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Rock producers don’t get much respect because no one knows what they do.
But their contribution to making hit records is incalculable.
Such was the case for Jack Douglas, who has died at 80.
Douglas’s relationship with Lennon began when he engineered the “Imagine” album in 1971. In 1980 he produced John Lennon’s final albums, “Double Fantasy,” and “Milk and Honey.” It was Douglas who said goodbye to John and Yoko before they left the recording studio and went home to tragedy. The Lennon murder left a mark on Douglas, who blamed himself for not walking the couple home.
In between his work with Lennon, Douglas produced a string of hits that established Aerosmith in the 70s including “Walk this Way” and “Sweet Emotion.” He also oversaw a hit for Graham Parker with his “Another Grey Area” album and “Temporary Beauty” single.
This was at a time before there was really an internet, to give context. Swatch was an innovative design company. Also, the watches cost $40.
So fast forward. This week, word went out that Swatch was doing a collaboration with famed watchmaker Audemars Piguet. Since the company already had done wildly crossovers with Omega and other high end brands, expectations went through the roof.
As of yesterday, collectors (not me, don’t worry) were lining up at Swatch stores waiting for an in person release this Saturday. Photos went up all over the web of a potential Swatch x AP watch in a half dozen bright colors. The rumor was it was priced between $300 and $400. On ebay, potential buyers were bracing to flip their investment for thousands as a collectible.
And then? Pfffft. Swatch has finally revealed what they’re releasing on Saturday and it’s not a wristwatch. It’s a pendant. A dongle. It does cost as much as predicted. But it’s a plastic watch face to hang around your neck.
Ever see air leave a Mylar birthday balloon? The store campers have disappeared. Social media is now on fire that they’ve been had. Owners of actual AP watches are relieved their hundred thousand baubles aren’t being desecrated by a cheap version.
But wow, what a disaster. It’s too bad. Swatch — with their clever designs — is still a great alternative to the high end watch business, and much better made than brands hawked on TV like bulky, clunky often tacky Invicta. The come down, though, will be studied in marketing classes for years.
That AP x Swatch watch is absolutely terrible. What a waste.
— Carrington Harrison (@cdotharrison) May 12, 2026
Meet the Royal Pop Collection, a groundbreaking union of AP's iconic Royal Oak and Swatch's POP watches powered by a new, hand-wound version of SISTEM51. Available as of May 16, at selected Swatch stores worldwide. #RoyalPoppic.twitter.com/8fYwsUlgoA
NBC is now banishing 25 year old “Law & Order” to 10pm, moving it from 8pm. This way it will run after “Law & Order SVU,” and maybe benefit from the lead in.
At 10pm “Law & Order” will battle with ABC’s fading “Grey’s Anatomy.” The 10pm hour has become the graveyard shift on Thursdays. On CBS, the slot is going to a new legal drama called “Cupertino,” about tech guys in the Silicon Valley.
Yeesh.
NBC has also, as reported before, canceled “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”
At the rate things are going, only “SVU” will survive another season from this legendary franchise. The current iteration doesn’t hold a candle to the classics from years ago with Sam Waterston et al even though it features top notch actors like Hugh Dancy and Tony Goldwyn.
Still, the move might be beneficial since “Grey’s” has no ratings anymore and is still on because ABC owns it.
As for “The Traitors,” Alan Cumming will host the 8pm game show spin off from the Peacock version. Only instead of celebrities, the players will be “civilians.”
Weird Al Yankovic is coming to Broadway with a new musical.
He’s written the songs with Scott Brown and Anthony King, of “Beetlejuice” fame.
Al is famous for his parody songs. He’s always hilarious. No word on a lot of details but Alex Timbers is directing. He’s got a Tony or two.
The musical, called “Dare to Be Stupid,” will feature songs from Yankovic’s unparalleled catalog spanning more than four decades — works that have parodied, celebrated, and cheerfully outlasted virtually every genre and cultural moment of the modern era – including “White & Nerdy” (a parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’”), “Amish Paradise” (a parody of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”), “Eat It” (a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”), “Smells Like Nirvana” (a parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), and “Like a Surgeon” (a parody of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”).
“Ever since I was a middle-aged man, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the New York theatre community,” says Yankovic in a press release. “Plus, the one thing people always say about Broadway is that it’s ‘severely lacking in Weird Al-based entertainment,’ and I think this musical should fix that problem immediately.”
I did not think I’d wake up to this sad news. Rex Reed is gone. He was 87, and he was a New York superstar.
Rex was maybe the most famous film critic ever in New York. A kid from Texas, with a drawl he couldn’t escape, Rex was close pals with another transplanted star from that state, the late Liz Smith. He called her “Lizzie” and they loved each other. I hope they’re having a drink in heaven right now.
Ditto actress Polly Bergen, another close pal. They adored each other.
Everyone today will have Rex stories. Rex did not keep his opinions to himself. If you sat with him during a screening and he didn’t like something the whole theater knew about it immediately. At the Toronto Film Festival every year, I’d have to whisper, “Rex, shhhh.” He’d say, “Well, really, how can you watch this?”
A funny moment: the intermission of Idina Menzel’s musical “If/Then.” Red didn’t care for the star’s shrill voice, or the songs. Right out loud, he exclaimed, “My ears are bleeding! Help!” I couldn’t help but laugh. He was right, as usual.
But when he liked something, or someone, you couldn’t do better than to have Rex in your corner. He defended good films and actors adamantly, not only in his New York Observer columns but in person. At New York Film Critics Circle dinners, actors would often read their negative Rex Reed posts. They were hilarious. But he could also heap on praise, and give movies or plays enough support to keep them going or give them much needed attention.
Rex was also a performer. The ham in him meant that he often turned up at various venues with anecdotes about his past. I’m including here a column the late Harry Haun (I can’t believe he’s gone either) wrote about such a night in 2018 at Birdland.
And talk about being in the center of things. A longtime resident of the Dakota, Rex had innumerable insights about the comings and goings of neighbors like Lauren Bacall, Roberta Flack, Yoko Ono, and Leonard Bernstein (his family, really). He knew where all the bodies were buried, but was circumspect enough to entertain us with amusing– not scandalous — stories. Yes, there was nothing better that he liked to do than gossip with friends. Peggy Siegal and I met up with him for lunch after Nora Ephron’s funeral. It was the most amazing celebration of life, and it could have gone on for days.
Rex, you will really be missed. I’m looking forward to all the social media posts today from other reviewers and actors you encountered. I know you will be, too! Tell Lizzie we said hello!
Bruce Springsteen returned to Madison Square Garden last night with his stunning three hour show, the same lesson in democracy and empathy he’s been delivering the last few weeks.
If nothing else, the show — which I last saw on April 21st in Newark — has grown richer and more textured as the famed E Street Band has found grooves no one expects and executes them with soulful precision.
As before, the show begins with Springsteen stating the theme of the night — a rebuke of Donald Trump’s cruel and sociopathic administration, accompanied by a denouncement of ICE and a memorial to the two people killed in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The Garden holds about 20,000 people, and you would think by now any of them there last night were on the same page politically with Springsteen. Can there be anyone left who just wants to hear “Born to Run” and “Dancing in the Dark” but are pro-Trump?
And yet there were two ultra wealthy moguls — one from media, the other from sports — sitting just above me. Toward the end of the show, Bruce makes his final pitch for humanity. But these two — who I will not name, because it’s not important — simply ignored it. I watched while one chomped away at some food, and the other just closed his eyes. They were there to hear “Hungry Heart.”
At one point, I saw Bruce’s friend, Jon Bon Jovi, who looked bewildered by his company, lean over and (I imagine) explain to one of these guys what the heck this all meant.
The experience of watching all this was quite a statement about the divide in America. Bruce was trying to address this to the other 19,998 souls who thunderously voiced their support and agreement with the singer’s brave plea to stand up to the oppression and political terror we face every day.
Watching these guys made me only that much more enthralled by Springsteen’s energy and determination to not let us lose our country.
Musically, the show was airtight. Seeing it a second time meant really getting to enjoy how Stevie van Zandt runs the stage, and handles his guitar. He is really exceptional. The same can be said for Nils Lofgren — who’s a spinning top during his solos — and guest player Tom Morello. Max Weinberg — I always want to do a health check after these shows to see if he’s survived. His drumming is ferocious. Jake Clemons continues to make his late uncle Clarence beaming in heaven.
Springsteen remains a modern miracle. For three hours he commands the most famous music venue in the world. In Newark, with a smaller room, he adjusted to a slightly more intimate setting. But at the Garden Bruce opens up the band full throttle and never takes his foot off the pedal. There is nary a break between songs. As he lands one like a jumbo jet, the next one is being counted down for take off.
The highlights — “Streets of Minneapolis” and “American Skin” are so important because they underscore Bruce’s message in the most engaging way. They aren’t lectures, but reports on how we are barely surviving. The pop songs — “Two Hearts,” “Hungry Heart” — are the welcome relief. The covers — “War” and “Welcome to the Clampdown” — re-balance the protest.
The show is titled “Land of Hope and Dreams: No Kings.” The song that inspired it is itself infused with Curtis Mayfield’s hopeful “People Get Ready,” which the Band acknowledges in a stirring tribute. The show ends with covers of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie classics — “Chimes of Freedom” and “This Land is Your Land” — that answer the proclamation of the opener three hours earlier — “War, what is it good for?”
PS It’s not all serious, you know. Bruce still dances up a storm, shimmies across the stage and into the audience as if he were three decades younger.
Here’s the speech that the two moguls — people who’ve done damage to this country morally and financially — just ignored. Let’s win them over by making them hear it again.
It’s really obnoxious and offensive given that there’s so much great live music out there by humans. Check out Judith Owens’ new jazz album, or Noah Kahan on “SNL” or Bruce Springsteen at MSG, or Sting at the Met Opera this June.)
Fake “IngaRose” has the number 4 single with “Celebrate Me.” Fake “Eddie Dalton” is still in the top 20.
Is this a manipulation of iTunes or are people just stupid?
There are some entries this week, too. You can tell because AI songs are TOO LOUD. They’re mixed like they’re shouting at you.
There’s something called Neveah Soul, another called River Bottom Audio Co. Also, Ragal Ironbull, Ash Reed Music, Motionless In White & Corey Taylor, Bob Dominator, CortexUS, Saxboy Billy, and Sheena Taylor.
Did I miss anything?
A lot of these are made on something called Suno, a platform that threatens to destroy the music business. It’s owned by a guy named Mikey Shulman. He’s not a disruptor. He’s a killer. Don’t be charmed by euphemisms. A fifth of the iTunes top 20 is fake now. More are coming…
There are already hundreds if not thousands of small museums in London. Why not one for the Beatles?
It seems like Apple Records (not to be confused with Apple Music — it’s a long story) is going to have one, too.
Coming next year is the The Beatles at 3 Savile Row, an immersive experience — aka museum — where fans of the Fab Four can see where it all happened.
This includes the rooftop where the Beatles recorded the famous concert for “Let it Be.” (The cop who tried to arrest the group mid-show will be animatronic – just kidding!)
3 Savile Row will be reminiscent of the Stax Museum in Memphis, or the Motown Museum in Detroit, or Dollywood or Graceland.
The only difference is, it’s the Beatles, the biggest musical act in the world for 60 years, and in the center of London.
Apparently, it’s the first of two such experiences in town. What’s next? A restaurant? Gift shop? Karaoke bar?
The building, 3 Savile Row, is 7 floors, but the number of people who will be waiting outside to get in is unimaginable. Also, the price of a ticket should be equivalent to having a suit made down the block on Savile Row.
The Beatles museum is a smart idea considering in April 2028 there will be four Beatles movies launched at the same time. Right now, Beatles fans have to troop up to Liverpool to get the history of the group. Now they can do it in between visits to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben!
Presumably the roof of 3 Savile Row is being reconfigured for safety and weather. But how will the neighbors feel about “Get Back” blasting away, seven days a week?
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have just released a single called “Home to Us.”
About the museum, McCartney says in a press release: “It was such a trip to get back to 3 Savile Row recently and have a look around. There are so many special memories within the walls, not to mention the rooftop. The team have put together some really impressive plans and I’m excited for people to see it when it’s ready.”
Ringo comments: “Wow, it’s like coming home.”
Apple has been very savvy over the years keeping the Beatles’ legacy alive. For two decades they ran the amazing Cirque du Soleil “Love” show in Las Vegas. They’ve also repackaged and re-released remastered and remixed versions of nearly every recording the group made. There’s not much left, but I guess we’ll see what’s possible!
Candice Bergen is such a star, so funny, and a great beauty.
Happy 80th birthday!
Vogue has posted a video to its Instagram page of Candice with daughter Chloe Malle (her father was legendary director Louis Malle), editorial director of Vogue. P
The post is about Mother’s Day, not Bergen’s birthday. But she steals the show, as usual. If Chloe posts more of these, Vogue will get some readers!
A zillion Emmy awards and lots of accolades– all deserved. Plus plenty of terrific movies including an Oscar nomination for “Starting Over.” She’s sensational with Meryl Streep in “Let Them All Talk” and has a disarming turn in “The Meyerowitz Stories” — not to mention “The Group,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Rich and Famous,” and “Miss Congeniality.”
After winning the Oscar for “Titanic” in 1997, Cameron went on to make at least two documentaries about the historic 1912 sinking of the ship.
You’d think that was enough. For a while it seemed like it as Cameron got all blue for the “Avatar” films.
But there were rumblings at this week’s premiere of Cameron’s Billie Eilish documentary that he may want to get back in a submarine and look around some more.
One incentive: next year is the 30th anniversary of his landmark film. Cameron knows audiences will come see whatever he’s got just for that occasion.
There’s evidence that bacteria is eating away at parts of the fabled ship, which could mean erasure of key parts in less than 10 years. There have been other films on this subject but Cameron is said to still be interested in what hasn’t been discovered.
There’s also the 2023>Titan implosion, which killed five people, (OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman Dawood) and a March 2025 tourist submarine sinking in the Red Sea that killed six Russian nationals.
Even though Cameron has said in the past that the Titan accident didn’t interest him, you know it must be scratching away at his brain.
So even with Cameron finding buried treasure with Billie Eilish, he knows what he was made for.
