The harrowing testimony begins at 4:11:00. Depp has spoken before about his childhood but this account is stunning.
CNN Plus in Free Fall, COO Fired, Marketing Suspended: What Happens to Chris Wallace?
If you were Chris Wallace today you’d be pissed.
The long time voice of reason at Fox News finally left the questionable channel this year and took a position with CNN’s new streaming service, CNN Plus.
But that was before Jeff Zucker imploded and left, and CNN lost most of its viewing audience. And before Discovery CHannel’s David Zaslav bought CNN as part of Warner Media and cleaned house.
Now today Axios is reporting that Zaslav has fired CNN Plus’s COO, Brad Ferrer, and suspended all spending on marketing for the streamer. CNN Plus is said to have found no more than 150,000 subscribers. No one knows where it is, what it is, how to find it, or what’s going on there. On top of that, CNN is awaiting the May 2 arrival of Zucker’s replacement, Chris Licht.
So Wallace has good reason to be upset. He should be on the main CNN, after all, where he could have an impact. But there may be some resistance to that because of his Fox background. And CNN Plus? The new COO is Neil Chugani, Discovery’s current CFO for streaming and international.
Axios is also saying that Chris Cuomo’s 9pm show may be replaced by a live newscast. Really? CNN would be so smart to get back to a Larry King like show at 9pm with hot topics and celebrities, go against Hannity with counter programming.
Tribeca Fest: Films by Katie Holmes, Kyra Sedgwick, Ray Romano, Plus Docs About Sinead O’Connor, John McEnroe, Al Sharpton
Katie Holmes has directed her second feature. It’s called “Along Together,” one of its stars is Derek Luke, and it’s premiering at the Tribeca former Film Festival.
Holmes is not the only actor who’s got a directing job coming to Tribeca. So do Kyra Sedgwick and Ray Romano, who each have promising features in the 2022 line up. There are also a lot of documentaries about people like John McEnroe, Leonard Cohen, Yogi Berra, May Pang and John Lennon, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Sinead O’Connor. There’s also the opening night infomercial about Jennifer Lopez, and a cinema verite look at the Chelsea Hotel as old tenants battle wealthy new owners. Plus, a doc about “King” Richard Williams if you haven’t gotten enough of that story.
JLo aside, Tribeca seems like it’s overflowing with riches. They’ve also got two big Sundance hits, Dakota Johnson in “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and “Good Luck to You Leo Grande” with Emma Thompson. Each of them is a knockout and will sell out quickly.
Major features to watch: Annette Bening and Bryan Cranston in David Frankel’s “Jerry and Marge Go Large,” a sort of “Fun with Dick and Jane” for 2022. Crossing fingers on that one. And “Official Competition” starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas NOT directed by Pedro Almodovar.
Plenty to see– very encouraging. Check out their website.
Sean Penn, Back from Ukraine, Says Watergate Players John and Martha Mitchell, Had “Quite the Sex Life”
By the time we braved last night’s monsoon up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sean Penn was already receiving kudos for his performance as John Mitchell in Starz Channel’s “Gaslit.”
Considering Sean had just returned from filming a documentary in Ukraine, he was suntanned and glowing. I’ve known Sean a long time — let’s say 30 years but it’s more — and I’ve never seen him so happy and relaxed. And smiling. Listen, after two Oscars, why not?
He did not smelt his Oscars after Vladomor Zelenskyy was absent from the Academy Awards. (He did turn up on the Grammys.) But Penn told me “you can’t believe what we saw there” about Ukraine, and that’s something coming from a man who’s spent a lot of time witnessing destruction in Haiti. Sean says his brother, Michael, the singer-songwriter married to Aimee Mann, is busy researching their family’s roots in Ukraine and Russia. Their late director father, Leo Penn, was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. We talked about the similarities when Ukrainians fled to Poland a hundred more years ago when the Russians staged pogroms. “Yes, and now they’re going back,” he said of the brave people, “which is really interesting.”
But back to “Gaslit,” in which he plays the loathsome Watergate era Nixon attorney general Mitchell. Sean was just becoming a teenager in the summer of 1973 when the Watergate hearings took up our lives 24/7 on television. When I mentioned them, Penn said: “We were riveted by those hearings, and hated him.”
What’s really interesting about Penn’s Mitchell is that he’s a heck of a lot more charming than the real guy, who was anything but. “I know,” said Sean,” but you know he and Martha had quite the sex life apparently. They were really hot for each other until they weren’t.”
Starz has it first critical awards worthy hit with “Gaslit,” which also stars Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell (she skipped the party) and Dan Stevens as John Dean. The latter brought a lot of pals from Brooklyn with him including “power couple” Rebecca Hall, coming off her tremendous success with “Passing,” and husband Morgan Spector, aka Mr. George Russell of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” Also at the Met: Alison Tolman and John Carroll Lynch, who will each appear down the line in “Gaslit,” as well as the show’s director, Matt Ross, who helmed all 8 episodes.
Main photo courtesy of Wilson Morales. That’s Sean with Kathryn Busby, new president of original programming at Starz. Inside picture of Morgan Spector, Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens also courtesy of Wilson Morales. c2022 Showbiz411.
Lynch, by the way, told me he’s finally done with “Big Sky,” where was he was killed off twice as two different characters. He laughed, “My work there is done.” The very talented character actor is going off to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to direct himself in his second ever indie feature. (His first, “Lucky,” starred no less than David Lynch and Harry Dean Stanton.) The shoot takes place in September because you have to be out of Edmonton by October 1st if you don’t want to be frozen solid!
Ratings: “Saturday Night Live” Falls with Lizzo, Lowest Number of Last Three Weeks
Lizzo has a big hit on the radio, but she wasn’t so successful on “Saturday Night Live.”
This past week’s episode was the lowest rated of the last three weeks with 4.587. It was just a little less than two weeks ago with Jerrod Carmichael and Gunna. And it was a lot less than last week with Jake Gyllenhaal and Camila Cabello, which got almost to 4.9 million.
These are small distinctions. But they still point to a couple of things, like the value of having big stars, and also maybe having a guest host and a musical guest for extra value. The next new show, on May 7, is with Benedict “Dr. Strange” Cumberbatch and Arcade Fire. Numbers will be up.
Kevin Costner Makes His Movie Deal NOT with “Yellowstone” Studio Paramount But at Warner’s
Kevin Costner is the King of Paramount TV these days with “Yellowstone.” The serial western horse opera is HUGE for Paramount, the number 1 show on cable when it’s airing and number 1 in DVD sales for the last year.
So you’d think Costner’s new movie deal would be at Paramount, too. “Horizon” is the first movie he’s directed since “Open Range” at 2003, which was a Touchstone/Disney film.
But no. Costner made his deal for “Horizon” with Warner Bros. and New Line, with studio chief Toby Emmerich. That’s a curve ball since Paramount could have easily used the “Yellowstone” magic to market “Horizon.” But reports indicate Costner went with Warner’s, where westerns from people like Clint Eastwood have a long history.
“Horizon” is supposed to go into pre-production later this spring. So is “Yellowstone,” for a two part season of seven episodes each. Some three decades after “Dances With Wolves,” Costner remains right in the game and busier than ever!
As for Paramount, down the line there’s always the “Yellowstone” movie or movies. Costner’s only 67, after all. Look at Clint. Costner’s a veritable baby!
“Days of Our Lives” Will Bring Back Dead Character (Peter Reckell) and Exited (Kristian Alfonso) for Peacock Series “Beyond Salem”
Only on a soap opera can dead characters return for new episodes.
Indeed, that’s what’s happening on NBC’s “Days of our Lives.” Peter Reckell, who on the show for years and years, is returning for a streaming series on Peacock called “Beyond Salem.” It really is ‘beyond’ since his character was killed off years ago quite definitely.
The new “Beyond Salem” will run for a week in July and include Kristian Alfonso, who quit “Days” a couple of years ago and vowed never to return. Never say never, kids. Also in this “Beyond Salem” will be all the “Days” regulars including Deidre Hall, who started playing Marlena Evans in 1921 and has not aged one day.
The logline for the show calls it “an adventure of a lifetime” and it sure will be if Reckell turns up as a ghost, or it’s revealed he had a twin brother no one knew about, or the ailment that killed him didn’t and he’s been held captive at NBC all this time. “Days of our Lives” can pull it off, I’m sure. They just won a Writers Guild Award for best daytime drama.
Will Smith’s Slap Has Nothing on Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in Hot New Watergate Series, “Gaslit”
If you thought you saw the Slap of the Month a couple of weeks ago thanks to Will Smith, think again. There’s more slapping to come in “Gaslit,” the Starz Channel limited series starring Julia Roberts as Watergate era whistleblower Martha Mitchell and Sean Penn as her husband, Attorney General to Richard Nixon, John Mitchell. I won’t spoil it for you, but April has become slap-happy.
Listen, I grew up to this soundtrack. As Watergate evolved through 1972, Martha became an iconic figure, a Southern belle in DC calling reporters in the middle of the night ratting out the Republicans. John Mitchell was, as far as I’m concerned, as evil as Nixon.
Penn and Roberts are just sensational in their roles. Roberts, kind of expanding on her “Charlie Wilson’s War” character, has got the right mix of foxiness and grandness to make Martha appealing. Penn has a twinkle in his eye as he makes John Mitchell, I would guess, far more dimensional than he was in real life. What could this series have cost to have two mega watt Oscar winning Hollywood stars? The nice thing is, they are each line for line up to the challenge of pulling off an A+ show here.
This is an 8 part limited series, and the first of its kind for Starz when it comes to prestige. “Gaslit” will put them in the Emmy race, and set them up for more quality programming. So it’s all good news. Robbie Pickering created the series and wrote the episodes. Matt Ross, of “Captain Fantastic” fame, directed the first episode.
The first episode sets up a lot of characters from Watergate lore besides the Mitchells. Chief among them is John Dean, who I remember from the Watergate hearings as snot-nosed preppie who was ready to sell out anyone to stay out of jail. Dan Stevens, of “Downton Abbey” fame, plays him with a lot more panache than Dean deserves. Betty Gilpin is charming as Dean’s prospective second wife, Mo. It seems like this couple will figure big time as the series unfolds. (The Deans are alive and still together. The Mitchells had a rancorous divorce and are now dead.)
Quick kudos to Hamish Linklater, Shea Whigham, and young Darby Camp as the Mitchell’s 11 year old daughter. But there’s a lot more to come, as those of us know who lived through Watergate. And for younger people, “Gaslit” promises to be a highly entertaining education.
I’m hooked even though I know how it all turns out. The quality here is very high, and the fun is in the details.
(Watch) Lizzo Gave Two Phenomenal Performances Last Night on “SNL” Including One Introduced by Her Mom
Lizzo had a big success on “Saturday Might Live” last night. She performed two new hits. One of them, “About Damned Time,” is already at the top of the iTunes 100 and should become a radio staple.
The second song, “Special,” also got great notices from her fans on Twitter. And her mom introduced it!
As musical guest and host, Lizzo was a success. She is ready for anything. She’s got such an open, vibrant personality, the potential is there for a lot of things including movies.
Best part of the night? In her final sketch, she could not stop laughing. Ordinarily that can be annoying, but it worked for her.
Ratings will be in on Tuesday.
Warner’s 3rd “Fantastic Beasts” Disappoints in US, But the Rest of World is OK with It
The third “Fantastic Beasts” movie from Warner Bros. did not have a fantastic weekend here in the U.S.
“The Secrets of Dumbledore” made $43 million domestically. That sounds like a lot but the prior two “Beasts” films had opening weekends significantly higher. It may be time to call it a day on this franchise.
Abroad, however, people who don’t understand English but like a good wanding went to their theaters. The film has already made $110 million internationally. They really liked it in China once any reference to Dumbledore having once been in love with Grindewald was removed — $12 million!
Japan was also a big customer — over $8 million. I’m tempted to make a joke but will refrain. (It was a good joke, too. Call me.) And in the UK, where English is presumably spoken, over $7 million worth of tickets were sold.
Very talented “Beasts” star Eddie Redmayne, who already has an Oscar, just won an Olivier (like a Tony Award) for the revival of “Cabaret” in the West End. He just turned 40. He’s got awards and he’s loaded from these films. So now what? I don’t know, but this ship has sailed. Time to put away the wands. Maybe he can be the new Q or M or X in James Bond movies. (Actually he needs some good romcoms.)