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“Saturday Night Live” is listing to the side a little from some unexciting choices.
This weekend’s installment with “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson and rapper Lil Yachty brought in 4.21 million viewers. That was down a skosh from the 4.24 million of Jenna Ortega’s hosting effort two weeks ago.
Something’s wrong with the combinations of hosts and musical guests. I wish they’d mix it up a little, There’s also a little misguidance about who’s hot and will draw ratings. Maybe the show doesn’t care as long as they stay above 4 million. After all, “SNL” isn’t going to be cancelled. But still, homeruns are better than dribbling hits.
I really like Quinta Brunson, but “Abbott” is not a big ratings hit. And it translated over to “SNL.”
You do remember we had 8– eight– Harry Potter movies, right? Because it seems like everyone reporting this story tonight has forgotten there were EIGHT of them, each based on one of JK Rowlings’ books.
So now, Bloomberg and others report that Warner Bros and HBO are negotiating with Rowling to start ALL OVER AGAIN. This time, they will make a seven year TV series based on the seven books. (The 8th movie was the second part of the 8th book.)
So DESPITE all the iconic acting, writing, producing, and directing in the movies, there’s going to be a whole NEW VERSION of this thing to squeeze money from.
It doesn’t matter that Amazon already tried this trick with “Lord of the Rings,” which entirely unnecessary. Amazon spent 400 BILLION DOLLARS remaking Peter Jackson’s award winning films into a TV series that no one cared about. No one. It was just there, on Amazon, if you had nothing to do and couldn’t remember what happened in the movies or wanted to see it stretched out even longer than the three hour films.
We don’t have time for nostalgia anymore. Someone, somewhere wants to remake another perfect movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” Again, no one asked for it, nor wants it. But original ideas are not available, so this is what’s happened.
What will Warner’s tell Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and all the other actors who put their lives into the “Harry Potter” movies? Answer: Thank you, next.
Constance Towers, who is 89 years young, is returning to ABC’s General Hospital after several years away.
Towers, who had an impressive movie and Broadway career long before the soap, plays Helena Cassadine. Her character died on screen of a heart attack years ago but that doesn’t mean anything on a daytime drama.
According to her Facebook account, Towers’ airdates are May 5th and May 8th. It’s unclear if Helena is alive, a ghost, or something else. And remember– Towers isn’t the oldest actor on a soap. Bill Hayes, 97, appears regularly on “Days of our Lives.”
Madonna’s true colors come through in her tribute to Seymour Stein. She’s written a moving piece on Instagram. He changed her life– he gave her life!– and here she remembers it all and gives credit. Nicely done.
TUESDAY: Final total came to 6.95 million, up a bit from the overnights but not a huge difference.
MONDAY: It’s a good news, bad news story for “60 Minutes.”
Last night’s much hyped show with Lesley Stahl’s Marjorie Taylor Greene piece, was a success and a failure. It was number 1 for the night among all broadcast shows, but it was the lowest number for “60 Minutes” since mid January.
Total viewers came 6.66 million — I am not kidding — in overnights. Greene is Satan, so this makes sense. And it was a weak night, anyway, with CBS’s regular prime time schedule off the air for Country Music Awards.
The bad news, though, is that “60 Minutes” hasn’t been that low since January 15th. This was the 2nd lowest episode of this season. And it was down considerably — 33% — from the previous Sunday, which was up over 9 million. So overall for the season, Greene’s insane and dangerous assertions were not a hit.
I thought Lesley Stahl was off her game, frankly. I thought she would be sharper. Just letting Greene spout crazy and unfounded comments wasn’t enough. The “60 Minutes” audience knows that she’s a freak, a fascist, and unqualified for public office. Did Stahl think people would be shocked by statements like “Democrats are pedophiles”? No. We know that she should be in a straitjacket. I wanted Stahl to be more forceful with her. She wasn’t. Mike Wallace would have eaten Greene alive.
What if “Yellowstone” gave a party and no one showed up?
That’s what happened on Saturday at the PaleyCenter in Los Angeles. “Yellowstone” was supposed to be the subject of a panel discussion with all the players present including Kevin Costner and show creator Taylor Sheridan.
But all of the big players including those two did not show up. And yes, people paid good money for tickets. The only people who did appear were Josh Lucas (Young John Dutton), Wendy Moniz (Lynelle Perry), Mo Brings Plenty (Mo), and Dawn Olivieri (Sarah Atwood). A network exec arrived and said the rest of the gang, including Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley, had “scheduling conflicts.”
The real conflicts, however, are between Costner and Sheridan, who are not speaking to each, I’m told. Neither they nor the main cast could be expected to field questions about Season 5, Part 2, which the cast that did participate said had not started filming. They also said there was no start date. Season 5, part 2 is supposed to air this summer, so this means trouble is afoot.
If Paramount and the production company don’t sort all this out quickly, they’re going to have even bigger problems. Emmy campaigns will begin soon. If this cast can’t make it to industry Q&As, the party will be over.
Cannes has announced that “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” will premiere on the red carpet on May 18th.
Harrison Ford, director James Mangold, the rest of the cast including, presumably, Karen Allen, will walk the red carpet to the sounds of John Williams’ famous theme music.
So now we have “Dial of Destiny” as well as Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The Festival is shaping up very nicely!
The last “Indiana Jones” movie at Cannes was “Kingdom the Crystal Skull” in 2008. I remember vividly writing the review in between the press screening and press conference. The audience loved it. I also remember John Sehring from IFC and I having to sneak in through a side door to the Palais because the French security guard didn’t understand us and wouldn’t let us in the front gate! The glamour of Hollywood!
There will also be a tribute to Harrison Ford, and it’s about time!
In 1982, Seymour Stein wound up in Lenox Hill Hospital with a heart infection. But he’d sent his Sire Records scout Mark Kamins out into the world to find new acts, and Kamins, a deejay, came up with Madonna.
In his must read book, “Siren Song,” Stein wrote about their first meeting — in his room at Lenox Hill.
He recalled:
By the time Madonna walked in with Mark Kamins that evening, I had been fully briefed and tidied up by a team of ladies. My hair was good, I no longer smelled like a French farm laborer, windows had been opened, piles of magazines and tapes had been neatly stacked. All that was missing was the pipe, the monocle, the book, and the beagle asleep at my feet. Of course, Madonna took one look at the tube stuck into my skin and squirmed. Not that she really cared about my predicament. She’d come to get a record deal before some old record guy croaked, along with his check-signing hand. She was all dolled up in cheap punky gear, the kind of club kid who looked absurdly out of place in a cardiac ward. She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo. “The thing to do now,” she said, “is sign me to a record deal.” She then opened her arms and laughed. “Take me, I’m yours!”
She was goofing around doing a Lolita routine because I was twice her age. Or maybe I really was smiling back at her like a dirty old man, because she didn’t take long to cut through all the small talk and go straight for the kill. Peering into the back of my head with those Madonna eyes, she said, “And now, you give me the money.” “What?” I snapped back, which was unusual for me. As a rule, I’m always careful around artists, but Madonna had bigger balls than the four men in the room put together. “Look, just tell me what I have to do to get a fucking record deal in this town!” she hit back, sounding deflated. “Don’t worry, you’ve got a deal,” I assured her.
And with that exchange, we finally met each other on level ground. Madonna had a power over men, a power over everyone that I think she was too young to control or even realize. For obvious reasons, her magic didn’t work the same way on me, which I think was a good thing for us both. I doubt she knew I was gay, and all I knew about her was the tape I’d heard. I had no idea she was stone broke and secretly hoping to leave the hospital with a check.
The pair went on to have a string of hits through the 80s, from “Lucky Star” to “Vogue,” making Madonna rich beyond even her wildest dreams. It was all due to Seymour Stein.
I am very sorry to report the death at age 80 of my friend, Seymour Stein. He was a visionary music man, the creator of Sire Records, and the man who gave us Madonna, the Ramones, the Talking Heads, Pretenders and more. He was also one of the best people I’ve known professionally and personally.
Yes, it was Seymour who made all those groups possible with his Sire Records, started in 1966. As Sire was later subsumed into Warner Music, Seymour became their international ambassador, traveling the world looking for new acts. He had a genius ear, and an eye for acts that would resonate.
Most importantly, he was there when punk and New Wave music took off, pushing it to be mainstream while still keeping its integrity. And all these groups loved him. Other acts who benefited from Seymour’s genius, and appeared on Sire, included Depeche Mode, Seal, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Regina Spektor, the Smiths, the Cure, the Replacements, Aphex Twin plus the Replacements (and leader Paul Westerberg), Echo & the Bunnymen, Madness, the Undertones, the Smiths (and lead singer Morrissey), Everything But the Girl, Aztec Camera, Erasure, the Flamin’ Groovies, and My Bloody Valentine.
By the way, out of Talking Heads Seymour was smart enough to give us the offshoot Tom Tom Club with Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth. Their debut album, and the track “Genius of Love,” has outlasted 90% of popular music. Mariah Carey sampled it whole for one hit, and it’s used and heard over and over every day.
Seymour’s expertise wasn’t just in rock. He signed country star Delta Rae to Warner Bros. But my favorite single of his hundreds of hits was “Ca Plane Pour Moi” by Plastic Bertrand. I used to ask him, “Seymour, do you know what it means?” And he’d say, “Who cares? You can dance to it.”
Seymour was an ardent antiques hunter and once took me on adventure in London looking for military pieces. He knew every market in every country and had an astute eye for what was valuable. But mostly what he valued were his wife, Linda, the famous realtor who helped him launch Sire, and their two daughter, Mandy, and Samantha, who passed away several years ago from cancer. In recent years the native Brooklyn kid had been living in California with Mandy, enjoying his grandchildren.
Seymour was certainly one of my mentors who helped me navigate writing about the record business. He was a founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but disagreed vehemently with how Jann Wenner ran it. He stood up for every R&B group and act that had been omitted, fighting against the tide every year. He had a deep respect for rock’s architects, and wanted to see them honored as much as possible. He was great friends with Atlantic’s Ahmet Ertegun because they believed in justice for the artists.
Like Ahmet, who passed away several years ago, and Clive Davis, who is still with us, we will never see anyone like Seymour Stein again. God bless you, Seymour.
I can’t tell you anything specific about tonight’s episode of “Succession.” But I can say you must not miss it if you’re a fan. It’s a comic masterpiece with a gut punch at the end.
Written by Tony Roche Susan Soon He Stanton, the show picks up from last week as Logan Roy — our King Lear, or King Fear, so to speak, is trying to sell Waystar Royco to Alexander Skarsgard. There are a number of obstacles including three of his four children, the redoubtable Shiv, Kendall, and Roman.
And then there’s eldest son, Connor, moving closer to marriage to girlfriend, Willa, although that’s proving as tricky as the company sale.
Waystar Royco owns conservative news channel ATN. So Brian Cox’s Logan decides to make a visit to the newsroom floor. I’ll give you one bite from the script. As Logan is wearing sunglasses, he’s described “as if Santa Claus were a hit man.” What follows is even better, except to say you’ve never seen boxes of Hammermill copy paper used this way.
We know the acting is great, it’s also spot on. I do think we see the kids’ heartbreak more poignantly than ever. I will put on the closed captions tonight because I want to read Kieran Culkin’s snide asides and mutterings which as are sometimes overlapped, Robert Altman style, under the next conversation.
The writing, however, especially tonight, I thought was especially keen. It’s a very funny episode– I laughed out loud a lot. I thought for a minute, this show could Best Comedy. But then the landing comes, and you remember fast: This Is a Drama.
PS Enjoyed seeing the entry and Grill Room of the old Four Seasons restaurant, and Maru Karaoke Bar.
