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New York Post
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Kathy Bates claims she lost starring role in Garry Marshall film to Michelle Pfeiffer due to her looks
For Kathy Bates, it didn't take Matlock to figure out what was going on. Despite the actress, 76, originating the role of Frankie in the Off-Broadway production, she was allegedly denied the part for the 1991 movie adaptation 'Frankie and Johnny' due to superficial reasons. The film — which ended up starring Michelle Pfeiffer as the waitress Frankie and Al Pacino as short-order cook Johnny — was directed by Garry Marshall, who refused to cast Bates. 7 F. Murray Abraham and Kathy Bates in 'Frankie and Johnny.' Courtesy Everett Collection 'He couldn't make the leap that people would see me onscreen kissing someone,' she claimed to Vanity Fair in an interview published Tuesday. 'Me actually kissing a man onscreen — that would not be romantic.' Bates was nominated for an Obie Award and Drama Desk Award for her part as Frankie on the stage, but it had no bearing on Marshall's decision. Marshall died at age 81 in 2016. The 'Misery' star is used to commentary about her appearance, with a journalist once saying to her 'you're not Michelle Pfeiffer,' along with hearing jabs from her own family. 7 F. Murray Abraham and Kathy Bates in the Off-Broadway production of 'Frankie and Johnny.' Courtesy Everett Collection 'Well, I've always had that,' Bates recalled, sharing that one time her dad told her acting teacher, 'You know, she's not conventionally attractive.' The same year as 'Frankie and Johnny,' Bates starred opposite Aidan Quinn in the adventure/drama 'At Play in the Fields of the Lord.' While promoting the project, a journalist asked the actor, 66: 'You're a leading man. Is it believable that you and Kathy would be married?' 'I went upstairs,' Bates admitted. 'I locked the door, and I cried like a kindergartner.' 7 Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1991 movie 'Frankie and Johnny.' ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection 'I wanted to get on a plane,' she continued. 'They said, 'Actually, Ms. Bates, there's one leaving right now.' I said, 'Great. Get me on it.' I got on Virgin Air. Sat down. Picked up a magazine. It's about 'Frankie and Johnny.'' The Hollywood vet took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Annie Wilkes in 'Misery' that year. 'I was in my prime,' she told the outlet. 'I was in my 40s by then, and I felt totally in command — and powerful.' 7 Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1991 film. Courtesy Everett Collection 7 Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Now, 34 years later, Bates is taking the screen by storm once more, starring as Madeline 'Matty' Matlock on the CBS drama 'Matlock.' 'I'm doing everything I was trained to do,' she explained about the role. 'It's not that I hit every note exactly right, but I get to try. And I keep trying, and I keep trying.' Although the actress doesn't see herself retiring anytime soon, she does share: 'I have a feeling this is going to be the last thing I do. I hope we run a good while — I really do.' 7 Michelle Pfeiffer attends the 49th Annual AFI Life Achievement Award Honoring Nicole Kidman at Dolby Theatre on April 27, 2024. Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery 7 Kathy Bates attends the CBS Fest 2025 at Paramount Studios on May 07, 2025. FilmMagic Bates even took home the award for Best Actress in a Drama during the 2025 Critics' Choice Awards. Despite her career renaissance — and recently losing 100 pounds — the 'American Horror Story' alum admits she still doesn't 'feel comfy.' 'I never felt that I belonged, but that's okay. I see them sail away in their gowns….,' she said with a grin. 'So now? It's sweet revenge. Oh, Miss Beauty Queen, you had a career up until your 40s and you can't work? Too bad!' 'I'll think, Oh, you shouldn't say this; oh, you shouldn't say that,' she confessed. 'But then I say, 'F–k it—I'm 76. Can't I just say it?''
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
Tony Award-hopeful 'Just in Time' explores the life of Bobby Darin
Drama Desk Award nominee Emily Bergl talks about her multiple roles in the Tony-nominated jukebox musical.
CNA
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule dies in Minneapolis house fire
Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, whose hits included the satirical anthem Supermodel from the Clueless movie soundtrack and the groundbreaking single I Kissed A Girl, died early on Thursday (May 1) in a Minneapolis-area house fire, media outlets reported. She was 66. Her manager John Porter confirmed her death in a statement to Minnesota Star Tribute. According to her website, Sobule had been due to perform on Friday in her native Denver to showcase songs from her autobiographical stage musical F*** 7th Grade, which was nominated in 2023 for a Drama Desk Award. Sobule was remembered for a diverse body of music that ranged from deeply intimate to socially conscious themes in a recording career that spanned a dozen albums starting in 1990 with her Todd Rungren-produced debut collection Things Here Are Different. Her eponymous 1995 album included two of her biggest hits, Supermodel from the Hollywood coming-of-age comedy film Clueless, and I Kissed A Girl, widely regarded as the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20 singles chart. It peaked at No 20 that year. The song drew renewed attention in 2008 when Katy Perry released a different single of her own with the same title.
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule dies in Minneapolis house fire
Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, whose hits included the satirical anthem "Supermodel" from the "Clueless" movie soundtrack and the groundbreaking single "I Kissed a Girl," died early on Thursday in a Minneapolis-area house fire, media outlets reported. She was 66. Her manager John Porter confirmed her death in a statement to Minnesota Star Tribute. According to her website, Sobule had been due to perform on Friday in her native Denver to showcase songs from her autobiographical stage musical "F*ck 7th Grade," which was nominated in 2023 for a Drama Desk Award. Sobule was remembered for a diverse body of music that ranged from deeply intimate to socially conscious themes in a recording career that spanned a dozen albums starting in 1990 with her Todd Rungren-produced debut collection "Things Here Are Different." Her eponymous 1995 album included two of her biggest hits, "Supermodel" from the Hollywood coming-of-age comedy film "Clueless," and "I Kissed a Girl," widely regarded as the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20 singles chart. It peaked at No. 20 that year. The song drew renewed attention in 2008 when Katy Perry released a different single of her own with the same title. Authorities in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, are investigating the cause of the fire at the house where Sobule was found, the Star Tribune reported. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Ceremonies in Dark Old Men' Review: A Father in Defeat
When it premiered Off Broadway in 1969, 'Ceremonies in Dark Old Men' won Lonne Elder III a Drama Desk Award for 'most promising playwright.' Today, though, it's seldom staged or acknowledged. Taking place at a Harlem barbershop in the 1950s, it tracks the way a Black family is undone by scheming ambition and complacency. A new production at Theater at St. Clement's, starring an excellent Norm Lewis as its flailing patriarch, makes a case not just for its revival but for a re-examination. As with the best of these observant midcentury dramas, 'A Raisin in the Sun' and 'Death of a Salesman' among them, 'Ceremonies' has a bird's-eye understanding of human behavior, grounded by the specificity of its setting. An old vaudevillian still grieving his long-dead wife, Russell Parker (Lewis) hangs around the deserted barbershop his daughter, Adele, pays to keep. Not attempting to earn clients, he kills time playing checkers with a friendly neighbor (James Foster Jr.) and spinning tales to his unemployed sons, the would-be hustler Theopolis (Bryce Michael Wood) and the sticky-fingered Bobby (Jeremiah Packer). But Adele (Morgan Siobhan Green) has had it. She'd cut her dreams of college short to help support the family, and seven years later, none of them have made anything of themselves. In a week's time, she plans to sell the shop and change the locks on the adjoining house where they all live. (Harry Feiner's set fills the bones of its skeletal, two-level structure with homey period touches.) Green fills out her short appearances imperiously. You're scared she'll catch the men as they hatch a plan to sell bootleg whiskey out of the shop with help from the shady Blue (Calvin M. Thompson). His phony 'Harlem Decolonization Association' is a shameless front for a tentacled racket, which includes looting neighborhood businesses. Elder's play brims with poignant gestures at the Parkers' world, capturing a Harlem in the midst of the promise of civil rights, and of those in its community caught in the crosshairs of honest work and easy exploitation. His characters feel real and their relationships insightful, though under Clinton Turner Davis's direction, some laugh lines seem purposely underplayed, as if leaning into the play's comedy would undermine its eventual tragedy. But Elder's sharp humor still peeks through his clever plotting, especially in the brothers' banter. The work is also a portrait of a generational divide, between Russell's old-fashioned fear of God and his children's agnostic survivalism. With droopy-eyed weariness, Lewis affectingly registers a loss of faith. He's resigned to the scheme's obviously doomed fate, even as he admits flickers of happiness at remembering old dance routines or carrying on a pitiful fling with a younger woman (Felicia Boswell). Some issues with pacing and characterization prevent this staging from effectively showcasing all that 'Ceremonies' has to offer, but both the play and production have an undeniable dramatic and social potency. It's as essential as any in the oft-revived midcentury American canon.
