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Barbra Streisand’s “Partner 2” Duets Album Rises from the Ashes to the Top 10 After Singer Laufey Featured on CBS Sunday Morning

Roger Friedman
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Barbra Streisand’s “Partner 2” Duets Album Rises from the Ashes to the Top 10 After Singer Laufey Featured on CBS Sunday Morning

Barbra Streisand’s latest duets album, “Partners II: The Secret of Life,” has zoomed back up the charts.

It’s number 7 on iTunes and number 2 on amazon.com.

The album was released June 27th and fell flat. Streisand did no direct promotion for the album, there seemed to be no marketing plan, and the result was a terrible sales disappointment.

So what’s going on?

One of Barbra’s duets is with up and coming singer Laufey. On the album they perform one of Laufey’s songs, called “Letter to My 13 Year Old Self.” For some reason, Sony/Columbia just ignored it at the time of release.

But this past Sunday, on CBS Sunday Mornings, Laufey was featured. The power of that show is enormous. Laufey’s records took off, as viewers wanted to know more about this Grammy winning young star.

The CBS Sunday piece heavily featured the Streisand duet, with a clip of the video and of Streisand saying that singing with Laufey “was like buttah.”

This evidently sent fans looking for the Streisand album. Crazy.

A year ago, Streisand’s producer, Peter Asher, mentioned to me that the Laufey/Barbra collaboration was exquisite. Now it’s come to bear fruit.

Maybe Sony and Streisand will be moved to put some elbow grease in on the project now. A door has been opened for them.

Meantime, Laufey now has 4 albums in the iTunes top 100, and several singles. Not bad! She’s an “overnight sensation”!

Breaking: Meryl Streep. Anya Taylor Joy to Play Joni Mitchell in Cameron Crowe Biopic

Roger Friedman
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Breaking: Meryl Streep. Anya Taylor Joy to Play Joni Mitchell in Cameron Crowe Biopic

Holy moly!

Cameron Crowe has found two major stars for his Joni Mitchell biopic.

Scoopster Jeff Sneider reports that “Both Sides Now” will star Meryl Streep as Joni now and Anya Taylor Joy as Joni in her heyday.

That’s a movie I want to see@

The Streep part indicates that we’ll see Joni overcome her devastating stroke only to make a triumphant return to performing. There won’t be a dry eye in the house!

Crowe is devoted to Mitchell and is certainly an expert in the field. Can’t wait@

Controversial October 7th Doc Banned, then Reinstated by Toronto Film Fest Will Show Once with No Press or Industry Screenings

Roger Friedman
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Controversial October 7th Doc Banned, then Reinstated by Toronto Film Fest Will Show Once with No Press or Industry Screenings

The Toronto Film Fest is looking forward to a hot run next month. But there’s a wrinkle.

Last week they rejected, then reinstated Barry Avrich’s documentary, “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue.”

Now I’m told that “The Road Between Us” will just be shown once, and there are no press or industry screenings.

All of this is great publicity for the doc which follows how on October 7, 2023 retired Israel Defense Forces General Naom Tibon sprang into action on a mission to save his family — including his two granddaughters — who were surrounded by Hamas terrorists during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Tibon also rescued survivors of the music festival massacre and helped wounded soldiers on his journey to save his family.

TIFF executive director Cameron Bailey at first said pulling the film had to do with properly securing rights to footage. He insisted it was not about censorship or fear of protests.

But then he reversed his position after an outcry from many groups including the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and the Creative Community for Peace.

“I want to be clear: claims that the film was rejected due to censorship are unequivocally false,” he wrote in a letter addressed to members of the TIFF community. “I remain committed to working with the filmmaker to meet TIFF’s screening requirements to allow the film to be screened at this year’s festival. I have asked our legal team to work with the filmmaker on considering all options available.”

Subsequently, Bailey and Avrich issued a joint statement agreeing the film would be shown.

Now, “The Road Between Us” will be screened once, sometime on Monday. But access for press and possible distributors will be problematic. We can only imagine security will be high and interest will be off the charts. But this is a film that must be shown and distributed, to tell the story of what happened to innocent Israelis on that terrible day.

Indie Upstart Rocker Sombr, 20, Drops First Album This Week After Two Left Field Hits Set the Stage: Will He Take Off?

Roger Friedman
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Indie Upstart Rocker Sombr, 20, Drops First Album This Week After Two Left Field Hits Set the Stage: Will He Take Off?

I told you about indie rocker Sombr a few months ago.

The 20 year old New Yorker, whose real name is Shane Boose, is the son of Elton John AIDS Foundation event director Andy Boose and his wife, amFAR PR director Bennah Serfaty.

His album, “I Barely Knew Her,” just turned 20 in July. But all of the last year he’s had two enormous pop hits that came out of left field. They are “Undressed,” and “Back to Friends.”

The very catchy records are streaming giants. The former has 400 million streams. The latter is at 658 million.

“Back to Friends” is number 6 on Spotify, the first record on this week’s chart that isn’t from K Pop.

“I Barely Knew Her” will be scrutinized as it launches Thursday night. Obviously, there’s a pent up demand for an album at this point. Boose has toured constantly, putting in the time also on social media building up a following.

But now the question is, Will there be a follow up hit? A more recent single, called “12 to 12,” didn’t go anywhere. The dreamy “Would Have Been You,” did only a little better. It’s not easy building off of early hits, just ask Benson Boone. He flipped all over the place but couldn’t sell the follow up to his hit inaugural album and single.

Sombr’s trademark is kind of a dreamy production in which his falsetto voice is drowned in the sonic equivalent of cotton balls and lace. You’d think he was a little guy from the sound, but he looks like he’s a very tall stringbean with Cat Stevens like rock n roll hair circa 1971.

So here we go. Will he go back to being friends with his fans this week, or will the romance stick?


MSNBC Peacock Feathers Plucked in Separation from NBC, Will Be Renamed MS NOW As Soon as They Announce It

Roger Friedman
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MSNBC Peacock Feathers Plucked in Separation from NBC, Will Be Renamed MS NOW As Soon as They Announce It

MSNBC is the only outlet so far not reporting this story.

The left leaning news org and cable channel will change its name this fall.

MSNBC is losing its peacock feathers in its separation from NBC. It will now be called MS Now for My Source for News Opinion and the World.

It looks in the logo like MS — as in MS Magazine — Now.

You can imagine all the money and time that went into thinking this up, especially the logo.

Why now MS PACMAN?

I digress.

Many MSNBC journalists who doubled at NBC are staying with the channel as it develops its own newsroom and standing as a business.

The evening shows should remain in tact at least for a while to provide continuity. At this point, all the MSNBC shows beat their CNN competitors handily every night.

Meanwhile, for some reason, instead of controlling their narrative, new parent company Versant was the last to make this announcement. Go figure.

JFK Grandson Jack Schlossberg Recites Melania’s Letter of Peace, in Her Accent, Wearing a Blonde Wig. This is Real (Watch)

Roger Friedman
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JFK Grandson Jack Schlossberg Recites Melania’s Letter of Peace, in Her Accent, Wearing a Blonde Wig. This is Real (Watch)

You can sort of feel JFK and Jackie rolling in their graves, but here we are.

Their grandson, Jack Schlossberg, now a full time, full fledged social influence, posts irreverent videos all of the day and all of the night.

Here’s one where he reads Melania Trump’s letter of peace that she sent to Vladmir Putin. Jack does it in her accent, wearing a blonde wig. Not Profiles in Courage, but definitely a sign o’ the times.

Trump Mysterious One Word Post, Not “Covfefe,” While Trolls Invade His Social Media Platform with Drawings of Putin Playing Him Like a Violin

Roger Friedman
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Trump Mysterious One Word Post, Not “Covfefe,” While Trolls Invade His Social Media Platform with Drawings of Putin Playing Him Like a Violin

Donald Trump is known for the strangest one word Tweet of all time.

“Covfefe,” he posted years ago.

Now comes a new one, this morning, still on his Truth Social.

“Bela,” he wrote.

That’s it. “Bela.”

Bela Lugosi?

Did he fall asleep intending to write “Belated apologies to the American people and the world for trying to destroy us”?

Was he bela-bering the point?

We will never know.

Meantime Truth Social has been rife with trolls today including one account that posted a picture of Trump being played like a violin by Putin. Truth Social must have a full time person — Stephen Miller, maybe — on the case all day for funny mocking posts about the orange loser.

Patti Smith Revels Cover Photo of New Memoir, Taken by Robert Mapplethorpe: “The most beautiful aspect of Surrender, surrender to Love”

Roger Friedman
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Patti Smith Revels Cover Photo of New Memoir, Taken by Robert Mapplethorpe: “The most beautiful aspect of Surrender, surrender to Love”

Patti Smith is famous for her amazing music career, of course.

But she’s also highly regarded for her first memoir, “Just Kids,” which won lots of awards. It told the story of her early days in New York with artist Robert Mapplethorpe and actor/writer/director Sam Shepherd.

Now she’s got a new memoir coming in November called “Bread of Angels.” This one covers her childhood, and later her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith. Random House publishes it on November 4th.

On Substack, Patti has shared a copy of the book cover, a 1979 photo taken by Mapplethorpe. On the Substack she also shares an audio reminiscence of the photo.

For some reason, vanityfair.com lifted the whole thing without credit. But the news comes from Patti, and we can’t wait to hear more!

Here’s what she wrote, and a link to the audio:

Bread of Angels by Patti Smith

An announcement.

Read on Substack

Hello everyone,

My publisher, Random House, has sent me the design for the cover of my next book. The cover image is a photograph that Robert Mapplethorpe took in 1979. It was taken at One Fifth Avenue in the penthouse apartment of his love and patron, Sam Wagstaff.

The publishing date was chosen by my publisher, not realizing it’s significance. November 4th was Robert’s birthday, and the passing day of my beloved husband Fred Sonic Smith. The audio of this post will tell more about the photograph. Let me know your thoughts. Have a good day, I will be recording the audio book all week, but will send another message soon.

Justin Bieber’s “Swag” Sales Sag with Weird Social Media Posts Like Shooting Automatic Rifles: Just 8,300 Downloads

Roger Friedman
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Justin Bieber’s “Swag” Sales Sag with Weird Social Media Posts Like Shooting Automatic Rifles: Just 8,300 Downloads

Justin Bieber’s constant social media posts are backfiring.

His “Swag” album has been a bust. So far, almost all the sales are streaming equivalent. That total comes to around 331,575.

Of those, only 8,300 are from paid downloads on iTunes mostly.

Bieber keeps issuing new videos for different tracks, but only one — “Daises” — has provoked any interest.

Meantime, Bieber’s social media pages are full of pictures of him looking a scrawny, tattooed skater kid, not a 32 year old adult who’s the father of a child.

There are also plenty of videos and pictures of Bieber at a shooting range, firing automatic rifles. Those posts are interspersed with ones espousing Christian messages that don’t really jibe with evidence he presents of daily pot use.

The whole scene is pretty unappetizing, and not exactly marketing plan.

“Swag” is currently number 53 on iTunes after a five week run.

Spike Lee’s Excellent New Movie “Highest 2 Lowest” Hidden at Theaters by Apple, A24: Thank Them for No Box Office Story Today

Roger Friedman
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0
Spike Lee’s Excellent New Movie “Highest 2 Lowest” Hidden at Theaters by Apple, A24: Thank Them for No Box Office Story Today

If Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” had really been in theaters today there would have been a weekend box office story today.

But Apple and A24 are hiding “H2L” in as few and as remote theaters are they can pending its arrival on Apple TV Plus in a couple of weeks.

They’ve only released this exuberant, sensational film to any theaters to qualify it for Oscars consideration — which it deserves.

But the two studios are doing Spike and the audience a great disservice. If there were one film this year that demands being on a big screen, it’s “Highest 2 Lowest.” Not just for the incredible cinematography, but for the award winning score and music mix.

“Highest 2 Lowest” also demands an audience. It’s not meant for sole viewing on a phone or laptop. The drama and laughs are too big to shove into those empty portals. When then there’s a little surprise moment with the fantastic Jeffrey Wright, you need someone next you to say, “Huh?”

“H2L” is playing in some of New York’s hardest to find theaters. The studio and streamer show their disdain by not even booking it in AMC Lincoln Square on 68th and Broadway. It’s only playing in two or three theaters in Brooklyn, where it was shot and is portrayed. Really shameful.

Apple lucked out with “CODA” a couple of years ago, even though they didn’t deserve it. Instead of thanking their lucky stars, they just went back to their old ways. I guess Tim Cook is too busy giving Trump gifts to think about how Apple will affect the history of cinema going forward.

Go see “H2L” on any screen near you, now before it’s confined to a little silver card case.

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