Entertainment category, Page 160
As TikTok eats the world, YouTube makes a bid for creators’ hearts — and wallets
PLAYA VISTA, Calif. — Gathered in the company’s historic Spruce Goose hangar Tuesday morning, a host of YouTube leaders laid out a roadmap for the platform’s evolving relationship with both video creators and the music industry, announcing new monetization tools and industry partnerships in the cavernous event space where Howard...
Prime Stage earns American Council of the Blind award for audio description services
Nathan Ruggles’ work as an audio describer at Prime Stage Theatre means he is responsible for bringing the visual elements of live theater to visually impaired audience members. “It’s all about making that visual imagery present and accessible to people who have visual impairment,” said Ruggles, 48, of Pittsburgh’s Mount...
Donnie Iris to celebrate 80th birthday with UPMC Events Center bash
First it was Paul McCartney, who turned 80 last June. Now it’s “King Cool” Donnie Iris’ turn to celebrate eight decades on the planet. Iris announced plans Tuesday for an 80th birthday bash on March 11, 2023, at the UPMC Events Center at Robert Morris University in Moon with special...
TV Talk: ‘Star Wars’ series ‘Andor’ begins slow, improves as it goesVideo
“Star Wars” finds itself in a precarious position: It can either continue to replay its greatest hits by going back to the well of past, major characters as leads in series for a short-term boost (e.g. “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) or tread new ground to sustain the...
Spotify launches audiobook store with some 300,000 titles
NEW YORK — The expanding audio books market has a major new retailer: Spotify. On Tuesday, the music streaming service announced its long-rumored audiobook initiative, launching a store that includes more than 300,000 titles, including such popular works as Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and Colleen...
Brad Pitt, Nick Cave make surprise art debut in Finland
HELSINKI — Hollywood’s Brad Pitt and Australian musician Nick Cave have debuted as artists in an exhibition in Finland that displays sculptures and ceramics created by the movie star and the singer-songwriter. The Sara Hilden Art Museum, located in the southern Finnish city of Tampere, was initially scheduled to exhibit...
Review: Dick Ebersol recalls his outsized TV role in memoir
“From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns in TV,” by Dick Ebersol (Simon & Schuster) Anyone who’s followed the TV industry since broadcasts went color will know the name Dick Ebersol. And while those insiders and diehards are the most likely audience of...
TV Talk: ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Ghosts’ return for sophomore seasonsVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for the coming week. Broadcast television may be down, but don’t count it out just yet. After all, there were two broadcast hits to come out of the 2021-22 TV season: ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and CBS’s “Ghosts,” both returning this...
Immersive Claude Monet exhibit planned for NYC this fall
NEW YORK — Acres of water lilies will bloom on Wall Street this fall, at least digitally. A massive, immersive exhibition celebrating French artist Claude Monet will make its U.S. debut in downtown New York starting in November, promising a multisensory experience that puts visitors as close to inside his...
Q&A: Amanda Gorman talks UN poem, fame, future presidency
LOS ANGELES — When Amanda Gorman was invited to read a newly developed poem at the U.N. General Assembly, the young sensation took a deep look at how several societal issues — such as hunger and poverty — have impacted Earth’s preservation. Just like her stirring inauguration poem last year,...
Q&A: James Cameron on the return of ‘Avatar’Video
NEW YORK — Thirteen years after James Cameron plunged moviegoers into the cosmic world of “Avatar,” the lush, distant moon of Pandora is finally orbiting back into view. Cameron’s “Avatar” industrial complex has been whirling in high gear for some time; production on the upcoming sequel, “Avatar: The Way of...
Aubrey Burchell joins cast of ‘Footloose’ at Scottdale’s Geyer theater
Fresh from her run to the semifinals of “America’s Got Talent” Season 17, Aubrey Burchell is getting back on stage to challenge herself in a new way. The 21-year-old singer from North Huntingdon is playing Rusty in the Actors and Artists of Fayette County production of “Footloose The Musical,” running...
‘Bat Boy: The Musical’ will open Theatre Factory’s new season
If you say the phrase “supermarket tabloid” to someone and ask what image comes to mind, there’s a good chance they will mention “Bat Boy,” the infamous (not to mention fictional) subject of a 1992 Weekly World News story and the poster child for the height of tabloid silliness. “Bat...
The kettle boils over and all the tea gets spilled on ‘House of the Dragon’
It sure is tough to get through a wedding in Westeros. Veterans of this universe are well aware of the body count that nuptials can produce. I’m not sure if anyone other than Tommen “Baratheon”...
Review: A war story, ‘Mosquito Bowl’ defines courage, duty
“The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” by Buzz Bissinger (Harper) U.S. Marines training for the invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa didn’t know they would face the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II. The nearly three-month battle in...
Behind the art: The Westmoreland’s Mary Cassatt painting hints at subtle message
Painter Mary Cassatt often depicted images of women and children, emphasizing the intimate bonds between mother and child. One such work is “Mother and Two Children,” painted around 1905, which came into the permanent collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art via anonymous gift in 1979. It’s a prime...
Review: Viola Davis adds another jewel to her crown in a rousing ‘Woman King’Video
With her rousing new action-drama, “The Woman King,” director Gina Prince-Bythewood suggests that, in at least one crucial respect, the West African kingdom of Dahomey was more ahead of its time than that starry imperialist empire called Hollywood. An early 19th-century epic awash in militaristic might and colonial oppression, the...
Ken Burns’ new documentary reveals painful truths about ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’Video
DALLAS — Eva Schloss is no stranger to Dallas. As a Holocaust survivor willing to share her harrowing life story, she appeared in Richardson as recently as three years ago. In 2002, she flew in from London to see a play about her life, “And Then They Came for Me,”...
Elton John bids farewell to Pittsburgh in final Steel City performanceVideo
It seems we’ve been down this Yellow Brick Road before. Elton John brought his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour” to PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Friday night. “It’s our last time in Pennsylvania, so we’ve got to make it extra special,” John said. He certainly did. John didn’t...
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year
NEW YORK — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York. The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts —...
Comedian Craig Ferguson returns to Homestead for Carnegie Music Hall showVideo
Right about now, it seems we could all use a good laugh — and who better to coax that out of us than Craig Ferguson? The comedian with the heavy Scottish accent delighted late-night television audiences for a decade as host of CBS’s “Late, Late Show” and earned a loyal...
Jimmy Kimmel apologizes to Quinta Brunson for viral Emmys moment and its backlash
LOS ANGELES — Days after winning her first Emmy Award — and having her big moment seemingly spoiled by Jimmy Kimmel — Quinta Brunson showed restraint when she sat down on his show Tuesday night. She did not, in fact, punch him in the face, as she told reporters she...
‘Confess, Fletch’ review: Jon Hamm does not rise to the occasion as the jokily intrepid reporter unraveling a mysteryVideo
The crime novels of Gregory Mcdonald emerged in the ’70s as a self-amused antithesis to more typically hard-boiled detective stories. The series began with “Fletch” in 1974 and continued a 20-year run, ending with “Fletch Reflected” in 1994. Irwin Maurice Fletcher (Fletch to everyone who knows him) is a shaggy...
TV Talk: Aaron Donald on ‘Secret Celebrity Renovation;’ ‘Quantum Leap’ is back on NBCVideo
Although he’s made his NFL career as a Super Bowl winner with the Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh native Aaron Donald says he still feels “a lot of love, a lot of support in Pittsburgh” in this week’s episode of CBS’s “Secret Celebrity Renovation” (8 p.m. Friday, KDKA-TV). It’s the show’s...
R. Kelly convicted on many counts, acquitted of trial fixingVideo
CHICAGO — A federal jury on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of several child pornography and sex abuse charges in his hometown of Chicago, delivering another legal blow to a singer who used to be one of the biggest R&B stars in the world. Kelly, 55, was found guilty on three...
