Maddow and Mary Trump make formidable TV combination

NEW YORK » Not only can President Donald Trump’s niece Mary sell books, she can draw a crowd on television.

Her one-hour interview with Rachel Maddow last Thursday reached 5.2 million people, the biggest audience ever for one of Maddow’s shows and largest ever for a regularly scheduled show on MSNBC, the Nielsen company said.

That’s not bad for July, when television audiences are generally the smallest of the year.

Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” approached 1 million units sold on pre-orders alone. First-week sales figures are due later this week.

Spike Lee doc of David Byrne’s Broadway show to open TIFF

NEW YORK » The 45th Toronto International Film Festival will be a much diminished event this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it has an opening-night film. Spike Lee’s filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway theatrical concert “American Utopia” will kick off the largely virtual fall festival.

Festival organizers said Tuesday that “American Utopia” will premiere on Sept. 10 in Toronto, even if it remains unclear if it will be a physical screening. That, the festival noted, will be contingent on the dictates of Ontario health officials. TIFF’s Toronto headquarters currently remain closed.

Much of the film industry won’t be able to attend, regardless. The festival said Monday that all screenings for press and industry members will be held on a digital platform. Nonessential travel between the U.S. and Canada is restricted through at least late August.

Maddow