Beverly Cleary, who contemporized children’s literature with books like “Ramona the Pest” and “Henry and Beezus” and become one of the best-selling children’s authors of all time, died Thursday. She was 104. Her publisher HarperCollins tweeted that she died on Thursday. A 10-part TV series, “Ramona,” based on her most enduring character, the rambunctious Ramona […]
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Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that the network purposely aired false claims about the company’s role in the 2020 presidential election in order to boost ratings. It’s the latest in a series of legal actions that experts say could force broadcasters to exert more caution […]
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Judge Judy has brought down the gavel on her own $22 million countersuit against talent agent Richard Lawrence and Rebel Entertainment Partners, and it’s because of CBS. “We decline to file an amended complaint as Mr. Lawrence has insisted that I join Big Ticket (CBS) as a defendant,” Judy Sheindlin told Deadline this morning in the battle over profits from […]
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Larry McMurtry, the Texas-born novelist who authored Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment and won an Oscar for co-writing the adapted screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, has died. He was 84. McMurtry died Thursday night of heart failure, his rep Amanda Lundberg told The Hollywood Reporter. He died surrounded by loved ones he lived with, including his longtime writing […]
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As he often does, Sean Hannity ranted on his show Thursday night about something that is certainly not within his realm of expertise: comedy. In particular, he was mad about NBC late night host Seth Meyers ripping him a new one the previous night. Meyers went after Hannity on Wednesday for continuing to demonize Democratic efforts […]
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Johnny Depp has failed in his attempt to challenge the ruling in the U.K. High Court that he was violent to his former wife Amber Heard. Last year, the actor waged a three-week libel case against the publisher of The Sun newspaper over a 2018 article calling him a “wife beater.” Depp claimed that Heard’s allegations of domestic […]
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Jessica Walter, the sassy actress who excelled at portraying unhinged types, from the obsessed fan of a radio deejay in Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me to nutty matriarchs on Arrested Development and Archer, has died. She was 80. Walter died Wednesday night at home in New York, her daughter, Fox Entertainment executive Brooke Bowman, said. “It is with a […]
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ABC’s The Goldbergs aired an original episode tonight, which was dedicated to series’ star George Segal who died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, CA, of complications from bypass surgery. He was 87. The new episode, which featured Segal, ended with an In Memoriam video card that included Segal’s photo as his Goldbergs character and his year of birth and year of death (1934-2021). You […]
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Nomadland and Netflix’s The Crown topped the 2021 Producers Guild of America Awards in a virtual ceremony Wednesday. Nomadland, a frontrunner for the best picture Oscar, took home the outstanding theatrical motion pictures award, with its theme of people finding a community under challenging circumstances feeling particularly resonate given the events of the past year. “In a year in […]
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Late-night host and comedian Jay Leno has issued an apology for a series of jokes told over his career targeting Asian communities. The apology comes after a nearly 15-year campaign from the activist group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) for remarks as recent as Variety‘s 2020 report that Leno cracked about Koreans eating dog meat — a complaint […]
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George Segal, the Oscar-nominated actor whose credits range from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Where’s Poppa? to Just Shoot Me! and The Goldbergs, died today in Santa Rosa, CA, of complications from bypass surgery. He was 87. His wife, Sonia Segal confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass […]
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The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon brought back a live studio audience last night for the first time since the novel coronavirus pandemic shut down in-studio audiences in March 2020. The NBC late-night show also returned to its longtime home of Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, after previously broadcasting from Studio […]
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Jamie Foxx will play boxing great Mike Tyson in a new biographical limited series, Variety has learned. The series, titled simply “Tyson,” is not currently set up at a network or streaming service, but will no doubt find one quickly given the names attached to it already. Antoine Fuqua is onboard to direct and executive produce via Fuqua Films, with Martin Scorsese also executive […]
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‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,’ ‘Promising Young Woman’ & ‘Ted Lasso’ Win at Writers Guild Awards 2021
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Promising Young Woman” took top narrative film honors on Sunday at the 73rd annual Writers Guild of America Awards. Kal Penn hosted the virtual presentation that cemented “Borat” and “Promising Young Woman” as among the frontrunners for Oscar screenplay wins next month. Amazon Studios’ “Borat” prevailed for adapted screenplay for a […]
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Meghan Trainor is breaking some new ground for NBCUniversal. The Grammy-winning singer has signed a cross-platform overall deal with NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. The pact is the first of its kind for the company and will cover both scripted and unscripted projects across NBCU’s portfolio, including NBC, Peacock and cable networks USA, Bravo, E!, Syfy, […]
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Glenn Weiss is returning to direct this year’s Oscars ceremony armed with a unique plan to make the show more closely resemble a movie than TV. “Our plan is that this year’s telecast will look like a movie not a television show, and Glenn has embraced this approach and come up with ideas of his […]
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Oscar show producers Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins have sent a letter to all nominees that gives a glimpse into exactly what their plans for the scaled-down ceremony at downtown L.A.’s Union Station will look and feel like. It also lays down a couple of rules for those nominees as well. First and foremost, the 93rd annual Academy Awards is definitively not going to be […]
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Andy Garcia is getting ready for a walk down the aisle. Garcia has closed a deal to star in Warner Bros.’s remake of Father of the Bride, which will center on a Cuban-American family. He will also executive produce. Gaz Alazraki, who helmed Club de Cuervos, has been tapped to direct the feature, which is being produce by Dede […]
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The anonymous woman who first made allegations about Armie Hammer on social media has come forward publicly. “I thought that he was going to kill me,” the woman, named Effie, said through tears on Thursday during a press conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred. Effie is accusing Hammer of violent rape and physical abuse, during their on-and-off four-year […]
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Sharon Osbourne, long the “big girl with the big voice” at “The Talk,” doesn’t know if she’ll return after the network finishes its investigation of last week’s racially fueled dustup over her defense of Piers Morgan. The production hiatus on CBS’ roundtable chat show, which was placed on a two-day break after Osbourne and cohost Sheryl Underwood tangled […]
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The Talk will remain silent for another week. After going dark on Monday and Tuesday, CBS’ panel series is extending its brief hiatus from live shows until Tuesday, Mar. 23, as the network continues a review stemming from last Wednesday’s heated debate between Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood. Initially planning to return to live episodes on Wednesday, Mar. […]
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World of Dance, the non-scripted competition series featuring and exec produced by Jennifer Lopez, is coming to an end. NBC has no plans to bring the show back for a fifth season. Season 4, which featured 12 episodes, aired between May and August 2020. World of Dance was notable by its absence in network’s summer scheduling plans […]
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John Oliver on Sunday used most of his HBO show to link Tucker Carlson to white supremacy, claiming that Carlson uses his popular Fox News show to share dangerous messages. The segment was hardly the first time the comic used Last Week Tonight to skewer Carlson, but Oliver’s condemnation reached a new level. Explaining first how Carlson […]
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Barbara Rickles, the widow of famed comedian Don Rickles, died Sunday on what would have been the couple’s 56th wedding anniversary. She was 84. Rickles died at her home in Century City of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, publicist Paul Shefrin told The Hollywood Reporter. Her husband died in April 2017 of kidney failure at age 90. Born Barbara Sklar […]
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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been given notice by Hollywood publicists. A group of 102 PR firms has signed a letter to the HFPA advising them that they are instructing their clients not work with the HFPA until the organization not only releases a plan to drastically transform the non-profit organization. The letter was sent to […]
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