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.
The clock is ticking for Fox News’s once vaunted prime time schedule took another big hit Thursday night. Their three hour block of shows from 8 to 11 pm ate dust against their competitors. This wasn’t good news for Suzanne Scott, whose job is on the line as Rupert Murdoch, even at 90, takes a sharp look at his revenues.
On Thursday, at 8pm, Anderson Cooper’s CNN hour came in with 4.015 million viewers, handily taking Tucker Carlson on Fox, who had 3.2 million fans.
Next. at 9pm, Sean Hannity’s Fox News show — ever supportive of Trump and his policies, constantly rationalizing for him — came in with 2.999 million. Rachel Maddow triumphed on MSNBC at the same time with with a robust 4.319 million. Maddow has eaten Hannity’s lunch all week.
Following at 10pm, Lawrence O’Donnell kept up Maddow’s steam with 3.3 million people glued to their MSNBC. That wasn’t a basket of flowers for Laura Ingraham, who just managed to get 2.2 million viewers to listen to her version of events for the day.
For Fox, a reckoning is coming, especially as we head into inauguration week. Fox News viewers aren’t that stupid. They know that news of Biden and Harris and the impeachment won’t be delivered to them by the Murdoch teams, and/or it will be colored by bizarre musings and rhetoric. They’re going to go for CNN and MSNBC and maybe even Shepard Smith on CNBC.
This is the official obit for Terry Lippman, who died, tragically, from ALS, on January 8th. My condolences to his wife, Danielle, and brother, Michael, and all his friends who supported him. Years ago, Terry had a group called Bottlefly, and they released two albums that are on Spotify. I always loved this music, so I’m putting links to it below.
Terry Albert Lippman, who helped discover artists such as Rob Thomas and Matchbox 20, passed away peacefully on January 8th, surrounded by his family and several close friends. Terry fought a valiant and courageous two-year battle with the insidious ALS Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 66 years old. He is survived by his loving wife Danielle, his young daughter Madison, mother-in-law Norma, brother Michael, sister-in-law Nancy, nephews Nick and Josh as well as other close cousins.
Lippman, who had worked with his brother Michael in scouting and managing musical artists such as Melissa Manchester and George Michael, had retired following the birth of his daughter Madison six years ago.He was also credited in the music industry as a pioneer identifying engi-neers and producers and promoting them as artists on par with musicians.
“There are certain people along the way that without them we would be nowhere,” said Rob Thomas. “Terry Lippman was one of the most integral parts of us becoming anything at all. A great and passionate human.”
Prior to his musical management career, he was a professional soccer player with the Rochester Lancers. He had been an All-American defender in Brighton High School in Rochester, New York and also was a four-year varsity player at UCLA.Friends and teammates describe him as “in constant motion, like an antelope deftly running from one side of the field to the other swiftly heading off opposing players who dared venture into his territory. He was also an outstanding basketball player- a sharp shooting left-hander with a quick turnaround move to the basket! And you could never be with him without him putting CD’s in the car to listen to new music.”
“Even the sounds of the most heavy-metal bands that sounded like screaming jet engines were still music to his ears as he nodded gleefully at their play,” recalls another pal.
Energy, passion, enthusiasm, excitement – these words aptly describe Terry and his approach to life. He was often described as a true renaissance man. Once Terry’s daughter, Madison was born his outlook on life completely changed. He became a stay-at-home dad while his wife, Danielle Todd, worked as the Director of Property Operations for the Beverly Hilton.
Lippman would talk of his joy savoring time with his daughter and became very heavily involved in school programming -playing his music and some original songs that he sang with Madison and friends.
When Terry’s affliction with ALS became more difficult and harder to handle, his wife Danielle devoted herself to his full-time care until his death. Early in 2020 a core group of Terry’s closest friends from Brighton and Los Angeles came together and vowed to spend parts of the weekend with him to provide some measure of aid and comfort. Following that, as the pandemic grew, and it was no longer feasible to visit in person, these friends began a weekly zoom call they referred to as a “Virtual Hang out with T.”
There’s no doubt this regular connection with friends and family in the outside world helped sustain Terry, Danielle and Madison through a most difficult and trying period.Please send any contributions that will directly help Danielle and Madison to the GoFundMe.com page in Terry’s name, which is named: Support Terry Lippman and Family in ALS struggle.
I told you Larry King was battling COVID in the hospital back on New Year’s Day. He’d already been in Cedars Sinai starting around December 20th.
I’ve been deluged with requests for an update. So here it is. I’m told Larry is still in the hospital. He’s not in ICU, because he’s not in imminent danger. He was transferred to a VIP area a week ago or more. I’m told he’s improving, but he’s still fairly ill.
King is 87, and has survived strokes, a heart attack, and many other maladies. “COVID has really run through him,” I’m told, but “he’s strong.”
Larry’s condition is being monitored on a minute basis by his (still) wife Shawn Southwick, sons Cannon and Chance, and Larry Jr. But he can’t have visitors, which can’t be easy. Speaking from experience, this is the toughest part. But Facetime calls certainly help. I hope they show him this picture of Larry and family.
Sending the most positive thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery.
Larry has so many great interviews, here’s a recent one that’s especially good.
It’s panic time at my old stomping grounds, Fox News.
There are reports that Suzanne Scott, who’s been running the show since Roger Ailes was destroyed and ousted, is on her way out. David Rhodes, former head of CBS News, who started under Ailes at Fox in 1996, is said to be in line to take over. He returned to Fox News almost a year ago and is running the London operation.
What’s happened? Fox News is in a ratings freefall. During the day and afternoon CNN is now beating it over the head. Later, at 9pm, Rachel Maddow has opened a wide lead over Sean Hannity. On Wednesday night, when the impeachment vote was happening, Maddow scored 4,7 million viewers. Hannity had under just 3.3 million.
Maddow trounced Hannity every day this week, actually. And that translated into the 10pm slot, with Lawrence O’Donnell handing Laura Ingraham her hat, as they used to say. As in: here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?
With Donald Trump’s presidency falling apart, smashed into pieces, Fox News viewers are leaving the channel in droves. They probably now understand they’ve been lied to 24/7 for five years, since Trump became a possible presidential candidate.
Right behind Maddow on Wednesday, numbers wise, was Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room on CNN. He and Jake Tapper scored 4.7 million viewers on their own as events in Washington that actually affect our lives are followed on real networks and not fake ones, like Fox News, where right wing opinion creates “alternative facts.”
And really crazy right wing viewers have left Fox completely, maybe for Sinclair or OANN or the Dark Web. Fox is at a cross roads. No one in their right minds respects them, and really nutty people don’t think they’re wacky enough.
Someone will have to do a survey to see how many more Fox News viewers contracted or died from COVID after listening to their guests tell them not to wear masks etc.
Pretty funny, no? Having thrown in with Trump uncategorically for the last four or five years, Fox News can no longer be trusted by anyone. And what is the guiding principle now since Trump encouraged the Capitol riots? On Fox & Friends, the nitwit anchors can’t even agree on what is wrong or right. Steve Doocey and Brian Kilmeade, programmed to rationalize every idiotic and dangerous thing, and not very bright on good days, are openly fighting with each other. LOL.
Phil Smith, the long time head of the Shubert Organization, and a Broadway star in his own right, has died at age 89. The cause was COVID.
I’m lucky to say I knew Phil a long time myself, he was incredibly friendly and gracious to me. He was a sounding board when I was writing about Broadway, or just gossiping about what was going on.
He was an elegant, worldly gentleman who loved theater, loved everything about the Great Way so much that the last ten years, as his health declined, he continued to come almost every opening night even in a wheelchair. I must say, I felt better when I knew he was in the theater before the curtain went up.
“How’s this one, Phil?” I’d ask him before the show started. Sometimes he’d say, “You’ll see,” with a wink. If the Shuberts were invested in it, he might say, “You’re really going to like this, Roger.”
There are only a few people left from this generation now that Phil, and Roger Berlind– the great producer who passed last month– are gone. Even though there is no Broadway now, it will return, and we will never forget these guys who made our lively entertainment so enjoyable.
Condolences to Phil’s family and friends, and admirers, who are numerous. Please read Phil’s NY Times obit here.
UPDATED Thoughts, January 15, 2020: Just caught up with a second viewing of “One Night in Miami.” It is a powerful, well made film. It’s still talky, but I was less bothered by that. All the actors are exceptional. I’m torn among which one I liked best. Regina King has made an exceptional ensemble piece. She is really the star here because she’s taken what was essentially a play performed in one room with four men, and opened it better than I remembered. Eli Goree is just sensational as Muhammad Ali, and Leslie Odom, Jr. — well, it’s not just the singing. His speech about Bobby Womack and the Rolling Stones will land him an Oscar nomination. I was already a huge Aldis Hodge fan, and Kingsley Ben-Adir has got me now, too. Plus, I like any movie Lance Reddick is in. So second time around, I’m an even bigger fan of “One Night in Miami.” It’s certainly a contender for Best Picture.
September 10, 2020: My first TIFF film is Regina King’s “One Night in Miami.” I wanted to love it. Certainly, we all love Regina King and know how important this material is to her. But this is a movie that will play well on Amazon. In theaters, it would have been problematic.
Kemp Powers wrote this play in 2013, imagining conversations among four towering historic heroes who were all in Miami on the same night in February 1964: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, football player turned movie star Jim Brown, and Cassius Clay. The latter came to fight Sonny Liston in a memorable knockout. In Powers’ telling, Malcolm X is there to convert him to Islam. The others are there for the big fight.
So what if they all hung out afterwards? What would happen?
The problem with the movie is all they do is talk, endlessly. The talk is important, I’m not saying it isn’t, but it’s pages and pages of exposition with no action. The four men cover a lot of ground and history but it’s not depicted. It’s reviewed.
Leslie Odom Jr is so good as Sam Cooke they should just spin him right off in a biopic and let him sing Cooke’s songs. As it is, even though this movie is co-produced by Jody Klein, whose father Allen Klein had the Cooke catalog, there are few moments of Odom showing off. Maybe they’re waiting for the sequel.
The rest of the main cast are spot on: Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown. But they are all dressed up with no place to go. Goree has a nice way of capturing the rhymin’ Clay, Ben-Adir fleshes out a frustrated Malcolm X empathetically. Aldis Hodge, who should have been a movie star already, radiates charisma as Brown.
You can feel this was a stage production transferred to film. The one scene that has a gut punch is when Brown goes to visit a wealthy patron in the South played by Beau Bridges. The man is so excited to see him at his southern mansion and meets him on the porch, but won’t let Brown in his house because he’s back. It’s freakin’ 1964. Think about it: Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. We’ve already had the march on Selma. It doesn’t matter.
If only there’d been more scenes dramatized like this, “One Night in Miami” wouldn’t have seemed like a year in any other place. But Regina King acquits herself with the material she has in her directorial debut, and I look forward to seeing more from her.
Emma Thompson has been cast as evil Mrs. Trunchbull, the deliciously malicious central antagonist in the movie version of Broadway’s “Matilda.”
This decision is despite men having played the part on stage traditionally. Bertie Carvel was nominated for a Tony Award in the original 2013 production. His replacements during the four year run included Bryce Ryness, Christopher Sieber, and Craig Bierko, and Chris Hoch. No ladies, only guys.
But Working Title, Netflix, and Matthew Warchus probably thought this was a safer way to go. They didn’t even consider John Travolta, who went full on drag for the “Hairspray” movie.
You know that Billy Porter and Eddie Izzard would have given anything to take this part.
Eleven year old Alisha Weir has been cast as the title character.
It’s the latest Bruce Willis movie that was made for straight to video and streaming. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a Zero from 21 negative reviews. Even the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes was low, 64%, when it was “released” last September.
“Hard Kill” will nevertheless get a sequel, because, why not? Willis’s co-star, Jesse Metcalfe, announced it this morning on Fox5 NY’s “Good Day New York.” “We just got word,” said Metcalfe.
The director, Matt Eskandari, has made two other Bruce Willis D Movies in the last two years including “Survive the Night” and “Trauma Center.” You never heard of them either. Don’t worry.
These Bruce Willis movies are a far cry from the actor’s halcyon days in movies like “Die Hard” and “The Sixth Sense.” They’re so bad and low budget that even the Razzie Awards ignore them. Willis himself may be unaware of how awful they are. He usually plays a small part of the production, appearing in two or three scenes, taking second billing, and deferring to a younger actor as the lead.
“Hard Kill” was not a big hit in theaters. According to boxofficemojo.com, it made $111,523. Most of that came from the United Arab Emirates, some of it from Vietnam. Other income might have been realized from streaming services or DVD sales in other foreign territories. It’s ranked at #40,647 on amazon.com among Blu-Ray DVD’s and can be purchased for six dollars and eleven cents.
Turns out injecting some stunt casting into “The Conners” didn’t hurt the ailing ratings, it actually helped them.
Multiple Emmy Award winner Candice Bergen guested last night on the comedy and the numbers rose 8.6% to 3.89 million. The previous episode, on December 2nd, was at 3.58 million.
Bergen– who should be in the running for the Oscars Best Supporting Actress in “Let Them All Talk”– was very amusing, sarcastic, and biting as always. She was also a necessary addition to “The Conners,” which has been fading on a different night and time this season.
Bergen played Ben’s mom, and stole the show. Her interaction with Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was worth everything. Let’s hope we see her again!
At the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” Chris Evans retires as Captain America and hands his famed shield to Anthony Mackie. Evans goes on to a much loved performance as the playboy son and maybe murderer in “Knives Out,” and makes cable knit sweaters popular again.
Today a wild rumor went through the entertainment press that Evans was returning to Marvel Studios as Captain America in some form. The story flew from site to site, with wild speculation and no facts.
Finally, around 5pm Eastern, Evans responded on Twitter: “News to me.” A minute later, he wrote: “Some of the gif responses are priceless good work, everyone”
Earlier in the day I asked my insider expert on these matters. They responded: “Probably a flashback thing or some kind of appearance. Doesn’t affect Mackie.”
And that is probably right. As much as everyone loves a Marvel “leak,” these people are trained to deflect, obfuscate, and actually lie when secrets seem to have been divulged. It’s all orchestrated, and designed to create renewed interest in the films.
In all likelihood, Evans turns up for a cameo in the upcoming six part miniseries, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” starring Mackie and Sebastian Stan as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, which will show Wilson/Falcon’s transition to Captain America. The miniseries airs on Disney Plus sometime this year.
Harvey Fierstein, stand down.
