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Detective Hailey Upton is no longer helping the Intelligence Unit solve cases on Chicago Pd, but her portrayer, Tracy Spiridakos, is seemingly continuing the character's legacy in her next project. Spiridakos joined the cast of Chicago Pd near the end of its fourth season to replace Sophia Bush's Detective Erin Lindsay. Upton went on to become a fan-favorite character over the course of Spiridakos' eight seasons and 140 episodes on the NBC police procedural TV series. Sadly, though, the actress exited Chicago Pd following the season 11 finale in May 2024.

Following its fall finale in November 2024, Chicago Pd season 12 returns with episode 9 on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 10 pm Et on NBC.

During an interview with Variety, Spiridakos explained that she left Chicago Pd to pursue other opportunities. She said, "I was just curious what was out there for me and wanted to switch it up, and that was it." As for why...

Exclusive: Filming has wrapped in western Massachusetts on indie thriller After, starring Dónall Ó Héalai (Monster), Tracy Spiridakos (Chicago P.D.), Andy Richter (Conan), Kevin Pollak (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Karren Karagulian (Anora), Melia Kreiling (Emily In Paris), Ben Shenkman (Billions), Micheál Neeson (Somewhere Quiet) and Gabriella Piazza (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning).

Michael Marantz (The White Rabbit) directs from his script about a man named Ethan (Ó Héalai), a retired true-crime podcaster, who is forced to dive back into danger when his sister, Emily (Piazza), mysteriously vanishes.

The project hails from Already Alive and Vagrants Originals and is produced by Krista Minto (Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point) and Dan Kennedy (Honeydew), with cinematography by Tim Sessler.

Ó Héalai stars in the recently released TG4 & BBC Ni Television series, Crá. He’s otherwise best known for his performances in Arracht (Monster) — for which he was nominated for an Irish...

Michael Gandolfini’s star rose sharply with his appearance in 2021 The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark as a young Tony Soprano, the fictitious crime boss immortalized by his late father James Gandolfini.

The role saw him splashed across the culture and entertainment pages at home and worldwide, after a series of youthful, smaller parts including alongside Tom Holland in Cherry.

Gandolfini has since racked up credits on half a dozen features and series including Cat Person, Beau Is Afraid and Bob Marley: One World and is soon to be seen in Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Iraqi War drama Warfare and upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, for which he is confirmed in season 2.

A serendipitous outcome of The Many Saints of Newark was his friendship with producer and actor Gabriella Piazza, who played Joanne Moltisanti in the show, who in turn introduced him to emerging director Blake Rice.

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are directors known for telling gritty crime stories set in their native Sicily. In films like Salvo and Sicilian Ghost Story, they’ve shined a light on the island’s shadowy world of organized crime. Their latest work, Iddu, continues in a similar vein, this time focusing on two complex characters embroiled in the mafia’s machinations.

Iddu centers around Catello and Matteo, a former politician and wanted crime boss. Having recently been released from prison, Catello is eager to regain what he’s lost. So when asked to correspond covertly with his gangster godson Matteo, now in hiding, he sees an opportunity. Through letters exchanged in a secretive “pizzini” system, the two men engage in an intricate dance of deceit.

Catello hopes to leverage Matteo’s vulnerability for his own gain, while Matteo navigates the challenges of leading from the shadows. Played masterfully by Toni Servillo and Elio Germano,...

Letters to Daddy: Grassadonia & Piazza Continue Their Cosa Nostra Sagas

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza reimagine the circumstances surrounding yet another mafioso tale with their third feature, Sicilian Letters. Freely inspired by events in Sicily from the 2000s, their introductory title cards reveal this tale is one where “reality is a point of departure, not a destination.” The Italian title, Iddu, is the nickname of a straggling mafia boss still being sought by law enforcement who have devised a circuitous plan to draw him out of his hideout. Starring two of Italian cinema’s most notable contemporary actors, Toni Servillo and Elio Germano, it is the directors’ most mainstream offering to date.…...

As another new school year begins, A&e has been exploring the dark side of frats and sororities in six-part docuseries Houses of Horror: Secrets of College Greek Life. First-hand accounts tell of criminal behavior, horrifying incidents and tragic stories in the tight-knit brotherhoods and sisterhoods. The show’s August 19 episode delves into the sad hazing death of Timothy Piazza in 2017. He pledged to the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Penn State University and was subjected to a hazing ritual known as “The Gauntlet.” This led to him drinking double-digits worth of alcohol and falling down basement steps, resulting in multiple injuries. Even though he was in a bad way, other members of the fraternity waited hours before finally calling for medical help, fearing that they would get in trouble for what had happened. He later died in hospital. Following Piazza’s death, 18 Beta Theta Pi brothers were initially charged for their involvement.

In real life, the actual Kramer who inspired the iconic Seinfeld character chose not to participate in the auto-erotic abstinence competition that led to the creation of one of the most beloved sitcom episodes in history. I guess those nudists just can’t close their blinds even in the real New York.

Seinfeld fans will recall that, in the honorable wager made between the four main characters in the Season Four episode “The Contest,” a victor is never actually crowned. Only the losers of the titular contest, Kramer and the all-too-cocky Elaine, ever reveal themselves before the runtime expires. Not only that, but the word “masturbation” is never once mentioned in the episode about how hard it is for four New York assholes to go without it for a few days. But when Larry David and his friends — or, I guess, friend — placed bets on their ability to keep a steady hand the longest,...

France’s Les Films du Losange is taking international sales outside Italy on “Sicilian Letters” (“Iddu”), the hotly anticipated drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina (see first-look image above) and Toni Servillo (first-look image below) as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” the small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications.

The film – which is expected to launch on the fall festival circuit – looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades,...

“The Silician Inheritance” may be lauded as “the book on everyone’s summer must-read list” but it could possibly pave a way to the unearthing of the mysterious death of a family matriarch.

It’s already gone further than a simple novel that’s supposed to inspire readers with the thrill of Sicily, there’s a true crime podcast aiming to answer the questions about why a Silician woman was mysteriously murdered and who did so.

Jo Piazza – On The Drive To Uncover The Real Truth About Her Ancestor’s Murder

Jo Piazza is serious about uncovering the details surrounding the mysterious death of her ancestor. The spark was first ignited when she explored said death in her book, “The Silician Inheritance.”

It may have started off as a fictional work, but it may yet solve a real-world mystery.

Writing for People, Piazza wrote: “When I first started writing a...

Exclusive: Terence Winter, the writer-producer known for his work on Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos and more, will team with Vincent Piazza, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Phiphen to develop Midge, a tragicomic feature based on an absurd but true, as-yet-untold story.

At the center of it is Thomas Midgley, Jr., the man who in the first half of the 20th century invented two of the most toxic and disastrous chemicals humankind has ever known — leaded gasoline and Freon —without having even been a chemist.

In a statement on the project, Winter told Deadline that “the only thing crazier than this story is that it hasn’t already been told.”

He’s teaming with Piazza to pen the script and both will exec produce, along with automotive journalist Jamie Lincoln Kitman, who also serves as a research consultant on the project. Phiphen’s founder Molly Conners will produce alongside Academy Award nominee Rachel Winter (Dallas Buyers Club). Director meetings are underway.

Winter is best known for creating the acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire, as well as for producing and scripting dozens of episodes of The Sopranos, for which he earned three Emmy Awards. In his 25-plus years in television, he’s also won three PGA awards and four from the WGA. Also the creator of HBO’s Vinyl, he’s otherwise best known for scripting Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. More recently, he co-wrote Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love, which is out in theaters now.

Piazza is best known for his work on the acting front, having appeared in everything from Boardwalk Empire and Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys to the Sylvester Stallone starrer Tulsa King and IFC thriller Centigrade.

Most recently, Appian Way produced the DiCaprio starrer Killers of the Flower Moon, helmed by Scorsese, which is up this year for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Phiphen’s recent projects include the comedic thriller Coup! starring Peter Sarsgaard, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival and will be released by Greenwich Entertainment, and the Nicolas Cage Western Butcher’s Crossing.

Winter is repped by CAA, Lbi Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Piazza by Gersh, Untitled Entertainment and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will star in a drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”

The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.

After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy will be examined in a new iHeartPodcasts’ series debuting Thursday at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

Hosted by Glynnis MacNicol, podcast editor and author of No One Tells You This, Wilder is an eight-part series looking at the work and impact of the American storyteller and scribe behind the famous Little House on The Prairie books. Wilder will release its 42-minute premiere episode on Thursday as part of the festival, with new episodes to follow every Thursday.

Published beginning in 1932, the books follow the Ingalls’ family as they settle the Western frontier, their popularity inspiring a TV show, pageants and fashion lines. “This is my childhood fantasy come to life. Laura’s books have been read by millions,” MacNicol teases in the podcast’s premiere episode. “In many ways, her story is the American story of being on the road. As a young girl, she...