Cornered hijinks highlights late nights and insights

EXCLUSIVE: SpongeBob‘s partner in crime is getting his own show. I have learned that Nickelodeon is finalizing deals for The Patrick Star Show , a SpongeBob SquarePants animated spinoff centered on SpongeBob’s best friend Patrick Star, voiced by Bill Fagerbakke . I hear voiceover recordings already have started for the project, which is expected to receive a 13-episode order and comes from the creative team behind the mothership series. According to sources, The Patrick Star Show is in the vein of The Larry Sanders Show and Comedy Bang! Bang!, with Patrick (Fagerbakke) hosting his own late-night talk show. I hear the series would revolve around Patrick and his family. Fagerbakke is being joined by a largely new cast voicing new characters, with SpongeBob cast members expected to make occasional appearances, reprising their roles. A rep for Nickelodeon declined comment. ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Spinoff Series ‘The Patrick Star Show’ Set At Nickelodeon In … [Read more...] about ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Spinoff Series ‘The Patrick Star Show’ Set At Nickelodeon

BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, who shared his keen ear for emerging new music with the famed British broadcaster for a dozen years, has announced that he will be leaving his tastemaking program on March 5th. “I want to thank everyone at Radio 1 for their support and friendship,” Lowe said in a statement. “The station has allowed me to share incredible music with the country’s best music fans.” Annie Mac will take over Lowe’s weekday evening new music show starting March 9th, the BBC reports . Lowe is leaving his BBC Radio 1 role in order to begin an unspecified job at Apple. “Zane is one of the foremost music tastemakers in the world and a legendary music curator. We’re excited to have him join the music team,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to Billboard . While American audiences are likely unfamiliar with Lowe himself, they’re probably aware of the many bands whose careers the DJ helped kickstart when he named their new single “the hottest record in the world.” The New … [Read more...] about Influential DJ Zane Lowe Leaving BBC Radio 1

Daniel Brühl skewers celebrity privilege in his directing debut, playing a narcissistic version of himself who gets knocked from his perch by Peter Kurth's resentful neighbor in gentrified East Berlin. There's sardonic self-deprecation in the part Daniel Brühl has chosen for himself in his first feature as director, that of a European movie star sweating over an audition for a Hollywood superhero film that stands to push his fame — and his bank account — to the next level. But celebrity entitlement is only one part of the package. It eventually takes a back seat to gentrification when the protagonist's obliviousness to those left behind in the moneyed makeover of post-reunification East Berlin comes back to bite him in his self-absorbed ass. An amusing, accomplished debut on its own modest terms, Next Door works best as tart meta comedy, becoming increasingly cramped in scope and setting as it spirals into an obsessive revenge thriller. Fans of the actor will enjoy spotting the … [Read more...] about ‘Next Door’ (‘Nebenan’): Film Review | Berlin 2021

This story contains full spoilers for the first season of WandaVision so far . As a comic book character, Wanda Maximoff has an origin story too convoluted to get into here. As a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she has an origin that can be boiled down to a simple idea: She is a child of television. Last week’s penultimate episode of Disney+’s WandaVision flashed back to our heroine’s younger years. While their native country of Sokovia is ravaged by war, the Maximoffs are a happy and tight-knit unit, gathering at night to watch classic American sitcoms via the DVDs that Wanda’s father Oleg sells to pay the bills. On this night, Wanda picks her favorite episode of all: “It May Look Like a Walnut” from The Dick Van Dyke Show , where Rob and Laura Petrie each have nightmares inspired by their viewing of a Twilight Zone -esque sci-fi series. Just as young Wanda beams at the image of Mary Tyler Moore tumbling on a river of walnuts into the familiar … [Read more...] about ‘WandaVision’ Is a Love Letter to TV — And a Reminder of How to Do It Right

A year ago, schools across the country closed their doors in hopes of slowing the spread of a strange new virus. What happened next depended on a parent’s zip code, their income, the political persuasion of their state officials, and the relative power of their local teachers unions. In the absence of any official advice or guidance — save late-summer admonition from then-President Trump that “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!” — bewildered parents were left to navigate whatever options were available to them on their own. That’s when many of them turned to economist, Brown University professor, and pregnancy and parenthood guru Emily Oster for help. When the pandemic began, Oster, 41, had just completed her third book. (“Thank God,” the mother of two says, “because I definitely never would have finished it.”) Her first, 2014’s Expecting Better , mined scientific data to dismantle conventional wisdom around pregnancy (and included, somewhat famously, the revelation that an … [Read more...] about How Economist Emily Oster Ended Up at the Center of the Fight Over Schools Reopening