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The best books in the thriller genre feature satisfying ending twists, but some of them truly go off the rails with their big reveals. It's a thriller's job to surprise readers with its ending. In a genre that aims to shock, this isn't always an easy task. Some authors approach this by meticulously crafting red herrings before solving their biggest mysteries, while others go above and beyond to come up with unexpected endings.

These efforts to deliver surprising twists sometimes lead to thriller books going off the rails. Such narrative shifts can sometimes benefit the stories they're a part of, but they can also prove tonally jarring. Whether such wild developments resonate with readers usually comes down to preference. Those who don't mind suspending disbelief for a great twist will find books with such endings exciting. And some additions to the genre even maintain their outlandish narratives throughout most of their run,...

Opening bands are leaving the upcoming Loveless tour following some unsavory allegations against Julian Comeau.

Loveless features Comeau as a vocalist and Dylan Tirapelli-Jamail as a multi-instrumentalist. The duo, joined by drummer Stephen Haaker during tours and in music videos, signed with BMG and Rise Records in 2023. 

They released their debut album, Loveless I, independently in 2021, which included 12 original songs and a cover of Taylor Swift's "Exile." Their first EP, End of an era, was released in 2022, featuring 7 original tracks and covers of "Middle of the Night" and "Running Up That Hill." 

Read full article on The Direct.

Every great screen performance expands the medium in its own way, giving audiences something to respond to, while offering fresh ideas to future actors. A select few can be said to have redefined the craft entirely: Orson Welles in “Citizen Kane,” Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,” Toshiro Mifune in “Rashomon” and Gena Rowlands in “A Woman Under the Influence.”

Rowlands died Wednesday at age 94, half a century after “A Woman Under the Influence” premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1974. Rowlands was the last to go from among a tight clique of titans — actors who transformed modern cinema: Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and, of course, Rowlands’ late husband, actor-director John Cassavetes.

Younger audiences who know Rowlands only as the memory-challenged older woman in “The Notebook” (directed by her son Nick Cassavetes) or for her Emmy-winning turn in “Hysterical Blindness” owe it to themselves to investigate her most important work,...

Actress Gena Rowlands, winner of three Emmy Awards and an Honorary Academy Award in addition to two nominations, died on Wednesday as confirmed by the office of her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. She had been living with Alzheimer’s Disease for five years and was 94 years old.

Rowlands began her career on Broadway in the 1950s, appearing in productions of “The Seven Year Itch” and “Middle of the Night.” She worked in early television, including revered anthology programs like “Studio One” and “The United States Steel Hour.” She also appeared on the jazzy detective program “Johnny Staccato” opposite her husband John Cassavetes.

It was with Cassavetes and his troupe, including Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, and Seymour Cassel, that pretty much invented the prestige American independent film, with groundbreaking collaborations like “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” and “Opening Night.” This led to Oscar nominations for her leading roles in “A Woman Under The Influence...

Sad news in the land of Hollywood, as TMZ is reporting that Gena Rowlands, who played ‘Allie’ in The Notebook died the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14 at her Indian Wells, CA home. She was 94 years old.

As per reports, she was surrounded by family, including her husband Robert Forrest and daughter Alexandra Cassavetes. Reports also reveal that her director son, Nick Cassavetes, had been at the house quite frequently the week leading up to her passing.

Gena Rowlands, “The Notebook” Star – Cause Of Death

As of this writing, no official cause of death has been listed for the actress; however, she had been fighting Alzheimer’s.

Nick announced his mother’s condition on the 20th anniversary milestone of The Notebook, a movie he directed. Rowland’s character Allie in the film also battled the same illness.

Gena’s mother, actress Lady Rowlands, was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before her passing.

Gena Rowlands, the award-winning actress known for her roles in films such as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, and The Notebook, has died at the age of 94.

Rowlands died Wednesday, August 14th, at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to TMZ. She had been battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Hailing from Cambria, Wisconsin, Rowlands originally got her start in theater, studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Upon graduating, she starred in several repertory productions before making her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch. She later starred in the Broadway play Middle of the Night.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, Rowlands transitioned to a career in television. She starred in the syndicated television series Top Secret and made guest appearances on shows including Laramie, Riverboat, 77 Sunset Strip, and Dr. Kildare. She also appeared on several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

However,...

Gena Rowlands, a multiple Emmy winner whose captivating work in A Woman Under the Influence and as the elder and dementia-ridden Allie in The Notebook also moved moviegoers, died Wednesday surrounded by family at her home in Indian Wells, CA. She was 94.

No cause of death was given, but the retired actress had been battling Alzheimer’s disease, ironic in light of her famous film role.

She retired from Hollywood in 2015 after earning four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Oscar nominations. Her Oscar noms included A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, both borne of collaborations with her late husband, John Cassavetes. The duo made an indelible mark on American independent film, not just for the often revelatory end product, but also for the DIY way they made their movies.

A Woman Under the Influence was prompted by Rowlands, who wanted to delve into the difficulties faced by...

Radio Margaritaville (Ch. 24) celebrates Jimmy Buffett with a countdown of songs he wrote or co-wrote!

You voted, and now it’s time to enjoy “The Jimmy Buffett Top 100” countdown, available to stream on the SiriusXM app now and premiering on-air August 30 at 8am Et.

Jimmy Buffett Top 100Stream the full countdown nowListen on the App

Listen on the App

Jimmy Buffett Songs

Here are the possible song choices for “The Jimmy Buffett Top 100” countdown:

(I Feel Like Going) Surfing in a Hurricane

15 Cuban Minutes

A Lot to Drink About

A Mile High in Denver

A Pirate Looks at Forty

Ace

African Friend

Ain’t He a Genuis

Altered Boy

Autour Du Rocher

Baby’s Gone Shoppin’

Ballad of Skip Wiley

Bank of Bad Habits

Barometer Soup

Barefoot Children

Beach House on the Moon

Beautiful Swimmers

Bend A Little

Beyond the End

Big Top

Blue Heaven Rendezvous

Bob Robert’s Society...

Middle of the Night breaks a seven-year Riley Sager trend that started with his debut novel, Final Girls. Unlike Sager's prior thriller books, Middle of the Night features a male main character. Sager takes other risks in his 2024 thriller book, and they pay off, making it one of the best additions to his lineup yet.

Riley Sager's new thriller, Middle of the Night, breaks a seven-year, seven-book author trend that started with Final Girls. Sager is a well-known writer in thriller and horror spaces, and his novels range from more standard mysteries to supernatural tales, with some even blending the two types of narratives. The author has released one book per year since Final Girls debuted in 2017, and his 2024 release is among June's most-anticipated thriller books.

The fact that Middle of the Night is written by Sager automatically puts it on readers' radars, but there's another reason this novel is so exciting.

Joan Copeland, an actress whose Broadway career began in the 1940s and would include acclaimed performances in a 1976 revival of Pal Joey and in the 1980 premiere of The America Clock, written by her brother, the playwright Arthur Miller, died today at her home in New York City. She was 99.

One of the original members of the renowned Actors Studio, Copeland also had numerous film credits and recurring roles on such daytime serials as Search for Tomorrow and One Life to Live. Copeland’s death was first reported by the Broadway World website.

Copeland made her Broadway debut in 1948’s Sundown Beach, following it up the next year in Detective Story. She also appeared in Not For Children (1951), Handful of Fire (1958), Tovarich (1963), Something More! (1964), The Price (1968), Coco (1969), Two By Two (1970), Checking Out (1976), and 45 Seconds From Broadway (2001).

She was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Pal Joey (1976) and The American Clock (1981), winning for the latter.

A group of young, scrappy and brilliant writers penned some of the most accomplished dramas presented live during the Golden Age of TV in the 1950s. Writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, J.P. Miller (“The Days of Wine and Roses”), Reginald Rose (“Twelve Angry Men”), Tad Mosel (“The Haven”), James Costigan (“Little Moon of Alban”) and Horton Foote.

But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.

Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...

To really understand the popularity of the K-pop group Monsta X, you just have to listen.

Friday, you heard it in the screams of hundreds of sleep-deprived fans who packed the legendary Roxy Nightclub in Hollywood for a private Monsta X performance, and then snaked a line down four blocks of Sunset Boulevard for a chance to meet Shownu, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, and I.M. at a Monsta X pop-up shop in the former Tower Records building (the sixth member, Joohoney, was out sick).

After a brief Q&a at the Roxy — key takeaways: I.

“Greatest Love Story” hitmakers Lanco capped the opening leg of their first headlining tour at Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom Friday night, bringing a combustible mix of romance and live-for-the-moment joy to a sold-out crowd of about 1,000 hometown fans.

Having spent the summer on Dierks Bentley’s Mountain High Tour and then their own Hallelujah Nights run, the five-piece band — made up of frontman Brandon Lancaster, guitarist Eric Steedly, drummer Tripp Howell, bassist Chandler Baldwin and multi-instrumentalist Jared Hampton — showed why they’ve been earning a reputation as one of country’s most potent live acts.

On Monday, North Carolina woman Jamie Basinger pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after her 3-year-old son, Landyn Melton, froze to death in March on an outside porch while she slept inside.

The child was found dead on March 15 after investigators say he went outside in the middle of the night and could not get back into the house. Basinger, who was originally charged with both involuntary manslaughter and child abuse, pleaded guilty to the former charge while prosecutors dropped the latter.

She was released from incarceration earlier this week after being held since her arrest earlier this year, her attorney told People.

Los Angeles – His acting career spanned from working with Alfred Hitchcock to Tim Burton. Along the way, he had significant TV and film roles including a Best Supporting Oscar win for portraying Bela Lugosi in Burton’s “Ed Wood”. Martin Landau died in Los Angeles on July 15, 2017. He was 89.

He was one of the rare actors known both for distinctive parts in both television and film, and had a revival in his career towards the end of his life. Besides working for directors Hitchcock and Burton, he also has roles in films by Woody Allen, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Francis Ford Coppola and Frank Darabont. On television, he had an early role on “Mission: Impossible in the 1960s, and another on the cult series “Space :1999”

Martin Landau in a 2013 Appearance in Chicago

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Martin Landau was born in Brooklyn, New York,...

As confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, actor Martin Landau—who won an Academy Award for his performance as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood—has died. Landau recently had a “brief stay” at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, but he died yesterday due to “unexpected complications.” He was 89.

Landau was born in Brooklyn in 1928, and while he was still a teenager, he got a job as a cartoonist for the Daily News. After a few years, though, he abruptly quit his job to follow his dream and become a theatrical actor, something he recognized many years later as a “crazy” idea. Crazy as it was, Landau auditioned at the Actors Studio in 1955, and out of more than 2,000 other aspiring actors, only he and one other person were accepted into the program—the other being Steve McQueen. Later, in a production of Middle Of The Night ...

Martin Landau, whose role as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s 1994 film Ed Wood earned the popular player an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, died Saturday at 89 following “unexpected complications” after a brief stay at the UCLA Medical Center, his publicist Dick Guttman confirmed Sunday.

In a career spanning more than half a century of roles on television and film, Landau may have been best known for his run as undercover operative Rollin Hand in the Mission: Impossible TV series that initially ran from 1966 to 1973 on CBS. The show co-starred Landau’s wife at the time, Barbara Bain.

Also known for his varied roles in classic films from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest to Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, Landau was not only one of the most familiar faces in Hollywood but also one of the most highly regarded character actors in the business. “Martin Landau is...

Something Wild

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 850

1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Aaron Copland

Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann

Produced by George Justin

Directed by Jack Garfein

After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:

“Dear Glenn Erickson,

Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.

If possible, I would appreciate if you could send

me a copy of your review by email.

Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”

Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...

Britney Spears surrounds herself with some very handsome men.

The 35-year-old pop princess bragged about her backup dancers Ektor Silva, Jae Fusz, Willie Gomez and Zac Brazenas by sharing a shirtless photo of the foursome by the pool on Sunday. "I love my dancers. I'm so grateful to have these guys. They always make me laugh and have such a positive energy," she wrote.

Not ignoring the six-packs that are showcased in the photo, Spears added: "P.S. They're pretty hot too."

Watch: Britney Spears Surprises Jimmy Kimmel in the Middle of the Night with Shirtless Backup Dancers

The "Work B**ch" singer and her crew must have had some down time after headlining the CBS Radio's B96 Pepsi Jingle Bash at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, on Saturday. The show did not disappoint, with Spears -- who stunned in a black and red see-through bodysuit -- performing “Womanizer,” "Glory" and "Make Me...

Hell House LLC has just released. This horror title, from Terror Films, involves a tragedy at a haunted house attraction. Shot found footage style, this indie outing was developed by director Stephen Cognetti. The film stars: Danny Bellini, Ryan Jennifer, and Gore Abrams. A new clip titled, "Middle of the Night," is hosted here. The clip shows a man awoken in the night. Someone or something is waiting for him, at the bottom of the stairs. Very tense, a conflict looms. Hell House LLC was launched in November. The film has debuted on many Video-on-demand platforms, including: Amazon Instant, Youtube, XBox, Playstation and many more. You can find out more on the film at your favourite online retailers, now! Release Date: November 1st, 2016 (VOD: Amazon Instant, YouTube, Xbox, Vudu, Sony PlayStation, Vimeo On Demand, Google Play and iTunes). Director/writer: Stephen Cognetti. Cast: Danny Bellini, Ryan Jennifer, Gore Abrams, Jared Hacker,...

Britney Spears is living the "dream" in paradise. The star took to her Instagram on Saturday to share a photo of herself on her tropical getaway. In the photo, the 34-year-old showed a topless shot (but Sfw!) of herself on a boat in tiny white bikini bottoms. "Still dreaming a mile a minute," Spears wrote in the post, echoing a previous Instagram in which she announced the release of the steamy music video for her latest release, "Make Me." Still dreaming a mile a minute... A photo posted by Britney Spears (@britneyspears) on Aug 6, 2016 at 3:27pm Pdt Related Video:...

Britney Spears is living the "dream" in paradise. The star took to her Instagram on Saturday to share a photo of herself on her tropical getaway. In the photo, the 34-year-old showed a topless shot (but Sfw!) of herself on a boat in tiny white bikini bottoms. "Still dreaming a mile a minute," Spears wrote in the post, echoing a previous Instagram in which she announced the release of the steamy music video for her latest release, "Make Me." Still dreaming a mile a minute... A photo posted by Britney Spears (@britneyspears) on Aug 6, 2016 at 3:27pm Pdt Related Video:...

Hot on the heels of the announcement of her new album and the filming of the video for its first single, "Make Me," Britney Spears took some time off for some fun in the sun. The 34-year-old blonde bombshell hung at the beach on Thursday, laying in the sand in a cool coral bikini. Spears appeared to be all giggles during her sun-soaked adventure, letting the waves wash over her in a soundless video posted late in the evening to her Instagram page. "Another great day!" she captioned the video. Of course, this isn't the first time Spears has shown...

After starring in director Hal Hartley's hits such as The Unbelievable Truth and Trust in the early '90s, Adrienne Shelly became known as the original indie queen and gained a huge fan following. Driven to do even more in the film world, she began writing her own screenplays and directing her own movies, including Waitress, which became a hit 2007 movie and is now a smash musical on Broadway - nominated for four Tony Awards. Even though Shelly was happily married to marketing company owner Andy Ostroy, 56, and had a daughter she adored, Sophie, now 12, the film and the...

After starring in director Hal Hartley's hits such as The Unbelievable Truth and Trust in the early '90s, Adrienne Shelly became known as the original indie queen and gained a huge fan following. Driven to do even more in the film world, she began writing her own screenplays and directing her own movies, including Waitress, which became a hit 2007 movie and is now a smash musical on Broadway - nominated for four Tony Awards. Even though Shelly was happily married to marketing company owner Andy Ostroy, 56, and had a daughter she adored, Sophie, now 12, the film and the...

Anne Jackson, whose Broadway career spanned 50 years — including many shows with her late husband Eli Wallach — and whose wealth of TV and film credits included a memorable performance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, has died. She was 90. The New York Times reported that the actress died Tuesday at her Manhattan home. Jackson appeared in more than two dozen Main Stem productions, including a Tony-nominated turn in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night (1956). But she is…...

Anne Jackson, whose Broadway career spanned 50 years — including many shows with her late husband Eli Wallach — and whose wealth of TV and film credits included a memorable performance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, has died. She was 90. The New York Times reported that the actress died Tuesday at her Manhattan home. Jackson appeared in more than two dozen Main Stem productions, including a Tony-nominated turn in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night (1956). But she is…...

Anne Jackson, a celebrated actress of the American stage and screen, perhaps best known for working closely with her husband, the actor Eli Wallach, for nearly 50 years, died on Tuesday at age 90. The New York Times reported that Jackson passed away at her home in Manhattan. Jackson appeared opposite her husband more than 20 times on Broadway and off, on TV and in movies. Their collaborations ran the gamut from classic dramas to contemporary comedies. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1956 for Paddy Chaefsky’s “Middle of the Night,” and she won an Obie Award in 1963...

September is coming -- and that means back to school, back to autumn leaves, and back to TV season. Huzzah! Amazon just released its list of September titles available for streaming on Prime and for rental or purchase on Amazon Instant Video. (If you missed the August titles, here they are.) They're offering tons of new episodes from the Fall 2015 TV season, and several recent blockbuster movies like "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (plus bonus features), "Pitch Perfect 2," and "Cinderella."

Check out all the September additions below.

New in September - Available for Streaming on Prime

TV

Hand of God

Season 1

9/4/15

Grimm

Season 4

9/30/15

Movies

Little Giants

9/1/15

Maya the Bee

9/1/15

Private Parts

9/1/15

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

9/1/15

The Blair Witch Project

9/1/15

Desperately Seeking Susan

9/1/15

Hannah and Her Sisters

9/1/15

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

9/1/15

Lord of Illusions

9/1/15

Popeye

9/1/15

The Crucible (1996)

9/1/15

The Swan Princess (1994)

9/1/15

Hannibal Rising (2007)

9/1/15

Anywhere But Here

9/1/15

Stuart Little

9/3/15

Dear White People...

Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...

MTV has announced the upcoming premiere dates of Scream (June 30th), One Bad Choice (July 9th), Todrick (August 31st), and Girl Code Live (August 31st).

Returning series dates are Girl Code (June 3rd), Teen Wolf (June 29th), Catfish: The TV Show (July 8th), Teen Mom 2 (July 9th), America's Best Dance Crew: Road to the VMAs (July 29th), Awkward (August 31st), and Faking It (August 31st).

In addition, a number of TV shows have been renewed -- Are You the One? (season three), Broke A$$ Game Show (Season 2), Faking It (season three), and The Challenge (season 27).

Here's the press release:

MTV Unveils World Premiere Look At "Scream," "The Shannara Chronicles," Diverse New Programming Slate At 2015 Upfront Presentation

Network Greenlights "Middle of the Night Show," Gives First Look at New Series "Todrick," "Follow...

It's still not clear whether Jake & Amir will ever end up on TV, but at least one other CollegeHumor project has received a full series order. At its upfront presentation, MTV announced Middle of the Night Show, a late-night talk show from CollegeHumor and Electus' Big Breakfast production company.

A press release from CollegeHumor calls Middle of the Night Show a "fast-paced reimagining of the late-night comedy talk show that brings it out of the studio and onto the streets of New York City." Host Brian Murphy (a writer and performer who has appeared in some of CollegeHumor's most popular videos) will interview "unsuspecting" celebrity guests who will be interviewed "on the spot without any preparation and on very little sleep."

Middle of the Night Show is the first full series order Big Breakfast has received since it launched out of a merger between CollegeHumor and Electus in January 2014. The...

MTV today unveiled a first look at its anticipated new series adaptation of the horror franchise Scream (see video above) and fantasy drama The Shannara Chronicles at its upfront presentation in NYC. The network also announced it has greenlit new series Middle Of The Night Show, a late-night comedy talk show developed with CollegeHumor’s Big Breakfast, and renewed Broke A$$ Game Show for a sophomore season and Are You The One? for a third season. MTV also re-upped Faking I…...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 2014 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival with the world premiere of a brand new restoration of the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! (1955). TCM’s own Robert Osborne, who serves as official host for the festival, will introduce Oklahoma!, with the film’s star, Academy Award®-winner Shirley Jones, in attendance. Vanity Fair will also return for the fifth year as a festival partner and co-presenter of the opening night after-party. Marking its fifth year, the TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 10-13, 2014, in Hollywood. The gathering will coincide withTCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film.

In addition, the festival has added several high-profile guests to this year’s lineup, including Oscar®-winning director William Friedkin, who will attend for the screening of the U.S. premiere restoration of his suspenseful cult classic Sorcerer (1977); Kim Novak, who...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

The Oscar nominations are almost here and that sound you hear is everyone buzzing about what the Academy has in store for us. Come Thursday these predictions will be but a guestimation of what might happen, but before the Golden Globes air, I thought it would be good to give one last check up to my Oscar predictions.

Analysis

-Dallas Buyers Club has done surprisingly well with the guilds in a way I didn’t anticipate when it first premiered and as such has moved up to 7 in my Best Picture predictions. In addition to that, I have Jennifer Garner ousting Julia Roberts from that final Best Supporting Actress. We’re due for some type of out of nowhere acting surprise, and she might well be it.

-It’s a bit foolish to make any real major changes just a few days before the nominations,...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

Eleven days. That’s how long we’ll have to wait before the Academy announces the nominees for the Oscar and the awards watching world will know whether their predictions were right. We have gotten several pieces to the puzzle in the last week with PGA and WGA nominations, but it will all change soon. But here’s to educated guesses and here are my updated Oscar predictions.

Analysis

-Dallas Buyers Club sure has announced itself as a serious Best Picture candidate, hasn’t it? The film is one of only two films to pick up SAG Ensemble, PGA and DGA nominations. The other film? American Hustle. The love for Dallas Buyers Club has enable Matthew McConaughey to rise to #2 in Best Actor and has me almost ready to bump Julia Roberts for Jennifer Garner in Supporting Actress.

-What does everyone make of Her‘s Oscar chances?...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

2013 is almost over and we are only a few weeks away from the Academy announcing their nominations. So before the year was out, I thought it was good to refresh my own set of Oscar predictions. Things change so quickly in the race that when I went back to look at my predictions that I’d done two weeks ago, they felt so outdated. So with all of the new information from the shortlists and the recently announcd Golden Globes, SAG and Bfca noms, here are my Oscar predictions.

A Few Words Before the Predictions

-The biggest move in my predictions has been American Hustle, which had far surpassed my original expectations of it’s awards season potential, moving up four spots. It certainly seems like the movie to challenge 12 Years a Slave for the title by virtue of the many positive reviews, good box office,...

The longlist for the Best Song category in the Oscars has been announced – so what should make the cut?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the longlist of songs for its Best Original Song Oscar in 2014, ahead of the nominations for the shortlist on January 14.

The list features 75 songs written for movies over the last year, with artists including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, U2, Coldplay, Kings Of Leon, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and M83 all making the grade. Pharrell is included for his hit Happy, currently in the top 5 of the UK charts, which appears in Despicable Me 2, and other animated films make up a large proportion of those selected: Epic, Turbo, The Croods, Planes, Escape From Planet Earth and Monsters University all also get a mention.

The Great Gatsby, with its bold and incongruous soundtrack of modern musicians, gets five mentions for songs by Jay Z,...

Steve didn’t just help create Apple — he was also quite the lover, too! Two years after his tragic 2011 death at the age of 56, former girlfriend Chrisann Brennan wrote a deeply personal book about her rocky relationship with Steve. In her story, she revealed unbelievable details about their shocking sex life!

When you think of tantric sex, Steve Jobs might not be the first person that pops into your head! However, his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan is insisting otherwise. In her new book, she writes about how amazing their sex was! Read on for all the juicy details — including what Steve did to her in the middle of the night and in his garden shed!

Steve Jobs & Chrisann Brennan Had ‘Tantric’ Sex

Chrisann, a graphic designer, gave an excerpt of her new book to Page Six on Oct. 15, titled The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life With Steve Jobs.

Martin Balsam: Oscar winner has ‘Summer Under the Stars’ Day on Turner Classic Movies Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns) is Turner Classic Movies’ unusual (and welcome) "Summer Under the Stars" featured player today, August 27, 2013. Right now, TCM is showing Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes (1971), a box-office flop starring Sean Connery in his (just about) post-James Bond, pre-movie legend days. (Photo: Martin Balsam ca. early ’60s.) Next, is Joseph Sargent’s thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). Written by Peter Stone (Father Goose, Arabesque) from John Godey’s novel, the film revolves around the hijacking of a subway car in New York City. Passengers are held for ransom while police lieutenant Walter Matthau tries to handle the situation. Now considered a classic (just about every pre-1999 movie is considered a "classic" these days), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was...

As our ears are always pressed to the blood-soaked ground at Dread Central, here's exclusive word on Middle of the Night, a slasher flick starring model-turned-actress Jordan Carver, which is set to go before cameras this summer under the watchful eye of David Scheinbaum.

Penned by self-avowed slasher fan Scheinbaum, Middle of the Night revolves around a group of young men and women cast on a reality television series called "West Hills." Moving into a house in the hills to film the show, they are unaware, however, that the abode was home to several bloody murders years prior, and unfortunately for them, the killer returns home for an encore performance upon their arrival. In addition to Carver (pictured), the cast is made up by Jessica Richards, Mindy Robinson, Laura Aidan (2011's Fright Night), Adeana Lane, Marc Wayne, Dayne Ryan, Vincent Carubia, Taylor Ragan and Amanda Moyer, with stuntman Brennan Dyson as "The Man.

Good news for all Alfred Hitchcock fans out there – his 1958 masterpiece Vertigo will be shown in its restored form as part of Cannes Classics! But another great news is that Vertigo star, legendary Kim Novak (who you probably also remember from titles like “Kiss Me, Stupid” and “Bell Book and Candle”), will be the Cannes Film Festival‘s guest of honor next month. Novak first attended the Festival in 1959 for the presentation of Middle of the Night by Delbert Mann, and this year – she’ll take part in the closing ceremony for the 66th Festival de Cannes where she will award one of...

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Kim Novak to attend Cannes 2013 Vertigo screening Kim Novak will be in attendance at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, festival organizers have announced. Novak will be present at a Cannes Classics screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 psychological thriller Vertigo, which has been recently restored. For all it’s worth, Vertigo was the top movie at the most recent (2012) Sight & Sound decennial poll of film critics and filmmakers. (Photo: Kim Novak Vertigo.) Vertigo was also a source of controversy in early 2012, when Kim Novak took out an ad in one of the trade publications claiming she felt she had been violated ("I want to report a rape") after finding bits from Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo music in Ludovic Bource’s eventually Oscar-winning The Artist score. Besides the Vertigo screening, Kim Novak will also be a presenter at Cannes’ closing ceremony on Sunday, May 26. According to the festival’s press release, Novak first...

One of Hollywood most iconic grande dames Kim Novak will attend this year's Cannes Film Festival to accompany the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, with James Stewart.

It has been confirmed that Novak will attend the screening of Vertigo, filmed in 1958, showing as part of Cannes Classics.

She will also take part in the closing ceremony for the 66th edition when she will award one of the main prizes on Sunday 26 May.

Novak first attended the Festival in 1959 for the presentation of Middle Of The Night by Delbert Mann who won the top accolade the Palme d'Or or Golden Palme in 1955 for Marty.

Hitchcock described Vertigo as “a love story with a strange atmosphere.” Novak found some personal echoes in the film. “What was interesting was that some of it reflected what I was going through at the time: it was the story of a...

Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter Martin Poll, best known for producing Anthony Harvey's 1968 Best Picture Oscar nominee The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter O'Toole as King Henry II, died of "natural causes" on April 14 according to various online sources. Poll was 89. An Avco Embassy release, The Lion in Winter was considered the favorite for the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. The film had won the Best Film Award from the New York Film Critics Circle, while Harvey was the year's Directors Guild Award winner. However, Carol Reed's Columbia-distributed musical Oliver! turned out to be the winner in both categories. (Curiously, the previous year another Embassy release, Mike Nichols' The Graduate, unexpectedly lost the Best Picture Oscar to Norman Jewison's United Artists-distributed In the Heat of the Night. But at least Nichols came out victorious.

Veteran movie and TV producer Martin Poll died between Friday night and early Saturday morning of natural causes at a care facility on the Upper Westside in New York City. He was 89. Poll was nominated for an Academy Award as producer for Best Picture of 1968 for The Lion In Winter, which won three Oscars — Best Actress Katharine Hepburn (tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl), Best Original Score for John Barry and Best Adapted Screenplay for James Goldman — out of seven nominations. He began his career in Europe where he served as a co-producer on feature films and produced more than three dozen half-hour episodes of the classic Flash Gordon TV series in Germany and France for international release. After moving to New York City, Poll bought and reopened the famed Biograph Studio and rechristened it Gold Medal Studios. Productions during his time at Gold Medal included Elia Kazan’s A Face In The Crowd,...

The above photo is your first look at the indie flick Friends with Kids, which is a lot like Friends with Benefits, only instead of benefits, the kids give you a lifetime of batshitter-y. It's about a loving, doting father who wakes up one day to realize that he's yelling at his kid, and the Yelling Won't Stop and what happened, when did he become a guy that yells at his kid? And Why Won't The Goddamn Kid Put On His Listening Ears On For Once. Christ, Just Put Away Your F*Cking Lacing Boards, How Hard Is That?

My bad. That's not Friend with Kids. That was my morning.

Anyway, Friends with Kids comes from Jennifer Westfeldt, who some of you know as the writer of the phenomenal Kissing Jessica Stein and others know as the long-time (10 years?) girlfriend of Jon Hamm, and What Would She Know About Having Kids?...

Justin Bieber woke up in the middle of the night to send a sweet message via Twitter. I bet it made Selena blush!

Long distance is hard on any relationship, especially new ones! Justin Bieber is separated by more than 2,000 miles from his rumored girlfriend, Selena Gomez, so he woke up in the middle of the night to send her a special message. How adorable is that?

“Middle of the night. Just wanna say #hellolove,” the 16-year-old pop star tweeted at 3 am Jan. 6.

Justin was in the eastern part of the the country promoting his upcoming film, Never Say Never, while Selena, 18, was in Los Angeles after attending (and winning big) at the People’s Choice Awards earlier that day.

I have to admit, I thought Justin was too young for Selena at first. However, after seeing how he’s treated her (check out this Christmas gift!), young Biebs seems like an amazing boyfriend.

Lost in the lurid details of the rape and triple murder of a Connecticut family is what brought together Steven Hayes, just sentenced to death, and his partner in crime, Joshua Komisarjevsky. Jacob Bernstein reports.

For weeks, Steven Hayes had sat there at his trial, his stare as blank as that now infamous mug shot of him in his prison jumpsuit. Then, as he found out he was being sentenced to death, Hayes flashed a smile, apparently thrilled that he would get to die rather than spend the next 40 or 50 years locked away in a maximum security prison.

Related story on The Daily Beast: New Twist in Publicist's Murder

Still, lost amid the clippings-the articles that spoke of his sentence as "trash removal on a global scale" -was a sense of just who the man was and why three years ago he'd broken into the home of a Connecticut family in the first place.

"Summer Under the Stars" is over, but Kim Novak is the "star of tonight" on Turner Classic Movies. Five Novak vehicles released at the height of her stardom will be presented this evening: Joshua Logan‘s Oscar-nominated Picnic (1955), starring William Holden; Delbert Mann‘s drama Middle of the Night (1958), with Fredric March; Richard Quine‘s The Notorious Landlady (1962), with Fred Astaire and Jack Lemmon; and two directed by George Sidney: the fictionalized biopic Jeanne Eagels (1957), with Jeff Chandler, and the musical Pal Joey (1957), with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. Based on William Inge‘s play, Picnic is worth watching again (and again). I don’t think it’s a great movie — Joshua Logan’s direction makes some of the action/acting too stylized — but the underlying psychology, the social commentary, James Wong Howe‘s camera work, and Rosalind Russell are all fascinating. Some consider Middle of the Night one...