Entertainment

Disney+ on Wednesday announced August 23 as the premiere date for Star Wars: Ahsoka, starring Rosario Dawson as the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, who, after the fall of the Empire, investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy. Star Wars: Ahsoka also stars Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen, Eman Esfandi and the late Ray Stevenson…

Showtime’s I Love That for You, the comedy series based on Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer’s own story of overcoming childhood leukemia, has been canceled after one season, according to Variety. Bayer co-created, executive produced and starred in the series as Joanna Gold, “a woman looking to shed her past cancer identity and dreaming of becoming a host at a home-shopping channel.” After moving away from her parents, Joanna “falls in love and befriends Jackie — played by fellow SNL alum Molly Shannon — the star of the home shopping channel run by an eccentric billionaire”…

Pat Cooper, the acerbic, fast-talking stand-up comedian and actor, died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas, his wife, Emily Connor, announced, according to Deadline. He was 93. A cause of death was not given. Cooper, born Pasquale Caputo, launched his career in New York clubs, before landing a spot on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1963. He went on to work in clubs across the country with the likes of Frank Sinatra and George Burns, along with frequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the early 70s, and later on NBC’s Late Night and Howard Stern, where he became a favorite. Cooper also released several albums during the 1960s including Our Hero … Pat Cooper and Spaghetti Sauce & Other Delights. He also appeared in dozens of TV shows, including Seinfeld… 

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Tom Holland has taken on some tough roles over the years, but nothing quite as emotionally exhausting as playing Danny Sullivan, a man mistakenly accused of being the culprit of a 1979 New York City shooting in the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, premiering Friday, June 9.

“We were exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before,” Holland says in an interview with Extra. “And then on top of that, being a producer dealing with the day-to-day kind of problems that come with any film set added that extra level of pressure.” He adds, “I really enjoyed it, but then again, the show did break me.”

So much so, that the Spider-Man: No Way Home actor says he’s “taking a year off,” and trying to be a “regular bloke from Kingston and just relax.” That includes “seeing my family” and “seeing my friends. I’ve been playing golf. I’ve been, you know, going to the garden center and buying plants and doing my best to keep them alive and all that sort of stuff.”

The Crowded Room is a psychological thriller, which explores the real-life crimes of Billy Milligan, who was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and blamed his alternate personalities for his crimes.

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The cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires currently smothering New York City was too much to bear for Emmy winner Jodie Comer, who had to stop her Broadway performance of Prima Facie Wednesday afternoon because of it, ABC Audio has confirmed.

The smoke from up north is currently choking the Big Apple, and the afternoon performance of the drama — for which the Killing Eve star nominated for a Tony — was restarted with understudy Dani Arlington taking Comer’s place.

In a statement obtained by ABC Audio, the play’s reps said the matinée “was halted approximately 10 minutes into the performance after Jodie Comer had difficulty breathing due to the poor air quality in New York City.”

The statement added, “The performance started again from the top” with the understudy “going on for Ms. Comer in the role of Tessa.”

The one-woman play, centering on Comer’s lawyer character, has been nominated for four Tonys.

Comer has already won an armful of awards for her performance during its West End run, including the Olivier Award for Best Actress.

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The Iron Sheik, a legendary competitor from the glory days of ’80s pro wrestling, has died, according to his social media accounts.

He was 81.

The WWE legend and pro wrestling Hall of Famer, a trash-talking longtime foil of Hulk Hogan, was born in Iran as Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri. He made headlines under his fighting name in the Reagan era.

During real-life rising tensions with Iran and Russia, the Iron Sheik was paired with Nikolai Volkoff in Cold War-era face-offs with American pros. In 1985, the pair took the WWF tag team title during the first Wrestlemania, defeating The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham).

In a statement on his social media about his passing, a message noted, “Today, we gather with heavy hearts to bid farewell to a true legend, a force of nature, and an iconic figure who left an incredible mark on the world of professional wrestling.”

The post said outside of the ring, The Iron Sheik was a “devoted family man” who “cherished the love and support of his wife of 47 years, Caryl, who stood by his side through thick and thin.”

The message concluded, “We also take solace in knowing that he departed this world peacefully, leaving behind a legacy that will endure for generations to come.”

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The dark side of technology is Black Mirror‘s stock-in-trade, so it makes sense that creator Charlie Brooker is keeping up with the headline-grabbing AI technology.

He tells Empire he has “toyed around with ChatGPT quite a bit,” and even tried to get it to write an episode for the Netflix show’s forthcoming sixth season.

“The first thing I did was type ‘generate Black Mirror episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is s***,” he tells the magazine.

“All it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together,” he adds. “Then, if you dig a bit more deeply you go, ‘Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.'”

However, the experience wasn’t a total loss. Brooker admits it made him take a hard look at what episodes had come before.

“I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes ‘Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!'” he tells the magazine with a laugh.

“So I thought, ‘I’m just going to chuck out any sense of what I think a Black Mirror episode is.’ There’s no point in having an anthology show if you can’t break your own rules. Just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face.”

Brooker had previously told Netflix’s new blog TUDUM of the new season, “I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that…keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point?”

The series — written by human hands — will return in June, starring Emmy winner Aaron Paul, Salma Hayek Pinault, Ben Barnes, Danny Ramirez, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, and more.

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Grey’s Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl reunited to reflect on their residency on the ABC’s hit medical drama.

The actresses, who played Meredith Grey and Izzie Stevens, respectively, recently took part in Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series and reminisced about working on the landmark show, having been part of the cast when it premiered in 2005.

While Heigl said she “hasn’t gone there yet” and watched Grey‘s with her eldest daughter Naleigh, Pompeo revealed she has tried to watch it with her eldest daughter Stella.

Pompeo said Stella came up to her and said it was “embarrassing and weird” that all her friends had seen the show and she hadn’t, so Pompeo decided they’d take the plunge together.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh, this is so amazing, and we’re going to watch it together,'” she recalled. “And then it was episode after episode after episode, and I was just like, ‘I don’t have the stamina for this! I filmed all these episodes. I did it. I can’t now go back and watch it again.'”

Unlike Pompeo, Heigl revealed when she was on the show, she watched every episode as it aired.

Meredith left Seattle during season 19 and popped back up in the season finale — and Pompeo said that won’t be the last we see of the titular character.

“I will be making some appearances hopefully next year, if I can find some time,” Pompeo teased. “It’s not a complete goodbye, and I think we’ve got an interesting story to tell.”

Pompeo explained in September, she’ll start working on a Hulu series that’s under the working title of The Orphan.

“I haven’t played another character in 18 years,” she said of the “intense” part. “That’s crazy — crazy town, crazy town,” she added.

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On Wednesday in New York City, the 22nd annual Tribeca Festival kicks off. Founded in 2001 by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal in an effort to revitalize lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks, the event has broadened in scope from a film festival to celebrate visionaries in various media, from film and TV to interactive, audio and gaming. 

Rosenthal recently told ABC Audio that finding the right projects to celebrate during the event is a daunting task. “We’re very fortunate that we have an extraordinary group of curators led by festival director Cara Cusumano, and they get to deal with the 12,000 plus submissions, and they cull it down.”

She adds, “So Bob [De Niro] and I get the benefit of watching it pretty much after it’s been really narrowed down.” That said, she admitted she was still “bleary-eyed” from watching so much content before the event.

Rosenthal also spoke of the festival shifting primarily from film to highlight many mediums, from a documentary about trailblazing ballet dancer Misty Copeland to Disney-Pixar’s movie Elemental and mainstream TV properties like AMC’s The Walking Dead spinoff Dead City. 

“Whether they’re on … television or in a theater or whether you’re streaming it, or whether it’s a game or audio storytelling, the festival is about great stories,” Rosenthal says.  

Apart from the submissions, this year’s festival is special for one major reason: It’s the first Tribeca since the U.S. COVID-19 public health emergency was declared over.  

“I’m really looking forward, especially after what feels like the long years of COVID and COVID protocols, to just be there and laugh or cry or yell in a movie theater,” Rosenthal says.

The Tribeca Festival runs through Sunday, June 18.

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Former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannen Doherty has given her Instagram followers a sobering look at her ongoing battle with stage 4 breast cancer.

Captioning a video from January showing her getting fitted with a face mask used for radiation treatment for brain cancer, Doherty explained Tuesday evening that a CT scan “showed Mets in my brain,” meaning cancer cells have migrated there.

“January 12, the first round of radiation took place,” she explained. “My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life. I am fortunate as I have great doctors like Dr Amin Mirahdi and the amazing techs at [Cedars Sinai Hospital].”

She added, “But that fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like.”

Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, and after entering remission, she revealed in 2020 the disease had spread and returned as stage 4.

In an interview with Good Morning America, the actress said the diagnosis was “a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”

“I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me?’ Who else? Who else besides me deserves this? None of us do,” she said at the time.

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HBO’s reboot of Perry Mason, which is co-produced by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan, and which stars The Americans Emmy winner Matthew Rhys in the title role, has been canceled by the cable network after two seasons, according to Deadline. The show, in which Rhys plays a private investigator who eventually becomes an attorney, debuted its second and final season in March…

Former Wild ‘N Out performer Jacky Oh — born Jacklyn Smith — was found “unresponsive” when emergency workers arrived at her Miami hotel room to assist her on June 1, according to a police report obtained by E! News. “She was transported by Miami Fire Department to Mercy Hospital where lifesaving efforts were conducted,” the report added, “but unfortunately, she was pronounced deceased at the hospital.” The report listed her age as 33. A cause of death has not been revealed…

Deadline reports Peter Pan & Wendy‘s Garfield Wilson has landed a recurring role in Syfy’s Reginald the Vampire. He plays Balestro, “a confident, poised and intimidating Angel who descends from heaven to announce the eventual extinction of all vampires on the planet.” Reginald the Vampire — led by Jacob Batalon, star of the Spider-Man films — follows Reginald Andrews, who, in a world populated by beautiful, fit and vain vampires, tumbles headlong into it as an unlikely hero,” per the cable channel…

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Pete Davidson addressed the profanity-laced voicemail he left for PETA after they criticized him for buying a dog from a pet store, acknowledging it was a “poor choice of words,” but he’s not sorry for standing up for himself.

The war of words started when the Bupkis star and his girlfriend, Chase Sui Wonders, were filmed filling out paperwork at a New York City pet store that confirmed to TMZ that the couple bought a 2-month-old cavapoo puppy Davidson saw online. Pete explained that the pet was for his mom, whose dog died earlier this year.

Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of cruelty investigations at PETA, responded to the video, expressing her sympathy over the loss of their dog, but condemned Davidson, 29, for purchasing, rather than adopting.

In turn, the Saturday Night Live alum left Nachminovitch a voicemail, in which he explained that he was “severely allergic to dogs.”

“And my mom’s f****** dog, who was 2 years old, died a week prior, and we’re all so sad, so I had to get a specific dog,” he continued, before suggesting to Nachminovitch, “Do your research before you f****** create news stories for people because you’re a boring, tired c***. F*** you and suck my d***.”

“I was already upset that the store had filmed me without my permission or acknowledgement. Then this organization [PETA] made a public example of us, making our grieving situation worse,” Pete explained. “I am upset. It was a poor choice of words. I shouldn’t have said what I said, but I am not sorry for standing up for myself and my family.”

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