Wednesday, December 17, 2025
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Daytime Emmy Winners: George Lucas Wins a Daytime Emmy Award

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KEEP REFRESHING: “Star Wars: Clone Wars” just won a Daytime Emmy for animation. George Lucas and Carrie Fisher are there. No surprise. So they knew. Carrie just stole the show by zetzing Ozzy Osbourne about dropping acid, that they had the same dealer etc…

George Lucas is there. He’s making an acceptance speech.

Earlier: “Dr. Oz” just won Best Talk Show–Informative, and beat Katie Couric. But the presentation was a near mis-hap saved thanks to Aisha Tyler. She opened the envelope with the women from “The Talk” and discovered she had the winner from a different category. Quick thinking saved the day. “There’d better be a drink waiting for me at my table,” said Aisha who also seems to be a foot taller than her co-hosts.

Best Actor in a soap opera: Doug Davidson, from “The Young and the Restless,” who’s been on the show since Ronald Reagan was president. Supporting Actor: a tie– Scott Clifton from “The Bold and the Beautiful” and Billy Miller from “The Young and the Restless.” The latter gave a nice shout out to the late Jeanne Cooper…

PS This is a strange show. Les Moonves, whenever they cut to him, looks a little bewildered….

Keep refreshing…

Monty Hall is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award. The former “Let’s Make a Deal” host is 91 years young. His daughter is famed actress Joanna Gleason. He’s a very nice guy…But is this show directed by anyone? it’s one mistake after another…

BEST GAME SHOW: The Price is Right…

Best Writing, Soap Opera: “The Bold and the Beautiful” — a basically unwatchable TV show. They killed off Susan Flannery’s character, and that got them the award. Otherwise, the show is like a parody of a soap. But it’s written by its producer, Bradley Bell, son of the late William Bell. The Bells are big financial supporters of the Obamas and the Democratic Party. They know from soap opera.

Best Supporting Actress, Soap Opera: Julie Marie Berman, “General Hospital”

You gotta love this show. The audience talks right through the whole thing, and the producers don’t cut the overhead mics…So weird…

Best Actress, Soap Opera: Heather Tom, “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

Corbin Bernsen just dropped an F bomb and said “Shit.” No censors on HLN. His mother, Jeanne Cooper, would be proud apparently…Luckily someone remembered Al Freeman, Jr….

Best Younger Actress, Soap Opera: Kristen Alderson, who’s been on “One Life to Live” since she was a child and is now “General Hospital”

Best Talk show: Ellen De Generes

Best Directing, Soap Opera: “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Now Les Moonves is happy.

Best Soap Opera: went to “Days of our Lives” even though it wasn’t the best written or best directed and didn’t have a lead best actor or actress.

Best Talk Show host was Ricki Lake, whose show was cancelled.

 

 

Queen’s Awards to 10-Time Oscar Nominee Roger Deakins, Plus Jackie Collins, Adele

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Queen Elizabeth’s birthday awards this weekend went to a varied bunch. Ten time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins, a master cinematographer, was knighted with Commander of the British Empire. How is it Deakins has never won an Oscar? This last year, he was nominated for “Skyfall.” Well, the Queen has made it up to him. Now Joel and Ethan Coen will have to call him Sir Roger. (I’ve asked them to call me that but they don’t!)

Also on the Queen’s list: “Hollywood Wives” novelist Jackie Collins, who is just about the most fun person on the West Coast from the British Isles, got an OBE. So did Adele, who didn’t have to wait very long, and singer-songwriter P.J. Harvey.

Sculptor Anish Kapoor, fine artist Albert Irvin, actors Claire Bloom, Rowan Atkinson, and Julian Glover, and producer-director Michael John Attenborough, “Gandhi” director Richard–and also director of the famed Almeida Theater– were also cited by the Queen.

Joan Collins received her own OBE in 1997. Reports today she immediately sent congrats to Jackie. The sisters are very close, are probably among the few siblings with Queen’s awards. Not bad!

Paris Jackson Will Not Attend Family Wedding, Still Recovering

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I know the tabs and TMZ and Randy Jackson will be disappointed, but Paris Jackson will not be attending a family wedding in Encino this weekend. Paris’s cousin Taj Jackson is getting married at the Jacksons’ now abandoned former HQ, the Havenhurst house in Encino owned by Michael Jackson’s estate. But Paris is staying at UCLA Medical Center where she is undoubtedly getting some needed rest and learning how to deal with life in a complex world. I keep reading crazy stories and posts either in TMZ or the New York Post that are far, far from the mark. But there’s a fine line here dealing with a 15 year old, her mother, and their family. While it might be great to drive traffic off this story, it also might be more prudent to let this kid alone. I’m still not sure why Katherine Jackson or guardian TJ haven’t pulled down Paris’s Twitter account. PS Mrs. Jackson, Prince, and Blanket will attend.

Superman “Man of Steel” $113 Mil Wknd, $197 Mil Total Worldwide

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MONDAY 12AM: The worldwide total is $197 mil all in since Thursday. Hats off to Warner Bros. They did it.

SUNDAY 12:30PM update: “Man of Steel” did $113 mil estimated Fri-Sun, plus $12mil from Thurs. Add another $25 mil foreign. There will indeed be a sequel, perhaps next time with a third act.

EARLIER The Superman reboot “Man of Steel” took in $44 million on Friday according to boxofficemojo.com. That includes $9 million from midnight showings, which means it did a solid $35 mil on Friday night. The total is now $56 million including $12 mil on Thursday night from WalMart screenings.

But the $44 mil makes it the 20th biggest Friday opening, maybe the biggest ever for Flag Day, and maybe the biggest ever for a second Friday in June following a Thursday with a lot of rain.

Warner Bros. tied “Man of Steel” to every product they could think of including razor blades and the Sears catalog. They’re going to have a $120-$140 mil weekend in the US, and much more abroad where the mind numbing aspects of Zack Snyder’s film won’t be so obvious in other languages.

Mixed to bad reviews didn’t harm the bottom line. But next weekend, “World War Z” appears, and will take a lot of the wind from Superman’s cape. The families of the creators of “Superman” must be very proud. But of course, thanks to many lawsuits, they get just about nothing out of this other than pride.

Exclusive Video: Smokey Robinson: Swollen Vocals Chords Healed, Sings Acapella Song for Berry Gordy

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Smokey Robinson is a gem. At Thursday night’s star studded Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner he toasted Motown founder Berry Gordy with an acapella song he wrote for the occasion– and this despite, he said, having just gotten over a case of swollen vocal chords. Here’s the exclusive video:

Smokey is one of my favorite people of all time, and famous for writing three minute hits.

But he can talk. And talk he did on Thursday night. Gordy was getting a lifetime achievement award for creating Motown, and cast members from “Motown: The Musical” were waiting in the wings to perform a bunch of Motown hits after finishing their evening performance across the street.

That didn’t daunt Smokey, who is startlingly poised on stage as a speaker (he used to host the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Awards with a of panache). He told, in painstaking detail, the story of how as a 16 year old he and the early Miracles– called the Matadors-auditioned songs for the legendary Jackie Wilson in Detroit.

“Instead of singing current songs, we sang five original ones that I wrote,” Smokey recalled. “He didn’t like any of them.”

After being rejected, Smokey saw a kid a couple of years older than himself hanging around. It was young Gordy, who’d written “Reet Petite” and other hits for Wilson. They struck up a conversation, and Gordy, Smokey says, looked over his songs, “He liked them, but he said, You know you have five or six songs in every one. A song has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. At the time, I was very good at rhyming. I could rhyme anything from an early age. So the first verse was all set up and rhymed well. The second had nothing to do with it. It was another song. But it was also rhymed up really well.”

The rest is history of course. Smokey went on to have dozens of hits, including Motown’s standard bearer, “My Girl.” And at least the story did have an end. But god bless Smokey. The guy running the Teleprompter kept sending him signals to wrap it up. But you don’t cut off Smokey Robinson.

 

“Man of Steel” Made $12 Mil From WalMart Screenings, $9 Mil Friday So Far

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The box office for “Man of Steel” is going to be confusing. The Superman movie took in $12 million Thursday night at 7pm thanks to a WalMart promotion. It was a special screening sold through Wal Mart stores as part of a larger deal. Ticket buyers got a digital comic book and some other promo stuff including a way to order the DVD, which will come out in the fall.

Then, at midnight, “Man of Steel” took in a healthy $9 million at regular sneak screenings. That $9 mil be counted toward Friday’s box office, says BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Warner Bros. is hoping for big numbers abroad. In the US, reviews are lukewarm, and after an initial Friday night burst, who knows? The studio has certainly tied “MOS” into dozens of products, has placements in the film from Sears and others, is in deals with WalMart, Gillette, and many others.

As for those reviews, I don’t often agree with Manola Dhargis in the New York Times. But she’s right. The last 45 minutes is tiresome and awful. “MOS” is a big set up with little payoff.

Billy Joel, Elton John Make Up at Star Studded Songwriters Dinner Honoring Aerosmith, Foreigner, Others

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What a night at the annual Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner in New York! It’s the hottest music night in New York every year, and this year it was packed– almost 100 tables full– in the Marriott Marquis ballroom. The big moment was Elton John and Billy Joel each making up with the other, publicly. Billy was there to salute his friend, the late producer Phil Ramone.

Elton said during his beautiful acceptance speech: “I didn’t see you tonight Mr. Joel but I love you dearly and I hope I see you soon.”

Later Billy attributed their issues to “pianist envy.” He tried to cut across the amazingly crowded room to see Elton, but a fan got in the way and threw a tackle at the 20 yard line. Billy was too polite to ditch her as the fan reminisced about a minor incident from 30 years ago.

Elton and Bernie Taupin received the Johnny Mercer Award for Lifetime Achievement. No less a rock star than Sting opened the show singing “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.” Sting presented the award to Elton and Bernie calling them “my heroes.” Sting also wound up staying for most of the show, he was enjoying it so much, even though he’s back on tour today.

Just a moment so you can absorb that all of those people were there, as well as Clive Davis, Natalie Cole, Valerie Simpson, Paul Williams, SHOF president Jimmy Webb, CEO Linda Moran who stages this enormous venture– plus Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner, plus J.D. Souther (who was serenaded by Alison Krause), Patty Smyth who sang her 80s hit “Warrior” for songwriter Holly Knight (and John McEnroe was there to cheer her on), and the great Petula Clark — who’s 80 years old!!!– brought down the house with “Downtown” for songwriter Tony Hatch.

Not only that: Berry Gordy was introduced by Smokey Robinson with a long saga of how they first met, then the cast of “Motown The Musical” took over the stage.

The guys from Nickelback played “Sweet Emotion” for Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, who themselves rocked the house with “Walk this Way.”

The Foreigner guys also rocked out on “Juke Box Hero.” Then they added a gospel choir and pretty much stole the show with “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

Jordin Sparks turned in a flawless rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” selected as the Towering Song

Some funny moments: producer-manager Peter Asher recalling how the details of the divorce from his first wife became the story behind Souther’s “Her Town Too.” “Everyone thought it was James Taylor singing about Carly Simon, but it was my story,” he said.

more– later this morning –keep refreshing for updates…

 

photo of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry copyright 2013 Showbiz411

 

 

Holly Hunter on “Mad Men”: “Without the Women, They’d Be Masturbators”

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Last night in Hollywood: Women In Film held their Crystal + Lucy Awards at the Beverly Hilton.  Jenna Elfman deftly hosted the gala, which celebrated WIF’s 40th anniversary.  Jenna quipped, “Forty is the new kick ass.  We know that for actresses there still is work to do done.  We’re always cast as the love interest, now we have to compete with Matt Damon.”

WIF’s President, Producer Cathy Schulman relayed to the VIP crowd, which included Rose McGowan, Diane Warren, Diahann Carroll, Holly Robinson Peete, Elizabeth Rohm, Debra Messing, Stana Katic, Gail Berman Masters,  Ilene Kahn Power, Nancy Meyers. Dolores Robinson and more, the troubling statistics that still make it tough for women in Hollywood to get traction in the work place. “To boil it down, when the money and stakes increase, the opportunities for women decrease.”

The dynamic evening though was still all about lady power.  The event honored some of the industry’s powerful women and one man, no less then George Lucas.

Kathleen Kennedy, who now runs George Lucas’s empire, gave The Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award to Lucas.  George said that, “This award will have a prominent place in my house, it’s important to me.  My sisters took care of and trained me.  Then my daughters kept me going and keep me honest.  Now my soon to be wife Mellody (Financial Analyst Mellody Hobson) is definitely qualified to keep me in my place.  I like being surrounded by women; it’s more comfortable and less combative.”

George also revealed his daughter Katie, who was his date for the evening, is on her way to also becoming a filmmaker. “Katie is now following in my footsteps. She was inspired by Sofia Coppola who followed in her fathers.  I know it’s a lot harder for women, in the end I know you will win. ”

Sofia Coppola followed by accepting her Dorothy Arzner Directors Award.  Sofia said, “I’m proud to now have a body of work that expresses my point of view.  I hope this award will help other women express theirs.”

The witty Holly Hunter then presented the ladies of “Mad Men” their award.  The Oscar winner joked: “For six seasons the women of Mad Men have held their own against those combative advertising men.  They even got to drink through their pregnancies and take handfuls of estrogen.  Hell, without the women, those men would be nothing but masturbators.”

After the laughter died down, Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy, spoke for the group said that, “Mad Men has taken an unintentional political stance by simply treating women like human beings.  Our show is a truly special and spirited place in Hollywood. ” Jessica Pare, January Jones and Kiernan Shipka (Christina Hendricks was shooting a film) then thanked the women producers and crew members who make the show happen.  Moss ended their speech with, “We hope to continue to do you all proud.”

Hailee Steinfeld also received the Max Mara Face of the Future Award, Filmmaker Rachel Morrison got the Kodak Vision Award and finally Laura Linney was awarded the Crystal Award for Excellence in Film.  All in all, a wonderful night honoring some of Hollywood’s  most talented ladies.

Murdoch Divorce: Reported Everywhere Except Fox News and New York Post

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UPDATE The divorce finally turned up in the Post as a prepared statement in Page Six on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter, based on nothing, surmised Wendi Deng had been having an affair with the very married former British PM Tony Blair and actually asked for a comment on this idea from Murdoch’s office. They said it wasn’t true. Cherie Blair must be alternately laughing and throwing things. Foxnews.com is running an Associated Press item on the divorce. God knows, none of those cowards wants their byline on such a story.

The news of the Rupert Murdoch divorce is being reported everywhere on the web, from the New York Times to Gawker and Reuters. But the places you won’t be able to read it: Murdoch owned Fox News and the New York Post. As of 5:15pm, the two News Corp outlets have ignored the story. The Wall Street Journal finally caved in around 3:10pm with a full story that reads like a press release by Martin Peers: http://online.wsj.com/articl/SB10001424127887323734304578543420787038716.html?KEYWORDS=wendi.

The Murdoch divorce is the source of much texting, emailing and phone calls this afternoon. Wendi Murdoch was seen at the Cannes Film Festival without Murdoch. Before that she was a guest at Vanity Fair’s Tribeca Film Festival party in April, and came solo. The last pictures of the couple together on WireImage and Getty Images are from the Oscar weekend in February.

Spielberg, Lucas Predictions May Come True With Four Blockbusters Failing

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Are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas prescient? Or have they seen the rest of the summer’s blockbuster releases? The duo said at a USC unveiling this week that Hollywood would go through a drastic change after three or four blockbusters, costing $250 million or more, blew up in studios’ faces. So far, “Jack and the Beanstalk” would be number 1, a total disaster. “After Earth” would be number 2 on the list. It’s a total dud.

“Man of Steel” would be number 3, with a teetering 60% approval rating of critics and frankly, a mind numbing plot. Coming directly after are “World War Z,” “White House Down,” and “The Lone Ranger.” So far the only blockbusters that worked were “Iron Man 3” and “Star Trek: Into the Darkness.” I’ve seen “World War Z” and it’s pretty good after producers reshot at least half the film. The result is that movie actually makes sense and has a third act.

But the others are all problematic. “The Lone Ranger,” especially looms large, especially after Disney’s “John Carter” did so badly last year.

One thing Lucas said in his comments that I have to take issue with. He and Spielberg talked about “Lincoln” almost going to HBO and Lucas’s “Red Tails” not doing well. I’m a huge Lucas fan but “Red Tails” was a terrible movie. And it lost all its movie because of that. So I don’t think “Red Tails” can be considered part of the conversation.