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Good News for Tom Petty’s Estate: Sam Smith’s Knock Off of “Won’t Back Down,” “Stay with Me,” Has Sold 10 Million Copies

Roger Friedman
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Good News for Tom Petty’s Estate: Sam Smith’s Knock Off of “Won’t Back Down,” “Stay with Me,” Has Sold 10 Million Copies

Tom Petty must be smiling in heaven.

Sam Smith’s 2014 knock off of Petty’s 1989 hit “I Won’t Back Down,” called “Stay with Me,” has crossed the 10 million mark in sales.

This was Smith’s first hit. It was being played everywhere until someone realized it sounded exactly like “Won’t Back Down.” Petty and his co-writer Jeff Lynne were added immediately to the credits. Petty and Lynne split 25% of the song’s royalties in a case reportedly settled out of court.

Smith is not a very original songwriter. He has hits called “I’m Not the Only One” (hello Melissa Etheridge), “Too Good at Goodbyes” (which connotes Julian Lennon’s “Too Late for Goodbyes”), plus “How Do You Sleep?” (John Lennon), and so on.

Review: Shia LaBeouf Goes Full Frontal with Vanessa Kirby in a Movie Called “Pieces of A Woman” That Explores Marital Heartbreak

Roger Friedman
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Review: Shia LaBeouf Goes Full Frontal with Vanessa Kirby in a Movie Called “Pieces of A Woman” That Explores Marital Heartbreak

Where to begin with “Pieces of A Woman,” from Hungarian director Kornél Mundrucz? Is it a Lifetime movie pretending to be High Art, as some reviewers have said? Is it an art house film with some soapy elements? Is it chick-lit? I guess it’s a little of all these things, and it’s headed to Netflix. Frankly, that’s a good thing because the film– which has some moments of note– would have trouble finding an audience in theaters even without a pandemic.

Vanessa Kirby, known to us from “The Crown” and “Mission Impossible,” is an upscale Boston lady named Martha married to a blue collar worker, Sean, played by Shia LaBeouf. She’s nine months pregnant and everything looks peachy until it goes south. The first 20 minutes of the film are taken up with a disastrous home childbirth, although I thought the actress playing the midwife, Molly Parker, was excellent.

After things go very wrong, Ellen Burstyn is apparent as Elizabeth, the patrician mother of Martha who’s determined to prosecute the midwife. Like Martha, Elizabeth is miserable, and mother and daughter like to fight with each other. Martha and Sean aren’t dealing with grief well, either. He actually cheats on her — a quickie– with her cousin, who is, also, improbably. the prosecutor in the case. (How this happens is beyond me.)

If you can make it past the child-birthing sequence — and trust me, it’s hard — there’s a movie in the clearing. I’m not sure if it’s a good movie, but it has intelligent performances. Burstyn — who will be 88 next month– gets a big Oscar speech, which should qualify her. She’s really terrific. Kirby is very good. But Martha is such a bitch that it’s hard to feel sorry for her. LaBeouf’s work is also commendable and real. But Sean gets tossed away instead of being allowed to grow into a human. He also goes full frontal, a couple of times, and gets into a questionably rough sex situation with Kirby. None of these things would ever happen on Lifetime. LaBeouf is also now racking up numbers of times he shows his derriere on film. (You could call this movie “Pieces of a Man.”)

What I did like about “Pieces of a Woman” was Howard Shore’s score. It’s gorgeous and just right in its melancholy. Production values are fine, but I lived in Boston during its worst snowstorm and the streets were plowed a lot better than they are in this film. There are some weird inconsistencies as far as time of day from scene to scene, and so on. You can imagine if I was thinking about them, the movie was not holding me. I don’t think there’s a strong male audience for “Pieces of a Woman,” but that doesn’t matter much in the long run.

Gotham Awards Nominations Start the Oscar Drum Roll for “Nomadland,” Plus “The Assistant,” “Relic,” “Never Rarely,” “First Cow”

Roger Friedman
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Gotham Awards Nominations Start the Oscar Drum Roll for “Nomadland,” Plus “The Assistant,” “Relic,” “Never Rarely,” “First Cow”

The Gotham Awards– which will be held on January 11th– start the drum roll for Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Frances McDormand. I’m a little surprised that “The Father” and “French Exit” didn’t get anything. (Anthony Hopkins? Michelle Pfeiffer?) Very puzzling. Also, how could “The Assistant” be nominated but not Julia Garner for Best Actress? Makes no sense unless it was just nominated to stick it to Harvey Weinstein. Chadwick Boseman is a cinch to get Best Actor posthumously. This is also the start of the march of “Time” toward Best Documentary.

PS I don’t want to oversell “Nomadland” but when everyone gets to see it, you’ll understand. It’s lovely. The Oscar winner, hands down.

The 2020 IFP Gotham Award nominations are:

Best Feature

The Assistant

Kitty Green, director; Scott Macaulay, James Schamus, P. Jennifer Dana, Ross Jacobson, producers (Bleecker Street)

First Cow

Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani, producers (A24)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Eliza Hittman, director; Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, producers (Focus Features)

Nomadland

Chloé Zhao, director; Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloé Zhao, producers (Searchlight Pictures)

Relic

Natalie Erika James, director; Anna Mcleish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, producers (IFC Midnight)

Best Documentary

76 Days

Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous, directors; Hao Wu, Jean Tsien, producers (MTV Documentary Films)

City Hall

Frederick Wiseman, director; Frederick Wiseman, Karen Konicek, producers (Zipporah Films)

Our Time Machine

Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang directors; S. Leo Chiang, Yang Sun, producers (Passion River Films)

A Thousand Cuts

Ramona S. Diaz, director; Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (PBS Distribution | FRONTLINE )

Time

Garrett Bradley, director; Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley, producers (Amazon Studios)

Best International Feature

 Bacurau

Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles, directors; Emilie Lesclaux, Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt, producers (Kino Lorber)

Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov, director; Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov, producers (Kino Lorber)

Cuties (Mignonnes)

Maïmouna Doucouré, director; Zangro, producer (Netflix)

Identifying Features

Fernanda Valadez, director; Astrid Rondero, producer (Kino Lorber)

Martin Eden

Pietro Marcello, director; Pietro Marcello, Beppe Caschetto, Thomas Ordonneau, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, producers (Kino Lorber)

Wolfwalkers

Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, directors; Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stéphan Roelants, producers (Apple)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Radha Blank for The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)

Channing Godfrey Peoples for Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)

Alex Thompson for Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Carlo Mirabella-Davis for Swallow (IFC Films)

Andrew Patterson for The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)

 Best Screenplay

Bad Education, Mike Makowsky (HBO)

First Cow, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt (A24)

The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank (Netflix)

Fourteen, Dan Sallitt (Grasshopper Film)

The Vast of Night, James Montague, Craig Sanger (Amazon Studios)

Best Actor

Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)

Jude Law in The Nest (IFC Films)

John Magaro in First Cow (A24)

Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

 Best Actress

Nicole Beharie in Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)

Jessie Buckley in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari (A24)

Carrie Coon in The Nest (IFC Films)

Frances McDormand in Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Breakthrough Actor

Jasmine Batchelor in The Surrogate (Monument Releasing)

Kingsley Ben-Adir in One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)

Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)

Orion Lee in First Cow (A24)

Kelly O’Sullivan in Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)

The Great, Tony McNamara, creator; Tony McNamara, Marian Macgowan, Mark Winemaker, Elle Fanning, Brittany Kahan Ward, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Josh Kesselman, Ron West, Matt Shakman, executive producers (Hulu)

Immigration Nation, Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson, executive producers (Netflix)

P-Valley, Katori Hall, creator; Katori Hall, Dante Di Loreto, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Liz W. Garcia, executive producers (STARZ)

Unorthodox, Anna Winger, Alexa Karolinski , creators; Anna Winger, Henning Kamm, executive producers (Netflix)

Watchmen, Damon Lindelof, Creator for Television;  Tom Spezialy , Nicole Kassell , Stephen Williams, Joseph E. Iberti, executive producers (HBO)

Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)

 Betty, Crystal Moselle, Lesley Arfin, Igor Srubshchik, Jason Weinberg, executive producers (HBO)

Dave, Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, creators; Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, Saladin K. Patterson, Greg Mottola, Kevin Hart, Marty Bowen, Scooter Braun, Mike Hertz, Scott Manson, James Shin,  executive producers (FX Networks)

I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel , creator; Michaela Coel, Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni, executive producers (HBO)

Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi, David Shadrack Smith, Sarina Roma, executive producers (Hulu)

Work in Progress, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, creators, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, Lilly Wachowski, Lawrence Mattis, Josh Adler, Ashley Berns, Julia Sweeney, Tony Hernandez, executive producers (SHOWTIME)

 

Watch Patty Smyth Rock it Out on Jimmy Fallon Last Night with First Single, “Build a Fire,” from New Album

Roger Friedman
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Watch Patty Smyth Rock it Out on Jimmy Fallon Last Night with First Single, “Build a Fire,” from New Album

Patty Smyth rocked it out with two singing appearances last night on Jimmy Fallon. Later in the show she performed “Build a Fire,” the first single from her new album called “It’s Time.”

Earlier in the show she and Jimmy dedicated “Goodbye to You” to former president Donald Trump. Patty was on fire last night. Her voice sounded great. Buy her new record!

Flashback: Kurt Vonnegut Would Have Turned 98 Today. Here’s the Interview We Did for His 80th

Roger Friedman
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Flashback: Kurt Vonnegut Would Have Turned 98 Today. Here’s the Interview We Did for His 80th

I interviewed Kurt Vonnegut for his 80th birthday in 2002. His wife, photographer Jill Krementz, helped put it together. I miss Kurt a lot (and so many others). Here’s the piece.

 

 

It was perhaps no mere coincidence in the grand scheme of the universe that the birthday of the great writer Kurt Vonnegut falls on Veterans’ Day.

Vonnegut, who becomes an octogenarian Monday, lived through the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, as an American prisoner of war in 1945. This seminal event became not only the basis of his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five, but became the theme of his extensive anti-war writings.

Vonnegut has lived in New York and been highly visible for over 25 years. In some ways, I think that it may have hurt him.

The New York literati take him for granted. He still lacks some major awards, all of which he deserves. In the meantime, here is our reward for having Vonnegut in our midst: I spoke with him yesterday by phone from Los Angeles.

RF: I’ve been thinking about you since the talk of war has heated up recently.

KV: What happens on the ground is never spoken of, the number of people we kill with our unmanned kamikazes. The hawks would like to say we’re cowards, and can’t take casualties and all that, but it’s the inflicting of casualties that’s horrifying.

Review: Mel Gibson’s “Fatman” is a Terrible Movie, But the Real Insult is Casting a Black Woman to Prove He’s Not a Racist

Roger Friedman
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Review: Mel Gibson’s “Fatman” is a Terrible Movie, But the Real Insult is Casting a Black Woman to Prove He’s Not a Racist

Reviewing Mel Gibson’s “Fatman” is easy enough, like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s a terrible movie, a piece of junk that shouldn’t be experienced by anyone. Even airplane passengers should be spared. But here it is anyway.

The real insult of “Fatman” — in which Gibson plays a curmudgeonly Kris Kringle — is that they’ve cast a black woman to play Mrs. Kringle to prove Gibson isn’t a racist. This is the height of cynicism. The exceptionally gifted Marianne Jean-Baptiste, perhaps choosing a payday over common sense, has taken the role. You wish that when she got the offer her agent had called Shonda Rhimes and said “I need work or I’ll have to do this.”

Gibson, of course, is infamously known for making racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic remarks not only to police officers in a DUI arrest, but to his ex-girlfriend, years later, who taped him. He is a reprehensible human.

“Fatman” is written and directed by a pair of brothers, Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms, who will not be confused with other famous siblings who co-direct movies. They aren’t Coens, Dardennes, or even Safdies. Their movie is a shrill piece of junk with no redeeming features.

Here’s the plot: a wealthy, very obnoxious 12 year old hires a deranged hit man to kill Santa Claus. The 12 year old boy, Chance Hurstfield, had better go to school because he’s not going to be a professional actor. (I never want to see him again.) In one scene, the boy and the hit man kidnap a girl in his class and attempt to torture her over winning a science fair. This is not a joke. They’re serious.

The hit man (Walton Goggins) hates Santa anyway, so he obliges. Meantime, the US military has hired Santa and his elves to help them do something unclear during his off season. Again, the film is not funny or tongue in cheek. There is a lot of violence and killing.

You can tell there wasn’t much budget. Everything looks cheap. The so-called “elves” themselves verge on a racist joke.  By making this movie, Gibson has doubled down on all his criticisms. With his bushy gray beard and craggy appearance, it’s as if he’s staring at the audience screaming, “Yeah, I give up. I’m just what you imagined. Stuff it!” He’s destroyed his career. When Goggins finally does appear to have killed him, there’s a sense of relief.

No real director will work with Gibson, so he’s down to either making his own movie or hiring people like the Nelmses. He should really choose another option, and not make any more movies. In the meantime, we have the option of not watching them.

No Happy Ending for Writer Jeffrey Toobin: Fired from the New Yorker After Masturbation Scandal, CNN Next?

Roger Friedman
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No Happy Ending for Writer Jeffrey Toobin: Fired from the New Yorker After Masturbation Scandal, CNN Next?

This comes as little surprise but Jeffrey Toobin has been fired from The New Yorker.

The magazine conducted an investigation after Toobin was seen pleasuring himself during a Zoom call with New Yorker and NPR staff members. It turns out he got bored and flipped to a porn site and forgot to mute the video/audio on the New Yorker call.

He was immediately suspended from the literary magazine. He was also put on a voluntary leave at CNN, where’s the legal analyst. Will CNN finish him, too? It’s likely. It’s hard to imagine Toobin on panels on live TV where this come come up.

“I am writing to share with you that our investigation regarding Jeffrey Toobin is complete, and as a result, he is no longer affiliated with our company,” read a memo from Stan Duncan, Condé Nast’s chief people officer. The Daily Beast obtained the internal memo.

What a fall from grace for Toobin, who basically had it made in New York media circles. He’d even survived a scandal involving an affair and a pregnant mistress (he denied fathering the baby). Toobin is married to Amy Bennett McIntosh since 1986, although it’s equally hard to imagine she will continue with him after this. The Toobins have two adult children in addition to the 12 year old son Toobin fathered with the daughter of CNN’s Jeff Greenfield but wanted aborted back in 2008.

Toobin wrote on Twitter:

“I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work.”

Nicole Kidman’s “The Undoing” Doing Pretty Well on HBO: Episode Three Brought in over 1 Mil Viewers Across Platforms

Roger Friedman
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Nicole Kidman’s “The Undoing” Doing Pretty Well on HBO: Episode Three Brought in over 1 Mil Viewers Across Platforms

Nicole Kidman has really struck gold with “The Undoing.”

Even though Nielsen screwed up the monitoring of Sunday night’s ratings, HBO tells me Episode 3 went through the roof. According to them, viewership Sunday night totaled 1.7 million across the linear premiere, two replays and digital, up 18% from episode 2 and 21% from the series premiere on Oct. 25. Viewing for the first episode has quickly passed 6 million.

Not bad. “The Undoing” is very different than Kidman’s previous HBO hit, “Big Little Lies.” This is a murder mystery, not social commentary. So many pundits and reviewers tried to turn it into that, and then double down on criticism. We are living in a strange time in which any fiction is instantly turned into a flashpoint. No one knows how to enjoy an old fashioned whodunit anymore.

I don’t know who killed Hugh Grant’s mistress in “The Undoing” because I’ve not been given the final episode yet. But just about every character is a candidate. And since the audience is growing week by week, I think viewers must be hooked. And PS this miniseries is going to get a ton of Golden Globe awards. It’s a no-brainer. (And a brainy one at that!)

HBO Rock Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Grabs Few Viewers as the World Turned to Biden Victory Speech

Roger Friedman
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HBO Rock Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Grabs Few Viewers as the World Turned to Biden Victory Speech

Talk about bad timing!

At the exact moment the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s lame induction ceremony was starting in Cleveland, Joe Biden was coming to the microphone in Wilmington, Delaware.

What do you think people watched? The HBO special or President-elect Biden making his victory speech?

Uh. That’s right. Fewer people watched the virtual RRHOF ceremony than saw the farm report last Saturday at 8pm.

The Hall special managed to find just 283,000 viewers. Biden? North of 25 million. Oh well.

Maybe it was the inductees: Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious B.I.G., T-Rex, and Ahmet Ertegun Award honorees Jon Landau and Irving Azoff. Three are dead (Whitney, Biggie, T Rex). The Doobie Brothers were 10 to 15 years too late. Depeche Mode? Ok. Nine Inch Nails? Really? Landau and Azoff certainly deserved it.

But the RRHOF induction ceremony is largely irrelevant. So many great acts from the 70s are missing that it’s become kind of a joke.

Anyway, it’s over. Again. It will start all over again soon. Who’s not in? Sting as a solo act, Carole King ditto, Carly Simon, Billy Preston, Todd Rundgren, Rufus and Carla Thomas, J Geils Band, Motown great Mary Wells, and so on and so forth.

HUGE Ratings for Dave Chappelle “SNL” with Foo Fighters Post-Biden-Harris Victory Announcement: 2nd Highest in Three Years

Roger Friedman
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HUGE Ratings for Dave Chappelle “SNL” with Foo Fighters Post-Biden-Harris Victory Announcement: 2nd Highest in Three Years

“Saturday Night Live” scored HUGE  ratings this past weekend with host Dave Chappelle and musical guest Foo Fighters.

The total viewers came to just over 9 million with 2.62 million of those in the key demo.

I told you this would happen.

Despite being delayed because of a college football game, “SNL” scored so high because of the Biden-Harris 8pm victory speech. The audience was salivating to see what the show would do. Luckily, it was a top notch episode.

According to NBC PR : “This is the highest “SNL” 18-49 rating in three-and-a-half years, since May 13, 2017 (with host Melissa McCarthy & musical guest Haim, 2.74). Excluding the historic Dec. 21, 2019 telecast hosted by Eddie Murphy with musical guest Lizzo (9.981 million), it’s the most-watched “SNL” since that same May 13, 2017 telecast (10.382 million).”

So it’s the 2nd highest audience in three years. Which is pretty damn good. Well played, Lorne Michaels!

Just to underscore: this episode had the third highest rating in at least a decade. That’s how pumped the audience was to see the end of Trump on “SNL.”

See all the great sketches from last Saturday here.

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