Sunday, November 10, 2024
Donate
Home Blog Page 572

Anthony Mackie, Finally, Gets to Play Captain America, the Second Marvel Black Super Hero

Roger Friedman
-
0
Anthony Mackie, Finally, Gets to Play Captain America, the Second Marvel Black Super Hero

If Anthony Mackie had been white, my friends, he’d have already had an Oscar. That’s me saying it.

Mackie has waited and waited, but now he’s finally going to top line a movie, and a Marvel one at that. He’ll play Captain America in “Captain America 4.” He’ll be the second Black super hero carrying a film, after Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther.

Chris Evans was previously Captain America. He seemed to turn the role over to Mackie’s Falcon at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Then Mackie and Sebastian Stan went on to do the Disney Plus mini series “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” as Bucky Barnes (Stan) and Sam Wilson (Falcon). But who is Captain America? Evans handed the famed shield to Mackie in “Endgame.” Mackie became Captain America at the end of the series.

It’s taken a long time to get this far. Anthony Mackie isn’t just an action hero. He should be our next Denzel Washington. He’s that good. He was great on Broadway in “Behanding in Spokane.” He’s shined in tons of movies including “Half Nelson” and “The Hurt Locker.”

So many congrats to Anthony! And cheers to Deadline, which broke the news.

Garth Brooks Cancels the Rest of His 2021 Stadium Dates as Concert Business Has New Pandemic Panic

Roger Friedman
-
0
Garth Brooks Cancels the Rest of His 2021 Stadium Dates as Concert Business Has New Pandemic Panic

Garth Brooks is outta here.

Garth is joining a number of performers who are throwing in the towel on 2021 fall concert dates, particularly in stadiums. He’s cancelled 5 dates and says he hopes to be back in 2022.

Stevie Nicks recently cancelled her dates. The rising COVID numbers are scaring off performers, and I don’t blame them. Everyone is nervous about being inside with 20,000 potentially unvaxxed, unmasked strangers.

Brooks said in a statement: “In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part. I have asked the wonderful cities of Cincinnati and Charlotte to wait too long and I don’t want to now do that same thing to the great folks in Boston and Baltimore. As far as Nashville, we are looking for a make up date from the July rain out and though this is not COVID related, to make them wait makes me sad, as well. So, it is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all 5 shows but with a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us.”

The 5 concert locations being cancelled are Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, scheduled for September 18th, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, scheduled for September 25th, M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, scheduled forOctober 2nd, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, scheduled for October 9th and Nissan Stadium in Nashville which has not been rescheduled yet.

Who will be next? Stand by. I’ll be surprised if the Rolling Stones go through with their dates.

UPDATE: Hollywood in Peril with Location Filming in Georgia as Film Commission Ignores Spike, Doesn’t Track COVID Cases

Roger Friedman
-
0
UPDATE: Hollywood in Peril with Location Filming in Georgia as Film Commission Ignores Spike, Doesn’t Track COVID Cases

UPDATE Nancy Nydam writes: DPH does not have any outbreak reports from a film set, and specifically nothing from “The Staircase.”

EXCLUSIVE If you’re in showbiz working on a TV show or film in the state of Georgia, you are sunk. The Georgia Film Commission tells me they do not track COVID cases or report them to the Georgia Department of Health.

“We don’t track that information, unt-uh,” said Mary Ann Lamonica, of the Georgia Film Commission when I asked her this morning. Nancy Nydam, Communications Director for the George Dept. of Health, is so far not responding to emails or phone calls. (If there’s a response, we’ll update immediately.)

Nearly 30 productions are working in Georgia right now including “The Staircase,” an HBO miniseries starring Colin Firth. I reported last week that Firth contracted COVID on the set. Now I’m told that he got it from a crew member who lied about being vaccinated, and even showed a fake vaccination card.

Lamonica also refused to share the name of the COVID supervisor for “The Staircase.” The supervisor listed on the imdb told me he left the show some time ago and didn’t know who replaced him or what was going on there. “The Staircase” also stars Toni Colette and Dane DeHaan.

According to my sources, Firth spent at least a week in the hospital and was quite ill. The series shut down, then shot around him. It’s unclear if he’s recovered or is back to work. (If anyone knows more and wants to contact me confidentially– the email is showbiz411@gmail.com.)

Despite Georgia making it difficult for people to vote, Hollywood has not stopped spending money there. Now the question is, will productions risk their cast and crew’s lives as the COVID rate soars? Yesterday, according to the state’s website, there were 440 new cases in the peach state. On June 13th, just two months ago, there were only 23.

The fact that the Georgia Film Commission doesn’t track COVID at all is alarming. Other shows and movies shooting there include Tyler Perry’s new “Madea” movie, Michael B. Jordan in “Creed III,” “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever,” and the final season of “The Walking Dead.”

I’m getting emails and calls from sets around the country regarding COVID. If anyone has any information, again the email is showbiz411@gmail.com. Please, everyone, get the vaccinations right away.

 

 

Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas Make Their “Move” (Listen Here) from New Album Including Hit “She’s Fire” with G-Eazy, Diane Warren

Roger Friedman
-
0
Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas Make Their “Move” (Listen Here) from New Album Including Hit “She’s Fire” with G-Eazy, Diane Warren

Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas have made their “Move,” a follow up to their 1999 smash hit, “Smooth.” Thomas wrote it with American Authors, who also sing on the record.

“Move” comes from Santana’s new album, “Blessings and Miracles,” coming October 15th from BMG. The album includes “She’s Fire,” Santana’s hit with G-Eazy from Diane Warren’s new album, also on BMG, called “The Cave Sessions.”

(Lucky for Santana, he has his own PR firm, run by the great Michael Jensen, or no one would know what’s going on. BMG sends out no information. Last year they killed albums by The Pretenders and by Patty Smyth. This year the Jimmy Jam-Terry Lewis album had a week of press and then sank like a stone. All great albums. All gone. Total sales on Jam & Lewis’s album 8,300.)

Santana and Thomas will likely debut “Move” on Saturday at Clive Davis’s Welcome Back New York concert in Central Park. How about 60,000 people dancing to a new hit song? Not bad!

(Watch) The Great R&B Singer Jill Scott Turns Actress for the Reboot of Michael Landon’s “Highway to Heaven”

Roger Friedman
-
0
(Watch) The Great R&B Singer Jill Scott Turns Actress for the Reboot of Michael Landon’s “Highway to Heaven”

Jill Scott is one of the greatest R&B singers ever. Sometimes she acts, and now she has a series. On Lifetime. It’s remake of “Highway to Heaven,” which starred the late Michael Landon as an angel. It’s hokey, I know, but Jill has a great smile. Maybe they’ll let her sing. For a minute I thought she was playing the Della Reese part, but that was another angel show– “Touched by an Angel.”

Anyway, enjoy Jill Scott.

HBO’s “White Lotus” Hits 850K Viewers for Finale, Up 58% from Prior Week: Imagine If There Had Been More Episodes

Roger Friedman
-
0
HBO’s “White Lotus” Hits 850K Viewers for Finale, Up 58% from Prior Week: Imagine If There Had Been More Episodes

It took a little while to get going. But by the time “White Lotus” on HBO played its sixth and finale episode on Sunday, the show had caught on.

Ratings for the finale were 850,000 linear HBO viewers not counting HBO Max (which I watched it on). With HBO Max the total was definitely well over 1 million, maybe up to 1.5 million.

That’s a 58% increase on HBO from the previous week. The show built an audience from week to week. Six episodes wasn’t enough. Imagine if there had been 8 or 10– the numbers would have been outstanding.

“The White Lotus” is a big win for HBO, which has been going from strength to strength with mini series and shows like “Hacks.” Alas, “White Lotus” won’t be in the Emmys mix this year because it came too late. But no one will forget it for next year. And there are always the Critics Choice Awards this January, which will no doubt give it a lot of love.

PS Welcome back Mitch Metcalf and Showbuzz Daily, one of my main sources for TV numbers. Mitch was very missed, and I’m thrilled that he’s back up and running.

 

Kanye West’s Producer Mike Dean Paging Phil Collins for Guest Vocal, Has No Thoughts on “Donda”

Roger Friedman
-
0
Kanye West’s Producer Mike Dean Paging Phil Collins for Guest Vocal, Has No Thoughts on “Donda”

If you’re not up to speed on this, the guy who makes the Kanye West records– produces, records, arranges, etc — is Mike Dean. Kanye can’t compose and doesn’t play an instrument. Mike Dean does all of that.

Dean has two shows of his own this weekend where he’ll be playing synthesizers and show off tracks from his own recent albums. He’s on Twitter, so unlike with Kanye, you can sort of figure out what’s going on.

Dean has signaled that he long ago left the confines of Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. He’s back in Los Angeles. Kanye’s album, “Donda,” is not a concern for him. It’s quite obvious the album didn’t exist when Kanye announced it, or for either of the listening shows.

Dean, meantime, is paging Phil Collins to come sing on a track for him.

 

Dean doesn’t like his Twitter followers to pepper him with questions about “Donda.” When a fan compared him to West, he responded: “Why is this A thing. He’s an artist producer. I’m a producer / instrumental artists. Both goats.”

Will “Donda” ever be released? Is Dean still working on it? On Sunday he Tweeted: “I haven’t quit anything. The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol”

So check out Dean’s albums on Spotify, and his shows this Saturday and Sunday at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. There’s also supposed to be a live stream. And “Donda”? At this point, who cares?

Broadway Star Laura Osnes Comes Out as Crazy, Won’t Get Vaccinated “Because There Is So Much That Is Still Unknown”

Roger Friedman
-
0
Broadway Star Laura Osnes Comes Out as Crazy, Won’t Get Vaccinated “Because There Is So Much That Is Still Unknown”

Broadway star Laura Osnes came out as crazy on Instagram today. She and her husband won’t get vaccinated. They’re waiting for more research. She says she’s not alone– this is true, there is a group of idiots out there who refuse to listen to the CDC, the science, or facts. When they’re told they only people dying of COVID are those not vaccinated, they laugh.

Osnes was bounced from a show in the Hamptons because her fellow stars were uncomfortable working with her. She denies the story, which was reported in Page Six. I say, the Hamptons thing is the least of her problems. Her statement on Instagram is what’s disturbing. She won’t be allowed to work on Broadway or anywhere else unless she’s vaxxed. That’s her choice.

COVID is revealing the nuts out there. Someone at “General Hospital” wasn’t vaxxed, and now a couple of actors have it. On Colin Firth’s HBO mini-series, “The Staircase,” same thing. Will Smith’s movie, “Emancipation,” has paused twice because of COVID. Someone there obviously didn’t get the shot or lied about it.

I’m glad we learned about Laura Osnes when we did. On Broadway, there are always ten people in line to take your place.

Now Even Bob Dylan Can Feel What It’s Like to Be “Cancelled,” Presumed Guilty By Even Rolling Stone

Roger Friedman
-
0
Now Even Bob Dylan Can Feel What It’s Like to Be “Cancelled,” Presumed Guilty By Even Rolling Stone

Yesterday, a crazy woman sued Bob Dylan, our rock poet laureate, Nobel Prize winner, for sexual molestation. She said in her suit that the incident happened exactly in April and May of 1965, at New York’s Hotel Chelsea. She said he was 24, and she was 12. (She doesn’t explain how a 12 year would be in the hotel without parents.)

No one except this column bothered to check Dylan’s whereabouts for this time period. It wasn’t difficult. Dylan was mostly on the West Coast doing concerts in April, many with Joan Baez, continuing from March.

On April 26th, two days after a show in Seattle, Dylan flew to London. He was in the UK or Europe until June 2nd. During that time, he and Baez had their famed UK shows which DA Pennebaker filmed for “Don’t Look Back,” the most famous rock documentary of all time. Dylan also went to Portugal on vacation with future wife Sara Lowndes, with whom he would have four children. (He and Sara were married in the fall.)

So the accusations leveled by an anonymous woman who calls herself “J.C.” in the lawsuit are meritless. He wasn’t in New York, or the U.S., he wasn’t staying at the Chelsea Hotel. A friend of his from that time told me Dylan couldn’t have afforded a “swanky room” there (TMZ’s description). Indeed, it wouldn’t be until July, when his watershed single “Like a Rolling Stone”: was released, that Dylan would have a hit record. So there was no big money coming in prior to July 1965.

But the press didn’t care. They just repeated the lie of the lawsuit as if it were true. Even Rolling Stone, which made its life on access to Dylan for 40 years, went with it and didn’t question the story. Nice, huh? I joke that if Jann Wenner were still alive (no one’s seen him in eons) that would not have happened.

In his great song, “Idiot Wind,” Dylan predicted all this back in 1974.

“Someone’s got it in for me
They’re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out quick
But when they will I can only guess”

He also said it best almost a decade earlier, succinctly: “It ain’t me, babe, it ain’t me you’re looking for.”

Shame on everyone.

 

 

Bob Dylan Hit With Bogus Lawsuit Claiming Molestation in NYC April-May 1965: Not Possible, He Wasn’t There

Roger Friedman
-
0
Bob Dylan Hit With Bogus Lawsuit Claiming Molestation in NYC April-May 1965: Not Possible, He Wasn’t There

***EXCLUSIVE***

 

UPDATE “Swanky room at the Chelsea Hotel? Bob couldn’t afford a room at the Chelsea Hotel!” TMZ described the legal papers filed by “JC” below and said it happened in Dylan’s “swanky hotel room.” A friend of Dylan from that time was who around 24/7 laughed when he heard this. He also reminded me to look at the calendar and schedule of Dylan shows. Bob and Joan Baez, who were a couple, were on the road together for all of the time “JC” says she was with Dylan at the Chelsea. This fellow was with him the whole time.

I told JC’s lawyer, Daniel Isaacs, about the schedule and asked to respond. I’m waiting for an answer.

EARLIER On April 26, 1965 Bob Dylan arrived in London. He didn’t return to the United States until June 2nd.

In April. he was mostly on the West Coast. All of this is recorded in calendars tracking Dylan’s whereabouts because he was a young superstar.

Yet this afternoon comes news of a complaint filed by a 68 year old woman who says Dylan groomed and molested her in New York at the Chelsea Hotel in April and May 1965 when she was 12 years old.

TMZ called it his “ritzy apartment” at the Chelsea, a notably run down place even in 1965.

But the calendars speak for themselves. And in London, Dylan was filmed on tour by DA Pennebaker for the famous documentary, “Don’t Look Back.”

So the lawsuit or complaint or whatever it is is bogus.

But this is the environment we’ve created, where accusations fly and celebrities are dubbed guilty before anyone checks the facts.

Despite the travel schedule being easily available, the “victim” — who calls herself “JC” — says she was “groomed” by Dylan in April and May 1965 at the Hotel Chelsea.

The complaint states: “between April and May of 1965 the defendant, Dylan,
exploited his status as a musician by grooming J.C. to gain her
trust and to obtain control over her as part of his plan to
sexually molest and abuse J.C.”

Um, not possible if Dylan wasn’t even there. He was singing “It Ain’t Me, Babe” in London.

Stay tuned…

1...571572573...2,144Page 572 of 2,144

Hollywood to the Hudson

Company

Trending

Categories

© Showbiz411.com