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It’s not definite– I’ll tell you when it is– but it looks like the great pop R&B singer Deborah Cox will join “Moulin Rouge” on Broadway when it returns this fall.
Deborah would replace Karen Olivo as Satine in the hit show. Olivo resigned from the show last month very emotionally after producer Scott Rudin — who is not the producer of this show — as a toxic monster.
Olivo was nominated for a Tony Award but they were never given out. Now she certainly won’t get one.
Deborah Cox is a star and a powerful singer who has many top 40 hits from the 1990s and 2000s. She’s also appeared on Broadway twice, in “Jekyll and Hyde” and “Aida.” She won raves in each, and in the touring version of “The Bodyguard” playing the Whitney Houston role.
I hear “Moulin Rouge” producers want her, and so do we!
Meredith woke up just in time to say goodbye to two cast members on “Grey’s Anatomy” last night.
The result was a nearly 16% drop in the key age group and 11% in overall audience. The fans tuned out.
Last night’s episode was the lowest rated ever, just 4.4 million, down from 4.925 million last week. The demo was down 15.77% and the audience was off 10.66 million.
That’s a steep drop. And there are still two more episodes left. The show can go lower.
Renewed for another season, “Grey’s” has so far let three actors go this season. With two more episodes, there are undoubtedly more surprises. With budget cuts and lower ratings, “Grey’s” is headed toward being just about Meredith Grey whose house, I’m paraphrasing, was last night described as smelling like hot cocoa and newborn puppies. Or cotton candy and death.
EP Krista Vernoff, who just saw ABC cut her off at the knees by cancelling “Rebel” for no reason, says in finale on June 2 we’ll see Meredith’s new role at the hospital. Her title will be Empress. Jo Wilson, played by Camilla Luddington, is going to make a “life changing decision.” Luddington may be headed to the unemployment line to join the others.
Now we’re in trouble. K Pop sensations BTS, now in bed with Scooter Braun, have dropped their new English language single “Butter.”
This one will stick. It’s very good.
“Butter” is already number 1 on iTunes and the instrumental version is number 2. Sony Music’s president Ron Perry is listed as a writer and producer, among a group of people who know how to manufacture hits: Rob Grimaldi, Stephen Kirk, Alex Bilowitz, Sebastian Garcia and the group’s RM.
The key to “Butter” is that sounds like a lot of songs from the recent past, but has a twist. After Justin Bieber’s Peaches, now we have Butter. It’s the summer of pop food songs. But don’t forget the Newbeats. (Below.) They were the original. Sound familiar?
How much did Disney’s new “Cruella” cost? From the insanely sumptuous sets, costumes, and special effects, it sure looks like $200 million.
What cinches it? The soundtrack. Out today, with a new song by Florence and the Machine, “Cruella” threatens the “Guardian of the Galaxy” soundtracks for Jukebox of the Year award.
The list of artists includes Supertramp, the Bee Gees, The Doors, Nina Simone, The Ohio Players, Ike & Tina Turner, ELO, Queen, Blondie, and The Clash.
And those are just the tracks that made the album. There have to be twice as many in the movie, all hits, plus Nicholas Britell’s score. You have to license all that music, it’s not free, and it’s not cheap. But music supervisor Susan Jacobs really pulled out all the stops. All those hits help propel “Cruella” from the 60s to modern day London.
Missing from the actual record are hits like Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” and many more from Carnaby Street-era London.
PS Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” has turned into the copyright of all time. Dozens of commercials. John Legend sang it on a fundraiser last year. I hope Nina’s heirs are cleaning up on it.
Tracklist
1 Call me Cruella – Florence and the Machine 2 Bloody Well Right – Supertramp 3 Whisper Whisper – Bee Gees 4 Five to One – Doors 5 Feeling Good – Nina Simone 6 Fire – Ohio Players 7 Whole Lotta Love – Ike & Tina Turner 8 Livin’ Thing (2012 Version) – Electric Light Orchestra 9 Stone Cold Crazy (2011 Version) – Queen 10 One Way or Another – Blondie 11 Should I Stay or Should I Go – Clash 12 I Love Paris – Georgia Gibbs 13 Love Is Like A Violin – Ken Dodd 14 I Wanna Be Your Dog – John McCrea 15 Come Together – Ike & Tina Turner
Not only is Jessie Williams out after tonight’s penultimate season episode, Greg Germann is leaving, too.
German has been playing Dr. Tom Koracick for three seasons. Williams has been on for 12 seasons. They are numbers 2 and 3 of regulars who are out after the Italian actor Giacomo Gianniotti was axed a few episodes ago.
Meantime, “Greys” was renewed for the 18th season because Ellen Pompeo finally signed a new contract. It must run through the 20th season, so it’s big money. Her character, Meredith, it out of her COVID coma. When the other two veterans of the show, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens, Jr., just told her Giannotti’s character was gone, Meredith was fine with it. No mourning. “She’s with her his mother,” she told them. LOL. No, he’s not. He’s on the unemployment line.
One more episode for this season. Will any other cast members be purged? Next season may be a three hander!
Chayce Beckham must be pinching himself. (Do people still do that?)
The country music singer contestant on “American Idol” has had the number 2 single all week on the iTunes charts. It’s called “23” and fans are lapping it up.
The single has sold around 20,000 copies, most of them paid downloads, a small portion of it streaming equivalent.
Beckham is a finalist on Sunday’s “American Idol” finale. Winning will require votes from the public to overcome his three peers.
I can’t recall any “Idol” contestant coming into the finale with a top 3 single concurrent to the show. And the single is on a BMG distributed indie label which technically has no support. But there is it, sitting pretty at number 2, selling more than 98 famous, established singers.
“Hocus Pocus” was not a hit when it was released 30 years ago. It was reviewed negatively and didn’t do well at the box office.
But nature does abhor a vacuum, and content is needed for all these streaming services. So there wil be a sequel finally after three decades to the cult hit. Disney Plus will be the venue.
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy will reprise their roles. Anne Fletcher will direct. Someone– get Diane Warren, please — will write a song for Bette Midler to play over the credits for an Oscar nomination.
By now you know HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” is a runaway hit.
Last Sunday’s 5th episode had a shocking ending that no one saw coming, with Evan Peters exiting the limited run series in a violent way. It was quite a cliffhanger.
The 6th and penultimate episode plays this Sunday. Don’t ask me what happens because I haven’t watched the press preview yet. I’m too nervous.
Now comes news that the final episode, number 7, will be 66 minutes long when it airs a week from Sunday. There are a lot of loose ends for Kate Winslet’s Mare to wrap up. My theory– I have no knowledge of the plot– is that by then Guy Pearce will be going crazy.
I’m also guessing this isn’t the last we’ll see of these people. “Mare of Easttown” can easily keep rolling along into a murder mystery once this saga is over. I’m sure HBO wants a season 2 and even 3. Winslet is on her way to the Emmy Awards along with the whole show in a category– limited series– overflowing with nominees including HBO’s “The Undoing.” (Yes, that was only this year.)
So hold on for the ending of this season. Those 6 extra minutes are going to be good!
Steven Soderbergh is back on HBO Max after his wonderful film there last year, “Let Them All Talk.”
“No Sudden Move” is a heist flick with Don Cheadle, Jon Hamm, Kieran Culkin, Benicio del Toro and Brendan Fraser. It’s not going into theaters but will hit HBO Max on July 1st. The film will play the Tribeca Film Festival once, on June 18th, and is already sold out.
Soderbergh just rocks on, making terrific films, and so many that he can have his own film festival now!
Journalist Martin Bashir made his name on two big celebrity interviews. One was for the BBC with Princess Diana. The other was with ABC concerning Michael Jackson.
Now Bashir has been ousted from the BBC. An investigation published just now has found Bashir “deceived” Princess Diana by showing her brother phony documents to get the 1995 interview. The interview was an international sensation that basically exposed her marriage as a fraud and ended it.
Diana would die two years later in an infamous, suspicious car wreck in Paris.
In 2003, Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch when the Arvizo family was visiting. The ABC special made Jackson seem like a pedophile. It prompted a new investigation from then Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who was looking for a reason to arrest the singer.
What followed was an avalanche of bad publicity, Sneddon contacting the Arvizos to create a case that didn’t exist, an arrest, humiliation for the singer, and a 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted.
Jackson, humiliated, left town and died four years later after a series of moves, trips, and poor choices led to a Dr. Conrad Murray killing him during a neglectful treatment.
The whole time Bashir filmed Jackson, Jackson’s videographer was documenting the episode. In court, we were able to see that “outtake” film as part of Jackson’s defense. The results were shocking, and certainly affected the jury’s decision to acquit Jackson. Bashir clearly used Jackson, and led him to say certain things and appear as Bashir wanted him to, in order to create false impressions.
Maybe now that the BBC has re-evaluated Bashir’s manipulations in the Princess Diana case, ABC will turn its attention to the Michael Jackson story.
