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The documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything is a film much like its subject: sharp, uncomfortably direct, and possessed of a ferocious intelligence that refuses to settle for simple answers. It presents a life that was a constant negotiation between a public persona of empathetic inquiry and a private reality of steel-willed ambition.

Here was a woman who did not just report on the seismic cultural shifts of the 20th century; she was one of them, a genuine trailblazer who shattered the stained-glass ceiling of broadcast news with methodical determination.

Yet the film does not sanitize its subject. It understands that the same person who could disarm a dictator with a disarmingly human question could also maintain a perplexing, decades-long friendship with the political fixer Roy Cohn.

The film sets its hook not by promising a tribute, but by promising a full accounting of a deeply complicated and significant American figure.

It’s a familiar routine: Famous person dies and each network’s news division works quickly to cobble together (or finish off) a tribute special that answers a few basic questions — “Why was this person significant?” mostly — in a satisfying way that can be delivered within days of the death.

Tribute packages like that aren’t really “documentaries,” but they serve a valuable purpose for grieving or simply curious fans.

The problem with Jackie Jesko’s new documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, premiering at Tribeca ahead of a Hulu launch, is that for much of its 95-minute run, it feels exactly like one of those immediately posthumous overviews.

Especially in its first half, Tell Me Everything tries to emulate the iconic television journalist by guiding audiences through basic information, and eventually asking the tough questions, or at least touching on provocative issues. But it only rarely pushes deeper than hero worship.

Wilfred Frost is getting ready to put much of his family business on public display.

Frost, who may best be known for his anchor turns on both CNBC in the U.S., and Sky News, is also CEO of Paradine Productions, the production vehicle founded in 1961 by his father, the renowned journalist and interviewer Sir David Frost. Starting Sunday, April 27, MSNBC will air “David Frost Vs,” a six-part documentary series that examines seismic changes in culture using decades’ of the senior Frost’s legendary interviews with everyone from The Beatles to Muhammad Ali.

“These are moments in history where he had a front-row seat,” says Wilfred Frost, during a recent interview. “This is not an archive show.”

The series will examine themes such as civil rights, college protests and cultural revolution, using Frost’s archive of more than 10,000 interviews with figures who were celebrated or controversial, and sometimes both. Some...

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100.

The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023, spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said.

“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center simply said in posting about Carter’s death on the social media platform X.

Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office.

Discussions are rampant about the new X-Men actors in the MCU. Fans have some suggestions about the cast of the mutant movie. For the role of Charles Xavier, a section of fans suggested a Black actor to play the role. This was partly based on the idea that Martin Luther King Jr. served as an inspiration to shape the character.

Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier in X-Men | Credits: 20th Century Fox

However, fans arguing for a comic-accurate Professor X presented their side and one particular argument appeared to rightly justify casting a White actor. Interestingly, the dynamic between a racially superior Charles Xavier and a Jewish Magneto will become important in the storyline of the film.

Why Does Charles Xavier Need To Be White In The X-Men Film? James McAvoy as Charles Xavier in X-Men: Apocalypse | Credits: 20th Century Fox

Patrick Stewart was cast as Charles Xavier in the 2000 film...

Legendary daytime talk show host Phil Donahue passed away last night at the age of 88 after a long illness. Donahue practically invented many conventions that are now talk-show staples, such as walking into the audience and interacting with its members. As his show took off in the 1970s, he also tackled issues that no other talk show dared touch. “If there had been no Phil Donahue Show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey show,” Winfrey said in 2002. “He was the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes — that we’re intelligent, we’re concerned about the world around us and we want the best possible lives for ourselves.”

Donahue’s signature cadence, dramatic mannerisms and audience interactions not only made for engaging TV but a go-to impression for three generations of Saturday Night Live cast members.

Joe Piscopo’s version in 1982 was...

Warning: This article contains spoilers for X-Men '97 episode 8, "Tolerance is Extinction - Part 1"

Magneto's backstory as a Holocaust survivor is crucial to his character in X-Men '97 and should be retained in future adaptations. Chris Claremont based Magneto on Menachem Begin, making him one of the few Jewish characters in mainstream superhero comics. The McU's portrayal of Magneto, with his Jewish identity intact, presents an opportunity for better Jewish representation in the franchise.

Magnetos powerful portrayal in X-Men 97 shows that when the Marvel Cinematic Universe inevitably introduces its own version of the X-Men, his origin must remain intact. Magneto is the first and by far the most iconic X-Men villain, debuting along with the X-Men themselves in 1963. Although Magneto was co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, his backstory and characterization were vastly expanded on by Christ Claremont, who established that Magneto is a Holocaust survivor...

Claremont found real-world influence in Israeli leader Menachem Begin's evolution for Magneto's character development. X-Men's mutants were created as a reflection of oppressed minorities in America by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Claremont emphasized storytelling with social relevance while adding complexity to Xavier and Magneto's dynamic.

Throughout the years, many X-Men readers have drawn parallels between the franchise's two figureheads, Professor X and Magneto, and civil rights activists Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In an interview, legendary X-writer Chris Claremont called these comparisons "valid," though he suggested a more appropriate parallel for his own work with the characters, particularly Magneto: former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

In an interview with Empire, legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont explained the real-world influences behind his takes on Xavier and Magneto, which shaped Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's archtypes into multi-dimensional, flesh-and-blood characters.

Claremont noted that it would...

The last two years of the MCU have felt like a disaster, and Marvel as a brand is due for some changes. So they did just that with the promotional content for their upcoming projects. Deadpool 3 looks to be wild, and The Fantastic Four movie dropped major casting announcements and a 2025 release date to follow. These two projects were surrounded by positive fanfare, and the hype got real. Then there was X-Men '97, which is Marvel's follow-up to the 1990s cartoon that is adored by many still to this day.

X-Men '97 Release DateMarch 20, 2024CastJennifer Hale, Chris Potter, Ray Chase, George Buza, Catherine Disher, Jp KarliakMain GenreAnimationSeasons1StudioMarvel Studios

Now most fans have showered the series with a lot of nostalgic love, but as always, there's some push back. Disney, a company that is always in the public eye for left-leaning stances on the world's issues, is under fire...

Hillary Clinton and Sharon Stone shared the stage at the annual Cinema for Peace funder raiser in Berlin on Monday night with the latter presenting the former U.S. secretary of state with the Ngo’s Cinema for Peace Award.

Stone described Clinton as an inspirational figure in her life: “The things you’ve said have changed my life, changed the direction and changed the course of the things I’ve chosen to do.”

Clinton gently ribbed Stone about her gala gown, a tie at the front robe covered in mauve spots.

“To my friend Sharon Stone who can look amazingly beautiful in anything. When she walked in, I was like, ‘Wow, who besides Sharon Stone could wear a gigantic bath robe and look stunning… you are one of a kind my friend, one of kind,” she said.

Further honorees included Pope Francis, who was seen receiving the award on taped recording,...

Spy Ops Episode 5 began discussing the Mossad’s role in eliminating almost every member of Black September, which sent shockwaves across the world. The Munich Olympics massacre left a scar that will be hard to erase. Revenge was the motivation of the Israeli government. The only member they could not find was Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of Black September and a close associate of Yasser Arafat of the Plo. Spy Ops Episode 6 is the continuation of Israel’s hunt to neutralize Salameh.

What Happened In Lillehammer, Norway?

The Mossad never stopped their search for Ali Hassan Salameh. They tried to locate him in Lebanon and Europe in the hope of catching him red-handed, but he was nowhere to be found. There were several pictures of him circulating with Yasser Arafat and several other groups, which proved that he was alive, but he was like a ghost who appears and disappears without a trace.

The world of journalism would not be what it is if not for the contributions made by Barbara Walters. The legendary journalist recently passed away, shining a new light on her decades of interviewing everyone from world leaders to those involved in celebrity sex scandals. While Walters has rightfully come under fire for moments in which she pushed a little too hard or attempted to silence the voices of people crying out to be heard, her legacy is undeniable. The way that interviews are conducted by journalists across the globe has been modeled after Walters, with everyone from Diane Sawyer to even conspiracy-theory-peddling wackos with podcasts all emulating her style. As we look back at the over a half-century of interviews conducted by Walters, a handful of intimate discussions with some of Hollywood's biggest stars represent some of her best work. A staple of pop culture herself, Walters often connected...

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Nearly 15 years since first hitting shelves, Barbara Walters’ hit memoir is once again topping bestseller lists following the beloved journalist’s death last week. In the 2008 book, titled “The Audition: A Memoir,” Walters, who was 79 years old at the time she wrote it, recounts some of the most formative years of her life. She starts off with stories from growing up in Miami Beach, including personal details about a slew of friendships and relationships before, of course, delving into her extraordinary career that saw her become the first female host of “Today” and then the first female co-anchor of the evening news in 1976.

“Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: ‘I want to be you,’ Walters wrote in the prologue. “My stock reply is always: ‘Then...

Pioneering TV journalist Barbara Walters died at the age of 93 on Friday.

A cause of death was not provided.

“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women,” Cindi Berger, a representative for Walters, said in a statement.

In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died This Year!

Walters was a recognized face on American television for more than 50 years, interviewing every president and first lady from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama as well as countless celebrities and world leaders.

Her highlights include her 1999 interview with Monica Lewinsky, which was viewed by 48.5 million viewers, and a 1997 joint session with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. In December 2011, she asked Syria’s President Bashar al Assad about his brutal acts of retaliation against protesters.

She began...

More than any other figure in broadcast journalism, the legendary Barbara Walters made sure her interviews qualified as TV events.

Walters, who died Dec. 30 at the age of 93, reigned as the master of the big-get sit-down with newsmakers of the moment, and in doing so she helped television news ascend to new heights of prominence and influence. Among her many skills was her dexterity in drawing insights from aging Golden Age stars such as Fred Astaire, John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn to world leaders in crisis, from Muammar Gaddafi to Anwar Sadat to Fidel Castro to Vladimir Putin.

From the mid-1970s through the early 2010s, Walters was the undisputed pace-setter in landing coveted interviews with boldface names. And by the accounts of her top competitors over the years, Walters was a fierce contender for big gets until the day she retired from ABC News in 2014. Walters’ March 4, 1999, sitdown with Monica Lewinsky,...

Barbara Walters, the pioneering news broadcaster who became a force in a male-dominated industry and whose relentless journalism inspired generations of women, has died at the age of 93.

“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets,” a rep for Walters said in a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday. “She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women.”

Walter’s career spanned five decades, during which she won 12 Emmy awards, and whose television interviews with...

Barbara Walters, the Emmy-winning pioneering journalist who paved the way for decades of women journalists in broadcast TV, died on Friday. She was 93.

“Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died,” tweeted ABC News Friday. Walters worked for ABC from 1976 to her retirement in 2014.

Breaking: Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died. She was 93. https://t.co/tydwREgTb2 pic.twitter.com/b4jOEHVYFE

— ABC News (@ABC) December 31, 2022

Walters got her start as a writer and segment producer on NBC’s “The Today Show.” By 1974, she became a co-host of the show — and two years later was named the first woman to co-anchor a network’s evening news show when she joined Harry Reasoner on “ABC Evening News.”

From 1979 to 2004, Walters co-hosted and produced...

Barbara Walters, the Emmy-winning TV personality and a trailblazer in a male-dominated broadcast journalism, has died. She was 93.

“Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died,” ABC News tweeted Friday night.

Related Story Barbara Walters Remembered: 'The View’ Co-Hosts, Oprah Winfrey & Others Pay Tribute To Late News Anchor Related Story Barbara Walters To Be Remembered In Two ABC News Specials Related Story Barbara Walters "Was A True Legend, A Pioneer," Bob Iger Says After Broadcast Icon's Death

Walters was the first woman to co-host a major network morning show, NBC’s Today, and later to co-anchor an evening newscast, albeit in an ill-fitting and ill-conceived attempt to pair her with Harry Reasoner on ABC in the mid-1970s.

Related: Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

But that setback was just a prelude to a career as...

Emmy-winning newswoman and celebrity interviewer Barbara Walters, the doyenne of television news, has died, her publicist confirmed to Variety. She was 93.

Having blazed a trail for women in TV news, Walters was the highest-paid television journalist at one time, earning as much as 12 million per year at ABC, where she worked from 1976 until her retirement from ABC News and from her show “The View” in May 2014. She put in 12 years at NBC’s “Today” show prior to that.

Walters received multiple Daytime Emmy nominations for best talk show host for her work on “The View,” winning in 2003 and 2009, and she also received multiple Primetime Emmy nominations for her specials, winning in 1983. She also won a Daytime Emmy in 1975 for “Today” and shared a News and Documentary Emmy for her work at ABC on coverage of the turn of the millennium.

As Variety wrote in an article on her retirement, “Walters...

Upheaval: The Journey Of Menachem Begin Abramorama Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Jonathan Gruber Writer: Jonathan Gruber Cast: Menachem Begin, Yossi Klein Halevi, Joseph Lieberman, and a large array of commentators Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/6/21 Opens: June 7, 2021 in theaters. June 9, 2021 streaming […]

The post Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Left to right: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in July 2000.

Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. The Human Factor focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.

The Human Factor is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved.

Captivated by the seemingly many personas of late actor Omar Sharif, Egyptian filmmaker Mark Lotfy and Swedish director Axel Petersén delved into the legendary star’s eventful career, tracing how the politics of 1950s Egypt formed the international star’s complex character.

Their new documentary, “The Life and Times of Omar Sharif,” shows in particular how the policies of President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the political climate of the time led him to change his name and convert to Islam, and later to become a cosmopolitan individual who was equally at home in Cairo, Paris or Los Angeles.

Sharif’s life and career are described as a “dramatic balancing act, set on an East-West axis, illustrated by the hundreds of characters he played, on and off screen, in the changing political landscapes of Hollywood and the Middle East.”

Produced by Sigrid Helleday’s Stockholm-based Fedra in co-production with Lotfy’s...

"We will build our country together with love and faith." Abramorama has released an official trailer for a documentary titled Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin, the latest from award-winning doc director Jonathan Gruber. Looking back at his legacy in a new light, one of Israel's most venerated but complex and controversial leaders receives an incisive portrait. Menachem Begin was a proud pillar of the State of Israel, fiercely devoted to the Jewish people. Jailed in a Soviet gulag for pre-war Zionist activities and scarred by loss in the Holocaust, he founded the right-wing Likud party, and was vilified as a fascist and terrorist by critics. Yet Begin is remembered as among Israel's most democratic prime ministers for defending Jewish immigration and signing the historic peace accord with Egypt. Rarely seen archival materials and astute interviews offer rich, nuanced insights into a mesmerizing political figure born into war, who never...

Abramorama has acquired worldwide theatrical and digital distribution rights to “Upheaval,” a documentary about former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The indie studio plans to premiere the film in early June 2021.

Directed by Jonathan Gruber (“Follow Me”), the film follows Begin, a proud yet scarred leader haunted by the Holocaust and decades of war, who struggles to balance history and heroism as he attempts to make peace with his greatest enemy and cement a legacy.

The film had its world premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival followed by select screenings across the country.

Begin was a controversial leader. He was alternately hailed as a peacemaker and honored with the Nobel Peace prize along with Anwar Sadat for signing a treaty with Egypt in 1979. But he was also criticized for his handling of the 1982 Lebanon War, with public dissatisfaction of his leadership during the conflict leading to his resignation.

“Upheaval...

“There’s so much to see and do in Arous,” read the brochure for a Sudanese vacation spot where visitors could go scuba diving amid reefs “made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Hans Hass.” Never mind that Sudan was in a state of civil war and no place for tourists in the early 1980s. European tourists came anyway, oblivious to the fact that the exotic getaway — rechristened “The Red Sea Diving Resort” for the Netflix film of the same name — was a front for a Mossad-run rescue mission: Israeli agents used Arous to smuggle Ethiopian Jews out of refugee camps to the coast, where offshore boats could ferry them to Jerusalem.

The true story of this operation is so wild you couldn’t make it up — the kind of recently declassified real-life operation that savvy producers could conceivably pitch as a cross between Ben Affleck’s “Argo” and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.

Acclaimed Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, who latest feature, The Insult, is among the nine titles still in the running for best-foreign-language-film Oscar, is working on a project about the Camp David Accords, the noted 1978 negotiations that led to the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

“I’ve always been fascinated by what happened behind closed doors, because what the politicians said to the public doesn’t necessarily mean what really happened,” Doueiri tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Over 12 days of secret meetings in Maryland's famed presidential retreat, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin signed a treaty, brokered...

Singing in Hebrew, Spanish, English, and Arabic, singer/songwriter David Broza, one of Israel’s most important living artists, brings the full spectrum of his work to this amazing production with his all-star band and special guests. (I've had the honor of opening fro David, and he is the real deal.)

Israel’s iconic singer/songwriter, guitarist and Unicef goodwill ambassador David Broza will embark on a coast-to-coast winter tour this December, celebrating 40 years since the release of his best-known song, "Yihye Tov" (Things Will Be Better). The well-known composition was written in 1977 during the Arab-Israeli peace talks between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and has become an anthem of the Israeli peace movement.

Joining Broza on stage is a world-class group of seasoned and rising stars: From Palestine, Berklee School of Music graduate and qanun virtuoso Ali Paris; from Israel and NYC on guitars...

Read More: ‘Hellboy’ Remake: Why Filmmakers Need to Say No to Pointless Reboots

Original “Hellboy” star Ron Perlman met future demon hero David Harbour on Monday at a dinner arranged by Patton Oswalt, apparently to dispel any rumors of tension between the two actors. Harbour, who will play the titular character in director Neil Marshall’s upcoming “Hellboy” reboot, had found himself at the center of a potentially thorny situation. Back in February, many fans hoping for a third installment of the franchise with Perlman and director Guillermo del Toro were disappointed to learn that a reboot would happen instead.

The summit dinner was a smashing success. Now, to launch my new pop duo, Hellboyz. @DavidKHarbour @perlmutations pic.twitter.com/nNkCycz2hD

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) June 6, 2017

Oswalt’s “summit dinner” post was followed up with a tweet from Harbour, who said “I’d follow these two into the gates of hell…...

Last month, a massive bombshell was dropped when Hellboy comic book creator Mike Mingolla revealed on social media that a Hellboy reboot was under way, with Stranger Things star David Harbour taking over the iconic title role and Neil Marshall stepping in to direct. Last night in New York City, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt brought both David Harbour and the original Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, together for a "detente" summit dinner, which resulted in an epic photo that has spread throughout social media. Here's what Ron Perlman had to say, when sharing the photo on social media, wishing David Harbour good luck to the new Hellboy star.

"Not since Bill Clinton, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat has there been such an epic summit yelding such a little result! Apparently Patton Oswalt aka balvenieboy thought it was a good idea to host @DavidKHarbour and yours truly for a detente dinner.

Two Hellboys walk into a restaurant... 

On Tuesday, Ron Perlman posted a photo of himself and his Hellboy film successor David Harbour having dinner together, which apparently was arranged by comic and all-star nerd Patton Oswalt.

"Not since Bill Clinton, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat has there been such an epic summit yielding such a little result!" Perlman wrote. "Apparently Patton Oswald aka balvenieboy thought it was a good idea to host David Harbour and yours truly for a detente dinner. The result: I gained 3 pounds and ruined my liver."

This marks the first time Perlman has publicly addressed that he...

Having carved out a successful career on television, co-creating Homeland and Tyrant, Gideon Raff is now setting his sights on getting back to the movies. He's already attached to adapt Alice Laplante's novel Turn Of Mind for Fox, and he's now also sold his treatment for Operation Brothers to the same studio. Raff will write, produce and direct the film, based on the true story of the evacuation of Jewish Ethiopian Civil War refugees from from Sudan to Israel in the late 1970s and early '80s. On the orders of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Mossad set up a secret base in a deserted Sudanese holiday camp, and orchestrated the mass extraction by sea and air. It's Argo meets Exodus, is no doubt the pitch somewhere. Alexandra Milchan (The Wolf Of Wall Street) is producing.Raff was an assistant to Doug Liman on Mr. & Mrs Smith before going on...

Updated at 8 Pm with more information: CBS News said tonight that the longtime news correspondent was killed in a car accident in NYC. Bob Simon was 73. The crash occurred on the West Side Highway in Manhattan when the Lincoln Town Car in which Simon was traveling hit another vehicle and went off the road. He had been preparing a 60 Minutes report on the ebola virus and the quest for a cure for this Sunday’s broadcast. He was working with his daughter, Tanya, a producer for the newsmagazine with whom he collaborated on several stories for the program.

In a five-decade career, much of its as foreign correspondent, Simon won 27 Emmys, four Peabodys and numerous other awards. He joined 60 Minutes in 1996 and also did more than 200 pieces for its spinoff 60 Minutes II.

“We’re obviously all in shock,” 60 Minutes executive editor Bill Owens told Deadline on Wedneday night.