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BREAKINGHUMOR Donald Trump just made a startling admission in the Oval Office, following a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo just returned from meeting with the Saudi government over the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared in the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
Trump, listening to Pompeo give his report– which included a suggestion to “wait and see” if the Saudis can come up with an explanation– suddenly blew up.
“Did I hire you?” he said, narrowing his eyes. “I thought I hired the girl from Grey’s Anatomy. The bossy one. Great tits.”
“Ellen Pompeo,” the secretary of state replied. “I get confused with her a lot.”
“She’s great, the best,” Trump said. “Remember how she got rid of McDreamy? And McSteamy? How about the blonde chick who did the cat food commercial? Ellen Pompeo, she’s the one I wanted. Get out of here now.”
Trump turned to his lackey, Steven Miller. “Call that Shonda Rhimes person,” he said. “You’re Jewish. You know what Shonda means. The whole thing is a shonda!”
The nomination for the IFP Gotham Awards are more indie than the Spirit Awards (on the West Coast, next February) but still include some Hollywood people. Among them: Michelle Pfeiffer, Adam Driver, Emma Stone, Glenn Close. (I don’t mean they live in Hollywood, just that they’re often in studio films.)
The main category includes “The Favourite,” which is also getting a special award for its three actresses; Paul Schrader’s excellent “First Reformed,” and Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
There are also two movies almost no one has ever seen: “The Rider,” and “Madeline’s Madeline.” But that’s exactly right. The Gothams are honoring independent movies, while the Independent Spirit Awards honor indie films that got Oscar nominations.
One glaring omission is Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” although its lead actress, who never acted before, is the Breakthrough Performance category.
It’s great that Richard E. Grant made it in from “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” as Best Actor, but Melissa McCarthy– so good in that film– ignored and she’s the main player.
The funniest category: all five nominees for Breakthrough Actor are…actresses. Ah, gender.
Best Documentary Bisbee ‘17
Robert Greene, producer; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, producers (4th Row
Films) Hale County This Morning, This Evening
RaMell Ross, director; RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, producers (The Cinema Guild) Minding the Gap
Bing Liu, director; Diane Quon, Bing Liu, producers (Hulu & Magnolia Pictures)
Shirkers
Sandi Tan, director; Sandi Tan, Jessica Levin, Maya Rudolph, producers (Netflix) Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Morgan Neville, director; Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma, producers (Focus
Features)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ari Aster for Hereditary (A24)
Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade (A24)
Jennifer Fox for The Tale (HBO)
Crystal Moselle for Skate Kitchen (Magnolia Pictures)
Boots Riley for Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
Best Screenplay
The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
First Reformed, Paul Schrader (A24)
Private Life, Tamara Jenkins (Netflix)
Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski (Magnolia Pictures)
Thoroughbreds, Cory Finley (Focus Features)
Best Actor
Adam Driver in BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)
Ben Foster in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ethan Hawke in First Reformed (A24)
Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
Best Actress*
Glenn Close in The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics)
Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24)
Kathryn Hahn in Private Life (Netflix)
Regina Hall in Support the Girls (Magnolia Pictures)
Michelle Pfeiffer in Where is Kyra? (Paladin and Great Point Media) *The 2018 Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award to Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz for their ensemble performance in The Favourite. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Breakthrough Actor
Yalitza Aparicio in Roma (Netflix)
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (A24)
Helena Howard in Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
KiKi Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form
195 Lewis, Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Rae Leone Allen, creators
Cleaner Daze, Tess Sweet and Daniel Gambelin, creators
Distance, Alex Dobrenko, creator
The F Word, Nicole Opper, creator
She’s the Ticket, Nadia Hallgren, creator
I really wanted to call this story “Mumble Me By Your Name.”
Luca Guadagnini, the man who made “Call Me By Your Name,” is set to make a new film based on Bob Dylan’s towering 1975 classic album, “Blood on the Tracks.”
Oscar Nominee Richard LaGravenese will pen the script to the classic drama, which is based on an idea by RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira, who is producing with Guadagnino. RT’s Sophie Mas and Lourenço Sant’ Anna are executive producing alongside Marco Morabito.Â
“Blood on the Tracks,” from 1975, has no plot per se, so whatever story they’ve come up with will have to somehow make sense. The great songs on it include “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Shelter from the Storm,” “Idiot Wind,” “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” among others.
The album is about to get an anniversary box set pressing from Sony/Legacy, so news of the movie is either coincidental or planned.
Guadagnini is about to release his remake of the horror film, “Suspiria.”
It’s not yet unknown if this will be tailored for “Call Me” stars Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer. There’s no fruit in the lyrics to “Blood on the Tracks,” but produce departments are being warned.
She released a new single Thursday right after midnight. “The Distance” is pretty good, the singles are improving. This one features Ty Dollar.
New album coming November 16th, called “Caution.” Apparently Roc Nation is really managing her, and this is the result. Mariah is about to have her third or fourth iteration. Lambs have nine lives. Or is it Butterflies?
Roseanne issued a statement on Facebook about The Conners and the death of her character through her new buddy, Shmuley Boteach (pronounced Bo-tay-ach). The statement came from Shmuley’s World Values Network. In 2016, according to the charity’s Form 990, the World Values Network said it paid salaries of $725,000.
Of that, at least $377,000 went to Shmuley, whose real name is Jacob. On the IRS form he lied and called himself “Jacob Botach” intentionally misspelling the last name. This is after he’d already been exposed by the NY Daily News.
This is where Roseanne is at. I’ve written before about Shmuley, and about the World Values Network. It’s all in black and white. Shmuley famously befriended Michael Jackson around the year 2000, then involved him in a bunch of scams and fake charities that ultimately had to be investigated by the New York State Attorney General.
This is the same Shmuley who, a few years before that, was banned from having a pulpit in Great Britain after running scams there.
This is who Roseanne Barr has aligned herself with. Just so we’re all the same page.
I find it interesting that Shmuley has enough money to pay Rubenstein and Associates for public relations. I actually met him for the first time in Howard Rubenstein’s apartment on the Upper East Side in 2000 with Michael Jackson. Everything that followed would prove to be Michael’s undoing.
But back to the World Values Network: Where did the rest of the $1.6 million Shmuley claims they received go? It didn’t go to helping anyone. On the line under Expenses that reads “Grants,” the number is Zero.
Other salaries and wages: $298,000. Who received these salaries is unspecified.
Other employee benefits: $70,000. Which employees? Unknown.
Occupancy– meaning rent– $246,915. Below is a picture of 392 Palisades Avenue, where the World Values Network is located. That’s about $20,000 a month.
Just so we’re all on the same page.
Other expenses include Public Outreach Advertising: $211,283. I’m sure you’ve seen their ads everywhere. LOL.
“The Conners” scored 10,458,000 viewers in its debut, considerably below the “Roseanne” premiere of 17 million last spring. It was beaten handily by “NCIS” with 11.6 million.
Realistically, “The Conners” was a hit, even with the loss to “NCIS.” There isn’t a comedy out there that wouldn’t covet the numbers they got. “The Conners” scored an 8 in the key demo of Men, ages 18-49, the highest of all shows last night. John Goodman’s fans found him, which is always great. Among women in the key demo, “The Conners” scored an 11 and tied with the NBC hit “This is Us.”
Remember, “The Conners” was never going to score the gargantuan ratings of the “Roseanne” reboot last spring. And I’ve got a feeling their numbers will be steady now, and not drop off as the “Roseanne” show did. Plus, Goodman and Metcalf are just sensational, and the whole show was excellent.
The Broadcast Critics have announced the nominations for their third annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, in November. Michael Moore is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. “Free Solo,” from Nat Geo Docs, leads the pack of other nominees. “RBG,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” and “Three Identical Strangers” are all nominated for Best Doc. The awards will be given at BRIC in Brooklyn (on the BAM campus) November 10th.
The Critics Choice Awards for feature films will be given on January 13th, 2019.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Crime + Punishment – Director: Stephen Maing (Hulu)
Dark Money – Director: Kimberly Reed (PBS)
Free Solo – Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Hal – Director: Amy Scott (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Hitler’s Hollywood – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland (Kino Lorber)
Minding the Gap – Director: Bing Liu (Hulu)
RBG – Directors: Julie Cohen, Betsy West (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Three Identical Strangers – Director: Tim Wardle (Neon, CNN Films)
Wild Wild Country – Directors: Chapman Way, Maclain Way (Netflix)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Director: Morgan Neville (Focus Features)
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
America to Me (Starz)
Dirty Money (Netflix)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (HBO Documentary Films, Sony Pictures Television)
Flint Town (Netflix)
One Strange Rock (National Geographic)
The Fourth Estate (Showtime Networks)
The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (HBO)
Wild Wild Country (Netflix)
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
30 for 30 (ESPN)
American Masters (PBS)
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN)
Frontline (PBS)
Independent Lens (PBS)
Making a Murderer (Netflix)
POV (PBS)
The History of Comedy (CNN)
BEST DIRECTOR
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – Free Solo (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Bing Liu – Minding the Gap (Hulu)
Morgan Neville – Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features)
Kimberly Reed – Dark Money (PBS)
Rüdiger Suchsland – Hitler’s Hollywood (Kino Lorber)
Tim Wardle – Three Identical Strangers (Neon, CNN Films)
Chapman Way and Maclain Way – Wild Wild Country (Netflix)
BEST FIRST TIME DIRECTOR
Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster – Science Fair (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Heather Lenz – Kusama – Infinity (Magnolia Pictures)
Bing Liu – Minding the Gap (Hulu)
Stephen Nomura Schible – Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (MUBI)
Amy Scott – Hal (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Rudy Valdez – The Sentence (HBO Documentary Films)
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
RBG – Directors: Julie Cohen, Betsy West (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Dark Money – Director: Kimberly Reed (PBS)
Fahrenheit 11/9 – Director: Michael Moore (Briarcliff Entertainment)
Flint Town – Directors: Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper, Jessica Dimmock (Netflix)
Hitler’s Hollywood – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland (Kino Lorber)
John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls – Directors: George Kunhardt, Peter W. Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt (HBO)
The Fourth Estate – Directors: Liz Garbus, Jenny Carchman (Showtime Networks)
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
Andre the Giant – Director: Jason Hehir (HBO)
Being Serena (HBO)
Free Solo – Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (National Geographic Documentary Film)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection – Director: Julien Faraut (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Minding the Gap – Director: Bing Liu (Hulu)
The Workers Cup – Director: Adam Sobel (Passion River)
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Bad Reputation – Director: Kevin Kerslake (Magnolia Pictures)
David Bowie: The Last Five Years – Director: Francis Whately (HBO Documentary Films)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher – Director: Thom Zimny (HBO Documentary Films, Sony Pictures Television)
Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow – Director: Stephen Kijak (Showtime Networks)
Quincy – Directors: Alan Hicks, Rashida Jones (Netflix)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda – Director: Stephen Nomura Schible (MUBI)
Whitney – Director: Kevin Macdonald (Roadside Attractions, Miramax)
MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECT OF A DOCUMENTARY
(ALL LISTED IN THE CATEGORY WILL BE HONORED AT THE EVENT)
Scotty Bowers – Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Greenwich Entertainment)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg – RBG (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Alex Honnold – Free Solo (National Geographic Documentary Film)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Magnolia Pictures)
Quincy Jones – Quincy (Netflix)
David Kellman and Bobby Shafran – Three Identical Strangers (Neon, CNN Films)
John McEnroe – John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Leon Vitali – Filmworker (Kino Lorber)
MOST INNOVATIVE DOCUMENTARY
306 Hollywood – Directors: Elan Bogarin, Jonathan Bogarin (PBS, El Tigre)
Free Solo – Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (National Geographic Documentary Film)
Hitler’s Hollywood – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland (Kino Lorber)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda – Director: Stephen Nomura Schible (MUBI)
Wild Wild Country – Directors: Chapman Way, Maclain Way (Netflix)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Director: Morgan Neville (Focus Features)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
306 Hollywood – Cinematographers: Elan Bogarin, Jonathan Bogarin, Alejandro MejÃa (PBS, El Tigre)
The Dawn Wall – Cinematographer: Brett Lowell (The Orchard)
Free Solo – Cinematographers: Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin, Mikey Schaefer (National Geographic Documentary Film)
Minding the Gap – Cinematographer: Bing Liu (Hulu)
Pandas – Cinematographer: David Douglas (Warner Bros., IMAX)
Wild Wild Country – Cinematographer: Adam Stone (Netflix)
BEST EDITING
Dark Money – Editor: Jay Arthur Sterrenberg (PBS)
Filmworker – Editor: Tony Zierra (Kino Lorber)
Free Solo – Editor: Bob Eisenhardt (National Geographic Documentary Film)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection – Editor: Julien Faraut (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Three Identical Strangers – Editor: Michael Harte (Neon, CNN Films)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Editors: Jeff Malmberg, Aaron Wickenden (Focus Features)
In August I wrote about Sony’s Columbia Records paying $4 million for an unknown rapper named Dominic Fike. It seemed like folly, but new president Ron Perry had to do something BIG.
Tonight, Mr. Fike has dropped an EP of 6 songs. The money may have been well spent. His songs are melodic– they’re songs, he’s not really a rapper. Dominic sounds a little like Mark McGrath, which isn’t a bad thing. I love the acoustic guitar. His genre is rock. Like, rock.
I do think they’ve got a couple of singles here. This is a good preface to a full length album. Dominic’s going to have a hit of some kind with “3 Nights.” Columbia Records may be back on the charts with someone under the age of 25. Ron Perry will be getting a lot of kudos, and Rob Stringer can breathe a sigh of relief.
PS Fike gets the last laugh. He was in jail prior to signing with Columbia. He’s not going back.
One of the craziest episodes in TV history was resolved tonight. Roseanne Conner is dead from an opioid overdose. Her family, The Conners, will now plow ahead with Roseanne of blessed memory.
UPDATE: Barr Tweeted after all. “I ain’t dead, bitches!” It won’t be her last.
Ironically, “Roseanne” debuted almost 30 years to this day– October 18, 1988. The new show debuted tonight, months after Barr wrote a racist Tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. The comedian and actress was almost immediately fired from her own show. “The Conners” rises in its place.
When The Conners picks up tonight, Roseanne has been dead for three weeks. The family is still adjusting to her absence. Dan– John Goodman– is furious with the woman whose name was on the prescription bottle. There’s a surprise cameo from Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen.
Also, Roseanne and Jackie’s mother is back, played by theater great Estelle Parsons. She really will be 90 on November 20th!
Last spring, “Roseanne” returned to the air with monster ratings– at least, at first. What will tonight’s show bring? Will “The Conners” make it to a second season?
Misc: “The Conners” kept the theme music from “Roseanne.” I guess that Carsey-Werner owned it outright, why pay for a new theme? Also, Still MIA: Jerry, Roseanne and Dan’s youngest son, and also Andy, Jackie’s son. Jerry was at least mentioned on last season’s “Roseanne.” Andy has vanished.
Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen– who died yesterday at age 65– was many things– genius, entrepreneur, philanthropist. But the one thing the New York Times left out of its obit today was any mention of Paul wanting to be a rock star. He did, and he was.
In 2013, Allen– after years of performing with his rock band The Underthinkers– released an album on Sony/Legacy. “Everything at Once” didn’t get much press, and didn’t sell many copies– a stunning 215 according to BuzzAngle. I’d never heard of it until yesterday.
Still, there’s some nice stuff on the album including a country song sung by Chrissie Hynde called “Rodeo.” There are plenty of other guests including Heart sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson (before they fell out), Ivan Neville, Derek Trucks, and Joe Walsh. (You can hear it below on Spotify.)
Knowing Paul, he wouldn’t do publicity for the record, and I’m sure whatever proceeds there were went to charity. He was rich enough to fund the project. But good for him– he LOVED playing rock and blues. He knew from 1982 his life wouldn’t be long, so he just did what he wanted.
