Entertainment

Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Tiffany Haddish were just some of the stars that showed up and showed out at Netflix’s The Harder They Fall special screening in Los Angeles.

Held on Wednesday night at The Shrine, the event included an impressive group of A-list film and music talent that came out to support singer-songwriter Jeymes Samuel‘s directorial debut. Additional attendees included cast members Jonathan Majors, Regina King, and Deon Cole, as well as stars Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz,  Seal, Nas, Kendrick Lamar, John David Washington, among others. As previously noted, the film follows Majors as outlaw Nat Love, a man set on revenge after he learns that the man who killed his parents is being released from prison. The Harder They Fall hits select theaters October 22 and debuts on Netflix November 3.

In other news, Netflix has released the first trailer for Halle Berry‘s directorial debut, Bruised. Written by Michelle Rosenfarb, the film stars Berry as disgraced MMA fighter Jackie Justice, who’s attempting to redeem herself. After her six-year-old son comes back into her life, Jackie decides to return to the ring to fight one of the “fiercest rising stars of the MMA world” and “become the mother” her son deserves. Bruised hits Netflix on November 24.

Finally, Starz has given a second-season renewal to their hit dramedy Blindspotting. As previously noted, the series, which is a spinoff of the 2018 indie film of the same name, follows Jasmine Cephas Jones‘ Ashley and her struggles moving in with her recently incarcerated boyfriend’s family. A season two release date for Blindspotting has yet to be announced.

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In a clever marketing gimmick, a company that helps customers get out of credit card debt has been slipping Squid Game cards underneath their doors. 

For those few who haven’t seen Netflix’s biggest series launch of all time, getting one of those mysterious business cards — decorated only with a circle, a triangle and square — usually means that person is in debt, deep. In fact, according to the show, their only option is to participate in a deadly series of children’s games, with a fortune — and players’ lives — on the line. 

However, for the 10,000 people who received them in New York and Miami, the debt app Relief was trying to get the word out about the dangers of credit card debt. The guerilla marketing campaign was the brainchild of the Canadian ad agency Wunder, according to Adweek. 

“We thought if we could strike with something quick enough and relevant to the situation, we could create a surprising brand interaction and start the conversation around debt,” the company’s Stephen Flynn told industry trade.

Relief noted that credit card debt in America is at a record high of $930 billion, and with tens of millions out of work thanks to COVID-19 job losses, it’s only going to get worse.

What’s more, millennials and Gen Z — arguably Squid Game‘s biggest audience — have the highest rates of credit card debt delinquency.

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If you’ve long admired the house Sabrina Spellman called home on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it can now be yours — if you can afford the $2 million price tag.

The Victorian-style house, which served as the exterior of the Spellman family home on the ’90s sitcom, was recently listed for $1.95 million, reports the Asbury Park Press.

Located in Freehold, New Jersey — not the fictional Westbridge, Massachusetts — the property boasts over 7,000 square feet.  However, don’t expect to walk inside and see the eclectic yet bewitching setup that was seen on television.

The home has since been remodeled into an office building and is being marketed for commercial use.  Images taken around the property show cubicles, conference rooms, common kitchen areas, and plenty of parking.

In addition, the house comes with a separate two-story building in the back that also offers additional office space.

According to the newspaper, the home once belonged to the borough’s first female attorney and was later remodeled into a law office by a man named Scott Beskin, who owned the home when Sabrina was about to hit the airwaves 25 years ago. Beskin, 83, said someone from the show wanted to take a photo of the property and use it for the upcoming sitcom and he obliged.

“I just thought it was flattering that someone liked the looks of my Victorian building as much as I did,” he recalled. 

Sabrina the Teenage Witch, starring Melissa Joan Hart, ran for seven seasons between 1996 and 2003.

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There’s nothing colder than space: except maybe Star Trek star Geoge Takei. 

William Shatner‘s record-breaking flight to space on Wednesday didn’t put any space between Takei and his longstanding grudge against his former co-star.

“He’s boldly going where other people have gone before,” Takei sniffed to Page Six, while in New York City at the Wednesday night opening of the play Thoughts of a Colored Man.

The 84-year-old Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu alongside Shatner’s Captain Kirk on the classic TV show and on the big screen, added, “He’s a guinea pig, 90 years old and it’s important to find out what happens. So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he’ll be a good specimen to study.”

Takei added, however, that Shatner was “not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!”

To quote the actor’s famous catchphrase, “Oh my.”

In the past, the two U.S.S. Enterprise veterans have famously taken shots at each other, with Takei calling Shatner “self-centered,” and accusing him of trying to limit Sulu’s importance to the franchise. In turn, Shatner has said of Takei, “There must be something else inside George that is festering, and it makes him unhappy that he takes it out on me.”

Bill has said he feels “nothing but pity” for his Star Trek co-star. 

Shatner blasted off Wednesday morning aboard Jeff Bezos‘ New Shepard spacecraft, which is operated by the Amazon head’s Blue Origin company. The actor was moved to tears upon his return. 

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Ray J has been released from a Miami hospital and is back home after suffering from pneumonia.

TMZ reports that he was released over the weekend. The Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star is no longer using an inhaler and needing oxygen.

As previously reported, last week the singer/actor was feeling positive about his recovery. “I appreciate all the love and support from everybody,” Ray J said in a message that his manager, David Weintraub, shared with People. “Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, and I will be back up and running soon.”

Weintraub added that the illness was “not the contagious kind,” and that Ray does not have COVID-19, despite initially being placed in the hospital’s COVID unit. “They gave him multiple COVID tests, and he tested negative for all of them,” said Weintraub.

The manager added the illness is a result of the 40-year-old entertainer being a workaholic — shooting Love & Hip Hop, developing and promoting products through his Raycon brand, and producing new music.

Shortly after announcing that he was taken to the hospital, Ray J filed to divorce his wife of five years, Princess Love. The “Wait a Minute” singer cited irreconcilable differences as cause for their separation. Ray J is seeking joint custody of his and Love’s two children — Melody, 3, and Epik, 1.

Cracks in their relationship started to show last November, when the model accused her husband of leaving her “stranded” in Las Vegas and threatened to divorce him.

This latest filing marks the third time that the pair have tried to separate. Their first separation was in May 2020, but the couple patched things up that July and Love asked the court to dismiss her request. Four months later, Ray J was the one to file for divorce.

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The Television Academy Foundation, the charitable arm of the Television Academy, has announced the establishment of the Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowship Fund, in honor of the beloved Jeopardy! host who died of pancreatic cancer in 2020. 

The foundation, launched with a gift of $50,000 from Jeopardy! Executive Producer Harry Friedman and his Harry & Judy Friedman Family Foundation, the fund will provide “a select number of need-based fellowships” to college and university educators. 

The Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowships will fund these educators’ participation in the Television Academy Foundation’s annual Faculty Conference. The event, which “connects college classrooms with the television industry by providing media professors with curriculum-enhancing seminars on the latest in the art, science and business of television,” will be held virtually from November 15-17. Other funds from the charity will support the conference itself. 

When the conference returns to an in-person format, the fellowships will fund educators’ travel and lodging to the event. Fittingly, one of this year’s conference panels is called, “The Art of the Game: Careers in Quiz and Game Shows,” in which 19-time Emmy winner Friedman will participate.

Initially, 25 college and/or university educators from across the country will be granted the fellowships; those who wish to apply can find out more information at  TelevisionAcademy.com/faculty-seminar.

In a statement, Friedman said the fellowships “will serve as a lasting tribute to our dear friend’s life and work.” 

Trebek began hosting Jeopardy! when it launched on syndication in 1984, and continued until shortly before his death at age 80.

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A Robin Williams biopic hasn’t been announced, but if there were one, fans are rooting for actor Jamie Costa to get the starring role.

On Monday, Costa shared a five-minute-long video to YouTube, titled “ROBIN Test Footage Scene,” featuring his impersonation of a young Williams on the set of Mork & Mindy in 1982. Everything from Costa’s appearance to his mannerisms could leave even the biggest fan wondering who they were really watching. So, it’s no wonder viewers raved over his performance and are advocating for Costa to play Williams in a movie about the late actor’s life. 

One user commented, “This is a FANTASTIC impression of Robin Williams. If there is ever a biopic, they better cast you.”

Another echoed the same sentiment, writing, “This isn’t a mere impression; this is one of the highest caliber, basically an embodiment of Robin himself.” 

While many praised Costa’s acting, the moment was bittersweet for Williams daughter, Zelda, who took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the clip, which imagines Williams’ reaction to learning the news that his friend John Belushi had died.

“Guys, I’m only saying this because I don’t think it’ll stop until I acknowledge it… please, stop sending me the ‘test footage’. I’ve seen it,” she wrote, adding, “Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn’t against him, but y’all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird.”

Robin Williams was 63 years old when he died by suicide in 2014.

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

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(SPOILERS AHEAD) Julianna Margulies plays a lesbian on season two of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, and she’s not at all worried about possible blowback from gay actors.

“Who’s to say I haven’t had my own gay experiences?” Margulies said on the Just for Variety podcast. “We’re making assumptions.”

Margulies plays an out TV news reporter who ends up dating Bradley, played by Reese Witherspoon. Julianna thinks it makes for a surprising but welcome twist to the show’s storyline, which is what drew her to the role.

“You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance they brought in a woman,” Margulies explains. “Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women. They dress for women. We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. We want to impress each other much more… It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. This is great.’”

The Good Wife alum admits there was some talk of her casting drawing fire from the LBGTQ community.

“I know there was some trepidation of ‘will lesbian actresses be angry?’ and I can tell you I would never, ever be angry if a lesbian played a straight woman,” notes Margulies.

Season two of The Morning Show is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.

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Rob Lowe‘s podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe recently hosted Jennifer Aniston, and the star of The Morning Show got real about the real tears she shed during Friends: The Reunion Special. 

Lowe told Entertainment Tonight he was the “perfect” person for the star to unpack that experience with.

During their chat, Aniston admitted it was “kind of hard to time travel,” for the much-hyped HBO Max special, and the experience took her and her fellow former cast members “down way harder than we anticipated.”

She expressed, “Going back there, it’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy ’cause a lot has changed. We have all gone down different roads, some easy and some not so easy, for each of us. It was brutal. And you also can’t turn it off… There are cameras everywhere, and I can’t stop crying.”

Lowe told ET the revelations were the “perfect example” why he makes a good sounding board for his celebrity…friends. 

“Jen Aniston gives a lot of interviews… so do all of the people I talk to, but I feel like there are questions I want to ask them that I don’t think other people are gonna ask them.” 

“I had done a Parks and Rec reunion,” Lowe explained. “I had done a West Wing reunion, so when I talked to Jen about her Friends reunion, just the fact that it was something both of us have done I think enabled her to open up and talk about [it]…in a way that she never had before, that was how melancholy it was for her.”

“I totally got it,” Lowe said, adding of those kinds of get-togethers, “It’s very bittersweet.”

 

 

 

 

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At Tuesday’s costume party premiere for her new film Halloween Kills, Jamie Lee Curtis honored her late mother, Janet Leigh, by dressing up as her famous character from Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1960 thriller, Psycho.

“Honoring my mother in ALL her gory…I meant glory!” the 62-year-old actress captioned an Instagram photo of her in a belted, buttoned-up blue dress, black pumps and short blonde wig. She completed the look with a black handbag and a bloody shower curtain draped over her arm.

Leigh is best remembered for her famous shower scene in Psycho, during which her character, Marion Crane, is stabbed to death by Anthony Perkins‘ serial killer, Norman Bates.

Halloween Kills opens nationwide on Friday.

 

 

 

 

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