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Rupert Murdoch Defeated: Why the Hands Off On Barack Obama?

Roger Friedman
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Rupert Murdoch Defeated: Why the Hands Off On Barack Obama?

The usually voluble Rupert Murdoch was curiously restrained on Twitter yesterday. His one Tweet: “Everybody searching for any scrap of news about election tomorrow.plenty of straws to grasp for Romney, probably not enough”And today’s New York Post is very careful to congratulate Obama both in the lead story and in the editorial. All the bite and bile are gone. And while Fox News’s Karl Rove, aka Republican operative, was melting down on the network, that was something Murdoch couldn’t control.

But as I pointed out last week, it’s Murdoch’s National Geographic Channel that aired the pro-Obama “Seal Team Six” on Sunday night. And my experts abroad note that Murdoch’s British papers have been extremely warm to Obama. So what’s going on here? Sources say Murdoch is taking it easy with Obama because he’s afraid of investigations and anything negative here in the U.S. in the phone hacking scandal.

Murdoch is a savvy politician himself and knows how to read tea leaves. He could see some time ago that Romney was not going to win, and that staying on Obama’s good side would come in handy. Even three days ago he Tweeted: “Seems slight edge to Obama, but Romney seeing small late surge. Many state polls look unreliable.” But will it do any good? After the 2008 election, Fox News went wild in anti-Obama rhetoric. It will be interesting to see if Murdoch can tame that group and keep the inflammatory stuff to a minimum.

Check out today’s front page of Foxnews.com. The usual swagger and craziness have been replaced by stately analyses of the election. And even Foxnation.com, the subrosa website for the radically right wing, has been reined in and buttoned up significantly.

Rolling Stones Finally Make Deal for Brooklyn Show

Roger Friedman
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Rolling Stones Finally Make Deal for Brooklyn Show

Hey kids, it’s not all Doom and Gloom: I told you first at the end of the summer that the Rolling Stones would play at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Then things got weird as Virgin Live and the promoter Paul Dainty were busy also negotiating with the Prudential Center in Newark. But now I can tell exclusively that a Barclays date has been worked out for December 8th. It’s the only open day in the busy Barclays schedule of Nets games.

My sources say the announcement is imminent. This would make Brooklyn first before New Jersey on December 13th and 15th. Tricky stuff here: the Stones will debut their documentary “Crossfire Hurricane” on November 15th on HBO. But there’s been a real hurricane since all this stuff started. Maybe the Stones will announce a special charitable donation, or a show dedicated to the victims to help raise much needed funds for the vast numbers of homeless folks.

In any case, with Brooklyn locked down for one show, which will sell out in 2 seconds flat, my guess is a fourth show — maybe Madison Square Garden– cannot be far behind. And after that, a good ol’ fashioned tour. Stay tuned. Or as they say in Stones land now, “Grrrrr….!”

Louis CK Lincoln Sketch Will Get “Unedited” Release on Hulu

Roger Friedman
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Louis CK Lincoln Sketch Will Get “Unedited” Release on Hulu

If you saw “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend, then you probably caught the brilliant sketch about Abraham Lincoln that aired in the first half hour. Show host comedian Louis CK played Lincoln as a stand up comic right before his assassination. Seth Meyers wrote the sketch, which was sublime. The Lincoln segment has already caught on at Hulu.com. But now I’m told that sometime Tuesday or Wednesday, a fuller, longer version will show up on Hulu. Apparently Louis CK did quite a bit more stand up as Lincoln, and it’s hilarious.

Coincidentally, I ran into Meyers last night at the “Skyfall” premiere. We had a good laugh about his summer long stretch as this column’s number 1 pick to join Kelly Ripa as co-host of “Live.” Meyers told me: “I loved hosting the show with Kelly. I like trying new things. And she’s amazing. But I could not have done that and Saturday Night Live. When I got back to our own show, I felt like I was home.” Meyers added that he thought Michael Strahan was “doing a great job.”

http://www.hulu.com/watch/421088#i1,p0,d0

“Skyfall” Screenwriter: ‘Judi Dench is the Bond Girl in This Film’

Roger Friedman
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“Skyfall” Screenwriter: ‘Judi Dench is the Bond Girl in This Film’

James Bond 23– “Skyfall”– came to New York last night at last. It opens on Friday after raking in nearly $300 million abroad in the last two weeks. The “Skyfall” cast couldn’t make it to the fundraiser for the Tribeca Film Institute at the Museum of Modern Art.

But there were plenty of stars including Sting and Trudie Styler, their actress daughter Mickey Sumner (wait til you see her in “Frances Ha” come May 2013), Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live,” “Forest Gump” producer Wendy Finerman, Grace Hightower DeNiro and the “Skyfall” screenwriter John Logan. We also ran into international music star K’Naan, whose new album Country, God or the Girl” is just out from A&M/Octone Records. (Download “The Seed” ASAP.)

And yes, James Bond does say goodbye to Judi Dench’s M in “Skyfall” but I won’t tell you how. Logan says in this film, despite several young beauties, “Judi Dench is our Bond girl this time.” She’s marvelous, as are Albert Finney and of course Javier Bardem as the new villain obsessed with James Bond. Daniel Craig will only be more popular in this role now. Logan is writing him a two part Bond film, numbers 24 and 25.

PS The Tribeca Film Institute set up a table for people to make Hurricane Sandy donations to the Red Cross. You’re going to be seeing that at every charity event from now on this fall and winter.

David Geffen, Music Visionary, Would Sign Arcade Fire Now If He Had A Label

Roger Friedman
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David Geffen, Music Visionary, Would Sign Arcade Fire Now If He Had A Label

David Geffen: let’s face it, he was a visionary in the music business. Without him we would not have had Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, or Crosby Stills Nash & Young. And maybe even Linda Ronstadt. He was significant in the career of Carly Simon, too. And oh yes, Guns ‘n’ Roses. Last night we got to see the new PBS documentary “Inventing David Geffen,” produced and directed by Susan Lacy. And while you might think two hours of Geffen wouldn’t be so interesting, it turned out to be fascinating. Lacy did a superb job, and Geffen is very likeable in it– warts and all.

Before the screening I asked Geffen if he had his seminal label, Asylum Records, now, who would he sign? I mentioned a couple of top young performers, but he recoiled at their names. You can guess. Then he answered: “Arcade Fire. If they’d come out in the 70s, they would be much bigger than they are now. I love them. But radio is a problem now. And you don’t have the repetition of playing the music over and over. There’s no community.”

When we spoke in the nearly empty Paris Theater, Geffen was seated next to business partner and long time friend Jeffrey Katzenberg. New Yorker writer Ken Auletta was chatting with them. Soon enough the Paris filled up with a heavy A list crowd brought in by Peggy Siegal Company, from Mike Nichols and Anjelica Huston to Candice Bergen, Bob and Lynn Balaban, Liz Smith, Regis and Joy Philbin, Mica Ertegun, DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal, director Robert Benton, Tony Danza, Carol Kane, Les Moonves, former spouses Griffin Dunne and Carey Lowell (not together),Tom Freston, Barbara Walters, plus of course, Fran Lebowitz and Calvin Klein. And that was just on my side of the theater! A second screening was held right after with more bold faced names. And Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter hosted a dinner for a select few at four star La Grenouille.

Susan Lacy manages to pack a lot into two hours, and manages to hit all the high points. There’s a nice section on how Joni Mitchell wrote “Free Man in Paris” about Geffen, another segment about the openly gay Geffen’s love affair with Cher (who looks great), a couple of revelatory interviews with Clive Davis, and the details of how Crosby, Stills & Nash came together, how Bob Dylan was lured away from Columbia Records for two albums, a rare interview with “Risky Business” director Paul Brickman, and plenty of good, now classic, rock and roll.

PS Warner Music, which still owns the Asylum name, would do well to bring it back as a place for real artists and actual musicians. Maybe they could start with Jenny Lewis, who seems to have disappeared in the WMG miasma. She would have been a perfect Geffen-Asylum artist.

ABC’s Real Soap Opera: “General Hospital” is Booming in the Ratings

Roger Friedman
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ABC’s Real Soap Opera: “General Hospital” is Booming in the Ratings

ABC must be having a fit: “General Hospital” is a hit. The last remaining soap opera on ABC was almost cancelled last year. But for a terrible show, now gone, called “The Revolution,” turning out to be a terrible dud, “General Hospital” would have followed “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to a VHS tape bin.

But “The Revolution” is no longer televised. The executive producer and head writer from “One Life to Live” transferred over to “GH” in its 49th year. They brought over some of the “OLTL” characters, mixed them into the show, and brought back favorite actors like Finola Hughes and Robin Mattson to enliven the story. And it worked.

Last week, “General Hospital” added 378,000 viewers vs. the same week one year ago. They’re up to a 2.7 rating, third among the remaining four soaps (including “Days of our Lives” on NBC and “Young the Restless” and “Bold and the Beautiful” on CBS.) But very importantly “GH” is now second among the four soaps, in viewers ages 18-49 and growing in all the ratings categories. Last year around this time “GH” had a 2.2 rating. The increase is significant.

(The ratings may have increased because the show brought back a character who died on screen seven years ago. It reminded me of the scene in “SoapDish” when Whoopi Goldberg, who plays the writer of the soap in the movie, exclaims, “The man was decapitated. I can’t write for a man without a head.” Apparently these people can.)

Soap plots are always crazy, so you have you have to accept these things. It’s better than watching one more person discuss how to slice a rutabaga, that’s for sure.

One other thing is for sure: ABC has never explained in any realistic way whatever happened in their whole debacle with Jeff Kwatinetz’s Prospect Park Productions. ABC and Prospect Park announced they were moving the other two soaps over to the internet and maybe cable. Then the whole thing collapsed mysteriously. Prospect Park made it seem like “All My Children” couldn’t be done because star Susan Lucci was asking for too much money. Lucci told me recently that simply was not the case. “One day we were negotiating,” she said, “and the next day we were not. We didn’t know what happened.”

Indeed, Prospect Park–aside from a limited involvement in USA Networks’ “Royal Pains”–doesn’t do very much and didn’t do very much when the soap ‘deal’ was going on. Like many Hollywood production companies, they have a few things ‘in development.’

And now ABC is having a hit on its hands that it didn’t want. The network thought it was out of the soap opera business. CBS is doing everything it can to kill its remaining soaps. They hired General Hospital’s fired and failed executive producer to take over “Y&R,” long the number 1 show. The ratings and viewers are in decline. At “B&B” two of the main actors are gone in the last few weeks, sending that show’s numbers down. It’s clear what CBS wants. But ABC may be stuck giving afternoon viewers what they want a little while longer no matter how much they want to cancel “General Hospital.”

Weekend Take: $49 Mil for “Wreck it Ralph,” $23 Mil for Rock Star Telethon

Roger Friedman
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Weekend Take: $49 Mil for “Wreck it Ralph,” $23 Mil for Rock Star Telethon

Even though New York and New Jersey were still partially shut down, and a lot of people are still in dire straits, money was spent on entertainment this weekend. Disney’s animated “Wreck it Ralph” took in $49 million and set some records for the fabled company. This probably had a lot to do with needing some place to take kids, but it’s still good. The record is for a weekend debut by a Disney Animated Studios release. “W-I-R” topped the old record set by “Tangled” in 2010. None of these is as good as “The Lion King” or “Aladdin” or even the glorious “Wall E” but “Ralph” does show Disney has much life left in it…

The NBC telethon “Coming Together” for Hurricane Sandy made $23 on Friday night, with appearances by Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, Jon Bon Jovi, Mary J. Blige, Christina Aguilera, among others. Matt Lauer gets much needed points for organizing it so swiftly. Of course, $23 million is  drop in the bucket, but it brings awareness of Sandy victims to people not in the immediate area. There may have to be a bigger show in December to raise more money: Staten Island, the Rockaways, the Jersey Shore and other areas will require huge amounts more to recover properly.

I don’t want to nitpick and take away from the event but now that it’s over: “Coming Together” wasn’t exactly multi-cultural. Maybe next time we could see some New York R&B. There’s plenty of local soul, from Valerie Simpson to Jay Z and Beyonce to Dionne Warwick, Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love, to Allen Toussaint, who comes from New Orleans but came here after Hurricane Katrina.

Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” Sets Tone for Matt Lauer Hurricane Telethon

Roger Friedman
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0
Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” Sets Tone for Matt Lauer Hurricane Telethon

Over at www.nbc.com you can watch the entire telethon for Hurricane Sandy survivors and victims. Matt Lauer put the show together in about five minutes, but it’s a success from beginning to end. Sting, a passionate transplant to New York, sets the tone with “Message in A Bottle.” It’s just him, the delivery is stark and moving. Sting, who grew up in a real seaside town and knows from tragedy there, was channeling a lot of those feelings.

That doesn’t diminish our local heroes– Bruce, Billy, Jon Bon Jovi– each of whom anchored the show. Springsteen was smart to choose “Land of Hope and Dreams” rather than “My City in Ruins.” He kept it positive. Billy Joel’s “Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway” was apt since below 39th Street there were no lights on Broadway. (Broadway has also been wrecked by Mayor Bloomberg’s bike lanes, turning lanes, potted plants and garden tables but that’s another story.)

Christina Aguilera was probably the big surprise on both the telethon and Jimmy Fallon’s show that night. If only she were singing like that on her current records, she’d still have a recording career. “Beautiful” is still her signature song. On Fallon’s show, Aguilera was magnificent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ4Xmp9XhIw

We’re waiting for numbers from NBC to see how much the telethon raised. And hopefully the American Red Cross is using that money effectively even as we speak.

New Barbra Streisand Video: “Mitt Romney Does Not Share Our Values”

Roger Friedman
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New Barbra Streisand Video: “Mitt Romney Does Not Share Our Values”

Barbra Streisand has made a support video endorsing Barack Obama’s re-election to Jewish Democrats. The video plays on our home page in the main player below the fold. Here’s the text in full:

Hi, this is Barbra Streisand. In this election, we have a choice between two candidates. President Obama, who has taken our country forward by expanding women’s rights and fighting for social and economic justice. He’s got our economy moving in the right direction.

President Obama has supported Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood, and equal pay for women from his first day in office. And his landmark health care law provided millions of women with access to contraception and mammograms that they couldn’t have afford before.

President Obama continues to stand strongly with our ally Israel and in preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons while implementing the strictest sanctions ever.

He has also done more for the LGBT community than any president before, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and signing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act into law.

Governor Romney would take us backwards and is as extreme as it gets when it comes to a woman’s right to choose and giving America’s wealthiest even more tax cuts on the backs of the middle class. A Romney administration would deny health insurance to about 45 million people, end Medicare as we know it, and would savagely cut Medicaid which now covers more than 50 million Americans. A Romney Administration would oppose the Buffett Rule, which would help ensure that those who make one million dollars per year pay their fair share of taxes.

Mitt Romney does not share our values. I know Barack Obama does. In this good man, we have a president we can trust, a president whom I trust. For me the choice is clear; I hope it is for you.

Denzel Washington Jumps to Top of Oscar List–Despite Himself

Roger Friedman
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Denzel Washington Jumps to Top of Oscar List–Despite Himself

This is the year no actors want to get an Oscar. It’s a new world, ain’t it? Joaquin Phoenix, so good in “The Master,” rubbished the whole process recently in a magazine interview. Daniel Day Lewis, aka “Lincoln,” does very little to help himself ever. And now Denzel Washington has opened in “Flight” and rocketed right to the top of the list of possible winners. Last night “Flight” opened in 1,884 theaters — still hundreds of theaters are closed, and less than 2,000 is not a wide release– took in over $8 million. A $22 million weekend for a serious film is excellent–and the movie has suffered from Hurricane Sandy.

But as Denzel, who won his last Oscar in 2002 for “Training Day,” vaults to the top of the list, he also is a reluctant participant. At the New York Film Festival he skipped his own premiere party. He also avoided a big digital print junket. He did little on the red carpet. On stage he stood in the background. Since then he’s continued to be low profile. A little too low profile if he wants to win. Of course, with two Oscars, he may not care.

Anyway, it’s so good to see Robert Zemeckis score with “Flight.” It’s a solid studio film, well made, with outstanding ingredients. The opening scenes of the plane in free fall are breathtaking. But later, Washington and the entire supporting cast are just note for note spot on. And Zemeckis never lets up or gives Denzel an out. My favorite scene is Tamara Tunie, as the flight attendant who’s known him the longest– telling Denzel’s pilot that she knows his history and isn’t letting him get away with it. Again. solid.

So watch “Flight” takes its place in a list that includes Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, The Master, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lincoln, maybe Rust and Bone, and maybe — from what I’m hearing– Hitchcock. And don’t forget my new Best Supporting Actor possibility– Javier Bardem in “Skyfall.” No kidding.

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