“Is this the untimely end of Milhouse?” Pamela Hayden, a 35-year veteran of The Simpsons, will have her last performance on the long-running animated series on Sunday.
Hayden, who famously voices Bart’s friend Milhouse Van Houten but also lends her voice to the town bully Jimbo Jones, as well as other residents of the fictional animated town, is stepping away from the show.
The Simpsons‘ official social media platforms bade a fond farewell to the performer, writing, “Thank you for 35 years of Milhouse and so many more, Pamela Hayden!”
The message came with a reel of Hayden’s work, both in the recording booth and her characters as their animated selves throughout the years.
“As you retire from The Simpsons, we celebrate you,” an animated title card reads. The actress also says her “main guy” Milhouse might be dismissed as a nerd, but the thing she loves about him is that “no matter how many times he gets knocked down, he gets back up, again. I love the little guy.”
“Your voice made us laugh and fall in love with Milhouse,” the title card concludes. “We will miss you!”
The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu.
It’s not known who will voice her characters going forward.
Anne Hathaway is taking on Colleen Hoover‘s latest film adaptation.
The popular author’s novel Verity is becoming a film for Amazon MGM Studios, and Hathaway has been tapped to star. The actress will reteam with director Michael Showalter, who helmed her hit Amazon rom-com The Idea of You.
Verity is based on the New York Times #1 bestseller of the same name, with a script by Nick Antosca. Sources tell Deadline the film will get a theatrical release.
This is the latest Hoover novel to be adapted to film, after her other bestseller It Ends with Us was released in theaters back in August. It made $346 million at the worldwide box office.
Verity follows a struggling writer who accepts a job finishing the remaining books in a successful mystery series, whose author, played by Hathaway, is unable to finish after befalling a mysterious accident.
Suits LA, has an official premiere date, as does Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special. NBC has announced that the Suits spinoff will air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET starting Feb. 23. The show, starring Stephen Amell and Josh McDermitt, will center on Amell’s Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York who represents the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. SNL, meanwhile, will mark its 50th anniversary with a celebratory weekend culminating in a live primetime special on Sunday, Feb. 16. NBC’s complete fall lineup is available at nbcumv.com …
Sex Education‘s Emma Mackey has been tapped to star in J.J. Abrams‘ upcoming movie opposite Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Abrams wrote the script for the yet-to-be-titled project, but further details are being kept under wraps. In addition to her role in Sex Education, Mackey played one of the Barbies in the billion-dollar-grossing 2023 film …
Jason Segel and Samara Weaving have just begun filming The Trip, a new thriller from The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone. The movie, according to Deadline, follows Segel and Weaving as “a dysfunctional couple who head to a remote cabin to ‘reconnect,’ but each has secret intentions to kill the other.” Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle and Keith Jardine also star …
Paramount+ with Showtime has set Feb. 14 as the premiere date for Yellowjackets‘ third season. The series follows a high school soccer team after a plane crash, then decades later when the survivors are adults. Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell are among the adult cast, with Elijah Wood returning in a recurring role. Juliette Lewis, whose character was killed off at the end of season 2, will not be returning for the new season. The younger cast includes Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton and Liv Hewson. Joining the season 3 cast in guest roles are Hilary Swank and Joel McHale …
Apple TV+ has dropped the trailer for The Studio, a new comedy series written, directed, executive produced and starring Seth Rogen, whose character, Matt, guides his “core team of infighting executives” in a battle with “narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords in the ever-elusive pursuit of making great films,” per the streaming service. “It’s the job Matt’s been pursuing his whole life, and it may very well destroy him.” The series also stars Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders, with guest a appearance from Bryan Cranston …
(L-R) Jermaine Clement, Jonny Brugh, Taika Waititi in ‘Shadows’ – FX/Russ Martin
While fans are sad to see the Emmy-nominated shows Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows ride off into the sunset — or in the case of the vampire mockumentary Shadows, sunrise — the executive producer on both programs, Taika Waititi, tells ABC Audio he has no trouble saying goodbye.
“It’s easy for me to let go,” Waititi tells ABC Audio with a laugh. “I don’t dwell on things.”
“I love my kids and my family, and that’s pretty much the only things … I hold on to really tightly,” he continues.
Waititi says he’s grateful for the praise both shows got, particularly how Reservation Dogs raised the profile of Indigenous stories. But as for the mockumentary show Shadows, which began as a low-budget 2014 film of the same name that he also starred in, he says the current sixth and final season is time to go.
“Shadows, in particular, you know, it’s being out for so long. I thought that was like, you know, I never thought that we’d stretch that idea out for so long. And I’m really proud of it. But it’s definitely time for that thing to die.”
Waititi’s latest project as a producer is the comedy series Interior Chinatown, now streaming on Hulu.
Timothée Chalamet and director James Mangold will be honored at the 2024 Gotham Awards for their work on the upcoming Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown.
The pair will be awarded Gotham’s Visionary Tribute award, which “recognizes groundbreaking collaborations that push the boundaries of storytelling in film.”
“In A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet and James Mangold have beautifully captured Dylan’s emergence in 1960s New York not just as an artistic evolution, but as a meditation on the necessity of change,” Jeffrey Sharp, executive director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute, shares. “Together, they have created a work that will not only resonate with longtime Dylan admirers but also introduce his revolutionary artistry to a new generation.”
The Gotham Awards are happening Dec. 2 in New York City.
Michelle Yeoh is opening up about her infertility journey.
Yeoh appeared on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour podcast Monday, and discussed her desire to have children and how she learned to live with no regrets when children weren’t a possibility.
“I always wanted to have children,” Yeoh said. “It didn’t happen, so I went and did fertility … I think that that’s the worst moment to go through … every month you feel like such a failure.”
“And I think at some point, you stop blaming yourself and go, you know, ‘There are certain things in your body that doesn’t function in a certain way. That’s how it is,'” she continued. “You just have to let go and move on. And I think you come to a point where you just have to stop blaming you.”
Yeoh said not being able to have children was “the main factor” in her divorce from her first husband, Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon. The two were married from 1988 to 1992.
Yeoh married her second husband, former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt, in July 2023 after a nearly two-decade engagement. They welcomed a grandson, whom Yeoh called “a little miracle,” on New Year’s Day 2024.
The Everything Everywhere All at Once alum said having a grandchild makes her feel that she’s “still very, very blessed, because you do have a baby in your life.”
In a separate interview with The Sunday Times published Sunday, Yeoh said not having her own child is “the biggest sadness in my life,” but said she focuses on the “beauty” of having six godchildren, as well as many nephews and nieces.
“I don’t live with regrets because I have always given it my 110 percent,” she said. “You have to learn to let go, and sometimes letting go helps you move forward.”
No good deed goes unpunished: John Stamos‘ wife, Caitlin McHugh, and Dave Coulier are clapping back at snarkers who took aim at John for an Instagram post supporting his Full House co-star amid his cancer battle.
Coulier recently shared that he shaved his head as a “preemptive strike” as he is treated for stage 3 Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In a picture posted on Monday, Stamos showed he visited his pal while wearing a bald cap in solidarity.
However, critics claimed Stamos’ picture was merely a “photo op,” seeing as how he didn’t actually shave his head.
Coulier and company weren’t having it.
Coulier posted to Instagram Tuesday, “I’m sorry to see a bunch of negative comments as I’ve just begun my cancer journey. It’s our friendship (me and John) and this is how we are handling a very tough time. I’m a comedian and humor is what drives me. John knows how to cheer me up and I laughed out loud when he arrived wearing a bald cap – being a true loving friend and brother.”
To the post, Stamos’ wife noted, “I really hope the people who chose to say cruel things about my husband –who flew across the country and did what he could do bring joy to his friend going through chemo — look inward. Instead of tearing down others, take that time to think about how you can bring joy to the people you love.”
Coulier’s wife, Melissa Coulier, replied, “One hundred percent. We are so grateful for his support and love during one of the most challenging times!! We love you both so much.”
Comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang takes the lead in Hulu’s new adaptation of Charles Yu‘s bestselling book Interior Chinatown, which is now streaming.
Yang plays Willis Wu, a waiter in a Chinese restaurant whose everyday life is as a background character trapped in a police procedural called Impossible Crimes Unit, who longs to find his way into the larger story.
“Taking the lead for the first time in a TV show, that’s metaphorically and ironically almost part of the journey that Willis is trying to go through,” Yang tells ABC Audio. “I’ve been in bit parts. I’ve been in guest star supporting parts. And this is finally the first time that I … get to take the lead.”
Helping him along is mysterious Detective Lana Lee, played by Chloe Bennet. “One of my first parts ever, I played Chinese teenager number one on Marvel’s Agents of Shield, where Chloe was the star,” Yang says with a laugh. “And I didn’t get to meet Chloe because she … wasn’t even on set that day.”
Bennet’s Lee walks into Willis’ restaurant — and life — in a glamorous, slow-motion shot set to “What a Difference a Day Made” by Dinah Washington.
She saw the shot differently. “Having that dramatic entrance, are you kidding? We also played the music and the wind. Actually, I actually hate shooting those things,” Bennet revealed, as her co-star Ronny Chieng protested.
She insists, “It was embarrassing. I trip on things. I’m awkward … I don’t like having that moment, because there’s so much pressure,” Bennet insisted.
“And I had to do that a lot on Shield with like big superhero stuff, and those were the days I [was] the most nervous … because it’s embarrassing because you’re supposed to look cool.”
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson‘s erotic thriller Babygirl is out with a second trailer.
The new look at the scandalous story of powerful CEO Romy, played by Kidman, falling into a sexually fueled affair with a younger intern, Samuel, played by Dickinson, was released by A24 on Tuesday. The Halina Reijn-directed film arrives in theaters on Dec. 25.
The trailer opens on the pair in an elevator; in voice-over, Kidman’s Romy expresses the need to “have a conversation” with Dickinson’s Samuel about their affair.
“I think I have power over you,” says Samuel, “cause I can make one call and you lose everything. Does that turn you on when I say that?”
Next, we see Kidman’s character away from the nefarious situation interacting with her family, including her husband, played by Antonio Banderas.
“Being a CEO means being a nurturer and a collaborator,” says Romy, recording a speech.
The trailer includes shots of the pair escalating their seduction, including shots of dancing in a club and sensually holding each other in bed.
Romy looks up to Samuel and states, “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” says Romy at the conclusion of the trailer.
“You’re my babygirl,” says Samuel in the closing moment.
Along with Kidman, Dickinson and Banderas, Sophie Wilde stars in the project, playing Esme, Romy’s assistant.
Paramount+ has gotten into the Christmas movie business with its first original holiday movie, Dear Santa.
The comedy from Peter and Bobby Farrelly of Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary fame stars Jack Black as the other guy in red, who answers a letter from a kid who accidentally addressed his letter to the North Pole as “Dear Satan.”
The movie, which debuts on Nov. 25, is the tentpole of the streaming service’s “season for streaming” lineup, which not only includes holiday classics like 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street and Bill Murray‘s Scrooged, but also newer holiday films including Adam Sandler‘s Eight Crazy Nights; the Bad Santa films; and the musical special Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!
All told, there are 20 curated channels’ worth of holiday fare, from family-friendly movies to seasonal specials and episodes of hit CBS original shows like Ghosts, NCIS, Elsbeth, Matlock, The Equalizer and more.
