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A lot of people say they’ve tried to cancel but can’t get through the Disney system.
In a lot of cases, leaving Disney Plus also means Hulu, ESPN, etc. if you have it all bundled.
But people are angry about the censorship of Jimmy Kimmel. They don’t care about a company called Nexstar trying to buy one called Tegna. They’re only interested that Donald Trump is trying to wipe out the First Amendment, and Disney is going along with it.
If this situation persists into next week, watch Disney World, Disneyland, and other related products suffer, too. There are plenty of less expensive places to visit.
And here we thought Florida’s backward laws would drive Disney World out. Turns out, they could be their own worst enemy.
For some reason, the musician is profiled in an overlong piece on the cover of New York magazine.
Lizzo was “canceled” a couple of years ago when her dancers sued her for weight-shaming and treating them badly.
Up til then Lizzo had been having hits, and Grammys, and played the flute. Her calling card was that she was huge and loved it.
After the lawsuit debacle, her record sales plummeted. When she tried to release new songs via Atlantic Records this year, they bombed.
Now we learn through New York that she also released “mixtapes” that no one knew about.
Writer Alison P. Davis says in dense deposition: “She followed it up with a deluxe version of the mixtape My Face Still Hurts From Smiling that dropped suddenly in September and features more house-influenced tracks that reference ChatGPT, Love Island, and eating ass.”
OK, I’m not a prude, but I;m trying to imagine the reaction of the great New York magazine founder Clay Felker, and the editor Ed Kosner, to the expression, “eating ass.” If this doesn’t blow the mind of sensible people, then I realize I’m really old. Village Voice? Sure. Rolling Stone? Why not? But New York magazine.
Yech. Pflooey.
What is the point of the Lizzo cover story? She never made the album she was supposed to, and when the long and winding profile ends, there’s still no record in sight.
I have nothing against Lizzo, and don’t really care about her lawsuits. But obviously her fans did. Her total sales this year have been just 8,045 downloads. If you add in streaming, the number comes to 211,000. Almost all of it is from her old music. The mi tape, “My Face Still Hurts From Smiling,” has sold so little it’s a collectors’ item.
But at least we know she’s obsessed with her own ass cheeks, and is writing songs about eating them.
I obviously don’t believe in the whole “woke” thing, but this seems overly woke. Felker must be spinning in his grave.
I’m not making this up, by the way. A hundred years ago in Paris, at dinner, I wondered what “veal cheeks” were and decided not to order it. Same goes here.
Aerosmith and new shirtless hit YungBlud (aka Dominic Harrison) are number 1 on iTunes with a remake of the former group’s “My Little Angel.”
They have an EP coming November 21st called “One More Time” with two songs from the Aerosmith catalogue including “Back in the Saddle.” The other three are new collaborations.
Remember how our year started? After the Grammy Awards last January, Tyler performed at his charity event in Hollywood and sounded great.
At the recent Ozzy Osbourne tribute, Steven and Yungblud triumphantly performed “Mama I’m Coming Home.”
Tyler was plagued with vocal problems and other issues. It meant cancelling Aerosmith’s farewell tour. All seemed lost. But he’s gotten back his wild spunk and has sounded better and better through the year.
A number 1 single? It’s the best news ever for what’s left of rock and roll.
Get out! Jordan Peele’s “Him,” a horror film that seems a lot like his big hit, “Get Out,” finishes first for the weekend.
Thurs-Fri take is $6.5 million, despite terrible reviews and little response from the exiting audience.
The former is 27% and the latter is 57%. Critics didn’t like it, said so, then audience agreed.
“Him” is not going to have a happy ending.
Even worse: Sony has another disaster on its hands with “Big Bold Journey” which turns out to a bad, small trip. It’s DOA with $1.4 million for Thursday and Friday.
So we wait for this coming Thursday when “One Battle After Another” will come rolling out with A plus reviews and a lot of excitement.
Still doing well, by the way: “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” is the movie to see this weekend. Coming up on $30 million, it’s the best of the three “Downton” movies and just lovely. The best way to enjoy the weekend.
Miley Cyrus released a new album this year called “Something Beautiful.”
It was a sales disaster. No singles, lots of weird tracks. It sounded like no one was in charge. (Ditto Ed Sheeran.) Copies: 44,000. With streaming: 133,000.
So why not try to revive that album with two tracks added? One of them is a bizarre and unnecessary song with David Byrne called “Lockdown.” Six minutes would have been more than enough for an interesting idea that goes nowhere.
The other new track is called “Secrets.” It’s made with Mick Fleetwood and Lindsay Buckingham. Miley sings the part of Stevie Nicks, with her reedy high voice.
But what could have been a hit becomes an enigma half way through as Miley abandons the chorus and the word “secret.” I’d like to remix it so she sings the title repeatedly. Otherwise, I can’t listen to a single without a point. What is going on here? She’s called out on strikes!
(Lyrics include the words “garden gnome’ and Katy Perry’s ‘chained to the rhythm.)
Does anyone produce or A&R albums anymore? Doesn’t sound like it.
Conan O’Brien has responded to the suspension of fellow comedian and talk show host:
“The suspension of @jimmykimmel and the promise to silence other Late Night hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center. It’s wrong and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.”
What Conan doesn’t address is the elephant in the room: would he host the Oscars on ABC next March?
O’Brien hosted this year and the show was a hit. He’s signed for a second year. But it seems unlikely he’d do the job if Kimmel has left the network under these circumstances.
Indeed, it would be hard to find a stand up comedian or willing host of anything if they’re loyal to Kimmel. And what about the Grammy Awards?
Oy vey.
The suspension of @jimmykimmel and the promise to silence other Late Night hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center. It’s wrong and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner has come after the company for the debacle over Jimmy Kimmel.
Eisner posted to Twitter an indirect jab at Bob Iger: “Where has all the leadership gone?”
The former Disney chief — who was with the company for 21 years and was a powerful presence — hasn’t posted for over a year. So he means it.
The repercussions for this Kimmel situation are growing. Subscribers are leaving Disney Plus in droves. Already many creators of content are saying they won’t work with Disney and ABC if Kimmel is gone.
Stay tuned…
Where has all the leadership gone? If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment? The “suspending indefinitely” of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the…
No one does marketing like Taylor Swift and her dad, Scott Swift. They should teach a course at Harvard.
On October 3rd they drop Taylor’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Beginning that Friday for the weekend, there will be a “Life of a Showgirl” movie event at AMC Theaters for devoted fans.
Taylor promises the film will include cut by cut explanations of all the tracks, the debut of her new single “The Fate of Ophelia,” and lots of dancing.
Fans — mostly girls — are encouraged to wear brown or orange cardigans. Luckily, Swift sells them on her website.M
The “movie” special has precedent. Swift broke records with her “Eras Tour” concert film at AMC Theaters, raking in millions.
So far, Republic Records has kept advance sales of “The Life of a Showgirl” off of Amazon. It would probably be number 1 right now, but still unavailable. But trust me, it’s coming. They’re looking to turn this into not just the biggest release of 2025, but the most since Swift’s last album.
Every recording act and company should study what’s going on here. Of course, it takes money to pull it off, but they have it.
As Shakespeare and the Band once said, “Get thee to a nunnery, Ophelia.”
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie are award winning actors. Together, any movie they make should be a hit.
But “Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey” is the latest turkey from flailing Sony Pictures.
For Thursday previews, “BBBJ” made just $400,000. It’s DOA.
I have no idea what this movie is about and neither do you. The title tells us nothing. Just saying “it’s a romcom” isn’t enough. There must be a plot, right?
Oh well. Farrell is reaping the rewards of “The Penguin.” Robbie still has the afterglow of “Barbie.”
Sony has had a string of failures through the year. “Caught Stealing,” a total enjoyable romp, has made less than $20 million. Others, like “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” were out and out flops.
At 34 years old, Ed Sheeran is learning that lesson.
His new album, his eighth, called “Play,” had very soft sales in its debut week.
“Play” is sold 71,000 copies this week, two thirds of it physical CDs and downloads, the rest from streaming. That’s about half of what should have sold.
To be honest, Sheeran hasn’t had a major hit since 2017. He had a great run with four “math” albums that were titled Divide, Plus, Times (X), and Equal, all using their numeric signs.
Those albums had lots of hits including “Shape of You,” “Perfect,”
“The A Team,” and so on. He was unsuccessfully sued over his Marvin Gaye-ish “Thinking Out Loud.”
But the album sales started taking a downturn recently, and “Play,” is the latest example.
The biggest problem with “Play”? No big radio hit like the ones mentioned above. The album is full of good songs, but so far nothing that’s broken out.
It may be at this point that Sheeran doesn’t care about hits. That’s reasonable. Most pop stars have a five year span of hits before their audience grows up and moves on. But it might be nice to give it a go, whether or not the single goes top 40.
The irony here is that Halsey, another pop star, gave an interview this week saying her record company wasn’t pining for a new album since her last one sold 200,000 copies. It debuted with 100,000. That’s a lot better than “Play.”
Halsey tells Zane Lowe that her label won’t allow her to release another album after ‘The Great Impersonator’ failed to meet their commercial standards. pic.twitter.com/uNyHSOSGGz
