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Composer Charles Fox Is Still Killing Them Softly with His Songs at Age 83

Leah Sydney
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Composer Charles Fox Is Still Killing Them Softly with His Songs at Age 83

Charles Fox just received a star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame. No one deserves it more.

Charles Fox’s music has been a constant in our lives, in all genres of music. He composed the music for more than 100 films including “Barbarella,” “9 to 5,” and “Goodbye Columbus.” He’s wrote the iconic theme songs for television including “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley,” “Love American Style,” “Wonder Woman,” and more. He composed the themes for “ABC Wide World Of Sports” and “Monday Night Football.”

A two time Oscar nominee and a two time Emmy winner, he also wrote the Grammy Award winning song “Killing Me Softly With His Song” as well as Jim Croce’s “I Got A Name,” Barry Manilow’s “Ready To Take A Chance Again,” among other hits. He’s composed numerous concert and chamber music works and ballets. It’s incredible to think this one person has this depth but he does. Apple TV + currently has a wonderful not-to-be missed doc on him called “Killing Me Softly With His Songs.”

Songwriter Diane Warren first spoke about her good pal. “I’ve known for years about Charlie’s credits as a composer and songwriter in virtually every genre. But I’ve know your music my whole entire life. What makes you amazing is not only your brilliant body of work, but you are one of the most kindest wonderful human beings I’ve ever met. You deserve to be walked all over!”

Hit songwriter Paul Williams spoke next.

“Songwriters are the spiritual giants of the industry, but Charlie makes us all look like heathens. He’s the most normal human I’ve ever met in my life. It’s unnerving. Charlie has a genre blind spot. He trained to be a classical musician but he first started working with Tito Puente. He’s done it all, his heart extends to his music. His elegance and kindness, he’s passed that on to all of us. I’ve known him for almost fifty years, but there was an empty decade there. In the eighties I was gone. Charlie hadn’t gone anywhere, but I had. I had fallen into the depth of my own addiction, my alcoholism. But 34 years ago when I got out if it, I saw Charlie and he didn’t say where had I been? He said welcome back. That’s the essence of him.”

Charles Fox is indeed one of a kind, to know him is to love him.

Photo: Isabella Costa

Ka Ching! The Beatles Made $68,286 Last Week from Beyonce’s Recording of “Blackbird,” Dolly Parton Did Better!

Roger Friedman
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Ka Ching! The Beatles Made $68,286 Last Week from Beyonce’s Recording of “Blackbird,” Dolly Parton Did Better!

Beyonce placed 19 songs on the top 50 Song Streaming Revenue chart last week.

Hitsdailydouble’s chart shows that despite all the hits, the Queen Bey missed numbers 1 and 2. They went to Future and Hozier.

The Beatles — really Paul McCartney — made $68,286 from sales. They can go out to dinner!

Dolly Parton did better with Beyonce’s version of “Jolene” — she grabbed $105.091.

The numbers include downloads and streaming.

All the writers on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” should send thank you notes to the singer. Even Stephen Stills got a taste of the $61,382 from “American Requiem.”

Since the list was compiled, the singles have dropped on the charts, with the exception of “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The album remains at number 2.

What if Beyonce did some TV appearances? She’s above that, but it would keep the action going. Wait til Taylor Swift’s album drops soon. We won’t be able to get away from her. That’s called marketing!

Review: “Civil War” is an Over-Hyped Aimless, Violent Movie that Looks Like a Video Game — What Are These People Fighting For?

Roger Friedman
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Review: “Civil War” is an Over-Hyped Aimless, Violent Movie that Looks Like a Video Game — What Are These People Fighting For?

The hype around Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is over the top. The publicity machine wants to make you believe this is a life changing movie about the divisions in our country and what could happen if they get out of control.

Believe me, I wanted to like it. I was prepared to be angered and moved.

But “Civil War” is hollow. It reads like a video game, something a teenager would be playing on his Nintendo hand set. The plot is confusing and the characters are undeveloped. It’s a lot of sound and fury, signifying anything.

Instead of being about Civil War, it’s really about three war photographers who go rogue and witness horrors. But these horrors seem almost cartoon-like if you’ve ever seen “The Killing Fields.”

The set up is that the country is under siege after a Trumpian president takes a third term. A lot of the country is wrecked and the people are mostly gone. It’s unclear where they’ve decamped to, unless they were blown up in a nuclear accident. There are indeed a lot of dead bodies around.

Kirsten Dunst is a seasoned photojournalist in New York (where the skyline looks untouched by the war). She and Wagner Moura want to drive to DC and try and interview the Trump like president who’s driven everyone to madness. For some reason, the great actor Stephen McKinley Henderson — playing a now portly, hobbled journalist — wants to go with them on this do-or-die adventure. They also pick up a fresh young acolyte in Caelee Spaeny, who looks like she’s 12 years old. They all go off on a road trip to DC via West Virginia.

It’s unclear how the civil war started. Nick Offerman plays the Trumpish president battling insurrectionists. A rebel group has formed from an implausible alliance between California and Texas against him. It’s hard to tell as the road trip proceeds who’s on what side. It’s only when the group runs into Jesse Plemons as a redneck member of something, that shocking violence occurs against two Asian American photographers. Plemons is chilling, and maybe the only indication of what’s to fear from the current administration.

The photographers drive their Press truck, sport badges and helmets as they witness the horrors of the war. Their whole message is that they don’t want to get involved. They have unusual access to the rebel forces (the ostensible good guys) as if they’re shrouded in a force field. The film is unconvincing in conveying their bravery. The only people they stand up for are themselves.

The big problem is that Garland never stops to explain why everyone is fighting. Race? Class? Abortion? The “insurrectionists” obviously want the Trumpish guy out, but to do so they’re blowing up everything, even the Lincoln Memorial and the White House. Are they the good guys? No one is in charge of them, either. It’s hard to know who to root for in a film that seems to be taking all sides at once. Why is everyone so angry? How can there be a civil war without any passion or emotion? Garland either knows and doesn’t want to say, or is leaving it up to interpretation.

I was disappointed by Kirsten Dunst’s character, who starts out like a hard nosed vet and then has some kind of mysterious breakdown. She kind of disappears three quarters of the way in. At least she’s using a digital camera. Spaeny is using her father’s camera and it takes film, which has she has to develop! Where is she getting all this film during a revolution. The 7-11s are all closed.

There is one funny scene, when the Scooby Doo gang rolls into some forgotten West Virginia town. It’s like they’ve wandered into a David Lynch film. A hipster sales girl is running a clothing shop as if nothing is going on in the world. It makes no sense plot-wise or tonally, but it’s a relief in this mess of a movie.

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Finale Jumps 56% in Total Viewers to Highest Night in Four Years

Roger Friedman
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“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Finale Jumps 56% in Total Viewers to Highest Night in Four Years

The end of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was a hit.

HBO says the total number of viewers including Max streaming and extra terrestrial fans came to 1.1 million. Maybe they’re right!

But the total linear viewers on the HBO channel with two showings on Sunday night came to 530,000. That’s a 56% jump from the previous week. The key demo rose a whopping 120%. That’s the best single night for this show since 2020.

I know a lot of young people have cut their cables and watch these shows with tin foil or something, but right now the only measured rating is linear. So anyway, the show was a success. It was certainly a critical success, definitely worthy of an Emmy award or two. It will have many nominations. Congrats!

Gotham Awards Breaking Out TV Awards in June, Going the Way of Critics Choice, others

Roger Friedman
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Gotham Awards Breaking Out TV Awards in June, Going the Way of Critics Choice, others

So we need another awards show?

Apparently the Gotham Awards think so. They’ve going to give out TV Awards in New York on June 4th. They already give some TV awards at the November event, but now they’re expanding it.

The Critics Choice Awards already have four or five spin offs, so I guess the Gothams are next in line. Here are the categories. No word yet on where the awards will be in New York, who’s voting, what the criteria are, etc. But it will come into focus soon, I’m sure.

categories:
Breakthrough Comedy Series

Breakthrough Drama Series

Breakthrough Limited Series

Breakthrough Nonfiction Series

Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Series

Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series

Outstanding Performance in a Limited Series

Audience Award

Don’t Mourn OJ Simpson: He Was a Murderer, a Philanderer, and A Liar Who Bought His Way out of Jail…For a While

Roger Friedman
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Don’t Mourn OJ Simpson: He Was a Murderer, a Philanderer, and A Liar Who Bought His Way out of Jail…For a While

There is no mourning OJ Simpson.

He killed two people — he decapitated his ex wife, the mother of his children. He bought his way out of jail on the murders, but eventually got there thanks to a botched robbery in Las Vegas.

From June 1994 to October 1995 I covered his case and spent a lot of time in the courtroom. I was at New York Magazine. Our editor in chief, Kurt Anderson, thought the case was beneath him, and mocked me on internal emails for my “obsession.” It was fun time.

Of course, Anderson was wrong. The country was obsessed with OJ, and whether he killed Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. Even when they knew in their hearts he’d done it they watched to see how he’d get out of it. The case launched a thousand media careers. Suddenly there were talking heads on every cable channel, all giving their two cents.

The trial made stars out of two people who didn’t deserve it– Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden. They lost the case by making all the wrong moves. The trial gave us the first Kardashian– Robert, OJ’s loyal friend who covered everything up, and then only voiced his “doubts” right before he died. The other lawyers on the case also didn’t live long — Johnny Cochran died. Before he died, F. Lee Bailey lost everything. Howard Weitzman, who got out on Day 1 because he knew OJ wad guilty, is sadly gone.

Who knows what happened? Kato Kaelin, the houseguest, knows. Cathy Randa, OJ’s loyal secretary she knows. The daughter, Sydney Simpson, she knows. So does Al Cowlings, who drove the famous Ford Bronco in a slow speed chase that was almost more well known than the murders. They all know what happened, how OJ did it, and got away with it. Maybe now we’ll see some books pop up.

As for Simpson himself, he vowed to find “the real killers.” Ha ha. He spent his time playing golf, going to jail for the later robbery, and living it up by moving to Florida where his house was out of reach of the $31 million judgement against him in the civil trial. He laughed at all of us. He’s not laughing anymore.

OJ Simpson Dead at 76, 30 Years After Killing Ex Wife and Friend

Roger Friedman
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OJ Simpson Dead at 76, 30 Years After Killing Ex Wife and Friend

OJ Simpson is dead at age 76.

Thirty years ago he killed his ex wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. He was acquitted in a carnival of a criminal trial but found guilty in a civil trial.

Simpson exits this world without ever paying the $31 million judgement against him. The case was called The Trial of the Century.

The former Buffalo Bills star wound up in prison later on other criminal charges.

That he’s died of cancer is not surprising. When I covered his trial in 1994, it was clear Simpson was living on steroids.

Rest in peace? Not this one.

UPDATED Lennon-McCartney Reunion, Only This Time It’s the Sons Also Rising: James McCartney And Sean Ono Lennon Team Up

Roger Friedman
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UPDATED Lennon-McCartney Reunion, Only This Time It’s the Sons Also Rising: James McCartney And Sean Ono Lennon Team Up

UPDATED SAT 12:17AM: James has confirmed that Sean co-wrote “Primrose Hill” with him. So this is actually a new Lennon-McCartney or McCartney-Lennon song.

A Lennon-McCartney reunion?

Not John and Paul. But sources say it seems like James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon have collaborated on a song called “Primrose Hill.”

The song comes under James’s name and will drop tonight. And boy, it sounds like the dads come together. The guys have blended their voice on James’s song. “Primrose Hill” is a reference to the place where John said they should go and film what became the rooftop concert for “Let it Be.”

The sons also rise! What fun! They should have done this a long time ago!

Demi Moore, Selena Gomez, Adam Driver, Richard Gere, Kevin Costner, Nicolas Cage Lead Eclectic Group of Cannes Films

Roger Friedman
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Demi Moore, Selena Gomez, Adam Driver, Richard Gere, Kevin Costner, Nicolas Cage Lead Eclectic Group of Cannes Films

The 2024 Cannes line up is… different.

There are a lot of American films actors on the list. But they’re not the usual fare.

Demi Moore and Selena Gomez star in a horror film. Richard Gere reunites with his “American Gigolo” direcor Paul Schrader. Adam Driver commands Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.” Kevin Costner is bringing his vanity western.

Coppola’s movie is notable because it has no distributor and cost him personally $100 million — not even the total price. Will he sell it? Who will buy it? How many times will it be shown? More than once?

Demi Moore? Richard Gere? There’s an 80s nostalgia there, certainly. Moore will get a lot of red carpet attention without a doubt. For Gere, this is vindication after he’s said that his political views about Tibet have cancelled him as a studio player — they’re all afraid of insulting China.

Sean Baker is back, this time with a film called “Anora” that has not only no star but no one who’s name is recognizable.

Andrea Arnold has “Bird,” with two hot stars — Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski. You can only imagine the bidding war, with A24 cracking open its piggy bank to get a film with the eccentric star of “Saltburn.”

On the what I would call more Oscar-y side of things, Cate Blanchett and Emma Stone each have films which will raise the bar a lot. There will also be plenty of French stars like Catherine Deneuve, Melvil Poupad, and Adele Exarchopolous.

Thierry Fremaux and Iris Knobloch say more films may be added in the days ahead, and I’m sure they’re right.

A deeper dive later today…

OPENING FILM

LE DEUXIEME ACTE (THE SECOND ACT)
Quentin Dupieux
Out of Competition

COMPETITION

THE APPRENTICE
Ali Abbasi

MOTEL DESTINO
Karim Aïnouz

BIRD
Andrea Arnold

EMILIA PEREZ
Jacques Audiard

ANORA
Sean Baker

MEGALOPOLIS
Francis Ford Coppola

THE SHROUDS
David Cronenberg

THE SUBSTANCE
Coralie Fargeat

GRAND TOUR
Miguel Gomes

MARCELLO MIO
Christophe Honoré

FENG LIU YI DAI (CAUGHT BY THE TIDES)
Jia Zhang-Ke

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
Payal Kapadia

KINDS OF KINDNESS
Yórgos Lánthimos

L’AMOUR OUF
Gilles Lellouche

WILD DIAMOND
Agathe Riedinger
1st film

OH CANADA
Paul Schrader

LIMONOV – THE BALLAD
Kirill Serebrennikov

PARTHENOPE
Paolo Sorrentino

PIGEN MED NÅLEN (THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE)
Magnus von Horn

UN CERTAIN REGARD

NORAH
Tawfik Alzaidi

THE SHAMELESS
Konstantin Bojanov

LE ROYAUME
Julien Colonna
1st film

VINGT DIEUX !
Louise Courvoisier
1st film

WHO LET THE DOG BITE? (LE PROCÈS DU CHIEN)
Laetitia Dosch
1st film

GOU ZHEN (BLACK DOG)
Guan Hu

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE
Mo Harawe
1st film

SEPTEMBER SAYS
Ariane Labed
1st film

L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE
Boris Lojkine

THE DAMNED
Roberto Minervini

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
Rungano Nyoni

BOKU NO OHISAMA (MY SUNSHINE)
Hiroshi Okuyama

SANTOSH
Sandhya Suri

VIET AND NAM
Truong Minh Quý

ARMAND
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
1st film

OUT OF COMPETITION

SHE’S GOT NO NAME
Chan Peter Ho-Sun

HORIZON
Kevin Costner

RUMOURS
Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson & Guy Maddin

FURIOSA : A MAD MAX SAGA
George Miller

Gene Hackman Fans Enraged by NY Post Attack on 94 Year Old Movie Legend and Two Time Oscar Winner’s Sartorial Choices

Roger Friedman
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Gene Hackman Fans Enraged by NY Post Attack on 94 Year Old Movie Legend and Two Time Oscar Winner’s Sartorial Choices

Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors of all time, and a nice guy, too.

The 94 year two time Oscar winner wisely retired from Hollywood more two decade sago. He knew when to say goodbye.

But Hackman’s graciousness wasn’t enough this week for the New York Post to leave him alone. They grabbed pictures of him –obtained by Splash News — getting gas and coffee in Santa Fe and criticized him for his sartorial choices.

The Post complained that he looked the same — maybe wearing the same clothes — as he did when he was spotted in the same place four weeks ago. (Maybe the gas station people are selling pictures?)

Fans on Twitter, aka X, were outraged. So am I. ‘Leave this man alone!’ was the consensus. One witty Tweeter observed that maybe Hackman had discovered a way to wash clothes and use them again! (LOL.)

Last week, I read nasty tabloid items about Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, who are in their late 80s. They, like Robert Redford, have withdrawn from the scene. All of them owe us NOTHING. They gave and gave and gave. Indeed, leave them alone.

As for Hackman, I’m thrilled to see that at 94 he’s up and walking, and driving, and pumping gas. Good for him! Give him a standing ovation, even if he’s not wearing Prada! He looks great! We’re lucky to have him.

PS I’d like to see what they’re wearing in the NY Post newsroom these days.

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