Entertainment

After the holidays, Kevin Hart is going back on the road. The comedian just announced nine new dates to start the new year as his Reality Check tour continues.

Kev will kick things off on January 1 with an already announced gig at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas. On Friday, February 10, he’ll hit Phoenix’s Arizona Financial Theatre, before heading up north to Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada, on April 11.

April 12 he’ll hit up the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, then stay in Canada for two more dates — Winnipeg’s Canada Life Centre on April 13 and Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Center venue on April 14 — before heading to London.

On Saturday, April 15, he’ll play Budweiser Gardens in London and the following night will play Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before heading back to Canada for a gig at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 16, at KevinHartNation.com.

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The nominations for the 2023 Golden Globes were announced Monday morning, and the film The Banshees of Inisherin topped the movie category with eight nominations, followed by Everything Everywhere all at Once with six.

On the TV side, Abbott Elementary led the pack with five nominations, followed by a string of shows tied with four: The Crown, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Only Murders in the Building, Pam & Tommy, and The White Lotus.

The nominees were supposed to be revealed by father-daughter duo George Lopez and Mayan Lopez, but the comic was sidelined with COVID-19. In his place was their Lopez vs. Lopez co-star, Selenis Levya.

It was announced in September that the Golden Globes would be returning to television in 2023 after being sidelined this year due to allegations of racism within the HFPA.

The 2022 ceremony was held as a private event in January after NBC refused to air the awards show following a 2021 report from the Los Angeles Times that found there were no Black members in the HFPA, an 87-person group of international journalists who decide the nominees and the winners.

The HFPA subsequently promised “transformational changes” to the organization in the wake of the controversy, vowing to boost minority membership and representation and to have more transparency within the organization.

Hosted by Emmy-winning comedian Jerrod Carmichael, the 80th annual Golden Globes will take place January 10 beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, airing live on NBC and streaming live on Peacock.

Here are the nominees:

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang is the latest addition to the star-studded cast of Jon M. Chu’s two-part film adaptation of the Broadway hit Wicked, opposite Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. Yang will play Elphaba and Glinda’s classmate, Pfannee. Chu announced the news on Friday, tweeting, “Welcome #BowenYang to Shiz University in Oz. Please cause lots of trouble on campus for us.” Yang confirmed the news on his Instagram, sharing a photo of a pink heart with the name “Galinda” — the real first name of Grande’s character — captioned, “What the f*** is a ‘hoi polloi’????” Yang joins previously announced castmembers Bronwyn James, Marissa Bode, Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh. The Wicked movies are set for release Christmas 2024 and 2025…

It was a tie between Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once at the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards. Todd Field won both director and screenplay prizes for the former film, while its star, Cate Blanchett, shared best lead performance honors with Bill Nighy for his work in Oliver Hermanus’ Living. The best supporting performance prizes went to Dolly de Leon for her turn as toiler manager Abigail in Triangle of Sadness and Ke Huy Quan for his portrayal of the lovable husband Waymond in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The LAFCA switched to gender-neutral acting categories for the first time this year. The complete winners list is available at LAFC.net…

A third installment of The Princess Diaries is in the works at Disney, though at least one original castmember may not be on board. “I think we know that it’s probably not going to be possible,” Julie Andrews — who played Clarisse Renaldi, the Queen regent of Genovia — recently told Access Hollywood. “It was talked about very shortly after [the second sequel] came out, but it’s now how many years since then? And I am that much older and Annie the princess, or queen, is so much older. And I am not sure where it would float or run.” Anne Hathaway, who played Mia Thermopolis, a teenager from San Francisco who discovers she’s the heir apparent to the throne of Genovia, has expressed interest in returning, though a deal hasn’t been set. The first Princess Diaries movie was released in 2001, followed by The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement three years later in 2004. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

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In an otherwise dismal box office weekend, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned an estimated $11.1 million and spent its fifth consecutive week at #1 — the first film to accomplish that since 2018’s Black Panther. That brings the Marvel Studios movie’s domestic take to $409 million.

Violent Night took second place with an estimated $8.7 million. Its two-week global tally currently stands at $41.8 million

Third place went to Strange World, bringing in an estimated $3.6 million in its third week of release. That brings its North America total $30.5 million and its worldwide gross to $53.5 million.

The Menu landed in fourth place, grabbing an estimated $2.7 million in its fourth weekend. The film has earned a total of $29 million in North America and $57.7 million globally.

Rounding out the top five was Devotion, collecting $2 million in its third weekend. Its domestic total now stands at $17 million.

Elsewhere, The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, set a new record for the year’s highest theater average, earning $60K from just six theaters and beating the previous record of $50,000 set by Everything Everywhere All at Once.

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Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pinocchio is not the family friendly animated film you grew up on. His stop-motion take, out now on Netflix, explores a lot of adult themes in unique ways, including the relationship between fathers and sons and fascism.

He thinks it makes perfect sense, telling ABC Audio, “I think we understood from the beginning that there was a tale told about paternity and different forms of father and son stories. It was religious, partially because of the relationship of Pinocchio to an image of Jesus, and the story of Jesus and his father, the story of Geppetto and Pinocchio, different fathers in the film with different sons. And the most pernicious, caustic form of paternalism, if you would, is the totalitarianism of fascism.”

Del Toro sees a lot of parallels between the WWII Italian fascism of the film, and today.

“One of the things that we wanted to say is disobedience is a virtue in times like this. And for disobedience to have risks, then you have to place it in a historical time where it has consequences,” he explains. “You know, Pinocchio is tempted by the sort of pageantry of show business and by the fear of totalitarian thought.”

The Oscar-winning director says there are a lot of parallels to his own life, particularly, “My relationship with my father and my relationship as a father, both, you know? And the things where you fail or were failed to.”

He goes on to say that “there is no movie worth making where something doesn’t hurt.”

“It doesn’t matter if is this film or Nightmare Alley or Pan’s Labyrinth or Shape of Water, you have to talk about things that are somewhat painful for you or somewhat urgent.”

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The Broadway musical adaptation of the 2004 hit Mean Girls is being adapted into a movie musical, and its main cast is now set.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Angourie Rice has been tapped to fill the role Lindsay Lohan originated: Cady Heron, the daughter of a pair of anthropologists who finds herself transplanted from the wilds of Africa into the social jungle of a typically cliquey Chicago high school.

Reneé Rapp, who on Broadway played Rachel McAdams‘ role of Regina George, the head of the clique The Plastics, will reprise for the movie.

The cast also will star Moana‘s Auli’i Cravalho as Janis — played by Lizzy Caplan in the movie — while another Mean Girls on Broadway vet, Jaquel Spivey, will reprise as Damien. Damien, Janis’ bestie, was played by Daniel Franzese in the film.

Speaking of the original film, its writer, Tina Fey, is penning the script for the movie musical.

Mean Girls opened on Broadway in April 2018 at the August Wilson Theatre and ran for 833 performances before the curtain finally fell on March 11, 2020 — the day before the COVID pandemic officially shuttered the Great White Way.

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Joshua Bassett says it’s “wild” he’s bringing the world of Night at the Museum to kids who are as young as he was when he first saw the movies in theaters.

Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, premiered December 17, 2006.

Bassett plays Nick Daley, who succeeds his dad, former protagonist Larry Daley, as the night security guard in Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again. “It’s just cool to continue the story in a different way, but it still pays tribute to the original,” he told ABC Audio.

Bassett also teased, “The stakes are incredibly high for an animated film,” but said he believes the audience will enjoy the ride.

The 21-year-old also hopes the film will “inspire … kids to be courageous” because of the lessons his character learns. “[Nick] doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t have much guidance. He’s kind of thrown into this without any help. And he has to overcome his fears and step up and become the hero, even though he’s just a regular 18-year-old kid,” he expressed.

That’s how Bassett felt when he was cast in this movie. “I had never done voiceover and there was a part of me that was honestly scared,” he confessed. He said he’s thankful for the experience because it taught him the value of “[giving] your all and [hoping] for the best.”   

So, will we see him doing more voiceover work in the future? “I am definitely going to,” he said. “I really do believe I had the most fun on this project (that) I’ve ever had acting.” He said he loved how much creative freedom voice acting allows.

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is streaming on Disney+.

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After catching fire online from thousands of movie fans, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence has walked back comments she made about fronting action movies as a woman.

“I remember when I was doing Hunger Games, nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work — because we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead,” Lawrence said to fellow Oscar winner Viola Davis as part of Variety‘s Actors on Actors series.

The internet didn’t let the comment slide, with movie fans refreshing Lawrence’s memory about Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley in the Aliens movies, Linda Hamilton in the Terminator films, Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil movies and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, among others.

“Jennifer Lawrence says there were no female action heroes before she did The Hunger Games so please take a moment to mourn for Sigourney Weaver who apparently never existed,” one comedy feed snarked, getting thousands of retweets.

Some actresses took it very personally, including Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran Denise Crosby, who tweeted, “Hey Jennifer Lawrence, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to thank the many boys/men who were allowed to completely identify with a strong female character long before you were even born. There are a couple of us…”

After the backlash, Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter Thursday, “That’s certainly not what I meant to say at all. I know that I am not the only woman who has ever led an action film. What I meant to emphasize was how good it feels … But it was my blunder and it came out wrong. I had nerves talking to a living legend.”

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Al Roker is now recovering at home following his second hospitalization for blood clots in recent months.

The beloved weatherman and Today personality was feted by his co-hosts Friday morning, who gave viewers an update on his condition.

Hoda Kotb said, “We’ve been waiting to say this. We have some great, great news about Al to share on this Friday morning, which is Al is officially home from the hospital.”

Carson Daly joked that he updated Roker about the state of his now-unused office: “I wrote him a text. I said, ‘Al, you gotta come back because this is turning into Hoda’s, like, third closet.”

They pointed fans to a smiling Instagram post from Roker, which he captioned, “Home! So incredibly grateful to family, friends, medical folks, @todayshow family and all your thoughts and prayers.”

Roker was hospitalized in November when a blood clot in his legs traveled to his lung, forcing him to miss NBC’s coverage of the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time in nearly three decades.

Weeks later, he was hospitalized again, forcing him to miss the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, a tradition he’d been a part of since 1985.

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With a mom who’s had a long Hollywood career and now a hit chat show, you’d figure Drew Barrymore‘s two children would have some pretty enviable stuff under the Christmas tree this year. 

However, Frankie, 8, and Olive, 10, aren’t getting anything for Christmas. 

In fact, Barrymore tells Entertainment Tonight the children she shares with her ex-husband Will Kopelman  never get holiday gifts from her. 

“I always take them on a trip every Christmas,” Drew explains. “I don’t get them presents, which I think at their ages they don’t love, but I say, ‘I think we’ll remember the place and the photos and the experience and that’s what I want to give you.”

Drew adds, “They get plenty of things throughout the year, so I’m not like some weird, strict, cold mom who’s like, ‘You don’t get any gifts!’ I just feel like a better gift would be a life memory. I’d rather invest [in that than in] a doll house or something. It all evens out and it’s fine.”

Barrymore says that when travel was grounded during the pandemic, however, she relaxed her rule and bought them stuff. But she recalled thinking at the time, “This sucks.”

With pandemic restrictions eased, Drew says she’s returning to her non-gifting Christmas “tradition.”

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