Mo Willems is very serious about the importance of being silly.
That's apparent to the children and adults tickled by "There Is a Bird on Your Head!" or "We Are in a Book!" or any of the author and illustrator's other much-loved works. But the former "Sesame Street" writer is after more than giggles with his new HBO Max special out Thursday, "Don't Let the Pigeon Do Storytime!"
Willems' intent is to perform what he calls a "shame-ectomy" on adults, freeing them to embrace creative hijinks and inspire the children in their lives to do likewise.
The special includes a truly game troupe of celebrities who give themselves over to sketches reflecting Willems' brand of boisterous storytelling with a kid-safe edge. The children lucky enough to attend last summer's Kennedy Center taping clearly had a blast, their beaming faces captured in close-ups as Willems puts Anthony Anderson, Yvette Nicole Brown and Tony Hale, among others, through their paces, aided by on-screen graphics and sound effects maestro Fred Newman ("A Prairie Home Companion").
Kool & the Gang's Bell dies at 68
Ronald Khalis Bell, who with his brother and some neighborhood friends formed the jazz-funk-R&B band that became Kool & the Gang, and who was the lead writer on its biggest hit, "Celebration," died Wednesday at his home in the Virgin Islands.
Khalis Bell, who was also a producer and was often credited under his Muslim name, Khalis Bayyan, began dabbling in music as a child, mastering saxophone and keyboards and playing with his brother Robert, a bassist who picked up the nickname Kool in elementary school. The Bell household in Jersey City, N.J., was steeped in jazz influence; the boys' father, Bobby, was a professional boxer whose friends included jazz master Thelonious Monk. Miles Davis also sometimes visited.
Delayed: Following the less-than-stellar theater debut of Christopher Nolan's "Tenet," Warner Bros. is delaying its next big release, "Wonder Woman 1984," to Christmas.
'Mea culpa': For nearly a decade, Michael Cohen was at odds with Rosie O'Donnell in part because his boss — President Donald Trump — was engaged in a long feud with the comedian and talk-show host. On Monday, Cohen is launching a podcast, titled "Mea Culpa," with O'Donnell as his first guest. The two have become close ever since Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, turned against the president. Cohen was serving time at a New York prison for tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations when O'Donnell wrote to him. He is still serving his sentence but was furloughed to house arrest because of the pandemic.
