Ariana Grande can sing, and she’s funny. Imagine if she actually sang real songs instead of the stuff she’s got on the charts.
Here she is from “SNL” last night. First: imitating Whitney Houston, Shakira, Rihanna, etc. And she does say “Shit.” Oooh…
And here’s her monologue bit. If she made albums that sounded like this, she’d have a long career.
There is no audience for Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Brothers Grimsby,” a vulgar overcalculation by Sacha Baron Cohen and Sony/Columbia Pictures.
Indeed, the way, way, way over the top coarse production made just $1.2 million on Friday night, and will be lucky to eke out $3 million for the weekend. It’s a loss of some unknown amount– at least $50 million– for Sony and the filmmakers.
They knew it upfront and dumped the unfunny comedy. There was an L.A. premiere so to speak, and NY media screenings at the odd hour of 4pm the other day.
The clips from the film were so unwatchable that when Cohen appeared on Jimmy Kimmel, they could only show audience reaction. Then, as if it might help, the Kardashians were enlisted — don’t ask. I hope they weren’t paid because it was a waste of money.
“Grimsby” is just one of many grim box office players this weekend, too. Only “Zootopia” and “10 Cloverfield Lane” are proving to be entertaining. “London Has Fallen” made $3.3 million last night attracting pedestrians. “Gods of Egypt” took in $654,000 but that could have been LionsGate stockholders buy tickets in group sales.
So much about “Grimsby” was just a mess, starting with the AIDS jokes about Daniel Radcliffe (why?) and Donald Trump (no laughs now as his presence in our lives isn’t funny anymore). “Borat” had its moment, and it was spectacular. But when “Bruno” and “The Dictator” failed miserably that should have been a sign to Cohen, who is capable of so much more, that an era was over.
There’s one irony here: Mark Strong debased himself to be in this movie but hey, it’s a paycheck. The irony is that he may win the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for “A View From the Bridge” this June. I hope this movie doesn’t harm his chances.
“American Pie” singer Don McLean has just posted this to Twitter as a response to his wife filing for divorce:
“My wife has chosen divorce. She has chosen to characterize our 30 year relationship in a completely distorted and untrue manner. We raised two gentle highly educated children in an environment of laughter, music and literature. I suggest anyone interested view the movie “Don McLean: American Troubadour” to get an idea of our life.”
Not much of a response after McLean promised some grand answer to this terrible situation. His wife Patrisha obviously has had a tough journey to get to this point.
It’s very hard to separate our celebrity heroes from the reality of our lives. I always tell people, if we’d been alive when Picasso was making everyone in his life miserable, and there was social media, we would have hated him. And still he’s the greatest artist of the 20th century.
It’s also quite strange that McLean has chosen Twitter as his place to deal with what has become a public subject. Don, get your act together, man. You need an image brush up ASAP.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They weren’t a singles act. But they were an amazingly influential rock group and a staple of FM radio through the 70s. Now news today that keyboardist Keith Emerson has died at age 71.
Emerson didn’t sing on the albums but he wrote, and one of his pieces– “Karn Evil 9,” stands in rock history for its opening lines “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.” It’s a 30 minute marvel that bled from side one to side two of Brain Salad Surgery.
ELP was famous for its grand orchestrations and bombast. They were in the mode of Yes, I guess, and are refreshingly original listened to now. Like Yes, and Traffic, and some other groups circa 1970 their albums sound better than ever today especially on a real high end stereo system. ELP’s other great hits included “Still You Turn Me,” “Lucky Man,” and “From the Beginning.” They knew more about music than any ten acts combined from today.
RIP Keith Emerson.
We’re getting into the mood for Cannes 2016. And apparently the red carpet may be filled with American stars and movies.
I told you a couple of weeks ago that Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes movie is top of the of desired entries. Co-starring Annette Bening, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, and with Beatty himself as director and star, everyone is crossing baguettes for this to come true.
Next: Woody Allen’s Amazon movie with Steve Carell, Parker Posey et al. said to be also hoped for, which makes sense: Cannes loves Woody Allen. “Midnight in Paris” went from there to highest grossing Woody Allen film of all time.
Also hearing George Clooney and Julia Roberts in “Money Monster.” This is directed by Jodie Foster. Can you imagine the pandemonium of this gang on the red carpet, at press conference, etc? And with Amal in tow?
The word is strong on Oliver Stone’s “Snowden” as well, and Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in “The Nice Guys.” The “Snowden” film, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will undoubtedly be accompanied by rumors that the real Edward Snowden is in Cannes, or on a yacht off the coast with Roman Polanski!
Just to recap: a Cannes with possible attendees Beatty, Woody, Oliver Stone, Clooney and Roberts, Gosling and Crowe. And you know Harvey Weinstein will bring a surprise. Sacre bleu!
Kendrick Lamar surprise dropped his “Untitled. Umnastered” album out of nowhere and drop kicked Adele to number 2 this week on the album charts. Kenny sold 135K with another 40K in streaming. He’s the man of the moment, clearly. Adele sold 48K.
Rihanna is the big story among established artists. Almost all of her chart ranking comes from streaming. She sold only 65,576 total, and 19,437 of that was solid. The bulk came from Tidal. Her music is disposable.
But the other headline is that The 1975 rock group dropped a whopping 85% from number 1 to 14, and to 22 on streaming. Their “Saturday Night Live” performance obviously drove them to number 1, but there was no follow up. Whoops! That 85% drop may be the biggest ever. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
I’ve fallen in love with that 21 Pilots song “Stressed Out.” It may be their only hit ever, but it’s a classic number 1 song. Good for them. It’s their “My Sharona” or “Call My Maybe.” Everyone should have one.
Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” follow up sounds like it will be a Wonder Years for the 80s. The soundtrack is full of AM radio pop gems from groups including The Knack, Blondie, and Van Halen. “Everybody Wants Some” opens April 1st with a cast that includes mostly unknowns: Will Brittain, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Blake Jenner, J. Quinton Johnson, Glen Powell and Wyatt Russell. Linklater calls it a “spiritual sequel” to his early hit “Dazed and Confused.” That movie also had a bunch of unknowns. One of them became Ben Affleck. And here’s a little trivia: Viola Davis’s real life husband, Julius Tennon, played a teacher in “Dazed and Confused.” Also, Renee Zellweger pre-Jerry Maguire had an uncredited spot.
Soundtrack list”
“My Sharona” – The Knack
“Heart Of Glass” – Blondie
“Take Your Time (Do It Right)” – SOS Band
“Heartbreaker” – Pat Benatar
“Alternative Ulster” – Stiff Little Fingers
“Every 1’s A Winner” – Hot Chocolate
“Everybody Wants Some!!” – Van Halen
“Let’s Get Serious” – Jermaine Jackson
“Pop Muzik” – M
“Because The Night” – Patti Smith Group
“I Want You To Want Me (Live)” – Cheap Trick
“Hand In Hand” – Dire Straits
“Whip It” – Devo
“Romeo’s Tune” – Steve Forbert
“Good Times Roll” – The Cars
“Rapper’s Delight” – The Sugar Hill Gang
In an interview with the BBC, Don Henley revealed something interesting yesterday. Before Glenn Frey fell ill last fall, the Eagles had been planning a “Hotel California” tour for this summer. “Obviously,” Henley says, “that’s not happening now.”
Henley intimates that the Eagles will not fly again as a touring act or anything else. But Frey’s death is fresh, and he may change his mind in time. The Who, Led Zeppelin, and other groups have gone on working after a founder’s death. After all, there are other people involved.
Henley is getting ready to do solo shows with Carole King in London. My guess is they’ll tour the U.S. next. I have a couple of guilty pleasure Don Henley solo songs actually– “Heart of the Matter” and “Taking You Home.” It would be swell to hear them live.
Here’s the interview:
A huge number of stars, producer, directors, and writers have come with their publicists to five star agency PMK-BNC. Joy Fehily and Michael Donkis are joining PMK•BNC as Executive Vice Presidents, shutting their Prime Public Relations. Fehily is actually returning to PMK after nine years away.
PMK was always the movie behemoth, run by a superstar triumvirate of Pat Kingsley, Leslee Dart, and the late great Lois Smith. But several years ago Dart left to start 42 West, Smith retired, and Kingsley soldiered on attached to PMK. (The initials stood for Pickwick Maslansky and Koenigsberg. No one living could tell you who they were now, but the letters stuck.)
PMK-bred star maven Cindi Berger (she handles Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, Robert Redford, Sharon Stone, and Lena Dunham– that’s all–not bad) took over and merged with Michael Nyman, former partner of Brad Cafarelli and Howard Bragman. The combined PMK-BNC (Nyman kept his letters and Cafarelli) is bigger than ever. They represent half of Hollywood and do the press for things like the Emmy Awards and Samsung mobile electronics. (Their biggest competitors are 42 West, Slate PR, and Rogers and Cowan.)
Under this deal, PMK adds Seth MacFarlane, Aaron Sorkin, Robert Downey, Jr., Olivia Wilde, Dave Navarro, Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”), Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (“The People v. O.J. Simpson”), Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), Lucinda Coxon (“The Danish Girl”), Christopher McQuarrie (“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”), Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The Lego Movie,” “21 Jump Street”), Brad Peyton (“San Andreas”), James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Joel Silver (“The Matrix” trilogy, “Sherlock Holmes” franchise), Graham King (“The Departed”), Carnival Films (“Downton Abbey”), Howard Gordon (“Homeland,” “24,” “Tyrant”), Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (“Gossip Girl,” “The OC”), Marti Noxon (“UnREAL,” “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce”), Nahnatchka Khan (“Fresh Off the Boat”), Sarah Treem (“The Affair”), Terence Winter (“Vinyl,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”), producer/author/motivational speaker DeVon Franklin and IMDb.com and its founder Col Needham.
Whew! Congrats to everyone.
Bye Bye Mrs. American Pie. Patrisha McLean, wife of famed singer songwriter Don McLean, has filed for divorce after 28 years and two kids. She cited “adultery, cruel and abusive treatment, and irreconcilable differences.”
In January, Pat called the police and filed a domestic assault charge against the famed singer songwriter of “American Pie” and “Vincent (Starry Starry Night).” In her complaint, Patrisha wrote that Don has access to firearms, has a gun, knives, and a baseball bat in his car. She said he told her “If I have a stroke (over my leaving) I will get my gun and kill you.” She also said that she is Jewish, and that he called her a “Hebe.” She said on January 17, he terrorized her four hours until she called 911.
Later Patrisha assured me Don was not anti-Semitic. But I have my doubts after reading that statement.
McLean has never been a mixer, or someone from the Seventies– like Billy Joel, let’s say, or even Al Green– who wanted to be part of the pop world. He told the Irish Times last year: “I like to be left alone.” Now he’s getting his wish.
Elsewhere in that interview he answered this question– If I wasn’t a singer I’d be . . .An alcoholic.
Pat McLean is neither Don’s first wife nor the woman he was with when he took off like a rocket in 1972. That was Carol Sauvion, to whom he was married from 1969 to 1972. That was when “American Pie” became a million seller and a radio staple. McLean’s prior album, “Tapestry,” was revived with it. (Yes, he had a “Tapestry” album before Carole King.)
Sauvion has never said why she left, but she’s gone on to quite a nice career. She owns the very successful Freehand Gallery in Los Angeles, and hosts Craft in America for PBS. She remarried, and has a son and stepdaughter. Some upscale galleries like Freehand sell artist Gary Rosenthal’s ceramic dreidels. Savion’s does not. (McLean had a hit in 1973 called “Dreidel.”)
In that Irish Times interview, McLean also answered this question– Who do you need to apologise to? Answer: I don’t need to apologise to anyone.
But that doesn’t seem to be true. What a terrible sign off for his career, and for his fans (I was certainly one a long time ago.) I think there’s a chance we’ll one day hear Pat McLean’s full story, and it’s going to be very disappointing.