Erik Estradais helping people get in the holiday spirit, Hollywood style.
The 74-year-old Puerto Rican actor and former CHiPs star is serving as the co-host of this year’s Hollywood Christmas Parade, a grand Hollywood tradition will kick off at 6:00 pm on Sunday and winds through the streets of the movie capital.
Estrada, co-hosting the parade with Dean Cain, will be joined by Montel Williams, Laura McKenzie and Elizabeth Stanton.
Pre-parade entertainment will include the Village People, pop-opera singer Anna Azerli, and The Grinch. Parade performers will include the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and California Springs Rhythmic Gymnastics.
Joining them are Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, dancer-singer Paula Abdul, singer Dwight Yoakum, radio host Kerri Kasem, pop duo Aly & AJ and actors Chris Kattan, Craig Robinson, Ernie Hudson, Brandon Routh, Ming-Na Wen, Denise Richards and Tatyana Ali.
Overall, the 3.2-mile route will showcase 90 celebrities and VIPs, 14 pre-parade and parade performers, 10 bands, six four-story-high character balloons, three floats, 39 movie cars and eight novelty vehicles. The show ends with an appearance by Santa Claus and his reindeer.
The parade supports Marine Toys for Tots. The event starts at Orange Street and Hollywood Boulevard, traveling east on Hollywood Boulevard to Vine Street, south on Vine Street to Sunset Boulevard and then west on Sunset, back to Orange.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Paris D. Davis, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in March, nearly 60 years after being nominated for his heroism during the Vietnam War, will be the grand marshal. The 84-year-old Davis was one of the first Black officers to serve in the Army’s elite Green Berets, recognized for the rescue of two severely injured soldiers during an intense battle in the Vietnam War.
Local marching bands taking part will include the Los Angeles Police Emerald Society Pipe and Drums; the Oaxaca Philharmonic Band of Los Angeles; the Golden Valley High School Band of San Clarita; the PAVA World Traditional Korean Band of Los Angeles; the Compton High School Band; and the Los Angeles Catholic Schools Band of Torrance.
The parade has been held every year since 1928, except from 1942 to 1944, when World War II broke out, and in 2020, when it was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was first held in 1928, then known as the “Santa Claus Lane Parade.” Comedian Joe E. Brown was the first grand marshal in 1932, a role later filled by Bob Hope, Gene Autry, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, among others.
The parade will be rebroadcast on December 15 at 8:00 pm on The CW Network.
The 36-year-old half-Mexican actor and Queen of the South star and Eliza Taylor have been named series regulars for the upcoming second season of Quantum Leap, NBC’s reboot of the popular 1990s sci-fi drama starring Raymond Lee. Both deals closed before the strikes began.
Per the Season 1 logline: it’s “been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.”
Gadiot portrays Tom Westfall, a U.S. Army Officer, former special forces, who is now high up in Army Intelligence.
Taylor will play Hannah Carson, a complex young woman who may be more than she appears.
In addition to Lee, Quantum Leap stars Ernie Hudson, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park and Nanrisa Lee.
Martin Gero serves as executive producer along with Dean Georgaris, Don Bellisario, Deborah Pratt, Chris Grismer, Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt.
Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, produces in association with I Have an Idea! Entertainment, Belisarius Productions and Quinn’s House Productions.
Season 2 of Quantum Leap premieres on October 4 on NBC, with episodes streaming the next day after airing on Peacock.
The 38-year-old Cuban American actress will star opposite Ed Harris and Sonequa Martin-Green in My Dead Friend Zoe, a dark dramedy about two generations of veterans, family and friendship.
Kyle Hausmann-Stokes will direct the project in what will be his feature debut.
Written by Hausmann-Stokes and A.J. Bermudez, the film tells the story of a female veteran (Martin-Green) engaged in a mysterious but comfortable friendship with her wise-cracking (and dead) best friend from the Army (Morales). When the vet is summoned to the remote lake house of her estranged Vietnam vet grandfather (Harris), she is tasked with providing the one thing he refuses…help.
The film is based on Merit x Zoe, a short that Hausmann-Stokes co-wrote and directed last year, and both films draw inspiration from his real-life experiences during and after the military. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Hausmann-Stokes served five years in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and convoy commander and was awarded the Bronze Star while in Iraq. He co-founded the nonprofit Veterans in Media & Entertainment, and has focused his directing career thus far on the social and human sides of the military and veteran experience.
“My fellow veterans and I often get reduced to archetypes and melodramatic tropes. We’re much more dynamic, funny, complex than that,” said Hausmann-Stokes. “This will be a story about veterans we haven’t seen before; one that anyone, military/veteran or not, can relate to and enjoy.”
A Gotham Award nominee who’ll next be seen in the third season of Apple TV+’s The Morning Showand Sony’s R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings, Morales has previously appeared in such studio features as Stuber, The Little Things and Battle of the Sexes, as well as well-regarded indies like Language Lessonsand I’m Totally Fine.
She led the NBC sitcom Abby’sand has also been seen on series like Dead to Me, Santa Clarita Diet, The Grinder, Parks and Recreation and White Collar.
Other upcoming projects for the actress include two films out of SXSW 2023: the sci-fi romanceIf You Were the Lastwith Anthony Mackie, and actor Jake Johnson’s feature directorial debut, Self Reliance.
The late Vanessa Guillen’s story is headed to Netflix…
The tragic death — and subsequent sweeping justice movement — of the Mexican American U.S. Army soldier is at the center of a new documentary coming to Netflix later this fall.
Hailing from director Christy Wegener, I am Vanessa Guillen will tell Guillen’s tragic but galvanizing tale, about a young woman who dreamed of a military career.
In 2020, however, after telling her mother she was being sexually harassed on the Fort Hood army base, Guillen was murdered by a fellow soldier.
Her story sparked an international movement of assault victims demanding action. The project follows her family’s fight for historic reform, a journey that takes them to the Oval Office.
“At the core, this is a story about overcoming the greatest odds imaginable in the name of family, love and justice. This is David vs. Goliath on steroids,” Wegener said. “Taking on the U.S. military, one of the largest, most powerful institutions in America is no easy feat. In making the film, it was incredible to witness a family, in the most tragic moment of their lives, put their grief aside, step out into the public arena and fight for the greater good.”
The film will hit Netflix on November 17. Wegener, Isabel Castro, Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda are producing, with Andrea Berman serving as co-executive producer.
The doc is a Story Syndicate production, with Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin and Nell Constantinople all serving as executive producers for the banner.
Guillen would have celebrated her 23rd birthday on Friday. She has been memorialized in several murals in her native Texas, and has tributes on Fort Hood.
The half-Mexican American professional wrestler, WWE star, actress, fashion designer and model will star in the action-thriller Phoenix, from Tadross Media Group, Bulldog Brothers Entertainment and director Daniel Zirilli.
Eva Marie, as she’s known in the ring, will star alongside Randy Couture, Neal McDonough, former WWE tag team champion Oleg Prudius, Bai Lin and former UFC lightweight champion Rashad Evans in the film.
The film has entered production in Miami.
Phoenix centers on Fiona “Phoenix” Grant (Marie), a U.S. Army veteran sergeant who is teaching hand-to-hand combat skills in Afghanistan when she receives word that her father, Everett Grant (Couture), a prominent security specialist, has been killed in Florida. The police report says it was suicide, but Fiona doesn’t believe it. Encouraged to take a leave of absence by her commanding officer (McDonough), she heads back to the U.S. and soon learns that the prime suspect is Maxim Vasiliiev (Prudius), a ruthless local drug kingpin with an army of mercenaries and enough legal, political and business influence to keep him outside the law. Armed to the teeth, she plans to take out Vasiliiev with her bare hands, and nothing is going to stop her.
Zirilli adapted the film from a story he wrote with Alexander Nistratov.
Eva Marie, who appeared in the reality series Total Divas, has appeared in Inconceivable and Hard Kill.
Cecilia Suarez is helping shine a light on the case of slain Army soldier Vanessa Guillén.
The 49-year-old Mexican actress and prominent activist will narrate Telemundo and The Story Lab’s new podcast Fort Hood, a seven-part limited series that launched this week.
The podcast, narrated in English and Spanish by Suarez, takes a probing look at the 20-year-old’s April 2020 murder at the hands of fellow Fort Hood soldier Aaron David Robinson.
All episodes are about 30 minutes in length and are now available.
Guillen’s case drew nationwide attention, with her family, public officials, lawmakers and celebrities demanding #JusticeForVanessaGuillen.
After disappearing from the base, Guillén’s remains were found two months later. Investigators say she was killed by Robinson, who later fatally shot himself as police tried to take him into custody.
Guillén’s family has raised allegations she was sexually harassed before she was killed.
In July, Robinson’s girlfriend Cecily Aguilar was indicted on 11 counts by a federal grand jury as an accessory for allegedly helping Robinson destroy and bury Guillén’s remains.
Fort Hood will also explore the role of the military in the investigation, which has been heavily criticized. It also delves into the case revealing a deeper, more complex story about a renowned U.S. military base with a long record of unreported sexual abuse, and highlights Guillén’s family, which refused to stay quiet as they pushed authorities for answers.
“This is a consequential story that touches on critical issues in our country,” Telemundo Network News president Luis Fernandez said. “It’s a revealing exposé and a necessary investigation. Noticias Telemundo, with The Story Lab, believe this important story deserved a deeper examination and this format allows us to do just that.”
Ivonne Galaz is raising her voice to honor murdered U.S. army soldier Vanessa Guillén.
The Mexican singer, one of the young female singers leading the emerging corridos tumbados movement, revisits Guillén’s tragic fate in a tribute song she’s uploaded to her Instagram account.
“JusticeForVanessaGuillen with much respect to Vanessa’s family,” wrote Galaz, who titled the track “Vanessa Guillén.”
After Guillén’s disappearance made national headlines, the lawyer for her family confirmed on Sunday that the U.S. Armypositively identified the soldier’s remains near the Leon River in Texas last week.
Guillén, 20, a soldier in Fort Hood, was declared missing by her family since April, but the search for her only intensified last month when the family went public with appeals to find her.
Galaz, the first female signee on corridos tumbados label Rancho Humilde, uploaded the song to Instagram on Sunday night. Corridos tumbados (sometimes referred to as trap corridos) are a new take on the traditional Mexican song from the perspective of the youth in the streets of the U.S.
Backed by an acoustic guitar, Galáz sympathizes with Guillén’s family in her heartbreaking corrido. “Her suffering family asking, ‘Where is the girl?'” she sings in Spanish. Galáz sadly notes Guillén’s “light has been put out” while highlighting her heritage in the haunting final line: “The Mexican people, we will be there so that her case is not forgotten.”
Many Latino artists, including Becky G, Chiquis, Salma Hayek and Intocable, have posted about Guillen in social media, demanding answers from authorities at her base.
The main suspect in Guillén’s murder, Spc. Aaron David Robinson, who was stationed with the her at Fort Hood, killed himself last Wednesday as investigators were closing in. Robinson’s reported girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, says Robinson murdered Guillén and that she tried to help him dispose of her body. Aguilar was charged with one count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
Galáz hails from Senora, Mexico, the same state as her labelmate Natanael Cano. She made her debut last year as a featured artist on Cano’s “Golpes de La Vida” from his Mi Nuevo Yo EP. On Rancho Humilde’s recent Corridos Tumbados Vol. 2 album, Galáz recorded with Cano again and also teamed up with Natalie Lopéz on the girl-powered “La Rueda.” A solo project from Galaz is due out soon.
The 17-year-old Colombian American actress/singer,New Jersey High School studentand Hollywood newcomer has landed the lead role of Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.
Zegler, who beat out more than 30,000 people from around the world, will make her film debut opposite Ansel Elgortas Tony.
Rounding out the principal Shark roles are Broadway veterans Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarezas Bernardo. Theater performer Josh Andrés Rivera has been cast as Chino.
Spielberg and his team were committed to finding the best actors within the Puerto Rican as well as the broader Latinxcommunity. The team has been conducting research and having conversations with Hispanic heritage and advocacy groups. In December 2018, Spielberg and Tony Kushner, who is adapting West Side Story, sat with professors and students at the University of Puerto Rico(Universidad de Puerto Rico – Río Piedras) to learn more about performing arts on the island. The production team maintains a dialogue with the University and Puerto Rican filmmakers there.
The new castmembers join Rita Moreno, who won an Oscarfor her portrayal of Anita in the 1961 movie, who will play Valentina, a reconceived and expanded version of the character of Doc, the owner of the corner store in which Tony works. Moreno also serves as executive producer.
“When we began this process a year ago, we announced that we would cast the roles of Maria, Anita, Bernardo, Chino and the Sharks with Latina and Latino actors. I’m so happy that we’ve assembled a cast that reflects the astonishing depth of talent in America’s multifaceted Hispanic community,” said Spielberg. “I am in awe of the sheer force of the talent of these young performers, and I believe they’ll bring a new and electrifying energy to a magnificent musical that’s more relevant than ever.”
“I simply cannot wait to get on set to work with this group of young actors,” said Moreno. “What an ensemble, and I look forward to passing the baton to this next generation of Sharks!”
Zegler saw the notice on Twitterback in January 2018 for Latinx actors and submitted a video of herself singing “Tonight” and “Me Siento Hermosa” (“I Feel Pretty”).
“I am so thrilled to be playing the iconic role of Maria alongside this amazing cast,” said Zegler. “West Side Story was the first musical I encountered with a Latina lead character. As a Colombian-American, I am humbled by the opportunity to play a role that means so much to the Hispanic community.”
DeBose, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2018 for her portrayal of Donna Summerin Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, will play Anita, the role made famous on film by Moreno. DeBose’s other Broadway credits include the original cast of Hamilton, A Bronx Tale: The Musical, Pippin, Motown: The Musical and Bring It On: The Musical. Her screen debut came in 2009 as a competitor on So You Think You Can Dance.
“I’m honored to follow in the footsteps of the remarkable women who have played Anita – including Chita Rivera and, of course, the incomparable Rita Moreno,” said DeBose. “I relate so strongly to Anita – a strong Puerto Rican woman who came to New York in search of opportunity – and I feel so fortunate for the chance to work with this amazing cast and creative team.”
Alvarez, who won a Tony in 2009 for originating the title role in Billy Elliot: The Musical, will play Bernardo, Maria’s brother and the leader of the Sharks. Following his appearance in Billy Elliot, Alvarez served in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, before returning to Broadway in 2014 to join the company of On the Town.
“My parents emigrated from Cuba with no connections, knowing no English, driven only by the hope of a better life. I know how challenging the decision was for them, and I see a lot of that internal conflict in Bernardo,” said Alvarez. “I have dreamt of playing this part since I first saw the original film, and I am so grateful for the chance to bring my own perspective and journey to this role – as an artist, a Veteran and a Latino – and to work with this incredible cast to breathe new life into these characters’ experiences.”
Rivera – an actor, singer and dancer who most recently appeared in the first national tour of Hamilton – will play the role of Chino.
“West Side Story is the dream for any performer, and to tackle it with this creative team is truly a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” said Rivera. “I feel very fortunate to be able to portray the Nuyorican experience alongside these amazingly talented actors. I’m confident Puerto Ricans on and off the island will see ourselves reflected in this project.”
West Side Story will be produced and directed by Spielberg from a script by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. The film will be adapted for the screen from the original 1957 Broadway musical, which was written by Arthur Laurentswith music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and concept, direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. Also leading the production are Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollumand Academy Award-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger.
West Side Story will be released by Twentieth Century Fox. Filming is slated to start in the summer of 2019.
Additional casting announcements will be made in the coming weeks, specifically in regards to The Sharksand The Jets.
The 37-year-old Colombian and Venezuelan American actor/producer and former That ’70s Show star and his WV Entertainment have acquired film and television rights to Patriots from the Barrio, Dave Gutierrez’s 2014 book that delves into the history of a segregated U.S. Army combat unit comprised entirely of Mexican Americans from South Texas that was part of the first division to set foot in Europe in World War II.
Gutierrez’s book came about while he was researching a relative, Ramon G. Gutierrez, who during the war was captured and escaped twice, both times able to make it back across Allied lines. He later received the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts, and the Soviet Union gave him the Order of the Patriotic War. His Company E in the 36th Division fought in Italy at San Pietro in the Liri Valley, and in 1944 was nearly wiped out in the Battle of Ripaldo River, one of the U.S. Army’s biggest losses of WWII.
“During Hispanic Heritage Month, this story is especially timely, and I’m honored as a proud Latin American to amplify the courage and contributions of these incredible men,” Valderrama said.
Valderrama, who joined as a regular on CBS’ NCIS last year, also has the animated film Charmingcoming next year on which his WV Entertainment serves as a producer.
There’s no denying Pope Francis’ influence in the Philippines…
The 76-year-old Argentine pontiff attracted an estimated 6 million people, who braved steady rain on Sunday to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church at Manila’s Rizal Park, on his final full day in the island nation.
The turnout breaks the record set by the last pontiff to say mass in the same venue – PopeJohn Paul II in 1995, when five people million attended, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis dedicated his final homily of his tour to the young and urged protection for children so they aren’t tempted by sin or the devil or distracted by “promises of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes.”
“We need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to a life on the streets,” he said.
The Mass took place on the third and final day of the pope’s visit to the Philippines, whose roughly 80 million Catholics comprise about 7% of the world’s total.
The pontiff arrived Sunday on a popemobile based on the design of a jeepney, the modified U.S. Army World War II jeep that is a common means of public transport in the Philippines, wearing the same plastic yellow rain poncho handed out to the masses during his visit to the central Philippine city of Tacloban a day earlier.
The pontiff was forced to cut his trip short to Tacloban — hard-hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 — ahead of the approaching Tropical Storm Mekkhala. About 150,000 people, including survivors of the typhoon and of the earthquake on the island of Bohol that killed more than 200 people in October 2013, braved the approaching storm to attend Mass with the pope.
The pope’s tour, which also took him to Sri Lanka, was his second trip to Asia in five months, in a nod to the region’s growing importance for the Catholic Church as it faces declining support in Europe and the United States.
It was also the fourth papal visit to the Philippines, and the rapturous reception given to him throughout his stay cemented the nation’s status as the Church’s Asian role model.
Estrada, co-hosting the parade with Dean Cain, will be joined by Montel Williams, Laura McKenzie and Elizabeth Stanton.
