George Clooney as Jay Kelly in ‘Jay Kelly.’ (Peter Mountain/Netflix)
George Clooney doesn’t care what people think of his acting presence.
The actor recently spoke to Vanity Fair about his role in the upcoming Noah Baumbach film Jay Kelly.
Baumbach is known for his preferred directing style of doing a large amount of takes. Clooney told the outlet he discussed adjusting this with the director.
“I literally said to him, ‘Noah, look, I love the script. I love you as a director, but I’m 63 years old, dude—I can’t do 50 takes,’” Clooney said. “‘I don’t have it in me. I’ve got the acting range from A to B.’”
In the film, Clooney plays a world famous movie star in his 60s who faces critics who say he always plays himself. Clooney was asked how he feels about this specific type of criticism in his real life.
“Do people say that I only play myself? I don’t give a s***,” Clooney said. “There aren’t that many guys in my age group that are allowed to do both broad comedies like O Brother [Where Art Thou?] and then do MichaelClayton or Syriana. So if that means I’m playing myself all the time, I don’t give a s***. … Have you ever tried playing yourself? It’s hard to do.”
Clooney also took the time to praise his Jay Kelly co-star Adam Sandler.
“This film, more than any film Adam has done, shows what a beautiful, heartfelt, soulful actor he is,” Clooney said. “I kept telling the cast, ‘Don’t call him Sand Man. Don’t talk to him like he’s just some goofy comedian. He’s actually a really beautiful, wonderful actor.’”
Jay Kelly will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in August before arriving in select theaters on Nov. 14. It streams on Netflix on Dec. 5.
Sydney Sweeney attends a Sydney, Australia, screening of ‘Anyone But You’ at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter on Dec. 18, 2023. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump offered praise Monday for Sydney Sweeney amid backlash over a denim ad campaign featuring the actress wearing American Eagle jeans.
“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“Go get ’em Sydney,” he added.
Later in his message, which was originally deleted and reposted after incorrectly spelling Sweeney’s first name as “Sidney,” Trump added, “Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be.”
Trump’s post comes as several news outlets reported over the weekend that Sweeney is registered as a Republican in Monroe County, Florida, where she reportedly purchased a mansion in 2024.
Based on publicly available voting records, ABC News was able to pull the voting registration of a Sydney B Sweeney in Summerland Key, Florida, who registered as a Republican in the state and has the same birthday as the actress.
In a gaggle with news reporters on Sunday, Trump was asked by a reporter about his thoughts on reports that Sweeney is a registered Republican.
“Ohhhhh, now I love her ad. Is that right, is Sydney Sweeney?” Trump said. “You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s what I wouldn’t have known, but I’m glad you told me that if Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”
The Euphoria actress, who has not commented publicly on her voter registration, came under fire recently for her “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad campaign for American Eagle.
The ads feature a play on the words “jeans” and “genes.”
In one ad, Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” as the camera pans up to her face.
In another ad, posted on the company’s social media, Sweeney is seen cleaning a photo of herself with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes,” with “genes” crossed out to instead read “jeans.”
Some critics of the ad campaign claim it promotes eugenics, a “scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations,” according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Other critics say the campaign is hypersexualized and glorifies Sweeney’s physique.
Some commenters online have also compared the ads to actress Brooke Shields‘ controversial 1980 campaign for Calvin Klein. In one of those commercials, the then-15-year-old actress and model pulls on a pair of Calvin Klein jeans while lying on the ground, saying in part, “The secret of life lies hidden in the genetic code. Genes are fundamental in determining the characteristics of an individual and passing on these characteristics to a succeeding generation.”
A representative for Sweeney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment Monday.
Reached for comment, American Eagle directed ABC News to its statement Friday on social media, in which it said the ad campaign is about “jeans.”
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” the company said in the statement. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
ABC News’ Anastasia E. Williams contributed to this report.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson attend the ‘Marriage Story’ photocall during the 76th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on August 29, 2019, in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)
In her latest role, Scarlett Johansson takes on the scaly beasts of Jurassic World Rebirth. In real life, her voice is being used against smaller, furrier predators.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, has been using audio of Johannsson and fellow actor Adam Driver arguing in a scene from the 2019 movie Marriage Story in an effort to scare away wolves.
The audio is deployed by a drone as part of a program to keep wolves from attacking and eating livestock.
“I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad,” says a USDA district supervisor in Oregon whose name is actually Paul Wolf.
Other examples of audio used by the drones include songs by AC/DC and Five Finger Death Punch.
Both Johansson and Driver were nominated for Oscars for their performances in Marriage Story, but didn’t win. Perhaps they’ll be awarded with a Wolfie, instead.
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’/Photo Credit: A24
The first official trailer for Highest 2 Lowest has been released, giving fans a look at Spike Lee‘s remake of the Akira Kurosawa crime thriller. The film follows the story of Denzel Washington‘s David King, a reputable music mogul who is targeted with a ransom plot and ends up in a life-or-death situation.
The trailer captures the moment he goes from handling his music business in the Big Apple to receiving a phone call from A$AP Rocky‘s Yung Felon, an aspiring musician who has taken extreme measures to get David’s attention. Felon has kidnapped King’s son and demanded $17.5 million for his return.
“I gotta feed the streets, my lady and a newborn kid, and I ain’t tryna go back and do another bid, ya dig?” Felon says over the phone. David responds, “I know what it is to risk everything you have for something that you want.”
The full trailer is now available to watch on YouTube.
Highest 2 Lowest is set to arrive Aug. 15 in theaters on Sept. 5 on Apple TV+. Also starring Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson and Ice Spice, the filmmarks the first time Lee and Washington have worked together since 2006’s Inside Man.
The trailer for James L. Brooks‘ latest film has arrived.
20th Century Studios released the official trailer for the upcoming film Ella McCay on Monday.
Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis star in the new comedy from the director of Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets.
Mackey plays the titular Ella McCay, an idealistic young woman who “juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them,” according to an official synopsis.
“Aunt Helen, I have a ridiculously serious problem and you’re the only one I can tell,” Mackey’s Ella says to Curtis’ Helen in the trailer.
“I’m about to add to your problems, Ella. Your father’s here,” she responds.
An all-star cast including Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Rebecca Hall, Julie Kavner, JoeyBrooks, Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson also star in the film.
Jenna Ortega‘s Wednesday Addams will rejoin her peers at Nevermore Academy this week for season 2 of the hit series Wednesday.
“We’re still with the same cast, and there’s a lot of new faces coming into play, because a lot of people [last season] had unfortunate endings,” Ortega said while speaking with Good Morning America on Monday. “We had such an incredible reaction to the first season that we just wanted to give them something good.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Morticia Addams, is also reprising her role for season 2.
“She’s one of the funniest people I have met. I don’t think she gets enough credit for that. She’s unbelievable,” Ortega said. “If she’s ever not funny, it’s because she needs, like, a piece of chocolate.”
The pair will face off in season 2 in a sword fight scene, which Ortega revealed “was one of my favorite things to come out of the show.”
“The fencing sequence where we just tried to end each other for a good, like, five minutes, it was such a dance that we had to do,” she said.
Two more big names have joined this season. Steve Buscemi is onboard as Principal Barry Dort and Christopher Lloyd, who famously played Uncle Fester in the 1991 film The Addams Family, joined as the longest-serving professor at Nevermore Academy.
“Christopher Lloyd I’m still quite shocked by, I don’t know how to process that, his history in film in general, but then also his relation to the Addams Family,” she said. “Steve I’ve had the pleasure of working with twice now. He’s just a cool — he’s a cool guy.”
The new season of Wednesday will be released in two parts on Netflix, with Part 1 streaming Wednesday, Aug. 6, and Part 2 streaming on Sept. 3.
It’s almost time to return to a galaxy far, far away. The original Star Wars film, A New Hope, is returning to movie theaters to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Lucasfilm has made the announcement two years before the 50th anniversary of the classic film by George Lucas. “Star Wars: A New Hope returns to theaters April 2027 to celebrate 50 years of a galaxy far, far away,” Star Wars shared on its official Instagram …
A new Zoey Deutch rom-com is in the works, and this time it’s back at Netflix. The actress is teaming up with Nick Robinson to star in Voicemails for Isabelle. The film will be written and directed by Leah McKendrick and follows a woman who copes with her sister’s death by leaving her voicemails where she talks about her life. When the phone number is reassigned without her realizing, an elusive real estate agent starts getting the confessional messages. Nick Offerman, Lukas Gage, Harry Shum Jr. and Ciara Bravo will also star in the film …
A musical about former President Barack Obama is coming to New York City. The show, which is called 44 — The Musical, is coming to play Off-Broadway in the big apple this fall, Deadline reports. According to the show’s website, the musical tells “the story of Obama you won’t read about in history books…because history books are now banned in most states.” …
Season 7 of The Chi aired its finale Friday on Paramount+Premium. It marks seven full seasons of Hannaha Hall as Tiffany, a role she says taught her how to have “more grace” and “understanding of other people’s journeys”
Speaking to ABC Audio, Hannaha specifically recalls being upset when she learned in a previous season that her character would be in an open marriage, one of the moments it clicked that she was portraying a person outside of herself.
“I just remember having a moment where I said, ‘Hannaha, you know, you have to understand that Hannaha may not do this, but someone else may do it,'” she says. “Our job [as actors] is to basically take ourselves out of ourselves and put ourselves in another person’s shoes.”
As someone who naturally loves “to learn people’s journeys,” Hannaha notes acting is a cheat code to doing just that. “You’re learning from [the characters],” she says. “You’re understanding the decisions that they make and why they made them.”
While Hannaha has learned a lot from Tiff, she says she also learned from the other characters and their storylines.
She shares, “Our show does a great job of telling stories from different walks of life.”
All seven seasons of The Chi are now on Paramount+Premium; the show’s been renewed for an eighth season.
The Marvel film – starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach – suffered a 66% drop from its $117.6 million debut, taking in just $40 million this weekend.
The weekend’s new releases – The Bad Guys 2 and The Naked Gun – took the #2 and #3 spots with $22.2 million and $17 million, respectively. Rounding out the top five were Superman and Jurassic World: Rebirth.
The Alison Brie-Dave Franco horror film Together debuted at #6 with $6.8 million.
1. The Fantastic Four: First Steps – $40 million 2. The Bad Guys 2 – $22.2 million 3. The Naked Gun – $17 million 4. Superman – $13.9 million 5. Jurassic World: Rebirth – $8.7 million 6. Together – $6.8 million 7. F1: The Movie – $4.1 million 8. I Know What You Did Last Summer – $2.65 million 9. Smurfs – $1.77 million 10. How to Train Your Dragon – $1.35 million
Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.
Loni Anderson, best known for her role on the radio station sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, has died. The actress was 79, just a few days shy of her 80th birthday.
Her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan, confirmed she died Sunday in Los Angeles after “an acute prolonged” illness.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” her family said in a statement.
Anderson played the sexy and smart receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati, which aired from 1978 to 1982. The show followed a struggling Ohio radio station as it tried to switch its format to rock ‘n’ roll to boost ratings.
Anderson received two Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe nominations for the role.
She was also known for starring in many made-for-TV movies throughout her career, including portraying Jayne Mansfield in 1980’s The Jayne Mansfield Story.
After starring alongside Burt Reynolds in the 1983 comedy Stroker Ace, the two had a high-profile romance. They married in 1988 and divorced in 1994.
Anderson is survived by her husband, Bob Flick, daughter Deidra and son-in law Charlie Hoffman, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, grandchildren McKenzie and Megan Hoffman, stepson Adam Flick and wife Helene and step-grandchildren Felix and Maximilian.
A private family service will be held at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery followed by a Celebration of Life at a later date.
