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There's never really any true way to know whether a Saturday Night Live sketch will become an instant classic or quickly fade from memory. But as Will Ferrell taught audiences on April 8, 2000, you can tilt the odds pretty drastically in your favor if you fall back on a Blue Öyster Cult hit, some banging cowbell and a fittingly bizarre Christopher Walken performance. We're talking, of course, about the "More Cowbell" sketch, which imagines the recording session that produced the Blue Öyster Cult classic "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" — specifically the contributions made by cowbell player Gene Frenkle (Ferrell),...

Christopher Walken, star of the new streaming series “The Outlaws,” did what many art fans consider sacrilegious act of vandalism: He painted over an original Banksy! A spokesperson for the BBC iPlayer series confirmed the 78-year-old film icon’s act of destruction in a statement. “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it,” they told BBC.

Natalie Wood’s 1981 drowning death has remained one of Hollywood’s great mysteries for four decades. But her sister Lana Wood believes there is one person to blame for the “West Side Story” actress’ death: Natalie’s husband, Robert Wagner. “I don’t believe it was premeditated,” Lana, 75, told The Post. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t think he did it: Of course he did!” Now, she has written “Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood” (Dey Street Books), out Tuesday. The book — part memoir, part true-crime investigation using new evidence dug up by homicide detectives —...

An old mystery has resurfaced by the presentation on May 4, 2020 of the life and death of the actress Natalie Wood in a documentary produced by her daughter. Some of the facts of Wood's end are known and undisputed. On the night of her death, November 28–29, 1981, her body was found floating in the shallow surf, dressed in flannel nightgown, jacket, and wool socks, with superficial bruises on her body. She was found about a mile away from where she had spent the evening in her yacht, The Splendor, off Catalina Island outside Los Angeles, together with three...

Actor Robert Wagner, the then-husband to Hollywood star Natalie Wood, has been named a “person of interest” in the suspicious drowning death of his wife that occurred nearly four decades ago, investigators said. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s told "48 Hours” that investigators would like to speak to Wagner about Wood’s mysterious death on Nov. 29, 1981. “48 Hours” interview with L.A. investigators is slated to air Saturday in a special titled “Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water.”

There’s a place for Steven Spielberg, and apparently it’s on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1950s. A casting call has gone out for a remake of “West Side Story,” written by Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, author of Spielberg’s terrific “Lincoln” screenplay and, of course, “Angels in America.” It’s a pro-forma casting call because, in the end, the new “West Side Story” is going to need stars. Big names. And because of the setting and the time we are in, it’s going to need actual Puerto Ricans or Latinos for the parts of characters like Maria, Anita, and...

New evidence emerges...investigation could finally solve the death mystery Said to be a 'strong case file' compiled with the help of Cold Case Investigative Research Insititute Marks on Wood's body could prove she was choked unconscious and rolled off yacht wrapped in a heavy coat so that she would drown.CCIRI believes Wagner put the coat on Natalie to make it appear she left the yacht.

An explosive new coroner's report reveals Hollywood star Natalie Wood was likely beaten aboard her yacht before he went overboard and drowned in 1981. The Los Angeles County coroner's examination of the Wood case also found flaws in 'every major' finding of the previous autopsy report that led medical examiners to rule the Hollywood star's death an accident. It's the latest step toward settling the question of whether Wood was murdered, or whether she accidentally fell overboard on her 60-foot yacht and drowned - as the original police investigation concluded. The new coroner's examination asserts that bruises found on the...

Natalie Wood's death certificate has been changed from "Accident" to "Undetermined" ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the L.A. County Coroner filed documents making the change late last month. Members of Wood's family tell TMZ ... detectives from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- which has reopened the death investigation -- paid them a visit earlier today informing them of the change. They tell us ... detectives told them the change was made in part because some of the bruises on Wood's body were inconsistent with death by drowning. Family members add ... they were told...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Natalie Wood's sister says she doesn't believe the actress fell from a boat into the sea off Southern California's Santa Catalina Island where she drowned nearly 30 years ago. Lana Wood tells CNN's Piers Morgan in an interview Friday that she has spoken several times with the boat's captain Dennis Davern and he has told her that Natalie Wood's husband Robert Wagner was involved in her plunge into the sea on Nov. 29, 1981.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A yacht captain said on national TV Friday that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California. The circumstances of her death remain one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries and continue to create renewed intrigue, with homicide detectives on Thursday unexpectedly re-opening the case that had long been classified as a tragic accident.

The former captain of the boat from which actress Natalie Wood drowned in 1981 alleged on TODAY Friday that her husband, actor Robert Wagner, was responsible for her death. Dennis Davern said he is now urging homicide investigators to look into Wood's death. She had been boating with Wagner and his "Brainstorm" co-star Christopher Walken near Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California when she drowned. "I made some terrible decisions and mistakes," Davern told NBC News' David Gregory. "I did lie on a report several years ago." He added, "I made mistakes by not telling the honest truth...

US police are to re-open the investigation into the death of US actress Natalie Wood, who died in mysterious circumstances while boating in 1981, they said. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) on Thursday said new information had come to light over the death, which was deemed an accident at the time but which has long fueled speculation. Wood drowned aged 43 while boating off of Catalina Island, near Los Angeles on November 29, 1981. It was investigated by the LASD and the LA County Coroner's Office, who ruled it was an accident. "Recently Sheriff's Homicide Investigators were contacted...

After reviewing the death of famed actress Natalie Wood Wagner in 1981, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department ruled it accidental. Now authorities are reopening the case, according to an announcement from the department issued late Thursday afternoon. "Recently Sheriff's Homicide Investigators were contacted by persons who stated they had additional information about the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning," according to the LASD.

After refusing to talk about the death of his wife for so long, his written explanation was, Wagner said, 'case closed' on the subject. But for one woman, his account served only to reopen a painful wound that has festered for years. Lana Wood is Natalie's beloved younger sister...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Robert Wagner says he was so distraught over the break-up of his first marriage to actress Natalie Wood that he pondered suicide and would sit with a gun outside the home of her lover, Warren Beatty, intent on killing him. "Pieces of My Heart," Wagner's autobiography released this week, reveals details of his career and life, including the split with Wood, their decision to remarry a decade later and her drowning death in 1981. "I was pretty young, and I don't think I could have ever gone through with that act, but I was pretty...