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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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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.

 

 

Hey Kate Winslet, Now You Know “Mare of Easttown” is a Hit: “SNL” Parody of HBO Series is a Hoot

Roger Friedman
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Hey Kate Winslet, Now You Know “Mare of Easttown” is a Hit: “SNL” Parody of HBO Series is a Hoot

Everything else tonight on “SNL” aside, their parody of “Mare of Easttown” was spot on. That’s how you know the HBO miniseries is a hit. The accents, the whole thing was wonderful. “Mare of Easttown” continues Sunday night, but it may be hard to watch it now. “Murdur Durdur” LOL.

Elon Musk Reveals During Charming “SNL” Hosting Appearance That He Has Asperger’s Syndrome

Roger Friedman
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Elon Musk Reveals During Charming “SNL” Hosting Appearance That He Has Asperger’s Syndrome

Tesla founder Elon Musk revealed tonight on “Saturday Night Live” that he has Asperger’s Syndrome. He said, “I’m the first person to host SNL with Aspergers. Or the first admit it.”

Through the first hour of the show, Musk — who appeared with his mother during the monologue — was very charming and not at all the Big Bad Wolf the show drummed up in his publicity. He appeared in several sketches and was extremely capable of reading off cue cards and getting laughs.

Musk also appeared on “Weekend Update” to explain cryptocurrency. He asked to be called The Dogefather. He couldn’t explain what it was, which was the joke. Michael Che concluded that dogecoin “is a hustle.” So true.

Miley Cyrus performed with Kid LaRoi, not solo, on their single “Without You,” which is part of her deal on Columbia Records after jumping from RCA. She also opened the show with a Mother’s Day song while the show’s cast appeared with their mothers. It was very sweet.

The show seemed a lot buzzier and pepped up in the last few weeks.

Tidal Wave: Jay Z, Shawn Mendes Manager, Prince Estate Chief Part of $19 Mil NFT Investment That Could Affect Music Biz

Roger Friedman
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Tidal Wave: Jay Z, Shawn Mendes Manager, Prince Estate Chief Part of $19 Mil NFT Investment That Could Affect Music Biz

There’s a lot to explain here.

Jay Z, Shawn Mendes’s manager Andrew Gertler, and Prince estate chief Troy Carter are among those who’ve been of a $19 million investment in a bitcoin company called Bitski. Also on the list: the ex Mrs. Rupert Murdoch aka Wendi Deng, and Serena Williams.

Bitski’s founder is Donnie Dinch is described as also the co-founder and CEO of WillCall, a music discovery app that makes it incredibly easy for people to see live shows.

Jay Z just sold his Tidal streaming service to Jack Dorsey’s Square for $350 million. But he’s sticking around. Jay’s partners in Tidal included his wife, Beyonce, Madonna, and Kanye West.

Launched in 2018, Bitski lets brands, game developers, and consumers create, sell, and purchase NFTs on its platform. NFT’s are non fungible tokens, a kind of digital currency, that is trying to overthrow our economy. No one understands it, but someone does and those people are going to have the last laugh.

Jack Dorsey gets it. On February 12th, Dorsey tweeted “Jay Z and and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named ₿trust to fund #Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India. It‘ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us.”

On March 4th, Jay Z tweeted: “I said from the beginning that TIDAL was about more than just streaming music, and six years later, it has remained a platform that supports artists at every point in their careers. Artists deserve better tools to assist them in their creative journey…Jack is one of the greatest minds of our times, and our many discussions about TIDAL’s endless possibilities have made me even more inspired about its future. This shared vision makes me even more excited to join the Square board…This partnership will be a game-changer for many. I look forward to all this new chapter has to offer!”

Since the Tweets we’ve seen The Weeknd make $2.9 million with an NFT offering. Mick Jagger made $50,000 for charity. Recording artists are hooking up with digital artists to offer new limited editions of projects to eager bitcoin investors. Since Tidal couldn’t compete with Spotify, maybe they can move in this direction with Dorsey’s money and management and Jay Z’s connections. We know that if “cutting edge” are the words uttered, Kanye will be there in a second.

NFTs, the return to live performance, Bitski, Jay Z, Twitter, Prince, Shawn Mendes all the ingredients are there for something. Stay tuned…

 

Tonight’s Elon Musk Hosted “Saturday Night Live” Will Go Live Internationally Streamed on YouTube

Roger Friedman
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Tonight’s Elon Musk Hosted “Saturday Night Live” Will Go Live Internationally Streamed on YouTube

“SNL” is really pulling out all the stops tonight.

Not only will the Elon Musk hosted segment go out live on NBC across the country the show will also air live internationally.

NBC is making it available on YouTube for the world also at 11:30pm tonight.

The whole Elon Musk adventure has turned into a public relations fiesta, with the show and NBC pushing the idea that the cast doesn’t want Musk there. They planted several stories like that, saying EP Lorne Michaels wouldn’t force anyone to do anything.

It’s all quite clever and made for more buzz than the show’s had in months. The ratings have been dismal recently, stuck at 3.6 million. So “SNL” is using Musk to create a storm and hopefully see a spike in viewership.

Miley Cyrus is the musical guest. She could use a sales boost too. We’ll see what happens.

Golden Globes in Peril Now of Really Not Coming Back as Netflix, Amazon, Stars Walk Away in Anger

Roger Friedman
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Golden Globes in Peril Now of Really Not Coming Back as Netflix, Amazon, Stars Walk Away in Anger

The Golden Globes are collapsing.

Scarlett Johansson has become the second major star to ditch the group, after her fellow “Avengers” star Mark Ruffalo did the same.

Johansson said in a statement: “As an actor promoting a film, one is expected to participate in awards season by attending press conferences as well as awards shows. In the past, this has often meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment. It is the exact reason why I, for many years, refused to participate in their conferences.

“The HFPA is an organization that was legitimized by the likes of Harvey Weinstein to amass momentum for Academy recognition, and the industry followed suit. Unless there is necessary fundamental reform within the organization, I believe it is time that we take a step back from the HFPA and focus on the importance and strength of unity within our unions and the industry as a whole.”

Ruffalo and Johansson are buttressed by Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, who yesterday also exited the Globes. Sarandos responded to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s vote to make sweeping changes in the organization. He didn’t buy it. “We’re stopping any activities with your organization until more meaningful changes are made.”

For Netflix to leave an awards group is major– they would do anything for an award or nomination. So this is serious.

Amazon has also joined in. “We have not been working with the HFPA since these issues were first raised, and like the rest of the industry, we are awaiting a sincere and significant resolution before moving forward.”

The issues are many but they start with the Globes’ racism, their lack of inclusivity, no Black members, the hostility of older members to change, not to mention their overall voting issues, and general creepiness.

Even now, as the whole enterprise is crumbling, the group has no leadership. They’ve failed to respond to the outcry around them in a meaningful way. Executives at NBC and Dick Clark Productions must be losing their minds as their Golden goose is being led to slaughter. But it was just a matter of time. This has been going on for decades. And no matter what I wrote about it here, or in my column, no one would do a thing about it

More to come. Absolutely.

Tawny Kitaen Dies at 59, MTV Pin Up from the 80s, Acted in B Films, Had an Affair with OJ Simpson, Lived Hard and Fast

Roger Friedman
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Tawny Kitaen Dies at 59, MTV Pin Up from the 80s, Acted in B Films, Had an Affair with OJ Simpson, Lived Hard and Fast

Tawny Kitaen, whose real name was Julie, died of unknown causes overnight at age 59.

She came to Hollywood as a teenager, dated heavy metal rock stars, married one, was a pin up in MTV videos and B movies, and had an affair with OJ Simpson while he was married to the wife he eventually murdered.

Lived hard and fast, died relatively young. She was a walking talking “E! True Hollywood Story.”

It’s an old story, and a tragic one.

Kitaen was gorgeous, and she knew it. She married Whitesnake singer David Coverdale. She did videos for Whitesnake and RATT, the literal bottom of the rock hierarchy. The best movie role she had was playing a young Tom Hanks’s girlfriend in “Bachelor Party.” She was one of the lead character’s girlfriends in an episode of “Seinfeld.”

After a run as a video vixen, she married major league pitcher Chuck Finley and had two daughters. He divorced her after a couple of years following a domestic abuse incident– she wounded him with a stiletto heel.

The downward slide commenced. Kitaen became a regular on MTV and VH-1 reality shows, had a much publicized cocaine problem, and was arrested in 2006 and 2009. And now, this. It’s very sad. \

Historians will pore over these videos for eons to come:

 

“Silence of the Lambs,” “Grey’s Anatomy” Star Brooke Smith Starting Her Own Emmy Campaign for Her Work on “Big Sky”

Roger Friedman
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“Silence of the Lambs,” “Grey’s Anatomy” Star Brooke Smith Starting Her Own Emmy Campaign for Her Work on “Big Sky”

I am totally down with this.

Brooke Smith was so good on “Big Sky” this season, she’s starting her do-it-yourself Emmy campaign.

You know Brooke from “Greys Anatomy” and “Silence of the Lambs,” among dozens of credits. She was a standout on “Big Sky” as Merilee Legarski, wife of the murderous psycho crazy sheriff played by John Carroll Lloyd.

Brooke writes:

As the daughter of PR guru Lois Smith, I understand the importance of campaigning for awards. I can’t afford a publicist, but I did pay the fees and submit myself for consideration to be nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for my work as Merrilee Legarski on David Kelley’s “Big Sky.” Because of the “stay in your lane” mentality of Studios, they won’t include me in any FYC panel discussions or press, or even put my name in the cast list on the Big Sky FYC page because I was a “recurring character” and not a “series regular”. I appeared in 8 out of 10 episodes (more than some of the other actors who were “series regulars”) and I was paid a lot less than everyone else, but I made peace with that because of the incredible material David E. Kelley was writing for me. I told myself that as long as I had great stuff to do on Big Sky playing Merrilee Legarski, I would survive being alone + away from my family in Vancouver for 6 months during a global pandemic. 
 
Even though I know about publicity and what it does, I have always believed that if you do good work, people will notice. It’s difficult to compete when FYC ads in trade magazines start at about 10k, and most actors have teams helping them to get the word out. But I am very proud of my work on this show, so I am trying to do a DIY campaign myself. I am emailing tv critics and trade magazines directly to ask them to vote for me if they liked my work on the show. What have I got to lose? “
OK Emmy voters. Best Supporting Actress Drama. Why can’t a great actress on a network show get nominated? Let’s start here !

RIP The Great Lloyd Price, R&B Pioneer, Age 88, Had Hits with “Stagger Lee,” “Personality”

Roger Friedman
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RIP The Great Lloyd Price, R&B Pioneer, Age 88, Had Hits with “Stagger Lee,” “Personality”

Lloyd Price has died at age 88. He was an R&B and rock pioneer, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with lots of hits including “Stagger Lee,” “Personality,” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.”

Lloyd was an entrepreneur, too. He was always cooking up ideas for tours and documentaries. He was part of the great soul tour hosted by Peter Wolf of J. Geils with Sam Moore, Jerry Butler, Chuck Jackson, Percy Sledge, Irma Thomas, and Gene Chandler. I saw it at the Beacon Theater on July 16, 1998 and it changed my life. Sam and Jerry wound up in my film, “Only the Survive” directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Lloyd was one of a kind, a trailblazer, and a great talent. His videos are below. His bio is here.

Condolences to his family and wide circle of friends and fans and admirers. He had “Personality” to spare.

 

 

Exclusive: Michael Jackson Estate Legal Team Adds Tom Mesereau to Arbitration Case Over “Leaving Neverland” Doc

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Michael Jackson Estate Legal Team Adds Tom Mesereau to Arbitration Case Over “Leaving Neverland” Doc

EXCLUSIVE

I’m told the Michael Jackson estate is preparing for battle with HBO in their arbitration case over the documentary, “Leaving Neverland.”

They’ve added to their legal team Thomas Mesereau, the superstar defense lawyer who brilliantly convinced a jury to acquit Jackson in his 2005 child molestation and conspiracy trial. The other members of the team are Bryan Freedman and Jonathan Steinsapir.

Adding Mesereau is a sensational idea because he put Wade Robson, one of the main subjects of the Dan Reed film, on the stand as a defense witness to support Jackson in the 2005 trial. If Robson testifies in the arbitration, which seems likely, he would be facing Mesereau in a much different way this time.

Both Robson and James Safechuck have seen lawsuits filed against the Estate dismissed by the court in the last year. Their credibility has been severely damaged by many contradictions in their recollection of alleged sexual abuse. Both men were steadfast supporters of Jackson during his trial and after his 2009 death, but suddenly remembered abuse in 2013.

On the stand in 2005, Robson, his mother, and sister all testified on Jackson’s behalf. They stayed at Neverland during the trial. Robson even asked Jackson to be married at the Neverland Ranch, where he later said abuse took place. He also dated Jackson’s niece for some time.

At the heart of the Jackson estate’s suit against HBO is an agreement between the cabler and Jackson dating back to 1992 in which HBO promised never to besmirch the singer. It was part of a deal for a concert film. HBO tried to get away with breaking the agreement but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Jackson estate.

The court said: “The contract contained a broad arbitration clause that covers claims that HBO disparaged Jackson in violation of ongoing confidentiality obligations. We may only identify whether the parties agreed to arbitrate such claims; it is for the arbitrator to decide whether those claims are meritorious.”

The arbitrators are being chosen now, and the actual process should begin within the next month, I’m told.

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