Open Thread

Deadline Hollywood reports: Tawny Kitaen, an actress whose stunning presence in two Whitesnake videos helped propel that band’s multiplatinum albums to No. 1 in the late ’80s, died Friday in Newport Beach at age 59. No cause of death has been determined, according to numerous reports. Whitesnake’s hits Here I Go Again and Is This Love from the album Whitesnake …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: The Daily Mail is telling a New York federal judge not to give Mike Lindell a chance to amend his defamation suit over a story that claimed the MyPillow CEO secretly dated actress Jane Krakowski. “Plaintiff takes the new position that statements describing a consensual romantic relationship imply that he is a ‘hypocrite,’ based on the …

The New York Daily News reports: “The Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway’s longest running show, will resume on Oct. 22 — one of several mainstay productions on the Great White Way that plan to open up in the fall. Tickets for the show will go on sale Friday, the show’s website noted. Other shows, including “Aladdin,” “Hamilton,“ “Chicago,” and “Come …

NBC News reports: Nasty replies on Twitter will require a little more thought to send. The tech company said Wednesday it was releasing a feature that automatically detects “mean” replies on its service and prompts people to review the replies before sending them. “Want to review this before Tweeting?” the prompt asks in a sample provided by the San Francisco-based …

Variety reports: With “The Bad Batch” now available on Disney Plus, a new, even larger wave of “Star Wars” content is starting to roll out onto streaming and into theaters. All together, Lucasfilm is planning at least 16 film and TV titles for 2021 and beyond. “The Mandalorian” serves as the foundation for a connected series of upcoming spin-offs such …

New from our pal Matt Baume: In 1993, Fran Drescher took the zany antics of Lucille Ball and the sexy vamping of Mae West, and combined them with her own original spin as a flashy girl from Flushing to create The Nanny. The character was bold and audacious and lived in a world where queer people were a part of …

Variety reports: “I love you more than my luggage,” Olympia Dukakis’ Clairee Belcher says to Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser Boudreaux in the beloved 1989 movie “Steel Magnolias.” With the news of Dukakis’ death, Hollywood flocked to social media to express similar sentiments and pay their respects to the character actors’ illustrious legacy. Dukakis died on Saturday at age 89 in New …

Variety reports: Florence Welch will journey into the Jazz Age for her new musical project, one that will offer up fortune seekers and flappers, rum runners and rich dilettantes, self-made men and high society standard bearers. In short, it’s F. Scott Fitzgerald’s glittering masterwork, “The Great Gatsby,” which will provide the spine of a new stage show that is eyeing …

Deadline Hollywood reports: It seems hard to overstate. Disneyland and California Adventure reopened Friday after 13 months, a tangible sign of a return to normalcy and an upbeat revival at an iconic site – albeit at 25% capacity, for California residents only, and with social distancing and mask wearing. A line formed outside the gate before the 9 am opening …

Ars Technica reports: Verizon is reportedly ready to give up on Yahoo and AOL after spending a combined $9 billion on the once-dominant Internet brands that fell from prominence years before Verizon bought them. “Verizon is exploring a sale of assets including Yahoo and AOL, as the telecommunications giant looks to exit an expensive and unsuccessful bet on digital media,” …

Variety reports: Apple smashed Wall Street expectations for the first three months of 2021, reporting its highest-ever revenue for a March quarter and biggest-ever quarterly haul for the Services business. The company posted revenue of $89.6 billion, up 54% on a surge of iPhone sales, for the quarter ended March 27. Net income more than doubled (up 110%) to $23.6 …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The Season 13 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race was a clear winner for VH1. Friday’s final episode of the season drew 772,000 total viewers in Live+SD, making it the most-watched episode of the Emmy-winning reality drag queen competition series since the Season 10 finale in 2018. Shot under strict health guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Season 13 …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Those Nomadland and Soul trophies better shine pretty bright because for ABC, Sunday’s Oscars were an expected ratings washout. In delayed fast national results just released by Nielsen, the 93rd Academy Awards were watched by a mere 9.85 million, with a dismal rating of 1.9 among the 18-49 demographic. That is an all-time low for Hollywood’s biggest …

Variety reports: It’s all come down to this. The longest awards season is drawing to a close, after an excruciating pandemic year that nearly destroyed the movie business. History looks to be made at the Oscars, with women and people of color getting recognition — but there’s also room for a surprise or two. In the winners tally, “Nomadland” is …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Caitlyn Jenner has responded to The View host Joy Behar’s apology for misgendering her on Friday’s show. “Don’t sweat it, @JoyVBehar,” Jenner tweeted on Saturday morning. “I’m not about cancel culture. I know where your heart is. California has bigger issues than pronouns.” Joy Behar, age 78, blamed a lack of sleep for using the incorrect pronouns …

NBC News reports: Lindsay Lohan’s father has been arrested for alleged “patient brokering,” meaning he is accused of bringing addicts to drug treatment centers in Florida in exchange for illegal kickbacks, according to charging documents reviewed by NBC News. Michael Lohan, 60, was booked Friday and is the latest in more than 100 people arrested as part of a Palm …

Billboard Magazine reports: Les McKeown, the former singer of the Bay City Rollers, has died at age 65. His family made the announcement via a Twitter post on Thursday. McKeown was the frontman of the teen pop sensations during the height of their popularity in the 1970s. The group, which released 13 studio albums, had several that made the Billboard …

Deadline Hollywood reports: A biopic chronicling the life of Fallon Fox, the first openly transgender MMA fighter, is getting the big screen treatment from Mark Gordon Picture. Fox originally hid her transgender identity when she began competing professionally as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, fearful that transphobia would lead to her being rejected by the league. As she began to …

Variety reports: Jim Steinman, the composer, lyricist and record producer who worked with artists like Meat Loaf, Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler and more, died Monday, the Connecticut state medical examiner confirmed to Variety. He was 73. Steinman’s work appeared in a multitude of genres, such as adult contemporary, rock, dance and pop, in addition to musical theater and film scores. …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The Simpsons recently struck a chord with former Smiths frontman Morrissey, whose manager Peter Katsis chewed out the long-running Fox animated series for “trying to capitalize on cheap controversy and expounding on vicious rumors.” Late Sunday evening, Katsis shared a lengthy post on the singer’s official Facebook page responding to the show’s “Panic on the Streets of …