Why do we always remember the arguments? If there’s a family spat at the Thanksgiving table, it’ll be remembered long after grandma’s gravy recipe is lost to the ages.
Sharr White’s new play Pictures From Home drives that simple truth all the way home, and then makes so many return trips you imagine the ride could be made blindfolded. Given a loving production, the play opens tonight at Broadway’s Studio 54, with a trio of Broadway’s best – Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoё Wanamaker – who couldn’t be more devoted to the sentimental memory play if it was about their own families. And Pictures From Home frequently pierces through its own nostalgia with an observation clear and crisp as a brand new Polaroid. Lots and lots of Polaroids.
Based on the unlikely source of photographer Larry Sultan’s wonderful 1992 photo book of the same title, which included then-new images along with aging scrapbook family photos, the biographical memory play, directed by Bartlett Sher, chronicles the multi-year endeavor in which Larry (played by Burstein) flies from his home in San Francisco to snap shots of his Los Angelino parents, dad Irving (Lane) and mom Jean (Wanamaker), as they go about the daily business of living.
Set primarily during the 1980s, when Larry has already (and very frequently) been pointing the camera at mom and dad for eight years, Pictures From Home sets its focus (at least initially) on the father-son relationship, prickly even without the annoyance of the camera’s click click click. Larry won’t stop until he makes a sort of breakthrough, getting past lifetimes of surface images and public faces to reveal the real man and woman who gave him life.
Burstein (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
The project especially grates on the retired Irving, who at first mostly objects to the repetitive nature of the project but gradually comes out with what’s really bugging him: Larry’s search for an authentic Irving is a not-so-subtle doubting, and even rebuking, of the Irving who built a successful (and lucrative) career as a corporate go-getter. That Irving, Larry believes, is and always was a front, shallow and artificial as the 8×10 corporate headshot that Irving prefers to Larry’s warts-and-wrinkles-and-all realism.
As Larry’s photographs are projected (essentially by an unseen assistant character) onto a large wall of the family’s mid-century modern ranch home (designed with an appealing minimalism by Michael Yeargan, the details fleshed out by Ben Pearcy/59 Productions’ projection designs), the characters frequently break the fourth wall to make their cases directly to the audience. And each character attempts to deconstruct whatever photo is displayed (the photos are taken directly from Sultan’s book, so feature his real parents), with Irving almost sickened by the age and sometimes unpleasant disposition that bleeds through. Those, of course, are just the sort of images Larry is going for.
As the father and son bicker and argue over the issue, mom Jean mostly plays peacekeeper, at least initially. A close-up photo of herself, taken when she was busy and on her way to the real estate job that has made her the couple’s de facto breadwinner, tells a truth that she’s struggled to keep hidden from Irving: Unlike the men of the family, she has absorbed a sense of guilt over her very successful career, a guilt reinforced over the year’s by Irving: He’s called her top-dollar career a hobby once too often.
While the intimate and honest views of a family’s inner workings can’t help but touch our hearts at steadily paced moments, Pictures From Home is too blunt in its characterizations, with father and son especially, repeating their arguments and complaints with unstoppable frequency. Lane has the toughest job here, having to convince the audience that we don’t know who he really is, that we haven’t seen a version of this guy displayed and portrayed in everything from An American Family to (at its most extreme) Succession. The challenge proves a bit too tough even for the indefatigable and always appealing Lane, whose left to fill the holes with high-volume point-making.
By the play’s end, we can’t help but feeling sympathy for all concerned, characters and actors, but, sad to say, it’s the arguments we’ll remember.
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has brought life back to his longtime passion project, a biopic about the iconic rock band’s former drummer, Keith Moon.
Daltrey said in an interview with Vulture that he had recently finished a script for the movie, which had been nearly set to film last summer before Daltrey — with an aversion for a script written by Jeff Pope (“Philomena,” “Stan and Ollie”) — stepped in and halted production. Paul Whittington (“The Crown”) had been set to direct.
Daltrey then committed to writing the script. He said he would now like to get the film shot within two years.
“I’m very pleased with the script,” Daltrey, 78, told Vulture. “I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was. He had so much talent, that boy, but he became out of control for a lot of reasons. Mostly for lack of discipline. But once the drugs kick in, usually that disappears, doesn’t it?”
Daltrey said he had an actor in mind for the lead role of the film, which previously had the working title “The Real Me” — a song on the Who album “Quadrophenia.” Daltrey would not reveal who the actor was, however.
“I’ve got an actor in mind who’s a role model ,” Daltrey said. “He might be too old, but then again, Keith looked 50 when he died. He was 32, but he looked 54. I think the actor is about 40 now. I don’t want to jinx it and say his name. But there’s an actor who I’ve seen and when I look at him I go, ‘God, it’s Moon.’ It’s all to do with the eyes. The eyes are all important. You virtually wouldn’t need to say any dialogue because you could read it in his eyes.
“I mean, that’s a bit much, but you know what I mean. You can read so much in the face of Keith. He had such an incredible vibrancy,” Daltrey added.
The biopic about the legendary drummer has been in the works for more than a decade. Daltrey has said he first gave the project serious thought in the early 2000s.
“I got involved when Mike Myers wanted to play him,” Daltrey said. “We were trying to get the film off the ground. I think Mike, when he was younger, would’ve made a fabulous Keith. It’s a shame it never happened. I’m driven by this project. It came to me in a dream 30 years ago.”
Moon would have turned 76 last August. Daltrey revealed the script’s status after being asked by Vulture what Who song “always reminded him” of Moon, to which Daltrey answered “Who Are You” — the hit title song for their album released in August 1978, a month before Moon’s death from an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug that combats alcohol withdrawal.
“Mainly from the video we did with him for the song,” Daltrey said. “We were obviously having a lot of trouble with Keith at the time when we made that album. He wasn’t in the best of shape. He was indulging in quite a lot of naughties. It was a difficult time, but when we came together to do that video to promote the album, Keith joined in on the backing vocals and he was hysterical. There’s something about Keith that he … no matter how naughty he was, you’d have to love him. You’d just have to love him.”
“He was a rascal,” Daltrey added. “He used to rope his drum kit up. In the ’60s, when he first joined us, he would bring a length of rope and tie them all together because he would just go crazy. Then, once we started using backing tracks and the headphones, he had to tape them to his head because it could fly off.”
EXCLUSIVE: When AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s, Los Angeles became one of the cities immediately impacted. The new documentary Commitment to Life shows how L.A.’s gay community and allies mobilized to fight the disease despite a lack of funding, intense fear about AIDS, and an administration in Washington that would not confront the epidemic for political reasons.
The film directed by Jeffrey Schwarz (Tab Hunter Confidential, I Am Divine) holds its world premiere on Saturday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Combining fresh interviews and archival material, Commitment to Life examines the critical role that AIDS Project Los Angeles played in raising money for research, helping those who had contracted HIV-AIDS, and educating gay people and others in the city about how to reduce their risk of exposure.
“We put out pamphlet after pamphlet after pamphlet about how it was transmitted,” former APLA executive director Bill Misenhimer explains in the exclusive clip above, “and what you needed to avoid.”
Leaders of the nonprofit, founded in 1983 by Max Drew, Nancy Cole Sawaya, Matt Redman and Erv Munro, quickly realized they could leverage a resource unique to Hollywood to fight the disease: a big community of stars. Elizabeth Taylor was the best-known personality who joined the battle, but so did many others, including Joan Rivers, Morgan Fairchild, Alison Arngrim from Little House on the Prairie, and Zelda Rubenstein, the diminutive actress who played the clairvoyant in the movie Poltergeist.
Rubenstein appeared in PSAs aimed at encouraging gay men to adopt safer sex practices. You can see an excerpt of those ads in the clip above.
“Commitment to Life reconstructs the virus’ devastating march and the city that rose to fight it,” according to a description of the film. “Like the virus itself, the story winds through gated communities and neighborhoods of color, government offices and university labs, hospital suites and studio soundstages to tell a story of courage and sacrifice — as well as one of discrimination and unequal treatment.”
Schwarz is director and editor of Commitment to Life; Aimée Flaherty and Schwarz produce. Ron Sylvester serves as executive producer, and Robert James Wood II as co-executive producer. Executive producer for APLA Health is Craig Thompson. Co-producer is Taki Oldham, associate producer Michael Stabile, and supervising producer for APLA Health is Craig Bowers. The composer is Allyson Newman, with the participation of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; the cinematographer is Adam Jason Finmann.
Commitment to Life features key interviews with Jewel Thais-Williams, co-founder, Minority AIDS Project; HIV-AIDS activist Phill Wilson; Karamo Brown, Queer Eye cast member & HIV/AIDS educator; Dr. Michael Gottlieb, physician and former APLA Board Member; Bruce Vilanch, writer and comedian; Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman, Walt Disney Studios and APLA Board Member; Bill Misenhimer, former APLA executive director; Robert Contreras, co-founder, Bienestar; Torie Osborn, former executive director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Rev. Steve Pieters, former field director of AIDS Ministry, Metropolitan Community Churches; and Bamby Salcedo, president, TransLatin Coalition.
As Beyoncé fans anxiously waited online looking to secure tickets to Queen Bey’s upcoming Renaissance tour, the high price of ticket fees is once again a groan-inducing discussion among ticket-buyers as they have no choice but to swallow the hefty added costs if they want to see her show.
Some customers who bought VIP packages for the tour — already among the priciest and highest-quality experiences at the venue — saw service fees as high as $550 (about a 15% service fee) atop the $3,757 the customer already spent on their seat. The most expensive tickets, of course, will also catch the most eye-popping fees. Among the more affordable seats, one customer’s screenshot detailed a $43.90 service fee on a $162 ticket (about a 27 percent fee), plus another $8 for the facility charge.
An initial look at fees suggests the Renaissance Tour isn’t much worse than the usual on-sale for a tour of this size, with some of the prices fans have shared online reflecting somewhere between 15 to the upper 20-percents for fees on Ticketmaster. Rather, it’s just the latest in the most common complaint customers have as pay even more at checkout for what may have already been a major purchase.
Ticketing fees aren’t a uniquely Ticketmaster issue, and the fees for some tickets listed on resale platforms like StubHub and VividSeats have come close to 30 percent. But Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment have faced increased scrutiny from federal regulators over allegations that the company functions as a live music monopoly.
Ticketmaster has repeatedly refuted allegations that it squashes competition. Regarding the fees in particular, Live Nation Entertainment president and CFO Joe Berchtold told regulators during a Senate judiciary hearing on the live music business last month that venues typically set the fees, and that Ticketmaster’s portion of service fees has fallen.
The fees have been a significant part of discussion from regulators and advocates looking to make the ticketing industry more fair and transparent for fans. During the Senate judiciary panel, several senators, including Amy Klobuchar, probed witnesses about the fees and what it would take to get them handled. Both Klobuchar and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have told Rolling Stone that the fees are gouging fans, and both questioned how Live Nation’s dominance in the industry have impacted fee costs.
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The issue has even made its way to the White House. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for a crackdown on “junk fees” across industries including the live music business; during his State of the Union this week, he pushed for the “Junk Fee Prevention Act,” which the Biden Administration first proposed last week. The Biden Administration has called for Congress to “reduce fees through legislation,” and to prohibit “excessive fees” and force ticket platforms to disclose when they’ve used “holdbacks” for shows to limit ticket supply. Biden also called for a widespread adoption of all-in ticket prices, which prevents ticketers from hiding fees until the end of a purchase. Several high-profile ticket services have championed that latter policy, noting that all-in ticketing could only work across the industry if all companies are mandated to practice it.
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The Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition, which has been active for months calling for regulators to crack down on Live Nation and Ticketmaster (and in separate the two companies), celebrated Biden’s push this week as well.
“Fans, artists, competitors, and policymakers sounding the alarm about the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly’s abuses — including charging inexplicable, sky high fees — has warranted attention from the Biden administration,” the coalition said in a statement. “It’s time legislators and regulators bring transparency and accountability to the live events ticketing industry by curbing the use of these junk fees once and for all, and breaking up this monopoly to bring more competition to the live events industry.”
About three days into his role as the titular character’s voice in Howard the Duck, Robin Williams quit out of frustration because he was “being handcuffed in order to match the flapping duck’s bill.” The puppet’s mouth movements had already been filmed to match the puppeteers’ bland delivery of the lines, essentially rendering the comedian’s iconic improvisation style impossible.
New images from Fast X have been released, as director Louis Leterrier teases that the upcoming movie will have tremendous casualties.
We’re nearing the endgame of the Fast & Furious saga, and given how far the franchise has come from its humble beginnings, fans are expecting some big things from Fast X. Louis Leterrier, who took over the film from Justin Lin, teased to Empire Magazine that there will be some “tremendous casualties” this time around. Empire also released a handful of first look images from Fast X, which you can check out below.
The Fast X images include a look as Vin Diesel, who looks the same as ever as Dominic Toretto, as well as the first looks at Jason Momoa as Dante and Brie Larson as Tess.
“There’s a war brewing,” Louis Leterrier said. “It’s coming to an end, and it is a race to the finish. There will be some tremendous casualties.” The director also teased that “People are going to need to take sides. Alliances will need to be made. Good guys will become bad guys, bad guys will become good guys.” As far as bad guys go, we know that Charlize Theron will be pulling the strings once again as Cipher, but the newest baddie on the street is Dante (Momoa). “He’s an incredible new character,” Louis Leterrier said. “It’s 1,000 per cent Momoa… [Cipher and Dante] are bad news, but one is more afraid than the other. One is worse news than the other.“
The Fast & Furious movies have grown increasingly outlandish (they went to space in the last movie), but Louis Leterrier wanted to bring things back to Earth with Fast X. “I’m more practical than other directors, and I brought it back to earth,” Leterrier said. “We went for real stunts, which we’re enhancing with visual effects. We shot in LA, London, Rio, Portugal. We blew up Hummers flying around Rome. There’ll be some iconic imagery in this one. You will see: as long as Dom Toretto is behind the wheel of a car, there’s nothing he cannot do.“
A new trailer for Fast X will be released tomorrow, so be sure to check back on JoBlo for that. The Fast & Furious sequel is set for a May 30th release. Now that we’re nearing the end of the road, which members of the team won’t make it to the finish line?
Keke Palmer and Sacha Baron Cohen are teaming up for David O. Russell’s next film, “Super Toys.” The project is being shopped at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Set in the 1970s, the “Nope” and “Borat” stars will play groovy toy salespeople on a life-or-death mission to save themselves, their marriage and their 12-year-old daughter while traveling the roads of middle America.
“American Hustle” filmmaker Russell will write and direct his follow-up to last year’s box office bomb “Amsterdam.” Charles Roven is producing for Atlas Entertainment, along with Matthew Budman.
Palmer, fresh off her lauded performance in Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” has a number of other projects in the works. She’s set to star in and produce the action-comedy “Moxie” and will feature alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Kathy Najimy in “Sister Act 3: Kicking the Habit.” Her project “Being Mortal” is on indefinite hiatus after a female collaborator filed an inappropriate behavior complaint against co-star Bill Murray. Palmer is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment and Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk LLP.
Baron Cohen’s recent work includes “Luca,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” He’ll next star in Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Apple TV+ series “Disclaimer” with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Baron Cohen is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham. Russell is also repped by CAA.
CAA is handling U.S. sales for “Super Toys,” while Film Nation Entertainment reps international sales.
Finding one’s place anywhere, but perhaps especially in New York, is a challenging thing. I pondered this as I stood in a thick line straining to gain entrance to the standing-room-only opening screening of the New York Peruvian Film Showcase, taking place at the Instituto Cervantes in midtown Manhattan on September 16. For one thing, turning to a Spanish-run institution’s New York outpost, whose mission is nonetheless an important one to provide a home and showcase for Spanish-language culture internationally, always adds a curious post-colonial questioning to things. For another, although Latin American film has been flourishing in recent years, Peru is not the filmic powerhouse of, say, Mexico or Argentina, and yet it has increasingly become a dynamic, richly inventive source of cinematic acclaim, its output more modest yet at the same time, arguably packing major impact. And finally, most germane to this audience, perhaps, the emphasis on Peruvian film leans toward the narrative, rather than documentary. With all this in mind, it was perfectly apt that the opening night of the festival paid tribute to the late Peruvian-American documentarian Roberto Guerra, whose output was unduly cut short last January by pancreatic cancer, but who so brilliantly “lived the questions,” to paraphrase Rilke.
Guerra’s body of work is a continual examination of the creative process, of the tensions and passions in life that fuel art and vice versa, of the collaborative process, and of identity and an individual’s quest to sculpt and forge it beyond whatever happenstance of birth may have initially shaped them. Showcase Director Lorry Salcedo Mitrani’s Roberto Guerra, a Life, which screened at the tribute, aptly examines the Peruvian-American’s trajectory, interviewing Guerra’s brother, Humberto, and wife and filmmaking partner, Kathy Brew, and weaving throughout excerpts from Guerra’s films alongside photos that capture Guerra’s life in New York and growing up in Peru. An engineer by training, Guerra’s inquisitive nature and love of the energy of the present moment turned him to film.
Guerra’s initiation into the world of cinema in the 1960s began at a significant moment of change in Peru, when director Armando Robles Godoy was among the first Peruvian filmmakers to receive international recognition. Although working in narrative, Robles was freely experimental in his approach, and was influenced by European art cinema while clearly also owing a significant debt to the tradition of documentary filmmaking in Peru known as the Cuzco School. The documentaries of the Cuzco School explored indigenous themes and reflected Peruvian culture’s pre-Columbian roots, and ultimately engaged issues of social justice as in much of what would become the New Latin American Cinema movement. Godoy was an advocate for the training of a new generation of Peruvian filmmakers, and as such, Guerra worked with him on his 1966 film, En la selva no hay estrellas (In the Jungle There Are No Stars). But as a budding artist, Guerra was equally captivated by influences from abroad, and would become drawn to cinema vérité, and the exploration of the artistic life abroad, ultimately leading to a lifelong career and investigation of the creative process through documentary.
From Armando Robles Godoy’s En la selva no hay estralleas (In the Jungle There Are No Stars)
Throughout Guerra’s examination of the artistic process, he would almost unfailingly hone in on the collaborative nature of much artmaking. Collaboration was certainly reflected in his own film production partnerships, which were truly all-encompassing—of art, life and love. He began his own documentary career with his first wife, Eila Hershon, who succumbed to cancer, and later flourished artistically upon meeting and collaborating with Brew.
Initially, Guerra’s artistic endeavors, coupled with Hershon’s background as a painter, led them to explore art on film, focusing broadly on the creative process in the lives of artists in all media, running the gamut from painters Oscar Kokoschka and Frieda Kahlo, graphic designers such as Milton Glaser and Massimo and Lella Vignelli, and fashion designers Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. Unlike Guerra’s later work, these earlier films were for the most part more conventionally structured, perhaps due to their nature as broadcast commissions. And yet they had an insistent, slightly subversive curiosity and questioning of themes that would recur throughout Guerra’s career and find full, freer expression in his later work. Issues of feminism and the creative process, as read through the lens of a feminine, fertile spirit as well as the constraints and subversive upending of popular fashion, are first seen in the explorations of Chanel and Kahlo. Equally, the artist as outsider carefully crafting a unique, public identity as part of the creative process is seen throughout the work: Lagerfeld commenting on his own changing image and output throughout the years; archival footage of, and statements from, Chanel; and Glaser’s own appraisal of his development as an artist.
In Guerra’s later documentaries, his lens would increasingly focus on the collaborative nature of artmaking, discarding the romanticized notion of the artist alone in the studio. This perhaps aptly reflected his partnership with Brew, whose inquisitive spirit and media-arts expertise matched his and embodied the notion of a “great dyad” (as put forth by essayist Joshua Wolf Shenk in his recent book Power of Twos: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs). Guerra and Brew’s most recent work, Design Is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli, returns to the Vignellis as one of Guerra’s early subjects, and garnered much acclaim on festival and theatrical runs. It is a fascinating look at the 50-year dynamic partnership of the Italian designers, who are responsible for so much that makes up our daily lives, with their powerful design and branding influence on everything ranging from furniture to logos to maps and far beyond. Guerra and Brew’s soon-to-be-completed documentary on Seward Johnson explores the very definition of art. It doesn’t shy away from the hard questions or easy glorification of artists, as they examined a populist artist who works in realistic, life-size sculptures. The filmmakers ask hard questions—of the arts community, of ourselves as audiences-about the very nature of what art is and who gets a shot at experiencing, defining and legitimizing it. In these documentaries, a loose style of observation, especially in artistic production, gives the artists ample time to speak for their own process, and allows plenty of other voices to weigh in, amplifying the fact that art does not exist, nor is it created, in a vacuum. It lives and breathes and is jostled by daily life in these documentaries, and ultimately flourishes there.
From Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra’s Design Is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli, a First Run Features release. Photo: John Madere.
It is also through Brew that Guerra, who left Peru as a young man, was ultimately persuaded to return in 2000 to examine his roots and explore Peruvian subjects. In several works-in-progress that were excerpted in Roberto Guerra, a Life, one sees promising, compelling explorations of artists working in Peru and of topical issues at play in the country. Beauty Behind Bars attests to the effects of the drug trade in Peru, as convicted female drug smugglers compete in a beauty pageant for convicts only. While the film doesn’t shy away from humor and the absurdity of the premise, it also attests to Guerra’s ongoing exploration of female self-determination and political questions about international drug trafficking. Other works-in-progress by Guerra focus on the terrorism that devastated Peru throughout the ’80s and ’90s and the creation of an artistic, public art project responding to it; and on an artist whose work reflects the significant Peruvian concept of Pachamama (an indigenous conception of Mother Earth) and recognizes the power of a feminine spirit in creative production.
The late Roberto Guerra shooting his and Kathy Brew’s documentary on the artist Seward Johnson. Courtesy of Kathy Brew
And so we look to Brew to continue Guerra’s legacy as we eagerly await the completion of these future films. Additionally, Brew, in partnership with UnionDocs, is establishing The Roberto Guerra Documentary Award to honor Guerra’s legacy in the field. It will be an annual prize given to a New York-based documentary filmmaker originally from a Latin American country.
Those of us who knew Guerra recall his wide and intensely curious owl-eyes, through frames like the focusing rings of a camera, watching, guiding, but mostly encouraging us to continue in the dynamic exploration of life in and through film, and the power of the collaborative, artistic spirit to endure.
Maria-Christina Villaseñor is a writer and independent curator based in New York. She writes frequently on Latin American film as well as on .film and video installation art, and is the author of William Kentridge: Black Box/Chambre Noire.
Gary Clark Jr. is an R&B star who has played alongside some of the music industry’s biggest names
He has three children with his wife of seven years
Gary Clark Jr. has performed on ‘SNL’ and is included in a Super Bowl 2023 commercial
It’s the ultimate honor: a spot in a Super Bowl commercial! Blues musician Gary Clark Jr. appears in Workday’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial alongside Joan Jett, Ozzy Osbourne,Billy Idol, and others as they attempt to teach people the best way to use the phrase, “You’re a rockstar!” Texan-born Gary, 38, burst his way onto the jazz scene with his 2011 debut EP, Bright Lights, which became the first EP to ever score a leading review in Rolling Stone, per his website.
Since then, Gary has been modernizing the R&B genre with his musical prowess. In 2012, his 2012 Blak and Blu album earned him a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category for the track “Please Come Home.” Gary even branched out with his politically charged 2019 album, This Land. Read on to learn more about the impressive musician.
Gary Clark Jr. released his first EP in 2011 and has been a huge player in the modern rock and blues scene since (Photo: MBS/MEGA)
1. Gary Clark Jr. Performed On ‘Saturday Night Live
Gary made his Saturday Night Live debut as a musical guest on Feb. 16, 2019 and performed his single “This Land” ahead of the release of the This Land album. Gary opened up about how the 2016 presidential election influenced his album in a Feb. 2019 interview with Billboard. “At the time when I was writing this album, it was right around the election, so late 2016. It makes sense for me to pay attention to what kind of world is going on around me so I can tell my [two young] children what’s happening in it so we can figure out how to maneuver through this thing and make it the best that we can,” he noted.
Plus, he said a racist Texan neighbor “right in the middle of Trump country” also inspired his project in an interview with NPR. Giving the outlet more insight, he claimed his neighbor refused to believe he owned his house and repeatedly demanded to speak to the owner of the home. “There’s no way you can live here,” the neighbor allegedly told him.
2. Gary Has Performed Alongside Some Of The Biggest Stars
Gary has shared the stage with Eric Clapton, B. B. King, the Rolling Stones, and more. Gary recalled looking up to Eric Clapton, 77, B.B. King, and more in a 2017 interview with UPROXX. “22 years ago, I was sitting watching TV. It was Austin City Limits with Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, doing a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. I was sitting there with my guitar and I was like ‘I want to do that one day,’” he remembered. “To be here right where I’m at, playing these shows with [Eric] and Jimmie, I feel like this sense of accomplishment, but I also feel like I’m just getting started. For them to be so cool and welcome me in is like, I feel like the new kid so I’m trying to be cool and not say anything stupid.”
In terms of what it’s like playing with Eric, an English rock and blues artist, Gary said he follows his lead. “Honestly, I just kind of, I just fall back and I let him take control. He’s the captain, you know what I mean?” he asked.
Gary also performs the guitar solo on Childish Gambino’s 2016 song “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” from his album Awaken. Gary praised Gambino as praises Gambino as “the most forward-thinking artist of our time” in a 2017 interview with Roling Stone.
3. Gary Looks Up To Contemporary Artists
As mentioned earlier, Gary has dipped his toes into various genres of music, which allows him to be influenced by a range of musicians. “I like what what Big K.R.I.T. does. J. Cole. I like rapper producers. I like guys who can put the whole thing together and have a full-on vision and present that,” he told UPROXX. He also said he’s a fan of Kanye West, 45. “I like how he’s another one who pushes the boundaries, you know what I mean? ‘What’s that guy doing?’ The next thing you know people are like… it worked!”
He added, “Jay-Z is just swag, you know what I mean? Just attitude. Flavor. Nas. Let’s see, Run the Jewels, of course. Kendrick [Lamar], I think whatever is going on with him, we’ve just reached the surface of what he’s going to do, not even just as a musician but as a dude.”
4. Gary’s Work Has Been Featured In Film And TV
and his band played in an episode of Friday Night Lights in 2010. His songs were also featured in movies like Trouble with the Curve and Deepwater Horizon. Gary has dabbled in acting, too, as he starred in the 2007 film, Honeydripper. He also appeared in 2022’s Elvis as Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup.
5. Gary Clark Is Married With Children
Gary Clark Jr. and his Australian-born supermodel wife Nicole Trunfio walked down the aisle in 2016 at the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, Calif. after dating for four years. At the time, they shared a 15-month-old son named Zion. Since then, they have welcomed two more kids: daughter Gia “Gigi” Leblane Clark, 5, and daughter Ella Wolf Clark, 2.
As seen above, Nicole announced the arrival of their third baby together on Instagram with a sweet black and white photo of her hand holding onto her newborn’s. “So in love with you … 02.21.2020 … 8.1lbs of yummy … welcome to this world my baby girl … your mummy and daddy and brother and sister love you so so so so much already. You are MAGIC … Thank you @garyclarkjr for this gift …. #luckynumber3,” she wrote in the caption.
Elon Musk’s restoration of 10 Twitter accounts that were banned under the platform’s previous management has generated enough engagement since they returned to the platform to likely generate $19 million in advertising revenue annually, a nonprofit dedicated to countering hate speech online has concluded.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said the 10 accounts were among hundreds thought to have been restored under a “general amnesty” that Musk announced in late November.
The report comes as Musk is working to generate revenue for the company, which he has said is in dire financial straits despite the layoffs of thousands of employees and the suspension of payments for a number of services including rent on Twitter’s downtown San Francisco headquarters. Twitter’s advertising revenue in December was 70 percent lower than the previous year, according to data from Standard Media Index, an advertising research firm.
CCDH’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, linked the drop off in ad revenue to the decision by Musk to restore the formerly banned accounts. “Our research shows that there is a depressingly banal answer to why Elon Musk would reinstate the accounts of self-professed Nazis, disinformation actors, misogynists and homophobes — it’s highly profitable,” he said.
Musk did not immediately respond to request for comment. Twitter’s communications department was eliminated in layoffs last year.
The CCDH uncovered multiple examples of advertisements from major national brands, including Amazon, Apple TV, the NFL and Fiverr, that appeared next to content from the 10 extremist influencers. In one instance, an ad for Wendy’s appeared next to a tweet by Stew Peters, an anti-vaccine influencer with 168,000 followers, where he referred to the vaccine as a “BioWeapon” and claimed people have been “murdered” by it.
In another example, an ad for the streaming service Peacock appeared next to a tweet from Anthime Gionet, an influencer known as Baked Alaska, who was recently sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The ad appeared next to a tweet where Gionet asked his followers whether he should “say the n-word.”
Brand advertisements also appeared next to tweets about election fraud, vaccine conspiracy theories, false statements about Ukraine and bio weapons, and tweets denigrating women in business, CCDH said.
Twitter’s drop-off in advertising revenue has been attributed in part to concerns that such juxtapositions would damage brands. “A lot of brands are scared of Twitter given Elon’s rhetoric,” said Brendan Gahan, chief innovation officer at Mekanism, an advertising agency. “He’s created an atmosphere that makes Twitter feel very unsafe for brands.”
Twitter’s advertising products are also considered less sophisticated than Facebook’s or YouTube’s, he noted. “When you take into account the economic climate right now, dollars need to work harder than ever,” he said. “Twitter was not in a great position even before Musk, and Musk creating turmoil has just made it easier for brands to walk away and not come back.”
“We don’t condone hateful content or dangerous conspiracy theories,” a spokesperson from Fiverr said. “These campaigns have been removed, and our partners and teams have been alerted to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
After this story was first published, Fiverr announced it was stopping all advertising on Twitter.
The 10 influencers CCDH considered in its survey are Andrew Tate, Robert Malone, Andrew Anglin, Emerald Robinson, Rogan O’Handley, Peter McCullough, Stew Peters, Anthime Gionet, Rizza Islam, and Gateway Pundit. All had their accounts removed from Twitter for violating rules before Musk restored them.
To conduct its survey, CCDH created new accounts on Twitter and followed the 10.Then CCDH calculated the advertising value of those accounts by taking publicly available information about the numbers of impressions the influencers’ tweets received and annualized that number, along with the frequency that ads are served to users. It then multiplied that result by an industry benchmark of the cost for 1,000 impressions. The rates were provided by the social media analytics firm Brandwatch, which shows that Twitter ads cost an average of $6.46 per 1,000 impressions.
“Just 10 of these reinstated bad actors will generate billions of Twitter views, all of which Elon Musk can sell to household brands and advertisers, such as Apple, Amazon, and the NFL. Brands’ ads are appearing right next to Nazi-level hate and lies that can kill,” said Ahmed.
Nandini Jammi, co-founder of Check My Ads Institute, a nonprofit adtech watchdog organization, said that she agreed with the CCDH findings, though she noted that the $19 million in revenue generated is an estimate.
“Under Elon, the revenue model seems to rely on increasing rage-bait to create quick returns,” she said. “The takeaway from the report is that Twitter is generating massive amounts of revenue from the engagement these influencers are generating. The exact amount of revenue cannot precisely be known, because the digital advertising supply chain is so opaque, but we know it’s a lot of money.”
After threatening to “thermonuclear name and shame” advertisers who pulled their marketing dollars from the platform in November, Musk has been attempting to court them by offering free ad runs, lifting a ban on political advertising, and rolling out adjacency controls, which allow advertisers to limit their ads from appearing next to a list of up to 1,000 keywords.
In a deck sent out to large advertisers last month and viewed by The Washington Post, Twitter repeatedly touted the platform’s growth, claiming that daily active users were up 17.8 percent year over year.
With the streaming bubble bursting and entertainment companies retooling their vision for the future of television, it seems like every new day yields a polarizing series cancellation. From viewership stats to marketing pitfalls and budgetary concerns, TV series are seeing the plug pulled at a seemingly faster rate than ever before — in some cases, after production has been completed and even before they’ve had a chance to air.
For example, after outcry over recently canned series like “1899,” “First Kill” and “Warrior Nun,” Netflix’s new co-CEOS Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said they have never canceled a “successful show.” Platforms like AMC, Starz, Showtime and HBO Max have pulled shows despite having the majority of filming finished or nearly done so. And for Hulu, journalists and audiences raised disappointment following the cancellation of “Reboot.”
At the same time, some shows across networks and streamers are coming to a close; conversely, fan-favorites like “Abbott Elementary” or long-running staples like Fox Animation Domination’s slate are being greenlit for additional installments.
To help you keep it straight, we’ve broken down every TV show that’s renewed, canceled and ending in 2023. And we’ll be updating frequently, so check back often.
“Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
(ABC/Temma Hankin)
At the 2023 Winter Television Critics Association, ABC announced that “Abbott Elementary” would be back for a third season. We can imagine Janine’s already dedicated a new binder to planning the upcoming term out.
“Acapulco” (Apple TV+)
The bilingual comedy got a renewal for Season 3 in late January. The Eugenio Derbez vehicle, partially inspired by the 2017 feature “How to Be A Latin Lover,” will commence production this spring.
“All American” (The CW)
The football drama garnered an early Season 6 renewal. The status of its spinoff series, “All American: Homecoming,” is still up in the air.
“American Gigolo” (Showtime)
Following the news that Showtime would be integrated with Paramount+’s premium service later this year (under the name Paramount+ With Showtime), the Jon Bernthal-starring reboot was one of several series to receive the ax.
“Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” (AMC)
AMC Networks is betting on Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe, with the Alexandra Daddario-led supernatural drama joining predecessor “Interview With the Vampire” for a sophomore installment.
“Bob Hearts Abishola” (CBS)
The romantic comedy was renewed for fifth season in late January, joining other popular CBS programming like “Ghosts,” “Young Sheldon” and “The Neighborhood” in installments running through the 2024 TV season.
“Bob’s Burgers” (Fox)
Bob’s Burgers was renewed for Seasons 14 and 15 in late January.
The Emmy-Award winning animated hit is created and executive produced by Loren Bouchard and was co-developed by Jim Dauterive. Nora Smith, Dan Fybel, Rich Rinaldi, Greg Thompson, Jon Schroeder, Steven Davis, Scott Jacobson, Holly Schlesinger, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Kelvin Yu also serve as executive producers.
“Bob’s Burgers” currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 season, marking the show’s second consecutive season on the list.
“Chucky” (Syfy)
Fret not, the title creepy doll (and M3gan’s nemesis) isn’t going anywhere. Along with “Reginald the Vampire” (see below), the horror show was renewed for Season 3 in mid-January.
“The Cleaning Lady” (Fox)
The thriller-crime series starring Élodie Yung was renewed for a third installment in early February, with “Good Girls” executive producer Jeannine Renshaw joining creator-EP Miranda Kwok as co-showrunner. She takes over from Melissa Carter.
“Cobra Kai” (Netflix)
Cobra Kai (Netflix)
For five seasons, “Cobra Kai” has extended the universe of one of Hollywood’s most iconic fictional professional fighting tales, serving as a sequel to the original “The Karate Kid.” It’ll end with a sixth season.
“Criminal Minds: Evolution” (Paramount+)
The reboot of the long-running CBS procedural garnered a Season 2 order mid-January. The Joe Mantegna-led show became one of Paramount+’s top five original series and has driven the overall franchise to see an increase of nearly six times in month-over-month viewership. It reunites most of the original show’s cast members.
“Doom Patrol” (HBO Max)
Alongside “Titans” (see below), HBO Max announced in late January that the series would conclude with Season 4. The decision to end both shows was not related to the change in leadership at DC Studios (co-led by James Gunn and Peter Safran), nor parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting efforts.
“The Drew Barrymore Show”
A daytime favorite and the fastest-growing talk show of its kind, “The Drew Barrymore Show” was renewed through the 2024 TV season last month. The CBS syndicated show’s renewal comes as no surprise to fans of the actress, whose human-interest segments, bright personality and social media-savvy contribute to viewership success.
“Family Guy” (Fox)
In addition to “Bob’s Burgers,” Fox renewed “Family Guy” for Seasons 22 and 23.
The Emmy-winning animated comedy currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 Season, marking the fifth consecutive seasons on the list. Per the network, “Family Guy” also ranks as Fox’s most-streamed program on record and continues the trend this season, averaging 5.1 million viewers.
Seth MacFarlane is creator and executive producer of “Family Guy.” Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin serve as EPs and showrunners, while Steve Callaghan, Tom Devanney, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Mark Hentemann and Patrick Meighan are executive producers.
“Fire Country” (CBS)
CBS’ fire-fighting procedural starring Max Thieriot as a young convict seeking redemption was renewed in early January for Season 2. Since its premiere, the drama has averaged 8 million viewers per episode, making it the top new broadcast series of the season.
“The Flash” (The CW)
Grant Gustin in ‘The Flash’ (The CW)
“The Flash” will end with Season 9, which is set to premiere on Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. Starring Grant Gustin as the title speedster, the show has spanned nearly a decade and more than 180 episodes. Based on the characters from DC, “The Flash” is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
“Ghosts” (CBS)
No scares here! A Season 3 renewal of the beloved comedy is in the bag. From creators Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, “Ghosts” ranks as the No. 1 comedy series on Paramount+ and CBS’ most-streamed program.
“Gossip Girl” (HBO Max)
Zion Moreno, Savannah Lee Smith and Jordan Alexander star in Gossip Girl season 2 (HBO Max)
The reboot series, which follows a new generation of New York private school teens who are taunted by a mysterious social media presence spilling their secrets, was canceled after two seasons, ahead of “Gossip Girl’s” extravagant Met Gala Season 2 finale. Though showrunner Josh Safran said he hoped to find a new home for the series at the time of cancelation, he admitted it would be an “uphill battle.”
“Hunters” (Prime Video)
The alternative history series concluded its two-season run this January. From David Weil, the drama — which followed a group of vigilante Nazi hunters in the 1970s — starred Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and more.
“Hit Monkey” (Hulu)
“Hit-Monkey” is coming back with a vengeance at Hulu after being renewed for a second season in February.
Based on the Marvel comics character, the show’s first season follows a Japanese snow monkey joins forces with the ghost of an American assassin to avenge the slaughter of his tribe by killing their way through the Yakuza underworld. The second season will follow the pair to New York City.
Leslie Jones is slated to join the returning cast of Olivia Munn, Jason Sudeikis, Ally Maki and Fred Tatasciore in Season 2. “Hit Monkey” is created and executive produced by Josh Gordon & Will Speck and produced by 20th Television Animation.
“Invitation to a Bonfire” (AMC)
Tatiana Maslany was set to star in and executive produce the psychological thriller based on the novel by Adrienne Celt, about “Lolita” author Vladimir Nabokov and wife Vera’s marriage. Despite shooting part of its first season, the show was scrapped by AMC as part of its strategic cost-cutting efforts and $400 million write down announced last year. However, its showrunner Rachel Caris Love is hopeful the series will land elsewhere.
“Inside Job” (Netflix)
The adult animated comedy show, from Shion Takeuchi (“Gravity Falls”) and about a young woman poised to take over a deep-state conglomerate secretly controlling the world, got an unsurprising (yet stinging) renewal reversal, which saw Netflix renege on its Season 2 commitment. The decision led to widespread fan outcries and is just one of many niche, revered shows on the platform to see the rug swept out from under it. Parts 1 and 2 of the first installment are still streaming on Netflix, though — be warned — the series ends on a cliffhanger.
“James May: Our Man In…” (Prime Video)
The travel show starring James May was renewed for third season, per Deadline. After tackling Japan and Italy in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively, “The Grand Tour” presenter will take his gig to India.
“The Jennifer Hudson Show”
Jennifer Hudson’s daytime talk show was renewed in January for a second season. The EGOT winner shared the news during a recent episode, tearing up as she told her studio audience, “Today is a major day of celebration.”
The unscripted series is executive produced by Mary Connelly, Andy Lassner, Corey Palent, Jennifer Hudson, Lisa Kasteler Calio, Graehme Morphy and Walter Williams III, with Shani Black serving as co-executive producer. Warner Bros. Unscripted Television produces the show in association with Telepictures and distributed in national syndication by Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales.
“Kindred” (FX on Hulu)
The adaptation of the beloved Octavia Butler sci-fi novel was canceled at FX after one season, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The series centers on Dana (Mallori Johnson), an aspiring TV writer who moves to Los Angeles who begins to question her sanity when she is violently pulled back in time to a 19th-century plantation.
“La Brea” (NBC)
Just after viewers had to wait two and a half months NBC’s sci-fi drama to return after a mid-season hiatus for Season 2, “La Brea” was renewed for third season, according to the network.
Starring Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Jon Seda, Nicholas Gonzalez and Chiké Okonkwo, among others, the time-traveling drama follows Angelenos worst nightmare as a giant sinkhole opens in Los Angeles and absorbs all people and buildings in its sight. Now in a strange no man’s land, the unlucky new residents must unite together to survive.
Creator David Applebaum serves as executive producer and showrunner alongside Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, Rachel Kaplan, Chris Hollier, Adam Davidson, Bryan Wynbrandt, Steven Lilien, Ken Woodruff and Arika Lisanne Mittman, who also executive produce. To date, there is no official premiere date or trailer for the third season.
“The Last of Us” (HBO)
Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal on “The Last of Us.” (HBO)
After rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and strong viewership numbers for the premiere and beyond, HBO’s adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game “The Last of Us” has earned a swift renewal for Season 2.
The post-apocalyptic drama, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, holds the record for HBO’s second largest debut — behind only “House of the Dragon” — since “Boardwalk Empire” premiered on the network in 2010.
The series, which is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann. Other executive producers include Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lam.
“Let the Right One In” (Showtime)
After Paramount announced that Showtime will be undergoing a rebrand and merging with Paramount+’s premium service in late January, “Let the Right One In” was one of the titles to be axed after its first season.
The adaptation of the 2008 Swedish movie tells the story of father daughter pair Mark (Demián Bichir) and Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez), whose lives were transformed 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire.
“Minx” (formerly HBO Max, currently Starz)
This one’s a doozy: After facing abrupt cancellation at HBO Max, the 1970s set dramedy found a new home in Starz. About the rise of an erotic magazine geared toward women, the series was one of the first in an unsettling new TV trend of nearly completed productions to be pulled from release. Season 2 eventually finished filming and Lionsgate successfully sold the show to Starz.
“The Mosquito Coast” (Apple TV+)
The action series starring Justin Theroux, Melissa George, Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman was canceled after two seasons on Apple TV+. Based on Paul Theroux’s bestselling 1981 novel, “The Mosquito Coast” centers on an idealist inventor who puts his family in jeopardy in order to escape the U.S. government, cartels and bounty hunters.
“The Mysterious Benedict Society” (Disney+)
The YA adaptation starring Tony Hale was canceled after two seasons at Disney+. While announcing the news that the series, which was originally greenlit by Hulu before moving over to Disney+, would end, co-creator Phil Hay included a spoiler alert that “the kids stay friends forever.”
“Nancy Drew” (The CW)
The CW reboot of the beloved tale will be ending with its fourth season, which will premiere Wednesday, May 31 at 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. PT. Starring Kennedy McMann as the storied teen detective, Season 4 will kickstart an investigation to find missing bodies dug up, stolen or risen from Horseshoe Bay’s cemetery.
“NCIS: Los Angeles” (CBS)
The long-running procedural and second spinoff to the flagship “NCIS” is ending with Season 14. One of the rare dramas to have its leads — LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell — remain throughout the entirety of its run, the series has been a strong performer for the network since its premiere in 2009. The show’s finale is set to air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ May 14.
“The Neighborhood” (CBS)
The sitcom, starring Max Greenfield and Cedric the Entertainer, will celebrate its 100th episode this season. A sixth season renewal was announced in late January.
“Night Court” (NBC)
Several weeks after the sequel series’ Jan. 17 premiere, “Night Court” was renewed for a second season by NBC.
The sequel series followed in the steps of the original series, which first aired in 1984 for nine seasons, as Melissa Rauch (“The Big Bang Theory”) assumes the role of optimistic judge Abby Stone, the daughter of the late Judge Harry Stone (Harry Anderson) who presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court.
The first season features a lengthy list of guest stars including Wendie Malick, Melissa Villaseñor, comedian Pete Holmes and skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski.
“One of Us Is Lying” (Peacock)
“One of Us is Lying,” the first pilot Peacock ordered to series, was canceled in late January after two seasons.
Dario Madrona, who co-created the Spanish-language Netflix series “Elite,” served as the showrunner alongside executive producers John Sacchi and Matt Groesch of 5 More Minutes Productions and produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.
“Outlander” (Starz)
“Outlander,” beloved by many for its whirlwind romance and wide spanning time-traveling historical fiction, will be ending with its eighth season on Starz. While Claire and Jamie’s epic love story has run its course, fans will be elated to know that Starz has already greenlight “Outlander’s” prequel series, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” which went into development last summer.
“The Peripheral” (Prime Video)
The hard sci-fi series from “Westworld” creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy will return for Season 2. The show stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a young woman who uses a device to transfer her consciousness into a robot body in the far future, and is based on the books by William Gibson.
“Phineas and Ferb” (Disney+)
Disney+
“Phineas and Ferb” on a TV list in 2023? You bet all one hundred and four days of summer vacation! At TCAs, co-creator Dan Povenmire announced that a two-season, 20-episode revival would be coming to Disney+. While all 2000s kids are thrilled about this one, a certain older sister is sure to be quaking with anger.
“Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” (Peacock)
“Pitch Perfect” is the franchise that keeps on giving. “Bumper in Berlin,” which follows the music career of Adam Devine’s Bumper Allen after unexpectedly becoming a renowned star in Germany, was renewed for Season 2 on Peacock.
Starring Devine, Flula Borg, Sarah Hyland, Lera Abova and Jameela Jamil, the series takes place at 10 years the original “Pitch Perfect” movies.
Megan Amram serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer alongside executive producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman of Brownstone Productions, Paul Brooks and Scott Neimeyer of Gold Circle Films.
“Power Book II: Ghost” (Starz)
The action-packed drama was renewed for a fourth season ahead of its March 17 Season 3 premiere. The third season in Starz’s first series in the expanded “Power” Universe franchise follows Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), who is resolved to get back to his family and get out of the drug business for good before facing some new obstacles.
Brett Mahoney (“Empire,” “The Following”) serves as showrunner and executive producer for season 3 alongside executive producers Courtney A. Kemp, the creator and showrunner of the original “Power,” through her production company End of Episode, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson through G-Unit Film and Television and Mark Canton through Atmosphere Entertainment MM.
“Reboot” (Hulu)
The Hulu comedy poking fun at Hollywood’s reboot-mania was canceled in late January after one season.
The series starred Rachel Bloom as a TV executive who successfully pitches the revival of her favorite 20-year-old sitcom, “Step Right Up,” and the clashes that follow between the cast, crew and writers. The ensemble included Judy Greer, Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville and Calum Worthy as the original “Step Right Up” cast, Paul Reiser as the series’ creator, and Krista Marie Yu as Hulu’s VP of comedy who’s “new to humor.”
While creator Steven Levitan, a multiple Emmy winner for ABC hit “Modern Family,” was trying to find a new home for the comedy, he later confirmed the show is officially dead.
“Reginald the Vampire” (Syfy)
“Reginald the Vampire” was renewed for a sophomore installment at Syfy in January.
Based on the book series by Johnny B. Truant, the series is produced by Great Pacific Media Inc., Modern Story Company, December Films and Cineflix Studios. Harley Peyton, Jeremiah Chechik, Todd Berger, Lindsay Macadam, Brett Burlock and Peter Emerson serve as executive producers.
“Riverdale” (The CW)
Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, KJ Apa as Archie Andrews and Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge (The CW)
The CW will end its run of the drama-filled teen soap with a seventh season premiering Wednesday, March 29 at 9 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. PT.
Starring KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes and Madelaine Petsch, among others, “Riverdale” is based on the characters from Archie Comics. The series is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, with executive producers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Jon Goldwater.
“Selling the OC” (Netflix)
The “Selling Sunset” spinoff, which follows the drama-loving realtors at The Oppenheim Group’s second office in Orange County, CA was renewed for two more seasons at the streamer after premiering just one season.
Produced by Done and Done Productions, Lionsgate, Adam DiVello, Sundee Manusakis, Suzy Ratner, Kristofer Lindquist and Skyler Wakil serve as executive producers. Production on Season 2 is slated to begin this winter.
“The Simpsons” (Fox)
Fox Entertainment renewed “The Simpsons” for Seasons 35 and 36 in late January.
The Emmy-winning adult-animated comedy has now surpassed its own record for the longest-running scripted series in television history and currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 season for the fourth consecutive time.
“The Simpsons” is a Gracie Films Production in association with 20th Television. James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean and Matt Selman are executive producers. The Gracie Films Worldwide Brand Division develops and produces the licensed content for the series.
“Snowpiercer” (TNT)
The series’ fourth season has been scrapped at TNT, another tax write-off casualty under the new Warner Bros. Discovery regime, but there might still be hope. Tomorrow Studios, along with the network, is currently shopping the new season of the sci-fi series, along with a potential prequel and sequel in the works.
“So Help Me Todd” (CBS)
The network is underway to renewing all of its programs for the upcoming TV season. The legal drama starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin is Thursday’s No. 1 series and will be back for Season 2.
“Somebody Feed Phil” (Netflix)
Phil Rosenthal’s food and travel series was renewed for Season 7 by Netflix in January, according to Variety. After the first season premiered in January 2018, Rosenthal has explored the tempting food scenes across Montreal, Seoul, Marrakesh, Chicago and London, to name a few.
“That ’90s Show” (Netflix)
Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith in “That ’90s Show” / Netflix
It’s time to ready up the Vista Cruiser because “That ’90s Show” is all set to journey through the year 1996. The sequel to Fox’s “That ’70s Show” — following Callie Haverda’s Leia Forman — just received a second season order of an extended 16 episodes. Season 1 premiered on Jan. 19 and immediately reached Netflix’s Top 10 English TV list in 35 countries, with more than 41 million hours viewed.
“Tehran” (Apple TV+)
Apple TV+ has ordered a third season of the drama series “Tehran,” with Hugh Laurie joining the cast for Season 3.
“The Terminal List” (Prime Video)
“The Terminal List,” the conspiracy thriller starring Chris Pratt, was confirmed for a Season 2 by Prime Video in early February. The streamer also announced an expansion of the franchise, based on author Jack Carr’s works, which will include an as-yet untitled prequel with Taylor Kitsch, who will star and executive produce. That series, billed as an “elevated espionage” tale co-created by Carr and Season 1 creator-showrunner David DiGilio, will focus on Ben Edwards (Kitsch) and his journey from Navy SEAL to CIA paramilitary operator, exploring the darker side of warfare and the human cost that comes with it.
“Three Women” (Showtime)
Following the news that Showtime would be rebranded and merge with Paramount+, the platform quietly scrapped “Three Women,” a series adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s nonfiction bestseller of the same name. The drama, which completed filming and was set to star Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy, is actively being shopped elsewhere. Billed as an “intimate, haunting portrayal of American female desire,” the project centered on three women “on a crash course to radically overturn their lives.”
“Titans” (HBO Max)
Along with “Doom Patrol,” “Titans” is coming to a close with Season 4. The decision to end both shows was not related to the change in leadership at DC Studios (co-led by James Gunn and Peter Safran), nor parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting efforts.
“The Traitors” (Peacock)
Based on the British reality show that became a sleeper hit (in and of itself inspired by a Dutch format), the Alan Cumming-hosted series was swiftly renewed for a Season 2 following a successful mid-January premiere. A reunion for the murder-mystery game show is set for Feb. 28, with none other than Andy Cohen hosting.
“Transformers: Earthspark” (Parmount+)
In February, Paramount+ announced that the animated series “Transformers: Earthspark” would be renewed for a second season. The season will follow the Malto family and Terrans on even higher stakes adventures packed with humor, heart and family.
The series is created and co-executive produced by Dale Malinowski (“Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”)and executive produced by Ant Ward (“Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) and developed for television by Claudia Spinelli, Nickelodeon’s senior vice president of Big Kids Animation. Production is overseen for Nickelodeon by Mikiel Houser, executive in charge of production, and for eOne by Kari Rosenberg.
“Uncoupled” (Netflix)
The Neil Patrick Harris-starring rom-com was canceled after one season on Netflix. Created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman, the first season premiered its eight episodes on the streamer on July 29.
The series, which featured co-stars including Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks and Marcia Gay Harden, follows real estate agent Michael, who, after a devastating breakup with his partner of 17 years (Tuc Watkins) cautiously ventures back into the New York City dating scene.
“Vampire Academy” (Peacock)
The vampire-centric series was canceled in late January at Peacock after one season.
Created by vampire aficionado Julie Plec of “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Originals” and “Legacies,” the series gave new life to the YA Books by author by Richelle Mead, which was previously adapted in a 2014 film starring Zoey Deutch.
“Wednesday” (Netflix)
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday in “Wednesday” / Netflix
Snap, snap! The runaway hit will be back and spookier than ever in Season 2. After a chilling text-based cliffhanger, one of the streamer’s most popular series of all time will see Jenna Ortega return as the macabre Addams daughter.
“1899” (Netflix)
The death of “1899,” the paranormal German sci-fi period mystery series, was one of the first to rock the TV world this year. It was canceled despite climbing interest (having surpassed show creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Freise’s first show, 2017’s “Dark”), leading to fan outrage.
“1923” (Paramount+)
Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” universe continues to expand with a Season 2 renewal for “1923,” starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. The prequel series was the biggest show premiere on cable for 2022 and the biggest Paramount+ premiere ever in the U.S., drawing in 7.4 million total viewers across Paramount+ and linear previews.
“61st Street” (AMC)
Similar to “Invitation to a Bonfire,” the Courtney B. Vance series was pulled after one season, despite the fact that Season 2 episodes had already been shot. The drama, about a young Black man who got entangled in the Chicago criminal justice system, was part of the company’s strategic content write downs last year.
Rihanna’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show will mark her return to the live music stage for the first time in nearly seven years. How is the global pop icon feeling about it? “It feels like [playing the Super Bowl] could have only been now,” she said during an Apple Music press conference ahead of the big show.
“When I first got the call to do it again this year I was like, ‘Are you sure? I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,’” Rihanna said. “When you become a mom there’s something that happens where you feel like you can take on the world and can do anything. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. As scary as it was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. It’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for my son to see that.”
Rihanna said the biggest challenge in creating her Super Bowl halftime show has been nailing down a setlist. The show will run 13 minutes, but Rihanna has a career that spans eight albums and 17 years. Cramming all of that material into 13 minutes has been “difficult,” she said.
“Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that’s going to be okay,” Rihanna continued. “We did a pretty good job at narrowing it down. There’s probably been about 39 versions of the setlist right now. We’re on our 39th. Every little change counts.”
Rihanna said her Caribbean culture will certainly be a huge part of the halftime performance, adding, “That’s a big part of why it’s important for me to do this show. Representing for my country, Barbados. Representing for Black women everywhere. That’s really important.”
Fans have been wondering if Rihanna’s Super Bowl show will mark a new era of music for her. The singer has not put out an album since 2016’s “Anti,” and her only major single since then was the ballad “Lift Me Up” from the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack. Rihanna is Oscar-nominated this year for the song.
“Musically I’m feeling open,” Rihanna teased about new music. “I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird. Might not ever make sense to my fans… I want to have fun with music.”
Watch Rihanna’s full Apple Music press conference in the video below. The Super Bowl airs Sunday, Feb. 12 on Fox.
‘Father Soldier Son’ follows an American family for almost a decade, documenting its tragedies and happier times.
Father Soldier Son
Directors: Catrin Einhorn, Leslye Davis
Cast: Brian Eisch, Isaac Eisch, Joseph Eisch, Maria Eisch, Jordan Delano, Jaxon Eisch
There have been Indian films that have spoken about the valour of our military or police force. We have seen how families have rallied around after the man of the house is killed in action, and in what is seen as pure patriotism, a son is later sent to join the forces. A Netflix documentary, Father Soldier Son, helmed by Catrin Einorn and Leslye Davis – and produced with the help of the New York Times – follows an American family for almost a decade, documenting its tragedies and happier times. The narrative is excellent in a comfortable run time of 99 minutes.
American soldier, a doting father of two boys, Brian Eisch has to serve in treacherous Afghanistan. He is a divorcee, and his boys have to live with their uncle, seeing their father once in six months when he returns home on leave. It is not easy for the boys, both under 12, with a mother gone and a father serving the US Army in a far away land. But Brian is too much of a patriot who believes that he must fight for his country. But after an injury, he is forced to quit the army. With his leg amputated, he knows that he can never return to the battlefield.
He is disillusioned and finds it hard to get over his handicap. It is not so much about losing a leg as it is about trying to tame his patriotic instinct. And he is in a hurry to see his sons grow up so that they may uphold the family tradition of serving the country. While the younger son is okay with the idea, the elder boy is not too keen. He wishes to go to college. But Brian and his new girlfriend try and convince the son that life in the Army is gloriously rewarding.
A terrible tragedy intervenes that forces the family to rethink. But only for a while.
The documentary does meander at times, but happily stays away from moralising. The directors – who are journalists – give us a story that is gripping most of the time. There is no voiceover, and even the interviews ( a real bore in most of the documentaries) are kept to the very minimum. They are almost snippets which push the story seamlessly.
In the end, the elder son does enlist in the Army, but questions why he and his countrymen ought to be fighting a war in Afghanistan. What is the idea behind this conflict? Indeed a very relevant question! But the answer does not come. He has been asked to don the uniform, and he will do it. A very distressing moment in Father Soldier Son. Indeed so.
Rating: 4/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is author, commentator and movie critic)
Sharon Levy has been elevated to chief executive officer of Endemol Shine North America, the Banijay-owned studio behind the Emmy Award-nominated “LEGO Masters,” “MasterChef,” “Wipeout” and upcoming Showtime series “Ripley,” starring Andrew Scott.
The announcement was made on Thursday by Ben Samek, CEO of Banijay Americas, as Endemol shifts from being a holding company to an independent production studio alongside the nine other Banijay-owned studios.
In her new role, Levy, who previously served as chief content officer since 2021, will manage all aspects of the business and its growth. She will also continue to lead all of the studio’s unscripted and scripted programming efforts from the company’s North Hollywood headquarters.
“Sharon is one of the most strategic executives in the business, someone whose creative vision is matched only by her market savvy,” Samek said in a statement. “Over the past five years, she has already positioned Endemol Shine North America as a major industry player and unleashed the creativity of her group. I look forward to supporting her as she leads her talented team to new heights.”
Levy added, “I’m very excited to take on the CEO role for the new Endemol Shine North America as we chart its course forward during an extraordinary time for the industry. I am thankful to Ben for believing in me and my exceptional team and giving us the responsibility and opportunity to redefine ESNA. With Endemol Shine North America now operating solely as a production studio, we’ll move more nimbly and be better positioned to meet the challenges of the moment. It’s a new era at ESNA, and we look forward to working with partners, old and new, to create great television.”
In announcing the promotion and company’s strategy shift, his first since being named CEO, Samek completes the restructure of Banijay’s businesses across the Americas, establishing the new Endemol Shine North America studio alongside fellow U.S.-based Bunim/Murray Productions, Truly Original, 51 Minds Entertainment, Authentic Entertainment and Stephen David Entertainment; Mexico-based Endemol Shine Boomdog and Banijay Mexico and U.S. Hispanic; and Brazil-based Endemol Shine Brasil and A Fábrica.
“Historically, Endemol Shine North America served a dual role as the parent company to our subsidiaries and as its own production label,” Samek said. “Reconstituting ESNA as a pure production studio that lives alongside the nine other studios that form Banijay Americas, each with its own leadership and goals, will afford us the opportunity to work more collaboratively and efficiently and represent ourselves more clearly to our industry partners.”
Since joining Endemol Shine North America in 2017 as president of unscripted and scripted TV, Levy has reconfigured the studio’s Los Angeles-based programming team to work more closely with Banijay’s myriad global production companies and created an original development slate that features projects from co-owned labels worldwide with marquis talent highlighted by Will Arnett, John Cena, Nicole Byer, Keke Palmer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John Cusack, Steve Zaillian, Gillian Flynn and more.
Prior to joining Endemol Shine, Levy served as executive vice president of original series for Spike TV, where she oversaw the acquisition, creation and production of unscripted series, scripted series and documentaries, transforming the network’s brand identity with hits like “Ink Master,” “Bar Rescue,” “Auction Hunters” and “Deadliest Warrior.”
Last year, Levy helped spearhead a new partnership between Endemol Shine North America and EveryWoman Studios to expand the Propelle Program, an initiative designed to give rising female creators more opportunities in unscripted TV.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023, ratings — New episodes: The Flash, Kung Fu, The Conners, Abbott Elementary, Not Dead Yet, A Million Little Things, Lingo, Tough As Nails, Name That Tune, and Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. Special: Super Bowl Greatest Commercials. Reruns:Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD.
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After securing EGOT status at the 2023 Grammys after she won the best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording award for her memoir, Finding Me, Davis will be honored at a gala evening on April 24 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.
“Viola Davis brings her tremendous skill and fierce emotional intelligence to everything she does. The range of her accomplishments is remarkable — as an actor in film, television, and theater; as a producer opening doors for new voices; and as an inspirational memoirist. She is truly a force. We are honored to dedicate an evening to celebrating her achievements and talents at the 48th Chaplin Award gala,” Lesli Klainberg, president of Film at Lincoln Center, said in a statement on Thursday.
The Hope actress has netted four Academy Award nominations, and finally won her first Oscar in 2017 for best performance in the film adaptation of Fences. (She was a notable snub in the 2023 Oscar nominations for her starring role in The Woman King.)
Davis is also a five-time Emmy nominee, four of which she received for her portrayal of Annalise Keating in How to Get Away With Murder. Then, in 2015, she won the award for best lead actress in a drama series for her starring role in Peter Nowalk’s series.
Proceeds from the Chaplin Award Gala will support Film at Lincoln Center’s year-round cinematheque programs, contemporary film series, student programs, and film festivals such as the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.
This year, Davis also received the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs Film Awards to recognize her work as an actor and producer for The Woman King. Her next film is AIR, an upcoming American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, to be released by Amazon Studios on April 5.
Additional credits include Widows, Suicide Squad, Ender’s Game, Prisoners, Beautiful Creatures, Doubt, Get On Up, Blackhat, Extremely Loudand Incredibly Close, Knight and Day, Nights in Rodanthe, Madea Goes to Jail, Law Abiding Citizen, Disturbia, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Never Back Down, Far From Heaven, and others.
Davis and her husband Julius Tennon founded JuVee Productions, with an eye to supporting diverse creators and their narratives. The Los Angeles-based company produces film, TV and digital content across all entertainment platforms.
The Chaplin Award gala was first held in 1972, with namesake Charlie Chaplin the honoree. Since then, recipients have included Cate Blanchett, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Helen Mirren and Spike Lee.
AMS Pictures has released the trailer for its new documentary “Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection,” which celebrates the pop singer’s life and music as well as details her untimely death after struggling with anorexia nervosa.
The Carpenters were a top musical act in the 1970s with songs such as “Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” However, Karen’s chase for perfection and struggle with the at-the-time vastly misunderstood eating disorder led to her death at age 32.
Using unreleased recordings and celebrity interviews – including with Olivia Newton-John, Cynthia Gibb, Suzanne Somers, Kristin Chenoweth, Carnie Wilson, Bob James and Carol Burnett – the documentary sheds light on the singer’s short life and musical legacy.
The documentary was directed by Randy Martin (“The Inspiration Sessions,” “Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey”) and produced and written by Randy Schmidt (author of “Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter,” “Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters”). Brad Osborne (“Tom Petty: Won’t Back Down,” “Shania Twain: The Price of Fame”) produced and edited the film, and Carnie Wilson (of the pop band Wilson Phillips) and Andy Streitfeld (“I Was Lorena Bobbitt,” “A Defining Moment: Four Tuskegee Airmen and the Inauguration of Barack Obama”) executive produced the documentary. Osman Tello (“Murder Made Me Famous”) served as director of photography and Chuck Brown and Paul Ellison as editors.
AMS Pictures, a Dallas-based full-service multimedia production company, specializes in independent documentaries, and its work includes “I Was Lorena Bobbitt,” “#TextMeWhenYouGetHome” and “Cellmate Secrets.”
‘I have informed her that we have intercepted the plan of the destruction of Moldova by the Russian intelligence,’ Mr Zelensky said through a translator.
He said the documents showed ‘who, when and how’ the plan would ‘break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova’.
Mr Zelensky said the plan was very similar to the one devised by Russia to take over Ukraine.
This comes as Moldova’s intelligence service said Thursday that Russia was acting to destabilise the country.
Ukrainian President Zelensky makes an address at the European Parliament on 9 February
Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova, pictured at a press briefing in Chisinau on 31 January
Transnistria, highlighted, is stationed with Russian troops . Russia may look to connect itself with the breakaway region of Moldova by launching an offensive through southern Ukraine
Zelensky said he did not know whether Moscow ultimately ordered the plan to be carried out.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said last week the West is considering turning Moldova into ‘another Ukraine’.
He said the West backed the 2020 election of the pro-western Ms Sandu, claiming she is eager to take the country into NATO, merge Moldova with Romania and ‘practically is ready for anything’.
Moldova’s intelligence and security service today responded to the earlier comments by Zelensky, adding: ‘SIS confirms that, both from the information presented by our Ukrainian partner and also from our operative activities, subversive activities with the aim of undermining the Republic of Moldova, of destabilisation and violating the public order were identified.’
In December, Moldova’s national intelligence agency said Russia could launch a new offensive this year with the aim of creating a land corridor through southern Ukraine to Moldova’s Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria.
Transnistria broke away after a 1992 civil war but is not recognised by most countries.
It extends roughly 250 miles from the eastern bank of the Dniester River to the country’s border with Ukraine.
Russia has about 1,500 troops nominally as ‘peacekeepers’ in the breakaway region.
MEPs stood to applaud as Zelensky spoke in the European Parliament in Brussels this morning
Zelensky was welcomed to Brussels today with a standing ovation from EU leaders.
The Ukrainian president is on his second foreign trip since the start of the war in February 2022.
The leader has been lobbying for additional aid in the form of modern fighter jets and long range missiles.
Following visits to London and Paris, he told MEPs in Belgium: ‘We are defending against the most anti-European force of the modern world – we are defending ourselves, we Ukrainians on the battlefield, along with you.’
He added: ‘I have to thank you personally for your unwavering support of our country and our aspirations, our aspirations to live in a united, free Europe.’
The Russian embassy in London, meanwhile, mocked ‘the ex-comedian in a green sweatshirt now on tour around Europe.’
They said: ‘Zelensky’s pompous solicitations about the values of “freedom” and “human rights”, which Kyiv claims to be fighting for, were overtly hypocritical.’
American officials warned before the war that Putin might look to provoke Transnistria
Attacks between 25 and 27 April 2022 in Transnistria worried onlookers, who speculated Russia was looking to provoke their own Russian soldiers stationed in the region.
Before the war, American officials said Russia could use a false flag attack in Transnistria as a casus belli for invading Ukraine.
After the war started, a series of attacks in late April 2022 again arose suspicions.
The Ministry of State Security headquarters in Tiraspol, the region’s capital, was hit with explosions on 25 April.
Initial reports claimed the explosions were caused by rocket propelled grenades that only a few armies, including Russia, use.
That evening, Tiraspol Airport usffered a possible drone attack.
The next day, two explosions brought down radio antennae used to broadcast Russian stations in Maiac, a small town roughly seven miles (12km) west of the border with Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak warned Russia was aiming to destabilise the breakaway region of Transnistria.
He said: ‘Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region and hints Moldova should wait for ‘guests’.
‘Good news, Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team.’
Attacks continued with more explosions at a former airport in Vărăncău and a drone attack in Vladimirovca.
Just like the movies! Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter’s love story closely resembles a Hollywood romance — complete with a workplace meet-cute that led to their happily ever after.
The duo first met while filming 2013’s The Big Ask and went on to star in two more movies together before announcing in February 2017 that they got engaged.
“Now he’s my fiancé,” Lynskey said during an appearance on Hollywood Today Live at the time. “Yes, I know, I’m announcing it.”
“We feel lucky to have been able to have our news just be for friends and family for a while, but I guess the story got out, so! Yes!” the Two and a Half Men alum tweeted in January 2019. “We love her so much; she’s perfect.”
She went on to jokingly clarify a few details that were circulating, writing, “I would like to correct a couple of things that have been stated in articles online: 1) Jason was NOT in Boy Meets World and wow that would have been pretty easy to check. 2) I did NOT welcome the baby ‘quietly,’ I was blasting A$AP Rocky and yelling a lot.”
Since welcoming their baby girl, the couple have continued to keep their relationship and home life somewhat private. They have, however, poked fun at each other on social media from time to time.
In October 2021, Lynskey trolled her man after he promoted multiple auction items for a Huntington’s Disease Society of America fundraiser but failed to mention a prize that featured a hangout with the Sweet Home Alabama actress.
“VERY SURPRISED that Jason chose to focus on the fact that you can bid on amazing original artwork by @_AlexHirsch @DanaTerrace & more, and NOT on the fact that you could win a zoom with me, but that’s ok, Jason,” Lynskey joked via Twitter. “Get a zoom with me OR amazing original artwork, you decide.”
Ritter quickly responded to his partner, writing, “Hahaha!! I did a TikTok Live where I was very explicit about what a huge deal it is for a generally introverted person to donate a zoom!”
The California native made it clear that he appreciated Lynskey, adding, “I love you so much, and thank you for looking after our daughter the whole time I’m doing this event tonight!!??.”
The Candy star replied, “You are so cute. Somehow I missed that TikTok,” to which Ritter joked, “One day you’ll follow me on TikTok.” Lynskey wrapped things up by tweeting, “And I love you too.”
Three months later, Ritter again showed Lynskey love via Twitter, this time in honor of her interview with Rolling Stone where she opened up about sexism in Hollywood and her hit Showtime series, Yellowjackets.
“I love this incredible person,” he simply wrote in January 2022 while resharing the article.
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Scroll down to relive Ritter and Lynskey’s sweetest relationship moments:
Bestselling author, podcast host, social media sensation, life coach and former monk Jay Shetty is expanding his media footprint, now launching a talent agency, Variety has learned exclusively.
Shetty, along with partners Rula Zaabri, Brittany Louks and Blaire Zierke, has announced the formation of House of 1212, a full-service, purpose-driven talent agency that will represent creators, thought leaders and innovators who are impacting positive change. The agency will specialize in talent representation, brand partnerships and brand expansion for artists, musicians, athletes, models, actors and podcasters.
Shetty will serve as co-founder and partner of House of 1212; Zaabri as founder and CEO; Louks as co-founder and president; and Zierke as co-founder and head of operations.
“House of 1212 is built on the foundation of purpose,” the partners said in a joint statement to Variety. “Here, we have created a home for clients who want to amplify their voices and unleash their inner greatness so they can make a positive impact on the world. As a team, we are fueled by establishing purpose-driven partnerships, conceptualizing unique concepts for our talent and the desire to change the industry.”
The agency will provide a home for talent who want to amplify their voice to make a difference in the world from purpose-driven relationships with partnerships that align with their core values; to helping talent navigate the industry and guide them to success; to acting as a cultural connector between brands and talent. As a bespoke agency, the partners will create custom roadmaps and plans that will help talent find their purpose and long term potential, while amplifying their strengths to build a career.
The name of the agency is derived from numerology “1212” — known as an angel number, which is a powerful number that symbolizes abundance, organization and harmony with prosperity, growth and enlightenment centered at its core.
Shetty is a multi-hyphenate powerhouse, New York Times best-selling author and digital creator with over 50 million followers across social media and more than 10 billion video views. The mission of his many businesses is rooted in helping people find their purpose. Shetty hosts the hugely popular “On Purpose” podcast, which is the No. 1 Health and Wellness podcast in the world. In 2020, he published his first book with Simon and Schuster, “Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Everyday,” which became a global best-seller. His second book, “8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It and Let It Go,” became an instant New York Times best-seller after being released last week. This month, he will launch his inaugural world tour, “Jay Shetty: Love Rules.”
Zaabri was previously Shetty’s chief of staff, overseeing business initiatives and managing his day-to-day operations. Louks hails from Alo Yoga where she forged intentional brand partnerships within the wellness community, beauty, entertainment, fashion, hospitality and food and beverage industries. Zierke comes with experience from technology startups and design firms.
House of 1212 works with brands to create meaningful talent partnership opportunities, including Amazon, Audible, Meta, Apple, Google, Spotify, Alo Yoga, Calm, BMW, Microsoft, Zoom, American Express, Skims, LinkedIn, Marriott, WholeFoods, Nike, Reebok, BetterHelp, Tonal and Land Rover.
Shetty will still remain to be repped by WME, while utilizing House of 1212 to complement their services.
EXCLUSIVE: Trailer has dropped for Frank Doelger’s The Swarm, the big-budget pan-European drama that will premiere at the Berlinale Series.
Today’s in-depth trail showcases the environmental thriller in all its glory. It begins as strange happenings are taking place around the world: whales destroy boats, deep sea crabs attack beaches, mussels block container ships and an unknown ice worm destabilizes continental slopes and triggers tsunamis. A group of scientists who realize there is something bigger at play must then come together to undertake a life-threatening mission.
The show has been a huge undertaking and counts ZDF, France Télévisions, RAI Fiction, Viaplay Group, Hulu Japan, ORF and SRF as co-producers. Cast includes Alexander Karim, Cécile de France, Leonie Benesch and Joshua Odjick and Game of Thrones exed Doelger is EP basing the series on a novel by Franz Schätzing.
The Swarm will premiere later this month at the Berlinale Series, part of the EFM, alongside the likes of HBO Max’s Spy/Master, Silver Bear winner Zhang Dalei’s Why Try to Change Me Now and Stan’s Australian show Bad Behaviour. It was one of Deadline’s six international dramas to watch of 2023.
Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor starrer Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar is set to release on March 8, 2023.
Ranbir Kapoor looks dashing in the poster of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar’s new song Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai. The song will be released tomorrow at 12 noon.
It was just a week ago that the makers of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar launched their first song which became quite a sensation within hours of its release. While we are not done grooving to the last release, the makers are all set to release the second song ‘Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai’ which is touted to be Ranbir Kapoor’s solo song as the ‘Pyara’ and ‘Lovable’ Makkaar in the film. Now, the makers of the film, have unveiled an interesting poster for the song Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai ft Ranbir.
With Ranbir dressed in a suit, the poster gives us a sneak peek of a club and looks like we can expect a dance number coming our way. The song is surely going to be a treat for all the Ranbir fans to see him make a flamboyant entry and in full flare of his charming character which has always made the fans drool over him.
Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai’ and releasing in the valentine’s week it does sound like a dedication to all the singles out there who should not feel alienated amidst the surge of mush in the air, because love does happen several times after all. Taking to social media, makers ignited excitement amongst the audience for the upcoming song. Along with the poster, in the captions, makers wrote “Pyaar ka ultimate gyaan.….. Kal milega.?#PyaarHotaKayiBaarHai Out tomorrow.?””
Check out the poster here:
After the release of Tere Pyaar Mein, expectations have increased a notch higher, and the new poster has already instilled a lot of curiosity amongst the audience. Well, we now look forward to this remarkable song that makers will drop tomorrow at 12 pm.
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is directed by Luv Ranjan, produced by Luv Films’ Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg, and presented by T- Series’ Gulshan Kumar and Bhushan Kumar. It is all set to have a festive release worldwide in cinemas on Holi, 8th March 2023.
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If a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front comes out, a movie most people read in high school, you know it’s going to be nominated for an Oscar. This german retelling of the classic book doesn’t shy away from the grit and futility of war. In fact, that’s the theme of it. Maybe this movie based on an almost 100-year-old book echoes a little close to current events right now.
“We never received residuals for a show that’s been shown around the world since its inception,” cast member Colin Mochrie said of the improv series, citing “irritating” rumors it’s going to HBO Max.
The cast of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” is asking a more important question: Where are the paychecks?
Original star Colin Mochrie, who appeared in over 50 episodes of the U.K.’s debut sketch improv series before founding the U.S. version along with Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady, and host Drew Carey, revealed that the actors “never received residuals” from the long-running series.
Mochrie’s U.K. appearances ran from 1991 to 1999; the American spin-off began in 1998 and lasted five years. From 2005 to 2007, previously unaired content was played on ABC Family despite no new episodes being filmed. “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was picked up by The CW in 2013 with Aisha Tyler hosting. Mochrie tweeted that the show will end with its 20th season this year, despite The CW calling the announcement “not accurate.”
“Everyone at the show — producers and actors — are calling this the last taping,” Mochrie clarified to Vulture. “The short answer is that if it comes back, it probably won’t be with this cast. There is a complicated relationship with the show. The cast loves each other, and the actual shooting is always fun. We are all grateful that the show gave us a showcase and allowed us to be able to tour. The downside is that we never received fair compensation for the success of the show.”
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Mochrie continued, “We provide the content but don’t get paid as ‘writers.’ We never received residuals for a show that’s been shown around the world since its inception. Seeing announcements about the sale to the show overseas or to HBO Max can get irritating.”
The comedian added, “I hope I don’t sound bitter, because I learned long ago that this business is not fair, and being bitter about it gets you nowhere. I also find it odd that any publicizing of the show comes through our social media. Every day a tweet shows up: ‘You guys should bring that show back!’ Every season for the last nine years we’ve had to remind folks that we are on. So the short answer is, as of now, this is the last season with this cast. The longer, more vague answer is that it’s like the Mafia: It keeps pulling us back, so who knows?”
Mochrie quipped, “I often get offers where they always start with ‘We have no money.’ And those are the things I find the most interesting.”
Mochrie also tweeted in November 2022 that “Whose Line” could continue on since there is “always an option for a new cast” while the original stars tour in “various incarnations.”
So yesterday, Christina took to her IG account to point out that when they showed her 1-on-1 time with Zach at the football group date after party, it was actually footage from her 1-on-1 the week before when they were at dinner. Clearly an editing mistake. Or maybe it was done on purpose, who knows? But while she did point it out that that wasn’t the 1-on-1 time from the right date, I don’t know how that changes what happened when we saw her sitting there with the rest of the group, made everything about herself, talked non stop about her 1-on-1, upset Charity to where she had to leave the room, and bothered Brooklyn enough to have her deliver the line of the season in “Have you ever considered literally shutting the fuck up.” So yes, while editing spliced something in that never happened during that after party, all it was was her and Zach together, not anything that didn’t happen with the women. So unless I’m missing something, I’m not sure what Christina re-posting that was trying to prove other than a simple editing mistake. It didn’t seem to change anything in regards to what we saw happen with the rest of the women.
Today’s Daily Roundup covers Christina pointing out an editing mistake, backlash from a Sun article, Gabi and the “Game of Roses” book, Clayton seen with someone new over the weekend, & The Challenge finale tonight.
I do address the Christina situation and an article that came out yesterday from The Sun which had reports of her behavior from night one. All I can say to that is on Nov. 17th, (2 days after I released my spoilers up to the final 3), I received an anonymous email that, after reading The Sun story, was literally word for word what I was sent. All the same accusations, and if anything, even more detailed because the email I got named the woman whose hand Christina allegedly awkwardly grabbed. So someone seems to be peddling that story to all outlets to see who’d run with it. That doesn’t mean it’s not true, but just wanted to know that stuff has been floating around for 3 months now. What I do know is what we saw: Christina was one of the five women who got to meet Zach at the ATFR, she’s the only woman whose last name gets to appear on the chryon, she had the first 1-on-1 date of the season, and the very next episode she was gone. I’m sorry, but there’s more than meets the eye here. I believe that Christina was absolutely pegged to last longer than she did this season, and something completely derailed that.
Your screen time breakdown for Episode #3 has been posted by @BachelorData on IG. And once again, Christina is in the lead. Makes sense since the last half of the show focused on her behavior.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will be this year’s recipient of the WGA West’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. The lifetime achievement award, which goes to members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter,” will be presented March 5 during the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
“A true visionary, Kaufman’s legacy is undeniable,” the guild said.
He won an Oscar and a WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay for 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and received Oscar and WGA nominations for Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and another Oscar nom for the animated feature Anomalisa.
Kaufman’s writing career began in the early 1990s on the TV sitcom Get a Life, and he spent much the decade working in comedy and sketch television before transitioning to film.
His 2001 screenplay, Human Nature, marked his first pairing with surrealist director Michel Gondry, and they collaborated again three years later on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
In 2002 Kaufman wrote two high-profile adaptations: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on The Gong Show host Chuck Barris’ questionable unauthorized autobiography, and the comedy Adaptation, about Kaufman’s own struggles adapting Susan Orlean’s novel The Orchid Thief.
His most recent feature was 2020’s surrealist thriller I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which was based on the novel by Iain Reid. That year also saw Kaufman publish his first novel Antkind.
Past Screen Laurel Award recipients include Nancy Meyers, James L. Brooks, Elaine May, Oliver Stone, Harold Ramis, David Mamet, Paul Mazursky, Lawrence Kasdan, Eric Roth, Steven Zaillian, Robert Towne, and Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel.
Reminding us yet again that looks can be deceiving, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were not fighting—nor was Ben miserable—at the Grammys (like Lopez said!). At least, according to an unexpected eyewitness: the seat filler who sat next to them.
Big awards shows like the Grammys and Oscars employ seat fillers—camera-ready people in formalwear—to sit in the empty seats left by stars who have gotten up to use the restroom or talk to someone, so that if the camera pans across the audience, there isn’t an empty seat. At the Grammys, Affleck and Lopez were seated prominently near the stage and shared their table with The Rock and his wife, Lauren Hashian. When Johnson and Hashian were away from the table, a young woman named Anna and her new friend Jake, seat fillers, took their spots. And Anna, on her TikTok, addressed the fact that Affleck’s unamused expression became a meme…in front of his very eyes.
“J.Lo showed Ben Affleck the phone and was like, ‘Oh, my god, honey, look at this meme circulating about you,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, God, this again,’” she said. Sad Affleck has become a meme many times before. She continued, “He knew, and he also chose just not to change his expression. I love how unbothered that is. So, I know that she was like on her phone and saw it and was like, ‘Honey this is so funny, look at this,’ and he was like, ‘Jesus Christ.’”
Anna added that the couple were “super lovey dove-y, like their hands were always intertwined. Like, I don’t know how to describe it but they just were, so it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my God, this is going to lead to divorce.’ They were cute.”
Peep the comments section for a lot of pro-Affleck content, which I personally am in favor of. Leave the man alone!
Filmmaker Leon Gast died this week at age 84 leaving a rich legacy of work including his documentary “When We Were Kings” about Muhammad Ali in Africa.
Gast took over 20 years to complete the film. It won an Oscar and he produced a follow up called “Soul Power.”
A new report by the non-profit organization Canadians for Tax Fairness says Canada should institute a windfall tax on all large corporations to help recover some of the public funds awarded to businesses during the pandemic.
The report examines 37 publicly listed companies that received the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), a federal program designed to help employers retain employees during the pandemic.
It concludes that in 2020 and 2021, the 37 companies rewarded shareholders by spending a combined $81.3 billion on dividends and $41.1 billion on share buybacks.
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Canadians for Tax Fairness says many of these companies also reported impressive profits in 2022 as pandemic restrictions lifted and the economy improved.
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The group says a windfall profit tax on all large corporations would force corporations to give back some of the public funds they received and assist with the country’s overall recovery.
The head of the Canadian Revenue Agency recently said it wouldn’t be worth reviewing more than $15.5 billion in potentially ineligible pandemic wage benefits flagged by the Auditor-General.
Freeland says COVID-related funding ‘money well spent’ to help country through pandemic
Twitter on Wednesday began placing limits on the frequency of tweets an account can send, with users operating both individual and business accounts receiving error messages about exceeding the “daily limit for sending Tweets.”
The company, under Elon Musk, is now placing limits to the number of direct messages and tweets that a user can send per day, according to a page on Twitter’s Help Center site. The daily tweet limit is 2,400, but the site notes, “the daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals.” Retweets also count toward that limit.
It’s not immediately clear how many tweets are allowed within the “semi-hourly intervals,” and individual and business accounts — including The Hollywood Reporter‘s Twitter account — received the error message when attempting to tweet more than once in at least an hour.
According to the Help Page, users hitting limits will be allowed to “try again in a few hours after the limit period has elapsed,” though it is not clear what exactly the time period is. On Wednesday afternoon, some Twitter users were able to find workarounds by scheduling tweets in advance to circumvent the “daily limit” error.
Other limits outlined in the Help Page site include a maximum of 500 direct messages per day and a follow limit of 400 accounts per day, though additional site rules around “aggressive following behavior” may impact that number for individuals. Twitter is also capping the total number an individual user can follow to 5,000, and attempts to follow more accounts will be “limited by account-specific ratios,” the site said.
Twitter, which no longer has a formal communications team, did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. The Help Page site said the limits are meant to “alleviate some of the strain on the behind-the-scenes part of Twitter and reduce downtime and error pages.”
‘The Last of Us’ Actress Melanie Lynskey clapped back on Twitter when someone questioned that she has the right body type to survive the post-apocalyptic world of the HBO series.
Adrianne Curry, a model and alum of “America’s Next Top Model,” tweeted a since-deleted picture of Lynskey and said, “Her body says life of luxury…not post-apocalyptic warlord. Where is linda hamilton [the actress from “Terminator”] when you need her?”
Linskey was not amused by the critique and responded with her take on the character and why she doesn’t have to be as ripped as the “Terminator” star was.
“Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us,” Lynskey said. “And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.”
Lynskey went on to thank her castmates and fans for their support.
In response, Curry claimed she didn’t intend to insult Lynskey and took offense at Lynskey’s reaction. “I am so over everything anymore. Actors cant allow people to not like their characters? I am DONE. we are not the things we pretend we are on a set or stage. its ok if someone doesnt like em. it isnt personal in the slightest,” she said.
Lynskey, Curry continued, “cropped out what I said about her perfect hour glass frame being the most desirable to men. Seems quite manipulative. Also, she is NOT her character.”
The fifth episode of “The Last of Us” returns Friday, Feb. 10. on HBO Max.
To see the tweets, scroll down below.
Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us. And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for pic.twitter.com/YwkmkwUdOm
RRR star Ram Charan believes that S.S. Rajamouli’s action juggernaut is a watershed moment for Indian cinema. The country’s film industry is currently delineated by language and region, such as Bollywood (Hindi cinema) or Tollywood (Telugu cinema), in RRR’s case. But Charan is hopeful that RRR’s (short for “Rise Roar Revolt”) global success will blur the lines of India’s film industry moving forward.
“During the promotion of RRR, the imaginary lines were blurred. We were not just promoting RRR, but we were also promoting the sense of having one film industry called the Indian Film Industry. And I can tell you that it is actually happening in India right now,” Charan tells The Hollywood Reporter.
In the 1920-set action epic, Charan plays Alluri Sitarama Raju, a revolutionary leader who uses his position as a mole within the Indian Imperial Police to ultimately arm his former village against the British Raj. And while RRR’s exhilarating action set pieces and infectious song-and-dance numbers, such as the Oscar-nominated “Naatu Naatu,” have won over audiences around the world, Charan believes the film’s resonance can be chalked up to one simple element.
“Cinema itself has a unique way of transcending countries and languages. So RRR just shows that cinema has only one language, and that is emotion,” Charan says.
In a recent conversation with THR, Charan also discusses the most challenging days of the three-year shoot and his hopes of crossing over into an American blockbuster franchise, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Mission: Impossible.
So when did you first start to recognize that RRR was catching on in the States?
I saw a couple of videos that were posted by the RRR team. They had private screenings for a select group of media professionals. Of course, we’ve seen this kind of reaction in India, which was expected, but it’s beautiful to have this kind of appreciation coming from the West. We all look up to your films, and seeing all of this is just special.
I’ve never seen Americans dance at a movie screening before. It must’ve been quite a shock to see your moves being mimicked across the world.
You are so right. Cinema isn’t one language and one culture. Cinema itself has a unique way of transcending countries and languages. The response from Japan was equally amazing. So RRR just shows that cinema has only one language, and that is emotion.
Ram Charan in RRR
Courtesy of Variance Films
Your introduction is unbelievable as Raju is a one-man wrecking crew. What were the highlights from filming that sequence?
The highlight was the amount of rehearsals the whole team did for 30 to 40 days prior to filming. We had 5,000 to 10,000 people on a given day to shoot, and none of them were hurt. Not a single scratch. That shows you the kind of intense rehearsals that went into it. Kudos to our stuntmen, our [fight director] Mr. Solomon and the thousands of people.
So you shot the movie for 320 days over three years, but how much prep was there prior to those 320 days of filming?
In the beginning, we just had workshops, but the rehearsals are why it took three years to shoot. We had to rehearse every episode on the go, and we couldn’t rehearse everything. So not everything was planned initially. We were planning as we were shooting, and that’s why we took so long to shoot over three years. Of course, COVID cost us eight months, but that period aside, it’s still a long time.
It sounds like Raju’s introduction went off without a hitch, but did you eventually suffer some injuries?
I know it sounds [crazy], but I did not suffer a single scratch during the making of the film. I did tear a ligament during rehearsals, which took me off the shoot for three-and-a-half months. So it was a gruesome three months of recovery, but I’m fine now. Right after I recovered, I shot the “Naatu Naatu” sequence.
Did you know NTR (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) prior to RRR?
Absolutely. We’ve known each for 15 years as costars and as friends from the same community and industry. We actually became close just two or three years before RRR, but that’s when we became really thick friends. I think Mr. Rajamouli saw the camaraderie and the friendship between us and wanted to show that in the film. I heard that he cast us after seeing the friendship and the bond we had in real life.
I believe the two of you both come from rival acting families as well. Did Rajamouli want that real-life rivalry to inform the on-screen rivalry as well?
Now that I’m thinking about it, yeah. Probably. Why not? I don’t think there’s any reason not to think that, but Mr. Rajamoulialso wanted to share our very real bond off-screen during the scenes where we’re not rivals. I always had some apprehension that there would be competition about who’s going to do better and everything, but the professional rivalry never came into the picture between us. We were so comfortable, and our well-written stories and characters made us feel comfortable in our own spaces. So it wasn’t about one-upping each other; it was about the story and Mr. Rajamouli’svision. And if not for Rajamouli, I don’t think we would’ve been as comfortable doing this film. He really knows how to balance every aspect, not only from a filmmaking perspective, but also the expectations of fans. So, the so-called rivalry was never an issue.
What was your most emotional day on set?
“Naatu Naatu” was the last of the sequences we shot, and we had put three years of our lives into this film. So the last day of “Naatu Naatu” was the happiest day. We were relieved that the film was over and we could move on, but at the same time, it struck us suddenly that we weren’t going to see each other for a long time. We started filming in 2018, and none of us expected that we’d still be together in 2023.
Was there a sequence that was more physically challenging than Raju’s introduction?
I personally feel that it was when Raju learned the truth and he fought Bheem (NTR) as archrivals. It was when the tigers and animals came out. We shot 65 nights over two seasons, because by the time we started, Covid hit. So after 30 days, we had to pause that episode and somehow maintain ourselves physically. Mr. Rajamouli would call us every week during the pandemic to check if we were the right shape, the right weight and the right physique. So preparing for that episode was the most taxing.
And in terms of acting, that episode was very intense. There was so much emotion behind the action. It had multiple layers, and the whole film was designed around it. During the scripting stage, that episode was written first, and everything around it was added later. But what I like most about every episode is that Mr. Rajamouli always attaches a huge cushion of emotion. It gets you interested and invested in the action, otherwise, it’s just two guys hitting each other.
Your character had to hurt his own people in order to help them in the end. That must’ve been a difficult place to live, psychologically.
Yeah, when I read the script, there was definitely a very gray side to him, but it’s also pitch black at times. So I did have questions about how we were going to strike a balance between him being the antagonist and not the protagonist for a while, and how he’s been suppressing most of his feelings towards his own people that he loves. So he’s not only one of the best characters I’ve ever played; he’s also one of the best characters I’ve ever seen as well.
Indian cinema has many different industries or subdivisions that are designated by language and region, such as Bollywood and Tollywood. Is it true that you wish it was all just known as Indian cinema?
You’re 100 percent right. During the promotion of RRR, the imaginary lines were blurred. We were not just promoting RRR, but we were also promoting the sense of having one film industry called the Indian Film Industry. And I can tell you that it is actually happening in India right now. There’s so much culture and talent in Indian cinema, and this next great era began with RRR during its promotion.
So why do you think India opted to select another film to compete for a Best International Feature Film nomination at the 95th Academy Awards? Were you shocked by that decision? [Writer’s Note: This interview took place before the Oscar nominations were announced.]
No, I was not surprised that another film was chosen, but we were a little disappointed that we were not selected. I really don’t understand the process of selection. Prior to this, I had no knowledge of how it’s done, so I don’t know if I can really comment on it. Whoever did the selection, I’m sure they’ve been in the process for many years, and I’m sure [Last Film Show] is a great film. I haven’t gotten the chance to see it yet, but nevertheless, I hope this is a great beginning for us. We are so happy with the reception from the West, the East and India, and all these nominations and awards are definitely great. They’re feathers in our cap, and I hope we have even better things to look forward to in the future.
Well, I’m confident that RRR will create more crossover between American and Indian cinema.
I would love to see that.
In that event, what American filmmaker would you jump at the chance to work with?
Quentin Tarantino. He’s my favorite. I love him. He’s quirky. He’s out of the box, and I just love him. I’ve been watching his movies since I was a kid.
Are you a Christopher Nolan guy?
Of course! He’s huge in our film community.
Is there an American franchise that most appeals to you as an actor?
Of course, Marvel is the biggest franchise in the world, and I’m a big fan of Tony Stark. The youngsters follow these Marvel stories so closely, and it’s a huge franchise in India. The Mission: Impossible franchise is another big one for me.
There are moments in RRR where you remind me of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, so you’ve got my vote for the next Wolverine.
Wow, thank you so much! That means a lot.
When I first finished RRR, I said to myself, “Man, these guys must think American blockbusters are dull by comparison.” Are they still exciting for you?
They are! When I watched Top Gun: Maverick, I had tears, which is rare for me at home. In theaters, you sometimes have a mob reaction. When others are feeling it, you feel the same. But sitting at home and watching Maverick, it was so beautiful how they brought back the old and the new. It was a beautiful amalgamation in the scripting itself, and during the last jet episode with Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, I had tears in my eyes. The spectacle was not just watching all the jets; it was the emotion behind it all. My wife looked at me and said, “Do you realize you’re crying?” (Laughs.) So it was emotional stuff. And that movie shows that you guys still have it and are rocking it. Absolutely.
So, Rajamouli has been talking about a potential sequel to RRR. Are you hopeful that it’ll happen?
I think he’s been talking about it to the media more than us. (Laughs.) He hasn’t brought it up to us yet, but I would really look forward to an RRR sequel. Why not? It’s got great characters, and I think Mr. Rajamouli will crack it again.
Seldom does the ingenuity and cleverness of a good hustler, card sharp or con man not win us over. They are, of course, walking metaphors for the movies. Through finesse and daring, they pull the wool over our eyes while emptying our pockets.
They’re also great roles for actors, our best liars, to showcase their powers of slight-of-hand seduction and subtle transformation. “Sharper,” a fitfully delicious pile of deceptions and double-crosses, is made with evident appreciation for the genre. It opens with a definition of its title — “one who lives by their wits” — and “Sharper,” too, skates by nimbly enough by coasting on its cast’s smarts.
“Sharper,” which opens in theaters Friday and lands Feb. 17 on Apple TV+, is a slinky, slick caper that finds ways to distort expectations while unfolding a puzzle-box narrative. Before its lesser third act, “Sharper” — propelled especially by the performances of newcomer Briana Middleton and the more veteran Sebastian Stan — manages to juggle its plot twists with panache.
It opens with a seemingly sweet note of romance. Sandra (Middleton) breezes into a used bookshop on the Lower East Side to pick up a copy of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” She tells the guy behind the counter — Tom (Justice Smith) — that she’s getting her PhD in Black feminist studies. The scene could be a meet cute for a bookish romcom. But given that opening title card, we’re on guard for the scam. She’s forgotten money — is that the play? A free book? They go on a date and later return to the store to hold in their hands a first edition of “Jane Eyre.” Maybe that’s the goal? A fiendish scheme to swipe rare Charlotte Brontës? But as a character says later in “Sharper,” if you’re going to steal, steal big.
“Sharper,” structured as a series of vignettes each titled after a particular character, unspools as a series of ever-expanding cons. First, there is Sandra, in need of $350,000 to rescue her drug addict brother from his debtors. Once that plays out, the second chapter rewinds to Sandra’s past, and her chance encounter with a skilled grifter, Max (Stan). He takes Sandra under his wing to school on the art of deception. His system starts, kind of wonderfully, with reading the newspaper: “So you can lie about anything.” And he’s single-minded about the work.
“I don’t watch movies,” Max says. “They’re a waste of time.”
First off, ouch. But this is also an early hint, in Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka’s layered screenplay, that the grifters of “Sharper” — unlike, say, Paul Newman of “The Sting” or Leonardo DiCaprio of “Catch Me if You Can” — are a more sober variety of fabulist, less a stand-in for the make-believe of movies than a concept to question and interrogate.
As “Sharper,” smoothly helmed by British TV director Benjamin Caron, continues to widen, it brings in more characters and backstories, including a New York socialite (Julianne Moore, also a producer) who’s dating a billionaire widower (John Lithgow). But the progression begins to work against the film. As ‘Sharper“ turns increasingly melodramatic, we’re well-conditioned by then to look for the con, and see it coming a long ways out. The streetwise characters — especially the appealingly rigorous Max, who seems like he walked in from a Paul Schrader film or a David Mamet noir — also wouldn’t be so easily duped by the late plot maneuvers. After a promising start, “Sharper” grows duller.
But there’s plenty here to savor. Middleton, who had a small role in George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar,” brings such a shape-shifting radiance to the film that when she’s not present, the movie sags even as its star power increases. And Stan, an actor I’ve not previously had a strong sense of, has never been so arresting on screen. His cool nonchalance gives “Sharper” a bracing edge. The scenes that pair Middleton and Stan together are its most potent. Plus, who can resist a con that includes, to pose as a PhD student, cramming great quotes of literature? Oh, the riches that can be unlocked by “Call me Ishmael.”
“Sharper,“ an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for language throughout and some sexual references. Running time: 116 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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The buzz around Robbie Banfitch’s film is frustratingly what happens when a film community longs so hopelessly for something different that it will literally attach itself to ANYTHING that comes along that even scratches the surface of experimental. The Outwaters is a tedious exercise in arthouse experimentation that left me drifting somewhere between a fugue-like boredom and the exhaustion of listening to an overactive toddler talk about their imaginary pet giraffe for two hours.
The film introduces us to 4 twenty somethings who may or may not be part of a band who decide they are going to the desert to maybe, possibly, sorta shoot a music video? Yeah, this is the beginning of the long road to not caring fuck-all about ANYTHING that happens during the Outwaters’ absurdly long running time that magically manages to last longer than both Avatar films, a root canal at a budget mall dentist practice and a Catholic wedding ceremony. THAT unfortunately is the reality of The Outwaters, a film that is becoming more of a cliquey “when ya get it, ya get it” fraternal rite of midnight movie passage than anything else. Unfortunately that is ALSO where the film’s novelty wears off. With a troupe of poorly written characters we are instantly doomed to either immediately forget them or wish them harm, the former being the more immediate answer. Oh, wait… I was discussing the plot, correct? I digress.
So we meet our characters: a dreamy free spirited minstrel who wears flowy dresses and repeatedly cries over hearing herself sing (not making this up), two brothers (?) who can be found at whatever pop-up art show that sits between the place that sells over-priced bourbon and charcuterie boards to every patron with a “clean fade” (and that’s all of em folks) and the coffee house that has live music till 9 on Saturdays. They spend a lot of time just staring off into the distance and listening to music, I’m guessing also all the while holding back the urge to cry. Oh, there’s a girl that undoubtedly has a job, because she feels the need to zoom them from it: “hey ,what are you guys doing?” “… oh the usual… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.” (which is foreshadowing for the next hour and a half, btw). Then uh (I think I’m just going to make the rest up, actually)… they uh… find out the only way to get the one girl to quit crying is to go all “Doors” in the desert and dance in front of the sun because that’s how you get back-lit… and uh then it starts thundering and then everyone runs around bloody in the desert with a pen light looking at rocks.
There ARE, initially some interesting visuals in the Outwaters as well as some intriguing sound design, but both are lost in the way each are played ad nauseam throughout the film, which begins to feel like a best hits album from Spirit of Halloween. We see the same sort of visuals rotate out to a climax that might have been shocking 40 years ago, but now just seems trite and uninspired. It’s a movie that feels purposeful, rather than accidental and that’s too bad, because admitting that this was contrived and executed via any sort of plan with a roadmap is worlds worse than the alternative. Don’t get me wrong, there are worse movies than The Outwaters… I just can’t think of any right now. NOT RECOMMENDED.
Theoretically, the best white T-shirts should be the easiest fashion item to buy: You can find them at every price point (from fast fashion to luxury), at every retailer (from Amazon to Saks), and in every silhouette (fitted, slouchy, crew neck, scoop, and so on). And yet it’s increasingly difficult to cut through all the noise to find that one T-shirt that feels tailor-made for you, that you instinctively reach for when you’re getting dressed in the morning, that you buy in bulk because you wear it so often that it’s just better to shop that way.
Like black leggings, white sneakers, high-waisted jeans, and tank tops, these tees are true wardrobe staples. They’re seasonless, pulling just as much wardrobe weight whether they’re front and center in your summer outfits or just barely peeking out from under your cold-weather knits. Crisp, weighty T-shirts will always look great beneath blazers or tucked into denim; slouchier, lighter options will never fail to make you appear (and feel) more relaxed. You can’t do without at least a few in your dresser.
To help you through the process of finding the perfect white tee, we went ahead and gathered 21 of our favorite T-shirts for women from every corner of the internet. From vintage-inspired picks that rival your treasured hand-me-downs to crewnecks that only get better with each wash, these are the best white T-shirts available right now.
Our top picks:
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for A Million Little Things‘ Season 5 premiere.
Just when you thought A Million Little Things might’ve exhausted its supply of “bittersweet plot twists,” along comes Wednesday’s Season 5 premiere, which revels in the upcoming birth of Gary and Maggie’s baby but also reveals that Gary’s cancer is never going to go into remission.
The news, while gutting, is not as immediately dire as it first seems — we’ll get to that in a moment. First, here’s a rundown of the other major plot points in “The Last Dance:”
* The Friends of Jon let Gary and Maggie in on the fact that they know about Gary’s illness. Everyone hugs and cries. Later, they also accompany him to his doctor’s appointment, where they all learn that Gary’s cancer will be around for the rest of his life. Maggie gamely points out that they’ll have to do as much as they can to make his life as long as possible. Then Gary slips and refers to the baby as a “he,” and Maggie confirms it: They’re having a boy.
* At some point during a seven-month time jump, Gary’s father, Javier, dies. From the way the post-funeral reception is shot, it seems for a minute like Gary might have died. But he didn’t! Related: Maggie is very pregnant. Gary and Danny find Gene, the guy who loved Douglas, Javier’s war buddy who died. They share stories about their loved ones who have passed. At one point, Gary starts sobbing. Danny thanks Gene for paving the way for him as a gay man. Once again, everyone cries.
* Anna is released from prison. Instead of moving in with Eddie, like he wants, she decides to make a fresh start by moving to her sister’s place in a different city. They part on good, if sad, terms.
* Rome’s father, Walter, is starting to forget things. His girlfriend, Florence, tearfully tells Rome that she’s going to end the relationship, because her husband suffered from dementia, and “I can’t take this journey with him.” Later, Rome starts to see signs that Florence’s fears about Walter may be accurate.
* Regina offers Sophie a job at the food truck, and Sophie accepts.
OK, back to Gary. TVLine chatted with James Roday Rodriguez about what his character will face in the ABC drama’s final season and how the latest diagnosis affects the father-to-be’s outlook on life. Read on to see what he had to say!
TVLINE | Gary gets some news at the end of the premiere: His cancer’s not advancing, but it is also not ever going to go away. Take us inside his head as to how he’s going to deal with that as the episode ends and through the season. I say this bearing the responsibility of a dramatization of something that so many people have actually had to deal with for real, which affects families and loved ones and everything: I do think that there is a bizarre, perhaps somewhat macabre level of security in just knowing that I don’t have to cross my fingers and hope for an all-clear every six months. Because I think that, in itself, can create so much anxiety in a human being.
So, the diagnosis that, “Hey, this is the deal,” it is what it is, you know? It gives Gary permission to start living for every moment, not knowing how many he’ll have left. As opposed to that, “You know what? I can be one of those people that just beats it,” and the energy that goes into that.
TVLINE | Before Maggie got pregnant, do you think Gary realized how much he wanted to be a dad? How much it would mean to him? I think Gary has played a father-like figure to so many characters on this show that, even if he hadn’t looked in the mirror and said “I want to be a dad,” it’s sort of second nature to him. Being a father to a child whose mother is Maggie is probably the thing he didn’t realize could be so good. I think she was the missing piece of that equation for him.
TVLINE | Talk about how Gary’s dad’s death hits him at the beginning of the season and how that evolves throughout the season. Well, I think the theme of appreciating life while you have it is certainly supplemented by the death of his father. Gary probably has regrets about times that he could’ve spent with his father, but he didn’t because of petty stuff that didn’t even need to be there. And I think that lesson, that reality, “Wow, I really, really miss my dad, and I really wish I could’ve been around him more,” both inspires him and drives him to make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen with him and his son.
TVLINE | There’s a little fake out in the post-funeral scene in the premiere: We think maybe Gary’s died, but it’s his dad. Can we anticipate any other card-flips, as [series creator] DJ Nash calls them, during the season? DJ Nash is a bottomless fountain of card flips, and you can expect as many card flips as 13 episodes can deliver.
TVLINE | There’s a very significant time jump, seven months, in the premiere. It seems like we might see Gary and Maggie’s son arrive sooner rather than later. Is that anything you can confirm? What I can confirm is that, to the best of my knowledge, we are going with a traditional nine-month human gestation period for this child. So, if the jump is seven months, then I think using just basic arithmetic, you can assume that our child is not special in that way.
TVLINE | Any more time jumps in this final season, beyond that one? I would expect so. It’s always been a part of the DNA of the show, whether it’s forward or backwards.
TVLINE | Is the season fully shot? Are you done? We’re not. We still have four or five left. But I think we’ll continue to play with time. I think there’s also an expectation from fans that we continue to sort of do all the same things that This is Us did. And I think they did time jumps in their last season.
TVLINE | Your and Maggie’s kid is going to be a singer in the year 2073. That’s right. Get ready for the big fire episode, everyone. — With reporting by Matt Webb Mitovich
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments!
You’d think the movie that won the critics’ awards trifecta of Los Angeles, New York and the National Society of Film Critics would be considered one of the best picture front-runners. Still, Todd Field’s psychological drama about a lesbian conductor’s rise and fall isn’t being touted as a possibility to win the best picture Oscar on March 12. Is this a mistake on the industry’s part? Are we underestimating “Tár,” a film that would be more in line with conventional Hollywood and international voters?
Two movies overperformed on Oscar nomination morning – A24’s multiverse sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” nabbing a leading 11 nominations including costumes, original score and original song, and Focus Features’ “Tár,” which picked up two worthy and crucial technical nods for cinematography (Florian Hoffmeister) and film editing (Monika Willi).
After adding another big trophy to its case this past weekend with the London Film Critics Circle, “Tár” is among only seven movies to win the “trifecta” in the history of the three organizations — “Goodfellas” (1990), “Schindler’s List” (1993), “L.A. Confidential” (1997), “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “The Social Network” (2010) and “Drive My Car” (2021). Only four have won the trifecta plus London — “Schindler,” “Confidential,” “Social Network” and now, “Tár.”
Two of those, “Schindler’s List” and “Hurt Locker,” won best picture. Revisiting each respective awards season, each of them, except for “Drive My Car,” was considered a viable, top-three contender to take home the Academy’s top prize.
Looking at the Oscar experts’ projections on Gold Derby, only one pundit has the film ranked as high as No. 3 with the film’s odds sitting at No. 5. But why is that? Is it the perceived reception throughout the industry that while the film has ardent admirers, there are many on the opposite side of the spectrum who disparage it? That reasoning doomed previous divisive contenders such as “The Big Short” (2015), a revisit of the financial crisis, or “Roma” (2018), a gorgeous, albeit slow-burn story of 1960s Mexico. Even last year’s methodical Western “The Power of the Dog” (2021) faced similar hurdles, which allowed the feel-good nature of “CODA” to triumph.
The common denominator of those examples was major Oscar wins for directing or screenplay. Could that hint at a possible Field upset in one of his nominated categories?
If any other best picture nominated movie were walking into the Dolby Theatre on March 12 with the list of the accolades and credentials that “Tár” is currently holding, it would be considered a front-runner. Cate Blanchett’s central performance is also a favorite after the two-time Oscar winner walked away with Golden Globe and Critics Choice prizes. Next up, BAFTA is on the horizon on Feb. 18 before SAG weighs in on Feb. 26.
“Tár” has opened in four more countries in the last month – U.K. (Jan. 13), France (Jan. 25), Australia (Jan. 26) and Spain (Jan. 27), and is set to make a stop at the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 23. With the powerful European voting bloc discovering its tantalizing dissection of cancel culture, the same demographic that propelled international movies like “The Father” and its star Anthony Hopkins to an Oscar win could easily get behind it. Those best chances for awards outside best actress lie in best original screenplay and director.
Writer-director Field’s first feature in 16 years is his most confident, abandoning the tropes of a conventional thriller that may or may not have the big plot twist that many lean on (depending on your interpretation). Instead, he replaces them with a suspenseful and deeply provocative tale of power, intrigue and mystery.
Field’s riveting return to filmmaking is undeniably highbrow and could beguile more cinephile ranks of the Academy as it did with film critics. However, in an era where social media bangs the drum louder for the little-engine-that-could flicks like “Everything Everywhere,” the more formal filmmaking of “Tár” might not seem as joyous or accessible to voters as the energetic multiverse comedy.
Nonetheless, Focus Features has a steep mountain to climb. How do you persuade awards voters to see the genius of a movie that doesn’t blatantly reveal itself?
There’s long been a tried-and-true formula for courting the hearts of Oscar voters. You can travel down the road of the biopic, look at a historical time period or be funny enough (but not too funny) to convey a commentary on classism in modern-day society. As of late, “the movie of the moment” has reigned supreme (deservedly so).
If the Academy isn’t passionate about Steven Spielberg’s glimpse into his childhood or the Daniels are a bridge too far for their tastes, wouldn’t Field be the next natural selection for his directorial achievement?
SHERELLE is a firm believer in the power of 160—that’s shorthand for the tempo that encompasses jungle, drum’n’bass, footwork, and other full-throttle styles of dance music. Since her breakthrough Boiler Room appearance exactly four years ago, in early 2019, the London musician has become an increasingly visible ambassador for the zone, both in her DJ sets and, increasingly, her productions. In 2021, she released her debut single, “160 Down the A406,” and followed up with the boisterous “Jungle Teknah,” the centerpiece of her fabric Presents mix. Her new single “GETOUTOFMYHEAD,” backed by fellow rave nostalgist I. JORDAN’s “M1, M3,” is the inaugural release on fabric Originals, a new label from the London club, and it’s every bit as exhilarating as its predecessors.
Part of the pleasure of SHERELLE’s mixing is the way she switches up styles and beat structures. Rather than beginning with a jungle break or a footwork lurch here, she kicks off with a four-to-the-floor house beat that zips along like greased lightning, syncopated woodblocks clattering furiously away. A ghost of a breakbeat hovers over the groove, a barely perceptible mist of cymbals that floats like a halo of white noise around the pile-driving kick drums. That unsettling air carries through in a dissonant streak of sampled vocals, a distant echo of UK hardcore at its most psychedelic, and thundering piano stabs that drive home the peak-time intensity. But a warm wash of synth pads is tender and reassuring, offering a gentle counterpoint to the track’s whirlwind force—a reminder that even the most barnstorming tracks can both batter the senses and tug at the heartstrings.
Weather is an unpredictable and uncontrollable variable when producing films outdoors. Exterior filming locations can expose equipment and crews to dangerous situations. Filmmakers should know how to prepare for circumstances that can hinder their ability to create a movie successfully.
Here are some tips and precautions to take while making a film during inclement weather. Use them to keep equipment and crews safe when on set so the show can go on.
1. Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain
You never know when there’s going to be a downpour on set. Watching the weather can help, but Mother Nature sometimes has a mind of her own, despite what the forecast says. Rain can hinder filming and damage equipment if you aren’t prepared.
Prepare for heavy rain byprotecting your equipment with waterproof gear, like protective shields. Tarps and positioned umbrellas can also protect camera equipment from the elements. Waterproof camera sleeves, bags, rain covers and housing are excellent tools to keep your camera dry during filming. Investing in a solid lens hood extending past your camera lens can also help greatly.
Storms pose risks to the safety conditions of an entire filming environment. Storms can wipe out and destroy everything in their path, from cameras and gear to the crew to props and equipment. Protecting things from rain is one thing, but lightningcan strike without rain and cause fires, electrocution and other damage.
2. Blizzards and Ice Storms
Shooting in the cold is not for the faint of heart. Safeguarding your camera and crew is essential during blizzards, and you must ensure the filming spot is safe. Slippery conditions can lead to injuries, damage equipment and put the rest of the film at risk.
Create a pre-storm checklist to ensure the filming location is as safe as possible before exposing yourself, equipment and everyone involved to hazardous working conditions. Keepgritty materials such as sand on set to provide traction and clear snow as soon as possible to ensure everyone’s safety. Wear layers to generate enough body heat to stay warm and wear gloves to protect your hands.
Keep a first-aid kit handy,provide blankets and food to feed the cast and filming crew, and ensure everyone’s safety during a snow-in. Just as you protect yourself from winter weather, you also want to ensure your camera is safe. Backup batteries are essential since the cold can drain battery power. Keep them in a warm space or store them in your pockets to soak up some of your body heat.
3. Extreme Heat
Shooting in extreme heat poses numerous health risks like dehydration, heat stroke and heat rashes. Working in unsafe temperatures can cause heat cramps and exhaustion thatcan lead to dizziness, fainting, nausea and headaches. Ensure your crew’s safety and health by providing water breaks and keeping a first-aid kit readily available.
Taking breaks can ensure the camera equipment, crew and cast don’t overheat. Cooling stations with fans, cold compresses and water can keep everyone comfortable while filming in extreme heat. Heat also poses a risk to camera equipment, so protect it from overheating when possible.Keeping your camera cool during filming is essential for optimal performance.
Use forms of shade like umbrellas or tents to shield equipment from the sun and ice packs and gel packs intermittently to cool it down. Let the camera acclimate to the weather for about 30 minutes before you start rolling. Condensation can occur when switching between dramatic climates, such as from extremely hot weather to indoor air conditioning and vice versa.
4. Strong Wind
Strong winds can damage camera equipment, cause falling debris and knock over props during your shoot. Winds can also make it challenging to see due to dust swirling around the set. This can also inconvenience the cast and crew and get dirt and debris in their eyes, noses and mouths.
Face shields and eye wash stationscan protect camera crews during strong winds. Dirt and debris can also get into your camera, so you want to cover that as well with a sturdy camera sleeve or housing. Actors may not be able to wear face shields, but you can position the cast in the opposite direction of the wind for protection and avoid film delays.
Ensure the wind doesn’t pick up props or equipment and cause damage by tying everything down as much as possible. Use zip ties to secure cameras and sandbags to hold everything else in place.
Filming in Inclement Weather
Filming in extreme weather conditions is not ideal, but it’s unavoidable at times. Rescheduling filming can be costly and extremely inconvenient. It’s an option, but it should be your last resort, especially when things are on a tight schedule. These tips can ensure the camera keeps rolling and the show goes on, regardless of what Mother Nature has in store.
Oscar Collins is the editor-in-chief atModded. He’s passionate about films, filming techniques and the finer details of filmmaking. Follow him on Twitter@TModded for frequent updates on his work!
I missed this earlier in the day, as I try to avoid Twitter while I’m working, but Twitter announced on Twitter already that there is a longer Tweet available for Twitter Blue users.
need more than 280 characters to express yourself?we know that lots of you do… and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that. so we’re introducing longer Tweets! you’re gonna want to check this out. tap this ?… https://t.co/lge9udRzLEFebruary 8, 2023
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It looks ridiculous, and it completely defeats the purpose of why I come to Twitter and not any other blogging site.
Now the monetary grab makes more sense. Of course tweet limits are on the way. Musk and company want to destroy the free threads and replace them with these macro-blog posts instead.
If you have a lot to say, it looks like you’ll have to pay Twitter to get your point across in more than 240 characters.
Why is there a Tweet limit all of a sudden?
Even though Twitter appears to be crawling back to live, we have to question why there is a warning for a tweet limit all of a sudden. There have been numerous, questionable ways Elon Musk has been trying to monetize the platform. It seems that setting a Tweet limit would only serve this goal.
Musk has in the past shown support for even longer tweets, up to thousands of characters or words long. Taking a restrictive stance now is not out of character, because the CEO’s character is erratic. It just leaves us guessing.
Back up, but not for everyone
Some users are able to send tweets successfully now, but the site is still being reported as ‘down’ on Is It Down, and not all features appear to be working. However, it seems that the glitch was short-lived, but the real news is yet to come.
The story so far…
Twitter is still down! Kind of, depending on how you access it. According to the site Is It Down Right Now, Twitter is down as of the start of this Live Blog. We love covering Twitter drama, and we’ll be updating you with news on what’s happening with Twitter, whether this is part of a planned change event, or if something has gone horribly wrong.
Right now you can still access Twitter.com from a desktop browser like Chrome. Some mobile users are reporting total failure when trying to access the site. Even if you can access Twitter, the trouble has only begun.
You cannot send an immediate Tweet right now without getting a warning message. You can schedule a tweet for the future, even if it’s only one minute. You can’t retweet, but you can Like tweets.
The problem started when users got hit with a brand new warning saying “You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets.” I’m guessing that Elon Musk is about to initiate a Tweet limit, and we’ll have the privilege of paying if we want to tweet more. My guess is that the feature rolled out early, or incomplete, or buggy, or all of the above.
We will see if anything changes on Twitter.com and the mobile apps and keep you posted if Twitter or its ambition CEO have anything to say.
Twitter Down Test | Scheduled tweetYou are over the daily limit for sending Tweets. pic.twitter.com/BeXUrRMhI8February 8, 2023
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The hashtag #TwitterDown saw a similar spike on Twitter itself, indicating that at least some people were able to tweet through it.
(Image credit: DownDetector)
According to Downdetector, as many as 9,449 reports of Twitter error came in around 5PM EST. Many users were getting errors saying that they’ve reached their daily limits for tweets, something we can confirm.
(Image credit: Future)
The problem seems to extent to both the Twitter mobile app as well as desktop users, and it is affecting retweets and DMs as well.
Twitter is down across the world right now and we’re busy digging into what has caused the widespread outage affecting at least the US and UK.
Ke Huy Quan just may have the most inspirational story of any 2022 Oscar nominee. After starting out with significant roles in two ’80s classics — as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies — his acting career came to a screeching halt. And although he never left the business, he found work instead behind the camera in various capacities until a stroke of luck involving 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang inadvertently changed his life without him ever knowing it.
That priceless story is how we start our conversation for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side.
Quan co-stars as Waymond Wang in the Cinderella story of this year’s Oscars Everything Everywhere All at Once, which has been nominated for a leading 11 Academy Awards including one for Quan as Best Supporting Actor. He has already won a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award, numerous other critics awards including the NYFCC, LAFCA, National Society off Film Critics, and he also has two SAG nominations and is up for a BAFTA.
All of this is for a major role that marked his return to acting — one that he kept secret from his family (except for his wife and lawyer) until the day before the trailer for the movie was going to drop. His reason? He thought he might get fired in the first week and so decided to keep it quiet until he knew he couldn’t anymore. Fortunately he was completely wrong, and the proof is on the screen.
Quan’s story is remarkable, a textbook example of never giving up the dream, and now he is living it.
To watch our conversation, click on the video above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for another episode of The Actor’s Side.
Brendan Fraser has revealed that he was super hesitant during an ill-fated audition for the role of Superman.
Appearing on The Howard Stern Show, Fraser talked about his long-ago tryout for J.J. Abrams’ proposed film Superman: Flyby, which never went into production. “Everyone in town was reading for Superman. They were testing six or seven guys in 2002 or 2003,” said Fraser.
“Of course it’s a life-changing, amazing opportunity, but I had to reconcile with, ‘Okay, say you do get the job to be the Man of Steel. It’s going to be chipped on your gravestone. Are you okay with that? You will forevermore be known as the Man of Steel.’ There was a sort of Faustian bargain that went into [the] feeling, and I think inherently I didn’t want to be known for only one thing, because I prided myself on diversity my whole professional life. I’m not a one-trick pony.”
His misgivings, he allowed, likely showed up during his audition.
What Fraser termed “shenanigans and studio politics, and, probably, inherently, (his reluctance) in my screen test” cost him the role.
He understood. “I think that’s why you test — they could kind of see I was only there like 98% instead.”
Sometimes, all it takes is one scene. Just one scene to completely change how you view a movie. A breathtaking scene can elevate what has otherwise been a terrible movie into something special (or at least not terrible), while a scene that doesn’t work for one reason or another can totally drag a good movie down. Here are some of the most noteworthy movie-stealing scenes, for better and worse…
2.
Ruined: Superman: The Movie
3.
Ruined: Kingsman: The Secret Service
5.
Ruined: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
7.
Ruined: Captain America: Civil War
8.
Ruined: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
10.
Ruined: Crazy, Stupid, Love
12.
Saved: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
13.
Saved: Wonder Woman 1984
What are your fave (or most hated) out-of-place movie scenes?
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The flashback also gives us some context for the mistrust Brice and Lane have towards Garnet. In the premiere, the man posing as Jasper mentioned he knew Garnet’s secret, and it appears her position on the crew was granted under suspicious circumstances. Lieutenant Garnet is an interesting protagonist for The Ark given her misguided and often inflammatory unilateral decision making, and the fact that she also has secrets makes it difficult to root for her over her fellow leaders.
But to be honest, none of the characters have become particularly endearing yet this early in The Ark narrative. It’s nice to have Alicia on the makeshift council, but she really upped the annoyance factor this week, and Angus, as smart and helpful as he is, is lacking any real personality. There was a bit of a spark between Trent and Alicia as the former spoke about taking over the latter’s job in waste management, but it was nascent flirtation at best.
Perhaps the most compelling character in this week’s The Ark was Cat Brandice, the social media celebrity who has now been placed in charge of the crew’s mental health. She was definitely helpful in getting Eva out of her funk to work on the water recycler, but the fact that she was able to secure private quarters ahead of Brice and Lane says as much about her self-interest as it does about Garnet’s lack of propriety with her fellow officers.
As for the emergency with the spill in the agricultural area, the fact that the water situation is becoming more dire or that Jasper was killed is not nearly as interesting as the immediate aftermath of Lieutenant Brice’s slip of the tongue in mentioning the knife that caused the damage, a fact that was not common knowledge according to security officer Felix. If not for the engines shutting down due to a lack of coolant, Brice would have been the center of attention as the episode ended.
As pressure mounts to stop the losses in its streaming TV business, Disney may expand the licensing of its movies and shows to other media outlets, reports Bloomberg.
The company wants to increase the amount of money it makes from its content library.
Disney recently tried to retain much of its original programming solely on its Disney+ and Hulu streaming platforms, so this move would signify a reversal in policy, the news outlet notes.
Disney has already started moving many of its streaming movies to theatrical releases in an effort to increase the revenue it generates from its content. The company has generally worked to keep all of its programs and movies only accessible through its own platform, like Hulu and Disney+, over the past few years.
It recently shifted tactics and started simultaneously distributing material from National Geographic and Disney Channel on both linear television and Disney+, as opposed to making it streaming-exclusive.
Disney executives have talked about selling more titles to other parties and are currently looking to sell several titles. It is uncertain whether Hulu will keep them in-house or sell them to a third party, Bloomberg reports.
Disney hasn’t formally stated that it’s seeking out further licensing agreements, and even if it does, that doesn’t necessarily mean its material will leave Disney+ or Hulu because they can negotiate non-exclusive agreements to retain it there. But as the reality of running a streaming business starts to sink in, the notion that everything Disney produces ends up on Disney+ or Hulu and, just as importantly, stays there, does seem to be ebbing away.
* Rome’s father, Walter, is starting to forget things. His girlfriend, Florence, tearfully tells Rome that she’s going to end the relationship, because her husband suffered from dementia, and “I can’t take this journey with him.” Later, Rome starts to see signs that Florence’s fears about Walter may be accurate.
TVLINE | There’s a little fake out in the post-funeral scene in the premiere: We think maybe Gary’s died, but it’s his dad. Can we anticipate any other card-flips, as [series creator] DJ Nash calls them, during the season?
