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Kellyanne Conway, Queen of the Alternative Facts, was on Michael Smerconish’s CNN show today peddling her lies and memories of the Battle of Bowling Green. She also threw her husband, George, under the bus.
All of this was to promote her book, called “Squid Game,” er “Here’s the Deal.”
But CNN viewers weren’t biting. When the show began, the book was at number 247 on amazon. When she finished, it was at number 323. It’s also number 27 among Memoirs. And dropping.
Over at the New York Times, the book has dropped to number 9. Conway is bragging on her Twitter account that she’s got the number 1 bestseller. She does not, far from it.
Whenever I see her I start humming this tune to the Hollies song, “Hey Kellyanne, what’s your game, can anybody play?”
Its sorta cool that the more she talks on mainstream TV, the book drops on best seller lists. She should stick to OANN, Fox News, and the Pigeon Channel.
Maybe you’ve seen the name Richard Perry on hit records made by Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, the Pointer Sisters, Rod Stewart, Leo Sayer.
The most successful record producer of the 70s and 80s, with plenty of hits since then, Perry turns 80 today. Yes, he was born on the same day as Paul McCartney.
Back in ’73, it was Richard who convinced Paul and Linda McCartney to sing background on Carly Simon’s “Night Owl.” Then he got Paul to write a song for Ringo Starr’s “Ringo!” album, and sing background on that track too. You can’t imagine the seismic reaction to the “Ringo!” album because it reunited all the Beatles for the first time since their heartbreaking split in 1970.
A few years ago, Richard was selected for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, aka the Special Merit Award, for his work producing perfect, classic, stunning records like Carly’s “You’re So Vain,” Nilsson’s “Without You,” and Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”
Last year Richard fell ill — not from COVID but a form of pneumonia — and was hospitalized for several weeks. His long time girlfriend, Jane Fonda, had a brilliant idea. She brought the Pointer Sisters to his hospital room, and they sang for him. They actually sang “Slow Hand,” one of their many hits Perry produced. It must have done the trick because he made a full recovery!
Back in 2000, I ran into Richard at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton. After dinner we all went back to the house where he was staying. He played us a cassette tape of big band songs he’d made with Rod Stewart. Everyone was dancing around the room. He hadn’t made a deal yet for the record, but soon enough Clive Davis signed it up. The result was five albums of Rod Stewart singing the Classic American Songbook. They sold millions and millions of copies and won tons of awards.
Today all of Richard’s pals like Robbie Robertson from the Band so on will gather in LA to salute eight sensational decades. I wish I could be there! Happy Birthday, Richard! Nobody does it better! (He produced that one, too.)
PS Did I mention that back in the day, Perry dated Cher, Diana Ross, and Tina Turner? Oh yes.
SUNDAY UPDATE: Total for the weekend is $51 million. I’m told Chris Evans is just great as young Buzz, the Tim Allen argument is not an issue. But the movie simply does not have the charm of the “Toy Story” chapters. Case closed.
SATURDAY MORNING: Hmmm…
Disney must be disappointed this morning. “Lightyear,” the 5th “Toy Story” movie, and the prequel to the other four. Total last night was $15.5 million. With $5 million from Thursday, we have $20 million all in for “opening” night.
The studio is looking at a $50 million weekend. Three years ago this weekend, “Toy Story 4” opened to $120.9 million.
Was it the marketing? Or the fact that for some reason Pixar used Chris Evans to voice Buzz Lightyear instead of Tim Allen? What a strange decision. The audience obviously got the message,
Meanwhile, “Jurassic World Dominion” topped $200 million after 8 days.
On Thursday I was lucky to be at Paul McCartney’s tour closing concert in the Meadowlands. He turns 80 today so we were looking for signs of age, of the end coming.
But there was no such sign. Flanking the stage were two enormous video screens, so nothing could be hidden. Plus, the sound mix was unforgiving. If Paul had anything he didn’t want seen or heard, it was impossible.
Paul McCartney, the “cute” Beatle, has reached 80 with grace, wit, and style. Losing the love of his life, Linda, and two of his mates, John and George, hasn’t stopped him. It’s made him wiser, I think. At one point on stage, Paul was coming down a step and tripped. He caught himself as the audience gasped. But it was a nano millisecond. Not only did he recover, but he turned to the camera, mocked the fall, and a little dance. Paul, you see, is a survivor.
He’s also a musical genius. He played 40 songs on Thursday night, it took over three hours. He used a Teleprompter, but rarely looked at it. Most of the song lyrics he knows by heart. He knows all the music, that’s for sure, and plays it with deep textures and soul. I was watching his guitar work, it’s insanely good. While he has a keyboard player helping him, McCartney still carries the weight as lead pianist. And while sometimes his vocals go off key, his voice actually opened up and improved over the three hours to the point where it was as full and sweet as it was 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago.
And listen to these songs. We’re so used to some of them, but if you really listen to “Hey Jude” and think, how the heck did he come up with that chorus, and the ‘na-na-na’ part, which by the way has a unique way of sounding joyous and melancholy at the same time. And then there was first ever song, “In Spite of the Danger,” written as a teenager. “Danger” has such a catchy lick that he get the audience to sing it. And he talks about the terror of singing lead on the recording of “Love Me Do,” also recorded as a teen. “I still hear it in my voice when the record comes on,” Paul said.
Well, Happy Birthday, Paul. Here’s to a life very well lived. And please, come back to smaller theaters next time around, like Madison Square Garden, so we can really appreciate your art.
Tonight Stephen Colbert re-ran his episode from last Friday, which apparently no one paid attention to including me. Colbert, in an usual move, had Batiste, his band leader, as a guest. They talked music. It was lovely. And then Colbert announced that Batiste was taking the rest of the summer off from the show.
Colbert said, “See you in September.”
Batiste has already had a roller coaster year. He won the Grammy Award in January for his album, “We Are.” He also revealed that his wife, Suleika Jaouad, a 33 year old columnist and motivational speaker, has been battling acute myeloid leukemia since 2011.
I’m also told, although unconfirmed, that Batiste has left his manager of many years, Mick Management. He’s not listed on their website anymore. Batiste is, however, sticking with Creative Artists Management as his talent rep, however.
The bandleader has already been off Colbert for several weeks. This announcement of a three month break may have to do with his wife’s illness. In November 2021, the Batistes received the news that Suleika’s cancer, which was in remission, had returned – this time more aggressively.
Jon Batiste told CBS Sunday Morning: “We’re having to hold these two realities.”
Health has to be an issue in their household. On May 6th Batiste revealed he tested positive for COVID after performing at Anna Wintour’s super spreader Met Ball.
If Batiste is really taking the summer off then he’s going out with a bang. In the last week he performed at the Time 100 gala and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. On Friday Batiste performed on the Today show, and appeared on ABC’s Soul of a Nation. It’s unclear if he’ll have one off dates over the summer. But the pressure of doing a daily talk show is removed for the meantime.
Frankie Valli has posted news to Instagram that the great comic and member of the real Friars Club, Stewie Stone, has passed away at age 88.
Stewie suffered from Parkinson’s Disease. When I spoke to his wife recently, she told me was in declining health. Condolences to their family.
There are only a few towering giants of the Friars Club left in retirement, like Freddie Roman and Dick Capri. Most, including my hero, Alan King, are now sadly gone.
Stewie was a little like Billy Crystal’s “Mr. Saturday Night” character, a Catskills comic who worked the clubs, the cruises, was very funny but never made it big time on TV and the movies. He was a comic’s comic, and much beloved and appreciated.
Watch Stewie talk about his career below, and see Frankie’s tribute.
“Snowpiercer” will make its final train stop on TNT after its fourth season, currently shooting in Vancouver.
What a shame, but the writing was on the wall. David Zaslav and his Discovery team are taking the entire Warner Bros. machine apart. They’re putting an end to scripted dramas on TNT and TBS even if they were hits.
“Snowpiercer” is based on the movie by “Parasite” director Bon Joon Ho and stars Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, and Mickey Sumner, among others. It’s been very popular. Season one averaged 1.3 million viewers per episode, but as time went on– and nothing was done to promote the show– last season’s numbers cut that in half.
Connelly, of course, an Oscar winner, is featured in the new “Top Gun” movie. Tony winner Diggs from “Hamilton” is in constant demand. Sumner is already fielding offers. Another regular, Sakina Jaffrey, is now a regular on “Billions.”
E! online actually picked up photos of Tom’s adopted son, Connor, out on the town minded by a 30 year member of the so called church.
Connor was accompanied to dinner with a former child actor named Patrick Renna, whose Scientology history goes back to 1992. He’s 43 years old, so not exactly a “pal” for a 27 year old kid. But Renna has worked his way up through dozens of Scientology courses to something called “OT V.” That’s the fifth level of Operating Thetan. Renna has been potentially brainwashed to believe he will return to Earth after death as the Silver Surfer.
The whole photo set up reeks of the famous “Godfather” seen when Frank Pentangeli is set to testify against the Corleones in front of Congress. Just before he takes the stand, Frankie spots his brother, who the Corleones have brought in from Italy and is now their hostage. He never testifies.
Poor Connor, a pawn in a game. With “Top Gun Maverick” putting Tom Cruise back on top, the cult may be worried the movie star is feeling independent from them. This was a good move for them.
The public outing was shot at Capo Restaurant in Santa Monica. There was a third friend, also likely with the cult. It looks like they all ate pretty well. But the reason for all this publicity is indigestible.
Mariah Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame last night. Ironically, she’s never written the music to any of her songs.
Go figure.
In the audience at the Marriott Marquis Ballroom last night was Ben Margulies. He was invited by his song publisher. In 1989, Margulies wrote “Vision of Love” and six other songs on her debut album. They’re still her best songs. Although Margulies was in the audience, Carey didn’t acknowledge or thank him.
Indeed, Carey didn’t mention any of the dozens of writers who wrote her hits, all of whom are listed in detail on Wikipedia. She took credit for being a pioneering female songwriter. Watching her acceptance speech is nauseating.
Among the writers she didn’t acknowledge were Walter Afanasieff, Jermaine Dupri (who was also there), Narada Michael Walden, Dave Hall (“Dreamlover”) or the writers whose songs she sampled in whole like Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, Maurice White, or Badfinger’s Pete Ham.
All that screaming from Mike Lindell over Wal Mart “dumping” was BS.
The chain of low end stores hasn’t erased or cancelled Lindell or My Pillow at all. They have removed Lindell’s products from their stores but not from their website. They’re selling everything there, including Lindell’s idiotic memoir “From Crack Addict to Insurrectionist” for $29.95.
So what was really going on? Lindell, a noted liar, clearly knew Wal Mart still had all his products for sale on line. He just made it seem like he’d been mortally wounded by Wal Mart to get PR and sympathy. He deserves neither.
Prior to January 6. 2021, Lindell Tweeted and used social media to let his right wing followers know about plans to gather in Washington DC. It’s amazing that he hasn’t been arrested for treason, or interrogated by the January 6th committee.
