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Timothee Chalamet Wasn’t Kidding: “Marty Supreme” Marketing Onslaught Includes Real Orange Blimp, Virtual Ones on Google

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Timothee Chalamet wasn’t kidding during his fake Zoom marketing movie the other day. (See way at the bottom.)

He and A24 have gone full in on some of the strange things discussed, including an org blimp.

On Instagram, Timmy has posted a picture of a real orange blimp with the “Marty Supreme” logo flying above.

On Google, if you type in Timothee Chalamet or both, there are animated orange blimps flying across the screen.

Orange ping pong balls are coming soon, falling from the sky. The Statue of Liberty and other landmarks will be “painted” orange.

What else? A Wheaties box with Chalamet as Marty is imminent.

There’s also a range of clothing merchandise already available all over the internet with the Marty Supreme logo.

A24 wants to be everything, everywhere all at once on this one!

AARP Movie Noms Bring Surprises: “One Battle,” “Hamnet,” “Sinners,” “Train Dreams,” “House of Dynamite” for Best Picture

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The first round of 2026 movie noms are here thanks to AARP’s Movies for Grown Ups.

Nominations are below. The lead actor choices are interesting, particularly in Actress where every single name is unexpected. These nominees are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs as they used to say! No Jessie Buckley? Emma Stone? Kate Hudson?

Huh? Very weird. All too young. I guess you have to be older than fortysomething to make the cut. June Squibb, 96, should win without any trouble! (Julia Roberts must be amused to be in this category!)

Well, this is how it begins. The awards ceremony is January 10th, hosted by Alan Cumming. The show will be broadcast on PBS February 26th.The complete list of the annual Movies for Grownups Awards Nominees:

Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups: Hamnet, A House of Dynamite, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Train Dreams.

Best Actress: Laura Dern (Is This Thing On?), Jodie Foster (A Private Life), Lucy Liu (Rosemead), Julia Roberts (After the Hunt), and June Squibb (Eleanor the Great).

Best Actor: George Clooney (Jay Kelly), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine).

Best Supporting Actress: Regina Hall (One Battle After Another), Amy Madigan (Weapons), Helen Mirren (Goodbye June), Gwyneth Paltrow (Marty Supreme), and Sigourney Weaver (Avatar: Fire and Ash).

Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro (One Battle After Another), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), Michael Shannon (Nuremberg), and Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value).

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Kathryn Bigelow (A House of Dynamite), Scott Cooper (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere), Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), and Spike Lee (Highest 2 Lowest).

Best Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer (Jay Kelly), Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell (Is This Thing On?), Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale), and James Vanderbilt (Nuremberg).

Best Ensemble: A House of Dynamite, Jay Kelly, Nuremberg, One Battle After Another, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Best Intergenerational Film: Eleanor the Great, The Lost Bus, Rental Family, Rosemead, Sentimental Value.Best Period Film: Dead Man’s Wire, Marty Supreme, Nuremberg, Sinners, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Best Documentary: Becoming Led Zeppelin, Cover Up, My Mom Jayne, Riefenstahl, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.

Best Foreign-Language Film: It Was Just an Accident, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value.

Best TV Series or Limited Series: Adolescence, Hacks, The Pitt, The Studio, The White Lotus.

Best Actor (TV): Walton Goggins (The White Lotus), Stephen Graham (Adolescence), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Noah Wyle (The Pitt).

Best Actress (TV): Kathy Bates (Matlock), Kathryn Hahn (The Studio), Catherine O’Hara (The Studio), Parker Posey (The White Lotus), Jean Smart (Hacks).

Book Sales: Kamala Harris’s “107 Days” Out Paces Eric Trump 2 to 1, Cheryl Hines Drops to Number 15,889 While Epstein Book Is a Hit

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The book business for topical subjects is a rough place right now.

The late Virginia Giuffre’s “Nobody’s Girl” is a smash hit thanks to the Jeffrey Epstein scandals.

Giuffre’s book is in the top 3 non fiction books on amazon. It’s number 5 all around. As the Epstein noose closes around Donald Trump’s plump neck, more and more people are eager to read what Guiffre knew about Epstein’s pedo gang.

Another winner is former VP and presidential Candidate Kamala Harris. Her “107 Days” has sold 289,000 copies according to Circana/BookScan. It’s been out about two months. The response has been excellent. A lot of readers wanted to know what went on with Joe Biden stepping down and Harris taking over.

Not so good sales for Eric Trump. The intelligence challenged second son of Donald Trump published a book, so to speak. full of his thoughts on dear old Dad. “Under Siege” has been out for five week and has sold 189,000 copies. It’s 288 pages which makes it just thick enough to elevate a laptop during Zoom calls with fellow insurrectionists.

Meantime, BookScan doesn’t have numbers yet for Cheryl Hines’s “Unscripted.” I’ll update when they do. But the book is at 15,889 right now on amazon. It’s dead, most sincerely dead. No one wants to read it or even own it as a souvenir.

Keep refreshing…

“SNL” Bounces Back with Glen Powell, Olivia Dean Combo, Audiences Wait for Cher and Ariana Grande Duet on Final 2025 Show

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Glen Powell’s “The Running Man” isn’t as much of a box office as anyone would like.

But Powell’s hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live” was a hit this past weekend.

With Olivia Dean as musical guest, the hit 4.17 million. The show is down overall far this season, but as long it’s over 4 million viewers everything is good.

What may send the season average soaring is the finale of the season on December 20th. That’s Ariana Grande from “Wicked For Good” hosting, with Cher as musical guest.

Do you really think Ariana won’t sing? And there would have to be a duet with Cher. If they sing “I Got You, Babe” together, the numbers will go through the roof.

In the meantime, Melissa McCarthy hosts the show December 6th. Josh O’Connor comes next. For the former, Dijon — unknown — is musical guest. O’Connor, at least, has Lily Allen — and a lot of gossip surrounds her latest album.

“Wicked For Good” Deemed Bad by Critics, Will Audiences Care After Multi Million Dollar Marketing Push?

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The original “Wicked” movie was a hit with critics.

The first chapter of the story of Elphaba and Glinda has an 88% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie went on to make $756 million around the world. In the US alone, the total was $474 million.

Now comes “Wicked for Good,” a year later. So far critics are not thrilled. The rating is at a very low 71%. Still, audiences want to see it. The Rotten Tomatoes score from those who’ve been asked is a mighty 97%.

A lot of what happens Thursday night, when “For Good” opens in previews, will depend on word of mouth. At the premiere Monday night, everyone I asked “loved it.” But then again, it was the opening, people were dressed up, the show was free, and there were celebrities in the area if not accessible to be seen.

It was an exciting night.

Universal Pictures has spent millions to promote “Wicked For Good.” No rock has been left unturned. They even flew members of the Golden Globes to New York and put them up in hotels, etc to fan the flames. After all, if “Wicked For Good” can’t get a lot of nominations for Best Musical/Comedy, what can?

On Rotten Tomatoes, I gave the movie a “fresh” because the leads — Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande — put heart and soul into their performances. Plus, the production values are overwhelming.

But 29% of the critics have said no, thanks. I agree, “Wicked” could have been one movie. The negative reviews concern the repetitiveness from the first movie to the second. Also, “For Good” spends a lot of time dealing with “The Wizard of Oz.” Plus, the overall logic of “For Good” was beyond my grasp. It becomes confusing, and heads toward an improbable end.

How “For Good” fares tomorrow night will make headlines. “Wicked” made $19.2 million in previews. The total Friday opening came to $46.2 million. Will the new movie do as well?

We’ll wait and see…

Review: “Wicked For Good” Soars on Performances by Stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Even When It Doesn’t Quite Make Sense

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Let’s start with the good news about “Wicked For Good,” a movie that’s review proof. Here’s the thing about a movie like this: the fans, and they are legion, love it before they see it.

So the great new is that Cynthia Erivo is off the charts as Elphaba, now known as The Wicked Witch of the West. She’s one of the few things that make sense in a film that lives on shifting logic. Erivo, already so good in the first “Wicked” movie, gets a total star turn singing “No Good Deed” backed by Flying Monkeys will be on every single highlight reel for 2025. She brings passion and depth to every scene she’s in.

Not to say Ariana Grande is a slouch. As Glinda, the Good Witch who is absolutely clueless about her own life, Grande continues to invest an unflinching sweetness to the role. No one’s going to argue about her voice.

“Wicked For Good” continues the idea that The Wizard of Oz — a befuddled con man in “The Wizard of Oz” — is evil, doing Trumpian like things like caging the flying monkeys and dozens of other animals as if they were arrested immigrants. If you don’t get this point, which is hammered home, just listen to Jeff Goldblum’s cynical show stopper, “Wonderful,” in which he sings:

“I never saw myself as a Solomon or Socrates
I knew who I was
One of your dime a dozen mediocrities
Then suddenly I’m here
Respected, worshiped even
Just because the folks in Oz
Needed someone to believe in”

That’s the real story of “Wicked For Good,” how the Wizard has hijacked the land of Oz. Elphaba, painted as the wicked witch, sees right through him. Glinda, an airhead with no real powers, goes along with everything. Of course, to match the ending of “The Wizard of Oz,” Glinda has to have an epiphany, so screenwriter Winnie Holzman invented Madame Morrible for the stage show and lets the amazing Michelle Yeoh become the movie’s real bad guy.

“Wicked” remains a phenomenon on Broadway. Twenty two years and a zillion dollars later, Stephen Schwartz’s musical continues to be a powerhouse draw, especially for little girls. That audience needn’t question some of the bigger leaps and holes in the story. They lavish in the relationship of the frenemies — Elphaba and Glinda — and don’t care how it’s resolved.

Last night’s lavish premiere at Lincoln Center wasn’t just filled with children. There were plenty of young adults, dressed like the characters and in their colors, all reliving their theater experience. These grown up kids are bathing in nostalgia while the actual kids are getting their first rounds of “Wicked” magic.

Besides the actors, what really works is the production. Nathan Crowley’s design, all the below the line artisans have created an Oz for the ages. It does look like no expense has been spared, although I thought Jonathan Bailey’s Fyero had an appropriately funny reaction when he left Glinda’s lavish digs and saw how Elphaba was living in exile.

A few things don’t work at all. For some reason, director Jon M. Chu skips over Dorothy getting Nessarose’s ruby red slippers. (It’s referred to but I don’t think we even see the shoes.) Also, not so cool dropping Dorothy’s house on wheelchair bound Nessaroe, although Marissa Bode is one of the gems of the film.

Much more than the first “Wicked,” “For Good” really relies on retelling “The Wizard of Oz,” only this time from the other characters’ perspectives. Where it falters is when Chu and Holtzman drag in the Tin Man — now an angry vigilante not on the right side of the subject — and an un-charming Cowardly Lion. You just can’t compete with the originals.

Again, “Wicked For Good” rises and falls on the stunning visuals. Glinda’s flying bubble is a winner, and everything that happens in the forest — particularly the monkeys — feels unique and special.

Is “Wicked for Good” an Oscar winner? I don’t know. The hype surrounding it is in overdrive. Erivo is the standout, Yeoh is an essential ingredient. Bailey and Erivo’s romantic episode didn’t seem so convincing, and until Grande finally gets angry about Fiyero leaving her for Elphaba, she had a blandness.

But “Wicked For Good” will be a monster hit. You could tell from the audience last night. And where it packs a punch is in the allegory of power hungry pretenders pulling the wool over the eyes of an easily duped electorate. That note resonated as an anchor.

In the audience last night, a smattering of interesting people including singer Natasha Bedingfield, the great Jane Krakowski with David Rockwell, Phillipa Soo, Patricia Clarkson, Neil Meron, Gayle King, Sonny Hostin, Donna Murphy, and Universal Music Publishing’s Evan Lamberg. There was also a phalanx of Golden Globes voters flown in from LA for a “Wicked” vacation. God bless them.

Here’s Our Fake Cover of Vanity Fair with Only the Star Hollywood Actresses of the Year: “Let’s Hear it for the Women!”

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That wasn’t so hard, was it?

I used artificial intelligence to make a Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover including only female stars of 2025.

I used artificial intelligence since Vanity Fair obviously used artificial intelligence — the real meaning of artificial — to create their new cover of just men.

How about all the ladies and more in videos and inside photo shoots? They could be posing in swim suits, acting like scullery maids, in a kitchen making Thanksgiving dinner?

You see, you can be the editor of Vanity Fair, too!

Vanity Fair to Leading Ladies: “Drop Dead,” Magazine Features Only Guys On Cover of Hollywood Issue, No Women

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Vanity Fair makes it plan to Hollywood’s leading ladies on the cover of its new Hollywood issue.

Fuhgeddaboutit!

The magazine has gone GQ with only men on the cover.

No women allowed.

The cover was put together by yes, Olivia Nuzzi, the new west coast editor, and author of the book “American Canto,” excerpted in the issue. Nuzzi is an expert on men. She had some kind of affair with Robert Kennedy Jr while writing a profile of him for New York Magazine last year.

Did she get close to any of these guys? Digitally, as she would say?

They include Andrew Garfield, Glen Powell, Michael B. Jordan, Lakeith Stanfield, Jeremy Allen White, Riz Ahmed, ASAP Rocky, Paul Mescal, Jonathan Bailey, and Austin Butler are depicted doing manly things like being pirates and castaways.

Three different covers, all men, men, men as they sing on “Three and a Half Men.”

They’re called “The People’s Princes.” The tag is “Let’s hear it for the boys.”

Did the men not notice women were missing from the pictures?

Maybe Vanity Fair will surprise us later with seven female stars for the year. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jesse Buckley, Margaret Qualley, Chase Infiniti, and so on, not to mention Teyana Taylor, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, or a half dozen other names.

No Zendaya? No Sydney Sweeney? No Sydney Sweeney? 

But aren’t they telling us there are no female stars? Seems like it. The women are insignificant. And certainly “older” women like Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, et al.

Are we surprised?

Here’s Our Fake Cover of Vanity Fair with Only the Star Hollywood Actresses of the Year: “Let’s Hear it for the Women!”

Dolly Parton Misses Honorary Oscar Ceremony But Sends Video, Lily Tomlin Gives Hilarious Tribute, Jane Fonda Also MIA (Watch)

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Dolly Parton did not make the trip to Hollywood last night to accept her Governor’s Award/Lifetime Oscar from the Motion Picture Academy.

The beloved star and philanthropist sent a video instead. She’s been having health issues even though she’s also been promoting her new book on Instagram via a bunch of short videos.

Dolly sent her “9 to 5” co-star Lily Tomlin to accept the award. Where was Jane Fonda, the third part of the “9 to 5” trio? Also missing.

Here are the videos. Congrats, Dolly! Feel better!

Watch the Trailer for the Beatles Anthology VIDEO Doc Coming to Disney Plus With New Episode, Along with New AUDIO Set

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Now the trailer for the Beatles Anthology video doc complete with a new ninth episode.

Disney Plus starts running it Thanksgiving weekend.

The miniseries follows the November 21st release of the CD-LP-streaming audio set with the new Anthology 4. Everything’s been remastered. The sound on the CD collection is sensational. The new tracks are a delight.

This is the first time the 30 year old Anthology has been streaming anywhere. The original DVD set is long gone. The new one will be a very happy and final replacement.