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      Ellen DeGeneres Drops New Netflix Special ‘For Your Approval’: Review

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      In the most insightful part of “For Your Approval,” she says that she was a poor fit to run a workplace but that women leaders are judged differently.It takes a peculiarly modern chutzpah (or obliviousness) to say — on a Netflix special — that you were kicked out of show business.To be fair, it might feel that way to Ellen DeGeneres, 66, whose hit daytime show, “Ellen,” ended in 2022 not long after reports claimed it had a toxic workplace. This followed years of people online pointing out that she was not as friendly as her television persona suggested. Leaving a successful talk show and ending up on the biggest streaming service in the world is not the worst trade, but these days, everyone receives 15 minutes of fame and an hour of cancel culture notoriety. DeGeneres handles hers with pointed offhandedness and light sarcasm, saying on her new special that she was kicked out of show business because she was mean.“You can’t be mean and be in show business,” she adds flatly. “No mean people in show business.” Then she pauses just long enough for audiences to register the absurdity but not too long to test their patience. “I’m out,” she mutters.Our social media-driven culture incentivizes phony likableness but makes maintaining that facade difficult. DeGeneres, who preached kindness on her talk show, has long been trying to escape this niceness trap. Her previous special, “Relatable,” positioned her as the kind of person who doesn’t want to hold your baby because it would mess up her sweater. This follow-up, “For Your Approval,” premiering Tuesday, mixes observational jokes with a newly confessional style.We learn about her O.C.D. and A.D.H.D. and her arthritis and childhood neglect and how her need for approval damaged her mental health. It’s a messy, revealing self-portrait whose feathery jokes mask a heavier tone. In an old attention-getting gambit, she says this will be her last special, but it’s hard to believe. (Remember when Hannah Gadsby retired?)One of the most gifted low-key comics who ever picked up a microphone, DeGeneres is part of the family tree of patient pausers like Jack Benny and Bob Newhart. She still gets a lot out of a little. Who else receives applause for a modest joke about the parking brake?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 W.N.B.A. Wanted More Attention on TV. It Got Headaches, Too.

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      As ratings for women’s basketball soared, the league was confronted with the divisive language of sports debates.When star prospects like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese were set to become professionals this year, the W.N.B.A. said it was ready.The league beefed up its marketing efforts, and its television partners devoted more time to covering the sport. They all hoped to capitalize on momentum from the collegiate tournament as women’s basketball inched closer to the round-the-clock coverage devoted to other major sports.The W.N.B.A.’s ratings did soar, but the additional attention also magnified intense conversations on television shows, podcasts and social media. Pundits passionately clashed with colleagues, players described racism they had experienced, and the players’ union openly rebuked the league’s commissioner.Here are some of the most memorable moments of media dialogue during this W.N.B.A. season, which entered the playoffs this week.Physical PlayDuring her record-breaking career at the University of Iowa, Clark, who is white, was often heralded as the future face of the W.N.B.A., a league where about 70 percent of players are Black. After the Indiana Fever drafted her first overall, she certainly became the center of attention.In one notable on-court encounter, the Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter shoulder-shoved Clark to the floor. Carter, who was later charged with a flagrant foul and declined to answer questions about the encounter after the game, later took a swipe at Clark on social media.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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      Stephen Colbert Is Tickled by Trump’s Vow to Make Women Great Again

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      “I‘m not sure if he’s running for president or marketing a new brand of tampon,” Colbert said on Monday.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.Make Women Great AgainFormer President Donald Trump made several comments about women over the weekend, vowing that under his presidency, he would “protect women at a level never seen before,” saying they would be “healthy, hopeful, safe and secure.”“I‘m not sure if he’s running for president or marketing a new brand of tampon,” Stephen Colbert joked on Monday.“[imitating Trump] Women will be safe, secure — they’ll be safe, secure and unscented. I will install all my judges with a comfort glide applicator. Vote for me, or there will be heavy days. I’m talking about, your friends will be riding bikes and laughing in the pool, and you’re going to be sitting by yourself, dealing with that cup of blue juice.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“During a rally on Saturday in North Carolina, former President Trump spoke about his agenda for women and said, ‘Let’s talk about our great women, all right? Because women have gone through a lot.’ And I assume he’s speaking from experience.” — SETH MEYERS“In a post over the weekend on Truth Social, former President Trump said that if he is elected, ‘Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free.’ So now JD Vance is undecided.” — SETH MEYERS“‘Women are poorer than they were four years ago, are less healthy than they were four years ago, are less safe on the streets than they were four years ago, are more depressed and unhappy than they were four years ago, and are less optimistic and confident in the future than they were four years ago! I will fix all of that, and fast, and at long last this national nightmare will be over.’ This reads like a suicide pact.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“[imitating Trump] Their lives will be happy, beautiful, and great again — and if you don’t believe it, ask my wife Melania, who every night prays I drive my golf cart into a lagoon.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (The Oprah Treatment Edition)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Caterina Valente, Singer Who Was a Star on Two Continents, Dies at 93

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      Born in Paris to Italian parents and raised in Germany, she had her own show on television in the 1950s and was later a small-screen mainstay in the U.S.Caterina Valente, a polyglot performer who sang in more than a dozen languages and was a television mainstay on two continents in the 1950s and ’60s, died on Sept. 9 at her home in Lugano, Switzerland. She was 93.Her death was announced on her website.Ms. Valente achieved stardom in mid-1950s Germany in a popular music genre known as schlager: novelty songs, with titles like “Ganz Paris Träumt von der Liebe” (“All Paris Dreams of Love”) and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Strandbikini.” By 1955, her hits had put her on the cover of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Strandbikini” was one of the first of Ms. Valente’s many hit records.DeccaShe had her own television show in Germany in 1957, and she appeared regularly at the Olympia in Paris throughout her career. Her fluid, confident delivery and sure pitch, as well as her skill as both a guitar player and a tap dancer, also carried her across the Atlantic, and by the early 1960s she was a regular on American television.Ms. Valente capitalized on her cosmopolitan origins. She was born in Paris to Italian parents who themselves were entertainers; was brought up in wartime Germany; and was fluent in a half-dozen languages. She would regularly make records for the French, Italian and German markets, which led to hits all across the continent. She won France’s Grand Prix du Disque for her 1959 recording of the song “Bim-Bom-Bey.”Ms. Valente on a 1966 episode of “The Dean Martin Show.” She was a regular on this and other American variety shows for many years.NBC, via Everett CollectionWe 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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      What Did ‘The West Wing’ Do to Us?

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      As Aaron Sorkin’s political fantasy turns 25, its romance has aged better than its politics.“‘I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other god before me.’ Boy, those were the days, huh?”Thus do we meet President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), Democrat of New Hampshire, in the pilot of “The West Wing,” which premiered on Sept. 22, 1999.Having your protagonist’s first line be the literal words of the Almighty is, shall we say, a statement. This was a series that saw politics as civic religion. It was a work of patriotic evangelism that appealed to our better angels but failed to match up to earthly reality.But before it was all that, it was a well-crafted, emotional workplace drama. The pilot finds the White House amid a number of crises, personal, political and in between. A flotilla of Cuban refugees headed for Florida is in danger. Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), one of the president’s aides, has unknowingly slept with a prostitute. Another aide, Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), may lose his job after having embarrassed a prominent religious conservative in a TV appearance. And President Bartlet has injured himself crashing a bicycle into a tree.The episode, written by the creator, Aaron Sorkin, and directed by Thomas Schlamme, establishes the show’s signature look and energy. The camera races to keep up with the staff; the dialogue has the rat-a-tat brio of a ’30s screwball comedy. The score, by W.G. Snuffy Walden, sauces the action in star-spangled emotion. Smart, smart, smart!, the pilot says. Busy, busy, busy!Above all, the pilot establishes the show’s core fantasy: That the right thing and the politically effective thing are the same thing. Josh drags himself into a forced-apology meeting with a religious group. It goes badly: His main antagonist shows herself to be a sour, meanspirited antisemite, and the meeting devolves into a shouting match, interrupted by Bartlet, who corrects a guest’s misquote of the First Commandment.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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      What’s on TV This Week: Lots of Medical and Police Dramas

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      ABC, NBC and Fox are all premiering new shows about doctors, cops or firefighters. The Voice is also returning, with Snoop Dogg joining the judges’ panel.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, Sept. 23-29. Details and times are subject to change.Monday9-1-1: LONE STAR 8 p.m. on Fox. As we reminisce about “The West Wing” premiering 25 years ago and daydream about Rob Lowe’s Sam Seaborn (oh, just me?), it’s the perfect time to turn our attention to his current show about a fire station, which is returning for its fifth season.THE VOICE 8 p.m. on NBC. Gwen Stefani and Reba McEntire are back in their red swiveling judges’ chairs, this year joined by Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé. While in Paris covering the Olympics, Snoop called the judges “a fearless foursome.”Zachary Quinto in “Brilliant Minds.”Rafy/NBCBRILLIANT MINDS 10 p.m. on NBC. If there’s something that we collectively can’t get enough of, it’s doctor shows. This one is inspired by the work of the famed neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, whose research and widely read writings illuminated disorders and cases he had studied or treated. The show stars Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf, a neurologist who works with his team not only to help solve their patients’ difficult cases, but also to deal with their own mental health.TuesdayMURDER IN A SMALL TOWN 8 p.m. on Fox. Based on the Karl Alberg books by L.R. Wright, this show follows Alberg (Rossif Sutherland), as he moves to a small town to become its police chief. And there is, of course, much more drama than expected in this seemingly idyllic community.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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      Kelsey Grammer Analyzes 40 Years of Frasier: ‘I Have Nothing to Regret’

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      Kelsey Grammer likes his raw meat cut very fine. On a recent afternoon, at the restaurant of a Midtown hotel, he requested that his steak tartare be put through the grinder twice. He wanted it, he said, like velvet. The tartare, topped with its quail egg, was presented roughly chopped. “I’ll deal with it,” Grammer said uncomplainingly.Frasier Crane would never. On and off for 40 years on several different sitcoms, Grammer, 69, has played Frasier, a dyed-in-the-cashmere-wool snob and psychiatrist about town. The character is indelibly associated with Grammer. He can’t shake him, though Grammer mostly sees this as a boon.“It’s wonderful to spend your lifetime entertaining people,” he said.In 1984, Grammer, a stage actor who had studied at Juilliard, was cast on the sitcom “Cheers” as Frasier Crane, a love interest for Shelley Long’s waitress character, Diane Chambers. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1993.That same year, Grammer starred in a spinoff, “Frasier,” which saw the character move from Boston back to Seattle, where he lived with his father (John Mahoney) and brother (David Hyde Pierce). Grammer was often a tabloid fixture in those days, with an erratic personal life. Much married, he would eventually father seven children with four different women. He was arrested for drug possession and for driving under the influence. He now believes his chaotic behavior was a response to the trauma of his early life — in separate incidents, both his father and his sister were murdered.The revived “Frasier,” which premiered last year on Paramount+, has included other past characters like Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith, played by Bebe Neuwirth.Chris Haston/Paramount+But he stuck with the show until the 2004 finale. After that, Grammer moved on to other projects, but none lasted very long. And then in 2023, a “Frasier” reboot returned Frasier to Boston, reuniting him with his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), and his best friend, Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst). The second season premiered Thursday on Paramount+.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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      Norman Reedus, ‘Walking Dead’ Star and Hieronymus Bosch Fan

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      “We wanted to reinvent the show,” the actor said of his spinoff, “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.” Filming in Madrid gave him time to explore the Prado.When Daryl Dixon was introduced in the third episode of “The Walking Dead” in 2010, few viewers could have predicted this half-feral-looking character would end up leading the series. Or that Daryl, played by Norman Reedus, would headline a spinoff set in France.“We wanted to reinvent the show,” Reedus, 55, said in a video interview from Paris.“We just didn’t want to do the same storytelling as in Georgia,” he continued, referring to the location for most of the original series, “and we didn’t want to make an American tourist version of France. So we got French writers. We fought to have French as much as English.”Season 2 of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” premieres Sept. 29 on AMC, but the new franchise is so successful that Reedus (who also appeared this year in the film “The Bikeriders” and has a second career as a photographer) is already working on the next installment in Spain.He talked about his connection with rock, art and food, as well as his 5-year-old daughter’s influence on his reading. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1‘Wild God’ by Nick Cave and the Bad SeedsNick Cave and Warren Ellis’s album “Carnage” was my go-to for the entire French filming portion of the first two seasons, and in Spain it’s this album. It just sings, full of life and stories and beautiful thundering bliss. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love this band. Not one person.2‘Nina Simone’s Gum’ by Warren EllisI met Warren in Paris and we immediately hit it off. When he told me of this book, I immediately got it. I find it interesting to learn of the things that inspire the people that inspire me. He had noticed Nina Simone take out her gum before a show and stick it under the piano. As soon as the show was over, he bolted toward the piano and ripped the gum out. He had a gold cast made of it. He was wearing it as a necklace.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