Thursday, December 18, 2025
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Sales Bust: Donald Trump Jr’s Book, “Liberal Privilege” Drop to Number 535 on Amazon, No One Seems to Want to It

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Nothing has “triggered” sales for Donald Trump Jr’s latest writing sample.

The feral son who seeks approval on a daily basis published a book called “Liberal Privilege” a month ago. It’s self published, so NPD Book Scan doesn’t cover its sales.

The result is that “Liberal Privilege” is now at number 535 on Amazon’s best seller list. While books by Bob Woodward, cousin Mary Trump, Michael Cohen, and others all stripping away the veneer of this dangerous mock presidency, the lone family cheerleader is not very popular.

“Liberal Privilege” isn’t even on sub-lists, like Books by Desperate Sons Who Might Go to Jail.

To be clear, no one seems to be buying that Donald Trump Jr. is selling.

Junior’s crazy, desperate interviews and speeches aren’t helping either.

 
This interview might have really done him in:


 

Channing Tatum is Back! Looking Lean and Mean on Instagram, Announcing Production of New Movie Called “Dog”

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Channing Tatum is back! He’s looking lean and mean on Instagram, almost a little too lean, frankly. Someone get him a milk shake.

Channing hasn’t starred in a new film in a couple of years but he says he and producing partner Reid Carolin have started a new movie called “Dog” about a road trip. I met Channing at Sundance around 2006 when Trudie Styler produced Dito Montiel’s great film, “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.” His career took off like a rocket. Let’s hope his “Dog” is a class winner!

UPDATED Zayn’s “Better” A Total Bust with Just 2,600 Downloads for Ex-One Direction Star, Mystery Career Disaster

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UPDATED FRIDAY NIGHT, OCT 2: “Better” is dead. Total sales 2,600. Total streaming 35,000. The Zayn thing is a mystery to me. It’s just a written off career. I don’t know why.

UPDATED Sunday Morning: “Better” is at number 32 on iTunes and hasn’t appeared on Apple’s streaming chart.

FRIDAY: The opening notes of Zayn Malik’s “Better” come from an acoustic guitar and sound like they might be taking us to Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” Alas, the plucking strings, pretty enough, go nowhere, and neither does the song.

“Better” is worse than the terrible music Zayn has insisted on releasing following his hit single, “Pillow Talk.” The song comes off like bad Sly Stone, mumbled, and nearly inaudible. Is Zayn feeling “better” than he used to?It doesn’t sound like.

And this shock: at 8am, “Better,” released at midnight, finally appeared on iTunes at number 25 this morning. The YouTube video has over 1 million views.

How about using a songwriter, a producer, and a vocal coach? How about opening your mouth when you sing? If there’s a whole album coming like this, he’s in trouble. It seems like Zayn is purposely going in the opposite direction of his former One Direction mate Harry Styles, whose music is poppy and peppy.

If I were Zayn, I’d get some songs and production from Niall Horan, the One Direction writer who knows what he’s doing.

Dynasty: Carrie Fisher’s Daughter, Billie Lourd, Has a Baby With Austen Rydell, Grandson of the Oscar Nominated Director of “On Golden Pond,” “The Rose,” Other Hits

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General Leia Organa is a celestial grandmother. Somewhere in Heaven, Carrie Fisher is kvelling that her daughter, 28 year old daughter, actress Billie Lourd, has had a baby today. The father is Austen Rydell, an actor. Billie and Austen are engaged.

But I can tell you EXCLUSIVELY that this a Hollywood dynasty story. As Billie’s grandmother was Debbie Reynolds and her grandfather was Eddie Fisher, Austen also comes from a starry family.

(You won’t read this anywhere else.) Mark Rydell, Austen’s grandfather, now 91 years young, directed several big hits including “On Golden Pond” (for which he had an Oscar nomination as Best Director), “The River,” and “The Rose.” Mark Rydell was an actor before that, one half of soap opera’s first super couples with Rosemary Prinz on “As the World Turns” in the 1950s. In 2000, Mark Rydell also directed the James Dean TV biopic that launched the (now ignominious) career of James Franco. How do you like that?

Rydell divorced Austen’s grandmother in 1973. She was Joanna Linville, now 92. Linville co-founded the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles in 1985. The little lad, named Kingston Fisher Lourd Rydell, is almost assured of becoming an actor one day. He’s got the genes!

Kingston’s grandfather, by the way, is Bryan Lourd, one of the senior partners in the Creative Artists Agency. So the baby will always have representation.

Uncovering the Truth: Rudy Giuliani’s Girlfriend Bills Herself On His Radio Show as a “Doctor” But She’s a PhD

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We have some weird stuff going on here in New York on the radio. I’m sure it’s the same everywhere.

Last March, WABC, which was once part of the ABC network and then owned by Cumulus, was purchased by local supermarket king John Catsimitidis for $12.5 million. I like John– who always talks about running for mayor — even though he’s a very right wing guy. But he’s stocked WABC with the most right wing conservative nut cases he could lay his hands on including disgraced ex Fox Newser Bill O’Reilly.

Our former mayor — hated in New York, by the way — Rudy Giuliani has a nightly show no one listens to where he rants and raves. Whoever’s listening to Rudy at 9pm on the radio needs a life, desperately, so you can imagine the audience.

Turns out Rudy also has a Sunday morning show. He has a co-host, too: his girlfriend, “Doctor” Maria Ryan. It’s called “Uncovering the Truth.” I’m not sure if this is a reference to Rudy’s three ex-wives, one of whom was his cousin. They each “uncovered the truth” about Rudy cheating on them.

Rudy’s most recent ex wife, Judith Nathan, discovered he was cheating on her with “Doctor” Ryan. I use quotation marks because Ryan is a PhD. She is not a medical doctor, or dental or even a shrink. She has a doctorate in health care administration from Warren National University, an online school that closed in 2009 following a failed accreditation bid. You can read all about her phoney baloney background here. “Uncovering the Truth,” by the way, is sponsored by Global Security Solutions, which coincidentally has the same initials as Rudy’s mysterious business endeavor, Giuliani Security and Safety.

WABC in New York used to the be the home of the Beatles and was the number 1 top 40 radio station in the US between the mid 60s and 1983. Catsimitidis recently added “Cousin” Bruce Morrow, a star from the station’s heyday, for a Saturday night oldies show. Cousin Brucie was his best hire, so I applaud that move. But Rudy and “Doctor” Maria? I’d think twice before tuning my dial to their show.

By the way, “Doctor” Ryan is pulling down over $300,000 as CEO of a place called Cottage Hospital in Woodsville, New Hampshire. Rudy always liked a partner with her own income. I’m not sure if she’s paid to do the radio show.

Pictured: Rudy with recently indicted business lackey Lev Parnas.

Aaron Sorkin’s Timely “Trial of the Chicago 7” Should Cause a Riot at the Oscars, with Mark Rylance and Sacha Baron Cohen Leading the Way

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Aaron Sorkin has been working on “The Trial of the Chicago 7” since around 2007. When he finally made it he thought it was at Paramount. But now Netflix is releasing Sorkin’s second directing job tomorrow at some theaters around the country, and then shortly on their platform. It’s a big winner.

It’s September 1969 and the Chicago 7 — including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden — are on trial in front of crazy judge Julius Hoffman for inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic convention. Also briefly on trial with them is Bobby Seale, head of the Black Panthers. The trial was incendiary. Even at age 12, I followed it avidly. Judge Hoffman was widely portrayed as a buffoon. Richard Nixon had just become president after LBJ, protests against the Vietnam War were rampant and violent, and we were still three years away from Watergate.

Does any of this sound familiar? Because the marching in the streets, riots and demonstrations, the general consensus that the president was engaged in an illegal war and was out of control– it could be NOW. Abbie, Jerry, and Tom are all gone, but if they came back right now, they’d be shaking their heads. Fifty years have passed, and nothing has changed.

That’s what makes Sorkin’s movie so great. First of all, the trial was so crazy that the transcripts were published, it was a book, there were staged readings, and other movies that quoted from it. Sorkin quotes from it in his dazzling script and even he’s prescient. He couldn’t have known a year ago, or 18 months ago, that we’d be this far down Trump’s dark rabbit hole. This movie should be seen by everyone before the election just to remind us of the dangers of an imperialistic president who thinks he’s above the law.

All the performances are top notch, textured, and amusing. Mark Rylance, to me, is the standout as William Kunstler, who defended this group. Already famous, he really made his name as the lawyer for the people. It’s a typical understated but forceful Rylance performance. Sacha Baron Cohen gets the flashy character, Abbie Hoffman, and shines. He’s got the nuances down. No Borat here. This is serious. Jeremy Strong, who just won an Emmy for “Succession,” is a very endearing Jerry Rubin. They are all topped off by Eddie Redmayne as a low key Tom Hayden. Redmayne sort of retreats from the glitz of the others around him, going for the understated.

This is important, especially for young people out in streets today. All the issues of protesting, social activism are here displayed almost as a blueprint for now. The cause for justice and equality never ended– and never ends. And what we thought was evil then, with Nixon, was nothing compared to what Trump is doing now. So watch this film carefully. It’s history coming to teach us a lesson.

 

Review: April Wright’s “Stuntwomen” Shows All the Women Behind the Stars Who’ve Risked Their Lives for Hollywood

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April Wright’s latest film venture, the entertaining and informative documentary, “Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story” (her third feature) tells the long overdue story throughout history and to the present day of women in the stunt business which for years and still is the domain of men.

Directed by April Wright, the film is based on the book by Mollie Gregory and narrated by actress Michelle Rodriguez. Rodriguez, familiar with that world as per her role in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, is a co-producer and participant as well. The women are intriguing, saucy and fun, albeit with serious things to say. Inequity in pay, respect and job opportunities existed then and still do now.

From the Golden Age in Hollywood ( Helen Holmes was a pioneer) till the present day, the film shows how much has changed and how nothing has changed. Stunt doubling for years was mainly done by men, they dressed in drag and performed the stunts that women were thought ‘unable’ to do.

When women like Jeanne Epper, who’s best known for stunt doubling Lynda Carter in the kitschy 70’s star “Wonder Woman” and the many other women featured in the film, including; Julie Ann Johnson, Jadie David, Donna Evans, Donna Keegan, Amy Johnston and more, demanded change, it was slow to come. Filmmakers Paul Verhoeven, Paul Feig, Anne Fletcher, and Al Ruddy pay homage to the women and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz gives inside perspective on the struggles these fearless women have faced throughout the decades. The footage of pop culture classics and behind the scenes goings on is fascinating and truly fun to watch.

Kudos to Executive Music Producer Bonnie Greenberg and composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum for an exciting, bouncy score that goes along with the eclectic footage. Diane Warren, the 11 time Oscar nominated brilliant and prolific songwriter, once again delivers a rousing song “Without A Net” sung by the recent Academy of Country Music standout Mickey Guyton.

“Stuntwomen” takes a long worthy look at these women whose contributions to film and TV have too long been ignored. (And how is there not an Oscar category for Stunt work?  Glaring omission from the Academy on that one.)

 

 

Nick Cannon Blasted as “Masked Singer” Ratings Return Down 22 Percent from Last Season Average After Anti-Semitism Scandal

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“The Masked Singer” returned to Fox last night with dismal ratings.

The show scored just 5.4 million viewers vs. a season average last spring of 7 million. They’re down 22 percent. Compared to last season’s series premiere, it’s a 44% drop. (The 2nd season premiere, just this last February, had a whopping 23 million viewers following the Super Bowl. The show calmed down the next week to the 7 million average.)

Some could say it was the “America’s Got Talent” finale on NBC that did in “Masked Singer.” But the Fox show actually won its hour at 8pm.

No, the overall loss in viewers is absolutely attributable to Cannon’s scandal last month when he backed Louis Farrakhan and made anti-Semitic remarks. He was immediately fired by Viacom and MTV/VH-1. Fox thought it wouldn;t make a difference to their audience but apparently it did.

The only saving grace is that among those 5.4 million viewers, the key demo was very high, especially among women. But the drop in viewers is notable.

Why Is Alan Arkin Leaving “The Kominsky Method”? He’s Not a TV Actor and Never Expected it To Last More than 2 Seasons

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Alan Arkin is 86 years young. He has never been a TV actor. For the last two years, he was Michael Douglas’s co-star on Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method.” And now he’s leaving.

Why is he going? They only have one more season, “He never expected it to last more than two seasons,” says a friend.

Arkin has done all he can as Norman Newlander, a sidekick to Michael Douglas’s Kominsky. Arkin, an Oscar winner, garnered two Emmy nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy, but he can see the writing on the wall. He’s not going to win. At 86, why stick around?

Arkin won the Oscar for “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2006. Besides that he’s had 3 other Oscar nominations including “Argo.” He hasn’t been in a TV series since “One Centre Street” in 2001, and that was only because the great Sidney Lumet wrote and directed it. Before that, he had his own short lived comedy called “Harry,” in 1987.  But his real career is movies, and he has an enormous resume full of great performances.

My source says “Kominsky” was only supposed to be 2 seasons. The third season was a surprise announcement. Netflix probably wasn’t there with the money to keep Arkin interested. (At 86, you need some incentive to come into work every day.) “Kominsky” was sort of like a distaff “Grace and Frankie.” But in that case you had the intense motivation of the main actors, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, to make it work. So they’ve gone 7 seasons.

Alan Arkin remains a great American movie star. Watch him in “Catch 22.” Or a little gem from 2008 called “Sunshine Cleaning.” He never fails to pull it off.

 

(Watch) Bruce Springsteen’s Nostalgia Filled “Ghosts” Gives Max Weinberg’s Drums a Work Out

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Here’s the second single from Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter to You.” The track is called “Ghosts” and what’s notable is the hard pounding of Max Weinberg’s drums, and the steel guitar of Nils Lofgren. So far the E Street Band sounds rock heavy this go round and less horn-y. Where’s Jake Clemons? I’m sure he’s on his way.

This single is deceptive. It really builds well. It also ends strangely, with a sudden fade out.