Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
George Clooney to make his Broadway debut in a play of ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’
NEW YORK | George Clooney will make his Broadway acting debut next year in a familiar project for the Hollywood star: “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Clooney will play legendary TV journalist Edward R. Murrow in a stage adaptation of the 2005 movie that earned him directing and writing Oscar nominations and was among the best picture contenders.
“I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially, to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to,” Clooney said in a statement.
The play “Good Night, and Good Luck” — with David Cromer directing — will premiere on Broadway in spring 2025 at a Shubert Theatre to be announced. It will be again co-written by Clooney and Grant Heslov.
The 90-minute black-and-white film starred David Strathairn as Murrow and is a natural to be turned into a play: The dialogue-heavy action unfolds on handful of sets. The title comes from Murrow’s signoff on the TV series “See It Now.”
A key part of Clooney’s film portrayed Murrow’s struggle to maintain support from CBS executives for critical reporting on Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, known for accusing government employees of disloyalty. Clooney played “See It Now” co-creator Fred Friendly, who resisted intense pressure and ensured the reports got to air.
Murrow, who died in 1965, is considered one of the architects of U.S. broadcast news.
“Edward R. Murrow operated from a kind of moral clarity that feels vanishingly rare in today’s media landscape. There was an immediacy in those early live television broadcasts that today can only be effectively captured on stage, in front of a live audience,” Cromer said in a statement.
The Clooneys are boosters of journalism. Clooney’s father, Nick Clooney, worked as a TV news anchor and host in a variety of cities including Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. He also wrote a newspaper column in Cincinnati and taught journalism students at American University.
At the time the movie came out, Clooney said his family took pride in how journalists held the government accountable during the paranoia of the 1950s communist threat. Clooney said he wanted to make a movie to let people hear some “really well-written words about the fourth estate again.”
‘Judge Judy’ Sheindlin sues for defamation over stories
NEW YORK | “Judge Judy” Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.
The story was first published on InTouch Weekly’s website on April 10 under the headline “Inside Judge Judy’s Quest to Save the Menendez Brothers Nearly 35 Years After Their Parents’ Murder,” according to the lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Collier County, Florida.
A version of the story later appeared in the National Enquirer, a sister publication to InTouch Weekly also owned by Accelerate360 Media. The 1989 Menendez murders in Beverly Hills, California, was a case of some tabloid renown.
Sheindlin said she’s had nothing to say about the case. Her lawsuit speculated that the news outlets used statements in a FOX Nation docuseries made by “Judi Ramos,” a woman identified as an alternate juror in the first Menendez trial, and misattributed them to the television judge.
There was no immediate comment from Accelerate360, whose attempt to sell the National Enquirer last year fell through.
Sheindlin does not ask for a specific amount of damages, but made clear it wouldn’t be cheap.
“When you fabricate stories about me in order to make money for yourselves with no regard for the truth or the reputation I’ve spent a lifetime cultivating, it’s going to cost you,” she said in a statement. “When you’ve done it multiple times, it’s unconscionable and will be expensive. It has to be expensive so that you will stop.”
Sheindlin, who hosted the syndicated “Judge Judy” through 2021 and now hosts “Judy Justice,” has had run-ins with the Enquirer in the past.
In 2017, the newspaper retracted and apologized for stories that falsely claimed she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and depression and had cheated on her husband.
Childish Gambino announces first
tour in five years
NEW YORK | Donald Glover’s musical project Childish Gambino has returned with a reimagined album and a new tour announcement.
Early Monday, Glover posted on X that “ATAVISTA” had hit streaming platforms — and that the record is actually “the finished version” of an album he released in 2020, “3.15.20.”
On March 15, 2020, a number of new Childish Gambino songs dropped on DonaldGloverPresents.com, but were quickly removed. A week later, “3.15.20” was officially released with guest appearances including Ariana Grande, 21 Savage and others. It, too, was eventually removed from streaming platforms.
Monday’s full-length release includes two brand new tracks, “Atavista” and “Human Sacrifice,” according to a press release. Young Nudy and Summer Walker have new guest spots on the album.
To celebrate “Atavista,” Glover dropped a music video for “Little Foot Big Foot,” directed by Hiro Murai (his longtime collaborator also known for work on the television shows “Barry” and “Station Eleven”) and starring Quinta Brunson, Rob Bynes, Monyett Crump and others.
Glover has also announced “The New World Tour,” his first tour since 2019. His run begins on Aug. 11 in Oklahoma City and will hit many major North American cities before heading to Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
The tour ends on Feb. 11, 2025 in Perth, Australia.
Openers include WILLOW ( Willow Smith’s musical moniker) and Amaarae. Tickets go on sale Friday.
Eurovision banned the EU flag from the song contest; the EU wants to know why
BRUSSELS | The Eurovision song contest continued to spawn unprecedented controversy, days after the winner was crowned, with the 27-nation European Union lambasting organizers on Monday for their “incoherence” in banning its flag from the concert hall during the final.
In an unusually sharp letter, EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas wrote to the Swiss-based European Broadcast Union, which organizes the contest, that its ban contributes to “discrediting a symbol that brings together all Europeans.”
In a contest already full of controversy, the European Commission said it plans “a very lively discussion” with the organizers over the ban. Even though the 27-nation EU did not compete as such, many of its member states did, and the star-spangled blue flag is often seen as a unifier for all involved.
Schinas wrote that “such actions have cast a shadow over what is meant to be a joyous occasion for peoples across Europe and the world to come together in celebration.”
The flag is on show at countless events and across the EU nations and often flies alongside the national colors from tiny city halls to massive governmental buildings.
Schinas was especially bitter since the ban came only a month ahead of EU-wide parliamentary elections where the EU as an institution is an object of fierce debate and often attacked by extremist parties.
“The incoherence in the EBU’s stance has left myself and many millions of your viewers wondering for what and for whom the Eurovision Song Contest stands,” the letter said.
During the weeklong contest, organizers were already roiled by the protests linked to the war in Gaza and Israel’s participation in the event on top of the controversial disqualification of the Dutch participant over an incident which was never fully explained.
Ahead of the final, a spokesperson for the European Broadcasting Union said ticket holders are only allowed to bring and display flags representing participating countries, as well as the rainbow-colored flag which is a symbol for LGBTQ+ communities.
Swiss singer Nemo won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest Saturday night with “The Code,” an operatic pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a nongender identity.
—From AP reports
