By Mark Kennedy, Drama Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Lifetime TV's "The Balancing Act" will feature several touring Broadway shows this summer, including behind-the-curtain peeks on "Kinky Boots," ''Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella," ''If/Then" and "Cabaret."
The shows will be included in a six-part "Broadway Balances America" series led by correspondent Amber Milt that offers viewers a look at the cast and crew who make the tours possible. "The Balancing Act" airs at 7:30 a.m. every weekday and reaches some 750,000 viewers each week.
The theater episodes, geared toward the same women who buy tickets, will start airing in August and also include productions of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Rodgers + Hammerstein's The Sound of Music."
The series, sponsored by Broadway Across America, is the second time "The Balancing Act" has taken interest in Broadway shows. Last year, the focus was on "Newsies," ''Pippin," ''Annie," ''Motown" and "Dirty Dancing."
"The media is pretty fragmented now and it's really hard to get peoples' attention. There are many, many outlets and we see television — and particularly this kind of audience — as just one more opportunity to get our message out," said Lauren Reid, CEO of Broadway Across America's theater division. "We've got to reach more people so every opportunity we've got to seize."
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More