Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
Even Taylor Swift is a little gobsmacked by the sales of her album.
As I reported on Friday, “The Tortured Poets Department” has sold 2.6 million copies. Of those, 1.9 million are hard sales of CDs, LPs, and downloads. The rest is from streaming.
“Poets” is the third highest debuting album of any week since 1990. Only Adele and NSync were higher.
My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album. 2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed. I was already so fired up to get back to the tour… pic.twitter.com/L7lS7WTa2Y
Got a new movie coming out? Need an audience? Just say you’re massive fan of Taylor Swift!
“The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green did just that this week. He’s got a movie coming on Max (HBOMax) on Friday, May 2nd called “Turtles All the Way Down.” It’s another YA weeper, and Green wants people to see it.
(I’m assuming it’s the story of Flo and Eddie, and “Happy Together.”)
Anyway, Green told his 4.4 million Twitter followers this week, apropos of nothing, the he loves Taylor Swift! And he’s not afraid to say it! (His Tweet is below.)
Green isn’t stupid. He needed a Swift endorsement. Instead, he endorsed Swift! “Turtles” took a circuitous route to the screen. Green needs ratings. Swift sold 2.6 million albums this past week. You do the math!
Green wisely wrote:
Every few years, thousands of people are surprised to learn that I am a fan of Taylor Swift.
1. I am a fan of Taylor Swift. I have been since I first heard Speak Now in 2010.
2. I love Taylor Swift’s music and lyrics. You don’t have to. But I get to.
3. I love the Taylor Swift fandom. Again, you don’t have to. But I get to.
4. Making your whole identity disliking something/someone is weird and a bit sad.
5. TTPD is excellent and I love listening to it. The writing is so, so good.
6. Gentle reminder that I delete almost all of my tweets after a few minutes.
Every few years, thousands of people are surprised to learn that I am a fan of Taylor Swift. 1. I am a fan of Taylor Swift. I have been since I first heard Speak Now in 2010. 2. I love Taylor Swift's music and lyrics. You don't have to. But I get to. 3. I love the Taylor Swift…
Tomorrow night, the movie of that name – restored with added footage — will be screened in New York. Disney Plus starts airing it at the end of the week on their streaming platform. (A Los Angeles screening is planned for later in the week.)
Who’s coming to this last round up? Paul McCartney might be in town. His exhibition of photographs opens later this week at the Brooklyn Museum.
Ringo Starr has just dropped “Crooked Boy,” an excellent EP written and produced by Linda Perry. His tour doesn’t start for a month, so maybe he’d come into New York.
No word yet on Olivia or Dhani Harrison, or Sean Ono Lennon. Yoko Ono is not going out much these days, which is no surprise at age 91. She can watch it at home!
Peter Jackson restored the film made by Michael Lindsay Hogg, which was a hit in 1970 but then not seen for years. (It floated around the internet.) Jackson used all of L-H’s footage to make his “Get Back” series a few years ago, which expanded on the original film. Lindsay-Hogg will be on hand for the screening and Q&A afterwards. Hopefully someone will tape the event and put it on YouTube.
The 27 year old actress from Oakland, California stars in the number 1 movie of the weekend, and the movie that’s made the most money.
Zendaya Coleman leads “Challengers,” which had a $15 million weekend and came in at number 1.
She’s also one of the main players in “Dune Two,” now nearing $280 million and maybe heading to $300 million if Warner’s just lets it sit in theaters.
Aside from Zendaya movies, the box office is a tepid place and getting worse. “Challengers” is number 1 but it has a $55 million price tag. So the future is not that bright unless there’s a sudden wave.
The number 2 movie is “Unsung Hero,” a Christian film that made $7.5 million in its first weekend. Critics panned it, but the usual suspects are driving ticket sales.
Elsewhere, desperate for product, studios have re-released “Alien,” “The Mummy,” and “Shrek 2” to theaters.
What is everyone talking about, however? “Baby Reindeer,” an uncomfortable series on Netflix about a British comedian bartender who was groomed and raped by a mentor, has a trans woman girlfriend, and is being stalked by an overweight sociopath. Oy.
One month to go before Netflix puts “Hit Man” into theaters for two weeks. Can we last that long?
The stars were out tonight in Hollywood, but not so much in Washington DC.
The White House Correspondents Dinner used to be an A list event during the Obama Administration. But the Trump era and the pandemic almost wiped the whole thing out.
Tonight as Colin Jost was the star, he brought along his wife, Scarlett Johansson. She gave the Washington Hilton ballroom a jolt of top tier celebrity, but otherwise it was slim pickings.
The celebs who stopped by the red carpet included people like Chris Pine (looking like Colonel Sanders), Andrew McCarthy, Rufus Sewell, Questlove, and Rosario Dawson. The biggest star was Jon Hamm, who skipped the carpet but was seen on CSPAN leaving the ballroom.
So where were all the stars tonight? At the AFI dinner for Nicole Kidman in Hollywood. Nicole’s husband, Keith Urban, was front and center. So were many of her best friends like Naomi Watts and Reese Witherspoon, Miles Teller, Cynthia Erivo, Morgan Freeman, Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater, Michelle Pfeiffer and David E. Kelly, Aaron Sorkin, and in a rare appearance, a shockingly white haired Mike Myers. Missing: Hugh Jackman, and Russell Crowe.
Congrats to Nicole. Oscar winner and multiple nominee, Emmy winner, too. She’s been a force in Hollywood for three decades. She’s chosen a lot of daring scripts and made hugely entertaining movies. She’s also just pretty cool in real life.
Also congrats to Colin Jost. Doing stand up for the WHCD is one of the toughest assignments ever. He pulled it off with his usual cool and panache. His Staten Island jokes were the best!
Never hirsute in the past, young Justin has raised a scratchy growth on his face.
He posted pictures to Instagram, all with big smiles.
Maybe he’s on vacation from being on vacation. At least he’s happy.
Bieber hasn’t releaseda new album in three years. He also hasnt toured since canceling his lsdt tour because he had a form of Bells Palsy. Bieber also broke up with manager Scooter Braun.
“Unfrosted” is Jerry Seinfeld’s movie about the creation of the Pop Tart.
So far the comedy has gotten a ton of publicity. It drops on Netflix in just six days. But no one has seen it.
Seinfeld held a private screening this week for family and close friends. Co-star Christian Slater was there, and so was Matthew Broderick. Jessica Seinfeld posted pictures of a jolly time on Instagram.
But aside from those guests a few journalists doing interviews, “Unfrosted” is unseen.
Press links are going out on Monday, although it’s unclear when reviews can be published. The movie drops on Thursday night after midnight. Will it be a tasty snack? We don’t know.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Jerry making the rounds on talk shows and so on. He’s always funny. But whether “Unfrosted” turns out to be a deft satire or just a vanity project about an extremely not nutritional breakfast replacement remains unknown
Where is the younger generation of movie goers who were supposed to be into fluid relationships?
Where are the tennis fans?
“Challengers” is the biggest film project shot in and about New Rochelle, New York since “The Dick van Dyke Show.” But audiences seem ambivalent.
“Challengers” made $4 million last night, after taking in $1.9 million on Thursday in previews. That equals a $6 million opening and a $14 million opening weekend.
Luca Guadagnino’s rom-drama cost $55 million! The Cinemascore is B+ and the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is just 75%, which equals a C. This is not the grand slam that was predicted for this sex filled, hang wringer.
Publicity has suggested a little three way action between Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist’s characters. But once audiences got into theaters they might have been a little surprised about the relationship between the male characters. They have a major make out scene, not to mention a final scene that suggests they’re the ones who get together in the end.
Maybe audiences aren’t as 21st century as we thought. Young people liked conventional rom com “Anyone But You.” They’re going to love “Hit Man.”
Meantime, kudos to Variety’s Steve Gaydos who had a good alternative title for “Challengers” on Twitter: “Jules and Gym.”
Actress Marla Adams, whose career stretched from the 1960s to a recent return to “The Young and the Restless,” has died at age 85.
Starting in 1982, Adams played Dina Mergeron the delinquent mother and ex wife in the Abbott family on “Y&R.” She was a viper. She had many runs on the show but in 2016 she returned as Dina, with Alzheimer’s, and gave such a deep performance that she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2018 and won the award for Supporting Actress in A Drama in 2021.
The Y&R Instagram says: “On behalf of the entire company of The Young and the Restless, we send our deepest sympathies to Marla’s family after her passing. We’re so grateful and in awe of Marla’s incredible performance as Dina Mergeron as both Marla and Dina made an unforgettable mark on Y&R.”
Adams made her Broadway debut in 1958 and continued on to a long resume in theater. She became a TV veteran, appearing in other soaps over the years and almost all the prime time shows in the 60s and 70s. She was so popular on CBS that when she wasn’t on “Y&R,” she did five years on a soap called “Capitol” and another year on “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Her album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” sold 2.6 million copies. Of those, 1.9 million were CDs, LPs, and paid downloads.
She lodged third place of all albums since 1990 for an opening week.
Swift also posted 31 tracks of the top 50 streaming songs. She has the whole top 14, and then 17 more on the chart.
On the album chart, she has six more slots after “Poets.”
The number 2 album sold around 69,000 copies. That’s the gap. Beyonce is number 3.
Nothing approaches the magnitude of Swift’s achievement. And “Poets” remains at number 1 today after 8 days. The fans have not given up. Released today is a new album by the Pet Shop Boys. Stars from the 1980s, Pet Shop Boys album is number 3. They got a lot of publicity after slagging Swift for not writing memorable songs. I guess some of them must be, right?
“Poets” is a money making machine, that’s for sure.
