Movies/TV category, Page 74
Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies at age 95
Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95. The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. Lollobrigida had...
TV Talk: Behind the scenes at Critics Choice Awards
CENTURY CITY, Calif. — Sure, on TV the stars look glamorous in their bespoke wardrobes, but what’s it like to attend a televised awards show? As a journalist who covers TV/streaming, I’ve not yet made it into the room where it happens, but I have made it into the next...
‘Avatar 2,’ ‘M3GAN’ hold onto top spots at the box office
New movies like “Plane” and “House Party” were no match for “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the killer doll horror “M3GAN” at the box office this weekend. The two holdovers topped the charts again according to studio estimates Sunday. In first place for the fifth weekend in a row...
TV Talk at TCA: More TV series than ever, more challenges than ever destabilize entertainment industryVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – The entertainment business is in turmoil, particularly in TV and streaming. On the TV side, ratings for linear – broadcast and cable – continue an inexorable decline. For streaming, viewing is on the rise but profits remain scarce due to exorbitant programming costs. Those challenges impact companies...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ debuts 2nd seasonVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown” filmed its second season in Pittsburgh, and viewers can see the results when season two begins streaming episodes weekly Sunday. My first impression: Kingstown, Mich., has a lot more bridges in season two than it had in season one, which filmed in...
TV Talk at TCA: Conceived-in-Pittsburgh video game ‘The Last of Us’ becomes excellent HBO seriesVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – After finally moving on from the original “Walking Dead,” which ended its run late in 2022 (though there will apparently be spin-offs ad infinitum), the last thing I was looking forward to was HBO’s “The Last of Us” (9 p.m. Sunday, HBO, HBO Max), a dramatic series...
TV Talk: Bryan Cranston aims to rebuild his ‘Your Honor’ character in season 2Video
Showtime’s “Your Honor” was not my favorite series — excruciating in its details about a fatal accident, eyeroll-inducing with every self-defeating decision that made a bad situation immeasurably worse. But viewers disagreed, making “Your Honor” Showtime’s most-watched series premiere ever at the time (it later got upstaged by “Dexter: New...
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...
TV Q&A: Who’s the new KDKA-TV reporter?
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: Please provide information about the new KDKA-TV reporter Lauren Linder. I am impressed by the quality of her reporting. — Elaine, via email Rob: Per...
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...
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,...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘A Man Called Otto,’ ESPN’s Damar Hamlin coverage
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 ESPN’s coverage of the Damar Hamlin medical emergency during “Monday Night Football” last week. The pair also discuss filmed-in-Pittsburgh Netflix movie “The Pale Blue...
TV Talk: WQED debuts story of 1st Pittsburgh ambulance service
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. WQED-TV producer Annette Banks kept running into the same reaction as she researched the station’s latest half-hour documentary production: “How have I never heard of this?” Sure, there have been newspaper accounts and an NPR...
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...
TV Talk: Avoid ‘Alert;’ KDKA-TV’s Bob Pompeani honoredVideo
It’s a given at this point in TV history that broadcast networks have given up on sophisticated storytelling in favor of procedural dramas of varying quality. But 2023 begins with one of the most unbelievable procedurals we’ve seen in a while. Fox’s missing persons drama “Alert” (Sunday after “NFL on...
TV Talk: New season of ‘The Bachelor’ features Pittsburgher
Cara Ammon, a 27-year-old recruiter originally from Pittsburgh, will be among the 30 contestants on the upcoming 27th season of ABC’s “The Bachelor” (8-10 p.m. Jan. 23, WTAE-TV) competing for the affection of bachelor Zach Shallcross. ABC’s bio for Ammon says she works in an office in New York City,...
Iran releases Oscar-winning film actress held over protests
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran released a prominent actress from an Oscar-winning film on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after she was jailed for criticizing a crackdown on anti-government protests, local reports said. Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said Taraneh Alidoosti, the 38-year-old star of Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning 2016 film,...
Sheriff: No foul play in ‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner snow tractor injury
RENO, Nev. — The serious injuries actor Jeremy Renner suffered while using a snow tractor to free a snowbound motorist on a private mountain road near Lake Tahoe appear to be a “tragic accident,” the sheriff in Reno said Tuesday. The 51-year-old “Avengers” star was seriously hurt when he was...
TV Q&A: Are local TV news staffs shrinking?
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: It seems each local TV station is adding a new young reporter monthly. Are the news staffs larger or smaller than they were a few...
José Andrés and his daughters eat their way through Spain
NEW YORK — On his new TV show, celebrated chef José Andrés goes into a restaurant kitchen in Spain and confronts a massive moray eel. Only one of them is leaving that kitchen intact. Andrés oversees as cooks prepare the eel for its final flourish — deboned, sliced paper thin,...
