The family of actor Joey Pantoliano thanked local rescuers in Wilton, Connecticut for saving the actor’s life last week. Joey, the popular star of “The Sopranos” and movies like “Risky Business” and “Bound,” was walking in the leafy suburb when one car T-boned another and smashed into him! (This is why I like to stay in the city, where you’re safe.) In an earlier post they said “Joey is home recovering. He has a severe head injury and some chest trauma.” Looking at this new picture, the scene looks like Joey was lucky — and we were, too. Sending him the best get well wishes.
Billy Joel Will Perform on The Secretive Robin Hood Foundation’s First Ever Public Virtual Fundraiser
Billy Joel will perform on the very secretive Robin Hood Foundation’s first ever virtual fundraiser next week. Robin Hood never ever lets in press or any outsiders to their annual fundraisers. Oh, the battles the press have had in the past with them. They’re a group that professes caring for the general public but would like to block them from any transparency. Until now.
Stuck with the corona virus situation, Robin Hood is going to do a virtual online fundraiser next week. I guess they couldn’t figure out a way to restrain outsiders. Of course, we don’t get the lavish meal, or speeches from the CEOs and billionaires who don’t want any press from the event. There will be no Dom Perignon.
Hosted by Tina Fey with special guest appearances from Lin-Manuel Miranda, @ChrisRock, @MariahCarey, @BetteMidler, and more, Rise Up New York! will be broadcast on all New York City TV stations, @iHeartRadio and @entercom broadcast radio stations, @News12, @NY1, @SiriusXM and nationally on @CNBC. ⠀
2020 Pulitzer Prizes Includes Third Annual Special Citation for Deserving African American, This Time Journalism Pioneer Ida B. Wells
The 2020 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. For the third year in a row, a deserving African American has been cited by Dana Canedy and her committee. The first time was Kendrick Lamar. The second, last year, was Aretha Franklin. This year it’s pioneering journalist and one of the founders of the NAACP, Ida. B. Wells, who lived from 1862 to 1931. Here is her Wikipedia entry. What Canedy is doing is so important and thrilling: she’s literally righting history’s wrongs. Bravo! Everyone raise a glass tonight to Ida. She waited a long time for this recognition.
The 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners are:
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
“The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
“A Strange Loop” by Michael R. Jackson
History
“Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America” by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
“Sontag: Her Life and Work” by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
“The Tradition” by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
“The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care” by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
“The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America” by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
“The Central Park Five” by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Major Media Shake Up: Andy Lack, Alas, Alack, Is Out as Head of NBC, Replaced by Telemundo Chief
Andy Lack is out as head of NBC. He’s been there since 2015 and was widely thought to have protected Matt Lauer during his downfall.
Lack was seen as lacking in many areas, not the least of which was directing the company out of the MeToo scandals. He will be gone at the end of the month if not sooner.
The new chairman of NBC is Cesar Conde, 46. the head Telemundo. He will be in charge of NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC. NBC News president Noah Oppenheim and MSNBC president Phil Griffin will both report to Conde. Mark Lazarus will be in charge of the company’s entertainment properties, as well as its new streaming service Peacock.
The end of Andy Lack is not only connected to Matt Lauer, but also to the whole Ronan Farrow episode regarding Harvey Weinstein. Farrow — as he’s told us over and over– was working on his investigation of Weinstein, but Lack pulled the plug after a war among lawyers. Farrow took his piece to The New Yorker, and the rest is history. Standing up for the old guard did Lack in. It was a failure to see the writing was on the wall for the old regimes.
Conde represents the new generation. He came to Telemundo in 2013 after a 10-year run at Univision, where he turned that company into an international player. He’s young, successful, and not white, which is going to be very important if NBC is going to evolve into a 21st century company. Conde will report to Jeff Shell, the head of NBC Universal, just recovering from corona virus and coming back strong with today’s announcements.
Nicolas Cage Adds “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to His List of B Movie Roles: He Has Nowhere to Go But Up
Since the mid 90s, Nicolas Cage’s career has been, let’s face it, a shambles. One B or C movie after another, nearly nothing of value. It makes you wonder what happened to the Oscar winning star of “Leaving Las Vegas,” who was so great in films like “Moonstruck,” “Face/Off,” and so on.
So now Cage, the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, has signed to play vile, low class Joe Exotic in an 8 part mini series about the central character from “The Tiger King.” Variety reports that Dan Langana, producer of equally low class fare like “American Vandal” and “Deadbeat”– let’s call them the opposite of “Mad Men” or “The Crown”– will shepherd this vital program to our TV sets. First he has to make it, then sell it to a platform like Netflix or Hulu.
This is like “Bowfinger,” actually. Can Langana pull this off? Can he find a decent director, writer and cast, and not have this turn into an Allen Carr musical? I don’t know. Kate McKinnon wants to play Carole Baskin in her own version of this thing, although Melissa McCarthy is really the right person. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Kate. But MM for this.)
Will “The Tiger King” story not be so interesting by next fall? I think so. But hey. A Nicolas Cage version is just what the quarantine ordered!
Michael Jackson’s Mom, Katherine Jackson, Turns 90 Today, and Granddaughter Paris Posts Lovely Photo
Katherine Jackson, the Jackson family matriarch, turns 90 today. Granddaughter Paris posted a lovely photo and caption on Instagram. Katherine’s son, Jermaine, did as well as other family members. Katherine Jackson is a study in survival. Nothing about her story is simple. Her life with Joseph Jackson was like a four hour German opera. Her relationship to her children, especially Michael, could need a team of shrinks to understand. There’s also her deep religious devotion to Jehovah’s Witnesses. I sat behind her for weeks on end at Michael’s 2005 trial, where Katherine heard a lot of things said about a son no one should hear. She did it with grace and dignity. Happy 90th Birthday to her. I hope she’s having a great day.
Mariah Carey Fans Fail in 2nd Effort to Fake an Album to the Top of iTunes, Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” Snooze
Mariah Carey’s “Charmbracelet,” from 2002, made a short run on the iTunes chart. But Carey’s lamb family turned sheepish and couldn’t get the old recording up to number 1.
“Charmbracelet” is at number 14 now and falling.
Last Monday, week ago today, Carey’s “E=MC2” was pushed to number 1 for a day on iTunes. Today, it’s not even in the top 200 chart. That party is over.
At the same time, Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories,” not a great album,” was propelled to number 1 by her fans. It’s at 62 today and spiraling down.
Fans of all legacy artists are finding it’s hard to manipulate the iTunes chart, even if the album they’re focused on is deep discounted. When you need rent money and food and everyone’s out of work, spending $4.99 over and over on a multi-millionaire’s old music isn’t really worth it.
Still, the devotion to these stars, while perplexing to outsiders, is admirable– as long as you don’t go broke, because Mariah and Madonna aren’t going to pay fans’ bills.
No Met Gala Tonight: Metropolitan Museum is Saving a Lot of Money By Not Allowing Anna Wintour’s Annual Ego Show
There’s no Met Gala tonight, aka the Met Ball. We won’t be treated to Kardashians in Halloween costumes, sweeping trains and headdresses on models, walkers for the female celebrities whose husbands are otherwise engaged.
The party is over for Anna Wintour’s annual ego fest.
No one should be happier than the folks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met Ball costs a lot to put on, like over $4 million every year. Yes, it brings attention to the museum. But if corporations just sent in checks for the amount spent on the tables, the Museum would be better off.
I’ve been writing about this for a long time. Here’s my most recent piece, from February.
Will this kind of thing really come back next year? Maybe Anna will have everyone dress up as health care workers. The Costume Institute theme will be “Florence Nightingale: The History of Nurses’s Outfits.”
PS Can’t wait for more from Andre Leon Talley’s memoir of the Wintour of his discontent. It’s already pretty juicy. Talley writes: “After decades of loyalty and friendship. Anna should have had the decency and kindness to call me or send me an e-mail saying: ‘André, I think we have had a wonderful run with your interviews, but we are going to try something new.’ I would have accepted that … I understand; nothing lasts forever. Simple human kindness. No, she is not capable.” He adds, “I wonder, when she goes home alone at night, is she miserable? Does she feel alone?”
Stay tuned…
Vibe: So Far, The Music for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s Coming Duet Sounds Like They Have “Love on the Brain”
Scooter Braun’s clients, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, are delivering a new single to this Friday. It’s called “Stuck With U,” and we are stuck with them. The two singers have released a little instrumental clip on Twitter of the new song. It sounds a little like they might have “Love on the Brain,” at least a similar vibe to Rihanna’s recent hit. Who knows? Maybe it’s a cover, or an “interpolation.” We’ll see how it pans out later this week. Anyway, I like any excuse to feature Rihanna’s voice. See below.
UPDATE: The song credits four writers– Gian Stone Whitney Phillips Skyler Stonestreet Freddy Wexler. Plus the obligatory publishers’ nod for Bieber and Grande. That’s SIX people. SIX. A half dozen human beings are credited for “Stuck with U,” a song that doesn’t even spell out the third word in its title.
#StuckwithU #StuckwithUVideo https://t.co/pFygJX5t5q pic.twitter.com/266VeFOnG5
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) May 1, 2020
“Billions” Is Back Tonight, Better than Ever, And it’s Wendy Rhoades’s Season, Plus Vanity Fair Gets a Needed Plug
“Billions,” my favorite TV show, is back. Brian Koppelman and David Levien’s ode to Wall Street greed, with a dollop of “Dallas,” couldn’t have returned at a better time. It’s on Showtime tonight at 9pm.
I’ve seen four episodes, so I’m a little ahead of tonight’s excellent premiere. Damian Lewis’s Axe (JR Ewing, let’s say) and Paul Giamatti’s Chuck Rhoades (Cliff Barnes) are still dancing around Maggie Siff’s Wendy Rhoades (Sue Ellen, with a whip). Will they ever figure it out? Their maddening triangle ends with an ellipsis, not an exclamation point. And the acting is certainly Emmy worthy. All three of them should be getting awards.
This season, so far, we’re getting a lot of new characters but also the pumping of supporting players. Asia Kate Dillon as Taylor remains inscrutable and delightful, a pawn in the main game and a player at the same time. Taylor is always an X factor in the game between Axe and Chuck. One day, she’s (they) will just blow their brains out and take all the money.
But this is may be Wendy’s season, as she finally makes some independent moves. She’s waited a while to take the focus of the series. Maggie Siff, who was so good on “Mad Men,” is really coming into her own now here.
Let’s not forget the supporting players, though: David Constabile’s Wags is endlessly watchable. You’ll have to wait to episode 4 when he gets his moment. I guffawed out loud at some of his business. Real “Billions” fans will love it. Condola Rashad: what took you so long? Kate Sacker’s assistant DA (I think that’s what she is, they trade titles a lot), steps up in a big way. Of course, Jeffrey DeMunn as Rhoades Sr. is back, with a young wife and a baby. The wife looks like she might be causing trouble soon.
Our immediate new guest players are Corey Stoll, as Mike Prince, a billionaire who’s coming after Axe, and Julianna Margulies as a Yale professor whose all Rhoades lead to Chuck. There are many cameos from the creme de la creme of New York actors including a poignant scene with the recently deceased Mark Blum as a shrink. Broadway star Tony Yazbeck tap dances in from past seasons, as does Deborah Rush. Harry Lennix is back, too!
At Axe Capital, there are just too many talented actors including Sarah Stiles, Ilfenesh Hadera, Kelly AuCoin, Dan Soder, and Samantha Mathis. Koppelman and Levien and their team in the four episodes I saw have managed to give everyone a spotlight. This isn’t easy to do. But everyone gets a moment, a couple of lines, an indication. You could start a plot line almost in any direction. I think that’s why “Billions” reminds me a little of “Dallas.” Leonard Katzman was so good at using a large, vibrant repertory cast to support the main action that we looked for them week to week. Same here.
For New York media types, tonight we get one of those very Graydon Carter-esque Vanity Fair photo shoots with a group of billionaire warriors. Famed photographer Mark Seliger and Carter successor Radhika Jones get lines and closeups. It seems very nostalgic now.