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Sherry Coben, writer-producer and creator of sitcom “Kate & Allie,” died Wednesday after facing cancer. Coben was 71 years old.

Coben began her career in the entertainment industry at Kyw-tv in Philadelphia, where she worked on sets, animation, illustration and graphics for the station’s local programming and “The Mike Douglas Show.” In an interview with Aeolus 13 Umbra, Coben said she moved to New York City four years later and worked as a freelance artist for several productions, from “the esteemed Children’s Television Workshop to NYC’s legendary cable porn ‘Midnight Blue.'”

Coben joined the staff of Bruce and Carol Hart’s “Hot Hero Sandwich” as a writer during this time, ultimately receiving an Emmy for her work on the show.

In the same 2023 interview, Coben shared that she was instrumental in her own big breakthrough. She explained, “I really wanted to break in as a writer so took...

Sherry Coben, a writer-producer who created the Emmy-winning 1980s sitcom “Kate & Allie,” died Oct. 16 of cancer in New Milford, N.J. She was 71.

Coben started out in the art department at Philadelphia’s Kyw-tv, working on graphics, sets, illustration and animation for local programming and “The Mike Douglas Show.” After moving to New York City, she worked freelance for TV shows and magazines, then broke in as a writer on the children’s program “Hot Hero Sandwich,” for which she won a Daytime Emmy.

She went on to writer for the ABC soap opera “Ryan’s Hope” before creating the CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie.” Starring Jane Curtin and Susan St. James as divorced mothers who raise their children together, the show won several Emmys and ran for six seasons. St. James is the more spirited of the pair, while Curtin, who won two consecutive Emmys for her role, is the more conservative mom.

Sherry Coben, a writer-producer best known as the creator of Kate & Allie, has died. She was 71.

Coben died Wednesday in her home in New Milford, New Jersey, after a battle with cancer, her family told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kate & Allie aired for six seasons on CBS from 1984-89 and was shot inside the legendary Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, which now houses The Late Show. The sitcom, created by Coben, starred Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin as divorced mothers who live together and raise their children in the same home.

Before Kate & Allie, Coben wrote for the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope.

She began her career in the art department at Kyw-tv in Philadelphia, doing graphics, sets, illustration and animation for local programming and The Mike Douglas Show. She then worked as a freelance artist for TV shows and magazines in New York City, including the...

Sherry Coben, a writer-producer best known for creating Kate & Allie, died Oct. 16 of cancer at her home in New Milford, NJ. She was 71.

Coben was the mastermind behind the Emmy-winning comedy that starred Jane Curtin and Susan St. James. Shot in the Ed Sullivan Theater, Kate & Allie quickly became a top 10 hit and ran for six seasons on CBS.

Coben began her career in the art department at Kyw-tv in Philadelphia, doing graphics, sets, illustration, and animation for all their local programming and The Mike Douglas Show. After moving to New York City and working freelance as an artist for a wide range of television shows and magazines, she got her break in writing on the beloved NBC children’s program Hot Hero Sandwich, for which she received an Emmy Award.

She went on to write for the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope in 1980 before creating the hit CBS sitcom four years later.

There are people who’ll tell you that Japanese folklore fantasy Monkey airing at 6pm on Friday nights in the 1980s was the highpoint of post-school, pre-bedtime TV scheduling in the UK. Let’s not tell them that they’re wrong; let’s just pity them for having mistimed their childhood by a decade.

The 1990s were the real peak of the 6pm weeknight TV slot. As long as there was no Wimbledon, snooker, cricket, athletics or Horse of the Year Show, that’s where anyone too young to go to the pub found joy. While grown-ups were watching the Six O’Clock News, kids in households flush enough to have a second television switched on BBC Two or Channel 4. There, to quote Howard Carter upon breaking into Tutankhamun’s tomb, they found wonderful things.

Before the youth-oriented Def II brought 1970s reruns to the slot, weekday teatimes on...

The deceptively unassuming figure of Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk), with his rumpled raincoat, cheap cigars, and seeming absentmindedness, might not call to mind the sprawling existentialist novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. But Columbo’s ancestry can be traced all the way back to Porfiry Petrovich, the pesky, psychologically attuned investigator in Crime and Punishment.

Like that literary classic, the show that shares Columbo’s name functions as an inverted detective story, not so much a whodunit as a howcatchem. In each episode, we spend time with the murderer, soak up their milieu, and witness the commission of the crime. Only then does Columbo make his entrance onto the scene. From there, it’s an escalating battle of nerves between the dogged detective and the initially arrogant murderer.

While Rodion Raskolnikov, the tortured protagonist of Crime and Punishment, is an impoverished student who kills out of economic necessity...

Since 1967, the Best Comedy Actress Primetime Emmy category has seen 13 direct costar showdowns involving seven different combinations of female leads. While this list is three entries longer than the corresponding male roster, the category still falls significantly behind the other 10 lead or supporting ones, all of which boast cast mate battle totals of at least 20. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the 13 cases of dual or triple nominations in the Best Comedy Actress category.

Unlike the Best Comedy Actor list, this female one includes more than just pairs of clashing costars. After “The Golden Girls” actresses Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White blazed a trail in 1986 as the first trio of performers to receive same-year nominations for a single continuing series (and repeated the feat three more times), they were emulated by “Desperate Housewives” stars Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman in 2005. This remained...

Since 1967, the Best Comedy Actress Primetime Emmy category has seen 13 direct costar showdowns involving seven different combinations of female leads. While this list is three entries longer than the corresponding male roster, the category still falls significantly behind the other 10 lead or supporting ones, all of which boast cast mate battle totals of at least 20. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to learn more about the 13 cases of dual or triple nominations in the Best Comedy Actress category.

Unlike the Best Comedy Actor list, this female one includes more than just pairs of clashing costars. After “The Golden Girls” actresses Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White blazed a trail in 1986 as the first trio of performers to receive same-year nominations for a single continuing series (and repeated the feat three more times), they were emulated by “Desperate Housewives” stars Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman in 2005. This remained...

(Welcome to Best Actor Ever, an ongoing series where we explore the careers and performances of the greatest performers to ever grace the screen.)

If the young Denzel Washington had his way, the now 68-year-old Mount Vernon native would have a bust in Canton's Pro Football Hall of Fame. The man who would be Malcolm X, Rubin Carter, and Alonzo Harris initially had his sights trained on the gridiron before he enrolled at Fordham University in 1977, where he was a skilled enough athlete to play under Coach P.J. Carlesimo for the school's junior varsity team. "He would run us all day, and make us work," Washington told the New York Times in 1998. "But you know what? We were always prepared for the fourth quarter, and we hardly ever lost. Some of the things I learned from him, I still apply myself."

Washington knew by this point that a pro sports...

Dick Ebersol is one of the seminal figures in the past 50 years of broadcast television. He helped create “Saturday Night Live.” He hired Brandon Tartikoff, genius programmer and innovator, to revive NBC’s primetime fortunes. As president of NBC Sports, he oversaw the network’s Olympic strategy for many years. “Sunday Night Football” was his idea.

Ebersol recounts the high (and sometimes low) points of his career in television in a new autobiography, “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns in TV,” published this week by Simon & Schuster.

While all of the great moments in his career were at NBC, Ebersol, now 75, started as a researcher at ABC Sports in 1967. Legendary ABC Sports chief Roone Arledge, Ebersol tells Variety, “was the most important figure in my life,” and the executive who eventually took on Ebersol as a trusted associate.

It was also...

When the 2022 Emmy nominations were announced, Sydney Sweeney joined an elite group of 24 individuals who each earned their first two TV academy acting bids in the same year. As a “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” cast member, she is respectively in the running for both the Best Drama Supporting Actress and Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actress prizes. Triumphing in at least one category would make her only the fourth doubly-nominated female first-timer to pull off a win, after Eileen Brennan (1981: won for “Private Benjamin”; lost for “Taxi”), Jane Lynch (2010: won for “Glee”; lost for “Two and a Half Men”) and Ann Dowd (2017: won for “The Handmaid’s Tale”; lost for “The Leftovers”).

SEEBest Music and Lyrics: Will Emmy go to ‘Euphoria,’ ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,’ ‘Schmigadoon!’ or ‘This Is Us’?

Sweeney’s “Euphoria” episode submission, “Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys,” aired in January as the third installment of...

Months after nabbing an individual Screen Actors Guild Award for “Squid Game,” Jung Ho-yeon has now been recognized for her work on the Netflix show in the Emmy category of Best Drama Supporting Actress. The Korean series, on which Jung plays the role of Kang Sae-byeok, constitutes her first television credit. If she triumphs at the 74th Emmys, her debut performance will be the first fully non-English language one ever honored by the TV academy (unless one of her nominated co-stars beats her to the punch).

SEEEmmy nominee profile: Critics Choice and SAG winner Lee Jung-jae seeks historic TV academy victory for ‘Squid Game’

Jung’s episode submission, “Gganbu,” streamed last September as the sixth installment of the inaugural season of “Squid Game.” It centers on the fourth part of a deadly, winner-take-all contest involving Sae-byeok and 455 other players competing for a massive cash prize. At the start of this particular game,...

It’s been half a century since Johnny Carson hosted the 24th Emmy ceremony on CBS on May 14, 1972. It was a year in which now-classic comedies battled it out and records were set, PBS had its first strong showing, Oscar-winning actresses were rivals and daytime-themed Emmys were awarded for the first time. Read on for our Emmys flashback 50 years ago to 1972.

Norman Lear‘s groundbreaking sitcom “All in the Family” had won Best Comedy Series for its freshman season in 1971; it held onto that title for its second year, and would win again in 1973 and 1978. The biggest competition for this award was another groundbreaking comedy that had premiered the year before, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which would eventually claim victory in 1975, 1976 and 1977. The remaining nominees were “The Odd Couple,” also in its second season, and “Sanford and Son,” for its freshman outing. “All in the Family” and “Mtm” would...

George Seaton’s literal feel-good comedy is the flipside of pandemic films like Contagion: a powerful virus ‘cures’ grumpiness and bad vibes, encouraging a kind of Urban Utopia. The picture has nothing more to say than ‘have a nice day,’ yet it’s difficult to argue with any positive sentiment, especially these days. George Peppard and Mary Tyler Moore battle nobly with the material, which varies from good parody (Dom DeLuise) to awful vaudeville schtick to wafer-thin satire to terrible musical interludes. A Toucan bird from South America steals the show — his trainer Ray Berwick should have won an Oscar.

What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date August 24, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: George Peppard, Mary Tyler Moore, Susan Saint James, Don Stroud, Dom DeLuise, John McMartin, Charles Lane, Nathaniel Frey, George Furth, Morty Gunty, Frank Campanella, Thelma Ritter,...

A reboot of ’80s series “Kate & Allie” from Erica Oyama and Nahnatchka Khan has received a put pilot order at NBC.

Here’s the logline for their version, straight from NBC: “An updated take about two best friends raising their kids together in one household. Like sister wives, only they don’t have to pretend to love the same man with bad hair. Through their unconventional arrangement, the two prove romance isn’t necessary to be a successful woman and mother.”

The original “Kate & Allie” aired from 1984 to 1989 and starred Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin, respectively, in the title roles. The logline for that one was a lot more to the point: “Two divorced mothers and their children share an apartment.”

In 1984 and 1985, Curtin won back-to-back Emmys for her role. She would be nominated twice more. The show itself was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series three times,...

Kate & Allie, the sitcom starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin, is the latest 1980s comedy being reworked for the present day.

NBC is developing a reboot of the comedy, created by Sherry Coben, that originally aired on CBS between 1984 and 1989.

It comes from Erica Oyama and Nahnatchka Khan, two of the team responsible for NBC’s upcoming comedy Young Rock.

The network has handed the project a put pilot commitment.

The move comes the same day that ABC handed a pilot order to Saladin Patterson’s reboot of The Wonder Years. It is the latest reboot in the works at NBC, which is also developing a reboot of Night Court with The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch and a new take on drama Zorro with Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara.

Oyama, a writer on Young Rock and co-exec producer of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, will write,...

Everything old is new again — literally, everything. To wit: NBC is developing a reboot of the classic CBS sitcom Kate & Allie.

The project, which has received a “put pilot”* order at the network, is being billed as an updated take on the ’80s original about two best friends raising their kids together in one household. They’re “like sister wives, only they don’t have to pretend to love the same man with bad hair,” the logline reads. “Through their unconventional arrangement, the two prove romance isn’t necessary to be a successful woman and mother.”

More from TVLineSNL...

NBC has given a put pilot order to a reboot of the classic sitcom “Kate and Allie.”

The updated series hails from writer and executive producer Erica Oyama. It follows two best friends raising their kids together in one household. They are like sister wives, only they don’t have to pretend to love the same man with bad hair. Through their unconventional arrangement, the two prove romance isn’t necessary to be a successful woman and mother.

Nahnatchka Khan and Jen Carreras will also executive produce via Fierce Baby Productions. Oyama and Khan currently work together on the upcoming NBC comedy “Young Rock,” which Khan co-created, and previously worked together on ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat.” Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Rodney Ferrell, and Gregory Lipstone of Propagate will also executive produce along with Peter Principato and Brian Dobbins. Universal Television will produce. Khan and Fierce Baby are...

NBC is looking back to the 1980s for its newest piece of comedy development.

The network has given a put pilot commitment to a remake of Kate & Allie, about two best friends who raise their kids in the same household. The original series, which starred Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James, ran from 1984-89 on CBS.

Erica Oyama (Never Have I Ever, Fresh Off the Boat) is writing the script, which comes from Universal Television, Propagate and Nahnatchka Khan’s Fierce Baby. Khan has an overall TV deal at Universal.

As with the original, the updated Kate & Allie will center on ...

NBC is looking back to the 1980s for its newest piece of comedy development.

The network has given a put pilot commitment to a remake of Kate & Allie, about two best friends who raise their kids in the same household. The original series, which starred Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James, ran from 1984-89 on CBS.

Erica Oyama (Never Have I Ever, Fresh Off the Boat) is writing the script, which comes from Universal Television, Propagate and Nahnatchka Khan’s Fierce Baby. Khan has an overall TV deal at Universal.

As with the original, the updated Kate & Allie will center on ...

TV’s 1979 Titanic movie comes to Blu in two versions. We liked it when new but didn’t care for the cut-down theatrical version that hit DVD in 2002. Kino’s disc completes a set of various film versions of the infamous 1912 disaster, and allows us the chance for a Titanic ‘battle of the bands’ — we’ll rate them from several criteria. The filmed-in-England production has a nicely-chosen soap opera cast: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews.

S.O.S. Titanic

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1979 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 102 + 144 min. / Street Date October 13, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Timothy Spall, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews, Ed Bishop, Jerry Hauser, Aubrey Morris, Norman Rossington, Catherine Byrne, Warren Clarke, Madge Ryan.

Cinematography: Christopher Challis

Film Editor: Rusty Coppleman

Original Music: Howard Blake

Special effects: Wally Veevers,...

Jen and Judy have one more thing between them, but this one is no secret at all. “Dead to Me” stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini both scored Best Comedy Actress Emmy nominations Tuesday, joining a short list of co-stars to be nominated in the same year.

The two are just the seventh pair to be shortlisted together (for a total of 13 sets of nominations) since 1966, when the Emmys established the category as we know it. The most recent duo was “Grace and Frankie’s” Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 2017. The only other instance this century occurred in 2005 when “Desperate Housewives” bagged three spots for Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman. The trio broke through 16 years after another trio — “The Golden Girls'” Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White — notched the last of their four straight nominations together in 1989.

This is the sixth Emmy nomination for Applegate, who...

Last year, Christina Applegate earned a surprise Best Comedy Actress Emmy nomination for her then-new show “Dead to Me,” while her leading lady co-star Linda Cardellini was left out in a cold. But the pair may have double to celebrate this year as Cardellini has just entered the top six in sixth place in our odds, setting the stage for them to be just the 13th pair of co-stars to be nominated in the category and just the third in 31 years.

Since the Emmys established genre-specific categories in 1966, these are the only times co-stars have been nominated for Best Comedy Actress in the same year:

1. Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead, “Bewitched” (1967)

2. Cathryn Damon and Katherine Helmond, “Soap” (1978)

3. Cathryn Damon and Katherine Helmond, “Soap” (1980) (Damon won)

4. Cathryn Damon and Katherine Helmond, “Soap” (1981)

5. Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James, “Kate & Allie” (1984) (Curtin won)

6. Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James, “Kate & Allie” (1985) (Curtin won)

7. Bea Arthur,...

Movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Dana Gould, Daniel Waters, Scott Alexander, and Allison Anders.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Destroy All Monsters (1969)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)

Suparpie

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Hello Down There (1969)

Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Thirteen Days (2000)

Stalker (1979)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

No Exit (1962)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Sleeper (1973)

The Tenant (1976)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)

La classe américaine (1993)

The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

Soylent Green (1973)

Knives Out (2019)

The Hunt (2020)

Banana Split (2020)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Monkey Business (1931)

Horse Feathers (1932)

Duck Soup (1933)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)

Susan Slade (1961)

My Blood Runs Cold...

Flo Allen, a Hollywood agent and manager who represented the likes of Rock Hudson, Julie Andrews, Milton Berle and Denzel Washington, has died. She was 88.

Allen died Aug. 21 of heart failure in Monterey, California, Heidi Kleinmaus, her friend and the trustee of her estate, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Allen represented Hudson for 20 years and got him what is believed to be the first million-dollar-per-episode TV deal when he starred with Susan Saint James on NBC's McMillan & Wife in the 1970s.

Later, she came out of early retirement to manage Washington's career, working with the actor ...

Flo Allen, a Hollywood agent and manager who represented the likes of Rock Hudson, Julie Andrews, Milton Berle and Denzel Washington, has died. She was 88.

Allen died Aug. 21 of heart failure in Monterey, California, Heidi Kleinmaus, her friend and the trustee of her estate, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Allen represented Hudson for 20 years and got him what is believed to be the first million-dollar-per-episode TV deal when he starred with Susan Saint James on NBC's McMillan & Wife in the 1970s.

Later, she came out of early retirement to manage Washington's career, working with the actor ...

Laurence Fishburne went on a late-night stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame ... but, don't worry, no fights broke out. The legendary actor was outside Katsuya in Hollywood, looking pretty chill and especially comfortable in some casual toe shoes. Easy to see who's staying cool for the summer. Laurence strolled past Susan Saint James and French actress Michèle Morgan's star ... which explains why it was pretty quiet on that stretch of the Walk of Fame.

The office life wasn't for Jane Curtin. "The lighting is terrible," she quipped to an audience of fellow actors at a recent SAG-AFTRA Foundation Q&A in NYC. "We want to work with people who are a bit more interesting. We're thoughtful, imaginative, creative, funny, and empathetic. Seriously, who's better than us?" Nobody’s better than Jane, 70, when it comes to comedic acting. Her career success has spanned sketches (she was one of Saturday Night Live's original stars), sitcoms, and feature films (she appears alongside Melissa McCarthy in the upcoming Can You Ever Forgive Me?). "I'm persistent," she says. "I wanted to stay in this business and do what I do." Jane on SNL in 1977. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) When she was growing up in Cambridge, Ma, her insurance agent father encouraged her to pursue a more traditional career as a teacher or secretary. She was inspired by her mom,...

[[tmz:video id="0_2zqihler"]] Dick Ebersol, the legendary co-creator of "SNL" who ran both NBC and NBC Sports, says his story of hooking up with an actress is Way Different from Harvey Weinstein's, starting with the fact it was consensual. We got Dick, a long-standing show biz titan, at Lax Friday with wife/actress Susan St. James. Dick met Susan when she guest hosted SNL in 1981 and sparks flew. They've now been married for 36 years. They've got a...

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1040 King Duncan is killed in battle and King Macbeth succeeds him. Shakespeare fictionalizes everything later for Macbeth. So many theatrical productions and movies follow. Out damn spot!

1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics end. This is the Olympic year when gorgeous Buster Crabbe became a gold medalist (pictured left). Hollywood then snatched him right up for movie serials and action adventure franchises including Tarzan The Fearless

1945 Japan surrenders during Ww II (the six year war will last only two more weeks.) but movie makers all over the world have never stopped telling the war's infinite stories. On that same day Steve Martin is born in Waco Texas. It only takes him another 68 years to get the Oscar he totally deserved

1946 Two actor birthdays: Blacksploitation actor Antonio Fargas who became "Huggybear" on TV's popular Starksy & Hutch and Susan Saint James TV of McMillan & Wife...

For the week of February 10th, your horror and sci-fi home entertainment choices are practically boundless, as we’ve got a bevy of great films being released (something that might be helpful for those of you still in search for a gift for your Valentine). Scream Factory is pulling double-duty with both of their dual Blu-ray releases, Love at First Bite/Once Bitten and Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits, and the cult classic Nekromantik 2 is getting a high def upgrade as well.

Other notable titles to look forward to this Tuesday include Nightcrawler, Predestination, Fear Clinic, Z Nation: Season One and the Criterion release for the classic thriller Don’t Look Now.

Love at First Bite/Once Bitten (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Love At First Bite: George Hamilton is possibly the tannest vampire in screen history in 1979’s Love at First Bite. When Count Dracula (Hamilton) is forced...

Charlie Ebersol just might be the perfect guy for Britney Spears. Just days after making their public debut as a couple at the Super Bowl, the 32-year-old entrepreneur is speaking out about his relationship with the pop princess in a new interview with Extra. "I’m incredibly lucky," he told host Charissa Thompson. When asked about Britney’s new sexy ads for her Intimate Britney Spears collection, he added, "I would say that's a very accurate depiction of a beautiful blonde woman." Good answer -- just look at that photo! Brit's beau, who's the son of NBC Sports Executive, Dick Ebersol, and actress Susan Saint James, also talked about surviving a plane crash in 2004 that took the life his younger brother, Teddy. "It defines who I am," he said of the tragic event, adding that he got some important advice from his mother after the crash. "The first thing she said was,...

Love can be complicated, especially when a relationship has supernatural elements. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, Scream Factory is about to release two Blu-ray double features that celebrate love in various forms: the obsessive nature of Nicolas Cage’s Peter Loew in Vampire’s Kiss, the ghost/human coupling in High Spirits, the desperate seeking of companionship in Love at First Bite, and the wide-eyed puppy love of Jim Carrey’s Mark Kendall in Once Bitten.

These double bill Blu-rays are due out from Scream Factory on February 10th, and we have a batch of clips and trailers from the films that tease the pleasures and pains of paranormal romance and supernatural seduction.

High Spirits: “Daryl Hannah, Peter O’Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D’Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher and Liam Neeson star in this hilariously haunting comedy! When a castle-turned-hotel owned by Peter Plunkett (O...

Charlie Ebersol is joining forces with the first lady. The producer (and boyfriend of Britney Spears) got together with Michelle Obama - as well as American Sniper actor Bradley Cooper and various media leaders - at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., Friday morning to discuss the portrayal of veterans in news and entertainment and to launch the 6 Certified program. The bipartisan campaign comes from Got Your 6, an organization Ebersol recently partnered with that aims to lobby for accurate representation of troops who've returned from the frontlines. "The media tends to say, 'They're victims, or they're heroes.'...

Charlie Ebersol is joining forces with the first lady. The producer (and boyfriend of Britney Spears) got together with Michelle Obama - as well as American Sniper actor Bradley Cooper and various media leaders - at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., Friday morning to discuss the portrayal of veterans in news and entertainment and to launch the 6 Certified program. The bipartisan campaign comes from Got Your 6, an organization Ebersol recently partnered with that aims to lobby for accurate representation of troops who've returned from the frontlines. "The media tends to say, 'They're victims, or they're heroes.'...

Charlie Ebersol may be receiving a lot of attention of late as the new boyfriend of Britney Spears, but Ebersol has quite a story of his own to tell. People spoke with the 31-year-old writer, producer and entrepreneur - whose parents are Saturday Night Live co-creator and NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and actress Susan Saint James - who co-founded The Company, an entertainment business that creates TV shows for cable and network channels. The Company also produced the heartwarming documentary NFL Characters Unite (airing Feb. 6, 2015 at 7 p.m. Et) on the USA Network. Ebersol's 4th annual NFL Characters Unite,...

Britney Spears isn't the only one smitten with her new boyfriend, writer and producer, Charlie Ebersol. Her family is also very happy with the new romance. "He does well financially and is very private," says a Spears source. "They don't have to worry about whether he is using Britney." And although the relationship is new he has already met her sons, Preston, 9, and Jayden, 8. Ebersol - whose parents are Dick Ebersol, Saturday Night Live co-creator and former NBC Sports chairman, and actress Susan Saint James, star of the '80s sitcom Kate & Allie - started his own production company at 27. "He is driven,...

Britney Spears' new boyfriend is no different from anyone else who interacts with her ... he had to sign a confidentiality agreement before he even laid eyes on her.Sources connected to Britney tell TMZ ... Britney and Charlie Ebersol met through mutual friends and their first date was a lunch.  But before they broke bread -- before their first face-to-face -- the singer's dad did what he does with everyone ... he insisted Charlie sign the Nda.

Britney Spears has reportedly found new love with television producer Charlie Ebersol, just two months after her messy breakup with David Lucado.

Who Is Charlie Ebersol?

Spears broke up with Lucado in late August after Lucado reportedly cheated on her, and, while the breakup was tough on the pop princess, it seems she has rebounded with a new man. Ebersol, son of Saturday Night Live producer Dick Ebersol and actress Susan Saint James, is a successful producer, who works on CNBC’s The Profit and is listed as a producer of Space Jam 2.

“They met through friends. He is the sweetest guy ever and they are very much enjoying getting to know one another. They are both very happy and having fun. It’s just the beginning so no idea if it will become serious, but right now they are having a lot of fun together,” a source told E!

They are two of the most famous creators in the universe. Their work is quoted almost as often as Scripture. They have turned their pens into ATMs, making them richer than the creator of the universe. They have given rise to—and remain the symbolic deities of—two sides of a pop culture debate that is being fervidly argued out on some message board as you read this. But on this toasty summer afternoon in L.A., dressed in white shirts, jeans, and sneakers, Matt Groening, the 60-year-old creator/exec producer of The Simpsons (and Futurama), and Seth MacFarlane, the...

Rock Hudson was in the midst of a successful multi-season run as the lead in television series McMillan and Wife when his co-star Susan St. James left the show. Perhaps sensing the writing on the wall -- the show would last only one more season -- Hudson took the starring role in 1976's Embryo, a thriller with science fiction and horror elements. Click through the picture below to read more about the movie and see all the images in the gallery....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Paul Shaffer was offered the role of George Costanza on "Seinfeld."

According to The Week (by way of Shaffer's memoir), Jerry Seinfeld offered Shaffer the role of George with a message on Shaffer's answering machine, but Shaffer never returned the call. It certainly would've made for a very different "Seinfeld."

The Week also reports Ken Howard and Blythe Danner were originally offered the roles in NBC's "McMillan and Wife," but turned them down because they weren't interested in being part of the "wheel" format of NBC's mystery series. The parts went to Rock Hudson and Susan St. James.

Did you know that Matthew Broderick and John Cusack were up for the lead on "Breaking Bad" before Cranston got the job?

Click through the slideshow below to see what other famous faces turned down some pretty big roles.

Paramount Pictures. dramatic thriller Flight, stars Denzel Washington as Captain Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board. Afterwards, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane. Flight tells a harrowing story about one man.s amazing, heroic feat and how, in the process of defending himself, he discovers his true grace and valor.

Flight presents the first pairing of Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington and director Robert Zemeckis, who marks his return to live-action dramatic storytelling after years of success on the forefront of directing and producing movies utilizing motion capture technology. Flight will land in theaters November 2, 2012. The film stars Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood, Melissa Leo,...

Aug. 12: Actor George Hamilton is 73. Actress Jennifer Warren is 71. Singer-guitarist Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits is 63. Singer Kid Creole is 62. Actor Sam J. Jones ("Flash Gordon") is 58. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny is 58. Actor Bruce Greenwood ("Thirteen Days") is 56. Country singer Danny Shirley (Confederate Railroad) is 56. Guitarist Roy Hay of Culture Club is 51. Rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot is 49. Actor Peter Krause is 47. Actor Michael Ian Black ("Ed") is 41. Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 41. Actor Casey Affleck is 37. Actress Maggie Lawson ("Psych") is 32. Actress Imani Hakim ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 19.

Aug. 13: Actor Pat Harrington is 83. Actor Kevin Tighe is 68. Actress Gretchen Corbett ("The Rockford Files") is 65. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 53. Actress Dawnn Lewis ("A Different World," "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper") is 51. Actor John Slattery is 50. Actress Debi Mazar is 48. Actress Quinn Cummings ("Family") is 45. Country singer Andy Griggs is 39. Drummer Mike Melancon of Emerson Drive is 34. Actress Kathryn Fiore ("Reno 911!") is 33. Singer James Morrison is 28.

Aug.

Release Date: Oct. 25, 2011

Price: DVD $199.99

Studio: Entertainment One

Robert Wagner is Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief.

The arrival of the 1960s’ classic action-adventure television series It Takes a Thief: The Complete Series marks the show’s home entertainment debut.

Fusing the heist and espionage genres, the show aired on ABC-tv for two and a half seasons, beginning in January, 1968.

Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film To Catch a Thief starring Cary Grant, It Takes a Thief stars Robert Wagner (TV’s Hart to Hart) as dashing Alexander Mundy, the world’s greatest cat burglar … until the day he got caught. As part of his pardon to stay out of prison, Mundy uses his wily skills in the world of espionage, helping to steal for the Sia, an American spy agency.

Technically under house arrest, Mundy travels the world over, performing daring acts of thievery in the name of the U.

Coming to your screen this week: Six premieres, including the arrival of Entourage‘s final season, plus one out-of-the-world Star Trek “reunion” event. As a supplement to the fresh features and reporting TVLine has coming your way, here are 36 programs to keep on your radar.

Warehouse 13 Scoop: Guess… Who’s… Back?!

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Monday, July 18

8/7c Hell’s Kitchen (Fox) | Season...

Coming to your screen this week: Six premieres, including the arrival of Entourage‘s final season, plus one out-of-the-world Star Trek “reunion” event. As a supplement to the fresh features and reporting TVLine has coming your way, here are 36 programs to keep on your radar.

Warehouse 13 Scoop: Guess… Who’s… Back?!

Monday, July 18

8/7c Hell’s Kitchen (Fox) | Season 9 kicks off with 18 contestants vying to score a head chef gig at NYC’s Blt Steak restaurant. (Personal aside: Yummm.) The show then lands in its regular time slot Tuesday at 8.

8 pm Eureka (Syfy) | A real “rocket scientist” hits town...

Rock Hudson Andrew Davies and Andre Shafer's Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger was screened in the 2010 Berlin Film Festival's Panorama sidebar. [Rock Hudson documentary synopsis.] Universal star Rock Hudson, one of the top box-office attractions in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s, died of AIDS complications in his Beverly Hills home in 1985. Hudson, who was gay, lived a closeted life; he was briefly married to his agent's secretary and reportedly managed to broker a deal with scandal sheet Confidential when the gossip rag threatened to expose him. Among Hudson's best-known vehicles are Douglas Sirk's Magnificent Obsession (1954) and All That Heaven Allows (1955), both co-starring Jane Wyman; George Stevens' Giant (1956), in which Hudson's co-stars were Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, and for which he received his only Best Actor Academy Award nomination; Charles Vidor's poorly received but highly popular A Farewell to Arms (1957), with Jennifer Jones; Robert Mulligan's...

I find it surprising that some people were surprised when the fact that Rock Hudson was gay was publicly revealed back in the mid-1980s, as the actor became the best-known person with AIDS in the world. After all, even my mother knew about that. Anyhow, today's jaded crowd, looking at the above photograph, will surely assert that it's so obvious that Rock Hudson was gay. Just look at him! I thoroughly disagree. In fact, I don't see anything "obvious" about Hudson's sexual orientation in the photo. And no, I'm not blind. The guy just looks like a man — gay, straight, anything in between — doing his best to appear classy, or at least what used to pass for classy. Personally, I don't find Hudson very convincing as a "classy" type à la Cary Grant. Whatever his sexual predilections, I've always found Rock Hudson much more believable in rugged roles, such...

Former Mad Men schoolteach Abigail Spencer’s dance card continues to be very full. In addition to playing Daniel Craig’s sweetheart in Cowboys & Aliens (hitting theaters July 29), she can also be spied this summer on the smaller screen, on one of USA Network’s “blue sky” series.

TVLine has learned that in an episode of the new legal dramedy Suits — premiering June 23 and starring Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams — Spencer will guest as a high-powered attorney who goes toe-to-toe with Macht’s Harvey Specter (aka “the best closer in New York City”). Being onetime Harvard classmates, sparks may...