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Reply #180 posted 12/07/15 6:58pm

JoeBala

DECEMBER 07, 2015 6:15pm PT by Kate Stanhope

Queen Latifah to Topline Lee Daniels' Girl-Group Pilot

A trio of newcomers has also been added to the project, which centers on a three-person girl group. AP Images

A trio of newcomers has also been added to the project, which centers on a three-person girl group.

Queen Latifah is returning to TV.

The Oscar nominee and former Living Single a actress is set to star in Empire co-creator Lee Daniels' untitled girl group pilot, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Written, created and directed by Daniels, the project centers on three young women who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the industry, and the choices they face along the way to success and stardom.

Queen Latifah will play Carlotta, the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon who boasts an amazing voice and becomes a surrogate mother to the three girls — even though she doesn't approve of their musical aspirations. After a nationwide search, newcomers Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O'Grady have joined the project as the members of the group.

Demorest will play Star, the tough 18-year-old who spent her childhood in and out of foster homes after her mother's death and who will do whatever it takes to become a true star. Destiny has been cast as Alexandra, the wealthy 20-year-old who grew up on New York's Upper East Side but has tried to put her privileged world behind her for years so she can make authentic music. O'Grady rounds out the group as Simone, Star's younger sister who dreams of the day Star will come back to rescue her from the abusive foster home in which she was placed five years before.

Additionally, Tom Donaghy (The Whole Truth) has joined the project as a writer and executive producer. Pamela Oas Williams (Lee Daniels' The Butler) and Effie Brown (Dear White People) also serve as exec producers. The pilot, which is produced by 20th TV and is the first under Daniels' overall deal with the studio, begins production this month in Atlanta.

The project was first announced this summer at Fox's summer press tour.

Fresh off her role in NBC's hit live production of The Wiz, Queen Latifah also earned an Emmy nomination for her starring role in HBO's Bessie. She earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Chicago. She is repped by CAA, Principato-Young and Eisenberg Tanchum.


'Lazarus': Theater Review

12/7/2015 by David Rooney

Michael C. Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso in 'Lazarus'
Courtesy of Jan Versweyveld
It's the freakiest sho-o-o-ow.
1/20/2016

David Bowie teams with Irish playwright Enda Walsh and Belgian avant-garde director Ivo van Hove on this unconventional music-theater project starring Michael C. Hall.

Ever since David Bowie first gained attention in 1969 with "Space Oddity," and then re-emerged three years later to captain the British glam-rock wave of the early 1970s, his music has combined complex abstract narrative with inherently theatrical flamboyance. His famous "Ziggy Stardust" concerts in 1972 were revolutionary in their incorporation of theater and multimedia elements into a rock show. Despite various rumors and aborted attempts over the decades, however, a full-fledged detour into musical theater hasn't really happened until now. So Lazarus, in which Bowie revisits the character he played in the 1976 cult movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth, arrives with massive anticipation.

Does the result live up to expectations? That will depend on your devotion to the Thin White Duke — or whether you can score a ticket, given that the extended run is already pretty much sold out through its Jan. 20 closing date. The show is an alienation alt-musical that channels the trippy dream state of an alcoholic extraterrestrial insomniac. So the two intermission-less hours ofLazarus are predictably strange, often impenetrable and a tad pretentious, but always fascinating, even when distancing.

Is it a play with music or a musical? Either way it's jammed full of Bowie tracks — the best of them from the '70s — plus a couple of new songs, all expertly performed by an ace cast led by Michael C. Hall. And it includes stunning video elements that overlap and merge with the physical action in mesmerizing ways. If the production occasionally veers toward camp — one scene recalls the strobe number in which Jennifer Beals' welder/exotic dancer got a little too artsy for a Pittsburgh titty bar in Flashdance — that ends up being part of the spell.

The project was initiated by Bowie, who has long nurtured the idea of a return to the character he played onscreen in the Nicolas Roeg film based on American writer Walter Tevis' 1963 sci-fi novel. Given that Bowie wrote music for the movie that was shelved in favor of a score by John Phillips and Stomu Yamashta,Lazarus can be considered the completion of that earlier work.

Bowie has chosen interesting collaborators in Irish playwright Enda Walsh, who spun a distinctive musical out of Glen Hansard's songs in Once, and Belgian avant-garde theater maker Ivo van Hove, whose starkly stripped-down textual probes have memorably included an Angels in America that made haunting use of Bowie songs. Also on the team are the director's longtime set and lighting design partner Jan Versweyveld; frequent video accomplice Tal Yarden; choreographer Annie-B. Parson, contributing stylized dance elements that incorporate jolts of violence and fight movement; and music director Henry Hey, who first worked with Bowie on 2013's The Next Day. (That album yields a handful of the more recent songs used here.)

The show's unconventional nature also makes the choice of venue a smart one. New York Theatre Workshop is a modestly sized space hospitable to this type of experimentation, and its East Village location has a direct connection in the piece.

The extremely loose narrative jumps off from Tevis' book and Roeg's film in expanded directions. To the extent that the hallucinatory series of scenes can be boiled down (or that I understood them), the story centers on Thomas Jerome Newton (Hall), a humanoid alien who came to Earth from his drought-stricken planet many years earlier. After amassing a fortune in business while attempting to build a rocket ship to take him home, he was experimented on by the government and now lives in depressed isolation on a diet of gin, Twinkies and jarring bursts of blaring television, unable to leave or to die.


Michael C. Hall in 'Lazarus'

He's tormented by visions from his past and his imagination, which fuse in his memories of the blue-haired woman he loved, Mary Lou. As his assistant, Elly (Cristin Milioti), gets sucked deeper into Newton's world, she separates from her husband (Bobby Moreno) and remakes herself as Mary Lou, forgetting her own identity for a time.

There's also an ethereal Girl (Sophia Anne Caruso), sent on a mission that she initially struggles to comprehend but eventually deduces is to help Newton return to his planet. (She builds a rocket onstage out of masking tape in one of the show's simplest but most evocative images.) But it emerges instead that it's Newton’s task to help free the Girl from her limbo state, a revelation involving dark deeds related by Alan Cumming in a video insert. Finally, there are black-clad figures, led by the enigmatic Valentine (Michael Esper), who appear to be some kind of agents of death. Audiences will make more or less sense of the show depending on their willingness to invest in its unrelentingly opaque and choppy storytelling.

In visual and sonic terms, this is a rich kinetic experience, unfolding in a large, sterile apartment, designed by Versweyveld in sickly yellow, with a central video wall and huge windows looking onto the band — an uber-cool ensemble of six led by Hey on synth. Projections spill from the screen into the space surrounding the actors, often echoing the main action with a temporal disconnect, and images of nature and cityscapes from Berlin to New York are frequently beamed behind the band.

For longtime Bowie fans, the show's sampling of his back catalog will be reward enough, with songs used both literally and atmospherically. Striking interludes are woven around "Changes," "Life on Mars?," "Absolute Beginners," "All the Young Dudes," "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "It's No Game (Part 1)," the latter involving a geisha emerging from the screen to interact with Newton. Along with ambient music, some songs provide quiet underscoring before being interpolated into the action, like "Sound and Vision." Many of the new arrangements are gorgeous, notably the final number, "Heroes," performed by Hall and Caruso as a duet of healing deliverance. The fact that they're bodysurfing in a pool of spilt milk as they sing is typical of the show's spacey oddity.

Whatever you make of its arcane sensibility, one thing that can't be faulted is the cast's commitment to the creative team's wavelength, providing cohesion even when coherence is lacking. Starting with the vintage Bowie LPs stacked by a turntable on the side of the stage, Lazarus is unabashedly self-referential, so it's no surprise that many of the cast to varying degrees "do" Bowie in their vocals, particularly Nicholas Christopher, the fabulously commanding Esper and Hall. Caruso is bewitching, combining doll-like vulnerability with strength and determination; her "Life on Mars?" encapsulates the show's lingering melancholy. And Milioti holds nothing back, spiraling into the kind of intense, expressionistic performance mode that is a van Hove trademark.

The show is very much an ensemble piece, but Hall is its hypnotic linchpin. Looking ravaged and heartbroken, his strong face and muscular body either wracked with sorrow or frozen in brooding detachment, he's an ideal Bowie stand-in. And with Newton's languid vowels and brittle enunciation, he's in spectacular voice. After this and his turn in the recent Hedwig and the Angry Inchrevival — in which he vanished into the role rather than winking from behind it like his predecessor, Neil Patrick Harris — Hall really needs to be on the radars of enterprising musical producers.

Whether or not the outre folly of Lazarus pays off is wide open to debate, but this may well be the nearest thing to a Bowie musical that any of us could have hoped for. At the very least, it's unlike anything else out there and it's certainly not banal.

Venue: New York Theatre Workshop, New York
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Cristin Milioti, Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso, Nicholas Christopher, Lynn Craig, Bobby Moreno, Krista Pioppi, Charlie Pollock, Brynn Williams
Director: Ivo van Hove
Playwrights: David Bowie, Enda Walsh
Music and lyrics: David Bowie
Set and lighting design: Jan Versweyveld
Costume design: An D'Huys
Sound design: Brian Ronan
Choreography: Annie-B. Parson
Video design: Tal Yarden
Music director: Henry Hey
Presented by New York Theatre Workshop, by special arrangement with Robert Fox, Risky Folio

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #181 posted 12/08/15 8:10am

JoeBala

The Best TV Shows of 2015

By JAMES PONIEWOZIK, MIKE HALE and NEIL GENZLINGER DEC. 7, 2015

Clockwise from top left: Jeffrey Tambor in “Transparent”; Robert A. Durst in “The Jinx”; Keri Russell in “The Americans”; Aziz Ansari in “Master of None”; Tracee Ellis Ross in “black-ish”; and Louis C. K. in “Louie.”Amazon; HBO; Patrick Harbon/FX; KC Bailey/Netflix; Kelsey McNeal/ABC; KC Bailey/FX

The television critics of The New York Times share their picks for the best shows of the year.

James Poniewozik

Was 2015 the best TV year ever? It was, at least, the most TV year ever. There are more original shows every year. Choosing 10 shows annually, then, becomes a crueler and crueler process. As it should be. A list only means something to the extent that it leaves something off. It should hurt. But inevitably, any best TV show list will omit some of what was best about TV.

Mine, say, leaves out some of 2015’s most adventurous and relevant series (“Mr. Robot,” “UnREAL,”“Empire”). It overlooks the farewell runs of some greats (“Mad Men,” “Justified,” “Parks and Recreation”). It disregards the year of musical desk chairs on late night. And it chucks out series (“Bob’s Burgers,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Fargo”) that I watch weekly with delight. This list is not about anything wrong with those shows; it’s about what’s right with these 10.

I didn’t rank my list. Art isn’t math, and I feel silly putting on my lab coat and declaring that this sitcom is precisely two Quality Units greater than that drama. There was an elite tier of shows — “The Americans,” “The Leftovers,” “Master of None” and “Transparent” — I knew immediately had to be on this list, but beyond that, these all play different but equally vital positions. Herewith, in alphabetical order, my fantasy team:

“The Americans” (FX) This Cold War thriller has made good use of the songs of Fleetwood Mac, and that’s fitting — it’s the TV equivalent of the album “Rumours,” a work of intimate, emotional warfare, at once brooding and torrid. As the Cold War entered its “Evil Empire” phase, the married Soviet plants Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) became more deeply ensnared in the battle between cause and conscience.

(Read a review | Purchase on Amazon and iTunes)

From left: Anthony Anderson, Miles Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Marsai Martin in “black-ish” on ABC. Kelsey McNeal/ABC

“black-ish” (ABC) Kenya Barris created a sitcom about an African-American father worried his kids were forgetting their racial history. He ended up with an essential series for a moment when racial history keeps repeating itself. Impeccably cast and written, full of heart but sharply satirical, “black-ish” revived the idea of the engaged network comedy.

(Read a review | Watch at Hulu)

“Halt and Catch Fire” (AMC) The 2014 debut season of this 1980s computer-business drama turned out to be mere beta testing. In its much superior sophomore year, the series evolved from an I.B.M.-clone “Mad Men” to an origin story of the social Internet. The show smartly took the reins away from the antihero played by Lee Pace and gave them to Kerry Bishé and Mackenzie Davis, who were transfixing as early online-service pioneers who cracked open the beige box to find our connected future.

(Read a review | Purchase on Amazon and iTunes)

“The Jinx” (HBO) Reality gave the director Andrew Jarecki an antagonist for the ages in Robert A. Durst, the cold-eyed, batty millionaire arrested on murder charges on the weekend of this docu-series’ finale. The twists were gobsmacking — the incriminating “BEVERLEY” note, a seeming hot-mike confession in the closing seconds — and Mr. Jarecki’s storytelling was haunting, dogged yet empathetic. This year, true crime surpassed “True Detective.”

(Read a review | Watch at HBO Go | Purchase oniTunes and Amazon)

Ann Dowd and Justin Theroux in HBO’s “The Leftovers.”Van Redin/HBO

“The Leftovers” (HBO) Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta took a banality — bad things will happen, and you will never know why — and made it into art. Set after the random disappearance of 2 percent of the earth’s population, this series is less mystery than extended parable, a new Bible set among fanatics and nonbelievers. The relocated, rejuvenated second season felt both expansive and grounded, aided by seismic performances from Carrie Coon and Regina King.

(Read recaps | Watch at HBO Go)

Aziz Ansari and Noël Wells in “Master of None” on Netflix. KC Bailey/Netflix

“Master of None” (Netflix) 2015 was a year that TV opened the books to a wide variety of ethnic experiences and casting choices (see also “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Quantico”). “Master,” starring an appealing Aziz Ansari and created in part by him, benefited from this new openness and paid it forward, with a frankness about identity and a curiosity about other walks of life — all packaged in a hilarious, fresh millennial rom-com.

(Read a review | Watch at Netflix)

“Rectify” (SundanceTV) The story of a death-row parolee and his family takes its spiritual power not from preaching Christianity but from grappling with its ideals: forgiveness, penance, grace. In an era that favors brooding and bellowing antiheroes, Aden Young has given an understated and under-rewarded performance for three seasons as the enigmatic, damaged Daniel Holden.

(Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

“Review” (Comedy Central) You could make a strong year-end list just from this network’s array of voices — “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Broad City,” the swan song of “Key and Peele,” a reinvigorated “South Park.” But in its second season, “Review” elevated cringe comedy to poetry, as the TV “life reviewer” Forrest MacNeil (Andy Daly) self-immolated in the name of obsession like an existential Wile E. Coyote.

(Read a review | Watch at Comedy Central | Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

“Transparent” (Amazon Prime) The splendid 2014 premiere focused on Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor) and her late-life coming out as a transgender woman. Season 2, released Dec. 11, is more expansive— plumbing the identity quests of the Pfefferman clan and tracing the history of sexual-liberation movements — but every bit as gorgeous, gloriously messy and full of fractious, argumentative love.

(Read a review | Watch Episode 1 at Amazon Prime)

“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix) Robert Carlock and Tina Fey’s unlikely oddball of a sitcom was made for NBC but saved by streaming. Lit by the human glow stick Ellie Kemper, ably assisted by Tituss Burgess and Carol Kane, it was a daring feat: a trauma-survival story played for dark comedy. Though 2015 was the year NBC’s fabled Thursday comedy block died, “Kimmy” proved that sophisticated, screwy comedy is still — to quote its theme song — alive, dammit.

(Read a review | Watch at Netflix)

Mike Hale

I ranked the 10 best television series of 2015 by watching as much TV as possible, making a list of about 50 shows and then moving them up, down and around on a sheerly intuitive basis. No careful weighing of qualities here. All that matters in a list like this is how far a show moves the needle on your personal seismometer. Did the earth shake when you watched it?

In a time of burgeoning diversity across broadcast, cable and digital, “Jessica Jones,” “Master of None,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Jane the Virgin” and “Catastrophe” were strong contenders for this list. But none of them forced their way into the top 10.

Pamela Adlon and Louis C. K. in “Louie.” KC Bailey/FX

1. “Louie” (FX) Louis C. K. can be counted on to go deep, dark and strange. But the moments I remember best from the fifth season of his show are the romantic ones — the tender, sad, sometimes wildly inappropriate and always true depictions of middle-aged courtship. The off-again, off-again relationship of Louie and Pam (Pamela Adlon) is the delicate heart of a tough-minded, hilarious show.

(Read a review | Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

2. “The Americans” (FX) Still the best, most relentless drama on television, though perhaps a little less enthralling in its third season. The question of how the Russian spies’ teenage daughter would handleher growing knowledge of her parents’ secrets never felt as urgent as it should have, but the season-ending twist could mean that Season 4 will get back to the nastiness and fervor that the show does so well.

(Read a review | Purchase on Amazon and iTunes)

Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackery in the Cinemax drama “The Knick.”Mary Cybulski/HBO

3. “The Knick” (Cinemax) This period medical drama is the best evidence for those fashionable auteur theories of television — in the show’s current second season, Steven Soderbergh continues to direct, shoot and edit every episode, giving the show a dark, voluptuous palette and compositional rigor that challenge the truisms about TV being a writer’s medium. The story lines can sag, but Mr. Soderbergh’s visual panache and an excellent cast, led by Andre Holland and Clive Owen, more than make up for any narrative deficiencies.

(Read a review)

4. “The Jinx” (HBO) A documentary mini-seriesgave us the best central character — the empty-eyed real estate heir Robert A. Durst, arrested on a murder charge on the weekend of the series finale — and the most gripping ending of the year.

(Read a review | Watch at HBO Go | Purchase oniTunes and Amazon)

5. “Fargo” (FX) If you miss “Breaking Bad,” this Midwestern-gothic anthology crime series probably comes closest to that show’s operatic sweep and meticulous design. The second season, in which Minnesota cops get embroiled in a Fargo-Kansas City turf war, includes excellent performances by Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson and Zahn McClarnon.

(Read a review | Watch on FXNow)

Ilana Glazer, left, and Abbi Jacobson in Comedy Central’s “Broad City.” Ali Goldstein/Comedy Central

6. “Broad City” (Comedy Central) Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson’s daffy, dirty stream-of-consciousness comedy is the true and logical heir to “Sex and the City.” Except instead of showing us the city that we want, Ms. Glazer and Ms. Jacobson show us the city that we get.

(Watch Episodes 6-10 on Comedy Central | Purchase full season on iTunes and Amazon)

7. “Justified” (FX) This Kentucky-set Elmore Leonard-inspired series about United States marshals and their enemies, was the most soulful and purely entertaining crime drama around. The sixth season wrapped up the Cain-and-Abel story of Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) and Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) with the show’s typical mix of sadness, satire and deep feeling.

(Read a review | Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

8. “Transparent” (Amazon) Not everyone will find the travails of the self-absorbed Pfefferman family compelling or humorous, but Jill Soloway’s series succeeds like no other in bringing a cinematic, indie-film approach to serial comedy, and it features a marvelous central performance: Jeffrey Tambor as Maura, the reluctantly brave, occasionally clueless transgender woman and family matriarch.

(Read a review | Watch Episode 1 at Amazon Prime)

9. “Moone Boy” (Hulu) Chris O’Dowd’s autobiographical sitcom about a young Irish boy (David Rawle) and his gangly imaginary friend (Mr. O’Dowd) maintained its winning eccentricity — whimsicality with a sharp bite — through its third and, for now, final season.

(Read a review | Watch at Hulu)

Continue reading the main story

10. “Penny Dreadful” (Showtime) Eva Green’s performance as an implacable demon hunter with witchly powers of her own is more than enough reason to watch John Logan’s sumptuous horror serial. Throw in the great British actors Rory Kinnear, as one of Frankenstein’s monsters, and Simon Russell Beale, as a vivid Egyptologist, along with Mr. Logan’s literate, thoughtful scripts, and there’s no excuse for missing it.

(Read a review | Watch on Showtime Anytime | Purchase on iTunes | Amazon)

Neil Genzlinger

If you watched only scripted shows this year, you were well entertained, but you missed some very fine television. Quality documentaries, both one-shots and series, were everywhere in 2015, with HBO and PBS leading the way but plenty of other outlets finding room for this work on their schedules. Here (excluding films that had a theatrical release, like “Citizenfour”) are the 10 I’m most glad I saw, documentaries that taught me something or opened my eyes or were just plain invigorating.

Robert A. Durst in December 2010. HBO

1. “The Jinx” (HBO) Lots of documentaries illuminate something in the news, but not manybecome the news, as this Emmy-winning six-part mini-series did. It began by taking a studied look at Mr. Durst, a New York real estate scion who had been connected to three deaths but convicted in none, and it ended with his arrest the day before the final episode was broadcast. There have been plenty of true-crime documentaries, but this one, by Andrew Jarecki, stood out from the beginning, with its patient, detailed revisiting of a 2001 killing in Galveston, Tex. And when, partway through Episode 2, it became clear that Mr. Durst was a willing participant in the series’ making, it really found a chilling, startling groove. It’s one thing to take an outsider’s view of a high-profile criminal case; it’s quite another to get inside the head of the suspect.

(Read a review | Watch at HBO Go | Purchase oniTunes and Amazon)

Mimi and Dona Thornton in a church photo.via the Thornton family

2. “Mimi and Dona” (PBS) Any parent of a child with a disability fears the future; the caregiving issues as the parent ages and perhaps dies are daunting. Here the filmmaker, Sophie Sartain, follows her grandmother, Mimi, and her aunt, Dona, as they grapple with a harsh reality: Mimi has devoted her life to caring for Dona, who has an intellectual disability, but now she is in her 90s and Dona is in her 60s. The challenges are becoming more than Mimi can handle.The film is wrenching and, at the same time, a beautiful portrait of parental commitment.

(Watch at PBS)

3. “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” (PBS) Ken Burns, who came to prominence with a documentary about the Civil War, turned his attention to a different kind of war in this absorbing three-part series, which traced the mixture of hope and frustration that has defined efforts to treat and cure cancer for decades. The formula pioneered by Mr. Burns (an executive producer here) works well with the subject matter, but the director, Barak Goodman, added a humanizing touch by cutting in poignant personal stories of people grappling with the disease.

(Read a review | Watch at PBS)

4. “The Brain With David Eagleman” (PBS)What Mr. Burns did for cancer Dr. Eagleman, a neuroscientist, did for research into the brain and how it works. Much of this six-part series might be out of date in fairly short order, so rapidly is the field advancing, but unless you’re a neuroscientist yourself you probably have no idea how many fascinating discoveries have been made in recent years. What might lie ahead is exciting and a little creepy to contemplate.

(Watch at PBS)

5. “Of Miracles and Men” (ESPN) Sometimes a documentary’s main achievement is to make you reassess an event or subject you thought you knew.This film by Jonathan Hock, part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, accomplished that with one of the best-known sports triumphs in American history, the Miracle on Ice Olympic hockey victory against the Soviet Union in 1980. This film provided the Soviet perspective and in doing so showed how the game figured in the evolution of glasnost.

(Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

6. “The Seventies” (CNN) Last year, CNN took a 10-part look at the 1960s, and this year, in eight parts, it dissected the music, politics, cultural shifts and headline-making traumas of the 1970s, a decade that began with Kent State and ended with the Iranian hostage crisis. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, the executive producers, are experts at this type of not-too-distant history. The episodes on cultural subjects — television, music — are enjoyable remember-whens, while the ones on more weighty matters establish the decade as pivotal in the evolution of phenomena like terrorism and political cynicism that are still very much with us.

From left: Jon Spurney, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, John Konesky and Matt Mayhall in “Documentary Now!” Rhys Thomas/IFC

7. “Documentary Now!” (IFC) Oh, all right; this series, introduced in August, consists not of actual documentaries but of parodies of actual documentaries. It sure is funny, though. Beginning with an earnest introduction by Helen Mirren at the top of each episode, it never deviates from deadpan. Personal favorite: “Gentle & Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee,” a two-parter about a famous 1970s soft-rock band that never was.

(Purchase on iTunes and Amazon)

8. “Dawn of Humanity,” “Nova” (PBS) There was a breaking-news feel to this program, which was broadcast days after the announcement of a major fossil find in South Africa. The story of the discovery of a trove of hominid bones deep in an almost inaccessible cave was told in an up-close way that let you feel the scientists’ thrill.

(Read a review | Watch at PBS)

9. “Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury” (World Channel) When their friend Laury Sacks started having odd speech and memory problems, Connie Shulman and Pamela Hogan began shooting film as a way to help her. They ended up capturing her battle with frontotemporal dementia, a terrifying degenerative disease. The result was a painfully personal film about a little-known condition.

10. “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” (MSNBC)There was a lot of programming pegged to Earth Day in April, but this lively documentary explored a subject not often associated with environmentalism: the amount of food we waste, at both the personal and the industrial level. What does this have to do with the environment? Growing and raising food takes land, water, fertilizers. The film gave the subject an amusing twist by having a couple try to live off discarded food for six months.

C-3PO Speaks: Man Behind 'Star Wars' Droid on 'The Force Awakens'

“I think he did once try and kiss R2-D2, but it wasn’t a good move,” says Anthony Daniels

BY BRIAN HIATT December 4, 2015
Anthony DanielsAnthony Daniels, the man behind C-3PO in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.' Sarah Lee/eyevine/Redux

If you know someone at the Guinness Book of World Records, do Anthony Daniels a favor and get in touch on his behalf – after playing the same character, C-3PO, in seven movies, plus too many cartoons and video games to count, he's pretty sure he deserves a spot. And at age 69, he's still trim enough to fit into the golden suit. In his interview for Rolling Stone's new cover story on the making of Star Wars: The Force Awakens,Daniels talked about the early days of the character, his favorite 3PO moments and more.

What was it like to do the first read-through for The Force Awakens, with the original cast reassembled?
I thought it would be boring as heck, with the actors just mumbling into their kneecaps. But it was quite the opposite and it was just lovely. I particularly remember that with Harrison ... it was like he'd never stopped being Han Solo. He was just as witty, funny, serious, brave, all the things that you expect of him, and there he was sitting across the room. I was thinking, "Gosh, this is really good." Didn't even have to buy a ticket! So you could've bottled that performance, it was great.

And one day later on, I was rehearsing with Princess Leia, without the mask on, just looking into Carrie's face about three feet away from me, just looking into her eyes and having her look into mine – because you can't see my eyes behind that mask. I didn't mention it to her, but it was a very sweet moment of just looking eye to eye for once. And you know, she's older, I'm older and it's okay, we're still here.

You're the only person to go from all of the prequels to this movie. How would you sum up that transition?
The first time that I would appear on set as 3PO – because I used to make a dramatic entrance – George would say, "Ah, Star Wars has arrived." I feel like a family heirloom, you know? 3PO is something that's always there. I think in the prequels I got used to Alec Guinness being Ewan McGregor, you see – you know, everybody changed, and I have a problem with names but we got through it. And you know, characters were digitized or whatever, put in afterward in post-production. Digital is okay, but when people create something real, it's like a conjuring trick. "How did they do that? I want to know but I don't want to know." With BB-8 on this movie, I was on set watching, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. BB-8 is instantly adorable. I think he's gonna be the smash hit, and now you have people who own miniature versions in their own homes.

"I mean, I think he did once try and kiss R2-D2, but it wasn't a good move."

The first version of the C-3PO suit in the Seventies actually hurt you when you moved in it. Do you still have scars?
There were some very nasty – what do you call them? Bruises, where you get pinched, like getting your fingers caught in a pair of wire cutters or something. And I look at my sort of scraggly neck and my sort of falling-out hair and think, "I wonder if that's to do with being cooked inside the suit for 40 years – or is it just age?" I think it's just age. I realize just how clever the original designers were in putting something together. But we had slightly run out of time in pre-production so it didn't quite work on day one or day two ... or even to the end [laughs]. But whatever. As an actor you put up with all sorts of things that the audience doesn't need to know about. But yeah, I've got the scars.

Did people look at you differently the moment you first put on that suit?
I managed to struggle a few feet to get out of the tent, and then I'm looking at people who are staring at me like nobody ever had. It was an extraordinary feeling because my eyes looked through his eyes and everybody's eyes were looking at him and therefore at me, and it was actually quite a bewildering moment. And then, of course, we started filming and it went back to pain [laughs].

What else stands out from those first moments of filming the original Star Wars?
It was quite funny 'cause the Jawas – you know, do you remember the Jawas?

I'm familiar, yes.
There were children in the outfits who thought it was huge fun to be a Jawa, but that kind of lost its charm after half an hour and they didn't understand [laughs] they had to keep doing it again and again.

I'm sure that in 1976, 1977, the idea that you would still be doing this character in 2015 was not on your radar screen.
Yes, but there was something working in my favor in spite of me not even wanting the initial job interview, in spite of possibly not being the voice of C-3PO ... in spite of me balancing whether to do a second go at it. Some bigger entity, Force, whatever you would call it, clearly was shoving me in this direction. Because I was so unenthusiastic. The first thing was my agent, who said, "Don't be so stupid. Go and meet George – you don't know what it could lead to," but it actually leads me talking to you today. So I am merely a pawn in all of this, and maybe George knows something we don't, you know?

c3poStar Wars/C3PO, 1977 Lucasfilm Ltd./Twentieth Century Fox/Photofest


George actually said early on that there would be nine movies, and that the droids would be the only characters in all of them.
Oh, definitely! And somehow that sort of got lost in the mists of time, as things do. And there was no guarantee.

Do you keep in your head the knowledge from the prequels that 3PO was actually built by a young Darth Vader, or do you try to forget it?
It's there as sort of archive in my brain, but since 3PO doesn't know that he was created by Anakin, it would be wrong for him to be cowering in a corner apologizing 'cause his dad's Darth Vader. He doesn't know, so I don't think like that. In general, one of the challenges is that 3PO is reactive rather than proactive so he very much depends on the circumstances in which the director and script writer – not necessarily in that order – have placed him in. And his various directors love to abuse him physically and tear him apart, stick him together in the wrong order, all that kind of thing. He's different from the other characters. You can rearrange him and he bounces back eventually [laughs].

I think some of my favorite moments are the constant romantic interruptions in Empire.
Mine too. It was very funny on the set because he's so unaware. You know, that's one of the charming things. I really love that because he has no concept of emotional attachment, or at least the physical bit. I mean, I think he did once try and kiss R2-D2, but it wasn't a good move. [laughs]

"People who come up to me in the street and say, 'Thank you for my childhood.' That is one of the nicest things ever."

And in Return of the Jedi, you had that wonderful moment where you get to tell the entire story of the saga up to that point to the Ewoks.
I remember it was a Friday and they said to me, "Oh, can you come in and mime the story so far for the Ewoks?" I actually, you know, stood in front of a mirror at home and kind of made a fool of myself [laughs], and it worked. Well, the great joy, of course, is that Ben Burtt added the sound effects, which I actually didn't know they were going to do and that helped me very much. But, of course, the irony is, in the first film, 3PO says, [in character] "I'm not very good at telling stories, or not at making them interesting, anyway," because he's bored people for centuries. And suddenly he gets this willing audience in the Ewoks, which was very sweet.

Where did the voice come from for you?
I'd talk to George about Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. And I thought about it and I tried robotic voices and nothing gelled. And then something very strange happened on the first day: After I walked out of that tent, 3PO took over, frankly. But you see, he's very nervous, he's always in the wrong place, he's tense, nobody believes him so he's impatient, he's got a sidekick who is always arguing with him. He's a very tense character and when you're tensed your body tends to get a little tight. And also if you're slightly afraid, it tends to [in character] go up a few tones,. In doing that I actually stand up straight and tense my stomach muscles because muscle tension does affect you. You'd laugh if you saw me in a dubbing studio because it's me in jeans and a t-shirt but I'm standing like C-3PO, because that's the way I am on set so I just automatically replicate it. And people sort of say, "Oh, I can see the costume."

I think people find it upsetting to hear that you and Kenny Baker, who was inside R2-D2, supposedly don't get along.
Well do you believe everything you read? You know, I haven't seen Kenny for years, so we'll move on from that.

Do you consider yourself a Star Wars fan?
I didn't really used to think about Star Wars very much. Can you believe that? And then through various events that I was involved in, particularly Star Wars: In Concert, a big symphony orchestra tour [starting in 2009], I experienced the absolutely palpable sensation of affection, enthusiasm, love. And I stood there feeling the fans' emotion for something that I'd never viewed the way they do it. So now I actually have enthusiasm by proxy.

I'm sure you hear this all the time, but it was an intense thing to have you break into 3PO's voice on the phone today. It gave me goosebumps.
One of the greatest joys I have is when somebody will come up with their kid and say, "My little boy doesn't believe you are C-3PO. Could you do the voice?" and so I agree. And I watch their faces as I say, [in character] "Hello, I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations," and physically you can see the sound going in his ear and [laughs] going through his brain – and suddenly he gets it, and the smile is worth every moment of that pain [in the suit]. And one of the nicest things is people who come up to me in the street and say, "Thank you for my childhood." That is one of the nicest things ever. Ever.


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BMI Trailblazers Awards Set

December 7, 20158:05 PM MSTBebe Winans (L) and CeCe Winans pose in the press room during the American Idol Season 6 Finale held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Bebe Winans (L) and CeCe Winans pose in the press room during the American Idol Season 6 Finale held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Carolina Rebellion 2016 lineup announced, expands to three days

Guitar icon Slash performs on day 2 of the sold out Carolina Rebellion 2015, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.

December 7, 20158:08 PM MST
photo: Sherri "SoVery" Crawford ©Rockaholic / Loud Girl Media

Lenny Kravitz looks back, rocks out on new concert biopic

December 7, 201511:20 AM MSTLenny Kravitz reflects on studio solidarity versus on-stage interplay on new rock documentary.
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Lenny Kravitz reflects on studio solidarity versus on-stage interplay on new rock documentary.
Lenny Kravitz, Eagle Rock, Just Let Go, Let Love Rule

Just Let Go: Lenny Kravitz DVd
Rating: 4 stars

Lenny Kravitz is a one-man army in the studio, a talented titan who typically performs all the instruments (guitars, bass, and drums) all by himself.

Lenny Kravitz learns to let go in new concert film.
Lenny Kravitz learns to let go in new concert film.
Eagle Rock
Lenny Kravitz rocks, reflects in new concert film.
Eagle Rock

Not so on the road, where funk-master employs an ensemble of ace singers and musicians to recreate the rock ‘n’ soul heard on such now-classics albums as Let Love Rule, Mama Said, Are You Gonna Go My Way? andBaptism.

Kravitz and his crack players discuss the dichotomy—and their personal and professional relationships—on the new concert film Just Let Go: Lenny Kravitz Live, now out on Blu-ray and DVD.

“I love the studio,” professes Kravitz during the rooftop interview which opens the movie.

“That’s my canvas, that’s where I feel the most magic, but live is what it’s all about.”

Skilled as he may be, Lenny’s only got two arms and couldn’t play more than one instrument (while singing) at a time anyway. The Paul Dugdale-directed documentary examines how the man once known as “Romeo Blue” learned to relax over time, relinquish control, and assign various parts to his band members.

“So many performances today are on the computer, by the clock, over-choreographed,” he surmises.

“This is the opposite of that.”

Specifically, this is the 2014-2015 concert tour in support of Kravitz’ latest effort, Strut. And unlike most rock and roll pictures that either present a straightforward concert or a strictly behind-the-scenes cinema verite narrative short on live footage, Just Let Go juxtaposes concert cuts with clips of Kravitz and his cohorts relaxing on the road, cavorting backstage, and working hard at rehearsals.

It’s in these candid commentaries, fly-on-the-wall perspective, and exclusive look-sees that Lenny talks about his musical mission and his team mates reveal how they came on board—and evolved over time as part of his traveling lineup.

“I feel blessed to be surrounded by them,” gushes Kravitz.

“I have an idea of what I’m looking for, but I rely on God to present them to me.”

We meet (and get to know) the players in between hard-rocking, sweat-inducing readings of bona fide Kravitz hits like “Fly Away,” “American Woman,” and “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” and devastating deep tracks like “Dirty White Boots,” “Dancin’ Til Dawn,” and Blondie-inspired disco-rocker “The Chamber” in Paris, New Orleans, and elsewhere, and discover just how down-to-earth they are despite their impressive skills and admirable studio CVs.

“New kids” Gail Ann Dorsey (bass) and Michael Sherman (saxophone) also chime in—and help milk maximum funk and soul out of “Strut,” “New York City,” and “Dig In.”

Longtime guitarist Craig Ross (he with the fluffy hairdo) reports meeting Kravitz while living with drummer Clem Burke (Blondie), whose then-girlfriend (The Go-Gos Kathy Valentine) arranged an audition. Ross concedes that Kravitz is a perfectionist who knows how to push his band to get what he wants, but also recognizes when to afford room for a little individual expression.

“This guy works hard,” agrees 22-year veteran Harold Todd (saxophone). “That’s inspiring!”

Backup vocalists Yahzarah St. James, Jessica Wagner-Cowan, and Erika Jerry recall meeting their “boss” one sweltering summer day:

“It was 90 degrees outside, and he had on black leather pants…a total rock star moment!” St. James laughs.

Other first impressions and initial meetings are shared by drummer Cindy Blackman Santana (drums), George Laks (keys), and Ludovic “Ludo” Louis (trumpet), all of whom concur that Kravitz always seems sure of “what he wants to do, and where he wants to go” with his music—and isn’t shy when it comes to doling out parts and dictating his expectations.

But Lenny also reveals his softer side: He explains the film’s Just Let Go title owes to none other than Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, who observed how tense Kravitz was during early tours. The “Stairway to Heaven” icon advised the upstart to ease back on his people, try to have fun…and just enjoy the ride.

“I would stress over the details,” admits Kravitz.

“He really took it to me, and told me what I already knew. It was like having your dad yell at you! He saw I wasn’t enjoying the moment, and that wasn’t cool.”

Watch Strut” from concert https://youtu.be/excjzVW1crQ

The Grammy-winning retro-rocker has eased up considerably since his major label debut some 27 years ago—but that doesn’t mean he’s jettisoned his high standards. In between live performances, Kravitz insists that his supporting cast be well-versed in all styles (rock, reggae, jazz, funk, etc.) so they can render accurate versions of his genre-juggling studio favorites. In turn, this versatility informs their ability to improvise in and around the music—effectively creating fresh and exciting interpretations onstage.

“It’s like a lover, man,” says Lenny (with a coy smile) of coaching. “You learn what moves them, where to touch them to get something going!”

“We’re family,” he surmises, echoing a sentiment expressed by his underlings.

The camaraderie is on display in the horseplay and laughter seen and heard in the downtime footage: The horn players joke while shooting pool, the female vocalists bemoan their painful footwear, and Blackman Santana and Dorsey reflect on what it means to hold down Kravitz’ irresistible rhythms.

Lenny shines before his audiences, which—if we’re to believe Dugdale’s cameras—consist primarily of young females. Ross wails on an arsenal of axes that includes Gibson SGs, Les Pauls…and a see-through Dan Armstrong lucite guitar. Kravitz brandishes Gibson ES-335s, a Flying V, and—on the plaintive “Sister”—a shimmering acoustic.

Kravitz doesn’t take his stardom for granted, either, and expresses thanks to fans who chose to spend their hard-earned to buy his records and attend his concerts.

“You owe them everything you’ve got on that night. Whatever you have, you’ve got to give it to them.”

If only more musicians espoused Lenny’s work ethic.

Bonus features include unedited live versions of “Always on the Run,” “Sex,” “I Belong to You,” and “Let Love Rule.”

www.lennykravitz.com

Amazon DVD http://www.amazon.com/gp/...marturl-20

Amazon Blu-ray http://www.amazon.com/Jus...marturl-20

Netflix debuts first trailer for 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' sequel

December 7, 20157:02 PM MSTFirst trailer for 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny'
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First trailer for 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny'
Netflix

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.

[Edited 12/8/15 8:53am]

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Megadeth announce 2016 North American tour with Children of Bodom + more

December 8, 20155:01 AM MSTDave Mustaine with Megadeth, center, performs at the Myth Nightclub on November 23, 2013 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At left is Dave Ellefson, Chris Broderick is right. It was their first stop as part of their new Super Collider Tour.
Dave Mustaine with Megadeth, center, performs at the Myth Nightclub on November 23, 2013 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At left is Dave Ellefson, Chris Broderick is right. It was their first stop as part of their new Super Collider Tour.
Photo by Ben Garvin/Getty Images

'Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors': Holiday movie that inspires

December 7, 201510:21 PM MST

"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" brings the story of the country star's upbringing to television screens next week in a film that takes its name from one of her songs. The film, set in 1955 in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains, is not a musical...
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"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" brings the story of the country star's upbringing to television screens next week in a film that takes its name from one of her songs. The film, set in 1955 in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains, is not a musical...
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A Visit to the Strange, Secretive World of David Bowie’s ‘Lazarus’

By ALEXIS SOLOSKI NOV. 10, 2015

From left, Michael C. Hall, Michael Esper, Cristin Milioti and Ivo van Hove.Daniel Krieger for The New York Times

On a recent weekday morning, the Belgian director Ivo van Hove sat at a corner table in the bar of the Standard Hotel. A bound script of “Lazarus,” his latest stage project, nestled on the table beside his Americano.

With his planed features and silvering hair, Mr. van Hove is perfectly nice to look at. But it was almost impossible to eye anything except that script.

“Lazarus,” which begins performances on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and opens on Dec. 7, is one of the most anticipated works of the fall season and easily the most closely guarded. Few details have emerged, but the involvement of David Bowie, who has composed several original songs, revamped old ones and written the book with the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, guaranteed avid interest.

Mr. Bowie, who declined to comment for this article, conceived the show as a sort of sequel to “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the 1963 Walter Tevis novel that inspired the 1976 Nicolas Roeg film, in which Mr. Bowie starred as Thomas Newton, a louche, orange-haired extraterrestrial. Here, Newton will be played by Michael C. Hall, late of “Dexter” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

A rehearsal of “Lazarus,” with, from left, Cristin Milioti, Michael C. Hall and Ivo Van Hove. Jan Versweyveld

“Lazarus” has become the fastest-selling show that the Off Broadway New York Theater Workshop, home of“Once” and “Rent,” has produced in its 36 years.

In conversation, Mr. van Hove was very conscious about what he could and could not reveal, all the more so as a minder from the show’s press agency hovered nearby. “I think I said more than I should have,” he remarked, when he really hadn’t said much at all. At one point, he opened the script and read a couple penciled sentences that he and Mr. Walsh, had agreed upon.

“‘Lazarus’ focuses on Newton as he remains on Earth, a man unable to die, his head soaked in cheap gin, and haunted by a past love. We follow Newton through the course of a few days where the arrival of another lost soul might set him free,” he read. Then he closed the script again and added, “That’s the best I can do.”

Apparently Mr. Bowie had long contemplated writing music for the theater, a path previously trod by other rock and pop idols including David Byrne, Elton John and Cyndi Lauper. Last spring, the English producer Robert Fox contacted Mr. Walsh, who had written the book for “Once,” which ended up on Broadway and won a mantel full of Tonys, and informed him that Mr. Bowie was interested in revisiting the character of Thomas Newton, though not as an actor this time.

“This is really my territory,” Mr. Walsh said, speaking by telephone from London. “I understand that isolated, lonely, broken, unstable sort of character.”

Mr. Walsh met with Mr. Bowie and listened to the music and the lyrics, which were charged, he said, “with a mixture of romance and itchy violence.” He thought he could build a story from that despite the difficulty of the language and the density of the imagery. (Try parsing the lyrics to “Life on Mars.”)

As soon as they had a first draft, Mr. van Hove was mentioned as a possible director. He more typically works with classics than with new plays, and though he often directs operas, he hadn’t directed a musical since he staged a controversial version of “Rent” (Mimi actually died) in Amsterdam in 2001. But his approach — a way of knifing through texts to reveal the roiling emotions beneath — made him an attractive choice. (If a time-starved one; he is also directing two shows on Broadway this season, “A View From the Bridge” and “The Crucible,” and he directed “Antigone” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this fall.)

When Mr. van Hove saw the email from Mr. Fox mentioning a David Bowie project, he dismissed it as a prank. “I didn’t believe it,” he said. “I thought this is one of the tricks that one of my actors plays with me on my computer.”

Mr. van Hove is “a huge Bowie fan.” Thirty-five years ago, a few months after he had met his partner, the scenic designer Jan Versweyveld, they traveled together to New York just to see Mr. Bowie in “The Elephant Man” on Broadway.

They had little money, so they stayed at a Y.M.C.A. in Hell’s Kitchen, which Mr. van Hove described as “Terrible. Cockroaches. But that was O.K.” The production didn’t disappoint, and Mr. van Hove recalled his fascination with Mr. Bowie’s performance, which he called “modern acting, a very personal way of acting.”

David Bowie in a scene from the film “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”Columbia Pictures

Eventually, Mr. van Hove returned Mr. Fox’s email, and a follow-up phone call convinced him that the project was real. A meeting with Mr. Bowie was arranged; Mr. van Hove said he tried “not be nervous, but of course I was nervous.” He knew that Mr. Bowie wouldn’t need “a groupie or a fan to work with,” but rather an artistic collaborator. (He’d already made use of the Bowie song catalog in his stripped-down version of “Angels in America.”) Another meeting, this one involving Mr. Walsh, was arranged in July, and Mr. van Hove was shown a script.

No matter what that script contained, it would have been hard to decline an invitation from David Bowie. Chances to freak out in a moonage daydream don’t come around often. But Mr. van Hove knew that if he were not drawn to the story and the characters, he would not “be able to give everything and to demand everything.”

“Because I am not for hire,” he said. “I hope I am a craftsman.”

Happily, he felt a personal connection immediately. Outsiders, lonely people, those who can’t make the compromises that society demands, these are recurring figures in his work. And it would be tough to imagine a character more on the outside than Thomas Newton.

After the coffee with Mr. van Hove and the phone conversation with Mr. Walsh, a reporter was finally allowed in, at least briefly. An hour of rehearsal observation was permitted, which was both incredibly exciting and minimally illuminating. Mr. Bowie was not in evidence, though several of his songs were. (These do not include any of the tunes composed for a scrapped soundtrack to Mr. Roeg’s film.)

Mr. Hall’s Newton sloped around in taupe pajamas, drinking large tumblers of gin and slurping bowls of Lucky Charms. As he told an unnamed visitor: “I watch television and drink gin. I try to locate where I left the Twinkies.” Cristin Milioti’s Elly, apparently hired as his personal assistant, described him to another character as “sort of sad, sort of unknowable, in the way that you imagine rich, reclusive men to be.”

A young girl and a chorus of angels (or were they prostitutes, or angel prostitutes?) sang “This Is Not America,” a song Mr. Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group recorded for the soundtrack for “The Falcon and the Snowman.” Mr. Hall, with half-closed eyes and a Bowie-esque sneer, sang what seemed to be a new song, a ballad that began “Look up here, I’m in heaven.” Then he attempted autoerotic asphyxiation with a blue negligee.

Ms. Milioti put on that negligee and a matching blue wig. She snatched another wig from a woman dressed in a kimono, writhed against a wall and smashed a glass against the floor. Then the hour was up.

Many of the novel’s themes seemed present — alienation, disorientation, the corruptions of earthly life, a superego overwhelmed by id — as well as the movie’s emphasis on sex and sexuality. (Still, there was nothing to match the weirdness of the film’s erotic scenes: One shows characters shooting each other with blanks. Another combines an acrobatics routine and a foam party.) But there wasn’t much sense of story or of the relationships between characters.

Maybe that comes in other scenes. Maybe it doesn’t. As Mr. Walsh explained: “The piece is broken and fractured; the information comes late. You don’t know what you’re watching for about 40 minutes or so.” But he hoped that audiences would be able to track the narrative on “an emotional level.” And he teased that the various strands would build to “a sad and shocking ending.”

Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti in the musical “Once” at New York Theater Workshop. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“For some audiences, it will break their hearts to see that man go where he has to go,” Mr. Walsh said. “In a way we just want him to find rest, we want him to find a proper death, a proper release, whatever that is.”

The three lead actors — Mr. Hall, Ms. Milioti (a Tony nominee for “Once”) and Michael Esper (“The Last Ship”), who plays a character he would describe only vaguely — wouldn’t spoil that ending, of course. Speaking in the New York Theater Workshop kitchen, they discussed their enthusiasm for the piece, though only in the most general terms.

Initially, they had all been somewhat worried about meeting Mr. Bowie and singing his songs in front of him, but those anxieties had eased. “He’s very generous,” Mr. Hall said. “He has a childlike enthusiasm about it.”

“He’s really lovely,” Ms. Milioti said. “He seems really jazzed.”

They were themselves jazzed about Mr. Walsh’s script, enthusing — in vague terms — about its hidden depths. “The script will continue to reveal itself to us in ways that will be surprising,” Mr. Hall said.

“I’m constantly surprised,” Mr. Esper said.

“That’s one of the secrets of his writing — it creeps up on you,” Ms. Milioti said.

The apparent darkness of the script and the degradation it seems to demand of its characters didn’t faze them. “There’s something liberating about it,” Ms. Milioti said. “There are certain things I get to do in this show that I’ve always wanted to do in my life. Like wrecking things. It sort of gives me permission to do that.”

Still, they weren’t sure what it would feel like when they were running the play straight through. When Ms. Milioti worked with Mr. van Hove before, on “The Little Foxes” in 2010, she went home every night and ate a pint of ice cream. She joked that by the time technical rehearsals end, “I might have a sponsorship from Häagen-Dazs.”

Though Mr. Hall didn’t plan a rendezvous with frozen treats, he also speculated that performing the play from start to finish would be arduous. He reported a conversation with Mr. Walsh, in which they had discussed it as “like riding a rabid horse for a while,” Mr. Hall said. “A wild rabid horse.”

He wouldn’t say any more.

Correction: November 10, 2015
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified someone in the image. In the photograph that has Cristin Milioti on the left, the man on the right is not known. It is not the actor Michael Esper.

Meet Karina Ortiz: 11 Things To Know About 'OITNB' Dominican Actress We Should Be Talking About

By Janel Saldana | Dec 02 2015, 02:59PM EST

Dominican actress Karina Ortiz plays "Margarita" in the latest season of Netflix original series "Orange is the New Black." Instagram/@itskarinaortiz/Photo by @alejandro_xlii

We’ve been hearing the names Dascha Polanco, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Jackie Cruz, Selenis Leyva, Diana Guerrero and Jessica Pimentel on a regular basis ever since Latinas took over Season 3 of the Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black.” When Red (Kate Mulgrew) left Litchfield’s kitchen in the hands of Gloria (Selenis Leyva), against her own will of course, the Latino gang began getting a little more exposure and we got to find out a lot about their character’s background.

However, there is one Dominican actress that was left unnoticed throughout the season. Karina Ortiz plays Margarita, Cesar’s (Berto Colon) girlfriend and as you may recall, she is left with all his kids, including Daya’s newborn, when Cesar is arrested at the end of the season. We are still unsure about how the plot will develop during Season 4, but judging by the way things ended, we are hoping to see more of this talented 31-year-old.

In the mean time, here some things you should know about this real, confident and badass actress:

1) She was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

2) Her middle name is Estela.

3) Her family moved to New York when her baby brother was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

4) Karina desired to connect with world by performing after being emotionally drawn to both music and acting.

5) Her mom had to work three jobs to support her and her two brothers before her dad joined them in New York City.

6) She used to be shy before joining the drama club in high school.

7) She enrolled at the City College of New York, where she originally decided to major in business administration.

8) Taking acting classes on the side made her switch to a BA in theater.

9) She got her courage to follow her dreams when she noticed that the majority of the celebrities featured on E! were Caucasian.

10) She performed in the Off-Broadway play “Plátanos y Collard Greens” for four years before venturing into the TV world.

11) Her TV debut role was playing the role of Mercedes, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s sister in NBC’s “Do No Harm.”

Shailene Woodley to play single mom in HBO's 'Big Little Lies'

December 7, 20157:39 AM MST
Actress Shailene Woodley attends the 22nd Annual ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on October 19, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.
Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images

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Ronda Rousey on Loss to Holly Holm: ''I Feel So Embarrassed''

Dec 2015

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The Weeknd Previews Cinematic Trailer for "In The Night" Video

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Smokin' hot actress/model Emily Ratajkowski for LOVE magazine's festive advent calendar.

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Bruce Springsteen Reveals In-Progress Solo Album, River Tour Plans

"I miss playing with the guys," Springsteen told E Street Radio. "I miss playing period"

BY ANDY GREENE December 9, 2015
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen told E Street Radio that he's recording a solo album and explained the rationale behind his upcoming tour Debra L Rothenberg/Getty

Bruce Springsteen called into SiriusXM's E Street Radio this morning to chat about his upcoming The River Tour, and revealed in the interview that he's working on a new album that will likely result in a tour without the E Street Band.

"The project I've been working on is more of a solo project," he said. "It wasn't a project I was going to probably take the band out on. So I said, 'Gee, that's going to push the band playing again until a ways in the future. It'll be nice to get some playing in so you don't wind up being two or three years between E Street tours.' This will give us a chance to get out there and stretch our muscles a little bit."

The upcoming River tour will feature a complete performance of the 1980 double album at every stop. It was booked at the last minute, forcing guitarist Nils Lofgren to postpone many of his upcoming solo dates.

In the new interview, Springsteen gave a behind-the-scenes account of how the tour came together. "We made the box set and there was no plan to tour," he said. "Then we felt, 'Maybe we should do a show just to raise the flag and have some fun and make it a little more exciting.' I said. 'Okay, maybe we'll do a show in New York.' Then that went quick to, 'Maybe we should do a couple of shows.' Then it turns into, 'Maybe we should do a small series of shows, basically one-nighters, with maybe a little bit around the country." They ultimately wound up with a 24-date arena tour that kicks off January 16th at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

Springsteen played many of his classic albums on the 2009 Working On A Dream Tour, but The River was only performed during a single tour stop at Madison Square Garden. In the new interview, he responded to concerns from fans that seeing the same 20 songs in sequence every night will remove much of the unpredictability that has become a trademark of E Street Band shows. "It's going to take a little guessing out of the evening," Springsteen acknowledged. "You're going to know what the next song is. Maybe we'll make up for some of that in the encores. We plan on picking out some of the best of our outtakes for the end of the show, and there will obviously be some fan favorites. I don't know myself how it will play out. It should be interesting and a lot of fun for the fans."

The E Street Band's lineup swelled to 18 people on the 2014 High Hopes tour, including a five-piece horn section, three backup singers, a percussionist and guest guitarist Tom Morello. The River tour will feature a stripped-down lineup of core members plus saxophonist Jake Clemons and violinist Soozie Tyrell. "It'll be a little more of a rock band format," Springsteen said. "I'm looking forward to that for a little while and seeing how that feels again. It should be perfect for this record and what we're doing right now … I miss playing with the guys. I miss playing period. It's going to be fun. "

‘G.I. Joe’s’ Elodie Yung to Play Elektra in ‘Marvel’s Daredevil’

Elodie-Yung-elektra-daredevil

COURTESY OF DOMINIQUE CHARRIAU/WIREIMAGE

Whitney Friedlander

TV News Editor@loislane79

Elodie Yung has been cast as Elektra in the second season of “Marvel’s Daredevil,” Variety has confirmed.

The character is a favorite of fans of the Marvel comicbooks that serve as the basis for the popular Netflix series, which stars Charlie Cox as justice-seeking lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock. Although she was hinted at in season one, Elektra has yet to appear in the series.

The casting description simply describes her as “a mysterious woman from Matt Murdock’s past whose dangerous and exotic ways may be more than he can handle.” (Jennifer Garner portrayed Elektra in the 2003 “Daredevil” movie and in the 2005 spinoff).

Yung, a French-born actress, is best known for roles in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and David Fincher’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

“Marvel’s Daredevil” returns to Netflix in 2016 with Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez stepping in to fill Steve...showrunner. The series comes via Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix.

DURAN DURAN ANNOUNCE 2016 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH CHIC FEAT. NILE RODGERS AS SPECIAL GUESTS

December 8th, 2015

BAND TOURING IN SUPPORT OF LATEST TOP 10 ALBUM PAPER GODS
TICKETS GO ON SALE THIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12TH

For Immediate Release

December 8, 2015 — (Los Angeles, CA) — In what is promising to be one of the most eagerly anticipated tours of 2016, multi-platinum superstars Duran Duran have announced that they will hit the road for an extensive North American arena and amphitheater tour next year in support of their critically acclaimed album Paper Gods. CHIC, led by guitarist Nile Rodgers, will appear as special guests on almost all of the dates with an additional support act to be announced. Rodgers served as a producer on Paper Gods and has enjoyed a long collaborative history with Duran Duran.

The Paper Gods Tour will kick off on March 28, 2016 in Durham, NC and will be divided into two legs. The first runs through April with shows up and down the East Coast of America into Canada, including Washington DC, Brooklyn, NY, Atlanta, Austin and Montreal. The second leg returns the band to the road stateside in July and continues through early August with shows in Las Vegas, Irvine, San Diego, Toronto and many more.

Every ticket purchased online for Duran Duran’s 2016 headline tour will receive a standard physical copy of Paper Gods. After purchasing their tickets, fans will receive an email within 24-48 hours containing album redemption instructions. Festival dates are not included.

Members of the Duran Duran Fan Community will have access to pre-sale tickets and exclusive VIP packages beginning Wednesday, December 9 at 10 a.m. local venue time through www.duranduranmusic.com. Citi® cardmembers will have access to pre-sale tickets beginning Thursday, Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. local time through Citi’s Private Pass® Program. For complete pre-sale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com. Fans with the Live Nation mobile app will have access to a password-free presale starting Friday, Dec. 11 at 10:00 a.m. [local time] at Ticketmaster-ticketed venues. The app is available via the App Store and Google Play. Tickets for the general public go on sale starting Dec. 12 at 10 am local market time via www.livenation.com, with the exception of the July 6 show in Nashville, which will go on sale at a later date. Montreal goes on sale on Dec. 11 at 10am local market time.

Duran Duran’s four original members: singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, and drummer Roger Taylor, performed a few special West Coast shows with CHIC around the release of Paper Gods in October before embarking on a sold out UK arena tour that wraps up on December 12.

In its review of the band’s recent Leeds show, The Guardian raved that “everything that is wonderful about pop music seems to occupy the triumphant final half hour, as a sea of blondes, brunettes and husbands come together to bellow ‘Planet Earth,’ ‘Girls on Film,’ ‘Rio,’ and the rest. Every arm is raised skyward in a giant communal bonding, an audiovisual illustration of Le Bon’s insistence that ‘music is a healing force.’”

Paper Gods was released worldwide on September 11 and bowed at No. 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart, earning Duran Duran its highest-charting album in 22 years.

Duran Duran’s 2016 Paper Gods Tour dates are as follows:

03/28 Durham, NC — Durham Performing Arts Center
03/30 Saint Augustine, FL — Saint Augustine Amphitheater
04/01 Miami, FL — TBA
04/02 Tampa, FL — MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre*
04/05 Bethlehem, PA — Sands Bethlehem Event Center
04/07 Uncasville, CT — Mohegan Sun Arena*
04/08 Washington, DC — Verizon Center*
04/11 Montreal, QC — Bell Centre*
04/12 Brooklyn, NY — Barclays Center*
04/15 Atlanta, GA — Philips Arena*
04/16 Charlotte, NC — PNC Music Pavilion*
04/19 Dallas, TX — American Airlines Arena*
04/22 Austin, TX — Austin360 Amphitheater*
04/23 The Woodlands, TX — The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion*
04/24 New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King Center*

07/06 Nashville, TN — Ascend Amphitheater*
07/08 Chicago, IL — TBA
07/09 Chicago, IL — TBA
07/11 Clarkston, MI — DTE Energy Music Theatre*
07/13 Toronto, ONT — Molson Canadian Amphitheater*
07/17 Mansfield, MA — Xfinity Center*
07/21 Camden, NJ — BB&T Pavilion*
07/23 St. Paul, MN — Xcel Energy Center*
07/24 Kansas City, MO — Starlight Theatre*
07/29 Las Vegas, NV — Mandalay Bay Events Center*
07/30 Irvine, CA — Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre*
07/31 Chula Vista, CA — Sleep Train Amphitheatre (San Diego area)*
08/03 Glendale, AZ — Gila River Arena (Phoenix area)*

*denotes show with CHIC FEAT. NILE RODGERS as Special Guest

DECEMBER 08, 2015 12:30pm PT by Borys Kit , Rebecca Ford

'Kingsman' Actress Sofia Boutella in Talks to Star in 'The Mummy' (Exclusive)

Sofia Boutella Getty Images

Alex Kurtzman is directing the movie, which is set to launch Universal's new monster universe.

Sofia Boutella, who had a breakout role in Kingsman: The Secret Service, is in talks to play the titular role in Universal's The Mummy, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Yes, the monster in the new reboot will be female, as THR previously reported.

Tom Cruise is in negotiations to star in the modern-day set movie that Alex Kurtzman is helming and Universal will release March 24, 2017. Jon Spaihts wrote the script, although plot details are being kept deep in the tomb. Kurtzman is producing with Chris Morgan and Sean Daniel.

Universal's The Mummy is planned as the first pic in a series of interconnected monster movies as the studio hopes to build a cinematic universe out of its vault of classic creature features. Other potential films revolve around the characters of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein and vampire hunter Van Helsing.

A Universal spokesperson said the studio is not commenting on any casting speculation surrounding Mummy.

Boutella played the blade-legged assassin who serves as the henchman for Samuel L. Jackson's villain in Kingsman, Fox's 2014 breakout hit starring Colin Firth and Taron Egerton. She is a classically trained dancer who is known for hip-hop and break-dancing, booking commercials for Nike and touring with Madonna.

Kingsman catapulted Boutella's acting career, as she has since booked a role in Paramount’s Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, and most recently nabbed a part in The Coldest City, a spy thriller toplined by Charlize Theron and James McAvoy and currently in pre-production.

Boutella is repped by CAA, 42 and Felker Toczek.

Roy Orbison's Son Details Sprawling 'MGM Years' Package

"It was really amazing to me to see how hard he was working," says Alex Orbison

BY STEPHEN L. BETTS December 9, 2015
Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison's newly released 'The MGM Years 1965-1973' covers one of his most prolific periods. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

In the fall of 1964 Roy Orbison was at the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with "Pretty Woman," a gem of a hit punctuated by a seductive growl that rivaled Tony the Tiger and the MGM lion. In addition to that multi-million-seller, Orbison recorded a series of smashes for Monument Records (his first major deal was with Sun Records), from "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" and "Running Scared" to the oft-covered "Crying" and many others. After the success of "Pretty Woman," he secured a lucrative deal with (perhaps a bit ironically) MGM Records. Rather than the roaring success they should have been, however, Orbison's MGM years were fraught with disappointment and tragedy.

In 1966, his first wife Claudette was killed in a motorcycle accident. Two years later, Orbison was touring in England when he learned that his two eldest sons had died in a fire that also destroyed his home north of Nashville (a third son with Claudette survived). In 1969, 32-year-old Orbison married German-born teenager Barbara Wellhoener-Jakobs, whom he had met while on tour in England. The couple would have two sons, Roy Kelton Orbison Jr. and Alexander Lee Orbison.

The LPs Orbison recorded for MGM have now been collected in a spectacularly entertaining package titled The MGM Years 1965-1973. Released on December 4th, the 13-disc set represents an era of Orbison's music in which he experimented with everything from country standards to psychedelia. In spite of a dearth of hit singles, the albums contain some of Orbison's most passionately delivered vocals — even more impressive when one considers the hardships he faced while continuing to tour the world.

"If the moniker of the 'Hardest Working Man in Show Business' wasn't already taken, I would definitely hand it to him," the singer's youngest son Alex Orbison tells Rolling Stone Country. "If you took the recording logs and… the touring logs and overlaid them, he would sometimes record up to Christmas Eve, take Christmas Day off and then the 27th to the 30th would be more sessions then he'd play the New Year's show. It was really amazing to me to see how hard he was working. I already have a lot of respect for my dad, obviously, but seeing it in those terms was astounding to me."

Orbison's familiar voice on the MGM material remains commanding and at turns is bathed in an electrically charged darkness and melancholy, which is understandable considering his personal trials at the time. Even when the material seems otherwise mundane, it's impossible to deny the thrill that still exists in hearing his otherworldly vocals nearly two decades after his passing.

That's especially true of One of the Lonely Ones, a planned 1969 LP that has also been released for the first time ever. The early 1969 sessions for the album, which began as Orbison was coming out a period of grief and seclusion, represent some of the most haunting, beautiful material he ever recorded. The LP's emotional highpoint is a breathtakingly gorgeous rendition of the 70-year-old Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune "You'll Never Walk Alone," which will especially resonate with Orbison's British fan base as LFC (Liverpool Football Club) and other European teams commonly play a version of the song before their matches.

From his early days, country music's influence on Orbison was evident. Although he only achieved one Top Ten country hit in his lifetime (a 1980 Grammy-winning duet with Emmylou Harris, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again"), Orbison's MGM tenure included two LPs that were tributes to a pair of titanic country songwriters, Hank Williams and Don Gibson. The album celebrating the latter artist was released in 1967 and included Orbison's versions of such iconic hits as "Sweet Dreams" and "Blue Blue Day." Having previously cut several of Gibson's songs, Orbison had a two-fold purpose for the full LP: it served as a tribute to one of his favorite writers and also took the pressure off Orbison to write songs for his next project. The disc of Williams tunes, released in 1970 and aptly titled Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way, presented the songs of the Hillbilly Shakespeare in the inimitable style of the man who was called rock & roll's answer to opera's Enrico Caruso.

In spite of Orbison's tendencies toward shyness and the brooding, mysterious nature of some of his best-loved material, his son says the singer easily connected with people he would encounter throughout the world and never hesitated to spend a few precious moments with them.

"Whether it was Tom Petty or Jeff Lynne, or somebody who wanted to get an autograph in the Melbourne airport, my dad — even if he was jet-lagged or tired — would stop and give a moment of time. No matter who it was, my dad was just kind and gentle with everyone," Alex says. "I've been waiting for someone to show up and say, 'Your dad was a jerk to me,' but that never has happened. He just loved life. He'd talk for a second and find common ground then start cracking jokes."

Orbison's recorded output at MGM stretched from 1965 to 1973, after which he signed with Mercury. Later, he briefly returned to Monument, then recorded his final album of original material released in his lifetime for Asylum Records in 1979. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during a resurgence in his popularity, thanks to his partnership in the Traveling Wilburys with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and George Harrison. Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne, who produced those sessions, also helmed Orbison's last original solo LP Mystery Girl, which became a posthumous Top Five hit.

Adding to the legendary Orbison mystique — and certainly attesting to his extraordinary lasting influence — was the wildly popular A Black and White Night Live, a concert event recorded in 1987 featuring appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang and more. That same year, Orbison and lang had a minor country hit with their duet of his classic "Crying," which won them a Grammy and later became an even bigger hit in the U.K.

Orbison died of a heart attack on December 6th, 1988. He was 52 years old. For the next two decades, Barbara Orbison and his surviving sons, Wesley, Roy and Alex, continued to work tirelessly to maintain the superstar performer's legacy. On December 6th, 2011, Barbara died of cancer at 61, 23 years to the day of her husband's death. The release of the MGM box set is as much a tribute to her as to the man who, along with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, was one of the famed "Million Dollar Quartet" at Sun Records in the Fifties.

"She started this project, literally, over 10 to 15 years ago," Alex says of Barbara Orbison's effort to get the MGM catalog of recordings re-released. "She was really looking forward to it. The fact that we were able to get it together as brothers was just cool. She was such a classic personality. It's such an abstract world to be here without her."

Having worked on a documentary film for the deluxe edition of Mystery Girl, Alex says he's gearing up for a full-length Orbison documentary. In addition, he's looking into an updated greatest hits collection that would include some of the previously-ignored MGM material, as well as an updated re-release of the Black and White Night special, which Alex calls "the Rocky Horror Picture Show of concerts," because of its continued popularity.

"One thing I've learned about with Orbison," Alex says, "is there's always more on the way."

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Identity

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Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.

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Former Mouseketeer, American Idol contestant Marque 'Tate' Lynche found dead in apartment

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Updated: Monday, December 7, 2015, 9:12 PM
Printed.; Exported.;HANDOUT

Marque 'Tate' Lynche was a contestant on Season 3 of “American Idol.”

Former Mousketeer Marque “Tate” Lynche, who appeared on American Idol as an adult, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in his Harlem apartment, authorities said Monday.

The 34-year-old musician was discovered dead by his 44-year-old roommate at 4 p.m. at his apartment on W. 151 St. on Sunday, police said. There was no apparent trauma to his body, police said.

The death was deemed suspicious and the Medical Examiner was determining the cause, cops said.

“There was no note, no pills,” a police source said. “We’re waiting on the medical examiner.”

Lynche appeared on the 1993 to 1995 seasons of the “All New Mickey Mouse Club” with Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera.

The Mickey Mouse Club featured (top left to right) Thomas John ‘TJ’ Fantini, Marque ‘Tate’ Lynche, Nikki DeLoach, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, (Bottom L-R) Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.DISNEY

The Mickey Mouse Club featured (top left to right) Thomas John ‘TJ’ Fantini, Marque ‘Tate’ Lynche, Nikki DeLoach, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, (Bottom L-R) Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.

Following his stint on the star-launching show, Lynche performed as Simba in “The Lion King” on Broadway and then as Tyrone in a production of “Fame.”

"I am blessed to have a career where I can use the talent God gave me to put a smile on someone's face," the St. Petersburg, Fla., native wrote on his Facebook page.

In 2004, Lynche was a semi-finalist as a contestant in Season 3 of “American Idol,” but was eliminated before the top 12. Fantasia Barrino went on to win that season.

Lynche’s brother, Michael Lynche, a former college football player, competed in the show the following year and made it to the top four.

After Idol, Lynche took a break from the industry to “heal from the loss of his mother and do some soul searching,” according to his management profile.

The singer however, was releasing music as recently as September of last year, when he posted a link to his new song “Feeling Good” on his Facebook page.

In July of this year, he invited fans to come hear him sing at a Harlem church.

“I will be singing at Grace Church on 139th st. Between 7th and 8th this Sunday. If you're in the area ( Harlem, NY, The U.S. ) I will be there singing my heart out! Hopefully, you can come share some love with me! –M,” he posted at the time.

Martin E. Brooks, Actor on 'The Six Million Dollar Man,' Dies at 90

Martin E. Brooks
Martin E. Brooks
Courtesy of Jon Landau
by Mike Barnes
12/7/2015 4:20pm PST

He played Dr. Rudy Wells on the 1970s ABC series and its spinoff, 'The Bionic Woman.'

Martin E. Brooks, best known for his portrayal of the scientist Dr. Rudy Wells on the 1970s ABC series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff, The Bionic Woman, has died. He was 90.

Brooks died Monday in Studio City of natural causes, Avatar andTitanic producer Jon Landau told The Hollywood Reporter. Brooks was the “soul mate” of Landau’s mother, Edie (also a producer), for the past 20 years, he said. The two grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where they had been friends as children, and reconnected in 1993 after her husband died.

Brooks was the third actor to play Wells, who oversees the bionic implants of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) on the two action shows. He then reprised the role of Wells on three telefilms.

A familiar face on television, Brooks also appeared on such series asKnots Landing, Hunter, McMillan & Wife and Cagney & Lacey, and he played Edgar Randolph, a suspect in the shooting of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), at the climax of the 1983-84 season of Dallas.


On Broadway, Brooks had roles starting in the 1950s in John Steinbeck’s Burning Bright, for which he received a Theatre World Award and a Donaldson Award; Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’sEnemy of the People; Arch Oboler’s Night of the Auk; and John Van Druten’s I Am a Camera.

Brooks also worked alongside such great actresses as Katharine Cornell, Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, Ruth Gordon, Geraldine Page, Marian Seldes and Uta Hagen on the Great White Way and co-starred with Brian Donlevy in a national tour of Saul Levitt’s hit play The Andersonville Trial.

Martin Baum was born in the Bronx, and when he was 10, his family moved to Wilkes-Barre, where his father opened and operated the Blue Bell Dress Factory. After high school, he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army, became a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne Division and was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received in battle.

After the war, Baum attended Penn State University and enrolled at Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research in New York City. While there, he won the off-Broadway best actor award for his performance in Wolfgang Borchert’s Outside the Door and changed his name to Martin Brooks after a suggestion from one of his producers, Richard Rodgers.

At the same time, Brooks also was invited by Lee Strasberg to join The Actors Studio.

Brooks also played Dr. Arthur Bradshaw on ABC soap General Hospital and appeared in such films as Colossus: The Forbin Project(1970) and The Man (1972).

He taught at the Tracy Roberts Acting School, which he co-owned with his late friend Tracy Roberts, and became an active member of Theatre West. In 2014, Brooks released his first CD, A Life Filled With Love, featuring songs he wrote and recorded in the 1960s and ’70s.

Brooks also wrote two novels, and his play Flo and Joe was optioned for a Broadway production.

In addition to Edie Landau, survivors include his nephews Charles and Danny and his grandnephews Ted, Mike, Mark, Jay and Aaron.

There will be no memorial service.

Twitter: @mikebarnes4

Updated 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 7: Brooks' character on Dallas was suspected of shooting Bobby, not J.R.

Emmerdale's Shirley Stelfox who played Edna Birch has died aged 74 following a battle with cancer

By REBECCA DAVISON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 06:58 EST, 8 December 2015 | UPDATED: 05:48 EST, 9 December 2015

Emmerdale actress Shirley Stelfox, best known for playing Edna Birch, has died following a short battle with cancer.

A statement from Associated International Management said the actress had passed away peacefully on Monday at home with her daughter Helena by her side.

The 74-year-old had played Edna for the past 15 years on the show. The character was famed for her love of hats and her outspoken opinions.

Shirley Stelfox's last scene on Emmerdale as Edna Birch
She will be missed: Emmerdale actress Shirley Stelfox, best known for playing Edna Birch, has died aged 74 following a short battle with cancer
+6

She will be missed: Emmerdale actress Shirley Stelfox, best known for playing Edna Birch, has died aged 74 following a short battle with cancer

Sad: A statement from Associated International Management said the actress had passed away peacefully on Monday at home with her daughter Helena by her side
+6

Sad: A statement from Associated International Management said the actress had passed away peacefully on Monday at home with her daughter Helena by her side

ITV executive producer, John Whiston, said: 'The family here at Emmerdale are deeply saddened by Shirley’s passing, it is hard to imagine Emmerdale without her.

'We offer our condolences to Shirley’s family and share our feeling of loss with the millions of viewers who will miss Edna enormously.'

Verity Rushworth, who played Donna Windsor in the soap until last year, offered her condolences via Twitter.

Special lady: The 74-year-old had played Edna for the past 15 years on the show. The character was famed for her love of hats and her outspoken opinions
+6

Special lady: The 74-year-old had played Edna for the past 15 years on the show. The character was famed for her love of hats and her outspoken opinions

Acclaimed: She was the first person to play Rose in Keeping Up Appearances (pictured) and also starred in The Bill, Coronation Street and Crossroads
+6

Acclaimed: She was the first person to play Rose in Keeping Up Appearances (pictured) and also starred in The Bill, Coronation Street and Crossroads

She wrote: 'Thinking of the entire @emmerdale family and the loved ones of the legendary Shirley Stelfox. Taught me so much when growing up. Xxx RIP.'

Tom Lister, better known for playing Carl King on the soap, wrote: 'My beautiful dear friend Shirley. How I'll miss you and the laughs that we had together.'

Alex Carter, who played Jamie Hope for four years, added: 'So sad to hear Shirley Stelfox has passed away. I can't believe she'll never call me a little s*** again. xx'

Co-star James Sutton, who played Ryan Lamb, posted: 'Very sad news about Shirley Stelfox, she was always so kind to me on @emmerdale. A lovely lady and a terrific actress. #RIP.'

Acclaimed actress Shirley trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and went on to star in numerous well-known TV shows.

She was the first person to play Rose in Keeping Up Appearances and also starred in The Bill, Coronation Street and Crossroads.

Loved: Tributes have flooded in for the star from her castmates past and present

Loved: Tributes have flooded in for the star from her castmates past and present

Her film credits included a role opposite John Hurt in the movie adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984. She also starred alongside Julie Walters in Personal Services.

TV and film aside, she also had a successful career in the theatre, with her stage work including Not Now, Darling, Toad Of Toad Hall and Cavalcade at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

She was married to actor Don Henderson from 1979 until he passed away in 1997.

A range of roles: She starred as Judy Finch in television programme Stay Lucky
+6

A range of roles: She starred as Judy Finch in television programme Stay Lucky

Worlds apart: She also showed her racier side in 1987 British comedy film Personal Services
+6

Worlds apart: She also showed her racier side in 1987 British comedy film Personal Services

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JoeBala

'Happy Birthday' settlement arrives in lawsuit aiming to free song from copyright

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Wednesday, December 9, 2015, 1:36 PM
For latest restrictions check <a href=www.corbis.com" />© BETTMANN/CORBIS

Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

The parties involved in a huge legal fight over the English language's most popular song, "Happy Birthday to You," have arrived at a settlement.

A judge's order released on Wednesday revealed the deal and vacated a trial that was set to begin on December 15. According to a source, once the settlement is finalized, "Happy Birthday" will be in the public domain

The lawsuit began in 2013 when a film company working on a documentary about the "Happy Birthday" song refused to make a $1,500 synchronization license fee payment to Warner/Chappell Music.

The proposed class action aimed to free the song from copyright control by showing that a song that traces its origins to a 19th century schoolteacher named Patty Smith Hill and her sister Mildred Hill was really in the public domain.

The dispute centered on how the Hill sisters transferred control of the song to Clayton Summey, how the song was published in books and sang in classrooms in the subsequent decades, and whether a 1935 copyright registration included lyrics.

In September, a federal judge ruled that Warner/Chappell Music never acquired a valid copyright to the lyrics.

The plaintiffs aimed to recover a substantial fortune for licensing money collected dating back to the 1940s. The song has been reported to reap about $2 million a year.

Before coming to a settlement, Warner/Chappell wanted the judge to reconsider his September ruling or authorize an immediate appeal.

The music publisher argued the judge should have applied more presumption to the validity of the 1935 copyright that it had obtained from Summey's company.

Meanwhile, a charity organization stepped forward in an effort to intervene, identifying itself as being co-founded by Hill and arguing that it might be the real owner of the "Happy Birthday" copyright.

A trial would have examined this issue. The plaintiffs have argued that any ownership to the lyrics was abandoned or foreclosed by divestive publishing.

The parties have resolved this mess, but for now, terms of the deal haven't been released.

That may be be forthcoming at some point, but in the meantime, it appears as though "Happy Birthday" is in public domain. That means, TV and film producers and others will never have to pay to use "Happy Birthday" again.

The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are Randall Newman, Mark Rifkin, Janine Pollack, Beth Landes and Giti Baghban. Warner/Chappell's legal team was led by Kelly Klaus at Munger, Tolles & Olson.

The dark side and the light! Lupita Nyong'o switches from sky blue to steely grey for Star Wars photoshoots in her birthplace of Mexico City

By IONA KIRBY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 20:00 EST, 8 December 2015 | UPDATED: 04:08 EST, 9 December 2015

Lupita Nyong'o demonstrated her knowledge of the delicate balance of the Force at two Star Wars photoshoots on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old switched from a bright sky blue frock do a dark steely grey dress as she attended two separate shoots to promote The Force Awakens in Mexico City

It must have been an extra special event for the 32-year-old, who was born in the Mexican capital, before her family moved back to Kenya when she was less than a year old.

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The dark side and the light: Lupita Nyong'o was a stunning sight at both photo calls for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in her birthplace of Mexico City on Tuesday
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The dark side and the light: Lupita Nyong'o was a stunning sight at both photo calls for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in her birthplace of Mexico City on Tuesday
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The dark side and the light: Lupita Nyong'o was a stunning sight at both photocalls for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in her birthplace of Mexico City on Tuesday

Lupita was joined by co-star Oscar Isaac and screenwriter Kathleen Kennedy, but all eyes were on the Oscar winner.

In the first shoot, the star looked incredible in a skintight and sky blue dress which highlighted her gorgeous figure.

Lupita's frock boasted peachy pink detail, and she paired it with sheer pumps that boasted white heels and toes.

In amazing shape: Lupita wore a figure-hugging blue dress which featured peachy pink trim, paired with sheer panelled white pumps
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In amazing shape: Lupita wore a figure-hugging blue dress which featured peachy pink trim, paired with sheer panelled white pumps

What's so funny?: The actress burst into a fit of giggles while posing for photos, at one point covering her face
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What's so funny?: The actress burst into a fit of giggles while posing for photos, at one point covering her face
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What's so funny?: The actress burst into a fit of giggles while posing for photos, at one point covering her face

Glamorous: The 32-year-old also sported delicate earrings, smoky eyeshadow and cherry-coloured lip gloss
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Glamorous: The 32-year-old also sported delicate earrings, smoky eyeshadow and cherry-coloured lip gloss

The 12 Years A Slave star also sported delicate earrings, smoky eyeshadow and cherry-coloured lip gloss.

At one point, Lupita covered her face as she burst into a fit of giggles while posing for photos.

She also held a cute BB-8 droid toy as she cuddled up to Oscar, who looked suave in a navy suit jacket with black T-shirt, dark jeans and lace-up shoes.

Lupita Nyong'o sparkles in black at Star Wars Force 4 Fashion
Teamwork: Lupita was joined by co-star Oscar Isaac and screenwriter Kathleen Kennedy
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Teamwork: Lupita was joined by co-star Oscar Isaac and screenwriter Kathleen Kennedy

She's got the droids you're looking for: For one shot, she held a cute BB-8 toy
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She's got the droids you're looking for: For one shot, she held a cute BB-8 toy

Suave star: Oscar looked handsome in a navy suit jacket, with black T-shirt, dark jeans and lace-up shoes
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Suave star: Oscar looked handsome in a navy suit jacket, with black T-shirt, dark jeans and lace-up shoes

Later the trio attended a fan event at the Antara Fashion Mall, with Lupita slipping into an equally gorgeous metallic grey dress, which she paired with a cropped puffer jacket.

Earlier that same day, a new TV spot for the hotly anticipated movie was released.

In The Force Awakens, Lupita plays a completely computer generated character, the tiny ex-pirate known as Maz Kanata.

And the plot of the movie is still shrouded in mystery - even stars Oscar and Gwendoline Christie have not yet seen the final cut.

Many of their characters were kept under wraps during filming too.

Dark side: At a second photocall, Lupita slipped into an equally gorgeous metallic grey dress
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Dark side: At a second photocall, Lupita slipped into an equally gorgeous metallic grey dress

Some things never change: She paired with a cropped puffer jacket, but wore the same beaming smile again
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Some things never change: She paired with a cropped puffer jacket, but wore the same beaming smile again

Busy day: The trio attended a fan event at the Antara Fashion Mall, with Oscar also opting for a darker leather jacket for the second event
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Busy day: The trio attended a fan event at the Antara Fashion Mall, with Oscar also opting for a darker leather jacket for the second event

Mixing it up: The star has described herself as a 'Mexi-Kenyan'
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Mixing it up: The star has described herself as a 'Mexi-Kenyan'

There she is: Lupita plays a computer generated character, the tiny ex-pirate known as Maz Kanata

There she is: Lupita plays a computer generated character, the tiny ex-pirate known as Maz Kanata

Lupita told Reuters: 'I was in scenes in which some of the characters I was working with did not know who I was. That's how secretive it was.'

Meanwhile, directors JJ Abrams recently slammed rumours that her scenes had been 'massively' cut back due to what was described in reports as a 'subpar performance'.

'The number of rumours floating around about The Force Awakens is truly stunning,' the 49-year-old said in a statement. 'Some are wonderfully funny, others simply preposterous.

'But the only one more ridiculous than Jar Jar Binks being a Sith Lord is that I cut Lupita Nyong’o’s performance because it wasn’t satisfactory.'

He added: 'In truth, her performance wasn’t satisfactory. It was spectacular.

'She has brought the character of Maz Kanata to life in the most wonderful, wise, touching, deep and funny way. Lupita never ceased to amaze me.'

Hidden in plain sight: The Oscar winner's character was on the movie's poster all along
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Hidden in plain sight: The Oscar winner's character was on the movie's poster all along

'Preposterous': Director JJ Abrams recently slammed rumours that Lupita's scenes has been 'massively' cut back due to what was described in reports as a 'subpar performance'

'Preposterous': Director JJ Abrams recently slammed rumours that Lupita's scenes has been 'massively' cut back due to what was described in reports as a 'subpar performance'

Lupita Nyong'o in Star Wars: The Force Awakens Comic-Con reel

JJ admitted to Page Six that the rumours of 'reworking' Lupita's scenes may have started circulating because they 'tried many approaches' to the part, until figuring out 'just what the film needed'.

He added: 'She elevated all the scenes she is in, I’m forever grateful, and can’t wait for people to see her stunning performance.'

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in the UK on December 17 and the US on December 18, and is set 30 years after the events of Return Of The Jedi.

Another sneak peek: A new TV spot for the movie was released on Tuesday, and showed a conversation between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
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Another sneak peek: A new TV spot for the movie was released on Tuesday, and showed a conversation between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)

Oh ID....

MIRANDA KERR BARES ALL FOR BAZAAR

WED, DEC 9

If you've got it flaunt it. Especially if you're Miranda Kerr.

When the opportunity presented itself to shoot the home-grown beauty in Los Angeles earlier this year, team BAZAAR jumped at it.

MIRANDA KERR STYLE FILE

Flights were booked, a suitably A-list location found - none other than penthouse at The London West Hollywood - and clothes sourced (not that many were needed, in the end). As BAZAAR's editor in chief Kellie Hush stated in this month's editor's letter "What we captured between outfit changes was a woman who is incredibly comfortable in her own skin (and why wouldn't you be?)."

OFF DUTY STYLE QUEEN: MIRANDA KERR

The Jan/Feb 2016 issue makes this Kerr's fifthHarper's BAZAAR Australia cover, having previously played cover star for our December 2009, November 2011, Jan/Feb 2014 and most recently March 2015 issues.

Here's to many more, Miranda.

ALISON IZZO

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Reply #192 posted 12/10/15 6:56am

Identity

Wu-Tang's $5-Million Album Sold to Pharmaceutical Exec

December 2015
Link

Remember when the Wu-Tang Clan announced that their final album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, was being auctioned off for five million dollars? Well, the project has officially sold to a pharmaceutical company executive after a six-month-long negotiation that began in May.


Bloomberg Business reports that Martin Shkreli bought the one-of-kind album, which includes all nine members on 31 tracks and features rare collaborations, through online auction house Paddle8. Shkreli, who has been accused of price-gouging with respect todrugs that assist cancer and H.I.V. patients, did not disclose how much he paid for the album.


“The sale of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light," RZA said in statement. "We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.”


After getting an intimate 13-minute private listening session and outbidding other buyers, Shkreli has not even fully listened to the project yet: "I think I’m going to kind of save it for a rainy day,” he said.

Meanwhile, it's possible the public might hear the set should the owner decided to release it on the Internet -- Wu-Tang recently lifted the copyright clause, which stated that the buyer cannot release it commercially for 88 years.

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Reply #193 posted 12/10/15 8:19am

JoeBala

J.J. Abrams Wants to See Ava DuVernay Direct a 'Star Wars' Film

DECEMBER 09, 2015 12:28pm PT by Graeme McMillan

The 'Selma' director would "just kill it," says 'The Force Awakens' helmer.Ava DuVernay Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Paley Center For Media

The 'Selma' director would "just kill it," says 'The Force Awakens' helmer.

"To me, the knee-jerk reaction if I had to [name someone] is Ava DuVernay, who I think would just kill it," Abrams told Nerdist when asked about potential female writers or directors he'd like to see working on aStar Wars feature.

"She is as much a fan of genre movies ... and hearing her talk about, not justStar Wars, but hearing her talk about those kinds of films is evidence that she would just kill it," he continued. "When you look at her work in Selma, which was as well told, sophisticated and humane as I think has come out in the last decade, I mean, she is just — if she can do that story that well, there's no question she'd kill [a Star Wars] movie."

For her part, DuVernay took to Twitter to share the video of Abrams' comments, adding a familiar piece of commentary:

The current line-up of future Star Wars directors is all-male: Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, to be released in 2016), Rian Johnson (The as-yet untitled Episode VIII, 2017) and Colin Trevorrow (The equally unnamed Episode IX in 2019).

The untitled Han Solo project scheduled for 2018 was originally to be directed by Josh Trank before he left the feature in April this year; he was replaced by the team of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord in July.

DuVernay had previously been in the running to direct 2018's Black Panther for Lucasfilm's sibling studio Marvel, but dropped out this summer, saying that she and the studio "just didn't see eye to eye" on the project.

Golden Globe Nominations: The Complete List

7:01 AM 12/10/2015

by THR Staff

'Carol' leads film noms, with 'The Big Short' and 'Revenant' and 'Jobs' close behind — as many new TV series enter the race.

Courtesy of The Weinstein Company; Paramount Pictures; Virginia Sherwood/USA Network

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association woke up dark and early Thursday morning to reveal the nominees for the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards.

America Ferrera, Dennis Quaid, Angela Bassett and Chloë Grace Moretz were also on-hand to name the films, television series and actors set to compete — and the movie race saw a clear advantage for Todd Haynes' Carol. It leads all projects, film or television, with five nominations.

Revenent, Jobs and The Big Short are all big players in the film race, with three noms a piece, while the TV competition sees a slew of newcomers — Mr. Robot, Mozart in the Jungle, Casualand Outlander among them.

The 2016 film-and-TV fete will take place Jan. 10, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

  • Best Motion Picture - Drama

    Charlize Theron in 'Mad Max: Fury Road'
    REX USA

    Carol

    Mad Max: Fury Road

    The Revenant

    Room

    Spotlight

  • Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

    Amy Schumer & LeBron James in 'Trainwreck'
    Universal

    The Big Short

    Joy

    The Martian

    Spy

    Trainwreck

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

    Cate Blanchett, Carol

    Brie Larson, Room

    Rooney Mara, Carol

    Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

    Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

    Bryan Cranton, Trumbo

    Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

    Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

    Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

    Will Smith, Concussion

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

    Amy Schumer in 'Trainwreck'
    Courtesy of Universal Pictures

    Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

    Melissa McCarthy, Spy

    Amy Schumer, Trainwreck

    Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van

    Lily Tomlin, Grandma

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

    Mark Ruffalo in 'Infinitely Polar Bear'

    Christian Bale, The Big Short

    Steve Carell, The Big Short

    Matt Damon, The Martian

    Al Pacino, Danny Collins

    Mark Ruffalo, Infinitely Polar Bear

  • Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

    Jane Fonda, Youth

    Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight

    Helen Mirren, Trumbo

    Alicia Vikander, Ex-Machina

    Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

  • Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

    Paul Dano in 'Love & Mercy'
    Courtesy of Toronto International Film Festival

    Paul Dano, Love & Mercy

    Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation

    Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

    Michael Shannon, 99 Homes

    Sylvester Stallone, Creed

  • Best Director - Motion Picture

    Getty Images

    Todd Haynes, Carol

    Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant

    Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

    George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

    Ridley Scott, The Martian

  • Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

    'Room'
    George Kraychyk/A24

    Emma Donoghue, Room

    Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight

    Charles Randolph, Adam McKay, The Big Short

    Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs

    Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight

  • Best Animated Feature Film

    Courtesy of Disney

    Anomalisa

    The Good Dinosaur

    Inside Out

    The Peanuts Movie

    Shaun the Sheep Movie

  • Best Foreign Language Film

    'Mustang'
    Cohen Media Group

    The Brand New Testament (Belgium/ France/ Luxembourg)

    The Club (Chile)

    The Fencer (Findland/ Germany/ Estonia)

    Mustang (France)

    Son of Saul (Hungary)

  • Best Original Score - Motion Picture

    'Carol'
    Wilson Webb

    Carter Burwell, Carol

    Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl

    Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight

    Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs

    Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, The Revenant

  • Best Original Song - Motion Picture

    Courtesy of Universal

    "Love me Like You Do," Fifty Shades of Grey, written by Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, Ali Payami, IlyaSalmanzadeh

    "One Kind of Love," Love & Mercy, written by Brian Wilson, Scott Bennett

    "See You Again," Furious 7, written by Justin Franks, Andrew Cedar, Charlie Puth, Cameron Thomaz

    "Simple Song #3," Youth, written by David Lang

    "Writing’s On the Wall," Spectre, written by Sam Smith, Jimmy Napes

  • Best Television Series - Drama

    'Mr. Robot'
    David Giesbrecht/USA Network

    Empire (Fox)

    Game of Thrones (HBO)

    Mr. Robot (USA)

    Narcos (Netflix)

    Outlander (Starz)

  • Best Television Series - Comedy Or Musical

    HBO

    Casual (Hulu)

    Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon)

    Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

    Silicon Valley (HBO)

    Transparent (Amazon)

    Veep (HBO)

  • Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

    Chris Large/FX

    American Crime (ABC)

    American Horror Story: Hotel (FX)

    Fargo (FX)

    Flesh and Bone (Starz)

    Wolf Hall (BBC)

  • Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television

    Suzanne Tenner/FX

    Kirsten Dunst, Fargo

    Lady Gaga, America Horror Story: Hotel

    Sarah Hay, Flesh & Bone

    Felicity Huffman, American Crime

    Queen Latifa, Bessie

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

    BBC

    Idris Elba, Luther

    Oscar Isaac, Show Me a Hero

    David Oyelowo, Nightingale

    Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall

    Patrick Wilson, Fargo

  • Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama

    FOX via Getty Images

    Caitriona Balfe, Outlander

    Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder

    Eva Greene, Penny Dreadful

    Taraji P. Henson, Empire

    Robin Wright, House of Cards

  • Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama

    Jon Hamm, Mad Men

    Rami Malek, Mr. Robot

    Wagner Maura, Narcos

    Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

    Liev Schriver, Ray Donovan

  • Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Comedy Or Musical

    Greg Gayne/The CW

    Rachel Bloom, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

    Jamie Lee Curtis, Scream Queens

    Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

    Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin

    Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

  • Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Comedy Or Musical

    Aziz Ansari, Master of None

    Gael Garcia Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle

    Rob Lowe, The Grinder

    Patrick Stewart, Blunt Talk

    Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

    Maura Tierney in 'The Affair'
    Courtesy of Showtime

    Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black

    Joanne Froggatt, Downton Abbey

    Regina King, American Crime

    Judith Light, Transparent

    Maura Tierney, The Affair

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Alan Cumming, The Good Wife

    Damian Lewis, Wolf Hall

    Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodline

    Tobias Menzies, Outlander

    Christian Slater, Mr. Robot

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Reply #194 posted 12/10/15 8:26am

Identity

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[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/VPLgWZt.png[/img:$uid]


DC has released a detailed first look at Clay Mann's pencil work for the new Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death miniseries debuting in January.

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Reply #195 posted 12/10/15 8:43am

JoeBala

New Beatles statues in Liverpool unveiled on picture perfect day, artist says

December 9, 20159:24 PM MST
Photos at the unveiling of the new Beatles statues in Liverpool Dec. 4.
Photo by Richard Stonehouse/Getty Images

Flesh And Bone Review: Starz's New Drama Is Intense But Balanced

BY JESSICA RAWDEN
Flesh And Bone Review: Starz's New Drama Is Intense But Balanced image
Television doesn’t delve into the world of ballet all that often and when it does it’s often more about catty drama than the demands of dancing itself. However, in Flesh and Bone, Breaking Bad scribe Moira Walley-Beckett has brought to life a big city story set in the cutthroat world of ballet, where many hopefuls scrape and claw to try to get to the top while others desperately hang on near the bottom of the barrel. It’s a world without villains or heroes and it makes for a deliciously dark hour of TV.

Early in Flesh and Bone, a young ballerina named Claire (real-life dancer Sarah Hay, who’s quite the admirable actress to boot) escapes her tormented family life to try out for the American Ballet Company, achieving a feat when she makes it on her first attempt. It’s obvious the camera is setting her up as a phenomenal dancer, but it’s not until later in the episode that we are really given a good look at Claire’s talents. Once that floodgate opens, however, she’s the target of nearly everyone she dances with.

There’s Kiira (Irina Dvorovenko), a principal dancer who is reaching the end of her prime, and Mia (Emily Tyra), Claire’s angry roommate who doesn’t have perfect feet or the proper form. Both are dealing with the breakdown of their bodies and lashing out in different ways—the former with a drug addiction, the latter by escaping into sex. But they aren’t the only characters dealing with pain. Claire’s home life has made her fond of bleeding, pushing into old wounds and cutting new one’s for herself. Claire’s tyrannical boss Paul (Ben Daniels) is still dealing with the loss of his own dancing talent, despite largely being considered one of the best in the business of producing ballets. But despite their flaws, each character keeps pushing forward, mercilessly jumping through hoops and making contrived comments in order to keep their own spot in the giant production.

mia flesh and bone

Because of this, Flesh and Bone features an awful lot of ballet. Real, lovely ballet created on the small screen by dancers turned actors (fans of Center Stage will be glad to see Sascha Radetsky around for this project). The pace and repetition of dancing is seen over and over again with astute attention to detail. Those familiar with the world of dancing or love the stage will enjoy the times the camera lingers on a dancer and his or her movements, but the slow pace and the frequency of the ballet will certainly lend itself to a niche audience—something a lot of prestige dramas struggle with.

Ballet isn’t the only thing Flesh and Bone explores. In many ways it’s an erotic fairytale. Claire’s running away from her deranged brother Bryan (Josh Helman)—the big bad wolf. She’s introduced to the world of exotic dancing by her one cocksure ballet peer Daphne (Raychel Diane Weiner)—A “drink me” moment that introduces Claire to a different type of Wonderland.

daphne

It’s an erotically charged story with notes similar to the 2011 flick Sleeping Beauty, with a young woman exploring her sexuality in unconventional ways. There are fuck me shoes and pick-up lines, scenes set in strip clubs and more shots of people fooling around in odd locations and positions than you might guess. None of the sex has anything to do with ballet, of course, unless you’re of the firm opinion that passion can make its way from the bedroom onto the stage.

It’s also clear through the first few episodes of Flesh and Bone that Claire doesn’t know who she is. She’s Claire to some and Clementine to the homeless man who keeps watch over her building (Justified’s Damon Herriman in a compelling performance). She’s Angel to those at a local strip club and Bambi to the girls who dislike her at school. She’s a lot things to a lot of people, and she’s breaking forth, trying to come into her own and facing challenges that many would shy from. She’s not a headstrong or easily relatable character, but like many ballerinas on the stage, she’s fascinating to watch.

Rating:

Sadly, Starz noted a while ago the series was wildly expensive to produce (plus Starz has a lot of other projects in the hopper), which means Flesh and Bone will not be able to get a second season. In some ways this is nice, as it means the tightly woven story will wrap up, hopefully in a way that is completely on point(e). In other ways, leaving Flesh and Bone as an event series is a little sad, as there are so many potential directions for this event series to go and many, many characters for Flesh and Bone to follow.

JOY


MOVIE REVIEW
Feels more like Silver Linings than American Hustle (which is good), but a transcendent Jennifer Lawrence performance can't quite clean up all of the movie's messes.
It’s a miracle Joy works as well as it does for as long as it does. (I’m sorry. I know. But it’s sitting right there, so I had to take it. It gets marginally better from here, I promise.)

In telling a loose biopic of Joy Mangano, the by-her-bootstraps inventor of the Miracle Mop, quirky and agitating filmmaker David O. Russell (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook) tosses out multiple, empowering metaphors meant to honor independent women who turn personal weaknesses into professional strengths. A title card at the start of the film actually makes this dedication, so Russell’s intentions are clear. We mainly stay invested in Joy because Russell’s current muse, the flat-out brilliant Jennifer Lawrence, delivers another multi-faceted performance as a forceful, injured, unflappable and surprisingly relatable female lead in an unfocused Russell comedy. Ultimately, Lawrence requires a make-believe Miracle Mop of her own to clean up the mess that sullies the third act of Joy, but again, it works for a while because she’s so good at pulling off what her director requests.

Outside of a few sidesteps, David O. Russell has always explored the dynamics of dysfunctional families in his ensemble comedies, and Joydoesn’t break that streak. Joy Mangano (Lawrence) is too young to be playing Mother Hen to her fractured family, and yet, too many in the audience will be able to relate to the way this blue-collar dreamer juggles the multiple mistakes in her life – both the ones that she is responsible for (like her ex-husband, played by Edgar Ramirez, living in her basement) and the ones she couldn’t control (like her divorced parents, played by Robert De Niro and Virginia Madsen, living in her home as well). We’re told that Joy used to invent things, but “Life” pulled her away from her natural talent. However, an idea for a new product reinvigorates Joy’s creative profile, and throws her a lifeline when she needs it the most.

Lawrence’s latest collaboration with Russell, the third of hopefully many, bears a closer resemblance to the manically uplifting mojo of their Silver Linings Playbook than the unpredictable waves of American Hustle. A fine ensemble ramps up to the clickety-clack verbal energy that Russell strives to maintain. For the first third of Joy -- as Mangano lays out the smothering weight of her needy family – Russell displays the kind of vice grip on his characters and their dialogue that’s associated with Wes Anderson. In a good way. Joy is distinctly quirky, but very much a product of Russell working with performers who are comfortable in his vibe. Even when he pulls unnecessary tools from his bag of tricks – like a narrator, or a soap opera that occasionally pulls in his characters – they are amusing asides that contribute to the off-kilter enjoyment of the unfolding story. (Though, if you despise Russell’s methods, I can easily see how such tactics would drive you nuts.)

Joy transcends its peculiar noise, however, when Mangano, having invented a prototype for what would become the Miracle Mop, buckles down and begins to sell it… and, in essence, sell herself. Here, we begin to see the potential that Joy should have fully seized – and almost does, for a large chunk of its run. Seeking an avenue to peddle her mop, Joy encounters Neil Walker, an executive at the home-shopping network QVC who teaches Mangano the ropes and gives her a chance. She gets a financial boost from her father’s new girlfriend, Trudy (Isabella Rossellini, of all people), as well as a valuable lesson about how to fight in business. There’s an American Dream quality at play in Joy, and when Russell and Lawrence are two-stepping, it flies.

But Joy can’t tap dance around a few too many problems. Without a natural ending, Russell’s screenplay – reportedly reworked from an original concept by Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) – flounders around looking for proper direction after too long. Lawrence is always compelling as a competitive businesswoman fighting for what is hers. But the stitches on the script begin to show, and subplots that don’t fit fail to create the conflict that Russell was seeking.

Joy is enjoyable, particularly if you buy into Russell’s brand of erratic, homespun dysfunction, carried on the broad shoulders of his favorite leading lady. It can't be undersold how fantastic Lawrence is in this movie, almost miraculously weaving an entrepreneurial master class with a grit and determination that's far more mature than her age (25) suggests she can play. Something tells me both Russell and Lawrence realize that they could have created something wonderful this time out if they stepped back, let it breathe for a bit, and took a little more time hammering out a cleaner script. Can't wait to see what they do next.

Reviewed By: Sean O'Connell
movie reviewed rating
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Reply #196 posted 12/10/15 10:21am

JoeBala

Grandma, film review: drama, subversive comedy and pro-choice polemic

It is heartening to see a film that tackles unintended pregnancy and abortion in a humorous and sensitive way

Julia Garner, left, and Lily Tomlin appear in a scene from Grandma Sony Pictures

Grandma is a gem of a film with a very abrasive edge. It features a brilliant performance from Lily Tomlin. The writer-director Paul Weitz manages the unlikely feat of combining family drama, subversive comedy and pro-choice polemic in 80 brisk and very funny minutes.

Tomlin is the grandma of the title, a lesbian poet and academic called Elle Reid who, at the start of the film, has just split up with her much younger girlfriend (Judy Greer). In an anti-capitalist gesture, Elle has also cut up her credit cards and is close to broke. That means she doesn’t have the money to help her precocious 18-year-old granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner), who is pregnant, doesn’t want the baby and needs to raise a little over $600 to pay for her “procedure” later that day. The film follows Elle and Sage as they drive around town, hit on old friends or come up with schemes (among them, selling Betty Friedan first editions) to raise the necessary money.

The glory of Tomlin’s performance lies in its beguiling mix of obnoxiousness and sweetness. Elle has brilliant timing when it comes to delivering caustic put-downs, yet Tomlin shows us the woman behind the brittle facade, who, for all her reserves of sarcasm, is vulnerable and even a little naive. Garner underplays cleverly as the fey granddaughter who turns out to be almost as tough and resilient as Elle.

It is heartening to see a film that tackles unintended pregnancy and abortion in a humorous and sensitive way. This is not an issue to be flippant about. Weitz, helped by an excellent and almost entirely female cast, is never glib: and nor does he take to the soap box.

Paul Weitz, 80 mins Starring: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer


Triple 9, Batman v Superman and Criminal: Gal Gadot Is the Rising Star to Watch in 2016

By Jay Kelley ⋅ Posted on November 12th, 2015 at 6:24am ⋅ Last edit on November 18th, 2015
Gal to star in Triple 9
Jay KelleyAction, Horror, Drama, Thriller, Fantasy and Sci-Fi movie enthusiast

Rising star alert! The time to recognize Gal Gadot as an actress is upon us. She's come such a long way from having a mere small role in the 2010 Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz movie Knight and Day? She's best known for her role as Gisele in the Fast and Furious movies, and even with her action-packed role people still didn't know her name. 2016 is about to change that in a big way.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

By now, most people know that the former Miss Universe contestant, Gal Gadot, landed the role of Wonder Woman in what is arguably the most anticipated movie of all time, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This movie will mark the first time that the Holy Trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman has graced the silver screen in live-action. Actually, it will be the first time we have seen a live-action Wonder Woman on the movie screen ever, which is a pretty big deal and heavy responsibility for Gal. Gal is starring in the movie alongside an all-star cast that includes Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Adams, Holly Hunter and Ben Affleck. Obviously, this will be Gal's most popular movie in 2016, but it won't be her only big movie next yet.

Triple 9

As you can see Triple Nine looks to be a crazy, sexy and cool heist movie that will deliver a lot of exciting thrills. This is the brand new international trailer forTriple 9, which Gal Gadot will star in next year. This movie also has an all-star cast that I've a...tten about. Triple 9 has a great trailer, and a particularly good one for Gal Gadot, as the first Triple 9 Red Band trailer barely featured her at all. In this new trailer, however, you see her interacting with Academy Award-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor and also Academy Award-winning Kate Winslet. The cast for this movie is simply remarkable and as I stated before, could be the surprise movie of 2016. But wait! There's more.

Criminal

Criminal is currently in post-production, so a trailer has yet to be released. I can't wait, though, because the synopsis sounds amazing.

The memories and skills of a CIA agent are implanted into the brain of a dangerous criminal in order to stop an international terrorist. The story of the right man in the wrong body. In a last-ditch effort to stop a diabolical plot, a dead CIA operative’s memories, secrets, and skills are implanted into an unpredictable and dangerous death-row inmate in hopes the he will complete the operative’s mission.

The top notch cast for Criminal boasts Ryan Reynolds, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and, of course, our gal, Gal Gadot.

Gadot has been a very busy woman with these three must-see movies. Gal's star is rapidly rising in the Hollywood sky—but that's just my opinion. How do you feel? Is Gal Godot on the right track?

Park Chan-wook Talks About Next Pic ‘The Hand Maiden’

Park Chan-wook Talks About Next Pic

DECEMBER 10, 2015 | 01:02AM PT

Korean helmer received career trib and gave master-class at Marrakech Fest

Martin Dale

Contributor

MARRAKECH — Park Chan-wook is one of Korea’s best known-helmers, for his “Vengeance” Trilogy and recent works such as sensual vampire pic “Thirst” and English-language “Stoker,” starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska.

His next feature is inspired by Sarah Waters’ Victorian-era lesbian crime novel “Fingersmith,” previously adapted into the BBC TV series, “Tipping the Velvet.” The Korean title is “Agassi” and the English title “The Hand Maiden.” Pic involves a love story between a mistress and her hand-maiden, which Park is setting set in 1930s Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation.

Park explains that his screenplay has introduced several important innovations to the novel. The secret mystery linked to the birth of the two main female characters no longer features in the story and the role of the male character – who serves as an intermediary between the two women – assumes much greater importance. The helmer says that his story is essentially about “two females and a male.”

The film was originally planned under the same name as the novel, but Park explains that after showing his first draft to the author, they agreed to change the title: “When I showed the script to Sarah Waters she said that she thought that it’s a good screenplay, but is significantly different from her novel and would therefore appreciate it if we could say “inspired by” instead of “based on” the novel. That’s when we agreed to change the title.”

In Park’s two most recent pics – “Thirst” and “Stoker” – he explored themes of eroticism and temptation and he returns to these themes in “The Hand Maiden.” By contrast, his earlier films, such as “Old Boy,” focused primarily on themes of vengeance, which he admits continue to fascinate him.

He considers this evolution is not necessarily a definitive trend, and may well change again in his subsequent films. Whereas “Thirst” – about a priest who is transformed into a vampire and develops passionate sexual urges, whose U.S. marketing logline was “Lusting after Sinful Pleasures” – focused on aspects of sin and guilt related to sexuality, he says that for “The Hand Maiden,” although exploring “forbidden love” in the historical period in which the story is set, his prime interest is to explore the sexual desires intrinsic to the story. “It’s more about the joy of eroticism, instead of guilt. It’s essentially a liberation from a sense of guilt.”

“I’m not sure whether eroticism is as important as a theme such as death and revenge, which I have explored in several of my previous films,” he explains. “But I am interested in studying human nature and there haven’t been so many films that have honestly studied the question of lust.” Park, who describes himself as an atheist, was raised in a Catholic family in Korea. However, he doesn’t believe that his interest in exploring themes such as sin, guilt and obsession come from his Catholic upbringing and considers that Korean Catholicism is very different from the more traditional teachings of the Catholic church, in countries such as Italy and Spain.

“Korean Catholicism is not so much focused on concepts of guilt and sin,” he says. “It is more progressive and open. Throughout its history it has been critical of Korean society. As an organization it has contributed to the implantation of democracy in Korea.”

The helmer believes that his fascination with guilt comes from his formative experience as a young man. “I grew up during the period of Korean history when there were major student movements in favor of democracy. I saw a lot of my friends taken away by the authorities and many were tortured. Others were forced to enlist in the army well before the obligatory age of conscription, as a punishment. I saw them fight actively against the dictatorship and they suffered as a consequence. I didn’t take an active part and I felt guilty about this. A lot of people from my generation share this feeling. I channeled this sense of guilt into my films.”

Unlike many established helmers, Park also likes to direct short films, the latest of which is “A Rose Reborn.” He says this is primarily because of the creative freedom that this entails: “With the short film format you don’t have to worry about box office or whether the audience will like it.”

Another important factor is that making short films enables him to collaborate with his younger brother Park Chan-kyong, who is a media artist and is also interested in making films. They co-directed the short fantasy-horror film “Paranmanjang” (Night Fishing), which was shot entirely on an iPhone and won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. “Working with my younger brother has been a newfound joy for me,” he says.

Park elaborated on these themes during his master-class at the Marrakech film festival on Tuesday.
He began by explaining that he remembers the precise moment when he decided to become a filmmaker, at the age of 22, when he watched Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” without subtitles and on a very poor VHS copy.

“Hitchcock’s films are like daydreams,” he said. “I was already fascinated by surrealism as an artistic movement and literary influence. I’m interested in the atmosphere of a never-ending dream, something very Kafkaesque, that we can’t escape from.”

He revealed that his first two films were commercial and critical flops, which made it very difficult to provide for his family. He quipped that it wasn’t just a question of getting negative reviews but of being completely ignored.

His breakthrough film was “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” the first part in his Vengeance Trilogy. He says that he wrote the script in 24 hours.

One of his prime concerns in all his films is to create a moral dilemma for the audience and applied this principle in this pic. “My starting point was a story about the abduction of a child, one of the worst kinds of crime. But I started to imagine that under certain circumstances it may not be so bad.” During the first half of the film, he deliberately encourages the audience to sympathize with the abducters since the protagonist doesn’t want to harm the child and is essentially motivated by raising money for his sick elderly sister. But in the middle of the film, the child dies accidentally and the focus switches to the father who seeks to avenge his son’s death. The audience progressively sympathizes with him, although they had previously sympathized with the abducters.

Park discussed his recurrent interest in the theme of vengeance. “Vengeance is a constant throughout history, whether in the East or West or in the ancient or contemporary world. I think this is because vengeance is the one thing that sets humans apart from other animals. Through vengeance you don’t gain anything of substance. If your loved one was killed, when you gain revenge you won’t bring them back. People who seek vengeance know this. Vengeance involves placing the greatest amount of energy in the most futile endeavor. This is one of the best ways to reveal human nature.”

Asked whether this meant that he is pessimistic about human nature, he countered “From such stupidity, beautiful things can be born, such as unrequited love.”

He also admitted that whenever wronged in life he tends to turn the other cheek. But at night he begins to imagine different kinds of torture and violence that he can inflict upon his aggressor.
In terms of his approach to directing actors he says that he has a golden rule of thumb: “During pre-production I talk as much as possible with the actors. During production I talk at little as possible with them.”

Discussing the experience of directing his English-language pic “Stoker,” with Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska, he says that language didn’t prove to be an obstacle.
“When you work with great actors, they have their own unique way of getting into character. In essence actors are experts in the field of dealing with human emotions. There is a specific jargon associated to this, just as you find professional jargon amongst experts involved in building a skyscraper, and within this context it was easy to communicate.”

The helmer concluded by explaining the prime reason why he likes to direct films: “I love the pleasure of creating a world that may be a bit different from the real world, but which is very self-contained.”
On Wednesday evening, Park received a career tribute at the Marrakech Fest, including a screening of clips from his extensive filmography.

Park was greeted by a standing ovation when he stepped onto the stage for his career tribute, presented by Indian actress, Richa Chadda. He began his speech by explaining that the word “cinema” in Korean sounds like the words, “Young-wha bitch.”

He described himself as being constantly immersed in thinking about ideas for films.

“Filmmakers and other artists are a bit like women from old times,” he said. “As soon as we give birth to one child, we immediately get pregnant again. We’re in a constant state of pregnancy, for at least 30 years. With an important difference, we release our babies into the world straight away.”
Looking back on his career to date, Park says that he has had to come through several painful moments but says it has been a very rewarding life.

He dedicated his award to his wife, Kim Eun-Hee and ended his speech by thanking her “for sharing her husband over all these years with that cinema bitch.”


Like mother like daughter: Carrie Fisher's daughter rocks familiar hairdo in new Star Wars

CARRIE Fisher, who played the original Princess Leia, has passed on her acting genes to her daughter Billie Lourd.

By Jack Wetherill / Published 10th December 2015

Billie Lourd

DISNEY

FIRST LOOK: Fans got a first look at Billie Lourd's character

And Star Wars fans got the first look at the 23-year-old's character, whose hair is styled suspiciously similar to her mother's character.

The rising actress has been adamant she is not playing Princess Leia's daughter in The Force Awakens.

But her character name is yet to be revealed, leading to fans speculation.

And the look is pretty similar.

Star WarsDISNEY/NBC VIA GETTY

LOOKS FAMILIAR: Billie Lourd's character looks like her mother's

Fans have shared theories that the Scream Queens actress will play either Organa's daughter or a younger version from a flashback.

Lourd revealed that it was her mother's portrayal of the space-aged princess that inspired her.

"When I saw the [original] movie for the first time, I noticed my mom was not only equally as confident and strong as the men, she was one of the most confident characters in the entire film," she said.

"It made me realise women are just as powerful as men and that we can truly do anything they can – if not more!"

Billie Lourd in Scream QueensFOX VIA GETTY IMAGES

HORROR: Billie played Chanel Number 3 in Scream Queens

The Hollywood starlet is used to playing strong female characters.

She also had a lead role in Fox's Scream Queens, which came to a shocking close on Tuesday night when the finale aired in America.

Lourd, who played Chanel Number 3, along with her sorority sisters, Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) and Chanel Number 5 (Abigail Breslin) finally found out who the Red Devil was.

Scream Queens airs in the UK on E4 on Monday nights, so British fans will have to wait a few more weeks for the dramatic climax.

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Prince performing Radiohead's 'Creep' live resurfaces

1 d
Newsdesk

No one does it better than global icon PRINCE and when he unleashed his inimitable falsetto and incendiary guitar onstage at Coachella back in 2008, every person in that audience felt it.


One of the songs that surprised and electrified the crowd into a frenzy was his magical cover of "Creep" by Radiohead.

The performance clip, originally blocked from the Internet and unavailable for a long period, resurfaced yesterday when a tweet was sent from Prince's official Twitter account @Prince3EG.

Prince3EG (@Prince3EG) December 7, 2015

‘The Flash’ Taps Comedian Tone Bell as Iris’ New Boss

tone bell the flash

DECEMBER 9, 2015 | 03:21PM PT

Laura Prudom

News Editor@lauinla

Journalism is a dangerous profession in the world of “The Flash” (much like being a politician on “Arrow”), but that won’t stop another plucky member of the press from entering the fray in Season 2.

Variety can exclusively reveal that comedian Tone Bell will join “The Flash” for a multi-episode arc in the back half of the superhero show’s sophomore season. He’ll play Scott Evans, the brash neweditor at Central City Picture News. Devoted to hard journalism, Evans will push Iris (Candice Patton) and all his reporters to dig deeper into their stories and report the truth about what’s really happening in Central City. His predecessor at the paper, Eric Larkin (Tom Butler), was recently killed in a confrontation with Earth-2 villain Dr. Light (Malese Jow).

Bell currently stars on NBC’s “Truth Be Told” (which recently had its order trimmed to 10 episodes) and co-created and sold a half-hour scripted comedy based on his life to FX, which he will star in, write and executive produce. Earlier this year, Variety named Bell one of our 10 ...s to Watch for 2015.

Bell is repped by Innovative Artists; Black Box; Herring PR and Jackoway, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Austen, Mandelbaum, Morris & Klein.

“The Flash” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW. The series returns from its winter hiatus on January 19, 2016.

TV Review: Neil LaBute’s ‘Billy & Billie’

Neil LaBute's Billy & Billie TV

MARCH 2, 2015 | 11:30AM PT

TV Columnist

Brian Lowry

TV Columnist@blowryontv

On the Neil LaBute scale of interpersonal dysfunction, “Billy & Billie” – his new DirecTVseries, about a romance (if you can call it that) between two stepsiblings – rates about a 6. Featuring Adam Brody and Lisa Joyce as the conflicted duo, who drunkenly fall into bed together, then wonder where to go from there, the half-hour follows “Full Circle” in the screenwriter-playwright/satellite service relationship, and also showcases his characteristically acerbic writing as well as a rather static stage format. For LaBute’s admirers, it’s surely worth a look; for everyone else, it’s probably advisable to think about seeing other shows.


The series takes some getting used to in part because of the way it begins, as we meet Billie (Joyce) and Billy (Brody) in morning-after mode, each clearly feeling a bit comfortable and ambivalent about what transpired.

Granted, as the series progresses the second-guessing seems a little more pronounced – or overt – for Billie, who keeps lashing out at him, than the more restrained Billy, who works at a magazine and, if the local diner’s waitress is any indication, has no problem finding women eager to bed him. (Since they’re stepsiblings, nobody can blame the too-cute title and those sound-alike names on their parents.)

Even in more laid-back mode than his more biting works, LaBute inevitably delivers plenty of tart lines, and populates this indie-film world with the usual assortment of miscreant characters, including Billy’s idiotic, sex-starved coworkers. So when the central pair argues and he says, “I’m not trying to be stupid,” she quickly shoots back, “I guess you’re just a natural then.”

Still, this is a decidedly narrow construct, seemingly made possible as much by its low-key approach and modest budget (most scenes just involve two people sitting and talking) as its merit. There’s also such a chilliness to the interactions that while there’s some debate and uncertainty over whether the protagonists will wind up together, there’s less reason to care.

That said, the show represents a credible twist on the familiar romantic-comedy notion of characters being drawn to each even when they shouldn’t be, assuming that viewers can get past the “ick” factor of Billy introducing Billie as his sister before she corrects him.

“Love is relative” is the coy marketing line, which at least serves as a mild improvement over “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Thanks to LaBute’s jaundiced world view, “Billy & Billie” really doesn’t have to apologize for anything other than perhaps its premise, and it’s certainly in keeping with a fairly robust niche of small-scaled series (from HBO’s current Sunday roster to FXX’s “Man Seeking Woman”) infused with darkness and an understated, off-Broadway sensibility.

As for whether this latest addition to that genre merits a commitment in light of everything else that’s out there, that, too, is relative.

TV Review: Neil LaBute's 'Billy & Billie'

(Series; DirecTV Audience Network, Tue. March 3, 8 p.m.)

Production

Filmed in New York by Contemptible Entertainment.

Crew

Executive producers, Tim Harms, Neil LaBute, Chris Long, Bart Peters; writer-director, LaBute; camera, Joseph Zizzo; production designer, Neil Patel; editor, Joel Plotch; music, Kristin Hersh; casting, Bernard Telsey, Abbie Brady-Dalton, Conrad Woolfe. 30 MIN.

Cast

Adam Brody, Lisa Joyce, Gia Crovatin, Phil Burke, Jake Lacy, Li Jun Li, Katie Paxton

Google’s Chromecast Audio Adapter Gets Multi-Room Support Similar to Sonos

Chromecast Audio

COURTESY OF GOOGLE
DECEMBER 10, 2015 | 09:00AM PT

Janko Roettgers

Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent

Google’s recently-launched Chromecast Audio adapter is getting a major feature update this week: Consumers will now be able to group multiple Chromecast audio adapters to stream their favorite music simultaneously in more than one room, similar to the multi-room support available for internet-connected loudspeakers like the ones made by Sonos. The company is also adding high-resolution audio support to Chromecast, making it possible to enjoy music with a resolution of up to 96KHz/24bit.

Google first introduced C... September. The $35 adapter can be plugged into any stereo system or stand-alone loudspeaker with line-in or optical audio connectivity, and allows consumers to stream music services like Spotify and other audio programming directly from the cloud. Grouping of adapters is being done through Google’s Chromecast app, which is available for iOS and Android.

Multi-room audio support will be extended to loudspeakers made by LG, Sony and Denon that useGoogle’s Cast technology some time next year. At that point, consumers will be able to combine a Wifi-connected speaker with a traditional stereo system equipped with a Chromecast audio adapter to play the same music in all of their rooms. Google hasn’t said yet whether it intends to bring multi-room audio support to its Chromecast video streaming stick as well.

‘Peanuts’ Gang Finds 3D Style for Charlie Brown, Other Iconic Characters

Best Animated Feature Oscar Preview

COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX
DECEMBER 9, 2015 | 05:22PM PT

Peter Debruge

Chief International Film Critic@AskDebruge

With his round head, wobbly smile and curlicue hair, Charlie Brown is perhaps one of the easiest cartoon characters to draw — and the hardest to animate.

In fact, for “The Peanuts Movie,” it’s the character’s very simplicity made the process so challenging for director Steve Martino and the team at Blue Sky Studios, the same folks who had previously found a CG style suitable for Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who!”

But what came so naturally to Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz doesn’t translate nearly so organically to computer animation, where Maya and ZBrush software is coded to apply the laws of physics to the way objects look and move. In the real world, a character’s head and body remain consistent, whether seen from the front, back or side — whereas Schulz took certain artistic liberties, changing the position, shape and volume of Charlie Brown’s features (eyes, ears, nose and neck) according to whatever direction he might be facing in any given panel.

“With a pen, you can do whatever you want,” says Sabine Heller, character development supervisor on “The Peanuts Movie.” When animating via computer, however, everything is limited by the rigging process, which establishes a sort of virtual skeleton by which an animator can manipulate the character the way a puppeteer might.

As on past productions, Martino’s team began by building a base character model and equipping it with a rudimentary rig. “Then we give it to the animators to break,” Martino says. “We ask them to start pushing extremes, and we learn where it gets ugly.” A crease could appear across the side of the face or an arm might bend oddly when it rotates. Then the rigging team goes to work fixing those problems, while remaining true to the way Schulz had drawn the character for 50 years.

In the case of “The Peanuts Movie,” Blue Sky spent roughly two years perfecting Charlie Brown’s rig — a period rarely seen in cartoon R&D, but absolutely necessary for a film whose characters had to match preexisting designs. According to Heller, “He was the prototype. Everybody was inherited from Charlie Brown,” adding animatable curls for Frieda or the ability for Schroeder to hunch over his piano without becoming twice as tall as the other characters.

“When somebody makes a Charlie Brown sculpture or a Snoopy toy, there are certain perspectives that look really good, and there are others where it looks off,” Martino says. “We learned early on that Charles Schulz only drew the heads in six poses” — direct, head-up, left profile, right profile, ¾ left and ¾ right — and any other view can have a jarring effect.

Still, that didn’t stop Blue Sky from trying to build an all-purpose Charlie Brown rig, one that could be shot from any angle — but ultimately had the unique quality of looking slightly “off” no matter which way the camera was facing. Scrapping that plan, Heller’s team eventually decided to develop a much more complicated system, a rig with a control that allowed animators to automatically switch among the six different views.

“The rig would automatically move the features around so it would match the way Charles Schulz drew the character,” Heller says.

In some drawings, Charlie Brown has just three fingers, while in others, he has five, so the rigging team gave animators the ability to flip back and forth without making him seem freakish. They also made it possible to turn on multiple limbs for every single character, allowing for an old-school style of motion blur, in which several arms or feet appear in the same frame — as when Charlie Brown falls off the ladder in the library or Snoopy dances the flamenco.

Snoopy’s rig presented other headaches in that Schulz seldom rotated the dog’s face, keeping the same silhouette whether he was looking forward or in profile.

This posed a unique challenge for animators: How do you suggest a head turn when the only thing moving is Snoopy’s nose? What to make of a smile that seemed plastered on? And how to explain the sudden appearance of a second eye where only one had been there before?

Though Snoopy’s rig was designed to flip between poses, it fell to animators to cushion the transitions. Typically, they would use a blink to introduce the new eye, while shifting the body ever so slightly to convey movement.

“Snoopy is the ultimate Picasso challenge,” says Martino, referring to the subtle optical illusions they discovered in Schulz’s inadvertently abstract drawings, complicated by the addition of dimension, texture and lighting. On the one hand, giving Snoopy plush-like fur subtly tied in many viewers’ associations with stuffed toys, but posed other obstacles.

“We came up with all kinds of new technologies,” says animation supervisor Scott Carroll. “If you think about Snoopy’s eyes and nose sliding around, that fur gives you a landmark, so we had to be very judicious in how we moved them, and then also figure out a way to make sure that (his features) felt integrated into the fur.”

To help disguise the fact that the characters were popping from one position to another (effectively eschewing the smooth in-betweens traditionally seen in CGI and behaving more like stop-motion replacement models), Martino actually downgraded from 24 frames per second — the speed used in past Blue Sky features — to a slightly jerkier 12 fps approach, known as “animating on twos,” used in more cost-conscious animation, including the classic Charlie Brown TV specials.

“It’s a snappier style, and I like it,” says Martino, citing specific tricks the approach allowed — as when Snoopy is typing his novel and Woodstock whips out a red pen: “The style of animation is such that Woodstock can reach behind his back, and in the next frame, he’s holding a pen that’s nearly as big as his body. It allowed us to dispense with pure physical logic and take on an approach where we’re thinking like 2D animators.”

LIVE

Kacey Musgraves

Royal Albert Hall, London

18 November 2015 (gig)
Paul Chapinal

It’s not quite meteoric but it’s not far off as Kacey Musgraves and her band - they all attired in raspberry coloured suits and fairy lights - take to the stage. It’s only last year that she was in the Shepherds Bush Empire and tonight it is the regal (and full) - surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall.


They open with the delightful Pageant Material, receiving a rapturous welcome that goes up a notch as, at her command, the crowd are on their feet for the hit single Biscuits and it looks as if we are in for a hoe down of a concert.
It slightly tails off after that for a period and the well drilled band did appear to be going through the motions. The nadir being the band introductions and juggling that just felt like padding.

Thankfully the pull away from that and when they do click they are formidable. These songs sound fuller live and Musgraves’s versatile voice of pop lightness and Country grit resonates around the arena.

This is to the fore during the contrasting mid-set trio of No Scrubs, Fine and Dime Store Cowgirl which just rippled through the audience. Changing pace and tone completely is the very moving solo version of Merry Go ‘Round during which a visibly emotional Ms Musgraves refers to the Paris attack and the pressures to cancel the concerts.

And from that point to the end of the main show, the ever engaging Kacey Musgraves and band got it together for a finale of familiar songs – including a literally stomping version of These Boots Were Made for Walking with her flashing light cowboy boots - casting a spell over the audience that had them back on their feet and even had hardened hacks whooping! The encore, an A Capella version of Roy Rogers Happy Trails, closes the concert on a quiet high.

By all accounts Kacey Musgraves is the first Country artist of sell out the Royal Albert Hall since 2003, and that’s fitting. As she says, she is about song writing, and for all the rhinestones, spangles, lights and coloured suits, this is a performance built on a collection of very good, witty, catchy songs that, looking at the audience tonight, transcends generations.

.

.

[Edited 12/10/15 10:59am]

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Identity





The film stars Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, Margot Robbie as Jane, Samuel Jackson, Dijimon Housou, and Christoph Waltz.

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