Road to the Oscars: Brian Tyree Henry reveals what he’s scared will happen if he wins

Courtesy Apple

Brian Tyree Henry is on the road to the Oscars for the first time.

The Causeway star is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing a disabled car mechanic dealing with serious emotional and physical trauma, opposite Jennifer Lawrence. The 40-year-old Yale School of Drama graduate tells ABC Audio he’s here now with an Oscar nomination after taking time to realize a few things about himself.

“To realize that me being, you know, considered unconventional actually worked in my favor. To really be true to myself. And to always surround myself with a community of people who believed in me,” Henry says.

“I find that the reason that I’m able to do what I do is that I had a lot of people standing behind me and beside me saying this is where you should be,” he continues. “And sometimes the monologue you have in your head is never really what you think you should be hearing. And so sometimes when you have people who are there advocating for you, it makes all your dreams possible. So that’s how I got here.”

Now that Henry’s “here”, there’s just a few things that he’s a little nervous about — for example, what might happen if he has to make his way to the Oscars stage.

“That if I win, that I will trip. One, because I’m a tripper, I will always trip. And then like literally getting up there and talking like Yoda,” he admits. ” It’s going to be terrible. But also, I don’t know, I’m just like, screaming like the wrong names at people. Like calling people by their character names rather than their government names, which I’ll probably do anyway.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

HBO’s ‘Barry’ to end with season 4

Courtesy HBO

Barry, the Emmy-winning dark comedy series, will end with its upcoming fourth season, premiering April 16, HBO confirmed on Tuesday.

“It’s been an amazing journey making this show, and it’s bittersweet that the story has come to its natural conclusion,” Barry star, co-creator, writer, and director Bill Hader said in a statement.

A teaser trailer for season 4 shows Hader’s titular character, a depressed hitman from the Midwest who dreams of becoming an actor, in prison, thanks to his former acting teacher, Gene Cousineau, played by Henry Winkler.

Over its first three seasons, Barry has picked up a total of nine Emmys, with Hader winning a pair for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and another going to Winkler for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Barry‘s fourth and final season will consist of eight episodes, with the series finale slated for May 28.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Celeb designer Christian Siriano’s dresses “ruined” just days before the Oscars

Bravo/Monica Schipper

Attention celebrities: If Christian Siriano made your dress for Sunday’s Academy Awards, you may want to have your people call his people.

The star designer and Project Runway season four winner told his Instagram followers on Monday that a plumbing mishap at his studio made it rain — literally.

“Well it’s 6 days before the Oscar’s [sic] and a pipe burst in our studio,” he said, along with a video from the point of view of someone surveying the water-logged scene. Cardboard shipping boxes that could fit gowns were seen among the water-logged items, as the sound of dripping water could be heard throughout.

Siriano added sarcastically, “yay happy Monday to us! Ughghghg.”

He added, with not a few anguished emoji, “THE WORST EVER! Only a few dresses ruined.”

One of Christian’s followers, obviously a Project Runway fan, quoted its host’s advice for dealing with last-minute calamities: “I can almost hear Tim [Gunn] whispering ‘make it work.'”

Just as on the competition reality show, the clock is ticking: The 95th annual Academy Awards airs Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In Brief: Anthony Anderson goes from ‘black-ish’ to ‘Public Defenders’ for ABC, and more

Black-ish alum Anthony Anderson has been tapped to star in the ABC comedy pilot Public Defenders, according to Variety. The pilot follows “four inexperienced public defenders” swimming in student loan debt and “working tirelessly to keep their clients out of jail,” according to the show’s official logline. “Along the way, they have to rely on each other to navigate their first defendants, the absurd court system, and the copy machine that always jams.” Anderson will play Marshall, the public defenders’ angry boss…

Dawson’s Creek alum James Van Der Beek is in talks to star alongside Rebel Wilson and Leslie Mann in the upcoming Netflix comedy Rock the Boat, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The story centers on “four best friends from high school who were obsessed with a famous boy band back in the ’90s. When the band announces a reunion tour aboard a cruise ship, our four women reunite and try to recapture who they were and who they always wanted to be, per the streamer. “…friendships will be tested, alliances will be formed, and bad decisions will definitely be made…” Van Der Beek would play one of the band members. Netflix is reportedly eyeing other 1990s mainstays for the band roles. Rock the Boat is set to start shooting this spring…

Deadline reports Ted Danson will reunite with The Good Place creator Mike Schur in a Netflix comedy series based on the 2020 Chilean feature documentary The Mole Agent. The as yet untitled project, which has landed an eight-episode straight-to-series order, stars Danson as a retiree who gets a new lease on life after answering an ad from a PI and becomes a mole in a secret investigation. Most recently, Danson starred in NBC’s comedy series Mr. Mayor, which aired for two seasons from 2021-22, and continues to appear in a recurring role on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm

Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Florence Pugh and Sigourney Weaver have been added to the list of presenters at this year’s Oscars ceremony, joining previously announced presenters Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldana and Donnie Yen. The 95th Oscars air live the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC…

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tessa Thompson looks back on some of her iconic characters

Terence Patrick 2023 CBS Broadcasting

Tessa Thompson‘s range has been displayed as she’s taken on a variety of characters. In the latest issue of Look Back At It, she reflects on some of her iconic roles, including Nyla in For Colored Girls, Diane in Selma and, of course, Bianca in the Creed series.

When Tessa portrayed Nyla, she worked with an “incredible ensemble” featuring Janet JacksonWhoopi GoldbergKerry WashingtonLoretta Devine and Thandiwe Newton. It was her “first time working with an all-female cast in terms of the leads.” “It was incredible to be on set with women who defined my idea of Black femininity at every turn,” she says, noting her love for Janet, Ntozake Shange‘s book and Phylicia Rashad.

Selma‘s Diane impacted Tessa’s life, as it “really challenged me to think about how I show up in these moments now as a Black American.” She says the “film was such an honor to work on” and notes she made some lifelong friendships while shooting the movie.

As for Bianca, fans have gotten pretty familiar with the character, as she’s appeared in three Creedmovies. Tessa says “there’s been so much personal growth” in the film’s characters, adding, “They’re postcards to me because I see my own growth inside of the span of these nine years.” She notes she’s “incredibly proud to be part of” Michael B. Jordan‘s journey.

Tessa also discusses being in Thor: Ragnarok, which she believes is connected to Creed

“I never ever thought that I would occupy these kinds of spaces or be in big superhero movies,” she says. “But in connecting the dots, I know that Dear White People put me on Ryan Coogler’s radar and I know that Creed put me on Marvel’s radar because all of us joined the MCU.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein on the possibility of more ‘Ted Lasso’ following show’s third and final season

Apple TV+

Will the upcoming season 3 of Ted Lasso be the end? The first episode debuts a week from Wednesday on Apple TV+, and the answer about an ending is complicated.

It seems as if this is the end of the story they want to tell, but the show could continue on in either a different iteration or a spinoff or something else. ABC Audio asked star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis if he could clear up the confusion — is this the final season or not?

“It is as far as I know. Yes. Yeah… I’m editing this one and you know, we have not rented any studio space.” Sudeikis declared, before joking, “Everybody is doing different projects. Nobody would call me back. You know, that’s a good sign, right? When the cast stops being, you know, getting back to you right away. I’m like, Oh, it must be over.”

Show writer and co-star Brett Goldstein had even less to offer in the way of clarity, offering only that “It is an ending…a completion of a story. So I’d say prepare for the end. An end. A end. Apple?”

Sudeikis says they always envisioned a three-season arc, which they “sort of modeled it after the British Office, how they had two seasons and then like a Christmas special,” but they never anticipated how popular the show would be.

“You know, things morphed and changed in many, many ways, with the influence of our writers and certainly the people that we cast as these various characters and we got to stay open to the discovery, it would be silly not to,” he explains. “But yeah, at this point the trilogy if you will…you know, we’re trying to wrap up those stories as the best we can.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nicolas Cage doesn’t “need” the MCU: “I’m Nic Cage”

ABC/Randy Holmes

While the gravity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has pulled in a galaxy of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated stars, Nicolas Cage isn’t eager to join them.

According to Variety, while he received the trade’s Legend & Groundbreaker Award at the Miami Film Festival on Sunday, Cage was asked about the superhero movie boom.

The lifelong comics fan, who played Ghost Rider on the big screen before the MCU existed, explained, “I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage.”

The actor, born Nicolas Coppola, added, “What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me.”

But the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent star later added, “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”

Unlike other actors, Cage doesn’t see the superhero genre as a problem for Hollywood. “I understand what the frustration is. I get it,” he said, adding, “I think there’s plenty of room for everybody. I’m seeing movies like [Oscar nominee] Tár. I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.”

Cage also talked a bit about recruiting Batman director Tim Burton for a Superman film in the ’90s that was infamously scuttled by Warner Bros. “It was more of a 1980s Superman with like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there,” he expressed.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

To celebrate the show’s return, why not Airbnb at Ted Lasso’s local pub?

Credit: Henry Woide

With Ted Lasso returning to Apple TV+ on March 15, Airbnb is offering a chance for some superfans to stay at one of the Emmy-winning show’s locations.

AFC Richmond fan and proprietor Mae — played by Annette Badland on the show — is opening her doors to The Crown & Anchor pub, where AFC Richmond’s fans and players bend the ol’ elbow on the series.

The Prince’s Head is the real name of the show’s Crown & Anchor, and up to four guests will have a chance to experience all the pub has to offer, before retiring for the evening in one of its quaint rooms.

“Located in the city of Richmond, London upon the River Thames, The Crown & Anchor is surrounded by local retail and commercial shops, as well as a quaint residential area (including Coach Lasso’s apartment) on the Richmond Green,” the listing notes.

While guests will have to make their way to Richmond, Mae’s place will be open for stays on October 23, 24 and 25 for only £11 — around $13.

Bookings will open Tuesday, March 21, at 1 p.m. ET at airbnb.com/tedlasso.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nick Cannon is expecting … a new game show

Casey Durkin/PEACOCK

Nick Cannon is expecting, but this time it’s not another a baby. Taking to socials on Tuesday, he shared that he’s got a new show on E!, which happens to play on his multiple baby announcements.

Hosted by Kevin HartWho’s Having My Baby with Nick Cannon is set to premiere this spring. As Kev says in the clip, it will feature a group of ladies who’d love to mother Nick’s child.

“You’re gonna get some contestants that wanna have your baby,” Kevin says. Nick then jokingly pretends to choose one using the eeny, meeny, miny, moe method. No other details about the show have been disclosed.

Nick is the father of 12 children: Monroe and Moroccan with Mariah CareyRisePowerful and Golden with Brittany BellBeautifulZion and Zillion with Abby De La RosaHalo and the late Zenwith Alyssa ScottLegendary with Bre Tiesi; and Onyx with LaNisha Cole.

When asked if he’s done having children, he recently told ET that “God decides when we’re done” having kids.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jon Bernthal reportedly back as Punisher in Disney+’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

L-R Cox, Bernthal — Netflix/Patrick Harbron

Frank Castle is back.

Jon Bernthal, who played the Marvel Comics character and his vigilante alter ego The Punisher in the acclaimed Netflix series of the same name, will rejoin his former co-stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio in the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cox, D’Onofrio and Bernthal were fan favorites in their respective roles as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and Castle in the R-rated Marvel shows formerly on the streaming service, which weren’t part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Cox’s blind vigilante lawyer officially entered the MCU with a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home before reprising both in and out of his Daredevil costume in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. D’Onofrio made his MCU debut as Fisk in Hawkeye.

Bernthal first appeared as The Punisher in Daredevil, before spinning off into his own series for Netflix in 2016; the show ran for two seasons.

The “Netflix Marvel” shows are available for streaming on Disney+.

The Hollywood Reporter explains Born Again will be the longest MCU-based series for Disney+, at 18 episodes. Shooting gets underway this month in all three characters’ stomping grounds of New York City, with an expected debut date of spring 2024.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.