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Fugees Rapper Star Pras Michel Going to Jail for 14 Years for Conspiracy and Illegal Foreign Lobbying

Roger Friedman
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Fugees Rapper Star Pras Michel Going to Jail for 14 Years for Conspiracy and Illegal Foreign Lobbying

Pras, one of the trio that makes the Fugees, is going to jail.

For 14 years.

Pras Michel, Wyclef Jean, and Lauryn Hill comprise the hit rap group, the Fugees. Their hits include the famous remake of “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” Pras had his own massive hit with “Ghetto Supastar,” a remake of “Islands in the Stream” written by Barry Gibb.

But Pras now faces a long stretch in jail after a judge sentenced him for conspiracy and illegal foreign lobbying charges.

What a shame. This is a tragic story of a rise and fall.

According to a report:

“His legal troubles stem from a list of allegations that have been building for years. Back in April 2023, Pras was convicted on ten separate counts, including accusations that he interfered with campaign finance laws during Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential run. Prosecutors also claimed he attempted to influence the Trump administration in 2017, painting a picture of a complex network of foreign connections and political maneuvering that ultimately unraveled in court.”

Read the whole thing here.

Box Office Boffo for “Wicked For Good” As Part 2 Casts Spell with $30.8 Mil Previews, Could Hit $200 Mil Weekend Despite So-So Reviews

Roger Friedman
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Box Office Boffo for “Wicked For Good” As Part 2 Casts Spell with $30.8 Mil Previews, Could Hit $200 Mil Weekend Despite So-So Reviews

“Wicked For Good” did good last night.

The Universal blockbuster scored $30.8 million in previews. It could reach a $200 million weekend.

This is despite so-so reviews. Fans don’t care. They want to see this movie!

Universal’s endless marketing campaign has worked beautifully. What seemed like “too much” to regular people was just enough for fans champing at the bit to see part 2 of last year’s extravaganza.

And that’s not all. The soundtrack album is number 1 on iTunes. Four of the tracks are on the iTunes singles chart. The soundtrack for the first film is number 11. The album from the TV special is in the top 20. The original “Wicked” is number 2 on home video.

We need “Wicked For Good” in theaters. But while you’re there, take a look at some of the other titles playing. This is movie season!

UPDATE: Kennedy Center Tickets for Everything, Including Christmas Holiday Shows, Aren’t Selling at All

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE: Kennedy Center Tickets for Everything, Including Christmas Holiday Shows, Aren’t Selling at All

I told you yesterday that the Kennedy Center’s holiday show, “Noel: Jesus is Born!” was a dud at the box office.

This afternoon, there are 1,350 seats available for December 17th. The show is in less than a month.

Indeed, nothing at the Kennedy Center is selling.

Only the main floor is open for Anthony Ross Constanza’s show in the Terrace Theater on November 30th. Half the seats are unsold.

The Kennedy Center’s website said this morning that the December 20th show for the Andrew Deerin Christmas Spectacular are sold out. Suddenly this afternoon it is indeed sold out after showing many available this morning. Mystery.

The Cincinnati Ballet company’s Nutcracker has 700 unsold seats for November 30th, in case you were wondering. The rest of the Nutcracker run is not much better.

Shamrock Tenors: Christmas in Belfast? You have plenty of opportunities.

I could go on and on. Not any part of the holiday program seems to be popular with prospective customers — not even “Champions of Magic: Holiday Spectacular.”

Donald Trump’s lackey, Richard Grenell, will have a lot to explain if and when they issue and end of the year report, that’s for sure.

Kennedy Center’s Big “Christ is Born!” Show, Hastily Announced by Trump Stooge Richard Grenell, Not Selling Tickets (Exclusive)

Box Office: “Wicked: For Good” Sells Out Most Manhattan Shows for Previews Tonight Despite Meh Reviews: The Fans Are Coming

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: “Wicked: For Good” Sells Out Most Manhattan Shows for Previews Tonight Despite Meh Reviews: The Fans Are Coming

Quick look around Manhattan theaters:

“Wicked For Good” has sold out most of its shows in the city.

At Lincoln Plaza, generally the bellwether, all the IMAX, Dolby, and Standard Seating is gone.

There are a few ducats around. The Times Square theaters will be pretty full, too.

Previews begin this afternoon, which is prime time for after school. But the solid sell outs go through prime time hours, too, tonight.

But that’s New York, not the suburbs, where there’s plenty of blue on the map everywhere. So it’s unclear if “Wicked for Good” will just be a phenom in mediacentric areas, or if the spell will spread beyond Oz to the hinterlands.

What’s absolutely true is that there are dozens of showings everywhere. Theater operators have turned over all the real estate they have to accommodate the “Wicked” fans and are hoping for a high turnout.

Meanwhile, all insiders will be watching and waiting for a Cinemascore and other audience reactions at the end of each screening. Tomorrow will be quite the day in movie reporting.

Kennedy Center’s Big “Christ is Born!” Show, Hastily Announced by Trump Stooge Richard Grenell, Not Selling Tickets (Exclusive)

Roger Friedman
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Kennedy Center’s Big “Christ is Born!” Show, Hastily Announced by Trump Stooge Richard Grenell, Not Selling Tickets (Exclusive)

Poor Richard Grenell.

He’s driven the Kennedy Center into the ground.

A stooge for Donald Trump, Grenell has seen Kennedy Center ticket sales plummet all year as he’s erased anything interesting from the schedule. Former audience members have left as the Trump era of pandering to the Christian right has unfurled.

But now even the Christians are going. After I wrote that Grenell never fulfilled his promise last winter of a big “Christ is Born” pageant, he had to schedule something overnight.

Hastily, Grenell announced such a show — just one night — of a lame touring show called “Noel: Jesus is Born!”

Grenell made it seem like this was the Second Coming. But so far, no one is coming. Tonight’s seat map reveals an entirely open house. I doubt Trump or any of his goons will show up. If they do, the KenCen will have to eat those tickets.

And Grenell will eat his words on Twitter from yesterday. He wrote: “Last February, the @nytimes mocked our stated goal to bring Christ back to Christmas. Today, the Kennedy Center’s December programming is celebrating Christ’s birth and the Christmas Season all month long.”

PS Hanukkah? Kwanzaa? They don’t exist anymore thanks to Grenell.

Private Screenings: Clive Davis Shows Mark Ronson’s Film of His Hits, from Whitney to Aretha, Janis, Carlos Santana “Smooth”

Roger Friedman
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Private Screenings: Clive Davis Shows Mark Ronson’s Film of His Hits, from Whitney to Aretha, Janis, Carlos Santana “Smooth”

Three years ago, legendary music mogul Clive Davis gave notable record producer Mark Ronson a project:

Take all the videos from Davis’s decades of hits and make them into a mega mix movie.

A long version was shown at Davis’s 90th birthday party in April 2022. It was met with applause, but it was also too long.

This past summer, Clive showed a shorter, tighter version at the Bedford Playhouse in Westchester. It was a huge success. Then he went west to Palm Springs and Los Angeles, where invited audiences got a sneak peek.

On Tuesday night, Clive brought “Do You Remember?” to The Iris Cantor Theatre and Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The room was packed. Mark Ronson came and brought his famous mom, Ann Dexter Jones. A spirited one-hour Q&A moderated by author/music critic Anthony DeCurtis followed.

The audience went wild. I’ve seen “Do You Remember?” and it’s really a hit. I only hope Clive lets a streamer or cable channel show it soon. Ronson’s “visual mixtape” features remixed video clips that are like a Five Star Jukebox. The hits just keep coming from: Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Biggie Smalls, Janis Joplin, Barry Manilow, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Earth Wind & Fire, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Rod Stewart, Dionne Warwick, Maroon 5, The Kinks, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Grateful Dead, and many more.

Whew!

Next up for Clive: he’s catching Patti Smith at the Beacon Theater this weekend. Back in 1975 Clive signed Patti to his new Arista Records and a star was born, so this makes for a unique moment. Next week he’s hosting a screening of “Song Sung Blue,” with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. He’s also planning his 2026 Grammy party-dinner-concert for January 31st.

Mark Ronson has a novel out, and just produced Miley Cyrus’s theme song for the new “Avatar” movie.

Not bad!

Tom Hanks Play Opens to Mixed-Negative Reviews (Except the NY Times), Celeb Pals Martin Short, Meryl Streep Hit Opening Night

Roger Friedman
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Tom Hanks Play Opens to Mixed-Negative Reviews (Except the NY Times), Celeb Pals Martin Short, Meryl Streep Hit Opening Night

Tom Hanks’s play “This World of Tomorrow” opened off Broadway last night.

The reviews were mixed to not good. The Washington Post headline is The Tom Hanks Play Is Bad.

Ok? Got the picture?

Naveen Kumar wrote: “If you could time travel after seeing “This World of Tomorrow,” you would probably rewind to the moment before you bought a ticket.”

Only the NY Times’ Laura Collins-Hughes let Hanks off the hook. She called it “a comfort-food experience.”

Otherwise, a lot of people who paid out $200-$400 per ticket have a lot of disposed of income.

Yes, we love Tom Hanks, but the hijinks surrounding this production at The Shed in Hudson Yards have been something for the books. They couldn’t sell really high priced tickets for weeks. When I pointed out that nothing was moving, they brought the prices down.

Even now, the small Shed has plenty of tickets available on their website and on StubHub. A few are ridiculous priced over $1,000. Those people should be donating all that extra money to food banks.

On Tuesday night, The Shed had an unaffordable opening night for deep pocketed patrons and celebrities. Tom’s well-heeled bf’s came, like Meryl Streep and Martin Short, Steve Martin and his wife Anne, and Hanks’s wife Rita Wilson and their son, Chet Hanks.

Thom Geier, from Culture Sauce, wrote: “…the script needs significant work to trim unnecessary scenes and sharpen the focus. Despite the sci-fi trappings, This World of Tomorrow is stuck in the dusty past…”

The average rating on BroadwayWorld.com is 52.9%.

At this rate, “This World of Tomorrow” will not move to Broadway after its limited run. Maybe Hanks will have it filmed for posterity so one day we can all watch it.

Timothee Chalamet Wasn’t Kidding: “Marty Supreme” Marketing Onslaught Includes Real Orange Blimp, Virtual Ones on Google

Roger Friedman
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Timothee Chalamet Wasn’t Kidding: “Marty Supreme” Marketing Onslaught Includes Real Orange Blimp, Virtual Ones on Google

Timothee Chalamet wasn’t kidding during his fake Zoom marketing movie the other day. (See way at the bottom.)

He and A24 have gone full in on some of the strange things discussed, including an org blimp.

On Instagram, Timmy has posted a picture of a real orange blimp with the “Marty Supreme” logo flying above.

On Google, if you type in Timothee Chalamet or both, there are animated orange blimps flying across the screen.

Orange ping pong balls are coming soon, falling from the sky. The Statue of Liberty and other landmarks will be “painted” orange.

What else? A Wheaties box with Chalamet as Marty is imminent.

There’s also a range of clothing merchandise already available all over the internet with the Marty Supreme logo.

A24 wants to be everything, everywhere all at once on this one!

AARP Movie Noms Bring Surprises: “One Battle,” “Hamnet,” “Sinners,” “Train Dreams,” “House of Dynamite” for Best Picture

Roger Friedman
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AARP Movie Noms Bring Surprises: “One Battle,” “Hamnet,” “Sinners,” “Train Dreams,” “House of Dynamite” for Best Picture

The first round of 2026 movie noms are here thanks to AARP’s Movies for Grown Ups.

Nominations are below. The lead actor choices are interesting, particularly in Actress where every single name is unexpected. These nominees are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs as they used to say! No Jessie Buckley? Emma Stone? Kate Hudson?

Huh? Very weird. All too young. I guess you have to be older than fortysomething to make the cut. June Squibb, 96, should win without any trouble! (Julia Roberts must be amused to be in this category!)

Well, this is how it begins. The awards ceremony is January 10th, hosted by Alan Cumming. The show will be broadcast on PBS February 26th.The complete list of the annual Movies for Grownups Awards Nominees:

Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups: Hamnet, A House of Dynamite, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Train Dreams.

Best Actress: Laura Dern (Is This Thing On?), Jodie Foster (A Private Life), Lucy Liu (Rosemead), Julia Roberts (After the Hunt), and June Squibb (Eleanor the Great).

Best Actor: George Clooney (Jay Kelly), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine).

Best Supporting Actress: Regina Hall (One Battle After Another), Amy Madigan (Weapons), Helen Mirren (Goodbye June), Gwyneth Paltrow (Marty Supreme), and Sigourney Weaver (Avatar: Fire and Ash).

Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro (One Battle After Another), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), Michael Shannon (Nuremberg), and Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value).

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Kathryn Bigelow (A House of Dynamite), Scott Cooper (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere), Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), and Spike Lee (Highest 2 Lowest).

Best Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer (Jay Kelly), Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell (Is This Thing On?), Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale), and James Vanderbilt (Nuremberg).

Best Ensemble: A House of Dynamite, Jay Kelly, Nuremberg, One Battle After Another, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Best Intergenerational Film: Eleanor the Great, The Lost Bus, Rental Family, Rosemead, Sentimental Value.Best Period Film: Dead Man’s Wire, Marty Supreme, Nuremberg, Sinners, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Best Documentary: Becoming Led Zeppelin, Cover Up, My Mom Jayne, Riefenstahl, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.

Best Foreign-Language Film: It Was Just an Accident, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value.

Best TV Series or Limited Series: Adolescence, Hacks, The Pitt, The Studio, The White Lotus.

Best Actor (TV): Walton Goggins (The White Lotus), Stephen Graham (Adolescence), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Noah Wyle (The Pitt).

Best Actress (TV): Kathy Bates (Matlock), Kathryn Hahn (The Studio), Catherine O’Hara (The Studio), Parker Posey (The White Lotus), Jean Smart (Hacks).

Book Sales: Kamala Harris’s “107 Days” Out Paces Eric Trump 2 to 1, Cheryl Hines Drops to Number 15,889 While Epstein Book Is a Hit

Roger Friedman
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Book Sales: Kamala Harris’s “107 Days” Out Paces Eric Trump 2 to 1, Cheryl Hines Drops to Number 15,889 While Epstein Book Is a Hit

The book business for topical subjects is a rough place right now.

The late Virginia Giuffre’s “Nobody’s Girl” is a smash hit thanks to the Jeffrey Epstein scandals.

Giuffre’s book is in the top 3 non fiction books on amazon. It’s number 5 all around. As the Epstein noose closes around Donald Trump’s plump neck, more and more people are eager to read what Guiffre knew about Epstein’s pedo gang.

Another winner is former VP and presidential Candidate Kamala Harris. Her “107 Days” has sold 289,000 copies according to Circana/BookScan. It’s been out about two months. The response has been excellent. A lot of readers wanted to know what went on with Joe Biden stepping down and Harris taking over.

Not so good sales for Eric Trump. The intelligence challenged second son of Donald Trump published a book, so to speak. full of his thoughts on dear old Dad. “Under Siege” has been out for five week and has sold 189,000 copies. It’s 288 pages which makes it just thick enough to elevate a laptop during Zoom calls with fellow insurrectionists.

Meantime, BookScan doesn’t have numbers yet for Cheryl Hines’s “Unscripted.” I’ll update when they do. But the book is at 15,889 right now on amazon. It’s dead, most sincerely dead. No one wants to read it or even own it as a souvenir.

Keep refreshing…

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