Entertainment category, Page 167
Review: The 1975’s new album is great until it’s exceptionalVideo
The 1975, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language” (Dirty Hit/Interscope) There is plenty to like about The 1975’s new album until there’s something to really admire. “Part of the Band” is the kind of song — is it post-pop, prog-pop, post-prog pop? — that refuses to follow a tempo pattern...
Sistine Chapel large-scale photo exhibit coming to Ross Park Mall
Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of Vatican City’s Sistine Chapel are regarded as one of the major accomplishments not only of Western art, but of all Western civilization. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to make a trip to Rome to see them in person. “Travel is expensive, travel can be...
Banking breakup between Kanye West, JPMorgan planned for weeks
NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West are ending their business relationship, but the breakup is not a result of the controversy over the hip-hop star’s recent antisemitic comments. The letter ending West’s relationship with JPMorgan was tweeted Wednesday by conservative activist Candice Owens,...
John Steinbeck’s tender letter to son sells for more than $32,000
BOSTON — A heartfelt letter written by author John Steinbeck offering paternal advice to his teenage son who was experiencing love for the first time has sold at auction for more than $32,000. The two-page, handwritten letter, dated Nov. 10, 1958, went for $32,426 to a collector who wishes to...
How much Netflix’s new ad-supported plan will cost and what you get (and don’t)
LOS ANGELES — Commercials are coming soon to Netflix. The streamer on Thursday said it would launch a cheaper, ad-supported plan at $6.99 a month starting on Nov. 3 in the U.S. Netflix will still offer ad-free subscriptions, but for people seeking a discount, a total of four to five...
No jail time for Cuba Gooding Jr. in forcible touching case
NEW YORK — Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. resolved his New York City forcible touching case Thursday with a guilty plea to a lesser charge and no jail time after complying with the terms of a conditional plea agreement reached in April. Prosecutor Coleen Balbert said Gooding has stayed out of...
9 Angela Lansbury favorites to watch and where to find them
You’re not alone if you saw the news of Angela Lansbury’s death Tuesday, at 96, and thought about turning on an episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” the beloved mystery series she starred in from 1984 to 1996 as a writer and amateur detective on the coast of Maine. Or, for...
Yough grad takes director’s reins for Grand Theatre production of ‘The Wedding Singer’
After graduating from Yough High School, South Huntingdon native Nik Nemec pursued his passion for theater at Point Park University. After spending several years working as a stage manager for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, Nemec is taking...
Q&A: Park Chan-wook on love, genre and ‘Decision to Leave’Video
NEW YORK — Long before Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” triumphed at the Oscars and “Squid Game” circled the globe, Park Chan-wook was astonishing worldwide audiences with his sumptuously stylistic, outrageously violent and devilishly elaborate vision of Korean cinema. His latest, “Decision to Leave,” is in some ways more restrained than...
Reunited once again, Pavement is more popular than ever
NEW YORK — Four sold-out shows at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre. A new band member and an expanded live set. Momentum from unlikely followers gained while the band was on hiatus. Pavement, reunited for the first time in 12 years, is back at it — again — and more popular than...
TV Talk: Mister Rogers comparisons abound in ‘Barney’ doc ‘I Love You, You Hate Me’Video
There are some interesting ideas explored in Peacock’s “I Love You, You Hate Me,” a two-part docu-series about 1990s PBS phenomenon “Barney & Friends,” the kids’ show starring a loved and loathed purple dinosaur. But the series, now streaming, veers from its nostalgia lane into true crime territory. Is the...
Andy Warhol, Prince at center stage in Supreme Court case
WASHINGTON — Andy Warhol and Prince held center stage in a copyright case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that veered from Cheerios and “Mona Lisa” analogies to Justice Clarence Thomas’ enthusiasm for the “Purple Rain” showman. Despite the light nature of the arguments at times involving two deceased celebrities,...
In Celeste Ng’s dark new novel ‘Our Missing Hearts,’ libraries shine a light
Celeste Ng wishes she could call it a dystopia. That’s how she used to think about the dark world she was crafting in her new novel, “Our Missing Hearts.” Then the real world darkened. And the setting in Ng’s book — an alternate version of the United States, where Asian...
For Whoopi Goldberg, ‘Till’ release comes after long waitVideo
LOS ANGELES — When Whoopi Goldberg was invited to help produce an Emmett Till project, the actor thought she knew everything about the Black teenager’s 1955 kidnapping and lynching — until she learned the untold stories about how his mother handled the horrific aftermath. After Goldberg dove deep into Till’s...
TV Talk: HBO to debut ‘A Tree of Life’ documentary executive produced by Michael Keaton, Billy Porter, Mark CubanVideo
“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting,” executive produced by Pittsburgh natives Michael Keaton, Billy Porter and Mark Cuban, will premiere on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Oct. 26. Directed by Trish Adlesic (“Gasland,” “I Am Evidence”), the 80-minute film re-tells the story of the 2018 shooting...
Why classical conductor ‘Tár’ was the most terrifying role of Cate Blanchett’s iconic careerVideo
Cate Blanchett has played her share of formidable characters, rulers who could bring mere mortals to their knees with a single icy stare: Queen Elizabeth I in “Elizabeth,” Galadriel in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the goddess Hela in “Thor: Ragnarok.” But none of that could compare with the...
‘Murder She Wrote’ actress Angela Lansbury dies at 96
NEW YORK — Angela Lansbury, the big-eyed, scene-stealing British actress who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” has died. She was 96. Lansbury died Tuesday at her home...
Westmoreland Symphony season opener features classical saxophonist
The Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra will display its full range and power in its 2022-23 season-opening concert, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in The Palace Theatre in Greensburg. “I wanted to choose a big piece with a lot of instrumental color, to capitalize on the sound the orchestra can make and the...
U.S. museums return African bronzes stolen in 19th century
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A bronze sculpture of a West African king that had been in the collection of a Rhode Island museum for more than 70 years was among 31 culturally precious objects that were returned to the Nigerian government on Tuesday. The Benin Bronzes including a piece called the...
Unpacking the wild twists, excessive vomit in ‘Triangle of Sadness’: ‘Maybe it was too much’Video
When Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund won the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for “Triangle of Sadness,” it put him in the rarified class of two-time Palme d’Or winners. The prestigious group also includes Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Haneke, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Emir Kusturica, Shohei Imamura, Bille...
Reunited Blink-182 returning to Pittsburgh in May
Reunited and it feels so good for Blink-182 fans. Multiplatinum, award-winning pop-punk rockers Blink-182 are embarking on an extensive tour next spring that will bring the group to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on May 17. The show will feature Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker reuniting for the...
Review: WWII novel ‘Cradles of the Reich’ sets high bar for historical fiction
“Cradles of the Reich” by Jennifer Coburn (Sourcebooks Landmark) Gundi, Irma and Hilde all find themselves at a Lebensborn Society house for future mothers who are deemed to be racially fit. Each woman is there for the same reason: to usher life into the world. But the three main characters...
Graham Nash on longevity, ‘new’ album with David Crosby, and smoking pot at 80: ‘It doesn’t affect my voice’
Graham Nash was 25 when he wrote his classic 1968 song, “Teach Your Children.” He recorded it a year later on the debut album by the then-budding supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, which teamed him with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Had anyone told Nash then that he would still...
Making the radical case for Sinéad O’Connor: She was right all alongVideo
Thirty years ago this month, Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” effectively destroying her mainstream career with a single act of protest against the Catholic Church. Then 25, the Grammy-winning Irish singer was an unlikely pop star. Known for the raw,...
Review: History of movie academy favors facts over melodrama
“The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” by Bruce Davis (Brandeis University Press) Film historians and others digging for a deeper vein of Oscar knowledge than mere trivia will turn up many nuggets in “The Academy and...
