Kathleen Peterson: Last News

The Staircase, Toni Collette dies – a lot. The Sky Atlantic show sees her playing Kathleen Peterson, the wife of American novelist Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth) who was convicted of killing her and sentenced to life in prison in 2003, despite maintaining she had died after falling down the stairs. In 2017, Peterson was released after his charge was reduced to manslaughter and he was sentenced to time already served.

Hunter Ingram Each morning as Toni Collette brushes her teeth, an owl stares back at her.The stoic bird of prey is not perched outside her window but rather ornately sitting on her countertop, contorted into the shape of a ceramic coffee mug that she places her toothbrush into before she starts her day.“It’s there looking at me daily — twice a day if I’m dentally honest,” Collette says. “Maybe I need a new receptacle.”Even if its days as her morning companion are numbered, the mug is a surreal artifact of her newly Emmy-nominated turn as Kathleen Peterson, a North Carolina woman found dead at the bottom of her stairs in 2001 — a case dramatized by HBO Max’s true crime limited series “The Staircase.” The shocking death occupied headlines for months as her husband, Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth), was tried and convicted of her murder — all of it later chronicled in a 2004 French documentary also called “The Staircase.” The making of that doc was part of the 2022 series.After years behind bars and later house arrest, Peterson was released in 2017 when he accepted an Alford plea, a paradoxical agreement in which he pleaded guilty but maintained his innocence.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorHBO Max’s “The Staircase” marks the fifth collaboration for music supervisor Randall Poster and creator Antonio Campos. Poster says that the journey has helped build a musical rapport. When it came to finding the perfect needle drop moments for the true-crime series starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, Poster looked to music that would help tell the story rather than rely on the musical tastes of the characters.“The Staircase” retells the death of Kathleen Peterson, played by Collette, from a fall from a staircase in her home.

Michael Peterson likely won’t watch “The Staircase” but he has plenty to say about HBO Max’s dramatization of his life.

Addie Morfoot ContributorDisputes over Antonio Campos’ HBO Max adaptation of “The Staircase” have some in the documentary community questioning whether they would readily allow a narrative director to turn their facts into fiction.“The Staircase” revolves around the death of Kathleen Peterson and the murder trial of her husband Michael, as the filmmakers chronicling the case for a docuseries of the same name become central characters in the storytelling. Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001, and Michael was convicted of murder in 2003 before accepting an Alford plea for manslaughter charges in 2017, which freed him for good.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorWhat’s harder to work with when it comes to writing a limited series — true stories taken from real life, or the stuff of fiction? A panel of top writers debated the challenges of working with headline-driven and historical material during the final hour of Variety‘s Night in the Writers’ Room on June 9 at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood.“There’s a little bit of a tightrope-walk in a true story that you don’t necessarily have to walk in fiction,” said Dustin Lance Black, the writer-producer behind FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.” He noted that the series, about the 1984 murder of a woman and her infant daughter in Salt Lake City, deals with three intertwined stories, one of which is fictional. “That one to me, I had a slightly easier time with.

Emily Longeretta In Variety’s new feature, My FYC, Emmy contenders share what inspires them and what TV they’re focusing on — and rooting for.Courteney Cox has done a bit of everything: danced in a famous music video with Bruce Springsteen; produced a game show; starred in one of the most famous sitcoms of all time and survived a dozen fights with Ghostface.So, what inspires an actor with so many successes? Something completely different. While Cox’s own show, Starz’s “Shining Vale,” which she both produces and stars in, is an Emmy contender in the comedy category, she hasn’t been watching shows that are making her laugh. Instead, she’s been watching true crime stories, first with HBO Max’s “The Staircase.” “Colin Firth has gotten that character down.

Viewers weren’t sure what to think of one “This Morning” guest on Wednesday.

This Morning viewers were quickly engrossed as Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield sat down with Michael Peterson. The 78-year-old joined the pair in the studio on the ITV daytime show on Wednesday (May 25) as a drama series about his own very real situation is released.

This Morning fans have blasted the ITV show's decision to invite The Staircase's Michael Peterson live in studio.The 78-year-old was famously convinced of the murder of his wife Kathleen Peterson in 2001 after she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their house.In 2017, Michael entered an Alford plea to the voluntary manslaughter of Kathleen despite maintaining his innocence and he was released from prison for time served.

Clayton Davis Toni Collette has asserted herself as one of the most versatile actresses of her generation, proven once again by her phenomenal work in the HBO Max limited series “The Staircase.”Variety has confirmed that Collette has been submitted for an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series for her turn as Kathleen Peterson, the dead wife (accidental or murdered?) of Michael, played by Emmy nominee and Oscar winner Colin Firth.Read more: Variety’s Awards Circuit Emmys Predictions HubThe miniseries, based on the documentary of the same name that steamed on Netflix in 2018, tells the story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist, who is accused of bludgeoning his wife Kathleen to death after she is found at the bottom of a staircase in their home. As the clues and investigation unravel, a French documentary team begins filming the events, creating unexpected consequences.

A war of words has broken out between the filmmakers who have brought audiences two different versions, nearly two decades apart, of the real-life mystery behind The Staircase.

Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade won critical acclaim for his 2005 documentary “The Staircase”, chronicling the trial of novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife in 2001.

Sasha Urban editorAs the production designer of “The Staircase,” HBO Max’s adaptation of the seminal true-crime docuseries, Michael Shaw had immense challenges in front of him, chief among them the series’ namesake.The show, which premiered May 5, explores the confounding circumstances of the death of Kathleen Peterson (played by Toni Collette), whose body was found at the bottom of a narrow staircase in the back of the North Carolina home she shared with her novelist husband Michael (Colin Firth) and their five children. Although the original French documentary series captures the Peterson family and their house in great detail, when Shaw first signed on alongside set decorator Edward McLoughlin, he hadn’t seen the documentary — and didn’t plan to.

Katcy Stephan SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through Episode 4 of “The Staircase,” which hit HBO Max on May 12.Despite her death being the catalyst for a highly publicized court case and miniseries, not much is publicly known about Kathleen Peterson’s life and personality. “The Staircase,” HBO Max’s true crime miniseries from Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn, seeks to change that by fleshing out Kathleen as a human being. “I just love that the show on the whole is a more balanced view of their family,” Toni Collette, who plays Kathleen Peterson in the series, tells Variety.

The first three episodes of The Staircase are streaming now on HBO Max and fans have a lot of questions already.

Police responding to Michael Peterson‘s call that his wife had fallen down stairs encountered a truly gruesome scene when they arrived at the house.

Spoilers for “The Staircase” documentary and HBO Max series follow.In the early hours of Dec. 9, 2001, novelist Michael Peterson made a panicked, tearful 911 call: He had found his wife Kathleen unconscious and bloody at the bottom of a staircase in their Durham, North Carolina, house.

Michael Appler On Wednesday evening in New York City, Colin Firth and the cast of HBO’s “The Staircase” celebrated its premiere at the Museum of Modern Art.Created by Antonio Campos with showrunner Maggie Cohn, “The Staircase” marks HBO’s turn at the true crime story of Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in 2001. The story of what followed and came before — her husband Michael Peterson’s indictment and trial, unearthed secrets, treatment by prosecutors and twisting family drama — was first the subject of a 2004 documentary miniseries, then republished and given new episodes by Netflix, and now fictionalized in HBO’s limited series led by Firth and Toni Collette. “I think about Truman Capote and ‘In Cold Blood,’ which was itself a first of its kind,” Parker Posey, who plays the prosecuting attorney Freda Black in the series, told Variety at the premiere.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe true-crime tale has lately dominated scripted TV, with miniseries-length dissections of infamous incidents coming thick on the ground. Many of these shows have played as flat reenactments that don’t earn the running time they demand, serials that seem to be more interested in checking items off a list to get us to an opinion about “what really happened” than in finding something transformative in a familiar story.

Colin Firth and Patrick Schwarzenegger were just two of the stars who stepped out for the premiere of their new series, The Staircase, held at Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night (May 3) in New York City.