Entertainment

Drew Barrymore has added her voice to the discussion regarding Britney Spears‘ ongoing battle to end her 13-year conservatorship — and she’s on the side of Team #FreeBritney.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Barrymore revealed she had been “silently” supporting Spears, until it became apparent the singer needed more people to come to her defense.

“I think one of the things I thought that I could [do to] respect her the most is not Instagram about it, and not talk on social media. This is too big for that,” the 46-year-old actress explained. “But I also think on the other side of the coin, the noise had to be made in order to start to have change here.”

“Social media is a very tricky animal. It can lead to great outcry and people listening, and it can also be a place that has a little bit of empty calories,” Barrymore continued, but also added, “I feel that there’s a human being at the core of this. But since she put herself out there more … she’s the key to her freedom.”

“This is about her and her life and everybody deserves the freedom to make mistakes or a success of their life and everything in between,” Barrymore declared. “That is what a life is.”

She concluded, “So whether it’s about her or anyone else, I want people to have their civil liberties; to have the freedom to live their lives.”

In February, Barrymore revealed when speaking with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show that she had “empathy” for the Grammy winner, as they both had similar childhoods and struggles with fame.

“It’s hard to grow up in front of people. It’s just hard,” she said at the time.

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Season two of Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem is coming to a close, but not before things get a little crazy. Sheryl Lee Ralph, who reprises her role as President Kelly Wade in the show’s final two episodes, tells ABC Audio that she just couldn’t help but return to the series.

“First of all, I love playing the President of the United States — the 45^th president of the Unites States in an alternative world,” she says enthusiastically. “A world where the feminine power is strong and reigning all across the country.”

“How do you say ‘no’ to something like that?” she asks rhetorically. “And, I’m a woman of color! I love it.”

Thanking screenwriter Eliot Laurence for “choosing her for this role,” Ralph adds that the timing of receiving it was interesting because at the time she was “working hard” for now-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ralph explains that her role as the POTUS in Motherland: Fort Salem continues to intertwine with her real life, even today, as she’s currently running to become the SAG-AFTRA LA Local Vice President.

“So, it’s like ‘wow,’ President Kelly Wade has an incredible impact on my life,” she expresses.

As for what’s next for her character in the show, Ralph reminds fans that General Alder used a puppet spell on President Kelly Wade, before teasing “you never know what happens in a mind meld” and “you never know how things will end up.”

“Sometimes the most powerful person never lets you know what their power is, never — until it bites you in the behind and you have to find out for yourself,” she says. “I have a funny feeling it’s going to get deep and it’s gonna get crazy!” (ABC AUDIO 1-ON-1)

Watch Motherland: Fort Salem Tuesdays on Freeform at 10pm and the next day on Hulu. 

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Lee Daniels‘ latest TV series, The Ms. Pat Show, premiered August 12 on BET+, and the Empire creator says he is proud after years of struggling to make the sitcom happen.

“Years before, we tried to find the right writer, right visionary for it, trying fight studios and networks that wanted to do it, but were afraid to do it because it was too black and was too real,” Daniels said during a TV Critics Association panel Tuesday, according to Deadline. “We have never seen a voice like this on television…it was worth the fight — years of fighting.”

The Oscar-nominated director adds that he did not lose faith in the show after it was dropped in 2016 by Fox, and dropped by Hulu in 2019.

The Ms. Pat Show is based on the life of series star Patricia Williams, who overcame her criminal past to become a successful comedian. She portrays a married mother of four living in her real-life hometown of Plainfield, Indiana, in a suburban white neighborhood.

“I’m just proud to be out front and a different type of mom where I don’t have to be chopping up vegetables,” Williams said during the TCA event. “I’m a convicted felon and you get to see a side of a mom Hollywood doesn’t really want you to see, other than on Cops.”

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Actress Selma Blair had a reason to smile at discovery+’s Television Critics Association panel for her upcoming documentary Introducing Selma Blair: Her multiple sclerosis is in remission. 

“My prognosis is great,” the former Cruel Intentions star said. “Stem cell [treatments] put me in remission. It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down.”

Blair, 49, had undergone chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant to essentially “reboot” her nervous system, she explained.

The actress also said that she’s been feeling much better of late, but didn’t want to rush to make headlines. “I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed,” she noted.

“I’ve accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting,” the actress continued. “That took me a minute to get to that acceptance.”

Blair added, “I have really felt unwell and misunderstood for so long that it’s just me.”

Selma revealed her diagnosis in 2018, later telling ABC News’ Robin Roberts that she felt “relief” after she finally learned why she’d been suffering years of crippling pain and other physical symptoms. 

“I was really struggling with, ‘How am I gonna get by in life?'” she told Robin. “And [being] not taken seriously by doctors, just, ‘Single mother, you’re exhausted, financial burden, blah, blah, blah.’ And so when I got the diagnosis I cried with some relief. Like, ‘Oh, good, I’ll be able to do something.'”

Introducing Selma Blair, which profiles the actress’ life with MS and her struggles with her treatment, opens in theaters October 15 and starts streaming on discovery+ on October 21.

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It appears Pete Davidson has moved on from another Hollywood star.

The Sun reports the SNL vet and The Suicide Squad co-star has split from his latest girlfriend, Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynevor.

The pair had been linked since last February, and he’d even traveled across The Pond to spend time with the British actress: the couple were spotted together engaged in some PDA during Wimbledon in July. 

However, it seems COVID-19 had something to do with the apparent break-up, reports The Sun. While long-distance relationships are hard enough, trying to traverse the distances with pandemic flight restrictions “has made everything more difficult,” a source told the tabloid.

“It was pretty telling when Phoebe headed to Croatia with her mates this week rather than going to see Pete in America,” the gossiper continued. 

The source explained of the pair, “Their mates think they make a great couple, but the distance has made it completely unworkable. They had fun and will remain close, but unless something drastic changes, their relationship won’t recover.”

Davidson has previously been linked to a series of A-list beauties, including his former fiancée Ariana Grande, Underworld‘s Kate Beckinsale, and Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood‘s Margaret Qualley. 

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While New York Yankees fans might not want to be reminded of Field of Dreams after their recent loss at the film’s Iowa location, Peacock TV has announced a series based on the Kevin Costner classic.

The streaming service has tapped The Office writing alum and Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur with producing a modern take on the Oscar-nominated film, in which Costner played a man mystically prompted to build a baseball field in his cornfield. 

“The series will reimagine the mixture of family, baseball, Iowa and magic that makes the movie so enduring and beloved,” the streaming service said in an announcement.

“[W]e could only have entrusted [it] to Mike Schur,” said Erin Underhill, president, Universal Television of the “iconic” film’s adaptation, adding, “His talent, his love for baseball and his reverence for its themes make him the perfect choice to revisit this beloved film that evokes nostalgia and visceral emotion in so many of its fans.”

Universal Television, which backed Schur’s The Good Place and Parks and Rec for NBC, is producing the series.

Incidentally, the love for the film was recently shown in the ratings for that Yankees/White Sox matchup in Dyersville, Iowa, which were the highest of any game since 2005. It drew a big numbers on streaming as well.

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Nicole Kidman said her upcoming Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers was the most difficult project she’s ever completed.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Oscar winner said she worked under “an enormous amount of stress” to enforce COVID-19 safety measures, because the series was the first major Hollywood production to film in Australia during lockdown.

“There’s an enormous amount of stress being responsible for people’s safety and health,” said Kidman, 54. “We took that really seriously. There was testing, mask wearing and if someone had a sore throat – even if the test came back negative – we rescheduled, or we shut down. We couldn’t put anyone at risk. And we got through without one case, which is extraordinary,” she recalled. 

Kidman admits no one realized “what we were taking on” when production started — which she says is why the series got off the ground.

“If we’d known how high the risk was in terms of the whole thing being shut down and being destroyed like that, I don’t think the financiers would have taken the risk,” she reflected. “We kind of played Russian roulette in that way.”

Kidman also opened up about living and working in a “bubble” when filming took place between August and December 2020. 

“You basically create a bubble, you don’t go outside of it but you do have a very strong, safe place,” the Australian actress said.

Kidman also revealed that she and the whole cast wanted “to buy property in Byron Bay” because of their experience.

“It was one of those things where I think it was almost like being in a dream because we were separate from the rest of the world, working together, in that place for that long a time,” she revealed.

Nine Perfect Strangers premieres August 18 on Hulu.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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Jennifer Hudson is still feeling the emotional effects of playing the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, in the new biographical drama Respect.

Hudson tells ABC Audio that even though the film has long since wrapped, she still feels the gravity of getting to portray one of the most renowned vocalists of our time.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, my God. It’s super exciting. I can’t believe this — the biggest honor, dream.’ It’s what I wanted to do and everything,” the singer shares. “But then at the same time, it’s the scariest thing. And it still is. It’s like, ‘Oh, my God, what did I do?'”

Thankfully for Hudson, who was personally picked by Franklin to portray her, she had the perfect cheerleader to motivate her along the way.

“[I]t was [Aretha’s] encouragement that got me through it,” Hudson reveals. “Like, who gon’ wake up and say they’re going to be the Queen of Soul — or even try? Nobody. Not even me…even with her singing. But, it was her encouragement to say, ‘You can do this,’ that made me say, ‘Okay, if she said I can do this, then I’m gonna give it a try. And I’m gonna do my best.’ And that’s how I was able to get through it.

“And my faith as well,” Jennifer adds.

Respect, also starring Forest Whitaker and Marlon Wayans, is in theaters now.

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In one of a series of tweets thanking fans for supporting this weekend’s box office champ, Free Guy, star and producer Ryan Reynolds says it’s getting a sequel. 

He mentioned of the pandemic-delayed film: “Aaaannnnd after 3 years messaging #FreeGuy as an original IP [intellectual property] movie, Disney confirmed today they officially want a sequel. Woo hoo!! #irony”

The decision from Disney came on Saturday, even before the film’s weekend box office performance was tallied. 

Ryan included a gif of co-star Taika Waititi repeatedly mouthing “Albuquerque Boiled Turkey” — part of a riff his character, Antwan, had about the superiority of sequels over original ideas. 

Director Shawn Levy explained during a recent press event that he and Reynolds had been “floating” ideas for what a second movie could do, if they were given the chance to make it, and touched on the “irony” Reynolds mentioned. 

“We have bandied about and flirted with some ideas,” Levy explained. “But my favorite thing in Free Guy is that we have Taika’s character in an original new movie, literally mock the possibility and value of releasing something new. Right? Like it’s so rare that a studio lets you make a big budget new movie.”

He added, “But I will say that for anyone who’s seen the movie, if we make Free Guy 2…[I]t is a hundred percent Free Guy 2: Albuquerque Boiled Turkey based on one of seven million improv lines by Taika Waititi.

Reynolds apparently agreed, tweeting that “If it isn’t called, ‘Albuquerque Boiled Turkey’ we’ve failed.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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It looks like Jennifer Lopez has made her break-up with Alex Rodriguez Instagram official: She’s apparently deleted all shots of her former fiancée from the social media platform. 

What’s more, she also unfollowed A-Rod’s account.

While she reportedly re-kindled her relationship with once-former fiancée Ben Affleck back in April, J-Lo only recently made things official on the social media platform. But her 170 million Instagram followers noticed there are other changes in the air — and online: all previous shots on Lopez’s Insta home page that featured Rodriguez are now gone. 

Lopez formerly displayed shots of the former couple at the Golden Globes and other Hollywood events, as well as at President Biden‘s inauguration, at which Lopez performed. 

Instead, fans are now treated to various shots of Lopez modeling swimsuits, a sweet picture of her with her daughter and, of course, snaps from that Internet-breaking birthday photo shoot, which was capped off with a photo of Jen smooching Affleck in all its “Bennifer 2.0 is Instagram official” glory.

 

 

 

 

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