In Billy Crystal’s beautiful eulogy today for Muhammad Ali he plugged his own famed 1979 tribute to Ali– “15 Rounds.” Here it is.
Billy’s eulogy was sensational today. I’m going to put that up too as soon as it’s available. I listened to it in the car on Sirius XM and got so teary I thought I needed windshield wipers!
Billy Crystal's Muhammad Ali tribute – 15 Rounds (1979) from Face Productions on Vimeo.
What a night in Tribeca this past Wednesday for Trudie Styler and husband Sting. Styler and producing partner Celine Rattray celebrated their fifth anniversary as Maven Pictures with a swellegant dinner party at Tutto il Giorno in Tribeca. What a snazzy spot owned by Donna Karan’s daughter Gabby– a tony branch of her hit Southampton eatery.
I was lucky enough to be seated at a hot table: Meg Ryan (who I like so much) surrounded by Matthew Modine, director Paul Haggis, and famed British actor Richard E. Grant.
Just sitting behind us was Debbie Harry, who told me she’s off to Milwaukee today with Blondie to resume their tour. They have a new album coming out soon.
But Milwaukee? Think that’s glamorous? Well Sting and Peter Gabriel are headed to Columbus, Ohio today to rehearse their tour. They launch in Columbus on June 21st.
Elsewhere in the room I ran into “Pleasantville” director Gary Ross (he also wrote “Dave” and “Big” and has “Free State of Jones” out shortly), actress Zuleikha Robinson, director Ryan Fleck. the great Chazz Palminteri, Marisa Tomei, and so on. I was very happy to see Matthew Modine, who was a lifelong New Yorker until business took him out west. He says wife Cari “loves” Los Angeles, but swears they’ll move back to Greenwich Village one day.
Also at Tutto for the big event: CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield, still getting over the huge response to her reading of the letter from the Stanford rape victim. Banfield has been getting kudos and she should: she’s one of CNN’s greatest assets.
Trudie and Celine greeted their guests formally and thanked them for all their help. Maven will release “American Honey” this year, the big hit from Cannes, and Styler has just finished “Freak Show,” which stars Abigail Breslin (also there last night).
Then Styler said, “Here’s my boyfriend,” and Sting took the stage with his group of young musicians called The Last Bandoleros. They helped Sting turn out bravura versions of “Next to You,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “Every Breath You Take.” Los Caballeros are from San Antonio, where they admitted to once playing in a Police cover band called La Policia. Sting, “We played in San Antonio when we first started out.” He paused. “But none of you look like me,” he joked.
UPDATE Paul Simon did get his first number 1 album in 41 years today. “Stranger to Stranger” sold 65,000 copies in CDs and paid digital downloads. Fans wanted to own his album so they bought it. Paul’s last number 1 album was “Still Crazy After All These Years” in 1975. “Graceland” and “Rhythm of the Saints,” back to back hits in the 1980s, went top 5 but never hit the top of the charts.
Concord Records did a great job marketing the album, reviews were terrific, and Simon is on tour– all of that added up to this triumph. “Stranger to Stranger” is a tour de force, and we’d better see it nominated for Album of the Year come December.
“Stranger to Stranger” finished third when streaming was counted into sales. Simon had only 2,000 streams, making his total total 67,000. Streaming bulked Drake up from 31,000 paid to 135,000– 100,000 streams. Beyonce was bulked up from 47,000 to 69,000. So many streams for Drake! His fans don’t seem to need his music in their phones or computers permanently.
The Monkees album fell 67% and sold only 8,000 copies after that first big week. Rhino has to work the album now, and a single. A video will help too.
Next week, Tom Corson, president and COO of RCA Records, and Peter Edge, chairman and CEO of RCA Records, will be honored at UJA-Federation of New York’s Music Visionary of the Year Award Luncheon for their leadership and philanthropy at work and in the community.
Among those attending to honor will be Alicia Keys, Elle King, Jack Antonoff, Baz Luhrmann, and Sony Music chairman Doug Morris. I’ve known Tom and Peter a long time, and they deserve all the honors they can get. Bravo!Â
The annual American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award is in progress right now at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Bob Gazzale and Sir Howard Stringer have already opened the proceedings, and Will Ferrell is pretending to conduct the orchestra playing honoree John Williams’ scores.
All of Williams’ friends are here including the two directors with whom he’s had the longest relationships– George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks are front and center. Kobe Bryant turns out to be a close Williams pal. Other notables in the Dolby include Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney-Lucas Films’ great leader Kathleen Kennedy, Drew Barrymore, legendary actor Peter Fonda, famed songwriters Diane Warren and Carole Bayer Sager (the latter with former Warner Bros chief husband Bob Daly).
The biggest news: Lucas tells me “I have retired from making films.” He’s putting all his energy into building The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago with wife Mellody Hobson. “We’ve been working on it for six years.” Lucas has made great films apart from “Star Wars”– “American Graffiti” is an American classic. His place in movie history is secure.
Harrison Ford is sporting a bushy white beard. Has he gone Letterman on us? Or is Han Solo getting all Santa like in Episode 8? We’ll see…
photo c2016 Showbiz411 by Leah Sydney
It’s a good thing Paul Simon is still a genius after all these years. He’s on the verge of having his first number 1 album since 1975.
Believe it or not, despite Simon’s incredible impact on our culture and popular music, he didn’t have a number 1 again after “Still Crazy After All These Years.” Even “Graceland” — one of Simon’s masterpieces– only got to number 3.
But his new “Stranger to Stranger” has sold over 45,000 copies and looks like it will take the top spot Friday. Simon beats a raft of current pop stars including Beyonce and Drake.
Simon’s had plenty of fine albums since “Graceland” including the more recent “Surprise” and “You’re the One.” But “Stranger” has really reaped amazing reviews for its inventive use of percussion and Simon’s as usual trenchant and poetic lyrics.
The collection has to be a nominee for Album of the Year this year. If it’s relegated to Traditional Pop Album something is really wrong with the Grammys. Like David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” it’s a work of art.
“Stranger” will not be the number 1 album including streaming. His older audience has actually purchased his music to keep. But “Stranger” has still done very well on iTunes
When “The Front Page” comes back to Broadway this fall, just about everyone will be in it.
Already announced stars Nathan Lane and John Slattery will be joined by John Goodman, Holland Taylor, Robert Morse, Jefferson Mays, and Sherie Rene Scott, Dylan Baker, plus Christopher McDonald, Halley Feiffer, “Law & Order”‘s Dann Florek, Joey Slotnick, Lewis J. Stadlen, and Micah Stock.
Jack O’Brien is directing. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic 1928 comedy is set in the world of the Chicago newspaper business. You do remember the newspaper business, don’tcha?
Performances begin September 20th, opening night is October 20th, and the run ends on February 5th, Ah, the fall Broadway season!
UPDATE Now hearing that Elizabeth Banks is likely joining the group.
Confirmed: Cate Blanchett will join Sandra Bullock in the female reboot of Oceans Eleven.
I’ve also heard that director Gary Ross has locked up Helena Bonham Carter and Mindy Kaling for the heist thriller.
The new Oceans will shoot here in New York early next year maybe right after Blanchett is done on Broadway. Blanchett’s involvement was rumored first on website The Playlist.
P.S. Doesn’t sound like Jennifer Lawrence is in this film. But wouldn’t Paula Patton be cool? Or Jessica Chastain?
The new Broadway season is shaping up as the old one is put away this Sunday with the Tony Awards.
I’m told the musical version of “A Bronx Tale” will open on December 1st.
The show based on Chazz Palminteri’s original movie and then his one man show on Broadway, is co-directed by Jerry Zaks and Robert DeNiro. (Zaks then gets “Hello, Dolly!” ready with Bette Midler for an April opening.) Alan Menken wrote the songs.
Casting is still going on but the word is that Nick Cordero, who played Sonny this past winter in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of “A Bronx Tale,” will star here, too. Previously, he played Palminteri’s part in the musical of Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway.” Cordero is presently in “Waitress” on Broadway, where he’s severely underused.
Producers of new musicals this coming fall, winter, and next spring must be so relieved there’s no “Hamilton” like juggernaut out there coming for them. What a relief!
It just sort of dawned on me that all this publicity for Bobby Brown is because the sleaze bag ex husband of Whitney Houston is publishing a book on Monday.
But he already published the same book, pretty much, back in 2008. That book was called Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But… It’s still available on Amazon for $6.99.
Since then both Whitney and their daughter Bobbi Kristina have died tragic deaths. No one cares about Bobby Brown, who keeps producing new children. So I guess he added to the old book, with some salacious sounding stuff about Whitney.
The problem is, he already revealed all that stuff in 2008. How many times does he think people will pay him for this?
You can read here all about the old book. My advice is: ignore him now. Don’t give this man a penny. He doesn’t care who he hurts, and he’s selling out his dead wife and dead child to make money. Yuck.
Well, we all wondered how the Beatles would fare on Spotify and other streaming services. Now we know the answer. They’re number 18 so far this year among all recording acts, the only act on the Top Streaming Artists Year to Date not considered contemporary or from this sad generation of pop stars.
Of course, Taylor Swift, whose “1989” album is not on Spotify, is not on the list. Adele, who’s stayed off Spotify, has still had enough streams to put her at number 15 with 268 million. The Beatles at number 18 have 227 million, which is quite an accomplishment since they broke up in 1970. The most popular Beatles track on Spotify is still “Here Comes the Sun,” although “Hey Jude” is moving up. Among those the Beatles topped were Zayn, Halsey, Sia, Nicki Minaj, Luke Bryan and Fall Out Boy.
The Beatles were long time hold outs from streaming until Christmas Eve, 2015. At first Spotify offered just the group’s main album, then added the three Anthology albums. I wish they would add the American release of “Hey Jude,” plus “Rarities” and “Let it Be…Naked.”
The chart is thanks to hitsdailydouble.com