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Mariah Doesn’t Know Sex of Baby; Announcement Tomorrow, But Not From Her

Roger Friedman
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Mariah Doesn’t Know Sex of Baby; Announcement Tomorrow, But Not From Her

Re Mariah Carey‘s pregnancy: Listen to me, kids. Everyone has everything wrong.

Mariah does not know the sex of the baby. Yes, it’s a boy or a girl. But all the announcements you’ve read are wrong.

Tomorrow morning the intrepid Billy Bush will appear as a guest on the Today show and deliver the news that Ms. Carey is with child. (This will not be a colossal headline at this point, but good stuff.) Mariah, please tell Perez Hilton, will not be on the Today show.

Billy be promoting a three parter that starts tomorrow night on “Access Hollywood.” Mariah and husband Nick Cannon will discuss the whole deal with Billy. The interview was taped yesterday.

When is Mariah due? “In the spring” is all she’s saying. Does that mean March? Maybe. So she’s just now maybe four and a half months pregnant.

And I am told by the Inner Circle that all this stuff you’re reading about IVF and invitro and fertility stuff is simply made up and supposition. “It’s no true,” says a good source.

So Hello, Yahoo News, Google News, Bing and whatever. Let’s calm down. The internet is now flooded with junk on this subject.

And Mariah’s rep, Cindi Berger? That voice mail is full.

Taylor Swift New CD: 1 Million in First Week, But Amazon Gives it Away

Roger Friedman
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Taylor Swift New CD: 1 Million in First Week, But Amazon Gives it Away

Taylor Swift’s new album, “Speak Now,” can be downloaded from amazon.com for $3.99. That’s right: four bucks to get 14 new songs.

Amazon sells the physical CD for eight bucks.

So that’s the main reason that “Speak Now” is heading to a possible first week sales of 1 million copies.

By contrast, ITunes is holding out with old fashioned pricing for “Speak Now.” They’ve got the album download for $13.99 or a whopping $1.29 per track.

Good for them.

Swift is just 20 years old and won a Grammy for Best Album. She’s a country singer, more than pop. Let’s face it. “Speak Now” is a country record. And that’s kind of remarkable, too. But I will say her songs are incredibly well written, very solid, and more deft than any number of so-called pop stars who sample older music, etc. She’s a keeper, and will be with us for a long, long time.

All her lyrics can be found at www.taylorswift.com. Check them out. She’s pretty damned impressive. The best example is in “Dear John,” which clocks in at over 6 minutes and addresses the singer’s “blind optimism.” Whoa.(This is the song about her brief encounter with John Mayer. If so, Taylor gets the Carly Simon Award for best use of personal material for a song.)

“Well maybe it’s me and my blind optimism to blame
Or maybe it’s you and your sick need to give love then take it away
And you’ll add my name to your long list of traitors who don’t understand
And I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said
Run as fast as you can.”

Too bad they couldn’t have made the Grammy deadline. Ink in Taylor Swift‘s name for Best Album, 2012.

Mariah: It Looks Like She’s Fessing Up At Last On Pregnancy

Roger Friedman
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Mariah: It Looks Like She’s Fessing Up At Last On Pregnancy

Mariah Carey‘s long standing silence on her pregnancy may be coming to an end.

Last night, “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush was spotted coming from Carey’s Tribeca building. The word is that “Access” has secured the big Carey interview as part of her promotion for her new Christmas album.

And lo and behold, the story is also that Mariah has finally made a formal announcement about what is more evident than the Empire State Building. She’s five or six months pregnant with a bundle of joy.

Calls to Mariah’s rep were not returned. But they may be out, shopping for the shower!

Mariah has resisted speaking up so far because she said she was “superstitious”–as she told this column a few weeks ago, and it was reproduced everywhere. But it’s going to be hard to continue in that direction, and I guess she knows it.

The “Access” interview should run by Monday. Next Tuesday is the release date for “Merry Xmas II You.” And maybe January is the release date for the baby. Congrats to Mariah and Nick Cannon, officially!

Michael Jackson: New Album Stalled, Friends and Family Fighting

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson: New Album Stalled, Friends and Family Fighting

It’s not easy putting out this new Michael Jackson album. In fact, it’s turned into a war among family and friends.

There are big, big problems concerning which tracks to put on an album of unreleased material that’s supposed to be in stores for Christmas. Right now, even as you read this, Sony Music is struggling with all the parties involved to finalize details and start making CDs.

The biggest issues have come because of what’s known as the “Cascio” tracks. Five of them are so good that they’ve been slated for inclusion. But there’s the rub. According to sources, co-executor John McClain has poisoned the water with Katherine Jackson regarding the Cascio family. On Monday, Mrs. Jackson apparently insisted that no tracks from the Cascio sessions be included.

Adding to the anti-Cascio field are Tito Jackson‘s sons, known as the 3 T’s. The middle T, Taryll, is said to be very bitter about the Cascios. “For years the T’s tried to get Michael to record their songs,” says an insider. “Now they’re faced with the fact that Michael recorded with the Cascios, and not them. They’re not happy.”

Adding to the trouble is that the T’s and McClain have evidently drawn Michael’s two eldest children into the fight. Prince and Paris were with their father when he stayed at the New Jersey home of close family friends Dominic and Connie Cascio from August to November, 2007. They witnessed their father working with Cascio sons Eddie and Frank, and singer Bobby Ewing.

The Ts, who are close to the children, especially Terrell, according to sources, have pressured the children to say the vocals on the tracks are not those of their father. Initially, Prince Jackson, 13, had vouched for the recordings. But recently, an email was sent to the estate’s executors from Paris, 11, claiming the voice belongs to an impostor. The only problem, sources say, is that the email was time stamped while Paris was in school.

In the end, it may not matter what the Ts, Michael’s children, or his mother, or John McClain thinks. Sony made a deal with the estate earlier this year that could be worth $200 million. They’re so keen on the Cascio tracks they even hired forensic audiologists to make sure the vocals are Michael’s and not those of an imitator. The Jackson family will likely have to accept those findings and let the estate and Sony proceed with the album.

Indie Spirit Awards Going Back to the Beach

Roger Friedman
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Indie Spirit Awards Going Back to the Beach

Yay! Good news! The Independent Spirit Awards are going back to the beach.

They’ve just announced that the next Spirit Awards are going back to the big tent in Santa Monica on the beach. The awards will also return o the Saturday afternoon before the Oscars, meaning February 26th.

Last year, the Spirit Awards tried a move to Hollywood, prime time, and Friday night. It was a disaster, a desultory decision that made the awards devoid of spirit.

The whole charm of Film Independent and the awards is that rogue feeling — in a tent, by the beach, away from the awards madness. This return shows good sense.

Maybe the Academy Awards will follow suit and drop back to five Best Picture nominations.

As for the Spirit Awards, there are lots of good choices this year: “Howl,” “Solitary Man,” “Welcome to the Rileys,” “Please Give,” “Mother and Child,” “Blue Valentine,” “Barneys Version,” and so on. I would think that Halle Berry would have more luck with her “Frankie and Alice” here than at the Oscars.

George Harrison: Four “Lost” Songs Found on Reissued Album

Roger Friedman
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George Harrison: Four “Lost” Songs Found on Reissued Album

George Harrison— the late Beatle, the composer of such superb songs as “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “All Things Must Pass”–still has a few gems out there.

He has four “lost” songs on the newly reissued Apple Records album he recorded with R&B great Doris Troy in 1969. Troy’s album is one of several, all remastered, released yesterday from the Beatles’ label. Other gems in the collection include Badfinger‘s “Straight Up” and Billy Preston‘s “That’s the Way God Planned It.”

While Billy went on to have hits like “Nothing from Nothing” and “Will it Go Round in Circles,” Troy wasn’t so lucky.

Her one big hit, “Just One Look,” had come in 1963. Linda Ronstadt had a cover hit with it again in the mid – 1970s.

Troy, who died in 2004 at age 67, can also be heard singing background on “Dark Side of the Moon.” She and her sister, the very much alive an active Vy Higgenson, had a major theatrical hit over the years with a touring musical called “Mama I Want to Sing.”

If Troy’s Apple album had hit, it would have re-established her. Not only is Harrison on it and producing, but Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr are all over the tracks.

The “lost’ Harrison songs are “Ain’t That Cute,” “Give Me Back My Dynamite,” “Gonna Get My Baby Back,” and “You Give Me Joy Joy.” Also on the album are a spectacular cover of “Get Back” as well as several original Troy numbers including the “What You Will Blues.”

The album is good, it reminds me of Sam Moore’s “lost” 1972 Atlantic album, “Plenty Good Lovin’,” which was only released in 2004. As much as I admired Ahmet Ertegun, he wasn’t perfect. You wonder sometimes why he let some of his best artists languish, especially when he had the power to help them.

Charlie Sheen Also at Plaza Hotel Last Night: Drunk, Naked with Police Call

Roger Friedman
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Charlie Sheen Also at Plaza Hotel Last Night: Drunk, Naked with Police Call

Charlie Sheen was also in the Plaza Hotel last night.

According to reports, the police were called at 2 am because Sheen was drunk, naked and causing trouble.

He was there with his ex-wife, Denise Richards, and their two kids. They’d seen “Mary Poppins” earlier in the evening. Richards is in town to promote a show she’s working on. Why Sheen was with them remains a mystery.

‘Reports say police came because Sheen was trashing his room, throwing furniture around. A chandelier was damaged. Was he swinging from it? No one knows.

This would be more the realm of a rock star than a TV star. If Sheen had been lonely, he could have gone downstairs to the “For Colored Girls” party in the Oak Room. I doubt the “Driving Miss Daisy” crowd would have been so welcoming.

Sheen and Richards, of course, had a terrible, nasty public divorce. That was before his terrible, public nasty separation from Brooke Mueller, which sent him to jail and rehab, and her to rehab, all of them into the tabloids. Sheen got a 30 day suspended sentence and avoided jail, too.

What’s with this guy? He just recently walked his 25 year old daughter down the aisle at her wedding. He has five kids altogether (two each with Richards and Mueller), and has never had a day of peace in public during his entire career. It’s not like he comes from a broken family. His parents, Martin and his wife Janet. will be married 50 years next year.

The Plaza has a history of famous people having meltdowns. Daniel Baldwin, anyone?

James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Janet Jackson and The Governor: The Plaza Hotel Bursts with Premieres

Roger Friedman
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1
James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Janet Jackson and The Governor: The Plaza Hotel Bursts with Premieres

The Plaza Hotel–isn’t it the province of sweet little Eloise?

Not last night. Not one but two premieres swallowed up the Plaza on Monday.

UPDATE: and apparently, Charlie Sheen, drunk and naked, according to reports, upstairs in a room. Police were called to the Plaza at 2am.

In the Grand Ballroom: everyone from the opening night on Broadway of the revival of Alfred Uhry’s “Driving Miss Daisy” including its two majestic stars, James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

Downstairs in the Oak Bar: the movie premiere of Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” with Perry and Janet Jackson, who made brief appearances, and stars like Phylicia Rashad and Kerry Washington. Also on the scene: Hill Harper, the “CSI” actor, and singer Ledisi, as well as Simone, daughter of legendary singer Nina Simone, Valerie Simpson and Nik Ashford, Montego Glover, John Singleton, and Macy Gray.

It was quite a night in that staid old building. Also on hand: New York Governor David Paterson, playful as ever, joking, having a ball, doing his best Fred Armisen imitation. “Did you see the movie?” I asked. He replied, with a guffaw: “I didn’t see anything!” Cark Palladino? “He’s crazy!” What’s he planning to do after he leaves the Governor’s mansion? “We’re trying to figure that out. I’ve got to keep paying the bills!”

Over at the Golden Theater on West 45th Street, earlier, Jones and Redgrave (and Boyd Gaines, excellent as always)  had simply knocked out an audience that included Hugh Jackman, looking suave in a tuxedo, and Ralph Fiennes, in baggy jeans and leather jacket (not together).Broadway vets Joel Grey and Tovah Feldshuh, plus Glenn Close, Isabella Rossellini, Tony Roberts, Penny Fuller, Steve Guttenberg, as well as Liz Smith and Cindy Adams, were also among those who gave the acting legends a standing ovation.

“Driving Miss Daisy” is a slight play that was originally presented off Broadway. It won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1988, and the movie was Best Picture in 1989. Now with these acting titans in it, the first Broadway production ever is a must see.

Still, James Earl Jones told me: “Morgan Freeman was always Hoke for me.” He is a self-effacing, shy man who is almost 80 years old. But JEJ is a giant. He is wonderful was Hoke, Daisy’s driver and friend.

Redgrave didn’t stay at the Plaza party. But she was joined by her grandsons– the sons of her late daughter Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson. And by the great writer Joan Didion, among others.

King’s Speech–Oscar Buzzed Film–Set for Broadway Next Year

Roger Friedman
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1
King’s Speech–Oscar Buzzed Film–Set for Broadway Next Year

EXCLUSIVE:

It hasn’t even been released as a movie yet. But “The King’s Speech”–tipped as a definite multiple Oscar nominee–may be heading to Broadway next year.

Producer Michael Alden has put it up on his website as “a play by David Seidler,” the screenwriter of the Tom Hooper directed film.

Alden has already hired director Adrian Noble, the former head of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to bring the film to Broadway. Sources say that the movie’s stars —Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush— are not expected to reprise their roles.

This story makes some sense. “The King’s Speech” could easily be translated to the stage. It’s that good. As a movie, it functions wonderfully. But after a play is staged, don’t be surprised if someone tries a musical. The material is that flexible and adaptable.

So far only Alden’s company seems to be involved with the straight dramatic version of “The King’s Speech.” But don’t be surprised if Harvey Weinstein gets into it. After all, he’s the one who made the movie and is nurturing it to its November 24th release and ultimate awards-strewn future.

Keith Richards on John Phillips: “I’ve Never Seen a Guy Become a Junkie That Quick”

Roger Friedman
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2
Keith Richards on John Phillips: “I’ve Never Seen a Guy Become a Junkie That Quick”

The sad story of Mamas and Papas songwriter/creator John Phillips never ends.

Phillips died a broken man, completely crippled by drugs. His eldest daugher, MacKenzie, also a drug addict, accused him last year of molesting her.

Both Phillips and his ex wife, Michelle, wrote books about their brief time together in the mid to late 1960s as pop’s golden couple.

Now Keith Richards explains in his memoir how Phillips got hooked on drugs. It was Richards’ fault, and he takes responsibility for it.

The year was 1976. Phillips, his wife Genevieve Waite, and their son Tamerlane were living in London. Rolling Stones Records had already been enlisted for Phillips’ comeback record. (It was released in 2001, after Phillips died, and it was atrocious.)

“Phillips was amazing,” Keith writes. “I’ve never known anybody to be so hooked on dope so quick, and I had something to do with it. The night Ronnie [Wood] was leaving the Wick, John had called me up and said, “I’ve got a bottle of this stuff called Merck. And he said, Does anybody have some use for it? I don’t do that stuff.” I said I would drop by on my way out of Ronnie’s…[at Phillips’] I went into the john and shot up…When I came out, John said, What were you doing? I said, John, it’s called smack….So I shot him up, in the muscle.

“I always felt responsible for John because I turned him on to smack. Within a week, he’s got a pharmacy under control, and he’s become a dealer. I’ve never seen a guy become a junkie that quick.”

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