Entertainment

black-ish was renewed for its eighth and final season back in May, and Tracee Ellis Ross, who plays the Johnson family matriarch Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson, says the final show will be a bittersweet moment for her.

“I’m ready for it to be the end, and also it’s going to be really hard. I mean, eight years we’ve watched the TV kids grow up. We’ve watched [Anthony Anderson’s] beard do tons of different things,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar.

“But also, I found my voice. It came before, but I really started using it during black-ish,” adds the 49-year-old actress.

Ross says the show has offered her “a different and larger platform” to speak out on issues of representation in media and political representation for women. That included hosting the second night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention and highlighting Kamala Harris‘ historic nomination for vice president.

black-ish premiered in 2014 and has earned three Emmy Awards. Ross won a Golden Globe in 2017 for her work on the show and, in doing so, became the first Black actress to win best actress in a TV comedy Golden Globe since Debbie Allen in 1983.

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With the Marvel Cinematic Universe expanding further into television, fans are hopeful that the MCU is brewing up a WandaVision spinoff series about Agatha Harkness, who was played by standout star Kathryn Hahn.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the Emmy-nominated actress was asked if everyone’s favorite nosy neighbor will be getting her last laugh on the Disney+ streaming service. But all Hahn was willing to part with was, “Anything can happen.”

“Listen, I don’t even know if there is such a thing as a WandaVision spinoff,” she continued, referencing reports from earlier this month that one was underway. “All I can say is, I love Agatha and, as we know, anything can happen in Marvel. So who knows.”

Reports of a potential spinoff sparked in early October when Deadline seemingly confirmed a show about Agatha Harkness was in the works.

Fans remain hopeful the rumors are true, citing the character’s rich comic history.  Agatha made her debut 51 years ago in the 1970 comic book Fantastic Four #94 — giving showrunners plenty of material to translate onto the small screen, and maybe even the big screen.

It is rumored that Agatha will make her movie debut soon, with fans speculating about a possible Agatha cameo in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness because it features Scarlet Witch, played by WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen, as a main character. 

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A cryptocurrency based on — but not licensed by — the smash Netflix show Squid Game is smashing expectations. 

The digital currency SQUID began trading Tuesday at just $0.01235. As of around 12:30 p.m. Friday, it was worth $10.41 — a gain of more than 82,000%. 

That’s a market cap potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But there’s a catch.

For those traders with visions of the show’s giant piggy bank, take note: the crypto trading site CoinMarketCap warned potential investors, “We have received multiple reports that the users are not able to sell this token in [the online crypto exchange] Pancakeswap. Please exercise caution while trading!”

The New York Post notes the issue might be a mechanism within the currency’s creators that doesn’t allow so-called “pump and dump” activity for it. 

So why was SQUID created? Evidently for a crypto-based online tournament called the Squid Game Project, which launches in November and promises to replicate the games on the popular show, with its crypto both required to play and at stake as prizes.

Unlike the show, however, SQUID’s organizers note, “we do not provide deadly consequences” for losing, declaring, “Your experience will only reflect on the joy of winning rewards and sorrow of losing money when the game [is] failed.”

Also unlike the show Squid Game, the jackpot isn’t limited to the $38.5 million. “The more people join, the larger [the] reward pool will be,” organizers promise.

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Yeardley Smith has not only been the iconic voice of Lisa Simpson since The Simpsons began more than 32 seasons ago, but she’s also the producer and co-host of her hit podcast, Small Town Dicks. 

The true-crime series is co-hosted by two anonymous identical twin detectives Dave and Dan — the latter of whom is married to Smith — and investigates big crimes that happen in small towns. Smith tells ABC Audio the series is a fun transition from Simpsons.

“I mean, it’s it sort of couldn’t be more opposite,” she says, before switching to Lisa’s voice, “‘Lisa Simpson is, even when she’s having a bad day, she finds the silver lining in the dark cloud.'” Whereas “Small Town Dicks is murder and mayhem, and what’s the worst possible thing a person could do to another person?”

Smith adds, “People ask me, ‘why do you think people are obsessed with true crime, and particularly women?’ I think it’s multifold, obviously, but I do think that people like the good guys to win,” she says.

“And even as we have this really relevant conversation about policing in America, at the end of the day, if somebody is breaking into your house who you’re going to call right, you’re going to call 9-1-1.”

The Simpsons just ran its annual pre-Halloween “Treehouse of Horror” episode, which Smith says the cast likes as much as the fans do. “[Y]ou get to go even further, and you get to parody some of your favorite stories, favorite shows, genres, whatever it is for us as the actors, it’s so fun,” she explains.

Smith even spilled some tea. “We actually just recorded the next ‘Treehouse of Horror’ already because they’re so labor-intensive for the writers and the animators. There is a…a fantastic parody of Westworld where Lisa becomes Bart and basically like takes on his bratty, bratty, and Bart becomes the goody two shoes and the world is falling apart. So, yeah, it’s pretty good.” 

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Gemma Chan is no stranger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although she’s set to star in the upcoming Eternals movie, she first joined the MCU almost three years ago as the blue-skinned villain Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel.

Minn-Erva met her demise toward the end of the 2019 film, thus allowing Chan to take on the mantle of Sersi in Eternals, a hero who is almost the complete opposite of Minn-Erva.

“To be honest, I was as surprised as anyone else. I was not expected to be back,” the 38-year-old told ScreenRant about returning to the MCU.  “I obviously jumped at the chance…And you know what? This time I don’t have to be painted blue, so I didn’t have to do the 2:30am or 3am call times to be four hours sprayed with body paint. So, that was good.”

Eternals, directed by Chloé Zhao and also starring Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Kit Harrington, arrives in theaters on November 5.

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

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Reggie Rock Bythewood, series creator of Swagger, admits that 2020 put an unexpected wrench in his Kevin Durant-inspired Apple TV+ sports drama.

“Like most people, I could have never imagined what would’ve happened,” Bythewood tells ABC Audio of the challenges that 2020 brought to his production.

Bythewood says his initial plan for the series was to follow “youth [basketball] players and…their journey.” However, his plan quickly changed when COVID-19 hit, along with the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

“[T]he world…felt like it was being disrupted,” he shares. “So when we shut down during the pandemic…I just really felt like we needed to address what was going on… in the show.”

In addition to capturing “real time” events, Bythewood made sure to capture the DMV culture through the use of the funk-inspired go-go music genre, which he says was a “big part of his storytelling.”

“One of my writers…was from the DMV and she spoke about it, [Durant] spoke about it, and it just felt…authentic,” he says of making go-go music a “small character” in the show.

Like the creator, the cast says they also connected with something authentic when portraying their characters.

“I channeled…my father [Ice Cube],” O’Shea Jackson Jr. says of playing Coach Ike. “My father was my basketball coach, and I went on to coach my little brother, so I already had that…love for the game.”

Meanwhile, Isaiah Hill says he tapped into his confident side when portraying rising basketball star Jace.

“I had to really bring out some anger — the desire to want that exposure, the desire to want to be seen by the world as a certain player,” he shares.

Swagger is now available on Apple TV+.

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Mila Kunis apparently cannot handle spicy food. And according to a new interview, she also cannot handle her husband’s lies.

The Golden Globe-nominee was the latest guest on First We Feast’s Hot Ones and, while chowing down on a buffet of super-spicy wings, ratted out husband Ashton Kutcher for willingly giving himself pancreatitis… twice. Mayo Clinic describes the condition as a painful inflammation of the pancreas, which can sometimes lead to life-threatening complications or, if repeated, can damage the pancreas.

During a segment called “Spousal Fact Check,” Kunis was asked to verify an answer Kutcher gave during his September 2019 appearance on the show, when he confessed to being hospitalized for “drinking carrot juice non-stop all day long” when preparing to play Steve Jobs in the 2013 film, Jobs.

Kunis said her husband was lying and remarked, “He’s downplaying it. He was so dumb.”

“I think he only ate grapes at one point… it’s so stupid,” she groaned, noting Kutcher attempted to follow Steve Jobs’ restrictive diet of mostly fruits, nuts and grains. “We ended up in the hospital twice. With pancreatitis. So, fact check, yes. It was really dumb.”

Kunis also called out her husband, who was apparently watching the interview off camera, for another lie. He previously claimed to have thrown out all his signature trucker hats and the wardrobe he amassed from That 70s Show. According to Kunis, Ashton instead shoved the entire collection “downstairs,” and shouted “lies” when the actor attempted to defend himself.

All this happened in the early stages of the interview, when Kunis was able to handle the heat.  As the Scoville units skyrocketed on the chicken wings, Kunis struggled to form sentences and even resorted to drinking ranch dressing in order to take off the edge.

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Regina King has officially cemented her career in Hollywood — literally. 

In a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday, the Emmy and Oscar-winning actress cemented her handprints and footprints in front of the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre. In addition to her prints, she signed her name and added the phrase, “No place like home!”

Speaking with Access Hollywood at the induction, King admitted that she was “still taking it all in.”

“I’ve been playing it cool the week coming up to this…but as I woke up and we got closer and closer, I got those butterflies in my stomach,” she shared. 

“I’m going to be forever in this space that I’ve known forever at a place where all the greats have made their mark,” the Watchmen alum added, noting that to receive the honor is “surreal.”

King, 50, began her career at just 14. Since then she’s received numerous accolades, including four Primetime Emmys, the most for a Black entertainer. She was also named one of TIME’s most influential people in 2019. 

King has appeared in a host of movies and shows during her lengthy career including Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, Legally Blonde: Red, White & Blonde, the Big Bang Theory, and If Beale Street Could Talk, winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the latter. Her latest work, The Harder They Fall, premieres Wednesday on Netflix.

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Elf is considered a holiday staple and fans have long wondered why the popular film doesn’t have a sequel.  Star Will Ferrell revealed in a new interview that he stopped it from being made.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor opened up about his decision to table Elf 2, saying it had nothing to do with money.  In fact, he says he was offered a handsome $29 million to reprise the lovable Buddy the Elf.

According to the actor, he hints the only good thing about the potential sequel was the paycheck.

“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place,” Ferrell reflected, “which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.'”

Noting of the script’s rehashed premise, he said he mulled over what his motivation would be for doing such a film and confessed, “I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.'”

Elf, also starring Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner and James Caan, danced into theaters in October 2003 and Ferrell admits he once thought the now iconic Christmas film would be the death of his acting career.

There was a moment, he admits, when he was in New York City wearing Buddy’s fashionable yellow tights and thought to himself, “Boy, this could be the end.”

Then the movie charmed its test audience, with the actor gaining hope — especially after one test group of what appeared to be “USC frat boys” also enjoyed the feel-good film.

Elf proved to be a hit and a boon for Ferrell’s career, amassing $222.3 million during its box office run and, according to some critics, is considered one of the greatest Christmas films of all time.

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It took some doing, but independent studio A24 has come up with a giveaway to promote its thriller Lamb that’s as weird as the Icelandic import itself.

While the gag gives away a spoiler the movie holds onto — painstakingly — for a majority of its running time, the studio is giving away a baby doll of the movie’s half-human half lamb hybrid, Ada [AH-dah].

The dark folktale from Icelandic directing newcomer Valdimar Jóhannsson stars Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as a childless couple who discover one of their sheep has birthed a hybrid child. Ada is an offspring with a human body and a lamb’s face — and the couple decides to raise her as their own, as people in Icelandic films might wont to do. 

A24 is giving people the chance to follow in their footsteps with its #AdoptAda contest. Just post a video about why you should be Ada’s primary caregiver, tagging @A24, and use the hashtag #AdoptAda for a chance to bring Ada home. 

Ada comes complete with her trademark galoshes, overalls, and a cable knit sweater to complete her baby lamb ensemble.

“Baba Ada can be yours forever,” the odd little online ad notes, giving you “the gift of a lifetime: parenthood.”

It also warns, “Protection from other sheep not included.”

Submission videos can be shared on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and a winner will be announced Monday, November 1.

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