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The President of the United States of America is an imbecile.
Donald Trump briefly paused his ravings about attacking Iran today to post something else.
He reposted a fake picture of a toothless, weathered Bruce Springsteen with the caption — before Bruce Springsteen’s plastic surgery.
Inflation is soaring, an undeclared war is killing our soldiers, and this is what Trump finds amusing.
Trump is so jealous of Springsteen he can’t stand it. And Bruce keeps delivering concert opening declarations against Trump that really hit home. They’re glorious (See here). So the almost 80 year old orange ulcer doesn’t know what to do at this point.
“Super Mario Brothers Galaxy” made an actual freaking SIXTY NINE MILLION DOLLARS this weekend!
In 12 days, the animated movie based on a video has banked $308 million in the US, and twice that worldwide.
Is the popcorn bucket that good?
How many times can kids see the same movie over and over?
Interesting note about Universal vs. Disney: Mario is from the former, has terrible reviews, but it’s a monster hit. “Hoppers,” from the latter, has stellar notices, but a third of the box office. I can’t imagine why.
Also this weekend, “The Drama” made a respectable $8.7 million. Total now $30 million. Older critics who saw it thought audiences wouldn’t like the story. But younger people, who’ve been raised on school shootings, thought it was just fine and plausible. So there. Life has a new low bar.
And “Project Hail Mary” is still chugging away. Down only 23% from last week, happily chugging away this week to $300 million. It’s the first real hit from Amazon MGM. We can only imagine all the off shoots coming from this IP. The mind boggles!
He performed 19 songs — albeit in a low-fi way — and another 12 in a medley last night at Coachella.
He looked looked very happy and confident. His voice ranged from full to nasal depending on the song. When they were full compositions, the vocals were not bad. When they were fake rap songs, the material failed him so he rushed and muttered.
It didn’t matter. Either way, the massive crowd sang along with him.
Despite all this, the British press and some fans on social media criticized the medley. Bieber sat at a table on stage, with smoke and lights swirling around, and scrolled through YouTube on his laptop looking for videos of old hits to sing along with.
I guess no one picked up on the connection that YouTube was paying millions to show this concert for free. This was a product placement for YouTube. It wasn’t lazy or arbitrary. It was a way for Bieber to include songs he didn’t want to sing, and pay back YouTube.
Bieber’s set design at Coachella recalled Kanye West’s last week at SoFi Stadium. Maybe each of those was inspired by the design of “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway last season. Lots of lights and smoke, very moody. The physical set, like Kanye’s, was a moonscape.
There was no choreographed dancing, which was just fine. I liked the spare guitar playing on stage by three musicians. I really liked the Nigerian singer Tems, who accompanied Bieber on “I Think You’re Special.” A song from “Swag” called “Butterflies” came off very well. The pop medley of old hits seemed silly, but it could have been worse.
Was he singing Karaoke? No. But after Sabrina Carpenter’s incredibly crafted show on Friday night, and Giveon’s production two acts before Justin hit the stage, it was all less than fans expected. According to reports they paid thousands of dollars for passes, so they were severely disappointed.
Watching at home for free, Bieber just seemed to be fulfilling his duties and having fun in order to get $10 million. He’s not up for audience interaction. He’s just trying to give his fans what they want and get off stage. If this was the template, a tour doesn’t seem possible unless prices are much, much lower. It’s ironic that the so called fans know he has issues, that he hasn’t performed for four years, and then turned on him.
PS Strange that Giveon — who’s sung with Bieber on his hit, “Peaches” — wasn’t enlisted for a guest spot. That’s a good story right there.
The Rolling Stones announced their new single this morning.
But “Rough and Twisted” is not streaming anywhere.
It’s only available on a single, aka physical record. You can buy that record in pop stores, perhaps in Rockefeller Center, maybe at the Rough Trade shop.
Updates coming if relevant. This is a weird marketing plan. But, as they say, you can’t always get what you want. KEEP SCROLLING DOWN AND PLAY THE SONG WHEN YOU SEE THE WHITE ARROW ON BLACK
I also did find this, which is totally irrelevant:
…And finally this is what the new Rolling Stones (or The Cockroaches) song “Rough and Twisted” sounds. The led single for their next studio album. Single released on this day, April 11th, 2026, on a limited edition in vinyl. #TheRollingStonespic.twitter.com/PZTrBp7bDC
Lady Gaga plays her final Mayhem Ball Tour show Monday night.
ns
Fittingly, the wildly successful tour ends with a return visit to Madison Square Garden.
Every single seat is gone. The whole place is sold out, right up to the rafters. This rarely happens, but the fans are Gaga for Gaga.
Friday, Gaga released the first of a few songs she recorded for “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” This is one is called “Runway.” It features Doechii. Unlike most songs by Stefani Germanotta, “Runway” has seven writers and five producers including Bruno Mars.
More “Prada” – Gaga songs are coming from the soundtrack. Stand by.
That meant the end of his July dates at the Wireless Music Festival, and the collapse of the festival itself.
That’s a lot of bad publicity for a man who released a song last year called “Heil Hitler.”
The negativity resonated in the music business. Kanye’s album, “Bully,” fell 53% in sales from the prior week. That was the biggest drop of any album in the top 20.
“Bully” sold 72,000 copies — most of which were streaming equivalent. Physical sales came to just over 13,000 copies.
We have to give Kanye credit. He really pounced on a comeback before reasonable people could stop him. But now they have, and he’s relegated to shows this summer far, far away in countries that either don’t remember the Nazis or don’t care.
But he’s banned from performing in the UK and Australia. And I doubt Kanye will be welcomed anywhere in the US again for a long time. The main picture in this story is not fading from memory any time soon.
EXCLUSIVE Tito Jackson was one of the few of Michael’s siblings who had talent beyond singing and used it.
Tito — who died unexpectedly in October, 2024 at 70 — was a gifted jazz guitarist who didn’t hang around waiting for the Jackson 5 to get back together.
He gigged all over the place in jazz clubs, showing off his passion and skill.
Tito was also the father of the 3Ts — TJ, Taj, Taryll — who had hits on their own. Michael trusted them so much that TJ became the guardian for his children after he died.
Now, in a sense, Michael has returned the favor. The new “Michael” movie is dedicated to Tito. If you wait til the end of the credits, I am told, the last line reads “Dedicated to Tito Jackson.”
It’s a fitting nod to the least avaricious of the Jacksons.
“Michael” opens April 24th, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Michael’s nephew, Jaafar. Look for social media posts soon. See mine on Twitter at @showbiz411
In the middle of many A listers and celebs last night, there was actress Natasha Lyonne bright eyed to Lorne Michaels’ documentary premiere.
I was a little surprised to see her since I’d just read — maybe like you — that she’d been escorted off a plane this week.
The New York Post said she was removed from overnight flight from Los Angeles to New York. The Post said Lyonne was “out of it.”
Earlier that night she’d been at the premiere of “Euphoria” in Hollywood. (She’s in 8 episodes of Season 3.)
“Are you all right?” I asked the star of “Poker Face.”
“Am I all right? Do I look all right? ICE threw me off a plane after I took a sleeping pill! It was an overnight flight. I wanted to sleep!”
ICE, as we know, is not nice.
Anyway, she made the next flight and there she was at Lincoln Center, no problem, with that red hair and smokey voice.
What happened to “Poker Face,” I asked? “It’s over,” Natasha said. Too bad it was unique.
We ran into the great Steve Buscemi and the two actors hugged. “We’re in five movies together!” Natasha said, which Steve confirmed. Her next big release is “Roomates,” produced by Adam Sandler for Netflix.
As for the NY Post, seems like they’re a little “Out of it.”
Lorne Michaels, creator and Executive Producer of “Saturday Night Live,” is not going anywhere.
The famed 79 year old has been with “SNL” since he created it in 1974.
Last night at the star studded premiere of a documentary about him called “Lorne,” directed by Morgan Neville, he has no intention of retiring any time soon.
Every year there is speculation that Michaels will step down and hand the reins over to one of his favorite performers, like Seth Meyers or Tina Fey.
“I don’t see it,” he told me at dinner at the swanky Lincoln Ristorante in Lincoln Center — across West 65th St from Alice Tully Hall, where celebs from David Letterman, Natasha Lyonne, Diane Lane, Candace Bushnell, Amy Schumer, and Steve Buscemi filled the fabled theater to the brim.
They were joined by members of the “SNL” family like Seth Meyers, Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost, Mikey Day the guys from Please Don’t Destroy, Marcello Hernandez, Chloe Fineman, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Ashley Padilla, Kam Patterson, Tommy Brennan, Robert Smigel.
“Lorne” is a surprising documentary because Michaels really didn’t want to do it in the first place, and is very elusive on camera. But Neville spent two years wearing him down and filming him to the point where Michaels really opens up for the first time. You learn a lot about his interaction with five decades of cast members, and his total immersion in the production of every episode. (Now we know what it looks like in the control room when a sketch is bombing.)
The subject of retirement comes up in the film, in which Michaels suggests that “SNL”‘s time will end one day, like everything else. He told me later, “I love everyone I’m working with, and I can’t imagine not doing it.”
The film is well constructed because we know so much about “SNL” at this point from other films and articles. Neville makes it fresh, alternating between Michaels producing a run of shows, and telling some of his back story — from Toronto, Michaels had a disagreement with his father when he was a teen. His father had a heart attack and died shortly thereafter.
Michaels had his own comedy show in Toronto when he was starting out, which is how he met a lot of the soon to be Not Ready for Prime Time Players. He pitched a sketch show about comedy and politics to NBC in 1974, and the rest is history.
A running gag throughout the film — which appears to be true still — is that Michaels is largely unknowable. He keeps his own counsel, even with very close friends like Paul Simon, who’s interviewed along with Conan O’Brien, ex wife Rosie Shuster, plus Chevy Chase, and groups of actors from the show.
Neville hits most beats in “SNL” history, including the five years Michaels was gone (1981-86) and a moment when he brought it back from the brink. There’s also quite a sharp slap at late NBC overlord Don Ohlmeyer, who fired popular stars like Adam Sandler and Norm MacDonald.
“Lorne” opens next Friday in theaters. I’ve always said, through all of NBC’s ups and downs in late night, the one person who knows everything and always comes out on top is Lorne Michaels. Neville’s movie explains in some ways why keeping your nose down and doing the job is the secret of success. More on it later today…
PS There was a surprise guest out of left field who everyone at the party wanted to talk to — Al Jardine of the Beach Boys! He’s on tour right now with the Pet Sounds Band. Click here to find out more. Very Very cool.
