Monday, September 28, 2015

NEWS: Catherine Coulson, Joan Collins,Shonda Rhimes, Minka Kelly, Ryan Murphy, Benedict Cumberbatch

 Catherine Coulson
Catherine Coulson, Log Lady on Twin Peaks, Dies at 71
Actress Catherine Coulson, best known for playing the Log Lady on David Lynch's Twin Peaks, died Monday. She was 71.

Mary Dangerfield, Coulson's agent and friend, told THR that Coulson died Monday morning and that the family had not yet made the cause of the death public.

"We are all deeply sad — she meant so much to so many," Dangerfield said.

Lynch released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter to express his grief about the news.

"Today, I lost one of my dearest friends, Catherine Coulson," Lynch wrote. "Catherine was solid gold. She was always there for her friends — she was filled with love for all people, for her family, for her work. She was a tireless worker."

"She had a great sense of humor — she loved to laugh and make people laugh," Lynch continued. "She was a spiritual person — a longtime TM meditator. She was the Log Lady."

Jackie Collins and Joan Collins
Joan Collins pens beautiful tribute to her late sister, Jackie Collins
In "A Tribute To My Beloved Sister," Joan writes: "I used to nag my sister about getting mammograms, as our darling mother Elsa had succumbed to the disease in 1962 when she was only in her the early fifties. I was religious about doing mammograms regularly. Jackie however refused – she didn’t even like going to doctors. Like my brother and I she was needle-phobic.

"As Jackie said in her last interview she did things her way. I celebrate the way she lived her life and, as she put it, the pleasure she gave to me and to so many people. In her inimitable way she had more concern for others than for herself to the end, and anyone who knew Jackie well will tell you how courageous and selfless she was. This, of course, was one of the reasons for her great success in both her personal and professional life and why she was loved and admired by so many. I therefore choose to remember her as the strong, independent, loyal, caring, maternal, fun-loving, witty, joyful woman she was.

"I don’t think I will ever recover from the sadness of losing my beautiful baby sister. Someone once said, 'The reality is that you don’t get over the loss of a loved one, you learn to live with it.' I think Jackie would have liked us to do more than that. As she requested, I will not mourn her death, but rather celebrate her life. She will live on in the wonderful memories I have of her from our childhood and particularly from the last fifteen years, during which we were closer than ever. I feel her spirit, I hear her wonderful laugh and I see her all the time in the hundreds of photos of her that are sprinkled around my home.

"She wasn’t just a star – to me she was an entire galaxy."

Benedict Cumberbatch to visit EastEnders?
The Imitation Game star has known Dominic Treadwell Collins, the executive producer of British soap EastEnders, since they were kids. Dominic has now revealed he has asked his old pal to make a cameo in the soap, and Benedict is trying to find time in his busy schedule.

"I really want Benedict Cumberbatch to come and do a turn," Dominic tells Britain's Radio Times magazine. "And he says he'll come and do it but he is slightly busy."

Minka Kelly reunites with Jason Katims for Hulu drama series The Path
Friday Night Lights alumna Minka Kelly has been cast opposite Aaron Paul and Michelle Monaghan in Hulu original drama series The Path from Jason Katims’ True Jack Prods. It’s a reunion of sorts for Kelly and Katims: He wrote and executive produced the hit series Friday Night Lights, on which Kelly appeared for three seasons. Also joining the cast of The Path is Oscar nominee Kathleen Turner (The Doctors).

New Shonda Rhimes book, "The Year of Yes," will hit bookstores November 10.
Rhimes' new book, "The Year of Yes," chronicles a year of her life after she decided to say "yes" to unexpected invitations in December 2013. Below is an excerpt:

"The lives of my characters had become unimaginably huge. People all over the world knew Meredith and Olivia. At the same time, my life had so drained of color and excitement that I could barely see it," she writes. "Why? You never say yes to anything. Oh yeah. That. I put down the glass of wine and lay down on the sofa. And really thought about those six words. You never say yes to anything. Maybe it was time to start saying yes. Maybe."

Did ABC's Quantico go too far in destroying Grand Central?
Monument destruction has been a reliable movie trope for decades, and will remain one for as long as directors like Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay are around. Grand Central has been destroyed at least three times over the years.

TV has been more circumspect, for a couple of reasons. The obvious one is cost. This trope is an enormous budget-sucking enterprise, costing millions, for a few minutes of on-screen carnage. Television -- even bomb-happy Blacklist -- has neither the budget nor sense of profligacy to engage in regular monument destruction.

Malone Seen Pursuing ITV, Mobile Networks After Vodafone
Liberty Global Plc and Vodafone Plc may have ended their talks over a tie-up, but Liberty’s billionaire Chairman John Malone probably won’t halt dealmaking in Europe anytime soon.

Liberty Global acquired a 6.4 percent stake in ITV in 2014 and increased that in July. The U.K. TV company –- with a market valuation of 10 billion pounds ($15 billion) -- has top-rated shows such as Downton Abbey and U.K. soap opera Coronation Street and has been increasingly investing in U.S. production and exporting content worldwide. ITV Studios sells more than 40,000 hours of programming to more than 300 international broadcasters, according to its website.

Ryan Murphy on Scream Queens Ratings Bump: Overnights Aren’t Everything
Wednesday morning brought surprising news for Fox execs and the Scream Queens creative team: After a premiere night that saw a flurry of social activity on Twitter and other platforms, the overnight ratings for the new horror/comedy series were a bit of a disappointment, bringing in 4 million viewers overall.

That all changed Sunday morning, when the live-plus-three-day (L3) ratings were released, giving the show an 80% lift, to a new total of 7.3 million across all platforms, including Fox Now and Hulu. What’s more, the median age of the show dropped from 52 to 36.

“The story of the fall is just how much people are time-shifting and watching programming in new and much more dramatic ways than even six months ago,” says executive producer Ryan Murphy.

No comments:

Post a Comment