Okay, I love old people. But maybe it’s time for Barbara Walters to wrap it up. Why wait til next May? She defended Scientology’s educational system on The View today. Sherri Shepherd jumps right in, and Barbara continues. Why? Radaronline.com, which picked this up originally, surmises Barbara is trying to get some kind of interview with Tom Cruise. If she really sticks to this, Walters is having her own Nixonian meltdown. When Shepherd says “Didn’t we have someone on who said she [had a bad time with with Scientology] Walters responds, “I’m not talking about that aspect of Scientology.” No, she’s only interested in the aspect that deals with celebrity interviews. Radar got Jenna Mascavige Hill to criticize Walter’s stand. www.radaronline.com. Frankly, I’m horrified. But this Walters showing her truest self. Watch the clip. Shepherd is very deft when dealing with this ancient mariner.
Justin Timberlake 7 Minute “TKO” Is New Single from “20/20” Part 2
If it took as long to knock someone out as it takes Justin Timberlake to sing “TKO” fighters would need bathroom breaks. I don’t like this single as much as “Taking Back the Night.” Also Womack & Womack once had a great R&B hit called “Love TKO” which was a lot better. Sometimes JT’s songs are too long, and built on cliches. I’m much fonder of “Holy Grail.” But for sheer volume, attitude, and clear purpose, JT will get all the Grammys this year. It’s his show on January 26th. I hope Timbaland, his producer, has a new tux all picked out.
PS Really 7 minutes?
“X Factor” Continues to Make Poor Showing in Ratings
Thursday’s “The X Factor” had another bad night. It fell from the night before, and was beaten by another rerun of “Big Bang Theory.” I think the audience is sending a message. No one at Fox is listening. But the show is a flop and it’s only been on twice this season. The season actually hasn’t started, and that’s the scary part. Soon “X Factor” will be up against first run episodes of returning shows, not just reruns.
Memphis: Celebrating Stax Records and Sam “Soul Man” Moore
We are here in Memphis, Tennessee and have hit the ground running. The occasion is the 20th annual Blues Ball, thrown by Memphis’s doyenne of doyennes Pat Kerr Tigrett to raise money for local charities. This year, R&B legend Sam Moore is the honoree for Lifetime Achievement, and he will be performing on Saturday night in front of 2,500 formally attired Memphians.
Tigrett’s annual event is a magnet for all of Memphis’s famed musicians, and this year is no exception. Expected tomorrow night are the creme de la creme of Stax-Hi Records-Sun Records including Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, Ann Peebles, Carla Thomas, Marvell Thomas and so on.
When I was here filming “Only the Strong Survive” in the summer of 1999, the lot where Stax Records once stood was an empty field of weeds. The neighborhood had gone to hell in a handbasket. It was pretty bleak.
But a couple of years later thanks to brothers Andy and Staley Cates, Stax was re-born. They raised the money to build a museum and charter school and music academy on the property. A whole campus has risen around it since then, and Stax is now a focal point for the community. It’s quite an achievement.
This morning Sam and his wife Joyce were invited over for a private tour. The museum replicates the facade of Stax and the Satellite Record shop in the front. Inside, there are dozens exhibits detailing the history of soul music. They’ve also reproduced the original studio where Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, the Staples Singers and so many other Stax acts recorded their landmark hits. When we walked into the big room, a whole gang of us, Sam immediately gravitated to the spot where he sang with Dave Prater. He pointed to a spot just behind him.
“You had to be careful and not back up while you were singing.” he said. “There was a curtain here”– he motioned to the spot. “If you backed up you heard a lot of bottles fall and clink together. Those were Otis’s whiskey bottles. We knew he’d been in here the night before!”
What we also got was something very special: a show put on by the music students at Stax. They performed a medley of Stax hits, from “Soul Man” to “Knock on Wood” and a few others. These were fourteen to eighteen year olds. They were just outstanding, and a concrete example of the possibilities of renewal and growth where once everything seemed lost and abandoned.
Meantime, all anyone seems to do in this town is eat or talk about eating. It is still the barbecue capital of the south. After all the ribs and bread puddings I hope I will fit into my tuxedo on Emmy night!
“X Factor” Slaughtered by “Survivor” Return, “America’s Got Talent”
At this point, Simon Cowell may be a little worried. Wednesday night’s “X Factor” was slaughtered in the ratings. First “Survivor” returned at 8pm on CBS for its first hour. “Survivor” had 9.73 million total viewers vs. 6.62 million for “X Factor.”
Then during its final half hour from 9pm to 9:30m, “X Factor” by “America’s Got Talent.” The Howard Stern hosted competition had 11.19 million total viewers. Yikes.
Is anyone paying attention to “X Factor”? Not really. Even the “Big Brother” season finale beat it later, at 9:30pm, with slightly more eyes.
Hugh Jackman Says Even More Intense Scenes Were Cut from “Prisoners”
Hugh Jackman’s new film, “Prisoners,” is not ‘les miserables’ in the truest sense, but incredibly intense. In fact, there are a few times during this film about two little girls who are abducted from their suburban neighborhood when you do kind of flinch. Jackman and Terrence Howard, fathers of the missing children, exact some torture on the man they think took their kids (Paul Dano). At one point quite a few snakes slither across the screen.They are not the comedian snakes from “Snakes on a Plane,” either.
“Denis [Villeneuve, the director] actually had to cut a couple of scenes from the final version, Hugh told me at lunch yesterday at the Monkey Bar for the movie’s cast. “They were just too intense.”
Jackman, Howard and co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Maria Bello were all on hand for one of those rare great intimate New York lunches to meet the stars and chat about the film. Michael Shannon, one of Jake’s pals, came, as did Gyllenhaal’s writer-director mother Noami Foner. Some New York actor stalwarts like Bob Dishy and Dana Ivey made the scene as well. Director Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” “Bourne Legacy”) was also Gyllenhaal’s guest. He’s producing “Nightcrawler,” written by his brother Dan Gilroy, and also starring Jake.’
I was lucky to sit across from musician and actor Ruben Blades. “Everyone thinks I died,” Blades said jokingly. “I was away for five years in Panama, helping with the arts and culture infrastructure. I actually read on the internet I was dead. But I’m back, and I’m making a couple of new albums.”
Blades also has a small role in “The Counselor” with Michael Fassbender, due next month. Over lunch he and Maria Bello had a long serious talk about micro-financing–how he does it in Panama, and she in Haiti. At the other end of the table, Shannon and Gyllenhaal were talking about Syria. And you thought Hollywood types were shallow!
Tupac Shakur Life Story Finally Coming to the Big Screen
The life of Tupac Shakur is coming to the big screen. His mother has cut a deal with Morgan Creek, at last. The press release follows. Remember I said this: Michael B. Jordan. Just remember.
Press release:
Los Angeles, CA (September 19, 2013) – Morgan Creek Productions and Emmett Furla Films are in final negotiations to partner on the TUPAC biopic, it was announced today by Morgan Creek and EFF.
TUPAC will be produced by James G. Robinson, David Robinson & LT Hutton along with Randall Emmett and George Furla. The film will be executive produced by Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur. Production is scheduled to begin next year in Atlanta.
TUPAC centers on the life of the charismatic yet controversial artist. Rapper, poet, actor and political activist, TUPAC shot to fame with 2Pacalypse Now, lauded for its seminal underground vibe and still an inspiration for major artists today. Tupac’s politically charged lyrics, inspired by his parents’ activism as Black Panthers in the 60s & early 70s, condemned governmental intrusion in black communities. Tupac’s increased participation in the East Coast-West Coast Rap rivalry became well documented and avidly followed by his fans. On September 7, 1996 he was gunned down on a street corner in Las Vegas, where he died 6 days later. His murder was never solved.
Golden Globes Non-Profit Foundation: No Federal Tax Return Filed Since November 2011
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association still hasn’t filed a federal tax return for 2011. Forget 2012. The last time the group that puts on the Golden Globes filed a federal tax return? Guidestar, which monitors all not-for-profits, has the 2010 return stamped, received on November 21, 2011 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. That’s almost two years ago. No return has been filed for fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.
The HFPA announced at their had their big annual ceremony in the summer of 2012Â $1.2 million in donations to other charities. But so far there’s no record of it, and since then they’ve had another annual ceremony — this summer– announcing another $1.6 million in donations.
HFPA collects a $7 million fee every year from NBC. To qualify for non profit status they give away an average of $1.3 million each year to film schools, to Martin Scorsese’s film preservation charity, and a few other groups. The rest they spend on travel and expenses, even though the movie studios pick up their tabs in most locations.
Several HFPA members were seen at the Toronto Film Festival this month. And the HFPA put on a lackluster party with InStyle magazine that attracted a swath of B list stars. (A-listers like Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift went to The Weinstein Company party.) HFPA members travel the globe to see movies they could view back in Los Angeles. In Cannes, special cars take them around to various destinations.
I called the HFPA’s CPA, a man named Alex Hershtik of a firm called The CPA Advantage to ask why no Form 990 was filed in 2012 for 2011. No filing has shown up yet as well for 2012. He said, excitedly, that he couldn’t talk to me and that only the HFPA could answer those questions.
HFPA has spent the better part of the last three or four years in legal trouble with lawsuits filed against Dick Clark Productions as well as with their former publicist. Last summer I reported that they spent three times more on legal fees than on charitable donations in 2010-2011 according to their last available tax filing.
A spokesman for the HFPA says they have filed the 2011-2012 tax return. But requests for it or any information about it have so far produced nothing.
Public charities are required to turn over their filings upon request according to GuideStar. This is what they’ve posted on their website:
“The IRS states that under IRC 6104 nonprofit organizations must make their three most recent annual returns publicly available. Congress’s reasoning behind this law was to allow the general public access to the returns of organizations and trusts that accept donations from the public.The penalty for not disclosing an annual return is $20 per day for as long as the failure to comply continues, up to a maximum of $10,000 maximum fee per return not disclosed. There is no maximum fee for failure to provide the application for exemption.”
Carole King Will Be 2014 Grammy-MusiCares Person of the Year
UPDATE: Carole King was named Person of the Year. James Taylor, of course, will perform for her, as well as the Dixie Chicks, Lady Gaga, Bette Midler, Jason Mraz, and Steven Tyler. This lines up with Carole’s upcoming Broadway musical about her life with Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. So it’s no coincidence. I said earlier (below) the honoree had to be someone with an amazing catalog. Well, you could sing Carole King songs all night, for hours. For fun they should dig up Little Eva (if she’s alive) for “The Loco Motion.”
EARLIER: MusiCares will announce its annual Person of the Year today– the music honoree for its big fundraising event on the Friday night before the Grammy Awards. So many big stars have already had the honor– Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, Aretha Franklin, and last year Bruce Springsteen. So while we wait for the announcement, here are some choices:
Jon Bon Jovi– incredibly charitable at home in New Jersey and in Philadelphia with his Soul Kitchen, always there for any emergency
The Rolling Stones– Mick and Keith performed at the Concert for New York in 20o1, plus they recently did some Hurricane Sandy donations from concerts. Plus who wouldn’t want to listen to a night of other stars performing their music?
Lionel Richie– He did co-write “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson. And he also has a great catalog of songs for the big night.
Diana Ross– not publicly charitable per se, but she’d be a big draw.
The honoree has to be a superstar with a real catalog–because the theme of the night is lots of different performers getting up and singing their songs.
MusiCares Person of the Year is one of the great nights in the music biz. Can’t wait to see who it is. Check for updates…
Magician Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) Seeks $1Mil for Film from Crowdfunding
I thought if you were Penn & Teller and you needed a million dollars, you just waved a magic wand. Apparently not. Penn Jillette is raising $1 million on crowdfunding site FundAnything.com. The money’s for a movie called “Director’s Cut,” directed by Adam Rifkin, who made “Look” and its Showtime series.
Jillette promises to put the name of every investor on the end credits of the movie. He says in a press release: “Crowdfunding through FundAnything.com is a great way to grab art away from Hollywood and give fans the power to help create this movie.”
The crowdfunding craze with films by names in the business got its start with the “Veronica Mars” movie. Then Zach Braff used it to launch his new film. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. James Franco tried to raise a half million dollars this summer on Indiegogo.com for three indies and only realized 66% of his goal.