Entertainment

Following Dame Judi Dench‘s letter to The Times, Netflix has added a disclaimer to The Crown. 

In the description box for the season five trailer of The Crown, Netflix writes, “inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.” 

The disclaimer arrives one day after Dench, who was named a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988, penned a letter to The Times, calling out the Netflix series for blending “historical accuracy and crude sensationalism” in its portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II and her reign over the United Kingdom. The Queen passed away in September at the age of 96.  

“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a ‘fictionalized drama’, the program makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode,” Dench wrote. 

“The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events,” a representative from Netflix tells Variety. “Series five is a fictional dramatization, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the Royal Family – one that has already been scrutinised and well documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”

The publication also reports that British officials at Buckingham Palace have expressed concern over the series’ portrayal of the monarch, especially that of King Charles III‘s relationship with current wife Queen Consort Camilla, who he had an affair with while married to the late Princess Diana.  

The Crown season five premieres on November 9. 

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Digging up the past isn’t necessarily a productive step in moving on, but for half brothers Raymond and Ray, played by Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, it’s their deceased father’s last request. In the new film Raymond and Ray, out Friday on Apple TV+, the estranged siblings embark on an awkward road trip to dig their father’s grave. Along the way, they grapple with painful memories caused by his psychological abuse.

McGregor, who plays Raymond, tells ABC Audio that his character has never fully moved on from his traumatic upbringing.

“It’s his brother Ray that just teases out of him, like, ‘You’ve got to experience the anger, can’t you be angry with him, can’t you be angry with him?’” he says. “And finally Raymond can unlock it, and oh my goodness, does it come pouring out, the rage.”

For Hawke, the premise of the film reminds him of his own life experience. After the death of his well-liked grandfather, he learned things about a person he thought he knew.

“I remember, that was the first time at his funeral that I really realized how many aspects to a human being there were,” he says. “People that were telling these stories that seemed so far away from anything — I knew this person really well, and there were these huge chapters of his life that I never had contact with.”

In this tale of two Rays, Hawke says we learn that our perception of someone may not be universal. “I think the script gets at that in a really beautiful way,” he says.

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The Critics Choice Awards has announced that Chelsea Handler will host this year’s ceremony. The event will take place January 15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, where it will be broadcast live, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on the CW. Handler will be succeeding Taye Diggs for the 28th annual awards show; Diggs hosted the event for the past four years…

CBS’ drama FBI posted online a short video teasing the return of lead Missy Peregrym. The actress, who plays Agent Maggie Bell on the hit show, has been on maternity leave, but will return on the November 15 installment of the series. Missy’s onscreen partner, Zeeko Zaki, is shown with his suit jacket hiding the actress from frame, before shouting, “Look who’s back!” and revealing her, to the cheers of the castmates on set. The show dealt with her absence by saying Bell was recovering after a terrorist gas attack…

Trevor Noah‘s has dropped a teaser of his third Netflix special. I Wish You Would will premiere globally on November 22. The Hollywood Reporter points out Noah shot the stand-up show in Toronto 24 hours after he announced he was stepping away from The Daily Show…

Amazon has canceled As We See It after just one season, Variety has learned. The series is about three adults with autism — played by Rick Glassman, Albert Rutecki, Sue Ann Pien — and the various challenges they face trying to navigate work and love and life. Sosie Bacon, Chris Pang and Joe Mantegna also starred…

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The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is 34 days away, and this year it’ll feature a new, interactive balloon honoring the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This is the third balloon for protagonist Greg Heffley, who will make his 13th appearance at the world-famous parade.

Author Jeff Kinney gave ABC Audio the exclusive on the new balloon: “We’re going back to the basics … This time we’re really focusing on Cheese Touch.”

The Cheese Touch is a superstition originating in the first book that said touching the moldy piece of cheese laying on the school’s outdoor basketball court would curse kids and turn them into social pariahs. 

“This balloon has an element that’s something that Macy’s has never done before,” Kinney explained, noting there will be a car driving ahead of the newly redesigned Greg balloon that’ll look like that infamous moldy piece of cheese.  

“We’re going to have green fog coming off the cheese. So it will look like it smells. So that’s going to be really fun,” said Kinney, adding the Greg balloon will spend the entire parade trying to touch that stinky slice. He added, “We really want to push the envelope with this balloon and I think it will be really special.”

Kinney, who also illustrates the Wimpy Kid books, continued, “To be able to sketch something on the back of a napkin and then see it in three dimensions and then see it on the parade route. It’s so exciting … [these books] have been life-changing for me.”

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold over 275 million copies since first being published in 2007.  

The 96th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off Thursday, November 24, at 9 a.m. ET. It’ll air on NBC and Peacock.

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Olivia Wilde and her ex Jason Sudeikis may have called a former nanny’s rumors about them false, but one ingredient of her story is getting stronger: Wilde’s salad dressing. 

And now the mustard brand Grey Poupon is layering on the snark because of it. 

The nanny claimed this “special dressing” that Wilde reportedly made for her now-boyfriend, Harry Styles, reportedly made Sudeikis jealous enough for him to lay under her car to make her late for a meet-up with her Don’t Worry Darling leading man. 

Again, both Wilde and Sudeikis called the allegations false, but as reported, Wilde recently raised eyebrows when she posted the actual recipe, cribbed from Nora Ephron‘s book Heartburn. “Mix 2 tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar,” the recipe said in part. 

The mustard brand evidently heard about it and is now offering a limited edition Don’t Worry Dijon. On Instagram it displayed a picture of the newly redesigned bottle, complete with new branding and the cheeky tagline, “Made with Style.”

Grey Poupon invited users to stay tuned to see how they can win their own bottle of the stuff. 

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Steven Spielberg‘s Oscar-winning classic E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial had its 40th birthday in June, and in celebration, Universal has just released an all-new 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and digital version of the film.

E.T. The 40th Anniversary Edition includes 45 minutes of all-new bonus features, including a retrospective of the film and its legacy, as well as a featurette with Spielberg reflecting on his career and the making of the film.

The new version also includes deleted scenes, a cast and filmmaker reunion, and a discussion with John Williams about the iconic, Academy Award-winning score from the film.

“I think it’s great because, you know … it has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts,” Henry Thomas, who played Elliot in the film, tells ABC Audio.

He continues, “[E.T. was] a lot of people’s first experience of seeing a film in the theater. And so it’s special and they’re showing it to their kids. And, you know, it’s kind of become our generation’s Wizard of Oz.”

The movie is so beloved that Thomas’ audition tape recently resurfaced and went viral online. The improvised scene saw the child actor conjuring real tears and famously ends with Spielberg, off camera, saying, “OK, kid: You got the job.”

About that, Thomas laughs, “I think it’s kind of funny, actually, because, you know, when I see the audition tape, I just see, like, myself being really scared and desperate to get a job. You know … I don’t see any acting genius there.”

Equally unimpressed were Thomas’ three kids. “I expected them to be amazed that I was in this movie. But they immediately … said, ‘Oh, that’s when you were a kid. This was the famous movie you did when you were a kid, Dad.'”  

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Actor Kevin Spacey was found not liable Thursday in a civil sexual abuse trial brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp.

The lawsuit against the Oscar winner has been dismissed.

The accusations stemmed from an incident in 1986 when Rent veteran Rapp alleged Spacey climbed on top of him at a party when he was just 14 years old and Spacey was 26.

An emotional Spacey told jurors in court testimony Monday that the allegations were not true.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Netflix users apparently can’t get their fill of content related to notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, a three-part docuseries featuring interviews with the infamous figure himself, generated some 27 million hours viewed on the streaming platform last week, just as Dahmer: Monster The Jeffrey Dahmer Story dropped to #2 on Netflix’s English TV chart. Conversations currently ranks #4 on that list.

Monster, which stars Evan Peters as Dahmer, has spent four weeks on the streaming service’s global Top 10 chart. As reported, the drama is the second most-watched English TV title of all time for Netflix, with more than 824 million hours viewed behind only the fourth season of Stranger Things.

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The film doesn’t come out until November 11, but prognosticators say Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is already on track to have the second-biggest opening of the year.

According to data from the National Research Group (NRG), the sequel could see a $175 million opening weekend, putting it slightly behind 2022’s biggest debut, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That film earned more than $184 million, on its way to a more than $955 million global take.

The Black Panther sequel has big shoes to fill, both thematically and financially: The sequel will be the first Panther film without lead Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020, and 2018’s original earned more than $242 million on its four-day opening weekend, going on to become a $1.34-billion grossing phenomenon.

The biggest opening film of all time is 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which earned more than $347 million in its first days in theaters. In 2021, the Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures collab Spider-Man: No Way Home earned the second-biggest debut slot with a global take of more than $260 million.

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

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On Thursday, Netflix dropped the eagerly anticipated trailer to the fifth season of The Crown. 

Debuting on the streaming service November 9, the latest chapter shows “The Royal Family is in genuine crisis,” according to a TV personality.

Set to Oasis‘ “Bittersweet Symphony,” the trailer shows the marriage of Elizabeth Debicki‘s Princess Diana to Dominic West‘s Prince Charles unraveling before relentless paparazzi coverage. 

While Charles and Di head for a divorce, Imelda Staunton‘s Queen Elizabeth II and others protest. 

Jonny Lee Miller‘s PM John Major advises the Queen and her husband, Jonathan Pryce‘s Prince Phillip, “The House of Windsor should be binding the nation together, building an example of idealized family life…”

Major says the fracturing marriage, “can’t help but affect the stability of the country.”

Meanwhile, Diana is cracking under the pressure. “People will never understand how it’s been for me,” she laments. “I never stood a chance.” 

Another character notes of Di, “They see her as a threat.”

Prince Phillip advises Diana, “Remember the one…rule: You remain loyal to this family,” to which Diana protests, “You mean silent?” 

Phillip replies, “Yes. It’s a system, for better or for worse. We’re all stuck in it.”

While the establishment warns Diana is going to “tear down the temple,” she readies to sit before cameras in her famous 1995 tell-all interview. “I won’t go quietly,” she insists. “I’ll battle to the end.”

The trailer closes with Queen Elizabeth wondering aloud, “How did it come to this?”

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