Whew!
Dolly Parton is okay.
As the beloved superstar says in an Instagram video this morning, “I ain’t deed yet!”
One of Dolly’s sisters caused concern when she asked for prayers yesterday for the singer.
Thanks to another sister, Stella, we learned it was just a case of kidney stones.
I know what that’s like. It’s so freaking painful you need prayers!
But nothing can keep Dolly down. She’s one a kind, and a national institution.
God bless her!
Last year, Jennifer Lopez — aka JLo– had a lovely turn in the Amazon MGM movie, “Unstoppable.”
When the movie played in Toronto, there was some Oscar buzz. If “Unstoppable” had had a real release, Lopez might have been in the conversation. But it was buried.
Now comes “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The new take on the 1985 musical comes from Roadhouse Attractions. I jokingly call them Roadkill Attractions. Everything they touch turns to dross.
That seems to be the case for “Spider Woman.” Despite decent reviews, “Spider Woman” is set to have a dismal weekend.
I can’t be alone as a member of the Critics Choice Association and reviewer for Rotten Tomatoes when I say that I’ve never received even an email about the movie. Nothing, Nada. I was surprised to learn that they had a New York premiere this week (the same night as the Timothee Chalamet surprise screening at the New York Film Festival).
On Metacritic “Spider Woman” has a 60 rating. The number is higher on Rotten Tomatoes — 80 — but it’s inflated by bloggers and influencers. Top critics also have it around 60%.
“Spider Woman” is directed by Bill Condon, who’s had major hits with “Dreamgirls,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” He won an Oscar for writing “Gods and Monsters,” and also wrote “The Greatest Showman.” So he knows what he’s doing.
The cast actually stars Diego Luna — so popular from “Andor” — and a one-named actor called Tonatiuh, who’s getting high praise but I know nothing whatsoever about him. No one else does either. If he’s that good in the movie, that’s a shame.
“Spider Woman” opens tomorrow night in previews, with very few tickets sold despite JLo doing her damnedest to promote the film single-handedly. You can tell this whole enterprise is going to end in tears. Lopez’s one solution is to hire her own Oscar specialist, and not depend on Roadkill, er, Roadhouse. Otherwise, this will be a lot of work out the window.
Taylor Swift is steaming toward a record sales week.
By the time the official count is in on Friday, Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” is expected to sell 4 million copies.
Most of those will come from downloading of the album and streaming of the songs.
But none of it will come from downloading individual tracks.
Even though Swift is number 1 on the iTunes album chart, she has no spots on the singles chart.
That’s because none of the individual tracks on “Showgirl” were available for separate downloading. If you want the album, you have to buy it all.
On streaming services, that’s a different story. Swift’s 12 new tracks take up the entirety of the top of the Spotify and Apple music streaming charts. You can listen over and over to each one separately.
But by forcing actual paid customers to take the whole album, Swift pushed all sales there. So if a fan liked “The Fate of Ophelia” more than “Wood,” it didn’t matter.
And the result is 4 million “Showgirl” copies sold.
Should she get an asterisk? The “album only” feature hasn’t been seen on iTunes in a long, long time. None of the albums “Showgirl” is surpassed, like Adele’s “25,” had that issue. Fans could cherry pick songs from the list. What if Adele’s fans had really just wanted “Hello” and “Water Under the Bridge”? They could get them and leave the others behind. If “25” had had “album only,” it might have sold another million.
But Swift’s team know how to get water from a rock. No one will ever know if the 4 million sales of “Showgirl’ came from 4 million people, or from 1 million buying several different iterations. It doesn’t matter to the bottom line. But it might account for the fervor that’s been created.
The success of “Showgirl” saves the record industry for 2025. No one — except maybe Bad Bunny — has come close to those numbers. The business is in a torpor, with most new releases struggling to sell 300,000 copies in their first week. Does the “Showgirl” sale lift all the boats around it? Probably not. The exception might be Sabrina Carpenter, who’s featured on Swift’s title track.
As I say every day, the Swift marketing team — which includes her father, Scott — should teach MBA courses at American’s top business schools!
Now the question remains: will Swift’s people allow the tracks onto the iTunes top 100 or stick to “album only”?
“Hamilton” is on fire.
It’s all because of Leslie Odom, Jr.
The Tony winning star of “Hamilton” is back playing Aaron Burr for a limited run.
Odom began on September 9th. Since then, the box office has risen 76% weekly for the last four weeks. The totals went from $2.1 million to $3.7 million and don’t look like they’re slowing down at all.
Regular ticket prices are up over $1,000 for good seats, and $1,500 for premium.
“Hamilton” was no slouch prior to Odom’s return, but this more than anyone could have hoped for.
This does mean that the summer long promotion of the musical’s 10th anniversary has worked like magic. The very clever move to put the already filmed version of the show into theaters has yielded almost $17 million in the US and another $3.7 million internationally. In places like Mexico and the Phillippines they want to be in the room where it happens!
Odom remains in the cast through mid November.
Other shows: “Hell’s Kitchen” had a huge spike week before last when Alicia Keys performed with the cast after two shows. Box office zoomed up from $970K to $1.1 million. I know they were hoping the show would catch fire again. Alas, this past week saw receipts fall to $740K. Also, Christopher Jackson wrapped up his short stint playing Keys’s father. A solid show with great songs and performers, “Hell’s Kitchen” may be ready to lower the curtain soon.
If you want to see Tony and Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf in “Little Bear Ridge Road,” the play starts performance this Saturday. This marks the official return of Scott Rudin to producing after a four year time out for bad behavior. There are plenty of tickets every night at all performances.
All other shows are hanging in there despite high prices. “Art” and “Waiting for Godot,” the newest entries, are holding their own.
BTW, is Leslie Odom, Jr worth it? Um, yeah. Just seeing him in the big screen version made me want to go back to the live theater. I haven’t been able to stop humming those damn songs!
I’m sure a lot of people were stunned this morning to see an obit for Susan Kendall Newman.
The 72 year old daughter of Paul Newman, and stepdaughter of Joanne Woodward, is said to have died from “chronic health conditions.”
Susan’s mother was Jackie Witte, Paul Newman’s first wife.
Susan’s number is in my phone. She was a huge help to me when I reported stories about trouble at the Newman Foundation, which runs Newmans Own, the philanthropic food company. She was so bright and articulate, and knew the inner workings of a troubled but important organization. I’m sending condolences to her family including her sisters, and Woodward, who is 95 and has suffered from Alzheimer’s for more than a decade.
Susan — who apparently died on August 2nd — had a Golden Globe, a Humanitas Award, and nominations for the Emmy, Peabody, and Grammy Awards. She was featured in the multipart documentary about Paul and Joanne directed by Ethan Hawke called “Just Movie Stars.”
Her amazing life is described in this link.
Again, many condolences.
Taylor Swift really wants to break all time sales records this week.
Her “Life of a Showgirl” is already predicted to knock off 3 million copies in a mix of streaming, CDs, LPs, cassettes, and anything else she can stuff that album into.
But now comes a new curve ball.
Swift and Apple are offering an expanded version of the album on iTunes for just $4.99.
Most albums on iTunes sell for $11.99 to $14.99.
But new improved “Showgirl” includes two acoustic versions of songs on the albums, plus two voice memos Swift recorded. They say, “Hi, this is Taylor, sorry I’m not home, but I’m busy trying to cheat the system.”
It’s actually one more fascinating turn in the Taylor Swift marketing campaign. Harvard definitely has teach this later, and the Wharton School of Business. Every day there’s a new version of the record, which comprises several songs that sound strangely like other people’s work.
And it’s only Tuesday!
One of the great pleasures of the New York Film Festival is the annual surprise screening.
It’s supposed to be a well kept secret but by the time we got to Alice Tully Hall tonight even the hot dog vendors outside knew what was going on.
The film was Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” starring Timothee Chalamet, the IT guy of the movie world, with an eclectic cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler the Creator, Fran Drescher (such a pleasure), and introducing a knockout in Odessa A’zion.
Safdie told the sold out audience he’d finished the film at 2am to make this screening since the release isn’t until December. But producers wanted to generate some Oscar buzz now, and they succeeded. Even though “Marty Supreme” is not quite done — Safdie told us backstage there was some tweaking to come, especially in the sound — it’s already better than most things you’ll see this season.
I can’t really write a full review until the film is completed. Suffice to say, the filmmaking here is sensational, not unlike Safdie’s “Uncut Gems” but on a higher level. The writing is kind of off the wall great — glib, bonkers, and spontaneous sounding although I’m sure it’s right from the page.
Chalamet is 29 years old. He’ll have his Oscar nomination after he turns 30 in December, and quite possibly a win as Marty Mauser, a semi professional table tennis player (ping pong, but like Olympic) who’s broke, down on his luck, incredibly self confident, a self made Damon Runyon-esque Lower East Side kid who works in his uncle’s shoe store and is constantly working the angles.
Before I saw it, I kept calling “Marty Supreme” a ‘ping pong’ movie. It’s not. Marty is the actual ping pong ball, being slammed out of his own control by heavy duty players. The film is funny and sad, a little violent, and very much in the tone of “Anora,” Sean Baker’s Oscar winner from this past year.
You could tell this screening was a big deal. Chalamet and the cast were there, and appeared on stage afterwards to a standing ovation. I spotted director Doug Liman and screenwriter Larry Karaszewski in the audience, along with spies galore who write and blog about the Oscars.
What did they glean from this experience? “One Battle After Another” has a worthy opponent in the awards race, along with “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” and my favorite gem of a film, “Blue Moon.” There will be others, but “Marty Supreme” ups the ante on what’s turning out to be a very good year.
One last thing: this is the kind of movie an Oscar for casting was needed. In a very rich production (rich meaning textured not financial), Safdie observes dozens of wizened faces in Marty’s ramshackle world.
The Boss is a mensch.
He actually invited his original manager, Mike Appel, to a screening of “Deliver Me from Nowhere.”
Appel managed Bruce through “Born to Run.” Then he caused so much trouble Bruce had to take a three year break before returning with “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”
(Appel had signed a 22 year old Bruce to an all encompassing contract, and it took immense legal wrangling to get him out of it.)
So I don’t know if this was out of the goodness of Bruce’s heart, or the old adage ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’
Anyway, 50 years later time heals all wounds.
Funny PS I once wound up seated on a plane next to Mike Appel. He told me the whole story over 8 hours. Seems now like it must have been in 1943. Anyway, he was a nice guy.
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Oh, Taylor Swift.
How much can we take of this?
Anyway, it turns out her one weekend only infomercial made more than originally reported. Not $33.8 million. It was $34 million and change. Total worldwide: $47 million.
And that’s all she wrote for the theatrical release. The ‘mercial, aka “Taylor Swift Cash Grab,” will no doubt be streaming any minute now.
Meantime, HitsDailyDouble predicts “The Life of a Showgirl” will go beyond 3 million copies and exceed Adele’s record of 3.4 million copies of an album in its debut week.
Swift appears on Jimmy Fallon tonight, and Seth Meyers on Wednesday. She’s not singing. Will she hit “SNL” this weekend? In a sketch? I’d say, Likely. The great Amy Poehler is hosting, and something called Role Model is the musical guest.
Tay Tay has also dumped out four new CDs at 8 bucks a pop to add on to the original CD release. So again that’s 32 dollars more above the $14. It would have been cheaper to have one package but don’t tell the fans that, they want to give her money.
Also, the official video for “The Fate of Ophelia” has now reached 12 million views on YouTube and will be at 15 million soon.
It’s Taylor’s world and we just live in it.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would imagine this set up:
Trump tells buddy Larry Ellison and his son David, new owners of Paramount CBS, to destroy the news division. Devalue it instantly. Force all the hard line journalists out.
So here we go. David Ellison has hired Bari Weiss to run CBS News. She’s a conservative domestically, but pro-Israel. She’s married to a woman, but will she turn against gay rights in her Foxification of the news?
Weiss is reviled in mass media. She was forced out of her op-ed role at the New York Times. Former employees of The Free Press, which she has now sold to Ellison for $150 million, are complaining about her all over social media.
How will this work? It reminds me of when Penske Media hired Nikki Finke and gave her a forum. We know how that worked out.
Weiss, 41, sent this widely distributed out memo today to the staff.
Suddenly media reporting is going to juicy again.
