Eliana Willis

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    in Television

    Emmy Hosts Eugene and Daniel Levy Open Ceremony With Playful Jokes

    Eugene and Dan Levy, the father-and-son acting duo best known for the sitcom “Schitt’s Creek,” opened the Emmy Awards on Sunday with playful digs at the changing television industry and its audience, calling the ceremony “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.”“The creators of ‘Shogun’ actually had their scripts translated into Japanese, rewritten and then translated back into English subtitles that you missed because you were also on your phone watching Sabrina Carpenter eat a hot wing,” joked Dan Levy, referring to one of one of the top contenders for best drama series.The Levys’ rapport is self-deprecating and inoffensive — a fitting mix for prime-time television.“I wouldn’t actually even call us hosts — we’re more like actors acting like hosts,” Dan Levy said.The actors drew their own accolades from the Television Academy as creators and stars of “Schitt’s Creek,” which earned them both acting Emmys. In 2020, Dan Levy became the first performer to collect four Emmys during a prime-time telecast — for writing, directing, best supporting actor and for best comedy.The hosts poked at one of the most nominated shows, “The Bear,” after some in the industry have questioned whether it qualifies a comedy.“In the true spirit of ‘The Bear,’ we will not make any jokes,” Eugene Levy said. More

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    in Television

    Liza Colón-Zayas Wins Her First Emmy for ‘The Bear’

    Liza Colón-Zayas, a celebrated Off Broadway actress who found a breakout television role as Tina in FX’s “The Bear,” has won her first Emmy.Accepting the award, a shocked Colón-Zayas said that her husband, the actor David Zayas, had told her to write a speech. “I didn’t,” she said, overawed. Tina, the sous chef of restaurant at the center of the show, is a maternal figure in the kitchen and a woman coming to know her own worth. While the show’s most recent season included an episode entirely focused on Tina (and co-starring her husband, David Zayas), this win is for her work in Season 2, in which Tina refines her culinary skills and discovers that what she has thought of as a job may actually be a calling.Colón-Zayas was a surprise winner as Hannah Einbinder of “Hacks” and Meryl Streep of “Only Murders in the Building” were favored. The other nominees were Sheryl Lee Ralph of “Abbott Elementary,” a past winner; Ralph’s “Abbott” co-star Janelle James; and the legendary comedian Carol Burnett, nominated for her turn in “Palm Royale.” Colón-Zayas celebrated these other nominees and ended in an emotional speech exhorting the audience to vote. More

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    in Theater

    Mia Farrow Bows Out of ‘The Roommate’ With Covid; Marsha Mason Steps In

    Mason, an associate director of the comedy, which opened on Broadway last week, will step in as Patti LuPone’s counterpart.On Thursday, Mia Farrow celebrated opening night of “The Roommate,” the new Broadway play in which she is starring opposite Patti LuPone. On Saturday, Farrow was homebound after testing positive for Covid.The production canceled both of its scheduled Saturday performances, and on Sunday planned to go forward with Marsha Mason in Farrow’s stead. Mason, best known as an actor, is one of the play’s associate directors and had been working with Farrow on her performance.The play’s producers asked Mason to fill in for Farrow, according to the show’s spokesman, Rick Miramontez. Mason will be performing with the show’s script in hand, Miramontez said.Farrow, 79, posted on X Saturday about her “first Covid bout,” but then deleted the post.The show has an understudy, Carol Halstead, but apparently opted to go with Mason, who is far better known, and whose own name recognition might help stanch cancellations by ticketholders hoping to see Farrow. In the years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been several previous instances in which directors have stepped in for absent performers on Broadway.Farrow, LuPone, Mason, and the show’s director, Jack O’Brien, all have homes in Western Connecticut and are friendly with one another.“The Roommate” is a comedic two-character play, written by Jen Silverman, about what happens when an Iowa City woman takes on a boarder from the Bronx who turns out to have a fondness for fraud.The play, capitalized for $5.5 million, is among the first in a string of shows this season that are hoping the combination of big name stars and short runs will lead to high ticket demand. More

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    ‘Does This Taste Funny?’: How Stephen Colbert’s Family Cookbook Came to Be

    Comedy defangs the taboo, so Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert have decided, at last, to tell the dreaded spoon story. The two have celebrated milestone anniversaries, welcomed three children and one dog, and now released the cookbook “Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves.” Secure in that solid foundation, Mr. Colbert and Ms. McGee Colbert conceded the time had come to revisit what has come to be one of the defining moments of their union.It goes like this: The Colberts were just married and living in Chicago, where Mr. Colbert launched his career performing with Second City, when Ms. McGee Colbert took a metal spoon out a drawer and scraped it across the surface of their pristine set of Calphalon nonstick pans.Off in the distance, but almost visible from the porch of their home on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina where this interview took place, Fort Sumter marks the ground where the Civil War broke out in 1861. The stakes of this inciting incident were only somewhat less consequential.“We move into this apartment,” Ms. McGee Colbert recalled, “and I think we’re going to be chopping basil and cooking together and drinking wine and listening to Chet Baker.” Her new husband wasted no time disabusing her of those notions. “He’s like, ‘You shouldn’t do that,’” she said.“I believe I said, ‘How about a wooden spoon?’” Mr. Colbert countered, head in hands.Ms. McGee Colbert dropped her weapon and withdrew. She took one look at the man to whom she had pledged her troth and declared that there would be no more “having a fabulous time” in the kitchen. Mr. Colbert could have his mise en place and sparkling cookware. In the parlance of “Top Chef,” she packed her knives and went.“I was like, ‘I’m out,’” Ms. McGee Colbert said. Next to her on a rattan couch in the humid Charelstonian summer, Mr. Colbert wiped his brow and groaned.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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    in Television

    How Stephen Colbert’s Family Cookbook Came to Be

    Comedy defangs the taboo, so Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert have decided, at last, to tell the dreaded spoon story. The two have celebrated milestone anniversaries, welcomed three children and one dog, and now released the cookbook “Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves.” Secure in that solid foundation, Mr. Colbert and Ms. McGee Colbert conceded the time had come to revisit what has come to be one of the defining moments of their union.It goes like this: The Colberts were just married and living in Chicago, where Mr. Colbert launched his career performing with Second City, when Ms. McGee Colbert took a metal spoon out a drawer and scraped it across the surface of their pristine set of Calphalon nonstick pans.Off in the distance, but almost visible from the porch of their home on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina where this interview took place, Fort Sumter marks the ground where the Civil War broke out in 1861. The stakes of this inciting incident were only somewhat less consequential.“We move into this apartment,” Ms. McGee Colbert recalled, “and I think we’re going to be chopping basil and cooking together and drinking wine and listening to Chet Baker.” Her new husband wasted no time disabusing her of those notions. “He’s like, ‘You shouldn’t do that,’” she said.“I believe I said, ‘How about a wooden spoon?’” Mr. Colbert countered, head in hands.Ms. McGee Colbert dropped her weapon and withdrew. She took one look at the man to whom she had pledged her troth and declared that there would be no more “having a fabulous time” in the kitchen. Mr. Colbert could have his mise en place and sparkling cookware. In the parlance of “Top Chef,” she packed her knives and went.“I was like, ‘I’m out,’” Ms. McGee Colbert said. Next to her on a rattan couch in the humid Charelstonian summer, Mr. Colbert wiped his brow and groaned.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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    in Theater

    The Wicked Witch of the West: A Heroine for Our Time

    “Wicked,” which arrives to the big screen this fall, redeems the villain who is barely a character in L. Frank Baum’s classic novel.“And what, you may ask, are the reasons why?” Ray Bradbury asked in his foreword for the Kansas Centennial edition of L. Frank Baum’s classic novel. “‘The Wizard of Oz’ will never die?”More than 20 years after the musical “Wicked” became a Broadway megahit, the first part of big-screen adaptation, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, will arrive this fall. The second film comes out next year. It might be time to pose a related question: Why won’t the Wicked Witch of the West ever die?The character has grown in stature since she first appeared as the villain in just one chapter of Baum’s novel nearly 125 years ago. Every subsequent adaptation has made her more visible, more memorable and — in a twist — more heroic. Much like the Land of Oz’s symbolic meaning as a stand-in for the United States, her fate reflects our nation’s continuing debates about race, gender and who is and isn’t considered American.Narratively, her evolution has been striking. Barely present in Baum’s book as an enemy of Dorothy, the young Kansan on a journey through Oz, the witch emerged as a formidable green-faced foe made famous by the white actress Margaret Hamilton in MGM’s 1939 movie classic, “The Wizard of Oz.” In the 1970s, Mabel King played her as the cruel factory owner Evillene in the all-Black Broadway and movie versions of “The Wiz.” Her showstopping number, “No Bad News,” stole the spotlight from Dorothy and Glinda, the Good Witch. Two decades later, her transformation was complete when Gregory Maguire depicted her as the sympathetic, misunderstood, magically powerful, though still green-hued Elphaba in his 1995 novel, “Wicked.” That’s the version in the Broadway musical and now the forthcoming two-part film.Credited with writing the first great American fairy tale, Baum began Dorothy’s turn-of-the-century tour in the frontier state of Kansas. Though Baum was neither born nor lived there, his general interest in the region was reflected in his move from upstate New York to Aberdeen, a Dakota Territory town, in 1886. After opening a novelty store there, he started a newspaper, The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, in which he wrote editorials that ranged from advocating women’s suffrage to calling for the complete extermination of Indigenous communities.Margaret Hamilton, left, made an indelible witch opposite Judy Garland in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz.”MGMWe 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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    7 Days in the Cultural Life of a Real Housewife of N.Y.C.

    Between seasons of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” Erin Lichy is researching recipes, listening to Charli XCX and checking out fashion at the Met.Erin Lichy joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” last year, and like so many of the women on the long-running Bravo series, “housewife” doesn’t really even scratch the surface of her life. Lichy, 37, is a mother of three and sells luxury real estate in New York City and the Hamptons. She has a home on the Upper West Side and another in Sag Harbor.Before the premiere of the new season of “Real Housewives of New York City,” which is set for Oct. 1, Lichy kept track of her cultural goings-on during a busy week this summer. These are edited excerpts. (“RHONY” fans will be delighted to know that Lichy really does serve a lot of shakshuka.)On a busy summer Wednesday, Lichy visited bookstores around New York City to research recipes. Monday: Pilates and PickupsI arrived back in the Hamptons from visiting my son at sleep-away camp in Maine, then drove my two younger kids to day camp back in the Hamptons and finally got to a Pilates class. I picked up a cappuccino and a croissant at Carissa’s Bakery and got home around 10:30 a.m. to begin my meetings and calls. Then, I picked up the kids from camp at 3 p.m. and stopped at the farmers’ market on the way home to pick up fresh produce to grill for dinner that night. After we ate I put the kids to sleep, journaled and got to sleep early.Tuesday: Italian in Sag HarborBefore I dropped the kids off at camp, I stopped with them at Provisions to get the kids smoothies they love called “Strawberry Monkey.” I went to acupuncture in Sag Harbor for my “trigger finger,” and it actually healed it. Steroid shots didn’t work, but acupuncture did. It’s amazing. Then I got back around 10 a.m. to hop on a call with the mezcal brand Mezcalum team about a weekend that we planned in early August. We created lots of video content and social/YouTube content for the brand in addition to cocktail and recipe videos with Joey Wölffer from Wölffer Estate. Then, after a long day of work, I landed at Tutto il Giorno for dinner in Sag Harbor.Lichy outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she saw the “Sleeping Beauties” fashion exhibition.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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    Sasheer Zamata Is OK With Being the Practical B.F.F.

    The “Saturday Night Live” alumna plays a sorceress in the new “WandaVision” spinoff “Agatha All Along.”As someone who once walked on stilts in Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade and operated a Sebastian the Crab puppet, the comedian and actress Sasheer Zamata is no stranger to the world of Disney.In August, she was in Anaheim, Calif., for D23 Expo, a weekend event for Disney fans where she promoted the new Marvel series “Agatha All Along,” a “WandaVision” spinoff in which she co-stars with Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza and Patti LuPone.Zamata, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member for four seasons, has worked on a Marvel project before, voicing one of the characters in the animated series “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” In “Agatha,” she plays a sorceress.At D23, she said, “We sang our witch’s chant, we were in these hooded cloaks, there was fog, and it felt very epic. We were singing to a stadium of 12,000 people, full Taylor Swift-style.”Zamata went on to talk about the kid’s movie she rewatches every few years, the friend she talks to every day and the album she listens to before going onstage. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Black Girl SunscreenI run through it so fast. I slather it all over because it’s so moisturizing. Even if I’m not going to be outside all day, I still use it because it feels good. When I was younger, I fell into the idea that Black people can’t get sunburned. Now, I can’t even imagine walking outside without sunscreen.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