Entertainment category, Page 133
Review: ‘LeBron’ examines the remarkable career of NBA star
“LeBron” by Jeff Benedict (Avid Reader Press) LeBron James has lived a very public life. Who can forget the 2002 Sports Illustrated cover anointing him “The Chosen One” when he was just 17? Now 38, he’s done thousands of interviews, spoken out on a variety of social justice issues, earned...
Why are there so many good TV shows to watch right now?
Picture May 17, 2001. In the final seconds of the season seven finale of “Friends,” Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel reveals she’s pregnant — but who’s the father? This was a classic May sweeps cliffhanger, luring viewers and reaping advertising dollars for NBC. Most shows used to kick off in the fall,...
Al Jaffee, longtime Mad magazine cartoonist, dies at 102
NEW YORK — Al Jaffee, Mad magazine’s award-winning cartoonist and ageless wise guy who delighted millions of kids with the sneaky fun of the Fold-In and the snark of “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” has died. He was 102. Jaffee died Monday in Manhattan from multiple organ failure, according to...
Review: ‘The Trackers’ tells a vivid, post-Depression tale
“The Trackers” by Charles Frazier (Ecco) The characters that populate Charles Frazier’s new novel “The Trackers” are all searching for something. The narrator, Val, has journeyed from Virginia to Wyoming in 1937 to paint a mural in a post office as part of the Works Progress Administration, one of FDR’s...
As streamers cut costs, TV shows — and residuals — vanish
Actor Diana-Maria Riva is all too familiar with one of her shows being canceled. For a performer, it’s a painful, unfortunate part of show business. But this was different. In December, Riva was floored when she found out that “Gordita Chronicles,” her recently canceled family comedy, would be removed from...
Review: A book for movie lovers with romance, mystery, drama
“Advika and the Hollywood Wives” by Kirthana Ramisetti (Grand Central) Evening. Interior. We open on an Oscars afterparty, where Advika Srinivasan is making drinks for half of Hollywood while barely holding on to a measured, service industry demeanor despite the belligerence and entitlement of the tipsy, trophy-toting guests. But the...
‘Perseverance’ tells story of Squirrel Hill jeweler’s journey from Holocaust camps to U.S.
During his nearly four decades at the G&S Jewelry Store in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Melvin Goldman created custom jewelry. But the shiny pieces belied Goldman’s much-darker journey to reach the United States. His story will be told onstage Saturday and Sunday at the New Hazlett Theater, when “Perseverance” opens....
The anime hit ‘Suzume’ and Shinkai’s cinema of cataclysmVideo
NEW YORK — Makoto Shinkai was never the same filmmaker after the 2011 earthquake stuck Japan. When the tsunami and quake ravaged the Tōhoku region of northern Japan and prompted a nuclear meltdown, Shinkai, a now 50-year-old director and animator of some of the most popular anime features in the...
Hilary Swank gives birth to twins, shares 1st photo
NEW YORK — Hilary Swank has given birth to twins — a boy and a girl. The 48-year-old “Million Dollar Baby” actor posted a photo of her and her twins looking at the sunset on Instagram Sunday evening with the caption: “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it...
Hilary Swank gives birth to twins, shares 1st photo
NEW YORK — Hilary Swank has given birth to twins — a boy and a girl. The 48-year-old “Million Dollar Baby” actor posted a photo of her and her twins looking at the sunset on Instagram Sunday evening with the caption: “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it...
‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is a box office smash
Audiences said let’s go to the movie theater for ” The Super Mario Bros. Movie ” this weekend. The animated offering from Universal and Illumination powered up with $204.6 million in its first five days in 4,343 North American theaters, including $146.4 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates...
There are plenty of rabbit songs for your Easter playlistVideo
The Easter Bunny is hopping all across the world today, inexplicably leaving eggs behind despite being a mammal. There are also plenty of songs about rabbits to pad out your Easter playlist for today’s holiday get-together. Here are just a few. “Rabbit in a Log” (Trad.) This traditional folk tune,...
Behind the Art: Portrait captures longtime Greensburg Art Center member
At 99, Nina Stahlberg leads a weekly drop-in painting class at Greensburg Art Center and also monitors the gallery. The oldest and longest- tenured member of the center, Stahlberg also is the subject of an oil painting that hangs permanently in the center’s classroom. The portrait was dashed off one evening...
‘A Thousand and One’ is Teyana Taylor’s answered prayer
NEW YORK — Pulpits across America this Easter Sunday are sure to be filled with pastors preaching the longtime adage that “God may not be there when you want Him, but He’s always on time.” If they’re in need of a witness, Teyana Taylor would surely testify. “I just have...
3 new ‘Star Wars’ movies coming, including Rey’s return
LONDON — For “Star Wars” lovers, new entertainment is a little less far, far away — Lucasfilm announced three new live-action films in the franchise Friday. The news, which includes the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in one of the films, was revealed at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023...
TV Talk: Kathryn Hahn, Carnegie Mellon grad share a role in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Based on author Cheryl Strayed’s collection of “Dear Sugar” advice columns, Hulu’s “Tiny Beautiful Things,” now streaming, follows aspiring writer Clare (Kathryn Hahn, “WandaVision”), who lucks into a role as an advice columnist that allows...
5 things to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: April 7-9
It’s Easter and Passover weekend, as well as the Pirates first home game of the season. Here are some entertaining ways to spend it. A dog-gone good time The Doggie Easter Egg Hunt is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the dog park and north lot at...
‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper Coolio’s death fentanyl-caused
LOS ANGELES — Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died last year because of fentanyl, his manager said. Coolio’s former longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press Thursday that Coolio’s cause of death was fentanyl...
Music, mayhem mix in upcoming Saint Vincent Summer Theatre shows
The upcoming Saint Vincent Summer Theatre season is feeling like “a return to normalcy” for producing artistic director Greggory Brandt. For its 53rd season, the theater will present three productions and welcome back its popular after-performance cabaret. Following a two-year pandemic shutdown, SVST presented two productions in 2022. This year’s...
Review: Arty movie ‘Showing Up’ about artists fails to sparkVideo
Michelle Williams plays a sculptor whose hot water heater has irritatingly busted in the languid “Showing Up.” That’s about it, plot-wise. Talk about nobody showing up. Director Kelly Reichardt, who also penned the film with her regular screenwriter, Jonathan Raymond, has created a tiresome bubble inside a bubble, focusing their...
Catan board game creator, Klaus Teuber, dies at 70
Klaus Teuber, creator of the hugely popular Catan board game in which players compete to build settlements on a fictional island, has died after a brief illness, according to a family statement. He was 70. The board game, originally called The Settlers of Catan when introduced in 1995 and based...
A duo once more, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon come up for ‘Air’
NEW YORK — While Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were writing “The Last Duel,” their first screenplay together since their 1997 breakthrough, “Good Will Hunting,” they noticed that something in their winding and usually separate careers had been missing. “I remember my wife said to me one day: ‘I haven’t...
Movie review: Nintendo’s favorite plumbers return in frenetic ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’Video
Thirty years ago, the very first cinematic adaptation of a video game hit theaters. “Super Mario Bros.” based on the 1985 Nintendo game created by Shigeru Miyamoto didn’t exactly bring the game to life as much as it extrapolated a nightmarish cyberpunk world from its characters. “Max Headroom” directors Rocky...
Women run the fictional world of ABC’s ‘General Hospital’Video
As “General Hospital” marks its 60th anniversary, much remains the same for the longest-running scripted series in production in the United States. A hospital is still the backdrop for the soap opera, many of the veteran characters remain, the wealthy Quatermaine family looms large and the stories are about love,...
KDKA, WTAE anchors welcome new babies
A pair of Pittsburgh television news anchors welcomed new family members in the past few days. KDKA-TV morning anchor Lindsay Ward had a baby girl on Monday. Ward, who joined KDKA as a reporter in 2019, announced on Facebook the birth of Aurora Marie, who weighed in at 8 pounds,...
