News

Larry Charles says that The Dictator wasn’t as good as Borat because Sacha Baron Cohen started taking too much advice from the A-list entertainment business crowd instead of following his comedic instincts. Was Pamela Anderson their Yoko Ono?

As a veteran comedy writer, director and producer, Charles’ fingerprints are all over American humor, but for all his work on seminal projects like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, his most significant influence on contemporary comedy might just come from his time directing Baron Cohen in Borat, Bruno and The Dictator. The duo’s rebellious, revolutionary, in-your-face style of comedy filmmaking inspired countless other renegade, gonzo comics to go out in the world and test their chaotic characters out on unsuspecting strangers, but according to Charles’ recent comments, following the success of Borat and projects like it, Baron Cohen shifted his focus from transgressive trailblazing to traditional show business Bs years ago.

“Borat” director Larry Charles has lost touch with his once-frequent collaborator, Sacha Baron Cohen.

In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, Charles said he once considered Cohen a “comic genius,” comparing him to the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Peter Sellers. However, when they began production on their 2012 film “The Dictator,” their relationship deteriorated as Cohen started “pulling away” from the subversive character humor that made him famous. Charles suspected it was because “he wanted to be more of a traditional movie star.”

“He was surrounding himself with more traditional show business people and getting advice from them, which I don’t think was good advice for the kind of rebel sensibility that Sacha had had up until that time,” Charles explained. “And so, for a variety of reasons, it started to kind of fragment and fracture and fall apart. And the movie’s not bad. It’s good.

Steve Carell in a satirical movie about today’s big tech giants, with the creator of Succession writing and directing? Well, the pitch does not get any better than this. The HBO original Mountainhead was one of the most anticipated projects of the year due to the talent involved and the world explored.

Despite being set again in the world of elite CXOs and business deals like Succession, the movie has nothing more in common, apart from both media being created by Jesse Armstrong. Steve Carell actually compared the satirical drama to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, claiming that the movie was as topical as Kubrick’s Cold War comedy.

Steve Carell compared Jesse Armstrong’s Mountainhead to Stanley Kubrick’s incredible comedy Steve Carell in Mountainhead | Credits: HBO

We live in a post-truth world and a hyper-reality full of misinformation, with everyone from companies to politicians trying to get control of the narrative.

Snake Eyes star Henry Golding has weighed in on whether he'd be interested in playing James Bond. Golding is often mentioned by fans as a potential contender to succeed Daniel Craig as the MI6 spy.

Golding has lined up an impressive string of credits that make him a solid candidate for the role, having tackled the necessary action scene experience in projects likeSnake Eyes and Assassin Club. The British actor has even explored the world of clandestine spy operations with his 2024 movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a World War II action epic about a black ops spy mission to sabotage the Nazis during World War II.

Henry Golding Encourages James Bond Producers to 'Sign [Him] Up'

Golding told The Radio Times this week that he'd be excited about the possibility of playing Bond. After encouraging the Bond producers to "sign [him] up" for the role, Golding spoke about what it's like...

Bringing two movie stars together to do a buddy action flick has been one of Hollywood's greatest traditions. The appeal of these movies is watching personalities butt heads with each other until differences lead to a genuine comradery in the end. "48 Hrs," "Lethal Weapon," "Hot Fuzz" and "The Nice Guys" are but a few examples of the kinds of chaotic screen duos that we still talk about today. You would think that a gangster buddy flick starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds would be more fondly remembered, but it currently exists as an oddity that never took off in the way either of them wanted it to.

On paper, the 1930's-set "City Heat" sounds like a fun idea. Eastwood plays Speer, a Kansas City police Lieutenant who finds himself in quite a predicament when Reynold's Mike Murphy, a cop turned private eye, waltzes back in his life. The gist...

Wayne rose to fame in the 1930s, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s, built up his reputation as Hollywood's ultimate bastion of masculinity. Wayne didn't possess a lot of range as an actor, typically playing "John Wayne," but his character type proved to be pliable in certain kinds of ultra-popular genre films. He was a Western star and a War Movie star, and his no-nonsense, rah-rah-America personality was eagerly eaten up by audiences. As Wayne rounded the 1960s, however, a lot of his image had begun to tarnish. This was mostly because times were changing, and the kinds of Westerns and war movies that he once headlined became gauche with a new generation. Antiwar sentiment was more popular than the pro-war propaganda that was released in the wake of World War II. 

One can see Wayne struggling in his notorious stinker "The Green Berets," a film that attempted to apply...

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and as Stack, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Sinners,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. When actors take on dual roles in movies, the characters often have pronounced differences — for example, Mike Myers as Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, and Eddie Murphy’s variety of roles in several of his movies. In the movie Sinners, Michael B. Jordan plays a set of identical twins with similar backgrounds, so he found himself facing quite a challenge: two roles that are simultaneously very similar but also with some important differences. During the filming process, Jordan spoke about he worked hard to differentiate the two brothers. (Click on the media bar below to hear Michael B. Jordan.) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ryan_Coogler_Playing_Twin_Sinners_.mp3 Sinners is now playing in theaters.

In the early- to mid-1970s, a number of prominent filmmakers found modest success with star-studded whodunnits. In 1972, Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in a splendid adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's intricately plotted play "Sleuth." A year later, Herbert Ross directed the wickedly clever "The Last of Sheila," a mystery concocted by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, and featuring such marquee names as James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, Richard Benjamin, Raquel Welch, and James Mason. Then in 1974, moviegoers got a double dose of Agatha Christie with Sidney Lumet's "Murder on the Orient Express", and Peter Collinson's "And Then There Were None".

There was no cultural development driving this sudden spate of whodunnits; it was just a reminder that people love to watch a bunch of great actors get thrown into the same location where foul play has been committed, and then try to work out...

After a century of non-recognition for their broken bones and unsightly bruises, movie stunt designers are finally getting their own Oscar. It’s about time stunt guys and gals get their flowers for death-defying feats. But forget Mission: Impossible Xiv and the next James Bond — many comedies are stuffed with outrageous acts of physical prowess, too.

Here are six of the most insane stunts from classic comedies…

1 Jackass 3D

The Guardian couldn’t get enough of this tour de force, featuring Steve O in a port-o-potty that’s shot into the air like a rocket. But wait — the flying toilet is tethered to the earth with bungee cords, meaning Steve O gets doused in doo-doo with each bounce. If the Academy had its act together in 2010, the Jackass team could have claimed its Oscar.

2 Safety Last!

The fact that Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock hand in 1923 still inspires sweaty...

It is now eight years since Hank Azaria stepped away from voicing his controversial The Simpsons character of Apu, but the conversation around why he stopped playing the character – and why he almost didn’t – continues to be a fascinating insight into the way racism is viewed and handled in the entertainment industry and by the public. Speaking on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, the incredible actor, who continues to voice many characters on The Simpsons, explained that there are still people who don’t understand why he cannot voice Apu.

On the surface, there is a strange contradiction around depictions of race, gender, sexuality and pretty much anything that isn’t straight and white in the world. White actors cannot provide voices for Black, Asian, or Indian characters, but they can “put on” voices that mimic European accents without any push back. Straight actors playing queer roles are...

Hank Azaria performed the voice of Apu, the Indian Kwik-e-Mart manager on The Simpsons, since the show started. But then a wider discussion started to take place about whether it was appropriate for white actors to voice characters of color.

This cumulated in a 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu, by Indian comedian Hari Kondabolu. Kondabolu believed the portrayal of Apu was racist against South Asians and a lightning rod for bullying. Though The Simpsons pushed back against the accusation, going so far as to release an episode where the characters comment on how past works can be seen as "politically incorrect," Azaria announced in 2020 that he would not be playing Apu anymore.

Now, he's spoken about that decision on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. It's been a long and interesting journey for Azaria, and one where he's explored how things previously seen as innocuous can become offensive later on.

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is rightfully regarded as one of the great dark comedies, and one of the first really modern black comedy films. It was pretty shocking 60 years ago, with its dark critique of the military and the President, not to mention its hilarious titular Nazi scientist and the apocalyptic finale. It's morbidly funny to watch as Dr. Strangelove (one of three characters played by the great Peter Sellers) frequently tries to stop his arm from Sieg Heling to "Mein Führer!" It's even more morbid in 2025, though, when the richest man on Earth attends the Presidential Inauguration (after contributing nearly $300 million to its victor) and defiantly gives the Nazi salute on stage — twice. Dr. Strangelove may be more topical than ever, so it's good that there is a new adaptation of the classic Stanley Kubrick film.

Taking on the roles...

Beginning in the 1920s and occurring almost annually since 1941, the White House Correspondents Association (the Whca) has held a fundraising dinner that brings together Republicans and Democrats for one evening, and features performers who traditionally lambaste both sides of the aisle. The dinner supports journalists and students, and has generally been the D.C. equivalent of the Met Gala or the Academy Awards. Many great comedians, musicians, and others have performed at the event, including Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, James Cagney, Duke Ellington, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Peter Sellers, Chevy Chase, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Ray Romano, Aretha Franklin, Cedric the Entertainer, Ray Charles, Drew Carey, Seth Meyers, and more. Amber Ruffin was supposed to perform at the April 26 dinner this year. That won't be happening, apparently.

Ruffin is an Emmy- and Tony-nominated comedian and writer known for writing and performing for Late Night with Seth Meyers,...

The Oscar winner answers your questions about playing everyone from Peter Sellers to the Marquis de Sade, his home town of Toowoomba and new care-home horror The Rule of Jenny Pen

The Rule of Jenny Pen looks terrifying! Does the prospect of sudden ageing frighten you? BenderRodriguez

It’s not sudden. I was in [King] Lear when I was 64 and said: “I need a wig that’s grey because he’s supposed to be 80.” Now I’m 73 and I still think inside I’m a brunette. This is the 54th year of my career. The last decade has just galloped past. I waited for something like this – a project that I latched on to. There’s been a lot of stuff that I turned down. I’m now being very pernickety about what I commit three or four months of my life to.

No doubt there was also a lot of work behind it,...

Robert De Niro‘s latest movie, “The Alto Knights,” gives the Oscar winner twice as many roles as usual. Directed by Barry Levinson and written by “Goodfellas” writer Nicholas Pileggi, the film charts the real-life power struggle between 1950s Mafia bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello as it spirals into an all-out, blood-on-the-streets conflict. De Niro plays both Genovese and Costello in the drama, which also stars Debra Messing and “Shōgun” breakout Cosmo Jarvis.

De Niro is not the first major actor in Hollywood history to take on the sizable challenge of playing more than one role in a film. Some have even dared to take on more than two In honor of De Niro’s dual turns in “The Alto Knights,” though, here are five other great films that also star actors in two roles.

Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy.” (Entertainment One) Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy”

“Enemy” is director Denis Villeneuve’s surreal,...

There are some good reasons for actors to play multiple roles in a film. If they’re playing twins, for example. Or clones. Or if the film is so outlandish that it feels appropriate, like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove.

But having Robert De Niro play real-life gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese at once simply feels like a casting stunt. The end result is that Barry Levinson’s otherwise sober-minded The Alto Knights too often feels like The Patty Duke Show if Patty and Cathy had become mafiosos.

If this film feels familiar, that’s because it is. From its pedigree to its casting to its themes, Levinson’s new effort comes across like a retread. Even its original title, Wise Guys, well, you know. That doesn’t make The Alto Knights (a terrible title, by the way, taken from the name of the social club where the gangsters...

Will filmgoers rally behind space travelers who “hate dying” but keep courting death?

The director who gave us Parasite, a cool, curmudgeonly social comedy, is challenging filmgoers with a big-budget, genre-bending epic titled Mickey 17 that will likely be a tougher sell.

Fans of Bong Joon Ho’s movies will now have to deal with dystopian class warfare spearheaded by a Donald Trump leader (Mark Ruffalo) who disdains “Expendables.” Loud and orange, he has big ambitions for a frozen planet that’s as hospitable as a hockey rink. Jeopardy lurks everywhere: Even sex is death defying.

Mickey 17 is a $120 million satire – “one that may challenge the public mood,” observes one veteran distributor, who readily admits that no one understands the “public mood.” Robert Pattinson adeptly plays Mickey 17 and is resigned to become Mickey 18 too, and beyond, as he’s meticulously “re-printed” after every death.

Warner Bros...

Peter Wolf, has always been one of the great rock & roll raconteurs, ever since his days as the loudmouth singer of the J. Geils Band. But the Boston blues madman has finally written the book everyone always hoped he would write, with Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses. It’s a music memoir like no other — instead of chronicling his rock-star career, Wolf tells stories about the characters he met along the way, from Muddy Waters to Andy Warhol, from Alfred Hitchcock to Bob Dylan. “I...

Good news for comedy fans — and terrible news for English-French relations — Monty Python and the Holy Grail will be returning to theaters this spring in order to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. Yes, it’s been five whole decades since the Pythons somehow convinced a bunch of rock stars to fund their groundbreaking parody of Arthurian legends.

On May 4th, the legendary comedy will return to theaters thanks to Fathom Events and Shout! Studios, who acquired the Monty Python catalog last fall. They’ll also be screening it on May the 7th, presumably in case some Python fans already have “Star Wars Day” plans that can’t be canceled.

But the press release makes no mention of whether or not these screenings will include any complimentary coconuts. Famously, Monty Python and the Holy Grail substituted coconuts for real horses because the production couldn’t afford them. According to John Cleese,...

He’s got an Oscar, played Albert Einstein, and even shared a flat with Mel Gibson. Now, the Australian actor is here to answer your questions

It’s not all that often you get the chance to put your questions to an honest-to-goodness best actor Oscar winner, but that’s what we’ve got coming down the pipe. Geoffrey Rush won the big one back in 1997 for his role as pianist David Helfgott in Shine, and he’s won a ton of others, including Baftas, Golden Globes, an Emmy, a Tony and four Screen Actors Guild awards. In fact it’s easier to ask what award hasn’t he won?

Now, Australia has produced more than its fair share of premium acting talent, from Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman to Nicole Kidman and Guy Pearce, but Rush is definitely up there with the best of them. Aside from Shine, he...

Bobby Meyers, veteran film sales and distribution executive and co-founder of the American Film Market, died at his New Jersey home at the age of 90, according to the Independent Film & Television Alliance.

Meyers’ first executive position in his 55-year career was at Columbia Pictures International, where he rose to become the studio’s European sales manager and worked out of Paris and Brussels. He later held executive positions at National General Pictures, Lorimar, Filmways, Orion Pictures and Village Roadshow.

Among the films Meyers handled distribution on are Brian De Palma’s breakout film “Obsession” and the Peter Sellers dramedy “Being There.”

With independent filmmaking on the rise in the 1970s, Meyers was one of several executives who saw a need for a hub for producers and filmmakers to make distribution and financing deals. In 1981, Meyers was part of a group of executives that co-founded the American Film Market and...

Robert “Bobby” Meyers, a founding member of the American Film Market whose half-century-plus career in indie movies, sales and distribution included stints at Columbia, Lorimar, Orion and Village Roadshow, died Sunday at his New Jersey home. He was 90. AFM producer Independent Film & Television Alliance confirmed the news but did not provide a cause of death.

During a long career that started in 1956, Meyers was behind the release of such notable films as Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976) and Blow Out (1981), Robert Aldrich’s Burt Lancaster starr Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) and Hal Ashby’s Peter Sellers-led classic Being There (1979).

Born on October 3, 1934, Meyers joined Columbia Pictures International during the 1950s, serving in Paris and Brussels and eventually becoming the European sales manager. He later held executive posts at National General Pictures, Lorimar Motion Pictures, Filmways Productions, Orion Pictures and Village Roadshow, playing a pivotal role in international film sales and distribution.

Gene Wilder's impressive career boasts starring roles in Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Little Prince. He was also iconic in the cult classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, soon streaming on Tubi.

Tubi will stream Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for free starting Mar. 1. The 1971 movie adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now a beloved classic, all thanks to Gene Wilder's version of the main antagonist. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was a box office disappointment when it was released, grossing $4 million against its $3 million budget; interest for the film waned until the 1980s, when repeated TV broadcasts fueled a resurgence. The film made a successful comeback in 1996, earning $21 million from its 25th anniversary theatrical re-release.

Related10 Best Quotes From Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Ranked

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved film that is full of memorable characters,...

Stanley Kubrick wasn’t exactly known for being a laugh riot — although he did originally intend Eyes Wide Shut to be a Steve Martin farce. Nevertheless, the legendary filmmaking genius did happen to make one of the greatest comedies of all time: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb starring Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Peter Sellers.

Famously, Dr. Strangelove was originally going to be a very serious drama about the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons, based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George. That is, until Kubrick and his co-writer began cracking jokes during the writing process, at which point it morphed into a “nightmare comedy.”

But despite the fact that it was reworked into a satire starring Inspector Clouseau, it was still viewed as a potentially incendiary film by the American government.

Dr. Strangelove was released in...

February is a time for lovers. Romance, as well as the hope to find it are abound and what better place to seek it out than at your local repertory cinema. Sure, a dark theater full of strangers may seem like an odd space for finding a potential suitor, but who knows what can happen at the concession stand or under the marquee? One thing’s for sure: There’s nothing quite like the allure of the big screen.

This month’s offerings across New York and Los Angeles feature a whole host of fare designed to fill audience’s hearts, not just in the sense of discovering love, but also reaching to the soul. Starting January 31 and running through March 5, Film at Lincoln Center will be hosting a career retrospective titled “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution” that is sure to envelop newcomers to the documentarian’s hypnotic work, as well as longtime fans.

The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network unveiled themes, spotlights, and stars it will feature in 2025, as well as the year’s tentpole events and returning podcasts. Last year the network celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Among offerings this year will be 31 Days of Oscar, the second iteration of Two-for-One films, Summer Under the Stars and monthly birthday celebrations of the legends who made their mark on the industry. Also announced during the festival was the renewal of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson’s stewardship to TCM through 2025.

TCM will celebrate a different star every month, including Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday, Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would be their 100th birthdays, as well as Dick Van Dyke, on his 100th birthday in December. Other stars featured throughout the year include George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck,...

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson have renewed their commitment to Turner Classic Movies, and George Stevens Jr. and Michael Schultz will be honored at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April, it was announced Saturday.

TCM also noted that new episodes of Two for One will return to the channel in April, with filmmakers and Ben Mankiewicz co-hosting a double feature on Saturday nights. Joe Dante, Kathy Bates and Jamie Lee Curtis will be among the guests.

TCM will continue to celebrate a different star every month, like Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday; Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would have been their 100th birthdays; and Dick Van Dyke on his 100th birthday in December.

George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck, Red Skelton, Mae West, Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon will also be featured throughout 2025.

During its 31st year,...

Two comedies. Two difficult productions. One flat-out classic. The stories of The Producers and Fierce Creatures are explored in this episode.

When it comes to making your feature directorial debut, The Producers isn’t a bad way to get off the mark! But Mel Brooks’ now much-loved comedy faced a bumpy path to the screen, not least the struggle to write it in the first place. That, and the kind of subject matter that Hollywood studios didn’t have much desire to go near.

Plus, it turned out that the fate of the film owed a bit of a debt to Peter Sellers.

After the success of A Fish Called Wanda meanwhile, the question was asked: would John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin and Kevin Kline come back for a sequel? Well, not quite: and despite Fierce Creatures being billed as an ‘equal not a sequel’, the comedy had a very,...

From Mickey 17 to The Alto Knights, 2025 has an unusually high number of upcoming movies starring lead actors playing multiple different roles. 2025 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for movies. Paul Thomas Anderson has a new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio that’s rumored to be a modernized adaptation of Vineland, James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe will begin proper with the release of Superman, and Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible hero Ethan Hunt is coming back to the big screen one last time for The Final Reckoning.

The movies of 2025 will continue a few ongoing trends in the film industry. The new versions of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon will continue the trend of live-action remakes of animated classics. Screamboat and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare will continue the trend of horror movies based on iconic characters in the public domain. It looks like 2025 will start a new trend,...

When it comes to infamous incompetent detectives, French Inspector Jacques Clouseau undoubtedly ranks high on the list, with his questionable French accent and penchant for slapstick. But no matter his methods and skill set, or lack thereof, he always managed to solve the case, sometimes accidentally. The result is the Pink Panther franchise, one of the best and most beloved comedy series to this day, with a total of 11 films, including reboots, five of which starred beloved comedic actor Peter Sellers as Clouseau. Another reboot is in the works, this time starring Eddie Murphy.

Cinemas want you to pre-book your tickets. Historically, cinemas have also not made this job particularly easy.

It’s a difficult piece for me to write this, given that I love the cinema, and that picturehouses around the world are in such challenging times. I still contend though that sometimes, the modern multiplex can be its own worst enemy.

There’s a video down at the bottom of this post where I natter about this a little bit more, but my technically excellent local cinema, which I’ve been a patron of since the 1990s when it first opened, isn’t short of its annoying quirks. An unlimited pass that now has restrictions on which seat you can book, pic ‘n’ mix that lists the individual calories per sweet (can’t touch the stuff ever again now) and an Argos-style way of ordering your food and drink. On the (significant) plus side,...

In Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper goes rogue and launches an unprovoked nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. He is asked by Raf Group Captain Lionel Mandrake — a voice of reason in the madness — to recall the B-52 bombers that will end civilization. Ripper refuses. Mandrake asks politely, in an arch British way, why he feels the need to blow up the world. The general talks of how forces beyond our comprehension are slowly poisoning America with a toxic chemical known as … fluoride.

Dual performances always catch the eye, and they have often been used to showcase multiple sides to an actor's talents. Jim Carrey has been getting a lot of attention for playing two characters in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and some of the most exciting movies of 2025 also feature actors working overtime. Robert Pattinson, Robert De Niro and Michael B. Jordan all have dual roles lined up for 2025.

Actors mostly play multiple characters in comedy movies, just like Carrey in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Other common reasons for having a dual performance in a movie include stories with twins, or sci-fi movies with clones or humanoid robots. A dual performance is always an interesting novelty that a studio can use to promote a movie, but the best actors can turn these types of roles into more than just a gimmick.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) Jim Carrey Plays Dr. Robotnik And Professor...

Sad news in the world of late-night comedy. Conan O’Brien’s parents both passed away this week, within just three days of one another. The redheaded host’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien died on Monday at the age of 95, while his wife, 92-year-old Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died “peacefully” on Thursday.`

While much of the news of the O’Briens’ deaths has obviously been framed around their celebrity son, it turns out that they were incredibly impressive professionals in fields that in no way involved, say, having a meltdown on YouTube while rubbing hot sauce on your nipples.

O’Brien’s mother, for example, was reportedly “one of just four women in her Yale Law School class.” She later clerked for a “former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, became a real estate attorney and was the second woman to become a partner at the renowned Ropes & Gray law firm in Boston.

Television host Conan O’Brien recently endured a family tragedy that came out as a double loss. The comedian’s mother has recently passed away. Notably, this comes out just days after O’Brien’s father had also died.

Conan O’Brien’s Parents Had Been Married For Sixty-Six Years

The comedian’s mother, Ruth O’Brien, passed away on December 12, 2024. She was 92 years old at the time of her death.

Notably, this comes out just three days after the death of the late night host’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien. He had been 95 at the time of his passing.

Conan O’Brien – YouTube

An obituary was published for Ruth on the Bell O’Dea Funeral Home’s website. It was noted that she “passed away peacefully” and had been married to her husband for “sixty-six” years.

As a graduate of Yale Law School, the obituary also noted that Ruth “was...

An exclusive look inside how the Apple TV+ comedy staged a surprise “How I Met Your Mother” meet-up.

Season 2 of “Shrinking” saved one of its best casting reveals for last. In “Changing Patterns” — the antepenultimate episode of the Apple TV+ comedy’s strong second season — Jason Segel’s Jimmy has a charged meet-cute with a fellow single parent named Sofi, played by Segel’s former “How I Met Your Mother” co-star Cobie Smulders. It’s the first time Segel and Smulders have appeared together onscreen since the CBS comedy’s finale in 2014.

“We wrote the part and then we were like, ‘Who do we put in this?’ And I said, ‘What about Cobie?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great,’” Segel tells Gold Derby about getting his former co-star onto the show. “It’s a pretty small world, and everybody kind of knows everybody one way or another. So...

We have some tragic news to report about one of the world’s best-loved comics, Conan O’Brien.

Multiple sources have now confirmed that both of Conan’s parents passed away within the past week.

Longtime fans of Conan’s comedy know how frequently the former late night host referenced his close-knit, Massachusetts-based Irish-Catholic family.

Conan O’Brien visits SiriusXM at SiriusXM Studios on May 17, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

A Devastating Week

Conan’s dad, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, was the first to pass away. He died on Monday at the age of 95. According to a report from The Boston Globe, “his health had been failing,” for some time before his death.

Just three days after that sad development, Conan’s mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died at her home in Brookline, Massachusetts

Just four days shy of her 93rd birthday, Ruth passed away “peacefully,” according...

Conan O’Brien has been hit by double heartbreak after losing both of his parents just three days apart. The beloved talk show host’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, died on Monday, December 9, at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, per The Boston Globe. He was 95. Then, just three days later, Conan’s mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, passed away on Thursday, December 12, also at their home. She was 92. Conan and his brother, Justin, spoke to the Globe about their parents, with the former crediting his father with instilling in him a love of comedy. “The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie,” Conan recalled. “He was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse and he would almost hug himself.” Ruth and Dr. Thomas O’Brien; Legacy.

Some double acts have made such an impact that they'll never be forgotten. Laurel and Hardy, Lemon and Matthau, and Key and Peele have etched their names in the history books, some of the best pairings of Hollywood's Golden Age. Then, there are those lesser-known Golden Age Hollywood actors who have created some fantastic moments together but can live in a hazy memory that gets revisited from time to time. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were enormous stars in their own right, and are probably most remembered for their solo achievements. Crosby's White Christmas gets replayed every year around the holidays, and Hope is still considered one of the best Academy Awards hosts in history.

When they joined forces in the Road To... series of films, they created the kind of movie magic that Old Hollywood comedy movies can produce. With laughs aplenty, and the glamorous addition of Dorothy Lamour,...

Steve Coogan stars in Armando Iannucci’s West End adaptation of Dr Strangelove, which will be broadcast in cinemas next year.

“You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!” is one of the most iconic quotes from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About The Bomb. Starring Peter Sellers in multiple roles, it told the story of a rogue US general who triggers a nuclear crisis.

Kubrick directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Terry Southern and Peter George.

Satirist Armando Iannucci, who himself co-wrote and directed a film about useless politicians inadvertently triggering a war, the wonderful In The Loop, itself a spin-off from acerbic sitcom The Thick Of It, has adapted the film for the stage with Sean Foley, who also directed the show.

Steve Coogan takes on the daunting task of following in Sellers’ footsteps,...

Three of the James Bond movies were remakes of previous Bond films, and these remakes include some of the absolute best (and absolute worst) of 007s on-screen adventures. Remaking past Bond movies might start becoming more common in the next couple of iterations of the franchise, because the producers have just about run out of Ian Fleming stories to adapt. Since very few of the Bond movies have actually stuck to the source material that gave them their titles, the next incarnation of the Bond series could see Eon going back and adapting Flemings novels more faithfully.

But Eon (and other producers) have been readapting Flemings works since long before they ran out of new ones to turn into movies. Casino Royale the very first Bond novel has been adapted for the screen a grand total of three times, and each version has been vastly different than the last. When...

In 1949, Alec Guinness dazzled critics and paying audiences alike by playing eight members, male and female, of the D'Ascoyne family in the deliciously dark comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets." There weren't many actors alive cocky enough to attempt such a thing, let alone pull it off, so you'd think the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would go gaga for the actor's brazen feat and hand him the Best Actor Oscar before the ceremony began. Amazingly, he didn't even receive a nomination (though John Wayne snared his first for basically playing John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima").

How did Guinness not even earn the honor of an Oscar nod? He made one critical mistake: he gave his bravura performance in a comedy.

Of the 96 films that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only 15 could be called comedies (and I'm being super charitable with movies like "Green Book...

Ah, Casino Royale. Everyone loved that classic James Bond thriller starring... Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and Orson Welles? That's right, 40 years before the 007 franchise was rebooted with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, writer Ian Fleming's book was adapted into one of the goofiest, most ridiculous movies ever made. As the search for a new James Bond continues, let's look back on the undoubtedly weirdest moment in the history of the franchise.

1967's Casino Royale was a marquee affair, with a budget that was nearly 12 times as big as 1962's Dr. No. It attracted one of the best casts of the '60s David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, George Raft, John Huston, Jacqueline Bisset, Peter O'Toole, and Ronnie Corbett. Casino Royale wasn't just bloated on-screen; it was overstuffed off-screen as well. The...

Shirley MacLaine is making a ghastly racket. It sounds like a combination of retching and the “aack” noise that the protagonist of that old “Cathy” comic strip used to make whenever she was nauseated, horrified, infuriated or you name it. We’re discussing an encounter that MacLaine had with Donald Trump in the ’80s, when she went to look at an apartment in one of his buildings. “In his head, I could see he was undressing himself and me, and I got out of there very fast,” MacLaine writes in her new book, “The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories From This Marvelous Lifetime.”

MacLaine is even more animated when I ask her what she made of the real estate developer turned Maga leader. “Did you hear me shriek?” she asks. “I think that says it all.” She pauses for dramatic effect before delivering a final, emphatic: “Yuck!”

Even at 90, MacLaine,...

Some audiences might have first spotted Matt Damon during a notable dinner scene in Donald Petrie's hit 1988 drama "Mystic Pizza." Thereafter, Damon turned up as an extra in "Field of Dreams" and as one of the many handsome students in the 1992 boarding school thriller "School Ties," both of them with his longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck. Damon went on to score some considerable screen time in Edward Zwick's "Courage Under Fire" before delivering his first lead performance in 1997 in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rainmaker." That same year, Damon and Affleck became acclaimed Academy darlings for writing and starring in Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting." The pair won Oscars for their screenplay and have both been major Hollywood players since.

Damon, having gained the clout to be picky and the fame to be noticed, thereafter became attracted to projects by established directors. After having alreayd...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

To this day, Rod Serling's sci-fi anthology series "The Twilight Zone" regularly tops lists of the best TV shows of all time. Serling, and a team of some of the best sci-fi authors of the 1950s and 1960s, conceived of 156 miniature morality stories, usually with a supernatural bent, and in so doing changed the very face of television. Sci-fi and horror were considered more commercially viable, inspiring a new slew of imitators and a shift in the public's attention. Serling also introduced a unique form of storytelling efficiency with "The Twilight Zone," proving that an entire, closed morality fable could be wrapped up in a mere 25 minutes (or 51 minutes in the show's fourth season). Serling was also careful to explicitly state a moral in every episode, making "The Twilight Zone" a fantastic social commentary. 

"The Twilight Zone" ran from...

Over the weekend, the Chicago International Film Festival and Second City honored Mike Myers with a “Career Achievement Award,” in recognition of his work in beloved movies such as Wayne’s World, Austin Powers and Shrek. Thankfully, the event didn’t end with one of the organizers suddenly remembering that The Love Guru exists and attempting to wrestle the award out of Myers’ hands.

The ceremony also included a “lengthy conversation” between Myers and Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley. The talk touched on a number of different subjects, including Myers’ fears that the studio wouldn’t release Wayne’s World, his fears that the studio wouldn’t release Austin Powers and how Michael Caine couldn’t get Beyoncé’s name right while filming Austin Powers in Goldmember. “He’d just go, ‘Hey, Be-yonts,’” Myers recalled.

They also chatted about how Myers’ Wayne’s World 2 co-star Christopher Walken seemingly couldn’t...

The office of the President of the United States is way more famous than any specific president. Compared to, say, the king and queen of England, a new person gets to be the head of state every four or eight years via election rather than inheritance. This means you can...

Alvin Rakoff, the veteran Canadian filmmaker best known for pics like the 1982 feature A Voyage Round My Father starring Laurence Olivier, died in Chiswick, London, October 12 surrounded by his family. He was 97.

Rakoff’s former personal agent confirmed the news with Deadline this morning.

Born on on February 6, 1927, in Toronto Rakoff was the third of seven children. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, Rakoff spent time as a news reporter. His first job as a writer was with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which later sponsored Rakoff to visit the UK. Within days of arriving, he sold his first fiction script to the BBC. He was soon invited to join the BBC’s director’s training course and, the following year at the age of twenty-six, Rakoff became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department.

As Rakoff once recalled: “I trained at the BBC as a director-producer.

Alvin Rakoff, the Canadian director who made films including Say Hello To Yesterday and who helped launch the careers of Sean Connery and Alan Rickman, has died at the age of 97.

Rakoff died on October 12, “peacefully…surrounded by his loving family in the same, beautiful old house in Chiswick he had bought back in 1971”, according to Nick Pourgourides, a long-time representative of the filmmaker.

Rakoff directed 11 feature films across a near 70-year career, including 1969 crime film Crossplot starring Roger Moore and Claudie Lange; 1970 drama Hoffman led by Peter Sellers; and 1971 romantic comedy Say Hello To Yesterday starring Jean Simmons.

He...