There’s a huge gathering at the Kennedy Center right now to protest, well, everything.
Donald Trump has closed the Center and is threatening to demolish it because the courts won’t let him slap his name on the edifice.
A group called Hands Across the Kennedy Center, spurred on by Kennedy family members, has formed outside, and there are speakers.
Meantime, there are reports that staffers were fired today.
Frankie Muniz played the wily Malcolm on the hit “Malcolm in the Middle” for years.
When the show was over, he seemed to step away from showbiz and became a race car driver.
More recently, he returned for the “Malcolm” reunion on Netflix.
On September 1st, he posted to Twitter one word: Struggling.
Today, he’s posted at length about his life falling apart. Seems like a cry for help. Muniz announced in July he and his wife were divorcing after six years. They posted a video of themselves dancing joyfully with their toddler son, which seemed odd and inappropriate.
I don’t know what else is going on, but hopefully the people who love him can get him off social media and arrange for support and assistance.
The last 6 weeks of my life have been a nightmare I’m praying to wake up from. Everything felt heavy, unclear, and like it was falling apart at the same time. I wouldn’t wish this season on anyone.
The unexpected gift in the middle of it is that I’ve had nowhere to hide. I’ve… pic.twitter.com/CwnqJ7k7Er
— Frankie Muniz (@frankiemuniz) September 18, 2026
Tom Cruise is about to open a new movie, called “Digger.”
The movie is an original, not a sequel. It’s a gamble, to be sure. He’s not playing Maverick or Ethan Cane from “Top Gun” and “Mission Impossible.”
“Digger” also seems like it’s social satire, not an action film.
So Tom, smart as a whip, is on a mega publicity tour.
First he gave an information free interview to GQ magazine, which resulted in a 30 minute interview of typical Cruise platitudes. Every Cruise publicity tour is full of speeches about how he grew up on the magic of movies He also appears in photos meant to be a a little “racy,” with his shirt open and pants unbuttoned. .
On Sunday, he turned up in Taylor Swift’s booth at the Kansas City Chiefs game to watch her husband, Travis Kelce. The long lens cameras went crazy documenting their substance-less meeting.
Last night Tom appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show, for a recap of the Swift adventure. Then he and Fallon played an amusing game of getting hitched up to wires, floating through the air and acting as human claws in an arcade game.
Through it all, not a single personal question is asked. No mention of kids, partner, or Scientology, the religious cult he represents.
Coming back to the popularity of Taylor and Travis, Tom was also on the Kelce brothers podcast, where he continued to say nothing. You can fast forward through it below. Millions of Taylor Swift fans way too young to know who Tom Cruise is, are getting a full dose of his charming smile.
More appearances are coming, no doubt, before the October 2nd premiere. “Digger” remains a mystery, even its trailers aren’t helpful establishing what the movie and why people should see it. Critics get a look at it tomorrow in New York and Los Angeles. With Oscar winner director Alejandro Innaritu in charge, we know it’s going to be of interest.
But keep in mind how Tom conducts this campaign. He has nothing to do with Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce, but suddenly he’s their biggest fan. He wants that magic to wear off on him. It will be instructive to see where he goes with this next week. Usually there’s a New York premiere, with a lot of hoopla, where he goes out and shakes hands and signs a million autographs.
Very sad news this morning.
Tony winning composer Duncan Sheik has died at 56. His family says it’s from cardiac arrest.
Two nights ago, the family posted on Instagram that Sheik was in the hospital and very ill.
The writer of the Broadway hit “Spring Awakening,” he was also known for his big chart hit, “Barely Breathing,” in the 90s.
He had a new show, called Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, a musical set to begin performances on September 25, 2026, at The Night Egg at the Culture Club in New York.
Here’s a link to his Times obit. More to come. Condolences to his family and friends.
So I can tell you what Alex Gibney told me tonight.
Universal Pictures will be distributing his “Musk” documentary around the world, as planned.
There was a brief moment of hesitation, but the studio sees the big picture and will continue with its original plan.
Bleecker Street and HBO are distributing in the US and Canada, also as planned. Gibney says they’ve both been amazing, and cited HBO for its steadfastness.
Our conversation took place after the screening of Gibney’s other doc that’s about to be released, “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” the remarkable story of writer Salman Rushdie’s 2022 stabbing at the Chautauqua Festival in upstate New York.
By the way, the attempted murderer, Hadi Matar, has been convicted at the state and federal levels, and is going to be in prison for life.
Gibney’s doc, made with extraordinary footage provided by Rushie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, opens today in New York before going wide across the country. It’s a riveting piece of work that shows the attack on the writer and how he managed to come back from it.
Rushdie and Griffith attended a private screening last night in New York followed by a reception at Barbuto restaurant. Rushdie was too exhausted to make the party after a Q&A, but Griffith is his able ambassador who accepted kudos from a room full of documentary filmmakers.
As for “Musk,” Gibney, Bleecker, and HBO send it into the world on October 9th in New York and Los Angeles, followed by a wide release. By all accounts, Elon Musk is unmasked in many ways in this film, which is even more important now that we’re learning how dangerous AI is becoming.
More on the Rushdie film this weekend.
“Musk” filmmaker Alex Gibney is definite.
He says right now on Twitter that ” the film will be released in theaters in the US, starting on October 9. Bleecker Street is the theatrical distributor. Following theatrical and pay-per-view, HBO will stream the film in the US. It will also be released in Canada by Elevation.”
Beyond that, he doesn’t know what will happen.
The film will be released in theaters in the US, starting on October 9. Bleecker Street is the theatrical distributor. Following theatrical and pay-per-view, HBO will stream the film in the US. It will also be released in Canada by Elevation. https://t.co/NUtTVpk5RN
— Alex Gibney (@alexgibneyfilm) September 17, 2026
There’s a report this morning that Universal could back out of their worldwide distribution deal. Steve Zeitchik writes in the Hollywood Reporter that Universal “is not committed” to the original plan, and could let the producers sell it elsewhere.
For Universal, part of NBC Universal, this seems like a curveball. The company is already no favorite of Donald Trump and usually doesn’t care what outsiders think.
Gibney’s film is said to deliver devastating blows to Elon Musk’s reputation.
Zeitchik says that two sources have told him “they believed that Universal would ultimately decide against releasing the film and return rights to the movie to filmmakers.”
That would certainly leave the good people at Universal in an awkward situation to explain out and out censorship and cowardice.
The head of the Kennedy Center, Matt Floca, insists they’re only closing “for a week,” to make repairs.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, currently in court with the Kennedy Center board of which she’s a non voting member, wants assurances.
In the center of this chaos is Donald Trump’s sick obsession to put his name on the building and wipe out the Kennedy legacy.
In a new court filing today, Beatty asks Judge Christopher Cooper to make it clear Donald Trump cannot demolish the theater.
She has reason to worry. Trump is famous for violating orders 40 plus years ago in New York and knocking down the Bonwit Teller department store in the middle of the night. More recently, he surreptitiously destroyed the East Wing of the White House to build his unsanctioned ballroom.
The new motion cites the emergency shut down of the Center.
“This directly contravenes the Court’s preliminary injunction. It is a recipe for Defendants extending their shutdown forever and closing the Kennedy Center for the next two years—the very thing this Court said they could not do without its permission. Finally, Defendants cannot point to any new meaningful information or true exigency to justify this sudden shutdown. Instead, they merely say that Mr. Floca reviewed the existing evidence—including prior building plans—and decided a closure was necessary. This was not permissible under the Court’s order.”
Tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM, a group called Hands Around the Kennedy Center will form a human chain on the property to call attention to the building’s perilous status.
They say, “With the future still very much uncertain, now more than ever, the Center needs you to stand up for freedom of expression and against authoritarian overreach into arts and culture institutions.”
At this point, they may have to camp out there for the winter.
Meantime, PS, the likelihood of Kennedy Center Honors this December is diminishing quickly. Even if Trump decided to stage the event somewhere else in Washington, who in their right mind would accept the Honor now?
Over the last six decades, “60 Minutes” has stayed away from tabloid stories.
The much awarded news program has stuck to serious stories, and left things like domestic disputes and scandalous trials to shows like “Dateline,” “48 Hours,” and “20/20.”
But that’s going to change on Sunday, when new correspondent Ross Douthat gets a big scoop. He’s interviewing Patrick Clancy, the husband of Lindsay Clancy, the mother who killed their three children.
This is a new direction for “60 Minutes” under Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton. If they’re wasting their time with this kind of story, you know they’re going to stay away from investigating real stories about the country and the world, or Donald Trump.
This would have been the perfect week, for example, for a profile of Rep. Joyce Beatty, who’s leading the charge to save the Kennedy Center.
Will the audience want this kind of story? Last week, the show’s ratings dropped to a 25 year low. The main story from Norah O’Donnell — about the fighter pilot shot down in Iran — has been heavily criticized as a press release from the Department of Justice. It featured Pete Hegseth, as if he were knowledgeable or a hero. It looked ridiculous.
So far, according to the teaser, Clancy “talks to his children every day.” It’s a sad story for him, but maybe a sadder one for us.
Well, stranger things haven’t happened.
But TV star Millie Bobby Brown, who’s just 22, and husband, Jake Bon Jovi, have started collecting babies.
The pair already have an adopted daughter. Now they’ve adopted a second one.
The odds are, this not the end.
Is it a beautiful thing, or odd, for a couple to marry and start a family this young?
Adding to their situation is that Brown seems to be continuing a career that will keep her away from home for movie and TV shoots — unless, of course, she’s retiring. She could, given the money she’s already made, and Bon Jovi’s family.
The couple can easily afford teams of nurses and nannies.
It’s definitely the Upside Down for young people these days, and for women who want high profile careers. But as the saying goes, the heart wants what it wants. And if you can afford it, bingo.
PS Brown also has a fashion line, which she models online.
No one asked for this, starting with Richard Gere.
Once a hot sex symbol, Richard Gere — an Oscar nominee for “Chicago” — has lived a mostly quiet life. His greatest interest has been in promoting the Dalai Lama and helping the people of Tibet.
But back in his heyday, Gere was a habitue of Studio 54, where a wild urban myth sprang up about his hard partying.
The rumor, which was told over and over, was of course not true. It was also disgusting, which made it more scurrilous. But in the end, Gere — who never addressed it — survived. His Oscar nomination came decades afterwards.
These days, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone still repeating the story. (It was like when people used to tell me, confidently, that Tom Cruise had married Nicole Kidman because he was having an affair with her brother. Of course, she had no brother.)
But now, for some insane reason, The Hollywood Reporter has decided to revive the whole thing. Why? It makes no sense, and only serves to embarrass Gere. He deserves a lot more respect but the trade magazine doesn’t care.
So now we have a six part podcast called “Gerbil.” It’s proudly hosted by journalist Allen Salkin, who should know better. Salkin, they say, spent SIX years investigating this miserable dirt. SIX YEARS on this subject, and not on say, Gere’s steadfast support of the Dalai Lama.
Is this really what Jay Penske is spending money on? Shameful.
The Richard Gere gerbil rumor won’t die. Why? Did a movie star really show up at a hospital in the 1980s with a rodent in his rectum he’d inserted for sexual pleasure?
The Hollywood Reporter presents ‘GERBIL,’ a new podcast series by investigative reporter Allen Salkin, who… pic.twitter.com/rrzxsr7pt4
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 17, 2026