Alexander Payne News

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an inaugural filmed Conversations Q&A series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. The kick-off event, a two hour career Conversations with Judy Greer moderated by Broadway World's own Richard Ridge was recently held at the NYIT Auditorium, and you can check out highlights from the discussion below!

A new book about acclaimed filmmaker Alexander Payne (Sideways) is available just as interest in the Oscar-winner is at an all-time high.

On an atypical Tuesday night with programming encompassing all demographics, CBS swept all key ratings categories, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Dec. 4.

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an inaugural filmed Conversations Q&A series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. Please join us for our kick-off event - a two hour career Conversations with Judy Greer moderated by Broadway World's Richard Ridge of 'Backstage with Richard Ridge!'

Adapted by Rex Pickett from his own novel, SIDEWAYS THE PLAY is the story of two friends - Miles and Jack - and their journey across the Santa Ynez wine country, on one last blowout trip before Jack gets married. Miles and Jack must face their uncertain futures…just as soon as they figure out how to survive their chaotic present.

SIDEWAYS THE PLAY by Rex Pickett has extended its world premiere staging at Ruskin Group Theatre, running Fridays-Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm extended through October 28, 2012 (no performances 9/28-9/30).

FX Productions has entered into an agreement with Paul Giamatti, Dan Carey and their production company, Touchy Feely Films, for a first-look production deal with FXP, announced Eric Schrier, Executive Vice President of FX Productions and Head of Series Development for FX.

Adapted by Rex Pickett from his own novel, SIDEWAYS THE PLAY is the story of two friends - Miles and Jack - and their journey across the Santa Ynez wine country, on one last blowout trip before Jack gets married. Miles and Jack must face their uncertain futures…just as soon as they figure out how to survive their chaotic present.

HBO/Cinemax has released the 2012-13 programming overview.

Today we are talking to a celebrated comedienne and actress known for her decades-spanning career on screens and stages large and small - from making her Broadway debut in the original Jerome Robbins production of GYPSY on Broadway in 1960 to her many musical roles throughout the 60s to her countless game show and variety show appearances following that all the way to creating an unforgettable character in MOONSTRUCK in the 1980s, as well as her subsequent oft-Neil Simon stage work; now, playing Tina Fey's sweet and daffy mom on NBC's 30 ROCK and, most recently, appearing in Nora & Celia Ephron's LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE and the Playwright's Horizons premiere production of THE BIG MEAL in the new millennium - the one of a kind Anita Gillette. Analyzing her nearly sixty-year career and sharing candid stories of her brushes with some of Broadway and Hollywood's brightest talents - Jule Styne to Ethel Merman to Irving Berlin to Burt Lancaster and beyond - Gillette paints a vivid portrait of the tail end of the Golden Age of Broadway and the heady game show days of TV in the 1960s and 70s to her lauded stage work with Neil Simon and many of the great comedy and musical writers in the years since. Additionally, Gillette and I discuss her current essaying of the role of Mae Peterson in the new Regal Music Theatre production of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams's BYE BYE BIRDIE in Massachusetts as she looks towards opening night tomorrow and relates her joy in participating in a production that has some behind-the-scenes help by her loving granddaughter (while another attends their summer camp). Plus, Gillette's observations on sharing a soundstage with Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Elaine Stritch and Buck Henry for a recent 30 ROCK shoot, reflections on her fondest and most celebrated comedy roles, hilarious memories of appearing in some short-running flops (JIMMY, SKYSKRAPER) as well as in some big hits (GYPSY), her upcoming series of master classes titled "Life In The Business", her return to Birdland with her concert show, AFTER ALL, her role in an upcoming Ed Burns film and maybe even a role in a new Alexander Payne film - all of that, all about attending the Diamond Jubilee celebration in the United Kingdom and much, much more!

Sideways The Play, adapted by Rex Pickett from his own novel, plays in its world premiere by the Ruskin Group Theatre in Los Angeles, tonight, May 18 through July 22, Fridays-Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. It is the story of two friends - Miles and Jack - and their journey across the Santa Ynez wine country, on one last blowout trip before Jack gets married. Miles and Jack must face their uncertain futures…just as soon as they figure out how to survive their chaotic present.

Diane Kruger and Alexander Payne will be among the Jury of the Competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. The jury will have to decide between the 22 films in Competition in order to select the winners, to be announced on stage during the Closing Ceremony on May 27th, culminating in the announcement of the Palme d'or.

Sideways The Play, adapted by Rex Pickett from his own novel, will play in its world premiere by the Ruskin Group Theatre in Los Angeles, May 18 through July 22, Fridays-Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. It is the story of two friends - Miles and Jack - and their journey across the Santa Ynez wine country, on one last blowout trip before Jack gets married. Miles and Jack must face their uncertain futures…just as soon as they figure out how to survive their chaotic present.

Out of Iceland began previews March 24th Off-Broadway at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street, between Broadway and Church). Opening night is set for this Sunday, April 1st (at 7pm). This limited engagement runs through Sunday April 22nd. Alfred R. Kahn, in association with Culture Project is producing the Off-Broadway Premiere of Out of Iceland by Drew Larimore, directed by Josh Hecht. Michael Bakkensen, Jillian Crane and Lea DeLaria star.

Alfred R. Kahn, in association with Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director), will present the Off-Broadway Premiere of Out of Iceland by Drew Larimore, directed by Josh Hecht. Michael Bakkensen, Jillian Crane and Lea DeLaria star. Out of Iceland will begin previews March 24th Off-Broadway at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street, between Broadway and Church). Opening night is set for Sunday April 1st (7pm). This limited engagement runs through Sunday April 22nd.

From director Alexander Payne creator of the Oscar® winning Sideways comes THE DESCENDANTS, featuring a cast including Best Actor nominee George Clooney (Ides of March) and Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) in her Golden Globe nominated and Independent Spirit Award winning role.

Billy Crystal was nine for nine with his stupendous hosting - particularly thanks to his superlative musical material courtesy of Tony-winning tunesmith Marc Shaiman - yet, the 2012 Oscars were all about the awards, for once, with a heavy helping of superstars and surprises. A glamorous and generally genial broadcast, more than many in recent years this years, last night's top entertainment honors came across as a class act on the elegantly produced and impressively rendered broadcast, from beginning to end - unscripted screenwriters' Angelina impressions aside. Crytal's hilarious opening montage allowed the Oscar host extraordinaire the opportunity to enact his oh-so-idiosyncratic take on the year's top nominated films - including a kiss with George Clooney ala THE DESCENDANTS and a Justin Bieber/Sammy Davis, Jr. skit inspired by Woody Allen's MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, both of which went on to win the Best Screenplay categories - and remind us why he is tops. The portrait of the winner of Best Picture may have been painted long before last night for THE ARTIST, yet the 2012 Academy Awards show was packed with a plethora of surprises in technical and even some major categories, with Martin Scorsese's HUGO also scoring big and Meryl Streep winning her third statuette, this time for her Best Actress turn in THE IRON LADY, uncanny in her portrayal of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Additionally, THE ARTIST's Jean Judarjin took home Best Actor - over Hollywood titan George Clooney, no less - for his superb performance as a Gene Kelly-esque silent film star (save a few words at the very meta finale). The supporting categories showed some love to expected winners Octavia Spencer - for the audience hit, THE HELP - as well as veteran actor Christopher Plummer - for the indie release, BEGINNERS. Cirque Du Soleil afforded us some spectacle in the form of a 3D aerial classic film homage as only they could create and present, but Crystal's inimitable opening sequence - film sequence and crisply amusing song acting as the ideal entree into the awards season's show of shows - were the night's undeniable highlights. So, too, on the performance front did the In Memoriam sequence shine thanks to a soulful rendering of "What A Wonderful World" by Esperanza Spalding. Many of the major categories may have went the way we have all predicted, yet important categories also went to a surprisingly large smattering of the year's other fine filmatic achievements, as well, making it an entertaining and overall quite pleasing broadcast when considering the conservative slate of films nominated this season.