Entertainment category, Page 164
Review: A war story, ‘Mosquito Bowl’ defines courage, duty
“The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” by Buzz Bissinger (Harper) U.S. Marines training for the invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa didn’t know they would face the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II. The nearly three-month battle in...
Behind the art: The Westmoreland’s Mary Cassatt painting hints at subtle message
Painter Mary Cassatt often depicted images of women and children, emphasizing the intimate bonds between mother and child. One such work is “Mother and Two Children,” painted around 1905, which came into the permanent collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art via anonymous gift in 1979. It’s a prime...
Review: Viola Davis adds another jewel to her crown in a rousing ‘Woman King’Video
With her rousing new action-drama, “The Woman King,” director Gina Prince-Bythewood suggests that, in at least one crucial respect, the West African kingdom of Dahomey was more ahead of its time than that starry imperialist empire called Hollywood. An early 19th-century epic awash in militaristic might and colonial oppression, the...
Ken Burns’ new documentary reveals painful truths about ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’Video
DALLAS — Eva Schloss is no stranger to Dallas. As a Holocaust survivor willing to share her harrowing life story, she appeared in Richardson as recently as three years ago. In 2002, she flew in from London to see a play about her life, “And Then They Came for Me,”...
Elton John bids farewell to Pittsburgh in final Steel City performanceVideo
It seems we’ve been down this Yellow Brick Road before. Elton John brought his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour” to PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Friday night. “It’s our last time in Pennsylvania, so we’ve got to make it extra special,” John said. He certainly did. John didn’t...
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year
NEW YORK — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York. The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts —...
Comedian Craig Ferguson returns to Homestead for Carnegie Music Hall showVideo
Right about now, it seems we could all use a good laugh — and who better to coax that out of us than Craig Ferguson? The comedian with the heavy Scottish accent delighted late-night television audiences for a decade as host of CBS’s “Late, Late Show” and earned a loyal...
Jimmy Kimmel apologizes to Quinta Brunson for viral Emmys moment and its backlash
LOS ANGELES — Days after winning her first Emmy Award — and having her big moment seemingly spoiled by Jimmy Kimmel — Quinta Brunson showed restraint when she sat down on his show Tuesday night. She did not, in fact, punch him in the face, as she told reporters she...
‘Confess, Fletch’ review: Jon Hamm does not rise to the occasion as the jokily intrepid reporter unraveling a mysteryVideo
The crime novels of Gregory Mcdonald emerged in the ’70s as a self-amused antithesis to more typically hard-boiled detective stories. The series began with “Fletch” in 1974 and continued a 20-year run, ending with “Fletch Reflected” in 1994. Irwin Maurice Fletcher (Fletch to everyone who knows him) is a shaggy...
TV Talk: Aaron Donald on ‘Secret Celebrity Renovation;’ ‘Quantum Leap’ is back on NBCVideo
Although he’s made his NFL career as a Super Bowl winner with the Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh native Aaron Donald says he still feels “a lot of love, a lot of support in Pittsburgh” in this week’s episode of CBS’s “Secret Celebrity Renovation” (8 p.m. Friday, KDKA-TV). It’s the show’s...
R. Kelly convicted on many counts, acquitted of trial fixingVideo
CHICAGO — A federal jury on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of several child pornography and sex abuse charges in his hometown of Chicago, delivering another legal blow to a singer who used to be one of the biggest R&B stars in the world. Kelly, 55, was found guilty on three...
Emmys reach record-low audience of 5.9 million viewers
NEW YORK — The Emmy Awards hit a new low in viewership on Monday night, with its estimated audience of 5.9 million people even smaller than the covid-19-disrupted ceremony two years ago. The Nielsen company said the ceremony honoring television’s best work, where “Ted Lasso” was named best comedy and...
Review: Ian McEwan returns with masterful book ‘Lessons’
“Lessons,” by Ian McEwan (Alfred A. Knopf) “Roland occasionally reflected on the events and accidents, personal and global, minuscule and momentous that had formed and determined his existence.” That one sentence in Ian McEwan’s new novel, “Lessons,” nicely sums up the book. When we first meet Roland Baines he is...
Peele and Key on reuniting, as demons, in ‘Wendell & Wild’
TORONTO — It’s seven years almost to day since the last episode of “Key & Peele” aired, but Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key are once again riffing together. They’re sitting in a Toronto hotel the day before the premiere of Henry Selick’s stop-motion-animation marvel “Wendell & Wild” at the Toronto...
Rapper PnB Rock fatally shot in Los Angeles restaurant
LOS ANGELES — Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock was fatally shot during a robbery in South Los Angeles, according to police and his representatives. The rapper, whose real name is Rakim Allen, was eating inside a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant with his girlfriend Monday afternoon when a suspect approached their...
Why Tyler Perry’s passion project ‘A Jazzman’s Blues’ will mark his major film festival debutVideo
Tyler Perry is nothing if not prolific. And busy. Already a wildly successful writer, producer, director and performer in film, television and theater, he added studio head to his resume with the 2019 opening of the massive Tyler Perry Studios production complex in Atlanta. In 2021 he received an honorary...
Broadway theater renamed in honor of James Earl Jones
NEW YORK — The newly restored Cort Theatre on Broadway has been renamed after James Earl Jones, becoming the second theater on the Great White Way named after a Black artist. During Monday’s ceremony included Norm Lewis singing “Go the Distance,” Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “Make Them Hear You” and...
Iconic French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard dead at 91Video
GENEVA — Jean-Luc Godard, the ingenious “enfant terrible” of the French New Wave who revolutionized popular cinema in 1960 with his first big endeavor, “Breathless,” and stood for years as one of the world’s most vital and provocative directors, has died. He was 91. Swiss news agency ATS quoted Godard’s...
TV Talk: Premiere dates for returning broadcast series
Premiere dates for returning prime-time broadcast network shows are below. Please note: For their premiere week only, NBC’s Thursday night “Law & Order” shows will air on WPXI’s Channel 11.2, MeTV, while Channel 11.1 broadcasts the Steelers- Browns game. The “Law & Order” shows will return to Channel 11.1 on Sept....
Behind the art: The Westmoreland’s Tiffany window ‘a treasure among treasures’
Editor’s note: Behind the Art is a new feature in Westmoreland Plus. It profiles some of the artworks that are in museums in the region. An artwork would have to be quite remarkable to be considered “a treasure among treasures” in the permanent collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American...
List of Emmy winners include Michael Keaton, Lizzo and ‘SNL’
LOS ANGELES — Here are the winners of the 2022 prime-time Emmy Awards. Best Comedy: “Ted Lasso” Best Drama: “Succession” Best Limited Series: “The White Lotus” Best Actress, Comedy: Jean Smart, “Hacks” Best Actor, Comedy: Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso” Best Actress, Drama: Zendaya, “Euphoria” Best Actor, Drama: Lee Jung-jae, “Squid...
Michael Keaton wins 1st Emmy on funny, entertaining night
Michael Keaton picked up his first Emmy Award for his role in Hulu’s opioid crisis drama “Dopesick” at Monday night’s 74th annual Emmy Awards. That was only after a cringeworthy song-and-dance opening number — set to TV theme songs that only got worse as it went on. Fortunately after that,...
‘Rosalía is the truth’: How a Spanish flamenco singer defied convention and rewired pop
MEXICO CITY — “It was like I almost drowned!” Inside one of Mexico City’s posh five-star hotels, Rosalía sinks into a cushy office chair across from me, already winded on the third day of her Latin American tour, in support of her universally acclaimed album, “Motomami.” If it wasn’t from...
Targaryens gonna Targaryen on this week’s ‘House of the Dragon’
Allow me to take a deep sigh before attempting to settle comfortably into a review of this frequently uncomfortable episode of television. This week, well, quite frankly, Targaryens gonna Targaryen. This family may...
Spain, France kick off anniversary celebration of Picasso
MADRID — Against the backdrop of Picasso’s iconic anti-war painting, “Guernica,” the culture ministers of France and Spain gathered Monday in Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum to kick off a year of commemorative acts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the death of the Spanish artist who revolutionized the world of...
