Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” now has a second official trailer. It plays at the bottom of the home page here in our video player. For the first time we see Philip Seymour Hoffman as the L. Ron Hubbard character, describing himself to acolyte Joaquin Phoenix as a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, like you.” The music is creepy, the movie looks a little scary and portentous. Hoffman’s character is already trying to pry into Phoenix’s psyche. These are little pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. What they’re going to add up to could be anything, but it’s going to be intense, that’s for sure. We’re watching a L. Ron Hubbard, or someone like him, develop a belief system that will become a cult.
As I Said: Glee’s Chris Colfer Sells Comedy to Robert DeNiro’s Film Company
Tribeca Films announced this morning what I told you back on June 6th: they’ve bought “Glee” star Chris Colfer’s excellent comedy, “Struck by Lightning,” for distribution. http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/06/06/glee-star-chris-colfer-22-sells-hot-film-to-deniro-company-and-publishes-first-novel. I also wrote in that item that 22 year old Colfer was publishing his first novel. Anyway, “Struck by Lightning” is the kind of comedy that Fox Searchlight used to pick up– like “Juno” or “Little Miss Sunshine.” It’s spot on, and sure to do well. Colfer did a great job.
Here’s the press release:
Tribeca Film announced today that it has acquired U.S. rights to “Glee” star Chris Colfer’s film debut, the high school comedy Struck By Lightning. In addition to starring in the movie, Colfer also wrote the screenplay for the film, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was met with a standing ovation. Directed with awareness and exuberance by Brian Dannelly (Saved!), the highly anticipated film also stars Allison Janney, Polly Bergen, Rebel Wilson, Christina Hendricks, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Hyland and Angela Kinsey.
Tribeca Film plans a late 2012 theatrical release day and date with on-demand platforms where it will be available in 40+ million homes through a variety of video-on-demand offerings, in addition to iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox and Samsung Media Hub.
High school senior Carson Phillips (Chris Colfer) was destined for bigger things than his close-minded small town could ever offer. He was on a path to greatness, but destiny had a different plan when he was suddenly killed by a bolt of lightning in his school parking lot.
Demonstrating that life is what happens while you’re busy planning your future, Carson recounts the last few weeks of his life via witty, insightful flashbacks, including a blackmail scheme targeting the popular kids in school that he concocts with his best friend (Rebel Wilson, Bridesmaids), and a home life that includes a mother (Allison Janney, Juno, “The West Wing”) who’s more interested in the bottle than
“Homeland,” “Community” Pick Up Critics Choice TV Awards
“Homeland” and “Community” won Best Drama and Best Comedy, respectively, at the 2nd annual Critics Choice TV Awards. Special nod to our old pal Giancarlo Esposito for winning Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, “Breaking Bad.” More on the Critics Choice night later…
WINNERS OF THE 2nd ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE TELEVISION AWARDS
Best Drama Series
Homeland – Showtime
Best Actor in a Drama Series
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad – AMC
Best Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Danes – Homeland – Showtime
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Giancarlo Esposito – Breaking Bad – AMC
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Christina Hendricks – Mad Men – AMC
Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series
Lucy Liu – Southland – TNT
Best Reality Series
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – Travel Channel
Best Reality Series – Competition
The Voice – NBC
Best Reality Show Host – TIE
Tom Bergeron – Dancing with the Stars – ABC
Cat Deeley – So You Think You Can Dance – FOX
Best Talk Show
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – NBC
Best Comedy Series
Community – NBC
Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Louis C.K. – Louie – FX
Best Actress in a Comedy Series – TIE
Zooey Deschanel – New Girl – FOX
Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation – NBC
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Ty Burrell – Modern Family – ABC
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Julie Bowen – Modern Family – ABC
Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series
Paul Rudd – Parks and Recreation – NBC
Best Animated Series
Archer – FX
Best Movie/Miniseries
Sherlock – PBS
Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries
Benedict Cumberbatch – Sherlock – PBS
Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries
Julianne Moore – Game Change – HBO
“Mad Men” Star Jon Hamm Eyed as Larry David’s Nemesis in Coming Improv Film
Exclusive: Jon Hamm has proved himself so adept at comedy on “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live” that it’s about to pay off in movies. I’m told that Hamm is about to sign on to play Larry David’s nemesis in the still being worked out improv film David is set to shoot this fall. The film, without a title, will star David as a Larry David like character–but with a different name. He’ll get into the same kind of situations as Larry David on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Greg Mottola is directing, and the “script-ment”–a script-slash-treatment–is being worked up by David and his “Curb” and “Seinfeld” writers. Fox Searchlight will distribute. All of this is still in the planning stages, which means it will be some time before we see another season of “Curb” on HBO. But Don Draper as Larry’s sparring partner could be very funny. Hamm’s recent turn on the live version of “30 Rock” showed that he’s capable of a lot more than smoking and brooding.
HBO Debuts Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom” With No Nudity or Four Letter Words
There was a time when HBO could be counted on for two things: gratuitous nudity and foul language. Think of Samantha in “Sex and the City” or the girls at the Bada Bing in “The Sopranos.” On Sunday, the cable network which can do whatever it wants–it’s cable–will debut Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom.” Someone may say ‘shit’ but I don’t recall it. And Sorkin himself says there is no nudity, no sex. The show follows “True Blood” on Sundays, a show which has plenty of sex for everyone. But the main thing about “The Newsroom,” which we saw tonight with a media-heavy audience, is that it’s the kind of well written, acted, directed, produced show NBC used to put on at 10pm on Thursdays.
Indeed, “The Newsroom” is the updated version of “Lou Grant” meets “Broadcast News.” Jeff Daniels stars as the host of an 8pm cable news show; both he and the show have become tired. Sam Waterston — awakened from 50 years on “Law & Order”–is his boss, head of the news division. There’s a great younger cast — Emily Mortimer, Tom Sadoski, Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr., Dev Patel–to mix things up with. Mortimer, in fact, is the yin to Daniels’ yang, and may wind up being the central nervous system of the show thanks to her role as producer of the fictional “NewsNight.”
Every episode of “The Newsroom” will revolve around stories that have recently been in the news, and how the “NewsNight” folks deal with them. Whether a liberal bias will creep into the storytelling is unknown yet from the pilot–we shall see. So far, everyone’s on equal footing, but I am told that in coming weeks the Tea Party becomes part of the story. And Jane Fonda joins the cast for two episodes as the conservative billionaire owner of the network.
But in the end “The Newsroom” is going to be like catnip for HBO subscribers. And it’s ready made for awards — Golden Globes, Emmys, all of it. Watching “Newsroom” take off will be a pleasure, and a relief to HBO, which has had had trouble launching dramas lately.
Last night’s audience will have been the harshest critics–people from CBS, ABC, and NBC, CNN, MSNBC were all there–from George Stephanopolous to Bryant Gumbel to Regis Philbin to Charlie Rose and even New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. Quite the star studded group poured from the screening room into the Porter House restaurant in the Time Warner Center to congratulate Sorkin and his cast. And yes, they loved it.
Box Office Shock: Tom Cruise “Rock of Ages” Number Was Only $14.4 Mil
This is a shock: boxofficemojo.com is reporting that Tom Cruise’s “Rock of Ages” took in much less than thought. The original number was set at $15,060,000. But the real number is $14,437,269 million, considerably less than the already embarrassing total. On the contrary, Adam Sandler’s awful “That’s My Boy” did slightly better than thought. Instead of $13 million, Sandler came in at $13.5 million–a little better at least. Both of these movies are flops, however. But just the idea that Cruise couldn’t cross that $15 million line is a little frightening. It means audiences really rejected the whole idea of him prancing around like Axl Rose or Brett Michaels. Cruise spends $14 million like it was pocket change. “Rock of Ages” certainly cost $100 million all-in. Warner Bros. is going to have put this some accounting ledger where no one notices what happened.
Happy Birthday Paul McCartney — Top Lists and Winners
Paul McCartney turns 70 day. Happy Birthday, Paul! We got a lot of top 10 lists. They weren’t easy, were they? So many songs! And everyone had great choices. I had to pick three winners: Michael Kearny, Shelley Goldstein, and Tony Wright. Please send your snail mail addresses to roger@showbiz411.com. Thanks to everyone, and happy birthday, Paul! Thanks to Concord Records’ Joel Amsterdam for providing the “Ram” CDs.
Michael Kearney
Hi Roger…I don’t know what form your McCartney birthday celebration will take but I couldn’t leave my list of oddities without some comment so this is quite a read but hopefully an interesting one for you and/or your readers.
I guess I really want that ‘RAM’ ;-)
Hope you enjoy.
Mike
SOILY (1976, Wings Over America)
B-side to the live version of ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ and the standard encore during Wings’ world tour of the mid-70’s, this track never actually made it onto a studio album before appearing on the chart-topping triple live album ‘Wings Over America. It’s probably best not to bother with the lyric which is pure nonsense but ‘Soily’ was purposefully designed as a live barnstormer as early as 1974 when it was featured during rehearsals shown in the unreleased but widely-bootlegged ‘One Hand Clapping’ Wings documentary. Noted widely noted is that its big soul-band horns-riff would make it uncredited into The Detroit Spinners’ ‘Rubber Band Man’ later in the same year.
MONKBERRY MOON DELIGHT (Ram, 1971)
While Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ later the same year contains notorious responses to tracks on ‘Ram’, few have noted that the latter is actually McCartney’s response to Lennon’s ‘primal scream’ album of the previous year, ‘Plastic Ono Band’. Except that, being Paul, when he lets it all hang out, it comes in an Alfred Jarry confection of voices and characters, as is the wont of McCartney’s essentially surrealist soul. But there’s no doubt that he’s screaming in pain here all the same and I’ve always heard this track with its ‘Catch up Super-Fury’, amongst other sneaky ‘mis-heard lyrics’ as the one that properly put a firework up Lennon’s ass. A truly unique and idiosyncratic mess of a masterpiece.
FOOTPRINTS (Press to Play, 1986)
Another quirky backwater gem that can properly be defined as an 80’s form psychedelia, this is another of McCartney’s ‘novels-in-song’, albeit one that can readily be read as a self-reflection, perhaps even a paean to a certain old fiancee (female). Notable in this respect is that the published lyric does not reflect the record which rather than ‘All that used to be’ actually, several times, bears the line ‘Paul that used to be’. Elsewhere there’s lament over ‘paths he didn’t take’ and ‘moves he didn’t make’. Sublimely beautiful and from an album that’s criminally underrated even by the man himself.
THIS ONE (Flowers in the Dirt, 1989)
The second single from McCartney’s last-minute return to the 80’s summons a 60’s spirit much more effectively than its first single ‘My Brave Face’ had contrived to. An irresistible McCartney melody wrapped up in a pun characteristic of The Beatles, it’s easy to imagine this as a record George, Ringo and John would happily have signed off as a group effort. Another occasion where words, music and spirit gel in the way only Paul can cause them to, this is a very underrated masterpiece that’s also a bittersweet paean to Lennon.
CALL ME BACK AGAIN (Wings Over America, 1977)
Among other things, Wings Over America is the live document of McCartney’s horns-augmented late-70’s ‘soul’ period, reflected in contemporary interest shown to his catalogue by artists like Earth Wind and Fire and Billy Paul. On this live cut of a track from 1975’s New Orleans-recorded ‘Venus and Mars’, Paul fully realises the soulful capacity hinted at on tracks like ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Oh Darling’. A killer blues vocal, amid deep horns, mad crescendos and the full gospel works that one critic described as “a wild-eyed wail of a vocal that is a perfect blend of soulful grit and rock energy.” A shame that he didn’t continue to mine this vein but then again he fairly kills it in one here.
DON’T LET IT BRING YOU DOWN (London Town, 1978)
Having hit a commercial peak he wasn’t expecting with ‘Mull of Kintyre’, Wings’ next album ‘London Town’, suffered the backlash in the UK, despite spinning off another US Number One in ‘With A Little Luck’. Missed amongst its grooves by the detractors is this Celtic gem, downbeat but hopeful and featuring flageolets and rare and delicious extended lead guitar work by the man himself.
JENNY WREN (Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, 2005)
A Dickens-inspired sequel to The White Album’s ‘Blackbird’, this grabs most of the latter’s thematic power and adds an Armenian wood-instrument, the Dubuk, for a solo. Added to the deliberate difficulties McCartney sets up for his otherwise sweet melody is an odd guitar tuning that requires an altogether new style of high vocal from McCartney. The the result is another innovation that rightly earned him a Grammy nomination. One of his latter-day best and later sampled by Amanda Diva on her track ‘Brown Girl’.
AND I LOVE HER (Unplugged, 1991)
When McCartney and his 90’s band decided to revive the acoustic set which had featured in mid-70’s Wings’ tours, they looked to an MTV invitation as the venue. The resulting’ show and album in 1991, inadvertently ushered in a whole new spate of ‘MTV Unplugged’ performances from practically everybody. This fresh arrangement of the Beatles’ standard is an exemplary demonstration of the ‘Unplugged’ idea and stands up alongside the original, complete with a beautiful harmony between McCartney and former Average White Band vocalist, Hamish Stuart.
ARROW THROUGH ME (Back to the Egg, 1979)
The third single in America off the final, underrated Wings album ‘Back to the Egg’ sees one of McCartney’s quirkiest and original constructions, an avant-garde jazz-pop confection with the unusual pairing of one of his upbeat voices with an uncharacteristically bitter and downbeat lyric.
Recently celebrated by a number of R&B artists including Eryka Badu who, via Twitter and at the last minute, famously managed to clear a sample of it with McCartney for her ‘Return of the Ankh’ album.
ALL YOU HORSE RIDERS (McCartney II, Archive Edition, 2011)
A backwater reject from the original McCartney II album which enjoyed, as a bootleg, an impressive ride of Myspace attention late last decade, this is whimsy at its most career-lacerating. Going full-tilt in the direction of ‘terrible’, McCartney utterly wigs out and scores a (s)hit that can take a seat amongst the extremes of indie post-punk art-house. The track that absolutely nobody, McCartney fan included, can identify as being him on first hearing, this is is so knowingly bad it’s utterly brilliant.
Robert boaby
Happy Birthday to the greatest of them all.
at this moment in time my fav 10 are.
1. Monkberry Moon Delight
2. listen to what the man Said
3. Oh Darling
4. 1985
5. Beautiful Night
6. The Long and Winding Road
7. Juniors Farm
8. No More Lonely Nights
9. Hey Jude
10. C’Mon People
M Rosin
Here is my list of Paul’s 10 best solo songs:
1. Maybe I’m Amazed
2. Every Night
3. Junk
4. Friends to Go
5. This Never Happened Before
6. My Valentine
7. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
8. Monkberry Moon Delight
9. This One
10. Temporary Secretary.
Jessica Veljanovski
Birthday Greetings:
Happy Birthday Paul! Wishing you happiness:) Thank you for always being an inspiration! I am a young fan and I would just like to thank you for making an impact in the world from the time of 60’s to today, in my life. Your music never gets old. Much love:)
My top ten favourite Paul McCartney songs: (Sorry, I have only become a fan recently over the past few months, so my knowledge of his songs is a bit limited, so far I have managed to buy 3 albums, which I love!):
1) Blackbird
2) Eleanor Rigby
3) Please Please Me
4) It won’t be long
5) Misery
6) Let it Be
7) Can’t Buy Me Love
8) Yesterday
9) Hey Jude
10) I Saw Her Standing There
Thank you:)
Jerry Lembo
Dear Roger,
Happy 70th Birthday to Sir James Paul McCartney!
Ten of my favorites (in alphabetical order):
1. Blackbird
2. Can’t Buy Me Love
3. Eleanor Rigby
4. Here, There, and Everywhere
5. Hey Jude
6. Lady Madonna
7. Let It Be
8. Penny Lane
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. Yesterday
All the best,
Jerry Lembo
Tony Wright
Hey Roger, here’s my entry:
1. Eleanor Rigby
2. Yesterday
3. Maybe I’m Amazed
4. Let It Be
5. Penny Lane
6. Back In the USSR
7. Helter Skelter
8. Here Today
9. Fine Line
10. Vintage Clothes
Do you know if he’s working on anything to follow Kisses On The Bottom yet?
Thanks,
Tony.
DM
1.Fixing a Hole
2.Too Many People
3.Medicine Jar
4.I’m Looking Through You
5.Get Back
6.Birthday
7.Vanilla Sky
8.You Never Give Me Your Money
9.Blackbird
10.Monkberry Moon Delight
ineimanis
Happy Birthday Paul! You’re still FAB at 70! Thanks for all the great tunes!
My top ten Paul songs (how can I only pick 10??)
1. Hey Jude
2. Here, There and Everywhere
3. Maybe I’m Amazed
4. Get Back
5. Eleanor Rigby
6. Band on the Run
7. Golden Slumbers
8. And I Love Her
9. Things We Said Today
10. For No One
Honorable mentions: Mother Nature’s Son, Jet, My Love
-Ingrid Neimanis
Shelly Goldstein
Love your column, Roger. Always have.
Best,
Shelly Goldstein
1) Penny Lane
2) Another Day
3) Here There & Everywhere (I lost it to that one!)
4) Got to Get You Into My Life
5) Fixing a Hole
6) I’m Looking Through You
7) Its Getting Better
8) Good Day Sunshine
9) Things We Said Today
10) Blackbird
(runners-up)
I Will,
Can’t Buy Me Love
& Calico Skies
Tom Hebbeln
My Fav top 10 Paul songs:
Let It Be
Yesterday
My Valentine
Eleanor Rigby
The Long And Winding Road
Another Day
Pipes Of Peace
Footprints
I Saw Her Standing There
Only Love Remains
Love ya Paul!
Tom Roylee McPeely Hebbeln
Davenport, Ia
Nathan Gedge
Happy Birthday Sir Paul. Best wishes on your 70th. You’ve been a major influence in my life, so much that three of my children are named for you: Taylor James; Abbey Kay and Stockton Paul
Any my Top 10:
1. Band on the Run
2. Let It Be
3. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
4. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
5. Beautiful Night
6. A Love for You
7. Live and Let Die
8. Maybe I’m Amazed
9. Yesterday
10. Abbey Road medley: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window/Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
Mike Conner
Happy Bday to greatest songwriters of their generation (on my list anyway) Paul (18th) & Brian Wilson (20th).
My top 10 McCartney list
1. Eleanor Rigby
2. Hey Jude
3. Let It Be
4. Maybe I’m Amazed
5. My Love
6. Blackbird
7. Arrow Through Me
8. Come On People
9. Fool on the Hill
10. Let ‘Em In
Nick
njhunter@hotmail.com
125.239.116.36
Submitted on 2012/06/16 at 12:36 am
Happy birthday Paul, the world is a better place thanks to inspirational people such as yourself.
Although very difficult to knock down from a top 30, my top 10 in no particular order outside of age:
P.S. I Love You
And I Love Her
Things We Said Today
Hey Jude
Let It Be
Another Day
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Silly Love Songs
Waterfalls
This One
Natasha Polak
Paul has been and always will be my musical inspiration! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!! You still can rock!
My favorite 10 songs are:
1. My Love
2. Band on the Run
3. My Brave Face
4. Figure of Eight
5. Jet
6. Picasso’s Last Words
7. Maybe I’m Amazed
8. Hope of Deliverance
9. Come and Get It
10. Sing the Changes
StMike
in no particular order, ’cause my brain doesn’t work in order…
1. My Valentine, which is wonderful.
2. Let Me Roll It
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. Really Love You
5. Helter Skelter
6. Back in the USSR
7. Penny Lane
8. Rocky Raccoon
9. Hello Goodbye
10. The Long and Winding Road
angela
1.Hey Jude
2.Elenor Rigby
3.Let it be
4. Yesterday
5. Penny Lane
6. Dear boy
7.Mull of Kyntre
8. Mr Bellamy
9. I´m looking through you
10. For no one
Woody Allen’s Kid Is Not the Genius We Thought He Was
Woody Allen’s only biological child, known as Ronan Farrow, is supposed to be a genius. At 24, he’s already graduated from law school and works for the government in a high capacity. But his mother, Mia Farrow, has so successfully brainwashed him against his father that the kid’s smarts are in question. Yesterday he tweeted “Happy Father’s Day– or as they call it in my family, brother-in-law’s day.” Mia Farrow then re-tweeted the word “Boom.” I don’t know how Farrow can be proud of herself. She was hurt when Woody left with her adopted daughter, Soon Yi, in 1992.
But Soon Yi was not Woody’s adopted daughter. And no matter how wrong it was, or how much pain Farrow felt, she can’t deny the obvious: Allen and Soon Yi have been together for 20 years. They have two of their own children. Before the 1992 scandal and since, there’s never been any indication of anything untoward in Allen’s life. He’s lived quietly, made his movies, and had quite a bit of success. This must drive Farrow crazy. The fact that in the last year Woody had his most successful movie ever, “Midnight in Paris,” must have sent her around the bend. Now, a few days before Allen opens “To Rome with Love,” Farrow has forced her genius son to gain notoriety by sending out this Tweet.
If Ronan Farrow is such a genius, he’d better wake up and realize what his mother his doing to him. Or has done to him. Same for the children Woody adopted with Farrow. This kind of ugliness can only backfire on her. Ronan Farrow is supposed to be a Rhodes scholar. But he’s lacking common sense. At 24, he should be reaching out to Woody to get the real story. And not letting this embittered woman manipulate him. It’s tragic.
Cruise, Sandler Bomb: The Eighties May Be Over At Last
Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler had the worst opening weekends ever for any of their stand alone movies. It’s 2012. The 1980s may finally be over. For years Sandler has cruised on the same formula movie of a manchild who can’t or won’t grow up. Usually he’s oversized baby who speaks in funny voices and does stuff that’s borderline mentally handicapped. If there was any thought to any of it, it’s long gone. And into every one of these films was stuffed some sort of lesson or moral tale that proved Sandler’s character knew more than he was letting on. But with “That’s My Boy” he even tried to destroy Andy Samberg before his own career could get out of the gate. Samberg is 100 times hipper and smarter. He will escape Sandler’s clutches. But with $13 million for the entire first weekend, Sandler would be smart now to just play some golf and make occasional appearances. He’s landed right in Eddie Murphy country.
For Cruise, the stakes are higher. His “Rock of Ages” disaster comes at the end of a succession of oddities. While “Mission Impossible” only serves him well, “regular’ movies are a problem. Now the marketing geniuses will have to start planning his Christmas release, “Reacher,” a thriller that’s supposed to be the first of many in a new series. There are already complaints that the Jack Reacher from the book it’s based on is six foot five, and unlike Cruise in every way physically. “Rock of Ages” is going to have a long lasting effect as a bomb, so Paramount has a job on its hands to separate Cruise’s improbable 80s rock star from their holiday tentpole. But with lack of interest in Cruise, and the 80s music from “Rock of Ages,” it’s possible that finally the 1980s are over. Maybe a “Top Gun 2” isn’t such a good idea after all.
Rielle Hunter Hated Elizabeth Edwards Even Though She was Dying
Rielle Hunter’s hatred of Elizabeth Edwards is going to come out now, according to reports about Hunter’s book, “What Really Happened.” I told you about this a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that Elizabeth was dying of cancer, Hunter was out to “kill” her faster. She had no respect for the woman the rest of the country idolized. Every time Elizabeth reacted badly to Hunter’s movements, Hunter–not exactly full of grace– was ready for a put down.
Back in 2008-2009, I was in regular contact with Hunter’s close associate. These people did not care one iota that Elizabeth Edwards was sick and dying. Or that she was married. Here are just two emails I received:
May 5, 2009
Stand down, my friend. Now is not the time for ri to speak. There are some other things at play right now. But it will give EE some time to spread some more lies, making it all the more interesting when [Rielle] finally talks. Looking forward to watching her hang herself…
September 18, 2009
Rielle told me she [Elizabeth] was out speaking again. What the hell for? What is she speaking about and who the hell cares??
Did you ever follow up with those people she fired? I bet andrew young would talk off the record about what a freak job she is…
During my many conversations with Hunter’s friends, one thing stood out: she didn’t care about Elizabeth Edwards. The fact that she was dying was an inconvenience. Elizabeth Edwards, to her credit, defended herself by turning out a book called “Resilience” in her dying days. This only infuriated Hunter more. What’s loony and sad is, that no matter how old Bunny Mellon was, it shows what her character was that apparently she didn’t care what happened to Elizabeth Edwards either. I don’t care if you’re 20, 30, 90, or 100. That’s just cruel.
Who will finish off John Edwards first? The mistress who says she was lied to, or the network that was lied to. It’s a race this week as ABC News prepares a 20/20 interview for Friday with Rielle Hunter. No traditional book publisher would take her memoir/expose, but a regular news org is happy to let her say what she wants. ABC News is going to let Hunter hang herself on her own petard, and destroy what’s left of John Edwards. And why not? Edwards baldly lied to Bob Woodruff in 2008 about his affair with Hunter and fathering her baby. ABC News has a realistic grudge. Chris Cuomo can have a ball with this one.