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Adele Rocks Radio City Music Hall in Historic Concert on Eve of Having Best Selling Album

Roger Friedman
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Adele Rocks Radio City Music Hall in Historic Concert on Eve of Having Best Selling Album

Adele rocked Radio City music Hall tonight in her first concert in four years. She performed for a sold out crowd that included Donald Trump, Chris Christie, Daniel Day Lewis with son Gabriel Kane, Bradley Cooper and date Irina Shayk, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Colin Jost of “Saturday Night Live”  and David Schwimmer.

Lorne Michaels, whom Adele credits with breaking her on “Saturday Night Live,” produced the show for NBC. It will air December 14th. Jimmy Fallon warmed up the audience for a couple of minutes, and then Adele took the stage.

Her set lasted a little over an hour. She was funny and sweet, and her voice soared. She is now the greatest singer of her generation and this generation, with an instrument that still needs to be tested on ballads and standards. But her set was fine, starting with her current hit “Hello” and including past hits like “Chasing Pavements,” “Set Fire to the Rain,” “Someone Like You,” and the theme from “Skyfall,” which was magnificent.

As earthy and salty as she is, Adele excels at melodramatic songs. She knows a good soap opera, and is sort of a contemporary Mary J. Blige. But she also knows melody, and her newest hit, “When We Were Young,” is poised to be tremendous. Considering that she hadn’t sung in public in years, and is just breaking in the new songs, that’s saying a lot.

“I’ve been dying to do a f—ing show,” she said in one of her many Eliza Doolittle moments of the evening. Even in a glittering gown, there is no changing Adele. Some of the show will have to be bleeped. “This is for TV,” she advised the audience, “don’t pick your nose.” She called Bruno Mars, who wrote a song with her, “cool as f-ck.”

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Maybe she needs the humor to keep herself from getting too bowled over by what’s going on. We haven’t had a singer like this since Whitney Houston or Barbra Streisand. As Adele has progressed from “19” to “21” to “25,” she’s making a legend in her own time. And now we know what happened to “23”– she said that “Skyfall” was Bond 23, and she was 23 at the time, so that project fulfilled that missing number for her.

Just a word on the video projection: Adele, you see, cannot be confined to a video screen. So Michaels and his staff just projected her over the entire Radio City proscenium, using the video screen as an insert. The effect was mesmerizing.

adele writ large

I did run into a friend of mine from Sony before the show. Apparently, “25” is on track to sell more than a million copies in its first week– maybe closer to 2 million. Extraordinary in a time when the music business seethes apathy toward most artists. But Adele is real, and the audience knows it. There is no artifice. When she plays the guitar, she makes excuses in advance– and then plays it very well. She’s connecting on a very basic level, unlike almost all the female performers of her age group whose shows seem like they were scripted within an inch of their lives.

So, onto the album release this week and “Saturday Night Live” and record setting sales. Brava!

 

P.F. Sloan, Writer of “Eve of Destruction,” “Secret Agent Man,” Dies at Age 70

Roger Friedman
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P.F. Sloan, Writer of “Eve of Destruction,” “Secret Agent Man,” Dies at Age 70

P.F. (Phil) Sloan, the singer songwriter responsible for songs like Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” and Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man,” has died at age 70. He had had pancreatic cancer.

Sloan was a popular figure in Nashville, and a legendary figure in the Phil Spector world as part of the famed and legendary Wrecking Crew. He also wrote the guitar into for the Mamas and the Papas’s “California Dreamin’.”

Sloan also wrote the original singles for the Grass Roots pre-“Midnight Confessions.” Jimmy Webb also wrote a song called “PF Sloan” inspired by Sloan, and covered by many artists including Jackson Browne, Jennifer Warnes, and the Association. Sloan and Steve Barri were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.


 

Oh Carol: At Oscar Buzzed Film Premiere, Rooney Mara Says She Expects to Be in Next “Dragon Tattoo” Movie

Paula Schwartz
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Oh Carol: At Oscar Buzzed Film Premiere, Rooney Mara Says She Expects to Be in Next “Dragon Tattoo” Movie

Todd Haynes’ Oscar-buzzed 1950s lesbian romance film, “Carol,” premiered last night at the Museum of Modern Art. The whole cast, except Cate Blanchett, headed over to a swanky party at the Four Seasons afterwards, with special guests like Zosia Mamet, Holland Taylor, and playwright Suzan Lori Park. Blanchett, tired from doing more press than a presidential candidate, went back to her hotel to be with her newly adopted baby.

Rooney Mara’s guests included her parents Chris and Kathleen Mara, of the NY Giants dynasty Mara’s. Yes, they have two movie star daughters–Kate is in “The Martian” right now.

Chris Mara told us, proudly: “Each of them works hard, and directors know that. They come ready to work.”

The stunning and very soft spoken Rooney told our Roger Friedman she expects to be in the sequel to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Daniel Craig, as well? “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m just trying to keep track of this movie!” Rooney, by the way, doesn’t follow football much even though she’s named for her mother’s father, football coach Dan Rooney.

On the red carpet Blanchett towered over Rooney as they posed for photographs. Blanchett wore a mustard-colored gown by Lavin with cutout panels in the back and side and underneath what looked like a pink corset.

 She told journalists that all the characters in “Carol” were in the same dilemma and victims of society and the roles they felt foisted on them to play.

 “I think they are all as entrapped by the roles that they’re meant to play, men and women,” Blanchett said. “You know, when women are set free, men benefit. And when men are set free, women, so I think they’re all in the same terrible conundrum.”

On the red carpet, I spoke to Todd Haynes about his upcoming film, “Wonderstuck,” based on the children’s novel by Brian Selznick, the author of “The Invention Of Hugo Cabret,” that was made into a movie by Martin Scorsese. Julianne Moore will star in “Wonderstruck,” is set in the 1920’s and 70’s and marks the fourth time they’ve worked together.

In an awkward segue, I asked the director about the women’s sex scene and if there were any challenges. “I don’t know if I can characterize it as a challenge exclusive to lesbian sex and love. I really think that when people are intimate with each other there’s all kinds of roles that get played,” he said. “I think when it’s a gay couple they can swap different kind of dominant and passive roles maybe more freely. But that’s also true for heterosexuals,” he said.

Whether it’s shooting a gay or straight sex scene it’s the same he said. “You just want everybody to feel as free and supported as possible, so we all we know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, where the camera is, what the emotion and the mood of the sex is, why it’s in the film to begin with, and what nudity is involved? When people know all those things, they feel an element of trust that’s really important.”

Photo c 2015 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz

 

Charlie Sheen’s Doctor was O.J. Simpson’s Steroid Specialist During Trial of the Century

Roger Friedman
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Charlie Sheen’s Doctor was O.J. Simpson’s Steroid Specialist During Trial of the Century

Charlie Sheen just appeared on the Today show with his doctor. Hollywood is a small town. His HIV doctor is Rob Huizenga, the steroids specialist hired by Robert Shapiro to be O.J. Simpson’s doctor in 1994 after the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

Huizenga was hired by Shapiro as Simpson returned from Chicago the day after the murders in Los Angeles. Simpson had long suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and Huizenga was an expert on the subject of athletes and steroids. He’d written a book about helping members of the L.A. Raiders deal with the addiction.

Sheen on Today attributed his 2011 “winning” breakdown to “‘roids.” Interesting.

Huizenga never spoke about Simpson’s steroid issues when he was on the witness stand in 1994. Ten years later, in 2004, I asked him why. He said it was because none of the lawyers asked him the question. If they had, the Simpson trial might have been very different. He told me in 2004, “Some guilty people are set free.”

Charlie Sheen Announces He’s HIV Positive, Victim of Extortion, Paid “Over 10 Million Dollars” to Blackmailers

Roger Friedman
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Charlie Sheen Announces He’s HIV Positive, Victim of Extortion, Paid “Over 10 Million Dollars” to Blackmailers

with updates

Charlie Sheen is in the middle of his two Today show interviews this morning, admitting that he’s HIV positive. Sheen has told Matt Lauer that he’s been the victim of extortion and blackmail, and has paid people “over 10 million dollars” to keep quiet. It’s an extraordinary interview as so far Sheen has told Lauer that of all the ways one could contract HIV, “needles” is not the way it happened.

Meantime, the announcement is clearly not the way Sheen’s publicist, Jeff Ballard, thought he should make. Ballard quit yesterday and ended a 35 year friendship with Sheen. Ballard has also represented over the years Charlie’s father Martin Sheen. Years ago Ballard was his publicist. In recent years, Sheen was repped by Stan Rosenfield, who also reps Robert DeNiro and Helen Mirren. But Rosenfield quit when Sheen began his “winning” rampage in 2011.

And the “winning”-“tiger blood” breakdown that Sheen went through and made headlines with seems like it was caused at least in part by Sheen’s diagnosis. “It was on the heels of that,” Sheen said. He also admitted that he’d had unprotected sex since the diagnosis, but that the partners were being treated by his doctor and understood the situation.

Sheen can only be congratulated for facing this on TV, it shows amazing courage. Whatever happened to get him to this place, his owning up to it now is remarkable. He will make it so much easier for HIV sufferers everywhere. And as I Tweeted yesterday by the end of the day you know he will be a spokesperson for amFAR, a group that loves celebrities. Sheen’s stock is on the rise. Wait and see…

Adele Drops Second Single, “When We Were Young,” in New Video

Roger Friedman
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Adele Drops Second Single, “When We Were Young,” in New Video

In the hours before Adele appears at Radio City Music Hall, she has dropped her second single from “25.” The video for “When We Were Young” is below. And this one, like “Hello,” should go right to the top of the charts. Welcome to Adele week.

Sting Serenades A List Crowd at Hearst, Introduces Spectacular Art Book

Roger Friedman
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Sting Serenades A List Crowd at Hearst, Introduces Spectacular Art Book

Looking for the perfect art book as a Christmas gift for the millionaire in your life? Look no further than Sting’s coming folio with famed artist Stephen Hannock. Last night at the top of the Hearst Publications building, the pair showed off their collaboration for art collectors– named “The Last Ship” for the Tony Award nominated collection of songs that appeared in Sting’s musical of the same name earlier this year.

Hannock visited Sting’s hometown of Newcastle and came up with six or seven amazing woodcuts depicting the lost shipyard and environs of Wallsend, where Sting grew up, facing beautifully printed sheets of Sting’s lyrics. Thanks to Two Ponds Press they are producing just 75– that’s right, just 75– of these collectible tomes which will be ready by April 2016. But apparently you order them now from Two Ponds because as demand increases, so does the price.

To get the Hearsters excited– including Ellen Levine, the goddess of Hearst, and Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar– Sting sat in a chair on a small riser and performed three songs from the show — the haunting title track, the jaunty “Dead Man’s Boots,” and the beautifully melodic “The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance.” I’m told he had pre-show jitters– playing for 40 people– but you wouldn’t have known it when he took the stage.

Also in the audience: Ralph Schlosstein, CEO and husband of the US Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, as well as trumpeter Chris Botti, famed artist Stephen Sumner (no relation to Sting aka Gordon Sumner, but husband to Bailey, btw), and Spotify creative global chief Richard Frankel. The limited edition would have sold out right away, but Two Ponds hasn’t started taking orders yet.

Hannock, by the way, is one of my favorite artists. His landscapes are so gorgeous, you could actually imagine leaving the city and living in one. His works are in the permanent collections of places like the Whitney Museum and Yale University Art Gallery. The landscapes are likened to the work of the Hudson River School painters such as Thomas Cole and Frederic Church. Among his collectors are Tom Brokaw and wife Meredith.

The “Last Ship” woodcuts are reminiscent of the great works of the WPA in the 1930s. The printing process– done in Western Massachusetts- is sort of remarkable. One of woodcuts in the collection went through a 27 color process!

A Hannock landscape:
Stephen_Hannock_-_2015-11-17_01.20.29

PS Where was Sting’s famed wife, Trudie Styler? Directing her first film, “Freak Show,” starring Bette Midler, Abigail Breslin, and Alex Lawther.

James Taylor’s Up and Down Day November 24: Presidential Medal of Freedom and Carly Simon’s Memoir

Roger Friedman
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James Taylor’s Up and Down Day November 24: Presidential Medal of Freedom and Carly Simon’s Memoir

James Taylor has seen fire and rain. But he hasn’t seen a day like November 24th ever. The great singer songwriter is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom that day, along with the likes of Stephen Sondheim, Itzhak Perlman, Steven Spielberg, and Barbra Streisand. That will be one hot ticket at the White House!

But it’s a mixed day. Because November 24th is also coincidentally publication date for Carly Simon’s extraordinary autobiography, “Boys in the Trees,” from Flatiron Press. Simon and Taylor, married from 1972 to 1983, were the most glamorous couple of the Classic Rock era, movie stars among peers like Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Paul Simon and Jackson Browne.

“Boys in the Trees” is hardly salacious, but it is very frank about Simon’s marriage to Taylor. Included are recollections of the infidelity and drugs that led to the break up after eleven years and two children. Simon is very loving toward Taylor but she is also quite candid about what went on behind closed doors. It’s a big part of “Boys in the Trees,” and not one that Taylor will be chatting about on November 24th with President Obama or the other awards recipients.

So brace yourselves– and get ready for a number of Carly Simon TV performances that week as well, on shows like “Stephen Colbert” and “Live with Kelly and Michael.”

“Memento” Remake News Stirs Anger: Worst Idea Yet Comes in Press Release

Roger Friedman
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“Memento” Remake News Stirs Anger: Worst Idea Yet Comes in Press Release

Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” is one of my favorite films of all time. It’s certainly a cult film with a hardcore following of loyalists. Ever since its release in 2000, the backwards told tale starring Guy Pearce, Joey Pantoliano, and Carrie-Anne Moss has again and again made dozens of all time and top 100 film lists.

So this afternoon’s press release that someone other than Nolan was going to remake “Memento” has stirred anger all over social media. AMBI Films, financed by the Bacardi family of Italy, apparently bought a film library that included “Memento.” Their first reaction? To remake a perfect film by an auteur who has since gone on to huge success with the “Dark Knight” movies, “Inception,” and “Interstellar.”

What AMBI doesn’t understand is that you simply don’t do this. It didn’t work for “Psycho” or “The Heartbreak Kid,” for example. Certain classic films cannot and should not be remade. There’s no reason for it, and the public only rejects them twice as hard.

The library AMBI bought includes some interesting titles. First there are personal gems like “Begin Again,”The Ides of March,” “End of Watch,” “The Way Back,” Peter Landesman’s “Parkland,” and Ron Howard’s “Rush.”

But somehow Mel Gibson’s controversial “The Passion of Christ” and “Apocalypto” are in there, too, as well as Gibson in “What Women Want.”

Someone should tell these people to pour themselves a Bacardi and rethink this plan.

It’s ironic: “Memento” is about a man unable to form short term memories. But the movie going audience has a very good long term memory of “Memento.” They will not go for this, with Nolan excluded from the equation. And what decent director or actor will get involved?

National Enquirer Says Charlie Sheen has HIV, Actor to Make Announcement Tomorrow

Roger Friedman
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National Enquirer Says Charlie Sheen has HIV, Actor to Make Announcement Tomorrow

Does Charlie Sheen have HIV? The National Enquirer and Radar Online say he does, and my sources there say the story is “solid.” “We nailed it,” says a source.

A couple of weeks ago Radar broke the story without using Sheen’s name. But the clues were easier to dissect than an episode of “Murder She Wrote.” Now American Media has gone full force with the story, publishing it on all their platforms.

Sheen has consequently declared that he will give Matt Lauer a special interview tomorrow morning on the Today show. He will make a “personal announcement.”

Sheen has lived an unabashed, unapologetic life of debauchery for years. It’s involved sex, drugs and rock and roll. Hookers, porn stars, circus animals– he’s advertised all of it.

In 2011, Sheen went completely off the rails, and caused a long running scandal when he left “Two and Half Men,” was fired, sued Warner Bros. and CBS, lost, went on a crazy tour that indicated a mental breakdown in which he “performed” at big venues like Radio City Music Hall. “Winning” and “Tiger Blood” became catchphrases. But Sheen was hardly winning anything.
He then made an un funny miserable TV series called “Anger Management,” now in syndication, and used solely as background noise.

What a disaster this all is: Sheen comes from a lovely family. His parents, Martin and Janet, are terrific people. His brother, Emilio Estevez, is a great guy. Charlie has five children– an older daughter, and two sons and two daughters under the age of 10.

Meantime, Sheen has not been seen much this year. After carrying on like crazy in public, Sheen has been press shy in 2015. He was photographed by accident on September 1st, and then almost not at all the whole year.

I will never forget interviewing Charlie and the cast of “Three Musketeers” in 1993. Charlie gave a young Chris O’Donnell a full description of “snuff” films. It was kind of shocking. But he was already in an alternate — and scary — universe.

Good luck to him.

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