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Sting! The youngest of all the classic rock stars turns 73 October 2nd and has never looked or sounded better.
Today he dropped a new single, “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” that sizzles with a gritty vocal over a Bo Diddley OG rock and roll beat. In other words, it rocks like hell and had a great hook.
Sting sets out on his 3.0 tour across America at the end of September. He has three nights at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater that are already sold out. On November 9th, he hits Las Vegas with Billy Joel.
Will a new album follow the single? I hope so. Sting is writing the final chapter in classic rock, and it’s a doozy.
Who killed classic rock? Not the butler. It was Top 40 and classic rock radio which refuse to play new music by the legacy stars who made them. They did it to the Stones this year, and Green Day, they do it to Bruce Springsteen. They bite the hands that fed them!
“Landman” is the new Paramount Plus series from Taylor Sheridan of “Yellowstone” fame.
From the trailer it looks like “Dallas” in the metaverse, only violent and gritty.
Jon Hamm and Demi Moore would be JR and Sue Ellen, and Billy Bob Thornton not so much Cliff Barnes but his father, Digger.
In the trailer, there’s a lot of dust and oil field explosions. There’s also an aerial shot of an office building that feels like it comes from the “Dallas” opening credits.
Hey — a good soap is a good soap. Rating should be good for the premiere, at least.
It’s certainly the season of Demi Moore between this and “The Substance.” And that’s always a good thing.
Melania Trump, mother of Barron who just arrived at school, has dropped a trailer this morning for her book.
Her self titled memoir will be published October 8th, according to amazon.com where the book is at number 476 in pre orders. But it will rise based on RNC block purchases, Trump stuffing copies in Mar-a-Lago along with classified documents, and Barron touting the book on campus at NYU.
Melania looks AI generated in this video, but may be in real life so why not?
She wants to share “her perspective, the truth.” But she won’t address any reality about her marriage, her early life, or any of the charges against her husband.
Maybe she’ll talk about how she destroyed Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden. Melania’s book should have been called “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.”
Trump Media stock fell to $16.98 today, the latest in a nosedive downward.
Some people are shorting Trump Media now, betting that will continue to drop precipitously.
There are only two weeks left, as the New York Times noted today, until Trump can start selling off his shares. No doubt he and friends will do that, leaving investors high and dry.
I wonder how those investors will feel about voting for a guy who ripped them off. I guess they’ll love it since they don’t seem to care about felony convictions, rape judgements, and five dozen other onerous things Trump has done.
With Trump gagged, even he’s not making Truth Social very interesting anymore. All he can do is gripe about his gag order, or attack Kamala Harris. He does appear very enthusiastic about that since there’s not much he find against her.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. But the stock price is a reflection of Trump’s waning popularity.
Todd Phillps’ “Joker 2: Folie a Deux” is getting mixed reviews from its Venice Film Festival debut.
The sequel to “Joker” is a musical starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Warner Bros. has downplayed the musical classification but after all, this is Lady Gaga involved.
The reviews range from brilliant to awful, so the screening certainly affected its first audiences.
Indie Wire says: Boring, flat, and such a criminal waste of Lady Gaga that we should demand a public hearing, “Folie à Deux” tries and fails to make a point of our own frustrations with it.
Joker, aka Arthur Fleck, meets Gaga’s Harley Quinn in prison. There’s singing and dancing. The Guardian writes: “the whole movie finally turns out to be oppressively, claustrophobically and repetitively becalmed in that oddly unreal Gotham-universe jail with Phoenix and Gaga kept apart for long periods – and Phoenix’s own performance is as single-note as before, though certainly as forceful and his screen presence is potent.”
Variety: “desperate-to-be-darkly-irreverent but actually rather clunky and earthbound musical sequel”
The Wrap — which oddly marked it as “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes — : It’s a sad, pensive, and impressively odd motion picture that uses the theatricality of movie musicals to undermine its hero’s ambitions instead of elevating them. There’s no business like show business? It’s, like… no. It’s business, you know?
Hollywood Reporter: Gaga is a compelling live-wire presence, splitting the difference between affinity and obsession, while endearingly giving Arthur a shot… Their musical numbers, both duets and solos, have a vitality that the more often dour film desperately needs.
No matter what the reviews are from Venice, audiences will clamor to see this film. I know I will, and I really want to hear the music from Lady Gaga.
SPOILER ALERT: from an interview Phillips did this morning, there’s an indication that Arthur Fleck doesn’t make it out of the movie alive. When asked if he could make another “Joker” film, Phillips responded in the negative. “Have you seen this film?” he said.
A few weeks ago, famed French-Lebanese musician Ibrahim Maalouf was on top of the world.
On Instagram, the Grammy nominee announced his delight at being named part of the jury for the 50th Annual Deauville American Film Festival. Deauville is like the fall version of Cannes and was a favorite of international actors like Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Roger Moore.
But now a scandal has erupted in France as the new head of Deauville has ousted him before the event begins.
The reason is that at the height of the #MeToo fervor in 2018 Maalouf was convicted for sexually assaulting a middle school student. But he was exonerated in 2020 by the Court of Appeals after adamantly voicing his innocence.
But the exoneration means nothing to the new head of the festival, Aude Hesbert. She’s just succeeded the former head of the festival who himself was accused of sexual harassment. Hesbert said in a newspaper interview: “It is not for me to judge, punish or condemn, but the presence of Ibrahim Maalouf was becoming increasingly problematic for the serene holding of a festival that celebrates its 50th anniversary, which is also my first edition and which I wish to wear with clarity and transparency.”
Maalouf’s supporters — which are many — say Hesbert wants to make a name for herself by taking an illegal stand to gain fame for herself. It may backfire. Maalouf is threatening legal action against the Festival which would certainly cast a shadow over the 50th anniversary celebrations. Among the celebs expected to attend are Francis Ford Coppola, Natalie Portman, Michael Douglas, Michelle Williams, James Gray, Daisy Ridley, and documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.
Since the jury ouster, the trumpeter wrote on his Instagram page: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
The NY Post caught him arriving at NYU today with his Secret Service protection.
All the Cornell speculation was planted, it seems, to distract the press from Barron’s real destination.
Will he live in a dorm? Or Trump Tower? And how much of a disruption will he cause downtown?
Back in the 1980s, Ron Reagan Jr lived on my block near NYU. The Secret Service took up loads of parking spaces and made their presence known. It was a relief when he finally moved out.
Barron does not look happy in the pictures in the Post. He rarely if ever smiles and no one’s heard his voice. But someone’s going to hear it now. This should be interesting.
The audience at Alicia Keys’s Broadway show got a surprise Tuesday night.
Before the intermission the show suddenly stopped. The lights went up and the stage manager appeared on stage.
Tony winner Maleah Joi Moon, who plays the Alicia Keys character, suffered some kind of injury. The 21 year old was hustled off stage and replaced by a standby.
Maleah was right in the middle of listening to the great Shoshanna Bean, as her mother, sing about when she was pregnant with Maleah’s Ali.
Something went wrong. But the show had to go on.
Nonetheless, Maleah was back for the curtain call looking no worse the wear.
Looks like the Secret Service has arrived in Ithaca, New York. Barron Trump is coming to Cornell University. This week? Maybe. But the new buzz is that he’ll come right after the election.
Right now, some internet spies say Barron has started classes remotely.
Is homeland security and secret service spending a casual afternoon in downtown Ithaca or is Barron Trump attending Cornell pic.twitter.com/G33KCW8MGs
