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Tony Dokoupil sold his soul to work for Bari Weiss as anchor of the CBS Evening News in January. He’s followed Weiss into a deep hole, pushing Trump’s agenda and featuring his team of whack job lunatics. His performance has been embarrassing and detrimental to his career.
Now comes the kicker. Dokoupil was off last week, and Matt Gutman — brought over from ABC’s World News Tonight — subbed in. The result was Gutman’s week getting the biggest ratings in 17 weeks, the first time the show has broken 4 million viewers. It’s still number three, but this is a jolt.
It’s not like viewers were suddenly warming up to Dokoupil and thought he’d be on screen when they tuned. They knew right away he was off, and that Gutman had taken over. The face is, Dokoupil has lost all credibility with the viewers who were still counting on CBS News to overcome the Weiss-Ellison attack.
It’s also not as thought they love Gutman. But by the point he arrived anyone would have been popular. It was just a relief to see Weiss’s puppet not in the anchor seat.
Dokoupil will maybe learn a lesson here. When he returns on Monday, the party is over. Now his replacement is preferred. He must earn respect from the audience and push back against Weiss, even if it means he loses his job — if he wants another one.
Again, last week’s ratings according to AdWeek were 4.127 million total viewers and 570,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast grew by 4% in total viewers and 10% in the key age demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed CBS Evening News gaining viewers by 8% among total viewers and 3% in the demo.
Amazon knows something about David O.Russell’s new movie that we obviously.
They’re sending “Madden,” directed by David O. Russell, straight to streaming in November.
The feature stars Nicolas Cage as the famed NFL announcer, and Christian Bale — a Russell regular — as Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis.
The cast also includes John Mulaney, Sienna Miller, Kathryn Hahn, Shane Gillis, and Joel Murray as Pat Summerall — basically, the one person I want to see succeed in this thing., Murray was so good in “Mad Men” and other projects, he needs a moment in the spotlight.
So what’s going on? Amazon will just do an Oscar qualifying week in New York and Los Angeles in one theater in the middle of the night, then send “Madden” off to Prime.
Last week I’d heard some mixed reaction to “Madden,” which surprised me because Russell has made mostly excellent, successful movies like “Silver Linings Playbook,” and “Three Kings.”
He did have a big disappointment with his last one, “Amsterdam,” in 2022, which was bizarre, to say the least. But “Madden” is a straightforward biopic, and I’m sure with that cast, very entertaining.
Who will be the first to say this movie is “Maddening.” Let it be me, thank you.
Summerall, by the way, who’s gone now, had a daughter. Do you know her name? It’s Susie Wiles, chief of staff for Donald Trump. That’s right. I can’t imagine any of these people going to the White House for a screening, but maybe Jeff Bezos will do it anyway.
Going to Ireland for a bit seems to have been the right move. A year and a half later she’s performing her one woman show, “Common Knowledge,” at the off Broadway Daryl Roth Theater on Union Square.
I didn’t know what to expect, so it was more than a pleasant surprise to discover the 75 minute show is charming, delightful, and beautifully written. It’s also deftly performed by Rosie, who is so disarming and funny that even the dramatic parts — there are a couple — are smooth sailing.
“Common Knowledge” is a refrain throughout the show, a phrase she learned from her wise gender fluid autistic child, Clay — who by the way has an amazing vocabulary and memory. Don’t think that Rosie is unlike a regular mother whose daughter told her first she was changing her name from Dakota, then declaring herself gender free. What made O’Donnell so relatable in her TV talk show is the same here: she can’t believe it, but she’ll go with it. It could be worse. She still has trouble with pronouns, so she had the word “They” tattooed on wrist. Even that hasn’t kept her from flubbing sometimes.
Rosie — now with a mane of plush gray at age 64, and slim from Mounjaro — tells the story of losing her mother to cancer in 1973, when she was just 10 years old. That’s the sad part of the story, which she assures us passes quickly. Then it’s on to her family’s move to Ireland during The Troubles, of all things, and their return to a changed New York. We learn about her family and friends, her own coming out, and her decision to adopt — eventually — five children. (Note: four of the five are flourishing, and Rosie has recently become a grandmother!)
Family is key to “Common Knowledge,” which becomes clearer and clearer as the laughs come. O’Donnell’s monologue is not short on heart, or incisive observation about creating a family all over again.
Eventually, the show must turn to Donald Trump, who started attacking her 20 years ago, long before his campaign. He’s been obsessed with her all this time, even declaring he’d revoke her US citizenship (something he can’t do). O’Donnell, who is a very good artist, has made so many paintings Trump — two hundred and eleven — that her therapist called her (not the other way around) to make sure she was okay.
How will she handle Trump this month when she guest hosts “Jimmy Kommel”? I told you earlier that ABC already put the kibosh on her hilarious parody of “If I Only Had a Brain.” (She sings it in the show, and the audience– not an empty seat in the house — sings along with the delicious lyrics.) Rosie has a plan: she debuted a new parody last night, called “Hello, Donny!” sung to “Hello, Dolly!” She’s got some of the lyrics done, and they are sly. ABC had better let her go for it.
“Common Knowledge” is very savvy in that it is not a bromide, nor is it angry. It’s incredibly sweet, and disarming. O’Donnell has been working on it for 18 months, trying it out in Australia and Scotland to rapturous crowds. It would be a shame if it’s filmed for posterity before the run ends on Saturday night. We can only hope she comes back and does it again, soon.
PS Yes, plenty of celebs come every night. Last night, it was Natasha Lyonne, with Jeff Garlin, and Ian Armitage from “Young Sheldon.” I didn’t know that his father is Euan Morton, the Broadway actor who played Boy George in Rosie’s musical, “Tattoo.” O’Donnell introduced Ian’s parents to each other! Small world!
The Rosie O’Donnell Renaissance is in full swing, and it couldn’t be better timing. By the way, she and Clay are returning to Ireland for the school year. If there’s ever another talk show, it will be after Trump is long gone.
Also, I hope the critics groups that cover off Broadway have come by to see this show. It deserves special citations next spring.
Today’s Page Six is all but dead and almost forgotten Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke.
They say her estate, whoever that might be, is shopping her old manuscript around. It was supposed to be an “expose” of the movie biz and all the people she viciously attacked over the years.
But I say, wait a minute. Page Six doesn’t mention that the proposed book, called “Pay or Play,” had a publisher once upon a time. That was Turtle Bay Books.
Finke never turned in a manuscript. It was a long running inside joke. She was unable to complete one despite venting her spleen several times a day online at Deadline.com, the website she invented.
No, Nikki did not like deadlines for long piece. Back in the late 80s, when she was at the LA Times, Nikki was supposed to write freelance articles for me at Fame magazine. Getting them was an adventure. This was before email. She’d insist she was faxing over her work. Assistants would stand at the fax machine, waiting for the famous grinding noise of missives being printed out.
They were few and far between.
Years later, she wrote pieces for my friend Peter Kaplan at the New York Observer. He and I talked about it all the time, how extruding work from Nikki was just like pulling teeth with a string attached to a doorknob.
So maybe someone has finished “Pay or Play,” hoping to cash in. But it’s all old news. Nikki died in 2022. She hadn’t been active for years after Jay Penske bought her out and she was prevented from writing about Hollywood. Most of the people she knew are dead or sitting a comfortable chair with a lap blanket. Does anyone care now about what Ron Meyer said to Mike Ovitz at Spago when it was on Horn Avenue?
Think of it. There was no streaming in Nikki’s time. Netflix sent discs out in red envelopes. Blockbuster was where you got movies. William Morris was an agency. So was ICM. It would be a little like when I walk into a restaurant and say, “Do you know what this used to be?” I just get blank stares.
So, have at it. For the dog days of August, this is something to chew on. But I’d much rather see the outtakes of the late Julia Phillips’ “You”ll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again.” I read them, back in 1988. The full manuscript was like the Leaning Tower of Pisa on my desk. Then the lawyers came in and vetted it. Whoops! No one will ever know what Ryan O’Neal was really up to.
And many reading this will ask, Who is Ryan O’Neal?
“Spider Man: Brand New Day” opened one week ago today.
Remember those days? “The Odyssey” was what everyone was talking about.
So much has changed!
Today, “Spider Man” will cross the $500 million mark. Yes, I am telling the truth. While wars rage, Donald Trump has a new toupee, the Yankees cannot win two games in a row, “Spider Man” has just plowed ahead as if nothing else mattered.
So where do we go from here? Hasn’t everyone seen this movie by now?
Maybe not. By Monday, it will most certainly be at $600 or $700 million, Maybe more! Who knows!
Remember, it’s just one week. “Spider Man” has weeks to go!
Meantime, after I pointed out that Steve Lacy’s end credit song “Oh Yeah” was not on the charts at all, it’s finally arrived at number 35 on iTunes. The song has just under 10 million streams on Spotify. Not a blockbuster, but coming along…And yes, it does sound a lot like Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?”
And what about “The Odyssey”? It’s not chopped liver. They’re at $422 million as of today, so $500 million isn’t far off. The day to day drop is almost nothing. Homer, you know, wasn’t horsing around!
Auditions and meetings are going on right for actors to play James Bond.
Among the names on the list for a young 1950s Bond has been Callum Turner, the hot British actor who just married singer Dua Lipa.
But Turner’s chances may have diminished now that his romcom, “One Night Only,” is being panned.
The Will Gluck directed flick co-stars Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez so well in “A Complete Unknown.”
The movie is currently rated a bleak 51% on Rotten Tomatoes by critics.
The response won’t be helpful for Turner, who’s in competition with every UK actor in his age group including Jacob Elordi.
So far, the negative reviews are really bad, some critics giving the movie a “D” or 1 out of 5. Even “influencers,” in abundant supply at the premiere, didn’t care for it. No word on the reaction of Elon Musk’s mother, was was a guest for unknown reasons.
Barbaro has little to lose if “One Night Only” tanks, as is expected. But Turner has a lot riding on the outcome.
Luckily the movie itself is getting worse reviews than the actors. Variety says: “Turner, though too inherently, uprightly British to fully convince as a red-sauce guy, continues to show a quiet, off-kilter allure as a leading man…”
Screen International: “When their characters finally start falling in love, he displays an endearing vulnerability, but Turner has a tougher time with One Night Only’s dialogue as Allie and Owen bicker tediously.”
Meanwhile, Elordi has spent the summer traipsing around with his Kardashian girlfriend.
Something tells me the eventual choice of a new Bond will be someone we didn’t see coming, maybe from theater or indie films.
The NY Film Festival is on hyperdrive this year with an incredible list of directors.
Some of them include Pedro Almodovar, Mike Leigh, Ava Duvernay, James Gray, Tony Gilroy, and Chris Rock.
But I’m surprised there’s no mention of Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. That seemed like the ultimate New York movie since it’s about a local theater group and has two huge New York stars.
Go figure.
Also, of course, not included is Tom Cruise in “Digger.” Warner Bros. is staying away from all festivals, and hoping for a big early October launch.
We’re getting Mike Leigh’s final movie, too, called “Tender Loving Care,” which I have high hopes for despite the director’s politics.
There will be a surprise screening, of course. Maybe that will be “The Debut,” which is showing in Toronto and maybe Telluride.
Crossing fingers that James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” the opening night film, is a home run.
Opening Night: Paper Tiger (James Gray) Centerpiece: Behemoth! (Tony Gilroy) Closing Night: 14th (Ava DuVernay) 9 Temples to Heaven (Sompot Chidgasornpongse) All of a Sudden (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar) Clarissa (Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri) Dao (Alain Gomis) The Day She Returns (Hong Sangsoo) I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies (Mani Haghighi) The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude) Double Freedom (Lisandro Alonso) The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach) Everything Else Is Noise (Nicolás Pereda) Everytime (Sandra Wollner) Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski) La Gradiva (Marine Atlan) I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (Isabelle Stever) The Loneliest Man in Town (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel) A Long Winter (Andrew Haigh) The Man I Love (Ira Sachs) A Man of His Time (Emmanuel Marre) Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev) Misty Green (Chris Rock) My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile (Julia Loktev) My Wife Cries (Angela Schanelec) Nowhere To Lay My Eyes (Hong Sangsoo) Once Upon a Time in Harlem (William Greaves and David Greaves) Possible Love (Lee Chang-dong) Rose (Markus Schleinzer) Tender Loving Care (Mike Leigh) The Unknown (Arthur Harari)
“Spider Man” Brand New Day” continues to be amazing.
Yesterday, the Tom Holland-Zendaya blockbuster broke the record for best Tuesday box office in history.
“Brand New Day” made an astonishing $42 million, and was only down 11% from the previous day, when it also broke the record for Mondays.
Total in the US is now up to $449.1 million, which means $500 million is coming today or tomorrow at the latest.
Worldwide total is up to $1.15 million.
This probably means that “Brand New Day” is bringing back audience for second and third viewings, which is what any studio wants.
Sony is saying they’re giving the stars “a break” before filming Spider Man 5, which will probably be the end of the series.
There was some noise yesterday about who would direct the next one, but it seems probable that Destin Daniel Cretton will return since he’s now a record holder in many categories.
Producer Amy Pascal is now the most successful female producer in history. She’s certainly one of the most successful of any gender. She already had “Project Hail Mary” this year, and is looking forward to the next James Bond movie. She’s gotten the last laugh after being relieved of her duties running Sony because of Wikileaks. Nicely played!
If you know someone who’s in trouble or experiencing a mental health crisis, there is help. Call 911 or 988 immediately. Speak to a professional who can assist.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t get into this but calls are coming in from anywhere.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is having a serious mental health issue right now in Miami.
We know this because he live-broadcasted it on TikTok. So many people called the Miami Police they issued a statement below.
Hilton’s real name is Mario Lavandeira Jr. He apparently was cutting himself live on TikTok and was covered in blood, reportedly naked.
I wouldn’t normally report any of this, but again, it’s become public. See the Miami Dade response here. Let’s hope Perez will get the right help and he will be ok. This is not to be taken lightly.
It’s definitely the summer of Hollywood’s young married couples.
Already Tom Holland and Zendaya, who’ve been low key about getting married in the first place, have done the whole press tour for “Spider Man: Brand New Day.”
There isn’t an interview, a junket, a TikTok the couple have avoided. The result is $1 billion at the box office.
Now it’s time for Callum Turner and Dua Lipa. They just got married, too. He’s the star of “One Night Only.” She’s already a pop superstar.
Last night Dua (or is it Ms Lipa?) walked the red carpet with her new husband, no problem. Not only was she there, but Oscar nominee and Tony winner Andrew Garfield — now sporting a lions’ mane — walked the carpet with his girlfriend, Monica Barbaro, the other star of the film.
(Of course, Garfield has a reason. He’s promoting two new films, one coming in just a couple of weeks.)
Remember the days when Brad and Angelina wouldn’t horn in on the other’s action? Ben Affleck and (pick a wife)? Even with their Circus Maximus wedding, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are not so present together unless it’s “by accident.” Until recently, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes kept it quiet, too. And in the future, Ryan Reynolds may be taking Hugh Jackman as his plus one, not Blake Lively.
Well, anything to sell movies. And “One Night Only” might need the help. Reviews won’t come out til tomorrow, but ticket sales are mostly slow so far. The trailer was a turn off, and that didn’t help. It also only has 4.6 million views on YouTube after 3 weeks. Not a lot.
Also, last night’s premiere was attended by the cast, a lot of unknown people, and the Queen of Darkness, Maye Musk, mother of Elon, for unclear reasons. She shows up on just one movie publicist’s guest list, and scares the beejeezus out of most people. She can sic DOGE on anyone at a given moment!
