Tag: Debbie Reynolds

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Trailer: “Bright Lights – Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds”

In advance of the documentary’s HBO premiere this coming Sunday, January 7th, here’s the trailer for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

I’ll just say this: you might need a tissue.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds bills itself as a story of the family’s complicated love, and promises an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty in all its eccentricity and the nearly two-minute trailer shows off exactly that, along with many sweet moments (and witty banter) shared between Fisher and Reynolds.

Directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens, the 95-minute documentary was filmed in over more than a year in 2014 and 2015 leading up to Reynolds preparing to receive her Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award which Fisher presented to her.

Vintage family films and archival footage help bring the documentary to life. Their lives at home in the Beverly Hills compound they shared will be seen extensively in the documentary as will be the way in which they navigated their careers and close relationship.

We started out making a film about Hollywood royalty, they added. And we ended up making a film about love.

Fisher, 60, was aboard an 11-hour flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday when she went into cardiac arrest. She died Tuesday in the hospital.

Reynolds died a day later at the age of 84. Her son Todd said she told him hours before she was rushed to the hospital: I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds will debut Jan. 7 (at 8 p.m. EST) on HBO.

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HBO: Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds Documentary Bright Lights To Debut January 7

Do not miss critically acclaimed documentary, Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, set to debut on HBO January 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Via press release:

In light of the recent and unexpected deaths of both Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the documentary BRIGHT LIGHTS: STARRING CARRIE FISHER AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS will debut SATURDAY, JAN. 7 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

The story of a family’s complicated love, this documentary is an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty in all its eccentricity. Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, live in the same Beverly Hills compound. The 83-year-old grand dame still has a Las Vegas act, but performing is taking its toll. Carrie’s response is both hilarious and heart-rending. Featuring vintage family films that bring iconic old-world Hollywood to life, as well as extensive vérité footage, the film is directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens.

The documentary was well received at several high-end film festivals including the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.

Plus, as previously mention here on The Randy Report, HBO will offer an encore presentation of Carrie Fisher’s brilliant 2010 one-woman show, WISHFUL DRINKING, this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on HBO.

Fisher’s autobiographical stage performance gets a feature-length adaptation including interviews with friends and family plus archival footage. If you haven’t seen it – hell, even if you have – make sure you tune i.

(h/t Boy Culture)

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Memory: Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds, Carol Channing and Ruta Lee (photo via David Blackstock) 

In the 1990s I staged some of “Hello, Dolly!” for a benefit for the Thalians in Los Angeles that honored Carol Channing, hosted by Debbie Reynolds and Ruta Lee.

The night of the event Debbie, Carol and Ruta were all dressed in DOLLY dresses for the red carpet. When the photo op time came, no one could find Debbie. Ruta asked me to go find Debbie.

Hubby Michael and I went into the huge empty ballroom in the Century Plaza Hotel where the gala was about to take place. Huge ballroom. The tables were all set, including bottles of wine at each table. In the middle of the ballroom sat Debbie in her huge, gorgeous DOLLY dress. She had opened a bottle of wine and was sitting alone. She held a glass of wine against her forehead, clearly wanting a moment for herself.

I walked up and quietly said, “Debbie, they’re looking for you for the photo op.”

Without looking away from her glass, she said “I know.” She paused, put the glass down, stood up, straightened her dress. One last sip of wine, a small sigh, and she said, “Let’s go.” And with that brilliant Hollywood smile, she took my arm and walked with me to the red carpet.

And we laughed the whole way there.

I should add: Debbie was doing AIDS benefits in 1983 – years before Reagan could even say the word in public.

Heroes can be blonde, beautiful, talented, and sing and dance a bit, too. Instead of wringing her hands, she stood up. And once again, stood out – merely by being who she was.

Someone was here. Something occurred.

This is a great, authentic star we have lost. RIP Debbie.

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Debbie Reynolds Dead At 84

Debbie Reynolds (L) with daughter Carrie Fisher (R)

I knew Debbie Reynolds. What a great, great star. RIP Debbie.

UPDATE VIA TMZ:

Debbie Reynolds — who rose to stardom in “Singin’ in the Rain” and quickly became a staple among Hollywood royalty — died Wednesday as a result of a stroke, TMZ has learned … just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away … this according to her son Todd.

Debbie was rushed to a hospital shortly after 1 PM when someone at the Beverly Hills home of her son, Todd, called 911 to report a possible stroke. We’re told Debbie and Todd were making funeral plans for Carrie, who died Tuesday of cardiac arrest.

Debbie famously divorced Eddie Fisher in 1959 after his affair with Elizabeth Taylor. Debbie married 2 more times in 1960 and 1984.

She played iconic roles in “Tammy and the Bachelor” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” … for which she earned an Oscar nomination.

Carrie’s relationship with Debbie was the focus of Carrie’s semi-autobiographical book, “Postcards from the Edge,” which was later adapted for the big screen, starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Debbie’s survived by her son Todd, who tells us, “She’s with Carrie.”

She was 84.

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Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds has reportedly been hospitalized just a day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher.

The Oscar-nominated actress is said to have fallen ill at her L.A. home while discussing funeral plans for her daughter. Paramedics were called to her son Todd’s home in Beverly Hills. She may have suffered a stroke, reports TMZ.

Fisher died Tuesday morning after suffering what was described as a massive heart attack on Friday while on a flight from London, where she had been shooting episodes of the Amazon/Channel 4 comedy “Catastrophe,” to Los Angeles.

Born in 1932, Reynolds is known for, among many other roles, her part in the 1952 film “Singin’ in the Rain.” She was nominated for an Academy Awards for 1964’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Reynolds earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway revival of Irene, which also gave Fisher her Broadway debut.

Reynold’s co-star in Irene, George S. Irving, who won a Tony Award for his performance, also passed away yesterday.

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My Kind Of Super Bowl

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Time for my annual viewing of football. Meaning: time to watch Debbie Reynolds dress as a football, and get passed…Posted by Rachel Vala on Saturday, February 6, 2016

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EW cover: Matt Damon and Michael Douglas for “Behind the Candelabra”

HBO’s big Liberace movie with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas debuts Sunday, May 26th, but Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look in this week’s issue.

Behind the Candelabra is based on Thorson’s 1988 memoir about Liberace’s over-the-top world of palatial houses, extravagant clothes, and secret affairs. (Liberace never publicly came out as gay before dying of AIDS in 1987.) It’s a world that Douglas actually witnessed first-hand, since his father, actor Kirk Douglas, was once Liberace’s neighbor in Palm Springs. “I remember meeting him just in passing, in his convertible with the top down — his hair not moving,” says the actor, who also got advice from one of Liberace’s close friends, Debbie Reynolds, who plays his mother in the film. “She just told me, ‘[Your voice] can never be too nasal.’”

The movie is also Douglas’ first role since his cancer diagnosis in 2010, and the actor tells EW that beating the disease and returning to acting has been therapeutic for him. “It was great to get back,” he says. “It gave me a new appreciation for what I do, taking advantage of it.”

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Debbie Reynolds rushed to hospital this past weekend

Debbie Reynolds was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital over the weekend after what her rep calls an “adverse reaction to medicine.”

The health scare is serious enough that the 80-year-old actress is still recovering in L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and has been advised to cancel her appearances for the next three months, Reynold’s rep told TMZ.com.

Her condition has been linked to “an adverse reaction she experienced to a medication she was currently taking,” the rep told the gossip site before adding that Reynolds had shown signs of improvement.

Reynolds just wrapped the filming of Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, “Behind the Candelabra,” which stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.

(via nydailynews.com)