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Robert De Niro Leads List of 2019 Hollywood Walk of Fame Honorees Including Linda Ronstadt, Alan Arkin, Daniel Craig, Jackie Wilson

Roger Friedman
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Robert De Niro Leads List of 2019 Hollywood Walk of Fame Honorees Including Linda Ronstadt, Alan Arkin, Daniel Craig, Jackie Wilson

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is going to be a little crowded next year. The Chamber of Commerce announced today will be getting stars. Someone has to pay for the star. Sometimes it’s the studio or a producer touting a film, or a record company pitching in for an artist, or a benefactor.

Next year, for example, Daniel Craig will get a star–it may be part of his deal for the new James Bond movie. Robert De Niro is the biggest name on next year’s list. Alan Arkin– long overdue–maybe has a benefactor.

Here are the categories:
Movies— Alan Arkin, Kristen Bell, Daniel Craig, Robert De Niro, Guillermo del Toro, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Tyler Perry, and Gena Rowlands. Dianne Wiest has an Oscar, but her star is coming from the TV side.
TV — Alvin and the Chipmunks, Candice Bergen, Guy Fieri, Terrence Howard, Stacy Keach, Sid and Marty Krofft, Lucy Liu, Mandy Moore, Dianne Wiest, and Julia Child (posthumously).
Music— Michael Buble, Cypress Hill, the Lettermen, Faith Hill, Tommy Mottola, P!nk, and Teddy Riley. Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris will also receive a star together for “Trio,” and Jackie Wilson will be honored posthumously.
Jackie Wilson should have been there years ago. I want Sam Moore from Sam & Dave to get his star next year.
Other— Idina Menzel, Cedric the Entertainer, Judith Light, and Paul Sorvino will be recognized in the live theater/live performance category. These are weird. Judy Light has a Daytime Emmy and was a huge TV star. Sorvino should be TV. Menzel– I’ll let it go. Guy Fieri? He must be paying for it himself. The Chipmunks? Someone owns their rights.
As for Dolly, Emmylou and Linda– they each deserve their own star!

Donald Trump Breaks with Wife’s Be Best Movement, Threatens Congresswoman, Mocks Senator, Name Calls Senate Candidate

Roger Friedman
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Donald Trump Breaks with Wife’s Be Best Movement, Threatens Congresswoman, Mocks Senator, Name Calls Senate Candidate

Donald Trump has broken with his wife’s Be Best Campaign. Melania Trump just a few weeks ago introduced Be Best with this mission: “By promoting values such as healthy living, encouragement, kindness, and respect, parents, teachers, and other adults can help prepare children for their futures. With those values as a solid foundation, children will be able to better deal with the evils of the opioid crisis and avoid negative social media interaction.”

Today Donald broke with the campaign as he threatened US Congresswoman Maxine Waters on Twitter. He called her a “low IQ person” and suggested physical violence against her:

This weekend, Trump also called, for the umpteenth time, Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocohantas” to mock her claim of Native American genealogy, and dubbed Nevada Senate candidate Jacky Rosen “Wacky Jacky.”

Essentially, Trump spat in the face of his wife’s new campaign. She’ll have to call it “Be Worst” now.

Happy Birthday, Carly Simon, Singer, Songwriter, Activist, Still Not in Rock Hall of Fame

Roger Friedman
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Happy Birthday, Carly Simon, Singer, Songwriter, Activist, Still Not in Rock Hall of Fame

Can you believe Carly Simon still isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Just for “You’re So Vain” she deserves it.

Anyway: a big Happy Birthday to Carly who turns 73 today. You wouldn’t know it from her Instagram. She looks great and very zen of course on Martha’s Vineyard. Can we entice her into New York for a show anytime soon? (Maybe when a recent rumored broken hip heals. Get well soon!)

Carly has an Oscar, she loads of gold records, other awards too many to count! She has a catalog of hits to die for. Plus, she’s a mom, a grandmother (!), she’s an activist who’s always on right side of cutting edge causes.

Her distinctively melodic, throaty voice gave top 40 a whole new sexiness when she first the airwaves in 1971 with “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be.” “You’re So Vain” gets all the attention– for its mystery subject and its incredible catchiness, production. But there are later Carly songs I hear in my head all the time, from “Let the River Run” to “Better Not Tell Her.” She also made two of greatest “cover songs” albums of all time with “Torch” and “Moonlight Serenade.” Plus let’s not forget one of the top 3 James Bond songs of all time– “Nobody Does it Better.”

Nobody does do it better. Happy Birthday, Carly!

 

PS I took that photo at Clive Davis’s pre Grammy dinner around 4 years ago. That’s Carly with her long time friend and producer Richard Perry, and Jane Fonda.

 

RIP Dan Ingram, One of the Great Top 40 DeeJays of All Time, of WABC and CBS FM Fame

Roger Friedman
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RIP Dan Ingram, One of the Great Top 40 DeeJays of All Time, of WABC and CBS FM Fame

Dan Ingram is gone today, at age 83. He was my radio hero, mostly from 77 WABC AM, the greatest top 40 radio station ever, and WCBS FM from its heyday when it didn’t play crap from the 1980s.

Dan was irreverent but never a shock jock. He warmly undermined the status and cracked you up when you didn’t expect it. When “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” played, he inserted Joe Tex screaming “I Gotcha!” when Robert Flack arrived ponderously at “The first time ever I lay with you.” He was juvenile appropriate for a teen audience.

I got to know Dan in the 80s, after WABC was converted into right wing jabbering. He went to CBS FM with many of his great colleagues, now missed so much: Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard, and so on. Cousin Brucie is still kickin’ it on Sirius. They were the championship team.

Dan ended every show with “Bye now, Kemosabe!” So it’s back at him, today, Bye, now Kemosabe! Thanks for everything!

Listening to these sound checks on YouTube from an era gone by, you can hear how much deejays shaped the popularity of what we call classic pop and rock. They hyped it. They loved it. They made it into something dramatic. There was a sense of occasion.

Film Academy Invites A Whopping 928 New Members from 59 Countries, 17 Oscar Winners, 92 Nominees

Roger Friedman
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Film Academy Invites A Whopping 928 New Members from 59 Countries, 17 Oscar Winners, 92 Nominees

The Motion Picture Academy has found 928 new members to invite, from 59 different countries.

They’ve cast their web so wide that, really, only Stormy Daniels is left for next year. (Just kidding.)

A lot of people are in now who you might associate mostly with television. Maybe they made one or two movies of no significance, but if they’re anything other than white, or men, they’re in.

The Academy is really touting inclusion of women– many of whom should long ago have been made members, like Christine Baranski or Eileen Atkins. Julie Kavner is finally in, even though we think of her mostly from “Rhoda” or “The Simpsons.” Six time Tony winner Audra McDonald is in, as is Indian actress Tabu (I wondered what happened to her), and Scientologist Yeardley Smith of “The Simpsons” (also TV).

In music, they’ve added Melissa Etheridge, Questlove from the Roots, and Kendrick Lamar.

Plus some of our favorite publicists got in, including Janice Roland, Michael Kupferberg, Nicolette Aizenberg, Scott Feinstein, Lina Plath, Shannon Treusch, Pete Dangerfield, Vicky Eguia, and the just married Bebe Lerner!

Congrats to all!

 

Ratings: George Clooney AFI Tribute Beaten by Bobby Flay, Survival Show on History, Apes, House Hunters, Ryan Phillippe

Roger Friedman
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Ratings: George Clooney AFI Tribute Beaten by Bobby Flay, Survival Show on History, Apes, House Hunters, Ryan Phillippe

The American Film Institute tribute to George Clooney was fun to watch, if you were watching.

The show aired last Thursday at 10pm on TNT and scored 483,000. It was sixth or seventh in its time slot. Shows that beat it– scoring a million or more viewers on cable at the same hour– included Bobby Flay on the Food Network, “Alone,” a survival show on the History Channel, Primates on Discovery Channel, “House Hunters,” and Ryan Phillippe’s USA Netowrk series “Shooter.”

Julia Roberts had been advertised for the AFI Tribute but didn’t show up for the taping. No explanation was given. Many Clooney co-stars, especially Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, weren’t included at all. Odd miscellaneous types appeared for no reason.

In between the taping and the airing of the show, the AFI laid off a popular black female executive who ran the AFI Film Fest. The institute is top heavy with salaries, and, as I reported earlier this month. is in overall financial trouble.

In addition to a low overall total viewer number, the AFI tribute had a .15 in the key demo, about half of what Flay, the survivalists, or the primates got in their time period.

Kathy Griffin Tour: Carnegie Hall Sold Out But Radio City Has Hundreds of Seats Available

Roger Friedman
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Kathy Griffin Tour: Carnegie Hall Sold Out But Radio City Has Hundreds of Seats Available

Kathy Griffin’s concert bookers may have over reacted to her new found popularity.

She is mostly sold out for tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall. But tonight’s date at Radio City Music Hall is wide open. There are hundreds of unsold seats.

The Carnegie Hall date was announced first and sold out quickly. We announced it here, a great success. But like someone who was doing well in a casino, Griffin got greedy.

Radio City is vastly bigger and much harder to sell for a single act. Also, with Carnegie Hall already saturating the ticket buying populace, Radio City would be much more difficult to fill– and a less exclusive seat.

On Ticketmaster, almost all sections are showing 100+ seats available. Maybe they’ll let the people in the cheap seats move down to hear Griffin, who is sharply funny and a refreshing rebuke to the current crazy political climate.

Kanye Sales Collapse: In Third Week, “Ye” Album Sells Total Only 39K, Mostly from Streaming

Roger Friedman
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Kanye Sales Collapse: In Third Week, “Ye” Album Sells Total Only 39K, Mostly from Streaming

Kanye West? You remember the “Ye” album release? It was, what, two weeks ago? Kanye and DefJam flew 150 people to the wilds of Wyoming for the album release. Then they had another album release party in Brooklyn. Kanye was everywhere.

Right around that time, when Kanye was supporting Donald Trump very vocally, and announcing his diagnosis of bipolar illness, a friend of mine who’s back said, “That album? No black person wants that album.”

And so, two weeks later, the “Ye” album, priced to sell at $7.99, is over. This week “Ye” sold just under 39,000 “copies.” Most of that was from streaming. There were only around 6,400 paid downloads.

Kanye’s other album, “Kids See Ghosts,” with Kid Cudi, in its second week, sold around 33,373 copies– again mostly from streaming. Paid downloads came in around 7,800.

The money Kanye is seeing from streaming isn’t much for a celebrity with his overhead. On hitsdailydouble’s Song Streaming Revenue Chart, Kanye and Kid Cudi’s songs together earned around $700,000. The licensing and expense fees are high for all those tracks. The biggest Kids See Ghosts tracks is actually listed “with Louis Prima,” the late jazz star. The Prima estate is getting prima money for that sample.

 

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Makes $150 Million, Down $58 Mil from Original, While “Ocean’s 8,” “Solo,” Struggle to Hit Goals

Roger Friedman
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“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Makes $150 Million, Down $58 Mil from Original, While “Ocean’s 8,” “Solo,” Struggle to Hit Goals

The dinosaurs roared in with $150 million.

“Fallen Kingdom” is number 1, of course, with a bib $150 million weekend. But keep in mind, that’s quite a bit off from the original “Jurassic World.” Three years ago the dino’s had a $208 million opening weekend.

So good news, bad news. The good news is, they’re still in the game. The bad news is, there was a lot less enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, “Ocean’s 8” finally hit $100 million after three weeks. That was a struggle.

“Solo” hit $200 million after its own struggles. The Han Solo movie still has a lot of life left in it.

A nice note: this is the maybe the first ever father-daughter box office report as Ron Howard directed “Solo” and Bryce Dallas Howard stars in “Fallen Kingdom.” Very nice! Couldn’t happen to better people!

Box Office: John Travolta’s “Gotti” Loses 37 Theaters But Finds a Few Fans in Hungary

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: John Travolta’s “Gotti” Loses 37 Theaters But Finds a Few Fans in Hungary

“Gotti” doesn’t need any more mob metaphors about being whacked at the box office. It’s time for the funeral.

The John Travolta disaster lost 40 theaters in release this weekend, its second, and went into sharp  decline.

On Friday night the Zero-rated film scored just $219,000 in 466 theaters. The total through Saturday morning is $2.66 million. On the upside, it will cross the $3 million mark on Sunday, presumably.

“Gotti” does have some foreign fans. According to boxofficemojo.com, Travolta and company have made $57,063 in Hungary since June 14th. There’s no word on whether it’s more popular in Buda or Pest.

There are currently 32 reviews of “Gotti” on Rotten Tomatoes. None are positive.

 

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