Going ‘Underground’ on a Louisiana plantation New ABC drama answers to a higher calling
How
Bradley James
got into the Antichrist’s skin
Find out what talk show rivals Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres agree on PLUS
The puck stops with
Penguins’ Fleury folio Connect to these shows within this magazine!
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YOURTVLINK
CELEBRITY
“Underground”
4 Loretta Devine
Heroes and heroines of the ‘Underground’
Divine times with ‘Carmichael’
5 LILY JAMES
The actress bids farewell to ‘Downton Abbey’
6 OLIVIA WILDE
How clothes hold power for her ‘Vinyl’ character
8 Rachael Harris The co-star probes ‘Lucifer’
“Of Kings and Prophets” Winstone wasn’t looking to be ‘king’
9 Presser “Little Big Shots” Steve Harvey meets ‘Little Big Shots’
17
Getting to know Travel Guru Brandon Presser
FOOD
7 “Food Safari”
Lions and tigers and meals, oh my!
SPORTS
the story!
18-19
“Damien” Bradley James has one hell of a role
Chases another Stanley Cup playoff berth
MOVIES
IN EVERY ISSUE
Review, Our top DVD pick, and Coming Soon on DVD.
suggested programs to watch this week!
20-21 Featuring: Theatrical
Marc-André Fleury
22-23 Featuring: Our top
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REALITY 16 ‘Fighting ISIS’
Writer has front-line seat in ‘Fighting ISIS’
STORY
Editor's choice
“Damien” A&E’s ‘Damien’ follows the ‘Omen’ devil child into adulthood Premiering Monday on A&E Network Pictured: Barbara Hershey
By George Dickie There is an old Acting 101 conceit that says in essence that if you’re playing a villain, don’t play him as a snarling, mustache-twirling cad. Bad guys, after all, are human beings, too, and they don’t think they’re bad. That gives some idea of the approach Bradley James (“Merlin,” “Homeland”) took in creating the adult Damien Thorn in A&E Network’s “Damien,” the 10-episode follow-up to the original 1976 film “The Omen” starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, that premieres Monday, March 7. “Someone asked me ... ‘What did you do to become the Antichrist?’ And I thought, ‘Well, you can’t really go out and play the Antichrist,’ ” the 32-year-old British actor explains. “You know, people who are kings can’t necessarily play kings. They are endowed that by the people around them. They are given that status, and the same sort of thing kind of applies to being the Antichrist. You have to be endowed with that by the people and the world around you. “So it was a case of just taking this character who is on the page ... and turning him into a human being and just having that aspect to his character where people could understand that he was capable of being whatever their version of the Antichrist was, just having people aware that that was a possibility.” In this new iteration, Damien is 30 years old and once again at the center of death and despair, only this time he’s not causing it but rather recording it as a war photographer in Syria alongside colleague Amani (Omid Abtahi, “Better Call Saul”). Though haunted by the events of his past, he’s nonetheless unaware of the
satanic forces around him – until a shocking discovery in the premiere episode forces him to come to terms with his true identity. Megalyn Echikunwoke (“House of Lies”) stars as Simone, a woman whose life is thrown into turmoil by tragedy, and Barbara Hershey (“Beaches”) plays Ann Rutledge, a mystery woman working behind the scenes to ensure that Damien’s terrible destiny is fulfilled. The Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning actress says she was initially drawn to this project by the script and the questions it raises. “I was really intrigued with ... the question of ‘What would you do if you found out you were the Antichrist?’” Hershey says. “... I think we have both good and bad inside of us and we make choices every day about who we are. So his dilemma is something that I related to when I read it – as well as my character. I thought that was very intriguing. I wasn’t sure where it was going but I was willing to take the leap.” “Since the little boy at the end of the original film smiles at the camera, he has blanked out what happened to him. He has erased it from his brain,” she continues. “That’s how he dealt with it and became a war photographer and surrounded himself with pain basically. And I think all along, she’s been in the shadows orchestrating things, guiding him, protecting him, making sure things proceeded as they should. ... Now that Damien has reached 30, it’s time for him to do it and she steps out of the shadows and reveals herself to him.”
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CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
LorettaDevine of ‘The Carmichael Show’ Wednesday on NBC As Season 2 of “The Carmichael Show” begins, are you happy with the creative road it’s continuing on? We really trust the quirkiness that Jerrod (Carmichael) puts in. I mean, when he hits a topic, you go, “I never even thought of it from that left-sided angle that he’s putting on it.” And you go, “Yeah, that could be true.” Like, in this episode (about) cheating – I don’t want to give anything away, but he discussed some things that we all probably have thought all our lives, but never said out loud. That’s what’s so great about this show. It has a truth to it that rings very loud, and people laugh because that’s what they thought, but just didn’t get a chance to say out loud. I think that’s what makes the great difference in it. It makes the dysfunctionality of this family so wonderful to look at.
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Do you enjoy performing “The Carmichael Show” in front of a studio audience? Well, I come from theater, and having an audience is a great experience. It’s not easy. It’s very hard. Our writers work very hard to get the joke across perfectly, so there’s a lot of quick, quick, quick changes. The theme may be the same in an episode, but there’s a million ways to tell it, and we experiment with a lot of things before we make a final commitment to a script. What we start with at the table read ... by the time we get to the actual shooting of the show five days later, there may be parts of the same thing, but totally different in the context of the way it’s put together. When we present it to the audience, we’ve had audiences that laugh so hard, we couldn’t use the particular takes.
CELEBRITY Jay Bobbin’s Q&A
of ‘Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey’ Sunday on PBS
1
How was your return to “Downton Abbey” to reprise the role of Lady Rose in the series finale?
I filmed it in August, after I finished (the recent miniseries) “War & Peace.” I went straight back to ‘Downton Abbey’-land, and it was just a complete joy. I sort of felt I was going back to my family, and it was just amazing to see everyone. It was quite emotional, really, because we knew it was the end. I feel so grateful that I was able to be a part of the show right at the end. I would have hated not to have been there for the last moments of filming.
2 Click or tap on icon for more!
How do you sum up the entire “Downton Abbey” experience for yourself? It’s hard to express how important it’s been to me. Not only has it furthered my career in a way I don’t think would have happened without it, because it opened so many doors, but I met wonderful actors and made really good friends. I’d only just left drama school by a year or two, so to work with people
like Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton – and to have someone like Michelle Dockery as a real friend and a role model – was very important to me.
3
Also with your roles in such projects as Disney’s “Cinderella” and the current movie “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” do you feel you’re at a career juncture now?
Yeah. That’s why “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was so great. It was the best time, and I got to do something that was a little bit different. My Liz Bennet is very different from what you’ve seen before, and different from how I read her. I was working against my desire to play her faithfully because she’s so wellwritten ...but with the knowledge there were zombies, and everything was life and death. She gets to express the internal conflict she has by chopping off zombies’ heads and fighting physically with Darcy. It’s a fun take on the novel.
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CELEBRITY George Dickie’s Q&A
Olivia Wilde of ‘Vinyl’ Sunday on HBO Did you draw on anyone in particular to create your character of Factory Girl-turned-frustrated housewife Devon Finestra for HBO’s “Vinyl”? A little bit in terms of the scene in New York. She was so close to (Andy) Warhol it was a Sedgwick-like relationship. But she was not like Edie in many other ways. So there was a Marianne Faithfull element to her. And in some ways you’ll see she has this very deep interest in photography and she is kind of a savant without any training and that pulled from other people – Alice Springs, Diane Arbus, people who were the spouses of the artists and then discovered their own artistic identity. So yeah, a few different people. And then in terms of the suburban Devon, that was interesting. I’ve read a lot of both novels and memoirs of women who found themselves unsatisfied with the life they had chosen, and that’s a very intense dramatic thing to work with.
How much did the clothes of the 1970s help you get into the character?
It’s really helpful, I think. I love how our wardrobe department both on the pilot and in the series had been so thorough. It’s almost all real vintage. And there is something really powerful about putting on a pair of shoes that are actually from 1973, putting on an Ossie Clark dress that’s actually from that time. Yeah, it helps transport you.
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FOOD
“Sarah Graham’s Food Safari”
George Dickie’s What's for Dinner
Graham
treats viewers to a ‘Food Safari’ in southern Africa on The Cooking Channel
In the pantheon of chefs with their own TV series, the star of Cooking Channel’s “Sarah Graham’s Food Safari” stands alone in at least one regard: She’s comfortable around potentially deadly wildlife. Indeed, the South African chef, author and food blogger was raised on her parents’ wildlife preserve, Antelope Park in Zimbabwe, where as a child Graham helped raise lion cubs and take visitors on safari. So the big cats, elephants and other ferocious beasts that turn up on her half-hour Saturday morning program do not faze her. In fact, she makes them part of the show. “The lions, they are something I love so much,” Graham says, “and so we literally did grow up with lion cubs in our home, bottle-feeding them in the middle of the night. When they’re really young, they’re like babies. They have to have a bottle of milk every three or four hours and it’s a really special experience.”
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“We can only really physically interact with them until they’re about 22 months old,” she continues. “After that, it’s no longer safe.” In Season 1, Graham takes viewer to locations in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, preparing meals from locally sourced ingredients in an outdoor kitchen. After spending the first few episodes showing viewers the sights in Antelope Park, Graham moved on to the majestic Victoria Falls and then to the site of this week’s show, Livingstone in Zambia. “That was such a fun episode,” she says. “It’s right on the banks of the Zambezi River ... . It’s just immense and it’s so beautiful. So we cook on the banks of the river at a safari lodge in Livingstone ... just a few kilometers upstream from the Victoria Falls. And I cook dinner for some of the guys ... who also work on our lion conservation project. And it’s actually kind of an Asian-inspired feast but it’s really ... fitting to the location.”
What book are you currently reading? “I’m reading two books. I often have like a lighter book and a heavier book. I’m reading ‘Cooked’ by Michael Pollan, and then I’m also reading ‘After You’ by Jojo Moyes.”
What did you have for dinner last night? “I had a quinoa salad with grilled trout and little green peas and goat cheese.”
What is your next project? “I’m currently working on my fourth cookbook and then we’re also starting to plan to film another season of ‘Food Safari’ out in East Africa later this year.”
When was the last vacation you took, where and why? “At Christmastime, my husband and our two kids, we all went to Cape Town (in South Africa).”
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CELEBRITY
Rachael
Harris by Jay Bobbin
Catch Harris in Fox’s DC Comicsinspired Monday adventure-drama series
“Lucifer” It’s a reasonably good bet that few therapists service patients – and vice versa – like Dr. Linda Martin and Lucifer Morningstar. As played by Rachael Harris, the counselor has a very personal interest in her client (Tom Ellis) who really is the self-exiled lord of hell in Fox’s DC Comicsinspired Monday adventure-drama series “Lucifer.” What she gets from him in exchange for her professional insights fulfills her in a different way ... and also fulfills actress-comedian Harris’ trademark brand of slyly prurient humor. “She’s very buttoned up,” Harris says of her current alter ego, “and I think everyone does have this desire to explore, yet a lot of times, we are afraid of how society is going to perceive us and what our actions are. “In the beginning, I’m so attracted to him, and I am attracted to the fact that he’s wild and has no boundaries and is very charming and dangerous. ... But I think what ends up happening is she starts to realize, and I think what women start to realize, is that there’s something that he’s covering underneath there. There’s a reason that he’s acting out in the way that he is. Harris points out that Linda hasn’t met Lucifer in a doctor-patient scenario, but in the course of her helping him try to solve a mystery: “When he comes back to her and says that he would like to work on some issues, I think there’s a part of her that wants to work with him on these things, but she does completely become unraveled because she’s not seen as a sexual person. At least, this is what I think with Linda. She’s never let herself go and be fun like that.
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“Everyone in the show is trying to figure out this new way of being,” adds Harris. “We’ve all had experiences in the past that we really weren’t very proud of, or things that we want to change. And it’s very hard in our lives. What I think is great on the show is that you see how hard it is to change.”
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CELEBRITY CelebritY profile
Bran d onP r e sser - Originally from a small town in Canada, he holds a degree in art history and architecture from Harvard University. - He speaks fluent French, and can order food in six other languages. - He was charmed by travel early on, living in southern Thailand to train as a scuba professional, working in bustling Tokyo as an architectural apprentice, and finally moving to Paris where he served as a communications manager for the Musée du Louvre’s satellite museum project – the Louvre-Lens. - He then joined the team of international writers at Lonely Planet, the world’s most prominent travel publisher, and traversed the globe penning guidebooks.
Brandon Presser is a travel expert, writer, TV personality and the head tour guide of Bravo’s new travel show, “Tour Group.” Click or tap on icon for more! - He’s authored over 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, has contributed to outlets such as Travel + Leisure, Newsweek, Fodor’s, Afar and National Geographic Traveler, and has appeared on a variety of programs for ABC, CBS and the Weather Channel. - He was awarded the prestigious SATW Lowell Thomas gold prize for his outstanding achievements in guidebook writing. - He is the head tour guide of Bravo TV’s new travel show, “Tour Group,” on which he leads a group of American adventure-seekers who take him up on the challenge to trek the globe and change their lives. - According to his website, his current obsessions include Moleskine notebooks, “House Hunters,” KPop, and sandwiches. - When he’s not on the road he calls New York City home. March 6 - 12, 2016 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote Page 9
CELEBRITY
“I fiddled around and fiddled around and finally, I got four verses that I took off of ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ and I left them in the studio. I don’t know what happened to them.” – Loretta Lynn, seen recently on “American Masters” on PBS
“The heat was very interesting and it really helped; as onerous as it was, it helped. The costumes were fantastic, really helped. I learned to ride horses. I did a lot of target practice with authentic guns from that age. I did some knife throwing. Kind of failed on that but (laughs) ... .” – Chris Meloni on filming WGN America’s “Underground” last summer in Baton Rouge, La. Page 10 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote March 6 - 12, 2016
“What I was hired to do is to absorb the talent that’s in front of me, and I find that (other) stuff gets in the way. Obviously, as a human being, your heart breaks for people who have endured whatever they’ve endured. But in the room, I don’t like to know any of that stuff.” – Harry Connick Jr. of “American Idol” on Fox, about not wanting to know contestants’ personal histories
CELEBRITY
ON DVRs
“
Ellen DeGeneres of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in syndication I got advance copies of ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,’ and that’s fascinating – and ‘American Crime’ is such a well-done show. I think that’s one of my favorite shows on now. I always have ‘Modern Family’ in there, and ‘Ellen’s Design Challenge’ (which features DeGeneres) and ‘60 Minutes.’ And every talk show; I like to see what everybody else is doing, so I can try to avoid doing anything they’ve already done.
”
Christina Hendricks of “Hap and Leonard” on Sundance Channel “ ‘Top Chef.’ Like the ‘Property Brothers’ – I do a lot of things on (HGTV). ‘Making a Murderer,’ ‘Project Runway Jr.’ A lot of reality shows, creative reality shows.”
Steve Zahn of “Mad Dogs” on Amazon “I record like fishing shows (laughs) and hunting shows. And I record ‘60 Minutes,’ ‘Sunday Morning,’ news stuff. That’s what I watch. Documentaries, something interesting that’ll be on like ‘NOVA.’ ...”
Debi Mazar of “Extra Virgin Americana” on Cooking Channel “ ‘Peeky Blinders.’ ... We’re about to watch ‘Vinyl.’ ... We watch ‘Tyrant.’ We watch ‘Narcos.’ ‘Homeland.’ We’ve been watching ‘Billions.’ Obviously, we loved ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and all that stuff that ended. I watch ‘Downton Abbey.’ I finished it already. ... ‘SNL’ is always on there.”
March 6 - 12, 2016 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote Page 11
STORY
WGN America takes their drama
‘Underground’
“Underground” premieres Wednesday on WGN America. Story on next page
Page 12 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote March 6 - 12, 2016
STORY
“Underground” Premiering Wednesday on WGN America
Slaves attempt a daring escape in WGN America’s ‘Underground’ By George Dickie A group of slaves band together to escape from their 1857 Georgia plantation in a new drama series premiering this week on WGN America. The hourlong “Underground,” debuting Wednesday, March 9, tells the story of a cadre of revolutionaries of the Underground Railroad, who call on reserves of courage, strength, ingenuity and perseverance to pull off one of the greatest escapes in history despite the odds and consequences they faced. Chief among them is Noah (Aldis Hodge, “Straight Outta Compton,” “Turn”), a courageous blacksmith who organizes the escape; Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell, “The Great Debaters,” “True Blood”), a shy and sheltered house slave who must call upon courage she never knew she had; Zeke (Theodus Crane, “The Walking Dead”), a slave of enormous size and strength; and Moses (Mykelti Williamson, “Justified,” “24”), a fiery preacher who struggles with what God might think of their plan. Also in the cast are Alano Miller (“Jane the Virgin”) as Cato, a cunning and charismatic slave driver; Reed Diamond (“Moneyball”) as plantation owner Tom Macon; Christopher Meloni (“Law & Order: SVU,” “42”) as August Pullman, an itinerant man with a secret; and Marc Blucas (“Blue Bloods”) and Jessica De Gouw (“Arrow,” “Dracula”) as John and Elizabeth Hawkes, an abolitionist lawyer and his socialite wife. The series was filmed near Baton Rouge, La., on a plantation where slaves were kept in the 19th century, a setting that helped the actors get into the time and their characters’ mind-sets.
Pictured: Aldis Hodge and Jurnee Smollett-Bell
“You can’t help but have feelings once you’re there and kind of feel the echoes, feel the ghosts of the past,” Meloni says. “Everywhere they placed us had meaning. ... They were set up in bare-minimum living standards, and that’s not the worst of it. They were forced to just stay in an unrealized state, which is a place of no hope, a place where there are no dreams. You know, this is where you are, what you are and where you’ll stay. ... This was it, until the master sells you somewhere else.” For Smollet-Bell and Hodge, a whipping scene in the premiere episode involving Rosalee had particular resonance. “The second you hear that whip crack,” Smollett-Bell says, “the sound of that, even though I wasn’t physically really being whipped, there’s something about doing it underneath the tree on the actual plantation. And this tree, I just kept looking up at it and I heard the Billie Holiday song ‘Strange Fruit’ because I just kept thinking about what that tree had seen and witnessed. And the spirit just takes over you. You know, you just let it, and it really overpowered me.” “She had to re-enact that in a place where this really did happen,” Hodge adds, “and when you go there you just soak up all of the energy of the land and it’s hard to escape it. ... I mean, I had to sit there and watch the scene and it was hard for me. “You know, we just all had little moments of solace afterward,” he continues, “after the whole scene was done just to kind of take a break, decompress.”
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STORY
Old Testament
story brings new drama Ray Winstone stars in “Of Kings and Prophets,” premiering Tuesday on ABC. Story on next page
Page 14 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote March 6 - 12, 2016
STORY
The epic ‘Of Kings and Prophets’ brings to life one of the Old Testament’s greatest stories “Of Kings and Prophets,” premiering Tuesday on ABC.
By George Dickie The Biblical story of King Saul of Israel is retold in epic fashion in an event series premiering this week on ABC. In “Of Kings and Prophets,” premiering Tuesday, March 8, Ray Winstone (“The Departed,” “Noah”) stars as King Saul, the first ruler of Israel 1,000 years before Jesus Christ, who endeavors to unify the 12 tribes of Israel and defend his fledgling nation from attacks by a savage enemy. But when the prophet Samuel (Mohammad Bakri, “Tyrant,” “Private”) relays a message from God that he must destroy one of Israel’s ancient enemies, he defies the missive, and Samuel prophesies that God will take the kingdom from his control and choose another ruler. And Saul soon learns that his greatest threat will come not from old enemies, but from the humble shepherd David (Olly Rix, “Death Comes to Pemberley,” “Midsomer Murders”). Also in the cast are Simone Kessell (“Terra Nova”) as Queen Ahinoam; Nathaniel Parker (“Merlin”) as King Achish; Haaz Sleiman (“Nurse Jackie”) as Jonathan; and Maisie Richardson-Sellers (“Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”) as Michal. “Was I looking to play a biblical king? No,” Winstone recently told a gathering of TV critics in Pasadena, Calif. “What interested me in Saul was looking into the records of him. The only thing I knew about Saul was he was one of the first kings of Israel. But for me, what was more interesting in Saul was the stress of the man, the illness of the man, a man who was a normal guy, a shepherd, who was labored with the weight of running the nation and how it affected him and how it affected his family. So, as in any drama, you look for what you can bring to a character. And that’s what it was for me that interested me in King Saul.”
As for the other characters, they all believe in God – including Saul. But whether he believes someone who purports to deliver the word of the Almighty, in this case David, is a central theme of the series. “Of course, that’s what Saul’s dilemma is in the pilot episode,” executive producer Chris Brancato says. “And, fundamentally, this story is one of the greatest stories in world literature. And it’s about a very unlikely hero, a shepherd named David from the corner of the kingdom, who has a kind of self-assurance and will to go for greatness, to ascend in life. And what you watch in the pilot is his journey from the outskirts of what is a nation that is just forming into the royal courtroom, where he ends up finding a royal family and essentially a surrogate father in Saul, whom, over the course of the season, as you shall see, he ends up in fierce competition to attain a crown that he never asked for, that was anointed to him by God through the prophet Samuel. “But, again, whether Samuel is actually speaking for God or not is a subject of debate amongst these characters,” he continues. “And I think the show in general is an examination of how we utilize faith in our lives, what higher powers we feel responsible to. David is one of the most interesting characters in world history because he sins, and then he repents. He is almost a symbol of the ambiguity and complexity of human nature, and so I think our show explores that.”
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STORY
NatGeo writer embeds with Kurdish troops engaged in ‘Fighting ISIS’ By George Dickie While embedded with the Kurdish military in Iraq for National Geographic Channel’s “Explorer” episode titled “Fighting ISIS,” correspondent Neil Shea was struck by how almost nonchalant the Kurds were about warfare. “They were usually just sort of not at all tense and scared,” he says. “There were a few times when they were. But unless the action was right upon them, they were really just sort of hanging out, sort of having a good time, drinking tea, telling jokes – doing all that sort of stuff that Kurds normally do. So it was this almost casual sense of warfare.” In the hourlong installment that premieres Sunday, March 6, the award-winning writer and contributor to National Geographic magazine embeds with the Peshmerga, a relatively small but battle-hardened group of fighters on the front line of the ground war in Iraq, to find out how they have managed to beat back the advancement of ISIS in their mountainous part of the region while areas around them have fallen. Getting in with the Kurds, Shea reports, posed little problem as the group is generally friendly to Westerners. This was reflected in the access he was granted by Kurdish commanders, who allowed him to go where he wanted to go and report on what he wanted to report on.
“It’s one of the few places in the world where George W. Bush is still a hero,” Shea explains, “and so they really feel like they were liberated by the Americans and they escaped so much of the destruction in the war that followed, that when an American shows up and wants to hear the Kurdish story, they’re almost more than happy to help you learn it. So getting in with the Kurds is not a problem. You know, sometimes you had to work with different commanders to figure out what they’d let you do. But at almost every turn we were allowed to see what we needed to see and go where we needed to go.” Along the way, Shea got to know the Kurds as a generally warm and friendly people who want to preserve their land, their culture and their way of life but destroy this enemy. As for why the Kurds have succeeded in their fight against Islamic State forces while those from the West have not, Shea has a simple answer. “They’re fighting for their survival,” he says. “They have their backs pressed up against the wall in a way that the Americans certainly didn’t and the Arabs, in some ways, didn’t either. ... So that makes anybody fierce. But I think that once the Kurds figured out that ISIS was really, really bad, people rallied to the cause and fought ferociously. ... The Kurds are very clearly up against a wall and they were able to unite and respond to it, at least for a little while.”
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STORY
Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres spotlight talented
‘Little Big Shots’ Tuesday on NBC By Jay Bobbin Ellen DeGeneres and Steve Harvey may be daytime talkshow rivals, but they’re now partners in a primetime show that marks another merger ... one of television traditions. Harvey agrees that elements of “America’s Got Talent” and TV icon Art Linkletter’s classic “House Party” (specifically, the “Kids Say the Darndest Things” segment) are present as he hosts “Little Big Shots,” a new NBC showcase for talented youngsters. Harvey also is – along with DeGeneres – an executive producer of the show that has a preview airing Tuesday, March 8, before making its official debut the following Sunday. With the weekday “Steve Harvey” and “Family Feud” already on his plate, along with other jobs he’s been offered since his Miss Universe winner-announcing gaffe in December, Harvey wasn’t seeking another hosting gig. “I’ve got too many shows now,” he muses. “Then they told me how much it paid, and I was like, ‘Fine!’ “I’ve got seven kids,” Harvey notes, “so I’ve been talking to people of all ages for a long time. And just dealing with talent, from having hosted ‘Showtime at the Apollo’ all those years and ‘Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge,’ this is really rewarding for me. You’re going to hear kids say some of the craziest stuff, but they’re purely being kids, and that’s the beauty of it. My job is to just relax them, so I can get the best out of them.”
Harvey says when DeGeneres’ team contacted him, “I thought, ‘OK, I’ll do business with Ellen.’ I mean, you’ve got Oprah, and you’ve got Ellen.” A self-professed fan of Harvey’s “facial expressions,” DeGeneres often features youngsters on her syndicated weekday show, and she says, “I’m happy that’s the place where we started this, but I’m also happy to spin it off. “It’s, for sure, not a competition show,” adds DeGeneres, who was part of Fox’s “American Idol” for a season. “I didn’t want to make it that. I don’t want any kids getting their dreams squashed by a judge. And I’m also not necessarily encouraging them to do this for the rest of their lives. Some of them are just talented kids, and whatever they end up doing, that’s great.” “Little Big Shots” fulfills the mandate DeGeneres has for her A Very Good Production firm. “I don’t want to do anything just because I can,” she explains. “I want to do things I’m really proud of and really want to do, so I’m trying to grow the company with integrity. I think kids will love this show, and adults will love the show, too ... because who doesn’t want to see an adorable kid with a talent?”
Click or tap on icon for more!
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SPORTS
Marc-AndrĂŠ Fleury, still covering the net for Pittsburgh Story on next page Full Name: Marc-AndrĂŠ Fleury Born: Nov. 28, 1984 Birthplace: Sorel, Quebec Size: 6 foot 2 inches, 180-pounds Team: Pittsburgh Penguins Position: Goalie Number: 29
Drafted: First overall pick in 2003 draft, by Pittsburgh Honors and Achievements: Stanley Cup Champion, 2009; Olympic Gold Medalist for Team Canada, 2010; Third youngest player to record 300 wins, 2014
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SPORTS
By Dan Ladd The Pittsburgh Penguins have been a staple in the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs throughout goaltender Marc-André Fleury’s career. As the 2015-16 season enters the wind-down stage the Penguins are finding themselves in a battle for post-season contention. Every point in the standings counts when Fleury and the Penguins visit the New York Islanders, Tuesday, March 8, on NBCSN. Both the teams have been neck and neck in the division with the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils for playoff spots. Two of these teams will likely sit this one out, which is something the Penguins are not used to. After winning the Stanley Cup Championship in 2009, the Penguins have made the playoffs every season since, but most years they’ve also made an early exit. The team’s front office has made several changes on and off the ice in recent years but Fleury, or “Flower” as he is sometimes called, has remained in the net and in 2014 signed a four-year contract extension. He responded by leading the league in shutouts, with ten, while also recording his 300th win.
Marc-AndréFleury
If the Penguins are to make the playoffs it will likely be as a lower seed, perhaps even a Wild Card team and thus the pressure will be on Fleury to keep the puck out of the net. In nine seasons with the Penguins the goalie has played in 98 post season games, posting a 53-44 record and a .906 save percentage.
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MOVIES JAY BOBBIN's Theatrical movie review
‘Hail,
Caesar!’
The Coens turn to ‘Caesar’ for comedy
Pictured: Josh Brolin
Whenever filmmaking siblings Joel and Ethan Coen try anything, especially a comedy, it’s bound to be offbeat – something that anyone familiar with such movies as “Fargo” and “Barton Fink” already knows.
muse Frances McDormand as a film editor, Scarlett Johansson as an actress with complicated parenting issues, Ralph Fiennes as an esteemed director, and “Jump Street” cronies Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.
They’re now back on that turf with “Hail, Caesar!,” a spoof of 1950s Hollywood that centers largely on Josh Brolin as a “fixer” – someone whose job it is to get stars out of trouble at a time when an actor’s image and career rise or fall on the tightly controlling studio system. (The Brolin character is based loosely on the real-life Eddie Mannix, whose name will be familiar to anyone who knows the story of television “Superman” George Reeves).
Also great fun – twice over – is Tilda Swinton, Clooney’s earlier “Michael Clayton” co-star, as twin and fiercely competitive gossip columnists.
One of the stars who needs help is played by one of today’s top stars: George Clooney, amusingly game as the top-billed performer in a saga of ancient Rome. He gets kidnapped by some Tinseltown believers in communism, who want to brainwash him as well as collect a ransom ... and it’s up to Brolin to save the day. As always with the Coens, “Hail, Caesar!” has high and smart ambitions. As sometimes is the case with then, not everything in it works. However, they sure have assembled a terrific cast, also including their “Fargo” Page 20 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote March 6 - 12, 2016
One thing that must be mentioned is how good the physical look of “Hail, Caesar!” is. The burnished veneer not only evokes the Hollywood of the given era, but also the movies that were made then, with several other approximations of those also included here. The effect isn’t surprising, since the cinematographer is Roger Deakins, the cinematographer who reinvented the look of James Bond movies with “Skyfall” and previously worked with the Coens on films including “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men.” The more you know about Hollywood history, the more of a kick you’re likely to get out of “Hail, Caesar!” But try as hard as it does, unlike the fake movie it’s mainly about, it’s ultimately nothing epic.
MOVIES
This Week’s Top New DVD Releases we couldn’t wait to share! THE
MUST SEE LIST 1
BY JAY BOBBIN
“THE PEANUTS MOVIE”
Charles M. Schulz’s long-popular characters appeared in several theatrical movies years ago, but they get a new, computer-animated look in this tale that again puts Snoopy on the trail of the Red Baron ... while the everhapless Charlie Brown pursues a little red-haired girl anew. (Rated G)
3“MACBETH”
2
“IN THE HEART OF THE SEA”
Based on the best seller by Nathaniel Philbrick, the Ron Howarddirected drama re-creates the true whaling-ship crisis that inspired Herman Melville to write “Moby Dick.” Played by Ben Whishaw, Melville seeks information from a sailor who was aboard the whaling ship Essex when it ran into major trouble at sea. (Rated PG-13)
Michael Fassbender portrays Shakespeare’s legendary character in this latest of the play’s screen adaptations. This is an excellent version relating the saga of Scotland’s duke whose quest to become king leads him to take drastic action to speed up his ascension. Marion Cotillard plays his conspiratorial spouse Lady Macbeth. (Rated R)
4
“VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN”
One of the most legendary stories of all time is returning in concept to Mary Shelley’s original tale of the title scientist played by James McAvoy) obsessed with creating a synthetic man. His assistant Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) watches the doctor’s relentless determination drive him toward madness, in a script that concentrates more on the relationship between the two men than on monsters. (Rated PG-13)
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MUST WATCH
Ben Higgins in “The Bachelor”
Jay R. Ferguson stars in “The Real O’Neals”
SUNDAY 8 p.m. on ABC Once Upon a Time The fantasy-drama’s midseason return also marks its 100th episode, as “Souls of the Departed” finds Emma (Jennifer Morrison), Regina (Lana Parrilla) and others trying to save Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) after his sacrifice for Storybrooke. They’re foiled by residents of the Underworld, and even Peter Pan (guest star Robbie Kay) gets in on the action. Barbara Hershey reprises her role as Cora, and additional guests include Greg Germann and Giancarlo Esposito. New
Lily Aldridge in “The Victoria’s Secret Swim Special”
Jennifer Morrison stars in “Once Upon a Time”
MONDAY 8 p.m. on ABC The Bachelor You know the end of a season of this show is coming when “The Women Tell All,” as they do in this new edition. Ben Higgins has proven to be one of the most popular bachelors the series has had, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t broken some hearts along the way, whether or not he intended to. Those exiles — or, in some cases, women who removed themselves from the competition — have tales to tell, and typically, host Chris Harrison listens patiently. New
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TUESDAY 8:30 p.m. on ABC The Real O’Neals Lent prompts Eileen (Martha Plimpton) to ask each of her closest relatives to forsake something they cherish in “The Real Lent,” which ABC is billing as the series’ premiere after two preview showings last week. The choice of what to give up becomes a formidable task for all concerned. Pat (Jay R. Ferguson) is faced with the fact that Shannon (Bebe Wood) is growing up — which doesn’t necessarily mean that he accepts it easily. Noah Galvin also stars. Series Premiere New
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MUST WATCH WEDNESDAY 9 p.m. on CBS The Victoria’s Secret Swim Special The “Angels” move beyond their traditional holiday-season fashion show again with this new offering, staged on the island of St. Barth’s in the French West Indies — a perfectly exotic setting for the lovely ladies to pose for a catalog shoot. Lily Aldridge, Martha Hunt, Taylor Hill, Stella Maxwell and Candice Swanepoel are among those who go before the cameras and discuss their careers. There’s music, too, supplied by guest stars Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato. New
FRIDAY 9 p.m. on NBC Grimm The fantasy-drama’s 100th episode, “Into the Schwarzwald,” puts Nick and Monroe (David Giuntoli, Silas Weir Mitchell) onto a major discovery: a long-hidden treasure that they locate in Germany. While they’re away from Portland, Hank, Wu and Capt. Renard (Russell Hornsby, Reggie Lee, Sasha Roiz) try to stop a killer — unaware that Eve (Bitsie Tulloch) also is pursuing the felon. Rosalee (Bree Turner) has to face a person from her past. New
SATURDAY 8 p.m. on NICKELODEON Nickelodeon’s 2016 Kids’ Choice Awards Let there be slime ... and as anyone of any age who ever has watched this event can anticipate, there is bound to be. Country-music star and “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton is the host who puts his clothing at risk this year, as youngsters’ selections for favorites in movies, television, music and sports are announced. Typically, many of the winners show up to claim their awards — and you can expect the response of the on-site audience to be deafening. New
THURSDAY 10 p.m. on ABC How to Get Away With Murder Season 2 of the drama nears its end with the new episode “There’s My Baby,” finding Annalise’s (Viola Davis) team questioned about the circumstances of the murder of Emily Sinclair. Caleb’s (guest star Kendrick Sampson) disappearance coincides with heightened concerns about Philip (guest star Jefferson White). Flashbacks recall more developments in the Mahoney case. Famke Janssen (“Taken”) continues her guest role. Matt McGorry also stars. New 10 p.m. on HISTORY Vikings If you watch the Yule Log at the holidays, you may be interested to know the Vikings had one, too — and in the new episode “Yol,” it burns brightly for those admitted to the Great Hall. They don’t include Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard), but Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) gets to enjoy Christmas there. King Aelle (Ivan Kaye) wishes for more family togetherness than he observes. Rollo (Clive Standen) struggles to maintain his new union with Gisla (Morgane Polanski). New
Blake Shelton hosts Nickelodeon’s 2016 Kids’ Choice Awards
David Giuntoli stars in “Grimm”
Viola Davis stars in “How to Get Away With Murder”
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