Entertainment

On Friday, the based-on-real-life drama Till hits theaters nationwide.

The film stars Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother-turned-activist of murdered Chicago teen Emmett Till, who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for the “crime” of whistling at a white woman.

Director Chinonye Chukwu tells ABC Audio she made the conscious decision to avoid the brutality of the event, but instead show the aftermath. Till-Mobley did, as well, choosing to have Emmett’s body, and what he endured, on display. The public outcry over the resulting photos shocked much of the nation and paved the way for the civil rights struggle in the U.S.

“This story that I decided to tell is about Mamie and her journey,” the filmmaker insists. “And so it … was not necessary to show the physical violence inflicted upon Emmett … but what was important was to show the body as an extension of Mamie’s decision that, you know, she made in 1955. But to do so in a way that was intentional and sparing yet effective.”

Deadwyler says of the crime, “I feel like people don’t know as much as they think they know from the history books. I feel like … certain states don’t want you to know the history from the history books.”

Jalyn Hall portrays Emmett; the actor is the same age Till was when he was murdered. “Oftentimes we forget he was just a 14-year-old boy, you know, who had dreams, goals, a personality that was loving. He loved to dance. He loved to sing. He loved his relationship with his mom … So it was…just that authentic joy as a kid, which was easy for me because it’s easy to see yourself in this beautiful spirit.”

In June, ABC News launched the podcast Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till-Mobley, which is available now on all major platforms.

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Thursday’s episode of Call Me Kat included a tribute to late castmember Leslie Jordan, who died
died Monday in a car crash in Hollywood on Monday. He was 67 years old.

A 30-second video featured a montage of clips of the Emmy-winning actor from various appearances in Fox series over the years, including Call Me Kat, The Cool Kids, Fantasy Island, Lego Masters and The Masked Singer. The memorial concluded with a title card that read, “Forever a part of the Fox family.”

On Call Me Kat, Jordan played Phil, the gay head baker at a café run by the show’s titular character, played by Mayim Bialik. Jordan completed work on nine episodes of the show’s third season, which is currently airing.

Fox has paused production on the series in the wake of Jordan’s death. Bialik posted a statement on Instagram on behalf of the cast and producers of the show, writing, “There aren’t words to convey the loss we are experiencing as a cast and a Call Me Kat family.”

“Leslie Jordan was larger than life. He was a Southern gentleman; tender, wise, naughty and hilarious,” the post continued. “We got to know and love him at the height of his happiness and joy and it is inconceivable to imagine a world without our Leslie: the man who would spit on his contact lenses before putting them in his eyes, the man who had a story about every man in Hollywood and some of the women as well, the man who lived to make people laugh.”

Jordan’s other screen credits included Will & Grace, American Horror Story and The Help. He also gained social media attention from his silly Instagram videos during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Comedian Chris Redd was punched in the face in front of a New York City comedy club, where he was scheduled to perform Wednesday night.

WABC-TV, citing a a preliminary police investigation, reports that Redd was getting out of his car just before 9:40 p.m. when a man who apparently looked like a security guard charged him and punched him in the face.

The 37-year-old Saturday Night Live vet reportedly was bleeding heavily from the nose and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

The suspect fled the scene. As of late Thursday night, no arrests had been made.

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Inside Amy Schumer star Amy Schumer will host Saturday Night Live for the third time on November 5 with musical guest Steve Lacy, the NBC late-night sketch comedy show announced on Thursday. Schumer previously hosted the NBC show in October 2015 and May 2018. There will be a third consecutive SNL on November 12 with guests not yet announced…

Hocus Pocus 2 set a record for streaming minutes by a movie. Nielsen says the Disney sequel, starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, had the most-watched debut for a streaming movie ever since it started keeping track — 2.7 billion minutes viewed in its first week on Disney+ after its September 30th premiere. Disney+’s Encanto was the previous champ, with 2.2 billion minutes…

1923, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel for Paramount+, will debut December 18 exclusively on Paramount+, the streamer revealed on Thursday. Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford star the series, which takes place in the new titular year. The series’ official description reads, “1923 focuses on the Dutton family’s next two generations as they struggle to survive historic drought, lawlessness and prohibition, and an epidemic of cattle theft; all battled beneath the cloud of Montana’s great depression, which preceded the nation by almost a decade. The show will also touch on the end of World War I, which occurred in 1918″…

Sources tell Variety that The Good Place‘s William Jackson Harper will appear in the upcoming Marvel film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Details of his role are being kept under wraps. He joins Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas, who reprise their roles from 2015’s Ant-Man and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. Kathryn Newton has been re-cast as Cassie Long, Scott Lang/Ant-Man’s daughter, who, based on the film’s trailer, invents a gadget that sucks the gang into the Quantum Realm and puts them face to face with Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania buzzes into theaters February 17, 2023. Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News…

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The White Lotus returns with its second season on HBO Sunday night, and, this time around, the show trades Hawaii for the Italian island Sicily.

A new location also means a new cast, who spoke with ABC Audio about what to expect from the new bunch of episodes from creator Mike White.

Aubrey Plaza joins the show as Harper, a woman processing her husband’s recent professional success and wealth. She recounts the details of working in Sicily, noting that the “energy to the volcano” loomed large.

“You can taste it in the wine – literally,” Plaza said. “The wine in Sicily tastes like volcanic ash, and it’s an acquired taste. And I’ve come to really love it.”

Michael Imperioli also joins the cast, and he says he wishes he was still filming in Italy.

“We were living and working in a hotel that was closed to the public,” Imperioli said. “I’d be perfectly happy staying there if we could keep the story going and the show going.”

According to Plaza, “every actor wanted” to be a part of the show’s first season, which won 10 Emmys last month.

“Mike White had the golden ticket to Hawaii,” Plaza said. “If you got that golden ticket, you were out. You were out of the quarantine. Everybody wanted it.”

Jennifer Coolidge got one of those golden tickets last year. She reprises her Emmy-winning role as flighty heiress Tanya McQuoid in season 2, and she says the shores of Maui gave off a foreboding energy in the first season.

“Sicily has that, too,” Coolidge said. “You feel many things when you’re in Sicily. And it’s really like Sicily is another person, and a person that’s sort of unpredictable. They’re both equally mesmerizing. I can’t believe we lucked out. We got both places.”

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A year after the fatal Rust movie set shooting in New Mexico, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office has handed the results of its exhaustive investigation to the district attorney.

On October 21, 2021, a live round discharged from a Colt-style revolver that Alec Baldwin had pointed at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, fatally injuring her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Heather Brewer, spokesperson for New Mexico’s Office of the First Judicial District Attorney, noted in a statement, “Today, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies received the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s investigative report on the Rust movie set incident. The District Attorney and her team of investigators and prosecutors will now begin a thorough review of the information and evidence to make a thoughtful, timely decision about whether to bring charges.”

The statement concluded, “As with all cases that the District Attorney handles, her focus will be on upholding the integrity of the process, enforcing the laws of the state of New Mexico, and pursuing justice.”

The producers of the Western were fined for violating safety protocols; investigators found a “mix” of harmless prop bullets, blanks and live ammunition on the set.

In an ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos last December, Baldwin insisted he didn’t pull the trigger and that he was assured the weapon was “cold,” or safe to handle.

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Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is throwing his support behind James Gunn’s move to DC.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery had picked Gunn and producer Peter Safran to be co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios, making them the heads of the new division, which will replace DC Films.

Gunn has famously directed movies for both Marvel and DC. He is the filmmaker behind all three of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and DC’s The Suicide Squad.

At the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Wednesday, Feige told The Hollywood Reporter that he “speaks to Gunn almost every day” before he highlighted their most recent collaborations.

“We have a wonderful thing called the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special coming out, we have a wonderful thing called Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 coming out in May,” Feige said. “How he’ll have any time to work on DC until May I don’t know, but once he does have the time I’ll be very excited. I’ll be first in line.”

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Girls5Eva is not only getting a new season — it’s also getting a new home. 

The Sara Bareilles-fronted show has lived on the Peacock streaming service since it premiered, but now it is heading to Netflix, says The Hollywood Reporter. So, what does this mean for the previous two seasons?

Netflix and Peacock have hashed out a deal that’ll allow the two streamers to simultaneously host Girls5Eva‘s first and second season. The new installment, however, will air exclusively on Netflix next year.

Sara took to Instagram to celebrate the good news, writing, “My girls and I aren’t finished yet!! This show is pure joy to make and I can’t wait to share more stories and expose ourselves… to a new audience!” She also thanked Netflix for “taking a chance on us” because she says the story, as it stands right now, is “too short!”

THR suggests the sitcom struggled to find an audience on Peacock, and that is why it is switching to a new streaming service. Peacock apparently hasn’t found success in comedy shows, with THR noting not one of its original sitcoms — including the Saved by the Bell reboot — have made it past two seasons.

On the other hand, Netflix has helped transform the popularity of several shows that struggled on their original platforms, such as Lifetime’s You and Pop’s Schitt’s Creek. It also acquired one of its most popular series, Lucifer, after it was rejected by broadcasters.

THR reports Netflix initially wanted to buy the Tina Fey-produced Girls5Eva from the start.

The Emmy-nominated show, also starring Busy Philipps, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell, focuses on the four members of a ’90s girl group, who reunite 20 years after their fame fizzled to give their pop star dreams another try.

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As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premiered Wednesday night in Los Angeles, MAC Cosmetics debuted a makeup collection inspired by the long-awaited sequel.

MAC posted an Instagram photo of Danai Gurira, who portrays Okoye, wearing the Wakanda Forever makeup products on the red carpet.

The limited-edition items include the “Wakandan Sunset” and “Royal Integrity” lipsticks, and eye shadow with shade names “United Front,” “Claw Marks” and “Protector of Wakanda.”

“One of the things that I have always loved about MAC is the brand’s all-inclusive range of products with shades for all skin tones and undertones, as well as our legacy of celebrating and amplifying Black beauty and culture,” Aïda Moudachirou-Rébois, senior global chief marketing officer at MAC Cosmetics, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“This collaboration is the continuation of such incredible and unique heritage, and we are honored to be the exclusive global beauty partner to the Wakanda Forever movie,” Moudachirou-Rébois added. “It has been a fantastic three-year journey with Marvel Studios to bring this limited-edition collection to life and there is so much to love about it, from the character-inspired looks and shades, collectible packaging, formula benefits, the list goes on.”

The Wakanda Forever makeup line follows the previously reported news that Rihanna has a new song on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. The lead track, called “Lift Me Up,” is a tribute to the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. The song comes out this Friday, October 28. It marks Rihanna’s first new music since 2016’s Anti.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By will be available on November 4. The film opens November 11 from Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.

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Tim Allen is back as Santa in The Santa Clauses.

In the official trailer for the upcoming limited series, which was shared Wednesday by Disney+, Allen returns as Santa and Scott Calvin, his character in the hit 1994 film who accidentally causes Santa to fall off his roof on Christmas Eve and then finds himself recruited to take his place.

In the trailer, which includes franchise cast members Eric Lloyd as Charlie and Elizabeth Mitchell as Carol Calvin, Allen’s Santa Claus tells his elves he is retiring and returns to normal life as Scott Calvin.

“After being Santa Claus for nearly thirty years, he’s as jolly as ever,” the official description for The Santa Clauses reads. “But as Christmas declines in popularity, so does his Santa magic. Scott struggles to keep up with the demands of the job, a well as being there for his family. Upon discovering there is a way to retire from his post, Scott considers stepping down as Santa Claus and finding a worthy successor so that he can become a better father and husband.”

But at the end of the trailer, Scott Calvin tells his family he’s returning to the North Pole after he learns that elves are disappearing.

In addition to the official trailer, Disney+ also shared the artwork for the series with Allen as Santa and his whole family on a sleigh.

The two-episode premiere of The Santa Clauses is available for streaming on November 16 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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