Entertainment

After more than 30 years as a film and TV star, Queen Latifah has earned a very special clause in her contracts: her character is not allowed to die.

As Cleo Sims in 1996’s Set It Off, she was killed by police in a high-speed chase. Her characters also died in 1998’s Sphere co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and 1999’s The Bone Collector co-starring Denzel Washington.

“I don’t get to do any sequels if I keep being this good at [dying]. So I said, ‘Look, you gotta put a no death clause in these contracts so they can’t just kill me off like this,” the Oscar nominee told Entertainment Tonight.

However Latifah, born Dana Owens, joked that under the right circumstances, she would wave the clause.
“But, um, I mean, of course, for the right price, you know,” she joked.”She dies! That s***’s in the script, you know?”

The Queen is waiting with her Girls Trip co-stars Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish for the sequel to their 2017 hit film.

“From everything I know it’s locked and loaded and ready to go,” The Equalizer stars adds. “It’s just that somebody’s gotta make it happen.”

For her next movie, Latifah stars in the thriller End of the Road. She portrays a mother of two on a road trip through the desert with her brother, played by Ludacris. When they witness a violent murder, the family become the target of a mysterious killer.

Latifah loved working “in a place that I’ve never shot in, New Mexico, which was just so much so different from every place I’ve ever been,” she added. “It was actually a lot of fun.”

End of the Road premieres Friday on Netflix.

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In The Boys, Erin Moriarty‘s Annie January/Starlight has to endure harassment and misogynistic behavior — and as it turns out, so does the actress who plays her.

Moriarty has posted to her Instagram a fan article titled #IStandWithStarlight, which noted the real-world comments apparent Boys viewers have made at the actress’ expense regarding her photos on her social media feed.

“The harassment feels all the worse given the context of her role as Starlight on the show, a woman silenced and sexualized, treated like a celebrity canvas for others to project onto rather than a human being with her own thoughts and feelings,” the fan wrote.

“But Annie is fictional, and Erin is not,” it continues.

In response, Moriarty replied, “I do feel paralyzed. I’ve put blood, sweat and tears into this role…”

She continued, “I’ve grown UP in this character’s shoes (*emphasis on grown up — we change & evolve mentally AND physically)…” adding the article, “…does break my heart.”

Moriarty added, “I’ve opened up a vein for this role and the misogynistic trolling is exactly what this role (Annie) would speak out against…”

She closed by saying, “This has only strengthened my empathy muscle and to anyone who comes at me: I see you, I don’t hate you, I only empathize and forgive.”

Erin’s Boys nemesis Antony Starr, who plays Homelander, replied, “Support you and what you say here 100%. Well put 😉 Your work on the show is and always has been stellar and you are beautiful inside and out. Keep shining.”

Fellow co-star Jack Quaid, who plays Annie’s love interest Hughie Campbell, added in part, “Love you Erin. We’re all here for you…”

He added, “Leave the trolls to us. We got your back.”

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Viola Davis stars in The Woman King, the story of the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. The Oscar/Emmy/Tony Award winner portrays a general who trains the next generation of warriors.

After being in development for nearly eight years, Davis admits it looked doubtful the film would be completed.

“We’re thrust in the business automatically assuming that something is not going to happen if it’s never been done before,” Davis tells Essence for the digital cover of the September issue. “There’s not going to be any support, no one’s going to want to do it, no studio’s going to give it the green light vote and who would want to see me like that?”

However, her faith was renewed when one of the producers presented her with good news.

“Kathy Schulman came with the script by Dana Stevens and I was like, ‘Oh, OK.'”

After beginning her career on Broadway 34 years ago, Davis is now one of the leading Black actresses in Hollywood. However, she is always conscious of the ongoing struggle for equality.

“There are no words to describe the journey, the sweat, the blood, the war that is being a Black artist and being a Black female artist,” the 57-year-old star says.

Viola says the Hollywood power brokers need to understand how Blacks have suffered unfairly in film and television.

“When they see the carnage of all the Black actors who were out there, even during the Sidney Poitier years, that couldn’t even have an agent, because it was nothing out there for them. If they see the blood, sweat and tears of what it took … then they would be on board,” Davis concludes.

The Woman King opens in theaters Friday, September 16.

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As reported, Funny Girl on Broadway saw a spike in ticket sales once fans learned Lea Michele would be headlining. On Tuesday night, Lea’s debut lived up to the hype.

According to Variety, Michele was greeted with an ovation as soon as she walked out onto the boards of the August Wilson Theatre, so much so that it drowned out the play’s opening line. The crowd jumped to its feet five more times before the curtain fell.

According to footage from the show, the actress, who in the past has weathered an on-set bullying controversy, sang through happy tears during her first curtain call.

Michele’s famous friends came out to cheer her on. In addition to her bestie and former Spring Awakening co-star Jonathan Groff, the trade spotted Drew Barrymore, Zachary Quinto, her former Glee producer Ryan Murphy, and stage and screen legend Harvey Fierstein, who reportedly polished the play’s book before Lea took over the role.

Murphy’s attendance was a full-circle moment: While on Glee, Michele belted out Funny Girl classics like “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” in character as Barbra Streisand fangirl Rachel Berry.

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The first official trailer for Harry Styles‘ My Policeman has finally arrived, and it provides a broader glimpse of what the hotly anticipated drama entails.

Harry stars as a closeted officer named Tom, who struggles with his feelings for David Dawson‘s character, Patrick. The movie is set in 1950s England when homosexuality was prohibited.

The trailer follows Tom as he marries Emma Corin‘s Marion in an attempt to fit into society while engaging in an affair with Patrick. One bit shows Marion spying on the two men as they’re sharing a tender moment and later telling Tom that Patrick is “trying to destroy our marriage.” Meanwhile, Patrick attempts to convince Tom to stop hiding who he really is.

Other flashes show Tom and Patrick fighting, pining for one another, holding hands, kissing and cuddling in bed.  The trailer mirrors these moments with scenes of Tom and Marion going about their lives. 

It is inferred in the trailer that Marion outs Patrick, who is then punished for his sexuality. Another brief scene focuses on a policeman’s uniform burning on a small bonfire on the beach. 

The trailer also jumps to ’90s era versions of Tom, Patrick and Marion — respectively played by Linus Roache, Rupert Everett and Gina McKee — coming to terms with the consequences of their affair all those years ago.

My Policeman is based on the book of the same name. After it debuts in theaters on October 21, it will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on November 4.

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Batgirl may have gotten its wings clipped, but Brendan Fraser‘s comeback is in full swing following a six-minute standing ovation for his performance in Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whale, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival Sunday.

As reported, Fraser donned heavy prosthetics to play a morbidly obese father in the film, which is already generating Oscar buzz for the actor.

One big accolade also came after the premiere, when his Mummy series co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson heard about the reception. “Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan,” Rock wrote on Twitter.

“He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky,” Johnson continued, shouting out the director of other acclaimed films as Requiem for a Dream and the Oscar-winning Black Swan.

Fraser’s A-List career was sidelined by a perfect storm of personal issues, including the loss of his mother, a messy divorce, surgeries from on-set injuries and a sexual assault he says he suffered at the hands of a former head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Aronofsky’s film and a role in Martin Scorsese‘s upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon, however, have fans — like The Rock — cheering what they’re dubbing the Brenaissance.

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Big Fish and Go screenwriter John August is the co-host of the Scriptnotes podcast, and in his career, he’s taken some notes of his own on the things that bug him in movies and TV shows — but he’s not alone.

Kicking things off with “seeing contact lenses in period movies,” August polled his Twitter followers as to what their biggest pet peeves were when watching, and he received thousands of replies.

Actors holding empty coffee cups that are supposed to be full was a common complaint, so much so that August linked to a separate article on how Hollywood is pushing back about it. In fact, there’s been a Twitter hashtag dedicated to it called #EmptyCupAwards.

Another common complaint: Actors’ earring holes when their character wouldn’t — or can’t — have one. Chris Evans‘ can be spotted while he’s playing Captain America, and the spangly hero out of time would decidedly not be sporting one.

“The worst was Keanu Reeves in The Matrix,” one user agreed. “He spent his entire life in a pod, when did he have time to go to Claire’s?

Other offerings included: “getting out of bed after [sex] with UNDERWEAR on! sometimes a bra too – who sleeps in a bra? who puts underwear on after sex ?”

Another posted, “When drivers look at their passengers while talking to them.”

On a related note, an actress waking up with full makeup/hair done was also a common complaint.

So much for “I woke up like this.”

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Tell Me Lies, a steamy new relationship drama based on the best-selling book by Carola Lovering, dropped on Hulu Wednesday.

It stars Grace Van Patten as Lucy and Jackson White as Stephen, two people caught in a toxic relationship that begins in college and spans eight years.

“I love that it’s an anti-love story,” Van Patten tells ABC Audio. “We talk about that a lot, and how at that age you’re so susceptible and it’s such a formative time in your life. And I think it’s really easy to mistake desire and passion and shared secrets as love.”

“It’s the anti, like, film and television romance where people watch it and they want to be that, they want to emulate it,” White adds. “This is the opposite of that. This is the actual anxiety, the real nuance of miscommunication and toxicity.”

In other words, if you’re looking for couple goals, this ain’t it. But if you’re looking for some 2007 nostalgia, the show’s setting throws it back to the pre-iPhone and Instagram days.

“I think it’s going to be really refreshing for people to watch and not see, you know, the Apple logo everywhere and see people on BlackBerries,” Van Patten says. “I feel like [on] Tell Me Lies, if there was an Instagram, it would be even more messed up.”

The first three episodes of the series are on Hulu now, with new episodes streaming weekly.

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TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and her mother Heidi D’Amelio have joined the cast of Dancing With the Stars season 31, Good Morning America announced on Wednesday.

Charli, 18, and Heidi, 50, will make DWTS history as the first family members to compete against each other.

The full cast of celebrities the mother-daughter duo will face off with will be revealed Thursday, exclusively on GMA.

Charli D’Amelio is the second-most followed person on TikTok after comedy creator Khaby Lame, boasting more than 146 million followers. She and Heidi D’Amelio welcomed fans into their lives with their own reality show, Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show, which returns for season 2 on Sept. 28.

Big changes are coming to DWTS this season, as the show moves to Disney+ after 30 seasons on ABC and becomes the streaming platform’s first live series.

Host Tyra Banks will also be joined by co-host Alfonso Ribeiro for season 31, while Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough are back at the judges’ table.

Dancing with the Stars season 31 premieres Sept. 19 on Disney+.

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Netflix on Tuesday debuted the trailer for Wendell & Wild, the new stop-motion animated comedy horror film from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline director Henry Selick. The movie follows “a troubled teen — voiced by Lyric Ross — haunted by her past, who must confront her personal demons, Wendell & Wild — played respectively by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele — to start a new life in her old hometown.” Wendell & Wild, also starring Angela Bassett, James Hong, and Ving Rhames, is set to world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11 and will be released theatrically on October 21 before streaming on Netflix a week later on October 28…

Variety reports Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman, the latter the star of Apple TV+’s For all Mankind, will lead the cast of the psychological thriller Sympathy for the Devil. The movie follows Kinnaman as ‘The Driver,’ who “finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after being forced to drive a mysterious man known as ‘The Passenger’ — played by Cage. That sets things up for a white-knuckle ride.” Sympathy for the Devil is currently filming in Las Vegas…

Amazon Freevee has picked up the Laverne Cox–George Wallace comedy series Clean Slate, from producer Norman Lear, according to Deadline. Clean Slate follows Wallace as Henry, “an old-school and outspoken car wash owner, who is thrilled his estranged child is finally returning home to Alabama after 17 years. However, Henry has a lot of soul-searching to do when the child he thought was a son returns as the determined, proud, trans woman, Desiree — played by Cox”…

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