

Guadagnino has assembled an excellent cast in Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance and newcomer Taylor Russell, not to mention Andre Holland and Jessica Harper. “Bones and All” could be considered a film about rebellious teens in love who go on the road for adventure. And for some stretches, that’s what it is, a romantic idyll as the kids find things in common and fall in love. Ah, young love.

Except for one thing: “Bones and All” is gory and disgusting, utterly repulsive. It’s a horror movie, a literary one I guess but a horror movie nevertheless. (It is certainly not an Oscar movie. So rid yourself of that idea right now.)

Russell’s Maren (she reminds me a lot of Zendaya) discovers at 18 that she really is a cannibal when she tried to devour a school friend during a sleepover. Her father (Andre Holland) hustles her out of town but dumps her, as her mother once did, because he can’t deal with it.

Maren meets Sully, played by Mark Rylance with a Southern drawl. He smells her, they are two of a kind. He provides instruction in the ways of Eaters. But Maren is off to find her lost mother, and meets Lee (Chalamet) a likewise soul. They go on a dining journey unlike anything you’ll find in Zagat, devouring new friends one by one. There is blood on the tracks, on their faces, clothes everywhere. A lot of this film you have to watch with hands in front of your face.

Rylance makes a meal of the whole thing and chews the scenery, among other things. There is gristle everywhere. They all reminded me of my very fat landlord who years ago used to sit on my stoop with chicken bones in his greasy beard after eating a cooked chicken from the corner deli. This movie is no less pleasant than that memory.

Guadagnino may have a point, but I don’t what it is, nor care to. The movie is outlandishly disgusting. You can’t recommend it to anyone. The director is skilled, so the production is not the issue. I wish he applied himself to something more savory. Chalamet is a good young actor who’s getting better with each film. Rylance is, of course, the best at what he does. (He takes apart an older woman whose house he breaks into like a pro, keeping her head as a souvenir.) Russell is a welcome newcomer. But I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind paying $20 or $40 to see this without immediately asking for their money back — unless, of course, extreme psychological horror is your preferred dish.

PS This is not the movie to see after a big Thanksgiving dinner.

Bruce Springsteen Three Days on Tonight Show Brought Good News, Bad News to Jimmy Fallon

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Bruce Springsteen was the musical guest for three days last week on the Tonight Show. On the first night, he sat for a long interview, and then performed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday he just performed. All of it was magic, and a real for the Tonight Show.

So how did it go ratings wise? There’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that on Wednesday, the third show, Fallon beat Colbert and Kimmel soundly in the key age range. Fallon also ran a strong second place to Colbert on Wednesday in overall viewers.

The bad news is that on Monday and Tuesday Springsteen made little difference. Fallon finished in third place. Go figure.

Why was Wednesday so hot? Maybe word of mouth from the first two nights. Also, the guest line up on Wednesday on Fallon was A plus: Glenn Powell from “Top Gun Maverick” and Anna Taylor Joy from “The Queen’s Gambit” and now “The Menu” were the guests. Then Bruce came out with his huge group and performed a beautiful version of the Commodores song, “Nightshift.”

Meantime, Springsteen’s album, “Only the Strong Survive” is number 5 on iTunes. It’s also pulled “Born to Run” and “Springsteen’s Greatest Hits” onto the top 50.

Oscars: Brendan Fraser and “The Whale” Were Snubbed by Spirit Awards, Freaking Out Film Twitter

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This is hilarious.

I don’t think much of the Spirit Awards, but they did something right for once: they iced out a movie highly touted by bloggers which I didn’t like at all.

The movie is “The Whale” and the star is Brendan Fraser. For some reason, bloggers on Twitter who cover Hollywood just went nuts over this movie. They loved it, and they started promoting Fraser as the next winner of the Oscars’ best actor.

I reviewed “The Whale” finally and found Fraser to be just fine, certainly his best work, although that’s not saying much since his older films were largely teen fare or “The Mummy.” But he is very moving in “The Whale” and deserves a nomination.

The movie, however, I thought was emotionally manipulative and wore itself out. Fraser’s 600 pound character is doomed from the start, so he has no story arc except downward. It was a bit much. (My inappropriate comment is that I’ve been skipping dessert ever since.)

Will the movie and Fraser be nominated for Oscars? Maybe. But the Spirit Awards voters or committees obviously didn’t like it. They just snubbed the whole thing. I’m surprised. I thought it was perfect for them. Very weighty. This is one time I agree with them. But I do think the Oscars will rescue Fraser and the screenplay, despite my not caring for it. In the end, the Academy will probably not even think about the Spirit Awards, which is just right.