News

Peter Shaffer, Golden Globe winner for Amadeus, is dead at 90. Shaffer, a leading British playwright who collected a Golden Globe for the screen adaptation of his play Amadeus, died in County Cork, Ireland where he traveled to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Theresa Saldana, Golden Globe nominee in 1994 for her supporting role in the TV series The Commish, has died, age 61. A Brooklyn-born child actress, Saldana broke out 20 some years earlier playing the sister of Golden Globe winner Robert de Niro's boxer Jack La Motta in director Martin Scorsese’s 1980 drama Raging Bull (seven Golden Globe nominations).

Television is in its golden age, and some of the best shows feature female protagonists reflecting the reality of women juggling life, love and work. A pet peeve in the past has been the lack of women’s purses on screen: characters walked about with no bag, satchel or tote in sight, something that every female in the audience immediately noticed.

Fans of the 2010 Australian movie Animal Kingdom are probably excited and curious to see how that terse crime drama will translate into a TV show – starting June 14 the series will launch on TNT, transposed from Down Under to a Southern California beach town. Here’s a piece of good news: the pivotal role of implacable matriarch Janine “Smurf” Cody, which earned Jackie Weaver a Golden Globe nomination, has been taken over by another Golden Globe nominee, the talented Ellen Barkin.

Lorenzo Soria has been re-elected President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 2016-2017 year. This will be Soria’s fourth term in office, following his tenure in 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2015-2016.

Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows skated into US screens this week with a modest $32 million domestic debut. The film stars Megan Fox who returns as April O’Neill, a news reporter and the Turtles’ confidant, along with Will Arnett as her editor Vern Fenwick.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from – if you barely speak the language, or genders – it all comes down to the work done at one's desk and what you have to offer”, asserts Carolina Lopez Dau about working in the male- dominated field of animation. One of the growing number of women in the industry, the Pixar employee grew up watching cartoons and playing video games with her brothers and their friends in her native Spain.

Muhammad Ali, a giant of boxing and a 20th century icon, has died of pulmonary complications from Parkinson’s disease in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of 74. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali is considered the most important professional boxer in the heavyweight category, having been named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated.

Beth Howland, four-time Golden Globe nominee for her role in the sitcom Alice has died, age 74.  Boston-born Howland passed away December 31, 2015 in Santa Monica, CA.

Sometimes even the well oiled Disney machine stumbles. This appears to be the case with its reported $170-million sequel Alice: Through the Looking Glass, grossing “just” $100.