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Is There Still Sex in the City? No, and Candace Bushnell Closes One Woman Show Thanks to COVID

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Is there still Sex in the City?

The quick answer is No. Candace Bushnell, who wrote the New York Observer columns that formed the basis of the HBO hit, has COVID. She’s cancelled the rest of her run in a one woman show down at the Daryl Roth Theater.

Candace’s show, “Is There Still Sex in the City?” got positive reviews and good audiences before the ‘Cron came to town. But now it’s wrapped up for good like a lot of New York theater.

“Sex and the City” related projects and people are not faring well during this pandemic. The revived HBO show is a mess, people don’t like it, they killed off Chris Noth and then it turned out they really killed him off. Plus Willie Garson died while it was being filmed. And…they didn’t even bother using the trademark theme music.

And, of course, Kim Cattrall aka Samantha.

So all in all, not  good winter for “SATC.” Maybe it’s time for everyone to move on.

COVID Scuttles Critics Choice Awards After Taking Governors Awards and New York Film Critics

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Now the Critics Choice Awards are scuttled because of COVID.  Here’s the announcement:

“After thoughtful consideration and candid conversations with our partners at The CW and TBS, we have collectively come to the conclusion that the prudent and responsible decision at this point is to postpone the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards, originally slated for January 9, 2022.   We are in regular communication with LA County Public Health officials, and we are currently working diligently to find a new date during the upcoming awards season in which to host our annual gala in-person with everyone’s safety and health remaining our top priority.  We will be sharing additional   details with our friends and colleagues throughout the entertainment industry as soon as we can.”

 

Editor’s Note: I am sick of COVID and the Cron. If you’re not vaccinated or boosted, do it now. Or do not expect to be accepted into society.

Adele “One Night Only” Loses 9 Million Viewers 2nd Time Around, Beaten by “Bachelorette”

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Wasn’t it only a month ago that the Oprah/Adele special, “One Night Only,” was the hot ratings story? It scored 11 million viewers and was the talk of the town.

So CBS thought they’d trot it out again last night. Unfortunately, the novelty has worn off “One Night Only,” which was goor for exactly that length of time.

Adele drew just 2.1 million viewers last night in her rerun. Even Adele herself was probably watching “The Bachelorette” season finale which ended with a happy couple for a change. The ABC block averaged around 3.3 million. Adele also skewed very old compared to the high number of women 18-49 who watched “The Bachelorette.”

Even with all that female excitement, “FBI” on CBS and football elsewhere scored much higher numbers than either of those other shows. Football rules this season despite Colin Kaepernick having been left out on a ledge by himself. And “FBI” was a rerun! Only half the viewers who watched FBI stuck around for Adele.

 

Motion Picture Academy Cancels January 15th Governors Awards, Critics Choice Looks Imperiled

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The Motion Picture Academy has canceled their big January 15th event for the Governors Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza. The reason is the rapid spread of COVID and Omicron cases in Los Angeles, and everywhere else. It’s simply not safe.

The Academy spokesperson: “We have made the difficult decision to change our plans in hosting the Governors Awards in person on January 15. Given the uncertainties around the variants, and the impact this could have on our community, we feel this is the best and safest decision for our honorees and guests. Rescheduled plans will come at a later date as we continue to prioritize the health and wellbeing of all those involved.”

So that’s it, and now the January 9th Critics Choice Awards also at the same hotel look imperiled, even though the group said yesterday they were going forward.

Frankly, January looks like a wash in LA and NY at least the first three weeks.

Samuel L. Jackson, Liv Ullmann and Elaine May are to receive Governor’s Awards. Danny Glover is also set to be the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. But now they will all have to wait, maybe until the actual Academy Awards on March 27th.

James Franco Admits in New Radio Interview “I Did Sleep with Students” in Acting Classes He Taught

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James Franco is a sociopath. That’s the main takeaway from the interviews Jess Cagle has posted with Franco from Sirius XM and ET Canada. I’ve put most of them here. But the main one is the one below in which Franco admits to sleeping with students in the acting classes he taught.

For most of these interviews, Franco basically gives monologue type speeches. He admits to being a sex and drug addict, and just talks and talks and talks. He has no awareness of his own mania, or if he does he kind of delights in it.

I can’t listen to all of this. It’s too much, and his voice is like a drill. Suffice to say, if he thinks this will solve the problems of his recently settled $2 million lawsuit with victims of sexual harassment or the lingering bad feeling among actors and students he worked with, he’s wrong.

I was friendly with Franco during his rise from minor Spider Man actor to multi hyphenate actor-director-producer-writer, grad student in four schools including Yale, self-published author.novelist, short story writer, and Oscar host. I watched as he flew higher and higher toward th sun at breakneck speed and then completely and fatally collapsed. It wasn’t pretty.

Please remember when you watch these videos that Franco is a very good actor. He has the gift of gab and he can be very convincing. He’s a persuasive con man. But I found all these interviews– Cagle did a great job– sad and pathetic and disturbing. I’m not sympathetic. I doubt anyone will be.

Start here:

Exclusive: Selena Gomez’s Mabel May Be Mixing It Up On “Only Murders” with Cara Delevingne Romantically

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We all know Mabel on “Only Murders in the Building” is willing to do anything to solve a crime. But on season 2, Mabel may be getting very fluid in the name of justice.

Sources tell us that the introduction of a new character played by Cara Delevingne could throw a wrench in the romance between Mabel, played by Selena Gomez, and Oscar (Aaron Dominguez). A close relationship is said to develop between Mabel and Cara’s character, Alice, an art dealer living in the building where Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short solved their season 1 mystery.

Some who’ve seen “sides” for season 2 indicate that Gomez, who won accolades as the no nonsense Mabel, and Alice will be locking lips in at least one scene, maybe more, “I’m told it’s a relationship,” says a source, which wouldn’t be great for Aaron. In real life, Gomez and Delevingne are pals, and were recently photographed together at a Knicks game having a lot of fun. They were probably just rehearsing their scenes.

Delevingne is the perfect choice for Alice. She leads a bold life in the real world. She dates in all categories, genders, and genres. She’s what they call these days pan-sexual, which is hotter even than oven-sexual! Let’s just hope Alice lives through the whole series!

 

Review: Japan’s “Drive My Car” Is Winning All the Critics Prizes for a Reason, It’s the Only Contemporary Drama

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Life moves slowly. Loss. Grief. So much happens in Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s “Drive My Car,” Japan’s entry for the Best International Film Academy Award, it is amazing that the movie is only close to three hours long.

That “Drive My Car” has been named Best Film by the venerable NY and LA Film Critics can make you think, “Parasite all over again.” But that Best Picture Oscar winner from Korea is action-packed, a satiric bloody nightmare romp, while the longueurs of “Drive My Car” drive home deeper, more difficult truths, and how we process them.

An acclaimed theater director named Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) loses his beautiful wife after witnessing her having sex with a younger man in their apartment. (No one kills her, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage). Two years into his grief, he takes a job in far off Hiroshima directing “Uncle Vanya,” the script for which becomes a leitmotif woven into his own parallel experience. The theater company assigns him a driver, a dour young woman (Tôko Miura) from a remote mountain town Hokkaido. She chauffeurs him around in his red Saab, her face expressing oceans of sadness.

Producing Chekhov in Japan may represent one aspect of multi-culturalism, but the players speak many languages, including sign. And perhaps most poignantly, it takes more than translation to make inner lives connect. “Drive My Car” unfurls slowly and deliberately, as these two are not in a rom-com. And Kafuku’s history with the dead wife, and her young lover, become their own Chekhovian soap opera that must be sorted out painstakingly.

With Oscars looming, “Drive My Car” makes sense, filling a void as the only contemporary drama on spectrum of otherwise compelling 2021 films. “Belfast” and “West Side Story” have been lauded, but like almost everything else they are stories set in the past. This includes  Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, and Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, The only other film set in our time is Adam McKay’s jokey “Don’t Look Up.”  Maybe this is why Hamaguchi’s epic has resonated so strongly with critics. Its messages are immediate and eternal.

Steady “Spider Man” Flies to $328 Million on 6th Day of Release With No End in Sight

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Spider Man, Spider Man, does whatever a spider can.

Actually, thank God spiders can’t really do what Peter Parker can nowadays. Otherwise, the world might be a very different place…

Anyway. “No Way Home” added $31 million last night, crossed the $300 million mark to $328 million on its sixth day of release.

With just a 15% drop from Monday there is no end in sight. Sony-Columbia is flirting with $400 million by or on Friday. Right now, the worldwide total is just about $700 million. Most other movies are cursed by COVID and not doing well. “West Side Story,” which should be a blockbuster, is struggling toward $20 million. Shameful.

With business booming for Spidey, we can only imagine the pay days for Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Let’s hope they had escalator clauses…

Broadway COVID Emergency: Actor Knocked Out by Virus, Playwright Steps in and Takes Over Role

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What to do when COVID comes for a Broadway cast right before it’s curtain up?

Last night on Broadway the new, highly praised play “Thoughts of a Colored Man” the show had to go on: the audience got a surprise when Keenan Scott, the playwright, appeared on stage in place of the leading cast member, pressed into service minutes before the curtain went up.

What happened? A cast member tested positive for COVID-19 and two non-COVID related illnesses had already knocked down others in the cast. Three actors were suddenly out, and only two trained understudies were standing by.

And the audience was already seated, paid their money, and expected to see a Broadway show.

Some other shows in the last week have actually dismissed the audience from their seats when COVID was discovered lurking backstage. But this group wouldn’t let that happen!

Scott asked producer Brian Moreland if he could go on in the role of “Wisdom,” usually played by Jerome Preston Bates. Was that wise? Moreland figured, why not, who knows the play better?  Scott performed the role script-in-hand — and one plus, he didn’t ad lib! (The playwright never likes it if the actors go “off book.”)

It’s a theater tradition, you know. Shakespeare used to go on as Lady Macbeth all the time when she couldn’t get the damn spot out. (No, just kidding, folks.)

Producer Moreland said afterwards, “It was a thrilling night for a Broadway audience to experience our play.  Keenan Scott II is a bold new voice for now, and last night he exhibited the power and resilience of everyone who makes up the Broadway community.”

Scott  is expected to continue playing the role at least through the holiday weekend.

Ringo Starr Publishing “Closest Thing to a Memoir” He’s Had So Far, With New Stories and Pictures

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“Lifted” is the strange name of a book we will want to read. It’s by Ringo Starr, and according to sources, it’s the closest thing to a memoir the Beatles legendary drummer has had so far.

Indeed, Ringo always said he’d never publish an autobiography. He has produced several books of photographs. my favorite being his “Postcards” book.

For “Lifted,” the book will be available not through a publisher but through Julien’s Auction House. There’s a consumer edition for $59.99 and a signed special edition for 500 bucks.

“Lifted” is coming in February 2022.

All the proceeds are going to the Lotus Foundation.

Paul McCartney has his “The Lyrics” book out now. Long ago George Harrison published his non-memoir, “I Me Mine.” And now it’s Ringo’s turn. All we need next is Yoko Ono’s book!

PS Ringo is one of the great treats of the “Get Back” doc on Disney Plus, and his drumming remains a highlight of all the Beatles’ re-releases like “Let it Be.” Listen to “Ticket to Ride” or “A Day in the Life” and then back to me. Astounding.

From the press materials:

“I am not writing this book as a Beatle historian,” Starr explains with a laugh. “I’m writing this book as a Beatle — and there’s only a couple of us who can do that.” Asked about the origins of this new project, Starr explains, “I didn’t keep all these photos. These fantastic images came back to me in recent years from here, there and everywhere — online and off — and have somehow helped me get back to seeing my life with The Fab Four through fresh eyes. A lot of the photos in this book I spotted on my phone and on my computer and “lifted” them because they brought back so many fabulous memories. In recent years, I’d gather these Beatles photos that I sometimes barely remembered. After a while, I thought, how great it would be to “lift” these fantastic photos and some of my other favorites for charity and tell my true tales that they inspire about what the four of us — John, Paul, George and Ringo — went through back in the day. And the best thing is that it’s all for a good cause because the money is going to our Lotus Foundation.

According to Starr, “When people ask me about the Beatles, I often tell them, `You better ask Paul,’ because somehow he seems to remember everything. But along with great projects like Get Back, seeing so many of these amazing Beatles images has really brought back those days to me and all the love and friendship that we four shared back then. So this a book full of Beatle images that many people haven’t seen and stories that I’m sharing with a little help from my longtime writer friend David Wild. We’ve all been through a pretty tough time for a lot of people who’ve been locked down, and this book has really lifted my spirits and took me back to where I once belonged in a whole new way. And in the end, that’s why this new book is called Lifted. The Beatles changed my life forever. So it’s about getting back and giving back.”