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    HBO Brings Hot Fellas Bakery From ‘And Just Like That’ to Life

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    “Who wants a hot croissant?” asked the actor Mario Cantone, reprising his character Anthony Marentino from the HBO show “Sex and the City.”Mr. Cantone, brandishing an apron and a cake server, added an emphasis on the word “hot” and wagged his eyebrows, turning the otherwise ordinary tray of freshly baked pastries into an innuendo.A group of fans in front of him — most of whom were women with their phones at the ready — giggled and took photos.When “Sex and the City” was brought back to life in 2021 as “And Just Like That …,” Mr. Cantone’s character pivoted from a career in wedding planning to starting up a bread delivery business, called Hot Fellas. As the name suggests, his business is staffed by sexy men in short denim rompers so tight that every arm flex or squat teases a wardrobe malfunction.The fictional business became “a fan favorite story line from the moment it first appeared,” Dana Flax, a marketing vice president at HBO Max said in an emailed statement, citing the engagement and enthusiasm for the Hot Fellas on social media.In the most recent episode of Season 3, which was released last week, Anthony opened a Hot Fellas brick-and-mortar cafe (using a pun for male genitalia to alter that phrase) and his current lover, Giuseppe, an aspiring poet played by Sebastiano Pigazzi, temporarily became a Hot Fella to help with its launch — thanks largely to his ability to fill out the skin-tight uniform.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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      ‘We Were Liars,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV This Week

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      The adaptation of E. Lockhart’s Y.A. horror novel comes to Prime Video, and “The Gilded Age” returns for a third season.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, June 16-22. Details and times are subject to change.Managing familial expectations.In 2014 E. Lockhart released her young adult psychological horror novel “We Were Liars.” Nearly a decade later the book, after making its rounds on #BookTok, is now coming to small screens as a series with the same name. It follows Cadence Sinclair (Emily Alyn Lind), who returns to her family’s summer home in Beechwood, a fictional island off Martha’s Vineyard, two years after a mysterious incident that left her with amnesia. Three generations of the old-money Sinclair family gather, along with some of Cadence’s childhood friends, and it seems that everyone is keeping some type of secret. Streaming Wednesday on Prime Video.Based on Edith Wharton’s posthumously released and incomplete novel, “The Buccaneers” is back for its second installment. The first season focused on five young women, part of the upper echelon of 1870s high society, who were trying to find their purpose. These new episodes, which feature Leighton Meester in a guest role, will be a little bit more serious, with a focus on motherhood, abusive husbands and will-they-won’t-they relationship arcs. Streaming Wednesday on Apple TV+.If you miss the comfy and cozy atmosphere of “Dawson’s Creek,” you are in luck because the creator Kevin Williamson is back with a new show, “The Waterfront,” which actually takes place in North Carolina (“Dawson’s Creek,” though filmed there, was set in Massachusetts). The series follows the Buckley family, who once ruled the town with their fishing and restaurant businesses but are now struggling to keep things afloat after the patriarch (Holt McCallany) had two heart attacks. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.Every so often my hometown, Troy, N.Y., gets transformed into 1880s moneyed Manhattan with temporary regal facades on every building, gravel on the roads, countless horses milling about — oh, and with the principal cast members of “The Gilded Age” taking up residence to film a new season. This week the third one, which will feature lots of twist and turns, according to one of its stars, Louisa Jacobson, comes to small screens. And, of course, the usual promises of betrothal, household chaos and marriages of opportunity will continue. Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max.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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      Trump’s Parade Drafted the Army Into a War of Images

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      After a week of stunning and sobering TV-news scenes, the brassy Trumpy production was a surreal viewing experience.Officially, the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary military parade through Washington was meant to be a straightforward celebration of the service’s history.But as it played out on live TV Saturday, history was overwhelmed by the stormy present.The first complication was the fact that the Army shared a birthday with President Trump, making the military procession seem gift-wrapped for a leader who for years has had one on his wish list. To some, the spectacle smacked of the gaudy self-celebrations thrown by strongmen; to others, it was a symbol of resurgent American strength.Maybe at another time, the parade could have been the mundane, even dull bit of civic history that on the surface it was. But once conscripted into Mr. Trump’s war of imagery, a tank cannot be just a tank.The event also came at the end of a tumultuous week of shocking TV images. It came after the National Guard and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles to quell protests, over the objections of local leaders. It came after Senator Alex Padilla of California was forced to the ground and handcuffed after he tried to ask a question of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at a news conference. It came after Mr. Trump gave a political-rally-like speech to cheering troops at Fort Bragg. On top of this were volleys of missiles between Israel and Iran and, on Saturday morning, the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and the attempted murder of another.The result, as it rolled across our screens, was anything but an uncomplicated celebration. It was a split-screen presentation for a split country, in a world that seemed to be riven apart.The major broadcast networks did not carry the parade. CNN and MSNBC covered it on and off, along with the Middle East and Minnesota news, as well as the “No Kings” protests across the country that accused Mr. Trump of antidemocratic overreach.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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      Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Busy Caring for a Pony, Pig, Donkey and Malamute

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      The longtime actor, now starring in “FUBAR,” on his many animals, good cigars and wanting his kids to outshine him.Arnold Schwarzenegger was smoking a cigar on his patio in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, lamenting all the things that he had decided to trim from his list of 10 essentials. Most of all his five kids.“I cannot live without my children,” he said on a video call as his pet pig, Schnelly, wandered around. “I need to be in touch daily.”Schwarzenegger was sounding a lot like Luke Brunner, his character in the Netflix series “FUBAR,” which just began streaming its second season. In it, he plays the world’s best spy, and perhaps its most overprotective father, who learns that his daughter is a C.I.A. operative with an ego, just like Dad is.“She says, ‘When they say Brunner, I don’t want them just to talk about you. I want them also to talk about me,’” he said. “It’s the same thing as it is in real life with Patrick, my son, being an actor now and being big time and doing fantastic shows,” including a star turn this year in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”Was the elder Schwarzenegger feeling a bit competitive? “I hope and wish that he will do bigger things than I’ve ever done,” he said before elaborating on his love of chess and driving his M47 tank. “It’s fantastic when kids are performing better than their parents because that is largely because of them, and it’s also because of you. It’s upbringing.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.ChessI learned to play chess with my father and did that pretty much every day. I have collected chess sets from all over the world, but now 99 percent of the time you play on an app with your friends in Austria or Germany or Hungary or Russia — wherever they are.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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      Late Night Reviews Trump’s Night at the Theater

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      Jimmy Kimmel said that Trump “going to see ‘Les Misérables’ right now is like Kanye going to ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’”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.Master of the HousePresident Donald Trump attended the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday.“Usually, when Trump watches a staged rebellion, it’s Fox News coverage of the ‘riots’ here in L.A.,” Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday.“It’s a musical largely about a revolution. It’s the people standing up against their king. The rebellion happens in Act 2 — or, I should say, it usually happens in Act 2. After Act 1 last night, Trump called in the National Guard and squashed the whole thing.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I have to say, Trump going to see ‘Les Misérables’ right now is like Kanye going to ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ ” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Some cast members from ‘Les Mis’ decided to boycott the performance because President Trump was there. Right now, the only person less popular than Trump in the world of theater is Patti LuPone.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Napoleon Bona-spurs was accompanied by Melania, as is required under Section B Subsection 3 of their prenup, which states, ‘Mrs. Trump shall accompany her husband to no fewer than two public appearances per calendar year during which she shall refrain from open displays of revulsion, disgust, and/or hatred, regardless of current mood or events.’ Also known as ‘date night’ for them.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“But Melania, from all accounts, she loved the show. Her favorite song was ‘On My Own.’” — JIMMY KIMMELOn the red carpet, a reporter asked the president if he was more of a Jean Valjean or Javert. “Oh, that’s a tough one,” he replied, and did not supply an answer.“I don’t know what’s worse: that a reporter thought it was a good idea to ask Trump if he’s the hero or the villain, or that Trump’s response was ‘Oof, that’s a tough question.’” — DESI LYDIC“All right, that’s famously not a tough one. There’s a pretty clear good guy and bad guy, but then I think Trump would have the same problem after a screening of ‘Star Wars.’ [imitating Trump] ‘Oh, that’s a tough one. Darth Vader is a mean guy, but also the Skywalker kid was very rude to the gay robot.’” — SETH MEYERS“What do you mean you don’t know? Javert is the bad guy. You just said you’ve seen the show a number of times. Is that number zero?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“[imitating Trump] The character I identify with most is Les. Les — Lester Miserables. Big, tough guy. Built that castle on a cloud. Not happy about it.” — STEPHEN COLBERTWe 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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      ‘And Just Like That …’ Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: An Expensive Date

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      Carrie flies to Virginia for a lunch with her “boyfriend,” Aidan. Seema tags along. It is unclear why either is really going.Season 3, Episode 3: ‘Carrie Golightly’They say Virginia is for lovers. They do not say Virginia is for casual lunches and sleeping alone in a guesthouse.In Episode 3, it is Carrie who visits Aidan at his home, but not because her “boyfriend” (I’m still using quotes around that word and you can’t stop me) did something crazy like invite her. It is because Virginia is on a list of locations Carrie could go to promote her work, along with sexier options like Google’s Palo Alto office and Austin’s South by Southwest festival.First of all, why does Carrie even have to choose? She is a childless cat lady with no looming deadlines. What is stopping her from hitting up all three to boost her clout in preparation for an upcoming foray into historical fiction?But Williamsburg, Va. is the only place our gal wants to go because it’s vaguely near Aidan, and she thinks that if she pops down south, cool as a cucumber, “easy breezy,” with no expectations, Aidan might be willing to meet her for a quick meal. Because the bar for this relationship is in the basement.The saddest part about all this is that Carrie feels she needs a cover story in the first place. She can say, “I love you,” to Aidan, but apparently, she can’t simply say, “I want to see you.” And that’s really Aidan’s fault; she is just playing by his rules. But this game sucks.Thankfully, Miranda is in touch with her judgy side, as she can’t stop cracking jokes about Carrie venturing over the river and through the woods for merely a bite to eat with her beau. Yet, Miranda is concocting a cover story of her own. After some bad luck in the romance department this season that included a tryst with a nun and a snub from a straight “guacamole girl,” Miranda is finally sweet on someone she would make sense with: Joy (Dolly Wells) the BBC producer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Survivors’ Is a Polished and Potent Murder Mystery

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      Based on the book by Jane Harper, this six-part Australian drama takes place in a coastal Tasmanian town, where the bodies keep surfacing.Perhaps all of streaming television is one giant conspiracy to persuade us not to dream of beach town living. They’re the murder capitals of TV, these towns, with their craggy shores and generational secrets, their prodigal sons and nosy outsiders. Stay away from the water! Reject those quaint houses and majestic vistas! This is not a place of honor!“The Survivors,” a six-episode Australian murder mini-series on Netflix, is a tasty, polished instantiation of the form. Based on the book by Jane Harper, the coastal misery here takes place in Tasmania, where Kieran (Charlie Vickers) is returning home to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the night of a terrible storm. Kieran himself nearly drowned, and his brother and a friend died trying to save him.Those were not the only two people who died that night. A teen girl, Gabby, also disappeared and presumably drowned, but she is rarely acknowledged in all the public grieving. In the present day, a young woman who was conducting her own investigation into Gabby’s death turns up dead, and now a whole other mystery is crying out to be solved.Though it covers a lot of familiar angles, “The Survivors” outshines most of its brethren. The relationships here are knotty, the characters multidimensional in intriguing, moving ways. People can be both wonderful and cruel, loving but maybe not loving enough, loyal but also dishonest.Mia (Yerin Ha), Kieran’s wife, was Gabby’s best friend, and now she isn’t sure how to relate to Gabby’s bereft mom and sister, who disagree with each other about the need to investigate Gabby’s death further. Kieran’s mother, Verity (Robyn Malcolm), struggles with grief and blame — and care taking. Kieran’s father, Brian (Damien Garvey), has worsening dementia, and when the police grill him about what he might have witnessed, his recollections are fractured, mixed up.But who doesn’t struggle with painful memories? Doesn’t everyone have something he or she wants to forget? There’s plenty of sorrow to go around, even as the characters argue about who has it the worst, desperate for their suffering to be beheld, to be legitimized.The show picks up as it goes, and its plot lines nest like Russian dolls, giving the story a real sense of heft and potency. More

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      Trump’s New ‘Apprentice’ Boardroom: The Oval Office

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      The stately room has long been a site of diplomacy. But the reality-star president often does not come there to make friends.“This is going to be great television, I will say that.”So concluded President Trump after a stunning Oval Office confrontation in February, in front of live cameras, in which he and Vice President JD Vance took turns castigating President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and held out the prospect of withholding support for the country invaded by Russia.At a May meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Mr. Trump brought his own television, playing video clips to support his false claims that white South African farmers have been the victims of genocide. The ambush, which also found Mr. Trump showing a news image actually taken from the Democratic Republic of Congo, left Mr. Ramaphosa scrambling to respond. But again, the cameras broadcast it all.The confrontations were shocking compared with how diplomacy has long been conducted in that stately office. But they were not surprising — at least, not to anyone who had watched Mr. Trump during his 14 seasons as the capricious, demanding host of the NBC business-competition series “The Apprentice.”In his high-drama Oval Office meetings, carried live on cable news, Mr. Trump has created himself a reality show right inside the White House. It is a serial production, tailored to his tastes for attention and drama, in which his guests submit to judgment and win a blessing or a tongue-lashing.The dynamic in these showdowns is oddly similar to the climactic “firings” Mr. Trump conducted on the NBC show. Then, as now, Mr. Trump was installed in a set designed to magnify his power — in “The Apprentice,” it was a sleek “boardroom” custom-built to improve on Trump Tower’s underwhelming real-life offices.Reality competition shows and Mr. Trump’s politics operate on the same principles: shock value, conflict, shows of dominance. Escalating a fight is almost always better for ratings than defusing one. So it was in Mr. Trump’s TV career; so it is in his administration, whether the tussle is with a world leader or Elon Musk.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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      Ananda Lewis, ’90s MTV Star, Dies at 52

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      She said last year that her breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2019, had progressed to Stage 4.Ananda Lewis, a former MTV host who was one of the network’s most popular stars, has died after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 52.Her death was announced by her sister, Dr. Lakshmi Emory, in a social media post late Wednesday. The post did not say when or where Lewis died or give a specific cause.Lewis said last year that her breast cancer, which she first learned she had in 2019, had metastasized and reached a late stage that most doctors would consider incurable.She rose to television stardom in the 1990s as a V.J., or “video jockey,” on MTV, hosting shows including “Hot Zone,” in which she interviewed stars and gave style advice between introducing music videos.In 1999, The New York Times described her as “the hip-hop generation’s reigning It Girl.” “Hot Zone” had made Lewis one of the network’s two most popular stars, the other being Carson Daly, the network said at the time. She also sometimes hosted the network’s hugely popular show “Total Request Live” as well as its “Spring Break” programs.Lewis first gained recognition in the 1990s when she was hired to host “Teen Summit,” a long-running weekly live show on BET that was intended to speak to Black teenagers about current issues. In 1996, she interviewed Hillary Clinton, who was the first lady at the time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More