Entertainment

Flavortown is one expensive neighborhood: Guy Fieri, the self-appointed mayor of said fictional food nirvana, has reportedly signed a huge new deal with Food Network.

In fact, Variety says the pact is worth $100 million.

The chef and restaurateur’s deal will take him into his 20th year with the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network, where he hosts and produces shows including Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games.

The host of Tournament of Champions also dives into other programming backed by the company: This past summer, he was featured in Discovery’s Shark Week festivities.

Fieri made his first appearance on Food Network in 2006 when he won season two of The Next Food Network Star.

In a statement, he said, “For nearly two decades, Food Network has been my home and continuing to create great TV within the Warner Bros. Discovery universe is exactly where I want to be.”

He added, “Food is our most universal language so being able to unite people through highlighting chefs, restaurateurs and the folks dishing out incredible meals all over this country and world is a privilege and responsibility that I don’t take lightly.”

For its part, the company’s “thrilled” chairman and CEO Kathleen Finch called the bleached-haired foodie “a global phenomenon with millions of fans throughout the world” and an “incredibly creative content producer.”

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While promoting his new film The Iron Claw, The Bear‘s Emmy-nominated lead Jeremy Allen White teased to Deadline that the acclaimed show will get back underway in the winter of 2024. He also revealed who’s on his menu for dream guest stars.

White joked that he hopes his Carmy Berzatto will escape the freezer he found himself locked in during an opening night meltdown of the new restaurant that shares the show’s name. He then said he hopes the show’s junior year will bring more guest stars out of the woodwork.

The intense season 2 flashback episode “The Fishes” was stuffed with stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy’s train wreck — or more apt, car wreck — of a mom, Donna. Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk appeared as Uncle Lee, and John Mulaney took on the role of Stevie.

White tells the trade that he hopes for the return of Curtis as well as Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman as Chef Terry. He’s also putting out into the universe that Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and Emmy winner John Turturro will pull up a chair this season.

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The cast of Frozen is celebrating 10 years of the beloved Disney animated film, which made its debut on Nov. 27, 2013.

To commemorate a decade of “Frozen,” Idina Menzel, who voiced the character Elsa, Kristen Bell, who voiced Elsa’s sister Anna, and Josh Gad, who played the snowman Olaf, took to Instagram to say thank you to the fans for their support over the years.

“Happy 10th birthday, Elsa,” Menzel captioned a video post featuring a previous interview about how Frozen and its song “Let It Go” has become part of pop culture over the years.

“I love you and my entire @disneyfrozen fam,” she added.

Bell took to Instagram as well, sharing a video about the film’s 10th anniversary and quoting a line from her character in the caption of the post.

“I *STILL* believe in you, more than anyone, or anything,” she said, adding, “Thank you for showing this frozen family so much love over the last 10 years!”

On his Instagram page, Gad, who portrays Olaf, shared the same video Bell did and honored the fans who have supported the film.

“Ten years ago you welcomed our Frozen family into your hearts and have been showing us nothing but love ever since,” Gad said. “Thank you to all the fans around the world who have made this world and these characters worth melting for. We love you!”

“Amazing to see what that little guy has meant to so many ever since,” Gad captioned a separate video of a recording session from 2012.

Frozen made more than $1.2 billion at the global box office when it was released in 2013, according to the film industry tracking site The Numbers.

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Robert De Niro was on hand at the Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City Monday evening to accept an award on behalf of his and friend Martin Scorsese‘s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon, but he ended up not being too happy about it.

The legendary actor was reading from a teleprompter in accepting the Gotham Historical Icon and Creator Tribute award, when he realized mid-speech that a tangential portion of the speech about former President Donald Trump had been edited out.

Frustrated, De Niro told the audience, “‘I’m sorry. Okay there was a mistake in this,” regarding the script on display before his eyes, and instead pulled out his cellphone to read the original.

“I just want to say one thing. The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it,” he said to applause.

“History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness,” De Niro said in part, claiming, “The former President lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution.”

After catching up to the portion of the speech he’d read from the ‘prompter, the Taxi Driver star said, “I was supposed to thank [Killers producer] Apple, and Gotham, and blah, blah, blah, but I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did,” getting a laugh from the audience.

“How dare they do that, actually?” the actor continued, before saying, “But now I will go to accepting the award.”

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Loki season 1 and Rick and Morty veteran Michael Waldron has been tapped to write Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Deadline reports. The news comes days after Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Crettin dropped out of the project, and weeks after it was learned that Jeff Loveness, who wrote the commercial and critical misfire Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was going to be replaced. Waldron wrote the hit Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and is also writing the Kang Dynasty sequel Avengers: Secret Wars. Still up in the air is the MCU fate of Jonathan Majors‘ Kang, following his domestic violence arrest in New York City earlier this year…

The Palm Springs International Film Society announced on Monday, November 27, that Barbie helmer Greta Gerwig will receive its Director of the Year Award at The Palm Springs International Film Awards, taking place on January 4 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Barbie is the highest-grossing domestic film of the year with over $636 million domestically. Worldwide, the Margot Robbie/Ryan Gosling-led movie has grossed $1.4 billion…

ABC News affiliate WFAA confirmed on Monday, November 27, that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will leave ABC’s Shark Tank at the end of its upcoming 16th season, wrapping up a 10-year run with the business reality show. Cuban first revealed the news during an appearance on the November 21 episode of Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast. The entrepreneur cited a desire to spend more time with his family as the reason in a statement obtained by WFAA…

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Tim Allen once again plays Scott Calvin/Santa in season 2 of The Santa Clauses, which is now streaming on Disney+. But this time around, Scott and his family tangle with Eric Stonestreet‘s Magnus Antas aka the Mad Santa. 

However, in spite of his name, Allen explains you have to feel for the guy. “Eric killed it,” Allen enthuses. 

“The story is layered. He’s not mad, he just was disappointed in human beings about the word giving and what people started taking more than they’re giving. So he has an arc that’s a — it’s a likable villain,” Allen insists.

The Mad Santa has been magically exiled to limbo, viewers learn, before he’s accidentally freed into the present after hundreds of years. 

In fact, arguably some of the funnier moments after the so-called Mad Santa first emerges are because he’s not even all that mad — he’s just happy to be out.

“I loved it,” Allen exclaims with a laugh. “He was just sitting there — ‘This is not bad. I kind of like it.'”

Allen confesses, “To be honest with you, I wish I’d seen more of that. … I wished he’d put his hair back at one point. [Got] dolled up and got [to] take the shirt off and kind of relax. I wish we’d see him that way a little bit more.” But instead, “He gets real angry again real quick.”  

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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Marvel movie fans notoriously take the material seriously, but the same can’t be said for Taika Waititi.

Waititi was a relative unknown when he was given the directing job on 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. His offbeat sensibilities revitalized the character, and audiences responded to the tune of a franchise best $850 million worldwide.

The movie also earned a 93% from the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

But the same offbeat sensibilities went too far for some with his Ragnarok follow-up, 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. The movie misfired with fans and critics, but apparently Waititi couldn’t care less.

In an appearance on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett‘s Smartless podcast, Jojo Rabbit Oscar winner Waititi said the movies were just a paycheck for him.

“You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Waititi said. “But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.'”

He added, “Thor, let’s face it — it was probably the least popular franchise. I never read Thor comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like ‘Ugh.'”

He said, “I think there was no place left for [Marvel] to go with that [character],” so he figured when he got called in, “this is really the bottom of the barrel.”

That said, Waititi said of Marvel, “I love working with them. I love Chris [Hemsworth].”

He won’t be directing a fifth Thor movie, if there is one. “We’re in an open relationship, and it’s like if they want to see other people, I’m happy for that,” Taika said. “I’d still get back into bed with them one day.”

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‘Tis the season to enjoy some favorite holiday movies, and Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross hope to add their new Prime Video film, Candy Cane Lane, to your collection.

“We were looking for something special and we decided to do a Christmas movie,” Murphy tells Good Morning America.

In the film, out December 1, Murphy plays an over-the-top dad named Chris Carver, who is so determined to win his neighborhood’s Christmas decorating contest that he strikes a deal with mischievous elf Pepper (Jillian Bell). With his family and some magical new friends, Chris then has to undo the spell and save Christmas.

“We wanted to do something that would be around forever, that people could watch over and over again like the Christmas movies when I was a kid,” said Murphy, who also produced the movie.

Ross calls the comedy a timeless classic.

In real life, Murphy explains, “We go all out every Christmas. Lots of gifts, big tree, actually too many decorations, lots of kids around — and I love it.”

Although Ross said she enjoys the cooking part, she said she saves the holiday decorating for others. “My favorite part of Christmas is being around my family,” Ross said. “But the magic of Christmas through the eyes of my nieces and nephews is everything.”

Eddie, now 62, also talked about his longevity as a star. “Most movies don’t work, most TV shows and most records, you never hear them,” he said.

He continued, “I’m grateful to be in this business for as long as I’ve been, to be able to make a living doing what I do, to look around my house and be like, ‘Wow, everything you have is from making people laugh,’ and that’s a blessing.”

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Stephen Colbert will be taking an extended Thanksgiving break from The Late Show, but for all the wrong reasons. 

The host apologetically explained on the show’s Instagram that he needed a week away for medical reasons. “I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Turkey overdose, Steve? Gravy boat capsize?’ Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix,” he noted.

Colbert continued, “I’m grateful to my doctors for their care and to [wife] Evie and the kids for putting up with me.”

The Daily Show veteran closed by joking, “Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas.”

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The NBC shows created by Dick Wolf, including Law & Order, FBI and its spinoffs, are back in production Monday, following the holiday and the lengthy SAG-AFTRA strikes.

And some of the stars couldn’t wait to share.

FBI‘s Missy Peregrym took to Instagram while driving back to New York City; she admitted she “sobbed my little head off” leaving her 18-month-old daughter, Mela, and 3-year-old son, Otis, as filming gets back underway.

That said, she added she’s taking comfort knowing she’ll soon be laughing her head off with her “other family” in the cast and crew. “You got the sorrow and the joy at the same time,” she mused, adding she’s “really excited that we get to go back to work and make the show we love to make.”

FBI returns for its sixth season Tuesday, February 13.

Meanwhile, Ice-T also confirmed he’s back on the beat Monday, on Wolf’s Law & Order: SVU for the 25th season, which debuts Thursday, January 18, along with the original recipe Law & Order and its newest spinoff, Organized Crime.

Wolf also has his trio of interconnected Chicago shows — P.D., Med and Fire — back in front of the cameras on location, TVLine reports. Those shows return to the network Wednesday, January 17.

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