Monday, December 22, 2025
Donate
Home Blog Page 1154

Directors Guild DGA Awards: “Roma” Alfonso Cuaron Wins Best Feature, But Big Surprises in First Feature (“Eighth Grade”), Documentary (“Three Identical Strangers”), TV Comedy (“Barry”)

Roger Friedman
-
0
Directors Guild DGA Awards: “Roma” Alfonso Cuaron Wins Best Feature, But Big Surprises in First Feature (“Eighth Grade”), Documentary (“Three Identical Strangers”), TV Comedy (“Barry”)

Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for “Roma.” He will win the Oscar, but not necessarily Best Picture.

The DGA Awards have produced some big surprises tonight. Bill Hader and “Barry” beat the Palladino’s and “Mrs. Maisel” for directing in TV comedy. What? The choreography, the complex direction of each “Maisel” episode is an art.

Morgan Neville lost Documentary Best Director to Tim Wardle and “Three Identical Strangers.”

First Feature went to Bo Burnham for “Eighth Grade.” He beat Bradley Cooper for “A Star is Born.” This is really a shock. Bradley Cooper did an excellent job. In Toronto we felt this was a movie to beat. Something has gone wrong over the months. Nevertheless, “A Star is Born” made $200 million. So someone liked it. As for “Eighth Grade,” I thought it was “Lady Bird” lite.

A bright spot: Ben Stiller winning Best Director of a movie/mini-series for “Escape at Dannemora.”

Adam McKay, director of “Vice,” won Best Director for a TV drama for his episode of HBO’s “Succession.” Go figure. The mystery of all TV drama nominations in all awards shows is why “Billions” is totally ignored all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Winners to be announced beginning 9:30pm Eastern Time:
*Winners in bold

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM

Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Peter Farrelly, Green Book
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Adam McKay, Vice

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT OF A FIRST-TIME FILM

Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Carlos López Estrada, Blindspotting
Matthew Heineman, A Private War
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DOCUMENTARY

Morgan Neville, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
RaMell Ross, Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Free Solo
Tim Wardle, Three Identical Strangers
Betsy West and Julie Cohen, RBG

BEST VARIETY SERIES DIRECTING Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live” Paul Pennolino, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” Sacha Baron Cohen, “Who is America” Jim Hoskinson, “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Paul G. Casey, “Real Time with Bill Maher”

BEST MOVIE/MINISERIES DIRECTING Jean-Marc Vallee, “Sharp Objects” Ben Stiller, “Escape at Dannemora” David Leveaux and Alex Rudzinski, “Jesus Christ Superstar” Cary Joji Fukunaga, “Maniac” Barry Levinson, “Paterno”

BEST COMEDY DIRECTING Hiro Mirai, “Atlanta” (“Teddy Perkins”); Daniel Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (“We’re Going to the Catskills!”); Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (“All Alone”); Bill Hader, “Barry”; Donald Glover, “Atlanta” (“FUBU”)

BEST DRAMA DIRECTING Chris Long, “The Americans” (“START”) Daina Reed, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (“Holly”) Jason Bateman, “Ozark” (“Reparations”) Adam McKay, “Succession” (“Celebration”) Lesli Linka Glatter, “Homeland” (“Paean to the People”)

DGA’s Variety/Talk/News/Sports specials winner is Louis J. Horvitz for the 60th Grammy Awards

In Virginia, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax Speaks Out About Governor’s Blackface Scandal: “I cannot condone the actions from his past”

Roger Friedman
-
0
In Virginia, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax Speaks Out About Governor’s Blackface Scandal: “I cannot condone the actions from his past”

The Lieutentant Governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax, has spoken out about Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal. He says despite the fact that Northam has been a friend and treated him well, Fairfax “cannot condone” what happened in the governor’s past. You can read it below.

Fairfax is right. Most everyone agrees Northam must resign. He can’t remember if he’s the man in the yearbook photo wearing blackface? That is a line from Donald Trump’s playbook. I’m two years older than Northam. If I’d seen him like that, or with a darkened face to be in a Michael Jackson costume, I’d remember. It was unacceptable in 1984 and unforgivable in 2019.

Isn’t it amazing, by the way, the irony: he darkened his face to be Michael Jackson. A few years later, Michael whitened his face. If Northam had just waited a decade, he wouldn’t have needed to be in blackface. But that’s another story.

Lucky for Virginia, Fairfax has a great history and will be an excellent governor. He’s also an actual Democrat. Northam, who voted for George W. Bush twice, was not so solid.

Pop: Backstreet Boys Land First Number 1 Album in 18 Years, All CD and Downloads, No Streaming, 236K Copies

Roger Friedman
-
0
Pop: Backstreet Boys Land First Number 1 Album in 18 Years, All CD and Downloads, No Streaming, 236K Copies

Backstreet Boys, middle aged men who used to be a boy band, are back on top of the charts.

Their “DNA” album is their first in 18 years to hit number 1 on the charts.

A little more than I predicted earlier in the week, “DNA” sold 236,000 copies. They were almost CDs and paid downloads, and very little streaming. Their older audience wanted it that way.

But their older audience also didn’t actually buy those CDs and downloads. “DNA” came with concert tickets. Backstreet Boys are a nostalgia act now, and they’re wisely cashing in on good feelings from fans who loved them in the 90s. The albums were part of the price of the ticket. The RIAA counts those as sales.

Next week when the ticket bundle is gone, “DNA” will sink at least 80% or maybe drop out of the top 50 altogether. There’s nothing to support it on the charts, no hit single. The days of “I Want It That Way” are over.

Curiously, the Boys didn’t turn to their old songwriters for tracks on the new album. The result is good vocals applied to not very compelling songs. And the Boys don’t have any publishing credits on the songs, so they’re not going to get that revenue.

Without the “DNA” sales, overall sales of music would have been pretty skimpy this week. An album by rapper Future, whose insistence on using his own music instead of Curtis Mayfield’s destroyed the “Superfly” remake last year, sold 57,000 copies– mostly via streaming.

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Favourite,” “Spider Verse,” “Mrs. Maisel” Take Home Coveted EDDIE Awards for Film and TV Editing

Leah Sydney
-
0
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Favourite,” “Spider Verse,” “Mrs. Maisel” Take Home Coveted EDDIE Awards for Film and TV Editing

At the Eddie Awards, for film editing:

“Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Favourite” garnered the Best Edited Feature Dramatic and Comedy while “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” took the Animated prize.  “Atlanta” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” “Bodyguard,” and “Killing Eve,” took home the TV awards.

The editors came out of their edit bays for one night to the famed Beverly Hilton International Ballroom. Filled with Oscar nominees including Spike Lee, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuaron and more, the vibe was non-jaded, not usual in that room especially, with a quirky funny host, Tom Kenny the voice of SpongeBob.

While wanting to go a bit racy, Tom remarked, “I can’t be swearing SpongeBob tonight; Viacom will send a Swat team of lawyers like [the ones who went to] Roger Stone’s house.”  Sincerity was present as kudos were paid to Anthony Bourdain, his CNN  show won, and more huzzahs went the winning docu award, “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Head.”

Octavia Spencer gave her “Shape of Water” director Guillermo del Toro the Golden Eddie.  Game Guillermo explained his stomach ailment as “as assassination attempt by a piece of chicken on a salad I ate with Jim Cameron on Tuesday.”  He praised editors by saying, “an editor recognizes the movie when it goes by, stops it and talks to it.”  He went on to quip that meetings in the industry are often times in a three-piece suit but editors and cinematographers are “the people that you meet in your curlers, your pajamas and with morning breath.”

The editors have a pretty good hitting average when predicting the Best Picture Oscar; they’ve predicted 17 of the past 28 winners.

Here is the complete list of winners at the 69th annual ACE Eddie Awards:

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC)
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY)
The Favourite, Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Robert Fisher, Jr.

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Free Solo, Bob Eisenhardt, ACE

BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES FOR NON-COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
Bodyguard: “Episode 1”, Steve Singleton

BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES FOR COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
Killing Eve: “Nice Face”, Gary Dollner, ACE

BEST EDITED COMEDY SERIES FOR NON-COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: “Simone”, Kate Sanford, ACE

BEST EDITED COMEDY SERIES FOR COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
Atlanta: “Teddy Perkins”, Kyle Reiter

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (NON-THEATRICAL)
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Greg Finton, ACE & Poppy Das, ACE

BEST EDITED MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE FOR TELEVISION
Escape at Dannemora: “Better Days”, Malcolm Jamieson & Geoffrey Richman ACE

BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown – “West Virginia” Hunter Gross, ACE

STUDENT COMPETITION WINNER
Marco Gonzalez – Boston University

Grammy Awards Will Salute Motown’s 60th Anniversary with TV Special Taped Two Days After Show

Roger Friedman
-
0
Grammy Awards Will Salute Motown’s 60th Anniversary with TV Special Taped Two Days After Show

Maybe the greatest TV Music special ever was “Motown 25,” taped back in 1983. That’s when Michael Jackson moonwalked across the stage to “Billie Jean” and history was made.

Now the Grammys, Ken Ehrlich, and AEG are going to tape “Motown 60” two days after the Grammys in Los Angeles on February 12 th. This seems to be the reason Diana Ross is getting a special spot on the actual Grammy Awards.

Of course, a lot of Motown performers are gone. But many are still with us, including Diana, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson. Mary Wilson of the Supremes lives in Los Angeles, so it won’ t be hard to have her on the show.

Alas, all but one of the original Temptations is gone. And Levi Stubbs from the Four Tops is in heaven, crooning away. So is Marvin Gaye.

But there are plenty of ex-Motowners from the various groups in Los Angeles, and in Detroit. The Isley Brothers, who had a monster hit with “This Old Heart of Mine,” on Motown, are available. The Contours– “Do You Love Me?”– are still working. So is the great Martha Reeves, and the Vandellas.

Sounds like a very promising and fun show! And on point since the Temptations musical “Ain’t Too Proud” is opening on Broadway soon. You can bet that show will be featured!

 

A Media Era Comes to An End: Jann Wenner Totally Out of Rolling Stone as Penske Media Buys Up Rest of Company

Roger Friedman
-
0
A Media Era Comes to An End: Jann Wenner Totally Out of Rolling Stone as Penske Media Buys Up Rest of Company

Jann Wenner is out.

It’s been 51 years since Wenner started Rolling Stone as a broadsheet from San Francisco. It used to fold in half and come out twice a month. Everything was fresh, and if you loved music, you were instantly dependent on it.

But you know, Time Life is gone. Conde Nast teeters, as does Hearst. Everything’s different now.

Tonight, Penske Media bought up the rest of Rolling Stone from Wenner and Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, the people Wenner had sold a minority interest to a couple of years ago. The announcement was made in Deadline.com, also owned by Jay Penske.

Penske now has full control of Rolling Stone, which believe it or not is still a worthwhile brand name. Even the website produces traffic. Alexa.com ranks it at 596 in the US, which is pretty good.

The Deadline story quotes an internal release Penske sent to the RS staff: “In the 12 months since PMC’s initial investment into this incredible team and legendary brand, the need to consolidate the Rolling Stone business has become abundantly clear and something that BandLab and their leadership team also recognized and were in full support of. It’s with their confidence and blessing that we were able to put together a deal that was best for all parties. We continue to have shared goals and will continue to collaborate in the future. This strategic transaction is a key move for what will be many years of future growth and expansion for Rolling Stone, both domestically and abroad.”

The end of Wenner is not bittersweet, it’s just bitter. Rolling Stone was his fiefdom. For years he ran it petulantly, as described in at least two biographies. He loved making and breaking writers, rock stars, photographers. He used the magazine as leverage in running the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And now the party is over.

Penske has achieved what Wenner could not: a media empire. Wenner at one point had US Weekly and Mens Journal. They’re all gone now. Penske owns RS, Variety, WWD, Hollywood Life, Deadline, TV Line.

Goodbye, Jann. It was…interesting.

 

“Hello, Dolly!” Opens in Los Angeles to Raves, and Wow, Wow, Wow with Betty Buckley in Carol Channing’s Signature Role

Leah Sydney
-
0
“Hello, Dolly!” Opens in Los Angeles to Raves, and Wow, Wow, Wow with Betty Buckley in Carol Channing’s Signature Role

Betty Buckley, playing Dolly Gallagher Levi in the National Tour of “Hello Dolly”, proves she is one of our shining divas of stage, screen and TV. Betty grabs the role with gusto; infusing her Dolly with pathos, humor, regret, love and hope. Betty has played numerous iconic roles on stage, TV and film, think “Carrie,” “Sunset Blvd,” “Eight is Enough,” “Split.” Buckley’s talent lies in instantly making the characters she plays human, accessible and relatable. Betty’s Dolly is singularly Buckley.

Based on Thornton Wilder’s 1955 play “The Matchmaker” with a book by Michael Stewart, directed by Jerry Zaks, and of course the glorious score by Jerry Herman which includes such classics as “Before the Parade Passes By,” “It Only Takes A Moment,” and the crowd adoring showstopper “Hello, Dolly!” The costumes and sets by Santo Loquasto add to the magic of it all. The cast and chorus are all wonderful, exuberant and perfection.

Legendary Carol Channing, who played Dolly for over thirty years and is most associated with that role, would have turned 98 today. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is front and center outside the Pantages. She would most certainly have approved of Betty’s powerhouse performance, so says her longtime publicist Harlan Boll who was there last night. “Carol would have considered Betty Buckley to be her kind of Broadway. She’d be comforted to know that her dear Dolly will indeed never go away.”

Oscars: Best Song Crisis Is Over as Academy Tweets that Songs from “Mary Poppins Returns,” “RBG” Will Be Performed Along with “Star is Born” and “Black Panther”

Roger Friedman
-
0
Oscars: Best Song Crisis Is Over as Academy Tweets that Songs from “Mary Poppins Returns,” “RBG” Will Be Performed Along with “Star is Born” and “Black Panther”

UPDATE The Academy now says four of the five nominated songs will be performed on the Oscars including those from “RBG” and “Mary Poppins.” They’d already scheduled songs from “A Star is Born” and “Black Panther.” All that’s left is the song from “Buster Scruggs.”

They seem to indicate star Emily Blunt isn’t performing “The Place Where Lost Things Go.” A special guest? Hmmmm….

 

 

The Big Best Song crisis is over.

The Academy tweeted a few minutes ago that Jennifer Hudson would be singing “I’ll Fight” on the show.

The controversy was over having two of the five nominated songs performed instead of all five. Originally the word was the Academy and ABC wanted to keep the show short by limiting the performances.

Now Jennifer Hudson will join Lady Gaga and the others singing her guts out on live TV. The audience will go crazy. No one brings down a house like JHud!

Next step is announcing Emily Blunt will sing from “Mary Poppins Returns” and someone will sing from “Buster Scruggs.”

Kyle Buchanan wrote a great piece in the New York Times today about this whole fiasco. The fact is, people who watch and love the Oscars want to see EVERYTHING, the whole show, all the categories, no matter how long it takes. Three hours? Big deal. You got something else to do?

I do credit Donna Gigliotti, who’s the guest producer this year. She’s an Oscar winner, very smart, and very savvy. I predict she’s going to put together a great show, despite all these tempests in teapots!

The Very Supreme Diana Ross Will Add Some Superstar Glamour as Special Performer on This Year’s Grammy Awards

Roger Friedman
-
0
The Very Supreme Diana Ross Will Add Some Superstar Glamour as Special Performer on This Year’s Grammy Awards

Superstar singer Diana Ross will be the special diamond performer on the Grammy Awards next month, says producer Ken Ehrlich.

Diana, who turns 75 in March, is still a huge touring act and one of our greatest performers. She once fronted The Supremes, featuring Mary Wilson, who I just saw at the Aretha Franklin memorial concert TV tribute taping.

Ross has been on our TV screens since The Supremes made their debut on Ed Sullivan way back in 1964. At one point, The Supremes were neck-and-neck with the Beatles on the singles charts.

No word yet on what Diana will sing, but the co-songwriter of one of her biggest hits– Valerie Simpson, of Ashford and Simpson fame– will bne in the audience. Valerie and late husband Nik Ashford wrote “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which Diana covered in 1970. The songwriters are receiving one of the Special Merit Lifetime Achievement Awards this year along with Sam Moore, Dionne Warwick, and a few others.

Knowing Ken Ehrlich’s talent for setting up cool moments on The Grammys, I’ll bet he gets Diana’s award winning actress daughter Tracee Ellis Ross to introduce her.

Backstreet Boys Will Have Their First Number 1 Album Since the Year 2000 Thanks to Album/Concert Ticket Bundling

Roger Friedman
-
0
Backstreet Boys Will Have Their First Number 1 Album Since the Year 2000 Thanks to Album/Concert Ticket Bundling

Believe it or not, the original boy band from the 1990s, Backstreet Boys, are back. Did you miss ’em?

Their “DNA” album is going to finish at number 1 tomorrow for the week. It may well sell over 200,000 copies. This isn’t because anyone bought it voluntarily. It comes as part of a bundle with tickets for their concert tour which begins in Las Vegas next week, goes to Europe, then comes back for summer in the US.

The tour is not aimed at cutting edge audiences. The closest it gets to New York is the Prudential Center in Newark.

The Boys’ last number 1 album was in the year 2000. Remember “I Want it That Way”?

The new album, “DNA,” sounds like the work of a lifeless, automated barbershop quartet. It’s more pedestrian than the people who roam Times Square. None of the songs are memorable. They are all written by committees. The Boys seem to have no publishing or producing credits, so their touring is where they will make money. I’m surprised they didn’t insist on a cut of each song. There’s one song actually called “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” and it’s not Elton John’s. Not good.

But someone bought concert tickets, so let’s not quibble. At least 200,000 people, in fact, and they all got CDs in the deal counted by the RIAA. Is it fair to let “DNA” chart? Next week, it will drop 80% or more and leave the charts as fast as it came. That’s the way it works.

 

1...1,1531,1541,155...2,325Page 1,154 of 2,325

Hollywood to the Hudson

Company

Trending

Categories

© Showbiz411.com