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Gena Rowlands is living with Alzheimer’s disease, her son Nick Cassavetes announced in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. Cassavetes, who directed his mother in 2004’s “The Notebook,” said Rowlands is “in full dementia.” A four-time Emmy winner and two-time Golden Globe winner, Rowlands is a screen icon best known for her acclaimed collaborations with husband John Cassavetes, including the films “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980). Both performances earned her Oscar nominations for best actress. She received an honorary Academy Award in 2015.

Nick Cassavetes told Entertainment Weekly that his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease is made all the more surreal for him considering he directed her as a woman with dementia in “The Notebook.”

“I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years,...

Dance, Fools, Dance: Performances Elevate Seidelman’s Stagnant Adaptation

Marking the fifth film collaboration between director Arthur Allan Seidelman and writer Richard Alfieri is Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, the adaptation of the latter’s Broadway play. It’s garish, highly photo-shopped poster places an uncomfortable and off putting stress on the film’s marketing campaign, which seems to be geared toward senior audiences attracted to headlining screen legend Gena Rowlands. Seidelman surpasses these limiting expectations with a product that ends up being incredibly sweet and surprisingly charming, even though it never transcends its choppy staginess, which is glaringly evident whenever it turns away from the unique energy of its two leads.

Struggling Broadway actor turned dance instructor, Michael Minetti (Cheyenne Jackson) has been forced to relocate to his childhood hometown in Florida. There, he is forced to take a job utilizing the only skills available to him, but...

While the Oscar race for Best Actor has heated up to a frenzy with, as previously reported here, at least 30 viable candidates and only five slots, most observers have labeled this year’s Best Actress crop from weak to thin with not even enough sure things at this point to make a list of five.

That’s a bit of an overstatement as pundits generally agree there are at least three, possibly four near-certainties for nominations: Julianne Moore for the still-unreleased Still Alice (out Dec. 5), Felicity Jones for The Theory Of Everything and Reese Witherspoon for Wild (also out Dec. 5).

When Gone Girl opened earlier this fall, it not only became by far the biggest awards contenders with a female lead released this year, it stirred up talk of an inevitable nod for Rosamund Pike. In terms of the campaign though, she has been a bit out of sight/out...

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an filmed Conversations QampA series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. The most recent conversation featured Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks' Gena Rowlands and Arthur Allan Seidelman director, moderated by BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge. Check out the full interview below...

December cometh. Cue ominous music.

That special month when Us distributors panic and attempts to fulfill all star contract Oscar-eligibility demands by releasing Everything, often sloppily, for at least a week when another more traditional rollout would probably win the film more attention... especially from audiences who are trying to squeeze in all the holiday biggies and rarely think, "gee, I'd like to see that movie about Jennifer Aniston being depressed and eating pastries at that one screen before it leaves!" (I don't mean to be snarky. I'm not allowed to talk about Cake yet but I liked it.)

There seem to be seven-day eligibility runs planned for Cake, Black and White, The Humbling, Still Alice, and Mommy... among others though details are purposefully scarce in some of these cases. These qualifiers or last second films are usually quiet since they aren't intended to be true openings of the film...

The Laguna Playhouse Executive and Artistic Directors,Karen Wood and Ann E. Wareham present screen legend Leslie Caron, in her first Southern California theatrical performance in over 25 years Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks, written by Richard Alfieri, with choreography by Donna McKechnie A Chorus Line and directed by Michael Arabian Waiting for Godot. Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks also features six-time Ovation Award-winning actor David Engel. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the stars in action below...

Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) and Julian Sands ( A Room With A View, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) have been added to the cast of Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks, the feature film based on Richard Alfieri ’s international hit play of the same name.

Gena Rowlands, Cheyenne Jackson, Rita Moreno, Kathleen Rose Perkins (Showtime’s Episodes), Anthony Zerbe and Simon Miller were previously set for lead roles.

“We’re particularly excited to have Jacki Weaver join the cast as a follow-up to her Oscar-nominated role in Silver Linings Playbook,” said producer Andras Somkuti. “She, Gena Rowlands, Cheyenne Jackson and Julian Sands reflect the caliber of actors that our casting director Paul Ruddy has reached out to for key roles in the film.”

Filming is underway at Astra Film Studios in Budapest, Hungary, to be followed by location shoots in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Arthur Allan Seidelman,...

We told you last week that Alan Ritchson was going to play Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now comes news that Pete Plozsek will play Leonardo, Jeremy Howard will play Donatello, and Noel Fisher will play Michaelangelo in the motion-capture reboot.

Which makes the rumor that Noel Fisher is also being eyed to play Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four reboot even more interesting.

Senator Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat who had avoided taking a position on marriage equality came out in favor Sunday night via a post on Tumblr, and Virginia Democrat Senator Mark Warner did the same. Buzzfeed has a list of Senators who supported Doma but no longer do, including my own Senator John Rockefeller, who seems to have found the courage of his convictions now that he's announced he's not running for reelection.

CBS Sports has a rumor that an NFL player is seriously considering coming out,...

Matt Bomer says it was fantastic to get to film the finale of White Collar on the top of the Empire State building, but there are limits. "That was a dream come true — looking over all of Manhattan and Brooklyn was unbelievable. At 5 in the morning it was brilliant; by 3 in the afternoon I was done. I’m not terribly acrophobic, but after about 10 hours up there, I was definitely ready to come down.”

Michelle Shocked has released an apology of sorts for her "God Hates Fags" rant, but mostly says everybody misunderstood what she meant. "I don't always express myself as clearly as I should. But don't believe everything you read on Facebook or Twitter. My view of homosexuality has changed not one iota. I judge not. And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a...

Exclusive: On the heels of his comedy pilot getting picked up by NBC, Sean Hayes is finalizing a deal for the lead opposite Gena Rowlands in the independent movie 6 Dance Lessons In 6 Weeks, based on Richard Alfieri’s play. Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman from a screenplay by Alfieri, 6 Dance Lessons In 6 Weeks is described as a touching comedy about a retired woman, Lily Harrison (Rowlands), who hires a handsome, energetic dance instructor, Michael Minetti (Hayes), to give her private dance lessons —one per week for six weeks— in her gulf-front condo in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. What begins as an antagonistic relationship blossoms into an intimate friendship as these two people from very different backgrounds reveal their secrets, fears, and joys while dancing the Swing, Tango, Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, and Contemporary Dance. Andras Somkuti is producing the film, with Marc Platt and Jerry Offsay executive producing. Since its Los...