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In light of the simultaneously shocking yet expected news that CBS had cancelled The Late Show, it seems likely that some viewers who hadn’t watched the show in a while might tune in to see the beginning of the end that was Thursday night’s episode.

I certainly did, and was rewarded with Colbert’s elegant announcement about the show’s fate, followed by a monologue full of solid jokes about a reliable target: Donald Trump. The amateurish job someone made of the president’s hand makeup; the ongoing rage about a perceived cover-up of the investigation into alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein; Trump’s casual slander of a Fed chair he seems to have forgotten he appointed; his seemingly unfounded announcement that Coke is about to switch out high-fructose corn syrup for cane sugar: all came in for critiques by Colbert in the first several minutes of the show.

Now that Congress has zeroed out federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, NPR and stations across the country will be scrambling to come up with plans for what to do next.

Paula Kerger, the president and CEO of PBS, has warned that even though the network gets a small share of its funding from federal sources, it still will have to look at scaling back. “We will obviously have to make some hard decisions about what we’re able to continue to do, and how much resources we’ll have,” Kerger told Deadline this week.

But she and other advocates of public media say that the most severe impacts will be felt on local stations, particularly those in medium and smaller markets that depend more heavily on federal dollars.

That’s been one of the ironies of the whole battle over funding, as President Donald Trump and...

Dana Carvey, comedian and former cast member of Saturday Night Live, portrayed former President Joe Biden throughout the 2024 election cycle. However, he admitted that it was a dicey impersonation for him to perform thanks to Biden's status as the leader of the free world, but also his cognition.

While he was willing to take the SNL impression to the next level, as he'd always been known for during his time on the show, Carvey indicated in a recent conversation on his Fly on the Wall podcast that it was "difficult" to portray Biden. The reason was that he felt the former President was "compromised mentally":

I knew that he was compromised mentally, I mean, it was obvious. But it was a delicate thing in the comedy world. There were a lot of people who did not want to do anything that would kind of ding him in an awkward way.

If you feel like watching a political thriller this Independence Day, Pluto TV has you covered — and they'll even let you stream it for free. In the Line of Fire, the critically acclaimed 1993 movie starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service agent and John Malkovich as a would-be presidential assassin, is coming to the Fast streamer starting on July 1.

The movie was the brainchild of producer Jeff Apple (The Recruit), who was inspired by a childhood memory of seeing Lyndon Johnson surrounded by Secret Service agents. Apple commissioned writer Jeff Maguire (Escape to Victory) to pen the script, which was eventually directed by Das Boot's Wolfgang Petersen, who would tackle Presidential action again a few years later in Air Force One. The movie was one of the first to use digital effects: footage of Eastwood from the 1960s was digitized and inserted into old news footage to depict his character's early career.

Legendary journalist and political commentator Bill Moyers, who once served as White House Press Secretary and a long-time PBS documentarian, has died. He was 91. Moyers passed away on Thursday, June 26, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after complications from prostate cancer, his son William told the Washington Post. Born on June 5, 1934, in Hugo, Oklahoma, Moyers started his journalism career at 16 as a cub reporter at the Marshall News Messenger. He went on to study journalism at the North Texas State College, and in 1954, he was hired as a summer intern for then-us Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. Moyers also worked as assistant news editor for Ktbc radio and television stations owned by Lady Bird Johnson, Senator Johnson’s wife. Moyers continued his studies in Scotland for a year before earning a Master of Divinity degree in 1960 from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. After that,...

Just hours after news that legendary news broadcaster Bill Moyers had died, the icon was paid tribute at Thursday night’s documentary portion of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The event, held at the Palladium Times Square in New York City, saw Nat Geo take home the most prizes with six, followed by Netflix with four.

Among the night’s big winners: MSNBC’s “The Sing Sing Chronicles” (produced by NBC News Studios) was named best documentary; Paramount+’s “We Will Dance Again” was named best current affairs documentary; and the important and groundbreaking doc “The Sixth” — which told the dramatic and true story of the terror that took place on January 6, 2021 — earned the Emmy in the politics and government doc category. That Emmy was extra sweet, as streamers were scared to show it despite its crucial message.

Comedian and filmmaker Negin Farsad hosted the evening,...

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s deeply reported book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, takes a sledgehammer to Joe Biden’s legacy, already in grave disrepair. Claiming to have interviewed more than 200 sources around the 46th president, the CNN anchor and the Axios correspondent have written a necessary and deeply disturbing account of the Biden White House. For anyone interested in politics and Shakespearean tragedy, there’s something on every page.

For supporters of Biden’s presidency and its considerable legislative achievements,...

These aren’t fun times for billionaires, even though their number keeps proliferating along with their numbers — there are now at least 17 documented “super billionaires” with assets of more than $100 billion. Still, Elon Musk’s Tesla dealerships are being torched, Jeff Bezos’ newspaper is under siege, and Mark Zuckerberg is trying to suppress a new book titled Careless People.

Even Larry Ellison and his son David are having trouble closing their Paramount deal as new interlopers and random Trump bureaucrats intrude. It’s no wonder that Billions, the TV series, ended its run.

Walt Disney, for one, would have been exasperated by the issues overtaking the mega-rich today and, given the environment, might never have greenlighted Snow White — details below.

Whenever Hollywood hit troubled times in the past, two or three Medici-like billionaires would start writing checks and be warmly welcomed into the community. Even flakey Howard Hughes won applause...

On June 20, 1979, President Jimmy Carter invited reporters up to the White House roof for a ceremony to inaugurate the installation of 32 solar water-heating panels. America was in the midst of an energy freak-out, with long lines at gas stations and not-crazy fear that the U.S. economy was going to be starved by its dependence on foreign oil. And Carter was paying the price: his approval rating was 28 percent, the lowest of his presidency. On that summer day, Carter acknowledged that “some few Americans have reached a state of panic.

The Simpsons has proven to be surprisingly relevant in modern politics these days — from the show’s accidental prediction of Kamala Harris’ candidacy, to the way Ted Cruz keeps referencing episodes in a failed effort to seem not horrible. So perhaps it’s not that surprising that one classic episode showcased a conspiracy theory that seems to crop up in every single election cycle.

Season Six’s “Sideshow Bob Roberts” finds Bart’s archenemy running as the Republican candidate for Mayor of Springfield, and winning in a landslide thanks to the help of a Rush Limbaugh-esque blowhard. But with a Deep Throat-like informant (Smithers) on their side, Bart and Lisa are able to discover Bob’s nefarious scheme: Most of the votes came from dead people, including Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.

Pretty much this exact plotline keeps cropping up in the non-cartoon news, but the...

Even after rumors of a Simpsons-esque dolphin fetish surfaced online, a story about J.D. Vance’s penchant for couch-humping continues to dog the vice presidential candidate. Sure the story is clearly untrue, but nobody seems to mind.

The joke’s longevity has now been further extended by Vance himself, after he made a comment about his wife forcing him to sleep on the couch. It’s unclear how many injuries were sustained by people frantically rushing to their devices to make jokes.

The Vance rumor clearly began as a joke, an easily-debunkable claim on social media that the 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis contained a graphic remembrance of the time Vance got intimate with “an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.” In retrospect, it’s too bad that we never got to see this scene brought to life by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard.

As SAG-AFTRA been pushing for protections against AI, the studios have been reluctant to support any legislation that might crack down on its uses too broadly. But now, it appears that the parties are on the same page as they’ve both thrown their support behind a newly introduced bipartisan Senate bill.

The No Fakes Act (read it here) finally received support from the studios via the Motion Picture Association on Wednesday, after the group had warned of potential First Amendment violations earlier this year.

The bill is sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-de), Marsha Blackburn (R-tn), Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn) and Thom Tillis (R-nc).

“We support protecting performers from generative AI abuse – and this bill thoughtfully establishes federal protections against harmful uses of digital replicas, while respecting First Amendment rights and creative freedoms,” a statement from MPA CEO Charles Rivkin read. “We particularly appreciate the sponsors’ inclusion of safeguards...

Updated with endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris: Joe Biden on Sunday announced that he will exit the 2024 presidential race. He also said that he is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris “to be the nominee of our party this year.”

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” the 81-year-old incumbent said today in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” added the increasingly besieged Biden in words that hark to President Lyndon Johnson’s sudden exit from his own re-election campaign in 1968.

After a Saturday that saw both GOP nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Sen J.D. Vance (R-Oh) campaigning,...

For a sitcom with a premise and characters so basic they could be completely summed up in a minute-long (and absurdly catchy) theme song, "Gilligan's Island" was a real bear to get off the ground. 

To start off, creator Sherwood Schwartz was in a world of pain while writing the show's pilot (although that had nothing to do with his creative process and everything to do with the 40-something Schwartz -- as 40-something men are wont to do -- overestimating his ability to lift stacks of fresh timber unassisted). Then there were the brutal reactions from his agent and network execs, who practically laughed him out of the building when Schwartz proposed a comedy series about seven people being stranded on the same island, week after week. And then there was the pilot shoot in Hawaii, with the showrunner waking up one morning to find himself surveying what appeared to...

There are many, many reasons why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will never be president.

For starters, his claim that a parasitic worm ate part of his brain is likely a deal breaker for a large segment of the American electorate, even if it does explain some of Kennedy’s wackier conspiracy theories, like the one about anti-depressants causing school shootings, or Covid-19 being a lab-created bioweapon “designed to target Caucasians and Black people” (while sparing Jews and Chinese). His head-scratching contention that Palestinians are “the most pampered people… in the history of the world” is also bound to turn off to a lot of voters, as is his assertion that industrial chemicals are causing “gender confusion” among today’s teenagers.

But the No. 1 reason that Rfk Jr. will never sit behind the Resolute Desk has nothing to do with any of the above. It’s that he supposedly once ate a dog.

Image Source: Paramount Pictures When Forrest Gump arrived in theaters 30 years ago it showed us something we’d never seen before: Using new technology, director Robert Zemeckis had his star, Tom Hanks, interact seamlessly with historical footage of real people and events, including Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon; John Lennon; and talk show host Dick Cavett. When the movie first opened, Hanks told us he was in awe of what those scenes looked like on the screen. (Click on the media bar below to hear Tom Hanks) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Tom_Hanks_Forrest_Gump.mp3

Forrest Gump is currently streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto and available on DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, and most digital platforms. .

The post Tom Hanks Dug His Digital ‘Forrest Gump’ Co-Stars appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

To say that JFK is a controversial movie, with its depiction of JFK’s assassination being subject to internal conspiracy in the United States, is not an understatement. Oliver Stone, writer, and director of the film, almost added to its problem by prolonging the film’s runtime, as he revealed another actor that he pitched the role to would have put him in a lot of trouble had he said yes.

A still from Oliver Stone’s JFK || Warner Bros.

Donald Sutherland plays the character of Mr. X, a character who has but one scene in the three-hour-long film. However, in one scene, the character embarks on a monologue that talks about how the Secret Service, the CIA, the FBI, the American Mafia, and Lyndon Johnson were all in on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and bid to install Johnson as president, so that the US does not pull out of the war.

In 1994, you couldn't escape "Forrest Gump." The Robert Zemeckis-directed comedy-drama starring Tom Hanks was huge — it hauled in $678.2 million at the worldwide box office, which made it the second-highest-grossing film of '94 (the first-highest grossing film was "The Lion King"). From there, "Forrest Gump" would go on to Oscar glory, winning six Academy Awards — Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing for Arthur Schmidt. It was a cultural phenomenon, and TV reruns would eventually make it even more ubiquitous.

The story follows Forrest Gump, a man with an Iq of 75 who somehow stumbles through several major events in American history throughout the 1960s and 70s. This concept allowed Zemeckis to use what was then cutting-edge visual effects that would drop Hanks into historical footage and have him "interacting" with real-life prominent...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Julia,” now streaming on Max.

“Julia” might put a strong focus on the food, but it’s a show that also has a lot more on its mind. The Max comedy series takes on a wide range of 1960s-era social issues, including feminism, homosexuality, civil rights and the anti-war movement.

“Julia” wraps up its second season Thursday with an eventful finale that includes filming an ambitious crustacean segment — in the “Lobster a l’Americaine” episode. After cooking and hitting farmer’s markets in the south of France with her friend and co-author Simone Beck (Isabella Rossellini), the Childs — played by Sarah Lancashire and David Hyde Pierce — spend time in Paris, then return to Boston where they must confront — and foil — an FBI investigation into Wgbh’s “subversive” activities, with help from station employees like producer Alice (Brittany Bradford).

Variety...

Donald Trump’s team was aware that, if he refused to leave office after the 2020 election, it could spark a mass wave of civil unrest. But the man Trump sought to appoint as attorney general had an easy answer for that, according to the new indictment of the former president: invoke the Insurrection Act.

The indictment lists six as-of-yet unindicted co-conspirators. Co-Conspirator 4 is described as “a Justice Department official who…attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.