Author: rb809rb

Dennis Haskins, who for more than a decade played the lovable but stern Principal Richard Belding on Saved by the Bell, has died, his agent, Jay Schachter, announced in a statement. He was 75. 

“It’s a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more,” Schachter said. “He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly.”

Details of his death were not provided.

Haskins played Principal Belding first on the Disney Channel show Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was retooled after one season and became Saved by the Bell on NBC, running from 1989-93. He then reprised the character on Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which aired from 1993-2000. 

Haskins would go on to play Belding one final time in February 2015 when he reunited with Bell stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen for a sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The Chattanooga, Tennessee-born actor appeared in numerous TV shows and films throughout his decades-long career, including Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), Mad Men, Hot in Cleveland and New Girl. He also was on the Showtime series I’m Dying Up Here, Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken and FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Haskins made his onscreen debut in 1979 when he showed up on an episode of CBS’ The Dukes of Hazzard. 

He played basketball for a year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and in 2000 was honored with the school’s Most Distinguished Alumni Award. He also had a regional high school academic decathlon named after him, The Dennis Haskins Open. 

Also a musician, Haskins in 2000 participated in two USO tours for troops in Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia and again in 2002 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman and Kyrgyzstan. He also flew with the Blue Angels. 

He is survived by his son, Dustin.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will honor filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mipo O with its Kurosawa Akira Award at the event’s 39th edition next month.

Named for the Japanese master, the award recognizes directors whose work has made an impact on cinema and who are expected to help shape its future. It was revived in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus with support from Capcom. Last year’s recipients were Chloé Zhao and Lee Sang-il.

This year’s honorees were selected by a committee comprising filmmakers Yoji Yamada and Lee Sang-il, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.

Rasoulof, one of Iran’s leading dissident directors now living in exile in Europe, won Berlin’s Golden Bear for There Is No Evil (2020), while The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) received a special prize at Cannes before earning an international feature Oscar nomination as Germany’s submission.

The committee singled out the two films for “their humanist perspective, which portrays even those who perpetrate oppression as ordinary citizens.” It also praised Rasoulof’s “unwavering commitment to creative expression despite relentless pressure.”

“Receiving the Kurosawa Award is a great honor for me. His films are profound explorations of the human condition and the moral choices we make in moments of crisis. Kurosawa was a dynamic and inquisitive visual storyteller whose unique perspective on humanity, nature, and the world has made his work an enduring source of inspiration in cinema,” Rasoulof said.

O, a Japanese-born filmmaker of Korean descent, made her feature debut with The Sakais’ Happiness in 2006. Her credits include The Light Shines Only There (2014), Japan’s Oscar submission that year, and Being Good (2015), an ensemble drama exploring child abuse, bullying and the possibility of breaking those cycles through human connection.

After a nine-year break from feature filmmaking, she returned with Living in Two Worlds (2024), a family drama starring Ryo Yoshizawa as the hearing son of deaf parents, whose desire for independence complicates his relationship with his mother. Her latest, How Dare You? (2025), takes a more comic approach to childhood, following three elementary school students whose budding environmental activism — mixed with a classroom crush — leads to unintended consequences.

The selection committee praised her “multifaceted perspective on individuals living on the margins of society” and her avoidance of “a simple lens of good vs. evil,” while highlighting her work with child performers.

“To receive such an extraordinary honor on the 20th anniversary of my directorial debut fills me with immense gratitude and deep humility,” O said. “Winning the Shindo Kaneto Award in 2010 provided me with the vital support to keep making films. Though my progress has been slow, reaching the Kurosawa Akira Award is a stroke of fortune that makes me truly savor what a happy cinematic journey I have had. This recognition is by no means mine alone. My heartfelt thanks go to all the cast and crew members I have met along the way, the audience who stepped into the theaters, and the selection committee—led by director Yamada Yoji—who discovered my films.”

Tokyo will also screen 4K restorations of Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata (1943) and Ikiru (1952), alongside Charles Chaplin’s The Circus (1928) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987).

Separately, the festival named Alice in Borderland actor Hayato Isomura president of its Ethical Film Award jury. Launched in 2023 with Sumitomo Corporation, the prize recognizes films addressing social issues including the environment, poverty and discrimination. Three members of TIFF’s Student PR team will join Isomura on the jury.

The nominees are Brazil’s Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World, the German-Ukrainian feature I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming and Australia’s Time and Tide. The award ceremony and a talk with Isomura are scheduled for Nov. 2.

“Today, we absorb vast amounts of information in seconds through a small screen. I often feel we fall into the trap of believing we understand something instantly, constantly searching for quick answers. Yet, when it comes to deepening our awareness and understanding of social issues, the process of reaching those answers is what truly matters,” Isomura said. “Cinema possesses the unique power to pause our hurried pace, allowing us to experience that very process through the lives and emotions of others. I am committed to taking the thoughts, hopes, and wishes woven into these films by each filmmaker deeply to heart, and to reflecting on them together with everyone.”

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26-Nov. 4, with the TIFFCOM market taking place Oct. 28-30.

Jeff Probst said “nothing has changed” on Survivor when it comes to the reality show’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, despite Paramount rolling back DEI policies when Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The long-running host and showrunner recently told The New York Times that it was “one of the biggest positive changes ever,” referring to when CBS launched a DEI initiative in 2020, post-Black Lives Matter, that required unscripted reality shows to have at least 50 percent of castmembers be people of color.

“If you watch our show, you know that we’re so diverse — and it’s not just skin color or ethnicity. It goes much deeper than that,” the Emmy winner said. “It’s one of the biggest positive changes ever. Our stories are so much more interesting now because we have people from completely different walks of life.”

The Hollywood Reporter reported last year that Paramount was among companies across the entertainment industry stepping back on policies aimed at boosting diversity amid a larger crackdown on DEI programs driven by the Trump administration. David Ellison’s Skydance also committed to eliminating all DEI initiatives last year as it sought the FCC’s approval for Skydance’s merger with Paramount.

Probst added to the Times, “I feel no pressure. No one ever says, can you count the numbers again? But Jesse Tannenbaum, who runs our casting team, knows: There’s no stopping, not because we’re told to do it. This is what we need. We need diversity. It’s for narrative. All those differences matter in the story when you throw people together and force them to rely on each other while conspiring against each other. The more diverse, the more interesting.”

As Survivor returned for its 51st season last Wednesday, Probst previously told THR that he felt “enormous pressure” heading into the new season following the show’s milestone 50th season.

“We felt pressure before we shot 50,” the host said. “We were already feeling like, ‘What are we going to do after 50, even though we have not even produced 50?’ And I think that pressure was really good because it focused us on 50 and the minute 50 was over, everybody was thinking, ‘OK, what’s next?’ That’s really what led to this idea of the ‘Open Era’ — the pressure of needing something new to really birth us into the next decade.”

Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams live on Paramount+.