Morgan Spurlock’s “One Direction: This Is Us” about the forenamed band, is a fun, zippy look at five  ridiculously charming and uber cute lads from the UK.  I watched it in a theater filled with teenage hormonal girls and their unabated deafening shrieks were filled with unabashed adoring love.  How could they not? The dreamy guys are Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik and the band is the creation of the musical genius Simon Cowell.

The seasoned and respected Cowell admits in a candid moment that the phenomenon caught him completely by surprise. Cowell again — as he did with American Idol and X Fact0r– finds the perfect zeitgeist of fan adoration via the Internet, Facebook, Twitter. All of  which helped spur One Direction’s  meteoric rise to the mega worldwide stars.

Older folks will smile, the film is just plain fun to watch and the music is poppy and quite lovely at times. These young men are actually talented, the boys can sing, which Cowell of course got spot on.

Spurlock gives some touching cameos to the parents of these seemingly normal working class kids, one especially said how he was just a plain rural Dad and seemed truly befuddled by his son’s success.  All the parents are still shell shocked, they still don’t know what quite hit them. You can’t blame them, the scenes of the global swarms of screaming girls harken back to the Beatles.  “One Direction” is the social networking version of that kind of hysteria. And hysteria it most certainly is.

After watching Miley Cyrus’s debacle on the VMAs I think parents will herd their teenagers into the theater to watch genuinely nice, mischievous young men not misbehaving.  Spurlock does more than a good job of making their story an enjoyable, albeit harmless and light foray of boy band fodder.

Clint Eastwood’s 17 year marriage to Dina Ruiz is over after 17 years and one daughter. They’re the second A list Hollywood marriage to tank this week– following Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones. Is a third couple lurking out there? Quite possibly. The Eastwoods were married in 1996.. They have a 16 year old daughter named Morgan.

Last year, Dina and Morgan and Clint’s daughter with Frances Fisher, Francesca, were all part of a reality TV show. This was so unlike Clint, and he didn’t want it. But he relented and regretted it. When I ran into him last winter he was dining with friends, no Dina in sight. He made it clear that the TV show wasn’t his idea, and that it was over.

Eastwood is now 83 years old. He will never retire. He’s currently shooting “Jersey Boys,” the movie based on the musical. During the marriage he’s directed “Mystic River,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Hereafter,” “Invictus,” the wonderful “Gran Torino,” “Flags of our Fathers,” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” (in Japanese!),  acted in “Trouble with the Curve.” He’s relentlessly productive and successful. There’s no one else like him. In the last 20 years he’s won Best Picture and Director twice in a combo, for “MDB” and “Unforgiven,” his masterwork. Maybe Dina thought he’d retire some day.

Around them, everyone knew the marriage was over some time ago. Still, it’s sad. Now if we get one more couple this week, it’s a trifecta, hat trick. Place your bets.

The great Valerie Harper appeared on the the Today show this morning with brilliant news: her doctors says her brain cancer is “close to remission.” The doctor says, “She defies the odds.” She received a death sentence last winter but has beaten the odds. She’s made a TV movie since then, and will appear “Dancing with the Stars.” I will even watch that show just to see Valerie win. This is the power of positive thinking. Bravo, Valerie!

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I just saw a Tweet saying Michael Jackson– remember what a good business man he was. Huh? The smartest thing Michael Jackson ever did was tell John Branca that the Beatles’ catalog was for sale. That was it. Michael lived on that catalog for 25 years, long after his own money had run out due to flagrant spending on stuff that was mostly crap: worthless expensive souvenirs from Las Vegas vendors, paintings of himself at the Last Supper. Jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor so she’d come to his 30th anniversary show. One million dollars cash to get Marlon Brando to appear on stage at the same concert.

Michael didn’t want to work. It took years to get the mediocre “Invincible” album together. It had already been 6 or 7 years since he’d put out a new record when “Invincible” was released in 2001. The album, you don’t want to remember this, was not a hit. “You Rock My World” was a modest success compared to Jackson’s previous efforts.

He wouldn’t tour. By 2001, he’d been off the circuit for some time. He didn’t tour for “Invincible.” He made one appearance–at the Apollo, for the Democratic National Committee–in 2002. I was there. I saw him live. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/04/25/jacko-plays-apollo/.

It was a so-so effort. It was also the last time he performed live. He knew he needed money. He burned through it day and night.  Rome was burning and Michael fiddled. Managers came and went with schemes, all of which wound up in lawsuits that cost more legal fees. He made terrible investments. Roll call: Hollywoodticket.com, Dieter Wiesner, Myung Ho Lee, Marcel Avram, Shumley Boteach.

Jackson lived like the money from “Thriller” was still coming in. It wasn’t. By the time he was arrested in 2003, and stood trial in 2005, the finances were vanishing. He called his friend Ron Burkle from the men’s room in the Santa Maria courthouse and offered to sell him everything, begged for help. Burkle, who was really a friend, declined.

I say all this because, let’s get real. Michael Jackson has only made money post-death because he was not an obstacle to prudent moves. With Michael out the way, his executors were able to right the ship. If Michael Jackson hadn’t died: he would have played the London shows, cancelled some feigning illness, and spent whatever money was made as quickly as it came in. That’s the truth. So let’s get a grip.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187452,00.html

Of course, he was a musical genius. He was a dancing fool. He was lovely to his kids. His fans adored him. His death is a tragedy. But I can see the sepia tint washing over his portrait now. Remember: at one point, Neverland and the Encino house shut down, employees who need the money to live on were not being paid. And Michael Jackson did nothing, Nada. He was human. And he was not a good businessman.

I told you two weeks ago Paul McCartney had a new album. And it’s called “New,” due from Concord on October 15th. “New” is produced by Mark Ronson, the man behind Amy Winehouse’s big successes and many other hits. Ronson is also the son of Ann Dexter Jones and stepson of Foreigner’s Mick Jones. The title song, “New,” is up on iTunes today. It’s so McCartney-like in melody and structure you’d have no trouble picking it out, and still it’s all “new.” This song is one of Macca’s bright, self contained pop bursts, a lot like “Penny Lane” or “My Brave Face.” The new album is Paul’s first since “Driving Rain.”– whoops, no!– “Memory Almost Full.” (Apparently mine is or I wouldn’t have forgotten that!)

Here it is:

photo c2012showbiz411