CHICAGO — We can thank France, not America, for the flowering of Melvin Van Peebles’ feature film career.

The Chicago native, who grew up in suburban Phoenix about 20 miles south of downtown Chicago, died Sept. 21 at the age of 89. Without Van Peebles, there is no Spike Lee, among others. Van Peebles broke through with the outlandish studio...Read more

NEW YORK — “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams died from a lethal combination of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, the city’s medical examiner said on Friday, revealing the cause of death for the beloved Brooklynite.

The Flatbush native, who publicly struggled with addiction, was found dead on Sept. 6 in his Williamsburg penthouse.

The ...Read more

The woman suing Nicki Minaj and the rapper’s husband, Kenneth Petty, spoke out against the couple on talk show “The Real” this week, accusing the pair of launching an intimidation campaign against her and threatening her safety.

Petty was convicted in 1995 of sexually assaulting Jennifer Hough, who appeared Wednesday in her first ...Read more

Sarah Jessica Parker is honoring Willie Garson, who died earlier this week.

Parker, 56, took to Instagram Friday afternoon with a collection of photos of the pair — on and off the set of “Sex and the City” to pay tribute to the man who imbued Carrie Bradshaw’s closest male friend, Stanford Blatch, with his colorful and lovable spirit ...Read more

Elon Musk and musician Grimes are “semi-separated” after three years together, according to the SpaceX founder.

“We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms,” Musk told Page Six on Friday.

He mostly blamed geography and careers for his sorta-split from the singer and mother of their...Read more

As he brainstormed ideas for an album that would celebrate 60 years of the Temptations, Otis Williams had an epiphany.

If we're making a record for the Tempts' diamond anniversary, Williams thought to himself, Smokey Robinson has to be part of it.

It was Robinson, after all, who had ignited the group's Motown career in 1964 with "The Way You ...Read more

Queen Bey is crazy in love with turning 40.

A few weeks after celebrating her milestone birthday, Beyonce penned a heartfelt letter on her website Thursday to thank “every inspiring human who took the time to send me all the beautiful [happy birthday] messages.”

She also reflected on how much she’s grown over the past four decades, ...Read more

CHICAGO — “What if?” Two words; one question.

The movies love that question. It fulfills the weirdest daydreams, unearths long-buried treasure, imagines what might’ve been and might be still.

Three of the films screening this week at “Reeling: The 39th Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival,” held at the Landmark Century Centre...Read more

One of the appeals of science fiction is the way it can shift reality a few notches, this way or that, and then show us how things might play out. What if some of the basic details of life were different — how would it all go? Sci-fi for the screen often isn’t interested in these kinds of questions, though. When you peel back all the high-...Read more

It's amazing how a work of art that came out just six years ago can play so differently now.

Exhibit A: "Dear Evan Hansen," a Broadway musical that debuted in 2015 and picked up six trophies at the 2017 Tony Awards, including best musical and best performance by a leading actor in a musical for star Ben Platt. During its initial run, the show ...Read more

Hey, Netflix — Hulu also has a new Britney Spears documentary coming out, and it’s beating yours to market by four whole days.

Announced Friday, “Controlling Britney Spears” is FX and Hulu’s follow-up to this year’s “Framing Britney Spears,” the documentary that prompted broad discourse about how the pop star has been treated by...Read more

NEW YORK — Friday’s episode of “The View” was thrown into upheaval just before Vice President Kamala Harris was set to appear.

Co-host Sunny Hostin and guest co-host Ana Navarro were asked to leave the set of the daytime talk show during the broadcast just before Harris was about to be interviewed.

“Shall I introduce the vice ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — After Netflix executive Bela Bajaria watched a 2017 documentary called "A Suitable Girl," about arranged marriages in India, and spoke with one of its directors, something clicked.

Her parents had once organized dates for Bajaria with potential suitors, and she knew the stakes were much higher than what's seen on typical U.S. ...Read more

Last year, based on just a script and four-minute promo reel, Netflix paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million for the worldwide rights to “The Starling,” with Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd headlining as a couple pushing through the grief of losing a child.

I suspect McCarthy’s involvement was the driver behind Netflix’s ...Read more

On his first day shooting "Midnight Mass," Hamish Linklater split his pants.

The 45-year-old star of Mike Flanagan's Netflix series (which premiered Friday) about a dark force stalking an isolated island community, was already trepidatious about having to shoot nine pages of monologue on the first day. "I was in a pretty white hot panic, but I ...Read more

Broadway may be back, but without Karen Olivo. The alum of "In the Heights" and "West Side Story" announced her exit from the musical adaptation of "Moulin Rouge!" in April as a response to the industry's relative silence about producer Scott Rudin's alleged abusive workplace behavior.

Before the Tony Awards, airing Sunday on CBS and Paramount+...Read more

Chris Pratt is becoming a plumber.

The voice cast of the film adaptation of the legendary video game series “Super Mario Bros.” was announced Thursday night and features an all-star lineup of some of Hollywood’s brightest stars.

Pratt, known for his starring roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the “Jurassic World” franchise is...Read more

It wasn’t hard for Annabeth Gish to put her faith in Netflix’s “Midnight Mass.”

The actress teamed up once again with horror maven Mike Flanagan to make the freaky new series, which centers on an isolated island where life is flipped upside down by the arrival of a mysterious priest.

In addition to the show’s twists and turns, Gish ...Read more