Jan. 1, 2025
We want to extend a special “Thank you” to Bob Marich who throughout this and previous years has alerted us and helped coordinate items and news that have been included in Simesite.
Alas, this year the number of replies from muggs decreased by five, totalling 16 from the previous 20. We can only hope that the drop was occasioned by sloth and forgetfulness rather than any ailments or “tsuris”. Although one or two latecomers may still come dribbling in, among the absentees were the Silverman twins, Bruce Brosnan, Harlan Jacobson and Fred Lombardi.
Here, then, in the order in which they were received, are the contributions of:
MARIE AND BOB SILVERMAN/MARICH
Los Angeles, Dec.9
2024 was a most interesting year in which I made a first run for judicial office as a Superior Court Judge of Ventura, County. Couple of things interfered, but got good reviews, promise of future endorsements, and enough votes to be credible. Was the only non-present or former District Attorney running. Unfortunately, got seriously infected when a twig on a fallen tree that’d been inundated with the poisonous water that drenched it.
Many legal cases this year, most involving the underprivileged. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t remuneration in the congregations of abandoned souls and made a difference in the status and outlook for some who lived with havoc and possibility of random death created by fentanyl. In the process, battled at least one investment house and bank lawyers to a happy conclusion. Was astounded to learn how many homeless were intelligent and some had enviable prior lives before a downturn. One man had won 14 Emmys, a cautionary tale to be grateful for what we have.
Continued raising my six-year-old daughter, Marilyn, a funny, charming, and empathetic small person, Have three sons in their forties but never a girl before now. Totally different experience. Don’t recall being as important to the boys as I am to her.
Have filed papers to be on the 2026 Primary Ballot. If unsuccessful there, will pick a municipal office, maybe treasurer of a city, to compete for in the general election. There you have it. Will have a campaign website sometime in the 1st quarter to coincide with fund raising kick-off.
A blessed holiday season to all with wishes for a prosperous and interesting New Year.
New York, Dec.15
How lovely to get this missive, Peter, and again my thanks so much for doing this. I’m settled back into life in Gotham. Semi-retirement means part-time postgraduate university teaching (digital marketing). I recently dusted off my very old art history degree and have been working as a docent at Neue Galerie in Manhattan. Additionally, I recently joined MoMA as a German-language tour guide, so time to brush up on those Berlin-bureau language skills. Earlier this week, I attended an event at Sardi’s, which made me recall the last time I was there: Variety’s 100th anniversary party in September, 2005. I still have the commemorative mug embossed with my name. Season’s greeting to all!
Tinahely, Ireland. Dec. 16
I left Variety more than 37 years ago, but still have an umbilical connection to many of my fellow muggs. I’m in touch with Bruce Alderman, Elizabeth Guider and Janet Stilson, among others, and very struck by the varied and interesting lives they’ve had since those days. I still tell stories about the newspaper and the many unlikely types who made up its sometimes improbable crew – Larry Gross writing a scholarly appraisal of the oeuvre of Long Dong Silver during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, Dick Hummler continuing the great tradition of wild headlines – does anyone else remember FIM’S GOT MOXIE BUT CBS GOT PROXY? – having lunch, improbably, with Jo Lustig and Al Goldstein, being with David Frost when he delivered a perfect version of Variety-speak (something very few non-muggs could do), having Deborah Kerr genuflect ironically to me when I was introduced as from Variety, and above, all, the extraordinary group effort that went in to producing a sometimes huge weekly newspaper read by everybody who was anybody … I was once in the London office at lunchtime on a Thursday when a reader came in to buy a paper, just airspeeded from New York. It was the legendary Broadway producer and theatre operator Jimmy Nederlander, staying around the corner at the Atheneum – in those pre-Internet days, he had to have his physical paper as soon as he could lay his hands on it. (On the other hand, I was once in the office of a big French film producer and noticed a day-old copy of Variety sticking out of his bin (wastepaper basket? PB) – even then, I wondered if this was staged for my benefit and strangely another mark of the power of the paper.)
For myself, as some of you know, I continued journalism for a while, worked for Midem, went to law school in the USA at the age of 36 and practiced entertainment law, mainly in Los Angeles, until I retired. I moved back home to Ireland in 2014 to care for my ailing father and am still here in a country village. I write quite a lot – you can find me on Substack – and if you’re ever passing through Tinahely, Co Wicklow, please get in touch!
Rant
Dec. 16
Peter – thank you for your newsletter — I love receiving it! As Norma’s assistant in the 70s, I still utilize the editing skills I honed at Variety! I edit for freelance writers — particularly for the US Virgin Islands Source — and have for years contributed my editing skills to law firms where I have worked. I treasure my years at Variety and actually have a good friend who studied at the School for Performing Arts that was next door and subsequently starred in the TV series Fame! My best to you and all the muggs!!!
Sydney, Dec. 17
Season’s greetings to the muggs and thanks, as ever, to Besa and Ian for keeping alive the Simesite spirit. Hard to believe it’s been 37 years since Syd’s fateful decision to sell Variety to Cahners.
Great to see, after many management missteps (anyone remember the disastrous recruiting of two clueless execs from one of Cahners’ competitors, Nation’s Restaurant News?), the flying V still adorns the present issues, online and in trade shows.
My wife Jenny retired in July just before we embarked on a Silversea cruise to New England and Eastern Canada, starting in Gotham and finishing in Quebec City, followed by a couple of days in Montreal. The immersive light experience AURA in Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica was a highlight.
In NYC we experienced the very moving 9/11 Ground Zero Tour and Memorial, did the Circle Line and saw the highly entertaining WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.
Much of our time is spent with our adorable grandkids, Banjo, who turns three in April (pictured here with his ‘Poppy’) and Stevie Hazel, who was born in June. Their parents are both paramedics so we are often enlisted as babysitters/minders.
Sadly, I rarely go to the cinema, due to a combination of an aversion to superhero/SFX-dominated fare and Event Cinemas’ ridiculously restrictive No Free Tickets policy, which bars members of Cinema Pioneers. Still, I find plenty to watch on Netflix, Foxtel and Oz streamer Stan.
All the best to the muggs.
Dogo
New York, Dec. 21
I’m pleased to connect with all of you! So much “life” has come and gone since I was an assistant editor, working directly for Jack Loftus. And yet the world of Variety still comes back to me so vividly—my desk sandwiched between Jack and Bill Knight—and Tom Gilbert, John Dempsey, and Kevin Goldman just across the way.
Over the last year, I’ve failed at full retirement. Instead, I’ve kept my hand in journalism with occasional stories for TVNewsCheck.com, which focuses on the business of television. In May my second novel, Universe of Lost Messages, was published by Dragon Moon Press. It’s the second part of a three-book series. I’m now diving into the third. The series falls into the sci-fi suspense category and imagines what it will be like to walk the halls of large media companies—and what media execs will be like—further out in time. (Now where did I get that idea!) When not writing, I’m usually wandering the many parks around my neighborhood, Riverdale, just North of Manhattan. And as someone with a serious case of wanderlust, I am always planning or enjoying trips around the world.
White Plains, NY Dec. 26
Hello from the ‘burbs of New York! Marie was honored as Auxilian Extraordinaire at St. Vincent’s Hospital Westchester for her 25 years of volunteer leadership. Her late mother Jan was honored in 1988! In November, she marked her tenth year as host of This Blooming City for White Plains Beautification Foundation on White Plains Community Media, our cable access tv network.
Son Nick is very happy at his job in corporate branding and is living across town from us. He is New York State-Certified screen printer, which means he is taking after his grandfather Syd Silverman, who knew every nook and cranny of the printing process.
Bob has been taking road trips for a change of scenery. Recent destinations included Myrtle Beach, Tennessee, and Chicago to visit friends. He still does occasional freelance journalism work.
Many thanks to Peter and Ian for keeping Simesite going. We wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Blessed New Year!
New York, Dec. 26
Sorry I’ve been remiss the last few seasons in responding to your query. End of year is unfortunately a busy time at my job, where clients are finally scheduling all the compliance work they neglected earlier in the year. Sorry to hear about Jay. Frank Meyer and I worked with him for a while at a monthly magazine we’d rather forget.
These days I’m still at 4A Security & Compliance/Cyrisk (two sister companies), providing security services and a platform for evaluating cyber security risk, mostly used by insurance companies. Pretty boring but it pays the bills.
The good news is that Pooya makes her Broadway debut next month in “English,” a play about students in Iran preparing for their ESL tests. She’s been with it since the first readings, to off-Broadway (the whole cast won an Obie) and several road companies. (The play also won the Pulitzer in 2023). Hopefully she gets a glowing review in a certain trade paper.
Hope everybody has (or had) a good holiday.
Roso.
Malibou Lake, CA; Applegate Valley, OR. Dec. 26
Difficult, at times, to realize that yet another year has gone by.
Still find it disheartening to see what has become of the one-time Bible of Showbusiness.
More importantly, grateful that things continue to go well for me, Barbara, the sons and their families. Grandchildren are a true joy.
Best wishes to all muggs and their loved ones for a Happy, Healthy, Fulfilling and Prosperous 2025!
Suffern, NY Dec. 26
Greetings Variety Muggs,
As always, many thanks to Peter and Ian for keeping Simesite afloat.
Was saddened to hear of the passing of Jay Blickstein, Frank Segers and Lenny Borger.
I visited the Brooklyn Museum where Paul McCartney exhibited his personal unseen photographs from 1963 – 1964 entitled “Eyes of the Storm “. Lots of Beatle fans in attendance, many with their own fond memories of their arrival in the U.S. at that time. Also, had a great lunch at Junior’s Restaurant, capped off by a large slice of their most fabulous Cheesecake!
On the subject of music, I recently heard a concert band perform Sailing with Whales by Rossano Galante. I loved it at first listen. Galante is a film and TV composer of whom I was unfamiliar. I recommend a listen.
Went to the Green Mountain state this summer for a short visit. Rode to Stowe and drove up Mt. Mansfield (Vermont’s tallest mountain) and hiked the ridge. Magnificent views of Lake Champlain and Adirondack Mountains. Also in Stowe stopped in at the Von Trapp Family Lodge (The Sound of Music folks). Very Austrian.
Viewed a silent film starring Buster Keaton, with live piano accompaniment from 1924. Had never seen a silent film, but found it was really funny.
I joined the local Senior Citizens Club and to my surprise the 50 or so members are an active and friendly lot. The oldest member is 102 years old, a WWII Army veteran. He comes regularly and is a real inspiration. The club goes on day trips to nice restaurants and musical outings.
I regret having been unable to see Don and Jenny Groves while they were in NYC this summer. I have an older brother who is in need of a lot of assistance. My sister and I rotate helping him maintain his apartment.
How about that Dick Van Dyke! He just turned 99 years of age and is still dancing. Then he does a duet with Coldplay. Next Dick is in the midst of the Malibu wild fires and is rescued and his home and pets are also saved. He expressed such genuine gratitude to all the first responders who saved the day!
And as for the non-show business part of the world …well…
“It Shivers Me Timbers.” There’s just so much going on!
Very best wishes to all for a good New Year 2025!
That’s All Folks!
Traverse City, MI Dec. 28
Greetings all,
I’m still in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan. When we aren’t out birding I’m working on ways to support the struggling local news ecosystem, through Press Forward Northern Michigan, where I am co-chair of the board. I’m still doing a bit of journalism ethics consulting, as well.
Thanks to Ian and Peter for keeping us up to date!
Bet
Thanks to Don Groves, Simesite has received the following update regarding David Stratton, from whom we have not received any direct communication but who was in touch with Don several weeks ago.
At the end of October David published his latest book, Australia at the Movies, a 560-page guide to modern Aussie cinema from 1990 -2020.
Strat received the National Cinema Pioneer of the Year Award from the Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers at a dinner in Sydney on November 29. Former News Corp, Foxtel and Fox Studios Australia CEO Kim Williams received the Humanitarian Award. The Society reps screen industry practitioners of all stripes who spent at least 20 years in the industry.
Society President Lori Flekser said: “Both made clear their incredible and lifelong passion for Australian cinema in their touching speeches. There was a warmth in the room one seldom experiences and I saw a lot of hugging. It was an evening of nothing but joy and delight.”
West Wittering, England Dec. 30
Greetings all. I’m still tinkering around the edges of the film business. After having worked the trades (originally with Variety and then – mostly as a reviewer – with The Hollywood Reporter and Screen International) and then running film venues (the National Film Theatre and then the film department of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, both in London) I ended up running the Edinburgh Film Festival, up to just before Covid. Stupid Covid….
Since then have been freelancing as a film festival consultant; film reviewer; distribution consultant and also ended up co-producing a documentary about the Cannes film festival, titled – imaginatively – Cannes Uncut, which played at a bunch of festivals. Well worth a watch for those of us who spent far too many years at Cannes.
I rarely chase work these days, having moved to the south of the UK near the sea, and spending too much time working on my tennis. But still review a little and work with a handful of film festivals…
Keep up with the likes of Liz Guider and Bill Grantham (fellow London Variety scribes) through the miracle of Facebook…and this site of course…
Sparta , NJ, Dec. 31
Another fun year in Sparta NJ, house empty with kids grown up, been selling everything on eBay, street fairs and Englishtown. So many possessions not needed anymore. Streaming mentality has shaken out the collectors market for mass media. Old media widgets are so easy to part with these days.
I have three clients I’ve been selling their handbills, music and comics for a while, which helped me pay off my Hilton timeshare but the added income got me kicked off free health care. Hard not to work, I’m a guy who refuses to relax. Did take a three week trip with my love Sharon (14 years strong) to Rotterdam, Milan, Sorrento, Sicily and Amsterdam, and heading to Dublin this summer.
Started my 7th year of Caretoking (smoking pot with old people who are mostly in facilities). I take them off premises, stone them and sneak them back to their rooms.
It’s my 10th year doing NYC street fairs next year, hoping to sell the rest of my Hawaiian shirts, scarves, kimonos, picture books, scented soaps and other leftovers.
Stand-up comedy coming next, just waiting for last few caretoking clients to die. Trying to kill ’em with bad jokes. With Trump coming, it will be a new frontier for comedians. Trying to determine the red line to jump across.
I knew Donny from the Studio 54 days, different Donny back then. I was living/house sitting on 45th and 8th Street at Vita Licata’s folk singers friends Sig and Gary, ten blocks away from Studio 54. Because I was the closest employee to Variety I met the cops and firemen at the office at night if the alarm went off.
I had a police press pass with my picture on it that got me into every club in NYC. Studio 54 was a cinch on most nights, and Ian and Steve let me smoke pot everywhere.
I met Donny who was always dogging the models. Most of them loved coke and speed to stay thin, but some of them were big junkies. I never did heroin but smoked a lot of pot with cute model junkies. So one day Donny and I left Studio 54 after midnight and took the girls to the lower East Side so they could score junk. Ave C and D were full of burnt-out buildings with different heroin stores. You had to know the lay of the landscape and get around the street guys, checking that you had tracks on your body to enter the zone.
There were dozens of heroin locations all over the East Village, mostly between C and D. Their different names were often rubber- stamped on the bindles. Stables, Skag Palace, Spot, Sniffles, The White House, Fix Flat, Needles and The Library.
Once you got past Ave. B, most of the streets were full of limos and fancy cars everywhere, mostly with Connecticut plates. This was the heart of NYC redlining, where the rich get to score from the chaos driving the NYC real estate market.
The Library was one location that one of the models frequented. She said it was the classiest. She liked it cause unlike all the others you could shoot up in the place. It also featured a salad bar and a library that had a great magazine rack (no Variety’s).
All of a sudden a celebrity entered the heroin store that made us all gasp. It was Say Uncle Panda, a mostly unknown NJ comic who had a very short-lived TV show on the same NJ channel as Uncle Floyd. Everyone gasped not because he was that famous, not because he was dressed in his Panda costume, but because he dived head first into the salad bar. He was shoving all this food thru his mouth opening, drinking the dressings and thrashing his paws over the sides of the wooden bar.
Say Uncle then whipped out a $100 bill, scored heroin and started shooting up thru his costume. The dealer realized that the $100 bill was counterfeit and started to give Say Uncle a hard time. The Panda guy ran towards the door to leave, but was stopped by a security guard. He shouted I’m a Panda, I’m a Panda, please understand. The owner came out and grabbed the Panda by his neck and said everybody pays. You ate, and you partied, and then you try to leave? OK now explain.
Say Uncle said I’m a Panda, look it up. So the owner took him into the Library and opened up a dictionary to Panda, which said Pandas Eat Shoots and Leaves.
Happy New Year, Muggs
Madrid, Dec. 31
My travelling days are now over, and in the course of the last year I was content to mostly stay in my comfortable Madrid “Ivory Tower”, surrounded by my books, classical music, good food, late sleeping and occasional family visits. Occasionally I indulged in a satisfying meal with friends in one of the old-fashioned restaurants or tavern in town, tried to take my daily “constitutional” in my neighborhood or in the main city park, stopping outdoors for a coffee or lemonade, and content not to have to join the crush of tourists and back-packers that have transformed travel around the world into an ordeal. Especially now that Madrid has become such a fashionable “in” city, with hosts of new hotels, restaurants and attractions opening each month.
However, partly to while away the hours, I spent part of each day writing a new book called “Translator, Traitor”, all about the pitfalls and curiosities of translating one language into another, from the times of Cicero to the present, which I expect to be published in Madrid early this year.
Los Angeles, Jan. 1
My year 2024 was largely taken up with the final tweaks and the publication of my sixth novel, This Nearly Was Ours. It centers on two young women on the home front in New Orleans during World War II and includes several historical incidents, including the havoc wreaked by German subs in the Gulf of Mexico and a race riot at the largest US Army camp, smack dab in the middle of Louisiana. Just a few cinematic references, including a key moment when the major characters, all of whom are involved in the war effort, take out time to see Casablanca down on Canal Street. (You’ll all know it came out in the winter of 1942 and became an almost immediate hit.)
As for the current biz, the box office eventually picked up Stateside this fall. There’s considerable buzz about a plethora of interesting movies, ranging from Emilia Perez to Wicked. Much to admire in both those, and both likely Oscar-bound.
On the TV series front, the sheen is off, streamers having slashed budgets and the Hollywood strikes having taken a still notable toll. I did, however, love how the Netflix-originated Ripley managed to re-imagine Patricia Highsmith’s oft filmed tale, and I confess being diverted by The Diplomat, Keri Russell being an actress who rarely disappoints yet somehow never manages to win an Emmy or even a Globe.
As for things to come, I suspect merger mania may take hold in Tinseltown, given Trump’s—and sidekick Musk’s—calls for de-regulation. Some eyebrow-raising bedfellows may be ahead.
As for the photo, it’s moi at my outdoor writing table in the back yard in Los Angeles.
END