Groundbreaking comedian Phyllis Diller died at her L.A. home surrounded by family at 95, TMZ is reporting. She had recently fallen, injuring her wrist and hip and her health had been deteriorating since the incident.
Diller received a pacemaker following a 1999 heart attack. She began her long career in 1952, rising to fame with her television specials, starring with Bob Hope in the 1960s. Her signature laugh became a staple of her various appearances.
In 1998, Diller provided the voice for the queen in Disney/Pixar’s animated movie A Bug’s Life and in 2005, she was one of the contemporary comics featured in the indie box office hit documentary The Aristocrats (2005).
But she’ll be most remembered for her onstage persona. Diller typically combined her wild-hairdos and act as an eccentric housewife as a backdrop to self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, terrible cooking, and a husband named “Fang.” She also would don a cigarette she’d pretend to smoke from a long holder.
In 2005, she wrote her autobiography titled Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse/ A screenplay based on her early years as a stand-up is in pre-production with Patricia Clarkson slated to play Diller, according to Wikipedia.
Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio on July 17, 1917.
In Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, the actor who played George Jefferson has died. Russell Crowe will direct a film about a cult comedian. Disney is moving a 3-D re-release to the holidays; NATO is taking donations for Aurora shooting victims and Netflix sees its shares dive.
Actor Sherman Hemsley Dead at 74
He first came into America’s living rooms as Archie Bunker’s neighbor George Jefferson in All in the Family. The Jeffersons later spun off into a long-running and very successful sit-com in its own right making his character and his beloved Louise Jefferson, aka “Weezey,” household names. Hemsley died in what appears to be natural causes at his home in El Paso, TX, TMZ reports.
Russell Crowe to Direct Biopic
Crowe will direct a biopic about Bill Hicks, the cult comedian who died at 32. Originally it was thought Crowe would play Hicks, but the part is apparently up for grabs, The Guardian reports.
Disney Ups Monsters Inc 3-D to December
Originally slated for a January release, the 3-D re-release will now head into the holidays with a roll out set for December 19th. Finding Nemo 3-D is still due in September. Last year the studio cashed in on the 3-D version of The Lion King to the tune of $92M, Deadline reports.
Exhibitors Begin Donations Drive for Shooting Victims in Colorado
The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) sent a release asking for donations to help victims and families of the Aurora, CO shootings, Deadline reports.
Netflix Shares Down 14%
Revenue last quarter rose 12.8% to $889M, but profit fell to $6.1M vs $68M the year before, Variety reports.
“We droppin’ racks at Nordstrom, son – that’s racks on racks, you feel me?” And with that, comedian/actress/writer/funny lady Tina Fey hardcore raps her way into my heart forever. Listen to her guest verse on Childish Gambino’s (AKA Community’s Donald Glover, who’s popped up here and there on 30 Rock over the years) track “Real Estate,” from his new album Royalty.
So where’s your rap single, Adam Carolla?? (If one actually exists, please don’t tell me.)
[via Hollywood.com]
The Academy Awards telecast stopped being a one-screen experience years ago. An Oscar viewing party is all well and good, but with a computer or phone nearby, a virtual theater full of people will enhance the experience from the first red-carpet arrivals to the music playing over the Best Picture winner’s speech. Yes, your friends are witty and can also fetch you a beer, but the best jokes about the winners, losers and everything in between are on Twitter. Some professionals make watching the Oscars simply worth the hours (and hours) spent. Doug Benson is one of them.
A stand-up comedian and writer — including penning jokes for award shows — Benson began recording a weekly podcast called Doug Loves Movies in 2006. Movieline talked with the devoted movie fan about the fleeting art of live-tweeting cinema’s greatest night, who the best hosts are and whether the Oscars ever really pull off comedy.
Are you live-tweeting the Oscars this year? How many ceremonies (Oscars, Golden Globes) have you done?
I’m planning on it. As long as I can get Internet access wherever I’m watching the show. … I live-tweet every show that I can, as long as everyone is seeing it live at the same time. The Grammys are on a tape delay on the West Coast, so it’s not fun live-tweeting that when the East Coast saw it all hours before.
What’s been the entertainment value of the Oscar ceremonies of the past few years?
There is very little entertainment value. That’s why I live-tweet during it. To entertain myself and anyone else who might find the whole thing boring. I love movies, and I love that the Oscars honor filmmakers that do great work, but the whole thing is usually…
Over the last week or so, film-culture observers witnessed an odd phenomenon sweep the country: A palpable, recognizable feel of anticipation — for an awards show. Even rarer was the reason behind it. When the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that Ricky Gervais would return for a third stint emceeing the Golden Globe Awards, we expected a return to last year’s delirious exercise in blunt-force celebrity accountability.
After all, it was only a year ago that a parade of offended A-listers and scandalized organizers protest the infamous ruthlessness delivered from the podium. The Elite let it be known they did not appreciate digs at Robert Downey Jr.’s drug history, or as Ricky commented about the Sex and the City cast, “Great job girls, we know how old you are – I saw one of you in an episode of Bonanza.” Thus it was with no small amount of surprise — and not just a little apprehension within Hollywood — that we received word of Gervais agreeing to host again this year. However, after the British comic appeared to have wilted over much of Sunday night, we have to ask: Was this an orchestrated hit-job by the studios, the HFPA and Hollywood as a whole?
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Despite all the vitriol directed back at Gervais following last year’s caustic turn, NBC’s ads for the 2012 iteration featured the host snipping a silken mouth gag away with scissors, as if to promise an ensuing controversy and a reason to watch. Prior to the telecast, Entertainment Weekly published a lengthy column from Gervais proclaiming his duties as a comedian to eviscerate the pompous, and then detailing specific jokes he had uttered at the last…
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While the members of this famous family certainly resemble each other, there is one family member with a unique physical characteristic that differentiates them from their more famous sibling/s. There have been rumblings about this for a long time, but it has finally been confirmed by parent to child: that the child is, in fact, the product of an affair one of their parents had long ago. The child did not take the news well, and really resents having been lied to all these years. Given that certain members of the family tend to selectively overshare, it will be interesting to see if this information is ever publicly revealed, and – if it is – how it will be spun. (Blind Gossip)
Pimp Mama Kris lit this shit on fire again when she whored out an excerpt from her book where she wrote about passing her poon to a producer named “Ryan” (not Gaycrest) while she was married to Robert Kardashian. Kris had this affair a year before Khloe made the small woodland creatures scatter by letting out her first roar. So the dates add up.
As Khloe looks out her bedroom window and sings “Soooooooomewhereeeeeeee out beneath the pale mooonliiiight,” Knobby the Sasquatch (aka “Ryan“) is howling out the same song while sitting on top of a mountain perch. I really hope that Maury, E! and the Discovery Channel
…
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Comedian, radio personality, Charlie Sheen roaster, and sometimes actor Patrice O’Neal passed away following a stroke last month and his long term struggle with diabetes. “Many of us have lost a close and loved friend; all of us have lost a true comic genius,” wrote agent Matt Frost in a statement. O’Neal was best known for his stand up, television, and radio appearances, including stints on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and the Opie and Anthony show. He also appeared in a handful of films including Head of State and Furry Vengeance; watch him in a scene from Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour after the jump.
• Comedian Patrice O’Neal, 41, dies [MTV]
Full Story »Empire caught up with Flight of the Conchords comedian Bret McKenzie, who’d recently reprised his Lord of the Rings character in The Hobbit as a musical elf, now named Lindir. “This time, if I make the edit, I’ll speak in Elvish. But I don’t sing. They haven’t asked me to do the theme song yet! Maybe this time it’s me and Annie Lennox.” More importantly, he revealed that Gandalf himself is a Conchords enthusiast. “Ian McKellen, it turns out, is a big fan of Flight Of The Conchords. He and I had a good time on set, coming up with ideas for Hobbit: The Musical. We’re still developing it…” Wizards — they’re just like us! [Empire]
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I don’t know how in touch you are with Dane Cook’s film career, but this December, the comedian-turned-actor stars in a kidnapping drama called Answers to Nothing. As a philandering husband whose wife is determined to get pregnant in spite of his infidelities, the leading role — which appears to be completely (and purposefully) humorless in the trailer — could be a step in a new direction for the 39-year-old stand-up. But can Dane Cook even be taken seriously as a dramatic actor at this point in his career?
First, a little background: Shortly before “breaking big” as a comedian on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, it is worth noting that the Boston-born multi-talent (a descriptor that detractors might reject) earned his first two film credits in dramas. They weren’t Shakespeare adaptations — they were the awful Ashley Judd-Patrick Dempsey bank robbery flick Flypaper and the Jim Henson family movie Buddy (where Cook played “Fair Cop”) — but dramas nonetheless.
As his stand-up career picked up, Cook graduated from more iffy projects — like espionage thrillers starring Dennis Rodman (Simon Sez!) — to legitimate comedies like Stuck on You, Mr. 3000 and his first leading role in the Jessica Simpson project Employee of the Month. But the actor, wanting to flex a different muscle and jump genres like comedians Bill Murray, Jim Carrey and Robin Williams had done successfully before him, signed onto a few roles that would actually garner Cook some critical attention for his dramatic work.
The first such endeavor was a turn in the 2007 Kevin Costner thriller Mr. Brooks. As a serial killer wannabe who blackmails the film’s title killer (Costner) into taking him along on his next murder, Cook was serviceable as…
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