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    Jerrod Carmichael Wears the Truth in His HBO Comedy Special

    The comedian’s latest HBO special, which explores family secrets and sexual orientation, is as much a therapy session as a stand-up show.Of all that’s remarkable about Jerrod Carmichael’s latest comedy hour — the storied intimacy of the venue (the Blue Note Jazz Club), the spectral aptness of the lighting (kind of blue), the titanic silences, dental work that would thrill any neat freak — two aspects of this HBO special are especially exceptional. One is a matter of carriage. Carmichael is a stand-up comedian. But all he does in this new show is sit. The opening long shot follows him in the snow, headed toward the Blue Note, where he removes his coat and hat and promptly takes a seat upon the stage before a modest, expectant, engaged gathering of what Carmichael wants to feel is a family and what I can only call community support, because winter isn’t all he braves. For one thing, his long body is on a metal folding chair.Maybe these people have assembled for what they think is a typical Carmichael show — penetrating observations about being alive. They get those. But under the direction of Bo Burnham and a promise that there’s much to discuss, Carmichael goes deeper this time. “I need you,” he says. His theme is secrets. He’s kept his birth name one, more or less. His sexual orientation, too. The show gets its title from secret No. 1: “Rothaniel.” Secret No. 2 is trickier. Carmichael does some ruminating about the men in his family and their double lives — a family of whole other families. He maintained both his father’s secret and his own from his mother. So it’s also a show about shame.The secrecy had become a way of life. As had the shame. They’d been eating at him. And now — with cool humor, a masterfully straight face, disbelief that he’s doing this, disbelief that’s he actually gay — he’s rethinking what it might have cost and, by extension, how it feels to be that much closer to free.Through all of this, Carmichael’s in complete control of his digressive mind. In the middle of recounting a scheme to prepare his mother to learn about his father’s betrayal, he throws in a bit about being disappointed anytime his hibachi restaurant dinners are performed by anybody other than a Japanese chef. He feigns wonder that no one expects a gay child: “Look at his cheeks. I bet he’s going to be a top!”For most of the show, his legs are apart. Not a detail I’d mention in something with enough close-ups of its star to qualify as portraiture. But with about 20 minutes left, I’d noticed something that struck me, at least, as profound: Carmichael’s legs had gone from spread to crossed.Bo Burnham directed “Rothaniel,” in which Carmichael performs at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.HBOOrdinarily, one might argue that this sort of adjustment was a sign of discomfort. It hit me as discomfort’s opposite. Carmichael is funny about what a shock he finds his homosexuality to be. That myth that hard dudes from the ’hood don’t succumb to gayness — he’d subscribed to it. But by the time he’s sitting there in one of this country’s primo landmarks of improvisation, innovation and artistic introspection — of incandescence and intensity — Carmichael no longer seemed to be doing a routine. He appeared to be thinking aloud, doing a kind of jazz, playing quietly through the changes, and all of that. The mere crossing of legs felt like a deeply felt gesture of relaxation — of release. The people in that room are witnessing his masculinity shift from shield to sponge.Well, they’re more than witnessing it. These people are here to help. Carmichael had come to them with stories that are still unfolding around and within him. He’s already told his devoutly Christian mother and doesn’t know, for instance, whether she’ll ever warm to this part of him. His candor here certainly elevates the degree of that difficulty. Why, he wonders, is she so cold? And some unidentified person in the ambient dark of the Blue Note asks, why not give her a little time to absorb his revelation? He considers that. Earlier, he absorbs a different spectator’s crack timing after he tells the room that he’s not hiding anything and someone blurts out: “But your name.” “Whoa,” he says. “Now you guys are too much like my family.”I watched this show on HBO Max in the wake of the clash at the Oscars. And the intimacy here between this audience and this comedian differs from the national shock therapy from a few weeks before. This was group therapy, a session as much as a show, but also a dinner party. The evening was as much about his biological family and this live, makeshift one as it was his professional kin. I didn’t need Carmichael to make that connection. It was there in what he wore.Eddie Murphy sported a red leather suit in the 1983 concert movie “Delirious.”HBO/Everett CollectionThat was the evening’s other remarkable detail. It’s just a red, long-sleeve polo sweater that he wears with a pair of gold chains, black loafers and dark slacks that are all but tucked into a pair of creamy-looking socks. He looks simultaneously ready for bed, the office and “The Santa Clause 5.” It’s soft, this sweater, light as a T-shirt and maybe a size too big, yet it hangs on his svelte frame like it’s on sale somewhere chic. You want one. But who’s going to wear it better, or more evocatively?The sweater’s the color of outfits his forefathers donned, in 1983, doing standup at and near their zeniths. Richard Pryor spends “Here & Now” in a drab green suit whose pants karate-belt in the front. The red shirt he pairs it with has two white buttons; the shoes match. The vibe here breaks radically from Carmichael’s. Pryor has to contend with a rowdy New Orleans audience that he enjoys taming. The interruptions never stop. And Pryor expertly, hilariously, fields so many incoming two-cent interjections that he’s as much a fountain as a superstar.But what Carmichael’s red shirt really brought to mind was Eddie Murphy’s red leather suit in “Delirious.” Murphy has the jacket unzipped to his navel, inviting you to take in the chained medallion that decorates his hairless chest. A black disco belt hangs unlooped so that the metallic arrowhead tip sits down at his crotch and doubles as a penis. It’s pure ostentation, as if a Ferrari had at last gotten its wish to become Rick James. Murphy prowls the stage like a lion — and mauls like one, too. “Faggots” are his opening move. He fearfully imagines servicing a gay Mr. T and acts out what kind of lovers the best buds on “The Honeymooners” would make. There’s more. But also less, judging, at least, from the stupendous droop of my mouth.I must have watched “Delirious” a dozen times before I was 10. I knew what my deal was and that “faggot” seemed to sum up and toxify it. I remember finding the middle section, about Murphy being little, a riot. (It still is, in part because he’d located something about the moments of joy in poor, Black childhoods that felt true for lots of other children.)The umbrage taken over “Delirious,” in some sense, is settled. Murphy earnestly atoned for his homophobic arias 26 years ago and called that material “ignorant” in 2019. But a memory’s a memory. And mostly what I remember is the suit, the red of it, the fire, the warning, the alarm: Don’t be like Mr. T in Eddie Murphy’s porno. And yet, it was never lost on me that, in a sense, all Murphy’s doing in this bit is offering a literal description of the sex men can have with each other. But in 1983, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the alleged grossness of that intercourse — of gay people — is a rambunctious given. Murphy plugs his electric bewilderment into a packed concert hall’s socket. He presents his targets in their regular, manly personas — growling, gruff, goofy. He was 22 at the time, and what brings down the house during this spree of jokes is a panic about a virus of gayness and how it could infect someone as certifiably macho as Mr. T, a man awash in feathers, gold and vests.I DON’T KNOW how many times Carmichael has watched “Delirious.” I don’t know if he’s ever seen it, although the odds feel high that he has. (In his special, Carmichael permits us to laugh at the idea that his lips could be locked with another man’s while they whisper “no homo” to each other, in a state of prophylactic denial. The irony still blows him away.)Either way, his choosing such a passionate red for his televised coming-out sounded a different alarm for me. Murphy’s live-in-concert repulsion fantasias belie a tenderness that resides at the core of some of his work. To watch the early scenes between him and James Russo that set up the plot of “Beverly Hills Cop” is to wonder if the movie knows it’s a love story.Carmichael’s show makes the news because of the tender artistry at its core, but also because that repulsion remains pervasive enough in the culture — of comedy, of sports, of pop music, politics and movies — that the gay major-league baseball drama “Take Me Out” is somehow back on Broadway two decades after it opened, making its protagonist the country’s only openly gay professional baseball player. Again.Carmichael is 35, more than a dozen years older than Murphy in “Delirious.” He couldn’t have done this show at 22. Not with this much poise and self-fluency. Not with this much quiet. That sweater would have been wearing him. Now, it’s a garment of happiness and love, control and comfort. He is living up there in that sweater. (As remarkable: The armpits remain dry, and there’s no detectable undershirt, either. Has anyone ever left the Blue Note stage as sweatlessly?) The sweater’s also a tasteful rejoinder to Murphy’s high-voltage tastelessness, to the infernal scourge of inherited shame, a traffic sign of truth that says, “This has to stop.” More

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    Late Night Condemns Florida’s Ban on Math Books for ‘Prohibited Topics’

    Trevor Noah joked that he wished math text books had critical race theory so “we could have solved racism by cheating and going to the back of the book.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Not Adding UpThe state of Florida announced a ban on a number of proposed math textbooks for students because of their references to critical race theory or other “prohibited topics.”On Monday’s “Daily Show,” Trevor Noah said that it was strange for C.R.T. to show up in math books, but that he liked the idea of it.“Yeah, because then we could have solved racism by cheating and going to the back of the book with all the answers in it, you know?” Noah joked.“This official censorship isn’t just affecting history class, because this weekend we learned that Florida rejected 41 percent of new math textbooks. At least they think it’s 41 percent. For some reason, they suck at math.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Math textbooks would be the worst place to do it, because who remembers anything they learned in math, huh? Huh? Do you remember how to use a hypotenuse?” — TREVOR NOAH“Don’t get me started on the violence inherent in math. I will never forget the day 7 8 9. Scarred me for life.” — TREVOR NOAH“Well, the Florida Education Department explained that reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to critical race theory, which the Florida legislature says includes theories that distort historical events. That explains the updated unit on division: ‘A house divided against itself, hey — that’s two houses. Nice.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“If you don’t know what critical race theory is, don’t worry, neither does Governor Ron DeSantis, don’t worry.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Thanks to his important work, Florida has rejected more than 50 math books after the team uncovered sentence problems like, ‘Jamal has seven apples.’ They felt Jamal sounded suspicious. And where did he get the apples? Does he have a receipt for them?” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Back to the Races Edition)“President Biden today attended the White House Easter egg roll. However, due to inflation, the kids all had to share one egg.” — SETH MEYERS“It’s so nice we can gather again and watch the children safely have their egg race while we gamble big money on Fan Duel.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This is the three-year anniversary of when a bunny was the smartest person on the White House balcony.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yep, after two minutes of rolling eggs across a lawn, the kids were like, ‘Wow, I actually miss Zoom.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingJulia Roberts talked about celebrating 20 years of marriage with her husband, Daniel Moder, on Monday’s “Late Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightLeikeli47 will perform on Tuesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutClockwise from left rear: K. Todd Freeman, Noah Reid, Tracy Letts and Jeff Still, along with Danny McCarthy (forefront, on his knees) in the play “The Minutes.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesIn Tracy Letts’s new play, “The Minutes,” a tedious City Council meeting cracks open to reveal the secret record of what happened in Big Cherry. More

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    Kathryn Hays, Soap Star for Nearly 40 Years, Dies at 87

    A string of TV credits, including a turn on “Star Trek,” led to an enduring role on “As the World Turns,” in which her character matured as Ms. Hays aged.Kathryn Hays, an actress who had a brief yet memorable turn in the “Star Trek” television series of the 1960s but who found enduring appeal as a stalwart soap opera star on “As the World Turns” for almost four decades, died on March 25 in Fairfield, Conn. She was 87.Her daughter, Sherri Mancusi, confirmed her death, in an assisted living facility.Ms. Hays was originally cast by the daytime drama writer and creator Irna Phillips for a six-month contract, but wound up as an integral part of “As the World Turns,” which ran on CBS from 1956 to 2010.By the end of Ms. Hays’s long run on the show, her character, Kim Hughes, had become the de facto matriarch of the drama’s fictional town, Oakdale. The character was known for her catchphrases, often calling people “kiddo” or “toots.”Ms. Hays balanced the demands of taping an episode a day with humor and close relationships on set, her daughter said, recalling that her co-stars gave her the nickname “One Take Kathy.”Ms. Hays was known to fans of the original “Star Trek” television series for the episode “The Empath” (1968), in which she played Gem, a mute alien with healing powers who rescues a grievously injured Captain Kirk (William Shatner). Her extensive screen credits included “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Road West” and “Law and Order.”Ms. Hays often spoke about her love for the character Kim Hughes and the soap opera format in general.“I think if you look beyond soap operas, you’ll see that people like to have an ongoing story,” she told Entertainment Weekly on the occasion of the show’s finale. “They love to read sequels of books. They like to see sequels of movies.”Kim Hughes experienced standard soap opera fare on “As the World Turns,” from extramarital affairs to memory loss. But she also figured in more topical story lines. One episode, in the 1970s, touched on marital rape, an issue not often publicly discussed then.In a 2010 interview with the website “We Love Soaps,” Ms. Hays said that at the time, “I didn’t even realize that was controversial. But it was.”Ms. Hays at a 50th anniversary celebration of “As The World Turns” in 2006.Brian Ach/WireImageAs Ms. Hays aged, her character matured. Kim Hughes started out in 1972 as a stereotypical “home wrecker.” But after several marriages and countless twists and turns over the years, she and her husband, Bob Hughes, played by Don Hastings, exited the show’s 2010 finale happily married.The character, Ms. Hays said in the 2010 interview, “started one way and then turned into someone else.”“She turned into a deeper character, and that was wonderful,” she said of Kim. “She made the choice to be thoughtful of others. You saw her grow through those years.”But even the maturing of her character did not fully quell the occasional catfight that can energize a soap opera. “The thing that was great for me was knowing that if Kim got pushed too far, or too hard, she could turn around and deck you,” Ms. Hays said. “Verbally, not physically. The audience loved it.”Kay Piper was born on July 26, 1934, in Princeton, Ill., the only child of Roger and Daisy (Hays) Piper. They divorced shortly after her birth, and Kay was raised by her mother, who was a bookkeeper and a banker, and her stepfather, Arnold Gottlieb, a salesman.Ms. Hays in 1966 with her then husband, the actor Glenn Ford.Les Lee/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesKay graduated from Joliet Township High School and then went on to take classes at Northwestern University. After changing her name to Kathryn Hays in 1962, she modeled in New York and Chicago before finding work as an actress.She was married three times, to Sidney Steinberg, a salesman; the actor Glenn Ford, known for films like “The Blackboard Jungle” (1955) and a string of Westerns in the 1960s; and Wolfgang Lieschke, who worked in advertising.In addition to her daughter, she is survived by three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Better Call Saul’ and a Freddie Mercury Tribute

    AMC’s “Breaking Bad” prequel begins its final season. And a documentary about a 1992 tribute concert for Freddie Mercury airs on the CW.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, April 18-24. Details and times are subject to change.MondayCELEBRITY IOU 9 p.m. on HGTV. The brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott return with the fourth season of their show, in which celebrity guests give the gift of a home renovation to their friends or family members. The new season includes appearances by Tiffany Haddish (who surprises her best friend with a home renovation in the first episode), Howie Mandel and Lisa Kudrow.BETTER CALL SAUL 9 p.m. on AMC. Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn and Jonathan Banks return to small screens this week with the Season 6 premiere of “Better Call Saul,” the “Breaking Bad” prequel series. The new, 13-episode season comes after a two-year break — and after a well-documented health scare for Odenkirk, who had a heart attack on the set last year. Two episodes will air on Monday night. They pick up the story after a tantalizing Season 5 finale, which included a botched assassination attempt. As the timeline in the show gets closer to where “Breaking Bad” began, fans will be on the lookout for more cameos from the original series’s cast — including that show’s stars, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who are set to appear this season.TuesdayAnthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross in “black-ish.”Richard Cartwright/ABCBLACK-ISH 9 p.m. on ABC. After an extremely successful eight-season run, Kenya Barris’s Emmy-winning sitcom will end on Tuesday night. It has gone out with a bang: the final season has included cameos from Michelle Obama, Magic Johnson and Simone Biles, among many others. The show leaves behind a legacy of using the sitcom format to address racial issues, including police brutality and the experiences of mixed-race Americans.GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1947) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. John Mills, Valerie Hobson and Tony Wager star in this classic adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, about an orphaned boy who moves to London and becomes a gentleman with the help of a mysterious benefactor. David Lean (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai”) directs from a screenplay he wrote with Ronald Neame. In his review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther praised their work. “A script that is swift and sure in movement, aromatic English settings and costumes and superlatively sensitive direction and acting are conjoined to make a rich and charming job,” Crowther wrote.WednesdayFREDDIE MERCURY: THE FINAL ACT 8 p.m. on the CW. Thirty years after a blowout Freddie Mercury tribute concert was held at Wembley Stadium, the CW will air a documentary about the planning and execution of the event. The show was put together less than a year after Mercury’s death, and was meant to promote awareness of H.I.V. and AIDS. The documentary includes interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen, and with Kashmira Bulsara, who is Mercury’s sister. The interviews are paired with archival footage, including performances by Elton John, George Michael and David Bowie.ThursdayChris Evans in “Captain America: The Winter Solider”Zade Rosenthal/Marvel and DisneyCAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) 8:30 p.m. on FX. In the second of three Marvel “Captain America” movies, Chris Evans’s titular hero is ready to fully embrace the modern world. He joins forces with the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within the spy agency S. H. I. E. L. D. After three movies, Evans seems to be retiring from the role: Mackie is set to pick up the red, white and blue shield for the next movie.THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH PRESENTS: JORDAN KLEPPER FINGERS THE GLOBE — HUNGARY FOR DEMOCRACY 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central. In Jordan Klepper’s latest “Daily Show” special (his previous one, “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse — Into the MAGAverse,” was nominated for an Emmy), Klepper travels to Hungary, where he explores why some American conservatives are interested in the right-wing Hungarian government.FridayTHE TRICK 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This film dramatizes the story of Philip Jones, a real-life professor at the University of East Anglia who found himself at the center of the 2009 “Climategate” scandal, in which his emails and research were stolen and leaked by climate-change deniers. Jones is played by Jason Watkins.SaturdayZoe Kravitz and Robert Pattinson in “The Batman.”Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros. Pictures, via Associated PressTHE BATMAN (2022) 8 p.m. on HBO. This new Batman rethink debuted this year, with Robert Pattinson stepping into the sought-after role under the direction of Matt Reeves. The cast also includes Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell. Its soundtrack includes a song by Nirvana — which tells you quite a bit about where Reeves and Pattinson drew inspiration from for the downbeat tone of this Batman story. In his review for The Times, A.O. Scott wrote that the problem with the movie was the seriousness that has always shrouded the Batman universe. “I can’t say I had a good time, but I did end up somewhere I didn’t expect to be: looking forward to the next chapter,” he wrote.SundayJulia Roberts in “Gaslit.”StarzGASLIT 8 p.m. on STARZ. This limited series has a lot of familiar faces (including Julia Roberts and Sean Penn) and covers a familiar subject, the Watergate scandal. But it does so from a fresh perspective: The show follows a fictionalized version of Martha Mitchell, the wife of John N. Mitchell, who served as the Attorney General of the United States under President Richard Nixon. Her decision to speak out about Nixon’s involvement in the scandal had profound repercussions in her personal life — a fact that the series explores at length — before her death from bone marrow cancer in 1976.THE BABY 10:30 p.m. on HBO. This new, eight-episode horror-comedy series follows a 38-year-old, Natasha (Michelle de Swarte), who looks upon her friends’ children with envy. Natasha ends up in possession of a baby, which should be a fulfillment of her wishes. But it turns out that the baby might be the one in possession of her. More

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    ‘SNL’ Offers Easter Wishes From Elon Musk, Donald Trump and More

    The host and musical guest was Lizzo, probably the first “Saturday Night Live” guest to get audiences cheering for a flute solo.The Easter holiday is a period for rebirth and renewal — and also an opportunity for “Saturday Night Live” to pack as many celebrity impersonations as possible into a single sketch.This weekend’s “S.N.L.,” which featured Lizzo as its host and musical guest, opened with its cast members performing a grab-bag of impressions, starting with Bowen Yang as the Easter bunny.He explained that although he may not be the most popular holiday mascot, “I am the freakiest: a man-sized bunny with no back story.”Yang added that, unlike Santa Claus, “I don’t use enslaved elves to make my Easter baskets. I get them on Etsy. Because I support women.”Yang was followed by Kate McKinnon, in her recurring role as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci. “Trust me, I’m not here to give you any more Covid guidance,” McKinnon said. “I’m not stupid enough to think you’re actually going to follow it. All I’ll say is that Covid cases are a lot like Jesus: They’ve risen again.”Cecily Strong played Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who said she had been aggressively wishing a happy Easter to her Jewish and Muslim colleagues. Chris Redd played Mayor Eric Adams of New York, who shared some good news with the audience:“We got him: We got the shooter,” Redd said, a reference to the man accused of opening fire in a subway car in Brooklyn on Tuesday. “Sure, it took 30 hours, and the suspect turned himself in, but we got him. Case closed. Subway’s fixed. Ride without fear.”Mikey Day appeared as the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and announced that he planned to buy Easter. “I am offering 43 billion Peeps,” he said. After some stilted laughter, Day added: “That was a joke. Ha ha ha. Do you get it? That’s why, afterwards, I say, ‘That was a joke.’”Chloe Fineman portrayed Britney Spears, who was celebrating her recent release from a yearslong conservatorship. “Don’t worry; I’m finally free, and I’m having a baby,” she said. “I just pray my baby is born happy, healthy and with the power of attorney.Next, Kyle Mooney appeared in long hair and a beard, identifying himself as Jesus Christ. “Just kidding — I’m Jared Leto,” he said. He added that his Easter message this year was to encourage positivity. “So if you go to see my new movie, ‘Morbius,’ please don’t review it,” he said.Just as Yang appeared to be wrapping up the sketch, he was interrupted by James Austin Johnson, playing former President Donald J. Trump. Johnson, as Trump, complained that his omission was “another example of how whites are being treated horribly in this country.”He went on to give a rambling, discursive monologue about Cap’n Crunch, Seabiscuit and Little Caesar (whom Johnson claimed he taught to say, “Pizza, pizza”). He then marked the holiday by observing: “I’ve told America Covid would be over by Easter. I just didn’t say which one.”Nostalgia plays of the weekThis was the week that “S.N.L.” realized it had the ideal distribution of cast members to play the members of the Black Eyed Peas for a sketch in which two producers in 2008 (played by Lizzo and Aidy Bryant) help the bandmates (Kenan Thompson, Strong, Redd and Yang) spin their none-too-complex insights and emotions into hit singles like “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.”And if that sketch wasn’t enough to satisfy your desire to be transported back to a more innocent time of, like, 13 or 14 years ago, there was also this segment in which several performers played Mr. Six, the inexplicably spry former mascot of Six Flags theme parks.Lizzo performances of the weekLizzo’s musical talents were put to productive use in a few sketches this week, most notably this filmed segment in which she and the Please Don’t Destroy team frantically attempt to brainstorm a new hit single for her in 10 minutes, resulting in the hilariously disastrous song (and music video) “Horny Zookeeper.” (A close runner-up would be this sketch that casts Lizzo as a twerking flutist whose unconventional methods inspire an entire orchestra.)Lizzo was pretty successful, too, when it was time to be a legitimate, non-comedic musician: Her performance of her new song “About Damn Time” is probably the first time we’ve seen the “S.N.L.” audience go nuts for a flute solo.Weekend Update jokes of the weekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on President Biden’s political woes and Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter.Jost began:A new poll shows that President Biden’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 33 percent. For a perspective, that’s less the half the approval rating of “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.” “Sonic 2” features the characters Tails and Knuckles, which are also the names of two gang members Joe Biden claims he fought in the 1960s. A video has also gone viral of President Biden finishing a speech in North Carolina, then apparently turning to shake hands with an invisible person. Hey, her name is Kamala.Che continued:President Biden, seen here trying to remember where he left his mask, announced new federal regulations for ghost guns. I mean, look, I don’t like the idea of people having ghost guns, either. But if there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? [His screen showed the cast of “Ghostbusters.”] Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for over $40 billion so he can loosen its free speech rules. That’s how badly white guys want to use the N-word.Jost added to this thread:Honestly, I don’t understand why Elon even wants to own Twitter. It used to be something that seemed important and even fun, and now you look at it and it’s confusing and depressing. It’s the Giuliani of apps. And come on, Elon built electric cars, he’s going to Mars. Why is he even involving himself with Twitter? It would be like if the prince of England gave it all up just to marry an actor from “Suits.” Plus, I’ve got to say, Twitter’s not even profitable anymore. It just feels like a bad business decision. And I say that as someone who bought a Staten Island Ferry with Pete. More

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    The Murdochs, From Page to Screen

    A documentary series uses new material and archival footage to expand on a New York Times Magazine investigation.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Greed. Betrayal. Family backstabbing. The rise of the Murdochs, the world’s most powerful media family, which was chronicled in a three-part, 20,000-word investigation published in The New York Times Magazine in 2019, had all the right ingredients for a gripping documentary series. Some might say it had “Succession”-level drama.The drama was brought indeed in “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” a new documentary series that premiered on CNN+ last month and will be broadcast on CNN later this year.The series relied on the reporting of the two journalists behind the magazine article, Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, who served as consulting producers. For more insight, the team at the production company Left/Right, which partnered with CNN and The New York Times, used new voices and archival footage to expand on the magazine article across six hourlong episodes. The team even enlisted Mr. Mahler and Mr. Rutenberg to appear on camera.“It can be easy to go off track or speak a little loosely in ways that we wouldn’t in an actual written and edited piece,” said Mr. Rutenberg. “So a lot of the challenge is getting used to sticking to our reporting when we’re sitting in a chair riffing.”Work on the series began in the fall of 2020, said Kathleen Lingo, The Times’s editorial director for film and TV and an executive producer on the project. “It was an opportunity not just to retell the story as it appeared in the magazine, but to expand the timeline into additional events,” she said. “You really get to see how the Murdoch family’s presence in world events played out over so many decades.”Mr. Mahler and Mr. Rutenberg met weekly with the showrunner of the series, Erica Sashin, and a team from Left/Right to work on the script. They took an expanded look at the formative years of the family patriarch and founder of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, in Toorak, a neighborhood of Melbourne, Australia. The show also grew to include developments since the magazine investigation was published, such as the 2021 Capitol riot and how Fox News, which Mr. Murdoch founded and is now run by his son Lachlan, covered the events that day.The television editing process took some getting used to, Mr. Rutenberg said.“It’s much harder to go in and tinker,” he said. “If we wanted to edit anything, we had to get in touch with their editors, who’d have to rearrange the timing of the whole episode.”But there were aspects the two men relished about the documentary format.“With a documentary, you can be a little more expansive,” Mr. Mahler said. “We hadn’t had room to get into things in the magazine series that were just a little too tangential, like the strike at Rupert’s plant in Wapping,” he added, citing a workers’ dispute in London, “or the story of the daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch,” Those are topics that they are able to explore in the series.The TV format also lent the opportunity to transport viewers to important scenes in the Murdoch family history via archival images and video footage.“In the section when Rupert first moves his family to New York, you’re able to see that era of New York City’s skyline and the streets while you’re also learning about his personal goals,” Ms. Lingo said. “I love how a documentary can transport you to a specific era or time in a visceral way while also giving you information.”When Mr. Mahler and Mr. Rutenberg began to work on the documentary, it had been a few months since they were knee-deep in the nuances of the investigation. But fortunately, Mr. Mahler said, the fact that they had written the article collaboratively meant they had kept more organized notes than they otherwise might have.Both men watched the documentary about half a dozen times each during the editing process. Their takeaway?“It’s better than ‘Succession,’” Mr. Mahler said of the HBO drama whose Roy family is said to have been inspired by the Murdochs.Mr. Rutenberg wouldn’t go quite that far, but he was certain of one thing: “You can’t watch this and not think ‘Succession’ is overwhelmingly based on the Murdoch family,” he said.Stream “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence” on CNN+. More

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    in Television

    Liz Sheridan, Who Played Jerry Seinfeld’s Mom, Dies at 93

    She was Helen Seinfeld on his sitcom and was seen on many other TV shows and on Broadway. She also wrote of her youthful romance with James Dean.Liz Sheridan, a stage, film and television actress best known for playing Helen Seinfeld, Jerry’s mother on the acclaimed sitcom “Seinfeld,” died on Friday at her home in New York City. She was 93.Her manager, Amanda Hendon, confirmed the death.Ms. Sheridan started her career as a dancer in the 1950s. Her acting career blossomed in the 1970s, when she appeared in seven Broadway shows (one, “Happy End” in 1977, also featured Meryl Streep, still early in her career) and on an episode of the TV series “Kojak.”The 1980s brought dozens of roles in made-for-TV movies and on series like “Hill Street Blues” and “Remington Steele,” including a prominent one as a nosy neighbor on the comedy “ALF,” which ran from 1986 to 1990. She first appeared on “Seinfeld” in the second episode, in May 1990, and turned up throughout the series, including in the widely watched finale in May 1998.In a 2007 interview for Mark Voger’s newspaper column “Celebs,” Ms. Sheridan recalled auditioning for the part. Mr. Seinfeld and Larry David, the creators of the series, were in the room with a friend of Mr. Seinfeld’s.“I walked in the room and I smiled at Jerry because my husband and I had watched him do stand-up when he was not famous yet,” she said. “We love stand-up. I told him that I liked his work, his stand-up. He smiled, and I smiled, and then I read and they laughed, and then I left. By the time I got home, I got a phone call.”On the show, Jerry’s parents lived in Florida, so Helen and her husband, Morty, played by Barney Martin (another actor played the part in that first episode), appeared only occasionally. And she was somewhat overshadowed, among the show’s mothers, by Estelle Harris, who played Estelle Costanza, the high-intensity mother of Jason Alexander’s George. (Ms. Harris died on April 2.) But Helen made an impression nonetheless.“So many people stop me on the street, and they say, ‘You know, your relationship with Jerry is what my relationship is with my parents,’” Ms. Sheridan told CNN in 1998.Ms. Sheridan in an undated publicity photo. She had a long list of television and theater credits.NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesElizabeth Ann Sheridan was born on April 10, 1929, in Manhattan. Her father, Frank, was a concert pianist, and her mother, Elizabeth Poole-Jones, was a singer.Her parents separated when she was young, and she grew up with her mother in Westchester County, N.Y. Dance was her first interest. “I was dancing all the time,” she said in a 2012 interview on “The Paul Leslie Hour.”In her early 20s she took her dance skills to New York, where she lived at the Rehearsal Club, a residence for young women in the arts. In “Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life With James Dean, a Love Story,” a memoir published in 2000 (“Dizzy” was her childhood nickname), she wrote about a young man she met in the lobby of that building one day in 1951. It was James Dean, then an unknown from Indiana who at the time had a job testing stunts for the game show “Beat the Clock.”They started dating, and the relationship grew intense; sometimes they would check into hotels as Mr. and Mrs. James Dean.“Back in those days when nice girls didn’t, I did,” she wrote.Dean, she said, had his dark moments and his quirks. In a 2004 appearance on the CNN show “Larry King Live,” she recalled that Dean had a cape from the famed American bullfighter Sidney Franklin.“We used to play with it in Central Park,” she said, “and I always got to be the bull, and I never got to be the matador.”One time, making their way to Indiana for a visit, the couple snagged a ride with a man who turned out to be Clyde McCullough, a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was then, she said, that she realized that if she and James were to marry, as they had discussed, she would be Dizzy Dean, an echo of the Hall of Fame pitcher.James Dean’s career began to take off, and their relationship was a casualty. It had ended when Dean died in a car wreck in 1955. Ms. Sheridan was working as a singer and piano player in the Caribbean at the time.She later met Dale Wales, a jazz musician, while working in Puerto Rico. They had been together for years when they married in 1985. He died in 2003.Ms. Sheridan’s survivors include a daughter.Mr. Seinfeld posted a tribute on Twitter on Friday.“Liz was always the sweetest, nicest TV mom a son could wish for,” he wrote. “Every time she came on our show it was the coziest feeling for me. So lucky to have known her.”Kirsten Noyes contributed research. More

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    Most Broadway Theaters Will Drop Vaccine Checks, but Not Mask Mandate

    The owners and operators of the 41 theaters have decided to relax audience safety protocols that have been in place since last summer.Most Broadway theaters have decided to stop checking the vaccination status of ticket holders after April 30, but all will continue to require that audience members wear masks inside theaters through at least May 31.The Broadway League, a trade association, announced the change on Friday. The decision was made by the owners and operators of Broadway’s 41 theaters, who had initially decided to require vaccines and masks last summer, before the city imposed its own mandates. The theater owners — six commercial and four nonprofit entities — have been periodically reconsidering the protocols ever since.They announced the decision as many governments and businesses nationwide have been loosening restrictions, but with cases rising in New York City and the virus forcing several Broadway shows to cancel performances in recent days.“Since resuming performances last fall, over five million attendees have seen a Broadway show, and the safety and security of our cast, crew, and audience has been our top priority,” Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, said in a statement. “Our intention is that by maintaining strict audience masking through at least the month of May, we will continue that track record of safety for all. And of course, we urge everyone to get vaccinated.”Until now, the theaters had acted together on the protocols, saying they were concerned that varied policies could confuse theatergoers. But they no longer have a consensus: The biggest commercial landlords on Broadway opted to drop the vaccine mandate, while two nonprofits said they would keep it and another said it was still deciding what to do.The League did not specify which theaters would stop requiring proof of vaccination, but Broadway’s two biggest landlords — the Shubert Organization, with 17 theaters, and the Nederlander Organization, with nine — said Friday that they would stop seeking proof of vaccination as of May 1. Disney Theatrical Productions, which operates the New Amsterdam Theater, and Circle in the Square, which has Broadway’s only theater in the round, said they would also stop checking for proof of vaccination on May 1. Broadway’s other commercial theater operators — Jujamcyn Theaters and the Ambassador Theater Group — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Lincoln Center Theater, a nonprofit which runs one Broadway house, the 1,080-seat Vivian Beaumont Theater, said that it would keep its vaccine requirement in place. The Roundabout Theater Company, a nonprofit with three Broadway houses, said it would continue to require proof of vaccination at its production of “Birthday Candles,” which is scheduled to run through May 29, but that it would allow the commercial producers renting its other theaters to decide what protocols to use.Another nonprofit, Manhattan Theater Club, said it would decide next week whether to keep the requirement in place at the Broadway house it operates, the 650-seat Samuel J. Friedman Theater. The other nonprofit with a Broadway house, Second Stage Theater, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vaccination and masking requirements, long gone in many parts of the country, have been falling away in New York City; on March 7, the city dropped rules requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining at restaurants, for example. Other settings, including movie theaters as well as some comedy, sports and concert venues, have opted to drop masking requirements. Masks are still required on subways and buses, as well as at indoor subway stations, but anecdotal evidence suggests compliance has been dropping.Virus cases have recently been rising in New York City, but the number of new cases remains well below the levels at the peak of the Omicron surge.Broadway has decided to preserve the masking requirement, given the size of its audiences (seating capacity ranges from 585 at the Hayes, where “Take Me Out” is playing, to 1,926 at the Gershwin, which houses “Wicked”), the length of its shows (the longest, at three and a half hours, is “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”), the tightly packed seats (many of the theaters were built a century ago), and the makeup of its audience (traditionally, 65 percent tourists, although there are more locals now given the pandemic’s impact on travel).Theater owners say audiences have mostly embraced the requirements — there have been occasional disputes over mask wearing, but they have been far less common than on airplanes, for example, and for the most part patrons seem to have accepted the protocols.Dropping vaccination verification will save producers money: Paying workers to check proof of vaccination has been one of several Covid safety measures that have driven up running costs for Broadway shows.Some New York City performing arts institutions have stuck with more restrictive audience protocols. The Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, for example, continue to require proof of vaccination (but have dropped requirements for proof of a booster shot) and masking.The coronavirus pandemic, which in March 2020 led to a lengthy shutdown of Broadway theaters, has continued to bedevil the industry since theaters began to reopen last summer. In December, the arrival of the Omicron variant prompted multiple shows to cancel performances; this month, the arrival of the BA. 2 subvariant forced four shows to cancel performances after stars including Daniel Craig, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker tested positive. The night before the new protocols were announced, Sam Gold, the director of a new production of “Macbeth” starring Craig, went onstage as an actor to keep the show going when an actor tested positive, and all the understudies had already been deployed to fill in for others who were out.The protocol changes announced Friday affect only patrons; vaccination remains a condition of employment for Broadway actors and other theater workers. More