Regis Philbin has no plans to do a new daily show to compete with his current one. Contrary to reports, Philbin’s future work will be things that require a few days’ worth of taping, or a game show like “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.” Right now Philbin, who turns 80 in August, isn’t looking to ramp up to a full time schedule. He currently only works three to four days a week and has massive amounts of vacation–as it should be. I would guess the last thing Regis wants–and for that matter, his wife, Joy wants–is a grueling schedule of a start up five day a week schedule. Look for Regis to take high paying, classy low impact stints in the future, my sources say. And in prime time, not at 9 in the morning! PS If only Disney and ABC had made him a proper offer to keep going with Kelly Ripa in the morning–then we wouldn’t have these issues to write about!
Katie Couric Still Has to Do CBS “Early Show” Before “Today”
It’s weird that Katie Couric will be doing a book promotion on the “Today” show this Wednesday. But she’s doing CBS’s “Early Show” first, tomorrow morning, to hedge her bets. Couric still holds out hope of sticking with CBS after she exits the Evening News in June. As I reported first — hello, everyone–Katie had been talking to CBS about being around for fill in stints and doing pieces for “60 Minutes” while she developed her own syndicated talk show for fall 2012. Thus, she must give “The Early Show” the courtesy of first appearance even if her Wednesday to return to NBC and Matt Lauer will generate more publicity. There’s been some talk of Katie and Matt Lauer re-teaming for some kind of “Regis and Kelly” type show if Lauer leaves “Today.” But Lauer’s departure seems unlikely. While Meredith Vieira is definitely leaving “Today,” Lauer is just doing a little public negotiating by reminding everyone when his contract is up. As several of my key TV sources have reiterated, Lauer will stay at “Today” and get a hefty increase in pay rather than cut loose for the uncertainty of syndication. All he has to do is ask Jane Pauley how it worked out for her.
Paul Simon’s New Album Out Tomorrow: So Beautiful, So Great
If you’ve been complaining about how bad pop music is, how music from the “old days” was so much better, you can’t complain any more starting tomorrow. Paul Simon‘s “So Beautiful, or So What” hits stores and download services. You can get it from his website — www.paulsimon.com–or from ITunes, amazon.com, etc. It is a work of art, which is not unusual for Simon, who’s already created enough masterpieces by this time, from “The Sound of Silence” through “Bridge over Troubled Water,” a couple of my own favorites like “My Little Town” and “American Tune” through an under appreciated gem called “How Do You Live in the Northeast?” from his last album, “Surprise.”
On “So Beautiful,” Simon is full of rhythm, and he says it’s the best thing he’s done since “Graceland.” It’s subtle work, though. First we heard “Getting Ready for Christmas Day” and “The Afterlife,” the more obvious “hits” on the CD. But once the excitement of getting a new Paul Simon collection settles in, there ‘s a lot more. “Rewrite,” which he performed last week for Jimmy Fallon, resonates on many levels. http://tinyurl.com/5wqowed
This sublime album is full of wonderful intricate lyrics. My favorite though is “Questions for the Angels.” Simon sings of his character in the song, a “pilgrim”:
Downtown Brooklyn
The pilgrim is passing a billboard
That catches his eye
It’s Jay-Z
He’s got a kid on each knee
He’s wearing clothes that he wants us to try
Simon also references an old classic, “Homeward Bound.” What if he hadn’t gotten on that train in that song? Would his life have been different?
If an empty train in a railroad station
Calls you to its destination
Can you choose another track?
Will I wake up from these violent dreams
With my hair as white as the morning moon?
Questions about God, love, aging–not much fare here for teenagers. But plenty for adults. Buy this album, guys. It’s a treasure.
It’s Steven Spielberg Week on Broadway–Where Is He?
Steven Spielberg is probably a busy guy, but this is his week on Broadway. Last night, a musical version of his film, “Catch Me If You Can,” opened with a star studded premiere and black tie after party gala at the massive former bank vault known as Cipriani 42nd St. On Thursday night, the British theatrical experience called “War Horse,” opens at Lincoln Center. Spielberg directed the movie version, which opens next winter.
First, though, “Catch Me”: the premiere, it was like, wow. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick brought their eight year old son, James. Other celebs included Shirley Maclaine, Robin Williams, Martin Short, Hugh Jackman, Mira Nair, Joy Behar, Norman Lear, and Ben Vereen. Frank Abagnale Jr., the man whose story “Catch Me” is, not only came, but spoke on stage at the end of the show, to a cheering crowd, with creators Marc Shaiman and Terence McNally. Best party of the year, sorry “Book of Mormon.”
And even though the New York Times’s Ben Brantley bent over backwards not to like “Catch Me,” it’s a rollicking, old fashioned fun, enjoyable entertainment. Aaron Tveit, Tom Wopat and particularly Norbert Leo Butz, are all wonderful. The songs are fun and hummable. No one curses, as in “The Book of Mormon.” It may not be cutting edge, but “Catch Me” is completely endearing, and worth the price of admission.
At the end of the show, composer Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray”) broke down in tears on stage dedicating the opening to the memory of Tony winner Butz’s sister. Teresa Butz and her female fiancee were brutally murdered in their Seattle home in July 2009, while “Catch Me” was having an out of town tryout.
But this incredibly talented actor was in good spirits at Cipriani. He told me: “We’ve been practicing this show for five years!” It shows and Butz will likely be nominated for a Tony as Best Featured Actor or maybe Best Actor in a musical. He could win, too.
As for Spielberg, maybe he’ll show up on Thursday for “War Horse.” I’m told he missed a big Lincoln Center fundraiser last week. “War Horse” comes to New York with a huge marketing budget and quite a provenance, with high expectations. I’ve seen it, and I can tell you it’s pretty amazing. More on “War Horse” this week…
Charlie Sheen $15 Ticket Fire Sale in Boston!
“Warlock magic” isn’t working. After gigs in New York, Ohio, Chicago, and Connecticut, the ticket prices for Charlie Sheen‘s “show” have dropped to an all time low. In Boston, there were about 80 tickets available on Stub Hub for less than $50– some even on the floor. The bottom price as of Monday morning is a stunning $15. Last night, commenting on a Hartford Courant website, some kids wrote in and claimed that they paid $5 apiece to go to the Connecticut show. One guest bragged about getting in for free. As Sheen’s debacle moves forward, things are getting worse. There are a total of 885 seats available for the Boston show. In Atlanta there are 388, Dallas 367. In Atlantic City, where every show plays to a captive audience, there are 263 at Trump Taj Mahal. There are still 530 remaining for tonight’s rematch at Radio City Music Hall, where the bottom price is $33. My advice to people with bad seats: look around in the orchestra. There were plenty of no-shows on Friday.
photo c2011 Ann Lawlor/Showbiz411
Sidney Lumet, Famed Director, Dead at 86
Sidney Lumet, the great and famed director of such classic films as “Serpico,” “Network,” “Prince of the City,” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” has passed away from lymphoma at age 86. Lumet had been ill for some time, and people in the New York film community had been visiting with him for weeks to keep his spirits up. You may recall a piece I wrote during Oscar week about Lumet. I knew he was gravely ill, but his family had asked me not to say anything. I knew Sidney a long time, and, as with my friend Robert Altman, admired him. He leave a terrific family including his screenwriter daughter Jenny. Here’s a link to the piece from February. Sidney, New York loved you and vice versa. You will be sorely missed.
http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/02/28/sidney-lumet-thinking-of-a-film-great-who-never-won-an-oscar
Charlie Sheen Attacks Brother Emilio, Oliver Stone, Weinsteins
What’s left of Charlie Sheen took the stage at Radio City Music Hall on Friday night a half hour late. The theater was not full. I managed to move down from Row T to Row RR, two free seats on the aisle and there were plenty around me.
And those people booed Sheen from the beginning despite a half-hearted standing greeting. The “show”–it’s not a show, but an interview with a friend–lasted under an hour including a ten minute or so video in which Sheen has re-recorded his answers in an ABC interview, demeaning and mocking reporter Andrea Canning. When ABC News gets a load of this, it will be yanked.
Sheen was prodded by his friend on stage to tell stories–salacious ones, please– but came up with very little. Gone was the fast talking Thesaurus of a human being. He was either very stoned or completely not stoned; Sheen seemed like he’d prefer to be asleep. The audience jeered him, and he cussed back at them for not listening closely. To what, I don’t know. Sheen’s major themes are that he’s had a lot of sex with hookers, strippers, and the like–which isn’t hard, if you pay them. And that he’s done a lot of drugs, which we know.
On stage, he lit up a cigarette despite New York City anti-smoking laws. Or maybe because of them. (Photo c2011 Ann Lawlor/Showbiz411)
Gone now are the diatribes at ex wife Denise Richards. He informed the audience he’d received lawyer’s letter, and so it’s over. Instead he took shots at Oliver Stone, the Weinsteins, and even his own brother, Emilio Estevez. “Is Emilio here?” he asked early on. “I thought we banned him.”
Putting on sunglasses, Sheen told the audience he wanted his job on “Two and A Half Men” back. He offered an open invitation to the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, to come on Sunday to Radio City and hash it out with him. Sheen asked the audience, didn’t they want him to return? There was very little enthusiasm, and a lot of booing. A shirtless male fan ran down the center aisle, waving his t-shirt over his head. He was followed by a young woman. They were caught by security and removed.
Otherwise, the audience–buzzed on beer served everywhere in the theater– was nonplussed. This is New York, and so they waited for Sheen to produce some reason for their $100-plus tickets. He had nothing. Time and time again, the interviewer tried to start new areas of conversation, only to be shot down. Sheen did recall that at age 9 he explained what the Prince song “Head” meant, to his parents. No one bought it. He called the New York hooker he got in trouble with, Capri Anderson, a “hosebag.” Nicolas Cage is “a genius who went broke” and also revived the term “goddess.”
Also: “Tiger Blood” is a reference to a scene in “Apocalypse Now,” his father’s film. Dennis Hopper, he says, was “high on 97 tabs of acid all day” while making that movie, too. He said he’d been “Weintsteined” by Harvey and Bob, who evidently forced him to make “Scream 3.” And he railed against Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel, saying it was so bad they used a line from the first film for this one’s subtitle: “Money Never Sleeps.”
The only, ahem, celebrity, in the audience was Kelly Benssimon, of “The Real Housewives of New York City.” But three blazing blondes, all strippers with extraordinary fake breasts, shiny manicures, and stiletto heels sat front and center. They were like characters from a modern “Guys and Dolls.”
It was, as a friend of mine likes to say, a “shit- show.”
Outside Radio City, when the show was over, two young women were hailing cabs. They’d paid $70 apiece for their tickets. One of them said, “I felt like I was watching Charlie Sheen dying…on stage.”
Here’s the link to the spoof video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LtBSqGzi3o&feature=player_embedded
Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” Sprouts Weird Web Site
No one knows much about Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” — it stars Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn. It’s going to be weird and impressionistic. At least that’s what we get from the website it just sprouted, at www.twowaysthroughlife.com. Spooky orchestral music plays while the viewer can choose between “the mother’s way” and “the father’s way”–really just short, short clips from the movie that make no sense in their disjointed presentation. Malick’s childhood must have been nuts, that’s all you can think after watching this. Anyway. “Tree of Life” will be at Cannes, where jetlag is going to make it even loopier. The film will be an event, that’s for sure.
Oscars Get Indie Spirit Award Chief to Lead Them
This is great news: Dawn Hudson, who invented and ran the Indie Spirit Awards for 26 years, is taking over the Academy Awards. Hudson was voted in last night to replace outgoing longtime Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences head Bruce Davis. Hudson may be the breath of fresh for which the Academy has been pining. After this years’ low rated and poorly received Oscar broadcast, it was time for a change. If anyone can make the Oscars hipper, it will be Hudson and the people she brings in with her. Staying at his post is Ric Robertson, who will be the link between the old and new, and of course the great Leslie Unger, who runs the pr side of the Academy with a big bottle of Excedrin at her side! Hudson’s Spirit Awards have always been clever and lively, so let’s hope for the best–and maybe even an Oscar appearance by Spirit Award fave John Waters. Now that would be fun! PS Note to Dawn: please put the big TV back in the Kodak Theater bar, and turn on the sound.
“Anything Goes” Turns Sutton Foster into a Star (Again)
Isn’t Sutton Foster already a star? She’s got a Tony award for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” after all, and several other nominations. But last night she just took off like a rocket in the new revival of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” A show buried in the basement of the Stephen Sondheim (formerly Henry Miller) Theater, this joyous and prescient 1930s musical has a terrific cast–Joel Grey, Colin Donnell, Jessica Walter— but it’s Foster who the whole show’s about.
As Reno Sweeney, the fast talking nightclub performer who’s seen it all but doesn’t have it all yet–Foster tap dances and sings up a storm thanks in no small part to director choreographer Kathleen Marshall’s top notch Tony Award certain work. (Kathleen’s brother, of course: Rob Marshall.)
Foster is just phenomenal. Wowed in the audience–before buses transported the audience over to the USS Intrepid–were Grey’s famous daughter Jennifer with husband actor Clark Gregg; Walter’s equally famed actor husband Ron Liebman, plus Zach Braff, Philip Bosco, Tovah Feldshuh, and Sutton’s boyfriend, Bobby Cannavale, who popped over to the Intrepid after his performance in “The Mother- With the Hat” wound up. I also spotted Veronica Hamel (Jack’s mom on “Lost” but better known from “Hill Street Blues”), plus the amazing Blair Brown, who told me she’s not only starring in the cult TV hit “Fringe” but will be directing an episode this season as well. And “Avatar” heavy Stephen Lang, who enchanted Cindy Adams–she’d never heard of him and she’s never seen “Avatar.”
Can you imagine a hit show with songs like “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “All Through the Night” and “Friendship” plus the show stopping title number and “Blow Gabriel Blow”? Marshall has reworked everything, adding sizzling tap dance numbers and fleshing out the show so that you never want to leave the cruise ship bearing these passengers from New York. And Joel Grey is not to be missed in his second act showcase–“Be Like the Blue Bird.” There’s nothing like watching a Broadway legend make magic!