Wednesday, August 19, 2026
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Broadway’s New Prince: Ari Emanuel’s Company Buys 7 Theaters on the Great White Way, Formerly Jujamcyn, Plus 10 In London’s West End

Broadway has a new prince: Ari Emanuel, Hollywood power player, former chief of William Morris Endeavor (and still involved as CEO of WME Group).

Ari, whose brother is Chicago politician and ex mayor Rahm Emamuel, has purchased 7 Broadway theaters through his MARI company. The seller was ATG Entertainment, which purchased most of the theaters a couple of years ago from Jujamcyn.

This now makes Ari Emanuel the third largest holder of Broadway house leases. They include the Lyric, Hudson, August Wilson, Al Hirschfeld, St. James, Walter Kerr, and Eugene O’Neill theaters.

The deal is said to be worth $6 billion.

Emanuel’s MARI already owns TodayTix, Frieze, Barrett-Jackson, the Miami Open, the Mutua Madrid Open, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and the Hampton Court Palace and Blenheim Palace Festivals.

ATG’s holdings also include 64 venues in Britain, the US and Germany. That includes 10 theaters in London’s West End.

Welcome, Ari Emanuel to the Broadway game. The purchase is certainly an endorsement of the future of live theater despite a rash of shows that didn’t make it this season.

Ari, a very high profile figure in movies and TV already, says in a statement: “I’ve spent my whole career in entertainment, and I started out in theater. I’ve seen the industry reinvent itself many times, but live has only grown more powerful. Nothing connects great talent with audiences more directly. ATG has built one of the world’s great theater businesses around that experience. This is a long-term bet on where live goes next.”

Get On Your Lear Jets, Carly Simon Fans — Tomorrow Brings a Total Eclipse of the Sun, Like in “You’re So Vain” — Before Her New Album Drops

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Talk about publicity and marketing!

Tomorrow will come an actual total eclipse of the sun in Europe, Greenland, and parts of North America.

If you are real Carly Simon fan you’ll fly your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see it. That’s what the famed still concealed subject of Simon’s everlasting hit, “You’re So Vain,” did back in July 1972.

Fifty four years later, the same kind of eclipse is coming to the same place. When all of this went down in July of ’72, it came out in the song, which was released in November

We haven’t stopped talking about since then!

By coincidence Simon releases her first new album of her own songs this week. On Thursday at midnight, Simon drops “Comes in Waves,” which includes the songs “Howl” and “Peaches.”

Like all Simon’s music, the songs are instantly catchy and lyrically involving. You can’t stop humming them once you’re on the Lear jet.

“Comes in Waves” contains a lot of personal songs, because Simon was the forerunner of singers like Taylor Swift. There’s quite a bit about her family, her decade long marriage to James Taylor, and their children. Sally and Ben Taylor are also on the album.

So get ready for Carly Simon week, but don’t stare into the sun or the moon directly. And if you’re on that Lear jet don’t take the wife of close friend!

Vogue September Issue Cover Flops, Exploits Actor Kids of Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford from Terrible TV Soap Opera, “The Shards”

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Anna Wintour is desperate for readers. In May, visits to Vogue.com were down 41% from April, according to semrush.com.

Every year, fans of Vogue wait for The September Issue as if they were receiving Moses’s tablets.

It’s the thickest issue ad wise, and should have a cover subject taken by a famous photographer of a scintillating personality or model, styled to the hilt. The cover should also convey the beginning of the fall season.

Alas, the new September issue is a flop, a sad reminder of just how far Vogue has fallen.

The cover subjects are young actors Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere.

The pair star in the unlikable FX TV soap, “The Shards,” made by Ryan Murphy, which began airing this week.

On Rotten Tomatoes, critics give “The Shards” a foul 55%. Audiences are less kind, with a total of 36% on their meter.

I’ve personally fast forwarded through the first couple of episodes. First of all, it’s a bore. Second, it’s a retread. It’s like watching an old series like “Wild Palms.” There’s nothing new about it. “The Shards” is just pretty young things, jabbering about nothing, doing drugs and showing off an excessive Hollywood lifestyle. I doubt the characters — who are subhuman — cast votes, but if they do, it’s for Trump now, Reagan then.

The most insulting part of this is that Gerber and Gere — not exactly theater royalty* — have been thrown together solely for purposes of exploitation. Her mother — Cindy Crawford — was once married to his father, Richard Gere. That’s the publicity hook for the whole series, nothing else, not the plot, writing, or acting.

(*I’m trying to imagine Vogue editorial director Chloe Malle’s Emmy winning mother, Candice Bergen, watching this stuff without a stiff drink!)

Gerber and Gere together on screen equal less than zero, which coincidentally was the first and best selling book by the show’s creator, Brett Easton Ellis some 40 years ago. Ellis has kind of thrown “Less than Zero” into a Cuisinart with his “American Psycho,” and come up with “The Shards.” There’s just a lot of name dropping of high end designer brands, and some occasional violence cloaked in really nice cinematography.

“The Shards” also seems to be FX’s attempt to make a “Euphoria” — albeit the pristine, clean, upscale version. They’ve also got an actor named Igby who looks like “Spider Man” star Tom Holland as much as he can. But if Peter Parker saw this crowd, he’d swing away from them instantly.

What a waste of time for producer Ryan Murphy, no stranger to trash TV with a focus on kitsch. But for Vogue to heave itself into this mire instead of going high, they’ve gone low. Maybe it makes some crazy sense, since Vogue no longer represents the unattainable. It’s just Cosmopolitan, with a nasty attitude.

NY Film Festival Blockbuster Additions: Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” Tom McCarthy’s “A Statement,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” More

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The New York Film Festival is out of control this year!

They’ve already announced their tentpole movies — “Paper Tiger,” by James Gray opens. Ava Duvernay closes with “14th.” Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth” is the centerpiece.

But now they’ve added their Spotlight galas, and they are big, kids. We’re going to be racing around going to everything everywhere all at once!

Lots of stars! All the quality films of the fall in one place. I may take a room at the Empire Hotel so I can just go over to Alice Tully in my pjs! (PJ Clarke’s is going to be impossible to get into, also)

Spotlight Gala:

Godzilla Minus Zero (Takashi Yamazaki)
Bucking Fastard (Werner Herzog)
Club Kid (Jordan Firstman)
The Debut (Jesse Eisenberg)
Edward Said: Between Worlds (Maiken Baird)
Fjord (Cristian Mungiu)
Iron Boy (Louis Clichy)
Joy of Joys (Jonathan Glazer)
Making Marie Antoinette (Eleanor Coppola)
One More Time (Cindy Kleine and André Gregory)
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Noah Segan)
Sixteen Moments of My Life (Albert Serra)
A Statement (Tom McCarthy)

64th New York Film Festival Main Slate

Opening Night: Paper Tiger (James Gray)
Centerpiece: Behemoth! (Tony Gilroy)
Closing Night: 14th (Ava DuVernay)
9 Temples to Heaven (Sompot Chidgasornpongse)
All of a Sudden (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar)
Clarissa (Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri)
Dao (Alain Gomis)
The Day She Returns (Hong Sangsoo)
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude)
Double Freedom (Lisandro Alonso)
The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach)
Everything Else Is Noise (Nicolás Pereda)
Everytime (Sandra Wollner)
Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski)
La Gradiva (Marine Atlan)
I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies (Mani Haghighi)
I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (Isabelle Stever)
The Loneliest Man in Town (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel)
A Long Winter (Andrew Haigh)
The Man I Love (Ira Sachs)
A Man of His Time (Emmanuel Marre)
Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Misty Green (Chris Rock)
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile (Julia Loktev)
My Wife Cries (Angela Schanelec)
Nowhere To Lay My Eyes (Hong Sangsoo)
Once Upon a Time in Harlem (William Greaves and David Greaves)
Possible Love (Lee Chang-dong)
Rose (Markus Schleinzer)
Tender Loving Care (Mike Leigh)
The Unknown (Arthur Harari)

Ella Langley Has Four of the Five iTunes Top 5, and Eight Singles in the Top 100, Her Biggest Hit “Choosin’ Texas” Sounds a Lot Like a 70s Classic

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I have no idea really who Ella Langley is.

But she has four of the top 5 singles on iTunes, and eight of the top 100.

Her main song, “Choosin’ Texas,” is utterly forgettable, but it’s now broken records for being number 1.

Langley is a country girl, 27 years old from Alabama. This week, she’s playing three different gigs in Texas, where she will undoubtedly sell more records.

“Choosin’ Texas” has over 600 million streams on Spotify. Combined, its two videos have almost 150 million views on YouTube.

But listen below. Doesn’t “Choosin’ Texas” remind you of an old song? Maybe it’s me, but it’s fairly reminiscent of Albert Hammond’s 1972 classic, “It Never Rains in Southern California.”

Langely has a nice country voice, but I wouldn’t say any of her songs are changing lives. “Choosin’ Texas” especially is not as good as Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.” But I do think her strength is in sounding familar, not new or edgy. She’s comfort music during a tricky time.

Woodstock War Continues: Amy Helm Sued by Shareholders Who Overthrew Her at Dad Levon’s Studios, Most Artists Cancel Shows, Take Her Side

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The summer of the Woodstock wars continues.

Now the people who took over Levon Helm Studios are suing the daughter of the famed drummer from The Band.

Amy Helm announced last month that she’d been ousted from her late father’s studio and performance space by interlopers. Then the mud slinging began.

Meantime, most of the artists who had shows scheduled at Levon Helm Studios cancelled in solidarity with Amy.

Amy herself, also the stepdaughter of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, then took her Midnight Rambles on tour around the country.

Today, Amy announced a bunch of Midnight Rambles shows including in Truckee, California, Brooklyn NY, and somewhere in Arkansas.

The people running the Levon Helm Studios have filed a 61 page lawsuit claiming that Amy took a lot of money out of the business while she was there, and has caused the business harm by encouraging acts to cancel their shows. (There are no scheduled shows now until November.)

I wrote a lot about who the people are who are trying to snatch Amy’s family legacy.

Now this thing is going to get down and dirty. Maybe it all go to a trial. That should shake Woodstock up more than the 1969 festival!

PS It’s hard to imagine Amy Helm needing to steal from the company. Between her father and mother — the late songwriter Libby Titus — she should be pretty well set. And don’t forget Fagen, with whom she’s very close.

Levon Helm Studios Sues Amy Helm in Federal Court, Alleging Millions in ‘Self-Dealing’

Robert Caro, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Beth Stern, Norah Lawlor Star at Annual East Hampton Authors Night, Jay McInerney Novel Snubbed

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Every summer, the East Hampton Library sponsors “Author’s Night,” to raise money and to see how it can be in large tent.

On Saturday, more than a thousand locals jammed into said tent pitched at Herrick Park to support the library and to see which writers are most popular.

The authors are stationed three to a table with piles of their books, which they sign for customers who pay on their way out. Unless you’ve got an outside corner table, the chances of passing out while wearing Lily Pulitzer or Prada are fairly high.

The joke is, it’s the best way to lose weight in two hours!

The guests are often as interesting as the writers. This year, celebs like Alec Baldwin moseyed around surveying the chaos. I ran into the great soap actress and now documentarian Ilene Kristen (of “Ryan’s Hope” fame). Famed NY TV news personality Lynn White glowed, and not just from perspiration! There was no sign of Howard Stern, but wife Beth Stern was busy signing books from the beginning to the end.

Writers with longest lines and fastest disappearing piles of books included the eminent Robert Caro, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Beth Stern (wife of Howard), and famed publicist Norah Lawlor, whose “Mom’s Book of Wisdom: Timeless Advice from My Mother & Yours,” sold out like lightning — 100 copies signed and gone in the first two hours.

Tom Freston had his memoir of starting MTV, David Margolick’s excellent history of Sid Caesar, and Tom Junod’s recollections of his unique father were all hits. I ran into comedy writer Carol Leifer, news personality Don Lemon, and the great society chronicler Michael Gross. Fan favorites included Valerie Greenberg, Monty Farber and Amy Zerner, Susan McGuirk, Aphrodite Jones, and Karine Jean-Pierre.

Jay McInerney — celebrating more than 40 years of “Bright Lights, Big City” — left early with a big stack of his latest novel unsold.

Maybe my favorite author? New York Times architecture guru Paul Goldberger. He’s written many bestsellers, his original one — “The City Observed” — is like a bible of New York city history. He told me it’s not in print right now! What? Goldberger’s book launched a lifetime of websites and books about vanished landmarks. Some publisher must bring it back immediately!

PS How much did I spend? Eighty-two dollars! And well worth it.

Brad Pitt Doesn’t Have a Publicist: He Confesses Being “Off the Wagon” As He Serves Wine to Esquire Writer, Talks About Family Issues

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Uh-oh.

Brad Pitt had a great movie publicist for years, Cindi Guagenti never let him get in trouble.

But Brad’s on his own these days and the result is pretty harrowing. For his new cover profile in Esquire, Brad served written Ryan D’Agostino wine and admitted he’s off the wagon.

Esquire.com will have traffic today like the Cross Bronx Expressway at rush hour.

Is this for visitors, the writer wonders?

Brad answers:

“No, I got—I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.” Little laugh. He raises his famous opposing-diacritic eyebrows and holds a finger up: “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.”

D’Agostino — who must have been beside himself when this happened — suggests, “You can have a glass of wine.”

Pitt responds: “Yeah. Well . . . I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.” The star tells D’Agostino, who writes that ‘he likes mornings now anyway, and you can miss a lovely morning when you drink too much the night before, and it’s just not as interesting. Mornings are interesting, and he doesn’t want any more of them to go by unseen. Even on a day like today. His place affords travel-magazine views of the city, but today clouds blot out the blue from horizon to horizon, like pulled cotton. It’s typical for this time of year, but most hosts would have apologized for the sky not being blue on the day of my visit. Not Pitt. He surveys the sky, smiles, and says, “June gloom. I love June gloom. It’s just so much more contemplative and introspective.”

The Esquire story is otherwise very illuminating, and has lots of other good bits. But this news — considering Pitt’s terrible relationship to his six children — is pretty alarming. It’s too bad. But it just shows you why publicists sit in or nearby on these interviews. Good grief!

Brad’s new movie, “Heart of the Beast,” opens at the end of September.

Oscar Winner Julianne Moore Coming Back to New York Theater After 20 Years with Off Broadway Starring Role as “Faydra” for Manhattan Theatre Club

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Julianne Moore has an Oscar, lots of other accolades, and awards.

I saw her on stage almost 40 years ago at the Louisville Theater festival.

Now, she’s coming back to New York theater some 20 years after appearing on Broadway in “The Vertical Hour” with Bil Nighy.

Moore will star in a new play called ‘Faydra,” written by Sarah Ruhl, at New York’s City Center.

Performances begin in February for the modern take on the classic Greek myth. Aphrodite aims her bow at Faydra and lets an arrow of love fly. Nothing is ever the same. Mostly because the object of Faydra’s sudden, all-devouring lust is her soon-to-be stepson.

Shades of “The Odyssey”! Suddenly Greek mythology is in vogue.

Manhattan Theater Club is producing the play at City Center, which is considered off Broadway.

That’s a smart choice for everyone involved. Moore will arrive will all the spring season premieres, but not be involved in the crazy run to the Tony Awards. This is an acknowledgement of the Tonys’ antipathy toward “Hollywood” stars.

More casting will be announced soon. You can bet it will be filled with “names.” MTC already has Denée Benton, Patina Miller in ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play,” Lauren Ambrose in “The Unbelievers,” and Danny Burstein, Micaela Diamond, Jessica Hecht, Will Pullen, and Jeremy Shamos in “Awake and Sing!”

At the same time that Julianne takes the stage at City Center, Laura Linney will star on Broadway for them at the Samuel G. Freedman Theater in a new play by David Hare called “Montauk.”

We wouldn’t want Julianne Moore and Laura Linney in an awards race, would we? No one would survive, starting with the critics!

Legend Cindy Adams Tops the New Yorker with her Own Tales of Donald Trump and Evil Mentor Roy Cohn, Says of the Latter: “He never paid bills”

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Apparently last week’s New Yorker featured an excerpt from a new book about evil lawyer Roy Cohn and how he shaped Donald Trump’s life.

The excerpt provides no real new information, as the relationship between these two lawbreaking misanthropes has been raked over in books and documentaries.

The piece does mention, a couple of times, legendary NY Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, now 96 and still publishing columns several times a week.

Cindy took one look at the New Yorker piece and rose up like a phoenix. “Roy Cohn is back in the news — but I actually knew the infamous lawyer,” she declared Sunday night before launching into a vivid memoir about the man who helped Senator Joseph McCarthy engineer one of America’s darkest periods — the Blacklist of the 1950s that destroyed lives.

Cindy writes:
Cohn’s home? East 68th mansion. Upstairs, a law library. The fabulous volumes — golden pages open, on the floor, stepped on, spilled coffee dribbled on. Me: “How can you do this to these precious books?” Roy: “Who cares? Just give me the judge.”
Roy took me to then-elegant French restaurant La Grenouille. Arriving, he told its maitre: “The check is in the mail.”

More:

One Joey [Adams, Cindy’s famous comic husband] birthday, we planned a party in Hong Kong. Suddenly, Roy arrived. Nobody knew he was coming. Nobody invited him. He flew in without telling anyone. Then he canceled all our dinner plans while inviting those he knew to a place he also knew.

And:

He never paid bills. Joey brought him to our antique dealer. He selected three items. Lamp, vase, table. Six months passed. Never paid. Housekeeper Elvira knew me well, so one afternoon, my driver and I just arrived at his home, walked in, repossessed the items and delivered all back to the dealer. That night, Roy took me to dinner. Never ever mentioned one word about what happened.

That Cindy has not written a book about her life is tragic. Maybe she’s left a manuscript to be published after she passes on. There was a documentary about her, but it didn’t even scratch the surface. She knows where every body is buried!

Only in New York, kids. Only in New York