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NeYo Goes Jacko on Vevo: Yoh!

Roger Friedman
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16
NeYo Goes Jacko on Vevo: Yoh!

The big buzz in the R&B world today is that Ne Yo, the 30 year old junior soul man, is releasing two new songs with long form videos.

This afternoon at 6pm, BET is premiering the videos for “Champagne Life” and “Beautiful Monster” on its “106 and Park” show. The videos also go up on Vevo.

Isaw the videos yesterday and even ran into Ne Yo (real name Shaffer Smith) up at Universal Music, where the entire staff of Def Jam was crowded into a conference room to hear his whole new album, “Libra Scale.” The album gets released on September 21st, nine days before the Grammy deadline. As with Ne Yo’s last CD, this one looks headed for a Best Album nomination.

Ne Yo likens the two videos–which clock in around 8 minutes apiece–to Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller.” (Michael, whom we affectionately call Jacko in headlines because it’s short and snappy, folks.) And there’s a sci fi element to the story line, which will play out in at least three more videos to songs from “Libra Scale.”

But Ne Yo is more like Marvin Gaye in this sense: he writes and plays everything. There’s no sampling or “interpolating” (the latter is my favorite word now on albums where old songs are remade anew with new titles).

I’ve been a fan of this guy for some time now. Ne Yo’s songs are strong and catchy, full of melodic hooks. There’s no X rated rap element. He leads a pack that includes Anthony Hamilton, Jaheim, and Maxwell. In a world where contemporary R&B is riddled with raps about how hard it is to be rich and stupid, Ne Yo is a shining stand out.

By the way, “Champagne Life” features a hook with the line “Toast it up”–once you hear it, you won’t be able to get it out of your head. I think Def Jam should put up posters and T shirts everywhere–it’s the tag line for New Year’s Eve 2011.

PS L.A. Reid, who I (very coincidentally) wrote about yesterday, exec produced the album. Toast him up!

Inception: Leonardo DiCaprio in Chris Nolan’s Brilliant Film

Roger Friedman
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12
Inception: Leonardo DiCaprio in Chris Nolan’s Brilliant Film

“Is it okay to like a film but not really understand it?”

That’s what someone asked yesterday after the afternoon screening of Chris Nolan‘s “Inception.”

The answer is yes, of course. And “Inception” is a movie you will have to see at least twice. It’s “Memento” meets Kubrick, and not easy to navigate under the best of circumstances. But this much is clear: “Inception,” which evolves at one point into three simultaneous films, is gorgeous, provocative, and mesmerizing. Does it make sense? Hard to say. Is it fascinating to watch? Definitely. You will leave the theater totally captivate and throttled by it.

First of all, it’s a film with a lot of inside jokes. Here are a couple: in the first 20 minutes, which are really nuts, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Cobb propels out a window on a bungee cord and then repels up the side of the building. I am not sure whether this is intentional, but the whole sequence looks like it’s borrowed from the “Batman” TV series of the 1960s. Nolan, of course, directed the hit film, “Batman Begins.”

And: Marion Cotillard plays Leo’s dead wife in the movie. Cotillard also won an Oscar for playing Edith Piaf. In “Inception,” every time Joseph Gordon Levitt puts his Walkman or IPod on, it’s playing Piaf. Loudly.

The plot of “Inception” also involves something that looks like what Michael Jackson used to do with Propofol. Leo and co. knock people out with IV drugs, then explore their subconscious. It’s about dreams, and their layers. “Avatar” looks like it was made with Crayolas compared to the oil painting going on in “Inception.” Talk about 3D–the characters in “Inception” are constantly diving three dreams deep into consciousness to untangle their problems.

Early reviews of “Inception” called it genius. Then the backlash started, with some weekly reviewers ready to pounce all over it. I have to say, during the first 20 minute sequence, “Inception” requires more attention than any other film of the last 20 years. More even than “Memento,” Nolan’s masterwork. Like “Memento,” “Inception” is a puzzle, and needs time to ponder before solving. It gets so involved and complex that when Ellen Page asks DiCaprio for a plot recap–“Wait? Whose subconscious are going into?”–that the audience breaks out in a knowing laugh.

Set aside the plot, and the story for a minute: there is much glorious staging and cinematography here, it’s more than you can expect in any sci-fi thriller. The two best sequences: one in which Gordon-Levitt shepherds a bunch of sleeping characters through weightlessness is just mind blowing. And you will love it the first time DiCaprio shows Page how to manipulate the architecture of her dreams, and she turns a city block upside down.

I hope after Friday there’s lots of discussion here about “Inception.” Add it to a list with “Shutter Island” and “The Ghost Writer” for the best films so far of 2010. It’s also the only interesting film of this summer. Get set to leave your local theater rattled. But in a good way.

George Steinbrenner Dead at Age 80

Roger Friedman
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1
George Steinbrenner Dead at Age 80

It’s hard to believe, because he was such an omnipotent figure in Yankee life, but George Steinbrenner is dead at age 80.

The obits and comments today will be something to read, and lengthy at that. No baseball owner was ever this controversial, whether he was hiring people to spy on his players or having public fights with popular managers. In his heyday he was loud, nasty, and frustrating.

But in a way what would we have done without him? When Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, they were dead. CBS and Mike Burke had killer them. It was the era of mediocre players with few exceptions: Mel Stottlemeyer, Bobby Murcer, a just arrived Thurman Munson, and dependable Roy White. Ralph Houk was the staid manager.

Steinbrenner changed all that. He ushered in Billy Martin, Dave Winfield, and Reggie Jackson, and a determination to win at all costs. Literally, all costs. But let’s not forget: before Steinbrenner came in and really got going, the Yankees were better known for Fritz Petersen and Mike Kekick swapping wives than the team winning pennants.

Most of the stories about Steinbrenner are well known–hiring and firing 20 managers, etc. He certainly made the blood pressure of Yankee fans rise and rise and rise. A terrible fight with Yogi Berra that went on for two decades will not be forgotten.The constant war with Billy Martin. And we can’t forget his two suspensions from baseball–in 1974, over campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, and in 1990, for hiring Howie Spira to get dirt–not ballfield dust–on Winfield.

You can’t sugar coat it: that’s the real George in the accompanying picture, making a point with Joe Torre.

But there was also the George Steinbrenner who was a regular at Elaine’s, and loved Elaine Kaufman like she was family. When Steinbrenner appeared at Elaine’s it was like the King of a country appeared. But he was always friendly to fans, and never failed to win over his critics once they met him in person.

It’s the end of an era, for the Yankees, and for New York.

Roman Polanski May Already Be Back in Paris

Roger Friedman
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2
Roman Polanski May Already Be Back in Paris

Roman Polanski may already be in Paris this morning.

According to the Geneva newspaper, Polanski left Gstaad, Switzerland immediately after being unshackled from his home arrest device yesterday. He’s been trapped in his Swiss villa since last fall.

Over the last nine months I’ve received numerous updates on Polanski, especially his mental state. Even though he completed and released an excellent film, “The Ghost Writer,” the famed Oscar winning director was often quite depressed and despondent about his future.

Now he returns to Paris and France, where he has lived most of the time since fleeing the U.S. in 1978. The odds are he won’t leave France for some time. That country does not extradite its citizens.

At the root of the Polanski release: the refusal of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office to take seriously accusations made by the original prosecutors in the Polanski case. Their assertions of malfeasance on the part of the original judge turned up on film in Marina Zenovich‘s award winning documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.” It was clear the judge lied, that he reneged on a deal, and that Polanski had every reason to fear he couldn’t trust any agreements that were hammered out at the time.

This past January Roger Gunson, the original prosecutor in the case, gave testimony about what happened in 1978 to the Los Angeles District Attorney. The DA then sealed the transcripts and refused to release them to Polanski’s lawyers– or to Swiss officials. That refusal exposed a loophole by which the Swiss were able to let Polanski go. They simply felt they didn’t have enough information to hold him.

Meantime, it will be interesting to see what Zenovich does. When Polanski was detained in Switzerland she went right over there with a camera crew. But she told me later she’d had a tough time. It’s unclear whether Polanski cooperated with her. Maybe we’ll see the fruits of her labors on HBO or somewhere soon.

Can Justin Bieber and Brandon Flowers Save L.A. Reid?

Roger Friedman
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Can Justin Bieber and Brandon Flowers Save L.A. Reid?

The word is starting up again at Island Def Jam Records: L.A. Reid, they say, may be on his way out.

Listen, no one criticized L.A. Reid more almost a decade ago when he took over Arista Records. He had a rocky start. that’s for sure.

But Reid’s promotion from running LaFace Records to Arista and then to Island Def Jam has shown him to be a mature, decisive record man. Losing him now would be a mistake for Island Def Jam and Universal Music Group.

The rumors emanate now because Lucian Grainge has come to the US from Universal International to run UMG. He’s a music man but he’s looking at the bottom line. And in the music biz these days, it just doesn’t look good. It doesn’t help that Grainge was described in Billboard earlier this year as a “killer shark.”

Reid, on the other hand, is a softy. He signed up Jennifer Lopez, god knows why. His experiments with Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri failed. The last Mariah Carey album was a disappointment. Reid loves Lionel Richie and keeps pushing out new records. It’s admirable. But Hello? Is it Richie young kids are looking for? Not really.

So Reid has Justin Bieber, the annoying teenager. Leave it to Bieber–he’s a hit. You can’t discount that. Reid has a hot album and promo push coming for Brandon Flowers, lead singer of the Killers, with his first solo effort. It smells like platinum. Charlize Theron stars in the video.

Reid has some other gambles about to hit, so watch out. He went to Belize and signed up rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow after he got out of jail. Shyne famously took the rap in the P Diddy/Sean Combs-Jennifer Lopez nightclub shooting a few years ago. Now he’s out, and mad after serving nine years of a decade long sentence.Not only that, he’s been deported to his native Belize. If Reid can turn Shyne into a cause celebre, he may have a hit on his hands. (PS This is funny–Barrow’s mother is Jewish. And frankly, as a rapper, he sounds a little like he’s been sitting around Katz’s waiting for a glass of tea.)

There’s also a new album from one half of Outkast, Big Boi. And Mariah Carey, as I’ve already reported, is hard at work on a new album for possible Christmas release. And it was Reid who “broke” Duffy, his own Dusty Springfield.

I like the idea of Lucian Grainge simply because he signed the Psychedelic Furs thirty years ago.

The industry wags are predicting that Home on the Grainge will look very different once he takes over in January 2011. I think not. And he’s sure to see that L.A. Reid is one of the last links to what makes the record business still run or feel like it might have a little magic left.

Edward Norton’s Hulk Problems Were Always Lurking

Roger Friedman
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6
Edward Norton’s Hulk Problems Were Always Lurking

There’s a big hub bub going on in Marvel land.

The reason? Edward Norton has been dumped from “The Avengers” rather than reprise his role from the 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk.” Comic fans are going crazy trying to piece all this together. Norton’s reps say first Marvel was negotiating with them, then all of a sudden issued a not so nice explanation for their decision to skip it.

Norton is a smart, talented guy. But he really had a bad time with Marvel on “Hulk.” He spent hours and days rewriting Zak Penn‘s script. At the 2007 Comic Con, Norton bragged about writing the screenplay. But it was Penn who got the credit.

In the end, Norton had such a falling out with Marvel that he skipped the movie’s premiere and went off to some island to lick his wounds. He exited the promotional campaign without a contract to do sequels, although both Liv Tyler and director Louis Letterier each had them. That was two years ago. Since then two “Iron Man” movies have come and gone, but the “Hulk” has been in a sulk. And the film didn’t do so well: it made $135 million in the US and $128 million abroad.

Norton was an odd choice anyway. He’s a serious actor, and should be making films with Oscar written all over them. The next guy to play the Hulk has to be someone a little less heavy, so to speak.

Box Office: Universal Stands Tall, Tom Cruise Stalls

Roger Friedman
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1
Box Office: Universal Stands Tall, Tom Cruise Stalls

The biggest story at the box office this weekend wasn’t the continued agony of Tom Cruise. But yes, his “Knight and Day” has stalled around $61 million domestically. Will it reach $80 million? It seems unlikely. Cruise slices off his $20 mil, and then the fun begins. Where this leaves him is unclear.

But the good news is “Despicable Me.” An unexpected blockbuster, this animated film has put the Universal name back at the top of the list. Not even Russell Crowe was able to do that. His “Robin Hood” has been like a kidney stone for Universal with $105 million domestically and $200 million elsewhere. The total $300 million is nowhere near what the studio needs to make money or to consider a sequel.

But “Despicable Me” is a total real hit, like the old days. Sequels are probably being drawn up as we speak. And the cast of voices! Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, even Julie Andrews. It’s just a perfect recipe for success, and Universal’s marketing department pulled off a coup with it. Nicely done. Is it any wonder Steve Carell wants to wind up “The Office”? He doesn’t need it. He’s Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler all rolled into one.

Meantime, there are some real clunkers out there: Fox’s “Marmaduke” has moved families into seats with the speed of poured marmalade. It didn’t cost much to begin with, but still…And Disney spent so much on promoting Jake Gyllenhaal as a buffed up action hero in “Prince of Persia” but the whole thing fizzled. There’s $90 mil in the till, but at least $250 mil spent. On Friday, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with Nicolas Cage gets its Disney airing. Will it be a repeat?

Soon the studios won’t even need American audiences any more.

As for “Despicable”: congrats to Universal. Box office success is cyclical, but they’ve waited a longer time than usual.

Mel Gibson’s Self Destruction Continues Unabated

Roger Friedman
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5
Mel Gibson’s Self Destruction Continues Unabated

Mel Gibson‘s complete and total public ruin — and self destruction– continues unabated.

More tapes of his horrific conversations with baby mama Oksana Grigorieva have been released by Radar Online, aka the National Enquirer. (Yes, they are one and the same.)

On this new tape, which Grigorieva patiently recorded while Mel went ballistic over the phone, includes death threats and language too salty to be reprinted here. Suffice to say, Mel–ever the calm, cool gentleman–never ceases to use the “c” word. He also has much to say about Oksana’s pussy, and I don’t think he’s talking about a house pet.

Gibson also reveals that he left his wife, Robyn, mother of his first seven children, because they had no “spiritual connection.”

Robyn, who is an enigma in all this, is listed as Vice President of Mel’s A. P. Reilly Foundation, with $50 million in assets. The Foundation supports Mel’s non sanctioned private Catholic church in Malibu.

It was only last week that another tape contains Gibson ranting against Oksana and using the “n” word. He was subsequently dropped as a client of the William Morris Endeavor Agency.

In 2006, Gibson was arrested for driving drunk and made famously racist and anti-Semitic comments to the officers involved.

Then his father was revealed to be anti-Semitic, and a Holocaust denier who disavows the pope and has written for Neo Nazi publications.

Gibson never apologized for his own comments or his father’s philosophies.

Being dropped from his agency is no surprise. On the same day he was let go, his long time agent and defender, Ed Limato, died. With Limato gone, Gibson had no one left to protect him. In the time since his arrest and scandal, Gibson’s agency, William Morris, had merged with Endeavor. When Gibson was arrested in 2006, Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel quite rightly swore he’d have nothing do with him.

Gibson has no one but himself to blame in this latest episode. Grigorieva has another child of out of wedlock with another movie star, Timothy Dalton. She claimed to be a musician when Gibson unveiled her in his life, and he underwrote her music “career.”

Meantime. the real losers here–and unfairly–are Summit Entertainment. They have Gibson’s next movie, “The Beaver,” in the can. It doesn’t seem possible that they could release it in 2010 at the rate things are going, without having a press nightmare. The bigger question is why Jodie Foster, the director, who is thought of as a sensible person, would have made a movie with Gibson in the first place.

Roman Polanski Free; Friend Says “Mad with Happiness”

Roger Friedman
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4
Roman Polanski Free; Friend Says “Mad with Happiness”

Roman Polanski was freed by a Swiss court today and released from home arrest after a ten month ordeal.

The famed director has been detained in Switzerland at his estate since last winter when he was arrested. The Swiss court has finally decided at long last not to extradite him to the US on charges from his 1978 arrest in Los Angeles and subsequent jailing for having sex with a 13 year old girl.

That girl, now adult Samantha Geimer, had long ago settled with Polanski financially and asked the world to leave him alone.

But Swiss authorities, acting on orders from the United States, arrested the director last year when arrived to receive an award.

A documentary film had shown that there were several defects in the original case, and that the judge in the case had acted improperly. Today the Swiss judge said she was letting Polanski go because the US didn’t assist with information stemming from a January 2010 hearing that concerned those charges.

Polanski’s friend, Bernard Henri Levy, told the Swiss press that he was “mad with happiness.” Polanski’s leg bracelet was removed around 1pm Swiss time, but friends say he hasn’t left his home yet. The French Culture Minister, Frederic Mitterand, who hadn’t done much to help Polanski–a French citizen–told a Geneva newspaper he was “thrilled” at the news of Polanski’s release.

Henri-Levy told the paper: “I just talked to him, he is in the same state of mind that millions of citizens who supported him, his feeling is that justice is served.”  Levy continued: “I expected it because I could not imagine an impartial justice system and a person endowed with reason to take a different decision given the evidence in this case.”

The Swiss judge pointed out that this decision has nothing to do with whether or not Polanski is innocent or guilty in the American case. And in fact, the director remains a fugitive in the eyes of the Los Angeles District Attorney. But he is now free to return to France and resume his life.

Spurlock’s Secret Doc; ELO in NYC; Sting Symphonizes

Roger Friedman
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4
Spurlock’s Secret Doc; ELO in NYC; Sting Symphonizes

Morgan Spurlock never shies away from an adventure.

The director of “Super Size Me” took on the search for Osama Bin Laden. He also celebrated the 20th anniversary of “The Simpsons.” He contributed to the multi-director documentary “Freakonomics.” Very shortly he takes off for Comic Con, to work on another non fiction film.

But Spurlock has something else cooking that we hadn’t heard about it before: a documentary that is hush hush. According to inside sources, Spurlock is finishing up some kind of film that concerns the advertising business. He’s apparently had great access within ad agencies, too. Considering the fever for “Mad Men,” this would seem like a perfect time to go trace the history of the big agencies.

I am told that the Spurlock film may have a distributor already. And Morgan is hopeful that the film will play at the Toronto Film Festival. So stay tuned…

Jeff Lynne— of Electric Light Orchestra and Traveling Wilburys fame–hosted a dinner on Thursday night at the Waverly Inn with a bunch of pals. Lynne was in town for Ringo Starr’s 70th birthday party and show on Wednesday night…

Sting plays the Metropolitan Opera house on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tomorrow, his “Symphonicities” album is released and all indications are it’s a hit out of the box. “Symphonicities” reimagines many of Sting’s solo and Police songs with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. The songs– including “Englishman in New York,” “We Work the Black Seam,” “Straight to My Heart,” “The Pirate’s Bride,” and “I Hung My Head”–turn out to be incredibly supple and well adapted to this format. It’s an absolutely gorgeous album that once again underlines Sting’s place as a master contemporary songwriter.

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