Entertainment

Jenna Ortega‘s Wednesday Addams is getting a sophomore year at Nevermore Academy.

In what might be the biggest “no-brainer” move of the new year, Netflix announced it has renewed its smash hit Wednesday for a second season.

In a season 1 recap video Tweet from the streaming service, Netflix promised: “More torture is coming. Lucky you.”

The Tim Burton-directed show’s creators/executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar tell Netflix’s Tudum.com, “It’s been incredible to create a show that has connected with people across the world,” expressing that they are “thrilled to continue Wednesday’s tortuous journey into season two.”

The pair added, “We can’t wait to dive head first into another season and explore the kooky spooky world of Nevermore. Just need to make sure Wednesday hasn’t emptied the pool first.”

Netflix also recapped some of Wednesday‘s record-shattering feats after its launch in November 2022, including its ranking as #2 on the streamer’s Most Popular English language TV list. More than 1.2 billion hours of the show were viewed in its first 28 days, joining only Squid Game and Stranger Things‘ fourth season in passing the billion-hour club so quickly.

The show, which also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gwendoline Christie, also broke Netflix’s record for the most hours viewed for an English language TV series in a week two times, and the company estimates more than 182 million households have pressed “play” on Wednesday worldwide.

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In an effort to do something nice for wife Hilaria‘s birthday — or possibly because he was out of ideas after all the “push gifts” for the woman who bore him seven kids — Alec Baldwin has asked his social media followers for help getting her a present. 

“I would like to ask you for a small favor,” the actor said in a post Thursday. “It seems she is just centimeters shy of a million followers on Instagram. And I would like to ask you, as a birthday gift … would you follow her on Instagram.”

The 30 Rock veteran continued, “Obviously I love my wife. I’m crazy about my wife, blah blah … My wife’s the most fabulous person I’ve ever met in my life…But I would like a great, great surge of people to follow my wife … to say happy birthday. Would you do that for me, please?”

For the record, Hilaria Baldwin currently has 966,000 Instagram followers. 

In the past, she has weathered controversy on social media, such as when a Twitter user called her out on her “decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person.”

The claim was accompanied by a clip of her in a Today show cooking segment “pretending not to know how to say cucumber in English,” and others. 

Ultimately, that furor led her to post a now-deleted video in which she clarified, “I was born in Boston and grew up … between Massachusetts and Spain. My parents and sibling live in Spain and I chose to live … in the USA.”

She added, “If I get nervous, I tend to mix the two [languages],” adding, “It’s not something I’m playing at.”

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Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member Jennifer Shah has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in connection with a telemarketing fraud case.

Shah, 49, pleaded guilty in July 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was ordered to forfeit $6.5 million after previously pleading not guilty. She must also pay restitution to victims of the nationwide telemarketing scheme that prosecutors said targeted elderly, vulnerable victims.

Federal prosecutors had requested the reality star serve 10 years in prison; the defense said she should serve no more than three.

“Ms. Shah is a good woman who crossed a line. She accepts full responsibility for her actions and deeply apologizes to all who have been harmed,” said Shah’s defense attorney, Priya Chaudhry, in a statement at the time. “Jen pled guilty because she wants to pay her debt to society and put this ordeal behind her and her family.”

Federal prosecutors countered, “Despite the defendant’s best efforts, she got caught. She then went on a public offensive and tried to profit off the charges by selling ‘Justice for Jen’ merchandise.”

They added, “She pled guilty at the eleventh hour, only after receiving the Government’s trial exhibits and witness statements. In light of her conduct and her post-arrest behavior, her belated expressions of remorse ring hollow.”

The defense has portrayed her antics as play for the reality TV cameras.

In December, a judge ordered her to forfeit dozens of designer handbags, a Lanvin fox, mink and leather belted stole and her collection of posh jewelry as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The 108 items were seized in March 2021 in a search of Shah’s home. The inventory included scores of counterfeit bags and jewelry stamped with fake Chanel, Gucci, Bulgari and Hermès labels.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Successful stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer — whose crazy seven years of college at Florida State University inspired the 2002 comedy National Lampoon’s Van Wilder — decided he needed “to go full Tom Cruise” to promote his upcoming semi-autobiographical comedy The Machine, and paid the price.

In a video spoofing Cruise’s recent skydive thank you to fans for watching Top Gun: Maverick, Kreischer was filmed partially hanging out of a moving SUV, wearing only roller skates, a helmet and a red Speedo.

Just as Cruise did to Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie before the actor/producer’s skydive, Kreischer asked The Machine‘s producer if he wanted to join him in a planned stunt. “F*** no,” he replied.

However, it didn’t go as well as Tom’s gag: As soon as Bert sets his skates onto the pavement, he screams in pain. “We just ran over my foot. Stop the car!”

As they inspect the broken roller skate, Bert says, “I definitely think I broke my toes,” and urges the driver to go to an urgent care facility.

Aping Cruise, the comic says, “It’s been my honor and privilege to entertain you. I’ll see you at the movies,” referring to the Memorial Day release, before hopping backward, pretending to skydive.

The Machine will have Mark Hamill playing the comic’s father, who gets kidnapped by Russian gangsters after Kreischer’s character gets accidentally mixed up with the Russian mob.

The film is based on Kreischer’s viral, autobiographical stand-up routine detailing a college trip to Russia after he signed up for what he thought was a Spanish class.

Long story short, armed with booze and only a sentence worth of semi-usable Russian, he ended up befriending Russian mobsters.

(Video contains uncensored profanity)

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What would Lindsay Lohan say to her younger self? The Falling for Christmas star answered that question in a video posted to her Instagram on Thursday.

In the clip, titled, “Conversations with Little Me,” the 36-year-old actress shares current and past photos and videos of herself, along with the answers to questions her younger self would want to know, adding that she loves her red hair.

Additionally, Lohan reveals that her freckles used to make her “feel uncomfortable as a kid,” but she now realizes “how beautiful they are.”

The Mean Girls star, who used to model as a child, notes she hasn’t lost the fashion bug “when the glam arrives,” adding that she still loves to “dress up and be girly.”

In response to whether or not she still likes to dance, Lindsay’s answer is yes, explaining, “I dance to celebrate life.”

Lohan continues that she’s “still silly” and still “best friends” with her siblings, adding they “love to laugh and spend time together.” She also describes her self as “a mommy and daddy’s girl.”

In response to the question, “Am I still smiling,” Lindsay writes, “life is beautiful” and that she’s “so grateful for my husband” and “everything life brings.”

The Parent Trap actress announced her engagement to Bader Shammas in November 2021. In July 2022, a rep confirmed she and Shammas tied the knot after she referred to him as her “husband” in a heartfelt Instagram post.

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The so-called “biggest bully” of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Lisa Rinna, is leaving the Bravo show after eight seasons.

Rinna told People, “This is the longest job I have held in my 35 year career and I am grateful to everyone at Bravo and all those involved in the series.”

The decision was reportedly a mutual one between the Days of Our Lives vet and the network. Rinna, who joined RHOBH in season five, added, “It has been a fun eight-year run and I am excited for what is to come!”

According to People, Rinna’s contract for the show expired after season 12, in which she repeatedly tangled with Kathy Hilton, the mother of Paris, who had recurring appearances on the show.

During the season, Hilton called Rinna as the “biggest bully” on the long-running series. Rinna, for her part, made the most of becoming something of a villain on the show, smiling and flipping off a booing crowd after making a surprise appearance at a Q&A panel last October during BravoCon in New York City.

One former RHOBH star, Lisa Vanderpump, seemingly reacted to Rinna’s exit with a Thursday-evening tweet reading simply “ding dong.” Some fans were quick to suggest a connection to The Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead.”

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Variety reports that AMC has decided not to move forward with its legal drama 61st Street or the series adaptation of Invitation to a Bonfire. The second season of 61st Street had already been shot, but AMC no longer plans to air it. Neither will it air four of the six episodes of Invitation to a Bonfire that had already been shot prior to AMC canceling the shows. The decisions were made as part of cost-cutting measures announced by AMC in December 2022. Invitation to a Bonfire showrunner Rachel Caris Love tells Deadline she’s already in conversations about finding “a partner who’s capable of giving us the support that we need”…

Lukas Gage has been added to the cast of Fargo‘s upcoming fifth season. Gage will play Lars Olmstead, opposite previously announced cast members Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Joe Keery, according to Variety. The FX limited series “has traveled through decades, cities and families, and the fifth installment will be no different,” according to FX, which adds the fifth installment will be “Set in 2019,” and asks, “when is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?”…

Loving‘s Ruth Negga is set to star in Apple TV+’s upcoming limited series Presumed Innocent, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, who is in final negotiations, according to Deadline. Inspired by Scott Turow’s courtroom thriller, the series, from David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV, is a reimagining of the book, published in 1987, exploring obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together…

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Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp has revealed he’s gay.

Schnapp, 18, made the revelation in a TikTok on Thursday by lip-syncing to another user’s sound that said, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, it will never be that serious.”

At the same time, text on the screen reads, “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know.’”

The 18-year-old actor, who portrays Will Byers on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, captioned the clip, “I guess I’m more similar to will than I thought.”

Last year, Schnapp confirmed that his character Will was gay in an July interview, telling Variety at the time, “Obviously, it was hinted at in season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?”

“Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike,” Schnapp continued, referencing another of the show’s characters. “But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay.”

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In the new film Women Talking, which expands to a wider theatrical release Friday, Claire Foy stars as a woman coming to terms with the years of ritualistic abuse inflicted upon her small religious community.

It’s a role that tackles a lot of complex ideas. And while those serious moments were handled, Foy tells ABC Audio that the cast was also able to extract moments of levity out of the material.

“A lot of people believe that it would be incredibly heavy and intense, and the film is actually very hopeful and full of love and also humor,” Foy says.

According to Foy, this is due in part to the film’s director, Sarah Polley.

“She’s the most incredible filmmaker. She was able to hold enough space for all of us. She was able to make us all feel valued,” Foy says. “We just were all there for her, basically. We just wanted to support her in what she was trying to make.”

And they did just that. The film consists of a cast of nearly all women — something Foy describes as an “incredibly unique” concept.

“I’ve never had that experience before,” Foy says. “Judith [Ivey] and Sheila [McCarthy], who’ve been acting the longest out of all of us, have never had that experience either, so that says everything, doesn’t it?”

Even now, Foy says the special experience of making the film left a lasting impact on her life.

“It was so profound,” Foy says. “I think the relationships that we created on and off screen are really incredible, and also a testament to Sarah, who allowed the environment for us to do that and to be supportive of us in what we were trying to do.”

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Paramount+ has announced that Oscar winner Nicole Kidman has joined Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira in Taylor Sheridan‘s spy series The Lioness.

According to the streaming service, the show from the Yellowstone and Tulsa King creator is “based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”

According to the streamer, Kidman will play CIA senior supervisor Kaitlyn Meade, “who has had a long career of playing the politics game. She must juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community, a wife who longs for the attention she herself can’t even give, and a mentor to someone veering suspiciously close to the same rocky road she’s found herself on.”

For her part, Avatar series star Saldaña will play Joe, “the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.”

Kidman will also serve as an executive producer on the series.

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