News

Quick Links What Is The Manhattan Alien Abduction About? Old Grudges and Conflicts of Interest Strain Credulity in Netflix's Docuseries Why The Manhattan Project Is Polarizing, Explained

The Manhattan Alien Abduction debuted on October 30, 2024, instantly soaring atop Netflix's most-watched new TV shows. The docuseries retraces the time a woman named Linda Napolitano was allegedly abducted by aliens from her apartment window in 1989. Pushing back on Linda's testimony is renowned skeptic Carol Rainey, whose husband and paranormal investigator Budd Hopkins becomes consumed by Linda's case.

Despite shooting to the top of the Netflix TV charts upon its premiere, The Manhattan Alien Abduction has polarized viewers regarding Linda's account. Viewers either tend to side with Linda and believe her account or disbelieve her testimony and side with Carol. With zero persuasion toward the middle ground, it's worth wondering why such a show was made beyond reinforcing confirmation bias. More curious yet,...

The premiere post-tiff destination (September 20-25th) in the film community and a major leg up for narrative and non-fiction films in development, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced a whopping 140 projects selected for the Project Forum at the upcoming Ifp Independent Film Week. Made up of several sections (Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries), we find latest updates from the likes of docu-helmers Doug Block (112 Weddings) and Lana Wilson (After Tiller), and among the narrative items we find headliners in Andrew Haigh (coming off the well received 45 Years), Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls and Madame Bovary), Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal (Stranger Things) and new faces in Sundance’s large family in Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again) and Olivia Newman (First Match). Here...

Paul Rudd returned as host for the Third Annual Paul Rudd All-Star Bowling Benefit to support Say The Stuttering Association for the Young. Attendees included David Alan Basche, Emily Bergl, Alexis Bledel, Everett Bradley, Bobby Cannavale, Nicki Clyne, Maddie Corman, Lucy DeVito, Frank Dilella,Rachel Dratch, Halley Feiffer, Gina Gershon,Judy Gold,Mariska Hargitay, Jeremy Hays, Peter Hermann, Cady Huffman, Gregory Jbara, Richard Kind, Ricki Lake,Jesse L. Martin, Greg Naughton, James Naughton, Kelli O'Hara, Denis O'Hare, Nykhor Paul, Josh Radnor, Alysia Reiner, Ron Rifkin,Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan, Eric Stoltz and Meredith Vieira.BroadwayWorld brings you more photos from inside the exciting night below...

Paul Rudd returned as host for the Third Annual Paul Rudd All-Star Bowling Benefit to support Say The Stuttering Association for the Young. Attendees included David Alan Basche, Emily Bergl, Alexis Bledel, Everett Bradley, Bobby Cannavale, Nicki Clyne, Maddie Corman, Lucy DeVito, Frank Dilella,Rachel Dratch, Halley Feiffer, Gina Gershon, Judy Gold,Mariska Hargitay, Jeremy Hays, Peter Hermann, Cady Huffman, Gregory Jbara, Richard Kind, Ricki Lake, Jesse L. Martin, Greg Naughton, James Naughton, Kelli O'Hara, Denis O'Hare, Nykhor Paul, Josh Radnor, Alysia Reiner, Ron Rifkin,Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan, Eric Stoltz and Meredith Vieira.BroadwayWorld brings you photos from inside the exciting night belowi...

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"Like Father, Like Son"

What's It About? Two families are thrown into upheaval when it's discovered there was a mistake at the hospital where their respective sons were born. Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama) has to decide what's more important to him, the relationship he's developed with the six-year-old child he thought was his biological son or his "real" son. Hirokazu Kore-eda explores what it means to be a family and a father in this intimate drama.

Why We're In: Kore-eda's a critically acclaimed filmmaker and beloved arthouse auteur whose work deserves to be seen on a wider scale. Don't let the subtitles scare you -- check it out!

Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week

"Cry-Baby"

What's It About? Johnny Depp plays a swoon-worthy bad boy who falls for Allison (Amy Locane), a sweet girl who's feeling a little feisty. This doesn't sit well with Allison's...

A Hollywood bigwig is turning the tables ... Suing the man who accused him of molesting him as a teenager.Garth Ancier -- who produced lots of shows, including "The Ricki Lake Show," "Married with Children," "The Simpsons" and "In Living Color" -- is going after 31-year-old Michael Egan, who claimed in both a lawsuit and a news conference that Ancier molested him at Hollywood parties and on vacation between the ages of 15 and 17.     Egan dropped his lawsuit against Ancier,...

Jeff Herman, the lawyer representing the man accusing Bryan Singer of sexual abuse, announced Monday that he has filed three additional sex abuse lawsuits against prolific TV exec Garth Ancier, former Disney TV president David Neuman and Broadway producer Gary Goddard. Updated: Neuman and Goddard subsequently denied the allegations – Neuman in a series of tweets, and Goddard through his lawyer. Ancier has not responded. Ancier is a veteran programmer who oversaw the launch of Fox television and The CW, and also served as president of BBC Worldwide America. He created The Ricki Lake Show and, at Fox TV, 21 Jump

read more...

The man who has sued "X-Men" director Bryan Singer -- claiming he was sexually assaulted when he was 15 -- has just filed lawsuits against 3 other Hollywood big wigs, also claiming sexual assault.The 3 men named in the new lawsuit are Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard.  Ancier has a slew of hits under his belt, including The Ricki Lake Show, which he created.  He headed up the Fox entertainment group and produced 21 Jump Street,...

Bringing his lady out for a special affair, Johnny Depp arrived at the 9th Annual Johnny Ramone Tribute in Hollywood on Sunday (August 18).

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor walked hand-in-hand with his lovely gal Amber Heard as the two mingled with fellow industry folks at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

John Waters hosted the tribute, which featured a screening of a classic Johnny film bringing together other celebrity guests including Dita Von Teese, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords and Joe Dallesandro.

Meanwhile, Amber recently confronted engagement rumors between her and Depp in the latest issue of Elle magazine and said, "I don't imagine myself, my work, or my life, fitting into any kind of standardized path. In fact, the idea of there even being a standard freaks me out a lot."...

Johnny Depp, whose film career began with John Waters' 1990 Cry-Baby, was a surprise guest at the 9th Annual Johnny Ramone Tribute on Sunday at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where the film was screened on the mausoleum. Depp joined a Q&A moderated by Sex Pistol Steve Jones and also featuring Waters and costars Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, Joe Dallesandro (of Andy Warhol film fame) and James Intveld (Depp's singing voice in the film and, according to Waters, "the real Hollywood crybaby"). Cry-Baby, a '50s satire, set Depp free by satirizing his then-imprisoning image as a TV heartthrob. Photos:

read more...

Johnny Depp made being bad look oh-so-good in the 1990 cult classic "Cry-Baby" -- and last night in Hollywood, he made a surprise reunion with the film's cast!The actor joined director John Waters and costars Ricki Lake, Traci Lords and Joe Dallesandro for a special screening of the film on Sunday at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.Ricki's onscreen children, former child stars Scout Raskin and Jonathan Benya, were also on hand for the event -- and posed for photos with their movie mom.Coming off of "21 Jump Street," the film was Depp's first starring role on the big screen -- and, according to one of his costars, he was ready to break out."Every single member of that cast had so much to prove," Traci Lords told The Hollywood Reporter. "I mean, Johnny Depp desperately wanted to be a movie star, and everybody said he couldn't, because he was only...

Johnny Depp brought along girlfriend Amber Heard when he reunited with his Cry-Baby crew at the ninth annual Johnny Ramone Tribute at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery yesterday. The actor took part in a Q&A alongside costars Ricki Lake and Traci Lords and director John Waters. Other celebrity attendees included Dita Von Teese and Linda Ramone, Johnny's widow. The film, which marked Johnny's first-ever leading movie role, was screened against a mausoleum wall alongside vintage Ramones footage. Johnny's costar Traci gave insight into the actor's drive to become a movie star ahead of the screening, saying, "Johnny Depp desperately wanted to be a movie star, and everybody said he couldn't, because he was only a supporting actor on 21 Jump Street. This was his first lead in a movie, a big deal for him." John agreed with Traci, saying that "everyone in Cry-Baby was in acting image rehab. If you embrace...

This story first appeared in the Oct. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Less than a month into the new season, daytime television's new players already have experienced two major shake-ups and increasing ratings questions for the fall's biggest star, Katie Couric. On Sept. 28, 20th Television, producer of Ricki Lake's Ricki, announced that executive producer Lisa Kridos had been replaced by Gail Steinberg, who produced Lake's previous show. The move was seen as a distress call amid middling ratings for Lake's new talker. Story: Why 5 New Talk Show Hosts Might Succeed -- and Why They Might Not

read more...

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"Ann take a note: This is how you do dressage."

Thanks to Donald for this week's winning caption!

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Kip Pardue (above) is 36, Stephen King is 65, Bill Murray is 62, Faith Hill is 45, Ricki Lake is 44, Allison Scagliotti is 22, Toni Basil is 69, Joan Jett is 54, Ani Difranco is 42, and Bonnie Hunt is 51. Battlestar Galactica’s Ron Moore to adapt A Knight’s Tale as drama project for ABC. In ratings news, Glee was down 6% from last week, and if you're a fan of NBC's Up All Night, you'd better enjoy it while it lasts. The season premiere was down 46% from last year's premiere. George Clooney...

Ricki Lake is seriously wowing everyone on this season of "Dancing with the Stars." The 43-year-old is dancing up a storm with her pro partner Derek Hough, and she's a real contender to take home that coveted sparkly disco ball trophy at the end. The former John Waters muse and talk show host spoke to The Huffington Post about her chances of winning "DWTS," the home-birthing movement and being madly in love.

Okay first of all, go Ricki!

Oh boy, I'm definitely outdoing myself. It's exhausting. I'm whittling away to nothing and I'm having the best time but it's just brutal.

You know it's between you and J.R. Martinez.

I know, well that's very sweet of you. I think everyone's improved every week. He's definitely the one to beat. All I can say is it's going to be very hard to beat the war hero who can dance.

And he's so positive and happy.

There's finally a documentary about the immortal star - and Most Beautiful Woman in the World - Divine.

Harris Glenn Milstead, aka Divine (1945-1988) was a hero and a symbol of ... oh fuck. I can't say it as well as the filmmakers did. Here's how they describe Divine:

Divine was the ultimate outsider turned underground hero. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty, Divine succeeded in becoming an internationally recognized icon, recording artist, and character actor of stage and screen. Glenn went from the often-mocked, schoolyard fat kid to underdog royalty, standing up for millions of gay men and women, drag queens and punk rockers, and countless other socially ostracized misfits and freaks. With a completely committed in-your-face style, he blurred the line between performer and personality, and revolutionized pop culture.

This new, currently-in-production documentary is directed by Jeffrey Schwarz,...

Lionsgate's doing something a little different with the latest poster for Saw 3D. They're asking fans to visit the Saw Facebook page, "like" them in order to see the poster, and then share it with their friends.

The press release explains it a bit better:

We are very excited to announce the Saw 3D special edition print poster by celebrity artist Jason Mecier is now Live on the Saw Facebook Page. You can view it by visiting Facebook.com/Saw and clicking on the Share Saw tab.

Lionsgate has launched an innovative Facebook application which incentivizes Saw fans to share their anticipation for the final Saw film on Facebook and Twitter: Once Saw's more than 3,000,000 Facebook and Twitter fans share their excitement of the series enough times, a new, special edition print created by famed celebrity artist Jason Mecier will be revealed exclusively to the Saw Facebook community. Ten...

New York -- Ad agency holding firm MDC Partners is forming a production company, dubbed Shout Media, to develop branded content for TV and digital media. Veteran TV producer Michael Rourke will oversee Shout as CEO.

Shout's first show is "Pregnant in Heels," which is currently in production for Bravo. It profiles the life of Rosie Pope, the owner/designer of high-end maternity brand Rosie Pope Maternity.

Most recently developing shows for Bravo, Own, Fox and Twentieth Television, Rourke spent nine years in a production deal with Sony Pictures Television, where he launched syndicated courtroom shows "Judge Hatchett," "Judge Maria Lopez" and "Judge David Young." He also executive produced daily talk show "Ricki Lake."

Previously, he produced such shows as "First Person with Maria Shriver" for NBC News.

"The formation of Shout Media allows our partner firms to immediately offer world-class creative, production skills and exciting branded content both in traditional mediums and digital engagement,...

A bunch of celebs and famous faces will head to La this weekend for a charity poker tournament at the Commerce Casino.

The World Poker Tour’s Celebrity Invitational will feature over 100 stars of screen and poker, including Marlon Wayans, Eric Dane, Hank Azaria, Teri Hatcher, Jesse Metcalfe, Michael Vartan, Matt Lillard, Billy Burke, Zachary Quinto, Willie Garson, Benji Madden, Ricki Lake, Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Tilly and many more.

The tournament will hit Los Angeles on February 20-21, and proceeds will benefit Chrysalis, a charity dedicated to helping economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities. It currently helps more than 2,000 individuals a year change their lives through jobs.

Read more...

Nobody," John Waters once said, "is sick of Johnny Depp."

It's as true today as it was when Waters directed Depp in 1990's "Cry Baby," the film that diminished his hated TV teen-idol status with the help of Iggy Pop and Ricki Lake.

But Waters' statement doesn't go far enough: We can never get enough of Johnny Depp. The man who started out on a cheesy '80s cop show has grown up to become our most enduring emblem...

NEW YORK -- Two weeks after picking an executive producer for its new national morning show, Fox has named two co-executive producers.

The untitled morning show will debut in January, hosted live from New York by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy from 9-10 a.m. EST. It will air at the start on Fox's owned and operated stations.

The network said Monday that Patricia Ciano and Terence Noonan will be co-executive producers. Ciano had been supervising producer at Sony Pictures Television, where she launched Judge Hatchett and Judge Maria Lopez. She also worked with RDF Media on ABC's Wife Swap as well as on Ricki Lake, "Life & Style" and Jenny Jones.

Noonan had been executive creative consultant at SPT. He had been executive producer of Plum TV's Beauty Beat and also worked on "Life & Style" as senior producer plus Living It Up With Ali and Jack, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ElimiDate and The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

They join executive producer Tom Mazzarelli, who left his job as senior producer at NBC's Today to become executive producer of the morning show.

Andrew Scher has been named series executive producer for Banyan Prods.' new syndicated strip Design Invasion, which is produced in association with Twentieth Television, the show's distributor. The home-makeover program is set to debut Sept. 13 in a test run on select Fox O&Os. Scher has held producing positions on several syndicated shows, including senior supervising producer for The John Walsh Show, supervising producer for Change of Heart and senior producer for The Queen Latifah Show and Ricki Lake.

Several syndicated shows were on a major roll midway through the November sweep period, with some top-level programs hitting their best ratings ever and others posting their strongest numbers in years. Veteran talker The Oprah Winfrey Show posted a 7.7 average household audience rating, which represented its best ratings performance in five years, according to the Nielsen Media Research syndication rankings for the week ending Nov. 16. Oprah's numbers also represented a 13% jump from the week before and a 24% gain compared with its performance for the same period last year. The No. 2 talk show, Dr. Phil (5.7), was down 3% but up 19% year-to-year after hitting its season high the week before. Live! With Regis & Kelly (4.0) was up 8% for the week and 18% year-to-year. Maury (3.4) hit a season high with a 10% week-to-week gain and was up 3% year-to-year. Other talk shows hitting season bests were The Montel Williams Show (2.6), up 8% for the week; Ricki Lake (1.5), up 15%; and The John Walsh Show (1.3), up 18%.

The producing team on the upcoming Twentieth Television syndicated show On Air With Ryan Seacrest has been put in place with veteran David Armour joining Adam Freeman and Ryan Seacrest as executive producers. He is moving from Twentieth's new strip Classmates. Marla Kell Brown will serve as consulting executive producer. Armour's production credits include the syndicated strips The Montel Williams Show, Queen Latifah and Ricki Lake. He is executive producer on Twentieth's new reality series Classmates, but he will now shift to an executive consultant post on Classmates. No decision has been made yet by Twentieth on a national rollout for Classmates, which was given a partial test launch in a limited number of markets. Brown was executive producer on The Arsenio Hall Show. Formerly a news producer at WABC in New York, Brown also produced Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee. Additionally, Rosanna Tavarez has signed on as news anchor on the Seacrest strip. Tavarez began her television career as a bilingual entertainment reporter-producer at Telemundo/MUN2's Fuzion. Mary Jaras joins the show as senior news producer, coming from a similar posting on Classmates. Siobhan Schanda was named music talent booker, while Tricia Daniels and Kari Johnson sign on as celebrity talent bookers.