Mark Margolis, the veteran character actor who played drug kingpin Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and its prequel series, Better Call Saul, has died at 83 years old.
Margolis, who appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies over the years, including The Blacklist, Black Swan and Scarface, died in a New York City hospital after a short illness, according to a family statement and The Associated Press.
Margolis was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2012 for playing Salamanca in Breaking Bad, with his character famously using a bell to communicate following a stroke. He played a more able-bodied version of “Tio” in Better Call Saul.
Uncle Stan was to center on Stanley’s Florida retirement getting interrupted so he could help his nephew in Los Angeles with his “motorcycle-florist shop,” according to an in-character tease Baker performed on the donation website page in 2021.
However, the project never came to be — despite Kickstarter pledges reaching more than $336,000.
On Tuesday, August 1, an Instagram statement appeared on Baker’s page that claimed circumstances “beyond our control” delayed the Uncle Stan project.
“We apologize about the delay in updates,” Baker began the statement with his business partner in the venture, Sardar Khan; both claimed the pandemic lockdowns and then the WGA strike led Uncle Stan to be “on hold indefinitely until an agreement is reached.”
The statement also noted, “After careful consideration, we have decided to refund our backers,” noting rewards that were promised to them, including autographed items and the like, will still be given out.
“In light of the current economic situation, we felt that this was the best course of action,” the statement continued, explaining refunds would be forthcoming “over the following weeks.”
Baker’s statement said the full amount, $110,629.81, would be returned, noting the discrepancy between that and the much higher pledged number.
“A large portion of backers’ pledges were lowered, or completely dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed,” Baker’s statement insisted, saying the money that was raised remained “accounted for and untouched.”
As has been reported, some of the rules of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike don’t expressly forbid stars from attending certain fan conventions, but they aren’t allowed to promote even their past work.
Zachary Levi is now clarifying his feelings about those rules, after comments he made at last week’s Manchester Comic Con in New Hampshire.
As he addressed fans at a Q&A, he called the rules “so dumb.”
“I’m not allowed to talk about movies that I may be a superhero in,” he teased.
“I’m not allowed to talk about TV shows that I may have been a nerd who worked at a Best Buy amalgam,” he noted of NBC’s action-comedy Chuck, before alluding to Disney’s Tangled with, “I’m not allowed to talk about any animated princess movies that I was fantastic in as the best prince ever…”
In a statement given to ABC Audio Friday, August 4, Levi said his “offhand remark…made in jest” has been “taken out of context.”
He states, “So let me be very clear. I fully support my union, the WGA, and the strike. I remain an outspoken critic of the exploitative system that us artists are subject to work in since I started…in this business 25 years ago.”
Levi expresses, “This strike is necessary to protect ourselves, our writers, and all those working in production who make the industry move.”
However, he adds, “we also cannot forget our fans during this strike…[who] spend their money and energy traveling far distances to talk with us about our work that means so much to them, we should be able to engage.”
Levi closed by saying, “Our business exists and succeeds because of the fans, and I think it’s imperative we appreciate them for their support of our careers.”
Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Universal Pictures
Apart from starring in films like Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two, Florence Pugh has graced the cover of Vogue and collaborated with fashion houses like Valentino. The latest look she’s rocking, however, isn’t from the chic streets of Paris or Milan, but Flavortown.
On her Instagram Story, Pugh said her blonde buzzcut reminds her of a certain mayor of that delicious, fictitious town. “Sometimes when I get out the shower I look like Guy Fieri and I love it,” Pugh captioned a smiling selfie.
“Just saying.. could be the new mayor of flavour town. Or should I say… ‘Flo-ver town,” she jokes, referencing her nickname.
For the uninitiated, apart from being a catchphrase synonymous with the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives host and chef, Fieri explained to Food Network, “Flavortown is a mythical place, a state of mind, where fun and food meet in perfect harmony.”
He further mused, “On camera, I once said, ‘This pizza looks like a manhole cover in Flavortown.’ Willy Wonka had a chocolate stream, you know? So it’s taking these iconic food items, these iconic food moments, and giving them a home. They all live in Flavortown. It’s like one of those things in The Matrix: You can only get down with Flavortown if you believe in Flavortown.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now streaming on Disney+. The blockbuster, of course, stars returning cast members from the previous movies, including Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax and Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper voicing, respectively, Groot and Rocket.
Some newcomers also joined the universe this time around. How they got there, however, is up for debate.
Chukwudi Iwuji worked with writer-director James Gunn on his hit Peacemaker before he got the tap to play the cruel High Evolutionary in GOTG 3. Iwuji explained at a press event before the Hollywood strikes that booking the job wasn’t so cut and dried.
“We just finished filming…the dance sequence of Peacemaker. And James said, ‘Can I have a word with you?’…And I actually said to him, ‘Is this when you thought you were hiring Chiwetel Ejiofor?” the actor joked, referring to another Marvel actor of Nigerian descent.
He insists he had to wait five weeks before they shot a screen test, but Gunn maintains he’d already given him the job. “But I’m a jobbing actor, the closest I’ve come to Marvel is my local IMAX,” Iwuji said to laughs. “I was not going to believe that I had the job, especially since we still had to do a screen test.”
Maria Bakalova voiced Cosmo the Spacedog in the movie. She said she was “even more” excited about joining the MCU when she found out she’d be getting the chance to play a dog. That happened when she got the call that she was given the role.
“Is that how you remember it?” Iwuji joked, cracking up his castmates.
“Oh, I’m never gonna hear the end of it,” Gunn replied.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
John Travolta is a small town Sheriff with some big problems in the new film Mob Land, opening in theaters on Friday.
The violent crime thriller, written and directed by Nicholas Maggio, also stars Stephen Dorff, Ashley Benson, Kevin Dillon, and Shiloh Fernandez. Maggio tells ABC Audio the film’s premise — “Small town family man robs a illegal pill mill to take care of his family and gets in way over his head with local bad people” — was influenced by the films he loved growing up.
“I think it started as a child of the early nineties, independent film renaissance,” he explains. “So I, the first time I watched Reservoir Dogs is what sparked my entire infatuation and love for film, understanding what was possible with film, especially with independent film.”
“This idea of very linear storytelling mixed with some poetry mixed were just absolute brutal, no frills violence, you know, that exploits the dark side of humanity, if you will, of society, while also kind of dabbling with the poetry of it all,” he adds.
Mob Land is Maggio’s first feature film, but he convinced Travolta and Dorff to sign on by being “brutally honest” from his first conversations with them.
“… I was like, Yeah, I’ve never done this. I’m extremely nervous. Do I know I can do it? 100%,” he continues.
As for the film opening during the height of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Maggio has mixed emotions.
“I think any film that brings people to the theater, whether it was Top Gun, whether it’s Oppenheimer or Barbie, I think that’s fantastic,” he explains. “Do I think that it’s tough for my film to come out two weeks after Barbenheimer? Sure. Do I think people might be a little fatigued? Sure.”
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that Barbie will start streaming on Max in the fall, according to Deadline. The film, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie, crossed the $400 million mark at the domestic box office on Thursday, August 3 in its 14th day, beating Top Gun: Maverick and Super Mario Bros. Movie to that mark, which both crossed in within 18 days. Barbie is expected to cross the $1 billion mark globally on either Sunday or Monday…
Uma Thurman stars opposite her daughter Maya Hawke in the upcoming dark comedy thriller The Kill Room, which dropped its first trailer on Thursday. Thurman plays “an art dealer who teams with a hitman and his boss — played respectively by Joe Manganiello and Samuel L. Jackson — for a money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld,” per the films official logline. Hawke appears as one of the many figures involved in the criminal triangle…
Animal Control‘s Joel McHale and Saturday Night Live alum Beck Bennett will star in the new TV movie Office Race, set to debut September 4 on Comedy Central, according to Deadline. Office Race follows “an unambitious office worker — played by Bennett — who goes to great lengths —- specifically 26.2 miles—to one up his exercise-obsessed, micromanaging boss portrayed by McHale” — per the outlet. Kelsey Grammer, Alyson Hannigan and J.B. Smoove also star…
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher took New York City by storm on Thursday, August 3, making multiple appearances at picket lines to rally striking actors.
To cheers, Drescher took to the podium at the picket line outside of HBO’s New York offices. According to video of the event sourced by Variety, she told her fellow actors, “I just want to say I am so grateful for your enthusiasm and your commitment to this strike. It means everything.”
She called the negotiations with Hollywood producers “seminal,” adding, “We cannot go back to the way things were. Too much has changed. They have to wake up and smell the coffee!”
She also led the crowd in a chant of their new hashtag, “Yield2OurDeal.”
Drescher also showed support to picketers outside of Paramount’s offices in Times Square, following an event outside City Hall on Tuesday, August 1.
According to video posted by Deadline, it was there she explained that as a girl in Flushing, Queens, she dreamed of being an actress and joining SAG. “But I never imagined that the show business that was so romanticized in the old movies of the 1930s and ’40s, in 2023 would actually be led by such greed-driven and disrespectful people.”
She said a majority of working actors just want to put food on their table — and 86% don’t make enough money to make them eligible for health care.
“Are they hoping to break us?” Drescher asked rhetorically. “They will have to yield to our deal!”
Weeks ahead of the show’s August 18 second season finale, Prime Video has announced it has given the green light for a third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
The show, based on the bestselling trilogy from author-turned-TV producer Jenny Han — who also wrote the book-turned-movie series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before — has drawn impressive numbers for the streaming service in its sophomore season since it debuted on July 14. In fact, its viewership doubled in just three days on Prime.
According to the streamer, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a “multigenerational drama that hinges on a love triangle between one girl and two brothers” and “a coming-of-age story about first love, first heartbreak, and the magic of that one perfect summer.”
In the announcement, Prime noted the decision to renew the show was made before the SAG-AFTRA strike and the third season would get underway when it was resolved.
Vernon Sanders, the head of television for Amazon and MGM Studios, noted, “This charming, deeply heartfelt series has shown the breadth of our customer base, appealing to a young, diverse set of viewers. Jenny Han is a gifted storyteller, whose fans have been clamoring for the third chapter of this story.”
Former child star of Home ImprovementZachery Ty Bryan was released from an Oregon jail on Thursday morning, according to The Hollywood Reporter, after being arrested on July 28 following an altercation with the mother of three of his children.
Bryan has a court date of September 5 in the incident; he is facing fourth-degree assault and third-degree robbery charges, as well as a misdemeanor harassment claim.
The July arrest was the latest run-in with the law for the actor. Bryan was arrested in 2020 after a dispute with the same woman in this case, Johnnie Faye Cartwright. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, which the trade reports were menacing and fourth-degree assault. He received three years of probation, was ordered not to contact the victim and was mandated to attend a violence-intervention program.
To the trade, Bryan insisted that case “got so blown out of proportion,” claiming it was a “loud” verbal fight, not a physical one. That said, the actor also has four DUIs on his record, and, as detailed in the THR piece, several of his former friends accused Bryan of defrauding them.
