Entertainment

The wait is almost over, dolls.

The Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie hits theaters on Friday, July 21, and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, who portray the titular doll and her boyfriend, Ken, respectively, told ABC News ahead of the SAG-AFTRA strike what it was like to make the candy-colored film.

“I didn’t want to mess this up,” Gosling said. “What Margot created, what Greta created, was so fun and perfect. I think all of us just felt, like, a lot of pressure to not be the one to mess it up.”

To prepare, Gosling channeled all of his Kenergy to get the role just right. Finding his inner Ken “was a journey,” he said.

“I thought I’d start with Beach, since that’s his job. Very hard to know what that is exactly,” Gosling said.

Robbie, who also serves as one of the film’s producers, says there would be no Barbie without Gerwig.

“I just don’t even know how we’d approach a Barbie movie without a visionary director like Greta,” Robbie said. “Greta, as a filmmaker, has a way of honoring the past, but also bringing it into a modern-day setting.”

This duality of Gerwig, as Robbie describes — the extensive knowledge she has about classic films mixed with her innate ability to “reference a TikTok” in the same breath — is what made her the perfect choice for director.

“There’s a lot of that in this movie where you’re holding two things in the same conversation,” Robbie said. “We can have this silly, absurd comedy at the same time that you can be making a statement about life. And someone like Greta does that deftly and she makes it look not just easy, but delightful.”

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Julie Bowen is hyping up Sofia Vergara after her Modern Family co-star announced she’s splitting from her husband since 2015, Joe Manganiello.

Truth told, Vergara didn’t need much help putting herself back out there, thanks to a set of swimsuit pictures posted on Insta from sunny Ravello, Italy.

That said, to a shot showing Vergara in a sexy blue leopard-pattern one-piece, Bowen trumpeted about her 51-year-old pal, “This is what single and [fire emoji] looks like!!!” followed by a series of hearts.

Bowen’s comment got nearly 4,800 likes and dozens of comments, including one that read, “LOVE a supportive homegirl! You’re a real one.”

Incidentally, Julie, 53, split from her husband of 13 years, Scott Phillips, in 2018. In 2022, she told former Modern Family co-star and guest host Adam Devine in an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she’s “retired” from dating — but would consider coming out of retirement for Harry Styles. “Hail Yeyah,” she enthused.

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While the SAG-AFTRA strike is preventing stars from taking part in this year’s San Diego Comic-Con activities, Peacock is still touting two of its upcoming projects: Twisted Metal and the John Wick spinoff The Continental.

ABC Audio has learned the streaming service will be promoting the former project, the video game adaptation that stars Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz and Neve Campbell, with a world premiere screening of the series.

And in a perfect tie-in to the game and series’ maniacal heavy, the ice cream truck-driving Sweet Tooth, producers will also have a real-life Twisted Metal ice cream truck, doling out scoops of Salt & Straw’s Twisted Metal flavor. The truck will open its doors at 1:30 p.m. PT, while the premiere event takes place inside the con at 10 p.m.

As for The Continental, the creative team behind the show will give fans “behind-the-scenes moments and an exclusive first-look” at the series, which shows the early career of the Wick movies’ enigmatic Winston. That event takes place at 3 p.m. PT.

All 10 episodes of Twisted Metal premiere exclusively on Peacock on July 27; The Continental: From the World of John Wick, starring Mel Gibson, Colin Woodell, Mishel Prada and Ben Robson, debuts in September.

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For Hollywood stars, high-profile negotiations about big-name projects are par for the course, but Matt Damon explained he got everything he wanted for Oppenheimer from a particularly tough opponent: his wife.

In an Entertainment Weekly roundtable interview with Christopher Nolan and his Oppenheimer costars Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt, Damon admitted he and his wife, Luciana, were attending couple’s therapy, where she “negotiated extensively” a need for him to take time off to spend with their family.

Damon agreed with one key provision: If director Nolan wanted him for anything, he would do it no matter what it is.

He added, “I had been in Interstellar, and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation,” Matt explained.

“[T]he one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called,” Damon said. “This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household.”

Damon appears in the film as General Leslie Groves, the military’s leader of The Manhattan Project, which shepherded Oppenheimer’s creation of the atomic bomb.

Murphy, a veteran of many Nolan films including Inception and two of the filmmaker’s Dark Knight trilogy installments, also says he was called “out of the blue” by Nolan for the title role as J. Robert Oppenheimer.

For his part, Downey says it was a “slower courtship process” for him to play Energy Secretary Lewis Strauss because Nolan “knew for sure I was gonna say yes no matter what.”

Oppenheimer opens Friday, July 21.

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Jamie Lee Curtis now has a new title to go with her new Oscar: “movie grandmother.”

The actress beamed with pride at the news that her Freaky Friday daughter Lindsay Lohan just welcomed her first child, a son with husband Bader Shammas.

Along with a smiling throwback pic of her and LiLo as well as a picture of them in the 2003 film, Curtis said on Instagram, “My movie daughter just made me a movie grandmother.”

She added, “Blessings to Lindsay and Bader for the birth of Luai!”

Lohan and Curtis have remained close since their 2003 hit remake and recently told the New York Times they were open to a sequel. The project is reportedly in the works from screenwriter Elyse Hollander, Good Morning America previously confirmed.

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On Tuesday, July 18, Paramount+ revealed that Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, a prequel to Stephen King‘s chilling 1983 book-turned movie, will debut on the streaming service Friday, October 6.

The film, starring E.T.‘s Henry Thomas, Tell Me Lies star Jackson White and The Revenant‘s Forrest Goodluck among others, will be part of Paramount+’s Peak Screaming collection — curated movies and Halloween-themed TV episodes perfect for the spooky season.

The streaming service teases the “terrifying” tale saying, “In 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow.”

Paramount+ adds, “Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path.”

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The new FX series Justified: City Primeval sees Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, once again played by Timothy Olyphant, transplanted to Detroit where he crosses path with new baddie Clement Mansell, played by Boyd Holbrook, who certainly relished playing the charismatic, yet evil character. 

“One of the joys of playing Clement is just being oblivious and just not really in touch with reality in a way that I guess normal people are,” Holbrook tells ABC Audio. “It’s a rumpus character who is so many things. It’s funny, he’s a psychopath, it, it was just a ball to play.”

In addition to having to deal with baddie Clement, Raylan is also dealing with his now-teenage daughter Willa, who is played in the series by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian. While some may be intimidated working with their father on the set, Vivian insists that wasn’t the case for her.  

“I think my talent might have been intimidating for him,” she shares with a laugh, “but no, it was just really fun working together and I think we both enjoyed it a lot.”

As for her character’s relationship with her dad, Vivian says Willa and Raylan “definitely butt heads” in the beginning, causing her to “rebel a lot to get his attention.” That, however, changes as the season progresses. “I feel like our relationship improves and we realize that we’re more similar than we think,” she says. 

Justified: City Primeval premieres Tuesday, July 18, at 10 p.m. ET on FX and is available for streaming on Hulu the next day.

(Note: Interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began)

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With studios bearing the brunt of criticism since the SAG-AFTRA strike began last week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fired back in a statement released on Tuesday, July 18.

The studios’ representatives reiterated “a strike is not the outcome we wanted” and detailed what it claimed were its offers for a “mutually beneficial agreement” between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA, using the performers’ union’s own words about a previous deal struck between the two Hollywood industry forces.

“Despite what SAG-AFTRA would have you believe today, at its ratification in 2020, the current SAG-AFTRA contract was hailed by SAG-AFTRA leadership as ‘the most lucrative deal we have ever negotiated…valued at $318 million over the three-year term of the contract,'” the producers contended.

“SAG-AFTRA further stated at the time that the deal ‘sets up for our long-term future…a forward-thinking agreement that builds on the changing realities of the streaming business,'” the AMPTP statement continued.

The group accused SAG-AFTRA of trying to “mischaracterize the negotiations with AMPTP” and “deliberately distort the offers made by AMPTP…offered…on July 12.” The producers claim the union “walked away” from a deal on July 12 “worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension & health contributions and residual increases” as well as “first-of-their-kind protections…expressly with respect to AI.”

At the outset of the strike, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher slammed the AMPTP, claiming of the last-minute negotiations, “I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things.”

She claimed, “How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right, while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”

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Jennifer Lopez celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary with a musical tribute to Ben Affleck called “Midnight Trip to Vegas.”

A snippet of the song, complete with a make-up free Lopez lip-synching some of it, can be seen on her On The J Lo blog.

Jen commemorated the July 16, 2022 wedding — their first of two that year — with the lyrics, “Then you whispered in my ear / Said let’s get out of here / We can disappear tonight.”

The chorus begins, “What about a midnight trip to Vegas / Just me and you baby / Throw the kids in the back / Of the pink Cadillac / And us in the bathroom changing.”

It continues, “Midnight trip to Vegas / Both our hearts are racin’ / I’ll pick you up late / We don’t have to wait / Yeah let’s do something crazy.”

“Midnight Trip to Vegas” will be part of This is Me… Now, J Lo’s autobiographical next album, which features other Affleck-inspired tracks like, “Rebound,” “Mad in Love” and “Broken Like Me.”

It’s also a successor to her hit album This Is Me…Then, which was released in 2002, when she first met Affleck, and when she was married to her second husband Cris Judd.

After formally divorcing Judd in 2003, “Bennifer” went public and had a headline-grabbing courtship and eventual engagement. They postponed a 2003 wedding, and eventually broke up in 2004.

She went on to marry Marc Anthony in June of 2004, and he Jennifer Garner in 2005; both marriages ended in divorce.

Lopez and Affleck remained friends over the years, and Bennifer became a thing again starting in April of 2021, after she ended her engagement with New York Yankees vet Alex Rodriguez.

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CBS has announced the fifth and final season of Taylor Sheridan‘s critically acclaimed Kevin Costner drama Yellowstone will be making its broadcast debut this fall. As CBS navigates challenges from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the network is also tapping another of its Paramount+ hits, SEAL Team, to air on the network, as well as the UK version of Ghosts…

NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform is spreading its wings with a price increase, its first since launching in 2020, per The Hollywood Reporter. Existing subscribers will see the Premium service price rise by $1 to $5.99 per month, while the Premium Plus tier, which offers ad-free viewing and live NBC channels, will increase by $2 to $11.99 per month. The price hike will affect both existing and new customers. NBCUniversal states that the price adjustment will allow them “to continue to invest in the best user experience and the highest-quality content while remaining competitive in the marketplace”…

Renowned director Robert Lieberman, known for his work on films like Fire in the Sky and D3: The Mighty Ducks, as well as episodes of hit shows such as The X-Files, Dexter, and Criminal Minds, has died at the age of 75. Lieberman’s son, Nick Lieberman, confirmed the news, revealing that his father lost his battle with cancer on July 1 in Los Angeles, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Throughout his illustrious career, Lieberman directed numerous commercials for major brands like McDonald’s, Hallmark, and Oreo, collaborating with an impressive range of talent, from President Clinton to Ray Charles and Anne Hathaway to Michael Jordan. Lieberman’s exceptional talent earned him over two dozen Clio Awards and the inaugural DGA Award for commercials in 1979…

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