Category: Entertainment

Robert F. Kennedy‘s granddaughter Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean and her 8-year-old son Gideon are missing after a canoeing accident in Chesapeake Bay.

According to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, authorities received a call from a concerned citizen Thursday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. local time stating he saw two people in a small canoe or kayak drifting in the bay.

A water rescue assignment was dispatched to the area bringing marine resources to the area. When firefighters arrived at the pier and confirmed the sighting of two people in a small vessel several miles from the pier drifting south in the Chesapeake Bay, boats and helicopters began a search.

At 7 p.m., the kayak and paddle were recovered. The search was called off due to darkness 30 minutes later but continued Friday morning.

“At this time, our family asks for privacy and that everyone keep Maeve and Gideon in their prayers,” family spokesman Alan Fleischmann said in a statement to E! News. Maeve is Alan’s goddaughter.

Maeve’s husband David McKean confirmed his wife and son disappeared on Thursday in a brief interview with the Washington Post. According to David, children were kicking a ball back and forth in a yard and the ball went into the water.

He said his wife and son “popped into a canoe to chase it down. They just got farther out than they could handle and couldn’t get back in.”

Maryland Natural Resource Police confirmed authorities responded to a call in reference to two individuals onboard a canoe “who appeared to be overtaken by the strong winds” on Thursday. Units are still actively searching and investigating today.

Maeve’s mother is Kathleen Kennedy Townsend who served as Maryland’s lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2003.

At a Coronavirus briefing on Friday afternoon, USA Today reports that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan confirmed Maeve and Gideon’s disappearance.

“A former Maryland lieutenant governor’s daughter, Maeve, and her 8-year-old grandson, Gideon, went missing after canoeing yesterday afternoon,” Gov. Larry said at a press conference. “An intensive search has been underway since late yesterday.”  

If anyone has information relating to this case, you are asked to contact the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Television has been an overwhelming comfort while millions have been doing their part and social distancing in the fight against the spread of coronavirus. And because so much TV is being consumed, both old and new, we couldn’t help but think how some of our old favorites would handle the current situation.

What would Kimmy Schmidt be up to in the time of social distancing? How would some dearly departed medical shows handle the very real pandemic? So, we asked those who helped bring those shows to life how their series would handle life in the time of coronavirus.

Created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ran for four seasons on Netflix and has an interactive movie continuation coming to the streamer. Starring Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, Tituss Burgess and Carol Kane, the series followed Kimmy Schmidt, a kidnapping victim who restarts her life in New York.

Kimmy was held for years in a bunker along with three other women and a crazed reverend (Jon Hamm), and once she moved to New York, she attempted to live a normal life with roommate Titus, landlord Lillian and employer-turned-friend Jacqueline—all while working through all that trauma.

If Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt were to do an episode about the coronavirus and social distancing, this is Carlock’s pitch:

“Kimmy Schmidt is well-prepared to shelter in place, but not so well prepared to be unable to high-five anybody. She spends the episode inventing a machine that will provide the physical and emotional satisfaction of a good high-five. It’s a Temple Grandin conceit.

“Jacqueline White would have real hard time with social distancing. She’d start an outbreak cluster after insisting that going to her colorist constitutes necessary travel.

“Titus Andromedon sees social distancing as an opportunity to fulfill his dream of living as a bed.

“Lillian Kaushtupper’s distrust of being told what to do sends her out into the empty streets of New York. It’s just like the old days, before yuppies, Uber, and children ruined the city! And just like the good old days, you come back home with a hacking cough!”

For more coronavirus TV pitches:
ER
Getting On
30 Rock

Sophie Turner is giving back to the students at her alma mater, with some sweet words of encouragement.

In a video posted on Wednesday on the YouTube channel of the Playbox Theatre in Warwick in the United Kingdom, where the Game of Thrones alum began her acting career as a child, she reads one of her favorite childhood books—Judith Kerr‘s The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The short story, published in 1968, features a character named Sophie.

“Good night everyone at Playbox and all of your families. Sending you all my love and keep acting!” Turner says after reading the book.

The Playbox Theatre trains child and teen actors. Turner starred in her first stage production there, Scary Play, when she was 3 years old—10 years before she was cast in her breakout onscreen role of Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones.

“Playbox is a fun environment,” the actress told the Coventry Telegraph in 2013. “It’s not just a place for kids to hang around and be silly. We are all very serious about acting. They do not mold you into the actor they want, but let you be yourself.”

“Two of the most memorable productions Sophie was in at Playbox were Red and Se7en, which was circus based; and at school she was very funny as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz,” her mother Sally told the newspaper.

In 2014, Turner was made a patron of the Playbox Theatre.

The actress’ children’s book-reading skills will certainly come in handy later this year; E! News confirmed in February that Turner is pregnant with her and husband Joe Jonas‘ first child.

Looks like there’s trouble in Lisa and Usman’s Nigerian paradise? In the above exclusive sneak peek of the Sunday, April 5 episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, the couple are in a heated battle of words.

Even before meeting, the engaged couple had issues over how Lisa reacted to Usman, who goes by the name of Sojaboy when he’s on stage performing, and all the attention he gets from female fans. Now together, Lisa has made it no secret that she’s not impressed with the living conditions she finds herself in while visiting Nigeria.

“You know, anything I do is not enough,” Usman tells Lisa in the exclusive sneak peek above. “And I’m kind of tired of that.”

“Let’s get it straight. Nobody is perfect. You need to make up your mind and make it quick,” Lisa tells him.

Usman tells Lisa he’s scared of the way Lisa is acting on her three-week trip to Nigeria, because if this the behavior she exhibits now, then what will life be like for him in the United States?

“What do you want to do? Do you want to end this?” Lisa asks him.

“I am trying to tell you how important I take you,” Usman says. “I have never insult you for a good two years. Directly or indirectly. You know that I have so much respect for you. Sometimes you come around and you say, ‘You are [expletive], you are this, you are that.’ I have never insulted you. But you did and I take it. So, if I should be receiving these kinds of things right now in Nigeria, what is going to happen to me if I go to America? Where I have no father, no mother, no brother, no friend, nobody to run to.”

“You are very insecure about this relationship. I thought we were further than this…This is just too much. This trip has been very stressful,” Lisa counters.

Yes, it’s a three-week trip for her in another continent, experiencing a very different life than she’s used to. But what about his life should they go forward with the marriage and move to America?

“But I am only being scared of the way you are acting,” he tells her.

See what happens when 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days airs Sundays, 8 p.m. on TLC.

In the words of her husband, “Day 10 and we’ve now cracked.”

As many of us around the world understand, social distancing from inside your home all day every day can begin to wear on you. Eventually, you don’t know what day or time it is, changing out of your pajamas becomes an unnecessary suggestion and all semblance of normalcy eventually seeps out of the window you’ve been staring at for the last 15 minutes.

But, as evidenced by this video, these times can also spark musical greatness and comedy gold. In a tweet on Thursday, talent agent Jason Finegan shared a video of his wife, former X Factor contestant, singer and actress Rachel Adedeji in their living room in England with their child and dog watching Whitney Houston‘s The Bodyguard. In the footage, Adedeji, clad in a robe, impressively belts out the late icon’s classic hit, “I Have Nothing,” while their dog barks and their daughter screams. As one tweet perfectly summed it up, “Name a better trio.”

“Day 10 and we’ve now cracked.. wife on her knees singing with kid in xmas clothing and dog going nuts,” Finegan tweeted. 

“Yup, we’ve lost the plot,” she tweeted. 

Of course, many of us are going a stir-crazy as we stay inside to prevent the spread of coronavirus—but we definitely don’t all sound as good when we sing along. 

Amy Poehler‘s kids met Leslie Knope for the first time.

While appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers (via digital video), Poehler revealed her two sons, Archie and Abel, are watching Parks and Recreation, the NBC comedy Poehler starred on for seven seasons, for the very first time.

“That is pretty cool,” she said. “It’s really sweet. I’ve been texting the cast to show them videos of the boys watching the show, which is awesome. And I don’t just say this because I’m on it, it is such a good show to watch right now because it makes you feel good and it’s about a bunch of people working together to solve problems.”

So, Poehler remembers the gist of the show, but that’s about it.

“It’s really funny because my kids are like, ‘Mom, what happens?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember,'” Poehler said. “I don’t remember any of it! It’s one long blur.”

Poehler said she remember shooting scenes and how she felt shooting specific scenes, “but the actual story of episode to episode, I couldn’t even tell you, so it’s pretty fun watching again.”

Parks and Recreation ran for seven seasons from 2009-2015. Poehler won a Golden Globe for playing always-earnest Leslie Knope, the deputy director of Pawnee, Indiana’s parks and recreation department who went on to run for public office and work for the federal government. She was nominated for six Emmys for playing Leslie Knope and one for writing “The Debate” episode.

Click play on the video above to hear more from Poehler about how she’s spending her time social distancing.

Late Night airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)