Keith Richard posted a lovely memorial today to Anita Pallenberg today on the 1st anniversary of her death. Keith and Anita were together for years, and she was the mother of his children Marlon, Angela, and Tara. Anita Pallenberg was a rock and roll legend. She died on June 13, 2017. RIP. Thanks to Bebe Buell, who tipped me off.
Anita, you will always be in my heart! pic.twitter.com/pvEa2Em6rL
— Keith Richards (@officialKeef) June 13, 2018
Paul McCartney is celebrating his 76th birthday in style, that’s for sure.
He’s dropping new music at the end of this week, and backing it up with a PR blitz next week.
McCartney will be featured on “Carpool Karoake” next week with James Corden on his Late Show. The ex-Beatles was spotted this week filming with Corden in Liverpool, where he put on a private show and visited his original home for the first time in decades. Corden’s show comes from London all next week.
It’s happening!#CarpoolKaraoke with @PaulMcCartney premieres next week during our four nights in London! pic.twitter.com/miFCncoL71
— The Late Late Show (@latelateshow) June 13, 2018
The American Film Institute made an interesting decision yesterday in the face of deteriorating finances and the current political climate: they laid off their only black executive, a woman, who was popular and talented and highly regarded.
Ousted is Jacqueline Lyanga, head of the AFI Film Festival, who’s been with the Institute since at least 2005. Her job goes to Michael Lumpkin, who was already head of AFI Documentaries, a lower position. She was the only black executive in the AFI hierarchy, but paid so little already that she didn’t make their mandated list of top paid execs sent to the IRS annually.
Lumpkin, according to the IRS Form 990 that is published, made over $120,000 in 2016. Lyanga’s salary was so low it didn’t even merit reporting.
AFI CEO Bob Gazzale makes $567,000 a year.
Also quietly gone in the last year is a…woman, of course. Liza Ameen, chief of marketing, made $170,000 a year.
Of course, the AFI has already had some problems with women, and they’re not pretty. (The accusations, that is.)
Gazzale’s efforts to lower salaries seems to be getting rid of female execs, and in Lyanga’s case, the only woman representing diversity. Lyanga was born in Tanzania, raised in England and Canada, and provided the only refreshingly non-Caucasian perspective to programming the AFI Film Festival.
What’s kind of interesting is that on the 2016 Form 990, Lumpkin– who is only being promoted to director of AFI Festivals– was already listed that way. Lyanga, according to the filing, didn’t even merit that distinction.
I told you last week when they were busy honoring George Clooney in a show that will be aired next week on TNT, that the AFI finances were shrinking at an alarming rate.
Just now recovering from Sunday night after the Tony Awards…
Walking up Sixth avenue from Radio City to the Plaza Hotel and the official after party we run into a couple– the woman is pushing a wheelchair containing an older man in a tuxedo. Does she need help? Yes. The streets are not smooth and neither are the corners where the chair must be turned around. I leap in before discovering I am pushing a legend, Willard Scott, of the Today show.
His wife, Paris Scott, tells me: “We invested in ‘Carousel.'” Didn’t anyone send a car? “Scott Rudin spend money on a car?” she says. Willard, we find out, had a small stroke three years ago. His mind is as good as ever, however. Off we go up Sixth Avenue. Has he heard from anyone at NBC since retiring? “Only Brokaw,” he says. We are assisted by very helpful folks at the Plaza Hotel, who get us to a wheel chair lift. “Do you know who this is?” I say to them. They do!
The Plaza post-party is interesting. Some of the shows now have their own post-events. “The Band’s Visit” has one 17 blocks south of here at the Bryant Park Grill, so the Tony winners are not at the official party. But Josh Groban is and so are plenty of others. Ari Stachel, Best Supporting Actor in “Band’s Visit,” is there, and everyone’s going crazy. Legendary Carmen deLavellade, inducted in the Kennedy Center in December, holds court in the Palm Court.
In the Plaza’s third floor ballroom, there’s a huge cabaret going on with Broadway people. In the basement Food Court, all the actors are sampling the amazing food. We find Christine Baranski having ice cream. She looks like a million bucks. “My daughter [Lily Cowles] is in the new Roswell series!” she says proudly.
In the Palm Court, Nikki James and Andrew Rannels from “The Book of Mormon” have a reunion. Lindsay Mendez, Best Supporting Actress from “Carousel,” is stopping to pose for selfies with fans. Zachary Quinto buzzes by. We see Brandon Victor Dixon, who will get an Emmy this fall for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in his powder blue tux. It’s 1am. Is he going home? “I’ve got a list of parties,” he says.
It IS 1am! We must get a cab for the Carlyle, where PR whiz Rick Miramontez is hosting his 10th anniversary after party, very swell. And this is where we meet Sara Bareilles with her boyfriend and parents, taking over a banquette in the dining room. They are delightful. Sara tells me her next project is making a regular old record album, with hits, like “Brave,” her number 1 song. She says she bridled at the idea of making so many costume changes as the Tony co-host. “But then I thought, why not? So I did!” She looked great in all of those gowns.
Everyone goes to Rick’s! So Andrew Garfield has his Tony in hand. His grueling run in “Angels in America” from London to New York ends triumphantly. The show closes July 15th. “You don’t have to go back, you won your Tony!” I joke with him. He says, “No, I’ve got to do it. I can do it. We know what we’re doing. I won’t miss a show!” And then what, I ask? “A vacation, I hope!”
In the Bemelman’s Bar we find “Jersey Boys” star Erich Bergen (he’s also on “Madame Secretary”) and Billy Stritch belting out Broadway hits and playing piano, the whole room is singing along. It’s 2am. Someone says, “Can you believe this?” Everyone is wearing gowns and tuxes, holding martini glasses, it’s very swell, like a Cole Porter movie. There are two suites upstairs filled with party goers. No one is going home. “Harry Potter” cast members seem to be everywhere.
Someone says, around 3am, “You’re going home? I heard Bruce Springsteen was going to perform.”
Trust me, I tell them, Bruce has been in bed for hours.
So it seems Rudy Giuliani has been visiting his alleged mistress up in New Hampshire and making the news up there too. The local TV station did a segment about Rudy consulting the hospital where Dr. Maria Ryan works about cyber security. Dr. Ryan, who was allegedly having an affair with Rudy (she’s married, he’s married) actually told the station: “Nobody’s been able to penetrate us.” She was talking about their great IT system, of course. Move your cursor :58 seconds in.
I’m surprised the New York Post didn’t catch this. Rudy’s third wife, Judith Nathan, will be impressed by her husband’s consultancy.
So let’s review. The president of the United States is offering to develop beach condos in North Korea with a man who fed his own uncle to dogs. Back home, POTUS’s lawyer has double timed his third wife, is heading for his third divorce after getting caught being unable to penetrate… Well, it’s all surreal, isn’t it?
Creepy Rudy Giuliani cheated on third wife, Judith Nathan, just the way he cheated on Donna Hanover — wife number 2 — with Nathan.
The New York Post reports this woman is married — this is a hoot– to an ex-Marine. Like Nathan, she had something to do with the medical field. Maria Rosa Ryan, 53 is a hospital administrator in New Hampshire. (She must suffer from severe vision impairment and hearing loss, but no one has commented on that yet.)
Giuliani is the face of the Trump legal team. He’s the ass of the century. Back in April 2000, I caught him on a “date” with Nathan the day after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Within two weeks, Hanover kicked him out and divorced him. Giuiliani’s children with Hanover didn’t speak to him for a long time. Lately son Andrew works for him in his consultant business. But how can he look at him now? Giuliani is a sniveling rat.
Of course, Nathan shouldn’t be surprised. What did she think when he cheated on Hanover with her?
Vertical Entertainment may be remembered one day the as the film distributor of lost causes.
The very small company with peculiar taste is going to release “Billionaire Boys Club” on August 17th. The film stars Kevin Spacey, whose career imploded this winter after many accusations of sexual impropriety. Spacey went off to rehab for sex addiction and hasn’t been heard from since then. Will he walk a red carpet in August? Doubtful.
The NY Post’s legendary Richard Johnson has the release date in July, but Vertical has August on their website. The latter makes more sense since no one in the world will be paying attention.
One insider who worked on “BBC” says: “Sad. Everyone on the movie worked so hard on it gave their best. Sad outcome.”
Vertical has another movie of interest coming this Friday, “Gotti” starring John Travolta as mobster John Gotti. That film also has a storied history, but threw a pretty great party in Cannes last month with 50 Cent performing and John Gotti, Jr. on the premises. Since then Gotti Jr. has given the movie less than a rousing endorsement. But we’re all curious to see how the film turned out at this point.
“BBC” is directed by James Cox, and stars Ansel Elgort as the organizer of a Ponzi scheme in the 1980s– true story– who kidnapped and killed an “investor” in their club named Ron Levin (Spacey). There was a book and a TV movie years ago.
Rose McGowan’s year of being “Brave” has just gotten tougher. A grand jury in Virginia has indicted her on a felony possession charge of possessing cocaine.
The coke was found in a wallet left on a flight in Dulles Airport back in January 2017. McGowan said she left the wallet behind. When it turned up, it had the cocaine, which of course, McGowan says wasn’t hers.
McGowan will plead not guilty when she’s arraigned. If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail. The whole thing seems preposterous, but so does her assertion that Harvey Weinstein, who she claims raped her 20 years ago, somehow had the drugs planted on her.
Rose was in the press yesterday as she spoke for her pal, Asia Argento, the girlfriend of Anthony Bourdain. Argento, also a Weinstein accuser, has come under fire following Bourdain’s suicide. Argento said on social media she’d asked Rose to speak for her regarding Bourdain. The result was an assertion that she and Bourdain had had an “open” relationship, and that romantic looking photos of Asia and an Italian journalist cavorting in Rome didn’t instigate Bourdain’s suicide.
What a mess. Even if Bourdain was caught unaware by the photos, they certainly couldn’t have caused him to take his own life. He was the father of a teenager who needed him, had a successful career. Whatever demons he had or depression that plagued ran deeper than a broken heart.
As for Rose, a plea deal of some kind will be the result in Virginia. She’s had a tough, tough time. Her TV series, “Citizen Rose,” was down to about 88,000 viewers in its last outing on the E! channel. Her book, “Brave,” has gotten a lot of positive publicity but hasn’t sold. She has her fervent supporters, and she’s a heroine as an activist. Here’s hoping she can find some peace soon. She deserves it.
You know, Barbra Streisand is smart, smart, smart. So is her manager of 200 years, Marty Erlichman. They smell success with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s new version of “A Star is Born.”
So Barbra has made a deal with Netflix to show a revamped, extended version of her 1976 “A Star is Born” with Kris Kristofferson. The revamped “Star” will have an instrumental version of her hit “Evergreen,” and added footage to the song “With One More Look At You/Watch Closely Now” medley finale.
Sounds good– and all this should launch in time to upstage a little of the Cooper movie this fall. Smart idea. But La Barbra needn’t worry. Even if the Cooper movie is “Citizen Kane,” her canon is intact. There is only one Streisand.
Also, Barbra has made an overall content deal with Netflix to show a lot of her old TV specials, no longer available.
What’s next? I’m surprised Barbra hasn’t launched a Sirius channel. Seems so obvious.
Despite a very good show, Bruce Springsteen, Robert DeNiro dropping F bombs, and a feeling of solidarity, the Tony Awards ratings were a disaster. Only around 6 million people watched the show, with a decline to 5.7 million during the 10-11 pm hour when Bruce performed.
The numbers were on a par with last year, which was way down from 2016 and the big “Hamilton” bonanza. Pretty much the exact same number of people in the same demo watched the Tonys last night as watched them last year. It’s a steadfast, hearty, if exclusive group.
The Tonys actually lost a million voters from the “60 Minutes” lead in. The news mag had 7.8 mil viewers from 7 to 8pm. The Tonys immediately dropped to 6.8 mil. A lot of people turned to “Celebrity Family Feud.”
It’s kind of amazing since the total box office numbers are up, but that’s also because of inflated ticket prices for shows like Springsteen’s and “Hello, Dolly!” with Bette Midler. Those numbers have given the Broadway producers a false sense of success.
Still, the mood in Radio City was upbeat. Josh Groban and Sara Barielles did a very good job as hosts. They’re singers par excellence and exuded confidence. You couldn’t complain about them. But look, it was not a very good theater season. “The Band’s Visit” brought home 10 Tonys, but it’s a low key show. The blockbuster shows this year– “Frozen,” “Mean Girls”–were tepid at best. The bad shows– “Donna Summer,” “Margaritaville”– were really bad.
The big surprise among theater people was the winner of Best Revival, Musical. In the minds of conventional Tony people, the race was “Carousel” vs. “My Fair Lady.” They are basically the same shows and shouldn’t have come in in the same year. They cancelled each other out. “Once On An Island” — not a great show– snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. “Carousel” producer Scott Rudin must have known what was coming; he didn’t even bother to come to the Tonys.
Rudin lost with “Carousel” and also with “The Iceman Cometh” and to some extent with “Three Tall Women.” With the latter, his actresses Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf picked up awards. But that was like shooting fish in a barrel. And the total wipe out of “Iceman” was pretty stunning. Denzel Washington looked pretty pissed. At least they gave out Best Actor in a Play to Andrew Garfield at the top of the show–it put Denzel out of his misery fast.