Category: TV

’s bowl season kicked off Friday with the Bahamas Bowl and Cure Bowl, with seven more set for Saturday as the first batch of 43 postseason games through December. The run culminates January 9 with the College Football Playoff’s national championship game at SoFi Stadium, home to the L.A. Rams and L.A. Chargers and last year’s Super Bowl.

The CFP, pitting the four top-ranked teams in the country, will begin its semifinal round December 31, when Michigan plays TCU in the Fiesta Bowl and No. 1-ranked and defending champion Georgia plays Ohio State play in the Peach Bowl, with the winners to face off for the title in L.A.

SoFi is hosting a pair of games this year, with the Jimmy Kimmel Bowl today (December 17) pitting Washington State and Fresno State. There are seven games today, the first Saturday of the bowl season.

The other marquee bowl day is Monday, January 2, which will feature the Citrus Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the latter kicking off after the annual Rose Bowl parade.

Below is the full bowl schedule with matchups, times, locations, and networks. Games on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC will also be available to stream on the ESPN app, and Fox games on the Fox Sports app.

College Football Bowl Schedule

(all times ET)

Friday, December 16

Bahamas Bowl
Miami (Ohio) vs. UAB
11:30 a.m., Bahamas
ESPN

Cure Bowl
No. 24 Troy vs. No. 25 UTSA
3 p.m., Orlando, FL
ESPN

Saturday, December 17

Fenway Bowl
Cincinnati vs. Louisville
11 a.m., Boston
ESPN

Celebration Bowl
Jackson State vs. N.C. Central
Noon, Atlanta
ABC

Las Vegas Bowl
No. 14 Oregon State vs. Florida
2:30 p.m., Las Vegas
ESPN

LA Bowl
Washington State vs. Fresno State
3:30 p.m., Inglewood, CA
ABC

LendingTree Bowl
Rice vs. Southern Mississippi
5:45 p.m., Mobile, AL
ESPN

New Mexico Bowl
SMU vs. BYU
7:30 p.m., Albuquerque, NM
ABC

Frisco Bowl
Boise State vs. North Texas
9:15 p.m., Frisco, TX
ESPN

Monday, December 19

Myrtle Beach Bowl
Marshall vs. UConn
2:30 p.m., Conway, SC
ESPN

Tuesday, December 20

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Eastern Michigan vs. San Jose State
3:30 p.m., Boise, ID
ESPN

Boca Raton Bowl
Liberty vs. Toledo
7:30 p.m., Boca Raton, FL
ESPN

Wednesday, December 21

New Orleans Bowl
South Alabama vs. Western Kentucky
9 p.m., New Orleans
ESPN

Thursday, December 22

Armed Forces Bowl
Baylor vs. Air Force
7:30 p.m., Fort Worth, TX
ESPN

Friday, December 23

Independence Bowl
Houston vs. Louisiana
3 p.m., Shreveport, LA
ESPN

Gasparilla Bowl
Wake Forest vs. Missouri
6:30 p.m., Tampa, FL
ESPN

Saturday, December 24

Hawai’i Bowl
Middle Tennessee State vs. San Diego State
8 p.m., Honolulu
ESPN

Monday, December 26

Quick Lane Bowl
Bowling Green vs. New Mexico State
2:30 p.m., Detroit
ESPN

Tuesday, December 27

Camellia Bowl
Buffalo vs. Georgia Southern
Noon, Montgomery, AL
ESPN

First Responder Bowl
Memphis vs. Utah State
3:15 p.m., Dallas
ESPN

Birmingham Bowl
Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina
6:45 p.m., Birmingham, AL
ESPN

Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Oklahoma State vs. Wisconsin
10:15 p.m., Phoenix, AZ
ESPN

Wednesday, December 28

Military Bowl
Duke vs. UCF
2 p.m., Annapolis, MD
ESPN
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland

Liberty Bowl
Arkansas vs. Kansas
5:30 p.m., Memphis, TN
ESPN

Holiday Bowl
No. 15 Oregon vs. North Carolina
8 p.m., San Diego, CA
Fox

Texas Bowl
Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss
9 p.m., Houston, TX
ESPN

Thursday, December 29

Pinstripe Bowl
Minnesota vs. Syracuse
2 p.m., New York, NY
ESPN

Cheez-It Bowl
No. 13 Florida State vs. Oklahoma
5:30 p.m., Orlando, FL
ESPN

Alamo Bowl
No. 12 Washington vs. No. 20 Texas
9 p.m., San Antonio, TX
ESPN

Friday, December 30

Duke’s Mayo Bowl
No. 23 NC State vs. Maryland
Noon, Charlotte, NC
ESPN

Sun Bowl
No. 18 UCLA vs. Pitt
2 p.m., El Paso, TX
CBS

Gator Bowl
No. 19 South Carolina vs. No. 21 Notre Dame
3:30 p.m., Jacksonville, FL
ESPN

Arizona Bowl
Ohio vs. Wyoming
4:30 p.m., Tucson, AZ
Barstool

Orange Bowl
No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 7 Clemson
8 p.m., Miami Gardens, FL
ESPN

Saturday, December 31

Fiesta Bowl (College Football Playoff semifinal)
No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 TCU
4 p.m., Glendale, AZ
ESPN

Peach Bowl (College Football Playoff semifinal)
No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Ohio State
8 p.m., Atlanta
ESPN

Music City Bowl
Iowa vs. Kentucky
Noon, Nashville, TN
ABC

Sugar Bowl
No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 9 Kansas State
Noon, New Orleans
ESPN

Monday, January 2

ReliaQuest Bowl
No. 22 Mississippi State vs. Illinois
12 p.m., Tampa, FL
ESPN2

Citrus Bowl
No. 17 LSU vs. Purdue
1 p.m., Orlando, FL
ABC

Cotton Bowl Classic
No. 10 USC vs. No. 16 Tulane
1 p.m., Arlington, TX
ESPN

Rose Bowl
No. 8 Utah vs. No. 11 Penn State
5 p.m., Pasadena, CA
ESPN

Monday, January 9

College Football Playoff National Championship Game
Teams TBD
7:30 p.m., Inglewood, CA
ESPN

Stephen “tWitch” Boss’ mother, Connie Boss Alexander, has expressed her thanks at the outpouring of people remembering her son in the wake of his suicide on Tuesday at age 40.

“Family and friends, thank you for all the love, prayers and encouragement,” Connie Boss Alexander wrote on her Instagram Stories Thursday. She was frequently seen on the “Ellen” show with her son and accompanied him to events.

“Please know I see all the messages, texts, posts and the phone calls. I can’t use words right now. Please know I will reach out when I can,” she wrote.

Alexander concluded with a message to her late son and asking her followers to “please keep us in prayer.”

“Stephen Laurel, your mother loves you to eternity and beyond,” she wrote.

On Friday, authorities told TMZ that Boss left a suicide note at the scene of his death. The message alluded to challenges he previously faced, but was not specific. ,

Ward has been named executive director of the Visual Effects Society — the first woman to lead the honorary society. She had served as interim executive director since the retirement of longtime executive director Eric Roth in September.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as executive director of the Visual Effects Society,” Ward said in a statement. “It’s an enormous privilege to connect, educate, honor and celebrate the hardest working – and probably most underappreciated professionals – in entertainment, around the world. The VES is a beacon of creative and technological innovation and excellence, and it is my intention to further grow the Society into a powerful resource that is recognized and respected in all corners of the globe.  I look forward to building on the strong foundation created by Eric Roth, and helping the Society cement its position as a leading voice at the epicenter of the entertainment industry.”

Ward joined VES in 2014 as its program and development director, overseeing direct fundraising, partnerships, alliances and new programs.  She also oversaw the publishing team for VFX Voice, the Society’s print and digital magazine, and spearheaded initiatives around diversity, equity and inclusion. She was also in charge of the annual VES Honors Celebration, the VES New York Awards Celebration and other VES events, and led the VES Archives initiative and the development of the Society’s forthcoming VES digital museum.

Prior to joining the VES, she spent more than a decade in advertising and direct marketing, as both a client and an ad agency account manage, for General Motors, Taco Bell, Mattel and various nonprofits.

“Nancy has a passion for the VES and a vision to further uplift the Society and bring it to the forefront of the global entertainment community,” said VES Chair Lisa Cooke. “She has earned a tremendous reputation among the Board, staff, Sections, worldwide membership and industry partners, and we are confident that the VES will achieve new heights under her leadership.  I am thrilled to have someone of Nancy’s caliber to helm our next chapter.”

Founded in 1997, VES has nearly 4,500 members in 45 countries.

EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+’s drama series Shantaram, starring Charlie Hunnam, will not be returning for a second season. Its Season 1 finale, released tomorrow, Dec. 16, will serve as a series finale.

Based on the Gregory David Roberts’ epic, 900-plus-page novel, Shantaram was an ambitious, big-scope undertaking, shot across two continents, which was impacted by the pandemic.

The series had shot two episodes before pausing filming in late-February 2020. Because of its expansive nature requiring filming in multiple countries, the series did not resume production on the remaining 10 episodes until May 2021.

Shantaram, which hasn’t generated the level of buzz that some of Apple TV+’s popular titles have, follows Lin Ford (Hunnam), who escapes a maximum-security Australian prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of 1980s Bombay, gets entangled with a local mafia boss and eventually uses his gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan. All the while he is falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla (Antonia Desplat) and must choose between freedom or love and the complications that come with it.

The series also stars Shubham Saraf, Elektra Kilbey, Fayssal Bazzi, Luke Pasqualino, Alyy Khan, Sujaya Dasgupta, Vincent Perez, David Field, Alexander Siddig, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, Elham Ehsas, Rachel Kamath, Matthew Joseph and Shiv Palekar.

Before getting a greenlight at Apple TV+ as a series, Roberts’ book had been the subject of multiple unsuccessful attempts to turn it into a movie franchise, led by Johnny Depp.

The Shantaram series was written and executive produced by showrunner Steve Lightfoot. Bharat Nalluri directed and executive produced. Andrea Barron, Nicole Clemens, Steve Golin, Justin Kurzel and Eric Warren Singer, who co-created the series with Lightfoot, also executive produced. The series was produced for Apple by Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content’s AC Studios.

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains plot details for the Season 2 finale of HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Another year has come and gone at Essex College. Season 2 of The Sex Lives of College Girls ended on a tumultuous note Thursday, as Leighton, Kimberly, Bela and Whitney finished up their first year at the elite private university.

If you’re feeling mixed emotions about how things went down, you’re not alone. Reneé Rapp — whose character Leighton quit her sorority, broke up with her girlfriend, and rekindled her romance with her former flame, Alicia [Midori Francis] — isn’t quite sure how she feels about it either.

“I mean, she has a lot going,” Rapp told Deadline during a recent interview ahead of the finale. Episode 8 ends with Leighton receiving a text from Alicia asking if they can reconnect after the pair broke things off in Season 1 because Leighton wasn’t ready to come out.

When Leighton agrees to meet Alicia, it seems harmless. That is, until she brings her new girlfriend Tatum [Gracie Dzienny] to a fundraiser for the women’s center and quickly realizes that the pair might not be as compatible as she once thought. When Tatum makes a few insulting comments about Leighton’s friends, she’s quick to break things off, telling Tatum that what they have in common might actually be aspects of herself she wants to change.

“I loved it. I mean, I hated that that’s where Leighton ended up. That’s like such an L to me. But I really liked that Leighton was able to make that comment because I think she’s like, ‘Oh, damn, okay. I’ve kind of been a shitty person in ways.’ So I think it just lends to some personal growth for our bitch,” Rapp said of the scene.

That quickly opens the door for a rekindling between Alicia and Leighton, whose spark is pretty undeniable. Despite their connection, their relationship came to an end in Season 1 because Leighton wasn’t ready to be open about her sexuality, which caused Alicia to struggle. Now that Leighton is also out, it makes sense that the pair might want to explore what could have been.

But, Rapp knows that viewers might not be too thrilled to see Leighton throw herself back into that relationship so quickly.

“I love Midori [Francis], who plays Alicia. I think it’s interesting, man. I think people are gonna be livid. I understand. I do. I mean, I don’t know,” she said. “They just kind of jump back into being together and are not acknowledging anything that like went on [last season]. It’s a lot, so I really don’t know how I feel about it.”

The one thing that is clear is that the move signals a world of growth for Leighton, who at the beginning of the year wasn’t comfortable with anyone knowing she’s gay. “It’s obviously a big part of who she is, but a big part of how you see her character grow and it was also such an important part of her existence and how she interacts with others,” Rapp said.

She added that she “loved” the way that Leighton’s parents supported her without hesitation “because I’m really close with my dad — and my mom, of course. But I think she has such a specific arc with her dad this season and coming out to him. I thought that the scenes between her and her family are just so, so, so sweet. I love how supportive they are, because it’s so what she needs at the moment.”

Over the past two seasons, audiences have watched Leighton also begin to embrace her community, however unlikely it may be, and let go of anything that doesn’t serve her. That culminates in the finale, when she quits her sorority after spending the year vying for membership, because she doesn’t feel like herself around the other women in the chapter.

She also opens up to her roommates about her predicament with Alicia and asks for their advice, much to everyone’s surprise. Rapp sees these as moments of emotional maturity for Leighton, who in Season 1 had trouble letting anyone see her be vulnerable.

“I think Leighton has really come to show a level of warmth — my manager is laughing at me because apparently Leighton shows no warmth. [Laughs]. I’m running on two brain cells,” Rapp, who is also currently touring for her debut EP Everything to Everyone, joked. “No, I do. I do think that she has a certain level of warmth. Whether the crowd agrees with me or not. She becomes more herself, obviously in coming out, but also I think emotionally, which is so nice to see.”

Those who follow her on social media might know that Rapp’s friend and co-star Alyah Chanelle Scott (whose character Whitney had her own rocky Season 2 ending) is joining her on each stop of her tour. That friendship, she said, has been the highlight of The Sex Lives of College Girls thus far.

“Any scene that I got to do with Alyah was just the best,” she said. “She’s the greatest friend in the whole wide world. She would always help me make the most out of the sh*tty situations, and she’s just the best friend ever.”

Luckily, we haven’t seen the last of Leighton and Whitney, or their roommates Kimberly [Pauline Chalamet] and Bela [Amrit Kaur]. The Sex Lives of College Girls was renewed for a third season on Wednesday, just one day before the final episodes of Season 2.

As Leighton enters her sophomore year, Rapp has just a few simple wishes for her: “I hope she finds better clothes, better friends, and better hoes.”

A date has been set for the third and final season of Wu-Tang: An American Saga. The streamer will drop the first three episodes of the season on Wednesday, February 15 with new episodes following every Wu-Wednesday. The final episode will be available on April 5, 2023.

According to Hulu’s synopsis for the third season, viewers will follow the Wu-Tang Clan over the course of their five-year plan as they face and overcome different challenges following the release of their debut album and their continued rise to fame. While each of the members go on separate journeys to figure out where they fit in the music world, RZA struggles to stay on top of things in order to fulfill the promise he made to his Wu brothers. As money, fame, ego, and business threaten to tear the group apart, they must find a way to come together and cement their legacy.

Cast of the series includes Ashton Sanders, Shameik Moore, Siddiq Saunderson, Julian Elijah Martinez, Marcus Callender, Zolee Griggs, T.J. Atoms, Dave East, Johnell Young, Uyoata Udi and Damani Sease.

Executive producers of the show are Alex Tse, The RZA, Method Man and Brian Grazer.

Watch a teaser of Wu-Tang: An American Saga in the video posted below.

Filmmaker Edward Buckles Jr. was 13 years old when Hurricane Katrina struck his hometown of New Orleans in 2005. The storm wiped away his home, his community, and something slightly less tangible, but no less important.

“I lost my childhood because of that storm,” Buckles has written, “and it drastically impacted the rest of my life.” 

In his Oscar-contending documentary Katrina Babies, Buckles seeks to understand the impact of Katrina on those like him who were kids in New Orleans when the hurricane decimated all they knew. His conversations with cousins, friends and others reveal a common sense of unprocessed trauma. Before the documentary, they hadn’t been given the chance to talk about all they had experienced.

“After losing so much, why wouldn’t anyone ask if we were okay?” Buckles wonders in voiceover in the film. “Nobody ever asked the children how they were doing.”

The director has a theory about why the feelings of the children were overlooked.

“I can only assume that it’s the lack of empathy, the lack of concern of what happens to Black and disenfranchised people in these situations,” Buckles tells Deadline. “It’s that double-edged sword of resilience. It’s like people thinking that we’re always going to be okay, we’re going to always be all right, like, ‘They’re strong, they’re good.’”

The reality was something far more complex. What these Katrina babies have carried for so long, often without realizing it, came to the surface during the interviews. Tears spilled from Miesha Williams’ eyes as she spoke with Buckles, affirming she had never discussed what she went through during the storm and its aftermath. She remembered the explosive sound of the levees breaking, which would inundate the city in water. And she recalled seeing a dead body outside the Convention Center in New Orleans once the storm passed, and wondering if she, too, would die.

Those interviewed in the film describe a feeling of bewilderment in the wake of the storm and, in the longer term, of losing a cherished sense of place. Buckles talks of joyous routines before Katrina when he would spend hour after hour playing with his cousins in the 7^th Ward, and of their last time together, as the hurricane bore down. He remembers pre-Katrina New Orleans as a haven built around family, hospitality, warmth: “The houses smelled of good food.” Katrina swept it all away.

The hurricane “destroyed so much more than just our homes,” he says. “It killed our traditions. It killed our culture, it killed our family dynamics.”

Many in the city had no means of evacuation; Buckles’ beloved cousins stayed behind as Katrina struck. Buckles and his family got out just hours earlier, his mother heeding the warnings of Mayor Ray Nagin, and her own presentiment that disaster was coming. When they finally found a place to stop in a small town in Southern Louisiana, taking refuge in a flea market converted to an emergency shelter, 13-year-old Edward asked an adult what had become of those stuck behind. The woman told him, “Everybody who stayed in New Orleans is dead.” He recalls bursting into tears.

Buckles’ cousins survived, but like so many others, were dispersed outside New Orleans, never to return. Buckles’ family eventually did go back, to a very changed city. Old neighborhoods were destroyed, and local people were relocated to areas that weren’t home to them.

“One of the things that I hope is illuminated in the film is that not only was there not care taken in every level that you can think of from a humanity standpoint [after the storm], but from a historical standpoint, they were very territorial people,” producer Audrey Rosenberg observes of New Orleans natives. “Generations of people [identified with] their ward.” She says people endured a major trauma, only to have officials relocate them “within their own city without any thought of the damage it could cause, violence it could cause, confusion it could cause, and incredible loss.”

“Most of us are being forced to live in the east, are forced to live on the outskirts of New Orleans,” Buckles says. “And they’re putting these neighborhoods that were once rivals together. And that’s causing a lot of bloodshed.”

Since Katrina, New Orleans has become a smaller, whiter city. Gentrification has changed neighborhoods.

“I wanted to go and live where my cousins once lived while I was working on the film, so I moved to the neighborhood in like this shotgun house,” Buckles says. “Before the storm, the house was probably worth about, I would say, $38,000. And after the storm, it was worth $400,000. I would step outside my [door] mainly at nighttime and the white people next to me are looking at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ And I’m looking at them like, ‘What the hell are ya’ll doing here?’”

The film uses striking animation created by Spanish graphic artist Antoni Sendra, helping to evoke the vitality of New Orleans before Katrina.

“A lot of our documentation is gone, it was washed away,” Buckles notes. “A lot of our family history was washed away when it comes to video. So, we thought animation could be a powerful language to tell those stories that we didn’t have the footage for.”

The images of Katrina in the film feel less harsh, less extractive and cold than news footage Americans grew used to seeing.

“We did a really tireless search in a very sensitive way with the community, and with [Edward’s] family and with the Katrina babies to find any fully original footage and things that most people haven’t seen to supplement some of the news footage,” Rosenberg says, crediting archival producer Kate Ferraguto with making careful choices about what news archive was used. 

Buckles adds, “It was important to me, for my community and for my people to take that archival footage and give it its power and give it the correct narrative, because I’ve seen it misused so many times, year after year. I’ve seen it exploited.”

Katrina Babies, from HBO Documentary Films, is currently streaming on HBO Max. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, where Buckles won the Best New Documentary Director Award. Over the weekend, the film competed for Best Feature at the IDA Documentary Awards in Hollywood.

“One of the surprising things about the film is that it’s not just a sad story about down-and-out people or oppression or injustice–even though all of that is also true,” Rosenberg comments. “The film, beyond all of the systemic issues that obviously it brings up, is so personal and it also captures hope and spirit, and as we said before, the double-edged sword of resilience.”

“This is not just the sad story. We are not sad people. I’m very happy,” Buckles says with a laugh. “We are really thriving down there. This film is to take a look back at some of the wrong that was done so that we can continue to heal from it and continue to be hopeful about our future and about the New Orleans that we are rebuilding.”

Showtime has released the trailer for Your Honor Season 2 starring Bryan Cranston. The season which consists of 10 episodes will begin streaming Friday, January 13, and on-air on Sunday, January 15 at 9 p.m. ET. Watch the trailer in the video posted above.

The premium cable network teased that in season two of the series, “some will seek salvation in response to the tremendous loss they suffered, while others will seek revenge and they will all be pursued by their enemies at every turn. Ultimately, the question remains: How far are you willing to go to protect what matters most to you?”

Your Honor is executive produced by Emmy nominees Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife) and by Liz Glotzer (Evil). Cranston (Breaking Bad) and producer James Degus (All the Way) executive produce the series for Moonshot Entertainment. Joey Hartstone (The Good Fight) is executive producer and showrunner.

The series produced by CBS Studios in association with King Size Productions, is based on the Israeli series Kvodo created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach. Rob Golenberg, Alon Aranya, Ron Ninio, Shlomo Mashiach, Ram Landes, Ron Eilon and Danna Stern also serve as executive producers.

See the Your Honor Season 2 key art below.

UPDATED, 8:25 AM: The Securities and Exchange Commission today said FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried “built a house of cards” in charging him with fraud for cheating about 90 U.S. investors out of more than $1.1 billion in his cryptocurrency platform.

The erstwhile crypto king, , whose wild story is a hot commodity in Hollywood, was arrested Monday in the Bahamas. Read details of the case below.

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in announcing the charges. “The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws.

The Bankman-Fried story is the subject of a movie and TV series in the works at Apple and Amazon, respectively. Late last month, Apple was close to sealing a deal for film rights to Michael Lewis’ upcoming book about the case, with sources pegging the deal at mid-seven figures. Lewis, who wrote the sourcebooks for the movies Moneyball, The Big Short and The Blind Side, spent six months with the embattled entrepreneur before the bottom fell out for Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, the Russo Brothers and David Weil have set up an eight-episode scripted series about FTX and its founder at Amazon. Details about the project are TBA.

According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least May 2019, FTX, based in The Bahamas, raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including roughly $1.1 billion from about 90 U.S.-based investors. In his representations to investors, Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically touting FTX’s sophisticated, automated risk measures to protect customer assets.

The SEC said:

Separately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also announced charges against Bankman-Fried today.

“Compliance protects both those who invest on and those who invest in crypto platforms with time-tested safeguards,” Gensler added, “such as properly protecting customer funds and separating conflicting lines of business. It also shines a light into trading platform conduct for both investors through disclosure and regulators through examination authority. To those platforms that don’t comply with our securities laws, the SEC’s Enforcement Division is ready to take action.”

Said Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement: “FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service. But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent,” FTX’s collapse highlights the very real risks that unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose for investors and customers alike.”

The SEC added that investigations into other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing.

PREVIOUSLY, December 12: Disgraced crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested today in the Bahamas, the Justice Department said. The Attorney General’s office of the Caribbean nation said the bust was made after U.S. prosecutors formally charged the founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose wild story is a hot commodity in Hollywood.

Neither country’s officials offered details on the charges, but Bankman-Fried is expected to be extradited to the United States.

“As a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act,” the office of The Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder said today. Read the full statement below.

Valued at $32 billion by private investors earlier this year, FTX collapsed last month after rival Binance balked at a proposed merger of the crypto giants. That news sent cryptocurrency markets into freefall, and Bankman-Fried said at the time that his company was facing an $8 billion shortfall in funds due to the sudden “run” on the exchange. In three days, traders pulled some $6 billion from the platform, and it owes creditors at least $3 billion.

FTX, which had raised nearly $2 billion from investors over three years, filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11. John J. Ray III, who stepped in to lead FTX after the filing, is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee. 

A number of companies and celebrities are reported to have hefty investments in the company, while FTX also has big-ticket sponsorship deals with the likes of the Miami Heat basketball team and the Formula One squad Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1. The crypto crash led to a class-action lawsuit filed in mid-November whose defendants include Larry David and sports superstars Tom Brady and Steph Curry, among others.

The Bankman-Fried story is the subject of a movie and TV series in the works at Apple and Amazon, respectively. Late last month, Apple was close to sealing a deal for film rights to Michael Lewis’ upcoming book about the case, with sources pegging the deal at mid-seven figures. Lewis, who wrote the sourcebooks for the movies Moneyball, The Big Short and The Blind Side, spent six months with the embattled entrepreneur before the bottom fell out for Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, the Russo Brothers and David Weil have set up an eight-episode scripted series about FTX and its founder at Amazon. Details about the project are TBA.

Here is Pinder’s full statement on Bankman-Fried’s arrrest:

Stuart Margolin, who won back-to-back Emmys for his recurring role as Evelyn “Angel” Martin in The Rockford Files and racked up more than 120 career screen credits, died today, his stepson Max Martini said on social media. He was 82.

In an Instagram post (see it below), Bosch: Legacy regular Martini wrote: “A profoundly gifted step-father that was always there with love and support for his family. RIP Pappy. Keep ‘em cold.” He did not provide a cause of death or other details.

Margolin won Emmys in 1979 and 1980 for the respective fifth and sixth seasons of NBC’s The Rockford Files, playing the former cellmate of Jim Rockford (James Garner). Appeared in more than three dozen episodes, including the series’ first and last, his shady-but-endearing character constantly sought Rockford’s help after getting mixed up with former criminal associates.

The Rockford Files was an initial hit, ranking No. 14 among primetime shows in a three-network universe during its initial 1974-75 season and spurring a Top 10 single with its Mike Post’s instrumental theme song. But it became more of a cult series after that, failing to make the full-season Top 30 again as it bounced around NBC’s schedule but winning the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 1978. It also was nominated in the category for its last two seasons.

Margolin reprised his Angel role in eight Rockford Files TV movies during the 1990s, a tribute to the show’s enduring popularity.

But it was hardly Margolin’s only credit.

Margolin appeared opposite Garner in series before and after The Rockford Files. He was a regular on the short-lived Western Nichols, playing the town bully to Garner’s violence-hating, get-rich-quick-minded titles character. The show last one season on NBC in 1971-72.

They would reteam for another NBC Western after Rockford ended. Bret Maverick was based on Maverick, the 1957-62 series starring Garner — who left in 1960 — as a wisecracking, dapper ladies man and cardsharp. Margolin co-starred as Philo Sandine, an Indian scout-slash-con man that wasn’t too far removed from his Angel character. The series lasted one season in 1981-82 and aired in reruns on NBC in 1990.

Margolin began his career in the early 1960s, doing guest shots on such popular series as The Fugitive, Ben Casey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Margolin continued to appear on TV throughout that decade in memorable and enduring shows including Ironside, The Virginian, The Monkees, Bewitched, The F.B.I. and The Partridge Family. He also became a familiar face on the randy anthology comedy Love, American Style, appearing in more than two dozen episodes from 1966-73.

Margolin landed another 1980s series-regular role in the NBC sitcom Mr. Smith, playing the boss of a character who was charged with keeping track of the title character — a talking orangutan who is America’s latest secret weapon. The high-concept but low-rated show lasted a handful of episodes in fall 1983.

After that, Margolin settled into mostly character-actor mode, guesting on such series as Hill Street Blues, Crazy Like a Fox and The Tracey Ullman Show. He did land one more regular role, on the Canadian dramedy Mom, P.I., playing a cynical private investigator who hires a widowed waitress (Rosemary Dunsmore) as an assistant. It aired two seasons from 1990-92.

Margolin continued to work in TV for the next three decades, with guest credits on popular shows including Touched by an Angel, 30 Rock and NCIS, along with a recurring role on Beggars and Choosers.

He would get one last series-regular gig with Stone Undercover (aka Tom Stone), a syndicated cop drama that aired 26 episodes on CBC in Canada from 2001-02. Margolin played Jack Welsh, an old friend of the title star (Chris William Martin), who was — of course — something of a con man and helped the undercover Stone trap crooked businessmen.

Margolin also did some film work, mostly during the 2000s and 2010s. Among his final credits was a role in 2018 the revived Fox sci-fi drama The X Files.

If they’re good, music documentaries can serve as a time machine — an immersive experience that transports the viewer back to the magic of another era, where the soundtrack envelops you, and an artist who has left this mortal coil returns for 90 minutes or so to validate their superstar status — a mic drop straight from the heavens. If the films are very good, they leave even hardcore fans learning a thing or two about their beloved icons. And if the films are very, very good, they completely upend public perception and, by extension, rewrite an artist’s legacy in a meaningful way.

Over the weekend, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues was named Best Music Documentary at the IDA Documentary Awards, and it’s also a contender in the race for Oscar gold, but the impact of the Apple TV+ film may very well stretch beyond awards season. Never-before-heard audio tapes revealed in the film offer new insight into what motivated the pioneering jazz trumpeter and vocalist, and it could be a game-changer in the eyes of those whose criticism cut Armstrong the deepest: his fellow Black Americans. 

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. By the mid-’20s, he was one of America’s most acclaimed bandleaders. By the ’50s, he was a global superstar — a triple-threat musician/singer/actor whose talent and charisma transcended age and ethnicity. After his innovative trumpet playing and distinctive burnished baritone made him a sensation in the clubs and on the airwaves, Hollywood came calling. With his million-dollar smile and ebullient personality, he was a natural scene-stealer in such classics as High Society (1956) and Hello, Dolly! (1969), playing the affable bandleader, of course. 

Yet for much of his career, with the white-hot spotlight on him during the civil rights movement, Armstrong cultivated an image of political neutrality — a stance that helped him find work, but also alienated him from some who share his skin tone. Armstrong died in 1971, but that perception has remained, although he said he quietly contributed funds to the Civil Rights Movement behind the scenes. Sacha Jenkins, who was asked by Imagine Entertainment to direct Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, was one of those feeling the disconnect. 

“Mr. Armstrong died a month before I was born,” Jenkins, 51, tells Deadline. “Hip-hop was the thing when I was coming up. I was entrenched in hip-hop, and a big part of hip-hop was sort of this Black consciousness, and this identity thing that we were all looking for in the 80s. And Armstrong — his mannerisms, the way he carried himself…it was contrary to what was happening on the street, or what was happening with the vestiges of civil rights or Black consciousness. It just didn’t line up for me.”

On paper, Jenkins seemed perfect for the role. A former music journalist, he had already helmed the documentaries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men and Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James. He also grew up in Queens, New York, where Armstrong lived for many decades. It wasn’t until Jenkins heard Armstrong’s self-recorded audio diaries — painstakingly catalogued in the trumpeter’s home study — that he became intrigued.

“Armstrong had these reel-to-reel tapes that he taped conversations with his friends and family, conversations with himself, where he spoke his mind,” says Jenkins. “You know him for ‘Hello, Dolly!’ or these huge pop songs, but when you hear him use strong language, it’s kind of shocking, but he’s a human being. This is what makes him real.”

Jenkins realized that Louis Armstrong was a product of his environment, no different from Wu-Tang Clan or Rick James. 

“Being born in New Orleans in 1901, that’s just a few paces away from slavery, and I’m assuming not much had changed,” Jenkins explains.

As a musician who toured for his livelihood, Armstrong headlined a lot of segregated venues. Sometimes, he’d be asked to enter through the back door. Other times, he’d be invited to play hotels where he wasn’t welcome to stay as a guest. Over the years, Armstrong learned to demand better treatment through his written contracts. 

“He’s getting booked into these white hotels, or these fancy venues that typically do not cater to folks of color. So he’s saying, ‘Okay, you guys like Satchmo? That’s cool. All right. We can maybe do business, but if I can’t stay here, I can’t play here,’” says Jenkins. “That in and of itself is a civil rights action.”

In Black & Blues, Jenkins chronicles a rare instance where Armstrong’s public comments matched his private opinions. In 1957, he lashed out at President Dwight D. Eisenhower for his timid response when the governor of Arkansas prevented nine Black students from integrating Little Rock Central High School. “Ike and the government could go to hell,” he fumed to a reporter, making headlines from coast to coast. The next morning, troops were in Arkansas ensuring the safety of the nine students in a victory for desegregation.

Was Armstrong a reluctant activist? Jenkins thinks the answer is complicated.

“At that time, since he was the most famous person in the world, he might as well have been the spokesperson for all Blacks — even though he wasn’t,” says Jenkins. “But he didn’t wake up saying to himself that’s what he wanted to do. He woke up saying, ‘I want to play my instrument.’ I can’t imagine the pressure of surviving all that he did, to become the artist he became, and to have the fame and acclaim that he did, and then battle people who look like him who felt like he wasn’t doing enough. I mean, that must have been a horrible feeling.”

For the film, Jenkins had access to letters written by Armstrong, and asked his friend Nas, the Grammy-winning hip-hop artist, to read them as voice over. 

“He and I essentially grew up in the same neighborhood (in Queens), and have many friends in common. Went to the same school. When I told him that I was doing this film, he said to me, ‘Do you know that “Wonderful World” is my favorite song?,’” Jenkins recalls. “To me, where I grew up, Nas was our Louis Armstrong. He was that guy who made it out, who had that global impact.”

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues is the first documentary about the musician by a Black filmmaker. Jenkins believes it’s a perspective that’s needed in order to discuss race and racism in a direct and authentic manner. To his point, in the movie, a pair of well-known entertainers separately articulate how they were wrong to judge Armstrong as someone who pandered to white America: jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and the late actor-director Ossie Davis. Both share their poignant personal epiphanies.

“I don’t necessarily know that a white person is qualified to have that conversation, nor am I interested in a white person having that conversation,” says Jenkins. 

Yet Louis Armstrong’s story is one that touches all Americans.

“Armstrong is not just a Black American. He’s an American. He’s a great American who, regardless of how America treated him, loved his country. He still tells you that when he plays the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ he takes great pride in playing it. It makes him feel like somebody,” the director explains. “The film is for everyone, but I think there are specific conversations in the film that are specifically for Black people.”

More than half a century has passed since Louis Armstrong took his last breath. By most accounts, his legacy as a musician and entertainer is beyond reproach, but his motives as a man and sometime activist are perhaps now open for reinterpretation.

“Music and art is subjective, but someone articulating how they feel about their own life — which Armstrong does [in the letters and audio tapes] — you can’t really deny that,” says Jenkins. “At the end of the film, he says, ‘Okay, this was my life. I don’t regret anything.’ He signs off. He signs off from Earth.”

One can only surmise that Armstrong knew what he was doing when he recorded hours and hours of his own conversations, where he did not mince words about his life experiences, despite how he may have framed it in public. And since these dozens of reel-to-reel tapes were so well-preserved and catalogued, Jenkins believes he always intended for them to be used in finally telling his own story. 

“There’s a scene at the end of the film where we play the last record he ever played — Ella Fitzgerald — on the actual turntable that he played it on,” Jenkins recounts. “When we were at his house, we couldn’t get the turntable to work. Do you know that eventually, the turntable started to work, and no one could figure out how, since we couldn’t find it plugged into anything? So I will say the guy has a very strong presence.”

Sounds like the bandleader leading the band, once again.

“He was the co-director on the film,” says Jenkins. “What do I think he would say about it? I think he would say, ‘People finally understand how I felt.’ Which is really gratifying.”

The aftershocks from the big executive restructuring at Amazon Studios continue.

According to sources, former Head of Comedy Ryan Andolina, who last month was named Head of Comedy and Drama Development in the US SVOD TV Development and Series – Wholly Owned team at Amazon Studios led by Nick Pepper, is in talks to leave, along with fellow Amazon Studios comedy development executive Amanda Greenblatt, most recently Head Of First-Look and Overall Deals. The two are rumored to be starting their own production company with a deal at Amazon.

Punit Mattoo, another Amazon Studios comedy executive on Andolina’s former team, is said to be relocating to London to run the UK office under Rola Bauer who was recently named Head of Pan-English Scripted SVOD TV, Development & Series, overseeing the development and production of a new slate of English language originals for Prime Video,

According to sources, none of these moves have been finalized but discussions are underway. I hear there may be other changes in the Amazon Studios & MGM TV divisions as they adjust to the new structure following the integration of the two studios.