Entertainment category, Page 144
Michelle Obama launching podcast based on ‘Light We Carry’
LOS ANGELES — Michelle Obama’s recent celebrity-filled book tour is becoming a podcast. Audible announced Wednesday that the former first lady will launch the “Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast” on March 7. It’s based on Obama’s tour promoting “The Light We Carry,” her recent bestselling book, which featured special guests...
TV Q&A: Is a morning anchor team coordinating their wardrobes?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: It is my imagination or are the KDKA-TV morning anchors color-coordinating their outfits? I’m referring to the whole team: Lindsay, David, John and Ron. The...
DC Studios slate unveiled: James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plan to unify the comic book empire
LOS ANGELES — James Gunn and Peter Safran know Warner Bros.’ DC film and television franchise has been a mess. Despite a roster that includes the world’s most famous superheroes — Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman — the comic book movies have not lived up to their collective potential. The...
Will Smith, Martin Lawrence reteaming for another ‘Bad Boys’ sequel
NEW YORK— Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are reteaming for a fourth “Bad Boys” movie, in one of Smith’s most high-profile new projects since the slap. Sony Pictures announced Tuesday that the untitled “Bad Boys” sequel is in early pre-production. In a video posted on Instagram, Smith filmed himself driving...
Moody Blues, Wings co-founder Denny Laine to bring solo show to Club CafeVideo
The English rock band the Moody Blues was just getting their act together in the early 1960s in a suburb of Birmingham when a suitcase full of American rhythm and blues records was brought to them by a British disc jockey who had just returned from the United States. The...
‘Laverne & Shirley’ actor Cindy Williams dies at 75
LOS ANGELES — Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognizable stars in America in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the beloved sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died, her family said Monday. Williams died in Los Angeles at age 75 on...
Marilyn Manson accused of sexual assault of minor in new lawsuit
A new plaintiff has sued shock-rock singer Marilyn Manson, alleging sexual assault of a minor. The suit, filed on Monday by a Jane Doe in Nassau County, N.Y., claims that the singer, born Brian Warner, assaulted her multiple times while she was a teenager in the 1990s. While other plaintiffs...
Pittsburgh to pay tribute to August Wilson during Black History Month
Pittsburgh officials said Monday that the city will celebrate Black History Month in February by paying tribute to August Wilson, an acclaimed playwright who was born in the city’s Hill District. The city’s Office of Special Events is partnering with the University of Pittsburgh Library System, which has acquired Wilson’s...
Trevor Noah returns as Grammy host with comfort, nervousness
LOS ANGELES — Trevor Noah feels more comfortable hosting the Grammy Awards for a third-straight year, but the former “The Daily Show” host still has some nervousness about leading the ceremony with big-time acts like Beyoncé, Adele and Harry Styles looking on. “The nerves come in because you’re standing in...
Michael Jackson’s nephew to star in King of Pop biopicVideo
NEW YORK — Michael Jackson’s 26-year-old nephew, Jaafar Jackson, will play the King of Pop in the planned biopic “Michael” to be directed by Antoine Fuqua. Lionsgate announced Jackson’s casting Monday for the film being produced by Oscar-winning “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King. Jackson is the second-youngest son of Jermaine...
With ‘1619,’ ‘Summer of Soul’ and ‘The Plot,’ Disney’s diverse storytelling brand is making waves
LOS ANGELES — When Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and his producing partners made the rounds last year, pitching an adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s bestselling novel “The Plot,” it sparked a bidding war. The buzzy thriller about a failed author who engages in an “act of literary theft,” forever changing...
France buys new masterpiece for Orsay museum with LVMH gift
PARIS — France has acquired a stunning Impressionist masterpiece for its national collection of art treasures, with a donation from luxury goods giant LVMH paying the nearly $47 million for “Boating Party” by 19th-century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The oil on canvas shows an oarsman in a top hat rowing...
Review: Making of ‘The Way We Were’ is a rich, gossipy tale
“The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen” by Robert Hofler (Citadel) Most people seem to like their screen romances a little on the sad side. When the American Film Institute listed its top romantic movies, the first four...
Lisa Marie Presley lost 40-50 pounds, took opioids before death, report says
Lisa Marie Presley was taking opioids and weight loss medication before her death this month, according to a report. The only child of Elvis Presley lost between 40 and 50 pounds over a six-week stretch ahead of the Golden Globe Awards, TMZ reported Monday, citing family sources. Presley, who was...
Lisa Loring, original Wednesday Addams actress, dies at 64Video
Lisa Loring, the former child star who portrayed Wednesday on the original “The Addams Family” series, has died, a friend announced. She was 64. The actress “suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure” and was on life support for three days, the friend, Laurie Jacobson,...
’24,’ ‘Runaways’ actor Annie Wersching dies at 45
Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series “24” and providing the voice for Tess in the video game “The Last of Us,” has died. She was 45. Wersching passed away Sunday morning in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer, her publicist told...
‘Avatar 2’ tops box office for 7th weekend
“Avatar: The Way of Water” claimed the No. 1 spot on the domestic box office charts for the seventh weekend in a row with an additional $15.7 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. It was a quiet weekend overall, notable mostly for the Hindi language blockbuster “Pathaan” that broke...
Guitarist Tom Verlaine, co-founder of Television, dies at 73
NEW YORK — Tom Verlaine, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal proto-punk band Television who influenced many bands while playing at ultra-cool downtown New York music venue CBGB alongside the Ramones, Patti Smith and Talking Heads, has died. He was 73. He died Saturday in New York City, surrounded by...
Pittsburgh Ballet’s new artistic director returning to familiar spaces
Adam McKinney will take over as artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in March, but he says there are many ways in which he already feels at home in the role and in the city. McKinney, 46, grew up in Milwaukee but often visited Pittsburgh, where his late father, Gerald...
Behind the Art: Ligonier museum intrigues Pittsburgh artist Robert Bowden
Though Robert Bowden is best-known for his cityscapes, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley is one of the Pittsburgh painter’s favorite subjects. He’s painted the log structure, just south of the borough along Route 711, in both winter and summer. In the winter, he painted while sitting...
‘A Thousand and One’ wins Sundance grand jury prize
“A Thousand and One,” a drama about an impoverished single mother and her son in New York City, won the Sundance Film Festival’s grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, while “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” was awarded the top prize in the U.S. documentary category. This...
Bob Dylan almost died in 1997. Months later, ‘Time Out of Mind’ revived his career
A quarter of a century ago, Bob Dylan found vital new life in an album about death’s inexorable approach. “I’m walking through streets that are dead,” the rock ‘n’ roll legend sang — wheezed, really — right at the top of “Time Out of Mind,” which came out in the...
Harrison Ford inspires cast in new comedy ‘Shrinking’
NEW YORK — When Bill Lawrence was developing his new Apple TV+ comedy “Shrinking,” he introduced one character in the pilot script as a “Harrison Ford-type” — but never dreamed he would get the real deal. Although the showrunner has had comedy success working with big names and executive-producing hits...
Smokey Robinson, ‘King of Motown,’ to release new solo album
NEW YORK — It’s been nearly a decade since Smokey Robinson’s last album, but new music from the King of Motown is on the horizon. Robinson will release the nine-track album “Gasms” on April 28, the music legend behind hits like “My Girl” and “The Way You Do the Things...
Review: Even J.Lo can’t save this ‘Shotgun Wedding’Video
Spoiler alert: J.Lo looks fantastic in a wedding dress. You surely knew that, given not only the plethora of wedding-themed movies Jennifer Lopez has made over the years, from “The Wedding Planner” to “Monster-in-Law” to the recent “Marry Me,” but also her own offscreen life, of course. And now comes...
