ReportWire

Tag: television

  • ‘SNL’ wins big for season 50 at the Creative Arts Emmys. Obama, Kimmel and Lamar also take trophies

    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Barack Obama won his third career Emmy and Kendrick Lamar won his second, while the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was the biggest winner with 11 on the second night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

    Lamar and Tony Russell won for the music direction of his Super Bowl halftime show. He won his first Emmy in 2022 as a performer at the Super Bowl halftime headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

    Obama won a star-studded documentary narrator category that also included Tom Hanks, Idris Elba and David Attenborough. He won the same award in 2022 and 2023.

    Neither Lamar nor Obama was at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to accept his Emmy. Neither were expected to be, at a show that despite several high-profile winners including Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and Alan Cumming is primarily devoted to behind-the-scenes crew members a week before TV’s stars take the same stage for the bigger Emmys ceremony.

    Presenter Jordan Klepper laughed along with the crowd as he said, “Apparently, Barack Obama couldn’t be here tonight” after announcing the winner.

    “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special,” the pinnacle of a season-long celebration for the NBC sketch institution, won seven Emmys, including awards for its directing, writing, hairstyling and editing. A pop-up immersive experience tied to the special won an Emmy for emerging media and regular episodes of the show won three more.

    HBO’s “Pee-wee as Himself” won four awards including best documentary, posthumously giving its star and subject Paul Reubens, who died in 2023, his first primetime Emmy.

    O’Brien an Emmy for his travel series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” taking his career total to six. And while he didn’t get one personally for the show, Netflix’s “Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For American Humor” beat out football halftime shows from Lamar and Beyoncé to win best variety special.

    Beyoncé did win a previously announced special Emmy for the costumes on her Christmas Day “Beyoncé Bowl” on Netflix.

    Kimmel, who has hosted both the Oscars and the Emmys multiple times, was here to accept his fourth primetime Emmy, for best host of a game show for his work on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

    He thanked the show’s late original host Regis Philbin for making “Millionaire” a cultural phenomenon.

    “Regis was the best at this,” Kimmel said backstage. “It is exciting to have this and to know that he has this same Emmy in his family’s collection somewhere.”

    “Jeopardy” won best game show, while Cumming won best host of a reality show for “The Traitors.”

    The two-night Creative Arts Emmys hands out nearly 100 awards in hyper-specific categories that can bring oddities. Like the Grammys and Oscars winning Emmys, as each did Sunday.

    The CBS Grammys telecast won for its choreography, while ABC’s Oscars telecast — also hosted by O’Brien — won for its production design.

    The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was honored with the Television Academy’s Governors Award even as it winds down its nearly 60-year work after the U.S. government withdrew funding from the institution that has helped pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and TV stations

    The award goes to a person or entity “made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television.”

    “Even an act of Congress can not erase an indelible legacy,” Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, said during the presentation.

    “Queer Eye” won best structured reality show, while “Love on the Spectrum” won best unstructured reality show.

    The Creative Arts show runs quickly and efficiently — 47 awards are handed out on Sunday aloe in about 2 1/2 hours — but the atmosphere is loose. Swearing is allowed because of the lack of TV, as Kimmel showed when he told nominee Will Ferrell to shut up during his speech.

    “This is the Emmys for the people that the people who run the Emmys don’t think should be seen on network TV,” presenter Sarah Silverman said when she opened the show as a presenter.

    The two nights are edited down into one show that will air on TV on FXX on Saturday. The following day, the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Nate Bargatze, will air live on CBS.

    While Sunday honored variety, documentary and reality TV, scripted series had the stage on Saturday.

    “The Studio” won nine early Emmys including best guest actor in a comedy for Bryan Cranston, making it the front-runner to end up with the biggest total after next Sunday’s main show.

    “Severance” was tops among dramas with six awards, including best guest actress in a drama for Merritt Wever.

    “The Penguin” pulled in eight in the limited series categories, and Julie Andrews won her third Emmy at age 89 for her voice-over work on “Bridgerton,”

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that Barack Obama has won three Emmys, not two, and that Conan O’Brien won one Emmy Sunday, not two.

    ___

    For more coverage on this year’s Emmy Awards and recent television shows, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/television

    Source link

  • ‘Severance’ and ‘The Studio’ could rake in early awards at the Creative Arts Emmys

    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Severance” and “The Studio” could bring in a boatload of early Emmys this weekend.

    Over the next two days, nearly 100 trophies will be handed out to many of TV’s finest at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the annual precursor to the main Primetime Emmy Awards, which will air on Sept. 14 on CBS.

    “Severance,” the top overall nominee this year with 27, could win as many as 13 for Apple TV+ on Saturday, which will be devoted to scripted shows while Sunday is dedicated to variety and reality TV. “The Studio,” also from Apple, is the top comedy nominee with 23, and could bring in as many as 12 this weekend.

    The Creative Arts Emmys mostly go to technical and craft nominees who have little name recognition outside their field. Categories include best sci-fi or period hairstyles and best stunt coordination for a comedy.

    But big stars and big moments also emerge. Last year, “Shogun” broke a record for most Emmys for a series in a season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony, before it went on to dominate the main ceremony. And the songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul sneakily joined the elite EGOT club when they won their first Emmy to go with their Oscar, Tony and Grammy trophies for a song they co-wrote for “Only Murders in the Building.”

    The always star-studded guest acting categories will be handed out on Saturday. The guests who played themselves on “The Studio,” the Hollywood satire starring and cocreated by Seth Rogen, make for an A-list set of nominees. Directors Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese are up for their first acting Emmys, and they’ll be competing with fellow “Studio” guests Anthony Mackie and Bryan Cranston for guest actor in a drama.

    The best guest actress in a comedy category includes Oscar winners Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman, both up for their roles on “The Bear.”

    And on Sunday, Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé are both nominated for football halftime shows, while Barack Obama’s competition for his second Emmy in the narration category includes Tom Hanks and Idris Elba.

    The big names don’t always show up to claim their Emmys at these ceremonies, but many nominees this year are also presenters, including Howard, Curtis, Questlove and Maya Rudolph.

    Because of the abundance of more technical awards including prosthetics and visual effects, the Creative Arts Emmys are often a time for genre shows to shine. “The Penguin” and “The Last of Us” could easily collect a set of wins for HBO and streaming partner Max, which led all outlets this year with 142 overall nominations.

    So could “Andor” the gritty, revolutionary “Star Wars” series that is a rare Emmy bright spot for Disney+. Snubbed in the acting categories, 11 of its 14 categories will be handed out Saturday. They include best character voice-over for Alan Tudyk, who provided the bluntly honest dialogue of the droid K-2SO.

    Tudyk’s category shows the strange range of nominees the Creative Arts ceremony can bring. His voice-over competitors include Julie Andrews for “Bridgerton,” Hank Azaria for “The Simpsons,” and Rudolph for “Big Mouth.”

    ___

    For more coverage on this year’s Emmy Awards and recent television shows, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/television

    Source link

  • A TCU Alum is Joining the Cast of SNL This Season

    After a months-long celebration of the 50th season of Saturday Night Live, it’s back to business as usual for the iconic sketch comedy show. Just a few weeks away from the Oct. 4 premiere of SNL season 51, the show announced the abrupt firing of four cast members, including Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Heidi Gardner…

    Simon Pruitt

    Source link

  • Don’t look now, but there’s an AI-generated Italian teacup on your child’s phone. What does it mean?

    In the first half of 2025, she racked up over 55 million views on TikTok and 4 million likes, mostly from tweens glued to their cellphones. Not bad for an AI-generated cartoon ballerina with a cappuccino teacup for a head.

    Her name is Ballerina Cappuccina. Her smiling, girlish face is accompanied by a deep, computer-generated male voice singing in Italian — or, at least, some Italian. The rest is gibberish.

    She is one of the most prominent characters in the internet phenomenon known as “Italian Brain Rot,” a series of memes that exploded in popularity this year, consisting of unrealistic AI-generated animal-object hybrids with absurdist, pseudo-Italian narration.

    The trend has baffled parents, to the delight of young people experiencing the thrill of a new, fleeting cultural signifier that is illegible to older generations.

    Experts and fans alike say the trend is worth paying attention to, and tells us something about the youngest generation of tweens.

    The first Italian brain-rot character was Tralalero Tralala, a shark with blue Nike sneakers on his elongated fins. Early Tralalero Tralala videos were scored with a curse-laden Italian song that sounds like a crude nursery rhyme.

    Other characters soon emerged: Bombardiro Crocodilo, a crocodile-headed military airplane; Lirilì Larilà, an elephant with a cactus body and slippers; and Armadillo Crocodillo, an armadillo inside a coconut, to name a few.

    Content creators around the world have created entire storylines told through intentionally ridiculous songs. These videos have proven so popular that they have launched catchphrases that have entered mainstream culture for Generation Alpha, which describes anyone born between 2010 and 2025.

    Fabian Mosele, 26, calls themselves an “Italian brain rot connoisseur.” An Italian animator who lives in Germany and works with AI by trade, Mosele created their first Italian brain-rot content in March. Shortly after, Mosele’s video of Italian brain-rot characters at an underground rave garnered about a million views overnight, they said. It has since topped 70 million.

    Even as the hysteria over the absurdist subgenre has slowed, Mosele said the characters have transcended the digital realm and become an indelible part of pop culture.

    “It feels so ephemeral,” Mosele said, “but it also feels so real.”

    This summer, one of the most popular games on Roblox, the free online platform that has approximately 111 million monthly users, was called “Steal a Brainrot.” The goal of the game, as the title would suggest, is to steal brain rot characters from other players. More popular characters, like Tralalero Tralala, are worth more in-game money.

    Sometimes, the games’ administrators — who are also players — cheat to steal the characters, a move called “admin abuse” that sent many kids and teens into a frenzy. One video of a young child hysterically crying over a stolen character has 46.8 million views on TikTok.

    In the non-virtual world, some have made physical toy replicas of the characters, while others have created real-life plays featuring them.

    The nonsensical songs have at times gestured to real-world issues: One clip of Bombardiro Crocodilo sparked outrage for seemingly mocking the war in Gaza.

    But ultimately, the majority of videos are silly and absurd.

    Mosele said Italian brain-rot consumers largely don’t care about how the images relate to what is being said or sung. They often don’t even care to translate the nonsensical Italian to English.

    “It’s funny because it’s nonsense,” Mosele said.

    “Seeing something so dark, in a way, and out of the ordinary, that breaks all the norms of what we would expect to see on TV — that’s just super appealing.”

    Italian brain rot didn’t go viral in a vacuum. “Brain rot,” the 2024 Oxford University Press word of the year, is defined as the numbing of an intellectual state resulting from the “overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging material.”

    It can also be used to describe the brain-rotting content itself.

    Lots of content falls into that category. Consider videos of the game “Subway Surfer” split-screened next to full episodes of television shows, or “Skibidi Toilet,” an animated series featuring toilets with human heads popping out of their bowls.

    Those not chronically online might instinctively recoil at the term brain rot, with its vaguely gory connotations, especially as concern about the potential harms of social media for adolescents mounts.

    When brain rot was crowned word of the year, Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl said the term speaks to “one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time.”

    Emilie Owens, 33, a children’s media researcher, agreed that endless scrolling poses dangers for young people. But she said that the concern about brain rot is misguided.

    It’s normal to “view the thing the newest generation is doing with fear and suspicion,” she said, pointing to how past generations have had similar concerns about the detrimental effects of comic books, television and even novels at one time.

    Concerns about brain rot — that it is unproductive and pointless — actually reveal a great deal about their appeal, Owens said. Brain rot is an acute rejection of the intense pressures on young people to self-optimize.

    “It’s very normal for everyone to need to switch their brains off now and again,” she said.

    ___

    Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    Source link

  • Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly reprise beloved roles for

    Actors Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly are reprising their roles in the new series “NCIS: Tony and Ziva.” They speak to “CBS Mornings” about how the spinoff series developed, working together again and what to expect.

    Source link

  • Three intriguing movies for the end of summer

    We’re in that weird, transitional part of the year where the summer blockbusters have died out, but the prestige Oscar-bait is still being held for another month or two. August and September are a crapshoot when it comes to whether the films will be of quality, since it’s normally when the studios release movies they’re clueless about handling or marketing. But wrapping up August, we have a few interesting choices, including a remake of a classic from a modern master, an auteur’s newest provocation, and a darkly funny romcom (also a remake!). Let’s take a look.

    First off, we have Caught Stealing, the new film from Darren Aronofsky, a brilliant filmmaker who has spent most of his career trafficking in heady miserablism with a dash of healthy misanthropy. He’s given viewers hopelessness of drug addiction in Requiem for a Dream, the existential horror of other people in Mother!, the fear of mental illness and obsession in Black Swan, and don’t even get me started on the unintentional misery porn of The Whale. I love several of his movies, but holy hell, they’re hard to revisit.

    Caught Stealing initially seems like a departure as it’s based on an intensely fun page-turner by the great Charlie Huston and the film’s trailers made it look like a fast and loose riff on Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. The film follows Hank Thompson (played by Austin Butler, fully embracing his seemingly effortless movie star persona), a former high school baseball prodigy who, after a horrific injury, is now an alcoholic bartender in 1998 Manhattan. When his liberty spike-sporting neighbor Russ pulls him into some shady dealings with Hasidic hitmen, Russian mobsters and an adorably bitey cat, Hank’s life goes from disappointing to dangerous overnight.

    While Caught Stealing is most assuredly a departure from Aronofsky’s earlier work, there still runs beneath the surface a deadly serious undercurrent that gives even the wackiest moments a violent weight. That said, the film moves like a rocket across period NYC (look for the quick shot of Kim’s Video), and there are a few madcap and exciting sequences more propulsive than anything I’ve seen in his earlier work, but Aronofsky struggles tonally to keep the film either as breezy or brutal as he wants it to be. What initially feels like a good-natured crime caper ends up as a savagely violent and nasty thriller. I’m struggling to decide if that’s a feature or a bug and to really understand Aronofsy’s intentions.

    However, The Roses pulls off that tonal dance effortlessly, front-loaded with wonderfully nuanced work from Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ivy and Theo Rose, who after one of the most sexy and charming meet-cutes I’ve seen in cinema, get immediately married and fall deeply in love. She’s a chef, he’s an architect, and they eventually have two precocious and strange children. If you’ve seen Danny DeVito’s The War of the Roses from 1989, you’ll know exactly where this is going and it’s nowhere good. Ivy and Theo grow to despise each other and things get dark, funny, and dangerous.

    I hate to say it, but The Roses actually works better than the original, with Cumberbatch and Colman having such a gorgeous and homey chemistry that you genuinely want them to fix their problems and not destroy each other’s lives. As funny as the film gets, the Roses are so grounded as characters that it reminded me of my own failed loves and I found it emotionally authentic as well as hilarious. It subverts the cartoonish violence of the original and becomes easily one of the finest comedies of the year.

    Finally, we have Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee’s loose remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterwork High and Low. I don’t want to share too much about the story other than to say it follows Denzel Washington (working with Lee for the first time since 2006’s underrated Inside Man) as a rich music executive who gets caught up in a kidnapping scheme.

    Is Highest 2 Lowest as good as High and Low? Not even close, but nothing ever could be because Kurosawa was always working on a different level than any other filmmaker. Still, it shows Lee more energized behind the camera than I’ve seen him in years, using all of his tricks with editing, score and performance to craft a genuinely compelling film. I have nothing but respect for Lee even attempting a remake of such a stone classic. The movie doesn’t have quite the same thematic depth as High and Low, but is one hell of an entertaining ride, nonetheless.

    That’s the perfect description of all three movies this week, actually. They are rides of differing quality and destinations that emphasize enjoying the journey more than getting caught up in where the train stops. All three are worth the trip, regardless.

    Caught Stealing
    Grade: B

    The Roses
    Grade: B+

    Highest 2 Lowest
    Grade: B

    Jared Rasic, Last Word Features

    Source link

  • Meet the Momagers—and Coaches—Who Really Run Sorority Rush

    When you were casting the mother-daughter pairs, what qualities attracted you?

    It’s so funny because there are certain formulas that people might have, and I don’t know that we necessarily had a formula. We were very familiar with this world, especially the online world, and I was always curious to know more about the girls who gave us their OOTDs [Outfit of the Day]. We thought about how they might present on TikTok, how in-depth we felt we could go with their stories, and we weighed how comfortable they were with sharing.

    One of the first casting tapes to come through would be our first episode. It was Carol Anne [an Auburn alum who loved her sorority] and Emily [Carol Anne’s daughter and a rising Auburn freshman who was feeling nervous about rushing]. The pure excitement, the stakes, and a little bit of fear—all of that just came through so loud and clear. The dynamic between Emily and her mom, it was really compelling in a way that extended well beyond sorority rush.

    Authenticity was a huge thing for us. I think we all look for authenticity when we’re watching creators online, but for us, we wanted to make sure that we were filming with people who were very comfortable being open and sharing their experience with us and sharing the struggles.

    The show focuses on the way that rush is a rite of passage, a ritualized series of steps to move from childhood to adulthood. But Alverson and Bradley are so helpful in explaining how sorority culture and aesthetics are attainable with some money and the right approach. The real challenge of rush is figuring out if you actually want to be a part of it. In a certain way, the particularities of each sorority are far in the background of the show. Was that intentional?

    The sororities are really in the background. They weren’t our priority, and they only came up to the extent with Carol Anne and Emily because there was a personal connection to them, so that was important for them. For us, it’s not really about the sororities at all. It’s about the young women and the rite of passage that they’re going through. The sororities are obviously part of it, but the sororities really are in the background. It’s not about them. There can be secrecy around Greek life, but that’s not what we were interested in investigating.

    I don’t know how the sororities themselves feel about the show, but I think we’re really good at knowing where that line is and walking right up to it. There’s a little bit of mischief in this show too—whether it’s through Bill or whether it’s these girls telling their own stories and putting their stories out there into the world. And I think that the young women that we follow have so much agency.

    Did you guys have conversations about what would happen if a given girl didn’t get a bid? Were you worried it might be narratively unsatisfying?

    Erin Vanderhoof

    Source link

  • Tom Pelphrey on new thriller series



    Tom Pelphrey on new thriller series “Task” and working with co-star Mark Ruffalo – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    Emmy award winning actor Tom Pelphrey shares details about starring in the new thriller series “Task.” He speaks to “CBS Mornings” about the show and what it’s like working alongside co-star Mark Ruffalo.

    [ad_2]
    Source link

  • PBS, NPR stations struggle with funding cuts

    NEW YORK — Coping with a sudden loss in federal funding, PBS affiliate KSPS in Spokane, Washington, faced a surprise extra hurdle. Many of its contributing members — at one point almost half — lived in Canada, and they were withdrawing support out of anger at President Donald Trump’s desire to make the country the 51st member of the United States.

    When Congress decided this summer to eliminate $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, it left some 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, each with unique issues related to their communities and history, to figure out what that means.


    This page requires Javascript.

    Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

    kAm|2?J =2F?4965 6>6C86?4J 7F?5 5C:G6D 2?5 2C6 962CE6?65 3J E96 C6DA@?D6] %96 ?2E:@?2= }!# 2?5 !q$ ?6EH@C6?ED[ 2?5 2 A9:=2?E9C@A:4 677@CE 7@4FD65 @? E96 92C56DE9:E DE2E:@?D 😀 E2<:?8 D92A6] }@ DE2E:@?D 92G6 D9FE 5@H?[ 3FE ;@3 2?5 AC@8C2>>:?8 4FED 2C6 2=C625J 368:??:?8]k^Am

    kAmx? $A@<2?6[ z$!$ 92D 2=H2JD EC:65 E@ <66A :ED C6BF6DED 7@C >6>36C 5@?2E:@?D D6A2C2E6 7C@> 2AA62=D 7@C AF3=:4 7F?5:?8] }@E 2?J>@C6] r@?8C6DD =67E E96 DE2E:@? H:E9 2 S`]a >:==:@? 9@=6 E@ 7:==[ 23@FE `gT @7 :ED 3F586E[ 2?5 E96 DE2E:@? 😀 FD:?8 E92E 2D 2 AC6E6IE E@ D66< 96=A 7C@> =:DE6?6CD]k^Am

    kAm“(6 92G6 567:?:E6=J D66? D@>6 2EEC:E:@? 7C@> @FC r2?25:2? >6>36CD[” D2:5 $ 86?6C2= >2?286C]k^Am

    kAmk2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^5@86A3D?AC6=@?ECF>A>FD<hh2c_36e4336ghba_cf276bf`7h`754dQm{@?8 DFDA:4:@FDk^2m @7 2 =:36C2= 36?E E@ AF3=:4 >65:2 ?6HD 4@G6C286[ #6AF3=:42?D 😕 r@?8C6DD k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^ECF>AC6AF3=:42?D3F586E4FEDA6A72CA3D?ACcge7_7dgf`_eg7`c5hf63c4c5f7h33ggQmC6DA@?565 E@ !C6D:56?E s@?2=5 %CF>A’D H:D96Dk^2m 😕 yF=J 2?5 6=:>:?2E65 7F?5:?8 7@C E96 DJDE6>D] %96 r@CA@C2E:@? 7@C !F3=:4 qC@2542DE:?8[ H9:49 5:DEC:3FE6D E96 7F?5:?8[ 92D k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^AF3=:43C@2542DE:?8567F?5:?8A3D?AChcf_g773gb`b5cg“72e42`hh76cdc25QmE2<6? DE6AD E@ D9FE 5@H?k^2m]k^Am

    kAmx? D@>6 A2CED @7 E96 4@F?ECJ[ E96 2?DH6C E@ A=62D 7@C 96=A 92G6 6I466565 6IA64E2E:@?D] !F3=:4 C25:@ DE2E:@? (w”# 😕 (:=>:?8E@?[ }]r] C2:D65 >@C6 E92? Sa__[___ 😕 E9C66 52JD[ 7:==:?8 2 S`fc[___ 9@=6 2?5 E96? D@>6] xE’D 2 D>2== 4@>>F?:EJ 8C@H:?8 72DE H:E9 2? :?7=FI @7 C6E:C66D[ >2?J H9@ 56A6?5 @? E96 DE2E:@?’D ?6HD E@ =62C? 23@FE E96:C ?6H 9@>6[ D2:5 86?6C2= >2?286C z6G:? rC2?6]k^Am

    kAm(:E9 Sdad[___ 8@?6 7C@> :ED 3F586E[ w2H2:: !F3=:4 #25:@ 92D 2=C625J C2:D65 Sed_[___ 😕 2? 6>6C86?4J 7F?5 5C:G6] “xE’D 2 G2=:52E:@? E92E H92E J@F’C6 5@:?8 😀 6DD6?E:2= E@ E96 4@>>F?:EJ 2?5 😀 2AAC64:2E65 3J E96 4@>>F?:EJ[” D2:5 |6C65:E9 pCE=6J[ AC6D:56?E 2?5 rt~] %96 a_ab H:=57:C6D 😕 |2F: 2?5 E96:C 27E6C>2E9 H6C6 4@G6C65 DE625:=J 3J w2H2:: !F3=:4 #25:@ ?6HD C6A@CE6CD]k^Am

    kAm“%96 :?:E:2= C6DA@?D6 😕 E6C>D @7 DFAA@CE 7@C 3@E9 DE2E:@?D 2?5 E96 }!# ?6EH@C< 92D 366? 6IEC2@C5:?2CJ[” D2:5 z2E96C:?6 |296C[ }!# AC6D:56?E] “!6@A=6 5:5 2 =@E @7 H@C< =625:?8 FA E@ E96 G@E6[ 😕 24E:@?D 2?5 42==D] (96? E92E 5:5 ?@E AC@G6 4@?G:?4:?8[ E96J EFC?65 E@ 5:C64E DFAA@CE]”k^Am

    kAm$E2E:@?D 24C@DD E96 4@F?ECJ 92G6 DE@C:6D E92E >2<6 E96> D>:=6i E96 J@F?8DE6C 7C@> u=@C:52 H9@ 4@==64E65 >@?6J 7@C AF3=:4 DE2E:@?D 😕 p=2D<2[ D6?5:?8 2 ?@E6 HC:EE6? 😕 4C2J@?j E96 C68F=2C Sb__ 5@?@C H9@ 42>6 😕 E@ !q$ $@r2= H:E9 2 S`__[___ 4964<[ @?6 @7 E9C66 D:I7:8FC6 5@?2E:@?D E96 DE2E:@? 92D C646:G65]k^Am

    kAm|@DE DE2E:@?D 2C6?’E 😕 2C62D H:E9 D@ >2?J H62=E9J 5@?@CD] |@DE DE2E:@? >2?286CD 2C6 =:<6 y677 w2?:==:@? E@ A2J 7@C E9:?8D =:<6 9:D DE2E:@?’D ?:89E=J ?6HD42DE[ 2 AC:>2CJ ?6HD D@FC46 7@C 46?EC2= 2?5 ?@CE96C? |:??6D@E2]k^Am

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By DAVID BAUDER – AP Media Writer

    Source link

  • PBS, NPR stations working to cope with — and survive — government funding cuts

    NEW YORK — Coping with a sudden loss in federal funding, PBS affiliate KSPS in Spokane, Washington, faced a surprise extra hurdle. Many of its contributing members — at one point almost half — lived in Canada, and they were withdrawing support out of anger at President Donald Trump’s desire to make the country the 51st member of the United States.

    When Congress decided this summer to eliminate $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, it left some 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, each with unique issues related to their communities and history, to figure out what that means.

    Many launched emergency fund drives and are heartened by the response. The national NPR and PBS networks are reducing expected dues payments, and a philanthropic effort focused on the hardest-hit stations is taking shape. No stations have shut down, but job and programming cuts are already beginning.

    In Spokane, KSPS has always tried to keep its requests for member donations separate from appeals for public funding. Not anymore. Congress left the station with a $1.2 million hole to fill, about 18% of its budget, and the station is using that as a pretext to seek help from listeners.

    “We have definitely seen some attrition from our Canadian members,” said Skyler Reep, the station’s interim general manager.

    Long suspicious of a liberal bent to public media news coverage, Republicans in Congress responded to President Donald Trump’s wishes in July and eliminated funding for the systems. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes the funding, has taken steps to shut down.

    In some parts of the country, the answer to pleas for help have exceeded expectations. Public radio station WHQR in Wilmington, N.C. raised more than $200,000 in three days, filling a $174,000 hole and then some. It’s a small community growing fast with an influx of retirees, many who depend on the station’s news to learn about their new home, said general manager Kevin Crane.

    With $525,000 gone from its budget, Hawaii Public Radio has already raised $650,000 in an emergency fund drive. “It’s a validation that what you’re doing is essential to the community and is appreciated by the community,” said Meredith Artley, president and CEO. The 2023 wildfires in Maui and their aftermath were covered steadily by Hawaii Public Radio news reporters.

    “The initial response in terms of support for both stations and the NPR network has been extraordinary,” said Katherine Maher, NPR president. “People did a lot of work leading up to the vote, in actions and calls. When that did not prove convincing, they turned to direct support.”

    Stations across the country have stories that make them smile: the youngster from Florida who collected money for public stations in Alaska, sending a note written in crayon; the regular $300 donor who came in to PBS SoCal with a $100,000 check, one of three six-figure donations the station has received.

    Most stations aren’t in areas with so many wealthy donors. Most station managers are like Jeff Hanks of PBS’ LPTV in Lakeland, Minnesota. He lies awake wondering where he will find $1 million to pay for things like his station’s nightly newscast, a primary news source for central and northern Minnesota.

    “These are extremely, extremely challenging times,” Hanks said. “We’re fighting hard every way we can.”

    He knows membership donations won’t make up for what is missing. Both PBS and NPR have taken steps to reduce the annual dues that stations pay for programming and other services. At PBS, it’s an average 15% reduction, but needy stations get more — in one case, more than half of next year’s dues will be forgiven, said PBS president Paula Kerger.

    NPR is encouraging donors in wealthier areas to adopt stations in poorer ones, perhaps in an area where a contributor has emotional ties.

    Public media leaders are also working with a group of philanthropists led by the Knight and MacArthur foundations that is hoping to raise some $50 million to support stations in areas hardest hit be the cuts. Ed Ulman, president and CEO of Alaska Public Media, which represents nearly two dozen radio and television stations in the largest state, said he’ll be seeking money from this fund.

    Ulman said he’s been buoyed by the response from Alaskans in their effort to raise $15 million through various sources by October. The services their stations provide is free, and citizens see its value.

    “I’ve never been worried about the future of public television or radio because our community needs us,” he said, “and what we’ve seen in Alaska is an outcry about that.”

    Still, Alaska Public Media has suspended the weekly public affairs television show “Alaska Insight,” which isn’t returning after a summer hiatus. The future of “Indie Alaska,” a weekly video series highlighting the lives of Alaskans, is also in danger.

    Some stations are already making the difficult decisions of cutting staff, In Spokane, for example, 12 of KSPS’s 35 staff members have either been laid off, had their hours reduced or pay cut. Reep is also considering that future seasons of local shows like “Northwest Profiles” or the arts showcase “Inland Sessions” will have fewer episodes.

    Similar programming decisions are also being weighed on a national level. While several upcoming shows, like Ken Burns’ six-part miniseries “The American Revolution” scheduled for November, are completed, PBS will have to consider making shorter seasons of its series, Kerger said.

    “We’re working very hard so that the public doesn’t feel that there’s a change,” Kerger said.

    Between an increase in donations and “rainy day” resources set aside, the initial impact of the government action may be minimized. But that brings its own worries: It’s unlikely public media will be able to count on sympathy donors to the same extent in the future. And there’s a risk that some politicians will feel the response proves that public support isn’t necessary.

    The bigger reckoning may come a year from now, Kerger said. “I am a realist,” she said. “I have to believe that there are some vulnerable stations that are not going to make it.”

    The crisis is forcing some public stations to work together, searching for ways to share services in areas not before contemplated, in things like finances, management and programming, said Andy Russell, president and CEO of PBS SoCal. Public stations in Washington are meeting to see if they can get state financing.

    In Los Angeles, PBS SoCal has shared some of its templates for fundraising appeals with other stations. Several celebrities — people like Kerry Washington, Jack Black, Ziggy Marley, John Lithgow and John Leguizamo — have volunteered to film pitches, and the station is making them available nationwide, too, said Maura Daly Phinney, senior vice president for membership engagement and strategy.

    “We’re going to make it,” Phinney said. “The system is going to be different. But we’re going to make it.”

    ___

    David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

    Source link

  • Why Alec and Hilaria Baldwin Can’t Let Go of Their Hamptons Farmhouse

    Alec and Hilaria Baldwin pose for a photo in a kitchen.

    Hidden from a main road in Amagansett, N.Y., Alec Baldwin’s farmhouse has been his refuge for three decades. The actor spent close to 10 years living alone, experiencing highs, like the numerous accolades for his comedic chops on “30 Rock,” and lows, like the messy breakup of his first marriage.

    Alec and Hilaria Baldwin pose for a photo in a kitchen.

    In 2012, he married the yoga instructor Hilaria Baldwin and they had a child and then another and another until they had a brood of seven, plus Mr. Baldwin’s oldest child from his first marriage to the actor Kim Basinger.

    Alec and Hilaria Baldwin pose for a photo in a kitchen.

    The three-story summer home for one on Long Island’s East End had to grow, and so did Mr. Baldwin, 67.

    Alec and Hilaria Baldwin pose for a photo in a kitchen.

    “This was Alec’s safe place for a long time before he met me,” said Ms. Baldwin, 41. “A place he would come during very difficult times in his life: his divorce, a custody battle, everything. So it has been a piece-by-piece process learning how to come together and create something here, which I think is normal in any relationship.”

    Addie Morfoot

    Source link

  • Ethan Coen and Ron Howard drift off course with ‘Honey Don’t!’ and ‘Eden’

    I would never make a ridiculous statement like Ron Howard and the Coen Bros. are remotely in the same league as filmmakers, but I also think Howard isn’t necessarily accorded the respect he deserves from his nearly 50 years as a director. Sure, he introduced the world to JD Vance with Hillbilly Elegy, which is definitely problematic. Still, a part of me will always respect Howard for his work on Willow, Apollo 13, The Missing, and Backdraft. However, A Beautiful Mind is worse than you remember it, I promise.

    Joel and Ethan Coen, meanwhile, have made somewhere around a dozen of the greatest films ever made, including Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men, but haven’t made a film together since 2018’s misunderstood The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Joel made the visually sumptuous The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington in 2021 (and the upcoming Jack of Spades, filming in Scotland this summer), while Ethan is making a lesbian B-movie trilogy, starting with 2024’s Drive-Away Dolls, followed up with this year’s Honey Don’t!, and then finishing with the upcoming Go, Beavers! So far, as filmmakers, the Coens are stronger together. O Brother, Where Art Thou? indeed.

    With Ethan Coen’s goofball queer caper Honey Don’t! and Howard’s new sweaty period drama Eden, both filmmakers feel lost in the weeds of trying to do something different, without making that new attempt at art very compelling. Coen and Howard are capable of much greater works, but it’s still hard not to respect them trying something outside of their wheelhouse after decades of proving what does and doesn’t work with audiences.

    Coen (along with partner Tricia Cooke, who co-wrote the trilogy with Coen and has edited all of his movies since Lebowski) has made a better film than Drive-Away Dolls with Honey Don’t!, but still hasn’t found the cohesion that makes his features with Joel such classics. While Drive-Away Dolls featured effortless chemistry between Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, the script was slapdash and lazy, even as its celebration of women and queerness kept the movie fun to watch.

    Re-teaming with the luminous Qualley, Coen and Cooke find a better balance of ideas with Honey Don’t!, which takes the low-key detective shenanigans of The Big Lebowski and re-imagines them as queer, horny Chinatown by way of The Long Goodbye. On paper, that sounds amazing. A lesbian Lebowski feels overdue; the problem is there isn’t a center to the film to keep those shenanigans meaning anything. I love watching Qualley and Aubrey Plaza teaming up to kick ass and chew scenery, but the tones and themes are too disparate to make the sun-soaked neo-noir film feel like anything more than a scattered and brief diversion. If that’s all Coen and Cooke were after, that’s fine, but there’s a really great movie in here somewhere. I didn’t find it, though.

    Imagine

    Sydney Sweeney in Eden.

    At least Honey Don’t! is entertaining, whereas Howard’s Eden tested my patience and abilities as a professional writer about films. First of all, with a cast like this, it shouldn’t be possible to make a bad movie, but here we are. Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby play characters who flee Germany after World War I and go to the isle of Floreana in the Galápagos Islands. She gardens and heals from her multiple sclerosis while he writes a manifesto intended to call the bourgeoisie to task for the horrors occurring in Germany and across the world.

    Inspired by their story, Margret and Heinz Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl), along with their son, Harry, come to the island to also push back against modern society and become true settlers on a hostile island.

    Finally comes the Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas), a cartoonishly evil caricature who, along with her two boy toys, comes to Floreana to open the world’s most exclusive and snobby hotel. The combination of these selfish, mostly awful people on a tropical island leads to lust, bloodshed, hypocrisy, and madness… in no particular order.

    That’s an incredibly different set-up for your average Ron Howard movie, but he never manages to generate an iota of tension across the entire interminably long 129 minutes. Ana de Armas fails to imbue the baroness with enough humanity for us to care about her plight and, even though we understand her Scooby Doo villain motivations, she doesn’t make the film campy enough for the cheese to land.

    That’s the problem: the script by Noah Pink and Howard’s direction are at odds: Eden is a campy melodrama filled with hammy performances and soap opera plotting, but Howard’s direction is too heavy-handed to find what’s entertaining in the ridiculousness, while Pink’s script is so self-serious that there isn’t a second of levity even with a toothless and shouting Jude Law running around like a madman.

    The only actors that really manage to get away unscathed are a magnetic Kirby and quietly powerful Sweeney, who both layer their characters with multitudes beyond what they’re given. Sweeney catches a lot of grief from popular culture, but she’s a stronger actress than anyone gives her credit for.

    Honey Don’t! and Eden are pretty terrible movies, overall. Sure, there are things to recommend about each, but they’re both too thin as cinema to really work. Howard and Ethan Coen both have better films inside them to make, for sure. Howard also probably has worse. Let’s move on and maybe forget these ever happened.

    Jared Rasic, Last Word Features

    Source link

  • Dallas Might Be Feeling “Superhero Fatigue” at the Movies

    Based on current projections, 2025 will be the first year since 2011 in which the top ten highest-grossing films of the year will not include an installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s possible that it won’t include any superhero films at all — while Superman has earned a hefty $580 million globally, it may fall behind highly anticipated fall titles like Avatar: Fire and Ash, Zootopia 2, and Wicked: For Good…

    Liam Gaughan

    Source link

  • 8/23: Saturday Morning



    Watch CBS News



    Both Menendez brothers denied parole; how an artisanal ice cream shop spread its quirky flavor combinations to more than 40 locations.

    [ad_2]
    Source link

  • Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi welcome first child via adoption

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi adopted a daughter, the first child for the married couple, this summer, they announced Thursday.

    “We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” the couple wrote in a social media statement. No further details were released.

    Brown, 21, and Bongiovi, 23, were married in a private ceremony in May 2024. Representatives for Brown and Bongiovi did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.

    Brown gained recognition for her starring role as Eleven in the Duffer brothers’ sci-fi series “Stranger Things.” The fifth and final season will air this November and December, a culmination of nine years of the show’s production. The British actor has pursued other acting and business ventures in that time, including the Netflix original “Enola Holmes” films and a “Godzilla” film. She even released a romance book in 2023.

    Bongiovi is the son of Jon Bon Jovi, founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi. Bongiovi debuted his own acting career as the star in “Rockbottom,” which released last year.

    Brown stressed the importance of family during the 2024 premiere of her Netflix film “Damsel,” where Bongiovi and his parents were in attendance.

    “I’m just so lucky that they’re here tonight and it just means so much to me,” Brown told The Associated Press then. “Family is everything and just to have my second family here means everything.”

    The couple lives in Georgia. She recently told the AP she enjoys living on a farm, largely disconnected from social media, while promoting her 2025 Netflix film “The Electric State.”

    Source link

  • The guy who wrote the best episode of ‘The Bear’ made a movie about celebrity. It’s great

    Fandom is a funny thing in the age of social media. Spend enough time scrolling and it’s easy to feel like you really know a celebrity, and all their friends. The new film “Lurker,” a Sundance breakout in theaters Friday, explores the question of what might happen if a certain type of fan got a foot in the door, and what they might do to stay there.

    Archie Madekwe’s Oliver hardly knows what’s coming when he walks into a trendy Los Angeles clothing shop. A rising music star, Oliver seems already accustomed to a certain amount of attention wherever he goes, with asks for selfies and autographs just part of the deal. So of course he’s taken aback when one of the employees, Théodore Pellerin’s Matthew, doesn’t seem to know or care who he is. Oliver doesn’t see that it’s an act and is soon asking this stranger to come around and hang with his entourage.

    “At the beginning Matthew thinks Oliver has this god-given place of celebrity and success,” Pellerin said. “He quickly understands that he will have to give things to serve a certain purpose in Oliver’s world and his ego. But also that they’re not dissimilar. They’re both playing by a certain rule book that is written by Oliver. If the power becomes Matthew’s, he can also write the rules.”

    A hot script and a first-time filmmaker

    The film is the directorial debut of Alex Russell, whose own star is rising. He wrote “Forks,” widely considered one of the best episodes of “The Bear,” and won an Emmy for co-executive producing the Netflix series “Beef.” His script for “Lurker,” which he wrote sort of as a challenge for himself during COVID lockdowns, immediately became a hot commodity. Madekwe remembers being bummed when he didn’t hear back after he put himself on tape to play the hanger-on.

    A few years later, Madekwe’s agent called and said Russell wanted to meet him. Not for Matthew, but for Oliver.

    “I had to completely rethink the film and the structure and the what it was about,” Madekwe said. “But it was most daunting to imagine myself needing to go and meet Alex and convince him that I could play somebody like this cool character.”

    He needn’t have been so worried. Unbeknownst to Madekwe, Russell had been doing some stealth behind-the-scenes work. After someone recommended his name, Russell saw Madekwe in a coffee shop one day and just watched him for 20 minutes. His conclusion: This is Oliver.

    A charmed production of young creatives

    Russell was cognizant of the limitations he was faced with as a first-time director making an independent film, where things like casting and hiring are often rushed.

    “My goal was to get what I felt like were underrated actors,” Russell said. “People who could come in and really hit it out of the park. Then people would look at this movie and be like wow they really took a step up here. That’s kind of where you can punch above your weight if you’re making your first movie and don’t have a huge budget.”

    It wasn’t just his leads either, but the full ensemble including Sunny Suljic, Havana Rose Liu, Zack Fox and Daniel Zolghadri — faces you might recognize, but names you might not yet know. Putting it together was hard work, with strict limits on budget and time, but Russell said the experience of “Lurker” was charmed nonetheless.

    “It’s only because I got so lucky with decisions I made early on with casting and hiring,” he said. “So much of it is like I’m just a kid with a screenplay and everyone else has to be really good at their job.”

    When it came to directing the actors, he had a simple litmus test: “Do I believe it?

    “You’re watching the monitor and like do I buy that? Because everyone else is going to have to,” he said. “I just think my cast was very good. I didn’t have to force any performance.”

    Often times Russell’s friends in the music world would come around set, giving the off camera times a bit of a meta quality.

    “It didn’t feel a little like the movie sometimes, like just like a group of like young creatives,” Pellerin said. “There was a real LA film and music scene that was very present. That was helpful for me — it was like the fun aspect of the movie, not the hard-core humiliation.”

    Many involved describe the process as uniquely collaborative. Madekwe also stepped up as a producer, which wasn’t just a vanity title. He was actually involved in many major creative decisions, including recommending Suljic, who he’d just worked with on a music video, and finding locations and some of the music for the film, including a song called “Love and Obsession,” written by Rex Orange County.

    An obsessive thriller for the parasocial age

    “It’s an incredibly important film for now,” Madekwe said. “The relationship that we have with people that we don’t know? I think that conversation is really interesting and exciting. But most importantly, I think it’s really exciting to be at the beginning of Alex Russell’s career and to invest into a filmmaker that I think is gonna be making incredible films for a very long time.”

    The film shares some DNA with what Russell calls “obsessive thrillers” like “Whiplash” and “Black Swan.” In “Lurker,” he wondered “what if the drumming was social climbing.”

    The power shifting power dynamics between Matthew and Oliver aren’t just relevant to celebrities and hangers on. It could apply to any group of friends.

    As Russell explained: “You get a text from your new shiny friend and a text from your old friend: Who do you text back first?”

    Source link

  • Apple Just Hiked the Price of Its Streaming Service by 30%

    Since its launch, Apple TV+ has been the streamer that makes costly shows that don’t have a huge cultural footprint, but it was cheap enough to ignore the recurring charges. That was never going to last.

    Starting today, a monthly subscription to the service will cost $12.99, up 30% or $3 from the previous $9.99. The company said the price increase will go into effect in the U.S. and select international markets immediately for new subscribers. Existing customers will see the higher price 30 days after their next subscription renewal date.

    While raising subscription fees every year or so has become standard in the streaming industry, the increase could help Apple, which is reportedly still losing a boatload of money on the video service.

    The company’s last price hike came in 2023, when Apple bumped the price of the service from $6.99 to $9.99 per month. Since its launch in November 2019 at $4.99 per month, Apple TV+ has jumped 160% in price in just six years.

    Apple TV+ isn’t alone in raising prices this summer. NBCUniversal’s Peacock raised its prices just last month by $3, with its ad-supported now plan costing $10.99 per month and its premium plus tier going for $16.99.

    In a statement, Apple touted the upside that its video streaming service is remaining ad-free.

    “Since its launch, Apple TV+ has expanded its deep library of hundreds of Apple Originals, with thousands of hours of premium programming across genres and brand-new releases weekly — all ad-free,” the company told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. “Subscribers can explore a rich offering of thrilling dramas, epic sci-fi, feel-good comedies and live sports.”

    Apple TV+ remains one of the few major streaming services without a more budget-friendly, ad-supported plan. For comparison, even Netflix, the industry leader, offers an ad-supported plan at $7.99 per month, while its premium ad-free tiers start at $17.99.

    The move comes as Apple TV+ has reportedly been losing more than $1 billion a year, with its spending on premium content far outpacing the revenue it brings in, according to The Information. Still, the service has found favor with critics and viewers alike. It’s become home to hit shows like Severance, which racked up the most Emmy nominations, 27, this year.

    Despite the losses at Apple TV+, the company’s broader services business has been doing well. Revenue from that segment jumped 13% last quarter, reaching $27.4 billion.

    When announcing the latest price hike, Apple highlighted some of its highly anticipated upcoming premieres on Apple TV+. That includes Season 4 of The Morning Show on September 17, Season 5 of Slow Horses on September 24, and Vince Gilligan’s newest project, Pluribus, on November 7.

    Apple also noted that annual subscriptions to Apple TV+ will remain at $99, and pricing for Apple One—a bundle of Apple services including Apple TV+ and Apple Music—still starts at $19.95.

    Bruce Gil

    Source link

  • Singer Tamar Braxton says she ‘almost died’ in weekend accident

    LOS ANGELES — Singer, actor and reality TV star Tamar Braxton said Tuesday that she “almost died” in a weekend accident that she doesn’t remember.

    “I was found in a pool of blood from my friend with a face injury,” Braxton wrote in an Instagram post. “I fractured my nose, lost some teeth and mobility.” She added, “I don’t even know what happened to me.”

    Braxton, 48, earlier in the day had posted “Thank you God for waking me up today,” in an Instagram story.

    She said she was getting calls after and was struggling to talk so she shared what had happened to her.

    The post also said “the way I look at life now is totally different. As my health is on the mend my mental journey begins… pray for me for real.”

    An email to Braxton’s manager seeking more details was not immediately answered.

    Braxton was part of a singing group with her sisters, including Toni Braxton, who went on to a major solo career.

    They and other family members appeared on the reality series “Braxton Family Values” starting in 2011, and Tamar Braxton has since appeared in spin-offs and other reality shows.

    As an actor, her recent credits include the TV series “Kingdom Business.” And she has spent much of the year on a solo singing tour.

    Source link

  • Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 17-23

    Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 17-23:

    Aug. 17: Actor Robert De Niro is 82. Guitarist Gary Talley of The Box Tops is 78. “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes is 76. Actor Robert Joy (“CSI: NY”) is 74. Singer Kevin Rowland of Dexy’s Midnight Runners is 72. Bassist Colin Moulding of XTC is 70. Country singer-songwriter Kevin Welch is 70. Singer Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s is 67. Actor Sean Penn is 65. Jazz saxophonist Everette Harp is 64. Guitarist Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses) is 63. Singer Maria McKee (Lone Justice) is 61. Drummer Steve Gorman (The Black Crowes) is 60. Singer-bassist Jill Cunniff (Luscious Jackson) is 59. Actor David Conrad (“Ghost Whisperer,” “Relativity”) is 58. Rapper Posdnuos of De La Soul is 56. Actor-singer Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) is 56. TV personality Giuliana Rancic (“Fashion Police,” ″E! News”) is 51. Actor Bryton James (“Family Matters”) is 39. Actor Brady Corbet (“24,” “Thirteen”) is 37. Actor Austin Butler (“Dune: Part Two,” “Elvis”) is 34. Actor Taissa Farmiga (“American Horror Story”) is 31.

    Aug. 18: Actor Robert Redford is 89. Actor Henry G. Sanders (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 83. Drummer Dennis Elliott (Foreigner) is 75. Comedian Elayne Boosler is 73. Country singer Steve Wilkinson of The Wilkinsons is 70. Comedian-actor Denis Leary is 68. Actor Madeleine Stowe is 67. TV news anchor Bob Woodruff is 64. Actor Adam Storke (“Mystic Pizza”) is 63. Actor Craig Bierko (“Sex and the City,” ″The Long Kiss Goodnight”) is 61. Singer Zac Maloy of The Nixons is 57. Musician Everlast (House of Pain) is 56. Rapper Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan is 56. Actor Edward Norton is 56. Actor Christian Slater is 56. Actor Kaitlin Olson (“The Mick,” ″It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) is 50. Comedian Andy Samberg (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 47. Guitarist Brad Tursi of Old Dominion is 46. Actor Maia Mitchell (“The Fosters”) is 32. Actor Madelaine Petsch (“Riverdale”) is 31. Actor Parker McKenna Posey (“My Wife and Kids”) is 30.

    Aug. 19: Actor Debra Paget (“The Ten Commandments,” “Love Me Tender”) is 92. Actor Diana Muldaur (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) is 87. Actor Jill St. John is 85. Singer Billy J. Kramer is 82. Country singer-songwriter Eddy Raven is 81. Singer Ian Gillan of Deep Purple is 80. Actor Gerald McRaney is 78. Actor Jim Carter (“Downton Abbey”) is 77. Singer-guitarist Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass is 77. Bassist John Deacon of Queen is 74. Actor Jonathan Frakes (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) is 73. Actor Peter Gallagher is 70. Actor Adam Arkin is 69. Singer-songwriter Gary Chapman is 68. Actor Martin Donovan is 68. Singer Ivan Neville is 66. Actor Eric Lutes (“Caroline in the City”) is 63. Actor John Stamos is 62. Actor Kyra Sedgwick is 60. Actor Kevin Dillon (“Entourage”) is 60. Country singer Lee Ann Womack is 59. Former MTV reporter Tabitha Soren is 58. Country singer Clay Walker is 56. Rapper Fat Joe is 55. Actor Tracie Thoms (“Cold Case”) is 50. Actor Erika Christensen (“Parenthood”) is 43. Actor Melissa Fumero (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) is 43. Actor Tammin Sursok (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 42. Singer Karli Osborn (SHeDaisy) is 41. Rapper Romeo (formerly Lil’ Romeo) is 36. Actor Ethan Cutkosky (TV’s “Shameless”) is 26.

    Aug. 20: News anchor Connie Chung is 79. Trombone player Jimmy Pankow of Chicago is 78. Actor Ray Wise (“Reaper,” ″Twin Peaks”) is 78. Actor John Noble (“Lord of the Rings” films) is 77. Singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 77. Singer Rudy Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers is 73. Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 73. Actor-director Peter Horton (“thirtysomething”) is 72. “Today” show weatherman Al Roker is 71. Actor Jay Acovone (“Stargate SG-1”) is 70. Actor Joan Allen is 69. Director David O. Russell (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Hustle”) is 67. Actor James Marsters (“Angel,” ″Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 63. Rapper KRS-One is 60. Actor Colin Cunningham (“Falling Skies”) is 59. Actor Billy Gardell (“Mike and Molly”) is 56. Singer Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit is 55. Actor Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) is 55. Guitarist Brad Avery of Third Day is 54. Actor Misha Collins (“Supernatural”) is 51. Singer Monique Powell of Save Ferris is 50. Actor Ben Barnes (“Westworld,” ″Prince Caspian”) is 44. Actor Meghan Ory (“Once Upon a Time”) is 43. Actor Andrew Garfield (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) is 42. Actor Brant Daugherty (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 40. Singer-actor Demi Lovato is 33.

    Aug. 21: Guitarist James Burton (with Elvis Presley) is 86. Singer Jackie DeShannon is 84. Actor Patty McCormack (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Ropers”) is 80. Singer Carl Giammarese of The Buckinghams is 78. Actor Loretta Devine (“Boston Public”) is 76. Newsman Harry Smith is 74. Singer Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) is 73. Guitarist Nick Kane (The Mavericks) is 71. Actor Kim Cattrall (“Sex and the City”) is 69. Actor Cleo King (“Mike and Molly”) is 63. Singer Serj Tankian of System of a Down is 58. Actor Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix,” ″Chocolat”) is 55. Musician Liam Howlett of Prodigy is 54. Actor Alicia Witt (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” ″Cybill”) is 50. Singer-chef Kelis is 46. Actor Diego Klattenhoff (“The Blacklist”) is 46. TV personality Brody Jenner (“The Hills”) is 42. Singer Melissa Schuman of Dream is 41. Comedian Brooks Wheelan (“Saturday Night Live”) is 39. Actor Cody Kasch (“Desperate Housewives”) is 38. Musician Kacey Musgraves is 37. Actor Hayden Panettiere (“Nashville,” ″Heroes”) is 36. Actor RJ Mitte (“Breaking Bad”) is 33. Actor Maxim Knight (“Falling Skies”) is 26.

    Aug. 22: Newsman Morton Dean is 90. TV writer/producer David Chase (“The Sopranos”) is 80. Correspondent Steve Kroft (“60 Minutes”) is 80. Guitarist David Marks of The Beach Boys is 77. Guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour is 67. Country singer Collin Raye is 65. Actor Regina Taylor (“The Unit,” ″I’ll Fly Away”) is 65. Singer Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears is 64. Drummer Debbi Peterson of The Bangles is 64. Guitarist Gary Lee Conner of Screaming Trees is 63. Singer Tori Amos is 62. Keyboardist James DeBarge of DeBarge is 62. Country singer Mila Mason is 62. Rapper GZA (Wu-Tang Clan) is 59. Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Oz,” “Lost”) is 58. Actor Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”) is 58. Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is 55. Actor Melinda Page Hamilton (“Devious Maids,” ″Mad Men”) is 54. Actor Rick Yune (“Die Another Day,” “The Fast and the Furious”) is 54. Guitarist Paul Doucette of Matchbox Twenty is 53. Rapper Beenie Man is 52. Singer Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys is 52. Comedian Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 52. Actor Jenna Leigh Green (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”) is 51. Keyboardist Bo Koster of My Morning Jacket is 51. Bassist Dean Back of Theory of a Deadman is 50. Actor and TV host James Corden is 47. Guitarist Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan is 47. Actor Brandon Adams (“The Mighty Ducks”) is 46. Actor Aya Sumika (“Numb3rs”) is 45. Actor Ari Stidham (TV’s “Scorpion”) is 33.

    Aug. 23: Actor Vera Miles is 95. Actor Barbara Eden is 94. Actor Richard Sanders (“WKRP In Cincinnati”) is 85. Country singer Rex Allen Jr. is 78. Actor David Robb (“Downton Abbey”) is 78. Singer Linda Thompson is 78. Actor Shelley Long is 76. Fiddler-singer Woody Paul of Riders in the Sky is 76. Singer-actor Rick Springfield is 76. Actor-producer Mark Hudson (The Hudson Brothers) is 74. Actor Skipp Sudduth (“The Good Wife”) is 69. Guitarist Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots is 64. Singer-bassist Ira Dean of Trick Pony is 56. Actor Jay Mohr is 55. Actor Ray Park (“X-Men,” ″The Phantom Menace”) is 51. Actor Scott Caan (“Hawaii Five-0”) is 49. Singer Julian Casablancas of The Strokes is 47. Actor Joanne Froggatt (“Downton Abbey”) is 45. Actor Jaime Lee Kirchner (“Bull”) is 44. Saxophonist Andy Wild of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats is 44. Actor Annie Ilonzeh (“Chicago Fire”) is 42. Musician Sky Blu of LMFAO is 39. Actor Kimberly Matula (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 37.

    Source link

  • What to Stream: Vanessa Kirby, Maroon 5, Madden NFL 26, Alicia Silverstone and ‘The Chicken Sisters’

    Vanessa Kirby starring in a gritty film about the aspirations of home ownership, “Night Always Comes,” and Maroon 5 releasing their eighth studio album with songs featuring Lil Wayne and Blackpink’s LISA are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Alicia Silverstone leading a new TV crime drama called “Irish Blood.,” the multigenerational, wholesome drama “The Chicken Sisters” rolls out its second season on Hallmark and EA Sports jumps aboard the artificial intelligence bandwagon with Madden NFL 26.

    New movies to stream from Aug. 11-17

    — Isaiah Saxon’s “The Legend of Ochi” (streaming Friday on HBO Max) is a handcrafted fantasy throwback seeking to conjure the kind of magic once found in movies like “The Never Ending Story.” The A24 film stars Helena Zengel as Yuri, a girl who runs away from the forest home she shared with her father (Willem Dafoe) and brother (Finn Wolfhard). She leaves with a baby Ochi, a creature hunted by her father. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote that “The Legend of Ochi” “has the feeling of a film you might have stumbled on and loved as a kid.”

    — Vanessa Kirby may be one of the standout performers of the summer blockbuster “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” but she also stars in a gritty new film about the aspirations of home ownership. In “Night Always Comes” (Thursday on Netflix), Kirby plays a woman going to extreme lengths to secure a home for her family. The movie, directed by Benjamin Caron and adapted from Willy Vlautin’s best-selling novel, takes place over a single night.

    — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

    New music to stream from Aug. 11-17

    — Maroon 5 will release their eighth studio album, “Love is Like,” on Friday via Interscope Records. Expect smooth, funky pop music — like the sultry “All Night.” Singer Adam Levine and Co. continue their trend of unexpected and delightful collaborations as well, with songs featuring Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red and Blackpink’s LISA. You read that correctly.

    — Clifford Antone opened Antone’s, one of the most storied music venues in Austin, Texas, with an inaugural performance by the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier in 1975. In the decades since, Antone’s has become the stuff of mythology; a performance space that embraces its history and looks towards its future. A new box set out Friday from New West Records seeks to celebrate Antone’s legacy with “Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues.”

    — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

    New series to stream from Aug. 11-17

    — The multigenerational, wholesome drama “The Chicken Sisters” rolls out its second season on Hallmark. The series stars Schuyler Fisk, Lea Thompson, Wendie Malick and Genevieve Angelson as family members in a small town divided over their rival fried chicken businesses. It’s based on a novel of the same name. The series streams new episodes beginning Monday on Hallmark+.

    — Alicia Silverstone leads the new crime drama called “Irish Blood.” She plays Fiona, a woman who has been led to believe her father abandoned her as a child — and has carried around some heavy emotional baggage ever since. When she learns the truth is more complicated — not to mention dangerous — she heads to Ireland to investigate. The premiere of the six-part show drops Monday on Acorn TV.

    — A new one for the kiddos is the Disney Jr. series “Iron Man and his Awesome Friends,” coming to Disney+. The first 10 episodes drop Tuesday. The show follows besties and fellow geniuses, Tony Stark, Riri Williams and Amadeus Cho, who team up to solve problems.

    — Chris Hemsworth continues his quest to live a healthier, more present, and longer life in a second season of “Limitless,” now called “Limitless: Live Better Now.” The three-part docuseries sees Hemsworth learn more about brain power (with help from his friend and recording artist Ed Sheeran), risk and pain. The three episodes stream on Hulu and Disney+ beginning Friday.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    New video games to play from Aug. 11-17

    — EA Sports is jumping aboard the artificial intelligence bandwagon with Madden NFL 26, promising “a new AI-powered machine learning system trained by real play calls and game situations over nearly a decade.” The most intriguing additions are QB DNA and Coach DNA — so, for example, if you’re playing the Kansas City Chiefs, you’ll see the kind of moves you’d expect from Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. As always, the goal is to get ever closer to real-life football, with more dynamic weather effects, more details from pro stadiums and the return (at last!) of team mascots. The cover model this season is Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who’ll be ready to start leaping over defenders Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

    Source link