Entertainment

The Arnold Schwarzenegger action comedy series FUBAR comes to Netflix in a few weeks, and in a new clip he just shared from the show, emotions are felt.

Literally.

Arnold’s overprotective father, Luke, is trying to work out his issues with his daughter Emma at a therapist’s office, thanks to “Sesame Street quality Muppets” representing each of them. The pair have issues, as neither knew the other was a CIA agent, and their history comes out with each star puppeting the other’s fuzzy avatar.

“My daddy is a fossil. He knows nothing about anything, because he was born before 1992,” Arnold says, imitating a woman’s voice. “So he should shut up and let me ruin my life.”

Monica Barbaro‘s Emma is shocked and grabs the bearded Arnold puppet, before affecting his famous accent. “I’m Luke Brunner. I ruined my own marriage, but I’m the expert on everyone else’s,” she says.

“I have muscles, so that means I know everything,” she continues, making the puppet flex. “And I’m from Austria, where life was hard and everything cost a nickel. The only thing I can’t lift is my own ego!”

The series, which also stars Fortune Feimster and Gabriel Luna, debuts on May 25.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

With just days to go until Sunday’s MTV Movie & TV Awards, ABC Audio has confirmed host Drew Barrymore has pulled out in “solidarity” with the writers strike that started earlier this week.

Additionally, it has been confirmed she will be back to host next year.

In a statement from her reps shared with ABC Audio, the actress and talk show host commented, “I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike.”

She continued, “Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation. And until a solution is reached, I am choosing to wait, but I’ll be watching from home and hope you will join me. I thank MTV, who has truly been some of the best partners I have ever worked with.”

Barrymore concluded, “I can’t wait to be a part of this next year, when I can truly celebrate everything that MTV has created, which is a show that allows fans to choose who the awards go to and is truly inclusive.​”

The show will now go host-free, Bruce Gillmer, an executive producer of the telecast, explains to the Variety. “She is not surprisingly, standing in solidarity with the writers, which we have full respect for. She has our full support.”

There are apparently no hard feelings, with Gillmer adding, “The silver lining in all of this is that we really formed a partnership [with] almost a family-like atmosphere,” and she’s “accepted” an invite to return next year.

There’s also a question about who else will bow out considering the situation: Variety reports MTV has canceled the planned red carpet before the show.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Thursday is Star Wars Day, and the geeky worlds of both that galaxy far, far away and gastronomy have combined for a cargo hold’s worth of Star Wars-inspired recipes online.

The official Star Wars website has a dizzying number of options for basically every meal.

Since “every Mandalorian worth his armor was raised on pog soup,” according to The Mandalorian, there’s a new recipe for that. Not to be confused with porgs, the little puppy-faced chickens seen in the sequel films, it’s not entirely clear what’s in pog soup on the Disney+ show. But this recipe is vegan, so no porgs — or pogs, whatever those are — have been harmed for this dish. Just don’t forget to sip it with your helmet on.

There are also recipes for Ewok sushi, and for dessert, Blue Milk Pudding, among other offerings.

The website Diznify has reverse-engineered the foods and beverages you can get at the Disney Parks’ Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and Galactic Cruiser attractions, and to that end, home chefs — or their 434-FPC Personal Chef Droids — can try their hands at replicating the park’s Chocolate Hazelnut Yoda Cupcakes.

There are also alcoholic drink recipes, like the Jedi Mind Trick, and nonalcoholic ones, like the Carbon Freeze, both of which are straight from the park attractions’ menus.

The website Yummly is also serving up tons of Star Wars-themed recipes, including Death Star Whoopie Pies and Baby Yoda Deviled Eggs, which use a cut-out hard-boiled egg to perfectly simulate Grogu’s little floating pram.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In the 1987 blockbuster Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Alex Forrest, the jilted, bunny-boiling “other woman” in an affair with a married man, played by Michael Douglas.

However, the actress has publicly rebuked how her character was portrayed solely as one of cinema’s great villains. The new Paramount+ series adaptation, starring Lizzy Caplan in Close’s role, takes a different view of the character, executive producer Alexandra Cunningham tells ABC Audio.

And that’s due to Close, she explains. “Actually reading the interviews with her about all of the work she put in to flesh out the character for herself from a performance perspective was kind of where a lot of the ideas about the mental health of the character came from, and wanting to explore that.”

She continues, “Because she had spoken to psychiatrists at the time in the mid-to-late ’80s, and none of them brought up diagnoses or terminologies or anything because we didn’t talk that way in the ’80s.” 

Cunningham adds, “Now, thank God, we’re much more open to conversations about mental health, and the stigma is slowly moving away. And so that actually was inspired by the way Glenn Close talked about the way she felt about the character that she created.”  

Fatal Attraction also stars Joshua Jackson, Toby Huss and Amanda Peet. The first three episodes are now streaming on Paramount+, with a fourth episode dropping Sunday.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

What’s better than curling up on the beach with a good book?

To The View co-host and author Sunny Hostin, whose new novel Summer on Sag Harbor is available now in bookstores everywhere, there is little else that compares.

“People are always surprised that I love a good, sexy beach read,” Hostin told ABC Audio. “I enjoy sitting on the beach and reading a book like that.”

Hostin’s new novel is the second installment in her trilogy of beach reads, which focuses on stories of women of color in a genre that has historically neglected diversity.

“I thought of Toni Morrison saying, ‘If there’s a book you want to read and you can’t find it, then you write it,’” Hostin said. “It’s amazing to me the thirst that was out there for the first book. And I realized that people were looking for what I was looking for.”

And now that thirst has resulted in a TV adaptation. While she can’t share which streamer will release it just yet, Hostin recalls sharing the first novel in the series, Summer on the Bluffs, with Octavia Spencer. At the time, she had no idea where it would lead.

“I actually thought maybe she would post something on Instagram for me. And she called me and said, ‘Let me tell you why I should be your production partner.’”

Hostin says her The View co-host Joy Behar has also shown support along the way. According to Hostin, Behar is “the reason why the protagonist in the first book is in her 60s finding love again.”

“She basically said to me, ‘Don’t forget women in their 60s still have sex, OK?’ And I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll write to that,’” Hostin said. “It resonated like crazy.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Michael Douglas will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, kicking off Tuesday, May 16 and running through Saturday, May 27 in France.

The 78-year-old actor is being recognized for “his brilliant career as well as his engagement for cinema,” according to the press release.

“It is always a breath of fresh air to be at Cannes, which has long provided a wonderful platform for bold creators, artistic audacities and excellence in storytelling,” the Basic Instinct star said in a statement on Wednesday.

“From my first time here in 1979 for The China Syndrome to my most recent premiere for Behind the Candelabra in 2013, the Festival has always reminded me that magic of cinema is not just in what we see onscreen but in its ability to impact people all around the world. After more than 50 years in the business, it’s an honor to return to the Croisette to open the Festival and embrace our shared global language of film.”

Douglas’ extensive acting credits also include 1984’s Romancing the Stone, Black Rain in 1989, Disclosure in 1994, and his Oscar-winning performance as Gordon Gekko, a greedy New York broker in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street.

Douglas’ first effort as a producer, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, earned nine Oscar nods in 1975 and best picture.

Previous honorees include Forest Whitaker, Jodie Foster and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Thursday is May 4th, and thanks to a punny 1979 London Evening News headline and a legion of die-hard fans, it’s known the world over as “Star Wars Day.” The headline about the election of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations” — inspired a grassroots movement for Star Wars junkies to celebrate George Lucas‘ galaxy far, far away.

May 4, 2011 marked the first organized celebration of Star Wars Day, at the Toronto Underground Cinema in Canada.

ABC News’ parent company The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, and has officially observed the holiday since 2013, with events at Disney parks and other celebrations.

There’s also new Star Wars content on Disney+, including the second season of the animated Star Wars: Visions, and for the younglings out there, the first kid-skewing cartoon, Young Jedi Adventures.

There’s a new Simpsons crossover, too: Maggie Simpson stars in Rogue Not Quite One. 

Of course, Disney+ also has every film in the Star Wars saga, as well as the standalone films Rogue One and Solo, and more. You can also find The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the critically acclaimed Andor.

And if you must leave the house, this is the last day to see Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi in theaters.

Here are the 5 highest-grossing Star Wars movies at the time of their release, according to FinanceBuzz:

• Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) – $936,662,225
• Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) – $620,181,382
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) – $532,177,324
• Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) – $515,202,542
• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – $431,088,295

Adjusted for inflation, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) is the highest-grossing movie in the franchisee, with a take of $1.8 billion in 2023 dollars. 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Netflix has renewed Sweet Tooth, the drama based on Jeff Lemire’s DC Comics series, for a third and final season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, from executive producers Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr., is set in a post-apocalyptic world and follows a hybrid deer-boy, played by Christian Convery, and a wanderer — portrayed by Nonso Anozie — as they venture through the land. Rosalind Chao and Amy Seimetz were promoted to series regulars and Cara Gee and newcomer Ayazhan Dalabayeva were added as new cast members for the final season…

The classic 1990s sci-fi series Babylon 5 is getting animated, according to original series creator J. Michael Straczynski. “BABYLON 5 ANIMATED MOVIE coming from Warner Bros. Animation & WB Home Entertainment!” Straczynski shared Wednesday on Twitter. “Classic B5: raucous, heartfelt, nonstop, a ton of fun through time and space & a love letter to the fans. Movie title, release date and other details coming one week from today.” The original Babylon 5 ran on TNT for five seasons and spawned a miniseries and five TV movies…

Strap yourself in and get comfortable for the series finale of HBO’s Succession. “It’s 90 minutes,” composer Nicholas Britell tells Variety. “It’s a huge episode — like a movie.” The episode, directed by the show’s executive producer Mark Mylod, will air Sunday, May 28. So far, season 4 has seen the death of Brian Cox‘s Waystar Royco patriarch Logan Roy, leading to Roman and Kendall — played respectively by Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong — becoming “interim” co-CEOs. Meanwhile, The company’s pending sale to Lukas Matsson — portrayed by Alexander Skarsgård — sparked a division between the Roy children…

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The wait is over for Bridgerton fans. The latest installment of the franchise, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, hits Netflix Thursday and Shonda Rhimes is shedding some light on what fans can expect. 

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Rhimes shared that Queen Charlotte, which delves deeper into the background of how Charlotte became queen, is “very different show in terms of tone.” 

“It’s fun and it’s funny and it’s sexy and witty, but it also has serious issues that they’re dealing with and you’re watching women come in to their power, which is really the essence of the show,” she adds. 

The accomplished creator and showrunner also dished that the show will not shy away from the topic of race and, in regards to King George‘s story in the series, mental health.

“It was incredibly important to infuse the narrative with these themes mainly because the character that we’re talking about, Queen Charlotte, [we] already created a very simple backstory for her on Bridgerton,” Rhimes explained. “Their love united the countries is the explanation for the society and I really wanted to explore that part because what does that actually mean?” 

“We never really get to see the true united society, but we do get to see the effects of them starting out and trying things,” she continued. “I think it’s an important issue to discuss. It’s clearly something people are still talking about today. It’s an issue we are all living with, so I thought it was great to touch on it.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

To The Hollywood Reporter, actress Billie Lourd lashed out at her famous relatives over her decision not to invite them to her mother, Carrie Fisher‘s, posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony Thursday. 

Fisher’s brother Todd, and half siblings Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher went public with their disappointment. Todd told TMZ the snub was “heartbreaking and shocking,” and his siblings issued a joint statement on Joely’s Instagram calling Billie’s decision “bizarre [and] misguided.”

To THR, Billie had her say, noting, “because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.”

Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016; one day later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, passed away.

Lourd, the only daughter of the Star Wars icon, continued, “Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by … selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject.”

She added, “They never consulted me or considered how this would effect [sic] our relationship. The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her,” calling their actions “very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life.”

Billie continued, “To be clear — there is no feud. We have no relationship.”

She concluded by saying, “The people who knew and loved my mom at Disney and Lucasfilm have made this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor her legacy possible. This moment is about Carrie Fisher and all that she accomplished and what she meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that. May the 4th be with you.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.