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Tag: television

  • What to stream this week: Steph Curry doc, Greta Van Fleet, ‘Justified’ returns and ‘Minx’ survives

    What to stream this week: Steph Curry doc, Greta Van Fleet, ‘Justified’ returns and ‘Minx’ survives

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    A documentary on Apple TV+ that chronicles the atypical path Stephen Curry took to becoming a basketball legend plus new tunes from the rock band Greta Van Fleet are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Laura McGann’s documentary “The Deepest Breath” which plunges into the world of free diving and Starz has given the workplace comedy “Minx” a new home and a berth for season two.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

    — Laura McGann’s documentary “The Deepest Breath” plunges into the world of free diving, a sometimes deadly sport in which divers descend into watery depths with only a nose plug to defend from fluctuations in air pressure. The film, which made a well-reviewed debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, premieres Wednesday on Netflix. It’s an immersive descent into a silent underwater realm and the risk-takers compelled to sink themselves to the ocean floor. McGann’s film recounts the story, in particular, of two divers — Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan — brought together in love and tragedy.

    — Steph Curry is a four-time NBA champ, two-time MVP and nine-time all-star, so naming a documentary about the transformational shooting guard “Underrated” is, itself, a kind of provocation. But “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” which debuts Friday, July 21, on Apple TV+, chronicles the atypical path Curry took to becoming a basketball legend, with many doubters along the way. The film, directed by the well-respected Bay Area filmmaker Peter Nicks, is further proof of a modern NBA truism: No matter how much he wins, Steph Curry is easy to root for.

    — A cinematic highpoint of the first half of the year, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’ “Tori and Lokita,” begins streaming Tuesday on the Criterion Channel. It’s a heart-wrenching immigrant drama about 11-year-old Tori (Pablo Schils) and 16-year-old Lokita (Joely Mbundu), two African immigrants living in an unnamed Belgian city. Only Tori has the necessary papers to stay, and immigration authorities are pressing Lokita, dubious of her claims that Tori is her brother. In my review of “Tori and Lokita,” I wrote that “their bond is something more profound than blood, a product of shared circumstance and mutual perseverance.”

    — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

    — The Grammy-winning rock band Greta Van Fleet is back with a “Starcatcher,” a strong album that shows the quartet’s maturity and embraces a more prog rock and psychedelic flavor. The first single, the sprawling, Woodstock-y “Meeting the Master,” made the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Producer Dave Cobb took the guys back to their roots as a live band. A few days after the release, Greta Van Fleet kick off a new tour in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena and will make stops at Madison Square Garden in New York and The Forum in Los Angeles and London’s OVO Arena Wembley. (Lava/Republic Records)

    — Blur, who helped put the pop into Britpop, is releasing their first album in eight years, “The Ballad of Darren.” Among the 10 new tracks is the wistful, joyfully building “The Narcissist,” with the lyrics: “I’m going to shine a light in your eyes/You will probably shine it back on me. But I won’t fall this time,” and the sloppy rocker “St. Charles Square.” The band wasn’t planning on another album. “It really is most unexpected,” bass player Alex James told Rolling Stone magazine. “We didn’t know we were pregnant, and we gave birth in the supermarket car park. It’s like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a beautiful boy!’” (Parlophone)

    — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM

    — Eight years after the series finale of “Justified” on FX, Timothy Olyphant returns as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in “Justified: City Primeval.” The limited series takes Givens to Detroit as the lawman hunts down a murderer played by Boyd Holbrooke. The story is based on the Elmore Leonard novel “City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.” Olyphant’s daughter, Vivian, plays Givens’ daughter on the show. The cast also includes Aunjanue Ellis. At a gathering of TV critics earlier this year, Olyphant said he “really didn’t have any concerns” playing the character again. “I just thought that I’d love to be there for it.” The first two episodes of “Justified: City Primeval” premiere Tuesday on FX.

    — It’s charter boat season for Captain Jason and Chief Stew Aesha as they set sail in Australia with a new crew of deckhands, stewards, and a chef in season two of “Below Deck: Down Under.” Besides the expected inter-personal drama from a Bravo show among the crew and demanding, occasionally unruly guests, the “Below Deck” cast must also contend with an aging yacht that has a lot of problems. “Below Deck: Down Under” debuts Monday, July 17.

    — Despite favorable reviews, “Minx” was canceled late last year in a cost-cutting move by the streamer formerly known as HBO Max. The decision came as “Minx” was in production on its second season. Luckily, Starz swooped in to give the comedy a new home and season two returns Friday, July 21. Starring Jake Johnson and Ophelia Lovibond, “Minx” is set in the 1970s and follows Lovibond’s Joyce, a young feminist who teams up with a seedy publisher named Doug (Johnson) to create the first erotic magazine for women. Season two follows the team behind Minx magazine dealing with sudden success.

    — Tyler Sheridan has another new TV series and this one is not a Western. “Special Ops: Lioness” stars Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Kelly and newcomer Laysla De Oliveira. Saldana plays Joe, a member of a secret team of spies with the CIA. They recruit a young woman – played by De Oliveira – to go undercover and become friendly with a wealthy woman whose family is believed to have ties to a terror organization. The first two episodes premiere Sunday, July 23 on Paramount+.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

    — Nintendo’s Pikmin may not deliver the star power of Mario, Zelda or Pokémon, but it does have a devoted cult audience who have been waiting 10 years for Pikmin 4. The setup hasn’t changed: You are an astronaut who has crash-landed on an alien planet, and you need help from the plant-like title critters to survive. Any one Pikmin by itself is too small to get much done, so you need to summon and corral dozens of them at once to explore your new home and battle the native wildlife. The major addition on this expedition is an eager “space dog” named Oatchi who’s happy to give your Pikmin a ride. It’s the kind of chill puzzle-adventure that may appeal to gamers who fell in love with Animal Crossing during the pandemic, and it arrives Friday, July 21, on the Switch.

    — There’s nothing like playing a visual puzzle game — say, Portal or The Witness — when you want to settle into a kind of Zen groove. Aficionados of such brain-benders have been buzzing about Viewfinder, from Scotland’s Sad Owl Studios. Each level is a maze of sorts, but to get from one end to the other you need to tinker with reality. You have a magical camera that lets you take two-dimensional images, like paintings and photographs, and drop them into 3-D settings so they become part of the environment and fill in the gaps. The result is as trippy and elegant as an M.C. Escher drawing. Prepare to have your mind blown Tuesday on PlayStation 5 and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

    ___

    Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.

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  • On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

    On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

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    LOS ANGELES — It’s a “Strike Girl Summer.”

    So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been at it since May.

    Together, the two guilds have ground the entertainment industry to a halt. On both coasts, though, there was a buoyant mood in the air as picket lines were reinvigorated by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who comprise SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to approve a strike back in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in six decades, and the first dual strike since 1960, reigniting the fervor against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.

    Outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, throngs of protesters chanted: “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union town.” Food trucks flanking organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to protesters baking in the midday heat that reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius).

    But the oppressive sun didn’t dampen the mood. Demonstrators spritzed each other with water and danced to reggaeton music as passersby in cars honked in support of signs like: “Honk if your boss is overpaid.”

    Parents on the picket line hoisted their children over their shoulders and pushed toddlers in strollers, high-fiving one another with signs that reflected defiant lyrics from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Vampire,” and were packing “Big Strike Energy.”

    “The jig is up,” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and once the titular star of “The Nanny” at SAG’s press conference Thursday. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, A.I. If we don’t stand tall right now, we’re all going to be in trouble.”

    The infusion of SAG members’ support was noted by comedian and writer Adam Conover, a member of SAG and WGA who serves on the latter’s negotiating committee.”

    “If you are gaining momentum like we are 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win,” Conover said. “You know, the companies’ strategy with the writers guild when we go on strike is to starve us out and wait, not even talk to us for months because they expect us to bleed support. Yet, look at this — our picket lines are more full than ever and now have another union on strike with us.”

    SAG and WGA last went on simultaneous strikes more than six decades ago.

    “What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans, and the existence of residuals,” Conover said. Now, executives “are facing the fact that not only are they getting no new scripts, they cannot shoot anything until they come back and make a fair deal, not with one union but with both unions.”

    Zora Bikangaga, also a member of both guilds, called Friday’s picket “invigorating,” and a testament to how the issues writers are facing are “pervasive across the entire industry.”

    While the industry’s business model has undergone major changes in the decades since the last strike, actors say their rates and contracts haven’t evolved to match inflation and other changes.

    “They use the gig economy as a way to say, ‘This is how you can be more independent,’ when in fact what it does it diminish the value and strength of organized labor,” said actor Ron Song, who appeared on Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty,” which was nominated this week for four Emmys.

    Former co-stars and acquaintances alike reunited at demonstrations. Some hadn’t seen each other since the coronavirus pandemic started more than three years ago.

    The first full day of the dual strike was marked by high energy — joy and unity mixed with anger and frustration.

    For actor Stacey Travis, who has actively been involved in SAG-AFTRA for years, the decision to strike was not taken lightly.

    “It feels extraordinary and it feels sad,” she said of the moment. “It’s very difficult on everyone, so we’ve always taken it incredibly seriously. So it’s only when we’re backed up against the wall and we have no options that we find ourselves here.”

    “It’s all of it for me,” said actor Peter Carellini about the reason for striking. “It’s A.I. It’s residuals. It’s the fact that Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, David Zaslav are making untold millions in bonuses while writers and actors are going to the Emmys with negative bank accounts.”

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  • On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

    On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

    [ad_1]

    LOS ANGELES — It’s a “Strike Girl Summer.”

    So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been at it since May.

    Together, the two guilds have ground the entertainment industry to a halt. On both coasts, though, there was a buoyant mood in the air as picket lines were reinvigorated by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who comprise SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to approve a strike back in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in six decades, and the first dual strike since 1960, reigniting the fervor against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.

    Outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, throngs of protesters chanted: “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union town.” Food trucks flanking organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to protesters baking in the midday heat that reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius).

    But the oppressive sun didn’t dampen the mood. Demonstrators spritzed each other with water and danced to reggaeton music as passersby in cars honked in support of signs like: “Honk if your boss is overpaid.”

    Parents on the picket line hoisted their children over their shoulders and pushed toddlers in strollers, high-fiving one another with signs that reflected defiant lyrics from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Vampire,” and were packing “Big Strike Energy.”

    “The jig is up,” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and once the titular star of “The Nanny” at SAG’s press conference Thursday. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, A.I. If we don’t stand tall right now, we’re all going to be in trouble.”

    The infusion of SAG members’ support was noted by comedian and writer Adam Conover, a member of SAG and WGA who serves on the latter’s negotiating committee.”

    “If you are gaining momentum like we are 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win,” Conover said. “You know, the companies’ strategy with the writers guild when we go on strike is to starve us out and wait, not even talk to us for months because they expect us to bleed support. Yet, look at this — our picket lines are more full than ever and now have another union on strike with us.”

    SAG and WGA last went on simultaneous strikes more than six decades ago.

    “What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans, and the existence of residuals,” Conover said. Now, executives “are facing the fact that not only are they getting no new scripts, they cannot shoot anything until they come back and make a fair deal, not with one union but with both unions.”

    Zora Bikangaga, also a member of both guilds, called Friday’s picket “invigorating,” and a testament to how the issues writers are facing are “pervasive across the entire industry.”

    While the industry’s business model has undergone major changes in the decades since the last strike, actors say their rates and contracts haven’t evolved to match inflation and other changes.

    “They use the gig economy as a way to say, ‘This is how you can be more independent,’ when in fact what it does it diminish the value and strength of organized labor,” said actor Ron Song, who appeared on Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty,” which was nominated this week for four Emmys.

    Former co-stars and acquaintances alike reunited at demonstrations. Some hadn’t seen each other since the coronavirus pandemic started more than three years ago.

    The first full day of the dual strike was marked by high energy — joy and unity mixed with anger and frustration.

    For actor Stacey Travis, who has actively been involved in SAG-AFTRA for years, the decision to strike was not taken lightly.

    “It feels extraordinary and it feels sad,” she said of the moment. “It’s very difficult on everyone, so we’ve always taken it incredibly seriously. So it’s only when we’re backed up against the wall and we have no options that we find ourselves here.”

    “It’s all of it for me,” said actor Peter Carellini about the reason for striking. “It’s A.I. It’s residuals. It’s the fact that Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, David Zaslav are making untold millions in bonuses while writers and actors are going to the Emmys with negative bank accounts.”

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  • Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

    Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

    A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

    “Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

    The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

    Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

    The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

    The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

    In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

    The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

    Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

    “I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

    Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

    No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

    “What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

    Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

    The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

    The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

    A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

    “This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

    The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

    The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

    ___

    Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

    ___

    For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

    Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

    A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

    “Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

    The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

    Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

    The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

    The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

    In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

    The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

    Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

    “I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

    Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

    No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

    “What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

    Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

    The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

    The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

    A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

    “This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

    The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

    The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

    ___

    Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

    ___

    For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • Bear Grylls goes into the wild with a new batch of celebrities, from Bradley Cooper to Rita Ora

    Bear Grylls goes into the wild with a new batch of celebrities, from Bradley Cooper to Rita Ora

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    NEW YORK (AP) — For his latest role, Bradley Cooper leapt onto a hovering helicopter, rappelled down a 400-foot cliff and pulled himself across a 100-foot ravine in one of the harshest climates in North America.

    His reward wasn’t an Oscar nomination or a big box office hit. It was a hug from adventurist Bear Grylls and some words of encouragement.

    “He smashed it,” Grylls says.

    Cooper is one of several celebrities — including Benedict Cumberbatch, Cynthia Erivo, Russell Brand, Troy Kotsur, Rita Ora, Daveed Diggs and Tatiana Maslany — who put their survival skills to the test in a new season of Nat Geo’s “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge,” premiering Sunday.

    “I’m really proud of this season. We’ve had incredible guests who pushed the boundaries in terms of terrain and the challenge,” Grylls told The Associated Press. “When there’s real tough weather with fun people, it’s often really compelling TV.”

    The series pairs Grylls with a celebrity for 48 hours in a harsh environment. The first day, Grylls teaches key skills — climbing techniques, water-finding tips and fire-setting, among them — and then the guest must do them alone the second day.

    Kotsur, who won an Oscar for “CODA,” was tested in the Scottish Highlands, descending 2,500 feet (760 meters) across eight miles (13 kilometers) of harsh terrain and freezing rivers, including a 150-foot (45-meter) rappel down a waterfall. Because Kotsur is deaf, the two men used rope tugs to communicate. Kotsur’s reward: haggis, a Scottish delicacy in which organ meat is put inside a sheep’s stomach and cooked.

    Diggs, a city kid, finds himself in the inhospitable Great Basin Desert in Nevada.

    “I don’t know how this is going to go and that’s why I’m doing it,” he says. Diggs learns how to use anchor points, track a target and make a signal fire. His dinner is a tarantula.

    “It’s not what I was hoping for, I’m not going to lie to you,” Diggs says.

    Grylls told the AP the best guests are always those who come with a willingness to go with it, not to look good.

    “The wild is so unpredictable and stuff is always happening. You can’t look cool all the time in the wild,” he said.

    The show is not just about survival. Grylls’ guests usually open up and show a different side. Ora talks about her ties to Kosovo, Cooper seems unfazed eating mule deer tongue and Cumberbatch reveals stories about his grandfather. Over a campfire, Grylls goes deeper than many TV interviewers.

    “It’s as much about the stars and their own personal journeys and struggles and battles as it is about the adventure and the places,” he says. “I think that combination works well because it doesn’t feel like a performance, like a chat show does, where you’re dressed up and made up and you get three minutes.”

    Cumberbatch is taken to the Isle of Skye, where his grandfather trained as a submariner. He learns how to use climbing talons and how to tie an Italian hitch knot.

    “It’s not the same as doing a stunt on a Marvel film. It’s a lot more real,” Cumberbatch says. His meal is seaweed and limpets — “Definitely al dente,” he jokes — and his bed is a wet field.

    Ora arrives at the Valley of Fire in Nevada following a 15,000-foot (4,570-meter) skydive, learns a chimney climb, butchers a dead pigeon, sacrifices her lip balm to make a fire and uses a sock to soak up water. She and Grylls even dance on a rock ledge, casting their shadows tall.

    “The wild strips us all bare, doesn’t it?” Grylls told the AP. “It’s like a grape when you squeeze us, you see what we’re made of. And that’s always the appealing part of ‘Running Wild’ — getting to know the real people.”

    One commonality among the guests is that viewers will often hear it was the celebrity’s parents who instilled in them a sense of adventure and testing themselves.

    “It’s a reminder just how important parenting is,” Grylls said. “Almost invariably when I ask stars, ‘Where does it come from?’ they go, ‘Oh, my dad was amazing when I was really struggling at school.’ Or, ‘My mum was just such inspiration holding down three jobs.’”

    “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” is only one of several shows the adventurist is juggling. On TBS this year, he debuted “I Survived Bear Grylls,” a competition series that bridges the survival and game show genres by having regular contestants recreate some of Grylls’ stunts — like digging through poop or drinking urine. Younger fans can also enjoy “You vs. Wild,” an interactive Netflix show that asks viewers to choose how Grylls will make it out of the wilderness alive.

    “I’m not going to be doing these shows forever but hopefully having an adventurous spirit and knowing the value of great friends and the power of a never-give-up attitude in the world — hopefully those things will keep going,” the 49-year-old said.

    He seems to have tapped into something deep in the human DNA — a need to be able to start a fire, use tools and master the wild. But Grylls thinks it’s more than that.

    “I really believe it’s a state of mind. We don’t have to be in the wild to live an adventurous life,” he said. “It’s how we live our life, how we approach our work, our relationships, our dreams, our aspirations, our interactions with people. Are we leaning on the adventure side? Are we always pushing the boundaries, taking a few risks?”

    ___

    Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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  • Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

    Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

    A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

    “Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

    The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

    Hollywood productions and promotional tours around the world have been put on indefinite hold as actors join writers on the picket lines.

    SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, center, pose with SAG-AFTRA members during a press conference announcing a strike by The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Thursday, July, 13, 2023, in Los Angeles. This marks the first time since 1960 that actors and writers will picket film and television productions at the same time. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

    Hollywood actors are joining screenwriters in the first dual strike from the two unions in more than six decades, with huge consequences for the film and television industry.

    Smoke rises as an engine for an Epsilon S rocket exploded during a test at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's testing site in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Friday, July 14, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)

    A rocket being developed by the Japanese space agency has exploded during testing but there were no reports of injuries.

    This image released by Apple TV+ shows Lee Pace, left, and Terrence Mann in a scene from "Foundation." (Apple TV+ via AP)

    A sprawling, mighty galaxy was created in season one of “Foundation.” Now it’s time to rip it down. Season two of the ambitious Apple TV+ sci-fi series flashes forward some 140 years and it’s quickly clear that the clones who form the story’s authoritarian order are losing their grip.

    Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

    The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

    The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

    In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

    The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

    Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

    Justine Bateman, right, speaks outside Netflix during a Writers Guild rally as a strike by The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is announced on Thursday, July 13, 2023, in Los Angeles. This marks the first time since 1960 that actors and writers will picket film and television productions at the same time. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

    Justine Bateman, right, speaks outside Netflix during a Writers Guild rally as a strike by The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is announced in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

    “I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

    Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

    No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

    “What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

    Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

    The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

    The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

    A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

    “This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

    The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

    The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

    ___

    Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

    ___

    For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • FACT FOCUS: A story about a deadly TikTok boat-jumping challenge went viral. Then it fell apart

    FACT FOCUS: A story about a deadly TikTok boat-jumping challenge went viral. Then it fell apart

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    As the July 4 holiday approached, a local news report in Alabama warned of a deadly TikTok challenge that involved jumping from a speeding boat.

    “Last six months we have had four drownings that were easily avoidable,” Jim Dennis, captain of the Childersburg Rescue Team, told the local ABC affiliate station in Birmingham, Alabama, in a story that aired July 3. “They were doing a TikTok challenge.”

    National and international news outlets snapped up the report, cautioning about the trend. But Alabama’s main public safety agency says while there have been boating fatalities this year, no such deaths have been reported. A spokesperson for TikTok also says no boat jumping challenge is trending on its platform.

    President Joe Biden says it is “irresponsible” of an Alabama senator to block confirmation of military officers in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or reproductive care.

    Police say an initial investigation shows the man who shot two on-duty firefighters at an Alabama firehouse had a personal conflict with one of them.

    FILE - Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., talks during a television interview before former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., June 13, 2023. Tuberville is backing off his defense of white nationalists, telling reporters in the Capitol that white nationalists "are racists." Tuberville's brief comment Tuesday, July 11, follows several media interviews in which he has repeatedly declined to describe white nationalists as racist. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

    Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is backing off his defense of white nationalists, telling reporters in the Capitol that white nationalists “are racists.”

    FILE - People wait to vote on Super Tuesday in the gymnasium at Cleveland Park Community Center, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. While most GOP presidential candidates are focused only on early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis also are looking ahead to Super Tuesday. March 5, 2024 is when the largest number of of delegates are up for grabs of any single day in the primary cycle. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

    As the Republican presidential primary intensifies this summer, most White House hopefuls are devoting their time to events in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that will kick off the nomination process early next year.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: Four people attempting a viral TikTok challenge have died jumping from moving boats in Alabama recently.

    THE FACTS: The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which oversees the state’s public safety agencies, tweeted on Monday to dispel the viral rumors.

    The agency said its Marine Patrol Division had “no records of boating or marine-related deaths that could be directly linked to TikTok or a trend on TikTok.”

    It noted that one person was fatally injured after jumping from a moving boat in 2020 and a similar case happened in 2021, but that neither death was linked to TikTok.

    In a follow up email to The Associated Press, the agency provided details about six water-related deaths marine patrol investigated so far this year. None of the incident reports mentions TikTok or any such challenge.

    On July 8, for example, a 79-year-old man drowned after falling off his boat without a life vest while fishing overnight on a river. A day earlier, a 65-year-old man drowned after he got off a pontoon boat to help a dog in a lake.

    The other fatalities included a 19-year-old who crashed his jet ski into a tree in May and a man who apparently drowned in January after the vessel he was on struck a bridge and capsized.

    People magazine, the New York Post and a number of other major outlets that initially reported on the TikTok challenge deaths have since updated their stories to include the state’s response.

    But social media users, in English and in Spanish, are still sharing the claims as accurate. Some even include videos purporting to show the victims.

    “Police say at least 4 people have died doing the TikTok boat jumping challenge,” wrote one Twitter user in a widely shared post that included various video clips of people diving off moving boats. “When they jumped out of the boat, they literally broke their neck … instant death.”

    Meanwhile Dennis, the local first responder quoted in the original story, walked back his comments after state officials weighed in this week.

    He told AL.com, another local news outlet in Alabama, that his remarks during an interview about boating safety were taken out of context, but he maintained that his organization has responded to reports of people who jumped off boats this year.

    “It got blown way out of proportion,” said Dennis, who didn’t respond to requests for additional comment this week.

    The ABC affiliate in Birmingham also declined to comment, but in a story Monday about the state’s response, the station included Dennis’ full, unedited interview.

    Ben Rathe, a spokesperson for TikTok, stressed “boat jumping” has never trended on platform, echoing a statement the company’s office in Mexico City previously provided in Spanish.

    TikTok also said it does not comment on things that are “not part (of the platform) / are not trending on the platform.”

    Like other social media companies, TikTok has seen any number of “challenges” go viral over the years, from the potentiallyhazardous and destructive to the outright criminal and deadly.

    Elizabeth Losh, an American Studies professor at William & Mary, a university in Williamsburg, Virginia, who has studied TikTok trends, confirmed some posts featuring people jumping off boats are visible on the site — including one from 2019 with the hashtag #boatjumpchallenge — but don’t appear to be particularly viral or widespread.

    She also noted TikTok has placed warning labels over some of the posts.

    The social network’s community guidelines prohibit users from showing or promoting “ dangerous activities and challenges,” which includes “dares, games, tricks, inappropriate use of dangerous tools, eating substances that are harmful to one’s health, or similar activities that may lead to significant physical harm.”

    ___

    Ramirez reported from Mexico City. Associated Press reporter Karena Phan in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.

    ___

    This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

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  • Hollywood actors agree to mediation, but strike may be unavoidable

    Hollywood actors agree to mediation, but strike may be unavoidable

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Unionized Hollywood actors on the verge of a strike have agreed to allow a last-minute intervention from federal mediators but say they doubt a deal will be reached by a negotiation deadline late Wednesday.

    “We are committed to the negotiating process and will explore and exhaust every possible opportunity to make a deal, however we are not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement,” the Screen Actors Guild -American Federation of Radio and Television Artists said in a statement Tuesday night.

    The actors could join the already striking Writers Guild of America and grind the already slowed production process to a halt if no agreement is reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The sides agreed to an extension before the original contract expiration date on June 30, resetting it to Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.

    Theatergoers in select cities will soon be able to watch “20 Days in Mariupol,” the visceral documentary on Russia’s early assault on the Ukrainian city.

    This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy as Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from "Oppenheimer," left, and physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer on the test ground for the atomic bomb near Alamogordo, N.M., on Sept. 9, 1945. (Universal Pictures via AP, left, and AP Photo)

    The day Christopher Nolan called Cillian Murphy about his new film, “Oppenheimer,” Murphy hung up the phone in disbelief.

    This image released by Universal Pictures shows Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, left, and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)

    Christopher Nolan has never been one to take the easy or straightforward route while making a movie.

    This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Gonzalo de Castro, Georgina Campbell, Mario Casas and Naila Schuberth in a scene from "Bird Box: Barcelona." (Andrea Resmini/Netflix via AP)

    Netflix tries to capitalize on the popularity of its 2018 film “Bird Box” with “Bird Box Barcelona,” set in the Spanish city around the same time, with a new cast that does not include Sandra Bullock.

    Issues on the table in negotiations include the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and effects on residual pay brought on by the streaming ecosystem that has emerged in recent years.

    “People are standing up and saying this doesn’t really work, and people need to be paid fairly,” Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, who was nominated for her first Emmy Award Wednesday for playing Tammy Wynette in “George & Tammy,” told The Associated Press. “It is very clear that there are certain streamers that have really kind of changed the way we work and the way that we have worked, and the contracts really haven’t caught up to the innovation that’s happened.”

    Growing pessimism surrounding the talks seemed to turn to open hostility when SAG-AFTRA released a statement Tuesday night.

    It came in response to a report in Variety that a group of Hollywood CEOs had been the force behind the request for mediation, which the union said was leaked before its negotiators were informed of the request.

    The AMPTP declined comment through a representative. It’s not clear whether federal mediators have agreed to take part, but such an intervention would presumably require more time than the hours left on the contract.

    “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the SAG-AFTRA statement said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

    ___

    AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.

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  • ‘A puddle of emotions’: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Sarah Snook, Jessica Chastain react to Emmy nominations

    ‘A puddle of emotions’: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Sarah Snook, Jessica Chastain react to Emmy nominations

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    Reactions from select nominees for the 2023 Emmy Awards.

    SHERYL LEE RALPH

    “I am a puddle of emotions! It is just absolutely crazy. It, I mean, I am living one spectacular year. … In all honesty, it could never ever be about me trying to beat that moment (of last year’s ceremony, when Ralph won her Emmy and stole the show, singing much of her speech). Maybe they’ll ask me to host it! That moment was something. as all of my friends say that’s something you worked for Sheryl. That’s something you waited for and you received the gift, now, just sit back and be lovely and I’m gonna just sit back and be lovely! And so thankful to everybody who thought that it should be me … for me to be in a space where that is happening for me after all of these years, I’m just so happy. I am SO happy.” — Ralph, who’s nominated for best supporting actress in a comedy for ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”

    JESSICA CHASTAIN

    “It’s incredible … the thing that was the most shocking in the journey is that when Mike Shannon came on, he was pretty adamant that we sing live, and he’s someone who’s in a band. He’s used to things like that. …. he really wanted it to be as authentic as possible, which I appreciate. But it also meant that I was absolutely out of my comfort zone. And 95% of what we have in the show was done on set in the shot that you’re seeing it, it was done live in front of audiences. So that, that is unlike anything I’ve done before, that’s scarier … that’s me way, way, way doing something I just never thought I could even mentally be capable of.” — Chastain, nominated for best actress in a limited or anthology series or movie — her first Emmy nod — for “George & Tammy.”

    SARAH SNOOK

    “I knew the news was coming (overnight, in Australia) but I decided to wait until my (baby) daughter woke me up. And at 4 a.m. I rolled over and checked my text messages and yeah, a bunch of stuff was coming in from the States, very exciting! … Having the show finish up and getting a nomination and also so many for the cast and crew and everybody involved is so special. It feels like a real sense of closure. It’s sad that we don’t get the opportunity to continue it, but it’s also such a nod to how great it was when it was going. … I have had fans come up and say, ‘Oh, you’ve really inspired me (as her character, Shiv Roy) or, ‘My daughter really looks up to you,’ and there’s a part of me that wants to say, ‘I hope the good bits! You know, not the repressed anger or the conniving, Machiavellian bits!’” — Snook, nominated for best actress in a drama for “Succession.”

    TARAJI P. HENSON

    “About 30 years ago, I moved out here because I thought I would land a huge sitcom. And quite to the contrary, I booked ‘Baby Boy’ and it was drama after drama. What I came out here to do is comedy. I wanted to be a comedic actress. I guess what’s different about this nomination is getting nominated for what I actually came out to Hollywood to do.” — Henson, nominated for best guest actress in a comedy series for “Abbott Elementary.”

    RILEY KEOUGH

    “I hope I made them proud. I’m sure I do. I hope that I continue to make them proud.” — Keough, the daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley and eldest grandchild of the late Elvis Presley, who’s nominated for best actress in a limited or anthology series or movie for her role in Amazon’s “Daisy Jones & The Six.”

    NIECY NASH-BETTS

    “You never know. This industry can be very fickle. You just don’t know. I knew that I was proud of my work. I didn’t know people were going to rally in support of it this way. What I am is grateful.” — Nash-Betts, nominated for best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie for her role as Glenda Cleveland in the Netflix series “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”

    LORENE SCAFARIA

    “They really stuck the landing. It’s just such an extraordinary achievement to leave the characters in such a satisfying way and yet so brutal and so telling and so tragic — it’s a tragedy, at its heart. It’s very hard to make a show that sticks the landing, let alone resonates with people and becomes part of the zeitgeist. It’s just honestly lightning-in-a-bottle casting, and its (creator and showrunner) Jesse Armstrong leading from a place that’s so collaborative and gives people a lot of freedom … but has a vision the entire time.” — Scafaria, nominated for directing the “Sucession” episode “Living+.”

    JAMES MARSDEN

    “I really wasn’t anticipating this kind of love, or even the nomination. I know everybody says that, but I really wasn’t. I just yelled as loud as I could. I think I levitated off the couch a few feet. It was pretty, pretty exciting. (This show) has just been a constant stream of surprises. It’s just a testament to what we pulled off.” — Marsden, nominated for best supporting actor in a comedy for ”Jury Duty.”

    ALLEN HUGHES

    “I’m happy that Afeni’s story that was lost in history is getting recognized. She had a meaningful narrative that never gets talked about. Both of their contributions are important to our culture, but particularly hers.” — Hughes, director, on his two nominations for the FX docuseries “Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur.”

    NATHAN LANE

    “No, it doesn’t get old! In this day and age with the enormous amount of really great television, to be included in such wonderful company is incredibly gratifying and I feel very happy and lucky. … As a character actor of a certain age, it’s nice to still get invited to the party. (Working on “Only Murders in the Building”) is about, “Let’s have a good time. Let’s do our work and do it to the best of our ability, but also it really is about enjoying it, having fun with one another. It’s just a wonderful atmosphere and, and you feel very supported and free to try things. — Lane, on his eighth Emmy nomination (including a win last year), for guest actor in a comedy series for ”Only Murders in the Building.”

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  • Police say there’s no sign of crime by BBC anchor who allegedly paid teen for sexual photos

    Police say there’s no sign of crime by BBC anchor who allegedly paid teen for sexual photos

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    LONDON — There’s no evidence a BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos committed a crime, London police said Wednesday as the broadcaster’s wife publicly identified him for the first time as veteran news anchor Huw Edwards.

    Metropolitan police decided to take no further action after speaking with the alleged victim and that person’s parents. The parents told The Sun newspaper last week that the presenter had been allowed to remain on air after the mother complained to the BBC in May that he paid the youth 35,000 pounds ($45,000) starting in 2020 when the person was 17.

    As the story topped the news in Britain all week and embroiled the BBC in scandal, speculation swirled about the identify of the presenter. Some of the BBC’s biggest on-air personalities publicly said it wasn’t them and others called on the unnamed presenter to come forward.

    Edward’s wife, Vicky Flind, named her husband late Wednesday and said he was hospitalized with serious mental health issues.

    After “five extremely difficult days for our family,” Flind said she was naming him “primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children.”

    “The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future,” she said.

    Edwards, 61, is one of Britain’s best-known and most authoritative news broadcasters, lead anchor on the BBC’s nighttime news and the face of its election coverage. He led BBC coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September. He’s among the broadcaster’s best-paid stars, with an annual salary of at least 435,000 pounds ($565,000).

    The father of five said in a 2021 documentary that depression had left him bedridden for periods over two decades.

    The BBC said it would continue its investigation into the matter.

    The U.K.’s publicly funded national broadcaster had scrambled to deal with the crisis after the claims were first published by The Sun over the weekend. It said it became aware of a complaint in May but “new allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature.”

    It did not name Edwards, but said it had suspended a male star over the allegations. He last appeared on air a week ago in Edinburgh for a special broadcast on Scottish celebrations of the coronation of King Charles III.

    A lawyer representing the young person in question, who was not named, told the BBC earlier this week that “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality.” The lawyer said the allegations reported in The Sun were “rubbish.”

    The tabloid defended its reporting, saying that concerned parents had made a complaint to the BBC that had not been acted on.

    The Metropolitan Police issued a statement Wednesday saying no further action would be taken.

    “Detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command have now concluded their assessment and have determined there is no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed,” the force said.

    Though the age of sexual consent in Britain is 16, it is a crime to make or possess indecent images of anyone under 18.

    Jon Sopel, the former BBC News North America editor, sent his best wishes to Edwards and his family.

    “This is an awful and shocking episode, where there was no criminality, but perhaps a complicated private life,” Sopel tweeted. “That doesn’t feel very private now. I hope that will give some cause to reflect.”

    The episode comes less than two months after commercial U.K. broadcaster ITV faced its own scandal when Phillip Schofield, a long-time host on the channel’s popular morning show, quit in May, admitting he had lied about an affair with a much younger colleague.

    The BBC has been hit by several scandals involving its stars over the years, most notoriously when longtime children’s TV host Jimmy Savile was exposed after his death in 2011 as a pedophile who abused children and teens over several decades.

    ___

    Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

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  • What to stream this week: ‘Asteroid City,’ Lukas Nelson, ‘Quarterback’ and ‘Secrets of Playboy’

    What to stream this week: ‘Asteroid City,’ Lukas Nelson, ‘Quarterback’ and ‘Secrets of Playboy’

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    Albums from Lukas Nelson and Kool & The Gang plus a Spanish-language spin-off of “Bird Box” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the dinosaur-hunting video game Exoprimal and the new Netflix series “Quarterback,” which takes an unprecedented look at the lives of popular QBs Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

    — Wes Anderson’s stylish and star-studded “Asteroid City” is coming to premium video on demand (VOD) on Tuesday. This outing is a whimsically constructed play-within-a-play that’s set in the American midcentury Desert West at a junior stargazer convention, bringing together several kid geniuses, their parents, including Scarlett Johansson’s Marilyn-esque movie star and Jason Schwartzman’s widowed war photographer, scientists, military types, some singing cowboys and a very special cameo from Jeff Goldblum. I wrote in my review that it is very, very Wes Anderson and also a return to form. It’ll also still be available in theaters around the country for anyone still hoping to catch it on the big screen.

    — Remember the Sandra Bullock-in-a-blindfold movie “Bird Box” that seemingly everyone with a Netflix account watched over the holidays in 2018? Well, the streamer made a spin-off, in Spanish, that will debut on Friday, July 14. The blindfolds are once again paramount in “Bird Box Barcelona,” in which a father played by Mario Casas tries to protect his daughter from the monsters. Álex and David Pastor wrote and directed this installment based on Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel.

    — Several other films big and small will be available on VOD starting on Tuesday, including “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” set in 1994 and starring Dominique Fishback and Anthony Ramos. There’s also the independent gem “The Starling Girl,” a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl (Eliza Scanlen) who is trying to find her identity while adhering to the rules of her isolated religious community. Her life gets complicated when she develops a crush on the handsome youth pastor (Lewis Pullman).

    — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

    — Country star Lukas Nelson calls his latest album “the perfect setlist.” “Sticks and Stones,” the follow-up release to his 2021 album “A Few Stars Apart,” includes the first single, “More Than Friends,” featuring Lainey Wilson. Another single, “Alcohallelujah,” touches on both the highs and lows of drinking, with Nelson singing: “Forgive me, Father, for I’ve been inspired /I got bars and bars of melodies and memories/May this spirit lift me ever higher.” The new 12-track album, out Friday, July 14, sees Nelson backed by his longtime band Promise of the Real.

    — Kool & The Gang and summer go together like peanut butter and jelly. The R&B, funk and soul icons — celebrating their 60th anniversary next year — have a new album, “People Just Wanna Have Fun.” The first single is infectious stuff, the happy, funky “Let’s Party,” featuring vocals from Sha Sha Jones. The band is led by founding members Robert “Kool” Bell on bass and George “Funky” Brown, the keyboardist, drummer and producer, whose memoir “Too Hot: Kool & The Gang & Me” arrives Tuesday. In addition to Jones, vocals on the album also include Shawn McQuiller, Lavell Evans, Dominique Karan, Rick Marcel and Walt Anderson, plus rappers Ami Miller & Ole’.

    — A 1998 video recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s music theater classic “Oklahoma!” — starring then-newcomer Hugh Jackman — is hitting movie theaters for a lot less than a Broadway ticket. Jackman starred as Curly, alongside Maureen Lipman, Josefina Gabrielle and Shuler Hensley, during the show’s cheered run in London. The film will be screened in more than 800 cinemas around the globe for two days only, on Sunday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 19 – including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Ireland, Norway and Australia. It features some very hummable songs, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and the joyous title tune.

    — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM

    — The title “Secrets of Playboy” alone sparks intrigue and the docuseries was a big hit for A&E because of its in-depth look at an alleged underbelly of the brand and its founder Hugh Hefner. The series returns for a second season on Monday with more interviews with former Playboy models, Playmates, and archival footage that examines Playboy’s impact on pop culture and those directly involved with the company.

    — Football fans: would you like to know exactly what your favorite team’s quarterback is thinking during a season, from practices, to wins and losses, and what they say and do in a huddle? A new Netflix series called – you guessed it – “Quarterback” —takes an unprecedented look at the lives of popular QBs Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota for the entire 2022 season. The players were mic’d for every game and cameras followed them home. “Quarterback” premieres July 12.

    — Season five of the silly, witty, Emmy-nominated comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” premieres July 13 on FX. The mocumentary-style show follows the adventures of a group of vampire roommates living in a decrepit mansion. These hundreds-year-old vampires go out into the world and interact with the population. If it sounds ridiculous, it is, and that’s the point.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

    — California indie developer Night School Studio charmed gamers in 2016 with Oxenfree, the tale of a group of meddling teens who stumble across a series of dimensional rifts while exploring a mysterious island. Night School, which has since been acquired by Netflix, is at long last returning to the story with the much anticipated Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. The sequel revolves around Riley, an environmental researcher who’s assigned to her coastal Oregon hometown to investigate puzzling radio transmissions. Fans of the original — not to mention the supernatural smash “Stranger Things” — can book a return visit for Wednesday on PlayStation 5/4, Nintendo Switch, PC and the Netflix mobile app.

    — Most of us who think about what 2040 will look like are worried about things like war, climate change and our new AI overlords, but Capcom’s Exoprimal proposes a different existential threat: dinosaur outbreaks! Your mission is to team up online with four other players and send the voracious beasts back to extinction. You are armed with futuristic weapons and high-tech “exosuits” of armor — but you also have to compete with other squads to collect the most trophies. Capcom has plenty of experience with fearsome creatures, thanks to its popular Monster Hunter series, but even veterans of that franchise may be overwhelmed when Exoprimal drops dozens of raptors on them at once. The dinos arrive Friday, July 14, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

    ___

    Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.

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  • What to stream this week: ‘Asteroid City,’ Lukas Nelson, ‘Quarterback’ and ‘Secrets of Playboy’

    What to stream this week: ‘Asteroid City,’ Lukas Nelson, ‘Quarterback’ and ‘Secrets of Playboy’

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    Albums from Lukas Nelson and Kool & The Gang plus a Spanish-language spin-off of “Bird Box” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the dinosaur-hunting video game Exoprimal and the new Netflix series “Quarterback,” which takes an unprecedented look at the lives of popular QBs Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

    — Wes Anderson’s stylish and star-studded “Asteroid City” is coming to premium video on demand (VOD) on Tuesday. This outing is a whimsically constructed play-within-a-play that’s set in the American midcentury Desert West at a junior stargazer convention, bringing together several kid geniuses, their parents, including Scarlett Johansson’s Marilyn-esque movie star and Jason Schwartzman’s widowed war photographer, scientists, military types, some singing cowboys and a very special cameo from Jeff Goldblum. I wrote in my review that it is very, very Wes Anderson and also a return to form. It’ll also still be available in theaters around the country for anyone still hoping to catch it on the big screen.

    — Remember the Sandra Bullock-in-a-blindfold movie “Bird Box” that seemingly everyone with a Netflix account watched over the holidays in 2018? Well, the streamer made a spin-off, in Spanish, that will debut on Friday, July 14. The blindfolds are once again paramount in “Bird Box Barcelona,” in which a father played by Mario Casas tries to protect his daughter from the monsters. Álex and David Pastor wrote and directed this installment based on Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel.

    — Several other films big and small will be available on VOD starting on Tuesday, including “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” set in 1994 and starring Dominique Fishback and Anthony Ramos. There’s also the independent gem “The Starling Girl,” a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl (Eliza Scanlen) who is trying to find her identity while adhering to the rules of her isolated religious community. Her life gets complicated when she develops a crush on the handsome youth pastor (Lewis Pullman).

    — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

    — Country star Lukas Nelson calls his latest album “the perfect setlist.” “Sticks and Stones,” the follow-up release to his 2021 album “A Few Stars Apart,” includes the first single, “More Than Friends,” featuring Lainey Wilson. Another single, “Alcohallelujah,” touches on both the highs and lows of drinking, with Nelson singing: “Forgive me, Father, for I’ve been inspired /I got bars and bars of melodies and memories/May this spirit lift me ever higher.” The new 12-track album, out Friday, July 14, sees Nelson backed by his longtime band Promise of the Real.

    — Kool & The Gang and summer go together like peanut butter and jelly. The R&B, funk and soul icons — celebrating their 60th anniversary next year — have a new album, “People Just Wanna Have Fun.” The first single is infectious stuff, the happy, funky “Let’s Party,” featuring vocals from Sha Sha Jones. The band is led by founding members Robert “Kool” Bell on bass and George “Funky” Brown, the keyboardist, drummer and producer, whose memoir “Too Hot: Kool & The Gang & Me” arrives Tuesday. In addition to Jones, vocals on the album also include Shawn McQuiller, Lavell Evans, Dominique Karan, Rick Marcel and Walt Anderson, plus rappers Ami Miller & Ole’.

    — A 1998 video recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s music theater classic “Oklahoma!” — starring then-newcomer Hugh Jackman — is hitting movie theaters for a lot less than a Broadway ticket. Jackman starred as Curly, alongside Maureen Lipman, Josefina Gabrielle and Shuler Hensley, during the show’s cheered run in London. The film will be screened in more than 800 cinemas around the globe for two days only, on Sunday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 19 – including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Ireland, Norway and Australia. It features some very hummable songs, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and the joyous title tune.

    — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM

    — The title “Secrets of Playboy” alone sparks intrigue and the docuseries was a big hit for A&E because of its in-depth look at an alleged underbelly of the brand and its founder Hugh Hefner. The series returns for a second season on Monday with more interviews with former Playboy models, Playmates, and archival footage that examines Playboy’s impact on pop culture and those directly involved with the company.

    — Football fans: would you like to know exactly what your favorite team’s quarterback is thinking during a season, from practices, to wins and losses, and what they say and do in a huddle? A new Netflix series called – you guessed it – “Quarterback” —takes an unprecedented look at the lives of popular QBs Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota for the entire 2022 season. The players were mic’d for every game and cameras followed them home. “Quarterback” premieres July 12.

    — Season five of the silly, witty, Emmy-nominated comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” premieres July 13 on FX. The mocumentary-style show follows the adventures of a group of vampire roommates living in a decrepit mansion. These hundreds-year-old vampires go out into the world and interact with the population. If it sounds ridiculous, it is, and that’s the point.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

    — California indie developer Night School Studio charmed gamers in 2016 with Oxenfree, the tale of a group of meddling teens who stumble across a series of dimensional rifts while exploring a mysterious island. Night School, which has since been acquired by Netflix, is at long last returning to the story with the much anticipated Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. The sequel revolves around Riley, an environmental researcher who’s assigned to her coastal Oregon hometown to investigate puzzling radio transmissions. Fans of the original — not to mention the supernatural smash “Stranger Things” — can book a return visit for Wednesday on PlayStation 5/4, Nintendo Switch, PC and the Netflix mobile app.

    — Most of us who think about what 2040 will look like are worried about things like war, climate change and our new AI overlords, but Capcom’s Exoprimal proposes a different existential threat: dinosaur outbreaks! Your mission is to team up online with four other players and send the voracious beasts back to extinction. You are armed with futuristic weapons and high-tech “exosuits” of armor — but you also have to compete with other squads to collect the most trophies. Capcom has plenty of experience with fearsome creatures, thanks to its popular Monster Hunter series, but even veterans of that franchise may be overwhelmed when Exoprimal drops dozens of raptors on them at once. The dinos arrive Friday, July 14, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

    ___

    Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.

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  • Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends

    Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends

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    DES MOINES, Iowa — The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.

    Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.

    “I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    So, on June 21, he announced that he was leaving KCCI-TV — and his 18-year career in broadcast journalism altogether.

    Gloninger’s experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.

    Many meteorologists say it’s a reflection of a more hostile political landscape that has also affected workers in a variety of jobs previously seen as nonpartisan, including librarians, school board officials and election workers.

    For several years now, Gloninger said, “beliefs are amplified more than truth and evidence-based science. And that is not a good situation to be in as a nation.”

    Gloninger’s announcement sent reverberations through a national conference of broadcast meteorologists in Phoenix, where many shared their own horror stories, recalled Brad Colman, president of the American Meteorological Society.

    “They say, ‘You should have seen this note.’ And they try to take it with a smile, a lighthearted laugh,” Colman said. “But some of them are really scary.”

    Meteorologists have long been subjected to abuse, but that has intensified in recent years, said Sean Sublette, a former TV meteorologist and now the chief meteorologist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    “More than once, I’ve had people call me names or tell me I’m stupid or these kinds of harassing type things simply for sharing information that they didn’t want to hear,” he said.

    A decade ago, far fewer TV meteorologists were talking about climate change on air, although they wanted to do so, said Edward Maibach, the director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.

    The Weather Channel gave its first climate reporter, scientist Heidi Cullen, a dedicated show in 2006. She faced bitter and sexist resistance from some viewers, including conservative leaders, as she challenged other TV forecasters to address global warming in their reporting.

    Climate Matters, a National Science Foundation-funded project, piloted in 2010 and fully launched in 2012 to support reporting on climate change by providing data analysis, graphics and other reporting materials.

    Now TV meteorologists across the country report on climate change, though Maibach said they don’t always use those words. It is increasingly common to at least show its effects, he said, like highlighting the trend of more days in a year hitting temperatures above 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius).

    Even if that kind of reporting resonates with most people, the criticism can be the loudest.

    “If you stop reporting on relevant and important facts about what’s going on in your community because you’re hearing from the one out of 10, it means you are not serving the other nine out of 10,” Maibach said.

    Some meteorologists have seen public interest in climate change grow even in largely red states as flooding, drought and other severe weather has ravaged farmland and homes. Jessica Hafner, chief meteorologist at Columbia, Missouri’s KMIZ-TV, said that with the exception of a few hecklers, she’s seen people respond well to data-based reporting because they want to know what’s going on around them.

    Meteorologist Matt Serwe, who used to work in Nebraska, said the livelihoods of farmers who live there depend on the weather, so they take climate change seriously.

    “You want to know how you can best succeed with these conditions,” he said. “Because at that point, it’s survival.”

    It’s not just a problem in the United States. Meteorologists in Spain, France, Australia and the U.K. also have been subjected to complaints and harassment, said Jennie King, the London-based head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

    Some meteorologists don’t see harassment as a direct result of their reporting on climate change; it’s a pervasive issue in the industry and targets some more than others. TV reporters are more likely than reporters in other mediums to say they have been harassed or threatened, according to Pew Research Center polling in 2022.

    The gaps between Republicans’ and Democrats’ confidence in both the scientific community and the news media have been the widest in nearly five decades of polling by the General Society Survey, a long-standing trends survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. But confidence in both declined across the aisle last year.

    “Science is under attack in this country,” said Chitra Kumar, managing director of Climate and Energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s this larger trend. It’s really unacceptable from our perspective that anyone should have to fear for their lives for merely stating the facts.”

    Gloninger is moving back to Boston to care for aging parents, but he says he’s leaving Des Moines having realized that a small percentage of people who reject climate change make up an overwhelming percentage of the negative comments he has gotten.

    “I know that now with the feedback that I’ve received after the fact, with hundreds of emails, dozens of handwritten letters,” he said of messages that have come from all over the state. KCCI-TV didn’t respond to request for comment.

    “This incident is not representative of what Iowans are and what they believe,” Gloninger added. “At the end of the day, the people have been incredibly supportive — not just of me, but of the efforts that my station has made in covering climate.”

    ___

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Ballentine from Columbia, Missouri.

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  • Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends

    Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends

    [ad_1]

    DES MOINES, Iowa — The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.

    Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.

    “I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    So, on June 21, he announced that he was leaving KCCI-TV — and his 18-year career in broadcast journalism altogether.

    Gloninger’s experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.

    Many meteorologists say it’s a reflection of a more hostile political landscape that has also affected workers in a variety of jobs previously seen as nonpartisan, including librarians, school board officials and election workers.

    For several years now, Gloninger said, “beliefs are amplified more than truth and evidence-based science. And that is not a good situation to be in as a nation.”

    Gloninger’s announcement sent reverberations through a national conference of broadcast meteorologists in Phoenix, where many shared their own horror stories, recalled Brad Colman, president of the American Meteorological Society.

    “They say, ‘You should have seen this note.’ And they try to take it with a smile, a lighthearted laugh,” Colman said. “But some of them are really scary.”

    Meteorologists have long been subjected to abuse, but that has intensified in recent years, said Sean Sublette, a former TV meteorologist and now the chief meteorologist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    “More than once, I’ve had people call me names or tell me I’m stupid or these kinds of harassing type things simply for sharing information that they didn’t want to hear,” he said.

    A decade ago, far fewer TV meteorologists were talking about climate change on air, although they wanted to do so, said Edward Maibach, the director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.

    The Weather Channel gave its first climate reporter, scientist Heidi Cullen, a dedicated show in 2006. She faced bitter and sexist resistance from some viewers, including conservative leaders, as she challenged other TV forecasters to address global warming in their reporting.

    Climate Matters, a National Science Foundation-funded project, piloted in 2010 and fully launched in 2012 to support reporting on climate change by providing data analysis, graphics and other reporting materials.

    Now TV meteorologists across the country report on climate change, though Maibach said they don’t always use those words. It is increasingly common to at least show its effects, he said, like highlighting the trend of more days in a year hitting temperatures above 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius).

    Even if that kind of reporting resonates with most people, the criticism can be the loudest.

    “If you stop reporting on relevant and important facts about what’s going on in your community because you’re hearing from the one out of 10, it means you are not serving the other nine out of 10,” Maibach said.

    Some meteorologists have seen public interest in climate change grow even in largely red states as flooding, drought and other severe weather has ravaged farmland and homes. Jessica Hafner, chief meteorologist at Columbia, Missouri’s KMIZ-TV, said that with the exception of a few hecklers, she’s seen people respond well to data-based reporting because they want to know what’s going on around them.

    Meteorologist Matt Serwe, who used to work in Nebraska, said the livelihoods of farmers who live there depend on the weather, so they take climate change seriously.

    “You want to know how you can best succeed with these conditions,” he said. “Because at that point, it’s survival.”

    It’s not just a problem in the United States. Meteorologists in Spain, France, Australia and the U.K. also have been subjected to complaints and harassment, said Jennie King, the London-based head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

    Some meteorologists don’t see harassment as a direct result of their reporting on climate change; it’s a pervasive issue in the industry and targets some more than others. TV reporters are more likely than reporters in other mediums to say they have been harassed or threatened, according to Pew Research Center polling in 2022.

    The gaps between Republicans’ and Democrats’ confidence in both the scientific community and the news media have been the widest in nearly five decades of polling by the General Society Survey, a long-standing trends survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. But confidence in both declined across the aisle last year.

    “Science is under attack in this country,” said Chitra Kumar, managing director of Climate and Energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s this larger trend. It’s really unacceptable from our perspective that anyone should have to fear for their lives for merely stating the facts.”

    Gloninger is moving back to Boston to care for aging parents, but he says he’s leaving Des Moines having realized that a small percentage of people who reject climate change make up an overwhelming percentage of the negative comments he has gotten.

    “I know that now with the feedback that I’ve received after the fact, with hundreds of emails, dozens of handwritten letters,” he said of messages that have come from all over the state. KCCI-TV didn’t respond to request for comment.

    “This incident is not representative of what Iowans are and what they believe,” Gloninger added. “At the end of the day, the people have been incredibly supportive — not just of me, but of the efforts that my station has made in covering climate.”

    ___

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Ballentine from Columbia, Missouri.

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  • Gabrielle Union Is Defining Success on Her Own Terms

    Gabrielle Union Is Defining Success on Her Own Terms

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    Since you have worked on so many different shows and films, what makes you want to sign on to work on something at this point in your career?

    Usually, I ask myself: Can I live without it? And if that answer is, yeah, then it’s probably not the job for me. But if I’m going to obsess about it, I should do it. That’s kind of my North Star on if I should sign onto a project.  

    You’ve had the privilege of working with and knowing some of the most incredible Black creatives in the film industry and beyond—how have you been able to redefine how you view community?

    There are people I have been in community with who have not been in community with me. But when it’s a symbiotic relationship, it means people are okay with making themselves uncomfortable. If there’s a greater good at stake, it means showing up and standing shoulder to shoulder and being the cavalry when needed. There has to be mutual respect and mutual love on some level, and when that is there, we’re unstoppable. And anytime I’ve stepped out on faith and done a hard thing, I was never alone. Certainly, the Black entertainment community and the global Black community have always been 10 toes down for me, and that’s how I’ve come to define community. It’s asking yourself: do you live this? Do you breathe this? Will you lose sleep if you don’t stand together? I think for a lot of us, it took us a while to get to that point, but now we are arriving in droves at that place. 

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    Jasmine Fox-Suliaman

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  • Celebrity birthdays for the week of July 9-15

    Celebrity birthdays for the week of July 9-15

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    Celebrity birthdays for the week of July 9-15:

    July 9: Actor Richard Roundtree is 81. Singer Dee Dee Kenniebrew of The Crystals is 78. Actor Chris Cooper is 72. TV personality-turned-musician John Tesh is 71. Country singer David Ball is 70. Business leader Kevin O’Leary (“Shark Tank”) is 69. Singer Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge is 69. Actor Jimmy Smits is 68. Actor Tom Hanks is 67. Singer Marc Almond of Soft Cell is 66. Actor Kelly McGillis is 66. Singer Jim Kerr of Simple Minds is 64. Singer Courtney Love is 59. Bassist Frank Bello of Anthrax is 58. Actor David O’Hara (“The District”) is 58. Actor Pamela Adlon (“King of the Hill,” “Louie”) is 57. Actor Scott Grimes (“ER,” ″Party of Five”) is 52. Singer-guitarist Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse is 48. Musician Jack White is 48. Actor Fred Savage is 47. Singer Dan Estrin of Hoobastank is 47. Actor Linda Park (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 45. Actor Megan Parlen (“Hang Time”) is 43. Singer-actor Kiely Williams of 3LW (“Cheetah Girls” films) is 37. Actor Mitchel Musso (“Phineas and Ferb,” “Hannah Montana”) is 32. Actor Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) is 28.

    July 10: Actor William Smithers (“Dallas,” ″Peyton Place”) is 96. Singer Mavis Staples is 84. Actor Mills Watson (“B.J. and the Bear,” ″Lobo”) is 83. Actor Robert Pine (“CHiPS”) is 82. Guitarist Jerry Miller of Moby Grape is 80. Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 76. Bassist Dave Smalley of The Raspberries is 74. Singer Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys is 69. Banjo player Bela Fleck of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is 65. Actor Fiona Shaw (“True Blood,” ″Harry Potter” films) is 65. Drummer Shaw Wilson of BR549 is 63. Actor Alec Mapa (“Ugly Betty” ″Half & Half”) is 58. Country singer Ken Mellons is 58. Guitarist Peter DiStefano of Porno for Pyros is 58. Actor Gale Harold (“Hellcats”) is 54. Country singer Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts is 53. Actor Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”) is 51. Singer Imelda May is 49. Actor Adrian Grenier (“Entourage,” ″Cecil B. DeMented”) is 47. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”) is 46. Actor Gwendoline Yeo (“Desperate Housewives”) is 46. Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas (“American Pie”) is 43. Singer Jessica Simpson is 43. Actor Heather Hemmens (“Hellcats”) is 39. Rapper-singer Angel Haze is 32. Singer Perrie Edwards of Little Mix is 30.

    Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter Coco Lee has died by suicide. She was 48. Her sisters said in a statement on Wednesday that the star had been suffering from depression for several years with her condition deteriorating drastically over the last few months.

    FILE - Rose Leslie, left, and Kit Harington arrive at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif. The "Game of Thrones" stars have welcomed their second child. A publicist for Harington confirmed Monday that the couple, who famously met on the set of “Game of Thrones," have added a daughter to their family. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

    Actors Rose Leslie and Kit Harington have welcomed their second child. A publicist for Harington confirmed Monday that the couple have added a daughter to their family.

    Violinist and singer Brittney Denise Parks, better known as Sudan Archives, appears in a promotional photo. Last week, she made her debut at the Glastonbury music festival in the U.K. (Obidigbo Nzeribe/7 Artist Mgmt via AP)

    Better known as Sudan Archives, Brittney Denise Parks is an avant-garde violinist and singer-songwriter who describes her style as “fiddle soft punk.”

    Actor Kevin Spacey arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Friday, June 30, 2023. Spacey is going on trial on charges he sexually assaulted four men as long as two decades ago. The double-Oscar winner faces a dozen charges at Southwark Crown Court. Spacey pleads not guilty to all charges. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

    A London prosecutor says Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is a “sexual bully” who assaults other men and doesn’t respect personal boundaries.

    July 11: Singer Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is 76. Ventriloquist Jay Johnson (“Soap”) is 74. Actor Bruce McGill (“Animal House”) is 73. Actor Stephen Lang is 71. Actor Mindy Sterling (“Austin Powers”) is 70. Actor Sela Ward is 67. Singer Peter Murphy of Bauhaus is 66. Reggae singer Michael Rose of Black Uhuru is 66. Actor Mark Lester (“Oliver”) is 65. Jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum is 65. Guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 64. Singer Suzanne Vega is 64. Actor Lisa Rinna is 60. Bassist Scott Shriner of Weezer is 58. Actor Debbe Dunning (“Home Improvement”) is 57. Actor Greg Grunberg (“Heroes,” ″Alias,” ″Felicity”) is 57. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin (“The Jeff Corwin Experience”) is 56. Actor Justin Chambers (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 53. Actor Leisha Hailey (“The L Word”) is 52. Actor Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) is 51. Rapper Lil’ Kim is 49. Actor Jon Wellner (“CSI”) is 48. Rapper Lil’ Zane is 42. Actor David Henrie (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) is 34. Actor Connor Paolo (“Revenge”) is 33. Singer Alessia Cara is 27.

    July 12: Actor Denise Nicholas (“In the Heat of the Night”) is 79. Singer Walter Egan is 75. Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 75. Actor Cheryl Ladd (“Charlie’s Angels”) is 72. Singer Ricky McKinnie of The Blind Boys of Alabama is 71. Actor Mel Harris (“thirtysomething”) is 67. Gospel singer Sandi Patty is 67. Guitarist Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum is 61. Actor Judi Evans (“Days of Our Lives”) is 59. Singer Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms is 58. Actor Lisa Nicole Carson (“Ally McBeal”) is 54. Country singer Shannon Lawson is 50. Rapper Magoo is 50. Actor Anna Friel (“Monarch,” “Pushing Daisies”) is 47. Singer Tracie Spencer is 47. Actor Alison Wright (“The Americans”) is 47. Actor Steve Howey (“Reba”) is 46. Actor Topher Grace (“That ’70s Show”) is 45. Actor Michelle Rodriguez (“The Fast and The Furious” films, “Lost”) is 45. Actor Kristen Connolly (“Zoo”) is 43. Singer-guitarist Kimberly Perry of The Band Perry is 40. Actor Matt Cook (“Man with a Plan”) is 39. Actor Natalie Martinez (“Under the Dome”) is 39. Actor Ta’Rhonda Jones (“Empire”) is 35. Actor Melissa O’Neill (“The Rookie”) is 35. Actor Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” ″House of Cards”) is 33. Actor Erik Per Sullivan (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 32.

    July 13: Game show announcer Johnny Gilbert is 95. Actor Patrick Stewart is 83. Actor Harrison Ford is 81. Singer-guitarist Roger McGuinn of The Byrds is 81. Actor-comedian Cheech Marin is 77. Actor Daphne Maxwell Reid (“Eve,” ″The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) is 75. Actor Didi Conn is 72. Actor Gil Birmingham (“Twilight” films) is 70. Country singer Louise Mandrell is 69. Bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza of Twisted Sister is 67. Actor-director Cameron Crowe is 66. Actor Michael Jace (“The Shield”) is 61. Actor Tom Kenny (“Spongebob Squarepants”) is 61. Country singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw is 61. Bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent is 61. Country singer Neil Thrasher (Thrasher Shriver) is 58. Actor Ken Jeong (“The Masked Singer,” “Dr. Ken”) is 54. Singer Deborah Cox is 50. Drummer Will Champion of Coldplay is 45. Actor Aya Cash (“You’re the Worst”) is 41. Actor Colton Haynes (“Arrow”) is 35. Actor Steven R. McQueen (“The Vampire Diaries”) is 35. Singer Leon Bridges is 34. Actor Hayley Erin (“General Hospital”) is 29. Actor Kyle Harrison Breitkopf (“The Whispers”) is 18.

    July 14: Actor Nancy Olson (“Sunset Boulevard”) is 95. Football player-turned-actor Rosey Grier is 91. Actor Vincent Pastore (“The Sopranos”) is 77. Bassist Chris Cross of Ultravox is 71. Actor Jerry Houser (“Summer of ’42″) is 71. Actor Eric Laneuville (“St. Elsewhere”) is 71. Actor Stan Shaw (“Harlem Nights”) is 71. Singer-comedian Kyle Gass of Tenacious D is 63. Guitarist Ray Herndon of McBride and the Ride is 63. Actor Jane Lynch is 63. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 62. Actor Matthew Fox (“Lost,” ″Party of Five”) is 57. Keyboardist Ellen Reid of Crash Test Dummies is 57. Singer-guitarist Tanya Donelly of Belly is 57. Actor Missy Gold (“Benson”) is 53. Singer Tameka Cottle of Xscape is 48. Country singer Jamey Johnson is 48. Musician taboo of Black Eyed Peas is 48. Actor Scott Porter (“Friday Night Lights”) is 44. Actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Fleabag”) is 38. Singer Dan Smith of Bastille is 37. Actor Sara Canning (“The Vampire Diaries”) is 36. Singer Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons is 36.

    July 15: Actor Patrick Wayne is 84. Singer Millie Jackson is 79. Guitarist-singer Peter Lewis of Moby Grape is 78. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 77. Drummer Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd) is 75. Actor Terry O’Quinn (“Lost,” ″West Wing,”) is 71. Singer-guitarist David Pack (Ambrosia) is 71. Drummer Marky Ramone (The Ramones) is 71. Guitarist Joe Satriani is 67. Country songwriter Mac McAnally is 66. Model Kim Alexis is 63. Actor Willie Aames (“Eight Is Enough,” ″Charles In Charge”) is 63. Actor Lolita Davidovich is 62. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 62. Actor Shari Headley is 60. Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 60. Drummer Jason Bonham is 57. Actor Amanda Foreman (“Parenthood,” ″Felicity”) is 57. Singer Stokley of Mint Condition is 56. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin (“Malcolm and Eddie”) is 55. Actor Reggie Hayes (“Girlfriends”) is 54. Actor Jim Rash (“Community”) is 52. Drummer John Dolmayan of System of a Down and of Scars on Broadway is 51. Actor Scott Foley (“Scandal,” ″Felicity”) is 51. Actor Brian Austin Green (“Beverly Hills 90210”) is 50. Rapper Jim Jones is 47. Actor Diane Kruger (“National Treasure,” “Troy”) is 47. Actor Lana Parrilla (“Once Upon a Time,” ″Swingtown”) is 46. Guitarist Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance is 46. Actor Laura Benanti (“Law and Order: SVU”) is 44. Singer Kia Thornton of Divine is 44. Actor Taylor Kinney (“Chicago Fire”) is 42. Actor Tristan “Mack” Wilds (“90210″) is 34. Actor Iain Armitage (“Big Little Lies,” “Young Sheldon”) is 15.

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  • Rose Leslie and Kit Harington welcome their second child, a daughter

    Rose Leslie and Kit Harington welcome their second child, a daughter

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    LONDON (AP) — Actors Rose Leslie and Kit Harington have welcomed their second child.

    A publicist for Harington confirmed Monday that the couple, who famously met on the set of “Game of Thrones” and are now both 36, have added a daughter to their family. Further details weren’t immediately available.

    In early 2021, the pair confirmed the birth of a son.

    The struggle to certify the results of Guatemala’s first-round presidential elections has suffered another setback, after the chief justice of the Supreme Court issued an order blocking the certification.

    This photo provided by Vermont State Police shows Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen. Ebbighausen, 19, was killed and two other officers were injured Friday, July 7, 2023 when a burglary suspect crashed into two police cruisers pursuing him, Vermont State Police said. The two other officers and the suspect were taken to the hospital with injuries. (Vermont State Police via AP)

    Vermont State Police say a Rutland City police officer was killed and two other officers were injured when a suspect crashed into two police cruisers pursuing him.

    FILE - Advocates gather for a rally at the state Capitol complex in Nashville, Tenn., to oppose a series of bills that target the LGBTQ community, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. A federal appeals court has temporarily reversed a lower court's ruling, Saturday, July 8, that had prohibited Tennessee from enacting a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. T (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise, File)

    A federal appeals court has temporarily reversed a lower court’s ruling that had prohibited Tennessee from enacting a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

    FILE - Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics speaks to the media after lawmakers elected him in the Saeima, the Latvian Parliament in Riga, Latvia, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. Latvia’s long-serving foreign minister, known for his tough line on neighboring Russia and strong support for Ukraine, was sworn in on Saturday, July 8, 2023 as the Baltic nation’s president for a four-year term. (AP Photo/Roman Koksarov, File)

    Latvia’s long-serving foreign minister, known for his tough line on neighboring Russia and strong support for Ukraine, has been sworn in as the Baltic nation’s new president for a four-year term.

    Harington and Leslie’s relationship began in 2011 on the set of the HBO megahit series, on which they played star-crossed lovers Jon Snow — a brother of the Night’s Watch with kingdom-shattering secrets — and Ygritte, a rebel wildling. They married in 2018 at Leslie’s ancestral castle in Scotland.

    Since leaving “Game of Thrones” in 2014, Leslie has starred in the legal drama “The Good Fight,” sci-fi romance series “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and the Kenneth Branagh-directed Agatha Christie remake “Death on the Nile.” Since “Game of Thrones” concluded in 2019, Harington has had roles in the anthology shows “Modern Love” and “Extrapolations” and in Marvel’s “Eternals.”

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  • This Ohio museum shows that TV is older than you might think

    This Ohio museum shows that TV is older than you might think

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    The history of television began long before millions of people gathered in front of their black-and-white sets and fiddled with the antenna and horizontal hold to watch Lucy, Uncle Miltie and Howdy Doodie.

    “Everybody thinks TV started in the ‘50s or the late ’40s. Almost nobody knows it existed before World War II and even goes back to the ‘20s,” said Steve McVoy, 80, the founder and president of the Early Television Museum in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.

    The museum holds a large collection of televisions from the 1920s and 1930s, and scores of the much-improved, post-World War II, black-and-white sets that changed the entertainment landscape. There are also several of the first-generation color sets developed in the early 1950s.

    When Justina Machado returns home to her native Chicago, she barely recognizes it. Machado grew up in Chicago’s inner city, in the neighborhoods Lincoln Park, Humboldt Park and Logan Square — all of which she says have been gentrified.

    This combination of images shows "Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)" by Taylor Swift, left, and “I Inside the Old Year Dying” by PJ Harvey. (Republic Records, left, and Partisan Records via AP)

    This week’s new entertainment releases include Taylor Swift’s rerecording of her “Speak Now,” a documentary on Wham!

    FILE - Geraldo Rivera attends The Hollywood Reporter's annual Most Powerful People in Media issue celebration on May 17, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

    Fox News brought cake, balloons and fake mustaches to the set of “Fox & ”Friends” to pay tribute to Geraldo Rivera on Friday.

    FILE - Alan Arkin poses for a portrait in the Fender Music Lodge during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Victoria Will, file)

    Oscar winner Alan Arkin has died at age 89. The popular character actor was nominated three times for Academy Awards and finally won in 2007 as the foul-mouthed grandfather in the surprise hit “Little Miss Sunshine.”

    “The original idea for the museum was to deal with the earliest television technology,” McVoy said. “The sets got pretty boring after 1960, just these big things in plastic cabinets.”

    The collection is one of the world’s largest, rivaled in North America only by the MZTV Museum of Toronto. About 180 television sets are on exhibit, arranged in chronological order, with another 50 in storage.

    “So many of the sets were incredible to see in their original form,” said Doron Galili, a research fellow in media studies at Stockholm University and author of “Seeing by Electricity: The Emergence of Television, 1878 – 1939” (Duke University Press).

    He visited in 2016, and said the museum gives visitors “a better sense not only of the technological aspects of television history but also of its place within popular culture, and modern design and material culture.”

    THE BACKSTORY

    McVoy’s personal history with television also goes back many years. When he was 10 and living in Gainesville, Florida, he was fascinated by his family’s first set. “I tinkered with it, much to my parent’s dismay,” he said.

    He pulled a little red wagon around the neighborhood with a sign that advertised free television repairs.

    “Nobody accepted my offer,” McVoy said, adding it was unlikely he could have repaired a set if anyone had asked.

    A few years later, he began working in a television repair shop and learned those skills. He opened his own shop, Freedom TV, in the mid-1960s, repairing sets and installing antennas atop apartment buildings and motels. Soon after, he formed his first cable-television business, Micanopy Cable TV, followed by Coaxial Communications and Telecinema. McVoy sold his cable holdings in 1999 and, looking for something to do, decided to start collecting old television sets.

    “I never collected anything before,” he said.

    The first set he bought, on eBay, was an RCA TRK 12, which was introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair and retailed at $600, a princely sum at the time.

    “I think I paid about a thousand bucks for it,” McVoy said, adding that it was in disrepair and missing several parts. “A complete one would have cost five or six thousand; the pre-war sets are very valuable.”

    He refurbished the TRK 12, and began collecting more old sets and visiting other collectors who shared his growing passion.

    “All their collections were in their basements and attics,” McVoy said. This, plus his wife’s annoyance at all the old sets cluttering up their living room, hatched the idea to start a museum.

    The Early Television Museum opened in 2002 as a non-profit foundation. It’s housed in a large former warehouse. Each room features an audio guide, narrated by McVoy. Press another button on some of the sets and and a few old shows appear.

    Until a few years ago, McVoy helped restore many of the museum’s televisions himself. “My eyesight and the stability of my hands makes it difficult now,” he said.

    HOW TV BEGAN

    The idea for transmitting pictures goes back to the 1880s. “The problem of television … has not yet been solved,” The New York Times reported on Nov. 24, 1907.

    The first crude mechanical televisions were developed in the mid 1920s by John Logie Baird in England and Charles Jenkins in the United States, and relied on rotating discs to transmit pictures. According to the museum, by 1930, “television was being broadcast from over a dozen stations in the U.S., not only in the major cities such as New York and Boston, but also from Iowa and Kansas. Several manufacturers were selling sets and kits.”

    The screens were small and the picture quality extremely poor, with lots of “fading and ghosting.” Programming was limited.

    Television made what McVoy calls its “formal debut” on April 30, 1939, at that World’s Fair in New York. President Roosevelt’s speech to open the fair was broadcast live, as an NBC mobile unit sent signals to a transmitter atop the Empire State Building. From there, the signals “went out to visual receivers within a fifty-mile radius in the metropolitan area,” reported the New York Daily News.

    RCA and General Electric introduced television models at the World’s Fair. A total of about 7,000 sets were made in the United States in 1939 and 1940, and only about 350 still exist, according to the museum.

    World War II halted the production of TV sets in the United States. Engineers who learned about radar and aircraft communications then applied that knowledge to TV technology after the war, when a boom in sales and programming began.

    There were about 200,000 sets in the U.S. in 1947, and 18 million by the end of 1953, according to McVoy’s research. Audiences loved “I Love Lucy” (which began airing in 1951) and “The Honeymooners” (began 1955).

    The color revolution came in 1954. Sales were initially slow, due in part to cost. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that color sets outsold black-and-white ones.

    “We have (an example of) virtually every set that is available,” McVoy said.

    SEEKING PHILO FARNSWORTH

    At the top of his wish list? A set made by electronic-television pioneer Philo Farnsworth in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

    “Only three still survive as far as we know and they’re all already in other museums,” McVoy said. “If a fourth ever shows up, we’d go to our donors and would be able to get it.”

    —-

    For more AP Travel stories, go to https://apnews.com/lifestyle.

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  • What to stream this week: Taylor Swift, a new animated ‘Superman,’ ‘Biosphere’ and ‘Wham!’

    What to stream this week: Taylor Swift, a new animated ‘Superman,’ ‘Biosphere’ and ‘Wham!’

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    Taylor Swift’s rerecording of her “Speak Now” and survivalist Bear Grylls taking Bradley Cooper and Rita Ora into the wild are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the sci-fi comedy ”Biosphere” starring Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass, and a new spin-off series starring Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan from “The Real Housewives of New York City.”

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

    — Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are the last two men on Earth in the not-too-distant-future sci-fi comedy ”Biosphere,” available in theaters and on demand on Friday, July 7 from IFC. John DeFore in The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it’s “a mysterious and hilarious pic that really can’t be discussed much without saying things a prospective viewer would be better off not hearing.” “Biosphere” is the directorial debut of Mel Elsyn, who co-wrote the script with Duplass.

    — If Paramount+ isn’t in your streaming bundle, “80 for Brady” will be available on Prime Video starting Tuesday. The movie, inspired by a true story, stars Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field as a quartet of best friends, and lifelong Patriots fans, who go to the super bowl to see Tom Brady play. Reviews weren’t great, but most singled out the legendary actors as reason enough to take a chance. Stephanie Zacherek, in Time, wrote it was “brassy, ridiculous and shameless” and also “irresistible,” while critic Katie Walsh singled out the “loose, absurdist” humor of the screenplay. Plus, it’s only 98 minutes.

    — Freddie (Park Ji-min) is a 25-year-old who was adopted as a child, raised in France and decides to return to South Korea, where she was born, for the first time in “Return to Seoul,” coming to Mubi on Friday, July 7. The critically acclaimed film, written and directed by Davy Chou, got a little lost in its theatrical run but made a handful of year-end best of lists. Richard Lawson, in Vanity Fair, wrote, “She’s a fascinating creation, prickly and mercurial and, for a spell, immoral. But Chou eventually rounds his film into something compassionate, a bittersweet collage of a young life in flux.”

    — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

    — Taylor Swift has given us a chance to travel back in time after she re-recorded her sophomore country album, “Speak Now,” her third do-over after “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).” “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” has 22 songs, including six that were written during the album’s original era, but not recorded until recently. Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams are among the guest appearances. Swift wrote on social media: “Since ‘Speak Now’ was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album.”

    — If PJ Harvey’s new album sounds fresh and inspired that’s because the new songs came out in about three weeks and they were recorded spontaneously. “I Inside the Old Year Dying” is Harvey’s 10th studio album and first since 2016’s Grammy-nominated “The Hope Six Demolition Project.” The album is produced by long-time collaborators Flood and John Parish. Lead folkish single “A Child’s Question, August,” is filled with pastoral imagery, sparse instrumentation and the singer’s soprano.

    — Go to Netflix if you’re hoping to wake up before you go-go to celebrate a special pop duo in “Wham!” The 92-minute documentary about the musical pair — George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — lands Wednesday and promises access to personal archives including never-before-seen footage, and previously unheard interviews. The doc, directed by Chris Smith, charts the duo’s four-year journey from teenage school friends to global superstars with hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Young Guns.” Michael died in 2016.

    — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM

    — Part one of “The Lincoln Lawyer” season two drops Thursday on Netflix. If you haven’t watched the series based on the novels by Michael Connelly, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Mickey Haller. Haller is a well-known defense attorney in Los Angeles who has a keen ability to think outside the box in ways to help his clients. He’s also often chauffeured around town in a Lincoln while he does work from the back seat. Season one saw Haller return to law after several setbacks including addiction and a divorce. In season two, Haller is the It Lawyer in town. Season two is based on Connelly book’ “The Fifth Witness.”

    — David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan aren’t the only new Superman and Lois Lane in town. A new animated series, “My Adventures with Superman,” has Jack Quaid as the superhero’s voice along with Alice Lee as Lois Lane. Debuting Thursday on Adult Swim, the story follows Clark Kent as a reporter for the local paper in Metropolis who also happens to be a secret superhero.

    — Adventurist Bear Grylls has found more celebrities to take out of their comfort zone and be tested by the great outdoors. Watch Bradley Cooper venture out into the Wyoming Basin on a new season of “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge,” premiering Sunday, July 9. Other stars featured include Troy Kotsur, Grylls’ first deaf guest whom he takes to the Scottish Highlands, “Doctor Strange” and “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch, Tatiana Maslany of “She-Hulk,” recording artist Rita Ora, and Tony Award-winners Daveed Diggs and Cynthia Erivo.

    — Bravo is sending two of its most iconic Bravo-lebrities, Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” and giving them the “Simple Life”-meets-“Schitt’s Creek” treatment in “Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake.” Normally accustomed to trips to the Hamptons or St. Tropez, the pair jet off to Benton, Illinois, where the population is less than 7,000. The socialites check into a motel and are requested by the mayor to boost Benton’s morale. De Lesseps and Morgan revitalize a local theater with a variety show and build a new program. They also take part in activities like searching a nearby lake for crappie fish with their bare hands or going mudding with monster trucks. The show premieres Sunday, July 9, on Bravo and episodes will stream the following day on Peacock.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

    — In 2004, the Japanese developer Nihon Falcom launched one of the most ambitious video game franchises in history with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Ten titles later, the drama of the war-torn land of Zemuria shows no signs of slowing down, and it has been finding a wider Western audience since NIS America took over the English translations in 2019. The latest chapter, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, is being pitched as the series’ midpoint, so it may be a good chance for newcomers to catch up and the story so far and brace themselves for the endgame. If you relish the turn-by-turn strategy and anime-influenced storytelling of old-school Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games, you can pick up the trail Friday, July 7, on PlayStation 5/4 and Nintendo Switch.

    — Lou Kesten

    ___

    Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.

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