Friday, December 19, 2025
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Trailer for New Bruce Willis Movie Raises a Lot of Questions: “Die Hard” Star is Second Billed to TV Actor Michael Chiklis

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Bruce Willis barely had any dialogue in Night Shyamalan’s “Glass.” If you look at the movie, he’s hidden in robes or filmed from behind.

Soon he will appear in just the first few minutes of Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn” before his character is killed off. (No spoilers, it’s based on novel.)

Now comes the first of three B movies he’s made for VOD. This one is called “10 Minutes Gone.” In the new trailer, released today, Willis is second billed to Michael Chiklis, star of the 2000s TV hit “The Shield.” Chiklis is a nice guy, but his chief attribute here is that he’s bald, like Willis, and resembles Willis. From the trailer, it sure looks like Chiklis is the star of “10 Minutes Gone.” Indeed, all the scenes with Willis in the trailer look like he was only in one scene– and has little to say.

Over the last couple of years, Willis has sold almost all of his real estate. He and his second wife, Emma Willis, and two young daughters just packed up their Bedford Hills, NY home, which is on the market. They’ve moved back to Los Angeles.

Willis — mostly from “Die Hard — was once the top box office star. Beginning with the “Moonlighting” TV series in the late 80s, he’s been a celebrity fixture. He’s starred in dozens of films, some good, some bad, and lately odd. He’s got two more of these low budget films coming over the next year, “The Long Night” and “Trauma Center,” in which he will also be “featured”– sort of in the movie and not.

It was four years ago, in the fall of 2015, when Willis had trouble remembering his lines on Broadway in the stage version of “Misery.” At the time, he was supposed to film Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society,” but left after filming for a few days. (He was replaced by Steve Carell.) Willis said it was too taxing to do both projects simultaneously.

Willis has had such a great career, and so many millions of fans, this clip just seems like the beginning of an unworthy exit. He’s too nice, and has given us too much entertainment, for things to end this way:

 

 

Toronto Film Festival Adds Mick Jagger in “Burnt Orange Heresy,” and “The Aeronauts” from Amazon Studios with Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones

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Mick Jagger is coming to the Toronto Film Festival. You can’t get always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need. And we need Mick! Jagger co-stars in “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” just added as a gala to TIFF. Also added is “The Aeronauts” from Amazon Studios with Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. If this were a Miramax movie in 2002, it would win the Oscar. It’s about balloon racing in the 1800s.

Lots of great new special presentations, too, including the filmed version of Kerry Washington’s Broadway play, “American Son.” ​

GALAS 2019
The Aeronauts ​
Tom Harper | United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere
The Burnt Orange Heresy ​
Giuseppe Capotondi | USA/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2019
American Son ​
Kenny Leon | USA
World Premiere
Deerskin​

(​Le Daim​)​

Quentin Dupieux | France
International Premiere
Dirt Music ​
Gregor Jordan | United Kingdom/Australia
World Premiere
The Elder One ​
(​Moothon​)​

Geetu Mohandas | India
World Premiere
Guns Akimbo ​
Jason Lei Howden | Germany/New Zealand
World Premiere
Human Capital​

Marc Meyers | USA
World Premiere
Jungleland ​
Max Winkler | USA
World Premiere
Lucy in the Sky ​
Noah Hawley | USA
World Premiere
Lyrebird ​
Dan Friedkin | USA
International Premiere
Mosul ​
Matthew Michael Carnahan | USA
North American Premiere
Seberg ​
Benedict Andrews | USA/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Sibyl ​
Justine Triet | France/Belgium
North American Premiere
SYNCHRONIC ​
Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson | USA
World Premiere
The Truth ​
(​La vérité​)​

Hirokazu Kore-eda | France/Japan
North American Premiere
Wasp Network ​
Olivier Assayas | France, Brazil, Spain, Belgium
North American Premiere
Waves ​
Trey Edward Shults | USA
International Premiere
Albert Shin’s ​Clifton Hill ​was previously announced as part of the Special Presentations programm

Netflix Sets a Date for the Return of “The Crown,” See Oscar Winner Olivia Colman as the New Queen Elizabeth II

Netflix has set a date for the return of “The Crown,” the wildly popular series about Queen Elizabeth II. Claire Foy was the award winning young queen, but now we have Oscar winner Olivia Colman ready to take over.

Also in the cast: Tobias Menzies as Prince Phillip, Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong-Jones, Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Marion Bailey as The Queen Mother and Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The third season spans 1964-1977.

Colman appears in this little teaser below. She looks pretty imperious. I’m waiting to see series 4 or 5 when she finds out Andrew is a friend of Jeffrey Epstein!

Petra Nemcova, the Great Philanthropist, Model, Humanitarian, Beauty Got Married Last Week and No One Noticed

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One of my all time favorite people, Petra Nemcova, finally got married. The great beauty didn’t wait for me! No, seriously, the lucky guy was Ben Larretche, they’ve known each other for about three years. They tied the knot August 2nd in Sedona, Arizona with little fanfare, very Petra style. Mucho congrats!

Petra has been engaged three times in the past, most famously and sadly to Simon Atlee, who died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Since then, Petra has become a world class philanthropist and activist, building schools and helping children in all parts of the world. She is quite remarkable.

But now maybe she can take a break and focus on herself. She deserves it!

 

East Hampton Authors’ Night: Elvis, Impeachment, Mobsters, and Dr. Ruth’s Sex For — or With – Dummies

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Patti Kenner– New York’s hostess with the mostest–is the person to know on East Hampton Author’s Night. A Manhattan mainstay philanthropist who is hands on– literally, she serves her own seated dinner parties and buses them– Kenner is the engine behind bringing a phalanx of authors to a tented book fair on the EH/Amagansett border that included meet and greets and autographs.

The tents were full, as authors from far and wide sat with huge piles of books on their tables, and book lovers roamed noshing from sandwich trays and the raw bar, taking photos with Alec Baldwin, Roseanne Cash, Candace Bushnell, Douglas Brinkley, and Amy Zerner and Monte Farber who gamely threw in a tarot reading as they were signing their many books on astrology. David Browne signed copies and shared gossip about his excellent new music bio of “Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.”

Needless to say, Vicky Ward, the journalist/author who had written a highly edited 2003 Vanity Fair story about Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual proclivities, did not show up for Authors Night. Epstein, taken off of suicide watch, had been found dead in his jail cell that morning and Ward was for sure doing press elsewhere. Her provocative book, “Kushner, Inc.: Greed, Ambition, Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump,” would have to wait.

The event began to slow by 7:30 with cars queuing up to leave the large field, many going off to dinners with their favorite authors. Bushnell and Brinkley split early, as soon as their large piles dwindled to nothing, off for their respective dinners.

We were lucky enough to end up at Patti Kenner’s East Hampton home, where we celebrated the work of not one, as our host pointed out, but four authors starting with 91 year old wunderkind Dr. Ruth Westheimer who could now be called a movie star, said Kenner, as well as an author of numerous books on sex therapy.  She, the subject of a moving documentary called “Ask Dr. Ruth,” now on Hulu, was present with her “Sex for Dummies, in its 4th printing.” We asked if it was also “Sex with Dummies,” and Dr. Ruth said she’d head that before.

Next up was Time and Vanity Fair contributor Richard Zoglin with his new book, “Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Las Vegas Show,” published just in time for the 50th anniversary of his historic comeback, July 31, 1969.”Everybody’s talking about the 50th anniversary of Woodstock,” Zoglin said, “but something else really important happened that summer, too.”

Kenner, she reminded us, had not one but four authors at her dinner, a real treat. Former New York Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, who came to fame on the Watergate House Judiciary Committee in 1973, brought her new book,”The Case for Impeaching Trump.” Now a very youthful looking 78, Holtzman made  a compelling case for Trump’s removal with an inspirational and persuasive argument that everyone should read.

Writer Jeffrey Sussman had the intimate crowd in thrall for his Boxing With the Mob: The Notorious History of the Sweet Science.” Sussman is an expert on the mob and sports. When we asked if Don King was part of this new book, he told us that King’s lawyers threatened to sue if his name were mentioned, and that his publisher advised him to leave it alone…for now. Note to all: Don King is 87, and he’s not going to live for ever. What a book that will be one day!

And Patti Kenner? The intrepid owner of the 90 year old Campus Coach bus company already had her house cleaned up and ready for the next fundraiser as we were swept out the door by 10:30pm. There’s no rest for the weary do-gooder.

 

 

 

Surprise! (Not!!) Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth Call it Quits Officially After 8 Months: Her Album, His Movie Each Flopped

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What a shock. Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth have ended the marriage that started on the spur of the moment back on Boxing Day, December 26th. It’s hard to believe, isn’t?

No, it’s not. Their publicist says they’re still committed to parenting their pets.

Well, Miley’s Instagram stopped having photos of Liam in early May, when they attended Anna Wintour’s Halloween Ball at the Metropolitan Museum. From then on, it’s pictures of Miley in bikinis, no wedding ring. So it’s possible this all ended well before May 1st.

Failure fuels celebrity marriages. Miley’s “She is Coming” album was a botched experiment, selling just about no copies. Liam’s “Isn’t it Romantic?” romcom went belly up at the box office. So there were no Champagne corks popping in their household.

But how could it have worked anyway? Miley, who had already announced she was gay, told a magazine that she was queer, and that sex was not a big part of marriage. Liam could not have been amused. She said: “The reason that people get married sometimes can be old-fashioned, but I think the reason we got married isn’t old-fashioned—I actually think it’s kind of New Age. We’re redefining, to be fucking frank, what it looks like for someone that’s a queer person like myself to be in a hetero relationship. A big part of my pride and my identity is being a queer person. What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level. It has nothing to do with sexuality. Relationships and partnerships in a new generation—I don’t think they have so much to do with sexuality or gender. Sex is actually a small part, and gender is a very small, almost irrelevant part of relationships.”

I would guess that’s when Liam headed for the hills.

So now what? Miley and Liam already broke up once, when she took a “Wrecking Ball” to her life and career. That move worked, but nothing has since then. When she made up with Hemsworth, Miley went G rated with the “Younger Now” album. Huge flop. She tried to spice things up with “She is Coming,” but that was a strike out. At 26, she has the luxury of trying many different musical genres before settling down at 40 to a country residency in Branson.

Good luck! And god bless!

Box Office: Warner Bros.’ “The Kitchen” Cooks Up Disaster with Just $5.5 Mil Weekend — Latest Female Star Film to Fail

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It’s been a rough summer for films starring women, or toplining women.

Now we have a big disaster with “The Kitchen,” starring Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish. It made just $5.5 million and cost at least $50 million if not more.

The whole thing is a total write off. Sadder still, this was the number 1 new movie of the weekend. But it’s not a surprise: “The Kitchen” had a ghastly 20% on Rotten Tomatoes.

“The Kitchen” follows “The Hustle,” “Booksmart,” “Poms,” and “Late Night” down the box office tubes. Was it that the movies were really no good? Or were they just poorly marketed? That’s the big question.

And now studios will have to think about that before new releases like Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and the upcoming “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”?

The latter, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Cate Blanchett, is looming as a huge flop. Scheduled to be released earlier this year, “Bernadette” was pulled from Annapurna’s schedule for re-editing. Apparently, it didn’t work. “Bernadette” is barely being screened for press, and its premiere is being held sub rosa at the way downtown indie Metrograph Theater with a party on the premises. Not exactly Alice Tully Hall.

Annapurna Films, owned by Megan Ellison, has already had massive disappointments this year including “Booksmart.” Next Sunday, after it bombs, we’ll be seeing puns based on the title regarding the box office.  Blanchett and Linklater will be fine, but Annapurna is another story altogether.

 

 

Celebrity Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Found Dead in Jail, by Suicide or… Assassination, as His Powerful Associates Run for Cover

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Jeffrey Epstein is dead. He was found in his Manhattan jail cell this morning, the announcement was it was suicide.

But clearly almost no one believes it was anything but an assassination. Yesterday, Virginia Guiffre’s depositions against Epstein were revealed in his unsealed indictment. She named powerful people who were part of Epstein’s world and clientele, including Senators George Mitchell and Bill Richardson, Chicago hotel billionaire Tom Pritzker, already accused model agency owner Jean Luc Brunel (who doesn’t care what you accuse him of, by the way), and plenty of others.

It’s the “others” whose names still haven’t come out, and will, who likely said ‘that’s it’ for Epstein. Also yesterday, Epstein’s very close pal Leslie Wexner, who owns Victoria’s Secret and The Limited and other brands, gave an interview throwing Epstein under the bus– or a fleet of buses– to distance himself from the jailed pedophile. Wexner has to be kidding if we’re supposed to believe him.

And then there’s Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s bff and procurer, his fixer, on the lam in Europe. Her father died mysteriously on a yacht in Europe years ago. She must be wondering how her end will come now. Maxwell knows everything, and could set her world on fire if she gave the information to authorities. She has to be going to the bathroom with bodyguards watching. Good luck.

Who wanted Epstein dead? Everyone. Who did it? Everyone. Stay tuned.

New York Times Adds Several Corrections to Last Sunday’s Article about Natalie Wood’s Sister, Lana Wood, After Publication

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The New York Times Styles section has been busy adding corrections to their cover story from last Sunday. When the article, “Lana Wood, Natalie’s Little Sister,” was printed, it was accompanied by one correction. But online, the correction was expanded to include more errors made by the mysterious author, Elinor Blake. Blake, whoever she is, has never published an article before, has no writing credits. As I reported on Sunday, Blake may be an illustrator and animator. She has no resume as a journalist. And the result seems to be all the corrections.

Still unclear is why the Times even published the story. Lana Wood has a long history of selling her accusations against her former brother in law, Robert Wagner. She’s made noise for 38 years without any actual evidence. Very strange.

Here’s the latest correction online:

An earlier version of this article misidentified the person responsible for the casting of the Wood sisters in “The Searchers.” John Ford was the director, not John Huston. The article also misidentified the law enforcement organization that employs Detective Ralph Hernandez and mischaracterized one of his statements. He works for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, not the Los Angeles Police Department, and he said that the coroner could not rule out that Natalie Wood was unconscious before she hit the water, not that he could not rule out that she was dead. And the article misstated the names of Ms. Wood’s nieces. They are Courtney Wagner and Natasha Gregson Wagner.

Lana del Rey Releases New Song, “Looking for America,” Donates All Proceeds to Recent Shooting Victims in El Paso, Dayton, Gilroy

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Pop star Lana del Rey has released a new song calledl “Looking for America.” She’s donating all proceeds to shooting victims and familes from El Paso, Dayton, and Gilroy. The organizations are Gilroy Garlic Festival Victims Relief Fund, the Dayton Foundation, and the El Paso Community Foundation.

She wrote on Instagram: “Hi folks came back early from Montecito with my brother this morning and asked Jack Antonoff to come into town because I had a song on my mind that I wanted to write. Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion- but in light of all of the mass shootings and the back to back shootings in the last couple of days which really affected me on a cellular level I just wanted to post this video that our engineer Laura took 20 minutes ago. I hope you like it. I’m singing love to the choruses I recorded this morning. I’m going to call it ‘Looking for America”

This is not a song previously announced for Lana’s “Norman F—ing Rockwell” album. Maybe it will be added. Unclear. But “Looking for America” is already number 16 on iTunes.