Entertainment

Benedict Cumberbatch is in final talks to star in the Netflix limited series Eric, sources tell Variety. Cumberbatch would star as Vincent Sullivan, a puppeteer who finds his only companion is Eric, a seven-foot tall blue puppet, who leads him on a journey to find his missing son. This would be the latest limited series lead role for Cumberbatch, following his titular role in Showtime’s Patrick Melrose in 2018. He also played legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in the 2010 BBC series Sherlock…

Jillian Bell, star of the 2019 film Brittany Runs a Marathon, has been added to the cast of the Amazon holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane, opposite Tracee Ellis Ross and Eddie Murphy, according to Deadline. As previously confirmed by ABC, Murphy will also produce the film, directed by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Django Unchained and Boomerang producer Reginald Hudlin. Candy Cane Lane, written by Kelly Younger, whose Muppets Haunted Mansion debuted on Disney+ in 2021, was reportedly based on the writer’s own holiday experiences. Further plot details are under wraps…

Entertainment Weekly reports Stephen Amell is set to reprise his role as Oliver Queen in the ninth and final season of The Flash. “…It was Oliver who originally launched [The Flash/Barry Allen, played in the series by Grant Gustin] on his heroic path. That’s why everyone on Team Flash felt so strongly that it was important to create a full-circle moment with Oliver’s return in the final season of The Flash,” executive producer Eric Wallace said in a statement. “The result is an epic-yet-emotional episode we hope Arrowverse fans will enjoy.” That episode — the ninth of season 9 — will also feature returns from David Ramsey as John Diggle/Spartan, Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West/Kid Flash and Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork. The Flash season 9 launches February 8, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW…

After more than 40 years, the sequel to Mel Brooks‘ classic comedy History of the World Part I is almost here. Now an eight-part TV series streaming on Hulu, each episode of History of the World Part II will feature a variety of sketches that take us through different periods of human history. Co-creator, writer and executive producer Mel Brooks stars in the series, alongside Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes and Ike Barinholtz. History of the World Part II hits Hulu this spring…

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The 30 ladies who will compete for Zach Shallcross‘ heart on The Bachelor season 27 have been revealed.

The 26-year-old tech executive from Anaheim Hills, California, will meet a group that includes four nurses, along with a few other medical professionals, a nanny from Vienna, a child and family therapist and a rodeo racer.

Zach — who was first introduced to Bachelor Nation on Season 19 of The Bachelorette, starring Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia — endeared himself to audiences by putting himself and his desire to meet “the one” first after being dumped by Recchia on national TV.

Viewers already met five of Shallcross’ ladies during the live The Bachelorette finale last year. In a franchise first, they voted on “America’s First Impression Rose” via Twitter, The winner was Brianna, who will now be safe from elimination during week one of season 27.

Former Bachelor star Jesse Palmer returns for his second season as host.

Shallcross’ season of The Bachelor premieres Monday, January 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Meet the 30 women who will vie for Zach’s heart:

Aly, 26, a healthcare strategist from Atlanta, Ga.
Anastasia, 30, a content marketing manager from San Diego, Calif.
Ariel, 28, a marketing executive from New York City, N.Y.
Bailey, 27, an executive recruiter from Nashville, Tenn.
Rebecca, “Becca,” 25, a nursing student from Burbank, Calif.
Brianna, 24, an entrepreneur from Jersey City, N.J.
Brooklyn, 25, a rodeo racer from Stillwater, Okla.
Cara, 27, a corporate recruiter from Pittsburgh, Penn.
Cat, 26, a dancer from New York, N.Y.
Charity, 26, a child and family therapist from Columbus, Ga.
Christina Mandrell, 26, a content creator from Nashville, Tenn.
Davia, 25, a marketing manager from Charleston, S.C.
Gabriella “Gabi,” 25, an account executive from Pittsford, Vt.
Genevie, 26, a neonatal nurse from Baltimore City, Md.
Greer, 24, a medical sales rep from Houston, Texas.
Holland, 24, an insurance marketer from Boca Raton, Fla.
Jessica “Jess,” 23, an e-commerce coordinator from Winter Springs, Fla.
Kaitlyn “Kaity,” 27, an ER nurse from Austin, Texas.
Katherine, 26, a registered nurse from Tampa, Fla.
Kimberly, 30, a hospitality manager from Los Angeles, Calif.
Kylee, 25, a postpartum nurse from Charlotte, N.C.
Chandralekha “Lekha,” 29, a financial advisor from Miami, Fla.
Madison, 26, a business owner from Fargo, N.D.
Mercedes, 24, a nonprofit owner from Bloomfield, Iowa
Olivia L., 24, a patient care technician from Rochester, N.Y.
Olivia M., 25, a stylist from Cincinnati, Ohio
Sonia, 29, a project manager from Long Island, N.Y.
Vanessa, 23, a restaurant marketer from Baton Rouge, L.A.
Victoria J., 30, a makeup artist from Fort Worth, Texas
Viktoria E., 29, a nanny from Vienna, Austria

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Time to cook: Walter White is coming back. No, not in another spin-off to the Emmy magnet Breaking Bad, but reportedly in an ad for this year’s Super Bowl.

The man himself — well, his real-life alter ego, Bryan Cranston — teased the promotion on Instagram, showing himself in the desert, decked out in the costume of Walter’s drug-lord alias Heisenberg, holding a bag of White Cheddar PopCorners chips.

Truth told, the chips bag looks Photoshopped in, but nonetheless, Cranston hinted, “Breaking soon.”

The Hollywood Reporter notes the actual ad will debut February 12 for Frito Lay-owned PopCorners’ first Super Bowl spot and in-game commercial.

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The blue-skinned people of Pandora have done what no Russian MiG ever could: They’ve shot down Maverick.

Specifically, Deadline reports the long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water will become the highest-grossing movie of 2022 after Tuesday’s box office receipts are tallied, having earned $1.5 billion and counting worldwide.

It’s a feat for any movie, but one that’s especially dizzying considering the movie starring Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington only premiered in theaters the week of December 16.

Top Gun: Maverick held the top spot of the box office for much of the year since debuting in May, ending 2022 at #1 with a global haul of $1.48 billion. However, the Paramount Pictures film saw its air superiority challenged ever since James Cameron‘s sequel, from Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, took off.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Rick Singer, mastermind of the college admissions cheating scheme known as Varsity Blues that involved Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to 42 months in prison. Singer will then be on supervised release for three more years.

Singer’s sentence comes nearly four years after the former college admissions consultant pleaded guilty in March 2019 to helping parents of dozens of well-to-do high school students cheat their way into elite universities. As part of his plea, Singer helped prosecutors convict his former clients.

Singer, 62, pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six years in prison — much more than the six-month maximum Singer’s lawyers requested.

The scandal saw wealthy people, including Huffman and Loughlin,use Singer’s expertise to fraudulently get their children into sought-after colleges.

“Singer was the architect of a massive, decade-long scheme to use fraud and bribery to secure the admission of high school students to elite colleges and universities across the country,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum, calling his scheme “Staggering in scope” and”breathtaking in its audacity.”

Huffman was ultimately sentenced to 14 days in prison and served 11 after pleading guilty in the scandal. Loughlin and her designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty in May of 2020 after paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits, when neither child participated in the sport.

Loughlin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and served two months behind bars. Giannulli was sentenced to five months in prison with an additional two years of supervised release, in addition to a $250,000 fine and community service.

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Wednesday continued working its ratings magic for Netflix over the New Year’s weekend. The streaming service says the show starring Jenna Ortega managed to break another Netflix record by spending six consecutive weeks on the English TV List with over 100 million hours viewed.

Last week, nearly 104 million hours’ worth of Tim Burton‘s buzzy supernatural show were viewed.

On the movies side of things, Rian Johnson’s sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was the most viewed title of the past week, with 127.2 million hours viewed, and 209.40 million hours viewed after 10 days. After Netflix’s Red Notice and Don’t Look Up, Glass Onion became the third-most-watched original movie for the streamer, seen by some 90 million households, according to the company’s numbers.

Incidentally, interest in the sequel also boosted viewership for the Oscar-nominated 2019 original, also starring Daniel Craig‘s drawly detective Benoit Blanc. That film was #3 on the Netflix’s English Films List last week.

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We’re only four days into 2023, and the flame war between besties Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman is back on.

At issue is the fact that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has put on its Best Song short list “Good Afternoon,” a song from the Ryan Reynolds/Will Ferrell Christmas musical Spirited that is streaming on Apple TV+.

“I really, really wanted to send out a positive message for the beginning of the year, but recent events have made that impossible,” Jackman begins.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love Spirited. It’s a great movie … I love Will and Octavia [Spencer] … and … the song ‘Good Afternoon,’ I laughed the entire way through, it is absolutely brilliant.”

He continues, “However, I just heard the Academy has short-listed ‘Good Afternoon’ … Now, Ryan Reynolds getting a nomination in the Best Song category will make the next year of my life insufferable.”

The Tony winner and Music Man veteran adds, “I mean, I have to spend a year with him shooting Wolverine and Deadpool [Deadpool 3]. And trust me. It would be impossible. It would be a problem.”

Jackman closed with recapping everything he liked about Spirited, before pleading with the Academy, “Please, please, from the bottom of my heart, do not validate Ryan Reynolds in this way.”

For the record, one of the first “likes” of the post came from Reynolds himself.

This year’s Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday, January 24.

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Netflix on Tuesday announced February 23 as the premiere date for season 3 of its popular teen drama series Outer Banks, along with new stills and key art for the upcoming season. Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, Austin North, Drew Starkey and Charles Esten will return for season three, along with Carlacia Grant, who has been promoted to series regular. Outer Banks, which follows a group of teens dubbed the Pogues as they embark on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, has been huge a hit for Netflix since its debut. Season two, which launched a year-and-a-half ago, held the top spot globally in Netflix’s Top 10 English TV list for the four weeks following its premiere…

Black-ish alum Tracee Ellis Ross will star alongside Coming 2 America star Eddie Murphy in the upcoming holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane, according to Variety. As previously confirmed by ABC, Murphy will also produce the film, directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated Django Unchained and Boomerang producer Reginald Hudlin. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer‘s company Imagine is also involved. Candy Cane Lane, written by Kelly Younger, whose Muppets Haunted Mansion debuted on Disney+ in 2021, was reportedly based on the writer’s own holiday experiences. Further plot details are under wraps…

That ’70s Show and That ’90s Show star Debra Jo Rupp has been added to the cast of the Kathryn Hahn-led Disney+/Marvel WandaVision spinoff series Agatha: Coven of Chaos, sources tell Deadline. While details about Rupp’s role have not been revealed, she will likely be reprising her WandaVision role as Mrs. Hart, which she played in five episodes of the original series. Rupp joins Joe Locke, Aubrey Plaza, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Sasheer Zamata and Patti LuPone in the spinoff. Emma Caulfield Ford is also rumored to be on board, reprising her character of Dottie from WandaVision. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

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Nearly a month after Sharon Osbourne was hospitalized due to a sudden “medical emergency,” she says the cause remains a “mystery.”

The former co-host of The Talk returned to the U.K. version of the show Tuesday to give an update on her condition, but had little to offer other than that she was “doing well.”

“It was the weirdest thing,” The Osbournes matriarch explained in a clip from the show posted to her Instagram. “I was doing some filming and suddenly they told me that I [passed out] for 20 minutes. And I was in the hospital, I went to one hospital, they took me to another hospital, and I did every test over two days, and nobody knows why.”

Shortly after the December 16 incident, Sharon’s son, Jack Osbourne, shared in a now vanished Instagram Story that his mother “has been given the all clear from her medical team and is now home.” He went on to thank “everyone who has reached out with love and support.” Jack added, “As to what happened to my mum — I’m gonna leave it to her to share about when she is ready.”

Sharon has had multiple health issues over the past 20 years, including colon cancer in 2002, for which she underwent surgery and three months of chemotherapy. In 2012, she underwent a double mastectomy after learning she had a genetic predisposition for developing breast cancer.

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Gabrielle Union is opening up about her first marriage to NFL player Chris Howard. 

The actress, who is currently married to NBA star Dwyane Wade,  appeared on Monday’s episode of the Armchair Expert podcast and admitted that neither she nor Howard were faithful during their relationship. 

“In our first marriage, neither one of us felt like the marriage should get in the way of our dating,” Union candidly told host Dax Shepard before implying that Howard was the one who initiated the idea. “A part of it was keeping up with his activities and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing? Oh, you’re gonna feel this one.'”

Union went on to explain how, at the time, she felt justified in her actions, stating, “I just felt entitled to it, as well. I was paying all the bills. I was working my a** off and I felt like that’s what comes, the spoils of riches.”

“Like my dad before me, whoever has the most gets to do whatever the hell they want, is what I thought,” she said. “It was just dysfunctional from day one.”

“It was such a stupid relationship that should have never gotten out of the dating phase,” Union expressed. “We were gifted therapy and the first session, the therapist was like, ‘I don’t know how you guys made it out of the dating phase.’ And we should probably look for a way to amicably [divorce] because we have not one thing in common.”

Union and Howard separated in 2005 after four years of marriage. Their divorce was final in 2006. Union went on to marry Wade in 2014 after meeting in 2008.

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