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Yes, even Steven Spielberg can get COVID. Sources says he has it, so does one of his “Fabelmans” producers. The timing could not be worse. Spielberg was set for a week of “Fabelmans” press this week in New York.
Indeed, we were hoping he’d turn up tonight at the Gotham Awards when Michelle Williams gets her big tribute. His actual set appearances included one at the DGA with Martin Scorsese, and another with Steve Martin hosting a Q&A and screening. But a DGA source tipped me off. No Spielberg this week. Rats!
First, of course, wishing the famed director a speedy get well. We need him in good shape for Oscar season. “The Fabelmans” is the best movie of the year and must be seen. Michelle Williams should be a Best Actress nominee and Judd Hirsch is a cinch as a Supporting Actor nominee.
Meantime, to all the Guild and press people who go to the screenings this week, you’ll love the movie even while Spielberg is home sleeping and drinking green tea.
MARIAH CAREY has added her name to the new musical version of “Some Like it Hot” as a producer. This may give the show a box office boost, and that’s the idea, you know, when this sort of thing happens. “Some Like it Hot” opens December 11th on Broadway, it’s based on the famous comedy with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
It’s not the first time “Some Like it Hot” has been tried as a musical. But this one is all new and stars Christian Borle. The buzz is good, and a good new original musical is what we need all the time. The director is Casey Nicholaw, songs are from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the book is by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin (from Seth Meyers’ show– I love her). How can it be bad?
What is Mariah’s connection? First of all, the great Neil Meron is the producer. Second of all, Mariah owns Marilyn Monroe’s white piano. So all she needed for Christmas was to join the show!
Everyone knows FIDDLER ON THE ROOF by heart. But when you see it at New World Stages in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey, it’s a mesmerizing experience. You feel like you’re in it. The subtitles are projected on the sides of the stage but you almost don’t need them because the cast, led by Steven Skybell as Tevye, is exceptionally endearing.
But the whole point of “Fiddler on the Roof” is now more compelling than ever. “Fiddler” takes place in an imaginary village called Anatevka, in the Ukraine, south of Kyiv, in 1905. The Russian government conducts violent attacks against the Jews and then forces them from their homes. Sound familiar? One hundred and twenty two years later, nothing has changed. Russian violence against Ukraine continues apace.
You don’t have to be Jewish or know a word of Yiddish to enjoy this show. Three Asian ladies shared the elevator with me at New World Stages. They loved the show. “I want to send my children next,” one of them said. The audience is a mix of “Fiddler” fans from around the world. Don’t miss it!
THE WHITE BLACKS: GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER has a few performances left this week at Theater for the New City. Melanie Maria Goodreaux‘s comedy has been sold out for its entire run but you might be able to get in this week. The play tells the story of the playwright’s Southern “Creole” family – a culture proud of its Black heritage, though burdened with grief over those seen as “passing as white” to flee racism and seek opportunity. The themes of this story are familiar and told with humor and authenticity. Melanie, the playwright, has eighteen animated actors (a depiction of a traditional Creole family coming together) providing the audience with a theatrical experience to savor. And there’s gumbo!
Will Smith has managed to circulate a video he made with a video blogger in which he says “he’s ok” if people are upset with him after last spring’s slapping of Chris Rock during the Oscar show
Who cares if he’s ok with that? I don’t. Smith wants to be rewarded now for the movie, “Emancipation” which by the way has no posted reviews and opens Friday. He wants an Oscar nomination and to be back in the game despite being banned by the Academy for the next decade.
This pathetically hilarious. Apple is trying to recover its $120 million investment and I sympathize with them. After all they didn’t sign on for this mishegos. But Smith’s behavior on the Oscars is unacceptable. It’s not going to be validated now. That would put the Academy in the awkward position of having a nominated film or actor who they’ve banned. What are they going to do? Say “never mind.”
Smith got up out of his seat on national live TV, walked to the stage, and hit someone. From his seat he yelled at Rock. Sorry, nope, I don’t care if he’s made “The Godfather.” That dog won’t hunt, that ship won’t sail. So he says he’s ok with us disapproving of him? What nerve. And his team? They will suffer the consequences. They are Smith’s collateral damage.
Britney Spears is posing naked again on Instagram just to see if she can piss off and embarrass her kids.
She’s in a bathtub, back arched, hands covering her nipples, an animated flower over her nether parts.
Spears has two teenage boys who’ve asked her to stop and don’t speak to her because of it. I can’t repost the pictures because the Google Adsense robot ID’s them as sexual content. But I can give you the link to the post. (Trust me, even the word ‘naked’ will trigger Google.)
Britney, a rocket scientist by trade, writes in her caption: “I like to suck…sucking comes easy for me.”
In a more technical sense, she does suck. As a mother.
“Matilda” was a hit musical on Broadway and in London’s West End. It won a lot of awards. Did you know it was a movie coming out before the end of the year?
Didn’t think so. But “Matilda,” a Netflix release, made $5 million this weekend in England and Ireland in a theatrical release from Sony. It beat “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Is it coming out in theaters here? Is there an Oscar run? Beats me. It seems like Netflix might have a qualifying run planned for December 9th but no one’s heard a word about it. UK critics have given it a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes, but no one’s seen it here. There is nada advance press.
You’d think this would be the kind of film perfect for the holidays in theaters. Kids would love it. But who knows? In the real world, or yesteryear, there would have been drumbeats for Emma Thompson as Mrs. Trunchbull in Supporting Actress. Again, crickets.
If “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” had played in say 3500 theaters for a month, it might have set records at the box office.
But Netflix sent it into very limited release last week– just 700 theaters — and for a short time, just til this Thursday.
Then if you want to see “Glass Onion,” you’ll have to watch it on Netflix.
In its theatrical release, “Glass Onion” is a huge hit. It’s made $13 million and will finish with upwards of $15 million. With its all star cast including Daniel Craig and Kate Hudson, not to mention scene stealer Janelle Monae, “Glass Onion” could have been huge not only in box office but as a draw to get people into theaters.
Now that opportunity is lost. People with whom I’ve spoken in the business are disappointed, and some even angry. Movie theaters are fighting for customers. Very few movies this season are hits. “Glass Onion” could have been a salve to a lot of problems. Instead, it’s an irritant.
And what about the Oscars? The first “Knives Out” received only a screenplay nom for director Rian Johnson. The new one could get another screenplay citation, plus supporting actress for Monae — but not if Hollywood feels cheated about the release.
It is with great sadness that I report the death today at 92 of a legend, Freddie Ross Hancock. Freddie was a larger than life member of the international show business community. A Brit, she lived in America for 50 years, brought BAFTA — the British version of the Academy Awards — to New York, received an MBE (presented by then Prince Charles), and counted dozens of celebrities and high profile companies as clients and friends.
In the UK some will recall Freddie as the second and final wife of a very famous British comedian, Tony Hancock. (From the mid 50s for a decade Tony Hancock was the number 1 star on British TV.) They were together for 11 tempestuous years until Tony’s death age 44 in 1968. The marriage part of it was only about three years at the end, as Hancock — who was like the Sid Caesar of England — was a raging alcoholic who could not find solace. A year after his death, Freddie published a bestselling memoir in the UK called “Hancock” with respected theater journalist, David Nathan.
Nathan wrote of Freddie in his preface: “One of London’s top show business PR experts, she was a familiar figure in the film and theater circles in which I increasingly worked. She was more respected than most of she told the truth about her clients, and if that was not always possible, she at least did not invent stories to get publicity for them.”
Freda Ross was born in London in 1930. Before going out on her own and managing Tony Hancock in the 1960s, Freddie worked for two years at the Holland America Line, learning public relations. She went on to become Assistant Head of Publicity at Universal Pictures’ UK offices where she worked with stars of the time like Shelley Winters and Rock Hudson. When she started her own PR firm she became the primary promoter of foreign films in England. She also began helping to promote British films in the US. Her clients included every well known star of the time, from Julie Andrews to Sean Connery, Sophia Loren and husband Carlo Ponti, Jim Dale, Topol (star of the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof’), and Theodore Bikel.
After Hancock died, Freddie moved to the US and began consulting for US movie companies exporting their films to the UK, and vice versa. When Miramax became very involved with British films, it was Freddie who gave advice how to position them, from Merchant Ivory films to ones like “Mrs. Brown”starring Judi Dench. In 1995 she brought BAFTA to the States, giving it a higher international profile. In 2002, she was thanked for her work by Queen Elizabeth with an MBE (Member of the British Empire). She worked on countless projects with big names including Masterpiece Theater’s Alistair Cooke (pictured here with Freddie), whose 80th birthday party in New York she organized with James Galway and Leonard Bernstein performing. She got then-president Ronald Reagan to send a video greeting, and Reagan responded with a thank you to Freddie.
Freddie filed for divorce and the ink was almost dry when Tony Hancock committed suicide in 1968. Although she was technically his widow she received not a dime from his estate. (She was portrayed in two different UK television movies.) She told an interviewer in 1996: . “When Tony was alive, people used to say to me: “do you have children?” I used to say: “yes, just one.” “How old?” “Quite old – 44.””
She never remarried. Instead she was a pioneer, a trailblazer as a woman making it on her own in show business. This was not easy, but her biting wit and insistent loyalty to clients stood her in good stead around the world. Others whom she counted as close friends ranged by British race car superstar Stirling Moss to Tony and Oscar winning composer Marvin Hamlisch.
Tony Hancock and FreddieRoss Hancock, 1964
In the 1990s and 2000s she also worked as Senior Vice-President of Acquisitions for the movie distributor American Video Films, where she was a beloved presence at the Cannes Film Festival. Besides founding BAFTA, she was also Vice-Chairman of the US wing of the Royal Television Society.
Freddie really had a brilliant mind. Even into her 80s she never stopped screening films for BAFTA, giving shrewd advice about how to market them. She also had a devilish sense of humor and knew, as we like to say, where all the bodies were buried. Thanks partly to a longtime friendship with gossip columnist Cindy Adams (and with whom she shared an exact birthday month), Freddie was current on every subject til the end. There was nothing I could tell her that she didn’t know. It was very frustrating!
Firmly ensconced in the US with no immediate family nearby, Freddie Ross Hancock wisely handpicked a group of younger friends whom she chose her adopted family. It was a wise move. This group on this side of the Atlantic is counted as her survivors, most especially CNN correspondent Richard Quest, who acted as a devoted surrogate son, and many others. (She was still linked in the UK to her beloved sister-in–law, Shannie Ross, to whom she spoke every day for 50 years.) We could not have been luckier than to count her as our friend. She will be sorely missed and never forgotten.
So now we know definitely cannibalism is not a topic for a hit movie.
“Bones and All” from A24 and director Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothee Chalamet is a huge flop. It made $3.7 over a five day holiday period.
There will be gnashing of teeth at MGM, which has also killed the “Till” movie about Emmett Till. It’s not like they didn’t have fair warning. Another cannibalism movie, “Fresh,” was closed this spring after getting an F rating from diners.
“Bones and All” will cost MGM something since it’s playing in 2,727 theaters. Someone has to pay that rent.
But audiences gagged at the idea of devouring this ridiculous movie. Yesterday I ran into a long time movie publicist who told me she walked out right away after the munching began. I’m sure she was not alone across the country.
Well, MGM is famous for murdering movies in cold blood. Last year’s pile corpses included “Licorice Pizza,” “House of Gucci,” and “Respect.” This season “Till” features a Best Actress performance by Danielle Dedwyler. There’s even a supporting performance lurking in there from John Douglas Thompson. But MGM or UA or whatever they are have done such a bad job this movie is out of theaters and playing for 19.99 on VOD.
As for “Bones and All” in the theaters, let the purging begin.
You’ve got to watch this video. Last night at “The Music Man” Nicole Kidman donated $100,000 to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She and star Hugh Jackman have been friends for 30 years. But this is extraordinary generosity. Nicole says she loved the show, too. Bravo!
Alan King, Don Rickles, Jackie Mason, Shecky Greene. They were among the legendary giants of Borscht belt Jewish humor. What was the Borscht belt? It was the group of hotels and clubs in the Catskills to which Jews flocked in the 50s and 60s.
These comedians were so funny they spilled out onto The Ed Sullivan Show. Some went on to even bigger things. Others remained tied to their core audience. The greatest of these guys was Freddie Roman. He’s been ill for a long time, living in Florida. On Saturday he died at age 85.
Freddie worked the circuit of clubs, events, and so on. He was a beloved act in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He also picked up the torch at the Friars Club when Alan King died and served two terms as Dean. (That Friars Club is now a memory, it’s dead. People keep asking me, and I can tell you, it’s gone.) Freddie was a toastmaster, a genial presence who unlike Rickles didn’t insult anyone. His jokes just hit home and you loved him for it.
Freddie conceived and wrote a hit Broadway show, “Catskills on Broadway,” that played 453 performances from 1991-93. The audiences couldn’t get enough of it and the show cemented Roman’s place in comic history.
Here’s the thing about Freddie Roman. You could call him at home and book a date. He was a mensch, always accessible. God bless him. I’m sure he’s already doing shtick with Alan King, and asking for lean pastrami at the Carnegie Deli in the sky. Freddie, you were a treasure and you will be missed.
