Anne Rice, the author best known for penning Interview With the Vampire, later adapted to the 1994 Warner Bros. movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, died of complications from a stroke on Saturday, her son, Christopher Rice, announced on Twitter. She was 80. Interview with the Vampire and its sequels reinvigorated and redefined the genre and paved the way for True Blood, Vampire Diaries and the rest.  Rice’s nearly 40 novels published over a half-century sold some 135 million copies, placing her among the most popular fantasy writers of all time. In addition to Interview with the Vampire — both a critical and box office success, grossing $223.7 million worldwide — six of Rice’s other novels, including Exit to Eden and Queen of the Damned, were adapted for the big and small screens.  AMC is currently in production on two series based on her works…

Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday since 2003, announced on Sunday that he was leaving the channel for CNN’s upcoming streaming service, CNN+. “After 18 years, this is my final Fox News Sunday,” Wallace said. “It is the last time — and I say this with real sadness — we will meet like this.” Calling his time at Fox News “a great ride,” Wallace said he’s “decided to leave Fox, explaining, “I want to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in.” CNN said in a statement on Sunday that Wallace’s new show, available when CNN+ launches, will be a weekday program featuring interviews with “newsmakers across politics, business, sports and culture”…

Actress Cara Williams, who received an Oscar nomination for her performance in director Stanley Kramer‘s 1958 film The Defiant Ones, died Thursday of a heart attack at her home in Beverly Hills, her daughter, Justine Jagoda, tells The Hollywood Reporter. She was 96. Williams went on to star in a pair of CBS sitcoms — playing the TV wife of future M*A*S*H star Harry Morgan on Pete and Gladys, which ran 1960-62, followed by her eponymous show in 1962. Her other credits include the films We Go to Monte Carlo, alongside Katherine Hepburn, and Never Steal Anything Small, in which she shared a dance with James Cagney. Williams also played a moll in the Danny Kaye comedy The Man From the Diners’ Club. She was married to actor John Drew Barrymore, the son of movie legend John Barrymore and the father of actress Drew Barrymore, from 1953-59…

 

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