The cast for the third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is coming together and it’s going to be so good! Josh O’Connor, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Glenn Close have reportedly been cast to star alongside Daniel Craig. [LaineyGossip]
M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana is so pretty. [Socialite Life]
Zac Efron & Nicole Kidman are love interests in a new movie?? [Hollywood Life]
I genuinely loved everything about the New York-Dublin portal. [Jezebel]
Molly Ringwald was taken advantage of in her early days. [Pajiba]
Kim Kardashian recorded a phone call with Kourtney Kardashian and Kourtney did not want it put on air, but Kim did it anyway. [Buzzfeed]
The ladies of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans reunited. [JustJared]
Matt Rife had a medical emergency. [Seriously OMG]
Daisy Ridley wore Atsuko Kudo. [RCFA]
The Honest Trailer for X-Men ‘97. [OMG Blog]
Something I keep coming back to is that in March, just days and hours before the Princess of Wales’s cancer-announcement video, royal insiders were insisting that Kate would absolutely be seen on Easter Sunday, and Kensington Palace courtiers were seemingly planning for Kate’s big “return to work” to happen in April. This was around the same time that The Sun and TMZ ran photos and a video of “Kate” speed-walking out of the Windsor Farm Store, amid palace-authorized reports that Kate had been out and about a lot that month. As I said this week, it feels like the palace has regressed back to that clownery. Suddenly, royal insiders are back to insisting (far and wide) that Kate has been running errands and she’s totally out with her family and absolutely no one got photos. As of yet, there hasn’t even been one independently confirmed sighting of Kate whatsoever.
Add to all of that, KP seems to be sending out trial balloons about “when” Kate might be seen in public. The Mail’s royal sources say that it could be autumn. The Daily Beast’s sources say Kate could be completely absent from public life all year. Vanity Fair said the “missing throughout 2024” isn’t true. What we all know is that Kate definitely won’t be seen at any June events. No D-Day in Normandy, no appearance at the Duke of Westminster’s wedding, no Royal Ascot. And no Trooping the Colour. That “royal expert” Kinsey Schofield claims that Kate is unlikely to attend Trooping and that William and Charles are not “pressuring” her to do so.
Kate Middleton isn’t in a hurry to return to public duties as she prioritizes her health. Kinsey Schofield, host of the “To Di For Daily” podcast, told Fox News Digital the Princess of Wales, who is being treated for cancer, has two important men in her corner backing her decision.
“King Charles and Prince William have repeatedly stressed to the Princess of Wales that she should feel no pressure to return to public duty until she is ready,” Schofield told Fox News Digital.
“She has been spotted around town, looking upbeat,” said Schofield. “Neighbors and her children’s schoolmates’ families have been protective of her and do what they can to ensure that she is protected from prying eyes. The palace won’t officially give us any indication of a potential Catherine return. It is up to their doctors and ultimately Catherine’s choice.”
This has been largely indicated for months, but it feels like a lot of royalists are only realizing it now: oh, right, Kate won’t be seen until autumn at the earliest. She won’t be seen at any events in June. No Trooping for Kate. Here’s the bigger question though: will the two younger Wales children be seen at Trooping? For the past several Troopings, all three kids have been on the balcony. I don’t think that’s going to happen this year, and I’m curious what the conversation will be.
Sometimes, I’ll come across an old photo of Gregory Peck, Robert Redford or Paul Newman and I’ll quietly lament the fact that men like that really don’t exist anymore. It’s not solely about their looks – although a big chunk of it is about their looks and talent – but the whole idea of what it is to be a “real man” has changed so drastically in the past fifty years or so. Masculinity, as a concept and reality, has become fraught and fragile in equal measure. When we feel nostalgia for the olden days of masculine men like Peck, Newman and Redford, are we actually nostalgic for the more oppressive eras in which those men worked and thrived? Do we also feel nostalgic for a time when we knew less about “iconic men,” and when they could mistreat people in their personal lives and it was never revealed? I don’t have the answers. Neither does Jerry Seinfeld, but he’s still openly nostalgic for what he sees as the golden age of masculinity or something.
Jerry Seinfeld discussed his nostalgia for the 1960s, the decade of his childhood, and the setting of his directorial debut Unfrosted, in a new interview with Bari Weiss on her show Honestly.
“There’s another element there that I think is the key element [of the ‘60s], and that is an agreed-upon hierarchy, which I think is absolutely vaporized in today’s moment,” Seinfeld said. “I think that is why people lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way that they drive — because we have no sense of hierarchy and as humans we don’t really feel comfortable like that.”
The comedian also lamented modern masculinity.
“The other thing is as a man, I’ve always wanted to be a real man,” he said. “I never made it, but I really thought when I was in that era — again, it was JFK, it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, you can go all the way down there — that’s a real man. I want to be like that someday.”
Seinfeld conceded that he never emulated those icons of manliness.
“I never really grew up,” he said. “You don’t want to, as a comedian, because it’s a childish pursuit. But I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah, I get the toxic, I get it, I get it. But still, I like a real man.”
I’ll be slightly generous to Seinfeld – growing up in the 1960s, he had a completely different set of male icons to look up to and try to emulate. The idea that as a kid, he was in awe of Muhammad Ali – arguably one of the most high profile anti-war activists of the era – is very cool. That being said, it’s clear that Seinfeld is nostalgic for more than just “iconic ‘60s men.” He’s actually nostalgic for a time when men ruled everything, when men were solely the “dominant” force in culture and society, and a time when “real men” could do whatever they wanted with few repercussions.
In 2022, the royal media made a big deal about how Queen Elizabeth extended invitations to the entire family, including the Sussex family, to visit her at Balmoral for what would be her final summer. At the time, the British media claimed that the Sussexes had rudely snubbed the invitation. We learned, more than a year later, that Harry actually wanted to bring Meghan and the kids to Balmoral but security could not be arranged. When QEII died, one of King Charles’s first acts was to ban the Duchess of Sussex from accompanying Harry to Balmoral. That was Harry’s last time at Balmoral. Last summer, Charles openly briefed the media that he had extended an invitation to the Sussexes to visit him at Balmoral, only I’m pretty sure that was another lie. Then Charles wanted Harry to come to Balmoral just before Harry traveled to Dusseldorf for the Invictus Games too, and that happened as Charles refused to let Harry stay at Windsor Castle for two nights. Well, the Balmoral games are still afoot.
King Charles is expected to invite Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Balmoral this summer but is certain they’ll decline, according to a royal expert. The monarch often spends the summer in Scotland and invites members of the Royal Family to join him. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made one trip to Balmoral before stepping down as senior working royals.
Royal author Tom Quinn has suggested Charles will extend an invitation to the couple, but said they’ll be unwilling to make the trip. He told The Mirror: “King Charles will issue the traditional invitation to Harry and Meghan to spend part of the summer at Balmoral, but safe in the knowledge that Harry and Meghan will make their excuses and decline.
“Relaxing at the 50,000-acre private estate might be just the place to let bygones be bygones, but Camilla will be dreading anything that threatens the calm her husband needs to continue his recovery from cancer.” Tom also suggested Harry’s feud with Prince William might prevent him from going. He explained: “Harry would love to see Kate and his expressions of concern for her are deeply felt but he knows that he can’t see Kate without seeing his brother so it’s not going to happen.”
Quinn previously suggested Meghan and Harry would decline an invitation to Balmoral after demanding an apology for the way they were treated during their time in the Royal Family. He told us: “Meghan and Harry feel that turning up at Balmoral will put them on the back foot as it’s very much Royal Home turf. And Meghan won’t want to go back on her public insistence that she will never return to the UK – she’ll only do it if she gets the apology she has always demanded, unless something really dreadful happens, either King Charles or Kate become gravely ill or even die. If that happens all bets are off.”
Harry spent a lot of his childhood in Balmoral and it’s believed Charles has “hinted” that Meghan and Harry should visit again this summer. Tom said: “According to people I’ve spoken to at Kensington Palace, King Charles has hinted to Harry and Meghan that they should come to Balmoral in the summer to see if something can be done about the ongoing feud in the family. Charles knows that Harry and Meghan are much more likely to respond positively to an invitation after the shock of Harry’s father’s cancer diagnosis and Kate’s cancer diagnosis. It’s one of those situations where good might just come out of bad.”
Considering that Charles once again refused to meet with Harry on Harry’s most recent visit earlier this month, I think it’s safe to say that Charles briefs one thing to the press and does something else entirely in private. There’s also this weird habit of royal communication – instead of Charles picking up a phone and actually extending invitations to his family, the palace briefs royal reporters and royal biographers about the invitations. Anyway, I hope the Sussexes have a pleasant summer in California!
You guys, the Telegraph is talking about Prince William’s “style.” You will not even believe the main thesis of this piece either. If I asked you “what is William known for sartorially?” I think most people would say “unflattering slim-cut trousers” or “moose knuckle” or “looking drab and unmoisturized.” William is not a style icon in any way – he does not wear clothes well, unlike his father and his brother. Don’t @ me, King Charles has had impeccable style for decades. One could argue that Charles’ style was too mature/old when he was a young man, but his double-breasted suits and crisp French-cuff shirts look timeless and sharp today. Prince Harry’s style has evolved so much over the past decade too, and he’s helped out by the fact that he wears clothes well and he has the confidence and charisma to pull off anything. William just looks constipated all the time. Anyway, the Telegraph’s story is about how William is trying to style himself in a more continental way. A FRENCH way.
Pretending not to care (while secretly being very attentive to appearance) is a national sport in France. But even the chicest Parisians have noted that Britain’s Prince William has recently added pieces by French designers to his wardrobe. As we mark the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, it’s a marriage of English and French style which feels entirely appropriate.
The Prince has been photographed wearing jackets by cult French brand Sézane and knitwear by Cyrillus; the latter is one of the traditional suppliers of elegant French clothes, and has previously featured in the wardrobe of Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The Prince’s Sézane jacket is particularly “French” because it’s a modern version of the classic worker jacket – the utilitarian item that rose to prominence in uniforms of the 1800s.
Prince William may have been taking pointers from his wife, the Princess of Wales, who has a long-held appreciation for Gallic design; see her Ballon Bleu watch by Cartier, for example. When the Princess came to Marseille to support the English rugby team last year, she could have passed for a well-dressed French woman in her white trouser suit and Chanel handbag. And it’s hard to get more French than the striped Breton top, symbolic of sailors from Brittany or Normandy, which she owns in numerous iterations.
Of course, Prince William certainly doesn’t have to take lessons in dressing well. While his taste might err on the casual side, the heir to the British throne comes from a long line of men in the Windsor family who are rightly regarded as models of elegance. They know how to promote the British style envied and copied throughout the world. It’s a form of sartorial excellence known to the best-dressed French men, who don’t hesitate to cross the Channel to have perfect suits made, whether in days gone by at Henry Poole – Emperor Napoleon III’s official tailor – or today with Jeremy Hackett at 14 Savile Row.
I’m sure these kinds of puff pieces are coming from Kensington Palace and William’s new dresser/valet. It’s like self-promotion for the valet, who is very bad at his job. The valet can’t even convince William to use a good moisturizer or night cream. The valet can’t even get William out of his slim-cut trousers or end Huevo’s love affair with those creepy knit ties. I realize that while Kate is out of view, it would probably look bad for William to show up in a brand new wardrobe and a whole new style, but “making the heir wear a French cardigan” is merely slapping a band-aid on this whole train wreck.
Last weekend, Jimmy Kimmel’s son Billy had what his family and doctors are hoping will be his third and final open heart surgery. Billy, who was born in April 2017, was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with VSD. It was discovered when he was just three days old and required four-day-old Billy to have open heart surgery to save his life. Billy had his second open heart surgery in December 2017. Jimmy and his wife, producer Molly McNearney, have been outspoken over the last seven years, advocating for universal healthcare and continuing to fund CHIP. After Billy’s first surgery, Jimmy raised $1 million for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Billy’s third surgery was to replace one of his heart valves. After the surgery was over, Jimmy posted about it on Instagram to share the family’s good news that the surgery went well. He also once again shouted out the “miracle workers” at CHLA, stressed the importance of the Affordable Care Act, and expressed his gratitude for Billy’s well-being.
Jimmy Kimmel is feeling grateful after his 7-year-old son William “Billy” John successfully underwent his third open-heart surgery.
On Monday, May 27, the late-night show host, 56, shared a photo of his son smiling in a hospital bed, revealing in his Instagram caption that Billy underwent another open-heart surgery over the weekend. Billy, whom Kimmel shares with wife Molly McNearney, was born with a congenital heart disease in 2017.
“This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery. We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid,” began Kimmel, who went on to thank all of Billy’s doctors, nurses and other “hard-working” staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“Walking around this hospital, meeting parents at their most vulnerable, children in pain and the miracle workers who do everything in their considerable power to save them is a humbling experience. We hope you never need CHLA, but if you do – know that they help families regardless of their ability to pay, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act (another salute to the late Senator John McCain), generous donations from companies like Disney, which I am proud to work for and especially from generous people like you,” he continued.
Kimmel also thanked the “strangers who took time to pray for and send positive energy to our baby” as well as their friends and family for “rallying around us to an almost ridiculous extent.”
The comedian then thanked his wife for “being stronger than is reasonable for any Mom to be,” and his son Billy, whom he called “the toughest (and funniest) 7 year-old we know.”
“There are so many parents and children who aren’t fortunate enough to go home after five days,” he continued. “Please share your love, hearts and prayers with them and if it moves you, support @ChildrensLA (link in bio) or a great children’s hospital near you (@CMNHospitals). Nothing matters more than taking care of each other. With love and gratitude, Jimmy.”
After the first surgery, Jimmy said that the plan was for Billy to have three surgeries. I really hope that this one is his final one! In addition to being such a brave boy, Billy seems like such a sweet, caring child, too. On his seventh birthday last month, Jimmy made another Instagram post with a special request from Billy:
Billy turns 7 today and is doing great thanks to the doctors, nurses, therapists and staff at @ChildrensLA & @CedarsSinai. Billy is asking friends “to give $7 because I’m seven to help kids in the hospital.” (he also wants a spy kit) His goal is “to raise $100 to help sick kids.”
That is such a wonderful thing to do. I’m sure Billy will follow in his father’s footsteps and continue to advocate for better healthcare in America. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but something really does have to give. It’s atrocious that healthcare is often tied to one’s employment, and that people are then subject to different levels and standards of healthcare based on their jobs, economic status, etc. The ACA did a lot of good, such as making it so that you couldn’t be refused a policy based on a pre-existing condition, removing the lifetime maximum, expanding Medicare, eliminating copays for yearly wellness visits, and making contraception free. But, there’s still so much more to be done, and as long as healthcare is for-profit, there always will be.
Here’s the link to for Billy’s CHLA fundraiser. We’re wishing him a smooth, quick recovery, a lifetime of good health, and that he got that spy kit he wanted for his birthday.
Photos via Instagram and credit: JPI Studios / Avalon
I’ll try to be as concise as possible with the Cyrus family’s hillbilly soap opera. Last year, Tish Cyrus married Dominic Purcell after a whirlwind courtship and engagement. Several Cyrus “kids” did not attend the wedding, including Noah Cyrus. Then this year, we learned why Noah has beef with her mother’s marriage to Dominic: Dominic and Noah were hooking up/dating for months before Tish “stole” her daughter’s man. Add Miley Cyrus into the mix – Miley apparently knew all about Dominic’s situationship with Noah AND Tish, and Miley took Tish’s side throughout. Noah is mad at Tish AND Miley. Tish is mad at Noah for going public with the hillbilly soap opera, and apparently Dominic hates that all of his sketchy business is out there. Meanwhile, the estrangement between mother and daughter is just… awful. Like, Tish is genuinely pissed at Noah for… hooking up with Dominic before Tish stole him? Well, here’s an update:
Despite recent efforts to mend fences, the relationship between Tish Cyrus and her daughter, Noah Cyrus, is still on the rocks following Tish’s marriage to actor Dominic Purcell.
A source tells ET, “Noah and Tish’a relationship is still very strained, but things are improving. Noah texted Tish for her birthday on May 15 and Tish was happy to hear from her. This whole drama has been upsetting for Tish and she has reached out to close friends for advice on how to fix things.”
Aside from the private text, Noah also publicly celebrated her mother earlier this month amid their ongoing rumored family rift.
The “All Falls Down” singer posted multiple throwback pics with Tish to her Instagram Story. The first, which features Tish in a sunhat holding presumably a baby Noah, was posted on Mother’s Day. The second image features Tish holding up a cake covered in candles and smiling next to a wide-eyed Noah.
“Happy birthday mom,” Noah wrote on the image.
Tish turned 57 and didn’t repost Noah’s messages, though she did opt to repost other birthday wishes on her account.
I find it sort of heartbreaking that Noah is the one publicly reaching out to Tish. If I was in Noah’s situation, I would need a nice, long break from my entire family, especially my mother. I would not want to be around any family members, lest I run into my former-lover-turned-stepfather. It says a lot about Tish as a mother too, that she’s this… unresponsive when it comes to Noah trying to make peace. Of course, this whole thing has really exposed Tish as being pretty f–king awful.
Photos courtesy of Tish’s Instagram, Avalon Red, Cover Images.
Embed from Getty Images
Darius Rucker’s memoir, titled Life’s Too Short, came out on Tuesday, May 28. In the book, Darius talks about his painful childhood, forming and leaving Hootie & the Blowfish, his country music career, years of heavy drug use, and more. There’s also stories of famous friends he met along the way. One of the stories Darius includes in the memoir involves Woody Harrelson saving his life. 25 years ago, Darius visited Woody in Hawaii and the two of them, along with a third friend named Kirk, decided to make a “treacherous descent” down a cliff to swim at a small beach. Unfortunately, Darius, Woody, and Kirk got more adventure than they’d bargained for when Darius got caught up in a rip current.
“At Woody’s, if you want to go swimming, you don’t simply slip on your trunks and dive into the pool. Way more complicated than that. We begin our swim by climbing down a jagged cliff — very slowly and carefully, inch by inch,” Rucker, 58, wrote in the first chapter of his Life’s Too Short memoir, released on Tuesday, May 28, recalling a two-week stretch where he stayed with Harrelson in Hawaii.
After a “treacherous 25-minute descent” they reached a small beach. Rucker, Harrelson and a third friend, Kirk, decided to go swimming.
“I’m better than a decent swimmer. I’m a strong, confident swimmer,” Rucker wrote, but the Hawaiian water made him think otherwise. After losing sight of Harrelson and Kirk — plus any land — Rucker remembered getting pulled under by a rip current.
“The current is ferocious. I feel as if some horrific giant squid has lashed itself around my body, circling and tightening its tentacles around my legs, dragging me under the water. I gulp and I gasp and I keep fighting,” Rucker writes. “I fight and flail for I have no idea how long — ten minutes, fifteen — and then I hear a voice. Woody. I can’t see him, but I hear him. He’s not far.”
Eventually, Harrelson caught up to Rucker in the water. Together, the two of them floated until Rucker felt himself “drifting away.” The singer told Harrelson to let him go after seeing “a blinding blast of white” and various visions of his late mother.
“The words leak out of my mouth, one at a time, each syllable a tiny jab of air, causing me to gasp. I blow out a final burst of words. ‘This is it,’” Rucker wrote. Harrelson, refusing to let his friend die, found Kirk in the water and they saved Rucker.
The moments between being saved and making their way back to the beach are “blank,” Rucker wrote. “All I know for sure is that somehow Woody pulls me out of the current and he and Kirk drag me back to the beach because here I am, twenty-five years later,” he shared.
Elsewhere in the chapter, Rucker said he doesn’t recall the origin of his friendship with Harrelson but after meeting, they “hit it off” immediately.
“Truth is, everybody wants to be friends with Woody,” Rucker wrote. “He’s kind, generous, fun, and mellow.”
That sounds so terrifying. Thank goodness Darius wasn’t swimming out there alone and that Woody and Kirk were able to save him. Rip currents are no joke. I love swimming in the ocean but I’ll freely admit that it scares the crap out of me on some level every time. PSA since it’s about to be beach season: If you’re ever caught up in a rip tide, don’t fight against it! That was Darius’ mistake. If you’re not a strong swimmer, float with it. If you are a good swimmer, swim parallel to the shore until you’re out of the current and then work your way back to the shore at an angle away from the current. I bet Woody was yelling at Darius to stop fighting it because it sounds like once he reached him, he knew to float until they were out of it. Again, thank goodness he was there and knew what to do to help Darius out.
photos credit: Judy Eddy/Cover Images and Getty
As I’ve noted a few times this week, we’re seeing a new strategy unfold in real time with the mysterious disappearance of the Princess of Wales. Kate has not been credibly seen in public in over five months, although palace sources seem especially keen to run around, claiming that Kate has been out and about and running errands in recent days. The Mail’s Richard Eden got that tip last week, then the Mail’s Becky English got the same information, then People Magazine and Us Weekly ran suspiciously similar stories about “Kate is out of the house, we can report exclusively!” Well, it looks like Katie Nicholl was also on the same email chain, because Nicholl has returned to Vanity Fair with this exclusive:
Following reports that Kate Middleton has been seen out and about with her family in recent days, speculation has turned to when the princess will return to official engagements.
Reports claiming that Princess Kate is unlikely to be back at work until next year are inaccurate, sources tell Vanity Fair, and while the Daily Mail has reported that Kate could be back as soon as this autumn, no official return date has been planned.
VF has been told that Kate is in no hurry to return to work, with her focus being entirely on her recovery. According to one well-placed source, “There is no timeline, and there is certainly no hurry. It will be when Catherine feels ready and when she gets the greenlight from her medical team. But she will 100% be coming back to work, of that there is no question.”
Princess Kate has not participated in an official public engagement since Christmas Day. Her long absence from the spotlight is understood to be one of the reasons that she was keen to deliver the news about her cancer via a video message. According to insiders, Kate wanted people to see that she was doing okay.
Sources close to the princess have told VF that the royal, who is going through a course of preventative chemotherapy, has “turned a corner” with her treatment in recent weeks and is feeling a lot better.
“It has been a great relief that she is tolerating the medication and is actually doing a lot better,” says a family friend. “It has, of course, been a very challenging and worrying time. Everyone has rallied around her—William, her parents, and her sister and brother.”
If you ask me, two concurrent events scared the palace: the five-month mark of Kate’s last public sighting and that very strange Daily Beast piece, where sources claimed that Kate probably wouldn’t be seen for all of 2024, and she was being looked after by her “birth family.” I also feel like we’re seeing a Buckingham Palace-versus-Kensington Palace issue. BP took over the messaging on Kate back in March, after KP kept getting caught in lie after lie. I haven’t worked out exactly what is happening, but I’ve seen enough this year to say with confidence that the KP team is not on the same page as the BP team. So… yeah, it’s interesting that “sources” are insisting that Kate won’t be gone all year and that she’s 100% coming back to work.
Here are some photos of Jennifer Lopez on Tuesday, May 28. She grabbed lunch at the Maybourne Hotel, then went to her Beverly Hills office. Ben was not with her. While Ben and Jen did a few things together last week for their kids/stepkids, Ben also went solo to his daughter Violet’s high school graduation party. I remember hearing, several years ago, that Violet isn’t crazy about J.Lo, but it might have just been a rumor. Backgrid, the photo agency, also claims that J.Lo’s lunch date yesterday was none other than Violet Affleck, so maybe Jennifer took her stepdaughter out to lunch for a graduation treat and an apology for missing Violet’s graduation. Anyway, the vibe around Bennifer is still “up in the air.” Whatever is happening between them, they’re still talking and spending time with each other, but Ben is maintaining a separate home in Brentwood.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s career these days is a mixed bag. She has yet another streaming hit with Atlas, her poorly-reviewed Netflix movie. The numbers are great though, and clearly, people love that J.Lo makes Prime and Netflix movies that they can watch from the comfort of home. Unfortunately, people do not want to leave the house to support her musical career though. Not only were her concert ticket sales severely underwhelming, but it looks like her reported $90 million Las Vegas residency is in jeopardy too:
Jennifer Lopez was recently in talks for a $90 million Las Vegas residency — but the blockbuster deal now looks shaky at best as her new album and upcoming concert tour are flopping badly, The Post has learned. The embattled pop diva — whose headline-grabbing marriage to Ben Affleck is reportedly crumbling — recently had been in talks with MGM Grand on a guaranteed $1 million a show for 90 dates starting next year, a source close to the situation told The Post.
But casino executives have lately grown skittish over abysmal ticket sales for her first tour in five years following the release of her “This is Me … Now” album in February — with poor demand having forced the cancellation of seven shows this summer, the source said. No Vegas deal has yet to be announced. That’s despite a report from The Mirror on Feb. 2 that MGM had teamed up with Live Nation to offer more than $800,000 a show. Rival casino Resorts World upped the bidding to $875,000 per show in partnership with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) soon after, sources said.
MGM and Live Nation then swooped in with the $1 million-a-show offer for the “Let’s Get Loud” singer — but buyer’s remorse has lately set in, the first source said.
“MGM is watching her not doing well on the road. They are very nervous,” the person said. “It’s pretty rare you have a poor tour and then go to Vegas.”
Now, the Bronx-born star could be looking at a significant haircut to the $90 million windfall. A Lopez residency should fetch just $600,000 to $650,000 and be for fewer shows, the source said. Another source with knowledge of the MGM talks said no deal was ever signed, but discussions have continued.
Here’s the thing – I don’t think it necessarily follows that “if you can’t sell out a tour for an unpopular album, then your Vegas residency will be unpopular too.” People will actually want to see J.Lo in Vegas, for the spectacle of it, for the dancing and for her greatest hits. Like, This Is Me… Now is not a good album and even hardcore J.Lo fans were not supporting that mess. But those fans will come back for a “greatest hits” residency. Waiting for Tonight! Jenny From the Block! I’m Real! Love Don’t Cost A Thing! Let’s Get Loud!