Kamala Harris had a good weekend in music.
will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas released the best campaign song ever. I wish it had come out weeks ago, but we’ll take it!
Meantime, Bruce Springsteen opened a show for the first time ever with “She’s the One.” This was a tribute to Kamala, of course, who Bruce has already endorsed.
Trumpers have Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood. Harris has every smart pop, rock, R&B, and country star.
“Q” is what everyone called him.
Quincy Jones, the greatest of the great, composer, conductor, producer, has died at age 91. He was a giant. There’s no other word to describe him. He was music royalty. (Aretha Franklin even bowed down to him.) I was lucky enough to know him for many years.
There’s a comprehensive obit in the NY Times, although you can never get enough in because was 24/7 legend who never stopped. He wrote Soul Bossa Nova, produced Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party,” the theme song for “Sanford and Son,” and worked with Frank Sinatra for years. He had major funk hits with the Brothers Johnson (“Strawberry Letter 23,” “Stomp,” “I’ll Be Good to Ya” in the mid 70s.
After all that fame, he hit it bigger than ever producing Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” albums. “Thriller” is the best selling album of all time right up to this minute. In 2985, Quincy produced and orchestrated “We Are the World,” the all star charity video. His famous line to the 30 more superstars: “Check your ego at the door.”
Twenty five years later he conducted an anniversary version featuring Barbra Streisand among others. The whole “We Are the World” experience was chronicled in the exceptional documentary.
Q was married four times, most famously to “Mod Squad” actress Peggy Lipton, and had a three year relationship with actress Nastassja Kinski. He had 7 children including the actress Rashida Jones. He loved the nightlife, and parties. We often joked about how the girlfriends and dates were getting younger as he got older. He told me, half joking. that his age and the girls’ couldn’t add up to more than 100. I asked him, what happens when you’re 82 and she’s 18? He said, “We’ll see about that.”
No one was kinder or smarter. We just hit it off, which was very special to this music fan. Quincy Jones had an amazing life. He and actor Michael Caine were born on the same day — March 14th — in the same year and often celebrated together. Imagine that back when “Bad” and “We Are the World” came out, it was the same time he composed the music for the movie, “The Color Purple,” which he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.
This is stunning: Q had 28 Grammy Awards, an Emmy and a Tony, and an honorary Oscar. He also had 7 Oscar nominations. The accolades, philanthropy, just went on and on. He was a man who loved and enjoyed people and welcomed everyone who approached him.
Years ago he invented very crazy, expensive headphones for JBL/Harman Kardan. He gave me a pair that I still treasure. They’re huge and a little clunky, like wearing a recording studio on your head! I will wear them today listening to all his hits. Q, you will be sorely missed!
September 5th, 1972 — looking at it now — was not much different than October 7, 2023.
On the first date, Arab terrorists called Black September kidnapped and killed the 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team at the Munich games. It was a savage act, chronicled in the Steven Spielberg movie, “Munich” and Kevin MacDonald’s documentary, “One Day in September.”
Now we’ve got another point of view of the Munich massacre in Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5th.” This film, concise and nail biting, is about how ABC Sports, led by Roone Arledge, Peter Jennings, and Jim McKay covered the attack instantly, live, from their Olympic headquarters in Munich — and kept it away from the news department.
“September 5th” is a short, ferocious movie that also brings up a lot of bad memories, not all of them 52 years old. You can’t not think about the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Jews at a music festival on October 7th, 2023. (The horrors are paralleled even though they’re not mentioned, of course, in the Fehlbaum film.)
The new film is a showcase memoir from ABC producer Geoff Mason, who’s still alive and was there when all hell broke loose. He’s played with wit and compassion by John Magaro, the 31 year old actor who recalls Dustin Hoffman or Richard Dreyfus and has already established quite a resume. Mason went on to collect 26 Emmy Awards and is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. But he’s our go to guy as we meet Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) who would become a TV network titan, as well as a young Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker), producer Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and the German interpreter who helped save the day (an astonishing Marianne Gebhardt).
So what happened on international TV when there was only room for one network at a time on a single satellite? When there were no cell phones, and no ProTools? When film had to be developed and then manually edited? When there was no Google for fact checking? Fehlbaum underscores the stark reality of how dogged journalism used to work by seamlessly including archival footage. Former ABC Wide World of Sports star Jim McKay, who’s been dead since 2008, for example, becomes a key supporting player.
Apart from the terrorism being no less psychotic than it is today, these are the questions answered by “September 5,” which feels like a child of “Spotlight” and “Lou Grant.” Fehlbaum conveys the immediacy of the unknown threat, knowing how it will turn out. But the terrorism is never far from our minds, and the connection to October 7th is unavoidable. Nothing has changed in 50 years.
Sarsgaard’s Arledge is solid, and only can indicate how in the future this TV exec would become a legend thanks to abrasive confidence. Magaro’s Mason is written as the central character, and the actor gets high marks for leading us through the emergency. He’s our guide. Benesch is the bright light of the film as interpreter Gebhardt who is pressed into service and becomes they key member of the group without warning.
There is no happy ending. But “September 5” will be revelatory to younger generations to see how the world operated without digital equipment. It’s not just how the news was gathered and sent back to the US on the spot, but also how certain analogue things we take for granted — like AM Radio — shouldn’t be eliminated so quickly. If it weren’t for German AM Radio, the ABC Sports producers would have been in the dark.
Let’s start with Clint Eastwood.
The 94 year old director’s “Juror Number 2” made $5 million over the weekend…in Europe! It’s playing in France, Spain and the UK. So it’s a hit there. And we know that because box office numbers were reported.
But Warner Bros. is not reporting box office for the US, where “Juror Number 2” is playing in just 50 theaters. There’s an unconfirmed number of $300,000 for the US.
“Juror Number 2” is a terrific film and deserves marketing, wider release, and an Oscar campaign. But something screwy is going on. After
“Joker Folie a Deux” drove Warner’s into the ground they should be proud of Eastwood and celebrating him!
Also at the BO: Robert Zemeckis’s “Here” went nowhere. It made $5 million playing on 2,647 screens. It’s one of Tom Hanks’s lowest grossing films in which he stars. No one knows what it’s about, and no one wanted to see it. It’s a movie about technology, apparently. So strange.
“Conclave,” one of the best films of the year, is a hit. After a slow start, the Ralph Fiennes led thriller, directed by Edward Berger, is finding audiences. “Conclave” should be on every top 10 list of the year.
Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” made $60,000 a apiece in four locations, two in LA and two in NY. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin are phenomenal in this funny and emotional story of two cousins who reunite for a trip to see their grandmother’s home in Poland before she was taken to a concentration camp. It’s a satisfying if unnerving adventure, real filmmaking. Lots of awards coming.
Earlier this week I reviewed “The Outrun,” which is now on streaming. Saorise Ronan stars in this gem. By all means, for serious film lovers, check it out. Ronan must be nominated for Best Actress.
Sony Pictures Classics has at least three awards films including “The Outrun.” The great Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door” is a power punch with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. I’ve reviewed that already. But I’ll have more tonight Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here,” which also gets an Oscar run in November and is a sensational thriller ripped from the headlines, a true story from 1970 Brazil. Fernanda Torres also deserves a Best Actress nod.
Could SPC have three Best Actress noms — Swinton, Ronan, and Torres? And Supporting Actress for Moore? They should. Quite an achievement!
Kamala Harris and Maya Rudolph had a charming cold open on “SNL” tonight. It totally made up for Lorne Michaels allowing Donald Trump to host the show in 2015.
Good work here.
Kamala Harris talks to Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/AJuW7aO7VM
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) November 3, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris will appear on “Saturday Night Live” tonight.
John Mulaney is the host, Chappell Roan — who won’t endorse anyone — is the musical guest.
Harris, running for president on Tuesday, will appear along side Maya Rudolph, who plays her on the show.
For Harris and SNL each this is a coup. At least 5 million people will watch tonight. The exposure for Harris is huge. And the appearance cements “SNL” in the political firmament.
The big question is, Will she run into James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump, plus Andy Samberg as Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, or Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz? This could be the biggest sketch in “SNL” history.
And who knows? Maybe Chappell Roan will endorse Harris. That would be sweet.
What is Chromokopia? I have no idea.
Who is Tyler the Creator? A huge rap star who is highly regarded by his fans.
The result? First week sales of 300,000 for “Chromokopia” this week. It’s on Sony Columbia Records.
His real name is Tyler Gregory Okonma. He’s 33. This week he woke up the slumbering record biz with this release. No artists have been selling at all recently. Halsey, also popular, didn’t crack 100,000 with her new release. She finished at number 2. (She’s also on Sony. Good week for them.)
Tyler not only writes the music, he also directs the videos. One of them is below and is quite cool.
Does he have cred? Yes. He’s had some minor brushes with the law, but nothing very extreme. According to Wikipedia he may also be bisexual. He’s also had feuds with Eminem and with DJ Khaled.
“Chromakopia” is Tyler’s 8th album. Noted: album sales were evenly divided between physical product and streaming. That makes him unusual right there. Fans want to own his music.
Tyler’s last album, in 2022, won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. “Chromakopia” will have to wait until January 2026 for that honor. But there’s a good chance we’ll see him on the show this winter.
Tom Hanks has two Oscars and lots of big hits on his resume.
He also has some clunkers. Robert Zemeckis’s “Here” is one of them, maybe the biggest.
Last night, “Here” — which reunites Hanks with his “Forrest Gump” director Zemeckis and star Robin Wright — made just $198 per theater in previews. The total was just $475,000.
Total for the weekend will be around $3 million or less.
The movie cost $50 million officially, but probably more. It’s a total write off for the producers and Miramax Films.
“Here” is so hard to describe that Robin Wright couldn’t do it on Stephen Colbert’s show the other night.
It’s apparently about time passing for one couple, in the same room. There’s just one point of view. Or something. There’s a lot of technology involved, but no story.
What a shame.
Donald Trump’s stock is plummeting.
Trump Media is down to $30.30 after he suggested killing former congresswoman Liz Cheney.
The stock has dropped 15% just today by 1:20pm. On Tuesday, it was at 53.88.
Trump has suffered a personal loss of at least $2 billion as the stock for his social media site Truth Social is collapsing.
Are people finally understanding who he is? In just 5 days, the stock has fallen 28%.
This comes after a big run up as investors were sure Trump would win the election. But a sell off is taking place now starting since Sunday’s rally when Puerto Rico was described on stage as a “floating island of garbage.”
Trump could have apologized for the statement by a comedian, but didn’t, and he himself kept describing the US as a “garbage can.”
Melania Trump’s memoir, called Melania, is number 6 on the new New York Times bestseller list of hardcover non fiction.
It should be fiction, but that’s another story.
Anyway, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that the book is number 1 on the Times list.
It’s not.
Last week, it was number 5. It was number 1 for 1 week when it was first published.
If he can lie about something so easily checked, what about everything else?
Right now the Trump Media stock is struggling to stay above $32 a share. It’s been dropping since yesterday and is way off its high of $54 from six weeks ago.
