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It’s Official: Steven Spielberg is Remaking “West Side Story,” Pro-Forma Casting Call Goes Out for Leads

Roger Friedman
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It’s Official: Steven Spielberg is Remaking “West Side Story,” Pro-Forma Casting Call Goes Out for Leads

There’s a place for Steven Spielberg, and apparently it’s on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1950s. A casting call has gone out for a remake of “West Side Story,” written by Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, author of Spielberg’s terrific “Lincoln” screenplay and, of course, “Angels in America.”

It’s a pro-forma casting call because, in the end, the new “West Side Story” is going to need stars. Big names. And because of the setting and the time we are in, it’s going to need actual Puerto Ricans or Latinos for the parts of characters like Maria, Anita, and Bernardo. There will be no fudging this in 2018. The casting call says in capital letters: MUST BE ABLE TO SPEAK SPANISH.

Of course, our lead, Tony, is a nice Caucasian boy who falls in love with Maria. He’ll be tougher to find because he’s got to be able to sing like crazy, be physically fit, etc. You know someone asked Can Ansel Elgort sing? Every young guy on Broadway is calling his agent or hoping to meet Spielberg at a SAG Q&A for “The Post.”

Spielberg’s not taking any chances trying to remake a classic film. He’s got the producer of the 2009 Broadway revival of “West Side Story,” Kevin McCollum, as a producer on the film. What we don’t know yet is who will be the choreographer? Susan Stroman? She’s pretty busy. This week she’s workshopping a new version of Gershwin’s “Crazy for You” set for the fall. But she’s probably at the top of Spielberg’s list.

New PS: Yes, Ansel can sing. I forgot he released a couple of singles. Here he is on James Corden. I guarantee you he’ll be Tony.

“Murphy Brown” Joining Other 90s, 2000s Sitcom Reboots, Are “Seinfeld,” “Friends” Far Off?

Roger Friedman
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“Murphy Brown” Joining Other 90s, 2000s Sitcom Reboots, Are “Seinfeld,” “Friends” Far Off?

“Murphy Brown” is coming back. CBS has ordered a 13 episode pick up for the 90s sitcom starring Candice Bergen. The whole cast is being exhumed and will return, just like “Will & Grace,” “Roseanne,” “Full House,” and so on.

I had kind of thought a rebooted “Murphy Brown” would be called “Avery Brown,” and feature the main character’s son, now a budding DC journalist. Maybe that’s still possible. But this sounds like the Golden Girls return to “FYI.” Frankly, if three of the four Golden Girls weren’t dead, that show would probably be back.

Add this to the updated “Dynasty” and you pretty much have a not so exciting trend. It’s a real indictment of Hollywood that no one can come up with a new premise or new, interesting ideas.

So what’s next? “Seinfeld: The Golden Years.” “Friends in the Suburbs.” “Just Shoot Me (Again).”

Me, I don’t want to see any of this. Imagine if this was the 1970s and instead of new shows we were getting reboots of “Sunset Strip,” “No Time for Sergeants,” and “The People’s Choice.” We’d have rejected them wholesale. It can’t be too much fun for comedy writers of today. Who wants to write scripts for a show that’s been re-animated. They should all be called “Watch the Walking Dead.”

 

Elton John’s Semi-Retirement “Farewell” World Tour Will Include “At Least a Week” Return After 48 Years to LA’s Famed Troubadour

Roger Friedman
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Elton John’s Semi-Retirement “Farewell” World Tour Will Include “At Least a Week” Return After 48 Years to LA’s Famed Troubadour

Elton John announced his semi-retirement from touring today with panache and spectacle, exactly as you might have imagined it. He told the audience of press and friends at the Gotham Hall on West 36th and Broadway that this event was planned for two years, beginning in 2015. Seeing his two little sons with David Furnish starting to grow up, he could also see the writing on the wall. When they turn 8 and 10 respectively, in three years, he wants to be home with them.

So AEG tossed this tri- city (NY, with satellite hookups in London and LA) extravaganza at Gotham Hall with Champagne served by servers, an open bar, delicious hors d’ouevres like sliced steak, and goodie bags containing Elton’s greatest hits.

On stage, Anderson Cooper introduced our star, a panel slipped away revealing Sir Elton at a black grand piano dressed in a magnificent silver colored metal and jewel encrusted jacket and sparkling diamond sunglasses. It was Elton at his best. He entertained us with “Tiny Dancer” and “I’m Still Standing,” then took questions from selected press.

“I won’t be like Cher,” he said of that singer’s ongoing farewell tours. “But I do like her clothes!”

This event was clearly for celebration– no farewells here. Elton will play 300 dates on a three year worldwide tour. So that takes us to 2021. After that– well there will still be shows, and Las Vegas type residencies. But really– enough with the city after city business which is too grueling for anyone over 50.

The big scoop: I’m told he’ll do a sit down of at least a week at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. This is where he played six shows beginning August 25, 1970, introduced by Neil Diamond (they were label mates on Uni Records, part of the old MCA Records, now Universal). Elton sent good wishes to Neil, who announced his own withdrawal from touring this week because of Parkinson’s Disease.

The 300 dates start in Pennsylvania. Where will they end? Not in a small town. “I wanted to go out with a bang,” he told us. I do think that will mean a week of shows at Madison Square Garden, something huge, something amazing, and something befitting this beloved and famed performer.

Sting Will Play the Grammy Awards, Drops New Hot Single Today “Don’t Make Me Wait” with Shaggy

Roger Friedman
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Sting Will Play the Grammy Awards, Drops New Hot Single Today “Don’t Make Me Wait” with Shaggy

EXCLUSIVE Sting has agreed to perform at the Grammy Awards Sunday. And we don’t have to wait anymore for the official release of Sting’s new single with Shaggy. The guys are dropping the incredibly catchy “Don’t Make Me Wait” this morning, and it’s a helluva hot song. They performed it in Jamaica two weeks ago at Shaggy’s charity event, but this is the finished deal. I got to hear it yesterday for the first time and now it’s stuck in my head.

The other big news is that a reggae-pop album has grown out of this song. The duo will release it on April 20th, and I can tell you the songs are fun and serious at the same time, with gorgeous rich melodies and grooves that marry Sting’s bass with great Jamaican musicians like Robbie Shakespeare.

The pairing of Sting with Shaggy wasn’t obvious but then again, maybe it was. Shaggy has loads of hits around the world, but one– “It Wasn’t Me”– that has transcended the 18 years since its release. In the reggae world, he’s revered. Sting’s early work with the Police is full of reggae overtones that make songs like “So Lonely” and “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” classic rock staples. What I heard of them together– and I it was a lot–about eight of the 12 to 16 final tracks– are going to blow everyone away.

By the way, wasn’t it just a minute ago that Sting released a new solo album with “57 and 9th”? He’ll turn 67 this year and is prolific as ever. New songs are pouring out of him. A stripped down version of his Broadway musical “The Last Ship” opens in Newcastle, England (where it’s set) in March, then heads to London’s West End. We should all be so productive! Bravo!

 

photo credit: Salvador Ochoa

Live “Don’t Make Me Wait”

Best Story of this Year’s Oscars: How “Mudbound” Writer Got the Last Laugh on Fired “Criminal Minds” Star

Roger Friedman
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Best Story of this Year’s Oscars: How “Mudbound” Writer Got the Last Laugh on Fired “Criminal Minds” Star

“Mudbound” is a serious, searing drama set in the dust bowl 1930s. The acclaimed film now has an Oscar nominated for best adapted screenplay by Virgil Williams and director Dee Rees, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan.

You would never in a million years think there was any connection between this elegiac piece of cinema and the CBS weekly police procedural “Criminal Minds.” Never, right? You’d be wrong.

Turns out that Virgil Williams, who wrote the screenplay, and re wrote and rewrote it, used to write episodes of “Criminal Minds.” And Mr. Williams also happens to be the man who was at the center of a scandal last season concerning “Criminal Minds” star Thomas Gibson.

You may recall there was a scandal over a scuffle on the set of that popular if middling TV show. “He kicked me,” Williams recalled for me recently. Gibson kicked him hard. And Williams reported it to the show’s production company.

They were filming the second episode of season 12 (yes, it’s still on the air!) in the summer of 2016 when Gibson, known for a hot temper and unfriendly attitude, disagreed with Williams about a line in the script. Williams tells me that Gibson decided to go over his head to a producer. In order to accomplish that, Gibson had to walk through a doorway in which Williams was standing. And Gibson kicked him to get him out of the way.

Williams had no idea this would lead to the leading man getting the axe-– especially after 11 seasons of a hit show. Gibson was known before that as the mortal part of a “Bewitched” rip off comedy called “Dharma and Greg,” in which a stuffy lawyer marries a Bohemian with hippie parents. “D&G” ran five for unmemorable seasons. (It was “Bewitched” without the magic. Literally.) Gibson segued right into “Criminal Minds,” which established him and made him rich. But apparently it swelled his head.

Williams, meanwhile, had been slaving away on staffs of TV shows, including “ER” and “24.”

“But all the time I was writing those shows I was working on ‘Mudbound’,” he told me. “Gibson was a horror,” Williams told me. “No one liked him. He was impossible to work with.” The kicking incident was simply the last straw. It’s funny, too. Gibson was not the star of “Criminal Minds.” Even though it’s an ensemble show, Joe Mantegna– a real star– is at its center. And he replaced Mandy Patinkin after the first couple of seasons. Gibson didn’t have the resume of either of those men.

Gibson couldn’t have known that Williams had a dream, and it was “Mudbound.” Soon after the kicking, Williams hooked up with director Dee Rees, and the rest, as we know, is a happy ending. For everyone, that is, except Thomas Gibson. We have that actor– who hasn’t worked since the incident– for an Oscar nominated, award winning and groundbreaking movie.

Dylan Farrow Attacks Justin Timberlake, But Refuses to Address Her Uncle’s Child Molestation Victims and Her Brother’s Accusations

Roger Friedman
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Dylan Farrow Attacks Justin Timberlake, But Refuses to Address Her Uncle’s Child Molestation Victims and Her Brother’s Accusations

I feel bad for Dylan Farrow. She’s been wound up by her mother, Mia Farrow, and her brother, Ronan.

Today she attacked Justin Timberlake on Twitter for working in a Woody Allen movie. It got her some headlines, but it makes no sense.

I sent her a DM message which she ignored. This is what I said: When will you address the story of your uncle, John Villiers Farrow, in prison for child molestation? What do you say about his victims? Are you going to make the world a safer place for his victims?

Dylan makes no mention of the two little boys who were molested by her uncle, John Farrow. Farrow now serves a 10-to-25 year sentence in a Maryland prison for molestation. Dylan wants to help child victims. Why not start there?

Additionally, Dylan also doesn’t address the accusations of her brother, Moses, who was in the house and 7 years her senior on the day she says she was molested by Woody Allen. Moses says it didn’t happen– just as the findings of doctors in New York and Connecticut. Yet, Dylan persists to scapegoat actors who’ve worked for Woody. Will she take on Diane Keaton? I’d like to see her try.

This girl has spent 25 years focused on one thing: being told and retold the story by Mia Farrow, who hates Woody Allen (and she has every right) for running off with an adopted, legally aged daughter. But the press has got to stop indulging her every whim. Until Dylan can speak to John Farrow’s crime, and to Moses Farrow’s assertion, this got to stop.

Hugh Masakela, Legendary South African Trumpeteer, Dies at 78: Known for “Grazing in the Grass”

Roger Friedman
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Hugh Masakela, Legendary South African Trumpeteer, Dies at 78: Known for “Grazing in the Grass”

Hugh Masakela has died at 78. Famous for a world of music, the South African trumpeteer was best known in the world for “Grazing in the Grass”– which was a hit TWICE– once as his instrumental and once as a pop hit. They are each played constantly, everywhere, 50 years after they hit the charts.

Oscar Nominations Pit One Studio — Fox– Against Itself with “Shape of Water,” “3 Billboards,” “The Post” Fighting for Best Picture

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Nominations Pit One Studio — Fox– Against Itself with “Shape of Water,” “3 Billboards,” “The Post” Fighting for Best Picture

The Oscar nominations find one studio– Fox– fighting against itself with 3 of the 9 Best Picture nominations. Congrats to the filmmakers and to the publicists at Fox. Amazing. They have “Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards,” and “The Post.” The first two are from Fox Searchlight. Now that Disney has bought Fox, perhaps they will consider leaving all those people in place…

Diane Warren received her 9th nomination for Best Song– “Stand Up for Something”– it’s about time she won.

Two of the Best Actor nominations are first timers– Daniel Kaluuya from “Get Out” and Timothee Chalamet from “Call Me By Your Name.” Congrats. Those two guys will be back many times in years to come.

Denzel Washington got a nod for “Roman Israel.” I loved this performance, and I’m so glad it was acknowledged. DW is one of our finest actors.

But the real triumph is in Best Directing– Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele, two first timers whose movies are adored, are in. So is Christopher Nolan for “Dunkirk,” a huge achievement. Paul Thomas Anderson’s glorious “Phantom Thread” made it, too, as did “Shape of Water.” But “Three Billboards” director Martin McDonagh did not. My guess: “Three Billboards” is Best Picture, Guillermo del Toro is Best Director.

BEST PICTURE

Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Ladybird, Phantom Thread,Shape of Water,The Post, Three Billboards

BEST ACTOR
Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Day Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya, Gary Oldman, Denzel Washington

BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, Frances McDormand, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep

BEST DIRECTING
Dunkirk. Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, Sam Rockwell

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mary J Blige, Allison Janney, Lesley Manville, Laurie Metcalf, Octavia Spencer

EDITING
Paul Machliss, Jonathan Amos, “Baby Driver”
Lee Smith, “Dunkirk”
Tatiana S. Riegel, “I, Tonya”
John Gregory, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Sidney Wolinsky, “The Shape of Water”

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, “Blade Runner 2049”
Bruno Delbonnel, “Darkest Hour”
Dan Laustsen, “The Shape of Water”
Rachel Morrison, “Mudbound”
Hoyte van Hoytema, “Dunkirk”

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
“Abacus: Small Enough To Jail”
“Faces Places”
“Icarus”
“Strong Island“
“Last Man in Aleppo”

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“A Fantastic Woman”
“On Body And Soul”
“Loveless”
“The Insult”
“The Square”

ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat, “The Shape of Water”
Jonny Greenwood, “Phantom Thread”
Carter Burwell, “Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
John Williams, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
Hans Zimmer, “Dunkirk”

PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Blade Runner 2049”
“Darkest Hour”
“Dunkirk”
“The Shape of Water”
“Beauty And The Beast”

COSTUME
“Beauty and the Beast”
“Darkest Hour”
“Phantom Thread”
“The Shape of Water”
“Victoria and Abdul”

VISUAL EFFECTS
“Blade Runner 2049”
“Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2“
“Kong: Skull Island”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
“War for the Planet of the Apes”

SOUND MIXING
“Baby Driver”
“Blade Runner 2049”
“Dunkirk”
“The Shape of Water”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

SOUND EDITING
“Baby Driver”
“Blade Runner 2049”
“Dunkirk”
“The Shape of Water”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

MAKEUP AND HAIR
“Darkest Hour”
“Victoria And Abdul”
“Wonder”

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor, “The Shape of Water”
Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjani, “The Big Sick”
Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
James Ivory, “Call Me By Your Name”
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, “The Disaster Artist”
Aaron Sorkin, “Molly’s Game”
“Logan”
Virgil Williams and Dee Rees, “Mudbound”

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“The Breadwinner”
“Coco”
“The Boss Baby“
“Loving Vincent”
“Ferdinand”

Neil Diamond Announces Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis, Retires from Concert Tours But Not Recording, Writing

Roger Friedman
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Neil Diamond Announces Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis, Retires from Concert Tours But Not Recording, Writing

Legendary singer-songwriter Neil Diamond announced today he’e been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He’s immediately giving up touring, and has canceled shows in Australia and New Zealand.

Diamond, who will be 78 this week, says he will continue to write and record, however.

“It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring. I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years,” he says .”My sincerest apologies to everyone who purchased tickets and were planning to come to the upcoming shows. I plan to remain active in writing, recording and other projects for a long time to come.”

“My thanks goes out to my loyal and devoted audiences around the world. You will always have my appreciation for your support and encouragement. This ride has been ‘so good, so good, so good’ thanks to you.”

Diamond will be honored this weekend by the Grammy Awards with a tribute on Sunday night’s show and a lifetime achievement award. His massive number of hits include “Sweet Caroline,” “I’m a Believer,” “Solitary Man,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Cherry Oh Baby,” “Coming to America,” and so on and so on.

Parkinson’s is not a death sentence, as demonstrated by Michael J. Fox, the late Muhammad Ali, and so many others who’ve courageously fought it. Neil Diamond certainly isn’t going to let it get the best of him!

 

 

Sad! Ratings Loser Megyn Kelly Attempts Lame, Petty Attack on Two Time Oscar Winner and Activist Jane Fonda

Roger Friedman
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Sad! Ratings Loser Megyn Kelly Attempts Lame, Petty Attack on Two Time Oscar Winner and Activist Jane Fonda

Megyn Kelly, you are a stupid, stupid woman. Kelly, with very low ratings, attacked Jane Fonda today on her nitwit TV show. Megyn, you have no business attacking anyone over anything. Jane Fonda is your superior in every way. A lame attempt to resurrect an ad hominem attack on Fonda is wasted: no one cares. How pathetic. Why Andy Lack doesn’t take this woman off of TV, I don’t know. Every week she digs her own grave. Fox News didn’t want her, NBC viewers don’t want her. Sad!

Fonda will not respond, by the way. But what really irks Kelly isn’t Fonda. It’s the way Hoda and Savannah laughed it up with Fonda and Lily Tomlin at Kelly’s expense. It’s no secret that the real NBC News correspondents can’t abide Kelly. She knows it. The end is coming.

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