Entertainment

Angelina Jolie is set to star in a new biopic that follows the life of American-born Greek opera singer Maria Callas.

Titled Maria, the film comes from director Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight — the team behind last year’s Spencer, which starred Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana.

According to Variety, the upcoming film will tell the “tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.”

“I take very seriously this responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy,” Jolie said. “I will give all I can to meet the challenge.”

Larraín expressed his excitement at getting to take on this project with Jolie.

“Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,” Larraín told Variety. “To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.”

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Channing Tatum is ready for even more magic in Miami.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the surprise third installment of Tatum’s movies about male strippers, is set to release on Valentine’s Day weekend in 2023. Tatum announced the news via Instagram on Friday, where he shared a photo of his character Mike Lane pulling up his shirt for none other than Salma Hayek.

“All good things begin in Miami,” Tatum wrote, also announcing that the Magic Mike Live Tour is now open in that city.

Hayek also posted the photo, writing, “A tease of what’s to come in theaters this Valentine’s Day weekend. You’re not going to want to miss #MagicMikesLastDance.”

The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh, who helmed the original Magic Mike movie back in 2012. Soderbergh said in a statement that watching the Magic Mike Live Las Vegas show is what made him want to make another film.

“As soon as I saw what Channing … and the Magic Mike choreographic team did with the live show, I said we have to make another movie,” Soderbergh said. “Mike Lane’s dream of connecting people through dance must be realized!”

Magic Mike’s Last Dance will be available on HBO Max and in theaters starting February 10, 2023.

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James Corden is speaking out following an incident at a New York restaurant that almost got him banned.

“I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” Corden tells The New York Times in his first public statement since Balthazar owner Keith McNally called him “the most abusive customer” in the restaurant’s 25-year history. “I was there. I get it. I feel so zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us.”

The Late Late Show host says that he “hasn’t read anything” that McNally has posted but does plan to acknowledge the backlash on his show next week.

“I haven’t really read anything. It’s strange. It’s strange when you were there. I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it,” he says, adding that “it feels like such a silly thing to talk about.”

Earlier this week, McNally detailed Corden’s alleged rudeness to staff in an Instagram post, saying that he would be refusing service to him in the future.

After the post went viral, McNally shared a new post saying that Corden called him and “apologized profusely.” “All is forgiven,” McNally wrote, adding that he was reversing the ban.

Following Corden’s latest comments to The Times, however, McNally got back on Instagram Fridayand laid into Corden for denying any wrongdoing. “[H]e should at least admit he did wrong,” McNally wrote. “If he goes one step further and apologizes to the 2 servers he insulted, I’ll let him eat for free at Balthazar for the next 10 years.”

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Following Dame Judi Dench‘s letter to The Times, Netflix has added a disclaimer to The Crown. 

In the description box for the season five trailer of The Crown, Netflix writes, “inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.” 

The disclaimer arrives one day after Dench, who was named a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988, penned a letter to The Times, calling out the Netflix series for blending “historical accuracy and crude sensationalism” in its portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II and her reign over the United Kingdom. The Queen passed away in September at the age of 96.  

“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a ‘fictionalized drama’, the program makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode,” Dench wrote. 

“The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events,” a representative from Netflix tells Variety. “Series five is a fictional dramatization, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the Royal Family – one that has already been scrutinised and well documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”

The publication also reports that British officials at Buckingham Palace have expressed concern over the series’ portrayal of the monarch, especially that of King Charles III‘s relationship with current wife Queen Consort Camilla, who he had an affair with while married to the late Princess Diana.  

The Crown season five premieres on November 9. 

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Digging up the past isn’t necessarily a productive step in moving on, but for half brothers Raymond and Ray, played by Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, it’s their deceased father’s last request. In the new film Raymond and Ray, out Friday on Apple TV+, the estranged siblings embark on an awkward road trip to dig their father’s grave. Along the way, they grapple with painful memories caused by his psychological abuse.

McGregor, who plays Raymond, tells ABC Audio that his character has never fully moved on from his traumatic upbringing.

“It’s his brother Ray that just teases out of him, like, ‘You’ve got to experience the anger, can’t you be angry with him, can’t you be angry with him?’” he says. “And finally Raymond can unlock it, and oh my goodness, does it come pouring out, the rage.”

For Hawke, the premise of the film reminds him of his own life experience. After the death of his well-liked grandfather, he learned things about a person he thought he knew.

“I remember, that was the first time at his funeral that I really realized how many aspects to a human being there were,” he says. “People that were telling these stories that seemed so far away from anything — I knew this person really well, and there were these huge chapters of his life that I never had contact with.”

In this tale of two Rays, Hawke says we learn that our perception of someone may not be universal. “I think the script gets at that in a really beautiful way,” he says.

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The Critics Choice Awards has announced that Chelsea Handler will host this year’s ceremony. The event will take place January 15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, where it will be broadcast live, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on the CW. Handler will be succeeding Taye Diggs for the 28th annual awards show; Diggs hosted the event for the past four years…

CBS’ drama FBI posted online a short video teasing the return of lead Missy Peregrym. The actress, who plays Agent Maggie Bell on the hit show, has been on maternity leave, but will return on the November 15 installment of the series. Missy’s onscreen partner, Zeeko Zaki, is shown with his suit jacket hiding the actress from frame, before shouting, “Look who’s back!” and revealing her, to the cheers of the castmates on set. The show dealt with her absence by saying Bell was recovering after a terrorist gas attack…

Trevor Noah‘s has dropped a teaser of his third Netflix special. I Wish You Would will premiere globally on November 22. The Hollywood Reporter points out Noah shot the stand-up show in Toronto 24 hours after he announced he was stepping away from The Daily Show…

Amazon has canceled As We See It after just one season, Variety has learned. The series is about three adults with autism — played by Rick Glassman, Albert Rutecki, Sue Ann Pien — and the various challenges they face trying to navigate work and love and life. Sosie Bacon, Chris Pang and Joe Mantegna also starred…

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The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is 34 days away, and this year it’ll feature a new, interactive balloon honoring the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This is the third balloon for protagonist Greg Heffley, who will make his 13th appearance at the world-famous parade.

Author Jeff Kinney gave ABC Audio the exclusive on the new balloon: “We’re going back to the basics … This time we’re really focusing on Cheese Touch.”

The Cheese Touch is a superstition originating in the first book that said touching the moldy piece of cheese laying on the school’s outdoor basketball court would curse kids and turn them into social pariahs. 

“This balloon has an element that’s something that Macy’s has never done before,” Kinney explained, noting there will be a car driving ahead of the newly redesigned Greg balloon that’ll look like that infamous moldy piece of cheese.  

“We’re going to have green fog coming off the cheese. So it will look like it smells. So that’s going to be really fun,” said Kinney, adding the Greg balloon will spend the entire parade trying to touch that stinky slice. He added, “We really want to push the envelope with this balloon and I think it will be really special.”

Kinney, who also illustrates the Wimpy Kid books, continued, “To be able to sketch something on the back of a napkin and then see it in three dimensions and then see it on the parade route. It’s so exciting … [these books] have been life-changing for me.”

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold over 275 million copies since first being published in 2007.  

The 96th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off Thursday, November 24, at 9 a.m. ET. It’ll air on NBC and Peacock.

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Olivia Wilde and her ex Jason Sudeikis may have called a former nanny’s rumors about them false, but one ingredient of her story is getting stronger: Wilde’s salad dressing. 

And now the mustard brand Grey Poupon is layering on the snark because of it. 

The nanny claimed this “special dressing” that Wilde reportedly made for her now-boyfriend, Harry Styles, reportedly made Sudeikis jealous enough for him to lay under her car to make her late for a meet-up with her Don’t Worry Darling leading man. 

Again, both Wilde and Sudeikis called the allegations false, but as reported, Wilde recently raised eyebrows when she posted the actual recipe, cribbed from Nora Ephron‘s book Heartburn. “Mix 2 tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar,” the recipe said in part. 

The mustard brand evidently heard about it and is now offering a limited edition Don’t Worry Dijon. On Instagram it displayed a picture of the newly redesigned bottle, complete with new branding and the cheeky tagline, “Made with Style.”

Grey Poupon invited users to stay tuned to see how they can win their own bottle of the stuff. 

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Steven Spielberg‘s Oscar-winning classic E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial had its 40th birthday in June, and in celebration, Universal has just released an all-new 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and digital version of the film.

E.T. The 40th Anniversary Edition includes 45 minutes of all-new bonus features, including a retrospective of the film and its legacy, as well as a featurette with Spielberg reflecting on his career and the making of the film.

The new version also includes deleted scenes, a cast and filmmaker reunion, and a discussion with John Williams about the iconic, Academy Award-winning score from the film.

“I think it’s great because, you know … it has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts,” Henry Thomas, who played Elliot in the film, tells ABC Audio.

He continues, “[E.T. was] a lot of people’s first experience of seeing a film in the theater. And so it’s special and they’re showing it to their kids. And, you know, it’s kind of become our generation’s Wizard of Oz.”

The movie is so beloved that Thomas’ audition tape recently resurfaced and went viral online. The improvised scene saw the child actor conjuring real tears and famously ends with Spielberg, off camera, saying, “OK, kid: You got the job.”

About that, Thomas laughs, “I think it’s kind of funny, actually, because, you know, when I see the audition tape, I just see, like, myself being really scared and desperate to get a job. You know … I don’t see any acting genius there.”

Equally unimpressed were Thomas’ three kids. “I expected them to be amazed that I was in this movie. But they immediately … said, ‘Oh, that’s when you were a kid. This was the famous movie you did when you were a kid, Dad.'”  

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Actor Kevin Spacey was found not liable Thursday in a civil sexual abuse trial brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp.

The lawsuit against the Oscar winner has been dismissed.

The accusations stemmed from an incident in 1986 when Rent veteran Rapp alleged Spacey climbed on top of him at a party when he was just 14 years old and Spacey was 26.

An emotional Spacey told jurors in court testimony Monday that the allegations were not true.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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