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New DC comics movies head James Gunn says on Twitter X that his version of the well worn tale is coming in July 2025.
The new take stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman and Rachel “Maisel” Brosnahan as Lois Lane. No word yet on Jimmy Olsen, but it worries me that Pete Davidson could get that role. Richard Kind should play Perry White. But no one asked me.
PS Why is Superman one word while Spider Man is two?
Thanks to the efforts of our talented crew, who never lost faith during the longest strikes in Hollywood history, and who never let their foot off the pedal, continuing to barrel forward, creating the most amazing character and set designs I’ve seen in my entire career,… pic.twitter.com/ntnEbA2fC0
This is what gossip columns used to be like when they were in the paper…
The charity circuit is hot as ever, and we get reports from all over about the money being raised.
Pat Monahan & the hit rock group TRAIN (Drops of Jupiter) helped raise over $3 million for ground-breaking research programs sponsored by Michael Milken‘s Prostate Cancer Foundation. The annual dinner at Restaurant Daniel was preceded by Master Mentalist Oz Perelman driving everyone crazy with his stunning tricks.
Denise Rich’s Angel Ball for Cancer Research deployed Mary J. Blige and Jermaine Dupri, and pulled in $2.8 million. Project ALS served up Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor, and made $1.3 million for their 25th anniversary.
New York Women’s Foundation attracted a sold out room to Gustavino’s on the East Side for their annual Radical Generosity dinner that featured a magnificent musical performance by .The Broadway Sinfonietta, a mini orchestra everyone should have at their events.
Honorees included Lorelei Williams, Molly Gochman, and Bisa Butler. Lorelei comes from the music biz. She runs the social justice fund at the Blavatnik Family Foundation, which is part of Len Blavatnik’s Warner Music Group. Ms. Williams is an executive vice president there, as well. What an extraordinary commitment she and all the women I met that night have to raising money and enacting programs. The whole night made me feel like there was a chance we’d survive everything going on now in the world. Everyone should know more about this group.
…Oscar winner Ariana DeBose helped NYC non-profit Teens for Food Justice raise over $900,000 at its gala last week. The Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ) 2023 Gala was held at the Lighthouse at Pier 61, Chelsea Piers in New York City, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the organization and support its ongoing efforts to make fresh food more accessible and improve nutritional health within New York City and Denver’s low-income communities through school-based, youth-led hydroponic farming…
…Condolences to Aretha Franklin’s family in Detroit. Earline Franklin, Aretha’s beloved sister in law (married to her late great brother Cecil) passed away this week at age 81. Earline was a stalwart in the family, I was honored to know Earline pretty well. She once cooked a five hour lunch for us in the Hamptons. Aretha depended on her friendship. Condolences to this amazing family…
Photo courtesy of Linda Solomon– Aretha, Barbara Henderson (wife of The Spinners’ Billy Henderson), Earline Franklin
Last night, Marvel Studios broke a record. It was one they didn’t want.
“The Marvels” opened to around $14.5 million, and had the lowest Thurs-Fri opening ever for a Disney-Marvel release with $21.3 million. (In 2008, “The Incredible Hulk” opened to $200K less, but it was at Universal and pre- the Disney MCU run.)
If the superhero sequel makes $50 million for the weekend, they’ll be lucky.
It’s an ironic turn of events since “Captain Marvel,” its predecessor, was the highest grossing female superhero action film.
But everything has gone wrong here, it seems, from the idea to the execution.
What’s really upsetting for Disney-Marvel is that “The Marvels” cost $200 million. It will never break even but it will lose a lot of money.
No one can blame star Brie Larson. The strike prevented her from doing any publicity until late this week. She appeared on the Tonight show and turned up at a theater last night to meet fans.
Disney should have held “The Marvels” until it could be properly promoted. Even if it wasn’t the best Marvel Universe film ever, it wouldn’t have bombed so precipitously.
Now Disney will get to feel the way DC/Warner’s has so many times. And that’s all, folks!
The numbers are in for the week. The number 1 album? Taylor Swift’s redo of “1989.”
Swift’s album dropped 85% in sales from its stunning opening week at 1.5 million. But it still nosed out Jung Kook’s “Golden” album by 38,000 copies.
The BTS singer came in at 202K vs. Swift’s 240K.
All the hoopla about Jung Kook is just that, I’m afraid. If he were a real phenom, “Golden would have glowed.
One thing both acts have in common: their fans wanted CDs, LPs, and downloads more than they wanted to stream the albums. That’s good news since that’s where the real money is in the music biz (see my Beatles story).
Swift has 9 albums on the top 50 this week. Jimmy Buffet’s posthumous record, called “Equal Strain on All Parts,” sold around 53,000 copies — the average number for beloved legacy acts releasing late in career albums.
The Beatles released “Now and Then” 8 days ago, and the song went to number 1 everywhere.
In the UK, they’re listing it on their official charts as number 1 for the week. The same may be true next week for Billboard. Despite the feverish fans of Jung Kook constantly pressing BUY on iTunes, “Now and Then” has been a big hit.
So what’s going on over at Spotify? According to the site, the song has been streamed 17.6 million times. For a band like the Beatles, whose fans would rather have the record or download it than stream, 17 million sounds pretty good.
You’d think the group would be making a fortune, right? But according to Spotify’s revenue calculator, it’s not so much.
Grand total for 17.6 million streams? Drum roll please:
$42,000. That’s forty two thousand dollars. Not millon, or billion. Thousand!
For the Beatles, $42,000 is pocket change. It’s what Paul spends flying to the UK, what Ringo pays for dinner.
But that is the cold, hard reality of Spotify. There’s no money it. Once the Beatles split that money in four and pay taxes on it, and fees to various people, they will literally have enough for lunch and a movie.
And they’re THE BEATLES!
Imagine if they were just a little band, or a middling act whose song people like. This means those acts get chicken feed.
Now you know why Paul and Ringo are each on tour right now. Pass the hat!
By the way, the Beatles’ biggest streaming song is “Here Comes the Sun” with 1.2 billion streams. It was added to the service 8 years ago. Estimated earnings $3-$5 million, before taxes and fees. “Now and Then” has a ways to go!
This was a long story line delayed from six months ago.
The Daytime Emmy Awards will air on December 15th on CBS. This is because the strike is over, and all is well. They were supposed to air in June but the Writers Guild strike put a wrench in this plan.
General Hospital has the most nominations among soap operas. Here’s the original story from last spring.
The Grammy Awards are ignoring him despite his “One Thing at a Time” album selling 5 million copies since March.
Wallen was discovered using the “n” on a video two years ago. His fans didn’t care and kept buying his records. His “Dangerous Double Album” has sold 2 million copies in 2023. (Numbers are mostly from streaming equivalent.)
But the Grammys are not so forgiving — and neither is CBS. Wallen may have been welcomed back by his record company and agents, but the main music awards and the Tiffany network don’t want him on their air. He remains a pariah. A song he sang is nominated for Best Country Song, but Wallen himself is not nominated. (At least they didn’t punish the writers of “Last Night.”)
The incident happened on February 3, 2021, when Wallen was video’d on a front door camera, drunk, using the word to describe his friend. The video went viral instantly.
Wallen apologized, but apparently that’s not enough — not in cancel culture. You can’t imagine Black artists in the Grammy audience watching him perform. So it’s not going to happen — probably never. It’s just as well.
“The Marvels” made $6.6 million last night. It’s a big disappointment, but not unexpected.
Other Marvel movies this year started each with $17.5 million. “The Marvels” could be the lowest grossing Marvel movie yet.
This is despite being a sort of sequel to “Captain Marvel” starring Oscar winner Brie Larson. That was a hit but this one has been marked by delays and changes and an obvious lack of vision. What is it? Reviewers don’t see to know, either. “The Marvels” has a very poor 61% among critics and bloggers.
Me? I’ll watch Brie Larson read the phone book. She’s so talented. But she’s also spent too much time doing car commercials. It’s time to get back to serious movies.
They’ve rescued Jon Batiste’s non event album, “World Music Radio,” after no one bought it.
The album has a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year after selling 21,000 copies. That’s it. It was Dead on Arrival. Now it’s got a nomination.
The song, “Butterfly,” is also nominated for Record of the Year. It also made no noise upon release.
Batiste is the only male performer to score noms in those categories.
Bizarre, yes. But Batiste is one of the few men under a certain age to release a record this year. He’s also a past winner. Two years ago his “We Are” won Album of the Year quite unexpectedly.
But a lot of time and money goes into the Batiste machine. He’s the star of a Netflix documentary called “American Symphony,” which debuts November 29th. Batiste’s personal story is dramatic– his wife, formerly his girlfriend, Suleika, was battling leukemia as he was winning awards and writing a symphony. The movie is very well made, and a pleasure to watch knowing that Suleika’s winning her battle so far.
But Batiste really the only male nominee? It’s a head scratcher, that’s for sure. Aside from Ed Sheeran, there are few candidates with releases. I guess Noel Kahan could have been better represented in the awards. Otherwise the charts are dominated by women and hip hop. Men either don’t know what to sing about, or no one cares about what they have to say anymore. There are no new James Taylors or al Greens or Jackson Brownes. Sad.
