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Amy Schumer joins the list of celeb guests from Anna Wintour’s Met Ball who now have COVID. Jon Batiste was the first celebrity to admit he got sick at last week’s super spreader.
Schumer is brave enough to post videos from her sick bed. She says she’s watching “Inventing Anna” day and night, and has what she calls an “Elizabeth Holmes” voice, alluding to the Theranos scandal.
Schumer was supposed to perform last night at the Netflix is a Joke Festival in Los Angeles, but had to cancel at the last minute.
Who else of the Met Ball guests are sick? If you’ve heard of others, email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
This wave follows the one from the White House Correspondents Dinner and the Inner Circle dinner last Saturday. Our own New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, is positive now, too.
The NYC COVID rate has risen steadily all month. Wintour and the Met knew it, but ignored it.
UPDATE The total was, as I expected, higher– $187 million. Yowza!
“Doctor Strange 2” debuted as the Marvel movie with the third highest ever opening weekend: $185 million.
That was below the $196 million many predicted, but tomorrow the weekend guestimate may be higher as Benedict Cumberbatch’s terrific turn on “Saturday Night Live” may send more people into theaters today.
Still, it’s a huge opening for a very good and entertaining popcorn movie.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” sucked the life out of all the other movies in theaters. Some really suffered, like Liam Neeson’s “Memory” and Mark Wahlberg-Mel Gibson “Father Stu.” Warner’s “Fantastic Beasts 3” fell 52% from last weekend. “The Northman” dropped 56%.
No, until “Top Gun: Maverick” comes along, “Doctor Strange 2” is going to rule the box office. And that’s pretty amazing since the original “Doctor Strange” opened with just $85 million in 2016.
This release turns Cumberbatch into a movie star despite past Oscar nominations for “Power of the Dog” and “The Imitation Game.” It will be interesting to see how his next serious movie does as a result of this blockbuster.
George Soros conspiracy theories? A memoir from lying Trump press mistress Kayleigh McEnemy? Two books about Hunter Biden’s laptop?
These tomes must be coming from some crazy publisher, right?
Wrong. They’re all from legit publisher Simon & Schuster, currently awaiting merging into Random House-Penguin.
S&S has a right wing conservative imprint that’s wacky enough– called Post Hill Press.
But within Post Hill Press there’s an even more over the edge out there imprint called Liberatio Protocol. The company is the brain damaged child of Dan Bongino, very right wing Fox News host and nutty radio host. I am not kidding. Bongino has been suspended permanently by You Tube for disseminating false information about COVID. But he still has a book imprint at S&S.
Bongino’s efforts to restore Donald Trump to power were chronicled in The New Yorker last December. S&S should really be embarrassed. But they obviously think there will be people to fork over $28 for this junk.
In November they’ll publish the book by Hunter Biden laptop repairman called “American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth.” In today’s NY Post John Paul Mac Isaac — now an “author” — has sold an excerpt from the book along with “incriminating” pictures he took from Hunter’s laptop.
You’d think the whole laptop saga wouldn’t merit more than a tabloid article. But Liberatio Protocol has managed to somehow stretch this non-story into 256 pages. It will be featured in bookstores under Tawdry Garbage.
And S&S? I’m sure all their fine literary authors have no idea that Liberatio Protocol exists. Now they do. Alice Mayhew is rolling in her grave.
Meghan McCain was a pain on “The View.” Now she’s gone and we thought we’d be rid of her.
But John McCain’s contentious daughter persists in her cause to be a celebrity. On April 26th she published a book called “Bad Republican.” And sales are…bad!
According to NPD Book Scan, “Bad Republican” has sold just 244 copies. So at least we know her relatives have it.
On Amazon, the book is currently at number 17,969. On Barnes & Noble’s list, “Bad Republican” is well below 60,000.
“Bad Republican” should be on the remainder tables pretty quickly, I’m guessing BenBella Books — a kind of vanity publisher distributed *but not owned* by Penguin-Random House — only printed up a few hundred to begin with. There will not be a second printing. Get it now– a collector’s item!
Music mogul and legend Clive Davis is set to receive a Big Deal award in Washington and an honor here in New York.
The Big Deal Award is the Lincoln Medal from Ford’s Theater. This puts Clive in heady company. Past recipients include Aretha Franklin, the late Colin Powell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, golfer Jack Nicklaus, NFL great Peyton Manning, plus Ruby Dee, John Lewis, Sidney Poitier, and James Earl Jones.
The award given by the Ford’s Theatre Society “to a person or persons who, through their body of work, accomplishments or personal attributes, exemplify the lasting legacy and mettle of character embodied by the most beloved president in our nation’s history, President Abraham Lincoln.” Also receiving the Lincoln Medal on June 5th will be South Carolina congressman James E. Clyburn, currently the Majority Whip for the 117th Congress, Chairman of the House Select subcommittee on the COVID-19 crisis, and Chairman of the Rural Broadband Task Force and Democratic Faith Working Group.
But wait! The honor in New York is that one of the students from the Clive Davis Institute of Recording at NYU’s Brooklyn Campus is releasing her hot single this week. Avangelia and her very professional classmates at the Institute, endowed by Clive, are serious about to be graduates. She has the voice of an angel. Mixing jazz and R&B, she reminds me of Patrice Rushen and Angela Bofill. We met Avengelia last month in one of the high tech studios at the Institute, and she knocked our socks off.
Avangelia’s single is called “Wildflower.” You can hear it below. And she has more coming. “Wildflower” is on all social media and iTunes. She’s from Brooklyn, by the way, and so are her musicians and producers (except one who’s migrated up from Houston!).
And that’s the biggest reward for Clive– launching a new generation of memorable performers.
The Marvel-Disney blockbuster took in $54 mil Friday night, making its opening total $90 mil including previews.
The total should be around $200 million.
The first “Doctor Strange” did a fraction of that in 2016.
Word of mouth is strong and so are the reviews. “Doctor Strange” is a good movie. As directed by Sam Raimi, it’s fun, makes its own kind of sense, is easy to follow, and has exciting special effects.
Not only that, but the acting is top notch for this kind of film. Elisabeth Olsen is wonderful as Wanda/The Scarlet Witch. Benedict Cumberbatch, who should be getting Oscars in serious movies, is sensational here. And Benedict Wong is a standout as Wong, Doctor Strange’s wing man. And let’s not forget Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This might be the classiest casting ever for a Marvel film.
Exclusive: I’m hearing that in the wake of changes at MSNBC, the next announcement may involve Andrea Mitchell.
Mitchell, most respected and enduring at NBC since 1978, hosts a one hour show on MSNBC at 12 noon every day called “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” But the word is that the show may move to MSNBC Now, the streaming channel of the cable network.
Today among many changes, Chuck Todd saw his “Meet the Press Daily” move to MSNBC Now, where it will stream at 4pm. Previously, “Meet the Press Daily” was seen at 1pm on the regular cable network.
Todd is a divisive character at NBC where he hosts “Meet the Press” every Sunday. Viewers of the more liberal MSNBC don’t like him, and he’s often called out by irate fans unhappy with his observations. It could be this demotion to streaming is a prelude to getting him off the Sunday show.
Mitchell is the Energizer bunny of NBC. At 75 years old she seems a lot younger. But also no one can remember a time she wasn’t with the network. She has been the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News since November 1994. Before that, she had served as Chief White House Correspondent (1993–1994) and Chief Congressional Correspondent (1988–1992) for NBC News.
But MSNBC is mixing things up. Biden press secretary Jen Psaki is rumored to be taking over for Rachel Maddow at 9pm. Chris Jansing, a seasoned vet of 20 years, will take over Todd’s show for the time being. (She’s my age– I approve!) More changes are coming. If Mitchell’s MSNBC show is scuttled, it would be great to see more of her on Lester Holt’s nightly news.
Last night’s ratings were a boon for “Law & Order SVU” even as showrunner and exec producer Warren Leight announced his exit.
The episode scored 4.9 million viewers, making it among the top 3 standalone episodes of the entire 2021-22 season.
On top of that, “SVU” had 1 million more viewers than “Grey’s Anatomy” on NBC at the same time. With CBS sitcoms in reruns, “SVU” was the highest rated network show by far.
So why is Leight leaving? Good question. None of this makes sense.
And why is “Grey’s” doing so badly? Has the audience finally tired of the same old stuff and the killing off of fan favorites? Last night’s show wasn’t their worst rated of the season, but close to it. The trend is down, down, down. They’ve lost around 800,000 viewers this season.
Leight created an online community of fans for “SVU.” These fans are really dedicated to the show, and know everything. It’s kind of amazing that “SVU” has maintained and increased its viewership apart from the Benson-Stabler soap opera (of which I disapprove). On its own, without Chris Meloni’s DisOrganized Crime, “SVU” rocks.
Last night’s previews for “Doctor Strange and the Madness of the Multiverse” were off the hook, baby!
The Marvel Benedict Cumberbatch sequel took in a whopping $36 million on Thursday night.
Why is it such a big deal? The first “Doctor Strange” movie released in 2016 did $9 million on preview night. The next night. Friday, was $32.5 million and that was its biggest night of the opening weekend.
So look for ol’ Doc Strange to rake in a fortune this weekend and break records.
Meantime, Thursday night’s box office had some weird stuff. That Celine Dion movie in French from Roadkill Attractions, “Aline,” made just $14 last night. “Father Stu” and the Nick Cage movie didn’t do much.
Pamela Anderson in “Chicago” got a lot of press for a few minutes. Adding the sexy siren to Broadway’s longest running show seemed like good stunt casting. After all, many Big Names have danced their way through Bob Fosse’s great production in the past.
But Pam is neither a singer nor dancer and barely an actor. So her draw was limited to curiosity if she’d make it through a whole performance. Her debut was back on April 11th.
Initially, box office receipts spiked. The number jumped from $543K to $829K. That brought “Chicago” Christmas week numbers. But last week, two weeks into Pam’s eight week run, “Chicago” fell back to Earth at $585,000. Lack of international tourists thanks to COVID is still affecting ticket sales. “Chicago” was always a must-see for visitors from faraway places like Japan, and Mars.
So now what? Short of bringing in Tommy Lee or Kid Rock, her ex-husbands, as Billy Flynn, the producers now turn to beloved “Dreamgirls” star Jennifer Holliday to play Mama Morton beginning June 9th — or when Anderson leave. They can’t afford two marquee names at the same time. Will this work? Or is it time to let “Chicago” take a rest. It opened on November 14, 1996 after two weeks of previews.
