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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 23 June 2018
Actress Betty Buckley wants to ‘make America happy again’

By MIKE CIDONI LENNOX And then the phone rang.
Associated Press It was an offer for a role
LOS ANGELES (AP) — as a regular on a TV series
There’s busy. And then that Buckley said she al-
there’s Betty Buckley busy. ready loved, the supernat-
The veteran singer and ac- ural drama “Preacher.” The
tress began the month with character, gleaned from
four nights of concerts in the original comic book
New York celebrating the series, is the twisted Marie
release of her new live al- “Gran’ma” L’Angelle, the
bum, “Hope.” grandmother who Coo-
Buckley appeared earlier per’s character had aban-
this week on the season fi- doned long ago because
nale of The CW’s “Super- of her ruthlessness.
girl,” and will be back on “But he needs me to bring
television screens Sunday Tulip (his girlfriend, por-
as the creepy, compli- trayed by actress Ruth
cated grandmother of Negga) back to life,”
star Dominic Cooper’s title Buckley explained. “And I
character “Preacher” on have those skills, as a Ca-
AMC. jun sorceress. And so that’s
Buckley has another major where we open up in sea-
gig ahead — the lead role son three, and we go from
in a national tour of “Hello, crazy to crazier, and wild to
Dolly!” wilder. It’s so much fun.”
The versatile Buckley, 70, In this June 15, 2018 photo, actress Betty Buckley poses for a portrait in Los Angeles to promote The Jerry Herman musical
is famous for a number her album “Hope.” spins around Dolly Gallagh-
of roles, the film “Split,” Associated Press er Levi, a turn-of-the-centu-
TV’s “Eight is Enough” Buckley said the album is, bad luck for Buckley. worse yet, her well, tractor ry New York matchmaker
and Broadway’s “Cats,” in part, a response to the “I was sitting at my ranch and heating and cooling who meddles in the lives
for which she won a Tony widening divides between in early January, nursing an system had all just bitten of her clients. Carol Chan-
Award. people worldwide since extended case of bronchi- the dust. ning played the character
Her album is an eclectic the 2016 election. tis, and everything started Instead of being over- in the 1964 original Broad-
array of classic standards, “Our mission is to heal falling apart at the seams,” whelmed, Buckley tempt- way cast. Bette Midler won
jazz, rock, pop and Ameri- hearts,” Buckley said. Buckley recalled, noting ed the fates. “I was like, the Tony Award and broke
cana. Without naming U.S. The frenzy of opportunities she’d been sick throughout ‘You know what? Bring it box-office records with the
President Donald Trump, emerged after a spate of the holiday season, and, on, universe!’” 2017 Broadway revival.q

China blocks John Oliver on social

media after scathing show

failure messages saying
“the content contains in-
formation that violates rele-
vant laws and regulations.”
Oliver’s show on Sunday
made satirical references
to Xi and the way that Chi-
nese internet users often
joke that he resembles Win-
nie the Pooh.
The show also referred
to China’s internment of
hundreds of thousands of
members of the Muslim Ui-
ghur minority groups in po-
The popular Chinese social media site is blocking users from litical indoctrination camps
posting about the show and its HBO host Oliver after the news .
satire program aired a segment this week making fun of Xi. Oliver called Xi “the man
Associated Press who is now emperor for
Associated Press being compared to Win- life,” referring to the Chi-
BEIJING (AP) — A popular nie the Pooh and his coun- nese leader’s power grab
Chinese social media site try’s crackdown on human earlier this year when presi-
is censoring discussion of rights. dential term limits were
“Last Week Tonight” and Attempts to send posts with eliminated.
its HBO host John Oliver either the terms “John Oli- On YouTube, the video of
after he mocked Chinese ver” or “Last Week Tonight” the 20-minute segment was
President Xi Jinping, his ap- on the Sina Weibo micro- viewed more than 3.3 mil-
parent sensitivity about blog Friday were met with lion times by Friday. q