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Beyonce gets the best Christmas gift of all: 1 million sales of her surprise “Beyonce” “visual” album through the end of this week. Hitsdailydouble says she’s sold 375,000 copies this week including 100,000 physical CDs. This, despite Amazon and Target refusing to sell the physical CD because they’re mad the original digital version was exclusive to iTunes.
Amazon.com isn’t totally stupid, though. You can download the album via their system. But why would you, at the same price as iTunes, with no add ons? Amazon should have pushed the physical CD. I think they screwed that up. People come to Amazon for the actual CDs, not the downloads. Anyway. Jeff Bezos didn’t ask me, and he has 90 zillion dollars.
Meanwhile, the Beyonce album has already spawned its first hit single, “Drunk in Love,” with guess who? Jay Z.
You’d think everyone interesting had gone out of town by now. But on Monday, a couple of private screenings of “August: Osage County” drew lots and lots of big names from theater world. They wanted to see how director John Wells and his A list cast had handled the Pulitzer Prize winning drama.
They also came to celebrate producer Jean Doumanian, who steered “AOC” from inception to Broadway to the big screen. The movie, written from his play from Tracy Letts, opens this Friday in New York and LA. It’s one of the five nominees for Best Ensemble at the SAG Awards. It could very well win.
Famed director Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “Billy Elliott”) introduced the film as a surprise, and sang its praises.
In the audience at the 7pm show– a murderer’s row from Broadway. Bernadette Peters, Joey Grey, Rosemary Harris, and Alan Cumming. Penny Fuller sat in front of them. Bob Dishy and Judy Graubart were there. “Man of Steel” star Michael Shannon had trouble finding a seat, the place was so packed.
Earlier in the day, Fantasia hit the matinee screening along with Duncan Sheik and Marsha Mason.
How much do I love “AOC”? I’m putting it on my Best Movies of 2013 list this week. When it opens Friday, make a beeline for the ticket line.
Is Will Smith getting out of the charity business? First he shut down his private school in Calabasas, California, leaving it $307,000 in the red. Now his personal foundation has been emptied out, with total assets at the end of 2012 coming to just $22,000. The numbers come from the new form 990 found on Guidestar and filed by the Will Smith Foundation for the year 2012.
Smith didn’t drain out his foundation without distributing a very robust $375,000 in 2012 to a variety of charities. Most of them are in the Philadelphia-Baltimore area and many of them are arts oriented. If he’s giving money to Scientology-connected groups Smith no long does it through the Will Smith Foundation. It was too easily tracked. He could just be writing them checks. That’s the way Tom Cruise does it.
Is that the end of the Will Smith Foundation? That’s unknown. But Smith hasn’t had a hit movie in a long time. This past summer his “After Earth” was a total bust. On a nice note, I can tell you that Will threw a little cocktail party the other night here in New York for his “Focus” co-star Margot Robbie before and she and her family friends headed off to the premiere of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“Anchorman 2” had a great Friday night, and beat “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” by a nose. But by Saturday the kids took over the box office and never gave it back. The result is a weekend win for “Smaug” with $31.455 million vs. $26.7 mi for Will Ferrell and friends. That movie now has $40 mil in the bank. “Smaug” $127.5 mil and $262 mil worldwide.
Bigger news: “American Hustle” comes out of the box at number 4 with $20 million. This is going to be Sony’s comeback hit, the one that erases their summer failures. “American Hustle” has lots of Oscar nominations in its future. Right now it’s leading the pack vs. “12 Years a Slave” for Best Picture. David O. Russell is poised for a big success after “The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”
If “American Hustle” really breaks out, and I think it will, Amy Adams is going to knock one of the big 5 out of Best Actress. Emma Thompson would seem the most vulnerable, and Sandra Bullock next. Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench are secure.
One movie that seems more lost at sea than “All is Lost” is “Dallas Buyers Club.” It’s already in decline at $15 million even with two Oscar-tipped performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. What happened? Focus Features is what happened. They closed up their New York shop, got rid of almost everyone, and are going mainstream. They leave a long line of casualties behind, from “Brokeback Mountain” to “Milk” to “Atonement” and more. In their next iteration, Focus maybe will more focused under Peter Schlessel.
“Saturday Night Live” had plenty of surprises last night, but the most shocking ones were from the Dept. of Aging. Beloved BeeGee Barry Gibb showed up for a singalong with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake sporting long white hair. In his heyday Barry had carefully coiffed chestnut locks, which Fallon imitates in the segment. Barry is only 67, maybe he should update his look. His falsetto is intact, though, and it was great to see him.
Madonna made an appearance in that segment for absolutely no reason. Dour, dressed in a man’s three piece suit, her hair styled like she was from Staten Island, Madonna was the only one of three visiting pop stars (counting her, Gibb, and Paul McCartney) who didn’t sing. Instead she mumbled some nonsense. And then in the middle of the scene she popped in what looked like braces, a retainer, or possible false teeth. It was very strange. As for the singing, she couldn’t even harmonize with Fallon and Timberlake.
McCartney, of course, remains the class act. He just strolled into Fallon’s opening monologue and knocked off “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” That was lovely.
Fallon and Timberlake, the musical guest for the night, ruled the show. They’ve become their own Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Fallon’s energy and his depth of talent is pretty stunning. He’s going to have a very youthful, fun “Tonight” show. Timberlake’s comedy energy and his ability to mimic anyone remains impressive. He still must be wondering why he’s not being coronated on the Grammys this year. Something there really went wrong.
Simon Cowell’s “X Factor” came to an ignominious end on Thursday night. The battered series not only finished third in its time slot, it drew fewer viewers than a rerun of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on CBS in 1965. It’s been on TV every year since then. Last night the ABC special pulled 6.41 million total viewers vs. “X Factor” with 6.22 million.
“Charlie Brown” was only from 8 to 9pm. “X Factor” was on from 8 to 10pm. Adding insult to injury, CBS’s “The Millers” aired from 8:30pm to 9pm on that network and scored 7.54 million pairs of eyes.
The only good news for “X Factor” is that in its final hour, people did tune in for the curiosity value. But Cowell’s assertion this week that “X Factor” would be back certainly doesn’t seem that certain. The show has drifted downward all this season. It’s fair to say that both “X Factor” and “American Idol” are ready for retirement. If “Idol” doesn’t do well this coming season, that should be it.
Musically, “Charlie Brown” was more of a success too. Between Vince Guaraldi’s famous instrumental theme and the song “Christmastime is Here,” the special is a musical classic.
The surprise “Beyonce” album is a real physical CD. I received it this afternoon. It may not be in stores yet. But any minute now. Funny: wasn’t it last Friday that it was just a digital release? Seems to me the physical CD was already manufactured at that point. Sony couldn’t have produced and shipped it in three days!
Granted there isn’t much album art. “Beyonce” comes in a black matte box. The accompanying booklet has a bunch of artsy pictures, some “provocative” but nothing too shocking for Blue Ivy’s mom. The cover of the booklet is a black and white pic of Bey’s backside exposed, with a leather thong and some jewelry protecting it. Bey’s hands are on her hips.
There are no lyrics, however. And get this: no thanks to anyone, no shout outs, nada. Someone managed to produce 14 songs, 17 videos, and a bunch of photos. But Beyonce gets the only credit, as Executive Producer.
The song credits are in such small type that the writers and producers should be a little pissed off. The all caps white on black font is maybe 1 pt– far smaller than the phonebook. I can make out Pharrell and Justin Timberlake. This is someone’s way of saying, You guys don’t matter. Nice.
I tried using the flashlight on my Galaxy S3 but that didn’t help matters. A magnifying glass is my next option. But that won’t add the thanks that most artists annotate.
Also Beyonce’s name is on every song, whether she wrote it or not. But you know, since the mid 90s, it doesn’t matter who wrote the song. That ship has sailed. It’s all about who constructed it.
Hitsdaily double predicts another 200K this week of “Beyonce” downloads. Then a new wave of peeps who buy the physical CD on amazon and in stores. Except Target, because they’re mad.
Tonight, Darlene Love performs “Christmas (Please Come Home)” with Paul Shaffer and the band on David Letterman. It’s the 20th year in a row that they’ve done it. So by the time Darlene finished the taping, she she was a little tapped out on that particular song when she arrived at the Rum Room at the Edison Hotel for some Christmas caroling in honor of the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom.”
How-ever: about a half hour after Darlene arrived and warbled with Lisa Fischer and Judith Hill, Shaffer himself came down to West 47th St. from the Ed Sullivan Theater. You can see the results right here: an impromptu version of the song with Shaffer on piano, Fischer and Hill backing him up, along with Glenn Close, Robert Wuhl, Richard Kind, Ilene Kristen, Paul Haggis, Rutanya Alda, and “20 Feet” director Morgan Neville. All you can say is “Wow!”
We were also treated to a spectacular “Have Yourself a Merry Little Xmas” from Lisa Fischer with Robbie Kondor on piano, and a holiday number, on piano, from the amazing new talent Judith Hill. She’s just finishing her first album to be distributed by Sony/Red.
Not only that: the great Peter Cincotti, who came just as a guest, sat down at the piano and led the group in wild version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
I was just two feet from all this stardom. Darlene Love, live, is the greatest Xmas treat. She performs tonight at BB King’s in New York for her own annual show, singing songs from Phil Spector’s famed “A Gift For You.” Spector, in jail for life after murdering Lana Clarkson, screwed Darlene and Ronnie Spector and just about all his artists. Their sweet revenge has been surviving, thriving, and continuing to make great music.
“20 Feet from Stardom” is eligible for the Academy Award. Don’t miss it! The DVD arrives January 14th.
PS It was great to see Ilene Kristen, who does not age. Besides being the funniest and freshest soap actress (Ryan’s Hope, One Life to Live), Ilene is a fantastic singer. She’s just finished recording a jazz album which should come out early next year!
UPDATE FRIDAY 11PM: The fundanything.com page for “Remembering Michael” is kaput, gone, vanished from the company’s website completely. So much for this latest attempt to exploit Michael Jackson’s memory.
EARLIER FRIDAY The end may be near for Katherine Jackson’s FundAnything appeal. I told you first and exclusively that Mrs. Jackson (with silent partners Sonia Lowe and Howard Mann) had put up a crowdfunding drive to raise money for a documentary called “Remembering Michael.”
The appeal offered donors several different options from $10 up to $6,000. For different amounts, donors could receive in exchange a Michael Jackson baseball hat, or more elaborate memorabilia like photographs or online access to the doc.
Alas, it is all gone now. All the items have been removed. All that’s left is a chance to donate to the film. So far Mrs. Jackson has raised a paltry $4,275– and a lot of ire. Jackson fans, who are very astute at this point, regard the whole thing as a scam. They say so in the comments section of the FundAnything page.
What a crazy plan this was: Mrs. Jackson doesn’t own the rights to Michael’s image or his music. She tried an end run around the Estate–John Branca, John McClain, and Howard Weitzman. Why didn’t she have her attorney set up a meeting and ask the Estate to help her do this? These things always end in tears and recriminations. I don’t think it will be long before the appeal is removed altogether.
Katie Couric’s talk show is over after two seasons on ABC. The official announcement comes on the heels of the news that Katie has also left ABC News for Yahoo! to do something. “Katie” was never a hit. Couric was never comfortable in the talk show format, much as Jane Pauley wasn’t eons ago.
Talk shows are no place for people with news backgrounds. Couric just couldn’t adjust to the daily routine of churning out nonsensical chit chat. She also wasn’t good with ‘regular’ people. While Oprah thrived on the audience, Couric seemed mystified by them. Her forte is interviews with top leaders and celebrities. And that is not the stuff of talk shows.
The “Katie” cancellation is ironically timed since ABC just released those great figures on “General Hospital.” Couric’s show was meant originally to replace the soap opera. It was part of a larger scheme that did cancel “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” Now ABC has a vacant hour again. Meanwhile, Meredith Vieira, who succeeded Katie on the Today Show, will come in the fall with her own talk show on NBC.
