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The Simpsons has delved into a number of characters’ backstories over the years, many of which were surprisingly upsetting. Like how the “Crazy Cat Lady” turned out to be a graduate of both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law and whose life was ruined by alcoholism and a severe feline dependency.

And while you might think that, after 36 seasons, the show has no more dark character secrets to expose, well, apparently that’s not the case. Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman recently sat for an interview with That Shelf and told the hosts that, even though parodies of The Godfather are “overdone,” the show is going back to that well yet again.

“The Godfather tropes are so cliché,” Selman explained. “Having said that, we have a giant Godfather II episode coming up that is a back and forth, present and past (story) about the Quimby family saga.”

That’s right, an...

You have to admire Bethenny Frankel’s grind; who else is doing product placement for their body dysmorphia/alcohol brand inside of their own children’s book?

14 Tim Tebow: ‘Bronco and Friends’

Tebow wanted to remind everyone that he spent two years on the Denver Broncos by first naming his dog “Bronco,” and then writing two books about a dog named Bronco going to a party and a picnic. The about-the-author section mentions, helpfully, that “Tim and his wife, Demi-Leigh Tebow (Miss Universe 2017), live in Jacksonville, Florida.”

13 Bethenny Frankel: ‘Cookie Meets Peanut’

This is an extremely pink book about a little girl and a spoiled dog that, troublingly, includes an illustration of her bottled margaritas, Skinny Girl Cocktails. A small but grating detail: She says the word “walkies” a lot.

12 Weird Al Yankovic: ‘When I Grow Up’

A little kid is asked what he wants to be when he grows up,...

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois announced on Wednesday he will not be seeking reelection next year. Durbin, who is 80, has spent more than half of his life serving first in the House and then the Senate, where he was elevated to Democratic Whip, party leadership’s second-highest role. “I truly love the job of being a United States senator, but in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch,” Durbin said in a video message.

Meredith Shiner, a communications professional, was in a Zoom training for...

Self-Portrait.“Maybe I should have a fall at the end of every film now!”I’m calling to check in with Jerry Schatzberg, who is fresh out of the hospital. Two days earlier, at the opening night of a Museum of Modern Art retrospective of his film career, he had shown his feature debut, Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), released when he was 43 years old. As he climbed the short flight of stairs to the stage for a Q&a, Schatzberg, now 97, lost his balance and tumbled backward. The whole room screamed. Ushers, museum staff, and his assistants came instantly to his side. He did not move. After five silent minutes, everyone was asked to leave. When he was carted out of the MoMA on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, the crowd that had lingered outside the theater cheered. He waved softly back. Over the phone, Jerry assures me he’s doing fine,...

The Justice Department released Jeffrey Epstein’s contact list on Thursday, which revealed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mother, Ethel Kennedy, was in it. The contact list is not essentially a client list, and it did not implicate Mrs. Kennedy in any sort of crime. However, the revelation did not come as a surprise to the people, as Rfk Jr. had mentioned his association with Epstein multiple times.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience | Credits: @PowerfulJRE/YouTube

Kennedy Jr. previously acknowledged that he had met Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and flown on his private jet twice. As the contact list came out, a resurfaced video from March 2024 went viral. In the video, Kennedy Jr. tried to explain his association with Epstein by stating that he had socialized with other problematic individuals as well.

Robert F. Kennedy earlier attempted to justify his association with...

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has released new documents that could be helpful in the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s case, including his contact list and flight logs. It was a major disappointment for the people, though, as the said file did not reveal any explosive information.

Jeffrey Epstein / Credits: ABC News

In fact, it did not mention any names of celebrities, politicians, or high-profile figures who are confirmed to have been guests on his private island. All we have for now is a list of Epstein’s contact list whose names are familiar to the public.

Jeffrey Epstein’s contact list revealed several well-known celebrities and politicians

On Thursday afternoon, Jeffrey Epstein’s documents were released to selected right-wing social media influencers, and they were reportedly underwhelmed with the revelation. A source who had seen the files told the New York Post that they looked into a hundred pages of phone book,...

Harvey Weinstein’s brother, Bob Weinstein, might need to watch his back while he deals with the lawsuit filed against him.

As promised, President Donald Trump released the “first phase” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and his contact list. While the 200-page long binder did not provide any breaking news related to the Epstein List, it did unveil a few big names who had been on his contact list. From Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson to Alec Baldwin and Ivanka Trump, the documents only confirmed what the masses had been suspecting all this time.

Jeffery Epstein | Credits: Filthy Rich on Netflix

One such name on the list was that of Bob Weinstein, film producer and the founder of Dimension Films, as well as the former co-chairman of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company. Harvey Weinstein, now in jail, filed a lawsuit against his brother and a few others alleging financial fraud and conspiracy.

The Justice Department of the U.S. has released a document relating to the notorious s*x predator Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday evening, February 26th. The list includes a contact list and flight logs. The 200-page document has made no big revelations, but it has mentioned all the celebrities and politicians who were on the contact list of the offender. Attorney General Pam Bondi has claimed that the FBI office in New York will investigate the document further for it to be disclosed to the public.

Jeffrey Epstein | Credit: Filthy Rich on Netflix

Jeffrey Epstein had been charged with s*x offences against several underage girls in his homes and private islands. He had several acquaintances among whom some big Hollywood names are involved. The document containing the names of the contact list has revealed all the names related to the offences to the public.

Who are there on Jeffrey Epstein’s contact list?...

The Justice Department released the ‘Epstein Binder’, which contained documents like a contact list, flight logs, and other evidence related to s*x predator Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. President Donald Trump once maintained close ties with the disgraced financier. However, Trump’s name did not appear in the contact list released, and there is no proof that he was on the infamous ‘Epstein List’.

Donald Trump in an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience | Credits: PowefulJRE/YouTube

The new document contains no significant new information pertaining to the case. The President’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former wife, Ivana Trump, were among those listed as Epstein’s contact. However, the document didn’t imply that anyone in the contact list was associated with Epstein’s crimes.

Jeffrey Epstein’s contact list includes Donald Trump’s ex-wife and daughter Donald Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump in an interview with Jim Axelrod...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was front and center on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to going before senators, Rfk Jr. received a damning condemnation from his cousin Caroline Kennedy. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert happily picked apart the family drama.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy, urged the Senate to reject her cousin's nomination. She compared Rfk Jr. to a predator and warned against letting him oversee the nation's health agencies.

"Oh, I love an old fashioned Kennedy fight," Stephen Colbert joked in his monologue. "Usually these things get worked out in Nantucket with croquet mallets until it's time for oysters, gin, and the NDAs."

Colbert then outlined Caroline Kennedy's credentials and why her warning should be taken seriously. But the Late Show host did take exception to Caroline's "predator" line about Rfk Jr. "You're not a...

In May 1974, Gov. Jimmy Carter delivered a blistering Law Day address at the University of Georgia to a distinguished audience of lawyers and public officials, along with members of the press corps. Quietly preparing to run for the presidency two years hence, Carter decided to shake things up, forsaking the usual honorifics in favor of some startling remarks about the oppressive unfairness of American criminal justice. He forthrightly denounced a rigged and racist system that patently served the interests of the affluent and powerful at the expense of everyone else,...

The Penguin is one of the best comic book shows in recent years. If the series maintains its current quality, it will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the greatest superhero shows of all time. Currently airing on HBO, four out of eight episodes have been released as of this writing.

While Colin Farrell’s charismatic portrayal of The Penguin is the show’s centerpiece, we’ve noted multiple times that Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone has emerged as a breakout character and a true scene-stealer.

Her backstory was further developed in Episode 4, “Cent’anni,” which garnered widespread acclaim from both critics and fans, earning the title of the best episode so far. In a recent interview, showrunner Lauren LeFranc revealed the real-life inspiration behind Sofia’s story, and that’s what we’ll be discussing in this article.

While The Penguin draws inspiration from various comic books, showrunner Lauren LeFranc shared that Matt Reeves,...

The Penguin is one of the best comic book shows in recent years, and if the series manages to maintain the same level of quality to the end, it will also remain one of the best superhero shows of all time, without a doubt.

The series is currently airing on HBO, with four out of eight episodes aired as of the time of writing.

Of course, Collin Farrel’s charismatic interpretation of The Penguin is the focus of the show. But we have written on multiple occasions that Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone has been the series’ breakthrough character and a proper scene-stealer.

Her backstory was better explained in Episode 4 of the series, “Cent’anni,” for which Milioti received widespread praise from critics and fans, with the episode being labeled as the best one to date.

In a recent discussion, showrunner Lauren LeFranc revealed the real-life inspiration behind Sofia’s...

The question of which U.S. state Springfield is situated in has been a long-running gag on The Simpsons. Is it Oregon? Missouri? Some kind of extradimensional state that allows us to see multiple parallel realities at once?

Back in 2007, that debate was the subject of a promotional contest tied to the release of The Simpsons Movie. Real-life Springfields were invited by USA Today to compete for the opportunity to host the film’s premiere, and therefore become forever associated with America’s dumbest, most radioactive waste-filled town.

Each Springfield had to submit a three- to five-minute video showing off their town. Springfield, Minnesota declined to participate, claiming that they were “nothing like the dysfunctional town on the TV show” (though they did have a monorail at one point), while Springfield, Ohio ultimately participated, even though some residents worried that they would “come off looking like a bunch of buffoons.

ABC News’ political director Rick Klein has been named vice president and Washington D.C. bureau chief for the network.

Klein has been a member of the ABC’s team in Washington D.C. since 2007 and will now oversee bureau operations and manage all news teams based there on breaking news, daily coverage and special events. He will also oversee all political coverage, including the network’s Sunday morning public affairs program, This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

ABC News is scheduled to host the next presidential debate on Sept. 10, with World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis. President Biden sat down with ABC News for his first interview after the June 27 debate hosted on CNN.

“As a seasoned and highly respected journalist, Rick is uniquely qualified to lead our Washington bureau at such a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. His years...

In response to a lawsuit by Rolling Stone and National Security Counselors, the Department of Justice has turned over two tranches of FBI documents related to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Rolling Stone’s Freedom of Information Act request, filed hours after the announcement of his death in November 2023, seeks expedited processing of FBI files related to the former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Nixon. Kissinger is widely considered to be a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Cambodia, a coup in Chile,...

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has disclosed a series of health issues he has faced in recent years, one of which involves a worm-like parasite that entered his brain but ultimately died.

Kennedy, 70, recounted his severe memory loss and mental fog in 2010, which prompted him to consult renowned neurologists familiar with his late uncle Sen. Ted Kennedy’s medical history. After a brain scan, a New York doctor suggested that Kennedy’s health problems could potentially be attributed to a worm that had entered his brain and consumed a portion of it before it died. In a deposition related to his divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, in 2012, Kennedy expressed that these cognitive issues had negatively impacted his earning potential.

In that same period, Kennedy also experienced mercury poisoning, a condition associated with neurological symptoms such as peripheral vision loss, muscle weakness, movement difficulties, hearing and speech impairment,...

On Thursday afternoon, members of the Kennedy endorsed President Joe Biden at a campaign rally in Philadelphia.

Biden’s rally in Philadelphia is the last major stop in a three-day swing through Pennsylvania.

During this trip, he laid out his economic and tax agenda and attacked former President Donald Trump as an enemy of working people.

Kennedy family members approached the Biden team and requested a joint event for the endorsements.

Joseph Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Maxwell Kennedy and Christopher Kennedy backed Biden during this rally.

The event is a further rejection of their family member and independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The president’s campaign released a list of 15 Kennedys scheduled to appear at this rally but also mentioned that other family members would endorse him.

Joe Kennedy III, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, introduced Biden at a second event.

“We can say today,...

Joe Biden was joined by members of the Kennedy family in Philadelphia today to promote their endorsement of the president, a conspicuous rebuke of the independent bid of Robert Kennedy Jr.

Kerry Kennedy, Rfk Jr.’s sister, introduced Biden at the event, noting that “nearly every grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden. That’s right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president.”

She was joined by 14 other relatives. They include siblings Rory, Joe, Chris, Max and Kathleen, as well as Joe Kennedy III, who serves as a special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Kerry Kennedy said that “in 2024 there are only two candidates with any chance of winning the presidency. We know that well.”

Rfk Jr.’s campaign could prove consequential to Biden’s prospects, especially if he is able to secure ballot access in key swing states and siphon votes way from the president’s reelection effort.

George Wallace was paralyzed from the waist down after an assassination attempt in 1972, ending his Presidential campaign. Arthur Bremer, the man who tried to kill Wallace, served 35 years in prison and was released in 2007 on parole. Despite the attempt on his life, Wallace won two primaries, attended the Democratic National Convention in 1972, and ran for President again in 1976.

A pivotal scene in the new Netflix movie Shirley is the real-life assassination attempt of presidential candidate George Wallace. Wallace, played by W. Earl Brown in Shirley, was a well-known American politician and judge who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for a total of four terms. Like the real-life Shirley Chisholm, Wallace announced that he was running for President of the United States as a Democrat in the pivotal 1972 election.

As portrayed in Shirley, both Chisholm and Wallace were victims of separate assassination attacks, although Chisholm's was far less severe...

Update: Robert Kennedy Jr. apologized to family members for a Super Bowl spot that mimicked an ad run by his uncle John F. Kennedy during his 1960 presidential run.

“I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain,” Kennedy wrote on X/Twitter. “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super Pac without any involvement or approval from my campaign. Fec rules prohibit Super PACs from consulting with me or my staff. I love you all. God bless you.”

Kennedy did pin the ad to his X/Twitter account, where it remains.

Bobby Shriver, Kennedy’s cousin, objected to the spot, writing that his mother Eunice “would be appalled by his deadly health care views.” Mark Shriver wrote that he agreed with that sentiment against the ad, and Maria Shriver retweeted her brother’s objections.

The spot was from the American Values...

The For All Mankind timeline portrays an alternate history where the Soviet Union lands the first man on the moon, changing the course of events and leading to a different space race outcome. The show incorporates historical events and figures alongside fictional characters, and depicts real-life missions like Apollo 10 with some fictional elements. For All Mankind imagines a more equal space race, featuring the first woman on the moon and an all-female crew of astronauts, taking inspiration from the real-life Mercury 13 program.

The For All Mankind timeline shows how history might have turned out differently if the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States never ended. The Apple TV+ series created by Ronald D. Moore premiered in 2019, following a group of fictional astronauts alongside historical figures like fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong, US Senator and presidential hopeful Ted Kennedy, and President Richard Nixon. In For All Mankind season...

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who was an influential partner to her husband, Jimmy Carter, in his unlikely rise to the Georgia governor’s mansion, then to the White House and later in his impactful post-presidency, died today at the age of 96, the Carter Center announced.

Carter, who suffered from dementia, entered hospice care on Friday. She died at 2:10 p.m. Et at her and her husband’s home in Plains, Ga, the center said.

Jimmy Carter said in a statement, “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.” The Carters were married for 77 years, the longest of any presidential couple. The former president, now 99, entered hospice care earlier this year.

As first lady from 1977 to 1981, Carter used her platform...

Matthew Perry, who rose to major fame playing Chandler Bing on the smash hit NBC comedy “Friends” from 1994 to 2004, is dead. He was 54,

The actor was found unresponsive Saturday at around 4 p.m. in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. First responding paramedics were unable to revive him. It’s unclear if his death was caused by drowning or cardiac arrest, but there were evidently no drugs found at the scene nor evidence of foul play. Perry had a long and storied history of substance abuse.

Born in Williamstown, Massachusetts on August 19, 1969, Perry was raised in Ottawa, Canada. His mother, Suzanne Morrison, was a journalist and press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. (His stepfather is “Dateline’s” Keith Morrison.) Perry moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue an acting career. He made his television debut in 1979 on an episode of “240-Robert” and in the...

Matthew Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, has died. He was 54.

The actor was found unconscious late this afternoon at his L.A. home by first responders who were unable to revive him, law enforcement sources told Deadline.

Perry’s death is considered an ongoing investigation, we hear.

Throughout his career, Perry struggled with addiction, which he detailed in his memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” published last year.

“I really lived life to its fullest and that got me in trouble from time to time,” he said in a US Weekly interview several years ago.

Perry made his television debut in 1979 on an episode of 240-Robert. He would go on to book roles in shows like Not Necessarily the News (1983), Charles in Charge (1985), Silver Spoons (1986), Just the Ten of Us (1988) and Highway to Heaven (1988). Perry would be a series regular on Boys Will be Boys...

Actor Matthew Perry, best known for his role on the hit comedy series Friends, has passed away.

Per THR, Perry was found dead on Saturday at a Los Angeles home where he "appears to have drowned," according to law enforcement. The report noted that first-responders had originally responded to a call for cardiac arrest before Perry was found deceased in a jacuzzi at the home. Reportedly, no drugs were found at the scene, and cops do not suspect foul play was involved. Perry was just 54 years old.

Perry rose to fame with his unforgettable role as Chandler Bing on the popular sitcom Friends. He played the role from 1994 to 2004 across ten seasons, garnering an Emmy nomination for the part. In 2021, Perry joined his co-stars from the series for the Max (then HBO Max) special Friends: The Reunion, reflecting on his time spent on the show. Given his association with the show,...

Actor Matthew Perry, known for his role in Friends, has died at the age of 54, possibly due to drowning in a Jacuzzi. No drugs were found at the scene, and law enforcement believes there was no foul play involved in Perry's death. Perry, who recently published a memoir about his struggle with substance use disorder, had turned 54 in August.

There is more sad news today as we learn that actor Matthew Perry has died at the age of 54 after an apparent drowning incident, though reports are still coming in. A cardiac arrest call came in, and law enforcement officers found Perry was found dead at an L.A. home. According to People, "[TMZ] reported that Perry was found in a Jacuzzi at the home, and no drugs were found at the scene. TMZ was also told that there was no foul play involved, and their sources said first-responders were called...

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-mn), who represents a suburban Minneapolis congressional district, launched a challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

His announcement has been expected for weeks, as Phillips, 54, warns that Biden’s age and low approval mean that he very likely may lose to Donald Trump next year. Trump has a wide lead against the GOP field.

In an interview with CBS News’ Robert Costa on CBS Mornings, Phillips said that he thinks Biden has “done a spectacular job for our country, but it is not about the past. This is an election about the future.”

“I will not sit still, I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we going to be facing an emergency next November,” he said.

In the interview and in his campaign video, Phillips said that now was the time to “pass the torch” to a new generation.

Mitt Romney’s new book Romney: A Reckoning, written by McKay Coppins, shares the politician’s blunt assessments of his fellow Republicans.

Romney recounts an interaction he and former president Donald Trump shared at a New England Patriots game. The two were guests of the owner Robert Kraft.

Coppins writes, “Trump sidled up to Romney’s son Josh and pointed at a leggy brunette across the room. ‘Have you seen my girlfriend, Melania?’ he asked, smirking. ‘When I drop her, the phone is gonna ring off the hook. Every guy in New York wants to go out with her.’”

Romney and Trump have a social history since the mid-1990s.

The Washington Post had previously written, “In the 1990s, Romney began cultivating influential people who might become key supporters of a political campaign. Two months after his failed 1994 campaign for the Senate seat held by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts...

Christopher Nolan will be honored by the Federation of American Scientists for his cinematic portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Universal’s Oppenheimer this November. The five-time Oscar nominee will be bestowed with the org’s Public Service Award which recognizes outstanding work in science policy and culture.

The awards ceremony, which will take place in Washington D.C next month, revives a decades-long tradition that began in 1971, which honors the contributions of a diverse group of scientists, policymakers, and tastemakers in pursuit of advancements in science and technology.

“Nolan’s film depicts the scientists who formed Fas in the fall of 1945 as the ‘Federation of Atomic Scientists’ to communicate the dangers of nuclear weapons to the public. We continue to pursue their vision of a safer world, especially as current events remind us that those dangers are real and resurgent,” Fas CEO Daniel Correa said.

Nolan tells Deadline, “I...

With a presence in American politics since 1895, the Kennedys remain one of the most well-known families in the nation's history. Despite their ongoing prominence, however, the family has been beset by many personal tragedies dating back to the mid-20th century. Some have even surmised that a curse hovers over the Kennedy legacy, including Ted Kennedy who, in 1969, was involved in a tragic incident on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Veteran entertainment publicist Andrew Freedman died Feb. 8 in New York after being diagnosed with liver cancer in August. He was 67.

Freedman worked with clients including Gayle King, Barbara Walters, Joan Collins, Margo Martindale, Christopher McDonald and Harry Shearer. Prior to his career as a publicist, Freedman served as communications specialist to Sen. Ted Kennedy during his 1980 presidential campaign, which was followed by his campaign work for Sen. George McGovern in South Dakota and Reps. Jim Howard and Andy Maguire in New Jersey.

Following his campaigning involvement, from 1984-1991 Freedman worked at NBC and served as a spokesman for the network’s programming. Freedman oversaw the network’s press operation for the U.S.-Russian Reykjavík and Geneva summits, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the network’s presidential election coverage and managed media relations for NBC Nightly News, “Meet the Press” and the “Today” show.

By 1990, Freedman launched Andrew E. Freedman Public Relations,...

Andrew Freedman, the news and entertainment publicist who ran the New York-based Andrew E. Freedman Public Relations for more than three decades, died February 8 following a cancer diagnosis last year. He was 67.

His death was announced by sons Al and Chris on the firm’s website.

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“To us, he was our best friend, our biggest supporter, our inspiration, and our hero,” Al and Chris Freedman said of their father. “We’re thankful that he’s without pain and with our beloved mother, Patty, and our family dog Riley.”

Born on March 26, 1955, Freedman’s first major PR post came within the news division of NBC during the 1980s.

Andrew Freedman, the veteran news and entertainment publicist whose clients included Gayle King, Barbara Walters, Joan Collins, Margo Martindale, Christopher McDonald and Harry Shearer, has died. He was 67.

Freedman died Feb. 8 at Mount Sinai West hospital in New York, his son Chris told The Hollywood Reporter. He was diagnosed with liver cancer in August.

Freedman served as a senior spokesman for all NBC News programming from 1984-91 — managing media relations for NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press and the Today show — then was vp corporate communications for Special Olympics International for a year.

Those jobs overlapped with the launch of Andrew E. Freedman Public Relations in 1990 in New York.

His wife of 30 years and business partner, actress Patty Dworkin, died in February 2017 of breast cancer at age 64. She appeared on Broadway with Jackie Gleason, on TV shows including Eight Is Enough and The Love Boat and in such films as Airplane II and Mr. Mom.

Jim Gaffigan is known to most as a talented stand-up comedian with a passionate love of "Hot Pockets", but he has also been making quite a name for himself in the acting game. He added his own name to the popular sitcom sub-genre of comedians playing exaggerated versions of themselves with The Jim Gaffigan Show (2015-2016) and took a more dramatic turn with the Ted Kennedy biopic Chappaquiddick (2017). Gaffigan is also set to enter the wide wonderful world of Walt Disney remakes as Mr. Smee in the upcoming Peter Pan & Wendy (2023). Come later this February, fans of Gaffigan will have the opportunity to see the comedian like never before in an ambitious film that's part comedy, part drama, and part science fiction. Linoleum (2023) is the third feature effort of filmmaker Colin West (Double Walker), and stars Jim Gaffigan as a down-on-his-luck children's television host and scientist named Cameron Edwin.

In its current 34th season, The Simpsons has introduced a bunch of new characters, like Jesse, a hunky parody of Peloton instructors, and a fourth-wall-breaking hacker voiced by guest star Anna Faris. From Krusty the Clown to Ralph Wiggum to Ned Flanders to Moe Szyslak, many fan-favorite Simpsons characters have been around since the very first season.

But some of the show’s most beloved characters, like Fat Tony, Troy McClure, Mayor Quimby, Groundskeeper Willie, and Comic Book Guy, didn’t join the ensemble until later seasons.

Mayor Quimby

The long-standing mayor of Springfield – Joseph Fitzgerald O’Malley Fitzpatrick O'Donnell The Edge Quimby, also known by his nickname “Diamond Joe” – made his first on-screen appearance in the season 2 premiere, “Bart Gets an ‘F’.” Quimby has somehow managed to stay in office for decades despite having all his corruption out in the open.

Quimby is a composite caricature of various members of the Kennedy family,...

Meet Jack Schlossberg, JFK's only grandson. The 29-year-old descendent of John F. Kennedy has taken after the late 35th president in a number of ways, even enrolling at his alma mater, Harvard University, which John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy all attended.  This week, Schlossberg celebrated his graduation from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School by sharing a photo of himself holding up cupcakes with the school's crest. A second shot showed him in a library, while a third displayed a banner marking his recent graduation. Though Schlossberg often avoids posting personal photos on Instagram, he again popped up in public life two years...

Harry Reid, the by-turns scrappy, mild-mannered and acid-tongued former Democratic Senate leader, has died of pancreatic cancer. Reid was 82.

Reid was a dominating figure in Democratic politics for decades, using his home base in Nevada to rise to the top of the Senate. As majority leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid proved a steady hand, guiding passage of the bank bailouts, the Recovery Act and the Dodd/Frank re-regulation of Wall Street. He also won the landmark passage of Obamacare in 2010. Serving in Congress for more than three decades, Reid left his...

Update, with reactions Anne Beatts, an original Saturday Night Live writer who created some of the show’s earliest breakthrough characters, among them the nerdy high schoolers Todd DILAMuca and Lisa Loopner, died yesterday. She was 74.

Her death was announced in a tweet by SNL original cast member Laraine Newman. A cause of death has not been disclosed.

“Struggling to find adequate and appropriate descriptive words to describe her singular self,” tweeted Sarah Jessica Parker, who starred in the Beatts-created 1982 CBS sitcom Square Pegs. “I need time. Cause I’m coming up short. Gosh, she was really something. Rip Anne. Thank you. For memories very few 17/18 yr olds get to make. X, Sj”

Beatts began her career in comedy writing with a stint at National Lampoon magazine, becoming the Harvard Lampoon spin-off’s first female editor. She wrote one of the magazine’s most notorious spoofs – an ad for the...

Jason Clarke plays the youngest Kennedy brother, self-pityingly facing prosecution and trying to salvage his political career, in this over-lenient film

“I learned a great lesson from Chappaquiddick … don’t drive over narrow bridges when you’re pissed out of your mind.” This gag from the BBC’s 1970s sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News, with Griff Rhys Jones playing a sombre Ted Kennedy, perfectly encapsulates his cynicism and self-pity. It seems to me more apposite than this lenient movie about Chappaquiddick, which now belatedly appears in the UK, starring Jason Clarke as Kennedy, scripted by first-time feature writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan, and directed by John Curran.

While driving back in darkness from a party at Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts in July 1969, Kennedy’s car went off a narrow bridge into the water. Kennedy swam clear, but his passenger drowned: Mary Jo Kopechne, a woman who had...

Most of the time, Joe Biden is so middle of the road that they should name that yellow line after the former vice president – regardless if he wins the election next month or not.

“There’s not one single syllable I’ve ever said that could lead you to believe that I was a socialist or a communist,” Biden declared in Miami tonight at an NBC Nightly News town hall with Lester Holt in classic Mor fashion.

“Do I look like a socialist? I’m the guy who ran against the socialist,” Biden noted of his primary victories over now loyal supporter Sen. Bernie Sanders when a question sought to trip him up over appealing to GOP leaning Cuban and Venezuelan voters who are being told he is a prisoner of the left. “I’ve taken on the Castros of this world, the Putins of this world,” Biden added. “I...

The Kennedy family has lost a beloved member.  Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving sibling of late former President John F. Kennedy, has died. The former diplomat was 92 years old and died in Manhattan on Wednesday night, her daughter Kym Smith confirmed to NBC News, noting her mother "lived an amazing life." That life began in February 1928 as Joseph Kennedy and Rose Kennedy's youngest daughter and the eighth of nine children, which famously included the 35th president of the United States, as well as late former Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.  "My parents felt very strongly, my mother in particular, for if you have a happy...

Our guest today on Crew Call is two-time Oscar nominated and Primetime Emmy-winning composer Nicholas Britell whose classical score for the second season of HBO’s Succession continues to evoke the onscreen emotions of the complex, warring adult childs of media magnate Logan Roy (Brian Cox) in the Jesse Armstrong-created series.

Season 2 for Britell centers around the turnaround of Roy scion Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who was significantly humbled in the season 1 finale after trying to takeover his father’s Waystar Royco, ultimately getting himself into a Ted Kennedy-like-Chappaquiddick situation at his sister’s wedding in England. Kendall is quietly under the thumb of papa Logan, and eats plenty of crow in season 2, but the tables turn. And it’s Britell’s score that beautifully accentuates the fall and rise of Kendall as he looks to reclaim power over his siblings of his father’s media empire, which is...

Sherrod Brown has always defied easy categorization. A Yale graduate from a well-off family, he became a state representative in Ohio at the age of 21 and spent his free time in local union halls, absorbing the stories of auto and steelworkers. In the 1990s and 2000s, when Bill Clinton and the New Democrats preached the gospel of globalization, Brown, then a congressman, warned about the ugly consequences of free-trade deals like Nafta — jobs shipped overseas, factories abandoned, towns and cities hollowed out. During the Obama years, Brown, now in the U.

I’m such a big Nasa nerd that when the 1202 alarm went off during an Apollo 11 simulation in For All Mankind, Apple TV+’s new alternate history of the space race, I immediately knew it was the same alert that in real life nearly scuttled the first lunar landing. I’m such a big Nasa nerd that as soon as it was established that the show’s lead astronauts, Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman), were on the Apollo 10 mission that came within a few hundred...

Capitol Hill media figures took a break from ongoing impeachment coverage on Thursday evening to honor NBC News Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell with a career achievement award.

O’Donnell is the first woman to receive the Radio & Television Correspondents Association’s Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress. A 25-year veteran of the network, O’Donnell quipped, “Could I ask this of the Rtca board. Could we call this the ‘Mid-Career Achievement Award’?”

Also honored at the event were Mary Bruce, ABC News’ senior congressional correspondent, who won the Joan S. Barone Award for political reporting in the past year. She covered the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The BBC’s Clive Myrie won the David Bloom Award for his reporting on the source of the opioid crisis. CNN’s Kim Uhl received the Jerry Thompson Memorial Award, recognizing career achievement in photojournalism.

O’Donnell has covered not just Capitol Hill,...

Australian actor Jason Clarke is a rare breed — the character actor leading man. He gives a virtuoso performance as Grigory Potemkin, opposite Helen Mirren, in the new HBO mini-series Catherine The Great. He also stars in Pet Cemetery, Dawn of the Planet of The Apes, Terminator Genysis, Zero Dark Thirty, and won accolades for his portrayal of Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick. In this half hour he talks about his love of research, his dedication to the text, being there for the other actor, and the uselessness of fame. Plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you […]...

Australian actor Jason Clarke is a rare breed — the character actor leading man. He gives a virtuoso performance as Grigory Potemkin, opposite Helen Mirren, in the new HBO mini-series Catherine The Great. He also stars in Pet Cemetery, Dawn of the Planet of The Apes, Terminator Genysis, Zero Dark Thirty, and won accolades for his portrayal of Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick. In this half hour he talks about his love of research, his dedication to the text, being there for the other actor, and the uselessness of fame. Plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you […]...

In times of tragedy, Katherine Schwarzenegger understands the importance of holding her loved ones close.  One day after the Kennedy family laid 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill to rest in their native Massachusetts, Katherine is reflecting on the time they spent together in a heartfelt Instagram post.  "After wiping away the tears, after the beautiful sunsets, there is always a new day," the 29-year-old daughter of Maria Shriver, who is a niece of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, wrote. "It's not the big events or pretty things that hold you up at the end of the day, it's family." Maria and Saoirse were cousins, making...

There’s a long list of celebrities who deserve to compete on “Dancing with the Stars” when the series returns this fall for its 28th season, and ABC entertainment president Karey Burke recently said they’re “going after bigger stars than we have in a long time.” Below is a list of male celebs I think the show should consider inviting to vie for the Mirror Ball Trophy (and check our my female cast suggestions here). Do you agree with my picks? Vote in our poll at the bottom of this post to let us know which (if any) of them you’d most like to see on “DWTS.” And feel free to let us know in comments what other stars you would like to see when the show comes back in September.

Brandon Victor Dixon

After receiving Tony nominations for Broadway’s “The Color Purple” (2006) and “Shuffle Along” (2016), Dixon...