At a rehearsal show for the new No Filter tour, Mick Jagger dedicated the performance to late great drummer Charlie Watts. Mick said it was the first time the Rolling Stones had played without Charlie in 29 years. Just at the end of the toast, Jagger says, “What are we going to do now? I’m so emotional.”
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) September 21, 2021
Since it’s called “The French Dispatch” and it’s set in France. Wes Anderson has released an animated video from his forthcoming movie sung entirely in French by UK singer Jarvis Cocker. It’s called “Aline.” Previously released from the soundtrack was an instrumental by Alexandre Desplat called “Obituary.”
We all know “Whiter Shade of Pale,” Procol Harum’s classic 60s dirge. It’s been used in a million movies.
Now comes a new version sung by Steve Winwood, whose smokey voice has taken us from Traffic “Higher Love” with many highlights in between. This version is from Carlos Santana’s new album, “Blessings and Miracles,” out soon which we only know thanks to Jensen Communications. (The so called record label, BMG, sends nothing.)
“Whiter Shade” is the second release from “Blessings and Miracles” after “She’s Fire” with G Eazy and Diane Warren.
Willie Garson, an actor best known for playing Stanford Blatch, Carrie’s pal, in “Sex and the City” and Mozzie in “White Collar,” has died. He was 57.
There are no official statements, but Garson is said to have died from cancer.
Garson adopted a son, Nathen, in 2009. He remained an active voice in the adoption community, having served twice as a spokesperson for National Adoption Day.
Nathen paid tribute to Garson on Instagram, writing: “I love you so much papa. Rest In Peace and I’m so glad you got to share all your adventures with me and were able to accomplish so much. I’m so proud of you. I will always love you, but I think it’s time for you to go on an adventure of your own. You’ll always be with me. Love you more than you will ever know and I’m glad you can be at peace now. You always were the toughest and funniest and smartest person I’ve known. I’m glad you shared you’re love with me. I’ll never forget it or lose it.”
Condolences to his family and friends. I met Willie a few times, he was a lovely guy. This is a shame.
The much-heralded Academy Museum opened today for press and VIPs, the official opening is September 30th. The Museum has been long in the making but it was totally worth it. Kudos to the Academy.
We spoke to the esteemed Bill Kramer, Director and President of The Academy Museum who told us: “This has been such a long-held dream of the Academy, of the city of LA, of the film industry. We couldn’t be prouder to open the Academy Museum for all of us. This is our museum, it’s everyone that walks in the door; their movie home. This is a movie museum for Academy members, film artists, Angeleno’s and film lovers from around the world; it’s for everybody. This is our hometown industry and we need this institution that celebrates the work of our film artists and our film history. And we have it here!”
Bill earlier had told the VIP crowd in the 1000 seat David Geffen Theater, after being introduced by Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick that, “We know this Museum will become an instant landmark, a must see for residents and tourists alike. To directly connect with the movies that have left an indelible mark on their lives.’”
Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and Film Academy President David Rubin followed and explained that the Academy wanted a museum 92 year ago. Samsung heiress Miky Lee, who was a producer on “Parasite” and is Vice Chair of Academy Board of Trustees also spoke. (The popular Ms. Lee was also the money behind Dreamworks back in 1995.)
A short film followed with Bob Iger and then Oprah Winfrey honoring Sidney Poitier; the lobby of the Museum is dedicated to him. The famed Italian architect Renzo Piano then talked charmingly about his creation. “I’m not good at anything by myself. When I was a boy in Genoa I loved the sea and cinema. It’s all in a movie, the light and shadow. That is what is here. This bubble will never grow up.”
A playful Tom Hanks joked with the reticent press crowd by noting, “Thank you for holding your applause.” Tom then went on to cheekily promote multiple times the ABC special, “A Night In The Academy Museum “ which he’s co-hosting with fellow Oscar winner Laura Dern on Oct 12th at 10pm. When the audience didn’t react the way charming Tom is used too, he quipped, “To paraphrase the words of Hans Solo as he was approaching the Death Star, I have a good feeling about this. You know I thought that joke was going to kill, you guys are so jaded.”
Hanks went on to say that, “This Museum is like the Parthenon for movies. Movies continue to be the magical art that speaks to everybody everywhere. This end result exceeds our dreams tenfold.” He ended it in true Tom style by exuberantly saying, “Boy Howdy hey- welcome to the Academy of Motion Pictures!”
The numerous splendors inside include the main exhibition, Stories of Cinema which is three floors and chock filled with thousands of iconic pieces; the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars droids, Black Panther suits, Tim Burton haunted houses, Peter Jackson’s heads from Lord Of The Rings and so much more.
The Significant Movies and Moviemakers Gallery has six works and artists, the iconic Rosebud sled is included which was donated by Steven Spielberg. And there is an original JAWS shark that greets you as you step off the elevator.
The Museum, to its credit, does not shy away from the controversies long surrounding the Academy: the lack of diversity, and the snail like progress that women, Latinas and Blacks have made. There is a poignant empty display for Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar statue which she won in 1939 and went missing. (McDaniel was famously forced to sit in the back of the room during that year’s ceremony because was Black.) A makeup and hairstyling exhibit is not sparing the displays of blackface and yellowface from the 1930s and 40s. The display of the Mount Rushmore exhibit used in North By Northwest has a sign which mentions the desecration of sacred Lakota land. Black filmmakers talk about the release of DW Griffith’s The Birth Of A Nation, which reinvigorated the KKK in the 1930s.
Editing, backdrops, composers, all artisans are honored. Snippets of the most iconic films of our time are throughout. Spike Lee has his own exhibit, with his personal memorabilia as does Pedro Almodovar, which is often racy and fascinating to watch. Animation galleries abound and there is a fun Oscars Experience which creates an immersive environment that simulates the experience of accepting an Oscar on stage at the Dolby Theatre. (Yes, I partook.)
A room dedicated to the actual statues of Oscars past, with Sidney Poitier is front and center. One of the museum’s inaugural temporary exhibitions spotlights the work of Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese animator, director and producer behind Studio Ghibli. You can lie down and look up at a blue sky and sit in the faux grass under a gorgeous light green light art piece. Circular rooms are plentiful, to take a breather and watch old clips, sci fi films and so much more. To paraphase Tom Hanks, the Academy Museum so long in the making, celebrates the rich cinematic history that is Hollywood in a swell and splendid way!
Joan Jett loves rock n roll but she loves life, too. So she’s canceling the rest of her 2021 tour dates thanks to COVID. She’s a Renegade, but she’s also smart. Everyone should take her advice.
Surprise!
The day before “The Many Saints of Newark” is set to premiere in New York, the review embargo lifted. That’s very unusual. Warner Bros. is always so strict about embargo’s, you’d think “Many Saints” would have been held until after the premiere.
So far, on Rotten Tomatoes, the rating is 79. Not bad but not as great as what I’d heard from reviewers who’ve seen it.
Most of the reviews praise writer David Chase for creating a world before “The Sopranos.” Owen Gleiberman writes in Variety: “We want “The Many Saints of Newark” to spin a good yarn, and for the most part it does.”
Alex Flood of the NME says: “On the basis of this, David Chase has enough original ideas in his trunk to keep The Sopranos motoring down New Jersey’s highway for decades”
We’ll know more tomorrow.
UPDATED Monday, Monday: “NCIS” moved to Mondays last night in its 200th season. Audience dropped by 500,000 viewers, to 8.45 million.
When we last saw all the “NCIS” peeps, the final episode of Season 199 was 8,956 million.
Where did all those people go? Either they didn’t understand the move to Mondays, or they got tired of waiting for Tony and Ziva to return and investigate each other. The new star is Gary Cole, the old star is Mark Harmon.
Still, “NCIS” was the most watched show of the night. It handily beat “Dancing with the Stars,” which had 5.48 million and is way down from the Tom Bergeron era. Tom gave “DWTS” a little “zetz” this past week reminding fans he was fired after 15 seasons for no good reason. I’ll bet that took some pep out of their step.
A year ago, “DWTS” opened their season with over 8 million viewers. Around 3 mil didn’t come back this year.
No one watched the “Time 100” special that followed “DWTS.” Well, 2 million people did but it’s possible they just fell asleep in front of the TV.
The new “NCIS” show, by the way, called “Hawai’i” with an apostrophe, scored 6.33 million viewers.
“Something wicked this way comes.”
That could be a warning about a lot of things including the New York Film Festival, which opens this Friday with Joel Coen’s “Macbeth.”
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand star. A24 releases with Apple. It’s in black and white. It’s also Joel’s first movie without brother Ethan. Shakespeare wrote it. And Mel Gibson isn’t in it. Will it work? How can it not?
Sunday night, 7.8 million people watched the desultory Emmy Awards. That doesn’t seem like much but things were worse on cable.
Over at AMC, “The Walking Dead” is on its last legs. Its final season began on August 22nd down 44% from the prior season, which wasn’t so great to begin with. But at least TWD started with 2.2 million fans sticking around. They’ve lost 300,000 viewers over the last five weeks. They’re not coming back.
It’s time to wrap this thing up and please, no more spin offs or specials. It’s done. Say goodbye. Sunday brought 1.9 million. This is a show that used to have 17 million on a Sunday night. They walked, they’re dead. That’s it.
On Showtime, “Billions” scored 312K viewers, down a bit from last week’s 392K.This is around half of what “Billions” was doing back in March 2020.
But at least both weeks were up from the disastrous first week of season 5.2 which is continuing from March 2020. This last episode was excellent, too, I don’t know why episode 2 viewers didn’t return. (I did think there would be more about the kidney donation, but there wasn’t. Too bad.) There was a tribute to the movie “Big Night.” Anyway, looking forward to this Sunday, as usual, even though the hybrid Tony Awards will be some kind of competition.
Showtime’s “American Rust” didn’t make the top 150 cable shows at 10pm. I watched it and really liked it. Highly recommended. A kind of “Mare of Easttown” 2.0. Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney, and Mark Pellegrino are all excellent. Is rural Pennsylvania really so drab and depressing? I guess so.