In Lee Daniels’ newest TV musical drama, “Star,” Queen Latifah plays Carlotta, a beauty salon owner in Atlanta who is a fairy music godmother of sorts to an up-and-coming all-girl trio. “I’m telling you now, there’s going to be GIFs of Carlotta making the rounds once the show airs,” says Queen...
The annual deluge of holiday releases seems to have a broader than usual range, from Georgian singer Katie Melua’s offering with Russian and Eastern European elements to R&B crooner R. Kelly’s pleasant surprise of a Christmas collection. There’s also the usual bevy of country artists weighing in,...
Today in Entertainment: 'Growing Pains' actor Alan Thicke dies; 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' review Dec. 13, 2016, 11:26 p.m. Here's what's new and interesting in the world of entertainment and the arts today:Review: 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' is uneven but thrillingKanye West drops by Trump...
SERIES Jay Leno's Garage Leno heads to Edwards Air Force Base with astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, then drives the $2.5-billion Mars Rover. Tim Allen also appears in the season finale. 7 and 10 p.m. CNBC Survivor The remaining castaways vie for a chance at the $1-million prize in the season...
In a black-and-white 1974 photograph both ethereal and mundane, Frank Gohlke shows a man in profile lightly bundled up in warm clothes and standing in a grassy field among barren trees. A sliver of light lines the right edge of his body as diagonal shadows on the ground rake to the left. Together...
Picture this: A communist Chilean poet who served as a senator and diplomat and later went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now picture something else: Communist Chilean Poet: The Movie. It was certainly not the sort of project Chilean director Pablo Larraín had in mind when his brother...
The Academy Awards announced Tuesday the songs in the running for an Oscar nomination for best original song. The 91 selections span a range of genres, from musical (“La La Land”), animated film (“Trolls”), drama (“Hidden Figures”) and even documentary (“13th”). Official nominees will be announced...
Despite her enormous popularity, comic book character Harley Quinn still can’t manage to get her own standalone flick. Warner Bros. has decided that Margot Robbie will reprise her pig-tailed debut as the mallet smashing baddie Quinn in an all-female villain movie titled “Gotham City Sirens.” And...
A part-time local TV reporter who claimed she was harassed by former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has filed a discrimination lawsuit against 21st Century Fox and its television station group. Lidia Curanaj, 38, alleges in the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York that she was...
Eleven months ago, a small independent film premiered at a major Park City, Utah, film festival to thunderous applause, rave reviews and standing ovations. Written, produced and directed by Nate Parker, a black man, with a mostly black cast, “The Birth of a Nation” — a retelling of Nat Turner’s...
Ravi S. Rajan, the dean of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York, was named president of the California Institute of the Arts on Tuesday following a unanimous board vote. Rajan, a musician, teacher and administrator who has also worked in computer animation, will...
The Taiwan Philharmonic, which happened to make its U.S. debut Monday night at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, did not come to America to compete with Mainland China. It was, after all, just a coincidence that last Monday the China Philharmonic played at Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was...
A U.S. district judge has sided with Hollywood studios in their legal battle to block VidAngel, the streaming service that lets users filter unwanted language, sex and nudity from movies. Judge Andre Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles granted a preliminary injunction against the Provo, Utah-based start-up,...
Panto, short for pantomime, is a family entertainment popular at Christmastime in Britain since the 1700s — and more recently here at the Pasadena Playhouse, where Lythgoe Family Productions has presented a holiday panto since 2012. The formula may sound dissonant to the uninitiated — classic fairy...
Looks like Lupe Fiasco is at it again. The rapper, known for making both socially conscious rap and premature announcements about retiring, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he is quitting music. For real this time. After posting a new track, “N.ER.D.,” to SoundCloud on Monday, Fiasco received...
The Japanese fantasy animation “Your Name” continued to top China’s box office, adding $15.7 million to its tally this week. Chinese entertainment group Enlight Pictures distributed the movie, which accumulated $71.4 million in 10 days, according to film industry consulting firm Artisan Gateway....
When the mononymous musician and playwright Stew was 9 and living in Los Angeles, he first encountered the name James Baldwin. Elementary school instructors — “these old-school, black lady teachers who wore wigs and were tall and serious,” Stew said — referenced Baldwin as one of a number of black...
Taylor Nation is about to get its own media outlet, courtesy of broadcasting conglomerate AT&T. And on Taylor Swift’s 27th birthday, no less. In news announced Tuesday morning, the superstar singer and songwriter confirmed via a press release and promotional video that she has teamed with AT&T...
Wonder Woman will no longer be an honorary United Nations ambassador. In October, Wonder Woman was named an honorary U.N. ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls. Coinciding with the superhero’s 75th anniversary, the designation also launched a global campaign supporting the U.N.’s Sustainable...
Movie and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has invested in Culver City virtual reality gaming start-up Survios, marking the latest move by Hollywood to bet on the cutting-edge entertainment technology. Survios, founded in 2013 to make games for virtual reality devices, said Tuesday it has...
The 48th NAACP Image Awards nominations were announced Tuesday with Oscar contender “Moonlight” and Nate Parker’s embattled “The Birth of a Nation” each scoring six nods, with “Loving” nabbing five. The awards aim to celebrate accomplishments of people of color in television, music, literature...
Sumner Redstone’s girlfriend troubles continued to play out in court. Former lover Sydney Holland alleged in a lawsuit Monday that Redstone tossed her out of his home and cut her out of his will after she fulfilled her commitment to love and care for the 93-year-old billionaire. In a breach of...
SERIES NCIS A Navy officer’s murder appears to be connected to Ducky’s (David McCallum) late mother. The case gives Ducky conflicted feelings about a decision he made almost four decades earlier. With Mark Harmon, Joe Spano and guest star Adam Campbell appears again in flashbacks as the younger...
With really good marketing and sheer force of will, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has, over the last decade, turned the Golden Globes from a scandal-riven booze fest into a highly rated, influential awards ceremony, a metamorphosis that has never been clearer than this year. The diverse slate...
The African American Film Critics Assn. announced Monday its honors for the best in film and television of the year. The critics recognized Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” as its top picture (and best independent film) and Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” as its top show. Also receiving honors were Beyonce’s...
“It’s like some kind of cosmic convergence.” That’s how Beck described his appearance alongside Green Day and Weezer at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas concert Sunday at the Forum. The three acts, he pointed out, released their breakthrough albums within months of each other in 1994. And now here...
NPR Music’s Tiny Desk concert series is beloved for its intimate setting, giving viewers a window into exclusive and oftentimes deeply heartfelt performances by artists both major (Adele, Wilco) and rising (Chris Stapleton, Anderson .Paak). Recorded at host Bob Boilen’s desk, the series proudly...
Between the two of them, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese have 23 Golden Globe nominations. With “Sully” and “Silence,” they also have a couple of the most buzzed-about movies of the year. Yet when the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced its annual nominations Monday morning, both films were...
Fans and pop music critics alike have long extolled the power of Linda Ronstadt’s voice. But the facet of her talent most consistently lauded Sunday night at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in L.A. during a star-studded salute to Ronstadt benefiting research into Parkinson’s disease was her ears. That...
Conflict in Palmyra. The new risks artists face in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. And big plans for the Arts District. (I mean, like, BIG.) Plus: Dorothea Lange, Trump Tower gridlock and finding Da Vinci. Here’s the Roundup: — Islamic State militants have recaptured most of Palmyra,...
The husband-and-wife team behind HGTV's "Flip or Flop" have announced their separation six months after police were called to their Orange County home over what the couple called an "unfortunate misunderstanding." Tarek and Christina El Moussa said in a statement Monday that police were called...
Longtime musical collaborators Elton John and Bernie Taupin are launching a contest inviting fans to create official music videos for three of the duo’s best known songs to help mark next year’s 50th anniversary of their songwriting partnership. Fans will be able to enter videos for “Rocket Man,”...
The Golden Globes nominations haven’t been as wildly surprising in recent years as it was that one year, when “The Tourist” and “Burlesque” were named two of the best comedy/musicals of the season. Still, when 2016 nominations were announced from the Beverly Hilton on Monday morning, there were...
Kristin Kontrol “X-Communicate” (Sub Pop Records) Kristin Welchez, the shapeshifting artist who records as Kristin Kontrol, traversed a cool path through the Los Angeles underground. After migrating north from San Diego, she formed Dum Dum Girls, dubbed herself Dee Dee and signed to indie powerhouse...
A trio of early awards season front-runners – “La La Land,” “Moonlight” and “Manchester by the Sea” – made strong showings in the Golden Globes nominations, while a few potential contenders such as “20th Century Women,” “Hacksaw Ridge” “and “Lion” received boosts and others, including “Sully” and...
When Xavier Dolan last offered his thoughts to The Times, he was feeling pretty roughed up by reviews for his coming-home drama “It’s Only the End of the World.” The French Canadian auteur’s film premiered at Cannes, where the reactions were swift and often merciless -- decrying, among other things,...
SERIES The Voice The final four artists compete in this new episode. 8 p.m. NBC Gotham Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) charts a new course for himself as a bounty hunter. Donal Logue also stars. 8 p.m. Fox Man With a Plan When a blizzard disrupts holiday travel plans, Adam and Andi (Matt LeBlanc, Liza...
T.J. Miller, the “Silicon Valley” star who made headlines this weekend for allegedly hitting his car service driver, promised via a tweet to “address the elephant in the room” during his hosting gig of the 22nd Critics Choice Awards Sunday night. But it turns out he didn’t mean being detained for...
I’m not sure how you spent your Saturday night but I spent part of mine in a hotel room with a bunch of strangers looking at a naked man sprawled out on his bed like T.S. Eliot’s “patient etherized upon a table.” A room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. was the site of “Showcase,”...
Another high-design megaproject is being pitched for the Arts District, this time right alongside the Los Angeles River. The Gallo family, longtime owner of the Rancho Cold Storage facility on Mesquit Street, has teamed with rising-star Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and real estate firm V.E. Equities...
Walter White lives! Well, at least he did for a few minutes on “Saturday Night Live.” Emmy winner Bryan Cranston revived his high school science teacher-drug lord character from the now-defunct “Breaking Bad” during Saturday’s show. Imagine if Walter White was selected by President-elect Donald...
While being honored as this year’s Woman of the Year at Billboard’s event for women in music, Madonna gave a powerful speech about her experience in the music industry. She unflinchingly recounted moments where people’s perceptions of her age, gender or creative expression of her sexuality had...
Handel’s “Messiah” — by far the finest and most sophisticated of any Christmas staple, whether carol, ballet, poem, painting, cartoon or Jimmy Stewart movie — has always been a people’s musical messiah. The oratorio arrived on the scene to help the needy. Its 1742 premiere in Dublin was a benefit...
“I’m sorry, I was stuck in traffic,” director Damien Chazelle said, apologizing for arriving late to a discussion of his new film, “La La Land.” It was a classic L.A. start to the panel and also an apt one since the film’s dazzling first scene is set in the middle of a traffic jam. When one young...