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CBS Sunday Morning Woody Allen Interview Omits Mia Farrow’s Child Molester Brother, Mia’s Three Dead Children

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So CBS and Lee Cowan, who is quite smarmy on camera, have omitted a lot from their Woody Allen interview on Paramount Plus.

The interview was conducted for “CBS Sunday Morning” last July. There’s no way that Woody could have defended himself against the recently aired HBO special because no one knew about it last July.

In the interview, which you could pay $5.99 for or get a free trial to the streaming service before cancelling it (which I advise), Cowan opens by telling the audience Allen is “reviled” and conveys fairly clearly that he’s disgusted by even being there. Cowan has always been the B team on “CBS Sunday Morning” to Anthony Mason. He’s really at a low point here.

This is what we get: that Woody feels Dylan believes the accusations against him even though they are not true. “She was a nice kid,” he says. She was 7 when he last saw her, more than 25 years ago.

He once again denies all the accusations, and repeats the obvious: why would a 57 year old man with no history of any such activity suddenly choose that moment to molest a little girl — at Mia’s house, with lots of witnesses downstairs, and the spotlight of custody trial looming. It makes no sense.

Cowan concedes that Woody went on to marry Soon Yi, it’s been 23 years, and they adopted two little girls who are now in college. As Woody says, “They don’t give two baby girls to someone they think is a pedophile.” They don’t, he’s right, and he’s not a child molester. “And yet,” Woody says, “the smear has remained.”

There is no mention of Mia Farrow’s brother, John, who just served 7 years of a 25 year sentence for child molestation in Maryland. There is also no mention of the suicide of two of Mia Farrow’s adopted children, and a third one who died. The facts are irrelevant to Cowan.

So you don’t have to subscribe to Paramount Plus, don’t waste your money. As I wrote in a previous item, Woody’s team expected this interview to air last summer after it was taped. They say they were lied to for months, and no idea that the interview would be held this long only to be put on a streaming service. Meanwhile, on the free CBS Sunday Morning, Woodyh is kicked around once again, out of context, and without a defense.

And I hate to say it, but when Woody passes away — he’s 85 now– CBS will exploit this by repurposing Cowan’s clips over and over. Disgusting.

 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Never Told Woody Allen Team News Interview Would Move to Pay Service: “Lied to Us Month After Month”

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When Lee Cowan interviewed Woody Allen last July for “CBS Sunday Morning,” it was a news segment tied to the release of Allen’s memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”

But the piece debuted this morning, nine months later, it was not on a CBS News program but on CBS’s pay streaming subscription service, Paramount Plus.

The Allen team had no idea what had happened to the Cowan piece or that it was going to be charged for.

Woody’s sister and producing partner Letty Aronson, tells me exclusively: “They lied to us month after month, finally breaking their word that it would be about Woody’s career and new book and play with absolutely no controversy (we don’t do that on our Sunday Morning show).”

I asked if, with the switch to pay streaming, if there was now remuneration involved. Suddenly, CBS is getting income from charging for a Woody Allen interview. Aronson added in an email: “And he’s not getting paid.”

Not getting paid, as well as rights issues, may be a problem now. It could be argued that CBS pulled a fast one on Woody, actingi duplicitously and disingenuously.

PS Paramount Plus isn’t even promoting the interview. You have to search for CBS Sunday Morning and find it there. A fair piece? I’ll tell you in a bit.

stay tuned…

PS Here’s a real Woody Allen interview I did in 2014.

Flashback: Woody Allen Makes a Brilliant Chocolate Malted, Hasn’t Had a Hot Dog in 15 Years

Johnny Depp Down for the Count: Latest Movie, “City of Lies,” Earns Just $500K in 2 Weeks of Release

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Johnny Depp is not having a good year, or decade really.

His latest film, “City of Lies,” made just $118K this weekend. In its two weeks of release, “City of Lies” has earned just $500,000.

Ouch! That amount of money is a drop in the bucket for Depp, who has spent millions in court fighting his ex wife, Amber Heard, and losing financially and in public relations. He’s also lost millions from spending wildly. Maybe he has deep hidden reserves somewhere, but on the face of it, he’s allowed himself to be hobbled.

“City of Lies” has a 50 rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t nearly has bad as most of Depp’s releases for the last decade or more. He hasn’t been in a movie that both made money and got good reviews since “Into the Woods” in 2014. He earned decent reviews playing Whitey Bulger in 2015, but the movie, “Black Mass,” scored just $63 million.

“City of Lies” comes from Saban Films, not exactly a prestigious distributor. It tells the story of Russell Poole, the real life detective who tried to find the killers of rapper Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious BIG aka Biggie Smalls. The film had no marketing whatsoever, no publicity, and evidently no interest. The New York Times described Depp’s performance as “onfusing somnolent with serious.”

 

CBS Sunday Morning Sandbags Woody Allen, Labels Him a “Bad Actor” on Free TV, Relegates His Interview to Paid Streaming Service

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Everyone thinks of “CBS Sunday Morning” as this sort of kind, generous TV show for smart adults. And a lot of the time it is is like big comfy sofa.

But they make mistakes a lot of the time and don’t do a lot of vetting. This morning they featured a book called “1974” which was about music from 1972 and TV shows that started in 1970. All they had to do was Google it.

They also sandbagged Woody Allen. They took an unaired interview from last July and put it on CBS’s paid streaming service, Paramount Plus. You wanna know what Woody thought last July? Well, cough up some dough.

Meanwhile, Erin Moriarty, who I really liked back when she was on Channel 2 in New York, ran a crazy piece about separating artists from their bad behavior. She labeled Woody a ‘bad actor’ and not in the theatrical sense but as a bad person, smearing him with no evidence– just he’s a bad guy. There was a passing graphic about Woody’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, who’s been conned into saying bad things about him by Mia Farrow.

Also smeared: Michael Jackson. Like Woody, never convicted of anything. (Woody was never arrested for anything, either.)

Not mentioned: that CBS’s former chief Les Moonves left the network in disgrace, and so did their Charlie Rose. They also each accomplished great things in broadcasting but had personal habits. But let’s not go there.

“CBS Sunday Morning” is often very selective. They take a lot of information at face value without doing a lot of research. Most of the time it works. This morning, it didn’t. (I did like their piece on Brenda Vaccaro, but how could you go wrong with her?)

As for Woody, Paramount Plus costs $5.99 a month. I’ll try and get the free trial to watch Woody, and then cancel my subscription. That would seem fair and balanced, right?

Lil Nas X Paves Over His Old Town Road with R-Rated “Montero” Meditation on Homophobia, Satanism, and Lap Dancing

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Lil Nas X, the 21 year old rapper, made so much money last year from “Old Town Road” he can do anything he likes now.

And he is.

His new single and video, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” is causing a sensation. The video already has more than 10 million views on YouTube. The single is number 3 on iTunes. People are paying attention.

“Montero” is named for the rapper himself– that’s his first name. The single covers homophobia, Satanism, Plato, and lap dancing. It’s no Old Town Road. That’s all  been paved over. Lil Nas X is turning himself into a force to be reckoned with.

Nas made a lot of jokes last year on Twitter about all the “Old Town Road” remixes, especially the one with Billy Ray Cyrus that put him over the top. I’m not sure there will be any country stars lining up for this one, but you never know.

Whatever you think of the song, this video has incredible graphics. It looks very expensive. And, it’s, uh, wild. Can;t wait to see this reproduced live on awards shows this fall!

Why is “The Talk” Still On the Air? CBS Gabfest Has Lower Ratings than the Soap It Replaced 11 Years Ago

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When “As the World Turns” was chased off the air in 2010, CBS and Procter and Gamble had whittled its audience down to 1.8 million.

Now, in 2021, “The Talk” finished its most recent rating week with 1.446 million viewers. And arguably they have more drama than a soap.

Why is “The Talk” still on the air? Mostly because it’s cheap. Back in 2010 I asked Les Moonves why he was dumping the soaps (he also got rid of “Guiding Light”) in favor of a talk show featuring his wife. Julie Chen?

“The soaps cost a fortune and don’t have a big audience,” Moonves said to me. “Why should I keep them on? The Talk costs almost nothing.”

Indeed, it does. Aside from Sharon Osbourne, the remaining hosts cannot be making much money. In TV terms they have two things going against them: they’re women, and they’re not white. You know what that means.

When Chen, Leah Remini, and even Holly Robinson were there, the budget was no doubt higher. But “The Talk” ranks last of all daytime shows every day. It’s number 13 after the four soaps, game shows, “The View,” and (just joking) the farm report. If it were a soap, it would have been cancelled. They’ve lost around 30% of their audience in the last year.

“The Talk” will return on April 12th without Osbourne. But if CBS is smart, they’ll move Drew Barrymore’s talk show, which they own, back to 2pm next fall, and let affiliates which moved “Hot Bench” from 9am restore it to that time. “Hot Bench” is a huge hit, now missing from top markets because of Drew– even though it gets three times the audience. “The Talk,” I say, will be gone at end of summer.

 

After 11 Years, Sharon Osbourne Exits CBS’s “The Talk” Embroiled in Scandal Over Race, Undone by Hubris

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Sharon Osbourne, one of the savviest players in Hollywood, is out at the “The Talk” on CBS. A victim of her own hubris, Osbourne was ousted after an on air fight with her co-hosts over race. She defended the UK’s Piers Morgan for attacking Meghan Markle, who is Black. Osbourne’s defense quickly became recognized as implicit approval of racism, which didn’t sit well with her Black co-hosts. The moment became a watershed as Osbourne’s backstage remarks over the years became public. In short order, she was done.

“Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk,” read a CBS statement. “The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home. As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon’s behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace. We also did not find any evidence that CBS executives orchestrated the discussion or blindsided any of the hosts.

“At the same time, we acknowledge the network and studio teams, as well as the showrunners, are accountable for what happened during that broadcast as it was clear the co-hosts were not properly prepared by the staff for a complex and sensitive discussion involving race. During this week’s hiatus, we are coordinating workshops, listening sessions and training about equity, inclusion and cultural awareness for the hosts, producers and crew. Going forward, we are identifying plans to enhance the producing staff and producing procedures to better serve the hosts, the production and, ultimately, our viewers.”

Part of this was generational. Osbourne, who’s 68, came from an Archie Bunker-like mindset where you could say what you wanted about people’s ethnicity ‘even if you didn’t really mean it.’ Unfortunately, it’s 2021, and sensitivity about such things is on high alert. That kind of talk isn’t tolerated, nor should it ever be.

As details of Osbourne’s past behavior caught up with her current scandal, it was pretty clear she’d be leaving the show she’d called home for 11 years. In that time, Julie Chen and Sara Gilbert, the original leads, so to speak, have also left. During their time, Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete were forced out. At the first the latter two blamed Chen. But in the last week they’ve revealed that Osbourne helped push them out.

What remains of “The Talk” is an odd group of women with no leader or person with news experience. They include Sheryl Underwood, Carrie Ann Inaba, Elaine Welteroth, and Amanda Kloots. The qualifications of the latter is that her husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero, died from COVID last year after a terrible battle.

In the ratings, “The Talk” trails ABC’s “The View” by many millions of viewers. Invented by Les Moonves as a venue for his wife, Julie Chen, “The Talk” replaced the 56 year old soap opera, “As the World Turns.” As it turns out, “The Talk” has been more than equal to to the task of being a daytime drama. and a largely irrelevant one. CBS would be smart to cancel it, and bring back the soaps.

I’m surprised about Sharon. She always managed to navigate the rock and roll world for husband Ozzy, even though she pissed off everyone she dealt with. She brought her family to fame and fortune with their reality show on MTV. But she went too far as she took power on “The Talk,” and became the architect of her own demise.

Pop Out: Justin Bieber New Album “Justice” 37% Drop in Sales from Last Year’s “Changes,” 121% from 2016’s “Purpose”

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Justin Bieber, who’s having trouble selling concert tickets to his new tour, is also struggling to sell albums.

His new one, “Justice,” had opening week sales 37% lower than his last album, “Changes,” released a year ago.

Sold mostly in streaming equivalent units, “Justice” totaled 158,000. Around 120,000 of those sales came from streaming.

“Changes” finished its first week with 231,000 including streaming.

And of course, all of this is eclipsed by his career high for “Purpose” in 2016, which sold 649,000 in its first week. Those days are over.

Indeed, this time around, Lana Del Rey actually sold nearly twice as many CDs and paid downloads with 62,000.

Del Rey’s “Chemtrails over the Country Club,” however, was the big winner when it came to hard sales. “Chemtrails” sold a whopping 61,500 copies via CD and downloads. Her fans really wanted to have that album in hand.

“Justice” sold just 31,000 copies according to Buzz Angle and Hits Daily Double.

In solid sales, Lana is number 1.

“Justice” got its justice with total sales and streaming of 158,000. Del Rey’s total came to 79,000.

Bieber’s strength is in streaming, which doesn’t generate as much income.  Years from now– like two years from now — fans will have a solid reminder of “Chemtrails” whereas “Justice” will be adrift in the Spotify catalog.

I get my peaches at Shop Rite.

 

 

Watch Legendary “Days of our Lives Star” Bill Hayes Declare on Screen, in Character, He’s “95 Years Young…and counting”

I couldn’t believe this clip from NBC’s “Days of our Lives.” Soap opera characters never give their age even in fiction, and actors certainly fight to keep the number secret.

But in this clip, legendary star Bill Hayes– who’s been on the show for 50 years– tells Jackee Harry his age when her character asks him. He replies: “95 years young…and counting!”

Hayes is married to co-star Susan Seaforth Hayes, since the 1970s. She’s been on the show since 1968 but is only 77. Amazing. These people look great! Do they sleep in formaldehyde?

Bill Hayes has to be the oldest working actor, certainly the oldest TV star. Incredible. Bravo! As Jackee Harry says in this clip, we want to know his secret! He turns 96 on June 5th.

 

New “Suicide Squad” Movie Trailer: DC Universe Hail Mary Pass Has “Guardians” Energy, An F Bomb, Raunchy Language

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OK, what? I know it’s going to sound very old fashioned of me, but I wasn’t ready to hear Idris Elba use the expression “bag of dicks” in the new “Suicide Squad” trailer, nor did I appreciate a full discussion of it.

But hey, coarse and vulgar may be all they have left at Warner Media to sell the DC Universe to kids. It’s a little abrasive. Also interesting that it’s Elba, the Black character, who also uses the “F” word. Only the Black guy talks off color? Is that his super power?

Other than vulgarities, the new “Suicide Squad” trailer has a lot of “Guardians of the Galaxy” energy. This isn’t a surprise since James Gunn directed it. Margot Robbie shines as always as Harley Quinn. Coming soon to theaters and HBO Max.