Elvis Presley had enough star power that he was able to meet with high-ranking politicians with very little scheduling in advance. He appeared at the White House to meet Richard Nixon and he had his sights set on gifting Spiro Agnew a gun. Not long afterward, Elvis wanted nothing to do with Agnew.
Elvis turned on a politician he once met
Elvis liked surrounding himself with authority figures like law enforcement and politicians. Therefore, when he heard Agnew was in Palm Springs, he made it a point to meet with him. He was intent on giving Agnew a gift.
“The Vice-President was staying in Palm Springs when Elvis was there,” bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Anyway, he set up a meeting with him. We all went to the house he was staying at and Elvis had bought a gold inlaid .357 Magnum revolver.
Elvis turned on a politician he once met
Elvis liked surrounding himself with authority figures like law enforcement and politicians. Therefore, when he heard Agnew was in Palm Springs, he made it a point to meet with him. He was intent on giving Agnew a gift.
“The Vice-President was staying in Palm Springs when Elvis was there,” bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Anyway, he set up a meeting with him. We all went to the house he was staying at and Elvis had bought a gold inlaid .357 Magnum revolver.
- 4/21/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
On David X. Cohen and Matt Groening's 31st-century sci-fi sitcom "Futurama," the world's citizens are hooked on a high-octane ultra-soap-opera called "All My Circuits," a long-running TV series starring a cast of mostly robots. The main character in "All My Circuits" is a tall, egocentric blowhard named Calculon who is constantly discovering evil twins, engaging in robotic infidelities, and discovering multiple personalities. In a strange metanarrative twist, the Calculon on "All My Circuits" is played by a robot ... that also happens to be named Calculon, and also happens to be an egocentric blowhard.
In reality, Calculon is played by veteran voice actor Maurice Lamarche, one of the best voice actors currently working. Maurice Lamarche plays Calculon with a bloviating confidence that only seems to infect famous actors. Calculon eventually reveals that he is many hundreds of years old, and changes his identity every few decades. In previous lives, he...
In reality, Calculon is played by veteran voice actor Maurice Lamarche, one of the best voice actors currently working. Maurice Lamarche plays Calculon with a bloviating confidence that only seems to infect famous actors. Calculon eventually reveals that he is many hundreds of years old, and changes his identity every few decades. In previous lives, he...
- 2/10/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Voice actor Maurice Lamarche is one of the preeminent elder statesmen of his craft. He started his career in stand up, finding he was a talented mimic, moving into animation in 1980. He appeared in hit shows like "Inspector Gadget" and "Transformers," really hitting his stride in 1985 playing Ego Spengler in "The Real Ghostbusters." He cycled through the KidsWB canon aggressively in the late '80s and early '90s, appearing in "Taz-Mania," "Batman: The Animated Series," "Tiny Toon Adventures," "Freakazoid!," and "Animaniacs" wherein he employed his spot-on Orson Welles impersonation to voice the power-hungry mouse the Brain. His largest sampling of voice caricatures came from his work on the 1994 series "The Critic," where he voiced celebrities ranging from William Shatner to Elizabeth Taylor (but only when she was belching).
In 1999, Lamarche became one of the regulars on Mat Groening's and David X. Cohen's sci-fi sitcom "Futurama" where he played Kif,...
In 1999, Lamarche became one of the regulars on Mat Groening's and David X. Cohen's sci-fi sitcom "Futurama" where he played Kif,...
- 2/4/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In the past several months, Donald Trump has had a burning question for some of his confidants and attorneys:
Would the authorities make him wear “one of those jumpsuits” in prison?
As the criminal cases against him have piled up, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner has wondered aloud in recent months about what life would be like if he’s convicted, and if appeals fail. While Trump publicly professes confidence, privately, three sources familiar with his comments say, he’s been asking lawyers and other people close to him...
Would the authorities make him wear “one of those jumpsuits” in prison?
As the criminal cases against him have piled up, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner has wondered aloud in recent months about what life would be like if he’s convicted, and if appeals fail. While Trump publicly professes confidence, privately, three sources familiar with his comments say, he’s been asking lawyers and other people close to him...
- 9/20/2023
- by Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng
- Rollingstone.com
"Futurama" is a show that has had several different lives throughout its existence, which now extends for close to 25 years. One thing the beloved animated series has never had though? A spin-off. But it wasn't for a lack of discussing such a thing, and it turns out a spin-off series came close to happening at one point. While it never came to pass, fan-favorite characters Zapp Brannigan and his trusty pal Kif were talked about as possible subjects for just such a thing.
Speaking with Chris Hardwick on the "Futurama" series final post-show, voice actor Maurice Lamarche, who voices Kif, as well as executive producer David X. Cohen discussed this spin-off series that never came to be. When asked hypothetically by Hardwick which characters they would like to see get a spin-off, Lamarche responded with, "Didn't we come close to a Zapp and Kif spin-off in real life?" Cohen then...
Speaking with Chris Hardwick on the "Futurama" series final post-show, voice actor Maurice Lamarche, who voices Kif, as well as executive producer David X. Cohen discussed this spin-off series that never came to be. When asked hypothetically by Hardwick which characters they would like to see get a spin-off, Lamarche responded with, "Didn't we come close to a Zapp and Kif spin-off in real life?" Cohen then...
- 8/28/2023
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Walk around or near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and chances are you will see the name David Rubenstein.
The co-founder of The Carlyle Group has funded restorations and expansions of the Lincoln Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, along with the Kennedy Center, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress. “All told, Rubenstein has shaped the cultural landscape of the nation’s capital perhaps more than any other private citizen in the past century,” NPR reported in 2020.
Rubenstein’s PBS series Iconic America, an eight-part series that has been running since the spring, expands on his philanthropic passions by delving into the origins and history of the meaning of monuments and symbols of the United States, from Fenway Park to the Statue of Liberty to the Hollywood sign.
The latest episode, debuting Tuesday, is perhaps the most controversial: Stone Mountain in Georgia,...
The co-founder of The Carlyle Group has funded restorations and expansions of the Lincoln Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, along with the Kennedy Center, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress. “All told, Rubenstein has shaped the cultural landscape of the nation’s capital perhaps more than any other private citizen in the past century,” NPR reported in 2020.
Rubenstein’s PBS series Iconic America, an eight-part series that has been running since the spring, expands on his philanthropic passions by delving into the origins and history of the meaning of monuments and symbols of the United States, from Fenway Park to the Statue of Liberty to the Hollywood sign.
The latest episode, debuting Tuesday, is perhaps the most controversial: Stone Mountain in Georgia,...
- 7/25/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is expanding her burgeoning podcast empire with another new show set to debut Monday, June 12.
The podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News, will be a six-episode limited series in which Maddow and longtime Rachel Maddow Show producer Isaac-Davy Aronson explore news stories from the past that have notable parallels with the present.
Each episode will begin with one of Maddow’s signature monologues to set up the story, with Aronson then guiding the listener through the history.
Together, they “will consider the ways in which history repeats itself and allows us to look at some of today’s most perplexing topics through a clearer, more rational lens,” per MSNBC.
Maddow, who still hosts MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour on Monday evenings and for major news events, stepped back from her nightly show a year ago to focus on a number of other ventures at NBCUniversal, while...
The podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News, will be a six-episode limited series in which Maddow and longtime Rachel Maddow Show producer Isaac-Davy Aronson explore news stories from the past that have notable parallels with the present.
Each episode will begin with one of Maddow’s signature monologues to set up the story, with Aronson then guiding the listener through the history.
Together, they “will consider the ways in which history repeats itself and allows us to look at some of today’s most perplexing topics through a clearer, more rational lens,” per MSNBC.
Maddow, who still hosts MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour on Monday evenings and for major news events, stepped back from her nightly show a year ago to focus on a number of other ventures at NBCUniversal, while...
- 6/5/2023
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rachel Maddow is launching another new podcast series with MSNBC, this time examining the history of an 80-year-old plot to undermine democracy.
The podcast will be Maddow’s first since scaling back her weeknight schedule to just Mondays. Last year, Maddow signed a new contract with NBCUniversal that included the development of new projects.
The podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, will debut its first two episodes on Oct. 10, with further episodes on subsequent Mondays. According to MSNBC, in the eight episode series Maddow “will guide listeners through history to tell the story of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government and democracy during World War II, the members of Congress who aligned themselves with hat movement, and their attempts to cover their tracks when they were exposed.”
MSNBC President Rashida Jones said that the podcast series will be “the first of many projects in the expanding Rachel universe that will...
The podcast will be Maddow’s first since scaling back her weeknight schedule to just Mondays. Last year, Maddow signed a new contract with NBCUniversal that included the development of new projects.
The podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, will debut its first two episodes on Oct. 10, with further episodes on subsequent Mondays. According to MSNBC, in the eight episode series Maddow “will guide listeners through history to tell the story of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government and democracy during World War II, the members of Congress who aligned themselves with hat movement, and their attempts to cover their tracks when they were exposed.”
MSNBC President Rashida Jones said that the podcast series will be “the first of many projects in the expanding Rachel universe that will...
- 10/3/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
In Starz’s new Gaslit, premiering Sunday, central Watergate figure John Dean is played by Dan Stevens. In White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited series, Dean is portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson. And in The Last Witness: Watergate, an upcoming four-part CNN original series, Dean himself will “confront his own involvement in the biggest presidential scandal of the 20th century,” in the words of the network.
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Watergate complex, the “third-rate burglary” that brought down a presidency, Hollywood is still mining the scandal for storylines, drawing on new perspectives and points of view even as many of the central figures have long passed, the notorious aspects of Watergate have faded in memory, and D.C. has been gripped by so many other moments of abuse of power that are arguably of far more consequence. (Note: January 6).
“Watergate is one of...
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Watergate complex, the “third-rate burglary” that brought down a presidency, Hollywood is still mining the scandal for storylines, drawing on new perspectives and points of view even as many of the central figures have long passed, the notorious aspects of Watergate have faded in memory, and D.C. has been gripped by so many other moments of abuse of power that are arguably of far more consequence. (Note: January 6).
“Watergate is one of...
- 4/24/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Is there a more thankless job in all of Washington, D.C. than first lady? The position is subject to an unreal amount of media scrutiny (second only to the president), requires a ridiculous number of wardrobe changes and demands the patience of a saint — all for the annual salary of… nothing.
Yet despite all outward appearances, being first lady isn’t a job. It’s a “circumstance,” says Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson) in Showtime’s “The First Lady,” an anthology drama series that explores how she, Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis) ended up in such a high-profile, influential, and often fraught circumstance.
Executive produced by Susanne Bier, who also directs all 10 episodes, “The First Lady” doesn’t move chronologically or profile each woman individually; rather, the show works to find parallels between arguably three of the most popular (and influential) first ladies ever.
The first...
Yet despite all outward appearances, being first lady isn’t a job. It’s a “circumstance,” says Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson) in Showtime’s “The First Lady,” an anthology drama series that explores how she, Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis) ended up in such a high-profile, influential, and often fraught circumstance.
Executive produced by Susanne Bier, who also directs all 10 episodes, “The First Lady” doesn’t move chronologically or profile each woman individually; rather, the show works to find parallels between arguably three of the most popular (and influential) first ladies ever.
The first...
- 4/16/2022
- by Melissa Bernardo
- The Wrap
MSNBC will welcome back Rachel Maddow on Monday as the political commentator returns from hiatus to host her nightly program, The Rachel Maddow Show. According to The Wrap, sources close to the situation claim that Maddow will return in a full-time capacity starting April 11. The long-time host started her hiatus on January 31, explaining at the time that she would be working on a film adaptation of her podcast Bag Man. “There may eventually be another hiatus again sometime in my future,” she told viewers. “But for now, we’re just taking it one step at a time.” The movie, directed and co-written by Ben Stiller, is based on one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American history, involving Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew, who secretly ran a bribery and extortion ring while nobody was paying attention. Maddow covered the story in her 2018 podcast and companion book.
- 4/8/2022
- TV Insider
After more than two months off, Rachel Maddow is finally returning to helm her nightly MSNBC show. She’ll return to host “The Rachel Maddow Show” full time on Monday, April 11, individuals with knowledge of the matter tell TheWrap.
Maddow took her hiatus on Jan. 31, explaining to viewers that she would be working in some unspecified capacity on the film adaptation of her podcast “Bag Man.” The movie, directed by Ben Stiller for Focus Features, tracks the true story of one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American history, involving Richard Nixon’s first vice president Spiro Agnew just as the Watergate scandal was beginning to peak.
Alongside the podcast, Maddow wrote a companion book of the same with Michael Yarvitz that asks if it is possible for an American vice president to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember or notice.
Maddow took her hiatus on Jan. 31, explaining to viewers that she would be working in some unspecified capacity on the film adaptation of her podcast “Bag Man.” The movie, directed by Ben Stiller for Focus Features, tracks the true story of one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American history, involving Richard Nixon’s first vice president Spiro Agnew just as the Watergate scandal was beginning to peak.
Alongside the podcast, Maddow wrote a companion book of the same with Michael Yarvitz that asks if it is possible for an American vice president to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember or notice.
- 4/8/2022
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Sometimes it’s hard to be professionally good-looking, as Ben Stiller discovered following the box office misstep of “Zoolander 2.”
While the 2016 sequel to the classic model mock-drama flopped, writer-director Stiller was free to pursue actual dramatic projects, like the Apple TV+ series “Severance” currently rolling out on the platform.
“If ‘Zoolander 2’ had been a huge hit, and then people were saying ‘Zoolander 3! Do this movie! That movie!'” Stiller told Esquire, admitting watching the film tank was “not a great experience.”
“That might have taken me off the road of having the space to work on developing [‘Escape From Dannemora’]. I might have gotten distracted by other bright shiny objects, but instead it opened a path where I could just do what I’d honestly wanted to do for years and years, which was: just direct something!” Stiller said. “To say, I’m just going to work on this project that I want to work on,...
While the 2016 sequel to the classic model mock-drama flopped, writer-director Stiller was free to pursue actual dramatic projects, like the Apple TV+ series “Severance” currently rolling out on the platform.
“If ‘Zoolander 2’ had been a huge hit, and then people were saying ‘Zoolander 3! Do this movie! That movie!'” Stiller told Esquire, admitting watching the film tank was “not a great experience.”
“That might have taken me off the road of having the space to work on developing [‘Escape From Dannemora’]. I might have gotten distracted by other bright shiny objects, but instead it opened a path where I could just do what I’d honestly wanted to do for years and years, which was: just direct something!” Stiller said. “To say, I’m just going to work on this project that I want to work on,...
- 2/22/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Update, 6:09 Pm Pt: Rachel Maddow hosted her MSNBC show from her home because of possible exposure to someone who tested positive for Covid, while she confirmed plans to take a hiatus to work on other projects.
“I have tested negative so far but I was definitely exposed to somebody who was symptomatic and positive,” Maddow explained, noting that she has been vaccinated and boosted. Maddow said that she was “fine” and there was “absolutely nothing worry about whatsoever.”
She also confirmed that she will be taking a hiatus from her show after Thursday’s telecast to work on a movie version of her Bag Man podcast, to be directed by Ben Stiller and produced by Lorne Michaels. Maddow is an executive producer.
“This has been in the works for a while now…but now it looks like it’s going to happen,” Maddow said.
She described the hiatus as lasting a “few weeks,...
“I have tested negative so far but I was definitely exposed to somebody who was symptomatic and positive,” Maddow explained, noting that she has been vaccinated and boosted. Maddow said that she was “fine” and there was “absolutely nothing worry about whatsoever.”
She also confirmed that she will be taking a hiatus from her show after Thursday’s telecast to work on a movie version of her Bag Man podcast, to be directed by Ben Stiller and produced by Lorne Michaels. Maddow is an executive producer.
“This has been in the works for a while now…but now it looks like it’s going to happen,” Maddow said.
She described the hiatus as lasting a “few weeks,...
- 2/1/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Rachel Maddow will be a scarce presence on MSNBC in February.
Business Insider reports that the Maddow will be taking several weeks off of her prime time show to focus on other projects, including a new podcast and a feature film (both within the NBCUniversal family).
More from TVLineTVLine Items: Mahershala Ali Limited Series, The Crown Casting and MoreBrian Williams Channels Frank Sinatra ('Regrets, I've Had a Few...') in Farewell to NBC News -- Watch Goodbye SpeechBrian Williams Leaving NBC News After 28 Years: 'I Have Been Truly Blessed'
Maddow will reportedly make the announcement on tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show,...
Business Insider reports that the Maddow will be taking several weeks off of her prime time show to focus on other projects, including a new podcast and a feature film (both within the NBCUniversal family).
More from TVLineTVLine Items: Mahershala Ali Limited Series, The Crown Casting and MoreBrian Williams Channels Frank Sinatra ('Regrets, I've Had a Few...') in Farewell to NBC News -- Watch Goodbye SpeechBrian Williams Leaving NBC News After 28 Years: 'I Have Been Truly Blessed'
Maddow will reportedly make the announcement on tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show,...
- 1/31/2022
- by Michael Ausiello
- TVLine.com
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow plans to take a hiatus lasting “several weeks” in order to focus on other projects she is working on as part of a broader content deal with NBCUniversal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The anchor, who is the linchpin of the cable news outlet’s primetime schedule, is expected to tell viewers about her planned absence, which is slated to start Friday, during this evening’s broadcast. Ali Velshi is among the anchors who have filled in for MSNBC’s primetime anchors in the past, and Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin have both taken up 9 p.m. duties on Fridays, when Maddow is often off. Maddow struck a deal with NBCUniversal last year that calls for her to put more of her attention on to a mix of new media projects and other content.
During her hiatus, Maddow is expected to work on a new podcast for NBCUniversal,...
The anchor, who is the linchpin of the cable news outlet’s primetime schedule, is expected to tell viewers about her planned absence, which is slated to start Friday, during this evening’s broadcast. Ali Velshi is among the anchors who have filled in for MSNBC’s primetime anchors in the past, and Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin have both taken up 9 p.m. duties on Fridays, when Maddow is often off. Maddow struck a deal with NBCUniversal last year that calls for her to put more of her attention on to a mix of new media projects and other content.
During her hiatus, Maddow is expected to work on a new podcast for NBCUniversal,...
- 1/31/2022
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Paul Thomas Anderson grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which played an important role in his 1997 breakthrough film “Boogie Nights,” which looked at Valley’s porn industry during the ‘70s and 80s. In his new United Artists release “Licorice Pizza,” Anderson returns to the Sfv for a nostalgia-tinged comedy-of-age story set in 1973 starring Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. Both young performers received strong notices with the L.A. Times’ Justin Chang declaring Haim as the true star of “this boisterous, bighearted movie and its raison d’être.” And Bradley Cooper has earned positive notices for his funny turn as hairdresser turned film producer Jon Peters, who ironically was a producer on Cooper’s 2018 “A Star is Born.”
So, what was the world like in 1973? It was the year of Watergate, Roe Vs. Wade and “The Exorcist” hitting the big screen. Let’s travel back almost half a century to look at the top films,...
So, what was the world like in 1973? It was the year of Watergate, Roe Vs. Wade and “The Exorcist” hitting the big screen. Let’s travel back almost half a century to look at the top films,...
- 12/2/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Rachel Maddow is staying put at her home of MSNBC.
Maddow, who has been hosting The Rachel Maddow Show in the cabler’s 9 pm time slot since 2008, has reportedly signed a new multi-year deal that will keep her at the news outlet beyond 2022, according to our sister site Variety.
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As part of the terms of her new agreement,...
Maddow, who has been hosting The Rachel Maddow Show in the cabler’s 9 pm time slot since 2008, has reportedly signed a new multi-year deal that will keep her at the news outlet beyond 2022, according to our sister site Variety.
More from TVLineCNN's Chris Cuomo Breaks Silence on Brother Andrew Cuomo's Resignation: 'I Never Misled Anyone' — Watch VideoJudge Andrew Napolitano Out as Fox News Analyst Following Sexual Harassment Allegations Against HimMSNBC's Brian Williams Trolls GOP Leader With 'Exclusive' Jerry Maguire Clip Following Trump Meeting -- Watch
As part of the terms of her new agreement,...
- 8/22/2021
- by Nick Caruso
- TVLine.com
Rachel Maddow will stay at MSNBC, according to two people familiar with the matter, after negotiating a new pact that will keep her at the cable-news outlet beyond 2022.
Maddow, who is the linchpin of the network’s primetime lineup, had been considering her own independent content ventures, and had enlisted top executives at Endeavor to make her case to MSNBC and senior managers at NBCUniversal. MSNBC declined to make executives available to comment on the renewal.
Under terms of the new pact, described as “multi year,” Maddow will develop other projects in a new partnership with NBCUniversal. She has already established a track record for doing so. She has found success in other ventures, such as “Bag Man,” a seven-episode podcast series centered on the story of former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew. MSNBC in 2018 featured her documentary special, “Betrayal,” which focused on the darker side of the 1968 election...
Maddow, who is the linchpin of the network’s primetime lineup, had been considering her own independent content ventures, and had enlisted top executives at Endeavor to make her case to MSNBC and senior managers at NBCUniversal. MSNBC declined to make executives available to comment on the renewal.
Under terms of the new pact, described as “multi year,” Maddow will develop other projects in a new partnership with NBCUniversal. She has already established a track record for doing so. She has found success in other ventures, such as “Bag Man,” a seven-episode podcast series centered on the story of former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew. MSNBC in 2018 featured her documentary special, “Betrayal,” which focused on the darker side of the 1968 election...
- 8/22/2021
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s most-watched anchor, is considering leaving the network next year at the end of her contract, the latest in a wave of newsroom personnel rethinking their future after a torrid stretch spent covering the pandemic and the Trump administration.
Maddow, who has held forth on MSNBC at 9 p.m. since September of 2008, when she used to follow Keith Olbermann, is in the midst of discussing whether she wants to stay at the NBCUniversal-owned network for another term, according to people familiar with the matter. Maddow, who is being counseled in talks by Mark Shapiro, president of the large Endeavor talent-representation holding company, as well as Ari Emanuel, the company’s CEO, is mulling work-life balance and other possible media ventures as she considers her next steps, these people said,
Maddow’s negotiations were previously reported by The Daily Beast. MSNBC declined to comment on any talks...
Maddow, who has held forth on MSNBC at 9 p.m. since September of 2008, when she used to follow Keith Olbermann, is in the midst of discussing whether she wants to stay at the NBCUniversal-owned network for another term, according to people familiar with the matter. Maddow, who is being counseled in talks by Mark Shapiro, president of the large Endeavor talent-representation holding company, as well as Ari Emanuel, the company’s CEO, is mulling work-life balance and other possible media ventures as she considers her next steps, these people said,
Maddow’s negotiations were previously reported by The Daily Beast. MSNBC declined to comment on any talks...
- 8/12/2021
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Roger Mudd, a longtime news anchor and political correspondent for both CBS News and NBC News, has died. He was 93.
In his long career at CBS and NBC, Mudd won the Peabody Award and also picked up five Emmys while serving as the host of “Meet the Press,” “NBC Nightly News” and “CBS Evening News.” Later, he also worked as an anchor at the History Channel.
Mudd died Tuesday at his home in Virginia due to complications of kidney failure, his son Jonathan told The Washington Post.
Mudd was known for his concise and folksy interview style, as well as an infamous 1979 interview with Sen. Ted Kennedy that effectively ended the Massachusetts Democrat’s presidential ambitions to challenge President Jimmy Carter for the party’s nomination.
Mudd asked Kennedy pointed questions about his involvement in the 1969 death of a woman in Chappaquiddick, Mass., and doomed Kennedy with the simplest of questions: “Senator,...
In his long career at CBS and NBC, Mudd won the Peabody Award and also picked up five Emmys while serving as the host of “Meet the Press,” “NBC Nightly News” and “CBS Evening News.” Later, he also worked as an anchor at the History Channel.
Mudd died Tuesday at his home in Virginia due to complications of kidney failure, his son Jonathan told The Washington Post.
Mudd was known for his concise and folksy interview style, as well as an infamous 1979 interview with Sen. Ted Kennedy that effectively ended the Massachusetts Democrat’s presidential ambitions to challenge President Jimmy Carter for the party’s nomination.
Mudd asked Kennedy pointed questions about his involvement in the 1969 death of a woman in Chappaquiddick, Mass., and doomed Kennedy with the simplest of questions: “Senator,...
- 3/9/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Showtime has found its first president for its upcoming anthology series on presidential wives, “The First Lady.” Aaron Eckhart will portray Gerald Ford, the 38th U.S. president.
Eckhart joins Michelle Pfeiffer, who was cast earlier this month to play Ford’s wife, Betty.
The series is described as an exploration of the lives of “America’s charismatic, complex and dynamic First Ladies,” according to Showtime. The first season will center on three former occupants of the White House: Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. Viola Davis will play Obama, while the role of Eleanor Roosevelt has not yet been cast.
Susanne Bier will direct the entire first season.
Gerald Ford was the first person to hold the office of both vice president and president despite never being elected to either office. A former football player turned congressman, Ford was appointed as Richard Nixon’s VP after Spiro Agnew...
Eckhart joins Michelle Pfeiffer, who was cast earlier this month to play Ford’s wife, Betty.
The series is described as an exploration of the lives of “America’s charismatic, complex and dynamic First Ladies,” according to Showtime. The first season will center on three former occupants of the White House: Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. Viola Davis will play Obama, while the role of Eleanor Roosevelt has not yet been cast.
Susanne Bier will direct the entire first season.
Gerald Ford was the first person to hold the office of both vice president and president despite never being elected to either office. A former football player turned congressman, Ford was appointed as Richard Nixon’s VP after Spiro Agnew...
- 2/16/2021
- by Tim Baysinger
- The Wrap
Ben Stiller is set to direct “Bag Man,” a big-screen adaptation of Rachel Maddow’s hit podcast. The film is being developed at Focus Features.
In addition to directing duties, Stiller is also co-writing the script with Adam Perlman and Mike Yarvitz. The latter executive produced the podcast, which debuted in 2018, and later penned the book with Maddow.
The cast has not been announced.
Based on one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American History, “Bag Man” centers on the 1973 political scandal surrounding Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew, who quietly ran a bribery and extortion ring while nobody was paying attention. The improbable story asks: Is it possible for an American Vice President to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember?
Maddow’s podcast went back 45 years to delve into a story, one filled with intrigue, corruption and mysterious envelopes...
In addition to directing duties, Stiller is also co-writing the script with Adam Perlman and Mike Yarvitz. The latter executive produced the podcast, which debuted in 2018, and later penned the book with Maddow.
The cast has not been announced.
Based on one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American History, “Bag Man” centers on the 1973 political scandal surrounding Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew, who quietly ran a bribery and extortion ring while nobody was paying attention. The improbable story asks: Is it possible for an American Vice President to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember?
Maddow’s podcast went back 45 years to delve into a story, one filled with intrigue, corruption and mysterious envelopes...
- 2/5/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Ben Stiller is set to direct “Bag Man,” based on a podcast by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, that Focus Features is developing as a feature film.
“Bag Man” is the true story of one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American history involving Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew during the height of the Watergate scandal.
The podcast and an additional book also called “Bag Man” written by Maddow and Michael Yarvitz posits whether it was possible for an American vice president to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember or notice.
Adam Perlman wrote the script along with Ben Stiller and Yarvitz, who executive produced the podcast and co-wrote the subsequent book with Maddow. No casting has been announced.
Stiller will also produce “Bag Man” along with Lorne Michaels, Yarvitz and Josh McLaughlin. Maddow will be an executive producer along with Nicky Weinstock,...
“Bag Man” is the true story of one of the most brazen political bribery scandals in American history involving Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew during the height of the Watergate scandal.
The podcast and an additional book also called “Bag Man” written by Maddow and Michael Yarvitz posits whether it was possible for an American vice president to carry out a criminal enterprise inside the White House and have nobody remember or notice.
Adam Perlman wrote the script along with Ben Stiller and Yarvitz, who executive produced the podcast and co-wrote the subsequent book with Maddow. No casting has been announced.
Stiller will also produce “Bag Man” along with Lorne Michaels, Yarvitz and Josh McLaughlin. Maddow will be an executive producer along with Nicky Weinstock,...
- 2/5/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Back in 1971, when Ellen Burstyn was first catapulted to movie stardom with The Last Picture Show, she received a letter.
“It was from a young man in Texas who told me that he was suicidal,” she says. The man wrote that he’d decided to see one final movie before he killed himself: The Last Picture Show. And that her performance had changed his mind. “He came out of there feeling, ‘Well, if she can make it through life,’ meaning the character I played, ‘if she can make it, I guess I can too.’” He thanked Burstyn for saving his life.
An inspiring and indomitable spirit isn’t confined to Burstyn’s work though; it seems inherent to who she is. As an up-and-coming actress, before she made her name on the stage and in television, before the big film roles came in, she never thought of quitting. “Honestly, I...
“It was from a young man in Texas who told me that he was suicidal,” she says. The man wrote that he’d decided to see one final movie before he killed himself: The Last Picture Show. And that her performance had changed his mind. “He came out of there feeling, ‘Well, if she can make it through life,’ meaning the character I played, ‘if she can make it, I guess I can too.’” He thanked Burstyn for saving his life.
An inspiring and indomitable spirit isn’t confined to Burstyn’s work though; it seems inherent to who she is. As an up-and-coming actress, before she made her name on the stage and in television, before the big film roles came in, she never thought of quitting. “Honestly, I...
- 2/2/2021
- by Antonia Blyth
- Deadline Film + TV
Before “All in the Family” debuted, there was a profound gap between real life and what was being depicted on TV series.
In his autobiography “Even This I Get to Experience,” Norman Lear wrote, “Until ‘All in the Family’ came along, TV comedy was telling us there was no hunger in America, we had no racial discrimination, there was no unemployment or inflation, no war, no drugs, and the citizenry was happy with whomever happened to be in the White House.”
When Lear and Bud Yorkin pitched “All in the Family” to CBS, that network’s executives were looking for something different — but maybe not That different.
A week before the un-publicized sitcom debuted on Jan. 12, 1971, Variety’s Les Brown summed up the first four months of the new season for the three networks. Brown wrote that CBS had a lock on “the rural middle-American viewership” with its “rustic sitcoms,...
In his autobiography “Even This I Get to Experience,” Norman Lear wrote, “Until ‘All in the Family’ came along, TV comedy was telling us there was no hunger in America, we had no racial discrimination, there was no unemployment or inflation, no war, no drugs, and the citizenry was happy with whomever happened to be in the White House.”
When Lear and Bud Yorkin pitched “All in the Family” to CBS, that network’s executives were looking for something different — but maybe not That different.
A week before the un-publicized sitcom debuted on Jan. 12, 1971, Variety’s Les Brown summed up the first four months of the new season for the three networks. Brown wrote that CBS had a lock on “the rural middle-American viewership” with its “rustic sitcoms,...
- 1/12/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we find wine pairings for three films which borrow heavily from the Laurel and Hardy archives Two are salutations from different eras, while one is real-live Laurel and Hardy.
It’s nice to take a break from our current diseased political landscape and revisit the diseased political landscape of fifty years ago. The 1972 comedy Another Nice Mess stars Rich Little as Richard Nixon and Herb Voland as Spiro Agnew. It’s made to resemble a Laurel and Hardy comedy, right down to the title, which is very close to Hardy’s catch phrase, “Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” Hardy, however, never had to worry about an 18-minute gap in his movies.
The film was directed by the late and brilliant...
It’s nice to take a break from our current diseased political landscape and revisit the diseased political landscape of fifty years ago. The 1972 comedy Another Nice Mess stars Rich Little as Richard Nixon and Herb Voland as Spiro Agnew. It’s made to resemble a Laurel and Hardy comedy, right down to the title, which is very close to Hardy’s catch phrase, “Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” Hardy, however, never had to worry about an 18-minute gap in his movies.
The film was directed by the late and brilliant...
- 12/23/2020
- by Randy Fuller
- Trailers from Hell
In this second installment of our two-part deep-dive into the history and influence of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” we look at how various lineups of the band have made the song their own, and how it’s inspired artists from the worlds of prog, metal, punk, hip-hop, and beyond during the past half-century. To read the first part — in which members of the original King Crimson look back on the writing of “Schizoid Man,” and contemporaries recount its initial impact onstage and on LP — click here.
“21st...
“21st...
- 10/1/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
On July 16, 1969, Variety ran a package of stories under the headline “Greatest Show Off Earth,” detailing the three TV networks’ fever over the July 19 moon landing. CBS exec producer Robert Wussler predicted “the world’s greatest single broadcast.” Variety called it a “31-hour TV super-special,” running all day Sunday through midday Monday. The networks and four radio companies pooled resources and spent a then-huge $13 million collectively. NBC was handling the action at Kennedy Space Center, CBS at Mission Control in Houston, with ABC assigned “downrange pickups.”
But each network also wanted to plant its own distinct footprint on the moon landing. CBS offered Arthur C. Clarke, Walter Cronkite and Orson Welles (think “War of the Worlds”). ABC had Rod Serling, Isaac Asimov and Marshall McLuhan; ABC also commissioned Duke Ellington to compose a piece of music. NBC had a special hosted by John Chancellor and Danny Kaye, which Variety described...
But each network also wanted to plant its own distinct footprint on the moon landing. CBS offered Arthur C. Clarke, Walter Cronkite and Orson Welles (think “War of the Worlds”). ABC had Rod Serling, Isaac Asimov and Marshall McLuhan; ABC also commissioned Duke Ellington to compose a piece of music. NBC had a special hosted by John Chancellor and Danny Kaye, which Variety described...
- 7/12/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
In the wake of last week’s damning Congressional testimony by Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer-fixer, it’s a smart time to search for precedent. Picture a White House mired in scandal and ever-widening investigations. The administration digs in and fights back. An executive wages war on the investigators by dismissing the whole affair as a “witch hunt!” This person also attacks the press as the enemy of the people and the “elites” of the country as traitors. Until suddenly, the case was neatly wrapped up in a...
- 3/6/2019
- by Sean Woods
- Rollingstone.com
Amy Robach and David Muir aren’t in the business of making movies, but at ABC, they have gotten involved in the newsroom equivalent.
The two hosts of “20/20” have been instrumental in an intriguing experiment the Walt Disney network has been conducting with the 40-year-old news-magazine. For several weeks, ABC has run versions of the show that are two hours long and have fewer of the trappings usually associated with the format. Gone for the most part are voice-overs from the anchors, who instead are seen interviewing people integral to the week’s tale. The logo of the show is still displayed in the corner of the screen, but more prominence is given to the specific title of the week’s episode.
Recent “20/20” broadcasts have tackled stories about the infamous Bobbitt slashing, actor Robert Blake and televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. “We have made it feel less like a...
The two hosts of “20/20” have been instrumental in an intriguing experiment the Walt Disney network has been conducting with the 40-year-old news-magazine. For several weeks, ABC has run versions of the show that are two hours long and have fewer of the trappings usually associated with the format. Gone for the most part are voice-overs from the anchors, who instead are seen interviewing people integral to the week’s tale. The logo of the show is still displayed in the corner of the screen, but more prominence is given to the specific title of the week’s episode.
Recent “20/20” broadcasts have tackled stories about the infamous Bobbitt slashing, actor Robert Blake and televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. “We have made it feel less like a...
- 2/26/2019
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Chris Matthews floated a novel legal theory on his MSNBC show “Hardball” Monday evening suggesting President Trump could resign as part of a deal with prosecutors to spare his children the possibility of being indicted and sent to prison.
“The president’s children stand right in the line of Mueller’s investigative progress — they stand as the next dominos to fall. But therein lies the problem, where earlier Mueller subjects have given Trump up, these two lack the option to do that,” Matthews said. “They can hardly testify against their father, which brings the country to the reckoning. If the prosecutor will not be stopped and the kids will not fall to him, we see the president’s adult children heading to prison.”
Also Read: MSNBC's Chris Matthews Says Trump Is 'Taking Us Back' to Zimbabwe Level: 'Everything Is Tribal'
“But what if the prosecutor were to offer the president an alternative,...
“The president’s children stand right in the line of Mueller’s investigative progress — they stand as the next dominos to fall. But therein lies the problem, where earlier Mueller subjects have given Trump up, these two lack the option to do that,” Matthews said. “They can hardly testify against their father, which brings the country to the reckoning. If the prosecutor will not be stopped and the kids will not fall to him, we see the president’s adult children heading to prison.”
Also Read: MSNBC's Chris Matthews Says Trump Is 'Taking Us Back' to Zimbabwe Level: 'Everything Is Tribal'
“But what if the prosecutor were to offer the president an alternative,...
- 12/18/2018
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
Exclusive: The biopic about Sammy Davis, Jr. now has been set up at Paramount Pictures, where producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has his overall deal. The project is on the development fast track, soon to be hiring a writer and a director to make the feature film about the dancer-singer-actor-musician to becoming a reality.
The movie will be based in large part on the 1965 memoir Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr. that he penned with Jane and Burt Boyar.
Davis’ heirs are joining a producing team led by Lionel Richie, di Bonaventura and Mike Menchel. The latter two most recently joined forces for Only the Brave, the feature about the 19 firefighting heroes who died during the 2013 Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona.
Richie was the key to getting all the rights deals done to be able to bring Davis’ story to the masses. “I cannot tell you how excited...
The movie will be based in large part on the 1965 memoir Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr. that he penned with Jane and Burt Boyar.
Davis’ heirs are joining a producing team led by Lionel Richie, di Bonaventura and Mike Menchel. The latter two most recently joined forces for Only the Brave, the feature about the 19 firefighting heroes who died during the 2013 Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona.
Richie was the key to getting all the rights deals done to be able to bring Davis’ story to the masses. “I cannot tell you how excited...
- 6/18/2018
- by Anita Busch
- Deadline Film + TV
“There Are No Bananas In It”
By Raymond Benson
Woody Allen’s second feature film as director/writer/actor is ranked #69 on AFI’s 100 greatest comedies list… and it is indeed a very funny, zany picture (arguably one of Allen’s funniest) that today says more about the early 1970s than perhaps was intended at the time. But would millennials find Bananas funny in this day and age? Would they get the jokes? Can an audience that hasn’t “grown up” with Woody Allen movies get past what has been said about his personal life since the 1990s? I can’t answer those questions. But I can place Bananas within the context of when it was released and attest that it still makes me laugh.
At this point in his career, Allen was mostly interested in making low budget movies with little substance, but with lots of gags. He was...
By Raymond Benson
Woody Allen’s second feature film as director/writer/actor is ranked #69 on AFI’s 100 greatest comedies list… and it is indeed a very funny, zany picture (arguably one of Allen’s funniest) that today says more about the early 1970s than perhaps was intended at the time. But would millennials find Bananas funny in this day and age? Would they get the jokes? Can an audience that hasn’t “grown up” with Woody Allen movies get past what has been said about his personal life since the 1990s? I can’t answer those questions. But I can place Bananas within the context of when it was released and attest that it still makes me laugh.
At this point in his career, Allen was mostly interested in making low budget movies with little substance, but with lots of gags. He was...
- 12/3/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It was 1973. We were was waist-deep in Watergate. Spiro Agnew was about to resign. The Opec-fueled energy crisis loomed. Americans needed a diversion. Enter Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. Fast-forward nearly half a century, and boy could we use some escapism today. That said, here’s the first trailer for Battle of the Sexes, Fox Searchlight recounting of the tennis match that pitted the tennis pro/hustler and admitted male chauvinist Riggs (Steve Carell) against the…...
- 5/16/2017
- Deadline
Vice President Mike Pence is slated to attend the Super Bowl in Houston on Sunday, CNN reported on Friday, citing two administration officials and another source familiar with Pence’s travel.
Pence’s press secretary, Marc Lotter, declined to confirm Pence would attend the game, but told CNN the vice president’s schedule would be released later Friday.
Pence won’t be the first sitting vice president to attend a Super Bowl. Former Vice Presidents Spiro Agnew, George H.W. Bush and Al Gore also attended the Super Bowl while in office.
Related Video: 5 Things to Know About Mike Pence
Former President George H. W. Bush,...
Pence’s press secretary, Marc Lotter, declined to confirm Pence would attend the game, but told CNN the vice president’s schedule would be released later Friday.
Pence won’t be the first sitting vice president to attend a Super Bowl. Former Vice Presidents Spiro Agnew, George H.W. Bush and Al Gore also attended the Super Bowl while in office.
Related Video: 5 Things to Know About Mike Pence
Former President George H. W. Bush,...
- 2/3/2017
- by Tierney McAfee
- PEOPLE.com
It turns out that Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Trump have more in common than just a background in entertainment.
On ABC’s upcoming political drama “Designated Survivor,” Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a low-level Cabinet member who is arranged to be separated physically from the President and the other country’s top leaders during the State of the Union address. (This is an actual thing that does happen every year.) When a catastrophic event kills the entire government, Kirkman as the designated survivor is then thrust into the role of President of the United States.
As with Trump’s clinching of the Gop presidential nomination, executive producer Simon Kinberg acknowledges that Kirkman’s almost Cinderella-esque ascendancy into greatness reflects a weariness with the established government.
“There is a hunger for outsider candidates,” Kinberg said at the Television Critics Association press tour panel on Thursday. “This is a guy who is not a political animal,...
On ABC’s upcoming political drama “Designated Survivor,” Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a low-level Cabinet member who is arranged to be separated physically from the President and the other country’s top leaders during the State of the Union address. (This is an actual thing that does happen every year.) When a catastrophic event kills the entire government, Kirkman as the designated survivor is then thrust into the role of President of the United States.
As with Trump’s clinching of the Gop presidential nomination, executive producer Simon Kinberg acknowledges that Kirkman’s almost Cinderella-esque ascendancy into greatness reflects a weariness with the established government.
“There is a hunger for outsider candidates,” Kinberg said at the Television Critics Association press tour panel on Thursday. “This is a guy who is not a political animal,...
- 8/4/2016
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
It was forty years ago today that director Alan J. Pakula's landmark ode to journalism, "All the President's Men", opened in movie theaters. It was, of course, based on the best-selling book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose dogged investigation of a seemingly trivial break-in of Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern's campaign HQ would turn the story into an international thriller that would ultimately bring down what Bernstein has called "the criminal" administration of President Richard M. Nixon. As with most scandals, the break-in itself was just the tip of the iceberg. By the time Nixon's embattled Presidency was over in August 1974, even Republicans had been calling for his head. Nixon was determined to face impeachment hearings. It fell to that symbol of conservatism, Sen. Barry Goldwater, to inform the President that the scope of the crimes committed during his administration would not be...
- 4/9/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good. • H.L. Mencken
“There is only so far that you can push people into a corner… We’re frustrated and that’s why we’re out there in the streets.” • Charles, Member of the Crips gang
“I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you’ll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It’s as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay.” • John Waters, Filmmaker and Writer
“This is a skewed portrayal of the protests; it is what the media chose to portray – the media that consumers bewilderingly seem to want. The real revolution is thousands of people across America standing in solidarity against police brutality.
“There is only so far that you can push people into a corner… We’re frustrated and that’s why we’re out there in the streets.” • Charles, Member of the Crips gang
“I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you’ll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It’s as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay.” • John Waters, Filmmaker and Writer
“This is a skewed portrayal of the protests; it is what the media chose to portray – the media that consumers bewilderingly seem to want. The real revolution is thousands of people across America standing in solidarity against police brutality.
- 10/5/2015
- by Mindy Newell
- Comicmix.com
The assassination of JFK and the conspiracy theories that followed have proved irresistible to writers and artists, from Oliver Stone to Stephen King
• Mark Lawson on the 10 best books inspired by JFK
The grassy knoll. The book depository. Any further description of the location is superfluous. We know where we are, and when. Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963: the scene of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. History assumes mythic proportions when its very familiarity requires no further explanation or scene-setting; when it provides instead a well-signposted point of departure for artistic creativity. The matter of Dallas has been as resonant in the fiction and film of the past half century as the story of the Trojan war was in the literature of classical antiquity. Only Hitler and the Nazis rival its influence on the modern imagination.
Yet the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination will not be marked by consensus.
• Mark Lawson on the 10 best books inspired by JFK
The grassy knoll. The book depository. Any further description of the location is superfluous. We know where we are, and when. Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963: the scene of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. History assumes mythic proportions when its very familiarity requires no further explanation or scene-setting; when it provides instead a well-signposted point of departure for artistic creativity. The matter of Dallas has been as resonant in the fiction and film of the past half century as the story of the Trojan war was in the literature of classical antiquity. Only Hitler and the Nazis rival its influence on the modern imagination.
Yet the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination will not be marked by consensus.
- 11/2/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the challenges Futurama faces when centering an episode around Leela, as they did last night, is that Leela usually serves as the straight person on the show. The best Leela episodes or moments manage to warp her seriousness and competence just enough to make her as wacky as everyone else. I thought “Zapp Dingbat” largely accomplished this and, while it won't make any Best Futurama Episode lists, it was largely satisfying.
This week started in the sewer, as the whole gang goes to the Turanga household for Leela's parents' 40th anniversary. Things quickly go south when Morris and Munda have a fight that gets out of hand (ending in that very Futuramay smash cut from Leela saying “eveything will work out” to a judge declaring the divorce final). Munda goes to live with Leela and they take a trip to the Mos Def Cantina (a scene which, like the sewer party,...
This week started in the sewer, as the whole gang goes to the Turanga household for Leela's parents' 40th anniversary. Things quickly go south when Morris and Munda have a fight that gets out of hand (ending in that very Futuramay smash cut from Leela saying “eveything will work out” to a judge declaring the divorce final). Munda goes to live with Leela and they take a trip to the Mos Def Cantina (a scene which, like the sewer party,...
- 7/12/2012
- by Jonah Gardner
- TVology
Julian Goodman, who as president of NBC sparred with the Nixon administration, oversaw a record-setting deal to keep Johnny Carson at the network and was forced to apologize for the infamous Heidi cutaway during an NFL game, died Monday at his home in Juno Beach, Fla., of kidney failure, The New York Times reported. He was 90. Goodman was a former journalist who produced the second Richard Nixon-John F. Kennedy presidential debate before becoming head of NBC in 1965. Four years into his tenure, he found himself at odds with the Nixon administration, including Vice President Spiro Agnew,
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- 7/3/2012
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Futurama began its seventh season with a plotline about a robot copulating with a vending machine voiced by Wanda Sykes, so I realize it might sound silly to argue that the show is starting to feel a little safe. Really, it feels rude to overly criticize Futurama at all. When the show was on Fox a decade ago, it was a famously unloved stepchild/whipping boy for a crew of network executives who appeared to aggressively dislike the show. The first two episodes earned high ratings in the 8:30 timeslot, where it was airing as an uncannily perfect bridge between...
- 6/21/2012
- by Darren Franich
- EW.com - PopWatch
Political films are among my favorite genres because of their drama, excitement of the campaign and attempt to portray the human side of candidates and staffers.
Game Change is no exception.
The story of how Sarah Palin was chosen for the 2008 Gop vice-presidential spot was both intriguing and sad as it showed the lengths a desperate candidate and staff were willing to go in order to win the election.
For many decades now, the American people have been treated to VP picks from out of nowhere. Bush 41's Quayle comes to mind as does Nixon's Spiro Agnew and Carter's Mondale. Even after they are elected, vice presidents are typically nobodies, although that's changed considerably since Al Gore and his reinvention of government. Dick Cheney took the office to another level with behind-the-scenes manipulation, including his own nomination as vice president.
Sarah Palin was indeed different, too. As the film portrays,...
Game Change is no exception.
The story of how Sarah Palin was chosen for the 2008 Gop vice-presidential spot was both intriguing and sad as it showed the lengths a desperate candidate and staff were willing to go in order to win the election.
For many decades now, the American people have been treated to VP picks from out of nowhere. Bush 41's Quayle comes to mind as does Nixon's Spiro Agnew and Carter's Mondale. Even after they are elected, vice presidents are typically nobodies, although that's changed considerably since Al Gore and his reinvention of government. Dick Cheney took the office to another level with behind-the-scenes manipulation, including his own nomination as vice president.
Sarah Palin was indeed different, too. As the film portrays,...
- 3/16/2012
- by Olga Bonfiglio
- Aol TV.
Former First Lady Betty Ford, who founded the famous addiction center that bears her name, has died. She was 93.
The widow of President Gerald Ford died Friday in Rancho Mirage,Calif. with family at her bedside, according to Elaine Didier, Director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Michigan, who confirmed Ford's death to CNN.
No other details on the cause of death have been released.
"I was deeply saddened this afternoon...
The widow of President Gerald Ford died Friday in Rancho Mirage,Calif. with family at her bedside, according to Elaine Didier, Director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Michigan, who confirmed Ford's death to CNN.
No other details on the cause of death have been released.
"I was deeply saddened this afternoon...
- 7/9/2011
- Extra
The Alaskan continues her unmatched mastery of the press-getting them to slavishly follow her Tour to Nowhere. Matt Latimer on the roots of her strategy, and why it strikes a deep Republican chord.
It has been three years since the first exclamatory sentences were deployed and grammatically challenged Twitter invectives unleashed in the epic conflagration between Sarah Palin and the "lamestream" media. You'll never guess who's winning the war.
Judge for yourselves: On one side, the news business continues its dreary decline. Papers have folded. Reporters face mass layoffs. Even Palin's 2008 nemesis, Katie Couric, has abandoned her once coveted anchor desk to again show viewers how to jazz up their sex life, wear figure-flattering swimsuits, and make the world's yummiest blueberry pie. Meanwhile the Alaska governor has become rich, relevant, ravenously read, widely watched and, at least in terms of consideration as a presidential candidate, dangerously close to respectable. In...
It has been three years since the first exclamatory sentences were deployed and grammatically challenged Twitter invectives unleashed in the epic conflagration between Sarah Palin and the "lamestream" media. You'll never guess who's winning the war.
Judge for yourselves: On one side, the news business continues its dreary decline. Papers have folded. Reporters face mass layoffs. Even Palin's 2008 nemesis, Katie Couric, has abandoned her once coveted anchor desk to again show viewers how to jazz up their sex life, wear figure-flattering swimsuits, and make the world's yummiest blueberry pie. Meanwhile the Alaska governor has become rich, relevant, ravenously read, widely watched and, at least in terms of consideration as a presidential candidate, dangerously close to respectable. In...
- 6/3/2011
- by Matt Latimer
- The Daily Beast
Despite not campaigning or building a team, the former Arkansas governor's got the most intense support in all the Gop 2012 field. Now he's stirring from his long winter's nap-but his cushy gigs may prove too tough to give up, says John Avlon.
Can a man leading most Gop presidential polls turn a 2012 run down in favor of a weekend TV show, a mortgage, and motivational speeches?
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Gop's Bin Laden Jitters
That's the question confronting Mike Huckabee, the one-time minister turned three-term Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate turned Fox News host.
While other prospective candidates have been hard at work building their campaign machine, Huckabee has been biding his time, a reluctant candidate who keeps surging in the polls.
Despite his easygoing-some might say indifferent-approach to the campaign ahead, Gallup polls show that Huckabee enjoys the most intense support in all the Gop field.
Can a man leading most Gop presidential polls turn a 2012 run down in favor of a weekend TV show, a mortgage, and motivational speeches?
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Gop's Bin Laden Jitters
That's the question confronting Mike Huckabee, the one-time minister turned three-term Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate turned Fox News host.
While other prospective candidates have been hard at work building their campaign machine, Huckabee has been biding his time, a reluctant candidate who keeps surging in the polls.
Despite his easygoing-some might say indifferent-approach to the campaign ahead, Gallup polls show that Huckabee enjoys the most intense support in all the Gop field.
- 4/21/2011
- by John Avlon
- The Daily Beast
But he has just been honoured by the American Cinematheque
Surprisingly slender, if a bit doddery now at 75, Michael Winner walks to the podium in the American Cinematheque's Egyptian theatre and shows us how a real raconteur grabs his audience. "How many people here tonight were also at the screening of I'll Never Forget What's'isname in Santa Monica last night?" Four or five hands go up. "Oh good, then I can tell some of those stories all over again tonight!" Hearty applause – and he has us in the palm of his hand already. Even I suddenly like Michael Winner – and I hate Michael Winner.
Given that the moviegoing public hasn't displayed much enthusiasm for whatever Winner has been peddling for a while now – at least in terms of movies – it is odd that we are gathered here in a cineaste corner of Los Angeles to celebrate this particular elder statesman of film.
Surprisingly slender, if a bit doddery now at 75, Michael Winner walks to the podium in the American Cinematheque's Egyptian theatre and shows us how a real raconteur grabs his audience. "How many people here tonight were also at the screening of I'll Never Forget What's'isname in Santa Monica last night?" Four or five hands go up. "Oh good, then I can tell some of those stories all over again tonight!" Hearty applause – and he has us in the palm of his hand already. Even I suddenly like Michael Winner – and I hate Michael Winner.
Given that the moviegoing public hasn't displayed much enthusiasm for whatever Winner has been peddling for a while now – at least in terms of movies – it is odd that we are gathered here in a cineaste corner of Los Angeles to celebrate this particular elder statesman of film.
- 3/17/2011
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Peace Corps founder and former vice presidential candidate Sargent Shriver died Tuesday at the age of 95, ABC News reports.
Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2003, which motivated his daughter, former California first lady Maria Shriver, to help raise awareness of the disease.
The elder Shriver was a prominent member and advisor of the Kennedy family. He married John F. Kennedy's sister, Eunice Kennedy, in 1953 and went on to become an advocate with such organizations as Head Start,...
Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2003, which motivated his daughter, former California first lady Maria Shriver, to help raise awareness of the disease.
The elder Shriver was a prominent member and advisor of the Kennedy family. He married John F. Kennedy's sister, Eunice Kennedy, in 1953 and went on to become an advocate with such organizations as Head Start,...
- 1/18/2011
- Extra
Claude Chabrol, who died Sunday, Sept. 12 at 80, was a founder of the New Wave and a giant of French cinema. This interview, which took place during the 1970 New York Film Festival, shows him at midpoint in his life, just as he had emerged from a period of neglect and was making some of his best films.
Claude Chabrol's "This Man Must Die" is advertised as a thriller, but I found it more of a macabre study of human behavior. There's no doubt as to the villain's identity, and little doubt that he will die (although how he dies is left deliciously ambiguous).
Unlike previous masters of thrillers like Hitchcock, Chabrol goes for mood and tone more than for plot. You get the notion that his killings and revenges are choreographed for a terribly observant camera and an ear that hears the slightest change in human speech.
For this reason,...
Claude Chabrol's "This Man Must Die" is advertised as a thriller, but I found it more of a macabre study of human behavior. There's no doubt as to the villain's identity, and little doubt that he will die (although how he dies is left deliciously ambiguous).
Unlike previous masters of thrillers like Hitchcock, Chabrol goes for mood and tone more than for plot. You get the notion that his killings and revenges are choreographed for a terribly observant camera and an ear that hears the slightest change in human speech.
For this reason,...
- 9/12/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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