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“Wolf of Wall Street” Film Financier Arrested in Malaysia for 1MBD Money Laundering Scandal That Involved Leonardo DiCaprio Among Others

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The step-sister of Raza Aziz posted today that the owner of Red Granite Films and movie producer of “Wolf of Wall Street” has been arrested in Malaysia in the 1MBD money laundering scheme.

Yana Najib wrote: “Today MACC decided to charge my brother. He has faced a civil lawsuit over the same subject matter in the US. As part of the settlement, Red Granite has paid a substantial amount to the DOJ. But despite the settlement in the US and the fact that alleged wrong-doings occurred entirely outside of Malaysia, MACC decides to press charges after a whole year of leaving this case in cold storage.
He is not a criminal, he’s my brother.”

The 1MBD scandal — in which Aziz was accused of using a public fund in Malaysia set up by his stepfather. the prime minister, to pay for “Wolf,” other movies like “Daddy’s Home” and the “Dumb and Dumber” sequel, expensive art work and so on — reached all the way to star Leonardo DiCaprio. Aziz gave DiCaprio pieces of art to be auctioned off at his Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala in St. Tropez. The art eventually had to be returned. Aziz was in business with Malaysia con man Low Taek Jho, aka Jho Lo, who became DiCaprio’s third criminal pal in the Oscar winner’s sketchy business Life. (The other two were now dead fraudster Dana Giacchetto and formerly imprisoned art dealer Helly Nahmad.)

There is still no public accounting for DiCaprio’s foundation, by the way. Most charities and private foundations file Form 990s with the IRS which are on public view. But DiCaprio’s foundation is hidden under a California trust that doesn’t break out individual numbers. So there’s no way of knowing how the Malaysian money was intermingled with Leo’s.

“Wolf of Wall Street” was based on the story of crooked Long Island stock broker Jordan Belfort. But it turns out that the story of making the Martin Scorsese movie was much more interesting as life imitated art.

More to come…

Pic taken before heading off this morning”

Reports Say Mad Magazine is Shutting Down After Nearly 70 Years, Influential Humor Magazine Was Home of Alfred E. Neuman

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It does seem like Mad Magazine, born in 1952 and signified by the fictional gap toothed Alfred E. Neuman, is coming at an end. Reports on line and Tweets from current staffers suggest that Warner Media and DC Comics, which owns Mad, is winding down operations.

“What, me worry?” is the magazine’s and Alfred’s motto, but in magazines these days worry is all that’s left. Mad was so popular in the 60s and 70s, but has faded over time. It’s known for parodies, for Spy vs. Spy, for the folding inside back page. But all that has been replaced by video games.

Cartoonist Evan Dorkin has been running a Twitter feed all night saying goodbye to the magazine. He wrote: “Today won’t end. Goodbye, MAD Magazine. As a youngster I was a huge fan of the 70’s era, as a young adult I rediscovered the 50’s comics, as an old nerd I somehow became a contributor (often working w/r) for the last decade +. Getting the e-mail today was crushing.”

He added: “I don’t feel bad for myself, we were discussing new work but nothing set or soon. We had a good run. Seeing MAD close down hurts, especially during a morbidly depressing year for cartoonists and the comics industry in general. And my heart goes out to the Usual Gang freelancers.”

Longtime MAD contributor David DeGrand confirmed the shut down in a blog post.

It’s not surprising Mad Magazine is ending, but it’s sad, especially for people of a certain age. Mad’s satire and wit got us through a lot of bad and weird times. This era could only benefit from Mad humor, but who knows what’s going on at Warner Media now that it’s owned by AT&T.

The trouble at Mad began in February when Bill Morrison was fired from his jobs as editor of Mad and of DC Comics. He became editor of MAD Magazine in June 2017, after the retirement of editor John Ficarra, who’d been there for 30 years. DC Comics moved their offices from Manhattan to Burbank, which never was– as Johnny Carson was the first to observe– a funny place.  Morrison relaunched the long-running humor magazine, but with AT&T taking over, the outlook was bleak.

Weird Al Yankovic wrote on Twitter: “I am profoundly sad to hear that after 67 years, MAD Magazine is ceasing publication. I can’t begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid – it’s pretty much the reason I turned out weird. Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions.”

I had all these paperbacks, too, in the late 60s and early 70s. RIP.

Madonna’s “Madame X” Album Falls off iTunes Top 150 After 3 Weeks Despite Massively Expensive PR Campaign Failure

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UPDATE Friday July 5th: Madame X is at 174 now and looks like it may drop off the top 200 soon.

Madonna’s character Madame X was depicted on her social media accounts as many things: warrior, teacher, lover, spy, mother, and so on.

But what she also was: out of date, fusty, in tune with the Madonna of the 1990s. She was not of these times.

The result is that “Madame X” the album is now dead, or at least on life support. After two and a half weeks, she’s fallen off the iTunes top 100. She’s not coming back.

“Madame X” has sold around 100,000 copies including streaming, sales of CDs and downloads. And that’s pushing it. In “real” sales, the number is way lower.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. Remember this started in early May at the Billboard Music Awards, where Madonna was rumored to have spent $5 million on her live production. Then she went to Israel to the EuroVision Awards. Lots and lots of money was spent, even after single after single failed to make a dent in sales or any kind of radio play. Millions more were spent on “Medellin,” which had the excitement of a shuffle board game at a nursing home.

Madonna is planning a theatrical spectacle this fall for her theater tour. But she must realize that fans are not going to want a whole “Madame X” show. The failure of the album as a marketing idea complicates her situation. But Madonna can always make lemonade out of lemons. She has all summer to create a show her fans want.

“Spider Man: Far from Home” Scores Biggest Tuesday Open Ever with $39 Mil, Beats “Force Awakens,” Heads to Record Week

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Amy Pascal must be smiling. I hope she’s lounging by a pool with waiters delivering peeled grapes.

Her “Spider Man: Far From Home” broke Tuesday records last night with $39 million. It’s the biggest Tuesday opening ever, beating “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

“Far from Home” should have a record week through Sunday, as well. Sony is giving a low ball estimate of $125 million, but the reality is closer to $170 to $190 million. Peter Parker never had it so good. And that’s not looking at international sales.

“Far from Home” will be the whole story this week and July 4th weekend. Word of mouth will be intense too since the movie is perfectly jiggered for kids, tweens, teens, and young adults through their 30s. Older people, like yours truly, will find it very enjoyable too!

And this just the middle chapter in a trilogy. We think. Tom Holland definitely gets a third “Spider Man.” And he can keep appearing in Marvel Universe movies for quite a while because he’s so young.

Sony Pictures can breathe a sigh of relief. Between this and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” they’ve got a nice summer ahead.

 

Neil Diamond Will Follow Carole King onto Broadway with Brill Building Musical, But It Won’t Be So Easy This Time

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Carole King has had a huge hit with her Broadway musical, “Beautiful,” even though it may be winding down soon. King’s songs with Gerry Goffin, plus her own songs, and those of Cynthia Mann and Barry Weil, were sophisticated gems that writer Doug McGrath ably wove into the stories of the writers’ lives.

Now Neil Diamond is coming with his own musical, still untitled, although I’d name it “I’m a Believer” after the 1966 hit he wrote for the Monkees. Like King et al, Diamond came up through the “Brill Building” with publisher Donnie Kirshner, writing songs for pop groups until he found his own footing as a solo act.

Diamond modeled himself in concert on Elvis Presley, however, and created a bombastic stage presence bordering on Liberace (who I wrote about the other day). His song catalog is uneven, unlike King’s. Some of the songs are classic, some are hokum. The best are “Solitary Man,” “I’m a Believer,” “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” plus of course “Sweet Caroline,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Play Me,” “Cherry Cherry,” “Holly Holy,” and “Cracklin’ Rosie.”

But there’s a big basket of corny, too, that will be torture in a Broadway musical. “I Am…I Said” with its ridiculous lyrics (it’s sung to a chair, a la Clint Eastwood’s political convention speech). Diamond, unlike King, can be grating. His going to “America” is catchy but borders on jingoistic. “Longfellow Serenade” was a low point on the top 40.

Still, the dream of having the audience sing along to “Sweet Caroline” is too intoxicating for producers. That creative team includes writer Anthony McCarten, who wrote the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Tony-winner Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio, founding member of The Four Seasons, will produce with Michael Mayer (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) set to direct. They will milk that song and the bombast, trust me, for everything they can.

SPOILER ALERT Disney Asks Reviewers and Press Not to Reveal Story Points from “The Lion King” 25 Years After Animated Film, 22 Years on Broadway

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Maybe you’ve heard of Simba. Mufasa, or Rafiki. Or what happens to them in Africa.

They are the characters from “The Lion King,” which was released in 1994. Three years later, the Broadway musical opened. It’s still running, 27 years later.

There have been lots of spin offs, as well.

Still, Disney does not want us to reveal any spoilers from the coming live action film, which is said to be a scene-by-scene remake of the original.

Here’s a warning that came with my screening invitation: In order to give audiences around the world the opportunity to enjoy our movies to the fullest and allow them to discover any surprises and plot twists, we respectfully ask that you as press refrain from revealing spoilers and detailed story points in your coverage, including on social media.

I laughed out loud. What next? Pinocchio? Sleeping Beauty?

Spoiler madness– or anti-spoiler madness– has reached heights of craziness. Is 25 years too soon to reveal the fates of the characters?

Simba, I am your father. So is Darth Vader, babe.

Exclusive: Universal Fast Tracking Movie with Prince’s Songs Now That Beatles Movie “Yesterday” is A Hit, “Rocketman” Still Soaring

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First it was “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Then came “Rocketman.”

This past weekend, the Universal movie “Yesterday” posted $17 million at the box office with 17 Beatles songs included.

Now I’m told Universal Pictures is fast tracking a movie featuring Prince’s music catalog. I’m told that Universal chief DOnna Langley is “obsessed” with this project.

It was announced last December that Universal had secured the rights to Prince’s songs not necessarily for a biopic but as “signposts” in a narrative story. Maybe one in which no one remembers Prince but a kid from Minneapolis starts playing them after an electrical storm.

Since “Purple Rain” is already taken for the famous Prince movie, and “Little Red Corvette” is overused, my proposal is a movie called “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Or even one titled “Raspberry Beret.”

But that December story has now made Universal execs eager to get the movie going as soon as they find the right project.

So who’s next? David Bowie probably. And the Rolling Stones. My guess is Mick Jagger’s Jagged Films is trying to figure out a way to get their own movie going with the Stones catalog. Meantime, “Girl from the North Country,” a Bob Dylan musical from off Broadway, is heading uptown next year, and certainly to a movie adaptation.

All of this I guess leads back to the two “Mamma Mia” movies that used ABBA songs. And then there will be a movie adaptation of Carole King’s “Beautiful” Broadway musical, using all of her songs.

 

Showtime’s Roger Ailes-Fox News Mini-Series Posted Almost NO Ratings Sunday Night; Russell Crowe-Led All Star Drama Bombs

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Showtime deserves what it gets. The Roger Ailes-Fox News mini series “The Loudest Voice in the Room” was a ratings disaster on Sunday night.

Things were so bad that Showtime didn’t offer ratings for any of their Sunday shows. “Loudest Voice” scored maybe 299,000 viewers on Showtime at 10pm. Showtime says it was more like 650K if you count all their other ways of delivering shows. But what’s very obvious is that there was no audience for the Russell Crowe-led A list cast show.

But “Loudest Voice” had a terrible launch, no marketing, no nothing. It sort of crept up on us. They had some kind of premiere in New York and didn’t even invite people who used to work for Fox News. Incredibly stupid.

By comparison, HBO’s “Big Little Lies” had 1,640,000 viewers. Even the Kardashians squeezed out 1.4 million.”Loudest Voice” was even beaten by HBO’s controversial “Euphoria,” which scored only 493,000 fans. (And that “Euphoria” had its own issues– for another story.)

“Loudest Voice” is so well written by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy, and the acting was top notch. But it doesn’t matter. That 299K is less than half of what “Billions” gets on a weekly basis. And if “Billions” doesn’t get Emmy nominations, then it’s really time to re-evaluate what’s going on there.

UPDATE: E. Jean Carroll Book, In Which Author Accuses Donald Trump of Sex Attack, Drops to 1,417 on 2nd Day of Publication

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WEDS JULY 3RD: The book has dropped to 1,417 on amazon. This must come as a terrible surprise to Carroll and to the publishers. Somehow I think there is karma in the universe, and Carroll will be vindicated. There has to be further verification out there. 

 

TUES JULY 2: Today is publication date for E. Jean Carroll’s book, “Why Do We Need Men?” Ten days ago, an excerpt from the book appeared on the cover of New York magazine. Carroll, a respected writer, accused Donald Trump of a sexual attack in the mid 90s in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room.

After that bombshell, you’d think “Why Do We Need Men” would have skyrocketed with advance sales. But after a sales spurt took the book to around 100, Carroll’s explosive memoir started sinking. This morning the book has fallen to number 996 on Amazon. No one is buying it. How did things go so wrong?

There are some theories that the public is simply inured at this point to all stories about Trump, sex attacks notwithstanding. Around 16 women have accused Trump of something horrible. At least one case is ongoing. Then there’s porn star Stormy Daniels, who’s become a low level celebrity thanks to her claim that Trump slept with her while Melania was pregnant with Barron.

There’s also Carroll herself. The New York Times did her no favors by basically ignoring her and the book when the news broke. Editor in chief Dean Baquet then apologized, saying because it was New York magazine’s scoop, they weren’t dealing with it. But then the Times interviewed the two women whom Carroll said she’d confided in at the time. They confirmed her story. But that didn’t help sales. Then Carroll herself had a bad interview with Anderson Cooper in which she seemed kind of kooky and called rape “sexy.” Things went downhill from there.

So now what? It seems like Carroll’s claims and “Why Do We Need Men?” have been muted. It doesn’t even matter that Trump himself, instead of denying the episode or decrying rape, called Carroll “not his type.”

We are living in the Twilight Zone.

Saturday Night Rocks: New York’s Essential Cult Rock Superstar Garland Jeffreys Serenaded by Laurie Anderson, David Johansen, Willie Nile, and Vernon Reid

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Garland Jeffreys was launched into the New York scene circa 1973 with a great album on Atlantic Records that no one bought and radio stations didn’t play. He was black, he was Puerto Rican, he rocked, he didn’t fit into the classic R&B world of the Spinners or Teddy Pendergrass. Who was he? He sang reggae, with stories that resembled Bob Dylan’s.

Four years later, thanks to Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert at A&M Records, Garland was back. This time, he surfed in on the new wave, with Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker and the Rumour. A reworked version of his ’73 hit “Wild in the Streets” now struck a chord on progressive FM radio. A series of albums followed, a solid fan base formed, and eventually he had a big hit with “Matador.”

Flash forward to Saturday night. Garland, who went to Syracuse University with late life long pal Lou Reed, decided to put four decades of dogged touring to rest. He was serenaded at City Winery in two shows, by the likes of David Johansen, Laurie Anderson, Willie Nile, Vernon Reid, and a half dozen lesser known but terrific performers. Garland’s 23 year old daughter, Savannah, performed one of his great songs, “I May Not Be Your Kind.” His Epic Records A&R man, Bill Freston, brought his brother Tom (a co-founder of MTV). (Garland and Bill got a hit out of a cover of “96 Tears” around 1982.) The two sold out shows were sing-a-longs. There was a lot of reminiscing.

Garland wore a white shirt, black pants, a beautiful colorful flowered suit selected by his devoted wife and manager, Claire. There were two birthday cakes– he also turned 76 on Saturday night– and lots of cupcakes for the audience.

There’s an irony in the retirement. A few years ago, in 2011, I sat with Garland in his living room in Stuyvesant Town, where he’s like the musical mayor, and listened to tracks for his first new album since 1997’s “Wildlife Dictionary” (released only in Europe, but essential). That new record became the first part of a trilogy detailing Jeffreys’ life in Coney Island, called “The King of In-between.” It was followed by “Truth Serum” and “14 Steps to Harlem.” They are qn unlikely Renaissance, his best work. As Laurie Anderson said on Saturday night before performing a heartbreakingly melancholy duet with him, “Garland makes albums as if he were writing books.”

Garland’s songs rock, they can beautifully crafted ballads, or mid tempo soul songs. He drapes the music around stories, which no one deos anymore. Bruce Springsteen loves him so much he included him in his famous Asbury Park Christmas shows from the early 2000s. Garland issued his own cover of “Streets of Philadelphia” as a tribute to Bruce. Steve van Zandt and wife Maureen have often been guests at his shows. This is because Jeffreys can push a political idea into a song with a hook and add just enough sweetness that you don’t even realize it until you’re humming along. Who else could get a room of white people to sing along to “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat”?

At 76, Garland can still sing his trenchant come back song “I’m Alive.” He is, and he’s finally off the road. Saturday’s shows comprised an outpouring of love and admiration for a real musician who has touched so many lives. He has no Grammy Award. He’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But his body of work is worth more than all that. It’s a treasure chest.