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The Jinx: The Shadowy Figures in Robert Durst’s Inner Orbit

The Jinx: The Shadowy Figures in Robert Durst’s Inner Orbit

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In the Jinx sequel, Galveston trial judge Susan Criss sounds off on the strangeness of the situation. “Chris Lovell was one of the jurors in the Galveston case who immediately befriended Bob as soon as the trial was over,” says Criss. “I think he was enamored with Bob because Bob is incredibly wealthy. He was hoping that would provide some financial rewards. I’ve never seen or heard of a juror forming a relationship with a defendant after trial. But then most defendants aren’t extremely wealthy with sort of a celebrity status.” Referring to the Houston apartment cleanup, she adds, “It is astounding that 12 years after a murder trial, one of the jurors is helping Bob make his getaway.” Lovell spoke to Jarecki for the first Jinx. “I didn’t set out to be Robert Durst’s friend,” he said. “I just set out to get some questions answered in my mind, but it has developed into a friendship, and I don’t have a problem with him at all.” Doug Oliver Lewin dubbed Doug Oliver “the rudest …

Anita Pallenberg, Original Rock Goddess, Finally Gets Her Own Spotlight

Anita Pallenberg, Original Rock Goddess, Finally Gets Her Own Spotlight

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Anita Pallenberg was one of the mid-20th century’s most influential It girls. The Italian-born beauty’s looks took her all over the world as a model in the 1960s, and led to her meeting—and besotting—several Rolling Stones, inspiring such songs as “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and “Gimme Shelter.” At the same time, the magnetic muse was also making her mark in movies like Barbarella and Performance. But life for a woman who was variously described as a “rock-and-roll goddess,” an “evil seductress,” and a “wild child”—that last one, Pallenberg called herself—was more complicated than any of those labels would imply. The intimate, insidery new documentary Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, directed by Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill, offers a fuller appraisal. Pallenberg was a Catholic high school dropout, who moved to New York City at age 21, speaking little English. She nevertheless charmed her way into the downtown pop art scene—washing brushes for Jasper Johns, meeting Andy Warhol, and attending a party where Allen Ginsberg collected famous people’s pubic hair. Eventually, …

John Mulaney Opens Up About Personal Life in Rare Interview

John Mulaney Opens Up About Personal Life in Rare Interview

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It’s been a year since John Mulaney debuted Baby J, the comedian’s triumphant special that spun humor from his recent personal rollercoaster experiencing relapse, recovery, divorce, a new relationship, and fatherhood within a few short years. The comedian described his star-studded intervention in a particularly hilarious run—“As mad as I was when I walked in there, I was like, ‘This is a good lineup”—but in a new sit-down with David Letterman, Mulaney goes deeper on the far more serious aspects of recovering from his drug and alcohol addiction. On the new Netflix episode of My Next Guest with David Letterman, Mulaney indulges the former Late Show host’s questions about his rehab experience. “It’s not immediately great nights of sleep and serenity,” says Mulaney, explaining that he initially had no use for anyone’s inspirational stories or encouragement. “I had zero gratitude.” “The actual detox from drugs was very physically uncomfortable, and I’d been on a lot of benzodiazepine like Xanax and Klonopin,” Mulaney explains. “Getting off those can be very rough. I was in the detox …

The Electrifying Ending of ‘Challengers,’ Explained

The Electrifying Ending of ‘Challengers,’ Explained

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This article contains spoilers for the ending of Challengers. When Justin Kuritzkes was writing Challengers, he adhered to the following philosophy about beginnings and endings: “I always want to start a movie as late as possible, and end a movie as soon as possible.” In other words: throw your viewers right into the action with minimal buildup, then pull them out as soon as the story has reached its inevitable conclusion. With Challengers, he says, “I always wanted the ending to feel a bit like a punch of energy.” Directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor, Challengers is a sweaty, sexy sprint through the world of professional tennis. It’s framed around a seemingly low-stakes tournament match between Art Donaldson (Faist) and Patrick Zweig (O’Connor), childhood friends who have spent the last decade-plus tangled in a love triangle with former tennis prodigy Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya), who is now Art’s wife and coach. Kuritzkes’s script frequently travels back in time to show the full arc of the three players’ careers, from Art …

The Jinx: Meet Nick Chavin, Robert Durst’s Best Friend Turned Secret Witness

The Jinx: Meet Nick Chavin, Robert Durst’s Best Friend Turned Secret Witness

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How, in all of our collective years reading about Robert Durst, the late millionaire murderer and eccentric, did it not register that he had a best friend who was a former lewd country music rocker? Enter Nick “Chinga” Chavin, whose longtime relationship with and loyalty to the late Durst is the subject of Sunday’s Jinx Part Two episode, “Friendships Die Hard.” Chavin made news in 2017 when he was unveiled as “a secret witness” in the Susan Berman trial. His bombshell testimony had been pried out of him by his wife, Terry, and Los Angeles deputy district attorney John Lewin, The Jinx sequel reveals, and directly implicated Durst in the murders of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack, and his other best friend, Susan Berman. Chavin’s claim that Durst confessed to killing Berman in 2014 (“It was her or me, I had no choice,” Chavin recalled him saying in his testimony)—along with evidence uncovered during the making of The Jinx—was crucial to Durst being finally found guilty of Berman’s murder after decades spent in the shadow …

Hollywood Descends Upon DC As Scarlett Johansson, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Other Stars Attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Hollywood Descends Upon DC As Scarlett Johansson, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Other Stars Attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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The White House Correspondents’ Dinner delivered when it came to glitz and glamour on Saturday, with a red carpet lineup that included a diverse lineup of journalists, political figures, and celebrities. Looking for a legendary superhero? Here’s Wonder Woman‘s Lynda Carter. How about a pair of 1980s icons? There’s Molly Ringwald and her Pretty In Pink co-star, Andrew McCarthy. Lynda Carter at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2024. DREW ANGERER/Getty Images Molly Ringwald at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2024. Paul Morigi/Getty Images Oh, and President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were there, too. President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2024. Bloomberg/Getty Images Vice President Kamala Harris looks on during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2024. Bloomberg/Getty Images Source link

Anne Hathaway Confirms a Possible ‘Princess Diaries 3’

Anne Hathaway Confirms a Possible ‘Princess Diaries 3’

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“This was the film that changed my life,” actor Anne Hathaway told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. The star was speaking, of course, of The Princess Diaries, the 2001 film that arguably made her a household name while still in her teens. Over two decades later, the movie (and its 2004 sequel) hasn’t left the public’s heart—or Hathaway’s, as she’s now saying that a third installment in the franchise isn’t out of the question. A visibly emotional Hathaway told VF that she hadn’t seen the iconic film in “maybe 20 years,” and noted that The Princess Diaries “wound up being so big, and it’s just gotten bigger as my life has progressed.” But at the time of that conversation, she was referring to the film in the past tense. That past tense might become a present tense, if Hathaway’s comments in a recent interview come to fruition. In a podcast and conversation with the New York Times Magazine published Saturday, reporter David Marchese asks the now-41-year-old, “Is anything cooking with a Princess Diaries 3? …

‘Hacks’ Kicks Off Season 3 With Exclusive Event Involving Synchronized Swimming and Coconut Cake

‘Hacks’ Kicks Off Season 3 With Exclusive Event Involving Synchronized Swimming and Coconut Cake

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It was a party that Deborah Vance herself would have enjoyed—and demanded to headline. On Wednesday night the cast and creators of Hacks celebrated their new season with an intimate event at LA’s storied Chateau Marmont that included a showstopping performance by synchronized swimmers and samples of a local coconut cake made famous by Tom Cruise. The third season of the acclaimed Max series, which revolves around fictional comedy and QVC queen Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her plucky writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), reunites the two characters who parted ways at the end of last season, and features a scene-stealing appearance of the cake Cruise reportedly gifts every Christmas. “It is so good,” said Smart of the cake she samples onscreen. “I’ll have to shoot up some extra insulin to have some tonight.” Carl Clemons HopkinsBy Myles Hendrik. Einbinder, who also enjoys the cake in a scene, joked that she happily “ate a ton” during filming. “I eat on every take. It’s important for my process as an actor to eat on every take. They …

Jerry Seinfeld Has Some Thoughts (On ‘Unfrosted,’ Learning From Melissa McCarthy, TV Finales, and More)

Jerry Seinfeld Has Some Thoughts (On ‘Unfrosted,’ Learning From Melissa McCarthy, TV Finales, and More)

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To hear Jerry Seinfeld deconstruct a joke is like watching a world-renowned artist paint something just for you. Take his beloved Pop-Tart joke. On the surface, it chronicles the invention of the breakfast staple, and especially how the delicacy resonated with a young Seinfeld. It’s a simple idea, but what you don’t see when he tells the joke in his 2020 stand-up special 23 Hours to Kill is how the sausage—or in this case, the Pop-Tart—was made. Seinfeld spent roughly 10 years testing out the joke, refining it, and making sure every beat hit just right before he committed it to film. As good as the joke ended up being, it wasn’t initially clear to him that it should be…a movie. Over the years, Seinfeld would joke about the prospect of the film with one of the cowriters, Spike Feresten, who was an early believer. Another cowriter, Andy Robin, suggested making the movie like The Right Stuff, except set in the cereal world. That idea tickled Seinfeld, so along with another cowriter, Barry Marder, they …

13 Undersung TV Gems to Binge Right This Second

13 Undersung TV Gems to Binge Right This Second

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Dad TV is not about gender—it is a state of mind. It’s earnest, focuses on problem-solving, and often involves science, teamwork, diligence, and the occasional injection of genial sarcasm (though Gary Oldman gets to do lethal sarcasm). Apple TV+ is a major hub of dad shows like For All Mankind, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, Foundation, Severance, and this program—which is not necessarily spectacular but is well-crafted and satisfying. (My main gripe is that every non-American actor in the cast makes a wildly different attempt at an American accent, and many of those diverging accents are wonky in some way.) Rebecca Ferguson stars as a cop inside a futuristic silo that is cut off from the world—but what if everything she and her fellow residents have been told about the history and purpose of that structure is misleading? As is the case with the silo itself, each layer of this show is solidly constructed, and there are a number of excellent performances from the likes of Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, and Hall of Fame “hey, it’s …