Thursday, December 18, 2025
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Soap Opera: “General Hospital” Adds 140K Viewers With Genie Francis’s First Week Back

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Soap opera ratings are always volatile, especially as seasons change. But last week, according to tvbythenumbers.com, “General Hospital” added 140,000 viewers up from the prior week.

The reason? The return of Genie Francis, who’s played Laura on the soap since she was a teenager. Francis has been gone for a couple of years this time. Now she’s back to help get Anthony Geary, who’s played Luke just as long, off the show for what’s supposed to be his “retirement.”

“General Hospital” also picked up 20,000 viewers age 18-49 last week. They’ve been struggling in that category recently with eight straight weeks of low numbers. They’re way off from one year ago in that regard.

Since I’m writing about soaps here, I will tell you that last week I had my own soap moment. At the party for Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet’s movie “A Little Chaos,” I had the honor of meeting the lovely actress Beverly Penberthy. She played Pat Randolph, a central character on the NBC soap “Another World” from 1968 to 1982. She was one of the real outstanding talents of the New York-Procter & Gamble soaps, understated and restrained, never a scene chewer, and a steady force in the days when I was doing homework. She was joined at the party by her real life daughter, Elizabeth, and her Elizabeth’s husband.

It turns out Beverly– who doesn’t look much different now– acted in the first ever play Alan Rickman directed in the U.S. It was called “Desperately Yours,” and was produced at the Colonnade Theater (now where Blue Man Group resides) in 1980, when Beverly was at the height of her long run on “Another World.” She and Rickman have remained close ever since then. Small world!

Of course we talked about the soap in depth since I had a lot of questions about all the actors and the characters– they all seemed very real back then. Beverly is still quite friendly with a few who remain above ground (“Another World” had a back mortality rate) including Susan Sullivan, who played Lenore Curtin before going on to prime time. (She’s on “Castle” now after long runs on “Dharma and Greg” and “Falcon Crest.”)

It was just swell to meet the Penberthy’s although Elizabeth did have to caution me a few times that her name is not Marianne (Pat’s TV daughter) and that everything that happened on the show was fiction. I’m still getting over that.

Charlie Sheen Calls Denise Richards “A Heretic Washed Up Piglet Shame Pile” on Twitter

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Charlie Sheen, the most reprehensible of all the celebrities rewarded by the public and not in jail, doesn’t seem to realize that one day his children will read everything he’s said and done. Today, Charlie– celebrating Father’s Day– posted this on Twitter. My guess is Denise Richards, his ex wife and mother of his two small daughters, didn’t let him see his kids today.  Meanwhile, Charlie does celebrate in the same Tweet, Brooke Mueller, mother of his two sons, with whom he’s warred continuously when she wasn’t in rehab. Martin and Janet Sheen must live on mood lifters. I don’t know how they do it.

Taylor Swift Leverages Her Pop Power Status and Tells Apple Off In Open Letter

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Taylor Swift is getting to be a perfect person. After boycotting Spotify, she’s now doing the same to Apple Music. She won’t let her multi  million selling “1989” album be streamed on Apple Music’s service. This is a BIG freaking deal. She’s taking on the biggest power in music. But she can do it. She’s getting good advice and making excellent decisions. Because– “1989” is still selling like crazy. And it’s going to win the Grammy Award next year.

Read her statement:

I write this to explain why I’ll be holding back my album, 1989, from the new streaming service, Apple Music. I feel this deserves an explanation because Apple has been and will continue to be one of my best partners in selling music and creating ways for me to connect with my fans. I respect the company and the truly ingenious minds that have created a legacy based on innovation and pushing the right boundaries.

I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.

This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.

These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much. We simply do not respect this particular call.

I realize that Apple is working towards a goal of paid streaming. I think that is beautiful progress. We know how astronomically successful Apple has been and we know that this incredible company has the money to pay artists, writers and producers for the 3 month trial period… even if it is free for the fans trying it out.

Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing. I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple has done. I hope that soon I can join them in the progression towards a streaming model that seems fair to those who create this music. I think this could be the platform that gets it right.

But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.

Taylor

Pixar’s “Inside Out” Highest Opening Weekend Ever for a Totally Original Movie– Not Based on Anything or a Sequel

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A few weeks ago, everyone was complaining that “Tomorrowland” failed because it was original. Hah!

Pixar’s “Inside Out” is now the highest opening weekend ever- $92 million– for a totally original movie not based on anything or a sequel. It’s not from a comic book, and it’s the second, third, or fourth installment of anything. Isn’t it kind of sad that the entire list of opening weekend records is devoted to those movies?

“Inside Out” is 41st on the list of all time opening weekends including all of those sequels.

This is quite an achievement, and also because the movie is terrific and could be a Best Picture nominee. If you’ve seen it, and by now a lot of people have, you know it.

Meanwhile “Jurassic World,” not original but another excellent studio film, made $102 million this weekend and finished at number 1. It fell just a notch short of $400 million total, but will cross that line tomorrow.

As I wrote yesterday “Love & Mercy,” the Beach Boys movie, expanded by 220 theaters and made less money than it did last week. That party is over. Wouldn’t be nice if Roadside Attractions knew how to market a movie? I hate to say ‘I Told you so.’

“Cinderella” crosses the $200 million mark tomorrow. Disney is having quite the year with “Cinderella,” “Age of Ultron,” and “Inside Out.” “Tomorrowland” is just an aberration, although it’s still possible it will make $100 million.

Friday Box Office: Dinosaurs Whomped by Pixar, But Jurassic At $640 Mil Worldwide

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Pixar’s brilliant “Inside Out” debuted at number 1 last night, beating “Jurassic World” by $5 million. “Inside Out” took in a huge $34.2 million to “Jurassic”‘s $29 million.

But wow– those are Friday night numbers. That’s the second Friday for “Jurassic,” which now has $640 million in the bank world wide. China alone represents $100 million in the box office.

On the lower end of things, the Brian Wilson Beach Boys movie “Love and Mercy” is dead. They expanded to 792 theaters last night and made less than they did last Friday when they were in 573 locations.

I said it from Day 1– Roadside Attractions is Roadkill. They don’t know how to release a movie. “Love and Mercy” got solid reviews. Everyone who’s seen it has loved it. But Roadkill has no marketing or public relations. Nothing about this release makes any sense. I’ll get into this more tomorrow. But why anyone would sell them a movie now is a mystery to me. “All Is Lost” has become their motto.

Tony and Gaga Hit Radio City: She Has 9 Costume Changes, He Sings Like Time Has Stopped

Tony Bennett, ageless, and Lady Gaga, reinvented, took Radio City Music Hall last night for the first of four sold out shows. She had nine amazing costume changes. He sang like time has stopped still. Martin Scorsese was in the fifth row. What else do you want?

I’m a big fan of the Tony-Gaga project, the album “Cheek to Cheek,” the whole thing. Tony is really almost 89, and the classic American songbook just flows out of him. “My record company says why do you keep singing old songs?” he tells the audience. “And I say, because I don’t know the new songs.”

Also, they are not constructed in any way that would help him. They don’t have melodies, flourishes, or crescendos. Tony Bennett scales crescendos like they are Mount Everest. You had to watch him go after Duke Ellington’s “Solitude,” last night. It’s a not well known song, like “Cheek to Cheek” or “Anything Goes.” Bennett approaches it not just as a skilled mountaineer, but a mathematician. He conquered it with such grace last night that he got a standing ovation from people who didn’t even know what was going on. They just knew they’d heard something amazing.

tony and gaga 2

Gaga made nine costume changes in under two hours. She doesn’t need to. It’s her thing. Her voice stands on its own. But it’s part of her shtick. One of the outfits, a red lace number, was totally see-through. Totally. She also evoked Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Totie Fields, and a half dozen other icons. She moves from elegant to kitschy and back again. Each one is a Broadway show unto itself. She knows how to make entrances.

After the show, backstage, I complimented her on the dresses. She said, wisely, “They’re just the dessert.” The voice is the main meal. It’s four star.

Gaga’s jazz voice was the surprise of all time when she sang with Tony on his Duets II album. Then they made “Cheek to Cheek” and you hear that it’s really real. She’s not quite Natalie Cole, but with time and training she will conquer some of the high notes she’s looking for. Her middle range is exceptional, like buttah. Obviously, her sense of theatricality doesn’t hurt. This is what she born to do.

Four shows at Radio City, all sold out. As Tony sings, after eight decades, “Who’s got the last laugh now?” Also, really, you’ve got to see this audience. It’s one half middle aged- to senior citizens, one half young people and trans everything. And there’s a lot of crossover. For the younger half, the 36 piece orchestra plus Tony’s famed quartet must be a revelation. Please– shout outs for Mike Renzi, Harold Jones, Marshall Wood, and Gray Sargent. Live music! No pre-recording, samples, synthesizers. Imperfections. The most gorgeous trumpets, saxophones, piano, acoustic guitar, and “Count Basie’s favorite drummer.” (Who?, thought around three thousand people. Count Basie, dammit!)

Tony, Tony, Tony: He has this neat trick. He sings “Fly Me to the Moon” a Capella, unadorned, unplugged as the kids say, no mic. In gigantic Radio City, which he points out was “designed by Liza Minnelli’s father” (not exactly, but a beautiful Tony take on Vincente Minnelli’s two year run 1933-35 as set and costume designer for all productions). You could hear a pin drop in the hall, and Tony’s voice floated up, up, up to the farthest reaches or Art Deco arches on waves of cushiony air. The commitment, the resolve, the love made every note fly, and they landed in the rafters to rapturous delight. It was like a Derek Jeter home run.

That, my friends, is entertainment.

Rock Hall Scandal as One Third of Nominating Committee Dismissed

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Thanks to Billboard for reporting this story first: 16 of the 42 members of the nominating committee have been dismissed. Most or all of them have been there a long time and represent the bloc of voters who still lobby for early rock and R&B pioneers who’ve been overlooked or purposely dismissed out of hand for induction.

Among those artists would be people like Chubby Checker and the late Billy Preston, as well as Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas and many artists from Stax Records.

I’m hearing that among those gone are famed publicist Bob Merlis, record exec and soul music specialist Joe McEwen, former Rolling Stone editor Joe Levy, etc.

I reported in January 2010 that Jann Wenner, who runs the Rock Hall, wanted to cut the eligibility time down from 25 to 20 years. The reason was that to sell the Rock Hall induction ceremony as a TV show to HBO, Wenner needed stars, not old or dead actual founders of rock.

Replacing nominators with younger people who have no attachment or feel for rock origins, and moving up the eligibility means Wenner can continue to skip over acts he doesn’t like and move on to more recent stars.

But there are plenty of artists not in the Rock Hall with lots to gripe about. J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf are an example. So are Chicago, the Moody Blues, Carly Simon all glaring omissions. And there are problems with Bon Jovi, whom Wenner has kept out, and Sting, whose solo career is now five times as long as the one he had with the Police. Nile Rodgers and Chic still aren’t in, neither are The Cars. Motown’s Marvellettes, and Mary Wells, Todd Rundgren, and many others.

The Rock Hall already is jeered by real rock fans. I’ve written about their financial situation for years– millions in the bank, no help to indigent musicians. The CEO gets $400,000 a year, etc.

Wenner may urge his new nominators to make the five year jump now simply because the crop of acts that are eligible in the next round aren’t that interesting. Smashing Pumpkins? A Tribe Called Quest? I don’t see it. You have to go to the next year to get Pearl Jam and Alannis Morissette. If he moves the full years up, Radiohead and Beck are actually eligible. And out the window would go the long list of real rock pioneers and influencers.

There’s also a theory that Wenner will now try to force in groups like Journey or Kansas so that the HBO show turns into 80s nostalgia.

Stay tuned…

Janet Jackson: New Single is Imminent, Album Will Make Grammy Deadline

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Janet Jackson’s album and world tour are on pace. This week she released a little video clip on Twitter of a potential new song. The exciting part is that she’s actually singing, not yodeling hip hop story. Her voice sounds great, very Jacksonian.

Meantime, I spoke with the head of BMG Recorded Music, Jon Cohen, co-founder of Vagrant Records. His company was merged into BMG Music Publishing and now they’re actually running a label, not just a music publisher. (“Vagrant,” Cohen reminds me, “still exists.”)

“We are working this record,” Cohen assured me of Janet’s new release. “And we are wholly invested in funding it. We’re not licensing it. We use a real recording selling staff. We’re in partnership with Janet creatively.”

Cohen says a single from Janet is due imminently– and the album should be delivered in July for a late summer release. They will definitely make the September 30th Grammy eligibility deadline.

Meantime, Janet’s social networking looks like it’s in place. She’s very active on Twitter and Facebook, where you can find videos from the dance auditions for her tour.

NBC’s Brian Williams Tells Matt Lauer on Today: “I told stories that weren’t true”

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Here’s the video of this morning’s interview with Brian Williams. It sums up at about 9:38. “I told stories that weren’t true,” Williams, now the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, says. Lester Holt replaces him. Williams gets kicked to MSNBC so that Comcast doesn’t have to pay out any part of his contract. Williams still receives $10 million a year. “This came from a bad place…inside me,” Williams says.

To me he sounds like Richard Nixon. He never once says these words, “I lied.” Watch this video. It’s brutal– especially since NBC has embedded a Dunkin Donuts commercial with Joel McHale. Keep refreshing.

Aretha Franklin Almost Had the Hit “Upside Down” in 1980, Before Diana Ross

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Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, didn’t think he’d be stuck in Albany on the night of his big fundraiser in the Plaza Hotel ballroom. But you know, all that rent stuff, and other matters, meant he and the legislators were not leaving the capital.

To the rescue: Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, resplendent in a silvery super hero gown with cape. And she was like Wonder Woman, singing a few songs in exceptionally fine voice– the classic “Spring is Here,” (from offstage, and the audience was wowed), her own “Chain of Fools,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Aretha saved the day!

She did something for the Cuomo faithful that was so brilliant they almost didn’t deserve it– Aretha sat down at the shiny black shellacked baby grand piano in the Plaza ballroom and accompanied herself on “My Cup Runneth Over.” (She is a naturally gifted intuitive keyboardist who still takes lessons.) The acoustics were amazing, plus Aretha brought in a sound guy. The result was something beyond magic. She should really do a whole album like that, live and unadorned. The audience went crazy.

Afterwards, Aretha and co. headed off to her favorite spot, the Ritz Carlton bar lobby, where the staff whipped her up all kinds of delicacies. For fun, Aretha surprise-called producer Nile Rodgers to reminisce about how she turned down the song “Upside Down,” which went to Diana Ross.

“I didn’t like his presentation,” Aretha said, laughing about it now. “They wanted me to just sing it. I wanted to study it. I could have had a big number 1 hit, but I threw them [Rodgers and Bernard Edwards] outta my house!”

Luckily, she had a lot of other hits anyway.

PS The big white bandage on her arm? I’m told she got a second degree burn from steaming one of her gowns. Why she was steaming her own gown is beyond me, but Aretha likes to do-it-for-herself, like the song says.

 

photo c2015 Showbiz411.com