Entertainment

Actress and activist Kristen Stewart is starring in and co-producing The Challenger, a limited series about the first American female astronaut, and the first member of the LGBT community to go to space, Sally Ride.

Deadline broke the news about the project, which is being executive produced by Kyra Sedgwick and Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Partners. The series is based on Meredith E. Bagby‘s bestseller The New Guys, about the first diverse class of astronauts following the Space Race years.

Ride, who was also a brilliant physicist, took her historic ride on the space shuttle in 1983. Three years later, when Challenger exploded, she was the only astronaut to sit on the Rogers Commission, which looked into the disaster that killed all seven aboard, including civilian astronaut Christa McAuliffe.

Ride died of cancer in 2012 at age 61.

The trade says Prime Video is close to securing a deal to distribute the limited series, which Sedgwick told Deadline she’s been working to bring to life since 2017.

She added, “The focus is this newly recruited wild, feral group of astronauts who were all very diverse” and pivots to “an Oppenheimer track” about the Rogers Commission.

Sedgwick said her production company partner Valerie Stadler “had this dream of having Kristen Stewart, and after more than a year of trying to get Kristen this book through back channeling, she read it and she fell in love.”

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In a chat with Abbott Elementary Emmy winner Quinta Brunson as part of Variety‘s continuing “Actors on Actors” series, Jennifer Aniston appeared to get emotional when talking about Friends.

Brunson, who called Aniston her “comedy queen,” said, “I just want you to know, I learned about the beauty of an ensemble through watching Friends.”

“Well, you just gave me goose bumps,” replied Aniston, now the star and co-executive producer of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.

Brunson also asked about Friends‘ longevity. “It’s so strange to even think that it’s 30 years old. Because I remember the day that it was going to premiere on television, on NBC,” Aniston recalled.

“Matthew Perry and I were having lunch somewhere, and we knew Lisa [Kudrow] was getting her hair colored. So we ran into the hair salon, and I snuck up … and just started washing her hair,” she recalled with a laugh.

“But the excitement we had, it feels like yesterday.”

Getting a little choked up, Aniston added, “The fact that it’s had this long, wonderful life and it still means a lot to people is one of the greatest gifts I think all five of us — all six of us — we never could imagine. And we see each other. I talked on FaceTime with Court [Courteney Cox] last night for an hour, and Lisa and the boys, and we just have a really — it’s a family, forever.”

Aniston also volunteered herself as a potential guest star on Brunson’s hit ABC show, joking “if Bradley Cooper could do it,” she would, too. “If you find a moment on Abbott [for me] I’d love to come play with you,” she said, earning an enthusiastic “OK!” from Quinta.

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Someone must have gotten them wet, because the Gremlins are coming back to Max. The streaming service announced on Friday — the 40th anniversary of the original 1984 classic Gremlins, in fact — that there will be a second season of its animated prequel series.

Max Family launched Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai in 2023, and on Friday the streamer announced Gremlins: The Wild Batch will debut this fall.

The first season’s voice talent included Ming-Na Wen, screen legend James Hong, Jurassic World‘s BD Wong and The Americans‘ Matthew Rhys, and featured guests like Sandra Oh, Randall Park, George Takei, Bowen Yang and original Gremlins star Zach Galligan.

The second season will again feature Wen, Hong and Wong, as well as their returning voice co-stars Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio and Gabrielle Nevaeh, plus “exciting guest stars to be announced.”

The logline teases season 2 follows Gizmo, Sam and Elle “as they travel from their home in Shanghai to San Francisco, bringing even more magic, mystery and Mogwai mayhem.”

Max continues, “Hot on the trail of a new brood of evil Mogwai, our heroes journey deep into the American West, coming up against new supernatural creatures and picking up a few mysterious characters along the way.”

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Ahead of its three-episode season 4 debut on June 13, Prime Video has dropped a first look at The Boys.

In the snippet, Karl Urban‘s Billy Butcher desperately tries to convince Homelander’s son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) to leave his maniacal, super-powered pop.

“You know how dangerous he can be,” Butcher implores him, only to have Ryan protest, “He’s my dad.”

“Please, I’m begging you. It’s what your mom would want,” Billy insists — only to be caught mid-plea by Homelander himself.

“No means no, William,” Antony Starr‘s villain says, wagging his finger. “This isn’t the Neverland Ranch, nothing bad is going to happen.”

“Oh, seems it already has,” he purrs, using his X-ray vision to look into Butcher’s head. “Look at that big black mass behind curdling around your brain.”

Apparently Butcher injecting himself with Compound V to give himself super strength last season was as dangerous as the rest of his team feared.

“What do you got, six months? Less? It’s too bad,” Homelander tells his nemesis. “We’re not going to have that last dance together. I’ll miss us.”

The supe outstretches his hand, and takes Ryan’s and hurries him out. “Come on. I do not want to miss Smash Mouth,” he says.

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Have no fear, your reality roundup is here! Here’s a look at what happened in the world of reality television this week:

The Traitors (Peacock)
Twenty-one new reality TV icons have come together for the all-star cast of season 3 of The Traitors. Among them are Big Brother legends Britney Haynes and Danielle Reyes, former Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars finalist Gabby Windey, Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause and Survivor winner Rob Mariano. Oh, did we mention, the Scandoval’s very own Tom Sandoval and Britney Spears‘ ex-husband, Sam Asghari, will also take part? Alan Cumming returns to host the new season, which is currently filming in the Scottish Highlands.

The Real Housewives of New York City (Bravo)
Eboni K. Williams has shared she is pregnant with her first child. The Real Housewives of New York City alum announced the baby girl, which she conceived through in vitro fertilization, is due in August. “Anybody who’s gone through IVF or attempted IVF will tell you so many things have to go right for the final result of this journey to be a baby,” Williams told People. “That’s why I’ve called this ‘my remarkable miracle,’ because it really does feel like I’ve been the recipient of some very enormous favor from God above.”

The Real Housewives of Orange County (Bravo)
We now have our first look at season 18 of The Real Housewives of Orange County. Bravo released the trailer for the upcoming new season on Thursday, which featured all-new drama for returning housewives Shannon Storms Beador, Heather Durrow, Tamra Judge, Gina Kirschenheiter, Emily Simpson and Jenn Pedranti, as well as new cast member Katie Ginella and friend Alexis Bellino. The new season premieres June 11 on Bravo, with episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.

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While his Cosmo Kramer became a classic TV character, and the show itself is revered as one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, Michael Richards says he only recently watched Seinfeld.

In a chat Thursday with Fox News’ Jesse Watters to promote his new book, Entrances and Exits, the funnyman said, “I never watched the shows because I could always see how they could be better, and I had to move fast each week in making each episode.”

He revealed he finally sat down to watch the 1990s hit with his 9-year-old son, Antonio.

Richards said, “It wasn’t until really in the preparation of this book, in getting tuned into the episodes … nine years of it, I watched every single episode in order of them being made, as they were aired each week.”

He said the time that had passed gave him “greater objectivity.”

Richards added, “I remembered so much, and I just sat back and just laughed with my son at this amazing show that so many people came together and made. The chemistry and the outcome was just sensational.”

The performer also commented that for as funny as the show was to audiences, he, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, co-creator Larry David and all involved “worked very, very hard on it.”

While Richards ducked out of the limelight after an infamous, racially charged onstage meltdown in 2006 — which he covers in the book — he insisted that political correctness hasn’t killed comedy, as some contend.

“People are just being more sensitive about what we’re saying about each other, which I think is a good thing,” he expressed. “The HA-HA is archetypal … it’s still going to be with us. It’s alive.”

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If you’re a Full House fan — and have $6.5 million burning a hole in your pocket — the Tanners’ house could be yours. 

The iconic Victorian house in San Francisco that was featured in the hit 1980s sitcom is back on the market, repped by Rachel Swann of Coldwell Banker Realty. The property that was once used to portray the front door and bay window of the fictional family’s home has been listed for $6.5 million.

Originally built in 1900, and recently renovated by architect Richard Landry, AIA and the Landry Design Group in 2019, the house has approximately 3,700 interior square feet and comes with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and one half bathroom.

Jeff Franklin, creator of the ABC family sitcom, purchased the home for $4 million in 2016.

The property, which sits on a 3,123-square-foot lot, was most recently sold in 2020 for $5.35 million.

For the fans, the dwelling also comes with an option to include handprints in concrete stones of the Full House cast members, including the late Bob Saget and John Stamos, as part of the sale, according to a press release.

Although most of the scenes from the show were filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, the exterior shots of the Tanner family’s home were taken from the property, which is also shown in the opening credit scene.

Full House ran for eight seasons between 1987 and 1995. The show eventually spawned a sequel on Netflix titled Fuller House, which lasted for five seasons on the streaming platform.

And BTW, if you’re scheming a peek by posing as a prospective buyer, sorry, the agent already thought of that: showings are “available by appointment only to pre-qualified buyers.”

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It’s official. Rovio and Sega have announced that a third Angry Birds movie is in the works, with Ted Lasso‘s Jason Sudeikis and Frozen‘s Josh Gad returning as the voices of Red and Chuck, respectively. Additional casting will be announced soon. Rovio and Sega also released an announcement trailer on YouTube, Facebook and the social platform X. The first two Angry Birds movies have a combined gross of more than half a billion dollars worldwide …

Peacock has announced that Kung Fu Panda 4 is heading to the streaming service on June 21. The animated comedy adventure, featuring the voice of Jack Black as the titular kung fu master, along with Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston, James Hong, Ian McShane and Ke Huy Quan, has grossed over $540 million worldwide to date, bringing the movie franchise’s total box office gross to over $2 billion …

Tom Bower, best known for playing Dr. Curtis Willard on The Waltons and Marvin, the janitor who helps John McClane foil a terrorist plot in Die Hard 2, has died, his brother Robert Bower tells The Hollywood Reporter. He was 86. Bower was an in-demand character actor, whose many other projects include Oliver Stone‘s Nixon, Ed Harris‘ Pollock and Appaloosa. He also appeared on TV in episodes of Get Christie Love!, The Rockford Files and Kojak. More recently, he played Bob Odenkirk’s dad on the AMC series Lucky Hank …

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Actress Daisy Ridley braves the waves in the new Disney film Young Woman and the Sea. She plays Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, and tells ABC Audio Ederle was a remarkable woman with a story that’s sadly been forgotten by time.

“What she did at that time particularly was amazing,” she says. “She was breaking down barriers for women in sport. She beat the record that had already been set, and most people don’t know about her. So being able to tell her story is very wonderful.”

Ridley says the swimming in the film was real and hard, made harder by wearing the bathing suits of the 1920s.

“We were in these costumes, it’s like wearing a, I’m not joking, a 10-kilo weight vest,” she recalls. “And I had to doggy paddle and doggy paddle … and I had a real cry-ey tired moment after that. It was just, you cannot believe that anyone could have done anything physical in what they were wearing.”

Ridley warns people who plan on watching Young Woman and the Sea in theaters to bring tissues, but emphasizes that while there will be tears, it’ll be “joyful crying.”

“Yeah, the crying tends to be a big reaction. I cried, my mom was in pieces. But I feel like if you want to see something that will make you cry and feel so good … this is the film.”

Young Woman and the Sea is in theaters now.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Vanna White wished Wheel of Fortune co-host Pat Sajak an emotional farewell in a clip set to air on the show Thursday, the eve of Sajak’s final episode.

Sajak, who announced last year that he would be leaving the show, will host his final round on Friday. Ryan Seacrest will take over the esteemed role of host next season, while White will stay on board.

“I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last show together,” White said in the clip Thursday. “I don’t know how to put into words what these past 41 years have meant to me, but I’m going to try.”

Sajak has hosted Wheel of Fortune for 43 years, since 1981. Sajak and White, who joined the show in 1982, have worked together on upwards of 8,000 episodes over the years.

While Sajak quizzes contestants at the show’s namesake wheel, White’s now-iconic role as co-host includes unveiling letters for the phrases as they are guessed on the board.

“When I first started, I was so green,” White said. “You made me so comfortable and made me so confident, Pat.”

She continued, “As the years have gone by, we’ve grown up on television, but we’ve also shared so much more behind the scenes. And as much fun as we had on camera, those memories, milestones and life events we shared with our families outside the studio are my favorite.”

“What an incredible and unforgettable journey we’ve had. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it with you,” she added. “You’re like a brother to me, and I consider you a true lifelong friend, who I will always adore.”

Vanna signed off with “I love you, Pat,” and blew him a kiss to camera.

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