Untitled, the Santa Monica shop headed by executive producer Jim Evans, has signed director Kathryn Bigelow and the helming duo the Cronenweths (brothers Tim and Jeff) for commercials…. Executive producer Heidi Gottlieb has launched New York-headquartered Go Man Go Productions, which is affiliated with bicoastal feature film distribution/production/finance company First Look Media. Go Man Go opens with director John Towse, formerly of bicoastal/international hungry man. Additionally, executive producer Rachel Griffin joins Gottlieb in making director feature filmmaker Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) available to helm spots via Go Man Go….Director Michael Patterson, formerly of Rhythm & Hues, Los Angeles, has joined Visitor, the Hollywood-based production company under the aegis of owner/ director James Wahlberg and executive producer Lisa Hollingshead….Superior Assembly Editing Company closed its doors in Santa Monica last month. Several key artisans from that shop have emerged at new roosts. Prior to Superior’s closure, editor Jeff Grippe left to join Sliced Grape, the offline editorial division of West Los Angeles-based The Grape Group. Coming over with Grippe to Sliced Grape were former Superior Assembly managing director Valerie Schadt and producer/marketing executive Dillard Sholes. Editor Nicholas Erasmus, who spent the past four years at Superior, has joined Santa Monica-based Terminal….Rick Boyko, chief creative officer of WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather North America and co-president of Ogilvy & Mather, New York, will retire from the agency next year. He will become the managing director of the Adcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. O&M co-president Bill Gray will assume sole management of the agency, with executive creative directors David Apicella and Chris Wall becoming co-creative heads….Fluid, New York, has signed editor Scott Philbrook, who comes over from Mad River, New York. Additionally, composer Andy Mendelson has joined the post/music house….Composer Michael Bacon has signed for commercial representation with bicoastal Fearless Music. Bacon has scored a large number of feature films (King Gimp, Twisted), and will continue to score features out of his eponymous shop, Michael Bacon Music. He tours regularly with his brother Kevin, as one half of The Bacon Brothers band….Editor Robin Burchill, formerly of New York-based Consulate, has joined Slingshot Edit and Post, New York ….
Stage and Film Actor Tony Roberts Dies At 85
Tony Roberts, a versatile, Tony Award-nominated theater performer at home in both plays and musicals and who appeared in several Woody Allen movies — often as Allen's best friend — has died. He was 85.
Roberts' death was announced to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.
Roberts had a genial stage personality perfect for musical comedy and he originated roles in such diverse Broadway musicals as "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967); "Sugar" (1972), an adaptation of the movie "Some Like It Hot," and "Victor/Victoria" (1995), in which he co-starred with Julie Andrews when she returned to Broadway in the stage version of her popular film. He also was in the campy, roller-disco "Xanadu" in 2007 and "The Royal Family" in 2009.
"I've never been particularly lucky at card games. I've never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life," he write in his memoir, "Do You Know Me?" "Unlike many of my pals, who didn't know what they wanted to become when they grew up, I knew I wanted to be an actor before I got to high school."
Roberts also appeared on Broadway in the 1966 Woody Allen comedy "Don't Drink the Water," repeating his role in the film version, and in Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" (1969), for which he also made the movie.
Other Allen films in which Roberts appeared were "Annie Hall" (1977), "Stardust Memories" (1980), "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Radio Days" (1987).
"Roberts' confident onscreen presence — not to mention his tall frame, broad shoulders and brown curly mane — was the perfect foil for Allen's various neurotic characters, making them more funny and enjoyable to watch," The Jewish Daily Forward wrote in 2016.
In Eric Lax's book "Woody... Read More