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I’m so sorry to hear of the death of Malachy McCourt at age 92.
The beloved actor was a star of ABC’s “Ryan’s Hope” in almost 300 episodes. He also appeared in every New York soap opera, from “Guiding Light” to “Search for Tomorrow” and “All My Children.”
Malachy, like his brother Frank — who wrote “Angela’s Ashes” — was a wordsmith. He published two memoirs and a volume of poetry. He had a lovely, lilting, lyrical Irish accent and a big burly persona that would have been suited for the Brendan Gleeson character in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” He was part of two Broadway casts as a stand-by, in “Mass Appeal” and “Translations.”
McCourt’s bar — called Malachy’s, on the Upper West Side — was probably an inspiration for Ryan’s bar in the soap opera. The actor played the bar tender Kevin MacGuiness, a sounding board of reason for the various colorful characters. He was the opposite of a soap character — totally genuine, authentic, and real. An era ends with his passing and the memory of his brother, Frank. They will be sorely missed.
Now we know why Al Pacino was a presenter at the Oscars.
The Oscar and Emmy winner is publishing a memoir this fall, on October 8th It’s called “Sonny Boy,” from Penguin.
The book will undoubtedly cover his movies, plays, and TV shows including “The Godfather,” “Serpico,” “Scent of a Woman.” Among other things, he was a primary student of Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York, an organization he’s supported for decades.
Pacino was also close to his family. So that will be part of the story.
But whether or not he talks about his personal life is truly another story. For years he was involved with Diane Keaton, which ended badly a couple of times.
He has one daughter with a woman named Jan Tarrant, who worked in his office. Pacino has twins with actress Beverly D’Angelo, another relationship that became contentious for years. They have since become much friendlier.
More recently, at age 82, Pacino fathered another child with a woman named Noor Alfallah, who just turned 30. I told you about her last year. Alfallah had dated a few different older, well fixed men before turning up with Pacino. Her own backstory is sketchy, including a father who pleaded guilty in a $3 million Department of Justice Case.
Last night at the Oscars, Pacino was supposed to read the 10 nominees for Best Picture, then open the envelope and give the award. Instead, he just read the winner — “Oppenheimer.” It was the second time in recent memory that a legacy star botched the delivery of Best Picture. (Think of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.) And this was after host Jimmy Kimmel joked about making sure the right envelope was on the podium!
No word on who Al’s ghostwriter will be for the book, but it’s sure to be a good read. Can’t wait til October!
Elton John and David Furnish raised a whopping $10.8 million last night for AIDS research and support at their annual Oscar dinner. Wow!
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, and Tiffany Haddish, were the co-hosts at the famed series of tents set up on San Vicente Boulevard.
The starry night included an electric performance by Gabriels, who performed a full set, including “Love and Hate in a Different Time,” “Angels & Queens,” and “Great Wind.” The A-list guests were also treated to Gabriels and Sir Elton himself closing with the hit, “Are You Ready For Love,” reminiscent of their surprise Glastonbury performance.
Those A listers included Smokey, Avril Lavigne, Benson Boone (the number 1 music star of the moment) plus Valerie Bertinelli and son Wolf van Halen, Rhea Pearlman, Donatella Versace, Alicia Silverstone, Billy Eichner, Cara Jade Myers, Christian Sariano, Brandi Carlile, Tim Allen, Patricia Arquette, Orville Peck, Sophia Bush, Julianne Hough, Zoe Lister-Jones, Daphne Guinness, Zooey Deschanel, Melanie Lynskey, Elizabeth Hurley, Joseph Lee, Alexis Bledel, Toni Braxton, Colton Haynes, and Eric McCormack — to name a few!
There was a not so silent auction, too– because Elton played an impromptu bit of “Tiny Dancer” on a Yamaha piano signed by him and bedazzled in crystals by Nyenyezi. It sold for $360,000!
PS Don’t forget– The EJAF Oscar party only exists to raise money for this incredible cause — unlike Vanity Fair, which is just to advertise their diminished publication!
Here’s one thing the media misses on these Oscars parties. At Vanity Fair, every picture is on the red carpet, on the same little circle. Then the celebs disperse to other parties. It’s one of the best PR hoaxes in town.
The real winners — the Oppenheimer people — plus no less than Steven Spielberg actually made a beeline from the Oscars to the Universal Pictures gala at Soho House. (The Barbie folks went to the Warners party. The Killers of the Flower Moon gang went to the Apple thing. And so on.)
At Soho House, jubilation was in the air for the 7 Oscar wins. Best Actor Cillian Murphy and Director Chris Nolan were knee deep in congratulations, while nominee Emily Blunt and husband John Krasinski were surrounded by fans and friends like Charlize Theron and Ludacris. Oscar winning cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, Oscar in hand, arrived at the top of the steep Soho House stairs to thunderous applause from the guests.
I asked Spielberg — the biggest name in Hollywood — why he didn’t give out the Best Picture award? Al Pacino made a mess of it, as we all know.
“There’s a rule,” Spielberg said. “You can’t give the award to your own picture. I was the producer on Maestro. So if it had won…”
After talking to Krasinski about his upcoming movie, “If,” I moseyed on over to talk to “Holdovers” director Alexander Payne. He held court on the opposite side of the room, far away from the meathead security guards who roped off Nolan at the request of publicists. (Da’Vine Joy Randolph wandered around with her own team.)
Payne said he didn’t realize how popular Randolph would be when he was shooting the film. He told me, “It wasn’t until I started showing to a few people that we got that reaction. Then I saw it!”
Payne told me his next project is to meet with his frequent collaborator Jim Taylor about writing a sequel to their original hit, “Election.” It would star Reese Witherspoon as a grown up Tracy Flick, and Witherspoon would produce it. My own guess is that Tracy Flick would now be a Marjorie Taylor Greene type, although there was a sequel novel to the original, by author Tom Perrotta, so they have that work from.
As for Spielberg, 2024 will be a rare year when he has nothing in production. He said, “We’re in the discovery phase, trying to figure out what’s next.” I asked him about “Ready Player Two,” but he confirmed he would just be producing that one.
Why can’t the Oscars ever get the In Memoriam right?
Tonight’s presentation was disgraceful. It disrepected the names and faces of the dead, obscuring them in the background of a lot of mishegos.
The choice of Andrea Boccelli and his son only made it worse. They have nothing to do with movies, albeit music! They are the greatest oversingers of all time.
What were the producers thinking? Maybe they did this way so no one could see who they omitted. Very dismaying. The SAG Awards did it right.
“Oppenheimer” wins Best Picture, 7 statues in all !
Christopher Nolan wins after 24 years of making singularly spectacular movies.
Biggest surprise of the evening: Lily Gladstone loses Best Actress to Emma Stone.
UPDATED NOTES from the press room: “Oscarheimer” is coming. Christopher Nolan’s epic has won Best Supporting Actor, Cinematography, and Editing. Also Best Actor, Score, Best Director.
So far, the Oscars are great. John Mulaney’s recap of “Field of Dreams” is sublime. “I’m Just Ken” was the highlight of the night. In Memoriam was, as usual, a mess. The Bocellis are the worst over singers in history. It was impossible to see the featured people. It was all about the Bocellis. This segment was botched.
Oscars begin at 4pm West Coast, 7pm Eastern. Keep refreshing…
The audience is getting instructions. Stage manager tells audience: “Don’t fuck this up!”
Note: it’s taken a half hour to give one award. This will be a long night.
No one’s noticed that the supporting actors winners have the same initials. RDJ and JDR
FULL LIST OF WINNERS.
Best Supporting Actress- Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Animated Short Film: Sean Lennon, “War is Over” Sean did not come into the press room.
Animated Feature: The Boy and the Heron
Original Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall
Adapted Screenplay: American Fiction
Makeup and Hair Styling: Poor Things
Production Design: Poor Things
Costume Design: Poor Things
International film: The Zone of Interest
Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr “Oppenheimer”
Visual effects: Godzilla Minus One
Film editing: Oppenheimer
Documentary Short Film: The Last Repair Shop
Documentary feature: 20 Days in Mariupol
Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Live action short: Wes Anderson
Sound: The Zone of Interest, for the hideous sounds coming from a concentration camp.
Original score: Oppenheimer
Original song: Billie Eilish, Barbie, What Was I Made For?
Best Actor: Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
Best Actress: Emma Stone, “Poor Things” — a total surprise as Lily Gladstone was the supposed winner. This is Emma’s second win
The Oscars are coming tonight at 7pm on ABC. That’s 4pm on the West Coast. The show will be over around 7:30pm on the West Coast, which is weird but what can you do?
And the winner is? “Oppenheimer” is set for a big sweep. The good money says the Christopher Nolan epic has Best Picture, Director, Actor and Supporting Actor, Editing, Cinematography, Score and quite a few others.
“Oppenheimer” should only be lacking in Actress and Supporting Actress, and Song — if only they’d included “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” to the soundtrack.
Will there be a surprise? Probably the big one will be who sings the In Memoriam segment and which Hollywooders are left out. For some reason, In Memoriam is never right. Someone important will be omitted, certainly.
So far no one knows who the performer(s) will be for that part of the show. Even at rehearsal the information was scarce. Adele? No, she’s on a break from Las Vegas. Sophie Ellis Bexter? Unlikely. But there’s nothing like a good mystery.
It’s live TV, so there will be at least one screw up. And let’s hope so. The last thing anyone wants is a perfect, dull Oscars. A slap? Let’s hope not. The weirdest thing would be a Best Picture envelope mistake. No one wants that again!
Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” scored a whopping $58 million opening weekend, the second highest so far of 2024.
“KFP” toppled “Dune Two” in its second weekend, and over took it easily. The kids have spoken.
Still cooking out there is “Bob Marley One Love” from Paramount heading to $90 million. That’s outstanding.
The rest of the box office is composed of films that are ready to go already. A new season is needed, and quickly. All the movies we’ll see on the Oscars tonight are done with their theatrical runs. Spring must come, and soon!
Every year on the evening before the Oscars, Giorgio Armani Beverly Hills salutes an Oscar nominee.
Last night it was Martin Scorsese, the famed director of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” There were plenty of parties last night all over town, but this gathering was the hard ticket you couldn’t buy — and everyone wanted to be there.
Not only did Scorsese arrive to applause but so did Oscar nominees Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, plus Thelma Schoonmaker, the Oscar nominated editor. So did legendary production designer Jack Fisk, Oscar nominated again, who was accompanied by his Oscar winning wife, Sissy Spacek.
Leonardo DiCaprio was expected but instead sent his father, stepmother, and publicists. You can’t have everything. But we ran into Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz, Jack Huston, Dolph Lundgren, Jane Seymour, Allison Williams, last year’s Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, comedian John Mulaney and Olivia Munn, Ramy Yousseff, Scott Eastwood, Regé-Jean Page, Nicolas Cage, and so on. So many stars and Hollywood types jammed the gorgeous Armani store that Scorsese et al fled to the second level platform that was spontaneously turned into a VIP section.
What’s the expectation for tonight as “Oppenheimer” looms in almost every category? Schoonmaker told me on Friday night at the annual Women in Film bash: “We’re realistic about our chances. But we are all hoping and rooting for Lily.”
Gladstone wowed the deep crowd outside the Armani store and inside as well. When I caught up with her in the VIP section she told me she was still writing her potential acceptance speech, but hadn’t finished it yet. Gladstone’s awards circuit speeches have been so literate and engaging, I hope she gets to give a new one tonight!
PS We loved our time in the Armani boutique but alas, no gift bags! One female guest said to me: I keep bumping into this sequined top! it must mean something.” Not without a credit card!
Zayn Malik left One Direction a decade ago. He had one hit called, “Pillow Talk.”
The rest of his musical output is negligible at best. He’s kind of a sad story in pop music. His solo records and videos have bordered on porn. They’re in appropriate and not well written.
Zayn is trying again this coming week. His new song, which might be called “Fucked Up,” cannot be played on radio with its main chorus. It sounds like an abandoned John Legend song.
Zayn is sort of like the woody Harrelson character from “Wag the Dog.” He got here accidentally, and he may pose a harm to us and to himself. Not sure if he has a manager or a label. I guess we’ll find out in the days ahead.
