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As expected, Paul McCartney sang Stephen Colbert off the air tonight.
He helped Colbert close out his 11 year run with an all star version of “Hello Goodbye” featuring Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste, and a phalanx of musicians.
The Beatles song was preceded by Colbert, Costello, and Batiste performing a rare Costello song, called “Jump Up,” a demo from Costello’s first album, “My Aim is True.”
The final Colbert also included a sketch with the other late night show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver which they obviously taped earlier in the week. Neil Degrasse Tyson was also involved, in a convoluted business about space and worm holes.
Colbert’s unfailing graciousness got him through the extended episode, with Donald Trump’s name and likeness never mentioned or shown. It was a classy ending.
Keep refreshing for clips…
#StephenColbert ends "The Late Show" after two decades by playing “Hello, Goodbye” with Paul McCartney.
Stephen Colbert asked Paul McCartney who was cuter, him as a younger man and Paul Mescal. Paul joked that he was cuter, but then said that Mescal is very cute, May 21 2026 pic.twitter.com/TMOvCuFCgo
— DIÁRIO DOS BEATLES (@Diario_Beatles) May 22, 2026
— DIÁRIO DOS BEATLES (@Diario_Beatles) May 22, 2026
Tonight’s Colbert finale will be a “really big shoo.”
That’s what Ed Sullivan used to say about his shows, the most famous of which introduced the Beatles to America.
Over the years, Paul McCartney has returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater, appearing on both the David Letterman and Stephen Colbert shows.
On one occasion, Paul and his band played outside on the marquee of the theater.
Tonight — as I predicted — Paul returns for one last visit. He helps Colbert end his 11 year run on CBS. He also gets to say goodbye to the theater, the plae where he became famous in 1964.
Now it’s 2026, sixty two years later, and McCartney is a week away from the release of a new album. Can you imagine what he would have said if Ed had asked on February 8, 1964, Do you think you’ll still be here in sixty two years? Young Paul’s mind would have been blown.
It’s going to be quite a night.
And let’s not forget how this moment has come about. CBS has cancelled Colbert to shut him up. It’s what they did in the late 60s to the Smothers Brothers, and to Ed Asner with his “Lou Grant” show in the early 80s. So it’s not Bari Weiss and the Ellisons, it’s corporate America caving to whoever’s in charge.
Paul McCartney leaving the Ed Sullivan Theatre after appearing on Stephen Colbert's show, May 21 2026 video by ch1rohnry/instagram pic.twitter.com/ljQ7si3JF0
— DIÁRIO DOS BEATLES (@Diario_Beatles) May 22, 2026
Trump Media stock, which supports TruthSocial, is dying fast.
Today the stock dropped below 8 bucks to $7.95. If you have the certificates at home, you can wallpaper the bathroom with then.
Trump spends all day and night on this abandoned social media platform. He makes cuckoo proclamations and endorses MAGA fire hydrants in political races. He announces wars that aren’t happening, and ends those that never existed.
Meanwhile, the Epstein files are still unreleased because he’s all over them. The Republicans are rejected his $1 billion slush fund payments to criminals, and the Democrats are blocking his $400 million “ballroom” aka bunker for when he won’t turn over the presidency.
And this says nothing about the skyrocketing price of gas and the war in Iran he invented for no reason.
And Truth Social? Let’s see it to go the penny markets, or the Pink Sheets.
There’s yet another AI blues record on the iTunes top 10.
“Step by Step in Time” is credited to a “Benny Rivers.”
Benny does not exist. He’s an AI creation, so is the song, the music, the photo.
This is deeply insulting to real R&B and soul/blues musicians who spent their lives making real music that moved hearts and minds, and feet.
“Benny Rivers” joins “Eddie Dalton” and Inga Rose and another newish listing, for a Dust & Harmony.
None of these people are human, they do not exist, they are content creations from a computer.
Dalton is the creation of a guy in Greenville, South Carolina. He may also be the creator of the others. They match his digital signature.
Much of the digital music is being created on a platform called Suno, created itself by four guys in Cambridge–Michael Shulman, Georg Kucsko, Martin Camacho, and Keenan Freyberg.
So far, radio has ignored these “records.” Streaming is iffy although “Benny Rivers” has picked up almost 3 million streams on Spotify. “Eddie Dalton” has around 20 million total. Inga Rose 25 million streams. “She” also has millions of YouTube views.
Spotify and YouTube should not allow these “songs” to appear on their platforms. It’s bad enough that each company is notable for ripping off musicians.
Mark my words– music biz now, movies next. Like, before the end of the year.
Michael Jackson’s defense attorney from 2005, Thomas Mesereau, is erudite and exact on Australia’s “60 Minutes” this week.
Mesereau’s brilliant defense of Jackson in 2005 led to a verdict of not guilty on all counts in the famed trial. Mesereau still defends Michael, and eviscerates those who’ve turned against Jackson for money after his death. Mesereau is particularly brutal on the subject of Wade Robson, who staunchly defended Michael in the 2005 trial, then accused the singer well after his death of abusing him and sued for millions.
Mesereau insists: “If you take allegations against Michael Jackson and look at them through a microscope, nothing holds up.”
Michael Jackson's former defense attorney Tom Mesereau explains why he is 100% innocent pic.twitter.com/AEYT7Hh6l2
Bruce Springsteen probably won’t be appearing on any of Larry and David Ellison’s media properties again.
On the penultimate Stephen Colbert Late Show, Springsteen — I guess with the approval of CBS censors — ripped into the Ellisons.
He accused them of “kissing Trump’s a// to get what they want.”
Bruce said Colbert was “the first guy in America to lose his show because the President can’t take a joke.”
His full statement: “I’m here in support tonight for Stephen, because you are the first guy in America who lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke, and because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. Stephen, these are small-minded people. They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about”
The great performer then sang “The Streets of Minneapolis,” in a dramatic, stirring, and poignant farewell to Colbert, who will be sorely missed on national TV every night.
On the same show, Colbert donated $2.5 million to Chef Jose Andres’ World Kitchen from proceeds from Late Show merchandise. A dozen or more celebrities appeared on the show, as well, including Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Amy Sedaris, and former CBS News anchor John Dickerson.
Meanwhile, this is how much Bruce is putting on the line. He could easily be banned now from CBS and all its extensions, not to mention all the parts of Warner Bros. the Ellisons control under their new deal including CNN and HBO. He has amazing courage and must be applauded for his bravery.
This past week’s “Saturday Night Live” season finale was a smash hit.
With Will Ferrell as host and Paul McCartney as musical guest, “SNL” scored 5.3 million same day viewers.
That’s second only the 5.4 million who watched Cher and Ariana Grande on the Christmas show.
The number doesn’t take in online or streaming.
I can’t say I’m surprised. The combo of Ferrell and McCartney was as good as it gets. Plus, Paul playing three songs on the show was so unusual, and his performance of “Band on the Run” was historic.
Hopefully, this is a good sign for McCartney’s May 29th album release for “The Boys of Dungeon Place.” His millions of fans are ready to buy, download, and stream. If this is his final studio album, “Boys” will be a win.
I told you on March 9th that Taylor Swift would be performing at the Songwriters Hall of Fame next month– on June 11th.
Page Six doesn’t seem to have gotten that information, so I’m re-upping it for them and for everyone.
There was some worry that Swift was getting married on June 13th, two days later. How could a prospective bride pull all this off? You know, Taylor can do anything. She’s the original multi-tasker. Whenever she gets married, she could make an album that day!
“Once,” “Begin Again,” “Sing Street,” “Flora and Son.” Carney is an Irish auteur who’s managed to keep making indie movies unfettered by studio interference. Each one is a little music-centric gem that can be watched over and over.
Carney’s new one is “Power Ballad,” which opens June 5th and premiered last night in unusually torturous May heat and humidity, and in the worst place for those conditions, Times Square. But the movie is so incredibly charming, we tried not to care.
The big news is that “Power Ballad” — set in Ireland and Beverly Hills, and really a disarming look at the creative process of making pop music — stars Nick Jonas as a conflicted, not so nice former boy bander who needs a hit desperately. Jonas always plays a good guy on TV and in movies, and beams with positive energy when he sings with his brothers. So this might seem like a stretch. But it’s not.
Paul Rudd is Jonas’s counter balance. He’s a veteran singer and songwriter living in Ireland because of his wife. He’s the quintessential good guy who’s a wedding singer but should have been a contender.
The pair cross paths at a wedding, hit it off, and doing a little all night jamming. Rudd’s Rick Power helps Nick’s Danny Wilson finish some songs and then walks away. Months later he hears one of those songs in a mall and realizes he’s been snookered.
The song Rick hears is called “How to Write a Song without You,” and it’s a hit. I mean, in real life. When it’s released next week, the single should be something for Jonas to take up the charts. There are versions of him singing it alone and with Rudd, who performs a lot in the movie and acquits himself very well as more than just a wedding singer. I’d be surprised if “How to Write a Song Without You” isn’t a Best Song nominee at the Oscars next year.
The song is written, by the way, by Gary Clark, one of the UK’s best pop-smiths. Forty years ago, Clark fronted a group called Danny Wilson, which was named for a character in a Frank Sinatra movie called “Meet Danny Wilson.” Danny Wilson has two excellent albums still streaming everywhere. (I was obsessed with the first one.) Now, after all this time, Clark may really get his due. Sinatra would be very happy.
One thing t look for in the movie: Jonas and Rudd performing Stevie Wonder’s 1976 “I Wish.” It was a full circle moment for Nick Jonas since he and his brothers once performed with superstar Stevie on the Grammys. Carney told me last night he’s not sure if Stevie even knows “I Wish” is in a movie yet, and that it wasn’t so hard to license it.
Carney is a gifted but underrated storyteller. He told me it took 8 years to make this film, and part of that involved a chance meeting with a potential backer. He loves the music business and totally gets nuances that resonate with verisimilitude. He gets the dichotomy of the persistence of artists to remain true to their spirit despite record labels wanting to homogenize them, a story that never ends. There’s a lot of wide eyed idealism in his films, and the good news that it always pays off.
There’s a twist at the end of “Power Ballad,” worth waiting for. Carney told me last night, “You put in all that time for those two minutes.” He knows how to pull off a heart in the throat moment, when all the feels come together in an organic way. You’re caught unawares, and by then the credits are rolling and you want to see “Power Ballad” again.
Carney, by the way, tells me this movie his really taken over his career. His next project “will definitely involve Paul Rudd” — “I have plans for him,” he said. He’s also “in business” with Clark. As for Jonas, even Carney knows a rock star must move on. But boy, he did a terrific job here.
New York Magazine is back in the hands of a Murdoch.
From the mid 70s til 1991, Rupert Murdoch owned the weekly crown jewel of New York media. You can’t imagine how important New York was then, before the internet. Everyone in town read it.
But Rupert’s ownership was not so pleasant and there was great relief when he sold it.
Now, 35 years later, meet the new boss. Will he be the same as the old boss?
Son James Murdoch has purchased 50% of Vox Media, which owns New York. James gets the magazine, the website, and the podcast. James is like Michael Corleone trying to go legit. With his family trust, he also owns the Tribeca Film Festival.
The younger Murdoch says he’ll be “hands off” with New York, and maybe he will at first. This will be a developing story. James knows that if he starts injecting New York with the wild ravings of the NY Post or Fox News, not only will he called out on it, the remaining readers will exit. Just look at CBS News. Ratings have cratered since the right wingers have taken over.
This could be the beginning of a triumphant new era, or another slide to the exits. Let’s hope for the first!
