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Meryl Streep Is Just Like Us: Celebrates Birthday with Family At Berkshires Road House Eating Fried Chicken

Roger Friedman
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Meryl Streep Is Just Like Us: Celebrates Birthday with Family At Berkshires Road House Eating Fried Chicken

Meryl Streep has three Oscars and is considered the best American actress by many.

But she’s just like us. She celebrated her birthday, a young 76, at a road house in the Berkshires eating fried chicken.

Her guests were daughter Gracie, son-in-law Mark Ronson, their kids, Henry Gummer aka Henry Wolfe, Meryl’s son, and what looks like Meryl’s ex husband, and father of her kids, sculptor Don Gummer.

Not present: Martin Short, Meryl’s bff and rumored bf and co-star from “Only Murders in the Building.”

The location was a roadhouse called Hy’s in the Berkshires, just over the Massachusetts line from Connecticut. That’s where the family has their summer home.

Hy’s Fried is known for its chicken. Outside, the modest sign offers Dining Dancing Cocktails.

What luck that this Twitter poster happened to be in the restaurant before paparazzi found out what was going on. Today, Hy’s will be overrun with them, which will wreck the chances of seeing celebrities there again. Don’t expect to see Meryl– she and family traveled an hour for the culinary experience. It’s not like they’re hanging around in the area!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to Meryl, who’s been a taking a break from movies and having fun after having an extraordinary career. She’s just shot the sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” and is reportedly thinking of doing another “Mamma Mia” movie. A fourth Oscar before she’s done? Without a doubt.

Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks II Comes This Week and the Only Cover Song is Johnny Rivers’ Classic “Poor Side of Town”

Roger Friedman
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Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks II Comes This Week and the Only Cover Song is Johnny Rivers’ Classic “Poor Side of Town”

Bruce Springsteen’s gigantic box set, “Tracks II,” comes out this Friday.

Is it worth $264 for the 7 CD set? Oh yes. Even the $354 for the nine LP box.

I’ve been knee deep in “Tracks II” all weekend. It’s a stunning collection of 7 albums Bruce made but never released. When did he find the time? I don’t know.

There are four or five “perfect” albums in the box, including one called “Perfect World.” It’s got the E Street Band and could be released right now as a new record — even though it was made years ago. It would be a hit in its own right.

There’s also a companion album to “Western Stars” that I think is better than the one Bruce issued. It was supposed to be a double album and should have been. More on that later, but one track — “Late in the Evening” — not the Paul Simon song — blew my mind.

A big winner on “Tracks II” is Johnny Rivers. The great blues and country pop singer had many, many hits. He’s underrated and should be in the Rock Hall. Bruce covers Johnny’s “Poor Side of Town.” I think of the 83 songs this is the only cover. Bruce could do a whole album of Johnny Rivers songs. His “Poor Side” will be an instant hit with fans.

The original version of “Poor Side of Town” has quite a provenance. Johnny wrote it in 1966 with famed producer Lou Adler, who also produced it. A bunch of the Wrecking Crew — Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn — are on it. Darlene Love sings back up. It’s classic.

Bruce’s version comes on his “Somewhere North of Nashville” album, one of the many I’ve fallen in love with overnight. On Thursday night we’ll have a video I can post here.

Disney’s Animated “Elio” Has the Lowest Opening Weekend of Any Pixar Movie with Just $21 Million

Roger Friedman
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Disney’s Animated “Elio” Has the Lowest Opening Weekend of Any Pixar Movie with Just $21 Million

Just two years, Pixar’s “Elemental” set a record for the Disney company’s lowest opening weekend.

“Elemental” began with just $29.6 million. That was set against a $200 million budget.

But now that record has been broken. “Elio” made just $21 million this weekend versus a $150 million budget.

“Elio” has no marketing. Unlike other Pixar films, I don’t think anyone knows what it’s about, or who, for that matter. I thought it referred to a very good Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. (It doesn’t, I’m sure.)

What doesn’t make sense is that the last Pixar movie, “Inside Out 2,” which preceded “Elio,” had the highest opening weekend in the company’s history, $154 million.

Of course, “Inside Out 2” was a sequel to a popular movie. “Elio” is original, a rarity at this point, and harder to bring to audiences. But this is kind of a disaster unless either foreign markets embrace “Elio” or some new way is developed to get families excited about it.

Leonardo Di Caprio Newest Pals: Businessman Who Paid the SEC $4 Mil in Fines, NY Republican Accused of Setting Up Private Militia

Roger Friedman
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Leonardo Di Caprio Newest Pals: Businessman Who Paid the SEC $4 Mil in Fines, NY Republican Accused of Setting Up Private Militia

EXCLUSIVE Leonardo Di Caprio has an unerring eye for hooking up with the wrong people.

Latest example: the NY Post reports he just had dinner at clubby, exclusive Rao’s in East Harlem with at least four hard core Republicans including two companions he should have stayed away from.

One is Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive, a deeply right wing Republican who has turned back the hands of time on Long Island with anti-progressive, Trump era laws.

It’s the second dinner companion who is most egregious. That would be Andrew Murstein, who just paid a $4 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Murstein, his company Medallion Financial Corp, and another defendant were accused of “schemes to boost” their taxi company’s “plummeting” stock price including planting false stories in various publications including Crain’s New York and The Huffington Post.

Murstein agreed to the fine without admitting or denying his guilt. More on Murstein below.

The Post got a photo of Leo and Murstein together, and the Oscar winner is not smiling. Maybe that’s because Murstein is just the latest bad guy DiCaprio has been associated with in the last 25 years. The others include convicted (and now deceased) Ponzi scheme fraudster Dana Giacchetto, as well as convicted (in a massive gambling racket) art dealer Helly Nahmad.

And I told you in 2016 about Leo’s association with Julius Baer, the Swiss banker who had to pay $547 million to the Department of Justice.

And there was also the matter of Leo being involved in the Malaysian public fund scandal known as 1MDB. In that scandal, more than $4 billion was stolen from the 1MDB fund and spent by perpetrators on art, diamonds and property. Leo had to give back two paintings—a Picasso worth $3.2 million and a Basquiat worth $9 million.

Others at the Rao’s dinner included WABC Radio’s conservative morning radio personality Sid Rosenberg, former New York Republican appointee and sometime actor Bo Dietl, plus DiCaprio’s dad, George, and stepmother.

Is Leo moving to the right?

You can read all the charges against Murstein here.

According to the Post, the meeting had something to do with making Nassau County “Hollywood East,” as ridiculous an idea as anyone could dream up. If DiCaprio wants to invest in a movie studio operation, his buddy Robert DeNiro already owns Wildflower Studios, a new film and television production facility in Astoria, Queens. With Silvercup and Kaufman Astoria, New York is overloaded with this kind of business.

Blakeman, the first husband of Paul McCartney’s wife Nancy Shevell, is very unpopular in legit political circles. Newsday, the Long Island daily newspaper. has sued Blakeman and Nassau County, alleging retaliation for unfavorable coverage and violations of First Amendment rights. In February, local Democrats sued him for allegedly setting up a private militia. See also here.

You can’t make this stuff up. DiCaprio — who also has a mysterious $68 million 501 c 3 foundation called Re:Wild — is either followed by trouble or pursues it. No one seems to vet his companions. And he doesn’t seem to care who he’s seen in the company of.

Musk Warns That His AI Will “rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors”

Roger Friedman
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Musk Warns That His AI Will “rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors”

Worried that Elon Musk isn’t finished with us?

He’s threatening to use his AI program, Grok, to rewrite history his way, and erase thousands of years of facts.

He says on X (Twitter): “We will use Grok 3.5 (maybe we should call it 4), which has advanced reasoning, to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors.

Then retrain on that.

Far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.”

Got that? That’s the real horror of Artificial Intelligence. Under Musk, everything we’ve come to know as factual history could disappear and replaced by his own take on civilization: no more slavery, racism, Holocaust, apartheid.

Still driving a Tesla? Give some genuine intelligence to what Musk is threatening. He’s telling us explicitly what’s coming. Don’t ignore it. 

Ed Sheeran’s Secret Ingredients on “F1” Song “Drive” Pointed to the Oscars: John Mayer on Guitar, Dave Grohl on Drums

Roger Friedman
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Ed Sheeran’s Secret Ingredients on “F1” Song “Drive” Pointed to the Oscars: John Mayer on Guitar, Dave Grohl on Drums

It takes a village to get a hit these days.

“Drive” is the song from the Brad Pitt movie, “F1,” coming to theaters this Thursday.

“Drive” is from Ed Sheeran, who’s brought a long a couple of superstars to help him out.

The song is co-written by John Mayer, who also plays guitar. And Dave Grohl of the Foo Foo Fighters is on drums. Prolific producer Blake Slatkin is behind the board.

Apple and Warner Bros. will certainly try to get an Oscar nomination for “Drive,” which has a more propulsive sound for Sheeran than his well known numbers. Imagine the three of them performing on the Oscars together! That is, if the Academy brings back songs to the show.

Box Office: “The Materialists” Immaterial 66% Down from Last Week, “28 Years Later” Starts with $14 Million

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: “The Materialists” Immaterial 66% Down from Last Week, “28 Years Later” Starts with $14 Million

The box office was off and running for “28 Years Later.”

With Thursday previews, the Danny Boyle horror sequel brought in $14 million through Friday.

What will happen next should be really interesting. Advance reviews on Rotten Tomatoes brought those audiences in with a 90% rating.

But audiences may not be so keen once they’ve seen the film. The audience rating is only 66%. The Cinemascore is B.

The weekend will be a roller coaster.

Meantime, A24’s “The Materialists” may be immaterial. Last night’s take was down 63% from last Friday. Tomorrow’s headline may include “dematerializing,” but it’s also demoralizing. What if A24 hasn’t been able to hypnotize their audiences?

Disney’s “Elio” starts with $9 million, pretty low for a Disney animated film. Obviously it’s not named for the great upper East Side restaurant Elio’s on Second Avenue. If this keeps up the producers won’t be able to eat there!

Jimmy Kimmel Exits for Summer Vacation: Jelly Roll — a Trumper — One of the 8 Fill Ins Including Anthony Anderson

Roger Friedman
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Jimmy Kimmel Exits for Summer Vacation: Jelly Roll — a Trumper — One of the 8 Fill Ins Including Anthony Anderson

Jimmy Kimmel says goodbye tonight for the summer.

The talk show always takes the warm months off, which is too bad considering he would be needed as Trump continues his path of destruction. Will there still be a country in the fall?

Among Kimmel’s fill ins over the summer is Jelly Roll. The hit country pop singer doesn’t seem that articulate or bright, but maybe that’s what ABC wants. Jelly Roll is also considered a Trumper, having met the president elect last December. Very odd.

Other fill ins will be Anthony Anderson, who’s so good at this, plus Nicole Byer, Alan Cumming, Chris Distefano, Fortune Feimster, Diego Luna and Kumail Nanjiani.

Diego Luna is an inspired choice. His guests next week will include Patton Oswalt, David Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Stone, Adria Arjona, Tiffany Haddish, Alan Tudyk, Ariela Barer, Heidi Klum and Dolores Huerta, with musical performances by NEZZA, Hermanos Gutiérrez, and Good Charlotte.

Have a good summer, Jimmy! Again, let’s hope ICE doesn’t deport your live audiences.

Charts: Mariah Carey Leaves Top 100 After 2 Strange Weeks, Benson Boone Struggles with 10 Song 30 Minute Album

Roger Friedman
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Charts: Mariah Carey Leaves Top 100 After 2 Strange Weeks, Benson Boone Struggles with 10 Song 30 Minute Album

So that’s the end of “Type Dangerous.”

Mariah Carey’s surprise single dropped two weeks ago. Her fans gamed iTunes and sent the song — whose title made no sense — to number 1 for several hours. Then it lingered in the top 10 for few days.

But reality bites: “Type Dangerous” was as threatening as a baby lamb. Total sales were 23,000, only 5.000 of those were actual downloads. The rest was streaming that came from the fans hitting the button over and over.

Now “Type Dangerous” is off the top 100. An ignominious ending to a strange story. This is should be a lesson for Mariah. Do not release an album with more of this stuff or your heart will be broken. You can do better than this. Make the album a vocal showcase.

Benson Boone released his sophomore album last night. “American Heart” is just 30 minutes long with 10 short tracks. It debuted on iTunes this morning at number 4. Five of the 10 tracks were already known to fans. This was a mistake. Tears, again, alas. “American Heart” will need a valve replacement soon.

Benson Boone May Find Mega Hit “Beautiful Things” an Albatross as New Album Arrives Tonight with Three Failed Singles

Roger Friedman
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Benson Boone May Find Mega Hit “Beautiful Things” an Albatross as New Album Arrives Tonight with Three Failed Singles

Benson Boone has been riding high for over a year with one hit single, “Beautiful Things.”

The histrionic Queen-like record has been a mainstay on the top 10 and on radio forever, it seems. It won’t go away.

“Beautiful Things” finally made Boone’s album, “Fireworks and Rollerblades,” go top 20. But it never produced a follow up hit. “Beautiful Things” just kept sucking up the oxygen.

Boone, meantime, became famous for acrobatic flips and not wearing a shirt.

Now tonight his new album, “American Heart,” arrives after midnight. It has only 10 tracks. Three of them are already failed singles: “Momma’s Song,” “Mystical Magical,” and “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else.” Two more — including “Mr. Electric Blue” — are known to his fans. That’s half of the album already exposed.

Can “American Heart” overcome the success of “Beautiful Things?” After the first flush tonight, will fans give the five other songs a chance? Or this going to be an uphill battle?

Many pop stars have had this problem. Miley Cyrus’s new album is a total flop. Her last one, which included mega hit “Flowers,” was huge. But this time around, Miley has gone begging for sales.

There are also many hundreds of one off singles like “Beautiful Things.” Carly Jepsen had a transcendent hit, for example, with “Call Me Maybe.” Like “Beautiful Things,” “Call Me” was everywhere. But then, nothing. That was it.

Right now, you can hear Vanessa Carlton’s 2002 hit, “A Thousand Miles,” on commercials day and night. It was her only significant hit. The same can be said for Lorde, whose song “Royals” induced the same fate.

So let’s see if Boone’s five new songs can turn the tide for him. He’s a good singer and writer, so that’s not the issue. But “Beautiful Things” — which has no doubt brought him beautiful things — may be an albatross that can’t be loosened.

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