Monday, December 22, 2025
Home Blog Page 1461

“The Good Wife” Spin Off with Christine Baranski Starts Adding Characters (Exclusive)

0

As you no doubt know, “The Good Wife” is coming back. Only, it will have a different title and start on CBS’s digital service– although I have to think that once their shows start failing CBS will put this on the air too.

Anyway, Christine Baranski returns as Diane, Cush Jumbo is Lucca, and Sarah Steele is Marissa Gold, daughter of Eli (which means we’ll see Alan Cumming as her father).

Now I’m told there are three new roles. Robert will be the name of the head of a Chicago African American law firm. He’s described as a combination of “Little Richard and Chris Rock.” I can’t even imagine what that means. He’s between 40 and 50 and the “life the of the party.”

Then there’s Maia, Diane’s 25 year old goddaughter who’s going to be a younger Julianna Margulies. Maia is the apple of Diane’s eye.

Maia’s dad, Edgar, will also be a recurring guest character. He’s the wealthiest, most successful financial adviser in Chicago. Diane wants his business.

It all sounds good as long it gets Christine Baranski an Emmy award.

So what should they call it? I say call it “The Good Life.” A nice play on “The Good Wife,” and also, please, even on their worst days Robert and Michelle King’s characters have the best lives in the world.

Casey Affleck’s Directorial Debut “Light of My Life” Gets Producer, Start Date

0

Nothing succeeds like success. On September 9th it was announced that Casey Affleck would direct his first feature, and now, ten days later, the film has a start date and a producer.

It doesn’t hurt that Affleck is very hot right now in “Manchester by the Sea,” heading into a big awards season and possible Oscar nod. Casey was previously nominated for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

“Light of My Life,” is set to go into pre-production now on November 9th. Teddy Schwarzman and Black Bear Productions are in to make the movie, a survival drama in which Casey and his fictional daughter are “hunted in a post-pandemic world.” I’m told they’re casting for a gifted 10 or 11 year old girl right now who will win our hearts, seem older than her years and not cloying.

Schwarzman is on a roll with “The Imitation Game” last year, and is coming soon with “Gold” starring Matthew McConaughey and “Suburbicon” with George Clooney.

Emmys Snub In Memoriam: John McMartin, Marjorie Lord, Plus They Co-Opt Music Greats Like Prince, Bowie, Etc

0

As usual the In Memoriam section of the Emmy Awards was a big friggin’ mess.

Omitted were John McMartin, Marjorie Lord, and about half a dozen actual TV stars.

But the Emmys included Prince, David Bowie, Natalie Cole and Merle Haggard– music stars who belong in the Grammy In Memoriam. Ridiculous.

They also stretched to include Alan Rickman, who had no TV career at all and Gene Wilder, who had a very minuscule one. They belong at the Oscars. They were film stars.

Also missing from the Emmy In Memoriam: Beth Howland and Marvin Kaplan, each from the “Alice” TV show among others, and Jack Riley from “Newhart.”

I felt really bad for John McMartin– his imdb is a history of TV. And Marjorie Lord played Danny Thomas’s wife in a classic TV show. At least the Emmys didn’t forget Ann Morgan Guilbert. But, really. Prince?

Emmy Awards: HBO Sweeps Emmys with “Game of Thrones,” “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jeffrey Tambor, Rami Malek, Tatiana Maslany

0

HBO swept the Emmy Awards tonight winning Best Comedy and Best Drama for “Veep” and “Game of Thrones.” Plus Julia Louis Dreyfus won her 5th Emmy for “Veep.”

No wins at all for network broadcast TV– Fox, ABC, NBC or CBS. Nada. Some winners were on shows that aren’t even on TV!

BEST COMEDY– “Veep.” Yay!!!!

BEST DRAMA– “Game of Thrones”

Best Supporting Actor Comedy– Louie Anderson, Baskets. I predicted this. Had to be. The guys from “Veep” crossed each other out. But Anderson was special.

Writing for a Comedy Series– Aziz Ansari, Alan Yang “Master of None”

Best Supporting Actress Comedy– Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” — first win. Ahhh….she’s being beeped a lot…

Directing Comedy Series– Jill Soloway, “Transparent”– she dropped an F bomb and is wearing something awful…

Best Actress, Comedy Series– Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep”– fifth win in a row, 8th Emmy. All the others were very very good. Shout out to Tracee Ellis-Ross.

JLD announces death of her father on Friday. Very sad. Also, he was worth at least $3.5 billion. William Louis-Dreyfus raised a talented, hard working daughter…

Best Actor, Comedy Series– Jeffrey Tambor, once again, for “Transparent.” A nice guy.

Limited Series–

Writing– “The People vs. OJ Simpson.” D.V. DiVincentis “Marcia Marcia Marcia”

Best Supporting Actress– Regina King, “American Crime Story”

Best Direction– Susanne Bier “The Night Manager”

Best Supporting Actor–Sterling K. Brown, as Chris Darden in “The People vs. OJ Simpson” yesss!!

Best Actress– Sarah Paulson, “The People vs. OJ Simpson” double yessss!!!!

Best Actor– Courtney B. Vance, “The People vs. OJ Simpson”– as much as I love Cuba Gooding Jr. this is much deserved.

Outstanding TV Movie– “Sherlock”

Limited Series–“the People vs. OJ Simpson

Drama

Writing– “Game of Thrones”

Supporting Actress–Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey” Jimmy Kimmel– LOL.

Directing– “Game of Thrones”

Supporting Actor– Ben Mendelsohn for “Bloodlines.” Cancelled this week by Netflix.

Best Actor– Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot”

Best Actress– Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black”

 

 

Emmy Awards Check List: Who Will Be Snubbed in this Year’s In Memoriam Montage?

0

Every year at every awards show, it’s the same thing. Who will be snubbed during the In Memoriam montage?

Celebrity deaths in the TV world since the last Emmy Awards include Marjorie Lord, Patricia Elliot (“One Life to Live”), Al Molinaro, David Canary, Fred Thompson, Wayne Rogers of “MASH,” Abe Vigoda, Fyvush Finkel, George Gaynes, George Kennedy, Patty Duke, Ken Howard, Garry Shandling, Doris Roberts, William Schallert, Alan Young, Garry Marshall, Gloria de Haven, Beth Howland, Noel Neill (the original Lois Lane), David Huddlesteon, Steven Hill, Hugh O’Brian, Marvin Kaplan (“Top Cat,” “Alice”), Jon Polito, Jack Riley,  and the great John McMartin. Actually, they were all great!

And that doesn’t include all the writers, directors, producers, etc. Plus I’m sure I’ve missed a couple of names. Send them to me at showbiz411@gmail.com. And let’s keep a sharp eye and see who the Emmy’s miss.

Toronto: “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Queen of Katwe” Win Audience Awards on Road to Oscars

0

The results are in from TIFF, and the Oscar season begins. Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” took first place, followed by runners up Garth Davis’s “Lion” and Mira Nair’s “Queen of Katwe” for the Grolsch Audience Awards.

There’s no question Toronto scored the largest number of potential awards films this year. They also showed “Birth of a Nation” and “Manchester By The Sea,” as well as films with potential acting nominations like “Loving,” “Jackie” and “Nocturnal Animals.”

There are still quite a few films no one’s seen for the Oscar race including Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” Ted Melfi’s “Hidden Figures,” and Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” as well as “Fences” from Denzel Washington.

The action moves now to the New York Film Festival and even the Hamptons Film Festival, before heading to London and then to the AFI where Warren Beatty’s “Rules Don’t Apply” is thrown in the ring.

But “La La Land” is clearly the front runner, much like “The Artist” a couple of years ago. It has the same vibe, and carries the same appeal to the Academy– it’s easy, it’s fun, it’s masterful, and it’s about movies.

 

Box Office: Audiences Equally Mildly Interested in Bridget Jones’ Baby and Edward Snowden’s Spying

0

It was a lackluster weekend at the box office.

“Bridget Jones’s Baby” and “Snowden” played in the same number of theaters, roughly, and did the same sorry business– around $8 million for the three days. Did we learn who the father of the baby was? Did Patrick Dempsey get the last laugh on Shonda Rhimes? Did Ed Snowden run out of hail gel in Russia? Did his girlfriend discover the mall across from Lenin’s tomb?

You’ll have to see the movies to find out.

The Beatles and Ron Howard scooped up $772, 476 for their “Eight Days a Week” doc now playing on Hulu.

Eddie Murphy in Bruce Beresford’s dreadful looking “Mr. Church” made $407,151 in 354 theaters. From the clips it looks like “Driving Miss Daisy” meets “Mr. Belvedere.” Eddie obviously takes no advice from anyone. When I saw him do his stand up comedy last year at the Kennedy Center, he was brilliant. It’s been 9000 years since he was subversive like that. Get back, Eddie, get back to where you once belonged.

Believe it or not, Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange are in a new movie. It’s called “Wild Oats.” TWC released it to 100 theaters and it made $187,000. I am not kidding. I never heard of it until just now.

There’s a distributor called The Orchard. They have four movies at the bottom of the top 55 this week. One of them, with Lily Rabe, got rave reviews. It made three thousand dollars. Maybe they need a marketing and publicity budget.

Emmys: A Predicted Steamy Red Carpet, And Not Just Because of the Low Cut Dresses

0

It’s going to be a steamy 90 degrees on the Emmy red carpet this afternoon. At the BBC America + BAFTA Los Angeles TV Tea Party yesterday at the London West Hollywood, actress Allison Janney (a seven time Emmy winner, up for the eighth tonight for her CBS hit, “Mom” ) dubbed tonight, “The Bikram Emmys.”  In case you non yogis don’t know, Bikram yoga is done in 104 degree heat.

Allison said–   “cause it’s so bleeping hot. But I’m determined to infuse it all with love and happiness.”

Two of the “Game Of Thrones” ladies  dressed for the heat.  Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) off screen both are always English lovely and polite, but when I tried to get something out of them, the party line was the one George RR Martin told me there as well, “read the books!” They’re dragon the party line!

George Martin played it close to his signature gray vest around me last night, remembering our last conversation three years ago, where he told me that characters were going to die that weren’t in the books. That news went viral.

Michael Kelly, who plays the loyal but lethal Doug Stamper on “House Of Cards,” said they are on the fourth episode of the upcoming season, and before I could ask him anything, another guest chimed in and he politely answered, “hey-you don’t want to know.  Why?”

Cucumber sandwiches and all the proper food was served at this annual event, which brings together the nominees, members and guests including Cuba Gooding Jr, Kate Walsh, Niecy Nash, Sela Ward, Jeffrey Tambor, Julian Fellowes, Keegan- Michael Key, Matt Walsh, and Zelda Williams, the lovely daughter of the late Robin Williams, and more.

Ex Emmy Awards Host Jane Lynch Says Jimmy Kimmel “Will Do Fine,” Watching Tonight’s Show at Home in Her Pajamas

0

The mighty Jane Lynch– one of the stars of Christopher Guest’s upcoming (and hilarious) “Mascots”– turned up on Thursday at Doris Bergman’s annual first-out-of-the-gate swag suite, where the great and the mortal meet to pick up all kinds of stuff. Swag suites are a bit like a Christopher Guest movie– in fact, he’d do well to make a mockumentary about them.

Jane told me — as she checked out the Sue Wong Couture– “I already had mine (she lost to Ru Paul for best Reality TV host,)  last week.  So it’s a bit anti-climatic for me, but I’m excited for Jimmy, he’ll do just fine.  Me, I’m staying home in my pajamas and watching.” She will no doubt apply the Sue Wong Couture System, with memories of “Glee” dancing in her head.

The Emmy Style and Fashion Lounge took place at Fig & Olive in West Hollywood, hosted by Ein Drink and presented by Dioo Audio, two of the many brands that are so popular with the in crowd. (Importantly, the suite also benefits the LA Foster Care programs.) Actor Jason Ritter, who will be in Amazon’s  David E. Kelley’s “Goliath” with William Hurt and Maria Bello and currently recurs on Comedy Central’s “Another Day,” and HBO’s “Girls,” was checking out way cool Dioo Audio.  He also was a fan, as many celebs are, of Debra Mitchell’s widely popular Twisted Silver.

“Dancing With The Stars,” pro Edyta Sliwinska was — no surprise– a big fan of The FootMate System.  Other highlights were Spongelle, The Coffee Chef, Royal Elite Vodka, Nu Bra, Rekorderlig Cider, Personal Touch Lingerie, Fibruim Virtual Reality Headsets, Skin Tech Studios, True Love Skin Care, Pretty Places, Airbonne, Hint, Single Dress and Underwear for Men, Kaya Di Koko, Shear Wear, Shahnaz Husain Ayurvedic Beauty Products, Josh Cellars Wine, Madame Fleur, Purad Hair Care, FulHum Water, Cultures for Health, and MD Sun Skin Care.

Other celebs like Kimberly Elise, “Empire” star Tasha Smith, “CSI’s” Charlie Koontz and many more were excited by My Saint My Hero’s Benedictine Blessing Necklaces and bracelets, Andrea Gutierrez’s unique handcrafted jewelry and Art Lewin’s men’s accessories, known for his classy ties, pocket squares and more.  Agents, celebs and more flock to Art.

 

Insane: NYC Explosion IGNORED By All Local TV Stations Including Two 10PM Newscasts

0

There’s been an explosion on West 23rd St. in Chelsea between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. I’m watching TV in New York. The whole thing is being ignored. Maybe 25 people have been hurt.

We have two 10pm newscasts– on Fox 5 and Channel 11. Neither of them has cut into sports broadcasting to report the story.

The local network affiliates– NBC, ABC, CBS– not a word.

We are in the most media centric city in the world, mind you.

CNN is trying to cover the story but Don Lemon can’t figure out where Chelsea is, or where the explosion is. He keeps saying it’s between Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. So he knows nothing.

But, good news! Bill DeBlasio is on his way. Good luck to him. West 23rd Street now has one lane in each direction because they’ve put in a bus lane.

By the way, the place where this happened is not full of restaurants and art galleries. It’s kind of a business district, and not heavily trafficked at night. It’s a strange spot for a bomb.