National Entertainment

NEW YORK — Dav Pilkey is going to the cats. The million-selling author of the “Captain Underpants” and “Dog Man” series is starting the “Cat Kid Comic Club,” Scholastic announced Thursday. The first book will be released Dec. 1.

TORONTO — Organizers behind the Toronto International Film Festival say they're still planning to go ahead with the annual movie marathon from Sept. 10-21.

NEW ORLEANS — Ellis Marsalis Jr., the jazz pianist, teacher and patriarch of a New Orleans musical clan, died late Wednesday from pneumonia brought on by the new coronavirus, leaving six sons and a deep legacy. He was 85.

NEW YORK — Cooped up at her Bronx home with her daughter and a niece because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli says she has lowered the “volume and speed” of her life.

Hamilton-raised Broadway star Nick Cordero is in hospital undergoing a test for COVID-19 after being admitted with pneumonia. His wife, dancer-turned-celebrity personal trainer Amanda Kloots, made the announcement on her Instagram account Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES — “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star Rachel Bloom has had her first child in what she says was a harrowing experience amid the coronavirus outbreak that has struck a close friend.

Emmy and Grammy-winning musician and songwriter Adam Schlesinger, known for his work with his band Fountains of Wayne and on the TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” died Wednesday after contracting the coronavirus.

NEW YORK — Shut-in television viewers tuned in to the game show “Let's Make a Deal” in record numbers last week.

Christian Ocampo knew he needed someone with "killer heels" and a runway-worthy walk to star as the titular femme fatale in his "Lady Corona" music video.

Nina Simone, “Fodder On My Wings” (Verve/UMe) Nina Simone's “Fodder On My Wings” is an album of contrasts and extremes — personal traumas and world sounds, joy and despair, harmony and defiance, the carnal and the spiritual.