Bill Newcott

Biography: Bill Newcott is host of AARP's Movies for Grownups. He blogs about movies, television and all things entertainment.

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Bill Newcott 'sPosts

Facebook: Judi Dench Is NOT Your Friend. Stop Asking!

Posted on 05/6/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

Entertainment | Home & Family | TechnologyFacebook hates me. I used to think of Facebook as a sort of friend to the friendless. Whatever its societal shortcomings, I reasoned, at least by redefining the term “friend” to mean “any being capable of hitting the ‘accept’ button on a computer screen” Facebook put friendship — or something like it — within reach of just about everybody, no matter how awkward, ugly, or generally unappealing they might be. In other words, it was the perfect place for me. …

Barbra Streisand: A Life in the Movies

Posted on 04/19/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

Bulletin Today | EntertainmentOne of the great what-if stories in Hollywood history has Elvis Presley turning down the starring role opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born. Well, although we never got to see an Elvis-Babs pairing (he would have been SO much cooler than Kris Kristofferson), Monday, April 22, brings the next best thing: Streisand on the same stage with the Elvis of presidents, Bill Clinton. He’ll present her with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award in honor of …

How to Defeat Space Aliens: A Moviegoer’s Guide

Posted on 04/17/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentTheir scientific and technical know-how make the International Space Station look like a Tinkertoy (well, it actually does kinda look like a Tinkertoy…). Still, as Tom Cruise proves in his new movie, Oblivion, it is surprisingly easy to fight back against space aliens. These classic sci-fi flicks provide an excellent primer in last-line-of-defense strategies against invaders from beyond the stars: Teach Them Yoga War of the Worlds (1953; 2005) With those spindly arms and legs, the bending …

The Government Compound Where Robots Watch TV

Posted on 04/10/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

Entertainment | TravelI recently ventured into the hollowed-out Virginia mountain where the Library of Congress keeps copies of every movie, TV show, and sound recording that’s submitted for copyright. Officially, it’s called the the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. I call it Heaven. Here are stored, in specially built vaults, the highly explosive nitrate prints of films made prior to the 1950s…historic videotapes, including the first-ever color broadcast…vinyl and shellac discs dating back to the days of Edison… and in a lead-lined vault …

Michelle Obama and Harrison Ford: A White House Preview of “42″

Posted on 04/4/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentAre you as pumped as I am to see 42, the new movie about Jackie Robinson? Earlier this week I got to attend a White House event with Michelle Obama, Harrison Ford, Jackie’s widow Rachel (who looks amazing at 90), writer/director Brian Helgeland, and Chadwick Boseman. Boseman plays the baseball legend; Ford plays the man who signed him to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey. In the State Dining Room were high school students from around the country, …

Life After Death: Fad or Final Destination?

Posted on 03/26/2013 by Bill Newcott | Movies & TV | Comments

Home & Family | Your LifeThe afterlife is a topic that just won’t die. Proof of Heaven, neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s account of what he saw while he was “brain dead” in a hospital, is at this moment No. 1 on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list. And Heaven is for Real, a young boy’s recollections of his experiences when he “died” following an appendicitis attack, sits at No. 8 (it’s been on the list for 122 weeks which is, in book terms, its …