Bruce Willis’s family has done the wise thing and admitted the truth. They say Bruce has recently been diagnosed with aphasia and will retire from acting. I am so glad they’ve finally done this.

Willis has had cognitive issues for years. He was making god awful D films, ruining his legacy in the process and possibly not understanding that at the same time. Willis recently was given a whole category at the Razzies for eight bad performances. It was embarrassing.

So this had to stop. The Razzies, possibly coupled with the advancing nature of Bruce’s condition, finally made the family come to this decision. What’s great is that Demi Moore, Bruce’s ex wife and mother of his three eldest daughters, has been so involved. The family has really pulled together.

The trouble began a few years ago when he suddenly had to be replaced in the 2015 Woody Allen movie “Cafe Society” by Steve Carell. At the same time, Bruce was on Broadway in “Misery,” reading his lines off cue cards or having them fed into his ear by an off stage helper.

read more about Bruce Willis’s retirement here

On the all these crappy movies of the last two or three years, it was the same thing. He appeared in one or two scenes and robotically read lines that were mouthed to him.

Now Bruce’s family has posted this message to Instagram, and it’s about time.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.
This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.
As Bruce always says, “Live it up” and together we plan to do just that.
Love,
Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, & Evelyn”

And now that the truth is out, we will probably start hearing from Bruce’s wife, Emma, who’s very active on social media and has a cosmetics line. Without further humiliating Bruce, now Emma can tell the truth openly and help other people who are dealing with cognitive issues, whether it’s aphasia or dementia, etc.

And at least those horrible movies will come to an end. Hopefully they’ll be erased from existence, and Bruce will be remembered for “Moonlighting,” “Die Hard,” “The Sixth Sense,” and other good projects.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

Oscar winner “CODA” is finally ready for its close up.

Apple will release the Sian Heder film to 600 theaters, with closed captions. “CODA” is the winner of Best Picture, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

It’s a gingerly release, a little small, but it’s something. We’ll see what the response is. Few people have seen “CODA” on a big screen, making it a first in Oscar history. It was released last summer briefly and made just $1 million. But theaters weren’t really open, the pandemic was still a very big issue, and so on.

When “CODA” first started playing on Apple TV, and through the fall as the Oscar season began, I wrote here several times that there was no campaign for it, no one knew what was going on, and that this lovely little movie that we had all enjoyed at virtual Sundance in 2021 wasn’t in competition with other Oscar movies.

Indeed, there was little attention paid to it through the winter. If the Oscars had been given on February 27th and not March 27th— the way things were before the pandemic — I think “Belfast” might have won Best Picture. But with the extra month, idol minds are the devil’s workshop. The voters become bored with the frontrunners and start looking around for something new. “CODA” was perfect because everyone who saw it loved it, and there hadn’t been too much emphasis on it other than Troy Kotsur for supporting actor. That it won is kind of serendipity and magic.

The ratings for Sunday’s Oscars telecast were higher than thought.

The total viewers came to almost 17 million, up from 10 million in 2021. It’s still the second lowest rated Oscars of all time, but a clear improvement from last year.

Is your cup half empty or half full?

Even with movies that didn’t have big box office, a Best Picture that didn’t play in theaters, and a show longer than ever, the numbers are up considerably.

Factor in that once Will Smith snapped, lost his mind, and ran onto the stage to punch Chris Rock, word spread quickly on the internet. Traffic on this site rose so fast that we were knocked off our server for around 15 minutes! People tuned in for that last 40 minutes, which added to the numbers.

Some things didn’t work but others did. The three hosts — Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall — were very good, and so were the musical numbers. Amy as Spider Man was hilarious. What didn’t work were the In Memoriam, and the James Bond tribute. The latter was rather a disaster considering ex-Bond Timothy Dalton lives in LA, and Dame Judi Dench flew in from the UK. Neither was involved, nor was faux Bond George Lazenby.

But if the Oscars were up in audience with movies like “Belfast” and “CODA” imagine what they could be with films that have bigger fan bases. There’s always next year…