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News & Cast Updates

Charlie Day, Billy Eichner, Gabby Beans, Talia Ryder & 9 Others Join Ethan Coen’s ‘Honey Don’t!’

As previously announced, Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans will lead the ensemble. Details as to the film’s plot are currently under wraps, though it’s said to be in the same vein as Coen’s comedy Drive-Away Dolls, starring Qualley, which Focus released earlier this year. Production is currently underway in New Mexico.

Coen is directing from his script written with wife Tricia Cooke, the veteran editor who cut such Coen Brothers classics as The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, also co-writing Drive-Away Dolls. Pic’s producers are Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Coen, Cooke, and Robert Graf.

Day is represented by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Eichner by UTA, 3 Arts, PJ Shapiro, and Ziffren Brittenham; Abova by Paradigm, AFA Prime Talent, and Accelerate in the UK; Jacnier by Kreativ Media Partners; Beans by TalentWorks and Brillstein Entertainment Partners; Ryder by UTA and Untitled Entertainment; Connolly by Paradigm and Authentic Talent and Literary Management; Hall by Independent Artists Group, Diarmuid Quinn at TourDForce, and Granderson Des Rochers; Swayze by David Shapira & Associates; Pafchek by The Park Agency and 23 Management Group; Browne by the Lisa Lax Agency; Carstoiu by Presley Talent and ADS Management.; and Antidormi by AKA Talent Agency, manager Nils Larsen of Integral Artists, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

Kunal Nayyar, Eva Longoria & Billy Porter Among Ensemble Of Gurinder Chadha Musical ‘Christmas Karma’

Nayyar will star as Scrooge in pic alongside an expansive cast, including Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, and Nitin Ganatra.

Chadha wrote the pic and is producing alongside directing, with music by Take That alum Gary Barlow alongside Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney. Financing for Christmas Karma is from Civic Studios. Gurinder Chadha, Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler, and Amory Leader will produce. Zygi Kamasa, Anushka Shah, Paul Mayeda Berges, Sophia Pedlow, and Hannah Leader will serve as executive producers.

Christmas Karma is the fifth scripted project from British distributor True Brit Entertainment, which was formed in November 2023. The feature also sees Chadha’s return to the big screen following her time working on the Indian historical television series Beecham House. Her last feature film, Blinded by the Light, inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen, debuted at Sundance in 2019. Warners Bros acquired the pic for multiple territories.

“Just as I have enjoyed Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life for many years, my aim with Christmas Karma is to create a festive classic for our times and for generations to come,” Chadha said. “I’m over the moon to be working with Zygi Kamasa who has supported me on this film from the onset – and True Brit, which truly celebrates British cinema. I am blessed with such a great diverse Cast and eclectic Music team – the soundtrack will be banging, influenced by Gospel, Bhangra, Carols, and classic pop songs. You will not be able to sit still.”

Kamasa added: “Gurinder has an incredible ability to tell such interesting contemporary British stories. It’s been over 20 years since we made Bend It Like Beckham together and this film has all those hallmarks of heart, comedy, drama, and an incredibly feel-good ending. It will be a celebration of multi-cultural London set to an incredible set of songs written by Gary, Shaznay, and Nitin, using musical genres from Rap, to disco to Bhangra, and will be the ultimate Christmas movie which we will release in December 2025. It really is the perfect fit to the range of British films we will release at True Brit.” p

Y&R Casts Christopher Cousins

‘Hacks’ Season 3 Trailer Previews A Chance Encounter Between Deborah & Ava

Talk Show Appearance

Monday, April 15

(10-11 a.m.) Kyra Sedgwick on All of Me.

Billy Dee Williams On Actors Wearing Blackface: “If You’re An Actor, You Should Do Anything You Want To Do”

The Star Wars actor appeared on Bill Maher’s podcast and recalled Lauren Olivier’s performance in 1965’s Othello, where the actor wore blackface.

“When he did ‘Othello,’ I fell out laughing,” Williams said of Olivier on the Club Random podcast. “He stuck his ass out and walked around with his ass, you know, because Black people are supposed to have big asses.”

He continued, “I thought it was hysterical. I loved it. I love that kind of stuff.”

Maher mentioned that actors could not wear Blackface today, to which Williams said, “Why not? You should do it. If you’re an actor, you should do anything you want to do.”

The podcast’s host noted that Williams “lived in a period where you couldn’t play the parts you should’ve played.”

“The point is that you don’t go through life feeling like, ‘I’m a victim,'” Williams added. “I refuse to go through life saying to the world, ‘I’m pissed off.’ I’m not gonna be pissed off 24 hours a day.”

Williams famously portrayed the role of Landon Calrissian in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. The actor reprised his role in 1983’s Return of the Jedi and again in 2019’s Rise of Skywalker.

In an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Williams said he didn’t “think in terms of Black” about the characters he portrays in media.

“I never think of myself in terms of the only Black character. Everybody else might think of it that way. In my reasoning in my own head, I’m just a character,” he said. “A character has certain qualities that make a character a winning character in a movie or a character that is not able to translate very well. I’ve been able to translate very well across the board.”

Watch Williams’ full interview in the video here.

Brad Pitt Calls BS on Angelina Jolie's Restrictive NDA Argument in Winery War

The exes are still warring over Miraval, the French winery they co-own, and Brad just filed docs in that dispute ... refuting Angie's claim she walked away from an agreement to sell her share of the winery to Brad, because he insisted she sign a strict NDA.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Brad doesn't deny wanting her to sign one, but he says there's nothing onerous or broad about the NDA he presented her. In fact, he says it's pretty rich for Angelina to complain, because her lawyer "proposed an even broader, mutual non-disparagement clause" to Brad in connection with their divorce.

As for why he wanted her to sign one for the Miraval deal -- he says it's just good business sense. According to the docs, they both agreed an NDA was necessary to "protect the reputation of the Miraval brand."

Translation: Brad didn't want to buy her half of Miraval, and then have her trash him in public, thereby, hurting the business.

In these new docs, filed Thursday in L.A., Brad asks the judge to force Angie to hand over other NDAs she's signed, plus the ones she's asked other people to sign -- all to prove there's nothing especially bad about the one he proposed.

As we reported, Angelina filed docs of her own on Thursday ... accusing Brad of physical abuse during their marriage -- and before the infamous 2016 private jet altercation with their kids. Brad has denied that allegation.

Angelina Jolie's Lawyers Claim Brad Pitt's 'Physical Abuse of Jolie' Started Before Their 2016 Plane Incident

As part of the former couple's ongoing legal battle over their French winery Château Miraval, on April 4, the actress's legal team filed a motion seeking to release communications they say would prove Pitt, 60, would not let Jolie, 48, sell her share of the winery to him unless she agreed to a "more onerous" and "expansive" NDA.

Within the new filing, Jolie's lawyers make the claim: "While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him."

A rep for Pitt declined to comment to PEOPLE.

"This is a pattern of behavior — whenever there is a decision that goes against the other side they consistently choose to introduce misleading, inaccurate and/or irrelevant information as a distraction," a friend of Pitt familiar with the litigation over the years tells PEOPLE.

"There was a lengthy custody trial that involved the entire history of their relationship and a judge who heard all the evidence still granted him 50/50 custody."

According to Jolie's side, the winery lawsuit would not have happened if Pitt had purchased Jolie's share when she made the offer. However, Jolie's lawyers claim Pitt refused the deal unless it came with the NDA and suggest the actor feared that sealed documents included in their separate, years-long custody battle could be made public without the NDA.

"Jolie’s sealed filing, which included emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony and other evidence, caused Pitt to fear that the information could eventually become public," her lawyers write, adding that Pitt wanted Jolie to "contractually bind herself to that silence" about his alleged "personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not."

A June 2023 filing from Pitt's legal team, however, claims Jolie was the one who suggested an “even broader non-disparagement clause” as part of the deal, and Pitt’s team presented a “narrower” one “intended to protect the business.”

“The clause also made clear that there would be no limitation on Jolie’s ability to speak in connection with Pitt and Jolie’s divorce or custody proceedings. It specifically provided: This commitment shall however not limit the ability, for any Party, to make any claims, filings or testimony in any legal proceedings.”

The topic of the NDA came up last year in the court back-and-forth.

A source on Pitt's side said in June 2023 that "the non-disparagement clause in the contract" was a "totally standard" business transaction; meanwhile, a Jolie source claimed Pitt "refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to being silenced about the abuse."

Jolie's attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE April 4, "Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA. By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family. After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence."

Separately, another source maintains to PEOPLE that Jolie "does not want to be raising any of these facts, and she is doing it only because Pitt’s lawsuit against her is forcing her to defend herself."

The source adds that "if this does go to trial, [Jolie] will be forced to use that evidence in the trial whether she wants to or not."

In 2022, Pitt sued Jolie and her former company Nouvel for selling her half of the winery and going against an agreement he said they'd made about not selling without getting approval from the other. Pitt has accused Jolie of intentionally keeping him in the dark about her sale to Tenute del Mondo, whose parent company is spirits manufacturer Stoli Group, owned by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler.

He said that sale "jeopardizes the reputation of the business that Pitt so carefully built."

Back when Jolie's legal team brought up the 2016 plane allegations in a response filed in October 2022 for the winery case, a source close to Pitt said, "It's incredibly sad that she continues to rehash, revise and reimagine her description of an event that happened six years ago, adding in completely untrue information to try to get additional attention for herself at the expense of their family."

Pitt was never charged following an investigation into allegations of abuse on the Sept. 14, 2016, flight.

In the latest filing, Jolie's lawyers write that the actress "never pressed charges as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused."

Pitt and Jolie, who were declared legally single by a judge back in 2019, share six kids: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 17, and 15-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.hs

Stephen Schnetzer Returns To DAYS OF OUR LIVES!

Reflecting on his DAYS run to Digest in 2019, Schnetzer groaned, “Oh, my God, I was so awful! I had been doing eight years of theater. Here I am projecting to the back wall of the film studio and the boom is right above you. It took me longer to get comfortable in front of a camera than anybody I ever saw in the 22 years I was in daytime. They were very patient. Susan [Seaforth Hayes, Julie] and Bill Hayes [ex-Doug] were lovely. It was recurring. I was there for a year and a half. It was a nice, gentle entry. And then I had [Franco] Zeffirelli hire me to do a Broadway show. Because I was recurring and because they didn’t lock me down to a contract, I was able to say bye-bye and come back East.”

Due to DAYS’s long production lead time, Schnetzer won’t appear on the show until this fall.

Jennifer Leak Dies: ‘Yours, Mine And Ours’ Actress And Soap Star For ‘The Guiding Light’, ‘The Young And The Restless’ And ‘Another World’ Was 76

Leak was dealing with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease, in her final years.

Matheson posted a tribute on Facebook to her.

“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of Jennifer Leak’s passing. She wasn’t just my screen sister in ‘Yours, Mine and Ours,’ but also my beloved first wife. Jennifer was a remarkable woman, strong, lovely, and incredibly talented. My deepest condolences go out to her husband of 47 years, James D’Auria, and their multitude of friends.”

Yours, Mine and Ours featured Matheson as Mike, the son of Henry Fonda’s Frank Beardsley, while Leak portrayed Colleen, the daughter of Lucille Ball’s Helen North. The movie was about a blended family of 18 children.

Leak was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1947, and started her screen career with the Mike Nichols-directed pilot for Wojeck in the mid-1960s. She later was cast in Nichols’ The Graduate, but had to drop out because of immigration complications.

Leak’s was also a soap operas regular. She played Gwen Sherman on The Young and the Restless, Olive Springer Gordon Randolph on Another World, and Blanche Bouvier on Guiding Light.

Leak had largely retired from screen acting by the mid-1980s, working as a sales agent for a real estate company.

She was married to Matheson from 1968 to 1971, and wed D’Auria in 1977. She is survived by her husband and brother.

Ron Harper, ‘Land of the Lost’ and ‘Planet of the Apes’ Actor, Dies at 91

Harper died Thursday of natural causes at his home in West Hills, his daughter, Nicole Longeuay, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After understudying for Paul Newman on Broadway, Harper portrayed Det. Bert Kling alongside Norman Fell, Robert Lansing, Gregory Walcott and Gena Rowlands on the 1961-62 NBC cop show 87th Precinct, based on the novels of Ed McBain.

He played Jeff Conway, the husband of Connie Stevens’ character, on the 1964-65 ABC sitcom Wendy and Me, also starring George Burns, who produced the show and appeared as the owner of the apartment building in which the young couple lives.

Next up for Harper were turns as the son of Jean Arthur’s lawyer — they both portrayed lawyers, in fact — on CBS’ The Jean Arthur Show in 1966 and Lt. Craig Garrison on the World War II-set Garrison’s Gorillas, which aired on ABC in 1967-68.

All four never made it to a second season, with 87th Precinct lasting 30 episodes, Wendy and Me 34, The Jean Arthur Show 12 and Garrison’s Gorillas 26.

In 1974, Harper finally seemed to have a hit on his hands when he landed the role of astronaut Alan Virdon on CBS’ Planet of the Apes. The series, after all, had come on the heels of the five Planet of the Apes movies and starred Roddy McDowall, who was in four of the films, as a chimpanzee.

However, the high-cost show, which also starred Jim Naughton as an astronaut, performed poorly in its Friday night slot and was canceled, with just 14 episodes airing.

“Our Planet of the Apes stories degenerated into The Fugitive with fur. I think that’s one of the things that curtailed what should have been a longer run,” Harper said in an interview for Tom Weaver’s 2008 book, I Talked With a Zombie.

Harper then joined Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost in 1976 for its third and final season, stepping in for Spencer Milligan to play the family’s Uncle Jack on the NBC sci-fi show. He was on just 13 episodes, but those showed up often in repeats over the years.

“The stories were very good,” Harper said in 2005. “Each generation of children as they come up and are exposed to it like those stories and remember them, pass them right on. I have about three tapes, and I’ve been showing them to my daughter since she was 5. And she still, of all my series, loves Land of the Lost best.”

Ronald Robert Harper was born on Jan. 12, 1933, in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. He graduated from Turtle Creek High School and earned a scholarship to Princeton University, where he did two seasons of summer stock. He then was offered a fellowship to Harvard Law School.

“I kept saying to myself, ‘Should you waste your good education being an actor?’ And that little voice within me kept saying things like, ‘What do you want to take that fellowship to Harvard Law for? Be an actor. Starving is fun,’” he said in 1966. “And like the fool that any actor has to be, I listened to that dumb little voice.”

He studied with Lee Strasberg, served in the U.S. Navy and in 1959-60 was Newman’s understudy in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, directed by Elia Kazan. He got to play opposite Geraldine Page four times one week when Newman was ill.

“In my last performance of it, I saw Paul in the audience,” he recalled in 2015. “If he was not feeling too well, he was feeling a little bit better. He was a wonderful, sweet guy. I think he probably felt generous enough to say, ‘Let Ron do one or two of the performances.’”

After that, he appeared on installments of such shows as Tales of Wells Fargo, Thriller, Wagon Train and The Tall Man before landing on 87th Precinct.

Harper returned to Broadway in 1972 in 6 Rms Riv Vu and did lots of soap operas, among them Another World, Loving, Capitol, Generations, Where the Heart Is and Love of Life.

His résumé also included the movies The Wild Season (1971), The Odd Couple II (1998) and Pearl Harbor (2001) and TV guest stints on The Big Valley, Remington Steele, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Walker, Texas Ranger, The West Wing and Cold Case.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his son-in-law, Daniel; granddaughters Ronnie and Harper; and ex-wife Shirley. His first wife was actress Sally Stark.

Lori McCreary & Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment Prepping ‘Ear Hustle’ Docuseries Based On Prison Life Podcast

Co-hosted by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, Ear Hustle launched in 2017 as the first podcast created and produced in prison. A two-time Peabody Awards finalist, National Magazine Awards finalist, and Pulitzer Prize finalist downloaded more than 78 million times, the show is made by a team both inside and out of San Quentin State Prison in California, traversing stories such as finding romance, grappling with a life sentence, trying to parent via 15-minute phone calls, getting out and starting over, and beyond.

With the series to be directed by Erika Cohn, the two-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker behind New York Times Critics Pick Belly of the Beast, Revelations aims to capture authentic, raw and surprising stories of prison life by delving even deeper into narratives that have resonated with listeners worldwide.

Cohn will also serve as an executive producer, along with James Younger, McCreary, and Kelly Mendelsohn for Revelations Entertainment. Poor and Woods will also serve as executive producers.

Renowned for its commitment to elevating under-served voices, Revelations was behind the hit series Madam Secretary as well as films like the award-winning Invictus and 5 Flights Up. Accolades include an Emmy nomination for The Story of God, three Emmy noms for Through the Wormhole, a Peabody Award for the ESPN 30 for 30 episode “The 16th Man,” and an Academy Award nomination for Freeman in the film Invictus.

Freeman, McCreary, and Revelations are represented by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

GH’s Rena Sofer Mourns the Death of Her Family’s Dog, Alfie

“I have too much to say. But I have no words right now. It’s all just so much pain,” wrote Sofer. “Yesterday was the most devastating yet expected day. But it was too soon.”

Alfie and his sister, Mega, were the first dogs that Sofer rescued, back in 2017 when she was playing THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL’s Quinn. Over the years, the actress and Bookstaver (as well as their daughter, Avalon) have opened up their home to several other rescue dogs and have fostered countless other canines. Alfie’s death comes eight months after the family lost one of their other rescue dogs, Princess Carolyn, in July 2023.

“I only had my boy for seven years and eight days. Cancer stole him from me, from Sandy, from Avalon, and from his sister, Mega. From everyone who knew and loved him,” Sofer continued. “I love all my dogs, but without remorse, Alfie was my favorite. My heart and soul dog. I am destroyed and numb. The greatest gift we ever gave each other was each other. I will miss you forever and ever and ever.”

“We will miss you every day forever and ever,” wrote Bookstaver.

“We have had many, many dogs, but Alfie was Rena’s baby boy and true love,” shared Sofer’s husband.

Alfie and his sister, Mega, were a bonded pair when Sofer rescued them.

“He was only alive for seven years, but they were beautiful,” Bookstaver said of Alfie’s life with the family.

In a sweet video, Sofer cried while kissing Alfie’s head while hugging Mega with her other hand. “That’s your brother,” she laughed through her tears.

Fran Drescher, Alex Borstein, Kyra Sedgwick, Raney Aronson-Rath To Be Honored At NY Women In Film & Television Awards

Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of PBS Frontline, whose doc 20 Days in Mariupol won an Oscar Sunday, will receive the Enid Roth Award for Excellence in Journalism. The Made in NY Award from Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment will be presented to actress, writer, and producer and star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Alex Borstein.

Honorees also include actress Critics Choice Award and BAFTA Rising Star Award-nominated actress Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place), who will receive the Loreen Arbus Changemaker Award; Michèle Stephenson (Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project), a filmmaker, artist and author, awarded the Nancy Malone Directing Award.

Cardinal (Killers Of The Flower Moon, Smoke Signals), and Latasha Gillespie, head of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility for Amazon MGM Studios will also be honored.

The annual awards luncheon, set for March 27 at Cipriani 42nd Street, is the 44th editions of the organization’s flagship event. CBS Sunday Morning contributor, comedian, actress ?Nancy Giles? will serve as emcee.

“In a year, when Lily Gladstone the first Native American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar – there is a drum beat we cannot miss – our industry is slowly transitioning and women are finally being recognized for their contributions,” said NYWIFT CEO Cynthia Lopez.

“After a tumultuous year in our industry marked by the reckoning of two strikes by creative workers, we’re excited to welcome the media community back to the Muse Awards to celebrate all that was accomplished through collective action this year,” added board president Leslie Fields-Cruz.

Drescher, a defender of women’s health, civil liberties, diversity and inclusion, is serving her second term as national president of SAG-AFTRA, the largest entertainment union in the world, after leading one of the longest strikes in the group’s history.

Borstein (who won an Emmy as Lois on long running animated Family Guy) starred as Susie Myerson in five seasons of filmed in New York Maisel, winning two Emmys. She starred for three seasons in HBO’s American version of the British series Getting On.

Aronson-Rath has grown PBS’ flagship investigative journalism series into a multi-platform organization, including expanding into theatrical documentaries that have earned multiple Academy Award ?nominations, including the win on Sunday.

Indigenous actress Cardinal is a SAG Award nominee who appeared most recently in Killers of the Flower Moon and Marvel series, Echo. She’s appeared in over 120 film and TV projects from Dances with Wolves to Legends of the Fall and Smoke Signals.

Sedgwick, last seen in Amazon series The Summer I Turned Pretty, just wrapped production on Connescence, written and directed by Michael J. Weithorn. She recently directed Space Oddity,starring Kyle Allen and Alexandra Shipp, and directed an episode of HBO’s upcoming The Girls on the Bus. Previous film roles include Singles, Phenomenon, The Game Plan, The Edge of Seventeen and Born on The Fourth Of July.

Stephenson, a social justice lawyer with Haitian and Panamanian roots, focuses on narratives of resistance and identity centered on the experiences of communities of color in the Americas and the Black diaspora with Oscar-shortlisted docs Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and short Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games). Her feature doc American Promise was nominated for three Emmys and won the Jury Prize at Sundance. She co-directed The Changing Same, a virtual reality trilogy series on racial terror Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Interactive Media Innovative category. She is currently in post-production on a feature on the Black Power movement in Canada.

Simmonds first emerged as the star of Todd Haynes’s film Wonderstruck opposite Julianne Moore. Upcoming projects include a series based on Sara Novíc’s novel, True Biz; portraying Helen Keller in Wash Westmoreland’s film Helen & Teacher; and the action thriller Ballerina Overdrive.

And Gillespie, head of DEI for Amazon MGM Studios, Prime Video and Freevee, created the entertainment industry’s first Inclusion playbook, which was standardized into the greenlight process.

Past recipients of MUSE awards include Sharon Stone (last year), Sandra Oh, Rashida Jones, Rachel Brosnahan, Gloria Estefan, Ann Dowd, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Mary-Louise Parker, Anne Sweeney, Martha Stewart, Robin Wright, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore, America Ferrera, Laura Dern, Julianna Margulies, Blythe Danner, Victoria Alonso, Gabourey Sidibe, Debi Mazar, Martha Plimpton, Cicely Tyson and Lucy Liu.

Jane Krakowski guests on Elsbeth

“A Classic New York Character” (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT)

After the loathed co-op board president (guest star Linda Lavin) of a luxury pre-war building falls off her balcony to her death, Elsbeth and Kaya are called to the scene to dig for a lead when they meet Joann (guest star Jane Krakowski), a high-powered Manhattan real estate broker with huge clients and even bigger secrets.

WRITTEN BY: Bryan Goluboff

DIRECTED BY: Robert King

“Reality Shock” (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT)

When a larger-than-life reality TV star is found dead in her bathtub, Elsbeth and Kaya investigate the circumstances around her death to determine if it was an accident or murder. As they get deeper into the events surrounding her demise, they meet Skip Mason (guest star Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the mercurial producer behind the popular, guilty-pleasure reality series “Lavish Ladies,” who becomes a prime suspect after he is accused of going to dangerous lengths to concoct “good TV.”

WRITTEN BY: Jonathan Tolins

DIRECTED BY: Ron Underwood

Malachy McCourt Dies: ‘Ryan’s Hope’ Actor, Brother Of ‘Angela’s Ashes’ Author Frank McCourt Was 92

His death was announced by his wife Diana McCourt to The New York Times.

The brother of Pulitzer Prize-winning Angela’s Ashes memoirist Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt left an indelible mark on New York City’s Irish American community. As the owner of the quintessential 1950s Irish pub Malachy’s on Third Avenue in Manhattan – McCourt would often call it the city’s first singles bar, since he welcomed unaccompanied women to the establishment – the Brooklyn native became one of the city’s great story-tellers, regaling patrons from longshoremen to the actor Richard Harris with blarney, rugby talk and biographical anecdotes.

His way with words would hold him in good stead through a wide-ranging career path that included acting, writing, talk-show hosting and politics.

Born Malachy Gerard McCourt in Brooklyn on September 20, 1931, McCourt and his siblings were uprooted by parents Malachy and Angela McCourt to Limerick, Ireland. When his alcoholic father, a former member of the IRA, deserted the family after two years, leaving mother Angela to raise four of their surviving seven children in poverty, a harrowing tale detailed in Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes. (Frank McCourt died in 2009)

Malachy McCourt, who returned to New York at age 20, would later write his own memoirs including A Monk Swimming (1998), an account of his life in Limerick that picks up where Angela’s Ashes leaves off, and in 2000, Singing My Him Song, which recounts his later (sober) life as a husband and father. Other writing includes a history of the Irish ballad “Danny Boy.”

An occasional guest on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show and sometime host of New York radio programs, McCourt also acted on stage (he co-wrote and co-starred in A Couple of Blaguards with brother Frank); movies The Molly Maguires (1970), The Brink’s Job (1978), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Starman (1987), and The Devil’s Own (1997), among others; and such TV series as Oz, Tales of the Unexpected and Remember WENN.

McCourt appeared on numerous New York-based soaps, including One Life To Live, Search For Tomorrow and Another World, but will best be remember for his annual Christmas appearances on All My Children as the possibly angelic Father Clarence and, most especially, in the recurring role of bartender Kevin MacGuinness throughout the entire 14-year run of Ryan’s Hope.

Bringing a outsized touch of Irish authenticity to the Washington Heights-set soap, McCourt’s Kevin was best friend to bar owner Johnny Ryan (Bernie Barrow) and truth-telling thorn-in-side to the trouble-making family in-law Delia (Ilene Kristen). In all, McCourt appeared in 217 episodes of the 1975-1989 series.

Offscreen, McCourt waged a high-profile, if ultimately losing, political battle in 2006 when he ran for governor of New York as a Green Party candidate. An outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, McCourt was an early and vociferous proponent of allowing gay and lesbian groups to march in New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

In addition to wife Diana, McCourt is survived by daughter Siobhan McCourt; sons Malachy Jr., Conor and Cormac; stepdaughter Nina Galin; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandson. e

Talk Show Appearance

AIRING Mar 14, 2024

Lindsay Lohan

Talk Show Appearance

AIRING Mar 11, 2024

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan Says ‘Freaky Friday’ Sequel With Jamie Lee Curtis Is Happening: “We Are Both Excited”

While being interviewed on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show, Lohan confirmed that a follow-up to the 2003 film was in the works.

“I won’t say that yet. I don’t want to say too much,” Lohan told the host after he asked if there was a timeline for production to start on the film.

She added, “We are both excited. I’m gonna speak for Jamie.”

Lohan and Curtis have been open to starring in a sequel. Back in October 2022, Curtis was asked on The View if she would reprise her role opposite Lohan and said she was “creatively wide open” to do so.

Curtis even had an idea as to what the Freaky Friday sequel could look like, saying, “Let me be the grandma, let me be the old grandma who switches places, so then Lindsay gets to be the sexy grandma who’s still happy with Mark Harmon in all the ways you would be happy with Mark Harmon.”

“I would like to see Lindsay be the hot grandma, and I would like to see me try to deal with toddlers today. I want to be a helicopter parent in today’s world,” Curtis added.

Freaky Friday is based on a 1972 novel by Mary Rodgers about a mother and a daughter whose bodies are switched following a magical Chinese fortune cookie. Curtis and Lohan were the mother-daughter duo, with Harmon playing Curtis’ fiancé in the film.

The 2003 film that starred Lohan and Curtis was the third film adaptation of the novel, following a 1976 film that starred Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster and a 1995 television movie with Shelly Long and Gaby Hoffmann. Disney Channel most recently adapted Freaky Friday into a musical movie in 2018 starring Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Heidi Blickenstaff.

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Facts

1. Song played at the end of the last episode: Bette Midler's 'In This Life' (It can be found at Amazon on the CD: Bette of Roses)

2. In the final scene of the soap, Rachel (Victoria Wyndham) looked at a collection of family photographs with Carl at her side before ascending the staircase in the Cory family living room for good. As tears rolled down our faces, we were left with a still picture of Mackenzie Cory (the late Douglas Watson) giving one of his famous & greatly missed toasts. We will miss this show more than words can say. I can't believe it's over.

   Of the final tape date, veteran Linda Dano (Felicia Gallant) recalls that it was fitting the entire AW cast was called to the Brooklyn set. "There's so many favorites at Another World through the years that when I said good-bye, I wasn't just saying good-bye to us there, I was saying good-bye to all the people I loved and all those memories," the actress shares. "I took it so personally. Everyone did. We all were struggling, all of us. I just hope everyone lands, that everyone finds a home and be happy and be fulfilled."

3. April 12, 1999 NBC announced that Another World was cancelled

4. Irna Phillips originally conceived Another World as a spin-off of as The World Turns. The plan was scrapped when CBS turned down the show and the rival network NBC snatched it up.

5. AW tops the list in technical firsts that changed the soap genre. It was the first soap to make the transition to color from black & white (1966) and to videotape from live broadcast (1967). It also was the first to regularly broadcast as an hour-long show (1975) and the first ongoing soap to be broadcast for 90 minutes (1979).

6. In 1987, AW was the first soap to have a character with AIDS. Dawn Rollo, Chad’s sister, came to town with the disease.

7. Contract negotiations between AW and Charles Keating (Carl) collapsed on March 19, 1998. While AW chose not to go into details about Keating's exit, the actor had no such problem- he addressed his fans with a statement on the Internet saying that AW had contacted his agent and that they had made a decision "to rest the character." Soon after, Carl was "killed." He returned a few weeks before AW's final episode, rising miraculously from the grave to reunite with his love, Rachel, just in time for the show's final episode.

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