Entertainment

It’s not just humans who love to have fun. Thanks to the Disneynature team, Disney+’s new film Polar Bear gives viewers a closer look at the fascinating arctic creatures.

So, what makes polar bears so perfect for the big screen? Alastair Fothergill, who co-directed the film with Jeff Wilson, tells ABC Audio, “They had the amazingly adapted to the habitat that they live in, which is in itself is a very, very beautiful place.”

“And we also knew because we tried many, many, many times, there was a lot of behaviors, a lot of aspects of their story which had never, ever been filmed before,” he continued.

It took a decade of pitching the idea to executives to make Polar Bear happen and Wilson says they wanted to make the film so badly because, “We’re both fascinated by them, we think because of their intelligence, their complete adaptability to the environment, the beauty of the where they live.”

“All of those make for fantastic, fantastic character movie elements,” he adds.

One of their favorite moments from the film is when the lead female character meets a male bear for the first time after being alone. Something Wilson describes as “extraordinary” because “it’s two bears coming together who have no other intent than to enjoy each other’s company.”

Although Polar Bear focuses on the lives of its lovable and charismatic characters, it’s also a reminder of the bleak future the Arctic has if climate change continues.

“What our mission is really with the end of the film is to empower people with information, but also to inspire them to go out and take the actions that we all can take as individuals to affect a change in the direction that we’re going,” says Fothergill. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Can you forgive a hitman? What about a mobster? Or worse, someone who takes an adult acting class?

Anthony Carrigan, who plays NoHo Hank on the HBO dark comedy Barry, tells ABC Audio all about the overarching themes of season three, which premieres Sunday.

“Forgiveness is certainly a huge theme in this season,” he reveals. “I also think that this idea of, you know, not just getting what you want, but to what lengths will you go to hold on to what you have once you get it, is a big thing as well.”

So, what’s on tap for America’s favorite mobster this season? Carrigan says Hank is “focused less on kind of prioritizing and pleasing others.”

“He’s instead actually focusing on, you know, looking after himself. And I think that’s a totally new thing for Hank,” he continues. “And I say, you know, bless his heart, like he deserves it.”

Barry returns after a longer than expected hiatus due to the pandemic, and Carrigan credits the show for giving him a silver lining throughout the shutdown.

“We were just chomping at the bit to get into at the beginning of the pandemic,” he explains. “And in a way, it kind of carried all of us through because we were all just looking forward to doing it.”

That’s not to say he wasn’t a little nervous returning after a three-year hiatus.

“I was like, “Can I still act? Like, is Hank still…was Hank…could I ever play Hank?”…How do I do this? I’m not sure how to do this anymore,” he shares. “But then once we kind of got back into it, it all just kind of came back. And fortunately, the scripts were all so good and we were all just so ready to dive back in.”

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Emmy nominee Kerry Washington‘s character will have her hands full on The Simpsons. The Scandal vet will be playing troublemaker Bart’s teacher starting on Sunday. 

Washington’s Rayshelle Peyton will replace Springfield educator Edna Krabappel as Bart’s minder; the character was retired after the 2013 death of the actress who voiced her, Marcia Wallace.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Washington says of her Springfield alter-ego, “She’s a great teacher, but like all the best teachers, she knows that her students have just as much to teach her as she has to teach them. And teaching Bart is a job filled with growth opportunities.”

Bart is apparently dealing with “complicated” feelings for his new teacher.

Co-executive producer Carolyn Omine, who wrote Washington’s debut episode “My Octopus and a Teacher,” notes of Ms. Peyton, “She’s really good at figuring out what the kids need, but she can’t really figure out what [Bart’s] problem is until he finally comes clean.”

Incidentally, Washington helped manifest the recurring role for herself. In 2020, when longtime Simpsons voice of Apu, Hank Azaria vowed to no longer lend his voice to characters of color, the actress tweeted, “Dear animators looking for black voices… I’m avail.”

One of the people who saw that tweet was Omine, who tells EW, “That just got it into my head. I began thinking, ‘Maybe she could be the new teacher. We’ve had this spot.” 

Omine and co-producer Matt Selman started writing the teacher with Kerry in mind from that point, Omine explains.

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Will Smith‘s Oscar night slap continues to reverberate through his career.

Bloomberg reports Netflix has “abandoned” a sequel to the 2017 fantasy film Bright, in which Smith starred an LAPD officer dealing with a literal troll partner, in a world in which mythical creatures are real.

The film was a hit for the streaming service, and at the time sent a shockwave through the movie industry, as it was one of Netflix’s first “gets” of a big-screen star to its original productions.

Also, National Geographic has reportedly bumped the start of Pole to Pole, which was to be Smith’s third Nat Geo series, following 2018’s One Strange Rock, and the more recent Welcome to Earth. Pole to Pole, which would have Smith visiting the top and the bottom of the planet, was supposed to get underway in three weeks. Production is now slated to start in the fall.

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Those of us hoping for an iconic Met Gala moment from Zendaya this year are out of luck.

The actress revealed to Extra that she won’t be attending the May 2 soiree, marking the second year she’s missed the mega fashion event.

“I hate to disappoint my fans here, but I will be working,” the Euphoria star tells Extra. “Your girl’s got to work and make some movies, so I wish everyone the best. I will be playing tennis, but I will be back eventually… I’ll keep delivering in other ways.”

The “playing tennis” comment is in reference to her upcoming movie Challengers, in which she plays a tennis player turned coach who helps her husband become a champ.

Zendaya has previously attended the Met Gala five times, sporting memorable looks like her light-up Cinderella gown in 2019 and a Joan of Arc-inspired look in 2018.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Ellen Pompeo is opening up about the time commitment Grey’s Anatomy has required over the years, and her former co-star Katherine Heigl‘s previous remarks about it.

While speaking with her Grey’s co-star Kate Walsh on a recent episode of the Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo podcast, the actresses discussed the long hours the cast and crew have devoted to the show, and how that’s changed over the years.

“I’m very lucky now with my schedule on Grey’s, I get to cut back and overall I’m happy for the production as a whole because we have cut back tremendously,” Pompeo said. “I mean, back in the day we used to do crazy, crazy hours and that alone will make you insane.”

Pompeo then referenced comments their former co-star Katherine Heigl, who portrayed Dr. Izzie Stevens on the show, made about her time working on the medical drama.

“I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working but she was 100 percent right,” Pompeo said. “And had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero. But she’s ahead of her time — made a statement about our crazy hours and of course, let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful.’”

“When the truth is, she’s 100 percent honest and it’s absolutely correct what she said and she was f****** ba**sy for saying it,” the actress continued. “She was telling the truth. She wasn’t lying.”

Heigl, who famously left the series during its sixth season in 2010, decried the medical drama’s work hours during a 2009 appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman.

She called “a seventeen-hour day…cruel and mean,” adding, “I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them…”

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On Sunday, April 24, Barbra Streisand celebrates her 80th birthday. A superstar of stage, screen, song and more, the Brooklyn, New York-born Streisand is one of the few performers who can boast achieving a career EGOT — that is, winning at last one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.

Barbra’s fame came quickly: The powerhouse singer won two Grammys for her debut album, 1963’s The Barbra Streisand Album.

She garnered more acclaim with her portrayal of comedian/singer/actress Fanny Brice in the hit 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl, then went on to win a Best Actress Oscar when she reprised the role in the 1968 film adaptation.

Her musical achievements are too numerous to name, but here’s a select list:

–Her 11 number-one albums on the Billboard 200 chart is a record for a female artists.
–She has scored five chart-topping singles on the Billboard Hot 100: 1973’s “The Way We Were“; 1976’s “Evergreen“; the 1978 Neil Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers“; her 1979 collaboration with Donna Summer, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”; and 1980’s “Woman in Love.”
–Her 10 total Grammy Awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Grammy Legend honor.
–She has sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide.
–She won a second Academy Award, a Best Original Song honor, for co-writing “Evegreen,” from the 1976 version of A Star Is Born.

Streisand has starred in many films during her long career, including the aforementioned Funny Girl and Evergreen, but she made movie history in 1983 with Yentl, becoming the first woman ever to write, direct, produce and star in a major studio production. She’s gone on to direct two more movies — 1991’s The Prince of Tides and 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Barbra’s other accolades include a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as being recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors.

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As Jimmy Kimmel‘s youngest son Billy turns 5, the talk show host and his wife, Molly McNearney, are thanking doctors for “saving his life.”

On Instagram, Kimmel thanked doctors at Los Angeles’ Cedars Sinai hospital for performing a pair of heart surgeries on his boy, to correct a heart condition with which Billy was born.

“Happy 5th birthday to our little nut,” Kimmel captioned a picture of Billy smiling as he sits behind his birthday cake. “We are eternally grateful to the brilliant doctors and nurses at @ChildrensLA & @CedarsSinai for saving Billy’s life.

Kimmel added, “And to those of you whose donations, prayers and positive thoughts meant everything. Please support families who need medical care.”

Billy underwent his first open-heart surgery at just three days old, and had another when he was seven months old. His health took center stage after he was born in 2017, when Kimmel shared with his audience the trials the newborn was facing. “Poor kid. Not only did he get a bad heart, he got my face,” he said at the time.

Kimmel tearfully told viewers of Billy’s successful but “terrifying” first surgery, calling it, “the longest three hours of my life.” At the time, Kimmel individually named the “awe-inspiring” doctors and nurses who saved Billy and countless others.

His son’s health struggles led Kimmel to become an advocate for health care.

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Season two of The Flight Attendant took off Thursday on HBO Max. Kaley Cuoco, Rosie Perez, and the rest of the gang are back, doing double duty as flight attendants who moonlight as government spies or double agents.

Griffin Matthews plays one of those doing double duty, joking with ABC Audio he now thinks all flight attendants he meets also work for the CIA.

“I’m not wondering. I’m sure of it,” he teases. “No, you think of them as different people now, you know, like now I really think about their lives back in that galley. They’re talking about passengers. Maybe there are some interpersonal dramas. I have a great respect for flight attendants these days.”

Perez also has a whole new respect for those who take care of us in the sky and the knowledge they have, including “having to know how a plane operates, having to be the people to keep calm just in case something goes wrong, having to deal with unruly passengers, you know, my heart just goes out to them.”

“It’s very, very different,” she adds. “Even when they come in and say ‘Ms. Perez we’re so happy’ and I say, ‘OK, thank you, I don’t want to bother you.’ And they’re like, ‘what?’ You know, because they have a lot to deal with.”

Although Perez’s character is a CIA agent, in real life, the spy life might not be for her.

“I think what would make me a good CIA agent is that I would, you would never assume that I’m a CIA agent. And what would make me a lousy CIA agent, I think, is that I’m just too much of a nervous wreck,” she says. “But I can keep a secret.”

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Warner Bros. Discovery has pulled the plug on CNN+, just a month after its launch. “As we become Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN will be strongest as part of WBD’s streaming strategy which envisions news as an important part of a compelling broader offering along with sports, entertainment, and nonfiction content,” Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said in a statement on Thursday. “We have therefore made the decision to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN’s core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital. Licht said the move was “not a decision about quality,” but that their customers and CNN would “be best served with a simpler streaming choice”…

Paramount has announced the title of its forthcoming movie based on the beloved role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will star Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridgerton vet Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, Justice Smith, Chloe Coleman, and Daisy Head, and will debut March 3, 2023. Pine previously called the movie’s tone a cross between Game of Thrones and The Princess Bride, with a little of Monty Python and the Holy Grail thrown in for good measure…

In a post on social media, 90 Day Fiancé stars Robert Springs and Anny Francisco confirmed their seven-month-old son Adriel has died. “I am devastated and [so is] my family,” Anny wrote, adding, “I never thought I would lose my son. He was a fighter… his heart couldn’t take it… my heart is broken it’s a big pain…so difficult.” The pair, whose courtship was followed by the reality series, also have a 20-month-old daughter, Brenda Aliyah…

Robert Morse, who played Bertram Cooper on AMC’s Emmy-winning series Mad Men, has died at the age of 90, The Hollywood Reporter notes. A two-time Tony winner, Morse was remembered by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski on Twitter as a “good pal,” and “a huge talent and a beautiful spirit”…

Freeform’s Cruel Summer is returning as an anthology series, the cable outlet announced on Thursday. The second season will feature a new mystery, along with a new cast, including Sadie Stanley, Eloise Payet, Griffin Gluck and KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore. Additionally, Power Book IV: Force co-exec producer Elle Triedman is the new showrunner, replacing Tia Napolitano. Napolitano replaced creator Bert V. Royal after disagreements with the network. Set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest, the next chapter of Cruel Summer “follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship,” approached from “three different timelines surrounding Y2K,” according to press materials…

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