In today’s roundup, Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined Lifetime’s “Cocaine Godmother,” Netflix releases the first images from its upcoming miniseries “Alias Grace,” and SiriusXM announces the latest addition to its satellite radio program.
CASTING
Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined the Lifetime movie “Cocaine Godmother,” which will recount the real life of infamous drug runner Griselda Blanco. At just 17, Blanco made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos. She soon became embroiled in the drug trade, masterminding the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as drug mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia. Guillermo Navarro will direct with David McKenna writing the script. Steven Michaels, Jonathan Koch, Joan Harrison, and Alisa Tager will executive produce.
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RADIO
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Anne Heche will host a new SiriusXM talk show, “Love and Heche,” scheduled to air every Saturday as part of the satellite radio program’s Faction Talk channel. SiriusXM veteran Jason Ellis will co-host the show, which promises “real and frank advice” about sex and relationships. Broadcast from Los Angeles, “Love and Heche” will air at 2:00 p.m. ET on Faction Talk channel 103.
AWARD SHOWS
International television and content festival “SeriesFest: Season 3” announced the official selections for this year’s Independent TV Pilot Competition, which will showcase 26 titles featuring Nigel Barker, Michael Buschemi, Kevin Corrigan, Kyle Dunnigan, Melonie Diaz, Nathan Fillion, Linda Hamilton, Sasha Spielberg, Nick Thurston, Alan Tudyk and Reggie Watts. The festival will screen an additional 16 pilots in two inaugural categories, Digital Shorts and Late Night Competition. “SeriesFest: Season 3” will run from June 28-July 1 at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, CO. Opening night tickets and VIP passes are now on sale here.
DEALS
CBS Sports will remain home to the annual Army-Navy football game, with a new all-encompassing 10-year deal extending its broadcast, cable and digital rights through 2028. The announcement was made jointly by Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports; Boo Corrigan, Director of Athletics at the United States Military Academy; and Chet Gladchuk, Director of Athletics at the United States Naval Academy.
FIRST LOOK
Netflix debuted the first images from its upcoming six-part miniseries “Alias Grace,” based on the award-winning novel by Margaret Atwood. Sarah Gadon, Kerr Logan, Paul Gross, and Anna Paquin will star in the original production, which is based on the controversial true story of Grace Marks, a young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who is accused and convicted of murdering both her employer and his housekeeper. “Alias Grace” will air in Canada on CBC on September 25.
