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Whoopi Goldberg finally addressed the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco this morning on The View.
Whoopi opened the show saying this: “No one silences us…we’re still here…we’re still broadcasting.”
But in the end The View didn’t really tackle the Kimmel situation with ABC. They side stepped it very carefully with nary a mention of the talk show host’s suspension.
Whoopi said the lack of comment last Thursday was because they were waiting for Kimmel to say something. “Did y’all think we weren’t going to address this?”
Notably, Joy Behar is not on today’s show. No explanation.
Whoopi says to Donald Trump: “You don’t understand how the First Amendment works.”
It looks like the gloves are off. The View used clips of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and other politicians decrying censorship.
This may be Disney clearing the path for Kimmel to return. It certainly shows a little backbone on the part of the network.
A full transcript and video will be available later.
In the second segment, the group discusses the FCC with almost no talk of Kimmel.
Dua Lipa. What a hit she was from around 2017-2021.
Not only did she have her own chart hits, she sang with Elton John on his “Cold Heart.”
But pop stars are like sports stars. They have an expiration date. Dua Lipa may have hit hers.
There’s a rumor that she fired her manager this week over politics. She’s pro-Palestinian. He’s Jewish. Frankly, he should have fired her.
But here’s some reality. Dua Lipa’s last album, sold only 110,000 physical albums and downloads, according to Luminate.
With streaming, it bulked up to over 700,000.
But her prior album, “Future Nostalgia,” sold over 320,000 downloads and CDs. With streaming the total was a whopping 5 million.
Get the picture? A downward trend has emerged.
Year to date, “Future Nostalgia” has sold 320,000– mostly from streaming. But “Radical Optimism” has sold about that number– mostly from streaming.
If Dua Lipa and her manager, David Levy, have split, my guess it’s more about trying to turn around a rudderless ship — bigger deal than who plays at a charity concert. (Lipa was apparently upset Levy didn’t want the dreadful pro-Hezbollah Kneecap to perform at Glastonbury this year.)
Lipa is already being called antisemitic in the British press.
On Tuesday she starts a publicity onslaught to promote her new album, called “Here For It All.”
She’s even Tweeted out her media dates so fans can follow along. The question is, will they buy the album?
“Here for It All” already has two dud singles to its credit. A possible third one, the title tracks, is a ballad that sounds like about ten different songs. That might help it on the radio.
Mariah will celebrate Rosh Hashanah (just kidding) on Wednesday morning with Gayle King. For the second day (again, kidding) she’s with Kelly and Mark Live.
On Friday Mariah will be with Drew Barrymore. Next Monday, the 29th, she lands at the Tonight show. On Tuesday the 30th there are pretaped appearances with Keke Palmer, and Jennifer Hudson. October 1st she finishes up with Andy Cohen on Bravo.
Will she sing on these shows? Who knows? Will she vamp and lip synch? Why not? Will she carry on dramatically and talk about Bugatti cars and diamonds? Let’s hope so.
Right now, “Here for It All” is at number 36 on amazon.com counting advance sales. Mariah has one week to launch the album before Taylor Swift arrives with the British army at Normandy.
Even if this doesn’t work out, Christmas is around the corner. That’s Mariah’s money making season anyway.
The number 1 movie is Sony’s anime, “Demon Slayer,” a hit around the world.
“Demon Slayer” has made $104 million here, and $555 million total around the world. Not one person you know knows what it is, but Sony needs to it at this point.
All of Sony’s movies with humans have been a disaster. Their “Big Bold Beautiful Journey” has been a big, bold, bad dream.
Co-starring Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, “BBJ” made just $3.5 million this weekend. It cost around $55 million. So another one goes in the dumpster. Does Sony still make the Walkman?
Otherwise, we have Jordan Peele’s “Him.” Peele’s “Get Out” was such a phenomenon, but he’s never been able to reproduce it. Just like M. Night Shayamalan with “The Sixth Sense.” Total $13.5 million this weekend. Dead on arrival. Peele is so talented, maybe it’s time to try a different genre.
“Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” pushed to $31 million. Nice work. It can keep going for a while before hitting Peacock or wherever. Fans will always want it.
Bleecker Street finally reported on “Spinal Tap 2.” This week it lost 594 theaters. Total take so far is $2.5 million. This weekend: $373,000. Coming this Friday should be a pull from a thousand theaters if not more. It’s not really playing in the theaters where it’s booked. It does seem like “Spinal Tap” cast member Harry Shearer, also co-creator, may have something to say soon. It won’t be good.
Donald Trump obviously thought he was sending a private message to his stooge, Pam Bondi, Attorney General.
Instead he posted it by mistake to his Truth Social.
In the message, since deleted, Trump tells Pam to prosecute his enemies. They are former FBI Director James Comey, NY Attorney General Leticia James, and Senator Adam Schiff.
Then he pressed SEND. And millions saw it or will see it now.
The missive, seen below, is just further indication that Trump’s whole presidency revolves around vendettas.
At least we know now that Trump grasps his two impeachments and five indictments. He wants Bondi to go after these people. Great reference to Lindsay Graham, Trump’s puppet.
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.
