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Jeff Bezos’s Amazon Studios Won’t Release Movie it Made About Sam Altman and ChatGPT That Makes All The Tech Billionaires Look Bad

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There’s genuine concern about “Artificial.”

That’s the movie made by Luca Guadagnino about Sam Altman and Chat GPT. “Artificial” is all locked and ready to go, but Amazon/MGM says they won’t release it.

How could they? Jeff Bezos is in business with Altman to the tune of $50 billion. And let’s not forget the $75 mil Bezos lavished on the flop Melania Trump documentary just to curry favor with our bloated orange maniac.

The movie, according to sources including Matt Belloni of Puck Newsletter, goes hard on Altman and on a lot of Bezos pals like Elon Musk.

The screenplay by Simon Rich — son of former New York Times power couple Frank Rich and Alex Witchel — was flagged a year ago in media circles that it could cause an uproar. But there was also a story intentionally planted that it was “boring” to throw off the depicted billionaires.

Well, Amazon/MGM has released a lot of boring movies, so that’s not the reason they’ve dumped it. The problem is that Warner Bros. and Paramount passed on the screenplay a long time ago, before they were corporate cousins owned by the censorious Ellisons. So you can scratch those two studios for taking it off Amazon’s hands.

That leaves Universal or Disney, one of which would have to take the flak from Altman, Musk and others in the film that tells the story of the time Altman left the company AI and then returned. As much as Aaron Sorkin is preparing the sequel to “The Social Network,” this movie sounds like it’s really the next chapter.

Are we surprised about Bezos saying ‘no’ to “Artificial”? I’m actually surprised it got made, to tell you the truth. Even with a sterling cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, and so on, “Artificial” should have thrown up red flags for Bezos immediately. After all, he’s rearranged the Washington Post to take out its bite. His movie studio certainly isn’t going to be allowed to cause trouble for his real billion dollar business.

Puck says CAA is handling the screenings for new potential buyers. That’s interesting because one of the actors in the film is Billie Lourd, daughter of CAA chief Bryan Lourd (her mother was Carrie Fisher). So CAA has incentive to find “Artificial” a new home, one that can afford its $50 million price tag and also be willing to promote it at film festivals and for awards.

Will this movie ever be released? Or will it be crushed by the system? There’s a lot here we don’t know or isn’t being said. So hang on, or ask ChatGPT what happens next.

Carly Simon’s Not Saying Whether She’s Going to Pal Taylor Swift’s Wedding: After All, She’s Kept the Secret of “You’re So Vain” for Five Decades

Review: Rockin’ Peter Asher Doc “Everywhere Man” Solves Classic Pop Puzzle Tying the Beatles and British Invasion to the 70s LA Music Scene

I just finished watching a new documentary about charming music producer/manager/60s pop star Peter Asher and I could watch it all over again right now.

Anyone who loves music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s will see immediately that “Everywhere Man” (a play on “Nowhere Man”) is a missing piece of the rock and pop jigsaw puzzle. Placed in its proper spot, “Everything Man” makes the whole history much clearer.

It’s also a lot of fun because Peter — who Mike Myers maybe based Austin Powers’s look on — is an irascible rascal who knows how to tell his remarkable story.

It begins in London in the early 60s as two things happened: he and Gordon Waller begin singing together as Peter and Gordon, and Paul McCartney dates Peter’s actress sister, Jane. Paul moves into the Asher house, where he and John Lennon use the downstairs music room to write songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Paul writes a hit for Peter and Gordon called “A World Without Love,” and we are off to the races.

By the late 60s, Peter is running the Beatles’ new Apple Records and discovers James Taylor, who makes his first album. (Asher’s also responsible for the early hits by Badfinger and Mary Hopkin, among others). Peter and James move to Los Angeles, come upon Carole King and Linda Ronstadt on the west coast music scene, and gold records fall out of the sky like stars from heaven.

Before I was lucky enough to meet Peter around 1990, he was one of my music heroes like Richard Perry and Phil Ramone. They were the Mt. Rushmore of pop producing during the wild heyday circa 1970-77. Nothing stopped them. Their taste was impeccable, as were their music chops. So much of our attributive musical soundtrack is because of them.

More recently, Peter launched a popular touring show (including a later Badfinger drummer, Jeff Alan Ross) in which he tells his story with a live band, audio, and video clips. It’s not to be missed. (Peter also hosts a chatty and fun show on Sirius XM 18 called “From Me to You.”) The doc’s directors, Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, smartly use the show as the foundation of the film, with Peter telling his own story live on stage and in narration.

The directors very cleverly lay out Peter’s history against the buzz of the Beatles and the British invasion, then tie it all together to Peter being instrumental in the West Coast music scene that gave us Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, Andrew Gold, and so many others. There are very detailed interviews with Paul McCartney, Ronstadt and Taylor, as well as early pals like Steve Martin and Eric Idle, so that the picture gets clearer and clearer of how so many lasting icons were hatched. It’s because it seemed like Peter was everywhere, man.

The doc fits a lot in considering how much material there is, and they even left a few things out. But nothing vital is missing, and by the time Peter’s wife, Wendy, is talking about the dinners they used to have with Joni Mitchell every few days, your mind is blown. They don’t tell you that Peter won three Grammys. Two of them, for Producer of the Year, cover a wide range of time– 1978 and 1990. In 2003 came the third, for a Robin Williams comedy album. Earlier this year, Peter co-produced Barbra Streisand’s latest duets album.

“Everywhere Man” has a lot of music in it — I don’t know how they cleared all these songs. But we are the luckier for it. The doc rolls out across the country in theaters only starting today, and it’s gift. Go see it immediately.

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt Says He’s Never Met Peter Thiel, Has Only Been to Two Of His Conferences: “Sometimes It’s Productive to Engage with Those We Oppose”

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Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is responding to reports that he’s been hanging around with public enemy Peter Thiel.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Gordon-Levitt — star of “Third Rock from the Sun” and “Flora and Sun,” as well many other films — had attended Thiel’s bizarre conferences.

The actor says he did go two conferences but has never met Thiel or his people. He says, “Sometimes it’s productive to engage with those we oppose.”

Thiel — worth an estimated $28 billion —  is someone everyone should oppose. A close associate of Donald Trump, he’s the founder of PayPal, Palantir, and other nefarious companies

Other Hollywood star cited by THR who went to Dialog conferences include Josh Brolin.actress Sophia Bush, “La La Land” composer Benj Pasek, and former Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun.

 

Stevie Wonder Proclaims at Spectacular All Star Musical Finale at Obama Library: “Never let fear put your dreams to sleep” (Watch)

David Letterman, Tom Hanks, Stephen Colbert, and dozens of celebrities sat in the blazing sun in Chicago today for the opening of the Obama Presidential library.

The speeches by Michelle and Barack Obama each were so intelligent and heart felt, so insightful, that they reminded me of what we’ve lost — at least temporarily — and the grotesque people destroying our country.

Stevie Wonder’s spectacular musical finale with Bruce Springsteen, Bono and The Edge, Jennifer Hudson, Common, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, The Roots and more was historic. Stevie spoke about first meeting the Obamas in 2004 and how they influenced him.

Stevie proclaimed: “Don’t let fear put your dreams to sleep.”

What a thrill to see the Bidens, Clintons, and the Bushes in this moment with the Obamas. They are all on a higher ground from our present “leadership.”

Obama really trumped Trump, putting on the real America 250 celebration that Trump could not produce.


Watch: Live– Knicks NBA Championship Parade On Every New York Station EXCEPT Rupert Murdoch’s Fox 5, Which is All in On World Cup

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Rupert Murdoch’s Fox5 claims to be New York’s TV station.

But they’re ignoring the live parade for NBA champions New York Knicks.

Fox5 looks ridiculous showing the World Cup right now.

The parade is being carried on Channels, 2, 4, and 7. But nothing from 5. It’s very embarrassing.

You can watch one of the feeds here:

RIP Nick Doob, Famed Emmy Winning Documentary Filmmaker and Cinematographer, Worked with DA Pennebaker Among Others

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I am sorry to learn of the passing of Nick Doob.

The legendary documentary filmmaker and cinematographer’s obit is below. I met him in 1999 when he was a key part of making “Only the Strong Survive,” the documentary I made with Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker. He was part of many of their films, as described below in his Yale Film Archive obit. The Pennebaker Hegedus offices were humming in 1999-2001 when “Only the Strong” was being assembled on one floor, Chris Hegedus’s award winning “Startup.com” — incredibly prescient — on another, and the Coen Brothers’ concert film “Down from the Mountain” on a third. Nick was instrumental in all three.

Nick won two Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for another five. He was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy.

Nick was so important to landmark documentary filmmaking, and a great guy. He was really beloved by all and will be sorely missed. Condolences to his wife Linda Atkinson, herself a noted filmmaker and actress.

from Facebook: *photo of Nick, on the right*

The Yale Film Archive celebrates the life and work of director, cinematographer, and editor Nick Doob (1947-2026), who passed away on Friday, June 12. An award-winning filmmaker, an alumnus of Yale College (BA ’69) and the Yale School of Art (MFA ‘73), Nick was a generous colleague and long-time friend of the YFA. Over the last decade, the YFA has preserved five of Nick’s films, made between his time at Yale and the late 1970s.

A long-time colleague of D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Nick shot a number of Pennebaker Hegedus films including ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1979) and THE WAR ROOM (1993). Nick was also cinematographer for the Academy Award-winning films FROM MAO TO MOZART (1981) and SMILE PINKI (2008), and with co-director Shari Cookson he made a series of documentaries that aired on HBO, including COUNTRY DOCTOR (2025).

In 2015, Nick donated original film elements for many of his early films to the YFA, which made new preservation film masters and digital transfers of these films, including PLASTIC SAINTS (1968), 42ND ST MOVIE (1969), COSTUMED DANCER (1969), STREET MUSIC (1979), and LONDON SONGS (1973). (See them at bit.ly/yalenickdoob.) Nick joined us at Yale for screenings of all of these films, and, along with archivist Brian Meacham, shared some of these films with audiences at Metrograph and the Roxy Cinema in New York. Most recently, 16mm preservations of his films 42ND STREET MOVIE and STREET MUSIC screened at Club de l’étoile in Paris, France, in March. Nick was also a member of the May First Media collective, makers of the YFA-preserved MAYDAY (1970), filmed in New Haven.

Nick was unfailingly generous, humble, and full of fascinating stories about his time as film student and teacher at Yale, where he was involved in nearly every film production on campus for a time. We offer our condolences to his friends and family, and will miss Nick deeply. We continue to work to preserve his films, and are proud to steward this part of his filmmaking legacy into the future.

Photo: Brian Meacham and Nick Doob at Yale in 2019.

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Carly Simon’s Not Saying Whether She’s Going to Pal Taylor Swift’s Wedding: After All, She’s Kept the Secret of “You’re So Vain” for Five Decades

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On Friday, legendary singer songwriter Carly Simon dropped a surprise single. It was her first new music in 18 years.

Simon’s “Howl,” is insane ear candy, the catchiest new song released this year. If anyone knows their way around a hit single it’s the creator of songs like “You’re So Vain,” “Anticipation,” and “Nobody Does It Better.”

There’s no wonder that she’s one of Taylor Swift’s idols. (Taylor loves “You’re So Vain so much, she asked Simon to make a rare appearance and perform it with her on stage.)

“Howl” is five years in the making. I first heard a demo in 2021, and waited patiently as Simon built it up from scratch. At one point, a famous guitarist wanted to be on it, but it didn’t work out. Simon considered a male duet partner, as well.

But in the end, the song — co-written and produced with David Spencer — was strong enough to stand on its own.

“Howl” is the lead track from a new album called “Comes in Waves,” set for a mid August release. They are all original songs, and Simon’s voice sounds better than ever. One I have heard, called “Peaches,” is a smash. Another, called “The Father Daughter Dance,” has an intriguing back story. (Stay tuned.)

As for Taylor Swift, Simon won’t say if she’s going to the wedding. I tried to pry it out of her, including details. But she’s kept the secret of who “You’re So Vain” is about for 50 years. So she’s blabbing about what she’s getting Taylor and Travis for a wedding gift!

Jack Schlossberg Brings Out the “Greatest of All Time” in Congress Race, His Mother, Caroline Kennedy, for Video Endorsement (Watch)

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Jack Schlossberg really wants to go to Washington.

The grandson of President John F. Kennedy has brought out his biggest gun for an endorsement.

That would his mother, Caroline Kennedy, whom Jack calls “the greatest of all time.”

The primary in the congressional race in New York’s 12th district takes place soon, on June 23rd.

There are many qualified candidates. Schlossberg is charismatic, but has never had a job, let alone experience as an elected official. He spent most of last year posting worrying Instagram and YouTube videos, often mocking his loony toons cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr. Shaving his head, having odd interactions with his video fans, Jack seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. Later, he attributed his bizarre stunts to his reaction that his sister, Tatiana, was dying at age 35. (She ultimately passed, tragically.)

Caroline’s endorsement of her son may help Jack’s case. It can’t hurt. She’s a good mother. And the Kennedy name — if it’s the right part of the family — carries a lot of weight.

Harry Styles Reaches for New Seriousness Performing Perfect Version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with a London Symphony (Listen-Watch)

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Harry Styles has a new style.

He’s dropped his dresses and other machinations, put on adult men’s clothing, and turned himself into a crooner.

In London, at the Southbank Centre last night — collaborating with the Jules Buckley Orchestra and House Gospel Choir for a special concert created exclusively for his curation of Meltdown 2026 — Harry performed Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

The performance is perfect. Even Art Garfunkel would have to admire Harry picking up this legacy.

Harry is reinventing himself as a serious artist, and it’s working. By the time he hits Madison Square Garden this summer, there’s going to be a whole new gestalt. It’s a very smart move.