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Not many people watched the “Time 100” special on ABC last night. Just 2.4 million, actually, tuned in from 10-11pm Eastern.
The show was beaten by an NBC medical drama from Canada called “Transplant.” That surgically attached about 3.8 million fans.
A rerun of “FBI: Most Wanted” on CBS finished third in the time slot.
The “Time 100” tried to turn Time Magazine’s long-moribund special edition magazine into a TV awards show. A lot of names flashed by on the screen. The Weeknd performed. But it was kind of an infomercial, and not a very interesting one.
Years ago I used to cover the Time 100 dinner held at the former Time Warner building’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. Like most of these galas, the first years were fun and intimate. Then it became like a Shriner’s Convention, and the “winners” rarely showed up. Toward the end of Time magazine’s ownership by its original company, the Time 100 dinner could be called “The Usual Suspects.”
Will there be annual Time 100 TV specials? Procter & Gamble paid for it, so they’ll have to decide if 2.4 million viewers is enough to promote toothpaste and foot powder. The Time 100 rating was lower than P&G ever got for any of the soap operas they viciously killed off a decade ago.
The companies that own Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Billboard, Rolling Stone and all the secondary awards shows like the Golden Globes and American Music Awards are now ONE. Their announcement this morning skirts the word “merge” but that’s what they’ve done.
Penske Media, owned by Jay Penske, heir to the Penske moving van and auto companies, is going to run the company called MRC, formerly Valence, which sprang from the loins of Guggenheim Partners and Todd Boehly. That gang owns Dick Clark Productions, which produces all those awards shows. It also produces TV shows and movies, from “Ozark” to “Knives Out.”
The announcement says they’re going to “create content” based on the outlets, which include PMC’s Rolling Stone, Variety and Music Business Worldwide interests. So there’s going to be one massive voice and outlet for the music industry.
Conflict of interests? Uh, yeah. Like, galore. What?
Well, Penske’s publications have been thriving but the MRC/Valence ones have been on the ropes for some time. They’ve had massive layoffs all year. So it was just a matter of time before consolidations were eyed. But this also includes the so-called “objective” awards shows.
Will the publications contradict each other? Will the awards shows be influenced by the publications, or vice versa? And what about the awards shows, which are already in murky waters, and how they deal with the media that’s being produced and is judged by them? Who will have an independent voice?
What Hollywood doesn’t need right now is just one massive publisher speaking for the industry. Stay tuned for more developments and reactions.
For Elton John, 2021 is basically not happening, at least in the US.
Sir Elton has just announced the resumption of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour on January 19th in New Orleans. Before that he’ll play dates in Europe and the UK in the fall of 2021 if, of course, this whole mess is over. Or goes away by itself, as Donald Trump thinks.
He’ll hit New Zealand in 2023. So who knows when the actual end of the Farewell tour will happen, or where? Back in New York, I suspect, for a big goodbye at Madison Square Garden. 2024? (Elton took pages from Cher and The Who’s farewell tours, still going on after all these years.)
Knowing Elton, this doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing from him until then. My guess is he’ll make a record or do something because like rust, he never sleeps!
Elton does have a huge compilation box set coming soon with lots of demos and intimate recordings we’ve never heard before. That alone should give everyone enough Elton John to dine on for the next few months!
He says on social media: “I’ve been enjoying my time at home with the family while the world navigates its way through the COVID pandemic. But, I really miss being on the road and performing for my beloved fans in my Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. While the scientists are making great progress, we are making big plans for a return to touring that will allow us to ensure the health and safety of everyone. I will be starting my tour again in Europe and the UK in the Fall of 2021. And I will be back in North America starting in January 2022. This means my New Zealand dates will be postponed until 2023. Don’t worry about me. I’m using my downtime to keep myself fighting fit and healthier than ever. I’m raring to go! As always, thank you so much for your loyal support. I look forward to seeing all you wonderful Elton John fans soon. In the meantime, please stay safe and be well. Thank you!”
Justin Bieber fans are not exactly scooping up his new single called “Holy.”
Over the weekend, “Holy”– featuring Chance the Rapper — sold just 16,500 copies on iTunes and other download services. The single did better on streaming, where fans could just listen via their subscriptions. They played “Holy” enough times to make the equivalent of about 95,000 in sales.
That’s not really a lot. On the Apple iTunes streaming chart, “Holy” has been holding at number 6. On Spotify it’s number 3.
Over on YouTube, “Holy” is closing in on 30 million views over four days.
It’s not clear from the video what “Holy” is supposed to be, and the actual record doesn’t help. Chance the Rapper’s rap in the middle of it is jarring, referencing people like Joe Pesci out of the blue.
The lyrics to the song suggest that Justin’s object of affection makes him feel “holy.” He also repeats many times something about running “like a track star” to the altar. It’s one of the worst lyrics in history. “Holy” is a song that lacks any poetic imagery.
Right now “Holy” is number 2 on iTunes. “WAP” has moved back into the number 1 position. Crazy.
Rolling Stone? Jann Wenner must be turning in his grave. (He’s not dead, but you know what I mean.) The new people at the moribund magazine– including Wenner’s son– have updated their list of Top 500 albums of all time.
The idea is to include albums that have come out since 2003, as if many of those would have an impact on such a list. The result, though, this laughable. The new list strains to put a black artist at the top of the heap because pandering to current headlines is what this is all about. But it’s backfired.
The new number 1 is Marvin Gaye’s seamless album, “What’s Going On,” from 1971. It’s a work of genius. I know every sound uttered on that record. I probably listened to it every day from its release, for a year. But number 1? You’re saying that now? No, Rolling Stone, you’re only saying that because you feel you have to.
The actual number 1 album of all time is the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Without “Sgt. Pepper,” you don’t have the rest of the top 500. But the geniuses at Rolling Stone have demoted it to number 24. They’re very clever.
But not so clever really. If they wanted to be taken seriously, they would have found a contemporary black artist for the top of their chart. Invoking Marvin Gaye’s work now is not going to dig you out of 50 years of basically ignoring black artists. An early Kanye album from his heyday, Public Enemy or something like that would have shown some gumption. The Marvin Gaye choice is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in house magazine. Even Marvin Gaye would tell you that.
(In fact, if these people knew what they were doing along this path they would have anointed Donny Hathaway’s debut 1970 album “Everything is Everything” which preceded “What’s Going On” as the seminal urban statement.)
Waaay back in the prehistoric era I won a big contest at WBCN in Boston for the top 104 albums of all time. How did I do it? My roommate and I labored over albums that changed the game either for the artist or for music in general. So “Blonde on Blonde” was far more important than “Blood on the Tracks.” The latter, which I love, is more commercial. But it wasn’t a game changer. It was a ratification of “Blonde on Blonde.”
The whole new Rolling Stone list is a pander to what’s commercial, popular, and appropriate. I didn’t even go beyond the top 50 because it’s so lame. And Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”? Uh, no. Greatest jazz album, yes. On this list, no. “Pet Sounds” is better than the Beatles? It’s cool to say if you’re a freshman at the University of Nothing, but no. Even Joni Mitchell will tell you that “Court and Spark” is more groundbreaking than “Blue.” And Stevie Wonder knows that “Talking Book” reinvented everything and made “Songs in the Key of Life” possible.
So, Rolling Stone publishes these lists to get attention and press, All magazines do. It’s just to rile up the crowd. In the end, it’s meaningless. But this just shows that their influence is over, they ceded it a long time ago. This just cements the deal.
After two diverse covers in a row– Viola Davis, then Breonna Taylor* — the magazine for someone no one can remember has gotten back to basics.
Elle Fanning, blonde and 21, is on the cover, with hounds. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was Town & Country. The byline is Rolling Stone veteran Jancee Dunn, which reflects the influence of the Entertainment Weekly crowd that came in to revive VF’s Hollywood status. It also guarantees a nice People kind of cover, with no revelations. I was sort of hoping Jancee would ask Elle and Dakota Fanning about being sisters competing for acting roles. This could have been Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine 2.0. Alas, crickets.
The new Vanity Fair cover has cut lines about royals, Richard Avedon, and Vera Wang which is code “It’s safe to read this now that Ta-Nehisi Coates is gone.”
Will Elle and pals revive VF’s readership? Who knows? Right now they’ve partnered with Astra Zeneca to produce a pandemic vaccine that will guarantee an Oscar party on April 25, 2021. Knowing the mag, they will arrange with the city of Los Angeles for their guests to be inoculated first before all other SoCal residents.
*PS that Breonna Taylor issue had a very short lifespan on sale, didn’t it?
Oscar winner Helen Mirren and nominee Jim Broadbent could be back in the Oscar race with “The Duke.”
Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the Venice Film Festival hit for release in the US and most of the world. So far “The Duke” — which also stars Matthew Goode — has a 100 on Rotten Tomatoes from the 8 reviewers who’ve posted their thoughts.
Roger Michell directed “The Duke.” Among his credits is “Notting Hill.” Richard Bean and Clive Coleman wrote the script. “The Duke” is set in 1961 when Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge – a startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world and in so doing saved his son and his marriage.
SPC’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard could get this film out for January or February and make the Feb 28 Oscar cut off. They’ve already got “French Exit” with Michelle Pfeiffer, but you never know how any of these things is going to work out. We need some good SPC action this season.
Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know” is one of my favorite indie sort of avant garde movies ever. From 2004, it still packs so much charm it’s a pleasure to see it again from time to time. I hope it has grown an audience over the years.
Now comes “Kajillionaire” which is just as weird, fun, off beat, and sideways. It also has a quad of superb actors including two Oscar level players– Debra Winger, nominated thrice, and Richard Jenkins, nominated twice. They’re counterbalanced by the outstanding Evan Rachel Wood and Gina Rodriguez. And then, of course, there are some odd types played by actors you’ve never seen before and want to know better.
Winger and Jenkins are a couple, professional grifters in Los Angeles called the Dynes. Wood is their 26 year old adult daughter, Old Dolio, who is addicted to them and their lifestyle living in life’s sidewalk cracks. Indeed, they are so off the grid that their “apartment” is the office of a Bubble Factory, which seems to produce soap bubbles. The bubbles seep into the office, and the Dynes’ job is to contain the bubbles and dispose of them. Don’t think about this too much.
Wood’s Old Dolio comes up with a con and in the process they meet the Gina Rodriguez character on a plane. She is a little more of this world, but not much and soon she is embedded in this crowd. There is some kind of plot. The Dynes are behind in their rent at the Bubble Factor and must raise fifteen hundred dollars. Their landlord, I’d say, is not very demanding and quite eccentric, so there’s no real threat of eviction. But it’s a plot device in a movie that lives on story, character, and texture more than on common sense or reality.
Miranda July is a fantasist. I looked it up on Wikipedia and I’m glad to see she’s still married to Mike Mills, director of some other great great indie films like “20th Century Women” and “Thumbsucker.” Miranda — from the Catskills Grossinger family — is simply a wonderful artist who dabbles in many genres, from film to fashion and short stories, etc. Everything she does is interesting. In this time of serious dread, with almost sci-fi like problems pressing on us, her sense of whimsy and non linear thought is a blessing.
In other hands, “Kajillionaire” wouldn’t work. But Miranda has matured as an artist, and her cast is so committed to the cause, that this whole thing slowly stitches itself together. Winger, I’m sure, had a ball. She even limps, we don’t know why, and though you think she’s a hippie fruitcake, she’s quite savvy. Jenkins, also one of my favorite actors, makes total sense of this thing. (But think of him as the dead funeral director from “Six Feet Under.” He owns whatever he’s doing.) When the central story moves to Wood and Rodriguez, they are more than capable of taking over.
Look, this is not a cineplex movie. This is a film for people who are willing to think sideways, keep an open mind, and listen for rhythms that are not obvious. I feel about “Kajillionaire” like I felt about the original indies, like “Repo Man” or a Jim Jarmusch movie. I want to watch it a few times. I’m just so glad it exists, and I miss the people from it already. See it in a theater, see it at home, just see it.
PS I’m really impressed that Focus Features is releasing it, too. I’m sure they’re going to take good care of it.
You almost forget there’s a civilised world anymore what with Donald Trump’s attempted annihilation of it. But the great cellist Yo Yo Ma has posted a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg with his friend Sarah Wolfensohn. This is what you do when a remarkable person passes away, not walk all over her memory. Thank you to these artists. This is a performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.”
Now that we’ve seen another round of Emmy Awards go just to cable TV and streaming, and the Emmys get their lowest ratings yet, here’s the big question: what if the Emmys were really for shows on television, from broadcast networks? What shows would have won? Which actors? Because this begs the question, how could Linda Hunt have been on TV for so long and not gotten an Emmy? Because “NCIS: LA” is on a network and not HBO?
I’ve left out mini series and movies of the week because I can’t think of any on network TV.
Here are my ideas. You tell me at showbiz411@gmail.com what your choices would have been. Maybe people would watch the Emmys with these winners.
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Tracee Ellis Ross, Blackish
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Ty Burrell, Modern Family
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES, Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine Nine Nine
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Laurie Metcalf, The Conners
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES, “Blackish”
OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES, Late Night with Seth Meyers
OUTSTANDING COMPETITION PROGRAM, “Shark Tank”
GOVERNORS AWARD, Tyler Perry
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Sterling K. Brown, “This is Us”
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES, Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order SVU”
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES, Richard Schiff,”The Good Doctor”
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES, Linda Hunt “NCIS LA”
Vanity Fair blinks this month.
