Entertainment

Cyrano, out today, is the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, for a new generation.

Peter Dinklage and Hayley Bennett star in this new interpretation of the classic French play directed by Joe Wright, who tells ABC Audio this version has a lot to say about love, particularly not to be “afraid.”

“Don’t be afraid to allow yourself to be seen. Don’t be afraid of intimacy, although it’s very understandable that we are,” Wright says. “And remember to tell the one you love that you love them.”

Bennet adds, “I think it has everything to say about our inability to express and accept love.”

“It’s a beautiful story about hiding our love and not feeling worthy of it,” she continues. “And then hopefully, ultimately, and maybe not too late, finding the courage to express it.”

Joining Dinklage and Bennett on-screen is Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian, the soldier who has Roxanne’s affections through devious means. Harrison Jr. tells ABC Audio he spent a lot of time with Dinklage, and he was a little star-struck at first.

“I think I was more so intimidated…Pete’s incredible. He’s a legend,” he raves.

“But, you know, I also understand that like when I go onto a set, they’re not looking for a kid to come fanning at them. And so I try to come in with some respect,” he adds with a laugh. 

In addition to a story about love, this version of Cyrano is a musical, featuring songs from the band The National. Wright shares that the music serves a very specific purpose as it takes the place of the “long extended monologues” in the original play and “allow the audience access to an inner world of the characters that they might not otherwise gain.” 

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Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are being recognized for their social justice work.

Ahead of the 53rd NAACP Image Awards on Saturday, the NAACP and BET announced the couple will receive the President’s Award, which is given to those who have dedicated their time to public service. Previous recipients include Muhammad Ali, LeBron James, Rihanna and Jay-Z.

“We’re thrilled to present this award to Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who together have heeded the call to social justice and have joined the struggle for equity in the U.S. and around the world,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.

This year at the NAACP awards, Harry and Meghan are also recognizing leaders who are creating change in technology and social justice with the NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award.

“Not only do they continue to lead by example, the duke and duchess have also decided to inspire the next generation of activists through the NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award,” Johnson added.

Archewell, the couple’s nonprofit foundation named after their son, Archie, was founded in 2020 shortly after they stepped back from their roles as senior members of the royal family and settled in Los Angeles.

This year’s inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient will be given to Dr. Safiya Noble, an internet studies scholar and professor of gender studies and African American studies at UCLA — a pioneer in how digital technologies intersect with culture, race and gender.

The 53rd NAACP Awards will be broadcast live on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on BET.

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After announcing Tuesday that she will launch her own TV talk show in September, Sherri Shepherd is paying tribute to the veteran star she is replacing, Wendy Williams.

“She made her own path. What Wendy does nobody can recreate,” Shepherd said Wednesday on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “I love her fearlessness, and that is something I want to emulate and keep going.” The Emmy winner added, “She opened up a lot of doors, and she’s up there with the greats.”

The 54-year-old comedian previously served as a co-host of The View, while Beauty Shop, Think Like a Man and Precious are among her many film credits. 

In other news, Viola Davis portrays Michelle Obama in the The First Lady series, and the Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winner admits that she’s nervous about how Michelle will react to her performance.

“Not only does the thought [of Michelle Obama watching the show] come to mind, it keeps me up at night,” Davis said Wednesday during a media industry panel, according to Deadline.

“You don’t want to insult them by your portrayal…As much as we feel like we know Michelle Obama — and I did everything I could to research — there are those private moments where there’s some level of creative decision-making that you have to take,” Viola continued. “I don’t know how she lays in bed with Barack or how she disciplines her children.” The First Lady premieres April 17 on Showtime.

Finally, Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, won NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Host in a Talk Series for Red Table Talk on Wednesday during the third non-televised night of the awards show. The NAACP Image Awards ceremony will air live Saturday, February 26, at 8 p.m. on BET.

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Dave Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Barber and Scott Weinger from Full House will be back under the same roof in March, which will be two months after the January death of Tanner family patriarch Bob Saget.

The stars will be on hand at Connecticut’s Hartford Convention Center for the first-ever 90s Con, which runs March 11, 12 & 13. 

For those looking for even more of a throwback, Neve Campbell from the Scream movies and Party of Five will also be there, as well as Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle from Boy Meets World; Joey Lawrence from Gimme A Break and Blossom; Jo Marie Payton from Family Matters and The Proud Family; AJ McLean from The Backstreet Boys ; and Melissa Joan Hart from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, among many others.

You can buy your tickets and get more info at Thats4Entertainment.com/90scon.

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The follow-up to the beloved animated series The Proud Family, called The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, is now on Disney+.

The streaming service is also home to the original series, which stars Kyla Pratt as Penny Proud, Tommy Davidson as her dad, Oscar, Paula Jai Parker as her mom, Trudy, and Jo Marie Payton as Penny’s grandma, Suga Mama. However, all the attention means Kyla and Jo Marie have to be quiet in public — unless they want a lot more attention from fans, that is.

“You know, something, this thing here, this thing never changes,” Jo Marie laughs to ABC Audio, referring to her distinctive voice. “So, a lot of people have heard this thing, but it gets me through the bank real quick!”

She says with a laugh, “Because the minute somebody notices my face, I open my mouth. And so the bank manager says, ‘Miss Payton, can you come over here, please?'”

Payton adds that people recognizing her voice sometimes makes running errands a bit busier. “My daughter used to say, ‘Momma, if you just don’t say nothing, we might be able to get through.’ But if I say the slightest of things, somebody turns and looks, and my granddaughter says, ‘Yeah, that’s her, that’s her!'” 

For Pratt, sharing Penny Proud’s voice also gets her noticed — even if she doesn’t necessarily want to be. 

“I have the same issue!” she agrees with Payton. “Like, I literally tell people I don’t know how to be quiet. I just don’t. So I’ll be the grocery store and someone will come in like two aisles over. Even now, with having to wear mask everywhere, it’s like I have to shut up. Otherwise, people know!”  

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Ukranian-born Dancing with the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy posted on Instagram a troubling report about the country, which is now being invaded by Russian forces. 

Posting from the capital of Kyiv, Maks admitted, “This is definitely not the time where I would normally would be posting anything on social media.”

As sirens blared below, Chmerkovsky turned his camera to show trucks barreling down the streets. “That’s military, that’s [the] center of Kyiv.”

Wiping away tears, Maks said, “Obviously, I’m a little emotional…I wanna to go home…” noting his family — including fellow DWTS pro Peta Murgatroyd and their 5-year-old son, Shai — are “far away”; presumably in the U.S.

“I realize my friends have family here,” explaining that unfortunately they can’t leave like he can, because he has a dual passport.

“Dear Russians, I know you know me,” Maks says, “I know there are a lot of people in Russia watching this and hearing the propaganda…I’m not someone who is saying this from…a safe distance. I’m about to go into a bomb shelter,” he said, his voice quavering, “because sh**’s going down,.”

“I trust my sources and no one saw this coming,” Maks said before clarifying, “Not that no one saw this coming, but everyone was hoping that the finality of the situation would be averted.”

“I love Ukraine,” Maks said, getting further choked up, “and what it stands for. And it’s not what’s being portrayed to the Russian people in order to justify this situation.” 

“This is all one man’s ambition,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging his Russian fans to “get up” and have their voices heard against the invasion.

“However comfortable you are in Russia, I don’t think these…are the correct actions,” Chmerkovskiy said.

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Fellow Oscar winners Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway star and executive-produce AppleTV+’s limited series WeCrashed, a trailer for which just dropped. 

Based on the hit Wondery podcast WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork, Leto plays Israeli entrepreneur Adam Neumann, who turned the office sharing company WeWork into a $47 billion empire — until its equally dramatic fall.

Hathaway plays Neumann’s wife, Rebekah, who helped him create his kingdom. “She helps him manifest things,” one character says in the trailer. Together, the power couple enjoy the trappings of their company’s fortune — lavish parties, private jets — and struggle as it eventually comes crashing down.

“You have to let them see…you’re a supernova,” Rebekah tells Adam. 

“You’re afraid that he outshines you,” says America Ferrera as one of Rebekah’s friends. “Because he does.”

The streaming service teases, “WeCrashed is inspired by actual events — and the love story at the center of it all. WeWork grew from a single coworking space into a global brand worth $47 billion in under a decade. Then, in less than a year, its value plummeted. What happened?”

The first three episodes of WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork, premiere on Apple TV+ on March 18, with new weekly installments of the eight-episode show dropping each Friday through April 22.

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(SPOILER ALERT) If you’ve used social media, like ever, you’ve probably seen a popular meme of two cartoon Spider-Men pointing at each other.

The meme is such a fan favorite, in fact, that once director Jon Watts had access to not only two, but three Spider-Men in No Way Home, he mimicked it onscreen, twice. 

And if you needed more proof, Sony Pictures just posted a behind-the-scenes photo of Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield, all in their respective Spidey suits, pointing at each other; the caption: “of course, we got THE meme.”

The post was also to remind folks that Spider-Man: No Way Home swings home on digital March 22 and on 4K UHD & Blu-ray on April 12. Not that fans needed it: The picture was liked nearly 300,000 times on Twitter, and more than 1.9 million times on Instagram, in just 24 hours.

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Priyanka Chopra is sharing “some thoughts” on the apology Rosie O’Donnell issued following an awkward encounter with the actress and her husband, Nick Jonas. 

To refresh, O’Donnell took to TikTok over the weekend to apologize for mistaking the actress as the daughter of author Deepak Chopra during a run-in at the LA restaurant Nobu — and in the apology, she referred to the actress as “someone Chopra” and “the Chopra wife.”

On Wednesday, the Quantico alum issued a statement to her Instagram story, which began, “Hi everyone. Some thoughts…”

“I have never taken myself so seriously to think everyone would know who I am, or my work for that matter,” Chopra began. “But if you wanted to make a public apology for a very awkward private encounter, I think probably best to take the time to google my name before doing it or even try to reach out directly.”

Priyanka went on to state that people “deserve to be respected for our unique individuality and not be referred to as ‘someone’ or ‘wife’ especially in a sincere apology,” adding, “If we can learn to respect our differences in an authentic way, the world we raise our children in, will be amazing.”

“As I’ve said before, not all Chopras are related to the great Deepak Chopra, just as not all Smiths are related to the legendary Will Smith,” Priyanka concluded. 

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Wendy Williams stepped away from her talk show to concentrate on her emotional well-being, and not for health reasons, a source tells Us Weekly.

Williams, 57, “is in a great place,” notes the insider, explaining, The Wendy Williams Show host is focusing on her health and “enjoying herself.”

“She is enjoying the time beyond work that she never took before,” says the source, adding that Williams “doesn’t feel like going back” to work at the moment. “She is happy and her health is not preventing her from going back. She’s improving [and] surrounded by love.”

Williams, according to the insider, is making up for lost time with family and appreciates the chance to be “normal” and isn’t “worried about a timeline” for getting back in front of the camera.

“The show is just a show,” the source continues, noting that Wendy has “done well for herself” over the years and “is not going to give it all up.”

On Tuesday’s Wendy Williams Show, actress and comedian Sherri Shepherd, who’s filled in as a guest host for Williams, announced her new show, Sherri, is set to premiere this fall and will air in the time slot currently occupied by Wendy’s show.

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