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    Candice Bergen Takes a Jab at JD Vance at the Emmys

    The actress Candice Bergen was summoned to the Emmys this year to present an award. She also landed a political jab.Bergen is perhaps best known for playing the titular character in “Murphy Brown.” In her brief remarks, she recalled that her character, an unmarried news anchor, was rebuked by Vice President Dan Quayle in 1992 after she gave birth to a baby boy.The criticism from Quayle came during his unsuccessful re-election campaign with President George H.W. Bush. While Quayle was talking about family values, he said that Bergen’s character was “mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another ‘lifestyle choice.’”Bergen won five Emmys for her work on “Murphy Brown.” At Sunday’s ceremony, she recalled the kerfuffle with Quayle, which became front-page news, and offered a quip.“Oh, how far we’ve come,” Bergen said. “Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids.”It was a thinly veiled reference to Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, who has complained that the United States is being run by Democrats, specifically “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”Aware of this, Bergen continued, “So, as they say, my work here is done.”Then she added some onomatopoeia: “Meow.” More

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    Jean Smart Wins a Third Emmy for ‘Hacks’

    Jean Smart has just won a third Emmy for her starring turn in the Max series “Hacks,” the gleefully sardonic half-hour sitcom set in the rarefied, ruthless world of stand-up comedy.It is her sixth Emmy overall.“It’s very humbling. It really is. I appreciate this,” Smart said in a low voice, as she accepted the trophy. Then she went in for the punchline. “Because I don’t get enough attention. I’m serious.”Smart beat out a roster of actresses including Quinta Brunson, the creator and star of “Abbott Elementary,” who won the award in the previous Emmy ceremony, in January; and Ayo Edebiri of FX’s “The Bear,” who moved into the lead actress category after winning best supporting actress in January. Also nominated were Selena Gomez, for “Only Murders in the Building,” and the former “S.N.L.” co-stars Maya Rudolph, for “Loot,” and Kristen Wiig, for “Palm Royale.”As Deborah Vance, a celebrated comedian enjoying a late-career triumph, Smart, 72, is able to play smart, sexy, callous, vulnerable and very, very funny. In this latest season, she executes a mercenary plan to achieve something typically denied to women: a host gig on a major late-night show.In May, Smart told The New York Times, “I’ve always been part way to between leading lady and a character actress.” Who could doubt her leading-lady chops now? More

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    Emmy Party Photos: Letting Loose in the Hollywood Hills

    Celebrities including Quinta Brunson, Selma Blair and Heidi Klum toasted the awards at a Los Angeles mansion. Who said it was too soon to party again?Anticipation and truffle oil hung in the air on Friday night as stars of the small screen arrived in the Hollywood Hills in black Teslas and Escalades to celebrate this year’s Emmy Awards.The “Shogun” actor and producer Hiroyuki Sanada; Quinta Brunson, the creator of “Abbott Elementary”; and the “Baby Reindeer” star and creator Richard Gadd were among the nominees who walked the black carpet at the party, which was put on by The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA at Stanley II, a sprawling, hillside mansion that has been listed for $38 million.Nava Mau of “Baby Reindeer.”Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesCarl Clemons-Hopkins of “Hacks” with Chubi Anyaoku.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesOverlooking the twinkling lights of Los Angeles, guests ate truffle burgers and fries from Shake Shack and drank Emmy-themed Glenfiddich cocktails named “City of Stars,” “Red Carpet Cocktail” and “The FYC” (shorthand for the “for your consideration” award campaigns).The party was held at Stanley II, a mansion in the Hollywood Hills that has been listed for $38 million.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesWhile some partygoers grazed a banquet-size charcuterie board and relaxed on couches near the house’s massive television screens — which played a slide show of photos featuring this year’s nominees — others migrated to the dance floor in the nightclub downstairs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Disney and DirecTV Reach Deal, Ending ESPN Blackout

    The agreement ends a two-week dispute that had prevented many of DirecTV’s 11 million customers from watching programs like Monday Night Football.Disney and DirecTV said on Saturday that they had reached an agreement that will allow channels like ESPN and ABC to return to the satellite TV service.The deal ends a two-week blackout that prevented many of DirecTV’s 11 million customers from viewing programs like Monday Night Football and the U.S. Open tennis tournament as the two sides haggled over terms of a new distribution agreement.The pact was struck in time to avoid alienating viewers who wanted to watch college football on ESPN and the Emmys, which will air on Sunday on Disney’s ABC broadcast network.“DirecTV and Disney have a longstanding history of connecting consumers to the best entertainment,” the companies said in a joint statement. “And this agreement furthers that commitment by recognizing both the tremendous value of Disney’s content and the evolving preferences of DirecTV’s customers.”One of the big sticking points in negotiations over the last week was whether Disney — which spends lavishly on shows for the Disney+ streaming service — could continue to charge DirecTV high rates for traditional TV content. DirecTV argued that Disney was shortchanging its traditional TV customers by expecting the same fees for what is effectively less content.Under the terms of the new agreement, Disney’s streaming services, including Disney+, will be offered to DirecTV customers in select packages. That compromise has now become common in cable deals, with similar agreements reached by the cable giant Charter with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery.The dispute between DirecTV and Disney underscored the harsh economic realities experienced by satellite TV networks, which do not have products like broadband internet that make their services harder to abandon.The deal will also allow DirecTV customers to watch the Disney Channel, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels. Though the contract is still being finalized, service was restored on Saturday morning to DirecTV customers.DirecTV’s agreement with Disney comes amid reports that the company is working on a much larger deal that would transform the company. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that DirecTV is negotiating a merger with Dish, another TV provider, in a deal that would create a satellite TV giant. More

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    Chad McQueen, ‘Karate Kid’ Actor, Dies at 63

    Mr. McQueen, the son of Steve McQueen, is most widely recognized for his recurring role as Dutch in the 1980s cult classic franchise “The Karate Kid.”Chad McQueen, the actor best known for the role of “Dutch” in the “Karate Kid” movie franchise and son of the actor Steve McQueen, died on Wednesday at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 63.His family announced his death in a post on social media, paired with a photo of him as a boy with his famous father. The cause was organ failure, his longtime attorney and friend, Arthur Barens, said.Chad McQueen was involved in more than 25 movies and television shows, as an actor, producer and other roles, but he is most widely recognized for his role as Dutch in the 1984 teen classic “The Karate Kid.”As Dutch, Mr. McQueen played a mean, troublemaking bully of the Cobra Kai dojo who ran with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and his gang, showing no mercy and jumping up and down in excitement as they delivered a brutal beating to Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) on Halloween night.He reprised the role of Dutch in the sequel, “The Karate Kid Part II,” released in 1986.Mr. McQueen went on to appear in other films including “New York Cop,” a 1993 action film about a Japanese detective living illegally in the United States; and “Red Line,” a 1995 thriller about a car thief who is blackmailed.But Mr. McQueen did not stay in Hollywood for long after that, and he again followed in his father’s footsteps by switching to auto racing.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Jon Stewart on Harris’s debate performance: ‘She crushed that’

    Late-night hosts recapped the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on ABC News.Jon StewartJon Stewart took over his guest perch at the Daily Show on Tuesday for a live post-debate show, reeling from over 90 minutes of heated conversation between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.“I just want to say that after surviving the PTSD of the last presidential debate, how unbelievably refreshing it is to go back to the same old nobody is going to answer any fucking questions! We’re back!” Stewart joked of the “cliches” and “baseless ad hominems” of American political theater.Early in the matchup, Trump claimed that “everybody” wanted Roe v Wade overturned and the legality of abortion left up to states, which Harris accurately disputed. “I have talked with women around our country,” she said. “You wanna talk about, this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the healthcare providers are afraid they might go to jail – and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn’t want that.”“Holy shit! She crushed that,” said Stewart.Stewart ran through highlights of the debate, including when Harris got under Trump’s skin about the crowd sizes at his rallies, or when Trump tried to deny that he had any role in January 6. But ultimately, “I don’t know if this debate is going to change anything,” said Stewart. “People are often set in the manner that they view these proceedings. What I think is a home run answer for one candidate, someone else views as a dodge or a lie.“It doesn’t matter what they say any more, but one thing will always be true – and it is the quality of the former president I respect the least,” he continued. “Whenever he is cornered and forced to face even the smallest of consequences for his own mendacity and scheming, he reverts to the greatest refuge of scoundrels.”That would be the classic line of deflection – “it wasn’t me” – which Trump basically used for January 6.“This man, who constantly professes to be your champion, who says they’re going to have to go through him to get to you, will always, when the boat is going down, be the first into the lifeboats,” Stewart declared with palpable anger. “Because in that moment, he will always say the same thing: ‘I didn’t know anything about it, I was just told to show up for a cruise.’ Even though, everybody knows, he was the fucking captain of the ship.“In any other country, that lack of accountability would be disqualifying,” he concluded.Stephen Colbert“Unlike the first presidential debate back in June, this time the Democratic candidate was able to walk out to the stage without pausing for a nap,” said Stephen Colbert on the Late Show.The host was impressed with the vice-president’s performance. “Kamala Harris came in needing to rattle Trump’s cage,” he said. “And now that it’s over, they are still looking for pieces of his cage in low orbit.“Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary. It was beautiful,” he continued. “By the end of the debate, the meat was falling off the bone.”Trump was “so nonsensical” throughout the debate, that Harris “looked at him the way a parent looks at a kid giving a presentation on why they should be allowed to get a pet tiger”.When the moderators asked a basic question on Roe v Wade, Trump “lied so fragrantly” that the ABC News moderator Linsey Davis had to intervene with the fact-check “there is no state where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born”.“Follow up question: can a moderator win a debate?” Colbert quipped.Harris often returned to a theme of looking toward the future, to “turn the page” on the Trump years.“Actually, turning the page seems kind of mild,” said Colbert. “I would say we should burn the book, but that’s really more his thing.”Jimmy KimmelIn Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel also dug into “the debate of the decade”.“It was like watching the Lorax debate the Grinch tonight,” he said. “Usually when Trump gets a spanking like this from a woman it’s with a Forbes magazine. Kamala was pushing his buttons like a 12-year-old playing Fortnite.”Though Republicans urged Trump to stay focused on the issues, he did anything but. “Who are we kidding? This election isn’t about the issues,” said Kimmel. “Dick Cheney isn’t voting for Kamala Harris because he agrees with her on the issues. He’s voting for her because there’s a rhinoceros charging, and she has the tranquilizer gun.”Kimmel zeroed in on the moment when Trump repeated false stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating cats and dogs, which has been repeatedly debunked. Nevertheless, Trump said: “They’re eating all the pets of the people that live there.”“I want you to imagine that we’ve never heard of Donald Trump before, and the first time you’ve ever seen him was during tonight’s debate,” said Kimmel. “What would your reaction be right now? You’d be in shock. The Republican party would have to close their headquarters and turn them into a Spirit Halloween store.“How is it possible that half of this country thinks that it’s a good idea to give the guy who tried to overthrow our government another chance to run our government?” he concluded. “Like if someone poisoned all the jalapeño poppers at TGI Fridays, you wouldn’t interview them to be the chef!” More

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    ‘Emily In Paris’ Goes on a Roman Holiday

    The frothy Netflix show frustrated Parisians with its portrait of their city. Now its heroine is heading to Rome — and the showrunner doesn’t care if residents there feel the same way.“Emily in Paris,” the hit Netflix series about a young American living a life of romance and luxury in France, has ignited a blaze of indignation since it premiered in late 2020.Emily’s clumsy grasp of the native tongue, brash designer clothes and exaggerated encounters with dashing chefs and flamboyant artists left some Parisians irate and American expatriates embarrassed, even as it became one of Netflix’s most popular comedies.Now in its fourth season — split into two installments, with the second arriving Thursday — the show continues to both charm and vex with its sunny vision of what the French newspaper Liberation has called “Disneyland Paris.”But in the new batch of episodes, Emily (Lily Collins) departs Paris and heads to Rome. Invited by her new Italian love interest Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini), she zooms around on his scooter, offering a picture-postcard view of the Eternal City with stops at touristic hallmarks like the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and the Spanish Steps. As he entices Emily to move on to a new European capital, Marcello makes a pitch that doubles as the season’s mandate: “Forget about crepes. We’ll be eating pizza.”Darren Star, the creator and showrunner of “Emily in Paris,” said that Emily “was becoming very comfortable in Paris. I wanted to throw her into some unfamiliar waters.” He added that “we were able to live Emily’s life in Paris, and now we’re going to do the same thing in Rome.”Lily Collins as Emily, exploring her new surroundings.Giulia Parmigiani/NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    South Park creators to ignore Trump when show returns in 2025

    The creators of the Emmy-winning series South Park intend to ignore Donald Trump when the irreverent animated show returns for a 27th season in 2025, they said in a rare interview.“I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump,” Matt Stone told Vanity Fair in reference to the former US president whose life is seemingly consumed by unadulterated drama.Stone added that part of the strategy for intentionally avoiding mention of the current Republican nominee for November’s presidential race is how much of “a mind scramble” it can be to satirize such a contest.“We’ve tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing,” said Stone, who launched the series in 1997 alongside Trey Parker on Comedy Central. “And it seems like it takes outsized importance.“Obviously, it’s fucking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun,” he added in the interview, which was posted on Thursday.Part of the reason that South Park’s latest season received a tentative 2025 release date was to give time for Paramount+ – the platform which now streams the show – “to figure all their shit out”, Stone remarked. But Stone also said, “honestly, it’s on purpose,” that he and Parker were skipping the electoral showdown between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris.The posture that Stone laid out to Vanity Fair strikes a marked contrast with how South Park addressed the 2016 presidential race that Trump unexpectedly won against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. In the show, an elementary school teacher character voiced by Parker ran for president, defeated Clinton and served in the Oval Office for multiple seasons, adopting a look and style that was clearly inspired by Trump.Thursday’s interview in Vanity Fair described how Stone and Parker mounted a “36-hour mad dash to make an episode about the 2016 election after being stunned (like most of the rest of the country) about Trump’s victory”.Trump has offered commentators – satirical or otherwise – plenty of more material since, including by losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and being convicted in May of criminally falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film actor who has alleged an extramarital sexual encounter with him.Among numerous other legal problems, he is facing three more criminal indictments stemming from his efforts to nullify his defeat to Biden as well as his retention of government secrets after his presidency – and he survived an assassination attempt at a political rally in July.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSouth Park centers on the adventures of a group of four, mostly foul-mouthed boys who are growing up in a town in Colorado. The show has profanely satirized an overwhelmingly wide range of topics, managing to win critical acclaim and establish itself as an unusually long-running program despite some viewers finding its content too offensive.Its creators are also famous for The Book of Mormon – their Tony-winning musical – along with the cult classic films BASEketball and Team America: World Police. More