Mariah Carey dropped her new single this morning– “You’re Mine (Eternal)” and a remix version featuring Trey Songz. You can hear it here. The real video debuts tonight. The album comes on May 6th. It’s no longer called “The Art of Getting By.” A new title is forthcoming.
Eva Marie Saint, 89 Years Young, Makes Her First Film in 7 Years: “Americans Don’t Honor Older Actors”
Why isn’t Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint our Judi Dench or Maggie Smith? She told me last night at the premiere of “Winter’s Tale”: “Americans don’t honor our older actors. It’s that simple.”
“Winter’s Tale” is Eva Marie’s first movie in 7 years. She last played Ma Kent in “Superman Returns” (2006). Was she upset about not working?
“Heck no,” she told me. “I have a family. I’m busy.”
She’s been married for 63 years to Jeffrey Hayden, the TV and stage director whose list of credits is long and deep. The Haydens have two grown children and several grandchildren.
Now, let me tell you: Eva Marie Saint is no little old lady. She is elegant, fiercely intelligent, and very articulate. If you think about it, she was the Meryl Streep/Glenn Close of her time. She had quite a run too: “North by Northwest,” “On the Waterfront,” “Exodus,” Hatful of Rain,” “Raintree County,” “The Sandpiper.”
Her favorite film? John Frankenheimer’s “All Fall Down,” 1962, with Warren Beatty and Karl Malden.
In the 1970s– Saint’s 50s– she moved effortlessly into television. Until “Superman Returns” she worked steadily every year. The Oscar was for “On the Waterfront” in 1957. She has an Emmy from 1990’s “People Like Us.”
Saint has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But she’s missing a Kennedy Center honor. I don’t think she even realizes it.
In “Winter’s Tale,” Saint serves a function similar to what Lois Smith played in “Minority Report.” She gives the ah-ha! moment, helps explain the story, and leaves a lump in the throat.
At last night’s elegant dinner at the Metropolitan Club, following a Ziegfeld premiere, Saint was chatted up by everyone starting with co-stat Colin Farrell, and followed by a procession of well wishers. She told me, “I do get a little overwhelmed at these things.” But the Haydens stuck it out.
By the way, Eva Marie is one of the few Oscar voters who wouldn’t tell me who is she voting for. “I liked five movies a lot,” she said, “but I can’t tell you which ones.” She said, “I’ll interview you, Which ones did you like?”
I mentioned some titles and names. She grinned when I said, “Cate Blanchett?”
“I’m not saying a thing,” the great actress responded. So there!
Woody Allen’s New Movie Already Sold In Many Foreign Countries
I hate to take issue with Page Six, especially my pal Ian Mohr. But Woody Allen is having no trouble selling his new film, “Magic in the Moonlight,” to foreign distributors.
“Magic” is already set for release in Japan, Portugal, South Korea and the Netherlands. And France is a no-brainer since “Magic” was shot in and around Cannes and Antibes. The French already love Woody, and love him more from “Midnight in Paris.” “Magic” will be a big hit there. Woody’s films are loved in the UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany.
It amazes me, the people who plant these items in gossip columns. Woody is a big international hit. And a movie set in the South of France with Colin Firth and Emma Stone? Say no more. “Blue Jasmine” has made $61 million internationally, plus $33 million domestically.
Believe me, European distributors don’t care about any of the stuff we’ve chewed on the last week or so regarding Woody. The love him, and they’d release two at a time if he could make them!
“Magic in the Moonlight” will have its US debut likely in late July from Sony Pictures Classics.
Hugh Jackman Coming Back to Host the Tony Awards
Neil Patrick Harris couldn’t do it since he’ll likely be a nominee for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” So Hugh Jackman is back, June 8th, on CBS. He’ll be singing and dancing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall. The Tonys will need him this year more than ever. The crop of shows coming in is not that star-studded, nor is it very blockbustery. The big musicals so far are “Beautiful” and “Gentleman’s Guide.” The ones still to come include “Aladdin” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” Revivals include “Cabaret.” Jackman will offer added star power.
Beatles Special Will Be Re-Broadcast on CBS Wednesday Night
The Beatles 50th anniversary is not over. CBS will re-broadcast the big special “The Night That Changed America,” tomorrow night from 8:30pm to 11pm. So set your DVRs!The first showing yielded 14 million viewers.
The network would be smart to put the whole thing out on DVD, or at least on iTunes, after this showing. The only other time that Paul and Ringo have played together, post- Beatles, was in April 2009 at Radio City Music Hall for the David Lynch Foundation. And that was not filmed, as far as anyone knows.
The re-broadcast should keep helping sales of Beatles albums. Amazon lists about ten different ones in their top 100 including the 2009 “black” box set. My advice: buy that one, and the individual “Hey Jude” album. And you’re all set!
Funny? Tina Fey’s New TV Series Is Comedy About Women Rescued from a Cult
I know we’re supposed to trust Tina Fey. She is very funny, and she knows comedy. I did love “30 Rock.” But her new comedy is going to take a leap of faith, I think. It’s called “Tooken,” and it’s about women who’ve been rescued from a doomsday cult and its leader. Is this going to be funny? Tina Fey and her “30 Rock” collaborator Robert Carlock evidently think so.
“Tooken” stars Ellie Kemper from “The Office” as Kimmy. She’s kind of Mary Richards, if Mary had been brainwashed by a cult leader instead of just the victim of a broken engagement.
Kimmy’s friends are called Gretchen, Donna Marie, Clarice, and Cindy, according to sources. They were all in the cult led by Reverend Richard. Donna Marie is described as Latina. She got into the cult thinking she was joining a maid’s service that went to clean the cult house and never left. The others are friends who follow Kimmy out of the cult. Presumably, Reverend Richard will be a character as well.
You never know with sitcoms and their descriptions. Maybe this will work. It doesn’t sound funny. In fact, when it was described to me, I thought it was about the women in Pennsylvania who were held against their will for a decade. Now that was funny! (Just kidding.) I’m just not ready to drink the Kool Aid yet on this one.
“Tooken” will be one of many new shows on NBC this fall.
Shirley Temple, 85, Diplomat, Actress, and a Non Alcoholic Drink
Shirley Temple did a lot for the world. She went from child star to international diplomat. Along the way, she inspired a non alcoholic drink that kids could order when their parents were knocking a few back. For all that, we should be grateful.
Bits: Scorsese Tribute, Diahann Carroll Leaves Denzel, Ed Sheeran Plays Elton
There’s a lot of stuff going on…Here’s a sampling…
MARTIN SCORSESE is getting a mini tribute and retrospective this week at the Ziegfeld Theater. The films are his recent classics. On Thursday, February 13th there’s a Q&A with Leonardo DiCaprio, famed editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and “Wolf of Wall Street” screenwrite Terence Winter. How cool is that? You can get tickets at www.bowtiecinemas.com. Here’s the schedule:
Thursday, February 13th
THE AVIATOR – 12:00pm
THE DEPARTED – 3:30pm
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET – conversation prior to feature at 7:00pm
Friday, February 14th
SHUTTER ISLAND – 1:00pm
GANGS OF NEW YORK – 4:00pm
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET – 7:45pm
DIAHANN CARROLL has exited “Raisin in the Sun” starring Denzel Washington, set for an April opening on Broadway. Let’s face it, she was wrong for this role. The amazing LaTanya Richardson takes her place. She’s only 6 years older than Denzel, but will play his mother. She can do it. Carroll, I’m told, arrived for rehearsals in a fur coat with Chanel sunglasses. She thought it was “Dreamgirls,” I guess…
ED SHEERAN did such a great job singing and playing “In My Life” on the Beatles special. Now he’s been chosen as the entertainer for Elton John and David Furnish’s Oscar party. The dinner and party benefit the wonderful Elton John AIDS Foundation. Tickets are very hard to come by. Go to www.ejaf.org…
TV Ratings: Olympics Beat Beatles, But Fab Four Score is Still Huge
There was so much on TV last night! But the Olympics won the night with over 25 million viewers, a 6.9 share and a whopping 18 rating in the key demo (18-49).
But the Beatles impressed. The two and a half hour show produced almost 13.5 million total viewers. The 5 share was the second highest of the night for everything else but the Olympics. But it was older, wiser folks who tuned. The key demo number was 2.1.
At the least the Beatles brought the key demo up a bit. It was twice as much as “60 Minutes,” which preceded.
CBS would have been better off letting Ken Ehrlich just put on the three hour show as planned. That last half hour, a rerun of “The Millers,” did little business.
Beatles Special Sends Albums Back into Top 10 on Amazon, iTunes
Last night’s Beatles special did the trick. All of the albums are back on the charts. At iTunes, the “1” album with 27 hits is in the top 10. On amazon, the “red” and “blue” greatest hits albums are selling the best. But right behind those, on both charts, are “Abbey Road” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
On amazon, the “black” box set from 2009 and the new “US Albums” are in the top 30. Those two box sets are expensive, which is even better for the Beatles. My personal favorite album, “Hey Jude,” a greatest hits set released in the US and never available here on CD until now, is at number 35.
The special also seems to had had an effect on Paul McCartney’s “New” collection, which is also charting around number 90. During the special last night, Paul’s drummer had the “New” logo, not the Beatles’, emblazoned on his drum kit.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or intentional, but that logo seems like it was influenced by the wallpaper on some American Airlines planes. Funny where people get artistic inspiration these days.
Some Beatles fans have noticed that there were a scarcity of John Lennon songs in the special. There were, by our count, 12 McCartney songs, 5 Lennon, 2 Harrison, and the balance were Lennon-McCartney together. Paul said during the show that “I Saw Her Standing There” was written by him and Lennon. But in the past it’s always been attributed to Paul alone.
Noticeably absent from the line up: “Come Together,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Across the Universe.” But the show would have been three hours long.