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“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Star Bob Einstein, Actor-Writer-Comedian, Brother of Albert Brooks, Dies at 76

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Bob Einstein, the cool customer of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame, has died at 76 after a fight with cancer. He was the older brother of Albert Brooks, who changed his name — taking Mel Brooks’s last name– rather than be Albert Einstein.

Bob Einstein played the laconic Marty Funkhouser from the start in 2004 on “Curb” right through the last season. He also created the “Super Dave” character that carried him through his own series from 1991-1999 and countless specials and appearances.

Not just an actor, Einstein started writing for the funniest and most offbeat of the 60s comedy variety hours, “The Smothers Brothers Hour” and “The Pat Paulsen Show.” He also wrote for Sonny & Cher, the Hudson Brothers, and Dick van Dyke. He was a regular on the 2005 season of “Arrested Development.”

 He also appeared a couple of times on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”

 

12 Years Ago, Madonna Adopted Baby David Banda from Malawi, And Now He Plays Guitar for Her at Club Dates

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Twelve years ago, Madonna adopted a three year old boy named David Banda from Malawi. Now, at 13, he played guitar for her at the famous gay club, the Stonewall Inn, last night for New Year’s Eve. David accompanied his mum on two songs. Happy New Year! (PS Madonna’s surprise appearance is the beginning of her marketing campaign. She has a new album coming in the first quarter.)

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Happy New Year! Kanye West Doubles Down on Being Tone Deaf by Re-Endorsing Trump Support

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Good afternoon! It’s 2019 and Kanye West is still among us on Twitter. He started his new year by doubling down on being tone deaf. He re-endorsed his Trump support. He’s going to wear his red MAGA hat all the time because one can tell him otherwise. Otherwise that’s racism! And so 2019 begins, ignominiously.

Sting Kicks Off 2019 With a New Version of “Brand New Day” (Listen Here) on Steve Harvey New Year’s Show Tonight

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Sting has made a punchy new version of his great song “Brand New Day” for 2019. He’ll debut it tonight on Steve Harvey’s New Year’s Eve show on Fox TV. And yes, that’s still Stevie Wonder on the harmonica. The two stars played the song for Barack Obama on Inauguration night in 2009. Those were the days!

The Best Films of 2018 Were Spoken in Foreign Languages: Spanish, Polish, German, Lebanese, and Wakandan

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My favorite films, your favorite films. Everyone had their favorite films. Some lists include “The Favourite,” certainly a favorite film. Three of my favorite films of 2018 were in a foreign language. What does that say?

The three foreign language films were: Florian von Henckel Donnersmark’s “Never Look Away,” Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum,” and Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” No “Cold War,” you say? I found it a little…cold. But that one scene of Joanna Kulig dancing on a table top was memorable.

We all know about “Roma,” it’s masterpiece, and quite lovely. It will win a lot of awards. Cuaron makes it look easy. It’s not.

“Capernaum” is as about as good as filmmaking can be. Labiki has made her signature film for all time. It’s enchanting and serious at the same time. The score is like a character, and must be nominated for an Oscar. The kids are unforgettable.

“Never Look Away” comes from the director of “The Lives of Others,” which, in 2006 should have been a Best Picture nominee. It won Best Foreign Language film. “Never Look Away” is a masterwork. Is it better than “Roma”? Only in the sense that it isn’t a personal memoir. It’s a work of fiction inspired by the life of artist Gerhard Richter. von Dommersmarck presents a three act screenplay of uncommon vision. This is a movie that will be studied (if people still do that). Three hours go by quickly. You’re totally involved in the characters, the history. It’s almost built like a mathematical problem that resolves finally in a glorious sum.

The other best films of 2018:

“Green Book” and “First Man” were two of my top movies for 2018. Why they didn’t register with the audience — those are other other stories. I do think “First Man” was set up somehow in Venice– the idea that it wasn’t patriotic was ludicrous. That didn’t happen by accident. “Green Book” being backward or racist– that, too, is a set up. Universal simply didn’t know what to do when they were hit with this crap. But they are strong, fine films that will hold up over time.

First Reformed— Paul Schrader has made his best film from his best screenplay, and don’t forget he wrote “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver.” Ethan Hawke continues to astound. The fact that they couldn’t find a distributor until after the critics found it says a lot.

Blackkklansman — Spike Lee doesn’t get any more accessible personally over the years. But this is his most accessible work in decades. John David Washington and Adam Driver strike the right balance. The story is timely, and the ending is profound.

Destroyer — Nicole Kidman’s work here is so outstanding that you can forgive the film itself for being familiar. But Karyn Kusama has concentrated on Nicole, and she is glorious as a messed up, dirty cop too far gone to save herself. Kidman takes more chances than any other actor working, and is batting around a thousand. She’s so smart. She looks at a screenplay and knows if she can make it work. And then she does it. This is an Oscar performance.

A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins Returns had one important thing in common: Emily Blunt. How lucky is she that in 20 years she can write a memoir called “To Be Perfectly Blunt”? In the meantime, this actress (like Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Saoirse Ronan) will take up the next decade of Oscar nominations. Blunt is that magical mixture of Star and Actor. Plus her husband, John Krasinski, made one of the cleverest films of all with “A Quiet Place.”

Overall performance of the year-– Lady Gaga in “A Star is Born.” Bradley Cooper did a very good job making a strong, commercial hit. Somewhere in the middle the screenplay sags, but we’re so hooked on Lady Gaga that it doesn’t matter. She’s the performer of this generation, she can do anything.

In the end, who did I feel strongest about? Strangely enough, it was Glenn Close. Her performance in “The Wife” is just exquisite. That is a small movie with a big idea. And watching Close tango with Jonathan Pryce was one of the really transcendent moments of the year. I hope she wins the Oscar not just because it’s about time. but dammit– it’s about time. And she’s great in this role.

Equal to Gaga in every way– Rami Malek, as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I loved this movie. No one directed it, everyone did, it was directed en masse. Rami wasn’t the first choice for Freddie. But he subsumed him. He played Freddie like he was a super-hero from a comic book movie. Hubris was Freddie’s Kryptonite.

One last note about “Black Panther.” Ryan Coogler has quickly established himself as a top tier director. “Fruitvale Station” was such a powerful entrance into the business. “Creed” hit all the right notes updating a popular piece of nostalgia. “Black Panther” made $700 million– it’s shocking– because it struck chords for so many audiences. It’s the best made comic book movie to date. I thought Letitia Wright was the breakout actress. Seeing Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman up there was thrilling, but the women made the movie. When Angela Bassett made her entrance, there were cheers in the theater. “Black Panther” made 2018 a special year in films.

The Amazing Life She Lived: Aretha Franklin Deserved Better from the New York Times Magazine, So Here It Is

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The New York Times Magazine did my friend, Aretha Franklin, quite a disservice in their latest issue about famous people who passed this year. The woman who was named Best Singer Ever by Rolling Stone, winner of 18 Grammy Awards, the Queen of Soul didn’t even merit a feature story. Instead she got a few words from someone no one’s ever heard of, plus some ghastly art by the same person. The art is so ugly I still can’t get over it. I’ll put the picture inside here, so you can see what the Times thought of Aretha and how they wanted to memorialize it.

A lot’s been written about Aretha in the last few months since she died at age 76 on August 16th. She owed back taxes, her house wasn’t worth that much, she didn’t leave a will. Whatever. None of that matters. You still don’t get it if that stuff bothers you. She was Aretha. She was the Queen. She could do whatever she wanted.

Aretha loved her friends, and loved her family. Her last twenty years was an attempt to take control of her life after kow-towing to everyone for decades. It wasn’t until Clive Davis scooped her up at the end of her Atlantic Records contract, in 1979, that Aretha came in to her own. Before that she’d been her father’s daughter, and Jerry Wexler’s muse. Remember, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry let her go from Atlantic, service over, thanks a lot.

At Arista, Aretha was finally treated like a Queen, and she roared back onto the charts with a Chapter Two that eclipsed “Respect” and all those 60s and 70s hits. Not only did she have her own landmark number 1 hits like “Freeway of Love” and “Who’s Zoomin Who?” she had hits with the then-young stars of the day like Annie Lennox, George Michael, and Whitney Houston. This was unprecedented.

Since her cancer diagnosis in December 2010, Aretha refused to give in. She literally willed herself into remission. Her friends were scared for her, she wasn’t. She regularly preached on stage about her recovery. She had unyielding faith. Her Renaissance from 2011 to 2017 was remarkable. There were shows I watched where there was so much power in her remarkable voice that it surprised even her. I went to Philadelphia in August 2017 to the Mann Center because I suspected– we never discussed it– this would be her last. (I was right, apart from the Elton John AIDS fundraiser in November.)

We had had dinner and kibbitzed before the show with her deeply devoted tour leader/boyfriend and best friend, Willie Wilkerson. Willie and “the guys”– a close knit group of bodyguards who took care of her like an older sister– had come down to Philly and stood beside her at all times. Often there were no women in Aretha’s traveling posse, just these brilliant men who were in her thrall no matter her whimsy. They were her real family, even if she hired and fired and re-hired them over and over. Everyone always came back because they loved Aretha.

The Philadelphia show was a masterpiece. I filmed a little of it. Probably others did, too. The Mann Center was packed, and they went wild. Aretha didn’t look ill, yet, in fact she looked good. She wasn’t feeling well, but she rose to the occasion. She told the crowd, “This might be my last show, but I would always come back to Philly.” Every song was delivered at the top. She wasn’t strong enough for her punishing 9 minute version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” but she sat at the piano and played her heart out on “My Cup Runneth Over.” She gave me a little gift, and my heart skipped a beat– Stevie Wonder’s “Until You Come Back to Me,” which I often asked for and rarely got. (In Los Angeles the summer before, she asked me. What do you want to hear? — We were on the phone– And I said, Until You Come Back to Me. Which she promptly forgot to do.)

When Aretha came off stage, all the air came out of her. I could see it. On stage she’d been puffed up, dressed in white, a diaphanous cloud that hovered above, other-wordly, a goddess. But when Willie threw her fur coat over her shoulders, we could see it– that was it. She was done. She’d released Aretha with a capital A into the night, and she was human again. “Aretha, do you want go out?” I asked. Mmm,nnt. She said, “I’m going to be horizontal for a very long time.”

 

photo cShowbiz411 Roger Friedman

Family of Deceased KTLA Anchor Chris Burrous Sets Up Two GoFundMe Accounts Aiming to Raise $125,000 — Why?

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SUNDAY 8:15PM UPDATE A number of people have asked me a question I hadn’t yet posed: why GoFundMe? And two accts? The Burrouses live in a home valued at least at $750,000. Burrous would have had a high six figure salary at least, and an AFTRA pension. I’ve reached out to the creators of both accounts, and hope to receive answers.

 

EARLIER Not one, but two GoFundMe accounts have been started for deceased KTLA anchorman Chris Burrous. He was found dead Friday in a Days Inn motel outside Los Angeles, the victim of a probably overdose on drugs. He was 43. No one except this column has asked why this popular, handsome, married man, father of a 9 year old, was doing drugs at a suburban motel.

Now two GoFundMe accounts exist. One, with a goal of $50,000, was created by Burrous’s wife’s sister named Rosemarie Do Silverstein. A total of $13,854. She writes: “This fund has been set up by Mai’s sister. All funds will be used to help Mai take care of Isabella in the coming days, weeks, and months.”

The other account, from Gigi Graciette, a competing newscaster in Los Angeles. She says it’s one of the two official accounts. This one aims for $75,000. So far $55,203 has come in. She writes: “As they mourn and deal with this sudden loss, the last thing they need to worry about right now is how to pay for a funeral, Mai finding a job, bills and other immediate expenses.”

Meantime, an autopsy has been performed and results are pending. No news account from Los Angeles has included the name of the man who called in Burrous’s collapse at the hotel, whether or not he had a drug history.

 

 

Rachel Brosnahan Wears a Corset 15 Hours a Day On “Mrs. Maisel”: “Not to make me look smaller. I have to clarify that.”

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Right after Thanksgiving I had a chance to sit down with Rachel Brosnahan, the Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning star of Amazon Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” She is really as charming, funny, and fast as Midge– without the off color language, thank you. With big brown eyes and a stunning Irish-American complexion, Brosnahan makes it seem like she was born to play New York Jewish housewife Midge. (As Valerie Harper once said of Rhoda Morgenstern, the precursor to all this, “it’s acting.”)

Yes, it’s happened that fast. In the space of a year, Brosnahan–who plays Miriam “Midge” Weissman Maisel– and the show have made Amazon Prime into the location of the most talked about and beloved new show in what you might call TV-Like Land.

Last September, “Mrs. Maisel” won 8 Emmy Awards for its first season. Now, with season 2 a binge watching hit, they head to their second Golden Globes on January 6th. The show, Brosnahan, and co-star Alex Borstein are sure to win their awards for Best Comedy, Best Actress in a Comedy and Best Supporting Actress.

The show — sprung from the marvelous minds of Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino– is one of those sterling hits that will march into TV history. Midge Maisel and Susie Myerson are the Mary and Rhoda of this generation. Tony Shalhoub’s Abe (Midge’s father) is their Lou Grant. When I mention that to Brosnahan at our meeting, she replies, “Alex says that all the time!”

The difference is that Borstein is 20 years older than Brosnahan. She’s been a comedy institution “Family Guy” for two decades. (Only now, people get to see her since “Family Guy” is animated.) Brosnahan is a literal overnight sensation after just one memorable role on the very not funny “House of Cards.”

SPOILERS AHEAD Season 2 goes from New York to Paris to the Catskills and then Midge must face the music. Her life as a divorced mother of 2 in 1959 is changing as she wins success as a female stand up comic. It’s been a secret, but in Episodes 6 and 7 it all comes pouring out. Zachary Levi makes a romantic bid for Midge, who’s still connected to her husband, Joel (Michael Zegers). Then there are the supporting characters, including Shalhoub, and Caroline Aaron as her scene stealing mother-in-law. (I’m also very fond of Mrs. Moscowitz, the bookkeeper in the Maisel garment factory.)

Everything about the time period is precise, right down to the undergarments.

You wear a girdle playing Midge?

It’s not a foot-in-back lace-up situation. It’s a modern corset, a leotard corset. It’s not to make me smaller, I have to clarify that. It’s just that our wardrobe person—the way her mind works—I’d like to jump inside and live in there for an afternoon– it’s all about the fashion. The clothes then had long waists, short tops. I’m more in the middle, like the 1940s. The corset is to make it work.

How long do you wear it?

About fifteen hours a day! I’m accidentally waist training, like a Kardashian, to be honest. My body looked a little funny at the end of the first season.

Did it go back to normal?

Yes, thank goodness!

At the start, many people thought this was going to the Joan Rivers story. Or Phyllis Diller. But it’s not.

Jean Carroll was the first one I thought of before I knew anything about it. She started in 1955. I was able to find footage of her. She was a proper housewife with pearls…She was smart, she waited for the audience to catch up to her. She never held their hand. I studied her a lot, plus Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Don Rickles, Lenny Bruce.

The pace of show is startling, like Aaron Sorkin only faster. (I snap my fingers, like, come on, hurry up)

And Amy does that sometimes, 5- 6-7- 8! I guess I’m kind of a fast talker naturally, I must be. I will hold on to this as a badge of honor, but once or twice Amy has told me to slow down! The pacing came more naturally than the comedy. The comedy is hard.

Have you ever done stand up comedy?

No-no, noooo.

Would you ever do that?

Nooooooo. And I never would. Amy tried to get me to do it for 5 seconds when we were rehearing for the pilot, but gave up. I Said to her, My concern was I’m not a joke writer. I’m an actor. Amy writes brilliant material and I act it. That was a big concern. But also if it went badly, which it probably would, that I’d be so traumatized I couldn’t do the show. If you’re playing a doct0r on TV, you shouldn’t try and go perform surgery. It’s not a great idea! And you might kill someone!

Have you gone to see comics?

I went to more beginner-like clubs. And saw a lot of new comedians perform for the first time. I was more interested in how brand new comedians interacted with their audience. How they handled unexpected failures and successes. Watching different habits.

And can you imagine what it must have been like for female comedians in the late 50s?

No. Women were meant to be seen and not heard. Two stories about Joan Rivers stand out for me. One was she went on stage pregnant. It was headline making. That you shouldn’t be seen pregnant. And that she alluded to abortion. The consequences were hefty. That fact  that she minor-ly alluded to was a black mark. Those women were brave.

The show is a hit. If this runs 5 or 7 seasons, you’ll only be 32. You’re very young.

[Overlapping] A hundred! A hundred on the inside.

I know you’re making a movie now. What do you want to do?

I’d like to continue to be surprised. I was surprised to get this role to begin with. And House of Cards. To get the opportunity to stretch my muscles in ways I never thought they could be stretched.

 

 

 

Ricky Gervais Launches Annual Twitter Tirade Against Buckingham Palace After Queen’s Award Snub: “You Can Shove the Knighthood”

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It must be the end of the year. Ricky Gervais has launched his annual Twitter tirade against Buckingham Palace after being snubbed once again for a Queen’s Award. “Dunkirk” director Christopher Nolan, Twiggy, actress Sophie Okrnedo, “Mr Carson” aka Jim Carter from “Downtown Abbey,” Margaret Atwood, Michael Palin, and Thandie Newton all made the cut this year. But not Ricky. Every year he’s overlooked and every year he complains. It does seem ridiculous that he doesn’t have something. I mean, really: Twiggy? Ricky is right. He deserves something by now. His version of “The Office” (he created it) in Britain was superb. He brought us the American version. All his other work is top notch. He’s hilarious and smart. Come on, Queen Elizabeth! Give in!

What Happened to L.A. TV Anchor Chris Burrous, 43, Found Dead from Possible Drug Overdose at Suburban Days Inn?

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Family creates two GoFundMe accounts

 

In Los Angeles media, the death of 43 year old news anchor Chris Burrous is being described as “he died.”

In the New York papers, where we’re awake, the Post and the Daily News acknowledge in their headlines that Burrous was found dead at a motel from a possible drug overdose. A “male friend” called in that someone was unresponsive.

Huh? What the heck was Chris Burrous doing at a Days Inn Motel in Glendale (a suburb, and far from his office at KTLA) in the middle of the afternoon? Who was the male friend? And why isn’t the LA media questioning the overdose? Did Burrous have a drug problem?

Burrous was also far from his own home, in leafy Northridge. His 1,660 sq. foot ranch house was bought in 2012 for $370,000. (Its valued now between $750K-$850K.) It was a far cry from the $100 rooms at the Days Inn.

He’s lucky this didn’t happen in New York. From Los Angeles all we’re getting is kind of a big yawn. If anyone knows more about this, please email me at showbiz411@gmail.com. The man was married and had a daughter. He obviously had a secret life. But as Raymond Chandler knew so well, everyone in LA does.

A real tragedy.