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Shaina West in Jade. Courtesy of WellGo USA

I really got a kick out of the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s when they were new, and just as much recently when I found many of them streaming at one place or another. Pam Grier was a tough, smart and sexy sensation in a bunch of action movies. Same for Tamara Dobson – notably in a couple of outings as Cleopatra Jones. Jade tries to ply those waters in a 2020s setting, with a mixed bag of results. The title has been used several times in a variety of films unrelated to this 2025 release.

The eponymous character is played by diminutive British actress Shaina West, who appears as a Pam Grier Mini-me with an even bigger Afro. She’s a good person caught up in the underworld after emigrating to the US. Though trying to get out of that life after a tragic loss,...

Soap and daytime soap opera actor Robert Mandan died on April 29 in Los Angeles after a long illness, his friend, playwright and screenwriter Gary Goldstein, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 86.

Mandan had worked on such soap operas as From These Roots (as David Allen), The Doctors (Mike Hennessey/Mr. Tabor), The Edge of Night (Nathan Axelrod) and Search for Tomorrow (Sam Reynolds) when he was hired to play Chester, a conniving Wall Street stock broker, on the ABC primetime comedy Soap.

Susan Harris created the sitcom, which aired for four seasons, from 1977-1981. The show, always a critical darling, was a top 10 hit in its first season but suffered in the ratings as it was moved around the schedule.

Mandan and Helmond reunited for two episodes of her next series, Who's the Boss?, and for a 2002 production of "A Twilight Romance" at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. He also...

Robert Mandan, star of the classic comedy Soap died on April 29 after a long illness Deadline has confirmed. He was 86.

He was best known as the womanizing Wall Street broker Chester Tate on Soap. The soap opera parody ran from 1977-1981 and paved the way for Benson starring Robert Guillaume, another classic comedy from the era.

In addition to Soap, Mandan appeared in numerous sitcoms that, to this day, remain iconic. These include Sanford and Son, Maude, as well as CBS’ adaptation of Private Benjamin in 1981. On the film side, he appeared in the 1982 comedy Zapped! as well as the big screen adaptation of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds.

He also is known for his role as investment banker James Bradford in the final episodes of Three’s Company. He played the nosey father of Vicky Bradford (Mary Cadorette), Jack’s (John Ritter) girlfriend.

Robert Mandan, the veteran television actor who starred as Chester Tate, the philandering husband of Katherine Helmond's character, on the ABC daytime-serial spoof Soap, has died. He was 86.

Mandan died April 29 in Los Angeles after a long illness, his friend, playwright and screenwriter Gary Goldstein, told The Hollywood Reporter. Mandan starred in Goldstein's first play, Just Men, at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood in 1996.

Mandan, who often played suits and white-collar types during his long career, also portrayed the wealthy investment banker James Bradford at the end of ABC's Three's Company and on its 1984-85 spinoff,...

Robert Mandan, the veteran television actor who starred as Chester Tate, the philandering husband of Katherine Helmond's character, on the ABC daytime-serial spoof Soap, has died. He was 86.

Mandan died April 29 in Los Angeles after a long illness, his friend, playwright and screenwriter Gary Goldstein, told The Hollywood Reporter. Mandan starred in Goldstein's first play, Just Men, at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood in 1996.

Mandan, who often played suits and white-collar types during his long career, also portrayed the wealthy investment banker James Bradford at the end of ABC's Three's Company and on its 1984-85 spinoff,...

The New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) announced the full lineup last night for their 16th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 7 – May 14). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) –all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India’s different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars –Nfdc restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya.

The festival’s film lineup includes 2016 National Award winners A Far Afternoon,...

Robert G. Putka‘s Mouthful and Jared Varava‘s Tumbleweed! are two short films that have been selected to screen at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival, which will run in Austin, TX on March 9-17.

Mouthful is Putka’s second short film, a verbally raunchy comedy starring Eilis Cahill and Conor Casey as a young couple whose relationship becomes strained thanks to an overly frank discussion about their sexual histories. The film was recently reviewed on Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film saying “one shouldn’t assume too much how the premise of a young man and woman discussing [male] anatomy will play out.”

Putka has also mounted an IndieGoGo campaign to help fund his filmmaking team’s trip to SXSW and for marketing material, such as posters, T-shirts, press kits and such. If you want to help out, please visit the Mouthful IndieGoGo page.

Tumbleweed! is the latest collaboration between...