Movies/TV category, Page 60
TV Q&A: Will late-night shows come back like they did during the last writers’ strike?
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: During the 2007 writers’ strike, late-night talk shows (“The Daily Show,” “Colbert Report,” “Tonight Show,” etc.) resumed producing “scriptless” new shows (except “The Late Show...
Movie review: Ezra Miller speeds back to the future in ‘The Flash,’ fueled by calories and cameos
“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” went a famous ’70s commercial catchphrase. But we learn in “The Flash” — the much awaited, long gestated new DC Studios offering — that it’s Father Time one musn’t cross. Because trying to change the past can really mess you up when you...
Pat Sajak says upcoming ‘Wheel of Fortune’ will be his last as host
LOS ANGELES — Pat Sajak is taking one last spin on “Wheel of Fortune,” announcing Monday that its upcoming season will be his last as host. Sajak announced his retirement from the venerable game show in a tweet. “Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking Tonys and CMU, Taylor Swift, ‘Based on a True Story,’ ‘It’s Ain’t Over’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment including Carnegie Mellon University’s showing at Sunday night’s Tony Awards, an excellent awards show telecast in spite of (or because of?) a lack of writers...
Tony Awards telecast makes inclusive history, puts on quite a show despite Hollywood strikeVideo
NEW YORK — The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and...
‘Transformers’ edge out ‘Spider-Verse’ to claim first place at box office
It was Miles Morales and the Spider-Verse versus the “Transformers” at the box office this weekend and the bots came out on top. ” Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” the seventh entry in the series, took the No. 1 spot in its first weekend in North American theaters with $60.5...
Movie Review: New ‘Transformers’ tries but fails to energize the saga
With the “Transformers” franchise clearly at a crossroads, its latest protectors have turned to their deep bench of characters. But just adding more robots won’t transform this tired series. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” returns the franchise to its galaxy-wide self-importance after taking a nice detour with 2018’s smaller “Bumblebee.”...
After making Oscar history, Troy Kotsur pays tribute to his father in new short filmVideo
NEW YORK — When Troy Kotsur made history as the first Deaf male actor win an Oscar at the 2022 Academy Awards, he was thinking about his father. By then, Kotsur had already become a hero to the Deaf community, widely celebrated for his acclaimed performance in the family drama...
TV Talk: ‘Spider-Man’ star Tom Holland enters Apple TV+’s ‘The Crowded Room’Video
Hollywood has yet to produce a new movie star since the start of the social media era for many reasons — social media made stars overly accessible and less like chiseled faces on a Hollywood Mt. Rushmore; film devolved into all superheroes, all the time, sending actors scurrying to premium...
Under house arrest, fake heiress Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin launches podcast to rehab public image
NEW YORK — It’s a weekday morning and Anna Sorokin is on house arrest in a New York apartment building that has been condemned as imminently perilous to life. So she’s attempting to capture outside attention and relieving her boredom in the most quotidian way: starting a podcast. “So many...
TV Talk: Kaley Cuoco charms again in true-crime satire ‘Based on a True Story;’ PFO launches podcastVideo
There may be no actor today as in tune with her strengths as Kaley Cuoco. Coming off “The Big Bang Theory,” Cuoco wisely threw herself into “The Flight Attendant,” a flight-attendant-turned-spy caper that made excellent use of Cuoco’s gift for wide-eyed facial contortions and physical comedy. She deploys those skills...
CNN head Chris Licht is out at the global news network after a brief, tumultuous tenureVideo
NEW YORK — The chief executive CNN pushed out of a job on Wednesday faced mounting problems in his first year leading the struggling network: viewership and profits were declining, programming blunders were growing and the network’s journalists were losing confidence by the day. Chris Licht’s very bad year culminated...
TV Q&A: Why does David Johnson change up his eyeglasses?
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: I noticed that David Johnson on WPXI-TV switches among several pairs of glasses that he wears on Channel 11 newscasts. I’ve seen Lester Holt on...
CNN Chairman Chris Licht apologizes to staff as questions grow about his future
CNN Chairman Chris Licht is trying to win back the support of his troops following a disastrous magazine piece about his first year at the network. Licht expressed regret Monday to staffers about the Atlantic profile by journalist Tim Alberta, described by many media industry longtimers as an unusually damaging...
Meet the Stephen King-endorsed maestro who’s ready to shake up horror moviesVideo
Hours before hopping a red-eye from Los Angeles to London to promote the biggest film of his career, one of horror’s fastest-rising filmmakers is too busy waxing ecstatic over his love of scary movies to worry about making it to the airport on time. Why horror? Let “The Boogeyman” director...
‘Cheers’ bar sells for $675,000 at auction of items from classic TV shows
DALLAS — The bar from the television series “Cheers” sold for $675,000 at auction over the weekend, garnering the highest bid among the nearly 1,000 props, costumes and sets from classic TV shows offered up from a collection amassed by one man over more than three decades. Heritage Auctions said...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking ‘Ted Lasso’ finale, ‘Stars on Mars,’ HBO’s ‘The Idol’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including a local fitness instructor/mortgage broker who will attempt to find love on ABC’s “The Bachelorette.” Benz and Owen break down the “Ted Lasso” finale...
Chuck Todd leaving NBC political panel show ‘Meet the Press’ and being replaced by Kristen Welker
NEW YORK — Chuck Todd said Sunday he’ll be leaving “Meet the Press” after a tumultuous near-decade of moderating the NBC political panel show, to be replaced in the coming months by Kristen Welker. Todd, 51, told viewers that “I’ve watched too many friends and family let work consume them...
Pittsburgh Film Office and Pittsburgh Public Theater launch training partnership Create PA
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis walked to the podium, mentioned the word “persistence” and looked directly at Dawn M. Keezer. “When you look up that word in the dictionary you will see a picture of Dawn Keezer,” Davis said Wednesday morning inside the O’Reilly Theater, Downtown, referring to the Pittsburgh...
TV Talk: Fox puts ‘Stars on Mars’ for competition showVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. If you’ve paid enough attention to TV for long enough, sometimes just a title alone will tell you what network the show airs on. The cheekiness of the title (“Stars on Mars”) and the ridiculousness...
TV Talk: Pittsburgher looks for love on ‘The Bachelorette’Video
Tanner Courtad, a 30-year-old mortgage lender from Pittsburgh will be one of 25 men vying for the affections of Charity Lawson on the 20th season of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” (9 p.m. June 26, WTAE-TV). Courtad’s Instagram suggests he works in the mortgage business for Kiavi Inc. and is also a...
TV Talk: Taking the temperature of Pittsburgh’s TV market
Pittsburghers love TV, and data from a January 2023 Nielsen Insights report proves it. Even though Pittsburgh is now the 26th largest TV market nationally, it’s No. 1 in TV viewing in the top U.S. markets with the most advanced Nielsen measurement. Pittsburgh viewers ages 18 and older spend an...
TV Q&A: Will WPCW still air 10 p.m. news after dropping CW affiliation?
Q: If WPCW-TV will no longer have an affiliation with The CW come September, does that mean their 10 p.m. news and “Nightly Sports Call” programs will be canceled? — Xavier, via email Rob: It does not. I reported when I broke the news that WPCW will shed its CW...
Natasha Lyonne wants to grow old with ‘Poker Face.’ No one’s arguing
LOS ANGELES — Natasha Lyonne is laying her (credit) cards on the table, along with her Nicorette and Tea Tree Therapy mint toothpicks. We’re sitting in the back house of the Studio City office she shares with producing partner Maya Rudolph, and this emptying of pockets came as a response...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking possible ‘Succession’-baseball connection, ‘FUBAR,’ ‘Survivor,’ WPXI newcomers
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including new on-air talent at WPXI-TV and a suburban Pittsburgh woman who came in second on the recently-concluded season of CBS’s “Survivor.” Benz and Owen...
