entertainment
Hate-watching: How to find joy in TV you scorn
NEW YORK (AP) — All this time I’ve been hate-watching and I never even knew it. Turns out, “hate-watch” is a fancy term for watching shows you don’t like but get perverse satisfaction from. Hate-watching is a sport that used to fall under the broad …
Hugh Laurie’s proud that he kept ‘House’ intact
As the Fox medical drama concludes its eight-season run Monday, the star boasts, “I never felt that we did anything that wasn’t true to the character or the show — like, ‘House gets a puppy.’ ”
Will Smith betting on ‘Black’ after four-year hiatus
LOS ANGELES — Will Smith has been quietly absent from the big screen since 2008. Why? He’s been building a family empire. Wife Jada’s TV show “HawthoRNe.” Daughter Willow’s hit single “Whip My Hair.” Son Jaden’s “Karate Kid” remake. “Oh man, I go back to …
Hagar: Not surprised at Van Halen tour woes
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Right now, Sammy Hagar is awfully glad he’s not in Van Halen anymore. The legendary rock band he led for more than a decade after replacing David Lee Roth in 1986 launched a tour in February with Roth back at …
Clint Eastwood’s family gets real on new E! series
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dina Eastwood has heard the question repeatedly: Why put her family and superstar husband Clint Eastwood on display for a reality TV show, generally the province of D-list or wannabe celebrities?
The answer is simple, she said. “Mrs. Eastwood & Company,” …
Donna Summer, queen of disco, dead at 63
Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as “Last Dance,” ‘’Love to Love You Baby” and “Bad Girls” became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, has died. She was 63.
‘Bugs’ go to extremes at Brookfield
Small but mighty. That’s the way Brookfield Zoo’s new “Xtreme Bugs” exhibit looks at insects. Through larger-than-life animatronic animals and live insects, “Bugs” spotlights the critical roles these diminutive creatures play in the environment, culture and the global economy. The temporary exhibit showcasing 22 animatronic …
As ‘SNL’ season ends, signs of a coming shift
NEW YORK — How can “Saturday Night Live” possibly replace (fill in the blank)? How many times have we asked that question across nearly four decades? “Impossible!” said some in 2006 when Tina Fey, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch headed for the door, …
Howard Stern makes a good judge on ‘America’s Got Talent’
LORI RACKL: The shock jock behaves himself and sizes up the “America’s Got Talent” acts with charm and wit.
Rat Pack in MacLaine’s past, ‘Abbey’ in her future
In her new film “Bernie,” Shirley MacLaine plays a widow so mean that when she’s murdered, no one wants to lock up her killer. The Oscar winner took the role for one simple reason. “I love to play evil bitches,” she says with a delicious …
NBC leans on the laughs to get out of 4th place this fall
The struggling network adds two more nights of comedy and orders several more sitcoms, including one with Matthew Perry.
Local ‘Rope Man’ feels the pull of reality TV
What do you get when you take a bunch of acoustic guitars and electric basses, cymbals, a kick drum, a hi-hat and a snare drum — up to 15 instruments in all — and lash them together with strategically positioned rope and PVC piping?
Beats …
Review: Theatre at the Center’s ‘Making God Laugh’
For those tired of the harsh dysfunctional family productions that leave one depressed and which so many theaters love to mount, “Making God Laugh” is a gem of comic relief. Written by Sean Grennan, and playing at Theatre at the Center in Munster through June …
Young talent will beam at NWI Symphony concert
It’s youthful and loaded with pop-music exuberance. It’s “South Shore Glee!” — inspired by Fox television’s “Glee,” which splashed a cool sheen on glee clubs. The series about high school performers fuels the spirit of the “Glee!” concert that is set for 7:30 p.m. May …
‘The Voice’ crowns Jermaine Paul as Season 2 winner
Jermaine Paul was front and center on “The Voice.” The 33-year-old background singer from Harriman, N.Y., was declared the winner of the NBC singing competition Tuesday.
‘Where Wild Things Are’ author Maurice Sendak dies
Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of children’s books who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like Where the Wild Things Are, died early Tuesday after having a stroke on Friday, according to his caretaker and longtime friend Lynn Caponera, who was with him when he died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. He was 83.
