Entertainment

George Maharis, best known for playing Buz Murdock on Route 66, died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan tells The Hollywood Reporter. He was 94. Maharis quit the CBS drama during its third season in 1962 after being hospitalized for a month with hepatitis, He missed several episodes and replaced by Glenn Corbett, who played Lincoln Case. It was two years before Maharis would be able to regularly work again. His other credits included John Sturges’ sci-fi feature The Satan Bug. On TV, he appeared in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, Marcus Welby, M.D., Night Gallery, McMillan & Wife, The Bionic Woman, and Fantasy Island…

Deadline reports Will Ferrell is in talks to play legendary NFL coach and sports commentator John Madden in the upcoming Prime Video Sports Original Madden, helmed by American Hustle director David O. Russell. The movie, per the outlet, follows Madden’s remarkable coaching career and subsequent move to the broadcast booth after the stress of the job nearly destroyed him. Madden was also the face of the top-selling video game Madden NFL. Ferrell will next be seen playing a Mattel CEO alongside Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the Greta Gerwig-directed film Barbie, opening July 21st…

Ed Ames, who played the Native American character Mingo in the 1960s TV series Daniel Boone, died from Alzheimer’s disease on May 21, his wife, Jeanne, said Saturday, according to the Daily News. He was 95. Ames, however, may best be remembered for his now classic Tonight Show moment in which he was given a tomahawk and asked to throw it at a wood panel with the outline of a cowboy on it. Ames threw it straight into the cowboy’s crotch, leading to what’s been called the longest sustained audience laugh in Tonight Show history. Ames first gained fame in the 1950s as part of the pop quartet, the Ames Brothers. He went on to have a successful solo career before segueing into acting…

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Disney’s The Little Mermaid swam to the top of the domestic box office in its opening weekend, grabbing an estimated $95.5 million for the three-day weekend and $117.5 million over the four-day. That’s slightly below expectations, but good enough to capture the fifth-best Memorial Day Weekend of all time, if estimates hold up. Last year at this time, Top Gun: Maverick kicked off the summer with the best Memorial Day Weekend ever, 160.5 million.

The news wasn’t quite so rosy overseas, where the film banked a disappointing $68.1 million. Worldwide, the live-action remake of the Disney animated classic — starring Halle Bailey, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina and Melissa McCarthy — has grossed $185.6 million. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Fast X took second place, picking up an estimated $22.9 million between Friday and Sunday and $28.5 over the long weekend at the domestic box office. The film, in its second week of release, added an estimated $24.3 million at the international box office, pushing its two-week global tally past the $500 million mark.

Disney-Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 pulled up in third place in North America with an estimated $19.9 for the traditional weekend and $25.3 million through Monday.

Fourth place went to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which scooped up an estimated $6.2 million in North America between Friday and Sunday and $8.3 million over the holiday weekend. Its worldwide total now stands at $1.2 billion.

Rounding out the top five was The Machine, based on Bert Kreicher‘s standup show of the same name. It grossed an estimated $4.9 million over the three-day weekend and $5.8 million over the four-day.

Elsewhere, About My Father, starring comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro bowed in sixth place with an estimated $4.25 million and $5.3 million at the domestic box office.

You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, debuted with an estimated $1.8 million from 912 theaters.

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Elizabeth Olsen has some advice for actors looking to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The actress, who portrays Wanda Maximoff and her alter ego Scarlet Witch in the franchise, says that only agreeing to one Marvel project initially can give actors more “creative control.”

“Just give them one,” Olsen said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “That way you have more control over … If you say, ‘Oh my god, this is the most fun I’ve ever had and I love this character so much, I want to do it again,’ you now have more creative control for the next one.”

After, Olsen joked, “Don’t tell [David] Galluzzi that. [He’s] business affairs at Marvel.”

Olsen has appeared as Wanda Maximoff in six films, including Avengers: Endgame, the second-highest-grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. In 2021, she was nominated for an Emmy for playing the character in the critically acclaimed TV series WandaVision.

Though little is known about when Olsen will return to Scarlet Witch next, she told ScreenRant in March that she would be interested in doing something different with the character.

“We can do anything with her now,” Olsen said. “I feel like we’ve done so much. Now, we can really have fun; I feel like there’s a lot more humor to be had with her. She’s often the emotion of the story, and I’m curious to see what we can explore.”

Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.

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Much has been made of Drew Barrymore‘s so-called “wild child” days, but the now grown-up actress and eponymous hit talk show host confessed to ABC Audio that she had a habit back then not many know about: bingo. 

“I used to play with all my friends when I was a teenager. We used to go to this senior center in West Hollywood,” she recalls, smiling.

“And it was a whole crew of us, and it was, like, a total party to us. And we’d be there, like, 8, 9 [p.m] and we had all our blotters, and we would bring our basket of blotters — that’s probably not what they’re called — but they’re like those giant ink stamps in like bottle pen form. So yeah, I’m not new to bingo,” she adds with a laugh.

“We would, like, play bingo and then go party all night,” Drew says.

As a busy mom of two, Drew now can relive her teenage nights — at least the earlier parts — with the mobile game Bingo Blitz, which she says reflects a common theme in the products she endorses: it’s free. “I’m the Pluto [TV] girl, and I’m the Bingo Blitz girl,” she says proudly.

She adds, “I promoted Time magazine for taking down their paywall. I hope people follow suit. And this is an era where we’ve got to find a way to monetize things in a different way and not charge people for that. How do we do things all together in a way that doesn’t charge us and that gives us information or gives us entertainment or gives us gaming?”

She adds, “These are things that actually mean a lot to me and I want to be a part of things like that.”

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A new adaptation of Stephen King‘s classic short story The Boogeyman opens in theaters Friday. 

In the movie, Air‘s Chris Messina plays Will, a therapist father of two grieving the loss of his wife, only to have he and his two daughters haunted by a supernatural menace. 

The emotionally shut-down character is worlds away from the ranting, scene stealing sports agent David Falk he played in the sports drama Air — and that was intentional, Messina explains to ABC Audio. “It’s the reason why I wanted to do this in the first place,” he says. “The whole acting thing is, play different folks and be in different genres. So what a gift that I have the opportunity to do two projects back to back that I don’t think those guys would be in the same room.”

That said, he admitted it would be funny if the characters swapped places. “That would be a really interesting horror movie,” he says with a laugh, “Yeah. Just screaming at the Boogeyman. Cursing him out.”

Sophie Thatcher from the Emmy-winning Showtime show Yellowjackets plays Sadie, Will’s teen daughter. She explains how she got the spooky movie out of her head after long days on set. 

“Music is the escape. Music is the way in. Music is life. Music is everything,” she says. “I had some hard weeks. I brought [both] my sisters plane tickets at different points because I was like, I just need family and I need like somebody that…I can be myself around. And even if we’re silent on our phones for 2 hours, I just need somebody…that can ground me. I think that was the most important thing.”

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Have no fear, your reality roundup is here! Here’s a look at what’s happened in the world of reality television this week.

Vanderpump Rules (Bravo)

— In an extended version of Wednesday’s reunion Part 1, Scheana Shay alleged that Tom Sandoval first made advances towards co-star Raquel Leviss during Coachella in April 2022 — four months earlier than previously stated. According to a mutual friend, Scheana heard that Sandoval told Raquel that he had an open relationship with his longtime partner Ariana Madix. However, Sandoval denied the accusations.

— After reports that Raquel Leviss could be pregnant, one of the show’s executive producers, Alex Baskin, set the record straight, telling Page Six, “She’s not pregnant by the way.”

Selling Sunset (Netflix)

— Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause speaks out after newcomer Nicole Young received alarming death threats following the exposure of their feud in the show’s latest season. Taking to Instagram Stories Thursday, Chrishell wrote, “It’s been brought to my attention that Nicole’s camp is reporting receiving death threats to several outlets. Being on a reality show on such a huge platform makes for an influx of feedback and I am certainly not a stranger to death threats after 6 seasons. Your opinions help make this show what it is & clearly I have my own. But let’s keep it fun please.”

Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo)

— In new court documents, obtained by Page Six, Kroy Biermann accuses Kim Zolciak of financially ruining their family through her gambling habits. As evidence of the former RHOA star’s gambling addiction, Biermann submitted scanned bank statements and checks showing thousands in withdrawals. He’s also requesting a psychological evaluation due to her compulsive behavior

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One of the most critically acclaimed series of the past few years says goodbye Sunday night: The final episode of Succession will air on HBO.

The show is TV’s reigning top drama champ at the Emmys, nominated for 48 of the shiny gold statues during its run. Arian Moayed picked up one of those nods last season, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. His character, Stewy, is back for the finale and he tells ABC Audio the last episode is “going to so blow your mind.”

Of course, that shouldn’t come as any surprise, according to Moayed. 

“To show so many truths in, like, how society is actually functioning by the .000001%, I think that just for that in itself, the show is one of the great things,” he says. “But I think the last episode will leave us feeling, y’know, both satisfied and everything else in between.”

Saying goodbye to the show won’t be easy for Moayed, who shares, “The saddest part about letting it go is that the people were just spectacular. Crew, cast, writers, everyone — everything about it was just…[it was] so much fun to be with those people and to make the show.”

Moayed also stars in the new movie You Hurt My Feelings, out this weekend, alongside Julia Louis Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies.

(Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

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Much of comedian Sebastian Maniscalco‘s stand-up centers around culture clashes with his Italian immigrant father, and the comic and actor’s wealthy in-laws.

That made for good grist for his new movie opening Friday, About My Father. Sebastian plays a guy about to pop the question to his girlfriend, who insists his eccentric Italian immigrant dad (Robert De Niro) accompany him on a vacation to her wealthy family’s summer estate.

Maniscalco and De Niro both appeared together in Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman, but Maniscalco tells ABC Audio he was too nervous to pitch the acting icon then. “For myself and Robert De Niro, we don’t have like a friendship where I could call him and say, ‘Hey, I got an idea. We should do it.’ It’s just not how it is,” he smiled.

“Of course, after we filmed the movie, we were a lot more friendly than we were prior to going into this thing,” he allows.

De Niro plays Salvo, named after Maniscalco’s real dad, who got to consult with De Niro about playing him. De Niro explains, “Salvo came to visit me in Oklahoma when I was shooting Killers of the Flower Moon…I had questions for him and got to know him a little bit…and…then after that I took him to the set to meet Scorsese because, you know, I thought he might enjoy that.” 

The experience went right to his head, Sebastian laughs to ABC Audio. “I’m sitting here doing interviews with my dad and someone brings him in a large Evian water and a double espresso,” he says. “I go, ‘What are you doing?’ I mean…pretty soon he’s going to have his own dressing room and his own tour bus….This guy really slipped into this world nice.”

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Lionsgate is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino‘s action-crime film Kill Bill later this year with a remastered 4K edition, according to Variety. There’s no word yet on any extras and added footage the rerelease may or may not include. Kill Bill starred Uma Thurman as a former assassin who swears revenge on her ex-teammates — played by Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah and Vivica A. Fox — and their leader, Bill — portrayed by David Carradine — who left her for dead…

Deadline reports Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer has been tapped to star opposite Anne Hathaway and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s Michaela Coel in Mother Mary, an “epic pop melodrama” about “a fictional musician and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer — played respectively by Hathaway and Coel.” Schafer will reportedly play Hilda, the assistant of Coel’s designer, Sam. Schafer will next be seen in Lionsgate’s Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes…

Actor, writer, director and producer Jon Favreau, whose numerous credits include Elf, Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Cowboys and Aliens, The Jungle Book, The Lion King and The Mandalorian, will receive an Honorary Doctorate at the Queens College Commencement exercises on June 1. Favreau attended the college from 1984-1987…

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The live action remake of The Little Mermaid is expected to easily swim to the top of the box office in its debut this weekend. The film stars Halle Bailey in the lead role, and when her casting was announced there was some grumbling from anonymous corners of the internet about an African-American woman getting the role.

Daveed Diggs voices Sebastian the crab in the film, and he thinks the diversity celebrated in the film is a beautiful thing, telling ABC Audio, “The characters are all built from the inside out. The relationships are built from the inside out. And like, everybody’s sort of preliminary stresses about the ethnicities of people like immediately seem stupid.”

Diggs thinks Bailey’s casting was “perfect,” adding “her performance throughout is so undeniable.”

The Hamilton star goes on to say that Halle’s casting means a lot to him and he’s sure it’ll mean a lot to others too.

“When you’re my age, Oh man, I never had that. You know, all the little girls my age didn’t have that,” he shares. “We weren’t able to see ourselves in this story in this way.”

Adds Diggs, “Our kids shouldn’t have to question that, right? We want them to be able to imagine themselves as anything. And so having films like this are a step towards that.”

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