Entertainment

Saturday Night Live‘s executive producer and co-creator, Lorne Michaels, is thinking about retirement.

The 77-year-old told CBS Mornings Monday that he’s contemplating leaving the show after its 50th season, which would debut in 2024 and conclude in 2025.

“You know, I think I’m committed to doing this show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years,” he said. “I’d like to see that through and I have a feeling that’d be a really good time to leave.”

He added, “But … I won’t want the show ever to be bad. I care too deeply about it. It’s been my life’s work. So I’m going to do everything I can to see it carry on.”

Michaels launched the show in 1975 and only stepped away from it for five years in the early ’80s. He hinted that there are already plans in the works for who would replace him after retirement, but didn’t go into details.

“I have a sense of where we’re headed with that, you know,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to go on about it — it’s three years away.”

SNL is currently in its 47th season.

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After 18 seasons on ABC, Ellen Pompeo says she’s ready for Grey’s Anatomy to end. But not everyone agrees.

“I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end,” the actress told Insider.

“​I feel like I’m the super-naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?'” she explains. “And everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.'”

They’re not wrong. Pompeo, who stars as Meredith Grey and is also a producer on the show, is one of the highest-paid actresses on TV following contract negotiations in 2017. She makes $575,000 per episode.

This isn’t the first time she’s expressed a desire to wind things down, though.

“I mean, I’ve been trying to get away for years,” Pompeo told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year. “I have been trying. It’s not because I haven’t been trying. I have strong relationships at the network and they have been very, very good to me, and have incentivized me to stay.”

“Miraculously, we keep coming up with ways to have a reason to stay and if there’s a reason, that warrants it,” she said.

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The official trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special is here!

In the preview for the retrospective special, stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are shown reuniting in honor of the anniversary of the franchise’s first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The trio reflects on the incredible impact of the movies and the everlasting bonds they formed.

“It feels like no time has passed — and loads of time has passed,” Watson says.

Radcliffe adds: “The thing that scared me the most was the implication that the most meaningful thing in our life was done, and there’s something so joyous about seeing everyone, and be like, ‘It wasn’t, though.'”

“When things get really dark, and times are really hard, there’s something about ‘Harry Potter’ that makes life richer,” Watson says later in the preview. Grint also tells Watson that the films have given them “a strong bond” that they’ll “always have” as the two embrace.

Many beloved actors from the eight-movie series, including Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter, are also shown in the trailer for the reunion.

Additional confirmed stars for the anniversary special include Robbie Coltrane, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch.

According to HBO Max, the reunion “will tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new in-depth interviews and cast conversations, inviting fans on a magical first-person journey through one of the most beloved film franchises of all time.”

The first teaser for the special was released earlier this month, and the first image was released shortly after.

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Some people have yet to break out the holiday decorations in time for Christmas, which is few days away, and may be feeling overwhelmed about it.  Queer Eye star Bobby Berk understands the struggle and shared some quick and easy decoration ideas with ABC Audio.

The interior designer stresses that getting into the holiday spirit is essential if you want to start decorating. 

“If you don’t have time to decorate because we are all so busy, literally just having on holiday music in your house does set the mood,” suggests Berk, a spokesperson for the audio company Sonos.  He adds Mariah Carey and Pentatonix are staples at his house.

Berk also says greenery is “another quick way to throw up decorations, where I don’t have to go overboard. …I go out and I snip some greenery off some pine trees in the yard and I put that on the table, or I put that on the calendar and it instantly feels like a holiday without having to go to the store.” Berk assures the scent and look of real pine will “instantly make it feel like the holidays.”

Don’t have pine trees nearby?  Berk suggests “So many of the Christmas tree places trim the trees on site, and so they have all these leftover branches that they just throw away… They give it away for free so they don’t have to haul it away.”  He says you can “get tons of great branches to decorate” that way.

Berk also has advice for anyone unable to decorate, but who will host visitors during the holidays.  “When people come over, have a nice holiday scented candle and holiday music and people won’t even notice you haven’t done decorations,” he promises.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home had an even bigger box office debut than initially reported.

According to Variety, the superhero flick took in $260 million in North America over the weekend, more than Sunday’s initial estimates of $253 million. That means it’s now enjoyed the second-highest opening ever at the domestic box office, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War, which had a $257 million box office take when it opened in April, 2018.

Avengers: Endgame is the only film that has grossed more in its debut weekend. In pre-COVID times, it raked in $357 million when it bowed in April, 2019.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is also the first pandemic-era film to gross more than $100 million in its debut.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a co-production of Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, the latter of which is owned by ABC News’ parent company, Disney.

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It’s pretty well known that Spider-Man stars Tom Holland and Zendaya aren’t just an on-screen couple, but are an item off-screen as well — something that producer Amy Pascal said she warned them against. 

“I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture,” Pascal told The New York Times. “Don’t go there — just don’t. Try not to.”

Clearly, her advice didn’t stick and like the previous Spider-Man leads before them — Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, and Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield — Tom and Zendaya wound up together in real life. 

Pascal also recalled giving the same advice to Emma and Andrew. 

“It can just complicate things, you know? And they all ignored me,” she said. 

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The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted Saturday on the best films and performances of 2021, with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese Oscar entry Drive My Car taking Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The Power of the Dog‘s Jane Campion walked off with Best Director honors, with Red Rocket‘s Simon Rex taking Best Actor and Parallel Mothers‘ Penélope Cruz grabbing Best Actress. The award for Best Documentary went to Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul. The complete list of winners can be found at LAFCA.net…

HBO Max has pulled the plug on its Head of the Class reboot after one season, according to Deadline.  Based on the sitcom that aired on ABC from 1986-91, Head Of the Class revolved around a group of overachieving high school students whose teacher, Alicia Gomez, played by Isabella Gomez, urges them to focus less on grades and more on experiencing life. The reboot also starred Jorge Diaz, Jolie Hoang Rappaport, Gavin Lewis, Dior Goodjohn, Brandon Severs, Adrian Matthew Escalona and Katie Beth Hall.  Original Head of the Class alum Robin Givens reprised her role as Darlene Hayward…

Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, is suing The Hospital for Special Surgery and a doctor after they allegedly botched a surgery the comedian underwent in 2020. Noah says the defendants “were negligent and careless in failing to treat and care for [him] in a careful and skillful manner,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by People. It further accuses the defendants of “failing to use approved methods in general use in the care and treatment,” failing “to prescribe proper medications,” failing to “discontinue certain prescription medications,” and failing “to use proper tests and examinations in order to diagnose the conditions” from which he “was suffering.” Noah, 37, claims to have suffered “serious personal injury” from which he was “rendered sick, sore, lame, and disabled.” The hospital has denied the claims, People reports.  The surgery Noah underwent wasn’t specified…

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Jennifer Lopez is shutting down reports that she’s mad at Ben Affleck over comments he made about his ex-wife Jennifer Garner. 

“This story is simply not true,” Lopez, 52, told People. “It is not how I feel.”

She added, “I couldn’t have more respect for Ben as a father, a co-parent, and a person.”

Affleck made headlines last week after doing an interview on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show where he told Stern that he felt “trapped” in his marriage and that he “probably still would have been drinking” if he were still married to Garner. He later clarified his comments on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and added, “I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”

The Way Back star was married to Garner from 2005 until 2018. They share daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 12, and 9-year-old son Samuel.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home spun a staggering web at the box office, scoring the biggest opening weekend ever for Sony and earning an estimated 507.2 million dollars worldwide — the third-biggest global opening of all time.

An estimated $253 million of that global tally came from domestic ticket sales, making Spider-Man: No Way Home also the third-biggest domestic opening in history and the biggest-ever December debut. Spider-Man: No Way Home — starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jacob Batalon — was also the first pandemic-era film to bow with more than $100 million.

Coming in at number two at the box office was Disney’s Encanto, delivering an estimated $6.5 million in its fourth week of release. It’s now collected a total of $81.5 million stateside to go with $94 million overseas, bringing its worldwide tally to $175.5 million.

West Side Story grabbed third place, earning a little more than 3.4 million in its second week. Stephen Spielberg‘s modern take on the classic Broadway musical has pulled in $18 million domestically so far and an estimated $9.1 million overseas to date, bringing its worldwide total to $27.1 million.

Finishing a close fourth behind West Side Story was Ghostbusters: Afterlife, delivering an estimated $3.4 million in its fifth week of release.

Rounding out the top five was another new major release, director Guillermo del Toro’s dark psychological thriller Nightmare Alley, pulling in an estimated $3 million. The film — starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Toni Collette — hasn’t opened internationally yet.

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COVID-19 struck Saturday Night Live once again, when numerous cast members tested positive for the virus, leaving producer Lorne Michaels and his staff to quickly cobble together a show using a combination of pre-taped sketches and highlights from previous Christmas shows.

The show was forced to tape without an audience “due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution.”

The episode opened with a “previously recorded” graphic, followed by Tom Hanks, and later Tina Fey, taking the stage to welcome host Paul Rudd into the “five-timers” club — an honor bestowed upon guests celebrating their fifth time hosting the show.

“As you know I started the Five-Timers Club,” Hanks said. “Like you started COVID,” Fey responded.

Steve Martin and his Only Murders in the Building co-star Martin Short also appeared via a Zoom video to mark the occasion.

SNL‘s longest-tenured castmember, Kenan Thompson, then came out to give Rudd his “five-timer” jacket.

Among the newly-taped segment was the Raging Bull parody, “An Evening with Pete,” in which Pete Davidson and other SNL regulars recreated moments from Martin Scorsese‘s classic 1980 film, starring Robert De Niro.

Some vintage segments included Andy Samburg and Justin Timberlake‘s “D*** in a Box,” Martin’s “Holiday Wish” from season 12 in 1986, Eddie Murphy, as an angry elf in sweatpants in the “North Pole News Report” from Murphy’s 2019 return, 2010’s “Holiday Pageant” sketch featuring Paul McCartney and Martin Short as Caleb and Monty, and Ronnie Spector singing “Christmas Time for the Jews.”

Scheduled musical guest Charlie XCX didn’t perform, but appeared in a musical sketch titled, “The Christmas Socks.”

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