Chris Mortensen, who came up with many a scoop at ESPN as the network’s longtime NFL reporter and analyst, has died. He was 72.
Mortensen, a George Polk Award-winning newspaperman who joined ESPN in 1991, died Sunday, ESPN announced on social media.
“We’re very sorry to share the devastating news that Chris Mortensen, an award-winning NFL journalist at ESPN for more than three decades, died Sunday morning at the age of 72,” the network posted on Instagram. “Thanks for everything, Mort. We’ll miss you dearly.”
No details were given about his cause of death, but Mortensen left his ESPN job in January 2016 after revealing that he had throat cancer. He returned to work the 2017 NFL season, even as the cancer spread to his lungs.
“I have many inspirational examples of men, women and children who have faced this very fight. We all know somebody, right?” he said in a statement back then.
Mortensen, a George Polk Award-winning newspaperman who joined ESPN in 1991, died Sunday, ESPN announced on social media.
“We’re very sorry to share the devastating news that Chris Mortensen, an award-winning NFL journalist at ESPN for more than three decades, died Sunday morning at the age of 72,” the network posted on Instagram. “Thanks for everything, Mort. We’ll miss you dearly.”
No details were given about his cause of death, but Mortensen left his ESPN job in January 2016 after revealing that he had throat cancer. He returned to work the 2017 NFL season, even as the cancer spread to his lungs.
“I have many inspirational examples of men, women and children who have faced this very fight. We all know somebody, right?” he said in a statement back then.
- 3/3/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sydney, Jan 27 (Ians) Marg Jennings and Ian Redpath have been announced as new inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame Committee, together with Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (Aca), informed.
Jennings and Redpath become the 60th and 61st inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, established in 1996.
Marg Jennings was an outstanding wicketkeeper-batter, who captained Australia in their first Women’s Odi World Cup victory in 1978. She was also instrumental in advancing the careers of many Australian greats as a long-time member and chair of the women’s national selection panel.
Jennings played eight Tests, scoring 341 runs at 28.41 including one hundred and two fifties with a top score of 104 and 14 catches and 10 stumpings. She played 12 ODIs, scoring 221 runs at 31.57 with one fifty and a top score of 57 with nine catches and a stumping.
Hailing from the Melbourne suburb of Essendon,...
Jennings and Redpath become the 60th and 61st inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, established in 1996.
Marg Jennings was an outstanding wicketkeeper-batter, who captained Australia in their first Women’s Odi World Cup victory in 1978. She was also instrumental in advancing the careers of many Australian greats as a long-time member and chair of the women’s national selection panel.
Jennings played eight Tests, scoring 341 runs at 28.41 including one hundred and two fifties with a top score of 104 and 14 catches and 10 stumpings. She played 12 ODIs, scoring 221 runs at 31.57 with one fifty and a top score of 57 with nine catches and a stumping.
Hailing from the Melbourne suburb of Essendon,...
- 1/27/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
More than seven months after ABC producer James Gordon Meek was the subject of a dramatic Federal Bureau of Investigation raid, an indictment is being prepared by the Department of Justice to present to a grand jury, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The FBI had been tracking Meek for suspected criminal activity unrelated to his work as a journalist long before the April 27 raid, according to those sources as well as two others. Additionally, new details have emerged surrounding the matter. Rolling Stone has learned that the...
- 12/19/2022
- by Tatiana Siegel
- Rollingstone.com
There's no play book when it comes to reconnecting with distant family. Before Aaron Rodgers kicks off another football season with the Green Bay Packers, the quarterback took a trip to Peru, where he explored ayahuasca. While the psychedelic drug helped the 38-year-old tune out what he called "negative voices," Aaron said it didn't help with his fractured relationship with his family. "I really felt like I wanted to surrender and open up to the medicine for some healing to come through and some direction on how to kind of go about that," he shared with NBC Sports' Peter King. "And it didn't. It didn't necessarily." At the same time, the experience...
- 8/8/2022
- E! Online
'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...
- 6/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Department of Homeland Security says it has no credible intelligence suggesting a threat this morning against movie theaters showing The Interview: “Dhs is aware of a threat made online targeting movie theaters in the United States. We are still analyzing the credibility of these statements, but at this time there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States,” the agency said.
This in response to the turn the Sony hacking scandal took today when 9/11 was invoked in a threatened attack on theaters showing the film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco:
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
This in response to the turn the Sony hacking scandal took today when 9/11 was invoked in a threatened attack on theaters showing the film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco:
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
- 12/16/2014
- by Lisa de Moraes
- Deadline
Billed as a Barack Obama election fillip, Kathryn Bigelow's tale of the hunt for Bin Laden quickly became political dynamite
When the Obama re-election machine began gearing up last winter, its presumed winning formula had the brevity of a high-concept Hollywood pitch: "General Motors is alive, Osama bin Laden is dead."
The mantra's first part received an unexpected iteration during half-time at the Super Bowl when, in an ad promoting the Us car industry, no less an icon than Clint Eastwood told the huge TV audience that Detroit had weathered the Great Recession and was coming back. (Apparently unaware he'd been cast as Obama's surrogate, the star would make amends by grotesquely lecturing the president during the Republican convention.) Meanwhile, the mantra's second part was also in the works, in the form of Kathryn Bigelow's big-budget thriller about Bin Laden's assassination; not yet named Zero Dark Thirty, the...
When the Obama re-election machine began gearing up last winter, its presumed winning formula had the brevity of a high-concept Hollywood pitch: "General Motors is alive, Osama bin Laden is dead."
The mantra's first part received an unexpected iteration during half-time at the Super Bowl when, in an ad promoting the Us car industry, no less an icon than Clint Eastwood told the huge TV audience that Detroit had weathered the Great Recession and was coming back. (Apparently unaware he'd been cast as Obama's surrogate, the star would make amends by grotesquely lecturing the president during the Republican convention.) Meanwhile, the mantra's second part was also in the works, in the form of Kathryn Bigelow's big-budget thriller about Bin Laden's assassination; not yet named Zero Dark Thirty, the...
- 1/19/2013
- by J Hoberman
- The Guardian - Film News
* What filmmakers were told about interrogations at issue
* Feinstein incensed by film's depiction of "torture"
* Acting CIA director's meeting with filmmakers scrutinized
By Mark Hosenball
Washington Jan 2 (Reuters) - After the Senate Intelligence Committee's chairwoman expressed outrage over scenes that imply "enhanced interrogations" of CIA detainees produced a breakthrough in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the panel has begun a review of contacts between the makers of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" and CIA officials.
In the latest controversy surrounding the film, Reuters has learned that the committee will examine records charting contacts between intelligence officials and the film's director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Investigators will examine whether the spy agency gave the filmmakers "inappropriate" access to secret material, said a person familiar with the matter. They will also probe whether CIA personnel are responsible for the portrayal of harsh interrogation practices, and in particular the suggestion that they were effective,...
* Feinstein incensed by film's depiction of "torture"
* Acting CIA director's meeting with filmmakers scrutinized
By Mark Hosenball
Washington Jan 2 (Reuters) - After the Senate Intelligence Committee's chairwoman expressed outrage over scenes that imply "enhanced interrogations" of CIA detainees produced a breakthrough in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the panel has begun a review of contacts between the makers of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" and CIA officials.
In the latest controversy surrounding the film, Reuters has learned that the committee will examine records charting contacts between intelligence officials and the film's director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Investigators will examine whether the spy agency gave the filmmakers "inappropriate" access to secret material, said a person familiar with the matter. They will also probe whether CIA personnel are responsible for the portrayal of harsh interrogation practices, and in particular the suggestion that they were effective,...
- 1/3/2013
- by Reuters
- Huffington Post
New York — Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal were knee-deep in preparing the follow-up to their Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker," a film that would chronicle the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, his escape in Tora Bora and the vanishing trail of the world's most wanted man.
"Then history changed," says Bigelow.
After a team of Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 last year, the director Bigelow and Boal, a journalist turned screenwriter, set about remaking their film. Whereas most films start with a concept or a dramatic arc, Boal and Bigelow built "Zero Dark Thirty" one source at a time, piecing together a narrative out of recent history shrouded in secrecy.
The approach – a marriage of Boal's reporting and Bigelow's visceral action – has made "Zero Dark Thirty" a lightning rod. Though Sony's Columbia Pictures won't release it until Dec. 19 in New York and Los...
"Then history changed," says Bigelow.
After a team of Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 last year, the director Bigelow and Boal, a journalist turned screenwriter, set about remaking their film. Whereas most films start with a concept or a dramatic arc, Boal and Bigelow built "Zero Dark Thirty" one source at a time, piecing together a narrative out of recent history shrouded in secrecy.
The approach – a marriage of Boal's reporting and Bigelow's visceral action – has made "Zero Dark Thirty" a lightning rod. Though Sony's Columbia Pictures won't release it until Dec. 19 in New York and Los...
- 12/11/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
After many controversies, the teaser for Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" has arrived. Here, Kathryn Bigelow re-teams with her "Hurt Locker" screenwriter Mark Boal to depict the hunt for notorious terrorist and al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. While the film's writer/director are Oscar-winners -- and are joined by a stellar cast, which includes Kyle Chandler, Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong and Mark Duplass -- "Zero Dark Thirty" has not been a cinch to pull off. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, raised concerns over whether or not Bigelow and Boal were being leaked classified material regarding the capture and assassination of the late al Qaeda leader. Soon after, it was confirmed that the writer/director were given unprecedented access by the CIA for their film. They met with a "planner, Operator and Commander of Seal Team Six,” the team responsible for...
- 8/6/2012
- by Jessie Heyman
- Moviefone
Obama administration under fire for granting access to Hollywood film-makers in apparent violation of official policy
The Obama administration is under fire for granting Hollywood film-makers clandestine access to the Navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden in apparent violation of official policy.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal were given unprecedented information about the 2011 raid to help them make Zero Dark Thirty, a forthcoming film about the event.
Documents released under freedom of information laws showed the Pentagon and CIA divulged secret information about the commando unit, known as Seal Team Six, which killed the September 11 mastermind.
The filmmakers were shown a classified facility, whose name was redacted in the released documents, and toured CIA vaults. They were also shown the CIA's replica of Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Peter King, the Republican chairman of the Congressional Homeland Security committee, said on Wednesday the documents...
The Obama administration is under fire for granting Hollywood film-makers clandestine access to the Navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden in apparent violation of official policy.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal were given unprecedented information about the 2011 raid to help them make Zero Dark Thirty, a forthcoming film about the event.
Documents released under freedom of information laws showed the Pentagon and CIA divulged secret information about the commando unit, known as Seal Team Six, which killed the September 11 mastermind.
The filmmakers were shown a classified facility, whose name was redacted in the released documents, and toured CIA vaults. They were also shown the CIA's replica of Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Peter King, the Republican chairman of the Congressional Homeland Security committee, said on Wednesday the documents...
- 5/24/2012
- by Rory Carroll
- The Guardian - Film News
Washington -- Obama administration officials made "a planner, operator and commander of Seal Team Six" that killed Osama bin Laden available to a Hollywood director and screenwriter working on a movie about the successful raid, according to Pentagon and CIA records obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch.
The group released hundreds of pages of documents on Tuesday, secured under a Freedom of Information Act request, that it says show transcripts of meetings and communication between government agencies, Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of "The Hurt Locker," and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Rep. Peter King (R-n.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement Wednesday that the emails tell a "damning story of extremely close, unprecedented, and potentially dangerous collaboration" with top officials at the CIA, Department of Defense and the White House, as well as with a top Democratic lobbying firm, the Glover Park Group.
The group released hundreds of pages of documents on Tuesday, secured under a Freedom of Information Act request, that it says show transcripts of meetings and communication between government agencies, Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of "The Hurt Locker," and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Rep. Peter King (R-n.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement Wednesday that the emails tell a "damning story of extremely close, unprecedented, and potentially dangerous collaboration" with top officials at the CIA, Department of Defense and the White House, as well as with a top Democratic lobbying firm, the Glover Park Group.
- 5/23/2012
- by Andrea Stone
- Huffington Post
Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama Bin Laden movie—which now has the working title Zero Dark Thirty, which is military jargon for both “an early start time” and “wicked industrial band”—has barely even had the chance to have Kyle Chandler squint disapprovingly at the 9/11 mastermind, and already the film is the subject of scandals both domestic and foreign. As reported earlier, Homeland Security chairman Peter King called for a Pentagon investigation of the film, based on his suspicion that the White House shared classified information with Bigelow and, presumably, that some of those people playing the Muslims might ...
- 3/2/2012
- avclub.com
There are two pieces of news coming out for Kathryn Bigelow's (The Hurt Locker) upcoming Osama Bin Laden film, previously-titled "Kill Bin Laden." The first is that Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke and Chris Pratt are on board to star, while Mark Strong, Jessica Chastain and Edgar Ramirez are in talks. But while the film is moving toward its production start date, the Defense Department and CIA are teaming up to investigate the claims of Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Those claims are that government officials in the Obama administration have leaked classified information on killing of Bin Laden to Bigelow and her writer Mark Boal. "I am pleased that DoD and the CIA agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address," said King. "The leaks that followed the successful Bin Laden mission led to the arrests...
- 1/6/2012
- WorstPreviews.com
Last year following the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, the writing-directing team of Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) immediately began to reshape a film about Bin Laden they were already working on by updating it to include the events that lead to the terrorist leader's death. Soon after their plans were announced, the New York Times wrote a story in which the writer, Maureen Dowd, alluded to the fact that Bigelow and Boal may have received classified information regarding the Bin Laden killing, which, if true, is not exactly kosher. That's when New York politician and Homeland Security Chairman Peter King stepped in seeking an investigation into exactly what sort of information Bigelow and Boal were provided, saying -- in a statement obtained by the...
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- 1/6/2012
- by Erik Davis
- Movies.com
Having won two Oscars for her last film, The Hurt Locker, as well as a slew of other nominations and wins, we first heard back in May of what Bigelow had settled on for her next project: an as-yet-untitled film surrounding the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which ultimately led in real life to his death earlier this year.
Joel Edgerton has been circling the project for some time, as he was considering taking on the lead for the 300 prequel, 300: Battle of Artemisia. Having now passed on that, Variety are reporting that Edgerton has officially boarded Bigelow’s project, joining his upcoming The Great Gatsby co-star, Jason Clarke. Deadline are also reporting that Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, and Édgar Ramirez are also in talks to star, which sounds like a very promising line-up.
The project has been in development since 2008, so is not necessarily the kind of ‘jumping-on-the-current-affairs-political-bandwagon’ that...
Joel Edgerton has been circling the project for some time, as he was considering taking on the lead for the 300 prequel, 300: Battle of Artemisia. Having now passed on that, Variety are reporting that Edgerton has officially boarded Bigelow’s project, joining his upcoming The Great Gatsby co-star, Jason Clarke. Deadline are also reporting that Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, and Édgar Ramirez are also in talks to star, which sounds like a very promising line-up.
The project has been in development since 2008, so is not necessarily the kind of ‘jumping-on-the-current-affairs-political-bandwagon’ that...
- 1/6/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Filed under: Movie News
Back in August, Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, raised concerns over director Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming Osama bin Laden movie, and whether she and screenwriter Mark Boal were being leaked classified material regarding the recent capture and assassination of the late al Qaeda leader. On Thursday, the CIA and Defense Department officially opened an investigation into the project, a move that King obviously agreed with. "I am pleased that the inspectors general at DoD and the CIA agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address," he said.
Continue Reading...
Back in August, Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, raised concerns over director Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming Osama bin Laden movie, and whether she and screenwriter Mark Boal were being leaked classified material regarding the recent capture and assassination of the late al Qaeda leader. On Thursday, the CIA and Defense Department officially opened an investigation into the project, a move that King obviously agreed with. "I am pleased that the inspectors general at DoD and the CIA agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address," he said.
Continue Reading...
- 1/6/2012
- by Moviefone Staff
- Moviefone
Kathryn Bigelow's film about the military's hunt for Osama Bin Laden is on the verge of enlisting three new stars.
According to a number of reports, including one by The Hollywood Reporter, Jessica Chastain, Edgar Ramirez and Mark Strong are all in talks to join the long-gestating project. On Thursday, it was reported -- and seemingly confirmed by production company Annapurna via Twitter retweet -- that Joel Edgerton had joined the picture. Chris Pratt and Jason Clarke were already part of the cast.
In development for years, the film had to retool after Bin Laden was killed by the Navy's Seal Team 6 early in 2011.
"The attempt to kill Bin laden in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001 was no longer as relevant a story as what had just happened," Edgerton told Indiewire last year, "but then what had just happened was so fresh and as we all know, history often...
According to a number of reports, including one by The Hollywood Reporter, Jessica Chastain, Edgar Ramirez and Mark Strong are all in talks to join the long-gestating project. On Thursday, it was reported -- and seemingly confirmed by production company Annapurna via Twitter retweet -- that Joel Edgerton had joined the picture. Chris Pratt and Jason Clarke were already part of the cast.
In development for years, the film had to retool after Bin Laden was killed by the Navy's Seal Team 6 early in 2011.
"The attempt to kill Bin laden in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001 was no longer as relevant a story as what had just happened," Edgerton told Indiewire last year, "but then what had just happened was so fresh and as we all know, history often...
- 1/6/2012
- by Jordan Zakarin
- Huffington Post
I had to quickly go in and update the first part of my Most Anticipated Films of 2012 list as the casting information for Kathryn Bigelow's Kill Bin Laden was out of date almost as soon as I hit publish. First arrived news from Variety that Joel Edgerton (pictured) will indeed take a role in the film after being on the rumored list for most of the film's pre-production, giving the Aussie actor two major releases within one week of one another in December as he also stars in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which opens on Christmas Day. Additionally, Deadline reports Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, The Debt), Mark Strong (The Guard, Green Lantern) and Edgar Ramirez (Carlos) are also in negotiations to join the ensemble cast. The film, which is set for a December 19 release as a deliberate move by Sony to steer clear of the Presidential Elections,...
- 1/6/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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