Tag Archives: CBS
Director Tony Scott Jumps to His Death From Los Angeles Bridge
Tony Scott, the director of high-octane blockbusters like “Top Gun,” jumped to his death from a Los Angeles bridge on Sunday. He was 68.
The authorities are investigating his death as a suicide, said Lt. Joseph Bale of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. Lt. Bale said Mr. Scott jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge over Los Angeles Harbor at about 12:30 local time Sunday afternoon.
It was not immediately clear what would have driven Mr. Scott to commit suicide. The Los Angeles Times reported that investigators later found a suicide note in Mr. Scott’s office.
Lt. Tim Nordquist of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Associated Press that several 911 calls were made around 12:35 p.m. on Sunday to report that someone had jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which connects the San Pedro district of Los Angeles to Terminal Island. Lt. Nordquist said that a police dive team was dispatched and retrieved Mr. Scott’s body, which was transported to the county coroner’s office.
With his brother the director Ridley Scott, he ran a production company called Scott Free Productions. Among his most recent work was the 2010 action film “Unstoppable,” starring Denzel Washington, with whom he often worked.
Tony Scott, who was known for sporting a weathered red baseball cap, will likely be remembered most for his seminal action adventure films of years past, especially “Top Gun,” which starred Tom Cruise and was one of the highest-grossing films when it was released in 1986, earning nearly $345 million worldwide, according to IMDb.
His other films included “Enemy of the State,” “Déjà Vu,” “Days of Thunder” and “Crimson Tide.” He and his brother were working on a film adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing Lincoln,” set to be released next year.
Mr. Scott won an Emmy award as the executive producer of the 2002 television movie “The Gathering Storm” about Winston Churchill in the years leading up to World War II.
Anthony David Scott was born in North Shields, a town on the northeast coast of England, on June 21, 1944. As a teenager he made his movie debut — as an actor — in a short film, “Boy and Bicycle,” directed by Ridley Scott. After studying at many of the same schools that Ridley attended, Tony Scott graduated from London’s Royal College of Art and joined a television production company that Ridley had started. Tony Scott earned some of his earliest directing credits on TV commercials, episodic series and music videos before overseeing his first feature, the vampire movie “The Hunger,” in 1983.
Mr. Scott’s death on Sunday led to an online outpouring of emotion and remembrances from performers and filmmakers who had worked with him or were inspired by his work.
David Krumholtz, an actor who starred on the CBS television series “Numb3rs,” wrote in a post on his Twitter account about being directed in an episode by Mr. Scott, who was also a producer of the series.
“I had come to know Tony as a warm, enthusiastic and whimsical general with great vision and pride for his work and for the art of action,” Mr. Krumholtz wrote. He added:
After a few takes, I still couldn’t get it right. It felt odd to look up while I was talking to the seated F.B.I. agents in the room. Finally, Tony walked in and said, “David, just imagine that you’re talking to God. And God has all the money. In order to get the money, you gotta talk to God. GOD AND MONEY!!! GOD AND MONEY!!!” He skipped off set, in the way that he did, keeping me energized, and firmly strapped into his roller coaster ride of film making.
Duncan Jones, the director of films like “Source Code” and “Moon,” and who got an early career break doing camerawork for Mr. Scott’s television series “The Hunger,” wrote in a Twitter post: “Tony was a truly lovely man who took me under his wing & ignited my passion to make films.” Mr. Jones added: “Wish you had felt there was a way to keep going.”
Edgar Wright, the director of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” wrote on his Twitter account: “Tony Scott was a rambunctious cinematic spirit.” He added: “As I hope was evident in my work, I was big fan of his. Rest In Peace, sir.”
Charlie Sheen leaving Hollywood
Charlie Sheen has had a long Hollywood career filled with many ups and downs, but it seems his new FX show “Anger Management” really will be the last time we see the once highest-paid actor in television do his thing in front of the cameras.
“Thirty years in, I mean come on. There’s this whole ton of stuff to do that involves my children and the rest of my life that’s not about like worshipping fiction,” Sheen told Fox411’s Pop Tarts column at the FX Summer Comedies party in Hollywood this week, after confirming that after this series he was parting ways with the acting profession.
But in his latest project, the controversial screen star plays a successful, non-traditional therapist specializing in anger management – and the concept of helping others was what drew Sheen to the role.
“He doesn’t judge anybody. He’s just a guy trying to get by,” he continued. “He’s all about atonement, giving something back… He’s cool and he’s smart.”
And it seems Mr. Sheen has learned a valuable lesson since his very public firing from hit CBS sitcom “Two-And-A-Half Men” last year.
“When you get traded, come back and kick ass,” he enthused.
“Anger Management” premieres Thursday June 28 at 9pm on FX.
Har Du Tiger Blod I Dig?
Do you have ‘Tiger Blood’ in you? That’s what “Two and a half Men” creator Chuck Lorre wishes he still had. A little bit of the craziness that was once Charlie Sheen. Unfortunately, like everyone else, Chuck will have to watch his former collaborator Charlie Sheen fly the coop to promote his upcoming FX show “Anger Management”.
Not too long ago, the whole world watched Charlie Sheen’s infamous spiral out of what was considered one of the most successful and lucrative shows on TV. So, the question many still have after the tumultuous flame-out is what went wrong?
Lorre sat down with Deadline to reflect. “The guy was my friend and colleague for eight and a half years. I don’t think we ever had an argument,” adding, “For it to end like that was devastating. I don’t know what to say about it other than I was heartbroken and hurt.”
And what about the Sheen-less “Two and a half Men” transition to Ashton Kutcher? Lorre admits, “There was no development process. We actually made all of our mistakes on television. If you watch the 24 shows we did last year, you can watch us stumbling around trying to figure things out. I think we still are, honestly.”
From LA Slice’s perspective, it was obvious they ‘Screwed the Pooch’ on the transition, but Lorre to finally admit his mistakes is somewhat of milestone in Hollywood terms. …the gold is in your grill, Charlie. You’re move!
“Anger Management” debuts Thursday June 28 at 9 p.m ET/PT on FX. “Two and a half Men” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Let the war of the ratings continue!
TBS Extends ‘Conan’ Through April 2014
NEW YORK – TBS said Wednesday it has extended late-night series Conan, hosted by Conan O’Brien, through April 2014.
Since premiering in Nov. 2010, “Conan has been a hit with TBS’s core audience of young adults,” the Time Warner network said.
While Conan has underperformed in the ratings, TBS highlighted that it recently had its third consecutive month of audience growth. “The success of Conan also extends well beyond the show’s TBS telecasts to include widespread DVR, online and mobile viewing, interaction through Twitter, Facebook and TeamCoco.com,” the network said.
“We are proud to be in business with Conan O’Brien for the long run,” said Michael Wright, executive vp, head of programming for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. “Night after night, Conan and his team have put together terrific shows that draw a young and fiercely loyal audience. As if that weren’t enough, they have also built a dynamic online presence that keeps fans engaged like no other show in late night.”
Said O’Brien: “I am excited to continue my run with TBS because they have been fantastic partners.” He also quipped: “This means I’ll be taping episodes of Conan well into the Ron Paul presidency.”
Conan in January was up 27 percent in total viewers compared to Oct. 2011, while adults 18-34 were up 18 percent, and adults 18-49 rose 21 percent, TBS said. In February, the show is displaying additional 12 percent growth among adults 18-34, 11 percent among adults 18-49 and 8 percent among total viewers.
For 2012 to-date, Conan has averaged 1.1 million viewers, with 407,000 adults 18-34 and 702,000 adults 18-49. Nevertheless, Conan is well behind Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The Daily Show is the top-rated late-night entry on cable, averaging 2.4 million viewers an episode this season and surpassing NBC’s Jay Leno and CBS’ David Letterman among viewers 18-49.
And TBS has yet to permanently fill the post-Conan midnight slot previously occupied by George Lopez’s Lopez Tonight. That show was cancelled last summer after two seasons; Lopez lost almost half of its viewers when TBS moved it to midnight to make room for Conan.
Conan premiered in November 2010 after a public split with NBC. The show bowed to 4.1 million viewers and was averaging 2.4 million during its first month. But those numbers began to fall and by last summer, the show was down to just below 1 million viewers. In September, TBS began airing reruns of How I Met Your Mother (which the company paid a hefty $2 million per episode for) a couple nights a week in front of Conan, reasoning that the popular CBS sitcom would give Conan a healthy lead-in.
Jon Favreau Teams With J.J. Abrams For ‘Revolution’
Remember when big-screen talent lining up work on television was big news? Now it’s frankly surprising if a Hollywood director or actor hasn’t got a project on TV. Here’s the latest list that will be working on pilots this year.
After the relative failure, both critically and commercially, of “Cowboys & Aliens,” and presumably before he gets to work on (*shudder*) Disney’s “Magic Kingdom”, Jon Favreau will direct the pilot for J.J. Abrams’ “Revolution” at NBC. Written by “Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke, the show is described by Deadline as “high-octane action drama following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.” Favreau also has a self-penned comedy pilot, “Tweaked,” lined up at CBS.
Hopefully Nick Nolte’s Oscar nomination for “Warrior” will finally get the film some of the attention it deserved (because heaven knows barely anyone saw it in theatres). Gavin O’Connor’s film had a tough time at the box office, but he’ll be hoping for more popular success for his latest project, a cold war period drama pilot he’ll direct for FX called “The Americans.” The project was created by Joe Weisberg (“Falling Skies”) and will focus on two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, DC. “Justified” showrunner Graham Yost will exec produce, and we like the sound of this one.
After the success of “Limitless,” Neil Burger had his pick of future projects, and it looks like the one he settled on was “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” after David O. Russell left the project. That project is still at the script stage though so Burger has plenty of time to go off and make a TV pilot, and that’s exactly what he’ll be doing over at Fox where he’ll direct Josh Friedman’s (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) spy drama pilot, “The Asset.”
Finally, Ellen Barkin looks set to star in the pilot for “The New Normal,” a comedy pilot over at NBC. The pilot was written by “Glee” duo Ryan Murphy (who will also direct) and Allison Adler, and is described by Deadline as “a heartwarming comedy about a blended family of a gay couple and the woman who becomes a surrogate to help them start a family.” Barkin will play the surrogate’s mother.
Oprah Is Not The Godmother
Blue Ivy Carter really is going to live her best life.
On Wednesday and Thursday, another rumor about Beyonce and Jay-Z’s infant daughter blazed the web: That the couple chose pal Oprah Winfrey to be Blue’s godmother.
When asked by Us Weekly about the story, a rep for Beyonce declined to comment. But Winfrey’s BFF Gayle King finally cleared things up Friday morning on CBS’ “The Early Show.”
“It’s absolutely not true that she’s the godmother,” King said. “She’s friends with them, of course, and likes them both very much. She’s working on sending them a baby gift. She hasn’t even had time to send a baby gift because she’s been away.”
She added, “Let me just say, if [that report is] true, it is news to her. It is news to her. You know, she was heading to South Africa when the baby was born.”
Before King debunked the story, Kathy Griffin joked about Beyonce’s famous pals. “R u fing kidding me??? Oprah is Blue Ivy’s godmother???” the comedienne tweeted Thursday. “Gwyneth must b PISSED.”
Beyonce, 30, and Jay-Z, 42, are close pals with Gwyneth Paltrow (she was among the first to tweet about Blue’s birth) and well as Winfrey, 57.
Hip-hop gossip site MediaTakeOut first reported the supposed news, adding that Jay-Z’s BFF Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith was named godfather.
Blue Ivy was born in New York on Jan. 7. “She is so beautiful,” Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland recently gushed. The first-time mom has yet to emerge in public since giving birth.
Sharon Osbourne Slams Remini and Peete on Howard Stern
Original “The Talk” co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Sara Gilbert and Julie Chen made an appearance on the Howard Stern Radio Show Monday to promote their show, and the visit has everyone talking. The conversation got into the Stern’s usual areas of interest, including anal sex, boob jobs and vagina-plasty; but the shock jock also got serious, calling the ladies out on the controversial exits of former co-hosts Holly Robinson Peete and Leah Remini.
Just before “The Talk” returned for a second season this September, rumors began swirling that the two co-hosts were out. As fans rallied around them, Peete and Remini tweeted their confusion and then sadness, and to this day, Peete claims she’s not sure why she was ousted. Now, she might just have an idea … or not.
When Howard Stern had the remaining hosts on his Sirius radio show on Monday, he got right to the heart of the matter, asking Julie Chen about “being painted as the witch in this.” He was referring to rumors that as the wife of CBS head honcho Les Moonves, Chen was the dominating hand that sent Peete and Remini packing. Before Chen, could answer, however, Gilbert stepped in on her behalf.
“She’s definitely not the bad guy,” Gilbert insisted. “This show is run by the studio, the network, an EP [executive producer], and that’s where the creative decisions are coming from. These kinds of changes happen all the time on these shows… When people are blaming Julie, they’re looking for a scapegoat.”
Stern fired back that that sounded like a cover up, to which Osbourne cried, “Let’s get real!”
So what did Osbourne get real abut? After a bit of a sidetrack, she revealed she likes the ousted co-hosts, but the chemistry while they were on the show was, “Weird! Weird!”
“Some people don’t really know who they are,” Osbourne said (at the start of the recording above). “You have to know who you are when you’re in something like this. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not. You have to know your brand. You can’t be all things to everyone. And the other thing is, I always say, ‘I’m not running for public office. I don’t care if people like me or not.’”
Those are some seriously real insinuations! Osbourne clearly agreed with the decision to replace Peete and Remini and from the sound of it, so did Gilbert and Chen. They also made it clear they approve of the Season 2 additions, Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler, but again insisted that neither they nor Moonves had anything to do with the shakeup.
Well, at least Peete and Remini have an idea now … Or do they? Less than a day later, the rumor mill is already gearing up with new insinuations and secret sources claiming it was all a cover up, after all. We may never know why Peete and Remini weren’t invited back, but as Stern points out, things like this happen in this biz.
New Star Trek TV Series Being Planned
Star Trek hasn’t been on television since 2005. After Enterprise it just seemed like the whole thing needed a rest. But with JJ Abrams taking his sweet time about getting another movie off the ground, maybe a fresh TV show is the right way to go.
There’ve been rumblings that a new Trek TV series might be in the works for awhile now. For instance, at one point a new Trek animated series was being worked on. Now here’s a new addition to the list of Star Trek TV series possibilities: A live-action project, code-named “S.E.T.I.”, being developed by David Foster.
He spoke about his plans to TrekWeb. Apparently this is a project he’s been working on since 2006 and while Foster’s tight-lipped about the nature of the project he does have this to say:
The series concept is fully developed, subject to change of course, with a solid 5-7 year series plan, pilot script and a conceptualized finale that intends to define Star Trek for generations, extensive character bios, costume and ship/set designs, and more. This is a drastic departure from the typical 8-10 page treatment of the previously pitched Star Trek series ideas that have not included even a pilot script.
In the wake of JJ Abrams’ 2009 movie a lot has changed in the Star Trek universe. That film was specifically designed to change the timeline established by all other Star Trek’s which came before. However, it sounds like this new idea will ignore the latest movie and stick with established canon. Foster explains:
The vision that we have created is true to the “pre-2009 screen canon” (TV and movies). We were also careful with the Star Trek: Enterprise canon as well. Through the years, I have had the chance to get to know many of the original series cast, crew, and even some of the studio execs. I have developed an extremely deep passion for the original vision of Gene Roddenberry. And while Star Trek has moved on with other series that were not exactly in line with Gene’s original vision, the roots are there to tap into.
The show would pick up in a time period after the one covered in Star Trek: Voyager. We’re talking Next Generation era technology here. Don’t expect to see a lot of cast from other previous Trek incarnations though. They’re going younger. Here’s how they explain what it will be about:
The series is highly energized with a much younger cast, and uses cutting-edge future technologies with newly envisioned special effects and designs. It includes Klingons, Ferengi, Andorians, Vulcans, Trill, and many more. The Klingons are getting very restless since the Praxis incident forced them to come to the peace tables, and are tired of having to rely on the Federation for support. The Ferengi have discovered a vast new resource that has propelled them towards instant riches and power beyond anything they have previously experienced.
The really exciting thing here is that this seems to be more than just some random pipe-dream. Foster says they’ve talked to CBS about it and while they haven’t officially pitched it to them through his 1974 Entertainment production company, the feedback from CBS has been very positive. This may actually go somewhere. Stick around, we’ll keep you apprised.
Charlie Sheen rushed to the ER
TMZ reports that perpetual party animal Charlie Sheen was rushed to the hospital via ambulance.
The site says the “Two and a Half Men” star was taken from his home on a stretcher at roughly 7 a.m. Pacific Time. Sheen was seen with a towel partially over his face as two young ladies also exited the house.
So what triggered the 6:35 a.m. 911 call? Sheen was said to be having severe pains in his stomach, Stan Rosenfield, Sheen’s publicist told TMZ. He also says that Sheen was in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles “sleeping.”
Actor Martin Sheen and his mother Janet Templeton are currently at the hospital.
This hospital visit comes after a night of raucous partying with loud music into the wee hours.
Two and a Half Men Intro Goes Viral
Unfortunately it seems the new Two and a Half Men intro video has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. In other words, it looks painfully unlike the Two and a Half Men most people were used to.
