How old does this make me feel? Matthew and Cari Modine’s kids are busy bees. Weren’t we all just 25 and Matthew was in 
“Vision Quest”?
Their son, Boman, has a short film going to Tribeca with Matthew, Dick van Dyke, Valerie Harper and Glenne Headley. It’s called “Merry Xmas.”
MERRY XMAS – Short Film Trailer from Cinco Dedos Peliculas on Vimeo.
Meanwhile, daughter Ruby is making videos. She has quite a lovely voice. Some record company should snap her up ASAP:
Madonna’s “Rebel Heart” might have been number 1 if it weren’t for the soundtrack to the TV series “Empire.” When the numbers come in this afternoon at hitsdailydouble, “Rebel Heart” will be number 1 on the total chart, which counts streaming and all digital downloads. “Empire” will be number 1. “Empire” will also finish at number 1 on Billboard’s chart, as they now count everything, too.
Who could have guessed that “Empire” would come out of nowhere and steal all the attention in the culture? It’s out of left field, an ambush of sorts.
Madonna’s one consolation: she’ll be number 1 on the hitsdailydouble “regular” chart which is just CDs and digital downloads, but no counts from places like Spotify or Pandora. Some of Madonna’s sales will come from digital copies of “Rebel Heart” that came with concert tickets. But I’m told by various sources that those copies are not a big factor, not anything like they were two years ago for “MDNA.”
The rough numbers stack up like this: “Rebel Heart” will have a total of about 115,00 copies. “Empire” will have around 130,000 copies. Around 25,000 “Empire” sales come from streaming, however. But they count into that total, so in the end, Madonna does not debut at number 1 for the first time since 1998.
Actual numbers: streaming plus sales Empire 128,640; Madonna 121,972.
What I do hear is that next week, Madonna could have a drop similar — around 70%–to her record breaking snap in 2013. Even though Madonna will appear on the “Ellen” show from today through Friday, “Empire” has the momentum. They also have a two hour season finale on Wednesday night that should go through the roof.
New releases today from Modest Mouse and AWOL Nation may play a part in sales of those two albums as well.
On the other hand, Madonna’s concert tickets are where the meat and potatoes are for the Material Woman. And there, she’s doing fine.
But what’s happened to Madonna is not new. Her album sales have been in decline for over a decade. She is no different than any other legacy artist trying to sell new music, from Pink Floyd to Mariah Carey to Jennifer Lopez and so on. Teens drive album sales, and they don’t want even the best music from people older than their parents. Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett are the exceptions. I wish it were otherwise. But radio doesn’t want “old” voices, so there’ s no place to promote this stuff. Sirius XM satellite radio is pretty much the only safe haven for classic artists to showcase new work. And legacy fans pretty much just want the Hits. Over and over. It’s a shame. Maybe this is why Billy Joel shut down writing new music 20 years ago.
What should Madonna do? Her next record should get younger artists to join her in re-recording hits in duets. This usually works like a charm.
PS I love “Ellen,” but the idea of Madonna doing it. She must be biting her tongue the whole time. Young mothers and housewives are not her scene. I hope it helps.
Meanwhile, here’s one of my favorite Madonna songs:
UPDATE Lady Gaga’s lawyer, Tracy Landauer, points out that even those these are the figures, the Born this Way Foundation has helped thousands of teens with the bus tour. Plus, survey information taken from the teens has been extremely helpful in papers delivered for seminars and for educational studies. Plus, they don’t give grants, period. So they’re in the red. You can’t have everything.
EARLIER It’s hard to be a saint in the city. That’s what Bruce Springsteen said right at the start. Lady Gaga is finding that out. She’s tried hard to help her fans through her Born this Way Foundation charity. But there are problems. For 2013, Born this Way finished in the red big time. Revenue less expenses for 2013 was minus $2.2 million. Total assets when all said was done was negative $94,000. Lady Gaga was waiting to be reimbursed for $100,000 in expenses.
No one did anything wrong, and from the Form 990 for Federal filing, there’s no indication that alarms should be ringing. But the charity’s Born the Way bus, which went around the country as an emissary to fans, did them in. For example, this was all after revenue of over $1.8 million.
Unfortunately, the filing is so vague that we don’t know if the silk throated Gaga– aka Stefani Germanotta– donated all the money herself or there were other donees. What it does say that revenue was down from $2.6 million from the prior year. Also, no grants were made to anyone. Zero.
So where did the money go? Salaries increased to $157,388 from a little less than $80,ooo. Who got ’em? We don’t know, but payroll taxes were paid of $15,992 for someone.
Other expenses included $101,796 for travel, $91,574 for legal, $171,459 for “philanthropic consulting.”
Total functional expenses were $4 million for a foundation that didn’t actually help any specific individual. It does seem that around $3 million of that was spent with a company called Jack Morton Worldwide to “create, equip and manage” the Born Brave Bus to fulfill the foundation’s “programmatic objectives.”
You know, I love Lady Gaga’s voice. I admire her spirit and her creativity. I think she’ll be a major force in entertainment for decades. But this Foundation doesn’t seem like it was such a great idea in practical application. Where do things stand now? The website has the equivalent of an “out to lunch” sign on it.
Here’s the video for Jack Morton, a branding and event company. Charity doesn’t seem to be their prime business. Neither does actual business. They seem like one of those companies from thirtysomething. And they’re on Third Avenue, where people wear suits, ties, and dresses.
Heather Mills is such a cow that she had to slag Paul McCartney last week to get attention. Otherwise, she’s just the answer to a trivia question. I thought we’d never hear her name again.
A couple of things about dear Heather that I recall. I met her a few times with Paul, before and after they married. During their engagement the couple turned up at a small press event for something or other at what was briefly the hottest club in New York– called Moomba.
Heather was accompanied by her sister, Fiona, a small, compact woman with a good sense of humor. I asked Heather what her favorite Beatle song was. Her reply: “I don’t have one, I don’t know them. Maybe Blackbird.”
Fiona let out a shriek. “Can you believe it? She doesn’t know any Beatle songs? What’s wrong with her?”
Heather then told me she was a huge fan of Colin Hay and Men at Work. This was long after “Who Can it Be Now” and “Down Under” stormed the charts. Colin Hay, I responded? Are you kidding? She went on and on, and told me she’d even taken Paul to a Colin Hay show.
“Is this true?” I asked him. He shook his head, yes, and also as in ‘don’t ask.’
Poor Heather. She didn’t care about Paul, much less the Beatles. Her whole purpose in that marriage was to use McCartney as a stepping stone. She thought she’d wind up being beloved UN ambassador or some kind of celebrity. Instead, everyone hated her. Now she can’t keep her big mouth shut.
Heather, all anyone was interested in was Paul and the Beatles, dear. And they still are.
Madonna’s concert ticket sales, you don’t have to worry about. A soft start doesn’t mean a bad one, and she only has 8 dates on sale so far. Some cities are starting to add second shows, so you know, Madonna live always does well.
On the charts, it’s a different story. Legacy artists struggle, all of them. In the 70s and 80s we never had artists in their 50s and 60s pushing to stay relevant with new music. Now we have rafts of them, no room on radio, and labels like Verve being shut down. All the while, the audience for older artists increases and no one listens.
Madonna’s “Rebel Heart” is at 7 on iTunes. The physical CD at amazon is down below 100, both clean and dirty versions. The digital version on amazon is at number 2, and the Super Deluxe CD is in the top 10. Madonna is not going to debut at number 1 on Tuesday. She’ll be lucky to finish second. And that’s even with giveaway CDs that come with concert tickets.
Madonna has some big issues about transitioning to adulthood. She cannot sing like Lady Gaga, so there’s no Tony Bennett-type standards album in the future. She’s not going to cover other peoples’ songs. She has to have the songs made for her. In an interview with EdgeMedia she talks about producers coming and going on “Rebel Heart,” and how the hack of her demos caused her a lot of anxiety.
Anyway, “Rebel Heart” will go gold one day (500,000 copies) after Madonna’s toured. If only she had an executive producer to shape the album and market a single. But this is the problem when you’re not really on a label, and your CD is just a tour souvenir. Someone should make a great video for “Addicted to the One that Got Away” of all of Madonna’s ex-es.
Oh me oh my: it’s a rare night when Miss Aretha Franklin doesn’t make three costume changes in her show. But the celebrated Queen of Soul stuck to one feathery white dress and a small boa on Saturday night at the very sold out New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. There was electricity in the air in the grand looking but intimate auditorium, and Aretha obviously felt it. She was enjoying herself too much to waste time with different dresses. She wanted to sing and dance. And she she did.
For Newark, a svelte Miss Franklin brought the legendary HB Barnum and her entire orchestra, famed back up singers (like Vaneese Thomas) and added a big horn section of local players. Her gifted keyboardist Richard Gibbs led the charge, but it was Aretha herself who fired all the shots. Was it a special tea? Lots of rest? Good rehearsal? Whatever it was, she was a vision in white just like she sings in “Freeway of Love,” ripping through her set with a ferocity and precision that was startling. We heard versions of “Natural Woman” and “I Never Loved a Man” like it was 1968.
She has a singular, monumental sound that cannot be mistaken or duplicated, whether she’s scatting a little be bop jazz or going for full throated power a week away from age 73. Classics like “Think” and Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” just lifted off as if she were 30 years younger. She hiked up the dress a bit and danced, then kicked off her shoes for gospel numbers and “going to church.” She played a song she just learned on the piano (her secret weapon because it’s so disarming how accomplished she is)– first time ever– with Fonzie Thornton singing counterpoint that drew cheers
By the time she got to “Respect” it was clear she didn’t want to stop and the audience didn’t want her to, either. The encore was sung from off stage– “The Way We Were” — the effect is to keep your mind on the voice and not worry about where the Queen of Soul is at the moment. It works as well because the arrangement gives the song– which is short — a double back for emotional effect and she can scale Marvin Hamlisch’s delicious melody to a crescendo. And she asked for prayers for Bobbi Kristina Brown, the Houston family and Bobby Brown. Little did we know that the star of Newark R&B, Cissy Houston, was in the house.
After the show, the two lifetime friends had a long meeting backstage. Also in the house, and dancing a little onstage with her when Aretha came back to shimmy and bop to the orchestra’s outro, was “The Wiz” director George Faison.
LOL from amFar in Hong Kong: yes, they say they raised $4 million, which is average for this kind of event, maybe a little low.
But here are the kickers: Robin Thicke, fresh from losing his “Blurred Lines” plagiarism trial, was flown in, paid and performed “Blurred Lines.” Maybe some of his fee can to the $7.4 million he and his collaborators owe the family of Marvin Gaye.
Even better: Leonardo di Caprio sent someone named Gatsby. I met this guy in 2008. He’s Russian and goes by the Milutin Gatsby. You can Google him til the cows come home. He only appears at amFAR events. He invested in an indie movie called “City Island” in 2009, and was among a dozen or so “producers.” Otherwise he doesn’t exist.
Is the The Great Gatsby, whom DiCaprio portrayed a couple of years ago? I don’t know. But he auctioned off, per Leo, tickets to a gala dinner in St. Tropez this summer for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. I’ve told you this before– the Foundation doesn’t exist independently and there’s no accounting for it. It’s a component fund of the California Community Fund, which has almost no transparency.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, and Naomi Campbell were imported for the event. Their expenses, along with Thicke, probably came to more than $4 million. Corporate sponsors paid the bills. No sign of Sharon Stone. Macau casino billionaires Stanley and Pansy Ho were honored. The whole thing sounds like the opening of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie.
But really: if anyone knows who Milutin Gatsby is, please give a shout.
Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” is a whimsical, inventive, delightful and tons of fun movie going experience for all; from the multitudes of tiara and princess wearing little girls, to the adults that accompany them. Branagh’s is a faithful adaption, with some touches of enchanting surprises. The sumptuously stunning visuals with a fine cast, all enhance this classic fairy tale.
Lily James, Lady Rose on Downton Abbey, is a lovely and truly appealing Cinderella. Richard Madden plays the dreamy prince with a sweet sincerity. The film starts with Cinderella quickly losing both her mother, the always terrific Hayley Atwell, and her father, the equally able Ben Chaplin.
But to make matters worse, to say the least, her father stupidly married the evil Lady Tremaine, played by Cate Blanchett, who comes with two dithering daughters, comically well played by (“Downton Abbey” star) Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger. Blanchett, natch, steals every scene she is gloriously in. Her villainy is a feast to watch. Stellan Skarsgard as the Grand Duke, Derek Jacobi as the kind King and Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, are all in fine form.
This Magic Kingdom is a politically correct one, with Africans, Latins and Asians. The Prince’s right hand man is played wonderfully by the black actor Nonso Anozie. The make up, hair, sets and costumes are all rich, elegant and extraordinary. Branagh’s Shakespearean skills have made this telling of “Cinderella,” a classic for the ages.
UPDATE: Sorry. Like “Serena” with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, “The Cobbler” is just playing on VOD and Amazon Prime. So bad they weren’t allowed in theaters. There will be no box office for “The Cobbler.” The shoe didn’t fit.
EARLIER: What can you say about Adam Sandler? He’s headed to Netflix for a reason. In movie theaters, he is poison. Today he opens in “The Cobbler,” which has an 8% rating on rottentomatoes so far — 36 negative reviews, 3 positive. This follows “Men, Women and Children” and “Blended” in his latest run of bad movies. And those follow “Jack and Jill,” “That’s My Boy” and other horror films.
This is in addition to the crap he’s produced, like “Bucky Larson” and “Here Comes the Boom.” Sandler is largely a purveyor of junk, hoping that it will catch on among a mentally handicapped crowd and bring him some good studio money. But the party may be over.
All that’s really left of Sandler theatrically is “Grown Ups” movies– and the title of course is ironic. The title of that series should be adults acting like very slow, stupid children.
The irony of “The Cobbler” is that was directed and polished by Tom McCarthy who until now has just made wonderful movies like “Win Win,” “The Visitor,” and “The Station Agent.” But it’s really the Sandler curse. McCarthy will be back. Sandler will yuck it up in people’s homes from now on.
Sean Penn did an excellent interview last night with Jimmy Kimmel. It may have been scripted, but he did tell Kimmel that he and Charlize Theron, improbably, watch “The Bachelor.” It made for a humorous conversation if nothing else. Penn was very engaging as he promoted “The Gunman,” which so far no reviewer likes. The thriller, coming next Friday, has a zero rating (8 negative reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes. No discussion of Haiti this time. And a veiled reference to Penn and Madonna once going to see a Pee Wee Herman movie with Mike Tyson and Robin Givens back in the good old days. The men dozed, he said, and the women accused them of liking the leading lady too much. (Either Penelope Ann Miller or Valerie Golina.) President Obama preceded Penn on the show, and was very winning.