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Reply #90 posted 01/09/16 7:12pm

JoeBala

Rhythm and blues singer Otis Clay dies at age 73

WRITTEN BY ASSOCIATED PRESS POSTED: 01/09/2016, 12:12PM
Otis Clay / Sun-Times

Hall of fame rhythm and blues artist Otis Clay, known as much for his big heart and charitable work in Chicago as for his singing internationally, died Friday. He was 73.

The Mississippi-born Clay — whose gruff, tenor-tinged voice on blues songs such as “Trying to Live My Life Without You” varied from his haunting but hopeful baritone on gospel standards like “When the Gates Swing Open” — died suddenly of a heart attack at 6:30 p.m., said his daughter, Ronda Tankson.

The one-time Grammy nominee had a year of touring planned behind recent records and recognition at May’s 37th Blues Music Awards, manager Miki Mulvehill said. Clay is nominated for Soul-Blues Male Artist and Soul-Blues Album for “This Time for Real,” his collaboration with Billy Price.

“Otis was the last standard-bearer for deep southern soul music, the really gospel-inflected music that was in its heyday in the late ’60s and early and mid ’70s,” Price told The Associated Press on Saturday. “These styles change, and different styles are in the forefront, but Otis was just as strong in the past five years … For that reason, he was an icon for a lot of us who work in this genre.”

European music enthusiasts and record-collectors flock to Clay’s music because of its spare, “unvarnished” style wrought of the 1960s soul scenes in Memphis, Tennessee and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Price said.

A 2013 Blues Hall of Fame inductee who moved to blues-steeped Chicago in 1957, Clay had just begun planning a gospel tour of the U.S., followed by a summer European tour and, later, the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, Mulvehill said. His latest album is called, “Truth Is.”

Image result for OTIS CLAY

But Clay was much more than a talented musician. A resident of Chicago’s West Side, he was an avid humanitarian whose charitable works included assisting development of the Harold Washington Cultural Center.

“Otis was the first one to jump on the ‘Can I help?’ train,” Mulvehill said.

Tankson, a Chicago special education teacher whose pupils include autistic children, said her father gave little thought to what benefit he’d get from performing and held nothing back, even when appearing for her students.

“He sang to them as if they paid and he was on stage,” Tankson said.

Friends and co-workers of Tankson’s, whom Clay had never met, repeatedly asked if he would sing “When the Gates Swing Open” at loved ones’ funerals. “He never let me down on that,” she said, adding that he once delayed a recording-session trip to Memphis to comply.

Clay was born Feb. 11, 1942 in Waxhaw, Mississippi, to a musical and religious family, according to his online biography. After his arrival in Chicago, he joined the Golden Jubliaries, and in 1960 became part of Charles Bridges’ Famous Blue Jay Singers, performing a capella at schools and hotels.

“We were known as variety singers, or we were billed as (performing) ‘Old Negro Spirituals and Plantation Melodies,’” Clay said in his biography.

His recording debut came in 1965 with the rousing ballad, “Flame in Your Heart.” Four decades later, in 2007, he was nominated for a Grammy for the gospel CD, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.”

DEATH OF R&B/SOUL MAN OTIS CLAY

JANUARY 9, 2016
in Category: NEWS
Death Of R&B/Soul Man Otis Clay

Much-respected R&B/soul singer and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Otis Clay passed away yesterday (8 January) at the age of 73. He is understood to have had a heart attack, as he prepared for a a gospel tour. Clay had performed live as recently as November, and his most recent recorded work was the 2015 collaborative album with Billy Price, This Time For Real.

OtisClay-HighResolution

Born in 1942 in Waxhaw, Mississippi, Otis is best known for his 1960s recordings on the One-derful label, a subsequent spell on Atlantic’s Cotillion subsidiary and then his 1970s period on Hi Records in Memphis. There, he was a labelmate of Al Green, Ann Peebles and other artists under the production wing of the late ‘Papa’ Willie Mitchell.

Like many of his soul music peers, his roots were in gospel. “Like most traditional black families, church was a big part of my life,” he remembered, “not just the religious aspect but the social, it was the center of our community. As kids we imitated what we saw and heard in the church, that was how the singing thing started.”

In national chart terms in the US, Otis’ first recognition was with his top 40 R&B hit of 1967 on One-derful, ‘That’s How It Is (When You’re In Love).’ The follow-up, ‘A Lasting Love,’ made the top 50, as did a 1968 cover of Sir Douglas Quintet’s US pop top 20 hit of three years earlier, ’She’s About A Mover,’ on Cotillion.

otisclayvinyl

In the Hi Records years, his biggest single was the No. 24 R&B hit of 1972, ’Tryin’ To Live My Life Without You.’ Written by Eugene Williams, it went on to be covered by many artists, notably Bob Seger, who had a No. 5 pop hit with a live version of the song in 1981.

Clay received a Grammy nomination for his 2007 gospel album Walk A Mile In My Shoes. He was also much involved in charitable and humanitarian endeavours in his beloved adopted home of Chicago, where he had lived for some 60 years.

SAM COOKE’S SHAKEN FANS GIVE HIM A POSTHUMOUS HIT

JANUARY 9, 2016
in Category: uBYTES
Sam Cooke’s Shaken Fans Give Him A Posthumous Hit

The sudden, shocking and needless death of Sam Cooke in December, 1964 deprived the world of music of one of its true originals. Countless fans of this superb vocal stylist, songwriter and performer were understandably inconsolable when they heard about his mysterious shooting at the age of just 33. Less than a month later, those fans gave Cooke his first posthumous hit.

sam cooke

’Shake,’ an infectious upbeat composition by Cooke himself, was recorded at his last studio session at RCA Studios in Hollywood, just a month before his demise. It was released a mere ten days after he was killed, in a historic double-sided single that also featured the epic and elegiac ‘A Change Is Gonna Come,’ a song that would soon become forever associated with the civil rights movement.

The A-side entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 73 on 9 January, 1965, and the R&B chart a week later. ’Shake’ became a major hit in both genres, climbing to No. 7 in the pop market and spending three weeks at No. 2 on the soul chart.

The song went on to be covered by a who’s who of artists, hitting the R&B top 20 in 1967 for Otis Redding and inspiring pop covers by the likes of the Small Faces and a young Rod Stewart. There were also versions by Ike & Tina Turner and the Supremes, who four months of his death, released the tribute album We Remember Sam Cooke.

WALLFLOWER – THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

FEBRUARY 17, 2015
in Category: uBYTES
Wallflower – The Stories Behind the Songs

Albums of covers can so easily just be a collection of second hand songs, unless an artist can bring something new and different that imbues the material with freshness as well as something genuinely different. Diana Krall’s new record, Wallflower, produced by David Foster, is an album of covers that re-imagines some of the best loved songs of the past 50 years, songs from the likes of Elton John, the Beatles and the Eagles to Bob Dylan, Crowded House and 10 CC. As Diana has said “It was a nice change for me to be in the vocal booth with pretty much only David’s superb piano accompaniment and orchestrations.” Best of all these songs sound not like covers at all, Diana adds so much to every one, makes the songs her very own.

Diana Krall’s unique artistry has not only made her one of the most recognizable artists of modern jazz but she has also transcended any one particular style of music. On the new album she brings her signature style to some of the greatest songs of our time, including The Eagles’ ‘Desperado,’ The Mamas & The Papas’ ‘California Dreamin’’, and Elton John’s, ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word,’ along with a new composition by Paul McCartney. As David Foster recently said, “What makes this album so special is the way Diana re-imagines each tune and the way she puts her heart and soul into every syllable.”
We thought we would give you a look under the hood of the songs that Diana has re-imagined. These are the stories behind the songs on Wallflower…

the-mamas-and-the-papas-california-dreamin-1965-7_edited-1
California Dreamin’
It is one of the quintessential songs of the 1960s. Written by John and Michelle Phillips and originally recorded by The Mamas and The Papas in November 1965 and released a month later and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 January 1966 to become the groups first hit before eventually making No.4 on the chart. It was written in 1963 while John and Michelle were living in New York City, at the time they were members of the folk band The New Journeymen; what few people know is that the first version of the song was recorded by Barry McGuire for his album, This Precious Time. When the Mamas and the Papas recorded their version they used the same backing track as McGuire.

Desperado
The title track of the Eagles 1973 album, their second, was written by Don Henley and Glen Frey and what many people are unaware of is that this quintessentially West Coast song was actually recorded in London at Island Records studio with producer and engineer, Glyn Johns. It is the closing track of side one of the original album, but was never released as a single.

Carpenters
Superstar
For some, ‘Superstar’ is a Carpenters’ song, many probably believe it was written by Richard Carpenter, but it was actually composed by Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett with Leon Russell’s in 1969. The Carpenters‘ sophisticated rendition dates from 1971, while the original version by Delaney and Bonnie features Eric Clapton’ s subtle guitar detail. The Bramlett’s version was released as the b-side of their single ‘Comin’ Home,’ which peaked at No. 84 in the US but reached No. 16 in the UK. At that time, the song was called ‘Groupie (Superstar).’ In 1970, when Joe Cocker embarked on his famous Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, Leon Russell was his bandleader, and Rita Coolidge was given the vocal spotlight to interpret the song that by now was known simply as ‘Superstar.’ To complicate matters further Richard Carpenter wasn’t aware of the Delaney & Bonnie or ‘Mad Dogs’ versions, but he was attracted to the song when he heard Bette Midler, before she had ever charted, performing it on the ‘Tonight Show’ on American television.
The Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’ entered the Hot 100 at a confident No. 49, and took just six weeks to climb to No. 2, where it stayed for two weeks, parked behind Rod Stewart’s ‘Maggie May’/’Reason To Believe.’

Alone Again (Naturally)
Diana’s duet with fellow Canadian Michael Bublé was written by Irish singer/songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan and entered the Hot 100 in June 1972 going on to top the charts for a total of 6 weeks making it one of the most popular songs of the decade in America; it made No.3 in the UK. In 1991 O’Sullivan’s song was at the centre of a lawsuit involving rapper, Biz Markie after he sampled O'Sullivan's song without permission. The court ruled that sampling without permission can qualify as copyright infringement, a ruling that changed hip hop, requiring that any future music sampling be preapproved by the original copyright owners.

Wallflower
Bob Dylan has been covered countless times throughout his long career and his songs have frequently become hits in the hands of others. This song dates from 1971 but Dylan did not release until over 20 years later as part of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. Texan singer Doug Sahm, the former leader of the Sir Douglas Quintet covered it in 1972 on his album, Doug Sahm and Band. According to Diana, I love Dylan and always have. I got stuck on ‘Wallflower,’ listening over and over again. We started playing it on gigs more than a year ago. That's the one song I played all the piano on, me and [guitarist] Blake Mills sitting in a room, just playing. We didn't redo anything.”

If I Take You Home Tonight
Not strictly a cover as this Paul McCartney song had not been released by the former Beatle. As Diana says. “The day after Hurricane Sandy we did a rough, but it didn't fit on [his 2012 LP Kisses on the Bottom]. Years later I found the sheet music and [drummer] Karriem Riggins said, ‘You should do that.’ I thought it was a tall order to do a new McCartney song. I asked Paul if he was OK if I should change the direction -- I'm not one for changing gender in a song -- but he thought it sounded really modern to keep it the way he wrote it.”

I Can’t Tell You Why
Written by Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley and Glen Frey this song dates from the Eagles 1979 album, The Long Run. As a single it became a Billboard Top 10 hit in April 1980, reaching No.8 on the Hot 100.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
Covering another singer/songwriter is a tough ask and when the singer/songwriter is Elton John it is even tougher. Elton’s song comes from his 1976, Blue Moves album and is one of the most poignant ballads about break-up every written – Bernie Taupin’s words are so poetic. It made No.11 on the UK chart and No.6 on the Hot 100. Yet again Diana Krall creates a mood that is totally different from the original, and one that is totally her own.

Jim Croce
Operator (That’s Not The Way He Feels)
Featuring Stephen Stills and Graham Nash on backing vocals this Jim Croce song has an interesting story behind it. According to Ingrid Croce, who was married to Jim from 1966 until his death in 1973, “Jim and I had gotten married in 1966, and we had been waiting for him to go in the service. He was a National Guard, which he had joined with the hope that he would not be sent over [to Vietnam], and he would be able to continue his education and his music career. He was standing there in the rain at a payphone. And he was listening to these stories of all these guys, the 'Dear John' stories, that were standing in line waiting their turn in the rain with these green rain jackets over their heads - I can just picture it, all of them in line waiting for their 3-minute phone call. I think that was the most important aspect of the song, because it was just so desperate. You know, 'I only have a dime' and 'You can keep the dime' because money was very scarce and very precious, and I think if you look at the words to the song there are so many aspects of our generation that are in it.”
This was the second single from Croce's album, You Don't Mess Around with Jim and ‘Operator’ made No.17 on the Billboard chart in late 1972. A year later, and shortly after ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown had topped the Hot 100, Croce was killed in a plane crash.

I’m Not in Love
10 CC’s song made No.2 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1975 as well as topping the UK singles chart and is one of those songs that came about as a result of a happy accident. Written by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart of 10 CC the latter picks up the story to tell us that it was inspired by a chance remark from his wife.
“Gloria said to me one day, ‘you’ve stopped saying I love you’. ‘Yes, but if I keep saying it, it would no longer have any meaning’. While this was inconsequential banter between us the notion stuck in my mind and when I put the idea to my song-writing partner of a song which said ‘I’m not in love’ and then proceeded to give all the reasons why the singer was totally in love he thought it was great.”
Originally Eric and Graham thought it would be a shuffle beat Latin tinged song like ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ but in the end it turned out very differently. The backing track for the song turned into something akin to the ‘wall of sound’ and when they added their studio secretary saying ‘Big Boys don’t cry, be quiet, big boys don’t cry’ in the middle of the song they knew they had something very special.

Feels Like Home
Randy Newman has been called the songwriter’s songwriter, but that diminishes in some ways his popular appeal and the broad sweep of his talent as not just a writer of popular songs but also as a composer of film scores. His songs have been covered by Barbra Streisand, Three Dog Night, The Alan Price Set, and Joe Cocker among a long list of artists. ‘Feels like Home’, on which Diana is joined by Bryan Adams, is one that is comparatively recent, coming from Newman’s 1995 musical, Randy Newman’s Faust, on which it was performed by Bonnie Raitt.

Don’t Dream It’s Over
Crowded House’s 1986 single made No.2 on the Hot 100, but could only manage a lowly No.27 in the UK. Their version is definitive, and yet, in Diana Krall’s hands it takes on a whole new meaning and a whole new vibe – she re-defines the song, helped in no small way by David Foster’s brilliant piano intro. Written by Neil Finn it comes from Crowded House’s self titled debut album.

iTunes Bonus Tracks
In My Life
Lennon and McCartney’s ‘In My Life’ is a song that is largely written by John and began life as a nostalgic look back at Liverpool. Recorded in October 1965 it was released on the Beatles Rubber Soul album. John was very fond of the song, saying, “And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric.”

Gorgie-Fame-and-the-Blue-Flames
Yeh, Yeh
If any song says Soho and London in the swinging sixties it is ‘Yeh Yeh’. Georgie Fame, who joins Diana on her version, originally recorded it as Georgie Fame and the Blue Flame’s and it was UK No.1 in early 1965. Many people assume it was an written by the Hammond B-3 virtuoso, but it was originally an instrumental by Mongo Santamaria from his 1963 album Watermelon Man. Soon after words were added by Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Henricks and Ross and shortly after that the British saxophone legend Tubby Hayes wrote the arrangement that Fame took to the top of the charts.

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #91 posted 01/09/16 8:09pm

JoeBala

Secrets and Lies Season 2

Courtesy of ABC

Secrets and Lies Season 2: Detective Cornell Will Be Under 'Tremendous Pressure' After Ben Crawford Blunder

By Rebecca Iannucci / January 9 2016, 5:02 PM PST

Despite her most diligent efforts, Juliette Lewis‘ tough-as-nails Detective Cornell didn’t put the right person behind bars in Secrets and Lies‘ freshman season.

Needless to say, the sleuth will be even more committed to jailing the real killer during the ABC drama’s second go-round — but she’ll also be up against a few more obstacles.

“It wouldn’t bode well for the show if, every season, our star detective did not get the person who committed the murder,” showrunner Barbie Kligman said Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena. “There’s tremendous pressure, and she’s a very good detective, and she will find justice.”

As TVLine has previously reported, Season 2 will center on Eric Warner (played bySleeper Cell‘s Michael Ealy), a well-educated newlywed and heir apparent to his family’s private equity firm in Charlotte, N.C. While attending a party to honor his dad’s (Lost‘s Terry O’Quinn) retirement, Eric’s wife (Dallas‘ Jordana Brewster) is murdered, forcing Eric to turn to Det. Cornell to find the truth.

“Everything about this season is different [for Cornell],” Lewis said, when asked how her typically icy character may evolve in the second season. “How she has to handle [a wealthy family], how she handles her investigation is different. She really has to watch herself. There’s more things she’s up against in her investigating.”

Secrets and Lies‘ sophomore season will also be told from Cornell’s perspective much more often than in Season 1, allowing viewers “to see the pressure [she] experiences in her own environment as she tries to solve the case… which is very refreshing for the audience,” Kligman shared. “There’s more to her than just that woman that keeps popping up.”

Still, even though Cornell learned a lesson from last season’s derailed Ben Crawford (R.I.P.) case, Lewis insisted her character won’t be weighed down by remorse when we next see her: “[She’s OK with what happened], as much as people who stuff emotional things down [can be].”

Secrets and Lies returns in 2016, though a premiere date is still TBD.

Shadowhunters Season 1 Preview

Courtesy of Freeform

Shadowhunters Team Talks Satisfying 'Shippers, How Far Season 1 Will Go

By Vlada Gelman / January 9 2016, 12:13 PM PST

Fans of The Mortal Instruments‘ many couples will be more than pleased withShadowhunters, ABC Family/Freeform’s upcoming series based on Cassandra Clare’s book franchise (premiering Tuesday at 9/8c).

“Even for the most hardcore ‘shippers, there won’t be any disappointment,” executive producer Ed Decter promised Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena.

In terms of everything those die-hard fans might want, “I like to think there’s at least an element of it in Season 1,” Dominic Sherwood, who plays Shadowhunter Jace Wayland, added. “Whether it happens in its entirety, or it’s alluded to, or it comes and goes in some cases, it’s all there in some way, shape or form. Whether or not we give you everything in Season 1, you’re going to have to watch.”

The series has a wealth of source material to pull from, but the first season is “generally Book 1,” City of Bones, Decter said. “Some of the things that we have in the story come from Book 6,” while published offshoots such as The Bane Chronicles will occasionally offer “solutions to things that we wanted to clarify in the story.

As subsequent seasons, in success, unfold, “We’re not going one-to-one with the books,” Decter said, “because the cast, the amount of money we have… All these different things tell us where we can go with the story.”

One of the novels’ elements that for now has ended up on the cutting room floor — Idris, the capital of the Shadowhunters — “We’re saving that for a second season, if we’re so fortunate,” Decter explained.

Transferring the story to television did have its advantages, though. While the books were told closely from Clary’s perspective, the show “expands out the world” by revealing what other characters are up to during major events, Decter described. “You can’t tell a saga from the point-of-view of one person.”

Shadowhunters will also be “darker” and “sexier” than Freeform’s other dramas, according to the EP. “It’s got some racy content,” and given the cabler’s imminent rebranding, “[The executives] said, ‘Bring it!'”

11.22.63 (Hulu) Premieres Monday, Feb. 15 WHAT'S IT ABOUT?: Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, the event series stars James Franco as Jake Epping, a run-of-the-mill English teacher who is tasked with traveling through time to stop JFK's assassination. WHY WE LIKE IT: Put those Under the Dome-instilled fears behind you. Not only does Franco lead a tremendous cast, but the collaboration of King and J.J. Abrams allows for a captivating, thought-provoking adaptation that honors its source material.

Courtesy of Hulu

Hulu's 11.22.63 Has 'Significant' But 'Authentic' Changes From King Novel

By Matt Webb Mitovich / January 9 2016, 9:40 AM PST

Those who have “read and loved” Stephen King’s 11.22.63 will be “very satisfied” with Hulu’s upcoming adaptation, says executive producer Bridget Carpenter. But the eight-part series is not without its deviations from the source material.

Most simply said — and with minimal spoilers — the time-trippy saga follows Jake Epping (played by James Franco), a Maine high-school teacher who is urged by the owner of a local diner (Chris Cooper) to use a time portal to travel back to 1958, the device’s fixed destination, wait things out and ultimately thwart the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Sarah Gadon (Being Erica), Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas), T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy) and Daniel Webber (Home and Away) also star in the series, which will unspool weekly starting Monday, Feb. 15 (yes, Presidents’ Day).

Pressed to elaborate on what has been altered from the book and to what extent, “I don’t know how to characterize the changes, whether they’re small or large,” Carpenter told TVLine on Saturday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena. But she then singled out one shift that she and exec producer J.J. Abrams agreed on.

“Neither of us wanted to do a voiceover,” even though the novel allows you to “hear everything” going on in Jake’s mind, she shared. “So J.J.’s truly excellent idea was he needed somebody with him. That nudge helped me draw a character that existed in King’s book, but I shifted him and made him more of a compatriot to Jake. That’s probably the biggest liberty, bit if felt really authentic.”

And 11.22.63‘s creator concurred.

“What’s so cool,” Abrams said, “is that Stephen King responded so positively to some of these ideas. I was unsure if he was going to embrace some of these significant adjustments, but they were necessary — and he saw that.”


FILM

THE TARANTINO ACTOR

By KATHERINE CUSUMANO
Photography MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

Published 01/04/16

DEMIÁN BICHIR IN NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2015. PHOTOS: MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/DE FACTO INC. STYLING: ANGELA ESTEBAN LIBRERO. GROOMING: NATE ROSENKRANZ/HONEY ARTISTS USING ALTERNA HAIR CARE. PHOTO ASSISTANT: NATHAN MARTIN. STYLING ASSISTANT: MAR PEIDRO. DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: KATIE HAWTHORNE. SPECIAL THANKS: FAST ASHLEYS.


The 70mm print of Quentin Tarantino's latest feature The Hateful Eight quivers slightly on the screen. The film opens with a few leisurely shots of the frosty southwest, lingering just long enough to remind audiences that this will be a three-hour odyssey with an intermission. Then it introduces two bounty hunters played by Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell, and the saga begins. Russell's character, known colloquially as "the hangman," is transporting Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a prisoner worth a bounty of $10,000 for an unspoken crime, across the frozen landscape in order to see her hanged in the nearby town of Red Rock. They're sidelined by a sudden blizzard at Minnie's Haberdashery (not really a haberdashery), where they encounter Demián Bichir's Bob the Mexican, a mysterious figure purporting to take care of the haberdashery in its proprietor Minnie's absence. Minnie has gone to visit family, he says. But someone among this cloistered cast of characters—Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, andWalton Goggins round out the eight trapped at Minnie's by the looming storm—is lying. It's a peculiar hybrid of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Tarantino's own Reservoir Dogs, with nods to golden-age westerns for good measure.

For Bichir, this role is the culmination of a long-standing ambition to work alongside Tarantino, an achievement that stands out even in a career that has spanned multiple countries and performance media. When we speak with Bichir prior to The Hateful Eight's release, he's fresh off his most recent theater run back in Mexico, a production of The Police by Sławomir Mrożek directed by his father Alejandro and co-starring his brothers Bruno and Odiseo. He eagerly pulls out his phone to show off a backstage shot. "This is my dad right here," he points out. "My older brother, my younger brother." Then, referring to the opportunity to work with family, "It's just a bizarre type of surreal world." Though he grew up in a showbiz household, and he and his brothers have frequently come up for the same roles, he quickly denies any competition within his family. "When you fight for a role," he explains, "I think the biggest disappointment is that that role ends up in the wrong hands." No individual actor can play all the roles: "When that role that I want very much lands in an actor's hands, I'm the first one to celebrate," Bichir says. "If that actor happens to be my brother, then it's a double celebration."

In addition to The Hateful Eight, Bichir also just wrapped his first feature as a writer, director, and actor. Titled Refugio, the film co-stars Eva Longoria, Jorge Perugorría, and Jason Patric. (When Interview last spoke with Bichir, he had just begun work on his film as well as Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills—more on that later.) In person, Bichir is ebullient; he's in great cheer when we sit down in Brooklyn immediately following a photo shoot. He pauses periodically throughout our conversation, bidding farewell to the shoot's crew or bookmarking a thought to take a selfie with a new friend and returning to pick up exactly where he left off. We discuss his lifelong adulation for Tarantino, co-stars Roth and Jackson, and his not-so-secret soccer aspirations.


KATHERINE CUSUMANO: To start, I want to ask you how you got involved withHateful Eight. How did you sign onto the role?

DEMIÁN BICHIR: I did The Hateful Eight because of Robert Rodriguez. Robert Rodriguez and I were shooting a film together called Machete Kills, and every day we were shooting, he insisted that I was a Tarantino actor. He would tell me that every day: "Oh, man, you're such a Tarantino actor." I said, "Okay, let's make a deal—stop saying that to me, and please tell Quentin that." And he did.

When I met Quentin, he told me what every actor wishes from any director. He said, "I've been through a Demián Bichir marathon. I've watched everything you've done." Most of the time, they don't even know what you've done. Then he said, "Listen, I'm working on this new draft. When I get it ready, can I send it over to you?" I said, "Please. I beg you. I will be ready to read whenever you are." He said, "No, if you like it, it's yours."

CUSUMANO: Being on set among actors who are already very much defined by being "Tarantino actors," like Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Samuel L. Jackson, did you feel like the newcomer among them?

BICHIR: I did right before I went in in May and met with everyone. That was the first time we had this table reading. I was curious to see how those big names would react. They don't really know anything about you. You had to show your own credentials, and it could be hard and intimidating if they weren't the way they are—these guys are so generous. They embrace you. Can you imagine saying 'Hi' to Sam Jackson and he goes and gives you a hug? It's like being hugged by a lion. They know that if you are there, it's because of a reason. They don't need any test; you are already there. And we're still this family that was created. It's like playing soccer with Barcelona, like being on the same field with all these big players. Instead of being afraid of playing with them, you bring the best of your game. It's encouraging. They invite you to play your best.



CUSUMANO: What do you do to prepare for a role?

BICHIR: You go through different processes. I think the first one is a deep state of fear. It always happens to me whenever I do a new project—I don't even want to touch it. I don't want to dive into it because I know that once I'm into it, there's not safety net. I go deep, all the way down. So there's this phase first where you have to deal with your own demons. You don't know what to do with a character. Then, of course, you need to know geographically where you are, what year you're playing, what's happening politically. Everything else is agreement between you and your director. I'm an actor who's accustomed to bringing a lot of stuff to the table, and you have to be ready because some of them will be accepted and some of them will be rejected. Then you need a generous, free, fearless, loving director like Tarantino to allow you to take those risks.



CUSUMANO: When you're directing your own movie, you have an additional layer of removing that safety net. You're both the lead actor and ultimately the last person accountable in a production. What was it like being the lead actor in your first directing project?

BICHIR: [laughs] It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. I've been doing this for more than 40 years and I pay attention. I open my eyes and my ears, and that's why I work. A lot of the things that I've learned in the past have been from dear friends. Rodriguez's favorite line is "Fácil!" Easy! He makes things easy. He doesn't complicate his life. He's obsessed with perfection, but he makes it easy, and that's pretty much the way I work as an actor. You will find complications, and when that happens, then you deal with it. Don't complicate whatever is not complicated.

CUSUMANO: Before Robert Rodriguez started telling you that you're such a Tarantino actor, was Tarantino on your list of directors you wanted to work with?

BICHIR: Not only in my list of directors that I wanted to work with, but on my list of directors who marked who I am as an actor. He's done many of the films that made me fall in love with this. I think I've seen them all. You, as an actor, are defined by those things too. I am defined also by Woody Allen's films and Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch and Julian Schnabel or Almodóvar, or by Guillermo del Toro, Iñárritu, Cuarón. Even if we haven't worked with them, we are all defined by their filmography. So Quentin was that way before I even dreamt of being a "Tarantino actor." When I saw Reservoir Dogs, Iwanted to dress like those guys. Jackie Brown is one of my favorite films. I love that people don't pay too much attention to Jackie Brown. Or, for example, Natural Born Killers—that's a Tarantino script. I think he should have directed that. He's an amazing filmmaker, but his stories, his scripts, they sing. They're like a symphony. They have this musicality, this rhythm. All you have to do is say the lines properly.

CUSUMANO: One of the things that I found really striking about it, and I think Tarantino does this very effectively in Django Unchained as well, is it talks about some really serious themes of politics and xenophobia—

BICHIR: —and racism.

CUSUMANO: In a really humorous way. Right. And it's coming out now, at a moment when American xenophobia is at a high once again, and it takes place in an era when that was also the case. What do you think the resonance is of that today?

BICHIR: A lot of people love Tarantino's films because they're spectacular, they're beautiful, they're wonderful. He hires the best group of artists—not only actors, but everyone around: best photographers, best set designers, best production designers, costume designers. A lot of people love his films because they're bloody, they're gory, they're savage. But very few people see that he's a very political director. The last two films, especially this, we're talking about the end of the Civil War. We're talking about things that we talk about now.

CUSUMANO: Right, 150 years later.

BICHIR: Very little things have changed. We're still discussing those things. That's what he does ingeniously. He's bringing to the screen issues and substance and matters that we all have to face and talk about and discuss. Even the immigration issue is there somehow, too. All of this has to do with the way you hate your neighbor because he's different. [Samuel L. Jackson's character] says, "Minnie used to have a sign here that said, 'No dogs or Mexicans allowed.' You know why she took it off? Because she started allowing dogs." Now you see all the xenophobia against Mexicans commanded by this moron Donald Trump. He's lying to the American people, but not only that—there are a lot of people who think the same way who have real power. We need to stop saying we don't want those guys here, but we need them. You have to make up your mind. You can't play this double morality type of game. Just not my gardener, not my maid, not my nanny, and not my cook—the rest of them, send them back. Send them back where? This is home, where you have your kids, where you have your house, everything that your life represents. So it's important that people like Tarantino talk about every single thing. We all have to raise our voice and talk about it.

CUSUMANO: What is next for you?

BICHIR: One of my dreams is to become sufficiently famous that I can play this charity match that happens every year or two with celebrities at Old Trafford, at the house of Manchester United. Sometimes I think I just want to be famous so they can call me to play that game. I've been submitting my name forever and every time they still don't think I can sell a ticket or two. I want to be a household name so they can invite me to play that fucking game before I become 80. I still can play!


THE HATEFUL EIGHT IS OUT NOW.

BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Daisy's a Force for the future - polite, genuinely curious, with a ready laugh

By BAZ BAMIGBOYE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 19:15 EST, 3 December 2015 | UPDATED: 06:32 EST, 4

Once upon a time, Daisy Ridley spent a Christmas working at a shopping mall, playing an elf. When she was upgraded - to a Princess! - she was over the moon. So imagine what she felt when she landed one of the top roles in the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

The 23-year-old London-born actress has pulled pints in pubs, worked in retail, appeared (hanging upside down) in a short film, travelled to Australia and New Zealand, and seems (apart from the upside-down film) to have both feet firmly planted on the ground. And she’s determined that the fantasy adventure epic that opens here on December 17 won’t change things.

To that end, Daisy said she’d received some helpful advice on how to stay real from an unexpected source. Emma Watson.

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Star Wars superstar: British actress Daisy Ridley
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Star Wars superstar: British actress Daisy Ridley

The pair went for a drink and some tortillas in Covent Garden recently, and Daisy asked Emma - who was just 11 when she was hurled into the public orbit when she made the first Harry Potter film - what to expect, and how to deal with it.

‘I asked her some stuff that I hadn’t been able to ask Harrison (Ford) and Carrie (Fisher),’ Daisy told me. ‘She said: “Be yourself!”’ We were out in Covent Garden, and it was so chill — and she was so sweet!’ Daisy said, of their meeting last month.

They talked about Emma’s work on the HeForShe equality campaign. ‘She’s doing amazing things,’ Daisy said. ‘And I am not.’

Well not yet, but give it time. Daisy believes eventually she will be able use the Force of Star Wars for good and ‘be able to have a voice’ — and to lend that voice to causes involving young women and self-esteem issues. ‘That’s something I’d really like to work with,’ she says.

But first things first. ‘I just really want to be an actress, and I don’t know if that’s a bad thing — just to be an actress. I would love to be able to do so many other things as well. But I’d love to have a great career as an actress.’

Soon after she started filming the movie for director J.J. Abrams, Daisy was signed up by a major Hollywood agency and taken on by the publicist who has guided Kate Winslet’s career for several years.

Often, when I meet newcomers who’ve become instant ‘names’ they’re insufferable. Cocky. Bad mannered. Daisy’s the complete opposite. She is polite; genuinely curious, with a ready laugh. I can’t vouch for her acting abilities, though I did watch a short film she made when she was in her teens. ‘Oh don’t!’ she cries. ‘You mean the one where I end up hanging upside down?’ She adds quickly: ‘I’m proud of everything I’ve done — but I was so young.’

She won the role of Rey in The Force Awakens after five auditions, and didn’t think for a minute she’d get the part.

She was at a performance of Oedipus Rex at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End and couldn’t tell the friend she was with why she had to miss most of the first act — because she was outside trying to return a call to from Abrams. She finally reached him and was elated when he told her the news.

‘I remember kicking this bottle. I could hear the traffic, and the play going on inside. You think time is going to stand still or something, but it doesn’t. Life just carries on. Obviously, something monumental had happened in my life, but no one else knew. It was weird. I saw the rest of the play, and then went home on the Tube.’

She told her parents and two of her sisters who were living at home. ‘It took a long time for it to settle in. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone.’

Not long after, she found herself seated between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. ‘J.J. introduced him to me as Harrison Ford and he said: “No, it’s Harrison.” I said: “Oh my God! My Mum loves you!’ and he was like: “Really?” And I realised it was something that made him feel older,’ she said.

Rey is a young woman who has spent her life scavenging on the rubbish dump planet of Jakku. Unwittingly, she is pulled into an adventure, along with a stormtrooper called Finn, played by John Boyega. (She described their onscreen friendship as ‘gorgeous and pure’.)

Daisy added that people have been reading too much into rumours about her background in the film. There is a twinkle in her eye as she swats away talk that she’s the secret love child of Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Rey, she says, has a ‘nice temperament’. But ‘she’s a young woman by herself, so of course she has to protect herself. So of course that would make someone feisty.’

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Daisy stars alongside movie veteran Harrison Ford in new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens
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New friends: Daisy's new pal Emma Watson (left) gave her advice on how to stay real over tortillas and drinks in Covent Garden

Emma Watson flashes her leg in daring thigh-split gown

She’s also lonely. ‘Imagine you’re left on your own at five! She has the people she works with on Jakku, but no one to share a meal with. She was incredibly lonely.’

Loneliness is not a problem for Daisy, who has two older half sisters from her photographer dad’s first marriage; and two sisters from his second. She’s the baby of the family.

She went to school locally in West London till she was nine, and then boarding school because ‘I was a little bit naughty’.

‘I was just like a real rough little tomboy. I was good in class, but the minute I finished my work I’d distract other people.’

Boarding school turned out to be a performing arts college in Tring, and she thrived, taking singing and dancing courses and furthering her violin lessons.

She did small roles on short films - not all of them upside down - and played a corpse on Casualty. And then there was that shopping mall gig. ‘I was promoted from an elf to a princess! We had to invent back stories,’ she laughed.

Now she’s got the Force behind her, there’ll be no stopping her.

‘Breaking Bad’s’ Aaron Paul Talks Faith, Religion and ‘The Path’

Aaron Paul the path

GREG LEWIS/HULU
JANUARY 9, 2016 | 10:02AM PT
TV Columnist

Maureen Ryan

TV Columnist@moryan

At a panel at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paultalked about why he speedily jumped back into the TV realm and the connection his new show, “The Path,” has to his past as the son of a Baptist preacher.

The Path

“I wasn’t really looking to jump back into TV this quickly, but my reps called and said, ‘You must read these first two episodes,’” Paul said. “I read them and I just could not ignore the material. It was just so gripping and so beautifully written and so well done.”


“The Path,” from executive producers Jessica Goldberg and Jason Katims, explores the lives of members of a fictional cult as they struggle with matters of belief, faith and power. Paul said that, as was the case with his “Big Love” character, he’s attracted to characters who struggle with big ideas about belief and redemption.

“I find religion sort of fascinating,” Paul said. “There’s an endless amount of religion out there, and everyone, as humans beings — people are just trying to find” answers to their deep questions. “My father was a very intense Southern Baptist minister. I had to read the Bible multiple times. I know the scripture. I am definitely drawn to that sort of story. I read this and I was just blown away my character. He is having some sort of doubt — in the pilot, he’s really searching for his questions to be answered, to find a truth.”

The Path

His family, despite their religious roots, supported him moving to Los Angeles at 17 to pursue acting, he noted. “I was surprised they let me go,” he said, but they were behind him all the way.

“They had faith,” suggested co-star Michelle Monaghan.

“Yes, they had faith!” Paul replied.

Goldberg noted that the religious group in the series, which premieres March 30 on Hulu, is not based on any existing religion or cult, but is a mixture of various belief systems. “I grew up in Woodstock, New York, where there are tons of seekers. It’s very crystal-y. I grew up interested in that.”

The Path

“We also call it ‘a movement,’” said Goldberg, who explained that members of the cult don’t use that word. “We try to think of the way the characters do. we wanted to invent my sort of ideal faith, and of course, with any faith, there’s a dark side too.”

The Path

There’s definitely a downside in the movement depicted in “The Path.” As cast member Hugh Dancy said, “I think it was Stephen Colbert who said, ‘If you’re wondering if you’re in a cult, you’re in a cult.’”

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #92 posted 01/09/16 9:05pm

JoeBala

How vinyl won CES 2016

VINYL

07 JANUARY 16

Panasonic's new SL1200 GAE turntable

WIRED
Michael Rundle

MICHAEL RUNDLE

Editor, Wired.co.uk

Strange as it may seem, both Panasonic and Sony made vinyl record players the centrepiece of their CES press conferences in Las Vegas this year.

The Technics SL1200-GA from Panasonic delighted fans of the legendary brand, on its 50th anniversary, with luxurious design and materials, and some seriously thoughtful innovation.

Meanwhile the stark-black Sony PS-HX500 took the headlines at their press conference, impressing with its ability to rip albums into Hi-Res Audio files. Technical scepticism about that Neil Young-backed standard aside, the concept will enable audiophiles to back up their collections and listen to them digitally, and bring new life to old classic records.

But those weren't the only record players to hit the CES show floor in 2016. Several new turntables from smaller players were announced at CES too, and arguably the coolest and most significant to the industry -- if not actually the best -- were stacked high, like sweets in a jar, at a quiet booth sat literally in the shadow of Sony in a distant corner of the Tech East hall.

Crosley Radio's stand at CES 2016

WIRED

A DECENT VINTAGE

WIRED

Crosley Radio shares the branding of an archaic American company, known -- according to its own press materials -- for making one of the first truly low cost radios, the $7 'Harko', back in 1920. In the late 1980s, the brand was awaken from dormancy, and reapplied to a range of 'vintage-inspired' products including radios and jukeboxes. But its fortunes exploded only much more recently, after its low-cost, portable suitcase-style colourful record players were picked up for sale in hipster retailer Urban Outfitters.

Why was that so significant? Because that seller of T-shirts and lip balm also happens to be, by at least their own estimation, and if you don't count Amazon, the number one physical r...yl records in the United States.

In the UK, even as vinyl record sales have increased, by up to 800 percent since 2009, actual record stores, barring a few unique holdouts like Rough Trade, have not returned to the high street en masse. Thereare more independent stores now than a few years ago -- at least 40 have opened i...ime period, as vinyl sales increased from £3.3m in 2009 to £25.9 million in 2014 -- but the big old chains like HMV have not been able to ride the wave back to prominence.

Meanwhile, twelve inch records are selling in bulk, at Urban Outfitters, right next to Crosley's players. So while reviewers -- professional and public -- might decry Crosley's cheap, entry-level equipment, their importance to the boom in vinyl sales, and the decision by Sony and Panasonic to capitalise on it, is apparent.

"These guys were the giants, back in the seventies," Crosley Brands CEO Bo Lemastus tells WIRED, after the Sony and Panasonic announcements. Crosley has been attending CES for 32 years, but have not seen the sort of excitement about vinyl at the show for decades, he added. "When vinyl died, it died hard. The fact that they're back just shows you how broad this thing is. We started chasing it 20 years ago, and now it's reached a tipping point where vinyl is totally mainstream."

DON'T MISS
This factory is leading London's vinyl revival
This factory is leading London's vinyl revival

The Urban Outfitters deal was "massive" for the company, Lemastus tells WIRED, claiming that sales of its players -- he would not give exact figures -- have increased by ten times over the last decade. "What they have done for the industry is huge," he said. Crosley's core product is still its cheaper (£70-£80) players, but Lemastus said it is now exploring a 'Tech Series' for those who want to upgrade.

That ambition aside, it is true that Crosley's players sound, to be blunt, poor. In WIRED's experience, the sound quality of a vinyl album on a Crosley player is barely better than playing an MP3 though a decent smartphone's speaker. But that assumption that vinyl sales are about a 'return' to people caring about sound quality might itself be a mistake. Buyers of records, particularly younger fans, seem to care equally about the artwork, and the physical artifact of a record, as how it sounds.

"The $99 player is limited in terms of the fidelity you're going to get out of it," Lemastus admits. But people buy them because the physicality of a record, the artwork and the ritual of playing a disc all still matter.

"For me it's still about the romance of dropping that needle," Lemastus said. "There is a lot of romance there."

The Panasonic SL-1200 GAE

Panasonic

THE NEXT STEP

WIRED

For Panasonic, whose new SL-1200 turntables will cost roughly 40 times that of a Crosley player, the technology and intended customer is clearly very different, at every level, to Crosley's.

The new Technics hardware announced at CES is a four-layer, magnesium tone arm, direct drive beast, not a plastic toy. And yet the motivation behind it is the same, UK MD Andrew Denham tells WIRED -- people just love records in general, and the Technics brand in particular. They are riding the same wave of excitement, but doing it in about as different a manner as is possible.

DON'T MISS
Panasonic's reborn turntable celebrates the triumph of vinyl
Panasonic's reborn turntable celebrates the triumph of vinyl

"Our engineers haven't compromised, they have re-engineered every element of what Panasonic's legendary turntable series] 1210 is," Denham said. "The SL1210 was iconic, the most influential turntable in history. It's return is helping to create a buzz around Technics, and rediscovering music in a digital environment. It's creating a love of music."

For Panasonic, the sort of (probably young) person buying a Crosley is -- perhaps -- a potential customer, one day, for a much more expensive, but much better product.

"The aim is they aspire to own a Technics 1200," he said. "There are different tiers, it's a market, but it's great that the whole culture has come back around to what vinyl delivers."

Sony's new HX500 'HiRes Audio' turntable

WIRED

WHERE DOES VINYL FIT?

Vinyl as an industry is still small, and growing slowly, compared to the potential of streaming services, and the financial scale of digital music as a whole. As a platform, a record on a turntable barely registers against the domination of the smartphone. But the two worlds aren't necessarily doomed to be separate.

Sony's HX500 player specifically aims at bridging the gap between digital music and vinyl.

With the ability to rip vinyl records to High-Res standards -- even if those standards remain somewhat mythical -- it at least connects the turntable into the digital ecosystem. Cheaper vinyl-to-USB systems are available already, but Sony wants to find a harmony between the concern for quality of a high-end turntable customer, with the convenience of a digital ecosystem. The result, in person, is a player that looks as classic and stark as the best turntables around, but which has a place in a digital world.

"Sony is dedicated to providing audiophiles and music enthusiasts alike with a wide range of hi-res audio solutions that can meet virtually every lifestyle need," said Yamato Tanikawa, from Sony Electronics. "[The HX500] is an important bridge that connects the growing number of vinyl record collectors to the convenience and sound quality afforded by hi-res audio."

Which of these answers for the vinyl conundrum -- the high end, the low end, and the digital-analogue bridge -- will win in the end is unclear. And no, CES 2016 did not resolve if vinyl will grow beyond its niche. But there is excitement in the tech world about these ancient, round discs of resin -- and there is money, too.

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Reply #93 posted 01/10/16 8:26pm

JoeBala

We're top of the crops! Red hot Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson and Kate Hudson flash abs as they lead glamour at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards

By IONA KIRBY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 17:48 EST, 10 January 2016 | UPDATED: 22:59 EST, 10

The biggest names in film and television joined forces on Sunday for the 2016 Golden Globe Awards - one of the biggest nights on the A-list calendar.

Hollywood's best and brightest descended upon the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, and were dressed to the nines for the star-studded occasion.

One of the most popular looks for the evening was stomach-baring dresses, which were modelled by the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson and Kate Hudson.

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Abs-olutely stunning: (L-R) Best Actress nominees Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson and presenter Kate Hudson showed some stomach in cut-out gowns at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday
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Abs-olutely stunning: (L-R) Best Actress nominees Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson and presenter Kate Hudson showed some stomach in cut-out gowns at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday
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Abs-olutely stunning: (L-R) Best Actress nominees Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson and presenter Kate Hudson showed some stomach in cut-out gowns at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday
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Abs-olutely stunning: (L-R) Best Actress nominees Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson and presenter Kate Hudson showed some stomach in cut-out gowns at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday

Jennifer, who won her third Golden Globe in the form of Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Joy, wore another winning number by Dior, in the form of a layered scarlet frock with cut-away sides.

She paired the dress with a statement silver choker necklace and deep red lipstick, and slicked her platinum blonde locks into a sleek updo.

Room star Brie - who took home Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama - revealed her taut stomach in a dazzling halter-neck Calvin Klein Collection gown with sexy cut-out sections.

Another winning look: Jennifer looked beautiful in her scarlet Dior dress, paired with matching lipstick and a silver choker necklace
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Another winning look: Jennifer looked beautiful in her scarlet Dior dress, paired with matching lipstick and a silver choker necklace
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Another winning look: Jennifer looked beautiful in her scarlet Dior dress, paired with matching lipstick and a silver choker necklace

Look red hot like Jennifer Lawrence in a floor-sweeping frock

You can always count on Jennifer Lawrence to shut down the red carpet, and the 2016 Golden Globes was no exception. Jennifer stole the show in her stunning floor-sweeping red Dior dress (because, what else?). Her statement Chopard necklace added grandeur without pretension.

Striking in its simplicity, we love the clean lines of the frock and how the cut-out sides confidently allude to skin. It's strong yet sexy, so J-Law.


Joy-ful: The Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy winner was feeling cheerful as she posed for photos
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Joy-ful: The Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy winner was feeling cheerful as she posed for photos
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Joy-ful: The Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy winner was feeling cheerful as she posed for photos
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Joy-ful: The Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy winner was feeling cheerful as she posed for photos

Hi everyone!: The 25-year-old gave a friendly wave to her fans as she strutted along in metallic heels
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Hi everyone!: The 25-year-old gave a friendly wave to her fans as she strutted along in metallic heels
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Hi everyone!: The 25-year-old gave a friendly wave to her fans as she strutted along in metallic heels

She's definitely not shy: Kate Hudson left little to the imagination in her glittering pink gown with cut-out stomach
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She's definitely not shy: Kate Hudson left little to the imagination in her glittering pink gown with cut-out stomach
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She's definitely not shy: Kate Hudson left little to the imagination in her glittering pink gown with cut-out stomach
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She's definitely not shy: Kate Hudson left little to the imagination in her glittering pink gown with cut-out stomach

Shining star: Room star Brie revealed her taut stomach in a dazzling halter-neck Calvin Klein Collection gown with sexy cut-out sections
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Shining star: Room star Brie revealed her taut stomach in a dazzling halter-neck Calvin Klein Collection gown with sexy cut-out sections
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Shining star: Room star Brie revealed her taut stomach in a dazzling halter-neck Calvin Klein Collection gown with sexy cut-out sections

Jennifer Lawrence arrives in red gown at the 2016 Golden Globes

And while Kate is not nominated at the ceremony, the presenter still made sure to turn heads in a glittering pink gown with a completely cut-out stomach, leaving her impressive abs firmly on display.

Cate Blanchett is no stranger to the Golden Globes red carpet, and it certainly showed as she wowed in a fringed pink number which looked straight out of the 1920s.

The 46-year-old, who was nominated for Carol, showed off the tassels on the backless frock as she twirled for the cameras.

Vintage vixen: Cate Blanchett showed off the fringing on her pink 1920s style dress as she walked the red carpet
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Vintage vixen: Cate Blanchett showed off the fringing on her pink 1920s style dress as she walked the red carpet
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Vintage vixen: Cate Blanchett showed off the fringing on her pink 1920s style dress as she walked the red carpet
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Vintage vixen: Cate Blanchett showed off the fringing on her pink 1920s style dress as she walked the red carpet

Showing off her unique style: Rooney Mara, who is competing against her Carol co-star Cate, went for an unusual look in a pale pink frock and dramatic make-up
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Showing off her unique style: Rooney Mara, who is competing against her Carol co-star Cate, went for an unusual look in a pale pink frock and dramatic make-up
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Showing off her unique style: Rooney Mara, who is competing against her Carol co-star Cate, went for an unusual look in a pale pink frock and dramatic make-up

One to watch: Brie's fellow Best Actress nominee Alicia Vikander was a beautiful sight in a frilly white dress
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One to watch: Brie's fellow Best Actress nominee Alicia Vikander was a beautiful sight in a frilly white dress
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One to watch: Brie's fellow Best Actress nominee Alicia Vikander was a beautiful sight in a frilly white dress
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One to watch: Brie's fellow Best Actress nominee Alicia Vikander was a beautiful sight in a frilly white dress by Louis Vuitton

Anything goes: While Amy Schumer (L) picked a structured black and white gown, Saoirse Roan looked like a Grecian goddess
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Anything goes: While Amy Schumer (L) picked a structured black and white gown, Saoirse Roan looked like a Grecian goddess
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Anything goes: While Amy Schumer (L) picked a structured black and white gown, Saoirse Roan looked like a Grecian goddess

A look fit for a winner: Kate Winslet, who was named Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Steve Jobs, looked brilliant in blue
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A look fit for a winner: Kate Winslet, who was named Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Steve Jobs, looked brilliant in blue
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A look fit for a winner: Kate Winslet, who was named Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Steve Jobs, looked brilliant in blue

Her Carol co-star Rooney Mara - who she competed against, with the pair both losing to Brie - showed off her unique style in a blush-coloured silk dress teamed with dramatic make-up.

Meanwhile Alicia Vikander, who was nominated for The Danish Girl, wore a frilly and pleated white dress by Louis Vuitton, which nipped in at her tiny waist and revealed a hint of sideboob.

Saoirse Ronan, 21, who was also up in the Best Actress In A Drama category for Brooklyn, looked like a Grecian goddess in her floaty white Yves Saint Laurent gown with low-cut neckline.

A ray of sunshine: Jennifer Lopez wore a form-fitting yellow gown with a saucy slit up one side, paired with dazzling shoes and jewellery
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A ray of sunshine: Jennifer Lopez wore a form-fitting yellow gown with a saucy slit up one side, paired with dazzling shoes and jewellery

Ravishing redheads: Julianne Moore (L) went for all-out bling in a sequined blue frock, while Amy Adams opted for a tangerine dress with just a little embellishment
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Ravishing redheads: Julianne Moore (L) went for all-out bling in a sequined blue frock, while Amy Adams opted for a tangerine dress with just a little embellishment
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Ravishing redheads: Julianne Moore (L) went for all-out bling in a sequined blue frock, while Amy Adams opted for a tangerine dress with just a little embellishment

Once upon a time: Amber Heard wore a fairytale inspired gown which flowed as she walked the red carpet
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Once upon a time: Amber Heard wore a fairytale inspired gown which flowed as she walked the red carpet
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Once upon a time: Amber Heard wore a fairytale inspired gown which flowed as she walked the red carpet
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Once upon a time: Amber Heard wore a fairytale inspired gown which flowed as she walked the red carpet

Preparations underway for the 2016 Golden Globe Awards
Hello Hollywood: Olivia Wilde (L) and Kate Bosworth didn't hold back when it came to their dazzling looks
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Hello Hollywood: Olivia Wilde (L) and Kate Bosworth didn't hold back when it came to their dazzling looks
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Hello Hollywood: Olivia Wilde (L) and Kate Bosworth didn't hold back when it came to their dazzling looks

'I got my wig out and my Globes': Katy Perry joked about her impressive cleavage and big hair as she posed in a revealing pink dress
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'I got my wig out and my Globes': Katy Perry joked about her impressive cleavage and big hair as she posed in a revealing pink dress
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'I got my wig out and my Globes': Katy Perry joked about her impressive cleavage and big hair as she posed in a revealing pink dress
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'I got my wig out and my Globes': Katy Perry joked about her impressive cleavage and big hair as she posed in a revealing pink dress

There were plenty of sexy looks at the bash, with Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture made for Television winner Lady Gaga looking like Marilyn Monroe in an off-the-shoulder black velvet gown which revealed a lot of cleavage.

Katy Perry joked about her 'Globes' as she channelled her inner pin-up girl in a low-cut pink dress with bow detail at the back.

Meanwhile Jennifer Lopez stuck out her leg Angelina Jolie-style in a striking yellow dress that was long on one side and slit to the thigh on the other.

Some like it hot: Lady Gaga was channelling her inner Marilyn Monroe in a sexy black velvet gown
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Some like it hot: Lady Gaga was channelling her inner Marilyn Monroe in a sexy black velvet gown
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Some like it hot: Lady Gaga was channelling her inner Marilyn Monroe in a sexy black velvet gown

So in love: Gaga and her actor fiance Taylor Kinney couldn't resist sharing a smooch as they posed together
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So in love: Gaga and her actor fiance Taylor Kinney couldn't resist sharing a smooch as they posed together

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #94 posted 01/10/16 9:51pm

JoeBala

With his girls: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture winner Sylvester Stallone was joined by wife Jennifer Flavin and their teenage daughters (from left) Sistine, Scarlet and Sophia
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With his girls: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture winner Sylvester Stallone was joined by wife Jennifer Flavin and their teenage daughters (from left) Sistine, Scarlet and Sophia

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Lighting up the red carpet: (L-R) Melissa McCarthy, Viola Davis and Jenna Dewan-Tatum were shining bright in their ensembles
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Lighting up the red carpet: (L-R) Melissa McCarthy, Viola Davis and Jenna Dewan-Tatum were shining bright in their ensembles
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Lighting up the red carpet: (L-R) Melissa McCarthy, Viola Davis and Jenna Dewan-Tatum were shining bright in their ensembles
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Lighting up the red carpet: (L-R) Melissa McCarthy, Viola Davis and Jenna Dewan-Tatum were shining bright in their ensembles

Dynamic duos: Christian Bale was joined by wife Sibi Blazic (L), while Matt Damon brought along his wife Luciana Barroso
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Dynamic duos: Christian Bale was joined by wife Sibi Blazic (L), while Matt Damon brought along his wife Luciana Barroso
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Dynamic duos: Christian Bale was joined by wife Sibi Blazic (L), while Matt Damon brought along his wife Luciana Barroso

And Kirsten Dunst, who lost out in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture made for Television category to Lady Gaga, risked a wardrobe malfunction in her extreme plunging black Valentino gown.

Kate Winslet, who was named Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Steve Jobs, looked brilliant in a blue halter-neck dress that highlighted her curves.

Playing it safe was Amy Schumer, who was nominated in the comedy category but lost to her best friend Jennifer Lawrence. The Trainwreck star wore an off-the-shoulder frock which had a white top and full black skirt.

Prints charming: Maggie Gyllenhaal (L) and Rachel McAdams looked fabulous in their patterned gowns
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Prints charming: Maggie Gyllenhaal (L) and Rachel McAdams looked fabulous in their patterned gowns
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Prints charming: Maggie Gyllenhaal (L) and Rachel McAdams looked fabulous in their patterned gowns

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He's not going Solo: Handsome Harrison Ford was joined by his gorgeous wife Calista Flockhart

Confident: Fargo star and nominee Kirsten Dunst flashed the flesh in a plunging black dress by Valentino
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Confident: Fargo star and nominee Kirsten Dunst flashed the flesh in a plunging black dress by Valentino
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Confident: Fargo star and nominee Kirsten Dunst flashed the flesh in a plunging black dress by Valentino
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Confident: Fargo star and nominee Kirsten Dunst flashed the flesh in a plunging black dress by Valentino

Drama queen: Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez certainly made an entrance in her off-the-shoulder midnight blue gown
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Drama queen: Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez certainly made an entrance in her off-the-shoulder midnight blue gown
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Drama queen: Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez certainly made an entrance in her off-the-shoulder midnight blue gown

Gina Rodriguez wears midnight blue gown to 2016 Golden Globes
She's her mother's daughter: Jamie Lee Curtis was joined by her daughter Annie, who showed off silver hair like the actress's
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She's her mother's daughter: Jamie Lee Curtis was joined by her daughter Annie, who showed off silver hair like the actress's

Helen Mirren looked far younger than her 70 years in a classic black gown, while Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama winner Taraji P. Henson looked wonderful in a strapless white gown with long train.

Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez, who lost out on Best Actress In A Television Series Musical Or Comedy to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom, picked an off-the-shoulder midnight blue gown with princess style skirt.

Presenters Jaimie Alexander and Sophia Bush made sure they got noticed in sexy low-cut gowns.

Jaimie was feeling daring and picked a shimmering green dress with a neckline that plunged almost all the way to her belly button, while Sophia kept things slightly more reserved in a slinky black frock.

How does she do it?: As always, Helen Mirren looked far younger than her 70 years in a fitted black gown
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How does she do it?: As always, Helen Mirren looked far younger than her 70 years in a fitted black gown
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How does she do it?: As always, Helen Mirren looked far younger than her 70 years in a fitted black gown

The man of the hour: Ricky Gervais, pictured with wife Jane Fallon, was back as host for the fourth time
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The man of the hour: Ricky Gervais, pictured with wife Jane Fallon, was back as host for the fourth time

What do you think?: Empire star and nominee Taraji P. Henson showed off her beautiful strapless white creation
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What do you think?: Empire star and nominee Taraji P. Henson showed off her beautiful strapless white creation

British beauties: Game Of Thrones stars Emilia Clarke (L) and Natalie Dormer showcased their chic styles at the ceremony
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British beauties: Game Of Thrones stars Emilia Clarke (L) and Natalie Dormer showcased their chic styles at the ceremony

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TV's finest: Representing Orange Is The New Black were (L-R) Taylor Schilling, Laverne Cox and Uzo Aduba
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TV's finest: Representing Orange Is The New Black were (L-R) Taylor Schilling, Laverne Cox and Uzo Aduba
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TV's finest: Representing Orange Is The New Black were (L-R) Taylor Schilling, Laverne Cox and Uzo Aduba

While Blindspot star Jaimie, 31, sported smoky eye make-up and pale pink lipstick, Chicago P.D. star Sophia, 33, took a different approach with bold red lips and subtle eyeshadow.

Among the first to arrive was Maria Menounos, who kept things simple but stylish in a pretty white fishtail gown.

The 37-year-old flashed some cleavage in the slinky frock, which clung to her slim but curvy figure in all the right places.

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  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #95 posted 01/10/16 10:05pm

JoeBala
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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golden globe, golden globe awards, golden globe 2016
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Delicate detail: Eva Longoria (L) and Melissa Benoist wore white frocks with floral prints and embroidery as they made their arrivals

All eyes on her: Photographers were clicking away as Eva posed up a storm on the red carpet
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All eyes on her: Photographers were clicking away as Eva posed up a storm on the red carpet

Heavenly Eva Longoria stuns in white at 2016 Golden Globes
Golden girls: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Eva Green shimmered in the spotlight thanks to delicate gold gowns
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Golden girls: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Eva Green shimmered in the spotlight thanks to delicate gold gowns

Bright and beautiful: (L-R) Emmy Rossum, America Ferrera and Joanne Froggatt went for colourful creations
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Bright and beautiful: (L-R) Emmy Rossum, America Ferrera and Joanne Froggatt went for colourful creations
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Bright and beautiful: (L-R) Emmy Rossum, America Ferrera and Joanne Froggatt went for colourful creations

Maria styled her long caramel locks in an unusual braided ponytail and finished off her glam look with nude lip gloss and dramatic smoky eye make-up.

Meanwhile Giuliana Rancic, who was providing red carpet coverage for E!.

The 41-year-old showcased her stomach in a daring tangerine cut out dress with dramatic sleeves, and also sported matching lipstick.

Coordinated: Grace And Frankie stars Jane Fonda (L) and Lily Tomlin both matched their clutch bags to their head-turning gowns
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Coordinated: Grace And Frankie stars Jane Fonda (L) and Lily Tomlin both matched their clutch bags to their head-turning gowns
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Coordinated: Grace And Frankie stars Jane Fonda (L) and Lily Tomlin both matched their clutch bags to their head-turning gowns

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Handsome hopefuls: (L-R) Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Redmayne and Michael Fassbender are competing for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama
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Handsome hopefuls: (L-R) Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Redmayne and Michael Fassbender are competing for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama
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Handsome hopefuls: (L-R) Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Redmayne and Michael Fassbender are competing for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama
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Handsome hopefuls: (L-R) Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Redmayne and Michael Fassbender are competing for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama

Supportive: Bryan Cranston (L) and Will Smith, who were joined by their respective wives Robin Dearden and Jada Pinkett Smith, will also compete in the Best Actor in a Drama category
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Supportive: Bryan Cranston (L) and Will Smith, who were joined by their respective wives Robin Dearden and Jada Pinkett Smith, will also compete in the Best Actor in a Drama category

Like a living doll: Malin Akerman was reminiscent of Barbie in her shimmering prom style dress
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Like a living doll: Malin Akerman was reminiscent of Barbie in her shimmering prom style dress

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Bringing the glamour: Presenters Jaimie Alexander and Sophia Bush wowed on the red carpet
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Bringing the glamour: Presenters Jaimie Alexander and Sophia Bush wowed on the red carpet

Jaimie Alexander stuns in emerald at 2016 Golden Globes
Sophia Bush in a classic back gown at the 2016 Golden Globes

Giuliana, who revealed her very slender frame in the frock, teamed it with gold Manolo Blahnik sandals.

Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx's daughter Corinne had the honour of being this year's Miss Golden Globe.

The 20 year-old senior at the University of Southern California joins a long line of famous offspring bestowed the honour.

A true Disney princess: Shake It Up star Zendaya Coleman turned heads in a tired red lace creation
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A true Disney princess: Shake It Up star Zendaya Coleman turned heads in a tired red lace creation

First to arrive: Maria Menounos and Giuliana Rancic led the arrivals at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
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First to arrive: Maria Menounos and Giuliana Rancic led the arrivals at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
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First to arrive: Maria Menounos and Giuliana Rancic led the arrivals at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel

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Ooh la la: Maria flashed some cleavage in a slinky white frock, which clung to her slim but curvy figure in all the right places
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Ooh la la: Maria flashed some cleavage in a slinky white frock, which clung to her slim but curvy figure in all the right places
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Ooh la la: Maria flashed some cleavage in a slinky white frock, which clung to her slim but curvy figure in all the right places

Capturing the moment: Nominee Alan Cumming snapped a picture of photographers before heading inside for the ceremony
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Capturing the moment: Nominee Alan Cumming snapped a picture of photographers before heading inside for the ceremony

Highlights of the best 2016 Golden Globes nominations

Previous honorees include Bruce Willis's daughter Rumer; Kelsey Grammer's daughter Greer; Kevin Bacon's daughter Sosie;

Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca; Bruce Dern's daughter Laura; and Tippi Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffin.

British comedian Ricky Gervais returned as host, taking over duties from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It is his fourth time hosting the ceremony.

The Golden Globe Awards are bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and recognises excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign.

Dressed to impress: (L-R) Carly Steel (wearing J Mendel), Keltie Knight and Liz Hernandez showed off their hourglass figures in flowing gowns
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Dressed to impress: (L-R) Carly Steel (wearing J Mendel), Keltie Knight and Liz Hernandez showed off their hourglass figures in flowing gowns
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Dressed to impress: (L-R) Carly Steel (wearing J Mendel), Keltie Knight and Liz Hernandez showed off their hourglass figures in flowing gowns
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Dressed to impress: (L-R) Carly Steel (wearing J Mendel), Keltie Knight and Liz Hernandez showed off their hourglass figures in flowing gowns

High security: Sniffer dogs were seen checking out the red carpet before the stars arrived
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High security: Sniffer dogs were seen checking out the red carpet before the stars arrived

And The Winners Are...

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Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #96 posted 01/10/16 10:49pm

JoeBala

REGINA KING'S PRIMETIME

By EMMA BROWN
Photography FRANK SUN

Published 11/13/15

REGINA KING IN NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 2015. PHOTO: FRANK SUN. HAIR: YVETTE SHELTON. MAKEUP: OSLYN HOLDER. WARDROBE: TREVIAN KUTTI.


On October 14, 2014, two percent of the world's population disappeared instantaneously. No gender, ethnicity, age, or nationality was spared; killers, rapists, and philanderers vanished alongside children and the Pope. The best explanation is some sort of biblical rapture—though few agree on which higher power was responsible.

This is the premise of HBO's drama The Leftovers, which is currently mid-way through its second season. Based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta and helmed by Perrotta and Lost's Damon Lindelof, The Leftovers exhausted its original source material at the end of the last season. It was difficult to know what to expect from Season Two: The show's two main antagonists—the leader of the local chapter of the Guilty Remnant cult Patti Levin (Ann Dowd) and the self-proclaimed messiah Holy Wayne (Paterson Joseph)—had both been killed; the prodigal son (Chris Zylka) had returned; and it seemed like things might just work out between protagonist Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) and his semi-girlfriend Nora Durst (Carrie Coon).

Fortunately, the second season is perhaps stronger than the first. Nora, Kevin, Kevin's daughter Jill (Margaret Qualley), and Nora's brother Matt (Christopher Eccleston) have left Mapleton, New York and its residents behind for Jarden, Texas. Their new hometown is a peculiar one; of the town's 9,261 residents on October 14, 2014, not a single one disappeared. It is the only known settlement with a population of over 5,000 to have survived "the departure." Now it is known as "Miracle, Texas," a state park enclosed by chain link fences and thousands of pilgrims camping outside the gates. The residents of Jarden have mixed feelings about their miracle. Even within the Murphy family, Kevin and Nora's new next-door neighbors, there is a divide. Son Michael prays furtively ever day and father John takes it upon himself to physically punish any resident he feels is exploiting the town's reputation—through religion or other means. The most mysterious of the Murphy's is perhaps mother Erika. Played by Regina King, we know that Erika is deaf, a doctor, and that, for some reason, she puts up with her husband's vigilante actions wordlessly and will occasionally sneak off to the woods to check on a series of birds she has buried in a box. In last week's episode, however, some of Erika's thoughts were finally revealed.

2015 has been a rather momentuous year for King. The Southern California native won an Emmy for her role in John Ridley's American Crime and directed several primetime television episodes, including an episode of Shona Rhimes's Scandal. Now 44, King began her career on the television series 227 (her first-ever professional audition) in the mid-1980s before moving on to films like Boyz n the Hood (1991), Friday (1996), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Ray (2004). From 2009 to 2013, she starred as a detective on the drama Southland, a role she found particularly difficult to leave behind "because it was such an amazing experience and we didn't want it to end." In addition to The Leftovers and the second season of American Crime, King is also directing episodes of Shonda Rhimes's new showThe Catch and Oprah Winfrey's series with Lionsgate.


EMMA BROWN: How did you get involved in The Leftovers?

REGINA KING: They reached out to me to check my interest in wanting to join Season Two. They sent me the script for the first episode, and I thought the script was amazing and I felt like it had potential to live on it's own, even without the first season. I was also a really huge fan of Damon's.

BROWN: Had you been watching the first season?

KING: I had not been watching the first season. I watched Lost. They told me that if I was interested after reading the script, that I would have a sit down with Damon and Tom. I just was anxious to hear about what they had in store for Season Two because they let me know that Season One was pretty much the book from beginning to end. I wanted to see what their ideas were for life after. I already had an idea from reading the script; I wanted to know where they wanted to go.

BROWN: Did they give you Erika's entire arc?

KING: No. They told me was that Erika is definitely the matriarch of her family and she's going to have a wild ride, like all the characters in the previous season. That was exciting to me.

BROWN: Did you learn anything about Erika or her past that shocked you as the season went on?

KING: Have you seen [episode] 206? There were things that I read that kind of shocked me—finding out that I was planning on leaving my family was pretty shocking.

BROWN: How do you deal with something like that—an anecdote or experience that you hadn't worked into your idea of the character? Does it upset you?

KING: Initially it's kind of upsetting: "No. The creators got this wrong. This character wouldn't do that. I didn't see that coming." But you have to realize that it is a character and you have to walk away from it for a bit and come back and approach it as an actor. In this particular circumstance I was like, this is an opportunity to explore a woman that I know exists. The few instances I've heard of women leaving their families, I'm always like, "How can a mother do that?" So I got the opportunity to explore a person who I've always questioned their intentions.

BROWN: Do you feel more empathy towards those people now?

KING: Absolutely I do. I still don't know how that could happen, but I can only imagine that it must be a heartbreaking choice to make and operating from a place of heartbreak is something that we've all felt. Whether it's from losing a loved one, from breaking up in relationship, we've all experienced heartbreak.

BROWN: Do you always create a backstory for your character? Or does it depend on how much background they give you?

KING: I create my own backstory regardless of if I'm told something about the background or not. There's always more that you can develop in your head that makes a character more layered, more honest. It may not ever be information that's said, but I think it informs my performance if I've created a previous experience for that character. Then I can work inside the boundaries of Erika Murphy, or whoever the character is. It's fun to create somebody that's not you, that doesn't exist.

BROWN: You've started directing recently as well. When did you first become interested in directing?

KING: Probably 12 or 13 years ago, as far as realizing that it's something I might be interested in doing. I started actually directing about five years ago.

BROWN: What made you wait seven years?

KING: Two things. I recognize the amount of time that it takes as a director. I made the choice to stop taking roles outside of L.A. because I didn't want to miss any of my child's life. I knew that if I tried to embark on a career as a director, I might as well have continued to take roles outside of the city. It just wasn't time to do that yet. Also the fear that I would be regarded as a person that's only doing this because of vanity, not because it's an opportunity for me to exercise another muscle or express my creativity in another way.

BROWN: How did you get involved with directing episodes of Scandal?

KING: I actually applied for the ABC directing program, got in, and shadowed on shows. I shadowed on Private Practice and met Shonda [Rhimes]. Mark Tinker onPrivate Practice introduced me to Tom Verica, who's the producing director onScandal, we had a really good conversation and he brought me back to shadow him and he kind of put his stamp on thinking that I could do it. Shonda had already been a cheerleader.

BROWN: Do you feel like winning an Emmy has changed things for you?

KING: It still remains to be seen. There are more incoming calls, but I've always been selective about materials I choose anyways. The incoming calls haven't been projects that I necessarily want to do. Now I can always be called "Emmy winner Regina King." I think that in this business, it must mean something. Every times someone has won an award and they're announcing them or speaking about them, that prefaces their name.

BROWN: When you first signed onto American Crime, did you know they wanted to do a second season and make it an anthology series?

KING: No. I think they were waiting to find out if ABC was going to pick it up again. I'm sure there were some ideas of what he would do if there was a season two, but the conversations didn't start about that until it got picked up. I knew that if it was picked up, it would be a totally different setting and they would bring back some of the same actors.

BROWN: John Ridley must have written your Season Two part with you in mind—can you tell? Does it feel different?

KING: It feels different because of the setting. The work ethic is the same, but the setting and who we are—the characters that we're playing—it's very different.

BROWN: John Ridley seems like a lovely person.

KING: He really is. He's able to set a really professional tone on set and he inspires you to want to be better because he's just so good. He does it without using the iron fist; he does it in a truly elegant way.

BROWN: Do you ever go back and watch your past performances?

KING: No. I'm one of those people where if I go back and look at it, I'm going to feel like, "I wish I would have..." I need to just leave it on the floor. What's done is done. We play different people—our art form is performance art—so unless you're playing the same type of person, I don't know if you could improve or make it worse. Unless it's theater, that's a little different.


SEASON TWO OF THE LEFTOVERS AIRS SUNDAYS ON HBO.

DISCOVERY: EKA DARVILLE

By EMMA BROWN
Photography VICTORIA STEVENS

Published 11/30/15

EKA DARVILLE IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 2015. PHOTOS: VICTORIA STEVENS. STYLING: DAVID CASAVANT. GROOMING: HIKARI TEZUKA FOR HONEY ARTISTS USING HOT TOOLS.


When it comes to his new Netflix show Jessica Jones, Australian actor Eka Darville is excited: "It's really good," he says after his shoot in Brooklyn, New York. "It was a real surprise when I watched the first two episodes. You're only there for such short pockets of time, and I know what I'm doing, but I don't know what Carrie-Anne Moss is doing because I'm not working with her that much," he continues. "I'm a musician, so the sound design is 60-percent of a film for me. Then there are those intimate moments that Krysten Ritter has with the audience where she really let's them into her vulnerability."

On the show, which premiered earlier this month, Darville plays Malcolm, a heroin addict and one of Jones' neighbors. At first, it seems that Malcolm's main purpose is to highlight Jones' softer side (she is generally nice to him, and shows remorse when she isn't). By Episode Four, however, it becomes clear that Malcolm is going to be a significant character.

Now 26, Darville began his career shortly after high school on the teen soap Blue Water High and spent a year on a reboot of the children's show Power Rangers. He quickly graduated to Australian-based American productions such as Starz'sSpartacus and the Steven Spielberg-produced Terra Nova. After an initial "spiritual pilgrimage" to Arizona in 2011, he relocated to the U.S. for a pilot that was never picked up, instead finding steady work on The Originals. "Since then it's been snowballing. Since I moved, I've met my woman and we've had a baby. It's been a crazy journey," he tells us. If he seems familiar, it is probably from his arc on Empire earlier this year. "Because of the way I look, I've always been highly noticeable," he says. "But the month my Empire episodes were airing was kind of insane—cars stopping just in the middle of the road and people jumping out to try and get a photo with you and holding up traffic."


NAME: Eka Darville

AGE: 26

HOMETOWN: Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

FAMILY HISTORY: My mum is Canadian and also half Jamaican. She moved and lived all over the world. She was studying marine biology and ended up in Australia. Is she a marine biologist? No. She's many things, but that's not one of them. Right now she's in the Grand Pyramid in Egypt playing didgeridoo and a limba and praying for peace on the planet. Last week she was in Ibiza, and the week before that she was teaching at a tantra retreat in Estonia. My biological father is a pretty well-known reggae artist [Ray Darwin] and my dad that I grew up with is a musician as well—he's a drummer and makes African drums.

INTRODUCTION TO ACTING: Acting, for me, is part of all of the ways that I creatively express [myself]. I've been making music my whole life, I've been dancing my whole life, I've been acting my whole life, and all of them fade into each other in different ways. I first found a passion for acting in high school. I had a very formative drama teacher there; he saw something in me and tried to really foster that. I got into Victorian College of the Arts, which is, next to NIDA [National Institute of Dramatic Arts], the most prestigious place to study drama in Australia. But I also got offered a role on Blue Water High at exactly the same time. I was like, "A HECs [government loan] debt to study it, or just get paid to do it?" It was an easy choice. I had a moment when that decision was in the air and somebody from the industry, a director, came up to me and said, "Whatever you do, don't study, just start doing it." I asked him why, and he said, "You don't need to do that, you'll just learn as you go." It was something that he saw about what I was doing. I've worked with a lot of people coming straight out of drama school and they have some pretty skewed ideas about what the industry is and what it actually entails—they're purists, in a sense. It can be really hard to actually work with them because there's this expectation of it to be about the scene prep and stuff, whereas when you're on it, it's not. It's about everyone being an autonomous individual that knows their shit and can turn up and just do it. You've got such small windows of time when it's about you and you have to be able to turn it on then.

STARRING IN POWER RANGERS: It was a childhood trauma almost. [When I was young,] all the boys would play Power Rangers. We had a sugar cane field right next to our school and we'd run through the sugar cane field and fight each other with sticks. I always had to be the Black Power Ranger because I was the only black kid in the entire school. So when I booked the role of the Red Power Ranger, it was kind of my revenge on all of the little kids: "Who's the Red Power Ranger now mother fuckers?" [laughs] I don't think they're legally allowed to cast a black guy as the black one or the Asian girl as the yellow one anymore. It was so bad.

FIRST AMERICAN SERIES: Was Spartacus on Starz. It was a really intense and challenging role, but I'm proud of my work on it. There were so many wild and weird experiences. I was playing a character named Pietros who's kind of a slave in the ludus and in a relationship with one of the other gladiators. It was a very heartbreaking story involving sexual abuse and a whole bunch of other stuff. I was the smallest guy on the show by about four inches and 100 pounds, and the youngest by about 10 or 15 years. We don't have unions [in Australia] to the same degree that we do here, so there was so much they could get away with. We all know Spartacus was a highly sexualized show, and they'd just hire 30 male strippers and 30 female strippers as extras and then let them go at it. I'd have dialogue scenes where it would be me—I was 18 at the time—and there's, like, two dudes going at each other on the table. A guy holding a girl up against the wall right in my eye-line. Then the director's there throwing water and "Yeah! That's great! Keep going with that." It was really intense. The whole experience was pretty full-on, but fun at the same time.

THE JESSICA JONES AUDITION: The only thing that clued me into the fact that this might be important was that the audition sides had Netflix and Marvel on as the two producing houses. Other than that, it was a couple of lines and these weird, obscure scenes with some dude eating peanut butter. I was just like, "Okay, whatever. I'm just going to have fun with this." It was a series regular role, so I knew that much, but from the initial sides that they sent through it was a total surprise. I think it was my second callback, they gave me all new scenes that they had just written for it and all of sudden the character had some meat to him. Before that it was flying blind.

PREPARING TO PLAY MALCOLM: Malcolm suffers from drug addiction. Part of the prep for a character who's going through that kind of experience with drugs, and in particular heroin, is understanding the psychology behind that addiction and how it plays out in people's lives. I did a lot of research. I watched every dude on YouTube filming themselves going through detox. It's a weird and dark little corner of the internet, and I spent a lot of time going there. The most interesting part is the bargaining and the denial, and just the degree of self-talk and psychosis that goes into convincing those people around you that you're fine. There's very definitive behavioral things that come along with that.

OUTSIDE OF ACTING: I play with a group called Deya Dova. It's tribal electronica. I haven't been playing with them since I made the shift over from Australia, but they did a West Coast tour earlier this year and we did Burning Man and a bunch of other stuff.

BURNING MAN...Is my favorite place on planet earth. My first time was in 2012. My woman and I, that's how we ended up together—from Burning Man that year.We'd met in 2011 and we were close from then, but it was at Burning Man, the year of fertility, funnily enough. It was such a powerful and incredible transformative experience for me; it was understanding the full potential of human creativity if unleashed, and the difference between time-is-money and time-is-art. This year we took my son there. I went by myself for the first few days, and then I was like, "This is ridiculous. They should be here." So I flew them to the playa and my son loved it. We were worried because he's a little Virgo and he's super particular about textures, so I was like, "He's going to hate the dust." But he was a little dust dragon. We had him literally in a dragon suit for half the time. He was making dust angels. It was brilliant

PARENTHOOD: This is total biased parent shit, but [my son] is one of the most unique and individual little people that I've ever come across. He's so vibrant and full of life. He's such a musician already. He grabs his ukulele on the daily and jumps up and does little performances for us. My son is thing that made it all possible. It's the same with all the red carpet stuff; it really puts things in perspective when you go from the glitz and the glam and the cars and the drivers and the ushering and the interviews and the photos, and come home and he wants to sit down and read The Lorax. I get to play with him on that level and then we wrestle. It brings it back down to basics and everything else seems really irrelevant and superfluous.

UP NEXT: I'm going to go back to Australia. I'm going to go chill out on a beach and go surfing every day and get my feet on the earth.


SEASON ONE OF MARVEL'S JESSICA JONES IS NOW AVAILABLE VIA NETFLIX.

Carrie Coon on Becoming The Leftovers' Powerfully Complex Nora Durst

By Robert Ham | October 18, 2015 | 3:53pm
TV | FEATURES

Carrie Coon on Becoming <i>The Leftovers</i>' Powerfully Complex Nora Durst

Of all the characters whose lives were shattered and changed by the events of “The Departure” inThe Leftovers, it was Nora who had the most fascinating, and at times harrowing, story to follow. She lost both her husband and two children in the blink of an eye, and spent the better part of the first season of the HBO drama trying to pick up the pieces and move on, while also dealing with the psychological fallout of her loss (paying prostitutes to shoot her point blank, for example).

Luckily for the creators and writers of The Leftovers, this complex role was in the capable hands of Carrie Coon. Before joining the cast, Coon was a respected theater actor, treading the boards in Chicago and Wisconsin, and eventually earning a Tony nomination for her performance in a new production of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Coon has since brought that brilliance to bear on TV roles and in a much-lauded turn as the sister of Ben Affleck’s character in the 2014 thriller Gone Girl.

It is her work on The Leftovers that has brought Coon her biggest accolades to date, and for good reason. She commands the small screen by refusing to turn Nora into a histrionic mess. Instead, the widow is haunted, but also somehow liberated by this supernatural turn of events. And when the show spent an entire day with her, during the best episode of the first season “Guest,” Coon revealed even deeper shades with some intense and hilarious moments at a conference in New York. Now, in Season Two, Nora is reckoning with her seemingly impulsive decision to start up a family with Kevin and the baby that his son Tommy left on his porch. And by moving to the town of Jarden, where there were no departures, she starts to exhibit both a calm and some deep fears about her future.

Paste caught up with Coon as she took a break from filming the final episodes of The Leftovers, to get her take on this complex character and how she was able to move from stage to screen with such ease.

Paste Magazine: What inspired you to take on the role of Nora?
Carrie Coon: I was inspired when I read Tom Perrotta’s book. I read it well before I auditioned for the show. I was so intrigued by her, by her psychology and her very dark sense of humor. I have that same kind of satirical, dry, dark humor. So when the opportunity came up to audition for the series, I went in for both Meg and Nora, knowing full well I was really trying to get Nora. It was thrilling to have her come back to my life like this. I’m not a mother yet, so I was very sensitive about playing someone who had lost their children. I didn’t want that to feel pretend. I had the lovely gift of reading Sonali Deraniyagala’s book Wave about losing her family in the 2004 tsunami. It’s this beautiful, spare meditation on grief. It was a great resource for me to prepare to play Nora. Thankfully, I haven’t had to experience that kind of loss, but being able to portray it has been challenging but ultimately rewarding.

Paste: I feel like the most interesting wrinkle about Nora is that conflicted feeling she has about her loss. It’s horrible, yes, but at the time, it’s almost like she willed it to happen.
Coon: That’s what’s fascinating to me about her, that tension. Just as you said, the moment her family disappears, all of her obligations and responsibilities disappear. It’s devastating, but it’s also the most freedom one could ever have. It forced me to ask myself, “If I had the opportunity to walk away, would I do it? What would my new identity look like?” Most of our obligations are imagined.

We put them on ourselves. Very rarely are they coming from outside. Like the pressure to get straight A’s in school. You think it’s coming from your parents, when it’s really the expectations that we’re putting on ourselves by what we think they want. What we saw at the end of the first season was that she was preparing to walk away when she found baby Lily on the porch. That forces her to accept that mantle again, but the seed of freedom has been planted. I don’t think she’s going to give it up that easily.

Paste: As everyone knows at this point, the first season ended where the book did. Did you have any indication of where Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta were going to take things for this second season?
Coon: Not until very late. Damon was very thoughtful going into Season Two, and very candid in saying, “I need to know if there’s more story to tell and something to say. If I don’t, then we should let it go.” He really wants to connect with it passionately and for the right reasons.

I believe he does want to tell a good story and explore powerful ideas as an artist. So, we didn’t know until very late if the series would continue, or if we’d all be invited back because some of the cast didn’t come back. And we didn’t know where it would take place. It was really close to the time to start that I found out that we would start the season on the periphery. A couple of weeks later, I found out I was moving to Austin. It was pretty last minute, but as an actor, that’s not unfamiliar.

Paste: And what did you think about where Damon and Tom were taking your character this season?
Coon: What I love about the beginning of this season is that we see Kevin and Nora embracing the idea of cobbling together a family. There’s a sense of hope and a lightness about throwing herself into this new beginning. I don’t think Nora does anything 50 percent. She really commits. She’s really determined to make this work. But what Nora needs above all things is safety and stability, and Kevin is not really in the position to offer up that support. They don’t know each other very well. They have to backtrack and get to know each other, even though they retrofit a family into this.

Paste: It was interesting too to see how she and Jill seemed to get along almost immediately.
Coon: I really loved that choice. I feel that Nora would be a really cool stepmom. The trope is that the child is pushing against the stepmother and you’d see them figure out what the boundaries are—how much she is a friend and how maternal she is. There’s an extra layer of complexity, too, because Nora is respectful of Kevin’s relationship with her. Jill has very conflicted feelings about her own mother. Not that it’s Nora’s place to step into that position.

Paste: You made your name primarily as a theater actor before you took on roles in The Leftovers and Gone Girl. How was it for you to make that transition from stage to screen?
Coon: I was fortunate, I suppose, that I didn’t set out to transition to TV and film. I was very happy doing theater. I was lucky that I’ve had these opportunities directly created by me being in the theater. Chicago’s a great market, so I could do auditions for commercials. And I was really terrible at first. It took me a couple of years to figure that stuff out. So, I would do a guest spot here and there, but I hadn’t been in front of the camera consistently before I booked The Leftovers and Gone Girl. And I got a lot of practice doing that film. David [Fincher] does many, many takes. It was a concentrated time to work out some of the vocabulary and learning how to use your voice and body properly.

Paste: What comes next for you?
Coon: I have a project in the works that I can’t talk about. It’s a very small film that I’m very passionate about, and should be very fun for me. Then I’m going to rev up for fall and spring, and snap up a few more projects before Season Three. I’m also trying to find ways to get on stage. It’s tough for me to work out with a TV schedule, but I’m trying to make that happen.

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #97 posted 01/12/16 7:05am

JoeBala

Another one you may not have seen yet. This is the last picture of David Bowie, taken by his wife, Iman, on January 8th 2016. We all should hope to smile that large just days before we transition.

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Reply #98 posted 01/13/16 6:31am

JoeBala

How David Bowie Helped Nina Simone Out of a Slump

Jan. 11, 2016
David Bowie

Terry O'Neill—Getty ImagesBritish singer, actor and musician David Bowie, 1974.

Alan Light is the author of the forthcoming What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography.

After a chance meeting at a New York club, the two artists struck up a friendship

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For both David Bowie and Nina Simone, 1974 was a year of great transition. Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul” and an activist who had become one of the most emblematic and pioneering figures in the Civil Rights movement, was at a low point. Though she was honored with a day-long tribute for “Human Kindness Day” that May, she had largely stopped performing and recording, and was facing charges from the IRS. “The most prevalent view was that she was being tremendously harassed by the government,” said the politician and diplomat Andrew Young. Bowie, meantime, had recently killed off his Ziggy Stardust persona, moved to New York City, and begun a new musical direction oriented more toward soul music. He was also descending into drug addiction and paranoia. But one night, these two icons accidentally collided, leading to a friendship that has never been previously revealed.

Things looked bad for Nina Simone in the mid-’70s. But around this time an unlikely ally appeared, offering her a small morale boost. In July 1974, she took her daughter Lisa to a David Bowie concert at Madison Square Garden. About a week later, she went out, on a whim, to a private club called the Hippopotamus, and shortly after she arrived Bowie himself walked in with a small entourage and sat in a corner of the club. When Simone got up to leave and walked past his table, he invited her to sit down.

Though they had exchanged only a few words, Bowie asked for her phone number and then called her that night at exactly 3:00 a.m. “He said, ‘The first thing I want you to know is that you’re not crazy—don’t let anybody tell you you’re crazy, because where you’re coming from, there are very few of us out there.’ ”

For a month, he called her every night and they would talk for hours. Finally, he paid a visit. “He looked just like Charlie Chaplin, a clown suit, a big black hat,” said Simone. “He told me that he was not a gifted singer and he knew it. He said, ‘What’s wrong with you is you were gifted—you have to play. Your genius overshadows the money, and you don’t know what to do to get your money, whereas I wasn’t a genius, but I planned, I wanted to be a rock-and-roll singer and I just got the right formula.’ ”

What Bowie was affirming for Nina was her true calling as an artist, a sensibility that he could recognize as something different from that of a pop star. At a period of such turbulence, it was a lift that she needed. “He’s got more sense than anybody I’ve ever known,” she said. “It’s not human—David ain’t from here.”

Bowie later would record “Wild Is the Wind,” the title song from the 1966 Simone album, as the final track on his stellar Station to Station. And soon, as Bowie had done before her, Simone would leave her home country in search of a more sympathetic environment.

Excerpted with permission from What Happened, Miss Simon... Biography. Copyright 2016 by Radical Media LLC and the Estate of Nina Simone. To be published by Crown Publishing Group on February 9.

Atlanta R&B singer Janelle Monae covered the classic Bowie track ‘Heroes’ on the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ in June 2014. In 2013 she told us that she "instantly connected” upon first hearing Bowie's music.

Photo: JCH

Bowie feuded with Morrissey over the years but in 2014 Mozza broke the habit of a lifetime and – sort of – apologised: "I know I've criticised David in the past, but it's all been snotnosed junior high ribbing on my part. I think he knows that." Also, wonder where young Moz got the idea of being an androgynous pop star?

Photo: Andrew Hughes

Californian art rocker Beck paid tribute to Bowie in 2013 with a cover of the classic ‘Sound and Vision’, taken from the 1977 Berlin-era album ‘Low’.

Photo: Andy Fallon

In 2014 Lorde told Rookie that she’d met Bowie, who’d complimented her work: "To have someone like that tell you that listening to you felt like listening to tomorrow. I could creatively die and just be happy forever… It was super cute... For some reason we were holding hands and just staring into each other’s eyes and talking... It was insane. A beautiful moment."

Photo: Pooneh Ghana

After hearing the news, Florence Welch tweeted: “David Bowie was a huge influence on me throughout my life. The original star-man returned to the stars...”

Photo: Wunmi Onibudo

Rashida Jones Gives Huge Nod to ‘90s Nostalgia in ‘Flip and Rewind’ Music Video

January 10, 2016 @ 12:14 PM / By Will Mendelson

Throwing it back! Rashida Jones gave a huge nod to ‘90s nostalgia in her new music video for her single “Flip and Rewind.”

“TGIF!” Jones, 39, tweeted on Friday, January 8. “Celebrate by going back with me to the ‘90s!”

The music video — complete with a cameo by megaproducerJermaine Dupri — features the actress in a yellow top and blue jeans, dancing and driving around with her friends.

Rashida Jones

“All I wanna do is go back,” the actress tells Dupri, 43, over FaceTime as they are then transported back 20 years.

In the clip, there’s even an awesome choreographed dance sequence that shows Jones doing some serious moves with her backup dancers.

The Office alum recently revealed the inspiration and drive behind the fun music video.

“The inspiration for the video that Will [McCormack] and I directed was to try to evoke the feeling of the nineties, but not in a mocking way,” the singer told Rolling Stone on Thursday, January 7. “I think for you and I both, it’s such an important time musically, emotionally and psychologically. Every part of us formed during the '90s, and we took all of the quintessential R&B videos from the '90s and did our best to re-create them."

Kristen Bell in a ‘Good Place’ with new NBC sitcom

January 13, 20163:48 AM MST
NBC is assembling a comedy dream team for its latest show, Good Place. Kristen Bell and Ted Danson will star in the new comedy from Parks and Recreation's Mike Schur.In Good Place, Bell plays Eleanor, a New Jersey woman who realizes she hasn't been a...
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NBC is assembling a comedy dream team for its latest show, Good Place. Kristen Bell and Ted Danson will star in the new comedy from Parks and Recreation's Mike Schur.In Good Place, Bell plays Eleanor, a New Jersey woman who realizes she hasn't been a...
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Watch 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' to remember David Bowie

January 12, 201612:29 PM MST
The Man Who Fell to Earth trailer
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The Man Who Fell to Earth trailer
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
Rating: 5 Stars

Recently, David Bowie, best known for his innovations in music, died of cancer at the age of 69. In addition to being a singer and producer, Bowie was also an accomplished actor. In fact, 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which is directed by Nicholas Roeg and is based on the book of the same name. This was his first major role in a film.

In “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Bowie plays Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien with many human like attributes who travels to Earth seeking water for his planet, which is succumbing to a drought. While on in New Mexico, he meets Mary-Lou (played by Candy Clark), a pretty young woman who works several low level jobs at a hotel. They fall for each other. Because his planet is more scientifically advanced than earth, Newton is able to introduce several innovations and soon becomes the head of a technology company, World Enterprises Corporation. One of the people employed there is Nathan Bryce (played by Rip Torn), who works as a fuel tech. He ends up spending many years on Earth, away from his family on his home planet. The same vices that undermine humans end up undermining him.

“The Man Who Fell to Earth” has an interesting story. Unlike many movies with aliens, this film does not have a lot of action or scenes dependent upon visual discontinuities. It focuses more on its characters and very “human” frailties.

David Bowie gives a great performance as Newton. We see how he changes as gets more accustomed to the ways of Earth as the story progresses. Candy Clark is also strong as Mary-Lou, the woman who helps change him.

Watching “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is a good way to remember David Bowie. It is also a good choice for fans of science fiction films.

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Reply #99 posted 01/13/16 7:09am

JoeBala

Boy George pays tribute to hero David Bowie

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Boy George has penned a tribute to David Bowie, revealing he'd always dreaded the day he would hear the iconic singer had died.

The news came on Monday (11Jan16), when Bowie's representative confirmed he had lost his secret 18-month battle with cancer on Sunday (10Jan16). It caused a worldwide outpouring of grief, with George following in the footsteps of stars such as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Madonna and Kanye West by speaking of how much he admired the late star.

"I have been a loyal fan since (the first) concert (I went to) in 1973. As a teenager growing up in Suburbia, I was very much the odd one out and Bowie was the light at the end of a very grey tunnel," he wrote for DailyMail.com.

"He validated me and made me realise I was not alone. Listening to his early songs I felt he was speaking directly to me when he sang, 'We're painting our faces and dressing thoughts from the skies, from paradise.'

"Bowie painted a mythical landscape where otherness and individuality reigned supreme.

"I always dreaded this day. I hoped he was immortal. I was sure of it. Today feels like the end of everything!"

Bowie's death came just two days after he celebrated his 69th birthday, with his last record, Blackstar, also released on Friday (08Jan16). It's claimed the album was his parting gift to the world and his way of saying goodbye.

In his tribute, George spoke of watching Bowie perform as his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust in London in 1973. George was just 12 at the time but it had a phenomenal impact on him, with the now 54-year-old star calling it a "life changing and life affirming event".

Describing himself as a Bowie "superfan", George recalled how excited he was when, during an internet talk with his hero, Bowie remembered meeting him previously. This pales in comparison to the excitement the Culture Club star felt when they had dinner with each other in 2005.

"That dinner was like a dream. We talked about EastEnders (yes, the TV show), British tea, Russian art films, new bands he loved, and Angie Bowie (the late singer's former wife)," he wrote.

"He was funny, charming, sweet, and very David Bowie.

"It's fair to say I have never been objective in regards to Bowie, I have always joked that the only qualification I left school with was 'A level Bowie'."

MUSIC

REMEMBERING DAVID BOWIE

By STAFF

Published 01/11/15

Last night, legendary musician David Bowie passed away in New York, following an 18-month long battle with cancer. Bowie, who had just released his 25th albumBlackstar on Friday, coinciding with his 69th birthday, will forever be remembered for his musical genius and unyielding personality. His alter ego Ziggy Stardust opened the door for many to accept themselves and his music offered solace therein.

Upon Blackstar's release, many reviewers noted the lyricism's ambiguity, however, after learning about his cancer and following his tragic passing, the songs are beginning to make more sense. On "Blackstar," he sings, "I'm not a pop star, I'm a blackstar." "Lazarus" continues: "Look up here / I'm in heaven ... Oh, I'll be free / Just like that bluebird / Oh, I'll be free / Ain't that just like me." And the album's closing song, "I Can't Give Everything Away," begins with him saying, "I know something is very wrong," before singing, "The blackout hearts, the flowered news / With skull designs upon my shoes."

No matter the message of Blackstar, though, Bowie will forever and always be remembered as an icon of the 20th and 21st centuries. In his honor, here are some of the best quotes from the various times he appeared inside and on the cover of Interview.


AGE: 69

BIRTHPLACE: Brixton, London, UK

CHILDHOOD DREAMS: I had a plan from when I was eight. My father brought home all these American records, 45s with no centers. And he said, "Go on, you can take your pick." I said, "I'll just take a few out." There was this one by Little Richard, and that was it. I was sold. When I heard that, I thought, God, I want to do that. Actually, my ambition at eight or nine years old was to be one of Little Richard's sax players, and that's when I got my first saxophone, a Selmer. It was a strange Bakelite material—that creamy plastic with all the gold keys on it. I had to get a job as a butcher's delivery boy to start paying for it.

At no point did I ever doubt I would be as near as anybody could be to England's Elvis Presley. Even from eight or nine years old, I thought, Well, I'll be the greatest rock star in England. I just made up my mind. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

STYLE INSPIRATION: 1961 was when I was really into clothes. I left school at 15 and started copying a bloke who used to go up on the train to London with me; Leslie, I think his name was. He was like, top mod of his own area. He wore Italian jackets with white linen jeans. Boy, was that cool! I mean, that's in style now—it's very much the L.A. look. But he was wearing it then, and it looked supercool. Chelsea boots, but with fluorescent pink or green socks and eye shadow that matched the socks he was wearing that day. And he had a slight bouffant hairstyle, parted in the middle. He was somehow tough-looking, too, a real heavyweight. But he had eye makeup on! And the jarringness of it was really weird. I thought, I like that—I feel that, not one thing or the other. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

BEAUTY INSPIRATION: Syd Barrett [of Pink Floyd] was the first person in rock I had seen with makeup on. He wore black nail polish and lots of mascara and black eye shadow, and he was so mysterious. It was this androgynous thing I found absolutely fascinating. Of course, we found out later the guy had mental problems. But there was something so otherworldly about him. He was hovering, like, six inches above the ground. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

ROCK 'N' ROLL: I have absolutely no interest in rock and roll. I'm just being David Bowie. Mick Jagger is rock and roll. I mean, I go out and my music is roughly the format of rock and roll, I use the chord changes of rock and roll, but I don't feel I'm a rock and roll artist. I'd be a terrible rock artist, absolutely ghastly. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

POP MUSIC: I have an incredibly hard time with it at the moment. It's all so dispirited and sexless. There's this strange atmosphere now that's come over sex that I'm particularly angry about. Sex is suddenly once again the unmentionable word, and one wonders if that's going to lead to more right-wing thinking and to a kind of fucking depressing grayness to the quality of life. It's a return to everything we despised in the early '60s. I do like the Pixies. I think they're great. I think Sonic Youth are wonderful. I must say I still like the Cure. It's marvelous that they've actually got a huge audience over here now. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

THE '60s: I really floated around in the '60s, because I felt comfortable with nothing. But I just tried everything out—I mean, everything. Even my sexual orientation; I was just searching for what I really wanted. And I didn't quite know. And that applied to the arts, as well. It was like treading water all through the '60s, and when 1970 kicked in, I thought [snaps fingers] We're here. Right. God, this is exciting. I'm going to go for it now. I really felt it was my time. Then Marc Bolan did it first. [laughs] That really pissed me off. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

CAPITALISM: Capitalism can be alright, I mean Marx didn't live to see what Roosevelt did with that Depression. He pulled everybody out of that Depression and everybody hated Roosevelt. He got into office four times. One after the other, with everybody saying, he can't get in again. Everybody voted for Roosevelt four times and he did a hell of a lot. [David Bowie Tells All and More to Patrick Salvo, March 1973]

HIPPIES, THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT, AND THE UNDERGROUND: The truest form of any form of revolutionary left, whatever you want to call it, was Jack Kerouac, E.E. Cummings, and Ginsberg's period. Excuse me but that was where it was at. The hippies, I'm afraid, don't know what's happening. I don't think there are any anyway. The underground went really underground. Grand Funk, and all these people man are the moderate's choice of music. Underground is Yoko Ono, The Black Poets. These people scare the hell out of most freaks. They laugh at Yoko Ono, but it's the whole cliché. [David Bowie Tells All and More to Patrick Salvo, March 1973]

TOURING WITH IGGY POP: It was something to do. It was good fun. I got drunk a lot. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

FRIENDS: Oh, my God, who do I hang out with? Let's take the last few months. The last six months, who have I been hanging around with? Apart from my fiancée, and Coco, whom you probably remember from the deep recesses of the past. Coco Schwab is my best friend. And the band. Most of the time we've been in Australia recording, so I've been hanging out with surfers and the occasional sheep farmer. You meet sheep farmers in very trendy restaurants in Sydney. Before Australia I was in Indonesia, and I hung out with the village people in north Bali. Ha. Where do you think those people got those crazy clothes ideas? But really, have you been to Bali? My God, do they dress. Every day of the week there's a celebration. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

DRUGS: I had to leave Los Angeles. I guess I thought I had really taken a risk becoming involved with Main Man [record company]... Looking at it I thought, "Christ, what have I done?" What kind of monster has been unleashed here? So I thought, well, another monster is not going to do any harm. I'll get into that one. At least I don't have to look at the other one. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

QUITTING DRUGS: I just put it down to luck. I persevere quite honestly, and I've got a fair amount of discipline that keeps me out of deep water. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

RELATIONSHIPS: There were lots of nightly relationships. But the reason you don't want to make a commitment is not that you're such a freewheeling, adventurous person, it's because you're scared shitless that it will turn out like your mother and father. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word,May 1990]

JOINING THE MAINSTREAM: I went mainstream in a major way with the song "Let's Dance." I pandered to that in my next few albums, and what I found I had done was put a box around myself. It was very hard for people to see me as anything other than the person in the suit who did "Let's Dance," and it was driving me mad—because it took all my passion for experimenting away. [David Bowie, Double Trouble!!, September 1995]

THE ART WORLD: There's a quality to art at the moment that I can't come to terms with. It just doesn't appeal to me. I find it far too comfortable and bourgeois and middle-class. I think it's generally having a negative effect on David Byrne. He's probably going through his most uninspired period at the moment. I'm not sure that an art career would have any benefit for me; I'm not sure it's what I want. I don't think I want to be a designer-rock artist.

It's almost a social grace to get into the art world, and I'm very wary of it. Art was good in Berlin in the late '70s—there was a lot more guts to art when the Neo-Expressionists were starting up; it was real slapdash; it has real heart to it—but it seems so cold and heartless in America. It's a buyer's market. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

BOWIE THE EVIL MASTERMIND: Am I Machiavellian? I don't think I'm quite the mastermind people would have me be. Everything I do tends to be very successful and it may have something to do with the fact that I'm very good, not necessarily that I manipulate. But that doesn't often occur to people. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

BOWIE THE PRIVATE CITIZEN: I tell them to mind their own business. I mean it's so trite. I will not give in. "Bugger off," I say. I ask them, "How's your wife? Are you married? Do you sleep with your wife?" What a bloody nerve...I'd just rather like to mind my own business. I don't like people probing into my life, so I reveal as little as possible or lie about it as much as need be so as to give them something to write about. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

BOWIE THE PARENT: Oh, I have a very strong paternal streak. I'm a born father...I get such enjoyment out of being with children. Now they are enjoyable little things. They really are. I like their kind of humor. You can stuff all your punk bands, give me three children instead. [David Bowie by Lisa Robinson, June 1978]

BOWIE AND HIS PARENTS: I could never, ever talk to my father. I really lovedhim, but we couldn't talk about anything together. There was this really British thing that being even remotely emotional was absolutely verboten.

I spent so much time in my bedroom. It really was my entire world. I had books up there, my music up there, my record player. Going from my world upstairs out onto the street, I had to pass through this no-man's-land of the living room, you know, and out the front hall. [David Bowie: Sex is Again the Unmentionable Word, May 1990]

I WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE...that people knew what they were fighting for and why they wanted a revolution, and exactly what it was within [society] that they didn't like. I mean, to put down the aims of a society is to put down a hell of a lot of people and that scares me that there should be such a division where one set of people are saying that another set should be killed. You know you can't put down anybody. You can just try and understand. The emphasis shouldn't be on revolution, it should be on communication. Because it's just going to get more uptight. The more the revolution goes on, and there will be a civil war sooner or later. [David Bowie Tells All and More to Patrick Salvo, March 1973]

NBCUniversal Events - Season 2015
Courtesy of Paul Drinkwater/NBC

America's Got Talent: Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Nick Cannon All Returning for Season 11

By Michael Slezak / January 12 2016, 2:59 PM PST

Simon Cowell will be the only new kid on the block when America’s Got Talentreturns this summer.

NBC confirmed on Tuesday that Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum will all return to the judges’ table — alongside the erstwhile American Idol fave and Got Talentcreator, who’s replacing Howard Stern — for Season 11.

Additionally, host Nick Cannon will again play the role of emcee as AGT returns to Los Angeles for its live performance and results shows.

“Without sounding too arrogant I am going to call us the Fantastic Four,” said Cowell, in a release. “I like this panel because they are slightly nuts. And now let’s find a star.”

Klum and Mel B are returning as judges for their fourth seasons. Mandel will be entering his seventh.

I'm Dying Up Here Series Order Showtime Melissa Leo

Courtesy of Showtime

Melissa Leo's I'm Dying Up HereOrdered to Series at Showtime

By Kimberly Roots / January 12 2016, 2:56 PM PST

Melissa Leo‘s new gig is a laughing matter.

I’m Dying Up Here, the dark comedy starring the Oscar-winning actress, has been greenlit at Showtime.

The network announced the series order Tuesday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena.

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by WIlliam Knoedelseder, the hour-long Dying examines the “inspired and damaged psyches” of stand-up comedians in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Leo (Treme, Louie) will be a series regular, a “brassy” comedy-club owner named Goldie. Sebastian Stan (Once Upon a Time, Political Animals) will play Clay, a comic on the rise; Clark Duke (The Office) will play Larry, a Boston funnyman trying to hit it big in L.A.

The cast also includes Ari Graynor (Bad Teacher), Andrew Santino (Mixology), RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Erik Griffin (Workaholics) and Stephen Guarino (Happy Endings).

I’m Dying Up Here is written and executive produced by Dave Flebotte (Masters of Sex, Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives), and executive produced by Jim Carrey and Michael Aguilar (The Departed), and Christina Wayne (Copper).

Danny Glover Criminal Minds

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Criminal Minds Casts Danny Glover in 'Interesting' Role, as Derek's [Spoiler]

By Matt Webb Mitovich / January 12 2016, 12:52 PM PST

Four-time Emmy nominee Danny Glover is heading to CBS’ Criminal Minds, in a key role in a pivotal episode.

TVLine has learned exclusively that Glover will guest-star in this season’s 16th episode, titled “Derek,” as father to Shemar Moore’s character.

Of course, Derek Morgan’s dad is long-established as being dead. So…. Hmm.

“It’s an interesting role that he plays,” showrunner Erica Messer shares with TVLine. “The reason Derek needs to call on this protector in this moment and work through some things is really beautifully written by Breen Frazier, and directed by [cast member] Thomas Gibson.

Glover’s more recent TV credits include an arc on Fox’s Touch, plus episodes ofLeverage, Psych and NBC’s short-lived Ironside remake.

Criminal Minds resumes Season 11 this Wednesday at 10/9c.

PaleyFest 2016 Empire

Courtesy of Fox

PaleyFest 2016 to Honor Empire, Scream Queens, black-ish and More

By Vlada Gelman / January 12 2016, 6:15 AM PST

The Lyons will roar at PaleyFest 2016.

Empire is among the first panels announced for The Paley Center for Media’s annual celebration of TV.

Producer Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Hotel and Scream Queens will also scare up thrills at the event, taking place March 11-20 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Additional honorees include ABC’s black-ish and the Starz drama Power.

The full lineup will be announced on Jan. 19. Ticket info can be found atm paleyfest.org.

Scroll down for participating talent (subject to change):

Friday, March 11: Empire (7:30 pm)
Taraji P. Henson, “Cookie Lyon”
Terrence Howard, “Lucious Lyon”
Jussie Smollett, “Jamal Lyon”
Bryshere Gray, “Hakeem Lyon”
Trai Byers, “Andre Lyon”
Grace Gealey, “Anika Calhoun”
Kaitlin Doubleday, “Rhonda Lyon”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Becky”
Ta’Rhonda Jones, “Porsha”
Serayah, “Tiana Brown”
Lee Daniels, Co-Creator & Executive Producer
Danny Strong, Co-Creator & Executive Producer
Ilene Chaiken, Executive Producer

Saturday, March 12: Scream Queens (7 pm)
Emma Roberts, “Chanel Oberlin”
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Dean Cathy Munsch”
Lea Michele, “Hester Ulrich”
Abigail Breslin, “Chanel #5”
Skyler Samuels, “Grace Gardner”
Keke Palmer, “Zayday Williams”
Billie Lourd, “Chanel #3”
Niecy Nash, “Officer Denise Hemphill”

Sunday, March 13: black-ish (2 pm)
Anthony Anderson, “Andre ‘Dre’ Johnson” & Executive Producer
Tracee Ellis Ross, “Rainbow Johnson”
Yara Shahidi, “Zoey Johnson”
Marcus Scribner, “Andre Johnson, Jr.”
Miles Brown, “Jack Johnson”
Marsai Martin, “Diane Johnson”
Kenya Barris, Creator & Executive Producer
Jonathan Groff, Executive Producer

Sunday, March 20: Power (2 pm)
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, “Kanan” & Executive Producer
Omari Hardwick, “James ‘Ghost’ St. Patrick”
Lela Loren, “Angela Valdes”
Naturi Naughton, “Tasha St. Patrick”
Joseph Sikora, “Tommy Egan”
Courtney Kemp Agboh, Creator, Showrunner, and Executive Producer

Sunday, March 20: American Horror Story: Hotel (7 pm)
Sarah Paulson, “Sally”
Kathy Bates, “Iris”
Angela Bassett, “Ramona”
Chloe Sevigny, “Alex Lowe”
Evan Peters, “Mr. James March”
Wes Bentley, “John Lowe”
Cheyenne Jackson, “Will Drake”
Denis O’Hare, “Liz Taylor”

One Day at a Time Reboot

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One Day at a Time Reboot Ordered at Netflix, Norman Lear on Board as EP

By Michael Ausiello / January 11 2016, 3:30 PM PST

This is it. Hold on tight. Up on your feet. One Day at a Time is back.

Netflix has ordered a 13-episode multi-cam reboot of the classic Norman Lear sitcom, this one centered on a Cuban-American family.

Lear is on board an an exec producer the series, which centers on a recently separated, former military mom (aka the character originated by the late Bonnie Franklin role) navigating a new single life while raising her radical teenaged daughter and socially adept tween son, with the “help” of her old school Cuban-born mom and a friends- without-benefits building manager named — wait for it — Schneider (played in the original by the recently deceased Pat Harrington).

According to Deadline, Rita Morena has signed on to play the grandmother. Additional casting is TBA.

Mike Royce (Everybody Loves Raymond, Enlisted) and Gloria Calderon Kellett (How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement) are on board as writers and will serve as EPs alongside Lear, Michael Garcia and Brent Miller.

One Day at a Time debuted on CBS on Dec. 16, 1975, and ran for nine seasons (until its series finale on May, 28, 1984). It also starred Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli.

‘Shadowhunters’ Star Katherine McNamara Talks ‘Edgier, Darker’ Freeform Series

'Shadowhunters' Star Katherine McNamara Talks 'Edgier,

JANUARY 12, 2016 | 06:13PM PT

Elizabeth Wagmeister

@EWagmeister

“Shadowhunters” makes its way to TV tonight on the newly rebranded Freeform (formerly ABC Family), offering a new spin on Cassandra Clare’s beloved “Mortal Instruments” novels, following a failed film adaptation “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” in 2013. Star Katherine McNamara, who plays Clary Fray, promises that the series is fit for longtime fans of the story and newcomers to the franchise.

NcNamara admits that she didn’t read the books until she started auditioning for the role, but after diving in, she says she relates to the whimsical fantasy tale because of Clare’s characters and their relationships.

Below, McNamara tells Variety why viewers will relate to “Shadowhunters,” how she did most of her own stunts and how Freeform allows the series to become edgy and dark.

Why is Clary Fray the perfect role for you?

I’ve been looking for a job like this to really grow into and that I can grow with — something that has the elements of sci-fi fantasy that makes it really fun to go to work every day and all the training with the stunts and the weapons. Everything has kind of come together in a way that I couldn’t possibly imagine.

Talk about your training. How many of your own stunts do you do?

We had a lot of physical training for the show and that sort of became a cast bonding experience for us, which we were fortunate to have. We had physical training with a personal trainer who made us eat right and work out and do all the things we needed to do to be healthy and fit. Then we had weapons training because we have swords and bo staffs and throwing knives and archery and whips and all manner of demon slaying devices. We all took turns with each other’s weapons and taught each other how to fight, which was great. Then we also had a lot of gymnastics training so that we could do most of our own stunts. Most of the stunts on the show are actually me. I did have a stunt double for a few things here and there because of insurance, they just wouldn’t let me do. I learned a lot from my stunt double and she taught me so much. It actually got to a point in the season where unless it was something where they knew they were going to have to use my stunt double, they wouldn’t even call her to set because they knew that I would be able to do it.

What have you learned from playing Clary, so far?

I was very fortunate to be able to learn with my character, because Clary is not a bad-ass at the beginning of the series and she just kind of reaches the tip of that iceberg of being a physical warrior by the end of the season. She’s thrown into this world and has nothing to go off of but instinct and pure human survival and she has to learn with these other characters who are already established fighters and established soldiers. I feel very fortunate, as an actor who’s not a fighter in real life, to be able to learn with my character and go through that process with her.

Were you a fan of the books?

They had been on my list forever and I’d heard a lot of good things about them but I never actually sat down to read them until the audition process. By the time I was done with the audition process I had finished the first book and was completely in love with the series. Now I’m almost all the way through it. I was reading it during filming but had to kind of back off because I started confusing scripts and books and it was just all too much. Now I’m back to the book, and Cassandra [Clare] has created such a rich world for us to be involved in.

What do you like about the “Shadowhunters” story?

It’s this wonderful dichotomy of living in that world of fantasy and yet, what draws people to the story is that these characters are going through things that all of us go through. You know, they’re falling in love for the first time and growing up and learning who they are in the world and who they love and where their place is going to be in life and what that means for them and what that means for all of their relationships. It’s all of these things that our viewers are going through and it gives them a sense of objectivity to be able to look at the characters in this fantasy world and see maybe how to solve their own problems.

Do you feel pressure going into this series knowing there’s such an embedded fan base or does it just make you more excited knowing that people are excited for you?

It’s honestly a bit of both. Something I’ve learned through going to Comic-Con and the fan events we’ve done and talking to people on social media is that because these characters are so relatable, people are really drawn to them. Reading these books is such a personal experience that people have formed relationships with these characters and these characters are their heroes and they grow up with these characters, and then suddenly we’re tasked with bringing them to life. It’s incredibly exciting to have all of that support and that excitement, but it’s also a huge responsibility. I know my main goal in all of this is to do justice to their love for these characters and to this story that means so much to so many people.

For viewers who have never read the books or never heard of them, do you think the “Shadowhunters” series will be a good fit for them?

I do actually. That’s something that I think is so great about what Ed Decter and McG and ABC Family — or Freeform — has done in setting up our particular perspective for the series, is that we’ve kind of created a balance in that we have the time to explain things in the world for people who know nothing about the series and about the world in which the stories take place, but we also have things for people who know the books cover to cover. We kind of change up the story a little bit for people who do know it very well to keep it exciting for them, but we still stay true to the story enough where people who are brand new to this world can jump right in and learn about the world and be captured by these characters and just go on a ride with us.

How do you think that the new network’s name Freeform really embraces “Shadowhunters?”

We’ve had an amazing opportunity with being the first show that Freeform is putting out because we have a little bit more freedom, for lack of a better word, and we got to explore kind of an edgier, darker side of this story that we might not have been able to had they not been doing this re-brand. Now I’m going to go to the nerdy side for a minute because I’m a business major and I kind of understand that side of things as well — I have massive respect for ABC Family for doing this re-brand, because yes, they are kind of where they want to be as far as in comparison with other networks, but they’re still trying to grow their brand and they’re still trying to move forward and not be stagnant with their audience and they’re still trying to expand their purview and their reach. I think that’s incredible and I think Freeform is a much more fitting name to their programming. ABC Family, yes it’s stories about families, but it’s about families as they are for our generation, for the becomers, for the people who are being a part of this generation that is more open and more free and more accepting of people as they are, as opposed to forcing them to conform to what we think is ideal or normal. Normal has kind of gone out the window and I think that is very apropos because that’s kind of what happens to Clary in the first episode. Normal means nothing anymore and that’s kind of what ABC Family-slash-Freeform has been doing for years, so it’s very fitting with our show and with the audience I think.

“Shadowhunters” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Freeform.

ALBUM

Lissie

My Wild West

Rating: 4 Stars

Cooking Vinyl (label)
12 January 2016 (released)
05 January 2016
David Spencer

Lissie's admitted that My Wild West was an album that sneaked up on her a year ago, after she'd moved from California to her 10-acre farm in Iowa. She hadn't expected this many songs to appear that quickly. Not surprisingly, the album is littered with references to her journey away from Los Angeles to the Midwest, with the opening Hollywood talking about broken hearts and a 'return home to mom'. The closer Ojai, is a more gentle farewell to the state that's been her home for many years as she promises "to see you again some day" explaining that she misses the 'seasons' and she's made up her mind to leave.


Lissie has the ability to sound both hugely vulnerable and totally in control, sometimes within the same song, and the segue between Hollywood and Wild West highlights this perfectly. Hollywood has an edgy, slightly angry tone, while Wild West begins with a gentle unravelling before the confidence returns as lyrically she embraces the move from the "safety in numbers" of LA to Iowa.

While Lissie's journey is an obvious inspiration for much of My Wild West, it seems the change has also influenced her musical style. The album is far less polished and poppy than 2013's Back To Forever or even her debut Catching A Tiger. Here there is more space and room to breathe. This is exemplified on the album's best song, Hero. Partly inspired by the thought experiment Schrodinger's Cat, it has touches of Lana Del Ray (in a good way) as it builds towards a gentle guitar solo and rocky climax.

It's not all about her move into farming though. A documentary about the fight for equality by women in Liberia inspired Daughters, while the tranquil and reflective Sun Keeps Risin' is about the passing away of her aunt. Don't You Give Up On Me is the most poppy track here, and returns us to that Fleetwood Mac sound of her first two albums. Stay is harder edged again, where Lissie moves from vulnerable to angry in a blink of an eye.

My Wild West doesn't sound like a rushed album, but it captures a singer in transition. After the mainstream pop and rock of her opening two albums, Lissie appears keen to leave that Hollywood glitz behind, both metaphorically and physically. The next album, which she says is already underway, will reveal which direction she's heading in.

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Carlos Muñoz Sánchez Dies: Legendary Colombian Actor Dead At 72

By Jessica Lucia Roiz | Jan 11 2016, 12:59PM EST
Carlos Muñoz Sánchez
Colombian actor Carlos Muñoz Sánchez dies at age 72 from health complications. Caracol Television

Colombia mourns the death of one of its greatest actors of all time, Carlos Muñoz Sánchez, who passed away Monday from health complications. He was 72 years old.

The heartbreaking news was confirmed by the actor's wife Luz Helena Ángel, reports Noticias RCN. In November 2015, the actor underwent surgery for a hernia that affected his stomach and lung. Just two weeks after his operation, Muñoz suffered complications and had to be admitted to emergency in the Reina Sofia Clinic. He died Monday in Bogota and is survived by his wife and daughter, Manuela Muñoz Ángel.

Family, fans and celebrities alike mourn the death of the iconic telenovela and movie actor, including Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos, who expressed his deepest condolences on social media. "We have lost a big TV star: our beloved Carlos Muñoz, a great actor and valuable human being.

We will miss him and accompany his family," the president wrote on Twitter. Colombian singer Carlos Vivesalso expressed his feelings on social media. "Thank you to our friend and actor Carlos Muñoz for the unforgettable moments he gave Colombians with each of his characters," he said on Instagram, adding that the actor's trajectory is unrepeatable.

Muñoz, who was a three-time Premios TV y Novelas winner, was a TV, film and theater actor. His most recent productions included "Casas de Reinas," "Donde Carajos esta Umaña?" and "Chepe Fortuna."May he R.I.P.

David Margulies, Mayor in ‘Ghostbusters,’ Dies at 78

By SAM ROBERTSJAN. 12, 2016

David Margulies as Lenny Clotch in “Ghostbusters” (1984).Columbia Pictures, via Photofest

David Margulies, a versatile character actor who performed in scores of supporting stage, film and television roles but was most conspicuous as the common-sense mayor in “Ghostbusters” and as Tony Soprano’s sleazy lawyer, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 78.

The cause was cancer, his sister, Vicki Margulies, said.

Mr. Margulies performed on Broadway as the father in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” as Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and in four episodes of “Law & Order.” He will also appear as Elie Wiesel in next month’s ABC-TV mini-series “Madoff.”

In the hit HBO drama “The Sopranos,” Mr. Margulies played the lawyer Neil Mink in eight episodes, including the finale, in 2007, in which he warned Tony, the mob boss played by James Gandolfini: “Somebody’s giving grand jury testimony on something. We don’t know who. Subpoenas are flying.”

In “Ghostbusters” (1984) and “Ghostbusters II” (1989), he played the mayor, Lenny Clotch, who evoked the incumbent New York mayor at the time, Edward I. Koch. In the sequel, Mr. Margulies invokes a former mayor (“I spent an hour last night in my bedroom talking to Fiorello La Guardia, and he’s been dead for 40 years”) and expresses skepticism that the citizenry’s obnoxious behavior is to blame for the river of pink slime that is inundating the city.

“What am I supposed to do?” he asks the Ghostbusters team (including Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd). “Go on television and tell 10 million people they have to be nice to each other? Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.”

Mr. Margulies himself was generally well treated by reviewers. His notices were sometimes larger than his roles.

In 1988, when he appeared in the WPA Theater production of Larry Kramer’s “Just Say No,” Mel Gussow in his review in The New York Times said that Mr. Margulies “plays his role dryly, as if he had been minted by Oscar Wilde.”


David Margulies in ‘Ghostbusters II’

He was known for his role as Lenny Clotch, the common-sense mayor who evoked the incumbent New York mayor at the time, Edward I. Koch.

When he co-starred in Herb Gardner’s “Conversations With My Father” on Broadway in 1992, playing a Yiddish theater actor, Frank Rich of The Times described his character as “a magical repository of his artistic and ethnic heritage, especially in a transporting scene in which he performs excerpts from all his shows, from ‘Hamlet’ to ‘The Dybbuk,’ while pulling props from a carpetbag.”

Mr. Margulies’s first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his sister, he is survived by a son, Jonathan; his longtime companion, the actress Lois Smith; and a grandson.

David Joseph Margulies was born in Brooklyn, NY on Feb. 19, 1937, the son of Harry Margulies, a lawyer, and the former Runya Zeltzer.

He attended the School of Performing Arts (now Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts) and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and City College of New York.

He made his Off Broadway debut in 1958 in “Golden 6.” His first film role was in Elaine May’s 1971 comedy “A New Leaf.” He appeared on Broadway for the first time in 1973 in Theodore Mann’s Circle in the Square revival of “The Iceman Cometh.”

He had wanted to be an actor since just after World War II, when he was barely a teenager. He and his family were summering at a bungalow colony in northern Westchester called Shrub Oak Park when he auditioned for a play there directed by Dorothy Delman, a Yiddish actress. (At the same colony, the family heard an unknown folk singer named Pete Seeger serenade vacationers with left-wing labor anthems.)

Ms. Delman cast him in the starring role.

“We said, ‘This kid should be an actor,’ ” she recalled, “and I think that’s when the bug got him.”

STEVIE, QUINCY, MANY MORE PAY RESPECTS TO NATALIE COLE

JANUARY 13, 2016
in Category: NEWS

Stevie, Quincy, Many More Pay Respects To Natalie Cole

The funeral of Natalie Cole in Los Angeles on Monday (11) was followed by an equally star-studded private memorial. The singer died on New Year's Eve at 65, of pulmonary arterial hypertension leading to heart failure.

Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were among those paying their respects at the funeral; Mary Wilson, her former colleague in the Supremes, Scherrie Payne, Scherrie's sister Freda, Eddie Levert of the O'Jays and producer David Foster were also in attendance at the service, at West Angeles Church of God in Christ.

Natalie Cole

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The memorial took place at the Crustacean restaurant in Beverly Hills, and was also attended byQuincy Jones, Bobby Brown, songwriter Diane Warren and many others.

Brown sang the Donny Hathaway song 'You Were Meant For Me' and there were performances by Wilson, Freda Payne, Macy Gray,Johnny Gill, Keith Washington and Levert, who sang the O'Jays' 'Love Train' at the request of the crowd.

Cole's son Robert Yancy was also at the memorial, as was her uncle Freddy Cole, who completed the evening with a performance of 'It's Easy To Remember (But So Hard To Forget).'

Cole was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, next to her famous father Nat, mother Maria, sister Carol and brother Kelly.

Knight wrote on her Instagram account that at the end of the year, “I did the last two shows for Natalie [at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles] because she could not perform.

It seems to me like she helped me through those two shows before saying goodbye.

Natalie Cole's son Robbie Yancy speaks at her funeral service.

She was my little sister and truly, truly a talent that will never be duplicated. I will miss her.

No other New Year's Eve performance will mean so much. Please RIP.”

Kat Graham Joins Tupac Movie, Portraying Jada Pinkett Smith (EXCLUSIVE)

Kat Graham

TYLER BOYE/WWD/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
JANUARY 12, 2016 | 10:46AM PT

Dave McNary

Film Reporter@Variety_DMcNary

Kat Graham will portray Jada Pinkett Smith in the Tupac Shakur movie “All Eyez on Me,” Varietyhas learned exclusively.

Smith and Shakur were high school classmates at the Baltimore School for the Arts and remained friends before his 1996 murder. The film is currently shooting in Atlanta.

“All Eyez on Me” chronicles the life and legacy of Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist and actor, his imprisonment and his time at Death Row Records. The film is directed by Benny Boom and stars Demetrius Shipp, Jr. as Tupac and “Walking Dead” star Danai Gurira as Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur.

The film’s title is taken from Shakur’s fourth studio album, which was released in early 1996. The film is produced by James G. Robinson and David Robinson of Morgan Creek Productions along with LT Hutton.

Shakur’s mother Afeni Shakur serves as executive producer. The film will be distributed by Open Road.

Graham can currently be seen on CW’s “The Vampire Diaries.” She released her debut album “Roxbury Drive” and will be releasing new music in the spring. Graham is also executive producing dance drama “From the Top” for the CW with Warner Bros TV.

Graham is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and the law firm Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro & Shulman.

Kate Hudson cuts a sleek silhouette in a one-shoulder party frock as she glams up for fashion bash with gal pal Katy Perry

By BECKY FREETH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 05:10 EST, 13 January 2016 | UPDATED: 06:37 EST, 13

Having kicked off the week with the most glamorous of red carpet appearances, Kate Hudson was on a bit of a roll by Tuesday.

The blonde cut a sleek silhouette in classic black at Stella McCartney's 2016 Fall Presentation party in Los Angeles, rubbing shoulders once again with Hollywood's finest.

Kate, 36, let her hair down with a drink in hand, following up the fun of Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards with a suitably star-studded fashion bash.

Party gals: Kate Hudson (right) partied with Katy Perry (left) on Tuesday night, as they turned out for Stella McCartney's 2016 Fall Presentation party in Los Angeles
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Party gals: Kate Hudson (right) partied with Katy Perry (left) on Tuesday night, as they turned out for Stella McCartney's 2016 Fall Presentation party in Los Angeles

The mum-of-two mingled at Amoeba Music with popstar Katy Perry, fashion fan Nicole Richie, singer Demi Lovato and also television personality Kelly Osbourne.

She parred back her image in a one-shoulder dress that featured a silver detail diagonally down the front and an asymmetric hemline.

Her shoulder-length hairstyle was also kept sleek and simple in a straight fashion, just kissing her shoulders with a flick.

Kate Hudson stuns in black gown at Stella McCartney party
Parred down: The actress wore her hair in a straight, sleek style
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Polished: She added a smokey eye and glossy lip to the beauty look
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Keeping it classic: She picked out a simple, one-shoulder black dress with matching heels

Coincidence? Among other famous friends Jennifer Meyer (second left) and Kelly Osbourne (right), it was a coincidence that Kate was hanging out with rumoured beau Nick Jonas' tour companion Demi Lovato (left)
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Coincidence? Among other famous friends Jennifer Meyer (second left) and Kelly Osbourne (right), it was a coincidence that Kate was hanging out with rumoured beau Nick Jonas' tour companion Demi Lovato (left)

A-list friends: The party also drew attendance from Sophie Lopez (left), Nicole Richie (second left) and Katy (right), who Kate said were all getting a little 'weird' on Instagram
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A-list friends: The party also drew attendance from Sophie Lopez (left), Nicole Richie (second left) and Katy (right), who Kate said were all getting a little 'weird' on Instagram

Katy Perry wears quirky turban to Stella McCartney show

Kate capped off the look with pointed heels and smokey make-up; nicely complementing the designer who she was there to support, Stella.

The British designer took over the psychedelic Hollywood record store, inviting A-listers including Mary J Blige and Joanne Froggatt to snack on pizza, sip on cocktails and enjoy Marilyn Manson's musical stylings as she debuted her new designs.

For Kate and her gal pals, it was an excuse to get a little 'weird' as she shared a snapshot of her party crew with the caption: 'We ❤️ Stella @stellamccartney #GettingWeirdAtAmoeba'

It was a possible coincidence that Kate was seen cosying up to Demi Lovato, who's currently touring with her rumoured beau Nick Jonas.

Covered up: It was a contrast to Kate's abs-flashing look at the Golden Globes
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Toned: Her toned arms were on show in the LBD
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Fun and flirty: She was in a playful mood, spinning around and showing off her shape

Asked about her relationship with the 23-year-old at the glamorous awards bash at the weekend, Kate was forced to deny that they were in love.

Access Hollywood's Billy Bush was determined to get to the bottom of things after the duo were pictured together in January for the first time since their summer fling.

He asked her: '(Are you) in love?' and even though she initially told the newsman to 'stop it,' she eventually said, 'No. Friendly.'

It was reported she had split from her toyboy because she did not want a long-distance relationship while he was on the road with Demi Lovato, and that she 'wanted to pursue multiple people.'

Gwyneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney pose at fashion event
Matchy matchy: Kate complemented designer of the night Stella McCartney (right)
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Matchy matchy: Kate complemented designer of the night Stella McCartney (right)

The one everyone's talking about: The British designer took over the psychedelic Hollywood record store, inviting A-listers including Mary J Blige and Joanne Froggatt to snack on pizza, sip on cocktails and enjoy Marilyn Manson's musical stylings as she debuted her new designs
+9

The one everyone's talking about: The British designer took over the psychedelic Hollywood record store, inviting A-listers including Mary J Blige and Joanne Froggatt to snack on pizza, sip on cocktails and enjoy Marilyn Manson's musical stylings as she debuted her new designs

Sundance: Netflix Buys ‘Tallulah’ With Ellen Page, Allison Janney (EXCLUSIVE)

Tallulah Sundance

COURTESY OF SUNDANCE
JANUARY 12, 2016 | 04:08PM PT

Brent Lang

Senior Film and Media Reporter@BrentALang

The Sundance Film Festival is still a week away, but Netflix isn’t waiting for the throngs to descend on Park City before making a big move.

The streaming giant has snapped up worldwide streaming video on-demand rights to “Tallulah,”Variety has learned. The story of a young drifter (Ellen Page) who takes a baby from a negligent mother was expected to be one of the hot titles at this year’s festival. It reunites Page with her “Juno” co-star Allison Janney.

Janney plays a woman who mistakenly believes she’s the child’s grandmother in what is being billed as a dramatic comedy.

It’s a homecoming of sorts for writer and director Sian Heder. She has a preexisting relationship with Netflix having worked as a writer and producer on “Orange is the New Black.” Her first short film, “Mother,” was honored at Cannes Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and Florida Film Festival.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but insiders pegged the price as being in the mid-seven figures. Theatrical rights to the project are still in play.

The purchase comes as Netflix is moving aggressively to build up its feature film offerings, having scored by backing original television shows such as “House of Cards” and “Daredevil.” The company is currently on the Oscar hunt with last year’s child soldier drama “Beasts of No Nation” and released the Adam Sandler comedy “The Ridiculous 6” in December. Upcoming movies include “War Machine” with Brad Pitt, “Jadotville” with Jamie Dornan, “Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday,” and a sequel to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

“Tallulah” was backed by Route One Entertainment, Maiden Voyages Pictures and Ocean Blue Entertainment. Russell Levine, Heather Rae, Chris Columbus and Todd Traina served as producers. The cast includes John Benjamin Hickey, Zachary Quinto, Uzo Aduba and Tammy Blanchard.

“Sian Heder is an exciting new voice in cinema and I am so proud to see her work continue from writing on the groundbreaking ‘Orange is the New Black’ to writing and directing this heartfelt crowd-pleasing film ‘Tallulah,'” said Levine, CEO of Route One Entertainment. “Audiences worldwide are now going to be able to see Sian’s amazing growth as an artist through the support of Netflix.”

ICM Partners and Good Universe represented the sale of the film.

‘Hail Caesar!’ New Trailer Shows Downside of Hollywood’s Golden Age

[WATCH] 'Hail Caesar' Trailer Shows Downside

COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL
JANUARY 12, 2016 | 09:38AM PT

Dave McNary

Film Reporter@Variety_DMcNary

The latest trailer for the Coen brothers’ comedy “Hail Caesar!” delves into a moment of utter futility in Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The clip shows Ralph Fiennes’ director character trying repeatedly to get the right line reading of “Would that it twere so simple” from an apparently inept actor, played by Alden Ehrenreich, who can’t suppress his southern twang.

Directed and written by Joel and Ethan Coen, the comedy also stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill.

The film follows a day in the life of a studio fixer facing plenty of problems (including Clooney’s character’s kidnapping). The Coens are producing under their Mike Zoss banner along with Working Title Films, and Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.

Universal opens “Hail Caesar!” on Feb. 5.

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Movies

Creed's Ryan Coogler Is Officially Directing Black Panther, Marvel's First Black Superhero Movie

BY
JOSHUA RIVERA
January 12 2016, 6:35 pm ET
black-panther-ryan-coogler-movie.jpg
MARVEL

And this is a great thing.

Marvel movies are clockwork at this point, with two movies based on comic-book superheroes arriving every year right on schedule. They can't fall behind, see—there are Avengers movies that need setting up, and team-ups to be had. Hence the clockwork. Another part of the clockwork: The heroes at the center of these movies are almost invariably white dudes.

Sure, Don Cheadle and Anthony Mackie and Michael Peña get to show up and be sidekicks and tell jokes, but Marvel's black heroes, up until now, don't get their own movies. Black Panther, scheduled to premiere in February 2018, will be the first.

The long wait has been frustrating, but the latest news on the film might make it worth it in the end: Marvel has announced that Creed director Ryan Coogler has been chosen to helm the film based on Marvel's first black superhero.

Creed is a pretty big hit around here—we love just about everything about it, even down to the minutiae of itsscore and style choices. Coogler is two-for-two with his filmography so far (Coogler also directed the equally excellent Fruitvale Station, which also starred Michael B. Jordan), and at 29 years old, he's quickly established himself as one of the most promising young filmmakers out there.

It's also, of course, immensely important to have a black director on board to help bring this movie to life. Played by Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther's real name is T'Challa, and he's the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda—which, in the Marvel Universe, is a country that has long fought off would-be conquerors and prospered as a bastion of learning and technology entirely different (and often more advanced) than the rest of the world's. Early descriptions of Black Panther hint at an origin story of how T'Challa becomes the titular hero, inheriting it after the murder of his father T'Chaka. That Marvel snagged someone as talented as Coogler to help tell the story—after some uncertain chatter late last year and after they couldn't seem to convince Selma director Ava DuVernay—is extremely reassuring for the film's prospects.

Even though Black Panther has already been cast, we can still hope that Coogler will find a way to bring Michael B. Jordan into the movie too, and finally prove that the Rocky movies are set in the Marvel Universe. As for the hero himself, you'll actually get to seem him on screen much sooner than 2018: Black Panther actually has a part in March's Captain America: Civil War. You can even see him in the trailer, drop kicking dudes like it's no big deal.

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Movies

Natalie Dormer's One Weird Trick to Conquer All Fear

It's Woman Crush Wednesday! We talked to Natalie Dormer about Game of Thrones, horror movies, and her Dune tattoo.

Usually, actors cover up their tattoos for their day jobs, but actress Natalie Dormer should petition to keep hers. Though it would look outrageous in the two fantasy universes she famously occupies (The Hunger Game of Thrones) (forgive us), the message applies to both in spades: Dormer’s tattoo says in gentle script: “Fear is the mind-killer.” It’s a quote from Dune, the 1965 Frank Herbert cult classic, and it’s particularly relevant to her most recent movie, a trippy psychological horror movie about a “suicide forest” in Japan called The Forest.

Dormer is quick to apply her ink to her roles. “People say to me, you like to play strong women,” she says, with her correction, “I like to say: I like to play women who are terrified but they find a way through their fear.That’s what the tat on my arm is about. We all feel fear. Fear is a part of human nature; it’s a necessary emotion,” Dormer says. “The secret is not not feeling it, it’s pushing through it. You know?”

Well, now we do! This audacity is the gleam that Dormer brings to her roles. You can see Margaery Tyrell (Game of Thrones) camouflaging her terror under her smooth poise and hoisted corsets. For all of her swagger in Hunger Games, the most punk thing about Cressida is her knowledge of what she’s risking. In The Forest, Dormer plays a twin who knowingly traverses a haunted wilderness to find and save her traumatized sister, braving her way through big terrors at practically every tree.

The Forest is packed with jumpy moments. Do you get fidgety when you watch horror movies?
I’m a chicken. I tend to go and make a cup of tea or pour more wine at choice moments. I have a good tip for people! It’s not about covering your eyes: It’s about putting your hands in your ears. Often, it’s the soundscape that’s the freaky thing. The music builds and you’re not consciously aware that you’re manipulated by the sound design. You get more and more tense. Just cover your ears and you’ll get through it.

There’s so much running in the movie. Was it exhausting?
It was a gift really, because they made an interesting choice to shoot in sequence. You never get to shoot in sequence; it’s almost unheard of. It really helped hair and makeup and costume with the continuity. It helped me mentally and emotionally with this descent into madness. As I got more and more bags under my eyes, as the shoot went on, our makeup artist stopped covering them up.

Margaery has such a contemporary sensitivity in GOT. Do you have any modern touchstones for her personality?
She is a modern characterization, for a medieval role. She does have this win the heart and mind of the people [attitude], which you would see from a First Lady. She’s like Michelle Obama crossed with Kate Middleton or Princess Diana. She has the common people’s touch, while being quite political and savvy at the same time. She’s a hybrid of a few impressive women in powerful positions.

Have you ever imagined what she would she be doing now?
I don’t know if she’d be in politics, because I think she might be too clever almost for that. [Laughs] No rudeness intended to politicians! She’d probably be running a really powerful fashion magazine or lifestyle magazine. Or she’d be a really eminent psychotherapist. She’s really brilliant at locking down what makes people tick and using that as an angle. She’d marry a very powerful man, whether it’s on Wall Street or politics or in the art world. She’d definitely be Ivy League, wouldn’t she? That goes without saying.

KEHLANI-women-crush-wednesday-3x2.jpg
Music

Meet Kehlani, the R&B Newcomer Who Arrived Earlier Than Expected

It's Woman Crush Wednesday! Kehlani talks to GQ about aux cords and Grammy nominations

Kehlani might have magnetic powers.

The 20-year-old R&B singer's New Year’s resolution for 2015 was to go on a headlining tour and sell it out. “And that’s what I did,” she says. She even added a surprise leg in Europe, “which I didn’t expect." Months ago, she talked about wanting a Grammy someday, and before the year was up, she got her first nomination. (She wasn’t envisioning one quite so soon, she says.)

After auditioning for America’s Got Talent with the group PopLyfe in 2011, the then-16-year-old took a break from music after contractual disputes and worked at an ice cream parlor and then a mall Hot Topic. Basic teen stuff. Now, a year out of those moody teens, she’s got a Best Urban Contemporary Album Grammy nod for You Should Be Here, released in April 2015.

wcw-Kehlani-3[1].jpg
TIM MOSENFELDER

Her silky vocals can be most often heard swiping attention from Justin Bieber (on his song "Future") or Chance the Rapper (on her song "The Way"), though her first single, "FWU," was a much bouncier iteration of her doleful vibes. The first time Kehlani heard it on the radio, she was driving with two friends from the Bay to Los Angeles, and their aux cord broke. (Tragedies.) The radio was fuzzed out, and Kehlani had fallen asleep. She woke up to hear her song playing and said, “Y’all just fixed it? Dang." Kehlani continues, doing the voice of her friends: "And they were like, Oh, my god, Kehlani! It’s not the aux cord! This is the radio.” They got out of the car and started “dancing like crazy outside of the gas station. It was just funny because I was really upset about the aux cord.”

You Should Be Here is classic R&B, and Kehlani sings about love and family, mostly. In conversation, she is single-minded about working. Hints of the workaholic come through in her music, especially in her rite-of-passage braggart anthem "How That Taste." Even in one of her most relationship-oriented songs, "Jealous," she sings, "I built a lab up in the crib so I don’t leave all day." She just got her own home in a quiet neighborhood in L.A., where she lives with her team: her photographer, producer, assistant, little brother, and an artist she’s coaching. They wake up, have breakfast, and brainstorm while they’re eating. The house is filled with vision boards for tour plans, marketing ideas, music they should listen to. She runs merch out of her garage, and she has a studio in the back where she’s going to record right after we’re finished speaking.

“We try to do everything like it’s headquarters. It’s not lavish for now; I just want to work,” she says. “My neighbors have kids that get up and go to school. The guy down the street, I think he owns a hearse company. There are like five hearses by my house.” What a time to be alive.

Last year, she was living in an apartment that belonged to her mentor, Nick Cannon, who supported her artistic development after meeting her during her America's Got Talent audition. This is the first house she’s ever lived in. It's a big leap, she says, from shared rooms, shared beds, and couch-crashing. “I have my room where I can put my stuff down, I can decorate the room, I can shut the door," she says, "and I paid for it! It’s amazing.”

She's less interested in the mechanics of home decor than in living in the physical manifestation of her hard work and planning. “I’m super logical. Anytime anyone says anything, I’m like: who, what, when, where, why. Anytime something would happen, I would think, this is the lesson.” She’s logical about categorizing herself, too; when I ask what she thinks of her being labeled as a ...” artist (a major artist with indie background), she says, “I don’t think I’m mainstream. I don’t have a hit single or something on consistent rotation. I’m at the top of the underground.”

Rick Springfield “Lights The Party Up” For Sioux Falls, SD

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Side Stage Magazine in Live Shows, Reviews

January 7, 2016

Badlands Pawn, Gold and Rock n’ Roll

Sioux Falls, SD

Written By: Elsa Martinez

His career spans decades in music, movies, TV, and as an author. Yet his music and his fans are still here and still amazing! Selling over 15 million albums, touring the world and being on film, everyone knows his best by his megahit “Jessie’s Girl”

His full band show was the first showcased at the Badlands venue in Sioux Falls, SD for their “Thursday Night Live” event. This amazing new venue is by far one of the best places I have seen a show. It is big enough to bring in big names in music, but small enough to make it an intimate experience with the performers. Before the show, Rick (Springfield) requested that the front barriers be removed so the fans could stand at the stage, which made it even more intimate.

With a new album ready to drop on February 19, 2016, his tour is going through March 19th, with a mixture of full band (plugged) shows and “stripped down” (acoustic) shows. At 66 years old, “two-thirds evil,” as he told the crowd, he is still jumping around on stage and running out into the crowd, as he did during “Human Touch” and his signature rose-thrashing on his guitar, in which he has jokingly called himself the “Morticia Adams of rock and roll”.

If the atmosphere was not filled with screams when he took the stage, they surely did fill the room when he took his jacket off to reveal his not-so-60’s ripped biceps.

Although most of the crowd was undoubtedly there to see him perform “Jessie’s Girl”, they all found themselves singing along to the other songs just as loudly. He has proven time and time again that he is not just a heartthrob, but he can also bring a high-energy set with his hits like “Love is Alright” and “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, but with incredible guitar-shredding songs like “Wipeout” and “Pipeline” by The Ventures.

He closed the show with a video teaser of clips from various movies and shows that had stars singing “Jessie’s Girl”, like Hot tub Time Machine, and two of his other hits “I’ll Make You Happy” and “Kristina”, which incidentally was his opening song back in his 80’s heydays. All in all, seeing him live, you would not even think that he was in his 60’s and still churning out hits just like he has been since the 70’s, but his charisma and talent is clear and I look forward to hearing his new release next month.

Set List:

-Light this party up (from his new album “Rocket Science” release date Feb 19, 2016)

-I’ve done everything for you

-I get excited

-Down (from his new album “Rocket Science” release date Feb 19, 2016)

-Affair of the heart

-Roar (Katy Perry)

-Ships sinking

-Medley of songs (Bop ‘Til You Drop / Celebrate Youth / Calling All Girls / Jessie’s Girl / Don’t Walk Away / State of the Heart / What Kind of Fool Am I)

-Love is alright

-Guitar solo / Pipeline / Wipeout

– Wild thing

-Don’t talk to strangers

-Human touch

-Love somebody

Encore:

– (Intro to Jessie’s Girl – video snippets of movies and shows where people sang the song)

-Jessie’s Girl

-I’ll make you happy

-Kristina

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Reply #102 posted 01/13/16 4:23pm

Identity

[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/OYJbOY8.jpg?1[/img:$uid]


Time magazine just released the cover of its Jan. 25 issue, on newsstands this Friday, featuring an iconic image from the Trunk Achive of the late David Bowie. Shot by fashion photographer Herb Ritts in 1989.

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JoeBala

Gospel singer Joe Moscheo of The Imperials dies at 78

Dave Paulson, dnpaulson@tennessean.com3:44 p.m. CST January 12, 2016
Joe-Moscheo.jpg

(Photo: Submitted)

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Gospel Music Hall of Famer and music executive Joe Moscheo — who sang with Elvis Presley as a member of gospel group The Imperials — died Monday at age 78.

Mr. Moscheo had been battling a degenerative neurological disease for several years and had been hospitalized after emergency surgery Dec. 30.

Mr. Moscheo's career with The Imperials began in 1964 as a singer, keyboard player and arranger. The group first worked with Presley in the recording studio on several sessions in the mid-'60s. In 1969, Presley invited them to be his backup vocal group at his residency in Las Vegas. That gig lasted until 1971, and their association with "The King" forever changed Mr. Moscheo and his bandmates' careers.

"There's only about 50 of us that ever had the opportunity to perform with him onstage," Mr. Moscheo told The Tennessean in 2007. "It's an honor and such a memory that is uniquely (mine). It certainly has changed my life; I am grateful for it."

His career had many more notable chapters after his time with Presley and The Imperials. In 1978 he joined BMI and served as vice president of special projects, staying with the company for 16 years. His career also included time as president/board member of the Gospel Music Association, the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the W.O. Smith/Nashville Community Music School.

Mr. Moscheo was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and had previously been inducted as a member of The Imperials.

Joe Moscheo, a former member of the gospel group TheBuy Photo

Joe Moscheo, a former member of the gospel group The Imperials, here in his office July 8, 1996, was hired to head First Union Bank's new entertainment/music division. (Photo: P. Casey Daley / The Tennessean)


In 1998, Mr. Moscheo toured with "Elvis The Concert," which combined live musicians with video of Presley. He also wrote the book "The Gospel Side of Elvis," drawing on his time with the rock legend.

"I think (Presley) is the greatest gospel singer who ever lived because of the work he left behind. His Grammys are only for gospel," he told The Tennessean in 2007. "I think he would have been a gospel singer at age 72. Rock 'n' roll would have probably passed him by, but he would still be singing 'How Great Thou Art.' "

Funeral arrangements have not been announced. In lieu of flowers, Mr. Moscheo's family requests that donations be made to the Music Health Alliance, the Opry Trust Fund, MusiCares and the Gospel Music Association Trust.

5 Reasons You Need to Start Watching Mozart in the Jungle

By Christine N. Ziemba | December 31, 2015 | 3:00pm
TV | LISTS
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5 Reasons You Need to Start Watching <i>Mozart in the Jungle</i>

The second season of Amazon’s original series Mozart in the Jungle is officially streaming, and if you haven’t been watching this Golden Globe-nominated television series, then now’s the time to start. The show is a delightful look at what happens behind-the-scenes of a fictional New York orchestra, beginning with the fallout after an older conductor (played by Malcolm McDowell) is pushed out in favor of younger blood—in new, long-haired, yerba mate-drinking conductor Rodrigo (who naturally goes by first name only). The second season finds Rodrigo trying to stay at the top of his game, while bringing the orchestra to top form. Classical music purists probably pooh-pooh the bad form and faux-playing of the actors portraying professional musicians, but most of the audience won’t notice because the characters are entertaining, intriguing and get to speak well-crafted and witty dialogue.

Here are five more reasons to start watching Mozart in the Jungle.

1. Gael García Bernal’s creative genius is more endearing than tormented.

We’ve seen enough of the tortured, slightly misanthropic creative geniuses on TV for awhile. While Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on House, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) on The Mentalist, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) on Elementary and Rainn Wilson from the short-lived Fox series Backstrom, were captivating, their rough edges sometimes wore thin. Bernal’s “Rodrigo” is just as creative and intriguing as the aforementioned antiheroes, but so far, the mad conductor is free of the depressing emotional baggage. The character still has his issues and a weird past life, but Rodrigo walks the fine line between creativity and crazy. To the actor’s credit, he keeps Rodrigo’s eccentricities in check, and the character remains endearing and relatable to the audience—even when he’s conversing with the long-dead composers (Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) who pop-up from time to time. We’re not the only ones to notice his excellent performance; Bernal is up for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

2. Mozart exposes the underbelly of classical music.

The Amazon show is based on oboist Blair Tindall’s memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music. She spent several decades with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony as well as in the orchestral pits on Broadway, and pulled back the curtain on the gray-haired, fuddy duddy facade that’s generally associated with the classical music world. In addition to introducing audiences to the basics of classical music with Mozart and Mahler, the show also features and discusses lesser-known composers like Jean Sibelius and John Cage. The series naturally plays up stories of sexual relationships between the players (along with the accompanying drugs and the party life) but also adds a dash of real-world issues facing orchestras everywhere. There are eye-opening scenes of musicians dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis, union negotiations concerned with pay, bathroom breaks and health care, as well as fundraising lunches, patron receptions and the myriad other ways orchestras beg for survival by way of donations from the one percenters.

3. A-listers aplenty

The talent behind the series is just as impressive as the cast. Mozart is created by Paul Weitz (Grandma, About a Boy), Roman Coppola (screenwriter for Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited), Tony-nominated writer and director Alex Timbers and Jason Schwartzman (who also stars as podcaster B Sharpe). The are also the hands-on executive producers who’ve written and/or directed a number of episodes. Schwartzman even earned his first directing credit for the second season’s fourth episode, “Touché Maestro, Touché.”

4. Well-developed female characters

Though the core cast of the series is lacking in racial diversity, the featured female characters, in particular, are fantastically well-rounded. Lola Kirke plays Hailey the orchestra’s newbie oboe player and Rodrigo’s assistant. She may be an ingenue, but Hailey’s not a shrinking violet, either. She can quietly stand up for herself, but also understands her place in the pecking order, deferring to the sage advice of the veteran players. She’s always up for new experiences and isn’t quite sure about fully committing to her relationship with her dancer boyfriend; in essence, she’s a typical 20-something in the city. Equally impressive is Saffron Burrows as the cellist Cynthia who’s the cool, calm voice of reason among the players. She’s the longtime, on-and-off mistress to conductor emeritus Thomas (Malcolm McDowell), but look for sparks to fly between Cynthia and union lawyer Nina (Gretchen Mol) in season two. Also adding to the roster of great female characters is Broadway veteran Bernadette Peters as the symphony’s president, Gloria, who’s wrangling rich donors to keep the orchestra afloat. Her character blossoms personally in season two—and we even get to hear Peters sing. Debra Monk is also notable as first chair oboist Betty, who’s been around the block or two. She’s prickly toward newcomer Hailey, but it comes from a place of self-preservation. She knows that her livelihood is threatened, and there aren’t a lot of options for old oboe players.

5. The guests and cameos are awesome.

Mozart in the Jungle included a great roster of guest actors and cameo appearances by classical music stars in season one. There were memorable turns by American Idol-turned Broadway star Constantine Maroulis as a histrionic Oedipus, John Hodgman as a wealthy patron and Wallace Shawn as a neurotic pianist. The trend continues in season two, with Gustavo Dudamel popping up in for a fun role in the first episode, “Stern Papa,” playing opposite Bernal. (The character of Rodrigo is loosely based on Dudamel.) Look for music greats Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell and Dermot Mulroney, playing a bad boy cellist, to all appear in Schwartzman’s episode, “Touché Maestro, Touché.”

The new season of Mozart in the Jungle is available on Amazon Prime, beginning on Dec. 30.

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JoeBala

'Teachers': TV Review

1/13/2016 by Tim Goodman

Courtesy of TV Land
A very funny look at the weirder side of schoolteachers. TWITTER
1/13/2016

TV Land's new comedy about elementary school teachers should immediately be added to your pile of must-see shows.

Credit TV Land with continuing an impressive upgrade of its programming as it launches a very promising and funny new sitcom in Teachers on Wednesday, right after the second-season premiere of Younger, one of 2015’s pleasant surprises.

Created by the ensemble comedy troupe The Katydids (Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien, Kathryn Renee Thomas — yes, all names deriving from Katherine),Teachers is a wonderfully loose and hysterical look at six less-than-textbook elementary school teachers whose wayward personal lives spill into their school work.

Executive produced by The Katydids, Alison Brie (Mad Men, Community) and Ian Roberts and Jay Martel (both from Key & Peele), it's an unexpected little gem you should add to your piled-high stack of series to watch.

The investment is worth it as four episodes of Teachers proved The Katydids (who created, wrote and of course perform every episode) completely understand where this series lives. There was no learning curve, no drastic tone changes in any of the episodes. From the get-go they nailed the slightly-off, hilarious messiness behind the veneer of the sweet middle-school teacher.

The series deftly juggles the narrative elements of the simple episode arcs (picture day, anti-bullying campaign, superintendent school inspection, etc.) with a plethora of searing one-liners exchanged among themselves, with the students or with Principal Pearson (Tim Bagley). It immediately has a loose, lived-in feel that some sitcoms take multiple episodes to achieve (if they ever get the balance right).

Because Teachers is a cable comedy (and airs after 10), it doesn’t have to tame itself down, yielding instances where the characters can defy school-teacher stereotypes (which certainly helps if your competition is coming primarily from Comedy Central’s more established, equally fearless offerings).

The pilot opens with Ms. Snap (Colloton) talking with Ms. Feldman (Freedman) at recess: “So I went out with a drug dealer”, before interrupting herself to yell “Jared S.! — make better choices!” The Katydids succeed in defining the characters pretty easily, and viewers will quickly get a sense of each, including the earnest but off-the-mark Ms. Feldman, who often skates through the day missing chances to actually teach. During one scene that finds her discussing art in class, one student starts talking about Pollock and Kandinsky before she cuts him off sweetly and says, “If anyone has an extra video game, it sounds like Lucas could really use one.”

Colloton’s Ms. Snap is the de-facto leader of the teachers (which is basically a clique with a hierarchy), whose narcissistic tendencies lead her to repeatedly scold a young girl who draws unflattering pictures of her. In one episode, she films a video in hopes of getting on The Bachelor.

Ms. Cannon (Barlow) is the politically correct, vegan teacher — though when she tries to prove that cliques are mean she really goes off the rails. Ms. Watson (Lambert) is the hopeless romantic still reeling from being dumped, who constantly and inappropriately discusses said rejection with her students and desperately “needs a win.” This is especially true after the school’s mascot iguana dies and the school district’s elderly grief counselor, sent to make the kids feel better, also dies in front of her class, leading to parent-teacher phone calls (“The children witnessed a couple of deaths today …”).

Ms. Bennigan (O’Brien) has low self-esteem, is incredibly naive and gullible while also being “deeply yearning,” a wonderful Katydids euphemism for desperately wanting to get laid and find love. Mrs. Adler (Thomas) is a combination of dark (stealing from the lost-and-found) and needy (she was bullied in school so she heads up the “Stop Teasing and Bullying” campaign, aka STAB) and has a notable run-in with Brie (in a pilot cameo): Brie’s character says, “Based on your eyeliner, I can see you’re still angry.”

All six of the Katydids pop with strong comedic performances inTeachers, giving you faith that there will be no lag in this 10-episode first season. And the series also benefits greatly from casting kids who aren’t annoying and also knowing how often to employ them in the jokes. Yes, it’s a crazy cluttered TV landscape out there, butTeachers is a keeper with considerable comic potential.

Best of 2015 Second Opinion: On You’re the Worst andTogetherness

By Eric Walters | December 29, 2015 | 12:05pm
TV | FEATURES

Best of 2015 Second Opinion: On <i>You&#8217;re the Worst</i> and <i>Togetherness</i>

Earlier this month, Paste unveiled its annual list of the 25 best television shows of the year. It’s a treasure trove of great comedies, dramas and a few that defy categorization. But, as with any list attempting to be definitive, particularly one in the era of peak TV, there were notable omissions. The opening paragraph pleads us to understand how difficult it is to put a list like this together, to understand the byproduct of abundant, great TV means your favorite may not make an appearance on the ubiquitous year-end lists. It’s true, but it doesn’t matter. My heart was broken by the third sentence.

“Seriously, why aren’t more people watching You’re the Worst?”

Stephen Falk’s sly comedy premiered during a television season in which network executives tapped love to find their next big hit. The result was a slew of candy-coated series that didn’t portray anything contiguous to modern love, so much as perverted fantasies. Falk’s approach was poles apart. In You’re the Worst he made no attempt to manufacture a fairy tale, instead giving us two fully realized and often despicable human beings in Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere) and Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash).

The ten-episode first season played out like a comedy fever dream, producing some of the best moments the genre has seen in recent memory. But, once the premiere run wrapped, Falk made little promise the show would stand pat. Season two would be darker and more dramatic, altering the framework of the series which, while not devoid of drama, often handled seriousness with a grin.

You’re the Worst’s sophomore effort was much more than a simple uptick in drama. There were copious ways to increase the stakes, given that it revolved around a relationship one slip from becoming toxic, thus the decision to reveal Gretchen’s chronic depression was a genuine surprise. It brought the series into a new class of television show, one that is not only worth your viewing, but essential.

Its courageous take on depression and the affect it has on a person, as well as their relationships, was monumental. The second season was not without its hiccups shifting to a more serious tone but, once the cause was revealed, focus crystallized and all the frustration that stemmed from questioning Gretchen’s late night jaunts into the Hollywood hills for a good cry melted away. The apex came in week nine, when the show abandoned all pretenses by offering one of the most beautiful episodes of the year, comedy or drama.

“LCD Soundsystem” was an exploration of desperation as Gretchen, looking for any positivity in her situation, attached herself to a deluded idea in the form of a couple living in her neighborhood. From the outside, Rob and Lexi (terrific guest spots from Justin Kirk and Tara Summers) were perfect. Young and in love with a gorgeous child, they were an ideal Gretchen could aspire to. They exuded a breezy happiness antithetic to the emotional impasse depression often causes, in which a person may have little reason to be unhappy, but can’t find a way to get out of bed. The brilliance of the episode was how it managed to key viewers into both sides of the situation. We knew and understood Gretchen’s elation at the possibility of finding some sort of answer, all the while aware it was nothing more than a fallacy. It was impossible not to hope that Rob and Lexi were the perfection she sought, which made it all the harder to watch once the cracks began to show. Of course, Rob and Lexi were a broken pair, in the same way Jimmy and Gretchen, or just about any of us are. The moment of realization was more than sobering; it was utter devastation and a complete gut punch for those of us watching at home.

Basing the merit of a show on a single episode is ludicrous, and even one as good as “LCD Soundsystem” is not enough to earn You’re the Worst a spot on the Best of 2015 list. Luckily, the season had numerous half-hours that coalesced to create one of the most rewarding viewing experiences of the year. The amount of growth displayed, diegetically and otherwise, was astounding. “The Sweater People,” the season’s premiere episode, was riotous. A breakneck 30 minutes that dared you not to split your sides. “Other Things You Could Be Doing,” the year’s penultimate episode, was sweet and gentle, the most affectionate episode the series has ever had. The dichotomy between the two, and the mere 10 episodes that separated them, is a testament to what Falk and company were able to create in 2015. Each episode feels distinct, to the point that it’s hard to imagine them coming from the same show, let alone the same season. The fact they work together, and don’t signal a production off the rails, but one becoming more daring, is extraordinary.

None of it would have been possible without strong performances from Chris Geere, Kether Donohue, Desmin Borges and, in particular, Aya Cash. She is unlikely to be recognized by any major awards, but Cash deserves a mountain range of praise for her work in the second season—which is why it’s some consolation that she cracked the top 10 of our Best TV Characters of 2015 list. So much of the show’s primary thread rested on her shoulders, and she displayed impeccable dexterity, moving Gretchen from anxiety-ridden adult stuck in prolonged adolescence, to something far more powerful and, ultimately, poignant.

You’re the Worst’s first season may be funnier and more palatable than it’s second go-around, but season two is the one to be remembered. It moved the show from a wicked comedy, poking fun at the glut of sweet love we’re subjected to on screens large and small, and made it something far more flexible. It found a surprising purpose, and handled it with an impressive amount of wit and heart. I won’t deny that the 25 shows listed as the best of the year are great in their own right, but nothing made me laugh as hard as this one, only softening me up for the eventual punch to the heart.

TOGETHERNESS-best-of-2015.jpg

FX wasn’t the only network cultivating powerful television from the fertile ground of love in 2015. One of the year’s quietest, and best, performers was HBO’s Togetherness. From Jay and Mark Duplass, Togetherness revolves around four middle-aged characters stuck in a rut. Brett and Michelle Pierson (the fantastic Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey) have been together for a decade, have two kids and are in an implacable lull. Alex Pappas (the show’s standout, Steve Zissis) and Tina Morris (Amanda Peet, doing the best work of her career) are two people who’ve become unmoored, suffocated by lack of direction.

The eight-episode first season does not hesitate to let the viewer know it has a bigger agenda beyond making them laugh. Togetherness is an emotionally taxing experience, unrelenting in its honesty. Where others might dance around the tough subjects between two characters, or devise absurd scenarios for them to deal with an issue, the Duplass brothers face it head on. The show is not afraid of the tough conversation, it revels in it, and so do its actors.

A series built on the complex emotions that grow out of years of frustrated routine and failure cannot succeed if it doesn’t have the performers to breathe life into the conversations that result from lovers growing apart. Mark Duplass is phenomenal as buttoned-up vegan Brett, who begins to unhinge as the season wears on. Lynskey brings a wealth of humanity to Michelle, a mother and wife tortured by her disappointment in a marriage that’s lost its sizzle, even more anguished when an exciting man (John Ortiz) enters the fray. Tina, a character that could have been grating, is grounded by Peet, who plays her as a woman at the end of her rope, ready to settle for easy security over something truer.

The series’ best performer, however, is far and away Steve Zissis, as struggling actor Alex Pappas. Zissis, who is also credited as a co-creator, shone as Alex transformed from a man without hope to one with clear purpose. He’s the funniest character on the show, but nothing close to pure comic relief. Alex had some of the most endearing, fist-pumping and heartbreaking moments, given weight thanks to Zissis’ commitment. Easily one of the best new characters on television in 2015, if Brett and Michelle are the heart of Togetherness, Alex is its soul.

What I remembered most most about HBO’s lithe comedy was its brave approach to serious moments but, upon a second viewing, the humor stood out. It is a sneaky funny series that may not make you howl the same way You’re the Worst does, but is so well written and clever that you’re certain to laugh. The comedy can get lost in the shuffle because of how well the show combines its serious and comedic elements. In the penultimate episode “Party Time” Brett tripped on mushrooms in one of the most delightful moments of the year, a moment that sobered when he returned home to Michelle. The whimsical drug escapade turned on a dime into one of the season’s most harrowing conversations that pushed Brett and Michelle’s marriage to the brink. Togetherness’ ability to combine emotions fluidly is its strongest trait, and it does it better than just about anything on television.

Like You’re the Worst, Togetherness had one episode that stood above the rest, the season capper “Not So Together,” which stands as the most beautiful thing the Duplass brothers have made. But unlike its FX contemporary, the HBO comedy was not prone to the occasional lapse or growing pain. From episode one to eight, the series displayed sterling confidence and maintained a consistent high, which resulted in one of the most affecting viewing experiences of 2015. It is the most thoughtful, emotionally resonant show of the year, and undoubtedly one of 2015’s best. Ranking eighth on Paste’s list of the 15 Best New TV shows is a hollow reward, as it deserved to be considered among the year’s top efforts, and not doing so is an absolute crime.

As I watched the season’s gorgeous dagger of a final shot, Brett driving through the Californian night toward his wife who was indulging in the embrace of another man, I could not help myself from screaming. In a grand total of four hours, Togetherness connected me, and I imagine all those who watched, to its world and characters more than any show this year. If that doesn’t make it one of the best of 2015, nothing can.

Eric Walters is the Assistant Tech Editor for Paste and a regular contributor to the TV section. For more of his thoughts on comic book television, listen to his podcast.

Game of Silence Preview
Courtesy of NBC

Game of Silence Promises Season 1 Payoff, 'Shocking' Set-Up for Future

By Matt Webb Mitovich / January 13 2016, 4:06 PM PST

Though NBC’s upcoming Game of Silence revolves around one central mystery, its freshman run will offer resolution — while also setting the stage for any possible second season.

Adapted by executive producer David Hudgins from the Turkish series Suskunlar,Game of Silence stars David Lyons (Revolution) as Jackson Brooks, a rising star attorney whose perfect life is at risk of being upended when two childhood pals, Gil and Shawn (played by Once Upon a Time‘s Michael Raymond-James and Rescue Me‘s Larenz Tate), resurface with a powder keg of a problem that threatens to dredge back up a very tragic part of their past. Bre Blair (Make It or Break It) co-stars as Jessie, married Jackson’s onetime crush.

By the end of its yet-to-be-scheduled 10-episode Season 1, “You get a result and you get a payoff,” Hudgins affirmed on Wednesday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, “but it’s also an ending that people will find shocking and enjoyable… open[ing] up the world to a whole other level.”

Or as Raymond-James put it, “Those answers that [viewers] get this season lead tonew questions.”

To differentiate Game of Silence from its source material as well as give it extra legs, Hudgins added “a whole level of conspiracy” involving the former warden and guards of the juvenile detention facility where Jackson and his friends served a literally torturous, abuse-laden nine-month sentence for a prank-gone-very wrong.

Also, to complement flashbacks that chronicle the lead characters’ long-ago ordeal, Hudgins also introduced a third, more recent timeline that injects an added twist and tension to the current-day events, as Jackson struggles to manage the crisis dropped at his feet by Gil and Shawn.

Though Jackson’s priorities don’t immediately sync up with that of his onetime friends, the fact is that what they went through as kids has forged a connection that no amount of selfish self-protection can supersede.

“‘Friends are relatives that you choose for yourself,’ and that trauma that happened [created] a bond that will forever hold them together,” Raymond-James said. He then added, “There is friction” upon their reunion as adults, “but it’s all in trying to move forward and pick up the pieces, collectively.”

Picking up these pieces, however, may be far, far easier said than done. Said exec producer/CSI vet Carol Mendelsohn, “That question of ‘Does the punishment fit the crime?’ and ‘Can you ever give a younger person back their innocence?… It permeates everything.”

HBO's "True Blood" Final Season Premiere - Arrivals
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Rutina Wesley Lands Lead in OWN's Ava DuVernay Drama Queen Sugar

By Michael Slezak / January 13 2016, 12:44 PM PST

Life is about to get a whole lot sweeter for True Blood‘s Rutina Wesley.

The actress has landed a starring role in Queen Sugar, the new OWN drama from director Ava DuVernay (Selma).

Wesley will play Nova Bordelon, described in a network release as “a formidable journalist and activist based in New Orleans. Her life, and that of her brother and their extended family, undergoes significant change when her sister, Charley, returns to Louisiana from Los Angeles to help run the family sugarcane farm.”

Based on Natalie Baszile’s novel of the same name, Queen Sugar will be executive-produced by DuVernay, who wrote the pilot episode and will direct multiple Season 1 episodes, and Oprah Winfrey.

Wesley most recently recurred on Season 3 of Hannibal and guest-starred on a recent episode of Arrow.

TV Review: TV Land’s ‘Younger,’ Season 2, ‘Teachers’

Younger Teachers TV Review TV Land

COURTESY OF TV LAND
JANUARY 11, 2016 | 07:30AM PT
TV Columnist

Brian Lowry

TV Columnist@blowryontv

The new, somewhat improved TV Land brings back a comedy that was one of 2015’s pleasant surprises, “Younger,” and introduces another that scores high marks for audacious humor, “Teachers,” featuring improv group the Katydids. Combined, they certainly represent a step up in class for a network once most frequently associated with “Andy Griffith Show” reruns. Yet in a sign of how quickly things can change, the new show exhibits the greater promise, while Darren Star’s series, although still fun and watchable, already feels as if repetition is causing it to not age particularly well.


Actually, even an admirer of “Younger’s” first season could see trouble ahead, inasmuch as the story felt very much like the kind of romantic comedy that’s neatly resolved after 90 minutes or so. Instead, season 2 finds Liza (Sutton Foster) seeking to perpetuate her masquerade as a twentysomething assistant at a New York publisher, when she’s in fact 40 and the mother of a college-age kid.

REVIEW:‘Younger’

Liza finally came out, as it were, at the end of season one to her hunky tattoo artist boyfriend, Josh (Nico Tortorella), but continues to deceive everyone at work, as well as her just-back-home-from-India daughter (Tessa Albertson), who doesn’t know (at least in the three previewed episodes) about mom’s double life of worrying about age lines, mixed with Jell-O shots. The main source of friction thus becomes Josh’s bouts of discomfort — or sometimes just Liza’s insecurities regarding them — over dating a woman whom his roommate describes as a “sexual grifter.”

Because the romantic aspect has begun to grow tedious, there’s more pressure on the workplace setting, which, fortunately, mostly delivers, without deviating much from season one. That includes the outlines of a triangle involving Liza’s prickly boss, Diana (Miriam Shor), and the company’s big cheese (Peter Hermann), who would be a more age-appropriate option for Liza, at least in her eyes, if only she could tell everyone the truth. Meanwhile, she’s still a sort of middle woman in the generational combat that takes place, with not-really-peer Kelsey (Hilary Duff) advocating in the premiere to do an edgier book aimed at millennials that Diana dismisses as “pornographic Internet nonsense.”

“Younger” remains slick and modestly sexy, but Liza’s predicament — basically a “Working Girl” ruse, with an age-discrimination riff built into it — always seemed to come with an expiration date. TV Land clearly isn’t concerned, having already ordered a third season. But in terms of maintaining its initial kick, it’s hard to see how this pleasant-enough series has a whole bunch of new chapters left in it.

“Teachers,” by contrast, yields a pretty consistent assault of laughs, thanks to the Katydids, six women whose names all happen to sound like some variation of “Kate.” Joined as teachers at Fillmore Elementary School, the characters bring their ample baggage into the workplace, from using their students to help stalk an old boyfriend to taping an audition video for “The Bachelor” on the premises.

The writing is fast, dry and filled with solid gags. Working with actress Alison Brie and the producers behind “Key & Peele” to create a baker’s dozen-sized army of executive producers, the six stars — Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien, and Kathryn Renee Thomas — simply inhabit these unhappy souls, while tossing out lines to their shell-shocked students like “I’m not going to be reading you any fairy tales, because they’re lies,” and “So I went out with a drug dealer. Jarrod S.! Make a better choice!”

The comedy largely holds up through four previewed episodes, which include Brie guest starring as a former high-school mean girl and Rob Riggle as an especially creepy school photographer. The show also does a fine job casting the assorted kids, with Tim Bagley as the understandably stressed-out principal.

Perhaps foremost, “Teachers” takes an awfully familiar-sounding log-line and makes it feel fresh through sheer execution, thanks to the writing and wonderfully droll tone. So when a colleague says, “Good luck finding a woman who has low enough self-esteem to enable you,” the walking emotional doormat obsessed with the hot dad brightly responds, “I’ll do it!”

In addition, the show seems to have weathered an at-best spotty track record for Web series seeking to make the leap to TV. Of course, it’s still early in the school year to pass out any gold stars, but in terms of acing the midterm, the Katydids have, indeed, done it.

TV Review: TV Land's 'Younger,' Season 2, 'Teachers'

(Series; TV Land, Wed. Jan. 13, 10 p.m./11 p.m.)

Production

Produced by Darren Star Prods. and Jax Media. /// Produced by Martel & Roberts Prods.

Crew

Executive producers, Darren Star, Tony Hernandez, Dottie Dartland Zicklin, Eric Zicklin; supervising producer, Rick Singer; director, Steven Tsuchida; writer, Star; camera, John Thomas; production designer, Ray Kluga; editor, Alex Minnick; music, Chris Alan Lee; casting, Bonnie Finnegan, Steven Jacobs. 30 MIN. /// Executive producers, Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien, Kathryn Renée Thomas, Alison Brie, Ian Roberts, Jay Martel, Matt Miller, Matt Abramson, David Brixton, Alex Fendrich; co-executive producers, Jaime Burke, Amy Kim, Jill Cargerman; producer, Keith Raskin; director, Richie Keen; writers, the Katydids; camera, John Tanzer; production designer, Elvis Strange; editor, Frank McGrath; music, Joshua Funk; casting, Sherie Jane Hernandez. 30 MIN.

Cast

Sutton Foster, Hilary Duff, Debi Mazar, Miriam Shor, Nico Tortorella, Peter Hermann, Tessa Albertson /// Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien, Kathryn Renee Thomas, Tim Bagley

EXCLUSIVE
Friends Reunion on NBC
Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Friends Cast Reunion Coming to NBC

By Michael Ausiello / January 13 2016, 9:16 AM PST

They’ll be there for you, this February on NBC.

The Friends cast is reuniting on their old network next month for a two-hour special that pays tribute to veteran sitcom director James Burrows, who recently helmed his 1,000th TV episode (15 of which were Friends).

The telecast, which is being likened to last February’s high-rated Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, will also reunite the casts of other landmark Burrows series, including Taxi, Cheers, Frasier and Will & Grace. The stars of more recent Burrows programs, including The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly, will also appear.

I’m told the entire Friends crew — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry — will be on hand for the reunion-palooza.

Burrows hit the milestone 1,000 mark last November when he directed an episode of NBC’s midseason comedy Crowded.

The star-studded special is slated to tape later this month in Los Angeles and air on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 9/8c.

Heroes Reborn Cancelled

Courtesy of NBC

Heroes Reborn Not Getting a Season 2

By Michael Ausiello / January 13 2016, 10:15 AM PST

Confirmed: Next week’s Heroes Reborn season finale will be a series finale.

“As far as I know there are no more incarnations of Heroes coming,” NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told reporters Wednesday at the Television Critics Assoc. winter press tour in Pasadena, adding that it was “always the plan” to do just one season “unless [series creator] Tim [Kring] woke up one day and said, ‘Oh, I have another chapter to tell.’

“I think we’re coming to the end… of the world, maybe,” Greenblatt added with a smirk. “Stay tuned.”

The revival premiered in September to 6.1 million total viewers and a 2.0 demo rating; it resumed its season on Jan. 7 with 3.7 mil and a 1.0.

Heroes Reborn‘s climax airs Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8/7c.

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Run-D.M.C., Linda Ronstadt to get Lifetime Grammys

Other 2016 honorees include jazz great Herbie Hancock, pioneering San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane, Latin vocal legend Celia Cruz, R&B dynamo Ruth Brown and Earth, Wind & Fire

Mugshot of George Varga
By George Varga | 8:29 a.m. Jan. 13, 2016
In this Feb. 25, 2002, file photo, Hip hop pioneers RUN-DMC, from left, the late Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, and Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons create handprints in cement as they are inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Krista Niles, file)
In this Feb. 25, 2002, file photo, Hip hop pioneers RUN-DMC, from left, the late Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, and Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons create handprints in cement as they are inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Krista Niles, file) — AP

Genre-leaping singer Linda Ronstadt and New York hip-hop legends Run-D.M.C. head the list of artists who have been chosen to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards next month at the Grammy Awards' annual Special Merit Awards ceremony.

Run-D.M.C. will become the first hip-hop act to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was introduced in 1962 to honor "performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording." The hip-hop trio was launched in 1982 in Queens, N.Y., by rappers Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels, and DJ Jason "Jam Master" Jay, who died in 2002.

Other 2016 honorees include jazz great Herbie Hancock, pioneering San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane, Latin vocal legend Celia Cruz, R&B dynamo Ruth Brown and Earth, Wind & Fire. All of them will be feted at an invitation-only ceremony, along with this year's Trustees and Technical Grammy award recipients.

The invitation-only Special Awards ceremony is typically held the day before the Grammy Awards telecast, the latter of which this year takes place on Feb. 15 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Recording Academy, under whose auspices the Grammys and the Special Merit Awards ceremonies are held, announced the Special Merit recipients Wednesday morning, but did not give a date or location. Those details are pending.

In a statement hailing this year's honorees, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow said: "Each year, The Academy has the distinct privilege of honoring those who have greatly contributed to our industry and cultural heritage, and this year we have a gifted and brilliant group of honorees. Their exceptional accomplishments, contributions, and artistry will continue to influence and inspire generations to come."

Past Lifetime Achievement honorees literally range from A (Roy Acuff and the Allman Brothers Band) to Z (former Grossmont and Mission Bay High School student Frank Zappa). Among the past recipients are several past San Diego County residents, including Ravi Shankar, Patti Page and members of the Kingston Trio.

Honorees at last year's Special Merit awards included George Harrison, Buddy Guy, the Bee Gees and visionary composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who died last week. Boulez handpicked his lon...is behalf.

The 2016 Grammy Special Merit ceremony will also honor iconic composer John Cage, roots-music champion Chris Strachwitz and music producer Fred Foster. All three will receive Grammy Trustees Awards. Technical Grammy Awards will be presented to the Berlin audio company EMT (Elektro-Mess-Technik) and to Dr. Harvey Fletcher, long hailed as the "father of stereophonic sound."

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A Conversation with Haley Reinhart

January 12, 2016 By jacobjournalist
Haley Reinhart

Singer-songwriter Haley Reinhart is “Jake’s Take’s” first interview of 2016! (Photo courtesy of Haley Reinhart)

By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com

It is an honor to welcome Haley Reinhart to Jake’s Take!

Haley was one of the lucky singers to make to the Judges’ Round of American Idol’s tenth anniversary season. After charming Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler with her covers of Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’” and the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling,” she earned a ticket to Hollywood Week. Throughout the show’s infamous “Hell Week,” Haley soared above her competition and landed a place in Season 10’s Top 13.

Each week, Haley got stronger vocally and delivered knockout performances such as “Bennie & The Jets” and “The House of the Rising Sun.” These performances not only wowed the show’s guest mentors including Sheryl Crow, Lady Gaga (who personally cleared “You & I” for Haley) and Beyoncé, but Haley also received praise from previous Idol alums including Kelly Clarkson and Adam Lambert. In addition, both two-time Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and former judge Ellen DeGeneres declared Haley: their favorite contestant of the season. She also made an impact in the rock world as Jimmy Paige and Robert Plant personality called Idol and gave her the opportunity to do a song from the Led Zeppelin Songbook!

While she finished in the Top Three, Haley soared to a great music career that includes a hot debut album, Listen Up, which peaked in the Top 20 of the Billboard Top 200 and recorded successful collaborations with Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox that went viral!

In this edition of A Conversation, Haley reflected on her time on American Idol, her work with Postmodern Jukebox and which music legend she wants to collaborate with in the future.

Jacob Elyachar: How have you grown as an artist since your time on “American Idol”?

Haley Reinhart: During my time on the show, I was able to explore different genres each week. Since then, I have continued to reach out and broaden my horizons with my own records and in other projects. I have created somewhat of an alter ego over the last few years, which allows me to perform everything from soul and funk to rock and jazz. I know exactly how I want to be represented. Everything from my music and my views to my style. In knowing this, it is amazing to see things fall into place more each day.

JE: What were some of your favorite memories from your time on “American Idol”?

HR: Lucky for me, I was able to break the mold and have my dad join me on the big stage for Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be.” It’s amazing when stars align and things become full circle. I also loved performing “Moanin’” with Casey (Abrams) as well, because the way it came about could not have been any more organic. Also, the fact that we were able to regenerate a jazz classic in the modern-day, well, I would have been happy no matter what the votes said.

Haley Reinhart American Idol

(Photo property of FOX’s Michael Becker)

JE: Your performance of “I Who Have Nothing” remains one of the best performances in “Idol” history. How important was it for you to deliver that impeccable performance? Why do you think it remains one of the most remembered performances from your season?

HR: Sometimes our best work comes out of our most challenged moments. It is instinctual. I felt I was being broken down prior to that performance. I chose to rise above it all and channel my inner strength and passion. Not to mention, I had a breathtaking orchestra behind me to add to the drama of it all! (Smiles)

JE: Could you describe your songwriting process to my readers?

HR: It all depends on the day, how I feel, who I am collaborating with, and my environment. I typically look for an interesting chord progression, hear a melody, then begin to feel out the tonality of the tune. Suddenly, my story and the lyrics comes to the surface. Sometimes it is cool to come in the studio and already have a grasp of what it is I would like to send out to the universe.

JE: What are some of the challenges that you faced throughout your career in the music industry? How did you overcome them?

HR: It is tough being far away from your loved ones back home and it is also hard to trust those in the industry who try to hold so much control over your destiny. I always trust my intuition and ask questions. If I need to make changes to better myself and ultimately those around me, then so be it! I also self-managed for a few years and got to know exactly what it takes to run my own brand.

JE: Last year, you released several superb YouTube collaborations with Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox. How did this partnership come about? What were some of your favorite collaborations with the group?

HR: It was another blessing to be able to work with Postmodern Jukebox! I went to watch them play at a club in LA over a year ago. They asked me to sit in and it has been magic ever since. I am so happy we have had success in doing what we do and love best: playing live with beautiful, heartfelt arrangements. My favorite collaboration is “Creep.” I always connected with that song. Maybe, it is the empathy in me. I did not even think it was good enough on my part to even share with the world. So, it just goes to show what raw emotion can do and how many people can connect to it.

JE: Which artists or producers would you like to collaborate with in the future?

HR: Some might say that I have an old soul and I like to dream big, too! So, Sir Paul McCartney will always be at the top of my list! I would also like to work with someone new and innovative like Bruno Mars and/or Mark Ronson.

JE: How has social media helped you not only connect with your fans, but also grow your fanbase?

HR: I believe the two go hand in hand. I like to let pictures tell many of my stories. It’s so cool to connect with fans and help inspire. Although it’s a bit trembling to me, what a numbers world we live in today, I’m happy to interact with my amazing fans and let them know how much their support means to me.

JE: If you had the chance to meet with aspiring singer-songwriters who want to enter the music industry, what advice would you share with them?

HR: As soon as you know who you are, the kind of artist you want to be and what message you want to spread to the world-hold onto it. The sooner everyone knows what it is YOU want, the easier it will be to achieve just that. Once, you have the utmost power over your spirit, body and mind–you will be able to achieve your dreams over and over again. ✌🏼🌻

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Hear Anna Faris interview husband Chris Pratt's on-screen lover Jennifer Lawrence

And his TV wife, Aubrey Plaza

BY OLIVER GETTELL •

(Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images; John Shearer/Getty Images)

Passengers

Posted January 12 2016 — 9:05 PM EST

Jennifer Lawrence recently admitted to being wracked with anxiety over shooting her first sex scene in the sci-fi movie Passengers, in no small part because she’d be smooching a married man in Chris Pratt.

Turns out she needn’t have worried, at least not about offending Pratt’s wife, Anna Faris. On thelatest episode of her Anna Faris Is Unqualifiedpodcast, the fellow actress welcomed Lawrence, Pratt, and Aubrey Plaza (another of Pratt’s on-screen love interests) for some genial chatting.

Calling in with Lawrence from the Passengers set in Atlanta, Pratt said, “What other guy in the world could say that he’s on the phone with Anna, my real wife; Aubrey, my TV wife; and [speaking to Lawrence] well, we’re not married in this movie.”

Faris, who hosts the podcast with her movie producer pal Sim Sarna, kept things breezy, asking Lawrence what she’d name a school mascot if given the chance (the Pippies, after her dog), what guiltly-pleasure music she listens to (“I wish I didn’t have so much Indigo Girls on my phone”), and what her preferred murder instrument would be (“If I could pull it off, poison”).

Faris also complimented Lawrence on having “the most beautiful hair” and inquired about her character’s roots in Passengers. (Is there bleach in space?)

RELATED: Why Jennifer Lawrence almost turned down Passengers

Although Faris didn’t ask Lawrence about the anxiety-inducing love scene, she and Plaza spoke earlier in the show about what it’s like for actors in relationships to be intimate with other people on screen.

“I feel like it’s only really weird when other people think that it’s really weird,” Faris said. “Then I get nervous and I’m like, ‘Wait, am I supposed to feel like it’s more weird than it is?’”

Plaza agreed. “I’m in a relationship, and people always ask my boyfriend how he feels,” she said. “He’s kind of like, ‘That’s her job, and it’s not weird.’ I think if you don’t understand that, then it’s probably hard to be in a relationship with someone that’s an actor.”

Listen to the interview: https://soundcloud.com/annfarisisunqualified/ep-09-aubrey-plaza

[Edited 1/13/16 19:55pm]

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Alan Rickman, Actor Known for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Die Hard,’ Dies at 69

By DAVE ITZKOFF and KATIE ROGERS JAN. 14, 2016

The accomplished British stage actor who brought an erudite dignity to film roles like Hans Gruber, the nefarious mastermind of “Die Hard,” and Severus Snape, the dour master of potions in the “Harry Potter” series, died on Thursday in London. He was 69.

His death was confirmed by a publicist, Catherine Olim, who said the cause was cancer.

In an acting career of more than 40 years, Mr. Rickman, with his sensuous, shadowy purr of a voice and often an enigmatic grin, played a panoply of characters whose outward villainy often concealed more complicated emotions and motivations.

Mr. Rickman, who attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, had his early successes in stage works like the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1985 production of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” in which, in a leading role, he played the manipulative Vicomte de Valmont. He earned a Tony Award nomination for the performance after the production transferred to Broadway in 1987.


Mr. Rickman gained a worldwide audience the following year in “Die Hard,” the first of the Hollywood action-thriller franchise, playing Gruber, the devious, well-spoken terrorist whose takeover of the fictional Nakatomi Plaza building in Los Angeles is foiled by the resourceful police officer John McClane, played by Bruce Willis.

Mr. Rickman wrung every malevolent drop that he could from Gruber’s boastful lines. (“Who are you?” he asks McClane, who is constantly frustrating his plans. “Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he’s John Wayne?”)

Some 13 years later, Mr. Rickman brought nuance to the role of Severus Snape, a sarcastic, cutting instructor at the Hogwarts school in the “Harry Potter” franchise, adapted from J. K. Rowling’s best-selling novels. The character was introduced on screen in the 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Professor Snape seemed at first to be a traditional foil for the titular protagonist, but through Mr. Rickman’s increasingly intricate performances over eight films, he would be revealed as having had a more crucial and courageous role in the young hero’s life.

Mr. Rickman saw the mysterious Professor Snape as an unusually complex character, he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2012, and he signed on without a clear idea of how the character would evolve over the course of the series, which ended with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2.”

“With the last film it was very cathartic because you were finally able to see who he was,” Mr. Rickman said “It was strange, in a way, to play stuff that was so emotional. A lot of the time you’re working in two dimensions, not three.”

Though Mr. Rickman was never nominated for an Academy Award, he shrugged off the value of awards in general. “Parts win prizes, not actors,” he told IFC in 2008.

“You always know a part that’s got ‘prize winner’ written all over it,” he continued, “and it’s almost like anybody could say those lines and somebody will hand them a piece of metal.”

On Thursday, his life and work were celebrated by his “Harry Potter” collaborators in emotional online remembrances.

On her Twitter account, Ms. Rowling called him a “magnificent actor.” And Daniel Radcliffe, who played the headstrong Harry Potter, wrote in a social media post that Mr. Rickman was “one of the first of the adults on ‘Potter’ to treat me like a peer rather than a child.”


Samples of Alan Rickman’s Roles

His career ranged from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the “Harry Potter” films.


Alan Rickman set the standard for villains so intriguingly complex and wholeheartedly bad they upstaged the good-guy in film after film.

Whatever people concluded about Mr. Rickman from his screen roles, Mr. Radcliffe wrote, “Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass.”

Alan Rickman was born Feb. 21, 1946, into a working-class family in the Acton section of London. After a peripatetic art career, including studies at different art colleges and a brief involvement in a graphic design studio, he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted in 1972.

After leaving the academy in 1974, he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in acclaimed 1980s productions of “Troilus and Cressida” (as Achilles) and “As You Like It” (as Jaques); in that same period he also performed in “Mephisto” as Hendrik Höfgen, a character modeled on the German actor Gustaf Gründgens.

Mr. Rickman made his television debut in 1978, playing Tybalt in a BBC version of “Romeo and Juliet.” He also appeared in a 1980 mini-series adaptation of “Thérèse Raquin” and the 1982 mini-series “The Barchester Chronicles,” adapted from the Anthony Trollope novels.

Following his success in “Liaisons Dangereuses,” Mr. Rickman traveled to Los Angeles, where he was offered the role in “Die Hard” by the producer Joel Silver.

As Mr. Rickman would recall, at a celebration of his career held by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, he was not initially impressed by the movie or its screenplay, credited to Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza.

“I didn’t know anything about L.A. I didn’t know anything about the film business,” Mr. Rickman said,according to The Guardian. “I’d never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap.” He said his reaction to the script was: “What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie.”

Mr. Rickman said: “I got Joel saying, ‘Get the hell out of here, you’ll wear what you’re told.’ But when I came back, I was handed a new script. It showed that it pays to have a little bit of theater training.”

Mr. Rickman’s many other film roles included the dastardly sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (1991) and a married man tempted by his young secretary in Richard Curtis’s romantic ensemble comedy “Love Actually” (2003). He appeared in the 1999 science-fiction spoof “Galaxy Quest,” in a role sending up classical British actors relegated to lightweight fantasy fare.

In 2013, he played Ronald Reagan in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and Hilly Kristal in “CBGB,” a biographical film about the founding of the New York punk-rock club.

The latter portion of his film career was defined by the Snape character in “Harry Potter,” a franchise that has sold more than $7.6 billion in tickets worldwide.

Beneath his ominous exterior, Snape proved to be “unutterably honorable,” Mr. Rickman said in a 2011 interview with The Times.

Pointing to more upstanding and honorable figures he had played, like the suitor Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s film adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility,” Mr. Rickman said it was a mistake to associate him only with corrupted characters.

“The label gets written because of a very small amount of work that’s had a lot of publicity,” he told The Times.

Mr. Rickman continued to perform on stage in London and New York. He returned to Broadway in 2002 in a production of Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” and in 2011 in the Theresa Rebeck comedy “Seminar,” playing a novelist and writing instructor whose merciless teaching methods are not all that they seem.

At London’s Court Theater in 2005 he directed the play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” about the young American protesting the demolition of a Palestinian’s house in Gaza who was run over by an Israeli Army bulldozer. The production was to transfer to the New York Theater Workshop the following year, but was canceled;

the group’s artistic director, James C. Nicola, said that “the fantasy that we could present the work of this writer simply as a work of art without appearing to take a position was just that, a fantasy.”

Mr. Rickman was critical ...e decision, calling it “censorship born out of fear.” (The play was staged later that year at the Minetta Lane Theater.)

In 2008, Mr. Rickman directed a Donmar...production of Strindberg’s “Creditors,” adapted by the playwright David Greig, that was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2010, where he also starred in an Abbey Theater production of Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman” in 2011.

He directed the 2014 film “A Little Chaos,” a period drama in which he also played Louis XIV. His coming movies include “Eye in the Sky,” a thriller with Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul, and “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” as the voice of the Blue Caterpillar.


Mr. Rickman is survived by his wife, Rima Horton. The couple secretly wed in 2012, but had been together for more than 40 years, People magazine reported last April.


He is also survived by his siblings Michael, David and Sheila Rickman, Ms. Olim, the publicist, said.

Emma Thompson, the actress and writer who worked with Mr. Rickman in films like “Sense and Sensibility” and “Love Actually,” said in a statement on Thursday that it was Mr. Rickman’s “intransigence” that “made him the great artist he was,” recalling “his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view.”

“I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next,” she said.

René Angélil, husband of Céline Dion, has died

By Katia Hetter, CNN

Updated 5:46 PM ET, Thu January 14, 2016

Rene Angelil and Celine Dion at a 2011 event
Rene Angelil and Celine Dion at a 2011 event

(CNN)René Angélil, the husband of singer Céline Dion, died Thursday.

"René Angélil, 73, passed away this morning at his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer," Dion's publicist confirmed to CNN.

"The family requests that their privacy be respected at the moment; more details will be provided at a later time," according to a post on Dion's website.

Angélil, Dion's longtime collaborator, stepped aside as his wife's manager in June 2014 because of his battle with cancer. That August, Dion put her career on a temporary hold to help him fight the disease.

The Clark County Coroner's Office said Angelil died from throat cancer.

"We have determined Mr. Angelil's death was due to natural causes. No further investigation into his death is expected," the coroner said in a statement.

Dion and Angélil met aft...ys-singing 12-year-old Dion recorded a demo and one of her brothers sent it to Angélil, who was a fledgling producer at the time. When Angélil didn't reply, the Dions called him directly to listen to it.

That prompted Angélil to audition Dion in January 1981, and once he heard her, he mortgaged his house to pay for her debut album, "La Voix du Bon Dieu."

By 1988, she was a star -- and an adult. Dion won the top prize at the Eurovision song contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland. That's when they fell in love, Angelil said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

In 1992, "Celine Dion" hit the stores and produced four chart toppers, including a duet with Peabo Bryson for the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast."

"And that was our key to America, at that point, 'Beauty and the Beast' was our first real hit in America," Vito Luprano, then-senior vice president of artists and relations for Sony Music Canada, said at the time.

The duet won an Academy Award and a Grammy. At the time, Dion was 24.

A lavish wedding, children, more hit records and the top hit, "My Heart Will Go On" for the movie "Titanic," followed. As did her current Las Vegas residency.

Angélil is survived by his wife and the couple's three children, René-Charles, 14, and 5-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy -- and his adult children from a previous relationship, Anne-Marie, Jean-Pierre and Patrick.

DIANA ROSS SAYS FAREWELL TO THE SUPREMES

JANUARY 14, 2016
in Category: uBYTES

Diana Ross Says Farewell To The Supremes

Their fans had known it was coming for some time, but this night 46 years ago was an emotional one for lovers of the Supremes.

1969 Someday We'll Be Together

Late in 1969, Motown Records had let it be known that Diana Ross would soon be leaving the superstar trio to forge a solo career. The group ended the year where they had been so many times throughout the 1960s: at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, with Ross' final single as a Supreme, 'Someday We'll Be Together.' Unbeknown to the public, and with heavy irony, her bandmates Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong didn't actually appear on the song.

By the new year, not only was Ross preparing her first solo material, but the group, with new member Jean Terrell, had started recording their first album without her. That set, Right On, was released in April 1970, by which time the retooled trio were already in the charts with its lead single 'Up The Ladder To The Roof.' Diana would soon join them there with her first solo 45, Ashford & Simpson's 'Reach Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand).'

But amid such busy forward planning, there was still time for a tumultuous public goodbye. On the night of 14 January, 1970, at the New Frontier Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas, Ross, Wilson and Birdsong (herself the successor to Florence Ballard, from 1967 onwards) gave their last concert together.

Farewell-supremes-big-1970

Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye were among the Motown colleagues in the audience to see the performance, which was released on the album Farewell, surprisingly only a No. 46 success in the US charts. It was reissued as Captured Live On Stage! in 1992. The show included a medley of early Supremes classics as well as full versions of later hits such as 'Reflections,' 'Love Child' and of course, a closing 'Someday We'll Be Together.'

“I'd like to thank the Frontier Hotel and of course all of our fans and everyone that's been with us over the last ten years,” said Diana, before introducing Terrell to the audience. Precisely six days later, Ross was in the studio recording 'Reach Out And Touch,' and for Supremes fans, the 1960s were officially over.

BOOK CELEBRATES DUKE ELLINGTON

JANUARY 14, 2016
in Category: NEWS

New Book Celebrates Duke Ellington

A new book about musical titan Duke Ellington will be published in April. Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon is written by Duke's granddaughter and much-respected Broadway dancer Mercedes Ellington and Steven Brower, and published by Rizzoli. Brower's previous work includes Woody Guthrie Artworks and Satchmo: The Wonderful Art and World of Louis Armstrong.

Duke Ellington

The book will feature an introduction by Tony Bennett, who also contributes to the narrative along with other fellow notables. An American Composer and Icon will feature more than 200 images, drawing on archive material from the Smithsonian Institute, the New York Public Library, photographer William Gottlieb and the Ellington family. Quincy Jones, philosopher Cornel West and the late Dave Brubeck are also contributors.

“This long overdue book illuminates the life and work of an icon of twentieth-century music,” says the publicity for the volume, “from his humble beginnings to his long-lasting success.

“Every stage of Ellington's career is brought to life with unseen images and artifacts, from his early days in Washington, D.C., to his beginnings on the New York jazz circuit and the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, his triumph through the Depression and tours of Europe in the 1930s, and his pioneering explosion of form and genre in the 1940s and beyond.” It concludes: “The voice of his granddaughter Mercedes reveals the character behind the charisma, and the man behind the piano.”

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REDISCOVER ‘NINA SIMONE IN CONCERT’

JANUARY 13, 2016
in Category: uBYTES

reDiscover ‘Nina Simone In Concert’

Nina Simone In Concert is a pivotal album in a singular career. It was the first release by the unique vocalist from South Carolina for her new label Phillips. They were bold enough to launch this new chapter of Simone's career with a live disc that captured both the interpretative brilliance of her concerts and, for the first time, the unflinching principles that would make her such a singular voice in the civil rights movement.

Nina Simone flyer 1963

A flyer for Nina Simone's Carnegie Hall concert of April, 1963

The album was recorded at three concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York in March and April 1964, when Simone was 31 years old and had been recording for some six years. She had given her first concerts at the famous venue a year earlier, captured on an album release towards the end of her time on the Colpix label. On the In Concert set, there's a stunning clarity to the recordings of these extraordinary performances; you almost feel you could hear a pin drop as she delivers each one, looking back on her catalogue to that point and forging ahead into this new phase of her life.

Nina Simone Carnegie Hall

Three of the song choices had first appeared on Nina's debut album Little Girl Blue in 1958, starting with the gentle and charming 'I Loves You Porgy,' from George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. When she addresses 'Pirate Jenny,' from Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Simone turns the song into a gripping narrative reflecting black oppression, acting the role with quite brilliant invention and dramatic tension.

She follows that with her own co-composition 'Old Jim Crow,' which addresses the Jim Crow Laws that held back the emancipation of black people by reinforcing racial segregation, and were still in force at the time of the recording. 'Don't Smoke In Bed' features Simone's superb piano playing, before she closes with two further powerful pieces of social commentary.

NINASIMKEYS

'Go Limp' marries a playful melody with a typically daring storyline in which a mother warns her daughter not to join the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) for fear that she will sacrifice her virtue. Simone mischievously invites the audience to sing along before confessing “I forgot the next verse!” and improvising new lyrics, laughing heartily with an admiring crowd. A standing ovation ensues.

The closing triumph is her own 'Mississippi Goddam,' which she describes as a show tune (“but they haven't written the show yet”). It fearlessly addresses some of the infamous racially motivated killings of 1963, of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and at the Alabama Church Bombings. Nina Simone In Concert surely deserves to stand among the great live albums in recording history.

FILM

PRESENTING YOUR 2016 OSCAR NOMINEES

By STAFF

Published 01/14/16



The full list of 2016 Oscar contenders has been announced. Click on the highlighted names below to read our interviews with the nominees.


Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Director
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Costume Design
Jenny Beavan, Mad Max
Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
Sandy Powell, Carol
Sandy Powell, Cinderella
Jacqueline West, The Revenant

Documentary
Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire

Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent
Mustang
Son of Saul
Theeb

Cinematography
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario

Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room


FOR THE FULL LIST OF OSCARS NOMINEES, VISIT THE OFFICIAL OSCAR WEBSITE.

Bowie And Bono

*


With B.B. King

With Bruce

*

*

*

*

Billy Idol, Sam Kinison, Madonna & David Bowie

*

*

Lisa Marie & Priscilla

Gwen & Iman

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Actress Barbara Allyne Bennet Dies at 76

COURTESY OF CHRISTY GROSZ
JANUARY 13, 2016 | 05:04PM PT

Carmel Dagan

Character actress Barbara Allyne Bennet died at City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, Calif., on Jan. 9. She was 76.

During a career that spanned more than five decades, Bennet worked in front of and behind the camera.

She appeared in the 1988 feature “Mac and Me” and found steady work in TV series such as “The West Wing,” “The Office,” Brothers & Sisters,” “Shameless,” “Chicago Hope” and “NYPD Blue.”

She also lent her voice to national commercials for brands like Hyundai, Ford and Tide Laundry Detergent. Bennet worked as a production assistant on “The Rose,” production coordinator on “Flying High” and a casting coordinator on “A Killer in the Family.”

She performed in many productions as a member of Actors Alley Workshops in Los Angeles, including starring roles in “The Trolls” and “The Long Goodbye.”

Bennet served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild from 2005-07, chaired the SAG Casting Committee and served on the SAG Commercial Performers Committee from 2005-06. She also served on the SAG-AFTRA Film Society Executive Committee for several years. She worked on the Western Council of the Actors Fund, fundraising and producing the annual Tony party.

Star turn: She played a scientist in science fiction adventure film Mac And Me in 1988

She was an active member of the Television Academy throughout her professional life.

Born in Cleveland, Bennet graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a B.A. in theater, then moved to New York City, where she appeared in “Gorilla Queen” on Broadway and “Boy on the Straight-Back Chair” Off Broadway. She moved to Hollywood in the 1970s to pursue a career film and television.

Curtain call: Popular character actress Barbara Allyne Bennet has died at the age of 76

Bennet is survived by her family in Cleveland.

A special service and celebration will be announced soon.

British Theater Actor Brian Bedford Dies at 80

Brian Bedford Dead

CAROLYN CONTINO/BEI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 10:19AM PT

Carmel Dagan

British actor Brian Bedford died on Wednesday, after a two-year battle with cancer, in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 80.

Bedford, known most recently for his stint as Lady Bracknell in a 2011 Broadway revival of “The Importance of Being Ernest,” appeared in many productions on Broadway, winning the Tony for best actor in a play in 1971 for his performance in a revival of Molière’s comedy “The School for Wives.” He was known for his interpretations of the French playwright’s work, and was also nominated for a Tony in 1995 for “The Molière Comedies,” a pairing of the plays “The School for Husbands” and “The Imaginary Cuckold,” and in 2003 for his work in Molière’s “Tartuffe.” He also appeared on Broadway in two revivals of the playwright’s “The Misanthrope,” in 1969 and 1983.

But Bedford was also an extraordinary interpreter of Shakespeare who drew a 1994 Tony nomination for best actor in a play for a revival of “Timon of Athens.”

He received his first Tony nomination in 1992 for “Two Shakespearean Actors” and another for his work in Dion Boucicault’s “London Assurance” in 1997.

In 2011 the New York Times’ Ben Brantley said of Bedford, “He is perhaps the finest English-language interpreter of classical comedy of his generation, and he seems to pick up a Tony nomination every time he steps on a Broadway stage.” Bedford is “best known as a classical actor of uncommon emotional transparency and hair-trigger timing, particularly in plays by Shakespeare and Molière.”

Bedford appeared in the 1966 film “Grand Prix,” starring James Garner; attempted series regular television in 1967 with CBS’ short-lived “Coronet Blue”; and voiced Robin Hood in the 1973 Disney film of the same name.

Bedford was with Canada’s celebrated Stratford Shakespeare Festival, held in Ontario, for almost three decades, and he credited the festival with making his career. “I wanted to have a typical, classical English actor’s career doing Shakespeare and the classics. That’s what Stratford has provided for me, so that’s why I say it’s made my life,” he told CBC News in 2011.

Before essaying Lady Bracknell at Stratford, he had starred in and directed a production of “King Lear.”

He was forced to withdraw from a touring production of “The Last Confession” in 2014 and from a production of “The Merchant of Venice” at the festival in 2013, both due to illness, according to CBC News.

The actor’s most notable Shakespearean efforts were Ariel in “The Tempest” opposite John Gielgud’s Prospero in 1958; Angelo in “Measure for Measure” at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1975 and 1976; and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park productions of “As You Like It” (as Orlando) and “Timon of Athens” (as Timon), the latter based on a production he originated with the National Actors Theatre in 1993 and eventually played Broadway.

Bedford was born in Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire, where he was raised in poverty. Leaving school at 15, he joined an amateur theater group in Bradford. From 1952-54 he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London; his classmates included Peter O’Toole, Albert Finney and Alan Bates. He was “subsequently part of a glittering West End clique that included John Gielgud and the all-powerful theater mogul Hugh Beaumont,” according to the New York Times. Gielgud was his most influential mentor.

He made his Broadway debut in 1959 in a production of Peter Shaffer’s “Five Finger Exercise.”

Bedford was a friend of the late socialite Brooke Astor.

Spike Lee Unveils 'Off the Wall' Michael Jackson Documentary Trailer

"I found my falsetto because of 'Off the Wall,'" the Weeknd says of King of Pop's breakout solo LP

BY DANIEL KREPS January 13, 2016
The Weeknd, David Byrne and Questlove all talk 'Off the Wall' in first trailer from Spike Lee's upcoming Michael Jackson documentary

Spike Lee's upcoming Showtime documentary Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall will chart the King of Pop's path from child star with the Jackson 5 to pop icon with the arrival of his breakout solo LPOff the Wall. The film – Lee's second Jackson documentary, following hisBad 25 in 2012 – will air on Showtime on February 5th. But on Wednesday, the movie channel unveiled the first trailer for Michael Jackson’s Journey featuring archival footage alongside new interviews.

"I've always used Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and Off the Wall was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing," The Weeknd says in the preview. "I found my falsetto because of Off the Wall." Later, Talking Heads' David Byrne and the Roots' Questlove both joke about being captivated by "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," even though they couldn't decipher what Jackson was singing in the chorus ("Keep on with the force, don't stop.")

Journey also features interviews with Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson, John Legend, L.A. Reid, Kobe Bryant and Misty Copeland alongside Jackson's parents Katherine and Joe Jackson and brothers Jackie and Marlon Jackson. The documentary will premiere January 24th at the Sundance Film Festival prior to its Showtime broadcasting; on February 26th, Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall will be available as part of a CD/DVD reissue of Off the Wall.

Adam Lambert Rocky Horror
Getty Images

Adam Lambert Joins the Cast of Fox's Rocky Horror Picture Show Remake

By Andy Swift / January 14 2016, 11:57 AM PST

Here’s some perfect casting news for your Thursday afternoon: Grammy nomineeAdam Lambert will make a special appearance in Fox’s upcoming Rocky Horror Picture Show remake , EW.com reports.

The “Ghost Town” singer will play Eddie, the motorcycle-riding ex-delivery boy who crashes Dr. Frank-n-Further’s twisted party; the role was famously played by singer Meatloaf in the original 1975 film adaptation.

This marks Lambert’s third major appearance on Fox. In addition to coming in second place during American Idol‘s eighth season, Lambert also recurred in the fifth season of Glee, playing Elliott “Starchild” Gilbert.

Lambert joins previously announced cast members: Laverne Cox (as Dr. Frank-n-Further), Victoria Justice (as Janet), Ryan McCartan (as Brad), Reeve Carney (as Riff Raff) and Staz Nair (as Rocky).

Colony - Pilot
Courtesy of Isabella Vosmikova/USA Network

Colony Review: USA Network's Alien-Occupation Thriller Is Packed With Anxious Moments

By Michael Slezak / January 14 2016, 10:16 AM PST

TV Review Grade B+Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean an alien drone isn’t about to hunt you down and send you to “The Factory,” a great big prison camp (quite literally) in the sky.

That’s the unsettling reality that pervades every character motivation in Colony, USA Network’s tense new drama from executive producers Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Ryan Condal (Hercules) — premiering tonight at 10/9c — that benefits from an excellent ensemble cast led by Lost‘s Josh Holloway and The Walking Dead‘s Sarah Wayne Callies.

The pilot episode unfolds almost a year into an alien occupation of Earth, and where the Los Angeles neighborhoods in which the show is set are divvied up by a giant metallic wall. There, people’s movements, housing and food are restricted by the “visitors” and every knock at the door, every dropped egg adds to a pervasive sense of dread.

When we meet Holloway’s former FBI agent Will Bowman, he’s getting packed into a icy-cold shipping container and attempting to illegally cross the border into Santa Monica to search for the son from whom he was separated during the occupation. When a resistance cell’s bomb leaves him exposed, he’s given an offer he can’t refuse by the district proxy (House‘s Peter Jacobson, appropriately smarmy): Use his secret skill to track down resistance leader Geronimo and his minions, or get sent to The Factory — along with his wife Katie (Callies) and two remaining kids.

Colony - Pilot

Holloway is great at conveying the tensions of his no-win gig: As he excels at his work, he gets closer to a reunion with his son, but at an incredibly high cost to his fellow earthlings. A close friend’s particularly stinging parting shot in Episode 2 — “Everything’s fine… as long as your kids still have their father” — sends Will crying into his bourbon in the back yard, and it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the guy, if not for his actions.

Callies, whose Katie gets to reopen her saloon as a perk of Will’s new gig, twitches with nervous energy whether she’s bartering for black-market insulin or attempting to score new identities for her on-the-lam friends. Over the course of the show’s opening spate of episodes, her character’s moral quandaries get heavier than the firearm that’s always tucked into the pocket of her handbag.

Without spending tons on FX or giving us face-to-face meetings with the alien overlords, Colony never lets you forget it’s set in an occupied earth. The visitors’ glowing red drones whoosh in at the most inconvenient moments, and who needs explosions when you’ve got actors as stellar as Kathy Baker chillingly recounting how the alien technology wiped out every human defense mechanism in eight hours.

Sure, a couple of subplots — one involving Will and Katie’s teenage son getting involved in a black-market operation, and another hinting at a romance for Katie’s sister (The Mentalist‘s Amanda Righetti) — feel a little extraneous at the moment, but enigmatic glimpses of “Factory” indoctrination promise that Colony won’t run out of ideas anytime soon.

The TVLine Bottom Line: Settle in and enjoy — Colony deserves to occupy a spot on USA Network’s lineup for years to come.

Playing House Renewed Season 3 USA Network

Courtesy of USA Network

Playing House Renewed for Season 3

By Rebecca Iannucci / January 14 2016, 10:06 AM PST

Totes kewl news, Playing House fans.

After months of uncertainty, USA Network has renewed the underdog comedy starring Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham for a third season. The cabler made the announcement Thursday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena.

Playing House - Season 2

The show’s Sept. 8 finale ended on quite the cliffhanger, in which St. Clair’s Emma and Keegan-Michael Key’s Mark finally seemed ready to act on their long-held feelings for each other.

Guillermo del Toro Developing ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’

Guillermo del Toro Developing 'Scary Stories

REX SHUTTERSTOCK
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 03:34PM PT

Dave McNary

Film Reporter@Variety_DMcNary

Guillermo del Toro has come on to produce a movie version of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” with an eye to directing the CBS Films project.

The project is based on the trilogy of books by Alvin Schwartz, which includes illustrations by Stephen Gammell and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. John August has written the screenplay but plot details are being kept under wraps.

Sean Daniel, Jason Brown and Elizabeth Grave are also producing.

The trilogy includes “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (1981), “More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (1984) and “Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones” (1991). Schwartz drew from folklore and and urban legends for content.

The collection was often banned by the American Library Association due to being considered too scary for children — particularly the nightmarish illustrations. Del Toro is repped by WME and Exile Entertainment.

Del Toro has been in talks with Fox and James Cameron to develop and direct a remake of “Fantastic Voyage.”

He most recently directed, produced and wrote Legendary’s “Crimson Peak,” which grossed a disappointing $74 million worldwide for Universal. He had been planning to make “Pacific Rim 2” but Universal removed the sequel from its release schedule in September and has not yet set a new release date.

The news about “Scary Stories” was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

George Harrison Estate Partners With Bicycle Music Company

George Harrison

COURTESY OF ITV/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 01:10PM PT

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer@barkerrant

Music publisher the Bicycle Music Company has entered into an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with the Estate of George Harrison, the company announced. Deal will cover several of Harrison’s Beatles compositions, as well as his solo material and songs by his son, Dhani Harrison.

Bicycle, a subsidiary of Concord Bicycle Music, will administer Harrison songs ranging from “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” originally recorded with the Beatles, to solo material like “My Sweet Lord” and “Stuck Inside a Cloud,” in addition to his Traveling Wilburys hit “Handle With Care.” Dhani Harrison is the frontman of band Thenewno2, and has composed scores to films “Beautiful Creatures” and “Learning to Drive.”

“I could never have imagined growing up on the songs of George Harrison that I would someday have the privilege and responsibility of caring for these enduring works,” said Bicycle CEO Jake Wisely in a statement, calling the catalog “a music publisher’s dream.”

Harrison’s widow Olivia added: “Dhani and I are happy to embark on this new partnership with Bicycle Music.”

Coming shortly after the long-awaited release of the Beatles catalog via streaming services last December, next month will also see the release of the two-disc set “George Fest: A Night to Celebrate the Music of George Harrison,” which features renditions of Harrison’s songs by Dhani Harrison, Norah Jones, Conan O’Brien and members of the Killers, Heart, the Strokes, Spoon and the Flaming Lips, recorded live in 2014 in Los Angeles.

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Jess Glynne Talks Grammys, On-Stage Breakdown + Missing Amy Winehouse: PopCrush Interview

by Matthew Scott Donnelly September 28, 2015 5:31 PM
Simon Emmett

Babe Ruth never sported a World Series ring before stepping onto the field. Meryl Streep never bagged an Oscar before accepting a role. Jess Glynne, however, did win a Grammy before the release of her debut album earlier this month, an honor she’d match not long after by tying the record for most No. 1 hits by a female artist in the United Kingdom. Not bad for someone who earned a living tidying salons and peddling shots for a booze behemoth only months earlier.

Glynne, who’s finishing up a brief United States club tour, seized her first bit of radio real estate as the smoky featured voice supporting Clean Bandit‘s 2014 dance hit “Rather Be.” The song was a promising start, and its soul-meets-singles club temper paved the way for I Cry When I Laugh, a verifiable disco-pop daydream.

Now, as “Hold my Hand” catches on Stateside, Glynne says she’s ready to make an honest first impression—no starry veneer necessary. See what she told PopCrush about steering clear of celebrity, missing Amy Winehouse and why a potential X Factor bid years ago just didn’t work out. Plus, check out her remaining tour dates to see if she’ll stop by a spot near you!

PopCrush: Most acts don’t typically win Grammys before their first albums come out—what did you make of that?

Jess Glynne: The whole Grammy experience was surreal. Just being nominated was like being in a dream and then being there when they announced that we’d won, I thought “Pinch me, this is a crazy dream!”

I think I read you handed it off to your parents because you don’t trust your flatmates around it. Where do they keep it?

On the mantelpiece along with some other gold discs and things. I love my parents, they’ve been so supportive. In any case, my flat isn’t big enough!

You’ve spoken a lot about how much you appreciate being home, and your fondness for North London. How powerfully do those themes feed into your creative process?

I write about things that have happened to me, things I’ve experienced in my life or that of my family and friends—that’s what inspires me the most when it comes to writing songs. Without them and without living, I would have no experiences or journeys to talk about.

Ian Gavan, Getty Images

You’ve said people in the States know you but don’t really know you. Do you feel pressure to make a particular first impression?

I don’t feel any pressure. I don’t think of myself as a celebrity or think about making an impression. I’m honest and I think that’s what comes out in the songs, how I feel about things I’ve experienced and how I’ve reacted even when things haven’t necessarily gone right.

How do you hope people see you?

Real. Honest. Optimistic. Hopeful.

You’ve classified I Cry When I Laugh as a happier, more upbeat record. Do you find that that’s the type of person that you are, or is it just coincidence that most of the songs are so sunny?

To be honest with you, my dad has always been optimistic and always told me and my sister “you get out of life what you put in” so I have tried to live by this. There’s no point in dwelling in sadness, you need to look onwards and upwards.

What would your heartbreak album sound like? Would you ever make one?

Who knows! I haven’t started thinking about the next album yet—this one has only just come out here in the States and not until next month in some other countries. Right now, all I’m thinking about is taking this album and the live show around the world.

On the more emotional side is a song like “My Love,” which brought you to tears recently—you’ve been pretty forthcoming about struggles with love, so I wanted to ask what that song means to you.

I did cry when we played at the V Festival back in the U.K. recently. It was my first big festival back after [my vocal polyp] surgery and I admit I did lose it when the crowd started singing along with the songs. “My Love” was a No. 1 hit in the U.K. so it obviously touched a lot of people. When I heard them singing that song back to me, that touched me. It was emotional.

What’s your current stance on love—hopeful? Cynical?

Hopeful. I’m big on hope.

And speaking of your surgery, it left you silent for a few weeks. What was that like?

I had to write so much, scribbling on that whiteboard, whether it was sitting in with the band rehearsals, in meetings or out with my friends. Basically, I couldn’t talk for a few weeks prior to the operation and total silence for three weeks after until I got the all clear from the doctor. Good those messages just wiped off [laughs]!

I wanted to ask about “Saddest Vanilla” with Emeli Sande—it stuck out to me as having a very different, sort of old-school sound—something you’d hear from a jukebox. Did you conceive of that any differently than the rest of the album?

Not consciously. Emeli and I had gone out for some food when we met through Naughty Boy. We just talked for a while about our experiences and when we got back into the studio, we started writing what was to become “Saddest Vanilla.” It just worked.

You’ve mentioned a potential X Factor bid earlier on in your career—what happened?

I’d gone to a meeting with some of the producers, and having met them, I just thought this isn’t the right thing for me. It’s fine and works for other people, but it was not for me.

You’ve sung with Emeli and Clean Bandit, covered Sam Smith, R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige. Do you have a dream duet partner?

I’d love to have sung with Amy Winehouse. She was such an inspiration for me, but sadly, that isn’t going to happen. But if Frank Ocean, Timbaland or Jazmine Sullivan would like to do something, I’d be there.

Netflix Orders Scripted Series ‘Haters Back Off’ Based on YouTube Star Miranda Sing

Miranda Sings Netflix show

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 12:00PM PT

Elizabeth Wagmeister

@EWagmeister

Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to a show based on Miranda Sings, the popular character created by YouTube star Colleen Ballinger-Evans, Variety has learned. Ballinger-Evans will star in the upcoming streaming show, titled “Haters Back Off.”

“Haters Back Off” delves into the oddball family life of Miranda Sings, an incredibly confident, totally untalented star on the rise who continues to fail upward by the power of her belief that she was born famous — it’s just no one knows it yet.

The show has landed an eight-episode order. No launch date has been set.

The project marks the first-ever scripted streaming series for a YouTube personality. While other venues have greenlit series for digital stars — E!’s late-night talk show “The Grace Helbig Show,” Hulu’s Freddie Wong docuseries “RocketJump” — Miranda Sings’ is one of the first shows that does not fall into the unscripted genre. Currently in development, Fox is working on a scripted comedy with Vine star Andrew Bachelor a.k.a. King Bach, while HBO recently greenlit an Issa Rae series.

For Netflix, the series is a seamless step in the streaming landscape, bringing a digital star to a digital platform. In comparison to other television shows created for YouTube stars — for instance, E!’s Helbig vehicle — Netflix is a natural home for computer-friendly viewers, and Miranda Sings’ passionate digitally-savvy fanbase who don’t consume content on a TV screen and should have no trouble finding the Miranda Sings show by the click of a button.

Created in 2008, Miranda Sings is a fictional character who’s a parody of arrogant, egotistical, talentless, fame-hungry singers. The Miranda Sings YouTube channel has over 5.7 million subscribers and more than 700 million views with individual videos surpassing 17 million views. Miranda has a large Twitter presence with over 2 million followers. In addition to her own YouTube videos and comedy shows, the character has been on Crackle’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” with Jerry Seinfeld and on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” among other high-profile appearances.

In November 2015 alone, Miranda Sings’ YouTube videos alone garnered 52.4 million views, according to digital-video tracking firm Tubular Labs, which ranked her first in “influencer score” among U.S. digital-native stars in the comedy category. The ranking is based on a range of metrics including her YouTube subscribers (5.6 million) and her average views per video (1.5 million).

The project was developed for TV by Ballinger-Evans, Chris Ballinger, Perry Rein and Gigi McCreery, who will all exec produce, along with The Firm’s Jeff Kwatinetz and Josh Barry. Rein and McCreery will serve as co-showrunners. The longtime writing and producing duo are best known for their work on “Friends” and Disney Channel’s Selena Gomez-starrer “Wizards of Waverly Place.” Brightlight Pictures Inc. is producing.

In conjunction with this report, Ballinger-Evans posted a video announcement (see below) on Miranda Sings’ YouTube channel. The announcement had been hyped-up via her social channels — and to prove the character’s popularity, which makes her Netflix greenlight a seamless decision, the video had nearly 30,000 views in under 10 minutes of posting.

Syfy Sets Premiere Dates for ’12 Monkeys,’ Freshman Drama ‘Hunters’

12 Monkeys Syfy Season 2

COURTESY OF SYFY
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 11:00AM PT

Rick Kissell

Senior Editor@ratesrick

Syfy has announced premiere dates for two dramas, newcomer “Hunters” and sophomore “12 Monkeys,” which will bow on back-to-back weeks in April.

“Hunters,” a thriller that revolves around a highly classified government organization that tracks and fights alien terrorists, will premiere Monday, April 11 at 10 p.m. The series is from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, Natalie Chaidez (who will also serve as showrunner) and Emile Levisetti, and is inspired by best-selling author Whitley Strieber’s novel, “Alien Hunter.”

Nathan Phillips stars as Baltimore FBI agent Flynn Carroll, whose wife goes missing. Britne Oldford plays Regan, a valuable operative of the Exo-Terrorism Unit who keeps secrets of her own. The series also stars Julian McMahon as McCarthy, a dangerously unhinged terrorist.

The time-travel drama “12 Monkeys” kicks off its 13-episode second season on Monday, April 18 at 9 p.m., serving as the lead-in to “Hunters.” Aaron Stanford, Amanda Schull, Kirk Acevedo, Emily Hampshire, Barbara Sukowa and Todd Stashwick reprise their roles.

“12 Monkeys” aired its first season on Fridays in early 2015. Its finale in April averaged about 700,000 total viewers in same-day viewing, according to Nielsen.

Syfy cleared the decks of some of its under-performing dramas in 2015, cancelling “Defiance,” “Dominion” and “Haven.” The net’s biggest bet of the new year comes Jan. 25 when it launches “The Magicians,” based upon Lev Grossman’s best-selling books centering around a secret institution specializing in magic.

USA Orders ‘Falling Water’ from Gale Anne Hurd, Blake Masters and the Late Henry Bromell

Falling Water

COURTESY OF USA
JANUARY 14, 2016 | 10:00AM PT

Elizabeth Wagmeister

@EWagmeister

“Falling Water” has been ordered to series at USA Network, Variety has learned. The drama hails from “The Walking Dead’s” Gale Anne Hurd, and was co-written by Blake Masters and the late Henry Bromell.

“Falling Water” revolves around three strangers who realize they are dreaming separate parts of the same dream that has big implications for each of their lives. Each of them is on a mysterious and highly personal quest — one is searching for his missing girlfriend, one is searching for a lost child, one is looking to cure his catatonic mother — and it is the clues found in their collective dream that come to guide them. The deeper they dig, though, the more they come to realize that their missions touch on stakes that are much larger than their individual agendas, and that the visions found in their common dream just might hold the key to the fate of the world.

The pilot was penned and co-created by Masters and Bromell, before his death. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed the pilot and will serve as an exec producer on the series, along with Hurd, Masters and Bromell who is credited as an EP. Universal Cable Productions and Hurd’s Valhalla Entertainment will produce.

David Ajala (“Fast & Furious 6”), Will Yun Lee (“Hawaii 5-0”) and Lizzie Brochere (“American Horror Story: Asylum”) have been cast to star in the series.

Ajala will play Burton, the head of in-house security for a multinational investment banking firm, whose personal and professional paranoia collide when an investigation into financial malfeasance at the firm leads to a backlash that engulfs his love life. Lee plays Taka, an intuitive NYPD Detective, whose leap-of-faith insights put him on the trail of an obscure dream-obsessed cult. Brochere plays Tess, a cutting edge trend spotter with an uncanny ability to predict the next big thing, who is haunted by nightly dreams of an absent child.

“‘Falling Water’ captivated us with its cinematic journey and unique exploration into the power of the dream world,” said Jackie de Crinis, executive vice president of original programming at USA Network. “It is an edge-of-your seat thriller that reveals a race to control the collective conscience.”

“Today’s world demands shows that both challenge and reward the audience in spectacular ways. ‘Falling Water’ is the type of show that can move the needle of popular culture with its thrilling exploration of the dark side of the mind,” added Jeff Wachtel, president and chief content officer at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

“Falling Water” marks a continuation in business between Hurd and NBCUniversal, which owns USA Network — and also Syfy, which is home to her upcoming series “Hunters,” which is slated to premiere this April.

“Falling Water” is the first pilot to be picked up to series from USA’s 2015-16 slate. Still in contention for series pickup are “Shooter,” starring Ryan Phillippe, “Brooklyn Animal Control,” “The Wilding” and “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”

Leigh-Anne Pinnock flaunts her incredible beach body in mismatched bikini on luxury yacht in Mexico with beau Jordan Kiffin

By KAYLEIGH GILES FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:19 EST, 13 January 2016 | UPDATED: 14:26 EST, 13

She's taking a break from pop domination to enjoy a relaxing holiday in Mexico with boyfriend Jordan Kiffin.

And while Leigh-Anne Pinnock has remained social media savvy during her sun-soaked break, her latest Instagram post is no doubt her most envy-inducing yet.

The Little Mix star was sure to send her followers green with envy as she shared a picture of her toned bikini body, taken as she stood on board a lavish yacht on Wednesday.

Scroll down for video

Beach babe: Leigh-Anne Pinnock was sure to send her followers green with envy as she shared a picture of her toned bikini body, taken as she stood on board a lavish yacht in Mexico on Wednesday
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Beach babe: Leigh-Anne Pinnock was sure to send her followers green with envy as she shared a picture of her toned bikini body, taken as she stood on board a lavish yacht in Mexico on Wednesday

The 24-year-old star offsets her newly bronzed skin in a vivid turquoise bikini, which teases a peek of the star's ample bust as she holds out her chest while standing on her tip toes, possibly in an attempt to elongate her slender pins.

The Black Magic hit maker pairs the striking bikini top with contrasting white bottoms which feature an array of straps at the hips to make for a more daring finish.

The singer looks picture perfect in the snap as she holds her head in the direction of wind, prompting her curly raven locks to blow back from her make-up free face, which is protected beneath stylish aviator shades.

Mellow yellow: The singer has also been sharing snaps of herself in a teeny yellow bikini as she posed for some sultry selfies
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Mellow yellow: The singer has also been sharing snaps of herself in a teeny yellow bikini as she posed for some sultry selfies

Bikini bod: The girl-bander showed off her pert posterior while stretched out for a sunbathing session on he boat
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Bikini bod: The girl-bander showed off her pert posterior while stretched out for a sunbathing session on he boat

Action girl: On Tuesday, the twosome took out a dune buggy, with Leigh-Anne even taking over the wheel during one point of their journey
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Action girl: On Tuesday, the twosome took out a dune buggy, with Leigh-Anne even taking over the wheel during one point of their journey

Leigh-Anne looks to be revelling in her getaway as she sips on a cold beverage while chilling out on board the luxury vessel.

Referencing the lyrics of Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne's 2014 summer hit Rather Be, the pop princess captions the shot: 'In the words of @jessglynne "there's no place I'd rather be'.

The singer has also been sharing snaps of herself in a teeny yellow bikini as she posed for some sultry selfies and showed off her pert posterior while stretched out for a sunbathing session on he boat.

But it looks as though Leigh-Anne and her footballer beau, who plays for Ashford Town F.C., aren't spending all of their days cruising the seas, as the couple have also shared some more action-packed shots from their getaway.

Sun and sea: Leigh-Anne looks gorgeous in her holiday snaps, showing off her natural beauty
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Sun and sea: Leigh-Anne looks gorgeous in her holiday snaps, showing off her natural beauty

Bottoms up! The singer has flaunted her enviable physique in countless bikini shots during her romantic getaway
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Bottoms up! The singer has flaunted her enviable physique in countless bikini shots during her romantic getaway

Just the two of us: The star and her footballer beau cosied up for a delicious lunch at sea
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Just the two of us: The star and her footballer beau cosied up for a delicious lunch at sea

Leigh-Anne Pinnock is ravishing in red as she cosies up to BF

On Tuesday, the twosome took out a dune buggy, with Leigh-Anne even taking over the wheel during one point of their journey.

'Silly jordan for letting me drive.. still..I only crashed once..,' she wrote alongside a short clip of the duo speeding across the sand.

The smitten pair - who are currently in Cabo - have also shared snaps and shorts of themselves riding some raucous waves on jet skis, while another of their adventurous days saw them brave some serious heights to zip lining across a canyon.

The singer isn't the only member of Little Mix indulging in some time away, however, as Leigh-Anne's band mates Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall are unwinding in the Maldives and Paris, respectively.

Much needed R&R: Leigh-Anne's bandmate Perrie Edwards is also unwinding in the sunshine as she enjoys a break in the Maldives
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Much needed R&R: Leigh-Anne's bandmate Perrie Edwards is also unwinding in the sunshine as she enjoys a break in the Maldives

Usher reveals the title of his new album, and it's not what you thought it was

UR becomes Flawed.

Usher press shot 2014.
1 HOUR AGO

​Usher has been awfully quiet recently - until now.

The singer's just revealed the title of his new album, and it's not what fans have been expecting.

In a video uploaded by American artist Daniel Arsham, Usher announces that his eighth record's called Flawed.

Fans had previously believed the album was called UR, with the singer even heading out on a UR Experience Tour in 2014.

Usher's last album was 2012's Looking 4 Myself​, which reached one in the US and three in the UK.

His last single 'I Don't Mind' just missed out on the Top 10 in America but peaked at number eight in the UK.

Simon Emmett
pop

We Had The Quietest Interview Ever With Jess Glynne

The U.K. singer talks I Cry When I Laugh, losing her voice, working with Little Mix and staying positive.

by emilee lindner 9/4/2015

Jess Glynne is bringing pop music the boldness it deserves.

Many of the songs on the U.K. singer’s I Laugh When I Cry, released in August, are in-your-face, infectious jams but earlier this summer, she had to physically hold back on her music after she was having vocal troubles. But despite canceling some shows, the singer-songwriter has come at us in full force.

EXCLUSIVE: Jess Glynne on heartbreak and X Factor
After hitting us hard with her feature on Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” in 2013, she got to work on songs like “Hold My Hand” and “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself.” (All three of those tunes are extremely positive — exactly the type of music you need if you want to lift your spirits.)

During her quiet time, we asked about her success with “Rather Be,” her new LP, and not letting sadness defeat you:

MTV: First off, what happened with your voice, and what’s it like not being able to talk for weeks? I’m so sorry!

JG: I had a polyps on my vocal chord which was getting in the way of me singing. Was really scary! Not talking for three weeks was so hard.. It’s one of the most frustrating things but I learnt a lot of other ways to communicate.

MTV: What do you do to stay zen amid promo craziness?

JG: I just take every day as it comes and don’t look at my diary. Make sure I eat well and sleep well. With a massage every now and then, I’m good to go!


MTV: That said, what has been the craziest moment on your road-to-album journey?

JG: One of the craziest moments was when I had two full on shows in one day in two different parts of the country. It was so intense and I had such little time, it felt like I hadn’t stood still for 24 hours.

MTV: What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

JG: I’m just excited for them to hear the album. This album is so special to me and is a journey I’ve been on. I want my fans to walk away feeling positive and hopeful even if they’ve been in the darkest place, ’cause we’ve all been there. I want them to put this album on and feel good!

EXCLUSIVE: Jess Glynne on heartbreak and X Factor
MTV: I love “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself.” What is the story behind the song?

JG: When I was meeting my publisher, managers and label and everything was happening for me, I was going through a really hard time. I had my heart broken and I was in a dark place. It was even harder because my dreams were coming true and I had to put a smile on my face every day and power through. This is the message of the song: To not let sadness defeat you.

MTV: You gained a lot of popularity with “Rather Be.” Did you ever think it’d be that viral? Do you like to maintain that positive theme in your music?

JG: I never expected any of the success that “Rather Be” be had! It was so amazing to be a part of something so special! I do like to maintain a positive theme in my music as I do in my life.


MTV: What was it like working with Little Mix on their upcoming album Get Weird? Did you do more than one song, and what is the feel of the music?

EXCLUSIVE: Jess Glynne on heartbreak and X Factor

JG: It was so much fun working with them! They are such lovely girls. I have done two songs on the album both of which I love! The feel is quite poppy although the songs I’ve done aren’t really haha. But I think have a pop album with a slight edge.

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Reply #112 posted 01/14/16 9:35pm

Identity


[img:$uid]http://s12.postimg.org/5j5xdplp9/420.jpg[/img:$uid]






Syfy's New Alien Series, Hunters
01.14.2016


Syfy has announced a premiere date for newcomer Hunters.

Hunters, a thriller that revolves around a highly classified government organization that tracks and fights alien terrorists, will premiere Monday, April 11 at 10 p.m.


The series is from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, Natalie Chaidez (who will also serve as show runner) and Emile Levisetti, and is inspired by best-selling author Whitley Strieber’s novel, “Alien Hunter.”


Nathan Phillips stars as Baltimore FBI agent Flynn Carroll, whose wife goes missing. Britne Oldford plays Regan, a valuable operative of the Exo-Terrorism Unit who keeps secrets of her own.

The series also stars Julian McMahon as McCarthy, a dangerously unhinged terrorist.

Link

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Reply #113 posted 01/15/16 8:16am

JoeBala

Jackie Wilson

[img:$uid]http://i1212.ph.../img:$uid]

RARE Sam Cooke, Ali, and Band Dave Clark Five 4 March 1964


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Reply #114 posted 01/15/16 9:13am

JoeBala

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty dies at 74 after battle with cancer

By DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 10:08 EST, 15 January 2016 | UPDATED: 10:42 EST, 15

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty has died at 74 following a battle with cancer.


The '70s star passed away at his home in California's San Fernando Valley on Friday surrounded by friends and family, according to TMZ.

The actor was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago after he underwent surgery for back pain.

Seventies star: The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty has died at 74 following a battle with cancer
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Seventies star: The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams star Dan Haggerty has died at 74 following a battle with cancer.

The hirsute star, who famously was the real life friend of bears and wildcats, returned home after doctors in the hospital he was receiving treatment at told him time was growing short.

While home, Haggerty met with close friends and family in his final days.


With an impressively muscled physique and uncanny kinship with large carnivorous beasts, Haggerty got jobs as a stuntman and double for Hollywood actors who 'didn't like animals leaping on them'.

With an impressively muscled physique and uncanny kinship with large carnivorous beasts, Haggerty got jobs as a stuntman and double for Hollywood actors who 'didn't like animals leaping on them' (pictured in 1979)
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With an impressively muscled physique and uncanny kinship with large carnivorous beasts, Haggerty got jobs as a stuntman and double for Hollywood actors who 'didn't like animals leaping on them' (pictured in 1979)

Haggerty with daughter Trudy and wife Diane Rooker at the Photoplay Awards in 1979
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Haggerty with daughter Trudy and wife Diane Rooker at the Photoplay Awards in 1979

Then in 1973 he helped re-shoot The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, a 1800s mountain and bear trainer, which became a blockbuster hit the following year.


In the film he portrays real life outlaw and bear trainer James Adams, who while on the run took refuge in the mountains and befriended a bear cub.


Haggerty went on to have an NBC television series about Grizzly Adams from 1977 to 1978.

Mountain man: In 1973 he helped re-shoot The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, a 1800s mountain and bear trainer, which became a blockbuster hit the following year and he later starred in a NBC television of the same name (pictured)
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Mountain man: In 1973 he helped re-shoot The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, a 1800s mountain and bear trainer, which became a blockbuster hit the following year and he later starred in a NBC television of the same name (pictured)

He worked as a stunt consultant and animal handler for many films involving not only bears but tigers, mountain lions, and wild boar for films such as Tarzan and his own rugged television and movie projects.

While a fixture in Hollywood, the mountain man preferred to raise his family on a ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Haggerty was a stuntman, actor, and animal handler for decades in Hollywood, pictured in 2010
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Haggerty was a stuntman, actor, and animal handler for decades in Hollywood, pictured in 2010

He raised and cared for bears and big cats on his property and was known for not using painful electric wires to control his animals on set.

Instead, Haggerty shared a bond with Grizzly Bears and mountain lions which he used to create his cinematic magic.


Dan Haggerty played in Girl Happy with Elvis ( he is the man on the far right, his name was Charlie in that movie) He also stayed good friends with Elvis.

Dan Haggerty also believes that Elvis was special.
“He was very kind to me and he had that aura about him which only the genuine stars possess,” he said, “There was no big ego with him. He’d always had time to stop and say hello. The other thing that people don’t appreciate was that he was a wonderful actor, he was a very talented man.”Haggerty had many opportunities to get to know Elvis through their mutual friend Ann Margret. Dan built Ann’s custom “chopper” motorcycle and spent a lot of time with her. They both socialised with Elvis in Las Vegas where Dan got to know him well. He also had an uncredited role in the 1965 Elvis film ‘Girl Happy’.

The star began dating his wife Diane when they were still teenagers and later married at just 17 at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas called Silver Slipper Hotel.

Wayne Static’s Widow Tera Wray Static Found Dead at Age 33

By Graham 'Gruhamed' Hartmann January 15, 2016 9:01 AM
Wayne and Tera Wray StaticEthan Miller, Getty Images

Sad news to report, as Static-X frontman Wayne Static‘s widow, Tera Wray Static, has died from an apparent suicide at age 33.

Wayne Static died on Nov. 1, 2014 from a multiple toxicity overdose at the age of 48. Having struggled with alcohol and drug abuse for many years, a combination of oxycodone, hydromorphone, alprazolam and alcohol took Static’s life.

Tera Wray Static was the one who found Wayne dead, after the Static-X frontman passed away in his sleep. The two were practically attached at the hip, with Wray appearing with Wayne in many interviews and even onstage with Static-X and Wayne’s solo project as a dancer.

Wayne and Tera met in 2007 during Ozzfest while she was modeling for Hustler lingerie. They married the following year and Tera retired from being am adult film actress shortly after.

Wray’s former adult entertainment attorney Michael Fattorosi tweeted about Tera’s death, confirming a story that was posted on Blabbermouth:

I’m so sad today. My client & friend Tera Wray, former Pornstar and the widow of Wayne Static committed suicide yesterday. We were emailing back & forth on Tuesday. And today I got a call from her roommate letting me know what happened. Tera is once again with the love of her life, Wayne, & will be forever. May they both find peace together for all of eternity. Godspeed Tera.

In July 2015, Tera got inked with a full sleeve tattoo as a memorial to her late husband:

We’d like to extend our deepest sympathies to Tera Wray Static’s loved ones during this difficult time.

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Reply #115 posted 01/15/16 10:52am

JoeBala
Surprise Trailer For Cloverfield Sequel Released!
  • Jay Jayson
  • - 01/15/2016
Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions have pulled off one of the best surprises of all time.
A trailer, made to look like a bootleg, has been released for a film called 10 Cloverfield Lane starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher, Jr. and John Goodman. It IS an unannounced sequel to 2008's found footage monster flick,Cloverfield, which was directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. J.J., you sly dog!
How'd they pull this off? In 2014, Bad Robot and Paramount announced that Dan Trachtenberg (Portal: No Escape) had been hired to direct a post-apocalyptic thriller titled Valencia (aka The Cellar). However, that was a secret title for Cloverfield 2.
"The idea came up a long time ago during production," Paramount told Collider. "We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible."
Check out the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer in the video below. Update! Now in high-quality.
In the 2008 film, we followed a handful of young New Yorkers at a going-away party that have their lives shockingly turned upside-down when a monster descends upon the city. As for the sequel, Winstead's character wakes up in a large fallout shelter with two strangers. Goodman's character informs her "the world is over outside because there’s been a nuclear fallout," but she isn't sure if she is being told the truth or not.
10 Cloverfield Lane will land in theaters March 11th!
JANUARY 11TH, 2016 AT 4:02 PM

We&rsquo;re getting closer!! Do you have your tickets to see me on tour yet? Get &lsquo;em now 😍🎤😘2/2 - New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall - (Tickets) 2/3 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall - (Tickets) 2/4 - Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy - (Tickets) 2/5 - Vienna, VA @ Jammin’ Java - (Tickets) 2/7 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 - (Tickets) 2/9 - Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar - (Tickets) 2/10 - Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic - (Tickets) 2/11 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement - (Tickets) 2/13 - Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room - (Tickets) 2/14 - Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar - (Tickets) 2/16 - Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi Fi - (Tickets) 2/17 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s Tavern - (Tickets) 2/18 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry - (Tickets) 2/20 - Kansas City, MO @ Tank Room - (Tickets) 2/22 - Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe - (Tickets) 2/23 - Houston, TX @ The Green Room - (Tickets) 2/24 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada - (Tickets)

We’re getting closer!! Do you have your tickets to see me on tour yet? Get ‘em now 😍🎤😘

2/2 - New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall - (Tickets)
2/3 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall - (Tickets)
2/4 - Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy - (Tickets)
2/5 - Vienna, VA @ Jammin’ Java - (Tickets)
2/7 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 - (Tickets)
2/9 - Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar - (Tickets)
2/10 - Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic - (Tickets)
2/11 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement - (Tickets)
2/13 - Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room - (Tickets)
2/14 - Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar - (Tickets)
2/16 - Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi Fi - (Tickets)
2/17 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s Tavern - (Tickets)
2/18 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry - (Tickets)
2/20 - Kansas City, MO @ Tank Room - (Tickets)
2/22 - Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe - (Tickets)
2/23 - Houston, TX @ The Green Room - (Tickets)
2/24 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada - (Tickets)

Recording New Record. smile

💫💞☄Mid song. My heart is happy here. 💫💞☄

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Reply #116 posted 01/15/16 12:15pm

JoeBala

Exclusive Interview: Got a Girl

October 07. 2015 | By Jason Martinez

Got a Girl @ Largo, LA 9-28-15 04

Sometimes the universe just wants two talented people to come together. Mary Elizabeth Winstead [Faults, television’s The Returned] and uberproducer Dan The Automator Nakamura [Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School] are two of those people.

The pair met in 2009, during the making of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a film in which Winstead starred, and whose soundtrack featured several songs by Nakamura. After a cast dinner where the pair discovered a shared affinity for 1960s French Pop, Nakamura asked Winstead about making music together. What started off as an experiment eventually became a full-fledged musical project, Got A Girl. Their recording sessions, which began in 2010, yielded last year’s debut LP, I Love You But I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now.

After five years of on-and-off collaboration, the pair have finally taken their show on the road, during a week-long tour which saw them hit Seattle, San Francisco, and New York City, before culminating in Los Angeles. We sat down with them before their final show of the run, at LA’s Largo at the Coronet. Backstage, we discussed the sinister sense of humor that lies beneath their music’s bubbly surface, the craziest thing Nakamura’s collaborator Prince Paul ever did, and what’s next for Got a Girl.

The Owl Mag: You guys have been working on these songs on-and-off since 2010. The five dates on this tour are your first live appearances. What’s it like getting to play these songs live after having worked on them for so long?

Winstead: It’s been really amazing.

Dan The Automator Nakamura: Everything’s been really incredible. Anything’s gonna have a little bump here and there, but it’s all worked really well. Mary’s an amazing frontperson with charisma. The show just speaks for itself, in terms of the reaction of the fans, which is actually the true judgement. I think it’s been going very well.

Winstead: Yeah, we’ve gotten good reactions so far, which has been great, because this is something totally new for me. I’ve never performed like this in any capacity until a week ago when we first started these shows. It’s a big relief for me to feel like it’s going as well as it has. It’s kind of a good thing, in a way, that it’s taken this long. We would have loved to have done shows three years ago, but since we were both doing other stuff, it didn’t happen. I know my confidence has grown a lot since I was 25, when we were first working on these songs.

Nakamura: There’s a whole lot of moving parts to doing all this stuff. Part of what happened, was, we were able to find ourselves.

Winstead: Yeah.

Nakamura: She disappears on a movie for four months, I disappear on a tour for four months, but then when we get back together, we get each other. The chemistry’s good.

TOM: How was playing live in New York?

Nakamura: Awesome. We had a good time.

Winstead: Had you ever appeared at Joe’s Pub before?

Nakamura: Apparently I had, but I didn’t remember. I did a show with Paul [legendary hip-hop producer and rapper Prince Paul, Nakamura’s collaborator in the group Handsome Boy Modeling School] back in 2000. Apparently, he did the whole show in character, from the time we arrived, to the time we left. A couple of my friends who were there said that was the craziest, funniest shit they ever saw Prince Paul do.

Got a Girl @ Largo, LA 9-28-15 03
Winstead: He was with us in New York, which was really cool. He made a special appearance, and it was the first time you guys had been together onstage in like ten years.

Nakamura: Yeah, we did a show on New Year’s, but it was a dj show. We hadn’t done the actual thing.

TOM: Mary, you’re well known for your acting. Since acting is also a creative endeavor, is there a different energy that goes into writing and performing these songs? Or does it all come from the same creative place?

Winstead: It’s interesting. Part of what made it easier for me jumping into this rather than another musical endeavor, is that I feel like Dan’s music is really cinematic and visual. Any time he would send me a track to start writing to, I would see images of movies, I would feel that kind of vibe. The characters that came out of this felt like a role that I really wanted to play that was part me, part an embellishment of me. Those are the kinds of roles I tend to veer towards, anyway, so that was kind of perfect.

TOM: You mention characters. When you guys are onstage, do you feel like Mary and Dan, or is it “Mary” and “Dan”?

Nakamura: I might go with the quotes a little bit.

Winstead: It’s kind of a blur.

Nakamura: The thing is, whatever it is, it’s an extension of whatever it is. There’s a grain of truth to things, and there’s a lot of extension.

Winstead: I think any time you’re onstage, there’s gotta be an element of something larger than you.

Nakamura: It’s like Ethel Merman and Ricky Ricardo [laughs]. Everyone has thoughts and feelings, and I think we’re expounding on certain aspects of our personalities.

Winstead: It’s a specific moment in time that’s maybe not us all the time.

Nakamura: It’s an expansion, in certain respects. Jodie [Foster, acting legend whom Nakamura had dinner with before the show] loved the fragrance I gave her.

TOM: Is that the EO Fragrance?

Nakamura: Yeah, she was putting it on like, “I need a new scent.”

Winstead: Amazing.

TOM: What inspired you guys to do the fragrance?

Nakamura: We just try to have fun.

Winstead: All of those collaborations came out of people that we’re friends with, or people that we wanted to hang out with and make things with. Even olive oil.

Nakamura: The thing is, we are like a lifestyle. We’re lifestyle consultants.

Winstead: We’re not really concerned with selling stuff, it’s more —

Nakamura: Showing people the light.

Winstead: Expanding on the music. It’s more like what we represent as a whole.

TOM: And what is it that you guys represent?

Got a Girl @ Largo, LA 9-28-15 05

Nakamura: Fabulousness.

Winstead: Yes!

TOM: On your record, you guys are influenced by ‘60s pop, music that’s older than you are. Have you guys been listening to this music since you were younger?

Winstead: I’ve listened to ‘60s music since I was a kid. I’ve been a ‘60s fan in general. About a year before I met Dan, I started going down the ‘60s French Pop rabbit hole, specifically. It was fortuitous that we met and he had this idea to do something French Pop-inspired, and I was at the time really into that genre of music. I hadn’t really discovered it until I was in my early 20s or so. I definitely became really into it at that point. It was one of those weird coincidental moments.

TOM: What kind of music did you guys listen to when you were younger?

Nakamura: I listened to a lot of things: rap, some funk, soul, rock. I’ve always liked music, starting with classical music. Genres are good in terms of giving you an idea of what it is, but genres aren’t important to me, personally. From pop, to really obscure Krautrock, if it catches my attention, I like it.

Hip-hop obviously had an influence on me in terms of production, but I don’t really make hip-hop records. I don’t really use those skills too much to make my records. I’m not saying it was a phase in my life, I still love that stuff, but I know a lot of people in the business who do one kind of thing. That’s just not what I do.

Winstead: His music is a melding of a lot of things.

Nakamura: I think at this point, nothing’s really “original,” but you take bits of stuff from here and there, and make it what it becomes. Even our record, people say “Oh, it’s French pop,” but no French pop record would ever sound like this.

Winstead: Right.

Nakamura: As much as I agree that that’s the genesis of where we came from —

Winstead: We ended up with something else.

TOM: How does creating music for Got a Girl feel different for creating music for some of your other projects? Is it a different energy?

Nakamura: It’s a different energy for every project, honestly, because of different people, so let’s leave that out of the equation. There’s certain people you work with who are difficult [playfully gestures to Winstead]. For the most part, though, I work with people I like. If I throw something at Mary, I know it’s gonna work. Even if the song’s wrong, we’ll make it work. That’s why the first couple of songs were the hardest, because I was trying to figure it out. Once I figured it out, boom, we do it, and we do it, and we do it.

With her, it’s easy in the sense that I know it’s gonna work. It’s gonna make me happy to make it. That’s the best way I can put it. There’s jobs, and not jobs. I’m trying to never have a job, and what I mean by that is never feel like I have to grind through to make this happen.

TOM: You guys said you represent fabulousness, however throughout your guys’ music, your videos, even your album cover, there’s a certain sinister undercurrent, a dark sense of humour. From afar, the album looks like a classic ‘60s album cover. It says “I love you,” but then in smaller text, it says “but I must drive off a cliff.” Is that something that came about naturally?

Nakamura: Well, I don’t think we’re one dimensional.

Winstead: Yeah, we’re both drawn to the light and the dark, and having that balance. We wanted everything to be a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Everything Dan does has that quality to it. That’s kind of what this needed. If it was all bubbly, silly French Pop, I think we’d be a little bit bored by it. We needed to add some off-kilter weirdness to it.

Nakamura: Same if it was too dark.

Winstead: Yeah, then that’s boring, too. For me, my favorite song on the album is “Put Your Head Down,” which is this weird, murderous, obsessive love song. I really love that kind of thing. It makes me smile in a kind of sadistic way. I love the balance of the poppy, silly fun with the darker side.

TOM: What’s next for Got A Girl? Will there be more shows? More new music?

Nakamura: We’re both in businesses where we’re both very busy. I really enjoy working with Mary. If it makes sense, we’ll do more.

Winstead: it’s all about timing. We both have a lot of fun doing this project. It tooks us five years to get here, so you never know what’s gonna happen.

Nakamura: I feel like, in spirit, we’ll continue to do shows, and make more music. it just has to fall into place.

Winstead: Yeah.

Got A Girl’s debut album, I Love You But I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now, is available now on Bulk Recordings.

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Reply #117 posted 01/15/16 1:04pm

JoeBala

Lisa Bonet & Daughter Zoe Kravitz in the 2016 Calvin Klein Watches + Jewelry campaign.

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Photo from venus_la_paz

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Reply #118 posted 01/15/16 1:27pm

JoeBala

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Ben-Stiller-Penelop-Cruz-Vogue-Magazine-Zoolander-Fashion-Tom-Lorenzo-Site (4)

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Reply #119 posted 01/15/16 10:16pm

JoeBala

MUSIC: URBAN BUSH BABE KELSEY LU MCJUNKINS + 2016 Tour

Posted by urbanbushbabes

Music: Urban Bush Babe Kelsey Lu McJunkins

Tell us your name and where you are from?

My birth name is Kelsey Elizabeth McJunkins, but I go by Kelsey Lu. I was born in Charlotte, NC but I like to say I personally “grew up” in Winston Salem, NC where I went to North Carolina School of the ARTS.

1382970_2224301892380_1357938194_n

How long have you been natural?

I have been natural for 8 years now. WOW! I haven’t thought about it until now. I am interracial, and when I was a little girl I had long beautifully curly healthy hair down to my butt. I would go over to my cousin’s house who lived on a lake, had long straight beautifully blonde hair and would get anything they wanted and would wish that I had the same things they did which included the long straight hair. It wasn’t just my cousin’s that influenced my young naive decision to put horrible chemicals into my hair. My older sister got a relaxer and I wanted to do everything SHE did so after she got it of course I wanted it too. At that time, getting a perm was what was up, almost every black girl had one. I was bullied a lot in elementary and middle school because I was different, and it wasn’t until I got older that I realized it was out of their own insecurities. When I left home and decided to go down my own path in life, I went natural. It was pretty symbolic I’d say.

kelsey and older sister, Jessica

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Sister on left and lil me on right

21r

What do you do? Is there a resistance or compatibility with your hair in your field of work?

I am a Musician who’s forte is Cello and my vocal chords though I dabble in a bit of everything.


I would say there’s both. There’s a resistance to be natural for some because they are being told by someone else that they need to look a certain way to succeed. Prime example- I was in Atlanta a few years ago recording cello for a well known artist’s album (who’s name with remain anonymous), and their then Manager, who was at the time A&R for Universal, was talking to me about what I need to do to “make it”. “Now, if I bring you to the label and they tell you they like everything about you and you have everything they want, but they want you to straighten you hair. Would you do it? This is something you need to seriously think about if you want to make it in the industry.”

k3

Photo: Backyard Bill

Saint Mazie's BK

Being natural is so very compatible with being an artist. You’re showing off the fact that you are you and nobody else. Isn’t that the point of being an artist? You’re expressing yourself, you’re sharing who you are with the world, you’re trying to be as “different” as possible. It’s like you’re own independence. I would like to add that my new hair obsession is wigs. Really long, really loud wigs. It is soooo much fun to wear a wig! It’s like you’re inventing this new extension to yourself that you never knew existed and you can always go back to your hair bc it’s STILL THERE! It’s under there! right there! I can have long fire engine red hair one day and then my beautiful afro the next. It’s a lot of fun!

Orange Peel Asheville, NC

Video Colorado r

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Describe your hair.

HAHA hmmmm a mess. but it’s my big beautiful mess that is always changing.

KL5

What is your hair regimen?

I am seriously JUST hopping on the hair management train. I didn’t know that you needed to care for it naturally, just as much as you would if it had chemicals in it. I also have been too broke in the past to buy good products, so I’m still experimenting on what products to use on my hair. So far though, I always sleep with my hair either wrapped in a silk wrap, or a silk scarf on my pillow. That has seriously helped keep the dryness at bay. I recently started using Mixed Chick’s Kid’s Shampoo, and I can totally tell the difference. I use Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner. When I get out of the shower, I immediately section my hair into four parts and apply Shea Moisture coconut & Hibiscus Curl and Style Milk from root to tip and let it air dry. In the mornings after sleeping on the curls and having them go flat, I spray some Shea Moisture Mist Curl Reviver. It’s light and smells good and gets curls perky again.

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What are the three biggest factors you attribute to your length?

Time

Consistent trims (I need to be better at this lol)

I need some more tips on this one <img src=" />

photo (39)

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What is your usual go to style?

Fro

What is your nighttime routine?

Silk Scarf!

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Your top three favorite products and why?

Shea Moisture – It works and is affordable.

Mixed Chicks Kids- It works and is less expensive than most.

I don’t have a third favorite YET

Your best hair advice?

Let it be who it wants to be!

NC Beaches

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Studio Bunnin'

Ultimate hair crush

Your twin, TK Wonder. lulzzz That’s really hard, I love so many different types of hair! hmmm I’ll just stick to who I looked at with natural hair when I first made the decision to go natural, and that’s my icon in many ways, Lisa Bonet.

tk wonder r

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Lisa Bonet 2

What is the strangest comment, request or hair story?

There was one day about 6 years ago, when I wanted to randomly go to a salon and get my hair straightened. I was living in Winston Salem, NC and there weren’t many options on good hair salons. I also wasn’t thinking very hard about it, so I just went to SuperCuts (that was my downfall). I waited for 30 min to sit in the chair for the hairdresser look at me like ‘wtf am I supposed to do with this hair’ and then TELL me with her slow southern draw “I’m sorry, I just don’t know how to do your hair. I went to beauty school in Fayetteville, and I just never had to work on hair like yours.” I was so shocked I just dropped my jaw, walked out the door and sat in my car for like 10 min in absolute disbelief of what just happened.

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How would you describe your personal fashion style?

Eclectically Evolving


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Photo: Backyard Bill

What advice would you give to people who might be afraid to show their true fashion sense or natural hair for fear of being judged by others?

Frack everybody else! This is YOU, and nobody can take that away. Your style and your personality is your OWN, so OWN it! If people are judging you or telling you that your true fashion sense or natural hair is wrong then you’re doing something right.

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What would you say to others who judge individuals negatively for their personal fashion style?

You should learn to love yourself more

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When it comes to your style who, what or where does your inspiration come from?

The Earth, Space, NYC, my mom in the 60′s , Lisa Bonet and last but not least from inside myself.

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If you could name one person whose closet you would love to raid, who would it be?

Beyonce

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Favorite stores and places to shop for vintage or thrift

Mega Thrift in NC, really ANY thrift stores in NC are the BOMB but I can’t give my best kept secrets away <img src=" /> . In NYC, I love Fox & Fawn. They hand select great things(be careful), and their prices aren’t ridiculous! But then there’s always Beacon’s Closet GEEZ, you can spend a lifetime in there looking through everything its CRAZY!

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What is your earliest memory of music?

Sitting in my mom’s lap while she played piano. Feeling the vibrations through the wood and trying to press down on an ivory key that was as wide as my hand.

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If you could jam with any three musicians, past or present who would they be?

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?!?! THAT’S SO HARD, OMG. Ok, I’m just going to say what first pops up in my mind. Coltrane, Beethoven and Jimi. ugh.

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Who have you collaborated with?

I have collaborated with a few different artists. Kyp Malone (from TV on the Radio), Nappy Roots, Organized Noize , 9th Wonder’s label JAMLA and several other artists from different parts of the musical world. Last year I collaborated with a modern dance choreographer and got to perform my original composition at the Lincoln Center.

This year I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Kyp Malone and several other predominant African American artists on film, ‘How Do You Say Yam In African’
that will be screened at the Whitney Museum, during the opening week of The Whitney Biennial.
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You are in recently released David O Russell film, ‘American Hustle’, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper. Tell us a bit about your part and the experience?
American Hustle! Yes! I was involved in that thanks to my dear friend, Deva Mahal (Taj Mahal’s daughter). I’ve worked with her musically several times and she asked me if I wanted to audition for the part with her, and of course I said yes! So they wanted an all black soul band for the part and they got one. It was a blast! We stayed in Boston for a couple of nights, shot for a whole day, were treated like stars and got to experience what it’s like to be in a movie! We met all the actors/actresses and worked with them for the scene. It was really cooool. It was funny because I suppose they had just gotten the script and were shooting a scene they were unfamiliar with, so when it was Jeremy Renner’s lines, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, so he turned around and I happened to be standing directly behind him so he looked at me with a sort of panicky look on his face and said something like, “What am I supposed to do here?” and I was like “uuuhhhh” how should I know?!
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Current music playlist and favorite book

The Sounds of Rain is my current music playlist and my favorite book is The Owl and The Pussycat

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Most embarrassing moment

Falling off of stage in the middle of a performance.

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What is your favorite life lesson

To love life through creativity is to be intimate with life’s inmost secrets.


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Favorite restaurant and dish you would not want to live without

Chicken Coop in Charlotte, NC. It’s a landmark and has the best fried chicken in the world. I wouldn’t be able to live without French Onion Soup.


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Favorite place you have traveled to or your ultimate destination

I’d have to say Dominican Republic. I stayed in a small mountainous rural town called La Vega for 3 weeks. I stayed with a couple that live there and got to see and experience how people really live there. My ultimate destination- Africa.


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Outside of Cabin at Music Festival in Iowa

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Do you have a blog/website?

I am working on my solid website right now. But you can check me out at soundcloud , YouTube or instagram me! @kelseylu69

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Anything else?

Love is the center of everything.

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What makes you an Urban Bush Babe?

I’m not afraid of showing people who I am and being proud of it. I am also not afraid to tell someone that I admire, that I admire them. I was brought down a lot throughout my life for the way that I look and the way that I dress, but here I am. Strong as ever. No bitterness or anger, just love.

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Kelsey Lu - 2016 Tour Dates (w/ Wet)
1/16 - National Sawdust - Brooklyn, NY (just Kelsey Lu)
1/24 - Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA
1/27 - U Street Music Hall - Washington, DC
1/28 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
1/29 - Rough Trade - Brooklyn, NY
1/30 - Boot & Saddle - Philadelphia, PA
2/1 - The Sinclair - Cambridge, MA
2/2 - Le Ritz PDB - Montreal, QC
2/3 - The Drake Hotel - Toronto, ON
2/5 - Schubas Tavern - Chicago, IL
2/6 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN
2/9 - Barboza - Seattle, WA
2/10 - Biltmore Cabaret - Vancouver, BC
2/12 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR
2/14 - The Independent - San Francisco, CA
2/15 - The Lyric Theater - Los Angeles, CA
2/16 - The Echo - Los Angeles, CA

Thanks ID for the Intro of this Artist.

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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