authors: Last News

“Flipping Boxcars,” out Sept. 12 (Amistad/HarperCollins), tells the story of Floyd “Babe” Boyce, a bootlegger in Carruthersville, Mo.

“Babar” author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global, multimedia franchise, has died. He was 98.De Brunhoff, a Paris native who moved to the U.S.

While filming “The Blues Brothers” in 1979, John Belushi was partying so hard that he was often unable to function.One night, after yet another Belushi delay, director John Landis knocked on the door of his trailer, fed up.“Inside, John sat disheveled, eyes vacant. Atop a desk sat a mound of cocaine,” writes Daniel de Visé in his new book, “The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic,” (Atlantic Monthly Press, March 19).“ ‘John, you’re killing yourself,’ Landis cried. ‘Do not do this to my movie.

The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories.““The bookstores canceled because of protester intimidation,” Gelman, who portrayed Murray Bauman on the Netflix hit, told The Post. “I didn’t get a lot of specifics … [but] I definitely believe it’s because of my vocal support of Israel and because of the fact that I’m Jewish.

Taylor Swift knows a thing or two about being catnip.Indeed, the pop superstar worked all of her flirtatious feline wiles as Bombalurina in “Cats,” the much-maligned 2019 movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.But Swift had a different kind of kitty persuasion on “Argylle,” the upcoming spy thriller starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson and more.Director Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass,” “X-Men: First Class” and the “Kingsman” films) says that it was the “Anti-Hero” singer who was “responsible” for the scene-stealing Scottish Fold cat featured in the film, which hits theaters Feb. 2.It all started when Vaughn’s two daughters with his supermodel wife, Claudia Schiffer, convinced their mother to buy them a Scottish Fold for Christmas after seeing Swift’s cat in her 2020 “Miss Americana” documentary.

(Dey Street, out Tuesday) by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong. The book tracks the meteoric rise of “Mean Girl,” which has become such a quotable pop culture mainstay that even Hilary Clinton used a “Why are you so obsessed with me” quip against Donald Trump a few years back.

“Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques” (Algonquin Books). She’s eaten cake naked for a Hieronymus Bosch-themed party, stripped for a biker convention in rural North Dakota, and accidentally electrocuted herself on stage. But her interactions — both in burlesque and in other sex-related work — gave her a unique insight into human psychology and led her to a career in mental health.

Sandra Bullock may have been busy with magic and spells on “Practical Magic,” but she did take time out of her busy schedule to do a selfless act.According to Alice Hoffman — the author of the 1995 novel of the same name — the Oscar winner reached out to her son when he was too sick to visit the set.“I don’t know how old he was at that time, but he was maybe 10 or 11. He couldn’t go on the set,” Hoffman, 71, recalls to the Post. “Sandra Bullock called him at the hotel and talked to him for an hour.

“Practical Magic” was released in theaters 25 years ago on October 16, 1998 — and Alice Hoffman can’t believe it either.The author, who brought the story of the Owens sisters to life in the 1995 novel of the same name, says it “feels like it was yesterday” that the film was being made.“I think the reason why is because it’s more popular every year,” she tells the Post. “It’s kind of become a cult movie. And I think it’s a movie that really matters to people.”“Practical Magic” was directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witch sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, respectively.

“You’re Gonna Die Alone (& Other Excellent News)” (Blackstone) stands out. “You might think it is a trite, unimportant, vacant collection of barely-thoughts from a sad, narcissistic internet clown,” she writes of this collection of personal stories designed to address a wide range of issues and emotions.

What’s on Emily Holland’s nightstand?“I always have a few books I’m working through,” says the chair of OutWrite, The DC Center’s literary festival, held annually in August.“I’ve been on a bit of a romance kick lately and am currently reading a queer romance called Love at First Set. It’s a nice kind of bedtime read.

“The Spectacular” (Dutton, out now). The novel follows Marian, a plucky young dancer in the 1950s, who defies her family’s expectations when she runs away from home to join the Rockettes — right as a mysterious bomber is terrorizing the city, leaving explosives in some of the Big Apple’s most iconic landmarks.Davis interviewed about a dozen Rockettes in the course of her research, but Lachenauer proved to be an invaluable resource, plying her with old programs and photos from her time there, as well as reading a manuscript and providing notes for Davis to make her tale as authentic as possible.“I was really intimidated because I don’t have a dance background,” Davis explains.

“The Road,” has died. The fiction and drama writer was 89.McCarthy died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his son, John, confirmed to The Post.

13-minute video announcement that he will be starting chemotherapy “very soon.” He’s not experiencing symptoms, but admitted to feeling “stressed.” “It seems likely that we caught mine early. I’m still waiting on a scan to sort of confirm that,” he shared. Green and his brother, “The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green, gained a following through their YouTube channel vlogbrothers, which they launched in 2007.

America’s dad might be coming to a city near you.Actor, writer, director, author, ten-time “Saturday Night Live” host and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is currently on tour promoting his new book “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.”At all shows on the tour, Hanks will sit down with moderators and discuss the new novel which tells the story of a huge Marvel-like superhero flick called Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall” and the comic book it’s based on.There’s only one problem — Hanks has only two Q&A’s remaining on his tour schedule.The “Cast Away” star is set to appear at San Francisco’s Sydney Goldstein Theater on Tuesday, May 16 and Portland, OR’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday May 18.Thankfully, if you’re hoping to catch Forrest Gump/David S. Pumpkins/Woody/Mr.

Town & Country cover interview with John Waters. You may have caught one of his monologue performances or performing with his Unitard trio at New York’s Joe’s Pub. You might’ve read one of his novels — maybe The Underminer, co-written with Virginia Heffernan.

Famed author Jodi Picoult, 56, stunned fans this week when she revealed in a TikTok video how to properly pronounce her last name.The native Long Islander has published more than two dozen novels, including “My Sister’s Keeper,” which was adapted into the 2009 hit film of the same name, starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin.But her fame hasn’t helped with the pronunciation of her name.“Hey there, it’s Jodi,” Picoult says in the 34-second clip, which has been checked out by nearly a million viewers in just two days.“I hear that since I joined TikTok, there has been a little bit of discussion about how to pronounce my name.”The author noted, “You all get Jodi right, but you’re not too sure about the last half of it.”Then came the plot twist. She declared her last name is pronounced “pico,” as in pico de gallo, holding up a jar of the salsa to emphasize her point.

the Guardian reported.Hanks’ “wildly ambitious” book — “The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece” — will cover 80 years and lead to the opening of a movie, according to the publication. The “colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film” will feature characters such as a troubled soldier, a young child, eccentric director, a pompous film star and a production assistant.“Movie making is very hard work over a very long period of time that consists of so many moments of joy slapped up against an equal number of feelings of self-loathing,” said the 66-year-old “Forrest Gump” actor.

the Booker Prize-winning author who turned Tudor power politics into page-turning fiction in the acclaimed “Wolf Hall” trilogy of historical novels, has died. She was 70.Mantel died “suddenly yet peacefully” surrounded by close family and friends, publisher HarperCollins said Friday.Mantel is credited with reenergizing historical fiction with “Wolf Hall” and two sequels about the 16th-century English powerbroker Thomas Cromwell, right-hand man to King Henry VIII.The publisher said Mantel was “one of the greatest English novelists of this century.”“Her beloved works are considered modern classics.

“Weinstein Effect” is still lingering Monday, five years after mainstream reports of Harvey Weinstein’s dark sexual reign of terror first came to light.Author Ken Auletta’a bombshell new book, “Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence,” dives deep into the ugly truth of the disgraced film producer’s downfall. “[He] had some notion in his head that his body was attractive,” the author, 80, told Fox News, despite witness testimony that he smelled of feces, had genitals scarred to the point they “looked like a vagina” and a back full of “uncomfortable” blackheads.Still, “he really thought he was God’s gift, a Don Juan,” added Auletta, who spoke to multiple former Miramax film studio employees, Weinstein accusers and even his business partner brother, Bob Weinstein, for the exposé.In one chapter, the famed media critic for New Yorker magazine recounts how Jessica Mann — an ex-actress who claimed Weinstein, 70, raped her — testified on the stand that he smelled like “poop” and his private parts looked “deformed.”“I remember the district attorney passed around pictures [at his 2020 trial] … and the jurors barely looked at them.

Mercury News.McCorquodale, who is the wife of former Democratic state Senator Dan McCorquodale, had earned a whopping $2.45 million in grants since 2009 by writing the aforementioned history book as well as grant applications. The executives awarded her the no-bid contracts as she was “uniquely qualified to do the work.”However, Santa Clara County investigators became suspicious of the star scribe after Mercury News claimed that a fifth of her 580-age opus — which was submitted two years late in January — was lifted nearly “word for word” from Wikipedia, the History Channel, Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation website, and even, somewhat ironically, the Mercury News.