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Mark interviews Roger Friedman from Showbiz 411. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's get back to the Mark Simone show on woor.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Roger Friedman is the great entertainment reporter. You should read
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: his website. There's excellent stories, good stuff. It's new stories
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: every day. Just go to showbiz for one one dot com.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Showbiz for one one dot com. Roger Friedman, how you doing?
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm looking at this New York Times list
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: of New York Times magazine list of the thirty greatest
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: living American songwriter.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. That is the dumbest list.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It is totally inaccurate. It's unbelievably stupid.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievably stupid. For one thing, believes All's not on it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: I guess they consider Joni Mitchell and Neil Young to
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: be Canadians and not Americans, even though.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: They are Americans. Neil Young, Neil Young is an actual American.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but he's got like two songs anybody likes.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Oh well, he's got plenty.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: But Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Billy Joel should be number
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: one on the list.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Okay, Instead, you've got Young Thug. You know, I'm sure
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: that people are humming Young Thug songs even as we're speaking.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Also Jimmy Webb, he lives in the Long Island and Bayville.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: He should be on that list.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Jimmy, is that where he lives.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Yes, well, Jimmy Webb, up, up and away, come on
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: MacArthur Parks.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Particularly by the time I get to Phoenix Galveston, which is.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yah. Yeah, it's crazy and bad.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Bunny is one of the top thirty outcast Romeo Santos.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Who are these people?
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: There's someone here, there's one name I never actually even oh,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Fiona Apple.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I don't get that at all.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: And there are so many people who are missing from
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: this list. There's no James Taylor, there's the Eagles aren't here.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: And also they say it's the best songwriters. What about Broadway?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: What about Lynton Manueld Miranda? I mean, there are so
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: many great people, but instead there's the dream. You know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the dream right yeah, you know having the dream right now.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Well, i'll tell you here's the problem. In the New York Times,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: it's become so bad. You know, they have this thing
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: called Wirecutter where they review products. Oh yeah, let's see,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: here's the best air conditioning. They're always wrong about everything
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: because in the old days of the New York Times.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: It was a guy that's been doing it for thirty years,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a high top.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Now it's like a bunch of twenty three year olds.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: To give them five hundred dollars a week. They don't
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: know what they're doing. It's the same thing with these songwriters.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: They hire these inexperienced kids to come up with these things.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Also, Mariah Carrey, listen, I know she has a great voice,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: but she is not a songwriter.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: She's on the list.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: But she's on the list, But you know the guy
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: who wrote the songs with her, Walter Alfanasiev. He could
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: actually be on the list, but he's not here. He
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: must be fuming he wrote all those songs. I don't
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: know who Stephan Merritt is at all. Outcast had one hit.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Hey you, Kendrick Lamar. You know, I know he's popular,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: but this is kind of ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Half the list should go, And if it's thirty, there
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: are fifteen people missing. But I see online people are
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: really angry and they're really going They're really really angry,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: and they should be. And I don't know who may
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know who makes these lists, and maybe they
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: make them just to be just to outrage everyone so
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: that we talk about it. There is one person on
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: the list I'm very happy about. I just want to say,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: is Valerie Simpson from Asher and Simpson, who's a New
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Yorker who we love and wrote so many motown hits.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I'm thrilled that she made the list, and Diane Warren
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: deserves it. But some of these other people, this is
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: just kind of ridiculous.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen, they have Smokey Robinson, so obviously it's not
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: a generational thing. They got the old people there.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: How could they not think they give you under I
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: don't know, Billy Joel, this is so crazy. It's so crazy,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: and so maybe the idea is just to annoy everybody
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: and get us talking about the New York Times magazine.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: But you know, on Sunday when this comes out, we
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: get our New York Times magazine delivered. I'm going to
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: use it to line some kind of cage, I don't know,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: third cage, a dog cage, something.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: It's just terrible. Hey, let me ask you. You're the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Michael Jackson expert. The Michael Jackson movie had an incredible
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: box office opening. Weekend and then what happened.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: It did well, so we'll see what happens in a
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: little while. We'll have the numbers from last night, but
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the two nights ago they had a big fall off,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: seventy percent falloff. And well, I think that the big
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: rush to see it was over the weekend. It actually started.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: You know, they had previews last Wednesday, so it was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: They made ninety seven million dollars in the United States
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: and another one hundred and twenty million around the world,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: which was amazing. So they made two hundred million dollars
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: and everybody was talking about what a surprise this was.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But I also think.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: That maybe the big rush of Michael Jackson fans saw it.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: They loved it, they had a good time, and now
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: you're going to see it kind of a falloff.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I think it's not a good movie.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: No, it's not a factually it's not a factually correct movie.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I don't care about what they don't it's and it's
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: not about leaving out the child molestation scandals and all
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: that stuff, because that would have come later.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: This movie ends in ninety eight.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: But just the stuff that they covered in the seventies
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: and eighties. They skipped through the seventies, so you sort
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: of have the.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Jackson five.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Being a success and then suddenly it's Michael having his
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: off the Wall album. But in between nothing happens, like
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Michael doesn't do the Whiz. There's all kinds of stuff missing.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: It's not a well made movie.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So you think word of mouth is slowing down the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: box office.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: It could be that word of mouth is slowing down
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: the box office. And also the reviews are terrible. You know,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: if you look on I mean, it doesn't seem to
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: have mattered at the beginning, but on Rotten Tomatoes, I
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: think they have like a thirty seven percent or something,
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: and that's the high. It was as low as twenty
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: seven percent. So critics reviews are terrible. So it could
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: be that the next level of people coming through are
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the people who would read the reviews and say, you
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: know what, I don't think it's worth twenty five dollars.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Hey the big By the way, speaking of twenty five dollars,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: I was I went to look at a ticket for
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: the Devilwaar's product for this weekend. The tickets are twenty five.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Dollars wait, hold the press. You were going to pay
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: for something?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Wait a minute, I was yeah, because well, Disney has
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Disney doesn't, the movie's not that great, and Disney does
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: not do not want me. I was not invited to
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: any screenings. I said, all right, I'll pay for it
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: to go to a preview. Yes, I got this, I said,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: I'll pay. I don't mind this twenty five dollars.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Hey, let me tell you that. You know that I
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: never saw The Devilwares Produest, so because of this, I
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: went back and watched it this week. I don't understand
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the movie at all, the way she behaves. You and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I in the media business, We've worked for hundreds of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: people like that. What's so unusual about it? I know
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: a million people.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I know rude, insulin obnoxious. Yes, that's the that's the norm.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I've worked for people in much worse than her. You
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: probably too, that's nothing.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, we can talk. You know.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: The second movie, apparently the new one has been really
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: watered down. The Meryl Streep character has become very friendly. Yes,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: because you know the first movie, the story.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: It was, the joke was about Vogue.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: But the second movie, Vogue is in on it they're
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: like a sponsor of it. And Anna Winter was filmed
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: scenes to be in it. I don't know if she
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: made them in Apparently she got cut. But Anna Winter
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: put Meryl Streep and herself on the cover of Vogue
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: this month because she's so into it. She's into it,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: so they've made the movie very Anna Wintour friendly. So
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: instead of having that obnoxious character, now suddenly she's like
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: a pussy cat. And I think that's going to ruin
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: the whole idea of the devil.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: There's no devil wearing Prada.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: You know, hey, Roger Fream, we only got about thirty
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: seconds left to the King Charles. You believe the mania
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: over the king a month ago was no kings. Now
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: everybody's fawning all over the King. What do you think
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of King Charles?
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: First of all, I call him Prince Charles. I can't
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: call him King Charles. We know him as Prince Charles.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: And I don't know. He made a good speech yesterday.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: He thought he was getting away with something. He you know,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: made a nice speech about checks and balances, and he was.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: You know, the king is promoted.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: The royal family promotes what the parliament want, what the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Prime Minister wants, so he's giving their agenda.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: He doesn't have his own agenda, so he's doing that.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: He's really here, you know, to see some shows and
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: go to some restaurants.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: So God bless him.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Right, Well, hopefully this is a sick man. He has cancer,
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: you know, let him go, Let him so do a
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: few things while he's here, you know.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well listen, they're very nice. They're not the most
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: exciting couple in the world.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, she's not. And they keep calling her queen.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: She's the Queen consort. Oh she's not the queen. Oh,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: okay's the second she's the second wife. You know, Diana
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: would have been the queen. This woman is just like
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: you know, Johnny Come Lately.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, she's like the Nancy Reagan of this deal.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Second wife.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: No, no, Nancy Reagan was fantastic. We loved her. She
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: was okay, all right, we everyone loved Nancy Reagan.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, great stuff. If you want more, go
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to Roger Freeman's website, showbiz for one one dot com.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Fact.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: There's all the other bunch of stories that we didn't
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: get to show Biz.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, there's so much going on. There's so
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: much going on, Mark, it's terrible. How about the Friars Club,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: We didn't even talk about that.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that next time. The building has been sold, okay,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: it could become another private Well, we'll get to that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: next time. But go to show Bizarre one one dot
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: com and read it showbiz for one one dot com.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Roger Friedman, thanks for being with us. Thank you, take care, Hey,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: don't forget Buck and Clay. Noon Today with an excellent show,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the most listened to radio show in America. Sean Hannity
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: three o'clock, Jesse Kelly at six, Jimmy Faylor. What a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: great show. It's so funny. It's every night here at
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: nine on seven to ten. Woof