Entertainment

Barbie is a bonafide smash, but some on the Margot Robbie/Ryan Gosling movie are crying foul, mainly from the right side of the political spectrum.

Conservative columnist Ben Shapiro, for example, said he was “dragged” to see it, calling it “a flaming garbage heap” of a film. For the record, he was dragged online for his 45-minute rant about it, and he’s burning actual Barbies in effigy because of it.

Cowriter and director Greta Gerwin noted to the New York Times the “passion” surrounding the film. She said diplomatically, “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men.”

She added, “I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter noted it’s “sort of extraordinary” that the movie is actually being received the way she intended: “anarchic and wild and funny and cathartic.”

Greta is also shining some light on Barbie’s other half, Ken.

On Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett‘s Smartless podcast, she admitted Gosling was her first choice to play the famous himbo, explaining, “We wrote his name into the script and everything…his [name] was everywhere. And then…the studio was like ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful that you know Ryan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh…I’ve never met Ryan…”

She also explained it was the actor’s 2017 guest stint on Saturday Night Live that sold her, particularly his appearance with former cast member Alex Moffat in the recurring sketch “Guy That Just Bought a Boat.” It’s so good,” she gushed, according to Deadline.

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Actor Kevin Spacey was on Wednesday found not guilty in a London court of a series of sexual assaults against several accusers.

Twelve jurors at the Southwark Crown Court had begun deliberating at about noon on Monday following a three-week trial. Spacey, 64, had pleaded not guilty to 12 charges of sexual assault.

Prosecutors had sought during the trial to label Spacey as a “sexual bully,” and the actor took the stand to defend himself. Musician Elton John appeared as a witness for the defense, testifying remotely from Monaco about Spacey once attending a gala at his Windsor home.

Spacey had appeared in a London court in July 2022 to plead not guilty after Metropolitan Police formally charged him.

The Crown Prosecution Service announced five charges against Spacey in May 2022, accusing him of sexual assaults against three men and one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, prosecutors said. An additional seven charges were added in November 2022.

The Academy Award-winning actor has faced allegations and charges of sexual assault in both the United Kingdom and United States. He was found not liable in October in a civil sexual assault suit brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp in New York City.

In a lengthy interview in the German publication ZEITmagazin in June, Spacey said he was “ready” for a career comeback when and if he was cleared in the U.K. case.

“…I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” he said. “The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward.”

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“Charity begins at home,” goes the old adage, which is a far kinder way to put the Internet’s reaction to Megan Fox asking her followers to donate their money to help a friend.

On Tuesday, July 25, Fox pointed her more than 21 million Instagram followers to a GoFundMe set up by her nail technician, Brittany Boyce, for Boyce’s father, who was diagnosed with cancer.

The donation site initially asked for $30,000 for Michael Boyce‘s medical bills, but the goal was subsequently doubled. “If you guys are able to help please do,” Fox pleaded.

However, the reaction to it was probably not what she was expecting.

While the Instagram Story has since disappeared, people weren’t ready to let it go, reposting it to Reddit and giving Fox a piece of their minds. Their issue: She’s rich, and has a reportedly even wealthier fiancé, Machine Gun Kelly.

“Your rich! Cover it!” one Redditor noted. “You could work one day and pay off all of his debts.”

Another snarked, “Celebrities posting gofundmes gives me the ick. I feel like 30k would be chump change to her and MGK.”

One poster noted that the exact amount of money Boyce was initially seeking for her dad, 30 grand, was the reported worth of a diamond-encrusted manicure she gave Machine Gun Kelly for the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.

“I think it’s a bit gross in a cost of living crisis for big name celebrities to be asking their fans for money,” noted another commenter. Another pointed out that neither Fox nor MGK appear as donors on the charity page, which so far has raised just $7,646 as of Wednesday morning, July 26.

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Netflix has released the first trailer for season 2 of the hit teen show Heartstopper. The LGBTQ-themed series follows the love story between two British teens — the shy, nerdy Charlie Spring, played by Joe Locke, and the popular rugby player Nick Nelson, portrayed by Kit Connor. New additions include Jack Barton as Nick’s brother, Nima Taleghani as a teacher at Nick and Charlie’s grammar school, Leila Khan, a student from the Higgs Girls school attended by Nick and Charlie’s friends Elle, Tara and Darcy — played respectively by Yasmin Finney, Corinna Brown and Kizzy Edgell — and Bradley Riches as James McEwan, a new character on the show. Heartstopper is set to return August 3…

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now one of Netflix’s most popular English-language TV series of all time, replacing The Witcher at #10, according to the streamer. The Bridgerton prequel series — which features India Amarteifio playing a younger version of Golda Rosheuvel‘s monarch, who is about to step into the thorny world of royalty — now joins both seasons of Bridgerton on the list — seasons 1 and 2 sit at #4 and #8, respectively…

It’s taken 55 years, but a new installment of William Friedkin’s landmark horror film The Exorcist is here. The Exorcist: Believer stars Ellen Burstyn, reprising her role from the original 1973 film as Chris MacNeil, “an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before,” per Universal Pictures. The film also stars The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Ann Dowd, Grammy-winning singer Jennifer Nettles and Fosse/Verdon‘s Norbert Leo Butz. The Exorcist: Believer is set to hit theaters on October 13…

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Ellie Kemper is trying to find herself in the new Netflix movie Happiness for Beginners, and one of the places she’s looking is in the woods.

The movie debuts Wednesday, July 26, and Kemper’s character goes on a wilderness retreat, looking for a challenge. Before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, she told ABC Audio that her character, “Helen with an H,” “is trying to move through a very challenging chapter in her life. She’s going through a divorce. She is not feeling good, and I think she needs something to shake up her routine.”

It’s not such a crazy idea according to Kemper, who notes, “There’s something that immediately bonds you when you’re out in the wilderness with a group. Because you’re all facing the same elements, you’re all facing the same obstacles, you know, Oh, the pot won’t boil, it’s starting to rain and you all have to figure out how to move through it. So I think that’s really powerful.”

And, for the record, this isn’t the first time Kemper has been out in nature for a job — she got her Screen Actors Guild card shooting a commercial for K-Mart.

“They were having a sale on tents and the like, I don’t know, comic relief of the commercial was a tarantula crawling on my face! A real tarantula!” she recalls. “… And I think it was to sell the idea that if you’re in a tent, a tarantula can’t get in. So buy a tent.”

The New York City-based actress chose a calmer setting for her most recent hike — the North woods of Central Park.

“It really is an oasis,” she shares. ” … In the middle of this, you know, busy, frantic, crazy city … there’s this place where you can be still.”

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Weeks after his show Rennervations earned an Emmy nomination — and of course, after his “miracle” recovery from a near-fatal snowplow accident — Jeremy Renner has another reason to smile.

He posted a photo of a bottle to his Instagram, along with the comment, “An exciting new week!!!” The Avengers actor added, “I’m so grateful for the progress I’ve made since the start of this year which allowed me to move forward with my interest in Sweet Grass Vodka.”

He adds, “Their mission is rooted in community and shared experience, which is why the second I tried it, I knew I wanted to become a part of it. I’m excited for new ventures ahead.”

According to its website, the spirit is locally sourced and grown in South Carolina and distilled by a family-owned operation.

Renner’s post got more than 56,000 likes and comments of support from his followers — even those who were self-described as living a sober life.

He’s joining the likes of stars who have made a mint with their spirits ventures, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and George Clooney.

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In the supplemental materials attached to the forthcoming Blu-ray of Fast X, Vin Diesel and director Louis Leterrier explained one of the movie’s most-talked-about moments.

In the closing moments of the film — and despite a very public tiff with star and producer Vin — fans were treated to seeing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson reappear as “legendary lawman” Luke Hobbs.

The two stars kept a tight lid on the post-credits “stinger,” with Johnson waiting until the movie opened to explain how he and Vin buried the hatchet last summer.

In his announcement in June, he also vowed to fans, “We’ll lead with brotherhood and resolve – and always take care of the franchise, characters and fans that we love.”

In the supplemental material that was teased by Entertainment Tonight, Diesel said of Fast X, “When you end a movie with a cliffhanger of that magnitude, you only do that when you believe that your audience believes in you.”

He added, “To tie up all these storylines, this character needed to come back into the mythology.”

The Rock’s Hobbs will appear in his second Fast and Furious spinoff, due in theaters before the second installment of Fast X, which has a release date of April 4, 2025 — though Diesel announced that date ahead of the strikes crippling Hollywood productions.

Fast X debuts on Blu-ray on August 8.

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Ray Lalonde, a Jeopardy! winner who won more than $386,000 on the game show in 2022, says he’s boycotting the show’s upcoming Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike.

In a Jeopardy! Reddit thread, Lalonde, who described himself as a “lifelong devoted fan” of the quiz show, said, “I am and will always be grateful for the experience I had on the show and the opportunity to participate in the TOC [Tournament of Champions] is beyond a dream come true for me.”

He added, “That being said, I believe that the show’s writers are a vital part of the show and they are justified in taking their job action to secure a fair contract for themselves and their fellow WGA members.”

At issue, the player said, were reports the show’s producers would turn to “old and/or recycled material” to make up for striking writers who are unwilling to write new questions.

He expressed, “As a supporter of the trade union movement…and a proud union member myself I have informed the show’s producers that if the strike remains unresolved I will not cross a picket line to play in the tournament of champions.”

Another veteran player, Dan Wohl, agreed, replying in part that although he was “ecstatic” he qualified for a Wild Card slot, he “will certainly never cross the picket line for [it].”

Other former players spotted replying in solidarity to Lalonde’s post include Ben Chan, Hannah Wilson, Troy Meyer, Ben Goldstein, Cris Pannullo, Suresh Krishna and Luigi de Guzman.

When the WGA decided to strike in May, Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik walked away from the remaining shows of the year, leaving counterpart Ken Jennings to shoot the remaining, still-airing episodes of season 39.

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At a time when Hollywood actors and writers are striking for a bigger piece of the profits in the days of streaming, the settlement of a Chuck Norris lawsuit over Walker, Texas Ranger underlines one of the strikers’ arguments.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a 2019 lawsuit filed by the martial artist, actor and producer behind one of the most-rerun shows in the world claimed he was cut out of profits from Walker on streaming and video-on-demand, or SVOD, platforms.

Norris’ camp claimed the alleged maneuvering from CBS and Sony Pictures — including reportedly hiding their own streaming profits — shorted him at least $30 million in profit sharing he was owed.

The trade reports a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the case on Monday, July 24, when CBS and Norris’ camp agreed to settle. However, the settlement was not disclosed.

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At a SAG-AFTRA rally in New York City called Rock the City for a Fair Contract, Breaking Bad Emmy winner Bryan Cranston let it rip at the studios against which actors and writers are striking.

According to Variety, Oscar winners Brendan Fraser and Jessica Chastain also took to the stage at the event on Tuesday, July 25, as did BD Wong, Chloë Grace Moretz, Succession‘s Corey Stoll and Emmy/Tony winner Christine Baranski, among others.

According to the trade, Cranston said there was one thing that performers and The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) agree on: “Our industry has changed exponentially.”

“We are not in the same business model we were even 10 years ago. And yet…they are fighting us tooth and nail to stick to the same economic system that is outmoded, outdated!” Cranston said.

“They want us to step back in time. We cannot and we will not do that,” he added.

Cranston specifically called out Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose comments that striking writers and actors were not “realistic” came just as SAG-AFTRA voted to strike. “…[T]hey are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive,” Iger also said.

Cranston countered, “We’ve got a message for Mr. Iger….We don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask you to hear us, and…listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots.”

He added in part, “We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living. And lastly…we will not allow you to take away our dignity!”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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