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The Kennedy Center Honors will take place on Sunday in Washington.
I’m told that Garth Brooks is going to be the musical tribute guest for the rock group KISS. A country star, Brooks seems like an odd choice but he loves KISS and has played with them before.
It’s unclear if Brooks will also play for country superstar George Strait. So far, that hasn’t come up.
The Kennedy Center is under new management with Donald Trump and tricky Dick Grenell, his lackey. Sources say the staff is so confused that regular KCH guests were not invited to the show. However, the usual weekend get togethers are going forward — like the brunch, State Dept. dinner, and W
hite House visit — all at the regular locales — “because they panicked and no one had new ideas.”
The Kennedy Center Honors look like a mess coming up. Donald Trump said he was hosting the show, but that may not be the case. He may just give opening remarks or a wave. The Center is vastly understaffed, no one knows anything, which is leading to more confusion.
The Honors are going to KISS and George Strait, plus one hit disco singer Gloria Gaynor — a Trump donor — as well as “Phantom of the Opera” star Michael Crawford, and “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone.
If you see something, say something. Email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
Surprise! The National Board of Review went back to their old Warner Bros days and gave lots of prizes to “One Battle After Another.” Best Picture, Actor, Director, Supporting Actor.
As usual, their Breakthrough Prize went to a Black actor: Chase Infiniti, from “One Battle.”
Best Actress went to Rose Byrne from A24’s “If I had Legs I’d Kick You” because A24 has to get something big since a member of their exec suite sits on the NBR board. Did you think Jessie Buckley was going to get it?
Breakthrough director also to A24, Eva Victor for “Sorry Baby.”
Listen, it could have been a lot worse. Not much for “Marty Supreme,” which I thought would be the NBR’s big score (also A24). So I reward them for their restraint!
Best Picture: “One Battle After Another”
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Best Actress: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Best Supporting Actress: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Best Directorial Debut: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
Breakthrough Performance: Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay: Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams
Best Animated Feature: Arco
Best International Film: It Was Just an Accident
Best Documentary: Cover-Up
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Outstanding Achievement in Stunt Artistry: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
TOP FILMS (in alphabetical order)
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Frankenstein
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
Rental Family
Sinners
Train Dreams
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Wicked: For Good
TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL FILMS (in alphabetical order)
Left-Handed Girl
The Love That Remains
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
TOP 5 DOCUMENTARIES (in alphabetical order)
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Come See Me in the Good Light
My Mom Jayne
Natchez
Orwell: 2+2=5
TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS (in alphabetical order)
The Baltimorons
Bring Her Back
Father Mother Sister Brother
Friendship
Good Boy
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
The Mastermind
Rebuilding
Sorry, Baby
Urchin
For a long time they’ve had James L. Brooks’ first movie in 16 years, called “Ella McCay.”
Brooks is a giant in Hollywood. Oscar winner, Emmy winner, director of “Terms of Endearment,” “As Good as It Gets,” and “Broadcast News.” He also created the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and The Simpsons among other TV series.
I’ve been asking for weeks about this movie and have gotten nowhere. Then the press was invited to a screening last night at a crappy theater on West 42nd St. Meantime, Disney-Fox quietly had a celebrity deal at the Museum of Modern Art.
Too funny. Unfortunately, there was also a nor’easter last night in New York.
(At the same time, PS, Amazon MGM had a premiere at Alice Tully Hall, of all places, for a Michelle Pfeiffer no one has ever heard of. Alice Tully Hall!)
Anyway, on Twitter, social influencers who walked the red carpet, have deluged the platform with embarrassing plugs for “Ella McCay.”
But the reviews are also rolling in and they’re not good.
Writes one:
“Saw a movie last might that is embargoed even for social media reactions. Oof. Terrible terrible terrible. It must take a special kind of genius to make something this terrible…Now that the embargo is up, the catastrophically terrible film I was talking about is ELLA MCCAY. It would be staggeringly regressive & dated in the 50s. Performances are so broad, especially from Jamie Lee Curtis, that they would be too grotesque for broadcast TV sit-coms.”
And another: “sorry to say ella mccay is one of the worst, most incomprehensible, baffling films i’ve ever had the displeasure of enduring. not a comedy, drama, or dramedy but a half-written script dug from james l. brooks’ “IDEAS” folder. feels like talking with a concussion. so, a must-see!”
And one more: “Ella McCay is baffling. Not a single character resembles or talks like an actual human being – it’s like it was written by someone who’s never had a real conversation. Incomprehensible filmmaking on every level: unfunny, overwritten, botched drama. One of the year’s worst films.”
Disney is also giving away tons of tickets in every city through various contests and promotions. We’re going to be seeing Ella on Disney Plus very soon. You’d think after the “Deliver Me from Nowhere” debacle they’d try to curry interest from the press, but that would be a big “No.”
Again, James L. Brooks is a hero. But his last film, “How Do You Know?” from 2010, was a strike out. I guess he thought he’d try for one more. But nothing sullies is remarkable legacy.
A bunch of Hollywood celebs are getting free trips to Saudi Arabia this week.
The occasion is the Red Sea Film Festival, another Saudi-con for people without a conscience.
The celebs don’t care about Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, or the fact that they chopped up American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
According to Variety the gang includes Dakota Johnson, Jessica Alba, Ana de Armas, Nina Dobrev, Kirsten Dunst, Adrien Brody, Sean Baker, Queen Latifah, Michael Caine, Sigourney Weaver, Juliette Binoche.
Angelina Jolie is going, she’s Hollywood’s number 1 human rights activist.
I hope she doesn’t say the wrong thing like, ‘I played Daniel Pearl’s widow in a movie.’ We may never see her again.
Sounds like fun.
Seriously, any of them who’ve been fed the line that the Red Sea Festival is separate in some way from the Saudi royal family and the government there can also be sold elevator passes to the pyramids.
Comedians who went to the Saudi joke fest earlier this year were roundly criticized for their participation. But I’m sure Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood will happily file reports from the red sea carpet.
One of the highlights of last night’s Gotham Awards was the introduction to Noah Baumbach’s Directors Award.
Adam Sandler and Emily Mortimer, who star in Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” gave an absolutely hilarious toast.
Emily not only stars in the movie but co-wrote it with Baumbach. A highly celebrated actress, she’s also the wife of Alessandro Nivola and mother of Sam Nivola. She’s an MVP.
But if you’re a Sandler fan, this video is one for the ages.
Sandler — previously a hit in Baumbach’s “Meyerowitz Stories” — was nominated for Best Supporting Actor last night, and may be picking up some awards this winter for “Jay Kelly.” He gives a lovely performance opposite George Clooney and Laura Dern as Jay Kelly’s longtime devoted manager. The movie itself is A plus. It’s on Netflix any minute.
The whole tawdy Olivia Nuzzi story crystalized today.
Her book, “American Canto,” is a flop out of the gate. It’s resting at number 12,673 on amazon.com.
It’s far from ‘not a best seller.’ It’s dead. No one wants it. No one cares that she and Robert Kennedy Jr. carried on some kind of weird affair.
No one cares that Nuzzi’s journalistic ethics went out the window, that she was killing negative stories about Kennedy, who wanted to impregnate her, or that she might have had a tape of Donald Trump discussing his faux assassination attempt.
Then there’s Nuzzi’s ex, Ryan Lizza, who’s been publishing screeds on Substack about all of Nuzzi’s misdeeds. It’s like he’s Charles Dickens writing “Low Expectations.” She cheated on him and was financially supported by Keith Olberman from a young age. Lizza leaves out he had his own problems at The New Yorker.
These people!
The good news is that the public is yawning en masse. It’s a tempest in a northeast corridor.
The biggest problem is that Conde Hast has been played for fools by Vanity Fair’s Michael Guiducci. He hired her as west coast editor of the magazine and excerpted the book. Now he’s publishing nude drawings of her. She edited an all male cover of the Hollywood issue because all the women turned her down.
And now the book is a dud.
Good work on everyone’s part!
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s wife, former actress Cheryl Hines, also has a turkey of a book on her hands. “Unscripted” is at 37,635 on amazon. Trees were pulped for these books, folks! For nothing!
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is turning into a juggernaut.
After winning Best Feature at the Gotham Awards last night, the clever dramedy based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel was voted Best Picture today by the New York Film Critics Circle.
I’m not so sure “One Battle” will take the National Board of Review tomorrow unless they’ve cleaned up their act. The NBR will very likely go to “Marty Supreme” and Timothee Chalamet because it’s an A24 movie. Let’s see what happens. Last year, Best Actor and Actress went to A24 releases. There’s an unholy connection between the studio and the NBR.
Best Director went to Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just An Accident.”
Best Actress went to Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” Best Actor is Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent.”
Best Screenplay tapped “Marty Supreme.”
Best Supporting Actor goes to Benicio del Toro in “One Battle After Another.” I think this pretty much means del Toro is going to be the movie’s supporting actor, and not Sean Penn.
Best Supporting Actress: the great Amy Madigan, for “Weapons.” Amy has deserved an award for 40 years. Bravo!
The little known “Eephus,” a baseball story, is Best First Feature. “Eephus” is available now on amazon.com after barely being released.
Best Foreign Film: “The Secret Agent,” from Brazil, starring Wagner Moura. Great choice.
Animated Feature: “K Pop Demon Hunters,” a massive international hit that spawned a best selling soundtrack.
Non Fiction Film: “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow,” which also won Best Doc last night at the Gotham Awards.
Best Cinematography: “Sinners”
Special Award:
Screen Slate
Museum of the Moving Image
Student Scholarships:
London Xhudo (Undergraduate, NYU)
Tan Zhiyuan (Graduate, The New School)
Paul Anka singing “My Way” on Jimmy Kimmel is Hollywood nirvana.
Watch him on “Jimmy Kimmel.” Anka wrote the song Frank Sinatra made famous.
Anka is the subject of a new documentary on HBO.
What a life! So many hits, and he’s managed, at 84, to keep the career going for 70 years.
Of course, the biggest surprise came after Michael Jackson died, and we learned they’d written the songs “Love Never Felt So Good” and “This Is It” together. And they were great.
Anka has had so many hits. One of his best was one he didn’t write — “The Times of Your Life.”
Long live Paul Anka. And thanks, Jimmy, that was very cool
Wow — the Gotham Awards upped their game tonight and morphed into a kind of pre-Oscars,
They gave Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “One Battle After Another.” The film is heavily weighted to win Best Picture at the Oscars next March.hi
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won three awards for his terrific film, Cannes prize winner “Ir Was Just An Accident.”
The Gothams maintained some identity as a home for indie films by giving the main acting awards to complete unknowns from movie’s no one has seen or heard of. Also, Breakthrough Performer.
This means that a lot of nominated stars — like Adam Sandler — went home with nothing but did dine a nice hunk of filet mignon courtesy of Cipriani’s 55 Wall Street.
Tribute awards previously announced were presented to Noah Baumbach — hilarious presentation by Adam Sandler and Emily Mortimer (Director Tribute for “Jay Kelly”); the cast of Sinners (Ensemble Tribute); Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac & Jacob Elordi (Vanguard Tribute for “Frankenstein”); Tessa Thompson (Spotlight Tribute for “Hedda”); Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman (Musical Tribute for “Song Sung Blue”); and Jeremy Allen White and Scott Cooper (Cultural Icon Tribute, presented by Stevie van Zandt, for “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”). There was also a Visionary Award given to director Luca Guagnino and Julia Roberts for “After the Hunt,” a movie that died upon release.
My new favorite person: Eva Victor, who you may remember from “Billions.” She stars in, wrote and directed the dark comedy “Sorry, Baby,” nominated for Gothams tonight. The movie is out from A24 and streaming on all platforms. She’s an absolute delight.
Earlier in the day, Warner Bros. gave a small luncheon and Q&A for “One Battle” at the newly renovated famous Chelsea Hotel. Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor all participated and showed what a fun group they’ll be on the Oscar campaign trail. By the time they’re done, you want to give awards to all of them. MIA: director Paul Thomas Anderson (who came to the Gothams with wife Maya Rudolph) and Sean Penn.
We learned that PTA created the subplot of Chase’s cell phone being an issue only after the actress insisted that no young woman would be without one. Originally, he was going to have no phones in the movie at all!
In the small crowd were the great British actors Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, currently selling out Studio 54 with “Oedipus,” by Erika Alexander from “American Fiction,” musician Ruben Blades, former James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, actress Rutanya Alda, “Precious” screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher and so on.
I think Teyana Taylor was impressed that before “One Battle” was released, I was at the Apollo Theater ceremony in June when she received an award for excellence in music, acting, fashion, etc. She’s a force of nature. She’s looking at a big 2026 with a Grammy nomination for Best R&B album with “Escape Room.” (Watch her video below, after the award winners.)
Best Feature One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, producers (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best Director Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
Outstanding Lead Performance Sopé Dìrísù, My Father’s Shadow (Mubi)
