Tag Archives: Boston Globe

Lindsay Mendez Starring in Ryan Murphy’s FX Anthology Series “American Sports Story”

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Lindsay Mendez is getting in the game…

The 40-year-old Mexican American Broadway singer/actress has been cast as a series regular alongside Josh Andrés Rivera and Patrick Schwarzenegger in Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology American Sports Story.

American Sports Story, a new extension of Murphy’s “American Story” franchise, is a scripted anthological limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

The first installment, written by Stu Zicherman, is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from the Boston Globe and Wondery.

It charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez, played by Rivera, and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture. Schwarzenegger portrays Hernandez’s friend, former college teammate and fellow former NFL star Tim Tebow.

Mendez plays Tanya Singleton, Aaron’s cousin and favorite relative who becomes his de-facto mother.

Mendez, a Tony Award winner for Carousel, is currently back on Broadway top-lining the praised revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll along opposite Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff.

She most recently was a series regular on the Warner Bros. series All Rise for CBS and then OWN.

Josh Andrés Rivera to Star as the Late Aaron Hernandez in FX’s “American Sports Story” Anthology Series

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Josh Andrés Rivera is hitting the football field…

The 28-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in the first installment of Ryan Murphy’s American Sports Story anthology series for FX.

Josh Andrés RiveraRivera will portray the late former NFL star Aaron Hernandez in the season that’s based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from the Boston Globe and Wondery.

Rivera’s co-star will be Patrick Schwarzenegger as fellow former NFL star Tim Tebow.

The first installment charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Hernandez and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture.

Tebow and Hernandez were longtime friends going back before their time in the National Football League. They were onetime teammates at the University of Florida, where they won the 2008 SEC Championship and went on to beat Oklahoma for the BCS Championship title. Tebow was known for looking out for Hernandez while on the team, including protecting Hernandez from being kicked off over marijuana use and helping to diffuse a situation in a bar when Hernandez got into an altercation with the bar manager. The two first met when Tebow hosted Hernandez on a recruiting trip to UF before he graduated high school.

Both castings were completed in early 2023, prior to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but were never confirmed by FX.

“We have a fairly complete set of scripts for American Sports Story by Stu Zicherman,” FX chairman John Landgraf said back on January 12, noting at the time that the series is “heading toward production.”

That was delayed by the WGA strike, which started in May, and the SAG-AFTRA strike, which has been going on since July.

American Sports Story, one of two new offshoots in Murphy’s “American Story” franchise alongside American Love Story, is a scripted anthological limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

Rivera next stars in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. He recently played Chino in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story. He notably performed in the original company on the first national tour of Hamilton.

Starz Puts Comedy Based on Valdes’ “Dirty Girls Social Club” in Production

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Alisa Valdes’ best-selling work is getting the Starz treatment…

Starz has put in development the female-driven comedy series Dirty Girls Social Club, based on the best-selling novel by the 47-year-old Cuban American author, journalist and film producer.

Alisa Valdes

The Dirty Girls Social Club is described as a dynamic and sexy half-hour series about six diverse professional women living in New York City who’ve known each other since college. Ten years later, and through professional and personal successes, failures and heartaches, the one thing they can always count on is each other.

“The Dirty Girls Social Club is a wonderful story about friendship with complex, nuanced characters,” said Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik. “We are proud to develop a series that celebrates cultural diversity, produced by a diverse group of women.”

Ligiah Villalobos will serve as showrunner. She’ll executive produce with Anne Thomopoulos and veteran network executive Lucia Cottone.

Valdes is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of more than a dozen novels, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist and former staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.