‘She-Hulk’ smashes trailer debut records

‘She-Hulk’ smashes trailer debut records
‘She-Hulk’ smashes trailer debut records
Marvel Studios

The trailer for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which debuted on Tuesday, scored 78 million views in the first 24 hours it appeared online.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, that’s the second-most views for a Marvel Studios small-screen project since 2021’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Super Bowl trailer.

The series stars Emmy-winning Orphan Black veteran Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, who longs to be “a normal, anonymous lawyer,” but whose life is turned upside down when she gets a blood transfusion from her cousin, Mark Ruffalo‘s Bruce Banner.

His gamma irradiated blood ends up allowing Walters to Hulk out as well.

The series also stars returning The Incredible Hulk baddie Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/Abomination and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessBenedict Wong. It debuts August 17 on Disney+.

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

(Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

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See Idris Elba as a genie through the “genius mind” of director George Miller in ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’

See Idris Elba as a genie through the “genius mind” of director George Miller in ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’
See Idris Elba as a genie through the “genius mind” of director George Miller in ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’
Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc.

George Miller, the visionary director behind the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, is back at it with another madcap movie adventure.

The trailer to Miller’s latest, called Three Thousand Years of Longing, has Idris Elba playing a djinn — that is, a genie — who comes to be in the service of Tilda Swinton‘s bookish, self-described “solitary creature” Alithea.

“I have a question,” she asks him. “What does one do with three wishes?”

“You’ll see,” he replies.

What follows is a trippy visual tour of the heart’s desires, from apparent orgies to fantastic battlefields, melting spiders and a mandolin — a mix that perfectly fits the trailer’s promotional copy stating the movie hails “from the genius mind of George Miller.”

The film hits theaters August 22.

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No, no, Power Ranger! Actor busted for alleged $3.5 million COVID fund scam

No, no, Power Ranger! Actor busted for alleged .5 million COVID fund scam
No, no, Power Ranger! Actor busted for alleged .5 million COVID fund scam
St. John in 2015 — Bobby Bank/WireImage

Austin St. John, who played the Red Ranger in the hit ’90s show Power Rangers, has been charged in an alleged scam of funds from the CARES Act for COVID relief.

The Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office this week unsealed charges against St. John, who was born Jason Gieger, claiming he was among 18 people who allegedly obtained fraudulent Payment Protection Program loans to the tune of $3.5 million and kept the money.

The fraudulent loan applications said the funds were needed for utility payments, payroll and health benefits for their businesses affected by the pandemic.

“Instead, the defendants … transferred money to their personal accounts, and spent the funds on various personal purchases,” the authorities say.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in federal prison, the Department of Justice says.

COVID-19 relief scams have cost the government — and thusly, American taxpayers — hundreds of millions of dollars since the pandemic began.

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Netflix’s hit teen show ‘Heartstopper’ renewed for two more seasons

Netflix’s hit teen show ‘Heartstopper’ renewed for two more seasons
Netflix’s hit teen show ‘Heartstopper’ renewed for two more seasons
Netflix

Heartstopper fans got double the good news on Friday.

The hit Netflix teen show has officially been renewed for seasons two and three. The series, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, debuted in April and has since launched its young cast to social media stardom.

The LGBTQ-themed series follows the love story between two British teens: the shy, nerdy Charlie Spring, played by newcomer Joe Locke, and the popular rugby player Nick Nelson, played by Kit Connor.

Heartstopper has been embraced by critics, as well as fans, scoring the elusive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has also topped Variety’s Trending TV chart over the past four weeks. In its first week of release, Heartstopper racked up 1.05 million engagements on Twitter.

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‘Downton Abbey’’s Lady Mary warns fans may shed a tear at the “emotional” new film

‘Downton Abbey’’s Lady Mary warns fans may shed a tear at the “emotional” new film
‘Downton Abbey’’s Lady Mary warns fans may shed a tear at the “emotional” new film
Focus Features/Ben Blackall

Downton is back! The new film Downton Abbey: A New Era is in theaters now, and actress Michelle Dockery – who has been with the series since season one – warns that fans may shed a tear or two.

“It’s very emotional,” she tells ABC Audio. “I feel like you could cry laughing as well, there’s lots of emotions in this film.”

Those emotions made Dockery work hard to stay in character as Lady Mary, who is known for her snide observations and cold demeanor. “The challenge is sometimes holding it back as Michelle and trying to stay like Lady Mary … a bit more stoic, and not blubber.”

A New Era is the sequel to 2019’s smash hit Downton Abbey, which saw the beloved Crawley family all follow one singular plot of welcoming the king and queen of England into their estate. In this film, the cast gets split into two – with half journeying to a home in the south of France, and the others holding down the fort while a film crew shoots at Downton.

“Downton has always been visually very cinematic, even in the TV show. So that transition from the small screen to the big screen really worked the first time around. And the second time it feels like it’s on an even bigger scale,” Dockery says.

Lady Mary is part of the group who stays at Downton, and Dockery acknowledges the plot’s meta, self-referential nature: “There’s something about the movie within the movie, and France. It adds an even more extravagant layer.”

The actress hopes its extravagance will entice fans, maybe even those who haven’t yet returned to movie theaters, to go out and see the film. “It’s an event, isn’t it? Downton always feels like a bit of an event,” she says.

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Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis says caring for the ailing ‘Die Hard’ star is “taking a toll”

Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis says caring for the ailing ‘Die Hard’ star is “taking a toll”
Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis says caring for the ailing ‘Die Hard’ star is “taking a toll”
VCG/VCG via Getty Images

As any caregiver can tell you, it’s not an easy job to tend to an ailing loved one. That’s what Emma Heming Willis, the wife of Die Hard star Bruce Willis, has found in the wake of his aphasia diagnosis.

“[The] amount of care for everyone else within my household had taken a toll on my mental health and overall health,” the model says in an interview with the motherhood-focused website The Bump. “And it served no one in my family.”

She adds, “I put my family’s needs above my own, which I found does not make me any kind of hero.”

Emma is mom to Willis’ youngest daughters Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, 8, and stepmom to Willis’ daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore: Rumer, 33, Scout, 30, and 28-year-old Tallulah.

She explained her “struggle” with maintaining her self-care routine in the interview, considering her younger daughters and her caring for her husband.

“Someone told me not long ago that when you over-care for someone, you end up under-caring for yourself. That stopped me in my tracks and really resonated with me,” she said.

Instead, the 43-year-old now focuses on her “baseline” needs, calling exercise “a must” for her.

“It’s a time I can disconnect and can do something that I know makes me feel good overall. I think it’s important to find that one thing that makes you feel good and build from there.”

Emma co-signed an Instagram post with Moore and Willis’ daughters in March that revealed 67-year-old Bruce was stepping away from acting as he deals with the degenerative neurological condition.

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Former Bond girl Eva Green defends Johnny Depp’s “good name and wonderful heart”

Former Bond girl Eva Green defends Johnny Depp’s “good name and wonderful heart”
Former Bond girl Eva Green defends Johnny Depp’s “good name and wonderful heart”
Depp and Green in 2012 — Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

As the Johnny Depp‘s defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard rolls on, another star has weighed in. Eva Green, who starred opposite Depp in the 2012 dark comedy Dark Shadows, took to Instagram to defend him.

“I have no doubt Johnny will emerge with his good name and wonderful heart revealed to the world, and life will be better than it ever was for him and his family,” wrote the actress, next to a photo of the pair together.

Green, who shot to stardom after playing Daniel Craig‘s love interest, Vesper Lynd, in Casino Royale, joins Ireland Baldwin, Chris Rock and Joe Rogan in defending the actor amid his bruising court battle.

Depp is suing Heard for defamation over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed that he claims derailed his career when Heard obliquely accused him of being a domestic abuser. Both stars have leveled accusations of violence against each other throughout the trial, which resumes Monday.

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In Brief: ‘Barry’ re-upped for season 5; Jason Momoa doing ‘Shots!’, and more

In Brief: ‘Barry’ re-upped for season 5; Jason Momoa doing ‘Shots!’, and more
In Brief: ‘Barry’ re-upped for season 5; Jason Momoa doing ‘Shots!’, and more
HBO/Merrick Morton

Four shows into its third season, HBO has renewed Barry, the dark comedy starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, for a fourth season, the premium cable channel announced on Thursday. Hader won an Emmy for playing the titular character, a depressed hitman from the Midwest who’s sent to Los Angeles to kill an aspiring actor, but decides instead to ditch his life of crime to become an actor himself. Fellow Emmy-winner Henry Winkler co-stars, along with Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg and Anthony Carrigan

Aquaman star Jason Momoa is attached to star in the Universal Studios action-comedy Shots! Shots! Shots! according to The Hollywood Reporter. Details are being kept under wraps, but the film, which Momoa will also co-produce, is described as “a family-centric adventure that has tones of James Cameron’s True Lies, Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise and recent Paramount hit The Lost City,” per THR

Scott Eastwood is returning to the Fast and Furious franchise with Fast X. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Suicide Squad co-star will be reprising his role as Little Nobody, the government agent assistant he played opposite Kurt Russell‘s mysterious Mr. Nobody in the series’ eighth installment…

Veteran stage and screen actor John Aylward, best known playing Dr. Donald Anspaugh on ER and former DNC chairman Barry Goodwin on The West Wing, died Monday at his home in Seattle, according to Deadline. He was 75. Aylward’s death was confirmed by his wife, Mary Fields, to his longtime agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs. Aylward had been in declining health, according to Fields. In addition to his TV work, Aylward most recently appeared in such films as Instinct, A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Way Back and Water for Elephants

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Disney’s favorite chipmunks get a makeover in ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’

Disney’s favorite chipmunks get a makeover in ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’
Disney’s favorite chipmunks get a makeover in ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’
Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s Chip ‘n Dale, for a new generation. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, a Roger Rabbit-style revival of the early 90s cartoon that premieres today on Disney+.

The Lonely Island‘s Akiva Schaffer directed the film, tells ABC Audio that its mix of live-action and animation “allowed for this Roger Rabbit world,” but on a whole new level.

“There’s been 30 years of technology that has changed animation so much with so many different styles,” he explains, “and the fun of getting to see them all together was really enticing to me.”

Akiva says that like Roger Rabbit, the movie features so many animated characters and Easter eggs, animation fans are going to go crazy — and it’s not just Disney.

“Third party characters that aren’t Disney was super important because, you know, Roger Rabbit had like Looney Tunes and all that stuff and it felt so much bigger because of that,” he shares. “So in the same way, to keep it from feeling like a Disney+ ad and to just be a love letter to animation. So it was the lawyers deserve, you know, a big bottle of wine.”

Kiki Layne is one of the only humans in the movie, and the The If Beale Street Could Talk and Coming 2 America star says acting alongside a bunch of animated animals brought her back to her early days.

“It’s just fun to play make believe. Like, you know, it took me back, You know, even the fact that I was acting by myself, I thought, yeah, that’s what I used to do in my bedroom,” she reveals. “You know, I take my Barbies and stuffed animals and create a whole new world in my bedroom. That’s where it starts.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Dave Chappelle’s alleged attacker arrested for attempted murder in earlier stabbing case

Dave Chappelle’s alleged attacker arrested for attempted murder in earlier stabbing case
Dave Chappelle’s alleged attacker arrested for attempted murder in earlier stabbing case
Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

Twenty-three-year-old Isaiah Lee, the man still behind bars after being charged with tackling Dave Chappelle onstage, has been slapped with an attempted murder charge. 

However, controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today the charge wasn’t related to Lee’s alleged assault of the comedian earlier this month.

Gascón on Thursday says a man who had been stabbed in December identified Lee, his former roommate, as his attacker. “The publicity generated by the attack on Mr. Chappelle helped police solve this crime,” he noted.

Lee was found to have had a gun-shaped knife when the alleged attack of Chappelle happened, but the LA DA’s Office, which has been under fire for what critics see as Gascón’s soft on crime policies, didn’t charge Lee with any felonies. Instead, he was charged with four misdemeanors, for which he recently pleaded not guilty, and a judge refused to reduce his $30,000 bail and release him.

Gascón added of Thursday’s new charge, “The incident that occurred at the Hollywood Bowl was misdemeanor conduct and rightfully referred to the City Attorney’s Office. Based on the nature and severity of the December attack, Mr. Lee is now facing felony charges which my office will prosecute.”

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