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Chrissie Hynde Releasing Her Album of Bob Dylan Covers for His 80th Birthday, Documentary

Roger Friedman
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Chrissie Hynde Releasing Her Album of Bob Dylan Covers for His 80th Birthday, Documentary

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.

Listen (Watch) to Chrissie Hynde’s Gorgeous 7 Minute Take on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight”

Warner Bros., HBO, All Warner Media Exit the Golden Globes Over Inclusivity, Racism Issues

Roger Friedman
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Warner Bros., HBO, All Warner Media Exit the Golden Globes Over Inclusivity, Racism Issues

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 Morrison Whiny “Latest Record Project Sold” 198 Copies in 3 Days, It’s Gone “Into the Mystic”

Roger Friedman
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Van Morrison Whiny “Latest Record Project Sold” 198 Copies in 3 Days, It’s Gone “Into the Mystic”

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.

Uh Oh: American Idol Special Drops 16%, Loses 1 Million Viewers with Chris Martin Coldplay Special Appearance

Roger Friedman
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Uh Oh: American Idol Special Drops 16%, Loses 1 Million Viewers with Chris Martin Coldplay Special Appearance

What???

Last night’s “American Idol” dropped by 16.3% from last week, down over 1 million viewers.

Chris Martin was featured a mentor to the singers and Coldplay introduced their new single.

The numbers were supposed to go UP not down. What happened?

I feel bad for Chris Martin, he’s a nice guy. He was a charismatic mentor, definitely. Ryan Seacrest swooned over the way he wore t shirts. Their single, “Higher Power,” stayed at number 5 on iTunes, also. I thought it would spike up some.

But a million people who watched last week just tuned out. This was the lowest rated Sunday so far this season for “Idol.” Gobsmacking.

Were the show’s fans mad after last week’s dismissal of the only contestant who should win this year? That was Alyssa, a possible new Jennifer Hudson.

Instead, the finalists were a random bunch. But Hunter Metts, a blonde kinda Ryan Phillippe looking singer songwriter seemed to have an edge on everyone else. And guess what? He was dismissed at the end of the show! That was a surprise!

I have low expectations for the finale of this season now.

 

 

Broadway: Sondheim’s “Company” Revival, The One Show Everyone Wanted to See, Will Finally Open on January 9th

Roger Friedman
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Broadway: Sondheim’s “Company” Revival, The One Show Everyone Wanted to See, Will Finally Open on January 9th

The one Broadway show everyone wanted to see, the latest revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” will finally open January 9th after an almost two year wait.

“Company” was going into previews when the pandemic started. And then it was stopped cold in its tracks.

Patti Lupone stars with the great Katrina Lenk, each Tony Award winners played parts usually portrayed by male actors. The show, directed by Marianne Elliot, was a huge hit in London.

Previews begin December 20th. The whole thing will sell out before I finished typing this sentence.

The musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in the Big Apple is turned on its head in Elliott’s revelatory staging, in which musical theatre’s most iconic bachelor becomes a bachelorette. At Bobbie’s (Lenk) 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man?  And, why can’t she settle down and have a family?  This whip smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim’s best loved songs, including “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and the iconic “Being Alive.”

This is the fourth time “Company” has been revived, its fifth production overall. The original production launched a landmark documentary made by DA Pennebaker, still the template for great films about Broadway shows. The original cast was featured making the album for the show, with Elaine Stritch giving one of the all time musical performances on film. You can buy that now on DVD over on amazon while waiting for this production. It’s worth it.

 

Chris Martin and Coldplay Learn Their Lesson from 2019 Dud Album, Return in “American Idol” Spotlight

Roger Friedman
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Chris Martin and Coldplay Learn Their Lesson from 2019 Dud Album, Return in “American Idol” Spotlight

A year and a half ago, November 2019: Coldplay released a new album, “Everyday People,” and watched it sink like a stone. Initial sales were only around 35,000 copies. Total sales now are about twice that. It was a disaster.

What happened? No singles? No marketing? The same thing happened this winter to Nick Jonas. It hurts.

Now Coldplay is coming back. Tonight, Chris Martin was a mentor on “American Idol” for an hour. The kids were forced to sing his songs. Then Coldplay gave a world premiere of their new single, “Higher Power.” Released on Friday with a lot of {“Idol” promotion, it’s number 5 on iTunes.

‘Higher Power’ also during a special link-up to the International Space Station, with the song receiving its first play on an “extraterrestrial transmission” to French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is on board the ship.

A new album will be announced momentarily. After the “Everyday People” debacle, you can see that Martin — who can’t money from stadium tours right — is putting some effort into making all this new music work. What does it cost to take over “American Idol”? The price is worth it. And Martin was smart. Instead of getting involved with the bogus Global Citizen show this weekend, he chose a real program on a broadcast network. That has to work, right?

The Astonishing Collapse of James Franco’s Career Cemented Now by Former Pal Seth Rogen in UK Interview

Roger Friedman
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The Astonishing Collapse of James Franco’s Career Cemented Now by Former Pal Seth Rogen in UK Interview

Seth Rogen is done with James Franco.

This is BIG news. Franco, who was already on the outs with a lot of people when he made “The Disaster Artist,” still had Rogen in his corner. They’d met during “Freaks and Geeks,” and Franco had revived their friendship as a way to keep a revenue stream alive while he made his weird, costly, indie films that flopped.

But then the allegations and accusations about Franco and sexual misbehavior were starting to mount. Franco has been sued by ex students, and railed against in public by young actresses on a variety of unsavory issues. And that’s all pretty ironic considering Franco was cultivating a kind of gender bender semi-gay gestalt to his audience.

Was he doing it to seem harmless to women while secretly on the prowl?

Now Rogen tells the Sunday London Times their relationship kaput. Rogen says: “I don’t know if I can define [our personal relationship] right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.”

“What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that,” Rogen said.

He added, “However, I do look back at a joke I made on Saturday Night Live in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke. It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.” In the SNL episode, Franco DMs a 17-year-old British schoolgirl and asks for her number.

What seemed amusing then is not now in the new world order.

What pushed Rogen was an accusation from actress Charlayne Yi that she tried to leave “The Disaster Artist” during the shoot because of mistreatment. She says she was offered a bribe to stay, and that Rogen was in on it.

Rogen tells the Times: “What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that.”

After “Freaks and Geeks,” Franco drifted away from the Rogen-Judd Apatow axis. But he returned in 2008 on “Pineapple Express” and continued to work in that world on the stoner comedy “Your Honor,” on Rogen’s North Korea comedy that blew up in everyone’s faces, “The Interview,” plus was a voice in “Sausage Party” and participated in “This is the End.”

“The Disaster Artist,” on which Rogen served a producer, was the breaking point. In the intervening years between this film and “The Interview,” Franco had gone full throttle into giving acting classes, getting college degrees,and making movies no one wanted to see. He was fully immersed in his own myth. He’d disappeared right up his own ass. (Let’s not forget when he “remade” episodes of the sitcom “Three’s Company’ and showed them on video screens at Sundance.)

So now Rogen is gone. Apatow, who takes very public positions in favor of women’s rights in Hollywood, has to be out, too. Where does that leave Franco? He’s still dealing with a lawsuit. And even if he settles with all his accusers, how he’ll resume his career is a mystery.

Golden Globes Cancelled for 2022 by NBC, Oscars Will Likely Move to January!

 

“SNL” Ratings: Elon Musk Hosted Show Lifts The Numbers By 1.2 Million Viewers to 4.8 Mil, A Healthy Increase

Roger Friedman
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“SNL” Ratings: Elon Musk Hosted Show Lifts The Numbers By 1.2 Million Viewers to 4.8 Mil, A Healthy Increase

The Elon Musk hosted episode of “Saturday Night Live” was a ratings hit. Not explosive, but good enough after a miserable few monnths.

The show been mired in low numbers for the last several weeks, bringing in just 3.6 million viewers a week. Reports of a season average of 9 are correct but misleading. The bigger numbers from last week fall during the election inflates the average.

The 4.8 in households is tied for the third highest telecast of the season, behind only the Nov. 7 Dave Chappelle-hosted episode and the Oct. 3 season premiere hosted by Chris Rock.

Musk performed admirably on the show. He was self-effacing and fun. I know some people were angry that he was the host, but the show needed a jolt and that was perfect.

Miley Cyrus Gets No Sales Bounce from “SNL” After Reading Teleprompter for Song Lyrics During Performance

Roger Friedman
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Miley Cyrus Gets No Sales Bounce from “SNL” After Reading Teleprompter for Song Lyrics During Performance

Miley Cyrus appeared not to remember the lyrics to her song, “Plastic Hearts,” last night when she performed it live on “SNL.”

During the song, her third of the night, she repeatedly looked down at the TelePrompter to find the lyrics. The song is only a year old, it’s not like an oldie she might have forgotten. Oh well. It was that unmemorable. “Plastic Hearts” sounds like about 40 different songs, with a very recognizable Motown backbeat.

Miley’s other big number was singing as a duet partner to a young guy named Kid Laroi on his hit, “Without You.”

The former song didn’t sell one copy on iTunes based on the performance, and “Without You” remained where it was in the top 10.

Don’t get me wrong: I like Miley, and her voice is great. But this was a throwaway appearance. And they must have chosen “Plastic Hearts” at the last minute. She did look great, though. If this were the 70s or 80s, Miley would be hosting an hour long variety show every week with Kenan Thompson as her featured player.

Coming this Saturday is Olivia Rodrigo with her novelty hit, “Driver’s License.”

Ratings Need Shot in the Arm as “VaxLive,” Rock Concert with JLo, Prince Harry from Shady Global Citizen Beaten Soundly by NBC’s “Dateline”

Roger Friedman
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0
Ratings Need Shot in the Arm as “VaxLive,” Rock Concert with JLo, Prince Harry from Shady Global Citizen Beaten Soundly by NBC’s “Dateline”

“Vax Live,” a rock concert with appearances by Prince Harry, Meghan, and the Bidens, was a flop.

From 8 to 9pm last night, the show, touted from shady group Global Citizen, lost on ABC and CBS to NBC’s “Dateline” by a lot.

On CBS, the concert scored 1.3 million. On ABC, it was 1.7 million. “Dateline” came in with 2.7 million people.

Data from cable and other platforms isn’t in yet, but on YouTube “Vax Live” had 31,000 viewers at the finale, when Jennifer Lopez was performing.

Global Citizen will later say the consciousness raising hour had millions more viewers and have no documentation since none of the other platforms on which the show was placed reveal their numbers.

The show featured HER, Foo Fighters, Lopez, and a few other acts. There was no sign of Chris Martin of Coldplay, who is supposed to be an official ambassador for Global Citizen. Instead, Coldplay will appear on “American Idol” tonight to launch their new record. They’ve made their choice of venues, obviously.

Global Citizen used to be called Global Poverty and presented itself as helping global hunger. No more. Now it is used to raise money for executives’ salaries and travel perks, and to have their staff rub elbows with rock stars.

 

 

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