Latest news with #SteelCityCon
Fox News
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'American Pie' actress walked away from Hollywood fame for new life in South Africa
"American Pie" star Shannon Elizabeth ditched living in Hollywood for a move to South Africa to support a cause close to her heart. Elizabeth spoke at the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh last Saturday, revealing she had moved to the country eight years ago to concentrate on her conservation charity, The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation, per People Magazine. "We're building a sanctuary," she told the audience. "We have a blind black rhino we've been taking care of, and we're going to bring in more rhinos as soon as we can do an expansion." The 51-year-old said that after her breakout role in "American Pie," she "started my charity, which was called Animal Avengers at the time. And it's been going since then, it's just morphed over the years into conservation and wildlife from dogs and cats." "I started looking at dog and cat rescues in LA because dogs were what I knew," she told the "Life Outside Poker" podcast in July 2024, per E! News. "I realized I want to make my own organization and, over time, I just wanted to help out more animals on a bigger scale. I went on a journey of figuring out what that was and realized there was this hectic poaching crisis going on in other parts of the world." Elizabeth founded her organization, originally called Animal Avengers, in 2001, expanding its scope from dogs and cats to wild animals in Africa, according to the foundation's website. "In order to be hands on with her projects and to expand their scope and influence, Shannon moved to Africa in 2016 and now lives in Cape Town," the website states. The Texas-born star has also continued her acting career, appearing in films like "Scary Movie," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," and more recently, the comedy "Plan B," and holiday film "A Home for the Holidays." She is also in pre-production on a documentary titled "Munu-A Rhino Love Story," about titular Munu, a male black rhino in need of special care, not only because of his status as a critically endangered species, but because he is also blind and cannot forage on his own. "It was really fun," Elizabeth said of acting. "I love acting and I love creating. So, it was a fun ride. I'm just really grateful that I had that opportunity and could create some things that people seem to like."
Fox News
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Happy Days' stars first public reunion in over 50 years
"Happy Days" stars came together for the first time in decades. During a panel at Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Don Most reunited in public for the first time in 50 years and walked onto the stage with loud cheers from the audience. "It feels like 50 minutes," Howard can be heard saying in an Instagram video posted on the event's official page. "It does. We're having so much fun hanging, and this is sort of our great excuse to come together, so thank you." The foursome starred on the popular family-friendly sitcom together from 1974 to 1984, except for Howard, who left the show in 1980 after its seventh season. The show followed the Cunningham family and their close friends in Milwakee, Wisconsin, throughout the 1950s and 60s. At the event, Winkler reflected on the 11 seasons he spent working on the show, crediting the show's creator, Garry Marshall, for being a "brilliant creator" and "great writer" who put together a "wonderful cast." "Some of them, unfortunately, are no longer on the Earth with us, but we played together, we stayed together, and we worked hard together," Winkler said about the relationships between the show's cast. "Nobody thought they were better than anybody else." Howard echoed Winkler's sentiment, explaining "that was a huge key" to the show's success, and that as time went on, "the show evolved as, really, an ensemble." "It was a life experience that's unlike anything else that I've ever known," he said. "And we had great chemistry. We had fun working together from the beginning, and it never failed us." Prior to the panel, Winkler spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about how happy he was to reunite with his former cast mates publicly, noting that while "this is the first time that we will be together in a public setting" in the past 50 years, they have seen each other and "been together." He also reiterated how instrumental Marshall was in the success of the show, sharing he "would not let bad behavior into the set" and brought the cast together. "No matter who you were, no matter what, you were part of an ensemble. Everybody respected each other. Then, he created a softball team, and we played every Sunday. Then we traveled all over the country. Then we traveled all over the world." In a separate Instagram post shared on the events page, the four men can be seen posing for photos while holding a certificate. The caption explained the certificates signify the declaration by the President of Allegheny County Council that April 5 will now be known as Happy Days Day in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Winkler and Howard previously reunited on stage at the 2024 Emmy Awards, to honor the 50th anniversary of "Happy Days." The pair walked out onto the stage, which was recreated to look like the set of Arnold's Drive-In.
CNN
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
‘Happy Days' cast members reunited this weekend
Sunday, Monday, happy days. Fans of the beloved series 'Happy Days,' which aired from 1974 to 1984, got a treat this weekend when some of the cast members came together at Steel City Con outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Don Most joined a panel discussion about the series. The convention shared video from the event on their social media. 'We are very happy to be here in Pittsburgh,' said Winkler who played Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzarelli on the show. He later said that it had been 'the first time that we have appeared this way in 50 years.' Howard, who grew up on screen and went on to become a Oscar-winning director, starred as Richie Cunningham on the sitcom. 'It feels like it's been 50 minutes, because we're having so much fun hanging and this was sort of our great excuse to come together, so thank you,' he said at the event. 'And by the way, it's just been amazing.' The classic series was so popular that it spurned several spinoffs, including 'Laverne & Shirley' and 'Mork & Mindy.'
CNN
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
‘Happy Days' cast members reunited this weekend
Sunday, Monday, happy days. Fans of the beloved series 'Happy Days,' which aired from 1974 to 1984, got a treat this weekend when some of the cast members came together at Steel City Con outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Don Most joined a panel discussion about the series. The convention shared video from the event on their social media. 'We are very happy to be here in Pittsburgh,' said Winkler who played Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzarelli on the show. He later said that it had been 'the first time that we have appeared this way in 50 years.' Howard, who grew up on screen and went on to become a Oscar-winning director, starred as Richie Cunningham on the sitcom. 'It feels like it's been 50 minutes, because we're having so much fun hanging and this was sort of our great excuse to come together, so thank you,' he said at the event. 'And by the way, it's just been amazing.' The classic series was so popular that it spurned several spinoffs, including 'Laverne & Shirley' and 'Mork & Mindy.'
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
James Van Der Beek Recalls the Specific Moment When He Realized 'Dawson's Creek' Was Going to Change His Life: 'Whoa'
James Van Der Beek took a stroll down memory lane. On Saturday, April 5, the actor, 48, reunited with Kerr Smith for a Dawson's Creek panel at Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, where they shared memories from their time on the set of the beloved '90s show. At one point, Van Der Beek recalled the exact moment when he realized that Dawson's Creek was going to change his career — and life — forever. "I made a movie when I was 17, and everybody said, 'Are you ready for this to change your life?' And I was like, 'Oh, yeah!' I remember going to that movie with my college friends, and there was only one other person in the theater," he said. "I was like, 'I don't think this is going to change my life.' And it didn't at all." "So when I was in Dawson's Creek, we were in North Carolina — we were far, far, far from Hollywood, we were on the WB Network, which, at the time, was a network that I didn't even get on my closed-circuit cable in my dorm room — so some people were saying, 'Are you ready for this to change your life?' [I was] like, 'I've been down this road before. This is not going to change anything.' And they said, 'Oh no, they're buying billboards,' and I said, 'Whatever,' " Van Der Beek continued. "And then they flew me to L.A., and I saw a billboard with my face, like, blown up a thousand times bigger than my head already is, and I saw my name on the billboard." "It was just hilarious to me because I've had to type my name my whole life, like, shift, capital J, space, shift, capital V, space, shift, so the fact that somebody else had to press that shift button four times was the most hilarious thing," he added. "It struck me as so funny, and I started laughing." Related: Joshua Jackson Names a Sexy Dawson's Creek Scene That Sparked 'Outrage' When It Aired Van Der Beek said the realization of just how big the show was hit him again not long after. "Two weeks in, I was doing an appearance in Seattle, and they said, 'There are going to be 100 people here.' And I said, 'There are not going to be 100 people.' And there were, like, 500, and they were screaming, and I was like, 'Whoa, this thing is going to be way bigger than I ever thought it was going to be.' " Smith, 53, for his part, recalled, "For me, because I got there a little later, the beginning of season two, I remember it was my first week and Joshua [Jackson] said to me, he goes, this was after everything that James had experienced, and he said, 'Are you ready for your life to change?' I go, 'What do you mean?' He goes, 'We are a h-i-i-it.' And sure enough, he was right." Added the actor: "It was a life-changing experience." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Dawson's Creek ran from 1998 to 2003 and followed the lives of Van Der Beek's Dawson, Katie Holmes' Joey Potter, Joshua Jackson's Pacey Witter and Michelle Williams' Jen Lindley. Smith and costar Meredith Monroe joined the series in season 2 as new students Jack and Andie McPhee. Dawson and Jack first butted heads, after Jack took interest in Joey after she and Dawson broke up. But he later came out as gay, which strengthened his friendships with Dawson and Jen, among others. It was a groundbreaking moment for TV, making him just the second openly gay character on a teen network drama after Rickie on 1994's My So-Called Life. Related: The Cast of Dawson's Creek: Where Are They Now? The former costars' reunion came about as Van Der Beek continues treatment for colorectal cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2024. In recent weeks, he has spoken about the toll it has taken on both him and his family, and how his former Dawson's Creek castmates have been in touch to offer support. Read the original article on People
