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Scorsese “Wolf” Will Open Christmas Day– I told you this two weeks ago

Roger Friedman
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Scorsese “Wolf” Will Open Christmas Day– I told you this two weeks ago

On October 8th I told you that Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf of Wall Street” would likely open on Christmas Day. This evening the LA Times is now reporting this, and two bloggers are fighting about it on Twitter. I don’t care. Here’s the link: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/10/08/scorsese-dicaprio-wolf-of-wall-street-may-make-oscar-deadline-after-all

Of course, this news throws all the Oscar prognosticators for a loop. What to do? They’ve already called the March 2, 2014 awards, presented the odds, etc. Everything is now pitched to whether it will an Oscar. Think of all the great movies that didn’t win Oscars or weren’t nominated. Quick– tell me right now who won all the major awards in February 2013, just nine months ago. Can you do it?

Was it “The Artist”?

With “Wolf” opening, Matthew McConnaughey will be eligible from three different movies– “Mud,” Wolf,” and “Dallas Buyers Club.” Will Leonardo DiCaprio be able to sneak in where seven or eight guys already have staked claims? That’s Forest Whitaker, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Idris Elba, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, and Bruce Dern.

Good luck!

Kanye West Surprises “12 Years a Slave Director” Steve McQueen at Hollywood Awards

Roger Friedman
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Kanye West Surprises “12 Years a Slave Director” Steve McQueen at Hollywood Awards

Kanye West, in regular standard mode and not looking for an argument or a fight, surprised “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen this evening. He flew in from San Francisco to give McQueen a special honor at the Hollywood Awards in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. Kanye joked that he was “reading from the TelePrompter” lest anything go awry. But he said some heartfelt things about McQueen and the movie, which was very nice.

Our LEAH SYDNEY is reporting from the BHH ballroom, where she’s run into Jane Fonda and Richard Perry, actor Geoffrey Rush, and a clutch of other stars. Also in attendance are Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Julia Roberts with producer Jerry Weintraub, Jake Gyllenhaal, Olivia Munn, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Harrison Ford, Angela Bassett, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy…

More to come…keep refreshing…

LAPD: Cee Lo Green Charged with Furnishing Ecstasy to a Female

Roger Friedman
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LAPD: Cee Lo Green Charged with Furnishing Ecstasy to a Female

Cee Lo Green is in trouble, but he’s innocent til proven guilty. He will be arraigned at 4:30pm EST in Los Angeles on a charge of giving Ecstasy to a young woman. Note in the following press release that prosecutors decided not to file a rape charge.

Press release:

Singer-songwriter CeeLo Green was charged today with furnishing ecstasy to a female victim, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

Green, whose real name is Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, was charged with one felony count of furnishing a controlled substance in case BA417464. He is expected to be arraigned at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Department 30, sometime after 1:30 p.m. Prosecutors asked that his bail be set at $30,000.

Green, 39 (dob 5-30-75), allegedly slipped ecstasy to a 33-year-old female while the two were dining at a downtown Los Angeles restaurant sometime between July 13 and July 14, 2012. The two later went back to the woman’s hotel. Prosecutors declined to file a charge of rape of an intoxicated person, citing insufficient evidence.

If convicted, Green faces up to four years in state prison.

CBS Vet Dan Rather Will Talk Kennedy Assassination on NBC “Today” Show

Roger Friedman
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CBS Vet Dan Rather Will Talk Kennedy Assassination on NBC “Today” Show

Dan Rather, whose report on CBS News of the Kennedy assassination 50 years ago is of historical importance, will not be looking back on his home network. Much the way Walter Cronkite was forced off CBS in his later years, Rather can’t go back. So he’ll be talking about the Kennedy assassination on a special “Today” show on NBC with Tom Brokaw on the morning of November 22nd. Rather and CBS parted company rather bitterly a few years ago.

CBS has planned its own special anniversary programming about the Kennedy assassination. They’ll undoubtedly tout the Cronkite material even though their senior news man was banned, ironically, all during the years Rather anchored the news. For CBS to ignore the Rather clips will be quite extraordinary, just as his appearance on NBC certainly blows a hole in their plans.

“Young and Restless” Star’s Web Series Produced by Scientology Film Company

Roger Friedman
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“Young and Restless” Star’s Web Series Produced by Scientology Film Company

Scientology is trying to dig in more and more in “mainstream” entertainment. I wrote about their latest effort, “The Stafford Project,” a few weeks ago. The web series on YouTube stars former “Young and the Restless” actress Michelle Stafford as a ‘kooky’ wannabe Lucille Ball meets Carrie Bradshaw in a scripted reality setting. But it’s really just a front for Scientology filmmakers. Stafford is a long time member of Scientology.

“The Stafford Project” is produced by New Slant Productions, named for an L. Ron Hubbard book called “A New Slant On Life.” Hubbard was the Kilgore Trout-ish science fiction writer who invented Scientology in the 1950s. Before he came up with the pay for play religion he was a  writer of pulp fiction paperbacks. (More on that in a minute.)

New Slant is run by two veteran Scientologists who fancy themselves Hollywood players: Mike Falkow and . Last year Falkow edited a Mother’s Day video from top Scientology celeb John Travolta to his wife Kelly Preston, directed by Travolta. Preston was recently featured on “Stafford” as a guest star. http://vimeo.com/42014196#at=0

I wrote a few weeks ago that everyone who works on “The Stafford Project” is in Scientology. Similarly, almost everyone and everything to do with New Slant Productions is connected to Scientology including all the actors– none of whom are famous–and crew members involved in their productions. And it does look like Scientology is pumping money into New Slant. They suddenly have several “B”, or rather “C”, movies in production. Some of them also come under the banner of Radcliffe Productions, also populated by various Scientologists.

All of this makes sense in the context of Scientology’s real estate holdings in the actual city of Hollywood, and their new productions facilities. Indeed, they now sponsor something called The L. Ron Hubbard Golden Age Theater. At these live events in Hollywood, would be and has been actors read aloud from those Hubbard paperbacks including the wonderfully titled “The Blow Torch Murder” and “Reign of the Gila Monster.”

Among the players listed on their website are Elizabeth Moss (Peggy on “Mad Men”) and Judy Norton (one of “The Waltons”). The site also still features the now deceased Karen Black.

 

Broadway “Spider Man”– Most Expensive Musical Ever– Is Now Officially Struggling

Roger Friedman
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Broadway “Spider Man”– Most Expensive Musical Ever– Is Now Officially Struggling

UPDATE MONDAY 4;43PM: For the week ending October 20th, “Spider Man” was down again. The week’s take was $856,976 out of a possible $1.5 million, according to Playbill.com.

EARLIER MONDAY: “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is now officially struggling at the box office. While November 28 will mark its third unofficial anniversary on Broadway, the $75 million show is starting to show real signs of financial wear and tear. After a difficult summer, producers stopped selling around 400 of the 1,930 seats at the Foxwoods Theater. The immediate result was a drop in the average weekly box office from $1.1 million to around $960,000 a week. (I’m rounding these numbers off.)

But the return of kids to school and the end of summer vacation proved to be worse than thought. For the week ending September 29th, “Spider Man” took in only $629,000. That was from a possible total sale of $1.5 million. But that’s with the 400 seats gone. “Spider Man” at its nadir played at 68% of its total capacity the last week of the summer– and that was with the lower audience capacity.

Also a trend to notice: last week the average ticket price was only $69.71. The top full price ticket was offered at $247. That means a lot of discounting..

It was thought as the saga of “Turn off the Dark” became a public soap opera that the musical needed to take in at least $1 million a week to keep going. But beginning around early August, according to a graph on Playbill.com, “Spider Man” has been on a downward trend. For October 6th, things weren’t much better than the previous week. Last week, ending October 13th, showed an uptick back to around the $960,000 mark thanks to Columbus Day weekend. New numbers for the week ending yesterday will be out later today.

Of course “Spider Man” is not news anymore. It’s been eclipsed by “Kinky Boots,” “Motown,” “Matilda,” and “Pippin.” New shows, like “Big Fish,” are arriving one after another.

Another part of the problem is that its star, Reeve Carney, is gone. He also left during the summer. Whoever’s playing Peter Parker/Spider Man now may be terrific, but no one knows his name. Carney, who’d toughed it out from Day 1, at least had a following.

“Spider Man” now must have a break-out holiday season. Other wise, January– the deadest month of the year on Broadway–could prove a more fearsome enemy than the Green Goblin.

 

 

Lady Gaga and R Kelly: “Do What U Want” New Single Appears

Roger Friedman
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Lady Gaga and R Kelly: “Do What U Want” New Single Appears

Lady Gaga has a good dance single with R Kelly. “Do What U Want With My Body” should get a lot of attention before the November 11th release of the ArtPOP album. Gaga surrenders her body to R Kelly, but really, she’s much too old for his tastes. But he does know how to write a good hook.

Yeezus! Kanye West’s Concert Tour On Stage Jesus is White

Roger Friedman
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0
Yeezus! Kanye West’s Concert Tour On Stage Jesus is White

Now, even I am confused. Kanye West started his concert tour last in Seattle with a live on stage actor playing Jesus. And even though Kanye rants on and on about racism, his Jesus is white. Yeezus! Even in a casting call that came out this week, Jesus’s pale skin was specifically being looked for:

[JESUS] Caucasian, age 25-35, thin build, looks like Jesus. Would be touring with Kanye and coming out onto the stage during one song. Potentially would work from Saturday or Sunday till 12/3.

Since Jesus was actually Mediterranean, there are many depictions of him having darker skin than the traditional Western image. This might have been a chance for Kanye to present a more sophisticated image of Jesus. But he chose to go white.

TV Ratings: “General Hospital” Beats “Young and the Restless” in Key Demo, And Beats Odds

Roger Friedman
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TV Ratings: “General Hospital” Beats “Young and the Restless” in Key Demo, And Beats Odds

For the first time since February 2011, “General Hospital” beat number 1 soap “The Young and the Restless” in the key demo. In fact, the ABC soap–which was set to be cancelled in favor of Katie Couric’s talk show back in 2010–is within spitting distance of the CBS soap in the other demos, which are all about young women with buying power watching the shows.

It’s a vindication for “GH” after ABC mercilessly cancelled its other two soaps, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” sending them into a licensing black hole with Prospect Park Productions. It’s also ironic as the producer who almost got “GH” snuffed, Jill Farren Phelps, has moved her unpopular way of driving a soap to “Y&R.” This past week she even copied an unpopular story she executed on “GH”– the hit and run death of a small child– to the CBS show.

Meanwhile, “GH” aims for November sweeps by having cliffhangers almost every day. As for “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”– no one seems to know if they’ll ever come back online via Prospect Park, or if ABC’s license with that company will ever end.

“Wikileaks” Movie Is Bigger Bomb Than Anyone Imagined: $1.5 for Whole Weekend

Roger Friedman
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“Wikileaks” Movie Is Bigger Bomb Than Anyone Imagined: $1.5 for Whole Weekend

The Wikileaks movie, known as “The Fifth Estate,” is a bigger bomb than anyone could have imagined. The Disney release did $587,000 on Friday night, and will be lucky to hit $1.5 mil for the total weekend. The number of screens isn’t high– just 1,769. But new Disney chief Alan Horn must have sensed trouble brewing with the lukewarm to bad reviews.

On top of “The Lone Ranger,” Disney has had a trying year certainly. They’re waiting for Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in “Saving Mr. Banks” to give them a good run. All signs are good for that one, and for “Thor” through Marvel. But “The Fifth Estate” is done. Julian Assange must be very happy.

Daniel Bruhl co-stars in “The Fifth Estate” and in “Rush.” Neither movie is going to be a box office hit, although “Rush” is a great film. The poor guy is so good, and he must be wondering what the heck is going on.

Elsewhere, “12 Years A Slave” opened in very limited release to very good but not breathtaking numbers. This one may have to percolate a bit. But the Steve McQueen drama is not to be missed.

More tomorrow afternoon…

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