Elizabeth Pena.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
LAST CALL
Sad but true: Elizabeth Pena appears to have died from complications due to alcohol abuse.
According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, the 55-year-old actress, who passed away in Los Angeles on Oct. 14, was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver "due to alcohol."
The death certificate also reveals that in the hours before her death, Pena had acute gastrointestinal bleeding, which in turn caused her heart to stop beating.
Born in Elizabeth, N.J., to Cuban parents, Pena worked steadily in Hollywood following her breakout role in the 1979 low-budget feature The Super.
On the big screen, Pena essayed memorable character portrayals in the films Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Lone Star, Jacob's Ladder and Rush Hour. One of her most famous movie roles was playing Richie Valens' mother in the 1987 biopic La Bamba.
In television, Pena took on the titular role in the shortlived 1987 sitcom I Married Dora and later guested on the series L.A. Law, Boston Public and CSI: Miami.
Pena's most recent TV role was on Modern Family as the demanding Colombian mother of regular character Gloria (Sofia Vergara).
THE WINNER IS…
Neil Patrick Harris will host the next Oscars ceremony, but he wasn't the first choice for the job – or even second or third choice. According to The Hollywood Reporter, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron first asked Ellen DeGeneres to repeat as host but she refused to helm the broadcast for a third time. Next on their wish list: Chris Rock, who hosted in 2005, but he turned them down. Zadan and Meron then approached Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who likewise said no, which resulted in the producers signing Harris, who has previously hosted four Tony Awards broadcasts and two Emmy Awards.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
FADING STAR
Keanu Reeves says those leading-man roles from major Hollywood studios just aren't coming his way these days. In a recent interview with Indiewire, the 50-year-old actor admitted, "I haven't been getting many offers from the studios." When asked if he was copasetic with the lack of offers, Reeves responded by saying, "No, it sucks, but it's just the way it is. You can have positive and negative experiences, but what I like about studios are the resources and the worlds they can create. Obviously, a lot of good filmmakers work on studio movies." Reeves' next film, John Wick, arrives in theatre on Oct. 24.
Source: Indiewire
MONSTER MASHUP
Fox plans to put a new TV spin on Frankenstein. The broadcast arm of 20th Century Fox is currently mounting a TV reboot of Mary Shelley's classic story that is being described as a "grounded sci-fi drama." The new version will focus on the character of Adam Tremble, a corrupt FBI agent who receives a chance for redemption when he's brought back from the dead by an Internet billionaire. Frankenstein is expected to join the Fox primetime lineup in mid-2015.
Source: Deadline
BURIED TREASURE
Lost TV sketches starring John Cleese have been unearthed nearly 50 years after they first aired on British television. The Radio Times reports on the recent discovery of two episodes of the satirical comedy series At Last the 1948 Show, which aired on ITV in 1967 – two years before Cleese and collaborators launched Monty Python's Flying Circus. The British Film Institute says the episodes will receive their world premiere at a London cinema in December.
Source: Radio Times
ANGER MANAGEMENT
A new study has shown that 3-D video games have the potential for making gamers more aggressive. Researchers at Ohio State University recently conducted an experiment that required nearly 200 college volunteers to play the violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV for 15-minute periods on both a regular TV and a 3-D TV. Half the volunteers were told to kill as many video-game characters as possible; the other half were instructed to play nice. The results revealed those gamers who played violently on the 3-D system were "significantly angrier" than those who played on the regular TVs. "3-D gaming increases anger because the players felt more immersed in the violence," said study author Brad Bushman.
Source: Daily Mail