Wednesday, December 10, 2025
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Ivanka Trump Joins Parler, Invites Her Twitter Followers to Follow Her On Right-Wing, Hate Filled Social Media

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Is there any question that Ivanka Trump is complicit and hateful? She’s invited her Twitter followers to follow her on Parler, the social media platform for right wingers, crazy conspiracy theorists, and nut jobs. She’s stated her case clearly. Parler is funded by Rebekah Mercer of the wealthy right wing Mercer family. Ivanka does nothing without an ulterior motive, so her move to Parler has something to do with money and the Mercers. She and Jared Kushner will never be able to return to Manhattan life if they’re going this route, that’s for sure. But something tells me Ivanka will need Mercer money to effect her China business deals in the next year.

Ivanka joins the ranks of other crazies like Ted Cruz, Sean Hannity, Kim Guilfoyle, Kirstie Alley, Devin Nunes, and Dinesh D’Souza. Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Alex Jones’ conspiracy website Infowars, and anti-immigration site VDARE are all members. So you get where Ivanka wants to meet her new friends. Idiot former TV host John Tesh just joined this week.

iTunes Top 10 R&B 2020: Commercials Propel Oldies by Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Bill Withers, Solomon Burke

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Not one but two versions of an  R^B classic written by Valerie Simpson and her late husband Nik Ashford are in the iTunes top 10 R&B today.

The song is “You’re All I Need to Get By,” recorded first by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1968. It went to number 1 on the R&B charts and 7 on the pop charts. It’s never stopped being played on the radio or selling. But the current Wal Mart commercial featuring Aretha Franklin’s cover is on TV and radio constantly. Consequently, both versions are now in the chart.

Aretha’s version, which can be heard in the commercial, was recorded as a single in 1971 and later collected for “Aretha’s Greatest Hits”  that year. It went top 20 and became a staple of her shows and future greatest hits compilations. While we’re waiting until 2021 for the movie “Respect” and the TV series, “Genius,” it’s a thrill to hear Aretha so often every day.

Also in top 10 are Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day,” which is featured in an omnipresent AllState commercial. “Lovely Day” was never the hit on the same magnitude as “Lean on Me” or “Ain’t No Sunshine,” but over the years it’s grown and grown. The song sounds particularly good in this commercial.

Solomon Burke’s “Cry to Me” rounds out the four classics in the top 10. I’m not sure why– maybe someone can tell me. It must be in a commercial or somewhere on TV. Solomon was quite a guy and quite a performer. Large and in charge, he traveled with a famous gold throne as his mobility decreased. But he was still a powerhouse of a singer.

One other song that floats in and out of the R&B top 10 is Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming.” It was used in two big commercials in the last year, and is a welcome presence when it turns up.

Pretty cool that these wonderful artists are sharing the top 10 with The Weeknd, Aloe Blacc, Andra Day, and other whippersnappers!

Dolly Parton — Newly Minted Vaccine Hero– Will Have Her Hit Songs Featured in Bobby Cannavale-Rose Byrne Musical Film

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It’s Dolly Parton Week, which is never a bad thing!

You may have heard that Dolly contributed a million bucks to Vanderbilt University for vaccine research. They came up with the new COVID vaccine from Moderna. So Dolly is saving our lives!

Now comes news that Dolly’s music– her hit songs– will be featured in a new movie starring Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne (who are either married or domiciled and have a baby).

The movie is called “Seriously Red,” and it’s currently filming in Australia directed by Gracie Otto from a script by co-star Krew Boykan. ArcLight Films will handle worldwide distribution.

 

We always celebrate Dolly! Hope the film turns out ok!

A Rare Failure for Oprah as Hearst Publications Prepares to Lay Off 59 Staffers from “O” as It Ends Print Edition

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Oprah Winfrey has few failures on her resume.

But the ending of the print edition of the “O” Magazine at Hearst will sting for some time to come. The December issue, as announced in July. will end the print version. From then on, O will be a website with special issues.

The NY Post’s Keith Kelly, king of all media reporting, says today that Hearst will lay off 50 O staffers on February 5th, 2021. They’ve filed a warning report with the NY Department of Labor, which I’ve obtained and you can see here.

Kelly says editor in chief Lucy Kaylin will survive while her staff will not. But O will be pushed under the digital regime that has whittled down the importance of most Hearst magazines. Earlier this year, Troy Young, who went from digital chief to running the company into the ground, was fired. But his legions live on, and they won’t be satisfied until the once grand company fits onto a terrabyte.

There’s a boiler plate Hearst statement about all this, but you can guess the wording.

I wrote in July that none of this made sense, O Magazine was doing very well. But again, Hearst is now run by people with no allegiance to physical magazines, and are hastening their death. I don’t the magazine’s budget, but certainly if Oprah were still committed to it, she could have taken it elsewhere, or private. My guess is, she wants out, too.

Exclusive: Disney Family Source Says They Have Nothing to Do with Taylor Swift Music Purchase, “They’re Fans”

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EXCLUSIVE

The Disney family are fans of Taylor Swift. I’m told that Susan Disney Lord, daughter of the late Roy Disney, and her daughters, love Taylor Swift.

So sources around the Disneys wanted me to explain: they have nothing to do with the purchase for $300 million of Taylor Swift’s master recordings from Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta.

The investment fund Shamrock Capital Advisors bought the masters. Shamrock Holdings is the Disney family investment fund. Shamrock Capital is now other people. They used to work for Shamrock Holdings but spun themselves off into a separate entity.

“They started out as a fund underneath the umbrella of Shamrock Holdings Inc but left after Roy Disney passed away 10 years ago,” says a source. “The Disneys know nothing about it.”

But you see? That’s how ‘folklore’ starts!

My source says, perhaps naively: “I know these guys at Shamrock are good people, and I have a feeling they’ll try to work with Taylor Swift.”

Hope springs eternal!

 

With COVID Way Up in Tennessee, Allman Bros. Revival Band Plan Live Show at Nashville’s Ryman Theater Because Why Not?

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The original Allman Brothers are dead, so now their heirs want to see if they can hasten their own end. And their fans.

The Allman Bros. Revival Band, successors to Duane, Greg, et al, are going to have a concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on December 11th. It will be live, in the famed theater, with more than a couple hundred fans not to mention the band, crew, theater employees, and so on.

This seems like a good idea, right? Because COVID-19 infections and deaths are way up in Tennessee. But hey, it would have been Greg Allman’s birthday, who cares? Let’s have a party.

Luckily, the band is promising a four hour show. That way, the audience can really stew in some germs. (And you can imagine with a cloud of marijuana clogging up the ventilation systems, this should be fun!)

Guess what? I’m not going. I’m glad I didn’t get sick last March at the big Allman Revival show at Madison Square Garden. In retrospect, I was very lucky and so was everyone else.

You know what? Stay home. Play the records. Wait til next year. Or we could wind up with Greg and Duane.

Take a look at the COVID chart for Tennessee, followed by the seating chart for the show:

 

 

Sunday Cable: “People’s Choice” Awards Loses to HBO’s “The Undoing” and Many Others with Just 1 Million Viewers over 3 Networks

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The low-end, inexplicable “People’s Choice” Awards was not much of a ratings grabber on Sunday.

The show, which was principally on the E! channel, brought in just over 1 million viewers. The irony is that it was shown on three networks and got its highest ratings on Bravo, not E!.

“People’s Choice Awards” was beaten soundly by many other cable offerings, starting with HBO’s “The Undoing,” which edged it out at 1.222 million viewers just on HBO. “The Undoing” is a big hit despite snooty reviewers and pseudo philosophers poo-pooing it. I’ll tell you what, if you don’t like “The Undoing,” you’re in trouble.

The “PCAs” as they were known on social media were like a walk through your local Kohl’s after the liquidation sale. NBC Comcast owns E! so their shows won a lot of awards and were heavily promoted. As in all previous iterations, anyone who showed up for the People’s Choice was handed an award. Everyone’s in on it. It was nice to see Tracee Ellis Ross get what seemed like a half-hour fashion tribute, however.

You can tell Ellen DeGeneres must be scared about her ratings. She came and accepted an award for Best Talk Show with a Toxic Staff. I’m not sure if the episode that won was “Dakota Johnson Tells Ellen Off.” Still a favorite.

 

 

Ariana Grande’s Raunchy, X Rated, F Bomb Laden “34 + 35” Gets a Video: ’50s Scientists in Teddies

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Ariana Grande introduces a video for her raunchy, X rated, F bomb-laden song “34+35.” Never has anyone sung such filthy phrases to such a cute video. But you can’t beat a scientist in a teddy! I want to hear a whole arena sing this out loud one day!

Quentin Tarantino Publishing His Own Novelization of “Once Upon a Time” and Another About Movies in General

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I guess I could call this a scoop. Everyone else is. This is a reprint of the press release from Harper Collins. If you saw it first, it was a scoop. Since QT is only making one more movie (allegedly) maybe he can go back and do this for all of them. 

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has signed a two book deal with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Tarantino’s first work of fiction, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” will be published in Summer 2021. The novel is based on his Oscar-winning film, which received ten Academy Award nominations. In the tradition of the classic movie novelizations that have long inspired Tarantino, the book will appear initially as a Harper Perennial mass market paperback, alongside ebook and digital audio editions. A deluxe hardcover edition will follow in Fall 2021.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” will amplify Tarantino’s original award-winning vision, while also offering a fresh, playful and shocking departure from the film. The novel will chart the lives of Tarantino’s protagonists – TV actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth – both forward and backward in time.

“In the seventies movie novelizations were the first adult books I grew up reading,” says Tarantino. “And to this day I have a tremendous amount of affection for the genre. So as a movie-novelization aficionado, I’m proud to announce “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” as my contribution to this often marginalized, yet beloved sub-genre in literature. I’m also thrilled to further explore my characters and their world in a literary endeavor that can (hopefully) sit alongside its cinematic counterpart.”

Vice President and Executive Editor Noah Eaker, who acquired North American rights from the William Morris Endeavor Agency, says, “Quentin Tarantino’s literary talents have been in plain sight since his first scripts, but to see how skillfully he endows his characters with life on the page and how he constantly takes a reader by surprise, even one who knows the movie by heart, is to see a master storyteller trying on a new form and making it his own.”

Tarantino’s second work with Harper will be a book of nonfiction, “Cinema Speculation.” He has often cited film critic Pauline Kael as a literary hero and over the years has teased a career pivot toward film-writing. The long-awaited result is a deep dive into the movies of the 1970’s. The book will be a rich mix of essays, reviews, personal writing, and tantalizing “what if’s,” from one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and its most devoted fan.

Disney Family’s Shamrock Capital Made a Bigger Than Usual Investment in Taylor Swift’s Music as They Build Business

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Back in July, there wasn’t too much interest in the announcement that Shamrock Capital, aka Shamrock Holdings, had closed a round of financing to the tune of $400 million in capital.

The investment fund of the Disney family is said to have $1.9 billion of assets under management and invests from $15 million to $100 million of control or minority equity in growth capital and buyouts. This fund is focused on media, entertainment, communications, and intellectual property.

With that new $400 million they were going to go shopping. Who knew it was Taylor Swift they’d be putting in their cart?

But it makes sense. In 2018, Shamrock bought Tor Hermansen and Mikkel Erikson’s Stargate music publishing catalog with songs like Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Rihanna’s “Diamonds” and Beyonce’s “Irreplacable.” That first fund raised $250 million and holds an interest in more than 800 films, 1,000 television episodes, and 5,000 music compositions.

Reports say Shamrock usually spends between $5 million to $50 million on entertainment-related intellectual property rights of films, television programming, music, and video games. So if they did spend $300 million on Taylor Swift’s masters, they outdid themselves.

Is it a good investment? Swift says she’s begun re-recording her catalog. Shamrock, don’t forget, didn’t buy Swift’s publishing. They bought the records. You know she’s going to finish the re-records and make a thing of it, with her core fans buying up the new versions and staging bonfires of the old. Shamrock better hope they’ve got a magical four leaf clover when that happens.

And what about the Disney family? These are Roy Disney’s children. I’ve met them, they’re nice people and consider themselves progressives. Maybe they didn’t know what was going on– they don’t run Shamrock. Ruining Taylor Swift’s life– a second time this year– doesn’t seem like something they’d want to do.