Joe Ascalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street
from a Wiener Schnitzel that serves beer. This is two hours of the business
end of show business on this non NFL Sunday, in between the Championship game
and the Super Bowl next week. You might hear the same thing because it's
a super Bowl day. What am I gonna do? Anyway, You're gonna
love it. This is two hours of the business end of show business.
We do this every Sunday on that five pm, eleven to fifty on your
AM dial for two hours. Today there's a lot of Oscar stuff going on.
There's a lot of celebrities behaving badly. Let's start with Alec Baldwin.
Alec Baldwin. Let's well, first of all, let's start with me saying
last week that this was in Texas when it's a New Mexico. So I
apologize for being a coastal elite and thinking that Texas and New Mexico is the
same place. But it isn't. But what we were talking about last week
was that, you know, maybe Texas was going to haha. We have
Alec Baldwin. You don't like his politics, so we're gonna we're gonna indict
him on a manslaughter and when these charges were dropped before and they revived it
for it, But it's not Texas, it's New Mexico. So New Mexico's
got a lot of lefties that love Alec Baldwin. So I don't know,
maybe there's something to this. He's pleaded not guilty this week, and it
seems like he didn't have to go in and he just was able to do
it by some you know, entering papers in the court that say I'm not
guilty, he says. If you'll remember in this twenty twenty one interview he
did where he just said, hey, look there's not supposed to be live
ammunition on the set. Someone brought live and munition onto the set and that
person is responsible, not me. The armorer. What's her name, Hannah,
Hannah Gutierres, she's the person in charge of the guns on the set.
She has pleaded not guilty also, and she, I would say,
faces real jail time when Alec Baldwin, even if he's found guilty. I
think it's just like maybe eighteen months, but they'll never put him in jail.
I think They just want to punish him for his hubris in general.
Now, is that justice? Probably not. But Hanna Gutierres, what's her
name, she's she's Her excuse is I was pleading for more firearms training,
and that goes back to the producers, which is Alec Baldwin. I'm not
responsible for this because I wanted more gun training, and with more gun training,
live ammunition might not have ended up on the set, so it could
be mistakenly put into a gun that was given to Alec Baldwin that he aimed
and fired, killing the cinematographer. So that trial is going to be it's
Alec Baldwin's fault. Alec Baldwin's trial is it's Hana Gutierras's fault. So I
don't know, you know, you kind of want them both to go to
trial so we can get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, if they
all plead, then we never really know. Meanwhile, the movies I think
finished because it got put back into production and then the executive producer of the
deceased cinematographer was made an executive producer or the yeah, he was made They
just said, well, how about you be executive producer and don't sue us.
I think that's what's going on there and the movie normally this is a
movie. No it would just come and go and no one would would see
what it is, and Alec Baldwin to just take the money and pay his
taxes or whatever he goes. And I hope no one ever saw it be
on video and demand, And now I still don't think it'll be in theaters,
but it will be. It will get some kind of more serious distribution
and more eyeballs on it. I would imagine, I want to see it,
so we'll let you know when that happens. Of course, they if
either of these go to trial. Baldwin won't go to trial, but I
don't think. Oh maybe, I don't know. But the armorer she goes
to trial. That's going to be interesting because then we're going to find out
why was there live ammunition on the set? Was she part of those people?
People were doing target practice on that set? Some of the reports say
so they were, you know, have them find hey, do you want
to put bullets and these guns and go do target practice over there? And
the in the hills, you know, they're all in the desert and some
making some Western and things. People get bored and they start goofing around and
did that happen? Stupid? But I don't know what that has to do
with gun training. If you're the armorer, don't allow live ammunition on the
set. But we'll see. And as I've said, I've been the armorer
on a show and it's it's uh, it's really serious and and and you
don't goof around you just but some people goof around. I guess now in
the Gutierra's trial, there is actually some interesting stuff floating around. Uh.
The she was offered a plea deal, according to the prosecutor. Prosecutor's name
is Carrie Morrissey, by the way, So Morrissey offered Gutierras what she called
a favorable plea last September if she would accept responsibility for bringing in the live
rounds. I guess she doesn't want to do that because that's you know,
doesn't want to implicate herself that much, and she doesn't have to. But
that's a big sticking point. And then she she's supposed to testify against Alec
Baldwin and say that she brought the live rounds in, and she says that
she didn't and the prosecutor says there was training and they blew off the training.
And then there's some text messages floating around between A. Gutierras Reid is
her full name, and others that make apparent reference to the use of marijuana
and cocaine on the set. Not good. One of them said, do
you want me to get any of Do you want me to get us any
coke? One person asked Gutierras Read in September twenty twenty one, and Gutierras
Reid replies, already got some. She should have said diet coke. Another
exchange indicated Gutiras Read smoked marijuana the night before the shooting headed down to get
high out back. She wrote, So you don't want to an armorer that
smokes pot and does cocaine. And the propmaster has stated that I think she
was so drunk that she didn't know she brought live ammal onto the truck when
she went to get a gun from the safe. This is the prop master
who was given a mune unity for his testimony. So yeah, she's going
down. I mean she's she's taking if she's if she's handling guns and taking
drugs on a movie set. That's how you go to jail. So I
don't feel that bad for her, But Alec Baldwin I do feel bad for
because you know, he's just maybe there's some cutting corners here and he should
have been. If you want to be a producer, be a producer and
get into the weeds and see if these are who they're hiring, and what's
the experience, what's the resume of this armor. Let's let's not cut corners
on the armor. And I'll bet no one ever does in Hollywood after this.
So I just say he's been through enough. And I'm not really a
fan of the guy, but I just think he's been through enough, because
you don't want this to happen to you if you work in Hollywood. You
know, you don't want to be accused of this. You don't want to
be You don't want to have to have someone say, hey, why don't
you testify against Alec Baldwin in exchange for not going to jail? And then
you never work in Hollywood again anyway, because you're the person that did that.
You just have to choose another career. But a lot of people in
Hollywood have to choose another career all the time because it's a you know,
it's a weird up and down business. I'm going to take a break right
now and check the traffic. When we come back, we're going to talk
about the films, the Academy Award nominees, Poor Things, and Zone of
Interest Joe Sclante Live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burbank, and
we're talking about Academy Award movies this segment, let's start with Let's see any
meany miny mo. Let's start with Zone of Interest. Zone of Interest is
a British film, actually with German language in English subtitles or whatever subtitles you
want to get. And it's directed by a guy named Jonathan Glazer, loosely
based on a twenty fourteen novel by someone named Martin Amis, and it qualifies
as a foreign production. It's kind of a co production between the US,
the United Kingdom and Poland. And it stars a guy named Christian Fredell as
a I'll just describe it to you this way how I describe it to most
people. It's about this family. This family lives in a really nice house.
They love the house. It's like nineteen forty two Ish and they've been
living in the house for a few years. It's basically it's in Auschwitz,
so it's butted up against the concentration camp. They share a wall with the
concentration camp, and concentration camp is in full swing. The guy that Christian
Friedell plays is the commandant Rudolph Haas, and he's striving to build this dream
life with his wife Hedwig in this home. But it's in Auschwitz. So
it's about just you know, how the people. I mean, you don't
have to blame it on the Germans really, but it could be anywhere where
there's something going on and the government has created this, you know, just
horror and it needs people to carry out the horror. So how does it
get those people? Well, I think it's one of the way it gets
them is by promising them things. And of course in a war like in
Nazi Germany, they're like, okay, you, I promise not to put
you in jail if you go fight this war as a soldier. But then
more higher elevated people in the social strata they're like, I will give you,
I'll make your dreams come true that weren't going to come true if you
carry out this horror at the concentration camp, or turn a blind eye while
other people do. And so these people turned a blind eye to what was
going on, and it was very dark, but you can imagine that it
had to happen because someone had to run these concentration camps and where do they
live, and if they're efficient and qualified and desirable, you got to pay
them a lot, and you got to give them a good house. You
got to take care of their family. So that's what they did for this
guy. And then the wife is just trying to build a home with her
kids in a good yard, in her greenhouse and her bees and her pool
with a slide, and it's just so wonderful until you hear the screams outside
the wall. But they don't they don't listen. So the whole time you're
watching this movie, you're thinking, did that just happen? Then someone else
happens something else, did that just happen? You know? I'm watching it
with my wife. I saw it at the Bella Terra Theater in Huntington Beach,
and I'm just like what you're watching? Every scene You're like, Okay,
this looks like idyllic children, you know, playing, for example,
in the yard or in the pool. But what else is going on?
So you got to look at every inch of the screen and go, oh,
look at that over there. Oh, let's be on the wall.
Maybe there's a train smokestack can bare coming in. You know what that is?
There's a giant incinerator smokestack spewing ashes. What could that be? I
don't know. They don't care. I mean they know. It's like it's
I think they all know. Are these just innocent people that were just fell
for the spiel of don't worry what you know, We're we're carrying out some
complicated missions. And you gotta put these people in the uh in these camps,
and then this is how you treat them because they're less than human.
And then you get fed that for years and years, and you're you,
I guess you're after a while, you just believe it because the alternative is
to take your family out of this house. I don't know, but wow,
filmmaking it is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's just
they just did it perfectly. So as for some people might be a little
too dark, but it is. I mean, it's just something that happened
had to have happened, and someone wrote a book about how it happened,
and someone made a movie about how it happened. Is it true? I
think it's just based on things that probably happened, and box office not much.
It's like, you know, only made a million or so, so
like a maybe a three million, the three or four million total, what
is it? I don't know what the the budget was, but anyway,
you shouldn't see it. Let's see what else we got. Okay, so
now let's go to Poor Things. Poor Things is a film by Yurgos Lanthromos
I think is his name? Greek director? He made Oh wait, who
made Let's go back to the Zone of Interest? Who made Zone of Interest?
You ask, well, it's Jonathan Glazer. What did Jonathan Glazer make?
He made Sexy Beast? I mean, he made other films that I'm
not that familiar with, but Sexy Beast. And this is kind of the
life of a director. I've noticed a successful director he directs a film in
the year two thousand. He doesn't direct a film until the year two thousand
and four, so that's four years he's running around trying to get some film
made kind of life? Is that not fun? Sexy Beast was a hit.
So he makes a movie called Birth in two thousand and four, that
one he writes, and then he doesn't make another film until twenty thirteen.
Okay, so that's two thousand and four to twenty thirteen. And the movie
Birth, it's a it's a big movie. He's working with Lauren Butcall and
Nicole Kidman and Hash doesn't make another film for nine years. So that's the
life of a successful director. What kind of director are you going to be?
Then doesn't direct another film until The Zone of Interest in twenty twenty three.
That's ten years. What's he doing during that ten years besides driving his
wife nuts? So you want to be a film director. That's a successful
film director. So hats off to the film directors that stick it out and
stick it out, make movies like Sexy Beast, Hang in There, and
then twenty three years later, make a movie nominated for Best Picture called The
Zone of Interest, and congratulations on the rewards that he's getting. He's nominated
for Best Director and that's a big deal. I don't know how many times
he's been nominated. I'm gonna guess zero. Certainly not for Sexy Beast,
even though it's just a fantastic film if you haven't seen Sexy Beast. The
film is nominated for Best Picture, as I've said, Best Adapted Screenplay,
also by Jonathan Glazer, so he's got a writing Oscar nomination and a directing
nomination, and it's also nominated for Best Feature Film, International Feature Film.
It could do a you know, like a everywhere everything all at once or
parasite kind of thing. Best Sound. Also on the sound, oh man,
the sound is haunting. I would see it for the sound. Zone
of Interest. We'll get back, we'll talk about poor things. Joe's Galante
Live from Hollywood. Joe Ascalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean
Burbank, across the street from the Wonderstonize that serves beer. We are talking
to Oscar Movies right now, and we just talked about Zone of Interest.
Nominated for Best Picture, director by Jonathan Glazer, also nominated for Best Director.
Highly recommend seeing this film. I don't know. I hard to imagine
a better film, just in terms of how well it's made and the subject
matter fascinating. Just now I'm gonna turn to a very different film. It's
called Poor Things, Poor Things. They describe it as a science fantasy,
black comedy drama film. I would call it a morally offensive masterpiece directed by
yourgos Lanthromos. He directed the movie Lobster that we talked about a couple weeks
ago, maybe a month ago. He's a Greek, He's a Greek freak.
Really, when you see this movie, hey, I think it's safe
to say this man's a freak. Who else is a freak? Emma Stone
that acts in the movie, and she's also a producer, and I think
you wouldn't be able to get a star of her magnitude to do the weird
things that are happening in this movie. She wasn't also the producer, Like,
no one could tell her to do this. Okay, now you do
this, Now you do that. In this scene, Emma Stone, you're
going to have simulated sex again naked with a weird, ugly old man,
because the idea is you're a prostitute and you have sex with everybody, so
we got to really mix it up. Here's another troll. There's troll number
fifteen. Anyway, that's a little spoiler. Sorry, Because she does become
a prostitute at some point in the movie. I apologize for that, but
everybody loves this movie. I mean, it's, like I said, morally
offensive masterpiece. It is as if Tim Burton and Crispin Glover collaborated or maybe
got married and had a baby, and this movie was the baby the I
don't know if you've seen any Crispin Glover movies, but I mean I saw
one. I saw one when I was doing the morning radio on Indy one
three to one. I had them on my show all the time because I
had a lot of directors on the show, and he was my favorite,
or one of my favorites for sure. And he did this film that was
the cast was entirely actors with down syndrome, and he invited me to a
screening. The screening was in his bedroom. Yeah, in his Hollywood Hills
bedroom. I sat on a red velvet chase lounge in Crispin Glover's bedroom and
watched the movie. Now, before you get weird ideas, there was another
journalist there too. We were both invited. So there's some lady. She's
sitting on a chair, I'm on the chase lounge and we watched a movie
with him. And it was a good movie. But I mean, when
you watch Poor Things and think about Chrispin Glover in the kind of movies he's
made, and the dialogue in a Crispin Glover movie so like bizarre and direct,
and this movie is similar. But it has the budget of a Tim
Burton movie or beyond, and it is sweeping the awards. So it's nominated
for Best Picture in eleven categories. I mean everywhere, like you know,
makeup, production design, hair wardrobe, best Supporting Actor, Mark Ruffalo,
who's fantastic in it. Emma Stone, I mean, she's, you know,
always been one of my favorites. In this movie so disturbing to watch
her. I'm just kind of I'm done. Okay, you acted so well,
I can't look at you anymore. How's that Best Picture in the Golden
Globes for a Musical or Comedy? And yeah, she went Best Actress in
the Golden Globes, probably will win Best Actress in the Academy Awards. And
you're kind you're probably wondering, like, hey, Joe, why do you
talk about these movies? Earlier? You already did your top ten for the
year. I know, but then I forgot about the all these Academy Award
movies. So I used to live in LA and you just see them naturally,
you know, in the theaters around town, and they'd be playing.
Maybe you could walk to a theater that played these movies. But now that
I live in Seal Beach, I gotta work to go see these movies.
Although Poor Things was playing at the Beltara in Huntington Beach, but I didn't
see it, probably because I was waiting for my wife to be available,
and and she just looks so weird in the trailer. I wasn't sure I
wanted to see it. I was hoping it would just be terrible and I
wouldn't have to see it. And then I did finally get a screener from
the Screen Actress Guild, and I watched it that way, and Holy Moses,
you know, if you like set design and you like hair and makeup,
and I don't know, it's a fantastic movie. It's just morally very
offensive. Don't take your kids. Do some binding prayers after you see it,
so the devil doesn't get inside of you from the horrible things your witness
too. But then you know it doesn't. It's not heavy handed in its
message. I wouldn't say it's an eat your p's movie. It's in the
long line of movies where they say, you know what, this message I
have explains the whole world, and there I did it. Some movies like
that are just crap. I've seen many of them, or even books I've
read that say, oh, this is like movies or TV shows that say
like, oh, God is just an all knowing fatherly being that likes all
religions and and all we have to do is love each other yawn, not
brave, and this one is a little bit like that, but with utter
genius in the dialogue and the pacing and the delivery of the lines. It's
some people are just gonna hate it because the way that actors talk. It's
an affected dialogue, a lot like the movie Lobster that I watched a while
ago. And it turns out your ghost Lanthemos directed Lobster. So if you
like Lobster, this is like Lobster with a one hundred million dollars added to
the budget. Where can you see it? It's still playing in theaters,
so here I'm checking out. Okay, So what's next on my movie list?
Probably I've seen Barbie. These are the Best Picture nominees American Fiction,
Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon,
Maestro Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, Zone of Interest. A lot
of these movies are just so obscure. They haven't come my way. But
I do have a copy of American Fiction and the Holdovers, so I will
see those next, and then Poor Things, Past Lives, and Anatomy of
a Fall. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but that's uh,
it's coming up. Who's gonna win? So far? Who would I say
is gonna win? I'd say, uh, poor Things is gonna win.
I haven't seen Holdovers or American Fiction or Past Lives, but if I was
gonna put money on something, I'd put it on Poor Things. The Best
Director Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, and Best Actor I'm gonna go with I haven't
seen a lot of these movies, so I'm gonna maybe maybe Bradley Cooper.
The movie is like who cares about Leonard Bernstein? Like, you know,
ay, great music? Why are you making a movie about this guy?
Anyway, I'm rambling, so let's take a break and we'll come back after
this look at the traffic, et cetera. On eleven fifty A M K
E I B. Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood, Joe Askanti, here's my
lawyer. You don't Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood by Hollywood, you mean Burbank.
We're talking about the business end of show business as usual, like we
do every Sunday from five to seven on eight M eleven fifty K E I
B. It's kind of fun. I mean, I can't I you know,
I go see these movies. You're probably in the same game as me.
It's like you see these movies and you talk to everybody at a party
and nobody's seen anything. Used to be we would sit around and talk about
the movies we saw and the speakers we have. I don't really miss the
conversations about the speakers that all the dudes had in the seventies, but I
do miss the movie stuff, so we talk about it here. It's kind
of fun. I appreciate it. You indulging. If you want to give
your two cents, easiest way go to the Facebook page Joe Scalante Life from
Hollywood on Facebook. And I mean, we're not going to be pimpals.
But you know, you should talk about it. So there's other stuff going
on that we should probably get into a little bit, and a lot of
it is, Oh, here's some of it. I'll just kind of rattle
through it. We talked about Vince McMahon from WWE resigning and he's just he's
got an onslaught of lawsuits against him and now they're investigating him. The FBI
is actually investigating him, according to Reports four. That's Chewy, make a
noise back there, Chewy, calm down. The FBI is investigating him for
trafficking. Sex trafficking, by the way, that kind of trafficking. So
he's in a lot of trouble's he's kind of like the Harvey Weinstein of sports
right now. So I don't look, I don't envy him. And here's
another guy. Look how much money that guy had. Did you envy him
his women and his money and his material possessions. Well, if you did,
that was chewy. He did envy him. But look at him now.
I mean, I'm not wishing shaden freud on him, but I'm just
saying, let's appreciate our own lives and yeah, not worry about everything everyone
else has. Now look, I like to I'm just gonna take a little
side step here. I'm interested in things that have an ounce of humility,
and there's no humility in WWE wrestling. I think there is a fair amount
of humility in other professional sports. I mean, what do you mean by
humility. I don't know. I mean, you know, just a guy
who at the end of the game says, you know, it's not me,
it was God, you know. I like that. I want to
thank my mom. I like that this is a team effort. It's not
me, it's my team, it's my front line. I take my front
line out too. It's like the quarterbacks used to do, take the front
line out for a stake every week. That kind of stuff. It doesn't
happen in WWE. I don't care if it's fake or not. It just
doesn't happen. I don't like it. Rap music doesn't hip hop. I
mean I used to love like the old stuff back in the day, of
course, but then it's just like everything's about how much money they have and
how much power they have, and how they're better than you. Not interested.
So the same goes with wrestling to me. But this guy, he's
out here a lot of people like it. I did like The Iron Claw,
the movie about wrestling. That was human story and they could have used
a little humility, maybe the dad stuff like that. Another big story this
week, huge story of music. First of all, you have the Grammys
this week. I don't know if you're going to the Joe Scolante Live from
Hollywood Grammy party after the awards at the Wiener Schnitzel in Burbank, the one
that serves beer on olive. We'll be there. There's a red carpet,
there's a band, there's a buffet. Well, the buffet is just a
counter where you go. It's kind of self. It's a no host buffet
of hot dogs and hamburgers and tasty freeze items and three beers on tap.
So we'll see you there like we do every year. And other than that,
the Grammys. Wow, what a puke fest? Right? I mean
yet I can already tell you that, so who cares? But the big
news in music this week is Universal has pulled all their artists masters from TikTok.
So now, is that kind of like cost them a lot of money?
Nope, it's a little bit of money. But the TikTok is so
heavy in the you know, the promotion racket. I mean people using it
to promote stuff. So they're going to feel it all the artists. So
is this something the artist wanted? Why did they pull it? They pulled
it because they said, you're not paying enough. Your royalty rate is too
small. We analyze what you make TikTok, and you make so much money,
you could pay more for your content. And they phrase it as,
you know, you got to pay the artist. But by the time it
trickles down to the artist, it's even less so universal. I don't feel
sorry for them. You know, by the time they've taken their cut,
they could take less of a cut and give it to the artists if they
cared about the artist. But they have. They're the biggest game in town.
They're the biggest music distributor and content owner there is, and so they're
the big gorilla. And if they say, TikTok, we want you to
pay more, TikTok has to pay attention or they're gonna lose all the all
the all the music. And now there's no Taylor Swift music on TikTok,
just maybe silent dances. Without Taylor Swift on there so that's a problem.
I mean the football. You see how the football people do it. The
football people like while everyone else is struggling with advertising revenue. And you know,
even wokeness was a problem for all sports, football and I fill football
kind of cleaned up their act. I don't see any woke stuff on there
anymore, like the overt things they've you know, without totally angering the people
who have pressured them in the first place to be woke. Seems like they've
they're serving them and serving the fan. And the ratings are huge. Taylor
Swift comes to town. Ten million more people watch the Kansas City Chiefs games
than they did previously on TV, so you have ten million more eyeballs and
that's a lot of revenue. NFL is just just basking in that. And
somehow they made it. They didn't ruin it. You know, it's just
happening. They could have ruined it somehow. You know, they cut to
her and her friend, you know, high fiving each other after the good
big plays. But now the music business they lost. Taylor Swift live touring
benefits from Taylor Swift, NFL benefits from Taylor Swift. Somehow, TikTok has
blown it and Universal they're not getting that the all that Taylor Swift income they
were getting. So I hope they get their act together. And a lot
of people say that. The arguments go like this, Universal is always asking
for something outrageous because they have so much market share. And then the other
hand, people say, TikTok and these music services will bleed you dry and
leave you with nothing if you let them. They will build an entire empire
off of your work and not pay you a cent unless you fight them every
single day. So maybe we're happy for a Universal leading the way, but
if you're one of those artists, it's just like this is how you get
going and then Universal, I mean, your career is just kind of getting
going, and then Universal takes all your music off of TikTok. Some of
these people only have one shot, and that shot could have been already lost.
The other big news in music this week is talk Heads turning down eighty
million dollars to do a tour. So that shows you how badly they do
not want to do anything together. So does no one asked them to go
into a cage fight and beat the crap out of each other or build a
dig ditches. They said, would you like to go play music? You're
amazing, awesome music for eighty million dollars, saying Nope, don't want to
do that. So okay, loud and clear, I'm going to be at
the Punk Rock Museum on February seventeenth. People are always asking me, Hey,
Joe, when are you going to be at that museum again? I
want to see your tour. So February seventeenth, I will be doing two
tours at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas. I get tickets online punk
Rock Museum, and I will see you there. Now leave you with just
a taste of the greatest song ever written.