If you missed Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize the other night, here it is. Watch the whole thing. No kidding, she could win an Emmy for this performance, seriously– I am not saying that in a “Veep” way. It was really marvelous and showed why she deserved the prize. Whoever wrote this — Julia? David Mandel? Brad Hall? all of them? — deserves something, too. What a relief to see a classy evening on TV.
Where the Oscars Stand on Thanksgiving Day: Don’t Believe all the Progn-Oscar-tors, Surprises Await Us
It’s time to start ruminating. The PrognOscartors are digging in hard. The publicists are fretting. The heat is turning up. There’s still plenty to see. Academy voters must must see “Never Look Away,” a masterpiece, I must say it over and over. (I write this waiting to see Mary Poppins, Vice, The Mule, All is True, and Mary Queen of Scots.)
Best Picture— A Star is Born, First Man, Green Book, Roma, The Favourite; back 5- yet to be determined, mostly because of Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule.” Widows, Blackkklansman, Can You Forgive Me, seem solid. “Vice” is still being seen and thought about. No one’s seen the Ian-McKellen-Judi Dench Shakespeare movie “All is True.” (She plays Anne Hathaway! Just the way Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker in “Old Man.”) “Bohemian Rhapsody” shouldn’t be overlooked. Not so sure about “Beale Street.”
Best Actor— Bradley Cooper, natch. Ryan Gosling. Viggo Mortensen (for the win?). And then what? Rami Malek, it would seem to me, leaves one spot: Christian Bale, mostly likely. Clint? As with “Gran Torino,” not feeling push on Clint. Could be a Warner Bros. issue. Embarrassment of riches. And Willem Dafoe— as Vincent Van Gogh in “At Eternity’s Gate” — is mesmerizing.
Best Actress— Glenn Close. definitely. Wow. Then Lady Gaga, Olivia Colman. Then what? Judi Dench? (Who knows? Maybe.) I really feel Nicole Kidman must be there for “Destroyer.” And then it’s going to be Viola Davis, followed by Melissa McCarthy. Kidman’s performance is essential. It’s Close’s turn over all.
Best Supporting Actor— Russell Hornsby for “The Hate You Give.” This guy is the real deal, and this is his moment. Mahershala Ali will probably win. Okay, we love him, but he did just get an Oscar. You never know. Richard E. Grant swoops into “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and disarms everyone. He’s in. My number 4 choice is Sam Elliott, in “A Star is Born.” No debate. So who’s number 5? Timothee Chalamet is devastating in “Beautiful Boy.” Lucas Hedges gave two great performances. The door here is still open. And no one is pushing Jonathan Pryce in “The Wife,” which is a mistake.
Best Supporting Actress-– this is a weird category this year, with all kinds of talent. I’m writing this before seeing “Vice,” but I’m hearing Amy Adams. Looking at some predictions, I see Regina King is hot in “Beale Street.” She’s one of my favorites. Claire Foy just stole my heart in “First Man.” She’ll be nominated. But Amy, Amy! Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite.” And fifth? My crazy choice is Letitia Wright in “Black Panther.” I felt she leapt off the screen. But still not sure the Academy is going to really honor “Black Panther.” So Emma Stone or Nicole Kidman (“Boy Erased”) are on deck.
Foreign Film— My favorite movie of the year is Florian Henckel von Donnersmark’s “Never Look Away.” It’s an actual masterpiece. (This is a must see film.) But so is “Roma.” And Nadine Labiki’s “Capernaum” (which I hope everyone sees) and “Cold War.”
So good and what do we do? Isle of Dogs, The Old Man and the Gun, A Quiet Place. Ben is Back.
and more to come…just don’t look at lists on these so-called “Oscar sites” and think that’s it. SAG Best Ensemble– A Quiet Place? At Eternity’s Gate, The Favourite, Roma. (“Roma” actually reminds me of “Ragtime” for some reason.)
And the jockeying continues….
Soaps: Ratings Plummet for “Young and Restless,” “General Hospital” Before Holiday Break
Going into Thanksgiving weekend,. it’s a cliff hanger for the daytime dramas and their ratings.
For the week of November 5th to the 9th, three of the four remaining soaps lost huge chunks of viewers from a year ago– and during sweeps.
“Young and the Restless” lost 475,000 viewers, “Bold and the Beautiful” lost 375K, “General Hospital” lost 326K. The only soap that gained a few fans was “Days of our Lives.”
“General Hospital” in particular should pay close attention. ABC is gunning for their time slot.
Ratings UPDATE: Rachel Maddow Took Last Friday and This Past Monday, Beats Hannity for a Week, Kardashians Reunite with Old Viewers
Rachel Maddow is on a roll. Sean Hannity is suffering.
Maybe it’s because Hannity and Fox News are so removed from reality. But Rachel Maddow has beaten him for unbroken week with her MSNBC show.
Maddow won last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then she continued on Friday and Monday, two nights ago. Tomorrow we’ll learn if she picked up Tuesday night.
In other ratings news, Roseanne spin off “The Conners” has found a plateau at 7 million viewers. For now.
On Sunday night, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” went up over 1.2 million viewers as Kloe locked Kandle in an underground panic room. Crystal Jenner, Caitlin’s evil twin, roasted marshmallows in the Wolesly fire.
“Sopranos” Sequel Movie Starts Rolling with Alessandro Nivola Cast as Tony Soprano’s Uncle, Christafuh’s Dad
“The Sopranos” prequel movie is finally underway with casting, and it’s great news.
Alessandro Nivola, whose credits include everything from “American Hustle” and “Selma” to a 2015 Tony Award nomination for “The Elephant Man,” will play Dickey Moltisanti, Tony Soprano’s uncle and father of Christafuh (Michael Imperioli).
The movie, “The Many Saints of Newark,” is written and directed by David Chase, creator of “The Sopranos.” It takes place in the 60s, when Tony’s dad is in prison. Other characters should include a young Livia, Tony’s mother (played so beautifully by Nancy Marchand in the series), and Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese).
Nivola is married to actress Emily Mortimer, and together they’ve produced the popular “Doll & Em” series at HBO. This casting bodes well for “Saints,” as Chase is due for a big next project.
UPDATE Leonardo DiCaprio Produced “Robin Hood” Makes Just $14 Mil, Cost over $100 Mil
update Sunday November 25th: “Robin Hood” made $14 million over 5 days.
NOVEMBER 20 TH Leonardo DiCaprio is facing his own “Titanic” tomorrow: his company, Appian Way, produced the new “Robin Hood” movie. And it’s got a 14 right now on Rotten Tomatoes– 42 negative reviews, just 7 positive.
Lions Gate is releasing “Robin Hood” under what’s left of the Summit Pictures label. It’s sort of amazing– Summit had a big run with vampires and dystopian universes thanks to the “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” series. And now, pfft.
The new Robin Hood is played by Taron Egerton, who will soon be seen as Elton John in the rock star’s biopic. The movie also stars Jamie Foxx, Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, and Eve Hewson– aka Bono’s daughter– as Maid Marian.
But for some reason Leo and his producing partners put all these A-listers in the hands of director Otto Bathurst, who comes from TV (“Peaky Blinders”) and has no feature film experience. It’s not clear how much DiCaprio’s company has sunk into “Robin Hood,” but if the costs are $100 million, the losses will be high — and shared by everyone.
Most of the reviews are similar to this one from the Washington Post: “Amounts to a chilly and flavorless frappé of historical speculation, revisionist folklore and every lazy action-movie cliche ever written.”
Originally “Robin Hood” was supposed to have been released last March, when no one would have cared. Someone decided to shift it to Thanksgiving, maybe just for the turkey jokes.
Come back Thursday for the bad news.
Robert DeNiro and Grace Hightower, Wife of 20 Years, Split, Announcement Forthcoming
It’s always sad when two people break up, especially if you like them each a lot.
Robert DeNiro has apparently split from his wife of 20 years, Grace Hightower. Page Six’s Ian Mohr broke the story after cleverly deducing that they were no longer attending events together.
I guess the tip off came last night when Grace didn’t appear the museum tribute to Martin Scorsese with DeNiro. I actually ran into Grace with a girlfriend (the old kind, a friend) on November 7th at the opening of the new CMX CineCafe on the Upper East Side. That was two weeks ago, and our conversation was pleasant as ever. She’s a lovely lady.
The couple has two children– Elliott, 20, and Helen Grace, who is just six years old. DeNiro has twins with Toukie Smith– Aaron and Julian, 23, a son Raphael with actress Dianne Abbott, who is one of the city’s best known realtors; and a stepdaughter with Abbott, Dreena.
Peter Simon, 71, Famed Martha’s Vineyard Photographer and Brother of Carly Simon, Passes Away
Back on August 10th, I wrote about Peter Simon getting into a kerfuffle with Bill Murray on Martha’s Vineyard. The peripatetic photographer was on assignment shooting diners in a restaurant and accidentally shot Murray, whom he did not recognize. Peter got the short end of the stick, and was even banned by the stupid restaurant for doing his job.
Well, last night Peter– who suffered from lung cancer– died unexpectedly. He was 71 and highly regarded around the world, with loads of fans and collectors. In a crazy way, I’m glad he got into that fight with Bill Murray because it gave us a chance to talk. He was just a lovely guy and a real artist.
Peter was the youngest of four– Joanna, an opera singer; Lucy, who wrote “The Secret Garden” musical; and Carly the rock star. Imagine the only boy in the group. Their father created Simon & Schuster. Their mother was pistol who is remembered for many things including taking in the family of Jackie Robinson when he came East to play baseball.
Peter was no slouch, as his books and website reveal. On Facebook friends say his death was unexpected. He did say in August how well he was doing. But apparently he had a heart attack. I’m sending condolences to his wife Ronni and the Simon family and all his friends on Martha’s Vineyard. This was just too soon.
Watch Mick Jagger Announce the Rolling Stones’ No Filter U.S. Tour for Next Year
Mick Jagger made up a little song today to announce the Rolling Stones’ No Filter tour for next year in the US. Mick is 75 years old and has 75 children, many of whom are younger than his 202 grandchildren. The rest of the Stones’ ages add up 987. And yet, they will play the shit out of every venue, where ticket prices will be high, high, high.
See you in the US next year! 🇺🇸 https://t.co/TSFFpTUFPU #stonesnofilter pic.twitter.com/ULS4mTs4Gb
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) November 19, 2018
Letters Show Harvey Weinstein Accuser Lied About Signing NDA Without Legal Advice, Plus Actress Lea Seydoux Changes Story
What seemed like a lot of legal slam dunks against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein are falling apart in every direction. Weinstein’s many accusers (80? 90?) who are not even involved in the current criminal case must be wondering what the heck is going on. Just how many surprises exist down the road?
On Friday, NYPD SVU chief Michael Osgood was replaced after working on Weinstein’s cases from the start. The NYPD has basically been in chaos since the Weinstein revelations began a year ago. This follows Detective Nicholas DiGaudio’s revelation that he advised a witness to erase emails from her phone, which was going to be used as evidence in Count Six against Weinstein. Now that count as been dismissed.
Now it seems also French actress Lea Seydoux changed her story about her encounter with Weinstein to Marie Claire magazine in the French edition.
In the Guardian, in October 2017, Seydoux claimed Weinstein tried, aggressively, to attack her– twice, that she had to push him away.
In Marie Claire, Seydoux says now:
I found myself in a situation where If he wanted to rape me, he could have done, but he didn’t. I did not want a physical fight, I didn’t want to struggle. Given his weight, he could have pressed me against a wall, forced me, he did not do it.
‘It never came to blows and I didn’t have to defend myself or resist. Given his weight, he would have been able to pin me against a wall and force me to do something, but he didn’t.’
QUESTION: What was your relationship to him?
I knew him quite well, I felt tenderness towards him. But he scared me. When I saw him, I had cold sweats, I said to myself, ‘Well, I’ll have to be kind to him, and at the same time push him away, very gently.’ It was balancing act.
Then there’s the case of Ambra Battilana, Weinstein’s Italian accuser from 2015 whose story had made the front page of the Post and NY Daily News. When Battilana made her accusations against Weinstein in 2015, Cy Vance declined to prosecute the movie producer. When the whole Weinstein scandal broke a year ago, Battilana was interviewed by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker in a story called “Harvey Weinstein’s Secret Settlements.” Battilana told Farrow in his New Yorker story that she signed a non disclosure agreement with Weinstein but didn’t understand it and didn’t know what she was signing.
Farrow, however, omitted something important. Battilana had a lawyer in New York advising her at the signing. She also had a French lawyer on the phone translating for her. Battilana knew exactly what she was she signing.
She told Farrow: “I didn’t even understand almost what I was doing with all those papers…I was really disoriented. My English was very bad. All of the words in that agreement were super difficult to understand. I guess even now I can’t really comprehend everything.”
Battilana, however, had a battalion of legal help. According to Weinstein’s motion to dismiss she had two lawyers, one of whom was Italian and translated for her. I wondered about this. Who was advising Battilana and why was that left out of the stories? It turns there were two lawyers– one here in New York named David Godowsky, who actually advertises his representation of Battilana on his website. Battilana had another attorney in Italy, Patrizia Bugnano, who worked for days translating the agreement with her. Another Italian lawyer, Filomena Cusano, representing Weinstein, vouched for having contact with Bugnano. I contacted Bugnano by email who would only say:
“I am not involved in meeto
movement
and since three years I don’ t
hear more Ambra
I am sorry”
But here are the letters they signed in 2015:
So discrepancies abound in the Weinstein case, with questions about how much The New Yorker left out of their original stories. This doesn’t do much to bolster the confidence of Weinstein’s accusers, who counted on the police and the State’s Attorney’s office to defend them in a competent way.