Monday, October 28, 2019

Misc. Takes

In no particular order of importance:

Lucy Boynton is going to star in a movie about rock star Marianne Faithful. If you said “Who?” you’re under 60.

But surely all Millennials know who Jean Seberg was. Kristen Stewart stars as her in a movie.

And Peter Coyote will play Robert Mueller in a TV limited-series. Oh come on! You could not have forgotten Robert Mueller already.

Only in LA:
 It's actually a restaurant.  

I went to a taping of JEOPARDY last week. Alex Trebek is an all-time trouper. He taped five shows the day after chemo. I can’t imagine the distress he was in and yet he never lost his energy or enthusiasm. I'm in awe.

Leave it to Fox.  The president of the United States gets booed by 50,000 people, many of whom chant "Lock him up!" at the World Series and they completely ignore it.   But we need 17 replays of a stupid foul ball. 

Don’t find rat droppings in your house.
Rene Zellweger does a great impression of Judy Garland in the new movie, JUDY. Except there’s nothing in the film everybody didn’t know. And it’s a little simplified. If they just let her eat a pizza one time when she was a child none of this would have ever happened. Better to watch the SHOWTIME documentary on her.

Judy Garland and Elvis Presley had the same hairstyle. Maybe even used the same dye.

Coming soon:  A terrifically entertaining movie called KNIVES OUT.  Daniel Craig does a great Kevin Spacey impression. 

A word of warning to all Los Angeles citizens – Felicity Huffman is out of jail and back on the streets. Lock up your college-applying kids. 

When I saw that BLESS THIS MESS was picked up for a full-season I remarked to a friend that that’s pretty good for a new show, and he told it was on last season.  It might be a fantastic show, but the last ABC show I watched was BROTHERS KEEPER (and that's cause I directed it).

This is how silly click bait headlines have become: From MLB.COM last Friday – The Nats’ 13 posteason HR dances, ranked.

Doesn't this look like it says "Wolfgang Putz?"
Okay, I’m one of those geeks who will go see ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD again to see the bonus scenes. And yes, my complaint with the original version was that it was too long.

At the Arclight Theatre in Sherman Oaks they charge an extra $1.50 if you see THE JOKER in .35 or .70 mm. In addition to the ridiculous ticket prices anyway, they’re charging you extra for the best prints. I dunno. I’m sure it will look just fine on my HD monitor at home.

How many people are going as Marianne Faithful for Halloween this year?

Finally! A wall in Colorado. Illegal skiiers have been a problem for YEARS. Will Switzerland pay for it?

LOCK HIM UP! 

61 comments :

VP81955 said...

To those in the Sepulveda area, where a fire broke about 2 a.m.: Please be careful.

Andrew said...

Um, Ken, you do realize that for the rest of the country, Trump being booed and chanted against in DC (immediately after a victory in the fight against ISIS) is one more reason to re-elect him?

I live in Ohio. I have already heard several people say that they didn't care much about this series, but now they are rooting for the Astros.


Peter said...

I love the video of Trump getting booed. I bet he thought he would be cheered because of the death of the ISIS terrorist leader. Side note: When Bin Laden was killed, Trump tweeted that people should stop congratulating Obama because he didn't kill Bin Laden, the Navy SEALS did.

Also, a Congresswoman is forced to resign because she had a consensual relationship with a woman. Meanwhile a rapist and adulterer who paid off a pornstar continues to sit in the White House. History will not look kindly on the people who put the latter into office while hounding the former out of office.

Sue T. said...

Perhaps I imagined it, but I think the jet-black hair dye worn by Elvis had some blue added. I suspect it was his manager Colonel Parker's idea so that Elvis would look more like Superman in the comic books.

ELS said...

I think that we might as well get Robert Mueller to play Robert Mueller. Or isn't he good enough? (Dare I cite the Charlie Chaplin imitation contents where the real Mr. Chaplin came in 4th?)

gtm said...

I think 60 is too young as I am a 6p year old rock music geek but I doubt many of my peers know of Marianne Faithful. A few probably have heard of the Mars bar story but couldn't name a song she recorded.

I have to fight not to fall in the trap of looking down on young people who don't know the old celebrities.

Consider that today there are so many celebrities and we have so many entertainment and news options that we are forced to be selective and only know what we seek out. The fact that Kardashians are huge celebrities says a lot about today's world. One could spend all of their leisure time doing nothing but following Kardashians.

This stuff doesn't bother me (I'm trying anyway). I don't know anything about sports and that's very important to some of my close friends and relatives.

Most people could not name their own senators or representatives--now THAT bothers me because they actually affect our lives.

Steve said...

"A word of warning to all Los Angeles citizens – Felicity Huffman is out of jail and back on the streets. Lock up your college-applying kids. "

Are you joking? Or being nasty?

She committed a mistake and served time for it in jail.

That makes her a monster?

McAlvie said...

Poor Colorado, forever tainted by association. But given who said it, they'll probably get a wall anyway now. Of course many places could use some walls, Picture it - Escape from Kentucky starring Moscow Mitch. Or we could put a wall along this side of the Texas border. If the good old days are supposed to be better, why not let Mexico have their land back? Reminds me of someone I knew, someone very Nordic looking from Wisconsin who retired to Arizona and complained about all the Hispanics. You just wanted to say, "Here's your sign."


Anonymous said...

Its great that there are so many music related bio picks these days, but it would be nice if they stuck to ACTUAL history instead of the revised Freddy Mercury or Elton John.

How valuble is it to learn WRONG history?

I liked the Elton pic, but I want to see him do the real songs he played at the Troubadour

Brian said...

Always, always..... Judy Garland's name reminds me of this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImXpq8JNfXk

And Renée Zellweger should be starring in a movie called "WTF happened to Renée Zellweger?" instead of other biopics.

Rashad Khan said...

I know who Marianne Faithfull is, and I'm under 60.

Also, "Encore! Encore!" was on NBC, not ABC.

David said...

Huffman is a fellow Jew. Please go easy on her.

Clara said...

Is that your house? Looks great.

You should post pics of your neighborhood, if not your house (for privacy). You know like when you posted those pics of the set of OUATIH.

I would love to see how real Hollywood neighborhood looks like.

Shane said...

Taking about being protective of kids, did you at anytime worry that Hollywood would be a bad influence on your kids when growing up?

I read a book about Hollywood Kids and that just gave a creepy outlook of Hollywood.

kent said...

Great, now I have to Google all those names!

Sam said...

Just pray to God that Joaquin Phoenix or that director doesn't interrupt your show in the middle and start explaining the "process" of making that movie.

We paid to see a movie and not to hear your "process". This type of self promotion is just weird and creepy as hell. They should limit their show-off to the screenings for their fellow creeps in Hollywood and leave us common folk to just enjoy the movie.

Peter said...

Additional warning :

Lock up your kids. The following celebrities are on the loose.

Bryan Singer, Roman Polanski, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman, James Franco, Mel Gibson, Morgan Freeman, Harvey Weinstein, the whole bunch of Kardashians, Kobe Bryant.

Bob Paris said...

And if you knew to spell Faithful with just one "l" then you are over 60.

Jim said...

If you want a bit more Scotty Bowers style gossip on Judy Garland then the place to look is Howard Parker's blog. Howard was a dancer (the tall blond guy in the "A secretary is not a toy" number in How to Succeed in Business) who danced a few times with Judy Garland (among others). He was also the stereotypical gay drama queen, who loved to gossip. He died a couple of years ago, but a few years pre that he wrote some of his stories. Here's jis view on working with Ginger Rogers.

It was about 4:00 and rehearsals ended at 6:00. Ginger surprised me by saying she wanted to start learning the number right then. Although Ginger didn’t say anything more, I could tell by her body language that she was not going to learn anything as long as the guys were in the room so I dismissed them. Then Ginger looked at me as if to say, I’m not moving till the only two people in this room are her and me. I told Marsha that I’ll be in my office if she needed me.

At 5:50 I walked back into the rehearsal room. Ginger and Marsha, whose face was devoid of expression, were facing the mirror and Ginger was holding Marsha’s hand very tightly.
"It’s almost 6:00, time to quit," I said cheerfully.

Ginger looked at me incredulously and said, "It’s 6:00 already?" Then she added, in a very childlike voice that was barely audible, "I haven’t even learned the first step yet."

I thought, Oh no, it’s going to be even worse than I thought. What I said was, "Don’t worry about it Ginger, there’s no rush, we have two weeks," and I actually felt very sorry for her.

After Ginger walked out of the room, Marsha, almost weeping, said "I can’t believe it, Ginger Rogers can’t dance! I always loved Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I’ve seen all their movies over and over and over again. And she can’t dance! Ginger Rogers can’t dance! That is sooo saaad."

Roger Owen Green said...

Individual 1 actually knows his history. Prior to the Mexican War, part of the US/Mexico border WAS Colorado.

Ted said...

Anyone apart from me thinks Kristen Stewart is one of the greatest actresses in the history?

Anyone???

No.

Well, ok, see you after 30 years, when they erect a statue for her next to the Hollywood sign.

David said...

Just for the record, please read this by David Mamet :

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-mamet-pens-open-letter-felicity-huffman-corrupt-joke-universities-1194267

There are certain institutions which deliberately don't allow Jews. So she did what she did.

blinky said...

A quote from the POTUS Bagdhadi announcement:
"The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread — terrified of the American forces bearing down on him."
Is this Trump describing his own future?

Glenn said...

Ken, are you affected by these rolling power blackouts?

Peter said...

"That makes her a monster?"

Steve, this is a comedy blog by a comedy writer. Sarcasm and satire are part of comedy. This was clearly a joke where the humour comes from exaggerating the gravity of Huffman's crime.

Have you ever watched Airplane? The scene where a passenger kills himself rather than listen any longer to Robert Hays drone on about his love life? Same principle.

This really shouldn't have to even be explained.

Dennis said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Andrew,

The Astros have had some major culture issues; not very good treatment of women or employees in general.

Sports fans are notorious for booing major figures at games. There isn't a commissioner amongst the big 4 sports that hasn't been booed at games, particularly at trophy presentations.

Jeff Boice said...

Reminded of 1977, when I attended the Mariners first game. Opening ceremonies featured all the local pols: Mayor Royer, County Exec Spellman, Governor Ray, and Senator Henry Jackson. They all were lustily booed. And Jackson had just gotten reelected with 76% of the vote (Scoop booed back at the fans, BTW). But then they introduced Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and the booing for him was by far the loudest. A fun time! M's lost 7-0. One fan shouted out during the late innings "The Pilots won their opener!"

Thomas Galloway said...

Sue T.: Actually, the superhero Elvis was fondest of, and who he did model at least part of his look after, was Captain Marvel Junior. Couple of years back someone did an excellent cosplay at San Diego of Junior's outfit with a slightly exaggerated Elvis face and hair.

(Captain Marvel, of course, was modeled on Fred MacMurry)

Jon88 said...

"Lucy Boynton is going to star in a movie about rock star Marianne Faithful. If you said “Who?” you’re under 60."
I said "Who?," but that was about Lucy Boynton.

Peter said...

Dennis, I'm assuming that comment was intended as a comical parody of Trump supporters.

If not, you should know the Pentagon has said the raid on al-Baghdadi was successful “in spite of” Mr Trump’s actions, not because of them.

Jahn Ghalt said...

Thanks for the heads-up on the re-release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

I'm holding out for a disc set that has the rumored "4-hour rough cut".

As it stands, the re-release (in 1000+ venues) has ten extra minutes. See this review:


https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/26/quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood

Ally said...

How did Renée Zellweger get this role? She sucks and with that horrible plastic surgery was reduced to a joke.

Instead of giving a new actress a break, Hollywood went and dug her up and are shoving her down our throats.

What's wrong with Hollywood!!??? Give new actors a break. The process of natural selection has kicked out this no talent hag. Let her go.

Mike Bloodworth said...

"Bless This Mess" is such a blatant ripoff of "Green Acres" that I'm truly surprised that no one has been sued yet.
Although, the creators of "The Lion King" swear they never heard of "Kimba the White Lion," So who knows?!

Here's an idea for a sitcom. It's a blatant ripoff of "Romeo and Juliette." A hard-core Trump supporter fall's in love with a fervent...let's say...Elizabeth Warren campaign worker. Their love is true, but no one can find out about their affair. (Think James Carville and Mary Matalin) The humor comes from their efforts to "hook up" without being caught. To add some buzz, get a far-lefty actor to play the conservative and vice versa. I'm thinking, Amy Schumer and Scott Baio. Otherwise, standard sitcom rules apply. Sounds like a winner to me!

It's such a hackneyed idea I would guess that there are at least a dozen scripts and/or pilots already in the works.

Of course I'm being facetious. But, with the current state of broadcast television it's not that farfetched.
M.B.

P.S. Ken, I hope this latest fire isn't too close to you. Be safe.

Mike Barer said...

Steve! The Felicity Huffman thing was a joke.

Steve said...

I see you are removing some troll comments. Why waste your time on them? Why not use 'blog moderator' option and appoint one of the regulars as a moderator.

Like Peter, who polices this blog's every comment every day.

Mike said...

I didn't get the Switzerland joke. Why will they pay?

DBenson said...

Responding to Mr. Bloodworth: There was a short-lived sitcom about a conservative pundit and a much younger liberal photographer, played by Richard Crenna and Bernadette Peters. It was called "All's Fair" and I think it was a Norman Lear production. Didn't last long, so Peters had to settle for a brilliant Broadway career.

Todd Everett said...

Explaining jokes (this to Steve and Mike) removes 90% of the pizazz from them. Best to let a few by you or Google the answer yourself so's not to look clueless, and wait until you can feel superior when someone doesn't get a joke YOU understand -- or made.

Sometimes I make jokes that even I don't get.

McTom said...

Befuddled by all the hand-wringing for poor Felicity Huffman, who committed what one commenter called a "mistake", or as us non-elites call it, a "crime".

Also, amen to saying no to upcharges for film vs digital. I saw Once Upon... at the DTLA Alamo Drafthouse, where they brag about the sanctity of film experience, only to hear cue beeps at every reel change, dirt schmutz all over the print, and two fat scratch lines running the entire duration of one reel. Film is dead, good riddance, and long live 4k HDR digital, which does NOT begin to degrade during the very first trip through the projector.

Buttermilk Sky said...

I don't understand the Howard Parker story. "Ginger Rogers can't dance"? That must have been a body double. Maybe she was worried about coming up to Astaire's demanding standards, but she certainly could dance, or Fred would not have made ten films with her.

There's a movie called MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE (for those enjoying their first impeachment, Felt was the deputy FBI Director better known as "Deep Throat" in the Watergate business). In the title role, Liam Neeson is made up to look exactly like Robert Mueller. Intentionally? Who knows? Anyway, worth seeing.









Peter said...

Lol, Steve. C'mon, I don't comment on every comment.

I'll stop here.

Mary said...

Apart from the people of that generation, this movie never got any traction among others.

White old male reminiscing the 'good old days' when they ruled the World.

Don't worry you guys still are the bosses.

Jake said...

Is Jeremy Piven's career over? He has moved onto stand-up comedy.

I feel sort of sad.... But then, that's his punishment.

Please do a post on these metoo guys and what you think is their future? And please don't hold back on the snarkiness.

John Nixon said...

I lived in Colorado in the early 1980s and in those days, and maybe still now, they would have been glad to have a wall to keep out the Texans!

By Ken Levine said...

Marty,

Yeah, I'm an old privileged white man, who when I had the opportunity, entertained millions of people around the world for many years. Shame on the industry for hiring me.

Smilodon said...

You know I'm under 60,and granted, over 50 but I know who Marianne Faithfull is and so do a good number of my friends. In the late 80s I bought her, then brand new album, Strange Weather and even played a bit of it on my college radio station.

Jeff Boice said...

Slight Correction on my earlier post: The pols at the Mariner's first ever game included Seattle Mayor Uhlman, not Royer. I remember seeing people in Royer for Mayor hats at the game, and I think candidate Royer was at the game. If he had been on the field, we would have booed him too.

Mary said...

It was an observation and a joke Ken :)

The last line - refers to, you know who - says it all.

Liggie said...

Both World Series teams have a large "dislikeability" factor. The Nationals' fans booing Trump will turn off his large base; the Astros' assistant GM's taunting female reporters about a player who had served a domestic violence suspension infuriated #MeToo people.

That said, did Fox show those two women who flashed the pitcher?

Speaking of Judy, Ariana Grande did a fabulous portrayal of her on a cut-for-time SNL skit (it's on YouTube). In the skit, Judy plays herself as a spaceship captain for a cheap Roger Corman sci-fi film, and Ariana-as-Judy throws in musical numbers while facing down invading aliens.

Cap'n Bob said...

Marianne Faithful's big hit was "As Tears Go By."

MikeKPa. said...

You should do these at least once a month. Always enjoy them.

Douglas Trapasso said...

Memo to Mike: That idea -was- kinda tried, back when Carville and Matalin were on one of the cable news-gossip shows almost every night:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/speechless

Storm said...

Hey now, I'm 51 and of course I know who Marianne Faithful is. When I was totally engulfed in the second British Invasion (New Wave/New Romantics/Synthrock) as a teen, she had an awesome song called "Broken English", which is still one of my all time faves. And she played God to Anita Pallenberg's Devil on "Absolutely Fabulous"!

Not dressing as her this year, but I *did* dress as Lulu for my late brother's fantastic "60's spy" themed Halloween party in '06. Well, to be honest, I didn't start out trying to dress as Lulu, it was just that the short red beehive wig and Mondrian dress just screamed "Champagne for Lulu!" Good times.

Cheers, thanks a lot,

Storm

DwWashburn said...

The major thing that irritates me about Fox's WS coverage is the piping in of crowd noise. Regardless of which team makes a play or makes a hit, the crowd noise you hear is what you would expect from a hometown team. I had a friend who went to LA for Game 4 of last year's WS. She is a Red Sox fan so I asked her if the crowd was going crazy when the Red Sox got a hit like it sounded on television. She said there were some Sox fans there but the crowd was relatively quiet when the Sox did something good. You wouldn't know it if you heard the broadcast.

Oh, and Monday when I started reading the reports of boos and "Lock him up" from Sunday's game I was surprised because I didn't hear them in the broadcast. Luckily there were a lot of cell phone videos posted right after the game to show Fox's coverup.

Mike Bloodworth said...

Thank you, DBenson. That sounds familiar. But, I don't I ever watched it.
M.B.

Mike Bloodworth said...

Thank you, Trap.
M.B.

Anonymous said...

RE: Anonymous Mary said...

It was an observation and a joke Ken :)

The last line - refers to, you know who - says it all.

But Mary,
When you and millions of others on social media say things like that, it's exactly like saying "All blacks are no good, except for you of course, because I know you and you're standing in front of me and there are one or two good ones."

Anonymous said...

Well, if nothing else you can say that Nationals fans are equal opportunity, bi-partisan booers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri8BOynRGnc

Chris Thomson said...

I was a fair bit too young for Marianne Faithful.

But heard a record years ago and was Googling and saw this. Written for her by her then boyfriend Mick Jagger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_phZZgkT1Jk

2 words. "gorgeous lady"

Wendy M. Grossman said...

Jim: Unlike you (I guess) that Ginger Rogers story makes me much *more* impressed with her. So she wasn't a naturally talented dancer? She had to work umpteen times as hard to master the steps and make them look effortless, and, even more, make it look like she belonged on the screen with a master like Fred Astaire (who, if you recall, was tagged at an early audition as "can dance a little"). That is one determined, hard-working woman. She was a good enough dramatic and comedic actress that she didn't *have* to pursue roles that involved dancing. She could have let Astaire dance around her and just stood there looking beautiful. That she didn't (and that she famously worked until her feet bled) is just an amazing testimony to her strength of will.

wg