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Harry Styles Readies New Album Called “Harry’s House,” Also Name of Famous Joni Mitchell Song

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I like Harry Styles but his music is, uh, derivative. His songs carry riffs and ideas from previously released music by groups like Badfinger and Crowded House. He loves the 70s, or his producers do.

Harry drops a new single on Thursday night. It’s called “As It Was.” It’s from an album called “Harry’s House.”

“Harry’s House” was a terrific Joni Mitchell song from the 1975 album, “The Hissing of Summer Lawns.” Joni’s account Tweeted: “Love the the title.” See below.

Here’s Harry’s latest Tweet:

Here’s Joni:

And here’s “Harry’s House” in a medley with “Centerpiece,” by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. When Harry Styles makes a track like this, call me, please.

Chris Rock Says Almost Nothing About Will Smith Punch, Every Outlet Reports it As a Major Scoop

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LOL. This is funnier than anything Chris Rock is saying tonight at the Wilbur Theater in Boston.

Rock came out on stage for his first of several shows where media has lined up like crazy and tickets sold out fast at high prices.

Everyone wants to know what he thought of being punched on Sunday’s Oscars by Will Smith.

This is what he said: “I’m still processing what happened.” That’s the headline. And now I’m indundated with Tweets and messages from every media outlet claiming exclusives. “Chris Rock Speaks!”

How lame.

Earlier today, Jada Pinkett posted one line on Instagram and the same thing happened. She wrote: “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.”

What kind of bunk is that? Yet, they all picked it up like it was the 11th commandment issued by Moses. Again. “Jada Opens Up.”  I love it when people “open up.” It’s such a stupid expression. It means nothing It’s like “So and so movie starlet stuns on red carpet.” If they really stunned someone, that person would be on the red carpet!

So Jada and now Chris Rock have said about five words each and people all over the world are clicking on “Breaking News.”

Fools!

Academy Apologizes to Chris Rock. Says Will Smith Was Asked to Leave After Fight But Wouldn’t: Suspension Possible

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The Motion Picture Academy says they asked Will Smith to leave the Dolby Theater after he slapped or punched Chris Rock on live national TV. Smith, they say, refused, and stayed to receive his Oscar.

This news came as a statement sent by the the Academy today was revealed.A meeting was held today that resulted in a decision to investigate the matter and  reconvene on April 18th. At that time, it’s likely that Smith will have his membership suspended, if not revoked.

The biggest takeaway here is that the Academy apologizes to Chris Rock, who is clearly the injured party.

Here’s the Academy statement:

The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy.

Consistent with the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, as well as California law, Mr. Smith is being provided at least 15 days’ notice of a vote regarding his violations and sanctions, and the opportunity to be heard beforehand by means of a written response. At the next board meeting on April 18, the Academy may take any disciplinary action, which may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct.

Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment. We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event.

Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.

Bee Gees BioPic Flips from “Belfast” Oscar Nominee Kenneth Branagh to “Once” Director John Carney

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Here’s a plot twist.

Oscar nominated “Belfast” director Kenneth Branagh had been all set to direct the Bee Gees movie with a screenplay by Anthony McCarten.

This information was still listed on the IMDB. In December when I saw him at the Michael Jackson musical opening on Broadway, producer Graham King talked to me about it.

But that was before “Belfast” took off and cemented Branagh as an an Oscar and DGA nominee. Also, he won an Oscar on Sunday for the “Belfast” screenplay.

Now Variety reports that John Carney, who made “Once,” “Begin Again.” and “Sing Street,” has taken over. Something happened. Maybe Branagh wanted more money or didn’t like the finished screenplay. We won’t worry about him, Branagh has plenty of projects. Carney is terrific, although his music movies aren’t as flashy as the Bee Gees. It will be interesting to see how he does it. One thing’s for sure, he knows how to cast a movie. I’ll bet we see Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, who was so good in “Sing Street” and is now in “CODA,” as one of the Gibbs boys.

Bruce Willis Retirement Will Definitely Hurt His Producers: He Still Has 7 Unreleased Bad Films, 2 More Were Planned

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The decision to retire Bruce Willis by his family will be a financial blow to the producers who’ve been exploiting him.

Bruce has 7 bad films in the can right now, and two more were planned for him to appear in.

He has two out right now on DVD or whatever, also terrible and embarrassing. But the gravy train comes to an end now.

In each of these movies, Bruce works for a day or two, is fed lines through an earpiece, and makes things worse and worse for himself.

It wasn’t his fault.

These releases began around 2015. But even then, with real movies, directors were covering up for him. In M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” from 2019 you can see it: Bruce barely speaks, and is shot often in cameo or silhouette.

For Bruce’s franchise career, “Die Hard” had become an issue, too. His last one, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” in 2013, was a disaster. A planned 5th movie had to be scrubbed because of his condition.

The biggest blow will be to Emmet/Furla Films, and Saban Films, which have been releasing these straight to video debacles. And “releasing” is a kind way of putting it. It’s more like they’re being expelled into the atmosphere like noxious gas.

Now at least Bruce can enjoy himself and his family and not have to worry that he’ll be remembered for making movies in which he plays second fiddle to fourth tier TV stars.

 

Bruce Willis’s Family Finally Admits the Truth: He Has Significant Cognitive Issues, and Will Retire from Acting at Age 67

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Bruce Willis’s family has done the wise thing and admitted the truth. They say Bruce has recently been diagnosed with aphasia and will retire from acting. I am so glad they’ve finally done this.

Willis has had cognitive issues for years. He was making god awful D films, ruining his legacy in the process and possibly not understanding that at the same time. Willis recently was given a whole category at the Razzies for eight bad performances. It was embarrassing.

So this had to stop. The Razzies, possibly coupled with the advancing nature of Bruce’s condition, finally made the family come to this decision. What’s great is that Demi Moore, Bruce’s ex wife and mother of his three eldest daughters, has been so involved. The family has really pulled together.

The trouble began a few years ago when he suddenly had to be replaced in the 2015 Woody Allen movie “Cafe Society” by Steve Carell. At the same time, Bruce was on Broadway in “Misery,” reading his lines off cue cards or having them fed into his ear by an off stage helper.

read more about Bruce Willis’s retirement here

On the all these crappy movies of the last two or three years, it was the same thing. He appeared in one or two scenes and robotically read lines that were mouthed to him.

Now Bruce’s family has posted this message to Instagram, and it’s about time.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.
This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.
As Bruce always says, “Live it up” and together we plan to do just that.
Love,
Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, & Evelyn”

And now that the truth is out, we will probably start hearing from Bruce’s wife, Emma, who’s very active on social media and has a cosmetics line. Without further humiliating Bruce, now Emma can tell the truth openly and help other people who are dealing with cognitive issues, whether it’s aphasia or dementia, etc.

And at least those horrible movies will come to an end. Hopefully they’ll be erased from existence, and Bruce will be remembered for “Moonlighting,” “Die Hard,” “The Sixth Sense,” and other good projects.

Oscar Winner “CODA” Coming to Theaters This Weekend in Gingerly Rollout, But with Closed Captions

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Oscar winner “CODA” is finally ready for its close up.

Apple will release the Sian Heder film to 600 theaters, with closed captions. “CODA” is the winner of Best Picture, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

It’s a gingerly release, a little small, but it’s something. We’ll see what the response is. Few people have seen “CODA” on a big screen, making it a first in Oscar history. It was released last summer briefly and made just $1 million. But theaters weren’t really open, the pandemic was still a very big issue, and so on.

When “CODA” first started playing on Apple TV, and through the fall as the Oscar season began, I wrote here several times that there was no campaign for it, no one knew what was going on, and that this lovely little movie that we had all enjoyed at virtual Sundance in 2021 wasn’t in competition with other Oscar movies.

Indeed, there was little attention paid to it through the winter. If the Oscars had been given on February 27th and not March 27th— the way things were before the pandemic — I think “Belfast” might have won Best Picture. But with the extra month, idol minds are the devil’s workshop. The voters become bored with the frontrunners and start looking around for something new. “CODA” was perfect because everyone who saw it loved it, and there hadn’t been too much emphasis on it other than Troy Kotsur for supporting actor. That it won is kind of serendipity and magic.

Elton John Oscar Party, Co-Hosted by Lady Gaga, Raised $8.6 Mil for AIDS Research — And Elton Satellited In For a Private Show!

Elton John was on stage somewhere in the heartland Sunday night. He couldn’t even be at his own Oscar party in Hollywood. But the party was a smash anyway, co-hosted by Lady Gaga, David Furnish, Eric McCormack, Billy Porter, and Brandi Carlile. EJAF, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, raised $8.6 million for AIDS research and funding of projects to end the terrible epidemic.

Unlike the Vanity Fair party the annual Elton soiree is thrown for a purpose. The only people who benefit from the Vanity Fair ratf*ck are Conde Nast and their advertisers. Late in the evening, around 12;45am, we ran into three guys in their 60s from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn who were right out of central casting for “Goodfellas” or “The Sopranos.” They’d actually bought their way into the VF party!)

The A List Guests at EJAF included Casey Affleck, Saweeti, Demi Lovato, Kevin Costner, Zooey Deschanel, Donatella Versace, Fran Drescher, star sisters Rosanna and Patricia Arquette, Christina Hendricks, Chris Pine, Lucy Hale, Heidi Klum, Chris Sullivan and Chrissy Metz, Andrew Rannells, Sofia Richie, Liam Payne, Beck, Bobby Berk, Emily Hampshire, Nukki Haskell, Kathy and Rick Hilton, among others.

To the delight of the attendees, Elton John joined via satellite from his rescheduled Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour stop in Lincoln, Nebraska, to express his appreciation for their support and treat the crowd to a special performance of “Your Song” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

Live at the party Brandi Carlile and surprise guest John Wesley Rogers performed a duet of “Rocket Man.” How cool was that?

PS Everyone went by strict protocols, with vaccine cards double checked, and many with new COVID tests.

 

 

How Could Power of the Dog Win the Oscar? Even Netflix Subscribers Didn’t Watch It

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There’s a lot of handwringing post-Oscars about “The Power of the Dog.” Netflix spent at least $20 million on the Academy Award campaign and yielded exactly one statue, for director Jane Campion.

Otherwise, “Power of the Dog” did not resonate with Academy voters. Nor did it catch on with Netflix subscribers. Today Netflix is trumpeting that Ryan Reynolds has three movies on its top 10 list of original movies. But what they’re ignoring is that “POD” isn’t even on that list.

Another Oscar nominee, “Don’t Look Up,” is the second most watched movie in Netflix’s history among their originals. It should be: the budget for that all star began with $30 million for Leonardo Di Caprio and $25 million for Jennifer Lawrence. With Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill– the bottom line may have been $200 million.

The numbers below are based on hours viewed in their first 28 days on Netflix.

PS Maybe Netflix should get out of the awards business and just make entertaining, broad audience pleasing movies.

1. Red Notice, 364 million hours
2. Don’t Look Up, 359.8 million
3. Bird Box, 282 million
4. Extraction, 231.3 million
5. The Unforgivable, 214.7 million
6. The Irishman, 214.6 million
7. The Adam Project, 209.7 million
8. The Kissing Booth 2, 209.3 million
9. 6 Underground, 205.5 million
10. Spencer Confidential, 197.3 million

RIP Tears for Paulie Herman, De Niro Associate, “Sopranos” Actor, Beloved Hollywood Restaurateur

I am so sorry to hear that Paulie Herman has died. He was 76, and a beloved character on both coasts.

Paulie may be known to you as Robert De Niro’s pal in “Silver Linings Playbook.” He also had a recurring role as “Beanie” in “The Sopranos.” He was in “Casino” and “Goodfellas,” also, on the TV show, “Entourage,” and the Jeff Bridges movie, “Crazy Heart.”

I met Paulie over 30 years ago when he and his brother Charlie ran the famed Columbus Cafe on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. It was supposed to be the Upper West Side version of Elaine’s, and for a time, it was. On Wikipedia it says the place was “frequented by actors, ballet dancers, gangsters, and FBI and DEA agents.” This was completely true. I met a lot of eclectic people there during its short run. Regis Philbin and DeNiro were among the partners.

Paulie knew everyone in Hollywood and the New York movie scene. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say he was one of Robert DeNiro’s closest pals. They were very tight. When De Niro and his restaurant pals opened Ago on Melrose in West Hollywood in 1998, Paulie was sent to run it. And he kept it going until the end of 2019, when the restaurant lost its lease.

Paulie was loyal as they come. He was a great friend and acquaintance. At Ago he always greeted me with a hug, made sure I always had a great table, we’d reminisce about Paul Sorvino singing at Columbus or the night in 1986 — yes, 1986 — when novelist William Kennedy’s wife Dana showed Francis Ford Coppola her “cell phone” — it was like a brick — and let him use it to call his young daughter, Sofia.

Paulie, you will always be missed. RIP.

PS Tony Danza already posted a tribute. There will be more, believe me.

Robert De Niro:

“I am very sad about the passing of Paul Herman.  He was a wonderful actor as well as a dear friend.

He will be missed by all who knew and loved him, and by the profession he so proudly served through

the quality of his work.

Rest in Peace, Paul.”

 

 

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