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      Stuart Margolin, Emmy Winner for ‘The Rockford Files,’ Dies at 82

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      A sought-after character actor for decades, he worked frequently with James Garner. He also wrote and directed.Stuart Margolin, a character actor best known for playing the sidekick to James Garner’s private detective on the hit series “The Rockford Files,” a role that won Mr. Margolin back-to-back Emmy Awards as best supporting actor in 1979 and 1980, died on Monday in Staunton, Va. He was 82.His family said the cause was complications of pancreatic cancer.Mr. Margolin was all over television from the early 1960s into this century, turning up in episodes of dozens of shows as well as in assorted TV movies. He also had a substantial behind-the-scenes career: He wrote several TV movies and directed episodes of “The Rockford Files,” “The Love Boat,” “Touched by an Angel” and numerous other series. In 1987 he and Ted Bessell shared an Emmy nomination for directing for “The Tracey Ullman Show.”Mr. Margolin’s career was tied to that of Mr. Garner, one of Hollywood’s top stars, at several points. Before “The Rockford Files,” which was seen on NBC from 1974 to 1980, he and Mr. Garner were in “Nichols” (1971-72), a short-lived western; Mr. Garner played the title character, a sheriff, and Mr. Margolin played his deputy.After “Rockford,” the two men were in another western, “Bret Maverick” (1981-82), a sequel to “Maverick,” the show that helped make Mr. Garner a star in the 1950s and early ’60s. Mr. Margolin also directed Mr. Garner in several “Rockford Files” TV movies.“Jim has been better to me than anyone else in my life except my father,” Mr. Margolin was quoted as saying in “The Garner Files,” a 2011 memoir by Mr. Garner, who died in 2014.Mr. Margolin in 1978. His ability to create memorable impressions, often with very little screen time, made him a fixture of casting directors’ call lists. Associated PressMr. Garner may have helped his career along, but it was Mr. Margolin’s ability to create memorable impressions, often with very little screen time, that made him a fixture of casting directors’ call lists. That was true even of his Emmy-winning role as Angel Martin, who once served prison time with Rockford and was both his friend and a thorn in his side.“Stuart Margolin, as Angel, is not on the show every week,” the syndicated columnist Dick Kleiner wrote in 1979. “And even when he is on, mostly he is in for little bits and pieces.”“But,” he added, “Margolin has created a vivid character in Angel, no matter how little he is seen. He is notably sleazy — in mind and body — and that’s what makes him fun.”In his memoir, Mr. Garner gave Mr. Margolin full credit for making the most out of the character.“I confess that I’ve never understood why Rockford likes Angel so much, because he’s rotten to the core,” he wrote. “But there’s something lovable about him. I don’t know what it is, but it’s all Stuart’s doing.”NBC had not wanted Mr. Margolin, Mr. Garner wrote. But he was cast in the pilot, and Angel made several more appearances.“NBC still didn’t want him and they told us point-blank not to use him again,” he wrote. “Then he got an Emmy nomination.”Stuart Margolin was born on Jan. 31, 1940, in Davenport, Iowa, to Morris and Gertrude Margolin. He spent much of his childhood in Dallas, where he learned to golf. His first newspaper mentions were in write-ups of the results of golf tournaments.He became good enough at the sport that, he said, he had scholarship offers from several universities. But he was more interested in acting — he caught the bug when he played Puck in a local production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at age 8 — so, after graduating from a boarding school in Tennessee, he went west to study at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.He appeared in numerous stage productions, and he continued to work in the theater throughout his career. But in 1961 he landed his first TV role, on “The Gertrude Berg Show,” and soon television was dominating his résumé.He achieved a new level of visibility when he landed a role as a regular on “Love, American Style,” a buzz-generating series that debuted in 1969 and on which his brother Arnold was an executive producer.That series consisted of several vignettes per episode, with comic skits in between. He was among the cast members performing those skits. Sample bit: Mr. Margolin is behind the wheel in a car, complaining to someone in the back seat that “every time you fix me up with a chick, she turns out to be a dog.” The camera pans to the passenger seat, where, sitting next to Mr. Margolin, is an actual dog.In a 1981 interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Garner said Mr. Margolin’s work on that show caught his attention, especially a skit in which Mr. Margolin had a cell door slammed in his face.“I fell out of my chair,” Mr. Garner said. And he knew he had found his “Nichols” sidekick.“I love comedy and I study comedy and comedians,” Mr. Garner recalled. “I said, ‘That’s the guy.’”Mr. Margolin, who lived in Staunton, is survived by his wife, Patricia Dunne Margolin, whom he married in 1982; his brothers, Arnold and Richard; a sister, Anne Kalina; two stepsons, Max and Christopher Martini; a stepdaughter, Michelle Martini; and four step-grandchildren. His marriage to Joyce Eliason ended in divorce.In addition to acting and directing, Mr. Margolin dabbled in music. In 1980 he released a country-rock album, “And the Angel Sings,” for which he was a co-writer on some of the songs. Reviewing it in The Detroit Free Press, Mike Duffy called it “an album of style, wit and lowdown fun.”“It’s almost as if Soupy Sales and Willie Nelson got together,” he wrote. More

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      Lloyd Newman, Teenage Chronicler of ‘Ghetto Life,’ Dies at 43

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      He and LeAlan Jones recorded stories of life and death in a Chicago housing project for NPR, winning a Peabody Award and inspiring the birth of StoryCorps.Lloyd Newman, who teamed up with a fellow teenager in the 1990s to record two award-winning radio documentaries that bared the pernicious underside of growing up in a Chicago public housing project, died on Dec. 7 in Elmhurst, Ill. He was 43.His death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of sickle cell anemia, his brother Michael said.Mr. Newman, the understated, harder-luck half of the duo, was 14 and in the eighth grade when he and his best friend, LeAlan Jones, 13, tape-recorded 100 hours of oral history and interviews to produce “Ghetto Life 101.” The producer David Isay transformed into a 28-minute segment on National Public Radio in 1993.In 1996, the youths won a Peabody Award, the youngest broadcasters at the time to do so, for “Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse,” a collage of recordings exploring the killing of a 5-year-old boy, tossed from the window of a vacant 14th-floor apartment in the Ida B. Wells Homes by a 10 and an 11 year old because he had refused to steal candy for them, according to the police.The two young journalists “squeezed magic from the streets of their struggling South Side neighborhood,” the reporter Don Terry wrote in The New York Times in 1997.The radio broadcasts were adapted into a book, “Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago” (1997), which they wrote with Mr. Isay.Mr. Isay had produced both documentaries, and they inspired him to establish the StoryCorps oral history project. It began with a recording booth in Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan in 2003 and since then has interviewed a half-million people, an effort to encourage mutual understanding by asking “to hear someone’s truth,” as the project puts it.Even when he was only 14, Lloyd Newman seemed unlikely to outlive his friend. “It’s easy to do wrong around here,” he told The Times in 1996. “It’s easy to get caught up by mistake.”Mr. Jones had been raised by middle-class grandparents in a private home a block away from the housing project. He graduated from high school on schedule, earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Barat College in Lake Forest, Ill., ran for Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat as the Green Party candidate in 2010 (he polled 3.2 percent) and became a mentor and professional journalist. Yet he seemed more pessimistic of the two.“Unfortunately, Lloyd and I both knew we had accomplished very little with the challenges introduced in the documentaries,” Mr. Jones said in an email this week, citing, among other metrics, the rising toll of Black teenagers killed in Chicago.Mr. Newman’s trajectory was more problematic, but he seemed more spirited.He was “whip smart, street smart, with a huge heart and a shy smile,” Mr. Isay said on NPR last week, but “he lived through more in his first dozen years than most people live in a lifetime.”Lloyd Sentel Newman was born on March 3, 1979, to Michael Murry, an alcoholic who, by the time his son was a teenager, hadn’t lived with the family for a decade, though he kept in touch with them and lived nearby. His mother, Lynn Newman, also drank heavily and died of cirrhosis when she was 35 and Lloyd was 15.Lloyd was raised in a rowhouse, part of the Ida B. Wells Homes, by a sister who was six years older. She and another sister also died of complications of sickle cell anemia.In addition to his brother Michael, he is survived by another brother, Lyndell; and a sister, Ericka Newman.Mr. Newman in 2019. He struggled academically but completed high school and attended college.Michael NewmanLloyd, who sold laundry bags with his father and peddled newspapers, struggled at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago. But he was able to transfer to Future Commons Technical Prep High School (now closed), where he received closer supervision in smaller classes.“It isn’t hopeless,” he told The Times in 1997. “I’ll go to summer school and regular school and night school — I’ll never drop out.”He didn’t. After six years, he finally received his diploma and enrolled at Langston University in Oklahoma, though he never graduated.He returned to Chicago, where in 2006 he was arrested outside his sister’s apartment and charged with the manufacture, delivery and possession of crack cocaine.He pleaded guilty on his lawyer’s advice and was sentenced to two years’ probation. In 2021, his conviction was vacated thanks to another lawyer, Joshua Tepler, after it was determined that the evidence used to convict Mr. Newman had been faked by corrupt police officers who were implicated in more than 100 other phony arrests.In interviews, Mr. Newman said he dreamed of going to college, opening a hardware store or becoming a journalist. After moving to DeKalb, Ill., west of Chicago, to be closer to his brother, he worked as a cabby and as an Uber driver.In 2018, he was hired as a part-time shelver by the DeKalb County Library System and was later promoted to a $16-an-hour position mostly handling book loans to and from other libraries.Before he lapsed into a coma seven months ago, he and a partner were planning to open a tobacco and CBD retail store.“Ghetto 101” originated when Mr. Isay was hired at WBEZ radio, NPR’s Chicago affiliate, to contribute to a series of broadcasts inspired by Alex Kotlowitz’s book “There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America” (1991).Michael Newman said that Lloyd had responded to a leaflet distributed by Mr. Isay seeking boots-on-the-ground reporters. Lloyd, he said, “thought that it would be fun and something different to do.”Mr. Kotlowitz said in an email that the project had imbued Mr. Newman with a quiet confidence and gave him a job that fit his character, as an “understated yet fiercely powerful storyteller who so relished making individual connections often with people whose lives so differed from his own.”“He was such a generous spirit and such a thoughtful soul,” Mr. Kotlowitz added. “I don’t know if he fully grasped the impact his storytelling had on others, but it inspired so many and challenged them in ways that brought us all closer.”Both youths understood the challenges they faced in the other America, the one outside the ghetto.“If we go in the store, we’re looked at wrong, as if we was going to steal,” Mr. Newman told Charlie Rose on PBS in 1997. “We’re not trusted, and most people feel that way.”By his own reckoning, Lloyd Newman might not have expected to die of natural causes. In 1997, enumerating the most common causes of death in the projects, he told The Times: “People get thrown out of windows, drowned, stabbed, shot. But a lot of that killing would stop if the government would make it livable around here. We don’t have no parks. The swings are broken. There’s nothing for people to do. There’s no fun. Life isn’t worth living without some fun.”In the documentary “Remorse,” Mr. Newman and Mr. Jones stood on the roof of the public housing building from which 5-year-old Eric Morse had been dropped from a 14th-floor window by two other young kids, or “shorties,” in the parlance of the streets. Looking over the edge, Mr. Jones asked Mr. Newman what would have gone through his mind if it was he who had been plunging to the ground.“I’d be thinking about how I’m going to land and if I’m going to survive,” Mr. Newman said. “I’d be thinking about how it is in heaven.”They mulled how long the fall would take and whether there would be time enough to say a prayer. Regardless, they concluded, Eric was so young that he would surely have gone to heaven.“Dude, you think they got a playground in heaven for shorties?” Mr. Jones asked.“Nope,” Mr. Newman said. “They don’t got a playground in heaven for nobody.” More

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      Late Night Isn’t Amused by Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jan. 6 Joke

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      The Republican congresswoman said that if she and Steve Bannon had planned the Capitol riot, “we would have won.”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.Coulda Shoulda WouldaAt a Republican gala on Saturday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia made a joke about the Jan. 6 riot: “If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won.” She added, “Not to mention, it would have been armed.”“You see, the joke is, conservatives are such bloodthirsty psychopaths, if they had actually planned the insurrection on the Capitol, it would have been way more violent,” Seth Meyers said on Monday. “That’s like if Holiday Inn ran an ad that said, ‘If “White Lotus” took place here, a lot more people would have died.’”“Now, let me just say if I saw Greene with a gun, I would definitely be scared, but I refuse to believe Steve Bannon knows how to use one. No one who layers polo shirts is good with a firearm. In a way, they’d make fun partners in a buddy cop movie.” — SETH MEYERS“So, by ‘we’ she means the rioters, and by ‘would have won’ she means ‘overthrown the government’?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“[Imitating Marjorie Taylor Greene] If I had been in charge of invading my own office, Mike Pence wouldn’t just look like a ghost, he’d be one!’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Keep Your Day Job, Elon Edition)“Elon is being slammed for a tweet he posted yesterday that said, ‘My pronouns are prosecute and Fauci.’ Fauci was like, ‘Yep, much like a Tesla battery, Elon’s on fire.’” — JIMMY FALLON“It’s like a joke generated by A.I. — it makes no sense. The structure is wrong, it doesn’t rhyme with anything, there are too many syllables. It’s exactly the kind of joke you would expect from a guy who named his son after the bottom row of an eye chart.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yeah, you could tell Fauci wasn’t having it because he wrote back, ‘Congrats on making Twitter the Johnson & Johnson vaccine of social media.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingMichelle Obama exchanged Christmas gifts with Jimmy Kimmel on his Monday night show.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightStanley Tucci will pop by “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday.Also, Check This OutSteve Tientcheu in “Les Misérables.”Julien Magre/Amazon StudiosMovies about soccer are often eclectic and at times unclassifiable, drawing from multiple continents and genres. More

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      The Pundit Whisperer of Qatar’s beIN Sports World Cup Coverage

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      Qatar’s beIN Sports hired a host of retired soccer stars to bring authority to its World Cup coverage and a group of interpreters to render their words into Arabic. The toughest assignments go to one man.DOHA, Qatar — There is perhaps no one in the world who has paid closer attention to the diction and pronunciation of the former England soccer captain John Terry over the past month than Lassaad Tounakti, a 52-year-old Tunisian with a gift for languages, a passion for cologne and an accidental television career.For Tounakti, understanding the minute details of the way Terry speaks is no casual affair. His ability to understand Terry’s every utterance has been a vital part of one of the World Cup’s toughest, and least forgiving, man-to-man assignments: As the main interpreter for beIN Sports, Tounakti has since the start of the tournament served as the voice of Terry and other retired stars hired by BeIN as it has transmitted the tournament night after night to Arabic-speaking viewers across the Middle East and North Africa.It can seem, at times, like a Sisyphean task. BeIN Sports, the broadcaster based in Qatar, has devoted six channels to the World Cup, including two that are Arabic only. Each one is broadcasting tournament content for up to 18 hours a day. There are pregame shows, halftime chats and postgame panel discussions, but also sideline interviews, on-the-street cutaways and fan-zone appearances. Much of that programming is beamed out live to the world, and much of it involves a delicate live dance involving Arab hosts and guests and former soccer stars who do not speak a common language.Interpreting their words — quickly, precisely and live on the air — requires an extraordinary fluency in not only languages but soccer. For Tounakti, it means translating every word of Arabic into English in the ears of the former soccer stars before flicking a switch — literally and in his mind — and immediately rendering their thoughts, delivered in English, back into Arabic.Tounakti uses two buttons during broadcasts: E for English and A for Arabic.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesEvery voice is different. The English diction of Kaká, a World Cup-winning Brazilian, is different from that of the Dutch soccer great Ruud Gullit, and the nuances of their pronunciations are different from those of the former Germany captain Lothar Matthäus.Because of the sheer volume of coverage it is providing, beIN is employing four staff interpreters and supplementing them with freelancers for the World Cup. Most interpreters work in a rotation, but there are some accents, some ways of speaking, that require just a little bit more expert handling. Terry’s thick East London accent is one of those.“For the time being,” Tounakti said, “John Terry is mine.”Speaking to the WorldTounakti’s career as the Arabic voice of beIN’s imported experts was in many ways accidental. As a delegation from Qatar prepared to fly to Zurich in December 2010 to make its final pitch to host the 2022 World Cup, beIN realized it did not have an interpreter who spoke both French and English.Tounakti, a university professor with a doctorate in linguistics and experience interpreting for the country’s emir, was enlisted for the trip, which ended with his voice relaying the shocking news that Qatar had won the rights to bring the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time. “They say I am the guy that made 350 million people cry,” he said.In the decade since the vote, beIN, which is owned by the Qatari state, grew into one of the world’s biggest broadcasters, spending billions of dollars on sports rights every year and expanding into dozens of countries. Most of that expansion has been preparation for this moment: a month of televising the World Cup from Qatar.BeIN Sports has devoted six channels to the World Cup, including two that are Arabic only. Erin Schaff/The New York TimesWhile the 64 games have been a centerpiece of the coverage, a significant part of the network’s content has revolved around the high-profile guest commentators the company has hired at great expense to bring credibility, celebrity and commentary to its coverage.Last week, in the street separating two buildings in beIN’s complex in Doha, Peter Schmeichel, a former Denmark and Manchester United goalkeeper who is one of the company’s longtime analysts, arrived for an evening shift in the studio accompanied by Jermaine Jones, a German-born former U.S. midfielder.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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      Golden Globes Nominations: ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ ‘Elvis’ Among Nominees

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      The tarnished awards ceremony will air on NBC in January in a one-year trial. But which stars will show up to collect their trophies?The companies behind the tarnished Golden Globe Awards pushed forward with a rehabilitation effort on Monday, announcing nominations for a televised ceremony on Jan. 10 that will find “The Fabelmans,” “Elvis” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” among those in contention for the top film prizes.Who will show up to collect the trophies is another matter.NBC canceled the 2022 telecast amid an ethics, finance and diversity scandal involving the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the unorthodox organization that bestows the Globes. Citing extensive H.F.P.A. reforms, NBC in September agreed to return the ceremony to its air for an 80th installment — under a one-year trial. For the first time, the show will also be available simultaneously online, through Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.Most movie studios view the Globes telecast and accompanying red carpet spectacle as crucial marketing opportunities for winter films, especially dramas, which have been struggling at the box office. But not everyone in Hollywood is eager for the Globes to return. Publicists and agents say that some stars (those with the most to gain from the exposure) have an open mind, while others want the Globes to be retired forever.Kelly Bush Novak, the chief executive of ID, a leading Hollywood publicity and marketing firm, said she would encourage clients to participate, in part because she expected Globe voters to recognize a diverse group of artists. “Many of us — in a truly collective effort — held the organization accountable, and many of us are encouraged by the strides and commitment that have resulted,” Novak said. (She added, however, that more work needed to be done.)Last year, after The Los Angeles Times enumerated the foreign press association’s well-known but long-overlooked lapses, Tom Cruise returned his Globe trophies. More recently, Brendan Fraser, who has received rave reviews for his performance as a morbidly obese man in “The Whale,” said that he would not attend the ceremony if nominated. In 2018, Fraser accused a then-member of the H.F.P.A. of groping him in 2003, which the member denied.Fraser was nominated on Monday for best actor in a drama. Other notable nominees include Ana de Armas, for her performance in Netflix’s widely derided Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde.” James Cameron was nominated as best director, for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which opens worldwide on Friday.Some awards prognosticators had expected to see Cruise among the best actor nominees, for his performance in “Top Gun: Maverick.” But he was left out. (The movie did receive a nomination for best drama.) Will Smith, vying for awards attention with “Emancipation,” also failed to make the list.The stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael will host the Golden Globes ceremony, which is being held on a Tuesday (as opposed to its accustomed Sunday spot) to avoid NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”With a new interim chief executive, Todd Boehly, leading a turnaround effort, the H.F.P.A has overhauled membership eligibility, recruited new members with an emphasis on diversity, enacted a stricter code of conduct and has moved to end its tax-exempt status and transform into a for-profit company with a philanthropic arm. Boehly is awaiting final governmental approval for that plan. Once it comes, he is expected to disband the H.F.P.A. and rebrand the charitable division.The 96-member organization now has six Black members — up from zero — and has added 103 nonmember voters, a dozen or so of whom are Black. One member was recently kicked out for conduct violations, including fabricating quotes, which leaders of the group have cited as proof of their reformed ways.Live awards shows, including the Oscars, have lost tens of millions of viewers over the past decade, but the biggest ceremonies still attract a larger audience than almost anything else on traditional television, aside from live sports. The most recent Golden Globes telecast, held without celebrity attendees in early 2021 because of the pandemic, attracted about seven million viewers, according to Nielsen. Prepandemic, the show was attracting about 18 million viewers annually.Here is a list of the nominees:Best Motion Picture, Drama“Avatar: The Way of Water”“Elvis”“The Fabelmans”“Tár”“Top Gun: Maverick”Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy“Babylon”“The Banshees of Inisherin”“Everything Everywhere All at Once”“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”“Triangle of Sadness”Best Director, Motion PictureJames Cameron, “Avatar: The Way of Water”Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Baz Luhrmann, “Elvis”Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, DramaCate Blanchett, “Tár”Olivia Colman, “Empire of Light”Viola Davis, “The Woman King”Ana de Armas, “Blonde”Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or ComedyLesley Manville, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”Margot Robbie, “Babylon”Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Menu”Emma Thompson, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion PictureAngela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Dolly de Leon, “Triangle of Sadness”Carey Mulligan, “She Said”Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, DramaAustin Butler, “Elvis”Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”Hugh Jackman, “The Son”Bill Nighy, “Living”Jeremy Pope, “The Inspection”Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or ComedyDiego Calva, “Babylon”Daniel Craig, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”Adam Driver, “White Noise”Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Ralph Fiennes, “The Menu”Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion PictureBrendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Brad Pitt, “Babylon”Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Eddie Redmayne, “The Good Nurse”Best Screenplay, Motion PictureTodd Field, “Tár”Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Sarah Polley, “Women Talking”Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, “The Fabelmans”Best Original Score, Motion PictureCarter Burwell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Alexandre Desplat, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”Hildur Gudnadottir, “Women Talking”Justin Hurwitz, “Babylon”John Williams, “The Fabelmans”Best Original Song, Motion Picture“Carolina,” “Where the Crawdads Sing”“Ciao Papa,” “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”“Hold My Hand,” “Top Gun: Maverick”“Lift Me Up,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”“Naatu Naatu,” “RRR”Best Motion Picture, Animated“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”“Inu-Oh”“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”“Turning Red”Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language“All Quiet on the Western Front”“Argentina, 1985”“Close”“Decision to Leave”“RRR”Best Television Series, Drama“Better Call Saul”“The Crown”“House of the Dragon”“Ozark”“Severance”Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy“Abbott Elementary”“The Bear”“Hacks”“Only Murders in the Building”“Wednesday”Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture made for Television“Black Bird”“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”“The Dropout”“Pam & Tommy”“The White Lotus”Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, DramaEmma D’arcy, “House of the Dragon”Laura Linney, “Ozark”Imelda Staunton, “The Crown”Hilary Swank, “Alaska Daily”Zendaya, “Euphoria”Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Musical or ComedyQuinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”Kaley Cuoco, “The Flight Attendant”Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”Jean Smart, “Hacks”Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for TelevisionJessica Chastain, “George & Tammy”Julia Garner, “Inventing Anna”Lily James, “Pam & Tommy”Julia Roberts, “Gaslit”Amanda Seyfried, “The Dropout”Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, DramaJeff Bridges, “The Old Man”Kevin Costner, “Yellowstone”Diego Luna, “Andor”Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”Adam Scott, “Severance”Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or ComedyDonald Glover, “Atlanta”Bill Hader, “Barry”Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for TelevisionTaron Egerton, “Black Bird”Colin Firth, “The Staircase”Andrew Garfield, “Under the Banner of Heaven”Evan Peters, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”Sebastian Stan, “Pam & Tommy”Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Television Musical, Comedy or Drama SeriesElizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”Julia Garner, “Ozark”Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Television Musical, Comedy or Drama SeriesJonathan Lithgow, “The Old Man”Jonathan Pryce, “The Crown”John Turturro, “Severance”Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”Henry Winkler, “Barry”Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television MovieJennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”Claire Danes, “Fleishman Is in Trouble”Daisy Edgar-Jones, “Under the Banner of Heaven”Niecy Nash, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”Aubrey Plaza, “The White Lotus”Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television MovieF. Murray Abraham, “The White Lotus”Domhnall Gleeson, “The Patient”Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”Richard Jenkins, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”Seth Rogen, “Pam & Tommy” More

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      How ‘Peter Pan’ Inspired Richard Branson

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      The businessman and subject of a new documentary series is a fan of “Mare of Easttown,” “Sharkwater” and letting his grandchildren beat him at chess.In the opening moments of the HBO documentary series “Branson,” Richard Branson looks into the camera to say goodbye.“It’s always strange recording something when you’re alive and healthy,” he said, “knowing the only reason this video will be seen is if something has gone awry.”Branson, a serial entrepreneur whose businesses include the aerospace company Virgin Galactic, has bid farewell before when he thought he needed to prepare for the worst — “I’ve written letters to my children and my grandchildren on a number of occasions,” he said in a phone interview last month — but in this case, it was 16 days before he tried spaceflight.Even though that 2021 trip was a success, the footage didn’t go to waste. It made its way into “Branson,” a four-part series that covers his life and career, including his founding of the Virgin empire. Talking about his life, he believes, is part of the mission.“Your life is not wasted if you’ve learned a lot and you’ve shared it,” he said in the documentary. “If you’ve learned a lot and you don’t share your life, I personally feel that your life is wasted somewhat.”Here, Branson shares the people who have inspired him, the books he returns to and why he keeps losing at tennis. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “Peter Pan” I found the “Peter Pan” story as a kid and thought it was a magical story. Being able to just flap the arms and fly has been my most recurring dream.2. Forgiveness It was an honor to be able to spend quite a bit of time with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And one of my favorite books is Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom.” I think that the overriding lesson that the two of them taught the world was the importance of forgiveness. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that they set up in South Africa was completely and utterly remarkable.3. Grandchildren The best present I ever received was when my grandkids put on a show for me, which they performed in the middle of the dining room table. Shows from kids, and then grandkids, are often the best presents.4. “Biko” I was in South Africa with Nelson Mandela when they unveiled a statue of Steve Biko, a Black activist who was killed in a prison cell by white people during apartheid. After Mandela made his speech, I managed to get the microphone off him and handed it to Peter Gabriel and suggested that he just sing his song, “Biko,” without any instrumentation. The streets were filled with people, and every one of them sang along with him.5. “Swallows and Amazons” As a very young kid, I loved the Arthur Ransome novel “Swallows and Amazons.” It’s about a group of children having adventures in England. Now I read it to my grandkids. It’s a beautiful book.6. “Mare of Easttown” Kate Winslet ended up marrying into our family — married my nephew. I think her best performance ever was in “Mare of Easttown.” It’s extraordinarily powerful that she can do a Philadelphia lady and do it so well. I hope she makes a follow-up on that.7. “Sharkwater” A strong documentary can really wake one up. There’s a brilliant documentary called “Sharkwater,” which the late Rob Stewart made to campaign against the mass killing of sharks and other species in the ocean for things like shark fin soup. After I saw it, I started spending a lot of time campaigning to get sharks protected.8. Joe’s Stone Crab I’d rather swim with the fish than fish for fish these days, even though that sounds a bit “Godfather”-ish. When my wife, Joan, and I are in Miami, we like to eat at Joe’s Stone Crab. It’s got the best fish and crab and a lovely atmosphere as well.9. Chess I play lots of chess. And I like chess boards, which you’ll find around every corner of our home. I like boards to be simple, not the Balinese pieces where I don’t know which one is the queen and which one is the king. I started playing with my grandkids when they were quite young, and I let them beat me all the time to keep them interested. But my 7-year-old grandson has been taking lessons, and it was tough going recently, so I decided to beat him. I think he’s now at an age where he’ll want to come back for more.10. Tennis I play every morning and evening with a tennis pro. It’s a good way of being humble because I get beat, morning and evening, every day. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: Lots of Holiday Specials and ‘Yellowstone’

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      NBC, The CW and ABC celebrate the holidays and the Paramount show airs its midseason finale.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, Dec. 12-18. Details and times are subject to change.MondayBAKING IT: MAYA RUDOLPH & AMY POEHLER’S CELEBRITY HOLIDAY SPECIAL 10 p.m. on NBC. Maya Rudolph is kicking off the second season of her show, “Baking It,” with a holiday special co-starring Amy Poehler. The network announced that her season one co-host, Andy Samberg, would not be returning. On this episode Fred Armisen, Kristen Bell, Nicole Richie and JB Smoove compete in festive holiday baking challenges while also raising money for charity.TuesdayFrom left: Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Chuck Schumer in “Pelosi in the House.”Courtesy of HBOPELOSI IN THE HOUSE (2022) 9 p.m. on HBO. This documentary about the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, filmed over three decades by her daughter Alexandra Pelosi, got a big preview when the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol played snippets of Alexandra’s videos from that day during their final hearing. Now, we will see moments before and after including Pelosi’s first State of the Union under President George W. Bush, the infamous moment of her ripping up a copy of President Donald Trump’s speech as she sat behind him and her persistence to verify the ballots even after the attack.THE VOICE 9 p.m. on NBC. This week’s two-hour live finale will feature performances from the top five finalists competing for a $100,000 cash prize and a record deal with Universal Music Group. They won’t be the only ones singing, though — Kane Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Maluma, One Republic and Adam Lambert are all set to perform.WednesdaySURVIVOR 8 p.m. on CBS. A three-hour episode, which includes a reunion, will wrap up the 43rd season of this reality competition show. This season, like the two that came before it, is a shortened version — filming took place over just 26 days to create 12 episodes. The show has already announced that it will be coming back for a 44th season.ThursdayH.E.R. as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration,” a movie that’s part live action, part animation.Christopher Willard/ABCBEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A 30TH CELEBRATION 8 p.m. on ABC. In 1992, Disney released an animated film that tells the story of Belle, a booksmart and headstrong girl who enters in the mansion of the Beast to save her father. Through true love, the Beast is transformed into his original form — a handsome prince, and of course, Belle and the prince live happily ever after. To celebrate the beloved fairy tale, this made-for-TV movie is part live action, part animation. Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, known as H.E.R., stars as Belle, Josh Groban stars as the Beast and Rita Moreno narrates. The rest of the cast is also star studded, with almost too many Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award nominations between all of them to count.FridayFOUR CHRISTMASES (2008) 9 p.m. on AMC. While some holiday movies focus on the importance and joy of spending time with family, this film admits it can be exhausting. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a couple who spend the holidays trudging around from one family event to another after their tropical getaway is canceled. “Yes, it follows a charming, mismatched couple on a sentimental journey involving presents, family and the sharing of food and feelings,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The New York Times. “But the picture, briskly directed by Seth Gordon from a snappy, many-authored script, is refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup.”SaturdayHOWARDS END 7 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The four-part series follows two sisters as they navigate their love lives in Edwardian England. Margaret Schlegel, played by Hayley Atwell, is courted by Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen), a wealthy widower. Meanwhile, Margaret’s younger sister Helen Schlegel (Philippa Coulthard) falls for a penniless clerk.IHEARTRADIO JINGLE BALL 2022 8 p.m. on The CW. Originally broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 9, a recording of this concert is coming to the small screen. The tour, which travels around the U.S. during the month of December, features performances by Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Lauv and Demi Lovato — just to name a new.THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006) 9:30 p.m. on E! This movie is chock-full of memorable lines. Emily Blunt saying to Anne Hathaway, “A million girls would kill for this job” or Meryl Streep telling Hathaway, “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.” Hathaway plays Andy, a journalist who tries to get her big break by working as an assistant to Miranda Priestly (Streep), the editor in chief of Runway magazine, which is loosely inspired by Anna Wintour and Vogue magazine. After galas, a trip to Paris and a whole new wardrobe, Andy has to decide what she actually wants to do with her life.SundayFrom left, Gil Birmingham, Mo Brings Plenty and Luke Grimes in “Yellowstone.”Paramount NetworkYELLOWSTONE 8 p.m. on Paramount. This ensemble show follows a family of powerful ranchers. Last season, it was television’s most watched drama. “The surface layer of ‘Yellowstone’ is part modern-day Western, part family business saga,” the New York Times critic James Poniewozik wrote about the first season. “A kind of cowboy ‘Dynasty’ with some dark-cable ambitions.”MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) 8 p.m. on TCM. This romantic comedy and musical follows four sisters, including one played by Judy Garland, in the year leading up to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair. The plot revolves around Christmas, making it the perfect movie to watch this time of year. More

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      Steve Martin and Martin Short Trade Barbs, and Eulogies, on ‘SNL’

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      The two seasoned comedians brought their playful rivalry to this week’s episode, which featured the musical guest Brandi Carlile.A certain playful rivalry has always been the heart of the partnership between Steve Martin and Martin Short. So, taken to its logical extension, the two should be at their funniest when imagining themselves at each other’s funerals.That was the idea behind their opening monologue on this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live,” which paired the enduringly popular comedians (and stars of the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building”) as hosts on a holiday-themed broadcast that also featured the musical guest Brandi Carlile.At their entrance, Short and Martin humorously stepped on each other’s dialogue, compared how many times they had hosted “S.N.L.” alone (Martin a whopping 16 occasions, Short a mere three) and indulged in some nostalgia for the early days of the series. Having shown a photograph of himself with Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Mick Jagger, Martin quipped that after it was taken, “We tested positive for everything.”Next, a few good-natured zingers at each other’s expense. Martin said that working with Short “is like World Cup soccer — somehow, I just can’t get into it.”Short returned fire, observing that their Hulu show “is like Steve at the urinal — it streams for 32 minutes.”Then Martin set up the central premise of the segment, saying that he realized Short wouldn’t live forever, “and that is sad, because you won’t be able to hear the wonderful things I’m going to say at your memorial.”“So I thought: why wait?” he continued. “So what I did was I wrote up your eulogy so you can hear it now.”Beginning his imaginary remarks, Martin said: “Wow, not much of a turnout. Marty did not want to be cremated — too late. But I’ll always be haunted by Marty’s last words: ‘Tesla autopilot, engage.’”Short then launched into his own tribute, saying: “There are so many great things that I could say about Steve Martin. But this hardly seems the time nor the place.” He added, “I know Steve is looking down on us right now because he always looked down on everybody.”Martin said of Short: “Marty was taken away from us too soon. But sadly, not before he played Jack Frost in ‘Santa Clause 3.’”And Short said of Martin, “Seeing you in your casket reminds me of that classic ‘S.N.L.’ sketch ‘Dick in a Box.’”Finally Martin wondered aloud, “Now that Marty’s gone, who will I ever work with?” That was the cue for a cameo from Selena Gomez, their co-star in “Only Murders,” who asked, “What about me?”New holiday standard of the weekIn this week’s opening sketch, “S.N.L.” skipped its familiar topical satire in favor of a musical segment that found Bowen Yang, Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson standing at a Christmas tree, wondering how to deal with the buildup of anxieties from recent months. (Yang listed the major causes for concern: “War, climate change, the Prince Harry-Meghan Markle documentary.”)Breaking into song, they explained that the holidays made it OK for them to push off their personal worries for a few more weeks. For example, Thompson sang that he could give himself permission to overlook his drinking: “It’s starting to get out of hand / I knew that it may have / Crossed into a dark place / When Burger King said I was banned.”In another verse, Yang asked: “Since when did Hitler come back? / Didn’t we basically all agree, years ago / Hitler should never come back?” (Thompson added, “And why are his new fans Black?”)Old holiday standard of the weekLike the Irving Berlin composition that inspired it, the 1954 movie musical “White Christmas” may be a seasonal classic. But let’s at least admit that it has a couple of bizarre numbers, like “Snow,” in which Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Danny Kaye ride a train while crooning about frozen precipitation as if they’ve never encountered it before.That scene was parodied with an absurdist affection in this sketch, where Short, Martin and Strong sing enthusiastically about snow without seeming to understand what it is, and Thompson plays a fellow passenger who is pleasantly baffled by their antics. (If seeing Short and Martin in Christmas sketches is your thing, enjoy these further segments in which they play a department-store Santa and elf and perform an excessively violent reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” )Weekend Update jokes of the weekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections and the release of the basketball player Brittney Griner as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.Jost began:It was shaping up to be good week for Joe Biden. He got Brittney Griner back, he kept marriage gay, and he’s only got 14 more sleeps until Santa. But then, just when he thought he had it all under control, Kyrsten Sinema said hold my wig. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, seen here realizing that someone is actually waving to the person behind her, announced that she is leaving the Democratic Party and is registering as an independent. Explained Sinema, “Pay attention to me.”He continued:WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed from prison in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. It’s actually a great trade because Bout was only averaging five points and two rebounds a game.Che then pivoted to the Georgia runoff:Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate runoff race. But I don’t think this is the last you’ll hear from Herschel Walker. I mean, unless he’s your biological father. With Raphael Warnock’s win, Democrats in the Senate will no longer have to rely on Vice President Harris for tie breaking votes. Harris can now focus on her main priority, waiting for a worse bike accident. [A screen behind Che shows President Biden falling off a bike.]Nineties nostalgia of the weekIf you’re going to bring Martin and Short together on a pop-cultural comedy sketch series, you’d darn well better let them pay homage to either “Three Amigos” or “Father of the Bride.”“S.N.L.” opted for the latter in this fake ad for “Father of the Bride Part 8,” which casts Martin as the titular father, Heidi Gardner as his now-menopausal daughter preparing for her eighth marriage, Short as his flamboyant wedding-planner character and Kieran Culkin as himself, reminding us that yes, he really was in the previous installments of the franchise, and we’ve all gotten much older since then. More