Interview

Alex Rich Genius Picasso
Interview

National Geographic’s ‘Genius: Picasso’: Alex Rich Talks Playing the Artist as a Young Man

April 16, 2018 Lori Acken 0

Last year, National Geographic’s anthology series Genius earned 10 wide-ranging Emmy nominations for its stunning inaugural outing, which explored Albert Einstein’s personal and professional evolution. The series returns this month to spotlight another enigmatic intellect: prolific Spanish artist and proud bohemian Pablo Picasso. Like its predecessor, Genius: Picasso features two actors in the titular role — GLOW’s Alex Rich and movie star Antonio Banderas, this time — to capture the freethinker’s nine-decade life, a vast and colorful canvas of shifting personal and political alliances, fraught romances and astoundingly disparate artistic styles. Banderas’ connection to Picasso traces back to his youth […]

5 Questions With...

Bellamy Young Talks “Scandal” Series Finale, Spirulina, Brian Greene & More

April 11, 2018 Jacqueline Cutler 0

Bellamy Young was finishing the penultimate episode of Scandal, and even she did not know how the ABC hit would end on April 19. “We talk about it all the time, and none of us have any idea,” Young says. “I’m dying to see what is going to happen.” As Mellie Grant, Young began as the first lady with a philandering husband. During the seven-season run, Mellie has been blackmailed, her son was murdered, she was kicked out of the White House, she had an affair, and she became senator and president. Not bad for a character who was supposed […]

Elvis Presley The Searcher on HBO
Documentary

‘Elvis Presley: The Searcher’ on HBO: We Sit Down With Priscilla Presley And Music Documentarian Thom Zimny!

April 2, 2018 Lori Acken 6

Let’s start with what you do know about Elvis. Like “Hound Dog” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” “The Pelvis” nickname coupled with said pelvis’ Ed Sullivan Show debut. The stint in the Army, where he met a pretty girl named Priscilla. The feel-good films and the triumphant ’68 TV special. And the endless tabloid fodder that followed, even after his 1977 death at just 42. But do you know why Elvis moved the way he moved? Chose the songs he sang? Suffered so beneath the weight of the very fame he craved? Priscilla — Elvis’ only bride and lifelong confidante — […]

Interview

TV’s Best New Pairing: Bill Hader and Henry Winkler In “Barry”

March 24, 2018 Barb Oates 0

You don’t expect it, and you won’t be able to help it, but you’re going to fall in love with Barry. The socially awkward ex-Marine turned hitman is having a midlife crisis of sorts in HBO’s endearingly dark comedy Barry (Sundays beginning March 25). You see, Barry’s really good at killing people. He’s actually legendary in the unusual criminal underworld he works in, but he’s a lonely guy. Things start to look up for Barry when he accidentally stumbles into an acting class where he finds acceptance from a close-knit, albeit eccentric, L.A. theater group. And from there the fun […]

Interview

‘One Strange Rock’ on National Geographic: Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky Loves His Mother (Earth) With Help From Will Smith and Astronauts!

March 14, 2018 Lori Acken 0

Much of the talk about Earth these days is how we’ll communally exit it — via NASA or SpaceX, done in by our own bad habits or getting pulverized by the sort of cosmic event that got us here in the first place. That doesn’t sit well with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky, who trained as a field biologist, teamed with the “mega-documentary” experts at Nutopia and an eight-pack of well-spoken astronauts to craft One Strange Rock, a mesmerizing 10-episode love letter to our home planet, co-anchored by Will Smith and the space travelers and airing on National Geographic. The […]

Hard Sun on Hulu
Interview

‘Hard Sun’: Hulu and BBC One Put an Intriguingly Personal Spin on the Apocalyptic Thriller

March 14, 2018 Lori Acken 0

It’s the stuff of countless films and TV shows: What would you do and who would you become if you knew exactly how long you had to live and what would spell your demise? For Hard Sun’s Brit detectives Elaine Renko (Agyness Deyn, Clash of the Titans) and Charlie Hicks (Jim Sturgess, Cloud Atlas), wary new partners harboring a host of personal secrets, the investigation into a young man’s murder uncovers a MI5 plot to hide humanity’s impending demise, upending the pair’s private and professional worlds as they try to mitigate the revelation while dealing their own emotions. Though Renko […]

Living Biblically Jay R Ferguson CBS
Comedy

‘Living Biblically’: Jay R. Ferguson Talks CBS’ Feel-Good Sitcom Based on the A.J. Jacobs Book

February 8, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘Living Biblically’: Jay R. Ferguson Talks CBS’ Feel-Good Sitcom Based on the A.J. Jacobs Book

  In 2007, A.J. Jacobs charmed believers and doubters alike with The Year of Living Biblically — the Esquire editor’s hilarious, insightful attempt to follow the Good Book’s 700-plus edicts right down to the letter. And the single-fabric robes. And the sheep. And the impressive, if sort of yucky, beard. And the amused trepidation of a patient Mrs. Jacobs. Ten years later, The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki and screenwriter Patrick Walsh (2 Broke Girls, Crashing) have mined Jacobs’ book to create the warm and genuinely funny sitcom Living Biblically. The series stars Galecki’s pal Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men) […]