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UPDATE: End of Scooter Braun’s Era as the Reigning Pop Manager — Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber Leave

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE: End of Scooter Braun’s Era as the Reigning Pop Manager — Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber Leave

UPDATE Now Matt Belloni says on Twitter that Ariana Grande has left as well. My guess is we will see lawsuits shortly.

EARLIER Demi Lovato says she’s left manager Scooter Braun and it’s all amicable.

Lovato has had one flop after another for the last couple of years, with no help from Braun. The manager of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande was supposed to have the magic touch. But he’s never been able to do much with singer Tori Kelly, and the Demi Lovato chapter was a disaster.

On top of that, I echoed other reports last week that Bieber and Braun are likely split, as well. Bieber has mostly disappeared from social media, hasn’t released any solo music in over a year, and has two cancelled tours on his resume.

Grande could be next. She’s spent the last year working on the “Wicked” movies. She also has no new solo releases in a long time.

At one point, Braun was doing everything to cross-hype Bieber and Grande, but it didn’t really work.

Braun merged his management company with the Korean group behind BTS. As he used to tour Bieber, his own social media — when it’s not full of his own vacation pictures — riffs on KPop singers from Hybe.

Every run comes to an end, so Braun’s is no surprise. In the case of Demi Lovato, she needs management help pronto. She’s about to release a rock version of her last album. She’s turned herself in to Joan Jett, which her audience doesn’t want and is a waste of her talents.

Jay Z May Have to Perform at the Super Bowl Since No One Else Wants to Do It: Harry, Taylor, Lizzo, Miley Out of It

Roger Friedman
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Jay Z May Have to Perform at the Super Bowl Since No One Else Wants to Do It: Harry, Taylor, Lizzo, Miley Out of It

Jay Z is having such a tough time booking a musical guest for the Super Bowl he may have to do it himself.

So far, no one wants to do it. In one case, with Lizzo, her scandals immediately cut her from the running.

Taylor Swift has declined to do nine times in a row, they say.

This year, Harry Styles — always on the road — is too pooped.

Miley Cyrus would be a good choice. But the Grammys are on February 4, 2024 — just a week before the Super Bowl. Miley’s going to be singing “Flowers” and rushing to the podium a lot. It would be crazy to go from there to a Super Bowl rehearsal.

Lady Gaga’s done the half time show too recently. Bruce Springsteen? Rolling Stones? Paul McCartney? Unlikely.

Jay Z just put on a big hip hop show two years ago, but maybe this time can appear as the star. Beyonce would be welcome to join. But nothing can top pregnant Rihanna from last year.

The 2024 Super Bowl will take place in Las Vegas. We’ll have to wait and see who Jay Z makes a bet on.

Sylvester Stallone Goes Rogue: Will Promote Himself At Toronto Film Fest Despite Actors Strike Restrictions

Roger Friedman
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Sylvester Stallone Goes Rogue: Will Promote Himself At Toronto Film Fest Despite Actors Strike Restrictions

Actors are prohibited from promoting their movies at film festivals because of the SAG AFTRA strike.

Sylvester Stallone however will appear next month at the Toronto International Film Festival. He’ll promote his Netflix documentary at a talk event moderated in front of an audience. TIFF will have other talks but not with union members. They include director Pedro Almodovar.

Stallone is a member of both the writers and actors guilds, each of which are on strike.

The “Rocky” star had voiced support for the WGA strike last spring when it began. But he’s yet to be seen on a picket line and hasn’t said anything about the actor’s strike.

Stallone has been ardent on campaigning for his own rights. Last year he complained — without basis — that he couldn’t get the rights back to “Rocky.” He didn’t own them in the first place, so that was an obstacle.

Should sly appear at TIFF? Probably not. He’s sending out a message and it’s a good one. Of course, the maybe the strikes will be settled by then, although it seems unlikely.

keep refreshing

Miley Cyrus Dropping a Whole New Single This Week Because “Flowers” Mega Hit Never Had a Follow Up

Roger Friedman
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Miley Cyrus Dropping a Whole New Single This Week Because “Flowers” Mega Hit Never Had a Follow Up

Miley Cyrus is dropping a whole new single on Thursday night.

This seems odd since Miley’s “Flowers” was the biggest hit on 2023, from her album “Endless Summer Vacation.” It’s sold the equivalent of 5.3 million copies including streaming.

But while “Flowers” is still on the charts since the beginning of the year, the album is not. “Endless Summer Vacation” sold the equivalent of 850,000 copies and just 110,000 actual paid downloads and CDs. The album never produced a big follow up single, either. “Flowers” — even though it’s by an established artist– has acted more like a one off hit, a la (for example) Carly Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”

So Miley will try to revive the album this week by releasing a new song, “Used to Be Young,” which will be added to “Endless Summer Vacation” and added to an updated documentary that will air on ABC this Friday. The documentary without “Used to Be Young” ran back in April on Disney Plus. The updated version will have a new interview with Miley plus the video for the new song.

It’s a head scratcher why radio didn’t give a follow up hit to “Flowers.” The same thing happened to Adele’s “Easy on Me.” The record company (in both cases, Sony) kind of just the first hit go very big and didn’t put a lot of elbow grease into a successor. In the old days of the biz you could get two or three hits out of an album. These days, with streaming milking all the tracks simultaneously, it’s a nearly impossible task.

No word yet on who wrote “Used to Be Young” but the snippet of lyrics released last week could be sung to the tune of “Flowers” in that cadence. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Box Office: Audiences Choose Blue Slightly Over Pink as Comic Book Movie Beats Doll by a Nose

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: Audiences Choose Blue Slightly Over Pink as Comic Book Movie Beats Doll by a Nose

Warner Bros. can only be happy. They have the number 1 and 2 movies of the weekend.

Audiences chose Blue over Pink.. “Blue Beetle” beat “Barbie” by $4 million.

The Beetle had the worst debut ever for a DC Comics movie with $25 million. This was $5 million lower than estimates. But the film had no stars or publicity — the latter thanks to the strikes, which meant no talk shows or interviews.

“Barbie” is booming away, closing in on $600 million perhaps for a final domestic total, $1.2 billion worldwide.

“Oppenheimer” has done better than anyone could have hoped for. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is closing in $90 million.

“Strays” stayed in the pound, with no one to adopt it at $8.2 million.

Labor Day can’t come fast enough.

Britney Spears Says She’s “Doing Pretty Damn Good” and “Couldn’t Take the Pain Anymore” in Post-Split Social Media Post

Roger Friedman
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Britney Spears Says She’s “Doing Pretty Damn Good” and “Couldn’t Take the Pain Anymore” in Post-Split Social Media Post

Britney Spears she’s doing pretty damn good in a happy post-split divorce post on Instagram. Britney is ditching husband number 3, Sam Ashgari, who was 13 years her junior and obviously looking for a payday. The tabs say he probably won’t get it, plus he signed an NDA.

Britney is twirling around, looks blissfully happy, and also says she’s buying a horse. It’s just another day in the metaverse.

Box Office: “Blue Beetle” Squashed Like a Bug with Just $10 Mil Opening, Facing $24 Mil Weekend

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: “Blue Beetle” Squashed Like a Bug with Just $10 Mil Opening, Facing $24 Mil Weekend

I don’t know much about “Blue Beetle” from Warner Bros and apparently no one else does, either.

After a tepid $3 million preview night, “BB” took in less than $7 million on Friday. That’s $10 mil total. It’s facing a disastrous $24 to $28 million opening weekend.

Warner Bros is riding hight on “Barbie” so they may not notice. But “BB” follows “The Flash” in the DC Comics movie trash can. There’s one more DC movie — “Aquaman” — and then the new DC regime kicks in.

You’d have thunk that WB could have leveraged “Barbie” to promote “Blue Beetle,” but they didn’t. So maybe this is all a little intentional. Still the Bug has mixed reviews and a B minus Cinemascore. so we’ll be seeing it on Max pretty soon.

Also dead on arrival: Universal’s “Strays.” This is actually much worse — just $3.4 million for Thursday plus Friday. I can’t make a dog joke because of PETA but frankly This dog won’t hunt.

New: Trump Goes Back to Attacking Atlanta DA — “She’s Bad for America,” Says He Won Georgia Despite Indictment for Election Interference

Roger Friedman
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New: Trump Goes Back to Attacking Atlanta DA — “She’s Bad for America,” Says He Won Georgia Despite Indictment for Election Interference

You’d think with a few days left before a mug shot and fingerprinting Donald Trump would lay off attacking his prosecutor.

But this morning Trump goes after Fulton County DA Fani Willis again in social media posts. He also insists he won the election in Georgia despite his indictment for election interference — and despite dragging along 18 other people whose lives will be destroyed by their fealty to him.

Trump writes: “Failed D.A. Fani Willis, who has allowed Atlanta (Fulton County) to become a record setting Murder and Violent Crime War Zone, with almost no retribution, shockingly Indicted your favorite President, me, for a PERFECT PHONE CALL. She is bad for America!”

If I were Ms. Willis, I’d go as hard on him as the law provides. He can squeal like a pig that it’s all retribution but he’s bringing this all on himself.

Trump, Quiet Most of the Day, Squawking Again About “Bogus Indictments” and “Marxist Monsters”

Roger Friedman
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Trump, Quiet Most of the Day, Squawking Again About “Bogus Indictments” and “Marxist Monsters”

Donald Trump was rather subdued all day. Maybe it’s all the cholesterol or carbs. It’s possible he slept all day and watched game shows.

But now he’s back, mouthing off on social media about “Bogus indictments” and “Marxist monsters.” He did avoid attacks on any of his judges or prosecutors. Maybe that’s because his arrest and arraignment day is fast approaching right after the weekend.

Some people are wondering if Melania will get out of bed and go with him to Miami for the big day. To quote Elvis Costello, “She’s filing her nails while they dragging the lake.”

Remembering the Great Artist Brice Marden: A Memory of One of the Lasting Legends of our Culture

Regina Weinreich
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Remembering the Great Artist Brice Marden: A Memory of One of the Lasting Legends of our Culture

You know the old adage: I would have paid more attention had I realized how important it was. In 1983 when I taught a summer writing workshop in Tangier with Paul Bowles at the American School of Tangier, the School of Visual Arts under the leadership of founder Silas Rhodes invited a distinguished faculty that included Brice Marden.

With reverence for the history of Tangier as an artists’ mecca, Marden and his family, his wife Helen Marden, their two girls, Mirabelle and Melia (5 and 3), and an au pair, were given the room Henri Matisse occupied when he resided at the Villa de France Hotel. I lived in the room next door. The view was over the sumptuous gardens which Matisse painted in his modernist style. Marden’s style, blocks of color did not seem suited to palm foliage and flora, nor to the colors but he surely absorbed the vibe.

At breakfast on the terrace, the girls seemed extraordinarily well behaved. Having already met the man I would marry, my fears about life as a wife and mother were allayed by seeing this family living free to travel and explore. Helen, an artist who had waitressed at Max’s Kansas City, would say, to acclimate to a culture, eat their yogurt and onions, and drink their wine.

At times, Brice and Helen, and whoever was teaching—that could be photographer Mary Ellen Mark, or graphic designer Milton Glaser, or type designer Ed Benguiat, or journalist Pete Hamill, would meet at the hotel bar. Because Brice was a fan of the beat writers, we had a connection through the poetry—I had written on Jack Kerouac and knew William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, all of whom spent time in Tangier. And, we smoked kif together. He did a series, an homage to the Chinese poet Han Shan named for his “Cold Mountain” poems. Han Shan, famously a reclusive drunk, was the inspiration for Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and poems by Gary Snyder.

On a random evening Brice and I had dinner at the Claridge, a classy joint on the main boulevard, Louis Pasteur. Visiting Tangier this summer, I had Brice on my mind as I passed the former restaurant now a bit run down. Sadly, Brice Marden died August 9th at age 84.

I would say I glimpsed one of the great painters of our age, whose work even when I knew him then was way ahead.

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