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    Amy Schumer Says She Has Cushing’s Syndrome, a Hormonal Disorder

    The comedian’s announcement came after she was targeted on social media for a change in her physical appearance during on-camera interviews this month.The comedian Amy Schumer has announced that she has been diagnosed with a rare hormonal disorder called Cushing’s syndrome, after she was swarmed with comments on social media about a change in her physical appearance.Schumer, 42, revealed her diagnosis in an interview for the News Not Noise newsletter on Friday. People commented on her “puffier” face after she appeared this month on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” She said that the condition did not pose any serious threats to her health.The online buzz around her appearance, a mix of concern and negativity, was how she “realized something was wrong,” Schumer told the newsletter.Cushing’s syndrome is caused by excessive levels of cortisol, known as the stress hormone, and can cause a range of symptoms including a round face, weight gain and weak muscles, according to the National Institutes of Health.“Over time, the excess cortisol causing these symptoms can lead to progressive deleterious health effects like high blood pressure, diabetes, bone loss,” said Dr. Lilah Morris-Wiseman, the chief of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s division of endocrine surgery.In the newsletter interview, Schumer said she had been undergoing medical tests while also doing a round of interviews to promote the new season of her Hulu show, “Life and Beth.”She told the newsletter that she was “in M.R.I. machines four hours at a time, having my veins shut down from the amount of blood drawn and thinking I may not be around to see my son grow up.”“So finding out I have the kind of Cushing that will just work itself out and I’m healthy was the greatest news imaginable,” she added.Cushing’s syndrome is sometimes the result of a tumor in the adrenal gland or elsewhere in the brain, requiring surgery.But in Schumer’s case, the excess cortisol that led to her diagnosis was brought on by “getting steroid injections in high doses,” according to the newsletter.The comic has been open about having endometriosis, a disease that affects the uterus and can be treated with steroids, though it was unclear if that was why Schumer was getting injections.When steroids are the cause of Cushing’s syndrome, reducing their use can help reverse the symptoms of the disorder, Dr. Morris-Wiseman said.Schumer highlighted the shaming that women face when their bodies change. Many comments on social media after her appearance on “The Tonight Show” were derisive and misogynistic.After that appearance, Schumer wrote in an Instagram post that a woman “doesn’t need any excuse for her physical appearance and owes no explanation,” but that she wanted to “take the opportunity to advocate for self love and acceptance of the skin you’re in.”She is the latest celebrity to disclose a medical diagnosis after facing public scrutiny over her health.Last week, representatives for Wendy Williams, the former talk show host, announced that she had been diagnosed with “frontotemporal dementia and aphasia.” More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Regime’

    FX premieres a new show set in Japan in the 1600s. A new mini-series starring Kate Winslet airs on HBO.For those like myself who still haven’t cut the cord, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, Feb. 26-March 3. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE VOICE 8 p.m. on NBC. The people involved in this singing competition are working overtime — the show is beginning its 25th season though it has only been on the air for 13 years. Niall Horan (the reigning champion and two-time winner) and Gwen Stefani are not returning as judges, but the show is debuting a coaching duo — the singers Dan + Shay. They’ll be joined by the returning judges Chance the Rapper, John Legend and Reba McEntire.TuesdayHiroyuki Sanada in “Shogun.”Katie Yu/FXSHOGUN 10 p.m. on FX. This limited series, based on a novel by James Clavell and a remake of a previous adaptation, takes place in Japan in the 1600s and centers on Lord Yoshii Toranaga as members of the Council of Regents turn against him. Attention shifts when a mysterious European ship turns up on the shore of a small fishing village.WednesdaySURVIVOR 8 p.m. on CBS. This show, 46 seasons in and still going strong, returns with the host Jeff Probst and 18 castaways who are headed to Fiji to compete and survive. Contestants noted that this season might be a departure from the calm and feel-good vibe of the past couple of years — backstabbing, arguments and breakdowns are back, baby!REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS 8 p.m. on Bravo. Two “Housewives” reunions in a row? I am ordering a family-size bag of SkinnyPop and a five-liter box of wine. Andy Cohen, of course, will be moderating. The sneak peek of the reunion shows that the drama starts before the ladies have even sat down on set — as Cohen is seen telling Kyle Richards that Erika Jayne “wants me to eviscerate you.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Hunt’ Review: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

    This modern-day fable, directed by Rupert Goold and starring Tobias Menzies, is styled with horror.“Each town has its witch/Each parish its troll,” a character sings ominously while sharpening hedge shears. “We will with pleasure/Take the life from their veins.”Let it be known that the British import “The Hunt” — about a man ostracized, and worse, for a crime he didn’t commit — does not really err toward subtlety.The simple premise can be summed up in a sentence: Lucas (Tobias Menzies, from “The Crown” and “Outlander”), a small-town kindergarten teacher, is falsely accused of molesting several of his students, and his life falls apart. The Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg told the story in an understated manner in his movie “The Hunt” (2013), which is simultaneously detached and veined with warm, if subtly expressed, empathy.Now a tragedy that feels ripped from the headlines is deployed with fable-like horror stylings in a stage adaptation by David Farr directed by Rupert Goold, which just opened at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Ritualistic dancing and chanting, sacrifices, jump scares, blinding white lights, quasi-supernatural apparitions: At times it feels as if we are watching a spinoff from the cult 1973 film “The Wicker Man,” in which an island community following pagan practices drenched in sex and violence turns against an outsider.When Vinterberg made “The Hunt” (which he wrote with Tobias Lindholm), he pulled back from the Dogme 95 precepts he followed at the beginning of his career, and which emphasize an almost Puritanical minimalism. “I wanted this film to be as naked and truthful as possible, because this was a film about truth and lies, but I had to find a new way of doing it,” he said a decade ago.From left: Jonathan Savage, Danny Kirrane, Menzies, MyAnna Buring, DeBoer and Alex Hassell in the play, in a structure that can protect secrets and reveal them, offer shelter and harbor violence.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Water for Elephants’ Brings the Circus to Broadway

    At the sound of a gunshot, a performer, wreathed in white silks, tumbles from the ceiling. His body somersaults, over and over, faster and faster, until it hangs suspended, just above the stage floor. This scene, in the first act of “Water for Elephants,” a new musical that begins previews Feb. 24 at the Imperial Theater, portrays the death of an injured horse. And it captures the singular methods of the show — a synthesis of theater and circus, bedazzled for a Broadway audience.“In musicals, you talk until you have to sing and you sing until you have to dance,” Jessica Stone, the director of “Water for Elephants,” explained. “And in our case, you dance until you have to leap into the air.”With a book by Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by PigPen Theater Co., the musical is based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel, which also inspired a 2011 film. Set in the 1930s and in the very early 2000s, it centers on the memories of Jacob Jankowski (Grant Gustin, playing the younger version, and Gregg Edelman as the elder), a veterinarian who recalls the long-ago days when he hopped a train and fell in with the members of the Benzini Brothers circus, a ragtag outfit that crisscrossed the country delivering low-rent, high-excitement marvels.“You wanna feel something/You know is real, something/beyond the paler things,” the chorus sings in the opening number, describing the promise of the big top.Antoine Boissereau’s aerial silk performance in which he portrays the death of a horse during the song “Easy.”That promise is kept by the ensemble’s seven dedicated circus performers, as well as two swings, many of them veterans of the 7 Fingers circus company. Shana Carroll, a founding director of that company, was tasked with circus design. (With Jesse Robb, she is also the show’s co-choreographer.) In their initial meetings before the show’s premiere last summer in Atlanta, Carroll and Stone agreed that the circus stunts should never appear without cause. They had to tell the story (as in a scene set during a Benzini show) or enhance moments of high emotion (as in the case of the horse).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Snoop’ Pearson and Ed Burns Reunite 16 Years After ‘The Wire’

    The actress known for stealing scenes in “The Wire” is teaming with series co-creator Ed Burns to turn her life story into a TV show.Felicia “Snoop” Pearson is running a few minutes late to a joint interview alongside her writing partner Ed Burns, so Burns fills the time with a helpful story about one of the few other instances of her truancy.More than two decades ago, the actor Michael K. Williams had asked Pearson to accompany him onto the set of “The Wire” after she brazenly introduced herself to him at a Baltimore nightclub.Burns, who with David Simon cocreated the landmark show that explored institutional failures, admired her distinct tattoos and gravelly Baltimore drawl. Williams and some of the actors vouched for Pearson as an authentic resource who would give the show additional credibility.Burns had a spot on the show for her, he promised, if she limited any illicit activity and showed up the next week.The day Pearson was to appear on camera, Burns said, he received a frantic phone call. “I didn’t know the car was stolen,” Pearson hurriedly began.Through some deciphering, Burns discovered that Pearson had visited New York with friends for Pride Week. During the journey, they noticed a cop car’s flashing lights and pulled over. The driver of the car had no idea the vehicle he had purchased was stolen. Police searched Pearson, discovered a pocketknife and took her into custody. She did not make call time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Shane Gillis Finally Appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’

    The comic was fired from the show in 2019 before ever appearing on it, history he barely mentioned when he hosted on Saturday. “Please, don’t Google that,” he said in his monologue.Finally given the opportunity to take the stage at NBC’s Studio 8H, the comedian Shane Gillis did not say much about how he’d been fired as a cast member from “Saturday Night Live” before appearing in a single episode.Instead, Gillis, who has since gone on to become a popular standup and podcaster, delivered an opening monologue that perhaps suggested both he and “S.N.L.” were both better off for having followed separate trajectories.Gillis, who has performed in standup specials like “Beautiful Dogs” on Netflix and is a co-host of “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” was announced to be an “S.N.L.” cast member in September 2019. Just days later, “S.N.L.” reversed course and dropped him from its lineup, following criticism of resurfaced podcast segments in which Gillis used a slur to describe Chinese people and performed a caricature accent, and used a homophobic slur to refer to the filmmaker Judd Apatow and the comedian Chris Gethard, as well as the presidential candidates Andrew Yang and Senator Bernie Sanders.At the time, “S.N.L.” said in a statement that the language Gillis had used “is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable.” Gillis himself wrote in a social media post that he was “a comedian who pushes boundaries” adding that in comedy, “you’re going to find a lot of bad misses.”Returning to “S.N.L.” nearly five years later as a guest host, Gillis did not take a scorched-earth approach in his monologue, like when Norm Macdonald appeared as a host in 1999 after he’d been fired from the show. (“I haven’t gotten funnier,” Macdonald said at the time. “The show has gotten really bad.”)“Yeah, I’m here,” Gillis began. “Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was actually — I was fired from this show a while ago. But if, you know, don’t look that up, please, if you don’t know who I am. Please, don’t Google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’: What to Know

    The new “Walking Dead” spinoff, premiering Sunday on AMC and AMC+, builds on more than a decade of back story. We’re here to help.The new six-part mini-series “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” the latest installment in the sprawling “Walking Dead” universe, premieres Sunday on AMC and AMC+. It finds Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira reprising their longtime roles as Rick Grimes and Michonne, the weathered survivors of a postapocalyptic wasteland populated by flesh-devouring zombies.Rick, the former sheriff turned heroic leader, and Michonne, the katana-wielding warrior with a heart of gold, were two of the show’s longest-tenured and most beloved characters. When they paired off late in the show’s run, it added a warm central love story to somewhat offset the show’s litany of bloodshed and gore — until Rick left the series in Season 9 and Michonne in Season 10.“The Ones Who Live” picks their story up where it left off in the original series, revealing what happened to the couple after they exited the show. But it also involves other characters, settings and organizations that have either appeared or been mentioned in “The Walking Dead” and its spinoffs, including the dystopian city the Civic Republic, its high-tech military the C.R.M., and the slippery villain Jadis, played by Pollyanna McIntosh. There’s also 12 years and 11 seasons of back story to keep in mind — and a ton of lore, including flash-forward child births and complex double-crosses.If any of that sounds only vaguely familiar — or if you, like millions of viewers, stopped watching “The Walking Dead” some time before it wrapped its 11th and final season in November 2022 — you might need a bit of a refresher to keep up with “The Ones Who Live,” which dives into its propulsive story without many flashbacks or expository monologues to bring viewers up to speed. (For their part, Lincoln and Gurira have said that they didn’t keep up with the whole series either, so you’re in good company.) Here’s everything you’ll need to know before the series kicks off on Sunday.What happened to Rick?After it was announced that Lincoln would be leaving “The Walking Dead” sometime during its ninth season, many fans assumed Rick would be killed off as many other characters had been before. Lincoln’s final episode, “What Comes After,” certainly set up that expectation, placing Rick in seemingly insurmountable jeopardy, gravely wounded and surrounded by a horde of walkers. As they close in on him, he has visions of friends and family he’s lost over the years, including Shane (Jon Bernthal), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and his first wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), driving home the impression that these are Rick’s final moments on earth.Instead, Rick is saved at the last moment by Jadis, his antagonist and sometime-ally, who whisks him to safety in a mysterious helicopter with cryptic promises that things will be OK. (Using a radio to communicate with the pilot, she refers to “As” and “Bs,” insisting that Rick is an A, which is sure to figure into “The Ones Who Live.”) Badly banged up, he is placed on a stretcher and given an intravenous drip, and he drifts off to sleep as Jadis consoles him. It’s the last time we see Rick until the final minutes of the series finale, when we catch a glimpse of his life six years later under the iron rule of the heavily militarized city the Civic Republic, still dreaming of reuniting with his family.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Reviving ‘The Wiz’ Through ‘the Blackest of Black Lenses’

    Schele Williams first saw “The Wiz” when a tour of the original Broadway production came through Dayton, Ohio. She was 7 years old, and recalled it being the most “beautiful reflection of Blackness that I had never seen.”Years later, she was cast as Dorothy in a high school production of “The Wiz,” and the thrill of that experience led Williams to pursue a career in musical theater. She even used the show’s soaring finale, “Home,” as one of her audition songs.Now, after working on Broadway as an actor (“Aida”) and an associate director (“Motown”), she is directing the first Broadway revival of “The Wiz” in almost 40 years. It’s a chance, Williams said, to celebrate what “The Wiz” has meant to her and to pass the story along to her daughters.Since becoming a Broadway hit in 1975, “The Wiz,” a gospel, soul and R&B take on Dorothy’s adventures in Oz, largely composed by Charlie Smalls, with a book by William F. Brown, has been a vibrant cornerstone of Black culture. The show blends Afrofuturism with classic Americana to enact a sort of creative reparation, reframing an allegory about perseverance and self-determination to feature Black characters who, in the ’70s, had rarely appeared in popular children’s stories.The 1978 Motown film adaptation, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, was a critical and box-office flop. But the movie has been a trippy favorite of family living rooms for multiple generations, and the musical has remained a staple on local stages around the country.“The weight of that is not lost on me,” said Williams.The new production of “The Wiz,” beginning previews on March 29 at the Marquis Theater, arrives in New York after a 13-city national tour that began in September. The creative team said its goal is to celebrate both the property’s legacy and the richness of Black American history and culture.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More