Entertainment

His penchant for showing skin aside, a producer of Unsolved Mysteries says Matthew McConaughey‘s acting has come a long way since he got his first screen credit on the series.

Way before he won an Oscar and became a bestselling author — in 1992, in fact — an up-and-coming McConaughey played a murder victim called Larry Dickens in the season 5 “Texas Most Wanted” episode of the long-running series.

Now celebrating its 35th birthday, the series, which lives on thanks to Netflix, is center stage in a new documentary called Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy, and Entertainment Weekly got a sneak peek.

“Matthew McConaughey had to do a fairly robust death scene,” a producer says. “He was working in his garage and he was shot by a man who pulled up with a shotgun.”

The producer added, “Let’s just say … his acting has come a long way since then.”

Evidently McConaughey was allowed an ad-lib: The director let him perform with his sleeveless flannel shirt open, as his doomed character toiled on his lawn in the Texas heat.

However, having six-pack abs likely had more to do with that than the future star’s acting chops.

Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy takes a look behind the revolutionary series famously hosted by Robert Stack. According to the trailer, the show, which asked the public for help in bringing fugitives to justice and cracking cold cases, led to 260 such cases being solved and 180 arrests.

Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy premieres October 4 at Alamo Drafthouse locations nationwide and debuts exclusively on Pluto TV on October 5 before streaming on other platforms October 19.

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Star Wars fans may have May the Fourth, but Mean Girls die-hards have October 3.

That’s right, Tuesday is officially — or at least “officially” among fans — Mean Girls Day.

The day honoring the 2004 film was so commemorated thanks to what happened to Lindsay Lohan‘s Cady Heron: Her crush, Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), asked her the date, to which Cady replied, “It’s October 3.”

Back in 2011, somebody on social media noted the date, dubbing it “Mean Girls Day,” and a tradition was born.

For its part, Paramount+ is observing in a big way, with a Mean-themed takeover of its social media platforms: the Paramount+ logo will turn pink across Instagram, Facebook, Threads and TikTok.

Further, the streamer says, “The social campaign will also include a Mean Girls watch party checklist, fun video clips and reels, an interactive Instagram quiz and more.”

And of course, you can stream Mean Girls on Paramount+, too. Isn’t that so fetch?

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Kim Cattrall has teamed up with that other famous Kim, Kim Kardashian, as a model in a campaign for the latter’s successful Skims shapeware line.

The Best of Skims campaign features the Sex and the City star modeling various versions of the underthings.

Joining her are actresses Hari Nef and Lana Condor, singer-actress Coco Jones and recording artist Nelly Furtado, all separately modeling the brand. “Five cultural forces meet our most viral and influential collections,” a title card reads.

“How do I feel about Skims? Oh, you’d like to know, wouldn’t you?” Cattrall purrs in a promotional video, before adding with a laugh, “Freaking fabulous!”

She later adds, “Skims makes me feel free.”

Cattrall, modeling a black Sculpting Mid Thigh Bodysuit, then says, “Everybody is wearing Skims,” before playfully waving to camera and strutting off.

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Tom Hanks is warning fans about a fake advertisement using an artificial intelligence-generated version of his likeness without his permission.

He shared an image of the ad, which he says falsely depicts him, with what appears to be an aged-down version of Hanks made using AI, to Instagram over the weekend.

“BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me,” Hanks wrote over a photo from the deepfake ad. “I have nothing to do with it.”

He did not reveal the name of the company behind the AI-generated dental ad or where it was shared. A representative for Hanks told ABC News they had no additional comment on the matter.

As reported, Hanks previously opened up about AI and deepfake technology during an interview on The Adam Buxton Podcast.

Foreshadowing the Hollywood strikes — which have partly been about AI — Hanks noted there were “discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice — and everybody else’s — being our intellectual property.”

Actors under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are still on strike.

Hanks joked that he could pitch movies starring him at the age of 32 “from now until kingdom come” and the performances could go on even if he was “hit by a bus tomorrow.”

“Outside of the understanding that it’s being done by AI or deepfake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone,” he said, noting the discussion is both an artistic and legal challenge.

“Without a doubt people will be able to tell [it’s not actually me],” he said. “But the question is will they care?”

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A new photo promoting the October 12 return of the Emmy-winning sitcom Frasier gives a clever summation of the reboot’s plot: Frasier Crane is on the move.

Kelsey Grammer is pictured standing, coffee cup raised in one hand and saucer in another, on the back of a moving truck, amidst a collection of boxes marked “fragile” and his leather office chair.

The psychologist, who came to be a TV favorite as a character on Cheers, has his foot on a steamer trunk. He seems to be oblivious to the coffee spilling from his cup as the truck speeds from Seattle, and Beantown’s skyline is showcased behind him.

“Filmed in front of a live studio audience at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, the new series follows Frasier Crane…in the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill,” Paramount+ teases. “Frasier has re-entered the building!”

Frasier’s first two episodes will debut on October 12 on the streaming service, and subsequent episodes will incidentally roll out on Thursdays, just as Cheers and the original Frasier did on NBC back in the day.

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ABC has canceled the sitcom Home Economics after three seasons, according to Deadline. The series, created by Michael Colton and John Aboud and inspired by Colton’s life, followed three siblings — one a member of the 1%, one middle class and one struggling to make ends meet. Topher Grace, Jimmy Teatro, Caitlin McGee, and Sasheer Zamata starred…

Nickelodeon has renewed Spongebob Squarepants for a 26-episode 15th season. The new season, will “uncover more nautical adventures” for SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Plankton and Squidward — voiced respectively by Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown, Mr. Lawrence and Rodger Bumpass — per the cable channel. The pickup marks 345 total episodes of the series since its July 1999 launch and counting, during which it has reigned as the most-watched animated series…

Season 4 of Netflix‘s hit show Emily in Paris is set to start shooting in January, according to Variety. The season was initially scheduled to start shooting this past summer at the Cité du Cinema studios, the show’s location for the past three seasons, however, it has already been booked for the Olympic Games starting in mid-November. The series will now shoot at the nearby Studios Monjoie. The exteriors, meanwhile, will film on location in the streets of Paris…

Jacky Oh died from complications from cosmetic surgery, a representative confirmed to People. She was 33. The former Wild ‘N Out performer — born Jacklyn Smith — was found “unresponsive” when emergency workers arrived at her Miami hotel room to assist her on June 1…

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Jimmy Kimmel celebrated the October 2 return of his ABC late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which was shuttered since May due to the writers strike, with a promo spoofing an argument that ensued during a recent episode of The Kardashians between Kim and Kourtney that’s gone viral.

In the mock phone conversation, shared on his Instagram, Jimmy asks Kim if she’s happy for his return, to which an incredulous Kim replies, “Why would I not be happy for you?”

“I don’t know, you just don’t seem that happy for me. Everyone here is really happy,” Kimmel says into the phone. “It’s been 150 days since we did a show, and I’m happy we’re back at the show. But you don’t care. You don’t even like the show, I guess.”

“She’s a witch — she’s an actual witch,” he later tells his sidekick Guillermo.

The real argument, which took place on The Kardashians‘ season premiere Thursday, September 28, found Kourtney criticizing Kim for being “egotistical” and not being happy for her at her 2022 wedding to Travis Barker.

The scheduled guests for Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

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The animated sequel Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie topped the North American box office with an estimated $23 million in its opening weekend — nearly double the debut of its predecessor’s $13 million. The sequel added an estimated $23.1 overseas, for a $46.1 million global haul.

Saw X landed in second place with an estimated $18 million at the domestic box office — an improvement over the last two installments, though far short of Saw III‘s $33 million debut in 2006. Saw X collected an estimated $11.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $29.3 million.

Gareth Edwards‘ The Creator, starring John David Washington, fell short of expectations, taking third place with an estimated $14 million against an $80 million budget in its debut. It fared better overseas, where it grabbed an estimated $18.2 million.

The Nun II pulled up in fourth place, with an estimated $4.6 million in its fourth week of release. The horror film has grossed $76.7 million at the domestic box office and $231 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top five was The Blind, a biopic of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, which opened to just under $5 million.

Dumb Money, which opened nationwide following two weeks in limited release, finished in seventh place, earning an estimated $3.5 million.

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The 61st New York Film Festival officially begins Friday with a screening of Todd Haynes’ latest film, May December.

Academy Award winners Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore star as Elizabeth and Gracie – the former a famous actress, the latter the controversial subject of an upcoming biopic. Elizabeth travels to Gracie’s hometown to study her before taking on the role, which leads to shifting power dynamics and realizations for Charles Melton’s Joe, Gracie’s much younger husband.

Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch answered questions in a press conference earlier on Friday. Burch was a recent addition to the lineup, now able to promote the film following the WGA ending their strike on Wednesday.

“To have Samy with us, it helps us a little bit with the grief of not having the actors with us,” Haynes said.

Haynes also said he had been wanting to work with Portman for a while. When they came across Burch’s script, they knew May December was the project to finally make it happen.

“Natalie and I had discussed other projects in the past, so there was an interest on both our parts to try to find something that we could do together,” Haynes said. “This script was something else and left an impression on me that stayed with me.”

Burch said that while she wasn’t directly inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, she did take inspiration from the tabloids for her script.

“I really wanted a fictional story that dealt with this tabloid culture of the ‘90s that has kind of seemingly led into this true crime biopic world we’re in right now,” Burch said. “I think that that was the real jumping off point for me.”

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So how intense is the new Saw X? Well, according to director Kevin Greutert, while the movie was being edited, the cops showed up in response to complaints someone “was being tortured to death.”

For fans of the billion-dollar splatter franchise, Greutert’s anecdote to NME will only boost the movie’s bottom line at the box office this weekend.

The filmmaker explains first assistant editor Steve Forn was hard at work at his office in North Hollywood finishing the sound design for a scene that features the puzzle-playing Jigsaw killer’s “eye vacuum trap.” As the doorbell camera footage reportedly proves, Greutert says, “There was a knock at the door.” Forn answered, only to find officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. They told him, “The neighbors [have been] calling and saying someone’s being tortured to death in here.”

The director says of Forn, “And he was like, ‘Actually, I’m just working on a movie … You can come in and see it if you want?'”

Greutert recalls, “The cops started laughing! They said, ‘We want to but, you know, you’re all right.’ It must have been a pretty realistic performance!” he said of Isan Beomhyun Lee‘s screaming.

“Plus Steve is such a mild-mannered guy. I can only imagine the look on his face when he realized what was happening!” he continued.

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