Table of contents for November 26, 2023 in Parade

Here’s what’s on our radar this week. Go to PARADE.COM/ENTERTAINMENT for more. Academy Award winner Gary Oldman, 65, once again dons the persona of Jackson Lamb, a brilliant but misanthropic leader of spies, for the acclaimed espionage drama Slow Horses (Nov. 29 on Apple TV+). The six-episode third season will be based on Real Tigers, the third novel in the Mick Herron spy series, in which Jackson and his eccentric agents are dragged into a conspiracy that threatens the future of not just Slough House but of MI5 itself. Following in the footsteps of his spy turn, we’ve sleuthed out some intriguing facts about the London-born Oscar-winning actor. → Oldman was a pianist as a child, and later a singer, but decided to pursue acting after seeing Malcolm McDowell in…

Available in bookstores and online A wonderful setting, a spunky heroine, gothic ĥashbacks, an engaging plot with a touch of magic—they’re all present in Nora Roberts’ new book, Inheritance: The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book 1 (St. Martin’s Press, Nov. 21, $21). In Roberts’ latest, graphic designer Sonya MacTavish inherits a Victorian mansion on the Maine coast, bequeathed to her from an uncle she never knew she had. Yes, the mansion is haunted and yes, there’s a hunky lawyer in the picture. Both the characters and the story will keep readers on the edge of their seats, right up until the cliģ-hanger ending. KNOWING NORA 1. Let us all give thanks to a 1979 blizzard that confined Roberts and her young children at home. That’s when she penned her first novel,…

Dear Marilyn, Now that the weather is much cooler, where do the mosquitos go? —David Hofer, West Allis, Wisconsin Unlike humans, mosquitos are cold-blooded creatures. This means they can’t regulate their body heat, so their temperature ĥuctuates with the environment. They function best around 80°F, become lethargic around 60°F, and can’t function below 50°F or so, which I admit resembles quite a few humans I know. (Also, like humans, they function well all year round in the tropics, such as areas in South Florida!) In most areas of the country, what mosquitos do as winter approaches depends on their species. More than 200 types live in the United States, but in general, adult males die a few days after mating, which happens only once in a lifetime. Adult females—the ones…

Any conversation about the most iconic leading men from Hollywood’s Golden Age must begin with one name: Cary Grant. For decades, the British actor with the perfectly suave, mid-Atlantic accent epitomized the kind of elegance, class, charisma and charm that only seemed to exist on the silver screen. Talented and versatile to the extreme, he could ace both screwball comedy (The Awful Truth and His Girl Friday), big-hearted romance (An Affair to Remember) and taut suspense (North by Northwest, Notorious) without losing a shred of his sophistication. No wonder Grant, who died in 1986 at age 82, once famously joked that sometimes he wished he were Cary Grant. Behind that polished character was a troubled man often conflicted by his past. Few really knew him. But with the new four-part…

In 1961, Cary Grant, at the peak of his career at age 57, was on Parade’s cover to illustrate this story, “What Makes a Man Most Attractive to You?” In a national survey of women, respondents picked the top three things that made a man most attractive: kindness, personality and conversation won out. Intelligence was right up there too but many women denied that “looks” were all that important. Still, Grant was one of the two names mentioned as an example of an attractive man. “A really attractive guy,” said one Phoenix housewife,” is Cary Grant. He has everything a woman wants or needs, from money to romance.” The only man to top Grant? President John F. Kennedy. In 1985, Grant had embarked on a series of personal appearances, answering…