Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
Donald Trump has done everything he can to destroy the importance of the presidency.
Now he’s come up with his biggest joke: a Presidential Medal of Freedom for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
It’s Trump’s biggest fuck you yet to everything the presidency stands for.
Giuliani has been disbarred from practicing law in both New York and Washington, DC.
He’s a laughingstock after various public incidents. He’s a well known philanderer, as well, in his personal life. He was duped by actor-director Sacha Baron Cohen to take a fake hooker to his hotel room in “Borat 2.”
Giuliani might be the first honoree to have a mug shot. He was arrested and pleaded not guilty to charges of allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Two women who worked on the 2020 election in Atlanta sued him for libel and won $148 million in damages.
And these items, which will be prominent one day in his obituary, are just the tip of the iceberg.
But over the weekend, Rudy was involved in a car crash in New Hampshire. Why he was even in New Hampshire hasn’t been verified. His aide was driving him in a Ford Bronco, of all things, and they were rear-ended by a 19 year old. Giuliani is in the hospital with a variety of heal-able injuries.
Trump laughs at us with mocking joy. He hates America. He celebrates buffoonery. Every award he’s given out during his two terms will have to have asterisks next to the names.
The medal of Freedom ceremony will not take place at Four Seasons Landscaping.
Just hearing from sources that the Hamptons Film Festival may have a problem.
Richard Gladstein, named as Executive Director in mid July, may be leaving the post already.
Gladstein has always been a mensch in the film business, either producing the great Lasse Hallstrom movies like “Chocolat” and “Cider House Rules,” or being named Dean of the American Film Institute.
Other hits he worked on during his time at Miramax in its heyday were
“Jackie Brown,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Reservoir Dogs,” plus “Finding Neverland.” Not bad!
No one has confirmed the news definitely, but the rumblings on the grapevine are loud. The Hamptons Fest begins October 4th and they’ve already announced their opening and spotlight films.
Gladstein had succeeded Anne Chaisson, who’d been Executive Director from 2012-2024 but had been on the advisory board for a decade earlier.
Film festivals are tricky to run. The executives are locked into a physical location often not where they live, and boards, etc are entrenched. The Hamptons Fest has really built up its reputation over the years as a top notch launching pad for indie films, but it’s still three hours from New York on a one-lane highway. (Also, hamburgers cost around 25 bucks!)
The face of HIFF remains David Nugent, who became Chief Creative Officer in July. Nugent has had a long tenure with the festival, joining the team in 2007 and expanding from Director of Programming to the organization’s Artistic Director, a role he has held since 2012.
Whatever happens, HIFF will go on and so will Gladstein, to big things.
Donald Trump says “I’ve never felt better in my life.”
This is despite photographic evidence of badly bruised hands, make up covering one of them over, swollen ankles and mysterious bulges in his pants legs.
Trump has been rumored “dead” all weekend because he hasn’t bloviated publicly since last Tuesday.
He has posted to social media, however, dozens of times, making stuff up and trying to puff out his chest with made up numbers and facts.
Even so, the city of Chicago and state of Illinois are taking every measure to stop him from sending in National Guard troops. New York City has already rejected him.
Whether or not he’s ill or healthy as a horse, Trump send out fundraising letters over the weekend asking for help to “get me into heaven.” Like all Americans, I wish Trump a speedy trip there now.
Meanwhile, no sign of his wife, Melania, or son, Barron. The latter has not been seen in almost 7 months and there is no evidence of him attending classes in person at New York University.
Rudy Giuiliani is in a Manchester, New Hampshire hospital after a car crash.
According to a report, the rented Ford Bronco Rudy was being chauffeured in was rear ended on a local highway by a Honda HR-V driven by a 19-year-old Concord woman.
Both cars were smashed up.
By coincidence, earlier, Rudy’s driver had pulled over to help a woman whose car was on the side of the road. The crash had nothing to do with at, although Rudy’s spokesman, Mike Ragusa, made it seem like Rudy had jumped out, saved someone, and then got it. Nope.
According to the report, Giuliani was brought to a trauma center and diagnosed with a fractured thoracic vertebra, multiple lacerations and contusions, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg,
No one has any sympathy for him.
Guiliani, who was once Mayor of New York and then became Donald Trump’s personal lackey and stooge, was disbarred from practicing law in both New York and Washington DC in the last year or so.
He was also successfully sued for libel by two Georgia women, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who won $148 million from in a law suit that was eventually settled. They threatened to take his T-bird away.
No thoughts or prayers are being offered at this time.
The Who farewell tour after more than 60 years is called “The Song Is Over” but of course, it never will be.
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have soldiered through 60 years or so together, losing bandmates Keith Moon and John Entwhistle long ago, and 30 year drummer Zach Starkey more recently in a public dust up.
They are 80 and 81 years old. Could they ever have imagined making it this far, to fill stadiums as they wave goodbye? But last night at Madison Square Garden, the duo — with a band that includes Townshend’s much young brother, Simon — pulled off a bravura that – for a rock band with a really big sound — was touching and intimate.
Last night’s success was a tribute to Townshend’s songs holding up all this time better than ever, and Daltrey’s theatricality and once soaring voice coming through in the pinch. By the the of the two hour, 20 minute show they looked tired, but never defeated.
“The Song is Over” show is smartly assembled of early 60s hits like “Substitute,” “I Can’t Explain,” and “My Generation,” then highlights their rock operas “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia.” Their tour de force, “Who’s Next,” from 1971, is still the show stopper, an album that grows and grows in legend and importance to the rock canon.
We did get one surprise song — “Long Live Rock,” an outlier — that they haven’t performed since 2014. Otherwise the show sticks with a carefully laid out set list that alternates so Daltrey can show off his sweet and powerful vocals, while Townshend — who’s also still singing — can do prove he’s one of the greatest guitarists ever.
The spotlight is on Daltrey, though. He moves tentatively on stage — who can blame him at 81? His voice is strong at the start, but loosens up as the evening proceeds, to the point where he’s stunning in the last third.
Last night he missed a couple of cues and forgot some words, but he was disarming about it and didn’t mind starting over. The audience loved that. Daltrey’s big moment comes in “Love Reign O’er Me” from “Quadrophenia,” that leaves no doubt of his legacy. How he did it remains one of the universe’s mysteries and gifts.
The joke about The Who, of course, is that they’ve had many ‘farewell tours’ over the years. But as Pete said last night, “We’ve played 36 shows here” — at Madison Square Garden — “and this is probably the last one.” I guess, probably is the word. I’d love to see a final Who show at the Metropolitan Opera House, where they reached glory in a 1970 performance of “Tommy” for 10 bucks a head.
Nineteen years ago, when The who could have ended, Townshend wrote a song called “Tea and Theater” that no one really notice. The men — who admit never really socialized off stage all these years — use it as their poignant spot on finale, just the two of them, in a send off that underscored their long, sometimes tenuous relationship. Yes there were wet eyes in the audience.
Will you have some tea At the theater with me? We did it all Didn’t we? Jumped every wall Instinctively Unraveled codes Ingeniously Wired all the roads So seamlessly We made it work But one of us failed That makes it so sad A great dream derailed One of us – gone One of us – mad One of us – me All of us sad All of us sad Lean on my shoulder now This story is done It’s getting colder now A thousand songs Still smolder now We play them as one We’re older now All of us sad All of us free Before we walk from this stage Two of us Will you have some tea Will you have some tea At the theater with me
It’s been a tough year for Sony’s Columbia Pictures. Literally nothing has worked at the box office.
This week’s release, the very good “Caught Stealing” starring Austin Butler should have made a splash.
But the Darren Aronofsky romp finished third over the weekend, behind “Weapons” and the 50th anniversary release of “Jaws.”
Even all those influencers who Sony flew in for their premiere this week didn’t give their umpteenth failed release a boost.
In other words, Elvis (who Butler played so well) has left the building.
The real twist is that “Caught Stealing” was in more theaters than any other movie. But it made $7.8 million compared to $10.2 million for “Weapons.”
“Jaws” bit off $8.1 million and finished second.
In 5th place came “The Roses,” an unnecessary remake of “The War of the Roses,” with $6.3 million. Why two of the best actors — Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch — would up in that thing is still a head scratcher.
As for Sony, among their disasters this summer was “Afterburn” a movie no one knows exists, starring Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson. It cost $70 million, played for a week in the Netherlands, and made just $65,000.
“Afterburn” is supposed to open here on September 18th. I found one review on Twitter: “This was a really boring and unoriginal post-apocalyptic movie that features some fun action sequences but suffers pacing issues. The performances are alright. The VFX looked really bad at times. It’s not worth the watch at all.”
Exactly 54 years ago to this afternoon, John and Yoko appeared at the One to One concert singing “Instant Karma.’
Sean Ono Lennon has remixed a big box set of those shows, coming in October called “Power to the People.”
This video comes from the afternoon show and has never been seen.
Sean says: “I was completely floored putting this collection together and getting to remix the concerts and hearing all the unreleased material from my parents’ archive for the first time.
“People may not realize how special it is for me to hear my dad talking or to see him. I grew up with a set number of images and audio clips that everyone’s familiar with. So to come across things that I’ve never seen or heard is really deep for me, because it’s almost like getting more time with my dad. When I was eleven, my mum put out the Live in New York City album and film. So I grew up listening to it. It was a concert that had a legendary status in my mind, because it was my dad’s last concert.
“For the concerts, Paul Hicks and Simon Hilton and I spent a lot of time finding the best possible balance to keep the feeling of a live show while refining the overall sound as much as possible and Sam Gannon did some meticulous and miraculous work with audio restoration. I won’t disclose all our techniques but there was some ‘movie magic’ required, and I think in the end, the shows sound better than ever.”
After a few days of absence, Donald Trump is back.
He’s golfing in Virginia, looking bloated from some ailment. Congestive heart failure? Too many Big Macs?
On Truth Social, Trump is also blasting a White House contractor for not installing marble correctly. He doesn’t care that he’s in two wars, immigrants are suffering, tourists fear coming to the US.
No, it’s this: “Three days ago, while admiring the stonework, I happened to notice a huge gash in the limestone that extended more than 25 yards long. It was deep and nasty! I started yelling, “Who did this, and I want to find out now!” — And I didn’t say this in a nice manner. I wondered, “Was it vandalism or, was it stupidity?”
He adds: “Now, I’ll replace the stone, charge the contractor, and never let that contractor work at the White House again”
Trump doesn’t realize that his whole paving of the Rose Garden will be jackhammered into smithereens on January 21, 2029.
I’m very surprised that “Frankenstein” isn’t a monster.
In Venice, Guillermo del Toro’s long awaited film for Netflix has met with mixed reviews.
So far it’s at 78% with 18 reviews posted. Stars Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi are being praised, as well as the production. But something is wrong in the telling of the story.
Oscar winner del Toro is one of my favorite all time directors. He rarely makes a mistake. Plus, Netflix was counting on this one for its Oscar chances this season.
“Frankenstein” definitely seems polarizing among the critics. Some lavish praise but Variety did not. They said:” Gorgeous as it may be, the entire film feels as if we’re watching through a peephole. Strangely, [Dan] Laustsen’s wide-angle lenses make “Frankenstein” feel smaller, when the point was conceivably to squeeze more image into every frame.”
