Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
HBO is betting that fans of “The White Lotus” really want to see the third season premiere.
So they’re pitting the February 16th return against NBC’s “SNL 50” three hour special.
“White Lotus” will start at 9pm, the middle hour of the “SNL” extravaganza. So expect Lorne Michaels to put hot stuff in that hour. Will it work? Will TVs explode? We’ll find out.
Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, and Natasha Rothwell lead the cast of Mike White’s action packed season set in Thailand. Wait for that last line of the trailer: “Go big or go home…in a goddamn body bag.”
Beyonce and Taylor Swift have joined the Grammys broadcast next Sunday.
The news was revealed during a commercial in the KC Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game this evening. Taylor Swift, who was at the game, surely saw the promo.
Both of them are nominated for multiple Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. Swift has won that several times. The betting is on Beyonce going home with the award for “Cowboy Carter.” Any other result would be a huge disappointment.
There’s already a long list of A list performers promised to perform at the Grammys including Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and so on.
The ad also promised “A very special guest.” You can only imagine who this might be: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr? The Beatles’ “Now and Then” is nominated for Best Song and Record.
Is Lady Gaga a very special guest? She and Bruno Mars could perform their hit, “Die with a Smile.”
How about Bob Dylan and or Timothee Chalamet? After “SNL,” that might be too much.
So the guessing game is on.
| According to a new #GRAMMYs promotional, Taylor Swift will be attending to the Grammys next week and she is rumored to be performing!!! pic.twitter.com/AxlZGF1D8d
As of tomorrow, he’s imposing a 25% tariff on all imported goods from Colombia. They include cut flowers, crude oil, and coffee.
If Colombia continues to reject deportation planes full of their people coming from the US, Trump says he’ll raise the tariff to 50%.
He thinks he’s hurting Colombia, but they will pass the tariff on to US customers immediately.
According to Google AI, in 2021, of the $13.2 billion in U.S. imports from Colombia, the top commodity sectors were Oils and Minerals, Lime, and Cement (41.3%), Agricultural Goods (26.2%), and Stone, Glass, Metals, and Pearls (14.4%). Flowers amounted to $3.3 billion.
Columbia is one of the top producers of premium roses, the ones we see in bodegas and in florist shops and bought via 1-800-Florists, etc. according to flowerpowerdaily.com. All the other desired Valentine’s flowers are affected as well.
A 50% tariff on crude oil means gas prices will soar. Coffee? Starbucks main coffee source is Colombia and Latin America.
Trump — who doesn’t drink coffee or send flowers (he has no one to send them to) — wrote on social media: “I have directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures:..Emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States. In one week, the 25% tariffs will be raised to 50%.”
In the week since Trump took the oath of office, prices have only gone up on everything including eggs. His campaign promise was to immediately bring prices down. Remember?
All of this is in addition to the mass deportation raids, the cancellation of all DEI Programs, including revoking 60 year old Civil Rights laws and much more.
Latinos who voted for Trump, and Blacks as well, should find all this illuminating. Trump told them this is what he would do. They refused to listen.
MONDAY UPDATE: “Tomorrow is a Long Time” rose to number 29 on iTunes this morning.
Bob Dylan and Sony Music Publishing must be in shock today.
“Tomorrow is a Long Time,” written and first recorded by Dylan in 1963, hit the iTunes top 100 chart today. It was never a single, or even a well known deep cut.
Last night Timothee Chalamet performed the 62 year old song on “Saturday Night Live.” It was his second performance of the night, and part of his guest host/musical guest stint in his Oscar campaign for “A Complete Unknown.”
It’s hard to imagine that Chalamet won’t get the Oscar now. His two songs — the other was a wild version of “Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels” — were brilliantly produced. His comedy sketches weren’t bad, either.
“A Complete Unknown” is quietly taking the inside track for the Oscars, with three acting nominations (Chalamet, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro) as well as Best Picture and Best Director (James Mangold). With $62 million banked domestically, the Dylan movie has made much more than all of its direct competitors including “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Real Pain,” and “Conclave.”
Ironically, Chalamet lampooned his own Oscar aspirations last night during his monologue, playing clips of him losing at various awards shows in the past. It’s funny that at 28 he’s found that “Tomorrow is a Long Time.” It’s been incredibly short, intense run for this young actor.
PS “Tomorrow Never Knows” doesn’t appear in the movie or on the 31 song best selling soundtrack. How do you like that?
“Hollywood Ambassador” Mel Gibson can claim a fake victory today.
His severely panned film, “Flight Risk,” opened at number 1. This was because there’s nothing new out, all the holiday films are still in theaters.
But “Flight Risk” has meager numbers, coming in at $12 million over four days. How will they pay Gibson and Mark Wahlberg, not to mention actual actors Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace?
Not my problem.
“Flight Risk” has a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Cinemascore of C from the audience. If you were bored this weekend and had seen everything else, then “Flight Risk” was your movie. But they can expect a 50% drop next week at least. And maybe some Razzies next year.
As I wrote yesterday, Lionsgate has kept Gibson’s name hidden on the movie’s posters lest anyone figure out the antisemitic, misogynist conspiracy theorist is the star and director.
I’ve haven’t heard yet but Ivermectin may be available at the snacks counter.
Case in point: this morning’s weak tea story about the Sundance Film Festival.
It boggles the mind that this puff piece omitted the actual real story at Sundance right now. They’re trying to leave Park City, Utah, where Robert Redford founded the festival 45 years ago.
Yes, that’s right. In a short time, Sundance will announce if it’s relocating to either Boulder or Cincinnati, two charmless places. The other choice is to stay in Park City but also have parts of the festival in restrictive, ultra conservative Salt Lake City, a 45 minute ride away from the ski village.
Park City is criticized for a lot of things. The traffic is terrible during Sundance. It’s impossible to get around. Now they’ve closed off Main Street to cars, which must make it a lot worse. Plus, prices are high. There’s nowhere to stay, and restaurants cost a fortune.
Still, in all, it’s a village, and a festival in a confined area. Redford chose it for that reason.
But CBS Sunday Morning just blissfully ignored what’s going on. This is typical of the show which can be great for profiles of contemporary stars, and still shows video of sunsets. But when it comes time to report a story — the actual nut of a story — not so much.
It would have been great to have interviews with Park City officials and business owners, not to mention get comments from Salt Lake City, Boulder and Cincinnati officials. (How would SLC work? So conservative, with lots of laws and restrictions. The Sundance population is a happy free for all.)
But someone else will have to do that report, if there is anyone else. Meanwhile, JD Vance bloviated to Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” with no pushback on his ridiculous theories and beliefs.
“Saturday Night Live” dug in hard tonight for “A Complete Unknown.”
The show let star Timothee Chalamet plug the Bob Dylan movie not only in his opening monologue but in performing two songs.
The songs were first a raucous version of “Outlaw Blues” combined with “Three Angels.”
Then Chalamet came roaring back with a delicate reading of “Tomorrow is A Long Time.”
These were all deep cuts, not songs that the average Dylan fan would know. But Chalamet said in his monologue they were songs he’d come to love during his 5 years prepping to play Dylan.
The show also carried an ad from Disney for the movie, and two ads from the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’m amazed the Center could afford two network spots (total could have been at least $150,000). The times they are a-changing!
The Oscar race hung in the air tonight. Chalamet lampooned himself losing to different actors at awards shows. Will this appearance do the trick for him? He certainly acquitted himself well.
Last weeks “SNL” was a good news, bad news scenario.
Ratings for the Dave Chappelle hosted episode rose to 4.85 million, on the high end of the show’s season average.
This was despite Chappelle’s nearly 17 minute monologue.
The bad news is that musical guest GloRilla didn’t get much of a sales bounce. Her album sales actually fell 2% from the previous week. She sold 18,493 copies of “Glorious” despite two very good performances.
Even worse for GloRilla: her numbers were cut from the UK broadcast. Her name was cut from the titles. Apparently this has been happening a lot lately for musical guests in the UK version. We’ll see if they do it again tonight to Timothee Chalamet.
Hollywood “Ambassador” Mel Gibson is hiding on his movie’s poster.
The advertising for “Flight Risk” — which opened to $4.4 million for Thursday and Friday combined — highlights only star Mark Wahlberg’s name. (Total on Friday was $3.5 million.) Audiences are not lining up at the gate for this flight.
But there’s no stressing that this is a “Mel Gibson movie.” Gibson’s name is below in the hard to read credits. Lionsgate must have felt that the antisemitic conspiracy theorist wasn’t much of a draw.
That’s not the only misdirect for this movie. The ad shows Wahlberg looking like a movie star with the top of his head obscured.
But in the film, Wahlberg’s character is bald, with quite a receding hairline.
“Flight Risk” has a 21% rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences haven’t liked it much either, posting a lowly 63%.
PS Even this poster hides Gibson’s name, just highlights a few of his movies. And just “award winning.” No sign of “Oscar winning” for 30 year old “Braveheart.”
