You probably know him as Bunk, a k a Detective William Moreland, who teamed with Detective Jimmy McNulty in HBO’s The Wire. Or maybe music’s your thing, and you know him as Antoine Batiste, the trombonist who fronts Antoine Batiste and his Soul Apostles on Treme, another HBO hit.
As the star of two shows that have Read More
Tonight, the Institute of International Education honors a group of high-rollers who’ve helped protect the rights of scholars worldwide, including full-time philanthropist and sporadically engaged GOP bogeyman George Soros and Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek. Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont will be helping present the awards, and Kofi Annan will be in attendance as well Read More
First it was Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito (or “Gus Fring”) who came forward with his story of being stop-and-frisked by the New York Police Department. Over the weekend, while the controversial police tactic was being protested, another actor—this time, from David Simon’s inner-city crime epic The Wire—noted his own experience with the policy. Read More
Ten years ago, it wasn’t hard to decide what to do on a Sunday night. Everyone watched HBO. The programming on the premium cable network was like nothing else on the tube.
But then, Carrie Bradshaw finally landed Mr. Big, the entire Fisher family died, Tony Soprano stopped believin’ in a New Jersey diner, and Tommy Carcetti became governor of Maryland.
By the time Sue Naegle arrived from United Talent Agency to take the network’s top job in 2008 (alongside co-president Richard Plepler and president of programming Michael Lombardo), the programming larder was looking bare. “We walked into a schedule that was mostly empty,” she told The Observer. And what could be better? “From a development and programming perspective, that’s the dream.” Read More
When David Simon first learned that he won the MacArthur “genius” Grant — which comes with $500,000 tax-free, no-strings-attached, paid out in quarterly installments over five years — his first thought was to give the money to charity. He doesn’t need it. “To be blunt, I’m in the entertainment industry … and my contracts are Read More
Many reporters (Canadian ones, at least) are following in the hallowed footsteps of crime-reporter-turned-Wire-creator David Simon, reports Canada’s Globe and Mail. Journalism no longer has the same sense of stability it once did–and besides, writing for TV is fun!
“As an ink-stained scribbler the last 10 years, I’ve sat in the same chair Read More
“I’ve never seen Obama in the flesh, but I’ve watched everything he’s ever done,” said Dominic West, who played Jimmy McNulty on The Wire-”and I’m even more in worship of him than I was before.”
It was after 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 1, in the foyer of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., where Read More
HBO’s renaissance continues Sunday night with the premiere of Treme, David Simon’s new hour-long drama about New Orleans musicians that takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here, four things any informed viewer ought to know before hitting the couch tonight (or whenever you end up watching it).
It’s a Reunion!
With Mr. Simon’s Read More
What do you do after co-creating a television series so critically praised, Slate’s then-editor Jacob Weisberg called it "the best show on television and which prompted The New York Times editorial page’s Nicholas Kulish to write, "If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch ‘The Wire,’ unless, that is, he was already Read More
David Simon is taking some old pals from thedark streets of Baltimore to the desperate landscape of New Orleans for his new HBO pilot, Treme. Wire veterans Wendell Pierce (who played endearingly drunk, yet straight and true detective Bunk) and Clarke Peters (everybody’s favorite fatherly figure) will star in the drama following the reconstruction of Read More
