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Two hundred fifty journalists signed a letter today to the White House Correspondents Association.
They urged the group to take a hard line against Donald Trump when he attends their annual dinner this Saturday night.
The group provided a list — see below — of their justified grievances to how the Trump Administration has regarded the press. You know, Trump has no respect at all for the press, or anyone except dictators.
A nice group signed the letter, but most of them are not star names. Almost none are working at a network or big media now. Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson, Ann Curry, Lynn Sherr, and Bob Dotson signed. So did a couple of bylines like Jackie Judd and Claire Atkinson, who are working now.
By and large, though, really strong names either passed or weren’t asked. No one from CBS, that’s for sure. They’re having a party for Trump and co Thursday night, a complete violation of journalistic ethics. Bari Weiss is making a name for herself.
There’s a very big tent set up on the plaza at Lincoln Center. Like, the biggest ever.
That’s where Disney will launch “The Devil Wears Prada 2” tonight.
The studio is spending millions, treating this release as if it were a Marvel movie, and Meryl Steep was playing Iron Man.
They’re actually ponying up for a livestream of the red carpet on Disney Plus, which you know will include insipid announcers asking, What are you wearing?
One reason for all this fanfare: Disney has no other movie for adults right now. And they see potential in the sequel to the 20 year old comedy.
Tonight’s guest list will include the cast — Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci. There will surely be other celebrities drawn from the fashion world. Among those attending is Anna Wintour of Vogue magazine, previously the butt of the original movie’s joke. Now she’s in on the joke, promoting the film.
No reviewers have seen “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which has been done intentionally. Critics won’t see the movie until a week from today, and even then reviews are embargoed until the last minute — next Wednesday, 36 hours before “previews.”
Who will be there tonight are social media influencers. The studio pays agencies to find them people with large followings on TikTok, Instagram, and so on whom they can treat like A listers. More and more influencers are turning up on red carpets and in the pictures taken on red carpets. You’ve never heard of them, but the studios know them.
There’s a plan afoot here. Tonight, the “social media embargo” is lifted for “Prada 2.” This means that Twitter and every platform will be flooded with breathless takes on the movie from those very same bloggers and posters. Many will exclaim that the movie is “the GOAT,” the best comedy they’ve ever seen, etc. There will be a lot of talk about the costumes, and fashion, but not a lot about the actual film.
The social media attack will mitigate any middling reviews the film will get next Wednesday. Even if the Rotten Tomatoes score is — let’s say — a moderate 79%, the fix will already be in. The studio will have plenty of enthusiastic quotes for ads. The idea is it won’t matter what film critics have to say about “Prada 2.” The foundation will have bene laid for success. Already the social influencers are predicting a “$90 million first weekend” for the film. A “Prada 3” seems inevitable.
Already in fact you can type the words “devil wears prada” into Instagram to find gushing posts from influencers. They’re literally doing the leg work of publicists. And this isn’t just for this movie. It’s now for everything.
Disney, by the way, is sponsoring all kinds of “private screenings” around the country at the end of the week. They also held competitions for fans to bid on tickets to tonight’s premiere. Between the contest winners and the influencers, the red carpet sounds like it will be a you-know-what.
Me, I’m going to see Bruce Springsteen in Newark. No one will be asking me what I’m wearing, trust me.
Tonight’s airing of the documentary about Boston Marathoner Rachel Foster on ESPN didn’t happen.
The replay won’t happen tomorrow after the Marathon, either.
Famed producer Frank Marshall — who also directed the film — wrote on Twitter this evening:
“I’m sad to report that RACHEL, BREATHE, will not premiere on ESPN2 today. After several days of negotiations that should have been very simple and were not about money, but rights, the ESPN lawyers stopped talking to us an hour before broadcast and said, “sign it now or we are pulling the show”. I’m extremely disappointed for Rachel and John and entire team that spent 2 years making this film about hope, love and friendship. We remain genuinely excited for the day this documentary reaches the world, it is simply not tonight. And just like Rachel, we remain resilient and the moment I know where and when the premiere is, you will hear from me. And thanks to Dick’s Sporting Goods for fighting the fight.”
What a shame. Joanna Forscher’s documentary follows the challenges of Rachel Foster, who finished the 2023 Boston Marathon after waking up from a four month coma. The film follows her path to training and finishing the 2025 Marathon. It was supposed to be shown tonight, and then tomorrow following the Marathon.
Producers include Marshall — one of the great producers in Hollywood, as well as a top producing team.
ESPN is notably greedy and difficult to work with. They’re currently also in a dispute with MLB Network for Major League Baseball. For them to deny this broadcast is pretty small on their part.
Bruce Springsteen, Stevie van Zandt and their whole gang — the E Street Band, the Disciples of Soul — put on quite a show Saturday night in Asbury Park.
The occasion was the annual American Music Honors at the Springsteen’s Center for American Music at Monmouth University. Among the honorees were The Doors, and the E Street Band. The Doors’ John Densmore was a special guest. Other honorees were Dionne Warwick, Patti Smith, and Dr. Dre. There was also a special tribute to The Band.
This is what these people do during a few days “break” between arena shows. The energy remains as high as ever. Monday night they’re at the Prudential Center in Newark before a raft of shows in the NY area. Rust never sleeps!
What I love about this is that it’s “Light My Fire,” but E Street Band style. Gotta love it! Many videos below:
The days of everything, everywhere all at once are over.
A24, which has delivered some great movies over the years, is struggling.
Right now their big release is “The Drama.” The Robert Pattinson-Zendaya dram-com lost 500 theaters on Friday, down to a still healthy 2,629.
But interest has ebbed in “The Drama,” which was sold as a romcom but turns out to be sludge. Weeks three and four will see more theaters gone, and then off they go to streaming.
The company’s new release, “Mother Mary,” is on the precipice of failure. Critics rated it at 71%, there aren’t enough audience reactions to get a score. Anne Hathaway is lucky she has “Devil Wears Prada 2” coming soon. “Mary” is not her golden ticket.
A24 similarly has had challenges with “Pillion,” “How to Make a Killing,” “The Moment,” “The Materialists,” and “Marc by Sofia.” Forget about mass appeal, these films don’t have the limited kind. Let’s not get started about “Eddington.” Or the Dwayne Johnson wrestling movie.
Most of these movies share one thing: they’re downers. They end badly. They’re not edgy in a “good way,” like “Sex, Lies and Videotape.” They’re just uncomfortable-making and pointless. The only thing that’s really worked recently was “Marty Supreme,” built largely on the marketing (we all know how that went) and that the ending was hopeful.
The next chance for A24 is “The Invite,” directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton. This is Wilde’s second chance after the dreadful “Don’t Worry Darling.” So far there’s good buzz for this comedy, which could be a breath of fresh air. And maybe there will be $250 jackets!
One thing about the A24 movies: they never seem shaped in the process of filmmaking. There’s no connective tissue among the films. It feels like all the directors get final cut, without any consideration for the audience.
NOW: Madonna hit number 1 this morning on iTunes with “I Feel So Free,” the Giorgio Moroder -like dance track she dropped earlier this week.
EARLIER: Madonna made a not so surprise appearance last night at Coachella.
She shared the 20th anniversary of her own Coachella show in 2006 performing a medley of her hits like “Like a Prayer” and “Vogue” with the night’s star act, Sabrina Carpenter.
The pair then premiered their duet from Madonna’s new album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor 2.”
The song is called “Bring Your Love,” and it feels like Madonna may have her first real hit in two decades. She and Sabrina are like a Before and After picture, and that’s not bad.
Madonna is doing everything right so far with this release. Stay tuned…
First video is fan made, but the recording is excellent. Maybe too good. Second video actually from the show.
UPDATED At different times, Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have worked together over the years.
I actually saw them perform together in April 2009 at Radio City Music Hall.
Back in the early 70s, Paul contributed a song called “Six O’Clock” to Starr’s famous “Ringo” album.
Now Paul and Ringo will each sing on a new track called “Home to Us” on McCartney’s new album called “The Boys of Dungeon Lane.”
It’s the second time they’ve made a duet. The first was Ringo’s “Walk with You.” (See below)
At a special listening session in Los Angeles, Paul addressed the crowd. Per Variety, he said: “It’s a duet. It was really nice, because we’ve never done that. Ringo’s never just taken a duet with one of the Beatles, you know? So, there you go. We had it.”
(Actually, this is the second time. But when you’ve been making records for 70 years, who can remember?)
The producer of the album — coming May 20th — is Andrew Watt, who’s made magic with both the Rolling Stones, and with Elton John and Brandi Carlile. He has a new album coming from the Stones. And Ringo has a new album coming next Friday, produced by T Bone Burnett.
Until then, we have the first single from the album, called “‘Days we Left Behind.” PS I’m surprised no one at the listening session asked Paul why he didn’t include a song called “In Liverpool” on this autobiographical album.
I sound like Chicken Little, but the roof is caving in on all music.
Three of the top five songs on iTunes are AI productions. They are by “Eddie Dalton” and “IngaRose.”
But there are more, many more we don’t know about.
Right now in the top 100 there are several including at #32, “Black Sheep” by IndependentMusiccart, “Valhalla Calling” by Ragal Ironbull, “Blackwater Damned” by Burning Bridges AI, King Wiillonius’s “Do You Ever Get Tired,” and Jada Monroe’s Slow Ruin.”
Sprinkled through the top 100 are also more songs each by Eddie Dalton and IngaRose.
There’s another so-called artist called Maphna, who may be AI, too. There’s a debate online.
That’s a dozen by my count and there may be more. YouTube is filled with fake videos of fake songs by fake singers.
The music business and recording artists are very naive. These “creators” are here to eat your lunch. They will destroy the business unless someone stops them. So far no one will. Warner Music actually made a deal with Suno Music for $500 million to let the AI firm use music by the company’s artists.
If you still don’t get it, Suno has a platform — some of it is free — where me, you, your neighbor can design songs, albums, artwork, and make it seem like they’re real. Suno is only interested in the end of real musicians and the rise of AI fakery.
And Suno is not alone. There are plenty of other programs.
Take heed, people. Many musicians belong to the AFM, American Federation of Musicians. But most do not. No one has stepped up to stop the infiltration of AI– not the Recording Academy, or the RIAA, or anyone who could protect musicians.
If I were a “rock star” or performer, I’d be on the warpath. A dozen chart spots are now unavailable on iTunes Singles — albums, too — and it’s getting worse.
Also check out my stories on Eddie Dalton and real AI producer Dallas Little, who’s at the root of the iTunes manipulation.
I didn’t believe recent reports that Mariah Carey was cash strapped. But she turned up last night singing at a Tiffany & Co. ribbon cutting, their Blue Book launch — not sure what that is.
Random celebrities turned up like Naomi Watts, Teyana Taylor, and Connor Storrie from the “Heated Rivalry” TV show. (His next stop may be a bowling alley, too.)
A lot of the pictures from the party on WireImage are of influencers. Who is Lucky Blue Smith, you might ask? He was Teen Vogue’s “Model of the Moment” in 2015. His wife, Nara Smith, is a “Model and influencer.” GQ says they’ve gone viral. I wish had some penicillin.
Into this frazzled mess came Mariah Carey. She sang four or five songs — to pre-recorded tracks, no band. See below: the crowd had to be hushed so she could sing. It was like dinner theater.
Mariah is supposed to be a diva, well above this fray. But times are tough. Her records don’t sell, and her touring is limited to three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She’s trying to unload her massive Tribeca penthouse for $27 million. If Tiffany paid her a million bucks, she probably took it.
Poor Tiffany’s. How times have changed. In the old days, everything they did was an ‘event’. Maybe ‘drive-thru’ is coming. And Mariah: time to start clipping coupons.
His latest novel, “See You on the Other Side,” was panned by the New York Times this week.
Dwight Garner wrote: “It depressed me to so thoroughly dislike this novel.”
He wasn’t so depressed that he didn’t eviscerate it.
The novel, published Tuesday, is a sales stiff. On Amazon, it’s sitting at number 1,399 on the best seller list.
(UPDATE WEDS 4/22: “See You on the Other Side” is now number 3,145.)
Knopf paid for the book and allowed Gary Fisketjon, whom they fired a few years ago for all kinds of misbehavior, to edit it.
Was there no way out of this thing?
According to Garner, the book is just long lists of expensive products and celebrity names used to prop up nothing much at all. McInerney is trapped in the 1980s, when his “Bright Lights, Big City” was a huge success.
But it’s 40 years later, and now everyone has what people in the 80s drooled over. Fashion labels are not a big deal. You want Frette sheets? They’re on Gilt.com. Louis Vuitton and Prada are on the subway. No one cares about these people.
And that’s what McInerney doesn’t get. How could he? He married an heiress years ago, and lives in a bubble on the Upper East Side. That he’s even mentioning Black Lives Matter in the novel is hilarious. According to Garner, the main character, Russell, orders food from Jean-Georges while his wife is in the hospital dying of cancer. Without a hint of irony.
For me, the irony is that 40 years ago next month, Fisketjon and a bunch of jackals took over the solid, highly respected Atlantic Monthly Press, where I worked. They wrecked the place immediately. Every night at 5pm, while the rest of us worked, the duo entertained people in a corner office with “cocktails.” My lasting image of McInerney, red nosed, looking in the marketing office aghast about lowly we seemed. He actually held a martini glass daintily in one hand. I’ve never forgotten he was wearing silk trousers that flapped about his ankles.
I sure hope we don’t see him on the other side of anything.
