Showbiz Sandbox 10: The Death Of Pop, Pinup Girls and (Possibly) 2D Movies
June 29, 2009
Roger Friedman, senior columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, and Showbiz411.com joins us along with writer Michael Giltz to discuss the death of Michael Jackson. Friedman has been covering Jackson since his first child molestation trial and is one of the trusted reporters covering the pop star’s life and death.
The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences announced this week that the Academy Awards would now nominate ten films in the Best Picture instead of the usual five. Will this allow more deserving movies a shot at the big prize, or is this blatant pandering for higher Nielsen ratings?
“Transformers 2″ stormed the world-wide box office over the weekend, but that still doesn’t make it a good movie. Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 5: A Travesty Of American Idol Justice
May 25, 2009
The week leading up to Memorial Day was chock full of juicy entertainment news.
The Cannes Film Festival wrapped up in France awarding Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke it’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. Karen Woodward and J. Sperling Reich recap all the festival winners. In North America the Ben Stiller starrer “Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” opened with $70 million against “Terminator: Salvation”. McG’s attempt to reboot the “Terminator” franchise came in second at the box office with $53.8 million. “Star Trek” continued to rake in the dough with an additional $29.4 million and a cumulative $191 million in North America.
Television ratings were also bolstered by the star studded finale of the Fox network’s musical reality show “American Idol”. Kris Allen beat out Adam Lambert during a telecast that an estimated 28.84 million Americans tuned into. That ties the record for least-watched finale in recent “American Idol” memory, though nmore than 100 million votes were cast, a new record for the show. While Karen believes the results were a travesty of justice, Lambert may not be walking away empty handed after all; Billboard reports the rock group Queen may be interested in the young singer to front the band. Musical pop star Pink wasn’t happy with “American Idol” either, though more because she says they butchered one of her songs.
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