Tomorrow’s box office numbers for Spider Man previews are going to be off the chart.
“Spider Man: Across the Spiderverse” is selling out preview shows tonight everywhere, at all times.
The second part of the Spiderverse trilogy will easily break the first movie’s previews from 2018. That night produced $3.5 million.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote the film, which has a 95 on Rotten Tomatoes. On social media, it’s all raves.
I’m going to try and see it tonight. Keep refreshing…
Armie Hammer is going to make a comeback. We all know that.
Accused of rape, seriously. Labelled a “cannibal” anecdotally. Few actors have such a momumental fall from grace. Think of Shia LaBeouf, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp. Before the you know what hit the fan, you’d never think of clean cut Armie Hammer in the same category of craziness and deprvity.
But Hammer lost everything all at once. The “cannibal” thing became a meme, and he was stuck with it after different women claimed he’d tried to make them a part of his menu. Then came the more serious rape charge. But yesterday he was cleared of the charges by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, which said it could not verify the claims.
Hammer lost a bunch of jobs when everything went southincluding the Jennifer Lopez comedy “Shotgun Wedding,” the Paramount+ series “The Offer,” the Broadway play “The Minutes.” His agents at WME jumped ship, as well.
Will it ever be Hammer Time again? Yes. He’s going to have do the whole People Mag thing, cover apology, find a sympathetic TV interviewer– Diane Sawyer? — show remorse and contrition like crazy, and see if he can find a decent project, small role, to shine in. It’s been done. It will cost a lot of money. But Hammer’s got it. He just has to make the right choices.
It’s hard to believe, but Samantha Jones will make an appearance this summer in “Sex and the City: And Just Like That.”
Cattrall refused to join the reboot series for its first season, and won’t be in any of the second season until the the very end. Variety reports that Samantha will call Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker). We’ll see her, but the scene was taped separately without the other actors in the same room.
Variety says HBO chief Casey Bloys pulled this off. He must have driven gold bullion to Cattrall’s door. As we all know by now — everyone on the planet knows — these people were done with each other.
Coincidentally, “Sex and the City” returns to Max on June 22nd, the same day Cattrall’s new series, “Glamorous,” debuts on Netflix.
Armie Hammer is off the hook.
The actor who claimed to be at least a part time cannibal was under investigation in Los Angeles for rape.
But the District Attorney will not bring charges, after all. He said a proper case could not be made. Hammer’s accuser claimed that the “Lone Ranger” actor had been physically abusive during an on-and-off relationship that spanned four years. She said that he had violently raped her in 2017. Hammer denied her allegations.
The DA said: “In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” the office said. “As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt… Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hammer has been living between Los Angeles and the Cayman Islands, where his kids reside with their mother. At one point last year there was a rumor he was selling time shares, but that proved to be false. I wrote extensively about Hammer and his family last year. His father, Michael Hammer, died last year.
The cannibal part? It’s hope Armie has gone on a strict vegan diet.
Scientology took a blow in court today. Long time member Danny Masterson, actor from “That 70s Show,” was convicted on two charges of rape. The jury was deadlocked on a third count.
Masterson faces 30 years to life in prison.
The “church” of Scientology pulled out all their tricks to help but it didn’t work.
Masterson had been accused of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. The jury convicted him of raping two women in 2003, but could not reach a verdict regarding an allegation from November 2001 involving a former girlfriend.
The verdict is a shock because in a previous trial, which had a hung jury, jurors said they would have voted to acquit Masterson. But this time around, prosecutors were able to make their case more clearly, painting Masterson as untouchable in the Scientology hierarchy vs. the women who accused him, who were members without celebrity standing.
Masterson is married to Bijou Phillips, the troubled daughter of late Mamas and Papas founder John Phillips and Genevieve Waite. He’s seven years her senior. They have one child.
The Writer’s Guild strike has already had a serious effect on the remaining four soap operas.
In the three weeks of ratings since May 1st, when the strike began, soap ratings have fallen around 200,000 total viewers each for “The Young and the Restless,” “General Hospital.” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” “Y&R” for example had 3.4 million viewers the first week of May and just 3.2 million the third week.
“Days of our Lives,” on NBC’s Peacock, doesn’t release ratings anymore.
This is more than strange for the month of May, a sweeps month in which the soaps up the murder, blackmail, amnesia, baby swapping, and so on. It’s not normal to see the ratings go down in May.
What’s the problem? Despite still having new shows, the soaps have fallen victim to the destruction around them in daytime TV. Nearly everything else is in reruns because of the strike. All of the talk shows like “The Talk” and anything else that requires a script — including, of course, the late night talk shows — is a rerun.
Things are so bad that syndication companies are no longer releasing ratings for talk shows. No one’s seen a number since the end of April.
Soon things will get worse. Those three soaps are about to run out of scripts. When they do, either scabs will come to write the shows, or the writers themselves will have to elect keep working as “fi-core.” This may have already begun on the trio of network shows. “Fi core” or financial core happens when a writer elects to stay in the union, pay dues, but basically receive no benefits and forfeits voting rights. Fi-core writers were not popular among the strikers during the 2007-2008 strike, and certainly won’t be this time around.
Of course, all of this is moot if the Directors Guild and/or SAG-AFTRA join the strike. When the soaps had to air reruns during the pandemic it was a dire time. An industry-wide strike could kill them off for good.
It’s a cliffhanger, but not the good kind. And the villain isn’t Erica Kane. It’s the studios. It’s time for them to wrap this up.
Amy Sherman-Palladino has her first new assignment after co-writing, producing, and directing “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” to acclaim for five years on Amazon.
The Emmy winner will now direct Tony winner Sutton Foster at Broadway’s Encores next spring in a revival of “Once Upon a Mattress.”
This was the musical that first starred Carol Burnett decades ago. Later it was revived with Sarah Jessica Parker.
Encores is celebrating its 30th anniversary at City Center. This is where many Broadway hits have been launched — from the current long running version of “Chicago” to the recent “Into the Woods.”
“Mattress” will be performed concert style.
Encores is also resurrecting the hoary musical, “Titanic” (I never understood the appeal of this one) and “Jelly’s Last Jam.”
But this combo of Amy and Sutton is solid gold. It will sell out before I finish typing. Of course, this may explain Sutton’s appearance in “Mrs. Maisel” this last season playing a version of Marjorie Lord in a fictionalized “Danny Thomas Show.” Foster’s never been more fetching. These two could have many collaborations ahead.
I’ve had a lot of reports this morning from the New York picket line at “American Horror Story: Hamptons.”
Kim Kardashian happily thumbed her nose at the striking unionists. According to observers, she arrived in a window darkened SUV, which pulled into a private entrance.
“They people waiting for her to whisk her upstairs.” a spy says
Kardashian is not in the Writers Guild. She’s a member of SAG in all likelihood now that she’s an “actress.”
SAG members are not on strike, and aren’t prevented from working. But my spy says, “She could have arrived and acknowledged the strikers and said she was uncomfortable crossing the line.” So much for Kim, Woman of the People.
And what is the plot line for “American Horror Story Hamptons.” The horror may be at discovering the price of groceries, or facing the traffic on Route 27, in the glorious land of the rich and worry free.
A few weeks ago, I had a long eye opening conversation with a smart 25 year old. He said that if his friends watched hit shows it wasn’t on cable. “No one I know has a cable subscription.” he said. All of this pals did their viewing either by sharing streaming accounts, or from You Tube, etc.
This is important to remember when looking at Sunday night’s ratings for the “Succession” and “Barry” series finales on HBO, that is, linear HBO.
“Succession” scored 896,000 viewers. “Barry” had only 234,000.
HBO says that their totals added 2 million people on Max on SmartTVs, phones, iPads, Roku, Apple TV or other devices.
If the 2 million number is right, that’s astounding. For decades, it was so important to have a “cable package” so you could watch “The Sopranos” or “Sex and the City.” Has the cord cutting really been that severe? Apparently so.
“The Succession” number on HBO is the highest its ever been, but never cracked 900,000. It was really a niche show. “Barry,” for all its accolades, is a disappointment. The season high was in its 4th episode, with 300,000 viewers. Sunday night’s show was about the same as its been the last three weeks. These numbers have to be frustrating for HBO. These are the highest quality TV shows, but once they find their audience, it’s finite.
***EXCLUSIVE*** Al Pacino is having a baby next week with his 29 year old girlfriend. Hurray! You could joke that she made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
But my sources say that the 82 year beloved Oscar winner was hoodwinked by Noor Alfallah, who’s due next week and is described as a gold digger. “She knew Al didn’t didn’t want to have more kids, they have no relationship, it’s a mess.” Alfallah is famous for dating a series of rich, older men like Mick Jagger.
Where to start? What’s the worst part of this story? Maybe that Pacino — one of my very favorite people ever in Hollywood — has no idea about Alfallah’s background. I can tell you exclusively that her father pleaded guilty in a 2017 $3 million tax fraud case brought by the Department of Justice. He just recently filed for bankruptcy. Fallah Alfallah has otherwise a trail of lawsuits that would make Michael Corleone blush.
“They have no relationship,” says an insider says of the about to be parents. “Lawyers have been working on this for months.” Indeed, I am told that Fallah didn’t even tell Pacino she was pregnant for the first 11 weeks. Pacino, I’m told, was so surprised at Fallah’s news that he demanded a pre-natal DNA test.
Worse? Sources say that Fallah, once introduced to Pacino before the pandemic, ingratiated herself into his life by becoming fast friends with Pacino’s 22 year old daughter, Olivia, whose mother is actress Beverly D’Angelo. “Suddenly Fallah was everywhere Olivia was, especially during the lockdown,” another source says.
Pacino has three children at present: his great filmmaker daughter, Julie, and twins with D’Angelo– Olivia and her brother, Anton James. I reached out to D’Angelo’s rep but so far it’s crickets from that end. “The kids are very upset,” says a source.
So the impending birth is not a happy situation. Unlike Robert De Niro, Pacino did not plan this at all. “He actually thought their relationship was over a long time ago,” says an observer. When Fallah did come back in his life after a more than year break, my insiders say she told Pacino she couldn’t have children anyway due to a thyroid problem.”
Pacino is said to be shocked. He did not want children, which an ex girlfriend talked about in an interview. Meital Dohan, who was 39 at the time of their split in 2020, also said: “It’s hard to be with a man so old, even Al Pacino. I tried to deny it, but now he is already an elderly man. The age gap is difficult. yes. I tried to deny it, but now he is already an elderly man, to be honest. So even with all my love, it didn’t last.”
What a terrible way for the newest Pacino to come into the world.
More to come. Sadly, this is the kind of story Pacino has worked so hard to stay away from.