Dan Rather Says He’s Never Been Angry About His CBS Firing. But a New Documentary Restores Some Justice to His Lengthy Career

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic A movie, good, bad or indifferent, is always “about” something. But some movies are about more things than others, and as you watch “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” Nancy Buirski’s rapt, incisive, and beautifully exploratory making-of-a-movie documentary, what comes into focus is that “Midnight Cowboy” was about so many things that audiences could sink into the film as if it were a piece of their own lives. The movie was about loneliness. It was about dreams, sunny yet broken. It was about gay male sexuality and the shock of really seeing it, for the first time, in a major motion picture. It was about the crush and alienation of New York City: the godless concrete carnival wasteland, which had never been captured onscreen with the telephoto authenticity it had here. The movie was also about the larger sexual revolution — what the scuzziness of “free love” really looked like, and the overlap between the homoerotic and hetero gaze. It was about money and poverty and class and how they could tear your soul apart. It was about how the war in Vietnam was tearing the soul of America apart. It was about a new kind of acting, built on the realism of Brando, that also went beyond it.

Stephen Rodrick Trauma television used to be simple. When I was a kid, the world united for news of the 1987 rescue of Baby Jessica, a Texas toddler who fell down a well in her aunt’s backyard. There were interviews with pastors, drilling experts and second cousins. Then, we cut back to desperate rescue workers digging under klieg lights. The rescue was the thing. (Jessica was rescued and was rewarded with an audience with, uh, Ronald Reagan).  Modern coverage is now more intricate and morally dubious. 9/11 saw somber reporting on vigils and ash-covered New Yorkers desperately looking for loved ones. But it also featured Donald Trump on the phone as the towers smoldered. He bragged that he now owned the tallest building in Manhattan. This was both gross and untrue, a prophecy of things to come.

The Smile have “a big backlog of ideas” for new music, according to their guitarist Jonny Greenwood.The band – Greenwood, his Radiohead bandmate Thom Yorke, and former Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – released their debut album ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’ in 2022. Earlier this year they confirmed that work had begun on a follow-up.Now, Greenwood has told Consequence that the band are “still firing off each other” and “wanna keep moving forward” with new music.“The frustration of having not had access to playing in a band for a couple of years [has] just built up a big backlog of ideas,” he said.

American Family Association publicly attacked U.S. Senator Ted Cruz over the Texas Republican’s opposition to the “Kill the Gays” law in Uganda.

“I like when I’m working on something that I don’t understand,” says 7x Oscar nominated filmmaker Wes Anderson on how he cracked his new off-kilter comedic period opus, Asteroid City, which hits theaters in New York and LA this Friday. The Focus Features release goes wide on Friday, June 23.

Thania Garcia Latin Grammy-nominated rapper Eladio Carrión is adding a second leg to his “Sauce USA Tour,” Variety can exclusively reveal. After completely selling out the first leg, Carrión’s 16-city lineup now includes its first stops in New York’s MSG Theater and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium. Carrión is set to deliver performances of his firey rap and urbano hits, namely those coming off his latest “3MEN2 KBRN” album, which included features from influential hip-hop titans like Future, Lil Wayne, Myke Towers, 50 Cent, Quavo and many more. With a start date of Oct. 7 in Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, part two of the “Sauce USA Tour” will see support from Venezuelan rapper Big Soto as the opening act. The first leg of the tour was announced last December, with a start date of May 5 in Texas.

Standing up for herself — and for moms everywhere. Keke Palmer slammed the Houston airport for what she called “breast milk discrimination.”

Tribeca Film Festival, is about a man who shaped the historical stories of the recent past: news anchor Dan Rather. “I like telling stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations,” Marshall told TheWrap. “It’s so interesting to see how these people who are inspired and then passionate about what they want to do, how they achieve that success.” In this case, Marshall wanted to track Rather’s 60-year career in news and how he’s become just as embraced by the TikTok generation as he was when he did “60 Minutes.”“I go in completely open-minded,” Marshall said when discussing whether he approached Rather’s story with any preconceived notions.

It’s final. There will be no second season for Walker Independence. Efforts to find a new home for the CBS Studios-produced Walker spinoff were unsuccessful following cancellation by the CW, sources have confirmed to Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, whose “Manningcasts” of Monday Night Football were a breakthrough hit when they debuted in 2021, is expanding its alternate telecasts to Formula 1.

California Governor Gavin Newsom attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after a group of migrants were dropped off at a Sacramento church, likening the move to “kidnapping.”

Taylor Sheridan and will be a Paramount+ original. Dickey, a character actress best known for her roles in “Hell or High Water” and “My Name Is Earl,” will star as Widow Dolliver, an old woman a press release for the series describes as someone “who has seen it all, and who does not waste time suffering fools.” Brings Plenty (“Yellowstone”) will portray one of Bass Reeves’ friends, a Choctaw Native American by the name of Minco Dodge. Morohunfola (“Run the World,” “The Chi”) will play a former Union solider-turned-prisoner known as Jackson “Jackrabbit” Cole.

Dale Dickey (A Love Song), Margot Bingham (The Walking Dead), Mo Brings Plenty (Yellowstone) and Tosin Morohunfola (Run The World) have been tapped for recurring roles in Taylor Sheridan’s anthology series Lawmen: Bass Reeves (fka Bass Reeves), exec produced by and starring David Oyelowo. Lawmen: Bass Reeves is created for television by Chad Feehan who also serves as showrunner.

75-year-old actor played the lead character of Sam Malone in the long-running series, which aired from 1982 to 1993. On Friday, Danson reunited with co-stars George Wendt and John Ratzenberger and “Cheers” co-creators James Burrows, Les Charles and Glen Charles for a panel discussion about the show during the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas.While discussing why “Cheers” ended after 11 seasons, Danson admitted that he was behind it.

The Undertaker is one of the biggest names in sports with an impressive 32-year career in the WWE. The iconic figure, known for his terrifying persona also nicknamed ‘The Phenom’, retired from WWE in 2020 before being inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2022.

Emily Longeretta Thirty years after “Cheers” came to an end, the cast and creatives got back together on Friday night, courtesy of the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. The reunion panel, hosted by Variety‘s Michael Schneider, included co-creators James Burrows, Les Charles and Glen Charles and actors Ted Danson, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger. During the conversation, the iconic creators reflected on the making of the show and the cast opened up about how they joined the series and how it’s affected their lives over the years. “Teddy and Shelly auditioned together and they had chemistry that only makes writing better,” Burrows said of casting Danson and Shelley Long, who portrayed Diane Chambers, Sam’s love interest for five seasons.

A wild story of an alleged “serial sperm donating” fertility doctor has ended in complete mystery.

Zach Bryan explained why he had a fan kicked out of his concert in Albany, New York. Bryan, 27, was walking through the crowd, followed by security, when a fan attempted to grab his guitar out of his hands.The "Something in the Orange" singer can be heard saying, "Hey, get her out of here" to his security team. "I give J-45’s out at a lot of concerts.The one in my hands when this happened was mine, my sweet ol’ gal, we’ve been everywhere together and written every song in the last few years together," Bryan later explained on Twitter.  "Took it personal, but nothing against whoever wound up getting kicked out." He later gave a warning to fans for the future.

Megan Thee Stallion is prioritizing her mental health in the best way — by taking a break. In an interview with , the rapper shares that her fans will have to wait for her previously teased new album because she's focused on «healing.»«Fans can expect new music when I'm in a better place.

Jen Shah's lawyer is speaking out about Elizabeth Holmes' prison sentence. On the same day that the disgraced Theranos founder reported to Bryan Federal Prison Camp to begin her 11-year sentence related to her fraud and conspiracy convictions, Justin Paperny told ET's Kevin Frazier that Holmes and Shah, who's his client, will likely cross paths at the facility.«There's a guarantee they're going to run into one another,» Paperny told ET of the Texas prison. «There's also going to be an understanding amongst them, so for that reason, I suspect they'll connect.