Connect with us

Celebrity

The Glorious Corner

Published

4 years ago

on

G.H. HARDING

JIM SEALS PASSES — (from Variety) Jim Seals, who as part of the duo Seals and Crofts crafted memorably wistful 1970’s hits like “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl,” died Monday at age 80. No cause of death was immediately given.

Several friends and relatives confirmed the death. “I just learned that James ‘Jimmy’ Seals has passed,” announced his cousin, Brady Seals, a former member of the country band Little Texas, Monday night. “My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind.”

 Wrote John Ford Coley, “This is a hard one on so many levels as this is a musical era passing for me. And it will never pass this way again, as his song said,” he added, referring to the Seals and Croft hit “We May Never Pass This Way (Again).” Coley was a member of another hit duo of the era, England Dan and John Ford Coley, with Jim Seals’ younger brother, the late Dan Seals.

“You and Dan finally get reunited again,” Coley wrote. “Tell him and your sweet momma hi for me.”

With Jim Seals as the primary lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo, Seals and Crofts came to be the very emblem of “soft rock” with a run of hits that lasted for only about six years. Although none of the pair’s hits ever reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, their biggest songs were for a time as ubiquitous as any that did top the chart. “Summer Breeze” in 1972 and “Diamond Girl” in 1973 both reached No. 6, as did a more upbeat song in 1976, “Get Closer,” sung with Carolyn Willis.

Besides those three songs that reached the top 10 on the Hot 100, four more made it to the adult contemporary chart’s top 10: “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” in ’73, “I’ll Play for You” in ’75, “Goodbye Old Buddies” in ’77 and “You’re the Love” in ’78.

Critic Robert Christgau called the duo “folk-schlock,” but Seals and Crofts had the last laugh — or would have, if crowing with vindication was part of the Baha’i way. Both members of the duo were deeply embedded in that peace-loving faith from the late ’60’s forward.

The duo broke up in 1980, followed by a couple of very fleeting reunions in the early ’90s and early 2000s, which generated only one album after their original run, the little-noticed “Traces” in 2004, They never reembarked together on the kind of nostalgia-stoking package tours that would have seemed a natural for an act with so many well-remembered hits. But neither member showed a particularly heavy interest in chasing the limelight after the 1970’s.

John Ford Coley shared his thoughts at length in a Facebook post. “I spent a large portion of my musical life with this man,” he wrote. “He was Dan’s older brother, (and) it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name. He taught me how to juggle, made me laugh, pissed me off, encouraged me, showed me amazing worlds and different understandings on life, especially on a philosophical level; showed me how expensive golf was and how to never hit a golf ball because next came the total annihilation of a perfectly good golf club, and the list goes on and on. We didn’t always see eye to eye, especially as musicians, but we always got along and I thought he was a bona fide, dyed-in the-wool musical genius and a very deep and contemplative man. He was an enigma and I always had regard for his “I listened to him and I learned from him,” Coley continued. “We didn’t always agree and it wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun but it definitely was always entertaining for sure. Dan adored his older brother and it was because of Jimmy opening doors for us that we came to Los Angeles to record and meet the right people. … He belonged to a group that was one of a kind. I am very sad over this but I have some of the best memories of all of us together.”

For several years in the late ’50s and early ’60s, both Seals and Dash Crofts — who survives his partner — were members of a group that bore little stylistic similarity to their later act: the Champs, although they joined after that band had recorded its signature hit, “Tequila.” Seals played sax in that group and Crofts was on drums.

James Eugene Seals was born in 1942 to an oilman, Wayland Seals, and his wife Cora. ““There were oil rigs as far as you could see,” Seals told an interviewer of his upbringing in Iraan, Texas. “And the stench was so bad you couldn’t breathe.” Jim became transfixed by a visiting fiddler and his father ordered him an instrument from the Sears catalog when he was 5 or 6. In a 1952 contest in west Texas, Jim won the fiddle division while his father triumphed in the guitar category. His little brother, Dan, later to be a pop star himself, took up the stand-up bass.

Jim took up sax at age 13 and began playing with a local band, the Crew Cats, when rock ‘n’ roll broke out in 1955. The shy musician joined up with the more outgoing Darrell “Dash” Crofts, who was two years older and grew up the son of a Texas cattle rancher, inviting his friend to join the Crew Cats as well. In 1958, the offer came to join the Champs, who’d recently had a No. 1 smash with “Tequila.” They stayed with that band till quitting in 1965.

The pair moved to L.A. and joined a group called the Dawnbreakers, also playing for a time behind Glen Campbell, just before he broke out as a major star. Their manager, Marcia Day, was a member of the Baha’i faith, and the house they shared on Sunset Blvd. was full of adherents as well as secular members of the local rock scene; in 1967, five years before having their first hit, both Seals and Crofts converted.

“She and her family were Bahai, and they’d have these fireside gatherings at their house on Friday night,” Seals recalled in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “There were street people, doctors, university teachers and everybody there. And the things they talked about, I couldn’t even ask the question let alone give the answer: the difference between soul, mind and spirit, life after death. We’d discuss things sometimes until 3 in the morning.

 “It was the only thing I’d heard that made sense to me, so I responded to it,” he continued. “That began to spawn some ideas to write songs that might help people to understand, or help ones who maybe couldn’t feel anything or were cynical or cold. Lyrically, I think music can convey things that are hard sometimes for people to say to each other. But through a song, through someone else’s eyes, they can see it and it’s not so much a confrontation.”

Abandoning their former instruments for something more folk-rock-friendly, Seals took up the guitar and Crofts learned the mandolin. Their first three albums as a duo, between 1969-71, had a sweet sound but went little-noticed. They tried cutting “Summer Breeze” earlier but didn’t come up with a version they liked until their third album in 1972, which they named after the track. It caught on at radio, region by region. Seals was quoted in Texas Monthly as having noted the sudden shift when they arrived for a gig in Ohio: “There were kids waiting for us at the airport. That night we had a record crowd, maybe 40,000 people. And I remember people throwing their hats and coats in the air as far as you could see, against the moon. Prettiest thing you’ve ever seen.”

After several more major and minor hits followed, including “Diamond Girl,” wrote Texas Monthly, the duo had their own private jet yet “would come out and sit at the edge of the stage and hold firesides about the Baha’i faith with curious fans. In 1974 they played the California jam, along with Deep Purple and the Eagles, in front of hundreds of thousands. When Jim pulled out his fiddle for a hoedown on ‘Fiddle in the Sky,’ throngs of  sunbaked hippies clapped along.”

The duo stirred controversy in 1974 by recording an anti-abortion song, “Unborn Child,” as their album’s track in 1974 in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision. The belief that abortion was wrong came out of their shared Baha’i beliefs, and they released it over the objections of their label, Warner Bros.

The divisive song “was really just asking a question: What about the child?” Seals told the L.A. Times years later. “We were trying to say, ‘This is an important issue,’ that life is precious and that we don’t know enough about these things yet to make a judgment. It was our ignorance that we didn’t know that kind of thing was seething and boiling as a social issue. On one hand we had people sending us thousands of roses, but on the other people were literally throwing rocks at us. If we’d known it was going to cause such disunity, we might have thought twice about doing it. At the time it overshadowed all the other things we were trying to say in our music.”

In 1977, the duo contributed to the soundtrack for a basketball-based film, “One on One,” starring Robbie Benson. They didn’t write the songs — Paul Williams and Charles Fox did — but were prominently billed on the soundtrack album as the song score’s performers.

By the time they broke up in 1980, their brand of music was finding far less of a place in disco-fied top 40 stations. Seals moved to Costa Rica with his wife, Ruby, where they were reported to have run a coffee farm as they raised their three children, and Crofts and his family moved to Mexico and eventually Australia.

In 1991, when Seals and Crofts made a stab at a reunion, they talked about their breakup with the L.A. Times. “Around 1980,” Seals told the newspaper, “we were still drawing 10,000 to 12,000 people at concerts. But we could see, with this change coming where everybody wanted dance music, that those days were numbered. We just decided that it was a good time, after a long run at it, to lie back and not totally commit ourselves to that kind of thing because we were like (fish) out of water.”

Seals, who later moved to Nashville, was considered to have been retired from a music career even before he suffered a stroke in 2017 that put a halt to his playing.

But he did occasionally return to music in the intervening years, as when he toured with his brother Dan (aka England Dan) as Seals and Seals.

The Seals name has a legacy in music that goes beyond just Jim’s, as multiple generations in the family tree have taken up performing or songwriting. Besides Dan’s tenure with England Dan and John Ford Coley and cousin Brady Seals’ success with Little Texas, another cousin, Troy Seals, is a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member responsible for such hits as “Seven Spanish Angels,” and in the 50’s his uncle Charles “Chuck” Seals co-wrote the Ray Price classic “Crazy Arms.”Seals is survived by Ruby and by their children Joshua, Juliette and Sutherland.

For people of a certain age, “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl” were generational signature songs. They’re the type of songs that work anywhere. In fact, what with all the talk about Kate Bush’s resurgence – I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see either one of these songs used as a soundtrack and become huge hits again. Terrific remembrance byVariety’s Chris Willman. Kudos!

Part of my musical education for sure. SHORT TAKES — With the flurry of attention on Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” I took a look at her accompanying 1985 video and was pleased to see that not only has it held up, but it’s really quite inventive. Certainly one of the best videos of the times back then. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM …

Bobby Sanabria

Jazzheads’ Bobby Sanabria and his MultiverseBIGg Band appears at Dizzy’s in NYC June 17-19 … More big news from England’s 7a Records regarding Micky Dolenz. Stay tuned … And, yes that was the Monkee-man dining at NY’s Carmine’s post-show last week; included in the table was Comedy Is Hard-writer Mike Reiss (The Simpsons) who wrote the play that Dolenz starred in back in 2014 with Joyce DeWitt …

Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez

Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez was just made a partner at her law firm. I’d have to say, deservedly so, right? …

Chris Gilman and Debbie Gibson 

We tried to check in to see how Debbie Gibson’s first-tour in ages is going -she’s at Long Island’s Patchogue Theatre Saturday night- but we didn’t hear back. Would love to see a review … Here’s a great interview with her from the Houston Press: https://www.houstonpress.com/houston/Print?oid=13524260 …

Brian Wilson

Jones Beach, Friday, July 15 Chicago and Brian Wilson. Now, that’s a show! … I see where Q1043’s Jonathan Clarke just did an interview with the utterly brilliant Mike Scott of The Waterboys. I’m a huge fan and I just found on YouTube a live version of his “Bring ‘Em All In” from his first solo-album. Here it is:


This Saturday is the memorial for Mark Lacob at Steve Walter’s Cutting Room … SIGHTING: Writer Terry Jastrow (The Trial Of George W. Bush) and wife Anne Archer lunching at NYC’s Crosby Street Hotel …

Micky Dolenz joins FabFest 2022 at The Knights Theater in Uptown Charlotte, NC July 22-23 … and HAPPY BDAY Paul McCartney.

Paul McCartney

NAMES IN THE NEWS — Tony King; Kent Denmark; Anthony Pomes; Terry Jastrow;  Rudy Schur; CW Hanes; Tony Seidel; Debbie Campbell; Chris Boneau; Cindy Adams; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; Claudia Cohen; Lush Ice; Allen Klein; Fred Goodman; Paul Iorio; Marty Ostrow; Jann Wenner; Bob Austin; Frank Conway; Steve Leeds; and, CHIP!

 

Related Topics:

G. H. Harding is a four decades insider to the entertainment world. He’s worked for record companies; movie companies; video-production He’s worked for record companies; movie companies; video-production companies and several cable outlets. His anonymity is essential in bringing an unbiased view to his writings on pop culture. He is based in NYC.

Continue Reading

Broadway

Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg Bring Laughter, Love and a Lifetime of Memories to PaleyFest NY

Published

8 hours ago

on

October 16, 2026

By

Two entertainment legends, one sold-out theater, and an evening that proved the greatest comedians understand something profound about life: sometimes laughter is the only way through.

Billy Crystal- Courtesy of The Paley Museum

There are friendships in show business, and then there are friendships that have become part of entertainment history. When Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg share a stage, there is no need for manufactured chemistry, rehearsed spontaneity, or carefully orchestrated charm. Their affection is genuine, their timing impeccable, and their shared history provides enough material to keep an audience entertained for hours.

Billy Crystal- Courtesy of The Paley Museum

Such was the atmosphere at The Paley Center for Media’s annual fall festival, PaleyFest NY, where Crystal took center stage for an intimate, frequently hilarious, and unexpectedly moving conversation moderated by Goldberg. The sold-out evening at the Bennack Theater, presented with support from Citi, celebrated Crystal’s extraordinary career and his latest Broadway venture, 860.

Maureen J. Reidy and Frank A. Bennack, Jr. present the PaleyFest award to Billy Crystal at PaleyFest NY at The Paley Museum Courtesy of The Paley Museum

The evening also marked the inaugural year of the PaleyFest Award, a new honor recognizing excellence in media, television, and entertainment, presented to participating shows. It was an appropriate occasion to celebrate a performer whose career has effortlessly crossed the boundaries between stand-up comedy, television, film, Broadway, writing, producing, and directing.

Crystal has spent decades making audiences laugh, but what distinguishes him from so many comedians is his understanding that humor is not the opposite of heartbreak. Quite often, it is heartbreak’s most eloquent companion.

Goldberg, herself a formidable theatrical and cinematic presence, understood exactly where to take the conversation. Rather than simply retracing a succession of career highlights, she explored the personal experiences that have shaped Crystal’s work and his enduring love affair with live performance.

“I’m so enjoying your love of being on stage,” Goldberg told him, before offering an observation that every theater professional understands: “Live performance you get what you get. Not everybody can do it.”

Indeed, they cannot. There is an extraordinary difference between performing for a camera, where a moment can be captured again and again, and standing before a live audience, where everything happens in real time. The laughter, the silence, the unexpected emotional connection, and the occasional misstep are all part of the experience. Crystal has always understood how to make that immediacy work in his favor.

His latest Broadway project, 860, draws upon deeply personal experiences, and Crystal spoke candidly about the emotional demands of bringing such material to the stage. “Bringing that to the stage was really cathartic,” he admitted. Yet he was quick to emphasize that the work is not simply an examination of grief. “It’s not just about loss. It’s about a family coming together and it’s about renewal,” he explained, adding, “It’s not just starting over, it’s moving forward.”

That distinction is particularly revealing. Starting over suggests erasing what came before. Moving forward acknowledges that the past remains part of us, even as life insists upon continuing.

Crystal’s reflections became especially poignant when he discussed the experience of watching a community face devastation, recalling the terrifying responsibility of explaining an unfolding disaster to children.

“When you’re watching your town burn down and you know it’s coming and the kids are there and they’re young… the responsibility you feel is alright, I gotta be real with them. If I’m gonna cry, I’m gonna cry and if I’m gonna hold onto this, I’m gonna hold on to it.”

It was a moment of striking vulnerability from a man whose public identity has so often been associated with impeccable comic timing. There was no attempt to disguise fear behind a punchline or transform suffering into an easy inspirational message.

Instead, Crystal spoke about the necessity of honesty, particularly within a family confronting circumstances beyond its control.

“We were fortunate to still have each other,” he reflected. That simple acknowledgment carried considerable weight. For all the possessions, memories, and familiar surroundings that can disappear in an instant, the relationships that survive become the foundation upon which life is rebuilt. Family has always occupied a central place in Crystal’s work, and the conversation naturally turned to memories of his father, whose influence continues to resonate throughout his career.

“He had a great sense of humor. He was quiet but he loved us [the boys]… he worked so hard,” Crystal recalled.

It was a lovely glimpse into the origins of a comic sensibility that has never depended solely upon jokes. Crystal’s best work has always been rooted in observation, affection, nostalgia, and an acute understanding of the small human moments that become our most enduring memories.

Of course, no evening celebrating Billy Crystal would be complete without revisiting some of the wonderfully unpredictable turns of his career.

One of the most entertaining recollections concerned the inaugural episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. Crystal had been scheduled to appear, only to find himself cut from the broadcast. For a young performer attempting to establish himself, the experience was devastating.

“I blew it, my career is over, Lorne cut me from the show and this is over,” he remembered thinking as he returned home.

There is something delicious about hearing that story fifty-one years later, knowing what followed. The young comedian who believed one missed television appearance had destroyed his future would go on to become one of the most recognizable entertainers in America.

If ever there were an argument against allowing a single disappointment to define an entire career, Crystal’s journey provides it.

His eventual association with Saturday Night Live would become an important chapter in that career, but the larger lesson is one that extends far beyond entertainment: rejection and failure are rarely the final verdicts we imagine them to be.

Goldberg also steered the conversation toward Crystal’s working relationship with his wife, producer Janice Crystal. The couple’s longstanding partnership provided an irresistible opportunity for a little Hollywood mischief.

“You know I’m sleeping with the producer,” Crystal deadpanned. “An age-old Hollywood story.”

It was vintage Billy Crystal: affectionate, mischievous, and delivered with the effortless timing of a man who has spent a lifetime understanding exactly how long to let a joke breathe.

What made the evening particularly satisfying was the interplay between Crystal and Goldberg. These are two performers who have nothing left to prove, and that freedom creates a rare kind of conversation. They can tease one another, wander into memories, acknowledge disappointments, and speak openly about life’s more painful passages without sacrificing the humor that first brought them together.

Goldberg did not approach Crystal as a distant interviewer examining a celebrated subject. She approached him as a friend who knows the man behind the public persona, and that familiarity allowed the conversation to move naturally between comedy and confession.

It also revealed something essential about Crystal’s longevity.

His career has never been built exclusively upon the ability to make people laugh. It has been built upon his ability to make them recognize themselves. Whether recalling childhood, navigating marriage, confronting loss, or celebrating friendship, he understands that the most universal stories are often the most personal.

That understanding has carried him from television to film to Broadway and back again, without diminishing his enthusiasm for the next creative challenge.

At a time when entertainment is increasingly driven by spectacle, algorithms, and the relentless pursuit of attention, there was something wonderfully refreshing about watching two accomplished artists simply sit together and talk.

No elaborate production was necessary. No manufactured controversy. Just intelligence, affection, extraordinary comic instincts, and the accumulated wisdom of lives spent entertaining millions.

PaleyFest NY provided the setting, but Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg supplied the magic.

And if the evening offered one lasting reminder, it was that the best comedians do considerably more than make us laugh. They help us understand why, even in the most difficult moments, laughter remains worth finding.

Continue Reading

Celebrity

The Glorious Corner

Published

1 day ago

on

October 15, 2026

By

G.H. Harding

MACCA SPEAKS, AGAIN — Paul McCartney’s promotional efforts for his latest album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, has been really remarkable. Between his efforts and the PR for the Michael Douglas and Sylvester Stallone memoirs, it’s been quite the fall so far. Even though Todd Rundgren in his now infamous interview in Vulture, claimed that “McCartney would go to a mall opening,” but I think what he’s done has been really good.

Credit manager Scott Rodger for the spirited jaunt.

Amy Poehler

But today I heard today what unquestionably must be one of the best interviews he’s ever done and that’s the Good Hang podcast with Amy Poehler.

I never been a huge fan of Poehler, but I must say, her efforts on this really knocked me out, as she covered everything from John, George and Ringo to Linda and got McCartney to talk a lot about his kids. Even 2009’s Nowhere Boy and the forthcoming Sam Mendes movies were referenced. It was McCartney, in a totally different light … a reflective and relaxed light for sure.

I know it seems like everyone and their mother has a podcast right now, but this one was extra-special.

I was knocked out. Take a listen

X FILES — (Via Deadline) Ryan Coogler’s long-gestating The X-Files reboot starring Emmy nominee Himesh Patel (The Odyssey, Station Eleven) and Danielle Deadwyler (The Bell Jar, The Chaperones), has been ordered to series at Hulu.

From Onyx Collective and 20th Television, the reimagining of Chris Carter’s classic series follows two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents, played by Deadwyler and Patel, who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.

Sinners filmmaker Coogler wrote, directed and executive produced the pilot.

Like the Miami Vice reboot, currently in production, I don’t see it as a success. I mean, how can you do the X-Files with Mulder or scully? But we’ll see.

Crustacean

SHORT TAKES — One of my favorite restaurants in LA is closing, Crustacean on Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. Fish-centric, but just a great, great spot. Been going for a decade. Very sad … Whatever happened to a follow-up date for John Cafferty at NYC’s Cutting Room? We’d love to see him there again … SIGHTING: PR-pasha David Salidor at Din in Brooklyn Heights … Sad to read about Mike Love’s recent health struggles. Here’s hoping for all the best … Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed will be back for another go-round. Apple TV announced Wednesday that it has renewed the dark comedy thriller for a second season. A writers room is underway, we hear, with Season 2 production slated for the first half of 2027. Starring Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany …There’s another trailer for the Blade Runner series on Prime. Take a peak:

Bruce Morrow

Happy 91 to radio’s Cousin Bruce Morrow. An icon for sure!

NAMES IN THE NEWS — Daryl Hall; Raspin Stuwart; Roy Trakin; John Hughes; Lorne Michaels; Robert Funaro; Ken Sharp; John Sykes; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; Sharon Bush; Anthony Pomes; Chris Carter; Max Sabrin; Michael Domino; Harrison Jordan; Steve Leeds; Steve Walter; Moe Kaplan; Dianna O’Neill; Jacqueline Boyd; Judy Kaufman; Chuck Pulin; Bob Gruen; Markos Papadatos; and CHIP!

Images on this page have been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Continue Reading

Celebrity

The Glorious Corner

Published

3 days ago

on

October 13, 2026

By

G.H. Harding

VICE 2028 — When Michael Mann tried to reboot his series Miami Vice in 2006, it was a commercial and critical disappointment. Miami Vice 85, the latest reboot, is well underway with a most impressive cast, including Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan as the series lead characters Crockett and Tubbs.

Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan

When Vice first hit TV screens in September of 1984, audiences had rarely seen anything as ambitious or creative. Mann -and Anthony (Buffalo Club) Yerkovich- hit on something new for the small screen. NBC’s head-honcho at the time Brandon Tartikoff, called them “MTV cops.”

Anthony Yerkovich

MTV was approaching its peak (27 million households) and this TV-show captured not only that, but both the angst and joy of the go-go 80s.

It propelled Don Johnson to mega-stardom, as well as Philip Michael Thomas. The two even recorded albums, which were not bad, but never fully realized.

One major key to the show’s success was the endless streaming of hit music -from Phil Collins; Dire Straits; Steve Jones; to INXS on down. This was before music supervisors came into play and it was often the label’s PR-people that propelled songs and artists to major success. The show also employed various music stars (like Collins and Franz Zappa) as guests stars and often, they were great. Zappa, as a cool-drug merchant on a yacht was great.

PR-man David Salidor was handling PR for The Funhouse, one of the key-clubs of the time, and remembers bringing producer Michael Attanasio down to the club. “They wanted something authentic and since they were going to be shooting in NY for the second season, the club was a perfect fit.”

I was a fan and remain a fan, and even when I watched the episodes now, they’re a bit dated, buy the symbiosis of what’s on the screen and the music remain pretty outstanding.

I honesty doubt whether Mann can do it again, but interest remains high … very high. See you in 2028 Miami Vice!

Read more here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/miami-vice-85-austin-butler-michael-b-jordan-1236727734/

And here’s a great take from Yerkovich on the creation: https://intelligentcollector.com/miami-vice-creator-anthony-yerkovich-on-the-style-packed-pilot-that-changed-tv-forever/

SHORT TAKES — I watched the 1998 movie Deep Impact over the weekend and the basic plot was an asteroid was about the hit the Earth and one of the plans President Morgan Freeman came up with was to build immense silos in the mountains. Sounds a tad like the TV-showParadise, right? Amazing …

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow says she’s losing major money on her new album. Interetsing article from Female First. Take a read: https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/musicnews/sheryl-crow-says-losing-ton-money-latest-album-reflects-fame-cancer-ageing-radio-1451871.html … Great interview on Rory Kennedy’s The Trial of Alec Baldwin. Check it out: https://deadline.com/2026/10/the-trial-of-alec-baldwin-director-rory-kennedy-interview-1237154646/ … Happy Bday Daryl Hall.

NAMES IN THE NEWS — Bill Maher; Chuck LaBella; David Bowie; Steve Walter; Frank Ucciardo; Thomas Jay; Mark Biggs; Tugg Putt; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; Race Taylor; Chuck Nolan; Bill Evans; Dan Zelinski; David Foster; Michael Hutchinson; Walter Egan; Bill McCuddy; Eppy; Joe Lynch; Linda Wnek; and ZIGGY!

Images on this page have been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Continue Reading

Celebrity

Dexter Has Never Looked So Good: PaleyFest NY Celebrates 20 Years of Television’s Favorite Serial Killer

Published

5 days ago

on

October 11, 2026

By

Jack Alcott, Kadia Saraf, Marcos Siega, Clyde Phillips, Michael C. Hall, James Remar, Uma Thurman, Bokeem Woodbine, and Scott Reynolds attend Dexter: Resurrection & 20th Anniversary of Dexter at PaleyFest NY at The Paley Museum in New York City on October 9.

Dexter Cast and EPs_Panel

Michael C. Hall, Uma Thurman and the cast of Dexter: Resurrection bring a little delicious darkness to The Paley Center for Media.

Michael C. Hall

Twenty years, countless victims and more lives than the proverbial cat. Television’s most compelling serial killer is still making audiences root for the man they should probably be running from. On Friday evening, The Paley Center for Media embraced the darker side of television with a sold-out PaleyFest NY celebration marking the 20th anniversary of Dexter and offering a tantalizing look at the second season of Dexter: Resurrection.

Uma Thurman

The evening, presented with support from Citi, brought a decidedly glamorous collection of television’s morally compromised to the red carpet. Michael C. Hall, the man who made Dexter Morgan an unlikely cultural icon, was joined by Uma Thurman, James Remar, Jack Alcott, Bokeem Woodbine and Kadia Saraf, along with showrunner Clyde Phillips and executive producers Scott Reynolds and Marcos Siega.

EPs_Marcos Siega_Michael C. Hall_Clyde Phillips_Scott Reynolds

Inside the Bennack Theater, fans were treated to an advance screening of the Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 premiere, followed by a conversation moderated by Deadline Associate TV Editor Rosy Cordero. The celebration was also part of a milestone year for PaleyFest NY, which introduced the inaugural PaleyFest Award, recognizing excellence in media and entertainment among its participating programs.

Bokeem Woodbine

For Hall, the enduring fascination with Dexter remains something of a surprise. “Twenty years later it’s mind blowing,” he admitted. “I had no anticipation it would be as broadly appealing.”

Jack Alcott

Yet the appeal is hardly mysterious. Dexter accomplished something few television series dare attempt: it invited audiences into the mind of a murderer and made them care about his survival. Beneath the blood, the carefully controlled rituals and the infamous code lies a character perpetually wrestling with identity, inheritance and the uncomfortable distance between what people are and what they pretend to be.

James Remar

Remar, who plays Dexter’s father Harry Morgan, offered a succinct explanation for the show’s longevity. “It’s complex but it’s believable,” he observed. “There’s a reason why we’re sitting here so fully engaged with these characters.”

Kadia Saraf

That complexity is no accident. Phillips acknowledged that the writers deliberately create seemingly impossible situations, explaining, “We paint ourselves into a corner on purpose.” The objective, naturally, is to keep viewers perpetually off balance. Woodbine credited the writing itself, noting that “what appeals to people is the level of intelligence of the script.”

While murder may provide the spectacle, family remains the franchise’s most intriguing psychological battlefield. Reynolds suggested that each season explores something fundamentally relatable, and Phillips revealed that the new chapter places particular emphasis on the father-son relationship between Dexter and Harrison.

Alcott, who portrays Harrison, sees a young man grappling with an inheritance considerably more disturbing than an awkward family resemblance. Harrison has “got a propensity for violence,” he explained. “He’s nowhere near his father, but there’s something there.”

It is a fascinating premise. Can a father’s darkness become a son’s destiny, or is recognizing that darkness the first opportunity to escape it? For a franchise built around a killer’s elaborate moral code, the question of what passes from one generation to the next feels especially appropriate.

The new season also promises complications for the characters surrounding Dexter. Woodbine hinted at unexplored dimensions of Captain Mixon, acknowledging a darkness within the character that he has yet to fully understand. Saraf, who portrays Detective Claudette Wallace, promised considerably heightened stakes and a season that would be both compelling and unexpectedly affecting.

Thurman, meanwhile, brings her formidable screen presence to Charley Brown, a woman whose conscience may prove as troublesome as her decisions. “Charley is burned by having a conscience and she’s made compromises that she thought she could square away,” she explained, describing the character as “exciting” and “morally ambiguous.”

Morally ambiguous, of course, might as well be the official dress code of the Dexter universe.

Hall offered an equally intriguing glimpse into his character’s evolution. When audiences first encounter Dexter in Resurrection, he explained, the character has recommitted himself to the code that has governed his actions for so long. Unfortunately, “that doesn’t prove to be enough.”

For a man who has spent two decades attempting to impose rules upon his darkest impulses, that admission suggests the most dangerous confrontation may not be with another killer, but with the limitations of his own carefully constructed morality.

There is also a new leading character in the franchise: New York City itself. Siega explained that the creative team wanted to embrace the city’s visual character, declaring there was no “better place to shoot.” With its shadowy streets, restless energy and endless possibilities for disappearing into a crowd, New York provides a particularly seductive playground for a character who has always depended upon remaining unnoticed.

What makes Dexter such an enduring television phenomenon is not simply its willingness to explore violence, but its understanding of the contradictions that make human beings fascinating. Its characters are capable of affection and brutality, loyalty and betrayal, conscience and calculated cruelty. The audience is continually asked to reconsider whom it trusts, whom it condemns and why.

Twenty years after Dexter Morgan first appeared on television, those questions remain disturbingly entertaining. The blood may be fictional, but the moral dilemmas have never been entirely comfortable.

Cordero concluded the evening by congratulating the team on its latest incarnation, apologizing in advance for the inevitable pun: “I’m sorry for the pun but, you’ve killed it.”

For once, nobody needed to investigate the confession.

And judging by the enthusiasm inside the Bennack Theater, Dexter Morgan’s next resurrection may be his most deliciously complicated yet.

Continue Reading

Celebrity

The Glorious Corner

Published

6 days ago

on

October 10, 2026

By

G.H. Harding

THE TRIAL OF ALEC BALDWIN — The wattage on Alec Baldwin has definitely simmered down. I saw him a few weeks back in the Hamptons, but other than that, he’s been under the radar. The film Rust, which interrupted everything is out; was minimally shown in May in about 115 theaters and was released on various on-demands. But the powers that be have kept it basically under wraps. Ironically, the few reviews I read noted how good it looked, rather than dwell on the tragic incidents that occurred.

Now, from documentarian-Rory Kennedy comes the film The Trial of Alec Baldwin. Both stories which I’ve posted below say the very first thing you see is a statement saying that Baldwin had no input into the making of the film. I haven’t seen it, but I think everything I need to know has always been disclosed.

Baldwin made himself a target and whatever did really happen; he was in the bulls-eye for certain. I’m sure I’ve relayed this story before, but I had an unfortunate incident with him, but several months later had a conversation with him, at his El Dorado Films, and he couldn’t have been more receptive. Acting? Who knows, but I was suitably charmed.

Don’t forgot, Baldwin is one hell of an actor. Check out his astonishing scene in Glengarry GlenRoss:

What happened was awful, but awful things happen every day, and the truth remains perhaps we’ll never know the truth.

ttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-trial-of-alec-baldwin-review-rory-kennedy-documentary-1236723653/

TCM LIVES — Turns out that so far there’s one golden-nugget from the Skydance takeover and that’s is the fact that the TCM channel will remain. Spielberg and Scorsese jumped onboard the channel a few years back and they’ll stay very much involved along with Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t watch everything on TCM, but more often than not they’ll have a gem on.

Clearly Ellison didn’t want tor rattle-the-cages too soon. I’m sure that will come, but just not now. Take a read from Deadline on the story: https://deadline.com/2026/10/turner-classic-movies-skydance-film-group-1237150281/

actor Michael Douglas promo image from his Netflix show The Komisky Method

SHORT TAKES — The Michael Douglas book PR-engine moves ever forward. I just checked Facebook and there were 3 postings from Douglas and his pub-company Grand Central Publishing. As I said last column, I think you can save $46.00 buying the book and just read and listen to everything that’s out. He did Diane Sawyer for ABC; The View; Morning Joe; Jimmy Kimmel; the 92 Street Y; CBS Sunday Morning; LA Times; andDeadline (where ghost-writer Mike Fleming, Jr. in an editor) … what else is left? Actually, as I was leaving my apartment I turned on the Today Show to see Catherine Zeta-Jones plugging her latest TV-movie (Killing Jackie)and she plainly said, she had no plans to read the book. Smart gal …

David Zaslav

David Zaslav, aka Zaz The Butcher, will receives about $600 million, for the Warner Bros sale.

Mandy Patinkin

Amazing …  (Via Deadline) Mandy Patinkin really digs Digger. In an effusive video message, posted soon after watching Digger in a theater, the Homeland star implored his followers to ignore the haters and watch Tom Cruise’s ecological disaster movie. Patinkin described Alejandro G. Iñárritu-directed Digger as an “instant classic” and said it was “one of the greatest pieces of film I have ever seen in my entire life.” “This is an incredible piece of work. It puts the heart and soul back into the cinema. Everything we all love about cinema, this is it. Please, please, please, run! Don’t walk, run, and see this film,” he continued. You just know, the tide will turn .. Just in: Pershing Square bar at Grand Central in NYC will close after 3 decades in business. Sad as it was a great spot to wait for Metro North! … Who hasn’t spent time in a good, old-fashioned diner? 200 have closed in the metropolitan area so far. Check out this article on them from the New York Post: https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/lifestyle/nycs-evolving-love-affair-with-diners-enters-a-new-era/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost_trending&fbclid=IwY2xjawU15FlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mBWJyaWQRMURwUUx2UHRmME9oT05xeTBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeDhyVr1Rp_BbBfebFdI2ovl87xm3BGk7uwgnerZv-kSYKIYz3gK6c5kDqN90_aem_az9ap3hQOvpiIueQ9aC-Vg

NAMES IN THE NEWS — Shane Salerno; Andrew Sandoval; Piper Smite; Tony King; John Hughes; Tony Seidel; Bruce Haring; Jane Blunkell; George Harrison; Mal Evans; Dan Zelinski; Steve Walter; Eppy; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; Peter Bart; Judd Bernard; Lush Ice; Chuck Taylor; Elizabeth Neff; and BELLA!

Images on this page have been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending

Copyright © 2023 Times Square Chronicles

Times Square Chronicles