Latest news with #HaroldandthePurpleCrayon
Buzz Feed
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Zachary Levi Says Politics Affected His Career
You know Zachary Levi — even if you maybe wish you didn't. Zachary has worked steadily since his role as Chuck in, uh, Chuck — if not quite successfully. His last two big projects, Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Harold and the Purple Crayon, were critical and commercial disappointments, to say the least. More recently, Zachary has gained attention for his political stances rather than his acting abilities. He endorsed Trump and emerged as a vaccine skeptic, and Broadway legend Laura Benanti came forward to say that she basically hates him in response to all of his public shenanigans. Brutal. Now, Zachary is far from "canceled." He just starred in the faith-based film The Unbreakable Boy and has several projects currently in post-production. He's also currently filming the action film Hotel Tehran. But, as Trump-supporting Hollywood types often do, Zachary is now claiming that his career's been hurt by his political opinions — specifically, in a new profile that Variety recently published. 'I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know,' he said in the profile, apparently gesturing towards Beverly Hills in conversation. 'They haven't given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time. And it's unfortunate. I knew that was probably going to happen. I didn't make this decision blindly or casually.' Oh well! You can read the entire profile here.
Chicago Tribune
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Heidi Stevens: Instead of a wedding registry, they asked for children's books. And then gave them all away
This is a love story about a couple who found each other a little later in life, after their kids were grown, after their first marriages ended, after life threw a few unexpected twists their way. But it's also a love story about books. Children's books, specifically. First, the couple. Katy Coffey is a delightful, hilarious, artistic force for good in the world. We first met years ago at a brunch hosted by a mutual friend. Coffey was raising two kids as a single mom. I was raising two kids as a single mom. We bonded immediately and then didn't talk for years, as single moms raising two kids are wont to do. But we stayed connected on social media and I watched her posts and photos over the last couple of years start to include, here and there, a tall, handsome, smiling guy named Brian. One day last summer, I ran into them walking along Michigan Avenue. I got to meet tall, handsome, smiling Brian Werle (he has a last name) in person. They looked like they were in love. (You can tell.) We learned that we now live only a few blocks apart; she had sold her house in the suburbs when her kids, Rosie and Beck, were grown and off doing their own things. In March, Coffey posted a photo on Facebook from the Cook County clerk's office. She and Werle were holding up a marriage license. (Plot twist!) They were married two weeks later, on Coffey's birthday. Her son, Beck, and his childhood friend Stas sang 'All You Need is Love' to the tune of their own guitars. I scrolled through the posts and savored the abundant joy because I love happy endings and I believe so strongly in new beginnings and also there's nothing more hopeful than a wedding. We so need hopeful right now. And then I saw photos of children's books. Dozens and dozens of children's books, displayed on a table, their joyful, colorful, playful covers just begging to be cracked open. Now, the other love story. Instead of wedding gifts, Coffey and Werle asked for children's books, which they would donate to a place that would put them in kids' hands and ignite kids' wonder and send kids on adventures that will forever shape who they are and how they go through the world. 'When my kids were growing up, we read obsessively,' Coffey said. 'Every day. Every night.' Rosie, Coffey's daughter, has 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' and 'Strega Nona' tattoos, inspired by a couple of her favorite books from childhood. Coffey has a storage unit filled with boxes and boxes of children's books, waiting (patiently, she's quick to add) to be read to grandchildren. 'Reading was really important in both of our households,' Coffey continued, 'and we really felt like there was some kind of connection there.' Through Rosie, who now works for Start Early, a nonprofit focused on early childhood, Coffey and Werle connected with Educare, a child care center that serves children age 6 weeks to 5 years in Chicago's South Side Washington Park neighborhood. They asked Educare for a wish list of children's books, and Educare happily obliged. Next they reached out to Women and Children First, an independent bookstore in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood on the North Side, and asked for a list of recommendations. Then Coffey and Werle did a little research and wishing of their own and, combining all three lists, built a registry, of sorts. Only instead of dishes and bedding, it was 'The Rainbow Fish' and 'The Color Monster' and 'Julian is a Mermaid' and 'Being You.' In their wedding invitation, they included a QR code to purchase books from Women and Children First, which shipped the books straight to Coffey and Werle's condo. Then Coffey and Werle brought a bunch of the books to the wedding venue and displayed them on a table with the guests' place cards. A few days later, they delivered 62 books to Educare. 'It felt really good,' Werle said. I love this little slice of kindness in a world that could use some right now. I love that a whole bunch of kids were just gifted a sense of belonging. I love that gift as a celebration of finding where your own heart belongs. 'What we want and we need,' Coffey said, 'is for the next generation to feel loved and to feel celebrated and to feel proud of their diversity and to feel like they've been seen.' What better way to do all that than with piles and piles of children's books? Talk about a happy, hopeful ending. And beginning.
Los Angeles Times
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Review: In the uplifting yet mundane ‘The Unbreakable Boy,' a dad finally wises up
First, the good news about 'The Unbreakable Boy,' a family drama based on the 2014 memoir by Scott LeRette: Zachary Levi is finally acting his age. After a few high-profile childlike roles in the 'Shazam' movies and 'Harold and the Purple Crayon,' it's a relief to see him as an adult. The film is also a belated confirmation of Meghann Fahy's absolutely bulletproof star power. That had already been confirmed with her turns in 'The White Lotus,' 'The Perfect Couple' and 'The Bold Type' (if you were paying attention), but 'The Unbreakable Boy' is a bit of a curious case: a relic from a period just before her breakout. Shot in the winter of 2020, the film was originally slated for release in March 2022. Why it's been aging on a shelf at Lionsgate for three years is a mystery, but the faith-based film finally hits theaters with the story of the LeRette family and their specific, if not unique, challenges about raising a child, Austin (Jacob Laval), born with both autism and a genetic brittle-bone disease. 'The Unbreakable Boy' is adapted and directed by Jon Gunn, who has tackled other faith-based films drawn from true stories, having directed 'Ordinary Angels' and 'The Case for Christ,' and produced 'Jesus Revolution' and 'I Still Believe.' His stock-in-trade is lightly inspirational life-affirming tales about people overcoming distinct but relatable challenges, often through the help of their own faith or religious community. The stories are never all that extraordinary or shocking, but more quotidian, community-based and family-oriented, and 'The Unbreakable Boy' is just that. The film starts in medias res, with Scott (Levi) getting drunk at a New Year's Eve bash at the country club and then driving home with his two boys, Logan (Gavin Warren) and Austin, in the car. The numerous narrative devices that the film employs — including an elliptical framing structure, Austin's voice-over narration and even an imaginary friend — are entirely too cute by half. They're used to try to make this rather straightforward and, sorry to say, unremarkable story seem as if it's more interesting than it actually is. In 'The Unbreakable Boy,' Scott is a distracted, easily overwhelmed dad, often resulting in Austin breaking a bone (there's a running tally of injuries). Much of the film is concerned with Scott struggling to manage his son's medical issues and free spirit, using alcohol to cope. Eventually, with the help of his church, Alcoholics Anonymous and his wife, Teresa (Fahy), Scott learns to shift his mindset in order to not just accept Austin but live his life more like his son: fully present and unencumbered by social expectations. It's a nice sentiment, if not especially revelatory. Gunn directs the film in the aesthetic of a nighttime family TV drama. It's serviceable, invisible, and he adds a few stylistic quirks, like the broken-bone tally in a childish font or a few animated sequences in order to represent how Austin 'sees' the world. Levi and Fahy don't have much chemistry, though the story of their rapid courtship doesn't allow much time for any. Their big admission is that they 'might' love each other. Levi plays Scott as somewhat smarmy and disingenuous — it's hard to feel for this guy when he seems absolutely clueless about his own kids. Fahy carries the film in her supporting role, an acting imbalance that seems weirdly apt for this story: the supportive, capable wife sidelined in favor of showcasing the inept husband getting himself together and presenting it as meaningful or poignant. This might be significant to the LeRette family, but the real struggle here is trying to connect with this film beyond a wan appreciation that a father finally learned how to love his son for who he is. Good for him, I guess? Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
