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Telluride Announces: Coen Bros. (Toldya) and Robert Redford Getting Tributes

Roger Friedman
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I told you a couple of days ago that the Coen Brothers would get a special tribute at Telluride. I was asked not to say anything about another tribute to Robert Redford. They’ve both been announced just now, but I guess the planned tribute to Ralph Fiennes didn’t work out. The Coens tribute is with T Bone Burnett, who’s made four films with Joel and Ethan as music producer/supplier. He did an amazing job with “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Here’s the lineup for the 40th annual Telluride Film Festival:

ALL IS LOST (d. J.C. Chandor, U.S., 2013)

·       BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL (d. Philippe Claudel, France, 2013)

·       BETHLEHEM (d. Yuval Adler, Israel, 2013)

·       BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2013)

·       BURNING BUSH (d. Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic, 2013)

·       DEATH ROW: BLAINE MILAM + ROBERT FRATTA (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2013)

·       FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS (d. Mitra Farahani, U.S., 2013)

·       THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR: SATAN CAME TO EDEN (d. Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine, U.S., 2013)

·       GLORIA (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile, 2013)

·       GRAVITY (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.S./U.K., 2013)

·       IDA (d. Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland, 2013)

·       INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (d. Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S., 2013)

·       THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (d. Ralph Fiennes, U.K., 2013)

·       LABOR DAY (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2013)

·       THE LUNCHBOX (d. Ritesh Batra, India, 2013)

·       LA MAISON DE LA RADIO (d. Nicolas Philibert, France, 2013)

·       MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2013)

·       THE MISSING PICTURE (d. Rithy Panh, Cambodia/France, 2013)

·       NEBRASKA (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2013)

·       PALO ALTO (d. Gia Coppola, U.S., 2013)

·       THE PAST (d. Asghar Farhadi, France/Italy, 2013)

·       SLOW FOOD STORY (d. Stefano Sardo, Italy, 2013)

·       STARRED UP (d. David Mackenzie, U.K., 2013)

·       TIM’S VERMEER (d. Teller, U.S., 2013)

·       TRACKS (d. John Curran, Australia, 2013)

·       UNDER THE SKIN (d. Jonathan Glazer, U.K., 2013)

·       THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2013)

Some of the films played in Cannes– like “Nebraska” and “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and “All is Lost.” “Palo Alto” is directed by Gia Coppola, granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola. It’s produced by James Franco, based on his collection of short stories. I’d forgotten about that movie. Franco was trying to raise money on indiegogo.com to make some more films from “Palo Alto” but didn’t reach the goal of $500,000. “The Past” is Sony Pictures Classics’ Cannes pick up, sure to be a nominee for Best Foreign Film.

Michael Douglas in South of France, Split from Catherine Zeta Jones

Roger Friedman
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Michael Douglas in South of France, Split from Catherine Zeta Jones

People magazine is reporting something everyone knew but no one wanted to say: Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones have split after 13 years together. The magazine does not have an official statement which is odd for People. They just went with quotes from “friends.” People notes the Douglas’s cancer and Zeta Jones’s problems with bi-polar disorder as causes of strain. But there were problems a long time before that.

Also, and not mentioned in the People story, is the situation with Douglas’s son Cameron, who’s in prison for drug dealing and drug abuse. Cameron has spent a huge amount of time in solitary confinement. He can’t have visitors and won’t get out of prison until 2018. The severity of the term is shocking. That pressure, looming over Douglas, has probably been worse than anything else…

The last time I saw the couple together was at producer Marty Richards’ 80th birthday party and send off. (He has since passed away.) That was last January. Douglas was on his own in Cannes for “Behind the Candelabra” while Zeta Jones was being treated for her condition. They were once a very together couple, so it’s sad to see the end, especially with two kids…

I can tell you exclusively that Douglas is currently in Cap d’Antibes staying with professional host Johnny Pigozzi, friend of celebrities around the world. Then he heads to Deauville to open the film festival with “Candelabra”…

…Meantime the New York Times website is still down after being hacked yesterday. The Times has been hacked before and gotten right back up. But this time the damage must be pretty bad. Looking forward to seeing them back asap…

Eminem Goes “Berzerk” WIth New Single (Listen)

Roger Friedman
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Eminem Goes “Berzerk” WIth New Single (Listen)

“Let’s say fuck it before we kick the bucket.” Eminem is back! I actually missed him. Here’s the audio for his new single “Berzerk.” For the record, Khloe Kardashian is the only one of those horrible people I ever kind of liked. “Berzerk” is just a taste of what’s to come, I hope.

Lyrics:
Now this crib’s about to kick off, this party looks wack
Let’s take it back to straight hip-hop and start it from scratch
I’m ’bout to bloody this track up, everybody get back
That’s why my pen needs a pad cause my rhymes on the ra-hag
Just like I did with addiction I’m ’bout to kick it
Like I’m a magician I turn critics to crickets
Got ‘em still on the fence ready to pick it
But quick get impaled when I tell ‘em stick it
So sick I’m looking pale, wait that’s my pigment
I’m going ham ya bish, shout out to Kendrick
Let’s bring it back to that thing that’s slim, bitch!
The art of the MCing mixed with da Vinci and MC Ren
And I don’t mean Stimpy’s friend, bitch
Been Public Enemy since you thought PE was gym, bitch

[Bridge]
Take your shoes off, let your hair down and (go berserk), all night long
Grow your beard out, just weird out and (go berserk), all night long

[Hook]
We’re gonna rock this house until we knock it down
So turn the volume loud, cause it’s mayhem ’til the a.m.
So crank the bass up like crazy and let yourself go, let yourself go
Say fuck it before we kick the bucket
Life’s too short to not go for broke
So everybody, everybody go berserk

[Verse 2: Eminem]
Guess it’s just the way that I’m dressed, ain’t it?
Khakis pressed, Nike shoes just being fresh laced
So I guess it ain’t
Dead after shave of cologne that made him just faint
Plus I just showed up with a coat fresher than wet paint
Sweet love is a chess game, check mate
But girl your body’s banging, jump me in, bang bang
Yes sir, we ball, I was thinking the same thing
So come get on this kid drop, bop with the bop, gang gang
P-p-p-pow pow chicka wow wow
Catch a cab, I wanna go down, br-bow-bow
Slow it down, throw in the towel, t-t-towel towel
Low it down, I don’t know how, how, how, how
At least I know that I don’t know
Question is are you bozos smart enough to feel stupid
Hope so, now ho

[Hook]

[Verse 3: Eminem]
They say that love is powerful as cough syrup and Styrofoam
All I know is I fell asleep and woke up in that Monte Carlo
With the ugly Kardashian
Lamar, oh sorry we done both set the bar low
Bars hard, drugs hard thought that’s the past
But I done did enough codeine to knock Future into tomorrow
And girl I ain’t got no money to borrow
But I am tryin’ to find a way to get you alone, car note!
Oh, Marshall Mathers shouldn’t everybody know
Get the bar soap lathered, kangols and Carhartt, these Cargos
Girl you’re fixin’ to get your heart broke, don’t be absurd man
You bird brained baby I ain’t called anybody baby since Birdman
Unless you’re a swallow
Word, w-word man you heard, but don’t be discouraged girl
This is your jam, unless you got toe jam

Oprah’s Tina Turner Interview Higher Rated than Lindsay Lohan Talk

Roger Friedman
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Oprah’s Tina Turner Interview Higher Rated than Lindsay Lohan Talk

So maybe there is a god. Oprah Winfrey’s audience was more interested in her talk with Tina Turner than the one with Lindsay Lohan. Just when you think the culture is dead, it comes back and surprises you, doesn’t it? The Tina Turner interview scored 1 million viewers, vs. 893,000 for Lohan. Even the demo was higher for Tina vs. Lindsay — .71 vs. .66. (Lindsay had a total of 1.8 mil viewers but that was over several rebroadcasts.)

Overall, OWN had its biggest month ever in August thanks to those interviews, and the Tyler Perry shows “Love thy Neighbor” and “The Haves and the Have Nots.” But the best news was the Tina Turner report. Even though she dropped her US citizenship and got married in Switzerland, Tina is still an All-American hit!

Broadway Exclusive: Moss Hart’s Famous “Act One” Headed to Lincoln Center

Roger Friedman
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Broadway Exclusive: Moss Hart’s Famous “Act One” Headed to Lincoln Center

This is exciting news if you are older or wiser: famed playwright Moss Hart’s beloved memoir, “Act One,” is being turned into a play. And that play is coming to Lincoln Center next spring thanks to the great James Lapine. He’s adapted the book and will direct the production.

Trust me, this story will get three hits among readers younger than 50. But Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman wrote the most wonderful plays ever including “You Can’t Take it With You” and “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” He and Kaufman also wrote the screenplays for “A Star is Born” (with Judy Garland), “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Hans Christian Anderson,” and “Winged Victory.” You know, real movies.

Moss Hart was married to the late Kitty Carlisle Hart, who became a New York icon in her own right and carried on his legacy for years and years after he died in 1961 at the much too young age of 57.

Lapine and casting director Daniel Swee are looking for someone great to play Moss, a guy in his mid 20s with a New York Jewish sensibility.

The show comes off a two performance workshop tryout last month on Martha’s Vineyard featuring Tony Shalhoub, Debra Monk, Chuck Cooper and David Turner.

Anyway, the weird thing is I recently found a first edition of “Act One” and put it away for safekeeping. Now I’m going to dust it off for a re-read ASAP.

Exclusive: Will Smith-Backed Private School Closed Over Scientology Association

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Will Smith-Backed Private School Closed Over Scientology Association

EXCLUSIVE: Suddenly without warning Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s privately funded New Village Leadership Academy shut its doors this summer. The school, in Calabasas, California, was a mystery: it used some Scientology curriculum and had gone through a couple of head administrators. The last one, named Piano Foster, had taken Scientology courses. But as late as last spring, New Village had been having auctions, and looked like it was returning in the fall. Then it simply shut down.

What happened? Hollywood veteran manager and producer Jeff Wald sent his two youngest daughters to New Village. I spoke to him yesterday. Wald had a lot of praise for Will and Jada, and for Piano Foster (real name Franca Piano Foster). He told me that despite the reports from “bloggers,” there was never talk of Scientology at the school.

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But, he said, “We could never get past the association. We couldn’t raise any money. And the Smiths were putting in $2 million of their own each year. They couldn’t keep supporting it.”

According to their last federal tax filing, in 2011, New Village finished that year in the red with a negative balance of -$284,931.

Wald says the idea of New Village was to offer “middle class black kids a chance” for a good private education. He said that “eighty percent” of the students were African American. The tuition was low by comparable standards. “Just $25,000” a year, he said. Private schools in New York, by comparison, run at around $40,000 a year.

The curriculum included basics, Wald says, but also special projects that kept the students engaged– like making videos about Occupy Los Angeles, or fashion projects that were about body imaging and self esteem. The students also had days of community service.

Some children of sports stars were starting to come to New Village, Wald says, including the toddlers of New York Nets players Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. There was at least one back up singer for One Direction. Hollywood show business attorney Ken Hertz, who was on the New Village board, didn’t return several phone messages and emails. His wife, Teri, was also on the board.

Many of the people who worked at the school had connections to the Smiths. But Wald says when Will Smith was informed the son of one of his employees, a student, was bullying other kids, he was asked to leave New Village.

“They didn’t play favorites,” says Wald, whose daughter will miss the school. “We never met nicer people, and we had a lot of laughs. The Smiths helped a lot of people.”

And still, Wald emphasizes, he is friendly with Piano Foster and may do a project with her. Her husband, he says, works for Will Smith now. He adds: “There was never any proselytizing about Scientology.”

 

 

Lawsuit: SiriusXM Doesn’t Pay Royalties for Oldies, Any Songs Pre-1972

Roger Friedman
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Lawsuit: SiriusXM Doesn’t Pay Royalties for Oldies, Any Songs Pre-1972

The Beatles. The Rolling Stones’ classic hits. Motown. Stax. Doo-wop. “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Jimi Hendix. The Doors. Guess what? Sirius XM satellite radio doesn’t pay any royalties on this music. They refuse, claiming they don’t have to. I didn’t know that, but now I do. And now you do. The satellite radio home of Howard Stern claims it’s protected under a federal statutory license.

Yesterday, SoundExchange, which collects digital royalties the way BMI and ASCAP do for everything else, sued SiriusXM in U.S. District court in Washington DC. They claim that Sirius XM simply pretends for tax purposes and anything else that all the years of rock and roll before 1971 don’t exist. Sound Exchange claims that Sirius XM doesn’t include the money they make from that music  in their “Gross revenues.”

(The cut off is actually February 15, 1972 and is referred to in the lawsuit as “pre-1972.” Those last six weeks include a lot of famous releases, coincidentally, including Neil Young’s “Harvest,” Allman Bros.’s “Eat a Peach,” Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” and Michael Jackson’s “Got to Be There.”)

The lawsuit is basically claiming that subscribers who pay to listen to Sirius for their 50s and 60s music, for oldies stations and for Soul Town, my favorite station, aren’t counted. Don’t forget, SiriusXM unlike your normal radio station, knows what you’re listening to because they are digital.  They know you’re not listening to polka music. Or if you are. They know I am always on Soul Town and not on Heavy Metal.

SoundExchange is asking for $50 to $100 million in back royalties  from 2007 to 2012.

“Getting paid by Sirius would be life changing money for the pre-72 legacy artists,”  said Heather Sauber, Director of The Soul Arts and Music Foundation, Inc. that’s been organized with the goal of helping the legacy American recordings artists recover their rights and property.

And legacy artists don’t mean just the big stars as I mentioned above but little guys with one off hits that are played on SiriusXM around the clock, from “96 Tears” to “Sweet Soul Music” to “Spirit in the Sky” and “I Only Have Eyes for You.”

It also means all of the classic recordings by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Fitzgerald all the big band and jazz music.

“American Idol” Still Looking for Judge As Top 40 Producer Backs Out

Roger Friedman
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“American Idol” Still Looking for Judge As Top 40 Producer Backs Out

“American Idol” is still looking for a third judge and time is running out. It’s already August 27th. Only Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez are signed to return to the show. Former judge Randy Jackson will show up as a mentor– unless he has to be drafted back into a judge’s chair. “Dr Luke,” a very successful top 40 producer, was going to be added. But he has a deal with Sony Music, and “American Idol” is all about finding acts for rival Universal Music Group. So now what?

Sony was represented on “Idol” by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith but no one seemed to mind since the group is older, and their fan base is set in stone. “Idol” now needs someone who’s either neutral or somehow connected to Universal. I think a great choice would be Bernie Taupin, whose records with Elton John are all distributed by UMG. He’s British, can be snarky, and certainly knows a hit sound when he hears it. He’s also not 12 years old.

But “Idol” is competing with “The Voice,” a show that boasts young rock and pop stars like Adam Levine and Shakira. But so far several candidates have turned “Idol” down either because they know the show’s popularity is waning, or their own careers are too busy. But the clock is ticking.

Who would you like to see in the third judges’ chair?

Randy Travis in Physical Therapy, Will Release New Album Next Month

Roger Friedman
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Randy Travis in Physical Therapy, Will Release New Album Next Month

Country great Randy Travis is still recuperating from his bad health summer of a stroke, surgery, heart implant. But that hasn’t stopped him. Before Travis fell ill he’d finished an album of country covers, all tributes to the musicians who’d influenced him. He began working it last year and finished a few days before his early July collapse. Now the album has been set for release as Travis makes progress with his physical therapy. The album is called “Influence Vol. 1: The Man I Am.” The tracklist follows, and you’ll see there’s a lot of Merle Haggard plus George Jones, as well as Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby. My dad, who used to listen to WWVA from the Northeast on clear nights, is going to go crazy for this album. PS Randy, get well soon!

Songs on Influence Vol. 1: The Man I Am include:
1. Someday We’ll Look Back
Influence: Merle Haggard
Songwriter: Merle Haggard
Original Performer: Merle Haggard
Originally Released: 1971

2. Big Butter And Egg Man
Influence: Merle Haggard (1985)
Songwriter: Percy Venable
Original Performer: Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five
Originally Released: 1926

3. What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana
Influence: Merle Haggard
Songwriter: Dave Kirby
Original Performer: Merle Haggard
Originally Released: 1976

4. Ever Changing Woman
Influence: Merle Haggard
Songwriters: David Kirby, Curly Putman
Original Performer: Merle Haggard
Originally Released: 1980

5. Pennies From Heaven
Influence: Merle Haggard (1986)
Songwriters: Arthur Johnston (music) Johnny Burke (lyrics)
Original Performer: Bing Crosby
Originally Released: 1936

6. Thanks A Lot
Influence: Ernest Tubb
Songwriters: Eddie Miller and Don Sessions
Original Performer: Ernest Tubb
Originally Released: 1964

7. Trouble In Mind
Influence: Merle Haggard (1996)
Songwriter: Richard M. Jones
Original Performer: Thelma La Vizzo
Originally Released: 1924

8. My Mary
Influence: Merle Haggard
Songwriters: Stuart Hamblen, Jimmie Davis
Original Performers: Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson
Originally Released: 1983

9. Saginaw, Michigan
Influence: Lefty Frizzell
Songwriters: Don Wayne
Original Performer: Lefty Frizzell
Year Released: 1964

10. Always On A Mountain (When I Fall)
Influence: Merle Haggard
Songwriter(s): D. Kerran & Chuck Howard
Original Performer: Merle Haggard
Year Released: 1978

11. (Because) You Asked Me To
Influence: Waylon Jennings
Songwriter(s): Billy Joe Shaver & Waylon Jennings
Original Performer: Waylon Jennings
Year Released: 1973

12. Why Baby Why
Influence: George Jones
Songwriters: Darrell Edwards & George Jones
Original Performer: George Jones
Year Released: 1955

13. Tonight I’m Playing Possum (Duet With Joe Nichols)
Songwriters: Keith Gattis
Original Performer: Randy Travis
Year Released: 2013

Justin Timberlake, NSync Drive MTV VMA Ratings Up 66% from Last Year

Roger Friedman
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1
Justin Timberlake, NSync Drive MTV VMA Ratings Up 66% from Last Year

Ratings were up 66% last night from last year for the MTV Video Music Awards aka “The Justin Timberlake Show.” The combination of Justin and his NSync reunion brought in a whopping 10 million viewers. Critically the show was a horror. And it bored various nominees and participants who we caught yawning or knitting during the show. But MTV gave the kids what they wanted: their big pop stars live and in person for 45 minutes (plus commercials). It didn’t hurt that Miley Cyrus got all freaky with Robin Thicke.

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