Joan Jett loves rock n roll but she loves life, too. So she’s canceling the rest of her 2021 tour dates thanks to COVID. She’s a Renegade, but she’s also smart. Everyone should take her advice.
“Sopranos” Prequel Movie “Many Saints of Newark” Review Embargo Lifts Day Before Premiere
Surprise!
The day before “The Many Saints of Newark” is set to premiere in New York, the review embargo lifted. That’s very unusual. Warner Bros. is always so strict about embargo’s, you’d think “Many Saints” would have been held until after the premiere.
So far, on Rotten Tomatoes, the rating is 79. Not bad but not as great as what I’d heard from reviewers who’ve seen it.
Most of the reviews praise writer David Chase for creating a world before “The Sopranos.” Owen Gleiberman writes in Variety: “We want “The Many Saints of Newark” to spin a good yarn, and for the most part it does.”
Alex Flood of the NME says: “On the basis of this, David Chase has enough original ideas in his trunk to keep The Sopranos motoring down New Jersey’s highway for decades”
We’ll know more tomorrow.
UPDATED Ratings: “NCIS” Moves to Mondays, Drops 18%, “Dancing with the Stars” Premiere Loses 3 Mil, Time 100 Special Tanks
UPDATED Monday, Monday: “NCIS” moved to Mondays last night in its 200th season. Audience dropped by 500,000 viewers, to 8.45 million.
When we last saw all the “NCIS” peeps, the final episode of Season 199 was 8,956 million.
Where did all those people go? Either they didn’t understand the move to Mondays, or they got tired of waiting for Tony and Ziva to return and investigate each other. The new star is Gary Cole, the old star is Mark Harmon.
Still, “NCIS” was the most watched show of the night. It handily beat “Dancing with the Stars,” which had 5.48 million and is way down from the Tom Bergeron era. Tom gave “DWTS” a little “zetz” this past week reminding fans he was fired after 15 seasons for no good reason. I’ll bet that took some pep out of their step.
A year ago, “DWTS” opened their season with over 8 million viewers. Around 3 mil didn’t come back this year.
No one watched the “Time 100” special that followed “DWTS.” Well, 2 million people did but it’s possible they just fell asleep in front of the TV.
The new “NCIS” show, by the way, called “Hawai’i” with an apostrophe, scored 6.33 million viewers.
Video: See the Trailer Teaser for Joel Coen’s “Macbeth” Starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand
“Something wicked this way comes.”
That could be a warning about a lot of things including the New York Film Festival, which opens this Friday with Joel Coen’s “Macbeth.”
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand star. A24 releases with Apple. It’s in black and white. It’s also Joel’s first movie without brother Ethan. Shakespeare wrote it. And Mel Gibson isn’t in it. Will it work? How can it not?
Sunday Ratings: Faithful Few Are Watching the End of “Walking Dead,” “Billions” At Half Viewership from 2020
Sunday night, 7.8 million people watched the desultory Emmy Awards. That doesn’t seem like much but things were worse on cable.
Over at AMC, “The Walking Dead” is on its last legs. Its final season began on August 22nd down 44% from the prior season, which wasn’t so great to begin with. But at least TWD started with 2.2 million fans sticking around. They’ve lost 300,000 viewers over the last five weeks. They’re not coming back.
It’s time to wrap this thing up and please, no more spin offs or specials. It’s done. Say goodbye. Sunday brought 1.9 million. This is a show that used to have 17 million on a Sunday night. They walked, they’re dead. That’s it.
On Showtime, “Billions” scored 312K viewers, down a bit from last week’s 392K.This is around half of what “Billions” was doing back in March 2020.
But at least both weeks were up from the disastrous first week of season 5.2 which is continuing from March 2020. This last episode was excellent, too, I don’t know why episode 2 viewers didn’t return. (I did think there would be more about the kidney donation, but there wasn’t. Too bad.) There was a tribute to the movie “Big Night.” Anyway, looking forward to this Sunday, as usual, even though the hybrid Tony Awards will be some kind of competition.
Showtime’s “American Rust” didn’t make the top 150 cable shows at 10pm. I watched it and really liked it. Highly recommended. A kind of “Mare of Easttown” 2.0. Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney, and Mark Pellegrino are all excellent. Is rural Pennsylvania really so drab and depressing? I guess so.
RIP Sarah Dash, Original Member of Labelle, Dead at 76, One of the Most Glorious Singers and Human Beings Ever
Sarah Dash, a literal angel, one of the great human beings of all time, has died at age 76.
A gifted vocalist, Sarah was an original member of Labelle with Patti Labelle and Nona Hendryx and always will be known that way. She also had an amazing solo career and sang with Keith Richards on his records as a featured performer.
She was a cutie patootie. She was beloved in ways I cant tell you. She was a radiant person.
Sarah joined Patti on stage at Caesar’s in Atlantic City on Saturday night. She must have been so happy. And then I’m told she died of a heart attack this morning.
Patti Labelle has just written on Facebook: “We were just on-stage together on Saturday and it was such a powerful and special moment! Sarah Dash was an awesomely talented, beautiful, and loving soul who blessed my life and the lives of so many others in more ways than I can say. And I could always count on her to have my back! That’s who Sarah was…a loyal friend and a voice for those who didn’t have one. She was a true giver…always serving, always sharing her talent and her time. I am heart broken, as I know all of her loved ones and fans are. But, I know that Sarah’s spirit and all that she has given to the world live on! And I pray that her precious memory brings us peace and comfort. Rest in power my dear sister. I love you always”
And from Nona Hendryx:
View this post on Instagram
More info as it comes in. Keep refreshing. Sarah’s friends are gutted.
photo of Sarah courtesy of Shefik and many thanks to him.
Broadway: CBS Will Not Give Best Actors, Actresses Tony Awards on Air, Only on Streaming Special
The belated 2020 Tony Awards are coming this Sunday, but on CBS they will be an iffy deal.
CBS is running a two hour special from 9 to 11pm on the network, but they will only give three Tony Awards — to Best Play, Best Musical, and Best Revival of a Play.
Everything else will air on Paramount Plus, a subscription service, from 7 to 9pm. This means that Adrienne Warren and Aaron Tveit, who’ve been waiting a year and a half, will not be featured on the CBS Tony celebration special. (Warren is the star of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.” Tveit, from “Moulin Rouge,” is the only nominee in his category!)
Audra MacDonald, who’s won six Tony Awards, will host the Paramount Plus special. Leslie Odom, Jr., Tony winner for “Hamilton,” will host the two hour CBS special.
Stars to be featured on the CBS portion include Annaleigh Ashford, Kerry Butler, Kristin Chenoweth, André De Shields, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christopher Jackson, Idina Menzel, Ruthie Ann Miles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bebe Neuwirth, Kelli O’Hara, Ben Platt, Jeremy Pope, Chita Rivera, Daphne Rubin-Vega and BD Wong.
But none of the 2020 nominees will be seen or heard from on the CBS show, which kinda stinks. Even though the field of nominees was cut short by the pandemic, they deserved to be acknowledged like every other year. Of course, Warren is leaving “Tina: the Tina Turner Musical” later this fall, but it’s not very encouraging to send her off this way.
Broadway wants us all back, but is this way to do it?
Emmy Awards Third Least Watched of All Time with Just 7.4 Million, But Up 16% from Last Year
The Emmy Awards’ ratings are good news/bad news.
Last night’s show, which I thought was mostly dreadful, was the third least watched edition in history. With Cedric the Entertainer not being entertaining at all, the show had 7.4 million viewers on CBS.
The good news is, that’s up 16% from last year. But in 2017, the show had 10.2 million viewers. It’s been downhill ever since.
Last night’s show was poorly written and produced. There was no set, you could see production people running around, there was problems with the Teleprompters.
Also, despite a show full of Black presenters, mostly white people won the awards. It was embarrassing. How Sterling K. Brown does not win Best Actor in “This is Us” is beyond me. And it’s past time that Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson won for “Blackish.”
There was also a big upset in that they saved Best Mini Series for the end instead of Best Drama, thinking “Mare of Easttown” would win. But “The Queen’s Gambit” surprised everyone.
CBS used Cedric the Entertainer to host, he’s the star of a pedestrian sitcom called “The Neighborhood,” on their network. He was subpar, and that’s a kind way of saying it. But some of the other sketches — notably the therapy session in which actors griped about not getting Emmys — was embarrassing. Jason Alexander is smarter than that. He should never have been talked into it. I winced for him.
The Emmys have a lot of problems. One of them is that allowing multiple nominees from the same show in same categories knocks out opportunities for other shows. All those nominees from “Ted Lasso,” for example, were ridiculous. There should be one nominee from each show in each category. Too many great performers are excluded because of this.
And speaking of “Ted Lasso,” did we really have to hear Jason Sudeikis say Lorne Michaels was “probably taking a dump”? Does anyone have a filter? And where was CBS? They bleeped so many other things, did they think that was appropriate?
Oh well, at least Jean Smart won. And Debbie Allen made the most beautiful speech of the night. I’m sorry her sister wasn’t there to hear it in person.
Star Wars Revenge of the Editor: Marcia Lucas, George Lucas’s Ex Wife, Furious Han Solo and Luke Skywalker Were Killed Off
Marcia Lucas was the editor on “Star Wars” and “Return of the Jedi.” In between she was the uncredited editor on “The Empire Strikes Back.” Before that, she was the editor on “American Graffiti.”
She was also Mrs. George Lucas from 1969 to 1983. She wasn’t only Lucas’s editor. She was the credited editor on Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” When she and Lucas divorced, she received $50 million and retired.
But here’s the news: Marcia is furious about the last three “Star Wars” movies. She’s really angry Kathleen Kennedy et al killed off Han Solo in “The Force Awakens.” In an interview for a book called “Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life,” by JW Rinzler, about the former head of LucasFilms, Marcia lets loose on the subject.
She told Rinzler: “I Like Kathleen. I always liked her. She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank {Marshall]. I liked them a lot. Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don’t have a clue about ‘Star Wars.’ They don’t get it. And JJ Abrams is writing these stories — when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of ‘Star Wars.’ You’re getting rid of Han Solo?”
Marcia wasn’t happy about what happened to Luke Skywalker, either. She said:
“They have Luke disintegrate…They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. And they’re spitting out movies every year. And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me…JJ Abrams, Kathy Kennedy — talk to me.’”
I agree with Marcia. Having Han Solo and Princess Leia’s son kill Han seemed like a dreadful idea. It destroyed Kylo, there was no redeeming him no matter how hard they tried. But no one asked us, Marcia, did they? I think of the last six “Star Wars” movies like they’re Hudson Yards in New York or Trump’s West Side apartment fortress. I know they exist but I just don’t acknowledge them. You’re better off that way.
Chris Rock Has COVID, Pete Davison, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle May Be At Risk After Last Week’s MSG Show
EXCLUSIVE Last week, Chris Rock joked about being vaxxed and not having COVID last at the A list comedians’ charity show at Madison Square Garden for 9-11 families.
Then today Rock announced he had COVID after all. He wrote on Twitter: “Hey guys I just found out I have COVID, trust me you don’t want this. Get vaccinated.”
People who went to the show have since observed that some of other comics who participated in “NYC Still Rising After 20 Years” may be in trouble after Rock’s news.
It seems that onstage, Rock shared a joint with Pete Davidson, Jon Stewart, and Dave Chappelle. So besides other people Rock came in contact with, those three would seem like targets for the coronavirus.
There are no photos or videos of the comics, unmasked, all sharing the joint because Chappelle’s company paid to have Yondr cases deployed to the whole audience, locking up all phones.
Rock was actually a surprise guest that night, appearing without billing or warning. Most of his set concerned his contentious divorce.
Davidson’s exposure would be trouble for him if he intends on returning to “SNL” soon. Chappelle is on tour. Stewart is taping a new talk show. Michael Che and Colin Jost were also backstage and on the show, and they are integral to “SNL.” Jimmy Fallon did a song on the show. He can’t afford to get sick with the “Tonight” show live every day.
Let’s hope no one else gets sick. And Chris, speedy recovery!