• Two filmmakers charged with involuntary manslaughter several months after a train crash killed a member of their movie crew flew to Georgia over the weekend to surrender at a rural jail, where they posted $25,000 bond apiece before returning home to California, their defense attorney said Tuesday. Midnight Rider director Randall Miller and his wife and business partner, Jody Savin, were booked Sunday at the Wayne County jail about 60 miles southwest of Savannah, said the couple's defense attorney, Don Samuel. Miller, Savin and executive producer Jay Sedrish were indicted July 3 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing in connection with the crash that occurred the day the filmmakers began shooting a movie based on the life of singer Gregg Allman. On Feb. 20, a freight train plowed into the crew as well as a metal-framed bed placed across the tracks as a prop on a railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River. A camera assistant, 27-year-old Sarah Jones of Atlanta, was killed and six crew members were injured. Sedrish, who is also based in California, was still making arrangements to return to Georgia to surrender, said his attorney, John Ossick.
• Meredith Vieira is looking to connect. "Authenticity," she said, "is the key word" for what she hopes to take to her new daytime talk show, The Meredith Vieira Show, which premieres in syndication Sept. 8. Speaking of the daytime audience, she said: "They want real, and they want to connect with somebody. They feel a connective tissue [with daytime personalities] that I don't think you find other times of the day. ... That's the power of television. You can do so much to help people." Speaking to reporters Monday at the summer TV critics' gathering in Los Angeles, Vieira, 60, said she'll tape at NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, also home to such programs as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Saturday Night Live. She said she'd welcome drop-ins from any stars from those shows who might be roaming the halls. She'll have a house band led by Everett Bradley, a percussionist with the E Street Band. And her set will be an exact replica of her living room -- "I want people to feel they're coming into my house" -- with an easy chair actually lifted from her home.
A Section on 07/16/2014