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Actress Polly Holliday, sassy sidekick on hit sitcom Alice, dead at 88
Entertainment News
A decade after her last album, Hilary Duff alludes to new music on the way
Polly Holliday, a Tony Award-nominated screen and stage actor who turned the catchphrase "Kiss my grits!"into a national retort as the gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress aboard the long-running CBS sitcom Alice, has died. She was 88.Holliday died Tuesday at her home in New York, said her theatrical agent, Dennis Aspland. She was the last surviving member of the principal cast of Alice; Linda Lavin, who played the title character, died last year.Alice ran from 1976 to 1985, a more comedic take on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the Martin Scorsese-directed 1974 film that won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for playing the title waitress. Holliday had turned into such a star that the network gave her her own short-lived spin-off called Flo in 1980, but it lasted just 29 episodesHolliday earned four Golden Globe nominations and won one in 1980 for Alice, as well as four Emmy Award nominations — three for Alice and one for Flo.As for the "Kiss my grits!" line, the Alabama-born Holliday was quick to distance herself from it, telling interviewers that the line was pure Hollywood and not a regional saying. But she identified with Flo."She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places," she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humour and a resolve not to let life get her down.Holliday's career included stints on Broadway — including a Tony nod opposite Kathleen Turner in a 1990 revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — and lots of TV, including playing the blind sister to Betty White's character in Golden Girls. On the big screen, her credits included John Grisham 1995 legal thriller series The Client and portraying a protective secretary in All the President's Men.Her Broadway credits include All Over Town in 1974 directed by Dustin Hoffman, Arsenic and Old Lace in 1986 with Jean Stapleton and Abe Vigoda, and a revival of Picnic with Kyle Chandler in 1994.
Some of her more memorable credits include the wicked Mrs. Deagle in Gremlins, Tim Allen's sassy mother-in-law on Home Improvement and off-Broadway in A Quarrel of Sparrows, in which The New York Times said she radiated a refreshingly touching air of willed, cheerful imperturbability.
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Actress Ayo Edebiri shuts down interviewer who tried to exclude her from question on #MeToo and #BLM
Actress Ayo Edebiri is garnering applause for her response after an interviewer tried to shut her out of a question about the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements in a recent interview.Edebiri and co-stars Andrew Garfield and Julia Roberts were promoting their film After the Hunt on Italy's ArtsLife TV when reporter journalist Federica Polidoro asked for their thoughts on what was "lost during the politically correct era" and how Hollywood might evolve now that the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements are "done."All three appeared stunned. Roberts asked Polidoro to repeat the question, and clarify who she was asking.
After Polidoro repeated the question — and clarified it was only intended for Garfield and Roberts — Edebiri, who is Black, spoke up.
The movements aren't "done at all," she said."I think maybe hashtags might not be used as much," Edebiri said. "But I do think that there's work being done by activists, by people everyday that's beautiful, important work, that's not finished, that's really, really, really active, for a reason, because this world is really charged."
Roberts and Garfield agreed that both movements are still active. The film, directed by Italy's Luca Guadagnino, follows a Yale professor, played by Roberts, whose life is upended after her colleague and friend is accused by one of her students of sexual assault. The interview garnered swift reaction online, with commenters calling the question — and Edebiri's exclusion — racist and misogynistic. It was "highly unprofessional and blatantly racist," said TikToker Chae' Jones in one post, which garnered more than 1.5 million views.Others praised Roberts and Garfield for deferring to Edebiri, noting that Garfield looked to them for their reactions first, and that Roberts gave the journalist the opportunity to rephrase her question. "They used their collective media training in perfect synchronicity," one X user said.Polidoro on Tuesday defended the asking of "uncomfortable" questions, while decrying her critics for focusing on how she "should have phrased the question" instead of "the thoughtful responses" of the three actors. "In my view, the real racists are those who see racism everywhere and seek to muzzle journalism," she added.Her response only fuelled the criticism, however, with many pointing out that her statement does not address why Edebiri had initially been excluded from the question, or speak to criticism around that choice.
A decade after the release of her last album, Hilary Duff is returning with new music.The singer announced her return on Instagram in a post that appears to show her in a recording studio alongside her musician husband, Matthew Koma, with a caption that reads "new music … or something."She'd previously teased her return in other posts, too. In one from Aug. 27, Duff made a nostalgia-filled post for the 22nd anniversary of her 2003 album Metamorphosis, in which she talked about the past and alluded to upcoming career moves."Although these are distant memories for me, thank you for showing up the way that you did," Duff wrote, ending the caption with "To be continued…".According to Variety and Today, Duff has signed with Atlantic Records. The outlets also says a docuseries is in the works about Duff's family life, journey back to the music industry and attempts to balance the two. CBC News has reached out to Atlantic Records and representatives for Duff but has not received a reply.Duff has been mostly absent from the music industry since her 2015 album Breathe In. Breathe Out. She released a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Little Lies in 2016 and sang alongside her husband on RAC's 2020 remix of Never Let You Go.Instead, Duff has focused on her acting career. After rising to fame as Disney's Lizzie McGuire and starring in films like A Cinderella Story, she's taken on roles in recent years in the horror movie The Haunting of Sharon Tate, and the sitcom spinoff How I Met Your Father.No release date has been set for any new music or the reported documentary.
James McAvoy punched at Toronto bar, apparently unprovoked, while in city for film fest
Actor James McAvoy was punched by a man at a downtown Toronto bar, apparently unprovoked, late on Monday evening.
A source connected to the actor confirmed to CBC News that, as was first reported by People magazine, a man punched McAvoy without warning while being escorted out of Charlotte's Room, a bar just a few blocks from the headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival.
The actor is understood to be OK. The incident was not reported to Toronto police
Charlotte's Room did not immediately respond to calls for comment from CBC News.
McAvoy is attending the festival for the world premiere of California Schemin', the first film he has directed.
TIFF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McAvoy has appeared in dozens of movies, including Atonement, The Last King of Scotland, the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Filth and the M. Night Shyamalan movies Split and Glass.
The veteran actor also portrayed Prof. Charles Xavier in several entries in the X-Men movie franchise.