Entertainment

Oscar winner Regina King posted to Instagram a heartfelt tribute to her son, Ian Alexander Jr., Thursday evening, on what would have been his 27th birthday.

King’s only child, from her former marriage to record producer Ian Alexander Sr., died by suicide on January 22, 2022, days after his birthday on January 19.

“January 19th is Ian’s Worthday,” King began, next to a photo of a paper lantern floating into the night sky. “As we still process his physical absence, we celebrate his presence. We are all in different places on the planet … so is Ian. His spirit is the thread that connects us.”

She said of the flame setting the lantern aloft, “Of course orange is your favorite color. It’s the fire and the calm.”

King added, “I see you in everything I breath [sic],” King added. “My absolute favorite thing about myself is being …. Regina the mother of Ian the GodKing. Continue to shine bright, my guiding light.”

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or by visiting 988lifeline.org. You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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Mad Max: Fury Road co-star Riley Keough posted to Instagram for the first time since her mother, Lisa Marie Presley‘s, death on January 12.

Riley posted a black-and-white throwback photo of herself as a child, with her mom looking down at her, smiling as they look into each other’s eyes.

The post has gotten nearly 90,000 likes.

Lisa Marie died after suffering cardiac arrest at her Calabasas, California, home. She was laid to rest on Thursday next to her son, Benjamin Keough, in the Meditation Garden at her late father Elvis Presley‘s Tennessee estate, Graceland.

Benjamin, Riley’s brother, died by suicide in 2020.

A public memorial for Lisa Marie will be held at the estate on Sunday, January 22.

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First came The Father, now comes The Son from writer-director Florian Zeller — the second film based on his trilogy of plays with Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby and Hugh Jackman. Jackman plays a workaholic father struggling with his deeply depressed son, looking to prevent the mistakes of his own upbringing.

“One of the beautiful things about this story is how hard it is to be objective, particularly with your own children,” Jackman tells ABC Audio. “Being able to be present is so much easier when it’s someone else’s kid, but when it’s your own, you’re so clouded in your own fears and worries and also not knowing what to do.”

It’s a personal role for Jackman, with its themes of fatherhood hitting close to home when the X-Men star’s father passed away during production. But Jackman pressed on, his father’s death adding more weight to his approach of the character.

“It was very difficult … shooting some of the very heavy scenes. I remember feeling his presence,” Jackman says. “I was a bit of a hot mess, I’ll admit, during this but I guess that’s what the character was going through, too.”

The Son explores mental illness and what happens to those in the middle of it all. “Everyone has this story somewhere. This story of a mental health journey. The pain of grief,” says Dern, who plays Jackman’s ex-wife.

Both she and co-star Kirby hope The Son inspires more dialogue on the topic.

“Don’t be afraid to look at the dark things inside yourself and be brave … so that you can begin to talk about them, heal them, share them,” Kirby says.

The Son opens in wide release Friday, January 20.

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It’s two and done for the Gossip Girl reboot on HBO Max. The streamer has canceled the show after two seasons. Showrunner Joshua Safran delivered the news via social media on Thursday, adding that the teen drama is “currently looking for another home,” while acknowledging that “in this climate, that might prove an uphill [battle].” The original Gossip Girl series, which aired from 2007-2012 on the CW, launched Blake Lively‘s career. The new series picked up eight years after the original show’s finale, where a new generation of private school teens in the ever-changing social media landscape were introduced to the surveillance of the Gossip Girl site. The season 2 finale hits HBO Max on January 26…

Tatyana Ali will be returning to one of her old stomping grounds. Peacock announced on Thursday that Ali, who played Ashley Banks on the original version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, will join the season 2 cast of the reboot in a recurring guest star role. Ali will play Mrs. Hughes, an English literature teacher at Bel-Air middle school who “sees something special” in her former character — now played by Akira Akbar — “often giving her books from her personal collection.” We get a glimpse of her in the trailer for Bel-Air season 2, premiering February 23 on Peacock…(Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

Deadline reports that after several false starts, Disney is finally working a third Tron movie, with Jared Leto set to star. The film, titled Tron: Ares, would follow the groundbreaking 1982 film Tron, starring Jeff Bridges, and its 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy, which starred Bridges, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. Leto has been attached to the film since 2017. He’ll next be seen in Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

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Leslie Jordan, the diminutive star of shows like Will & Grace, Call Me Kat and American Horror Story, died last year from natural causes and not from a car accident, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has concluded.

Jordan, who was 67, died of sudden cardiac dysfunction due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a hardening of the arteries that can restrict blood flow, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. In essence, he had a heart attack that likely led to the October 24, 2022 car crash.

An autopsy didn’t find any signs of life-threatening trauma, according to the coroner’s report, which listed the cause of death as natural.

Jordan had been sober for more than two decades at the time of his death, and toxicology tests didn’t find any alcohol or drugs in his body.

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Hard to believe but Nicolas Cage has never starred in a Western, until now. The Old Way, in theaters and streaming on demand, features Cage as a ruthless killer, hell bent on revenge, with his tween daughter — played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong — in tow.

When asked by ABC Audio why this is his first foray into the genre, Cage didn’t have an answer, but said it was something he’d always wanted to do.

“I grew up watching great movies like Once Upon a Time in the West with Charles Bronson as Harmonica, and I certainly wanted to homage him and that performance, that movie,” he explains. “So yeah, you’re going to pay me to dress the way I like to dress and wear a cowboy hat and homage some of my favorite movie stars. Well, hell, yeah, I’m there. My stomach rumbles like anyone else’s.”

As for why the 59-year-old actor chose this as his first Western, he shares, “I like family dramas, and what was at the heart of this Western, traditional Western really, was this unusual relationship between two social misfits who happen to be biological father and daughter, but both have this inability to feel love, and propensity towards violence. And yet somehow on through this tragedy and through this road trip, they go on together, they learn to love. And that to me was a had that that that had some my heartstrings for me.”

The Old Way also stars Noah Le Gros, Clint Howard, Abraham Benrubi and Nick Searcy.

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Starz announced on Thursday that it has renewed its time-spanning romantic drama Outlander for an eighth and final season.

“For nearly a decade, Outlander has won the hearts of audiences worldwide and we’re pleased to bring Claire and Jamie’s epic love story to a proper conclusion,” said Starz Original Programming President Kathryn Busby of the characters played by Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, respectively.

Busby continues, “But before we close this chapter, there is plenty of their passionate story to tell.”

In the same announcement, Starz reveals it has greenlighted the prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a 10-episode series that will “center on the lives and relationship of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie.”

The “love story … will explore what lengths a person will go to find love in a time when love is considered a luxury, and when marriages are made strategically, often for political or financial gain,” the network explains.

Showrunner and executive producer Matthew B. Roberts noted of the new show, “With Jamie and Claire, and now Brian and Ellen, there is still so much more to come in the Outlander universe, and we cannot wait to continue sharing these stories with our dedicated fans.”

Both shows are inspired by author Diana Gabaldon‘s best-selling books, which have sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide.

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As reported, New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb announced charges Thursday in relation to the Rust shooting case.

Alec Baldwin and set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter; first assistant director David Halls had already agreed to plead no contest for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

“If any one of these three people — Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or David Halls — had done their job, [cinematographer] Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. It’s that simple,” Reeb said in a statement.

Baldwin insists Halls told him the gun was “cold,” or safe to handle.

An attorney for Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on set, and one for Halls, to whom Gutierrez-Reed allegedly handed Baldwin’s Colt .45-style revolver from which the fatal shot discharged, have responded.

In an interview with ABC News, Halls’ lawyer Lisa Torraco said, “Mr. Halls and I are disappointed that [Carmack-Altwies] decided to bring a charge at all. We believe that criminally he should have been completely exonerated,” adding they are “happy with the resolution that she did propose.”

She continued, “When confronted with a potential felony, hearing up to 6 1/2 years in prison, or confronted with a petty misdemeanor, which was six months unsupervised probation, sometimes it gets to be the weighing of which choice is … the lesser evils.”

Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles insists she was not called inside the church to inspect the weapons before they were brought out.

“Hannah is, and has always been, very emotional and sad about this tragic accident,” Bowles said. “But she did not commit involuntary manslaughter.” He also said “these charges are the result of a very flawed investigation” and that the “full truth” will lead to his client being “exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”

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Adam Sandler is following in the footsteps of fellow Saturday Night Live veteran comedy legends, including Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy, as the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday that Sandler will be the 24th Mark Twain Prize honoree, which will be presented to him at a gala performance on March 19.

In the announcement, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter proclaimed, “Adam Sandler has entertained audiences for over three decades with his films, music, and his tenure as a fan favorite cast member on SNL,” adding the Happy Gilmore and Hustle star “has created characters that have made us laugh, cry, and cry from laughing. I am looking forward to a laughter-filled evening like no other as we celebrate his career at a ceremony that is sure to bring together the best in comedy.”

The center teased that “some of the biggest names in comedy” will be on hand to fete Sandler, but details have yet to be announced.

Previous winners of the prize also include Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart and Jay Leno, and most recently, Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart.

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When news broke that John Legend and Chrissy Teigen had welcomed their third child, it was through the singer’s update at a private show. Now, they’re making the announcement Instagram official with a new post introducing their child to the world.

“She’s here! Esti Maxine Stephens – the house is bustling and our family could not be happier,” Chrissy wrote next to a photo of her two oldest children holding the newborn. “Daddy sheds nightly tears of joy seeing Luna and Miles so full of love, and I am learning you still need diapers with a c section!? We are in bliss. Thank you for all the love and well wishes – we feel it all!”

John and Chrissy are now parents to Esti, Luna and Miles. They suffered a pregnancy loss in 2020.

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