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Rihanna Tweets “F— You” to CBS Over Football Song Controversy, CBS Responds

Roger Friedman
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Rihanna Tweets “F— You” to CBS Over Football Song Controversy, CBS Responds

UPDATE CBS says they get it. No song.

EARLIER Rihanna shows her usual class and style this morning. She Tweeted Fuck You to CBS. You see this is why Twitter is maybe not the best forum for some celebrities. Anyway. I guess CBS is now going to run the Rihanna segment they cancelled from last week before Thursday night’s NFL game. Last week the network pulled Rihanna singing “Run this Town” with Jay Z because the NFL was in the middle of the Ray Rice scandal — the one with him knocking out his wife in an elevator and then dragging her unconscious body out of it. Since Rihanna was once the victim of domestic abuse (Chris Brown), CBS though thought they were being sensitive. But now it’s okay since, you know, memories are short.

And this is the contemplative response of a woman who’s maybe been spending too much time with Eminem. This will be yet another funny anecdote for Rihanna’s 2025 Kennedy Center induction.

Whitney Houston Live Performances Coming in New Collection

Roger Friedman
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Whitney Houston Live Performances Coming in New Collection

Just in time for Christmas: Clive Davis announced this morning on the Today show that he’s releasing a new Whitney Houston collection. Whitney’s live performances have been culled together and will come out on CD in mid November. You may recall that when Whitney passed away I said that there wasn’t very much in the way of studio recordings. But Houston left a treasure trove of concert recordings that had never been compiled.

Here’s the tracklist:
1. Home (The Merv Griffin Show, 1983)
2. You Give Good Love (The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1985)
3. How Will I Know (The Brit Awards, 1987)
4. One Moment In Time (The 31st Annual Grammy® Awards, 1989)
5. Greatest Love Of All (That’s What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990
6. I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) (That’s What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990)
7. The Star Spangled Banner (Super Bowl XXV, 1991)
8. All The Man That I Need (Welcome Home Heroes, 1991)
9. I’m Your Baby Tonight (Welcome Home Heroes, 1991)
10. A Song For You (Welcome Home Heroes, 1991)
11. Medley: I Loves You, Porgy/And I Am Telling You I m Not Going/I Have Nothing (The 21st Annual American Music Awards, 1994)
12. I’m Every Woman (The Concert For A New South Africa, 1994)
13. I Will Always Love You (The Concert For A New South Africa, 1994)
14. My Love Is Your Love (Late Show With David Letterman, 1998)
15. I Believe In You And Me (The 16th Annual World Music Awards, 2004)
16. I Didn’t Know My Own Strength (The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2009)

Barbra Streisand Does Tonight Show, Finally Gets Her Way with a Left Profile by Sitting in Host Chair

Roger Friedman
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Barbra Streisand Does Tonight Show, Finally Gets Her Way with a Left Profile by Sitting in Host Chair

I think I know the reason Barbra Streisand didn’t do late night TV for 50 years. The hosts wouldn’t let her sit with her left profile. Jimmy Fallon did. He let Barbra sit in his chair for the whole Tonight show tonight. She got her way, and her preferred profile. This is a big deal for Barbra, trust me.

Was it worth it? Yes! Fallon got the most intimate, relaxed interview, talk, performance ever out of her. Barbra did a comedy singing sketch with Jimmy posing alternately as Elvis Presley, Blake Shelton, and Michael Buble. You could tell Barbra loved doing it.

She closed the show singing “Come Rain or Come Shine” live to a track– because the Roots, though we love them, are not equipped for standard pop music in an orchestral arrangement.  You rarely see Barbra Streisand by herself at a microphone with no musicians or singers. Outside of Bette Midler, I don’t who else could do this. Young pop stars should watch this performance.

elvisI really think Jimmy could get an Emmy for this interview. You can tell he is completely captivated and knows his subject. Streisand must have gotten that because she is more endearing and intimate than I’ve ever seen her.

Fallon at one point is so relaxed himself he says to her that he’s surprised she hasn’t been badly behaved, more of a diva. Streisand replies, “That’s why I’m going to write a book. I’m just a normal person.”

Well, not really. But it sure seemed like it.

Happy Birthday to Barbra’s long time mensch of a manager. Marty Erlichman turns 85 today!

Matt Damon, Paul Greengrass Do the Unthinkable: Return to Bourne

Roger Friedman
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Matt Damon, Paul Greengrass Do the Unthinkable: Return to Bourne

Director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon are returning to the world of Robert Ludlum. Deadline’s Mike Fleming got the scoop today that the pair will re-team finally for a third Bourne movie even after Greengrass said he’d never come back. (I think it was Wilson Pickett who sang something like Don’t let the Greengrass fool you…)

If you’re trying to remember what happened here, a little recap might help. Doug Liman directed Damon in “The Bourne Identity” in 2002. Greengrass stepped in and made “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” in 2004 and 2007 with Damon. But then Greengrass got into it with Universal. When they couldn’t reach a financial arrangement for a fourth movie, Greengrass and Damon went off and made “Green Zone.” That didn’t work out. But then Greengrass had a huge hit with “Captain Phillips.” Now he’s back in the game.

Of course, in between all that, came Tony Gilroy’s “Bourne Legacy” in 2012 starring Jeremy Renner. Renner and director Justin Lin were supposed to start another Bourne movie soon. But now Greengrass and Damon will cross them out. Hopefully, Renner and Lin will get to make their film sometime too.

In Hollywood, never again means always — maybe. Greengrass was adamant about not returning to “Bourne.” Damon was steadfast about not making a “Bourne” movie without Greengrass. But now, here we are. Never just meant “wait four years.”

George Clooney Getting Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globes

Roger Friedman
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George Clooney Getting Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globes

George Clooney is receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globes this year. Okay why not? George is an excellent filmmaker and a great humanitarian. Also, he will show up. Last January, Woody Allen skipped the proceedings and sent Diane Keaton. Maybe the Hollywood Foreign Press is giving Clooney the award because they think he’ll invite them to his wedding next weekend. I doubt that will work, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the members with motor skills weren’t in gondolas, ready with their cameras in Venice. Congrats to George, and to NBC, which wants the Golden Globes show stocked with stars.

Robin Thicke Admits He Didn’t Write “Blurred Lines,” Jealous That Pharrell Did

Roger Friedman
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Robin Thicke Admits He Didn’t Write “Blurred Lines,” Jealous That Pharrell Did

The Hollywood Reporter refuses to credit this site for any stories. But I will ignore that this time. Eriq Gardner has gotten a copy of Robin Thicke‘s deposition in his Marvin Gaye copyright case. It’s devastating. For one thing, Thicke sounds either drunk or high during the deposition. He admits that he was stoned for every interview gave in 2013.

He also admits: “After making six albums that I wrote and produced myself, the biggest hit of my career was written and produced by somebody else and I was jealous and wanted some of the credit.”

“Blurred Lines” was in fact written by Pharrell Williams. Thicke wasn’t even in the room when it was being done. He lied through every interview he ever gave on the subject. Now it all comes out. He admits to Marvin Gaye being his hero, to owning Gaye’s greatest hits, “What’s Going On” and most interestingly, “Here My Dear,” the album Gaye wrote about his divorce from Anna Gordy.

“Blurred Lines,” says Marvin Gaye’s heirs, is a rip off of “Got to Give it Up.” I think they’re right. Indeed, I’ve found many Robin Thicke songs that are knock offs of Marvin Gaye’s work.

Thicke says of Pharrell: “He made it [Blurred Lines] without me. I was lucky to be in the room.”

Thicke told the lawyer in this deposition that basically he’s a liar, and lies a lot.

Question: “Do you pick and choose when to tell the truth?”

Answer: “Absolutely. That’s why my wife left me.”

Thicke says in the interview that he’s been sober for two months, but that his sobriety extends just to Vicodin. He’s still drinking but he says he’s not drunk in the deposition.

Mostly this is a sad story about an idiot who was raised in Hollywood and should have known better. About a lot of things. He now comes off as pathetic. Without Pharrell, Thicke’s current album stinks. With Pharrell, he managed to rip off Marvin Gaye. All he had to do was get a license for “Got to Give It Up” and say the song was sampled. Instead, he invented a story about how “Blurred Lines” was written. The whole thing has snowballed into a disaster.

 

EXCLUSIVE Backstage at The View: Nicole Wallace Says She Used to Read the Newspaper to Sarah Palin

Roger Friedman
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EXCLUSIVE Backstage at The View: Nicole Wallace Says She Used to Read the Newspaper to Sarah Palin

Backstage at the The View this morning: the show is back. Barbara Walters sits in the green room, although she did tape a piece right before the show aired. They showed it at the top– all the new hosts kissing her ring while Barbara sat on a red velvet throne. Very funny. But Walters is Emeritus now. After the show, she retreated, and let the new hosts meet the press.

The best part of Monday’s show was the stuff during commercials. Rosie O’Donnell did a lot of standup, very funny, and endearing. This group is not going to fight like the old days. They are almost too sensible. Republican Nicolle Wallace is lovely and smart, not cluess like Elisabeth Hasselbeck. One woman in the audience said: “She’s what Republicans used to be like.”

During a break, one audience member, maybe planted, asked: “Where is Bill Geddie (former exec producer)?” Official answer: he retired with Barbara. I thought it would have been funnier to cut to him drinking in front of the TV at home. No such luck. He’s probably playing golf, I hope, and living on a beach.

Wallace told me after the show that she’s published three novels! One of them, she said, her words, is about “mentally ill vice president.” Wallace clearly has no love for her old employer, Sarah Palin, who fired her right after the famous Katie Couric interview. That’s when Palin was stumped to name her daily reading material.

“I used to read the paper to her,” Wallace told me of Palin. “I read it to her that morning.”

They have not spoken since that day.

Whoopi Goldberg looks amazing. She lost her weight following Rocco DiSpirito’s cookbook. “He put on a lot of weight after his mother passed,” she told me. “So he figured out how to take it off. And wrote about it.” I am getting this book today. It’s called “The Pound a Day Diet.”

Rosie O’Donnell: she kicked off her black patent leather clogs when the show started and sat, legs crossed, in her chair. What happened, I asked? “They gave me these shoes, Alistair McQueen.” Alistair? Anyway. “Whatever. They were killing me. These are just from my closet at home.” The women had one rehearsal. This was the second time they’d all been together. Rosie is singing everyone’s praises. She also looks like a movie star. She’s lost 55 pounds since her gastric sleeve surgery.

“The doctor wants me to lose 30 more. It’s not easy,” she told me.

Rosie Perez: I asked her how she’s going to do a Broadway show this winter, eight performances a week, with Larry David, and do “The View.” Her answer? “I don’t know!” Let me tell you about Rosie Perez. She is one of the brightest, funniest people in the world. She will shine on “The View.”

Funniest thing: warm up song to get the audience in the mood was a disco number called “I Don’t Care.” Not a good choice. These people care a lot.

Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood Daughters Each Directing New Movies

Roger Friedman
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Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood Daughters Each Directing New Movies

Daughters of two veteran Hollywood superstars are directing new films. Both Amy Redford and Alison Eastwood, daughters respectively of Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, have sent out casting notices for films they’re about to helm.

Redford’s film is called “Phoenix,” and already stars Justin Bartha. Constance Zimmer and Olivia Thirlby were attached to “Phoenix” at one time but they may not be anymore.

“Battlecreek” is Alison Eastwood’s film, and it’s written by Anthea Anka, daughter of famed singer and songwriter Paul Anka. This makes “Battlecreek” a double legacy film. “Battlecreek” takes place in a small economically depressed southern town, where “a gifted young painter with a rare skin disorder must live his life at night. When a tormented young woman being chased by her own demons stumbles into town, their relationship forces both to ultimately reconcile with their pasts, enabling them to finally move forward to start a new life…”

“Phoenix” is described as “a one-night-stand between two love-averse strangers threatens to disrupt their carefully constructed worlds and sends them on a headlong, spontaneous 4,000-mile journey from Brooklyn to the Grand Canyon and back.” It’s also written by playwright Scott Organ, based on his play.

Two smart women with good pedigrees– we can look forward to seeing these films maybe next fall or winter 2016– at Sundance, I hope.

 

Exclusive: Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson Star in Peter Bogdanovich’s LOL Comeback Comedy

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson Star in Peter Bogdanovich’s LOL Comeback Comedy

UPDATE Clarius Entertainment has bought “She’s Funny That Way for $4 million. They previously released the very bad “And So It Goes.” This one is much better.

EARLIER Film buffs revere Peter Bogdanovich for his dramatic epic classics “The Last Picture Show” and “Mask.” But I have a soft spot for his hilarious farce “What’s Up, Doc?” with Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal and the magnificent Madeline Kahn. It’s a gem of slapstick French farce, with much hotel room door slamming and missed messages.

Now Bogdanovich has a comeback comedy he’s written with ex wife Louise Stratten. It’s called “She’s Funny That Way” but was filmed last year under the title “Squirrels to the Nuts.” Only Peter could have made this movie in which everyone turns out to related to everyone else, and the entire movie is based on each character making the wrong assumptions about each other. It’s hilarious.

The best part of “She’s Funny That Way” is Jennifer Aniston playing a shrink who tells anyone who asks the identity of her patients and what’s wrong with them. She’s sarcastic, snippy, self involved, and unaware of her behavior. This is what Aniston should play all the time, not these namby-pamby heroines in romcoms. She has wonderful comic timing that’s lost in those films. Bogdanovich saw this in her, and it works.

Owen Wilson is a theater director with a new Broadway play starring his wife (a great Kathryn Hahn) and a big British star (Rhys Ifans). The star has inadvertently caught Owen with a hooker in their hotel– this is a sublime Imogen Poots, who carries the film. Wilson builds on his “Midnight in Paris” work– he’s so watchable and pleasant here, so, shall I say, mature. Even though his character is basically bedding call girls, he actually seems sympathetic.

The movie is filled with cameos– Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter plays a limo driver, there are cameos from Tatum O’Neal, Colleen Camp, Tovah Feldshuh and Lucy Punch. Cybill Shepherd, Richard Lewis, George Morfogen and Austin Pendleton are hilarious, as are Jake Hoffman, Illeana Douglas, Will Forte and Debi Mazar.

I’m told several distributors are vying for “She’s Funny That Way.” Whoever gets it will have a solid spring hit–the perfect movie after a long winter. How nice to see Peter Bogdanovich back in a big way!

Bono: There’s ANOTHER U2 Album Coming from Apple Called Songs of Experience

Roger Friedman
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Bono: There’s ANOTHER U2 Album Coming from Apple Called Songs of Experience

Bono posted a letter on the U2 website on September 9th. In it, he announces a second album coming from Apple-iTunes, called Songs of Experience. So for those of you who didn’t like getting a free album, prepare yourselves. Another one is on its way. I’m so enjoying Songs of Innocence, that I think this is great news.

Here’s the letter:
‘Remember Us?’
A letter from Bono, on the arrival ‘of our new baby’ – Songs of Innocence.

‘Hello, bonjour, ciao, hola, hallo, zdravo, dobar dan, Dia duit, hæ, hej,hei, cześć, olá, ćao, namaste, sawatdee, jambo, pozdravi, Γεια σου, привіт, שלום, مرحبا, こんにちは, , سلام, 你好, Привет….

Remember us? Pleased to announce myself, Edge, Adam and Larry have finally given birth to our new baby… Songs of Innocence. It’s been a while. We wanted to get it right for you/us. We just finished it last week and thanks to Apple and iTunes it’s with you today. That’s already amazing to me as it normally takes a few months to turn this stuff around.

Part of the DNA of this band has always been the desire to get our music to as many people as possible. In the next 24 hours, over a half a billion people are going to have Songs of Innocence… should they choose to check it out. That is so exciting. People who haven’t heard our music, or weren’t remotely interested, might play us for the first time because we’re in their library. Country fans, hip hop afficionados from east LA, electro poppers from Seoul, Bhangra fans from New Delhi, Highlifers in Accra… might JUST be tempted to check us out, even for a moment. What a mind blowing, head scratching, 21st century situation. Over 500 million people… that’s a billion ears. And for the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way… the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail.

You’ll have noticed the album is free to U2.com’ers from the band. It’s also free to everyone on iTunes thanks to Apple. To celebrate the ten year anniversary of our iPod commercial, they bought it as a gift to give to all their music customers. Free, but paid for. Because if no-one’s paying anything for it, we’re not sure “free” music is really that free. It usually comes at a cost to the art form and the artist… which has big implications, not for us in U2, but for future musicians and their music… all the songs that have yet to be written by the talents of the future… who need to make a living to write them.

We’re collaborating with Apple on some cool stuff over the next couple of years, innovations that will transform the way music is listened to and viewed. We’ll keep you posted. If you like Songs of Innocence, stay with us for Songs of Experience. It should be ready soon enough… although I know I’ve said that before…

I hope after listening to our new long player a few times, you’ll understand why it took so long. We really went there… it’s a very, very personal album. Apologies if that gets excruciating… actually, I take that back. No apologies if it gets excruciating. What’s the point in being in U2 if you can’t go there?
There is no end to LOVE.’
BONO

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