Entertainment

Wilmer Valderrama has lent his voice to projects including the hit kid’s show Handy Manny, and Disney/Pixar’s Onward, among others. But none are as personal to him as his latest podcast project. 

The That 70s Show veteran explained to Variety that his new series, Essential Voices, is dedicated to the essential workers and first responders who helped his father — and millions of others — battle through COVID-19. 

Valderrama’s father contracted the disease and suffered two minor heart attacks in the past year, the actor said, explaining of those who helped, “They showed up and helped my dad be with us for many more years.”

The NCIS star added, “I’m so thankful, and I want to make sure their voices are heard. That’s my small contribution back for what they’ve done for my family.”

His father is still recovering from the disease, “working through his respiratory stuff, and he’s still trying to get his stamina back,” Wilmer said. “He’s working out every day. I always joke with him that he reminds me of Stella because he’s trying to get his groove back.”

The Essential Voices podcast also hails those in the community who fought food insecurity throughout the pandemic, and others who are still doing what they can to save lives and raise spirits.

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More than 80 authentic props from the landmark Discovery Channel science series Mythbusters are hitting the auction block, to benefit the Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation.

The non-profit was established after the engineer, robotics genius and former cast member after his untimely death in 2020, and “provides mentorships, grants and scholarships to underserved youth in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art and math.”

PropStore is handling the auction, which will let fans get their hands on items like the mechanical shark built by Imahara for 2008’s “Shark Week Special,” as well as Grant’s “Robo-cat” for the “Dog Myths” show, and spent rockets from various episodes, pieces of the poor crash test dummy/mascot Buster, and much more.

Many of the items were autographed by Grant’s friend and fellow Mythbuster Adam Savage, to boot.

The auction begins Friday, August 20 at noon Eastern time, and runs through Wednesday, September 1, 2021. To check out previews and register to bid at Propstore.com.

Imahara died one year ago this month of a previously undiagnosed intracranial aneurysm. He was 49.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) As everyone knows, Twitter isn’t always the place to go to see any semblance of human unity, but it appears news that Bob Odenkirk collapsed on the Albuquerque set of Better Call Saul on Tuesday has managed to do the impossible.

There were the usual well-wishes from present and former fellow cast members, like his Better Call Saul co-star Michael McKean — who tweeted in part “You got this, brother!” — as well as an Instagram post from Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, who asked for “positive thoughts and prayers” for the actor.

However, so many messages came from regular folks supporting the star that his name is trending on the social media service. 

“I do not pray but I will do it for Bob Odenkirk to please be ok,” tweeted one fan.

“If anything bad happens to Bob Odenkirk, I will fight God,” noted USA Today‘s Barbara VanDenburgh.

“if anything happens to bob odenkirk we blow up the f***ing moon,” offered another.

Yet another added, “hopefully he was just dehydrated or something i cannot deal w a world in which bob odenkirk is experiencing suffering.”

One Twitter user summed it up: “One small positive observation from this troubling news: can you imagine anyone being more universally loved/respected than Bob Odenkirk? Never seen the entire timeline unite and rally behind someone so quickly.”

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Lisa Leslie knows basketball. That’s why it wasn’t much of a surprise when the three-time WNBA MVP and four-time Olympic gold medal winner was able to lead her Big3 league team, the Triplets, to victory in 2019, in her first year as coach.

Leslie tells Essence magazine that coaching a Big3 men’s team wasn’t that big of shock to her as a woman.

“I only get reminded we’re different when it’s time for my guys to change clothes in the locker room,” Leslie says, joking about giving her players their privacy.

“And then the second time is only in media,” she continues. “People ask me the question about being a woman and I’m like, ‘Oh, what about it?’ because it really is basketball. We all play this sport at such a high level and after a while, it’s like screens and picks and rolls and certain strategies that we all know. And then it’s hard effort and fight and that don’t got nothing to do with being a woman or a man, you know? You either come in and you’re mentally strong about it or you’re not.”

Considering Leslie’s glowing track record, including helping to coach the WNBA All-Stars to victory against the Tokyo-bound U.S. national team, it’s been asked whether the former-basketball star has any interest in coaching for the NBA.

“I would never say that I’m not interested,” Leslie shares. “For me, I love being a wife and a mom and I feel like it’s about sacrifices and the age of my children. Obviously, I’ve had those opportunities when my kids were younger and I wasn’t willing to do that. Now as my kids get older and they understand the routine of the house it’s a possibility.”

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Lucy Liu cleared the air about what really happened between her and Bill Murray on the set of Charlie’s Angels.   

Liu, who starred as Alex in the hit 2000 film, spoke with Los Angeles Times‘ Asian Enough podcast Tuesday and recalled the tumultuous relationship she had with Murray, who played Bosley. 

The Chinese-American actress said the two had an argument after she rehearsed a scene Murray was unable to join because he had to attend a “family gathering.”  When he returned, Liu said he began to “hurl insults” that “kept going on and on.”

“I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me,'” the Emmy nominee recalled. “I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’ And clearly he was, because then it started to become a one-on-one communication.”

Liu, who said she had “the least amount of privilege in terms of creatively participating” in the movie because “I was the last one cast,” didn’t tolerate the way Murray allegedly treated her.

“Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it,” the 52-year-old actress continued. “So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”

Liu revealed that, several years after Charlie’s Angels hit theaters, cast members approached her and said “they were really grateful that I did that.”

“I have nothing against Bill Murray at all,” she clarified, saying they’ve run into each other since and been cordial. “But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”

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Ruby Rose is “sending around love” after her recent hospitalization. 

Taking to Instagram Stories on Tuesday, the former Batwoman star revealed that she had to be hospitalized after suffering complications following surgery.

“I did have a procedure and I had to have surgery, but it was fine and the surgery went well,” she began. “But then I had a few complications and I had to go to the emergency room to go to the hospital.”

The Australian actress then recalled having trouble being admitted. 

“We called an ambulance and it took hours to find a hospital that would be able to take me or anyone,” she recalled as her eyes began to well with tears.  Rose said even though her case was “quite serious,” hospitals were rejecting people but she was able to finally get a room “after a bit of a standoff.”

The 35-year-old actress then thanked the healthcare team, raving, that they were “amazing, all the front-liners are amazing.”

Rose attributed the difficulty for her to get admitted into a hospital to to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and urged her followers to protect themselves. 

“Please stay safe, try to keep everyone safe. Get vaccinated if you can, please,” she said. “It’s just…it doesn’t need to be this hard for everyone and I just can’t imagine all the other people that are having way more, way, way more serious situations happening right now.”

“I’m just sending around love…love you all are care of yourselves,” she concluded.

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Bob Odenkirk has reportedly been hospitalized after suffering a medical emergency while filming Better Call Saul.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the 58-year-old actor is still undergoing treatment after collapsing on the show’s set on Tuesday.  Sources tell the outlet that crew members immediately surrounded the fallen actor and summoned an ambulance.

Sources were unable to say if the four-time Emmy nominated actor was conscious when medics arrived.

It is unknown what triggered the episode and, at print time, his condition remains unknown.  

Odenkirk was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to film the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, a prequel/spinoff of AMC’s popular Breaking Bad series.  It is unknown if production has been delayed in lieu of the incident.

Request for comment from representatives of Odenkirk and AMC have not been returned.

TMZ was first to break the news.

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Rege-Jean Page is walking in 007’s footsteps.  No, the Bridgerton star hasn’t been cast as James Bond — yet — but he’s taking the lead role in The Saint, an adaptation of a 1960s U.K. spy series that once was a Bond-precursor for the late Roger Moore.

The Hollywood Reporter says Page will co-produce and star as Simon Templar, a suave, wealthy man who moonlights as a master of disguise and expert thief who, in true Robin Hood fashion, usually steals from the wealthy to the benefit of the poor.

Moore’s role in the 1960s series led to him play James Bond on the big screen in seven films, succeeding Sean Connery and George Lazenby before him.

The Simon Templar character was created by author and screenwriter Leslie Charteris, and was featured in a series of books, radio shows and films over the years. 

Most recently, Val Kilmer played Templar in the big-screen version of The Saint in 1997.

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A YouTuber whose viral deepfake fix to a digitally de-aged Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian was given, as Darth Vader might say, a “substantial reward” for his efforts. He now works for Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas‘ effects company, which has brought Star Wars‘ effects to life since the original 1977 film.

The content creator who calls himself Shamook had more than 2.4 million views of his handiwork, which compared his work to ILM’s.  Iinstead of more common digital de-aging tricks, he used so-called deepfake technology to more realistically replicate how the now-69-year-old actor appeared in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, which is set about five years before The Mandalorian.

In a message to his more than 80 thousand followers in his most recent video two weeks ago, Shamook revealed, “As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilms [sic] a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content.”

A representative for ILM confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that they’d hired Shamook, adding the company is “always on the lookout for talented artists.”

Deepfake technology uses machine learning to shuffle through tens of thousands of images to create a new one — sometimes replacing one person’s image for another.

Among many others, Shamook has previously swapped faces of Alden Ehrenreich, who played a young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story, with that of original star Harrison Ford, and swapped previous Spider-Man Tobey Maguire for Tom Holland‘s face in various Marvel movies.  

Shamook also famously fixed Warner Bros. much-maligned mustache-removal CG on Henry Cavill‘s face as Superman in Joss Whedon‘s reshoots for Justice League.

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

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Former Prison Break star Wentworth Miller took to Instagram to reveal he was diagnosed as autistic last year.

“Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis,” the 49-year-old actor explained, adding, “[It was] a shock. But not a surprise.”

Miller noted that he has too much learn about the disorder to bear the mantle for it.

“There is a now-familiar cultural narrative…that goes ‘Public figure shares A, B and C publicly, dedicates platform to D, E and F,” he maintained. “[T]hat’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here….Right now my work looks like evolving my understanding. Re-examining 5 decades of lived experience thru a new lens. That will take time.”

He continued, “I don’t want to run the risk of suddenly being a loud, ill-informed voice in the room. The #autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don’t wish to do additional harm.”

Miller said he wouldn’t change his diagnosis, noting that he’s realized “being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I’ve achieved/articulated.”

The actor also thanked “the many (many) people who consciously or unconsciously gave me that extra bit of grace + space over the years, allowed me to move thru the world in a way that made sense to me whether or not it made sense to them.”

Miller revealed he was gay in 2013, and also revealed that being cyberbullied about his appearance at one point left him suicidal.

In 2019, he revealed he wouldn’t return to a Prison Break reboot, and that he was “done” playing straight characters. This season, he reprised his role on Law & Order: SVU as ADA Isaiah Holmes in an episode that revealed Holmes had been bullied because of his sexuality.

 

 

 

 

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