GOOD, BAD & UGLY
From Harvey to ‘Parasite,’ top ’20 entertainment stories
In a year without much entertainment, with movie theaters shuttered and concert venues closed from coast to coast, the biggest show business news of 2020 put the A in atypical. Without further ado, the top 10 entertainment stories from the strangest year of the 21st century.
1. HARVEY WEINSTEIN:
The Hollywood kingmaker and Oscar winner completed his precipitous fall from grace, convicted in a Manhattan courtroom of rape and criminal sexual act and sentenced to 23 years behind prison bars. And 2021 isn’t looking any better: Weinstein faces a second trial on similar charges in 2021 in California.
2. TOM HANKS AND RITA WILSON:
The Hollywood couple went public on March 11 with word of their positive tests for COVID-19 and quickly become the public faces of the pandemic. Hanks returned to host a Zoom version of Saturday Night Live, delivering a monologue from his home.
3. JOHNNY DEPP:
The hard-partying actor hit bottom in his losing lawsuit against a British tabloid that accused the silver screen’s Capt. Jack Sparrow of beating ex-wife Amber Heard. Trial testimony included allegations that Depp wrapped a shirt around her neck during a fight on their honeymoon, headbutted her in their Los Angeles penthouse, and often threatened to kill her during their tumultuous marriage.
4. TELEVISION:
“Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” became the go-to show on Netflix during the pandemic, but television was overall a winner as the nation quarantined for months on end. Entertainment-starved and pandemic-scarred viewers checked out the latest on Nextflix, Amazon Prime and HBO Max — with the would-be blockbuster “Wonder Woman 1984” with Gal Gadot streaming on the latter.
5. SPRINGSTEEN AND SWIFT:
A pair of chart-toppers, young and old, returned with new music. Taylor Swift, 32, dropped a pair of albums — “Folklore” and “Evermore” — just a few months apart in 2020. And Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen, 71, debuted his first album with the E Street Band in six years — the critically acclaimed “Letter To You.”
6. JUDGE JUDY:
Hometown legal hero Judge Judy Sheindlin, a former veteran of Manhattan Family Court, announced that 2021 will be the 25th and last season for her longrunning television courtroom show. The 77-year-old Sheindlin set the Guinness World Record in 2015 for longest career as a TV judge.
7. THE KARDASHIANS:
Farewell to Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and the rest of the celebrity clan as the news broke that “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” was shutting down next year, ending a run that began in 2007. The show became an instant smash with loyal viewers, and the family became a mainstream of pop culture along the way. Kim Kardashian West broke the news ... to her Instagram followers, of course.
8. QUIBI
If you blinked, you missed it — although nobody appears to miss Quibi. The streaming app, intended to offer “quick bites” of entertainment via cellphones, disappeared quickly despite massive funding and the efforts of ex-DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. The operation was closed down after just six quick months.
9. ‘PARASITE’:
The attention on the 92nd annual Acadamy Awards stretched from Hollywood to South Korea, where the locals celebrated the Oscar-winning success of director Bong Joon Ho and his movie — the first non-English language film to win best picture. “Parasite” also earned Oscars for best original screenplay and best international film.
10. KANYE WEST:
He announced a White House run, representing the “Birthday Party.” He tested positive for COVID-19. And for his wife’s 40th birthday, he gave wife Kim a hologram of her father Robert, who died of cancer back in 2003.
Adios, 2020.