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The reviews for Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall” are coming in now, and they are not pretty.
I wasn’t able to make last night’s all media press screening, but sources from both coasts mentioned the phrase “one of the worst movies ever made” several times.
On Rotten Tomatoes, things are shaping up the same way. Even the two reviewers who labeled it “fresh” went on to mock the movie. With 8 reviews, the current rating is 25%.
“Moonfall” cost at least $150 million for Emmerich, his producers, and Lions Gate. It stars Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, and Michael Pena. Wilson and Pena are nice guys, but not exactly box office draws. Berry is an Oscar winner, but this is not her finest moment, I am told. The thinking is she needed a payday movie to underwrite her indie film, “Bruised.” No one can blame her.
Emmerich is famous for making big budget disasters. He made one great movie, “Independence Day,” back in 1996. It was well reviewed and incredibly popular. I loved it. Who didn’t? But that seemed to give him clearance to make terrible, big budget critical flops one after another. His trash heap includes the highly laughable “The Day After Tomorrow,” “2012,” and “Stonewall” (a movie I actually don’t even remember).
Who knows? “Moonfall” could turn out to be a surprise hit. But with COVID still hanging around, and a gigantic winter storm coming through for Thursday night and Friday, disaster looms large.
Not a surprise, but “Yellowstone” will get a fifth season.
The ratings giant has been renewed by Paramount TV just in time. Star Kevin Costner just announced he’s shooting a movie called “Horizon” beginning in late August. This is Costner’s big comeback as a film director and movie star, and he’s basing it on the popularity of “Yellowstone.”
Pre-production on “Horizon” will in full sway when “Yellowstone” starts shooting again. The TV series will have to be right on time to make Costner’s “Horizon” start date. Right now “Horizon” is listed as independent film. But it wouldn’t be a shock if Paramount got involved.
For season 5, guest stars Jen Landon and Kathryn Kelly have been upped to regular status. Landon is the daughter of late great “Bonanza” actor Michael Landon. She was a big hit in her late teens on “As the World Turns,” so it’s a nice moment for her to be be on unarguably TV’s biggest series.
BAFTA is the Britsh equivalent of the Oscars. This year, because there were so many schedule changes, the BAFTAs will air in the UK hours before the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles. The BAFTAs are less a predictor than the CCAs but they’re still fun.
The BAFTAs snubbed Steven Spielberg for his “West Side Story” remake, stunningly. No Best Picture or Director or even Adapted Screenplay for Tony Kushner.
In acting categories, the BAFTAs went local on several films not playing in the US or part of our Oscar mix. Nicole Kidman, for example, was overlooked. But so was UK fave Olivia Colman for “The Lost Daughter.” Her people let her down!
Below are the Long Lists, with x’s next to the final nominees.
BEST FILM
Being The Ricardos xBelfast
CODA xDon’t Look Up
xDune
House of Gucci
King Richard xLicorice Pizza
No Time To Die
The French Dispatch
The Lost Daughter xThe Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
tick tick…BOOM!
West Side Story
LEADING ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman The Lost Daughter xLady Gaga House of Gucci
xAlana Haim Licorice Pizza
Jennifer Hudson Respect xEmilia Jones CODA
Nicole Kidman Being The Ricardos
Jennifer Lawrence Don’t Look Up
Frances McDormand The Tragedy of Macbeth xRenate Reinsve The Worst Person in the World
Claire Rushbrook Ali & Ava xJoanna Scanlan After Love
Kristen Stewart Spencer xTessa Thompson Passing
Rachel Zegler West Side Story
LEADING ACTOR
Riz Ahmed Encounter xAdeel Akhtar Ali & Ava
xMahershala Ali Swan Song
Javier Bardem Being The Ricardos
Daniel Craig No Time To Die xBenedict Cumberbatch The Power of the Dog
xLeonardo DiCaprio Don’t Look Up
Peter Dinklage Cyrano
Adam Driver House of Gucci
Andrew Garfield tick tick…BOOM! xStephen Graham Boiling Point
Cooper Hoffman Licorice Pizza
Joaquin Phoenix C’mon C’mon xWill Smith King Richard
Denzel Washington The Tragedy of Macbeth
SUPPORTING ACTRESS xCaitríona Balfe Belfast
Cate Blanchett Don’t Look Up xJessie Buckley The Lost Daughter
Ana de Armas No Time To Die xAriana DeBose West Side Story
xAnn Dowd Mass
Judi Dench Belfast
Kirsten Dunst The Power of the Dog xAunjanue Ellis King Richard
Kathryn Hunter The Tragedy of Macbeth
Rita Moreno West Side Story xRuth Negga Passing
Vinette Robinson Boiling Point
Meryl Streep Don’t Look Up
Anya Taylor-Joy Last Night in Soho
SUPPORTING ACTOR
David Alvarez West Side Story
Bradley Cooper Licorice Pizza
Benicio del Toro The French Dispatch
Jamie Dornan Belfast xCiarán Hinds Belfast
xMike Faist West Side Story
Andrew Garfield The Eyes of Tammy Faye xTroy Kotsur CODA
Jared Leto House of Gucci
xWoody Norman C’mon C’mon
Al Pacino House of Gucci
xJesse Plemons The Power of the Dog
Mark Rylance Don’t Look Up
J.K. Simmons Being The Ricardos xKodi Smit-McPhee The Power of the Dog
DIRECTOR
xAfter Love
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up xDrive My Car
Dune
First Cow
The Hand of God xHappening
King Richard
xLicorice Pizza
The Lost Daughter
Passing
Petite Maman
xThe Power of the Dog
The Souvenir Part II
The Tragedy of Macbeth xTitane
West Side Story
Zola
FILM NOT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
A Hero
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Compartment No. 6 Drive My Car
Flee The Hand of God
I’m Your Man
Lamb
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World Parallel Mothers
Paris, 13th District Petite Maman
Riders of Justice
Titane The Worst Person in the World
If you were around in 1973-74 the only comic relief in the unfolding Watergate drama was Martha Mitchell. The wife of extremely guilty Secretary of State John Mitchell could not stop herself from picking up the phone and calling the press. We didn’t know back then how this was all going to work out. Woodward and Bernstein get all the credit for bringing down Richard Nixon. But Martha Mitchell’s continuous squawking really helped enormously.
In this teaser from “Gaslit,” Julia Robert looks and sounds sensational as Martha. Sean Penn is John Mitchell, a reprehensible character. I’m looking forward to seeing this. A little surprised that two big movie stars wound up on the Starz Channel, but every dog has its day I suppose. Robbie Pickering, of “Mr. Robot” fame, created this series. It begins on April 24th.
Broadway is not the same these days. You can’t go backstage after a premiere, and there are no parties. It’s all COVID related.
In the case of “MJ The Michael Jackson Musical,” they have to protect the cast. When Omicron swept through in December, “MJ” missed holiday performances.
But last night — postponed from July 2020– the show finally opened. And a lot of interesting people turned up.
Primary among them were Michael’s eldest children, Prince and Paris. (I didn’t see Blanket aka Bigi, I’m not sure he was there.)
The Jackson Estate was there in full force, starting with John Branca and Karen Langford. They worked hard to make this happen. If I think back to the early and 2000s, this has been a long road for them.
Sony Music was well represented by Rob Stringer, the head of Sony Music, and Sylvia Rhone, president of Michael’s label, Epic. Doug Morris, formerly the head of Sony Music, and now a key investor/producer of “MJ,” was on hand as well.
Celebrity wise, the great Brenda Vaccaro was sitting next us in a beautiful, luxurious shawl/cape, loving the show. Tamron Hall was in the house, so was Fox5’s Rosanna Scotto and Rev. Sharpton. I also ran into James Bond impresaria Barbara Broccoli, who’ll be very happy Thursday morning when “No Time to Die” garners some BAFTA nominations.
Come to Broadway! Wear a mask! Bring your vaccine card! And see these shows, from “MJ” to “Company” to the forthcoming “The Hangmen,” a play I’ve been waiting for for three years!
Bill Geddie was the original producer of “The View.” He was there for 17 years. Now he’s weighing on Whoopi Goldberg’s situation. She was suspended by ABC for two weeks after insisting the Holocaust wasn’t about race. Whoopi refused to apologize when literally everyone complained. On “Colbert,” on Twitter, on “The View” on Tuesday she just kept doubling down on her position while at the same time saying she appreciated hearing all sides, including the Anti-Defamation League. What was she thinking? This is unlike her. Whoopi is not anti-Semite. But she seems to have gotten caught up in her own rhetoric and won’t let go of it.
I met Bill Geddie many times. He was a straight shooter. This is what he said today on Facebook.
Then Graham Nash joined in. David Crosby was in sympathy with them.
But now Stephen Stills has jumped on the bandwagon and they ALL want ALL their music taken off Spotify. They’re supporting Neil Young, who started this whole thing, Joni Mitchell followed, with Nils Lofgren, India Arie agreeing too.
On Crosby’s Twitter feed, he posted their shared statement. Hey, the result may be a detente and reunion for this supergroup. They’re finally on the same page.
Now I’m waiting for some others of their ilk to chime in, like Jackson Browne. No pressure, but it would be something if Browne or Bonnie Raitt or Don Henley lined up with this cause.
Listen, there’s no one from the milk man in East Hampton to the janitors at CNN’s various headquarters who is “stunned” that Jeff Zucker was having an affair.
The CNN chief’s relationship with his publicist, Allison Gollust, is about a decade old. That’s how long I feel like I’ve been hearing about it.
Sources have been talking about Zucker and Gollust since they were at NBC together. In January 2013, Zucker came over to CNN from NBC. A short time later, Gollust joined him as head of PR. In September of that year, she was promoted to Chief Media Officer.
Do the math.
In 2018, Zucker and his wife Caryn, officially threw in the towel on their marriage of 21 years that produced four kids. But the Zucker divorce was messy and loud in the Hamptons. Even the Jack Russell terriers were barking about it.
So when Radaronline.com ran a story back on January 4th about Zucker and Gollust I was surprised. It seemed like old news to a lot of us. But the Radar story coming in this #metoo environment, on top of all the other big shot execs who’ve been toppled by various scandals, the time was ripe. Plus, the pair has built up a fairly good sized troop of enemies. That’s the formula for disaster.
Katie Couric wrote all about Zucker and Gollust in her recent memoir. It was right there in the open but no one wanted to deal with it. When Zucker set up Couric’s talk show at ABC, Couric recalls in “Going There”:
At a certain point Jeff made a huge push to bring on Allison Gollust. When we worked together at NBC, she and Jeff cooked up ever bolder ways to draw attention to TODAY and later to Jeff himself when he moved to Entertainment. They were joined at the hip. The problem was, we’d already hired a PR person for the show. There really wasn’t a role for Allison. Jeff asked me to meet with her anyway. One weekend when I was out in the Hamptons, I went over to her house and told her what I’d already told Jeff— that we had the communications piece of it covered and there just wasn’t a job there. What we needed were talented producers. ABC was paying Jeff and me a ton of money; I was also an EP of the show, and my name was on it. I felt a certain responsibility to spend the money wisely and have some real agency in the decision-making. I had to wonder why Jeff was angling so hard to bring Allison on board. She and her husband and kids had moved into the apartment right above Jeff and Caryn’s— everyone who heard about the cozy arrangement thought it was super-strange. By that point, Caryn had become a close friend and it made me really uncomfortable. “I don’t want to force myself on you,” Allison said reasonably that day in the Hamptons. She seemed disappointed, but that was the end of it.
(Sort of. Not really.)
So keep in mind, CNN has known about all this for NINE years. There are no surprises.
The list of nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of ’22 include many who’ve been overlooked in the past.
That list starts with Carly Simon, who should’ve been in a long time ago. Simon is one of the holy trinity of female superstar singer songwriters that also includes Joni Mitchell and Carole King. Carly’s hits include “You’re So Vain,” “Nobody Does it Better,” and “Coming Around Again.” She won an Oscar for “Let the River Run” from “Working Girl.” It’s absolutely ridiculous that such an influential and successful performer isn’t in the Rock Hall. Let’s hope this year changes that.
New to the nominees list is Eminem. He’ll likely get in on the first ballot.
The Eurythmics are on the list. Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart should be a no brainer. Also up from this era, Duran Duran. It’s going to one or the other. I say Eurythmics.
Pop superstar Lionel Richie, who has nothing to do with rock and roll, may also enjoy an easy time of it. He’s very popular and has lots of hits. But rock? Doesn’t matter.
Pat Benatar, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, the MC5, and the New York Dolls have all been on the list in the past but didn’t make it. Benatar is actually a rock act. Dionne is pop R&B and has influenced so many singers and performers. Dolly is beloved but she is country.
UK performer Kate Bush, devoid of US hits, is a dark horse candidate. Others on the list include Fela Kuti, Rage Against the Machine, Devo, Beck, A Tribe Called Quest, Judas Priest.
The final list of nominees comes in May. Here’s one of my Carly faves. She set the standard for cool, ironic lyrics.
