Celebrity – Page 5 – The News Desk

For author Haruki Murakami, reading fiction helps us ‘see through lies’ in a world divided by walls

20Oct

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Entertainment

For author Haruki Murakami, reading fiction helps us ‘see through lies’ in a world divided by walls

OVIEDO, Spain -- For Japanese author Haruki Murakami, the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip is a horrendous example of how our world is divided by walls, both physical and metaphorical.But while admitting he can only pray for peace now, he also feels confident that fiction, rather than offering an escape, can help us understand, and survive, increasingly perilous times.“I have Jewish friends in Israel. And I’m also aware that the Palestinian situation that I saw when I visited Israel is miserable,” Murakami told The Associated Press in an interview. “So all I can say is to pray so that peace will prevail as soon as possible. I cannot say which (side) is right or wrong.”The clash between Israel and the Hamas militant group has resonated with the title of Murakami's newest novel “The City a...

Burt Young, Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie in ‘Rocky’ films, dies at 83

19Oct

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Burt Young, Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie in ‘Rocky’ films, dies at 83

LOS ANGELES -- Burt Young, the Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie, the rough-hewn, mumbling-and-grumbling best friend, corner-man and brother-in-law to Sylvester Stallone in the “Rocky” franchise, has died. Young died Oct. 8 in Los Angeles, his daughter, Anne Morea Steingieser, told the New York Times on Wednesday. No cause was given. He was 83. Young had roles in acclaimed films and television shows including “Chinatown,” “Once Upon a Time in America" and “The Sopranos.” But he was always best known for playing Paulie Pennino in six “Rocky” movies. The short, paunchy, balding Young was the sort of actor who always seemed to play middle-aged no matter his age. When Paulie first appears in 1976's “Rocky,” he's an angry, foul-mouthed meat packer who is abusive to his sister Adrian (Tal...

Upcoming ‘Sesame Street’ season stars Ariana DeBose, Brandi Carlile, ASL and an octopus chef

17Oct

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Upcoming ‘Sesame Street’ season stars Ariana DeBose, Brandi Carlile, ASL and an octopus chef

NEW YORK -- The upcoming season of “Sesame Street” features an octopus as a chef, an exploration of American Sign Language and Quinta Brunson giving Cookie Monster a little bit of attitude.The 54th season of the iconic children's show debuts Nov. 9 on MAX with a gentle satire of Brunson's hit mockumentary “Abbott Elementary,” mimicking that show's single-camera style and confessional cut-aways. “It was really fun to kind of zoom in on Cookie Monster making a joke about eating a cookie and Quinta Brunson giving him a little bit of side-eye,” says Executive Producer Sal Perez in an exclusive interview previewing the season.Brunson came in with an advantage most celebrity guests don't have: In her early days in Los Angeles, she attended a puppet workshop created by Jim Henson, creator of The...

Piper Laurie, 3-time Oscar nominee with film credits such as ‘The Hustler’ and ‘Carrie,’ dies at 91

15Oct

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Piper Laurie, 3-time Oscar nominee with film credits such as ‘The Hustler’ and ‘Carrie,’ dies at 91

Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told The Associated Press via email, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.”Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others.She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama “The Hustler”; the film version of Stephen King’s horror classic “Carr...

Louise Glück, Nobel-winning poet of terse and candid lyricism, dies at 80

14Oct

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Louise Glück, Nobel-winning poet of terse and candid lyricism, dies at 80

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Louise Glück, a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world, has died at 80.Glück's death was confirmed Friday by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She died of cancer at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to her publisher. A former student of Glück's, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham, said that the author had only recently been diagnosed.“I find it very much like her that she only learned she had cancer a few days before dying from it,” Graham said. “Her whole sensibility — both on and off the page — was cut that close to the spine of time.”In a ...

Terence Davies, filmmaker of the lyrical ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives,’ dies at the age of 77

8Oct

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Terence Davies, filmmaker of the lyrical ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives,’ dies at the age of 77

LONDON -- British filmmaker Terence Davies, best known for a pair of powerful, lyrical movies inspired by his childhood in postwar Liverpool, has died at the age of 77.Davies’ manager John Taylor said the director died “peacefully at home in his sleep” on Saturday after a short illness.Raised in a large working-class Roman Catholic family in the English port city, Davies worked as a clerk in a shipping office and a bookkeeper in an accountancy firm before enrolling at a drama school in the city of Coventry and later the National Film School.After making several short films, Davies made his feature debut as writer-director in 1988 with “Distant Voices, Still Lives,” a dreamlike — sometimes nightmarish — collage of a film that evoked a childhood of poverty and violence leavened by music and...

Honoree Fleming, a retired university dean, shot to death on Vermont trail

8Oct

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Honoree Fleming, a retired university dean, shot to death on Vermont trail

Vermont State Police are asking the public, businesses and hunters near a state university campus to review their surveillance systems after Honoree Fleming, a retired dean and professor who was married to best-selling author Ron Powers, was found shot to death on a rail trail this week. Police said Friday night an autopsy showed that Fleming, 77, of Castleton, died from a gunshot wound to the head on Thursday afternoon. She was found on the Delaware & Hudson Rail Trail about a mile (1.61 kilometers) south of the Castleton campus of Vermont State University, which was closed.“The campus will reopen Monday morning, providing a supportive environment for those who wish to come together,” Vermont State University spokesperson Sylvia Plumb said in an email Saturday. Monday events such as ...

Tony! Toni! Toné! say reuniting after 25 years ‘Feels Good’ — and they’re working on something new

6Oct

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Tony! Toni! Toné! say reuniting after 25 years ‘Feels Good’ — and they’re working on something new

NEW YORK -- D’Wayne Wiggins and Timothy Christian Riley didn’t realize that Raphael Saadiq was planting the seeds for a Tony! Toni! Toné! reunion when he arranged a photoshoot earlier this year.“He said a few times before, so we never paid that much attention to it until this fool put up a big-ass billboard in Oakland, and I had to see it through social media,” said vocalist and bass guitarist Wiggins, who wondered if the image was Photoshopped. “I thought someone was playing tricks, morphing our picture.”Saadiq, the lead singer and guitarist of the beloved R&B group, gathered the trio together, free of any outside influence.“I didn’t tell any of the managers or team or anybody because I just wanted it to be us. … I wanted to be in a room where the only power structure was one, two an...

Michael Gambon, veteran actor who played Dumbledore in ‘Harry Potter’ films, dies at age 82

29Sep

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Michael Gambon, veteran actor who played Dumbledore in ‘Harry Potter’ films, dies at age 82

LONDON -- Michael Gambon, the Irish-born actor knighted for his illustrious career on the stage and screen and who went on to gain admiration from a new generation of moviegoers with his portrayal of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” films, has died. He was 82.The actor died on Wednesday following “a bout of pneumonia," his publicist, Clair Dobbs, said Thursday.“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” his family said in a statement.While the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and found him a huge audience, he had long been celebrated as one of Britain’s leading actors. His work spanned TV, theater, fil...

Ringo Starr on ‘Rewind Forward,’ writing country music, the AI-assisted final Beatles track and more

29Sep

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Ringo Starr on ‘Rewind Forward,’ writing country music, the AI-assisted final Beatles track and more

LOS ANGELES -- There are rock stars, and then there is Ringo Starr — drummer for the Beatles, award-winning soloist, photographer, narrator, actor, activist. To call him prolific would almost shortchange his accomplishments. But it also feels right.“Rewind Forward,” out October 13, is his fourth extended play release in three years.“I’ve loved EPs since they first came out in the ’60s,” he says of the format. “And then I heard the kids are making EPs and thought, ‘That’s good!’”The title is a classic “Ringoism,” as John Lennon used to refer to his malapropisms, an unusual phrase ripped from the same mind that came up with “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Assigning profundity to it came later. “I think it means that, you know, you’re sitting still for a while. You rewind an...