The story
“A.D. The Bible Continues”
Juan Pablo Di Pace stars in the NBC miniseries starting Sunday.
Profiled athlete R.A. Dickey
Featured Stories
CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHTS
“The Lizzie Borden Chronicles” “The Comedians”
Anna Friel Caitriona Balfe Lucy Lawless Kara Killmer Chip and Joanna Gaines
WHAT'S FOR DINNER
Chef Michael Voltaggio
JAY Bobbin's movies to watch And so much more!
Closing campaign for
Connect to these shows within this magazine!
“MAD MEN,” folio
Jon Hamm stars in “Mad Men,” which returns for its final seven episodes Sunday on AMC. Courtesy of Gracenote April 5 - 11, 2015
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Stories
“A.D. The Bible Continues” NBC miniseries. p3
“The Lizzie Borden Chronicles”
Premiering Sunday on Lifetime. p 11
“Mad Men”
Returning for its final seven episodes Sunday on AMC. pp 12-13
“The Comedians” Premiering Thursday on FX. pp 14-15
SIX
Celebrity potlights Anna Friel
“American Odyssey” on NBC.
Michael Voltaggio “Breaking Borders.” p7
p4
Caitriona Balfe “Outlander” on Starz. p5
Lucy Lawless “Salem” on WGN America.
Kara Killmer “Chicago Fire.” p8
Chip and Joanna Gaines Hosts of “Fixer Upper.” p9
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Pictured: Hamm arrives at the 2013 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Sunset Tower on February 24, 2013 in West Hollywood, CA.
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Profiled Athlete R.A. Dickey pp 16-17
Editor's choice
STORY
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By Jay Bobbin
Easter Sunday is the most appropriate day possible for the launch of a certain miniseries. Executive producers (and spouses) Mark Burnett and Roma Downey scored a ratings smash – and cemented their business in the area of faith-based projects – by providing cable’s History channel with the 2013 miniseries “The Bible,” which yielded the theatrical movie “Son of God.” They continue their efforts, and that saga, as their NBC miniseries “A.D. The Bible Continues” debuts April 5. The new 12-hour drama begins with the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, as Juan Pablo Di Pace (alias the scheming Nicolas Trevino on TNT’s recent update of “Dallas”) assuming the role of Jesus. His disciples, including Peter (Adam Levy, “Rome”), set out to recruit more followers while being pursued by Governor Pontius Pilate’s (Vincent Regan) Roman troops and deputies of High Priest Caiaphas (Richard Coyle). Babou Alieu Ceesay and Chipo Chung (“Fortitiude”) also are principal cast members as John and Mary Magdalene. Burnett reports that the new sequel to “The Bible,” which just completed filming in Morocco, “came out of sitting in the truck at ‘The Voice’ with (NBC Entertainment chairman) Bob Greenblatt and Bob saying, ‘Look, can it continue?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. We’re working on this thing called ”A.D.“ ’ And Bob said, ‘We’ll make that.’ And here we are, 18 months later. “We didn’t make it thinking we’d get an Easter Sunday premiere,” adds Burnett. “We had no idea when it would be on, but ... well, how fortunate.”
Taking over the portrayal of Christ from “The Bible’s” Diogo Morgado is, Di Pace acknowledges, “a huge responsibility. It’s a daunting thing to do. Very few people have had the chance, and it’s certainly hard to do. I come from a Christian background; my mother is a religious painter. She has a painting in the Vatican, so I grew up with all of that. My name, actually – Juan Pablo – comes from John Paul II. So, you know, it was going to happen at some point.” Former “Touched by an Angel” star Downey also acted in “The Bible” as Mother Mary, but she doesn’t reprise the part in “A.D.,” largely because she was so occupied on it – and also on last week’s CBS miniseries “The Dovekeepers” – behind the scenes. Both dramas come from LightWorkers Media, a Downey-supervised division of the United Artists studio, which she and Burnett now run. “I felt this time that there was so much work to be done as producer that I did not enter into it,” Downey explains of not being an “A.D.” performer, “but we have Greta Scacchi, who plays Mother Mary beautifully, and we have gathered this great, great cast. We’ve just been extraordinarily blessed to see our company grow, and we’re doing a number of projects. We’re also producing (a movie remake of) ‘Ben-Hur.’ We love this first-century drama.”
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
AnnaFriel
of ‘American Odyssey’ on NBC What’s the biggest challenge you have in playing your captured Special Forcesofficer character in “American Odyssey” (premiering Sunday, April 5)? I think (in) Odelle’s journey, the biggest thing she has to face is complete and utter loneliness. It’s why we have such an understanding and such empathy for anyone who has ever served in the military and been away from their children and their family for long, long periods of time. Odelle is very much in this situation, and Aslam (an overseas youngster played by Omar Ghazaoui) is no one who can ever replace her child, but I think she feels motherly toward him and very protective. He ends up ultimately helping her. He’s the only one who shows her a thread of kindness, and I think, out there in her situation, that thread is a scarf. She wants to protect him and give back to him and protect him at all costs. What sort of regimen do you follow to keep up with the physical demands of the role? My mean trainer makes me exercise. I go, “Please, please.” I’ve been really lucky. He ran Camp Bastion in Afghanistan and served there with 22,000 soldiers underneath him. He says anytime I kind of complain and go, “Oh, God, I’m tired,” he goes, “Yeah, but you can say, ‘Cut.’ We don’t get to say, ‘Cut.’ ” We go back, and he makes me swim for half an hour or do pressups for ages. I know it doesn’t look like it, but you don’t have to be big to be strong. Size isn’t all that matters. I’ve got a hard drive where I’ll watch movies and stuff. When my daughter is there ... that’s how I can relate to Odelle the most. I’m separated from her right now. It’s the first job I’ve ever gone on without being with her.
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CELEBRITY George Dickie’s Q&A
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CaitrionaBalfe
of ‘Outlander’ on Starz
With all your intense scenes on Starz’s “Outlander,” does your character of Claire require some coming down from at the end of the day? Only twice that has had to happen. You know, it’s interesting. Some days, those tough, emotional scenes are almost cathartic. You get out anything you need during them and you feel quite exhausted by the end of the day but sometimes you feel quite refreshed in a strange way. It’s like you purged something of yourself. But one particular day, both Sam (Heughan, her co-star) and I sort of attested to this, when there’s the judgment scene, I guess is what we’re calling it. You know, a lot of people know that’s coming up, which is sort of the punishments where Jamie needs to sort of chastise Claire or whatever for her trying to run, and that was a difficult one because I feel like it’s not something that is easy to wrap your head around ... . But I think we both walked away from that day feeling a little like, “Oooof,” just that was tough. It was a tough line to find. You have said that you feel like playing Claire has made you a stronger person. How? ... I think there’s something about playing someone who’s so fearless and so strong that it just allows you to exercise that part of yourself. And when I look back now and we filmed for 200 days and I think about the hours that we put in and I think about the conditions that we were working under, I can feel really proud and I can feel really that, wow, I’m a lot stronger than I thought because that was a great experience and I didn’t break (laughs), I rarely got sick and it was fantastic. I don’t think it could have been any better. So in terms of that, yeah, I feel like I’ve definitely gained strength or realized, maybe, my own inner strength a little bit more with Claire.
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
LucyLawless
of ‘Salem’ on WGN America What prompted you to sign up for Season 2 of “Salem” (which begins Sunday, April 5)? I love the writing, and the chance to work with (series stars) Seth Gabel, Janet Montgomery, Tamzin Merchant, all of them was just so alluring ... I truly have admiration for them. It’s just really great, quality acting, and a fascinating story. I knew that technically, it was a brilliant show, but I didn’t anticipate what a beautiful family of people they are. When you’re living a very long way from home (on location outside Shreveport, La.), working a difficult schedule, they become your family – so I’m really excited to be a part of it. I was even more excited after the first week than I was going in. Despite all the credits you have, dating back even before “Xena: Warrior Princess,” this is your first time playing a witch. How’s that going for you? I think I’m in what Meryl Streep calls “the Witchiepoo phase of life!” I will tell you that I grew up with the mythology of vampires; the Hammer horror movies were on late at night on Fridays. And I also grew up with a very Catholic father and mother. Vampires kind of go with Catholicism, because you’ve always got a crucifix handy, so it felt like that was our mythology. I was raised on scary stuff and loved it. I’m not as tough as I used to be regarding horror, but this is kind of a homecoming for me. I know how to be scary, and I don’t know why that is. In that tradition, though, this character is sexy and terrifying and kind of charming. I want her to be someone you love to hate and hate to love. And can’t stop watching.
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FOOD
Chef
George Dickie’s What's for Dinner
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MichaelVoltaggio Fashions international detente through food on ‘Breaking Borders’
Imagine being a chef charged with creating a meal of local cuisine for a group of guests. Now imagine you’re not familiar with the city and the cuisine, have no idea where to get the ingredients and the guests might not get along. That’s the stress and the challenge chef Michael Voltaggio faced on Travel Channel’s Sunday series “Breaking Borders,” in which he goes to sites of international conflict such as Jerusalem or Northern Ireland to prepare meals for guests of opposing viewpoints. “I had to decompress after we shot each episode,” he says with a laugh. Voltaggio’s process begins when he arrives four days prior to the dinner. He would interview guests, find out which local restaurants and dishes they like, go there, sample them and make notes. “Then I just sort of get lost in the markets ...,” Voltaggio explains. “So there are moments when I taste something somewhere and a light goes off in my head and I get an idea. And so I keep writing these ideas down throughout the week, and then the day of the dinner I actually go shopping for the food and I try and gather all of those notes and thoughts and put them together and hopefully communicate that back to the guests in each dish that I prepare. ... For me, the food is my opportunity to share my experiences with everyone and I tell my story through the food that I cook.” The dinner is served and consumed, opposing viewpoints are exchanged and hopefully everyone comes away more enlightened. For Voltaggio’s part, he heard no negative reviews of his work. “It’s the comments and the compliments that came out of their mouths,” he says. “That’s when it hit home that I was cooking food for a much bigger reason. Not necessarily for people who are just entitled to eat or want to eat but in some cases needed to eat or needed to sit down to a good meal and have a conversation.” What book are you currently reading? “Alex and Aki, they have this website called Ideas in Food, and they just put out a whole book about gluten-free baking and basically gluten-free anything. And I don’t remember the name of it because I just opened it and started reading it. ... They’ve basically written recipes for, gram for gram, gluten-free flours that you can still cook with ... . To me this is a book that’s going to change the game.” What did you have for dinner last night? “Last night, we ate at a restaurant called Cosme. It’s a new restaurant in New York. ... Octopus with molé, we had duck
carnitas ... and a husk meringue with a corn mousse inside of it. The guy is a genius and we definitely had some great food last night.” What is your next project? “To go back to my restaurant and focus on cooking and my staff and stuff like that for a while, and hopefully get back out on the road.” When was the last vacation you took, where and why? “I could say with all honesty that I don’t think I’ve ever actually just gone on vacation before. ... Usually when I travel, it’s related to work.”
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin's Celebrity ScooP
KaraKillmer
Name any challenge that could be posed to a new “Chicago Fire” cast member, and Kara Killmer has faced it this season. Not only did the actress – who plays paramedic Sylvie Brett on executive producer Dick Wolf’s Tuesday NBC drama – need to fit in with the continuing stars and learn medical techniques and lingo quickly, she was concerned about audience acceptance as she replaced one of the show’s founding performers: Lauren German, whose Leslie Shay died in the opener of the current Season 3. “I auditioned for both ‘Chicago Fire’ and ‘Chicago PD’ on tape at least four or five times,” friendly Texas native Killmer says, “then they brought me in lastminute. I auditioned for Sylvie on a Tuesday, heard on Wednesday that I’d booked it, then they were going to fly me out on Friday ... so I packed up my whole apartment on Thursday and started work the next Wednesday.” During that whirlwind, Killmer got a necessary crash course. “There was a lot of covering medical material. They have to teach you that stuff so that you don’t look ridiculous on screen and have a bunch of real paramedics calling and saying, ‘Yeah, you didn’t really do that right.’ I kind of had to hit the ground running in terms of meeting the cast and jumping right into work, but it was great.” First seen as one of the aspiring performers in the online reality series “If I Can Dream” (created by “American Idol” mentor Simon Fuller), Killmer also has been playing out a personal struggle for Brett, who has questioned her “nice and comfortable” state – encompassing her now-ended romance with firefighter Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) – after fleeing Indiana and a broken engagement. “I think that as the season has gone on, there’s less of trying to fill Leslie Shay’s shoes,” Killmer reasons, “and establishing herself as her own entity, separate from the friend that everybody has lost. It’s certainly been interesting, and everybody has been so welcoming. And the writing has lent itself to allowing the transition to happen smoothly.” Birthdate: June 14, 1988 Birthplace: Crowley, Texas Current residence: Chicago Marital status: Single Other television credits include: “Scary Tales,” “Jane by Design,” “Rosa the Imposer,” “Horizon”
Movie credits include: “Beyond the Mask” (scheduled to open Monday, April 6) On initially succeeding a popular series actress and character: “It could be very harrowing. There was a lot of pushback in the beginning – people were heartbroken – and I’ve got to say that’s one of the things I love about television. In a movie, your relationship with those characters is over in two-and-a-half hours, at the most. Characters in television are in your home every week, so you really get a chance to build a relationship.”
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CELEBRITY Celebrities profiled
C h ipand Joa nn aG ai n es
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host the HGTV show “Fixer Upper,” own and run Magnolia Homes.
• Born in the wheat fields of Kansas and raised in Texas, Joanna is a modern day-pioneer.
• Magnolia’s motto is, “Our vision is to inspire you to own your space.”
• Chip graduated from Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business with a marketing degree.
• Magnolia is a member of the NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) and has won several awards, including the 2014 Chrysalis Award.
• In 2003, Joanna opened up a local boutique, Magnolia Market while Chip continued working in real estate by buying, renovating and selling homes to the Baylor, Texas market.
• Chip and Joanna landed themselves a series highlighting the renovation and realty aspect of their business.
• Chip’s experience with real estate and Joanna’s eye for design eventually merged into one company – Magnolia Homes.
• They take clients through the process of finding the right home, renovating the imperfections, and revealing the home as it was always meant to be.
• Magnolia Homes is a creative compilation of construction with emphasis on quality and unique design.
• After many years of putting their hands to the plow, Chip and Joanna created a foundation that would support the growth of their vision and inspire families across the nation to own and love their homes.
• Chip manages the construction and realty side of Magnolia, while Joanna is the lead designer.
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CELEBRITY Celebs’ favorite shows
Lucy Lawless
Billy Crystal
Tracy Spiridakos
Caitriona Balfe
Set the DVR Billy Crystal of “The Comedians” on FX “My ‘musts’ are ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart’ – still – and, when it’s on, ‘Homeland.’ And I love Anthony Bourdain ... and I did love ‘Breaking Bad.’ I watched it all in four days.”
Lucy Lawless of “Salem” on WGN America “I’m a true-crime fan, so I’m a complete lunatic for that kind of stuff. I like real-life, high-stakes drama. I do watch ‘Intervention’ ... and I’ve even gotten stuck on watching ‘Say Yes to the Dress.’ I surprise people with that.”
Caitriona Balfe of “Outlander” on Starz “I watch everything online these days. I’ve got ‘House of Cards’ sort of lined up to finish that. I’m halfway through the second season, so that’s my big thing that I want to finish right now. And I just finished ‘Transparent,’ which I love. ... So yeah, those are sort of the two current ones at the moment. But I love, when I get a day or two off, just vegging doing a binge-watch on some stuff.”
Tracy Spiridakos, recently of “Bates Motel” on A&E Network “ ‘Game of Thrones.’ And I do watch ‘Bates Motel,’ and ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Masters of Sex.’ There are a few shows I’m into.”
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STORY
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Christina Ricci (left) and Clea DuVall
Lizzie Borden
took an ax – and keeps on taking it in Lifetime series By George Dickie One might not consider the story of 19th century ax murderess Lizzie Borden anything to laugh at, but it’s the seriocomic treatment of the subject in the limited series “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles” that drew respected film actresses Christina Ricci and Clea DuVall into the fold. The hourlong eight-part series, which premieres Sunday, April 5, on Lifetime, presents a fictionalized look at the events and people surrounding Lizzie’s (Ricci) life following her acquittal of the horrific murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. Now famous, Lizzie finds herself living the life of a celebrity, complete with scandalous love affairs. When several people close to her turn up dead in strange and brutal circumstances, suspicion falls on you-know-who. The series is a continuation of the 2014 Lifetime telepic “Lizzie Borden Took an Ax.” “It’s a very fun, kind of outrageous show,” Ricci says of the new offering, “where you’re rooting for two antiheroes the whole time and kind of delighting in the macabre. It’s mostly macabre and kind of campy and fun. Above all, it’s just supposed to be a really fun show.” The most fun part in playing an unbalanced character such as Lizzie, according to Ricci, is that anything goes. “The only rules,” she says, “are kind of the rules you establish for yourself and for the character because it’s somebody who doesn’t really adhere to the rules of society.”
“I think a lot of the character is based on the action, sort of,” Ricci continues, “(which) imply who she is, really. Somebody who is able to take human life like this and actually derive pleasure from it is going to be a certain type of character. We definitely decided that she was sociopathic, that she either played at the emotions of a normal functioning person but that she probably didn’t have them for herself.” One who was on the receiving end of Lizzie’s manipulations was sister Emma, whom the actress who portrays her, DuVall, describes as Lizzie’s enabler. “In the very beginning,” DuVall explains, “she really took a back seat to Lizzie and really just served as her caretaker. And as the story evolved, she starts to get her own life and evolve into her own person and really has the opportunity to branch out from just being Lizzie’s sister. ... She develops relationships outside of Lizzie, which she never had before, and finally taking the steps toward creating her own life and getting married and cutting the cord.” “She feels threatened,” DuVall says of Lizzie, “and she feels scared because ultimately she is like a little girl who kind of learned to cope in not the best way.”
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STORY
Closing campaign for
“MADMEN,” returning for its final seven episodes Sunday on AMC. Story on next page
JonHamm Page 12 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote April 5 - 11, 2015
STORY
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By George Dickie It’s being billed as “the end of an era,” and for AMC the farewell of “Mad Men” certainly is. When the series premiered on July 19, 2007, AMC was a small basic cable channel that specialized in old theatrically released movies. The success of “Mad Men” paved the way for more original programming, with “Breaking Bad” and “The Killing” following in its wake. It also put AMC on the map as a serious player in scripted series. Naturally, it’s also the end of an era for cast members Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery and others, many of whom made their names working on “Men.” For them, it’s on to new projects, a well-deserved break and looking back on a series that to date has won 15 Emmy Awards – including four for outstanding drama series – and garnered 105 nominations. At a recent gathering of TV critics in Pasadena, Calif., cast members looked back on the critically acclaimed series that premieres the first of its final seven episodes on Sunday, April 5. “There’s no version of this ending that is not super painful for me,” says series star Hamm,
who plays alpha ad man Don Draper, “and mostly it’s because of (his fellow cast members and creator Matt Weiner) because they’ve been the single constant in my creative life for the last decade. So that’s kind of tough. And, yeah, I will be happy when the shows air and I won’t have to fake like I don’t know how it ends or make up some ridiculous story about robots or zombies or something. But I will never be able to have this again, and that’s a drag.” For Jones, who plays Don’s ex-wife Betty Francis, reading the script for the finale packed an emotional punch. “I got it at home,” she says. “So I read it alone at home. ... And it was very hard. It was very emotional. I kind of knew a little bit of what was going to happen in the last script, but it was – I mean, the whole last few weeks, I was just a mess pretty much. Everyone will tell you. “Anything made me cry,” she continues. “So it was hard. It’s a beautiful story. It’s perfect in a way, and I read it over and over. I didn’t want it to be the last time. So sometimes I still read every once in a while ... .”
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STORY
Conquering
the great comedy divide Billy Crystal stars in “The Comedians,” premiering Thursday on FX. Story on next page
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STORY
Billy Crystal and Josh Gad team as ‘The Comedians’
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for FX
By Jay Bobbin “And the reason why is because I get to play an extended version of myself, which is great. I get to do live sketches in front of a live audience. I get to do these film pieces. I get to have crazy fun like that, and to work with incredible people. At this point, it’s like a blessing to have this show, because it reinforces and reinvigorates everything that I started out doing and have loved to do my entire career.”
Billy Crystal and Josh Gad aren’t really bitter rivals in comedy. They just play them on TV. In fact, the humor stars of different generations play themselves – but heightened versions – as FX debuts “The Comedians” Thursday, April 9. Inspired by a Swedish program and including Larry Charles (“Seinfeld”) among its executive producers, the series teams Crystal and Gad in a show-within-the-show, a comedy-variety vehicle that network executives insist on pairing them in. The only problem, and it’s a huge one: The two see eye-to-eye on very little.
Also famous now as the voice of snowman Olaf in Disney’s “Frozen,” Gad has had some brief encounters with weekly TV (“1600 Penn,” “Back to You”). He notes “The Comedians” is a much different situation in which “you’re gonna take a hit. Your ego’s gonna get bruised. And that’s sort of the agreement we made going into it: Some of it is going to get ugly, for all the right reasons, and it’s amazing to have a sparring partner like Billy because I inherently trust him.
Some of it has to do with age and experience, or in the fictionalized Gad’s case, less of those. For instance, the veteran of “The Book of Mormon” eagerly recommends doing Broadway to an unamused Crystal ... who earned a Tony Award earlier for his one-man stage show “700 Sundays.” That art-and-life line is crossed often by “The Comedians,” which also regales in putting the duo in unlikely sketches, such as an “On the Town”-like struttingsailors routine. “I was not looking to do anything at that time,” recalls “Soap” alum Crystal, who hasn’t done series television regularly since his one season on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in the mid-1980s, “and I said, ‘Well, Sweden. How could this be funny? It’s dark at noon, and then they drink.’ And then, (those) two comedians were so inspired. The show was so great. Within five minutes, I said, ‘I could do this show. I could like doing this show.’
“This entire show is one big, giant trust exercise,” Gad adds, “and sometimes as our characters, who happen to be named after ourselves, that separation is very thin. We have to say really, really dangerous things to each other, and in those moments, you’re scared and you’re not quite sure that the person knows that it’s the fake version of himself telling the other person this. Then you go up to him after and you share a hug and you go, ‘OK. We OK?’ And usually, if Billy doesn’t punch me, we’re OK.”
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SPORTS
ROBERT
ALLEN Knucklehead: R.A. Dickey
Story on next page
Throws: Right
Strikeouts: 1,089
Height/weight: 6 feet 3inches/215 pounds
Teams: Texas Rangers (2001, 2003-2006); Seattle Mariners (2008); Minnesota Twins (2009); New York Mets (2010-2012); Toronto Blue Jays (2013-present)
Hometown: Nashville, Tenn.
Career record: 89-82
Bats: Right
ERA: 3.98
Honors & Achievements: NL Cy Young Award (2012); NL strikeout leader (2012); NL shutouts leader (2012); Branch Rickey Award (2012); AL Gold Glove Award (2013); All-Star selection (2012); Bronze medalist for Team USA at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta
Full Name: Robert Allen “R.A.” Dickey Born: Oct. 29, 1974 (age 40)
Page 16 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote April 5 - 11, 2015
SPORTS
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By Dan Ladd It’s hard to imagine anyone other than R.A. Dickey taking the mound on Monday, April 6, when the Toronto Blue Jays open the season on the road against the New York Yankees in an afternoon contest on ESPN. The now 40year-old starting pitcher is still considered by many to be the ace of a staff that also includes Mark Buehrle and Drew Hutchison. The team, however, is reeling after losing upstart flame-thrower Marcus Stroman to a torn ACL during spring training. Dickey, the 2012 Cy Young winner who was acquired in a sevenplayer trade with the New York Mets after the 2012 season, led the Blue Jays in 2014 in starts (34), innings (215) and opposing team batting average (.223). He remains committed to his customary knuckleball, a do-ordie pitch that catapulted him from a minor league journeyman to a major league all-star. Dickey and the rest of the Blue Jays rotation were on a hot streak in 2014. Each had double-digit wins on a team that was in first place for much of the first half of the season before injuries allowed the Baltimore Orioles to take the AL East. The Blue Jays were in the hunt for a playoff spot nearly until the end of the season. While Stroman’s injury is a tough pill to swallow, repeat productive seasons by Dickey and the rest of the staff should again make the Blue Jays a force to be reckoned with. It all starts in Yankee Stadium with the Dickey’s knuckleball on Monday.
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MOVIES JAY BOBBIN's Theatrical movie review
review
“Chappie”
Hugh Jackman gets a robot co-star – again – in ‘Chappie’
Hugh Jackman, haven’t you done this before? Co-star with a robot, that is. Those familiar with “Real Steel” have every right to ask that upon seeing “Chappie,” an action-fantasy that has a streak of humor as it tells the near-future saga of a police machine reprogrammed to do the bidding of a group of bad guys in South Africa.
The look of “Chappie” gives the picture much of its gravitas, and there’s value in that even when the script seems somewhat warmed over from other entries in the genre. Blomkamp’s mantra seems to be, “the dirtier, the better,” meaning “dirty” in the “glum and unattractive” sense.
Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Newsroom”) supplies the brains as the science whiz who knows how Chappie and the other robots operate, while Jackman furnishes the expected brawn as the detective who has to convince his boss (Sigourney Weaver, in the kind of role she knows like her own name) to let him handle the hijacked-Chappie problem his way.
To that end, Jackman’s innate charisma gets downplayed, since the robots really are the stars here. That’s a notable difference from “Real Steel,” in which the actor’s warmth was used to draw out the human (if you will) quality of the machines. Of the human performers, Patel fares the best, as a fellow who comes to recognize how much trouble he creates and then tries to set things right.
It’s very easy to trace the roots of “Chappie” back to “RoboCop” – right down to a big robot vs. robot battle – but even if the plot doesn’t seem all that inventive, director Neill Blomkamp knows what to do with it visually. After “District 9” and “Elysium,” he’s established himself as the master of depicting grim future worlds on the screen.
“Chappie” has two basic spheres of appeal: to those who appreciate filmmaker Blomkamp’s post-apocalyptic sensibility; and to fans of man-and-machine or man vs. machine sagas. Taken on those levels, within a skin of metal, “Chappie” has its heart in the right place.
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MOVIES JAY BOBBIN's movie review movies to watch
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“MANHATTAN: SEASON ONE” That’s Manhattan as in “Manhattan Project” in the case of this history-based WGN America series about the development of the atomic bomb, and also about the various personalities involved in the effort. Also an episode director during the course of the season, Daniel Stern plays the father figure among the scientists who were gathered under strict secrecy, not even able to tell their loved ones what they really were involved in. John Benjamin Hickey (“The Big C”), Olivia Williams, Ashley Zukerman and Rachel Brosnahan (“House of Cards”) also are among the major players in the ensemble cast. DVD extras: “making-of” documentaries. ››› (Not rated: AS, P) (Also on Blu-ray)
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Coming Soon on DVD... “THE BABADOOK” (April 14): A children’s book generates terror for a woman (Essie Davis) and her son (Noah Wiseman) in writerdirector Jennifer Kent’s thriller. (Not rated: AS, P, V) “BIG EYES” (April 14): The truth about a painter’s (Christoph Waltz) artworks, involving his wife (Amy Adams), emerges in director Tim Burton’s fact-based tale. (PG-13: AS, P) “CAKE” (April 21): Jennifer Aniston plays a woman newly involved with the widower (Sam Worthington) of a late member (Anna Kendrick) of her support group. (R: AS, P)
“TAKEN 3” (April 21): Framed for murder, CIA veteran Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has to clear himself and protect his daughter (Maggie Grace) again. (PG-13: AS, P, V) “GOODFELLAS” (May 5): For its 25th anniversary, the true crime drama gets a newly remastered Blu-ray edition with new cast and director (Martin Scorsese) interviews. (R: AS, P, GV) “THE NANNY: THE COMPLETE SERIES” (May 26): Fran Drescher – also the sitcom’s co-creator – plays saucy Fran Fine, who becomes the unlikely employee of a Broadway producer (Charles Shaughnessy) and his children. (Not rated: AS)
Jennifer Aniston
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FAVORITE SHOWS
Anna Friel stars in “American Odyssey”
Harry Connick is a judge in “American Idol”
SUNDAY 10 p.m. on NBC American Odyssey Thought killed in North Africa, a U.S. Special Forces officer (Anna Friel, “Pushing Daisies”) struggles to survive and rejoin her family in this new drama series. Her information on the private contractors who massacred her unit makes others want her silenced. Peter Facinelli plays a New York-based lawyer who suspects the scheme, set up by the premiere, “Gone Elvis.” Actor-director Peter Horton (“thirtysomething”) is an executive producer here. Series Premiere New MONDAY 8 p.m. on NBC The Voice If you’re a fan of this show, you’re
Clark Gregg stars in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
going to be very happy this week, since “The Live Playoffs, Night 1” launches three consecutive evenings of new episodes. Some of the season’s top 20 artists perform here, with the remainder showing their vocal stuff Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, the results are in, determining who stays — and who doesn’t, with possible “saves” by coaches and judges Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams. New 8 p.m. on BET Movie: A Girl Like Grace Raised in a dysfunctional home by her single mother (Garcelle Beauvais), a bullied 17-year-old (Ryan Destiny) seeks guidance from her best friend (Paige Hurd) and the girl’s older sister (Meagan Good) as she fights to win acceptance and avoid being drawn
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Adam Levine is a judge and mentor in “The Voice”
into a darker, more violent world. Raven-Symoné and Romeo Miller also star in this 2015 drama, which was directed by Ty Hodges. Premiere TUESDAY 9 p.m. on ABC Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s continued existence hangs in the balance when Robert Gonzales (guest star Edward James Olmos) carries out his scheme, prompting Coulson (Clark Gregg) to take immediate action, in the new episode “Afterflife.” An encounter with an Inhuman (guest star Luke Mitchell) impacts Skye’s (Chloe Bennet) struggle to harness her new powers. Dichen Lachman (“Dollhouse”) also guest stars in the story directed by continued on next page
FAVORITE SHOWS Kevin Hooks (“Passenger 57”). New
Mark Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig.
9 p.m. on STARZ Movie: Are You Here WEDNESDAY “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner 8 p.m. on FOX has garnered widespread acclaim for American Idol The title “Top 7 Perform” pretty much that AMC period drama, but he drew only scorn from most critics for this says it all for this new two-hour episode — but by the end of it, only barely released 2013 comedy, which he wrote and directed. Owen Wilson six will remain as the stages of the stars as a philandering TV weatherman competition get ever more critical. who reconnects with a childhood chum Judges Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer (Zach Galifinakis) after the latter’s Lopez and Keith Urban continue father dies, then becomes drawn into to weigh in on what they see and a legal battle initiated by his buddy’s hear from the remaining hopefuls, sister (Amy Poehler). Laura Ramsey cowith the viewing public getting the stars. Premiere usual chance to cast votes for their favorites. Ryan Seacrest is the host. New THURSDAY 9 p.m. on FOX Backstrom A sex surrogate’s death prompts the team to seek the reason in a new episode whose title borrows a famous song lyric, “Love Is a Rose and You Better Not Pick It.” Possible causes are various, and Backstrom (Rainn Wilson) has to tread carefully in the probe. He also has personal concerns about his mother after getting troubling news. Guest stars include John Fleck (“True Blood”) and Ann Cusack, sister of fellow actors John and Joan. Dennis Haysbert also stars. New FRIDAY 8 p.m. on FOX Movie: Date Night Steve Carell and Tina Fey are teamed in this amusing 2010 comedy as a New Jersey couple who decide to change up their usually predictable “date night” away from their kids. They claim someone else’s reservation at a Manhattan restaurant, setting off events that become life-or-death for them. Mark Wahlberg sends up his rugged screen image in a cast that also includes Taraji P. Henson (“Empire”), James Franco, Mila Kunis, Common,
Rainn Wilson stars in “Backstrom”
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SATURDAY 7:30 p.m. on FOX NASCAR Racing After a 13-day break, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup drivers are back at it, this time under the lights of Texas Motor Speedway to do battle in the Duck Commander 500. Jimmie Johnson, who took the fall race last year on the 1.5-mile Fort Worth oval, is particularly dangerous here with four career wins. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and last year’s spring race winner, Joey Logano, are also forces to be reckoned with.
Matt Kenseth competes in the Duck Commander 500
Steve Carell and Tina Fey star in “Date Night”
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