Friday, December 19, 2025
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Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts Follow Brangelina– Which Couples Are Left In Hollywood?

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Add Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts to the Hollywood couples heap. They’re finito, joining Brad and Angelina in the exes column. They have two kids, and a new movie — “The Bleeder.” Fame and fortune wasn’t enough. It never is. Weird thing is, they’re both in New York for a change– he’s on Broadway, she’s got a new Amazon series. They can’t blame it on being apart. And he pushed for “Ray Donovan” to be shot in New York next year.

So who’s left?

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban– two kids, seem very devoted to each other, would be a shock if they split but the tabs hound them

Barbra Streisand and James Brolin– divorce rumors in the tabs every so often but at this point it looks like they’re in til the end. He’s got a hit series, she’s got hit records. What’s not to be happy about?

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt– just saw them, they seem happy, let’s hope they stay that way.

Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer– wrote about them this summer, also seem happy, counting on it.

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell– married three years next month, have two kids, they joke around a lot.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson– if they broke up, the world would come to an end. Literally.

Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw– ditto.

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood– country’s number 1 couple. They caused a lot of upheaval to be together. He even semi-retired for a while.

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw– country’s number 2 couple. Again, their split would be big news.

Kanye West and whatsername–there would just be cackling, no one has much of an emotional investment in them.

William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman– I would sue them if they split up, frankly.

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening– four kids, long marriage, and if they each have hits this winter (Warren with “Rules Don’t Apply” and Annette with ’20th Century Women”) then it’s all good, forever.

Beyonce and Jay Z– they seem to have weathered a lot already and they’re still together. They’ve made Lemonade out of lemons.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick– would be a total shocker. They’ve been together for decades, and even survived financial disaster.

Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker– too nice for any of the rumors to be true, plus they’re loaded, they have nice kids, and keep it low key.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgard– considered “normal,” work together a lot, very sweet with each other. Very successful, too.

Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett– after Courtney’s Emmy speech, they should be together a while.

 

 

 

Oscars: Martin Scorsese “Silence” Will Make Noise December 23, Just As I Told You in August

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Paramount has set December 23rd for Martin Scorsese’s “Silence.” Just as I told you Scorsese told me in August.

Starring Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Ciaran Hinds, and Adam Driver, “Silence” should be a big player in this year’s Academy Awards. How could it not be? This is Scorsese’s real passion project. So get ready.

“Silence” has 25 producer credits, is edited by the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker, and boasts cinematography by Rodridgo Prieto and production design by Dante Ferretti. It’s based on the novel by Shûsaku Endô.

Conde Nast Owner Si Newhouse, 89, Has Dementia: Wheelchair Bound, Can’t Speak, “Is Doing Very Badly”

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You might have wondered whatever happened to Si Newhouse, the owner of Conde Nast, and the man who gave us Anna Wintour.

It turns out the 89 year old is very ill with dementia, according to his brother Donald Newhouse. He let that slip on the Today show this morning, promoting a charity event for dementia research this week. Donald’s late wife succumbed to dementia.

Si Newhouse is the brother who turned Conde Mast into a magazine powerhouse in the 1980s. When Tina Brown’s “Vanity Fair” hit big in the late 80s, Newhouse capitalized on that success and revved up the PR machine. He tossed out Vogue editor Grace Mirabella and brought in Wintour. He brought in Details magazine, ousted Architectural Digest’s Paige Rense, and became the Napoleon of magazine publishers. He has as many huge failures as he did successes.

But in recent years, Si Newhouse has simply vanished from the public conversation about media. His illness was a well kept open secret in New York circles, just as another media mogul who everyone in town is protecting (not Rupert Murdoch, although he just seems demented).

Thanks to Donald Newhouse for letting the world know his brother’s status. Don says Si is wheelchair bound, can’t speak, and is in bad shape. “He’s lost most ability to speak, and he also has motion problems, uses a walker or a wheelchair.”

Well, that’s the worst way to live out your life for many who once towered over New York.

Bruce Springsteen’s Book “Born to Run” Is Number 1 on Amazon Day Before Release

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Bruce Springsteen’s memoir is Born to Sell. The book, “Born to Run,” is number 1 on Amazon.com the day before its official release.

And also on Amazon, Springsteen’s companion album “Chapter and Verse” is number 1 on the CD chart. Fans want the physical album badly even though it only has five new songs on it. On the Amazon digital chart, “Chapter and Verse” is number 38.

That’s not unusual, as older artists do not have big streaming or downloading audiences. For most fans, “Chapter and Verse” will be an addition to a collection. Some wealthy fans will go for the expensive box set combo.

There are few reviews yet for “Born to Run” because the publisher didn’t issue many advance copies. Plus, the publisher–Simon & Schuster– is handling publicity. That’s always a bad sign. Book publicists don’t know how to handle celebrity or entertainment books as a rule.

So there are just a few hours left– then we can see what the fuss is all about. In the meantime, check out Vanity Fair, which discusses Springsteen’s chronic depression

Box Office Diva Bust: Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange, Demi Moore Film Had 43 Producers, Made 40K, Gone in a Week

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UPDATE: Here’s a weird postscript. Turns out “Wild Oats” aired once, on Lifetime, on August 22nd, at 10pm– far past the bedtime of anyone who’d want to see it. WTH?

EARLIER: I’ve asked around but no one seems to know what happened here.

You may not be aware of it, but last week Oscar winners Shirley MacLaine and (recent Tony winner) Jessica Lange opened in a new movie called “Wild Oats.” Demi Moore, who once commanded $20 million a picture, co-stars, along with Alan Arkin, Judd Hirsch, and Billy Connolly.

“Wild Oats” played one week in theatres and made $40,598. It is gone, as far as I can tell. Gone with the wind.

The movie was directed by Andy Tennant, who has a terrible track record. His only real hit was “Sweet Home Alabama” in 2002 and “Hitch” in 2005. He hasn’t made a movie since “Bounty Hunter”  in 2010, which did a very meager $67 million.

“Wild Oats” has two reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, both negative. One is from a blogger in the US, the other is from Singapore.

Forty three producers may be a record. Two of them were Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who picked this up for peanuts and released under their genre label, Dimension. Presumably, “Wild Oats” will go to VOD and video, and we’ll see it on a plane soon and wonder what it is.

 

Denzel Washington Scores 13th $20 Mil Opening in a Row with “Magnificent Seven”

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Denzel Washington set his own record today. “The Magnificent Seven” scored a $35 million opening weekend. It’s Denzel’s 13th opening in a row over $20 million.

It’s a win-win for Washington and for Sony Pictures, which has needed a live action hit desperately. “Mag 7” should spur sequels– as I wrote yesterday, director Antoine Fuqua is open to a Mag 8 and Mag 9.

Washington’s next movie is “Fences,” which he directed and stars in, coming from Paramount later this fall.

 

 

Charles Osgood Closes Long Run at CBS News, Turns Over Show to Jane Pauley

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Jane Pauley is the story of the day  as Charles Osgood retires from “CBS Sunday Morning.” Pauley was ousted unceremoniously from the Today show years ago, but never stopped working and always held her head high. Now she gets the plum of TV news, and she deserves it.

Osgood, 83, retired today after hosting “Sunday Morning” since 1994 and joining CBS News in 1971. He’s a class act, and his final show was just like all the others– a reverie. The entire 90 minutes was devoted to him, and we learned a lot including that Osgood is his middle name!

Osgood took over the show from the beloved Charles Kuralt, who retired in 1994 at age 60 and died three years later from lupus. Kuralt had left a strong imprint, but Osgood made the show his own. He complemented it with his daily radio spots, which he says will continue.

Pauley should have a good, long run on “Sunday Morning,” continuing the tradition and making the show slightly in her own image without tampering too much.

Thanks to Jerry Brown, 78, Signing New California Law, Betty White Can Now Play Justin Bieber’s GF

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Thanks to California governor Jerry Brown, we may never know how old Charo really is. Oh, that’s a bad example. How about Ashton Kutcher?

Brown has signed a new law today–ABV1687– that means online sites that routinely give birth dates of actors will have to expunge them. Looking up someone’s age on the Internet Movie Data Base will now be verboten. I guess same thing for Wikipedia.

The actors’ union is thrilled about this. Their statement: “SAG-AFTRA has been working hard for years to stop the career damage caused by the publication of performers’ dates of birth on online subscription websites used for casting like IMDb and StudioSystem. Currently, many websites used for casting proactively present birthdates and ages to casting decision makers who often can’t avoid seeing this information even if they try. This law will help improve the working lives of all SAG-AFTRA members and aspiring performers.”

So now Betty White could possibly be cast as Justin Bieber’s love interest in his next video. And Dakota Fanning can play a grandma. This is thrilling.

Ageism is a big problem in Hollywood but I’m not sure this addresses it. It’s more that roles aren’t being written for women between 40 and 70, so ingenues have to wait a lifetime literally to play grandmothers. (They should take the cue from soap operas, where ten years or less usually separates children from their parents. LOL.)

Believe me, if you want to find out how old someone is, it takes three minutes. Banning it from show business sites won’t help.

This past season on “Veep” Martin Mull’s character reminisces with the president’s secretary, Sue, about the 80s. Others in the office are confused since they thought Sue was around 35. It was one of the funniest moments on the show.

AB 1687 will help combat age discrimination by preventing the publication of a performer’s age by “a business that owns, licenses, or maintains personal information about a California resident,” the law states. Good luck with that. There’s always that high school yearbook.

By the way, Jerry Brown is 78!

 

Dennis Hopper’s Final Movie, “The Last Film Festival,” Gets Release Seven Years After His Death

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“The Last Film Festival” is ready, at last, to be released. It only took director-writer-producer Linda Yellen seven years to finish this labor of love. In 2009, while she was shooting, her star, Dennis Hopper, died suddenly. Yellen, a TV veteran with an Emmy Award for “Playing for Time,”  was in a bind. Hopper’s scenes were not completed, and he’s the star of this Hollywood satire.

Hopper plays Nick Twain, the down on his luck veteran producer whose unsaleable movie Called “Barium Enigma” has been chosen for the O’Hi Film Festival in Ohio (a distinct step down from the much tonier Ojai, California.) He’s convinced his ex wife Claudia, an Italian film star (a devilishly sexy and smart Jacqueline Bisset) not only to underwrite the film but come to one-horse O’Hi for what has to be the most embarrassing film festival in history.

There are plenty of Robert Altman-eque secondary and terciary story lines going on, featuring Joseph Cross as a young agent, JoBeth Williams as the mayor, Chris Kattan as a local undertaker named Harvey Weinstein, Agim Kaba as the movie’s young stud star with a secret, and Donnell Rawlings as a hilarious wannabe director and wounded vet. Leelee Sobieski also has a secret.

At a screening last night in Harvey Weinstein’s Tribeca screening room (unintentional), Yellen showed the movie to friends and to Kickstarter donors who’d been waiting to see the finished project. A couple of years ago, Yellen turned to Kickstarter to raise enough money finish the film. It was tricky since Hopper’s main story had to be fudged. Luckily, with help of a great editor, Yellen has pulled it off. Monterey Media is releasing “The Last Film Festival” on September 30th  in Los Angeles, followed by VOD and DVD.

Anyone who’s been to a film festival in a small town will want to see it. (It reminded me of a particular festival, but I won’t say which one.) Almost of all the O’Hi Festival takes place in the local high school. Yellen filmed at her alma mater, Forest Hills High School, in her own home, and her own 92 year old mother (only 85 at the time) is featured in one hilarious scene as a pot smoking judge. Quite a bit of it echoes Altman, who was one of Yellen’s heroes. (A scene set against a row of sinks in the cafeteria is sublime.)

One thing that’s instantly obvious about the difference in 2009– everyone uses flip phones. But they use them smartly, particularly Chris Kattan’s “Harvey Weinstein,” who wants to be a filmmaker.

As for Dennis Hopper, he looks great in the movie. Yellen told me he actually had the idea for the film, having been to many strange festivals. He told her, “You write it and I’ll do it.” So she wrote it. Hopper had had cancer, but thought it was in abeyance. Three-quarters of the way through the shoot he went to his doctor because he felt under the weather. Yellen told me, “The cancer had just spread everywhere.” He died soon after. But he and Bisset have great chemistry. She is particularly sharp. Sometimes the production quality flags– the movie was shot in 11 days, for peanuts— but the laughs are all there. Sometimes they are too close to home. But “The Last Film Festival” is very, very, funny.

Pop: Top 40 Breakdown as Total Sales Plummet, Number 1 Album Sells Just 38,000 Copies

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Please someone tell me again: how are the record companies surviving? This week total sales for the top 20 came to just over 300,000 units. Total sales for the whole top 50 come to around 400,000. Adding streaming helps just a bit, with some increased numbers. The number 1 album, Aaron Lewis’s “Sinner,” sold just 38,111 copies. Streaming gave it a slight boost to 51,732.

On top of that, hitsdailydouble.com introduced a Top 50 Streaming Chart. Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Illusion,” stuck around number 35 on iTunes, isn’t on that list. According to Spotify, “Perfect Illusion” has only 22 million streams total. The number 1 streamed song this week, The Chainsmokers’ “Closer,” had 22 million streams just this past week. That doesn’t bode well for Gaga, even though she should be at the top of the charts right now. (Maybe the lack of lyrics has something do with it.)

The other continuing news is that no one older than 25 is doing all the streaming that’s constantly discussed. Barbra Streisand, for example, had just 200 streams for her “Encore” album. “Encore” sold only 13,698 copies this week. If Streisand were relying on album sales for income, she’d have to sell her house and live in a studio.

So what’s coming to save us? Green Day? Lady Gaga’s “Joanne” on October 21st? The Weeknd’s “Starboy” on November 25th? It’s a bleak scene out there unless there’s some surprise hit.