EILEEN RYAN DIES AT 94: Deadline reports that actress Eileen Ryan died on Sunday (October 9th) at the age of 94, a week before her 95th birthday. In addition to being an actress, Ryan was mother to Sean Penn, Christopher Penn, and Michael Penn. She held roles on shows such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, The Detectives, Little House on the Prairie, Ally McBeal, NYPD Blue, ER, CSI, and Grey’s Anatomy. She also appeared in the films such as Parenthood, At Close Range, Benny & Joon, I Am Sam, and The Crossing Guard.
‘SPIRIT RANGERS’ CREATOR SAYS THE SHOW ‘IS NOW HEALING HER INNER CHILD:’ The new animated series Spirit Rangers dropped on Netflix Monday (October 10th), and the show’s creator Karissa Valencia spoke with Today about what the show means to her as a Native American. Spirit Rangers follows three Chumash/Cowlitz siblings as they protect a national park in California. “I feel like this show is now healing my inner child of feeling so not acknowledged that I existed in the present day just because I didn’t look like what was in the history textbooks, so it was really great to give these traditional stories a home to live in and take a life of their own,” she said. “A lot of the characters that we grew up loving are our first friends or the first people we’d look up to, so I was really excited that ‘Spirit Rangers’ will show Native kids as heroes — as those friends you want to be or be like,” Valencia added. “It’s just so cool to be thinking about non-Native kids looking up to us in that way, and also Native kids seeing themselves and hopefully feeling a sense of pride and acknowledgement that we’re still here.”
KELSEY GRAMMER AND HIS DAUGHTER SPENCER TO STAR IN LIFETIME CHRISTMAS MOVIE TOGETHER: Kelsey Grammer is set to star alongside his daughter Spencer in a Lifetime Christmas movie this year. Grammer plays a businessman who prioritizes his work over his family. When he gets into a car accident on Christmas Eve, “Santa gives him twelve chances to re-do the day and repair the relationships in his life to find the true meaning of Christmas,” according to Deadline.
KATELYN TARVER AND JOHN STAMOS TO STAR IN ‘OPEN BOOK’ PILOT: Deadline reports that Katelyn Tarver and John Stamos are both set to star in Amazon Freevee’s Open Book, a pilot based on Jessica Simpson‘s memoir, which sold over half a million copies in 14 weeks. If the pilot goes to series, Stamos is set to recur as the male lead.
