Entertainment

Betty White is the last woman standing.

Ed Asner, who along with White was one of two living main cast members of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at age 91, according to his verified Twitter account. “We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully,” read the tweet. “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”

The Emmy-winning Asner portrayed Mary Richards’ tough boss Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and in the hour-long spinoff drama Lou Grant. He was the only actor to win Emmys for playing the same character in both a comedy and drama.

While he’s best-known for playing Grant, Asner also won Emmys for his roles in the hit TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots, bringing his career Emmy total to seven.

The series Lou Grant took on social issues, as Asner did in his personal life and as president of the Screen Actor’s Guild. However, his activism didn’t always sit well with network executives or advertisers. When CBS abruptly canceled Lou Grant while it was still a top-10 show, Asner believed that it was due to his left-wing political views.

According to Variety, Asner defended his political activism throughout his life, calling it “not a luxury, but a necessity.”

After MTM and Lou Grant ended, Asner continued to work in movies and on TV, most recently appearing on Grace & Frankie, Cobra Kai, Dead to Me, Modern Family and Blue Bloods. In addition, he had a successful career providing voiceovers for animated movies like Up, in which he played the lead role of Carl Fredricksen. Among the animated TV shows he lent his voice to: King of the Hill, American Dad, SpongeBob SquarePants, Central Park and many more.

Asner, whose two marriages ended in divorce, is survived by four children.

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Eddie Murphy reportedly will be teaming up with Jonah Hill for a new comedy that will be directed by black-ish veteran Kenya Barris.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the three very funny guys will collaborate on an as-yet-untitled project that the trade described as an “incisive examination of modern love and family dynamics and how clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences shape and affect relationships.”

Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall vet Hill, who of late has been exploring his more dramatic side on screen, also co-wrote the upcoming film with Barris, who co-wrote the hit sequel Coming 2 America for Murphy.

Kenya also will be making his feature film directorial debut on the film, the trade says.

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Disney+ has unveiled the first trailer for Doogie Kamealoha M.D., the Hawaii-set reboot of the Neil Patrick Harris medical dramedy Doogie Howser, M.D.

The sneak peek kicks off with Andi Mack veteran Peyton Elizabeth Lee as the title character, saving a man’s life on an O’ahu beach, with the help of a sunbather’s hair pin.

The original show even gets name-dropped in the trailer, with people calling the 16-year-old doctor as “a real-life Doogie Howser.”

The trailer shows how the series will see the young doctor will be “juggling a budding medical career and life as a teenager,” including using the scientific method to deduce whether a guy likes her, in-between her rounds at the hospital.

The series, which also stars a diverse cast including Kathleen Rose Perkins, Jason Scott Lee, Matthew Sato, Wes Tian, Emma Meisel and Ronny Chieng, debuts on Disney+ on September 8.

The original Doogie Howser, M.D. ran for four seasons on ABC, from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Starz has renewed its hit comedy series Run the World for a second season.

Along with the renewal announcement, the network shared that Rachelle Williams will serve as the season two showrunner. She’ll executive-produce alongside Yvette Lee Bowser and series creator Leigh Davenport. As previously reported, the series, starring Amber Stevens West, Andrea Bordeaux, Bresha Webb and Corbin Reid, follows a group of successful thirty-something Black women who work, live and hang out in Harlem. A season two premiere date for Run the World has yet to be announced.

In other news, Deadline has learned that In the Heights star Corey Hawkins has signed to Warner Bros. upcoming feature adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple. Deadline reports that Hawkins will play Harpo in the film, which will be adapted from a screenplay based on Alice Walker‘s 1982 novel of the same name. WB’s The Color Purple, directed by Blitz Bazawule, is scheduled to hit theaters December 21, 2023.

Finally, ABC has shared a new trailer for The Wonder Years, a reboot to the original ’90s ABC family comedy. As previously reported, the new iteration focuses on a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama during the 1960s. It follows preteen Dean Williams, played by Elisha “EJ” Williams, in the central role, with Don Cheadle taking on the adult voice of the character and narrating the show. The Wonder Years premieres Wednesday, September 22, at 8:30 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the network also released an extended trailer for Queens, the upcoming comedy about a group of four women in their 40s trying to relive their days of hip-hop fame. Starring Brandy, Eve, Naturi Naughton, and Nadine Velazquez , Queens will premiere Tuesday, October 19, at 10:00 p.m. ET.

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Monica Lewinsky says she had to hire a therapist while working on Impeachment: American Crime Story.

The FX drama, which begins airing a 10-episode season September 7, tells the infamous story of the affair between a then 22-year-old Lewinsky and the former POTUS, Bill Clinton, which lead to the second impeachment of a U.S. president. 

Lewinsky worked as a producer on the series, alongside creator Ryan Murphy. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she revealed that she had to hire a therapist to help her get through it. She said that the therapist would sit on Zoom with her while taking notes on the show “because it’s hard” reliving the darkest time in her life.

“It’s really hard, especially with the dramatic license that needs to be taken,” Lewinsky said. 

Looking back on the highly publicized affair and how it affected her, she recalled, “You go to bed one night a private person, and the next day you’re a public human being and the whole world hates you.”

“And you might go to jail. And you’re going to bankrupt your family. And, and, and…And just because I wasn’t on the news every night for 20 years in the same way that I was in 1998 doesn’t mean that this story ended,” she continued. “10 years on, I still could not get a job. I couldn’t support myself.”

At the end of the day, both Lewinsky and Murphy believe that Impeachment: American Crime Story will help viewers to see her in a new light, but she says that’s not the only goal.

“Of course I have a number of selfish reasons for wanting to participate,” Lewinsky admitted, “but a big goal for me is that this never happens to another young person again.”

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Ahead of the September 3 release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios has surprised fans by dropping on Disney+ All Hail the King, one of its “One-Shot” short films that previously was only released on the DVD for Iron Man 3.

The short takes place after Shane Black‘s 2013 blockbuster, which had a twist that its menacing villain, who called himself “The Mandarin,” was actually a has-been actor named Trevor Slattery, played by Oscar winner Ben Kingsley.

However, All Hail the King, written and directed by Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce, reinforces that there is a real Mandarin — who appears in Shang-Chi — and he, as is the rest of his deadly Ten Rings organization, is understandably none too happy with Slattery. Kingsley, too, appears in the upcoming film.

Some fans are still vocal about the Iron Man 3 twist, which somehow stayed secret in the age of social media — something that shocked Pearce. He told ABC Audio, “How did we get away with having an actual twist that nobody knew about in advance!? We were at the London premiere. “We were like, it’s a week ’til this comes out in America. This is not going to be a surprise to any human in the world. And for some reason, people like respected it as a twist, you know.”

And Pearce clarified that All Hail the King wasn’t an “apology” for the Mandarin twist, as some fanboys had snarked. “I always thought it was weird that like to somehow placate the people that were annoyed by Trevor Slattery, I would make a whole new film with Trevor Slattery where he’s even more Trevor Slattery-ish than he was in the original film,” Drew laughs.

He added, “[W]e stated fairly clearly in [Iron Man 3] that the Mandarin was a mantle that had already existed and would continue to exist. And All Hail the King was really just in the lineage of that.” 

Pearce adds, “I’m so proud of Iron Man 3, like it’s so esoteric as a superhero movie that I don’t think people even remember that until they re-watch it. It’s its own movie, and it’s pretty bonkers in places. And I love that.” 

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Candyman director Nia DaCosta knew she was stepping on hallowed ground when she signed on to direct “a spiritual sequel” to the 1992 supernatural horror film of the same name. 

“I was a huge fan of the original film,” DaCosta tells ABC Audio. “I saw it when I was really young…and watched when I was older…and had a completely different perspective, but still loved it.”

DaCosta’s says her love for the original made her want to do right by its sequel, noting that she “pitched” her own ideas to producers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld.

“When I heard that Jordan was going to do a version of it, I didn’t really know what that meant,” she shares. “But I read the script that he and Win had co-written together, and I was like, ‘Oh, I see what they’re doing with this…this is really exciting.’ And I pitched…based on the script that I read, and we were really aligned where we wanted to take the story.”

While DaCosta’s 2021 film serves as a continuation of the Candyman legacy, the director laughs when you remind her that’s she creating her own by being among the few Black women to director a horror film.

“[I]t’s so funny. I’m just trying to make sure I eat, drink enough water…call my mom more. So I don’t generally think about it in those terms,” she says. “And then usually [it’s] at times like this when I’m like, ‘Oh, right. That is a thing.'”

DaCosta continues, “[But it’s] really exciting…as someone who wanted to be doing this for such a long time… But there’s many more of us now, like Melina Matsoukas…Ava DuVernay and Kasi Lemmons. It’s so great to be in that company.”

Candyman is now in theaters.

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Bachelor alums Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon are having a baby boy!

The couple revealed the exciting news during an Amazon Live on Thursday. After giving a drumroll that consisted of him banging on the counter with his hands, Jared exclaimed, “We’re having…a boy!” as he pulled down a blue balloon that read “boy.”

Jared also shared that the pair, who wed August 2019, found out the sex in an email and that they already have a name picked out for their bundle of joy. While they didn’t reveal the name, they did assure their child’s name will not be Jack, Aladdin, Tom Brady, or Jared Jr. 

Ashley, 33, and Jared, 32 announced they were expecting last month.

“Baby Haibon is due Feb 10th!” Ashely said in an Instagram post. “We’re are very excited for that day to come! It’s so cool to think I’m creating a human that’s half me and half Jared!”

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Wedding bells are ringing for Norman Reedus, who reportedly proposed to actress Diane Kruger — and she said yes!

People reports that a source close to the ultra-private couple confirmed the upcoming nuptials.  However, requests for comment went unanswered by both actors and their representatives.

Reedus, 52, and Kruger, 45, met in 2015 when they starred in the drama Sky and, in 2017, confirmed that they were going steady.

The following year, the two welcomed a daughter but have kept details about their little one private.  The child, who turns three in November, is their first together.

Kruger previously told People in 2019 about her little one’s personality, saying her child is “kind of a dude” and raved, “It’s fun to have a girl, I will say. I like that, too.”

Reedus is the father of a 21-year-old son named Mingus, whom he shares with ex-partner Helena Christensen.

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He’s All That, the gender-bend Netflix reboot of She’s All That, stars several familiar faces who say they were happily surprised by their young co-stars.

Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard — who respectively starred as Laney Boggs and the sleazy reality star Brock Hudson in the 1999 romcom — told ABC Audio about their initial concerns about the rest of the crew, which they say now makes them laugh.

Cook, who now plays star Addison Rae‘s mom, and Lillard, who plays the high school principal, admitted they thought their Gen Z colleagues would spend all their time buried in their phones.

“They weren’t, which is a miracle,” said Cook, “I thought they were just going to be, you know, ticking and a tacking.”

Lillard, who laughed at Cook’s new code word for TikTok, revealed how the cast gelled on set, adding, “We also shot in the middle of a pandemic… I think that there was like some semblance of normalcy. And people were super happy about that.”

He also revealed that he was shocked She’s All That was given the reboot treatment.

“It’s a little weird that this movie, you know, found such an audience that it’s worthy to be remade,” said Lillard. “That said, I think that they did a great job updating it. I think the social media aspect of it is really smart.”

TikTok star Rae, who plays queen bee Padgett Sawyer, chimed in that she never would have believed she would be the one starring in the reboot.

Rae, who was studying journalism when she downloaded the app and became a sensation, recalled that people used to say her dreams of making it big “wasn’t something that was realistic.” (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)

He’s All That is available now on Netflix.

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