Tag archives: TV

Yes, that was Montecito interior designer Penny Bianchi in the HBO Emmy-winning satirical comedy hit series The White Lotus that just wrapped its second successful season at the 111-room historic Four Seasons’ San Domenico Hotel in Taormina, Sicily, perched over the glittering Ionian Sea and below the fiery Mt. Etna volcano. Penny, a near neighbor […]

Wendy Eley Jackson brings more than a quarter century of experience in film and television to Westmont as the theater department’s new artist/scholar-in-residence for justice, reconciliation, and diversity. Jackson, a native of Atlanta, is teaching Documentary Filmmaking, Screenwriting, and Creative Writing this semester for the theater and English departments. “My hope is to find a […]

Few things have been more terrifying in the world of streaming fictional TV than House of Cards and the inexorable march of Francis Underwood toward the American presidency without regard for any person, place, or thing in his path – except perhaps later in the same series when his wife Claire ascended to the office. […]

It was the perfect pairing when Folded Hills winemaker Andy Busch, a former patron at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, debuted his 2018 Polo Syrah at his rustic Gaviota locale, which produces 3,200 cases of wine annually. The new vintage was made by winemaker Angela Osborne, who has now moved on to devote her time […]

TV Santa Barbara, the area’s community access center that operates channels 17 and 71, is the recipient of four 2021 Telly Awards, including the prestigious Gold Award for the production of “Make Goleta Count!” Silver and bronze honors were also earned for video productions created in partnership with the Central Coast Division of the American […]

Apparently Music Academy of the West personnel aren’t just nerdy (er, well-versed) in classical music. At least that’s the conclusion one must draw from the fact that a MAW staffer, Henry Michaels, will be appearing on an episode of Jeopardy! airing on NBC on February 2.  Michaels is the Music Academy’s Director of Audience Experience […]

As you are reading this, it’s the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s birthday (January 8) and I’ve been talking to Steve Binder, an American producer and director born in Los Angeles. Steve, who just celebrated his 88th birthday last month, is currently working as a creative consultant on Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis, where Dacre Montgomery is […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures’ free outdoor fall film festival series of screenings at the West Wind Drive-In comes to a close with two Christmas classics, with a modern parable followed by a Jimmy Stewart tearjerker. In 2003’s Elf, Will Ferrell stars as an elf named Buddy who discovers that he’s actually a human whom Santa […]

On a personal note, I mark the passing of Alex Trebek, the long-running host of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! for 36 years who died at the age of 80 after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. I started watching the Merv Griffin-produced show in the 1980s and have been hooked ever since, learning much […]

High Five, Santa Monica suspense writer Joe Ide’s latest action-packed thriller in his IQ series of books that Time Magazine calls “an electrifying combination of Holmseian mystery and SoCal grit,” will be dissected in a virtual conversation with the author at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, November 18. Ide will talk about the series, which rapper […]

Multi-talented millennial J.J. Kandel was born in Long Island, New York, and grew up on East Valley Road in Montecito, attended Montecito Union, and decided on acting, film, TV, and theatre for his life’s work. He attended a summer drama program at Yale University prior to his senior year at Santa Barbara High School, briefly […]

Michael DeVorzon grew up in Montecito, with a great family lineage in music, and carved his own way in film and TV. Still working actively during the lockdown, he is polished in defining the narrative of the hard work it takes to stay in the game, do it like a pro, and always with kindness. […]

Sometimes providence pops up in the unlikeliest of places – even during pandemics. But who would have predicted that COVID-19 could make a childhood dream come true? Like countless others during the initial days of stay-at-home lockdown, one of my Corona Coping Methods was binge-watching old television shows – peeling off the decades, gorging on […]

Thanks To the Internet of Things, It’s Always Open Mic Night at Su Casa Humanity may never have been more disjointed, tribal, and disconnected but our stuff, thanks to the Internet of Things, is thriving wirelessly and virtually everything has been WiFi enabled, or, in today’s parlance, is “smart.” It’s my observation that most things […]

Good Life TV with Dean Wilson, executive director of the Turner Foundation, which provides accommodation for the elderly and economically challenged, is taped in the garden at his Montecito home near the Rosewood Miramar and is dedicated to bringing “real stories from real people.” “We invite people from all walks of life to share their […]

Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner has launched a new plush toy version to raise money for coronavirus relief. Ty, owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, has been putting up New York medical workers free of charge at his five-star Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, as I have chronicled in this illustrious organ. […]

Six-time Golden Globe nominee Rob Lowe is re-teaming with his 911: Lone Star creator Ryan Murphy to develop a project inspired by Netflix’s hit docu-series Tiger King. Longtime Montecito resident Rob, 56, has revealed they will be developing “our version of this insane story” to his 3.2 million social media followers. Rob is clearly vying […]

Longtime Montecito resident Dick Wolf, the creator of Law & Order and the multi-TV show Chicago franchise for NBC, has become the network’s $1 billion man. Wolf, 73, has signed a new five-year deal to stay with NBCUniversal, his studio home for the past 36 years, which includes three-year renewals for Law & Order: Special […]