Cindy Adams
Seeing into the new year
Celebrity seer John Cohan’s predictions for Year 2024:
Justin Timberlake. Marriage is so-so. Professionally things are better.
Taylor Swift not continuing so swift with Travis Kelce. His career’s on a high.
MeMeMeghan tries showbiz again. Bombs. Her best acting role was on Oprah’s show.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, destined for one another, renew one another?!?!
M. Jagger and P. McCartney mend years of feuding. New smash hit together again.
Trevor Noah. Starts acting. Gets lucky. Big-time offers.
Matthew Perry’s demise from an accident, forensic science claims was a homicide.
Lainie Kazan & Renée Taylor do female “Sunshine Boys,” play “Sunshine Gals.”
DiCaprio does Jack Cassidy life-story movie. Gets Oscar nom.
Marlo Thomas and mate Phil Donahue do TV special. Eye surgery gets him in shape.
Kevin Costner’s money setback back up with new love half his age.
Shirley Jones’ health issues stabilize with required assisted living.
TV loses ‘Family’ man Lear
Emerson College professor Tripp Whetsell’s worked on the book “Norman Lear: His Life and Times” five years. Applause Books publishes it this coming fall. Plus, he teaches the course, “Topics in Comedic Studies: Norman Lear.”
Before his 100th birthday, Norman did a Zoom with the professor’s class.
Lear called his battles with CBS a game of chicken. They wanted him to water down the debut episode. He refused. He won, and it aired as he wrote it.
At odds with some of his stars, it’s whispered Sally Struthers won’t discuss Lear in interviews.
In his 90s, with me at the Carnegie Deli, he said: “Learn to live in the moment. Not yearn for the future. Not live in the past. We’re one planet. A universe of billions. The message: ‘There’s something greater than ourselves.’ ”
The TV genius — who created groundbreaking situation comedies, “All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time,” having earned back-to-back Emmys in 2019 and 2020 — was a sponsor of the Global Peace Initiative. He had a Declaration of Independence 1776 copy which he bought for $8.1 million.
And at Ron Perelman’s party, the television genius, who just left us at age 101, told me: “A person has to BS the idea of senility.”
Xmas scenes
Christmas, but no Nativity scene in DC. They can’t find three Wise Men.
In Palm Beach where tinsel’s turned into prunes, Santa will squeeze down chimneys about 4:40 p.m. — during late dinner.
Kardashians may stage a complete Manger scene — in their cleavage.
Kamala? Forget her as a gift. Nobody wants her.
Woody Harrelson might smoke a Yule log.
Prince Harry? Even without a tree everyone wants to hang him.
And sparkle sparkle — up Meghan Markle.
Fauci? Please. Even reindeer run away from him.
Jersey’s Sen. Menendez will appear as all three Wise Guys.
And like a used-up tree, just throw out George Santos.
So: If were there three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men? They’d have arrived on time because they would have asked directions. They’d have helped deliver The Baby. They’d have tidied up the stable. They’d have made a tuna casserole. And every john seat in Bethlehem — and New York — would have been down.
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