Netflix’s Addams Family series Wednesday has gone where only two other series on the streaming service have gone before.
The show, which stars Jenna Ortega as the braided braniac, has surpassed one billion hours viewed on Netflix within a month, a feat accomplished only by Squid Game and the fourth season of Stranger Things.
The most recent Netflix-provided numbers show Wednesday surpassing its hit Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, making the young-adult-leaning series the second-biggest English language series ever for Netflix, which estimates the mysterious adventures of Wednesday and her Nevermore Academy friends and frenemies have been seen in 150 million households worldwide.
Netflix also announced this week that Harry and Meghan, about the so-called runaway royals, has become the streaming service’s biggest documentary debut ever, with more than 81 million hours viewed in its first week.
On Monday night, Black Panther franchise writer-director Ryan Coogler walked in the footsteps of other cinema legends, including Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee.
The filmmaker gave the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ annual David Lean lecture in London. According to Variety, it was an emotional journey through his career, and those who inspired him, including the late Chadwick Boseman.
“I like to start off every movie that I do with the question,” Coogler reportedly said. “A question that burns … a question I’m afraid to ask.”
Wakanda Forever was no exception, Ryan explained. “How do you move on when your very existence, your very identity, was defined by another person and you lose them?”
Boseman died in August 2020 at 43 years old, after keeping his battle with colon cancer secret to all but a handful of people.
“I was a director without a lead actor, tasked to make a film about a hero when we’d just lost ours,” an emotional Coogler said.
Coogler also spoke of losing a mentor in John Singleton, who died in 2019 after suffering a stroke. The Boyz n The Hood director was once an up-and-coming Black filmmaker himself and sent Coogler a special note when Creed hit theaters.
It included a photo of the tickets Singleton had purchased for Coogler’s first major release. “And he said, ‘This is a ritual, we always do this for each other,'” Coogler recalled, speaking of the community of Black filmmakers. “Reading that earlier today, I realized what a gift that message was.”
Coogler in turn passed on some words of inspiration. “All of you that aspire to communicate with film language … there’s no time like the present. Make that movie. Hit that audition … Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Don’t wait. Do.”
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have stepped up in order to try to save a beleaguered Broadway play from closing.
The Hollywood Reporter notes the couple has purchased an entire performance of playwright Jordan E. Cooper‘s show Ain’t No Mo’, which received critical acclaim, but is facing an early close on December 18 — just two weeks after it opened.
According to Playbill, the Lee Daniels-produced “high octane comedy” at the Belasco Theatre asks the question, “What if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?”
The first look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is finally here.
The film, a sequel to 2018’s smash hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, will see Miles Morales/Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) on another web-slinging adventure across the multiverse with Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and a team of other Spider-people, including another returning hero, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson).
By the looks of the trailer, however, there are a whole lot of other wall crawlers in a different dimension who aren’t exactly out to be friendly neighbors to Spider-Man.
“We are supposed to be the good guys!” Gwen exclaims at one point. “We ARE,” Miles growls in response, as he is shown getting slammed to the ground by Spider-Man 2099, a future version of the hero who is voiced by Oscar Isaac in the film — a payoff from a post-credits tease from the Oscar-winning original.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premieres in theaters June 2, 2023.
On Tuesday, the American Theatre Wing announced that the 2023 Tony Awards will be held off-Broadway.
The 76th annual event saluting the best of the theater world will be held at Washington Heights’ United Palace on Sunday, June 11, 2023.
It will be the first time the event will be held in the historic venue; traditionally, the Tonys are held in and around Midtown Manhattan. The change of ZIP code to upper Manhattan is meant to broaden the appeal of the awards show and better represent the talent on the Great White Way.
Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, and Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, said in a joint statement, “As we celebrate the best of this Broadway season and 76 years of the Tony Awards, we look forward to ushering in a new golden age for the show from this majestic, golden age theatre.”
The Tonys will be carried live on CBS, and stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
Just as the 2003 romance Under the Tuscan Sun inspired people to jet off to Tuscany, HBO’s Emmy-winning dramedy The White Lotus has folks looking to spend some time in its shooting location, Sicily.
According to the travel booking site Hopper, interest in booking a Sicilian holiday has jumped more than 50% since the second season of The White Lotus began; specifically, the episode that aired on November 27 really seemed to kick that wanderlust into high gear.
While there’s no White Lotus hotel in real life, Hopper’s experts say travelers looking to share in some of the glamour and intrigue of the Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza-fronted show can be expected to shell out $1,225 for round-trip airfare from the U.S.
Further, hotels in Taormina Coast in Sicily, where the show shoots, average $192 per night, though the site points out they can be had for as little as $90 per night provided you book in advance, and keep tabs on price alerts.
Is there a fourth baby in Kate Hudson‘s future? Even she can’t say for sure.
Hudson, 43, tells Byrdie in a story published on Monday that she’s “been having children [her] entire adult life” and hasn’t ruled out shooting for a fifth.
“I’ve got my 4-year-old, and I’ve got a kid in college,” notes Hudson, referring to her daughter Rani and 18-year-old son Ryder.
“I don’t even know if I’m done yet,” the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery actress, who is also the mother of 11-year-old son Bingham, tells the beauty and wellness outlet. “You know, I don’t have that answer yet.”
Hudson says she’s always evolving and recalibrating, asking herself, “Where am I at? And do I feel good? And do I feel healthy? And how are my kids? How’s my relationship?…Where do I need to spend some time refocusing?”
Hudson and musician Danny Fujikawa welcomed Rami in 2018 and announced their engagement this past September.
The Almost Famous star shares Ryder with ex-husband Chris Robinson, the frontman for The Black Crowes, and Bingham with ex Matt Bellamy, the frontman for Muse.
With a selfie to his Instagram, Timothée Chalamet announced on Monday that Dune: Part Two has finished principal photography. The photo shows the star shirtless, smiling with his father, Marc, with both holding up two fingers to the camera, and it generated more than 1.8 million likes in a matter of hours. “DUNE 2 WRAPPED,” Chalamet captioned simply, adding “with desert dad!!!” The photo was snapped in the sands of Abu Dhabi, UAE, subbing for the desert planet Arrakis. Dune: Part Two, the follow-up to the Oscar-winning 2021 film, will again star Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya and Josh Brolin; Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Christopher Walken and Javier Bardem will also star when the movie opens November 3, 2023…
HBO has reversed course and canceled the 1970s-set Minx as the series was about to finish shooting its second season. According to Variety, producer Lionsgate will look for a new home for the well-reviewed show, which starred Jake Johnson and Ophelia Lovibond as a pair trying to get an erotic magazine for women off the ground…
HBO has released the trailer to its upcoming series White House Plumbers, about the bungled burglary that led to the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon‘s presidency. The series, from Veep executive producer David Mandel, has Woody Harrelson playing E. Howard Hunt and Justin Theroux as G. Gordon Liddy, and in the trailer we see the “men of action” being recruited to surveil Nixon’s Democrat opponents at the Watergate hotel, and the burglars’ eventual arrest… (Video contains uncensored profanity)
Angelo Badalamenti, the composer who worked with director David Lynch for his films Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as his series Twin Peaks, has died. Badalamenti’s great nephew noted the passing with a black-and-white photo of the Brooklyn-born, Grammy-winning composer, noting, “My great uncle Angelo Badalamenti has crossed the barrier onto another plane of existence,” calling him, “A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others,” who worked with musical acts from Michael Jackson to Anthrax. Badalamenti was 85…
Stuart Margolin, the Emmy-winning character actor best known for playing con man Evelyn “Angel” Martin opposite James Garner on The Rockford Files, died Monday, his stepson and The Unit actor Max Martini announced on Instagram. Margolin was 82. His other credits include the Blake Edwards films S.O.B. and A Fine Mess, The Stone Killer, Death Wish alongside Charles Bronson and The Gambler, with James Caan. On TV, Margolin directed and/or appeared in shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Wonder Woman, Touched by an Angel, The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap and The Rockford Files…
Joshua Bassett unveiled his new tour on Monday, dubbed The Complicated Tour, which he hints will help set the tone for 2023.
Speaking with ABC Audio about his hopes for the new year, Bassett teased he has “many things” on the horizon — but he isn’t at liberty to talk about them yet.
“My fans kill me because I’m always like, ‘There’s stuff coming!’ And then I never talk about it,” he said, but hinted that fans should look forward to “a handful of projects” he has coming down the pipeline.
“There’s so many things and honestly, I want to continue to branch out,” he said. “I’d love to do any sort of acting project that challenges me and really puts me into a different character that is … edgier and grittier.”
At the moment, he is filming the new season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and recently starred in the new Disney+ movies Better Nate Than Ever and Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again.
Besides exploring new characters to play, Bassett said his main objective is “to tell stories in whatever way I can and to put as much goodness and love and positivity into the world.”
“Whatever that looks like, that’s what I’m going for,” he said.
Bassett’s 32-date tour, which features North American and European stops, kicks off March 8 in San Francisco, California. It wraps May 9 with a show in London, England. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 16, at 10 a.m. local venue time. For more information, visit Bassett’s official website.
Kathy Griffin took to Instagram to vent about Harry & Meghan, the Netflix docuseries about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
For one thing, the comedienne expected to witness “a great love story” — or at least one worthy of a prince.
“They met on freaking Instagram,” Kathy said. “Prince Harry was just flipping through Instagram looking for another hot brunette, like every other guy in LA. So I’m disappointed.”
Griffin continued, “I thought this was going to be a great love story. I mean, have they watched The Crown?” Instead, “Prince Harry’s like Armie Hammer,” the disgraced actor who allegedly scoured Instagram for women, some of whom he reportedly victimized.
She also took issue with Meghan not addressing “at all” her first gig on Deal or No Deal. “That’s a great union gig for an actress,” Griffin protested.
She did allow, “I’m in, I’m going to watch. So don’t attack me.”
