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Her presence is singular. The moment the celluloid begins to reel, an inner tiger is unleashed. To watch her is to be enthralled by her — the ferocious eyes, hair like fire, a near-permanent smirk. Decade after decade, audiences have remained entranced by the intensity of her performances, be it controlled and simmering or wild and uninhibited. You get the feeling that she indeed is the keeper of true carnal knowledge, to borrow a title from her filmography. Still, at 84 years young, there is no one else like Ann-Margret. This Labor Day weekend, fans have the opportunity to look back at her career and admire all she is at the Cinecon Film Festival, which will honor her with their Legacy Award in Los Angeles.

Consider those opening and closing moments of her breakout “Bye Bye Birdie,” added as bookends in post-production by director George Sidney, where the exuberant actress sings straight to camera,...

After two decades, we are finally getting the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. Released in 2006 and directed by David Frankel, the film starred Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt in fan-favorite roles. Based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, the trio will be reprising their roles as the demanding editor Miranda Priestly, an aspiring journalist Andy Sachs, and Priestly’s senior assistant Emily Charlton, respectively.

While we count days for The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is expected to release next year on May 1, 2026 (via People), it is totally normal to feel a little lost. Given the icon that Miranda Priestly is, no one has really been able to eclipse her icy elegance, biting wit, or the aura that turns fashion into fearsome art.

In the meantime, before the official sequel drops, here are six films that will help you fill the void: in charge,...

Last week on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Steve Buscemi — from… well, everything — revealed that long before he was famous, he often found himself in rooms with casting agents and directors unable to connect at all.

“I was always hot and cold,” Buscemi explained. “I never knew if I should wing it, cause sometimes I’d be good if I went in the room and I didn’t really prepare. And then, the next time I’d do it, I would fail.”

And Buscemi has auditioned for the best of the best — including “Rain Man” filmmaker Barry Levinson when he was working on the 1987 movie “Tin Men.” He decided he had to “really prepare” for the meeting. “And I studied the sides, the script, and went in there and did my reading… did my audition, and he looked at me and went, ‘That was really good. That’s really good,...

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John Travolta rose to fame when he first played Vinnie Barbarino in "Welcome Back, Kotter" in 1975. Before the show came to an end four years later, the actor's career exploded in a big way. He had an Academy Award nomination under his belt and starred in one of the top-five-grossing films of the decade. In the years since, Travolta has had distinct ebbs and flows in his career. In the 1990s, he was well-known for making comebacks, something we're jonesing to see again. 

Travolta has appeared in a wide range of films, from comedies and musicals to dramas and actioners. No matter the genre, there's something you can almost always count on from the star: dancing! You can see him bust a move in some unlikely projects, making it the physical equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, "I'll be back." 

Due...

Steve Buscemi is known for many of his recognizable roles, but he was not able to secure a part in Barry Levinson’s 1987 comedy Tin Men, the actor recalled on Wednesday’s Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

The host asked Buscemi if there were any roles he auditioned for that stung when he didn’t secure them.

“I was always hot and cold. I never knew, like, if I should wing it ’cause sometimes I’d be good if I went in the room and I didn’t really prepare,” he said about his experience with auditions. “And then the next time I’d do it, I would fail.”

Buscemi then recalled his audition process for Levinson and said he knew he couldn’t wing it. “I studied the sides, the script and went in there and did my reading, did my audition and he looked at me and he went,...

Monty Python legend Eric Idle is an 82-year-old cancer survivor — so naturally he has to look out for his health. And according to Idle, that now means avoiding engaging with, or reading about longtime frenemy John Cleese.

The two octogenarians have made headlines for their recent social media spats, but the antagonism didn’t stop there. It seems as though every surviving member of Monty Python has dunked on other members of the troupe in at least one recent interview — except for Terry Gilliam who has been too busy complaining that Donald Trump ruined his anti-woke movies.

Recently, Idle sat down with NME, which asked the Rutles star about the possibility of a future Python project. As the music magazine pointed out, Oasis is touring this year, which could perhaps pave the way for another unlikely reunion between people who hate each other only slightly less than they love money?...

Released during the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1970s, Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge is a fascinating cultural artifact. While the masculine fear of female dominance was prevalent in the noirs of the 1940s and ’50s, few, if any, American films before Nichols’s dramedy turned their focus so intensely toward the inner workings of men’s minds in relation to women and sex.

Taking as its subject the wounded male ego, Carnal Knowledge traces the friendship between and sexual exploits of Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) from their college years in the late ’40s through to their middle-age years in the early ’70s. Written by cartoonist and author Jules Fieffer, the film is fiercely attuned to the feelings of men reckoning with the knowledge that they’re not as dominant in the culture as they once were.

From deflowering Sandy’s girlfriend and future wife, Susan...

Carnal Knowledge, Spine #1270, releases in the Criterion Collection on July 22, 2025.

Mike Nichols (The Graduate) reenters the Criterion Collection with Carnal Knowledge, a cold examination of love, lust, and relationships told primarily from the male point of view. Featuring a young(ish) Jack Nicholson, channeling all of the smarmy charm, confidence, and nonchalant energy that he’d become famous for, the story feels unique in its honest and almost callous approach to relationships.

Carnal Knowledge plot

Sandy and Jonathan are best friends with vastly different approaches to love and sex. Sandy is timid and inexperienced, while Jonathan is a ladies’ man, seeking sexual encounters rather than deeper connections. Years later, after falling in love with the same woman, the two men seemingly trade their outlooks, with Sandy trying his hand as a womanizer, and Jonathan entering a committed, monogamous relationship.

The review Ann-Margret (left) and Jack Nicholson (right) Art Garfunkel (left...

Kathy Bates on Tuesday earned her 13th career Emmy Award nomination for acting — but it was nonetheless a noteworthy one.

That is because the Matlock headliner, at age 77, now stands as the oldest person to vie for Lead Actress in a Drama. Angela Lansbury previously held the record as a 70-year-old contender in 1996, for playing Murder, She Wrote‘s Jessica Fletcher.

More from TVLineDear Emmys: Stop Letting a Handful of Shows Dominate the Acting CategoriesFBI Adds Svu's Juliana Aidén Martinez, Ahead of Previous Hire's Season 8 ExitCBS Sets Fall Premiere Dates for NCIS, Matlock and More - Tom Ellis' CIA Bumped...

Scarlett Johansson Defended Natalie Portman ( Photo Credit – Prime Video )

In Hollywood, a real story of friendship slips through the cracks, however, and this one’s gold. During the filming of The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johansson not only acted alongside Natalie Portman, she also defended her when Portman wasn’t in a state to express her objections.

In an industry that often pits actresses against one another, Johansson and Portman broke the mold with reciprocal respect. Their off-screen rapport became just as indelible as their roles, and here’s the rundown on how it all went down.

Scarlett Johansson Called It Out Loud When Natalie Portman Couldn’t Say a Word

Back in 2008, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman co-starred in The Other Boleyn Girl, playing regal rivals entangled in a perilous love triangle with King Henry VIII. But off-camera, they weren’t locking horns like in the flick. They were having each other’s backs.

The 1967 film that has been ingrained in pop cinema culture will get a new 4K Blu-ray release, according to Blu-ray.com. StudioCanal will be distributing a new physical media production of the famous Mike Nichols comedy The Graduate. The film stars Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, and Murray Hamilton. The new 4K Blu-ray is scheduled to hit retailers on September 15. This StudioCanal version is a UK release, but the 4K disc will be Region Free.

The description reads,

“Winner of the Academy Award for Best Director and winner of five BAFTA Awards including Best Film, The Graduate is one of the most celebrated and highly influential classics in modern cinema. Truly iconic and utterly groundbreaking in its unique visual style and subject matter, it changed the face of modern film and the minds of expectant audiences.

Deep in the suburbs of Pasadena, a bored, confused and alienated...

Japanese chirashi for La chimera. Designer unknown.Totting up the most-liked posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the first six months of 2025, the surprise winner, with over 4,000 likes on one day, was a Japanese chirashi for Alice Rohrwacher's La chimera (2023). I put its popularity down to the Josh O’Connor fan base, or for the film itself, though it is a lovely, colorful design. The second and third places, with over a couple thousand likes each, went to two designs that I posted in tribute to David Lynch upon his passing in January: the original poster for Eraserhead (1977) and a beautiful Japanese poster for The Straight Story (1999). There are actually three Japanese posters in the top four, number three being a zippy design for Charade (1963), which I posted in April in celebration of what would have been its director Stanley Donen’s 101st birthday. And the one-sheet...

Stephen King is one of the best people to ask about movies based on books. He’s a famous writer, and many of his stories, more than 55, have been turned into movies. Because of that, he knows what works and what doesn’t when books become films.

Some movies based on his work are really popular, like The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Misery, and The Green Mile. But King has also seen some big failures.

For example, Maximum Overdrive is often called one of the worst book-to-movie adaptations ever. Another one he didn’t like was Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler. Even The Shining, one of his most famous stories, caused him frustration because he felt the director, Stanley Kubrick, didn’t get his main character, Jack Torrance, right.

Since King has experienced both good and bad movie versions of his books, he has an interesting view on how books should be adapted.

When it comes to movies made from books, few people know more than Stephen King. He’s one of the most famous writers ever, and many of his stories have been turned into movies, over 55 adaptations, to be exact. Because of this, he’s the perfect person to say when a movie based on a book just doesn’t work.

King’s name is attached to some of the greatest films ever made. Movies like The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Misery, and The Green Mile are loved by many. But he’s also seen some real disasters on the big screen.

One example is Maximum Overdrive, which is often called one of the worst book-to-movie adaptations. Another is Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler, which King thought was a complete mess. Even one of the most famous films based on his work, The Shining, caused him some frustration because he felt...

The 10 Best May-December Romance Movies: Far from idealized portrayals of love as pure or effortless, many of the most enduring romantic narratives explore the asymmetries that define human connection: differences in class, culture, gender roles, and age. These disparities complicate the romantic ideal, rendering love not merely as a feeling, but as a process—one that must contend with the realities of embodied experience and social expectation.

The age-gap romance, as a recurring trope in cinematic storytelling, occupies a complex space between transgressive desire and cultural fascination. One of the most provocative forms of such romantic entanglement is the “May–December” romance, a term used to describe relationships marked by a significant age difference between partners. These stories have long fascinated audiences, in part because they foreground love’s capacity to defy convention while simultaneously raising questions about power, agency, and the social norms that govern desire. The term itself...

Which Director Helped Natalie Portman Revive Her Career?(Photo Credit –Instagram)

Popular director Mike Nichols had a way of showing up exactly when someone needed it most. Natalie Portman experienced that early in her career, when everything looked golden on the outside but felt like something else entirely behind the scenes.

Natalie Portman Struggled For Respect In The Industry Despite Blockbuster Success

The Thor actress had stepped into the industry as a child, with a performance in Léon: The Professional that turned heads. The role proved her skill even at a young age, as she played a girl hardened by tragedy and drawn to vengeance after the men who murdered her whole family.

However, while the film earned acclaim, the attention it brought wasn’t always the kind anyone would want. Portman became the subject of uncomfortable attention from adult men, and that kind of fame weighed heavily. She was...

This Oscar-Nominated Movie Starring Om Puri & Tom Hanks Is Now Streaming On Ott! (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

Om Puri is widely regarded as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema. The late actor is known for his powerhouse performances in films like Ardh Satya, Maachis, Mirach Masala, Dhoop, Maqbool, and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, to name a few. But not many know that the legendary actor once starred alongside Tom Hanks in an Oscar-nominated film.

Can you guess which movie? That film was Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), which featured Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead roles. Read on to learn about the film’s plot, Om Puri’s role, and where you can stream it on Ott.

Charlie Wilson’s War: Plot

Directed by Mike Nichols and set in the 1980s, the political comedy-drama follows the incredible true story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson...

Eiza González, John Krasinski and Natalie Portman in “Fountain of Youth,”Eiza González, John Krasinski and Natalie Portman in “Fountain of Youth,” now streaming on Apple TV+. Photo Credit: Apple TV+ Natalie Portman’s worked with some of the most respected names in film—and it shows. She brought quiet intensity to Heat with Michael Mann, stepped into the galaxy as Padmé for George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, and gave a fearless, Oscar-winning performance in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. In Closer, under Mike Nichols direction, she delivered another layered role that earned her an Academy Award nomination. Each part shows her range, and the directors she’s chosen have only sharpened it. Now, Portman adds another powerhouse director to her distinguished list: the dynamic action and thriller maestro, Guy Ritchie. She stars in his latest adrenaline-fueled feature, Fountain of Youth. Known for his signature kinetic style and sharp storytelling,...

At last year’s Tony Awards, Danya Taymor took Broadway’s biggest night by surprise with her victory for directing Best Musical winner The Outsiders. Only 18 Gold Derby users were predicting her to prevail, favoring instead Maria Friedman for Best Musical Revival winner Merrily We Roll Along and Michael Greif, a theater veteran looking for his first-ever Tony for musical Hell’s Kitchen.

Now on her second Tony nomination in as many years, Taymor looks to pull off another unexpected victory, this time for new play John Proctor Is the Villain. Even though Oh, Mary! helmer Sam Pinkleton is out front in Gold Derby’s odds, our users are not underestimating Taymor again, as she ranks second in the category with a contingent of backers. If she wins again this year, she would make Tony Awards history.

Watch our interview with Tony nominee Sadie Sink, ‘John Proctor is the Villain...

[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.

Every once in a while, we’ll see a YouTube channel get more subscribers than MrBeast over a seven-day period. No one, however, can match the North Carolina-based creator when it comes to consistency. He draws in millions of new fans week after week without fail.

The last full week of May was no exception. MrBeast added two million new subscribers to take the #1 spot in the Global Subs Top 50 chart. Only five other channels even got one million new subscribers over the same period, so that shows you how big the gap is between MrBeast and the rest of the YouTube-loving world.

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It always seems like Netflix has an unending library of great movies and TV shows, but at the same time, it is also quite difficult to figure out what you actually want to watch. So, we thought why not let Netflix make it easy for you, as it removes movies and TV shows from its library every month, and we decided to pick the best of the best films and TV shows you should watch before you can’t anymore.

Closer (June 1) Credit – Sony Pictures

Closer is a romantic drama film directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by Patrick Marber. Based on Marber’s 1997 play of the same name, the 2004 film explores love and relationships through the perspectives of four different but interconnected people. Closer stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen.

Cult of Chucky...

Warner Bros President of Physical Production Michele (Missy) Imperato Stabile is retiring later this year after a career that spanned 40 years.

In a letter to her colleagues Thursday, she says she will be retiring in October. In the meantime, she will help with the transition planning as she continues to oversee the team and the studio’s productions currently underway.

Imperato Stabile has served as an executive, producer, executive producer, and production manager on more than 40 films in a career that spans four decades. During that time, she has worked alongside acclaimed fillmakers including Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Ridley Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tim Burton and Ryan Coogler among others.

Since joining Warner Bros, the well-liked film exec has supervised a wide range of films including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Minecraft and Sinners as well as the upcoming One Battle After Another, The Bride!, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s next film starring Tom Cruise,...

At Tuesday night's 2025 Sports Emmy Awards, Lady Gaga took home her first Emmy. She won for Best Music Direction of "Hold My Hand" for the Super Bowl Lix pregame show. With previous victories at the Oscars and Grammys, that places her just a Tony Award short of Egot.

This marked her fifth try at winning an Emmy following nominations for her variety specials Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, and One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, plus the special class program Super Bowl Li Halftime Show Starring Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga won her Academy Award for the song "Shallow" from the 2018 film A Star Is Born. She is a 14-time Grammy Award winner, with the first for The Fame and "Poker Face" in 2010 and the most recent earlier this year for...

Producer Jason Michael Berman feels he has an advantage with the launch of A/Vantage Pictures.

The former president of Mandalay Pictures has built his career identifying the space where artistry meets impact. Now, with A/Vantage, he’s placing that mission front and center, starting with the Cannes Film Festival premiere of the Spike Lee-directed “Highest 2 Lowest,” starring Denzel Washington.

Launched in April, A/Vantage is committed to culturally resonant, commercially viable films. The name reflects its goals: “A” for authentic, “Vantage” for a unique point of view, and a nod to Berman’s childhood as an Av club kid.

“I’m an Av kid at heart,” he says with a chuckle and smile. “This is about perspective, giving filmmakers the vantage to tell stories that matter, and giving audiences a vantage to see the world differently.”

Berman has long supported visionary storytellers with something personal to say.

When I spoke to Alan Rudolph a couple months ago, he confirmed that Criterion had sought to release his Remember My Name but were held up by music rights––a situation so complicated that a lawyer hired by the director himself simply gave up. I like to think something’s changed in less than 60 days: the Criterion Channel will stream Remember My Name as part of a quartet featuring Afterglow, Trouble In Mind, and Breakfast of Champions, the latter recently given a 4K restoration. It’s part of a retrospective-heavy month that also includes a 12-title Johnnie To series, numerous films by René Clair, highlights of Amy Holden Jones and Ougie Pak, and Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip saga in both television and theatrical editions. Meanwhile, Gene Hackman is celebrated with six titles.

One of those, Night Moves, gets a Criterion Edition; so do Les Blank’s A Poem Is...

Idina Menzel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lea Salonga, Betty Buckley, and more Broadway icons have revealed their Broadway roles that got away. From a musical adaptation of Moonstruck to a Cirque du Soleil Annie Get Your Gun, watch these stars reveal the "Show That Got Away" to Vulture. Idina Menzel discussed a musical adaptation of Moonstruck, based on the iconic 1987 film starring Cher. "It had such an Italian operatic feel to it. I tried to get it going a couple times and then it didn't happen and then I aged out of it," she laughed. Lin-Manuel Miranda shared his experience working on a star-studded reading of a Mike Nichols-directed play by John Patrick Shanley. "I was in a room with Don Cheadle...

Lily James is set to star in and produce “Photo Booth,” the directorial feature debut of Australian sibling filmmakers Spencer and Lloyd Harvey.

The film — described as a “gripping emotional thriller that confronts the most primal choices we make about love, ambition, and building a family” — is heading to Cannes, with HanWay launching international sales and UTA Independent Film Group selling for North America.

James will play the lead role of Jean Bouchet, a world renowned performance artist who has decided to put her career before having children, and Raffey Cassidy in the role of Millie, a young free-spirited woman very much still figuring life out. The story sees Bouchet’s marriage to artist husband Ben fracture when he confesses to a one-night stand with Millie, now unexpectedly pregnant. But she makes a radical choice — she invites Millie into their home, offering financial support in exchange for the baby.

Cathy Konrad...

The Criterion Collection has announced their July 2025 slate of titles, delivering Stanley Kubrick, a film noir classic, an underrated New Hollywood gem, and more. Let’s check out what Criterion has in store:

First up is Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (spine #1269), a scorcher of a noir that offers Glenn Ford and femme fatale Gloria Grahame in some of their finest performances (and don’t forget Lee Marvin!). With stellar black and white cinematography by Charles Lang (no relation), The Big Heat stands out in a decade crowded with some of the greatest film noirs ever. Special features include two new commentaries, an archival audio interview with director Lang (co-conducted by Peter Boganovich) and interviews with filmmakers Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese.

A pleasant addition is 1971’s Carnal Knowledge (spine #1270), one of just three Mike Nichols films featured in the collection. I always considered Carnal Knowledge one of the...

The Criterion Collection has shared with us the new round of releases coming this July, which boasts an impressive lineup of work from directors Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang, Mike Nichols, François Truffaut, and Kenneth Lonergan.

Lang’s genre-defining noir film “The Big Heat” is one of the big standouts in the announcement as it featured iconic actor Glenn Ford as the hard-boiled detective and a young Lee Marvin playing the thuggish heavy, a large calling card for these kinds of films is shocking violence and there is plenty to go around in this one.

Continue reading Criterion’s July 2025 Releases Include Stanely Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon,’ ‘The Big Heat,’ ‘Adventures Of Antoine Doinel,’ ‘Carnal Knowledge’ & More at The Playlist.

Was Dustin Hoffman underpaid for the Graduate? ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )

While The Graduate shot Dustin Hoffman into stardom, it didn’t exactly fill his bank account. After the film made over $35 million in six months, Hoffman walked away with just $4,000, and a trip to the unemployment line.

Back in 1967, The Graduate changed the landscape of modern filmmaking. Mike Nichols, already a respected director, wanted a lead who looked and felt real. He passed on Hollywood heartthrobs like Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson. They were too confident, too clean-cut. Instead, Nichols rolled the dice on a little-known stage actor with a big nose and nervous energy. That actor? Hoffman.

He wasn’t convinced he belonged on a film set. “I couldn’t sleep, I was so nervous,” Hoffman told Vanity Fair in 2008. “This is not the part for me. I’m not supposed to be in movies.”

Trending When...

Back when TV was flexing its prestige muscles, Breaking Bad was the cool kid blowing up meth labs and plot twists. But over in the corner office, Mad Men was chain-smoking ambition, drowning in detail.

This wasn’t just a show, it was a full-blown time machine running on whiskey and workaholism.

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in Breaking Bad | Credits: AMC

Behind those dapper suits and tragic stares, the crew was losing sleep over ashtray accuracy and tie width. One exec even joked he’d fire his own kid to keep the illusion alive. While Walter White broke bad, Don Draper broke brains trying to keep 1960s Manhattan painfully perfect.

Why Matthew Weiner chose integrity over fame to make Mad Men unforgettable A still from Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men | Credits: AMC

“I would fire my own kid, I really would, if they were bad.” That’s how Mad Men...

Matthew Weiner created a masterpiece with Mad Men and secured a place in the TV hall of fame with the period drama. Set in the ‘60s and in the advertising world of New York, the show followed Jon Hamm’s Don Draper and his rise and fall. The series won several Emmys and is among some of the greatest shows ever made.

The immediate success of the show gave Weiner a lot of fame and access to more work, but he chose to stick with on till the end of the series to keep his vision intact. Mad Men’s consistency can be largely credited to his dedication to the series and his willingness to say ‘no’ even when the network demanded changes from him.

Jon Hamm in Mad Men | Credits: AMC Mad Men’s Matthew Weiner stuck to his guns and did not compromise on the show

If there...

Tony and Emmy winner Nathan Lane is best known for The Producers, The Lion King and The Birdcage, but there were also roles he did not get — and for the wrong reasons.

Asked in a recent interview with Vanity Fair if homophobia limited his opportunities, Lane equivocated a bit and then offered one specific example.

“I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but I can’t help but think that it played a part. I was told it did impact a movie that I didn’t really care about: Space Jam. I was up for the part that the guy from Seinfeld wound up playing.”

That guy from Seinfeld was Wayne Knight, who ended up playing Michael Jordan’s assistant in the Warner Bros. film.

“I was up for that part,” recalled Lane. “Apparently the director [Joe Pytka] saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that...

Nathan Lane said in an interview with Vanity Fair that he lost out on a role in 1996’s “Space Jam” and was told it was because he was just “too gay.” While Lane said he never knows “what goes on behind closed doors,” he “can’t help but think” that homophobia “played a part” in shaping the roles he could or couldn’t do. He cited “Space Jam” as an example.

“I was told [being gay did] impact a movie that I didn’t really care about: ‘Space Jam.’ I was up for the part that the guy from ‘Seinfeld’ wound up playing,” Lane said of being up for the role of Michael Jordan’s publicist and assistant Stan, ultimately played by Wayne Knight in the movie. “I was up for that part. Apparently the director saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part.

Nathan Lane’s star-making, Golden Globe-nominated turn in 1996 film “The Birdcage” didn’t have as much of an impact as the actor thought it would. Lane detailed how he actually lost out on roles — specifically one of which was “Space Jam” — after leading the comedy about a proud queer couple forced back into closet for the benefit of their heteronormative son and his would-be fiancée’s conservative family.

Lane has previously said that he was “not prepared at all” to publicly come out as gay when “The Birdcage” was released and was “terrified” of being outed at the time; he later came out in 1999. Yet “Space Jam” director Joe Pytka allegedly deemed Lane “too gay” to star as Michael Jordan’s assistant in the film, which was also released in 1996. Wayne Knight instead was cast.

“I was up for that part,” Lane told Vanity Fair. “Apparently the director [Joe Pytka] saw me...

Kurt Russell was born on March 17, 1951, in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. He started acting at the age of 12 on various television programs. In the 1960s he was signed to a 10-year contract with Walt Disney, which led to his appearance in many of the Disney films of the era. According to the late Robert Osborne of TCM (via Wikipedia), he became the studio's top star of the 1970s.

Those Disney appearances did typecast Russell a bit and he would be stuck playing many roles that were somewhat wholesome in nature. He would turn that image around when director John Carpenter (fresh from the surprise blockbuster success of "Halloween") cast him in the lead role of Elvis Presley in a TV movie called "Elvis!" That television film was really the first time Russell was taken seriously as an actor and it earned him an Emmy nomination. Carpenter and...

Nathan Lane remembers working with the late Gene Hackman on “The Birdcage” as “the thrill of a lifetime.” Sitting with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” Tuesday, the actor shared that one of the more memorable scenes between their characters in the 1996 Mike Nichols movie actually featured unscripted ad-libs that made it all the more memorable.

“I think I told him every morning that he was my favorite actor … He was like Spencer Tracy, you couldn’t catch him acting. He could do comedy or drama beautifully. And he was such a smart actor,” Lane told Colbert before recalling the scene where his character — who is in drag — and Hackman’s sing and dance to “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady.”

“And then at the end, we’re leaving the scene, we’re going into dinner, and I ad-libbed, I said, ‘You know I played Eliza in high school?...

Only Meryl Streep would take rehearsing so seriously for “Saturday Night Live.” The “Only Murders in the Building” star made her “SNL” debut during the recent “SNL50” special, when the lauded actress appeared in the alien abduction “Close Encounters” skit with Kate McKinnon, Woody Harrelson, and Pedro Pascal.

According to “SNL” alum Amy Poehler, who was also featured in “SNL50,” Streep rehearsed so “hard” prior to the live taping. Poehler and Streep shared a dressing room during the show, where Poehler witnessed some of Streep’s acting process.

“It was a night of famous alumni and people,” Poehler said during a recent appearance on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in the below video. “There were so many people that people had to share dressing rooms, so I was sharing my dressing room with Meryl Streep. Just like a fan, I was taking a picture of the door that...

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office.John C. Lilly may not have the name recognition of certain other twentieth-century scientists, but aspects of his work in neurophysiology and psychedelic psychiatry continue to reverberate throughout popular culture. His pioneering studies in the field of cetacean neurobiology during the 1950s and ’60s were the basis of Mike Nichols’s Day of the Dolphin (1973). He may be best known for inventing the sensory deprivation tank, the inspiration for Ken Russell’s vivid Altered States (1980). The latter film in particular grapples with Lilly’s late-career scientific standing, which was marred by his appetite for psychedelic substances and New Age mysticism.Composed of material found in Stanford University’s archives, talking-head interviews, and previously unseen footage preserved by Lilly’s late son, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (2025) presents a nuanced portrait of this controversial scientific figure. Codirectors Courtney Stephens and...

1996’s The Birdcage famously starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as a nightclub-owning gay couple forced to entertain their son’s girlfriend’s parents: who happen to be a far-right Republican Senator and his wife, played by Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest.

It certainly seemed progressive for the ‘90s, but in retrospect, the film does have its issues. Which isn’t too surprising, considering that it’s nearly 30 years old. But some of those problems may be explained by director Mike Nichols’ approach to the material.

The great Nathan Lane recently guested on Mike’s Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, and revealed that Nichols wasn’t always terribly sensitive when it came to matters concerning the community his film was ostensibly celebrating.

The script, penned by Nichols’ former comedy partner Elaine May, called for Lane, the only openly gay member of the film’s core cast, to use a...

Out of all the iconic, impactful and pointed performances parodying politicians in the history of satirical filmmaking, the best one could only come from a personal enemy of President Richard M. Nixon.

This morning, officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico announced that they found film legend Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa deceased in their home after responding to a welfare check. While officials investigate the cause of the tragedy, the entire entertainment industry continues to produce many heartfelt eulogies and expressions of deep grief over the couple’s passing. In the wake of the solemn news, Hackman’s fans have begun to pore through his immense, legendary filmography for his greatest performances and medium-shaking moments as they post their own picks for Hackman’s top performances throughout his storied career.

But while the question of the “best” Gene Hackman performance has about a dozen correct answers, the superlative...

Numerous actors and filmmakers have paid tribute to award-winning actor Gene Hackman following his death at 95. The actor, his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 63, and their dog were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Feb. 26, adding an additional sense of tragedy to the loss. Francis Ford Coppola, Viola Davis, and Josh Brolin were among the notable people who honored Hackman and his prolific career.

Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Hackman in 1974’s noir thriller The Conversation, shared on Instagram, “The loss of a great artist, always cause...

Gene Hackman, the versatile leading man renowned for his smoldering performance as hard-nosed New York City narc Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection, has died. He was 95.

The much-admired two-time Oscar winner and his second wife, Betsy Hackman, 64, were found dead Wednesday at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They had lived in a gated community northeast of the city since the 1980s.

In a statement to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said, “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.” One of their three dogs also died.

A search warrant ruled that the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”

His daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, and granddaughter Annie noted in a statement that Hackman was “loved and admired by millions around...

Since the success of old-school sitcoms like I Love Lucy and All In the Family, comedy has proven one of TV's most successful genres, with some shows running for over a decade. As impressive as the genre's longevity is, some audiences prefer shorter series that they can enjoy across a single day. A shorter show gives the audience something easy to digest, and some series surpass the quality of long sitcoms in a mere six episodes.

Comedy shows come in a range of formats, tones and styles, from dark comedy to witty satire and everything in between. While the classic weekly sitcom formula is still king, sometimes more can be said with less, and these shorter shows allow more focus on character building. Long shows always risk falling into a repetitive cycle of unoriginal stories, while compressing more into less forces the best out of writers.

Police Squad! Spawned the...

The Sooner State is well represented on the silver screen, with a cinematic legacy that goes back more than a century. In fact, it began shortly after Oklahoma's founding as the 46th state in 1907. The first movie set and filmed in Oklahoma was probably "The Bank Robbery" in 1908, made in Cache, Oklahoma by two lawmen and a photographer. Proving indisputably that there's no business like show business, the cast included the lawmen, a former outlaw, and even the infamous Chief Quanah Parker, war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") of the Comanche Nation. This scenario proves why storytellers have always been drawn to The Sooner State –- it's a wild, weird, and wonderful place, as rich with stories as it historically was with oil.

"The Bank Robbery" was probably the first movie set in Oklahoma, but it was certainly not the last. Not by a long shot. But we're only considering...

The papal drama “Conclave” has been named the best film of 2024 at the Ee BAFTA Film Awards, which took place on Sunday in London.

Voters from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts spread the wealth, giving “Conclave” and “The Brutalist” four awards each and giving two to “Dune: Part Two,” “Wicked,” “Emilia Perez,” “A Real Pain,” “Anora” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

The win for “Conclave” is the most significant for the film in a season in which “Anora” has been winning most of the major awards. It also gave director Edward Berger two BAFTA Best Film wins in the last three years, following his first for “All Quiet on the Western Front” two years ago.

The only other directors to have two films win the top BAFTA award in a span of three years are Mike Nichols (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate...

Director Scott Derrickson‘s new sci-fi thriller “The Gorge” is largely a two-hander between Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy as assassins tasked with guarding opposite sides of an enormous and highly classified chasm.

That chasm is also home to a supernatural force that cannot be allowed to get out, under any circumstances. Outside Teller and Taylor-Joy’s central story — a romance that develops over binoculars as they communicate without ever traversing the space between them — one of the movie’s biggest pleasures lies elsewhere.

That’s in Derrickson’s casting of Sigourney Weaver as Bartholomew, the imposing and enigmatic operative who hires Teller to guard the gorge without revealing its secrets — or her own intentions. Part of the fun of watching Weaver in the role is seeing her as a character that recalls not Ripley, the heroine she played in four “Alien” films, but one of the shadowy figures behind Weyland-Yutani,...

Tony Roberts, the urbane supporting actor known for his collaborations with Woody Allen in six films — including the Oscar best picture winner Annie Hall — and two Broadway plays, died Friday. He was 85.

Roberts died of complications from lung cancer at his home in Manhattan, his daughter, Nicole Burley, told The New York Times.

From Take Her, She’s Mine in 1961 to The Royal Family in 2009, Roberts appeared on Broadway 23 times. In between, he stepped in for Robert Redford in the original production of Neil Simon‘s Barefoot in the Park, directed by Mike Nichols.

In the long-running 1969-70 Broadway hit Play It Again, Sam, written by and starring Allen, Roberts portrayed Dick Christie, whose wife has an affair with his best friend, the magazine writer Allan Felix (Allen).

After Roberts received a best actor Tony nom for his performance, he and Allen reprised their roles for the 1972 movie version at Paramount...

Long before the Roys of New York or the Sopranos of New Jersey, one family dominated television: the Ewings of "Dallas." The genre-shaking soap opera aired for 14 seasons from 1978 to 1991, chronicling the dramatic, twist-filled epic saga of the Ewing Oil dynasty. 

On a picturesque ranch in Dallas, Texas, the family used their money, connections, and cunning to bat away threats from outside and within. Whatever threats that rival oilman, spurned lovers, or wannabe politicians think they can pose, "Dallas" always reminds us that there's nothing stronger -- or more dangerous -- than family. 

Over 30 years have passed since the final episode of the original series, and there's been well over 10 years of silence from this world following a brief revival on TNT. As such, many are curious about what happened to the cast of "Dallas," so we tracked down as much information about its massive ensemble cast as we could.

Time Addicts ** Australia 2023 Dir: Sam Odlum. 92 mins Desperation, drugs and time travel paradoxes in the house force Denise and Johnny to battle the past the future and themselves in Sam Odlum’s Time Addicts. Dialogue and scene-chewing screechy voices abound in this Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) by Mike Nichols crossed with [...]

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