Day: January 12, 2023

Bolt from the blue, shocked to the core — Lisa Marie Presley, the singer-songwriter and daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley who attended the Golden Globes two nights ago, is gone. She was 54.

It all happened over the last few hours. Priscilla Presley to People: “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”

“I know that my father would…be proud.” — #LisaMariePresley on “Elvis” at the @ElvisMovie party last night pic.twitter.com/6IaJtOtAUi

— Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) January 9, 2023

LMP was hospitalized earlier today (1.12.23) following a reported episode of cardiac arrest. EMTs responded to Lisa Marie’s home in Calabasas, California.

What the hell happened? She was relatively young. LMP’s grandmother (Gladys) and father (Elvis) died in their early 40s. Her son Benjamin Keough died by his own hand in 2020. This is so sudden, so bizarre.

Lisa was born in Memphis in 2.1.68, nine months to the day after Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding.

Elvis died in August 1977, making 9-year-old Lisa Marie the joint heir to his estate alongside grandfather Vernon Presley and great-grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley. Following their respective deaths in 1979 and 1980, she became the sole heir and also inherited her father’s Graceland residence.

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It’s certainly not the big gorilla of the Best Picture race. At best it’s a competitive also-ran. Fabelmans vs. Banshees at the end of the day, which means the half-decent Fabelmans will win because of the bloody stumps. The only EEAAO slamdunk is for Best Supporting Actor.

My favorite Beck-Ola track is “The Girl From Mill Valley. No Jeff Beck guitar but he obviously approved of the track, which features only Nicky Hopkins on piano.

The album’s London recording took place over seven days in April 1969 — 4.3, 4.6, 4.8, 4.10, 4.11, 4.14 and 4.19. This shitty-looking black-and-white video was shot on 4.14.69 — obviously the recording of “Plynth (Water Down The Drain).” Before today I’d never seen this footage.

If you insist on believing in some kind of sentient, all-seeing, all-knowing entity called “God” then I don’t know what to tell you. Have you ever considered becoming addicted to heroin? It’ll make you feel like Jesus’s son. Kidding.

Okay, let’s hypothesize that “God” is there and, heh-heh, “watching”. On second thought let’s not. Because as Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen said time and again, God doesn’t give a shit about you or your fate or the well-being of your family. Really. It’s not that he’s hostile to you and yours, but that he’s indifferent as to whether you end up rich or struggling or pregnant or dead from Russian shrapnel or whatever. He’s not in this.

Okay, yes — I’ve occasionally thanked God for good fortune or prayed for a fair shake, but it’s not meant with any sincerity. It’s a figure of speech.

I hated, hated, HATED Kelly Fremon Craig‘s The Edge of Seventeen. I’m not saying I’m already planning to get my hate-on for Craig’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Lionsgate, 4.28), which is based on Judy Blume’s 1970 novel. I haven’t seen it and will naturally wait for a screening, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not feeing the negativity from afar. Because I can.

HE nemesis Benny Safdie plays the father of the lead protagonist, Abby Ryder Fortson‘s “Margaret Simon”. This whets my appetite, of course.

And they threw poor George Harrison into this?

“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it’s indifferent.” — Stanley Kubrick, sometime in the mid ’60s.

From HE’s The Edge of Seventeen review, filed on 9.17.16: “In the words of John F. Kennedy, I do not shrink from the occasional responsibility of shitting on a teen-angst dramedy — I welcome it. I was frowning and throwing my hands in the air and exhaling and checking my watch less than five minutes in. Okay, The Edge of Seventeen became somewhat more tolerable during the last third, which is when neurotic characters in movies of this sort begin to fold and weep as they lay their emotional cards on the table. But God, that first hour! And the cliches! It poked and prodded and put me through long stretches of hell.”

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Ten nominees for the Producers Guild of America’s Daryl F. Zanuck award have been announced, and Sarah Polley‘s Women Talking — a dialogue-driven film that wokester critics have been touting as a Best Picture contender since it premiered in Telluride — didn’t make the cut.

I’ve been saying all along that Women Talking is a non-starter, and THR‘s Scott Feinberg tweeted during Telluride that he’d be surprised if it catches on among male industry veterans.

And yet Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whale, a film that more than a few gentle souls are terrified of even watching, is among the ten…go figure.

The ten PGA nominees: Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios); The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures); Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios); Elvis (Warner Bros.); Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24…no!); The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures); Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix); Tár (Focus Features); Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures); and The Whale (A24).

HE to Friendo #1: “Are these Next Best Picture guys crazy? Women Talking is in third place among Best Picture contenders? On what planet?”

HE to Ruimy: “The truth is that almost every pundit has Women Talking in their predictions, but don’t be surprised if it misses out on a nomination. I’d say right now 60/40 it gets nominated.”

Friendo #2 to HE: “When it comes to Women Talking, the fix is in. A Best Picture nomination is going to happen whether people want it to or not. You could see that in Telluride.”:

HE to Ruimy: “Because of #MeToo tokenism and the fact that the one male character (Ben Whishaw‘s “August Epp”) is passive and tearful?”

Friendo #1 to HE: “The critics will have to drive this movie to Oscar nominations, and I don’t think they’re all on board.”

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This is a six-day-old story so feel free to ignore, but on 1.6.23 an avaricious pair of Daily Beast reporters — Diana Falzone and Justin Baragona — tried to get Billy Bush re-cancelled for making a hot-mike “woody” crack about Kendall Jenner‘s “Jessie the Cowgirl” costume on 10.31.22.

Yes, over two months ago. Some vigilant observer who works (or worked) for Extra provided the Beast-ies with a video clip of Bush’s “objectifying” comment when the subject of Jenner’s Halloween costume came up.

Bush said the following: “Kendall goes as Jessie and, believe me, there were a lot of woodies.”

This was basically a so-whatter — a no-big-deal allusion to Tom Hanks‘ Woody character in Toy Story 2, the 1999 film in which the Jessie character (voiced by Joan Cusack) made her debut.

As far as Kendall Jenner is concerned, her brand is precisely and entirely about being objectified. That’s what she does in order to make money — guys get woodies and younger women are made to feel envious (and sometimes try to imitate her).

Bush, who got into trouble six years ago for giggling at Donald Trump‘s hot-miked “grab women by the pussy” remark, shared a mild crack about Jenner being an object of common sexual attraction…big deal. And a couple of months later a staffer or stringer on the Extra set tried to add to Bush’s angst by feeding the video to the fanatics at the Daily Beast.

In some media sectors the woke climate is nothing less than psychotic. This is but one example.