Year: 2018

Categories
Awards

Hey, Academy!!! I’m available, if you’d like to take a risk. I’m willing if you are!!

After Kevin Hart’s departure, finding new Oscars host won’t be easy

The “most thankless job in town” just got even more difficult.

The Oscars have a longstanding host problem, but Kevin Hart’s swift downfall over old anti-gay tweets has led to bigger questions about the gig and the liability of social media histories.

It’s just the latest controversy for the organization that puts on the Academy Awards, which is trying to combat declining ratings for its marquee event while weathering the pressure of being a focal point for the shortcomings of the entertainment industry as a whole.

“I think it’s embarrassing,” Matthew Belloni, the editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter, said about the academy’s decision to pick Hart. “It shows that they either didn’t vet this host properly, or they did vet him and didn’t think this would be an issue. And both are a little troubling.”

Hart seemed to fit the bill for what the academy was looking for.

“He checks all the boxes for a show like the Oscars,” Belloni said. “He’s a legitimate movie star. He’s a funny guy and can handle the stand-up element of the show. And he has a gigantic social following. And to the academy, that’s important. They want someone who can bring a new audience to the show.”

But Oscars hosts have always been subjected to a lot of scrutiny.

Poor or even mediocre performances can haunt people for years (Anne Hathaway and James Franco). Off-colour jokes have a way of festering in the cultural consciousness (think of Seth MacFarlane’s “we saw your boobs” song, or Chris Rock’s Asian jokes). And even when things go decently enough, everyone is handed the right envelope and nobody walks away offended, the hosts can still be blamed for poor ratings.

“Oscars host has become a not very desirable job in Hollywood. Very few people see an upside,” Belloni said. “You put a huge target on your back.”

People have stepped down from being the public face of the event amid controversy, as producer Brett Ratner did in 2011 for anti-gay slurs. But Hart’s case is a little different. Ratner’s offensive remarks came after he had secured the gig. Hart’s tweets were from almost a decade ago and were well known.

But in 2018, an unsavory social media past can cost someone their job. Just this past summer, the Walt Disney Co. fired director James Gunn from the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie for old tweets in which he joked about subjects including rape and pedophilia. As with Hart, the problematic tweets were amplified by social media outrage.

Immediately after Hart was confirmed as host on Tuesday night, some journalists began tweeting reminders of Hart’s past comments. By Thursday morning, a few publications had written articles about them. The outrage escalated, Hart commented but did not apologize, stoking even more outrage, which culminated with Hart’s announcement on Thursday night that he was stepping down as host of the 91st Academy Awards.

As the dust settles, the situation has proved vexing for some in the entertainment business. Actor D.L. Hughley commended Hart for his decision.

“A comedian says something that offends people and refuses to apologize?” Hughley tweeted. “(Expletive) `em if they can’t take a joke! Well done (hash)KevinHart.” Snoop Dogg posted an even more colourful Instagram video in support of Hart.

The advocacy organization GLAAD wishes Hart hadn’t stepped down, however.

“Hart’s apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

The film academy has yet to address Hart’s departure. Hart said the film academy told him he had to apologize or he’d lose the gig. He bowed out on his own, and with an apology.

Now everyone has an opinion about who should be named host. A woman? A comedian? Not a comedian? Someone in the LGBTQ community? All of the above?

Many keep coming back to Whoopi Goldberg, who has hosted the awards four times. Some have said Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted one of the Oscars’ highest-rated shows, or Tom Hanks, who has a longstanding academy relationship.

Others have said Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele, Will Smith or Lin-Manuel Miranda. Busy Phillips threw her own name out there (“I AM AVAILABLE,” she tweeted). Philips also proposed Issa Rae, Sarah Silverman, Ali Wong, Samantha Bee, Robin Thede and Aisha Tyler, or “any other woman working in Hollywood right now who wants to.”

Stephen King suggested Patton Oswalt (He’s “funny, sharp-tongued, and he knows film,” King tweeted.) Some have even proposed Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty. Or no host at all, which has been done several times before, and as recently as 1989.

But the film academy will need to move quickly. The 91st Oscars are less than three months out.

Categories
Awards

For the first time in many years, I almost don’t care about The Grammys. I’m not being negative, or a hater, but the majority of the nominees aren’t interesting to me at all. Oh well, that said, good luck everyone!!

Kendrick Lamar, Black Panther soundtrack leads Grammy nods as women make a comeback

The music of Black Panther, with Kendrick Lamar in its starring role, officially owns the 2019 Grammy Awards, with women heavily represented in the major four categories following a year when their presence was barely felt.

The Recording Academy announced Friday that Lamar is the top contender with eight nominations, including seven for his musical companion to the Marvel Studios juggernaut starring Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. Black Panther: The Album, Music From and Inspired By is up for album of the year, a category in which women make up five of the eight nominees.

Album of the year

Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B.
By the Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile.
H.E.R., H.E.R.
Scorpion, Drake.
Beerbongs & Bentleys, Post Malone.
Dirty Computer, Janelle Monae.
Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves.
Black Panther: The Album, Kendrick Lamar.

For the upcoming Grammy Awards, the academy has extended its top four categories from five nominees to eight.

The Panther nomination would give Lamar a chance to win album of the year after losing three times. His most recent loss was in February when his critically acclaimed DAMN fell short to Bruno Mars’s 24K Magic, though Lamar’s project would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for music two months later, making him the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the prestigious honour.

Lamar’s Top 10 hit, the SZA-assisted All the Stars, is nominated for both record and song of the year (a songwriter’s award). Five other songs scored nominations in both categories, including Lady Gaga’s and Bradley Cooper’s Shallow from A Star Is Born; Childish Gambino’s This Is America; Drake’s God’s Plan; Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s The Middle; and Carlile’s The Joke.

Record of the year

I Like It, Cardi B.
The Joke, Brandi Carlile.
This is America, Childish Gambino.
God’s Plan, Drake.
Shallow, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
All the Stars, Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
RockStar, Post Malone and 21 Savage.
The Middle, Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey.
Song of the year

All the Stars, Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
Boo’d Up, Ella Mai.
God’s Plan, Drake.
In My Blood, Shawn Mendes.
The Joke, Brandi Carlile.
The Middle, Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey.
Shallow, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
This is America, Childish Gambino.

Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes was on hand on CBS This Morning to help unveil the nominees alongside reigning best new artist Grammy winner Alessia Cara, also a Canadian, fellow nominee Janelle Monae and Apple Music host Zane Lowe.

Ella Mai’s Boo’d Up and Mendes’s In My Blood earned a nod for song of the year, while Post Malone’s Rockstar and Cardi B’s I Like It, featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, round out the nominees for record of the year.

Following Lamar, Drake — the year’s most successful artist — earned seven nominations. Though nominated for album of the year, he was surprisingly shut out of best rap album, but his rival Pusha T earned a nomination.

Drake’s frequent collaborator, producer Boi-1Da, earned six nods, as did Carlile, who also scored nominations in the American Roots category.

Cardi B, Gaga, H.E.R., Morris, Gambino, producer Sounwave and engineer Mike Bozzi scored five nominations each.

The nominees for the 2019 Grammys mark a departure from this year’s show, when women were underrepresented in the top four categories. Of the eight best new artist nominees, six are women.

Best new artist

Chloe x Halle.
Luke Combs.
Greta Van Fleet.
H.E.R.
Dua Lipa.
Margo Price.
Bebe Rexha.
Jorja Smith.
Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow was criticized earlier this year at the Grammys after saying women need to “step up” when asked about the lack of women in the top categories, which he later acknowledged was a “poor choice of words.”

It forced the academy to launch a task force focused on inclusion and diversity; Portnow also announced he would be leaving the academy in 2019.

“In any given year, there could be more folks from one area or one gender or one genre or one ethnicity that are making recordings and being successful with them than in another year. So, in many ways we’re just a reflection of that,” Portnow said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“This year clearly there were many women not only making music, but making great music and making music that resonates with our peer voters in terms of excellence, and so that certainly is at the forefront.”

Another milestone for women is in the non-classical producer of the year category, where songwriting extraordinaire Linda Perry earned a nomination. She’s just the seventh woman ever nominated for prize and first since 2004.

“Linda represents what we hope becomes the norm, which is the elimination of gender bias in producing and engineering in our industry,” Portnow said.

Perry will compete with Pharrell Williams, Boi-1Da, Larry Klein and Kanye West, the only nomination he earned.

Taylor Swift, a two-time album of the year winner, also only earned one nomination — her reputation album is up best pop vocal album. Justin Timberlake, whose Man of the Woods albums flopped earlier this year, picked up a nod for Say Something, his collaboration with Chris Stapleton.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z, billed as the Carters, as well Ariana Grande didn’t earn any of the big nominations. The Carters earned two nods in the R&B category along with best music video, while Grande picked up two nods in pop.

Artists who were completely snubbed include Carrie Underwood, Sam Smith, Migos, Kane Brown, Nicki Minaj, XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD, whose Lucid Dreams was one of the year’s biggest hits.

Some acts scored their first nominations ever, including Florida Georgia Line, whose megahit Meant to Be with Rexha is up best country duo/group performance. Camila Cabello, Malone, Mendes, Dan + Shay and DJ Mustard are also first-time nominees.

Gaga, who earned acting and music Golden Globe nominations Thursday, picked up four Grammy nominations for Shallow, while Joanne is up for best pop solo performance. The soundtrack for A Star Is Born was released after Grammy eligibility, though Shallow was released in time and also earned Cooper two nominations.

Other famous faces outside music to earn nominations include Tiffany Haddish and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, both up for best spoken word album. Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Fred Armisen, Jim Gaffigan and Patton Oswalt are up for best comedy album.

Mac Miller, who died in September, earned a nomination for best rap album with Swimming. Chris Cornell, who died last year, is up for best rock performance with When Bad Does Good.

Demi Lovato, who relapsed after six years of sobriety and was hospitalized for an overdose in July, earned a nomination for best pop duo/group performance for Fall In Line, her duet with Christina Aguilera.

Those who earned four nominations are Musgraves, Malone, PJ Morton, Dave Cobb, Ludwig Goransson, Drake producer Noah Shebib and SZA, who earned a Golden Globe nomination alongside Lamar for All the Stars on Thursday.

Lamar has won 12 Grammys throughout his career. Though seven of his eight nominations come from Black Panther, he also earned a nod for co-writing Jay Rock’s Win, up for best rap song.

Another Canadian face in the mix is Nanaimo, B.C.-born Diana Krall, who shared a pair of nominations with Tony Bennett: pop duo/group performance for ‘S Wonderful and traditional pop vocal album Love is Here to Stay.

The 2019 Grammys will be handed out in 84 categories live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 10.

2019 Grammy Awards: Selected nominees

Best pop solo performance: Colors, Beck; Havana (Live), Camila Cabello; God Is A Woman, Ariana Grande; Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?), Lady Gaga; Better Now, Post Malone.

Best pop duo/group performance: Fall In Line, Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato; Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Backstreet Boys; `S Wonderful, Tony Bennett and Diana Krall; Shallow, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper; Girls Like You, Maroon 5 and Cardi B; Say Something, Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton; The Middle, Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey.

Best pop vocal album: Camila, Camila Cabello; Meaning of Life, Kelly Clarkson; Sweetener, Ariana Grande; Shawn Mendes, Shawn Mendes; Beautiful Trauma, Pink; Reputation, Taylor Swift.

Best traditional pop vocal album: Love Is Here to Stay, Tony Bennett and Diana Krall; My Way, Willie Nelson; Nat King Cole & Me, Gregory Porter; Standards (Deluxe), Seal; The Music…The Mem’ries…The Magic!, Barbra Streisand.

Best dance/electronic album: Singularity, Jon Hopkins; Woman Worldwide, Justice; Treehouse, Sofi Tukker; Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, SOPHIE; Lune Rouge, TOKiMONSTA.

Best rock album: Rainier Fog, Alice In Chains; Mania, Fall Out Boy; Prequelle, Ghost; From the Fires, Greta Van Fleet; Pacific Daydream, Weezer.

Best alternative music album: Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, Arctic Monkeys; Colors, Beck; Utopia, Bjork; American Utopia, David Byrne; Masseduction, St. Vincent.

Best urban contemporary album: Everything Is Love, The Carters (Beyoncé and Jay-Z); The Kids Are Alright, Chloe x Halle; Chris Dave and the Drumhedz, Chris Dave And The Drumhedz; War & Leisure, Miguel; Ventriloquism, Meshell Ndegeocello.

Best R&B album: Sex & Cigarettes, Toni Braxton; Good Thing, Leon Bridges; Honestly, Lalah Hathaway; H.E.R., H.E.R.; Gumbo Unplugged (Live), PJ Morton.

Best rap album: Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B; Swimming, Mac Miller; Victory Lap, Nipsey Hussle; Daytona, Pusha T; Astroworld, Travis Scott.

Best country album: Unapologetically, Kelsea Ballerini; Port Saint Joe, Brothers Osborne; Girl Going Nowhere, Ashley McBryde; Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves; From A Room: Volume 2, Chris Stapleton.

Best jazz vocal album: My Mood Is You, Freddy Cole; The Questions, Kurt Elling; The Subject Tonight Is Love, Kate McGarry With Keith Ganz and Gary Versace; If You Really Want, Raul Midon With The Metropole Orkest Conducted By Vince Mendoza; The Window, Cecile McLorin Salvant.

Best jazz instrumental album: Diamond Cut, Tia Fuller; Live In Europe, Fred Hersch Trio; Seymour Reads The Constitution!, Brad Mehldau Trio; Still Dreaming, Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley & Brian Blade; Emanon, The Wayne Shorter Quartet.

Best compilation soundtrack for visual media: Call Me By Your Name; Deadpool 2; The Greatest Showman; Lady Bird; Stranger Things.

Producer of the year, non-classical: Boi-1da; Larry Klein; Linda Perry; Kanye West; Pharrell Williams.

Best music video: Apes–t, The Carters; This Is America, Childish Gambino; I’m Not Racist, Joyner Lucas; PYNK, Janelle Monae; MUMBO JUMBO, Tierra Whack.

Best music film: Life In 12 Bars, Eric Clapton; Whitney, (Whitney Houston); Quincy, Quincy Jones; Itzhak, Itzhak Perlman; The King, (Elvis Presley).

Categories
Movies

No movies for me again this weekend. The weather was nice so I spent most of the time outside. Great weekend!!

Ralph Breaks the Internet makes it three in a row at the box office

Ralph Breaks the Internet hasn’t run out of extra lives yet.

On a slow weekend at the box office featuring no major new releases, Disney’s pixel-powered sequel is on track to edge out fellow animated film The Grinch to claim the No. 1 spot for the third week in a row. From Friday through Sunday, Ralph will take in an estimated $16.1 million at 3,795 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

That amount brings the film’s domestic total to $140.9 million after 19 days in theaters. Overseas, Ralph will add about $34.1 million this weekend, for a worldwide tally of $258.2 million.

Following up 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet once again stars John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman as a pair of videogame pals who embark on a journey of self-discovery — this time in cyberspace. Reviews have been positive, and audiences gave the movie an A-minus CinemaScore.

The rest of the top five should be a repeat of last weekend, with Ralph followed by Universal’s holiday tale The Grinch ($15.2 million), MGM’s Rocky installment Creed II ($10.3 million), Warner Bros’. wizarding caper Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ($6.8 million), and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody ($6 million).

While none of the major studios had new wide-release offerings this weekend, Universal re-released Schindler’s List in 1,029 theaters to mark the film’s 25th anniversary, earning an estimated $550,000.

Warner Bros. also made a splash in China this weekend, unveiling the superhero tentpole Aquaman to the tune of $93.6 million. The film opens Dec. 21 in the U.S.

In limited release, Focus Features’ Mary Queen of Scots will debut with about $200,000 in four locations, which works out to a strong per-screen average of $50,000. Neon’s Vox Lux arrives in six theaters with about $162,252 (a per-screen average of $27,042), and Roadside Attractions’ Ben Is Back bows with about $80,972 on four screens (a per-screen average of $20,243).

Next weekend’s multiplex offerings include the steampunk saga Mortal Engines, the crime drama The Mule, and the animated adventure Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Overall box office is up 9.9 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Dec. 7-9 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $16.1 million
2. The Grinch — $15.2 million
3. Creed II — $10.3 million
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $6.8 million
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $6 million
6. Instant Family — $5.6 million
7. Green Book — $3.9 million
8. Robin Hood — $3.6 million
9. The Possession of Hannah Grace — $3.2 million
10. Widows — $3.1 million

Categories
Doctor Who

I love Jodie as The Doctor, but the scripts and shows have let her down. Better lick to her – and us all – in 2020!!

Jodie Whittaker will definitely return for next season of Doctor Who

The BBC has announced that Jodie Whittaker will continue to play the titular Time Lord in the next season of Doctor Who. The corporation also confirmed that Whittaker’s costars — Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole — will also be coming back for the next run of shows. Season 11 will premiere on BBC America in early 2020.

“We’re off again!” said Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall in a statement. “Well we never actually stopped — as Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and friends have been winning the hearts of families, we’ve been busy with a whole new set of action packed adventures for the Thirteenth Doctor. We adore making this show and have been blown away by the response from audiences, so we can’t wait to bring more scares, more monsters and more Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole. Brilliant!”

Categories
Movies

I finally saw CREED II and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, and really enjoyed both. Hope to see RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET this week!!

Ralph Breaks the Internet tops box office again on quiet weekend

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the high scorer at the box office for the second week in a row.

With only one major new release to contend with — Sony’s horror film The Possession of Hannah Grace — Disney’s candy-colored Wreck-It Ralph sequel is on pace to sell an estimated $25.8 million in tickets at 4,017 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday, topping the chart and holding off The Grinch and Creed II.

After helping to power the biggest Thanksgiving box office on record, Ralph will decline about 54 percent over its second frame (a respectable figure), bringing its North American total to $119.3 million. Overseas, it will add about $33.7 million this weekend, for a worldwide total of $207 million.

Reviews have been favorable for the film, which stars John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman as two pixelated pals who venture into cyberspace for the first time. Moviegoers gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Filling out the top five are Universal’s animated Dr. Seuss tale The Grinch, with about $17.7 million; MGM’s Rocky film Creed II, with about $16.8 million; Warner Bros.’ wizarding world adventure Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, with about $11.2 million; and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, with about $8.1 million.

The Possession of Hannah Grace will debut in the No. 7 spot, earning an estimated $6.5 million at 3,148 North American theaters. The opening is on par with expectations for the film, which reportedly cost less than $10 million to make.

Directed by Diederik Van Rooijen, Hannah Grace stars Shay Mitchell as former cop and recovering addict working the graveyard shift at a morgue, where a newly arrived cadaver (Kirby Johnson) has other thoughts about staying dead. Critics were underwhelmed by the movie, while audiences gave it a C-minus CinemaScore.

In limited release, Orion’s zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse is arriving in five theaters with an estimated $50,000 (a per-screen average of $10,000).

The post-Thanksgiving weekend is typically a quiet one in terms of major studio releases, and there are none on the calendar for next week either, but the rest of December will bring such high-profile offerings as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Aquaman, Bumblebee, and Mary Poppins Returns.

Overall box office is up 10.1 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Nov. 30-Dec. 2 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $25.8 million
2. The Grinch — $17.7 million
3. Creed II — $16.8 million
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $11.2 million
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $8.1 million
6. Instant Family — $7.2 million
7. The Possession of Hannah Grace — $6.5 million
8. Robin Hood — $4.7 million
9. Widows — $4.4 million
10. Green Book — $3.9 million

Categories
Movies

I miss going to movies all the time. I still haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody yet, or Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II. Maybe this week.

Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II power record Thanksgiving box office

A destruction-prone but well-meaning arcade character and a score-settling young boxer are taking the Thanksgiving box office to new heights.

Led by the strong openings of Disney’s animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet and MGM’s Rocky successor Creed II, the Wednesday-Sunday North American box office total will be the biggest in the holiday’s history, coming in at an estimated $314 million. According to Comscore, this will be the first time the five-day frame has crossed the $300 million mark.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the weekend’s high scorer, selling an estimated $55.7 million in tickets at 4,017 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday though Sunday, and an estimated $84.5 million since its Wednesday debut. The latter figure represents the second-highest Thanksgiving bow ever (not adjusted for inflation), behind Frozen’s $93.6 million. Overseas, Ralph will add about $41.5 million this weekend, for a worldwide total of $126 million. The film reportedly cost $175 million to make.

Featuring the voices of John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman, Ralph Breaks the Internet is the sequel to 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, and follows the titular hero as he ventures into cyberspace for the first time. Critics’ reviews have been favorable, and audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Meanwhile, Creed II is stepping into the ring with an estimated $35.3 million from Friday to Sunday, good for second place, and an estimated $55.8 million over its first five days, which is easily the top Thanksgiving start for a live-action movie. (Four Christmases previously held the title, with $46.1 million.) The film cost at least $40 million to make.

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., taking the franchise reins from Ryan Coogler, Creed II finds Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) facing off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) the son of the man (Dolph Lundgren) who killed his father in a boxing match years ago. Sylvester Stallone reprises his role as Rocky Balboa, young Creed’s mentor, and also co-wrote the screenplay (with Juel Taylor). Reviews have been solid, and moviegoers gave it an A CinemaScore.

Not every new film is hitting its target, however. Lionsgate’s big-budget Robin Hood will earn an estimated $9.1 million at 2,827 from Friday through Sunday, and $14.2 million over the five-day frame. That’s a disappointment for a film that cost nearly $100 million to make, and lands it in seventh place for the weekend.

Starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx and directed by Otto Bathurst, Robin Hood has been panned by critics, while audiences gave it a B CinemaScore.

Rounding out this weekend’s top five are Universal’s animated Dr. Seuss adaptation The Grinch, with an estimated $30.2 million; Warner Bros’. Harry Potter spin-off/prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, with an estimated $29.7 million; and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, with an estimated $13.9 million.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s historical drama The Favourite is bowing with an estimated $420,000 at just four theaters, which works out to a per-screen average of $105,000 — the best of 2018. Yorgos Lanthimos directed the critically acclaimed film, which is set amid the scheming court of Queen Anne during the early 1700s. Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz star.

Netflix also unveiled its awards hopeful Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, in three theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, but the company is not reporting grosses.

Overall box office is up 10.2 percent year-to-date. See the Nov. 23-25 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $55.7 million ($84.5 million five-day)
2. Creed II — $35.3 million ($55.8 million five-day)
3. The Grinch — $30.2 million ($42 million five-day)
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $29.7 million ($42.9 million five-day)
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $13.9 million ($19.2 million five-day)
6. Instant Family — $12.5 million ($17.4 million five-day)
7. Robin Hood — $9.1 million ($14.2 million five-day)
8. Widows — $8 million ($10.6 million five-day)
9. Green Book — $5.4 million ($7.4 million five-day)
10. A Star Is Born — $3 million ($4.1 million five-day)

Categories
Music

Methinks this is how it’ll be done from now on. Less albums, more singles.

Norah Jones on new song ‘Wintertime’ and her next chapter: ‘That whole album cycle push, I’m not up for it’

With over 50 million album sales and nine Grammys, Norah Jones knows she’s reached an autonomous point in her career where she can pretty much do whatever the hell she wants. And the 39-year-old mother of two tells EW she plans to write the next chapter in her professional songbook one track at a time.

“It was fun and I had a great time, but that whole album cycle push, I’m not up for it anymore,” the “Don’t Know Why” singer says of restructuring her creative output after releasing six solo LPs (each with a massive accompanying tour) since 2002. So, her husband suggested an alternate route: “Go in the studio” with an array of hand-selected musicians “for one to three days [and] put out a song per month,” Jones explains. So far, a collection of four singles — spanning Doveman-assisted experimental-electronic political anthems to soulful wallops of moody brass — made at her own pace with friends new and old serve as tokens brought back from her sonic travels.

“This is me finally figuring out who I want to play with,” says Jones, adding that the goal of the process is to just “see what happens” in the largely improvised sessions she quickly chucks online to savor the raw spontaneity of the process.

“It’s easy when you get into a record cycle to lose that a little bit… the magic of the song starts to dissipate,” she continues. “Waiting around, getting artwork together… it’s like, let’s just put out the important part and move on.”

For example, Jones’ sessions with Jeff Tweedy yielded four overall tracks, but “Wintertime” is the only one that originated prior to their collaboration.

“[Jeff had] already written a lot of the chords, the whole melody, and a lot of the words before I came in,” Jones says of the song, which speaks to longing and desire — aided by the song leaning into timely themes of seasonal depression. “I’m just drawn to warm instruments in general, and happy lyrics always sound cheesy coming off my tongue. [This song is] just what comes naturally.”

“Wintertime” also reunites Jones with her former engineer, Tom Schick, and features Tweedy’s son Spencer on percussion. But the tone was set by Jones and Tweedy finding a balance between their perspectives.

“His way of writing [and] the way he thinks about lyrics is a super different perspective from mine,” Jones observes. “It’s hard to describe a process like that, it just kind of goes back and forth until it finds its way.”

While she doesn’t broadcast her views on social media, Jones’ art has long registered political. In protest to George W. Bush’s re-election, Jones dinged the Republican president in her 2004 song “My Dear Country,” and she says the “current climate” under Donald Trump inspired this experimental electronic opus made with Doveman musician Thomas Bartlett. The song — in which Jones observes “people hurting” and wonders if society is “broken” — came together after she’d written a set of stream-of-consciousness lyrics Bartlett improvised moody organ riffs over.

“We got three very different songs,” Jones says of their sessions. “We have another song that’s stripped down, and is really orchestral and beautiful. It’s just piano and voice. And then we have another song that’s more electronic…. whatever happens sonically, I’m open.”

“It Was You” — a soul-driven stunner made with Jones’ bandmates Brian Blade and Chris Thomas — epitomizes the spontaneous, pliable spirit of Jones’ current endeavor.

“I came from a very dark place personally [and] wrote four songs on the piano. This was one of them. It started with a different vibe; It had no words and sounded like a happy, church piano song,” she recalls. “These guys are such great musicians [so] it totally changed because of the way they played it,” Jones says of the studio time that pushed the track into its final form. “It was beautiful the way they interpreted it…. the groove kicked in and it was amazing. That was a very live track. We added the horns and the organs, and that’s it.”

One of the best songs on Jones’ 2012 album Little Broken Hearts is the grim “Miriam,” for which she took on the embellished persona of a woman fantasizing about murdering an ex’s mistress. “A Song With No Name,” another fruit of Jones’ Tweedy sessions, kindles similar images as she croons of love, knives, and guns in the same breath to create an abstract tone poem about impulsive passion — which also explains how the song was recorded.

“This song was very much improvised, lyrically and musically. I thought it was a throwaway, and we revisited it…. and [Jeff and I] both loved it,” Jones remembers. “There are some things about it that don’t connect in my head. If I could rewrite the lyrics, there are a few I’d change to make a story connect a little more…. but I like the way it is. Guns are everywhere, and the word was on the tip of my tongue; don’t worry about me.”

Jones admits she has “a hard time playing ‘Miriam’ now,” alluding to the cycle of violence that has played out in national headlines in recent years. “Even though I know what that song is, [because] it’s a mood; in no way am I advocating anything like that, and I never would.”

“We’re all aware of what’s going on [in this country] and that can inform certain things, but some of these are just songs about how you feel,” she says. “There’s no real thread tying these songs together; I think I’m the only thread.”

Categories
Scrubs

I would absolutely LOVE this!!!!

Sorry, Scrubs Fans, Zach Braff’s Tweet Doesn’t Mean a Revival Is Happening

Zach Braff got a lot of people talking when he posted a photo of himself reunited with his former Scrubs co-stars and captioned it, “Season 10?”

The idea seemed plausible enough. Nowadays, just about every show seems ripe for revival. And since there aren’t very many medical comedies left to break up the monotony of so many hospital dramas now that the likes of House, Children’s Hospital and Royal Pains are through too, now’s as good a time as any for J.D. and Turk to get the bromance going again.

Unfortunately for anyone who took the tweet at face value, Scrubs Season 10 is not in the works. At least not right now.

The group got back together for the show’s stint at VultureFest on Saturday evening, during which creator Bill Lawrence slapped down the idea of a revival series, while still leaving the possibility of more Scrubs on the table in a different format.

“I would do anything to get to work with not only this group, but the writers, and do it again,” he said (via The Hollywood Reporter), with the caveat that “sometimes reboots — not all the time — feel like a money grab.”

Lawrence went on to add, “If we ever do it, we’ll do it as a short little movie or something else. I think the problem from me is I would just want to see where everyone is. I would want to see where their marriages are.”

Categories
Movies

Another Number One Movie I’ll Probably Never See.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald charms box office with $26 million opening

Controversies and poor critical reviews don’t seem to have an impact on Harry Potter fans because Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald already made $100 million worldwide.

The latest cinematic installment to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world earned $25.7 million in ticket sales since opening in the U.S. with late Thursday night screenings. This puts it on track to reach upwards of $65 million domestically by weekend’s end, and the opening night tally adds to $74.3 million the film racked up internationally.

The Crimes of Grindelwald, based on a screenplay by Rowling and helmed by longtime Harry Potter film director David Yates, earned an A CinemaScore from audiences. The response from reviewers wasn’t nearly as positive.

The story continues the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. With dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (the newly Relevio-ed Johnny Depp) amassing followers across Europe, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), Newt’s old Hogwarts professor who knew Grindelwald in his youth, tasks his former pupil to thwart these efforts.

Katherine Waterson, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, and Ezra Miller also return for The Crimes of Grindelwald, which introduces Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, Callum Turner as Newt’s brother Theseus, and Claudia Kim as Nagini.

“It is, well… a lot,” EW’s Leah Greenblatt writes. “And as Rowling piles on the mythology and backstories and subplots, the movie begins to feel a little bit like walking into a wind tunnel and being asked, in 134 minutes, to put the swirling pages of her wildly dense script back together.” Paired with far more merciless reviews, The Crimes of Grindelwald sits at an abysmal 39 percent “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Drama surrounding one of the film’s stars also threatened to derail the debut. Rowling and Yates stood by Depp when the actor was accused of emotion and physical abuse by ex-wife Amber Heard two years prior. Depp denied the claims at the time and the two reached a settlement in 2016. In supporting Depp, Warner Bros. quoted a portion of the joint statement the actor released with Heard in the aftermath of the settlement, but Heard responded by sharing the remarks in full, adding, “To pick and choose certain lines and quote them out of context, is just not right.”

“The fact remains I was falsely accused, which is why I’m suing the Sun newspaper for defamation for repeating false accusations,” Depp told EW. “J.K. has seen the evidence and therefore knows I was falsely accused, and that’s why she has publicly supported me. She doesn’t take things lightly. She would not stand up if she didn’t know the truth. So that’s really it.”

Additional controversies swirled around the characters of Dumbledore and Nagini. Rowling confirmed her beloved Hogwarts headmaster to be gay, but Yates said the film wouldn’t “explicitly” feature that portrayal. Others took issue with the fact that Kim plays a character which sees a Korean woman eventually transforming into the pet of a powerful white man (Lord Voldemort).

According to research from Fandom, however, these stories don’t seem to have an effect on Potterheads — and the box office numbers appear to support that.

“What these fans are focused on is the deep, deep world of lore,” Angelina Fadool, Fandom’s director of content operations, told Variety. “Press and other external factors — good, bad, or indifferent — it doesn’t effect the world of the film for them.”

Categories
Music

It must be said that “Best Years of My Life” is one of my favourite songs of the year!! The entire album is great!!

Miranda Lambert’s Pistol Annies have never been more important than they are right now

For the Pistol Annies, sometimes a song arrives whether or not all three members of this country-music supergroup are ready for it.

One example? “Best Years of My Life,” a casually devastating account of adult-onset disappointment that begins with Ashley Monroe delivering this instant classic of an opener: “I picked a good day for a recreational Percocet.”

“That was her line, and she likes to get up real early in the morning and start writing songs, which we hate,” Monroe’s bandmate Angaleena Presley said with a laugh, recalling a sleepover writing session at the home of the group’s third member, Miranda Lambert. “But she was sitting out on the balcony and woke us up with that, and we were both like — ”

“‘Damn it,’” Lambert chimed in.

“We had to get up,” Presley added. “We knew immediately.”

Commitment to the tune — that’s what has defined the Pistol Annies since 2010, when Lambert briefly paused her hugely successful solo career to form the trio with her old friend Monroe, herself an acclaimed singer, and a then-struggling Nashville songwriter whose work had impressed her.

You could hear it on the band’s hit debut, 2011’s “Hell on Heels,” with its clever ditties about struggling to make ends meet. And it was there on “Annie Up,” from 2013, in a perfectly realized lament like “Unhappily Married.” (“You’re going bald and I’m getting fat,” it goes, “I hate your mom and you hate my dad.”)

Yet the Pistol Annies’ craft has never run deeper, nor felt more important, than it does on their latest album, “Interstate Gospel,” which debuted this week atop Billboard’s country chart.

On Wednesday night the trio will celebrate with a performance at the Country Music Assn. Awards, where Lambert is also up for several prizes, including female vocalist of the year and single of the year for “Drowns the Whiskey,” her No. 1 duet with Jason Aldean.

Like the earlier records, “Interstate Gospel” has some great laughs, as in the cheeky “Sugar Daddy” and the rowdy (and self-explanatory) “Stop, Drop and Roll One.”

But the record is also full of poignant, unsparing dispatches from women’s lives at a moment when male artists outnumber female on country radio by about 10 to 1.

“Milkman” explores the complicated relationship between a daughter and a mother who disapproves of her lifestyle. “Commissary” recounts an older sister’s visit to a younger brother behind bars.

Then there’s the handful of tunes seemingly inspired by Lambert’s widely publicized divorce from fellow country star Blake Shelton. In the anguished “Masterpiece,” the singer compares a failing marriage to a painting “up there on the wall for all to see,” then wonders, “Who’s brave enough to take it down?”

And though “Got My Name Changed Back” is funnier and more revved up, it’s still giving voice to an underrepresented perspective in rhymes as expertly phrased as “Spent an afternoon at the DMV” and “Now who I was ain’t who I be.”

Over lunch by their hotel pool during a recent trip to Los Angeles, the women — Presley is 42, Lambert is 35 and Monroe is 32 — told me they hadn’t gone into making “Interstate Gospel” with an eye toward correcting country music’s gender imbalance.

“I don’t ever want to come across as preachy,” Presley said.

But Monroe acknowledged she takes pride in fans telling her they can relate to songs not delivered from the point of view of a dude in a beat-up ball cap.

“I think it’s about people feeling understood,” Lambert said. “This song’s about your day sucking or divorce or somebody you love being put in prison. We’re not preaching to you — we’re talking to you because it happened to us too.”

“It’s the honesty,” Monroe said, a familiar talking point among country stars that nonetheless rings true with an act as frank as this one.

Asked whether the tabloid scrutiny of her marriage tempted her to put her guard up this time, Lambert scoffed.

“I don’t care what they write,” she said, adding that once you’re famous, “you could walk down the street and pick up a piece of trash and they’re gonna talk about it.”

If anything, she went on, the mistruths in gossip columns only made her double down on record.

“We sing the truth. Take from it what you will,” she said.
Lambert’s overall attitude toward her own celebrity is refreshingly unimpressed. And yet she admits to playing the game when necessary, as when she puts on a smile when the camera finds her in her seat at an awards show.

“That’s hard,” Presley said, “especially when you already suffer from resting bitch face, which I do.”

“Oh, me too,” Lambert agreed. “But I’ve gotten better at it.”

With the CMA Awards in mind — along with Nashville’s persistent man problem — I wondered aloud what the Pistol Annies thought of one tune nominated for song of the year: Chris Janson’s very iffy “Drunk Girl,” in which the singer is basically asking to be congratulated for not assaulting a woman he takes home from a bar.

“Leave her keys on the counter, your number by the phone / Pick up her life she threw on the floor,” Janson sings, “Leave the hall lights on, walk out and lock the door / That’s how she knows the difference between a boy and a man.”

At first the women said they didn’t know the song. Then Monroe began shaking her head silently.

“Well, clearly Ashley doesn’t want to talk about it,” Lambert said, which seemed to change Presley’s mind on the subject.

“I’m lying. I do know the song, and I’ll say one thing about it,” she said. “We don’t need to be rescued. We can get as drunk as we want, and we can get cabs.”

Lambert, who insisted again that she hadn’t heard “Drunk Girl,” asked if that’s really what the song is about.

“Seriously?” she said. “Everyone should try harder. There’s better ways to write songs.”

Are we living in something of a low-effort era?

“Uh-huh,” Lambert replied, nodding. “It’s a cop-out, all of it.”

At that, Monroe flashed a pained-looking expression. “I don’t care,” Lambert told her. “Why are you worried about it?”

“I’m not,” Monroe said. “I just don’t want to talk about Chris Janson. It’s not relevant to our music.”

Yet “Drunk Girl” is relevant, I said, as a demonstration of the blinkered thinking that the Pistol Annies are working against. As happened earlier, the women seemed to back away from a position of protest.

“We’re not on a soapbox,” Presley said. “We’re doing dishes and writing songs about it.”

Lambert said there’s room for all kinds in Nashville, even if most current country music leaves her cold compared with the “timeless” stuff she was raised on.

Some of the veterans she reveres — Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire — are admirers of the Pistol Annies, which Lambert said means “everything” to her and her bandmates.

Indeed, Presley said she was blown away when Yearwood — whose music she “used to sing so hard into my hairbrush that I knocked my tooth out one time” — visited the group backstage after a recent taping for a CMT special.

But then that was just one of many places Presley can’t believe her songwriting has taken her over the past eight years.

“My house was getting repossessed when this band started,” she said, adding that “Housewife’s Prayer,” from the Pistol Annies’ debut, was “literally me thinking about burning it down so I could get the insurance money before they took it away from me.”

“That’s why we love her,” Lambert said.

“How you like me now?” Presley went on, waving at her glossy surroundings. “Sitting by a coffin-shaped pool in California, eating manchego cheese.”

It sounded like the first line of a new song.