Where is Oscar nominee Anthony Hopkins? Getting ready for the Oscars? No. He posted a Tweet from his father’s graveside in Wales. He’s quoting Dylan Thomas. And getting an Oscar for that as well as “The Father.” Beautiful.
Richard Hopkins, my beloved father, resting in eternal peace… 🏴
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Dylan Thomas pic.twitter.com/LbOegtGa9b— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) April 25, 2021
I’m seeing articles lamenting that the Best Picture nominees for tonight’s Oscars weren’t popular or didn’t have big box office numbers.
The Oscars are not a popularity contest. They’re about awarding craftsmanship. The movies chosen in every Oscar year are meant to last, and grow, as pieces of art, kids. Commercial art, maybe, yes. But it’s not about how many seats they filled, or how often they were streamed.
And it’s been like that always. I’ve chosen 1980, a wonderful year for film, an an example.
The Best Picture nominees were “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Norma Rae,” “Breaking Away,” and “All That Jazz.”
The winner was “Kramer,” which made $11.6 million on its release and didn’t ultimately hit $106 million until well after Oscar nominations and the win.
Runner up was “Apocalypse Now,” which ultimately earned $89 million, didn’t break $100 million and lost money. It became a classic over four decades.
The remaining three were not widely seen at the time and didn’t make much money. The lovely “Breaking Away” earned $16.8 million. “Norma Rae” was about $23 million. “All that Jazz” did a little better with $37.8 million.
All of them, despite low numbers in 1980, are still seen today and highly regarded and even kind of loved.
That is the case for every year. Sometimes you get a big box office hit in the mix. More than often you don’t.
Keep that in mind. This year’s films, in an odd pandemic year, were really terrific. “Nomadland,” “Minari,” “Chicago 7,” “Ma Rainey,” “The Father,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Billie Holiday,” — there isn’t a clunker in the group. Even “Mank” will remain watchable, and maybe more so as time goes by. Did they set box office records? No. But they added to the human condition. And that’s what this is all about.
PS There will be a rush to post the ratings tomorrow morning, wait and see — headlines about lowest rated Oscars ever. Let’s concede that point now, and just enjoy the show.
Last night’s Oscar-eve Zoom gala was The Night Before, the usually in person fundraiser for the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California.
A kind of un-Quarantunes, The Night Before was quirkily produced and in the end had some outstanding moments. And there was also Gary Oldman, crooning with a jazz band.
But the serious presentations were worth whatever it cost to log on to this thing. Andra Day gave an absolutely stunning performance of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” accompanied by Kris Bowers. (They are each Oscar nominees tonight.) Wow!
Twelve time Oscar nominee Diane Warren got a special tribute from LeAnn Rimes, who performed their hit, “How Do I Live” and El DeBarge, who came to the piano for his Warren hit, “Rhythm of the Night.” But it was Broadway’s Brandon Victor Dixon who stole the show with his version of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Someone should release that recording as a single, pronto!
“The Night Before” took a while to get off the ground. Luckily Tony winner Lena Hall saved the pre-show entertaining guests with hits from Prince, Queen, and so on. Hall, who needs a hit show of her own, is a versatile entertainer and a good sport. She had to keep adding songs as the show’s take off was delayed. Luckily she had a nice A list audience sending in requests on the chat board.
Another highlight of the Zoom, which began at 11 pm Eastern, was Macy Gray introducing a great new single she dropped on Friday called “Thinking of You.” Macy has had an up and down career with one massive hit, “I Try,” and lots of good records. But this one I really liked, I wish radio would do something for her.
Eventually, I tuned out of this special because of the late hour. Certainly the oddest moment was Gary Oldman performing with a jazz combo. It was a little like Kevin Spacey doing his Bobby Darin imitation. Great actors can “do” singers even when it verges on self-parody. But he looked like he was having fun. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But just to reiterate: if the Motion Picture Home wants to make some money, release those Andra Day-Kris Bowers and Brandon Victor Dixon videos. Sensational!
PS Okay one funny thing. Comedian Jeff Ross did a little stand up with Diane Warren, at her expense. Thank god she has a sense of humor. Ross noted that Warren (who does curse like a sailor) was a fan of George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television.
Cracks Ross: “You know seven other words you won’t hear on television tomorrow night? And the Oscar goes to Diane Warren!”
Warren laughed, she couldn’t believe it. You could hear people in the room do spit-takes.
Ouch!
Photo c2021 Showbiz411 by Paul Antonelli
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Lindsey Graham, who I think is a United States Senator, seems confused today about who recently won the Presidential election. He tells Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that “we just elected a two term African American president.” He’s unaware of Joe Biden having been elected.
Lady G, as he’s known in some circles, may have been time traveling back to 2012 during his interview. Experts also said this week that not enough sleep can cause dementia. Is Lady G not getting enough sleep before interviews? Was he up late Saturday night watching TCM?
All I know is, Roger Ailes woke up in his hot surroundings and said Obama still president? Let’s get rid of him!
Lindsey Graham says systemic racism isn’t an issue in America because Barack Obama and Kamala Harris were elected pic.twitter.com/PqRdoeWmHW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 25, 2021
Here’s an update on the “CBS Sunday Morning” profile of Jon Voight.
TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz (grand-nephew of “Mank’) glossed over Voight’s loonier stuff and stuck to his career. He did called Voight a “Trumper,” and mentioned his nutty “Roe v. Wade” movie, but didn’t get into it very deeply.
On the Trump front, Mankiewicz omitted Voight’s real devotion to Trump, how he spoke at the 2016 Inauguration — lone among actors — and eventually was rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Voight did not get to opine on a number of things that would have made “Sunday Morning” viewers’ hair stand up straight.
Voight is real dilemma because he is charming and an excellent actor. When you talk to him in person, he glows, and he’s a lot of fun. But then the politics start, and you want to run for the hills. The “Roe v. Wade” movie is an abomination. But if there’s more “Ray Donovan,” and he returns, that’s always welcome.
I must say, I enjoyed the pieces this morning on Merry Clayton and Russ Tamblyn a lot more. Buy Merry’s album on Amazon. It’s wonderful.
Rita Wilson speaking on the record about Scott Rudin. Don’t take this lightly. This is a major headline.
Rita Wilson tells the New York Times of Rudin: “He is the kind of person who makes someone feel worthless, unvaluable, and replaceable.”
Rita starred in a Larry David play, “Fish in the Dark,” on Broadway produced by Rudin. She tells the Times that Rudin “lamented” she might miss Tony voting season because she was having treatment for breast cancer.
Got that?
“I felt like he was trying to find a way to fire me legally,” Wilson told the Times, noting that Rudin asked to see her medical records. Why? In case she was lying about the breast cancer? The treatments? Who knows?
Rita Wilson is known in Hollywood as a stand up person. She speaks her mind, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She’s kind of a leader among celebrity friends. She’s also married to maybe the King of Hollywood, Tom Hanks. And she and Tom are BFFs with Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw. This is Rita Wilson, who produced a massive hit, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” She’s also got a great music career. You do not insult Rita Wilson.
For Wilson to feel comfortable enough to unload to the New York Times about her shabby treatment means Scott Rudin is toast. When you think about it, you wonder how he thought he could treat her that way in the first place? Did he not understand the impact of his actions? Did he think she’d never mention how she was treated? Forget the New York Times, how about her friends? Her husband?
Let’s not brush by this moment. Rudin has been accused of throwing people out of cars, tossing baked potatoes at them, instigating a suicide, and no end of obnoxious behavior. It was one thing that he didn’t regard underlings seriously or respect anyone around him. But making Rita Wilson feel bad — and I’m serious, not being facetious — seems like the stupidest move he could have made. And I thought even Rudin understood Hollywood politics. I guess not.
Some things you might be able to overcome. The flying potato, the nervous breakdowns. But not this. This may go down as the fatal mistake.
And PS Rita was really good in the play!
The Academy Museum sent out a Timeline featuring many “firsts:” among them citing “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), the first X-rated film to win Best Picture. With Glenn Frankel’s new book, “Shooting Midnight Cowboy,” much has been written clarifying that X-rating: “Few had high expectations that an X-rated movie about an aspiring male prostitute made in New York… would do well in the Hollywood-centric Oscars.”
But a more unusual circumstance for the film’s Oscar success was that it won with almost no campaign to shepherd it along with Academy voters—certainly, as Frankel notes, it had “no money for the lavish events that Universal and 20th Century Fox” hosted for “Anne of a Thousand Days” and “Hello, Dolly!” — the kind of thing that in recent years Peggy Siegal did so well, hired by the studios to host luncheons that featured filmmakers and actors in high-minded conversation about making art.
Instead, the “Midnight Cowboy” producers made sepia-toned stills, using different ones for each ad. Frankel quotes Gabe Sumner at United Artists, “It was a terrific movie. We didn’t need anyone to stand up and give a speech. We knew what we had.”
Director John Schlesinger, shooting “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in London, did not attend the ceremony. As Frankel notes, his win for Best Director was the biggest surprise of the evening. Jon Voight picked up the award for Schlesinger, and speaking on behalf of the director thanked writer James Leo Herlihy for his novel. Waldo Salt won Best Screenplay for his adaptation.
Sylvia Miles was famously nominated for Best Supporting Actress for just a few memorable minutes of screen time as Cass. She delicately out-hustled hustler Joe Buck out of $20 “cab fare” after sex, but lost to Goldie Hawn in “Cactus Flower.” Miles used to say, she was nominated over other women in “Midnight Cowboy”—namely Brenda Vaccaro, because Brenda wouldn’t be naked onscreen. Glenn Frankel, interviewing costume designer Ann Roth, tells the story that she found a way to “dress” Vaccaro, in a fur, suggesting the nudity underneath. In any case, for Miles, demure Vaccaro — who went onto other successes– missed the mark.
“Midnight Cowboy” won 3 out of 7 Oscars and remains the only X rated film to win Best Picture.
UPDATED MONDAY MORNING APRIL 26TH
The vultures are circling Scott Rudin’s shows.
Revealed in a New York Times article this afternoon was news that Rudin has resigned from the Broadway League. He’s really out, done, it’s over at least for now. He’s giving up running a slew of hit shows.
Now outside producers are vying to take over “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “West Side Story,” “Book of Mormon,” and so on.
I’m told that Barry and Fran Weissler, of “Chicago” fame, may have already stepped in on Mormon. But a “Mormon” spokesman says it’s not true. “No one is stepping in.”
Matt Stone, who created “Mormon” with Trey Parker of “South Park,” says in the Times article that he and another producer told Rudin he had to relinquish his role in the show.
Of course, what all producers want is to get their hands on “The Music Man” with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. “It’s the perfect show for our times,” a top Broadway producer told me today. “Coming out of the pandemic, with all that upbeat singing, and Hugh Jackman. It’s a gold mine.”
Rudin also has some new productions waiting to go forward including “Our Town” with Dustin Hoffman, which will be a hot ticket. And Denzel Washington is set to star in August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”
But what about Rudin? A top Broadway producer who comes from corporate America praised the way Rudin has handled his scandal. “He didn’t deny it, and didn’t resist. He just said Ok, I’m guilty, I’m leaving, I’m out. He definitely took a crisis manager’s advice, unlike Harvey Weinstein or Les Moonves. It was brilliant.
“The question now,” says the theater veteran, “is who takes over? Scott has unique access to Hollywood and Broadway. He also had vision. Who can fill that void? I don’t know.”
And the bigger question: Can Scott Rudin come back? “If anyone can,” says this observer, “he can.”
“Saturday Night Live” doesn’t learn its lesson.
They announced this afternoon that the next host of the show, on May 8th, is billionaire Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX fame. The musical guest is Miley Cyrus.
News of Musk’s gig was met with disdain and mockery from viewers who still won’t forgive “SNL” for letting Donald Trump host a few years ago.
One wrote on Twitter: “Next week on SNL: Robert and Rebekah Mercer hosting, Slipknot is musical guest.”
Another posted: “Lorne Michaels helped humanize Donald Trump, too, by sticking him on “SNL” and Jimmy Fallon. Coming next season: Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin!”
New York comedian Judy Gold opined: “You want to know what I find infuriating? The fact that @elonmusk is hosting @nbcsnl and #CarolBurnett has never been asked to host #SNL in the over 45 years they have been on the air.”
And so on.
Musk is an unpopular choice, not a hip one, which is what I think Lorne Michaels was going for. He is not hip, nor funny, and no one wants him. But “SNL” is struggling to find hosts at a time when no celebrities are promoting movies. Also, their ratings are at dangerous lows– 3.6 million two weeks in a row, far below an acceptable 4.2 or so.
As for Miley Cyrus, who knows why she’s coming? Her most recent album was a dud, but she always puts on a good show. She’s not selling anything in particular this time around. And being on “SNL” hasn’t done much for record sales recently anyway. Nick Jonas introduced two new songs from a new album two months ago. The whole project sank like a stone.
Will there be sketches about Tesla’s exploding without drivers? SpaceX rocket ships needing to be rescued? Stay tuned…
Before author Michael Chabon got involved as a writer on the recent “Star Trek” TV off shoots, he was a very acclaimed literary novelist. One of his books, “Wonder Boys,” starring Michael Douglas was was turned into a terrific film produced by the now embattled Scott Rudin.
Chabon worked with Rudin for twenty years on and off, also trying to get movies of his other books like “Kavalier and Clay,” produced for film.
Now Chabon says, writing on Medium.com, that Rudin was a horror.
Chabon writes: “I didn’t even break with Scott when, in 2010, he turned the fury, vitriol and vituperation against me, in a dispute over the terms of a deal, in a series of potent Rudin email bombs packed with nails, razor blades and personal insults. It wasn’t until some five years later, when he began — behind our backs — to demean and shit-talk my wife, that I finally drew a line, and resolved not to work with him again.”
Chabon’s wife, Ayelet Waldman, also a respected writer and producer, last night re-Tweeted out her husband’s column. I suspect things were even worse than Chabon says.
Chabon saw during his meetings at Rudin’s office what was going on with the staff. He remembers Kevin Graham-Caso, whose brother posted an emotional video about Kevin’s suicide last fall.Chabon says: “He was a sweetheart — and it was a gut-punch to learn, from his brother David’s recent video, about his suicide, following years of struggle with PTSD.”
“I regularly, even routinely, heard him treat his staff, from the new kid doing the coffee run to the guy just under Scott on the SRP organizational chart, with what I would call a careful, even surgical contempt, like a torturer trained to cause injuries that leave no visible marks. And I saw him throw a pencil, once, at an assistant as the young man fled Scott’s office and Scott’s shouting. The pencil struck the back of the assistant’s head, eraser end first, and fell to the carpet. A minute later, Scott called me into his office, and we started talking, as if nothing untoward had happened, about whatever script we were working on at the time.”
Many people who’ve worked with Rudin haven’t said a word so far. Their silence is deafening. There’s also been a muted response from some press people who obviously fear Rudin will rise from this scandal unscathed. They want to stay on his good side.
Carpet bombs in the New York Times, Vulture, and some Broadway website have fallen on Rudin this week like it’s the blitz in London all over again. There’s destruction, but as you can see London rebuilt from the rubble.