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Donald Trump Says Rudy Giuliani Has Tested Positive for COVID-19 Coronavirus: Instant Karma Gonna Get You

Roger Friedman
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Donald Trump Says Rudy Giuliani Has Tested Positive for COVID-19 Coronavirus: Instant Karma Gonna Get You

Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus. So says Donald Trump, who once claimed he had COVID-19 but was miraculously cured within days.

Over 250,000 Americans have lost their lives to this virus. Millions more have suffered from it. Many are still suffering and and hospitalized.

For Giuliani, who has mocked everything to do with the virus, this is instant karma in its worst form. It’s also another hilarious moment for a man who was caught in the “Borat” movie trying to make sexy time with a 15 year old reporter, and staged a press conference from a parking lot across from a porn book store and a crematorium. On top of that, he was recently ridiculed for letting his hair dye trickle across his lunar face during a press conference. Last night on “Saturday Night Live” Giuliani was further mocked for having eccentric witnesses at another press conference.

 

 

RIP David Lander, 73, One of Half of the Magical Team of Lenny and Squiggy with Michael McKean on “Laverne and Shirley”

Roger Friedman
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RIP David Lander, 73, One of Half of the Magical Team of Lenny and Squiggy with Michael McKean on “Laverne and Shirley”

David Lander has died at age 73, from complications of MS, according to reports. Lander and Michael McKean were the utterly hilariously magical team of Lenny and Squiggy on “Laverne and Shirley” from 1976 to 1983. They were like a sideshow that came into town on every episode, completely nuts and unexpectedly brilliant.

Condolences to his friends and family, to Michael McKean especially. All I could think when I heard he passed was that Penny and Garry Marshall — so so missed — were waiting for him in heaven.

“Black Panther” Star Letitia Wright Throws Marvel Sequel into Turmoil After Backing Anti-Vaxxer Video, Deletes Twitter Account

Roger Friedman
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“Black Panther” Star Letitia Wright Throws Marvel Sequel into Turmoil After Backing Anti-Vaxxer Video, Deletes Twitter Account

Disney- Marvel was already in chaos over the “Black Panther” sequel with the untimely death of star Chadwick Boseman.

Now they’re really in turmoil over Letitia Wright, who played Boseman’s sister in the movie and was touted as taking over as Queen of Wakanda.

Wright is now embroiled in a huge controversy after she back an anti-vaccine video on YouTube. Things are so bad she’s removed all the content from her Twitter account, just leaving her header but all messages wiped out.

The video Wright posted about a corona virus vaccine was so wrong that her Marvel co-star Don Cheadle posted on Twitter: ” jesus… just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won’t throw her away over it. the rest i’ll take off twitter. had no idea.”

Wright tried to defend her post saying: “my intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies. Nothing else.”

The 69 minute video Wright Tweeted has since been deleted by YouTube. It came from “influencer” Tomi Arayomi, described as a senior leader with Light London Church and speaker. Arayomi questions the legitimacy of the COVID-19 vaccination, appears skeptical of climate change, accuses China of spreading COVID-19, and to top it off, makes transphobic comments.

Arayomi said he hoped the vaccine wouldn’t “make extra limbs grow.” The transphobic comments were clipped on Twitter:

For Marvel and Disney, Wright’s stupidity here may have a ripple effect that will cost the company and the actress hundreds of millions of dollars and headaches. In this world of swift social media response, there’s already a “cancel” call out for her. The fact that she’s already removed her entire Twitter account is evidence that Disney has already taken over the management of this crisis.

PS Now I see why Disney so rudely refused to allow any press at their NY cast screening of “Black Panther.” It was photo ops only.

 

UPDATED Sony Pictures Classics Will Have Oscar Qualifying Runs for Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar Movie, “The Father,” Michelle Pfeiffer in “French Exit,” and Two More Releases as Well

Roger Friedman
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UPDATED Sony Pictures Classics Will Have Oscar Qualifying Runs for Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar Movie, “The Father,” Michelle Pfeiffer in “French Exit,” and Two More Releases as Well

UPDATED AND CORRECTED.

Anyone who’s seen Sir Anthony Hopkins in “The Father” knows he’s on the way to an Oscar nomination and possible win. The Florian Zeller movie co-starring Olivia Colman, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams is a sizzling piece of film.

Sony Pictures Classics will release it “officially” on February 26th, 2021. That’s right at the very end of when movies can qualify for the Oscars on April 25th.

But don’t worry: “The Father,” like all four of SPC’s Oscar releases this season, will qualify for every award.

The other films, “French Exit,” “The Truffle Hunters,” and “I Carry You With Me,” will all be eligible for all awards.

The studio has “French Exit,” still dated for February 12th, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Valerie Mahaffey very deserving of nominations. I hope they stick with that date and promote the hell out of that film.

There was some confusion because different awards groups are accepting films before their public release dates based on arcane rules that we don’t need to understand. A poorly worded press release sent us in the wrong direction. But I’m relieved, because we need all these films for 2021 awards season!

Death of Print: Tribune Closing Hartford Courant Newsroom, Following NY Daily News, Other Closures

Roger Friedman
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Death of Print: Tribune Closing Hartford Courant Newsroom, Following NY Daily News, Other Closures

After today, the Hartford Courant will not have a newsroom.

Tribune “Publishing,” the same company that kicked the NY Daily News out of its offices, is shutting down the Broad Street, Hartford newsroom.

“We are indefinitely without an office,” reads the Tweet from the Courant’s Guild. The Courant is recognized as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, beginning in 1764, becoming daily in 1837.

In October 2020, the Courant announced that it would be discontinuing printing the paper in Hartford and outsourcing future printing to the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts. But this is much worse. Tribune Company, which has no allegiance now to journalism or publishing, did the same thing to the NY Daily News, closing its newsroom and making all the staff work remotely. They’ve also closed the newsrooms of the Capital Gazette and the Carroll County Times in Maryland, the Allentown Morning Call in Pennsylvania and the Orlando Sentinel in Florida.

read more here.

“Grey’s Anatomy” Ratings Dropping Despite PR Stunt of Bringing Back Dead Characters Each Week to the Beach

Roger Friedman
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“Grey’s Anatomy” Ratings Dropping Despite PR Stunt of Bringing Back Dead Characters Each Week to the Beach

Meredith Grey’s beach blanket bingo is not the ratings sensation that was anticipated.

Last night’s “Grey’s Anatomy” dropped 4.83% in overall viewers from last week, and 7.69% in the key demo. Whoops!

This news is a surprise since the current PR stunt of bringing dead characters back each week to the beach where Meredith has having a coma should have goosed the ratings.

Last night brought back George O’Malley in the person of actor TR Knight. Shonda Rhimes killed him off years ago. But O’Malley followed Dr. Derek Shepard aka Patrick Dempsey onto the haunted beach.

Meredith is in a coma brought on by COVID-19 and the PR department of Sloan Grey. She has more visitors coming, including Sandra Oh probably next week as Christina. “Greys” has fired so many people over the years that Meredith could stay in a coma til April 2021 at not see everyone she’s lost. Where is Kate Burton, for example?

Over the last month the show has lost around 300,000 viewers rather than gain them. Last night’s total was 5.670. This isn’t even equal to last season’s average of 6.238 million.

You’d think with all these old faces showing up, the die hard fans would be tuning in to see the next one. Where have they all gone? To the beach?

Of course, the big one would be Katherine Heigl, the most infamous ex “Greys” cast member. You could put that one on pay-per-view. But something tells me it will never happen.

Hard to Believe: It’s Been a Decade Since We Lost Elaine Kaufman, Everyone’s Godmother and Doyenne

Roger Friedman
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Hard to Believe: It’s Been a Decade Since We Lost Elaine Kaufman, Everyone’s Godmother and Doyenne

Our dear Elaine Kaufman passed away ten years ago today. She’d been in an induced coma for two weeks thanks to some bad medical advice and permissions from people who shouldn’t have been in charge of her health proxy. Many of her friends remain angry about the way Elaine’s life ended at age 81. We were cheated out of many more good years with her.

I was thinking about how Elaine would have handled the pandemic at her fabled restaurant. Elaine’s had no lunch menu. It was just dinner, and it was late. Would she have built out onto Second Avenue at 88th St.? Maybe. But a 10pm curfew would have been anathema to her. That’s the time her hot crowd would be arriving! Maybe it’s better she’s not around to live with this mishegos.

I would have joked, well, people with COVID have lost their sense of taste, so they really won’t mind the food now! Elaine was sensitive about her cuisine. It was never very good, and when it was there would be shock. Still, we persisted. We made up names for the dishes, and no one could remember what they meant. Michele Lee, when she was on Broadway in “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” said she liked Chicken Bobo. But it turned out it was totally different than what I ordered as Chicken Bobo. We laughed about this a lot.

Mostly when I think of Elaine it’s about all the people she introduced me to, all the contacts I made, long friendships, dear relationships. Elaine gave everyone the courage to get up, move around, and see what was happening in her famous eatery. We laughed about her curmudgeonly attitude, but the fact is she was a real softie. Did she know her regulars would still be talking about her, reminiscing, and yearning for our halcyon days a decade after she left us? We never let the flame go out.

And so I think of Elaine hosting a dinner tonight, with George Plimpton, of course, and Terry Southern, and Nora Ephron, and Mike McAlary, and Liz Smith and Iris Love, of course, and Patty Bosworth, with Elaine herself plopped between Sean Connery and Roger Moore, and Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Altman holding court with Peter Maas, and Father Pete Colapietro, and Neil Travis, and Elaine Stritch pouring drinks. That’s my idea of heaven!

to Elaine. We miss you so.

UPDATE AMC Theaters Stock Drops 16% After Warner Bros. Announces They Will Debut All 2021 Movies on HBO Max Simultaneous to Screens

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE AMC Theaters Stock Drops 16% After Warner Bros. Announces They Will Debut All 2021 Movies on HBO Max Simultaneous to Screens

UPDATE AMC THEATERS  stock dropped 16% at close of bell today after WB’s announcement.

Warner Bros. has dealt to a potential death blow to movie theaters today. They’ve announced that all their 2021 releases will go not only to theaters but to HBO Max at the same time. HBO Max is the Warners streaming equivalent of Disney Plus or Netflix. This means that audiences will have the option of staying home, not paying for babysitters, sodas, candy, etc. And they will avoid potential exposure to COVID.

Will some want to go to theaters? Maybe. But by and large, this could kill the theater business.

At 2:14pm, AMC Theaters stock had dropped 12% in two hours.

The movies on this list for 2021 include:

Denzel Washington’s “The Little Things,” upcoming Oscar-buzzed  “Judas and the Black Messiah,” plus Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Lin Manuel Miranda’s “In The Heights,” Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, “Dune,” David Chase’s “The Many Saints of Newark,” King Richard, Cry Macho and Matrix 4.

The studio had already announced the simultaneous release of “Wonder Woman 1984” in theaters and on HBO Max.

The studio says: “The hybrid model was created as a strategic response to the impact of the ongoing global pandemic.”

Ratings UPDATE: “The Conners” Drops Another 200,000 Viewers as Fans Abandon Show, Criticize Lack of Laughs

Roger Friedman
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Ratings UPDATE: “The Conners” Drops Another 200,000 Viewers as Fans Abandon Show, Criticize Lack of Laughs

“The Conners” dropped another 200,000 viewers last night in another desultory Wednesday outing.

The “Roseanne” spin off hit 3.5 million, down from 3.7 million. They key demo dropped below to 0.6, and 0.9 in the older demo, first time below 1.0.

What’s happening? Moving the show to Wednesdays at 9pm didn’t help. But fans have been writing to me in droves saying the show is not funny, they can’t relate to it, and there doesn’t seem to be a central theme to bring everyone back week to week.

I watched “The Conners” last night and I have to say, the fans are right. The show seemed kind of grim to me. Darlene is married to a guy, or living with one who looks like a werewolf and is sitting in Dan’s (John Goodman’s) chair. Goodman seems out of sorts, and Katy Sagal, who I thought was going to pop as Louise, Dan’s girlfriend, also seemed out of focus.

But it was Laurie Metcalf who concerned me. While she had air time last night, everything about Jackie seemed off. She also has let Jackie age in a way that’s not inviting. “The Conners” certainly isn’t supposed to be glamorous, but attractive in some way. Clearly the fans are not finding any of it attractive.

I can’t say I watch the ABC Wednesday comedy slate with any regularity. But I did notice that “The Goldbergs” at 8pm did better last night, which is unusual. Usually “The Conners” beats them. “The Goldbergs” is no “Seinfeld,” but the writing last night was warmer than “The Conners” and more focused. “The Conners” needs a sharpening, and fast.

Review: Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen are Tarnished Golden Girls in Steven Soderbergh’s Surprise Hit “Let Them All Talk”

Roger Friedman
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Review: Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen are Tarnished Golden Girls in Steven Soderbergh’s Surprise Hit “Let Them All Talk”

The first time I heard the premise of “Let Them All Talk,” I thought– Love Boat, Golden Girls. what is this? Why are Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, and Candice Bergen getting involved in this kind of shmaltzy nonsense? And why is two time Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh directing it?

But then there’s the screenwriter, Deborah Eisenberg, famous from the New Yorker, married a long time to actor Wally Shawn, who’s been in projects with all three of these powerhouse actresses. And Lucas Hedges and Gemma Chan are the “young people.” It’s not like they’re Donnie and Marie.

Upfront I’ll tell you “Let Them All Talk” was sold to HBO Max, but because of this year’s Oscar rules, it’s eligible for everything. I didn’t know that when I saw it. Last week, everyone was focused on Meryl in “The Prom.” But I knew better. Soderbergh, very slyly, has pulled off a quite triumph.

The premise is that Streep is literary award winning writer Alice Hughes. She’s wanted in London to accept a prestigious prize so she asks if she can take her two college pals– Bergen and Wiest– and nephew Hedges. She will only go by boat, so they all board the Queen Mary for Southampton after her book agent (Gemma Chan) gets her a lecture gig.

It’s not exactly The Love Boat. Well, maybe if Robert Altman had filmed it. “LTAT” has that feeling of being intimate and on the fly, almost cinema verite, when it’s quite constructed. That’s its magic. Each of the women has secrets and issues, many of them are unexplained for a long time, none are obvious. Meryl’s Alice believes her own publicity, Wiest’s Susan has hidden wisdom, Bergen’s Roberta is garrulous and direct.

Streep and Wiest are wonderful, of course. Streep has the showier part, a kind of Lear unraveling before our eyes, charming and dangerous. It’s one of her best performances, apples and oranges to “The Prom.”

But it’s Bergen who really knocked me out. She just keeps transcending herself in all these post- Murphy Brown movies. Roberta is broke, she hates Alice for ruining her life, she is bluntly on a gold digging mission for a husband. Maybe it’s a silver mining expedition. Her standards aren’t that high. She just wants to find a dignified third act. I really liked her so much. I want to be snookered by her myself.

And then, after the movie makes a sharp turn, it’s Roberta who brings dignity to the proceedings. She’s the unexpected heroine. Bergen deserves a Supporting Actress nomination. I put her in with my favorite supporting performances of this season including Valerie Mahaffey from “French Exit,” Marisa Tomei from “King of Staten Island,” Cherry Jones from “Rainy Day in New York,” Swankie from “Nomadland,” and Amanda Seyfried from “Mank.”

Soderbergh shot this for nothing, basically, did his own editing and cinematography. “LTAT” will stand high on his already impressive resume.

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