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Alec Baldwin’s Wife Didn’t Tweet During Funeral: Reporter Confused Time Zones

Roger Friedman
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Alec Baldwin’s Wife Didn’t Tweet During Funeral: Reporter Confused Time Zones

As far as I can tell, Hilaria Thomas Baldwin didn’t Tweet during James Gandolfini’s funeral. I think the reporter for the Daily Mail, who is in Los Angeles, got the time zones confused. According to the time stamps on Hilaria’s Tweets, which are clearly marked for anyone to see, she Tweeted before and after the service. She re-Tweeted Rachel Ray, but the time stamp on that Tweet was from the original Tweet which Ray had sent out.

The funeral ran from 10:05am-to about 11:30am. Hilaria has a Tweet at 11:47am about making smoothies. I know that I was out of the church by 11:55am and I left after they did. I stopped and had long talks with Vince and Maureen Curatola, and with Aida Turturro.

The time stamps for the rest of Hilaria’s Tweets are 1:17pm and 2:09pm. I think the reporter thought these were at 10:17am and 11:09am. They were– but translated into his time zone. The funeral was long over by then.

Hilaria: The poor woman is seven months pregnant. It was sweltering in the church. I spoke to the Baldwins a few minutes before the service. She already looked like she was suffering from the heat. They had no air conditioning in St. John the Divine, just big fans that didn’t help. Occasionally there was a breeze.

Of course, I can’t address Alec Baldwin’s response. He clearly has anger management issues. But this constant nitpicking on people by so-called reporters with nothing better do must stop. I don’t know Hilaria Baldwin beyond small talk. But she seems like a very nice person. She certainly doesn’t deserve this treatment.

Bert and Ernie Gay? New Yorker Magazine Cover References Banned Short Film (See Video)

Roger Friedman
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Bert and Ernie Gay? New Yorker Magazine Cover References Banned Short Film (See Video)

The New Yorker magazine has gone where almost no one has dared to go before. The new cover depicts Bert and Ernie from “Sesame Street” lovingly watching the Supreme Court on TV rule in favor of gay marriage. Bert and Ernie gay? When director Peter Spears went there in his 2002 short film “Ernest and Bertram,” Childrens’ Television Workshop shut him down instantly. I know because I was in the new yorker coveraudience at the Eccles Theater at Sundance the one and only time it was shown. I wrote about it a few minutes later. CTW sent a cease and desist letter over copyright violation. I’d be surprised if CTW doesn’t do the same for The New Yorker. Anyway. it turns out “Ernest and Bertram” has been on YouTube all this time. Here it is. And frankly more timely than ever:

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Alec Baldwin Twitter Account Removed After F Bomb Meltdown

Roger Friedman
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Alec Baldwin Twitter Account Removed After F Bomb Meltdown

UPDATE: 9am: Well, the story has taken off, of course. The Twitter account is gone. Again, I don’t think it’s possible that anyone was Tweeting from James Gandolfini’s funeral. I do believe Alec’s story that they left early. It was extremely hot in the church, there wasn’t even a breeze. It’s more than likely they departed through the side door.

UPDATE 3am: Alec Baldwin‘s account has been removed from Twitter after his diatribe against a Daily Mail reporter dropped F bombs like he was the Enola Gay over Hiroshima. I don’t blame him for being angry, but he just over does it. Some of the Tweets remain in their non-formatted state below.

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EARLIER: In the last few minutes (10:44pm EST) Alec Baldwin has gone bat-shit crazy on Twitter against a Daily Mail reporter. Baldwin is FURIOUS with someone named George Stark who published a piece in the Mail Online about his wife, Hilaria, herself Tweeting allegedly during James Gandolfini’s funeral. I’m kind of laughing, and it’s all kind of sad. For one thing, I saw the Baldwins at the funeral. I don’t think she was doing any such thing. No one in that church was on a phone. It would have been too upsetting and obvious; we were also sitting like sardines. I just don’t believe it. Also, I ran into the Baldwins when I was walking home the other night. They were genuinely very sad about Gandolfini. In one of these Tweets, Alec writes: “How much of this shit are people supposed to take? With these fucking blatant lies EVERY DAY.” He’s right. But he’s got to learn to cool it somehow.

 

 

 

Zach Braff to Star in Musical Bullets over Broadway

Roger Friedman
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Zach Braff to Star in Musical Bullets over Broadway

Zach Braff will make his Broadway debut in the musical version of Woody Allen’s “Bullets over Broadway,” Susan Stroman directs and choreographs. Woody Allen wrote the book based on his original screenplay with Doug McGrath. Vincent Pastore from The Sopranos costars in the Chazz. Palminteri role. Woody’s sister Letty Aronson and Elaine May’s regular producer, Julian Schlossberg, are producing. Lenny Wolpe, Betsy Wolfe, Helene Yorke and Brooks Ashmanskas are also in the cast.

More casting is imminent. William Ivey Long, god bless him, is doing the costumes. “Bullets Over Broadway” will open on April 10, 2014 at the best theater in New York, the St. James (once home to “The Producers” and “Hello, Dolly!” among others).

Some interesting notes: According to Playbill, the show had a tryout last week. I guess it worked because they’ve scheduled a four week lab this fall prior to the winter previews. And there are no new songs— all the songs are from the 20s and 30s. That should make entering “BOB” as a mew musical a little problematic. How peculiar. “BOB” will be like a Gershwin “new” musical.

Weekend Box Office Surprise: Funny Female Cops Set to Take “White House” Down

Roger Friedman
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Weekend Box Office Surprise: Funny Female Cops Set to Take “White House” Down

Friday is shaping up as an interesting night in box office history. Paul Feig’s female buddy cop comedy “The Heat” looks like it’s going to take “White House Down” down. First of all, “The Heat” is far better reviewed. It has a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. “WHD” meantime has a 50%. And that’s it’s high mark. It’s been lower.

Our own LEAH SYDNEY loved it. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are are going to give Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum a run for their money. Here’s what she reports back:

Prepare to have a grin on your face for two hours as two gifted actresses/comediennes– the always game powerhouse Melissa McCarthy and the ever quippy Sandra Bullock– are highly entertaining in the estrogen version of the buddy comedy, “The Heat.”  Melissa pays a filthy mouthed Boston cop who is fearless in her take no prisoners’ attitude, which extends to her family, including her perpetually messed up brother, played by the always-reliable Michael Rappaport. Sandra plays a prim perfectionist FBI agent who has her own difficult history. Their instant combativeness/affection set the tone for consistent laughs throughout the film.

The plot is simple; the ladies are chasing the drug dealer bad guys.  These gifted gals milk everything they can with their expert timing, pitch perfect chemistry and the truly clever and funny bone script by Katie Dippold doesn’t hurt.  Director Paul Feig, who helmed the McCarthy hit “Bridesmaids” two summers ago, again deftly handles these two ladies throughout their many adventures, from an undercover night of drinking, to being caught and tied up by the bad guys and extricating themselves from that.

McCarthy is fearless in her willingness to do whatever it takes to get to the funny and her in your face comedy works perfectly with Sandra’s appealing self-deprecation.  Where so many of these so called summer comedies just seem slapped together, ‘Heat’ stands out for just being bottom line, really funny, and smart. You know this is the first of many episodes in these ladies’ lives. Kudos to Sandra Bullock. She is literally the mother of career reinvention.

James Gandolfini Gave Black T Shirts to Sopranos Cast and Crew: “Only the Good Die Young”

Roger Friedman
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James Gandolfini Gave Black T Shirts to Sopranos Cast and Crew: “Only the Good Die Young”

New Jersey governor Chris Christie and most of the Sopranos said goodbye to James Gandolfini today at the magnificent Cathedral of St John the Divine. Joining Edie Falco and Lorraine Bracco were show creator David Chase, who said in his eulogy that he’d envisioned a scene with Tony Soprano set to Joan Osbourne’s “What if God Were One of Us.” Gandolfini’s widow Deborah spoke briefly but mostly rocked the couple’s 8 month old daughter back and forth in the front row.

The many actors luminaries ranged from Steve Carell, Brian Williams, Dick Cavett, Chris Noth, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, and Julianna Margulies to a slew of Sopranos; Aida Turturro, Dominic Chianese, Vince Curatola, Federico Castellucci, Michael Imperioli, Joe Pantoliano, Annabella Sciorra, Jerry Adler, and Tony Sirico to Gandolfini’s recent Broadway castmates Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden. A tearful Maureen van Zandt stood in for husband Steve who’s on tour with Bruce Springsteen in Europe.

Hollywood was represented by Brad Grey and Jeff Bewkes. HBO “produced” the massive funeral which comprised hundreds of mourners with grace and elegance.

Another speaker, Tommy Richardson, asked the entire congregation to stand and hug each other. Gandolfini liked to hug he said “too hard and too long.”

Veronica Lupu, the show’s script supervisor, wore a black t shirt she said Gandolfini had given to the whole cast and crew. It read; The Sopranos 1997-2007 “only the good die young.”

Chase wrote his obit in the form of a letter to Gandolfini, calling him “my brother” and speaking for the cast. He recalled that when they shot the pilot on location in New Jersey it was hot and humid. “Jimmy was sitting there with his pants rolled up and a handkerchief on his forehead.” Chase said, that when he saw him there “I was filled with love.”

Rolling Stones: New Music Publisher Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Roger Friedman
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0
Rolling Stones: New Music Publisher Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Wow. Talk about misleading stories. Even the New York Post got this kinda wrong this morning. Many eons ago, the Rolling Stones parked their music publishing with the late Allen Klein and his ABKCO Records. And all these years later, ABKCO– which also administers Sam Cooke’s catalog–still owns all the primary hits of the Stones from “Satisfaction” to “Honky Tonk Women” and even “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses.” They have everything from 1963 to 1971.

Yesterday upstart BMG Music Publishing announced that it had grabbed the Stones’ catalog, and the lemmings just headlined it that. But BMG got the lesser Stones songs, from 1971 on. In ’71 the Stones moved to Atlantic Records, where their biggest hits were “Miss You,” “Shattered,” and “Start Me Up.”  Their next era, which BMG also got, includes the “Steel Wheels” and “Bridges to Babylon” albums and a lot of songs you can’t readily name. The Stones play only a smattering of those songs in concert.

Here’s a statement from ABKCO:

In light of today’s announcement by BMG concerning its involvement in music publishing interests in songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, ABKCO Music, Inc. wishes to reiterate that ABKCO, and ABKCO alone, owns and controls 100% of the worldwide copyright to the original 1963-1971 publishing catalog of Jagger/Richards Rolling Stones compositions.

ABKCO CEO Jody Klein stated that the BMG announcement “has no relevance whatsoever to ABKCO’s ongoing role in its ownership or control of all existing copyrights, including such seminal titles as ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ and others from that period as has been the case for more than 40 years.”

“We wish BMG all the best with their new endeavor but it must be noted that ABKCO, a wholly owned independent entertainment company, remains the sole source of rights and licensing for these compositions along with the corresponding master recordings by The Rolling Stones.  It is unfortunate that BMG’s statement may have led some to conclude otherwise.”

Michael Jackson Trial: Add AEG to the List of People He Thought Were Trying to “Kill” Him

Roger Friedman
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11
Michael Jackson Trial: Add AEG to the List of People He Thought Were Trying to “Kill” Him

I appreciate the testimony of Michael Jackson’s eldest son, Prince. Today he testified that Michael told him AEG executives “were trying to kill him.” You can tell Prince is a good kid. But he came into the Jackson story in late chapters. Prince, your father thought everyone was trying to kill him. The AEG people were just the latest. Michael distrusted just about everyone around him. Anyone with whom he found himself in a contractual situation was considered an enemy. Any authority figure was “trying to kill him.”

Let’s just go back to the 2001, after “Invincible” came out. Jackson was convinced Tommy Mottola was the devil, a racist who had it in for him. Mottola, the head of SonyMusic then, was no picnic, let’s face it. But he’d waited seven years for a Michael Jackson album. Jackson stole the “Invincible” tapes and wouldn’t release them until Mottola secured him a cameo in “Men in Black II.” Then Michael wanted to undercut “Invincible” with a separate charity single and Mottola refused.

By 2003, Jackson had turned over his finances and management to Miami lawyer Al Malnik and veteran music exec Charles Koppleman. They saved him at a moment when he almost went under financially. When Jackson was arrested in November 2003, he installed the Nation of Islam and never spoke to Malnik or Koppelman again. He told friends that he thought they were trying to steal the Beatles catalog from him.

Jackson was a musical genius, but he was disloyal and capricious. In 2005 he allowed his longtime press aide Bob Jones be dismissed without warning or severance. Now he was the enemy.

When the trial was over, Jackson accepted the hospitality of Prince Abdullah of Bahrain, who bankrolled a long visit. Michael signed a contract with the Prince and announced a record label. He also took $7 million in cash as an advance. When he got the money, he bolted Bahrain and left the Prince high and dry.

Were AEG executives trying to “kill” him? No. Jackson was in financial peril after his trial but he refused to work or make any money. Several times he let his parents’ home go into foreclosure. The mortgage was held for a while by a dentist and a group of investors. Jackson was deeply in debt, had no cash. He let Neverland sink into red ink until it was taken over by Colony Capital.

Jackson accepted the offer from AEG because, like other human beings, he needed to generate income. No one put a gun to his head. And if anyone wanted him alive, it was AEG and Randy Phillips. They just had no idea what he was up to when they weren’t looking.

So Prince made for good theater, and he’s a good son in a tragic situation. But let’s not overdo it. Michael Jackson was the captain of his own ship.

Why Oprah Wants the ABC Soaps: Tyler Perry’s Soap Has Saved Her Network

Roger Friedman
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Why Oprah Wants the ABC Soaps: Tyler Perry’s Soap Has Saved Her Network

Remember, Oprah Winfrey said she didn’t want the ABC soaps. She sent out a YouTube video last year telling her fans why soaps were dead and she wasn’t interested in buying “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” But then a funny thing happened. Oprah, looking for ratings, bought Tyler Perry’s “The Haves and Have Nots.” Perry’s prime time soap pulled bigger ratings than anything ever on OWN.

Last week “The Have Nots” pulled 1.77 million total viewers– a million more than Oprah’s own show on the network. And the network doubled its order for episodes. Suddenly Oprah needs more soaps. Soaps work. What a surprise. So now, for relatively nothing, she’s bringing “AMC”and “OLTL” to OWN on July 15th. If they work, and I think they will, the shows will stay on OWN– and Oprah will look for more soaps they can add to their line up. Maybe she can convince Procter & Gamble to revive the shows they carelessly killed off.

Barack Obama Tweet Offers Bait & Switch Not So “Free” Chance to Meet Him

Roger Friedman
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Barack Obama Tweet Offers Bait & Switch Not So “Free” Chance to Meet Him

I met Barack Obama a couple of times before he was elected in 2008. Since then a financial barrier has between us, I feel. I do receive messages almost every day asking for money, however, even though he was re-elected nine months ago. Anyway, just now I received a Tweet on Twitter:

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