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Exclusive: Mitt Romney Secured Visas for Today’s Russian Empire State Building Climbers in 2024, Ex-NYC Top Cop Thought They Could Never Pull It Off Here

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Mitt Romney Secured Visas for Today’s Russian Empire State Building Climbers in 2024, Ex-NYC Top Cop Thought They Could Never Pull It Off Here

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.

At the screening we learned from the producers that Senator Mitt Romney had secured visas for the pair so they could do the film festival circuit. That was a surprise.

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.

Exclusive: Mitt Romney Secured Visas for Russian Documentary Filmmakers Who Scale Skyscrapers Against the Law


Is It A Christopher Nolan Summer Again? “Oppenheimer” Director Unveils Final Trailer for “The Odyssey” Starring Matt Damon, Cast of Thousands

Roger Friedman
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Is It A Christopher Nolan Summer Again? “Oppenheimer” Director Unveils Final Trailer for “The Odyssey” Starring Matt Damon, Cast of Thousands

Here comes Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”

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.

We Knew It, We Know Her: Taylor Swift Will Actually Have $20 Mil Wedding at Madison Square Garden, in Sweltering Heat with Possible Thunderstorms

Roger Friedman
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We Knew It, We Know Her: Taylor Swift Will Actually Have $20 Mil Wedding at Madison Square Garden, in Sweltering Heat with Possible Thunderstorms

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”

Watch: Famed Actor Danny Glover and Family Tell NBC’s Lester Holt He Has Alzheimer’s Disease, Cites “Places in the Heart” as Favorite Movie

Roger Friedman
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Watch: Famed Actor Danny Glover and Family Tell NBC’s Lester Holt He Has Alzheimer’s Disease, Cites “Places in the Heart” as Favorite Movie

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.

RIP Village People Leader, “YMCA” Writer Victor Willis, 75, Voted for Kamala Harris, Tried to Stop Trump Use of Song (See Video)

Roger Friedman
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RIP Village People Leader, “YMCA” Writer Victor Willis, 75, Voted for Kamala Harris, Tried to Stop Trump Use of Song (See Video)

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 Will Pit Two Cerebral Movie Against Each Other — “The Social Reckoning” About Facebook vs. “Artificial” and ChatGPT

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Season Will Pit Two Cerebral Movie Against Each Other — “The Social Reckoning” About Facebook vs. “Artificial” and ChatGPT

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.

Melania Trump Income for 2025 Was Around $17 Million, Made from Trading on Role as First Lady for Book and Documentary That Were Flops

Roger Friedman
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Melania Trump Income for 2025 Was Around $17 Million, Made from Trading on Role as First Lady for Book and Documentary That Were Flops

“Melania,” the documentary for which few saw tickets were sold.

Amazon paid Melania Trump $40 million for the doc, which was panned everywhere. It was a self serving infomercial that couldn’t even be called a film.

In theaters, “Melania” made just $16.5 million worldwide.

Now, according to certified annual federal filings, we learn that Melania earned $10.7 million from the movie.

If this were a real film, bankruptcy would be next.

As it is, Melania probably get three more payments to make that $40 million.

So when our Amazon Prime memberships increase in price, keep this in mind. Someone had to pay for this bribery scheme, and it wasn’t Jeff Bezos, trust me.

Also on Melania’s income form: $6 million from NFTs — worthless coins — and collectibles, like crappy jewelry and nick knacks, and $521,000 for proceeds from her book, which also didn’t sell very well — under 150,000 copies.

By comparison, “Regime Change,” about the horrors of the Trump admin by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has sold 300,000 copies in its first week.

The movie and the book were all about Melania’s life as First Lady – so she just exploited her public role to make private income.

Dear MAGA, you’ve been fleeced. And you love it.

The Devil Really Wears Prada: Fashion House’s New Spokesman Is A Well Known Anti-Zionist Pro-Palestinian Rapper-Singer, Previously Repped YSL

Roger Friedman
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The Devil Really Wears Prada: Fashion House’s New Spokesman Is A Well Known Anti-Zionist Pro-Palestinian Rapper-Singer, Previously Repped YSL

The Devil Wears Antisemitism.

Prada’s new spokesperson is Marwan Abdelhamid, known professionally as Saint Levant.

Born in Jerusalem during the second Intifada to a French-Algerian mother and a Serbian-Palestinian father, Abdelhamid spent seven years growing up in Gaza.

The rapper wears a Palestinian pendant in his photos. The pendant features the geographical map of Palestine, omitting Israel from the region. He caused a stir this week by wearing the pendant in a new video.

According to many reports, “Saint Levant” — who lives in Los Angeles — enraged Jews when he praised violent antisemitic attacks targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam. He was repping YSL aka Yves Saint Laurent at the time. Saint Levant was performing in the Dutch city. The 2024 attacks had been described as a “pogrom” targeting Jews.

Saint Levant reportedly told his fans: “Quick little shoutout to our Moroccan brothers for what they did the other day,” he told the crowd. “Because it’s not the first time that they come to a land that’s not theirs and start some shit. So thank you for taking care of business.”

Abdelhamid once told Harper’s Bazaar: “Everything that I do is Israeli-focused and based on the Palestinian cause and struggle, doing a lot of contextualizing […] because I came to America, man, and I realized that a lot of people thought that […] it’s a conflict between these two equal[s who] just hate each other for some reason, [that] Palestinians just hate Israelis. And what people don’t understand is that it’s 80 years of occupation and oppression and displacement and ethnic cleansing so I think it’s very important to just push that forward always and I try to do it through the music; I try to do it through my actions, and everything that I do.”

Royatvnews reported: “The artist has consistently described ‘Israel’s existence in Palestinian territories as an occupation, frequently speaking out against decades of oppression and displacement. Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Abdelhamid has publicly accused ‘Israel’ of committing genocide, a stance that has made him a deeply polarizing figure globally, while cementing his status as a prominent cultural voice for Palestinian solidarity.”

Maybe Prada simply doesn’t care about Jewish customers. But this is yet another continuation of the normalizing of antisemitism by corporations.

“60 Minutes”: Another Vet Producer is Out, New CBS Investigative Correspondent Going to Cover Electronic Dance Music Festival This Summer

Roger Friedman
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“60 Minutes”: Another Vet Producer is Out, New CBS Investigative Correspondent Going to Cover Electronic Dance Music Festival This Summer

“60 Minutes” continues to bleed legacy talent.

Now producer Henry Schuster says he’s out. According to the CBS News website, Schuster is an award-winning producer for 60 Minutes since 2007. He has covered uninsured Americans, the 2008 financial crisis, a Marine unit in Afghanistan and their return home five years later, as well as the rise of ISIS, Russian corruption, Chinese espionage, life inside Supermax, and the Sandy Hook families. He has also conducted five interviews with the chair of the Federal Reserve and reported on the attempt to undermine the 2020 election.

On Linked In, Schuster writes: “After almost two decades, it was time for a change.
It has been a great run at 60 MINUTES and what I got to do there was extraordinary. But I have been thinking about leaving for a while now and when the opportunity presented itself in February, I took it. And finally, it is official.
Although, it has been overshadowed by the forced departures of so many colleagues and friends at the broadcast.”

Schuster is referring to the bloodbath caused by CBS News chief Bari Weiss and new “60 Minutes” executive producer. Gone are much of the staff as well as Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper.

Not precisely for “60 Minutes,” Weiss has hired British tabloid personality Josh Boswell. He comes a lot of unreliable, petty reporting at places like the Daily Mail.

What’s Boswell doing to prepare for his new job on the CBS Investigative unit? He’s going to an EDM Festival this summer — that’s Electronic Dance Music. I am not kidding. He says on Instagram he’s taken the time to make an app so he can see all the acts he wants at something called DekMantel in Amsterdam.

Mike, Morley, Ed, and Harry are turning in their graves. I’m turning in mine. Even if there’s a murder at the festival, or misused funds, I don’t give a rat’s ass about electronic dance music and neither do you. What I do care about is the human condition, and world events are affecting it.

This is not a serious person.

Katy Perry Strikes Out Again with New Single “Watch it Burn” About Career, Already off the Chart After Four Days: What Is She Thinking?

Roger Friedman
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Katy Perry Strikes Out Again with New Single “Watch it Burn” About Career, Already off the Chart After Four Days: What Is She Thinking?

For some reason, I always thought Katy Perry would have a big career.

After a bunch of hits like “Firework” and “Roar,” Katy seemed poised to keep expanding her success.

But her last real hit — which I loved — was “Chained to the Rhythm.” It seemed like a brave new turn into more sophisticated pop music. “Chained” got to number 4 in 2016.

And that was it. A decade has now passed since Katy had any kind of chart hit, or a record people talked about. Granted, she spent several years as a judge on “American Idol.” That stint may have earned her a bundle, but it did nothing for her music career.

All of this to say I was actually shocked on Friday to learn Perry had a new single and video called “Watch it Burn.” There was little prep or marketing, just a dump. What was she thinking? What was burning? Her career?

Sad to say, “Watch it Burn” spent a few hours on the iTunes chart, got up to around number 16, and has since vanished. The YouTube video has 2 million views, which seems like a lot but translates into very little.

Some thought Katy’s continued embrace of Dr. Luke as a producer tarnished her image. After all, Dr. Luke — real name Łukasz Gottwald — was involved in a nasty scandal and lawsuits with pop singer Kesha, who accused him of rape and manipulation. Female pop stars rallied for Kesha, and against Luke. Katy, who’d built her career on female empowerment, seemed tone deaf.

Since then, she’s literally watched ‘it’ burn. If she has a team of advisors she can’t be listening to them. “Watch It Burn” is angry and ugly. Even though Dr. Luke is gone, the new production is dark. She also seems to be singing it a very low register. It could be her voice has changed — she’s 41. But Perry seems to be better known for whom she’s dating — former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau — than what she’s singing.

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