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Paul Anka singing “My Way” on Jimmy Kimmel is Hollywood nirvana.
Watch him on “Jimmy Kimmel.” Anka wrote the song Frank Sinatra made famous.
Anka is the subject of a new documentary on HBO.
What a life! So many hits, and he’s managed, at 84, to keep the career going for 70 years.
Of course, the biggest surprise came after Michael Jackson died, and we learned they’d written the songs “Love Never Felt So Good” and “This Is It” together. And they were great.
Anka has had so many hits. One of his best was one he didn’t write — “The Times of Your Life.”
Long live Paul Anka. And thanks, Jimmy, that was very cool
Wow — the Gotham Awards upped their game tonight and morphed into a kind of pre-Oscars,
They gave Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “One Battle After Another.” The film is heavily weighted to win Best Picture at the Oscars next March.hi
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won three awards for his terrific film, Cannes prize winner “Ir Was Just An Accident.”
The Gothams maintained some identity as a home for indie films by giving the main acting awards to complete unknowns from movie’s no one has seen or heard of. Also, Breakthrough Performer.
This means that a lot of nominated stars — like Adam Sandler — went home with nothing but did dine a nice hunk of filet mignon courtesy of Cipriani’s 55 Wall Street.
Tribute awards previously announced were presented to Noah Baumbach — hilarious presentation by Adam Sandler and Emily Mortimer (Director Tribute for “Jay Kelly”); the cast of Sinners (Ensemble Tribute); Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac & Jacob Elordi (Vanguard Tribute for “Frankenstein”); Tessa Thompson (Spotlight Tribute for “Hedda”); Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman (Musical Tribute for “Song Sung Blue”); and Jeremy Allen White and Scott Cooper (Cultural Icon Tribute, presented by Stevie van Zandt, for “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”). There was also a Visionary Award given to director Luca Guagnino and Julia Roberts for “After the Hunt,” a movie that died upon release.
My new favorite person: Eva Victor, who you may remember from “Billions.” She stars in, wrote and directed the dark comedy “Sorry, Baby,” nominated for Gothams tonight. The movie is out from A24 and streaming on all platforms. She’s an absolute delight.
Earlier in the day, Warner Bros. gave a small luncheon and Q&A for “One Battle” at the newly renovated famous Chelsea Hotel. Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor all participated and showed what a fun group they’ll be on the Oscar campaign trail. By the time they’re done, you want to give awards to all of them. MIA: director Paul Thomas Anderson (who came to the Gothams with wife Maya Rudolph) and Sean Penn.
We learned that PTA created the subplot of Chase’s cell phone being an issue only after the actress insisted that no young woman would be without one. Originally, he was going to have no phones in the movie at all!
In the small crowd were the great British actors Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, currently selling out Studio 54 with “Oedipus,” by Erika Alexander from “American Fiction,” musician Ruben Blades, former James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, actress Rutanya Alda, “Precious” screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher and so on.
I think Teyana Taylor was impressed that before “One Battle” was released, I was at the Apollo Theater ceremony in June when she received an award for excellence in music, acting, fashion, etc. She’s a force of nature. She’s looking at a big 2026 with a Grammy nomination for Best R&B album with “Escape Room.” (Watch her video below, after the award winners.)
Best Feature One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, producers (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best Director Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
Outstanding Lead Performance Sopé Dìrísù, My Father’s Shadow (Mubi)
EXCLUSIVE.
Iranian director Jafar Panahi is a brave man. He tells me he will return to Tehran to face his jail sentence for promoting “propaganda” against the state.
Panahi says he’ll go back after Oscars season. His wonderful political film, “It Was Just An Accident,” won Best Feature, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Film tonight at the Gotham Awards in New York. Previously the film had received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Panahi has already spent time in an Iranian prison, so you’d think he wouldn’t want to revisit that experience. I asked one of his producers why he’d do this.
“Iranians are very loyal,” she said. “Also his family is there and he wants to be at hom
It sounds a lot like when Russian dissident Alexei Navalny returned home knowing he’d be arrested and imprisoned. He ultimately died in his Russian prison.
Panahi didn’t win his awards tonight for being a dissident. His court situation was largely unknown to the Gotham Awards guests and came after voting. His movie, “It Was Just An Accident,” is quite brilliant as a political statement, a thought provoking drama, and a morality tale. It takes unexpected turns and ends with a plot twist that leaves audiences talking, and maybe more.
If Panahi does go home, he’s faced with a one year prison sentence. Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran also slapped Panahi with a travel ban for “propaganda activities” against Iran.
Panahi previously spent 86 days in prison. He was arrested in July 2022 for going to the prosecutor’s office to inquire about Mohammad Rasoulof, a fellow Iranian director who had been arrested in May for participating in a protest.
He was released from the violent Evin prison only after staging a hunger strike.
The director is on the road to winning an Oscar for Best International Film. At this rate, “It Was Just An Accident” — which is about five inmates kidnapping their former prison torturer — may also be nominated for Best Picture. But it’s unlikely the Iranian government will celebrate those achievements.
Marty Mauser is a motor mouth. He’s the fastest talker on the Lower East Side. In the old days they’d call him a Sammy Glick.
Marty has dreams of making it big, and luckily he has a skill: table tennis, aka ping pong. He plays a guerilla game and knows it can get him out of Brooklyn and onto an international stage. Ping pong championships made news when there were only three TV channels.
In Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” Timothee Chalamet is like his own ping pong ball, flying turbo charged back and forth around the world and even in his parents’ little house as he plots his triumphs by hook or crook. Nothing will stop him.
Marty was a real person. My friend, radio host Mark Simone, actually had dinner with Marty Reisman ononce at Patsy’s in New York. Reisman also appeared on David Letterman’s original show. He was still winning prizes in his later years. Marty was a larger than life guy who’s only now going to get his due in this wild tale that’s going to send Chalamet into the stratosphere and maybe even reignite Gwyneth Paltrow’s moribund career.
The movie is based on Reisman’s 1974 autobiography, “The Money Player,” so congrats to the producers for reviving a 50 year old book few knew about or remembered. Reisman was the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men’s singles champion. In the end, he won 22 major table tennis titles from 1946 to 2002, including two United States Opens and a British Open.
But just watching ping pong wouldn’t be so interesting on screen. Safdie and Chalamet have created a frenetic, OCD, ADHD character who cannot stop talking or hustling potential wealthy patrons. He finds one in Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary who plays a rich boor married to a has been movie star whom Marty beds (Paltrow). And so the fun begins.
The big challenge is how Marty — who’s broke with no possibilities of earning anything in the normal world — will scrape together the money to get back and forth to international competitions. But we never fear it won’t happen since Marty can talk himself in and out of any situation no matter how much he has to debase himself.
“Marty Supreme” isn’t just about Marty. Safdie’s given him plenty of colorful supporting players including a real find in Odessa A’zion as his married best girlfriend and co-conspirator, Fran Drescher as his mother, Abel Ferrara as his stepfather, and plenty of colorful New Yorkers like John Catsimitidis, Isaac Mizrahi, and Sandra Bernhard.
The marketing on “Marty Supreme” is already out of control. In the movie, Marty keeps pitching the idea of orange ping pong balls instead of white ones so viewers can follow him easily. He eventually gets them made with his name on them. In real life, A24 has turned this into an opportunity gone crazy, stamped into the potential moviegoing audience’s psyche weeks in advance. The real Marty would definitely approve (it’s unclear if his estate gets a taste of the proceeds).
The bottom line is that Josh Safdie’s made an incredibly entertaining movie, full of fun, that ends on an uplifting note. Audiences won’t be able to get enough of 30 year old Chalamet, who will have to take measure to make sure he doesn’t blow his Oscar chances by being Marty in real life. A little Mauser goes a long way.
There was so much MAGA outrage about this year’s Super Bowl performer.
The red states and wingnuts were upset about Bad Bunny getting up on stage and singing in Spanish. They said, he’s not a US citizen!
Actually he is: Puerto Rico is a state. Mr. Bunny is a citizen.
Anyway, tonight the NFL has calmed everyone down. They’ve tapped Charlie Puth and Brandi Carlile, two Americans born in the USA, to perform before the Super Bowl. So everyone take a deep breath.
Alas, they did pick Coco Jones to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” This is when MAGA can go to the bathroom or back to their tailgate.
Puth will perform the National Anthem and Carlile will sing “America the Beautiful.” They will present their passports to the audience.
PS Coco Jones is a great choice. She started out as a Disney kid — what’s more American than that? And she has a Grammy Award. She was born in Columbia, South Carolina. Jones sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the 2024 NBA All Star Game. She knows her way around the song.
It’s Woody Allen’s 90th birthday, and we salute him.
Below, you can see my recent interview with Woody, with Neil Rosen of Talking Pictures.
Woody’s influence on film and TV over the last 50 or more years is incalculable. “Only Murders in the Building,” for example, is certainly inspired by “Manhattan Murder Mystery.”
But it’s movies like “Annie Hall” — which won 4 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Screenplay — that has informed so many romantic comedies it’s not…funny. (My personal favorites — movies like “Zelig,” which was brilliantly prescient, and “Match Point.”)
Woody’s voice is everywhere. His staggering 50 films include “Bananas,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Sleeper,” “Love and Death,” “Manhattan,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Blue Jasmine,” “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” and so many others.
Six actors have won Oscars in films directed by Woody including Diane Keaton, Michael Caine, Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz, Mira Sorvino, and two for Dianne Wiest.
Even more have been nominated including Woody himself, plus Judy Davis, Geraldine Page, Mariel Hemingway, Samantha Morton, Sean Penn, and Sally Hawkins.
After New York was so brutally attacked on 9-11, it was Woody the producers of the Oscars asked to come open the 2002 show as a surprise. No one represented New York better.
Will he make a 51st film? I’m betting he will. He says in our interview below that he could make a film pretty much anywhere in Europe, but he’d like to make one more in New York. I hope he does. Meantime, he’s published his first novel, “What’s With Baum?” that’s trenchant, fun, and has a nice plot twist. It’s on amazon.
I’ve been lucky enough to interview Woody many times, and even got a chance to take his picture with his old Olivetti typewriter in his home office. But my favorite advice he gave me is how to make a really chocolate malted at home. “Use twice as much malted as you planned,” he said.
“Wicked For Good” lost some steam this holiday weekend.
The “Wicked” sequel originally came in like the cyclone that blew Dorothy’s house off its foundation.
But for a second weekend, “WFG” took a beating from “Zootopia 2,” sequel to the 2016 hit.
The latter grossed $96.8 million over its first five days and beat “WFG” soundly, denying the Ozzian tale a second week at number 1. The total counting the first two days comes to $156 million. It’s breathing down the neck of the old Wizard.
“WFG” had a regular three day weekend and produced just $62.8 million.
Nevertheless, “Wicked For Good” will hit $300 million in the US on Monday or Tuesday.
Nothing else on this long weekend did more than $7 million which itself was a magic trick performed by “Now You See Me Now You Don’t.”
Nothing coming this week looks like competition for either “WFG” or “Z2” except maybe the horror film, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”
The next big movie won’t come for two weeks, when “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens wide. “Marty Supreme” also get a very limited release on December 18th. A trio of wide releases come on Christmas Day including “Marty,” “Anaconda,” and “Song Sung Blue.”
But this is not the holiday release month of the old days. Even “Avatar,” now on its third iteration, can’t be counted on to save the 2025 box office. The year is going out with a whimper, not a bang, which is too bad.
One bit of hindsight: a real release for “Frankenstein,” with real marketing, would have been a boon in theaters. Alas, Netflix kept it to themselves.
Out in Las Vegas, Mariah started a residency tonight at Caesar’s Palace.
The show runs through December 13th and features her whole holiday mishegos culminating in “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
But what Mariah really wants is fannies in the seats.
The shows are surprisingly half-sold at best. Tonight’s show is a little better because it’s opening night. But unless Caesar’s puts the show on discount, Mariah is going to be staring into the abyss beyond the orchestra section.
It’s not her fault. This is the state of Vegas these days. She’s also chosen an odd time. Kids are still in school, people are spending their money on gifts — after gas, groceries, and heating.
Maybe the word hasn’t gotten out. And knowing Mariah it’s costing more to lodge her in Vegas than the shows are taking in.
A lumbering, catatonic looking Barron, 19, was seen walking into Thanksgiving dinner at Mar-a-Lago with his parents. You can hear “We Are the World” playing in the background.
In the video Barron has a grim visage. He doesn’t wave or smile. He barely acknowledges the club’s guests taking pictures of him and his family.
Barron has not been seen since at least last April, if not before. He left studies at New York University and was said to have moved into the White House. NYU has a campus in Washington DC.
But there’s been nary a sighting of him all year, and not even a Tweet. For a man who stands at six foot nine, Barron remains otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
In the video, it looks like he’s being held hostage. His ability to blink Morse code may have been taken away from him. But something is very wrong. Barron has not been seen at any public events this year, especially ones — like NFL or MLB games — that most 19 year olds would be thrilled to attend.
EPIC! Barron Trump at 6-foot-9 spotted entering Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving with President Trump and Melania
Magnificent playwright Tom Stoppard has died in London at age 88.
A statement from United Agents said: “We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family. “He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language. It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him.”
Stoppard won the Oscar in 1999 for co-writing “Shakespeare in Love.”
But it’s his enormous list of plays that are his legacy.
In 2023, he capped his career off with the amazing “Leopoldstadt,” which won the Tony for Best Play and resonates right up to this very minute.
Stoppard won six other Tony’s for Best Play including “The Real Thing,” “Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead,” “Travesties,” and the three parts of “The Coast of Utopia.”
Some of his other highly acclaimed titles include “Arcadia,” “Jumpers,” and “Rock N Roll.”
Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard was prolific. Among his movies were “Empire of the Sun,” and “Brazil.”
Just a note on “Leopoldstadt”: Stoppard revealed that in his 50s he learned he was Jewish. His parents fled the Nazis in 1937, his father died, and his mother never discussed their past. The play was and is explosive in its exploration of this denial.
Tributes and interviews below:
Tom Stoppard was my favourite playwright. He leaves us with a majestic body of intellectual and amusing work. I will always miss him. pic.twitter.com/c9c2Y3ohZn
