Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
CBS should consider having a presidential debate once a week.
Last night’s brawl among potential Democratic presidential candidates scored very nicely for them. CBS was up 93% from last week, and 83% over last year, same week.
It didn’t help that last week’s “NCIS” was one of the lower rated episodes of its run.
But the debate had an average 13 million viewers from 8 to 10 pm. Contrast that with “The Conners” over on ABC, which had just 5.1 million fans.
NBC competed strongly with the debate. “The Voice” had 8.5 million viewers, followed by “This is Us” with over 7 million.
Still, among the debates over all, the South Carolina crush came in a lot lower than last week’s gang bang in Las Vegas, which almost hit 20 million.
How about a series? CBS could spin it off of “NCIS”! But next time, let Murphy Brown be the moderator, please.
Seventies disco group The Village People have handed Donald Trump a real gift. They’ve given him permission to use their campy, gay themed songs “TMCA” and “Macho Man” at his rallies.
On their Twitter account, the Village People write: “Here’s our position on @realDonaldTrump use of our music. Though we don’t endorse his use, we’re not in the position to prevent such use unless he crosses the line. He has not. We have Democrats and Republican fans alike.”
On Facebook, the group writes:
TO OUR FANS:
We have received numerous requests demanding that we prevent or ban President Donald Trump’s use of our songs, particularly “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man.”
With the latest use of “Macho Man” in India, we are being inundated and can no longer remain silent.
Since our music is not being used for a specific endorsement, the President’s use is “perfect[ly]” legal.
He has remained respectful in his use of our songs and has not crossed the line; if he or any other candidate were to use any of our songs in a manner that would suggest our endorsement, or in a promotional advertisement, that would cross the line.
Like millions of Village People fans worldwide, the President and his supporters have shown a genuine like for our music.
Our music is all-inclusive and certainly everyone is entitled to do the YMCA dance, regardless of their political affiliation. Having said that, we certainly don’t endorse his use as we’d prefer our music be kept out of politics.
It’s ironic that most of Trump’s fans are homophobic rednecks who still don’t understand the lyrics to the Village People’s songs. But ok, it’s funny enough that they’re singing along to then. But even better, who are The Village People, exactly?
The group, which became popular in the late 70s, is now once again owned by its founder, Victor Willis, a black man who dresses up like a cop in the group. The ex husband of actress Phylicia Rashad (before she was on “The Cosby Show”) wrote the songs Trump is enjoying at rallies. But for a long time Willis was out of the picture. That’s because he had a series of arrests for drugs and one on gun charges. At one point he was on the run from the law. His lawyer at one time was Mark Geragos.
Some fans on social media are critical of Willis for letting Trump use the songs without complaint. He’s just about the only writer of a popular song who hasn’t threatened a lawsuit of some kind. But Willis may be enjoying the irony of all those MAGA hatted doofus’s chanting his words and waving their fists in the air. As with everything else, they have no idea what they’re doing.
Duffy was going to be Adele. She was the next Dusty Springfield. Twelve years ago, Duffy, aka Aimee Anne Duffy is a Welsh singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Tipperary Town, County Tipperary, Ireland. She had a massive hit with the album, “Rockferry” and was set to explode in the US on DefJam Records. At the 51st Grammy Awards held in February 2009, Duffy even won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for “Rockferry.” Earlier she had been nominated for awards in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single, “Mercy.”
But then she vanished. There were rumblings since 2011 of a career, but very little materialized. Until today, that is. Her sole post on Instagram is below, in which Duffy says she is safe now, but was “raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. But I can tell you in the last decade.”
This is so sad. She is obviously not mentally well, and hasn’t been for a very long time. She’s either off her meds and or escaped from a guardian. It’s not funny. News outlets are taking her wild claims seriously. They certainly shouldn’t. We have to hope she gets the right help ASAP.
Here’s the posting:
You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter. Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it. Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak. The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine. You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke. In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken interview, if I can. I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends. I want to thank you for that x
Duffy
Please respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family. Please support me to make this a positive experience.
You may recall mention of “The Bombing,” a Chinese movie made with Bruce Willis and Adrien Brody. In Chinese. It was art directed by Mel Gibson. I’m not making this up. Directed by Xiao Feng, “The Bombing” also starred Fan Bingbing.
“The Bombing” was finished a few years ago, but nothing happened and it sort of disappeared. One reason was because it was bad. The other was that Fan Bingbing was arrested in her native China for tax evasion, vanished for three months there, then reappeared and paid — or was supposed to pay — $127 million in back taxes. (She must have resolved her problems since she’s listed in the imdb as having finished a couple of new movies. China is a very forgiving government, as we all know.)
Anyway, it turns out “The Bombing” was retitled “Airstrike” and released last summer in three countries that really dig movies: Slovenia, Mexico, and Bolivia. Total box office was $512,992. The official budget was $65 million but I’m told it went all the way up to $100 million.
Will we ever see “Airstrike”? Yes! It’s on Amazon Prime, for free. I just looked at it. Someone has dubbed the Chinese into American. Bruce is in a handful of scenes, kind of wooden, hardly keeping a straight face, not saying much. Adrien Brody is in it for a minute. Even though it’s ridiculous, the cinematography is pretty good. I’ll bet the craft services had a lot of Chinese delicacies.
Sixty five mil? One hundred mil? Who cares? It’s just money! Anyway, the Slovenians liked it.
Viewers of “The Walking Dead” — and they are fewer and fewer all the time — have been losing interest in the show. But on Sunday, the word must have gone out that something very upsetting and shocking was going to happen. Negan, who I guess is considered human, had sex with a zombie crazy women named Alpha who wears the masks of dead people. (She’s a Zombie* wannabe.) They got as naked as you can on AMC. Urrgghhh!
The result of this unpleasant coupling was a 9 percent rise in ratings. The fall finale scored 3.21 million viewers. The new episode brought 3.5 million pairs of eyes. The number rose by double digits in the demos, too: adults 25-54 (2 million, up 15 percent) and adults 18-49 (1.6 million, up 17 percent).
Will this new supercouple (yuck yuck yuck) bring the show back its glory days? I doubt it. But freak shows never get old.
Paul Williams, who everyone in the music biz loves and adores, will get the Johnny Mercer Award this year at the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Paul, a man of great stature, wrote a few hits, just a few, like “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays” for the Carpenters, and “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” for Three Dog Night. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He co-wrote “Evergreen” with Barbra Streisand, the only hit with the singer’s name in the credits. Also in Paul’s catalog, “Rainbow Connection” from the Muppets. He has an Oscar, three Grammy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Williams is also President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP, which just a couple of weeks ago signed Mariah Carey up after she left rival SESAC. (A SESAC source told me this wasn’t a big deal as Mariah– unlike Paul Williams– only has one song that gets licensed a lot in “All I Want for Christmas.”) Mariah is also, coincidentally, being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year, on June 11th. Maybe the SHOF will issue a video of Paul and Mariah together explaining their processes. That would be amazing!
Other inductees this year at the SHOF will be Annie Lennox / Dave Stewart p/k/a Eurythmics, Ernie Isley / Marvin Isley / O’Kelly Isley / Ronald Isley / Rudolph Isley / Chris Jasper p/k/a The Isley Brothers, Steve Miller, Chad Hugo / Pharrell Williams p/k/a The Neptunes, Rick Nowels and William “Mickey” Stevenson.
Nile Rodgers, current president of the SHOF, said in a statement: “Paul Williams is a songwriter’s songwriter. He’s one of the most wonderful and colorful creators of our time and a man who has given the world so much love through [his] songs.”
PS Fans of “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will note that the Palladino’s used Paul’s own recording of his “Bless the Beasts and the Children” at the end of an episode this past season.
Justin Bieber’s second weekend of “Changes” was a disaster.
Sales from Friday through Sunday night showed a massive drop off from the first week the album was available.
Using numbers from Buzz Angle, the “Changes” album sold only 1,300 CDs and paid downloads from Friday through Sunday. Including streaming, the total was just 20,000 in that time. Last week, Friday through Sunday, had “Changes” selling album 100,000 copies.
The bloom is off the rose. The number 1 album right now is BTS’s “7,” selling 78,000 copies over the weekend, or 4 to 1 over Bieber. There’s no reason to think Bieber is going to do much better by Thursday night when the counting for the week stops. In between BTS and Bieber are Ozzy Osbourne and rapper Roddy Ricch.
How is this affecting Bieber’s concert ticket sales? Negatively is the answer. Stay tuned…
Ben Platt has the Tony Award for “Dear Evan Hanson” and a load of other awards and starred already in Netflix’s “The Politician.” He’s on his way.
So it turns out the 26 year old Ben has an older brother, Jonah, age 33, who’s also an actor and aiming toward Broadway in a new musical.
Jonah stars in the musical adaptation of a great 1999 Miramax movie called ” A Walk on the Moon.” Performances are scheduled to begin April 21 at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse. The limited engagement will continue through May 17. The show already had a tryout in San Francisco. If things look good, we could see “Moon” in New York rather sooner than later.
Tony Goldwyn directed the movie, which starred Diane Lane and Liev Schreiber as Pearl and Marty Kantrowitz, a couple who get caught up on the outskirts of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Their marriage is tested when Pearl meets Viggo Mortensen’s Walker Jerome, a charismatic hippie called “The Blouse Man.” (Frankly, they should change the title of the musical to that.) Jackie Burns will play Pearl. She and Jonah were each in “Wicked” on Broadway.
Pamela Gray wrote the book based on her original screenplay, and wrote some of the song lyrics. The bulk of the music and lyrics are by Paul Scott Goodman, and musical supervision is by Tony nominee Greg Anthony Rassen.
Can Jonah sing? Yes. Plus, his parents are producer Marc Platt and wife Julie who have five children altogether. This means more of them are probably heading into show business. God bless. This is one talented family! Jonah got married in 2018 to Courtney Galliano, a dancer and actress.
Pete Davidson has given a very candid interview that has several shocking revelations.
Talking to Charlamagne tha God, Davidson talks about his self destructive behavior, and is self destructive anyway about his career. Among other things he talks about cutting himself– he cuts his chest, he tells Charlemagne –and started getting tattoos to cover them. “It’s just like a release,” he says. This is very alarming, of course, but Davidson says he’s learned a lot in rehab.
“Does the cutting bring any relief?”
“Oh yeah it’s awesome. It’s not awesome, but the feeling of it after while you’re doing it it feels really great…”
He also talks about “SNL” and leaving, which he probably will now, and almost did last year. Pete says nice things about Lorne Michaels, but otherwise– the cast isn’t going to be happy about his attitude. He should really take a long hard look at Joe Piscopo’s career, and a lot of others who’ve wandered in the woods after leaving “SNL.”
Pete has Crohn’s disease and myriad other illnesses. His father was killed on September 11th. He’s had a tough time. Here’s hoping things get better.
Chekhov– that is, Anton, not the guy on “Star Trek” –`is getting the star treatment this spring.
His “Three Sisters” will have an all star production at New York Theater Workshop, opening in June. Greta Gerwig will play lead sister Masha, Oscar Isaac will play Vershinin, and Steve Buscemi stars as Chebutykin. Chris Messina appears as Solyony.
The rest of the cast includes Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Marys Seacole, The Misanthrope) as Olga, Lola Kirke (Gone Girl) as Irina, Emily Davis (Is This A Room) as Natasha, Michael Benjamin Hernandez (The Birthday Cake) as Fedotik, John Christopher Jones (Much Ado About Nothing) as Ferapont, Anthony Michael Lopez (Mapplethorpe, Othello) as Rohde, Matthew Maher (King Lear, Othello) as Tusenbach, Aaron Clifton Moten (Romeo & Juliet) as Andrei, Ben Sinclair (High Maintenance) as Kulygin, and Virginia Wing (Gotham) as Anfisa.
Clare Barron has penned the adaptation that will be directed by Sam Gold.
New York Theater Workshop is an interesting launching pad since their goal is to send shows to Broadway. Their production of the musical “Sing Street” begins previews at the Lyceum Theater. Will “Three Sisters” transfer to Broadway for next fall with the the star leads? If so, NYTW will be looking for a deep pocketed partner to help them out. That’s how they sent “Once” to Broadway and Tony Awards many years ago.
The theater seats just 198 people. Just wait to see the demand!
