An all-but-forgotten Lenny Bruce skit. Recorded in ’58 or ’59. The interviewer (I think) is Ray Goulding, of Bob and Ray fame. Bruce authentically voices the sullen, soft-spoken musician, but doesn’t sound like himself at all. This is a truly hilarious bit if you listen to it ripped.

Portrait of Herman Eldridge Wells (1797-1871), painted by famed portraitist Thomas Sully sometime around 1835.

This is actually an AI creation by Surrealium…if I want to pay for a version that doesn’t have “surrealium” stamps across it, I can do that.

Honestly? Twice I’ve sat down and tried to watch Bernard Wicki‘s Morituri (alternately called Saboteur: Code Name Morituri), and both times I’ve lost interest and turned it off. Maybe I’ll give it another looksee.

The best thing that came out of this 1965 film was a short documentary about Marlon Brando giving interviews to junket whores during the Morituri junket, which happened at Manhattan’s Hampshire House (150 Central Park South), in the late summer of ’65.

Meet Marlon Brando was shot and edited by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin. It’s a great Brando personality piece, and a reminder that he was quite the flirt (he charmingly hits on a pair of young female journalists plus a pretty Puerto Rican female passerby with a young son), and that nothing ups your chances like being famous.

Boilerplate: “After having appeared in a series of box-office disappointments, Brando agreed to promote Morituri for 20th Century Fox by participating in a day-long press junket at the Hampshire House in New York City. Brando was praised for his performance in Meet Marlon Brando by critic Howard Thompson, to wit: “The actor was never more appealing than in this candid-camera cameo, his best performance.”

The documentary premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1966. Since then, it has aired on French television but was not shown in its entirety in the United States until Fandor made it available on 11.15.13.

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A week into the filming of The White Lotus‘s season #4, creator-director-writer Mike White decided that Helena Bonham Carter‘s character was “not aligning,” whatever the hell that means.

Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva: “As production started and Carter shot her first scenes, White, who writes and directs each episode, felt that her character as originally conceived was not what it should be, sources said. With the role believed to be central to the Season 4 story, a decision was made to rework it and recast it.”

If I was a major producer or showrunner on this show…if I had asked why HBC has suddenly left the shoot and was told that her character was “not aligning”, I would say “okay, yeah, sure…but what actually happened, withou the bullshit?”

White went to the trouble of landing Helena Bonham Carter for a central role in the latest series and then, after a week of shooting, went “uh-oh…not working”? Either White didn’t write HBC’s character as fully or exactingly as he should have, or HBC couldn’t get a handle on the character, or it was a combination of the two.

Boiled down, either White screwed things up or Carter couldn’t bring whatever he was looking for.

Please tell me of any theatrical film or major limited series that cut loose a major actor because things weren’t “aligning” or blah-dee-blah. I’m not saying this hasn’t happened before — I just can’t think of any particular instances.

If Lena Dunham rebooted Girls in 2026 pic.twitter.com/qqEKZLmHR2

— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) April 24, 2026

Given the Jackson estate’s refusal to acknowledge, much less dramatize, the late Michael Jackson’s penchant for pedophilia, which resulted in 16 years of investigations, prosecutions, lawsuits, payoffs and media reportings (1993 until his death in 2009), Michael 2, the screenplay for which reportedly hasn’t been written yet, will have no choice but to play the same bizarre denial game that the just-opened Michael does.

Solution: Ignore the last 16 years of MJ’s life and start with the Bad era (when Michael ends) and move onto the 1988 purchase and construction of Neverland ranch, cruise into 1991’s Dangerous, “Black or White” and “Remember The Time”, roll into MJ’s January ‘93 Super Bowl half-time performance and his February ‘93 Oprah interview, and then slam on the brakes and screech to a halt with the summer of ‘93 Jordan Chandler allegations.

That’s a five-year chapter in Jackson’s life, one that yields more than enough to fill a feature film.

Some actors bust into the big-time by playing amiable types or brawny heroes. After playing good guys in the teens (hated his Robin Hood flick) and early 20s, Taron Egerton, 37, is playing a bad guy in Apex (Netflix, 4.24) and this, I think, is his way forward.

Give Joe and Jane what they want to see, and they’ll come out for it. Lionsgate to Michael-bound moviegoers: Bring your friends and neighbors so we can top $90 million…c’mon, people!”

Filed by THR’s Pamela McClintock at 6 pm this evening (4.24.26):

Bill Maher last night (4.24): “New rule: If you complain about Columbus Day because it ignores the fact he killed Indians, and you complain about Presidents’ Day because it ignores the fact that Washington owned slaves, then you can’t happily go see a movie where Michael Jackson doesn’t sleep with kids. Which is the movie that’s out now, where we just hear about the fun things Michael did. It’s playing on a double bill with Jeffrey Epstein: Superhost Extraordinaire and John Wayne Gacy: Thanks for the Laughter.”

I just had an instant gut dislike for the show, sight unseen. But now, thanks to Maureen Callahan‘s rant, I want to…uh, wade into season 3. Just to see if it’s as appalling as she says.