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Why hast night different from all other nights? Ben Affleck’s “Air” starring Matt Damon and Viola Davis opened last night, on a Wednesday.
And it was the first night of Passover, meaning a large audience was at seders and not going to the movies.
The result was just under $3.8 million. It might have been twice that if Amazon had waited until tonight, Thursday. But apparently they did previews on Tuesday and earned just under $1 million, which is included in the total.
All of this seems a little backwards, but what do I know? Maybe second seder diners will head out to theaters tonight, but my guess is they’ll wait til Friday.
(Was United Artists Releasing involved in this? Feels like it.)
Anyway, dayenu. “Air” is a great movie. See it this weekend no matter your religious affiliation!
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was outed today by Pro Publica for palling around with a billionaire who treats him to vacations and other fun times.
It’s a good investigation except it omits a salient point: the benefator, Harlan Crow, is a member of the infamous Crow family of Texas. The late father was Trammel Crow, Sr,, once labelled the largest landlord in America. Trammel Sr. had volumes of soap opera scandals.
But even worse: just two weeks ago, Harlan’s brother, Trammel Jr, was sued in a human trafficking scandal. ProPublica kind of missed that point.
Trammell Crow Jr. is accused by two women of financially supporting and participating in an alleged human-trafficking ring that victimized them over the course of 12 years.
True or not, this is the family that a Supreme Court Justice is hanging out with. No vetting was done when Thomas and wife Gini hooked up with the Crows. (They should have counting crows. Now they’re eating crow!)
The complaint asserts that a man named Richard Hubbard ran a human-trafficking operation allegedly “with the essential financial assistance and influence” of billionaire Crow.
If that’s not enough Crow scandal, brother Robert– known as Bob — is in the middle of a $76 million divorce with loads of lurid details. According to Texas Monthly, his wife claims that Bob is a cocaine addict who has threatened to kill her and himself and that he spends thousands of dollars a week hiring expensive prostitutes from Alex Adams—also known as Madame Alex—who has been charged with pandering and pimping by the Los Angeles County district attorney.
Donald Trump has scored another first. He’s made the cover of next week’s issue of The New Yorker. It’s the first time the 98 year old magazine has used a courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg was one of three sketch artists allowed in the courtroom this week. . “I have been doing this job for some forty-three years, but this was my most stressful assignment yet,” Rosenberg told the magazine.
This is what they call an ignominious honor for Trump. First ex president indicted, arrested, and arraigned, and bound over for trial. Now he’s the subject of the first ever courtroom sketch on the cover of the New Yorker. Very cool, Donnie. Let’s hope this leads to a drawing in a horizontal striped uniform.
Johnny Depp is at a career nadir right now after many flops and his infamous divorce/libel case.
So now he will try to revive the career with the Cannes opening night film, “Jeanne duBarry,” directed by Maïwenn, a French female director who’s been at Cannes before.
Maïwenn stars in the film with Depp, as well as Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard, Pascal Greggory, and India Hair. Poupaud is also the star of Woody Allen’s new movie, “Coup de Chance.”
The movie opens in France on the same day of the Cannes opening, May 16th. It has no American distributor yet.
From the press release:
In her new film, “Jeanne du Barry,” Maïwenn herself plays the eponymous main character alongside with Johnny Depp, Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard, Pascal Greggory and India Hair. Recounting the life, rise and fall of the king Louis XV‘s favourite, the film will be released in French cinemas simultaneously.
Jeanne Vaubernier, a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one. She becomes the favourite of King Louis XV who, unaware of her status as courtesan, regains through her his appetite for life. They fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalizes the court…
Only to say that the great Hank Azaria turns up in the final season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” alongside Tony winner Sutton Foster.
Azaria and Foster sort of play a version of Danny Thomas and Marjorie Lord from the great early 60s sitcom, “Make Room for Daddy.” (The insanely talented “Maisel” set designers even re-create Danny’s living room. Marlo Thomas has to watch this, Angela Cartwright, too.)
They’re each so good this is what we learn: Sutton Foster should have her own “Mary Tyler Moore” type show on a big network. She starred in “Younger” on cable TV but she can still do a lot better. She literally pops off the screen.
And number 2: Azaria, who has SIX Primetime Emmy Awards, has made a fortune from “The Simpsons,” and deserved an Oscar nomination for “The Birdcage,” must be a great friend of the Palladinos. They give him something to do at the end of his episode that will definitely win him an Emmy as Guest Star in a Series. It will also earn him so much press and raves, I can’t wait to see the reaction.
“The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” starts dropping on Amazon Prime April 14th.
Yesterday’s cable news ratings aren’t in yet, but Monday’s are and they paint a bleak picture for Sean Hannity.
On Monday, the night before Donald Trump’s arrest and arraignment, Hannity finished fourth among Fox News shows for the evening.
Even worse: He was beaten by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.
Hannity’s 2.469 million viewers wasn’t enough to overcome Maddow’s very liberal 2.515 million. Maybe if he weren’t spouting fiction, he’d do better.
Maddow handily took Hannity, Brett Baier and Laura Ingraham. She also pulled up the numbers for MSNBC shows hosted by Ari Melber, and Lawrence O’Donnell.
Hannity has been posting low numbers for weeks now, not able to much above 2.5 million at all, and nowhere near his old 3 million. He and other Fox News anchors have lost major credibility since it was revealed in the Dominion-Fox lawsuit that they lied about January 6th to their viewers.
The top three cable “News” shows on Monday were Tucker Carlson, The Five, and Jesse Watters. The latter two are essentially comedy shows — without laughs. The first one is entertainment for the mentally impaired.
At least Karen McDougal has a sense of humor. The former Playboy model is a large part of the 34 felony count indictment of Donald Trump that came down yesterday. McDougal sold her story of an affair with Trump (yuck) to the National Enquirer.
The publisher, according to the indictment, then shelved the story but featured her for a while in minor stories so that the story wouldn’t come out. The payment– $150,000–is cited in the indictment as a way money was used to suppress negative information about Trump to help him in the 2016 election. If McDougal’s story of a 10 month affair came out, Trump might have lost voters, and/or the election.
Now McDouglas has gotten a little cheeky this morning. What did she miss yesterday? Anything?
(Exclusive) Woody Allen’s 50th film is in French, shot in France, and has only French actors. I’ve seen it. The irony is that after a long and legendary career as a humorist and wordsmith, Woody could wind up with an Oscar for Best International Feature.
The 90 minute film, shot by the great Vittorio Storaro, is one of Woody’s best. I can’t say it’s a murder mystery, exactly, but it’s the story of a murder that takes place outside of Paris. Woody is 86 years old. The screenplay is as sharp as “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” which he made 34 years ago. It also has a surprise twist that no one who sees it can give away. The movie ends with a gasp.
“Coup de Chance” — its French title — stars Lou de Laâge, a hot French actress who speaks English I am told. This is a breakout role for her on the world stage. Her husband in the film is played by four time Cesar Award nominee Melvil Poupaud, France’s hottest leading man. There’s also Valérie Lemercier, this past year’s Cesar Best Actress, who will get an Oscar nomination out of this if things work out.
I watched this film with a few people who I think were in distribution. I can tell you the air in the room was filled with suspense. I was on the edge of my seat worrying about certain characters. And yes, there is humor. If you pay attention, Woody throws in some lines that lighten up the mood.
As the French say: “Super!”
PS Look for “Coup de Chance” to be included in the Cannes Film Festival. It seems an obvious choice. The French love Woody, and he’s given them an incredible gift.
With the Alec Baldwin “Rust” trial looming, you may remember the sad story of Sarah Jones. The young production assistant was killed in 2014 on the Georgia set of the Gregg Allman biopic “Midnight Rider.” Seven others were injured badly. The movie was never finished, and director Randall Miller pleaded guilty in 2015 to manslaughter for maintaining a careless set. He went to prison for a year and got 10 years’ probation. The terms of his probation: that he was not to serve as a “director, first assistant director or supervisor with responsibility for safety in any film production.”
But Miller was evidently “confused” about those terms. In 2019 he made a film in London and Serbia called “Higher Grounds.” When this was discovered, he was dragged back to court for probation violation. (He appeared by Zoom.) He said he thought the terms were unclear, and that he could indeed make films. It was a sorry excuse, like “the dog ate my homework.”
The judge, Anthony Harrison — who sounds like Fred Gwynne from “My Cousin Vinny” –had been very specific: a decade of probation, no films, directing films. Harrison told Miller, “You’re not to act as a director, period.” But at the 2021 hearing, Harrison relented. He said Miller didn’t violate his probation, that he might have indeed been confused about the wording after all. Still, Miller wasn’t allowed to make any more movies.
Apparently, no one asked what happened to “Higher Grounds.”
So now here it comes, on March 21st, to streaming platforms. Only, it’s been re-titled “Coffee Wars,” so that anyone who remembers “Higher Grounds” won’t realize it’s the same movie. According to a press release, “It’s extremely rare from a narrative film perspective but proceeds from the movie are 100% being donated to environmental and animal welfare charities.”
Um, that doesn’t mean 100% of the proceeds are going to charity, just so we’re clear. An unknown amount of the proceeds are being donated, and we don’t to what charity. The people involved are “100%” sure of that.
Imagine being Sarah Jones’s parents. Their daughter is dead. The director whose set she worked on has resumed his career. And while “Coffee Wars” has no stars, no theaters, and is probably not very good, Miller has gotten away with it.
PS The executive producers, the men who didn’t mind that Miller might not be able to make a movie, are a Georgia lawyer named Michael Melroy Smith and a money manager named Jay Karandikar. They put up the dough so a convicted felon could defy a judge’s order and make a D movie.
In an episode right out of “Succession.” the Roys– er, the Murdochs — have taken measures in their father’s life.
Vanity Fair reports that Rupert Murdoch’s recent engagement to Daisy Dukes, er, Ann Lesley Smith, is over. He’s 92, she’s 66. Her last husband died after they were married just three years. He was really rich.
James, Lachlan, and Elisabeth Murdoch — who inspired Kendall, Roman, and Shiv Roy — are not stupid. They probably read the engagement announcement in Cindy Adams’ column and had multiple heart attacks. After all, they only recently pried Jerry Hall out of a marriage to their doddering Dad. Remember that wedding? All the Jaggers and Murdochs? They weren’t going to go through that again.
Smith, 66, is a former dental hygienist turned conservative radio host. I wrote about her here. Murdoch told Cindy Adams: “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love—but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy. Then he gave Smith an 11-carat diamond engagement ring said to be at least $2.5 million.
If you watch “Succession.” that’s when Shiv, Kendall, and Roman would get Geri to step in and nip this thing in the bud. And so they have. The last thing they needed was to deal with Smith in probate court as a widow, no matter what she signed.
And so it ends. Can’t they just find him a sex worker to keep him busy? Poor Rupert. Of course, Logan Roy would have married the fiancee anyway, and cut them all out of his will!
