Entertainment

The incredible story of a record-breaking athlete you may have never heard of hits the big screen Friday when Young Woman and the Sea opens in limited release. It’s the true tale of Trudy Ederle, who became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the guy behind everything from Top Gun to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, tells ABC Audio this story needed to be told.

“I think certain individuals should be remembered that get forgotten. And this extraordinary athlete got totally forgotten,” he says. “She had the biggest parade down Fifth Avenue, in 1926, ever for an athlete. And nobody ever heard of Trudy Ederle until this movie is going to come out.”

Despite the film’s title, though, Bruckheimer says it’s about more than just swimming.

“It’s about women empowerment. It’s about somebody who overcame all these obstacles. It’s a love story between these two sisters, how they triumph both apart and together. And … I think it inspires women,” he shares.

Despite its galvanizing message, Bruckheimer says he spent seven years trying to get this movie made, but was continually turned down by studio execs.

“For some reason … studio heads think that they don’t translate to box office,” Bruckheimer says of sports stories, but notes films like Remember the Titans and Glory Road were successful. “Hopefully we’re going to show them that they’re wrong.”

And Bruckheimer thinks the film should be seen on the big screen if possible.

“I’ve made the car chases, I’ve made the explosions, I’ve made them with the biggest actors in the world. And yet this is the highest testing movie,” he adds. “So when you get an audience into see this in the theater, they are moved emotionally. And that’s why we make movies.”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) On the latest installment of Smallville veteran Michael Rosenbaum‘s Inside of You podcast, Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo got real about stardom as a young actor.

While describing Smallville as a hit, Rosenbaum allowed it wasn’t nearly the phenomenon that Stranger Things was — and he was older when he was on a big show. Now that Stranger Things is drawing to an end, Rosenbaum asked what it’s like for Matarazzo, who has played Dustin since he was 13.

“With this show it is quite clear and I am very well aware — and would like my professional team to understand — that I am very OK with Stranger Things being very likely the biggest thing I will ever do,” Matarazzo said.

“And it will most likely be the thing I am remembered for even if I consistently work after this — and I am so cool with that as long as it facilitates happiness going forward, security and more work going forward.”

Matarazzo continued, “What more could I ask for? I don’t want to maintain a sense of relevance at this point when it isn’t even something I particularly enjoy that much.”

“Who are you?” Rosenbaum said jokingly, adding the 21-year-old actor was even more mature than he is at 51.

Gaten revealed the show’s fame led to some “insane” fan encounters, like a woman who — in front of her aghast daughter — told the actor, “I had a crush on you since you were 13.”

Matarazzo recalls replying, “That’s upsetting,” but she “doubled down.”

“She was like, ‘I’m aware of the age difference,'” Matarazzo recalled, noting her daughter exclaimed, “Mom! What the f***!?”

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Ahead of the 10-episode menu dropping on Hulu on June 27, FX has just released the full trailer to its Emmy-winning show The Bear‘s third season. 

It begins calm, with Jeremy Allen White‘s Carmy talking with his deceased brother Michael (Jon Bernthal) about his dream for his own fine dining establishment. Set in large part to the Rolling Stones‘ “Mixed Emotions,” the trailer gets more and more frenzied as The Bear opens its doors to patrons. 

It also shows Carmy offering a partnership in the restaurant to his chef Sydney, played by Ayo Edebiri, as well as the challenges she, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the rest of the staff have in bringing Carmy’s vision to life. 

The superstar chef reveals his list of “nonnegotiables” — standards the gang must meet. Ritchie calls them “the scribblings of a madman,” while Sydney denies she’s being sarcastic about them. “No, no, no. Not sarcasm,” she corrects. “Snark, contempt, even.” 

The gang is also looking out for food critics, and the bottom line, thanks to Oliver Platt‘s Uncle Jimmy, who fronted Carmy $300,000 to get the place up and running.

The place “is totally packed,” Abby Elliott‘s Sugar, Carmy’s sister, says. “Where’s the money?” Jimmy fumes. 

Nerves are getting the better of the staff, with real-life chef Matty Matheson‘s Fak having traded in his work overalls for a suit and nervously trying to make small talk with patrons, not realizing he’s overflowing one’s water glass.

Carmy’s love life also plays a role in season 3, with Fak trying to patch things up between Carmy and Molly Gordon‘s Claire, whom the chef said he “won’t have time for” with the new eatery. 

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A new trailer shows a single mom who ends up falling for a famous younger man. No, it’s not The Idea of You, but Netflix’s A Family Affair is a similar idea.

In this case, Nicole Kidman‘s Brooke is the older woman in question, who falls for superstar actor Chris Cole, played by Zac Efron. Complicating matters, her daughter Zara, played by Joey King, happens to be the star’s personal assistant.

“This is madness, right?” she asks a friend.

“This is your mom, and your boss, who you hate. This is weird,” her pal responds.

Making it weirder, she catches mom and her boss in the act — and spins so fast to leave the bedroom she knocks herself out on the doorframe.

Zara says the “self-absorbed” star is “going to hurt her, and I will have to kill him.”

“I’m scared,” Kidman’s character confides in her mom, played by Kathy Bates.

“It’s OK. You get to ask yourself, ‘Who was I before I was everything to everybody else?'” she replies.

Zara, meanwhile, is less sympathetic, telling the couple, “This gross sexcapade thing, it’s over!”

The movie the trailer teases as a “love story for everyone and their mother” hits the streaming service on June 28.

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He’s certainly a master of Hollywood right about now, but soon The Idea of You‘s Nicholas Galitzine will be among the Masters of the Universe.

The 29-year-old has been cast as He-Man in Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Films’ forthcoming live-action film based on the Masters of the Universe toys and toon popular in the mid-1980s.

The film’s director is familiar with the genre: Travis Knight called the shots on 2018’s successful Bumblebee, a scaled-down prequel of the Transformers movies.

Prior to The Idea of You, in which he starred opposite Anne Hathaway, Galitzine also starred in Red, White, and Royal Blue, another hit for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. However, the He-Man film is headed to theaters, slated for June 5, 2026.

Julie Rapaport, head of film production at Amazon MGM Studios, touted the project: “We’re thrilled to bring the beloved Masters of the Universe to life and couldn’t be more excited to announce the immensely talented Nicholas Galitzine as our He-Man.” She promises “an epic film that will delight audiences from here to Eternia.”

Eternia is the center of the fictional He-Man universe, ruled by the mild-mannered Prince Adam. However, when troubles arise, Adam can hold aloft his magic sword and intone “I have the power!” to become Eternia’s muscle-bound protector, He-Man.

A Masters of the Universe big-screen follow-up to the infamous 1987 misfire starring Dolph Lundgren as the hero has been in play for years, at one point with directors including McG and Wicked‘s Jon M. Chu among those set to direct.

A Netflix film that was to star Noah Centineo, then Kyle Allen, as He-Man was canceled in 2023 for what Variety claims were budgetary concerns.

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Brad Pitt and George Clooney are teaming up once again in the new film Wolfs.

A trailer for the action comedy, largely set to Frank Sinatra‘s “My Way,” debuted online Wednesday, featuring the A-listers and Ocean’s Eleven franchise co-stars as professional fixers who, awkwardly, are both hired for the same job.

As the synopsis teases, the “two ‘lone wolves'” who are forced to work together “find their night spiraling out of control in ways that neither of them expected.”

Things go sideways when a cache of drugs turns up, changing the dynamic between the pair. “This is a different thing now,” Clooney’s character says gravely.

“It’s gonna be a long night,” Pitt agrees. 

“How long have you been partners?” Austin Abrams‘ character asks Pitt and Clooney. “You got like the same clothes, kinda talk the same. Like basically the same guy.”

Clearly irritated — but only proving the point — the two respond, in unison, “We’re not partners.”

“So you’re secret partners,” says Abrams, who pulls off an impressive slow-motion flip over a speeding car at one point in the trailer.

The pair again reply, “We’re not partners!”

The film also stars The Office veteran Amy Ryan and Poorna Jagannathan from HBO’s The Night Of.

Opening in theaters September 20, Wolfs was written and directed by Jon Watts, the filmmaker behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy.

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After taking four Oscars with his most recent collaboration with producer and Academy Award-winning Emma Stone, director Yorgos Lanthimos is back with the trailer for their next project, the film Kinds of Kindness.

The Searchlight Pictures project stars Stone and her Poor Things co-stars Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, along with Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer.

Described as a “a triptych fable” by the studio, the film follows “a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.”

The film will have the cast members playing different roles within its three stories — and according to the trailer, there’s no shortage of the offbeat sensibility Lanthimos has become famous for. Tears are shed, one of Plemons’ characters is whipped by his formerly missing wife and Stone is shown dancing by herself in a parking lot.

Oh, and there’s a scene with a dog behind the wheel, on a road trip with his two dog friends.

Kinds of Kindness debuts in theaters June 21.

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The family of Johnny Wactor is remembering the former General Hospital star who was fatally shot on Saturday, May 25.

Wactor died after being shot when he interrupted three male suspects who were allegedly attempting to remove a catalytic converter from his vehicle around 3:25 a.m. PT, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Authorities say the suspects fled the scene, and Wactor was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at the age of 37.

“They took a wonderful person,” Wactor’s mother Scarlett told Good Morning America.

Wactor, who was leaving his bartending shift in downtown Los Angeles and walking to his car with a female co-worker, noticed his car jacked up and approached the men believing they were towing his car, his mother said.

“Johnny immediately stepped in front of the co-worker and either put his hands up or backed up or both, and the person shot him right then,” his mother said. “Point blank.”

Wactor’s mother remembered him as someone who “always was kind to people,” and his brothers also mourned his death.

“One of the worst parts is just not being able to have a conversation with him again,” his brother Lance said. “He’s one of my best friends.”

“Without him … there’s an emptiness that doesn’t get filled,” his brother Grant added.

Wactor, best known for playing Brando Corbin in more than 100 episodes of General Hospital, also appeared on shows such as NCIS and Station 19.

Authorities told ABC News that investigators are still processing evidence from the scene and are gathering surveillance video from the streets around the scene to see if video can help piece together the story of how this crime happened.

The LAPD has made no arrests and has no suspects at this time.

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The teaser to the anticipated sequel to Disney’s 2016 animated blockbuster Moana has just splashed down online.

Once again, Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson lend their voices to, respectively, the title character and the demigod Maui.

The clip begins with a hermit crab looking for new digs, and an upgrade with a much-too-large conch shell. Instead, a human hand offers a smaller alternative, and Moana instead uses the conch herself, to blow into.

Some clips of Moana’s extended island ohana, or family, follow, and there’s a hint of a new adventure for the island princess. “This is a call from the ancestors to sail to new skies and reconnect with our people across the entire ocean!” she exclaims.

Disney says the film will see Moana “on an expansive journey in search of people beyond the shores of Motunui.”

Of course, she won’t be alone on her new voyage: Pua the pig is back, along with that clucking scene stealer, Hei Hei the chicken — and then there’s Maui.

Johnson’s character is seen as a dolphin, leaping out of the crystal-clear water to become an eagle, and then stomps aboard Moana’s boat in human form.

“Boat snack!” he says, grabbing Hei Hei by his neck, before catching Pua. “Boat snack upgrade!” he corrects himself. “Bacon AND eggs?! Why didn’t you bring the pig last time?” he asks Moana.

Moana 2 opens November 27.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Al Ruddy, the Oscar-winning producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, died Saturday following a brief illness, his daughter, Alexandra Ruddy, confirmed on Instagram. He was 94. Ruddy’s other notable films included The Cannonball Run, The Longest Yard and Matilda. He also co-created the TV series Hogan’s Heroes and Walker, Texas Ranger. Among the actors reacting to the news of Ruddy’s death was Godfather star Al Pacino, who said in a statement, “Al Ruddy was absolutely beautiful to me the whole time on The Godfather; even when they didn’t want me, he wanted me. He gave me the gift of encouragement when I needed it most and I’ll never forget it.” Miles Teller, who played Ruddy in the Paramount+ limited series The Offer, called it “an honor,” adding, “Al lived a life most could only dream of and all would envy” …

Ted Lasso is coming to Blu-ray and DVD July 30. All 34 episodes of the hit Apple TV+ series, co-created by and starring Jason Sudeikis, will be available in a special box set that also includes a limited-edition, double-sided “Believe” poster, while supplies last. The series won 13 Emmy Awards during its three-season run, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Sudeikis, and Outstanding Supporting Actor and Actress wins for writer and co-executive producer Brett Goldstein and co-star Hannah Waddingham, respectively …

Add Ripley star Andrew Scott to the growing cast of Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Variety reports that Scott will join Challengers actor Josh O’Connor, Priscilla‘s Cailee Spaeny and Daniel Craig, who’ll reprise his role as Benoit Blanc. Rian Johnson is also returning to write, produce and direct the film, the third Knives Out whodunnit. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is slated for a 2025 release …

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