News

Jay Leno is speaking out about his past feud with fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. In a recent interview with Graham Bensinger, Leno discussed Kimmel's 2010 appearance on The Tonight Show following Leno's controversial return to the late-night staple, displacing Conan O'Brien. Kimmel, who had supported O'Brien during the controversy, made several jokes at Leno's expense during the guest appearance. The appearance came in the wake of an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live in which Kimmel had performed the entire show while somewhat cruelly impersonating Leno.

During the Tonight Show appearance, Kimmel alluded to Leno's alleged duplicity in reclaiming hosting duties from Conan: "The best prank I ever pulled was I told a guy that five years from now, I'm going to give you my show, then when the five years came, I gave it to him, and then I took it back almost instantly." He also talked about the cancellation...

More than 30 years later, Jay Leno is open to putting his past with David Letterman aside for a potential reunion.

The late night host recently said if a reunion was in the cards, he “would do it,” but he doesn’t want to “instigate those kind of things” after having his own “awkward” encounters with Letterman.

“Oh, yeah. I would like to do that. I think I have no problem with it,” Leno said on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. “I think Dave might be awkward.”

Explaining that Letterman is “a quirky guy,” Leno clarified he doesn’t “mean that in a bad way.” He acknowledged that he’s also quirky, “but opposite sides of the coin.”

Leno recalled riding motorcycles with fellow comedian Wil Shriner when they decided to stop by Letterman’s Malibu home for a visit. “‘We’ll just surprise him at his house.’ It was the most awkward.

JoBlo’s own Ryan Cultrera was recently able to catch up with several popular Final Girls at the Ve Neill’s Vampire Weekend convention in California. Last week, we shared Ryan’s interviews with Lisa Wilcox from the Elm Street franchise, Christine Elise from the Child’s Play / Chucky franchise, and Melanie Kinnaman from Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. He also got to talk with one of the horror genre’s greatest male heroes, Ken Foree, and the legendary character actor Michael Ironside. But we’re not done sharing Vampire Weekend interviews yet!

Now, we’ve collected moments from Ryan’s conversations with Lisa Wilcox, Ken Foree, and Michael Ironside in the video embedded above, which also includes previously unreleased interviews with makeup artist Ve Neill and actor Daniel Roebuck!

Ve Neill’s career stretches back to the 1970s and includes work on Kingdom of the Spiders, Laserblast, Tourist Trap,...

Beloved director of such iconic films as Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, George Armitage, has died at 82. A popular director in the '90s and Roger Corman protégé, known for his dark comedies, he also helmed the 1972 Blaxploitation film called Hit Man. The news was confirmed by his son, the writer-producer Brent Armitage.

Born and briefly raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Armitage's family moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s. His first job in the industry was in the mail room at 20th Century Fox, which led to him getting into production on television shows. He worked as an associate producer on the soap opera Peyton Place starting in 1967, and leveraged that experience to get in with the folks at Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Corman was a revolutionary in the industry, creating an entire ecosystem of micro-budget films that gave many Hollywood mega-talents their start.

RelatedWhy Grosse Pointe Blank...

George Armitage, the director of Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, as well as a close collaborator of Roger Corman’s, has died. He was 82.

George Armitage entered the business in the ‘70s but it took a while to find his footing. That came with 1990’s Miami Blues, which starred Alec Baldwin as a criminal fresh out of prison posing as a cop with a stolen police badge. Armitage would develop his mixture of crime and comedy later that decade with 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack and Minnie Driver.

Even though he was a buddy of Corman’s, it does feel like George Armitage is too rarely mentioned in the list of notable directors who got their start working under him. But we can’t ignore where he got his start. George Armitage met Roger Corman at just the right time in the 1960s. In 1971, Corman hired him to write Gas-s-s,...

George Armitage, the filmmaker behind Miami Blues and Grosse Pointe Blank, has died at the age of 83. His son, Brent Armitage, confirmed that he passed away on February 15 in Playa del Rey, California.

Armitage’s career in Hollywood began in the 1960s and spanned decades. He directed and wrote films that combined crime, action, and humor, earning a reputation for his approach to storytelling.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1942, Armitage moved to Los Angeles in 1957. He studied political science at UCLA while developing an interest in filmmaking. His first industry job was in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox, leading to a role as an associate producer on Peyton Place in 1967.

His transition to feature films came after connecting with producer Roger Corman. Armitage wrote Gas-s-s-s or It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970), a satirical youth comedy. This led to more work with Corman,...

George Armitage, who directed, wrote and produced films including “Grosse Pointe Blank” and “Miami Blues,” died Saturday in Playa del Rey, his son Brent confirmed. He was 83.

Raised in Hartford, Conn., Armitage started out in the 20th Century Fox mailroom before becoming associate producer on the long-running series “Peyton Place” in the 1960s. He met Roger Corman on the Fox lot and moved into feature films, writing the Corman-produced 1970 comedy “Gas! – Or – It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.”

He continued making films for Corman and his brother Gene Corman, moving into directing with “Private Duty Nurses.” The 1972 Blaxploitation film “Hit Man,” which he directed and co-wrote, starred Pam Grier and Bernie Casey. Next up was “Vigilante Force,” with Kris Kristofferson and Jan-Michael Vincent, and the TV movie “Hot Rod.”

“Kaplan, Demme, Dante, Arkush and me… We were making little 45 Rpm rock ’n’ roll movies.

Kathy Bates recently told a relatable story to Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) on his Dinner's On Me podcast (via TheWrap) when both she and fellow Oscar winner Meryl Streep lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2003: They drowned their sorrows with vodka at the bar.

“It was a very Joan Crawford-Bette Davis moment. She slammed her evening bag down on the bar and said, ‘I’m having a vodka, straight, neat,’ and I slammed my evening bag down, I said, ‘I’m having what she’s having,’ and we tossed it. It was a moment.”

Zeta-Jones won the Oscar for Chicago, playing Velma Kelly. The film also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Film Editing. Meanwhile, Bates was nominated for her role as Roberta Hertzel in About Schmidt, a film that features Jack Nicholson playing completely against type. Streep...

Maybe Kathy Bates won’t have to rip up her next acceptance speech.

Bates just earned two more SAG nominations for the CBS freshman series Matlock and the Max film The Great Lillian Hall — her ninth and 10th nomination of her career. She won two Sags in 1997 and 1999 for The Late Shift and Primary Colors, respectively. She’s already an Oscar winner for Misery and a two-time Emmy winner for American Horror Story and Two and A Half Men.

Bates received a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for playing Madeline Matlock in the clever update of the old ’80s series that starred Andy Griffith. Video of the 76-year-old actress went viral on Sunday after she was filmed ripping up her acceptance speech after Shōgun’s Anna Sawai took the Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series.

Bates was the only actress to receive a SAG nomination for a drama on broadcast TV.

Golden Globe Awards 2025 (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The 82nd Golden Globe Awards Ceremony is officially around the corner, and the buzz is increasing. Scheduled for this coming Sunday, Hollywood’s favorites—from veteran faces to those of the younger generation—are gearing up to take the stage as presenters at the first significant event of the movie and television industries in 2025.

Notably, former Golden Globe winners such as Andrew Garfield were recognized for their role in Tick, Tick… Boom! and Colin Farrell, who succeeded Garfield in the same category for The Banshees of Inisherin the following year, are slated to present awards alongside many others.

Check out the presenters and their Golden Globe-winning performances:

Andrew Garfield Ariana DeBose Awkwafina Colin Farrell Catherine O’Hara Elton John Trending Leonardo DiCaprio At 50: No Marriage In Sight, But Romance With Vittoria Ceretti Thrives

Ben Affleck Revisits Hypnotherapy In Bold 2025 Effort To Quit Smoking For...

Can “Matlock” crack the case of the disappearing SAG Awards broadcast nominations? The CBS drama has been an out-of-the-box hit this fall, earning acclaim for star Kathy Bates and even already landing a Season 2 pickup. The folks at CBS Studios are bullish enough on its awards chances — particularly for the beloved Bates — that they’ve made it a priority in the kudo space this year.

And honestly, as it should be. Kathy Bates is an Oscar winner (for 1991’s “Misery”) and has earned three more Oscar noms since then — as recently as 2020, for “Richard Jewell.” The breadth of Bates’ work can be illustrated by her two wildly different Emmy wins: For sitcom “Two and a Half Men” in 2012 and the creepy series “American Horror Story” in 2014. Bates has also won two SAG Awards, in both TV and film.

In other words, Hollywood is a fan. So why shouldn’t Bates...

Jason Reitman’s recent Saturday Night movie told the story of how a young upstart producer named Lorne Michaels dared to revolutionize late-night television with his bold new vision for a sketch comedy series unlike any other, ultimately succeeding in his goal despite network meddling and Milton Berle’s attempts to to crush Chevy Chase’s soul with his giant hog.

The movie would have been a tad less triumphant had it included a post-credit scene in which Michaels bails on the show after just a few weeks for purely petty reasons. But reportedly, that’s what happened.

Bill Carter, author of the quintessential late-night comedy text The Late Shift, recently spoke with Susan Morrison, author of the upcoming biography Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, for LateNighter. According to Morrison, one notable story about Michaels is the time he quit his own show less than a month after it premiered.

For decades, The Tonight Show has been the standard for all late-night talk shows. Johnny Carson made it an institution, and any star or comedian knew landing a spot would boost their career. They also knew that keeping on Johnny’s good side was vital, as if you crossed him, he’d hit a ban that would harm a career. That was kept up by Jay Leno as being banned from The Tonight Show was a big deal.

Some supposed “bans” aren’t really true, like Sylvester Stallone. It’s also tricky to see if some stars were banned or just fell out of popularity. However, there are clear-cut cases of bans by Tonight Show hosts as these ten celebrities committed some affront to prevent themselves from sitting on that famous couch.

Joan Rivers Princes Trust Comedy Gala - We Are Most Amused | Christie Goodwin/GettyImages

For years, Joan Rivers and Carson were good friends,...

Ryan Murphy has become the go-to person for actors who want to win Emmy Awards. In fact, 13 different performers have won Emmys for appearing in a Murphy production since 2010, for roles that are both humorous and monstrous. Starting with “Glee,” more than 40 actors have been recognized with a nomination by the TV academy, mostly in the limited series/movie categories. It’s no surprise Murphy’s name is typically heard at least once or twice per Emmy broadcast, whether in speeches thanking him or for nominations of his own for directing, producing and writing.

Scroll through our photo gallery above (or click here for direct access) to see which actors have won Emmys for Ryan Murphy shows, with Niecy Nash-Betts (“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”) being the most recent addition. At the current 2024 Emmys, four performers are recognized for their work on FX’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”: Tom Hollander,...

Today, late-night talk shows are practically indistinguishable from the glutton of content that spreads on social media, but during its heyday, it was a cultural touchstone. People didn't just consume isolated clips of a host's monologue or interview with a celebrity, they finished their nights watching them live. The host of The Tonight Show on NBC, the most watched and acclaimed late-night show in history, carried the influence of a President, at least that's what it felt like when it was time to decide who would replace the King of Late Night, Johnny Carson, in the early 1990s. The palace intrigue of the late-night war at NBC between Jay Leno and David Letterman ascending to Carson's throne served as the basis for the 1996 HBO TV movie, The Late Shift, less of a narrative film and more of a print-to-screen retelling of a wild era of network television.

The Emmys just paid tribute to the great Treat Williams: the 71-year-old actor who died in a motorcycle crash received a posthumous nomination for playing former CBS head and media tycoon Bill Paley in Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans. It was his final role before he died June 12, 2023 in Vermont.

The Ryan Murphy miniseries, which is an adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in Esquire in 1975.

Last June, FX and 20th TV released this statement: “Treat Williams leaves behind a legacy of remarkable performances in film and television, and an indelible mark on the entire industry.

The late Treat Williams was nominated for an Emmy Award on Wednesday, thanks to his role in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.

The actor, who died in a motorcycle accident last month, is among the nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Williams played CBS executive and womanizer William Paley in the FX anthology series.

The Emmy nod marks Williams’ second nomination, his first in 28 years. He was last up for an award in the same category for his role as Michael Ovitz in The Late Shift,...

Editor’s note: 2024 marks 30 years since the original publication of “The Late Shift,” Bill Carter’s mind-bending chronicle of the behind-the-scenes power struggle to succeed Johnny Carson at his legendary Tonight show desk. The book was an instant bestseller, spawning an HBO movie of the same name and a 2010 follow-up, “The War for Late Night.” It also solidified Carter’s own reputation as “The King of Late Night Journalism.” Now the editor-at-large for LateNighter, we prevailed upon Bill to mark the book’s 30th with a little look-back. Humble man that he is, it took some coaxing, but we’re thankful that he agreed.

In the early 1990’s, about three years into my job as media correspondent for The New York Times, I found myself writing a lot of daily newspaper stories about the craziness surrounding the departure of Johnny Carson from the Tonight show and the pseudo sibling rivalry...

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans has honored the late Treat Williams with a touching tribute.

The card, which read “In Memory of Treat Williams 1951-2023”, appeared at the end of last night’s episode of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series. You can see it below.

Williams portrayed former CBS head and media tycoon Bill Paley in the series, an adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The series chronicles the literary scandal that sparked a fallout between writer Truman Capote and a high-society group of women, known as his “Swans.”

Feud was Williams’ final role. The veteran actor had wrapped production shortly before he died in a tragic motorcycle accident on June 12, 2023 in Dorset, Vt. He was 71.

Williams was best known for playing Dr. Andy Brown on Greg Berlanti’s Everwood during his nearly half-century career,...

Howard Stern has been one of the most controversial – and revered – figures in the history of modern media. With a passion for the field as a child, Stern’s climb to the top of the radio world truly began in the ‘80s. And he did it off of his unique, button-pressing, FCC-clashing brand and humor: the boobs, the prank calls, the Wack Pack, all of it all made Howard Stern one of the most recognizable figures in all of media. And so as his markets grew and his written word topped the charts – but long before his first $500 million contract with Sirius – it was time for Stern to enter the movie business…with something a little more commercially viable than Butt Bongo Fiesta.

So how did the guy who mocked his wife’s miscarriage on the air and flipped the bird to nearly every boss he’s ever had...

Daniel Goldberg, the frequent Ivan Reitman and Todd Phillips collaborator who co-wrote and produced the Bill Murray starrers Stripes and Meatballs and shepherded other films including Space Jam, Old School, Road Trip and the Hangover trilogy, has died. He was 74.

Goldberg died Wednesday in Los Angeles, his brother, Deuce Bigalow screenwriter Harris Goldberg, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a gentle, lovely guy, he was my hero,” Harris said. “He was everything I measured myself against.”

No cause of death was immediately available.

Survivors also include his wife, British Columbia native Ilona Herzberg, a producer on films including The River Wild, Evan Almighty, Waterworld, Rachel Getting Married and Feds, the 1988 comedy that starred Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross and was the only feature her husband directed in Hollywood.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Goldberg was the older son of Irwin, an aeronautical engineer, and Audrey, an artist.

He met Reitman...

Daniel Goldberg, who produced all three The Hangover films, Space Jam, Old School and many others and co-wrote movies including the Bill Murray comedies Stripes and Meatballs, died today in Los Angeles. He was 74.

Filmmaker Jason Reitman, whose late father Ivan Reitman directed Stripes and Meatballs and had known Goldberg since their college days in the 1960s, confirmed the news to Deadline but did not provide other details.

Goldberg and Ivan Reitman collaborated for more than 30 years, working together on features including the animated Heavy Metal (1981); toon/live-action hybrid Space Jam (1996), starring Michael Jordan alongside Looney Toons characters; 1994’s Junior, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the world’s first pregnant man, along with Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson; the 1997 Robin Williams-Billy Crystal comedy Fathers’ Day; the 1998 Harrison Ford-Anne Heche adventure pic Six Days Seven Nights; Howard Stern’s Private Parts, which the shock jock infamously promoted at...

Colleagues, friends and fans are remembering Treat Williams, the versatile and prolific actor who died in a motorcycle crash today at 71. Have a look at a sampling of reaction posted on social media below.

The actor from Rowayton, Ct, amassed more than 125 film and TV credits during a career that spanned nearly half a century. He was the widowed brain surgeon who moves his kids from Manhattan to small-town Colorado on the WB’s 2002-06 drama Everwood. He recurred as the ex-firefighter dad of Kelly and Katie Severeid on Chicago Fire, starred opposite Shelley Long in the 1993-94 CBS sitcom Good Advice and guested or did arcs on dozens of series including Law & Order: Svu, White Collar, Hawaii Five-o, Leverage and The Simpsons.

Related: Emily VanCamp Pays Tribute To ‘Everwood’ Co-Star Treat Williams

More recently he was a series regular for the full six-season run of Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores.

Treat Williams who died in a motorcycle crash Monday, had recently wrapped Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans, the second installment of FX’s anthology series from Ryan Murphy, Plan B and 20th Television. This was his final role for the veteran actor, who received an Emmy nomination for portraying uber agent Michael Ovitz in the 1996 TV movie The Late Shift.

Treat Williams and William S. Paley

Williams plays former CBS head and media tycoon Bill Paley in Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans, an adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The miniseries (fka Feud: Capote’s Women) chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in...

Known to horror fans for playing John Finnegan in 1998 monster movie Deep Rising, actor Treat Williams has passed away this week at the age of 71 years old, Bd has learned.

The actor passed away as the result of a tragic motorcycle accident.

The Williams Family said in a statement to Deadline, “It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved Treat Williams has passed away tonight in Dorset, Vermont after a fatal motorcycle accident. As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time.

“Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it. It is all so shocking right now, but please know that Treat was dearly and deeply loved and respected by his family and everyone who knew him.

“We are beyond devastated and ask...

Actor Treat Williams died in a motorcycle accident near his southern Vermont home on Monday. As per The New York Times, Williams – who was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident – suffered critical injuries and was pronounced dead at a medical center in Albany, New York, after being airlifted there. The driver of the other vehicle was not hospitalized, and a police investigation is underway. Williams was 71 years old.

The film, television, and theater performer first came to prominence in the original production of “Grease” in the role of Danny Zuko. In 1979, he starred in Milos Forman’s film version of the musical “Hair” and, in 1981, he played the lead role in Sidney Lumet’s epic NYPD film “Prince of the City,” based on an actual investigation into police corruption. (Both roles landed him Golden Globe nominations.) In 1996, he was nominated for an Emmy for the HBO film “The Late Shift,...

Treat Williams, the prolific and beloved actor who starred in Hair, Everwood, and Chesapeake Shores, has died.

According to his agent, Barry McPherson, who spoke with People on Monday, Williams died after a motorcycle accident.

McPherson told the outlet, "He was killed this afternoon. He was making a left or a right [and] a car cut him off. I'm just devastated. He was the nicest guy. He was so talented."

McPherson continued, "He was an actor's actor. Filmmakers loved him. He's been the heart of Hollywood since the late 1970s.

"He was really proud of his performance this year. He's been so happy with the work that I got him. He's had a balanced career."

According to Jacob Gribble, the Dorset, Vermont fire chief who spoke with People, the crash occurred on Monday around 5 p.m.

Investigators believe a driver was making a turn and didn't see Williams's motorcycle.

Williams was...

Treat Williams, the versatile actor who starred as a New York City neurosurgeon who moves his family to Colorado on the WB series Everwood and in such films as Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City and Milos Forman‘s Hair, died Monday in a motorcycle accident in Vermont. He was 71.

His agent, Barry McPherson of APA, confirmed Williams’ death in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Williams, of Manchester Center, Vermont, was aboard a motorcycle and wearing a helmet when he collided with a car on Route 30 near Dorset, the Vermont State Police said in a statement.

An initial investigation indicated that the driver of the car “stopped, signaled a left turn and then turned into the path of a northbound 1986 Honda VT700c motorcycle operated by Williams. Williams was unable to avoid a collision and was thrown from his motorcycle. He suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to Albany Medical Center in Albany,...

Exclusive, Updated with video: The days of war between late-night hosts like David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are long gone.

It’s a full détente, it seems, as a skit on the final episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden will highlight.

Deadline understands that Corden got together the likes of The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s Jimmy Kimmel and Late Night’s Seth Meyers for a sketch. The group apparently filmed it together, though we hear that Kimmel filmed his bit remotely.

While Letterman and Leno fought it out in the ratings and before that a chance to host The Tonight Show and O’Brien had his own battle with Leno at NBC, this generation of hosts have been brought together during the past eight years by such things as the pandemic and the Donald Trump presidency.

Exclusive: The story of one of America’s most beloved TV personalities, Johnny Carson, may finally be coming to the screen. A high-profile series, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Carson, written by Deadwood creator David Milch and to be directed by Jay Roach, was recently taken out and has been heating up the premium marketplace. The project, titled King Of Late Night, is a co-production between wiip and Anonymous Content.

The series will follow the life and career of late-night TV pioneer Johnny Carson from New York to Los Angeles to the Las Vegas strip. King Of Late Night will reveal how Johnny’s diehard connection to his audience overlapped with his lifelong desire for a basic quality of life, and how his beloved on-screen persona came into conflict with the more colorful aspects of his personal life.

Carson, who grew up in Nebraska and served in the Navy in World...

Last Year’s Winner: Uzo Aduba, “Mrs. America”

Still Eligible: No.

Hot Streak: The same actor hasn’t repeated in this category since Regina King took home back-to-back trophies for “American Crime” in 2015 and 2016 — which is the only time anyone has garnered consecutive wins in a category not exactly conducive to repetition — but nominees from streaming series have won the last three years running.

Fun Fact: As is the case surprisingly often with the Emmys, the actor with the most nominations in category history is not among the most awarded winners. Kathy Bates has seven nominations here

Notable Ineligible Series: “American Crime Story: Impeachment” (the season did not air in time to be eligible); “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (submitted as a Drama Series)

At the bottom of this page are IndieWire Deputy TV Editor Ben Travers’ predictions for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or TV Movie.

Steve Allen, the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, largely was responsible for late-night television as we know it.

Remember Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent? Well, take a look at Allen’s The Question Man (below).

“Steve Allen was the generator of a lot of ideas that were ahead of its time,” says Billy Crystal in CNN’s documentary series The Story of Late Night.

The six-part series is a historical deep dive into the origins of the genre that still resonates today as well as a love letter to the medium. It has been overseen by Bill Carter, a man who knows a thing or two about late-night, as the former New York Times media correspondent and author of The War for Late Night and The Late Shift.

Carter is currently a CNN contributor and his involvement helped Cream Productions, the Toronto-based production company behind CNN...

Trailblazing director Betty Thomas will receive the DGA’s prestigious Robert B. Aldrich Award for her “extraordinary service to the guild and its members” at the 73rd Annual DGA Awards.

Veteran Upm Brian E. Frankish and longtime CBS operations’ associate director Joyce Thomas will receive special awards for their service to the guild and the industry. The awards show will be held on April 10, but the DGA isn’t saying yet whether it will be virtual or not.

All three recipients have long histories of service to the guild. Betty Thomas serves as the DGA’s secretary-treasurer – the guild’s second-highest elected officer.

“Betty means so much to our guild,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “No matter how busy she’s been throughout her remarkable, ceiling-shattering directing career, she’s always placed service to her fellow members among her highest priorities, fighting for their creative and economic rights. And from the very beginning,...

Even as Covid-19 infections seem to reach new heights on a daily basis, theatrical grosses remained stable; the top 10 accounted for a little less than $11 million. By every other macrostatistic, however, the results remain unsustainable. Of the 3,000 complexes currently open, about half with eight or more auditoriums, the average weekend take is $5,000-$6,000. In normal times, the average would be around $50,000. Aggregate grosses are around 10 percent-15 percent of normal; this weekend last year saw a top 10 of $90,000.

The disappointments this weekend start with “Freaky.” Trying to predict what the Universal and Blumhouse Productions horror comedy would do was an inexact science; in recent weeks, $4 million has been the ceiling for a wide release. The hope was a more mainstream entry like this one could see $6 million or better.

At $3.7 million, it didn’t. Is it the increased resistance to going out? Awareness that it will be available on premium VOD in three weeks?...

Jada Pinkett Smith isn’t the only one who didn’t like her portrayal in a feature film — Mark Zuckerberg and David Letterman didn’t, either

Jada Pinkett Smith, “All Eyez on Me”

Jada Pinkett Smith took to Twitter to share her discontent with how her relationship with Tupac Shakur was portrayed, saying it was “deeply hurtful.”

Mark Zuckerberg, “The Social Network”

Zuckerberg said that the producers of 2010’s “The Social Network” “made it seem like my whole motivation for building Facebook was so I could get girls, right? And they completely left out the fact that my girlfriend, I’ve been dating since before I started Facebook.”

David Letterman, “The Late Shift”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Letterman talked about the movie that recounted his battle with Jay Leno to fill “The Tonight Show” chair after Johnny Carson retired. John Michael Higgins played him in the movie.

The...

In times of national crisis, many Americans turn to late-night television to help understand and process what’s going on.

Late-night has a history of summing up the mood of the nation, from Harry Belafonte interviewing Martin Luther King during the riots of 1968 when he guest-hosted The Tonight Show, through to Arsenio Hall’s interview with La Mayor Tom Bradley after the La Riots in 1992 and David Letterman’s emotional monologue after 9/11.

That has never been clearer than this week as this generation of late-night talent including Stephen Colbert, James Corden, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Conan O’Brien and Amber Ruffin stepped up and delivered emotional words, empathy and illuminating guests amid nationwide protests against police brutality following George Floyd’s death as the worst global pandemic in over 100 years raged on.

CNN media analyst Bill Carter, who has written books including The Late Shift and The War For Late Night,...

Rick Kalowski.

The ABC’s highly respected head of comedy Rick Kalowski today announced his resignation after more than six years in the post.

After commissioning and overseeing the production of 80 titles, spanning pilots, series, digital content and podcasts, the executive tells If he is exhausted and needs a break.

He will stay in place until February to give the ABC ample time to recruit a successor and will pursue new career opportunities in the Australian and global screen industry. He’s having discussions about his next move but nothing is locked in.

Arguably he will step down after one of the ABC’s most distinctive and successful years in comedy, with hits such as Frayed, the fourth season of Utopia, the second of Squinters and the finales of Get Krack!n and The Letdown.

Among other shows produced under his watch, including several commissioned by his predecessor Debbie Lee, were Rosehaven,...

Sales slate includes Thunderbird, Gringa.

David Brown’s Los Angeles-based sales and production company Clear Horizon has hired Priscilla Ross Smith as executive vice-president of international sales and acquisitions.

Smith is based in France, and attends Toronto alongside Clear Horizon president Giulia Prenna with a slate that includes new title Thunderbird, a sci-fi from Nicholas Treeshin about a fisherman who encounters the eponymous First Nations legend, coming-of-age tale Gringa starring Steve Zahn and Jess Gabor, and The Collected, the third entry in The Collector horror franchise.

Smith previously served as president of worldwide sales at Archstone Distribution and sold in...

There is a wonderful moment in Driven, the story of controversial carmaker John DeLorean’s headline-grabbing 1980s rise and fall, that encapsulates the film’s melding of comedy, tension, and history. A series of misfortunes have brought together DeLorean (Lee Pace)–the designer of the iconic car that Marty McFly would eventually use to travel through time–and a delightfully mustached moron and FBI informant, Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis). A plan has been hatched to ensnare the unsuspecting DeLorean in a drug deal. But it cannot move forward unless DeLorean has the money to make it happen.

Hoffman is frantic, as well he should be. Earlier in the film, the husband and father was arrested for piloting a plane filled with cocaine. A federal agent (an ever-irritated Corey Stoll) offers Hoffman a chance to avoid decades of jail time in exchange for the life of an informant. Without telling his...

When you think of the full motion video game genre, there are some immediately negative associations which spring to mind. This includes questionable acting, terrible green screen environments, and less than stellar picture quality.

But over the last few years, we have seen a renewed effort to reclaim the genre and act on its full potential, with titles like “Her Story,” “The Bunker,” and “The Late Shift” giving players a higher quality of interactive experience and further blurring the lines between filmmaking and game development.

To understand the future of the genre, however, you first have to look into its past. “Night Trap,” which was recently re-released onto modern consoles, is arguably the most popular game from the first wave of Fmv titles and was created mainly as a proof of concept for new technology. It was the brainchild of Rob Fulop, Tom Zito, and Digital Pictures and was originally...

Do you want to believe? Creepy Co. certainly does, and they're proving it by releasing three new pins based on The X-Files. Also featured in today's Horror Highlights is exciting casting news for the short film The Late Shift and Amazon release details for the new zombie movie The Last Ones.

New X-Files Pins from Creepy Co.: Spooky Fox Enamel Pin: "Prepare to prove the doubters wrong.

Uncover the truth with this enamel pin dedicated to the king of conspiracies and let it remind you to never lose enthusiasm for what drives you.

Artwork by Andrew "Gimetzco" Bargeron

1" tall hard enamel pin with shine-shifting metal finish 2 clutch posts with rubber clutches deluxe backing card "Creepy Co." back stamp $9.99"

Skully Redux Enamel Pin: "Skin and bones like the rest of us, she taught a generation how to believe; if not *completely* in the unexplained, then in ourselves.

Our favorite government...

Filmmaker Joshua Brucker and producer Kate Riffe have announced that Bill Oberst Jr. has joined the cast of short film, The Late Shift, as The Patient, the film’s antagonist.

The Late Shift follows Beth, a night-shift nurse tasked with babysitting a quiet and near-empty patient wing. All is calm until a mysterious patient is brought it, exhibiting a high fever and sporting terrible wounds. He’s stabilized and all returns to normal. But Beth is new to the late shift and she eventually closes her heavy eyes and accidentally drifts asleep. When she wakes up, however, not all is as calm and safe as it once was. Her new patient, she finds, harbors a dangerous and deadly secret that could cost Beth her life.

Said Brucker, who is making his directorial debut with this film:

As a child, I remember the emotions I felt watching the classic horror films.

Alec Bojalad Jul 21, 2019

Need a laugh? Got 90 - 120 minutes to kill? Let us help with our list of the best comedy movies on Amazon Prime

Editor's Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back to see what other excellent movie comedies get added to Amazon Prime.

Updated for August 2019.

You can see a complete list of Amazon new releases here.

Here's a fun fact about laughter for you. Some anthropologists believe laughter is an excellent way for primal man to express relief and signal that danger has passed once the saber-toothed tiger ambles away. Thankfully we don't have to deal with many saber-toothed tigers but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel great to laugh.

In that spirit, we've compiled a list of the best comedy movies on Amazon Prime for your viewing and laughing pleasure. This is an evergreen article, not tied to any specific time...

Over the years Mindy Kaling has been vocal about her love for Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, written by and starring Emma Thompson. Kaling put it on her list of #Fave7Films and said in 2014 that “Thompson gets overlooked for” it. So the news that Thompson will be co-starring in a film Kaling wrote must be something of a dream come true for The Mindy Project creator. Variety reports that Thompson will play a late-night talk show host who hires her first female writer, played by Kaling, and struggles to keep her show.

According to the publication, the film has been described “as The Devil Wears Prada meets Broadcast News.” Perhaps that means it will include dashes of The Late Shift and The Larry Sanders Show, with a hint of Joan Rivers’ real life thrown in for good measure. It’s been years since Rivers’ show was on the...

Bill Carter, a THR contributor, has covered TV for more than 40 years, mostly at The New York Times. A couple of years into Garry Shandling’s groundbreaking HBO comedy The Larry Sanders Show, I got word that Garry and his writers had come up with a plotline for the new season that would mix his fictional late-night television world with the real-life events that I had reported on in my book The Late Shift. At the time, everything Garry was doing on Sanders was head-spinningly new (and brilliant): He was playing a mock late-night host, but the show always

read more...

Marty McFly and Doc Brown apparently wound up at Jimmy Kimmel Live! when they time traveled to October 21, 2015 in Back To The Future. Learning he hosted a late-night talk show, they naturally wondered what happened to Johnny Carson. Kimmel didn’t go into the whole The Late Shift story, telling them simply that he was no longer with us. They likewise seemed disappointed to learn there were no flying cars and that we still had not achieved peace in the Middle East. “What…...

Marty McFly and Doc Brown apparently wound up at Jimmy Kimmel Live! when they time traveled to October 21, 2015 in Back To The Future. Learning he hosted a late-night talk show, they naturally wondered what happened to Johnny Carson. Kimmel didn’t go into the whole The Late Shift story, telling them simply that he was no longer with us. They likewise seemed disappointed to learn there were no flying cars and that we still had not achieved peace in the Middle East. “What…...

Bill Carter will launch a weekly interview program on SiriusXM. Launching later this summer, The Bill Carter Interview will be broadcast Mondays at 6 p.m. and will have the former New York Times reporter and author interviewing pop culture figures as well as newsmakers of the moment. The program will air on SiriusXM’s Insight channel 121. It will include a call-in feature. Carter covered television for the Times for 25 years. Along the way, he penned several books that offered a fly-on--the-wall view of the entertainment industry, including the best-selling The Late Shift,

read more...

News

Here we go again, the season premiere of Game of Thrones managed to crash HBO Go. Not too long ago, the app crashed when people tried to use it to watch the season finale of True Detective.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, how about that Red Viper? (There are spoilers at the link, of course.) After the initial thrill faded, it felt like the status quo for me.

I don’t have many complaints about looking at Pedro Pascal, at least.

FX has signed a big deal with the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The deal includes two more seasons of Sunny (which will make it cable’s longest-running live-action comedy, in terms of seasons), an order for a new series starring Tracy Morgan (from all three Sunny creators) as well as ordering three scripts for potential comedy series. One of those series, We’re Good,...

Fact #1: Jay Leno has been the most popular late night host in America for the majority of the past 19 years.

Fact #2: Comedians, Hollywood insiders, and laypeople alike just love hating on Leno, and have been doing so consistently for over 20 years.

Why? In their minds, the reasons are legion: Because he stole The Tonight Show from Johnny Carson’s rightful heir, David Letterman, way back in the early ’90s. Because he refused to simply retire when NBC tried to replace him with Conan O’Brien in 2009. Because his primetime Jay Leno Show tanked, sinking Conan’s Tonight Show...