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Log Cabin Republicans will be interested in a new documentary called “Abraham Lincoln: Lover of Men.”
The film’s press release arrived today just as Melania Trump hosted a fundraiser for gay Trump followers. Also, this week, a witty new Broadway show opens depicting Mary Todd Lincoln as a boozy, unhappy First Lady, played by a man. It’s called “Oh Mary!”
“Lover of Men,” directed by Shaun Peterson, contains interviews with about 18 Ivy League scholars who are apparently on board with this idea. The producer is Robert Rosenheck, whose LinkedIn bio says he’s been with the Center for Environmental Health for 25 years. He may also be the distributor, since Special Occasion Films doesn’t have any other listing.
“Lover of Men” is certain to be controversial, especially as Republicans declare Lincoln as one of their own, yet stand against everything he represented.
You do know that “Grey’s Anatomy” is coming to an end.
ABC hasn’t said so yet, the 20 year old medical soap has been moved to 10pm on Thursdays because it’s trounced weekly by “Law & Order SVU.”
There’s almost none of the original cast left. Now Ellen Pompeo — who’s gotten too expensive for the show — will appear in just 7 of this year’s 18 episodes. That’s 38.8%.
Pompeo — who plays the titular Grey — could be turn up in more, especially if the show gets early word that they need a series finale.
Pompeo’s salary was so big that each year popular other characters have had to be killed off or written endings so the show could go on. Then she said she wanted to work less — why not, she’s rich! — and she was going to do some cable series.
For a whole season during the pandemic, Meredith Grey just lay in a hospital bed and dreamed about the actors who’d been let go over the years.
ABC has beaten this rug and still dust flies from it. All the existing characters have been married to each other and have had terminal illnesses. There have been a lot of explosions and unlikely emergencies. But the sand is running out of this hourglass.
Get ready for a big “Greys” finale possibly in 2025.
This has been a busy two days for Paramount Pictures.
The company was sold yesterday to David Ellison’s Skydance company and partners for $28 billion. The deal will close next year.
That should be around the time director Ridley Scott releases his “Gladiator II.” From the looks of the just released trailer, Ellison will be at all the awards shows and definitely the Oscars.
Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, and Pedro Pascal star in the sequel to the film that gave Scott a Best Picture. But he doesn’t have a Best Director prize after decades of filmmaking. (He lost in 1992 to Steven Soderbergh for “Traffic.”) Will this be it? Looks pretty good.
Oscar winner Halle Berry, and six time Oscar nominee Glenn Close — who’s also a Tony and Emmy winner — are forced to co-star in a series with Kim Kardashian.
There should be legislation against this.
The show is called “All’s Fair” but all is certainly not fair if the only way Ryan Murphy could get a series on Hulu was to have it star this self-aggrandizing novelty celebrity. Kardashian is also executive producer with Murphy.
Close and Berry playing second fiddle to the ex wife of Kanye West (and others) is simply horrifying — for them, not for us. We can choose not to watch this drama about an all-female Los Angeles law firm on Hulu. But the real actresses have to wonder where their own careers are at.
Kardashian has appeared in other series for creator Ryan Murphy. She also starred in a famous sex tape. A few years ago she declared she would become a lawyer without going to law school. For years she and her horrid family have starred in a reality show about their tabloid headline family.
Kardashian is 43 years old, and famous not for thespian skills but notoriety. There’s a long list of accomplished actresses the same ago who would make “All’s Fair” a classy show. The Screen Actors Guild should intervene.
The ridiculous Alec Baldwin manslaughter case in Santa Fe took a major turn in the actor’s favor today.
The pre-trial began today, with Baldwin accused of manslaugher in the October 2022 accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled that Baldwin’s position as a producer on the film, “Rust,” was irrelevant.
The judge said: “I’m having real difficulty with the state’s position that they want to show that as a producer he didn’t follow guidelines and therefore as an actor Mr. Baldwin did all of these things wrong that resulted in the death of Ms. Hutchins because as a producer he allowed these things to happen.”
Even though Baldwin’s lawyers have been trying to get the whole case dismissed before the trial began, the judge’s new decision has helped them tremendously. If Baldwin’s role as a producer didn’t contribute to Hutchins’ death, being an actor certainly didn’t.
The same court has already sent Hannah Guitierrez-Reed, the person who handed Baldwin the loaded prop gun, to jail for 18 months.
But the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office has bent over backwards to prosecute Baldwin also, even though their evidence is thin. There was no intent on the actor’s part to shoot Hutchins, obviously.
I spoke to Baldwin on Saturday night when I ran into him and wife Hilaria at dinner at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton. They were in a good but serious mood, and told me they were on their way out to Santa Fe on Sunday. Baldwin is in court and will be for the whole 10 days — unless the case is dismissed earlier. Hilaria told me she was taking her two eldest children out there for a couple of days but had to return for the five others.
I’ve been writing about Global Citizen for years. No one seems to get it.
The sketchy group just announced their next big concert in Central Park for September 28th. Global Citizen is all about publicity and hobnobbing with stars. It has almost nothing to do with poverty or hunger.
We’ll get back to that in a minute.
The group’s latest tax filing, for 2022, shows that the top executives are having a grand old time in the service of charity.
Even though total revenue fell 26% from 2021 to 2022, salaries just shot right up.
Chief Star wrangler Hugh Evans has now worked his way up to a startling $560,000, not including expenses. His base salary for 2022 rose 36%.
Number 2 at Global Citizen, Elizabeth Henshaw, is now getting just $500,000. Her base salary rose from $396,000 to $432,463. The increase is 16%.
The execs at Global Citizen are more than keeping up with inflation, while the people they advocate for are starving to death.
What does it cost to produce their rock concerts? Done & Dusted Productions were paid $3.5 million in 2022. Universal Music Nigeria got $2.1 million. The total paid to contractors for the Fall 2022 Central Park show was around $10 million.
Global Citizen lists $22 million for production expenses, and $2.5 million for “Artist Expenses.” The latter number is for paying the expenses of the rock stars who seem like they’re giving their time.
You say: Yes, but they don’t give money away?
I say: Most of it is to European countries and organizations. Very little goes to Asia or Sub Sahara Africa. Nothing goes to Ukraine. They say total amounts of money donated (generally, not specifically) were $2.5 million To Europe (including Greenland and Iceland), $427,000 to North America, and about $1.3 million to third world countries.
Surprised?
Nothing in 2022 went to Gaza and this was before October 7, 2023. Global Citizen stays away from those conflicts for fear of losing sponsors on either side.
But what will happen on September 28th, the first Global Citizen concert broadcast around the world since Hamas attacked Israel? Will viewers be treated diatribes about genocide and apartheid? The potential is there for a total calamity. And what about Ukraine? Why does Global Citizen ignore them?
Global Citizen is one of the best scams in history, yet it just keeps going on and on. If only the rest of us could figure out how to do it!
Justin Bieber really likes his buddy, Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.
He posted a birthday message to Jaden from India, where Bieber is getting $10 million bucks to perform at at $118 million wedding this week.
Justin’s message is heartfelt, and it only contains one spelling error. Justin, it’s “pursuing,” with a u, no e.
Actually, “tho” is really spelled “though,” so half a point off there.
The soon to be a dad says, “When Jaden believes in you there’s a tangible feeling as tho, if he thinks I’m special who cares what anyone else thinks.!” (Half a point off for wrong punctuation, too.)
Still, a lovely thought.
Netflix doesn’t report a lot of numbers, but they do tell us which movies are seen by more people.
Over the July 4th holiday, they had a winner. It was not the big ticket movie we expected.
“A Family Affair,” starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King, easily took the top spot. The light romcom had 1.4 billion sampled views. No one really knows what that means except a lot of people tried it, and liked it.
Kidman handily beat Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” which only had 646 million samples. This indicates a lot of things including that “Axel F” might not have been a hit in theaters since it reportedly cost a whopping $150 million.
“Axel F” has very middling reviews on Rotten Tomatoes — just 65%. But much worse is its audience rating — 81%. Netflix subscribers had little interest in it, and the ones who saw it didn’t much like it. The story of Axel F may finally be finished.
Still doing well on Netflix after six weeks is Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man.” This is one of the best films of 2024. There could be some awards future there, too. If you’re inside, sitting in front of an air conditioner, “Hit Man” is the best way to “kill” some time!
As for Kidman, she has managed to combine film and TV very deftly. And imagine — in AMC theaters, she gives her “magic” speech before her show film unspools. She’s probably the biggest real deal female actress right now.
The legendary hit composer of movie soundtracks, TV themes, and hit records has the numbers 1 and 2 albums on iTunes today.
Mancini died in 1994 at 70. There’s a 100th birthday celebration going on with an album of seven of his compositions reworked with the likes of Lizzo on flute, and Michael Buble singing.
The album is called “The Henry Mancini 100th Sessions” and it’s number on iTunes.
CBS Sunday Morning ran a piece on all this last fall. But they re-ran this morning and now Mancini is riding high.
His most memorable music? Theme from the Pink Panther movies, theme to the “Peter Gunn” Tv series, the song “Moon River,” and dozens more including “Dear Heart” and soundtracks to movies like “Love Story” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” He was a particular favorite of director Blake Edwards, and singer Andy Williams.
The new tribute album includes not just Michael Buble covering “Moon River,” but a reworked version with the movie’s star, Audrey Hepburn, on vocals. Lizzo — playing the flute — appears on “The Pink Panther” theme with James Galway, and “Peter Gunn” features Quincy Jones, John Williams, Arturo Sandoval and Herbie Hancock.
The new versions are revved up but retain all their original integrity. Then you have the Greatest Hits at number 3, as fans want to hear where it all started.
