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The word is out: Adele is “considering” doing the Super Bowl half time show next year.
Jimmy Fallon announced this news on his show last and it’s not coincidence: the Super Bowl is on NBC. They know now she’s doing it. Fallon gave us a tease.
An Adele half time show won’t be a big dance marathon like Beyonce, but she will be center stage. A few guest stars might be added. Professional flipper Benson Boone does a great job on Adele’s “When We Were Young.” He’d be perfect. And, he could flip!
The ratings would also be through the roof, no matter who plays. If the Chiefs are back, Taylor Swift will be in the audience. She could also make an appearance since by then she’ll be up for Grammy Awards and so on.
Can she handle Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California? Absolutely. Adele just did 18 months in Vegas. She can handle a big space without trouble.
So bring on Adele! Just talent and no pornography is just what the doctor ordered at this point.
Jimmy Kimmel named the guests for his return to the air tonight.
Glen Powell, the hot star, will be promoting his “Chad Powers” TV series on Disney’s Hulu platform.
Sarah McLachlan will also appear and presumably perform. She’s launching her first album in nine years.
Mclachlan was affected by Kimmel’s suspension insofar as she canceled her performance at the premiere of her “Lilith Fair” documentary — also a Hulu project — last week in solidarity with the talk show host.
Jon Stewart made a funny joke last night on his show about subscribers rushing through four years of “Only Murders in the Building” before canceling Disney Plus.
It’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year’s day, the beginning of the High Holidays.
Jewish Americans should be aware that Donald Trump has no message for us whatsoever, not on his social media or the White House website. He may only be vaguely aware that he has Jewish grandchildren via his daughter Ivanka.
He doesn’t care about American Jews unless it’s to raise money by scaring them into thinking he could abandon support for Israel.
Instead, Trump is celebrating the High Holidays by issuing another meaningless screed, this one about Congressional Democrats. This includes another irrational attack on transgender people. He is really scared of the transgender world. It’s a psychosis.
The irony is, fans in his hometown of Las Vegas won’t be able to see his show. Kimmel’s parents moved there from Brooklyn when he was nine years old.
Fans there who were betting on seeing his triumphant return tonight have lost…for the time being.
Conservative broadcaster Sinclair owns the local station and won’t allow Kimmel to be seen for fear it will offend the viewers, most of whom are connected to the casino world. Sinclair thinks they’d be scandalized or offended.
Sinclair controls 38 ABC stations across the country, and Kimmel’s show is banned by them.
Same for Nexstar, which has 28 stations and is run by similar puritans who can’t take a joke.
I wish I could say these stations are just in redneck areas, but they are also in big cities like Washington, DC and Providence, Rhode Island.
Of course, fans can still watch Kimmel on Disney Plus, and in clips on You Tube on Twitter.
If you have DirectTV, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Viewers in areas that are blocked out by censorship should contact their stations and complain that small minds are controlling their viewing preferences.
Both Nexstar and Sinclair are bowing to pressure from Donald Trump, who hates Kimmel and controls FCC decisions about the companies’ corporate mergers.
Despite their differences, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham have found success again with their original album.
“Buckingham Nicks,” released in 1974, has been cleaned up and sent back in the world in all formats for the first time. On amazon and elsewhere, it’s selling like hotcakes. Top of the charts.
I had this record in 1974, but I’m pretty sure I sold it to Sounds on St. Marks Place. I mean, who knew?
Anyway, the former couple went on to fame with Fleetwood Mac, and then solo. They buried the hatchet long enough to get this reissue out, and it’s turning into a moneymaker. (Also it’s a very good album.)
So Stevie has published a letter she wrote her parents and brother when she and Buckingham were recording the album. You can see it below. She was 25. Now she’s 35 (or seems like it). “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” weren’t even a gleam in her eye yet.
When Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC on September 17th, he gloated.
He wrote on social media: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT”
Trump had instigated the suspension, threatening to pull ABC’s broadcast license. He also pressured Nexstar, which owns 200 TV stations and needed Trump’s approval to buy more from another company, to drop the show.
Initially it worked. Trump didn’t hesitate to comment and declare victory.
But since Disney and ABC stared him down and reinstated Kimmel on Monday, the normally voluble Trump has been silent.
Crickets, really. Not a word.
This is completely unlike the unrestrained poster who started his own social media platform so he spend days and nights calling people names and declaring his own fictional victories.
But now, with Disney facing financial and corporate pressures, actors protesting them and all their good will going out the window, Trump has been shamed. Everyone knows what he and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tried to do to Kimmel.
Exposed, Trump is silent. Checkmate. Disney wins, Kimmel wins, Trump and Carr lose big time.
For once this year, it’s happy ending.
Will he ever mention what happened? And what will take place when a reporter questions him about Kimmel? In the last few days, Trump has been losing it with brave reporters, insulting them and saying nasty things totally inappropriate.
All the real comedy and drama are coming out of the Oval Office.
When I was living in Boston (in what seems like the 1920s) I came across a record album — vinyl — stacked up at Strawberries Records.
It was really 1977, and Garland Jeffreys’ “Ghost Writer” was the cult album of the year. His song, “Wild in the Streets,” was an FM staple. The other tracks all went into rotation. A&M Records did several more albums with Jeffreys and he became an East Coast favorite. He hit a new high in 1979 with a radio favorite called “Matador.”
By the time Jeffreys moved to Epic Records in the 1980s he had a big following but it was hard to get radio play. Was he R&B? Rock? Reggae? He defied categorization. Punk and new wave were way in by then, but Jeffreys — a small roundish brown man — didn’t have a mullet and wasn’t a teenager.
Nevertheless, great albums poured out of him including “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat,” “American Boy and Girl,” and “Wildlife Dictionary.”
And then for a while there was silence. When I produced a Phoebe Snow show at the original Cutting Room in 2001, there was Garland all of a sudden out of nowhere. (Phoebe had recorded a track with him in the 70s.)
Then well into the 2000s came of “The King of Inbetween.” A stunning collection, “King” was the first of three or four albums that solidified his place in rock and roll history. One of his best songs, “I’m Alive,” was thrilling declaration of survival. But what his category?
Along the way, he’d picked up admirers. Lou Reed went to college with Garland at Syracuse University and they were close til Lou left this world. Bruce Springsteen fell in love with him. Guys like Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, who’d also exploded in 1977, were ardent. None other than Petula Clark danced up the aisle at a High Line show. But they had radio niches. Garland didn’t, so he just kept gigging and building up massive loyal audiences.
A new documentary, directed and produced by his tenacious wife Claire, is now playing on Amazon and YouTube and other platforms after a nice indie film theatrical run. It’s called “The King of Inbetween” and it comes in the nick of time. About 5 years ago, Garland was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
WTF? This gregarious storyteller, with an incredible memory for details of his childhood and New York in a gritty time before Yuppies and Wall Street bros, gifted with gab and catchy melodies, was going to be silenced? Not so fast. He kept singing and gigging without telling anyone for as long as he could, eventually being swallowed by this pernicious disease.
“The King of Inbetween” is a love letter from Claire to Garland. But it’s also the story of an outsized artist who didn’t win Grammys or get on the cover of People magazine. It’s about a mixed race poet from Brooklyn with the musical chops of everyone from the Rolling Stones to Goffin and King, who couldn’t bend to any genre. He created his own. If you’re a new fan, songs like “New York Skyline” will make you cry, and “Coney Island Winter” will evoke a whole movie that has not been made.
Mostly, the movie will make you fall in love with Garland’s personal brand of rock, reggae, & R&B in ways you did not imagine possible. And what’s better than discovering great music long after you thought the ship had sailed? Stream “The King of Inbetween,” see it a film festival, get his records. He’s one of a kind, the best kind.
PS Garland is still alive. But Alzheimer’s has taken its toll. He doesn’t know how well the movie has done, and hasn’t read all the glowing reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience meter is at 100%. For a good reason.
Their annual Central Park show is turning into a nightmare.
Lead performer The Weeknd has dropped out at the last minute. He’ll be replaced by Cardi B.
Security must be thrilled. (Kidding.) This is now a very different night in the park.
Tickets weren’t selling in the first place. Now, on StubHub, prices are being slashed. “Citi Premium VIP” has dropped from $477 to $245.
Don’t forget, all levels of VIP tickets are for standing, just close to the stage.
I’ve written about Global Citizen for years. They spend millions on salaries for their executives, and producing rock concerts. They send very little money to poor or hungry people around the world. They’ve also ignored Ukraine and Gaza as if they don’t exist.
Now Cardi B, Shakira, and lesser lights like Tyla, Ayra Starr and Mariah the Scientist. Hugh Jackman, who still doesn’t get it, is heavily advertised as a host. Maybe he and Cardi B will do a number together.
The 501c3 no longer has a TV deal. They will stream the endless show to anyone who’s interested. It will be enlightening to see how many “world leaders” they fly in or kidnap from the UN General Assembly to promote their mostly useless ideas.
But I think maybe most people — not Hugh Jackman — have gotten the message about Global Citizen. There are no big mainstream stars, no Stevie Wonder or Coldplay, nothing really outside of hip hop.
The Weeknd? He’s out for “personal reasons.” Let’s hope it’s not something to do with his contract or the conditions, or if he asked exactly where all the money goes. He’s a smart guy, so anything is possible.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Jimmy Kimmel is coming back. Tomorrow.
Jimmy Kimmel is coming back. Disney is staring down Donald Trump. Protests over ABC and Disney’s suspension, and lots of bad will that could have mushroomed into real corporate disaster, have helped make Kimmel stronger than ever.
Certainly the threat of FCC licenses being removed is over. Trump was wielding that like a baseball bat. But Trump has struck out. Bob Iger, head of Disney, comes out a hero.
Kimmel’s ratings tomorrow night should be through the roof.
Earlier I wrote that 400 Hollywood stars signed a letter protesting the suspension. Many content creators said they’d never work with Disney again if Kimmel didn’t return. Disney faced a bleak future in the creative community. That has now been avoided.
I’ve confirmed that pop star Dua Lipa didn’t “fire her manager.”
For one thing, her manager is her father, Dugi Lipa. So that part can be put aside.
Lipa has agents at both CAA (domestic) and WME (International).
Years ago, David Levy — an agent — signed Dua Lipa to WME in London. He books her concerts. If she’s not on tour, he has nothing to do with her.
Lipa’s regular agents at WME London include a man named David Bradley.
Back to Levy: he did write a letter to the promoters at Glastonbury requesting they remove pro-Hamas group Kneecap from their line up. (I agree with him.)
“This is a Daily Mail story that’s become like a game of telephone,” says my source, “It’s grown out of control.”
Indeed, no one at WME has heard a word from Dua Lipa, who may very well approve of Kneecap performing at the festival but hasn’t told them or said so herself.
My source says, “Dua has a great relationship with WME, there’s nothing wrong.”
