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UPDATE 3PM: Brandon Blackstock has died after a 3 year battle with cancer. Condolences to his family.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” the family said in a statement. “Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years. He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
EARLIER: Kelly Clarkson has canceled the rest of her shows in Las Vegas.
The reason she says is that her ex-husband is so ill that she needs to be with her children.
I’m told by an insider that 48 year old Brendon Blackstock is “really, really bad.”
That’s an amazing turn of events in the Clarkson-Blackstock story.
Their divorce after a decade was brutal and went on and on. According to reports, Blackstone “retained the couple’s highly contested Montana ranch in the settlement, as well as ownership of the family pets, several cars, including a Ford Bronco, a Ford F-250, and a Porsche Cayenne. She was also ordered to pay Blackstock $1.3 million and contribute $45,000 per month in child support for their two children. Additionally, Blackstock was granted $115,000 per month in spousal support, set to conclude in January 2024.”
Even after the divorce was setttled, and Blackstock walked away with quite a bit of Clarkson’s fortune, he wound up in hot water. As Clarkson’s former manager, Blackstock was found guilty of improper management and ordered him to reimburse his ex-wife $2,641,374 for past commissions.
But whatever is going sounds pretty dire. Clarkson was mysteriously absent from her show in April, turning it over to guest hosts. The word then was that Blackstock’s illness was the cause.
Now my source tells me that Blackstock’s father, Narvel, is also on high alert.
They say: “I just know that even Narvel is involved as it is not good!”
The former couple share a daughter, River Rose, 10, and son, Remington Alexander, 9.
Clarkson is set to return to her talk show in late September.
Something is very wrong with Kelly Clarkson’s ex husband.
Clarkson has suddenly canceled the rest of her Las Vegas shows, saying her “children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them.”
Blackstock, 48, was married to Clarkson from 2013 to 2022. He was also her manager. During that time, he was rotten at both jobs. The couple wound up in a brutal divorce that included many lawsuits.
Clarkson has been saying odd things all spring and summer about her life, and career. She’s indicated she might leave her syndicated talk show. The Vegas show’s opening was postponed recently. Obviously, something’s been going in with Blackstock and her children — Savannah and Seth — need her attention support.
The new season of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” should return at the end of September.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is brutally parodied in the latest episode of South Park.
Her face falls off constantly from melting Botox. She arrests angels in heaven wearing halos and wings.
ICE is the big joke in this episode as Mr. Mackey from the school loses his job as a guidance counselor (fired by the new Power Christian Principal) and is forced to join ICE. He becomes so good at taking down brown people that Donald Trump offers him Noem’s job.
The episode is called “Got a Nut,” which is a double entendre for the amount of money needed to live every month, and the people running the country.
Meanwhile, Mar-a-lago is depicted as a swingers club where Trump, dressed in white as Mr. Roarke from “Fantasy Island” and JD Vance as Tattoo, show him to Satan’s room where very bad sexual things are going on.
There’s an implication that one of the kids, now at Mar-a-Lago, has been used sexually.
The kid, who’s become the Joe Rogan of the school, is railing against Jews and women on the school sound system.
Meantime, Kristi Noem is shooting dogs dead willy nilly including Krypto from “Superman.”
Episode 2, Season 2 picks up where episode 1 left off, viciously lampooning Trump and all his lackeys and crazy ideas. Trey Parker and Matt Stone make sure nothing is left untouched as ICE is clearly a band of racist thugs working their way through a live performance of “Dora the Explorer,” arresting all the parents in the audience.
Of course, this is all on Comedy Central, part of Paramount Plus, now under ownership that can’t censor “South Park” under their new $1.5 billion deal. It’s mockery of the highest order as little Stan becomes a “master debater” who ultimately takes on professional conservative loon Charlie Kirk.
Watching Noem’s plastic face constantly melt off of her, and roam around on its own, is the best payoff mid week as Washington continues to be in throes of chaos. Bravo!
“Cold Storage,” a sci fi horror comedy thriller, has gotten a distributor in Samuel Goldwyn Company.
Probably help in security distribution is the appearance of Liam Neeson, now a comedy star from “Naked Gun.”
It looks like Liam got his mother-in-law, Oscar winner (and four time nominee) Vanessa Redgrave, to do a cameo. This may be her final film, which is ironic since she’s one of the greatest actresses of all time. Could it all end with this?’
The movie also stars Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Sosie Bacon (Smile), with Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread). Redgrave’s sole credit in the press release is “Mission Impossible,” maybe the funniest thing ever. Not sure if they know who she is.
Disney will release the original filmed version of the musical on September 5th to theaters.
This is the version that was shown on Disney Plus.
They’re adding a bunch of extras including material from tonight’s 10th anniversary reunion show on Broadway. (It’s a fundraiser for immigration services via the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition.
There will also be “Reuniting the Revolution,” an exclusive special prologue to the film featuring all-new interviews with the original cast and creators as they reflect on the impact the show has had on their lives.
Then Leslie Odom, Jr., Tony winner from the original show, goes back into the Broadway production this fall.
There will be a special screening of the “Hamilton” movie at the Public’s Delacorte Theater on September 3rd. For a tidy sum, someone will be allowed to see it. Says the PR: “We will have a limited number of advance tickets available for reserve with a donation, but we will also have a free ticket lottery at The Public and free standby ticket line at The Delacorte.”
“Hamilton” is still booming on Broadway, bringing in $2.2 million last week.
I know you’re dying to read a memoir by Cheryl Hines.
The former “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress is publishing one with second rate Skyhorse Publishing in November. They just sent me a picture of the cover. It’s a photo of Cheryl. Surprise.
Yesterday, Hines’s husband, lunatic quack Robert Kennedy, Jr., the Health Secretary for Trump, cancelled all research for MrNA and COVID vaccines. It’s all gone. Kennedy has gutted scientific research on dozens of fronts, determined to kill as much of the population as possible.
Hines has backed him all the way. When it was revealed that Kennedy had had some kind of affair with a new York magazine writer last year, it was assumed Hines would leave him. She didn’t. She stood by her man. That pretty much ended any hope she would wake up from her cult like trance.
Will Cheryl discuss her affair with Kennedy while his wife hanged herself in the barn? Doubtful. Or his sex diary that was published in the NY Post? Unlikely. Or his long running affair with a TV actress during that second marriage? Negativo.
Cheryl Hines “Unscripted” is selling for $32.99 on amazon. It’s currently around number 42,500. If you have $33 bucks to spend on this self admiring fiction, then stop complaining about the prices of steaks and peaches. What a crock.
PS I don’t see a “special introduction” from Larry David.
Yesterday, the Daily Mail and the UK Sun started a rumor that Stern and Sirius were falling out over ratings and money. They said Stern’s show was over as Sirius didn’t want to spent dough on him anymore.
My very good source at Sirius says, “That’s BS.”
Indeed, it is. Howard is the face of Sirius. He also has a huge social media presence.
No one at Sirius is unhappy with his political take, either. Both of the UK papers claimed that Stern would go the way of Stephen Colbert. This could not be more absurd. Colbert’s show ended because of the Paramount merger with Skydance and the interference of Donald Trump in getting that done.
Howard Stern takes up a lot of real estate on Sirius XM. Removing him from the mix would send Sirius into a freefall, which no one wants. (I can’t live without their music stations like Soul Town and Underground Garage, and Carol Miller.)
But what a lot of lemmings are all the “entertainment press” and tabloids. Not a single person in those articles was quoted by name, and neither Sirius nor Howard made a comment. The internet has really become a crazy person yelling “fire!” in a theater.
PS Don’t you think if Howard left Sirius, YouTube or Twitter X or Spotify would be all over him in two seconds?
Only July 11, Justin Bieber dropped his “Swag” album. It’s since gone on to sell about 300,000 albums, a very poor showing.
No real hit came from “Swag” except for “Daisies,” a modest chart entry.
Now, with sales mostly stagnant, Bieber has thrown out a Hail Mary pass. He’s made a video for a “song” called “Yukon,” showing off his 11 month old baby.
That’s the PR hook.
“Yukon” is something you don’t want to hear on the radio. It’s the sound a Alvin the Chipmunk voice singing over a plucking guitar. It might be the most annoying recording of this century.
The new video is popular — 1.9 million views plus almost 4 million for the original lyric video.
But no one is downloading “Yukon.” It’s number 56 on iTunes and has about 57 million streams on Spotify.
Also on YouTube is a version of Bieber singing the song normally, which has just 5,600 views. That version is at least tolerable.
Meanwhile, since Bieber posted pictures of himself shooting an Attack Rifle at a range, he’s amped up his Instagram posts with a flurry of pictures.
There’s no sense here of a marketing campaign. Just throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.
Interesting note: no matter how ludicrous the posts, Bieber’s hardcore fans love it. He can be stoned, shirtless, doing meaningless things, and comments below the posts congratulate him. It’s a weird take on social studies.
Saturday night, the word from LA was the sensational “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl. Everyone is still talking about Cynthia Erivo, Adam Lambert, and co rocking the house.
The East Coast was not to be outdone. We had jazz great Norah Jones outdoors in Montauk raising money for the south fork’s famous, historic light house.
The crowd was massive, drawing attention away from all other shenanigans in the Hamptons. Only in Montauk, kids, do you see a superstar performing up close.
Opening act was comedian, writer, and local Seth Herzog, who has a long resume that includes being the audience warm up comedian for “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”
Herzog was pleased to be invited to a venue that met all of his criteria: one bathroom for hundreds, and a diverse crowd. He got to test his material on a sea of well groomed people now filling in the beach chairs perched on a slope beside the legendary lighthouse.
The part time Upper Westsider also wanted everyone to picture his NYC neighborhood: Bernie Sanders multiplied exponentially. Herzog nailed it, describing store signs in Montauk: the Fudge Shop, Sloppy Tuna—all you needed was to evoke sex, he nodded to the 110 foot phallus standing over the charity event.
And then there was Norah Jones, multiple Grammy winner, daughter of the late great Ravi Shankar.
Jones, in a green jacket, sequined tiger on her back, over dress and silver high heels, took the stage singing her signature “What Am I to You?” Accompanied by a first-rate band she introduced songs from her 2024 Grammy winning album, “Visions.” This being the very tip of Long Island, surrounded by ocean, she sang from “Queen of the Sea: “I Just Want to Dance,” slow moving and sexy, “Sunrise, Sunlight, ooh, ooh, ooh,” and “Come Away with Me.” At times on keyboards, and then on guitar, she’s a virtuoso musician, jazzy, and with Sasha Dobson providing additional vocals and guitar, the pair resonated girl power.
Dedicating her last bit to the ones leaving — there’s only one road in out of Montauk, one road baby –she sang Tom Waits’ “Long Way Home,” and saved one surprise for last: “Don’t Know Why,” complete with a shout out to Jesse Harris, its composer who waved to the crowd. The one road baby was a conga line of Norah Jones fans leading out of Montauk, or to the afterparty at Sole East.
