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Prince Wakes Up from 20 Year Coma, Writes Fun New Song (Video)

Roger Friedman
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Prince Wakes Up from 20 Year Coma, Writes Fun New Song (Video)

Prince is back. He has a fun new pop song, a hit, called “Screwdriver.” The video is on our home page video player. “I’m your driver, you’re my screw.” If he had a label, it would be a hit. Maybe it’s on iTunes. Anyway, it’s the first good song from Prince since “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.” It’s possible you weren’t alive then. Welcome back, Prince. By the way, Prince has a website. It’s called http://20pr1nc3.com/ in case you wondered.

Screwdriver:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9a6WwT9LNJw&noredirect=1

“Mad Men”: Star Jon Hamm Directing Second Episode, After Two Hour Premiere

Roger Friedman
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0
“Mad Men”: Star Jon Hamm Directing Second Episode, After Two Hour Premiere

“Mad Men” returns to the air on April 7th with a two hour premiere. It’s not a moment too soon. And the good news is, Jon Hamm directs the second episode (or the third, depending on how you look at it) on April 14th. John Slattery, who deserved an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor last season, also directs two episodes coming up. What do we know? Not much except that two hour opener is set at least partially in Hawaii, where Don and Megan go on a vacation. Megan remains Mrs. Don Draper at least for now. Season 6 is the second to last for “Mad Men” which will conclude, it seems, at the end of the 60s, which is just perfect. Then Jon Hamm goes off to become a movie star. How many episodes for January Jones this season after almost nothing last go round? Also unknown. Will Pete and Peggy ever see their child? Will there be a plot for the whole season this time? And if it’s 1967 when we return, will someone be listening to “Sgt. Pepper”? Questions!

 

Sundance: Dakota Fanning Film Slammed, Others Ripped by Critics But Bought for Big Bucks

Roger Friedman
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Sundance 2013: Sad to say, I am watching from the sidelines this year as scheduling stuck me on the East Coast. But what a wild time they’re having out in Park City! Poorly reviewed films with big stars are going for a lot of money to distributors desperate for content. Highly- anticipated or hyped films with big stars are tumbling once they get to the reviewers.

This morning, bad news for “Very Good Girls,” the first film directed by screenwriter Naomi Foner, who’s also the mother of the Gyllenhaals and mother in law of Peter Sarsgaard. Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter slammed the Dakota Fanning-Elizabeth Olsen outing. Variety predicted a straight to video sale. What a shame. Still, the way things are going, the film’s star power may outweigh the critics when distributors come knocking. Content is king in 2013.

Elsewhere, sex is selling even if it’s not getting good reviews. Relativity paid $4 million and promised to put up $25 million to promote and release Joseph Gordon Levitt’s “Don Jon’s Addiction.” JGL directed and wrote it, and Scarlett Johansson co-stars. Julianne Moore got the only good reviews. Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter hated it like I’ve rarely seen (maybe since I reviewed “Towelhead” a few years ago). JGL, very buff, plays a goomba from Jersey who sits in front of his computer and masturbates to porn. There are — apparently– close ups of used tissues. A musical, it’s not. This is supposed to be the rougher version of “Shame” from last year. Did we want that? We’ll see.

Sony Pictures Classics picked by “Kill Your Darlings” in which “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe–who already was naked in “The Elephant Man” on Broadway–now has a lot of gay sex, very graphically. (All that Quidditch with brooms obviously has had some kind of effect.) Drum roll. The p.r. for “Kill Your Darlings” keeps sending out a message that the story of this movie is unknown. Bull. Lucien Carr’s murder of David Kammerer is pretty well known among those who know anything about Kerouac, Burroughs, et al and the Beat Generation. But it’s a hook. Will “Kill” take off and be a hit? What will they say at Hogwarts? SPC also went big time for “Austenland.”

There do seem to be some promising films coming out of Sundance:

Fox Searchlight is gambling $10 million on Steve Carell in “The Way, Way Back” being this year’s “Little Miss Sunshine.”

The Weinstein Company picked up at least three films through its Radius branch, including a music documentary about back up singers that I really really want to see called “Twenty Feet from Stardom.” They also paid $3 million for “Lovelace” about “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried of “Les Miz” fame right now. The main Weinstein Company also put up $4 million for the highly praised “Fruitvale,” which sounds like it might be something for their Oscar campaign next fall–although don’t forget, “August: Osage County” with Meryl Streep is already their big 2014 entry for gold.

Adele Will Perform at Oscars (As We Said Some Time Ago)

Roger Friedman
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6
Adele Will Perform at Oscars (As We Said Some Time Ago)

I do hate to say I told you so (no I don’t hate it at all) but Adele will perform “Skyfall” on the Oscars. I told you she would just appear and wave on the Globes, which she did. This will be her first performance of “Skyfall” anywhere, and you know she’s going to win the Oscar for Best Song. This column was first to confirm Adele as the singer of the “Skyfall” song, and then I exclusively gave you the lyrics and a review of the song before it was released.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/01/04/oscars-will-salute-james-bonds-50th-anniversary-paging-sean-connery

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/01/11/adele-will-perform-at-oscars-not-at-golden-globes

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/01/02/adele-must-choose-between-oscars-and-golden-globes-for-skyfall-appearance

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/12/17/adele-could-win-first-best-song-ever-for-a-james-bond-theme

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/09/25/exclusive-adele-james-bond-skyfall-song-is-classic-007

PS Adele will pre-record “Skyfall” with the Oscar orchestra. The backing track will be available to her and the producers in case something goes wrong. This is ALWAYS done for live TV shows, as it was done for Beyonce at the Inauguration. If something goes wrong, the TV producers have the option of using the pre-recorded track. This is not lipsynching. Just FYI.

From the Academy: – Multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter Adele will perform the Oscar®-nominated theme song from the latest James Bond movie at the 85th Academy Awards®, the show’s producers announced today.  “Skyfall,” from the film of the same name, was announced as a nominee for Original Song at the Academy’s Nominations Announcement on January 10.   The song, written by Adele and Paul Epworth, is the first Bond theme ever to debut in Billboard’s Top 10 and the first to be nominated for an Oscar since “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981.

Adele’s exclusive Oscar show performance will be the first time she will have performed “Skyfall” anywhere live and will also mark her first U.S. television performance since the Grammys® last year.

“It’s an honour to be nominated and terrifyingly wonderful to be singing in front of people who have captured my imagination over and over again,” said Adele. “It’s something I’ve never experienced and probably only ever will once!”

“We have enormous respect for Adele’s unique artistry as a songwriter and a singer,” said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the producers of this year’s Academy Awards show.  “She is currently one of the most successful recording artists in the world, and we believe that her performance of ‘Skyfall’ will be an exciting Oscar moment for audiences watching at the Dolby Theatre™ and on television screens around the world.”

 

Oscars: Academy Members Can Switch Back to Paper Ballot, Governor’s Ball Gets Glitzy Preview

Roger Friedman
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1
Oscars: Academy Members Can Switch Back to Paper Ballot, Governor’s Ball Gets Glitzy Preview

You have to like people who are adaptable. Early this evening, the Motion Picture Academy announced that members who signed on for electronic voting online–and didn’t like it– can vote their final ballots on a regular old paper ballot. This will come as a relief to many older voters who struggled with the new system. For the Academy, it was a necessary and good try to move into the 21st century. Next year, people will be more used to it.

“One of our basic goals at the Academy is to increase member engagement.  Despite some challenges, more members voted for this year’s nominations than they have in the past several years,” said Academy Chief Operating Officer Ric Robertson in a statement.  “We are looking forward to a continuation of that trend in the final voting.”

Whew! With that episode over, the Academy introduced a lot of news about one of the best parts of Oscar night, the Governor’s Ball. Keep refreshing here. Details to follow…

Fun Facts About the Oscars Governor’s Ball:

Oscars Governors Ball
Ball Production by Cheryl Cecchetto / Sequoia Productions
Menu Created by Wolfgang Puck with Chef Partner Matt Bencivenga & Executive Pastry Chef Sherry Yard

 1,500 guests
 950 event staff
 350 culinary staff
 12,000 glasses for beverages
 4,000 small plates
 4,500 ramekins and verrines
 6,000 cocktail forks
 4,500 bamboo skewers
 4 different waiter uniforms totaling 344 specialty costumes designed for the ball
 1.78 million beads in the chandelier rings
 .45 miles of rope and tape light in the chandelier
 CNC Router has spent more than 530 hours cutting the curved shapes used on the décor elements including; laminate flooring, partitions, riser walls, stage plugs and the chandelier
 18,000 LED points of light in the chandelier
 More than 100 suspension points to hang the chandelier
 1,000 sheets of 4’ x 8’ of plywood
 28,000 square feet of ceiling fabric
 12,000 square feet of wall fabric
 Approximately 1,500 yards of assorted metallic damask, metallic silk with velvet trim, peau de soi and hand-embroidered confetti organza with metallic threads for table linens and pillows
 423 furniture pieces
 1,935 yards of fabric to recover furniture
 6.072 feet of metal used to fabricate 302 barstools
 60 feet glass creating custom round, square, rectangle and oval tables
 38 gallons of environmentally friendly custom paint
 2,100 man hours
Fun Food Facts
 6,500 wood fired Oscar shaped flat bread
 3,500 miso cones
 250 pounds troll-caught Atlantic bigeye
 17 whole us wild caught yellowtail
 1300 farmed oysters
 5 kilos American farm raised caviar
 600 Maine lobsters
 7,500 individual us shrimp
 250 pounds sticky rice
 30 gallons cocktail sauce
 50 whole yellowtail snapper
 25 gallons spicy mustard
 1,250 stone crab claws
 1,200 yukon gold potatoes
 200 pounds beluga lentils
 300 whole jidori chickens
 6,000 chestnut tortellini
 400 pounds Snake River Farms New York steak
 10 pounds white truffles from Alba, Italy
 10 pounds winter black truffles from Burgundy, France
 3,500 kombu chips (seaweed chips)
 2,500 caprese cones
 2,750 bacon wrapped dates
 4,500 pieces of truffle and parmesan grissini
 20,000 pieces of California grown micro greens
 6,000 pieces housemade mini brioche buns
 5,000 cage-free eggs
 200 quarts heavy cream
 200 quarts milk
 150 pounds organic sugar
 1,000 pounds of L’Etoile du Nord bittersweet chocolate
 30 pounds edible gold dust
 5,000 mini chocolate Oscars
 More than 80 local farmers for fruits and vegetables
 All fish and seafood SeafoodWatch compliant
 540 bottles 2007 Sterling Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
 540 bottles 2009 Sterling Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay
 2,280 Total bottles of Sterling Vineyards wine
 13,680 Total glasses of Sterling Vineyards wine
 1,824,000 – number of premium Sterling grapes to create the spectacular wines for the Oscar celebrations

Oprah-Lance Armstrong Part 2 Gets Anemic Ratings on Friday Night

Roger Friedman
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0
Oprah-Lance Armstrong Part 2 Gets Anemic Ratings on Friday Night

The second part of Oprah Winfrey’s big interview with Lance Armstrong on Friday night was a bust. The interview produced only 1.8 million viewers at 9pm and another 620,000 viewers in its rebroadcast at 11:30pm. For OWN, Oprah’s struggling network, that’s all very good. But it’s not great, not by a long shot.

Remember, the first part on Thursday night did 3.2 million at 9pm, and another 1.2 million in the second broadcast that night. The second part produced very little in the way of news on Friday except for Armstrong’s telling of how he admitted his lies to his 13 year old son. Otherwise, we are still clueless about how and why he doped, when he actually started, anything about his cancer, his marriage, who knew about the doping and when, and how he manipulated his way into the celebrity world.

It’s not that I don’t want OWN to do well. I do. Sure, why not? But I’ve learned more about how TV ratings press releases are worded because of Oprah and Lance than anything actually about Lance Armstrong. You have to interpret the press releases’ crazy rationales and declarations of faux success before getting to the reality of the situation.

For example, according to tvbythenumbers.com, the Friday night Oprah show scored a 0.6 rating in the 25-49 demo on cable that night. Compare that with the number 1 show on cable on Friday night, “Gold Rush.” The Discovery Channel show had a 1.8 rating in that demo. So you can see the different and level of interest. Most men watched NBA basketball on Friday night on cable.

And it wasn’t Oprah’s fault, necessarily. But between not knowing where OWN is on the “dial,” to Armstrong’s lack of emotion, contrition or any sense that he was sorry, the whole thing became rapidly less interesting from night to night.

“One Life to Live” Cast Confirmed, But Still No Susan Lucci for “All My Children”

Roger Friedman
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6
“One Life to Live” Cast Confirmed, But Still No Susan Lucci for “All My Children”

Just as  I told you last week, Prospect Park Productions has confirmed most of the “One Life to Live” cast for the Online Network including stars Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, and Robert S. Woods. It looks like they’ve got just about everyone, with a few stragglers still coming in. But with “All My Children,” a show that ABC let fall to waste before its abrupt ending, things aren’t so easy. There’s still no sign of Susan Lucci, aka Erica Kane, and the star of the show. Right now, Prospect Park has managed only to line up sort of miscellaneous characters for the show.

But the lynchpins, so to speak, are Lucci and Michael E. Knight, as well as David Canary–who retired from the show but lives close enough to Stamford, Connecticut to put in occasional appearances. “All My Children” was really run into the ground over the last several years. They would have to get Julia Barr back, as well as a few others the show was forced to drop as their budgets were cut and their location was moved to Los Angeles from New York. Lucci is pretty busy, however, what with “Devious Maids,” the new Marc Cherry series for Lifetime, and a raft of other projects. If Prospect Park wants a success with “AMC” they’re going to have to make some kind of deal with Lucci– even if it’s for once a week.

UPDATED “Django” Dolls, Pulled from Stores, Sell for Thousands on Black Market

Roger Friedman
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4
UPDATED “Django” Dolls, Pulled from Stores, Sell for Thousands on Black Market

UPDATE FRIDAY JAN 25TH: eBay is pulling the “Django” dolls from its service. We broke this story this past Tuesday. See below.

Earlier: The action figures made for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” were pulled from stores in the last couple of weeks. Some people found them offensive, an uproar occurred, and the “Django” dolls became history. Or not.

Now it seems that whatever dolls were made by NECA are selling well, like hotcakes, on Ebay and other internet sites– even though NECA has removed them from their website as well. The most popular is Broomhilda, the character of a slave girl played by Kerry Washington. It’s hard to say why, but the Broomhilda action figure is selling for upwards of a thousand dollars to collectors.

The dolls shouldn’t have been made; they were inherently racist and there were dozens of complaints. But pulling them off store shelves created a collector’s market overnight. Some sites are offering the full set of 8 figures for anywhere between $8,000 and $15,000. It remains to be seen who will pay those prices, but collectors obviously think someone will.

The dolls, 8 inches tall, represent characters played by Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and James Remar. The figures for the five men come in sets ranging in the thousands of dollars. But the Kerry Washington figure — if it can be found– is often advertised at a price equal to the total of the others. It’s hard to say whether or not that’s a compliment as critics have derided the dolls for commercializing slavery.

It’s unclear how many dolls were manufactured, although one site suggests that only 1,000 sets made it to stores.

Meanwhile “Django Unchained” has become Quentin Tarantino’s most successful film to date with over $130 million box office office sales so far. It’s also the biggest movie for the The Weinstein Company, whose other $100 million-plus hits have been Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” and the Oscar winning “King’s Speech.”

“Django” is nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, along with original screenplay by Tarantino. Christoph Waltz is nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

 

 

How TV’s “Rhoda” Put Han Solo on A Career Track

Roger Friedman
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1
How TV’s “Rhoda” Put Han Solo on A Career Track

My old friend, Valerie Harper, has just published a charming, breezy new memoir called “I, Rhoda,” which has a lot of fascinating nuggets of information. One of them is that our Rhoda put Han Solo on his career track. Valerie recalls that during the early days of her run on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she hired a carpenter to fix a loft in her house. That would be Harrison Ford, who told Valerie that he was an actor but pounding nails to make a living. Soon after, Ford fell out of Harper’s loft and broke his arm. That was the end of his carpenter career. “Star Wars” was not far off.

Fans of “MTM” and “Rhoda” will enjoy this look back to Harper’s meteoric rise as a comedy actress. She played nine seasons as Rhoda Morgenstern, four on Mary’s show and five on her own. I wish I could tell you that Valerie has something nasty to say about anyone she worked with, but she doesn’t. Mary encouraged right through her career, and almost forced her to do the “Rhoda” spin off. They remain friends today, and Mary even called in yesterday morning and surprised Harper on “Good Morning America.”

Valerie does recount her legal success against Lorimar Productions after they fired her from the “Valerie” TV series. She doesn’t give much info about her political life with the Screen Actors Guild, something maybe she’ll discuss in another volume.  But the big secret of the book–successful surgery for benign lung cancer–is a cliff hanger with a (thank goodness) happy ending.

Now if only whoever owns the “Rhoda” series would clean it up digitally and put out a decent boxed set!

PS Book publicists being what they are, I downloaded “I, Rhoda” onto my Kindle today. It was totally worth it. If I’d waited for a review copy, we’d all be very old and gray. Nothing has changed.

Inauguration Music: Sony Dominates with Hudson, Keys, Clarkson

Roger Friedman
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1
Inauguration Music: Sony Dominates with Hudson, Keys, Clarkson

The music from the Inaugural ceremony and the balls show on TV are making one thing clear: Sony Music has all the major presidential artists. Kelly Clarkson, so good on “My Country Tis Of Three,” is on RCA-Sony. She’s one of Clive Davis’s artists from J Records and “American Idol.”

Jennifer Hudson, singing “Let’s Stay Together,” also comes from Davis roster and is now on RCA. Ditto Alicia Keys, who performed a rewritten version of “Girl on Fire” (still using the uncredited music from “Hey There Lonely Girl”).

And there’s more: Beyonce, who I thought was so-so (although she looked amazing) is on Sony. And James Taylor has most of catalog on Sony.

Jamie Foxx, now performing on CNN at the Inaugural Ball, is a Clive Davis find and a Sony-RCA star. (He’s doing his Ray Charles material.) I will never forget Jamie debuting his musical talents at a Clive Davis pre-Grammy dinner several years ago. The audience was gobsmacked. The rest is history.

PS Hudson’s version of Tina Turner’s take on “Lets Stay Together” was wonderful. Hudson should just do an album of great cover songs–including her “Holly Holy” Neil Diamond tribute from MusiCares and her “Will You Be There” from the Michael Jackson memorial.

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