Lady Gaga’s album, “Chromatica,” has been problematic. The duet with Ariana Grande, “Rain on Me,” was a hit. But otherwise the album hasn’t been worked much at radio, and Gaga has mostly taken the summer off since its release.
Finally, a new single has landed. “911” comes with this terrific video. The costumes are insane. “Chromatica” really suffered from having no ballads and not one anthem. And “911” is a dance song about popping pills. But the video makes up for it.
Woody Allen‘s “Rifkin’s Festival” opens the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain on Friday night. Woody won’t be there because of the pandemic travel restrictions. The stunning Gina Gershon (her best work, brava) will be on hand but Wallace Shawn, Richard Kind, Douglas McGrath, Tammy Blanchard and Steve Guttenberg can’t make the trip. It’s too bad because they would have been lavished with applause and a standing ovation. I hope Gina really enjoys herself. She deserves it.
It seems impossible but Woody Allen will be 85 in December and he can still do it, he can still make a trenchant, absurd, fantastically funny comedy that is on its face improbable but altogether winning. Almost from the very beginning of this story about an unhappy couple who travel to the very same San Sebastian Film Festival you are laughing from down deep. And of course, all the big Woody themes are in place: why are we here? what’s the meaning of life? And what about death?
The age difference between 76 year old Wallace Shawn‘s Mort and 58 year old Gina Gershon‘s Sue shouldn’t rouse much ire among Woody’s critics. Neither should the involvement of Spanish beauty Elena Anaya, who is 45. There’s no “robbing the cradle” here. All the characters are adults and they know what they’re doing, or at least it seems like it until they become lost in Woody’s inevitable cat’s cradle of relationships gone awry.
Gershon is a movie publicist who’s married to a neurotic film teacher and failed novelist (Shawn). Her client at the film festival is a hot young French director played by Louis Garrell, who of course is handsome and shallow. Mort loathes him. Shawn stands in for Woody: a hypochondriac questioning life and death who seeks out a local doctor who happens to be beautiful and married to a mad man Picasso-like painter. As Sue becomes more involved with the director, Mort is set loose in San Sebastian to find and make trouble.
The film is punctuated by Mort’s black and white dreams, partially based on his teaching classic foreign films but a throwback to Woody’s parodying of Ingmar Bergman and Jean Luc Godard, among others, in his own early films. Is Woody repeating himself? Hardly. I think he’s starting to close the circle from the beginning to the end of his long, illustrious career. This won’t he his last film, god willing, but he’s at a point where he’s revisiting some old themes and poking fun at himself as much as the fabled directors who influenced him.
(I’ll stop here just to tell you that two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz makes a long cameo toward the end which, for Woody Allen fans, as well as those of Max von Sydow and “The Seventh Seal,” is a spectacularly funny surprise.)
The setting of the festival is perfect for Woody, who can then move his eccentric and self involved characters through all the machinations one finds in such a place. The background stuff is not to be missed– the junkets, the publicists, the promotion of the films. For anyone who’s ever been to a film festival, these touches are the rainbow sprinkles on a delicious dessert. Listen for the quips, they fly by before you can finish your guffaw.
And then of course supporting characters emerge to further along the main quad’s inevitable collisions. I loved seeing Steve Guttenberg, of “Cocoon” and “Police Academy” fame, rise to this occasion. And Emmy winning Tony nominee Tammy Blanchard is a wonderful surprise herself — someone please add her to the imdb page for this movie.
As usual three time Oscar winner Vittorio Storraro gives a Woody Allen film its sumptuous look, and this might be my favorite so far. He certainly made me want to visit San Sebastian ASAP.
And this Mort: Wallace Shawn is a character actor. He’s a spice, never the main course. At 76, he’s made so many films and plays and TV shows better by his presence but I don’t recall him every carrying a whole movie. He’s the anti-lead, anti-sex symbol, a kind of proud gopher burrowing his way blissfully through this mess. He never once second guesses himself despite being called a grouch and a curmudgeon. He believes in himself almost to distraction. He’s his own comic relief. And that’s why his performance works.
Will Americans ever see “Rifkin’s Festival”? This film, like “Rainy Day in New York,” should have been at the New York Film Festival. We still haven’t officially seen “A Rainy Day in New York,” although today I’ve reported it finally has a distributor. Twenty years from now, film fans will think people of this generation lost their minds. Here are two terrific comedies that rank up there with the best of this important auteur’s work, and they’ve become weirdly banned in his home country. This is an egregious mistake and should not go on any longer.
No one sent out anything early on Alicia Keys’s “Alicia” album, so I’m listening to for the first time at 12:30am after being confused by Justin Bieber’s new single.
The good news is that “Alicia” is a big group effort, a collaboration of many people who worked on a collection that was supposed to be released in March. It’s Keys’s first album since 2016.
Alicia is a sophisticated musician who too often relied on samples and other people’s material to launch her own work. This revealed a kind of glibness in her ability to repurpose the R&B vernacular. So we were constantly having to dig out little pieces of old songs like gold in the sand.
This may be the case here, but on first listen she’s got some very catchy songs that sound like they will stand the test of replays. There’s some reggae, some beats you think you’ve heard before, but it’s made to sound original enough.
The first five songs are so solid that she’s got you whether you like it or not. (Sequencing an album, even in these days, works.) I really liked “Time Machine,” “Authors of Forever,” the unusual reggae number, “Wasted Time,” and, of course, “Underdog,” a song that was marketed beautifully earlier this year with Apple. It’s a great single. No equivocating. (Okay, it does have six songwriters including Ed Sheeran. Oy.) Alicia featured it on this past year’s Grammys. It’s a killer.
Let’s move into the meat of the album: “3 Hour Drive” features Brit soul singer-writer Sampha, and has a life of its own. Very Stevie Wonder circa “Music of My Mind” and Roberta Flack 1971. There are four or five mellow R&B songs that follow, very melodic, piano driven. “Love Looks Better” would have been a huge hit single once, maybe it can be now. I was very interested in the “Jill Scott” song and it has a nice pay off. “Perfect Way to Die” recalls “Empire State of Mind,” but I still think it could jump out with the right video.
“Alicia” starts with a bang, ends with a whimper, but I’d put it in my rotation. Will kids run to it like a Taylor Swift album? Oh no, That ship has sailed. But fans who love good music, carefully and thoughtfully composed, will want “Alicia” on their phones or stereos if they still have em. Conclusion: we need “Alicia” more than we don’t.
It opens with a shot of a cross, to remind us that Justin Bieber is a Christian. Is it a song? Is it a video? What is it? What’s happening in this thing called “Holy,” a song (?) sung by Justin Bieber with a rap part by Chance the Rapper. Wilmer Vilderrama puts in an appearance. Justin has a black girlfriend or wife, they’re in deleted scenes from “Days of Heaven,” I don’t know. He gets laid off, they get picked up by Wilmer, who’s a soldier, and it’s all “holy holy holy.” It’s a headscratcher in the pantheon of Bieber releases. Much ado about nothing. The song might be better without the video. Teens will decide.
Don’t worry, Max Gail is alive and well. If he’s trending it’s because yesterday the “Barney Miller” star ended his Emmy winning run on “General Hospital” with aplomb and grace.
Gail, who we all knew as Stan Wojciehowicz on the ABC police drama 40 years ago, where had 2 prime time Emmy nominations in 1979 and 1980. He came to the ABC soap in early 2018 to play Mike Corbin, father of the show’s mob boss, Sonny. It was clear early on that Mike had Alzheimer’s, but it was Gail’s peeling away of the symptoms that made the character heartbreaking.
By the spring of 2019, Gail had earned a Daytime Emmy for his work, but you knew this couldn’t go on much longer. How they got it all the way into 2020 probably had something to do with the show’s pandemic break. Mike would otherwise have died during July sweeps.
Anyway, Max Gail really showed his stuff, and it was beautiful. He gave an incredibly nuanced performance, and boosted the daytime soap to another level. He’s 77 years young and I hope Gail wants to keep working. Let’s see ABC reward him with something as good at night.
Now, back to amnesia, fake paralysis, and hysterical blindness.
Here’s the press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York:
Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced that LEV PARNAS and DAVID CORREIA were charged in a Superseding Indictment with conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with their efforts to raise funds ostensibly for their business, “Fraud Guarantee.” The Superseding Indictment also includes additional campaign finance charges against the defendants.
In October 2019, PARNAS, CORREIA, IGOR FRUMAN, and ANDREY KUKUSHKIN were charged in a four-count indictment alleging that each of the defendants conspired to violate the ban on political donations and contributions by foreign nationals. In addition, PARNAS and FRUMAN were charged with conspiring to make contributions in connection with federal elections in the names of others, and with making false statements to and falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”).
The Superseding Indictment returned today – in addition to charging PARNAS and CORREIA with conspiracy to commit wire fraud – charges CORREIA with making false statements to and falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the FEC; charges PARNAS, FRUMAN, and CORREIA with soliciting a foreign national to make donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections; and charges PARNAS, FRUMAN, and KUKUSHKIN with aiding and abetting the making of donations and contributions by a foreign national in connection with federal and state elections.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken in the Southern District of New York. Trial is currently scheduled for February 1, 2021.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As alleged, Lev Parnas and David Correia conspired in a fraud using a company called ‘Fraud Guarantee’ that purported to insure investors against corporate fraud while in fact, as alleged, they misled investors as to what would be done with their money. ‘Fraud Guarantee’ takes on a different meaning in light of today’s allegations that the company was a vehicle for committing fraud, not insuring against it. Parnas, Correia, Igor Fruman, and Andrey Kukushkin are also charged with additional violations of the laws prohibiting foreign nationals from donating or contributing to federal or state election campaigns. This Office remains committed to investigating and prosecuting those whose alleged criminal conduct threatens to undermine the integrity of our political process.”
FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said: “We couldn’t say it better ourselves – the behavior alleged today is indeed fraudulent – guaranteed. The FBI and the American public expect that it will be our fellow citizens whose voices determine the outcome of our Nation’s elections, not deliberately corrupt behavior, or foreign influence disguised as legitimate activity. The FBI is determined to disrupt this type of behavior, and our investigation is ongoing.”
According to the Superseding Indictment[1] filed in Manhattan federal court:
Between in or about late 2012 and in or about mid-2019, PARNAS and CORREIA conspired to defraud multiple victims by inducing them to invest in their company, “Fraud Guarantee,” based on materially false and misleading representations. Among other things, PARNAS and CORREIA falsely claimed that the investors’ funds would be used solely for legitimate business expenses of Fraud Guarantee, when in fact the funds were largely withdrawn as cash, transferred to personal accounts, and used for various apparently personal expenditures. PARNAS and CORREIA also made materially false representations concerning, among other things, how much money PARNAS had contributed to the company and how much money the company had raised overall. At least seven victims invested in Fraud Guarantee based at least in part on PARNAS’s and CORREIA’s false and misleading representations, with each victim being fraudulently induced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, for a total of more than $2 million.
The scheme started in or about late 2012, when PARNAS and CORREIA established Fraud Guarantee. Ironically, they pitched Fraud Guarantee to potential investors as a company that would provide services to protect investors from fraud. In particular, PARNAS and CORREIA claimed that Fraud Guarantee would offer an insurance product that would allow policyholders to recoup their losses in the event they lost money due to fraudulent conduct. Thus, for example, if an investor invested in “Company XYZ” and purchased a Fraud Guarantee policy, then in the event that the investor lost the value of the investment due to a criminal fraud at Company XYZ, Fraud Guarantee would enable the investor to recoup the investor’s losses. However, despite certain efforts by PARNAS and CORREIA to launch Fraud Guarantee and bring its products to market, the company never became operational.
PARNAS and CORREIA induced multiple victims to invest in Fraud Guarantee by claiming, among other things, that they were raising funds to facilitate the company’s development, that all of the money would be used for legitimate business expenses, and that PARNAS and CORREIA were not taking salaries. PARNAS and CORREIA even provided one victim with a contract providing that his funds would be used “to finance the development, promotion, and initial operation of an investment protection business” and would be “fully reserved and committed” for such purposes. In fact, while a portion of the victims’ funds was used for Fraud Guarantee business expenses, the majority was not. Rather, the funds were largely withdrawn as cash, transferred to accounts in the name of PARNAS or CORREIA or their family members, or spent on various apparently personal expenditures, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent for PARNAS’s personal residence and tens of thousands of dollars at luxury car leasing companies. PARNAS and CORREIA also used certain victim money to fund political donations.
PARNAS and CORREIA also induced certain victims to invest in Fraud Guarantee by misrepresenting, among other things, the amount of money PARNAS personally contributed to the company, and the amount raised overall. For example, PARNAS and CORREIA provided at least one victim with a table reflecting that PARNAS’s “capital account” was as high as $1.1 million; CORREIA told another victim via email that “[t]here was ‘significant’ investment from all parties in order to take ownership [in Fraud Guarantee] . . . equated to several millions of dollars invested”; and CORREIA told another victim – during a phone call that the victim recorded without CORREIA’s knowledge – that “[m]illions . . . $4 or $5 million probably” had been invested overall in Fraud Guarantee. These representations were false and misleading because the company had not only raised far less money than they claimed, but also the funds they had raised had largely been withdrawn as cash, transferred to personal accounts, and spent on various apparently personal expenditures, rather than being used solely for legitimate business expenses.
* * *
PARNAS, 48, FRUMAN, 54, CORREIA, 45, and KUKUSHKIN, 47, are each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the ban on donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections by foreign nationals, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. PARNAS and FRUMAN are also charged with one count of conspiring to make contributions in connection with federal elections in the names of others, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. PARNAS, FRUMAN, and CORREIA are each charged with one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the FEC, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. PARNAS, FRUMAN, and CORREIA are each charged with one count of soliciting a foreign national to make donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and PARNAS, FRUMAN, and KUKUSHKIN are each charged with one count of aiding and abetting the making of donations and contributions by a foreign national in connection with federal and state elections, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. PARNAS and CORREIA are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The statutory maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants would be determined by the judge.
Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding work of the FBI.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebekah Donaleski, Nicolas Roos, and Douglas Zolkind are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Woody Allen’s long-delayed “A Rainy Day in New York” will hit select U.S. theaters next month, MPI Media Group and Signature Entertainment announced Thursday.
The film, starring starring Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez and Elle Fanning, will open on October 9 in at least three Landmark theaters in Chicago, Boston and Atlanta before expanding the following week.
Signature released “A Rainy Day in New York” digitially on June 5 in the U.K. and has set a July 27 home video and DVD release. But the distributor had also previously acquired the film’s North American rights in hopes of doing a domestic release this fall.
It’s about time. Here’s my review from last August: click here.
“Rainy Day” will then be eligible for Oscars. Cherry Jones is absolutely a Best Supporting Actress nominee, and Chalamet should be considered for Best Actor. They are that good.
Was Kanye West kicked off Twitter?
His pal, Rick Fox, said yesterday that Kanye had been kicked off for 12 hours. But that suspension, if true, would have ended hours ago. Kanye hasn’t tweeted for 21 hours as of 11am Eastern.
If he had been punished, it wasn’t over peeing onto a Grammy Award placed in a toilet. I think the Grammys should demand return of all his 21 awards, and give him the boot for that.
But no, Kanye’s misdeed was a Tweet in which he published the name of the editor of Forbes, along with his cell number, and called him a racist. I’m sure many people did the same thing I did when I saw that in real time. I tweeted back demanding Kanye take it down. He did, within seconds, but the damage was done.
(I’ve known the editor, Randall Lane, a long time. He’s not a racist. I don’t know what Kanye was thinking. And I’ll bet he doesn’t either.)
So it could Kanye was removed by Jack Dorsey and friends. Or maybe Kim Kardashian has taken his phone and gotten him the help he needs. The toilet is still up on Twitter, and so is his 2012 recording contract, and dozens of Tweets from a man who is mentally ill and needs serious assistance.
It could be Fox has it wrong, or Kanye does, and his time out is longer than 12 hours. We’ll be ready for his return whenever it comes.
Barack Obama is finally publishing his memoir and it’s only part one!
“A Promised Land” is coming November 17th, two weeks after the election. A second volume arrives sometime later, no date yet.
At 768 pages, this Land is your land. And it’s a doorstop costing $45. Discounters might get it down to $28 if advance sales are strong enough. Random House/Crown is the publisher.
“I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in ‘A Promised Land’ I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it; my take on what I got right and the mistakes I made; and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then — and that as a nation we are grappling with still,” Obama said in a statement Thursday.
“In the book, I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the personal journey that Michelle and I went through during those years, with all the incredible highs and lows. And finally, at a time when America is going through such enormous upheaval, the book offers some of my broader thoughts on how we can heal the divisions in our country going forward and make our democracy work for everybody — a task that won’t depend on any single president, but on all of us as engaged citizens.”
I’m ordering it right now. I just hope that on November 17th we’re celebrating a Biden win, and not mourning the loss of our country.
See that picture? Remember that guy? That was Elton John, like, in the 60s! He had hair! So did I!
Now known as Sir Elton, he’s releasing a big “Jewel Box” of demos and rarities and an unreleased song called “Sing Me No Sad Songs.” It’s all coming on November 13th in all different formats and I want it!
“Jewel Box” unearths everything Elton has never released. It’s like going through his notebooks.
Here’s the breakdown:
Discs 1 & 2: Deep Cuts – A selection of personal favorites, curated by Elton. The box set book includes a track-by-track commentary by Elton.
Discs 3, 4, and 5: Rarities 1965 -1971 – Elton’s much sought-after 1960s and early 1970s demos and music that cemented the foundations of the iconic Elton John / Bernie Taupin writing partnership. The compelling, previously unreleased, missing piece in his illustrious career. Daryl Easlea narrates this fascinating story with contributions from those who were there at the time. These discs encompass 65 songs, all but a few of which have been stored in the vaults for more than 50 years. Most of these demos were recorded during sessions before Elton was signed to a recording contract or released his first album. Also included are the first song ever written by Elton and his debut appearance on a record (both “Come Back Baby” – 1965), Elton and Bernie’s first composition (“Scarecrow” – 1967), and newly-unearthed piano/vocal demos of some of Elton’s most acclaimed songs from his early albums. The packaging appropriately contains rare archival artwork and select original lyric sheets.
Discs 6 & 7: B-Sides 1976-2005 – Non-LP tracks and flipsides, never before compiled together. 36 gems that are now given another chance to sparkle – 17 previously only available on vinyl, resulting in all of Elton’s studio B-sides now being offered digitally for the first time in his career.
Disc 8: And This Is Me . . . – To coincide with the release of the updated paperback edition of Me, the final collection celebrates the songs mentioned by name by Elton in his acclaimed autobiography, closing Jewel Box with the 2020 Academy Award-winning duet with Taron Egerton, “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.”