Day: March 5, 2022

From podcast to ‘Pam’: a true-crime obsession

For Renee Zellweger, this began as a mercy mission for her dog. Then it led to a dream role.
Now she stars in NBC’s “The Thing About Pam” (shown here). It airs at 10:01 p.m. on six Tuesdays, starting March 8), eyeing murder cases that center on Pam Hupp.
“I binged the podcast, actually, when I was driving up and down the freeway, going to take my dog to get his hip replaced in San Francisco,” Zellweger told the Television Critics Association. “I couldn’t believe it …. It was like these escalating absurdities.”
Soon, she wanted to portray Hupp; producer Chris McCumber said that got his attention. “When a two-time Oscar-winner calls and says, ‘I’m obsessed with this story and I want to play Pam and I want to produce, ‘you say ‘Yes.’” Read more…

Best-bets for March 7: high stakes for Thony and Shaun

1) ”The Cleaning Lady,” 9 p.m., Fox. A week from the season-finale, this tangled tale gains speed. Thony (shown here) is a doctor in the Philippines, but can’t get a transplant for her son there. In Las Vegas, she worked as a cleaner … then met some mobsters. One got her to Mexico for the transplant … but was nearly killed and can’t get her back to the U.S.. Then there’s the FBI guy who considers her an informant. It’s a good episode, setting up a better one next week. Read more…