Day: November 4, 2022

News and Quick Comments

Jordan brought an impish charm to TV

(Finding Leslie Jordan’s final TV work on Fox has been a bit tricky. His “Call Me Kat” episode, on Nov. 3, was bumped by the World Series; so was his visit to “The Masked Singer” on Nov. 2. The latter was rescheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 … but will be bumped again, if the Series goes to seven games. Meanwhile, here’s the story I wrote after Jordan died in a car accident.)  
When Leslie Jordan first got there, Hollywood knew what a star should look like.
That was 40 years ago, when TV was dominated by Tom Selleck and Selleck types. A star would be 6-foot-4, handsome, a lades man, with a Midwestern-type voice.
And Jordan (shown here), who died Monday (Oct. 24) at 67, was the exact opposite. He was 4-foot-11, gay, with an impish charm and a pronounced Tennessee accent. “I realized that my job was the funny guy that comes in with the zingers,” he told the Television Critics Association in 2018. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 4, 2022
Stories

A tenacious writer-singer-actress breaks through

Sasha Clayton and Nicole Lecky have a lot in common, actually.
Both are blessed with beauty and musical talent. But both grew up in London’s hard-scrabble East End, with no easy way to get into show business.
From there, they diverge wildly. Sasha is fictional, the central character in “Mood,” a six-part mini-series (with music) on AMC+ and BBC America. In the opener (10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6), she lashes out fiercely at … well, everyone; her world implodes.
And Lecky (shown here) is real. She stars, sings, wrote the scripts, overcame the things that shattered Sasha. “It was a mixture of, I guess, talent and tenacity,” she told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 4, 2022
Stories

Successful TV co-star? It’s a mixed pleasure

Here are some moments in the life of a successful TV actor. Jim Hoffmaster (shown here) was:
1) Visiting his high school alma mater in Durand, Mich., when a young woman rushed in, grinning. She was meeting the guy who played Kermit on “Shameless” – “my favorite character on my favorite show.” Later, he was cheered at a street fair in Lansing, Mich.; it was, he said, “the closest I’ve ever been to being mobbed.”
2) Back home in Los Angeles, in his crowded studio apartment. No, he doesn’t have elegant dinner parties there. In fact, he never has guests … and he sometimes eats soup straight from the can.
Those scenes are in “Acting Like Nothing is Wrong,” a documentary now reaching film festivals (including the East Lansing Film Festival on Nov. 10). The contrasts — a vivid view of the life of a supporting actor — will surprise viewers … as they surprised the filmmaker. “He warned me what his apartment was like,” Jane Rosemont said, “but it was still a bit of a shock.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 4, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 6: moody music visit to stars and wannabes

1) “Spector” opener, 9 p.m., Showtime. Phil Spector was the master of early-’60s pop music, churning out vibrant “wall of sound” hits for the Ronettes (shown here) and others. Then he sort of disappeared … until Feb. 3, 2003. That’s when a British magazine published a long, candid interview; it’s also when a blonde beauty was found dead in his mansion. This compelling, four-week film starts that day, then uses the interview as the spine; the opeer focuses on a great (but brief) career. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 4, 2022