Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
Broadway will be full of R&B again soon, I’m happy to report.
“Tina– The Tina Turner Musical” will return to its performances on Friday, October 8th. And the “Ain’t Too Proud,” the musical about Motown’s Temptations, hits the stage on Saturday, October 16th.
For “Tina,” the re-opening is important because it’s a Tony Awards nominated musical from 2020. Star Adrienne Warren has had to wait 18 months to be announced as Best Actress in a Musical. It’s been a cruel season for the 2020 performers and nominees.
Will we see Tony Awards of some kind this fall? It is hoped that the Broadway League will do something in September or October to welcome shows back and close this strange chapter.
“Ain’t Too Proud” was from the prior season. Great show, and I can’t wait to see it again!
PS that date for “Tina” is a couple of week after the Emmy Awards when HBO’s Tina documentary should have picked up some awards too!
John Mulaney told us last night at City Winery that he is 141 days sober after a terrifying battle with cocaine addiction and alcoholism. It was his debut, the first of five nights in a row, his return to performing.
“I was the best looking person at my intervention,” he said, because he was dressed up, had just had a haircut, and unlike everyone in the room who’d gained weight during the pandemic, Mulaney was down to about 105 pounds thanks to lots of drugs.
His intervention, by the way, included Seth Meyers, comedy partner Nick Kroll, Fred Armisen, Natasha Lyonne, and Bill Hader. None of them, he was disappointed to say, were doing bits. They were afraid for his life.
Mulaney has decided to work out his rehab on stage, with his interventionist watching from the balcony of City Winery. It’s a brave call. Mulaney, kind of a comedy genius who’s got a serious drug and addiction problem, joked that “the press” would be wondering if he “still had it.” Don’t worry, he does.
But Mulaney is fragile. His show for now will be like group therapy. He interacted a lot with the audience, discussing a raft of prescription drugs he’d been given by doctors, or bought from drugs dealers– besides cocaine. That part was endearing and sad. You can’t feel anything but sympathy for someone so talented and so plagued by his demons. He said it was once thought he suffered from ADHD but “I was just bored.”
For the opening show, Mulaney was dressed casually in a blue and white striped long sleeved Polo shirt, dark jeans, and white sneakers. He confessed to a stint in rehab that had been a secret last fall before hosting “Saturday Night Live.” It didn’t work, and he went right back in after bizarre appearances on Seth Meyer’s “Late Show.” He also talked about briefly taking a job at “Late Night” for the structure of having a place to go. That didn’t work out either. He went back into rehab in December 2020 and came out in February.
The rehab is a work in progress. “I’d kill all of you for a line of coke,” he joked, then took it back. “I’m a friendly addict,” he said. He said that in December he apparently gave an interview to GQ magazine but has no memory of it whatsoever. As a bit, he read some of it aloud, laughing at some of his responses to the reporter’s questions.
There’s a rawness to what Mulaney is doing. Since it was the first night, he maybe surprised himself with some of his comments. He said that he had never been comfortable with people, always felt alone, and that his experience with the audience was his most intimate relationship.
“When I’m alone,” he said, “I’m with someone who tried to kill me.”
I went to the opening night show out of curiosity mostly. Here is a troubled genius. He said that at the intervention, all the comics there talked about how brilliant he is. They’re right. Even when he made odd appearances on talk shows, you could see something unique behind those eyes. It’s mischief. When Mulaney does his musical parodies, they are off the wall, as if he’s channeling Jack Paar and Steve Allen and Sid Caesar.
This show will evolve as Mulaney finds his footing and renews his most successful intimate relationship– with the audience. They love him, so there won’t be a problem. I was surprised how many young people were at the show– I mean under 16 with parents, and just over 18. They have always seen a kindred soul in John Mulaney. Long may he wave.
PS If you’re lucky to get in, City Winery makes you place your phone in a locked envelope for the duration of your stay. No pictures, no videos, no social media while Mulaney is on stage or prior to the show. Everyone survived, I must report, although the comedian chastised the audience for being moderate in their drinking. “What? Just one glass of wine?” he quipped, jealously.
EXCLUSIVE Who is Gregory Goeckner? No one knows, but he makes $250,000 a year thanks to several steep salary increases as CEO of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
When Goecker first arrived at the HFPA in 2013 he received just $108,000. He’s had a 131% salary increase over five years. (The latest tax return is for 2014.)
I’ve talked to several HFPA members who have no idea what Goecker does. He’s not a journalist or movie reviewer. If he was supposed to guide the HFPA through their many legal machinations, he’s failed. Now when the Globes have been cancelled for 2022 by NBC and are in disarray, Goeckner’s name has not been heard.
But Goeckner isn’t the only one who benefits from the cascades of millions that come in from Dick Clark Productions and NBC, all tax free. In 2019, the Globes claimed salaries of $3.4 million for their own people, up from $2.9 million in 2018.
Back in 2014, the Globes then president Theo Kingma made around $58,000. In 2019, president Meher Tetna earned $135,957. That’s a huge increase. Lorenzo Soria, now deceased, was paid $75K in 2019. Zoya Malinskaya, billed as “Financial officer,” took home $114K.
A source from the HFPA says, “It’s just a matter of time before the IRS takes a long look at all of this.”
What’s amazing is that with $3.4 million distributed among a few people no one in this group has been able to step up, take control, resolve the pending issues of racism and inclusivity, and rectify the situation. Instead, they’ve let it get so out of hand that there may not be a way for the HFPA to survive.
Here’s the simple solution to saving the Golden Globes: sell the name to Jay Penske.
The publisher of Variety and Deadline merged with MRC last September, the company that owns the Hollywood Reporter and Dick Clark Productions. DCP produces the Globes, so in a way, Penske already has a stake in the show. PMC and MRC formed an entity to handle TV awards shows like the Globes.
Penske could just buy the Globes name from the devalued Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Or buy the HFPA. With all the Penske publications, a new HFPA could be born with members who are real journalists. It could be a multicultural membership covering films just for the international markets.
Sound like a crazy idea? Hmmm….I’ve seen crazier things happen. Half the HFPA members could be excised in favor of real working journalists. And that would get rid of a lot of current HFPA members who are facing scrutiny on a lot of fronts.
The Golden Globes have been cancelled for 2022 by NBC.
They could return in 2023, but the whole thing is scotched for this season.
Wow.
Big News because the studios rely on that promotion.
Watch for the Oscars to move up to January as soon as they can get the date with ABC. This will be huge for the Academy which has wanted that early date forever.
The Academy has long desired to get the show moved up to an earlier date. The first week of January would be too soon. But late January or the first week of February– sweeps– would be their request certainly.
The whole problem with the Oscars is that the news cycle is much faster now than it was in the old days. Waiting from a December 31st eligibility til the last week of February is just too long.
Who could have predicted the Globes imploding and losing their traditional January date? The Academy will take advantage of this very quickly.
“Grey’s Anatomy” has been renewed by ABC for a 97th season. “Station 19,” its companion show, will return as well.
Star Ellen Pompeo signed a new contract after getting more money and more parking spaces. She also gets a new cream colored sweater and beach wear.
Pompeo spent all of Season 17 in a coma or on a beach looking at shells and talking to Patrick Dempsey about when he got fired years ago. Other actors who were let go also turned up, but their characters remained like so much flotsam and jetsam.
This season, two actors– Jesse Williams and Giacomo Gianniotti — were let go after long runs, for budgetary reasons. They will be replaced with cheaper actors.
And we don’t know yet if anyone else from the cast has been downsized, laid off, whatever. Three more episodes commence on May 20th. It could be that “Grey’s” is a 0ne woman show next year !
The Kennedy Center Honors inductees for 2021 are heading to Washington DC this week. Dick van Dyke, Midori, Debbie Allen, Garth Brooks, and Joan Baez are on their way to tape segments for the June 6th broadcast on CBS.
The KCH will take the place of the Tony Awards, usually shown on the second Sunday of June. The Tonys will resume this fall. The whole calendar is upside down thanks to the pandemic!
The inductees usually get a weekend blowout of parties and receptions including a visit to the White House. But this year the festivities will be curtailed. The show will be taped without a big audience, just high rollers and donors to the Kennedy Center, the inductees, their guests, and the celebrities participating in the show.
On the upside, we will see White House involvement for the first time in five years. The Bidens will most certainly be part of the action, happily. The former president had no interest in the arts or culture, and vice versa.
The Kennedy Center is under the gun this year for dismissing the National Symphony Orchestra among other things. Their bad publicity is notable.
But the Honors show on June 6th should do a lot to resolve bad feelings. It’s good group of inductees. And frankly, having the show in June and not buried on December 29th is a relief. Maybe people will watch it.
I am particularly thrilled about Dick van Dyke, who I interviewed a few weeks ago. Here is the link.
Chrissie Hynde is releasing her album of Bob Dylan covers in honor of his 80th birthday, and for a Dylan doc.
“Standing in the Doorway” is coming on May 21st. I previously had put up some of the songs here last year when Chrissie was posting them on You Tube. She also released a Pretenders album last year on BMG which bombed saleswise. BMG is releasing this one, too. Good luck. (Smartly it looks like she hired a good publicist this time, Ken Weinstein at Big Hassle.)
She recorded the songs with the Pretenders’ James Walbourne remotely during lockdown.
“A few weeks into lockdown last year, James sent me the new Dylan track, ‘Murder Most Foul.’” Hynde says. “Listening to that song completely changed everything for me. I was lifted out of this morose mood that I’d been in.I remember where I was sitting the day that Kennedy was shot – every reference in the song. Whatever Bob does, he still manages somewhere in there to make you laugh because as much as anything, he’s a comedian. He’s always funny and always has something to say. I called James and said, ‘Let’s do some Dylan covers,’ and that’s what started this whole thing.”
The intimate process behind “Standing In The Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan” will be featured in “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” a new documentary by International Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Michael Nunn and Billy Trevitt (Romeo & Juliet: Beyond Words, BalletBoyz) premiering exclusively via the UK’s Sky Arts channel on Monday, May 24th in celebration of Dylan’s 80th birthday; a U.S. broadcast premiere will be announced soon.
Warner Media including Warner Bros and HBO are out of the Golden Globes. They join Netflix, Amazon, and stars like Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo in shunning the Hollywood Foreign Press. NBC and Dick Clark Productions are now in panic mode.
Here’s the letter from Warner Media to the HFPA’s president Ali Sar.
More studios coming any minute!
Dear Ali,
As an organization, WarnerMedia is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion as moral and business imperatives, and we strive to be a force for good in our communities. As an industry, together with other production companies, studios, networks, guilds, unions and talent agencies, we all have a responsibility to ensure that our workforce, content and creative partners reflect the diversity of our society and the world around us. This also extends to the organizations with which we do business.
While we commend the HFPA membership’s approval of the plan to move towards radical reform, we don’t believe the plan goes far enough in addressing the breath of our concerns, nor does your timeline capture the immediate need by which these issues should be addressed. WarnerMedia Studios and Networks will continue to refrain from direct engagement with the HFPA, including sanctioned press conferences and invitations to cover other industry events with talent, until these changes are implemented. This includes work with HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Warner Bros. Television, TNT and TBS.
The work of ensuring equity and inclusion is never finished and something we all must work together to achieve. We understand the challenges ahead for you, as we work towards diversifying our own executive and employee ranks. However, we call upon you to move with greater urgency. The currently planned 18-month timeline runs through the 2023 Golden Globes, which means the same voting body will be impacting the next two nomination and voting cycles. The HFPA has a membership of less than 90 journalists. Lasting and meaningful change to your membership goals could be achieved in under 18 months. The HFPA cannot accurately reflect the best of our industry until your membership expands to reflect more of the social, cultural and ethnic diversity that exists in the stories we tell and the creators with whom we work.
We’re also asking for a strong commitment to significant change in talent press conferences. We are keenly aware of how much harder we’ve had to lobby to secure press conferences for a number of Black performers and creators, representing unquestionably worthy content. This same work has often then gone unrecognized in your nomination and awards process. In addition, our teams have endured press conferences where our talent were asked racially insensitive, sexist and homophobic questions. For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry. We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.
Our talent and our staff deserve a professional environment while doing their jobs promoting our series and films. Therefore, we would also like to see the HFPA implement a specific and enforced code of conduct that includes zero tolerance for unwanted physical contact of all talent and staff. We recognize that this conduct is not representative of your full membership, but we need assurances that there will be timely, actionable next steps to discipline members who exhibit inappropriate behavior.
These matters deserve urgency, and the timeline you have proposed thus far does not inspire confidence that meaningful change will happen before two more seasons of voting are impacted. We welcome a discussion to address these issues with you and look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks
Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO and HBO Max
Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group
Channing Dungey, Chairman, Warner Bros. Television Group
Brett Weitz, General Manager, TBS, TNT and truTV
Johanna Fuentes, Head of Global Communications, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks
Christy Haubegger, Chief Inclusion Officer, WarnerMedia
Van the man will have to stack physical copies of his “Latest Record Project” in his basement.
The double album of 28 whiny curmudgeonly tracks, including one that is thought to be anti-Semitic, sold 198 copies over the weekend.
There were about 3,000 copies equivalent from streaming of the anti-Semitic song “They Own the Media.”
You know what, Van? They do. And they don’t like you.
Morrison’s big F-U to everyone on a number of subjects, starting with COVID and the lockdown, has been rejected by whatever fans he still had left.
I’m sorry about this. Van Morrison is one of my all time favorite artists. His work from the 60s to the 90s is beyond compare. A recent album in the last decade, “Born to Sing: No Plan B,” I thought was genius.
But his Plan B seems to have been to lose his mind and offend everyone. His “Stand and Deliver” anti-lockdown song from last winter was the signal that Van had a cranial rupture of some kind. It didn’t help that he got Eric Clapton involved.
So do we just ignore “Latest Record Project” and move on? Or with 28 tracks and merchandise do we take it seriously and reconsider his whole career? I’m just going to pretend that “Plan B” was his final album and that he disappeared after that release.
