The second episode of “Downton Abbey” was a shocker: Anna was raped, a situation that caused a scandal in Britain when the show aired this fall. But that didn’t deter viewers. “Downton” was up 22% over last season’s second episode. The Crawleys scored 7.94 million viewers. Their household rating was a very healthy 4.7. This means that the PBS Masterpiece drama finished third in narrative TV to “The Good Wife” and “The Mentalist.” ABC and NBC would love to have the “Downton” numbers. Bravo!
Pamela Anderson Unplugged: No Cell Phone, Computer for 2 Months
Pamela Anderson: you have to like her. She’s hot, for one thing. Still hot, maybe getting hotter. She also loves good classic rock. I follow her on Twitter, and she’s constantly sending out #nowplaying alerts. She likes Clapton, the Allman Brothers, Beatles.
She told me this weekend at Sean Penn’s Haiti event that she really picks those songs. But she doesn’t send out the Tweets. She has someone who does it for her.
And here’s the big headline: “I’m off of everything. I don’t carry a cell phone, I don’t have a computer. I’m not reading the internet. I haven’t for two months.”
How does it feel? “Fantastic. I’m not missing anything. And I feel so much better.”
Yesterday’s song of the day? “One Way Or Another” by Blondie.
Keep going, Pam! PS Pam just remarried her third husband, Rick Solomon. She was previously married to Tommy Lee and to Kid Rock, of course.
NY Film Critics Expel Armond White After Annual Heckling Incident
Armond White is out. The freelance film writer has been expelled from the New York Film Critics after he made a jackass of himself last week at the annual dinner. White, who was drunk, became loud and obstreperous, yelling a bunch of nasty things at Harry Belafonte and then director Steve McQueen.
It’s an annual occurrence.
White always makes a scene, whether he’s speaking from the podium or sitting in his seat. I watched all this from my table with concern. White is like the crazy aunt who gets drunk at Christmas and starts yelling at her family. I don’t take it seriously. But this year he was particularly awful, especially since Belafonte had just given a beautiful speech. What can you do? He’s become too much of an embarrassment for the NYFCC.
It’s particularly sad because White is African American. He’s very smart. He represents diversity and a contrarian opinion. These things are always needed. But you can’t keep insulting the guests. They won’t come back! I wish he’d been suspended for one season, like Alex Rodriguez. But no one asked me.
The group did suspend NY Post critic Lou Lumenick for one year. He revealed voting totals in his column.
Exclusive: Scorsese Adding Adam Driver to Next Film “Silence”
Exclusive: Adam Driver is the newest cast member of Martin Scorsese’s “Silence.” He’s joining Andrew Garfield and Ken Watanabe in the Japanese thriller set in the 17th century. Scorsese told me last night at HBO’s annual star-a-thon post- Globes party that shooting will commence next summer. First, of course, Scorsese has to finish up a winter of Oscar promotion for ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,” which has turned into a gigantic hit at the box office.
Driver, of course, is the breakout star of HBO’s “Girls,” which had its season premiere last night. He will also be a big deal later this year in “Tracks,” with Mia Wasikowska, The John Curran-directed romance/ adventure is — I know this is early, but true– on tracks for the 2015 Oscars. It’s a wonderful film.
Scorsese and his “Wolf” crew, including Jonah Hill, were graciously invited in by HBO, which also had actors and directors from other studios who weren’t giving big parties. Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss came with her Golden Globe– the first actual award she’s received for her trenchant portrayal of Peggy on the hit show. Many of the “Girls” stars were in attendance including Zosia Mamet with boyfriend actor Evan Jongkeit, Allison Williams, and Jemma Kirke.
Meanwhile, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were there, but split up to work the room. Tom spent a lot of time with our favorite Hollywood grande dame, Barbara Davis, and insisted I take their picture. Rita chatted with Judd Apatow, who told me he’s getting ready to direct “Train Wreck”– sadly his wife, one of my favorite actresses, Leslie Mann, will not be in it. We did talk about how well “This is 40” is doing playing on HBO. It’s been an enormous hit.
The best table: Helen Mirren, husband Taylor Hackford, CAA agent Fred Specktor, publicist Stan Rosenfield, and super woman Peggy Siegal. Dame Helen comes to Broadway, they confirmed, in spring 2015 with her West End hit, “The Audience,” in which she once again plays Queen Elizabeth.
Elsewhere at the HBO shindig, I ran into four star actress Tony winner and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer. She rarely ventures to L.A. but is in town for a few days for meetings. For my money, McTeer might be the only actress in her age group equal to Cate Blanchett. On Broadway she peels the paint right off the walls. In movies. she’s been a dynamic presence in “Albert Nobbs” and “Tumbleweeds.” An Oscar win is in her future!
Golden Globes Up Slightly from Last Year
The ratings were actually down for the 2014 Golden Globes. The three hour show received a 6.5 rating in the 18-49 demo, up slightly from 6.4 last year. According to tvbythenumbers, the Globes preliminary show only had 2.4. In total viewers, they pulled 20.9 million. But “60 Minutes” was close behind with 16.98 million viewers from 8 to 9pm following football. More to come after the “Downton Abbey” ratings come in…
Golden Globes Mean Little for Oscars as Academy Usually Shows
The Golden Globes? After all that noise– and what a boring show with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler gagged from joking about the HFPA–it all means little when it comes to the Oscars.
The winners from last night who will translate over to the Academy Awards– Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto. But Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lawrence–good as they were– will likely not repeat themselves. Neither will Amy Adams or Leonardo DiCaprio.
Vying for an Oscar for Best Actor are Bruce Dern and Robert Redford. If they split the vote, the winner will be Chiwetel Ejiofor. Tom Hanks, so eloquent in “Captain Phillips,” will settle for a nomination.
Best Supporting Actress will now turn to Lupita Nyongo and June Squibb. Oprah Winfrey, if she’s nominated on Thursday morning, should win.
Best Picture: The Globes endorsed “American Hustle” and “12 Years a Slave.” They actually passed over “Gravity.” The Oscar for Best Picture is wide open again, I think, with “Gravity” losing gravitas. “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Nebraska” move down to 10th and 9th, I think. We’ll see. “Philomena” may be the surprise of the season.
Exclusive: Bono Says New U2 Should Come in June, New Single Soon
The new U2 album should come in June. So says Bono, to me, at the Weinstein Company party following the Golden Globes. Bono and U2 won the Globe for their song “Ordinary Love” from the movie “Mandela.” The group held court on a platform of couches, entertaining friends including Usher on Sunday night before taking off to an after party said to be at 1Oak on Sunset Boulevard.
The group had just played at Sean Penn’s Haiti fundraiser on Saturday night with a young Haitian singer named Anaelle Jean-Pierre. I sat with Bono at the Weinstein party and praised him for his passion about politics, Mandela, Africa, etc.
“We’re persistent, I’ll say that,” he replied with a rueful chuckle. “I don’t think we’re the only ones who care. I think lots of people do. They just don’t have the opportunity.”
Bono told me the group was busy finishing the new album. “We’re still working some things out,” he said. In the meantime, they will release a new single in the next few weeks. It’s called– and this is exclusive– “Invisible.” “It’s not what you expect,” Bono told me. “It’s not your typical love song.”
The guys were joined by Guy Oseary, their new day to day manager, who seems like he’s doing a bang up job. Oseary is almost as tireless and tenacious as Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam. They’re a good match.
Also at the hot hot hot Weinstein party: Christoph Waltz, Bruce Dern, Laura Dern, Idris Elba, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Rashida Jones, Taylor Swift, Bradley Cooper and the newly engaged Robin Wright (ex Penn) and Ben Foster. Robin showed me her engagement ring– tasteful, elegant– and her much deserved Golden Globe for “House of Cards.” “Will you hold onto it for me, it’s heavy,” Robin asked me. Ben said he was so happy for his fiancee “my heart is jumping out of me.” He thumped his chest.
Woody Allen Chooses Carole King Musical Over Globes, His Son Mouths Off
Woody Allen chose Carole King over the Golden Globes on Sunday night. While Diane Keaton gave a beautiful speech about her 45 year friendship with Allen at the Globes, Woody was in New York attending the opening night of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
His longtime friend and collaborator Douglas McGrath wrote the book for the musical. A friend told our Paula Schwartz, “Woody was looking for an excuse not to go to the Globes. He had to support Doug.”
Meantime, Woody’s son with Mia Farrow, Ronan Farrow (born Satchel Farrow Allen), the 25 year old wannabe host of an MSNBC show, continued to demonstrate that’s he being manipulated by his mother and is not the genius that’s been advertised. Ronan Tweeted of Woody’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the questionable Hollywood Foreign Press: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?”
This nasty, deluded kid continues to carry out his mother’s dirty work. I feel sorry for him. He’s also skating on thin ice. If he’d written such a thing about anyone else, he’d be sued. He knows Allen won’t do it because Farrow is his son. It should be interesting to see if MSNBC is going to gamble on Farrow not getting them into legal trouble.
And then there’s the HFPA. They retaliated against Allen. When he said he wasn’t coming to their idiotic pageant, they promptly snubbed his movie “Blue Jasmine.” The only thing they couldn’t do was avoid Cate Blanchett, who was named Best Actress in that movie. To do so would have exposed these lamebrains to even more ridicule.
Why the do-do’s at the HFPA thought Allen would come to their show is a mystery. He’s only attended the Oscars once, in 2002, after 9-11, to support New York. Back in 1978, the Oscars were held on a Monday the night when “Annie Hall” won Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Screenplay. Woody stayed in New York and played the clarinet with his jazz band.
As for Ronan Farrow, it’s enough already. Either come up with some hard evidence (there isn’t any) or stop slagging off your father. Go see a therapist and don’t involve the public. You’re supposed too smart for this crap.
Irony alert: so Woody chose Carole over the Globes. Carole, on the other hand, refused to attend the opening of her own show! I don’t know what she did instead.
Golden Globe Red Carpet Flood As Hot Lamp Ignites Sprinklers
Here are the exclusive pictures from the soggy carpet 1pm Pacific Time. A hot lamp from one of the film crews set off the sprinkler system above the red carpet at the Golden Globes. The carpet flooded immediately. Isn’t a flood a sign of the apocalypse? The brilliant staff at the Beverly Hills Hotel is trying to clean up and dry out before the HFPA gets all wet.
Exclusive Scorsese on “Wolf” Characters: “They are Definitely Villains”
Director Martin Scorsese has been embroiled in a big debate the last couple of weeks over the characters depicted in his “Wolf of Wall Street.” Does the movie celebrate and endorse the debauchery and criminal activity brought on by Wall Street trader Jordan Belfort? That’s a conversation that has pulled audiences into theaters to see what the heck this is all about.
But yesterday I had a long talk with Scorsese at the annual BAFTA/LA tea at the Four Seasons hotel. He said, “No one’s asking me the important questions.”
I responded: “Do you consider these people villains? Has anyone asked you that?”
Scorsese: “Not really. And the answer is I definitely consider them villains. But I’m presenting them to you. I’m not endorsing them. After all the stock market scandals of 2008, I was fascinated by these kinds of people. I wanted to know what was behind it, what made them tick. I’m not saying people should behave like that. But who are they?”
We talked about Jordan Belfort’s decision to become that person, the moment we see Leonardo DiCaprio enter the Long Island ‘boiler room’ run by Spike Jonze in the movie. Belfort had been out of work for quite a while after the 1987 stock market crash. Belfort didn’t hesitate to sit down, pick up the phone, and start conning people out of their money.
“Would I do it? Could I do it?” Scorsese asked me rhetorically. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Could he?
“Never. My parents, my values? My father would never have allowed such a thing. But isn’t it interesting how that never occurs to Jordan?”
And what about all the sex in “Wolf”? The orgies. The naked people?
“Did you see some of those people?” Scorsese asked. “There’s nothing sexy about them. Some of them should never take their clothes off!”
Scorsese got into a couple of long conversations at BAFTA, with Cate Blanchett and with “Captain Phillips” director Paul Greengrass. I managed to snap a picture of Marty and Cate. Remember, he directed Blanchett to her first Oscar– supporting– for “The Aviator” ten years ago.
The BAFTA/LA tea was filled with stars, as usual. Sandra Bullock, Jacqueline Bissett, Joan Collins, Diane Baker, “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes, and Leonardo DiCaprio all caused traffic jams in he Four Seasons ballroom. So many people stop Fellowes to ask him different characters, he’s like a rock star! Also: the great actor James Frain held court, legendary Michael York made the rounds, and I even met the real Philomena Lee and her daughter. Charming!
photo of Scorsese and Blanchett c2014 Showbiz411