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There Goes The Weeknd: Pop Star Halts and Cancels LA Show After 3 Hour Wait, Voice Went Out

Roger Friedman
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There Goes The Weeknd: Pop Star Halts and Cancels LA Show After 3 Hour Wait, Voice Went Out

So much for The Weeknd.

Pop star Abel Tesfaye made the crowd at SoFi Stadium wait three hours for his show last night. Then he came out, sang two songs quickly, and stopped the show. He informed the audience the concert was cancelled because he’d lost his voice. He was right in the middle of his hit, “I Can’t Feel My Face.” Later, it was rumored, Kanye West was going to join him.

Some of the audience booed, but most people — getting their 100% refund — understood that The Weeknd is human. This is the era now of performers having all kinds of issues from mental to physical. Tesfaye promised the crowd he’d be back to give them a special concert.

And this IS the era of this sort of thing. Adele cancelled her run in Las Vegas last winter because she couldn’t get it together. COVID has caused many tours to be cancelled or postponed, also. Shawn Mendes — fighting perhaps poor ticket sales anyway — decided that he needed a mental health vacation. Justin Bieber, as well.

So much has changed. In the old days performers just pushed on, drank a bottle of Scotch or did some drugs, and made sure the fans weren’t disappointed. Ah, this new healthy generation!

Box Office: $3 Movie Day Does the Trick as “Maverick,” “Spider Man” Jump, “Bullet Train” Picks Up Speed

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: $3 Movie Day Does the Trick as “Maverick,” “Spider Man” Jump, “Bullet Train” Picks Up Speed

Saturday’s $3 Movie Day was a great promotional idea. It got loads of people back into theaters and pumped up the box office.

The results were mostly good news.

“Top Gun: Maverick” is now within a day or two of hitting the $700 million mark. It will pass “Black Panther” to become the fifth biggest movie in history.

“Spider Man: No Way Home,” re-released with added footage, finished in first place for the weekend, adding $6 million to its huge total. That number is now $810 million.

Even Sony’s “Bullet Train” picked up steam and new passengers, adding $5.4 million to its bottom line of $85 million. “Bullet Train” is now assured of hitting $100 million, which is quite an accomplishment since it’s a standalone movie, not a franchise or sequel. Brad Pitt should be pretty happy.

There were a couple of box office flubs. “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul” is DOA. I knew this would happen when I saw it earlier this year. Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall are terrific actors, but beyond 10 minutes this film has no purpose. It’s a one note joke. It’s a sketch. The satire isn’t constructed to last more than a few beats.

Also, MGM-UAR totally blew “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” Even for $3 no one would go see a movie without promotion. George Miller has had so many successes, he must be furious with United Artists Releasing for killing his film! It dropped 47 percent — 47% — from last week. How could that be with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba? Sad.

The Beatles, Adele, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Mary J Blige Among Winners of Creative Arts Emmys, 1st Night

Roger Friedman
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The Beatles, Adele, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Mary J Blige Among Winners of Creative Arts Emmys, 1st Night

Tonight was the first of two nights of Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The main Emmy Awards will be given out on September 12th on their special broadcast on NBC with al the stars in attendance.

Tonight’s and tomorrow night’s awards weren’t even live streamed. They had a live audience, and the whole thing will be edited together and shown later on. Why they just can’t livestream the two nights is beyond me.

Anyway, among the winners were: The Beatles and Peter Jackson for Best Documentary Series, “Get Back,” which got a total of five awards;
Best Documentary Special went to “George Carlin’s American Dream”
Adele and her team for Best Pre-Recorded Variety Special, “Adele: One Night Only.” five awards altogether
Outstanding Variety Special, Live, went to the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show with Mary J. Blige,Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, et al
John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” picked up Best Writing for a Variety show, and Outstanding Technical Direction

Outstanding Short Form Non fiction or Reality Series went to Samantha Bee for “Full Frontal.” which TBS just cancelled out of cowardice

Outstanding Short Form, Comedy or Drama Series was bestowed on James Corden and producer Ben Winston for “Carpool Karaoke”

Stanley Tucci won for Outstanding Hosted Non Fiction Series or Special for “Searching for Italy”

More of these coming on Sunday night…

No Labor Day Telethon: MDA, $23 Million in the Red, 60% Down in Contributions, Lost without Jerry Lewis

Roger Friedman
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No Labor Day Telethon: MDA, $23 Million in the Red, 60% Down in Contributions, Lost without Jerry Lewis

Once upon a time, Labor Day weekend was all about the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon and Jerry’s Kids, thanks to Jerry Lewis. That went on for nearly half a century.

But in 2011, the scourges at MDA dumped Jerry unceremoniously and the charity went into a nosedive from which they’ve never recovered.

Lewis died in 2017 at age 91 but the MDA fundraising had been dead for six years.

For a while MDA tried having smaller telethons without Lewis. They were disasters. Now they have nothing at all.

Last year’s Form 990 — for the year 2020– paints a very sad picture for MDA. They finished the year with MINUS $23 million in net assets or fund balances. MINUS.

In 2019, MDA listed total revenue at just shy of $100 million (that includes mostly corporate donations).

In 2020, revenue was at $51 million.

The most serious MDA numbers are in donations and grants they make to organizations and people in need. In 2019, like 2018, that number hovered around $26 million. In 2020, it was down to $15 million.

Even salaries, which once soared, are in the toilet. In 2020, total salaries were $31.2 million, down from $47.8 million. But that number reflects people out in the field. MDA still listed a dozen execs making between $169K and $435K. The staff has not suffered.

Say what you will about Jerry Lewis, a tremendously talented performer and filmmaker. He was rough on his family and worse on his friends. He made a lot of people miserable. He also made them laugh. And he loved MDA and those kids. He would be sorely disappointed about the failure of MDA to maintain itself.

Box Office: Audience Flocks to Old Films with Lack of New Releases: 1975’s “Jaws” in Top 5

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: Audience Flocks to Old Films with Lack of New Releases: 1975’s “Jaws” in Top 5

I’ve been telling you all week that the box office was hitting new lows. There are no new releases, and the summer films have been exhausted.

So it should come as no surprise that “Spider Man: No Way Home” has returned to the number 1 spot. It was released last fall, made $800 million, and then went to cable and home video.

Nevertheless, Sony has added extra footage and re-released ir into 3,935 theaters. Last night it made $1,750,000 and finished at the top of the box office.

Also, since nature abhors a vacuum but loves a horror film, Bruce the Shark is back. Steven Spielberg’s breakthrough movie, “Jaws,” from 1975, finished 5th on Friday’s list. It made $870,000, and followed another recent Spielberg re-release, “E.T.,” up the charts.

Spielberg’s movies remain as fresh as ever. Even though they are widely available on video on demand or DVD, the audience will always come back to them. It doesn’t hurt that this has been a summer of many reported shark attacks in real life.

Even though Bruce remains a star, it’s unlikely he’ll turn up in Spielberg’s new movie, “The Fablemans,” but we’ll see next week when that one opens at the Toronto Film Festival!

Jane Fonda Says She’s Receiving Chemo Treatments for Non Hodgkins Lymphoma

Roger Friedman
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Jane Fonda Says She’s Receiving Chemo Treatments for Non Hodgkins Lymphoma

Two time Oscar winner Jane Fonda has posted to social media: she’s being treated for non Hodgkins Lymphoma with chemotherapy.

All I can do is send love and prayers and best wishes to Jane, that’s all we can do. She’s always been very physically fit which I’m sure helps in the process.

Jane has a movie premiering at Toronto called “Moving On” with Lily Tomlin. She has two more in the can, and that’s after 7 seasons of “Grace and Frankie.” She’s been working all summer in Italy on “Book Club 2.”

I worked for Jane 40 years ago as a script reader. We have remained very friendly over the last four decades. I am always in deep admiration of her. She has been the conscience of Hollywood and our country. There is no one else like her.

Here is her post:

“So, my dear friends, I have something personal I want to share. I’ve been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and have started chemo treatments.

This is a very treatable cancer. 80% of people survive, so I feel very lucky.

I’m also lucky because I have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatments. I realize, and it’s painful, that I am privileged in this. Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right.

We also need to be talking much more not just about cures but about causes so we can eliminate them. For example, people need to know that fossil fuels cause cancer. So do pesticides, many of which are fossil fuel-based, like mine.

I’m doing chemo for 6 months and am handling the treatments quite well and, believe me, I will not let any of this interfere with my climate activism.

Cancer is a teacher and I’m paying attention to the lessons it holds for me. One thing it’s shown me already is the importance of community. Of growing and deepening one’s community so that we are not alone. And the cancer, along with my age –almost 85– definitely teaches the importance of adapting to new realities.

We’re living through the most consequential time in human history because what we do or don’t do right now will determine what kind of future there will be and I will not allow cancer to keep me from doing all I can, using every tool in my toolbox and that very much includes continuing to build this Fire Drill Fridays community and finding new ways to use our collective strength to make change.

The midterms are looming, and they are beyond consequential so you can count on me to be right there together with you as we grow our army of climate champions.”

Timothee Chalamet Cannibal Movie Panned in Venice as “Grotesque, Garish, and Unpleasant”

Roger Friedman
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Timothee Chalamet Cannibal Movie Panned in Venice as “Grotesque, Garish, and Unpleasant”

“Bones and All,” starring Timothee Chalamet as a modern day cannibal, is getting panned from Venice.

Variety’s Owen Glieberman says: “We see the characters ripping into bodies and munching away, the flesh coming off in chunks, the blood splattering everywhere. When they’re done with a meal, it will look like a serial killer was there. If that sounds a touch grotesque, it is; I found the scenes garish and unpleasant.”

Okay that’s enough. I won’t be seeing this movie, and neither will you. Chalamet is the androgynous It Boy of current cinema, so his fans will wax on and on about how amazing this all is. But actual people won’t sit through what’s described as “grotesque” and the Oscars are not going to come calling.

The reviewer for Collider gave it a B minus.

Luca Guadagnini made “Call Me By Your Name” with Chalamet and Armie Hammer, who professed this last year to be a real cannibal. That movie struck a swooning note in the LGBTetc community. But lighting is not striking twice, even with Michael Stuhlbarg returning to give another heartfelt speech about inclusion.

Pans also come from Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair: “Whatever thematic intention lies at the heart of Bones and All, Guadagnino keeps it at a distance. This is, despite its gruesome premise, perhaps the Italian director’s most straightforward work yet, an alternately plodding and engrossing YA road movie given a dab or two of art-house lacquer.”

The few positive takes are from the usual suspects who review festival films as is there’s a gun to their heads while taken hostage.

Please. Bite me!

CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood Is OUT as News Network Makes Sharp Turn Right

Roger Friedman
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CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood Is OUT as News Network Makes Sharp Turn Right

CNN’s John Harwood has left the building.

The top White House correspondent, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, tweeted his exit this morning.

CNN is falling apart. Under Chris Licht, CNN is making a sharp turn to the right. In the last couple of weeks Licht axed media critic Brian Stelter. Then Jake Tapper tweeted support of Jared Kushner’s book.

Yesterday, Briana Kellar — fighting to keep her job on “New Day” — criticized President Biden for using the Marine marching band during his speech. Viewers went crazy on Twitter complaining that she’d joined the new CNN Zombies.

What”s happening? New CNN owner David Zaslav wants the Fox News viewers. It’s clear he’s put everyone on notice that their jobs are on the line if they don’t step back from being in favor of the world and country continuing to have freedom and democracy and give air to MAGA and other lies.

What a sad state of affairs. Harwood will not be the last exit. Stay tuned…

But PS He has integrity, and that counts for everything!

Box Office: Wednesday Hits Another All Time Low as “Bullet Train” Returns to Number 1

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: Wednesday Hits Another All Time Low as “Bullet Train” Returns to Number 1

Wednesday gave us the lowest daily box office ever. And that was after Monday set an earlier record.

“Bullet Train” returned to number 1 with just $525,045 and it’s been in theaters for 27 days.

The newest film, “The Invitation,” dropped to number 3. In between, “Top Gun Maverick” — which now has whiskers — was number 2.

The entirety of the box office — 24 films — came to just $4 million.

Seeing layoffs? Cutbacks? You betcha. And there are no real big releases coming for three weeks.

Britney Spears, Back on Instagram, Makes Desperate Plea to Teen Sons to Understand Her After Kevin Federline Sells Tell All to UK Tab

Roger Friedman
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Britney Spears, Back on Instagram, Makes Desperate Plea to Teen Sons to Understand Her After Kevin Federline Sells Tell All to UK Tab

Britney Spears has returned to Instagram and posted a desperate plea to her teen sons.

Britney is responding to a huge pay-for-play feature that appeared in the Daily Mail yesterday featuring pictures and interviews with her sons conducted by celebrity muckracker Daphne Barak (I remember her from the Michael Jackson era).

How much did Kevin Federline get from all this? I would guess, a lot.

But Britney’s not getting it. This isn’t the way to win them over. She must get her lawyer to insist on family therapy sessions with the three of them in the same room. Those kids don’t want any more public humiliation. Why doesn’t she understand?

Anyway, you can read the whole thing here. Britney would be wise to get off the internet and start doing some serious personal work. So Kevin Federline has lived off her for years and years. At least he’s given the kids a home. He’s a sponger. Britney’s not going to win that point in a public forum now.

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