Ken Howard News

In recognition of outstanding achievements in stage, television and film, and for his work in protecting performers rights, as a past President of SAG, as the first-elected President of SAG-AFTRA, and as a Trustee of the Actors Fund, and of the SAG Foundation, The Lambs bestowed Honorary Membership to Ken Howard. The event was hosted by The Lambs' Shepherd, Marc Baron, who is also a board member of the union.

Emmy Award winning actor, William Daniels will be on hand at the Turner Classic Film Festival, March 28, 2015 at the TCL Chinese Theater, 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA at 1:45pm, to introduce the new 4K definitive director's cut restoration of the iconic film 1776 which will include some previous unseen footage.

Maria Callas got the world used to hearing singing that was not always pitch-perfect yet still essential listening. I kept thinking about this at the Met the other night during the new production of Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO with a cast headed by a couple of stars, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Juan Diego Florez, who are well known for their bel canto style.

Once upon a time, the Met used to be able to pull off an operetta, like the Rudolf Bing-era FLEDERMAUS, with its Garson Kanin libretto and lyrics by Broadway's Howard Dietz. But for the second year in a row--after last season's dire FLEDERMAUS from writer Douglas Carter Beane and director Jeremy Sams--the company rolled the dice and came up craps. How bad is the new production of Franz Lehar's THE MERRY WIDOW (DIE LUSTIGE WITWE)? Let me count the ways.

Matthew Beard, Colin Farrell, Jeff Goldblum, Allen Leech, Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong'o, Emmy Rossum, Andy Samberg, Liev Schreiber and Reese Witherspoon will be presenters at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Executive Producer Kathy Connell announced today.

Balloting for this year's Actor® recipients will close tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 23, at Noon (PT). Final voting information was mailed to 111,228 eligible SAG-AFTRA members on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Votes must be cast online or previously requested paper ballots returned by Jan. 23 to Integrity Voting Systems, the SAG Awards' official teller. The results will be tallied and sealed until the envelopes are opened onstage by the presenters at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony on Sunday, Jan 25.

Adrien Brody, Laverne Cox, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eric Dane, Viola Davis, Felicity Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Eddie Redmayne, Tony Revolori and J.K. Simmons will be presenters at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, Executive Producer Kathy Connell announced today.

For the second time in two seasons, casting has made me reconsider a Met production that I'd written off as past its expiration date. The first was Diana Damrau and Javier Camarena in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA. This time around it's the wonderful Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who breathed new life into the Willy Decker LA TRAVIATA. She's a marvel, both as an actress and a singer.

?Mozart's elegant masterpiece of marital discord, Le Nozze di Figaro, conducted by Met Music Director James Levine and staged by Richard Eyre, is the season premiere of Great Performances at the Met tonight, January 16 at 9 p.m. on PBS.

Members of SAG-AFTRA today voted to ratify the 2014 SAG-AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting (Network Television Code). The vote was 96.5 percent in favor of the new contract.

In the clip below, watch the two funnymen re-enact the classic 'Show Me the Money' scene from the 1996 film.

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann will return to the Met stage January 12, with Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo in his first company performances of the title role, a poet whose attempts at romance are repeatedly thwarted.

Screen Gems has released an all- ew trailer for THE WEDDING RINGER, hitting theaters on January 16, 2015. The comedy stars Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, and Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting

Met Music Director James Levine conducts Wagner's epic human comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in its first-ever Live in HD performance today, December 13 at 12pm EST.

I never ran a marathon, but I sure sat through one the other night at the Met. Richard Wagner's DIE MEISTERSINGER clocked in at six hours--a quarter of a day--without a god or flying horse in sight. And while the composer referred to this as a comedy, it's not exactly “I Love Lucy” (nor, for that matter, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO).

Puccini's LA BOHEME has that magical ability to change its shape depending on the cast. When Pavarotti sang, it became his opera, with a Mimi hard pressed to take the spotlight, even in her death scene. When Stratas, Carreras and Scotto (as Musetta) led the cast, it became a glittery ensemble of shooting stars. At this week's performance with rising star Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi, there was no doubt that she was the evening's “it” girl, even though the other principal singers added mightily to the performance's success.

Met Music Director James Levine conducts Wagner's epic human comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in its first-ever Live in HD performance on Saturday, December 13 at 12pm EST.

Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA is one of the best of the Gelb years at the Met, with its sliding-doors set by Michael Yeargan and luscious costumes by Catherine Zuber. It was great when it opened with an all-star cast--headed Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Florez and Peter Mattei--and remains sturdy even when some of the casting is a little wobbly.

Ansel Elgort, star of the feature films "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Divergent," and actress/director/producer and SAG Award® recipient Eva Longoria will reveal the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® nominations on Wednesday, Dec. 10

Compared to Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina Ismailova in LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK at the Met, Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner were couple of pikers in their film noir triumphs, “Double Indemnity” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Westbroek kills her father-in-law with rat poison, strangles her husband with her lover's belt and, as the piece de resistence, drowns her lover's new girlfriend, while going under herself. And she has to do it all while effortlessly singing Shostakovich's demanding score. What a dame!