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    Siegfried Fischbacher, Magician of Siegfried & Roy, Dies at 81

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySiegfried Fischbacher, Magician of Siegfried & Roy, Dies at 81Mr. Fischbacher’s death came months after that of Roy Horn, his partner in one of the most spectacular shows in Las Vegas history.The illusionist Siegfried Fischbacher in 2008. Together, he and Roy Horn captivated Las Vegas audiences for decades.Credit…Mark Sullivan/Getty Images for CineVegasRichard Sandomir and Jan. 14, 2021Updated 6:30 p.m. ETSiegfried Fischbacher, the German-born magician who was half of Siegfried & Roy, the team that captivated Las Vegas audiences with performances alongside big cats, elephants and other exotic animals, died on Wednesday night at his home in Las Vegas. He was 81.The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his publicist, Dave Kirvin. Mr. Fischbacher’s longtime partner in the production, Roy Horn, died of complications of Covid-19 in May at 75.For a time, the team’s name was all but synonymous with Las Vegas show business, with spectacular performances that combined smoke machines and white tigers, lasers and elephants, sequined costumes, snakes and illusions of metamorphosis.Their long-running production at MGM’s Mirage hotel and casino was one of the most lavish and successful in Las Vegas history.Mr. Fischbacher, left, and Roy Horn with Mantecore, the tiger that mauled Mr. Horn in 2003.Credit…Peter Bischoff, via Getty ImagesThe pair’s show ended in October 2003, after Mr. Horn was mauled by a 400-pound white tiger named Mantecore, which dragged him offstage before a stunned capacity crowd of 1,500 at the Mirage.The attack left Mr. Horn with lasting damage to his body. After he spent years recovering, the team made one final appearance, with Mantecore, at a benefit performance for the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas in February 2009. They retired from show business in 2010.Mr. Horn, left, and Mr. Fischbacher in New York in 1987 with the rare white tigers Neva, left, a female, and Vegas, a male.Credit…Scott Mckiernan/Associated PressMr. Fischbacher and Mr. Horn, who were domestic as well as professional partners, kept dozens of exotic cats and other animals in the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, a glass-enclosed, tropically forested habitat at the Mirage; at Jungle Paradise, an 88-acre estate outside town; and at Jungle Palace, their $10 million Spanish-style home in Las Vegas.“From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world,” Mr. Fischbacher said in a statement after Mr. Horn’s death. “There could be no Siegfried without Roy and no Roy without Siegfried.”The two performers amazed Las Vegas audiences over four decades with stage extravaganzas that blended Mr. Fischbacher’s mastery of illusion and Mr. Horn’s preternatural ability to train and communicate with white tigers, lions and other animals.In their lavish shows, an elephant would vanish, a white tiger would turn into a beautiful woman, a tiger would appear to levitate over the audience and Mr. Horn would become a snake.The success of Siegfried & Roy’s show paved the way for more spectacular ones in Las Vegas.“Cirque du Soleil came in, you know, and Steve Wynn started that concept of Cirque in Las Vegas,” Mr. Fischbacher told Las Vegas Weekly in 2013. “The same thing that we inspired, Cirque du Soleil, inspired him.”Mr. Fischbacher was born on June 13, 1939, in Rosenheim, Germany, to Martin and Maria Fischbacher. At age 8, he became fascinated with magic when he saw a book on the subject in the window of a local store. It cost only five marks, but his mother would not give him the money; he claimed to have a found a five-mark note on a street and bought the book.When he performed a trick in which a coin vanished in a glass of water, his father praised him. “For me, having been brought up in a strict Bavarian way, it was the first time my father ever acknowledged me,” he is quoted as saying in his online biography.He was inspired by a German magician named Kalanag, whose show, Mr. Fischbacher said, was “one of the most exciting events in my life.”He left home at 17, working first as a dishwasher and bartender at a small hotel in Lago di Garda, Italy, then as a steward on the Bremen, a German cruise liner. The captain of the Bremen saw him perform magic for the crew and suggested that he perform for the passengers.He met Mr. Horn on the Bremen in 1957. Mr. Horn was a cabin boy with a love of animals who had smuggled his pet cheetah, Chico, onto the ship. They struck up a friendship, and Mr. Fischbacher asked Mr. Horn to help out with his magic act.“I did the usual thing: rabbit out of the hat and birds and so on,” Mr. Fischbacher said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” in 2003, five days after Mr. Roy’s accident. “Afterwards, I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he said, ‘Can you do what you did with a rabbit with a cheetah?’”“I didn’t know he had a pet cheetah at the time,” he added, “and I said, ‘Anything is possible.’”In 1964, five years after they started working together, they were playing nightclubs in Germany and Switzerland. When they performed at a charity benefit in Monte Carlo in 1966, Princess Grace of Monaco raved about them, giving their career a boost.As their act became more extravagant with the addition of more illusions and animals, Siegfried & Roy were booked into nightclubs throughout Europe. They made their debut in Las Vegas at the Tropicana in 1967, then moved on to headliner status at the Stardust in 1978 and the Frontier, where the marquee billed them as “Superstars of Magic.”Steve Wynn, who built the Mirage, signed them to a five-year, $57.5 million contract in 1987, three years before the hotel and casino opened. The deal included building a theater to Siegfried & Roy’s specifications. Mr. Wynn quickly cashed in on his expensive bet when they began to sell out immediately. They grossed an estimated $30 million in 1990 (about $60 million in today’s dollars).They were “the single most successful entertainment attraction in Las Vegas history,” Mr. Wynn was quoted as saying on the ABC News program “Nightline” in 2019.“Thirty years, 48 weeks a year, capacity business,” he added.Their act ended abruptly on Oct. 3, 2003 with the mauling of Mr. Horn after 5,750 performances at the Mirage. During their performance, he stumbled onstage — both he and Mr. Fischbacher said he had probably had a stroke — leading Mantecore to grab him by the neck and drag him offstage, causing an extreme loss of blood.Mr. Horn believed the tiger, sensing he was ill, was trying to protect him. Immediately after, Mr. Horn is said to have asked that no harm come to Mantecore. (The tiger was unharmed, and died 11 years later.)Mr. Fischbacher is survived by his brother, Marinus, and his sister, Margot, a Franciscan nun who goes by Sister Dolore.Speaking to Larry King in 2003, Mr. Fischbacher talked about the connection that he and Mr. Horn had with their audience, some of whom came hundreds of times.“I’m OK,” he said. “I’m good. I love my audience. I love the audience like Roy loves the animals, and this combination together, it worked, you know.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Rape-Revenge Tales: Cathartic? Maybe. Incomplete? Definitely.

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRape-Revenge Tales: Cathartic? Maybe. Incomplete? Definitely.Films like “Promising Young Woman” should be especially urgent in the wake of #MeToo. Instead, they sell female characters short.Carey Mulligan as a medical school dropout bent on avenging a friend’s rape in “Promising Young Woman.”Credit…Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features, via Associated PressJan. 14, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ETThis article contains spoilers for “Promising Young Woman.”Early in “Promising Young Woman,” a pedantic creep inserts his fingers in the protagonist’s vagina. Our heroine, who has been feigning drunkenness, quickly snaps out of her stupor, shifting from easy prey to vigilante.The creep tries to cover his assault, insisting that he is a nice guy who’d felt a connection with her.“A connection?” Cassie repeats. “OK. What do I do for a living?”The man has no answer, so she continues: “How old am I? How long have I lived in the city? What are my hobbies? What’s my name?”Cassie, 29 going on 30, is a barista whose hobby is, ostensibly, this: luring would-be rapists into sardonic lectures. Yet as the movie unfurls, we learn little about her, and even less about the woman she is trying to avenge.Critics have hailed “Promising Young Woman,” written and directed by Emerald Fennell, for its timeliness, often connecting it to the #MeToo movement that has given a platform to victims of sexual harassment and abuse. As that movement continues to change the way we think about sexual violence, centering victims’ experiences and exposing abuses of power, rape-revenge stories like this one should feel more relevant than ever.Instead, “Promising Young Woman” and a handful of other recent movies — “The Perfection,” “Revenge” and “I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu” — recall films from the ’70s and ’80s that reduced rape victims to emotionless, even sexy avengers. They offer female characters a facile kind of agency. A woman, once made powerless by an attacker, can take justice into her own hands — but she must pay for that power with her personhood.Rape itself turns girls and women into little more than objects, and these films — two of them directed by women — contribute to that dehumanization, rather than defy it. They confine female characters to lives of sociopathic wrath. But it doesn’t have to be that way: The recent “Black Christmas” revival, as well as TV shows like “Big Little Lies” and “I May Destroy You,” give their victims more room to grow and heal.In “Promising Young Woman,” Cassie (Carrie Mulligan) lives to avenge her best friend, Nina. We learn that she and Nina were in medical school when another student raped Nina in front of his friends. Nina dropped out, and Cassie soon followed suit, to care for her.Despite her importance to the narrative, Nina never comes into focus. She’s dead, but we never learn how she died. We don’t even know what she looked like as an adult, since the only pictures we see of her come from Cassie’s childhood. Nina’s fiery personality shines through in glimpses — an anecdote her mother tells, a speech Cassie delivers to the rapist. But ultimately, the movie perpetuates the very wrong it condemns, turning a woman who was “fully formed from day one” into little more than the worst night of her life.“Promising Young Woman” adamantly criticizes predators and their enablers, and nods to #MeToo. (The creep Cassie deceives is writing a novel about “what it’s like to be a guy right now.”) Yet despite its assertion that rape is “every woman’s worst nightmare,” the film carelessly subjects its female characters to it, or at least the threat of it. Cassie exacts worse revenge on the women who discredited Nina than she does on nightclub predators and their enablers: She tricks a former friend into believing she has been raped and kidnaps the teenage daughter of a college dean. Cassie also offers herself up for assault, letting some of the nightclub men — like the novelist creep — violate her before she schools them.This behavior recalls that of Jennifer, a rape victim in the 1978 cult hit “I Spit on Your Grave,” who seduces two of her attackers to lure them to their dooms. In “I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu,” last year’s straight-to-DVD sequel by the original movie’s writer-director, Meir Zarchi, Jennifer (Camille Keaton) discusses the experience in a radio interview. “The only advantage at my disposal was my God’s given weapon: my sexual appeal. So I used it to entice and trick them,” she says.Jennifer’s daughter, Christy (Jamie Bernadette), does the same later when she avenges her own brutal rape. Both “I Spit on Your Grave” and the sequel revel in gang-rape sequences as much as the massacre that follows, with prolonged, explicit scenes of men (and, in the case of “Deja Vu,” one woman), taunting, wounding and penetrating their helpless victims. If the protagonists experience meaningful evolutions in their transformation from wailing victims to dead-eyed avengers, they’re not shown.The women of “Revenge” (2017) and “The Perfection” (2018), though more calculating, are barely better rendered. Vengeance takes center stage when Charlotte and Lizzie, the cellist heroines of “The Perfection” (directed by Richard Shepard), dismember the musician behind their childhood abuse. But they sacrifice their humanity along the way: Charlotte (Allison Williams) tricks Lizzie into maiming herself, and Lizzie (Logan Browning) play-acts raping Charlotte. In “Revenge,” written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, the bombshell Jen (Matilda Lutz) mows down the three men complicit in her rape and attempted murder. Despite her ingenious recovery, Jen transforms from one male fantasy to another, swapping blond curls and lollipops for booty shorts and bloodshed.Perhaps most important, none of these movies seem particularly interested in the real aftermath of rape. Their characters may shed some tears, but there are no phone calls to loved ones, no visits to hospitals or therapists, no chronic depression or panic attacks. If anything, rape makes these women more resourceful, preternaturally capable of exacting justice without fear of retribution.“Black Christmas” (2019) is a more grounded tale of rape and revenge. Though the Sophia Takal film failed to dazzle at the box office or wow critics, who scorned its supernatural climax, it acknowledged the trauma of rape as much as it did the catharsis of revenge. In the film, the sorority sister Riley (Imogen Poots) is still recovering from sexual assault at the hands of a fraternity’s former president. She copes with flashbacks and anxiety, and her friends comment on her withdrawn affect. Riley eventually vanquishes her rapist, but not as part of some violent power trip; she does so in self-defense.Michaela Coel plays a woman coping with the trauma of rape in “I May Destroy You.”Credit…Natalie Seery/HBOMore balanced takes on these themes can be found on television, where long-form storytelling makes ample room for nuance. In the first season of “Big Little Lies” (2017), the murder mystery has rape at its center. Jane (Shailene Woodley), whose attack by an unknown assailant leads to the birth of her son, struggles to cope as a young mother in a cutthroat, elitist community. When her son is accused of choking his classmate, she worries that his father’s influence might have played a role and begins to relive the incident. She fantasizes about shooting her attacker and chases flashbacks away with long runs and Martha Wainwright songs. When her rapist turns out to be her friend’s abusive husband, the show’s ensemble of women rallies around Jane. One of them kills the man to defend her friends from his wrath.The 2020 series “I May Destroy You” ruminates entirely on the aftermath of sexual trauma, as the main character, Arabella (Michaela Coel), and her friends each try to cope. In the final episode, Arabella lives through multiple confrontations with her rapist, two of which involve deception and revenge, before she eventually decides to move on.At the climax of“Promising Young Woman,” Cassie tries to torture Nina’s rapist. The man overpowers and kills her, but the script throws viewers one last revenge Hail Mary: Cassie has orchestrated his arrest from beyond the grave.This cheeky, borderline celebratory reveal (complete with “Angel of the Morning” ironically on the soundtrack) rings hollow. The film is more interested in what Cassie represented — a clapback against rape culture, a pastel-painted middle finger — than it ever was in Cassie as a human being.Though rape and revenge both figure in “Black Christmas,” “Big Little Lies” and “I May Destroy You,” their narratives do not isolate women who’ve been attacked, nor do they condemn them to single-minded quests for revenge. These women lean on other people, often other women. They find a peace that ultimately matters more than confrontations with their attackers.As the saying goes, living well is the best revenge.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    A Playwright’s New Subject: Her Husband, the Pandemic Expert

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyA Playwright’s New Subject: Her Husband, the Pandemic ExpertProlific and widely-produced, Lauren Gunderson didn’t have to look far to create “The Catastrophist,” a play about risk that’s both timely and personal.The playwright Lauren Gunderson, right, with her husband, Nathan Wolfe, an expert on pandemics and the subject of her new play “The Catastrophist.”Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York TimesJan. 14, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETSAN FRANCISCO — Confined by the pandemic to her three-story Victorian home, Lauren Gunderson did not have to go far to find inspiration for her latest play. He was one room away, in the home office next to hers on the top floor.Over Rombauer chardonnay (for her) and a vodka tonic (for him) she set her phone down, opened the voice recording app and interviewed Nathan Wolfe, her husband of eight years. The transcripts of those conversations are the basis of “The Catastrophist,” her new solo play that was filmed on a stage near San Francisco in December and will premiere as “cinematic theater” later this month.With the exception of Shakespeare, Gunderson has been the most produced playwright in the United States in recent years, according to a tally by American Theater magazine.Wolfe has his own claims to stardom, albeit of the more academic variety. He is an expert on plagues who warned presciently about the risks of a big pandemic years before the word became such an everyday, and despised, piece of vocabulary. (“This is Nathan Wolfe,” read the cover headline on the summer issue of Wired magazine. “We should have listened to him.”)The founder of a company that models the risk of epidemics, Wolfe speaks with a measured cadence, as if an algorithm had carefully selected the words. Asked how he plans his own activities, his answer would not be out of place in a World Health Organization news release: “We are not going to take any risks that are unnecessary because it’s not socially responsible and it’s not individually responsible.”Gunderson is colloquial and effervescent, speaking in metaphors that could be slotted into her next play. She tends to interrupt her husband to add some color to his gray sentences. “We all feel afloat, adrift. Where is the land? What do we stand on?” she said, summarizing our collective psychological response to the pandemic.Gunderson’s long list of works includes many that spotlight the lives of scientists, some well known, some obscure. This piece — which was commissioned by the Round House Theater in Bethesda, Md., and the Marin Theater Company in Mill Valley, Calif., where Gunderson is playwright in residence — is of course more intimate.That’s not to say she didn’t go in well aware of the pitfalls in basing a play around the life of her spouse, including hagiography. “Truly never been more terrified of writing anything than writing this,” Gunderson announced on Twitter.She, and they, will quite literally live with the consequences. “The Catastrophist” will be available for streaming from Jan. 26 through Feb. 28.“My job is to look at people’s complexities and faults, and failures and betrayals,” Gunderson said on a recent afternoon, seated in her backyard next to her children’s trampoline. Her voice was muffled by a paisley face mask. “To turn that kind of eye to my husband, who I love, is bracing. It was way harder than I thought.”William DeMeritt in tech rehearsal during filming of Lauren Gunderson’s play “The Catastrophist.”Credit…via Marin Theatre CompanyGunderson’s “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” is streaming through Jan. 17 from TheaterSquared in Arkansas. Her previous subjects include Émilie du Châtelet, an 18th-century French mathematician and philosopher, and Olympe de Gouges, a French playwright and early women’s rights activist.None were able to peer over her shoulder as she worked. “They are all dead, so they can’t fact check me,” she said. Gunderson said she hadn’t considered writing about her husband until Jasson Minadakis, the artistic director of the Marin Theater, sent her a text proposing the idea. Her initial thought: “No, no — no!”But she came to believe that her husband would be a good vehicle to talk about the pandemic. Minadakis would direct.“The Catastrophist” tells the story of Wolfe’s upbringing by a father who, along with other relatives, shares a particular medical vulnerability. It follows his quest as a virus hunter whose early career was spent in Africa and Asia looking for clues to the next major pandemic.In past science-related works, Gunderson has not hesitated to be educational as well as entertaining. And the Wolfe character’s disquisitions in “The Catastrophist” can have the feel of a National Geographic documentary. “We have only a minor sliver of knowledge of the viral world,” he says. “Viruses are the most abundant life-forms on the planet.”But at its heart “The Catastrophist” is a personal story about risk and mortality. And at a time when so much in our lives is disrupted or simply just canceled, part of Gunderson’s mission was to open a discussion about how we anticipate and deal with future risks.In one particularly explanatory scene Wolfe delves into the concept of the micromort — a measurement of the likelihood of death from a particular activity.Skydiving, at 8 micromorts per jump, is safer than a ride on a motorcycle at 10 micromorts, he tells us. Attempting to climb Mount Everest: 39,000 micromorts. His character admits that he is drawn to adventure sports, more so than his wife.“I promised her I’d never do anything over 200 micromorts,” he says.And at the risk of giving away too much, Gunderson, in “The Catastrophist,” explores how a man who spends his life calculating risk can do such a lousy job of assessing it for himself. “The playwright in me had to push all the buttons and unlock all the secret drawers,” Gunderson said of writing about her husband.   Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York TimesPerhaps inevitably for a play written in the throes of a plague there is a meta aspect to the work. Gunderson’s life in the pandemic was tightly intertwined with writing about it.San Francisco, like so many other cities, has been shaken and transformed since March. Tents sheltering homeless people have proliferated on the streets. Property crimes and drug overdoses have soared. Restaurants have closed, many forever.But from a purely medical standpoint, San Francisco appears to have beaten the odds. Its rate of deaths from the coronavirus, 27 per 100,000 people, is less than one quarter the national average. In the balancing act that we all face, the city has chosen safety and caution over economic continuity and normality.Gunderson was cloistered for much of the spring, starting in March when San Francisco and neighboring counties became the first in the nation to order residents to stay at home. She has bought her groceries online since; social interaction outside her family has been limited to a few walks with friends and sparsely attended birthday parties in the backyard for her two children, who are 6 and 4.But as a writer, Gunderson said, she was not handcuffed.“I’ve had the freest mind I’ve had in several years,” she said. “The deadlines evaporated.”“The play,” she added, “came out of that space.”That’s not to say putting it on has been easy.It was filmed the first week of December in the empty Marin Theater, across the Golden Gate Bridge. The crew included a woman whose job was to make sure the director stayed socially distanced from the camera operators; to provide hand sanitizer, gloves and other protective equipment; and to administer coronavirus tests. The tests were so expensive that the crew was forced to cut the filming from two weeks to one.“We were all building the boat as we were sailing it,” Gunderson said.William DeMeritt, a Shakespeare specialist whom she recruited to play her husband, flew in from New York and then worked from an auxiliary apartment near the theater, a mother-in-law unit owned by one of its patrons.“I rehearsed remotely from that little apartment with everyone else on a little Zoom screen,” DeMeritt said.The filming was done with only half a dozen crew members, each of whom was allowed access to a discrete space in the theater. It was shot in snippets, a novelty for a crew accustomed to works’ being performed from beginning to end.Gunderson watched from home via livestream.DeMeritt, who in pre-pandemic days had roles in “Shakespeare in Love,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and a handful of television shows, said he hopes the production inspires an industry that has been walloped by the virus. Anything, he said, to help theater survive the pandemic.He met Gunderson several years ago at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and they have kept up a friendship. After agreeing to take the part in “The Catastrophist,” he met with Wolfe and Gunderson on a hike in the Marin headlands, the steep ridges and canyons not far from the Golden Gate that afford wondrous views of the Pacific Ocean.But DeMeritt said the character he portrays has somewhat rougher edges than Wolfe the man, a tendency toward knowing-it-all that the director, Minadakis, encouraged, in part as a contrast to the personal vulnerabilities revealed in the script.“Lauren was able to put in some of Nathan’s less fabulous character traits because she knows him so intimately,” Minadakis said.“I had to encourage Bill to not get up there and play a hero,” he added, “but to play a very human individual who has pride and who has ambition.”Wolfe as a child with his father, Chuck Wolfe, a doctor who inspired his career path.Credit…via Lauren GundersonWolfe has become well known as a scientist whose warnings about the impact of a potential pandemic went unheeded.Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York TimesWolfe has watched Zoom rehearsals and doesn’t seem bothered by the portrayal.“The play does a great job of showing the mildly irritating features of my personality,” he said in his backyard, before rushing off to take a call. “It’s an honest critique. We all have failings.”Gunderson said the play was a gift to their marriage. She, a master of words, learned more about her husband’s world of numbers and risk.And she’s confident she struck the right balance in writing about him.“The partner in me wanted to make my partner safe and happy and comforted,” she said. “The playwright in me had to push all the buttons and unlock all the secret drawers and make a mess.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Behind Closed Doors, Paris Theaters Carry On

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    Late Night Reviews ‘Trump’s Impeachment: The Sequel’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightLate Night Reviews ‘Trump’s Impeachment: The Sequel’“Makes sense — this president loves having seconds,” Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday.“I feel like I just took down my decorations from the last impeachment,” Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday.Credit…CBSJan. 14, 2021, 1:48 a.m. ETWelcome 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. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.A Second HelpingPresident Trump’s impeachment — his second, which is a presidential first — was big news on late night and everywhere else on Wednesday.“Makes sense — this president loves having seconds,” Stephen Colbert said on “The Late Show.”[embedded content]“I feel like I just took down my decorations from the last impeachment.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Twice! Man, this guy is hard to get rid of. He’s like a red wine stain on a white rug — we’re going to have to just get rid of the whole rug.” — SETH MEYERS“And like always, the sequel was a lot worse than the original.” — JIMMY FALLON“I know a lot of people are wondering, ‘Will I be able to follow the second impeachment if I missed the first?’ Yeah, same character, different plots.” — JIMMY FALLON“That’s right, President Trump was impeached today for a second time — or, according to Fox News, ‘Fun rainy-day crafts to do with your grandkids.’” — SETH MEYERS“I wonder if he’s tired of all the winning yet.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s almost like he’s tanking the season so he can get the number one pick in the jailhouse fantasy draft.” — SETH MEYERS“Two impeachments, and just like Trump’s sons, the second one is the most embarrassing.” — JAMES CORDEN“I hope Trump supporters don’t suddenly become angry and volatile about this.” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (a Few Good Republicans Edition)“It’s official: Mitch McConnell has turned his back on Trump, which means someone should probably help him because usually when Mitch McConnell flips on his back, it’s hard for him to get back up on the right side again.” — JAMES CORDEN“Well, it took them four years, but Trump finally figured out a way to unite Republicans and Democrats.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, 10 Republicans finally broke away from the president. Trump was so mad he started typing angry tweets about them on a calculator.” — JIMMY FALLON“McConnell is reported to be happy that the impeachment is happening, because he thinks it’ll be a good way for Republicans to get Trump out of their hairpieces.” — JIMMY KIMMEL”Reportedly, McConnell has told associates in private that he believes the president committed impeachable offenses and is leaning toward convicting him. It will all be in his memoir, ‘Leaning Toward Courage.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now this all seems promising, I know, but watch out, because there is actually nothing more disturbing than the sight of a pleased Mitch McConnell.” — JAMES CORDEN“McConnell’s apparent support for impeachment gives cover for others, meaning a dozen Republican senators — and possibly more — could ultimately vote to convict the president. Yes, at least a dozen, and possibly more, if there’s a sale at Bob’s Spine Barn.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingSomething big happens in Washington whenever Samantha Bee is a guest on “The Late Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightThe CW’s new Batwoman, Javicia Leslie, will stop by Thursday night’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutClockwise from top left, Gary Oldman in “Mank,” Lakeith Stanfield in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Chadwick Boseman in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Riz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal,” Anthony Hopkins in “The Father” and Delroy Lindo in “Da 5 Bloods.”Credit…Clockwise from top left: Netflix; Glen Wilson/Warner Bros. Entertainment, via Associated Press; David Lee/Netflix; Amazon Studios; Sony Pictures Classics; NetflixThe late Chadwick Boseman’s performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” looks like the favorite for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    My Ears Have Been Opened by the Audio Play Explosion

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    Jimmy Fallon: Mike Pence Just Can’t Win With Trump Fans

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightJimmy Fallon: Mike Pence Just Can’t Win With Trump Fans“It’s a tough choice for Pence: Invoke the 25th and have MAGA nation hate you, or refuse and still have MAGA nation hate you,” Fallon said.“You could tell Pence was nervous, because he spent all day slamming milks like it was Friday at 5 p.m.,” Jimmy Fallon joked of House lawmakers’ call for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Trump.Credit…NBCJan. 13, 2021, 2:35 a.m. ETWelcome 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. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Pence’s Choice: ‘Have MAGA Nation Hate You’The House on Tuesday formally called on Vice President Mike Pence to remove President Trump from office using the 25th Amendment, an idea Pence had already rejected.Though Pence did not yield to pressure from Trump to overturn the election results last week, which he did not have the authority to do anyway, he said that invoking the 25th Amendment “would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment.” Those passions include some of Trump’s supporters, whose votes the vice president would probably need for his own White House run, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the election certification.“It’s a tough choice for Pence: Invoke the 25th and have MAGA nation hate you, or refuse and still have MAGA nation hate you,” Jimmy Fallon joked.“Of course Mike Pence isn’t going to do that. He’s not going to remove Donald Trump. Mike Pence doesn’t even remove his shirt.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“You could tell Pence was nervous, because he spent all day slamming milks like it was Friday at 5 p.m.” — JIMMY FALLON“And you’d think Pence would be into the idea, considering the whole ‘Hang him’ thing. But you would be dead wrong, because yesterday, after days of silence, ‘The president and Mike Pence spoke for the first time, meeting in the Oval Office, and agreed that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent their policy of America first.’ Well, of course this mob violence wasn’t America first — it was in Germany first. So, apparently, it’s all water under the gallows now.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The president and Mike Pence reportedly spoke yesterday in the Oval Office for the first time since last week’s attack on the Capitol, which had to be pretty awkward. But don’t worry, Trump accepted Pence’s apology.” — SETH MEYERS”Yeah, we’ve all been in Pence’s shoes, though, you know what I mean? That uncomfortable meeting with your boss after he sends a crazed mob of vengeful rioters to zip-tie you.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Alamo Edition)“Big T flew to Alamo, Texas, today to brag about his wall — and to remind the American people that he’s not just a dangerous megalomaniac; he’s also a racist.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Meanwhile, a confused Rudy Giuliani waited patiently 300 miles away at Al’s Amo.” — SETH MEYERS“It was very wise of Trump to take a victory lap at the border the same week his supporters showed the world that walls serve almost no purpose whatsoever when it comes to keeping people who want in out.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Well, that’s a wrap on a flawless administration.” — JAMES CORDEN“When they heard Trump was coming to the border, Mexico was like, ‘Phew, thank God that wall is here.’” — JIMMY FALLON“You know your presidency is off the rails when you have to distract from your attempted coup with your giant symbol of racism.” — JIMMY FALLON“What a nice reminder of how much the president hates people storming barriers and entering places they aren’t legally allowed.” — JAMES CORDEN“When asked what he was doing there, Trump said, ‘I’m just planning my escape.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Yup, Trump visited the border in the town of Alamo, Texas. He was like, ‘Thanks to me, everyone will remember Alamo.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingAnne Hathaway shared her go-to karaoke song and first celebrity crush while playing a round of “Best Worst First” on “The Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightSamantha Bee will check in with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutSally Rooney, whose first two books have been critical and commercial successes, will release her next two with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Credit…Erik Voake/Getty ImagesThe “Normal People” author Sally Rooney has a new novel coming in September: “Beautiful World, Where Are You.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Rupert Grint Sees a Stage Mother in His Daughter’s Future

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRupert Grint Sees a Stage Mother in His Daughter’s FutureThe former “Harry Potter” actor, now starring in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s “Servant,” puts miniature pottery, backgammon and John C. Reilly’s unsung alter ego, Dr. Steve Brule, on his list of cultural must-haves.Credit…Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images For ReedpopJan. 12, 2021, 2:16 p.m. ETRupert Grint wasn’t too put out when, in March, the pandemic halted production on “Servant,” the M. Night Shyamalan psychological thriller about a couple who replace their dead baby with a doll.His partner, the actress Georgia Groome, was pregnant with their daughter, Wednesday, and the lockdown meant that Grint could savor the early months of her life in the sanctuary of their North London home. He could also purge his mind of the freakish, claustrophobic “Servant” world — a Philadelphia brownstone cluttered with baby paraphernalia, including, rather eerily, the same stroller they’d bought for Wednesday.“I guess it’s not the best show to be involved with when you become a father,” said Grint, who plays the doll-baby’s brash, hard-drinking uncle, Julian. “The set does have this kind of weird energy because the tragic event that has taken place does linger in the walls. I’d often feel a sense of relief when I snuck off.”Still, new fatherhood helped him to better understand the psychology of Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose), the show’s tormented mother, once he returned to set this fall.“It’s something I wasn’t aware of about love,” he said, calling to discuss his cultural must-haves as Wednesday babbled in the background, “and how you’ll do anything to get your baby back.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “Rose’s Turn” From “Gypsy,” the Ethel Merman Version Weirdly, I’ve never seen the show, never seen a movie version. I don’t know how I’ve escaped it because I know it’s huge. But this winter, around Christmas, I heard the song by chance on the radio and got obsessed with it. There are just so many different levels to it. I know the context now, and it really moved me. I saw Imelda Staunton [Dolores Umbridge in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”] perform it on YouTube, which is absolutely incredible. But I love listening to Ethel’s version. Just the maternal kind of passion that comes through. I also think I’m going to be a huge stage mom, so maybe I was connecting to that.2. Children’s Books by Tomi Ungerer I think Wednesday is still slightly young for them, but we’ve got a massive library ready for her. And these are great books — so ahead of their time and so beautifully illustrated. There’s one called “Otto,” and it’s the autobiography of this [teddy] bear, and I was an absolute wreck after reading it. It goes through his whole life, but I guess you could say it’s really about Auschwitz and how the bear experiences the camp. It sounds not suitable for kids, but I think Ungerer is not afraid of showing the darkness of humanity.3. Miniature Pottery This has been a lockdown hobby that I’ve taken up. You actually throw pots on a proper wheel, which is about the size of a dollar coin. The wheel is something I’ve always been in awe of, just making something from something as raw as a blob of clay. It’s such a therapeutic thing, and you completely get lost in thought. They’re so quick as well. I’ve made some really cool things, like miniature vases, cookie jars, teapots. They’re an inch or a little bigger, kind of a doll’s house scale. They’re all completely useless.4. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” This has been my go-to nighttime podcast for a while now. He has a great way of dissecting moments in history that I had no idea about and subverting them, making me understand what happened. It’s quite short and easy to digest. A really good one was the redo of the McDonald’s fries and how they changed the recipe over the years. Another was about Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah,” the struggles he had writing it. It goes quite in depth about the kind of minutiae that I always, always love.5. “The Curse of Oak Island” I have always been intrigued about this group of treasure hunters on this island off Nova Scotia. It’s this great ensemble of personalities of these quite weathered, denim-wearing men just obsessed with this treasure that possibly isn’t there. There’s something quite tragic about it, but also it’s just beautifully made. And the real treasure is them finding each other to do this thing that they can only do for a few months of the year. It’s never-ending.6. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” It’s sheer escapism. I’ve always loved the Zelda world. It’s not like I’m some huge pro gamer, but this game absolutely took hours of my life. It has incredible stories, beautiful graphics. You can forage for berries and cook on a campfire. I haven’t completed it in its entirety, but it’s a really special piece of work. I don’t think gamers get enough credit for what they create. There are amazing worlds where you can completely immerse yourself when they’re done well. I think Zelda just may be perfect.7. Backgammon I’ve always loved board games and got a huge collection over the years. Probably about four years ago, Georgia and I got a backgammon board and taught ourselves to play. We take a board everywhere we go now. Everyone’s mad about chess after “The Queen’s Gambit.” But backgammon, I think, is an older game, and there’s an element of luck that involves the dice. We went through a phase of playing like 10 games a day. It really changes the brain.8. Middle Child Sandwiches It’s an absolute go-to place that I discovered when I first went to Philly, and Philly is such a great place for food anyway that you don’t have to go far. Middle Child does one thing perfectly: The hoagie is the space it’s playing in. They’re simple but they’re just so good. And the décor is very hipster, very cool. I go for the Shopsin Club or the Surfer. You can’t go wrong there.9. Urban Beekeeping I’ve done this for four years now. It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely fascinating. I’m not sure what prompted us to get into it, because I am terrified of being stung. Bees are such an important thing and watching them in this hive is just incredible — how hard they’re working and how each has a different job. There are nurse bees, and undertaker bees that carry out the dead bees like coffin-bearers. It’s insane to watch. I have one hive in our backyard, just in a quiet corner. They keep to themselves. You think you’d be invaded by bees everywhere, but they’re very deliberate. They know exactly where to go to get pollen. It’s a really happy colony. I am in absolute awe of the queen.10. “Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule” I think he never really admitted it, but I find it fascinating that [John C. Reilly] has created this character that really is a whole different person. It’s just such an absurd character and so well-formed that he can let us know what they’re thinking. It’s a real skill to create something like that. I’m getting into more American comedy. Lots of old “S.N.L.” and “Tim & Eric,” which is where Steve Brule was born from. I love that anarchy and chaos they create.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More