Author: Seth Abramovitch

Liberace had a taste for the finer things in life, from floor-length furs to priceless jewels, and his taste in cars was no different.

In HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, Michael Douglas plays the pianist opposite Matt Damon, cast as his younger lover, Scott Thorson. The couple met in 1977, when Thorson was just 18 years old and Liberace was 57. They remained together until 1982.

STORY: Matt Damon, Michael Douglas: HBO’s Telepic ‘Liberace’ Won’t Be A ‘Caricature’ 

In this first official image from the hotly buzzed biopic of the flamboyant showman, the couple strikes a cream-colored pose in a bright showroom, standing next to a vintage Corvette coupe. 

Director Steve Soderbergh told journalists at TCA last January that he had sought out to tell the story of a “real” relationship. Damon echoed the sentiment, saying, “We weren’t giggling about it. These were people’s lives. We wanted to get it right.” 

The movie, based on Thorson’s 1988 memoir,  Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace, premieres on HBO this May.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Top Chef fans, feast your eyes on this: The Emmy-winning Bravo cooking competition has been renewed for season 11. 

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There’s no word yet, however, on what city will host the show, or whether its power-trio of hosts/judges — Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons — are confirmed to return, a Bravo spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter.

To find its next cast of culinary hopefuls, the network has announced a series of nationwide casting calls. Auditions kick of in Austin on Feb. 11, then move on to Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, and wrap up in Los Angeles on March 1.

Q&A: ‘Top Chef Seattle’: 7 Questions With Josie Smith-Malave

Top Chef, while no longer a ratings juggernaut for Bravo, remains a steady performer for the network. Its current Seattle-set season reached highs in early December, pulling 1.4 million viewers — 805,000 of them in the network’s targeted adults 18-49 demographic. Online spinoff Last Chance Kitchen has also seen growth, up triple digits from its experimental debut in the eleventh season.

Magical Elves will return to produce, with Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz again serving as executive producers.

Did Phil Spector kill Lana Clarkson?

A jury thought so when it returned with a guilty verdict on March 26, 2009, and sentenced Spector to19 years to life in the California penal system.

STORY: Al Pacino, Helen Mirren and David Mamet on ‘Phil Spector’ Inspirations 

But in this first glimpse of Phil Spector, a new HBO film about the sensational murder trials written and directed by David Mamet, the question of the record producer’s guilt in the firearm death of Clarkson, a B-movie actress working as a House of Blues hostess, is a ball that gets tossed repeatedly into the air.

Starring as Spector is Al Pacino, who sinks his incisors into the meaty role of the eccentric architect of the legendary “Wall of Sound,” playing him like a wild-eyed, cornered raccoon.

He’s matched scene for scene by Helen Mirren, cast here as his deeply conflicted defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden — an attorney whose own interpretation of the forensics evidence has led her to maintain her client’s innocence to this day.

Jeffrey Tambor plays defense attorney Bruce Cutler, who parted ways with Spector in August 2007 citing “a difference of opinion…on strategy.” 

The movie looks as wild and teased out as one of Spector’s signature wigs. But could it sway public opinion as to his guilt?

Find out after it premieres on HBO on Sunday, March 24 at 9 p.m.