Entertainment

After securing an Emmy nomination for its inaugural season, FX’s Welcome to Wrexham is headed back onto the pitch for another round.

The show, centering on Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney‘s purchase of beloved underdog Welsh soccer club Wrexham AFC, just debuted its season 2 trailer.

“A lot of expectations,” Reynolds says in the trailer after noting “millions of people” are now watching the team because of them. “Oh, God,” he laments.

The trailer teases how the working class town surrounding the stadium is now thriving from sales of team merch and increased attendance. “The community is growing in a way that is authentic, and real, and powerful,” Reynolds says.

“I look at Wrexham as the most special gift I’ve ever had in my life,” an emotional Ryan admits.

McElhenney and Reynolds also stress the importance of the then-impending season and the need for the club to be promoted out of the National League into the English Football League.

While the trailer teases the Red Dragons’ initial semi-final loss with the pair at the helm — spoiler alert — in April of 2023, the soccer club clinched the National League title and a slot back into the Football League, for the first time in 15 years, with a 3-1 victory over rivals Boreham Wood.

The actors’/co-chairs’ emotional reaction to it —incidentally captured on social media by their friend Paul Rudd — went viral.

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With the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes crippling Hollywood, the Television Academy and Fox jointly announced on Thursday, August 10, that the 75th Annual Emmy Awards have been bumped from September 18 to January 15, 2024.

Notably, the organization didn’t mention the strikes as the reason behind “the Martin Luther King Day telecast,” but with the ongoing union actions, a telecast on its previous date would have meant a broadcast with no writers and no SAG-affiliated stars.

The event will now air starting at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. 

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will take place at the Peacock Theater at LA Live on Saturday, January 6, and Sunday, January 7, 2024, with an edited presentation airing on FXX Saturday, January 13, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.  

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Big Brother‘s latest season took a dramatic twist as houseguest Luke Valentine was swiftly removed from the show for using a racial slur during a conversation with fellow cast members.

“Luke violated the Big Brother code of conduct and there is zero tolerance in the house for using a racial slur. He has been removed from the house,” CBS and the show’s producers said in a statement to ABC News. “His departure will be addressed in Thursday night’s show.”

The incident unfolded Tuesday night, when Valentine, who is white, used the racial slur while conversing with Jared Fields, Cory Wurtenberger, and Hisam Goueli.

“We were in the f****** (inaudible) room, n****,” he said before catching himself and trying to laugh it off, adding, “I’m sorry.”

His remark was met with immediate backlash, with Jared, who is Black, addressing the incident and its impact.

Hosted by Julie Chen, Big Brother offers a voyeuristic lens into a group of contestants living together under constant surveillance. Each week a Houseguest is voted off, with the last one standing receiving the grand prize of $750,000.

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HBO has greenlit The Franchise, a half-hour comedy from Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty, and Veep and Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci that pokes fun at superhero movies. Himesh Patel and Aya Cash star in the series about “the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe,” per the premium cable channel. HBO teases, “The Franchise shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f***-up has an origin story.” Incidentally, Cash recently starred as Stormfront in another superhero-skewing series, Amazon’s The Boys…

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has signed on as a lead producer of the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of The Outsiders, the producing team announced on Wednesday, August 9, according to Deadline. The musical, based on the 1967 coming-of-age novel by S.E. Hinton and the 1983 film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola, had its world premiere engagement at La Jolla Playhouse earlier this year. Coppola’s 1983 film featured up-and-coming stars Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez…

Robert Swan, the actor best known for his roles in the sports films Hoosiers, Rudy and The Babe, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer at his home in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, his friend Betty Hoeffner tells The Hollywood Reporter. He was 78. Swan’s other film credits include Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, as well as Who’s That Girl and Mo’ Money. He also was a voice actor in commercials and founded and performed at the Harbor County Opera in Three Oaks, Michigan…

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Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a film set south of Santa Fe in 2021, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer has set December 5 as the start date for the trial, beginning with jury selection.

Gutierrez-Reed was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Hutchins, 42, on the New Mexico set of the Western in October 2021. Special prosecutors added a charge of tampering with evidence in June, accusing the armorer of giving cocaine to another person.

She could receive up to three years in prison if convicted.

Gutierrez-Reed is the only person who still faces charges from the incident. The two charges of involuntary manslaughter against actor Alec Baldwin, who was holding the gun when it went off, were dropped in April.

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Not the happiest of anniversaries — the Hollywood writers strike hit 100 days Wednesday, with no end in sight. Talks briefly resumed on Friday, August 4 and then broke off almost as quickly as they started.

John Hoffman is a WGA member, and also the co-creator of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. He’s trying to stay positive, but firm, telling ABC Audio he’s “very hopeful for an end in sight, if it’s fair.”

As for the strike hitting the 100 day milestone, Hoffman shares, “I don’t want to say that I expected it, but I don’t find it too unexpected either. The business is having a moment, and it’s a complete reframe.”

“To me, it feels so evident that something has to move,” he adds. “You know, the business has moved and the ways in which people are paid and cared for just to live a very basic life for work that is very necessary for all of the work that’s getting done right now, there’s great justice in pushing for that in these moments, but it’s not without its great hardships.”

Hoffman and his show are up for a bunch of Emmys this year, including Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding Writing. He offered his thoughts about the chances of an Emmy ceremony this year, given the twin strikes.

“I’m hoping there’s an Emmys,” he says. “It would be lovely to go and celebrate all of the incredible work. But from what I understand, it might be after the first of the year, and that’s hopeful, and please let it be sooner than that this has moved on.” 

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Fox’s Gordon Ramsay-fronted reality series MasterChef unveils its 250th episode August 9, and to celebrate, the network has given the green light to a 14th season.

The show, which is officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Cookery Television Format, will keep cooking for another season, with Ramsay as host and judge alongside acclaimed chef Aarón Sánchez and renowned restaurateur Joe Bastianich.

The series has been hot for the network over the summer, averaging 3.1 million total viewers in what’s known as the Live + 7 Day metric — good enough to be Wednesday’s #1 entertainment program in the key 18-49 demographic.

“Its impressive performance this summer and tonight’s 250^th episode are a testament to the strength, distinction and longevity” of Masterchef, said Allison Wallach, president of unscripted programming for Fox Entertainment, who called the series “a beloved staple of the FOX brand.”

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Jamie Foxx is proving he’s still got moves as he recovers from that undisclosed medical emergency that led to his hospitalization in April.

Olympic volleyball veteran turned pickleball player Casey Patterson posted to Instagram part of a doubles match he was recently playing against the Oscar winner and a teammate.

Jamie returned Patterson’s teammate Taylor Chien‘s serve with a wicked drop shot that virtually stopped dead when it cleared the net and dribbled in front of Patterson.

“That Jamie Foxx spin will get ya,” Patterson captioned the video.

“I got dead balls out here, dead balls,” Foxx says in the clip.

While some wondered if Patterson was going easy on the star in flubbing the return, The Kitchen Pickleball, an online community dedicated to the growing sport, added, “Jamie is too modest. That wasn’t a dead ball, that was his nasty cut.”

Foxx is a die-hard pickleball fan and started his The Best pickleball gear company with Chien.

In fact, when outlets said Foxx was seemingly at death’s door, his daughter, Corinne, insisted back in May her dad was already back to the court.

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Even if you’re not familiar with the web comic series Strange Planet, there’s still a good chance friends of yours have DM’ed you the comics that became a New York Times bestselling book.

Creator Nathan W. Pyle‘s humanoid-like characters point out the absurdities of our own world by peeking at theirs. As an example, “Mouthstones” highlights exactly how weird going to the dentist is when you think about it.

Pyle explains before the pandemic, the comics caught the eye of Dan Harmon, the co-creator of Community, and the Emmy-winning animated series Rick and Morty. Their collaboration, an animated series based on Pyle’s planet, debuts Wednesday, August 9, on Apple TV+.

“It became pretty popular in 2019 in that that fall was when I sat down with Dan Harmon and Steve Levy, and then we sat down with ShadowMachine as well — and ShadowMachine’s made a lot of amazing things, including BoJack Horseman,” Pyle explains.

“But when we all sat down together, it was nice that the work had already proliferated on the Internet. There was a lot of knowledge: All right, here’s what Strange Planet is. Here’s how it celebrates humanity.

The cast includes Community veteran Daniel Pudi and Lori Tan Chinn, resident scene stealer on Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, among others, which is thrilling to Pyle.

“Oh, man. See, Lori Tan Chinn is a good example, where that character that we drew for Lori is so unique and Lori’s voice is so special,” he says. “[It’s] really special when you get to design a character specifically with a voice in mind and make sure that character and the voice match. So I know we’re so proud of how it looks and sounds.”

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On Wednesday, August 9, Peacock released the first full trailer to The Continental: From the World of John Wick, the prequel series spinoff.

As reported, in the 1970s-set series, Colin Woodell plays the younger version of Ian McShane‘s character Winston from the films.

“This sacred institution wields power beyond your imagination,” Gibson’s Cormac tells Winston of the mysterious hitman hotel. “Your brother stole somethin’ from me. What he took is very important to a lot of very dangerous people. Find him, ’cause if you don’t, I’ll bring the entire weight of this institution down on you both.”

He then ushers him out by asking Ayomide Adegun‘s Charon to show Winston the door. The character, who becomes Winston’s concierge, was played on the big screen by actor Lance Reddick, who passed away unexpectedly in March.

However, instead of turning his brother in, however, Winston decides to get a team together to take on The Continental, meaning “every freak in that hotel” is going to be loaded for bear to stop them.

The trailer is punctuated with all the bone-crunching action you’d expect from the Wick series, with Winston giving a nod to the Baba Yaga himself, when asked what he needs. “Guns. Lots of guns,” he says in a callback to the Wick movies and Keanu Reeves‘ Neo in the Matrix.

“Let’s take this house and all that comes with it,” he says in between the action, before ending with the line made famous by McShane: “And away we go…”

The three-part series kicks off September 22.

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