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.
Yes, it’s true. “The Walking Dead” has found a new low ratings milestone.
The once blockbuster tribute to zombies and the people who love them sank again on Sunday. Their total viewership was 3,305,000.
Negan and pals were not the most watched cable show in their time period, either. That distinction fell to a “90 Day Fiance” Special on TLC.
Maybe it’s time to fix Negan up with a new betrothed, definitely a zombie, and see if their families approve of the union. “90 Day Fiance” scored 3.340 million. It’s a just few more people, but they all heads and full dental work (which you can’t always say for people on reality shows).
Elsewhere at 9pm, the Kardashians had just 916,000 viewers on the E! channel, and most of them were actual zombies. HBO’s excellent “Watchmen” series at 9pm brought in 765,000 fans. But that series is just warming up. Whereas the others are over cooked.
Niccolo Paganini– maybe you knew him. The violin virtuoso turned 237 day before yesterday. His actual descendant, Maria Elena Paganini, who lives in Buenos Aires, threw her relative a little birthday party at the Ascent Lounge in the Time Warner Center. Niccolo would have loved it. But she has more in store for him.
Tonight (Wednesday) at Carnegie Hall, Maria Elena is putting on a concert of Paganini’s work, with five violinists and two pianists. The violinists will play violins from Niccolo’s collection, each valued at $10 million. They are all on loan for the show. LDJ Capital is sponsoring the event.
On Monday we got a taste of the concert to come when a couple of the violinists– all top notch classical musicians– gave a little demonstration. It’s the best music the Ascent Lounge (formerly the Stone Rose) has ever heard.
The Carnegie Hall performance will feature one Stradivarius and four Guarnieri Del Ges violins – a favorite brand of
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 28: Atmosphere at PAGANINI HONORS PAGANINI, A Tribute To Niccolo Paganini By Maria Elena Paganini on October 28, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Niccolo Paganini’s – courtesy of Florian Leonard, one of the sponsors of the concert and known to be a leading expert in fine violins.
Edmond Fokker van Crayestein, Elly Suh, Jochem Geene, Kevin Zhu, Sabrina Vivian Hpcker, and Stefan Milenkovich are the soloists performing onstage. Jochem Geene is a pianist while Crayestein, Suh, Zhu, Hpcker, and Milenkovich are violinists. Edmond Fokker van Crayestein, a good friend of Maria Elena, is the concert’s musical director and will be responsible for the program and the artists.
What have you done for your deceased relatives, eh?
At the cocktail party, I spoke with Hamburg-born Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker, already a renown young German musician with a great smile. I asked her what she’d be playing tonight. Some Led Zeppelin maybe? “Who?” she said. She was carrying one of the historic violins under her arm after giving the guests a preview of Paganini’s immortal compositions. “Are you nervous carrying that around?” I asked. “No,” she replied, “it has to be played, or it will die.”
The much ballyhooed prequel to “Game of Thrones” at HBO isn’t happening. They made the pilot with Naomi Watts, among other, sets thousands of years in the fictional past of Westeros. But I guess it didn’t work, no liked it, and now it’s history.
I’m not surprised. This would have been costly, and the new owners of HBO aren’t taking chances. If the new show wasn’t obviously right, forget it.
There’s another spin off of “Thrones” being planned with George R.R. Martin involved. But who knows what shape that’s in, and Martin still owes us one more book he never finished. Everyone asks him about it, and he kind of shrugs.
This new cancellation comes on the heels of “Thrones” producers DB Weiss and David Benioff getting out of their deal to make a “Star Wars” trilogy. It’s a coincidence, surely. But there are no coincidences. Studios are trying to cash in on brands known to the public. But it’s hard to catch lightning in a bottle a second time for anyone.
What might work is an actual “Thrones” spin off with characters everyone knows, an “AfterMASH,” so to speak. But Weiss and Benioff blew that when they killed Dany and sent Jon Snow into the woods. I guess we could have “Sansa Stark 2.0” with Tyrion Lannister running the general store. Or maybe breeding dragons. The problem with the cancelled pilot seems to be no dragons. And that’s a drag.
Big news tonight in Hollywood as “Game of Thrones” executive producers DB Weiss and David Benioff are outsky from developing the next “Star Wars” trilogy. Their excuse? They signed a huge deal with Netflix and haven’t, as Carly Simon sang, got time for the pain.
Weiss and Benioff aren’t the first creators to fall out with LucasFilm/Disney. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were pulled off the Han Solo solo movie, “Star Wars: A Han Solo Story” and were replaced with Ron Howard. Colin Trevorrow was yanked off “Star Wars 9,” which is now “Rise of the Skywalker,” directed by JJ Abrams.
The “GoT” pair said in a statement they met with George Lucas, loved it, and tossed around ideas. But maybe when they talked about replacing the Millennium Falcon with a dragon, all bets were off.
Really, there’s a Disney-Lucas Film way of constructing a story, and no other way. Weiss and Benioff were golden on “Thrones” while they followed George R.R. Martin’s books. But when they went off book in the final season, they were sharply criticized. They may be better at adapting material than creating it. (Which is no criticism. Adapting is a very fine skill.)
So now what? Well, Rian Johnson is developing his own trilogy, and I’m sure that will be in line with the conventional wisdom. Meanwhile, Disney is becoming like Johnson’s “Knives Out.”
Denise Rich has been throwing her Angel Ball for about 20 years, since her daughter Gabrielle died of leukemia. She renamed the charity Gabrielle’s Angels, and kept raising money. Rich’s charity has actually sent drugs into the market, and had successes battling leukemia. It wasn’t such Denise’s daughter who died of cancer, but her mother and sister, too.
So there she was last night on stage at Cipriani Wall Street in front of a room filled with well heeled patrons. They donated millions more, and Denise gave them a decent meal plus Patti Labelle, Boy George, and Flo.Rida as musical guests. Other guests included Heidi Klum and her new husband, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, Coco Rocha, Lorraine Schwartz, and philanthropist Jean Shafiroff (in an amazing pink taffeta gown). Clive Davis brought Nikki Haskell, mourning Robert Evans, and famed actress Brenda Vaccaro.
Back in 2000, 1500 people showed up at the Sheraton ballroom on Seventh Avenue to support Denise. Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Milton Berle were among the guests. There were lots of real stars. There was no seating plan, so Geraldo Rivera took the mic and told everyone to sit down wherever they were. Nineteen years later, the “papered”guests have been replaced by actual donors. Clive Davis takes a table every year. Star Jones is on the scene.
Denise began the night with a somber candle lighting ceremony for her grandson, Kai, who took his own life this year age 19. When she began to mention him from the stage, I thought, hmmm, how’s this going to go? It turned out to be such an honest moment, and not just a few people in the room could identify with this tragedy. It made the Angel Ball all the more human.
PS I found myself sitting next to Michael Lohan, father of the Lohan dynasty, tabloid subject extraordinaire. He was very nice. We chit chatted about Lindsay, who I always liked, and his wife Dina, who was thrust into the spotlight without warning or skills, and has survived. He gave me a recent photo of himself, Dina, Lindsay, and another daughter Ali, all happy at an event. He said I could share it with you.
Here it is: (c2019 Michael Lohan, all rights reserved)
Well, I liked “The Morning Show.” Apparently, I was alone.
The Jennifer Aniston-Reese Witherspoon soap opera about network television has a 59 on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter has a feature on how much critics don’t like it, and also why Apple TV doesn’t need to exist. That story was picked up by the Drudge Report. So now everyone knows.
Apple TV has no good will in the press. Whoever’s handling it has done such a great job that critics turned on them like a pack of wild dogs.
Still, last night, Apple threw themselves a gigantic, expensive party in Lincoln Center at what used to be Avery Fisher Hall. It’s on three or four levels, and is massive. I got pictures back from the lobbies of what one journo called “a thousand people.” They were pictures of people who I guess have iPhones. That’s how your entry was qualified.
I liked “The Morning Show.” Of course, we’ve only seen three episodes. Steve Carell is signed for all 10 episodes, and he plays a Matt Lauer- like anchor who gets fired for sexual harassment. But it does seem at the end of episode 3 that Carell’s Mitch Kessler will be redeemed, and that maybe his main accuser (Ahna O’Reilly) will turn out to be a nut. If that’s the case, then O-M-G for #metoo. That would be a twist, but not the Peppermint Twist. It wouldn’t even be Oliver Twist saying “Please, sir, can I have some more?”
Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall disagreed with me completely. He wrote: the show “feels like it could have aired on broadcast TV anytime in the last 15 to 20 years, so long as the profanity got cut,” and drew comparisons to HBO’s “The Newsroom,” observing “it’s Sorkin without Sorkin, lacking the snappy dialogue, the soaring rhetoric, or any attempt whatsoever to argue for why anyone should care about the future of this show-within-the-show.”
I, like many others, have no idea how to get Apple TV besides on the press site. Will it suddenly appear on Smart TVs? (Just as Amazon has left my 2013 Sony Bravia that cost a thousand dollars.) And will we ever know if anyone watches these new shows? No, we will not. And I guess it doesn’t matter. But Apple has committed $15 million each to 20 episodes. The price of that iPhone will be going up.
PS Name all the famous faces in the photo above at Apple’s Morning Show launch.
It’s not without irony that Robert Evans died the morning after the Governor’s Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences. The following is a letter sent by producer-director Brett Ratner to the Academy on behalf of Evans, suggesting he be awarded the Irving Thalberg Award. Ratner is correct in everything he says. We wouldn’t have modern Hollywood with Robert Evans. Ratner says he had Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson send letters as well, but nothing came of it. The irony is that Evans once played Thalberg in the movie “The Man of a Thousand Faces.”
Ratner has also given me a quote from “Chinatown” writer Robert Towne: “Bob Evans remains, in memory and in life, a standard for every kind of human generosity, and one I have yet to see matched in this town.” A photo Ratner took of them accompanies this story.
Here’s the letter:
Evans Re: Thalberg
Ms. Dawn Hudson, CEO
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
8949 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90211Dear Dawn,I am writing on behalf of Producer Robert Evans. I wanted to express my passion for suggesting that Mr. Evans receive the Academy’s most prestigious Irving Thalberg Award.
Robert Evans is a giant of a man – giant in his accomplishments, giant in his vision, giant in his loyalty and concern towards others, giant in his energy and passion in making films, giant in his generosity of spirit. He has always given more to this industry than he took. He made us all that had the benefit of knowing him feel important and good. He considered nothing impossible. He inspired us filmmakers to perform beyond the limits of our abilities and made us better than we were. There was a personal side to every relationship with Mr. Evans. It was never all business. He derived his success from his relationships with people, not his position in Hollywood. The screenwriter Robert Towne, who wrote CHINATOWN for Mr. Evans once wrote “Bob Evans remains, in memory and in life, a standard for every kind of human generosity, and one I have yet to see matched in this town.”
This email is not meant to do anything more than to explain to those who sit on the Board of the Academy the reasons why Mr. Robert Evans truly deserves this honor. If nothing more than his contribution to this industry for the films he produced, for the generations of filmmakers that have been inspired by these films in creating their own, and the gift of these many great films for future generations to study and learn from. What better gift can we give one of cinema’s creative producing heroes than the most prestigious honor our industry has named after one of the greatest producers ever, Irving Thalberg?
Dustin Hoffman said in his speech at the 14th Producers Guild Awards in 2003, when he presented Mr. Evans with the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award; “In his notes for Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller said that his play came from images. The image of aging, of so many of your friends already gone, of strangers in the seats of the mighty, who do not know you, or your triumphs, or your incredible value. Above all, perhaps, the image of a need greater than hunger or sex or thirst, a need to leave a thumbprint somewhere on the world. The need for immortality, and by admitting it, the knowing that one has carefully inscribed one’s name on a cake of ice on a hot July day. Bob understands this irony. He has always understood it. It’s what makes him Bob…. I never met a producer like Bob before; I never met a producer like Bob period. To know him and to work with him is to understand the engine that put Chinatown, Love Story, Rosemary’s baby, Marathon Man, The Godfather 1 and 2, and many other films up there on the screen and beyond into film history…. Relentless, pathologically enthusiastic, not unlike Willy Loman (in Death of a Salesman). As Arthur Miller put it, He’s out there on a smile and a shoeshine. A salesman’s got a dream, it comes with the territory.” I am sure that Mr. Evans dreams were to make great films for us to enjoy and not to win awards. In spite of this, my only hope is that we can reciprocate and give him what would be the icing on the cake for a man whose career and body of work very few people in this industry have had. I know Mr. Evans would consider receiving the Irving Thalberg Award as the greatest honor of his 86 years of life.
Mr. Hoffman further added in his speech, “A producer’s got to dream, it comes with the territory. Robert Evans is simply a man of dreams, a man of heart, a man of passion, a man who loves making films as much if not more than anyone.”
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this request on behalf of Mr. Evans.
-With deepest respect and enormous gratitude.
Brett Ratner
One of Hollywood’s greatest producers and moguls, Robert Evans, has died at age 89. He’d been in fragile health for some time, but had no terminal illnesses, says Nikki Haskell, one of his closest friends and business associates.
“He died of a broken heart,” says Haskell, referring to Paramount recently ending his 52 year tenure with the studio. Evans was responsible for “The Godfather” movies, among other great hits. “He didn’t want to leave. He had been pitching them a remake of Love Story, which he’d made there in 1970. They didn’t want to do it. They said it was too important in their catalogue. But Bob had a vision for it, to make a modern movie.” To that end he’d had talks with Lee Daniels, and wanted Scott Eastwood, either with Cardi B. or Zendaya.
“He was so amazing. His legacy will live on forever,” Haskell added.
Evans’ career was famously subject of a huge successfully documentary, “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” which was based on his best selling autobiography. Evans, among other notable achievements, was married to Ali McGraw and to Phyllis George. They were just two of his five wives. With McGraw he had one son, Josh. His brother, Charles Evans, was a fashion mogul.
But it was Bob Evans larger than life personality, his myth, which propelled him. He was the real deal, the last of the great names of real Hollywood. He convicted for cocaine trafficking in 1980. The making of the movie The Cotton Club included a hit job murder that made everyone involved infamous and notorious. Dustin Hoffman actually played Evans in Barry Levinson’s movie, “Wag the Dog.”
Here’s a link to the astounding number of hits Evan was associated with including “Chinatown,” “Serpico,” “Urban Cowboy,” and, more recently, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
But it’s “The Godfather” movies for which Evans will be always remembered. They are probably the greatest films of our time, and Evans was responsible for bringing them to fruition.
Everyone’s favorite couple, John Legend and Chrissie Teigen, are on the cover of Good Housekeeping, Parade, Family Cirlce with their children– whoops, no that’s Vanity Fair. Yes, Vanity Fair. Okay, it’s not like the Vanity Fair of old. But we love John and Chrissie, and the story is cute and they announce their choice of presidential candidate. (It’s Elizabeth Warren.)
They each have lots of projects. John has a Christmas album coming out with a new version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” made famous originally by Dean Martin. But now that song is considered predatory (please) so he’s changed the lyrics and added Kelly Clarkson. I don’t know what the estate of the great Frank Loesser, who wrote the song in 1944, feels about this.
The new version reads:
“I really can’t stay (BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE)
I’ve gotta go away (I CAN CALL YOU A RIDE.)
This evening has been (SO GLAD THAT YOU DROPPED IN)
So very nice (TIME SPENT WITH YOU IS PARADISE)
My mother will start to worry (I’LL CALL A CAR AND TELL ‘EM TO HURRY)”
The original dangerous lyrics:
I really can’t stay (Baby it’s cold outside) I gotta go away (Baby it’s cold outside) This evening has been (Been hoping that you’d dropped in) So very nice (I’ll hold your hands they’re just like ice) My mother will start to worry (Beautiful what’s your hurry?) My father will be pacing the floor (Listen to the fireplace roar) So really I’d better scurry (Beautiful please don’t hurry) Well maybe just a half a drink more (I’ll put some records on while I pour)
The neighbors might think (Baby it’s bad out there) Say what’s in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there) I wish I knew how (Your eyes are like starlight now) To break this spell (I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell) (Why thank you) I ought to say no, no, no sir (Mind if move in closer?) At least I’m gonna say that I tried (What’s the sense of hurtin’ my pride?) I really can’t stay (Baby don’t hold out) Baby it’s cold outside
Ah, you’re very pushy you know? I like to think of it as opportunistic
I simply must go (Baby it’s cold outside) The answer is no (But baby it’s cold outside) The welcome has been (How lucky that you dropped in) So nice and warm (Look out the window at that storm) My sister will be suspicious (Gosh your lips look delicious!) My brother will be there at the door (Waves upon a tropical shore) My maiden aunt’s mind is vicious (Gosh your lips are delicious!) Well maybe just a cigarette more (Never such a blizzard before) (And I don’t even smoke)
I’ve got to get home (Baby you’ll freeze out there) Say lend me a coat? (It’s up to your knees out there!) You’ve really been grand, (I feel when I touch your hand) But don’t you see? (How can you do this thing to me?) There’s bound to be talk tomorrow (Think of my life long sorrow!) At least there will be plenty implied (If you caught pneumonia and died!) I really can’t stay (Get over that old out) Baby it’s cold Baby it’s cold outside Okay fine, just another drink then That took a lot of convincing!
Personally I prefer John Legend’s song from his first album:
Apple TV joins HBO, Netflix, and all the other non-broadcast platforms with “The Morning Show,” and it’s a major hit. A delectable soap opera, “The Morning Show” — with faint echoes of “Veep” — is the what/if re-telling of Matt Lauer’s #MeToo expulsion from the “Today” show. Reviewers have the first three episodes, with expected plot twists coming: it could be the Lauer character, Mitch Kessler, played by Steve Carell, is heading for redemption.
But first:
“The Morning Show” co-stars and is co-produced by Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. It’s written and developed by the terrific Kerry Ehrin. They appear to know what they’re doing. Two big, big stars means the show costs a lot. Who would have the money to produce 10 full hours of cinematic-like TV with them, and Carell? Only Apple, I guess. You’re a little skeptical at first. But as “The Morning Show” unfurled, I was absorbed by it. The main trio is as good as it gets but there’s a nice surprise– well, not a surprise, but a fantastic extra I didn’t see coming: Billy Crudup steals the show as the new news chief at the TV Network. He will win every supporting actor award there is in TV once this show is up and running.
So the story: Aniston’s Alex Levy and Carell’s Kessler are co-hosts of “The Morning Show” for 15 years on the UBA Network. They are Lauer and Savannah/Katie/Meredith. They’re called “America’s mom and dad.” But it turns out Dad has been cheating a lot. Two years after the #MeToo scandals break, Kessler is abruptly fired for sexual impropriety– not rape, but for sleeping with employees.
Overnight, “The Morning Show” loses a famous co-host. Alex must go on and explain it to the viewers. Alone. There’s no Hoda to help her. She’s 50, semi-divorced, and mother of a college age daughter. Her whole life has been devoted to the show. She’s rich as Croeses because of it, with an East River apartment we’d all die for. Mitch is, too, with a Park Avenue apartment, Hamptons house, ski chalet in Aspen, etc.
Meanwhile, Reese’s Bradley Jackson is single, a local reporter in Virginia with a self-destructive streak, a brother in rehab, and a mother played by Brett Butler. She’s had lots of jobs, can’t catch a break, always covering local disasters. At a rally to close a coal mine she loses it during a break. The resulting video goes viral on Twitter and catches the eye of “The Morning Show” producers. She’s brought to New York for an interview just as Crudup’s new news chief has to replace Mitch. And there you go.
No one takes umbrage like Aniston. Even though Witherspoon is equally billed, so far this is Alex’s–Jennifer’s– show. With just a bit Selina Meyer in the air, Alex is a tough cookie. Unlike Selina, she is not off center. She’s smart, a survivor, and determined to overcome this latest speed bump. Aniston is on fire. This is her best work since “Friends,” excluding maybe “The Good Girl.” I could watch her play Alex all day. Don’t get me wrong– Reese is just as good as Bradley. And we still have a lot to learn about her character. When the 3rd episode ends, Bradley is just starting a new job at UBA.
What works about “The Morning Show” is that it’s built like a classic TV drama/soap. It takes its time. “Desperate Housewives,” “Empire,” most of the shows like this over the last decade have burned off story with no pacing. “The Morning Show” feels like Steve Bochco and Michael Filerman (each sadly in heaven now) wrote this together. Unlike “The Newsroom,” it’s also not pedantic. There’s talk about the importance of journalism, and journalist ethics, etc, but Jeff Daniels isn’t stuffing it down our throats in Sorkinesque rhythms. We are not learning a lesson.
Crudup, as I said, is beyond sublime. His line, “Chaos is the new cocaine!” is a T shirt I want. There’s a strong supporting cast starting with Mark Duplass as the show’s EP, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Adina Porter, and a few more (it’s a huge freaking cast). Some excellent guest stars in the first three episodes: Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, Mindy Kaling, Martin Short, Oscar nominee Embeth Davidtz, and Fred Melamed. Director Mimi Leder’s daughter plays Lizzy, Aniston’s kid, she’s a natural. Jennifer’s real life BFF Andrea Bendewald is the make up lady, Ian Gomez (from Cougar Town) is a producer. Let me tell you, this show cost a fortune. It’s like a Dream Team.
PS Starting with Episode 2 we get a theme song, “Nemesis,” sung by Benjamin Clementine, a UK Pop guy who hasn’t broken through. He will now. Big time.
Niccolo Paganini– maybe you knew him. The violin virtuoso turned 237 day before yesterday. His actual descendant, Maria Elena Paganini, who lives in Buenos Aires, threw her relative a little birthday party at the Ascent Lounge in the Time Warner Center. Niccolo would have loved it. But she has more in store for him.
