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“60 Minutes” Finally Releases Promos for Tonight, Several Days Late: Profile of Sen. Thom Tillis, Basilica of St. Assisi, and A Benign Look at AI

Roger Friedman
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“60 Minutes” Finally Releases Promos for Tonight, Several Days Late: Profile of Sen. Thom Tillis, Basilica of St. Assisi, and A Benign Look at AI

CBS News usually releases the promo for “60 Minutes” on Thursday.

They did that this week for a piece on the restoration of the Basilica of St. Assisi, anchored by Bill Whitaker.

But the two other segments were mysteries until the last few hours.

One piece is about Artificial Intelligence, and maybe a rah-rah supporting the idea of things “AI is really good at.” Donald Trump loves AI, so it sounds like Jon Wertheim’s segment is going to be positive about destroying jobs and lives.

The other piece is about Sen. Thom Tillis, who’s facing retirement. Ross Douthat, who has the charisma of a cardboard box, is going to follow Tillis around and ask him questions that mean nothing. Tillis is a Trump supporter by and large. He’s not going to be wearing a Vote Blue pin.

Douthat will also not ask Sen. Tillis why he kept the ‘h’ on Tom or if anyone calls him Thom.

So there will be no look at anything of real value on “60 Minutes” tonight. The show will follow an NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders.

But there won’t be anything about Macklemore and Free Palestine, or Robert Kraft, or “Naza” the film, or the “Musk” documentary, or anything remotely controversial. A month before a huge election, there won’t be a visit to the Heartland where farmers will express their feelings or any of that.

I think they still have the Funniest Home Video show on ABC, which may be more diverting.

Tom Cruise’s “Digger” Finishes 5th Place Opening Weekend, Beaten by 2 Horror Films, Brad Pitt and a Dog, and Pedophile Chaser

Roger Friedman
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Tom Cruise’s “Digger” Finishes 5th Place Opening Weekend, Beaten by 2 Horror Films, Brad Pitt and a Dog, and Pedophile Chaser

“Digger” is DOA.

Tom Cruise’s odd foray into character acting yielded just $8 million this weekend, and another $12 million overseas.

“Digger,” directed by Alejandro Innaritu, puzzled most people went to see it. Reviewers pasted it, and the Cinemascore was C — which was polite.

On a budget of $150 million are more, “Digger” is dug.

“Digger” finished in 5th place behind two horror films, Brad Pitt and a German shepherd in Alaska wilderness, and Robert Pattinson chasing pedophiles.

The story of a buffoonish billionaire who destroys the environment and then tries to save it should move from Warner Bros. theatrical to HBO Max before the end of the year. Razzie Awards are in its future, not Oscars. But maybe also some Golden Globes nominations.

Some people will say this is a blow for original, non franchise films. But this kind of movie has to make sense for it to work. I’ve just seen Pedro Pascal in “Behemoth!” and that one works beautifully. Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut” is said to be terrific. So it can happen. “Digger” won’t kill off original ideas, but it will encourage everyone involved to read the script and make sure it’s ready for filming.

Neil Young’s New Album is A Masterwork of Melancholia and Farewell That Makes You Think He’s Not Sticking Around Much Longer

Roger Friedman
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Neil Young’s New Album is A Masterwork of Melancholia and Farewell That Makes You Think He’s Not Sticking Around Much Longer

I saw Neil Young live a short time ago. He played a short, decisive show that included only two songs from his album, “Second Song.”

The album, released on Friday, is at number 38 on iTunes, and 288 on amazon. It’s getting less attention than any of the other legacy acts releasing new music, like Paul McCartney, the Stones, and so on.

The reason I went to the show was because I’d posted the 11 minute title track “Second Song,” which I heard once and thought was impressive. I thought I’d hear the songs in concert, but that didn’t happen.

Now I’ve finally spent time with this album, no phones or other interruptions. I was right about the main song. It’s a masterpiece. But the other six are equal to it in every way. For anyone who’s loved albums like “Harvest,” “Second Song” is a top five Neil Young album. It certainly his saddest since the dreary “Tonight’s the Night” way back in 1975.

“Second Song” reminds me of David Bowie‘s final record, “Blackstar,” in that in sounds like a great life summation. I really hope Neil Young is healthy and we have no bad surprises coming. What he’d done here is one of those rare instances where a great artist has experienced a mesmerizing Renaissance. Lightning, out of nowhere, has stuck again.

One reviewer called the album meandering, although it’s not. It’s personal and political. It’s also sweet and melancholy. Neil refers in one song to his marriages and his three children for the first time. This is his great looking-back, and taking stock of his life at 80. It’s not meandering at all. Each of the seven songs is brilliantly constructed, with strong melodies and hooks supporting the lyrics. Listen to it carefully, and you’ll hear the music repeating. The guy who wrote “Ohio” and “Heart of Gold” knows what he’s doing.

The two songs the album hinges on, I think, are the title, the penultimate track, “Soon I Might Be Going.” While the former sounds hopeful about the future while mourning the past, the latter will stop you in your tracks. “Second Song” lives on this verse: I need to talk to someone, someone who smiles and answers back/Someone as old as I am who still remembers some of that/I dream a way of living, a way of sharing what we find/A way of walking slowly through the smoky leaves of time.”

But “Soon I Might Be Going” is a different story. It’s a goodbye, much like Bowie’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away.” Now there’s a special lyric video to go with it. Again, I hope nothing is wrong.

“Soon I might be going, and I wanted just to say
If I’m not here to see it, it doesn’t mean it’s gone away
Trying to make it simple, but I tell you, it’s not
‘Cause here and there and everywhere, the truth is getting caught
And disguised like a celebration waiting for a song
But no one knows the melody and it feels like it was strong
When we all sang together and the children sang along”

The song brackets the album’s opener, another masterwork of melancholia, called “the Foggy Edge of Time,” a farewell to arms if ever there was one.

This is not an album that should just come and go, and be known to a few faithful fans. “Second Song” is important, certainly more than anything in the slots above it on any chart.

Russia Cancels Kanye West, They’re Smarter Than Tampa, San Antonio, Chicago, Other US Cities That Allowed Antisemitic Rapper to Perform

Roger Friedman
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Russia Cancels Kanye West, They’re Smarter Than Tampa, San Antonio, Chicago, Other US Cities That Allowed Antisemitic Rapper to Perform

Kanye West is not going to perform in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The government and the promoter, Say Agency, have shut down his planned concerts on October 10th and 11th.

This makes Russia smarter than Chicago, Tampa, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and other US cities where the antisemitic rapper — known for his “Heil Hitler” music — was allowed to put on shows.

Say Agency posted on Telegram:

Friends, with sincere regret we inform you that the concerts of YE in St. Petersburg on scheduled dates will not be able to take place. In the near future we will come to you with an official statement on the status of the project and further plans.The opportunity to return funds for purchased tickets will open on Monday, October 12, 2026. We will publish details about the rules and conditions of return a little later.Say Agency is very grateful to everyone who was there for these one and a half months: supported us, worried and, like us, waited for these concerts with all our heart. We stay in touch and continue to work.

Kanye aka YE, has three American shows coming soon, one each in Houston and Arlington, Texas and one in Glendale, Arizona. Maybe the people from those municipalities will wise up and take note of the Russian cancellation. PS What does it say for Texas that Kanye has found a fanbase there? Pretty frightening.

Tom Cruise Scores Disastrous Opening Weekend with “Digger” Headed to Just $8 Million, Lowest Since 2007’s “Lions for Lambs”

Roger Friedman
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Tom Cruise Scores Disastrous Opening Weekend with “Digger” Headed to Just $8 Million, Lowest Since 2007’s “Lions for Lambs”

Tom Cruise will be very sheepish now.

His biggest dud is here since 2007’s “Lions for Lambs.”

“Digger” is headed to an $8 million opening weekend.

It’s really his worst ever personal opening weekend since Meryl Streep and Robert Redford were involved in Lions.

“Digger” is Tom on his own, and it’s a mess. Alejandro Innaritu’s social satire cost at least $150 million. It will be remembered as the final nail in the coffin of Warner Bros. As bad as this year has been, “Digger” also represents the end of Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdy’s otherwise successful run at the top of the company.

Things are so bad that the “Digger” Instagram page is full of vitriol.

Somehow the studio has convinced influencers and a few others also to post claims that one day “Digger” will be appreciated as a classic that was misunderstood. I don’t think that is going to happen.

For the rest of the weekend, “Digger” will play to mostly open houses except for the curious and the faithful. I’m now thinking that the bulk of tickets sold at The Grove in LA and some other venues is from Scientology purchases. “Digger” is as mind numbing as an L Ron Hubbard lecture.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s Sister Denise is Back, Cashing in Again 30 Years After Double Murder, We Recall Her Shady History

Roger Friedman
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Nicole Brown Simpson’s Sister Denise is Back, Cashing in Again 30 Years After Double Murder, We Recall Her Shady History

Denise Brown is back.

The sister of Nicole Brown Simpson is on Nightline tonight, interviewed by Diane Sawyer.

Give me a freakin’ break.

The subject is admirable: domestic abuse. Denise wants to warn young women about the perils of it. She’s written a book about, cashing in once again on Nicole.

She also indicates that she’s in touch with Nicole’s kids with OJ Simpson. As far as I know, she’s not.

But Sawyer, usually savvy, lets it go. She doesn’t seem to get what Denise’ s grift has been all these years.

She’s traded on Nicole avariciously. The Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation was eventually shut down because of financial impropriety. Read this link.

And read this story, too.‘

The publicist who sold this interview — let’s say, rather, pitched — really deserves a raise.

Here’s what I wrote on Foxnews.com on October 2, 2000:

10.3.00: Questions About Nicole Brown Simpson Charity 

After this column’s investigation one year ago, you would have thought the Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation was going to get its act together. Wrong.

New government filings for 1999, just recently made available, show that the charity set up in Nicole’s memory by her family is still up to some shady business.

The organization reports that in 1999 it took in $49,000 from public donations.

But it also reports that it paid an almost equal amount — $45,000 — to its staff. The staff includes Denise Brown, Nicole’s sister, chairman of the foundation. She received $17,845 in salary last year. Another $28,000 went to unidentified staff.

In contrast, the Foundation gave away a paltry $3,500 in grants and allocations to battered women’s organizations. The organization’s statement of purpose is to “provide funds to organizations that shelter and protect families caught in the crisis of family violence.”

The organizations listed as recipients of this largesse are the Deschutes County, Ore., Domestic Violence Council ($1,000), Women Helping Women ($500), Phoenix Crisis Center ($500), YMCA ($500), Haven House ($500) and Community Law Center ($500). No addresses or specifics are given for the donees. (A spokesperson for the Deschutes Council verified they had received $1,000, which was used to fund a local conference on domestic abuse. No one from the Nicole Simpson Foundation participated in it.)

However, the Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation spent $16,366 on their own “office expenses” including such non-specifics as “reimbursements,” “outside service” and insurance.

Additionally, the government filing reflects that the Foundation began 1999 with $70,574 in assets and ended the year with $3,063 in the till. This would suggest that nearly $67,000 went to non-charitable pursuits since the group lists only that $3,500 in donations.

They also managed to rack up a $7,000 phone bill and $26,000 in “occupancy” or rent. This means they spent twice as much on phone calls as they did on allocating grants. Maybe they should have used postcards, or pigeons.

Monday was the fifth anniversary of the criminal court decision in the Nicole Brown-Ron Goldman murder trial, which left O.J. Simpson a free man. Since then, the Brown family — which was known to sell pictures of Nicole to the press and once offered her wedding video for sale over an 800 number — has maintained the Foundation in Nicole’s memory.

But last year this column first reported that the Foundation took in about $85,000 in 1998 and paid out only $6,000 to charities. Denise Brown was forced to concede that she was pulling down close to $50,000 in salary. At the time Brown said that the 1999 forms — not yet filed — would reflect a change in the way the Foundation did business.

The foundation’s Web site, by the way, boasts that after Fox411’s story last year, the group “has received a clean bill of health from the attorney general’s office of the state of California. This is very good news for the Foundation, its supporters and victims across the country.” It’s unclear whether they mean the Foundation’s victims, or the victims of domestic abuse.

Kaos: Trump Moving Kennedy Center Honors to 20,000 Seat Arena But Has No Honorees or Network, Also Selling The Pianos in Theater

Roger Friedman
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Kaos: Trump Moving Kennedy Center Honors to 20,000 Seat Arena But Has No Honorees or Network, Also Selling The Pianos in Theater

It’s just another day of chaos at the Kennedy Center.

Donald Trump says he’s staging the Kennedy Center Honors at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC.

He has no honorees, or a producer, or network, but that’s the plan. The Honors are usually held the first week of December. The arena is booked with basketball games, but they could be moved around for the show.

The cavernous arena is also ten times the size of the intimate Kennedy Center. Even if Trump just used the floor seats, the stage is gigantic by comparison which would mean a much different scale for the Honors.

Also, it’s unclear who would be invited, or if the public could buy tickets.

Who could the honorees be at this late date? Country music singers, definitely. Like mind actors such as Jon Voight and Mel Gibson, maybe even Dennis Quaid. Hip hop artist Nikki Minaj has thrown herself into the Trump world this year. So who knows what motley crew could be assembled?

At the same time, word has gone out that the Steinway pianos at the Kennedy Center are being sold off.

Pictures here at slippeddisc.com.

If Trump were just storing the pianos it would be one thing, but selling them off more than suggests the building is coming down. Of course, that would be in violation of the court order. But we New Yorkers know that Trump destroyed the Bonwit Teller department store on Fifth Avenue to build Trump Tower after promising to preserve the store’s front doors. He does whatever he pleases.

Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, Who’s Made Millions During Two Terms, Takes to Twitter to Defend Himself — from CNN, to Start

Roger Friedman
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Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, Who’s Made Millions During Two Terms, Takes to Twitter to Defend Himself — from CNN, to Start

Jared Kushner is on Twitter.

He says he’s going to defend himself after ignoring “false and misleading stories.”

He’s not using Truth Social, but instead the platform owned by Elon Musk.

This should be interesting. Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is thought to have enriched himself with hundreds of millons of dollars over the last 10 years and two Trump terms, will have to be up all night if he goes through with his plan.

His first foray is to rebut a CNN story that he’s benefited financially from the diplomatic work he’s done in the Middle East.

His first two Tweets are below.

By taking on CNN, Kushner is opening himself up to a lot of reporting and refuting. Where is this going? It’s interesting that he decided to announce this on the same day that Skydance touted taking over Warner Bros, which owns CNN. They already own CBS, which will have to report this story.

Dig This: “Digger” Digs Its Own Grave with Lowest Tom Cruise Preview Numbers in Decades — Ill Conceived Satire Earns $1.2 Mil

Roger Friedman
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Dig This: “Digger” Digs Its Own Grave with Lowest Tom Cruise Preview Numbers in Decades — Ill Conceived Satire Earns $1.2 Mil

Can you dig it?

Tom Cruise’s new movie, “Digger,” has a rough go in previews last night.

Total was just $1.2 million. Budget is said to be between $150 and $180 million.

Cruise doesn’t make a lot of non franchise movies. Since 2014 there’s been “Edge of Tomorrow,” which made $1.6 million in previews, and in 2017 “American Made,” which had a total opening day of $6.8 million.

The Alejandro Innaritu-directed satire has been pasted in reviews, with a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Last night, moviegoers saw it for the first time. Social media posts have been brutal.

“Digger” is actually worth seeing, much like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” or other big misses like “Amsterdam” or “Babylon.” You can see what could have been. The filmmaking is top notch, but the story choices are a mess.

As I said in my review, a movie with Cruise playing the Digger character as a supporting role was the way to go. If Tom had made one or two appearances in the film he would have gotten an Oscar. His Big Speech moment was enough. But Digger is a flavor in another movie, not the the main course.

Skydance Debuts as Parent Company of Warner and Paramount, Warner Bros Film Chiefs Are Out After Tough Year As “Digger” Bombs

Roger Friedman
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Skydance Debuts as Parent Company of Warner and Paramount, Warner Bros Film Chiefs Are Out After Tough Year As “Digger” Bombs

It’s all happening.

David Ellison has joined Twitter and debuted the new parent company of Warner Bros and Paramount. It’s Skydance! Jeff Sneider called it, yesterday.

Ellison has hired the head of Mattel to run the company. Don’t toy with us, David! Ellison is already letting go Warner Bros. chiefs Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdy, who had an amazing 2025 and a terrible 2026. DeLuca and Abdy will rise like phoenixes soon enough. They are incredibly talented.

All of this comes as Tom Cruise’s “Digger” is bombing. Last night’s box office numbers are about to hit.

This whole Skydance thing is going to end in tears. But for now, we will get the full experience, sort of like AOL and Time Warner.

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