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The conference room at One World Trade Center, high above a New York City plaza dotted with respectful tourists, contains few distinguishing features. A large screen, an unadorned table, plenty of charging plugs — the antiseptic business of the modern meeting space.

Yet it is here where the future of documentary is often plotted — and, perhaps, rescued. This is where Paul Moakley and Sarah Lash deliberate on which of the dozens of shorts they’ll release from the hundreds they screen each year. He is The New Yorker’s executive producer; she is vp acquisitions at parent company Condé Nast. But those titles only hint at their influence, which entails figuring out what documentaries get made, bought and ultimately platformed for the magazine’s readers and 1 million YouTube subscribers.

“A big part of our future is movement and visual storytelling — people see before they read,” Moakley says in a meeting with...

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Big Decision (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Sarah Jessica Parker, iconic as Carrie Bradshaw, almost turned her back on Sex and the City. Ahan. She nearly walked away from the role that became her defining career moment—despite the show eventually becoming a cultural phenomenon. Early on, she was uncertain about committing to a long-running TV series, fearing it would box her in creatively and limit her flexibility.

“I was terrified of it, and not in a good way,” Parker told Interview magazine. She compared the idea of doing a TV series to being trapped in a monotonous lifestyle. Parker worried about losing her creative freedom, saying, “You’d never get better, you’d just get comfortable, and that’s it. And then you’re in people’s homes, and your life changes—you can’t go to the market by yourself and pick your tomatoes.” That’s...

Jeopardy! fans can be opinionated. They are more than willing to speak out about anything they don’t like, from contestants to Ken Jennings to inconsistencies in the rules to controversial categories. This week, many fans took aim at one category that they hate and want to be removed from the show.

Here is what they don’t like and why they never want to see it again.

Jeopardy! Fans Want One Category Removed

Tuesday saw a “hated” category return to Jeopardy! The category was “Rhyme Time,” and fans were loathe to see it back on the show. As soon as the category showed up on the episode, many fans immediately flooded onto social media, talking about how much they hated it.

Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!’ – YouTube

Here is a sampling of the fans’ responses to the category (via The Mirror):

“Kill it with fire.” “Rhyme Time had us all screaming for different reasons.

Ken Jennings was one of the best champions in Jeopardy! history. However, there was one moment during his long run that people are talking about a lot now. Here is what happened on Jeopardy!

Ken Jennings Reminded Of His Infamous Answer

During Ken Jennings’s long run as Jeopardy! champion, he got one question that resulted in a very funny yet slightly sexist answer. Viewers may know him these days as the current host of the game show, but, as a contestant on the show, he had some pretty iconic moments as well.

The clue was, “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.”

Ken Jennings on ‘Jeopardy!’ – YouTube

The correct answer was “What is a rake?” However, Ken gave a very different answer, saying, “What is a hoe?” Alex Trebek quickly said, “No,” and then gave an extended, “Whoa!” before asking if that...

Jeopardy! recently issued an apology thanks to a recent clue concerning football player Travis Kelce. The clue referenced a new job Kelce has taken on in addition to his personal life. That said, some fans noticed something familiar about the apology.

The Joke Talked About Travis Kelce’s Significant Other

The clue, which was worth $200, was part of “The TV Show in Question” category. As it read, “‘Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?'” is hosted by this man who’s maybe more famous as a Bf than as a 3-time Super Bowl champ.”

The correct response was “Who is Travis Kelce.” In addition to his new hosting gig, the clue also referenced his relationship with pop singer Taylor Swift. One contestant, Derek, quickly gave the correct response.

Ken Jennings – YouTube

Some fans took issue with the joke on social media. As noted by The U.S. Sun, one Instagram user wrote,...

There was a Jeopardy! question that many fans deemed “sexist” last month. While the question was about a famous poem written by a woman, many fans felt the poem was sexist and demeaned women, and many reacted in anger when it was on the show. Now, the woman playing that game has opened up about the experience.

Here is a look at what made the poem’s line so “sexist” and what the contestant had to say about it.

Jeopardy! Question Deemed ‘Sexist’ By Fans

Last month, there was a clue on Jeopardy! that many fans deemed “sexist.” The clue was under “Complete The Rhyming Phrase.” The start was, “Men seldom make passes at…” Will Wallace got the right answer when he said, “What is Girls Who Wear Glasses.”

Ken Jennings | YouTube

The problem is that one of the contestants, Heather Ryan, was a woman who wore glasses. Ken Jennings...

During a recent appearance on Jeopardy, the contestant Heather Ryan was on the receiving end of an apology from host Ken Jennings after a sexist clue made its way into the Complete the Rhyming Phrase category. The host deemed the Dorothy Parker phrase “Men seldom make passes at … girls who wear glasses” to be “a little problematic,” a fact highlighted by the fact that Ryan was wearing glasses on the show. In a recent interview, the contestant noted that it didn’t just make her uncomfortable; it shifted the energy...

Jeopardy! fans seemingly all had an opinion about that controversial clue from last week, which came off as “sexist” to some and involved Ken Jennings apologizing to a female contestant on stage. Now that contestant, Heather Ryan, is sharing her opinion for the first time. During October 28’s episode, the players had to complete the $400 rhyming phrase “Men seldom make passes at…” Returning champ Will Wallace correctly responded, “Girls who wear glasses,” — but things got awkward because Ryan was wearing glasses. Host Jennings apologized for the phrase coined by famous poet Dorothy Parker. “A little problematic, sorry, Heather,” he said. Wallace agreed with a nod and sternly said, “Very.” On Monday, November 4, Ryan, a health program director based in Binghamton, New York, spoke to Pipe Dream, the student-run newspaper of Binghamton University. She told the paper that the moment was as “uncomfortable” as it seemed. “It is definitely an odd choice,...

Jeopardy! producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss has addressed that hot-button “Girls Who Wear Glasses” clue from last week, which involved a swift apology from Ken Jennings to a female contestant, backlash from fans, and a particularly prolonged pile-on from the press. For those who missed it, on Monday, October 28’s episode, the players were presented the $400 Jeopardy! round clue in the “Complete the Rhyming Phrase” category. It was, “Men seldom make passes at…” Returning champion Will Wallace correctly completed the phrase, “Girls who wear glasses.” Heather Ryan, the only woman in the episode, was wearing glasses. Host Jennings acknowledged the issue: “A little problematic, sorry, Heather,” he said, as she appeared visibly uncomfortable. Wallace agreed with a nod and said, “Very.” The quote comes from the poem News Item by witty feminist Dorothy Parker, but fans who read it at face value deemed the clue “sexist,” many others calling it “outdated.

Alan Rudolph with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robert Altman considering Johnny Carson and Peter Falk to be cast as Dwayne Hoover (played by Bruce Willis) in Breakfast Of Champions: “He would cast his movies before they were written.”

In the first instalment with Alan Rudolph, we discuss Robert Altman’s early connection to Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast Of Champions, the roles played by Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, Albert Finney, and Owen Wilson, plus working with Willis and Demi Moore on Mortal Thoughts. Now, with the help of Ron Mann, director of What We Like, producer David Blocker, cinematographer Elliot Davis and Shout Factory, there is a 4K Digital Restoration of Breakfast of Champions available to screen in cinemas, on streaming platforms and Blu-ray DVD for the 25th anniversary of this very prescient film. Alan Rudolph was an assistant director on Altman’s Nashville, California Split, The Long Goodbye, and appeared as himself in The Player.

When Ken Jennings apologizes for a painfully gross Jeopardy question, you know that someone’s going to have to explain what happened.

Sometimes, Jeopardy can be weirdly insensitive in an effort to be topical.

Other times, it’s a little harder to understand how the cultural touchstone game show could so widely miss the mark.

This time, Jeopardy‘s question was sexist. It also sounded as if it were about a contestant. Thankfully, Ken Jennings offered a swift apology.

Ken Jennings speaks onstage at the screening of “The Small Back Room” during the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 18, 2024. (Photo Credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for TCM) Why did Ken Jennings apologize to a ‘Jeopardy’ contestant?

During the Monday, October 28 episode of Jeopardy, contestants participated in the category of “Complete the Rhyming Phrase.”

The first part of the phrase was: “Men seldom make passes at …” Though there are several (worse) ways to complete the rhyme,...

Over the years, there have been some problematic Jeopardy! moments. More than one of these involved current host Ken Jennings. It was so bad that some people brought them up when it was time to replace Alex Trebek, and there are rumors it was why the network chose Mike Richards first. It took Jennings an entire season to earn his role.

Here is a look at a few of the moments that Ken had to apologize for.

Ken Jennings Apologizes for Sexist Jeopardy! Question

On the October 28 episode of Jeopardy!, there was a clue offered that seemed to offend a lot of people. The clue asked to “Complete The Rhyming Phrase.” The start was “Men seldom make passes at…”

Ken Jennings on ‘Jeopardy!’ – YouTube

Will Wallace got the right answer when he said, “What is Girls Who Wear Glasses.” For reference, this is a quote from Dorothy Parker and is...

Last night’s episode of Jeopardy! used a dated, sexist clue, leading host Ken Jennings to apologize to a female contestant.

During the category Complete the Rhyming Phrase, the three contestants were given the phrase, “Men seldom make passes at …” The answer was: ” … girls who wear glasses.” Returning champion Will Wallace answered, but another contestant, Heather Ryan, was wearing glasses herself.

After acknowledging that Wallace had the correct answer, Jennings admitted that the phrase, coined by Dorothy Parker, didn’t hold up. “A little problematic — sorry, Heather,” Jennings said. Wallace...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for the Monday, October 28 episode of Jeopardy!] Jeopardy! viewers were in for more drama than just a nail-biter game on Monday, October 28. A rhyming clue offended the contestants and fans alike, with Ken Jennings going into apology mode on stage. The contestants were returning champ Will Wallace, a game design director from Austin, Texas, who entered with a four-day total of $79,998, Heather Ryan, a health program director from Binghamton, New York, and Ian Taylor, a food sales rep originally from Cleveland, Ohio. In the Jeopardy! round, Wallace selected the $400 “Complete The Rhyming Phrase” clue. It read: “Men seldom make passes at…” Wallace correctly completed the phrase, responding with a concerned expression: “Girls who wear glasses?” The phrase is a saying coined by poet Dorothy Parker in the 1920s-1930s. Jennings ruled Wallace was correct by admitting it didn’t hold up, and apologized to the female player, Heather Ryan: “A little problematic, sorry Heather,” ...

There’s never been a pop-girl summer anything like 2024 — ever — and Sabrina Carpenter is one of the crucial reasons why. With “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” she can claim two prime Song of the Summer contenders. But she caps off her amazing ascendance with Short n’ Sweet, her full-on coronation album, flaunting her knack for turning romantic roadkill into flippantly brilliant pop. Sabrina’s give-a-fucks aren’t just on vacation — they’re in a coma. These songs are usually filthy, always funny, often mean, yet she roasts herself along with everyone else.

Gary Larson created a lot of Far Side strips, but the weirdest star a group of miniature people. The strips deconstruct popular sayings or simply go for a belly-laugh with bizarre imagery. Larson even created a few accidental stories that stretch over multiple comics.

Gary Larson's The Far Side has many obsessions, from dinosaurs to cows to (generally evil) ducks. However, inarguably Larson's weirdest recurring subject is miniature people - tiny homo sapiens generally depicted as living alongside their far larger equivalents. Far Side's miniature people comics are some of its weirdest, as Larson's predilection for surreal humor is fully unleashed.

These are the 15 best Far Side comics starring the strip's miniature people, including several strips which accidentally end up telling one longer (pretty tragic) story. If you enjoy these comics, be sure to stick around and vote in our end-of-article poll for your favorite.

Larson addresses The Far Side's sense of humor,...

After wayward creative detours with the dreary feature film “Lucy in the Sky” and the over-ambitious fourth season of “Fargo,” Noah Hawley gets back on track with the new season of his FX anthology series.

The latest “Fargo” has all the elements writer-producer-showrunner Hawley knows how to deploy. They may be well-worn tropes at this point: chaos agents, deadpan black comedy, hapless hit men, formidable women, hapless feds, a few good cops, perfectly orchestrated bloodshed beats, hapless wrong kidnap victims, Upper Midwest accents you couldn’t cut with a wood chipper and perhaps a supernatural element or two. But they’ve been craftily reimagined.

New in Season 5 is some ongoing criticism of right-wing extremism — both of the economic Darwinian and Christian patriarchal kind — and other hints that it’s politics as much as people’s inherent stupidity that’s tearing America apart. The implicit message is that those factors are...

Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are recalling how their infamous Sex and the City characters came to be.

During the recent Satc 25th anniversary special of the And Just Like That… The Writers Room podcast with sequel creator Michael Patrick King, the trio opens up about the audition process before the show’s 1998 debut.

Davis, who ended up taking on the role of gallerist Charlotte York, revealed that Satc creator Darren Star initially asked her to read for Carrie Bradshaw, telling her at the time, “We really wanted Sarah Jessica…[but] we don’t know if Sarah’s going to do it, so will you read for Carrie?”

But Davis said in “the original script, Carrie was much more like Candice and she smoked and she swore…and I was like, I can’t possibly [play that character.] And I remember one line in the script it said, ‘Carrie has the...

Before she was Miranda, Cynthia Nixon auditioned to play Carrie Bradshaw. Speaking on the And Just Like That… The Writers Room podcast Thursday, Nixon revealed that she tried to get the Sex and the City role made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker.

“They brought me in to audition for Carrie. I auditioned and they were like, ‘Yeah, not so much,’” Nixon said on the podcast. “And I said to myself — and I’m usually not so proactive — but I was like, at the time, it didn’t seem like there were four women,...

While it’s hard to imagine anyone but Cynthia Nixon playing Miranda and Sarah Jessica Parker playing Carrie on HBO’s classic comedy “Sex and the City,” Nixon revealed in a new podcast Thursday that she first auditioned to play the role of Carrie on the series — and bombed. Thankfully, producers asked her back to audition for the uptight but well-meaning lawyer Miranda, and just like that… the rest is history.

Sitting for a special “Sex and the City” 25th anniversary episode of “And Just Like That… The Writers Room” podcast — along with costars Parker and Kristin Davis — Emmy winner Nixon recalled how after bombing as Carrie, she pushed to be seen for another role.

Also Read:

Meghan McCain Reverses Decision to Stop Watching ‘And Just Like That': ‘Samantha Is Back… So Am I’

“They brought me in to audition for Carrie. I auditioned and they were like, ‘Yeah, not so much,...

Cordon bleu is the warmest color in Tràn Anh Hùng’s long but surprisingly light soufflé of a movie The Pot-au-Feu (renamed The Taste of Things ahead of its U.S. release), a highly watchable Aga saga that’s so artful, charming and non-boat-rockingly old-school that it might make you wonder, even in a non-ironic way, what Lasse Hallström has been up to lately. In Cannes Film Festivals gone by, it could arguably have provoked the bidding war of the fortnight, given the track record of such foodie faves as Le Grand Bouffe, Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman, which also debuted on the Croisette. But that’s faint praise for a story that, although it’s almost all about fillings, trimmings and toppings, doesn’t seem to have that much content or, more importantly, depth.

Set in late-19th century France, The Pot Au Feu is loosely based...

WME co-chairman and power agent Richard Weitz was invited to yet another podium alongside daughter Demi, this time to receive the Dorothy Parker Ally Award during the NAACP Image Awards Nominees Luncheon in Century City on Feb. 4.

Honored for the pandemic phenomenon RWQuarantunes — the star-studded private Zoom concert series that raised 37 million for a slew of organizations including the NAACP — the Weitzes took turns at the microphone to accept the award, with Demi calling their nearly two-year run “an unbelievable journey” during which they rallied in support of vulnerable populations in one of the most challenging time of the modern era.

“We are no Dorothy Parker, but with this honor we hope to continue to do the work to live up to her legacy, that warrants this award,” said the Stanford student. “As I continue my college journey, I will use my voice to rally for movements of change and...

Before James Stewart was sent off to fight in the Second World War, he was one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars. He’d appeared in 28 films, had been nominated for an Oscar for Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and even won one for Best Actor a year later for The Philadelphia Story. He was riding high.

But after spending three years fighting the Nazis in the US Air Force, the 37-year-old returned home in 1945 to find that everything had changed. His contract with MGM had run out, his agent had left the movie business, and he was suffering from what would later be recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was just a little bit scared,” he later recollected of his newfound circumstance. Then Frank Capra called.

Capra – who had directed Stewart twice before, including on Mr Smith Goes to Washington – wanted to pitch a film called It’s a Wonderful Life.

Before James Stewart was sent off to fight in the Second World War, he was one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars. He’d appeared in 28 films, had been nominated for an Oscar for Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and even won one for Best Actor a year later for The Philadelphia Story. He was riding high.

But after spending three years fighting the Nazis in the US Air Force, the 37-year-old returned home in 1945 to find that everything had changed. His contract with MGM had run out, his agent had left the movie business, and he was suffering from what would later be recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was just a little bit scared,” he later recollected of his newfound circumstance. Then Frank Capra called.

Capra – who had directed Stewart twice before, including on Mr Smith Goes to Washington – wanted to pitch a film called It’s a Wonderful Life.

Scads of books have been written on the subject of screenwriting by people who purport to know the tricks of the trade. Some of these folks become industries unto themselves, charging close to 1,000 to attend their intensive, multi-day seminars. Readers and attendees hang on their every word, believing that total adherence to their methods will result in a finished script and a studio deal.

It's a complete sham. All of it.

There are certainly exercises and processes that can help an aspiring writer to be more productive, but the only tried-and-true approach to completing a screenplay is, as Frank Darabont bluntly put it to /Film's Eric Vespe in his fascinating oral history of the filmmaker's "The Mist," to "sit your ass in the chair and do it every day." You can study three-act structure and Joseph Campbell's monomyth all you want, but nothing gets done if you don't sit your...

As its title suggests, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is a subversive delight.

Unleashing a healthy serving of Dorothy Parker tinged satire, and lovingly pulling on the decades of network legal drama tropes, the Tatiana Maslany-led comedy from Rick and Morty vet Jessica Gao rapturously cavorts around the superhero genre, breaking the fourth wall and expectations. Now, addressing the audience here, is lifted from the comics where the character originated back in 1980. So, Deadpool and Fleabag fans, that’s true to the source material. There’s also a lot of high quality CGI, transparent deriding of City of Angels superficiality, and dating app rituals.

Amidst all that, the overriding takeaway is She-Hulk is really funny – which might be exactly what we all need right now.

The fact is humor has long been Marvel’s secret weapon.

Truly inaugurated by the genius of Robert Downey Jr’s insecure and simultaneously arrogant...

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“A Rise And A Fall In Technicolor”

By Raymond Benson

A Star is Born has been made many times—as four Hollywood feature films, one television movie, and one Bollywood picture. The 1937 original, produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman, is often forgotten amongst the more recent versions, such as the celebrated 2018 remake starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

For this reviewer’s money, the 1937 A Star is Born is superior to them all. Granted, it is obviously dated and one must place oneself within the context of the period in which the movie was released. It is also not a musical, as all the others are. The first version also deals exclusively with the motion picture industry. The second one, released in 1954 and starring Judy Garland and James Mason, did as well… but following adaptations went more into the...

They’ve hit us with three remakes of this one, one about another actress and two about music stars — maybe the next will be about a TikTok star. Thanks to an unexpected full digital restoration from original Technicolor elements, this 1937 original once again plays like a winner. Silent legend Janet Gaynor is Esther Blodgett, soon to become the famous Vicki Lester. Fredric March gives one of his best performances as a matinee idol running his career into the ground with drink. David O. Selznick’s classy production takes some cynical jabs at The Biz yet characterizes Adolph Menjou’s producer as an all-wise, all-forgiving saint. The Wac adds great extras in full HD — a swing musical short and a sarcastic Merrie Melodie cartoon that spoofs the main feature.

A Star is Born (1937)

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1937 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 111 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date March 29, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March,...

” His work is beginning to interfere with his drinking.”

Janet Gaynor and Frederick March in A Star Is Born (1937)-Restored Edition will be available on Blu-ray March 29th from Warner Archive. It can be ordered at the Warner Archive store Here

Producer David O. Selznick turned his attention to Hollywood with this 1937 original classic directed by William A. Wellman. Its Academy Award-winning screenplay co-written by Dorothy Parker tells the story of hopeful, young would-be actress Esther Blodgett (Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor) whose career is launched by movie star Norman Maine (Academy Award winner Fredric March), who also wins the young actress’ heart. Esther becomes leading lady Vicki Lester and Mrs. Norman Maine, but as Maine’s career flounders, he sinks into an abyss of alcoholism. Esther chooses to sacrifice her stardom to care for her husband, but he will not allow Esther to abandon her dreams for him. Remade three times in years ahead,...

Sally Kellerman, who was Oscar nominated for her supporting role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s “Mash” feature film, died Thursday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 84.

Her publicist Alan Eichler confirmed her death, and her daughter Claire added that she had been suffering from dementia for the past five years.

Among her other roles were a cameo in Altman’s “The Player,” a professor in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” and a Starfleet officer in the “Star Trek” episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

The willowy blonde actress with the characteristically throaty voice appeared in two Altman films in 1970; the other was the more experimental “Brewster McCloud,” in which she starred with Bud Cort and Michael Murphy. In this film, which did not have a conventional narrative, Kellerman played Louise, the mother of Cort’s bewinged character, Brewster.

She next starred opposite Alan Arkin...

A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, classic novels by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie and hundreds of thousands of pre-1923 sound recordings are among the works that entered that public domain on New Year’s Day 2022.

Dorothy Parker’s first poetry collection Enough Rope, William Faulkner’s first novel Soldiers’ Pay, and books by Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, T.E. Lawrence and more also joined Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in the public domain, the Associated Press reported.

“When works go into the public domain,...

by Cláudio Alves

During the past years, the Criterion Channel has highlighted the careers of many Old Hollywood stars. After Carole Lombard, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, and many more, it's time to celebrate Jean Harlow. In this case, the selection of titles entices because of how encompassing it is. The Criterion Channel presents 14 films, every feature the starlet did while on contract with MGM, from 1932 to her untimely death in 1937. By watching these works, one can get a good sense of Harlow's meteoric rise, how her persona evolved, how it changed to accommodate personal and physical transformations, a transfiguration of industry ideals and popular tastes. Furthermore, the movies showcase other great stars and the work of such vital 1930s screenwriters as Anita Loos and Dorothy Parker. It's a perfect treasure trove of Old Hollywood moviemaking, history, and scandal…...

Fran Lebowitz is a brilliant writer, thinker and talker. A sardonic wit in the vein of Dorothy Parker whose writer’s block has prevented her from producing new written material for the last 40 years, but who regularly churns out gems on the speaker circuit and during TV appearances, she is now, at the age of 70, as associated with the city of New York as just about anyone. She is also the subject of Pretend It’s a City, a new Netflix docuseries directed by Martin Scorsese, which comes 11 years after Public Speaking, a prior Scorsese documentary about her. During a recent episode of THR’s Awards ...

Fran Lebowitz is a brilliant writer, thinker and talker. A sardonic wit in the vein of Dorothy Parker whose writer’s block has prevented her from producing new written material for the last 40 years, but who regularly churns out gems on the speaker circuit and during TV appearances, she is now, at the age of 70, as associated with the city of New York as just about anyone. She is also the subject of Pretend It’s a City, a new Netflix docuseries directed by Martin Scorsese, which comes 11 years after Public Speaking, a prior Scorsese documentary about her. During a recent episode of THR’s Awards ...

The lobbies are too quiet and the streets too empty. The maître d’s are too polite and a taxi driver even opened a door for me. Revisiting New York after an 18-month absence is a disquieting adventure.

When I informed Los Angeles friends of my trip they looked at me as though I was heading for Pompeii – that was even more unsettling. My mission was not archeological: Gotham, as we used to call it, is buoyant. It’s coming alive. Not really.

Sal, my bartender at newly reopened Smith & Wollensky, poured me a martini before I even asked. “Everyone is drinking at lunch again,” he advises. “It’s for survival.” Drinks can be served without food now, but elbows at the bar must still be 6 feet apart.

Gotham will officially be “open” on May 19, and Broadway shows started selling tickets this week for their September bows. But social distancing rules still prevail,...

With the Super Bowl behind us and the Oscars looming (and a pandemic-dampened Valentine’s Day as a marketing peg), American distributors are releasing their most robust slate of new releases in months this weekend.

Awards contenders “Judas and the Black Messiah” (about the FBI-sanctioned murder of Fred Hampton) and “Land” (starring and directed by Robin Wright) arrive in theaters, hot off their premieres at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Also on the awards-worthy indie front, A24 releases last year’s Sundance winner “Minari” on demand. Steven Yuen stars in this immigrant story with universal appeal. And if theaters are open (and safe) near you, consider catching Michelle Pfeiffer in the wickedly funny “French Exit.”

Targeting teens with Valentine’s offerings, Amazon delivers the “Groundhog Day”-esque romance “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” to Prime subscribers, while Netflix completes its “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy with “Always and Forever.

Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94.

“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her longtime manager Juliet Green said. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh ’till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic.”

The daffy, self-absorbed Phyllis, a character she claimed was close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a featured actress in a series during the mid-’70s and made Leachman a household name.

Leachman...

Frances Price married well, if one’s notion of success in that department is defined more by financial comfort than by romance. Her marriage wasn’t so much loveless as moneyful, and that arguably works out better for the wealthy Manhattan wife Michelle Pfeiffer so memorably embodies in Azazel Jacobs’ “French Exit,” a sophisticated closing night choice for this year’s virtual-hybrid New York Film Festival, which “The Sisters Brothers” author Patrick deWitt adapted from his own novel.

After the death of her husband — whose corpse she left to rot for several days, giving herself time to take a short ski vacation in Vail, before reporting it to the authorities — Frances pulled her son, Malcolm, out of boarding school, drove him home in her silver Rolls-Royce, and decided to express an interest in his life. “Did you drink to the brink of sound reasoning?” she queries her son (now a...

When it comes to Old Hollywood screenwriters, there are few names that loom larger than Mankiewicz. That is probably because between two very different Mankiewicz brothers, some of the greatest screenplays of all-time were penned. In the case of Herman J. Mankiewicz that included The Wizard of Oz (1939), San Francisco (1936), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), and a little movie called Citizen Kane (1941). And it’s in the latter’s style filmmaker David Fincher is visiting Mank’s life.

In Fincher’s first film at Netflix, the modern filmmaker is teaming with Gary Oldman, still fresh off his Oscar win for playing Winston Churchill, to offer a highly stylized and intriguing interpretation of the life and times of Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz at time when the silver screen was still black and white, and life in a smoke-filled Tinseltown took on an ambiguous gray.

With a teaser trailer absolutely dripping with atmosphere,...

This month’s 10th anniversary of “The Social Network” has been accompanied by memorable set stories (click here for David Fincher’s apology over replacing actor Josh Pence with Armie Hammer’s face), several of which can be found in Empire magazine’s behind-the-scenes feature on the beloved Facebook drama. Empire made its decade-old “Social Network” set report available online over the weekend to mark the anniversary and it includes one revealing tidbit where Fincher would get Jessie Eisenberg into the mindset of Zuckerberg by directing Andrew Garfield to hurl insults at the actor.

As Empire observed on set: “[Garfield] leaves to change into his own, casual clothes, before returning to crouch behind the camera as it hovers close to Eisenberg. Just before the camera rolls, he leans toward the ‘Zombieland’ star and hisses, ‘You’re a fucking dick and you betrayed your best fucking friend. Live with that.’ It’s shocking to hear.

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," Oscar Wilde as purred by George Sanders, is enough to make any film worth while.A friend of mine once appeared on a daytime quiz show, on which he was required to complete the quote from the word "...but..." His heroic stab at an answer was, "...but some of us belong there?" I suppose one of the achievements of Otto Preminger's The Fan, a 1950 film of Wilde's 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan,...

“I’m working in the outhouse again.” That’s how Ben Hecht, the fabled screenwriter, used to describe toiling in Hollywood. “And the nitwits are still in charge,” he assured his friends.

Hecht wrote terrific movies like Scarface and Notorious but he hated studio chiefs, and it was mutual. His name came to mind last week when Don Winslow posted his poignant piece on Deadline reminding producers and executives that writers of books and scripts these days could use a little more love. Given the tensions of the moment, he argued, a few friendly phone calls (and even checks) would bolster sagging writer morale.

More from DeadlineDon Winslow: Top 10 Things Studios, Networks and Streamers Could Do To Treat Authors BetterDon Winslow: My First Experience With Hollywood MathDon Winslow's Take On Scorsese & De Niro Doing 'The Irishman' Over 'Frankie Machine:' 'I Blame Eric Roth'

Winslow is responsible for...

Times are rough right now under self-quarantine, so maybe it’s time to stop begging for scraps from Disney and watch some fantastic Lgbtqia+ cinema instead. Why not watch some smaller films that haven’t been talked to death by every pop culture website on the planet?

The purpose of this list is to cheer people up, especially during a time when people really can’t go out and decompress. All we can do right now is curl up under our blankets with a libation or two and try to forget our troubles by streaming movies nonstop.

Queer cinema is not a monolith, but I do prefer to prioritize the films that depict queer life as it is. This is a list big on laughs, keeping the sadness to a minimum. There are some recognizable titles in here, mixed in with lesser-known gems that deserve public attention. Luckily, film critics...

Exclusive: Two-time Emmy and two-time Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth is set as a recurring opposite Zosia Mamet in HBO Max’s thriller drama series The Flight Attendant, starring and executive produced by Kaley Cuoco.

The Flight Attendant is a story of how an entire life can change in one night. A flight attendant (Cuoco) wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened.

Neuwirth will play Diana Carlisle, a senior partner at the law firm where Annie (Mamet) works. Graceful and hard like polished marble, she’s a real mentor to Annie.

Cast also includes Sonoya Mizuno, Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez, Colin Woodell, T.R. Knight, Griffin Matthews, Merle Dandridge and Nolan Funk.

The dark comedic thriller is based on the novel by New York Times best-selling author Chris Bohjalian. Greg Berlanti, Cuoco, Sarah Schechter, Steve Yockey, Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin are executive producers.

This week’s one-two punch of the Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominations have thrown awards season prognosticators into a frenzy, but they actually help to provide some clarification for the streaming wars.

HBO received nine SAG Awards nominations Wednesday morning; meanwhile, Warner Bros. Television, also owned by AT&T, was among several studios that tied for second place with four SAG Award nominations. Given that these award-nominated properties will have a direct line of distribution to AT&T-owned streaming, their success bodes well for the 2020 launch of HBO Max.

HBO was among the studios behind well-received projects such as “Chernobyl,” “Barry,” which each received two SAG Award nominations; though critics and viewers were divided on the final season of “Game of Thrones,” the show still earned three nominations. HBO’s production successes were also elevated by “Big Little Lies” and “True Detective,” which each received one nomination. “Big Little Lies...

Musso & Frank Grill has catered to Hollywood players for 100 years and the venerable establishment is celebrating its centennial anniversary on Sept. 27. A book about the restaurant will be released. The Hollywood Award of Excellence, the first of its kind for a restaurant, will be presented by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Musso’s is also expanding, with three new private dining rooms set to open in early 2020.

“Our family and the Hollywood community can’t even measure the historic importance of the restaurant reaching its 100th anniversary,” says COO-cfo-proprietor and fourth-generation owner Mark Echeverria. “We’re so proud of the entire team and what the generations before us did. It’s an unbelievable milestone.

“We grew up with Hollywood. In 1919, Hollywood Boulevard was a dirt road and the industry was just starting to take off.”

When Musso & Frank opened its doors on the now iconic boulevard in 1919, it was in...

What, exactly, are we to make of Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), the dysfunctional slacker architect with the racing tongue and the porcupine disposition who’s at the center of Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”? Bernadette lives in a beautiful crumbling mansion, perched on a Seattle hilltop, that she spends her days indolently renovating. Everywhere in the house, there are signs of her visual imagination (printed pamphlets folded into cones and stacked as wallpaper; splashes of surreal color). But it’s clear that the project stalled a long time ago, because the place is a half-finished wreck, with chipped paint and scarred moldings and barely furnished rooms.

What does Bernadatte do? Basically, she does nothing at all, except talk a blue streak of manic invective. She’s a drop-dead misanthrope who spends all day, every day, putting down everybody and everything. She hates the neighbors. She hates the...

David Crow Jul 11, 2019

Gary Oldman will play Herman Mankiewicz for David Fincher in Mank. It will cover the making of Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz.

David Fincher and Gary Oldman finally working together feels like it’s destined to be movie history, but the fact that it’s occurring for a Herman Mankiewicz biopic is doubly on-the-nose. The film, which will reveal how a newspaper man became the screenwriter of what many consider to be the finest film ever produced, 1941’s Citizen Kane, is set-up for Fincher at Netflix, indicative of an ever growing relationship between the streaming service and Oscar nominated auteur. It also promises to be a personal film for the director as his own father, Jack Fincher, wrote the screenplay.

The film, which is currently titled Mank, is one Fincher has wanted to make since 1997—so after Se7en and The Game but before Fight Club...

Image Source: MTV / Everett Collection

Of all the TV shows to get a reboot or spinoff, Daria might be the one I'm most excited about. I was obsessed with the show growing up - I was just 12 when it premiered - and it reminds me of a time before Teen Mom and Teen Wolf, when you could watch shows like The Real World and Singled Out between a string of actual music videos. I could close my bedroom door, settle into my beanbag chair, and spend my evening chuckling at sarcastic, biting one-liners while I probably should have been doing my homework.

So, there was Daria. The show was a spinoff of MTV's other massive hit cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head, in which she appeared as a running character. It followed Daria Morgendorffer and her family's move to Lawndale, where the 16-year-old would begin her sophomore year in high school. In a 1999 New York Times article,...

Fran Lebowitz said she regrets that “everyone misinterpreted” her comment onb Bill Maher’s Real Time Friday night, when she suggested the U.S. turn President Donald Trump “over to the Saudis, his buddies – the same Saudis who got rid of that reporter.”

“Maybe they could do the same for him,” she told Maher, who had asked if she favored impeaching the president.

Lebowitz apologized later in the show, after producers alerted Maher her remark had triggered “blowback” on Twitter.

“I saw your face when I said it,” she told Maher. “I didn’t realize that I had said it. I had 12 cups of coffee. I regret saying it,” Lebowitz said after the broadcast, during on the online-only ‘Overtime’ segment HBO presents via YouTube.

“It’s a live show,” Maher sighed. “You don’t really want to see the president dismembered by the Saudis. I don’t like Donald Trump either…...