BOX OFFICE ANALYSIS

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1: $140M —  There might be vampires and werewolves, but the real appeal comes from those old-fashioned romantic notions Hollywood’s all but ignored for decades.

Happy Feet Two: $22M — Why would the first one be such a smash and this one flop? My guess is the political preaching in the first. Parents were either caught off guard or willing to go to that well once, but the thought of a second helping was off-putting. And judging by Kyle Smith’s review, they chose wisely. Hollywood attempting to wedge themselves between a parent’s influence on their child is unforgivable and the worst kind of sucker punch.

Immortals: $12.M – With a total take of just $53M and all the competition swinging into action this holiday weekend, things could look better.

Jack and Jill: $12M — This might be the first Sandler comedy not to reach $100M.

Puss In Boots: $10.7M — $122M gross after four weeks in release is probably not what DreamWorks had hoped for. The holiday weekend might give it a lift.

Tower Heist: $7M — Only $53M after three weeks with that cast is a disaster.  The trailer was awfully appealing to me, which is why I never predict these numbers in advance.

J. Edgar: $5.9M — Dead in the water.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas: $2.9M — One of those movies Hollywood makes for themselves that makes a little money but does the more important work of pushing their values out into the popular culture. An awful lot of effort to make a few million dollars.

50 REASONS WHY THE ‘GREEN LANTERN’ MOVIE SUCKED

Because I turned this abysmal piece of crap off after an hour or so, I can only say that numbers 1 through 24 are spot on.

Friday night I was in a Friday night kind of mood for something brainless. That’s my only excuse for picking this up from Redbox. Godawful doesn’t begin to describe it. Martin Campbell, an otherwise terrific action director, must have had the script shoved down his throat and about 200 producers giving him notes.

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The quickest way to become a jerk in this country is to defend someone in the entertainment business, which is exactly what I did when I defended the recent  interviews ‘Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno did with Rep. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain.

In both of those interviews, Leno made the central point of his conversation the perceived gaffes and weak points in the GOP candidates’ statements and policies. What I defended was that at the very least, as Leno grilled them, his guests were given the chance to respond. And, at the time, it made sense for Leno to drill down on those issues because they were the elephants in the room.

Well, when President FailureTeleprompter arrived on the ‘Tonight Show’ set, you would think the herd of elephants that follow Obama everywhere had never existed at all.

Here’s a rundown of Leno’s talking points questions:

How awesome is your foreign policy? How great is is that you and Hillary came together for America? How about your approval rating being three times higher than Congress?  Do you find Mitch McConnell’s desire to defeat you as unpatriotic as I do? Great job quitting smoking! How do you cope with the awesome responsibility of being President? How were those chicken and waffles? How’s the family? How about that heartbreaking NBA lockout?

Nothing about the failed stimulus. Nothing about Solyndra, Fast and Furious, unemployment or record deficits.

As a longtime defender of  Jay Leno, I think he’s done real damage to his non-partisan everyman image.

At least he has with me.

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Herman Cain is simply fabulous here as he and “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno cover topics ranging from Sarah Palin calling him “Herm” to his thoughts on the other GOP contenders to his initial misstep when it came to appointing Muslims.

Pay special attention when he discusses his 9-9-9 plan.

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Leno is a good interviewer. He asks all the questions on everyone’s mind but isn’t sitting back waiting to strike with a “gotcha.”

Cain, however, couldn’t be better. He’s confident, polite, brimming with charm, and is obviously prepared for any question that comes his way. As Cain himself said earlier this week, America is over the whole “black president” thing, but how about the “non-politician who actually wants to reform the immoral tax code and is obviously making that reform part of any mandate should he win” thing?

Bring it on.

We have the most vulnerable incumbent in office since Jimmy Carter and are we really going to allow a few to once again frighten us into nominating yet another ”electable” Big Government Republican who only pays lip service to reform? Are we really going to allow that to happen again?

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Leno crosses the line from “Tonight Show” host to something closer to a journalist, but at the very least he’s respectful, inquisitive, and lets Congresswoman Bachmann speak — which is how I wish more so-called journalists would behave.  Obviously this issue was going to be the elephant in the studio, so Leno probably felt it was necessary to discuss it, and I’d say he handled the elephant with some class.

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Don Rickles is hilarious in this clip being … Don Rickles. If you haven’t seen 2007’s “Mr. Warmth,” a terrific documentary directed by John Landis that looks at the last comedian still allowed to stick his finger directly in the eye of political correctness, it’s currently streaming on Netflix. May the 85 year-old live to be a 110.

Something I noticed during her interview with Sean Hannity a few weeks back is that even though she’s only been on the national scene for a few years, we’ve really had the opportunity to watch Bristol Palin grow into a lovely and poised young woman. The wicked Left personally targeting her with their wicked Alinsky tactics (and domestic terrorism) during her season on “Dancing With the Stars” has obviously backfired in a major way. Like her mother, Bristol has only come out stronger — with a new book and a reality show that will focus on her work at a small charity.

While the desperate Left tries to label as hypocrisy”  the act of learning from your mistakes, Bristol just keep on keeping on. And that she’s chosen to bring her values into a venue where it is most needed — the world of pop culture — is especially gratifying. 

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In the post just  below this one you’ll see Bill Maher on the “Tonight Show” last night wringing his hands over the age old practice of using combat metaphors in the arena of politics. And yet, this comes from a man who just three years ago was not using a metaphor while discussing the benefits of a sitting Vice President’s death.

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The overall context is even worse.  The conversation surrounds an assassination attempt on Cheney.

I’m just saying if [Cheney] did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact. [full transcript below the fold]

This is the mistake guys like Maher make when they start complaining about the speech of others, especially when you’ve personally said something on national television about how much better the world would be if the Vice President were dead. The bipartisan use of crosshairs on a map doesn’t even begin to compare to that, nor do jokes about your opponent being afraid to leave the house. Maher isn’t using a metaphor here. In front of millions of rabid partisans, he’s painting a picture of how much better the world be if that Cheney guy was dead.

I personally don’t remember Maher saying this and it’s obviously a classless thing to say but if someone had made an attempt on Cheney’s life with a VHS tape of this quote between their teeth, it wouldn’t be Maher’s fault. Though according to his own reasoning, just the opposite is true.

Furthermore, this is the man who probably didn’t have his “Politically Incorrect” contract renewed at ABC for making a controversial statement about the “bravery” of the 9/11 attackers just days after the attack. Many on the right, including Rush Limbaugh, stood up for him and yet here he is on the “Tonight Show” justifying ABC’s decision to fire him because he has just devolved into a being who now sounds like Ari Fleisher reminding us to ”watch what we say” — something Fleischer said when asked about Maher’s 9/11 comments.

Are these this week’s New Rules, Bill?

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Maher complains about right-wing rhetoric and then says:

No, because that’s the rhetoric they love. The Right-wing loves… the go-to rhetoric for them is ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?’

Then some in the audience start to argue with him, an audience that surely isn’t 100% Republican. No one comes to his defense.

Leno, hilariously, just sits there like he’s watching a crazy uncle poop his pants at Thanksgiving dinner and Maher’s closing rally about the Democrats reclaiming patriotism is wet with flop sweat. But at least he admits the Democrats come up short in the department of patriotism.  

More painful awkwardness below the fold.

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In front of an all-military audience, Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” saluted America’s fighting men and women for Veterans Day. Part of the show included comedian Dennis Miller who did a few minutes of stand up that ended with a heartfelt thank you to the men and women who make everything good possible.

Afterwards, the popular radio talk show host sat down with Jay for a few minutes of not mincing words about Nancy Pelosi, the terrorists, Newsweek, and more  — all to an appreciative military audience who obviously aren’t used to hearing Miller’s uniquely clear-eyed and always hilarious pro-American truth-telling from our current class of entertainers.

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UPDATE: Gawker also wonders if Jay Leno was in on the “joke”:

After Louis C.K.’s drunken ‘twitter rampage’ in which he called Sarah Palin a “C*nt-Face Jazzy Wonder Girl”, we were surprised at the little amount of fanfare that erupted when Louis and Bristol Palin appeared together on the Tonight Show Friday.

Personally I like to imagine Leno was in the know and he’s just far more of a sociopath than anyone expected—making then perform together for his own sadistic pleasures[.]

It’s no secret in show business comedy circles or to anyone with access to Twitter that comedian and television star Louis C.K. is crudely and sexually obsessed with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin — so much so that he sends her direct tweets calling her the vilest of names [NSFW screen shot below]. The star of the FX series “Louie” not only savages the former Governor in such a way that I’m forced to publish the evidence below the fold with a strong warning, but his breathtakingly vicious attack on Trig Palin is quite popular on YouTube.

Louis C.K.

So infamous is Louis C.K. for this cruel and misogynistic (a word I don’t use lightly) behavior towards all things Palin, that a good number of his fans didn’t miss the “joke” when he appeared with Bristol Palin on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” last week. Gawker sure enjoyed it. Therefore, there’s little doubt in my mind that the decision to book Louis C.K. and Bristol Palin — to have them sit next to each other on  the “Tonight Show,” was an intentionally smug inside joke in order to allow a bunch of elitist show-biz and journo types to chuckle behind Bristol’s back as she was unknowingly humiliated on national television in front of all of Hollywood.

If we’ve learned anything about some show-bizzers since Governor Palin stepped into the national spotlight, it’s that they are a bottomless pit of dark-hearted hate and cruelty. To intentionally humiliate a politician’s family, especially her children, is so far beyond the pale… But to go after a child with Down Syndrome. I’m simply speechless.

And never did I think I’d see the day — but here we have Johnny Carson’s storied “Tonight Show” brought to an all-time low where, apparently, it’s in on the joke:

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WARNING: What you’re about to read and watch below would win the Gold Medal at the Degenerate Olympics. Also, although Twitter hasn’t verified Louis C.K.’s account, we have done so through two separate sources — both of whom love his Palin-hate.

Poor Andrew Dice Clay. He might still be a superstar had Sarah Palin been around in his day to turn what he said into a Hollywood Resume’ Enhancer.

Without further comment: (more…)

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Wow. This audience loves her and only grows to love her more as the interview rolls on. About ten minutes in she shows more guts than any politician maybe ever by agreeing to make her stand up debut … on The Tonight Show … in front of a Los Angeles audience. What poise.

If Sarah Palin can win over this audience in this way in one of the bluest regions of the country, if I were Barbara Boxer I’d be pretty worried right now.

Something’s in the air. (more…)

If you want to identify the most controversial person in television, forget about Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman. The answer is obvious: Jay Leno. 

The once and now returning host of NBC’s Tonight Show has incited hostility and outright hatred for many years, simply by virtue of being more commercially successful than rivals David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. In particular, fans of his competitors have derided Leno for being overly conventional and failing to challenge late-night viewers by pushing the boundaries of taste. 

That, however, has almost certainly been a primary reason for Leno’s success: he amuses viewers without overwhelming them with sensational material such as O’Brien’s masturbating bears and potty-mouthed dog and Letterman’s aggressive non sequiturs. Leno is clearly out to amuse, not to change the world, and that is exactly the sort of programming most people seem to want in that 11:35 time slot. 

As a result, Leno returned to his Tonight Show helm last night after a hiatus of several months in which NBC tried moving him to primetime and shifting O’Brien from The Late Show at 12:35 a.m. to the Tonight Show at 11:35. As has been well-documented, the change was a predictable disaster both for NBC’s primetime ratings and for the Tonight Show. O’Brien toned down his comedy for the earlier audience, which didn’t work, and Leno could not make a nightly show consistently special enough to draw viewers at 10 p.m.  (more…)

Conan supporters gathered outside NBC stations across the country to protest the move of the Tonight Show from 11:35 to 12:05.

If there is any real blame it should go to Conan’s attorneys who didn’t think of writing a specific time slot for the show into his contract. Yet Conan’s supporters insist that Jay Leno is at fault.

Jay is being caricatured as a cry-baby by Conan supporters. In my opinion, Conan is the one being immature, acting like a sixteen year old, who can’t believe his parents are taking the car away … after he wrecked it.

Few remember that Conan isn’t a pacifist. When his contract was up for re-negotiation back in 2003, he told NBC that he wouldn’t sign the contract until the Tonight Show seat was added to the contract. Jay never really raised a stink about being forced out, because he remembered how he got the Tonight Show in the first place. (more…)

NBC CEO Jeff Zucker

In a move that bodes well to strengthen TV programming overall in both primetime and late night, NBC has confirmed that Jay Leno will be moved back to his original 11:30 slot and his 10 p.m. show canceled on February 11, as rumored over the past week. USA Today reports:

Under the new plan, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon would move from 12:35 a.m. to 1:05. (Carson Daly’s talk show, which now follows Fallon, would be canceled, though Daly would remain under contract at the network.).

O’Brien, however, decided not to agree to the changes, in a public statement:

I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.

Thus Leno will return to the Tonight Show in its usual time slot, and O’Brien will move on to presumably greener pastures. (more…)

Just released statement from Conan O’Brien:

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35.  For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news.  I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.  The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.  Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot.  That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it.  My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.  Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter.  But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more. (more…)

Sarah’s terrific, but Shatner’s reactions to her readings are beyond priceless…

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The death of television personality Ed McMahon at the age of 86 marks the passing of a true original. McMahon was one of the very first Americans to enjoy the postmodern status of being a celebrity solely by virtue of being famous.

As announcer and second banana to host Johnny Carson during the NBC Tonight Show’s years of greatest prominence and cultural influence, McMahon exemplified what was then a relatively new phenomenon: the ability to become famous, wealthy, and admired without having any particular talent.

That’s not to say there was anything dishonorable about his career or something wrong with McMahon’s public persona. Quite the contrary. He was quite likable, pleasant, well-mannered (an underrated virtue these days), and overall a boon companion both for Carson and the audiences in the studio and at home.

However, he was liked for what he was, not what he could do. He couldn’t sing, dance, tell a joke, or even read the news. His turns as straight man to Carson’s various comical characters were most notable for their, well, charming ineptitude. (more…)

Although I rarely find any interest in the entertainment industry, I am very glad to see Conan O’Brien become the head of the “Tonight Show.” His ascension to the throne continues a tradition that Johnny Carson brought forth and Jay Leno continued. The new host of the “Tonight Show” is a nice guy. (Steve Allen was as well, but many would consider he and Jack Paar to be less relevant since they came before Carson. I avoid this debate since, again, I am not in the industry.)

Yes, Johnny Carson preferred that David Letterman get his job (I watch Letterman, although less so lately), but the network saw Leno as the logical heir. Letterman is just too acid-tongued. It makes for some fun comedy, but the “Tonight Show” is about harmless and lighthearted fun. It made sense that Craig Kilborn, who was harder-edged than Conan, followed Letterman. Craig Ferguson, like Letterman, let’s his liberal political ideology affect his monologues. (more…)

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To be amazed at how low David Letterman will stoop in order to humiliate Sarah Palin means we still think of him as an entertainer, instead of what he is: a leftist ideologue willing to do whatever it takes to destroy a perceived threat to the Democrat majority. Letterman’s nothing special or unique. He’s merely joined the whole of the entertainment industry in sacrificing his place as an entertainer and legacy as an artist to wage ideological war.

Maybe our first step in fighting back is to wake up to this fact and stop being amazed. (more…)

Conan O’Brien played it safe in his debut as host of NBC’s Tonight Show last night. That’s a good choice, actually. The big question is: Will it last?

As I noted in an article reporting on NBC’s choice of personable Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon to host its Late Show as O’Brien moved to the Tonight Show, Fallon was closer to the style that had worked so well for the latter program in the past: intelligent, likable, and not too challenging or edgy.

O’Brien, I noted, was much less winsome and much more ambitious in his comedy, and for the Tonight Show to have success, either he or the audience would have to change, with the latter being highly unlikely except through serious shrinkage. And of course that would be a disaster for the Peacock Network.

Fallon has done well at Late Night since taking the reins on March 3, in both entertainment value and audience ratings. Late Night appears to be in very capable hands, and although it’s simply a timewaster, that’s all it is intended to be, while delivering consistent audience numbers for NBC’s advertisers. (more…)

The Great Buck Howard is a funny, knowing gift for anyone who loves old-fashioned show business: It celebrates the entertainer who is in it for the fun of putting on a good show, and for bringing a little pleasure to anyone who cares enough to come out and watch. 

Buck Howard the man is an old-fashioned show-business type: He is a mentalist—a magician who does mind-reading tricks. But he is preternaturally good at what he does (in contrast to his complete lack of self-awareness), and he was once a pop-culture fixture, a regular on The Tonight Show. (“The real one—with Johnny Carson,” he constantly reminds—this will have its intended melancholy effect only on those over 40 or so.) Now he plays half-empty halls in third-tier markets. Not that this tempers his enthusiasm, or that of his fans. Which is exactly the point. (more…)