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.
Before he was disgraced in sex scandals, Kevin Spacey was a movie star.
He actually has two Oscars, a Tony, and other awards.
But now that no one in Hollywood will hire him, Spacey has been reduced to Trump-like direct mail theatrics.
He’s selling what’s described as a class ring in two versions — regular and collectible. The former is $150, the latter $250.
The ring is emblazoned with the letters “FU.” Classy class ring!
There’s no mention of the materials involved, but maybe he melted down his awards. I doubt it, though. My high school class ring — from 100 years ago — looks better.
Spacey’s latest movie, “1780,” went straight to video without reviews. Also, his late father was a Neo-Nazi.
Michael Rubin, who owns the sports garmento company Fanatics, threw his annual “white” party yesterday in the Hamptons.
Today he posted a picture of himself and guests including Tom Brady, the Knicks’ Karl Anthony Towns, and Jordyn Woods receiving actual IV hydration. He joked in the comments that it was “rehab.”
Brady underscores his legacy as one of the least good decision makers of all time. Check out the bandage on his arm where the needle went in.
Rubin is a happy man. He has millions of dollars and all the sports paraphernalia anyone could want. He doesn’t realize that his gazillion dollar home looks like an airline terminal or actual hospital. (See the photo below – doesn’t that look like a conference room?)
It’s kind of hilarious. Rubin shares a predilection for artist George Condo with the late convicted Hollywood money manager Dana Giacchetto. In the end, Giacchetto had to sell all his Condos after he was indicted for bilking clients of $14 million back in 2000. Something about Condo attracts the nouveau riche. Rubin commissioned Condo to make his invitations. So you could say Condo was Cooperative.
The White Party, as he calls it, also recalls the heyday of Sean Diddy Combs, who threw the exact same gatherings 20 years ago with many of the same guests (Kardashians, rappers, and so on — you won’t find the literati of the old Hamptons there).
The only difference was the baby lotion.
Of course Martha Stewart and her bestie Snoop Dogg attended the party. From what I’ve heard, Martha may have been near unneeded medical equipment at the conclusion of the Knicks ticker tape parade. She did take a picture with an ambulance. I heard she may have used it as quick transportation out of the melee. Smart!
We are drawing closer to the most important wedding since Kim Kardashian married…everyone.
Tomorrow is the date for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s $20 million extravaganza at Madison Square Garden. The tacky event’s theme is “Look at me,” with guests totaling 1,000 at the world’s most famous venue in the center of the biggest city in America.
Also, it will be one hundred and twenty five degrees.
But wait — I can tell you that speculation about Stevie Nicks singing something at the wedding is confirmed.
Also, Este Haim, of the sister group HAIM, is going to perform. Haim and Nicks are pals, and may sing together, I am told.
Este could bring up her sisters. Taylor and Este are beste friends, you know. Taylor and Stevie attended Este’s wedding back on New Year’s Eve.
Este, you know, is also an actress, appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” and briefly in “One Battle After Another.”
I don’t really understand the HAIM career. Their biggest hit, “The Wire,” was from 2013. They don’t really have a breakout hit. It’s surprising they don’t. Maybe they should record one of Taylor’s songs.
Anyway, sounds like fun. And good for Stevie: you must have younger friends as you age. These girls are her spiritual children!
PS Send the video to me at showbiz411@gmail.com. All confidential.
Donald Trump has posted an AI video in which he’s a “Doctor” — ha ha — treating patients for not liking him.
The “patients” are his enemies — like Rosie O’Donnell, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, John Leguizamo, etc.
The AI is very bad. The celebrities he thinks he’s mocking couldn’t be more inauthentic looking.
But this is how the president of the United States is celebrating our nation’s 250th birthday.The forefathers are rolling in their graves. They could never have envisioned this is how things would be back when they fought to create this country.
On the upside, at least he’s not sleeping in the video.
The two people who climbed to the top of the Empire State Building today — I wasn’t surprised when I heard about it during this afternoon’s Yankees game. (Don’t ask — 100 degrees out and we lost).
Ivan Beerkus and Angela Nikolau are smart people, not “twerps” as some idiot described them in the NY Post.
They were the subjects of “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” which screened at Sundance, Tribeca, and Hamptons Docs two years ago. I saw it exactly on July 5, 2024 at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Alec Baldwin hosted a Q&A after the screening.
Atop the Empire State Building, they unfurled a banner that read “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Then Ivan and Angela became engaged. She showed off a picture of her ring and her manicure. LOL. They had the same bravado they had in the movie.
The young Russian couple met online, sharing a vision of climbing skyscrapers — or “rooftopping.” The movie — directed by eff Zimbalist and co-directed by Maria Bukhonina — is sensational. It follows the pair and their crew all over Eastern Europe, where they scale the tallest buildings they can find. They are methodical and resourceful. I thought the doc was terrific. But Netflix got cold feet and didn’t do much for it, which surprised me.
There were many luminaries at the screening who live nearby including former NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and his wife, Veronica. During the Q&A after the screening, I asked a question of the directors, then jokingly asked Kelly if the couple could get away with this sort of thing in New York.
Kelly — I’m a big fan — laughed and told the audience he didn’t think so. “The New York police would stop them in a minute,” he told the crowd.
He and his wife, Veronica, enjoyed the film but like a lot of people found it maybe too good to be true. Did these people really climb all these buildings without attracting attention?
And yet, there they were today, atop the Empire State Building. I felt very proud that they managed to do it. If you see the film, you’ll know they plan these climbs carefully. Usually they get into the building at night, find a hiding place, and then go on their adventure.
Was today’s stunt for a new doc? Could be, and not necessarily for Netflix. But good for them! Much more interesting couple than Taylor and Travis, that’s for sure. I’m sick of that wedding already.
PS Did Ivan and Angela really get engaged today? I thought they already were engaged, or maybe married. No matter. Brilliant hook.
This could be the director’s second big summer after “Oppenheimer” was such a hit in 2023. Of course, “Barbie” helped, too. “The Odyssey” could have been “Kenodyssey.”
Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, and dozens more star in this epic telling of Homer’s epic poem.
Coming July 17th. btw Homer has rights to “The Iliad,” and CAA is negotiating now.
As Robert Cray sang so well, The forecast calls for pain.
Tonight and tomorrow, temperatures in New York will be sweltering. Lightning and thunder are expected Friday afternoon.
That’s about when Taylor Swift will say I do to Travis Kelce — and vice versa. Cost of the wedding actually happening at Madison Square Garden: $20 million.
According to reports, the rehearsal dinner for 100 guests will take place in the Theater at Madison Garden. Then the wedding will kick off Friday afternoon for 1,000 guests. Swift and friends will put on a big concert with a specially built stage. Pictures from the scene indicate she’s building a massive garden with a castle inside the Garden.
What’s the over/under on this marriage? For $20 million, she has to hope it lasts at least 20 years. But Kelce will return to football and Swift — even if she starts a family — won’t stop recording and touring. Usually all of that is a bad mix. So let’s cross fingers for them.
Swift and Kelce could have an elegant wedding — like at the Waldorf — or an intimate one. They could have low-keyed the whole thing. But what would be the point? Soon we’ll find out she sold the rights — maybe to Disney, where she does a lot of business, or to People magazine — and there could even be a bootleg soundtrack by Monday.
Me? I’m checking StubHub for scalped tickets.
BTW, tonight Madonna releases her latest album. She may be overshadowed by the wedding. It’s pretty hard to put Madonna in a corner, unless, of course, she’s performing at the concert!
PS NY Post headline for sure — “Wedding Taylor-Made”
Four time Emmy nominee Danny Glover tells NBC’s Lester Holt he has Alzheimer’s Disease.
Glover was diagnosed in 2022, around the time he won a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Motion Picture Academy. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Oscar.
Glover became an overnight sensation on Broadway in 1982, starring in Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold and the Boys,” a role he reprised in 2003. After his Broadway launch, he went on to star in four “Lethal Weapon” movies.
He tells Holt that his favorite movie was Robert Benton’s “Places in the Heart,” starring Sally Field. Some of his other great roles were in movies like “Grand Canyon,” “A Rage in Harlem,” and “Dreamgirls.” Years after “Places in the Heart,” he played Sally Field’s love interest on TV in “Brothers and Sisters.”
Alzheimer’s is cruel and you can see it’s already taken its toll on Glover. At least for now he knows how much his acting and political activism have meant to everyone.
Sad to hear that Victor Willis, head of the Village People, has died at 75.
Donald Trump rushed to his computer to eulogize Willis early this morning, knowing he’d get a headline. Trump usurped Willis’s Village People song, “YMCA,” for his rallies even though it was about gay life in the 1970s.
Willis tried to stop Trump from using “YMCA” during his 2016 campaign, but failed. The singer-songwriter voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. But eventually he was persuaded by Trump’s team to come around and perform at the 2025 Inauguration. Money talks, everyone dances.
The Village People were a gay phenomenon in the late 70s and early 80s. Their songs, including “Macho Man” and “In the Navy,” were novelty hits. “Macho Man” even got parodied on “The Simpsons” as “Nacho Man.” During that time, Willis signed away his rights to his portion of the songs. But as “YMCA” grew as a crowdpleaser — especially at Yankee Stadium and other crowd events — he sued to recover his copyrights. He won the case in 2012.
Initially Willis sent a cease and desist letter to Trump over having a fake Village People band playing at Mar-a-Lago and singing the hits. He tried to stop Trump from using “YMCA.” Eventually, though, he realized there was money to be made from Trump’s usage. Everyone has a price, and Willis was not immune. By January 2025 he was on stage at Trump’s second inauguration.
Before Trump resurrected it, “YMCA” was kind of a joke. But Spotify now says it’s on the precipice of a shocking 500 million streams.
As for physical product, there’s only “The Very Best of the Village People” still available on amazon. It’s current at number 59,800. But let’s see over the weekend if Willis’s death gives it a boost. The irony would be sort of perfect for America 250.
Reports say Willis died after a short battle with cancer. Condolences.
Oscar season is shaping up with a duel between head movies.
Today, Neon Pictures announced they’ve bought “Artificial,” the Luca Guadagnino film about Sam Altman and Chat GPT.
Neon picks up the feature after Amazon/MGM had to table it. “Artificial” is critical of friends of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. It’s not “Melania.”
Andrew Garfield stars as Sam Altman, the reptilian founder of the company chipping away at our lives. Remember, Garfield was one of the stars of “The Social Network,” which was written by Aaron Sorkin.
Now, Sorkin has written and directed “The Social Reckoning,” the sort of sequel to “The Social Network.” It’s a continuation of the saga of Mark Zuckerberg — now played by Jeremy Strong — creator of Facebook, the social media platform that has fulfilled its promise of trying to destroy civilization.
These two films will be compared to each other by everyone, starting with critics. They will likely cross each other out, at some point.
What about Oscars? When “The Social Network” came out, it was admired. But it didn’t have the heart of “The King’s Speech.” It was about young people fighting over money they made from something onerous. These two films will be similarly weighed down in the face of “The Odyssey” and other releases.
And buzz? Plenty for both movies. And lots of curiosity. One thing we know for certain. Garfield and Strong will be much touted for the Oscars.
