Entertainment

Nia DaCosta accomplished a major career milestone when her supernatural slasher flick Candyman bowed at number one in theaters over the weekend — she became the first Black woman to debut a film at number one at the domestic box office with a $22.4 million opening.

Deadline reports that DaCosta, who directed the “spiritual sequel” of the first Candyman movie, which came out in 1992, also grossed the second-highest opening over a three-day period for a Black female director.  Ava DuVernay‘s 2018 film A Wrinkle in Time holds the top honor, with a $33.1 million opening weekend.

DaCosta, 31, co-wrote Candyman alongside Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld.  The 2021 reboot is the first in the horror franchise’s nearly 30-year history to feature an all-Black main cast. Candyman is the second film DaCosta’s directed, behind her 2018 debut, Little Woods.

Now, DaCosta is onto her next big project — the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, which is due out November 11, 2022.

Candyman — which stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris and Colman Domingo — is in theaters now.

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Nia DaCosta accomplished a major career milestone when her supernatural slasher Candyman bowed at number one in theaters over the weekend — she became the first Black woman to debut a film at number one at the domestic box office.

Candyman crushed the weekend box office with a $22.4 million opening.

Deadline reports that DaCosta, who directed the “spiritual sequel” of the first Candyman movie — which came out in 1992 — also grossed the second-highest opening over a three-day period for a Black female director.  Ava DuVernay‘s 2018 film A Wrinkle in Time holds the top honor with a $33.1 million opening weekend.

DaCosta, 31, co-wrote Candyman alongside Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld.  The 2021 reboot is the first in the horror franchise’s nearly 30-year history to feature an all-Black main cast.

Candyman is the second film she’s directed, behind her 2018 debut Little Woods.

Now, DaCosta is onto her next big project — the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, which is due out November 11, 2022.

Candyman — which stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris and Colman Domingo — is in theaters now.

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It’s well known that Ben Affleck likes to gamble, as does his current girlfriend’s mother, Guadalupe Lopez. So it only makes sense that they appear together in a new sports book app ad starring the two-time Oscar winner and J-Lo‘s mom. 

Affleck, along with Shaquille O’Neal and actor Melvin Gregg, also appear in the new ad Ben directed for WynnBET.

The spot pitches betting on sports is more fun when you do it with your “team.” To that end, Affleck strides through a Vegas casino, bombarded not by paparazzi, but people offering tips about on whom he should wager. 

As he walks through, we see a woman, psyching herself up, cranking a battery of slot machines by herself. “Come on, Lupe! You can do this girl,” Lopez tells herself. “Just like the slots in St. Louis.”

This catches Affleck’s ear, and he thinks of the team. “St. Louis?” he considers aloud.

Lupe made headlines in 2004 when she scored a $2.4 million payday on a slot machine at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

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The CW has given a a straight-to-series order to Tom Swift, a Nancy Drew spinoff series, Deadline has learned.

The order comes after the titular character, played by Tian Richards, was introduced in an episode during Nancy Drew‘s most recent season. Co-created by Melinda Hsu Taylor, Noga Landau and Cameron Johnson, Tom Swift follows the “serialized adventures” of Tom Swift, a “Black, gay, billionaire inventor who is thrust into a world of sci-fi conspiracy and unexplained phenomena after the shocking disappearance of his father.” The series will take Tom “on a quest to unravel the truth…all while fighting to stay one step ahead of an Illuminati-scale group hell-bent on stopping him.” A release date for Tom Swift has yet to be announced.

In other news, Jesse Williams has nabbed his first TV role since departing Grey’s Anatomy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Williams will star alongside Aubrey Plaza and Ramón Rodriguez in Olga Dies Dreaming. Based on Xóchitl Gonzalez’s forthcoming debut novel of the same name, the show will center on a Nuyorican brother and sister from a gentrifying area of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Together they grapple with “their absent, politically radical mother” and their hopeful careers among New York City’s elite. Williams will play Matteo Jones, a devoted Brooklynite, who’s described as “a collector of music, objects, trivia, and mainly, of opinions.”

Finally — ICYMI, a teaser for the long-awaited ATL sequel, ATL 2: Homecoming, has been released. ATL, which marked Chris Robinson’s directorial debut and launched Lauren London’s acting career, was loosely based on the experiences of the film’s producers, Dallas Austin and TLC’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, who both grew up in Atlanta. A release date for ATL 2: Homecoming has not been announced.

 

 

 

 

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Sarah Paulson is almost unrecognizable as Linda Tripp in the upcoming FX series Impeachment: An American Crime Story, but one part of her portrayal as the figure gave her regret. Namely, her figure.

Tripp was a former White House employee who recorded her phone calls with friend Monica Lewinsky, played in the series by Beanie Feldstein, and in turn exposed Lewinsky’s sexual relationship with then President Bill Clinton. Clive Owen plays the disgraced — and eventually impeached — president.

Paulson, also an executive producer for the series, gained 30 pounds for the role, but she supplemented that with a padded suit, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times; it was a physical choice she says that, in retrospect, she would have avoided. 

“It’s very hard for me to talk about this without feeling like I’m making excuses,” Paulson admitted. “There’s a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one. I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm.” 

The actress continued, “Should I have known? Abso-f***ing-lutely. But I do now.” She also vowed, “And I wouldn’t make the same choice going forward.”

Paulson called the role the “challenge of a lifetime,” and commented, “I would like to believe that there is something in my being that makes me right to play this part. And that the magic of hair and makeup departments and costumers and cinematographers that has been part of moviemaking, and suspension of belief, since the invention of cinema.”

She added rhetorically, “Was I supposed to say no [to the role]? This is the question.”

Impeachment: An American Crime Story debuts on September 7 at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

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Elijah Wood stars as FBI profiler Bill Hagmaier in the new based-on-real-life drama No Man of God, which hit theaters and streaming services over the weekend after its Tribeca Film Festival debut in June. 

The intense movie, directed by actress-turned filmmaker Amber Sealey, centers on the relationship that developed between Hagmaier and an incarcerated Ted Bundy leading up to the serial killer’s execution.

There have been several films about Bundy due to an ongoing national obsession with the killer, in part because his TV-ready looks and charm belied his brutal killings. But Sealey says she was careful not to glamorize him.

Emmy winner Luke Kirby plays the infamous murderer in No Man, and he explained to ABC Audio what his process was to get into Bundy’s head.

“Reluctant,” Kirby sighs. “…I found a lot of things to get distracted by and…I moved in and out of it as much as my stomach could bear for the day.”

Kirby credited Sealey with making his job easier. “…To come into a room and play make believe for a job is, you know, ridiculously fortunate. So I tried to keep it all in perspective.”

For his part, Wood was relieved by the mood on Sealey’s set, the first time many involved had worked since the COVID lockdowns. “I think what was sort of surprising about it was…the material is heavy…but the experience of making it was joyful and fun, partially because we all hadn’t been working on anything in quite some time, and we’d been in isolation.”

Wood continues, “And suddenly we were engaged in the creative process again, which was lovely. But also, you know, it’s Luke and Amber and this incredible crew that made the process fun and enjoyable.” 

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Carole Baskin, the big cat connoisseur and nemesis of incarcerated Tiger King co-star Joe Exotic, has sold his former kingdom.

TMZ reports the Oklahoma property that once was home to Joe Exotic’s G.W. Zoo — and which was given to Baskin to satisfy a one million dollar trademark infringement judgement against him — was sold with the stipulation it can’t be used as an animal sanctuary for 100 years. In fact, the purchasers also had to agree they couldn’t use the property in any way to cash in on the Tiger King craze, the gossip site says.

Joe Exotic, whose legal name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating wildlife laws, in addition to failed murder-for-hire plots against Baskin. He’s currently behind bars in Fort Worth, Texas, suffering from prostate cancer. He recently told The Sun that he intends not to fight the painful disease that he says may be spreading to his stomach and pelvis.

“When we find out where and how bad it is, I will decide if I am going to do treatment,” he told the paper. “If it’s stage three or four I am going to let it take me.”

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Orlando Bloom is thankful he was given a second chance after suffering a fall in 1998 that nearly cost him his ability to walk.  

The Pirates of the Caribbean star took to Instagram recently to share a throwback photo of him wearing a back brace while riding a bicycle.

“That’s me in my back brace circa 1998 about 3 months after I fell 3 floors and crushed my spine, narrowly escaping death and paralysis,” Bloom explained.

The mini slide show features a second photo, a recent photograph of him pedaling uphill with another friend. He added, “Grateful everyday for my limbs that allow me to push my limits and live life on my edge (safer now.)”

Katy Perry reacted to the post by telling her partner, with whom she shares one-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove, “I love you.”

Ex-wife Miranda Kerr also shared her thoughts and told Bloom, “So proud of you.”  The two share Flynn, their 10-year-old son.

Bloom has spoken before about his devastating injury, and said in his 2005 GQ profile that the accident made him reevaluate his life and what he does with it.

“Until you’re close to losing it, you don’t realize,” he said at the time. “I used to ride motorbikes and drive cars like everything was a racetrack; it was ridiculous. It wasn’t because I thought it was cool; it was just because I loved living on the edge. But I’ve chilled.”

“Until then, I didn’t have a healthy appreciation for life and death — that we’re not invincible,” he continued. “I faced the idea of living in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”

GQ reported that Bloom fell three stories while attempting to leap onto a drainpipe to gain access to a roof terrace.

 

 

 

 

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Reese Witherspoon is recalling the time critics got the best of her, saying an especially harmful caricature of herself that was published in a magazine made her “burst into tears.”

Appearing on Kristen Bell and Monica Padman‘s We Are Supported By podcast, the Legally Blonde star recalled when TIME magazine seemingly pushed the narrative of “women staying in their lane” in a 2015 story.

The story focused on Witherspoon as well as fellow actresses and entrepreneurs Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and Blake Lively — calling them “domestic divas” and Photoshopping aprons and cleaning supplies in their hands.

“I had started a clothing business. Gwyneth was really growing Goop. Blake Lively had a business, Jessica Alba had a business and they did a caricature cartoon of all of us,” she recalled. “We were in ballgowns and they stuck our heads on, and Jessica was holding an iron and I was holding a vacuum cleaner. The whole thing was so offensive that I burst into tears.”

Witherspoon, 45, said TIME has since apologized for the faux pas, but she marveled over the fact that it happened so recently.

“I’m not even talking about 10 years ago. I’m talking about 2015, when we decided, okay, we’re going to be entrepreneurial, take a swing, invest our own money, our own time, our own reputation and try to do something that George Clooney has done, Robert De Niro has done and getting lampooned for it,” the Oscar winner remarked.  “That message to little girls is, ‘If you’ve had success in one area, you can’t have success in another.'”

Withersppon says she hopes that women and little girls alike never heed that message, and instead take the risks to start their own businesses and pursue leadership positions.

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After stepping away from the anchor desk in 2015, following 16 years on the Emmy-winning The Daily Show, Jon Stewart is back.

In a new teaser for his Apple TV+ show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, the host-turned activist suits up once again, in a scene set to Bruno Mars‘ “24 Karat Magic.” However, the up-tempo tune hits a snag when Stewart gets a look at himself in the mirror.

“What the hell happened to my face?” he screams.

Launching next month, Apple TV+ describes Stewart’s new show as a, “multiple-season, single-issue series” that will be “taking a deep-dive on the most important topics that are currently part of the national conversation.”

The streamer notes Jon “will be in discussion with the people who are impacted by the issue — as well as those who have a hand in creating the impact. Together, they will discuss tangible steps that can lead to a solutionary path forward.” 

In the trailer, Stewart gripes, “Why would I go back to a visual medium? I could have done a podcast.” 

In fact, he will be doing that: The Problem will also feature a companion podcast that will, “extend the conversation from each episode, featuring staff members from across the show who will bring us interviews with activists in the space, the facts on the issue, and yes, lots of jokes.”

The Problem with Jon Stewart debuts globally on Apple TV+ on Thursday, September 30, with new episodes dropping every other week. The official podcast also launches on September 30.

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