Saturday, December 20, 2025
Donate
Home Blog Page 1975

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

Roger Friedman
-
0
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
-
11
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
-
1
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
-
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
-
2
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
-
2
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.

Rupert Murdoch Is Broadcasting Obama as Hero in Bin Laden Film

Roger Friedman
-
3
Rupert Murdoch Is Broadcasting Obama as Hero in Bin Laden Film

There have been some controversies about “Seal Team Six,” the film being broadcast on Sunday night on National Geographic Channel. “Seal Team Six” tells one version of how US Navy Seals found and killed Osama bin Laden. Harvey Weinstein bought the film directed by John Stockwell and is said to have pumped up the role of President Barack Obama to make him look more heroic and decisive.

If that were true, you’d think “Seal Team Six” would be shown on the Sundance Channel or on PBS–someplace with a more liberal bent. But guess who owns the National Geographic Channel? Why, none other than Rupert Murdoch.

Indeed, National Geographic Channel is part of the Fox Cable Channels. It is directly owned by News Corp, which also owns right wing news org Fox News and reactionary newspapers around the world like the New York Post.

Murdoch is very much in charge of News Corp, and knows what’s going on around him. Certainly, his involvement in the company was born out of the Leveson investigation in Parliament over phone hacking.

So now Murdoch is broadcasting a movie everyone should see on Sunday night. He’s doing it on the National Geographic Channel. Not only does “Seal Team Six” show the bravery of the men and women who found and destroyed bin Laden. It also shows President Obama in archival footage– and lots of it–taking the lead and looking very presidential throughout this momentous and historical episode.

Stockwell was guest of honor at a private screening Friday night put together at the Core Club by Peggy Siegal Company with the usual high end media crowd including Terry McDonell (now the digital whiz of Time Inc), NBC newscaster Felicia Taylor, and many others who’d been displaced in the last few days by Hurricane Sandy.

I asked Stockwell, who brought his investment banker daughter and her Wall Street pals, about all the rumors of Weinstein advancing a liberal agenda in “Seal Team Six.” He got a good laugh, and then reminded me that National Geographic Channel was owned by Fox and Rupert Murdoch.

Something else about “Seal Team Six”: it essentially tells the same story that we’ll see after the election in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty.” That film, which will play in theaters, and “STS” share a producer– Nicholas Chartier, who left the Bigelow film and put his efforts into “STS.” It was definitely worth it!

“Seal Team Six” airs on National Geographic this Sunday at 8pm in all markets. Check local listings.

 

Aerosmith Added to Tonight’s NBC Rock Star Telethon

Roger Friedman
-
0
Aerosmith Added to Tonight’s NBC Rock Star Telethon

As I predicted yesterday, Aerosmith will be added to tonight’s NBC telethon for Hurrican Sandy survivors. The group crossed paths with Jon Bon Jovi this morning on the Today show and worked it all out. Steven Tyler told Matt Lauer on the show today that he was born in New York, and felt a responsibility to be there.

So add Tyler, Joe Perry and the A’s to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Sting, Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Fallon, Brian Williams, with Matt Lauer hosting and, I think, Colin Quinn. Sounds like they need more than an hour.

Aerosmith, by the way, was live and rocking this morning on “Today.” They have their first new album in more than a decade coming out on Tuesday. This really is the year for Old Rockers–Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, etc– but look, they can do it. Aerosmith was terrific this morning. Tyler hasn’t looked so together or sounded so good in years.

Broadway: Actors from “The Heiress” Scare Us

Roger Friedman
-
1
Broadway: Actors from “The Heiress” Scare Us

Broadway: the show must go on, and it did last night when “The Heiress” opened on Broadway with up and coming movie star Jessica Chastain, veteran actor and former Oscar nominee David Straithairn, and “Downton Abbey” star Dan Stevens.

Not easy to open a Broadway play under the current conditions. Most of the night was spent listening to everyone’s sagas of relocation. But you know, this–like Bette Midler’s Hulaween fundraiser–can’t be cancelled. And that’s what keeps New York going in tough times.

The play is adapted from its 1940s presentation, as it was adapted from Henry James’s novella “Washington Square.” The play was last revived in 1995 to great acclaim with Cherry Jones. Alas, the reviews are mixed this morning and I can’t say they’re wrong. Something went awry here. There’s a lot to see but the first act is uncomfortable to say the least.

The cast seemed to know afterwards at the Edison Ballroom, too. It’s kind to say Straithairn was brusque. I caught a cold from the stiff wind that he left behind after exiting the press room. Dan Stevens’ publicist, a young British woman who Maggie Smith would have kicked out of Downton Abbey, broke a time-speed record for yanking her client away from me when I asked what his future was on the Brit soap. “New season starts January 6th!” they yelled in unison, scampering away.

Jessica Chastain, a beauty and a nice, nice girl, came in very late, after just about everyone else from the play had moved on. Juilliard trained, Chastain took a big risk debuting on Broadway and carrying a whole play. Her Catherine starts out shaky but Chastain hits her stride in the second act. She looked overwhelmed when she finally arrived and told me the magnificent turn of the century inspired Albert Wolsky gowns were indeed very heavy. She’ll probably lose a lot of weight during the run.

Much more relaxed and really with it: Judith Ivey, who takes the role of Catherine’s aunt and kind of steals the show. She is really a pleasure, on and off the stage. Straithairn also does a great job as Catherine’s snobby, hyper critical father. But you know, I don’t think he cares what anyone thinks. And it works for him!

In the audience: Joel Coen and Frances McDormand, who also went to the party, believe it or not. Anthony LaPaglia and wife actress Gia Carrere– bright lights on a difficult night– caught the play but had to get home to relieve a babysitter. Also: producers Roy Furman and Paula Wagner, two friendly faces.

Don’t miss “The Heiress” especially for Derek McLane’s as usual stunning set–his Washington Square townhouse is a fantasy since NYU has pretty much destroyed the history that Henry James has preserved here. Director Moises Kaufman next heads to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a restaging of “The Laramie Project.”

PS Broadway is on. So is entertainment all over the city. Our pal Tamara Tunie is at Feinstein’s at the Regency tonight and tomorrow night. I can’t think of a better way to get our minds off Sandy, and the election!

 

James Bond “Skyfall” Circles $100 Mil Abroad

Roger Friedman
-
0
James Bond “Skyfall” Circles $100 Mil Abroad

James Bond– thwarted in the US to premiere this week but he’s kicking butt around the world. “Skyfall” is now circling $100 million from the box office in nine countries including Russia, France and Brazil and of course the United Kingdom. The 23rd James Bond film doesn’t open in the US until November 9th. But following the pattern of many big budget films this year like “The Avengers” and “Battleship,” “Skyfall” is hedging its bets by avoiding too much exposure here and getting its money in quickly. No need to bypass the US though — the press loves “Skyfall” and reviews are the best for any James Bond in the last generation.

1...1,9741,9751,976...2,324Page 1,975 of 2,324

Hollywood to the Hudson

Company

Trending

Categories

© Showbiz411.com