Entertainment category, Page 155
Disney faces proxy fight as Peltz pushes to join board
Activist investor Nelson Peltz is fighting for a seat on the board of Walt Disney Co., claiming that the company is struggling with self-inflicted problems. Peltz’s attempt to join Disney’s board comes just months after the company brought back longtime CEO Bob Iger to lead Disney again. Disney urged shareholders...
Nonfiction books to watch for in 2023
The top history, memoir and other nonfiction for the first quarter of the year. Last week we gave you a list of fiction to watch for in 2023. Now here is some good-looking nonfiction. “Rough Sleepers,” by Tracy Kidder. (Random House, Jan. 17) Kidder spent five years following a Boston...
Jeff Beck, guitar god who influenced generations, dies at 78
NEW YORK — Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78. Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives...
Tatjana Patitz, supermodel of ’80s and ’90s, dies at 56
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Tatjana Patitz, one of an elite group of famed supermodels who graced magazine covers in the 1980s and ’90s and appeared in George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90” music video, has died at age 56. Patitz’s death in the Santa Barbara, California, area was confirmed by her New...
The quest to find King Tut is detailed in new book about the storied pharaoh
“The Complete Tutankhamun: 100 Years of Discovery” by Nicholas Reeves; Thames & Hudson (464 pages, $50) Ancient Egyptians made him a god. Modern Egyptologists made him immortal. When Tutankhamun came to the throne around 1330 B.C., he still counted his age in single digits. When he died, his body weakened...
Movie review: Grounded action keeps ‘Plane’ on courseVideo
The villains of the 2022 holiday season were the airlines, so it’s an apt moment for the Gerard Butler action vehicle “Plane” to take flight. The inciting incident involves a cost-cutting safety checker at Trailblazer Airlines insisting that Captain Brodie Torrance (Butler) pilot through a storm instead of around it...
Sting makes beautiful music with Pittsburgh Symphony at Heinz Hall
When Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra first violinist Dylan Naroff found out he was going to have the opportunity to perform with Sting this year, Naroff said he was “geeking out about” it. He learned to appreciate Sting from the vinyl records he inherited from his dad. But the guy he got...
TV Talk: Return of the Golden Globes proves a Hollywood insider’s affairVideo
After a one-year absence because of bad behavior — a diversity and ethics scandal — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes were back on NBC in a one-year deal that relegated the Globes to a downgraded Tuesday night instead of its usual Sunday prestige spot. On the TV side,...
TV Talk at TCA: Amanda Peet talks Pittsburgh-filmed ‘The Chair,’ new ‘Fatal Attraction’ series
PASADENA, Calif. – Although Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “The Chair” was billed as a “limited series,” that term is flexible enough to be somewhat meaningless. HBO’s “The White Lotus” was a limited series until it wasn’t. When “The Chair” premiered on Netflix in August 2021, it received generally positive reviews and appeared...
Get the Led Out brings annual 2-night Led Zeppelin tribute to GreensburgVideo
Paul Hammond wasn’t enthralled by Led Zeppelin’s music when he first heard it about age 4. But first impressions don’t always last. Now 57, Hammond has been playing in a Led Zeppelin tribute band for 20 years. Philadelphia-based Get the Led Out will play its annual two-night stint at the...
Hank Williams Jr. coming to Pavilion at Star Lake this summer
Singer, songwriter and Grammy winner Hank Williams Jr. will be in town this summer. Williams announced his 2023 tour Tuesday. It will feature guest Old Crow Medicine Show, an Americana string band. The shows kick off May 12 at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and include a stop June 10...
After hype, readers get hands on Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’
LONDON — After weeks of hype and days of leaks, readers got a chance to judge Prince Harry’s book for themselves when it went on sale around the world on Tuesday. The book’s publisher said “Spare” sold 400,000 copies in the U.K. in all formats — hardback, e-book and audio...
Golden Globes return in a 1-year audition
After going dark for a year, the Golden Globes return to the air Tuesday on a one-year audition to try to win back their awards-season perch and relevancy to a Hollywood that shunned the awards after an ethics and diversity scandal. Stars and studios boycotted last year’s ceremony, which NBC...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ reunites ‘Next Generation’ castVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – For the first day of the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour – the first in-person, masks-required event since January 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic – Paramount+ touted its upcoming programs, many with familiar titles (“Fatal Attraction,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Star Trek:...
Pittsburgh weather challenged ‘A Man Called Otto’ director Marc ForsterVideo
A movie director can face many challenges — temperamental actors, filming delays, budget overruns, temperamental actors. For director Marc Forster, the biggest challenge of making “A Man Called Otto” certainly wasn’t working with Tom Hanks, whom he labeled a consummate professional. It was something much more elemental. “To be honest,...
Weinstein sentencing on rape conviction delayed to February
LOS ANGELES — Harvey Weinstein’s sentencing for rape and sexual assault convictions was delayed Monday so that his attorneys can file a motion for a new trial. The 70-year-old former movie magnate could get up to 18 years in prison at the sentencing that is now scheduled for Feb. 23....
Review: Janet Malcolm’s quasi-memoir on pictures and memory
“Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory,” by Janet Malcolm (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) When Janet Malcolm died 18 months ago at 86, her New Yorker colleague Ian Frazier wrote a eulogy for the magazine noting that the famed and feared journalist had been working on a series of essays based...
Cabaret Theatre hosts Irwin reading of new ‘Gatsby’-inspired musical
It’s widely accepted in the literary world that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald stole ideas and actual words from his wife, Zelda — including lines that went into his widely acclaimed novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Two Westmoreland County theater veterans have imagined Zelda Fitzgerald’s role in the creation of the novel...
Adam Rich, former ‘Eight Is Enough’ child star, dies at 54
LOS ANGELES — Adam Rich, the child actor with a pageboy mop-top who charmed TV audiences in the late 1970s as “America’s little brother” on “Eight is Enough,” has died. He was 54. Rich died Saturday in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, said Lt. Aimee Earl of the Los...
Russell Banks, praised author of ‘Cloudsplitter,’ dies at 82
NEW YORK — Russell Banks, an award-winning fiction writer who rooted such novels as “Affliction” and “The Sweet Hereafter” in the wintry, rural communities of his native Northeast and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from modern blue-collar workers to the radical abolitionist John Brown, has died. He was...
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conductor, musicians excited about performing with Sting
Over four decades ago, when the British-American punk rock group The Police burst onto the pop music scene with a song called “Roxanne,” it would have been hard to imagine the lead singer one day performing it with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The Police blended reggae, jazz and funk with...
Dolly Parton makes surprise appearance on ‘Call Me Kat’
Dolly Parton made a surprise appearance on this week’s episode of Fox’s “Call me Kat” to pay tribute to the show’s late co-star Leslie Jordan. “Dear friend, there’ll be no sad farewell, there’ll be no tear-dimmed eyes,” the country superstar sang to Jordan in a prerecorded message that aired during...
‘It was way gorier’: How ‘M3GAN’ came to life and landed in theaters (with a lower body count)Video
Years ago, after rising through the ranks on genre TV shows such as “Grimm” and “The 100,” screenwriter Akela Cooper found herself at a crossroads. A lifelong horror fan, she’d long put off writing the two horror features that had been swimming around in her head — until one day...
Review: Anna Kendrick explores co-dependent damage in ‘Alice, Darling’Video
In “Alice, Darling,” the titular protagonist’s friends are a little worried. As the three of them embark on a weeklong trip, peacemaking Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) has her eye on Alice (Anna Kendrick), later describing her eating habits as “disordered.” Birthday girl Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn), a struggling artist, has been drifting...
Prince Harry’s book exposes grief, war, drugs, family rifts
LONDON — Bereaved boy, troubled teen, wartime soldier, unhappy royal — many facets of Prince Harry are revealed in his explosive memoir, often in eyebrow-raising detail. From accounts of cocaine use and losing his virginity to raw family rifts, “Spare” exposes deeply personal details about Harry and the wider royal...
