Category: Entertainment

Eric Roberts turns 70 today

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James Brown used to call himself the hardest-working man in show business. Maybe he was. I don’t know.

But I do know the hardest-working man in showbiz today.

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It’s our man Eric.

He now has 916 acting credits on IMDb, including 14 this year so far, and 90 in the pipeline. That’s not a typo. He is in NINETY upcoming projects. I suppose he celebrated his birthday with a quick nod to those who thanked him, then set upon learning his lines for some crappy film in Croatia or Ecuador or Uzbekistan or Pitcairn’s Island. Gotta study, you know. He has to nail it all today, because tomorrow he’s on a plane to some place we’ve probably never heard of, someplace deep in the jungle or high atop a mountain, where they eat insects and worship mud. But if they have a camera, and their checks don’t bounce, he’ll get there. He may need a safari guide or a sherpa or protection from the Armenian mafia, but he’ll get there, he’ll know his lines, and he’ll hit his marks.

Cheers to ya, E.R., and just keep doin’ you. We’re pullin’ for you to hit the thousand mark.

50 Great Celebrity Mugshots

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You may have seen most of them all before, but this is an excellent collection of them in one place, with good details about the circumstances.

Cue up “The Way We Were” for this story:

Frank Sinatra was initially arrested for “seduction,” which in the 1930s meant convincing a single woman of good reputation to have sex under a false promise of marriage. (Apparently there was no crime if the single woman had a bad reputation. Contrary to what your racist uncles tell you at Thanksgiving, there were no “good old days.”)

The charge was later changed to “adultery,” when it was revealed that the woman was already married. Both charges were dismissed: the former charge was invalidated when it was discovered that the woman was married; the latter was resolved after he paid a $500 “bond,” which is the New Jersey word for “bribe.”

Sinatra spent the night in jail. His mugshot and fingerprints were taken the following day. The fingerprint record lists birth date and age (22), weight (125lb), height (5-8), hair color (black), eye color (blue), and occupation (singer).

By the way, adultery was a crime in New York State until last year!

Elle Fanning Is “Really Proud” Of How Nudity Is Used In Margo’s Got Money Troubles

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The actress explained:

A lot of it is actually just having to do with the necessities of motherhood, the need to feed your child and breastfeed. And then that’s kind of juxtaposed, later, when Margo’s doing her OnlyFans. But I think it’s a nice commentary of how her relationship to her body changes.

Examples from the OnlyFans portion of her life:


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You can find examples from the pre-OnlyFans period in the first three episodes, which are covered in depth (with captures and videos) here.

The great Bill Shatner in Captain Kirk’s finest hour

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Shat was perfect in this sketch, playing Kirk as straight as if he were in Star Trek. Bill may have his flaws as an actor, but his ability to memorize lines is not one of them. He is known as one of the quickest studies ever. It’s great to see an SNL host who came totally prepared and didn’t have to read off the cue cards in one of the show’s longest sketches (8 minutes).

Also …

I must have gotten a little dust in my eye while watching the great Phil Hartman, seen here as “Bones.”



Bill Maher will get the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

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It was announced officially on March 26

The chronology:

  1. The Atlantic reported this last week.
  2. The White House flatly denied this to be true. “This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,” said secretary Karoline Leavitt.
  3. But on Thursday, the center confirmed Maher was the pick.
  4. The White House explained: “This was false reporting at the time of the Atlantic’s reporting, but the situation changed.”

So they lied, then lied about whether they lied!

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I wondered how Maher would react to receiving something that is officially named “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor,” but he seems to be OK with it.

Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win. I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.

Trump, of course, has never been thrown out of a library. That would require him to enter a library.

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The capper on the story:

According to several sources, outgoing Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell wanted to give the prize to Fox News talk show host Greg Gutfeld. Then he actually watched Gutfeld’s show and asked, “When does he get to the funny stuff?”

The new SNL UK, and the History of SNL’s international versions

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An official UK version of SNL, overseen by Lorne Michaels, debuted Saturday, with guest host Tina Fey. The show had some rough edges. The Weekend Update segment, normally a highlight of the American version, was a glaring weakness, but the Brits are better than anyone at making fun of the news, so I think they’ll probably figure out the proper rhythm for it.

The cold open was pretty good:

Here’s Tina’s monologue:


These YouTube creators did an outstanding job of researching the history of all the international versions:



By the way, their channel is terrific, one of the very best on YouTube. They have produced a summary show for each season of SNL from 1-25 and counting. (They have released an additional season every month or so, although there was a long gap between #24 and #25.) I discovered the channel a couple of years ago, and found it a wonderfully nostalgic experience to view the recaps year-by-year, not only for memories of the show, but also to see the changes in American pop culture over the years, a subject for which SNL is our time capsule.