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When David Allen Singletary isn’t at a casting call or on set for a TV series, he’s pushing a cart of snacks down the aisle of a Southwest Airlines plane, asking passengers for their trash and identifying the emergency exits. He became a flight attendant on Valentine’s Day last year as TV studios halted production following the outbreak of Covid variant Omicron. L.A.-based actress Iris Liu makes ends meet by selling clothes on e-commerce site Depop. Every month is an adventure, says Chicago-based actor Al’Jaleel McGhee,...

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Blockers [my review]

Kay Cannon directs this ensemble comedy about parents and their teen daughters. Costarring Leslie Mann, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon. (male screenwriters)

The Miracle Season [IMDb] pictured

Elissa Matsueda cowrites the screenplay of the sports drama about a high-school girls’ volleyball team that must come together to win a championship after a tragedy. Starring Helen Hunt, Tiera Skovbye, Erin Moriarty, and Danika Yarosh. (male director)

A Quiet Place [my review]

Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds costar as the mother and daughter of a small family trying to survive a monster apocalypse. (male writers and director)

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You Were Never Really Here [IMDb]

Lynne Ramsay writes and directs this thriller about a (male) veteran who rescues underage girls from sex trafficking.

Where Is Kyra? [IMDb]

Michelle Pfeiffer stars in this drama as a woman rapidly descending into poverty. Cowritten by Darci Picoult. (male director)

Shelter [IMDb]

Golshifteh Farahani and Neta Riskin star...

Chicago – The education system of America has been ripe over the years for comedic skewering… and with today’s overindulgent parenting style, it’s never been a better time for those knowing laughs. The focus on parent teacher/conferences is the subject of the latest comedy web series, shot in Chicago, called “Other People’s Children.” (Opc).

Opc centers on Margot Antler (Astra Asdou), who dreams of becoming a renowned novelist, but in reality she’s a rookie second grade teacher who is about to experience the insanity of parent/teacher conferences for the first time. The series develops as a series of vignettes, as Margot finds herself at conferences where the adults behave worst than their children. In those encounters, it’s not so much the second graders who have problems, but rather their post millennial parents.

Astra Asdou in ‘Other People’s Children,’ Co-Created by Brad Riddell & Anna Maria Hozian

Photo credit: OPCTheSeries.

Hey, "Empire" fans. Unfortunately, we have some pretty bad news to deliver in this article. It turns out that it's that time of year again where your favorite show is going to have to take a back seat to Fox's coverage of the Major League Baseball World Series. Yep, that's right. The upcoming episode 5 of this current season 4 is getting delayed for a possible two weeks! It's definitely not going to air next Wednesday, October 25,2017 due to Fox covering the big Game 2 of the World Series. What could make this even worse is if the series is driven to seven games. That means the show would not air on Wednesday night, November 1,2017 as well! This is a big "if" though. It has happened in the past. In fact, it just happened last year causing Empire to be delayed for two weeks. We certainly hope that doesn't happen this year, but...

Chicago – The Chicago energy for local production keeps picking up, and the latest creative burst is the web series “Mad Scientists Consortium.” Created, written and co-directed by Harry Bauer, this wonderfully funny production – putting a modern spin on the Mad Scientists genre – is available for download now.

The premise is simple but particularly expansive. A “consortium” of Mad Scientists are starting a modern-day consulting service – which outsiders mistake for a “cute idea” – yet the scientists themselves can’t help getting in the way of each other, in the midst of evil plans for world domination (starting with Illinois and Wisconsin, with a bit of Minnesota). The “webisodes” are short, tight and funny, with an impressive team of local talent, including the main “Mads” portrayed by Scott Pasko, Sara Sevigny, Stacie Barra, Noah Simon and series creator Harry Bauer. The first four in the series, beginning with the pilot, can now...

Recently, Fox served up the new,official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "Empire" episode 10 of season 2. The episode is entitled, "Et Tu, Brute?." And it turns out that we're going to see some very interesting and high drama stuff go down as that streaming service that Lucious was so eager to buy, turns out to be a devastating flop, and more! In the new, 10th episode press release: The Struggle For The Throne On The Fall Finale Of "Empire" Wednesday, December 2, On Fox. Press release number 2: Lucious will make a reckless play for the streaming service that he believes will make him the most powerful man in music, only to learn that the entire business strategy was part of a scheme that might jeopardize everything for which he has worked so hard. In the meantime, Cookie will decide to plan a concert at the prison where she spent 17 years...