News

A careful balancing act between character study and romantic comedy, Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 film Crossing Delancey strikes a beguilingly effervescent tone in spite of its main character, Izzy (Amy Irving), being so prickly and intransigent. This can largely be attributed to Silver and screenwriter Susan Sandler’s willingness to depict Izzy as a woman who lives life on her own terms, discovering herself as she discovers her power.

The film accepts Izzy in all her dysfunctional glory, understanding that we learn and grow by making often bad decisions. She’s a fascinating character for how she has complete agency but often operates against her own self-interest. And while a love triangle is at the center of the film, one never gets the sense that Izzy needs a man to fix or complete her, but rather one to complement her.

The two men vying for her affection couldn’t be...

Joan Micklin Silver, the trailblazing director behind “Hester Street” and “Crossing Delancey,” died on Thursday in Manhattan due to vascular dementia, her daughter Claudia Silver told the New York Times. She was 85.

Silver was outspoken about her experiences confronting sexism, misogyny and anti-Semitism within the entertainment industry.

“I came of age for film at a time when sexism was pretty strong. And although I could get work as a writer, I couldn’t get work as a director at all. And I had the experience of watching young men who had made shorts as I had, prize-winning shorts as I had, moving on to directing films and I couldn’t do it,” Silver said in a 2005 interview with the Directors Guild of America.

In 1975, she wrote and directed the indie film “Hester Street,” a low-budget production based on Abraham Cahan’s novella “Yekl” about a young Jewish couple who emigrated...

Joan Micklin Silver, who forged her own way as a female director in the 1970s and ’80s and helmed seven features including “Crossing Delancey” and “Hester Street,” died Thursday in Manhattan. She was 85.

Her daughter, Claudia Silver, told the New York Times the cause was vascular dementia.

The 1975 independent film “Hester Street” was the story of a Jewish immigrant couple in the 1890s. The low-budget black and white film, in Yiddish with English subtitles, proved a hard sell to studios, and was eventually financed by her husband, real estate developer Raphael D. Silver. It won rave reviews and earned $5 million at the box office, an impressive amount at the time. The 21-year old Carol Kane was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role as the wife, Gitl.

The 1988 romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey” was also set in Manhattan’s Lower East Side Jewish community. Starring Amy Irving, Sylvia Miles and Peter Riegert,...

Joan Micklin Silver, the director of films like “Crossing Delancy,” “Hester Street,” and “Between the Lines” died on Thursday at the age of 85, The New York Times reports. Her daughter, Claudia Silver, told the paper that the cause of death was vascular dementia. In addition to Claudia, Silver’s survivors include two other daughters, Dina and Marisa Silver; a sister, Renee; and five grandchildren. Her long-time husband, Raphael D. Silver, died at age 83 in 2013 after a skiing accident in Park City, Utah.

An indie pioneer who first got her start writing a series of educational films for companies like Encyclopedia Britannica and the Learning Corporation of America in the 1970s, Silver was long aware of the barriers that would likely prevent her from entering into the male-dominated filmmaking milieu.

And yet the Omaha native soon made her own opportunities, including writing and directing her first film, the low-budget drama 1975 “Hester Street.

The nominations are in! Ellen DeGeneres, The View and General Hospital lead the pack in the 2013 Daytime Emmy nominations.

Sam Champion read the 2013 Daytime Emmy Nominations on Good Morning America on May 1, and it’s a great list! General Hospital and The Young & The Restless were some of the many shows nominated, while Ellen DeGeneres, Katie Couric and the lovely ladies of The View are some of the hosts nominated. Read on for the full list.

Daytime Emmys 2013 — Full List Of Nominations

Outstanding Drama Series

The Bold and the Beautiful, CBS

Bradley P. Bell, Executive Producer

Rhonda Friedman, Edward J. Scott, SupervisingProducers

Ronald W. Weaver, Senior Producer

Mark Pinciotti, Coordinating Producer

Cynthia J. Popp, Colleen Bell, Casey Kasprzyk, Producers

Days of Our Lives, NBC

Ken Corday, Executive Producer

Lisa de Cazotte, Greg Meng, Co-Executive Producers

Janet Drucker, Tim Stevens, Coordinating Producers

Albert Alarr, Producer

General Hospital , ABC

Frank Valentini, Executive Producer

Mary-Kelly Weir,...

Former Office producer/director Ken Kwapis has sold two family-themed half-hour comedy projects to NBC, TVLine has confirmed.

The first, tentatively titled Fred and Marilyn, is inspired by the real-life relationship between writer Scott Prendergast (Kabluey) and his formidable mother.

The second is based on the best-selling Joey Pigza book series by Jack Gantos and is being billed as a high-definition family comedy. Claudia Silver (Jungle Junction) will pen the script.

Kwapis and Alexandra Beattie will shepherd the projects — both of which are only in the pilot script stage — through their In Cahoots production company.

Director-producer Ken Kwapis has sold two family comedy projects to NBC though the first-look deal In Cahoots, his company with Alexandra Beattie, has with Universal Television. Kwapis is attached to direct both projects as well as executive produce with Beattie. The first project, tentatively titled Fred and Marilyn, is written by Scott Prendergast and inspired by his real life relationship with his mother. It focuses on one man and his formidable mother. “Words like ‘domineering’ and phrases like ‘force of nature’ do not begin to describe this off-the-wall mother,” Kwapis said. “The fact that this story is based on a real person makes my jaw drop.” The second project is is described as a high-definition family comedy based on Jack Gantos’s best-selling Joey Pigza book series. Claudia Silver will write the pilot. “I’m determined to develop a family comedy that is big, raucous and actually takes place in the real world,...