Roger Friedman

Donald Trump has made up a new schoolyard name for his old friend Maggie Haberman. In a post this afternoon he referred to her as “Maggot” and attacked the police for having too much security around the courthouse at 100 Centre St in Lower Manhattan. Trump wants all the stanchions removed so his followers can […]

I’m sure you haven’t been to the National Enquirer website lately. But while owner and editor David Pecker testifies about his fealty to Donald Trump, the once vaunted tabloid is a shell of itself. Online, the Enquirer is a ghost town of a site. The main story right now is not about a movie star […]

Billie Eilish tells Rolling Stone a lot of scandalous stuff in her new interview.

Stunt casting works! Ratings deprived “American Idol” jumped by 1 million viewers in the Sunday night ratings. The reason was the appearance of KISS front man Gene Simmons as a mentor to the top 14 finalists. “Idol” has been anemic so far in numbers and needed a jolt. Simmons did the trick. “Idol” has already […]

The poets are not so tortured. Hitsdailydouble reports that Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” will finish its first week with record sales. “Poets” is on track for 1.8 million albums and downloads including CDs and LPs. Another 600,000 is coming from streaming. If you count “Poets” at 2.4 million, it will be third behind […]

Harvey Weinstein’s conviction has been overturned by a panel of appellate judges, mostly female. They’ve ruled the NY court made a mistake allowing women who were not part of the trial to testify against Weinstein. The news broke just after 9am. It’s unclear if Weinstein even knows yet. I’m told his attorney, Arthur Aidala, will […]

Barbra Streisand has dropped a new single today/ “Love Will Survive” was written and recorded to combat antisemitism, and is from a TV movie called “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” It’s co-written by Mariah Carey’s long time songwriter Walter Afanasieff. PS Streisand’s voice sounds like buttah!

NBC Universal is moving “Law & Order Organized Crime” from the network to streaming on Peacock. The ratings deprived crime show has never caught on at 10pm despite massive efforts to cross it over with “SVU.”

I don’t know what the surviving members of Fleetwood Mac have made of “Stereophonic.” The play about a mid 70s rock band taking three years to record their masterpiece has opened at the St. James Theater to raves. I saw it last night. This was the place to be: Hugh Jackman was sitting next to […]

Samantha Diaz is returning to “American Idol” this Sunday. Diaz, aka Just Sam, won the content four years ago, in 2020. She arrived there as New York subway performer, or busker. After she won, her career did not take off. Diaz returned to the subway platform, where she’s been ever since. Her 2020 win coincided […]