On the subject of Justin Bieber (pictured here for size with Chris Brown). Video director Anthony Mandler is about to unveil a new music for song that Bieber and his peeps hope will stick on radio called “As Long as You Love Me.” They’ve released a preview of a long form video for the song featuring little Bieber and Quentin Tarantino tough guy Michael Madsen. Madsen towers over Bieber in the clip and looks like he’s going to pick him up by the collar and eat him a pig in the blanket or a nacho during half time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCWOef6iiRM. On YouTube, the 13 year old mall girls are going crazy, but in reality, I’ve rarely seen anything that looked more ripe for a parody. Frankly, it could be a scene out of “Boys Don’t Cry.” I don’t know what the finished video will look like. My hat is off to Scooter Braun, Bieber’s manager, for creating this illusion for teenage girls. He should be teaching marketing and magic at Harvard Business School. Bieber should be able to retire at 21 with mansions galore, and hit Las Vegas like a young John Davidson or Jack Jones (girls, you’ll have to Google them).
SNL Star Seth Meyers Still Leads Kelly Ripa Co-Host Search
It’s the last week of live shows this season for Live with Kelly, and Seth Meyers is still the leading candidate to join the show next month as permanent co-host. This week, Chris Harrison, from “The Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” has today and tomorrow. Then Nick Lachey, who’s sort of a singer and one of the 21st century’s many people who are well known for being famous for no reason, takes the balance of the week. B
ut then “Live” goes into a month of reruns. Along the way, the show has taped some fresh episodes that they’ll intersperse through the dog days of August. But that’s it. When “Live” returns in September, ABC Disney will be touting changes on the daytime schedule including the move of “General Hospital” to 2pm and Katie Couric’s new show at 3. The pressure will be on to announce a new co-host for Kelly for a new season.
Meyers makes the most sense. (Thanks to today’s NY Daily News for crediting this column with citing Meyers as the leader back on July 5th.) The “Saturday Night Live” star already lives in New York, and is comfortable with going out at night and telling stories the next day. He has an excellent rapport with Ripa. He’s the right age for the sought after demographic (young moms). He’s edgy enough to make the show interesting, but never offensive. Unlike many of the other guest co-hosts, he’s not bland either. And he’s single, so there’s always the possibility of a “Live” build up to a wedding–a Michael Gelman favorite production.
Is he Regis? No is Regis. Everyone wants Regis to come back. He’s not coming back. Regis is 81 this summer. He’s enjoying his life, doing all kinds of guest gigs. I’m told he has all kinds of offers and proposals for shows. He doesn’t want to work 5 days a week, which is a problem. Regis needs some kind of once a week show. But he’s not coming back to “Live.” Give the guy a break. As he used to say, “I’m only one man!”
In the end, Seth Meyers’ deal will come down to money and schedule. Lorne Michaels will still want him for the news on “SNL,” especially through the election. And remember, “SNL” isn’t on every week. Meyers has lots of downtime from that show. If ABC/Disney is willing to make it work, it will work. And in five years, when Jimmy Fallon moves up to the Tonight show, Meyers can take his spot. Or something else will happen that will give him a talk show at night. By then, Paris Jackson will be ready to take over “Live.”
Paris Jackson Defends Justin Bieber in Teen Twitter War
Fresh from her success as war correspondent in her own home, 14 year old Paris Jackson–star of the summer, by far–has taken on a new cause. She’s defending Justin Bieber on Twitter from an attack by much older–yes, 26– actor and singer Drake Bell. Who is Drake Bell? For those of us over 21, he’s the biggest Nickelodeon star ever, from their series “Drake and Josh.” (Josh Peck, 25, was the very good star of a movie no one saw but I liked called “The Wackness.”)
Anyway, Drake Bell posted a questionable picture of Bieber tonight, thus inciting little Justin’s fans. Paris, not watching the Olympics (she Tweeted earlier that she didn’t care for them) came quickly to Bieber’s defense. What you might not know is that Bieber lives in the same gated community in Calabasas. Paris doesn’t want her neighbor attacked. (Yes Justin has left Canada for more privileged environs. Thank YouTube for that.)
So now it’s war. Paris having just won a war, is on a roll.
The Bell-Beiber conflict began about a week ago. The Bieb’s fans have been attacking Bell ever since. Bell wrote: “I haven’t listened to much Justin Bieber but his songs must be
full of hate and rage because that’s what his believers are filled with..”
Today he Tweeted: I don’t “Hate” @justinbieber!! I just think his fans are repulsive. Not a huge fan of that style of music…big deal…I don’t like popradio”
And he put up this picture. Paris didn’t like that. “If u wanna compare the amount of fans or amount of TALENT even between u & Justin you know u would lose right? know ur place” She later added: “just like he stated his opinion , i stated mine …although posting a hate picture isn’t really an opinion but oh well”
Me, I don’t careabout Justin Bieber, I don’t know who Drake Bell is, and I wish Paris would watch the Olympics. But it’s Sunday night, and more importantly, the Yankees are taking it on the chin tonight from the Red Sox.
I’m sure this tempest in a teapot will go on for a while. But here’s my question. If Justin Bieber has so many fans, how come they haven’t bought his album or singles?
“Dark Knight Rises” Falls 60% from Last Weekend, Hurt by Aurora Tragedy
Despite my 18 year old friend Anna telling me she’s seen “The Dark Knight Rises” three times, the Christopher Nolan trilogy finale is having trouble at the box office. This weekend it fell 60% from last weekend, even though it took in $64 million. “TDKR” now has a total of $289 million domestically after 10 days, but it’s $32 million off the pace of “The Dark Knight” after the same number of days. Comparing its second Saturday to the second Saturday of the earlier film, “TDKR” is also off by about $3 million. I’m surprised that people are still afraid of going to theaters after the Aurora tragedies. It was a one time event, perpetrated by a lone, crazy guy. It’s not going to happen at your local cinepelex. “TDKR” is a major hit, but it’s simply not breaking the records it should have as the culmination of Nolan’s trilogy. It must be frustrating for him and for Warner Bros. Everyone should follow the example of Anna, who enters Barnard College next month. But New Yorkers will brave anything. Someone put out the bat signal.
Meantime. “The Watch,” which cost around $80 million all in, took in a meager $13 million in its first weekend. The reviews were terrible. The movie is a wash, basically. The foreign rollout begins next week, but I wouldn’t expect much unless non English speaking audiences are really starved for entertainment.
Kirk Douglas Foundation $50Mil Charitable Pledge–The Money Comes from Big Tobacco and Oil
Who doesn’t love Kirk Douglas? He’s the greatest. Three time Oscar nominee Kirk is a hero. He’s recovered mightily from a stroke, has written several books. At 95, he’s a role model. He and his wife Anne gave $990,000 to charities last year, worthy causes, from their Douglas Charitable Foundation. It’s all good. Now he and Anne have pledged to leave $50 million to five charities, including the Alzheimer’s Wing at the Motion Picture Home.
But where does the money come from? Good investments. The Foundation, according to its Form 990 from 2010, had over $19 million in total assets. Most of that was from stock. But yikes–the stock is typically American and not very politically correct. In a way, the Douglas Foundation has been like Robin Hood–taking from the rich and giving to the needy.
The Douglas Foundation’s largest assets, at least on December 31, 2010, were from the Big Tobacco and Big Oil. They claimed market values of $4,5 for Philip Morris, and $2 million more from Altria Group, making essentially two investments in Big Tobacco as Altria owns Philips Morris USA while the international Philip Morris is a separate entity with a robust stock price of $90 a share as Friday. The Foundation’s other largest holdings were from Chevron ($1 million) and Exxon ($2 million). There’s also about $700,000 in market value from Royal Dutch Petroleum and another $500,000 from Concoco.
These are the same companies and stocks the Foundation had in 2008 and 2009. And they’ve increased in value. So at least the Foundation is getting good investment advice.
The Foundation also paid Kirk and Anne’s son, Peter, a salary of $115,000 a year– for 17 hours’ worth of work as president. In 2008, the salary was only $50,000, so that’s a nice raise. As Matthew Broderick sings on Broadway, “Nice work if you can get it.”
The Douglas Foundation supports lots of worthy arts programs, certainly. But the money is coming cancer causing tobacco and Big Oil. Maybe that’s the price you have to pay to be charitable and do good works. The Douglases certainly have their hearts in the right place when it comes to giving money away. Their largest donation in 2010 was $100,000 to the Center Theater Group, which produces plays and musicals at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles (it’s sort of their Lincoln Center) and $200,000 to St. Lawrence University.
But they may also be causing some heart attacks by investing in tobacco. And oil? Chevron has been polluting Ecuador for years. Exxon? The list is too long.
Weekend Box Office Suffers from Aurora Hangover and Olympics Opening Ceremony
Friday night’s box office numbers were terrible. “The Dark Knight Rises,” predicted to do $19 million, only brought in $18 million. And “The Watch,” with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, did an atrocious $4.5 million. Audiences stayed out of theaters most likely to watch the Olympics opening ceremony. But there was also a warning from theater owners that 2o to 25 percent of people polled are still nervous because of the Aurora massacre. “Dark Knight Rises” is still making money hand over fist, and exceeding its predecessor, but it’s going more slowly than Warner Bros. ever would have anticipated. “The Watch” is also hampered by gettinfg dreadful reviews, and by its completely out of left field association to the Trayvon Martin shooting. “The Watch” is done, pretty much. The two films that have done nicely are “Ted,” which Ron Meyer and co. made into a Universal blockbuster, and “The Intouchables,” a solid foreign film hit for The Weinstein Company. Everyone loves “The Intouchables.” More later…
Phil Spector, Even in Prison, Is Still Being Nasty to Ronnie Spector
Ronnie Spector–I could listen to her sing the phone book. It would have been nice if she could have sung her hits from her days with the Ronettes last night at the City Winery. But more than 40 years after she escaped the clutches of Phil Spector, her abusive, controlling producer husband, he still has in it for her. Phil, Ronnie read at the start of the show, will not clear her hits to sing in a theatrical setting. She can sing them in a concert, but not when it comes to dramatic rights. So Ronnie, who’s about to turn 69, performed her autobiographical work in progress show without “Baby I Love You” or “Be My Baby.”
Spector, after lifetime of violence, genius, and insanity, is serving 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Ronnie showed a picture of him from prison without his wig and quipped: “I should have shot him, but I didn’t know where he kept the guns.” The audience got a good laugh.
And you know what? If you’re reading this in prison, Phil: it didn’t matter. The show is a hit without Spector’s songs. We can live without them. The audience — which was sold out–just wants to hear Ronnie sing. And talk. About her crazy life in the 1960s with Phil, who locked her up in his mansion. wouldn’t let her leave or speak to other stars and musicians. He kept her off the final Beatles tour, sending the Ronettes out with a replacement. He wouldn’t let her greet the Beatles when they came to New York, even though it was Ronnie who introduced Phil to them.
The stories of abuse go on and on. When she finally left–before Tina Turner or Katie Holmes made their escapes–Ronnie jogged off Spector’s property barefoot, with nothing from her house. It was like a prison break.
She read at the beginning of the show: “My ex husband is a bitter man” to explain why she couldn’t sing her hits. But she did sing “Walking in the Rain” and Brian Wilson’s “Don’t Worry Baby” to perfection. Also “The Best Part of Breaking Up” and “Do I Love You?” Her unique voice has not lost an iota of power or texture. And her trademark refrain–“uh oh oh”– the predecessor of Michael Jackson’s whoops and Sting’s “e-oh-e-oh.” Ronnie sings Johnny Thunders’s “You Can’t Wrap Your Arms Around a Memory” but maybe you can. She’s so ingratiating that it feels as if she is wrapping you up with reassurance.
So she was able to sing “Frosty the Snowman” from her famous Christmas album, and Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” the single that brought her back courtesy of Little Steven and the E Street Band. She needs to add “Take Me Home Tonight” and “You Mean So Much to Me Baby,” duets respectively with Eddie Money and Southside Johnny.
And while it takes a toll on Ronnie to bare her soul and tell her story, she’s a good actress. Because her singing seems effortless–like Gladys Knight o or Sam Moore or Aretha Franklin. It just spills out of her. Let’s hope the show keeps getting tweaked until she’s off Broadway with a hit. She’d be a bright light on the Great White Way.
photo c2012 Showbiz411
From YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT6vzIIGDqA
Olympics Opening Ceremony: McCartney, Fireworks, the Queen, and Cool Costumes
I won’t give too much away, but the Olympics opening ceremony on NBC will be worth watching right til the very end. Danny Boyle, Stephen Daldry and everyone who put this together gets kudos. Around the 3 hour mark, the real good stuff kicks in with massive fireworks, Paul McCartney and the Queen of England. But before that, just watching all the countries pour into Olympic Stadium in their costumes, so proud, is just great. A beautiful job. And the lighting of the cauldron is a big big deal. Bravo!
Scientology Ambush: “The Master” Moved Up for Release By A Month
All the Scientologists had better brace themselves: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” has been moved up to a release date of September 14th. It was supposed to come out on October 12th. No reason given for the switch, but I’d guess that with all the talk about Tom Cruise and Scientology, and former members coming out of the woodwork, The Weinstein Company figured ‘better bring it now.’ This is also right after L. Ron Hubbard’s grandson denounced his memory, other Hubbards have split the group, a mysterious death has occurred (the son of the missing leader of the cult, Alexander Jentzsch), plus lots of coverage everywhere.
No matter what anyone says, “The Master” clearly deals with a fictional sci fi writer played by Philip Seymour Hoffman who develops a “belief system” similar to Scientology. It’s quickly labeled as a cult. Also, Hoffman’s character is criticized for “making it up as he goes along.” Joaquin Phoenix plays a drifter who becomes enamored of Hoffman, then turns on him. There are high expectations here for Hoffman, Phoenix, Anderson and the film. This should open the floodgates for more horror stories and give the Village Voice’s Tony Ortega reams to write about. I can’t wait.
Randy Jackson Tweets: “They Are Trying to Take My Mother’s Life”
Randy Jackson has just Tweeted this message to his followers. He doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on.The war is over. He lost. I don’t understand why Randy didn’t challenge Michael’s will within the six allotted months in 2009, before the statute of limitations ran. It’s too late now. The court accepted the will dated July 7. 2002. And still the sad but fascinating truth is that Randy, Jermaine, Janet, and Rebbie have no interest in these children. It’s just about the money.
But this is what he thinks and asserts:
1) When TJ asked my mother if he should ask for temporary guardianship, my Mother told TJ NO – twice.
2) The Estate denied Rebbie, Janet and Jermaine access to the house when they returned to home to Calabasas with a letter written by Howard Weitzman, attorney for the Estate, who is not a resident of the home.
3) The Estate is trying to isolate my Mother from her family JUST LIKE THEY DID TO MICHAEL, in order to propagate their lies, financial agendas and to protect a fraudulent will.
4) The same people that are trying to manipulate my mother are the same people that were involved with my brother when he died.
5) In order to obtain temporary guardianship, TJ lied to the court. Rebbie, Janet, Jermaine and I would never harm our mother and we are doing our best to protect her and the Estate knows that. I want to know why Perry Sanders would consider a negotiation based on lies.
6) It is clear that anyone who stands up against the Executors of the Estate – John Branca, John McClain and their attorney Howard Weitzman – is denied access to my mother.
7) It is my fear and belief, that they are trying to take my mother’s life.