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Jonathan Haze had over 40 screen acting credits to his name, with many of those credits being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit that stands out among all others came when Haze took on the role of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant classic The Little Shop of Horrors. We lost Corman earlier this year, when he passed away at the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve lost Haze as well. His daughter Rebecca informed them that Haze passed away at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday at the age of 95.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was born with the name Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He worked the stage for Rich and was Josephine Baker’s stage manager for two years before he got into acting. He hitchhiked to L.A. and got a...

Jonathan Haze, who starred for Roger Corman as the flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, just one of two dozen films he made with the B-movie legend, has died. He was 95.

Haze died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Rebecca Haze, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was a valuable and versatile member of Corman’s repertory company from 1954 — when he acted in The Fast and the Furious and Monster From the Ocean Floor — until 1967, when he appeared in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and served as an assistant director on The Born Losers.

In one of his more noteworthy turns, Haze portrayed one of the three teenagers who stumble upon $250,000 worth of heroin and become dealers in Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature directed by Irvin Kershner.

The Pittsburgh...

Jonathan Haze, who originated the Seymour role in cult classic 1960 horror comedy The Little Shop of Horrors during a long collaboration with its director Roger Corman, has died. He was 95.

His daughter, Rebecca Haze, told Deadline that he died peacefully of natural causes on November 2 at his home in Los Angeles but did not provide a cause.

Jonathan Haze and Dorothy Malone in ‘Five Guns West,’ 1955

Born in Pittsburgh on April 1, 1929, Haze was discovered working in a gas station by Wyott Ordung, who gave him a role in Monster from the Ocean Floor, which Corman produced. That same year, he cast Haze in The Fast and the Furious and then as Billy Candy in the 1955 western Five Guns West, starring John Lund and Dorothy Malone.

They were the first of nearly 20 movies they made together, including 1955’s Apache Woman and Day the World Ended; 1956’s Gunslinger, The Oklahoma Woman, It...

Jack Jones, a singer who found fame and chart success on the easy-listening side of the street in the 1960s, and who later became etched in television-watching America’s psyche with the “Love Boat” theme, died Wednesday at 86.

Jones died of leukemia at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif., his wife of 15 years, Eleanora Jones, said.

Jones had hits on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, but his highest chart numbers could be found on what was then known as the easy listening chart, which later became adult contemporary. In the easy listening format, he had No. 1 singles with “The Race is On” in 1965, “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” in 1966 and “Lady” in 1967.

In particular, “The Impossible Dream” — a cover of the most popular song from the 1965 Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha” — became culturally ubiquitous, through Jones’ frequent TV appearances, even though it peaked at No. 35 on the Hot 100, where it...

The decade of the 2010s had a lot of great cinema to offer with exciting superhero team ups, advancements in visual effects, revivals of classic franchises, and many new exciting directors coming into the limelight. One of the most promising young talents to succeed in this time was Damien Chazelle, the youngest director to have won the Academy Award for Best Director. While ‘La La Land’ might have been his greatest success and one of the most beloved films of the last decade, it could not have been made if it wasn’t for the triumph of ‘Whiplash’. Chazelle wrote the film as he was struggling to get ‘La La Land’ financed, which ended up enhancing the script as the frustration Chazelle felt at the time worked its way into the character’s own struggle to achieve his own dream of being a great drummer. This goes to prove that...

In the late 1970s, Dolly Parton irritated the country establishment in Nashville when she began seeking more mainstream success. Parton aimed for a spot on the pop charts, which some believed meant she was turning her back on true country music. Parton defended her decision, noting that she would always consider herself a country musician. She defended the genre against anyone who spoke ill of it.

Dolly Parton had a major problem with the way another artist talked about country music

When Parton began to seek crossover success, she hired a new management team from Los Angeles. This move, as well as the type of music she began releasing, rubbed some the wrong way. Parton said she would always consider herself a country musician, though.

“I will always be here, and I will always be able to help country music in many, many ways,” Parton said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash.

Brigitte Berman’s Oscar-winning documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got has compelling and intimate on-camera interviews with Artie Shaw, Mel Tormé, Helen Forrest, Polly Haynes, Buddy Rich, Lee Castle, Mack Pierce, Frederic Morton, John Wexley, John Best, and the very forthcoming Evelyn Keyes on her marriage to Artie Shaw. Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

In the first instalment with Brigitte Berman on her Oscar-winning documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got (4K restoration and remastered sound), now screening at Film Forum in New York, we discuss how a Bix Beiderbecke interview with Artie Shaw in 1979 for her film Bix: 'Ain't None Of Them Play Like Him Yet' turned into an opportunity of a lifetime; Artie Shaw’s theme song Nightmare; the provocative titles of his books; his recordings of Frenesi and Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine; George Gershwin’s Summertime with Roy Eldridge; obsessively buying Patek Philippe...

Manny Martinez, an early drummer for the Misfits, has died as the age of 69.

Depending on the interpretation of the Misfits timeline, Martinez was either the first or second Misfits drummer, forming a lineup with classic members Jerry Only and Glenn Danzig. However, Martinez was definitely the first drummer to appear on an official recording with the band, and actually helped introduce Only and Danzig to one another.

Martinez’s friend Zach Rector shared the news of the drummer’s passing on Facebook:

“Going to miss you Brother Manny Martinez / A true living legend a student of Buddy Rich I remember Manny telling me Multiple occasions of Buddy bringing up his chops while coming up, & his stories of his family’s notorious bar …An Original Misfits period. All around stand up guy, talking always about working and the progress on my house I’d call him up & talk alot about...

Adam Reed was searching for inspiration. He’d just sold his stake in the production company he co-founded, 70/30 Productions — responsible for his animated series Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo — and fled to Europe, to embark on what he calls a “pilgrimage.” One day during his expedition, he was idling at a café in Salamanca, Spain, and observed a group of stunning women. He wondered who could possibly have the courage to approach them. And then, all of a sudden, a suave fellow sat down at the table, ordered a...

George Brown, the co-founder, drummer, and songwriter for Kool & the Gang, died Thursday, Nov. 16, after a battle with cancer. He was 74.

A rep for Kool & the Gang confirmed Brown’s death in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. Brown’s family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Lung Cancer Society of America in his honor.

Aptly nicknamed “Funky,” Brown not only provided the backbeat to Kool & the Gang’s many indelible funk and disco era hits but also helped write them. Brown’s co-writing credits include favorites like “Ladies Night,...

Drummer Steve Riley, a classic member of the bands W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns, has died at the age of 67. The veteran musician passed away after a severe bout with pneumonia.

Riley’s passing was confirmed by his family, who issued the following statement via Facebook: “We are devastated to share that Steve Riley has passed away at the age of 67. Steve had been battling a severe case of pneumonia for several weeks, and on Tuesday, Oct. 24, succumbed to the illness. His wife Mary Louise and son Cole were by his side in his final moments.”

Riley was a member of W.A.S.P. from 1984 to 1987, appearing on the metal band’s gold-certified sophomore album, 1985’s The Last Command, and its follow-up, 1986’s Inside the Electric Circus, as well as their popular 1987 live album, Live… in the Raw.

In 1987, he joined L.A. Guns, and was part of the...

I first heard about FX’s “Archer” in the ready room of Vaq-135, a navy squadron who were serving an interminable deployment aboard an aircraft carrier somewhere near Midway Island. (This sounds very much like a humblebrag that Sterling Archer would obnoxiously drop into conversation). It was 2010, and the pilots had lost whatever idealism they’d once had during an endless deployment that had them flying 12-hour missions from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan. I started hearing the officers stage-whisper “danger zone” whenever one of them got called in to see the commanding officer over some minor fuck-up or summoned to the flight deck in the pitch black of an ocean night.

Now, famously, “Danger Zone” is a Kenny Loggins song that plays a significant role in the homoerotic original recipe “Top Gun,” the urtext of naval aviators. But the way the pilots were saying it suggested they were taking the piss.

Rolling Stone‘s interview series King for a Day features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and singers who had the difficult job of fronting major rock bands after the departure of an iconic vocalist. Some of them stayed in their bands for years, while others lasted just a few months. In the end, however, they all found out that replacement singers can themselves be replaced. This edition features former Four Seasons singer Gerry Polci.

By the mid-Seventies, the once-unstoppable Four Seasons seemed like they were heading into oblivion.

Led Zeppelin wouldn’t have been the same band without drummer John Bonham. You could say that about any member of the band, but Bonham’s imposing beats — inspired by an early rock ‘n’ roll song that mesmerized him — were irreplaceable. That’s why the band decided to break up when he died in 1980 instead of soldiering on. For all the praise, Bonham remained modest about his drumming skills, and it’s almost hilarious how unassuming he was.

Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham | Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images John Bonham once modestly said he was ‘a simple, straight-ahead drummer’

Even though he once lost to Karen Carpenter in a best drummer poll, Bonham routinely appears at or near the top of the list when talking about the greatest classic rock drummers. The self-taught Bonham became one of the best of his generation even though he never wanted or tried to be.

If there's one thing Damien Chazelle knows how to do, it's an ending. In the heart-rending denouement of "La La Land" we're shown everything Ryan Gosling's Seb and Emma Stone's Mia could have been, before a subtle nod between the two signals a solemn, bittersweet acceptance of their actual circumstances. It's a finale full of false climaxes that explore every possibility to add that much more finality to the true ending.

Before that 2016 musical drama made us all cry, Chazelle had already proven his talent for an emotionally satisfying ending with his breakout 2014 effort, "Whiplash." Drawing on the filmmaker's own experiences of playing in a high school jazz band, the film tells the story of Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), a drum student at a prestigious New York music academy who will seemingly stop at nothing to become the next Buddy Rich. Throughout the film, he's berated and abused by his instructor,...

Early rock & roll drummer Charles Connor — who played with Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and James Brown in the Fifties — died in his home in Glendale, California, after a battle with the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus. He was 86.

“He was one of those drummers that was a bricklayer of creating that rock & roll genre,” his daughter, Queenie Connor Sonnefeld, told the Associated Press. “He played behind so many legendary musicians in the Fifties. He was a loving grandfather and was very proud of his family and took a lot of...

Rick Laird, whose bass guitar skills graced a number of jazz rock’s most prominent fusion bands in the 1970s, died Sunday at age 80. No cause of death was given, but he recently had entered hospice care.

Laird’s work was part of pioneering groups the Mahavishu Orchestra and Return to Forever in the 1970s, the decade where the genre took off. He also worked with jazz greats Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich and Sonny Rollins during his career.

Born in Dublin in 1941, Laird moved to New Zealand at 16, then returned to the UK in 1962. While in New Zealand, he had established himself on that country’s and Australia’s jazz scenes as an upright bassist.

Upon his UK return, he worked with keyboardist Brian Auger, touring with him and meeting his future bandmate, John McLaughlin.

Laird won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and moved to that...

Nelson Riddle is a patron saint of comic book entertainment. He arranged the theme to Batman, the original 1960s camp classic TV series which paved the way for all things geek. That theme caught the excitement children of all ages felt from the moment of the twirling introductory horns through the POWs and ZOKs of the opening battle. Full-set drum rolls propel a swing-blues rhythm section through an ever-building cascade of wonder. Insistent scat singing clashes with atonal chordal squawks until it sounds like it will all come crumbling down, unless someone fires up the Bat-Signal.

You won’t find that in Nelson Riddle: Music With a Heartbeat. Nelson was one of the chief architects of the “Great American Songbook,” working with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole. He helped Linda Ronstadt take the standards out of the elevator. Riddle scored hundreds of films,...

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features drummer Simon Phillips.

If you were a rock superstar in the Seventies, Eighties, or Nineties and you needed a drummer for a near-impossible job,...

Stewart Copeland gets asked a lot of questions, but they’re rarely about his youth in the Middle East. “When you’re a pop star, you often find yourself with a microphone pointed at you and you’re asked to explain yourself,” the former Police drummer says. “Like, ‘Who are you? What makes you tick?’ Which is the interesting stuff. But the easy one should be, ‘So where ya from?'”

When he’s asked the easy one, Copeland’s answer often results in confusion. “[It] leads to, ‘Wait, what?'” he says.

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features drummer and songwriter Joe Vitale.

Veteran drummer Joe Vitale was asleep for the night when Bob Dylan’s June 2020 interview with The New York Times went online,...

On the surface, AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s “Blinded by the Light,” and Tom Jones’ “Valerie” have nothing in common. They were recorded in different decades, targeted at different demographics, and they don’t sound even remotely alike. But they all feature the drumming of Chris Slade, a journeyman Welsh musician who has also played with Olivia Newton-John, Tom Paxton, Uriah Heep, David Gilmour, the Firm, Gary Moore, and Asia.

He’s best known for joining AC/DC in 1989, just in time to play on their comeback LP,...

Johnny Mandel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter of “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Emily” and the theme from “Mash,” has died. He was 94.

“I was so sad to learn that a hero of mine, Johnny Mandel, passed away,” wrote Michael Buble on Twitter. “He was a genius and one of my favorite writers, arrangers, and personalities. He was a beast.”

“A dear friend and extraordinary composer arranger and all-around brilliant talent, Johnny Mandel, just passed away,” wrote Michael Feinstein on Facebook. “The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition. He was truly beyond compare, and nobody could write or arrange the way he did. Lord will we miss him. Let’s celebrate him with his music! He would like that.”

Mandel was considered one of the finest arrangers of the second half of the 20th century, providing...

Jean-Paul Gaster still remembers the moment he realized the first heavy-metal band were playing jazz.

Growing up near Washington, D.C., the drummer — who for nearly 30 years has brought a loose-limbed swagger to the rhythms of esteemed hard-rock band Clutch — would sit with his father and watch live concerts on public television. Performances by big-band jazz greats Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa made a particularly strong impression on him.

A few years later, heavier sounds came onto his radar via bands like Black Sabbath and Zz Top. At first, Gaster...

The latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast celebrates the life and music of Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, who died January 7th at age 67. The episode begins with previously unheard audio from Peart’s 2015 interview for Rush’s Rolling Stone cover story, and then segues to a discussion between host Brian Hiatt, Hank Shteamer, and Andy Greene.

To hear the entire episode, press play below or download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.

The interview, conducted in in Peart’s Los Angeles office (which doubled as...

Every year during award season the Santa Barbara International Film Festival gives the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film to a deserving Oscar contender. And they always show up, partly because the local crowds are so enthusiastic, among them many Oscar voters.

Thursday night Carol Burnett made her way over to greet this year’s recipient, Martin Scorsese, his “The Irishman” star Al Pacino, who gave a rousing speech including an extraordinary riff on the drumming of Buddy Rich — yes, he was comparing the jazz legend to the Maestro — and Scorsese muse and alter-ego Leonardo DiCaprio, who sat between Scorsese and his father George (who bears a striking resemblance to Pacino).

“As an actor you feel safe,” said Pacino of Scorsese. “He is so easy to trust because he is in control of his craft. He sets the stage for you, like a tightrope walker. Marty is a net.

Every year during award season the Santa Barbara International Film Festival gives the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film to a deserving Oscar contender. And they always show up, partly because the local crowds are so enthusiastic, among them many Oscar voters.

Thursday night Carol Burnett made her way over to greet this year’s recipient, Martin Scorsese, his “The Irishman” star Al Pacino, who gave a rousing speech including an extraordinary riff on the drumming of Buddy Rich — yes, he was comparing the jazz legend to the Maestro — and Scorsese muse and alter-ego Leonardo DiCaprio, who sat between Scorsese and his father George (who bears a striking resemblance to Pacino).

“As an actor you feel safe,” said Pacino of Scorsese. “He is so easy to trust because he is in control of his craft. He sets the stage for you, like a tightrope walker. Marty is a net.

Ronnie Scott’s, an iconic British music venue dubbed the “world’s favorite jazz club,” is the subject of a new feature documentary. Kew Media Distribution has boarded sales on “Ronnie’s” (working title) and is warming up buyers at Cannes.

The club is situated in the heart of London’s Soho district. Founded by late saxophonist Ronnie Scott and Pete King, who were inspired by the vibrant post-war jazz venues in New York, it opened its doors 60 years ago, in 1959. Since then, the club has hosted the world’s greatest jazz legends, including Chet Baker, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich and Nina Simone.

Norah Jones and actor-and-musician Jeff Goldblum are among more recent performers at the club, which also attracts stars of other musical genres, such as Lady Gaga in 2015 and Prince a year earlier.

The film will tell the story of...

It’s a sunny spring day in 2016 and Ronnie Spector is seated at a New York hotel bar. As she looks back on her career, she pinpoints the session she did with the Wrecking Crew for “Be My Baby.” The first time she heard Hal Blaine play the song’s opening rhythm — thump, thump-thump, clap! — she had an out-of-body experience. “It was like I’d gone to heaven,” she said. “It all fit. It all was like a puzzle and once my voice was put on, the puzzle was complete.

Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier in October, Geddy Lee confirmed what fans already knew, that Rush have “zero plans to tour again.” The bassist and singer also speculated about his musical future, hinting that he might at some point work on some new solo material. “I’ll probably find myself bored and wandering down to the studio to try to enliven my own life, and if something of a positive nature happens down there, I’ll take it to the next step,” he said. “But beyond that, I could only guess.

“So darn persistent” — that’s a phrase that George and Ira Gershwin came up with to describe “Fascinating Rhythm,” and it also applies to the endurance and willpower of Tony Bennett, who turns 92 on Friday. “Fascinating Rhythm” was the first recording Bennett ever made back in 1949, and after a few subsequent stabs at it in the intervening decades, he returns to that touchstone in a brand new duet with Diana Krall. Variety has the track’s exclusive premiere.

The unveiling of the recording precedes the unveiling of an entire joint album by Bennett and Krall, “Love is Here to Stay,” set to be officially announced on Bennett’s birthday. Variety can reveal the track listing for their first-ever full-length project together, which consists of 12 classic Gershwin compositions. The album, due September 14 on Verve/Columbia, includes a good number of songs one or the other or both of the duo have...

“What a great opener, ‘Hello, I love you, tell me your name,'” the Doors‘ drummer John Densmore says. “Like, whoa, Ok. That’s aggressive. You’re in love with me but you don’t know my credentials?”

He laughs and says that kind of pickup line was not frontman Jim Morrison’s style at all, even if he did write the lyrics. “He was sort of ‘Southern shy,'” the drummer says. “Well, if he got loaded, he got a little more open – a little too open sometimes.” But...

On August 20, 2017, Jerry Lewis took a pratfall off this mortal coil, presumably knocking an unwitting dowager on her keister and sending a surprised cop into an open manhole on his way out. The durable enfant terrible was all of 91 years when he finally left the building though he had been making spirited public appearances as recently as January of this year.

For the inquisitive Jerry fan, Shawn Levy’s 1997 King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, remains the first and last stop for the straight scoop on America’s premiere nudnik. Levy, who endured the full fury of the comedian’s legendary wrath to get his story, is as admiring of his subject’s accomplishments as he was repelled by his whiplash mood swings. The hard knock apprenticeship in the Catskills, the Freudian-fueled soap opera of his partnership with Dean Martin, the boastful sex-capades, they’re all there and then some.

John Stamos is celebrating America’s birthday with America’s band—and giving back to those who’ve made this country great.

The 53 year-old television star hosted the PBS concert special A Capitol Fourth on Tuesday, broadcasting live from the West Lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. The festivities featured performances by country songstress Kellie Pickler, Voice winner Chris Blue, Motown legends the Four Tops—plus the Beach Boys, who had a little help from Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath on vocals and Stamos himself on drums.

Stamos’ friendship with the groundbreaking rock icons dates back over three decades.

He was drumming like Buddy Rich when he was a baby. In his teens, he'd formed a Beasties-meets-Backstreet boy band called the Style Boyz (you remember their hit dance, the "Donkey Roll," right?). By the time he was in his twenties, he was a solo pop juggernaut who sold out stadiums. His name is Conner4Real, even if the bad-boy singer played by Andy Samberg in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, isn't real at all. But with his fawning entourage, featherweight R&B-meets-edm hits and such feats of public idiocy as passing out on a hoverboard,...

If your biggest complaint about the first 10 episodes of The Muppets was “It’s not meta enough,” you’re going to like what the ABC comedy has in store for its Feb. 2 return (8/7c).

VideosThe Muppets Take on Adele — Watch Missy Piggy’s ‘Hello’ Parody

As a nod to The Muppets‘ real-life behind-the-scenes overhaul — a change of showrunner and focus were reported in November — the “network” assigns a branding guru to revamp Up Late With Miss Piggy. More specifically, he’s brought in to “make old things relevant.” (There’s talk of YouTube personalities joining the fold, an Undateable-esque shift to viewer interactivity,...

Once Upon a Time‘s newly minted Dark One is on a mission — and he’s enlisted a boatload of shady friends to help him.

RelatedOnce Upon a Time Recap: Hook’s Very Dark Plan Is Revealed

Infused with the Darkness against his will, as the result of Emma’s desperate bid to save his life, Captain Hook is none too happy, save for relishing the savory prospect of using his new powers to avenge long-ago love Milah once and for all, by vanquishing Rumplestiltskin. To that end, after having lost Round 2 to the “Crocodile,” Hook tapped into a Storybrooke...

This week’s Nashville gives us a mantra, and I suggest we put it into use right quick:

“I love you. I’ve loved you my whole life, and I’m gonna keep doin’ that until I die.”

When whiny alt-rockers get their man-scarves in a twist: “I love you. I’ve loved you my whole life, and I’m gonna keep doin’ that until I die.”

When bratty teens suck up screen time you’d rather spend watching baby Cadence roll around in a Pack-n-Play: “I love you. I’ve loved you my whole life, and I’m gonna...

A Trainwreck of a comedienne, a Limitless man and a Saturday Night Live vet are all sharing space on Barbara Walters’ list of The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2015.

PhotosCancellation Jitters: 8 Shows in Danger

The 90-minute special — airing Thursday, Dec. 17 at 9:30/8:30c on ABC — will feature Inside Amy Schumer mastermind Amy Schumer, actor/producer Bradley Cooper and comic Tracy Morgan.

Additional honorees include Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey, ballerina Misty Copeland and fashion designer Donna Karan.

More names will be announced shortly, with the No. 1 Most Fascinating Person to be revealed during the broadcast.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl stopped by The Muppets on Tuesday to partake in a hotly-anticipated drum battle.

But was the percussive duel (video above) anywhere near as good as the one-time battle between Animal and Buddy Rich?

VideosThe Muppets Take on Adele — Watch Hilarious ‘Hello’ Parody Video

In the following Muppet Show clip from 1981, the legendary jazz drummer stops by for the episode’s big finale. As a favor to Kermit the Frog, Rich agrees to duel with the rowdiest muppet, trouncing his competition in a musical fight to the death:

Unlike the battle with Rich, which culminates with an obvious victor,...

Agent Carter‘s Season 2 premiere has been delayed by a force even mightier than Marvel.

RelatedABC’s Midseason Schedule: Shonda Rhimes’ The Catch Joins Tgit Lineup, No Winter Hiatus for Castle

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union — typically reserved for the last Tuesday in January — has been moved up to Jan. 12, forcing ABC to delay Carter‘s sophomore run until Jan. 19. (Thanks, Obama!)

Though the preemption wouldn’t have impacted Carter‘s initial Jan. 5 return date, postponing the Hayley Atwell-led series will allow it to run uninterrupted for all 10 episodes.

RelatedJessica Jones Review: Netflix’s Latest Marvel Series Is,...

This week on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the gloves came off when a brutal assassination hit very close to home for a team member. Meanwhile, Ward reunited with some old “friends” in the course of helping Malick solve his portal problem.

RelatedAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hires H50‘s Wo Fat

Season 3A’s penultimate episode opened quietly enough, with Coulson and Rosalind rebounding, and quite well at that, from the professional drama of the week prior. (Heck, she even kept a matchbook from where they first went for drinks!) Alas, as they get to discussing Malick’s agenda and...

A review of tonight's "The Leftovers" coming up just as soon as I email my manuscript to myself... "They won't jump out of the way." -Laurie After two episodes set largely in Jarden, "The Leftovers" returns to the Tri-State area(*), and to the most divisive of the many divisive elements of season 1, with Laurie and Tommy taking on the Guilty Remnant in "Off Ramp." (*) No, not that Tri-State area, even if Damon Lindelof wrote a "Lost"-themed "Phineas & Ferb" episode. When Laurie's potential book publisher asks her to explain exactly what the Remnant believes and why, he's acting as a stand-in for the many "Leftovers" viewers who didn't understand and/or like what all those chain-smoking ghouls in white jumpsuits were up to last season. And with Laurie finally able to speak — she speaks so much in this episode that you can feel all those words relieved to get out...

In an upcoming episode of "The Leftovers," a book publisher considers a manuscript one of the HBO drama's main characters has written about the violent, unsettling events viewers saw last season. "There's some heartbreaking stuff in here," the publisher acknowledges, but he feels the writing is too dry, even as it recounts stories of death, loss, heartache, and all the complications of living in a world where, a few years earlier, two percent of the world's population vanished into thin air under circumstances that have baffled modern science and organized religion. "If you want them to connect with it," he tells his prospective author, "you have to tell them how it felt." Telling its audience how things feel is not a problem that "The Leftovers" itself suffers from in the slightest. In its first year, the show, adapted from Tom Perrotta's novel by Perrotta and "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof,...

Like his protégé David Letterman, Johnny Carson entertained America every night for decades, but was largely a mystery off camera. "He doesn't trust very many people, so people who don't know him think he's aloof, stiff, snobby," said his third wife Joanna. But he did open up in a 1979 60 Minutes profile, which can be viewed below, when a confrontational Mike Wallace visited Carson's home in Bel Air, California. The journalist and his crew followed the late night host as he prepared for his show that night by reading newspapers and magazines,...

Everybody has their top ten trailer and poster round-ups, their year-end articles that rate Hollywood’s offerings in neat, succinct – completely biased – lists. But what happens to those throwaway moments that defy categorization?

Maybe Quicksilver’s “Time in a Bottle” sequence from X-Men: Days of Future Past should be getting more attention this year, but not too many people have a best musical moments list (but we do, and it’s good). MaybeGuardians of the Galaxy’s Rocket Racoon doesn’t quite make the top ten characters of the year, but surely the foul-mouthed animal deserves some recognition!

And then there’s the ridiculous stuff; The “I just want to talk about why Peeta likes bread so much” kind of stuff.

Our Best of the Rest list aims to find those thrown away gems and shine light on their greatness (or lack thereof).

Let's get started.

Most Welcome Comeback: Keanu Reeves...

What’s the Deal with Jeff Sneider’s Best & Worst Movies of 2014? Well, you’ll have to watch both videos to find out, but here are some hints.

Sneider’s Top 10 video above features a documentary, a made-for-tv movie, an Indonesian martial arts sequel, two future midnight movie classics, a handful of acclaimed indie films and a good old-fashioned studio picture based on a bestseller. These films feature a range of fascinating characters including a pair of very different journalists, a civil rights leader, a Golden Eagle, the next Buddy Rich, a military veteran, a Hammer Girl and a woman scorned.

Whiplash

Justin Hurwitz

Varese Sarabande

Birdman

Antonio Sanchez

Milan Records

“I’d rather die drunk, broke at 34 and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembered who I was.” That’s how jazz drumming prodigy Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) sums up art and, really, life in general over an awkward dinner conversation in Whiplash. Andrew’s idolization of Charlie Parker is a touch extreme (and more than a touch apocryphal) but it’s his unfaltering adoration, even in the face of destitution and mortality, that defines the artistic dedication in Damien Chazelle’s second feature. The result of pitting Andrew’s entitled whippersnapper against the fiery temper of Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the Shaffer Conservatory’s firebrand jazz director, Whiplash‘s prime concern is in the sacrifices of art marking and the crippling fear of complacency. It’s a...

The Cookers: Time and Time Again (Motema)

There's a personnel change for this jazz supergroup's fourth album: Donald Harrison replaces Craig Handy in the alto sax chair. Nothing against Handy, whose work I have always enjoyed, but that's an upgrade. I look forward to Harrison -- an excellent composer -- having a hand in the writing for the next Cookers album (though, who knows, he may not -- for some reason, this group has never featured even one of trumpet fixture Eddie Henderson's tunes). For the first time, here there are no tunes from non-members; the emphasis on modal post-bop is stronger than ever. 

As usual, the most heavily featured composer is tenor saxophonist Billy Harper; hearing his expanded-for-septet arrangements of his tunes is a welcome treat. For that matter, he is the most distinctive soloist in the band as well, though absolutely everybody here is an ace improviser --...

Much of the power of the extraordinary film "Whiplash" comes from the interaction between two remarkable performers. This is a star-making role for Miles Teller, an actor who has previously appeared in films like "Rabbit Hole" and the "Footloose" remake, and he's soon to make a further splash in the big-budget "Fantastic Four" reboot and "Divergent" sequel.

J.K. Simmons may be known to most as the dad from "Juno" or J. Jonah Jameson in the previous "Spider-Man" series, but his roles in a series of films by the Coen Brothers, or his inimitable portrayal of Vernon Schillinger on HBO's "Oz" has ably demonstrated his capacity to play almost any role. With a fearsome, nuanced performance, Simmons' role of Terrance Fletcher should, with any justice, garner J.K. a nod at Oscar time.

Moviefone Canada spoke to the two performers during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

This film's director, Damien Chazelle,...