I never thought of these two, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, working together. But New Jersey meets Indiana in their first collaboration, “Wasted Days,” dropped strangely on a Wednesday at midnight. PS It’s a terrific single very catchy, and unapologetically them.
“Law & Order LOL”: Dick Wolf Says After Botching “For the Defense” He’ll Bring Back Original Show Next Season
I like Dick Wolf. He’s obviously a success and a survivor. He told NBC last winter that if they canceled “Manifest,” he’d give them a third hour of “Law & Order” to go with “SVU”and “Organized Crime.” He said it would be called “For the Defense,” and focus on defense lawyers.
Wolf hired Carol Mendelsohn, late of “CSI” to develop the show. But no one ever developed it. And when the time came to pony up, Wolf blamed Mendelsohn for no show.
Insiders tell me that “For the Defense,” however, was all Wolf’s idea, and that he never thought it through. “You can’t have the police be wrong in every story,” said one observer. “It’s all Law, no Order. It breaks the whole theme of the shows.”
Wolf’s mistake meant “Manifest” went to Netflix after a public outcry, and NBC was left without a third hour to give Wolf a block on Thursday nights. NBC has since been scrambling to fill the time.
So no surprise today that Wolf has announced that next fall he’s bringing back the original “Law & Order.” Who’ll be in it? Chris Noth is otherwise occupied on “The Equalizer,” but he’d be a likely candidate to join the show. Wolf could make it up to Paul Sorvino, so good in the early shows almost three decades ago. Sam Waterston is available. And Linus Roache, who was kind of screwed during the show’s final seasons. Plus, where is Jesse L. Martin?
The “L&O/Wolf” people I spoke to over the summer must be cackling with this news. Mendelsohn was thrown under the bus when “For the Defense” couldn’t come up with a script or characters. The new show, as many pointed out, was just the Law without the Order. Now Wolf can try again to build his Thursday block.
Remember “Electric Avenue”? Judge Declines to Dismiss Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Brought by Singer Eddy Grant for Using Record in Campaign Commercial
Loser, loser, loser. Donald Trump is a loser all the time.
United State District Judge John G. Koeltl has now ruled against Trump and his campaign for using Eddy Grant’s hit record, “Electric Avenue” without Grant’s permission in campaign commercial.
Grant and his publishing company sued the Trump campaign for copyright infringement. The campaign made a motion to dismiss. Judge Koeltl denied it.
Grant can move forward. He’s using top intellectual property lawyer Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP, who will eat Trump and his people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The judge writes in his opinion, issued yesterday: “On August 12, 2020, at or about 9:35 p.m., former President Trump published a Tweet from his personal Twitter account containing a fifty-five-second animated video. The video endorsed former President Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection campaign and sought to denigrate the Democratic
Party’s 2020 presidential nominee, now-President Joseph R. Biden. The video begins with a depiction of a high-speed red train bearing the words “Trump Pence KAG [Keep
America Great] 2020.”
“After the red train passes, the beginning of
Electric Avenue can be heard clearly, along with an excerpt of a
speech by President Biden. Around the same time, a slow-moving
handcar, operated by an animated likeness of President Biden,
comes into view bearing the words “Biden President: Your Hair
Smells Terrific.” The video~in particular the contrast
between the trains and the unflattering nature of the excerpted
language from President Biden~appears intended to criticize
President Biden and depict the strength of former President
Trump’s campaign. Grant’s song can be heard beginning at around
the fifteen-second mark of the video, and continues through the
duration of the fifty-five second video. “
The Trump campaign said their use of “Electric Avenue” was fair use. The court said no, loudly. The judge wrote:
“The defendants did not receive a license or Grant’s
permission to use the song in connection with the animated
video. In fact, one day after the Tweet was
published, Grant advised the defendants by letter about the
defendants’ perceived unauthorized use of Grant’s copyrights,
and demanded that the defendants cease and desist from further
infringing conduct.
“The creator of the video here made a wholesale copy of a
substantial portion of Grant’s music in order to make the
animation more entertaining. The video did not parody the music
or transform it in any way. The video’s overarching political
purpose does not automatically make this use transformative, and
the other fair use factors also favor the plaintiffs at this
stage. Accordingly, the defendants have failed to demonstrate
fair use as a matter of law. The defendants may reassert their
fair use defense at the summary judgment stage when there is a
more developed factual record.”
The “Electric Avenue” lawsuit is just one of many involving Trump and his flagrant disregard of copyright law. He’s used dozens of songs without permission, just raising the ire of the artists, the copyright holders, and the fans of the artists involved.
Review: Daniel Craig’s Final James Bond Movie, “No Time to Die,” Pulls Out All the Stops for an Explosive Finale…or a Cliffhanger
BREAKING NEWS: DANIEL CRAIG TO STAR IN BROADWAY “MACBETH” NEXT SPRING
SPOILER ALERT (not big ones): The Daniel Craig era of James Bond comes to an explosive and shocking finale in the long awaited “No Time to Die.” I can’t tell you what happens, but this is the movie that will bring people back to theaters. It’s a long movie, but it’s never dull for a minute. You will be on the edge of your seats the entire time. It ends with what may be the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers, or a finale for the ages.
“No Time to Die,” Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond movie, was supposed to be released almost two years ago in November 2019. After many re-schedulings, the day has arrived. Today there have been simultaneous screenings in New York and Los Angeles for the press while at the same in London there’s a gala premiere at Royal Albert Hall.
“No Time to Die” has had other hardships, notably a change in director from Oscar winner Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”) to Cary Joji Fukunaga. The final screenplay is from screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the latter a recent sensation for her TV series, “Fleabag.”
The movie brings back Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, and Ralph Fiennes from previous Bond films. It also adds Oscar winner Rami Malek as Bond’s newest foe, plus Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas (who co-starred with Craig in “Knives Out”), Dali Benssalah, Billy Magnussen (in his second big role of the fall, after playing young Paulie Walnuts in “Many Saints of Newark”), and David Dencik.
The last time we saw James, at the end of “Spectre,” he was off on a happy romantic ending with beautiful Madeleine (Seydoux). Alas, they are forced to split up and we fast forward five years. Bond, retired from MI6 and unwanted by them (they sort of think he’s dead) is called back into action by his old CIA pal, Felix Leiter (Wright), who he hasn’t seen for a couple of movies now. Leiter needs him to help find missing scientist Valdo Obruchev, a missing scientist (Dencik.)
When Bond meets up with Leiter, he’s got a CIA operative with him Logan Nash (played by the wily Billy Magnussen) who no one trusts because he smiles all the time. They send Bond on a mission to find Obruchev which of course has many twists and turns. The most fun of these is the reunion with Ana de Armas, a beautiful and fledgling spy in Havana. (No they do not have sex.) deArmas is as disarming as ever, and the pair’s jump into formal wear for a casino moment is well worth it.
This is a movie, the kind you have to see on a big screen. It’s long because it’s an epic, and it’s a summing up for Craig who first became James Bond in 2006 with “Casino Royale.” No other actor has had as long a run as Bond even though Sean Connery and Roger Moore sentimentally are just as identified with the character (no disrespect to Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton).
“No Time to Die,” then, is a summing up of fifteen years of Craig and his association with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the daughter and step son of Albert Cubby Broccoli. It’s the end of an era marked by a portrait of Dame Judi Dench as Craig’s memorable mentor, M. Not only does Wright’s Leiter come to say goodbye, but so does Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld (very subdued). Rami Malek, with facial prosthetics, is a perfectly slithery villain who’s so awful he makes his own skin crawl as well as ours.
If there’s a twist I can report it’s that during his absence from MI5, Bond has been replaced by a Black woman named Nomi, played with grace, intelligence, and energy by Lashana Lynch. M– Mallory aka Ralph Fiennes– has given her Bond’s number of 007. She is sensational, well written and fun but quite serious and deadly. She really needs her own offshoot movie or even an Amazon series. (When you see her and Bond together you want to make a “Two Jakes” kind of joke, “The Two 007s”).
I don’t know the books of Ian Fleming well enough, but he might have imagined James Bond finally getting a family, even if briefly, and a moment of human happiness. Other than “Skyfall,” this is Daniel Craig’s real acting achievement as Bond. You could tell that he was really showing off his chops here. Gone is all the campy fun, although the movie has quite few wry laughs. Craig is giving his Bond a send off that is most memorable and moving.
All good nods to the production. The set pieces are very, very intense with plenty of blood rushing excitement. Fukanaga fills the role of Bond director, bringing inventiveness to each situation. I always love it when the Aston Martin used as a character, and in this movie, even the car gets bravura wrap up moments.
Is this the cliffhanger of all cliffhanger? You better believe it.
Congrats to all on an enormous send off.
Ratings: NFL, Forgetting Kaepernick and Kneeling, Returns to Huge Sunday Numbers of Old
Colin Kaepernick? Kneeling? That’s so 2018.
The NFL is back! Memories are short, people want to get out of the house, and if not, settle in for a good old football game.
Sunday’s ratings for the NFL were huge for three networks: CBS, NBC, and Fox. Not for ABC, which go tackled over and over carrying the BS Global Citizen concert special at 7pm and got 1.6 million viewers.
At 1pm, over 14 million people sat down to CBS to see a bunch of games play out.
Over on Fox, 12.5 million fans got into their Barcaloungers and poured a few beers for the first set of games. For the second set, at 4:30, 22,6 million people were watching. And 10 million hung on for overtime coverage.
Back on NBC, at 8:30pm, just under 20 million people ignored “The Simpsons” premiere on Fox and the Tony Awards on CBS at 9pm. They watched the Packers defeat the 49ers decisively.
All eyes Sunday were on football. That the Tony’s even got 2.7 million viewers is a miracle.
During the last four years, the NFL has been in a serious slump. Encouraged by the Former Guy in the White House, there was a negative vibe about the NFL. For a few minutes, some people had a conscience about the way Colin Kaepernick was treated. But then, hey, time passed. Kap still isn’t playing football, but the hot dogs are hot, and the beer is cold, and what else are we going to do.
America is still a great country. Pictured: winner of the day, Roger Goodell.
Pop Hit 50 Years Old: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1970 “Fortunate Son” Has Sold Almost 1 Million Copies This Year via Streaming
If you know an explanation for this phenomenon, let me know. showbiz411@gmail.com.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” has sold via streaming the equivalent of 822,000 copies this year. They will sell 1 million copies before the end of 2021.
What?
The song was released in 1970.
CCR, fronted by John Fogerty, has been out of business since 1976. They formed in the mid 60s. Their “20 Greatest Hits” album, issued in 1976, has sold well all year. It’s currently at 112,000 copies. Roughly half were CDs and paid downloads. The album is currently NUMBER 1 of all Amazon’s CDs and vinyl. Hello?
Their second best selling track is “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” Runner up is “Bad Moon Rising.”
Fogerty took a long break after CCR broke up. He was angry because his record company was sold to producer Saul Zaentz, who tied Fogerty up in litigation for a decade. In the late 80s Fogerty re-emerged with “Centerfield” and had a few more hits. His “Proud Mary” became a rock staple, and a classic hit covered by Ike and Tina Turner.
Why the group is selling like crazy is a mystery. Maybe it’s the universe returning the favor to them after Zaentz made their lives so miserable. Whatever it is, it’s a good thing that new generations are enjoying the swampy country funk that made CCR such a hit during their original run.
Stevie van Zandt Reveals in New Book Not All Stars Were Nelson Mandela Supporters: Issues with Paul Simon, Whitney Houston
Before 1987, few people in America knew who Nelson Mandela was or was in support of him. The South African leader had been in prison since 1962, so for 25 years he was not well known outside of certain circles.
Little Steven van Zandt was among those who did know about Mandela. The E Street Band leader first became involved with anti-apartheid movement through his boycott of the Sun City resort, a major strike at the evil of apartheid.
In his very detailed new memoir, “Unrequited Infatuations,” the politically passionate van Zandt recalls that in helping to organize the famous June 1988 Freedom Concert for Mandela at London’s Wembley Stadium, he ran into issues with some of the performers. The concert was billed as a 70th birthday show so as not to scare TV networks and advertisers. But van Zandt recalls it was really an all star show seeking Mandela’s freedom from prison.
Not everyone was in agreement. van Zandt writes:
I was surprised an American network picked up on it at all. The consensus among the mainstream media was that Mandela was a terrorist
and a Communist. And not just among the right wing. Famous liberal
Paul Simon once cornered me at a party and asked how I could be supporting this Mandela character when he was obviously a Communist.
“Really, Paulie?” I said. “You sure?”
“Yes,” he said. “My friend Henry Kissinger explained it all to me. Just
follow the money!”
“Well, Paul, I know you and Henry are students of revolution, but I
have news for the both of you. People fighting for freedom outnumbered
by a better-supplied enemy don’t really care where the money comes
from. And by the way, your buddy Kissinger is not only an unindicted war
criminal but was with the Dulles brothers in the early fifties overthrowing
Mosaddegh in Iran and installing the shah. That’s the direct cause of half
of the real terrorism on the planet to this day. So when you see him, please
tell your friend Henry to stick his Nobel Peace Prize up his fuckin’ ass.
Simon, of course, quickly came around. van Zandt writes he was amused two years later when Mandela came to New York to raise money for his run for President of South Africa. Simon was so much on board that a photo of him and Mandela appeared in all the newspapers. He writes: “I guess Paul Simon got over that whole scary dangerous Communist thing.”
Another big issue was the appearance of Whitney Houston. Some performers didn’t want her on the show, van Zandt recalls, but she was needed to broaden Mandela’s appeal.
I happened to be in the office with the promoter, Jim Kerr, and Peter Gabriel
when Whitney Houston’s Manager came in. “We thought this was about
celebrating a birthday, but we’re hearing lots of politics from the stage.
We don’t want any part of it. We want the Free Nelson Mandela posters
covered up or Whitney doesn’t go on!” He stormed out.
Whoa!
We looked at each other in shock. I spoke first. “Throw that bitch the
fuck off this show right now!”
“We can’t,” the promoter said. “We sold the show to the networks
with her on it.”
“Let ’em complain!” I said.
Jim, or maybe Peter, spoke up. “She was the only request from
Mandela personally. They had a poster of her in prison and all the prisoners . . . fell in love with her.”
We let her perform. It makes me nauseous seeing the documentaries
since then proclaiming her as a proud activist who fought against apartheid all her life.
Houston, of course, also came around despite the manager’s interference.
van Zandt recalls: The American network edited out everything I said onstage and
trimmed whatever politics they could in general. Fox, of course. But the
telecast was enormously successful and helped cement Mandela’s status
as a world leader and one of the good guys.
Ratings for Tony Awards Terrible But Who Cares, Global Citizen Concert a Real Bust
The Tony Awards on CBS had pretty bad ratings, just 2.65 million people. And who cares? The two hour show from 9 to 11pm was beautifully produced and well worth watching again. But CBS had it all screwed up by not just broadcasting in real time across the country. Also, the Paramount Plus feed was apparently a mess on the west coast for people not using Roku. (We had no trouble with it.)
The Tony Awards offered all the biggest stars doing their best work so that wasn’t an issue. The producers, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, made lemonade out of lemons. After all, only 16 shows were eligible. Half of them were bad, the other half had closed. All the Best Score nominees were plays, not musicals. How ridiculous is that? “A Christmas Carol,” a seasonal entry, won a bunch of awards it would never have won. But the producers made it work.
On another ratings front, the scammish Global Citizen concert scored just 1.55 million viewers showing clips from their egregious day of spending millions on rock stars and nothing on the poor or the hungry. The rock stars are using Global Citizen to look like activists and get attention for their music. The Global Citizen execs are using the rock stars for big salaries and hobnobbing. The whole thing is absurd.
We Were Right: “SNL” Adds Three New Players (Named Here), But MVP Beck Bennett is Exiting Show
I told you over the weekend “Saturday Night Live” was adding three new players. I named them. They are Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman aka Sarah Squirm.
But the bad news is Beck Bennett, an MVP Leading man who’s played everyone from Mike Pence to Vladimir Putin, is leaving. He will be sorely missed.
Everyone else from the main cast is returning including Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson. Even Pete Davidson. Also out with Bennett is featured player Lauren Holt.
(Trailer) A Hollywood “Almost Famous” as Bradley Cooper Plays Jon Peters in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” Based On Producer Gary Goetzman’s Childhood
Paul Thomas Anderson’s falsely named “Soggy Bottom” has a real title and a trailer.
Now it’s called “Licorice Pizza,” and as I told you exclusively weeks ago, the movie is based on the teen years of Hollywood producer Gary Goetzman, now Tom Hanks’s producing partner. Goetzman had a career as a child actor.
PTA heard Goetzman’s stories and turned them into a film instead of rock version of “Almost Famous.” Cooper Hoffman, son of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, plays Gary.
Bradley Cooper plays real life Jon Peters, who went from being a hairdresser to Barbra Streisand’s boyfriend, to Hollywood producer. Warren Beatty played a version of him in “Shampoo.” In the trailer he tells Hoffman how to pronounce “Streisand.”
The whole trailer has a very Wonder Years feel to it. For PTA it would be a very sentimental film, different than his past work. But it looks very promising.
“Licorice Pizza” was the name of a famous LA record store in the 70s.
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Watch the official trailer for #LicoricePizza now. Coming soon only to theaters. pic.twitter.com/LDY3qaiZp4
— Licorice Pizza (@licoricepizza) September 27, 2021