Entertainment
Judy Belushi-Pisano, actor and John Belushi’s widow, dies at 73
Judy Belushi-Pisano, an actor and the widow of “Saturday Night Live” star John Belushi, died Friday, according to social media posts shared by the Belushi estate. She was 73.
Belushi-Pisano died after a years-long battle with endometrial cancer, her son Luke Pisano told the Martha’s Vineyard Times. Luke said that Belushi-Pisano — a “great mother,” “beloved sister” and “special person” — was diagnosed in 2020 and entered hospice care in 2023.
John Belushi’s official Instagram, run by his estate, paid tribute to the comedian’s widow, saying “there was no one like her.”
“Judy made everyone feel loved,” the post read. “She was nonjudgmental, light, funny and pure. You could be truly yourself around her, that alone was a gift.”
The post acknowledged her “unwavering dedication and creative genius” in the creation of the Blues Brothers, a blues and revue band originally led by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
Belushi died in 1982 at age 33 from a drug overdose.
“In the years following John’s passing in 1982, Judy honored his life and championed his legacy and Blues Brothers brand,” the post read. “As we bid farewell, we pledge to continue her work, ensuring that John’s legacy, and the Blues Brothers will never fade.”
Born Judith Jacklin, Belushi-Pisano was Belushi’s high school sweetheart. They married on New Year’s Eve 1976.
“I figured that at least was a date he’d be able to remember,” she joked to the Chicago Tribune in 2004.
Belushi-Pisano spent 15 years with Belushi as he became a well-known figure in the comedy world, especially as one of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast members. She participated in Belushi’s projects, including the musical “The Blues Brothers” and comedy “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” according to IMDb.
She was deeply shaken by her husband’s death, she told the Chicago Tribune.
In the immediate aftermath, “[i]t was difficult to go to the grocery store,” Belushi-Pisano said. “It was difficult to watch him on ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
Belushi-Pisano became a champion — and a staunch defender — of Belushi’s life and legacy. Upon his death, she gave journalist Bob Woodward access to Belushi’s loved ones for the biography “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi.”
She was publicly enraged by the finished product, which detailed Belushi’s drug abuse. (Woodward said his approach was meant to demonstrate how the entertainment industry enabled the addiction, the Chicago Daily Herald reported in 2005.)
To counter “Wired” and its movie adaptation, Belushi-Pisano released “Samurai Widow” in 1990. Her intentions with the book were to shed light on who her first husband was outside of his drug addiction and to help others experiencing a similar heartbreaking loss, according to a 1990 Houston Chronicle article.
“The main theme is really a woman’s story, going through an important transition time, through two healings,” she told the Plain Dealer in 1990.
The same year “Samurai Widow” was released, Belushi-Pisano married Victor Pisano. They divorced in 2010.
In 2005, Belushi-Pisano helped write another biography about her first husband, titled “Belushi.” She told the Daytona Beach News-Journal in 2006 that she struggled for years to reconcile herself to Belushi’s death.
Belushi-Pisano, at that time, said she still placed flowers at his grave.
“Someday I imagine that there’ll be a day when I just won’t be there,” she said. “There will be something else I have to do. I went through a long grieving process. … Now I can say that’s over and I can acknowledge John’s dead. I can look at his life now and … sort of say ‘the way he died was tragic, but he had a helluva life.’ We had a lot of great times and we had struggles, and we went up and down, but mostly that was a good life.”
Belushi-Pisano is survived by her four children, as well as grandchildren.
Entertainment
Lucas Museum to give free annual passes to South L.A. neighbors, host community preview day
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is moving at light speed toward its Sept. 22 opening, announced Thursday that it will give free annual passes to its South L.A. neighbors living in the 90037 ZIP Code. The 300,000-square-foot, $1-billion museum located in Exposition Park will also host a special community preview day on Sept. 13, more than a week before the general public gets to step inside.
The 90037 ZIP Code has a population of more than 65,000 and is bordered roughly by the 110 Freeway to the west, Slauson Avenue to the south, Central Avenue to the east and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north. Residents can register for passes at lucasmuseum.org/lm37 and will be alerted in August when the program launches. Pass holders can reserve tickets for themselves and one guest.
Tickets for non-pass holders go on sale July 21. They cost $25 for adults and $21 for seniors. Kids 17 and under are free.
“Storytelling has the power to bring people together and create a sense of community,” said Lucas Museum Chief Executive Tracey Bates in a news release about the program. “Through LM37, we are inviting our South Los Angeles neighbors to make the museum part of their lives and take their own path of discovery through the art, programs and experiences that will help shape this new cultural hub for Los Angeles.”
The community preview day is designed to give local business owners, community partners, civic leaders and registered LM37 pass holders a sneak peak of the 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as the expansive gardens with 11 acres of park space.
The opening programming, curated by co-founder George Lucas, features 20 inaugural exhibitions across more than 30 galleries, including one titled “Star Wars in Motion,” containing vehicle designs, high-speed racers, flying vessels, props, costumes and illustrations from the first six films in the beloved franchise.
More than 1,200 objects will be on display from Lucas’ personal collection of narrative art. Highlights include work by Norman Rockwell and Dorothea Lange, as well as a variety of manga, children’s book illustrations and comics.
Movie Reviews
Movie review: Supergirl is a blast
Last year’s “Superman” ended with Iggy Pop singing “Because I’m a punk rocker, yes I am” — an ironic coda for a superlatively square hero. But it rings straightforwardly true for Superman’s cousin.
Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El, or Supergirl, sports not a spandex suit but a Blondie T-shirt. When we meet her in Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl,” she’s been on an interstellar bender for days. She’s more Courtney Love than Clark Kent.
Nonchalant and sarcastic, Kara is also a little Han Solo-ish, you might say, given that she moves capriciously through the galaxy in her junky spaceship while getting in fights in extraterrestrial bars. She’s a welcome, jagged riff on more buttoned-up superheroes, and Alcock is terrific in the role. If only “Supergirl” was as good as she is.
While the latest DC release, and second under James Gunn’s stewardship, has its moments, “Supergirl” struggles to match Kara’s punk-rock energy with an equally spirited supporting cast and story.
Skepticism seems to have gathered for “Supergirl” ahead of its release. Many fans have argued it wasn’t the right next step for DC Universe. But I’m not so sure. Alcock’s breezy cameo in “Superman” was one of that movie’s highlights. Handing the follow-up to her, and her faithful floating dog Krypto, strikes me as an extremely natural next step. When in doubt, follow the dog.
And much of “Supergirl” is winning. It resides almost entirely in space, touching down only momentarily on Earth. In its consistently creative production design, clever needle drops and underdog story arc, “Supergirl” resides a little closer to Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies than other DC entries. Its outer space is filled with cosmic detritus, mean characters and cute critters. Seth Rogen as the voice of a tiny alien co-piloting a space bus is an inspired concoction, as is a shabbier sci-fi realm with rest stops along the intergalactic highway.
Entertainment
Justin Baldoni and wife break silence after ‘It Ends With Us’ legal battle with Blake Lively
Justin Baldoni has broken his silence after reaching a settlement in a lengthy and highly publicized legal dispute with Blake Lively.
Baldoni and his wife, Emily Baldoni, presented a united front in an Instagram video the couple shared Wednesday that began, “So we have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because Lord knows we have.”
The “It Ends With Us” actor and director said that although they’d wanted to address the debacle that involved dueling lawsuits with Lively, nearly two years of tit-for-tat fodder and culminated in a confidential settlement, “something was telling us not to.”
The couple said they prayed about when to make a public statement. “This feels like the moment,” Emily said.
“What does feel important,” she continued, “is that we can genuinely say that we are sitting here today feeling immense gratitude for so many things and so many people and so many things that have happened to us.”
“Gratitude has saved us,” Justin added.
“I also feel that it’s important as we say that — in that gratitude — it doesn’t negate the injustice and the pain that we have also felt in the last few years, and we’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things,” Emily said. “How could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack. And the truth is, reality is, is that there’s been a lot of trauma for us to move through as a family, which also makes it hard to speak.”
“We don’t even know this is the right thing to say, but we just know we need to share something,” Justin said. “What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence — “
“Untruthful,” Emily broke in.
“We didn’t want to add to the noise, so we just wanted to let the justice system run its course,” he said.
“And the truth and the facts have spoken for themselves,” Emily said.
The couple’s statement comes a year and a half after Lively filed a bombshell lawsuit against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and several other charges on the heels of a messy “It Ends With Us” summer release and press tour that fueled rumors of on-set turmoil.
Less than a month after the allegations against Baldoni rallied Hollywood against him, he countersued Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million in damages, claiming they’d smeared his name in the press and wrestled away his control of the film. His suit was later dismissed.
In May, two weeks ahead of the trial, Lively and Baldoni reached an agreement to resolve their legal dispute, bringing an abrupt end to the contentious battle.
“The parties in the Blake Lively and Wayfarer Studios litigation have reached an agreement to resolve the matters,” lawyers for both sides said in a joint statement.
“The end product — the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
In June, a federal judge ordered Baldoni and his production company to pay Lively’s attorney fees related to his unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against her, but rejected her bid for additional damages.
“So, how are we doing?” the filmmaker said in the Instagram video. “We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It lives different every day, and we have had to rethink for ourselves what is real. What matters, and it’s this. It’s our family. It’s our friends. It’s our community. It’s our faith.”
Times staff writer Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.
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