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It’s a shonda, but Dr. Alex Karev will not be answering any more pages at Grey Sloan Hospital in Seattle.
Actor Justin Chambers left the show in November without a farewell episode, and won’t be back. He’d been there for 15 years, since the first episode.
But his contract must have expired without a re-negotiation, and executive producer Shonda Rhimes was evidently done with Dr. Karev.
There’s no word from ShondaLand, but Chambers wrote on social media: “There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” Chambers said. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”
No actor with five kids leave a series he’s been on for 15 years voluntarily. But these long running shows have to cut budgets to keep going. “Grey’s Anatomy” is unaccountably still on the air, and it’s very interesting. It’s actually turned into a daytime soap opera at night.
Only three cast members now remain from the first season, including Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, and James Pickens, Jr. (Hopefully Wilson and Pickens are getting decent checks.) Their secret to sticking around is to keep adding younger, less expensive cast. ABC has been smart in sending Wilson over to “General Hospital” to play various cameos, a good PR stunt to connect their two medical shows.
Chambers now joins Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Sara Ramirez and many others who have matriculated from “Grey’s.” I remember when he was on “Another World” a hundred years ago and took off like a rocket. I’m sure we’ll see him soon on a new show.
PS Has it really been 15 years? “Grey’s Anatomy” debuted on a Sunday night when I was in Santa Maria, California covering Michael Jackson’s trial. I remember watching it and “Desperate Housewives” in the Santa Maria Holiday Inn. Time flies!
Six days after Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes and called members of the Hollywood Foreign Press racists, the group has taken action.
The HFPA has booked Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to return for a third time and host the 2021 Golden Globes. Usually they’d wait til the fall to make such an announcement. But Gervais was so brutal to them– he also said they didn’t understand English– that the 90 member group acted swiftly.
Fey and Poehler are certainly a popular duo, and they won’t be as angry or as cruel as Gervais seemed to be last Sunday. He just appeared to be off his usual rhythm, not even wearing a tie or proper tuxedo. Also, in past years Gervais would do a victory lap at the HBO after party following the show. This year he just vanished, not even showing up (I don’t think) at the Netflix party. He has a series called “After Life” on the platform.
The Globes ratings were down from last year, but that was to be expected. Awards shows overall are down. Plus, their winning movie — “1917”– hadn’t been released yet. The Globes should really push back a week, they are too early. They were always better on the second Sunday in January. Maybe they’ll return to that date next year.
Universal Pictures has the odd distinction of having the best and worst movie of the 2019 season.
“Cats” has been a spectacular failure, and a meme, and just an unmitigated disaster. There aren’t enough jokes in the world for the furry adaptation of the Broadway musical. Now and never.
But Sam Mendes’s extraordinary “1917” has gone into wide release and it’s a major, major hit. On Friday, “1917” went into wide release and scored $13,970,000. That should give the “one-shot” movie at least a $40 million weekend. And this is a war movie with no stars, just good actors and brilliant technology, as well as a terrific screenplay.
Last weekend, “1917” won the Golden Globe for Best Feature, and Mendes won Best Director. Its later release in the season has put the film and its director (as well as cinematographer Roger Deakins and editor Lee Smith) in position for multiple Oscar nominations on Monday morning, and potential wins.
This must come as a shock to Netflix, which came into the Oscar race with four very good films that seemed like they’d be overwhelming the competition: “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” “Two Popes,” and “Dolemite is My Name.”
The first two of those were all but assured Oscars dominance. They’ve already won many accolades. The question remains how Netflix will battle “1917” after Monday’s announcements. Can “The Irishman” be resurrected? Or has the whole theater vs platform debate crystallized with this situation?
I wrote after its initial screening that “1917” was a masterpiece and I meant it. Make no mistake, it’s sensational. But Martin Scorsese’s work on “The Irishman” is, too. Let’s call it a masterwork. It is neither too long nor a retread of his previous work. But not having it in theaters after its first month may have damaged the cause. On a smaller screen, with interruptions at home, “The Irishman” can be lost to divided attention. It requires your full focus. Maybe Netflix can put it back into theaters with an intermission and snacks starting next Friday, make it an event.
Meantime, Universal can claim this phrase: “well played.” Indeed.
Oprah Winfrey is certainly in the news right now. It seem she’s been busy advising Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, if reports are correct.
But Oprah is also involved in another surprising scenario. She was listed as executive producer of a documentary about rap music impresario and philanthropist Russell Simmons. The founder of Def Jam Records almost immediately became embroiled in the #MeToo movement after accusations of small time sexual malfeasance and rape. He was the subject of lawsuits as well. Simmons shut down his charity and businesses and moved to Tibet, where’s been posting photos and videos of meditation retreats and so on.
The documentary, by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25th. But now Oprah has suddenly pulled out of the project, and decided not to include it in her presentations on AppleTV+. The film will still premiere at the festival, but it now lacks Winfrey’s imprint.
Dick and Ziering are highly regarded doc makers. Their “The Hunting Ground” was nominated for lots of awards and was shown on CNN. The pair have issued a statement after Oprah announced she was off the project because it wasn’t ready, in her opinion. The filmmakers told Deadline.com: “Revealing hard truths is never easy, and the women in our documentary are all showing extraordinary strength and courage by raising their voices to address sexual abuse in the music industry. While we are disappointed that Oprah Winfrey is no longer an Executive Producer on the project, we are gratified that Winfrey has unequivocally said she believes and supports the survivors in the film.”
But this isn’t the first time Oprah has caused a major problem for Dick and Ziering on this same film. The doc was originally going to be centered on Harvey Weinstein and how the #MeToo era launched. In October 2017 just two weeks after Weinstein was exposed in the New York Times and the New Yorker, the pair announced they were making the film.
This past December, however, Dick and Ziering announced that their film had changed focus, to the record business and “major figure.” Oprah was suddenly on board. Weinstein was no longer being discussed, as Simmons took his place.
So now there’s no Weinstein film, and Oprah has dealt the filmmakers a significant blow by making a public exit. She’s also declared their film somehow unfit for release, at least under her auspices.
All of this comes a year after Oprah unwisely involved herself in the Michael Jackson documentary, “Leaving Neverland.” After the film– which accused Jackson of child molestation with no evidence other than two young men’s unfounded complaints– Oprah did a live interview with the subjects on HBO. Again, without supporting evidence, she simply decided they were telling the truth.
We’re getting into a strange area here where Oprah makes the call, based on her gut feeling, about which victims have validity and which don’t. Jackson was dead, so it was easy for her to go against him. In the cases of Weinstein and Simmons, she can’t be objective. Weinstein put her in the movie “The Butler,” in which she garnered great reviews. She also got an Oscar campaign and became very friendly with the movie mogul.
In Simmons’ case, he and Oprah are long time friends. Back in December, Simmons took to Instagram to urge Oprah to stop the film once he learned she was involved with it. She obviously took what he said seriously. (See his plea below.)
It’s hoped that Dick and Ziering will find a new distributor or platform at Sundance now that Oprah is gone. Like Winfrey, I’ve known and liked Simmons for years and years. But the accusations against him are serious and must be aired, and discussed. I also hope that these filmmakers, unlike the director of “Leaving Neverland,” have presented all sides of the stories.
Here’s what Simmons wrote to Oprah:
“Dearest OPRAH,you have been a shining light to my family and my community. Contributing so much to my life that I couldn’t list a fraction of it in this blog.Ihave given you the gift of meditation and the groundbreaking book”THE POWER OF NOW “we bonded to say the least. This is why it’s so troubling that you choose me to single out in your recent documentry. I have already admitted to being a playboy more (appropriately titled today “womanizer”) sleeping with and putting myself in more compromising situations than almost any man I know. Not 8 or 14 thousand like Warren Beatty or Wilt Chamberlain, but still an embarrassing number. So many that some could reinterpret or reimagine a different recollection of the same experiences. Please note that ur producers said that this upcoming doc was to focus ONLY on 3 hand chosen women. I have refused to get in the mud with any accusers, but let’s acknowledge what i have shared. I have taken and passed nine 3-hour lie detector tests (taken for my daughters), that these stories have been passed on by CNN, NBC, BUZZFEED, NY POST, NY MAG, AND OTHERS. Now that you have reviewed the facts and you SHOULD have learned what I know; that these stories are UNUSABLE and that “hurt people hurt people”. Today I received a call from an old girlfriend from the early 1980s which means that they are using my words/evidence against me and their COMMITMENT/ (all of the claims are 25 to 40 years old) It is impossible to prove what happened 40 years ago, but in my case proof exists of what didn’t happen, mostly signed letters from their own parents, siblings, roommates, band members, interns, and in the case of 2 of your 3 accusers,their own words in their books. Shocking how many people have misused this important powerful revolution for relevance and money. … In closing, I am guilty of exploiting, supporting, and making the soundtrack for a grossly unequal society, but i have never been violent or forced myself on anyone. Still I am here to help support a necessary shift in power and consciousness. Let us get to work on uplifting humanity and put this moment and old narrative behind us”
The new version of “West Side Story” was supposed to open on Broadway on February 6th.
But then the actor who plays Tony, Isaac Powell, fell and hurt his knee badly. His understudy stepped in. Opening night was pushed back to February 20th, when Powell will presumably be healed.
Now Ben Cook, who is said to be excellent as Riff, the other male lead, has hurt himself. The show isn’t saying what happened and they’re not waiting for Cook to get better. They’ve replaced him– completely– with Dharon E. Jones, who was already playing another role.
Director Ivo van Hove is using color blind casting, so Jones– who is African American — is replacing Cook, who is white with reddish brown hair. Powell, who is dark haired and Latinx, is playing Tony, described in the show even now as “a Polak.”
Meanwhile, even though the box office has been great over the holidays, there’s still grumbling from the audience about many changes van Hove has made to the legacy musical. New wave choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has chucked Jerome Robbins’ dances and replaced them with her own, odd pieces. There’s no snapping, I’m told, in the “Cool” number. Also Officer Krupke brandishes a gun. What used to be a scene of Anita being harassed by the boys now is an implied rape. And Anita’s great song, “I Feel Pretty,” is gone. Producers are hoping new audiences won’t know the difference. But more traditional choreographer Sergio Trujillo has been brought in to try and smoothe out Keersmacker’s changes.
That’s right. After hovering just under that number for two nights in a row, “Jeopardy: GOAT”– which means Greatest of All Time — jumped over 15 million viewers last night to 15.38 million.
Alex Trebek must be very happy, especially if he’s getting ready to step down after almost 36 years. When the competition resumes next week, expect the audience to grow some more. Even though Ken Jennings in the lead, I’ll bet Brad Rutter and James Holzhauser will try and slow him down.
For ABC, getting this goat is quite a score. “Jeopardy” is giving their 9pm a great lead in. Last night, over 6 million people tuned in to see their report on Jeffrey Epstein. There’s an irony there since ABC reporter Amy Robach was caught off camera saying she’d had the story three years ago and ABC News refused to run it.
ABC loves its prime time game shows. They just announced a revival of “Supermarket Sweep” hosted by our beloved SNL star Leslie Jones. I wish Leslie were doing more sophisticated things, but she’s got to make money and we can’t blame her. ABC is searching for an equivalent to Ellen Degeneres’s “Game of Games” show. Maybe Leslie will be that person.
It’s really the year of women for the Academy Awards.
The Oscars had already announced two dynamic female producers to run the show. They are Lynette Howell Taylor and Stephanie Allain. They each have loads of experience.
Today Taylor and Allain announced additionally three new female writers to the staff. They are:
Beth Sherman, Amberia Allen, and Agathe Panaretos. They also brought in writer John Hoffman, whose credits include “Grace and Frankie.” (All bios below.)
So we can assume this will not be a show full of sexist or racist jokes. They will be plant based jokes, but the only thing left to joke about is plants.
The show will have no host. Like last year, there will be a series of presenters. That set up seemed to work last year. And since Ricky Gervais struck out as Golden Globes host, that may be best.
And how will the show open? Last year, Queen rocked the house because of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” My guess is that if “Rocketman” gets just one nomination, Sir Elton John be at his piano for a raucous opening. The song “Rocketman” would be too slow an opening, so Elton will probably want to perform “The Bitch is Back” or “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
Beth Sherman returns as a writer for the Oscars telecast. She has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as a writer and producer on both “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Talk.” In addition, she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for “Late Show with David Letterman.” Sherman’s writing credits also include “2019 MTV Video Music Awards,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “American Music Awards 2016” and “The Queen Latifah Show.”
Amberia Allen joins the Oscars telecast for the first time as a writer. She has been a writer for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and has written for numerous live awards shows and variety specials, including “The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor,” “BET Awards” and “Soul Train Awards.” In addition, Allen holds a PhD in Sociology from UCLA and has co-authored the annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report.
John Hoffman returns as a writer for the Oscars telecast. Hoffman earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special for the “81st Annual Academy Awards.” In addition to screenwriting, he is also a director, producer and actor. His film and television credits include “The Emoji Movie,” “Grace and Frankie,” “Looking,” “Igor,” “Good Boy!” and “Northern Lights.”
Agathe Panaretos is a first-time writer for the Oscars telecast. Her television credits include the late-night talk show “Chelsea,” “The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards” and “What Just Happened??!” with Fred Savage. She was previously a writer-at-large for The Onion.
Anti-women’s libber Phyllis Schlafly may be dead but she’s back in the news. Thanks to a new mini series coming in April starring two time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, we’re about to get a big dose of Schlafly’s take on women’s rights.
“Mrs. America” will play on Hulu or FX, I’m not sure which. Or both. I don’t know. Anyway, it has a great cast including Rose Byrne, Margo Martindale, and John Slattery.
Schlafly has already been in a series this year. She’s featured in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as a villain circa 1960 when Midge is asked to read her propaganda on a radio show. Schlafly is labelled an anti-Semite as well, which enraged her followers. (I can’t believe she still has followers. She’s right up there with Lyndon Larouche in the nut category.)
Blanchett will get an Emmy award, etc from what it looks like in the clip. But why can’t these shows be on the actual TV and said of having to deal with streaming. I just don’t get it. I hope years from now when I’m in a nursing home they’ll have an easier way to access this stuff!
Alex Trebek is getting some victory lap after 36 years on “Jeopardy.”
For the last two nights. the prime time version of the game show has scored 14.8 million viewers for its “Greatest of All Time” showdown among mega champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter.
Trebek is battling stage IV pancreatic cancer and refuses to stand down. I’m sure the audience is watching as much for him as for the contestants. They know Trebek’s run is coming to an end, so the interest level is very high.
Prime time “Jeopardy” has so far yielded shockingly high numbers that recall the days before there was cable. Getting 15 million people means it’s twice as much as NBC’s “Chicago” shows. It’s almost three times as much as “The Conners,” which usually airs on Tuesdays at 8pm. The “Jeopardy” audience is also staying for the rest of the ABC lineup.
Trebek told reporters yesterday that when he decides to leave, he will give his producers almost no notice. He’ll just tell them at the top of a show that he needs 30 seconds at the end to say goodbye and that will be it. He’s handled his situation so far with so much grace and dignity that he’s really going to leave a lovely legacy.
“GOAT Jeopardy” will continue this week and next until the final winner is decided. But the final winner is Trebek. He’ll take COURAGE for $500.
Ken Ehrlich’s looming exit from producing the Grammy Awards doesn’t mean he will retire. Just to show that he can juggle everything (I mean this in a good way), Ehrlich will produce a a music special tribute to Prince two days after the Grammys. The show will air later in the year on CBS. It’s called “Let’s Go Crazy,” and we will.
Ehrlich’s line up includes Sheila E., Morris Day and the Time, and the Revolution, but there’s no mention yet of Chaka Khan, who should be there to sing “I Feel for You.” Also MIA is Sinead O’Connor, whose cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was the biggest Prince hit sung by another singer ever.
But there are plenty of stars like Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles (“Manic Monday”), as well as John Legend– who must appear in every music special, it’s now legislated– as well as Alicia Keys (“How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore”), Beck, Common, Gary Clark Jr., Earth, Wind & Fire, Foo Fighters, H.E.R., Juanes, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Mavis Staples, St. Vincent, and Usher.
Whew! It’s going to be a good night.
Ehrlich and the Grammys started these specials with the Beatles, and went on to salute Aretha Franklin last year, plus Stevie Wonder, the Bee Gees, and others.
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are the music producers of the show along with Sheila E. Ron Basile and Chantel Sausedo are producers and David Wild is the writer/producer.
“Prince. The Purple One. His Royal Badness — regardless of how you identify him, he is indisputably one of the greatest musical virtuosos of all time,” said Deborah Dugan, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. “With his subversive attitude and commanding nature, he straddled musical genres and created electrifying music that was bursting with character. He continues to serve as an inspirational icon for artists and fans worldwide, and we are so honored to pay tribute to his legacy at this year’s post-GRAMMYs special.”
