Entertainment

In a wide-ranging conversation with Glamour UK, Sydney Sweeney says she hasn’t fully processed the July 31 death of her Euphoria co-star Angus Cloud. 

Cloud died at 25 years old from what authorities said was an accidental overdose.  

She recalls hearing the news, and how she and her co-stars “were constantly on the phone with each other crying, because it was just such a shock.”

The Emmy-winning HBO show doesn’t get back before the cameras until 2024, and Sweeney notes, “I don’t think it’ll truly feel real or hit me until we’re filming and I won’t see Angus on set.”

The Anyone But You star adds that being back together will help the cast better support each other. 

“[W]hen we are filming, all of our eyes are on each other and we’re there for each other, just in a different way than we’re able to when we’re all in very separate places in the world,” Sweeney expresses. 

Sweeney says, “It’s really interesting when someone passes away in our industry, because they’re still alive in so many forms.”

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‘It’s Wednesday, so that means there’s more Mean Girls fun to be had.

Paramount Pictures is getting fans ready for the January 12 release of the musical film version of the blockbuster with their very own burn books.

The digital versions of the infamous tome that shook up North Shore High School can be customized on the movie’s official website.

Meanwhile, the studio is also getting would-be Plastics camera-ready with another multimedia offering: Mean Girls selfie presents and other themed digital makeup looks for FaceTime.

As reported, Angourie Rice succeeds Lindsay Lohan in the role of Cady Heron, a homeschooled student who is welcomed into the top of the school’s social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called The Plastics.

Reneé Rapp plays queen bee Regina George; Bebe Wood is Gretchen; and Avantika plays Karen in this film adaptation of the hit stage musical spinoff.

Also starring are Christopher Briney, Auli’i Cravalho [Ow-lee-ee], Jaquel Spivey and original Mean Girls writer, co-producer and co-star Tina Fey.

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Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo star in the dramatic new trailer for Expats.

The six-part limited series, from The Farewell director Lulu Wang and based on Janice Y. K. Lee‘s novel The Expatriates, premieres January 26 on Amazon’s Prime Video.

According to the official synopsis, Expats is set in 2014 Hong King and “centers on three American women — Margaret (Kidman), Hilary (Blue) and Mercy (Yoo) — whose lives intersect after a sudden family tragedy.”

“The series interrogates privilege and explores what happens when the line between victimhood and culpability becomes blurred,” the synopsis continues.

Also starring in the limited series are Brian Tee as Margaret’s husband, Clarke, and Jack Huston as Hilary’s husband, David.

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For those who miss seeing Meghan Markle on camera in Suits, the so-called runaway royal plays multiple members of a hard-working coffee company team in a new Instagram video.

Markle appears in a post from Clevr, a California-based instant latte company in which she’s invested.

As Clevr co-founder Hannah Mendoza gives followers a tour of her facility — and the team that has been toiling away on holiday orders — the Duchess of Sussex pops up as a packing line worker, a “slightly nerdy” IT worker and a member of the ops team, called “the glue” that holds the company together.

On the latter “job,” Markle is pretending to be busy on the phone, but accidentally cracks up as she passes the camera.

Captioning the video, Mendoza noted, “Damn, you’re keeping us BUSY right now! Had to call in some reinforcements.” She added, “[S]o grateful for the immense love and support this year—thanks for helping us keep the latte-loving dream alive, and thriving!”

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NBC’s 1990s “Must See TV” line-up famously saw Seinfeld, Friends, and ER dominating Thursday nights, and George Clooney looked back at those days to Deadline, through the lens of the loss of Matthew Perry.

“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together,” Clooney recalled of the actor who died at 54 on October 28.

An autopsy report named acute effects of ketamine as Perry’s cause of death.

“He’s about 10 years younger than me,” Clooney adds. “And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid. He was a kid and all he would say to us … was, ‘I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth.'”

Clooney continues, “And he got on probably one of the best ever. He wasn’t happy. It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace. And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him.”

He adds he didn’t know about Perry’s Vicodin addiction at the time. “We just knew that he wasn’t happy … And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”

Clooney says the casts of Friends and ER made their debuts together at NBC’s Upfront presentation in 1994, and remained “all really close.”

He explains, “Two weeks after we debuted, we were on the cover of Newsweek. Everything changed for us after that.”

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Ryan Gosling‘s turn as Ken in the blockbuster Barbie has spawned his very own EP.

Along with collaborators Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Gosling’s Ken: The EP features not only his show-stopping track “I’m Just Ken” from the Grammy-nominated Barbie soundtrack, but also alternate versions “I’m Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie),” “In My Feelings Acoustic” and “Purple Disco Machine Remix.”

The holiday version of the tune also dropped a performance video of Gosling, Ronson and company laying the track down in a studio bedazzled with Christmas lights, after they riff on the possibility they’re creating a year-round classic that can also be celebrated at the holidays, à la Die Hard.

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Look, they did want to be half-bloods – and now they are!

Walker Scobell and Leah Jeffries star in the new Disney+ TV series Percy Jackson and The Olympians, which streams its first two episodes on Wednesday. The pair talked to ABC Audio about what it was like to bring the long-awaited adaptation of Rick Riordan‘s book series to life.

Scobell steps into the main role as Percy Jackson and said it means a lot to represent the beloved character for a whole new generation of fans.

“I mean, I’m a little bit nervous because I want them to like it,” Scobell said. “I really don’t want to screw it up because I want to watch the show, too. Even if I wasn’t going to get the part, I wanted to watch it anyway because I love Percy Jackson.”

Jeffries takes on the role of Annabeth Chase and said her favorite thing about the character is her independence.

“It made me proud to feel like I’m playing a girl who is very strong and very tough, and will go out into the world and say, ‘I’m not afraid of anything,’” Jeffries said. “It’s very amazing playing that part because it builds that character into you.”

Series creator Jonathan E. Steinberg understands just how long fans have been waiting for an adaptation like this.

“I watched a family member who is a teenager and has a really special relationship with these books watch the first two episodes, and that was almost enough for the whole thing,” Steinberg said. “Just how important this is to people and feeling like when you’re getting it right and they’re feeling the things the book made them feel in all of the familiar ways and in new ways, it’s pretty gratifying.”

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A new action-adventure show from Feel Good‘s Tessa Coates, starring Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham and Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer, has landed at Amazon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The as-yet-untitled show follows Spencer’s Debbie, who learns her friend Judith, played by Waddingham, is a highly trained assassin, per the outlet. When a hit goes wrong, the two find themselves trying to solve the mystery of why an enemy wants both of them dead …

FX’s What We Do in the Shadows will end with its upcoming sixth season, according to Variety. The mockumentary series, based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi‘s film of the same name, follows a group of vampires — played by Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, Matt Berry and Mark Proksch — living in the New York City borough of Staten Island. The series has earned 21 Emmy nominations and won Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes in 2022 …

Netflix has picked up the teen drama My Life with the Walter Boys for a second season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series follows a New York City teen — played by Nikki Rodriguez — who, following the death of her parents, is forced to start a new life in Colorado with her guardian and her 10 kids. It’s the #1 English language show on Netflix’s 10 TV list, with more than 20 million views since its debut …

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During the press run for the upcoming new film adaptation of The Color Purple, Fantasia Barrino has been open and honest about what she says was a difficult decision to agree to reprise her role as Celie.

In her Variety spread, the singer revealed she vowed to never play the role again, citing how “traumatic” of an experience her Broadway run had been. 

In a recent chat with ABC Audio, Barrino opened up about having to pause the trauma therapy sessions she had started so that she could fully tap into the character. 

“In traumatic therapy, you tap into your childhood — things that you did not know that’s affecting you and your grown life because of your childhood, that is what we work on,” she said.

Barrino said it was necessary for her to “go back to the young Fantasia” in order to give her best performance of Celie, a character who experiences abuse and racism, among other traumas.

“Playing Celie is very taxing,” she added, noting filming took place “on sets where there’s still slave houses.”

“I knew going in that I was going to have to put my all into it. I knew going in it that it was going to be taxing.“

But Barrino believed the new, reimagined Color Purple, and the more joyful depiction of Celie, would change lives.

“I knew it was going to be a ministry and so I had to do it,” she said. 

The Color Purple hits theaters on Christmas Day, December 25. 

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Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson will host an end-of-the-year special to revisit some of 2023’s biggest moments. 

In 2023 Back That Year Up, streaming on Peacock Tuesday, December 26, the comedy duo will offer up their take on significant events in pop culture, sports, social media and politics. They’ll also welcome a host of celebrities during the hourlong special, including Simone Biles, Jay Pharaoh, David Alan Grier and Kelly Clarkson. 

“We are so excited to bring audiences another Back That Year Up special as we celebrate all the ups, downs, and memorable moments of this past year,” Hart said in a statement. “Hold onto your party hats, because this is going to be one for the books.”  

“We’re back!” Thompson said. “Always the best time being together with my brotha Big Kev!!! Join us once again this holiday season as we close out the year with some incredible guests and all the laughs. Happy New Year!”

Check out the 2023 Back That Year Up trailer, now available on YouTube

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