At last, the Washington Redskins say they’re going “re-evaluate their name.” Maybe it’s because Nike dropped all their merchandise from their store.
The fact is, they should have changed the name a long, long time ago. When it’s finally done, it will be like a fresh breeze through the NFL and all sports.
Head coach Ron Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, says in the statement, “The issue is of personal importance to me.”
And to everyone.
Louis Farrakhan, one of the leading anti-Semites in the world, has found a home for his July 4th address to the Nation of Islam: Sean Puffy Combs’ Revolt TV.
It sounds revolting, so we’re in the right place.
Farrakhan’s speech is called “The Criterion,” and it will be broadcast on Revolt TV’s You Tube channel tomorrow, the 4th, at noon.
Ordinarily, Revolt TV has a lot of good and interesting programming about social injustice. But this is where it goes over the top.
Even FoxNews’s Fox Soul channel — aimed at African Americans– cancelled a Farrakhan special this weekend after numerous complaints from Jewish groups.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Americans Against Anti-Semitism sharply criticized Fox Soul for initially announcing that it would air such a speech.
“Since the 1980s, Louis Farrakhan has denigrated the Jewish people, Judaism and the Jewish state, members of the LGBT community, the United States of America and entertainment leaders from Hollywood. Throughout those decade, he has embraced America’s enemies from Libya’s [Moammar] Ghaddafi to Iran’s ayatollahs,” charged the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a statement.
“The African-American community is blessed with leaders in every field of endeavor from the arts, to business, to politics, to faith to media—anyone of whom can deliver an empowering and inclusive message of hope on July 4th. Farrakhan is a racist, anti-Semite—a demagogue and divider—at a time when all Americans need to hear messages of unity and hope, the values for which Martin Luther King Jr. lived and died for,” added the Wiesenthal Center, which called for Farrakhan’s speech to be canceled.
Personally, I expect better than this from Sean Combs, who usually has a better understanding of social politics. You can read all about Farrakhan here. But here’s a quote from a 2019 speech he gave in Chicago: “Pedophilia and sexual perversion institutionalized in Hollywood and the entertainment industries can be traced to Talmudic principles and Jewish influence. Not Jewish influence, Satanic influence under the name of Jew.”
Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam is one of the worst hate groups in the world. I hope Combs and Revolt TV change their minds.
Ghislaine Maxwell, pegged as Jeffrey Epstein’s “madame” and procurer of underage girls, was arrested this morning in Bedford, New Hampshire according to reports.
She’ll be arraigned this afternoon.
Maxwell’s story will occupy headlines for weeks to come. She knows where all of Epstein’s so called bodies are “buried.” She put them there. She can possibly answer all the questions about how he conducted his worldwide sex ring, also how he had money, she can implicate all the players who made his crimes possible. A lot of famous people are probably very worried right now.
Maxwell is the daughter of late maybe billionaire Robert Maxwell, who owned the New York Daily News for a short time until he died mysteriously at sea in 1991. Ghislaine may finally shed light on her father’s story as well.
Mort Zuckerman bought the News from Maxwell’s estate. Unfortunately, Mort is no longer compos mentis, but I’ll bet he’ll be watching TV this afternoon with a renewed vigor.
Finally, people with common sense!
The BFI London Film Festival, set for October, will be virtual. They’re not kidding us or themselves that there could be premieres or screenings or guests flying in from around the world. I’m impressed. The other film festivals are still pretending it’s business as usual.
The press release: “Adapting to the extraordinary challenges of the year, the Festival will deliver up to 50 Virtual Festival Premieres in a programme that offers audiences the opportunity to see the best new cinema from around the world and with that same texture LFF’s audiences love, including fiction, documentary, animation, artists’ moving image, and restored classics from the world’s archives. Every film will be presented with an intro or Q&A, and the programme will also include a range of free-to-access additional works and events to include: an international short film programme, Screen Talks with major filmmakers and actors, salons and roundtables and a brand new Virtual Exhibition of XR and Immersive Art.”
This year only there will be no jury. The audience will take the place of the jury instead. Viewers attending Virtual LFF will be invited to vote on Audience Awards in four categories: Best Fiction Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Short Film, and Best XR. The winners will be announced in a live online ceremony on the final weekend of the Festival.
BFI London Film Festival Director, Tricia Tuttle said: “Like many other live events around the world, we’ve had to make changes to our plans in response to a global pandemic, factoring in safety concerns and restrictions – some known, some still unclear. But as we’ve undergone this planning we’ve also witnessed historical international protests, an urgent reminder of just how much we need to do to combat racism and inequality.
This year has also given us an opportunity to think creatively about how we make the Festival more accessible. It was vital to us that we get back to cinemas, and are looking forward to working with independent and cultural venues across the UK who are such an essential part of our film ecosystem. The Virtual LFF programmes and these cinema screenings take the Festival out across the UK, giving people opportunities to engage in different ways.
It’s a pleasure each year to speak with audiences who share the ways filmmakers have made them laugh, think, weep, or shifted their way of seeing. Through a number of partnerships and platforms, we can’t wait to share many of this year’s extraordinary new films – from around the world, from artists of different backgrounds and with many bold distinctive filmmaking voices.”
Ellen DeGeneres once highly vaunted TV talk show is in a ratings free fall.
Last week, “Ellen” had just 1.2 million viewers. In February, for the fourth or fifth month in a row, that number was 1.9 million. In December 2018, “Ellen” was up to a 2.3 million total.
There are dire reports that she’ll be cancelled. But that’s not right. “Ellen” is set to return after Labor Day with a new season. But this might be the last.
DeGeneres was trying to leave the show, or at least making noises about it, last year. In May 2019. “Ellen” was renewed for three more seasons. The extension of “Ellen,” then in its 16th season, would keep be the popular syndicated talk show on TV through 2022.
But with new shows from Kelly Clarkson and Tamron Hall hitting their stride and winning awards, “Ellen” will probably wrap up next June. The party is over.
In the spirit of the #MeToo movement, the people around DeGeneres started to turn against her this winter. There were reports, confirmed, of her hubris gone wild: the terrible way she treated staff and guests became a meme. Then COVID-19 came, and suddenly DeGeneres was broadcasting from her mansion and not from the studio. It was a very bad look. The dancing and singing and faux merriment were gone. The audience could see it.
But one thing the audience could definitely see was producer Andy Lassner standing outside looking in the window of Ellen’s mansion while she “quarantined.” Lassner looked a sad hound that been thrown outside and could not get his owner’s attention. It was miserable. What was DeGeneres thinking? But it’s possible she was thinking, I just want to stop doing this show. And now her prayers will be answered.
To quote Billy Joel, Ellen will soon Say Goodbye to Hollywood. She’s wealthy beyond belief, so that’s no issue. She can flip houses– her avocation– and maybe get a show doing that on TLC.
Judge Alan D. Scheinkman of the Appelate Division of the New York State Supreme Court has opened the door to this summer’s biggest bestselling blockbuster book.
Judge Scheinkman ruled that Mary Trump’s book called “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” can be released after all on July 28th by Simon & Schuster.
Mary Trump, however, still must clear a hurdle next Friday, July 10th, concerning her own liability.
Mary is Donald Trump’s niece. Her father was Fred Trump, Jr., the president’s deceased brother. The book will tell many stories about the Trump family, not the least of which will be how badly Donald treated his brother and his family.
Donald did what he could to stop the book’s publication, and was temporarily successful last week. But the judge ruled ruled that Simon & Schuster was not a party to — and thus could not be bound by — a confidentiality agreement, which was signed by Ms. Trump, Donald Trump and the president’s two siblings, Robert S. Trump and Maryanne Trump Barry.
“Unlike Ms. Trump,” Justice Scheinkman wrote, “S&S has not agreed to surrender or relinquish any of its First Amendment rights.”
“We support Mary L. Trump’s right to tell her story in ‘Too Much and Never Enough,’ a work of great interest and importance to the national discourse that fully deserves to be published for the benefit of the American public,” the publisher said in a statement issued Wednesday night. “As all know, there are well-established precedents against prior restraint and pre-publication injunctions.”
Judge Scheinkman observed that after so much time, the confidentiality agreement probably wouldn’t stand up anyway– certainly because Donald Trump had since become president. When they signed the agreement, no normal person could have predicted that, or what has followed.
I’m ordering my copy now.
Mel Gibson’s made a lot of bad movies. Some of them have never been seen by critics because they’re weren’t formally released.
His new one, “Force of Nature,” allegedly opened somewhere yesterday. It may be on VOD.
Whatever the case, “Force of Nature” has earned a 16 on Rotten Tomatoes. And only 19 reviewers looked at it. It’s Mel’s lowest Rotten Tomatoes score since the very bad “Air America” in 1990, which came out long before the RT existed. I guess reviewers went back and looked at it, and saw the mess.
I know it was a mess because I actually edited a Mel cover for Fame magazine for that movie. We didn’t know what a POS he was then. We know now.
Emile Hirsch and Kate Bosworth co-star in “Force of Nature.” Bosworth’s husband, Michael Polish, directed it. I hope they got their money up front.
When anyone says Cirque du Soleil you think of flying acrobats, nameless, faceless bodies from shows with strange names.
But the recent bankruptcy filing from Cirque du Soleil also affects the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Blue Man Group. and the french province of Quebec. They are all screwed.
Cirque du Soleil has at least $1 billion in debt, and that’s from long before the coronavirus. Bad management made them vulnerable to COVID-19, certainly. The ceasing of all live performances everywhere did them in.
But it’s not just those awesome shows we’ve seen with the lights, tumbling, water, and so on. When Cirque laid off almost 4,000 people last week, they were certainly at the top of the list.
But Cirque du Soleil puts on the amazing Beatles show, “Love,” at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas; the Michael Jackson show called “One” at Mandalay Bay in Vegas, and Blue Man Group everywhere including its home, New York, on Lafayette Street. They have all been closed since March 15th and may never return.
Also on hook are the good people of Quebec, the French province of Canada. Their publicly invested funds bailed out Cirque du Soleil because that’s where it came from. Creator Guy Laliberté started Cirque there. But those funds are gone, maybe $400 million.
In February, perhaps sensing the end was near, Laliberte sold his 10-percent minority interest to the Canadian investment company Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). They are now left holding the bag with TPG, the San Francisco-based investment firm that bought 60-percent stake in 2015. The ownership group also includes China’s Fosun Capital Group, headquartered in Shanghai. Laliberte earned a possible $1.5 billion in the TPG deal, and is said to be worth $2 billion.
But Cirque du Soleil is left high and dry. And so are the “Love” and “One” shows. They have no performances set until August 1st, when their reservations start working again for ticket sales. But if everyone’s been laid off, who’s going to be Eleanor Rigby or dance to “Billie Jean”?
A Jackson insider told me: “Right now they can’t reopen the shows because of the virus. Once they are able to reopen the shows they will. They’re waiting for input from bankruptcy counsel to make sure they will get paid when the show reopens. TPG — as private equity companies will do — hampered the company up by putting $1.2 billion of debt on the company and taking the money out.”
I’ve never seen “One,” but I feel like I have a PhD in “Love.” When it opened on June 30, 2006 I went out to the Mirage and was given an extensive education by George Martin, et al into the whole background. Paul, Ringo, Yoko, and Olivia Harrison were all there. And everyone returned for the 1 year anniversary. It’s been a money maker for the Beatles and very good for their brand. (I went back a third time, years later, with Lou Ferrigno and his wife, and we had a ball.)
So we’ll keep an eye on this. If you know anything, or you were part of these shows, drop me a line at showbiz411@gmail.com.
Add another show to next April 2021 on Broadway.
The revival of the baseball musical “Take me Out” has set March 22nd for previews and April 22 for opening night. The show was supposed to open this past spring but got clamped down thanks to COVID.
“Suits” star Patrick J. Adams and Jesse Williams star, Jesse Tyler Ferguson from “Modern Family” is featured. Scott Ellis directs.
The full creative team for “Take Me Out: includes scenic design by David Rockwell, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Fitz Patton, and casting by Jim Carnahan, CSA.
Add “Take Me Out” to a plethora of shows that will open next April including “Plaza Suite” with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker.
One show that is skipping April and the Tony Awards deadline next season is Hugh Jackman as “The Music Man” with Sutton Foster. Why? It’s not like “The Music Man” is so hard to put on stage. Jackman and Foster probably sing it in their sleep.
Other theater news: Scott Rudin thinks Dustin Hoffman is going to play the stage manager in a new production of “Our Town.” I love Dustin Hoffman, but he’s had some #MeToo issues that will have to be cleared up with Rudin doesn’t want demonstrations. Also, David Cromer already directed the seminal “Our Town” on Barrow Street. If he’s not going to direct this, what’s the point?
Fox News has dumped Ed Henry for “willful sexual misconduct.” Fox says a years old incident was reported on June 25th. They immediately suspended Henry, investigated the claim, and fired him.
Henry was subject of a tabloid scandal in 2016 when he was caught having an affair. Obviously, this guy isn’t too smart.
Fox is very proud they acted so quickly. In years past, the company let complaints about Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and others turn into lawsuits and pay offs. It only took several scandals, books, and movies to change their HR policies.
