At long last, Issa Rae’s HBO series has arrived. But she’s been quietly working to change the industry for years now.
Tagging along with the Girls creator at the Democratic convention.
The Last Week Tonight host swears he’s only kidding.
When an actor has a breakout performance, as Oscar Isaac did in 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, you suddenly expect to see him everywhere.
When Charlie Rose presented John Oliver with a Peabody Award last month, he insisted that, no matter how often the HBO host protests, “He really is a journalist.” Rose’s characterization was accurate, of course — but also too narrow. Oliver isn’t just a comic who commits journalism from time to time. He’s not a purveyor of “fake news,” as Jon Stewart has mockingly called himself for years. Instead, perhaps without even realizing it, Oliver has emerged as a sort of modern mash-up of two of the 20th century’s biggest TV news icons: Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace.
Going into the premiere episode of True Detective season two, we knew the answers to almost all of the show’s most basic, production-based mysteries: who’d star, who’d direct, and where the season would be set. But there was still one crucial piece of the puzzle missing: Who would sing the theme song? As we learned, the answer to that question turned out to be pretty awesome: none other than Leonard Cohen.
Fifteen years before Robert Durst became a celebrity of sorts thanks to HBO's The Jinx, People reporter Matt Birkbeck began following the case, interviewing friends, family, investigators, and others about the strange real-estate tycoon and the disappearance of his wife Kathie. Following the dismemberment of Morris Black and the shooting of Susan Berman, Birkbeck wrote the 2003 book A Deadly Secret: The Bizarre and Chilling Story of Robert Durst, chronicling the case and Durst’s links to other murders. Now, for the second time since its initial release, the book is being reissued with updates to reflect Durst's latest arrest: for the Berman murder, in New Orleans, where he was found with a latex mask, five ounces of marijuana, thousands in cash — and two copies of A Deadly Secret. We recently caught up with Birkbeck to discuss the cases, the recent events, and his views on how The Jinx presented several parts of Durst's life falsely, while also omitting plenty of chilling details.
According to Alex Gibney's Going Clear, which airs on HBO Sunday night, the Church of Scientology is a vindictive, repressive cult responsible for decades of criminal harassment and abuse. But, as numerous Church members will tell you, that's just half of the story. The other half is the testimony of Scientology's devoted celebrity members, who credit the religion with extraordinary healing powers. Their stories are literally incredible!
According to its adherents, Scientology can ...
Cure dyslexia. Tom Cruise struggled with dyslexia throughout his childhood, and says he was "functionally illiterate" when he graduated high school. That changed in 1986, when Cruise discovered Study Tech, L. Ron Hubbard's educational method that emphasizes learning through physical representations of subjects. (Educators have called it "moronic," but "fairly harmless.") Cruise credits Study Tech with curing his dyslexia, and has since started the Hollywood Education Literacy Project to recruit others to the cause — of literacy! "It is definitely the most satisfying feeling ever," Cruise told Access Hollywood in 2009.
Source: vulture.com
nymag reblogged
Source: vulture.com