newsmakers

newsmakers

FX orders pilot with Adlon of ‘Louie’

PASADENA, Calif.

Pamela Adlon, a co-star with Louis C.K. on the FX comedy “Louie,” will be getting a show of her own.

FX announced Sunday that it has ordered a pilot for “Better Things,” a comedy that stars Adlon as a single mother with three girls. Adlon and Louis C.K. are writing the pilot and will be executive producers.

Adlon has been nominated for two Emmy awards for her work on “Louie.”

FX also said Sunday that “The Comedians,” a comedy starring Billy Crystal and Josh Gad, will begin airing in April.

Alan Hirschfield, ex-entertainment executive, dies at 79

LOS ANGELES

Alan Hirschfield, a former entertainment executive who helped make the 1970s movies “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Taxi Driver,” has died. He was 79.

Son Marc Hirschfield says the former chief executive of Columbia Pictures died Thursday at his home in Wilson, Wyo., of natural causes.

Hirschfield held the post at Columbia from 1973 to 1978 and was chairman of Twentieth Century Fox from 1982 to 1986.

Marc Hirschfield says his father also started Arista Records with music executive Clive Davis.

Hirschfield was ousted at Columbia after he opposed the reinstatement of studio boss David Begelman, who embezzled more than $61,000, on moral grounds.

Hirschfield was born in New York and raised in Oklahoma. He is survived by his wife, Berte, three children, six grandchildren, a niece and grand-niece.

Actor-comedian Stephen Fry weds

LONDON

Actor-comedian Stephen Fry has married partner Elliott G. Spencer in eastern England.

The 57-year-old Fry sent a tweet to his 8 million followers on Saturday, announcing that he had tied the knot.

“Gosh.@ElliottGSpencer and I go into a room as two people, sign a book and leave as one,” Fry says on his Twitter feed. “Amazing.”

Fry announced his plans earlier this month to wed 27-year-old Spencer at the register office in Dereham, eastern England.

One of Britain’s best known presenters, Fry first gained fame in the 1980s in a comedy duo with Hugh Laurie. He also has written novels and appeared in the film, “The Hobbit.”

Lip-syncing officer getting global attention

DOVER, Del.

A video of a bald and burly Delaware police officer enthusiastically lip-syncing to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” is getting global attention.

The video, posted to the Dover Police Department’s Facebook page Friday, shows Master Cpl. Jeff Davis in uniform, driving a patrol car while lip-syncing to the popular pop song — sassy head rolls and finger-pointing included.

Department spokesman Cpt. Mark Hoffman said Saturday that he’s gotten calls about the video from news outlets in Australia, England, Germany and throughout the U.S. It had 845,000 YouTube views and counting by Saturday afternoon.

Hoffman says Davis, a 19-year veteran, is “the class clown” and loved making the video. He says the 48-year-old father of four knows the song so well because of his 10-year-old daughter.

Associated Press