Entertainment

While the world watched the public mourning and funeral for Princess Diana after her shocking death in 1997, the princess’ youngest son, then 12-year-old Prince Harry, said he believed his mom hadn’t died.

Describing his thought as “magical thinking,” Harry, now 38, writes in his new memoir Spare that he believed his mom was “hiding.”

In a wide-ranging interview Monday, Harry told Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan that his disbelief that Diana had died was a “defense mechanism.”

“I think for anyone, especially if you’re a kid, I was 12 years old,” he said. “I refused to accept that was what had happened.”

Diana died at age 36 following a car crash in a Paris tunnel, during which paparazzi pursued her.

In Spare, which will be released globally on Tuesday, Harry describes the morning of Aug. 31, 1997, when his father, now King Charles III, delivered the devastating news that Diana died.

“As a dad…I have a huge amount of sympathy and compassion and understanding now about how ill-equipped I guess my dad was, how ill-equipped anybody would be in that situation,” Harry explained.

Harry said Charles waited to tell him about Diana until the morning, when he woke him and shared the news.

Harry writes in Spare about how he suffered after Diana’s death, including his inability for many years to cry over her death.

Looking back, he told Strahan he wonders if his experience would have differed had he been able to seek professional counseling after his mom died.

“I wish I had the ability or the opportunity to do some form of therapy, or at least be able to talk more about losing my mum and celebrating her life,” he said. “But who’s to say that at age 12 whether I would’ve even said yes to that.”

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Peacock got quite the wedding gift from its recently launched spin-off series The Best Man: The Final Chapters.

According to data provided to Variety, the show that reunited the cast of the franchise first started on the big screen in 1999 has become the streaming service’s first original show to hit Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings.

With a cast that includes Nia Long, Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard and Sanaa Lathan, The Final Chapters debuted in the #5 slot for the December 19-25 window, the streaming service’s best debut to date. The performance is particularly strong considering the show premiered in the middle of that viewing window, on December 22.

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Fire Country has been renewed for a season 2 less than two weeks after it debuted, CBS announced on Friday. The series — starring Max Thieriot, Billy Burke, Kevin Alejandro, Diane Farr, Stephanie Arcila, Jordan Calloway and Jules Latimer — is averaging over 10 million viewers per episode in Live+35 day multiplatform viewing, according to the network. The show, which airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET., will air on a special day and time, Jan. 29 immediately following the AFC Championship game, before returning to its regular schedule. Fire Country is also available to stream on Paramount+…

The animated drama series Pantheon is the latest casualty of AMC Networks’ cost-cutting drive, according to Deadline. The series, containing the voices of Daniel Dae Kim, Paul Dano and Taylor Schilling, was pulled from its streaming service after one season, despite getting a season 2 pickup. The second season, which had already been produced, will not air. Pantheon joins shows Demascus, Invitation to a Bonfire and the second seasons of 61st Street and Moonhaven, which also got the axe…

Tim Blake Nelson, the character best known for his roles in films like Oh Brother Where Art Thou and The Incredible Hulk, has been added to the cast of Dune: Part Two, the sequel to Denis Villeneuve‘s Oscar-winning 2021 film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Details on his role have not been revealed. Nelson joins fellow newcomers Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux and Christopher Walken, as well as returning cast members Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Stellan Skarsgård and Javier Bardem. Dune: Part Two is set to hit theater November 3…

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Avatar: The Way of Water topped the box office for the fourth time in as many weeks, taking in an estimated $45 million. The Avatar sequel has now crossed $500 million at the North American box office and became the 7th highest grossing movie of all time with 1.7 billion globally.

This week’s new major release, M3GAN gave Avatar 2 a run for its money, scaring up an estimated $30 million — way above expectations and the biggest opening for a non-sequel horror film since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The creepy doll movie, starring Allison Williams, grossed $45 million against a $12 million production budget.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish took third place, earning an estimated $13.1 million in its third week of release. The CGI-animated film has grossed $87 million in domestically and $197 million worldwide.

The Tom Hanks comedy, A Man Called Otto, grabbed fourth place, collecting an estimated $4.2 million from 637 theaters, after opening in just four theaters a week ago. It expands nationwide next week.

Rounding out the top five was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which added an estimated $3.4 million. Its current tally stands at $445 million in North America and $827 million at the worldwide box office.

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Adam Rich, the former child actor best known for playing Nicholas Bradford on the ABC series Eight Is Enough, died Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. He was 54. The cause of death was not revealed.

Rich, whose signature bowl haircut sparked a fashion trend during the late 70s, appeared on the show throughout its five season run from 1977-1981.

Following Eight Is Enough, Rich landed a recurring role as aspiring firefighter Danny Blake in ABC’s Code Red, and the anthology series CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre.

Rich was also a voice-actor on the series 1983 Dungeons & Dragons series and made appearances in shows like Fantasy Island, CHiPs, St. Elsewhere, Silver Spoons and Baywatch, among others. He made his final appearance on Reel Comedy in 2003.

Rich struggled with substance abuse throughout his career, and nearly died from a 1989 Valium overdose. Two years later he was arrested for breaking and entering into a pharmacy, and was bailed out by Eight Is Enough co-star Dick Van Patten. Rich then spent three years in rehab before being arrested again in 2002 for a DUI.

His manager shared a statement about the late actor on Twitter, calling him a “kind, generous and a warrior in the fight against mental illness.”

Reactions to Rich’s death also poured in from his fellow child stars:

Too Close for Comfort actress Lydia Cornell: “Rest in peace Adam Rich. Such sad news. Gone too soon.”

The Love Boat actress Jill Whelan: “Rest in peace Adam.”

Erin Murphy, who played Tabitha Stevens in the TV series Bewitched: “How can this be true?! RIP sweet Adam Rich.”

Diff’rent Strokes‘ Todd Bridges: “RIP MY FRIEND YOU WILL BE MISSED.”

Corey Feldman: ANOTHER BRILLIANT LIGHT, ANOTHER TORTURED SOUL, ANOTHER CHILD STAR WHO COULDNT FIND HIS PEACE AFTER WHAT HE ENDURED! HE WAS A FRIEND, A COMRADE, & A TALENTED PERSON W A DEEP PASSION 4 HELPING OTHERS UNDERSTAND MENTAL ILLNESS! #RIPADAMRICH ILL MISS HIM!

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On the red carpet of the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Thursday night, where he was to be awarded for his performance in The Banshees of Inisherin, Colin Farrell spilled a little tea about his spin-off to The Batman.

He told Variety‘s Marc Malkin that he never expected to get a chance to explore his character further in the series The Penguin, but he’s happy he will.

Farrell won praise for disappearing into the role of the low-level gangster dubbed Penguin, thanks to the amazing — and likely Oscar-bound — handiwork of makeup artists Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine, but the actor admitted he “wasn’t nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to” in Matt Reeves‘ hit.

Farrell explained, “Because there was all this extraordinary work done by Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.”

Of course, Penguin runs the seedy Iceberg Lounge in the film.

In fact, Farrell said the artists’ work served as the inspiration behind him pursuing a spin-off. “Honest to God, any thought I had about an extended series was to do with Mike Marino’s work. I just knew there was so much to do with it — age it up, age it down,” he enthused.

The Irish actor also revealed the series will get underway in March.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE AND CONTENT) Extra host Billy Bush is once again in hot water after another leak of sexually suggestive off-camera comments.

The TV personality, who was famously suspended, then fired, from Today in 2016 after a leaked 2005 conversation between him and then-candidate Donald Trump, reportedly was caught on mic making comments about Kendall Jenner‘s costume last Halloween.

According to the Daily Beast, which ran the audio, Bush was referring to the Kardashian clan member’s Toy Story-themed Halloween costume when he jabbed, “Kendall goes as Jessie and, believe me, there were a lot of woodies.” The comment was met with off-camera laughter.

A representative from Telepictures, the division of Warner Bros. Television that produces Extra, tells Variety, “As with many forms of production in the entertainment industry, the show’s creative process allows the flexibility to try different jokes and banter. In the end, some material lands on the cutting room floor, including remarks that may be too edgy to air on broadcast television.”

Bush issued a mea culpa after the 2016 leak, in which he laughed along as Trump joked he was so famous he could grab women’s genitals if he wanted. However, as of press time Friday, Bush hasn’t addressed the Daily Beast piece.

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Before Avatar: The Way of Water debuted, James Cameron said the movie had to become one of the “third or fourth” highest-grossing movies of all time in order to break even.

With the movie now officially passing $1.5 billion at the box office, however, his high-water mark appears to have been set, which means more Avatar adventures are on the way.

That’s pretty handy, seeing as Avatar 3 is already shot, and the fourth and fifth installments are already written.

That’s what Cameron just told the titular host of HBO’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? “It looks like just with the momentum that the film has now that [it] will easily pass our break even in the next few days, actually, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this, I’m gonna have to do these other sequels,” the director said.

Cameron added, “I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can — we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film, so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CG magic. And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can.”

The Titanic Oscar winner expressed, “We’ve begun a franchise at this point … We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”

That said, Cameron admitted he was nervous that people wouldn’t embrace what’s now just the first sequel of his 2009 original, which is the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Avatar: The Way of Water was produced by 20th Century Studios, which, like ABC News, is a subsidiary of Disney.

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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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