58 | AUGUST 15 • 2024 J
N
RUDOLPH IS HARRIS, AGAIN;
A CHILDREN’S MOVIE, A
GAME SHOW AND A POLICE
SHOW
Maya Rudolph, 52, has agreed
to appear as Vice President
Kamala Harris on SNL for all of
2024. Rudolph played Harris in
many SNL skits that aired during
the first impeachment trial of
Donald Trump and during the
2020 presidential campaign.
Most thought her depiction
was very funny without being
mean (you can view the skits on
YouTube).
No word yet if Martin
Short, who played Doug
Emhoff, Harris’ Jewish husband,
in a 2020 skit, will reprise this
role. (The 50th season of SNL
premieres on Sept. 28, 2024).
Opening in theaters on Aug.
16 is Ryan’s World, The Movie:
Titan Universe Adventure. It is a
Japanese-American live action/
animated film based on Ryan’s
World, a hit YouTube channel
series. The Ryan’s World series,
and the movie, are primarily for
children and teens.
Here’s the premise: twin
sisters Emma and Kate get
sucked into a mystical comic
book. Ryan, their older brother,
jumps in after them. What
follows is a lot of adventures
(some dangerous). Eventually,
Ryan navigates the Titan
Universe, and he brings
everyone home before their
parents miss them.
Albie Hecht is making his
debut as a film director with this
film. Hecht is 71, an uncommon
age for freshman directors.
But he has tons of relevant
experience. Here’s just part
of it: from 1997-2003 Hecht
oversaw the development and
approval of every series and
film on Nickelodeon. More
recently, he has been the
head of a company that has
created many YouTube series
for young people. He has
overseen 50 series (including
Ryan’s World). His YouTube
channels have over 100 million
subscribers.
This year, the game show Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire? has
been re-booted. Now two pairs
of two celebrities compete to
win the game and earn a
$1 million prize for their favorite
charity. On Aug. 21, Brad
Garrett, 64, and Ray Romano
(former stars of Everybody
Loves Raymond) vie with the
team of comedian Natasha
Leggero, 50, and actor Jason
Ritter (John’s son) for the
$1 million prize (ABC, 8 p.m.).
Homicide: Life on the Street
was an NBC series that ran from
1993-1998. The Boston Globe
noted: “It added grit, wit and a
dose of realism to the network
police procedural.” For decades,
a dispute about the rights to
the show’s music prevented any
“encore” showings. That dispute
finally ended, and all seven
seasons will begin streaming on
Peacock on Aug. 19.
Homicide was based on
reporting by David Simon,
then a Baltimore newspaper
writer. Simon, now 64, went
on to create and write the hit
HBO series The Wire. His wife,
Laura Lippman, 65 (who had a
Jewish grandfather), was also a
Baltimore news reporter and her
novel, Lady in the Lake, is now
an Apple TV+ series of the same
name. It stars Natalie Portman.
The large Homicide cast
included Yaphet Kotto (1938-
2021) and Richard Belzer (1944-
2023). Kotto, who played police
lieutenant Giradello, was an
African American Jew. Kotto’s
father was born Jewish, and his
mother converted to Judaism.
Belzer played police detective
John Munch (a Jewish cop).
After Homicide, Belzer played
Munch in 15 seasons of Law and
Order: SVU.
The trailer for A Complete
Unknown, a bio-pic about Bob
Dylan, was released a couple
of weeks ago. The film, which
covers Dylan from 1961-65, will
open in December. Timothée
Chalamet, who plays Dylan,
sang part of the famous Dylan
song “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”
in the trailer. Like most critics, I
thought Chalamet did as good
as anyone has done imitating
Dylan’s singing voice. Also,
some very good make-up was
done on Chalamet. He looks
more like Dylan than Chalamet
“really” does — but the make-up
is subtle, not something weird
like Bradley Cooper’s “Bernstein
nose” in Maestro.
A few weeks ago, it was
reported that Chalamet, 27,
was in final negotiations to play
Marty Reisman (1930-2012),
a top professional ping-pong
player, in a film titled Marty
Supreme. Josh Safdie, 40,
co-wrote the film and he is set
to direct. (Like Dylan, Reisman
was quite quirky, but not
meshugah.)
More Chalamet news: He
was the central subject of a
long article in the Telegraph, a
Brit paper (Aug. 2). Right now,
top fashion companies have a
lot more money to spend on
advertising than movie studios.
They are hiring top directors to
direct “mini-movie” slick ads,
and they are hiring top actors to
appear in these ads.
Chalamet was just paid
$35 million(!) to appear in a
90-second Chanel “mini-movie”
ad directed by Martin Scorsese.
The Telegraph says $35 million
was more than all the fees,
combined, that Chalamet has
received for his film roles.
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE
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Maya Rudolph
Natasha Leggero
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Timothée Chalamet
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