County Harvey Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Jennifer Aniston is making it clear that she is not a fan of cancel culture and is opening up as to why she feels like that.

Ethan Shanfeld Jennifer Aniston is “so over cancel culture,” the “Morning Show” actor said in a new cover story for Wall Street Journal Magazine. “I probably just got canceled by saying that,” Aniston continued. “I just don’t understand what it means.… Is there no redemption? I don’t know.

A couple who eloped to Dumfries in defiance of the groom’s parents 50 years ago celebrate their golden wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Newcastle United defender Kieran Trippier praised the 'fantastic' Phil Foden but admitted his side gave the Manchester City star too much space during Saturday's 1-0 defeat.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Though raised in Brooklyn, actor turned producer/director Danny A. Abeckaser was born in Israel. Unfortunately, that birthright isn’t enough to lend authenticity to “The Engineer,” which feels very much like an American B-movie stab at turning Israeli anti-terrorist operations of 30 years ago into formulaic action fodder — without much action, even.

The Who, Madness, Soul II Soul, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie and more.The trail will recognise more pivotal figures in music with a five-day-long celebration. This year’s recipients are Janis Joplin, Harvey Goldsmith CBE, UB40, Gordon Mac (Founder Of Kiss FM), Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson, Sugarhill Gang, Eddy Grant, Buzzcocks, Billy Bragg, Shalamar and The Kinks.

swimsuit season — and this new launch just convinced us to cop some new suits before summer is over. Introducing YEVRAH Swim by Lori Harvey, a sultry new swimwear line inspired by vintage silhouettes.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Marc Forster has frequently demonstrated an ability to tastefully moderate the more manipulative or saccharine aspects of popular but somewhat blunt-edged source material, in bestseller screen translations like “The Kite Runner” and “A Man Called Otto.” That knack comes in handy once more with “White Bird,” a graceful adaptation of a YA graphic novel by R.J. Palacio.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic It’s become increasingly common to lend genre films some semblance of emotional depth by having their protagonists burdened from the start with profound grief or loss. That is especially the case with “Aporia,” producer Jared Moshe’s third feature as writer-director. Its variation on a particular kind of fantasy premise (often involving time travel) underlines the familiar wisdom of “Be careful what you wish for,” as the ability to alter tragic past events only ends up complicating the present for our main characters.

cause of death for actor Julian Sands, 65, has been deemed “undetermined” five months after he went missing on a California hike. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department explained that the death was ruled “undetermined due to the condition of the body and this is common when dealing with cases of this type,” according to People. The British actor was reported missing by his wife Evgenia Citkowitz after going hiking on a Southern California mountain in January.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Watching Nicolas Cage add another notch to his belt of gonzo performances can be a movie’s main attraction. But it shouldn’t be all it has to offer — there ought to be some “there” there. Falling short in that regard is “Sympathy for the Devil,” a hazily familiar black comedy-cum-thriller with the star as a mystery man who carjacks Joel Kinnaman for a wild night’s ride.  Not wild enough, however, as Yuval Adler’s film seems to reprise elements from more distinctive road movies without settling on a consistent tone or persuasive narrative to call its own. Essentially a two-hander, Luke Paradise’s screenplay provides its leads with plenty of opportunity for histrionics; only a credible context and conviction are lacking. RLJE Films opens this just-passable diversion in limited U.S. theaters this Friday, July 28. 

Sophia Scorziello editor Josephine Chaplin, actor and daughter of Charlie Chaplin, has died. She was 74. Chaplin died on July 13 in Paris, according to an announcement from her family. During her career, she starred in a number of foreign films. In 1972 she was featured in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s award-winning film “The Canterbury Tales” and Richard Balducci’s “L’odeur des fauves.” The same year, she also starred alongside Laurence Harvey in Menahem Golan’s 1972 drama “Escape to the Sun” about a group of people attempting to flee the Soviet Union. In 1974, Chaplin starred as Martine Leduc in Georges Franju’s European crime-thriller “Shadowman” alongside Gayle Hunnicutt and Jacques Champreux. The film follows the Man Without a Face, a criminal attempting to find the elusive treasures of the Knights Templar. Chaplin then reprised her role as Martine in the subsequent French mini-series “The Man Without a Face,” an extended eight-episode version of Franju’s film.

Josephine Chaplin, the daughter of Charlie Chaplin and Oona O’Neill, who was an accomplished actress in her own right, has died at 74, according to a report in Le Figaro, which cites her children Charly, Julien and Arthur. She died on July 13 in Paris.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Power publicist Alla Plotkin is teaming up with Jillian Roscoe, becoming a partner in Birch Public Relations. Roscoe launched the firm in March 2023 after leaving ID PR. Plotkin also departed ID at about the same time but didn’t announce her next move until her new partnership with Roscoe. Plotkin’s clients, including Sarah Paulson, Nicholas Braun, Bette Midler, Holland Taylor, Harvey Guillen and Titus Burgess, will join Birch’s roster, which includes Donald Glover, Jeremy Allen White, Sharon Horgan, John Cho, James Marsden, Kemp Powers, Gerard Butler, Judy Greer, Jesse Garcia, Mandy Moore, David Duchovny, Lake Bell, Jim Parsons, Fred Armisen, Jake Johnson, Ben Schwartz, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Melissa Rauch, Hannah Fidell, Ken Marino, Sarah Chalke, London Hughes, Lewis Howes, Zach Woods, Ty Burrell, Clay Tarver, Kevin Tancharoen, Julian Dennison, Jake Szymanski, Nicolette Robinson, Anna Drezen, Dan Perrault and Noah Pink.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic If “Barbarian” handily won as last year’s premier monster-in-the-basement movie, 2023’s prize might well end up going to “Cobweb” — a less inspired effort, but one decently creepy enough to get the job done. Chris Thomas Devlin’s script feels like a composite of some prior horror conceits, and there is not much depth to the narrative or characters. Still, director Samuel Bodin’s first theatrical feature is atmospheric, and departs from stock slasher conventions just enough to make for an entertaining if unexceptional scarefest. Lionsgate is releasing the U.S.-produced feature (which was apparently shot in Bulgaria in 2020) to limited theaters on July 21.  It begins with the familiar device of a child having night terrors that are probably not entirely in his or her imagination. Eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman, from “C’mon C’mon”) is a sad loner, bullied at school, who’s woken from sleep by noises seemingly behind his bedroom wall — it sounds like something or somebody is moving around back there. When he taps on the wall, “it” taps back, which sends him screaming to his parents. But they dismiss it as an old house’s bumps in the night. 

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Darren Criss will host and perform at the MPTF’s 2023 NextGen Summer Party on Aug. 6. MPTF NextGen Board also announced Tuesday that the host committee for the evening includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Camilla Belle, Matt Bomer, Yvette Nicole Brown, Sherry Cola, Lana Condor, Colman Domingo, Janina Gavankar, Jason George, Max Greenfield, Harvey Guillén, Olivia Holt, Glen Powell, Harry Shum Jr., Michael Rooker, Reid Scott and Tiffany Smith. “MPTF has proven time and time again that they are a necessary and invaluable resource to those in our industry. With the ongoing strikes and subsequent production shutdowns impacting so many, the services that MPTF provides are even more critical,” NextGen co-chair Jeffrey R. Epstein said in statement. “Funds raised during the Summer Party will help those who are directly affected as we weather these challenging times.”

Amad could be offered as a makeweight in a deal to bring Rasmus Hojlund to Manchester United, according to reports.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Five years ago seems aeons in an era so disrupted by COVID. So it comes as a surprise to realize that the original screen “Bird Box” arrived a full 14 months or so in advance of pandemic restrictions — becoming an early Netflix pop-culture phenomenon before lockdown made that sort of thing a regular occurrence. Susanne Bier’s film of Josh Malerman’s sci-fi horror novel was intriguing and suspenseful enough, even if its emphasis on psychological drama over thrills made for a somewhat unlikely breakout hit.  Inevitably, if belatedly, there’s now a follow-up — but not an adaptation of Malerman’s own print sequel, which continued the travails of the character played by Sandra Bullock. Instead, “Bird Box Barcelona” is a “parallel story” set on another continent entirely. Written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, whose prior genre efforts “The Last Days” (2013) and “Carriers” (2009) both had similar basic premises, it finds a different cross-section of humanity imperiled by unseen but presumed space aliens. When glimpsed, they induce immediate, overwhelming suicidal urges — or, in a chosen few, mind-controlled subservience that drives them to lead unsuspecting others to their doom.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic In the diverse annals of survivalist cinema, one lesson is clear: Death is surely preferable to an eternity (or even 95 minutes) spent trapped with the inimitable duo of Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin in 1996’s “Bio-Dome.” By contrast, the dystopian-future-style living is pretty easy to take in “Biosphere,” given the more amiable company of stars Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass. They play besties stuck for the long haul in a self-sustaining habitat after some murky catastrophe has rendered the world outside lethal.  This first directorial feature for producer Mel Eslyn (who co-wrote with Duplass) is a somewhat uneven construct that at times threatens to exhaust its bro-comedy goodwill. But ultimately the performers are winning enough, and the ideas in the ambiguous story intriguing enough, to achieve an end result of successful middleweight charm and substance.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Her career hobbled by uninspired material since the commercial bonanza of “Twilight’s” first screen installment 15 years ago, Catherine Hardwicke at first appears to be back on firmer terra with “Prisoner’s Daughter.” Its mix of adult dysfunction and coming-of-age pains against a downscale milieu (here working-class Las Vegas) recalls the director’s strong initial features, “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown.”  But this drama, with Brian Cox as a terminally ill ex-con reunited with daughter Kate Beckinsale and her son, soon reveals itself as a formulaic contrivance heading towards predictable strife and tearjerking. Competently handled and well-cast, it’s nonetheless held back from generating much authentic emotion by the too-familiar beats of Mark Bacci’s script. Vertical Entertainment is opening the feature, which premiered at TIFF last fall, on limited U.S. theatrical screens this Friday. It’ll doubtless do better in release to home formats, those dates as yet TBA.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Adapted from the author’s 1999 debut novel, “God Is A Bullet” is the first screen translation of a work by one Boston Teran, a prolific but pseudononymous scribe of popular page-turners. Those tomes have been well-received by thriller fans, though others have speculated they might be a genre put-on penned by possibly more than one well-known literary figure. Nick Cassavetes’ slick adaptation certainly maintains the book’s mix of lurid incident and pontificating pretentiousness — albeit without the kind of intensity that might have made this far-fetched story credible, or the atmospheric style that might’ve pulled it off as a fevered nightmare à la David Lynch instead. 

Hailey Bieber rocked a jersey from Montreal skateboard shop Dime this week.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic The unimaginable — a modern U.S. civil war — gains considerable clarity and alarming proximity in the documentary “Against All Enemies,” about the continuing rise of far-right extremist groups. Various talking heads here stress that the January 6 insurrection was no aberration but part of a fast-evolving pattern that poses a serious threat to our democracy. Charlie Sadoff’s film focuses largely on the role of military veterans in groups that one way or another seem to be agitating for violent government overthrow, though it also casts a wider net. This densely packed, sobering overview of hitherto subterranean political trends feels tooled for broadcast, where in any case it would have the most impact. 

Dennis Harvey Film Critic You might think Shia LaBeouf portraying a 20th-century Italian saint under the direction of perpetual bad-boy expat Abel Ferrara is a pretty strange prospect. But that’s just the iceberg tip of the oddities in “Padre Pio,” which, despite the American star’s casting in the title role, often appears uninterested in its own venerated ostensible subject.  Instead, much of this awkward English-language period piece focuses on peasants’ struggle to overthrow padrone control just after the First World War. Depicting that conflict often feels beyond the modest production’s scale — and, in any case, is never meaningfully connected to the angsty histrionics of LaBeouf, who seems to be in his own separate, indulgent, semi-improvised movie. Though coherent relative to Ferrara’s last narrative feature, the impenetrable espionage tale “Zeroes and Ones,” this eccentric misfire will likely puzzle fans of his past cult favorites, while flummoxing Catholic viewers who expect straightforward religious uplift. Gravitas Ventures is releasing to 50+ U.S. markets. 

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Released to theaters in the theatrical dog days of mid-2020, Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s “Becky” became a home-formats hit, its gleefully tasteless home-invasion thrills a guilty-pleasure tonic for COVID captives going a bit stir-crazy. Now Lulu Wilson is back as that title character, more or less the sole survivor of her prior screen outing. You can be sure in “The Wrath of Becky” that age hasn’t dulled her pissed-off homicidal verve, and that fate will surely provide another crop of ne’er-do-wells to tempt its exercise.  However, a different writing-directing duo is in charge this time, Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. Their efforts generate rewards that are somewhat diminished, if still diverting. Quiver is releases this SXSW-premiered sequel to U.S. theaters, with home-formats dates as yet unannounced. 

The score for Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters features a collaboration between Tim Phillips and P.J. Harvey. Phillips recalled inventing a new instrument with Harvey so she could record most of her work ahead of her album and book tour.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Joe Piscatella’s 2017 “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower” offered a fairly exhilarating view of youth activism, as it charted one Hong Kong student’s spearheading public opposition to mainland China’s increasingly heavy-handed takeover. The can-do optimism that documentary left viewers with is on life support in the director’s follow-up, which shifts nominal focus to one of Joshua Wong’s fellow protest leaders. But mostly “Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law?” observes the gradual crushing of a pro-democracy movement that not long ago had promised to engage Beijing in genuine dialogue. This equally skillful if much more downbeat sequel should follow its predecessor to wide travel on the festival circuit, then broadcast and streaming exposure. 

Dennis Harvey Film Critic A creeping black spot on a darkening globe suffers some degree of illumination — not voluntarily, of course — in “The Rise of Wagner.” Benoit Bringer’s documentary about the Russian private army of mercenaries relies on a mix of news reports, human rights experts and sometimes anonymous witnesses to expose Wagner Group’s shadowy involvement in various conflicts over the last decade. It’s a damning if necessarily rather fragmented view, since the organization remains cloaked in secrecy, its own government continuing to deny affiliation. Offering global political insights as well as lurid true-crime-type content, this Hot Docs premiere is well-suited to broadcast slots for serious-minded nonfiction.  

Dennis Harvey Film Critic As the saying goes, you can take the man out of Texas … but apparently he’ll drag an arsenal of Lone Star State clichés wherever he goes, at least in “One Ranger.” Stuntman turned writer-director Jesse V. Johnson’s latest action programmer has Thomas Jane as a Texas Ranger so ornery-tough he makes even Chuck Norris look too nice, called upon to chase terrorists overseas for no obvious reason at all. Well, perhaps the reason is simply to indulge some viewers’ notion that Texamurricans just naturally shoot ’n’ smack them foreign evildoers better. Those not buying such logic will find this mediocre effort ridiculous as well as uninspired. Lionsgate is releasing the feature to 11 U.S. theaters as well as digital and on-demand platforms on May 5. 

Dennis Harvey Film Critic The sensation of a nation crumbling from within — not in slo-mo deterioration, but amid the chaos of widespread violence and political upheaval — is unimaginable to most people. Yet it’s something many will live to experience. Offering a primer of sorts in that grim prospect is “5 Seasons of Revolution.” Made by the pseudonymous Lina, this very first-person documentary doesn’t offer a lot of explanatory background or big-picture commentary on Syria’s still-ongoing civil war. But in charting the filmmaker’s attempts at reportage alongside the fates of her imperiled group of friends between 2011-15, it provides one vivid perspective on a whole country in freefall.  At that timespan’s beginning, the pro-democracy protests of the Arab Spring reach our English-language narrator’s homeland, where she’s an aspiring video journalist. Her likewise twentysomething close associates, introduced at the start here, are fellow journalists, social workers, activists. All grew up in a de facto police state now controlled by President Bashar al-Assad, whose father presided over the country’s transformation into a military dictatorship decades prior. Defying an official media blackout, she interviews demonstrators and those who witnessed their being fired on by government forces. We see joyful still images of street actions, suggesting a turning point may be at hand.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Offering a singular perspective on Russia’s current pariah status in much of the world is Gaukur Ulfarsson’s “Soviet Barbara,” probably the most enjoyable — as opposed to depressing — documentary involving the invasion of Ukraine you’re likely to see. It focuses on Icelandic multimedia artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s preparation for exhibits that would open a major new museum in Moscow.  That launch proves fatefully ill-timed in terms of larger events, however, even as his splashiest custom creation provides ironic commentary on recent Russian history by reprising an American TV soap opera that had been an unlikely imported smash in the nation’s immediate post-USSR years. The colorful intersection between art, ideology, patronage and politics should appeal to a wide range of nonfiction outlets and programmers.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Artificial Intelligence has been increasingly in the news of late, with observers worried that it will soon become difficult for teachers to tell if students actually completed a project themselves (or a program did it for them), for anyone to recognize whether a supposed breaking evidential video is in fact a deepfake, and so forth. “The Artifice Girl,” however, frames the problems raised by ever-growing technological sophistication in a familiar narrative framework: that of the machine intelligence that begins to surpass its human “masters.”  Unlike portrayals from “2001” to “Ex Machina” and beyond, however, Franklin Ritch’s debut feature does not treat that dynamic in thriller terms, as a hostile takeover. Instead, this smaller-scaled speculative fiction is more concerned with ethics, as pondered in a series of dialogue sequences that aren’t static but might also have worked on stage, and require nothing in the way of FX. The results may not be what fantasy fans in need of action and spectacle are looking for. But Ritch’s film, which won the Best International Feature Audience Award at Fantasia last year, is engaging food for thought for viewers willing to let ideas rather than visuals fire up their futuristic imagination. XYZ Films is releasing it April 27 to limited U.S. theaters, as well as on-demand and digital platforms. 

Martin Lawrence his flowers. On Thursday, the 58-year-old received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd.

The Lovely Bones, describing the film as a “tough experience”.The actor was asked about his past performances during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, where he named his role as serial killer George Harvey in the 2010 film as one he wouldn’t like to return to.“I would not play George Harvey again in The Lovely Bones, that was horrible,” Tucci said. “It’s a wonderful movie but it was a tough experience. Simply because of the role.“I asked [director] Peter Jackson why he cast me in that role.

Stanley Tucci has had plenty of memorable roles over the years, including “Big Night,” “Road To Perdition,” “Spotlight,” and “The Hunger Games” franchise, among others. But there’s one role the actor hopes never to play again and almost tried to get out of playing it entirely.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Stanley Tucci recently told Entertainment Tonight that he would never play his role in “The Lovely Bones” again. The actor starred as the serial killer George Harvey in Peter Jackson’s divisive adaptation of Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel. Tucci earned an Oscar nomination in the supporting actor category for his performance, but ironically it was a role he tried to get out of before filming started. “I would not play George Harvey again in ‘The Lovely Bones,’ which was horrible,” Tucci said. “It’s a wonderful movie, but it was a tough experience. Simply because of the role.” “I asked Peter Jackson why he cast me in that role,” Tucci continued. “I tried to get out of playing the role, which is crazy because I needed a job. But I was like, ‘Why do you want me?’ And he said, ‘Because you’re funny.’ And I thought, ‘Okay.’ But I understand what he was saying. I think what he meant was that I wouldn’t be too — not that I wouldn’t be serious about it, but that I wouldn’t be overly dramatic about it. That I would throw it away a bit. Which is what you have to do when you’re playing somebody who’s that awful, right?”