I’m excited.
Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and the Grogu,” a new “Star Wars” adventure, is coming on May 22nd.
PS That is NOT Steven Cheung in the picture. But the resemblance is uncanny.
Pedro Pascal stars, but so do Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White. Sigourney cracks me up because she takes these movies — also “Avatar” and “Alien” — so seriously. She makes them work.
The other star of the film is John Williams’ theme music. The minute I hear it, I’m in.
I’m very sorry about the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson.
He suffered a long time from Parkinson’s and other related problems. The last time I saw him was four years ago when we sat together at Clive Davis’s 90th birthday dinner. He really couldn’t speak, but he managed to tell me he missed Aretha Franklin, our old mutual friend.
In 2015, Aretha invited a small group of people to accompany her to Philadelphia to meet Pope Francis. She sang for him, we met him backstage, and after — at the ungodly hour of 1am — in a small, private dining room, Rev. Jackson gave a talk about his long friendship with Aretha and her father.
I wish I had taped what he said. I wrote about it the next day. It was one of the most magnetic, beautiful, and impassioned tributes I’d ever heard in my life. When Jesse and Martin Luther King and civil rights activists came to Detroit, they stayed with the Franklins. When they needed help during their fabled marches, Aretha was there for them. It was an astounding moment because Rev. Jackson was the king of speechifying. His sonorous voice rose and fell as he spoke, and he held the 20 or so of us in thrall.
It’s funny to think about now, but we knew each other a long time. When the Michael Jackson jury was deliberating in June 2005 in Santa Maria, California, Rev. Jackson and I had a drink together in a local hotel bar. There may have been signs of the Parkinson’s then. He was exhausted after giving interviews defending Michael on all the TV stations. Rev. Jackson knew how to find the spotlight. He was present whenever TV cameras were on and could interject himself for PR purposes. But he also meant every word of it.
In the hotel bar, he was not too tired to scope out the ladies and do a little flirting. He had a long history of that. So in 2023, when I was at a performance of the Broadway play, “Purpose,” I knew instantly that the play was about him and his family. It was thinly veiled. In fact, Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King were sitting across the aisle from me, and at intermission this was the number one topic.
Jesse Jackson never reached the heights of Dr. King, but he was incredibly important at “keeping hope alive,” and standing up against racism at time when he was the lone voice out there. Seeing him diminished in later years, it was sad, because at his best he’d been a raging lion who now leaves quite a legacy. I was very honored to know him.
There really was no one like Robert Duvall.
He had seven Oscar nominations and one win, for “Tender Mercies,” a brilliant performance.
His hits included the first two “Godfather” movies, “Apocalypse Now,” “The Great Santini,” “MASH” — he was the original Frank Burns, “True Grit,” and dozens of roles in TV’s Golden Age. If you watch MeTV you’ll see him pop up all over the place.
He wrote, directed and starred in “The Apostle,” starred with DIane Ladd — who just passed away recently — in “Rambling Rose,” and co-starred with James Earl Jones in “A Family Thing,” a lost gem.
There was also his starring role on TV in “Lonesome Dove.”
Duvall refused to be paid less than Al Pacino for “The Godfather III” and so did not appear as consigliere Tom Hagen. Ironically, he dodged a disaster.
Five years ago I did a short interview with him after knowing Duvall for many, many years. Like Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, and others of his era, Duvall was a real movie star — one of the last. When you were in his presence, you knew he was a Big Deal. He was a serious person. Robert Duvall will never be forgotten.
Very sad. Hit songwriter Billy Steinberg has died at age 75.
Among the hits he wrote — some with partner Tom Kelly — were Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” and “I Drove All Night,” two big Bangles songs including “Eternal Flame,” and “I’ll Stand by You,” with Chrissie Hynde.
They were all huge hits, and mainly crafted for and with female singers. In 2011, I was part of the Songwriters Hall of Fame committee that made sure he and Tom Kelly were inducted. Madonna didn’t show up for the ceremony, but their “Like a Virgin” helped put her on the map.
By the way, “I Drove All Night” was a hit first for Roy Orbison, then again for Cyndi Lauper.
Condolences to his family and friends. He leaves quite a legacy.
All of Nancy Guthrie’s relatives have been ruled out as suspects in her kidnapping.
This announcement includes Nancy’s son in law, Tommaso Cioni, who was being tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.
This is why people in big cities are feeling like Tucson, Arizona is Twin Peaks.
Sixteen days ago, the 84 year old mother of the host of the Today show disappeared from her home.
The crime has never been solved despite wide reaching international attention.
You’d think by now the mayor, Regina Romero, would have said something. Anything. Made a statement, filled in her residents.
But there’s been nothing. Just crickets in the desert.
It’s not like Romero isn’t active on social media. She is. She’s posted on Facebook almost every day since February 1st, including subject such as crime — which apparently is rampant in her city.
Last fall, Savannah Guthrie visited her hometown, did a special on Tucson, and posed for pictures with Romero. So it’s not like they don’t know each other.
At the same time, there’s been little coverage from the local newspaper, the Tucson Sentinel. There have been occasional mentions of a case that has captured the attention of media everywhere, but the Sentinel has been mostly silent.
Twin Peaks? Peyton Place? Mars? What is going on there?
Who should we cast for the Mayor, Sheriff Nanos, and the rest of this bewildering crowd?As recently as this morning, by the way, Mayor Romero was on Facebook urging everyone to vote — presumably for her. I’m not sure why anyone would!
And this pretty funny: Mayor Romero sent out a Valentine’s Day message on Friday in the midst of one of her residents having been kidnapped. Read the room, Regina!
It’s a busy week for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
The drums are pounding — and of course, they’re played by Max Weinberg.
Seems that Bruce may be announcing a new album tomorrow, along with a tour.
Fantastic! Bruce never rests, and why should he? The live performance arena needs him now. The only other big act scheduled for this spring is Harry Styles, which is mostly a sit down residency at Madison Square Garden.
Meantime, E Street Band leader Little Steven van Zandt has his production going in this week.
Stevie is presenting Brazilian band BANDA AL9 on Thursday at the fabled Cutting Room on East 32nd St. Their song, “She Can Do It All” is getting heavy airplay on Stevie’s Underground Radio on Sirius. On Wednesday, the band will do a live show on Sirius, too!
PS I always say this, but I’m an Underground Radio addict. Channel 21 on Sirius. You can listen for hours to one gem after another, a rare mix of soul and rock and roll and everything in between — the radio used to be!
It was only a week ago that Kid Rock was crowing about his alternative Super Bowl show.
Robert Ritchie aka was declaring victory after performing on the right wing redneck Turning Point USA show that aired on YouTube while actual mega act Bad Bunny was rocking out on the official half time show with superstars Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Kid Rock did score a hit single on iTunes, but he was accused of lip syncing on the show. He denied it but the tape told the tale.
The fall out from all of this has been brutal. Now it seems that his audience has rejected him. The Turning Point event did not trigger a previously unknown mass appeal. Ritchie’s tour of 12 shows this spring is struggling to sell tickets. Except for one date in Holmdel New Jersey, the seating charts on Ticketmaster are seas of blue dots — meaning all unsold.
Ritchie is also on the bill for five festival dates with a dozen or so artists scheduled.
But his own dates are disasters so far, including the kick off on May 1st in Dallas.
In all cases, the only seats sold are in the main section near the stage.
The Indie Spirit Awards — once a force — took place today in earnest.
The stealth event took place at the Hollywood Palladium. “Train Dreams” and its director, Clint Bentley, won the top awards. A Netflix movie, “Train Dreams” — a great film — really didn’t even play in theaters.
Rose Byrne won Best Performance for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” The awards are stupidly gender free, so there was no Best Actor.
In golden days, the Spirit Awards took place the day before the Oscars in a huge circus tent at the Santa Monica Pier. It was an event.
Now it’s just a schleppy kind of rat fuck. There’s no occasion to it, and the attendees dress like they’re going to Ralph’s for a quart of ice cream.
Why wasn’t it on the pier for the first time in three decades? THe excuse has something to with the 2028 Olympics, but host Ego Nwodim oked that they missed the deadline to get permission for the tent.
About 32,000 views on YouTube, not much, but the show wasn’t promoted. I actually forgot about it.
LOL. The new director of Film Independent is in over her head. As George Harrison once sang, All things must pass.
Savannah Guthrie has posted a new video to the kidnappers of her mother, Nancy.
She says, tearfully: “We still have hope…It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
Savannah is desperate after two weeks. You can’t blame her. This is the most botched police and FBI investigation in recent memory. Every mistake has been made. There are no leads.
Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping feels like the movie, “Fargo,” a home invasion or robbery gone bad. The difference is this isn’t funny. An 84 year old woman’s life is at stake. Her family is a wreck.
Watch this: