Adrienne Shelly
An actress known for her petite stature and fiery, thoughtful performances, Adrienne Shelly first earned plaudits for her work with director Hal Hartley in The Unbelievable Truth (1990) and Trust (199...
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BirthDate BirthPlace |
06/15/1966
Queens, New York, NY |
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Sara Bareilles to score Broadway musical
June 10, 2013 4:13am ESTSinger/songwriter Sara Bareilles is heading to Broadway after signing up to create the score for a new stage adaptation of 2007 film Waitress. The Love Song star has been recruited by Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers behind Tony Award-winning musical Pippin, to write the songs for their latest project. The producers revealed the news to reporters during Sunday night's (09Jun13) Tony Awards ceremony in New York City, according to Broadway.com. Waitress starred Keri Russell as a pregnant restaurant worker trapped in an unhappy marriage. The film became infamous for the murder of writer/director Adrienne Shelly, who was killed in 2006 just months before the movie's release.
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Actress Adrienne Shelly's widower loses lawsuit
November 16, 2012 9:15am ESTThe Unbelievable Truth star was murdered in her New York City apartment in 2006 by Diego Pillco after the actress caught the then-20-year-old worker looking through her purse while taking a break from overhauling her Greenwich Village building. Pillco, who was employed at Bradford General Contractors, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the crime. A short time later, Shelly's husband, Andrew Ostroy, launched a legal battle against the construction chiefs for negligence over claims they knowingly hired a man with "a propensity for violence", but the case was thrown out due to a lack of evidence. Ostroy filed an appeal, but on Thursday (15Nov12), the Appellate Division in Manhattan upheld the earlier court ruling that the contractors could not be held responsible for the star's death.
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Shelly death suit dismissed
July 07, 2011 5:00am ESTEcuadorian labourer Diego Pillco, who was in America without proper documentation, was jailed for 25 years in 2008 after he was convicted of strangling the Waitress star two years earlier when she caught him trying to burgle her New York apartment. He had been renovating another apartment in the building at the time and Shelly's husband, Andrew Ostroy, subsequently filed a wrongful death suit against the construction company which employed Pillco, alleging the actress would still be alive if bosses at Bradford General Contractors (BGC) hadn't hired an illegal immigrant. However, the lawsuit has been thrown out of court after a New York judge dismissed Ostroy's allegations. In a ruling made public on Wednesday (06Jul11), Justice Louis York said, "While this court sympathises with (Ostroy's) loss, plaintiffs have not presented sufficient legal grounds upon which to hold Bradford... liable for Pillco's vicious crime... Plaintiffs' argument, that Pillco's undocumented status made him fearful of the authorities and therefore more likely to commit a violent crime, as opposed to fleeing the scene, is simply not logical." The judge also dismissed Ostroy's claims that better security at the apartment building could have prevented his wife's murder. His lawyer Robert Herbst tells the New York Post, "We're disappointed with the ruling and we intend to appeal."
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Fascinating Fact
September 16, 2010 5:00am ESTGLEE star JANE LYNCH, DIABLO CODY, and MAD MEN actor JON HAMM have offered their company at dinner for an upcoming auction to benefit The Adrienne Shelly Foundation.
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Shelly's husband wins legal ruling
August 20, 2010 7:15am ESTEcuadorian labourer Diego Pillco was jailed for 25 years in 2008 after he was convicted of strangling the Waitress director in November 2006 when she caught him trying to burgle her apartment. He had been renovating another apartment in the New York building at the time and Shelly's husband, Andrew Ostroy, subsequently filed a wrongful death suit against the construction company which employed Pillco. Ostroy alleges his wife would still be alive if bosses at Bradford General Contractors (BGC) hadn't hired an illegal immigrant. Now Ostroy's legal battle has taken a step forward after the judge overseeing the case at New York's Manhattan Supreme Court granted his request to use the minutes from Pillco's grand jury hearings, which are usually kept secret. Officials at the district attorney's office had opposed the move, insisting the proceedings should "remain secret to protect the identity of witnesses", according to the New York Post. But State Supreme Court Justice Louis York dismissed the challenge and ordered the documents to be handed over.
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Murdered Shelly's garden to grow in New York
July 29, 2009 1:02pm ESTShelly was killed by a construction worker in November, 2006. The garden, located in Abingdon Square Park at at 8th Avenue and 12th Street, faces the late actress' office, where she was murdered. Shelly's widower Andy Ostroy says, "This has been a long but very satisfying journey to honour my late wife in the park she loved so much, across from the building in which she lived for many years, worked and died.".
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Stars Auction Off Lunch Dates
April 09, 2009 7:34am ESTFans of Paul Rudd, Jon Hamm and David Schwimmer can now sit down to dine with their favorite stars -- the actors are offering themselves up for lunch dates in an online auction. Celebrities including director Kevin Smith, Hamm's Mad Men co-star John Slattery, and Julianna Margulies will share a meal with the highest bidders in the sale, to be held on auction Web site eBay.com. Also up for grabs are walk-on roles in movies starring Bruce Willis and Drew Barrymore. Proceeds from the auctions, scheduled to end on April 16, will benefit the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which gives scholarships and grants to female filmmakers. The nonprofit organization was set up by late director Adrienne Shelly's husband, Andrew Ostroy, following her death in 2006. Shelly was found dead in her New York apartment in November 2006. Construction worker and illegal immigrant Diego Pillco later confessed to the killing and was sentenced to 25 years behind bars last year. (c) 2009 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted. MORE NEWS: Winfrey Gets FBI Involved in Sweepstakes Scam
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Adrienne Shelly's Killer Pleads Guilty
February 14, 2008 12:22pm ESTActress/director Adrienne Shelly's killer faces a 25-year prison sentence, after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Ecuadorian construction worker Diego Pillco admitted strangling the Waitress filmmaker in November 2006 after she caught him trying to rob her apartment. During his testimony in a New York courthouse on Thursday, Pillco confessed to hanging the 40-year-old to make her death look like a suicide. Pillco, an illegal immigrant in the U.S., was renovating an apartment in the same West Village building in which Shelly had an office. He said he panicked when Shelly discovered him stealing from her purse and threatened to call the police. Pillco, 20, will be sentenced on March 6. COPYRIGHT 2008 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.
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Waitress Review
May 07, 2007 7:06am ESTFor waitress Jenna (Keri Russell) life is pie—but that’s strictly in culinary terms not metaphorical. In fact life is anything but easy or exciting for her: She spends every day working for a boss (Lew Temple) she hates before going home to a husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) she hates even more. The lone highlight of Jenna’s day—besides seeing her only two friends Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly) at work—comes when assembling naming and baking her town-renowned daily pie; today it’s the self-explanatory “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby” pie. To her having a baby would put on hold her dreams of winning an upcoming $25 000 pie contest which would enable her to leave Earl. Alas she finds out she is pregnant with Earl’s baby but something good comes out her trip to the OB/GYN—her new young doc from Connecticut Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). He’s different and his attitude is alien to this Southern town but he makes Jenna feel like she matters and it’s not long before she reciprocates. As her due date nears and their secretive affair progresses her confusion only grows but she finds clarity from the most unexpected source. Russell is a long way from Felicity the TV show that launched her career but sometimes escaping the pigeonhole of a character as popular as Felicity Porter takes more than mere time. It often takes a left-of-center role like this one and if Russell’s sole intention was to leave her past in the dust she succeeds—and then some. As Jenna she arouses everything from sadness to joy to tears of both leaving out the forced drama that made her a teen favorite years ago. And yet she maintains an undeniable air of well cuteness that enables her to play younger than she is in reality. Equally refreshing perpetual up-and-comer Fillion (Serenity) does a great job of making his relationship with Russell seem an unlikely one. He also displays great comedic skills which we last saw in ‘05’s Slither. Frankly there’s no good reason he’s not a leading man. Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Hines about the last actress you’d pick to play a Southern waitress gives her best movie performance to date even if only by proving doubters like myself wrong. Indie vets Shelly (Factotum) and Sisto (Six Feet Under) are also impressive in their comedic and somewhat villainous roles respectively. And Andy Griffith even stops by for some memorable lines! Beneath this syrupy sweet tale of pleasantness lies a pitch-black back story: Waitress writer/director/costar Adrienne Shelly was murdered in New York City towards the end of completing her movie. The shame of that in movie terms lies not only in the fact that she will obviously never see what is her best and most accessible directing effort but also that she clearly possessed massive talent and we’ll never know where she might’ve taken it. With Waitress Shelly created a warm fuzzy and vaguely nostalgic Southern dramedy with much less emphasis on the drama. And while her characters might not be completely honest representations of the South Shelly at least steers clear of offensive stereotypes that seem to saturate today’s movies opting to make Jenna’s plight the true conflict instead of choosing the proverbial “Southern climate.” Elsewhere Shelly does virtually no wrong. Waitress is exclusively about the female point of view which is quite refreshing. Shelly’s long takes of quirky dialogue between female characters—think G-rated Tarantino—are nothing short of hilarious and although the proceedings tend to take a conventional turn you’re always caught by surprise. As the tearjerker female-empowerment ending unfolds you can’t help but wipe the smile from your face and wish Shelly were still around; film could sure use a positive shot in the arm like her right about now.
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Keri Russell Pregnant
January 20, 2007 7:15am ESTFormer Felicity star Keri Russell is expecting her first child this summer. Russell, 30, and fiancé Shane Deary, 30, a contractor, have been dating for several years and became engaged last year. The star's representative, Jill Fritzo, confirmed the pregnancy to reporters from People magazine. Russell played the title role of Felicity Porter in the hit drama from 1998 to 2002 and starred opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III last year. Her latest film, Waitress, was directed by the late Adrienne Shelly and screens next week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. COPYRIGHT 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.
