Bette Midler — with great gray hair — makes a rare appearance on Stephen Colbert tonight.
This is the clip — must-see. Can’t wait for the whole segment. Bette sounds amazing, singing special lyrics to “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Will she ever make another record? It would be huge.
PS
11:30pm tonight CBS
Let’s cut to the chase. I really, really liked Derek Cianfrance’s “Roofman,” which is in theaters and should be a bigger deal than it already is.
Hopefully, word of mouth will carry it forward to Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations.
Cianfrance is the indie director of movies like “The Place Between the Pines” and “Blue Valentine.” This is easily his most accessible and entertaining film so far.
Tatum, who’s been looking for some kind of breakthrough after a roller coaster ride with “Magic Mike” movies and “21 Jump Street,” finally has something to chew on as Jeffrey Manchester — this is a real life story — who broke into a McDonald’s through the roof, robbed the place (tied up the staff, etc), lavishly spent the proceeds, and wound up in jail.
That’s not the end of the story. Manchester is not satisfied to stay locked up after getting a 45 year sentence. So he cleverly escapes, and then the fun begins.
The police describe Manchester as brilliant but stupid, and that’s true. He probably has a genius IQ, and puts it to work. On the lam, he breaks into a Toys R Us through the roof, and finds a place where he can nest out of sight.
The twist is that he falls for a female clerk (Dunst), and begins sneaking out of the Toys R Us to woo her. She has no idea he’s living in the store where she works. Yes, this all happened, I think in North Carolina, which makes sense.
Tatum and Dunst have chemistry off the charts. Plus there’s a stellar cast put together by the legendary Bonnie Timmerman including Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Adaba, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Molly Price, and Tony Revolori.
That’s some group, and you can’t imagine how they fit together. But they do thanks to Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn’s smart, edgy script which should certainly be up for awards of all kinds.
In most other hands, “Roofman” might not have worked. But Cianfrance knows how to develop conflicted heroes so well that Manchester, though a criminal, remains very sympathetic. It’s Tatum’s best work. Kirsten Dunst — what can you say? — she lights up every scene. She’s a compelling, endearing leading lady, and you’re for things to work out for her.
Life changes on a dime.
A year ago Diane Keaton — Oscar winner, movie star — released a holiday single called “First Christmas.” It fulfilled her lifelong ambition to be a professional singer.
The famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager co-wrote the song with Jonas Myrin. Not much happened, but it was great to hear Keaton, who first sang in “Annie Hall.”
Now, less than a week after her untimely death, Keaton has a top 10 single on iTunes. “First Christmas” is number 9. It could turn out to be a holiday hit this year. What a lovely tribute to such a beloved person.
“When Carole and Jonas first played me ‘First Christmas,’ I got teary,” Keaton said in a statement shared in a press release for the new song. “It is such a beautiful sentiment, and I couldn’t wait to sing it. I’m very proud to be a part of this beautiful Christmas song, and I hope you enjoy it.”
Cheryl Hines has hit the book tour circuit with a thud.
This morning she was shredded on “The View” for backing lunatic husband Robert Kennedy Jr.
Earlier she fumbled on Fox News’s Jesse Watters show, the low point in all of television.
Her book, “Unscripted,” is coming on November 11th. So far, no one wants it. Even with these high profile appearances, she can’t get the book to rise above number 1,500 on amazon.
Hines — who had earned goodwill on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — is also being ripped on Twitter by viewers of these interviews who can’t believe how much she’s sold out to the right. She’s actively attacking vaccines and all accepted science and medical knowledge. No one’s buying that, either.
What a mess, especially for third rate publisher, Skyhorse. They’re going to be stuck with a lot of books.
Cheryl Hines, author of the new memoir 'Unscripted,' reflects on her husband HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "difficult decision" to go from being a Trump critic to backing him and later joining the president's cabinet: "That's a leap, but also it's a leap of faith." pic.twitter.com/nyWeGONdzc
— The View (@TheView) October 14, 2025
Cheryl Hines has fallen so far.
pic.twitter.com/DUfqGMnVdo— Turnbull (@cturnbull1968) October 14, 2025
Alabama incarcerations, Seymour Hersh, Pee Wee Herman, Billy Joel, and George Orwell are among the topics of the nominees for the 2025 Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
The awards will be given out November 9th in New York. Award-winning actor, writer, and producer Aasif Mandvi is the host.
Legendary documentarian Ken Burns will receive the Critics Choice Impact Award, which will be presented by acclaimed actor Christine Baranski.
Visionary filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, previously announced as recipients of the CCA’s Pennebaker Award (formerly the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award), will have the honor presented by Pennebaker’s widow and collaborator, Chris Hegedus. Named in tribute to trailblazing documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, the award celebrates filmmakers whose careers have made a profound and lasting contribution to the art of documentary storytelling.
Nominees for the 10th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
2000 Meters to Andriivka (Frontline Features / The Associated Press)
The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix)
Cover-Up (Netflix)
Deaf President Now! (Apple TV)
Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
Pee-wee as Himself (HBO Max)
The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Riefenstahl (Kino Lorber)
The Tale of Silyan (National Geographic)
BEST DIRECTOR
Mstyslav Chernov – 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Frontline Features / The Associated Press)
Petra Costa – Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix)
Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim – Deaf President Now! (Apple TV)
Geeta Gandbhir – The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman – The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
Raoul Peck – Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Art for Everybody (Tremolo Productions)
Grand Theft Hamlet (Mubi)
My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay (HBO Max)
Seeds (Interior Films)
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost (Apple TV)
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror (Margot Station)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ben Bernard – Architecton (A24)
Jean Dakar – The Tale of Silyan (National Geographic)
Elizabeth Lo – Mistress Dispeller (Oscilloscope)
Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo & Tor Edvin Eliassen – Folktales (Magnolia Pictures)
Brittany Shyne – Seeds (Interior Films)
Toby Strong, Doug Anderson (Underwater Photography) – Ocean with David Attenborough (National Geographic)
BEST EDITING
Michael Harte – Deaf President Now! (Apple TV)
James Lester and Oz Rodríguez, John MacDonald (Music Montage) – Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music (NBC)
Viridiana Lieberman – The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Page Marsella – The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
Michelle Mizner – 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Frontline Features / The Associated Press)
Alexandra Strauss – Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
BEST SCORE
Alexei Aigui – Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
Kris Bowers – The Eyes of Ghana (Breakwater Studios / Higher Ground Media)
Laura Heinzinger – The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Claudia Sarne – Love + War (National Geographic)
Sam Slater – 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Frontline Features / The Associated Press)
Paweł Szymański – Trains (EPF Media / Drygas Film Production)
BEST NARRATION
2000 Meters to Andriivka (Frontline Features / The Associated Press)
Written by Mstyslav Chernov
Performed by Mstyslav Chernov
The American Revolution (PBS)
Written by Geoffrey C. Ward
Performed by Peter Coyote
The Americas (NBC)
Written by Michael Gunton, Holly Spearing, Steve Cole, Kathryn Jeffs, Matt
Richards, Giles Badger, Victoria Buckley, Alex Griffiths, Hannah Hoare, Poppy
Riddle, Gillian Taylor, Nikki Waldron, Evie Wright, Charlotte Bostock, Victoria Bobin,
& Ingrid Kvale
Performed by Tom Hanks
Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix)
Written by Petra Costa
Performed by Petra Costa
Octopus! (Prime Video)
Written by Gabriel Bisset-Smith
Performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
Written by George Orwell, Adapted by Raoul Peck
Performed by Damian Lewis
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
One to One: John & Yoko (Magnolia Pictures)
Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Riefenstahl (Kino Lorber)
Trains (EPF Media / Drygas Film Production)
WTO/99 (Foghorn Features)
BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
The American Revolution (PBS)
Cover-Up (Netflix)
Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015 (HBO Max)
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (National Geographic)
Number One on the Call Sheet (Apple TV)
Riefenstahl (Kino Lorber)
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY
John Candy: I Like Me (Prime Video)
Love + War (National Geographic)
Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV)
My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay (HBO Max)
Pee-wee as Himself (HBO Max)
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost (Apple TV)
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Becoming Led Zeppelin (Sony Pictures Classics)
Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max)
Bono: Stories of Surrender (Apple TV)
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (Magnolia Pictures)
Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music (NBC)
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) (Hulu)
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
Apocalypse in the Tropics (Netflix)
Deaf President Now! (Apple TV)
The Librarians (Independent Lens)
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Marminchilla)
Orwell: 2+2=5 (Neon)
BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY
The Americas (NBC)
Checkpoint Zoo (Abramorama)
The Last Rhinos: A New Hope (National Geographic)
Ocean with David Attenborough (National Geographic)
Octopus! (Prime Video)
Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey (Netflix)
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Netflix)
America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys (Netflix)
Big Dreams: Little League World Series 2024 (ESPN Films)
Full Court Press (ESPN+)
Southpaw: The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott (ESPN)
We Beat the Dream Team (HBO Max)
BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY
The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (Netflix)
The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
Predators (MTV Documentary Films / Paramount+)
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (Netflix)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max)
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
All the Empty Rooms (Netflix)
Classroom 4 (PBS)
The Devil is Busy (HBO Max)
Exodus (Park County)
Fiddler on the Moon: Judaism in Space (Ironbound Films)
Sallie’s Ashes (Robi Creative)
Saving Superman (Switchboard)
Shanti Rides Shotgun (Voyager)
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
The American Revolution (PBS)
Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015 (HBO Max)
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (Netflix)
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (National Geographic)
Magic City: An American Fantasy (Starz)
Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV)
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night (Peacock)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max)
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
30 for 30 (ESPN Films)
American Masters (PBS)
The Reluctant Traveler (Apple TV)
Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross (Roku Channel)
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller (National Geographic)
Trainwreck (Netflix)
Vanity Fair is dead. The new Vanity Fair has gone “Brat.”
The new Vanity Fair is something quite different than anything from Tina Brown or Graydon Carter.
The November cover subject? Pop starlet Charli XCX, 33, a minor player in the music business but big among teen girls and the early 20-ers. She doesn’t have a thought in her head, and she’s proud of it.
Vanity Fair, under new editor Mark Guiducci — who is still running Vogue World, a one day live fashion event — is now in the demo of Cosmopolitan or Cosmo from the 1990s. Like Charli, the magazine also doesn’t have a thought in its head.
This is a deliberate move. Subscribers over the age of 40 are being told by this cover choice and last month’s — Dakota and Elle Fanning — to go away. Young girls are coming to the valley.
It’s ironic timing that Diane Keaton, a woman of such accomplishment well before Charli’s age of 33, has passed this week.
Charli XCX is the downmarket Taylor Swift. She’s not even Billie Eilish, who has Oscars and Grammys and might merit such treatment some day. Charli’s “Brat” album was a pop phenom in 2024 among teens and young women. It wasn’t about the music, per se. It was the concept– an ad concept that worked well. “Brat” became a password.
Here’s a key passage from the article:
“I’m always thinking about how I look and what I would change about my face,” Charli says, citing her favorite plastic surgery website RealSelf for giving her the resources to know that she can’t achieve a permanent version of the braid eye tilt with sugar threads. At some point, she says, she “probably will get” a mid-facelift. “I’m fucking thinking about all the shit that I could do and pull and stretch and morph on my face, all the time,” Charli says. “I have to just remind myself that maybe I can’t get too sucked into that.”
Anna Wintour has gotten what she paid for. The “Young Hollywood” feature takes over. Charli XCX has almost 9 million followers on Instagram. Her “Brat” video, below, has had 35 Million views. If putting her on the cover doesn’t bring readers and sell issues, the next step may be even more jarring.
After all, last month’s issue had only 92 pages, the minimum for perfect binding. Lower than that and you get staple binding, something like an airline magazine.
One last note and maybe most important: this issue and the last are also clear signals that Vanity Fair is separated from the movie business. They’re detached now from actual stars of movies, or new releases that might some relevant. Would Timothee Chalamet’s people have him follow Charli XCX?
Sting first met Argentinian composer and performer Charly Garcia in 1988 at an Amnesty International concert.
Now after almost 40 years they’ve had a chance to make a record together. “In the City” marries Sting’s dazzling vocals (he’s never sounded better) with Garcia’s brilliantly catchy original song.
Argentine origin musician, and longtime member of Sting’s band, Dominic Miller recorded guitars on the track, while Diego López de Arcaute played drums.
Sting says: “It’s an honour to sing with Charly, so it was easy to do it with enthusiasm and from the heart. It was fun to arrange and combine the harmonies. They served the song, but they were also a fun musical message for him. Thank you, Charly, for your music and for inviting me to sing on this song with you.”
Garcia adds: “This collaboration came about naturally when we met up again in the dressing room before Sting’s show in Buenos Aires. I have always been a big fan of Sting’s sound and way of composing. ‘In the City’ was a song that I had already written and that – in addition to being in English – I thought would be perfect for his voice in the chorus. I was excited to hear him on my song.”
“In the City” is available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube etc.
Woody Allen’s written a remembrance of Diane Keaton which appears today in The Free Press.
Allen turns 90 on November 30th. In the last year or so he’s lost Keaton, Tony Roberts, and two close collaborators, Marshall Brickman and Doug McGrath — all much younger. It’s no fun getting old.
You can see Woody’s deep affection for Keaton in this piece. I’m told he did visit with her a few months ago when he went to Los Angeles to do Bill Maher’s TV show. But their unique partnership is one for the ages.
Here are some highlights:
“I first laid eyes on her lanky beauty at an audition and thought, If
Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton. Fresh out of
Orange County, she flew to Manhattan to act, got a job as a coat check
girl, and was hired for a small part in the musical Hair, in which she
eventually had the lead.”
“For the first week of rehearsal we never spoke a word to one another.
She was shy, I was shy, and with two shy people things can get pretty
dull. Finally, by chance we took a break at the same moment and wound
up sharing a fast bite at some Eighth Avenue joint. That was our first
moment of personal contact. The upshot is that she was so charming,
so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly?”
“As time went on I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton. I
never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had
to say about it. If she liked it, I counted the film as an artistic success.
“During the few years we lived together, she taught me so much.
Example: Before I met her I never heard of bulimia. We’d go to Knicks
games and after to Frankie and Johnnie’s for a steak. She’d put away a
sirloin, hash browns, marble cheesecake, and coffee. Then we’d get
home, and moments later she’d be toasting waffles or packing a huge
taco with pork. I would stand there, stunned. This slim actress ate like
Paul Bunyan. Only years later when she wrote a memoir did she
describe her eating disorder, but when I was experiencing it, I could only
think I’d never seen anyone eat like that outside of a documentary on
whales.”
“She went on to date a number of exciting men, all of them more
fascinating than I was. I went on to keep trying to make that great
masterpiece that I am still struggling with when I last looked. I kidded
Keaton that we’d wind up—she like Norma Desmond, me like Erich von
Stroheim, once her director, now her chauffeur. But the world is
constantly being redefined, and with Keaton’s passing it is redefined
once again. A few days ago the world was a place that included Diane
Keaton. Now it’s a world that does not. Hence, it’s a drearier world. Still, there are her movies. And her great laugh still echoes in my head.”
Like you, perhaps, I’ve received a couple of notices that the price of Disney Plus is rising soon by three bucks a month.
Now we may know why: they’ve made a deal with billionaire Taylor Swift for a six part docuseries called “Is There Anything Left to Know?”
On that date she will also drop on Disney Plus the full final show of the “Eras Tour” which includes a full performance of her last album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
This is all great, because what we need more than ever is more Taylor Swift. You can’t have enough of it!
Swift writes on Instagram: “It was the End of an Era and we knew it. We wanted to remember every moment leading up to the culmination of the most important and intense chapter of our lives, so we allowed filmmakers to capture this tour and all the stories woven throughout it as it wound down. And to film the final show in its entirety.”
I did this interview in the summer of 1993 as a freelancer for the NY Daily News magazine.
Unfortunately, the Daily News from that era is not digitized. But we’ll try and digitize this soon.
Diane picked the Columbia Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd. I don’t think it’s been there for a long time. The occasion was the release of Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery.” It was right after Woody had gone through the whole Mia Farrow scandal. Diane stood by hin 100%, and always did afterwards. She was a loyal, loving friend.
Keaton was so much fun, and whenever we saw each other for the next 30 years she’d stop and say hello, and we’d catch up. She was a remarkable person. Like everyone in the world, I will miss her forever.
And look at all the people in this interview who got on the phone with me. They were extremely generous with their time.
Diane Keaton by Roger Friedman c2025. All rights reserved.
