Noticias

Lenny Schultz, the frenetic stand-up comic who used food and other stuff as props in a madcap act that took him to The Tonight Show and the rebooted Laugh-In — all as he kept his job as a high school gym teacher — has died. He was 91.

Schultz died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, his son, Mark Schultz, told The Hollywood Reporter.

With a physical brand of humor later embraced by the likes of Robin Williams, Gallagher, Carrot Top and Sam Kinison, the curly haired Schultz would compile a list of admirers that included David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal, Brett Butler and Jon Stewart. Audiences at his shows would yell “Go crazy, Lenny!” and that’s what he — and his fans — would do.

“They would go nuts, the people,” Schultz said in a 2017 interview. “It was very hard to follow my act because I’m doing silly and crazy things,...

A trailblazer in journalism and politics is at the center of Shaking It Up: The Life & Times of Liz Carpenter, which premieres on PBS on Monday, March 3. The documentary traces the witty Texan’s journey from news reporter to key vice-presidential advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson, press secretary for Lady Bird Johnson, and influential activist at the forefront of the women’s right movement. Affectionately referred to as the P.T. Barnum of the White House, Carpenter, who passed away in 2010, found herself with a front row seat to history. She helped shape it as shown in the film, which features never-seen home movies, photos, interview clips of her on Meet the Press, The Today Show and The David Frost Show, and rarely-shown artifacts. Among them are Carpenter’s initial handwritten draft of Lbj’s first remarks given as president in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which...

With the new release of Mildred Pierce, the Criterion Collection appears to be solidifying a trend over the past couple years of providing a showcase for some of the greatest female actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Since late 2014, stars like Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night, The Palm Beach Story), Rita Hayworth (Gilda, Only Angels Have Wings) and Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday) have made their first appearances in the Collection, in what can be considered career-defining roles. These additions seem to be addressing a notable blind spot for Criterion. As impressive as their reach has been in bringing many of the most iconic women from the past hundred years of world cinema to the forefront, the continuing absence of silver screen legends like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Greta Garbo and Elizabeth Taylor, just to name a few, seems like a lingering oversight, a problem yet to be...

“Cain, Curtiz, And Crawford”

By Raymond Benson

Mildred Pierce is one curious piece of cinema. As film critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito point out in their fascinating conversation that is a supplement on this beautifully-presented Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection, Pierce is a movie that almost doesn’t know what it wants to be. In many ways it is a woman’s picture, that is, a melodrama, but it’s disguised inside a manufactured film noir.

This reasoning is sound, for in spite of novelist James M. Cain being known for terrific pulp crime fiction (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice), his 1941 novel Mildred Pierce is not a crime story, unless you want to say that a young woman having an affair with her stepfather is “criminal.” The book is indeed hardboiled and pulpy, but there is no murder in it.

On the other hand, Michael Curtiz...

Mildred Pierce

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 860

1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2017 /

Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe, Butterfly McQueen.

Cinematography: Ernest Haller

Art Direction: Anton Grot

Film Editor: David Weisbart

Original Music: Max Steiner

Written by: Ranald MacDougall from the novel by James M. Cain

Produced by: Jerry Wald, Jack L. Warner

Directed by Michael Curtiz

James M. Cain’s 1941 novel Mildred Pierce offers a venal and self-destructive view of America not with a story of respectable bourgeois society, not the criminal underworld. A de-classed, suburb-dwelling nobody fights her way onto the social register by using men and by hard work… and then watches as her obsessive goals blow up in her face In Cain’s worldview it’s every woman for herself. He drags in an odd personal theme,...

Update: The Before Trilogy on Criterion is currently $39.95. Pre-order while you can.

After The Criterion Collection hinted at it and some of the own crew confirmed it, it’s now been officially revealed that one of their most-requested releases will be arriving next year. Richard Linklater‘s Before trilogy will be joining the colelction just a few weeks after Valentine’s Day, on February 28th, featuring new 2K restorations of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset as well as Before Midnight.

Special features include a new discussion with Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke, moderated by Kent Jones, and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s documentary on the making of the most recent feature. There’s also the full feature-length documentary Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, and more. While we’re still waiting on cover art for the Linklater set, check out the full details on February’s line-up below, also including one...

Comedian David Brenner, who made frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, died Saturday. He was 78.

David Brenner Dies

Brenner passed away this weekend after a battle with cancer, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. “Brenner died peacefully at his home in NYC surrounded by his family at his side,” Abraham told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.

Throughout his career in comedy, Brenner became a favorite of Johnny Carson's. He appeared on The Tonight Show during his tenure an estimated 158 times – more than any other guest in history. He also served as a stand-in host a number of times when Carson took some time off from the late night talk show.

"Everything was perfect. You couldn't write a better scenario," Brenner said, reminiscing about his first time on The Tonight Show, according to THR. "The next day, I had $10,000 worth of job offers. I never thought...

Comedian David Brenner died today at his home in New York, NY. He was 78. A favorite of Tonight Show host, Johnny Carson, Brenner made over 150 appearances as a guest and substitute host on the NBC latenight show, starting in the ’70s. A contemporary of such stand-up legends as Andy Kaufman, Freddie Prinze and Gabe Kaplan, Brenner made a name for his observational comedic styling accentuated by his toothy grin, wavy hair and lanky demeanor. Brenner was born on Feb. 4, 1936 in Philadelphia, the son of a vaudeville singer and comedian who went under the stage name “Lou Murphy”. Brenner served two years in the Army and after majoring in mass communications at Temple University, he went on to write, direct and produce socially-conscious TV documentaries as the head of the doc department at Westinghouse Broadcasting and Multimedia Broadcasting. Cutting his teeth on the stand-up circuit in New York, in the late ’60s,...

The death of legendary broadcaster David Frost sparked an outpour of tributes on Sunday morning. The British personality was best known for his legendary post-resignation interviews with President Richard Nixon, which later became the subject a popular play and film written by Peter Morgan. Ron Howard, director of 2006's "Frost/Nixon," told HuffPost U.K. that he has "respect for his audacity" in the wake of Frost's passing.

But Frost wasn't all politics and business -- he was a regular purveyor of celebrity interviews as well. Programs like "The David Frost Show" and "Breakfast with Frost" featured a host of A-list entertainers who are among some of Hollywood's most famous. Here, we recall some of Frost's glitziest interviews.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1972)

Elton John (1999)

Paul McCartney (1997)

Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards (1970)

James Brown (1970)

Tennessee Williams (1970)

Truman Capote (1969)...

Sir David Frost, the veteran broadcaster and writer, has died of a suspected heart attack while traveling aboard the Queen Elizabeth where he was delivering a speech on Saturday night, according to the BBC. He was 74. Frost’s long career spanned journalism, heavy-hitting TV interviews, game show hosting and comedy writing. He notably conducted a series of televised sit-downs with former president Richard Nixon in 1977. They were the basis of a 2006 play by Peter Morgan, which was then adapted as Ron Howard’s 2008 film, Frost/Nixon. Michael Sheen played Frost and the film was nominated for five Oscars. In the early 1960s, Frost hosted the satirical program That Was The Week That Was on the BBC and also featured on an American version for NBC from 1964-1965. In 1968, he helped launch London Weekend Television, which is now part of ITV. His other on-air TV credits included The Frost Report, The David Frost Show,...

Dr. Joyce Brothers, who parlayed a psychology degree and a penchant for dispensing advice to troubled strangers into a TV career when Dr. Phil was still in short pants (and Dr. Drew was barely a twinkle in his father’s eye), has died at the age of 85. A favorite guest of Johnny Carson’s, Dr. Brothers was talk-show royalty in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, making frequent appearances on The Tonight Show, as well as The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The David Frost Show, and Dinah! and, later, The Daily Show and Late Night With Conan ...

Billy Taylor, the noted jazz pianist and educator who enjoyed tremendous success on television, has died. He was 89.

Taylor died Tuesday of heart failure in New York, his daughter, Kim Taylor-Thompson, told The New York Times.

See other celebrities who died this year

A longtime fixture on television unlike many of his contemporaries, Taylor served as cultural correspondent on CBS News' Sunday Morning and was the first African-American to lead a talk-show band when he was bandleader for The David Frost Show from 1969 to '72.

He first made his mark on TV in 1958 as the musical director of NBC's The Subject Is Jazz, the first TV series that ...

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