Movies/TV category, Page 118
TV Q&A: Why don’t laid off TV news anchors get rehired?
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: Just reading your articles about the new reporters at KDKA, and I’ve been wondering for a while now with all the new reporters coming to...
Oscars telecast draws 9.85 million viewers for ABC, a record lowVideo
Despite a night of historic firsts and a major upset in the best actor category, the 93rd Academy Awards could not avoid the TV ratings slide that has hit all award shows during the pandemic. ABC’s telecast of the Oscars hit an all-time low with an average of 9.85 million...
Academy Awards TV audience plummets to record-low 9.85 million
NEW YORK — The Academy Awards television audience plunged to 9.85 million viewers on ABC, less than half of the Oscars’ previous low and continuing a startling trend of viewer tune out for awards shows. The Nielsen company’s preliminary estimate shows that the audience who watched “Nomadland” win best picture...
Anthony Hopkins honors Chadwick Boseman after Oscar winVideo
LOS ANGELES — Anthony Hopkins has honored the late Chadwick Boseman after winning the best actor Oscar, hailing his fellow performer as a man “taken from us far too early.” The 83-year-old Hopkins took the award for his performance in “The Father,” becoming the oldest actor or actress to win...
TV Talk: Worst Oscars ever?
It’s tough to remember Oscars ceremonies from one year to the next, but the 2021 Academy Awards telecast may stand the test of time for all the wrong reasons. It was bad. Really bad. Producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh decided to eschew so many of the regular...
Frances McDormand, Chloé Zhao, ‘Nomadland’ take home Oscars
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman to win best director, and the first woman of color. The “Nomadland” victory, while widely...
Oscars pit 2 Pittsburgh natives in production design raceVideo
In her long career, Diana Stoughton has worked on some 50 film and TV productions. With “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” she could tell it was special. “I think it was something magical about this show,” said Stoughton, who lives in Bloomfield. “I think the Karma gods were with us, and...
TV Talk: ‘Good Doctor’ star Paige Spara auditioned from her family’s bathroom in Washington, Pa.
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. On ABC’s “The Good Doctor” (10 p.m. Monday, WTAE-TV), Washington, Pa., native Paige Spara stars as Lea, girlfriend of Shaun (Freddie Highmore, “Bates Motel”), the show’s title character. Spara has played Lea since midway through...
Oscar slate holds ‘firsts’ for Asian actors, filmmakers
It may be hard to believe that there are still many “firsts” left to check off after 93 years of the Academy Awards, and yet this year there were a handful for Asian actors and filmmakers. Steven Yeun (“Minari”) became the first Asian American actor to be nominated for best...
TV Talk: Western Pa. ‘Worst Cooks’ contestant returns for all-star editionVideo
If you’re invited to be on an all-star edition of Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America” (9 p.m. Sunday), does that make you among the best of the worst or the worst of the worst? “Definitely the worst of the worst,” says “Worst Cooks” contestant Sadie Manda, a Canonsburg native...
LeVar Burton, Joe Buck among new ‘Jeopardy!’ guest hosts
The final group of “Jeopardy!” guest hosts for the show’s current season were announced Tuesday. Their episodes will air in the summer and the group of new guest hosts for the NBC game show include: -LeVar Burton, actor and former host of “Reading Rainbow” -Joe Buck, Fox sportscaster -Robin Roberts,...
TV Talk: ‘A League of Their Own’ series will film in Pittsburgh
A streaming series based on the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” about the first female professional baseball league, will film in Western Pennsylvania. Stars attached to the series include Abbi Jacobson (“Broad City”), D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) and Chante Adams (“Bad Hair”). Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn...
Michael Keaton to reprise Batman role in new film
Michael Keaton famously once said, “I’m Batman.” Well, he’ll be Batman again in a new movie that has already begun shooting. The Wrap reports ICM Partners, Keaton’s talent agency, has confirmed the Pittsburgh native will don the black suit in “The Flash,” which launched its production Monday in London with...
TV Q&A: Who’s the new meteorologist on WTAE-TV?
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: Cam Tran left WTAE-TV weekend morning weather reporting a couple weeks ago for a station in Florida. Will she be replaced or will Regina Miller,...
The Manor movie theater to reopen in Squirrel Hill
Just in time for the Academy Awards on Sunday, movies will be back on the big screens at The Manor movie theater in Squirrel Hill. The return is Friday, two days before the 93rd Academy Awards recognizing the best in motion pictures. The first show time will be announced later...
‘Downton Abbey’ cast returns for sequel opening in December
The original principal cast of “Downton Abbey” are returning for a second film that will arrive in theaters Dec. 22 this year, Focus Features announced Monday. “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes has written the sequel’s screenplay, and Simon Curtis (“My Week With Marilyn”) is directing. Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and...
TV Talk: PBS’s ‘Philly D.A.’ docu-series follows progressive Pa. prosecutor
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Even before the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, attempts at criminal justice reform were beginning to take root, including in Philadelphia with the 2017 election of civil rights attorney Larry Krasner as...
Gucci heirs worry over family depiction in Ridley Scott film
MILAN — The great-grandchildren of Guccio Gucci, who founded the luxury fashion house that bears his name a century ago in Florence, are appealing to filmmaker Ridley Scott to respect their family’s legacy in a new film that focuses on a sensational murder. “The House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga...
Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez split, call off engagement
LOS ANGELES — J-Lo and A-Rod are no longer J-Rod — officially. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez told the “Today” show Thursday in a joint statement that they are calling off their two-year engagement. “We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so. We will...
TV Talk: Another Pa. accent showcased in HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’Video
Director Craig Zobel isn’t from Pennsylvania – he grew up in Atlanta – but for the past few years his work has taken him to both ends of the commonwealth, first for 2018’s shot-in-Pittsburgh “One Dollar” and more recently for filmed-around-Philly HBO limited series “Mare of Easttown” (9 p.m. Sunday,...
TV Q&A: What’s going on with KDKA weekend evening anchors?
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: Where has Paul Martino been? He’s no longer anchoring the weekend evening news on KDKA-TV. For at least the last three weekends they have been...
TV Talk: ‘This is Us’ goes to ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’
Two disparate Pittsburgh pop culture touchstones crossed paths on Tuesday night’s episode of partially Pittsburgh-set “This is Us.” In scenes set in Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) took kindergarten-age sons Randall and Kevin to a taping of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” at WQED-TV’s studios. The episode, written...
North Allegheny grad makes directorial debut with romantic comedy ‘Long Weekend’Video
From the earliest age, Steve Basilone had a deep fascination for TV, films and theatrical performances. And while the North Hills native didn’t know where his career path would lead after graduating in 1999 from North Allegheny High School, he knew he would eventually wind up working in entertainment. In...
Will Smith film departs Georgia over voting restrictions
NEW YORK — Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua have pulled production of their runaway slave drama “Emancipation” from Georgia over the state’s recently enacted law restricting voting access. The film is the largest and most high profile Hollywood production to depart the state since Georgia’s Republican-controlled state Legislature passed...
Prince Philip vs. Philip of ‘The Crown’: Fact and fiction
LOS ANGELES — In “The Crown,” a dishy naval officer captures the heart of a future queen. But he chafes at playing royal second fiddle and crosses the boundaries of decorum and, maybe, fidelity. He eventually finds his way as a trusted partner and family patriarch. How does the Netflix...
