Right now Frankie Valli is sitting pretty at the Broadway Theater, selling out seven shows spaced over ten days. Next up: Barry Manilow. Bette Midler’s one time piano player, with a following that should follow him right onto the Great White Way, will take over the St. James Theater once “Bring It On” has closed. Manilow will give 17 performances at the St. James beginning January 17th, 2013. There will be an actual opening night on January 24th. The ladies will come from all over the tri-state area, by bus and in droves. Personally, I will dedicate the entire time to the Clash. But I appreciate Manilow’s popularity and craft, and expect only pronouncements of great success from the St. James, where once Carol Channing hoofed around the proscenium stage in “Hello Dolly!” Anyway, it’s an excellent use of a theater in January before Tony season arrives.
Lance Armstrong Abandoned by Celebrity Pals: No Cycling, No Hollywood
What’s worse? Being dropped by cycling or by Hollywood? On Friday, three days before today’s announcement that he is stripped of all his Tour de France wins and banned from cycling, Lance Armstrong hosted his annual Livestrong benefit in Austin, Texas. The invited celebrities came, but only one of them–Sean Penn– was brave enough to walk the red carpet and talk to the press. Armstrong’s most famous pal, Robin Williams, and singer Norah Jones and other name celebs went in through the back door. There isn’t a single photo of any of them at the event or with Lance. And no mention of Matthew McConnaughey, who used to be Armstrong’s bff and lives in Austin. Ouch! No cycling, no celebs.
also read: http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/18/lance-armstrong-foundation-livestrong-public-contributions-slide-salaries-are-up
Lance Armstrong has been banned from cycling by the UCI, aka International Cycling. They posted their decision this morning. Here it is:
“The UCI has completed its review of USADA’s ‘Reasoned Decision’ and appendices in the case against Lance Armstrong.
The UCI considered the main issues of jurisdiction, the statute of limitation the evidence gathered by USADA and the sanction imposed upon Mr. Armstrong.
The UCI confirms that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognise the sanction that USADA has imposed.
The USADA decision explains how riders on the USPS Team showed no inclination to share the full extent of what they knew until they were subpoenaed or called by federal investigators and that their only reason for telling the truth is because the law required them to do so.
These riders have confronted their past and told their stories. Their accounts of their past provide a shocking insight into the USPS Team where the expression to ‘win at all costs’ was redefined in terms of deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion.
Their testimony confirms that the anti-doping infrastructure that existed at that time was, by itself, insufficient and inadequate to detect the practices taking place within the team. The UCI has always been the first international sporting federation to embrace new developments in the fight against doping and it regrets that the anti-doping infrastructure that exists today was not available at that time so as to render such evasion impossible.
Many of the USPS Team riders have already acknowledged that the culture of cycling has now changed and that young riders today are no longer confronted with the same choices to use performance enhancing drugs. They are right to do so.
The UCI has recognized the problem of doping within the sport and taken significant steps to confront the problem and to clean up cycling. Today’s riders are subject to the most innovative and effective anti-doping procedures and regulations in sport. Cycling has been a pioneer in the fight against doping in sport under the leadership of the UCI and this role has been recognised by WADA.
Today’s young riders do not deserve to be branded or tarnished by the past or to pay the price for the Armstrong era. Cycling has a future and those who will define that future can be found among the young generation of riders who have chosen to prove that you can compete and win clean.
Riders who were caught doping continue to do the sport a disservice by protesting that the UCI refused to engage with them. The reality is that these riders never contemplated such action until they were found positive by the UCI, and even then they refused to confess and co-operate with the UCI.
Those riders who made the choice to stop using performance enhancing drugs, and to share their stories to enable the new generation of riders to learn from the mistakes that were made in the past, can continue to support clean cycling.
The role that training and education has to play in discouraging doping at all levels is well recognised by the UCI. The UCI will engage with any rider that is willing to work with them in the fight against doping and interested in establishing what lessons can be learned and applied to its ‘True Champion or Cheat?” programme which is obligatory for all riders subject to anti-doping tests.
This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew and to engage in the painful process of confronting its past. It will do so again with renewed vigor and purpose and its stakeholders and fans can be assured that it will find a new path forward.
That process extends beyond the UCI and the anti-doping agencies including WADA, USADA, AFLD and CONI must contribute to it by also examining how many times they tested Lance Armstrong and by providing their own explanation for why he never tested positive in the tests that they respectively conducted.
The UCI tested Tyler Hamilton 40 times and found him positive. It tested Floyd Landis 46 times and found him positive as the winner of the Tour de France. The list of riders that it has found positive does not end there.
The UCI has tested Lance Armstrong 218 times. If Lance Armstrong was able to beat the system then the responsibility for addressing that rests not only with the UCI but also with WADA and all of the other anti-doping agencies who accepted the results.
The UCI supports WADA’s decision to create a working group to examine ‘The Ineffectiveness of the Fight Against Doping in Sport’ and proposes that it commence its work by examining the effectiveness of the system in place to detect the use of performance enhancing substances in cycling.
The UCI is committed to reviewing the environment upon which the sport operates in order to ensure that something like this never happens again. It has convened a special meeting of its Management Committee on Friday, October 26th to begin the process of examining the existing structures and introducing changes to safeguard the future of cycling.”
Trudie Styler, Joe Morton Make Death Row Stories Come Alive Off Broadway
There are several stories that intertwine through “The Exonerated,” a play reading that took root ten years ago at the Culture Project on Bleecker Street. Now the people and their alarming sagas are back, revived by director Bob Balaban at the Culture Project with a new rotating cast of stars including — this past week– Joe Morton, Trudie Styler, and country-and-blues singer Steve Earle. And just to make things interesting, on Saturday night we heard Kerry Max Cook read his own story– as it’s written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen.
The stories in “The Exonerated” are all from death row, where these people went unjustly and were saved either by persistence, last minute admissions from the the real criminals, or DNA evidence. Each one of them is harrowing and shocking–that their lives were lost in some cases to 20 years of prison for crimes they did not commit. Most of them were in the south. If they make you think of the West Memphis Three, and how they were railroaded into life sentences (and are now released on a technicality) it makes you wonder about the justice system in parts of this country.
And listen: not all of them are black. Kerry Max Cook, and Sunny Jacobs–played so poignantly by Trudie Styler– were white and it still didn’t matter. This is why our friend Thomas Mesereau, who famously represented Michael Jackson, does so much pro bono work in Alabama defending the defenseless.
“The Exonerated” tells only a few of the many stories. When the play first opened ten years ago, 89 people had been exonerated due to the work of The Innocence Project. Since then 300 have had their lives changed. You can read Kerry’s and Sunny’s stories here:
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/flJacobsSummary.html
Most of the people represented in “The Exonerated” were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. Sunny Jacobs and her husband had two small children no money. In Florida they fell in with a bad guy who involved them in the shooting of two policemen. That man cut a deal but the couple went to prison. Sunny’s husband had one of the brutal executions in American history. He was later exonerated, as was Sunny, who now lives in Ireland. Styler takes a deep pause after she tells the audience, in Sunny’s voice, that the years 1976-1992 were completely obliterated. She spent five of them in solitary confinement. As Styler surveyed the audience for their reaction, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It’s chilling.
Kerry Cook is 56, married, with a 12 year old son. But he spent 1977-1997 in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. He was tortured and raped in prison. Now he speaks to prison groups, to anyone who will listen. He’s trying to get a visa so he can lecture at private schools in Pakistan. What the court system owes these people is incalculable.
The New Yorker Endorses President Obama for Re-election
Endorsements are coming in from various newspapers and magazines for the presidential race. Now The New Yorker weighs in for President Obama’s re-election. It wasn’t a given by any means. I don’t think any endorsement is certain in this election.
I think they describe the president pretty well: “Obama is also a human being, a flawed and complicated one, and as the world has come to know him better we have sometimes seen the downside of his temperament: a certain insularity and self-satisfaction; a tendency at times—as in the first debate with Mitt Romney—to betray disdain for the unpleasant tasks of politics.”
Of Mitt Romney they write: “…what is most disquieting is Romney’s larger political vision. When he said that Obama “takes his political inspiration from Europe, and from the socialist democrats in Europe,” he was not only signalling Obama’s “otherness” to one kind of conservative voter; he was suggesting that Obama’s liberalism is in conflict with a uniquely American strain of individualism.”
The New Yorker editorial ends like this:
“The choice is clear. The Romney-Ryan ticket represents a constricted and backward-looking vision of America: the privatization of the public good. In contrast, the sort of public investment championed by Obama—and exemplified by both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care Act—takes to heart the old civil-rights motto “Lifting as we climb.” That effort cannot, by itself, reverse the rise of inequality that has been under way for at least three decades. But we’ve already seen the future that Romney represents, and it doesn’t work.
“The reëlection of Barack Obama is a matter of great urgency. Not only are we in broad agreement with his policy directions; we also see in him what is absent in Mitt Romney—a first-rate political temperament and a deep sense of fairness and integrity. A two-term Obama Administration will leave an enduringly positive imprint on political life. It will bolster the ideal of good governance and a social vision that tempers individualism with a concern for community. Every Presidential election involves a contest over the idea of America. Obama’s America—one that progresses, however falteringly, toward social justice, tolerance, and equality—represents the future that this country deserves.”
Taylor Swift “Red” Album Is Released: Part Country, Part Swedish, with a Little U2
Taylor Swift’s “Red” album could be called “More Songs About Breaking Up with Boys…Some Who Are Famous.” There are 16 songs. On three of them already released as singles, Max Martin and his Swedish sound machine provide the music and production. Those songs sound like warmed over Kelly Clarkson and not as good. You can’t beat what Max Martin did for Kelly, so why try? “Since U Been Gone” is the template classic of the genre. There’s no topping it.
What did I like? A lot, actually. “Red,” “Begin Again,” and “All Too Well”–the latter written with frequent collaborator Liz Rose– jump out as really well composed songs, sincere as they can be, and heartfelt. Their intimacy works. The duet with Ed Sheeran, “Everything has Changed,” also hits its target. (Butch Walker did a nice production on that one.)
It’s interesting that the first half of the album is all the so-called commercial stuff, the second half are Swift’s solo compositions– just in case anyone listens to an album in order anymore. It’s like Side 1/Side 2. By Side 2, the record company figures you’re not paying attention anyway. I thought it pretty funny that the songs I liked the most were actually just Swift’s own works, with none of the polyurethane.
It’s not only the Swedish stuff that sounds like it came out of a can. There’s kind of a weird U2 like production on “State of Grace,” the opening track, that sounds like it came from The Edge’s notebook. It’s almost as if Swift’s “team” thought, Let’s try everything and see what works. I’m surprised there isn’t a rap by Nicki Minaj on one of these tracks.
In the end, what jumps out is that there’s a formula at work here: take teams of writers who’ve had hits with Alicia Keys, Adele, etc and apply a similar magic dust to Taylor Swift. Pop radio is a loud, homogenous mess of stuff that all sounds alike. And this is why.
Yes, Taylor Swift is very talented. But she’s also 22, and fighting a lot of outside influences. There’s time. She has a lot of potential if she wants to be more than a product or a series of merchandising opportunities. I’d like be there when she has her rebellion moment. Now, that should be interesting.
George Clooney Sings with Neil Diamond, Who’d Like to Play Brooklyn’s Barclays Center
Now that Barbra Streisand has played Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, can Neil Diamond be far behind? Our LEAH SYDNEY chatted with Neil and hobnobbed with the AAA list last night in Hollywood at Barbara Davis‘s legendary Carousel Ball, sponsored by Mercedes Benz. Would Diamond like to play the Barclays? “I hope so. If they ask me. They haven’t asked me.” What Neil did do last night was make George Clooney, the evening’s honoree, sing for the first time in public. George warbled the hook from “Sweet Caroline,” which may not have been quite in tune, but was definitely in harmony with the night.
Some of the other guests included George’s girlfriend Stacy Keibler (still together, tabloids!), plus Jane Fonda and Richard Perry, Quincy Jones, Ron Burkle, Sidney Poitier, Gayle King, the great sisters Joan and Jackie Collins, Sherry Lansing, Smokey Robinson, Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed, Holly Robinson Peete, Carrie Ann Inaba, Julianne Hough, Carmen Electra, and Mimi Rogers.
Clive Davis introduced Barbara Davis (no relation) to the crowd in the Beverly Hilton Ballroom as the “inimitable belle of the ball with a purpose.” The event raised over $2.5 million for the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Aurora, Colorado, founded by her and her late husband film executive Marvin Davis. Jay Leno was the Master of Ceremonies, who when he first got on stage cracked wise: “Hello one-percenters.” Jay was followed by American Idol’s Jessica Sanchez, who dedicated “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” to George Clooney. Then Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds introduced his song, “When Can I See You Again?” and also dedicated it to George, but then quipped, “nah, that’s’ too weird, I’m dedicating it to Stacy.”
Shirley Maclaine introduced Clooney, who was honored with the Brass Ring Award for his humanitarian efforts. She went on to list his accomplishments including Sexiest Man Alive– George put up two fingers and mouthed “twice” as the camera cut to him. Clooney then went on to be playful then serious by talking about the situation in Sudan and in injustice all over the world by saying, “all of us are going to have to find lots of ways to make life miserable for people who make other lives miserable. “
Diamond finally appeared, and started to sing his hits to the A list bopping crowd. When he got to George to sing ‘Sweet Caroline,’ George gamely did the “bah, bah, bah, ” part and though he protested on the “hands, touching hands” part, he joined in for the chorus anyway, after he chugged a beer, cracking the crowd up.
Enjoying it all, one of our favorite people, Jackie Collins. She told Leah: “My new book, ‘The Power Trip’ comes out in February 4th, just in time for Valentine’s Day. It just came out in England where it’s # 1. It’s about an exciting super yacht filled with famous people who get pirated by Somali pirates. I’m in talks to make it into a movie, which is fabulous. Also my Lucky Santangelo cookbook comes out next year. Who should play the hero in ‘Power Trip? Oh the tall good looking one on ‘Hawaii Five –O,’ Alex O’Loughlin.”
PS Jane Fonda heads to Paris this week to do some promotions for L’Oreal. Her French film, “All Together,” just began a limited run in New York, and is awaiting more cities from Tribeca Films. This is like the French version of “Exotic Marigold Hotel”– tres charming. Hopefully, Tribeca will give it a push. You can also watch it on amazon.com Instant Video and iTunes for a limited time. Hurry. Tout suite!
Exclusive: How George McGovern Became Politicized
I was lucky enough to have a little adventure with former senator George McGovern at the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado. That was August 2008. I had seen him two months earliert in Los Angeles at the AFI Salute to Warren Beatty. Beatty had organized an all star fundraiser for McGovern in 1972, the first of its kind, in 1972 at Madison Square Garden. That landmark evening had reunited Simon and Garfunkel and Nichols and May. It may have also been the first time Barbra Streisand appeared for a candidate. At the AFI tribute, McGovern said a moving toast: “Richard Nixon would have been much better off if we’d been elected” in 1972.
from August 27, 2008:
It was around 6 p.m. Tuesday night when former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate for president and hero to many who grew up in that turbulent era, turned up at FOX News’ studios on the Pepsi Center campus.
Greta Van Susteren and I had just finished a Foxnews.com broadband show, and everyone was happy to see each other. But we did notice that McGovern did not have a credential hanging around his neck, which begged the question of how he’d gotten on the security-heavy campus in the first place.
“Howard Dean wrote me a letter about six weeks ago asking me to be his honored guest at the convention,” McGovern said. “I haven’t heard a word since then. I have no idea what to do next.”
Considering how completely disorganized this convention has been, this story did not come as much of a surprise. I rather doubt most of the people who attended this event will ever return to Denver unless kidnapped.
But I digress: We enlisted a golf cart and driver, and took the 86-year-old liberal movement hero over to the Pepsi Center. Once inside, finding Howard Dean wasn’t so easy. But with the help of an aide named Shannon who found convention director Stephanie Berg, we were on our way.
On the way to Dean, at least 50 different people stopped McGovern along the way asking for pictures or telling him a familiar story: “I got interested in politics because of you,” one woman said. “I was an 18-year-old delegate for you in 1972,” a man said. And so on. It was quite moving.
As we walked along, I told Sen. McGovern, whom I’d met before, that I probably became politicized because of him, also, walking around and knocking on doors in 1972. I was 15.
“Actually,” I said a few seconds later, “I was probably politicized first by Hubert Humphrey, in 1968. We wanted him to defeat Nixon so badly.”
McGovern laughed. “To tell you the truth, he politicized me too.”
With Stephanie’s help, the senator finally arrived at Dean’s VIP box. “I can’t thank you enough,” said the courtly senator who might have changed history. “We can’t thank you enough,” Stephanie said.
“The Paperboy” Didn’t Deliver, Despite the Peeing Scene
And so it goes. Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy” is still out there in about 70 theaters. But since its release on October 5th, the Nicole Kidman-Zac Efron Southern gothic saga has not caught on. It’s made just under $300,000 and will slip quietly into oblivion at the end of its four week run. To say “The Paperboy” didn’t deliver is a sad understatement. Nicole Kidman has a gem of a performance in it. Everyone is good.
But despite Nicole peeing on Zac, the rest of it could not bring Zac’s fans to theaters. Millenium didn’t do much with it, so that didn’t help. They gave the film a half hearted launch at the New York Film Festival, failed to court any good will, and basically shut down before they could take off. “The Paperboy” also registered a fairly low 38% on rottentomatoes. although 90% of fans on moviefone said the wanted to see it. They just didn’t.
Daniels will have more luck with “The Butler,” which The Weinstein Company will release a year from now to many accolades and awards. Kidman will always do fine. If Millenium existed they would campaign to her some Supporting Actress awards. I doubt they will. Who knows? Maybe years from now “The Paperboy” will become a cult classic.
Taylor Swift Massive Media Blitz Arrives with CD Release Tonight
The Taylor Swift media and merchandise blitz arrives tonight at midnight. So does her CD, called “Red,” which will be downloadable starting at midnight. Usually CDs come out on Tuesdays, but “Red” is a whole different story. Five singles have already been released over the last five Tuesdays. They’re all over iTunes. Tweenage girls and maybe even country music fans (and kids, this is not country music any more) have been plunking down their money to get it all Swift-ly.
What’s more: Swift, who spent the summer by dating the 18 year old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the tabloids, will play live twice on “Good Morning America” this week. She’s also be on David Letterman, Katie Couric, and The View, and she’s on the cover of Rolling Stone. She’s also got a big syndicated radio event on Friday out of Nashville. It’s doubtful a single interviewer will ask her about the fact that Conor Kennedy is four years her junior, is still in high school, or any of that. It will be a week of vacuous flattery.
And let’s not forget the merchandise: the Swift machine is in full gear, with plenty of endorsements, licenses, and a website selling housewares. Fans can also buy Taylor Swift’s fragrance, which rivals the Krystal Carrington perfume from the “Dynasty” collection decades ago.
And oh yes: is “Red” any good? Not really. It’s rated mostly B plus reviews. Rolling Stone, which usually panders to its cover subjects, gave it only a 3.5 out of 5. The catchiest songs have been released; the music for most of them is written by the Max Martin machine to give them a ready-for-radio sameness. Taylor Swift is like really good Campbell’s soup on a cold day. There’s nothing homemade about it, but it works on a basic level.
So stand by for midnight. The person taking the most notes will be Justin Bieber, wondering how this is all done. And, of course, the Kennedys will be paying attention, too.
Katy Perry Latest Celebrity Fundraising for a Cult Like Group
Katy Perry — why shouldn’t she have the same opportunities as other celebrities? The “Fireworks” singer, raised by evangelicals, is now stumping for the cult like world of Transcendental Meditation. She’s sent out a Tweet this morning to her 28 million “followers” urging them to donate money to the David Lynch Foundation.
Created in 2005 by the director of “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks,” the DLF raises money for something called the Center for Wellness and Achievement in San Francisco. It also sends most of its money to the Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, which promotes and teaches fundraising for meditation.
Meditation in and of itself is just great. If Perry were just asking her fans to meditate, the world would be a better place. But there’s money involved, just as with Tom Cruise and his pals for Scientology, Madonna and Kabbalah, and all the other little cults raising money for their “religions.” After all, the beauty of meditation is that it shouldn’t cost anything.
In Perry, TM and David Lynch have found a perfect celeb: massive following, young, and a role model for her impressionable fans. In TM, Perry has found a way to be just like her parents.
Transcendental meditation changed my life. For my birthday I would love to pay it forward. In lieu of gifts, donate