Latest news with #WizardofOz
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Golden Girls' Creatives Spill the Tea on Bitter Feud Between Betty White and Bea Arthur — and Making a Classic Anyway
Creatives behind The Golden Girls shared funny and, at times, very candid behind-the-scenes stories — namely, among the long-rumored feud between stars Betty White and Bea Arthur — during a 40th-anniversary celebration of the long-running hit show on Wednesday night. The sold-out event, held at NeueHouse Hollywood as part of the monthlong Pride LIVE! Hollywood festival, featured a panel of writers, producers and others who worked on the show, which ran for seven seasons on NBC, from 1985-92. The series, created by Susan Harris, starred Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo. (The Hollywood Reporter is the presenting media sponsor of Pride LIVE! Hollywood.) More from The Hollywood Reporter K-pop Star Bain is Ready to Open a New Chapter Following Historic Coming Out: "I Can Finally Be Free" The 'Wizard of Oz' of Gay Erotica OUTtv: They're Here, They're Queer, They're Canadian! Co-producer Marsha Posner Williams brought up a topic that has been much-discussed and speculated on: whether Arthur and White got along in real life. 'When that red light was on [and the show was filming], there were no more professional people than those women, but when the red light was off, those two couldn't warm up to each other if they were cremated together,' she quipped. Arthur 'used to call me at home and say, 'I just ran into that c' — meaning White, using the c-word — 'at the grocery store. I'm gonna write her a letter,' and I said, 'Bea, just get over it for crying out loud. Just get past it.'' In fact, the panelists shared that Arthur called White the c-word more than once. 'I remember, my husband and I went over to Bea's house a couple of times for dinner. Within 30 seconds of walking in the door, the c-word came out,' Williams said, and Thurm noted that he heard Arthur call White that word as well while sitting next to her on a flight. It's a story he shared a few years ago on a podcast and then got surprised at the internet's response over his revelation. The panelists differed on their theories about why the two didn't get along. Co-producer Jim Vallely thought it was because White got a lot more applause during cast introductions ahead of tapings, but Williams shot that down, noting that Arthur hated doing publicity and came from a different background (theatrical) than White (television). 'The show would have continued after seven years,' she shared. 'Their contracts were up and … the executives went to the ladies, and Estelle said, 'Yes, let's keep going,' and Rue said, 'Yes let's keep going,' and Betty said, 'Yes, let's keep going.' And Bea said 'no fucking way,' and that's why that show didn't continue. … And Betty would break character in the middle of the show [and talk to the live audience], and Bea hated that.' Script supervisor Isabel Omero remembered it differently, noting that the two used to walk 'arm in arm' to get notes together after the first of two tapings. Williams joked that was in case they were walking across the lot and a golf cart got out of control, suggesting that one of them might push the other in front of it. Casting director Joel Thurm was there from the beginning for the casting of all four leading ladies. He shared that Brandon Tartikoff, then-head of NBC Entertainment, originally did not want Arthur in the show, but Harris was dead-set on her, having previously worked with the actress on Maude (she wrote several episodes, including the legendary abortion episode). Thurm said Tartikoff's resistance to casting Arthur had to do with her low Q scores in likability. '[This] created a big problem, but I never knew how dug in Susan was, because I just wasn't in the room where those kind of discussions happened,' he shared. 'So my job, according to Brandon, was to find someone that Susan would be happy with instead of Bea Arthur. I should have realized that she wouldn't have been happy with anybody besides Bea, but I was too naive, and I thought, 'Oh, I have someone. Her name is Elaine Stritch. She has the same acidic quality, you know, stare at you and give you the same thing that Bea does.'' Thurm shared that when Stritch came in for her audition, 'None of the people associated with Golden Girls wanted her. So this woman had to walk into a freezer of an office and try to make it funny. Stritch asked Susan one thing, it was something like, 'Is it OK if I change something?' And Susan said, 'Yes, only the punctuation.' There was no love in that room. I felt so sorry for poor Stritch because she wasn't her fault. She didn't do anything. And had I known that, that Susan was immovable on this, I wouldn't have done what I did and then try to find somebody else.' Williams, however, shared a different view of Stritch. 'I want to just say that I worked on a pilot, and Elaine Stritch was a guest star for one day,' she chimed in. 'Before the day was half over, we were calling her 'Elaine Bitch.'' Meanwhile, Getty, who was then an unknown actress, came in to her audition and nailed it: 'She did her homework and prepared for the part,' Thurm said, noting she was the first one of the four leads to be cast. Incidentally, Cher was supposed to guest-star in the episode focusing on the death of Sophia's son, playing his wife, but she never replied to the offer, and Brenda Vaccaro was cast instead. The event kicked off with a highlights reel of some of the show's LGBTQ moments, including Blanche's brother coming out as gay, Sophia's coming to terms with her cross-dressing son and a politician's revelation that he was transgender. But behind the scenes, things weren't so progressive, shared writer Stan Zimmerman. 'People have to remember back then, we were told by a representatives to stay in the closet, so nobody knew we were gay,' he shared. 'Our first day on the set, we noticed Estelle come running towards us, and she's like … 'I know. Your secret's safe with me. You're one of us.' I thought she meant Jewish,' he quipped. 'But she meant gay. She wasn't gay, but she was probably the first ally ever.' Zimmerman added that he was telling his co-workers how he had bought some vintage sweaters at a garage sale one day, and they told him to 'go home and burn those sweaters because it was probably somebody that died of AIDS. … That was the climate then.' I know you see all these progressive scenes and you think, 'Oh, it was one big gay party there,' but we couldn't be who we really were.' Omero, who came out as transgender in 2019, shared that she was in the closet for all seven seasons of the show. She said that one day, Arthur offered to give her an Indian sari that she had picked up on a trip. 'In my closeted, panicked, paranoid brain, all I knew is that at that moment Bea Arthur was offering me a dress to wear around the house, and I wish I had been in a place where I could have said something, to even accept the gift without ever using it, just so I could express something to someone. But fear and shame is a big thing,' Omero said. Asked why The Golden Girls tackled so many different LGBTQ issues, Vallely replied: 'I think it's because we knew … we had a gay audience. They would play [the show] in [gay] bars across the country. … It was a big deal for middle America to see these women embrace the gay culture.' The panel, which also featured story editor Rick Copp and was moderated by New York Times bestselling author Jim Colucci (Golden Girls Forever), ended with a highlights package of cut scenes from the pilot, which originally featured a live-in gay housekeeper and cook named Coco, who was played by Charles Levin. The character was cut from the show because Sophia — initially meant to be a recurring character — was so popular that they made Getty a regular; unfortunately for Levin, that meant another character had to be cut. Among those in the audience were actress Deena Freeman, who played Dorothy's daughter Kate in an episode of the show, and production designer Michael Hynes. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Golden Girls' Creatives Spill the Tea on Bitter Feud Between Betty White and Bea Arthur — and Making a Classic Anyway
Creatives behind The Golden Girls shared funny and, at times, very candid behind-the-scenes stories — namely, among the long-rumored feud between stars Betty White and Bea Arthur — during a 40th-anniversary celebration of the long-running hit show on Wednesday night. The sold-out event, held at NeueHouse Hollywood as part of the monthlong Pride LIVE! Hollywood festival, featured a panel of writers, producers and others who worked on the show, which ran for seven seasons on NBC, from 1985-92. The series, created by Susan Harris, starred Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo. (The Hollywood Reporter is the presenting media sponsor of Pride LIVE! Hollywood.) More from The Hollywood Reporter K-pop Star Bain is Ready to Open a New Chapter Following Historic Coming Out: "I Can Finally Be Free" The 'Wizard of Oz' of Gay Erotica OUTtv: They're Here, They're Queer, They're Canadian! Co-producer Marsha Posner Williams brought up a topic that has been much-discussed and speculated on: whether Arthur and White got along in real life. 'When that red light was on [and the show was filming], there were no more professional people than those women, but when the red light was off, those two couldn't warm up to each other if they were cremated together,' she quipped. Arthur 'used to call me at home and say, 'I just ran into that c' — meaning White, using the c-word — 'at the grocery store. I'm gonna write her a letter,' and I said, 'Bea, just get over it for crying out loud. Just get past it.'' In fact, the panelists shared that Arthur called White the c-word more than once. 'I remember, my husband and I went over to Bea's house a couple of times for dinner. Within 30 seconds of walking in the door, the c-word came out,' Williams said, and Thurm noted that he heard Arthur call White that word as well while sitting next to her on a flight. It's a story he shared a few years ago on a podcast and then got surprised at the internet's response over his revelation. The panelists differed on their theories about why the two didn't get along. Co-producer Jim Vallely thought it was because White got a lot more applause during cast introductions ahead of tapings, but Williams shot that down, noting that Arthur hated doing publicity and came from a different background (theatrical) than White (television). 'The show would have continued after seven years,' she shared. 'Their contracts were up and … the executives went to the ladies, and Estelle said, 'Yes, let's keep going,' and Rue said, 'Yes let's keep going,' and Betty said, 'Yes, let's keep going.' And Bea said 'no fucking way,' and that's why that show didn't continue. … And Betty would break character in the middle of the show [and talk to the live audience], and Bea hated that.' Script supervisor Isabel Omero remembered it differently, noting that the two used to walk 'arm in arm' to get notes together after the first of two tapings. Williams joked that was in case they were walking across the lot and a golf cart got out of control, suggesting that one of them might push the other in front of it. Casting director Joel Thurm was there from the beginning for the casting of all four leading ladies. He shared that Brandon Tartikoff, then-head of NBC Entertainment, originally did not want Arthur in the show, but Harris was dead-set on her, having previously worked with the actress on Maude (she wrote several episodes, including the legendary abortion episode). Thurm said Tartikoff's resistance to casting Arthur had to do with her low Q scores in likability. '[This] created a big problem, but I never knew how dug in Susan was, because I just wasn't in the room where those kind of discussions happened,' he shared. 'So my job, according to Brandon, was to find someone that Susan would be happy with instead of Bea Arthur. I should have realized that she wouldn't have been happy with anybody besides Bea, but I was too naive, and I thought, 'Oh, I have someone. Her name is Elaine Stritch. She has the same acidic quality, you know, stare at you and give you the same thing that Bea does.'' Thurm shared that when Stritch came in for her audition, 'None of the people associated with Golden Girls wanted her. So this woman had to walk into a freezer of an office and try to make it funny. Stritch asked Susan one thing, it was something like, 'Is it OK if I change something?' And Susan said, 'Yes, only the punctuation.' There was no love in that room. I felt so sorry for poor Stritch because she wasn't her fault. She didn't do anything. And had I known that, that Susan was immovable on this, I wouldn't have done what I did and then try to find somebody else.' Williams, however, shared a different view of Stritch. 'I want to just say that I worked on a pilot, and Elaine Stritch was a guest star for one day,' she chimed in. 'Before the day was half over, we were calling her 'Elaine Bitch.'' Meanwhile, Getty, who was then an unknown actress, came in to her audition and nailed it: 'She did her homework and prepared for the part,' Thurm said, noting she was the first one of the four leads to be cast. Incidentally, Cher was supposed to guest-star in the episode focusing on the death of Sophia's son, playing his wife, but she never replied to the offer, and Brenda Vaccaro was cast instead. The event kicked off with a highlights reel of some of the show's LGBTQ moments, including Blanche's brother coming out as gay, Sophia's coming to terms with her cross-dressing son and a politician's revelation that he was transgender. But behind the scenes, things weren't so progressive, shared writer Stan Zimmerman. 'People have to remember back then, we were told by a representatives to stay in the closet, so nobody knew we were gay,' he shared. 'Our first day on the set, we noticed Estelle come running towards us, and she's like … 'I know. Your secret's safe with me. You're one of us.' I thought she meant Jewish,' he quipped. 'But she meant gay. She wasn't gay, but she was probably the first ally ever.' Zimmerman added that he was telling his co-workers how he had bought some vintage sweaters at a garage sale one day, and they told him to 'go home and burn those sweaters because it was probably somebody that died of AIDS. … That was the climate then.' I know you see all these progressive scenes and you think, 'Oh, it was one big gay party there,' but we couldn't be who we really were.' Omero, who came out as transgender in 2019, shared that she was in the closet for all seven seasons of the show. She said that one day, Arthur offered to give her an Indian sari that she had picked up on a trip. 'In my closeted, panicked, paranoid brain, all I knew is that at that moment Bea Arthur was offering me a dress to wear around the house, and I wish I had been in a place where I could have said something, to even accept the gift without ever using it, just so I could express something to someone. But fear and shame is a big thing,' Omero said. Asked why The Golden Girls tackled so many different LGBTQ issues, Vallely replied: 'I think it's because we knew … we had a gay audience. They would play [the show] in [gay] bars across the country. … It was a big deal for middle America to see these women embrace the gay culture.' The panel, which also featured story editor Rick Copp and was moderated by New York Times bestselling author Jim Colucci (Golden Girls Forever), ended with a highlights package of cut scenes from the pilot, which originally featured a live-in gay housekeeper and cook named Coco, who was played by Charles Levin. The character was cut from the show because Sophia — initially meant to be a recurring character — was so popular that they made Getty a regular; unfortunately for Levin, that meant another character had to be cut. Among those in the audience were actress Deena Freeman, who played Dorothy's daughter Kate in an episode of the show, and production designer Michael Hynes. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
NYT Mini Crossword June 18, 2025: Hints and answers to help you solve today's tricky puzzle
The New York Times Mini Crossword is back with another quick but clever grid. While the puzzle is just 5-by-5, it still packs in tricky clues and satisfying 'aha' moments. For today, June 18, some clues were pretty direct, while others needed a little extra thinking. If you're stuck on one or two entries or just want to check your answers, this article gives you helpful hints first and then the full solution further down. Many players breeze through The Mini in under a minute, but even one tough clue can slow things down. That's where these hints come in as they'll guide you without giving away too much too soon. Ready to give it another shot before peeking? Let's get into it. Across clue hints 1 Across: Hit the stores - Think of something quick people do when they need to buy something. 5 Across: Cross one's fingers - You do this when you are really wishing for a good outcome. 6 Across: Here's a thought! - A one-word way to express an idea or brainstorm. 7 Across: Old episode - You might catch one of these during a TV marathon. 8 Across: Request for a follow on social media - A two-word phrase, casual and common in DMs. Down clue hints 1 Down: Tear to pieces - Think of what a paper shredder does. 2 Down: Be bad at throwing things away - A person with this habit keeps way too many items. 3 Down: Drug in 'Wizard of Oz' poppy field - Starts with 'O' and can cause sleep. 4 Down: Tubular pasta - Five letters, ends with 'E,' and holds sauce really well. 6 Down: Its sizes are measured in cups - A clothing item for support, not for tea. Answers for Mini Crossword June 18 2025 Across: 1 Across: SHOP 5 Across: HOPE 6 Across: BRAIN 7 Across: RERUN 8 Across: ADDME Down: 1 Down: SHRED 2 Down: HOARD 3 Down: OPIUM 4 Down: PENNE 6 Down: BRA That's all for today's NYT Mini Crossword. Whether you needed just one clue or the whole board, good job making it to the end. These quick puzzles are a great way to sharpen your brain and enjoy a few minutes of wordplay. Come back tomorrow for a brand new challenge.
Wales Online
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- Wales Online
Across a yellow bridge in Wales is a hidden huge structure no-one has ever been inside
Across a yellow bridge in Wales is a hidden huge structure no-one has ever been inside It was supposed to open years ago to the public, then they found something very wrong with it Under wraps - the unfinished multi-storey car park near Oystermouth Road (Image: Richard Youle ) Over a yellow bridge lies a secret world no regular citizen has ever set foot in. It sits, covered from head to toe, so no-one can see what's within. It sounds like some tale from the world of the Wizard of Oz, with the yellow brick road replaced with a yellow bridge of course. The truth is much more mundane however, but a saga nonetheless. The secret world is actually just a multi-storey car park. What makes it different from other such buildings is that no cars have ever parked there - ever! It was built around the same time as the Swansea Building Society Arena opposite, which opened in 2022, and was expected to start welcoming drivers heading for the city centre shops and attractions and/or the arena itself. A second car park beneath the arena is the main parking area for that facility. But there was a problem. Paintwork which coated the steel was found to be defective and needed blasting off and reapplying. The structure has been covered up pretty much ever since, while contractors finish what was left of the work after the company which began building it went into administration. Article continues below It has become a big blot on what is otherwise a great looking development in Swansea. But there is hope now that this could soon be rectified. The new, complete, multi-storey car park may be unwrapped in time for Christmas in Swansea, the council has said. The works which have been taking places there include weather-proofing the car parking decks, completing painting and fire protection jobs, and work on the external finish and appearance of the building. The car park was part of the £135 million council-led Copr Bay project which gave rise to the indoor arena, adjacent coastal park and car park below, the unmissable yellow pedestrian bridge across Oystermouth Road, and flats and commercial units opposite. The authority had hoped the multi-storey car park, which it said had problems with its paintwork, would be completed in spring, 2024, and then the end of 2024. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here Swansea firm Andrew Scott Ltd, which was brought in after Copr Bay contractors Buckingham Group went into administration, has been busy at the multi-storey car park for a while. The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council if it would be ready for use by Christmas, to which a spokesman replied: "We are working with the contractor to speed up delivery of the scheme with the aim of completion by the end of the year." He said the nearby St David's multi-storey car park would remain open until the new car park was operational. The multi-storey car park (left), flats and pedestrian bridge over Oystermouth Road (Image: Richard Youle ) Asked if the ground floor commercial units would be open for Christmas and who the tenants were, the spokesman said: "We are in discussions with previous tenants that had been announced for the units. Any available units will soon be re-marketed and - subject to the agreement of tenants - we anticipate the units being open prior to Christmas." There has been praise for the 3,500-capacity Swansea Building Society Arena, including from smaller independent music venues in the city. It opened in March, 2022, and has hosted acts that were previously all but certain to have skipped Wales' second city. An external glass lift rising to the concourse level has proved tricky to resolve though. The council said it was an unfinished element of the scheme but that a solution had now been found. Work, it said, was due to start shortly. "We are targeting completion this summer," said the spokesman. The multi-storey car park at it was in September, 2023 (Image: Richard Youle ) Asked if the work to complete the multi-storey car park and other bits of the scheme would mean the Copr Bay budget being exceeded, the council said it had retained some funding and that this money - along with bonds, insurance and an offer of grant funding - was being used. "There are no additional council funds being allocated to the project at this stage," said the spokesman. Article continues below
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Deep Cover' Review: Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom Play Improv Actors Working an Undercover Police Sting in a Winningly Silly Comedy
The premise of Deep Cover is almost funny enough to carry the entire film: A trio of improv actors is recruited by the London police to go undercover on a low-level sting operation, on the theory that they can think on their feet. Fortunately, this comedy is more than its plot thanks to the hilariously straight-faced performances of Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as the hapless actors who wind up embedded with dangerous London gangsters. The film approaches its action tropes with an effective sense of absurdity, but it's the stars' kinetic commitment to the bit that makes this relentlessly silly film work. Howard brings energy and conviction to her role as Kat, an American in London whose visa has almost run out, along with her luck as an actor. Now she teaches improv classes to play the bills, and faces the pitying looks of her old friends. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'It's Dorothy!' Review: 'Wizard of Oz' Protagonist Gets a Deep-Dive Cultural Analysis in Wide-Ranging if Overstuffed Appreciation 'Surviving Ohio State' Review: HBO's Sexual Abuse Doc Is Thorough and Persuasive, but Lacks a New Smoking Gun 'A Tree Fell in the Woods' Review: Josh Gad and Alexandra Daddario in an Uneven, Occasionally Insightful Relationship Dramedy Bloom is not exactly known for comedy (Pirates of the Caribbean aside) but is wonderfully cast here as one of Kat's students, Marlon, an ultra-Method actor who constructs elaborate, dramatic backstories for his characters even when auditioning for a television commercial. His biggest role so far is in cheesy Medieval costume as 'Pizza Knight' for a commercial, and his agent finally drops him after saying, 'You're from the Cotswolds, you're not Al Pacino.' Mohammed is known for comedy, notably as Nathan on Ted Lasso, and is a natural for the role of Hugh, a buttoned-up, socially inept IT guy so desperate for friends and connection he impulsively signs up for Kat's class, even though he has the shakiest grasp of what improv is. The scenes introducing those three are among the funniest, with the actors leaning into the earnest aspects of their characters even while reveling in their goofiness. Sean Bean soon turns up as Billings, a cop who recruits Kat and asks her to bring two colleagues along for the sting. He offers them £200 each simply for walking into a store and buying some illegal cigarettes. With her best students unavailable, she has to resort to Marlon and Hugh. The consequences ratchet up during that sting when their often misguided improv impulses take off. They just can't help themselves. Marlon takes on the guise of a thug named Roach and of course overplays the role. The clueless Hugh blurts out 'Yes, and' at inappropriate moments, as if it's a line of dialogue instead of the most basic improv rule. Kat is shrewder, and leaps in to try to save things, only to make them more complicated. Before long they are meeting with a mob boss, Fly, played by Paddy Considine, who makes the character as tough as they come until it turns out he might not be so perceptive. Kat convinces him she is Bonnie, the brains of the operation, and that they are drug dealers. Marlon is the muscle, who dubs Hugh 'The Squire,' the guy who tastes and authenticates the cocaine. With all that great mob access, Billings refuses to let them out of the gig, and when things go further awry they have to meet with the angry big boss (Ian McShane). Behind the scenes of the film there is a bit of a Jurassic World reunion. Trevorrow, who directed and co-wrote that mega-hit starring Howard, wrote a version of the Deep Cover screenplay along with his Jurassic writing partner Derek Connolly more than a decade ago. Eventually Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen were brought in to rewrite and transplant the story to London, and they also have substantial supporting roles as detectives on the trail of the improv trio. Those sleuths aren't so smart themselves, mistakenly thinking that Kat and her gang are the masterminds behind London's drug trafficking. In the detectives' defense, the three do accidentally knock off a notorious assassin. The director, Tom Kingsley, is known for the droll British television comedy Stath Lets Flats, but the tone of Deep Cover is more reminiscent of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedies like Hot Fuzz, with ridiculous plots and characters and consistently sharp but loose-limbed performances. Kingsley directs with confidence, even though the film sags a bit when the ever-escalating action starts to overtake the character comedy. The action is effective enough, full of chases. In the most ludicrous, the detectives drive through narrow streets chasing Kat, Marlon and Hugh, who are trying to outrun them on rental bikes. Those scenes aren't especially inventive, but because the film is referencing stock action tropes, they don't need to be. Deep Cover played at the SXSW London and Tribeca festivals shortly before dropping on Amazon Prime. Still, it arrives with relatively little hype considering its starry cast, which makes it a pleasant surprise, easy-to-watch breezy fun. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
