All posts tagged: Baker

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

Published by Daniella Wilson

Not long ago, Hollywood’s beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater was hanging on by a thread. In the final decades of its eponymous founder’s life — he died in 2014, at the age of 90 — the puppetry organization was in perpetual dire financial straits, its longtime downtown L.A. playhouse in decay, particularly as the rise of CGI sapped its workshop’s film and TV gigs. Yet recent years have seen the revival of BBMT, known for cabaret-style shows whose whimsical bygone aesthetic is drawn from vaudeville and carnival midways. Today a non-profit, the theater has been string-pulling its way back into the Zeitgeist, its puppeteers performing to a massive crowd at Coachella this spring, its merch adorning Rachel Sennott’s talent manager on HBO’s I Love L.A. Now, for its next act, BBMT is attempting to purchase the historic Highland Park stage it took over in 2019 and mounting the company’s first original show in more than four decades. “It’s a rare heart-warming story in the time we live in right now, this little glimmer of hope,” …

Doctor Who’s Tom Baker reunites with K9 star for Sherlock Holmes story

Doctor Who’s Tom Baker reunites with K9 star for Sherlock Holmes story

Published by Daniella Wilson

Doctor Who legend Tom Baker has reunited with his former co-star John Leeson for a brand new Sherlock Holmes adventure. Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series, has returned to the role of Sir Sherlock Holmes for Sir Sherlock: The Sickle and the Sea, a new original audio adventure from AUK Studios. The project sees Baker starring opposite Leeson – best known to Doctor Who fans as the voice of the Doctor’s robotic companion K9 – as Doctor Watson, with the pair joined once again by Katy Ashworth as Emily Lestrade. A behind-the-scenes photo from the production show Baker and Leeson back together for the new mystery, which follows on from Sir Sherlock: The Red Letter Day, released earlier this month. Tom Baker and John Leeson record a Sherlock Holmes audio drama. AUK Studios Written by Kenton Hall, The Sickle and the Sea finds Sir Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson and Sergeant Emily Lestrade returning from a clandestine visit to the new Soviet Union on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. However, the trio …

Why Rosebud Baker Left Saturday Night Live: Exclusive Book Excerpt

Why Rosebud Baker Left Saturday Night Live: Exclusive Book Excerpt

Published by Daniella Wilson

It was fitting that I found out I was pregnant at 30 Rock, because that’s where I learned how to operate with zero sleep, and learned that no matter how badly you want something, it might not happen for you when you want it to. Convinced after two miscarriages that my uterus was basically decorative, I had started IVF during season 48 — a fun little process that made me want to murder my husband. I was storing fertility drugs in my office mini fridge, hiding used needles in my office trash can like a drug addict, bloated like a tick, hormones turning me into a werewolf, and what was Andy’s contribution? Jerking off into a cup while scrolling through his phone. “Good luck, honey!” he said to me while handing his sample to the nurse. Then, after all the needles, the hormones, and the money we’d never see again, I got pregnant the old-fashioned way: spousal rape. I’m kidding. It was consensual. (But I love a historically accurate joke!) The IVF had nothing to …

Janel Parrish, Leslie David Baker, Erinn Hayes Star

Janel Parrish, Leslie David Baker, Erinn Hayes Star

Published by Daniella Wilson

Janel Parrish, Leslie David Baker and Erinn Hayes lead a forthcoming feature centering on a kidnapping. Production has wrapped on writer-director Alec Bewkes’ dark comedy Stockholm Squad, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Parrish (Pretty Little Liars, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before), Leslie David Baker (The Office), Erinn Hayes (Children’s Hospital) lead the ensemble cast that also includes Bewkes, Rizwan Manji (Schitt’s Creek) and Malia Pyles (Baskets). Stockholm Squad centers on six kidnapped strangers who get locked in a basement and attempt to connect amid the chaos. The movie is described as a mash-up of The Breakfast Club and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Bewkes makes his feature directorial debut with the indie film that he also wrote and produces for Hang Six Films. The project’s producers include Bennett Cordon for Salt Cellar Films, alongside Thomas Cross. Lucas Ford and Colin Oh are executive producers. Hang Six Films handles sales for the movie that is currently in post-production after shooting in Los Angeles. “The goal was to make a feel-good comedy set in the last place …

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline

Published by Jenni Sidey

In 1843, two sisters from a North Carolina farming family climbed into bed with their husbands, the most famous men in America: the original “Siamese twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker, who were joined at the chest by a band of cartilage. They lived this way for more than three decades. Between them, they had twenty-one children. Christina Baker Kline, who happens to be a distant relative of those sisters, has spent years trying to imagine what such a marriage might have actually felt like. The result is The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline, a novel that resists almost every easy framing the premise invites. What the Novel Is About (Without the Spoilers) Sarah and Adelaide Yates are daughters of a once-prominent Wilkes County family whose social standing has been bruised by an unnamed scandal. When Chang and Eng arrive in town with their wealth, their international fame, and their unmistakable presence, the gossip is immediate. The bold elder sister Addie sees a chance to reclaim her future; the quieter Sallie, who narrates the book, hesitates, …

Theo Baker spent four years investigating Stanford. Before he leaves, here’s what he found.

Theo Baker spent four years investigating Stanford. Before he leaves, here’s what he found.

Published by skeptic

Most members of Stanford’s class of 2026 are smart, ambitious, and poised for remarkable careers. Theo Baker already has one. In his first semester of college, Baker broke the story that forced Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne to resign — work that earned him a George Polk Award, one of journalism’s highest honors. Warner Brothers and producer Amy Pascal have optioned the rights to that story. And Tuesday, with graduation less than a month away, Baker publishes How to Rule the World, a sweeping account of his time at Stanford and the school’s often insidious relationship with the venture capital industry. Judging by early interest, it has every chance of becoming a bestseller. We’ve been anticipating this one (we shared some related thoughts about it just a few weeks ago). We talked with Baker last Friday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You showed up at Stanford as a coder. How did you end up breaking one of the biggest stories in the university’s history before your freshman year was even over? I …

FKA twigs to Star in Josephine Baker Biopic from StudioCanal

FKA twigs to Star in Josephine Baker Biopic from StudioCanal

Published by Daniella Wilson

It’s official: Grammy-winning singer FKA twigs is set to star as Josephine Baker in a feature biopic of the American-French entertainer’s trailblazing life, with French filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré (Cuties, Hawa) writing and directing. The project will launch international sales at the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off Tuesday, with shooting scheduled for the fall. StudioCanal is producing alongside Bien ou Bien Productions, the Bordeaux-based French outfit that produced Doucouré’s prior features, and will handle theatrical distribution across its core territories of France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand. “I cannot wait to embody Josephine Baker, bringing her fight, her love, her losses, her talent and her heroism to the big screen,” twigs said in a statement. “She lives on in our hearts as a visionary, ground-breaking woman whose story is as powerful as it is relevant today.” The film has been developed with the cooperation of Baker’s surviving sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker — both members of the Rainbow Tribe, the multi-ethnic family of 12 children Baker raised …

Matt Baker announces tragic family loss: ‘It’s broken my heart’

Matt Baker announces tragic family loss: ‘It’s broken my heart’

Published by Sam Flores

Countryfile presenter Matt Baker has announced the “incredibly sad” loss of his family’s dog, Bob, in an emotional post on Instagram. Sharing a slideshow of pictures of the border collie from when he was a puppy, Matt said he was heartbroken at the sad loss and paid tribute to the impact the pet had on his family, including his wife Nicola Mooney, and their children, Luke, 18, and Molly, 16. In the caption, the The One Show presenter wrote: “It’s with a very heavy heart that I’m letting you know our wonderful Bob is no longer with us. He’s been gone a while but I haven’t been able to talk about it as I’ve been finding it so incredibly sad. “Bob was a brilliant dog. He was there for me with his gentle soul as the ultimate companion through some of the greatest chapters of my life from raising our kids to all the changes we made on our family farm. “It’s broken my heart but I feel hugely grateful to have had him in …

CIA Security Officer Files Lawsuit Against Steve Baker And The Blaze For Identifying Her As J6 Bomber

CIA Security Officer Files Lawsuit Against Steve Baker And The Blaze For Identifying Her As J6 Bomber

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by ‘sundance’ via The Last Refuge, Steve Baker and The Blaze are being sued by former Capitol Hill police officer Shauni Kerkoff, who Baker accused of being the J6 pipe bomber based on “gait” analysis and other dubious claims. Mr Baker, a former FBI employee named Kyle Seraphin and Kentucky representative Thomas Massie also pushed the accusation, saying FBI Director Kash and other FBI officials were lying and an innocent guy was arrested. The arrested suspect, Brian J. Cole, Jr., confessed to the crimes. Yesterday, Shauni Kerkoff, who now works for the CIA security office, filed a lawsuit against Steve Baker and The Blaze, claiming Steve Baker was motivated by anger over his arrest for activity in the J6 event where Ms. Kerkoff was present providing security. According to the lawsuit, Steve Baker and The Blaze created a conspiracy theory using Shauni Kerkoff as the target of their claims. This is going to be an interesting lawsuit to watch unfold as there are various types of conspiracy claims similar to Mr Baker that are circulating.  If their claim …

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Published by Jenni Sidey

Some houses are simply old. The house at the center of Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker is something else entirely. Hidden at the bottom of an incline in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture, veiled by sword ferns and wild ginger, ringed by flowers that should not bloom in the same season, it has a heartbeat. Not a metaphorical one. The walls drink sound. The window that looks out to the yard is not always there. And a room that measures six feet longer from the inside than the outside should end any reasonable debate about whether the house is normal. Somehow, it only makes things worse. Baker has built a career writing Japan through a lens of darkness and myth. Her debut YA duology, The Keeper of Night and The Empress of Time, followed a half-British, half-Japanese Shinigami navigating the supernatural politics of the Meiji Era. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng followed. With Japanese Gothic, she makes the leap into adult horror, and the shift is palpable. The writing is denser, the damage …