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UPDATE TUES MORNING: BMW has joined the list of advertisers pulling out of O’Reilly.
MONDAY NIGHT: Bill O’Reilly just doesn’t get it. The big unravel has begun.
Both Mercedes and Hyundai have pulled their ads from “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News following new allegations of sexual harassment by a former associate. This comes on top of Saturday’s New York Times story that Fox had already settled over $13 million in cases against the obnoxious right wing host.
The die is cast. O’Reilly will fight it. But now campaigns are popping up on Twitter and elsewhere chiding advertisers to leave the show. Whether or not he signed a new contract recently, O’Reilly is cooked if the money goes. And the money is leaving.
And this: for the third week in a row, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC has beaten O’Reilly in they key age demo, 24 to 54. That has to sting a lot. But Maddow is on the upswing thanks to Donald Trump. O’Reilly’s defense of Trump is falling on deaf ears.
The fact that this has spread suddenly into the mainstream– that’s a sign that Fox News is ambivalent to say the least about O’Reilly’s future. When they loved him, they protected O’Reilly. But those were the days of Roger Ailes, and those days are over.
On Monday Fox and O’Reilly were attacked twice by former associates. Jill Roginsky filed suit against FoxNews, Ailes, and Bill Shine for retaliating against her after she blew off Ailes’ advances and then wouldn’t endorse him in the Gretchen Carlson case.
At the same time, Lisa Bloom, attorney and daughter of Gloria Allred, held a press conference with her client Wendy Walsh. Walsh, a clinical psychologist who used to appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” and other Fox News programs, recalled her alleged treatment by O’Reilly– she says she couldn’t get a permanent role on his show because she’d rebuffed his sexual entreaties.
All the main theater critics are on the fence, as they say, about last night’s Broadway musical opening, “Amelie.” This is the adaptation of the 2001 Audrey Tatou-starring French movie, a fanciful and charming romp that holds up even now and established Tatou as a star.
So this is what I can tell you: “Hamilton” Tony winner Phillipa Soo — the original Eliza Schuyler– could not be more charming herself, or more alluring as Amelie, the daydreamer. As Rosie O’Donnell said to me after the show, “this is her If/Then”– a reference to Idina Menzel’s star turn a couple of seasons ago as the lead in her musical.
Indeed, I’d be surprised if Soo didn’t get her own cult following out of “Amelie.” She certainly deserves a Tony nomination. She is as engaging and endearing as possible without being cloying. She also has the greatest voice, one which I could listen to all night.
So what’s the problem? “Amelie,” like so many new musicals, has no songs. It has music, lots of very well composed music. But there are no show stoppers. And no songs that define the characters. This leaves a cast of really fine actors in a bind. They can’t connect to the audience because they don’t have their own hooks. That’s it really, so simple.
Plus, “Amelie” can be confusing. Sometime you wonder where you are, or what’s happening. That’s not great for a one hour-45 minute show with no intermission. What does Amelie want? We’re not sure, she’s not sure. And that’s a big problem. Does she want love? Or does she just want to be quirky?
But then Soo is on stage almost all the time. When she’s not, you miss her. This won’t be her signature show, but it establishes her as a Broadway star, a Laura Benanti or Donna Murphy. And that’s a lot.
Plenty of interesting people came to see her last night, apart from Rosie including actress Amy Ryan, the famed Barbara Barrie (currently on Broadway in “Significant Others”)– her son, Aaron Harnick, produced the play. (Yes, his father was Jay Harnick and his uncle is Sheldon Harnick, who wrote “Fiddler.) Barrie brought along one of her “Significant” players, Sas Goldberg.
Again, “Amelie” is quite charming. Adam Chandler-Berat makes for a beguiling Nino, the object of Amelie’s dreams, and I really liked Harriet D. Foy as Suzanne, proprietress of Amelie’s French bistro. I wish they’d let her sing more. The rest of the cast is composed of real up and comers making their Broadway debuts. But it’s all about our Eliza, er, Amelie. You’ll want to be in the room where her career really happens on its own.
I’m not alone telling you this today, but it bears mentioning again and again.
Donald Trump donated $70,000 today to the US Park Service. That’s his first quarter salary for being President. He will get a tax deduction — if he pays taxes– one day for donating his $400,000 salary to charities and foundations.
However: it is costing us, US taxpayers, $3 million each time Trump and family fly to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. They’ve done this five times already.
Also, it’s costing anywhere between $150,000 and $300,000 a day to guard Trump Tower simultaneously while Melania and Barron Trump remain there instead of being in Washington. That comes to roughly $11 million by now.
So: Trump has cost us $26 million in extras just since January 20th.
But, hey, thanks for the $70,000. It really helps!
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are each in the iTunes top 5 albums.
After last night’s ACM Awards, Keith’s “Ripcord” album jumped up to number 5 on iTunes. It’s been a hit for quite a while, but the much watched TV awards show sent it soaring again.
But the bigger news is about Nicole. On Friday the digital soundtrack for her HBO series “Big Little Lies” was released to download and streaming services. After last night’s series finale, “Big Litte Lies” pushed up to number 3 on iTunes. Charles Bradley, Martha Wainwright and Leon Bridges are featured on the ABKCO Records release. (Yes, that’s the same ABKCO of Sam Cooke, Rolling Stones, and Phil Spector fame. They do a lot of soundtrack releases.)
Nicole isn’t a stranger to the pop charts. She had a little hit years ago with Robbie Williams singing “Something Stupid” from “Moulin Rouge.” Of course, she’s not singing on “Big Little Lies,” but she’s the co-star of the show, and produced it, and her photo’s on the cover of the album. That works for me!
Doris Day turns 95 today by the AP, 93 by Doris’s count. Okay, the AP is not very courtly. You had to track down her birth certificate. Trust me, she doesn’t care.
I was lucky enough to interview Doris in December 2011. She does not do interviews. Back then she did four. I’m not sure that she’s spoken to anyone since that time. But her foundation is still helping cats and dogs.
Kids, you wanna know who Doris Day is? She’s Taylor Swift from 1955. Hard to imagine, but one day Taylor will be retired in Rhode Island, many husbands and children later, she’ll be 95 and you’ll be explaining “Blank Space” to your grandkids.
Happy Birthday, Doris. I will always remember this interview with great fondness.
from December 2011:
RF: Paul McCartney interviewed you recently for a British newspaper about My Heart. What was that like? DD: I think it went well. I’ve known him for quite a while now.
I was out walking my dogs. And the man who works here came and out said, it’s Paul McCartney on the phone.
I said, Alright, tell me who it really is. I didn’t believe it, I thought it was someone playing a game. He said, Will you please tell her that I am, that I want to know her and want to come and see her.
It was Paul and he did come. He came with his new wife. We had hours here. It was really nice.
And he’s really cute.
One night the phone rang around 2:30 in the morning, I thought something terrible happened. He said Hey, what are you doing? I said, Well, I was sleeping. He would call all hours of the morning just to say hello. He got a big kick out of that.
RF: The album, My Heart, was mostly produced by your son, Terry. Most people don’t know he co-wrote Kokomo for the Beach Boys.
DD: And they didn’t win [the Grammy] that year. That was a crime. [It lost in 1988 to Phil Collins’s “Two Hearts”].. That year, that was so terrible. At the table we were really. I thought was an insult. I loved Kokomo. It was so popular
RF: And you covered his song, Disney Girls. How was that?
DD: I loved it. I enjoyed it. If it’s a good song, I love singing so much. It just love it. I get so involved.
RF: Do you sing much now?
DD: I can’t now. I could still sing until I got bronchitis. I had a very, very bad attack a couple of years ago, I thought I would never get over it. That’s why I sound different.
But sometimes I sing along with something, and I think that wasn’t bad. I wonder sometimes if I could start vocalizing.
RF: I’m interested in your technique as a singer. Your phrasing is so elegant and simple. Did you think about what you were doing?
DD: No. I knew the song that we were going to do. We would put them together at my houwse. We would all decide what to do. The words were there, and the words told a story. I can’t say any more than that except I loved singing.
RF:Were they always suggesting songs to you?
DD: They used to tell us what to do. The album I did with Andre Previn, I picked my own then.
RF: A great favorite is Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps, from the Latin for Lovers album
DD: I love that. I loved making that album.
At first I thought I’m going to do this? Me? But I fell in love with all the songs. It maybe one of my favorites of all time.
RF: Were there songs you weren’t thrilled with?
DD: (Thinks about it) The Purple Cow. Oh my god! When they tagged that one on me, that was it. ‘I never thought I’d ever see a Purple Cow.’ Isn’t that terrific? Great idea. Oh lord! I don’t like to fight with people and say I won’t do that! But you get a long of good things to do. And you do your best with that.
RF: How about some other favorites? How about Que Sera Sera?
DD: I was wondering why it was going to be in that film [Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much]. That was a real mystery. Then I read the script. But at first I thought this was kind of a silly song to be in that movie. But it was good for the movie. And the people liked it anyway in or out of the movie. People could sing it. They could sing it to their children.
RF: What was it like to sing with Les Brown and His Band of Renown? What was it like singing with a big band?
DD: It feels good. And if you know your song, and you like the song, it’s wonderful because people come right up to the bandstand. And it’s great fun. They want to say hello to you.
RF: Did the band kid around with you a lot>
DD: I had a great time. The guys were so nice to me.
They looked after me and helped me, they took all my baggage. They were all like my brothers.
RF: Was it a big change for you when you went solo?
DD: The first time I ever worked alone, I had two shows a night at The Little Club on East 55th St. in New york. I opened it. My mother was with me and my little baby. It was something so new for me. I thought, what am I doing? I was so used to having the guys behind me. But it turned out to be really nice. The people kept coming back! I was surprised! A lot of the women were the Vogue types, models. They were all dressed up like crazy. They would say, Come on over and have a drink. But I wasn’t drinking. I would go back to my apartment between shows.
RF: You were not a drinker?
DD: No.
RF: All these other singers—Billie Holiday, Judy Garland—had terrible substance problems. How did you avoid it?
DD: Easy. I didn’t do it.
RF: Many other performers would party all night
DD: Party all night? Oh lord! No, no no! I don’t even like parties.
RF: Tell me about your co-stars. What was Jimmy Cagney like?
DD: I loved him. He as a wonderful person, just adorable. Not in that film [Love Me or Leave Me], he wasn’t. Oh he was nasty!
RF: Tony Randall?
DD: He was so superb, so funny. He was always in New York after that. I just loved him. Did we ever [have fun]. We laughed.
RF: Cary Grant?
DD: I enjoyed Cary, He was very different. Very nice. But you don’t sit around and talk a lot between scenes. I think he went outside with that thing you put under your chin, for the sun. Because he didn’t want to wear makeup. All the men hated makeup. At lunch time, I didn’t see him. I used to eating in my trailer. But we didn’t really sit around and talk.
RF: Who did you hang around with? Rock Hudson?
DD: He was always around, he was funny. He named me Eunice, just for fun. I was always Eunice with him.
RF: You had such great chemistry.
DD: We really liked each other. I was up here—filming the show we had here [Doris Day’s Best Friends, July 1985]—all of a sudden he appeared. At first I didn’t know who he was. I looked at him and I was almost in tears. He was so thin, and just gaunt. It was just unbelievable. We would walk and laugh together. He was so seriously ill, but he was still funny. It just about put me away. It’s so hard to be funny when you know what’s going to happen.
RF: Jimmy Stewart?
DD: Wonderful. I had a great time with all the gentlemen I worked with. Really.
RF: Looking back, all your co-stars were men. Was there ever a woman you would have liked to be in a movie with? An actress you thought was funny? Or like a Thelma and Louise?
DD: No. Yes if there was a really great script and a reason. But I always thought the women should be with the men.
First off: “The Play that Goes Wrong” goes very right and went very well tonight opening at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. Hilarious? Oh, yes. A wonderful farce full of non stop laughs, very funny and smart with an Olivier-winning cast from the West End made of, as they say, No One Famous. More on that in a minute.
Lots of celebs tonight at the premiere as J.J. Abrams, taking a break from filming “Star Wars” in London, caught the show, went backstage, and offered to bring it to New York. So there’s ABCNews’s George Stephanopolous and wife Alexandra Wentworth and their kids, seated up front.
The conceit of the show from the start is that this small time Cornley University Drama Society in England is putting on a play called “The Murder at Haversham Manor” with no resources. Everything about their production is in peril from before it starts. The entire set — a drawing room in the manor– is falling apart. and the “stage manger” enlists an audience member up front to help her hold a few things up. Stephanopolous was drafted from the audience to help out even though the cast didn’t know who he was. “Our kids were going crazy,” Wentworth told me at the intermission. George did an excellent job.
The other celebs in the house: Sutton Foster, Jesse Eissenerg, Rami Malek from Mr. Robot sitting across the aisle from Tony winner Ramin Karimloo (about to open in “Anastasia”), Michele Lee, Victor Garber, Public Theater impresario Oskar Eustus, the great Brian D’Arcy James, Zachary Quinto, and Stephen Colbert. Not bad, huh?
“The Play that Goes Wrong” is so good that Cindy Adams, who never stays through a whole, made it to the end. She loved it.
The comedy follows the lineage of Moliere and plays like “Noises Off” and even “Frasier” in its slapstick moments. In recent years there have been additions to the ouevre, like James Corden in “One Man, Two Guvnors” and “The Play What I Wrote” (which Mike Nichols produced and Kenneth Branagh directed back in 2003 also at the Lyceum). This year we’ve already had “Oh Hello, On Broadway,” Nick Kroll and John Mulvaney’s hysterical night of shenanigans and malaprops.
But to pull this off you have to be great, and you can see that this troupe–which wrote the show for themselves– has honed it into a gem. You see, they’re playing actors who are playing characters in the “Manor” play. Kudos especially to Henry Lewis, Dave Hearn and Charlie Russell but you don’t want to single anyone out. Director Mark Bell makes it look easy when of course it’s not– indeed, the physicality that’s called on is quite amazing. You’d almost think you’re in a murder mystery performed by Cirque du Soleil!
For the first time ever, streaming music has eclipsed both of those ways to get music. Streaming from Spotify, Apple, Pandora, even Tidal now accounts for 51% of all music sales according to the RIAA.
The gold record? A thing of the past. There is nothing to frame for the walls of rock stars. Maybe you get a digital wall now, too. In a virtual mansion.
The good news, they say, is that revenue was up for the industry by almost a billion dollars. It’s been flat or down for the last several years.
There are 22.6 million paid streaming subscriptions. (This means everyone else is listening to ads.)
But the bads news is for the artists. Royalties on streaming sales are much lower than downloads or CDs. The artist is suffering. The execs are not. So the Industry is happy.
Actual CDs sold– the total money value was down 20% from 2015 to 2016. Digital permanent downloads were the same or worse– Singles, which everyone thought was driving the business, are down more than albums. So there.
As I was opening a CD yesterday I was thinking, someone still makes these plastic boxes? Not for long, kids.
Bob Dyan picked up his Nobel Prize last night in Stockholm, Sweden. There was a small dinner, and the Nobel people were happy finally to see their choice for winner in Literature. Unlike all other previous winners, Dylan was able to fit in the Nobels before doing a show tonight in Stockholm at local arena. The show isn’t totally sold out, but according to the Via Gogo website, it’s near capacity. Seats are still $200 apiece, a bargain!
Bob Dylan has received his Nobel Prize medal and diploma during a meeting with members of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. pic.twitter.com/9ioqgSAKVi
Scarlett Johansson’s run as “highest paid actress” may be coming to an end. Paramount’s “Ghost in the Shell” bombed over the weekend with just $19 million, not enough to launch a $110-150 million movie. The box office was a ‘shell’ of its former self, or something like that. The studio picked up $40 mil abroad, where no one had to understand what was going on. Small consolation.
“Ghost” was destroyed by Fox’s “Boss Baby,” an animated comedy that made $49 million. That’s a HUGE amount for something that didn’t cost too much to make or promote, isn’t live action, and has nice but not huge stars. It’s also an ironic twist for Paramount, which is about to be headed up by the former head of 20th Century Fox, Jim Gianopolous. Ouch! So far Paramount has had a dismal start t the new year.
Elsewhere, “La La Land” crosses $150 million today. “Beauty and the Beast” will hit $400 million US tomorrow.
But the bad news is where people made stupid decisions anyway. “CHiPS” is dead at $14 million, made for $25 million at least. Who wanted to see this? No one.
And in the goofy end of the box office, Terence Malick’s “Song to Song,” unwatchable and un-needed, made $58,000 over the weekend. That’s $618 per theater. So much self indulgence. So much talent and time wasted. So ridiculous. This is what gives indie film a bad name.
Bill O’Reilly may not get it. But he’s done at Fox News. Stick a fork in him.
O’Reilly had to issue his own defense today of a New York Times take out on the $13 million worth of settlements made for him on sex harassment claims. Fox News didn’t put out the statement. O’Reilly did, on his website:
Just like other prominent and controversial people, I’m vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity. In my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever filed a complaint about me with the Human Resources Department, even on the anonymous hotline.
But most importantly, I’m a father who cares deeply for my children and who would do anything to avoid hurting them in any way. And so I have put to rest any controversies to spare my children.
The worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel. Those of us in the arena are constantly at risk, as are our families and children. My primary efforts will continue to be to put forth an honest TV program and to protect those close to me.
Fox, for their part, gave a weak tea defense to the Times: “21st Century Fox takes matters of workplace behavior very seriously,” the statement said. “Notwithstanding the fact that no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about Bill O’Reilly, even anonymously, we have looked into these matters over the last few months and discussed them with Mr. O’Reilly. While he denies the merits of these claims, Mr. O’Reilly has resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility. Mr. O’Reilly is fully committed to supporting our efforts to improve the environment for all our employees at Fox News.”
But what is that, really? Obviously not enough to satisfy O’Reilly, who felt he had to defend himself separately.
The Times story is not really new. Most of the $13 million was paid to Andrea Mackris in the infamous “loofah” case. She got between $9 and $10 million.. It’s an old story by now, swept away when the Fox News publicity machine got rid of it. But now it’s back and not by accident. It was one thing when anti-Fox stories were just the domain of New York Magazine’s expert, Gabriel Sherman. But now it’s the Times.
This is the way it goes: The US Attorney’s office in New York is investigating them because of the O’Reilly settlements. The Murdoch sons see the writing on the wall. O’Reilly is a dinosaur. Attacking Rep. Maxine Waters for her “James Brown wig,” then questioning her patriotism? Even for O’Reilly, it’s too much in prime time.
His time is coming to an end. The Times story is the bat signal. It’s a lot like what happened to Roger Ailes at Fox News. They defended and defended him. And then they didn’t. That’s when anti-Ailes stories starting showing up everywhere. And where is he now? Fox sees that Tucker Carlson succeeded Megyn Kelly without a hitch. Replacing O’Reilly is no longer than issue.
