Entertainment

Fresh from its 20 Emmy nominations earlier this week, the Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso leads the pack with five nominations for this year’s Television Critics Association (TCA) awards.

Jason Sudeikis‘ series is in good company: Disney+’s Emmy leader WandaVision, along with HBO’s Emmy nominees Mare of Easttown, Hacks, and I Will Destroy You all earned four TCA nominations each.

Other shows recognized by the Television Academy this week were also represented in the TCA’s nominations, including The Flight Attendant, The Mandalorian, and Pose.

Like last year, the pandemic means no actual event will be held for the winners to gather their gold; instead, they’ll be notified at a later date. 

Here are the nominees for the 37th Annual Television Critics Association Awards: 

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You – HBO
Ethan Hawke, The Good Lord Bird – Showtime
Thuso Mbedu, The Underground Railroad – Amazon
Elizabeth Olsen, WandaVision – Disney+
Mj Rodriguez, Pose – FX
Omar Sy, Lupin – Netflix
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix
Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown – HBO

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

Bo Burnham, Bo Burnham: Inside – Netflix
Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant – HBO Max
Maya Erskine, Pen15 – Hulu
Renee Elise Goldsberry, Girls5Eva – Peacock
Charlotte Nicdao, Mythic Quest – Apple TV+
Jean Smart, Hacks – HBO Max
Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso – Apple TV+
Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso – Apple TV+

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM

Bridgerton – Netflix
The Flight Attendant – HBO Max
Hacks – HBO Max
I May Destroy You – HBO
Mare of Easttown – HBO
P-Valley – Starz
Ted Lasso – Apple TV+
WandaVision – Disney+

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES OR SPECIALS

Bo Burnham: Inside – Netflix
The Good Lord Bird – Showtime
I May Destroy You – HBO
It’s a Sin – HBO Max
Mare of Easttown – HBO
The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix
The Underground Railroad – Amazon
WandaVision – Disney+

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

Bridgerton – Netflix
The Crown – Netflix
For All Mankind – Apple TV+
The Handmaid’s Tale – Hulu
Lovecraft Country – HBO
The Mandalorian – Disney+
Pose – FX
P-Valley – Starz

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

The Flight Attendant – HBO Max
Girls5Eva – Peacock
Hacks – HBO Max
Mythic Quest – Apple TV+
Pen15 – Hulu
Superstore – NBC
Ted Lasso – Apple TV+
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist – NBC

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

Bridgerton – Netflix
Hacks – HBO Max
I May Destroy You – HBO
Mare of Easttown – HBO
The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix
Ted Lasso – Apple TV+
The Underground Railroad – Amazon
WandaVision – Disney+

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN VARIETY, TALK OR SKETCH

The Amber Ruffin Show – Peacock
A Black Lady Sketch Show – HBO 
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – Comedy Central
Desus & Mero – Showtime
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – HBO 
Late Night with Seth Meyers – NBC
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – CBS
Saturday Night Live – NBC
Ziwe – Showtime

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS AND INFORMATION

Allen v. Farrow – HBO
City So Real – NatGeo
Framing Britney Spears – FX/FX On Hulu
Frontline – PBS 
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – HBO
Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special – CBS
The Rachel Maddow Show – MSNBC
60 Minutes – CBS

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN REALITY

Couples Therapy – Showtime
Deaf U – Netflix
The Great Pottery Throw Down – HBO Max
Legendary – HBO Max
Nailed It! Double Trouble – Netflix
The Real World Homecoming: New York – Paramount+
Taste the Nation – Hulu
Top Chef: Portland – Bravo

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING

The Baby-Sitters Club – Netflix
Bluey – Disney Jr.
Donkey Hodie – PBS Kids
Emily’s Wonder Lab – Netflix
Odd Squad – PBS Kids
Sesame Street – HBO
Waffles + Mochi – Netflix
Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum – PBS Kids

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The first teaser trailer to 50 Cent‘s new Starz drama BMF has been released.

Inspired by the Black Mafia Family — also known as the B.M.F. — the new series will premiere on Sunday, September 26, at 9 p.m. ET. It will then move to its regular time slot at 8 p.m. ET. on Sunday, October 3. As previously reported, BMF follows the real-life story of brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who “rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in the country.” The series stars Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., Russell Hornsby, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony and Serayah, among others.

In other news, Grammy Award-winning producer and artist DJ Khaled has been tapped to join the celebrity judging panel for season two of TBS’ Go-Big Show. He joins Rosario Dawson, Jennifer Nettles and Cody Rhodes on the panel. The extreme talent-competition series, hosted by Bert Kreischer, features “some of the most extreme and death defying acts from around the country” as they battle to impress the judges and advance toward the finale’s ultimate $100,000 prize. Production on season two of Go-Big Show begins in August.

Finally, Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga has set their season-two premiere date. The new season will launch on September 8 with three new episodes, followed by an additional episode every Wednesday. Created and written by Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA, the series follows the group’s formation and examines how Bobby Diggs, better known as RZA, took his vision for the group and made it a success. Wu-Tang: An American Saga stars Shameik Moore, Ashton Sanders, Erika Alexanderand Joey Bada$$, among others.

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Stand-up comic and actor Gabriel Iglesias took to social media to tell fans that although he’s been vaccinated, he tested positive for COVID-19. 

In a video post accompany a message that reads “Announcement I didn’t want to make on my bday,” Iglesias, known to his fans as Fluffy, said, “I made sure I that I got tested by two different types of tests,” adding he has started to show some signs of symptoms, including body aches and chills.

“Other than that, I feel pretty good. I give credit to being vaccinated for getting me through this,” he said, in a voice more muted than usual. 

The comic noted that he has to isolate, forcing him to cancel his five remaining shows at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, and explained that he will “go back to work” when he gets three negative tests. Tickets will be refunded, the venue has announced.

“It’s not the way I wanted to spend my birthday, but I’m alive, and I have cake. I can’t taste it or smell it, but I have it,” Iglesias quipped, adding, “Wish me luck,” before thanking his fans.

Iglesias can currently be heard in the Disney+ show Monsters at Work.

 

 

 

 

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Robert Downey Jr. will appear in a small-screen project for the first time since his short stint on Saturday Night Live, playing multiple characters in an HBO series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sympathizer.

Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s book centers on a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist double agent during the final days of the Vietnam War and afterward, after he settles in the United States.

Deadline, which broke the news, says legendary Oldboy director Park Chan-wook will direct the series. The project will be produced by Team Downey, the company that the Marvel movie veteran runs with his wife, producer Susan Downey. 

According to the trade, Downey Jr. will play several characters, including an American congressman, a CIA agent and a Hollywood director. In a statement, Downey said, “Adapting Mr. Nguyen’s important and masterful work requires a visionary team. With…Park at the helm, I expect this to be a creative producing adventure for Susan, me and Team Downey, and a stimulating process for myself in playing these complex supporting roles.”

The series will reportedly feature a predominantly Southeast Asian cast.

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Iliza Shlesinger‘s new movie, Good on Paper, is not only based on her real-life dating horror story — it’s also a commentary on women being vilified for having standards.

In the Netflix comedy, Iliza’s character, Andrea Singer, meets a seemingly decent man that she’s neither physically nor sexually attracted to, but she succumbs to the pressure to “give him a chance.”  She learns soon after their relationship is built on a web of his lies.

Shlesinger tells ABC Audio that society frowns upon women who turn down prospective suitors.

“It’s easy to vilify women because our voices have been so underrepresented… It’s easy to make us into the enemy,” she said. “Women are supposed to be grateful and we’re supposed to just like whatever we’re given.”

Shlesinger continued, “Only in our society do we say to women, ‘Give him a chance, he’s nice to you.’ You never hear a mother say to her son, ‘Give this hideous girl a chance. I know you find her repulsive, but if you could just put your mouth on hers…’  It’s a power dynamic.”

The stand-up comic also delved into why women are sometimes deemed “picky.”

“It’s code for — God forbid — a woman knows what she wants. It’s just an attempt to make women doubt themselves,” Shlesinger expressed, noting that cultural mentality emphasizes the so-called “societal shelf-life women are told that they have.”

Good on Paper is a prime example of Shlesinger’s comedy, which tackles hot-button relationship issues while conducting “some real sociological digging.”

“I believe whatever you go through, you can make fun of,” she explained. “It all comes from an analytical place. But, more importantly, it comes from a funny place because — if it’s not funny, it’s just a TED talk.”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Chrissy Teigen is offering up her honest thoughts about being cancelled.  The media personality fell from grace after it was discovered she sent messages urging a then-teenaged Courtney Stodden to kill themselves.

The Cravings author released an extensive apology last month, but the fallout continued with Teigen losing endorsement deals, television opportunities and — overall — saw her brand tarnished.

Since then, the former model remained silent on social media, but on Wednesday, she addressed fans for the first time on Instagram and discussed what she’s learned in “Cancel club.”

“I don’t really know what to say here,” Teigen began, “just feels so weird to pretend nothing happened in this online world but feel like utter s*** in real life. Going outside sucks and doesn’t feel right, being at home alone with my mind makes my depressed head race.”

“I feel lost and need to find my place again, I need to snap out of this,” she continued. “I desperately wanna communicate with you guys instead of pretending everything is okay.”

Teigen, who is the wife of singer John Legend, added, “Cancel club is a fascinating thing and I have learned a [whole] lot.” She said the important takeaway is that she fully understands she had “clearly done something wrong.” 

“It just sucks. There is no winning,” the Bring the Funny alum admitted. “I just needed an honest moment with you because I’m just…tired of being sick with myself all day. I don’t even know if it’s good to say any of this.”

Expressing concern that her latest admission will be “brutally picked apart,” Teigen said she can no longer remain silent.

She concluded, “If you or someone you know has also been cancelled please let me know if there is a cancel club reunion because I could use some time off my couch!”

 

 

 

 

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Former Empire star Jussie Smollett again appeared in a Chicago courtroom Wednesday on matters stemming from that 2019 incident in which he claims he was jumped by two white supporters of President Donald Trump in what he alleges was a hate crime.

The Chicago Tribune reports Wednesday’s proceedings centered on one of Smollett’s attorneys, Nenye Uche, having a potential conflict of interest in the case. Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who claimed Smollett paid them $3,500 by check to help orchestrate and stage the crime, said Uche had previously reached out to represent them, something Uche denies.

Smollett was indicted for a second time in February of last year on six counts, including lying to investigators about the case. Prosecutors maintain he’d hired the brothers to stage the incident, and furnished as evidence the check the actor claimed was for “personal training.”

After they were seen on surveillance footage near the crime scene, the brothers told police Smollett concocted the assault after he became upset that a threatening letter sent to him did not get enough attention, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Smollett continues to insist the attack wasn’t staged.

Dan Webb, the special prosecutor tapped to investigate the case after the charges were initially dropped, said in February of 2020 that the actor made “numerous false statements to Chicago Police Department officers on multiple occasions, reporting a heinous hate crime he, in fact, knew had not occurred.”

That letter itself, which contained a white powder later found to be a pain reliever, is the center of a separate federal investigation. At the time, former Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson claimed the letter was also phony, but the investigation is apparently still ongoing.

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An Oklahoma judge has ordered resentencing for Tiger King star Joe Exotic.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit handed down the order Wednesday in the case of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, the man known as “Joe Exotic” from the popular Netflix series Tiger King, ABC News affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma City reports. However, his conviction was affirmed. 

In 2019, Maldonado-Passage was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating wildlife laws in addition to the failed murder-for-hire plots against his nemesis, Carole Baskin. At the time, he asked that the judge combine the sentence for the two murder-for-hire counts, but was instead given an individual sentence for each. 

“For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Maldonado-Passage’s conviction but vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing,” the court documents state.

To sum it up, “Joe Exotic is not going free,” KOCO reporter Dillon Richards shared on Twitter.

“He was originally sentenced to 264 months (the lower end of the 262-327 month range) Now the judge will have to re-sentence, but this time his range will be 210-262 months instead,” Richards explained. “So essentially the likely effect is that this could knock a couple years off his 22-year sentence.”

  

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The new documentary The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 is in theaters now and hits on demand streaming Friday.

Leonardo DiCaprio produced the doc that centers on a quest to find the creature scientists believe has spent its life in solitude because it sings at 52 Hertz, a frequency that, in theory, other whales can’t understand.

“It was first heard on a bunch of hydrophones in the ocean used by the Navy to suss out submarines,” director Joshua Zeman tells ABC Audio.  “They heard this mysterious sound. At first, they didn’t know what it was. And then the scientist, Dr. William Watkins, believed it was a whale, a whale that called at a frequency that was unknown by any other.”

Why are people so captivated by a lonely whale? That’s what Zeman, who notes people would “people would freak out [and] start to cry” when he told them the story, explores in the documentary.

“You know, they would get goosebumps,” he explains. “And I was like, what is it about this story? Like, I’m a storyteller. I pitch a lot of stories. And I had never gotten such a visceral reaction from people. And I was like, OK, just from a storytelling standpoint, I want to know what it is.”

“It’s the man’s existential human crisis staring back at them in the mirror. You know, we all don’t want to die alone, but it was also the fact that this fear and crisis and human condition was in the form of a whale,” adds Zeman. “You know, whales are so big, they humble us. And then maybe it’s because the ocean is just so vast. So, it’s like our human crisis, like supersized to the point of like blowing our minds.”

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