The folks at ABC’s Abbott Elementary have teamed up with education company Lakeshore Learning for a sweepstakes benefiting teachers nationwide.
Four educators will score a grand prize of a full classroom makeover courtesy of the company. The Classroom Makeover Sweepstakes is giving away a total of $100,000 worth of prizes, including $500 Lakeshore Learning e-gift cards.
The sweepstakes is open to all K-8 teachers in public and private schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Full details and how to enter can be found here — but hurry up, because the sweepstakes ends Sunday at 2:59 p.m. ET.
Abbott Elementary airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC, with new episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
Just in time for Halloween, Variety‘s resident critics have come up with their definitive ranking of the 100 scariest movies of all time.
1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre slayed the competition at #1.
The long list shares some titles with some of the experts’ greatest films of all time, like Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho (#3), but also movies that would never rank among the greatest ever, like 1991’s Dead Alive (Braindead) at #95 and The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) at #92.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was hailed for creating “a mythology of horror, one that feels even more resonant today than it did 50 years ago.”
1973’s The Exorcist placed second on the list, with the critics saying of the film, “Half a century later, [director William] Friedkin‘s … classic remains so compelling because everyone involved commits to the realism of demonic possession.”
Psycho was hailed as “iconic,” adding “Anthony Perkins‘ performance channels a cunning and terror for the ages.”
Fourth place went to Steven Spielberg‘s 1975 classic Jaws, with the critics declaring that while many movies can give you scares, “few have so fundamentally altered human behavior the way Jaws did, compelling millions to steer clear of the water.”
Rounding out the top five was Roman Polanski‘s 1968 offering Rosemary’s Baby, a film that “generates such supreme paranoia and suspense that it stands as one of the last great pieces of classical movie-making to emerge from the New Hollywood.”
Andrew Garfield is opening up about his onscreen chemistry with Florence Pugh on their new film We Live in Time.
The Amazing Spider-Man actor praised the Black Widow actress for being “so un-judgmental” while filming the movie in an interview with Good Morning America that aired Thursday.
“Safe is the word,” Garfield said of working with Pugh. “Safe and trusting, and ‘cultivating’ is a great word, too, because it takes work. It’s not something that you can just leave to the gods. I think you have to really intentionally make sure these two have to be really safe with each other — safe to fail, safe to look foolish and safe to have all of your nooks and crannies seen in all the ways, and it was cultivated.”
He added, “I understood very, very quickly within rehearsals, and maybe the first few days of filming, that I was very, very safe with Florence.”
The John Crowley-directed film tells the story of two strangers, Garfield’s Tobias and Pugh’s Almut, who are brought together by chance.
Garfield said the movie — billed as a “decade-spanning, deeply moving romance” — seemed “to be very much in line with the things I was ruminating on and considering in my life.”
Those things included “love, partnership, connection, loss, risk, meaning, courage, sorrow, grief [and] joy.”
“You can only go as high as you go deep,” Garfield said. “And the script just kind of felt like the inside of my heart and my brain.”
After a challenging week, things heated up on The Golden Bachelorette.
Joan Vassos had a hilarious group date that allowed some of the men to show off their moves while she also began to grow her connections with others.
“I solidified some connections with some of the guys and I get more and more hopeful every week,” she said.
Jonathan, Pascal, Dan, Charles L., Gary, Mark, Gil, Chock and Keith were chosen for the group date and were given a lesson by some of the original Chippendale members on how to body roll and more.
They each then took the stage to show off their moves for Vassos and to raise money for Stand Up to Cancer, an organization that fights cancer through collaborative research and fair access to care.
After their performance, each of the men got some time with Vassos, including Chock, whose connection with her has grown since their one-on-one date at Disneyland. At the end of their date, Vassos gave Chock the group date rose because she said she continues “to see a future” with him.
Following the group date, Chock received the heartbreaking news at home that his mother died and decided to leave the mansion to be with his family.
After Chock departed the mansion, Vassos set out on her date with Jordan. The duo went ice skating and Jordan got a rose at the end of their date.
On her one-on-one date with Guy, Vassos opted to get to know him more over cooking lemon baked ziti at her house.After their date, Vassos gave him a rose and said she can picture Guy in her life.
Prior to the rose ceremony, Vassos had one-on-one time with each of the men. And while she shared meaningful moments with all of them, she was over the moon when Chock returned to the mansion.
Chock told Vassos that he was “crazy” about her and “had to come back” to see her.
At the end of the night, Vassos said goodbye to Charles L., Gary, Dan and Gil. Here are the men that remain:
Chock, 60, an insurance executive from Wichita, Kansas Guy, 66, an ER doctor from Reno, Nevada Jordan, 61, a sales manager from Chicago, Illinois Pascal, 69, a salon owner from Chicago, Illinois Jonathan, 61, a shipping consultant from Oakland, Iowa Mark, 67, an army veteran from Leesville, Louisiana Keith, 62, a girl dad from San Jose, California
School is officially back in session. Abbott Elementary has returned for its fourth season, with the premiere episode available to stream on Hulu.
Lisa Ann Walter, who plays second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti, told ABC Audio what she’d like to see this season at the Disney Upfront event back in May.
“I would love to have Melissa and Ava go in on something together,” Walter said. “Every woman on the show is an alpha … and it’s fun to see them mix it up.”
Walter even pitched an entire storyline.
“Maybe Barbara and Melissa get into a fight and then Melissa and Ava work on something. And then Barbara gets mad,” Walter said, before referencing her season 3 storyline with Chris Perfetti’s Jacob Hill.
“I’m going to tell you, here’s the truth. When the Jacob character moved in with Melissa and I started to become friends with him, Sheryl Lee Ralph started getting snippy. She really did,” Walter said. “She goes, ‘You’re supposed to be my friend.’ I was like, ‘They wrote lines, Sheryl.’”
Another cast member excited for this season is William Stanford Davis, who plays the school janitor, Mr. Johnson. He says he’s looking forward to more of Mr. Johnson’s “opinionated self about everything.”
“I’m hoping to work in more scenes with Quinta [Brunson],” Davis said. “I worked a lot with the guys and with Melissa, so I’m looking forward to especially getting under Barbara’s skin. I hope I can tell the writers that. Cause I’m afraid of Barbara Howard.”
The show is known for having famous guest stars. So, which actor does Davis wish would join the Abbott Elementary family?
“I’ve often told them I wanted Halle Berry to be my love interest,” Davis said. “So, you know, if you know anybody who can make that happen.”
HBO has revealed Genius: MLK/X star Aaron Pierre has been tapped to play John Stewart in HBO’s upcoming Green Lantern series, joining Kyle Chandler, who Deadline reports will play Green Lantern/Hal Jordan. Lanterns, DC Studios’ first live-action series under co-chairmen/co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland,” per the studio …
Max has released a teaser trailer for season 3 of Mindy Kaling‘s comedy series The Sex Lives of College Girls, which follows a group of college students at New England’s prestigious Essex College. The series returns Nov. 21, followed by one new episode weekly at 9 p.m. ET through Jan. 23 on Max …
Nate Bargatze, who recently hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time in as many years, is returning to Netflix for a pair of standup comedy specials, according to Deadline. The first, Your Friend, Nate Bargatze, will debut on Dec. 24. Bargatze’s first two Netflix specials, The Tennessee Kid and The Greatest Average American, aired in 2019 and 2021, respectively. He chose Prime Video as the outlet for his last special, 2023’s Hello World …
The Land of Oz will have more than enough tulips to go around.
Wicked director Jon M. Chu discussed the 9 million tulips planted in making the set for the upcoming film in an interview with Fandango that was published on Wednesday.
“Nine million tulips we planted,” Chu revealed in the interview. He shared that when the studio asked if that many tulips were necessary, “Sorry we already planted them,” was the response.
Chu went into further detail on developing a real-life Emerald City for the film.
“We built the Emerald City,” the director said. “You could walk through the Emerald City, go into the bakery shop and look at what kind of sweets they had. You could go into the salon and sit in a chair.”
Chu said directing a movie with this level of set design has been a life’s dream.
“This is a spectacle on the grandest scale. I’ve dreamed about making a movie like this since seeing … behind-the-scenes pictures of Cleopatra,” said Chu.
Wicked, hitting theaters on Nov. 22, features a star-studded cast, including Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles.
After splitting with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez says that for the first time in her life she’s happy being alone.
Speaking to comedian Nikki Glaser for Interview magazine, Jennifer said, “Being in a relationship doesn’t define me. I can’t be looking for happiness in other people. I have to have happiness within myself.”
Jennifer said she’s “not looking for anybody” these days, and she’s fine with that.
“For people who are romantics and love being in relationships and want to grow old with somebody, we think, ‘I have to have that to be whole and happy,'” she said. “And you don’t.”
She said she asked herself, “What can I f****** do when it’s just me flying on my own … what if I’m just free?”
“You have to be complete, if you want something that’s more complete. You have to be good on your own,” Jennifer added. “I thought I learned that, but I didn’t. And then, this summer, I had to be like, ‘I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that.'”
And while she says the journey can sometimes feel “lonely, unfamiliar, scary,” “sad” or even “desperate,” she realized she’s “capable of joy and happiness all by myself.” She also says she’s learned not to let the haters affect her too much.
“How can I pay attention to that when I have these beautiful kids and all this amazing stuff going on in my life? I can’t,” she said. “Even in hard times, I just go, ‘You know the truth.’ Head high. Like they said in Finding Nemo: Keep on swimming.”
The recent trend that started with Dune Part 2‘s popcorn bucket, which was spoofed by Saturday Night Live and Deadpool & Wolverine‘s cheeky AMC offerings, continues with the forthcoming releases of Wicked and Gladiator II.
Regal Cinemas has revealed it is offering a soda conveyance shaped like a pointy witch hat and a glowing lantern to hold your popcorn. The latter shows Ariana Grande‘s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba walking the Yellow Brick Road hand in hand. There are also other pieces in the collection, like change purses and clutches.
Incidentally, Regal will also offer themed merch for Gladiator II, with a popcorn bucket shaped like the helmet first worn by Russell Crowe‘s Maximus in the original. In the sequel, Paul Mescal plays his son Lucius, who eventually dons his father’s armor.
Alan Ritchson‘s hulking hero Jack Reacher will return for a fourth season, Prime Video announced on Wednesday.
The early renewal comes as the show’s third season is still in production.
The streamer noted in the announcement that the second season of the series based on author and show co-producer Lee Child‘s beloved investigator was the most viewed 2023 release on Prime Video.
“Reacher has become a phenomenon that continues to resonate with our global customers beyond our wildest expectations and we are thrilled to bring the series back for an additional season,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television for Amazon MGM Studios. He added, “We are looking forward to more action and adventure from the immensely talented team behind the series.”
The third season of the action-packed drama series will be based on the seventh book in Child’s bestselling series, Persuader. “Reacher must go undercover to rescue an informant held by a haunting foe from his past,” Prime Video teases.
Maria Sten will return for season 3, joined by Anthony Michael Hall, Sonya Cassidy, Johnny Berchtold, Brian Tee, Roberto Montesinos, Olivier Richters and Daniel David Stewart.
Meanwhile, as reported, the streamer is also developing a spin-off series centering on Sten’s Frances Neagley, one of Reacher’s allies.
