Entertainment

(SPOILER ALERT) The second season of Netflix’s The Diplomat returns on Thursday, and while Rufus Sewell’s character, Hal Wyler, was the victim of a car bombing at the end of season 1, he is indeed back for another go-round. 

“He has survived. Not everyone has made it,” he tells ABC Audio, noting that the bombing will have a “tremendous effect”on his wife, United States ambassador to the United Kingdom Kate Wyler, played by Keri Russell.

While the couple seemed to be on the outs at the end of season 1, Sewell says the bombing does bring them back to each other. 

“So for a while afterwards, there’s a closeness between them, exacerbated by the fact that it seems like no one else can be trusted,” he says. “So they only really have each other.”

He adds, “She’s reminded how much she loves and cares for him, but it doesn’t mean all the old problems have gone away.”

Former The West Wing star Allison Janney joins the cast in season 2 as Vice President Grace Penn, and Sewell calls her the perfect addition to the show.

He says he was “a massive fan” of the White House drama, noting he “loved her character so much and I’ve loved her in everything she’s done.”

“So her coming on board was a big thing for us,” he says. “It was just a lovely vote of confidence and she is so much fun to work with.”

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For the past 50 years, The Grammys have aired on CBS. But starting in 2027, they’ll have a new home.

The award show, known as Music’s Biggest Night, is moving to ABC, Hulu and Disney+, where it will remain through 2036. The Recording Academy will produce multiple Grammy-branded music specials as part of the deal.

The announcement comes ahead of the Grammy nominations, which will be announced Nov. 10 via a livestream event that starts at 11 a.m. ET.

In the first year of the agreement, in 2027, ABC will not only air The Grammys, but also the Super Bowl and the Oscars. The network is also home to the CMA Awards and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

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Amazon MGM Studios is taking its hit Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series to the big screen, with actor-director John Krasinski reprising the title character in a film. 

According to Deadline, Krasinski’s small screen co-star Wendell Pierce will also return as James Greer, and veteran character actor Michael Kelly, who until very recently could be seen in The Penguin, is also in talks to reprise as Mike November.

The Jack Ryan series, which wrapped up its fourth season in June, remains Prime Video’s most-watched series globally.

The character originated on the big screen in 1990’s hit The Hunt for Red October with Alec Baldwin playing Ryan; he was succeeded by Harrison Ford in 1992’s Patriot Games and 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. 

Ben Affleck played Jack Ryan in 2002’s underperforming The Sum of All Fears opposite Morgan Freeman, and in 2014 Chris Pine played the character opposite Kevin Costner in Tom Clancy’s Shadow Recruit, before Krasinski took the role to streaming success in 2018.

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Two decades after the pair became reality stars with their show The Simple Life, it’s time for an encore for Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

Peacock’s new original special, the three-part Paris & Nicole: The Encore, premieres Dec. 12. 

According to the streaming service, “These reality pioneers are coming back the only way they know how: full of fun, chaos, and epic one-liners! In this new special, Paris and Nicole bring fans up to speed on their lives and friendship in a way that only true legends can.” 

Peacock adds that the show will follow “the dynamic duo as they try to produce a once-in-a-lifetime operatic performance based on their self-coined phrase, ‘Sanasa.'”

In fact, a teaser shows the pair trying to coach an opera singer on how to say — and sing — it to their liking.

She does, and of course Paris comments approvingly, “That’s hot.” 

“We’re really good at this,” Richie adds. 

All episodes of the series will drop Dec. 12.

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Shaun White and Nina Dobrev are officially engaged.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist and Vampire Diaries alumna shared photos from the proposal in separate engagement announcements Wednesday.

“She said YES,” White wrote in an Instagram post, adding a diamond ring emoji and an infinity symbol; Dobrev used the same emoji in her own post, which read, “RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé.”

The pair also shared images from the proposal with Vogue. The sweet images show the couple in coordinating black outfits, in a room covered with flower petals and candles.

“I went into shock. I just froze and stared at him,” Dobrev told Vogue of the moment she realized that White was proposing to her in a New York City restaurant.

She told the outlet that White had worked with his publicist to create a fake invitation to a fashion event for her, sharing, “He made the invite look so legitimate.”

Dobrev also shared with the outlet that White “said all the right things” during the proposal.

The pair have been linked since 2019 and often share photos of themselves together on social media.

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Marvel Studios has dropped a tantalizing sizzle reel of its forthcoming projects bound for Disney+.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, an animated series, starts things off on Jan. 29. The show teases Peter Parker in his early days as the titular hero.

Daredevil: Born Again had been retooled into a continuation of the gritty, acclaimed Netflix series Daredevil. Again starring Charlie Cox as the blind lawyer Matt Murdock, who spends his nights as the red-suited vigilante Daredevil, the show also brings back Vincent D’Onofrio as hulking villain Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher.

That series debuts on March 4.

We also see Dominique Thorne back in action as Riri Williams, the genius inventor from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever who creates a power suit as the heroine Ironheart. Anthony Ramos plays the heavy, Parker Robbins aka the Hood. Ironheart debuts June 24.

Also included is a glimpse at Eyes of Wakanda, an animated series about the secretive country’s War Dogs and their mission to find stolen vibranium, debuting on Aug. 6, and a peek of the animated series Marvel Zombies — Marvel Television’s first mature-rated animated toon, timed for October 2025.

Also in the reel is the first real look at Wonder Man starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II from Aquaman. Unlike the comics, here his Simon Williams is seen auditioning to play the role of Wonder Man — with a questionable assist from Trevor Slattery, Ben Kingsley‘s washed-up actor from Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi. That show’s due out in December 2025.

Also in the lineup is a tease of the third and final season of the multiverse-spanning acclaimed animated series What If…?, debuting on Dec. 22. 

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

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Armie Hammer, whose Hollywood career derailed in 2021 after a series of sexual assault allegations — which he denied, and for which authorities declined to charge him for lack of evidence — is reportedly getting back to acting.

Deadline is reporting that Hammer will star in Frontier Crucible, a Western from the producers of the hailed Western movie Bone Tomahawk and the gritty Mel Gibson/Vince Vaughn crime drama Dragged Across Concrete. 

The trade says Hammer will star opposite The Predator and The Punisher lead Thomas Jane, and the movie will get underway in November in Monument Valley and Prescott, Arizona.

Hammer was dropped by his representation after the sexual assault allegations broke and was forced to drop out of various projects, including the 2023 action comedy Shotgun Wedding opposite Jennifer Lopez. 

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Although the blockbuster is already available for rent or purchase on digital platforms, Deadpool & Wolverine will stream for free for Disney+ subscribers beginning Nov. 12. 

The Disney+ release “goes far beyond the fourth wall with hilarious and insightful filmmaker commentary featuring director/producer/writer, Shawn Levy, and star/producer/writer, Ryan Reynolds,” the streaming service advertises.

Speaking of “streaming,” the Marvel Studios film is promoting its Disney+ debut in a cheeky way: by advertising in urinals and toilet stalls at multiple sports arenas.

The bathroom makeovers will make their debut on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons at Philadelphia 76ers game; the FedEx Forum in Memphis, where the Brooklyn Nets will play the Memphis Grizzlies; and the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, where the NHL’s New York Islanders will face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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After three years together — and an engagement — Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum have reportedly called it quits. 

The couple, who met on the set of Kravitz’s directorial debut, the well-received thriller Blink Twice, have yet to say anything on social media, but People quotes “multiple sources” who have spilled that the couple has uncoupled.

Incidentally, Tatum did take to social media on Tuesday, but only to promote the pair’s next big-screen collaboration, the sci-fi-themed period pic Alpha Gang, in which they will star opposite Cate Blanchett and Steven Yeun. 

Tatum previously gushed about their relationship and praised her work on Blink Twice, noting in part, “Thank you for finding me and seeing me. I got you forever. Me and you back to back against it all. I’ll never blink. Let’s go.”

And while the couple is so far silent, Steve Kazee, the actor fiancé of Channing’s ex-wife Jenna Dewan, is seemingly having a laugh about the news. He posted an Instagram Story of a black screen on which “HAHAHAH” was typed out continuously in white. 

Tatum was married to Dewan from 2009 to 2019; Kravitz was married to Karl Glusman for a year, before splitting in 2020.

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The new alien invasion film Alpha Gang has landed an all-star cast. Deadline reports the film, produced and starring Cate Blanchett, has just added Channing Tatum, Zoë Kravitz, Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Léa Seydoux and Riley Keough. The film follows a group of aliens, disguised as a 1950s biker gang, sent to conquer Earth. While there they “succumb to the most toxic and contagious human condition of all: emotions” …

Nominees for the 2024 Gotham Awards have been announced, with the film Anora leading the pack with four nominations, including Best Feature. Luca Guadagnino’s tennis film Challengers, starring Zendaya, is also up for Best Feature, as is Babygirl, A Different Man and Nickel Boys. Other nominees include Nicole Kidman, Adrien Brody, Pamela Anderson, Colman Domingo, Kieran Culkin and Demi Moore. The 2024 Gotham Awards will be handed out Dec. 2 in New York City …

The cast of the mystery thriller Assassination just got bigger. The film, directed by Barry Levinson, had already cast Al Pacino, and now Deadline reports that Jessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser and Bryan Cranston have joined the cast. The film centers on Dorothy Kilgallen, played by Chastain, who Levinson describes as “the first female crime reporter in America.” The film looks at JFK’s assassination from Kilgallen’s perspective as she investigates her suspicion that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone

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