For 25 years, Darlene Love and Paul Shaffer performed “Christmas Baby Please Come Home” on David Letterman’s late night show.
Now they’ve all reunited on YouTube, and it’s splendid.
Merry Christmas!
(Watch) The Rolling Stones “Mess it Up” In Hot New Video Starring Upcoming Lex Luthor, Nicholas Hoult
Here’s actor Nicholas Hoult starring in the new Rolling Stones video, “Mess It Up,” from the triumphant “Hackney Diamonds” album.
Hoult stars in the next Superman movie as Lex Luthor. He’s already pretty well known for “The Menu,” “The Favourite,” “Renfield,” and a couple of “X Men” movies as well as the hit TV series, “The Great.”
Frankly, the Stones could make videos for every song on “Hackney.” The album is that good. The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band is on tour in 2024.
Fantasia Version of “The Color Purple” Debuts on Rotten Tomatoes with 88% Fresh, Headed to Academy Awards
“The Color Purple” reviews have arrived, and they are everything I hoped for. Rotten Tomatoes puts is at 88% fresh. Blitz Bazawule’s movie is headed to the Oscars.
Fantasia leads a cast of terrific actors who all deserve to be nominated, including Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Colman Domingo.
“The Color Purple” started life as Alice Walker’s novel, then became a Steven Spielberg movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. It went on to success as a Broadway musical, then returned to Broadway reimagined. So this is the fifth time around, and it’s a charm.
Bazawule has breathed even newer life into the story of sisters Celie and Nettie, their abusive father and the lives they made in the South in the early part of the 20th century. It’s a tribute to Walker’s work that “The Color Purple” has retained such a strong impact every time it’s told. But Bazawule’s fresh approach — combined with music from the Broadway shows — makes for a sensational film.
Fantasia, who won “American Idol” and then played Celie in the first Broadway iteration, is remarkable. We already know her amazing voice, but she gives life to Celie in an even more nuanced performance. “The Color Purple” is full of acting revelations. Taraji P. Henson is already a star, but no could have imagined her singing, and dancing the way she does here. Danielle Brooks was a star on Broadway last year in “The Piano Lesson,” but her version of Sofia, the spitfire that comes into Celie’s family’s life, rips the paint right off the ceiling. And don’t forget Colman Domingo as the abusive Mister, who is eventually given his comeuppance.
“The Color Purple” should be the hit of the holiday season, gripping audiences of all kinds. And thanks to the original story, when the movie hits its climactic moment, there isn’t a dry eye in the house. Exuberant and painful, “The Color Purple” is a landmark film.
With Jonathan Majors Convicted, Almost No One Will Ever See “Magazine Dreams” — And it’s Just as Well
Last January I was able to screen Elijah Bynum’s “Magazine Dreams” thanks to the Sundance Film Festival website.
“Magazine Dreams” was up for distribution and starred Jonathan Majors, so everyone clamored to see it.
The movie– about a body builder who’s quite violent and finally snaps — was so grim I didn’t want to review it. It was too depressing.
Imagine my surprise when Disney’s Searchlight picked it up for the fall, and an Oscars push. I couldn’t imagine Academy voters warming to this story.
A few weeks later, I actually met and shook hands with Majors at the Oscars. He was actually very engaging. I mentioned I’d seen the movie, I didn’t tell him what I thought. A week later, Majors was arrested for domestic abuse. His career, at least for now, is over after being found guilty today of assault and harassment.
“Magazine Dreams” has a robust 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. All the critics who liked it cited Majors’ impressive performance even if the movie itself was lacking in many ways. Searchlight probably thought they could get Best Actor nominations and wins regardless of the film’s downbeat arc.
Now, apart from the critics, it’s hard to imagine who will see “Magazine Dreams.” Searchlight can just bank it in the vault or sell it back to its producers. If the producers get it back they could put it on VOD. But Majors would be wise not to encourage that. Killian Maddox, his character, is disturbed and disturbing. He’s no Willy Wonka. Frankly, he’s lucky the jury never saw it.
For writer-director Bynum, this has to be a massive disappointment. Regardless of the cons, the pro’s outweighed them. Bynum’s career would have taken a big jump forward. Whatever happens, we can only hope he’ll get another shot and make a movie even better.
Actor Jonathan Majors Found Guilty in NY Domestic Abuse Case, Burgeoning Career Ruined, Fired by Disney-Marvel
UPDATE: Disney-Marvel has officially fired Majors. This is a great human tragedy. Majors was already playing the villain Kang in Marvel films. Now the future Avengers movies will be re-written or he will be recast.
Actor Jonathan Majors has been found guilty by a New York jury of assault in the third degree and guilty of harassment.
The rising star had been accused of domestic abuse by his girlfriend last March, a week after the Oscars.
So much rode on this verdict, especially Majors’ career, and the fate of Marvel Disney movies he was attached to. Majors is also the star of a film picked up at Sundance earlier this year called “Magazine Dreams.” Searchlight had to scuttle its release this fall for Oscar consideration.
A six person jury rendered the verdict. Majors was accused by his girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, of freaking out in the back of a car and attacking her after she discovered compromising texts on his phone. The case was brought by the state of New York, not Jabbari.
Majors was found not guilty of one of the counts in assault in the third degree and not guilty of aggravated harassment in second degree. But that won’t matter. The severe damage is done to all parties. Sentencing will be next.
Madonna Says She Was Put In An Induced Coma for 48 Hours Last June After Passing Out in Bathroom, Medical Emergency
One thing about Madonna: she’s immortal.
Madonna told her concert crowd last night that last June, when she passed out in her bathroom, her illness was pretty bad. Rushed to the hospital, she was put in an induced coma for 48 hours.
When she woke up, all six of her children were around her bed. “That’s what it takes to get all my children in one room,” she joked. She thanked someone named Siobhan for insisting they go to the hospital. Quick thinking!
I Screenrecorded it. pic.twitter.com/GidzOJui3c
— Sara (@SaraShakur_94) December 17, 2023
Zack Snyder’s Netflix Film, “Rebel Moon,” Creamed by Critics with a 22 Rating, Audiences Aren’t Thrilled Either
We hear a lot about Zack Snyder, former director Warner/DC comics movies.
Even in “Barbie,” there’s a joke about the “Zack Snyder cut” — a reference to the endless director’s version of “Justice League.”
But Snyder seems to have struck out with anyone’s cut of “Rebel Moon.” A Netflix movie getting a one week run in theaters, “Rebel Moon” has an atrocious 22% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even audiences don’t seem excited, giving it a shaky 72%.
Even more worrisome: “Rebel Moon” is the first part of a trilogy.
Netflix has nothing to worry about. They’ve had a bunch of successes this Oscar season with “Maestro,” “Rustin,” “Nyad,” and “American Symphony.” So there had to be one layabout in the group, and it’s “Rebel Moon.”
One reviewer called it “A hugely expensive but uninspired ‘Star Wars’ knockoff with some thrilling action sequences, and some truly ugly moments that taint the entire thing.” Another said: “It’s a film populated by some of the Justice League Snyder Cut filmmaker’s worst impulses: a mess of imagery, some of it attempting to shock, congregated largely around the idea of what might look good in a trailer.”
And so on. I’m only sorry that Djimon Honsou, a two time Oscar nominee, isn’t getting offered better roles.
“Rebel Moon” hits Netflix this Friday.
Exclusive: Oprah Says When Her Salary Was Published “I had a lot of cousins coming out of the closet. All of them thought my name was First National Bank!”
Oprah Winfrey generated rock star excitement at a screening of “The Color Purple” the other night at the DGA Theater on 57th Street.
“This crowd is so hyped!” Oprah enthused at the post-screening Q&A.
Oprah, who produced this new musical with Steven Spielberg, made her screen debut as Sofia in the original 1985 movie, which Spielberg directed.
She was a vision in pastel purple. “I went and bought all the purple fabric I could find,” she said when complimented on her outfit.
Oprah, who never seems to age, has never looked better. And not because of her weight loss— over the years her weight has been too much of a national obsession (she’s publicly credited her new look to meds) —but because she looked healthy, happy and relaxed
At the post-screening Q&A Oprah was joined onstage with producer Scott Sanders, director Blitz Bazawule, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey and Fantasia Barrino. Asked if there was anything that she learned from playing Sofia back in 1985 that she still carried with her, she noted that she modeled her character after women her family, including her grandmother and Aunt Ida.
“All the strong women who I was surrounded by. And there’s a wonderful line in Maya Angelou’s poem to our grandmothers where she says,’I come as one, but I stand as 10,000.”
She added, “And so I feel that she represents the baseline level for what Black women have been for themselves to each other, to our families, our communities for generations… Because playing her [Sofia in the original film] gave me more strength in places where I felt maybe when I was doing that movie, I had just turned 31 and I was a real people pleaser and trying to figure out where I was in terms of versus what everybody thought I should be and how I should handle myself.
She half-joked: “And my salary was being published and I had a lot of cousins coming out of the closet. All of them thought my name was First National Bank. What I took was… That’s what I took.”
The Q&A took on a gospel hour tone when she was asked how she managed to hold on to her authentic self: “Lord, you want a long interview!” She told the moderator, laughing.
“I think this is the truth for anybody who’s dealing with any kind of rising in your life. What you want to do is try to meet the rising. Your life is… God has put a dream out there for every one of us, and I think your goal is to try to meet that dream instead of define that dream for yourself. ‘Yes God, what is it you want me to do?’
“So I have always seen myself first as God’s child, since I was four years old on the Mississippi Dirt Road and all that stuff. And so I am centered in the source of all being. I come from that and I know that. So all the things that happen on the outside, not that it doesn’t bother me, doesn’t disturb me, but when it does, I go back to the center of that. And so that still small voice that led me to this place in my life is the still small voice that comforts me, that soothes me, that lifts me, that allows me to be who I am in the world.”
“Amen!” exclaimed the fabulous group of “The Color Purple” ensemble of women onstage who starred in the film.
At the end of the evening everyone gave Oprah a standing ovation.
She hung around for a while, taking selfies and chattering with adoring fans, who mobbed the front of the stage, until security gently ushered her off.
Photo for Showbiz411 courtesy of Brad Balfour c2023
Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” A Record Setter, But Few Want Roger Waters’ Sales Flop Version Released In October
Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is one of the best selling albums of all time. Released in 1973, the orchestral-oriented theme album has sold 25 million copies, although some claim 45 million internationally and with streaming.
Since Luminate (formerly SoundScan) began counting, the number is up almost 12 million — similar to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
But few people have wanted a new version of “Dark Side of the Moon” from one of its collaborators, Roger Waters. Yesterday, Waters’ Twitter account announced that his version — released on October 6th — would be available in a number of formats including vinyl LP. (Ironic that October 6th was the night of the Hamas attack on Israel. Coincidence? Read on.)
Why? Waters’ record has sold around 18,785 copies, which isn’t very much. Of that number, only 13,809 represent actual albums downloaded or sold as CDs. The 2.0 version of “Dark Side” is an unmitigated failure.
Someone responded to me on Twitter that I was wrong about Waters’s lack of customers. But numbers don’t lie. (I will not make a lame Brain Damage joke.)
Waters has systematically destroyed his career. His touring is successful because he’s the closest thing to a Pink Floyd cover band any of the group’s die hard fans can hope to see. Otherwise, the Floyd is over. Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason have no contact with Waters, and Gilmore’s wife has attacked him an anti-semite.
Indeed, Waters is happily antisemitic and Pro-Palestinian and has been for a long time. He’s a leader of the BDS movement (which I call Big Dumb Shits) that try to stop music acts from playing in Israel. In addition to speaking out against Israel constantly, Waters recently appeared on stage in a Nazi uniform.
So that’s it for the new “Dark Side of the Moon.” For older fans, we have put aside his bigotry to still enjoy the original version. When we hear it, we all secretly think, That’s before Roger Waters went crazy.
“SNL” Winning Night with Kate McKinnon’s Charming Monologue and Billie Eilish’s Enchanting Christmas Song
“Saturday Night Live” wasn’t perfect last night. But it did have a couple of outstanding moments.
Kate McKinnon hosted, and her monologue was charming. She also had her pals, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, joining in.
Then there was musical guest Billie Eilish. She sang her haunting “Barbie” song, “What Was I Made For,” with brother Finneas on piano.
But Billie’s outstanding moment was really singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” just beautifully. She “really” sang it, not just whispered it, and showed off a potential Voice with a capital V.
“SNL” can be very frustrating. Why didn’t Kate play Rudy Giuliani? It was a missed opportunity. And the cold open was a mystery.