Bradley Whitford on his Josh Lyman head turn, and his gorilla impersonation
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Los Angeles Times
27-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
The true story behind ‘Smoke,' plus ‘Odd Mom Out' and ‘Pavements' for your weekend streaming
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who can't stand the heat outside, but can tolerate it onscreen. The eerie and bizarre story of John Orr, a Southern California arson investigator who authorities say moonlighted as a serial arsonist suspected of setting some 2,000 fires in the 1980s and 1990s, has been chronicled in the 2021 podcast 'Firebug' and, earlier this year, received the deep-dive treatment from L.A. Times writer Christopher Goffard. Now, there's a new Apple TV+ series, 'Smoke,' loosely inspired by the true crime case. Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane, who created the new drama, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss it. Also in this week's Screen Gab, TV critic Robert Lloyd reminds us that Bravo used to dabble in scripted programming, recommending 'Odd Mom Out,' the short-lived comedy about a stay-at-home mother and her experiences navigating the bizarre and outrageous world of Manhattan's elite; and film reporter Josh Rottenberg suggests finding time to watch a hybrid documentary-biopic film about the '90s indie band Pavement. Must-read stories you might have missed The movie business isn't going to collapse. Jerry Bruckheimer explains why: Thirty-five years after 'Days of Thunder,' the hard-charging 'F1' producer is not slowing down: Bruckheimer talks fast cars, big-budget spectacle and the state of Hollywood. 'My Mom Jayne' led Mariska Hargitay to see her mother 'like a superhero': The 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' actor created an emotional and revealing documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, who died when Hargitay was just 3 years old. 'The Bear': Apologies and reconciliations lift the mood in Season 4: The latest season of 'The Bear' shows Carmy and the crew reacting to various obstacles, including a negative restaurant review, but everyone's on the road to happiness. 'Countdown' makes Los Angeles a prominent character — and it's in danger: The Prime Video action series follows a task force consisting of members from various law enforcement agencies that are brought together after the murder of a Department of Homeland Security agent. But it's Los Angeles that is in serious danger. Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times 'Odd Mom Out' (Peacock) In my review of the new season of 'The Bear' this week, I neglected to mention Abby Elliott, who plays Sugar, the level-headed sister of Jeremy Allen White's Carmy (or to mention Sugar's new baby, the most adorable infant I have ever seen on screen); ironically, it was because, laboring to express how great she is in it, I had set that bit aside — as it turned out, permanently. Happily, I was already planning to use this space to recommend her earlier series, Jill Kargman's very funny 'Odd Mom Out,' Bravo's brief experiment (2015-17) in scripted comedy, giving me this chance to self-correct. In 'Mom,' whose three seasons stream on Peacock, Kargman, a very talented amateur, stars as a version of herself in a series based on her 2007 book 'Momzillas,' about competitive parenting among Upper East Side New Yorkers, a war her boho-punk mother of three character declines to enter. (She is what most of us would call rich, but not obscenely so, and has good values.) Elliott, in a whimsical comic turn, plays Brooke, the pregnant and thin wife (later ex-wife) of her brother-in-law, whose charities include providing 'prophylactic gastric bypasses for at-risk kids with morbidly obese parents' and sending bouncy castles to Africa. — Robert Lloyd 'Pavements' (available on various VOD platforms) If you were young and vaguely disaffected in the '90s, Pavement was either your favorite band or the band your favorite band wanted to be — a group whose slanted (and enchanted) songs defined slacker cool, mixing lo-fi chaos, shaggy pop hooks and a shrugging disinterest in 'career, career, career,' as they put it in their semi-hit 'Cut Your Hair.' So it's only fitting that Alex Ross Perry's drolly funny anti-rock-doc ditches the usual mythology-building formula in favor of something far weirder. Blending real tour footage, a faux biopic, a tongue-in-cheek jukebox musical and a museum filled with half-fake relics, the film is part tribute, part Gen X time capsule, part absurdist prank. 'Stranger Things' star Joe Keery is the film's unexpected MVP, playing himself with deadpan commitment as he fixates on nailing lead singer Stephen Malkmus' Stockton accent — right down to requesting a photo of his tongue for research. By the end, 'Pavements' becomes both a joke about the band's legacy and a surprisingly sincere celebration of it. — Josh Rottenberg A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching He spent his days as a fire captain and arson investigator in Southern California, but authorities say John Orr lived a secret life as a prolific arsonist responsible for a string of fires that terrorized the region in the '80s and '90s. An unpublished novel he wrote, 'Points of Origin,' detailed an arson spree that mirrored real-life incidents and helped authorities secure enough evidence to arrest him. The firefighting veteran was eventually convicted on 20 counts of arson and 4 counts of murder and is serving life in prison. Orr continues to maintain his innocence. This true story, chronicled in the 2021 podcast 'Firebug,' is the basis for Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama 'Smoke.' Created by Dennis Lehane ('Black Bird'), the series follows arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) and Detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) as they pursue two serial arsonists. The first two episodes are available to stream, with the remaining seven releasing weekly every Friday until Aug. 15. Lehane stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the show's gnarly fire sequences and getting Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to provide the show's theme song. — Yvonne Villarreal You've authored several well-known novels, including 'Gone, Baby, Gone,' 'Mystic River' and 'Shutter Island,' and you're familiar with exploring moral ambiguity. What stood out to you when you first listened to 'Firebug'? And what about it made it a story you wanted to tell for the screen? What really stood out for me with 'Firebug' was John Orr's myopic duality. He clung to the identity of a hero arson investigator even as he was running around lighting up Glendale and surrounding areas, resulting in several deaths. On top of that, he was writing a book about an arson investigator chasing a serial arsonist. And the book was quite bad. I found that kinda delicious. I was also intrigued by his methods for setting the fires and was taken by the fact that he'd once nearly died in a fire when he mistook his reflection for another firefighter and ran deeper into a burning house. Everything else in the show is pure fiction. I didn't want to tell a story about John Orr in 1980s California; I wanted to tell a story about our culture now, about people who feel so unmoored they'd rather cling to the fiction of themselves over the fact. Tell me about the planning and work that went into crafting the fire sequences in the series — how you decided when to use special effects or real fire, and the precautions that needed to be in place for the latter. And is there a fire sequence in the series that stands out for you? The moments that stand out most are the first fire — Dave's dream — and the last — the sawmill fire. The first of these was 100% real. It was shot on a burn stage with pipes blasting flame all around the room as Taron — not a stunt man — walked through it. It looks so impressive because a) we planned really hard; and b) Sam McCurdy, our director of photography, is a painter with light and reflection. Our sawmill fire and the subsequent car ride thru the burning forest was the opposite — it was predominantly CGI, but we'd realized by then that the key was to shoot as much real fire as we could (which, in this case, wasn't terribly much), so the CGI wizards had real flame to compare their work to. How did you get Thom Yorke to write a song ('Dialing In') for the show's theme? Our music supervisor, Mary Ramos, had heard that Thom was a fan of 'Black Bird' [Lehane's previous Apple TV+ series that also starred Egerton and featured much of the same creative team]. We reached out to see if he had any interest in writing a song for our credit sequence. And he actually called us back. He and I spoke about the underlying themes of the show and he read a bunch of the scripts. Then he went off and wrote the song. He sent it back to us and someone, I think it was Mary, said, 'Now you have to give him notes.' And I was like, Um … no, no, I don't. He's Thom Yorke. Giving him notes on music would be like telling Scorsese where to put the camera. I passed along this note:'Thank you.' What have you watched recently that you're recommending to everyone you know? (Please explain) 'Dept. Q' [Netflix]. Scott Frank, as always, crushes it as both a writer and a director. It's got one of the best pilots I've ever seen, and the cast, led by Matthew Goode and Kate Dickie, is impeccable. It's so rich in character and atmosphere that I wanted to fly to Edinburgh to simply hang out with every character after I finished watching. What's your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again? (Please explain) 'Midnight Run' [Netflix] is my cinematic chicken soup for the soul. It's smart, hilarious, infinitely quotable, sports one of the greatest casts ever assembled, and it's non-stop, breakneck fun from the first shot to the last. I've probably seen it 30 times.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
Erin Moriarty of 'The Boys' has Graves' disease: 'Felt the light coming back on' with treatment
Erin Moriarty, the outspoken and righteous Starlight of "The Boys," is speaking out about her health, specifically her ongoing battle with an autoimmune disorder. Moriarty, 30, revealed to her Instagram followers on Friday that she was diagnosed last month with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the thyroid becomes overactive. In the caption of her post, Moriarty expresses the positive effects of treatment but reveals the disorder could have been identified earlier "if I hadn't chalked it all up to stress and fatigue." The "Jessica Jones" and "One Life to Live" actor shared a carousel of photos including text message exchanges with her parents. In one screenshot Moriarty tells her mother "I really need relief" as she details her discomfort. "I can't live like this forever," she writes. "It's not just fatigue — it's an ineffable, system wide cry for help and I don't know how long I can remain in this state," Moriarty continues in her text to her mother. Read more: Eric Dane is angry about ALS: There's 'a good chance' he'll die while daughters are young Moriarty did not reveal too much about her symptoms, noting in her caption that "autoimmune disease manifests differently in everybody/every body." According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Graves' disease can include "feeling nervous or irritable," slight tremors of the hands or fingers, weight loss, menstrual changes and heart palpitations. Wendy Williams, Daisy Ridley and Missy Elliott have also spoken publicly about living with Graves' disease. "Within 24 hours of beginning treatment, I felt the light coming back on," Moriarty said in her caption. "It's been increasing in strength ever since." She did not reveal the details of her treatment, but Moriarty told her father in a text message, "I already feel a world of a difference" and that she has since been thinking, "'Damn, this is how I'm supposed to feel? I've been missing out!'" Read more: Miley Cyrus, on the verge of a new era, reveals 'traumatic' health scare: 'excruciating' Since "The Boys" premiered on Prime Video in 2019, Moriarty has starred as superhero Annie January, a.k.a. Starlight, who possesses the power to fly and manipulate light. Without spoiling too much about the series, it now seems Moriarty knows what it's like to lose her spark on- and off-screen — and how to get it back. She concluded her post by urging followers to listen to their bodies and seek medical attention when something feels off. "If [your light] is dimming, even slightly, go get checked," she said. "Don't 'suck it up' and transcend suffering; you deserve to be comfy. S—'s hard enough as is." Sign up for Screen Gab, a free newsletter about the TV and movies everyone's talking about from the L.A. Times. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Grammys to split country album into two categories and revive album cover field
The Grammy Awards are returning next February with two additional categories. The 68th awards, scheduled for Feb. 1 at Arena, will now include prizes for album cover and traditional country album. The previous country album category has been renamed contemporary country album. The award for album cover is not entirely new. The honor went to Frank Sinatra for 'Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely' during the first-ever ceremony in 1959. Over the years, visual presentation has been recognized in the packaging field under various names. Read more: Everything that happened at the 2025 Grammy Awards Additionally, the award for boxed or special edition limited package will be absorbed into recording package, which considers package design, photography and graphic art and materials. The changes to the country category come after Beyoncé won country album and album of the year for the genre-bending 'Cowboy Carter.' Following her performance at Stagecoach, alternative pop artist Lana Del Rey also plans to release a country album, though the release date has not been confirmed. Read more: How Beyoncé finally won album of the year at the Grammys "Country music has evolved in a major way over the past decade, with traditional country experiencing a massive resurgence, growing in popularity and volume," Recording Academy Chief Executive Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement. "Traditional country has a timeless, distinct sound that's inspired generations of musicians throughout the years. It's an important part of the country music story and deserves to be celebrated and recognized with intention." In addition to the category and field changes, the Recording Academy has amended the criteria for best new artist. Now, artists who have been nominated for album of the year, but whose contributions were below the 20% playing time threshold, will remain eligible for the award. Music released between Aug. 31, 2024 and Aug. 30, 2025, will be eligible for the 2026 Grammy Awards — so Sabrina Carpenter's forthcoming 'Man's Best Friend,' due Aug. 29, narrowly makes the deadline. Nominations will be announced Nov. 7. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
