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Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are excellent actors who don’t get the ‘big’ movie roles. They’re highly praised in anything they do, but they’re not Ryan Gosling or Emma Stone.
Yet, they star in “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which is having a huge weekend. Total take over four days is an astounding $83 million. Worldwide including US: $187 million.
I mean, come on! The three previous “Conjuring” movies did not indicate this would happen. The audience meter at Rotten Tomatoes is only 79%, which ain’t great and did not portend this result.
The reviews are worse: a lowly 56%. No one liked it. It’s a piece of junk. But audiences are bored, they’re looking for an escape, and “Last Rites” was it.
Even if this movie makes another $20 million, it’s a massive success for Blumhouse and for Warner Bros, which has had an extraordinary year after all the industry newsletter writers were convinced back in January the studios chiefs were going to be fired any minute.
LOL!
And still, Warner’s has something big coming in two weeks. Can’t talk about it yet. See my Twitter @showbiz411 tomorrow night.
The Us Tennis Association has told broadcasters not to show any negative reaction to Donald Trump’s appearance Sunday at the men’s US Open finals.
The USTA sent a memo that Rothenberg intercepted. It reads: “With respect to Broadcast Coverage, the President will be shown on the World Feed and the Ashe Court Feed during the opening anthem ceremony. We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG [Electronic News Gathering] coverage.”
Trump was booed the last time he went, in 2015.
On Sunday, Trump will be a guest in the Rolex corporate booth — which used to be against the law until he became president and told all of us to fuck off.
If this isn’t a reason to boycott Rolex, I don’t know what is.
Social media attendees who are in the audience at Arthur Ashe Stadium will be responsible for reporting whatever happens when Trump shows his ugly mug from the highly expensive watchmaker’s booth.
How much is Rolex paying Trump? We may never know, although it should be a question in the Oval Office on Monday. It won’t, though, because those reporters are cowards. They haven’t asked about his evident health problems, or anything else uncomfortable for fear of being banned.
There are Emmy Awards tonight, but not ‘the’ Emmy Awards. Those are next Sunday.
Tonight we get Part 1 of the Creative Emmy Awards. Tomorrow night is Part 2. Neither of these is televised.
So far, the top awards for guest actors are:
Bryan Cranston for “The Studio,” Julianne Nicholson for “Hacks,” Merritt Wever for “Severance,” Shawn Hatosy for “The Pitt.”
Julie Andrews won an Emmy for narrating “Bridgerton.” This is her 9th Emmy Award in an extraordinary career that includes Oscar, and Grammy awards. She’s been nominated for a Tony but never won. This makes her an EGO, which is ironic since she has none.
The Emmys have about 300 categories so they have to break them into three nights. “The Studio” and “Severance” are the new kids on the block knocking out shows like “The Bear” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
It sounds like the title of a thriller, but it’s true. Barron Trump has been MIA since January 20th an the Inauguration.
Prior to that, there was one staged event a year ago when Barron debuted at New York University. There were plenty of pictures of him arriving at school.
But after that, it was radio silence. Not a photo or a Tweet, not a word about Barron on campus from anyone reliable. The White House planted stories about Barron’s “business” and “love life,” but there were no named sources and no details.
Now People reports that Barron didn’t show up at NYU last week for sophomore year. They let the White House tell them that the nearly foot tall young Lurch is at some other NYU campus for the season, like Brooklyn or Abu Dabi.
But did Barron ever attend classes in person? Isn’t he just squirreled away at Mar-a-lago or Trump Tower or Bedminster? You can’t hide a 7 foot tall person. If he were in public anywhere, someone would snap a picture on a phone. The overriding theory is that he is not out and about, like any 19 year old, anywhere.
Poor Barron. No one’s ever really heard his voice in public. Years ago I was told he had a heavy accent because he’d been raised with his Slovenian grandparents in Trump Tower. He also had learning disabilities. He never appears with his siblings anywhere, or even with Melania, who herself makes infrequent appearances. My guess is they are together somewhere.
As for Barron’s “business,” if you believe he’s the bitcoin king or shaper of social media, I’ve got a nice piece of property for you in Kabul.
Thursday and Friday audiences brought in almost $4 million. The Tony Award winning Broadway musical’s filmed version — which has been playing on Disney Plus for five years — is looking at a $10 million weekend.
Not bad considering the filmed version has been so widely available on the small screen. But this is a chance to see it writ large, and I can tell you the different is extraordinary. The camera work is very immersive this way. and you really get the sense of what these heroes of the Revolutionary War went though.
One takeaway from “Hamilton” is the tragedy of watching Donald Trump taking all of Democracy apart after so much work and passion went into it for real. Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, et al gave their lives so we could have this amazing experience only to see it frittered away now by a mad man.
Go see this epic entertainment while it’s in theaters!
The 50th anniversary release of “Jaws” was supposed to last one week.
The week was huge. The beloved saga of Bruce the shark killing people and masticating all over Martha’s Vineyard made $11.3 million in its return to the big screen.
So Universal decided to go fishing for a second week to see if they could duplicate that coin. Alas, it has not worked out.
Last night, “Jaws” was down 93% from last Friday. Bruce was so effective that he scared away the audience. Last Friday: $2.3 mil. Last night: $230,000.
There’s only so much nostalgia for chomping human flesh.
I’ve been listening to David Byrne since Charles Laquidara played “Don’t Worry About the Government” on WBCN in 1977.
This is a song about office buildings, I said out loud. What is going on here?
Then I learned about “Psycho Killer” and so on. On the second Talking Heads album, Byrne did Al Green and Willie Mitchell a amazing turn by reinventing “Take Me to the River.”
The calendar pages start flipping out. In recent times there was “American Utopia,” a work of genius that featured the Heads songs in a staged work, then a Spike Lee documentary. Manna from heaven.
So it’s 48 years later and David Byrne has released “Who is the Sky?” This is a gift. Don’t take it for granted. Simply produced by Kid Harpoon, this collection is about being in love and becoming domesticated in your 60s. This week Byrne announced he was marrying his longtime girlfriend any minute. He’s 70. You can see him riding his bike or jogging in New York if you’re lucky. He keeps moving forward.
“Who is the Sky?” probably could have made last week’s Grammy deadline but I doubt Byrne cares. In a proper world, this would be an Album of the Year. It’s certainly the best thing I’ve heard in 2025. You know how they call all musicians “artists” now? Byrne is actually an artist.
He sings about “The Avant Garde” because if he’d arrived 20 years earlier, he’d been part of it. In the new song, there’s a couplet that crystallizes everything he and Patti Smith and the late Tom Verlaine and even Elvis Costello embody: It’s a passionate life, it’s ahead of the curve/It’s deceptively weighty, profoundly absurd.”
Byrne teamed up for this album with not only the very hot Kid Harpoon, but most importantly with the Ghost Train Orchestra. That he spotted them and decided to collaborate is part of that passionate life. Their eclectic strengths match his, from soaring rich ballads to Mariachi band. The Ghost Train orchestra suits Byrne, who can be ultra modern and very nostalgic. (He references a line from “The Women” spoken by actress Norma Shearer, whose name would be a mystery to anyone under 60.)
You want a lyric sheet with “Who is the Sky” the way we doted over the ones that came with Talking Heads albums. Just the titles make you want to drop the needle — or push the arrow on Spotify. “My Apartment is My Friend” almost seems like the grandchild of “Don’t Worry About the Government.” “What is the Reason for It?” is Byrne, singing with Hayley Williams of Paramore, like they’re Steve and Eydie. “A Door Called No” is so full of positivity that it could be turned into a best seller self help book.
In “The Outsider,” this verse is the definition of Byrne’s whimsy and profundity: In thе cave of secrets I wondеr what I’ll see I met a talking zebra A man with fifty eyes I saw a fountain made of honey I climbed a mountain in the sky
I’m getting the CD in the morning if you can buy one somewhere. It will sustain me in the car, and in life. A plus. It just shows you, great can happen more than once in a lifetime.
PS When the KennedyCenter returns in 2029, David Byrne must be at the top of the list.
After a couple of strikes this summer, pin up girl Sydney Sweeney — a Trumper — may see Oscar stars in the future.
Her boxing movie, “Christy,” has just scored a TKO in Toronto.
“Christy” is a true story directed by the very good David Michod. Reviewers have gone wild for it, calling Sweeney a sensation.
Owen Gleiberman says in Variety: Sweeney gives “a potent, true-note, game-changing knockout of a performance. She plays Christy Martin, who was such a natural dynamo in the ring that starting in the late ’80s, she wasn’t just instrumental in putting female boxing on the map. She became the face of the sport, arguably the most prominent and successful female boxer in the U.S.”
Sweeney jolted to popularity in HBO’s “Euphoria.” She had a big screen hit in 2024 in the romcom “Anyone But You” with Glenn Powell. She has a turkey out right now with “Eden,” and just had others like “Echo Valley” and “”Madame Web.” But “Christy” will evidently change everything.
It was recently revealed that Sweeney voted for Donald Trump. I guess she’s enjoying his presidency. She’ll be asked about it on the Oscar campaign trail, that’s certain. At the very least, however, she can get a Presidential Medal of Freedom, if not an Oscar.
Volman was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2023. Tragic.
With Howard Kaylan, the Turtles had a massive hit, “Happy Together.” The song wasn’t written by them, but their version propelled them on to the Ed Sullivan Show twice.
Their other hits included a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and their own “Elenore,” which was a send up of the still ubiquitous “Happy Together.”
Volman and Kaylan toured a comedy rock act called “Flo and Eddie” for decades after the Turtles. They were a cult hit, embraced by a huge audience. They often toured with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
But “Happy Together” was their calling card. It’s amazing to think they were just 20 years old when that song hit the radio — at the same as the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper — and never stopped.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr made a total fool of himself on Capitol Hill this week.
His unscientific theories, arrogance, and lack of expert knowledge were exposed in front of Congress.
Among his many idiotic ideas: that Tylenol causes autism if taken by pregnant women. He also continued to make wild, unsubstantiated, and dangerous claims about vaccines.
Kennedy’s nephew Joe Kennedy III, son of RFK Jr’s brother Joseph Kennedy and also a former Congressman from Massachusetts, is blasting his uncle on social media. He says his uncle is “a threat to the health and well being of every American.”
RFK Jr has previously been called out by his siblings and cousins for his reckless interpretation of science, as well as his bizarre personal habits.
RFK Jr. has been firing or ousting the highest level of people at the CDC, causing a massive backlash at that agency. But this seems even more damning.
