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.
This morning, Donald Trump’s tweeting away. He claims that despite 220,000 deaths, and a continuing tally of 1,000 deaths a day, on November 4th “the topic will change.”
I have personally lost several friends to COVID. My city is in suspended animation and businesses are destroyed because of COVID. The mounting losses now are in the Midwest and red states, where Trump support lies. Can the voters there look at a Tweet like this and possibly agree that the “topic will change” on November 4th?
Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high. On November 4th., topic will totally change. VOTE!
From The New York Times, buried as usual on their website, just now:
Fox News preisdent Jay Wallace and four Fox News anchors have been to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 on a private plane.
The Fox News personalities are Bret Baier, the chief political anchor; Martha MacCallum, the anchor of Fox’s 7 p.m. show, “The Story”; and Dana Perino and Juan Williams, two hosts of “The Five.”
“The infected person was on a charter flight to New York from Nashville with a group of network executives, personalities and other staff members who attended the presidential debate on Thursday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal network matters.
Everyone on board the plane has been told to get tested and quarantine. It was unclear whether more than one person had tested positive.”
Jeremy Peters filed the story. I’m sure he’s thrilled with the Times’s presentation of this story. Almost no Times headlines match the stories, you have to find them repurposed on Twitter to know what’s going on.
We still don’t whose plane they were on, or who was the infected person aboard.
Here’s an update on two of the real people who were conscripted by Sacha Baron Cohen to be in “Borat 2.”
Jeanise Jones, the professional baby sitter who becomes the heart and soul of the movie, posted this message to Facebook today:
“Thank you to all who have reached out to me from here in OKC to around the entire world! Yes it was me in the Borat movie. I was recruited to be in a “Documentary”. At ABSOLUTELY NO time did I know this was a satirical comedy movie and that I was being “setup” so to speak. It’s all good I just did what my Mother Ozell Smith (RIP) taught me to do from as far back as I remember.
Again, thank you to all and to God be the glory for it all.”
Borat leaves his “daughter” with Jeanise, along with a ball and chain and a dog bowl, for hours. Jeanise rises to the occasion, doing everything to help Tutar and liberate her from her father. She is wise and wonderful. She’s also a real person, so all the attention may be scary. You can tell from her picture that she’s cool. I’m hopeful she will contact me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
On the flip side is Macy Chanel, a self styled “influencer” on Instagram, whose photo collection of selfies doesn’t leave much to imagination. I wrote to her the day before the movie hit Amazon, and this is how she replied:
“Thank you for your request. I have received a significant amount of inquiries from the media around Borat. I am willing to provide an exclusive to the publication who: Provides a final cut of any scene(s) from the movie in advance of the release date and After reviewing the footage, preview of questions for the interview.Please let me know if you still have an interest.”
Macy has taken like a duck to water with the movie’s release. I’m sure she’s hoping to become a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills. In the movie she gives Tutar advice about how to attract very old rich men. Macy posted the clip of her encounter with Tutar.
Let’s get something straight here. Paulina Porizkova is not homeless or bereft following the death of her almost ex husband, Ric Ocasek of the Cars.
The recent sale of their townhouse at 140 East 19th St. netted $10 million. Paulina was a co-owner of the house. She walked away with at least $5 million. I’m told it was more, that Paulina put up the money for the house when they first bought it years ago.
Today’s New York Post story paints Paulina as a weeping widow who faces life alone in the big city. LOL. First of all, she’s been living with boyfriend, “Bill and Ted” screenwriter Ed Solomon, for years. Ocasek actually died on Solomon’s birthday, which is pretty weird. The Post story omits Solomon altogether.
The Post story is incorrect about Paulina and Ric’s life together the last couple of years. He wrote in his will that she “abandoned” him. “I have made no provision for my wife … as we are in the process of divorcing. Even if I should die before our divorce is final … Paulina is not entitled to any elective share … because she has abandoned me,” Ocasek wrote in his surprise will.
Indeed, when Paulina “discovered” that Ric was dead, she hadn’t been at his house all night. He’d just gotten out of the hospital after a heart attack and a cancer diagnosis. It’s incredible to read now that he was left alone in his house with that news. No nurse? No aide? No family member?
Ocasek seems to have gotten the last laugh, listing $5 million in royalties in his will. He was probably worth around $100 million. He wrote all of the Cars’ hits including “Drive,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Shake it Up,” “Let’s Go” and so on. The records are perennial sellers. But more importantly, the publishing rights give Ocasek’s estate– or trusts he assigned– wheelbarrels full of money.
Paulina herself, meantime, I’m told made a boatload of money herself as a model. It’s well invested. Sources tell me her affair with Solomon was what really plagued Ocasek, and his last minute legal moves are what she’s really mourning. It’s unlikely a judge is going to undo Ocasek’s wishes. As he sang on his first album, “Bye, Bye, Love.”
The poor Kardashians. Putting their show on Thursday nights has been a disaster for E! because that’s been the day for either presidential Town Halls or debates.
This past Thursday, while 55 million people were tuned into debate coverage, basically no one watched “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” The show scored its lowest ratings ever– just 375,000 people. Yikes. The end is really near.
Things were so bad that E! has put the entire episode on YouTube, so everyone can watch it for free. I FF’d through it to get the picture. With ears covered. You’ll have to scroll through and see if there’s footage from Kim’s 15th birthday in 1995, which would have been a few days after OJ Simpson was acquitted with help from her late father, Robert.
The Boss’s “Letter to You” album sold 45,000 copies on Friday according to Buzz Angle/Alpha Data. Almost all were CDs and paid downloads with very little streaming.
By comparison, Springsteen’s last album, “Western Stars,” released in June 2019, sold 61,000 copies for its entire first week and then trailed off. “Letter to You” is poised to do better than 100,000 copies in its debut week and be number 1 on the album chart.
So far, the album hasn’t had a hit single. But I can tell you the next track to get singles-attention for radio is “The Power of Prayer,” which — if radio will let it in among the crap already playing — is a real number 1 hit. Call your local FM station and ask for it ASAP!
And PS don’t miss the “Letter to You” documentary on Apple TV. It’s a winner!
It may be time to start a GoFundMe page for Alec Baldwin. The recent father of five small children (not to mention his adult daughter, Ireland) is starting to do payday movies. Like Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson.
Baldwin is third billed in a movie coming next month and going straight to video on demand called “Chick Fight.” It’s the second feature directed by former “As the World Turns” actor Paul Leyden.
“Chick Fight” stars Malin Akerman (who I’ve always liked and sort of drew the short straw on”Billions”) as an out of work mom who starts a fight club for ladies.
This movie has what may be a record 35 producing credits — meaning investors — and not one of them is Alec, who took the check and ran. You’d think “The Match Game” and “Saturday Night Live” would be enough to feed all those kids. He was hilarious last night on “SNL” as usual. I feel bad about this one.
Baldwin has been incredibly generous with huge donations to organizations in the Hamptons, from the film festival to Guild Hall, and so on. But that was all before five lil ones came into the picture. Let’s hope we see him in a few really good movies, like “The Departed” or “Married to the Mob,” or a “30 Rock,” soon.
