Associated Press journalist Linda Deutsch was already a legendary court reporter when O.J. Simpson stood trial for killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. She’d covered high-profile criminal legal proceedings involving everyone from Charles Manson and Patty Hearst to Sirhan Sirhan and the “Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez.
But Judge Lance Ito designated Deutsch the trial’s pool reporter and she soon became a familiar face to millions as a trusted TV commentator providing context for the case. Simpson himself approved of her coverage and, after he was acquitted, she became his go-to media contact for exclusive interviews in the ensuing decades.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Deutsch, who retired in 2014, after the Simpson family announced the Heisman winner turned actor and pitchman died on April 10.
You’ve said you never decided if Simpson was guilty. Was that a personal decision or a professional one?
My...
But Judge Lance Ito designated Deutsch the trial’s pool reporter and she soon became a familiar face to millions as a trusted TV commentator providing context for the case. Simpson himself approved of her coverage and, after he was acquitted, she became his go-to media contact for exclusive interviews in the ensuing decades.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Deutsch, who retired in 2014, after the Simpson family announced the Heisman winner turned actor and pitchman died on April 10.
You’ve said you never decided if Simpson was guilty. Was that a personal decision or a professional one?
My...
- 4/12/2024
- by Gary Baum
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In 2022, Netflix and showrunner Ryan Murphy released Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story to mixed reviews and a tremendous amount of controversy.
While the series received acclaim from some critics for its performances and its unflinching portrayal of Dahmer's grisly crimes, others felt that the show went too far in humanizing the monster at its core.
Now, Murphy is preparing to court controversy again, this time with the story of Erik and Lyle Menendez.
The Menendez brothers are far more sympathetic figures than Dahmer, but the fact remains that they committed two brutal murders, which the show will likely depict in graphic detail.
Their murder trial became a national sensation when it was broadcast on Court TV in 1993, but our younger readers might be hearing the Menendez name for the first time.
So here's a rundown of what you can expect from a show that's sure to generate a lot...
While the series received acclaim from some critics for its performances and its unflinching portrayal of Dahmer's grisly crimes, others felt that the show went too far in humanizing the monster at its core.
Now, Murphy is preparing to court controversy again, this time with the story of Erik and Lyle Menendez.
The Menendez brothers are far more sympathetic figures than Dahmer, but the fact remains that they committed two brutal murders, which the show will likely depict in graphic detail.
Their murder trial became a national sensation when it was broadcast on Court TV in 1993, but our younger readers might be hearing the Menendez name for the first time.
So here's a rundown of what you can expect from a show that's sure to generate a lot...
- 3/2/2024
- by Tyler Johnson
- TVfanatic
Exclusive: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series for Netflix, has rounded out its cast.
Joining the latest iteration are Dallas Roberts, Jason Butler Harner and Enrique Murciano, along with 10 others. See the list below.
Roberts plays Dr. Jerome Oziel, the self-protective and not-entirely-by-the-book therapist who Erik Menendez sees after the murder of his parents.
Harner portrays Det. Les Zoeller, the Beverly Hills Pd detective in charge of the Menendez murders case, and is a to-the-point, logical man after the truth.
Murciano is Carlos Baralt, an Americanized Cuban immigrant, professor and lawyer, uncle to the Menendez Brothers and brother-in-law to Jose Menendez, and the executor of the Menendez will.
Michael Gladis plays Tim Rutten; Drew Powell portrays Det. Tom Linehan; Charlie Hall is Craig Cignarelli; Gil Ozeri plays Dr. William Vicary; Jeff Perry portrays Peter Hoffman; Tessa Auberjonois is Dr.
Joining the latest iteration are Dallas Roberts, Jason Butler Harner and Enrique Murciano, along with 10 others. See the list below.
Roberts plays Dr. Jerome Oziel, the self-protective and not-entirely-by-the-book therapist who Erik Menendez sees after the murder of his parents.
Harner portrays Det. Les Zoeller, the Beverly Hills Pd detective in charge of the Menendez murders case, and is a to-the-point, logical man after the truth.
Murciano is Carlos Baralt, an Americanized Cuban immigrant, professor and lawyer, uncle to the Menendez Brothers and brother-in-law to Jose Menendez, and the executor of the Menendez will.
Michael Gladis plays Tim Rutten; Drew Powell portrays Det. Tom Linehan; Charlie Hall is Craig Cignarelli; Gil Ozeri plays Dr. William Vicary; Jeff Perry portrays Peter Hoffman; Tessa Auberjonois is Dr.
- 2/8/2024
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Leslie Grossman (American Horror Story) has joined Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series for Netflix.
Grossman will play Judalon Smyth, who was Dr. Jerome Oziel’s former patient and mistress who found herself entangled in the Menendez case, and who ultimately played a key role in Lyle and Erik’s arrests.
On Monsters, Graynor joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents. Nathan Lane also stars as Dominick Dunne, with Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut in 2024.
Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, David McMillan, Louise Shore and Carl Franklin.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.
Grossman will play Judalon Smyth, who was Dr. Jerome Oziel’s former patient and mistress who found herself entangled in the Menendez case, and who ultimately played a key role in Lyle and Erik’s arrests.
On Monsters, Graynor joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents. Nathan Lane also stars as Dominick Dunne, with Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut in 2024.
Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, David McMillan, Louise Shore and Carl Franklin.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.
- 2/5/2024
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Ari Graynor (Winning Time) has joined Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series for Netflix.
Graynor will play Leslie Abramson, one of the most prominent Los Angeles defense attorneys in the 1980s and 90s who became lead counsel for Erik Menendez.
On Monsters, Graynor joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents. Nathan Lane also stars as Dominick Dunne.
Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, David McMillan, Louise Shore and Carl Franklin.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.A.-area home. Although not initially looked at as prime suspects, they came under investigation in the months following and eventually confessed to parricide, at the same...
Graynor will play Leslie Abramson, one of the most prominent Los Angeles defense attorneys in the 1980s and 90s who became lead counsel for Erik Menendez.
On Monsters, Graynor joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents. Nathan Lane also stars as Dominick Dunne.
Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, David McMillan, Louise Shore and Carl Franklin.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.A.-area home. Although not initially looked at as prime suspects, they came under investigation in the months following and eventually confessed to parricide, at the same...
- 2/1/2024
- by Denise Petski and Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Nathan Lane (Only Murders In the Building) is going to work for Vanity Fair in Season 2 of Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology, our sister site Deadline reports.
The upcoming season of Netflix’s true-crime series — to be titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — will focus on the titular real-life brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1996. Nicholas Alexander Chavez (General Hospital) and Cooper Koch (Power Book II: Ghost) portray Lyle and Erik, respectively. As recently announced, Javier Bardem (Eat Pray Love) and Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story) will co-star as the sons’ mother and father, Mary...
The upcoming season of Netflix’s true-crime series — to be titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — will focus on the titular real-life brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1996. Nicholas Alexander Chavez (General Hospital) and Cooper Koch (Power Book II: Ghost) portray Lyle and Erik, respectively. As recently announced, Javier Bardem (Eat Pray Love) and Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story) will co-star as the sons’ mother and father, Mary...
- 1/16/2024
- by Vlada Gelman
- TVLine.com
Monsters has its Jose and Kitty Menendez. Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny have been cast as the parents of killers Lyle and Erik Menendez. The sons will be played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch.
Deadline reports that Nathan Lane has joined the series in another key role. He will play “writer and investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, who covered the Menendez brothers' trial for Vanity Fair.”
In 1989, the teenage Menendez brothers shot their parents multiple times and killed them in the family's Beverly Hills mansion. In 1996, the brothers were convicted and are serving life sentences in a San Diego prison. Lyle is now 56 and Erik is 53.
Read More…...
Deadline reports that Nathan Lane has joined the series in another key role. He will play “writer and investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, who covered the Menendez brothers' trial for Vanity Fair.”
In 1989, the teenage Menendez brothers shot their parents multiple times and killed them in the family's Beverly Hills mansion. In 1996, the brothers were convicted and are serving life sentences in a San Diego prison. Lyle is now 56 and Erik is 53.
Read More…...
- 1/16/2024
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
Emmy winner Nathan Lane has joined Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime anthology series for Netflix.
Lane will play writer and investigative journalist Dominick Dunne who covered the Menendez brothers trial for Vanity Fair. Dunne is also known for his coverage of the O.J. Simpsons trial, which was the subject of Murphy’s Emmy-winning The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Lane played “Dream Team” member F. Lee Bailey in the series, making this a return to the true-crime anthology genre and a reunion with Murphy.
On Monsters, Lane joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.A.-area home. Although not initially looked at as prime suspects,...
Lane will play writer and investigative journalist Dominick Dunne who covered the Menendez brothers trial for Vanity Fair. Dunne is also known for his coverage of the O.J. Simpsons trial, which was the subject of Murphy’s Emmy-winning The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Lane played “Dream Team” member F. Lee Bailey in the series, making this a return to the true-crime anthology genre and a reunion with Murphy.
On Monsters, Lane joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, as well as Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who portray their parents.
It was in 1989 that Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered parents Jose and Kitty in their L.A.-area home. Although not initially looked at as prime suspects,...
- 1/15/2024
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster tells the story of Graydon Carter’s protégé Dana Brown and how he navigated his way around the New York media world in the 1990s.
The book is now being adapted for television and is in the works at Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
Brown, who started working hospitality before becoming Vanity Fair editor Carter’s assistant and later deputy editor of the Condé Nast title, revealed that a scripted series based on his memoir is “close” to be taken out to broadcasters and streamers.
Brown revealed that Berlanti and Warner Bros. TV had optioned his book in an interview on the How Long Gone podcast.
“I’m very focused on trying to get my book to TV screens,” he said, “My book is under option at Warner Bros. with Berlanti, which is the best company in TV to be at...
The book is now being adapted for television and is in the works at Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
Brown, who started working hospitality before becoming Vanity Fair editor Carter’s assistant and later deputy editor of the Condé Nast title, revealed that a scripted series based on his memoir is “close” to be taken out to broadcasters and streamers.
Brown revealed that Berlanti and Warner Bros. TV had optioned his book in an interview on the How Long Gone podcast.
“I’m very focused on trying to get my book to TV screens,” he said, “My book is under option at Warner Bros. with Berlanti, which is the best company in TV to be at...
- 12/18/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Jane Fonda is true Hollywood royalty. As the daughter of acclaimed actor Henry Fonda and sister to writer, director, and actor Peter Fonda, you might be surprised to hear that sometimes even she gets starstruck. The actor recently revealed which other celebrity she found intimidating while they worked together.
Jane Fonda’s successful Hollywood career includes two Oscar wins Jane Fonda attends the Premiere of “80 For Brady” I Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Fonda began acting onstage in the 50s, making the jump to movies the following decade. She has starred in movies like 9 to 5, Barbarella, Klute, and Barefoot in the Park, earning Best Actress Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home.
In addition to her Academy Awards, Fonda also has two BAFTAs, an Emmy, and seven Golden Globes. The actor is still extremely popular today, starring in movies like Book Club, Moving On, and 80 for Brady,...
Jane Fonda’s successful Hollywood career includes two Oscar wins Jane Fonda attends the Premiere of “80 For Brady” I Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Fonda began acting onstage in the 50s, making the jump to movies the following decade. She has starred in movies like 9 to 5, Barbarella, Klute, and Barefoot in the Park, earning Best Actress Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home.
In addition to her Academy Awards, Fonda also has two BAFTAs, an Emmy, and seven Golden Globes. The actor is still extremely popular today, starring in movies like Book Club, Moving On, and 80 for Brady,...
- 2/21/2023
- by India McCarty
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Fright master Tobe Hooper’s 1982 movie has Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints all over it, but has a disturbing, satirical edge that’s all its own
The 80s classic gets a Halloween re-release for its 40th anniversary: a supernatural chiller and anti-gentrification satire that came out the same year as Et – Mr Hyde to that film’s Dr Jekyll, perhaps – and one of the most Spielbergian films not actually directed by Steven Spielberg. It is also a movie with its own particular flavour of sadness, owing to the early deaths of two of its stars: Dominique Dunne, daughter of author Dominick Dunne and niece of Joan Didion, killed in the year of the film’s release by her violent ex-boyfriend, and Heather O’Rourke, who died in 1988 at 12 years oldafter suffering cardiac arrest and septic shock connected with a bowel condition.
It was directed by horror maestro Tobe Hooper, who claimed to...
The 80s classic gets a Halloween re-release for its 40th anniversary: a supernatural chiller and anti-gentrification satire that came out the same year as Et – Mr Hyde to that film’s Dr Jekyll, perhaps – and one of the most Spielbergian films not actually directed by Steven Spielberg. It is also a movie with its own particular flavour of sadness, owing to the early deaths of two of its stars: Dominique Dunne, daughter of author Dominick Dunne and niece of Joan Didion, killed in the year of the film’s release by her violent ex-boyfriend, and Heather O’Rourke, who died in 1988 at 12 years oldafter suffering cardiac arrest and septic shock connected with a bowel condition.
It was directed by horror maestro Tobe Hooper, who claimed to...
- 10/21/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Truth be told, the human species has always been interested in the dark subject that we now call “true crime.” In the Western mythological canon, the very first story after the creation of man and the Garden of Eden is literally that of a fratricide.
Still, you may have noticed of late that pop culture’s obsession with crimes, those who commit them, and how they are punished has intensified of late. If you want to pinpoint a recent moment in the 21st century where our fascination with true crime intensified, you can probably do a lot worse than 2004’s The Staircase.
The Staircase (titled Soupçons or “Suspicions” in its director’s native French) is a multi-part true crime docuseries that helped paved the way for so many of the other true crime docs we see today. The project began when French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade learned of a curious...
Still, you may have noticed of late that pop culture’s obsession with crimes, those who commit them, and how they are punished has intensified of late. If you want to pinpoint a recent moment in the 21st century where our fascination with true crime intensified, you can probably do a lot worse than 2004’s The Staircase.
The Staircase (titled Soupçons or “Suspicions” in its director’s native French) is a multi-part true crime docuseries that helped paved the way for so many of the other true crime docs we see today. The project began when French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade learned of a curious...
- 5/10/2022
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Robert Morse, who brought a playful, eccentric sensibility to AMC’s “Mad Men” as the namesake head honcho of fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper, has died. He was 90.
Morse was a two-time Tony Award winner, beginning with best actor in a comedy for the 1961 production of “How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying.” He won again in 1990 for playing Truman Capote in the play “Tru,” this time for best actor featured in a play, making him one of only four actors to win both honors.
He also won an Emmy for a live TV performance of “Tru” a few years later.
But it was his turn as Bert Cooper, head of ad agency Sterling Cooper on AMC’s “Mad Men,” that modern audiences will remember best.
Morse played Cooper as a benevolent, eccentric leader who loved exotic artwork and going barefoot, insisting on both a tight ship and a light mood.
Morse was a two-time Tony Award winner, beginning with best actor in a comedy for the 1961 production of “How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying.” He won again in 1990 for playing Truman Capote in the play “Tru,” this time for best actor featured in a play, making him one of only four actors to win both honors.
He also won an Emmy for a live TV performance of “Tru” a few years later.
But it was his turn as Bert Cooper, head of ad agency Sterling Cooper on AMC’s “Mad Men,” that modern audiences will remember best.
Morse played Cooper as a benevolent, eccentric leader who loved exotic artwork and going barefoot, insisting on both a tight ship and a light mood.
- 4/21/2022
- by Josh Dickey
- The Wrap
Robert Morse, the impish actor and singer who found early fame and success as the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and enjoyed a late-career second act as an eccentric elder statesman of advertising in AMC’s Mad Men, died yesterday. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by son Charlie to Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate Wednesday night, and was announced on Twitter this morning by Larry Karaszewski, a writer, producer and VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” Karaszewski wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”
Additional information on...
His death was confirmed by son Charlie to Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate Wednesday night, and was announced on Twitter this morning by Larry Karaszewski, a writer, producer and VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” Karaszewski wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”
Additional information on...
- 4/21/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The passing of Joan Didion, one of the 20th century’s greatest writers, is tough to put into words. Really, only Didion herself could fully pull off the mighty task of encapsulating her grand and wildly influential output. Her clear-eyed and no-nonsense view of American culture, stripped of its own propaganda to reveal the grimy hypocrisies lying underneath a gleaming surface, could be as elegiac as it was merciless. During the most confusing and incomprehensible of times, be it the paranoia of post-Manson Hollywood or the battlefield of her own grief, Didion provided a guiding light forward. Even as some of her most famous words have become iconography for Pinterest boards devoid of their original context, Didion's anti-Romantic glance lost none of its potency.Given her status as one of California’s homegrown talents, a Sacramento girl who partied with the Doors, hired Harrison Ford as her carpenter, and had dinner with Sharon Tate,...
- 1/17/2022
- MUBI
Actor and filmmaker Griffin Dunne paid tribute to his aunt, acclaimed author Joan Didion, who died on Thursday at 87.
Dunne said Didion, who was the subject of his haunting 2017 Netflix documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” “wrote about grief to find out what she felt, but ended up giving hope and meaning to those who needed it most.”
“Yesterday morning I said goodbye to my Aunt Joan for the last time,” Dunne, the son of Didion’s brother-in-law, author Dominick Dunne, said in a statement on Friday. “Yesterday morning her enormous readership also began their goodbyes to Joan Didion, one of the greatest writers of our time.
“In 1961, as a young contributor at Vogue, Joan once wrote, ‘People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character.’ As her nephew, I was fortunate enough to witness firsthand Joan’s character,...
Dunne said Didion, who was the subject of his haunting 2017 Netflix documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” “wrote about grief to find out what she felt, but ended up giving hope and meaning to those who needed it most.”
“Yesterday morning I said goodbye to my Aunt Joan for the last time,” Dunne, the son of Didion’s brother-in-law, author Dominick Dunne, said in a statement on Friday. “Yesterday morning her enormous readership also began their goodbyes to Joan Didion, one of the greatest writers of our time.
“In 1961, as a young contributor at Vogue, Joan once wrote, ‘People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character.’ As her nephew, I was fortunate enough to witness firsthand Joan’s character,...
- 12/24/2021
- by Maane Khatchatourian
- Variety Film + TV
Joan Didion, who died today at age 87, and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, sustained a uniquely frosty but profitable relationship with Hollywood over the years. As novelists and screenwriters, they earned top-dollar for their screenplays, and often accepted rewrites, yet also critiqued the foibles of the studio system.
While socially tight with the Hollywood circuit and active purveyors of studio gossip, they also maintained important literary careers, were courted by publishers and regularly contributed to the New York Review of Books and other publications.
“They maintained a split personality as Hollywood people but also as New York insiders,” explained one of their agents.
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
They were married in 1969, the year Dunne published a book titled The Studio, a sharp, satirical closeup of 20th Century Fox in the final days of the Zanuck regime. Dunne also wrote a book titled Monster: Living Off the Big Screen,...
While socially tight with the Hollywood circuit and active purveyors of studio gossip, they also maintained important literary careers, were courted by publishers and regularly contributed to the New York Review of Books and other publications.
“They maintained a split personality as Hollywood people but also as New York insiders,” explained one of their agents.
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
They were married in 1969, the year Dunne published a book titled The Studio, a sharp, satirical closeup of 20th Century Fox in the final days of the Zanuck regime. Dunne also wrote a book titled Monster: Living Off the Big Screen,...
- 12/23/2021
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Joan Didion, the journalist, novelist, and screenwriter of such films as the 1976 “A Star Is Born” died Thursday at her home in Manhattan at the age of 87. The New York Times reported that the cause was Parkinson’s disease.
Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934. The fifth-generation Californian found some of her most important material for her earliest writing in the culture and chaos of her home state. Her career began after she won a pair of writing contests put on by magazines during her time at Uc Berkeley. One of those wins led her to begin writing at Vogue.
She worked her way up to features editor at the fashion magazine. In 1963 she published her first novel, “Run River,” about the unraveling of a marriage that also serves as a commentary on the history of California.
Around that time and while living in New York she struck up a friendship,...
Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934. The fifth-generation Californian found some of her most important material for her earliest writing in the culture and chaos of her home state. Her career began after she won a pair of writing contests put on by magazines during her time at Uc Berkeley. One of those wins led her to begin writing at Vogue.
She worked her way up to features editor at the fashion magazine. In 1963 she published her first novel, “Run River,” about the unraveling of a marriage that also serves as a commentary on the history of California.
Around that time and while living in New York she struck up a friendship,...
- 12/23/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
There was much curiosity on the part of audiences last summer when it came to every real-life person, event, and location portrayed in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. While much of the discussion was focused on Sharon Tate, as played by Margot Robbie, this fall, a new documentary on another Manson Family victim, Jay Sebring, will arrive.
Jay Sebring….Cutting To The Truth, directed by Sebring’s nephew, Anthony Dimaria, takes a look at the celebrity hairstylist’s life beyond the headlines of being a life cut short and his great influence on a generation of Hollywood stars, from Marlon Brando to Bruce Lee.
Ahead of a September release, the first trailer has arrived, featuring interviews with Quincy Jones, Robert Wagner, Dennis Hopper, Dominick Dunne, and even Quentin Tarantino, who cast Emile Hirsch to play Sebring in his latest film.
See the trailer below with a hat tip to MovieBox.
Jay Sebring….Cutting To The Truth, directed by Sebring’s nephew, Anthony Dimaria, takes a look at the celebrity hairstylist’s life beyond the headlines of being a life cut short and his great influence on a generation of Hollywood stars, from Marlon Brando to Bruce Lee.
Ahead of a September release, the first trailer has arrived, featuring interviews with Quincy Jones, Robert Wagner, Dennis Hopper, Dominick Dunne, and even Quentin Tarantino, who cast Emile Hirsch to play Sebring in his latest film.
See the trailer below with a hat tip to MovieBox.
- 8/4/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Zev Braun, a TV and film producer whose credits include the acclaimed CBS Vietnam War series Tour of Duty (1987-1990), died peacefully in Los Angeles on Oct. 17, just two days shy of his 91st birthday.
Braun got his start in show business with his debut of the film Goldstein, which he produced with his cousin Philip Kaufman; the film screened at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, and shared the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique with Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution.
Productions or co-productions in the 1970s included The Pedestrian; the horror film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen; Angela, starring Sophia Loren and John Huston; Freedom Road, starring Muhammad Ali and Kris Kristofferson; and The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, starring Peter Sellers and Helen Mirren.
In the ’80s, Braun’s credits include TV and features such as Stillwatch, starring Lynda Carter...
Braun got his start in show business with his debut of the film Goldstein, which he produced with his cousin Philip Kaufman; the film screened at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, and shared the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique with Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution.
Productions or co-productions in the 1970s included The Pedestrian; the horror film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen; Angela, starring Sophia Loren and John Huston; Freedom Road, starring Muhammad Ali and Kris Kristofferson; and The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, starring Peter Sellers and Helen Mirren.
In the ’80s, Braun’s credits include TV and features such as Stillwatch, starring Lynda Carter...
- 10/29/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Will Harvey Weinstein go to jail? That’s perhaps the most debated topic in Hollywood.
It’s a question that makes me miss my friend Dominick Dunne, the controversial Vanity Fair columnist who would have already succeeded in interview-ing the chambermaids at Harvey’s sex-addiction clinic. Dunne once prophetically told me there would be a massive reckoning in Hollywood. He dropped a few names of sex-addicted producers, saying, “No matter how valuable you are to the studios, when you surround yourself with people that intensely hate you, when you do fall, your descent into hell will be Shakespearean.”
When I made my first film on Harvey, “Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project,” in 2011, many people, from well-known journalists to studio executives, whispered to me about Harvey’s aggressive behavior with women. One writer insisted off the record that he had pressured Harvey into admitting that he made various payoffs to women over the years,...
It’s a question that makes me miss my friend Dominick Dunne, the controversial Vanity Fair columnist who would have already succeeded in interview-ing the chambermaids at Harvey’s sex-addiction clinic. Dunne once prophetically told me there would be a massive reckoning in Hollywood. He dropped a few names of sex-addicted producers, saying, “No matter how valuable you are to the studios, when you surround yourself with people that intensely hate you, when you do fall, your descent into hell will be Shakespearean.”
When I made my first film on Harvey, “Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project,” in 2011, many people, from well-known journalists to studio executives, whispered to me about Harvey’s aggressive behavior with women. One writer insisted off the record that he had pressured Harvey into admitting that he made various payoffs to women over the years,...
- 6/13/2018
- by Barry Avrich
- Variety Film + TV
A nephew of Sen. Robert Kennedy who was convicted of the scandalous murder of a 15-year-old girl in 1975 and later was the subject of a made-for-tv movie and three books has won a new trial.
Connecticut’s highest court has ordered a new trial for Michael Skakel, who was convicted of the murder of Greenwich, Conn. neighbor Martha Moxley in a case that dominated international headlines in that era. The 4-3 decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Skakel’s earlier conviction.
Skakel was 15 at the time of the murder and the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, who was married to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
In a somewhat tangled case, Michael Skakel was accused of the bludgeoning death of his neighbor, Moxley. He claimed he was miles from the scene of the murder. In 1993, author Dominick Dunne published A Season in Purgatory, a fictional story that was liberally borrowed from the Moxley case.
Connecticut’s highest court has ordered a new trial for Michael Skakel, who was convicted of the murder of Greenwich, Conn. neighbor Martha Moxley in a case that dominated international headlines in that era. The 4-3 decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Skakel’s earlier conviction.
Skakel was 15 at the time of the murder and the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, who was married to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
In a somewhat tangled case, Michael Skakel was accused of the bludgeoning death of his neighbor, Moxley. He claimed he was miles from the scene of the murder. In 1993, author Dominick Dunne published A Season in Purgatory, a fictional story that was liberally borrowed from the Moxley case.
- 5/5/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
He's a free man once again... for now. Ethel Kennedy's nephew Michael Skakel has once again learned that the murder conviction for allegedly beating his teenage neighbor to death when he was a child has been vacated by a Ct court. The Kennedy cousin might soon be facing yet another trial, 43 years after the crime took place. A 15-year-old girl named Martha Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club in 1975. Skakel was also 15 at the time, and lived nearby. The case was cold for years, and Skakel wasn't linked to the crime until he was in his late thirties, and found guilty for her murder in 2002. A three-week trial laid out his history of drinking and drug use, and he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Martha Moxley. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Shockingly, his conviction was vacated by a lower court in 2013, and he was released on bail.
- 5/4/2018
- by Emy LaCroix
- In Touch Weekly
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. believes his cousin Michael Skakel was wrongfully convicted and spent 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. His book “Framed” investigated who might have really killed 15-year-old Martha Moxley in 1975, and has now been optioned by FX Productions to be developed as a multi-part TV series.
Skakel was arrested in 2000 for the murder and was later convicted, before being released on $1.2 million bail in 2013 when a Connecticut judge found that he had not received a fair trial because his counsel was ineffective. But at the end of 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to reinstate his conviction.
A motion for reconsideration is now in the works, and Kennedy is optimistic that Skakel has a good chance of permanently going free. But he also believes a TV adaptation of “Framed” will expose the story to a wider audience, helping his case. “The more people...
Skakel was arrested in 2000 for the murder and was later convicted, before being released on $1.2 million bail in 2013 when a Connecticut judge found that he had not received a fair trial because his counsel was ineffective. But at the end of 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to reinstate his conviction.
A motion for reconsideration is now in the works, and Kennedy is optimistic that Skakel has a good chance of permanently going free. But he also believes a TV adaptation of “Framed” will expose the story to a wider audience, helping his case. “The more people...
- 9/20/2017
- by Michael Schneider
- Indiewire
In 1993 Dominick Dunne was already famous for saying “he did it” whenever it came to a high-profile murder case he reported on for Vanity Fair. He almost always sided with the prosecution against the defendant, and he did so with the same unbridled partiality he honed a decade earlier when, making his debut in Vanity Fair, he covered the trial of John Sweeney, the Ma Maison chef who strangled to death Dunne’s 22-year-old actress-daughter, Dominique. Erik and Lyle Menendez were on trial for double murder in 1993. The two young men and their two middle-aged victims were not celebrities,...
- 4/18/2017
- by Robert Hofler
- The Wrap
The crime of the century became a media circus, with no angle hidden -- yet behind what we saw on TV was even more conflict and consternation. This eight-hour miniseries is a beautifully constructed recreation with excellent casting, even though its O.J. doesn't remind us much of the original. It's highly absorbing stuff to anyone who lived through it. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story Blu-ray Fox Home Video 2016 / Color /1:78 widescreen / 498 min. / Street Date September 6, 2016 / 49.99 Starring Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, Sterling K. Brown, Kenneth Choi, Christian Clemenson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Nathan Lane, David Schwimmer, Courtney B. Vance, Robert Morse, Steven Pasquale, Cheryl Ladd, Larry King, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Billy Magnussen. Cinematography Nelson Cragg Film Editors Chi Yoon Chung, Stewart Schill, Adam Penn Original Music Mac Quayle Written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski (creators), Jeffrey Toobin, D.V. DeVincentis, Joe Robert Cole, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky Produced by Alexis Martin Woodall,...
- 9/17/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich, 52, always has had a passion for documentaries about difficult men. He has profiled subjects including Rolling Stones promoter Michael Cohl, writer Dominick Dunne and famed Canadian lawyer Edward Greenspan and now is working on a film about the Bronfmans. A particularly tough subject was Lew Wasserman, the legendary McA chairman. "He put his hand on my shoulder with his thumb in my neck," recalls Avrich, "and said, 'The film won't be made, whether I'm alive or dead.' " But Avrich persisted, and three years after Wasserman's 2002 death, he premiered The Last Mogul
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- 5/4/2016
- by Barry Avrich
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Robert Mapplethorpe transformed the rhetoric of porn into stunning imagery and this flawed documentary does his work justice
Robert Mapplethorpe is the subject of this interesting if flawed documentary study by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey; he was the brilliant photographer and artist whose genius was to absorb and transform the visual rhetoric of porn into stunning, provocative images. His Warholian career ran in parallel with the heyday of New York’s promiscuous gay scene, and his final Aids-related illness lent a crepuscular grandeur to the success of his last exhibitions. Maybe only Dominick Dunne or Tom Wolfe could do justice to it. Interestingly, controversy surrounding Mapplethorpe’s work took off only once his status as an artist had been fully established – the reactionary campaigns against his photography happened after his death in 1989.
Continue reading...
Robert Mapplethorpe is the subject of this interesting if flawed documentary study by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey; he was the brilliant photographer and artist whose genius was to absorb and transform the visual rhetoric of porn into stunning, provocative images. His Warholian career ran in parallel with the heyday of New York’s promiscuous gay scene, and his final Aids-related illness lent a crepuscular grandeur to the success of his last exhibitions. Maybe only Dominick Dunne or Tom Wolfe could do justice to it. Interestingly, controversy surrounding Mapplethorpe’s work took off only once his status as an artist had been fully established – the reactionary campaigns against his photography happened after his death in 1989.
Continue reading...
- 4/21/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A review of tonight's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story coming up just as soon as I show you my autographed photo of Arsenio Hall... One of the smarter things the The People v. O.J. did was to recognize that with this sprawling cast of characters with conflicting interests and agendas, they had to find some way to keep the narrative feeling focused. A few weeks ago, we got an hour that was just about the day of the white Bronco chase. With "The Race Card" (written by Joe Robert Cole and directed by John Singleton), it's an episode primarily about Johnnie Cochran and Christopher Darden's former friendship and the ways each man relates to the La law-enforcement apparatus. The series had already reminded us that Cochran used to work in the Da's office, but that flashback to a younger Johnnie being cuffed in front...
- 3/2/2016
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
"Fame is fleeting," Robert Kardashian tells his kids in an early episode of FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (it debuts tomorrow night at 10). "It's hollow. It means nothing at all without a virtuous heart." Young Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, and Rob look at their father like he's speaking some long-dead language they have no hope of understanding. Their dad is on TV, and getting priority seating at overbooked restaurants, all because he's famous — and only famous, at that, because his best friend happens to be Simpson, the world's most famous accused murderer. Of course fame means everything to these kids. The People v. O.J. — the first installment of a new FX anthology series from Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee), and not to be confused with ABC's similarly-titled anthology series American Crime — isn't really a Keeping Up with the Kardashians origin story. The kids only appear...
- 2/1/2016
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
Napa Valley Film Festival kicked off with (what else?) a wine movie. “Somm: Into the Bottle," the second documentary exploring the Exclusive Court of Master Sommeliers. To be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, "Somm: Into the Bottle", as told through the eyes of the world’s greatest sommeliers and winemakers, raises the curtain on the seldom-seen world that surrounds the wine we drink and gives viewers close-up access to the most accomplished sommeliers in the world and to some of the most prestigious winemakers working today. By opening some of the world’s most rare bottles of wine, the viewer understands how a wine ages and just what happens in a cellar.
At the festival’s gala opening night party, filled with vintners pouring their wines accompanied by some of the best restaurants in the world supplying bite size hors d’oevres, Peter Goldwyn pointed out that the film is already number 22 on iTunes because of the fan base built up by Jason Wise’s previous film, “Somm” in which four sommeliers attempt to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. As Peter circulated through the crowd of the local bourgeoisie and filmmakers like Eric Troung whose 30 minute short is also screening here, I felt right at home…I love seeing new friends and old at these events.
So far, as a jury member, I have seen one film, “Life in Color” directed, written and produced by Katherine Emmer, along with producers Jason Berman, Anne Carey, Lance Johnson and Giles Clark and starring, as a lovable slob who grows up, Josh McDermitt, Katharine Emmer herself who could play a spoiled rich girl as well as the miserably inattentive nanny she plays in this movie, Adam Lustick a really perfect button-down successful comedian buddy of Josh, Fortune Feimster and Jim O’Heir. Katharine's directorial feature film debut, “Life in Color”, world premiered at South by Southwest 2015. It won Best of Fest - The L.E.S. Prix D'Or at The Lower East Side Film Festival 2015 in New York City.
I am now about to see the second film, “Tumbledown," directed by Sean Mewshaw, produced by Aaron Gilbert, Kristin Hahn and Margo Hand, written by Desi Van Til and Sean Mewshaw and starring Jason Dudikis, Rebecca Hall, Blythe Danner (!), Dianna Agron, Griffin Dunne (“Dallas Buyers Club” and “After Hours”!) son of Dominick Dunne and older brother of Dominique Dunne, Joe Manganiello and Richard Masur. Starz will release the film stateside. Director-writer Sean Mewshaw was raised in Rome, Italy and spent a decade in L.A. working on film sets where he was mentored by some of his heroes. He made a short starring Frances McDomand (one of my favorite actors btw), then moved to Portland, Maine with his wife Desi (who cowrote “Tumbledown”), where he directs theater wile developing film projects. “Tumbledown is his feature debut.
End of Day One and Beginning of Day Two, signing off, Sydney Levine, working in her suite at the Embassy Suites with my partner Peter Belsito sitting on the other side of the table after he hosted a pitch session with Scott Mandille.
At the festival’s gala opening night party, filled with vintners pouring their wines accompanied by some of the best restaurants in the world supplying bite size hors d’oevres, Peter Goldwyn pointed out that the film is already number 22 on iTunes because of the fan base built up by Jason Wise’s previous film, “Somm” in which four sommeliers attempt to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. As Peter circulated through the crowd of the local bourgeoisie and filmmakers like Eric Troung whose 30 minute short is also screening here, I felt right at home…I love seeing new friends and old at these events.
So far, as a jury member, I have seen one film, “Life in Color” directed, written and produced by Katherine Emmer, along with producers Jason Berman, Anne Carey, Lance Johnson and Giles Clark and starring, as a lovable slob who grows up, Josh McDermitt, Katharine Emmer herself who could play a spoiled rich girl as well as the miserably inattentive nanny she plays in this movie, Adam Lustick a really perfect button-down successful comedian buddy of Josh, Fortune Feimster and Jim O’Heir. Katharine's directorial feature film debut, “Life in Color”, world premiered at South by Southwest 2015. It won Best of Fest - The L.E.S. Prix D'Or at The Lower East Side Film Festival 2015 in New York City.
I am now about to see the second film, “Tumbledown," directed by Sean Mewshaw, produced by Aaron Gilbert, Kristin Hahn and Margo Hand, written by Desi Van Til and Sean Mewshaw and starring Jason Dudikis, Rebecca Hall, Blythe Danner (!), Dianna Agron, Griffin Dunne (“Dallas Buyers Club” and “After Hours”!) son of Dominick Dunne and older brother of Dominique Dunne, Joe Manganiello and Richard Masur. Starz will release the film stateside. Director-writer Sean Mewshaw was raised in Rome, Italy and spent a decade in L.A. working on film sets where he was mentored by some of his heroes. He made a short starring Frances McDomand (one of my favorite actors btw), then moved to Portland, Maine with his wife Desi (who cowrote “Tumbledown”), where he directs theater wile developing film projects. “Tumbledown is his feature debut.
End of Day One and Beginning of Day Two, signing off, Sydney Levine, working in her suite at the Embassy Suites with my partner Peter Belsito sitting on the other side of the table after he hosted a pitch session with Scott Mandille.
- 11/15/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
By Roger Friedman
HollywoodNews.com: This week’s main offering at the movies is “Man on a Ledge”–described as “ludicrous” by some critics and certainly not an Oscar nominee. (It was a lowly 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is like an F.) It’s January, of course, and if you couldn’t release a movie by December 31st, you know what January means. But “Man on a Ledge” has another reason of interest. Its screenwriter is Pablo Fenjves. Don’t recognize his name? He ghost wrote O.J. Simpson’s infamous confessional book, “If I Did It,” which outlined how O.J. murdered in cold blood his ex wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
The ironic part of that is that Fenjves, creepily, was a witness in the Simpson murder trial. He was the neighbor who testified he’d heard a dog’s plaintive wail near Nicole Brown’s house in Brentwood.
HollywoodNews.com: This week’s main offering at the movies is “Man on a Ledge”–described as “ludicrous” by some critics and certainly not an Oscar nominee. (It was a lowly 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is like an F.) It’s January, of course, and if you couldn’t release a movie by December 31st, you know what January means. But “Man on a Ledge” has another reason of interest. Its screenwriter is Pablo Fenjves. Don’t recognize his name? He ghost wrote O.J. Simpson’s infamous confessional book, “If I Did It,” which outlined how O.J. murdered in cold blood his ex wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
The ironic part of that is that Fenjves, creepily, was a witness in the Simpson murder trial. He was the neighbor who testified he’d heard a dog’s plaintive wail near Nicole Brown’s house in Brentwood.
- 1/27/2012
- by Roger Friedman
- Hollywoodnews.com
Today's comment diversion comes to you courtesy of the lovely Mrs. Julien, who apparently would like to dine with a bunch of dead people. This being Pajiba, dead people and zombie fascinations are not only tolerated, they're encouraged. (I'm not sure how hungry we'd be, sitting around the table with a group of semi-fleshed beings, but what the hell?) We'll indulge our hostess by tweaking the classic Dinner Party rules a bit.
Since it was her idea, I figure we're all headed to the great hall of Mrs. Julien's gigantic home. It must be gigantic--after all--she invited us. I'm certain there will be fancy cocktails by the gallon and a feast the likes of which Tyrion Lannister, himself, would order. From what I read on the invitation, we each get +5, deceased guests only.
Here's Mrs. Julien's list:
Jim Henson
Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth I
my maternal grandfather ( I never met him...
Since it was her idea, I figure we're all headed to the great hall of Mrs. Julien's gigantic home. It must be gigantic--after all--she invited us. I'm certain there will be fancy cocktails by the gallon and a feast the likes of which Tyrion Lannister, himself, would order. From what I read on the invitation, we each get +5, deceased guests only.
Here's Mrs. Julien's list:
Jim Henson
Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth I
my maternal grandfather ( I never met him...
- 7/17/2011
- by Cindy Davis
Web Series: Devanity
For fans of...: Gossip Girl; Dominick Dunne; TMZ
What it is: Four ex-orphans inherit a business empire from Dad and misbehave accordingly.
What's good: Juicy and well-crafted. The direction is almost its own character, subtly satirizing the all-too-familiar E! True Hollywood Story trope.
What's great: All the fun of watching smug, hot, young messes implode, but with none of the guilt. Cast is young and fun and almost too good at floating breezily through their ongoing dissolution—should we be concerned?
What could be better: We look forward to the enhancement of production values as well as the maturation of expository dialogue that will come with experience. Not sure yet if it's a drama or dramedy... but that's okay.
Addictive like...: We think we have to say cocaine
Grade: B
Review based on: Season 1, Episodes 1-2
See for yourself!
- Official Website - DeVanity.com...
For fans of...: Gossip Girl; Dominick Dunne; TMZ
What it is: Four ex-orphans inherit a business empire from Dad and misbehave accordingly.
What's good: Juicy and well-crafted. The direction is almost its own character, subtly satirizing the all-too-familiar E! True Hollywood Story trope.
What's great: All the fun of watching smug, hot, young messes implode, but with none of the guilt. Cast is young and fun and almost too good at floating breezily through their ongoing dissolution—should we be concerned?
What could be better: We look forward to the enhancement of production values as well as the maturation of expository dialogue that will come with experience. Not sure yet if it's a drama or dramedy... but that's okay.
Addictive like...: We think we have to say cocaine
Grade: B
Review based on: Season 1, Episodes 1-2
See for yourself!
- Official Website - DeVanity.com...
- 5/10/2011
- by Kev
- We Love Soaps
Chicago – Film streaming is clearly the future of movie watching as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many more have redefined the way people choose their entertainment. An intriguing new choice, IndiePix Unlimited, launched last week and we’ve been given a sneak peek of what it has to offer for at home or on-the-go for only $7.95 a month. Film festival fans should definitely take note.
Perhaps you’re one of those people who has drooled over the Chicago International Film Festival schedule but have either not been able to make it to one of the shows or have simply been unable to see everything that intrigued you. Much of what appears on IndiePix Unlimited played at film festivals around the world. If you can’t get to the festival, bring the festival to your laptop.
Presented by the Los Angeles Times and with the slogan “Watch Indies Instantly,” IndiePix Unlimited...
Perhaps you’re one of those people who has drooled over the Chicago International Film Festival schedule but have either not been able to make it to one of the shows or have simply been unable to see everything that intrigued you. Much of what appears on IndiePix Unlimited played at film festivals around the world. If you can’t get to the festival, bring the festival to your laptop.
Presented by the Los Angeles Times and with the slogan “Watch Indies Instantly,” IndiePix Unlimited...
- 4/25/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Reviewed by Amy R. Handler
(March 2011)
Directed by: Crayton Robey
More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?
When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.
(March 2011)
Directed by: Crayton Robey
More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?
When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.
- 3/11/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Amy R. Handler
(March 2011)
Directed by: Crayton Robey
More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?
When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.
(March 2011)
Directed by: Crayton Robey
More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?
When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.
- 3/11/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
I truly set out to make a definitive, objective list of the biggest cult films from the last five years today. However, pinning down a usable definition of "cult film" with a truly workable set of criteria was not just challenging, but nearly impossible. The one constant in definitions for cult films, however, was that they are movies that failed commercially, not just at the box office, but often in DVD sales, yet eventually found a successful second life after their initial release.
The best I could do was to spend way more hours than I expected to researching DVD sales, rental charts, and Netflix rankings from the last five years and combine those with my own anecdotal observations as a movie critic. There's no way to implement an algorithm to determine the standings (and actual figures are often very hard to come by), but in piecing together the evidence...
The best I could do was to spend way more hours than I expected to researching DVD sales, rental charts, and Netflix rankings from the last five years and combine those with my own anecdotal observations as a movie critic. There's no way to implement an algorithm to determine the standings (and actual figures are often very hard to come by), but in piecing together the evidence...
- 6/8/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
Some lucky people are getting out of town for Memorial Day 2010. But some of us are staying at home. Luckily, all your favorite channels are doing mega marathons of all your favorite shows.
Zap2it is the one-stop shop for all your Memorial Day programming. From delightfully bad reality TV like "Real Housewives" and "Jersey Shore" to the quirky 1990s dramedy "Twin Peaks" to the serious TCM salute to war movies, there's something for everyone on TV this weekend. All times Eastern, but check your local listings for times and channel numbers.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
A&E (11 a.m. - 6 p.m.): Flip This House
Animal Planet (1 p.m. - 7 p.m.): River Monsters
BBC America (8 p.m. - 8 a.m.): Doctor Who
Bet (10 a.m. - 7 p.m.): Everybody Hates Chris
Biography (8 p.m. - 3 a.m.): Celebrity Ghost Stories
Bravo (9 p.m. - 2 a.
Zap2it is the one-stop shop for all your Memorial Day programming. From delightfully bad reality TV like "Real Housewives" and "Jersey Shore" to the quirky 1990s dramedy "Twin Peaks" to the serious TCM salute to war movies, there's something for everyone on TV this weekend. All times Eastern, but check your local listings for times and channel numbers.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
A&E (11 a.m. - 6 p.m.): Flip This House
Animal Planet (1 p.m. - 7 p.m.): River Monsters
BBC America (8 p.m. - 8 a.m.): Doctor Who
Bet (10 a.m. - 7 p.m.): Everybody Hates Chris
Biography (8 p.m. - 3 a.m.): Celebrity Ghost Stories
Bravo (9 p.m. - 2 a.
- 5/29/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
If nothing else, Dominick Dunne: After The Party makes a compelling case that Dominick Dunne did, in fact, live a fairly interesting life, if not an especially revealing one. A fixture of the Hollywood party scene in the 50s and 60s, Dunne did not distinguish himself on the basis of his own talent until fairly late into his life, when he began writing novels, and subsequently covering high-profile criminal trials for Vanity Fair magazine. The arc of his transformation (and other tragic events in his life) all provide the raw material of great drama, but After The Party fails in the end to construct it into a well-formed story, tending instead to the strictly superficial elements of biography and revealing little about the inner life of the subject.
Framed against the proceedings of the Phil Spector murder trial, After The Party provides (through photographs and with modern day interviews with Dunne and his contemporaries,...
Framed against the proceedings of the Phil Spector murder trial, After The Party provides (through photographs and with modern day interviews with Dunne and his contemporaries,...
- 1/25/2010
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Fred Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
Overlooked at the box office, I will declare here and now that Ricky Gervais’s The Invention Of Lying (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$28.98 Srp) is a comedy that is destined to become as beloved a cult classic as Office Space before it. Think I’m wrong? See it for yourself, as Gervais creates a world wherein the act of lying does not exist - until...
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
Overlooked at the box office, I will declare here and now that Ricky Gervais’s The Invention Of Lying (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$28.98 Srp) is a comedy that is destined to become as beloved a cult classic as Office Space before it. Think I’m wrong? See it for yourself, as Gervais creates a world wherein the act of lying does not exist - until...
- 1/22/2010
- by UncaScroogeMcD
DVD Playhouse—January 2010
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
- 1/19/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
With the release of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps set for April, its publicity game is just starting to ramp up. Fitting then that Vanity Fair, former mag-home of the late Dominick Dunne, has a new photo shoot for this sequel of modern greed and murder courtesy of flashy, money-strapped photog Annie Leibovitz. After the jump is a new image of Michael Douglas's Gordon Gekko, a vacant behind-the-scenes vid of the shoot, and thoughts on Gekko's lease on life post-prison. At the above Vf link, there's a quote from Douglas about Gekko's influence and power in the current global marketplace: “Gekko couldn’t manipulate the markets like he did back then. It’s so big, so huge, that to be a minor player you need to be a major bank.” One detail I was glad to see in the script by Stone's reputable pal...
- 1/15/2010
- by Hunter Stephenson
- Slash Film
With his novels People Like Us and A Season in Purgatory, the late Dominick Dunne brought an imaginative touch to the world he covered for V.F., illuminating the lives of the powerful and privileged in a way very few others could. In an excerpt from his final novel, Too Much Money, published this month, the funeral of a legendary New York philanthropist (Brooke Astor, anyone?) is the occasion for some ruthless social maneuvering, not to mention ideal fodder for Dunne’s alter ego, Gus Bailey.
- 12/7/2009
- Vanity Fair
By Steven Mikulan
Last night about 50 friends of Dominick Dunne gathered in the Chateau Marmont’s sixth-floor penthouse to honor the writer whose serrated prose and shrewd insights elevated celebrity trial reporting to an A-list activity. Dunne, who would have turned 84 yesterday, passed away in August of cancer, having lived to see justice finally catch up to O.J. Simpson in a Nevada courtroom far from Los Angeles. Thursday night’s toast to Dunne was attended by a mix of the people ...
Last night about 50 friends of Dominick Dunne gathered in the Chateau Marmont’s sixth-floor penthouse to honor the writer whose serrated prose and shrewd insights elevated celebrity trial reporting to an A-list activity. Dunne, who would have turned 84 yesterday, passed away in August of cancer, having lived to see justice finally catch up to O.J. Simpson in a Nevada courtroom far from Los Angeles. Thursday night’s toast to Dunne was attended by a mix of the people ...
- 10/30/2009
- by Steven Mikulan
- The Wrap
When Dominick Dunne died in August, he had become what he’d always yearned to be, a bona fide celebrity. The dapper V.F. contributor and novelist was also something more important: a crusader for justice. Surveying Dunne’s life before and after its crucial event—the murder of his daughter, Dominique—the author recalls his epic fall from Hollywood grace, his astounding comeback, and his fearless pursuit of rich and powerful offenders for this magazine, from O. J. Simpson to the Kennedys.
- 9/28/2009
- Vanity Fair
So another year has passed and its time for another round of awards for the people who make the television shows we like to watch.
Television is interesting these days. Never before have we seen such great, creative output. Never before have we been subjected to such drivel. It all gets paraded before us tonight, as we watch the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (handed out, it should be noted, by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) on CBS, CTV in Canada.
8:00
Interesting that the Emmys chose to introduce the 2009 edition of the Primetime awards by harkening back to the early days of television. Especially as the business of television has never been closer to a complete collapse. Oh, announcer who is trying so hard to sound like a TV host from the '50s. You don't sound at all like you're a three pack-a-day smoker.
8:01
Okay, here comes Neil Patrick Harris,...
Television is interesting these days. Never before have we seen such great, creative output. Never before have we been subjected to such drivel. It all gets paraded before us tonight, as we watch the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (handed out, it should be noted, by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) on CBS, CTV in Canada.
8:00
Interesting that the Emmys chose to introduce the 2009 edition of the Primetime awards by harkening back to the early days of television. Especially as the business of television has never been closer to a complete collapse. Oh, announcer who is trying so hard to sound like a TV host from the '50s. You don't sound at all like you're a three pack-a-day smoker.
8:01
Okay, here comes Neil Patrick Harris,...
- 9/21/2009
- CinemaSpy
We had been told to expect the deaths of the famous to come in threes, not in the dozens.But all through the summer of 2009 came a ceaseless and somber drumbeat, as idols of all walks of life passed away. From Walter Cronkite to Sen. Ted Kennedy, the nonstop loss of luminaries continued almost as if a seasonal occurrence . as much a part of summer as hot dogs and humidity.If a filmmaker were trying to capture the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson news would be playing in the background. Many thought coverage of Jackson's death was too much; a Pew Research Center poll released in July found that 64 percent of those surveyed thought the media blitz was overdone (though none could top MTV Japan, which designated an entire week of mourning for Jackson).But news outlets went heavy on coverage for the many others who passed. Collectively, it made the constant commemorating hard to escape,...
- 9/19/2009
- Filmicafe
Dominick Dunne. From PatrickMcMullan.com.Dominick Dunne’s son Griffin told a great story at his father’s funeral, in New York City, yesterday. Griffin said he’d been asked at Frank E. Campbell funeral home if he’d like to hire security to keep away the “professional mourners,” strangers who crash the wakes of celebrities. He said he immediately wished he’d been able to tell his father there was a name for this pastime—as Dominick himself had been known to drop in on the funeral home when he and his young family had lived nearby, long before he became a journalist, to see what famous mobster or socialite was lying inside. The crowd—almost 800 people packed inside the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer, on Lexington and 66th Street—roared with laughter. If Dominick was a professional mourner, he was also a professional partygoer, stage manager, and social observer,...
- 9/11/2009
- Vanity Fair
Starting this week, we're introducing a brand new weekly movie feature. Every Thursday, movie critic Alonso Duralde will guide you to what's new at the box office that a gay or bi guy (and our gay-friendly straight readers) might want to check out! Alonso will also have news about coming movies, trailers from coming attractions, pictures from the week's premieres and much more!
And now on with the show, er, column!
Opening This Week:
Taking Woodstock
The obvious place to start is with Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a comic look behind the scenes at the legendary rock concert. (Am I alone among Gen-Xers in having grown tired of glassy-eyed nostalgia for this event sometime around 1981?)
It’s Lee’s first comedy since The Wedding Banquet in 1993, and Taking Woodstock confirms that the man behind Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon doesn’t have the lightest touch when it comes to wit and whimsy.
And now on with the show, er, column!
Opening This Week:
Taking Woodstock
The obvious place to start is with Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a comic look behind the scenes at the legendary rock concert. (Am I alone among Gen-Xers in having grown tired of glassy-eyed nostalgia for this event sometime around 1981?)
It’s Lee’s first comedy since The Wedding Banquet in 1993, and Taking Woodstock confirms that the man behind Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon doesn’t have the lightest touch when it comes to wit and whimsy.
- 8/28/2009
- by ADuralde
- The Backlot
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