Acclaimed for her performance as faded film star Norma Desmond, former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger has, however, failed to help make any money for the producers of Sunset Blvd on Broadway.
A producer of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, which closed in July after a ten-month run, has made the staggering revelation that it lost $6million (£4.5million) despite playing to packed houses and closing weeks seeing box-office takings of $1.9million.
‘It was the hit show and winner of the season, but still lost around 40 per cent of its total investment, which was some $15million, including the director Jamie Lloyd’s stake of $4million,’ JJ Powell tells me.
‘The figures are astonishing and sadly seem to be a recurring theme for shows that transfer to Broadway from the West End.’
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, also on Powell’s production roster, which has been a roaring success in London, is scheduled to close in October on Broadway with a projected total write-off loss of $25million (£18.5million).
‘With operational costs through the roof, management difficulties, unions and the obsession to go for gold, as well as star-studded casts, ticket prices are soaring, leaving the average citizen unable to access entertainment which should be for the masses,’ Powell says.
‘The elite 1 per cent celebrity makes a great payday, while the rest of the actors are looking to new careers and the theatregoer is prohibitively pushed out the door. Sadly, also, if you are not in the top 1 per cent of the production ladder, there is little sway to be had.’
Powell’s Tony and Olivier-award winning company, Neptune Productions, staged hit shows including Merrily We Roll Along with Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe. He tells me profit cheques for the productions have also been slow. He says of Broadway: ‘The system is broken, and if we don’t fix it soon and take a positive stand, there will be no theatre left to produce – and certainly few artists willing to continue the struggle.’
Former pop singer Nicole Scherzinger has been acclaimed for her performance as faded film star Norma Desmond
My bad-boy rehab’s shut, says Moorish
Lisa Moorish, who has children with hard-living rock stars Liam Gallagher and Pete Doherty, declares of her personal life nowadays: ‘My rehab for broken boys is closed for good.’
The singer says: ‘One of my big problems is that I was a little Florence Nightingale.
‘When you have self-esteem issues, you don’t make the greatest choices in relationships.’
Lisa, 53, adds: ‘I had some promiscuous years in my 20s and I’m not ashamed of that.
‘Now, I’m just interested in meeting a man for coffee. I’m on one [dating] app but I get nervous about apps as, obviously, it can be used to sleep around. ‘But I’m not interested in that.’
We’re not here to judge, Bob!
Tipped to succeed John Torode as a judge on MasterChef, Robert Walton clearly has a thirst for success.
Known as the ‘godfather of hospitality’, restaurateur and hotelier Walton, 69, was served a glass of 2006 La Tache red wine from a bottle that cost £175,000.
It was poured by Prince Harry’s old friend Alex Rayner, who was a fellow judge at the Young Chef Waiter Mixologist England 2025 final at Alba restaurant in Knightsbridge.
‘I enjoy what I do,’ Walton tells me. ‘It’s about supporting tomorrow’s talent… we’ve upped the game this year.’
Restaurateur and hotelier Robert Walton is served a glass of 2006 La Tache red wine from a bottle costing £175,000
Heartbroken following her split from Bridgerton co-star Sam Phillips, Bessie Carter reveals she’s taking the healing process very seriously. The daughter of acting royalty Dame Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter has undergone somatic healing and embodiment – a spiritual form of therapy said to aid trauma healing – and is so impressed with the results, she’s planning to become a practitioner. Bessie, 31, explains. ‘I was in acute pain, having personal-life issues and not being in the right situations. My body really did hold the score.’
Yee-hol! Cowboy chic for Trinny and her mini on Colorado trip
Yeehaw! What Not To Wear presenter Trinny Woodall and her daughter showed how to dress like the locals while on holiday.
The pair are in Colorado so, naturally, they unleashed their inner cowgirls. The beauty entrepreneur, 61, and Lyla Elichaoff, 21, donned cowboy hats as they set off to explore Dunton Hot Springs, a 19th-century ghost town. ‘There’s nothing like a Western dress-up in the right surroundings and using what you’ve got,’ says Trinny, who used to deliver withering wardrobe verdicts on the hit BBC show.
Trinny and daughter Lyla in Western garb during their holiday in Colorado
School’s out for summer, as US rocker Alice Cooper bellowed in his 1972 classic.
But that doesn’t mean that all is silent at the John Madejski Academy – opened in 2008 after Sir John donated £3million to build it one of the poorest parts of Reading.
Last month, I revealed that a proposal to erase Madejski’s name from the school – now run by the Greenshaw Learning Trust – had aroused fury in the town.
Now I can disclose a complaint has been made to Ofsted alleging that the re-naming will squander £100,000 of public money. Greenshaw Learning Trust declines to comment.
Now giddily in love with American singer Billy Ray Cyrus, Elizabeth Hurley has spoken about her emotional reunion with the family of her late former fiance Shane Warne.
The actress and model, 60, travelled to Melbourne last year for the first time since the n cricket star’s sudden death in 2022.
‘We knew it was going to be a very traumatic trip, so we [made it] an opportunity to get some closure in other ways,’ Liz tells the Travel Secrets podcast. ‘Going back was bittersweet. I got very upset, but then I was glad that I went.’
Currently starring as a grandmother in Freakier Friday, the sequel to the 2003 film Freaky Friday, Jamie Lee Curtis recalls how she had to starve herself ‘to look cute in my underwear’ in Perfect, in which she played a gym instructor.
Asked what she most recalls about the 1985 film, in which she starred opposite John Travolta, she sighs: ‘Not eating. I was not free then.’
Jamie, 66, who is married to Lord Haden-Guest, adds: ‘It’s a movie about your body, not your mind. I looked great in the leotard, God bless her, but I’m not her.’