Entertainment

Showtime’s breakout drama series Yellowjackets will return for its second season March 26, 2023, the cabler revealed with a cryptic teaser on Wednesday. The series centers on a girls’ high school soccer team forced to survive on their own in the wilderness after a plane crash. It also catches up with the survivors 25 years later. Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci and Tawny Cypress among the adult cast, with Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell joining as series regulars in season 2. Elijah Wood also boards the cast for a season-long guest arc. The younger cast includes Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton and Liv Hewson…

In celebration of Disney’s highly anticipated Avatar sequel, The Way of Water, viewers will have several opportunities to experience the first film throughout the month of December across its unparalleled distribution platforms, including the broadcast premiere Sunday, December 11 at 7 p.m ET on ABC. Encore showings will air on FX Thursday, December 15 and Sunday, December 18 at 8 p.m. ET and on Freeform Monday, December 26 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Avatar is currently available to stream on Disney+. Avatar: The Way of Water, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Edie Falco and Kate Winslet, opens in theaters December 16. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to executive produce and star in the Apple TV+’s adaptation of Scott Turow’s bestseller Presumed Innocent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The eight-episode limited series, from David E. Kelley, Castle Rock co-creator Dustin Thomason and J.J. Abrams, would star Gyllenhaal as Rusty Sabich, “a prosecutor whose world is upended when a close colleague is murdered — and the evidence begins to point to Rusty himself,” per THR. The role would be his first ongoing part in a TV series. Presumed Innocent was previously adapted for a 1990 feature film that starred Harrison Ford as Sabich, along with Bonnie Bedelia and Raul Julia…

Fox has pulled the plug on its country-themed series Monarch after one season, according to Deadline. The drama, which starred Anna Friel, Trace Adkins, Joshua Sasse and Beth Ditto with Susan Sarandon, ended with Tuesday night’s season finale. The show, which opened strong, struggled over its subsequent episodes…

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Issa Rae‘s breakthrough series Insecure came to an end nearly a year ago, but she’s still hard at work, breaking barriers along the way. As The Hollywood Reporter‘s Equity in Entertainment honoree, she sat down with the publication to share some details about her life after the HBO show.

After six successful seasons, Issa says she “took time to decompress” — the whole month of January to be exact. She launched her Rap Sh!t this year, but with no role in the show, she says 2022 “has probably been the most relaxing — relaxing for my standards — year I’ve had in, like, 10 years.”

Rap Sh!t, she adds, allowed her the opportunity to sit in her behind-the-scenes role as creator and writer, which sees her “just sitting on my ass and watching people be great while eating all day.” Still, she felt the pressure to make sure that it was likable and completely different than Insecure.

Overall, the break post Insecure has given Issa the time to figure out “what I want my next three shows to be.”

“I realized that maybe I’m not that great at multitasking and I need to carve out time to be able to continue to create, because that’s what makes me the happiest,” she explains. “That’s what makes me the most excited.”

She’s also happy to see how far her Insecure cast has come in their individual careers. “It really does feel like, ‘Oh, we’re really out here winning,'” she says. “I’m just really proud to see what everybody else is gravitating toward and to see them killing it.

After landing roles on the upcoming films Barbie and Vengeance, Issa is looking for more ensemble work. She is also working toward getting a studio in South LA.

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The supernatural series Wicked City has arrived and things are bound to get witchy. 

The new ALLBLK drama cast includes accomplished actress Vanessa Bell Calloway, who tells ABC Audio the series “is about these young urban witches in Atlanta, and they’re trying to navigate their way through their lives and their careers.” 

“They’re four witches that are really tight and then a fifth sister kind of joins the coven because she is sent there by her mother, actually, and she doesn’t even know this world exists, she has no idea that she too possesses magical powers,” she explains.

Over her career, Bell Calloway has appeared in numerous shows like This Is Us, Saints & Sinners, The Black Hamptons, Shameless, and more. So what drew her to the role in Wicked City? 

Aside from the fact that she’s never played a witch on screen, Calloway says, “It was simply a no brainer because I think the project is fresh, it’s new, and you never see a Black leads in a supernatural or spiritual type of spiritual realm, type of show.”

“We’re always girlfriends or the friends or the other person, but we’re never the stars,” she adds.

Bell Calloway also shares that being able to produce the series made the decision to join the cast an easy one. 

“I’m at the stage in my career that, yes, I still love to act, but I like to produce and I like to direct,” the actress says. “And anytime you get a chance to be a part of a project that’s in the inception, you know, just being formed and shaped. That’s exciting.” 

Catch new episodes of Wicked City, also starring Shaquita Smith, Mercedez McDowell, Chantal Maurice, and Chanel Mack, every Thursday on ALLBLK.

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When two Saturday Night Live legends are scheduled to host the show together, you’d be right to expect a funnier than usual promo. Such is the case, no pun intended, with Steve Martin and Martin Short‘s upcoming return to Studio 8H.

The spot starts with Martin casually pulling a rolling suitcase out of an elevator at 30 Rockefeller Center as he focuses on the cellphone in his hand, obliviously towing cables and knocking over chairs as he walks down the hall.

When Martin reaches the stage, still texting, he roughly yanks the case up the steps, only to reveal a tortured shout coming from within the luggage at each bump. He unlatches the case, revealing Short, comically shrunk to puppet size except his head.

Martin and Short are interrupted by a fanboying Michael Longfellow, who says he’s a big fan. As Short tries to thank the new SNL star from inside the box, Martin kicks it closed, then orders a green tea, mistaking the young comic for an assistant — and clarifies his order even after Longfellow makes clear who he is.

Short is then shown perched on Martin’s arm, like a ventriloquist dummy, with Martin puppeting his words; Short then gives a tune-in reminder, only to be dropped when Longfellow returns with Martin’s tea.

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Italian opera superstar Andrea Bocelli, his 25-year-old son, Matteo, and 10-year-old daughter, Virginia, will soon play a very exclusive gig — in Springfield, on The Simpsons.

On December 15, Disney+ will drop Feliz Navidad, a short that will see Homer surprise Marge with the “ultimate gift,” a private performance from the musical family members.

Incidentally, the release date coincides with Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli’s release of the single that shares the name of the short, which their animated alter-egos will be singing.

The song can also be found on their new holiday album, A Family Christmas.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Carolines, the legendary New York City comedy club, has announced it will soon be shutting its doors.

In a Facebook post, it was announced that Caroline Hirsch, the namesake owner of the stand-up destination on Broadway, has decided against renewing her lease for 2023.

“After 30 wonderful years at our location in Times Square … our final shows here will be on December 31,” the post began.

“Carolines began 40 years ago in Chelsea and later moved to the South Street Seaport before calling Times Square home in 1992, when many New Yorkers and businesses had written off Times Square and NYC overall due to record high crime and a lack of proactive government solutions.”

The post continued, “People thought we were crazy to invest in Times Square, only later to say that we were ahead of the curve when global brands like Disney, Nasdaq and national retailers and businesses came to the neighborhood. We are very proud to have played an integral role in its resurgence and brought much needed laughter to the neighborhood and the city.”

Ironically, Carolines, which preceded the boom, will be leaving as crime in the city is rising, which critics blame on what they see as soft-on-crime policies.

The post continued, “We’ve had an incredible run these past 40 years, elevating comedy from the very beginning and we are so proud of the comedians that have graced our stages throughout the years with their considerable talents.”

The post hinted that the Carolines brand will live on, though no details were provided.

The announcement concluded by thanking “the comedians, our incredibly talented staff and all of the comedy fans who have visited the club … to help make Carolines the success it has been for the last four decades.”

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(SPOILERS) Marvel fans know that characters who die rarely stay dead, yet Michael B. Jordan‘s appearance in the hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever still managed to be a jaw-dropper.

Now that the cat — or panther — is out of the bag, Jordan explained to Extra what it took to keep the surprise quiet.

Jordan says with a laugh, “I had to lie to my family over here!”

He continued, “I had to lie to everybody out here … I had to just keep it under wraps.”

In the film, his N’Jadaka/Erik “Killmonger” Stevens — who was killed by Chadwick Boseman‘s T’Challa in the original film — makes his surprise appearance from the Great Beyond after T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, takes the mystical heart-shaped herb.

Doing so temporarily transports a person to the ancestral plane, where a relative guides you on a spiritual path. However, while Shuri was sure she’d see her brother or her mom, Queen Romanda, her heart is filled with vengeance, so she instead encounters the spirit of her villainous cousin, who was also seeking revenge. She keeps the disturbing revelation secret — like MBJ had to in real life.

Jordan added, “When you’re dealing with Marvel and stuff like that, you know the routine. So you just gotta, you know, deny, deny, deny, deny, deny until the end of it, yeah.”

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has reigned at the top of the box office for the past four weeks. The film has made more than $733 million worldwide.

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Zoe Saldaña is the cover star for the latest issue of InStyle. In it, she reflects on the box office success of Avatar and her love for action films, among other things.

Avatar premiered in 2009 and has since gone on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. Zoe, who plays Neytiri in the franchise, admits she didn’t imagine the film would be a big success.

“I had no idea Avatar was going to have the impact that it did on such a global scale,” she says. “Those things are unimaginable.”

“I had so much hope that it was going to be well received, because it just felt so special to me. This conversation around the environment has become a global social dilemma,” she continues. “And what I admire the most is that the younger generations are the ones that are guiding this narrative.”

Zoe also appears in the Guardian of the Galaxy films and other Marvel movies as the green-skinned alien warrior woman Gamora, and has dabbled in different kinds of movies. Yet, she has a special love for action films.

“I love action movies. When I was a kid, that’s what I was watching, not princess things,” she explains. “My idol was Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor.” 

Saldaña’s Avatar co-star Sigourney Weaver played Ripley in the Aliens films — the second of which was written and directed by Avatar’s James Cameron. Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor in Cameron’s The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  

When it comes to the films she chooses to work on, Zoe says, “I join projects because I believe in the people behind them. When they’re magical and thoughtful, thought-provoking and collaborative, that’s what changes my life for the better.”

“It gives me experiences that raise me, that help me grow, that make me feel good about people,” she concludes.

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Even if you’re one of the increasingly few who haven’t seen Netflix’s hit macabre dramedy Wednesday, you’ve probably already seen one of its most-talked-about scenes. 

Footage of Jenna Ortega getting down on the dance floor to The Cramps‘ “Goo Goo Muck” is everywhere on social media, but as she explains to NME, the viral dance was literally viral: The actress had COVID-19 when she performed it.

She tells the publication, “[I]t’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film … I woke up and — it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad [but] I had the body aches.”

She continues, “I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”

The actress explained of the quirky dance itself, “I’d gotten the song about a week before, and I just pulled from whatever I could.”

Jenna reportedly cribbed moves from vintage footage of teens bopping during the New Wave craze, for one. “I choreographed that myself,” Ortega tells the publication. “I’m not a dancer, and I’m sure that’s obvious.”

Of the final result, she explained, “I asked to redo it, but we didn’t have time. I think I probably could have done it a bit better.”

Not sure how that could be: Apart from countless reposts and remixes from fans all over social media, Netflix’s official video of the dance has more than 10 million views on YouTube alone in less than two weeks.

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Anne Heche was not high at the time of the fiery, fatal August crash that led to her death.

That’s according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s report about the Emmy winner that was obtained by ABC News.

The autopsy showed “no evidence of impairment” — meaning she was not under the influence of illegal drugs when her blue Mini Cooper slammed at high speed into an occupied home in Mar Vista, California on August 5.

The crash caused the car to burst into flames, setting the structure ablaze; the actress was trapped inside the burning vehicle, suffering smoke inhalation and thermal injuries that led to her death.

The autopsy revealed traces of benzoylecgonine, cocaine, fentanyl and cannabinoids in her system. However, the drugs weren’t consumed the day of the accident — and the fentanyl was administered for pain after she was admitted to the hospital.

The smoke inhalation deprived her brain of oxygen, leading to an unrecoverable “anoxic brain injury,” according to the report. Heche’s sternum was also fractured by the impact, and that injury, likely from the steering wheel, also “significantly contributed to her death.”

Heche was declared brain-dead on August 11 and subsequently taken off life support on Sunday, August 14, after some of her organs were harvested for donation.

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