The stats are in the big tours for 2012. Bruce Springsteen played for the most people, but finished second money wise. That’s because he charged less money per ticket than Madonna, who finished first in box office take but was second to Bruce in numbers of people she entertained. Yes, it’s a fine line between greed and good. This year, Madonna also had the album that dropped the most from number 1 in the history of the charts– her “MDNA,” which was DOA thanks to a wonky system of including CDs and download with ticket sales. “MDNA” got no Grammy nominations. Bruce’s “Wrecking Ball” held up better, and merited a couple of good Grammy nods after all. Springsteen also probably beat Madonna in amount of time spent singing live on stage and not lip-synching. Madonna beat Bruce for number of times she infuriated an international government, offended a local audience, or started her show late.

Roger Waters, Michael Jackson/Cirque du Soleil, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, and Van Halen were the other big grossers of the year.  LiveNation’s Arthur Fogel was voted by this column as hardest working concert producer for 2012. He may still be touring with U2 somewhere near Neptune.

According to Billboard:

1

Madonna

Total Gross: $228,406,085     Number of Shows: 72
Total Attendance: 1,635,176   Number of Sell-Outs: 72

2
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Total Gross: $199,371,791     Number of Shows: 72
Total Attendance: 2,165,925  Number of Sell-Outs: 54

I know we’re all obsessed with our 2012 Oscar films. But one movie is done and ready but won’t be seen officially for some time. I’m told Joel and Ethan Coen screened their pretty much finished “Inside Llewyn Davis” film for family and friends in the last few days. The film is set around 1960 in Greenwich Village, and stars Oscar Isaac as a stand in for real life folk musician Dave von Ronk.

Featured in the film are Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake as a couple– but Mulligan’s character is romantically linked to Isaac’s. Timberlake is said to be an old fashioned folkie, a la the Lettermen.

“He’s very clean cut in the movie, and square,” says a viewer. John Goodman plays a druggie. Garrett Hedlund, fresh from “On the Road”–set in the same period–is described as his “valet.”

The film got raves from those who saw it, but it’s also said to be unlike most Coen brothers movies– no violence, no sex, no weird irony.”It made me cry,” says one viewer.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” could possibly go to Cannes next May, where it would screen to get a U.S. distributor. From the sound of things, the film will be in next year’s Oscar mix–just in case you’re wondering, along with “August: Osage County” and a bunch of newcomers. Wow–really– the 2014 Oscar race? I am not ready for that at all!

PS On a separate note, Oscar Isaac is eligible for Best Song this for his own composition, called “Never Had.” It’s from the reunion movie “10 Years.”

The Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher” is opening on Friday, one way or another.It’s too late to turn back now, even though “Reacher” opens with a scene in which a sniper, training his gaze through a scope on a rifle, bloodily picks off five people in a mall. The timing couldn’t be worse.

“Reacher” in an unfortunate situation. Paramount postponed yesterday’s “premiere” in Pittsburgh, but rescheduled it to Wednesday sans a red carpet or glitz. (I’ll restrain myself from making a snarky comment here.) The Film Society of Lincoln Center cancelled tonight’s event, which was Cruise’s only public media moment in New York or L.A.– although it was underscored before the Newtown tragedy that the Film Society thing was “media not invited.” Anyway, Cruise did do Letterman today and will appear on Jimmy Fallon this week as well.

What can Paramount do? The theaters are booked, the ad money has been spent, everything is in place. The movie’s getting pretty good notices. I’ll tell you more about it after I see it on Wednesday at the all-media screening. If it’s good, none of this will matter.

Alicia Keys is a Girl in Trouble today. Earl Shuman, the co-songwriter (with the late Leon Carr) of “Hey There Lonely Girl,” has filed suit against her in Los Angeles for copyright infringement. Some of the suit is based on my reporting. Hopefully musicologists will be called in, etc., experts who can testify about Keys’s use of two lines from the chorus of “Hey There Lonely Girl” in “Girl on Fire.” (The Hollywood Reporter’s Eriq Gardner reported the suit as well, mentioning my inclusion. But for some reason people at that dreadful website don’t pick up the phone and call people they’re writing about.)

Anyway, anyone who listens to “Girl on Fire” can hear Alicia sing “she’s a lonely girl/in a lonely world” about her burning subject. Why Keys or someone with her didn’t just clear this sample is beyond me. Keys is a sampling queen, with loads of history in this department. What makes it disturbing is that if someone had done the same thing to Keys–like take her “If I Ain’t Got You” or her new song “Brand New Me”– and done the same thing, she’d be the Girl on Fire indeed.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/11/25/alicia-keys-girl-on-fire-also-a-lonely-girl-from-1970

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/12/04/alicia-keys-hey-there-lonely-girl-writer-is-very-much-alive-and-wants-his-money

Hey There Lonely Girl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3lscp1GCjUQ#!

There are reports right now that Richard Engel, NBC’s star correspondent in Syria, is missing. First reports came from the Turkish press and were picked up John Cook of gawker.com. NBC News isn’t commenting. But reports are spreading on Twitter that Engel and a Turkisj journalist haven’t been seen since last Wednesday or Thursday. Engel’s last piece from Aleppo aired on December 13th: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50192519#50192519. Here’s hoping he’s okay.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/planet/22171723.asp#

Keep refreshing…

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” has a perfect score of 100 this morning on rottentomatoes.com. All 29 reviews posted so far are positive. That will change, of course. But it’s a pretty good start. At a press conference yesterday, the entire cast showed up, even Jonah Hill who worked two days and is on screen for about 1 minute. Multiple Oscar nominee Leonard DiCaprio came, and spoke at length to the crowd. Usually I don’t re-print public offerings like this, but it was pretty interesting per our PAULA SCHWARTZ. She noted that DiCaprio told the crowd: “…there was absolutely nothing about this man that I could identify with. I hated him and it was one of the most narcissistic, self-indulgent racist horrible characters I’ve ever read in my entire life, and I had to do it. It was too good not to do.”

Here’s her report, in note form:

The moderator told Leonardo DiCaprio, this is the first film you’ve been in in quite a long time where you’re not the only name above the title and where…

Leonardo: “and it sucks…it’s very uncomfortable,” DiCaprio quipped (Everyone laughed)

Moderator: And where you are one, if perhaps not the biggest villain of the piece as Sam (Jackson) was just saying. What made you want to take on this role?

Leo: Well, I mean, obviously Mr. Tarantino here is a major factor but, you know, we all read this script. There was a sort of buzz about this script which was around for a while and people were talking about the next Tarantino movie that was about to come out and the fact that he tackled this subject like he did, sort of Inglorious Basterds, and recreated his own history and tackled something as hardcore as slavery and combined it with the genre of having it be this crazy spaghetti western feel to it with this lead character that sort of obliterates the cankerous rotting South was completely exciting.

And he wrote this incredible character, and as soon as I read it I was incredibly excited. I mean this man was, as Quentin put, he was a character that represented everything that was wrong with the South at the time. He was like the young Louis XIV, the young sort of prince that wanted to hold on to his position of privilege at all costs…Even though he was integrated his whole life with black people, brought up by a black man, lived with him his entire life, he had to find a moral justification to treat people this way and continue his business. He had a plantation to run, so he became this …the fact that he’s a Francophile but he doesn’t speak French…he’s a walking contradiction…he’s brought up with black people yet he as to regard them as not human…

…there was this incredibly interesting horrifically I mean, there was absolutely nothing about this man that I could identify with. I hated him and it was one of the most narcissistic, self-indulgent racist horrible characters I’ve ever read in my entire life, and I had to do it. It was too good not to do. It was too good of a character in that sense,” he said. “I don’t know. This man just writes incredibly characters and it was also an opportunity to work with all these great people too.”

Question from the audience: What did you learn about playing Calvin Candie? And being an actor become all you wanted it all you want to be?

Leo: Forgive me I’m incredibly tired right now…I love acting. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do my entire life, and I hope to continue doing this for a long time to come. It’s the greatest job in the world. It truly is. We’re all lucky bastards up here. The fact that we get to do what we love for a living every single day…what was great about doing this role honestly was the sense of community and support mechanism that I had every single day….this was really my first attempt in playing a character that I had this much disdain and this much hatred for and it was an incredibly uncomfortable environment to walk into.

I dealt with and have seen racism in my surroundings and my life growing up but not to the degree that I had to treat other people in this film was incredibly disturbing…it wa disturbing of actors on both sides of the spectrum. It was a very uncomfortable situation…one of the pivotal moments for me in this character as far as the treatment of other people…sam and Jamie told me..do I need to go this far…does it need to be this violent. (I would ask), Do I need to be this atrocious to other people? (they said yes that) if you sugarcoast this peole are going to resent the hell out of you…this is not only historically accurate but it went even farther than that…the worst atrocities…

…by holding the character back you’re going to do an injustice to the film and people are going to feel like you’re not telling the truth and honestly that’s what ignited me into going the way I do with the character and once I did even more research into the character and once I started to watch the documentaries, read about the sugar plantations.(I saw) we’re just scratching the surface of what happened in our country…

…and it’s a sore subject matter that should be looked at more often and not shied about from and I commend Quentin for making a film that combines so many different genres and as daring as it is, to actually make the subject matter entertaining for an audience. It’s a daring concept…I’ll stop rambling…what was great at the core of it was to have a group of actors that were all mutually there for one another…a subject matter that was difficult for all of us…”

Believe it or not, it’s been two decades since Robert DeNiro was last nominated for an Academy Award. It was 1992, and the movie was “Cape Fear.” It was second nomination in a row– in 1991, it had also been Best Actor, for “Awakenings.” He lost both times. Prior to that, DeNiro had won in 1981 for “Raging Bull.” His other win was in 1975 for “The Godfather Part 2” as Best Supporting Actor.

DeNiro was also nominated for work in “The Deer Hunter” and “Taxi Driver,” his most imitated role. He lost both of those times.

Now after all this time, DeNiro could be up for a Best Supporting statue from “Silver Linings Playbook.” His role as Pat Senior, the understanding yet slightly eccentric father of Bradley Cooper, is a killer– without bullets. After a generation of doing comedies like “Meet the Parents” and “Analyze This,” DeNiro combines his best dramatic and comedic skills to pull off the role.

His scene with Jennifer Lawrence, a cinch for Best Actress, in the “Silver Linings” kitchen, is a total Oscar scene stealer. Lawrence, as Tiffany, roars in and confronts Pat Senior about where she was each time the Philadelphia Eagles have recently played.

Later, DeNiro delivers the movie’s most memorable line to Cooper: When life reaches out with a moment like this it’s a sin if you don’t reach back.” It’s a show stopper.

In Toronto, when DeNiro attended the premiere screening, he emerged with tears in his eyes. As Pat Senior, he holds this lovable yet dysfunctional family together. DeNiro not only supports Cooper and Lawrence, but plays brilliantly with co-stars Jacki Weaver and his real life pal, Paulie Herman.

DeNiro will heavy competition from other players in this category including Philip Seymour Hoffman from “The Master,” Tommy Lee Jones from “Lincoln,” Eddie Redmayne from “Les Miserables,” Alan Arkin in “Argo” and both Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz (who’s really a lead) in “Django Unchained,” as well as dark horse Javier Bardem in “Skyfall.”

Voting for the Academy Awards online opens today for members.

Despite all the famous James Bond theme songs, none has ever won an Oscar for Best Song. The last to be nominated was “For Your Eyes Only,” in 1982, sung by Sheena Easton. Prior to that, only Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, and “Live and Let Die,” by Paul McCartney, got to the nomination stage.

As Oscar voting online begins today, it’s of note that Adele’s theme song for “Skyfall,” written by her and Paul Epworth, could be the first ever James Bond theme to win an Oscar. In our poll that’s been twice with different choices, “Skyfall” has handily won each time out.

Of course, an Adele performance on the Oscars would be ratings gold since no one’s seen anything of the shy singer since before she gave birth to her baby. And her last real TV performance was on the Grammys in February 2012.

When “Skyfall” was released this past fall it went to number in a matter of minutes on iTunes. This column broke the news of its existence, and its lyrics, before anyone.

Other songs in the Oscar mix this year include Jon Bon Jovi’s “Not Running Anymore” from “Stand Up Guys” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0NO89Z3YSQ; Keith Urban’s “For You” from “Act of Valor” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWK1sG3spiE; Jessie J’s “Crazy Bout You” from “Silver Linings Playbook,” written by Diane Warren, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLOR2cRouU; “Suddenly” from “Les Miserables’; and “Love Always Comes as a Surprise” from “Madagascar 3,” written by Peter Asher, of Peter and Gordon fame.

“The Hobbit” broke records everywhere, and has $223 million in the bank worldwide after three days. Let’s go back to how all this started. The Weinsteins wanted to make “Lord of the Rings” at Miramax, they had the rights, but Michael Eisner–then head of Disney–wouldn’t allow it. So Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne made the movies at New Line for Warner Bros. with Mark Ordesky supervising.

I can still remember Mark actually doing a one man show for us circa 2002 in the bar at the Regency Hotel, performing all three chapters of “Lord of the Rings.” It was hilarious, but having spent months of his life in New Zealand with Peter Jackson, Ordesky was passionate.

Fast forward to Guillermo del Toro supposed to make “The Hobbit” but ultimately Jackson deciding he might as well turn this into his “Star Wars.”  The 3D and 48 whatever per second are unnecessary. All people really wanted to see was their group of friends back on screen. And in the end, that’s why “The Hobbit,” a slight book. is now a three part extravaganza that has eaten the box office alive.

I only wish Shaye, Lynne, and Ordesky had been at the premiere. Ironically, Alan Horn, then at Warner Bros. is now at Disney. He ‘got’ the whole thing. At the New York premiere, Horn and his successor, Jeff Robinov, were hugging and mugging and toasting each other as well they should.

As for the Weinsteins: “Silver Linings Playbook,” a movie loved by anyone who sees it, is still in 371 theaters. And it remains steady week to week, building word of mouth. And I am told that “The Master” may return to theaters for an Oscar run given its number of awards nomination and critics groups wins. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Joaquin Phoenix are all headed to the Oscars, and the film could well be a Best Picture nominee.

Meantime, Shaye and Lynne are readying the August 23, 2013 release of “The Mortal Instruments, Part 1” from their Unique Pictures. I’m told this will be the new franchise to set box office records. Unique also has an original Paul McCartney-scored animation feature maybe for 2014. Keep an eye on Shaye and Lynne–those boys may really know what they’re doing!

You have to give credit to Paul McCartney. He’s 70.5 years old, and he just keeps rocking. Even though he started the year crooning “Kisses on the Bottom,” he’s ending it rocking with the former members of Nirvana. Today the studio version of “Cut Me Some Slack” debuts at http://www.cutmesomeslack.net/. It turns out that McCartney and Dave Grohl used the 12-12-12 concert to debut the song, playing it with Dave Grohl et al on the show.

It’s from Grohl’s upcoming documentary “Sound City” about the grungy recording studio where albums as diverse as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and Nirvana’s “Nevermind” were recorded.

The doc premieres at Sundance. McCartney-Nirvana debuted the song last night on “Saturday Night Live”–so that was the purpose of McCartney’s appearance, I guess. Good for him. I do wish that instead of “My Valentine” he played the other original song from “Kisses” called “Only Our Hearts.” Anyway, it does seem like McCartney will be very involved with the promotion of “Sounds City,” maybe going to Sundance and doing some more live performances with the guys.

“Sound City” has other eclectic guests, including Stevie Nicks and Rick Springfield. Can’t wait to see it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TR3vtXP_WM&feature=player_embedded#!