Jane Fonda brought her climate change battle to “The View” and had a remarkable conversation with the ladies. Fonda spent Friday night in jail last weekend and may do the same this Friday after another arrest in Washington for civil disobedience. If someone else were in the White House she’d get the Presdential Medal of Freedom.
Watch:
PEN America — traditionally thought of as a New York group– went west last Friday to Hollywood. Their annual had its LitFest Gala took place at the the Beverly Wilshire Hotel mixing celebrity flash with serious issues.
The PEN America Distinguished Leadership Award was presented to attorney Theodore J. Boutrous– a champion of free speech who defends the rights of journalists — by none other than comedian Kathy Griffin.
Kathy noted, “I am very honored to be here since my Trump scandal two years ago. I’m not a comedy snob, if you are in comedy, I think you are derelict in your duty if you don’t address this administration at all. I’ve never seen anything like it, I’m going to 59 next week. Hey does anyone here have Mark Zuckerberg’s phone number? I need to call that piece of shit. And how about Sheryl Fuckerberg? Lean back in bitch.”
Kathy went on to extoll Boutrous, who she said has helped her “stay out of jail.” She then recounted a story about Salman Rushdie who was targeted for years with death threats and a fatwa. “He was on my old show, ‘My Life On The D List’ one time and he told me as a joke that one day there will be a fatwa on my head. There fucking is!” Kathy then told the sobering story of how she was under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office and the Secret Service. She also said, “that I haven’t a paid day of work in 2 ½ years since this happened. So, if you think it can’t happen to you, let me tell you, it can.”
Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America got the night started and stated emphatically that free speech in under attack by a poisonous political environment. “Words are being drained of their meaning. The opposite of truth is deceit. And deceit and misinformation cheapen the value of words. Deceit is becoming normalized. We have a President that uses a wink and a nod to encourage his supporters to rough up journalists, and a White House menacing reporters and press outlets. That’s why PEN America has filed a lawsuit against the President.”
Ten time Oscar nominee Diane Warren was presented the Artistic Expression Award, for all her songs including many that provide fighting words for people who need an anthem. “This Is Us” actress Chrissy Metz performed Warren’s possibly 11th nominated song, “I’m Standing With You,” from the movie, “Breakthrough.” Diane gave a heartfelt speech about how songs can become anthems for movements and be embraced by activists.
Julie K. Brown, who broke the Jeffrey Epstein story in the Miami Herald, noted that “Epstein got away with his crime because nearly every element of society allowed him to get away with it. No one said anything. The people in the criminal justice system worked in concert with Epstein’s people to cover up his crimes and shielded him.” Brown went on to explain that Epstein “is only a symptom” and talked about the huge problem of human trafficking.
“This Is Us” actress Susan Kelechi-Watson presented the Award for Screenplay Excellence to Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster for their “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood,” in which she shines. The team behind the Netflix hit “Unbelievable” — Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Sarah Timberman — received the Award for Television Excellence. LeVar Burton delivered an eloquent and moving tribute to literary giant, Toni Morrison.
Blair Underwood gave his longtime friend filmmaker Ava DuVernay passionate as ever, received the Voice of Influence Award. “To write, to create, to hold space, to represent and to establish representation for others. To do these things, especially at this time, is a radical act.”
PEN America protects open expression in the United States and around the world. Kudos to Michelle Franke, the Executive Director of PEN America’s Los Angeles office, Tracey Kardash PEN’s Deputy Director of Development, Bonnie Abaunza, PEN Member and Gala Committee member. PEN America, is a vital organization that defends free expression, supports persecuted writers, and promotes literary culture. Long may they continue!
Ask me what the best TV news could be and I can announce it: Julianna Margulies is joining the cast of Showtime’s “Billions” for its fifth season. She’s going to play Catherine Brant, an Ivy League sociology professor and bestselling author.
Corey Stoll is also joining the show as Michael Prince, a billionaire from Indiana. This is also good news. Showtime is obviously paying for talent.
Julianna’s character will likely be a romantic partner for Damien Lewis’s Bobby Axelrod. I’m sorry if that means Nina Arianda’s gone, but Bobby really destroyed their relationship last season. Arianda should have gotten an Emmy award, but Showtime can’t seem to get any accolades for this great, great show. It’s the weirdest mystery of the Emmys: why some shows are just removed from the running with no explanation. “The Wire” was the same way.
I ran into Margulies a couple of weeks ago when she co-hosted Project ALS with Ben Stiller. She really had no immediate plans when we spoke, so this must be a new deal. She’s one of our best actresses, and I can’t wait to see her on my guilty pleasure show.
You could say the Kardashians are the Walking Dead, ratings-wise.
On Sunday night, both “The Walking Dead” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” hit ratings all time lows.
The biggest surprise is that “Walking Dead” fell to just 3 million viewers (3.086 mil), down 300,000 fans from last week. The once proud AMC series is skidding to an ignominious end. AMC should wrap it up now. But they won’t.
The K’s were down to just 764,000 fans, losing between 150K and 200K viewers in one week. (Last week was 916K.) Not even Kanye’s hit album has helped them.
Both shows air at 9pm which leaves the question, what are people watching on cable at that hour? From 8 to 10pm they’re watching Hallmark Channel’s latest Christmas movie. But otherwise, they are not watching cable really. They’re tuning in to football on the networks or taking in Netflix et al.
It’s entirely possible, based on the trend for both shows, that each will hit really low lows next Sunday. When “Walking Dead” falls below 3 million, and the K’s go under 700K, I propose a merger of the two programs! The K’s already have a number of zombies on their show. It won’t be hard to write a cross over.
I do give credit to AMC PR: they keep pumping out “spoiler” stories each week, hoping someone will care what Negan does with his club of nails. I stopped watching the night he savagely killed characters off for fun. Evidently, I wasn’t alone.
Donald Trump Jr’s book, called “Triggered,” was released to the masses this morning. It hit the Amazon best sellers list at number 3.
That’s right behind pre-orders for “A Warning,” by Anonymous, the mysterious anti-Trump tome by a member of Don’s dad’s administration who wants to keep their name secret. “A Warning” won’t be released for two more weeks, and so far no one knows much about it.
The number 2 book on Amazon is called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball,” which was the original name for “Triggered” until his publisher discovered it was already taken.
That’s a joke, the last part, but here’s something not so funny: both the Don Jr book and “A Warning” come from the same publishing company, Hachette. “Triggered” is from their Nashville-based imprint, Center Street Books. They also publish “Judge” Jeannine Pirro and Newt Gingrich. How’d you like to be on those conference calls?
I am happy to report this news: Fox Searchlight has chosen May 8, 2020 for the release of “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” At last!
I’ve been raving about Armando Iannucci’s Pythonesque take on Charles Dickens since I saw it in Toronto. “Copperfield” opened the London Film Festival and is up for awards already over there. When it hits America, the Oscar drum will start to sound for Iannucci, as well as star Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, and everyone else including Ben Whishaw as Uriah Heep. He’s a Heep of fun!
Iannucci’s movies include “In the Loop,” and “The Death of Stalin.” Plus he created “Veep” for HBO. But the tone here is very different. The movie aims for a wider following. It’s a total winner.
Good news and bad news. Sony will release Harry Styles’ second solo album, called “Fine Line,” on December 13th. It will include his single, “Lights Up,” and follow his publicity barrage that began in September and finds him hosting “Saturday Night Live” on November 16th. A second single will drop on November 15th.
Bad news, though: Adele will have to wait. Sony is so busy with Harry, Celine Dion, Lil Nas X, and so on that there’s no room for Adele now even if she were ready. My guess is we see something for Adele at the Grammys on January 26th. A single, maybe? And then I told you about the James Bond situation. The movie drops in April, maybe with an Adele theme song.
Sony is back, they’re on a roll. It took time, and some people didn’t have any patience (like me). But they’re cooking again!
PS Harry’s album must be really good since the label has chosen Friday the 13th!
FINE LINE . THE ALBUM . DEC 13 pic.twitter.com/ARzqYds8Vn
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) November 4, 2019
Just to keep us all caught up:
Here’s a real irony. The Michael Jackson estate is bailing out Sly Stone, aka Sylvester Stewart. Follow this if you can: Michael’s publishing company MiJAC was always separate from the Sony-Beatles mess. For years, MiJAC was handled by Warner Chappell publishing. But it moved over to Sony ATV after that company bought out Michael on the Beatles catalog. MiJAC had been publishing Sly’s music for years and still does.
But now they’ve taken an ownership position. That bails out Sly, who needs the money after being ripped off for years by his old manager. Details are unknown but hopefully it’s a good deal for Sly. The irony is that Michael was in so much financial trouble while he was alive, and now his estate is rich enough to bail someone else out. Michael would be “thrilled.” And, of course, Sony ATV is really happy because this keeps Sly in the family. His hits like “Dance to the Music” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime” are very, very valuable.
Other reports refer to Sly living in an RV. Well, it’s parked in front of his home, and it’s very fancy. He’s doing okay, which in itself is an irony considering he’s always on the brink of disaster. He is a genius. Prince, Michael Jackson, dozens of artists have been influenced by him…
ELLEN DEGENERES is getting the Carol Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award from the Golden Globes. She’s the second recipient, after Carol herself. Ellen should get the award, she’s had an amazing run on her syndicated show.
ELTON JOHN has the number 1 bestselling non fiction book on the New York Times list. “Me,” his autobiography, is a great read. And it beats Ronan Farrow’s book, “I’m Determined to Ruin Everything,” which is number 2.
Want to see Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman”? In Manhattan, at Broadway’s Belasco Theater, the month long screening is such an event that tickets are being scalped on StubHub.com.
Never mind that you can see “The Irishman” at the Landmark 57, and downtown at the IFC Center. Tickets are $17.50 plus tax and service charges.
But everyone wants to go to the Belasco. The New York Times even wrote about it today, about the ornate theater and the special design in the lobby.
What the Times didn’t mention is that Belasco tickcts are very sold out. This past weekend was jammed, and after that word of mouth has done the rest of the job.
So, of course, New Yorkers have turned to Stubhub, the king of the secondary market. For every show, there are a few seats available on their site. The price average is $65, which is high for a movie but low low low for a Broadway show.
At the high end, there’s a center balcony seat this Friday night for $94. Center orchestra seats, which are rare, are running around $100.00.
Mind you, you can still go to the other theaters. This is strictly a Belasco situation. In Hollywood, no tickets have turned up on Stubhub for the run at the American Cinemateque, aka the Egyptian Theater. Angelenos are stubbornly lazy. They will wait for “The Irishman” to hit Netflix before asking their drivers to get out the Maybach and take them downtown for a three-and-a-half hour movie!
“No Time to Die,” aka James Bond 25, has wrapped production in the UK. The finished film, starring Daniel Craig and directed by Cary Fukunaga, will debut in April 2020. This is probably Craig’s last adventure as James Bond, and the pressure is on to deliver a movie as big and important as Bond 23, “Skyfall.”
This is particularly true after Disney and Marvel delivered the historic “Avengers: Endgame,” and the Lucas Film folks are bringing “The Rise of Skywalker.”
So what would tie “No Time to Die” to “Skyfall” in the best way? Why, “Adele” singing its theme song. Her title song for “Skyfall,” was pure James Bond genius, the best Bond theme song in ages. She performed it at the Academy Awards, and won Best Song in a movie.
At the time, “Skyfall” the song was a few months behind the release of Adele’s blockbuster album, “25.” It wasn’t on the album, but followed as a single and will turn up one day on her greatest hits. “No Time to Die,” with the timing, could be on Adele’s new album, or follow again as a single. The new Adele album or a new single could be coming before the end of the year.
At first I was told by sources, no way, Adele didn’t want to repeat herself. But lately I’m hearing that she may indeed be the choice by Bond producers. She’s certainly won the poll I’ve been running on this site.
The last Bond song, “Writing’s on the Wall,” by Sam Smith, from “Spectre,” won the Oscar, too. But I don’t think there’s a groundswell for Smith to return. A number of current artists like Beyonce and Ariana Grande have never done a Bond song. Neither have big rock stars like Sting or Keith Richards. But Adele’s return would be a signal to fans of hers and the movie franchise that all is good, and “No Time to Die” is a big deal.
So we wait and see. My money’s on Adele doing doing it.