Entertainment

In a little skit they played out on Instagram, Courteney Cox busted her Scream co-star Melissa Barrera for being a little too obsessed with Friends. 

The episode Cox posted online started with a guitar riff and a tilt up to a building, specifically 90 Bedford street in Lower Manhattan — more specifically, the building that was used as the exterior shots of Monica Gellar’s apartment on the hit sitcom.

The musical interlude, with the camera tilting up at the building, perfectly imitated the show’s trademark scene transitions. But in this case, Barrera walks towards the famous facade. 

“Melissa, how are you?” Cox stops the actress in her tracks. “Where are you going?”

Barrera replies, “I’m just going home.”

Cox says, “Hm, that’s weird. I don’t think that’s your home,” before adding, “I’m actually really happy you joined the Scream cast, but this is not OK. This is off limits.”

“No, Melissa. No,” Cox continues. “There’s only so much. Come on, go back to the Heights,” snarkily referencing the younger actress’ role in In the Heights.

Barrera storms off, with a Monica-like “I KNOW!”

“Stop imitating me!” Cox yells, before huffing to herself, “Oh, so pathetic!”

The cute exchange got more than 560,000 likes on Instagram in less than a day.

The pair will share the screen again when the fifth Scream film comes out next November.

 

 

 

 

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Prentice Penny is sharing details about the fifth and final season of his hit HBO series Insecure.

After the season four finale left fans wondering whether main characters Issa and Lawrence could possibly ever get back together after Lawrence revealed that he accidentally impregnated his ex, Penny says it’s unlikely that fans will be “satisfied” with Issa’s relationship choices.

“They’re all going to feel like, ‘I want her with this person for this reason,'” Penny tells ABC Audio.

The showrunner admits that Issa’s love life was also a topic of “debate” in the writer’s room, noting that a happily-ever-after ending wasn’t necessarily on their agenda.

“We just tried to tell the most interesting story regardless of that and…not…let that weigh in too much,” he says.

While season five may not end with the perfect relationship pairings for fans, Penny does promise that the final season will offer “personal growth closure” for its characters.

“Not necessarily closure of the end of their story,” he explains. “Because one of the things that we kept getting tripped up on…was like, ‘How do we land the plane?’ And it was a lot of pressure…especially at HBO, where…a lot of finales get super scrutinized, like Game of Thrones and The Sopranos…where…people [are] like, ‘Why did they do this?'”

Pressure aside, Penny teases that the finale episode will be the perfect set-up for a continuation.

“We…realized…that the characters lives will continue, it’s just we’re not following them,” he says. “So we… started to ask the question, ‘Well, if we were doing season six, what would be an interesting place to start… from?” And that became…where we should end the show.”

Season five of Insecure premieres Sunday, October 24, at 10 p.m. ET.

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Fans of the hit Sony PlayStation Uncharted series can finally see a trailer for the big-screen adaptation, due out in February.

The long-gestating project stars Tom Holland as the series’ adventurer, Nathan Drake, and Wahlberg as Victor “Sully” Sullivan, both partners on the hunt for a priceless lost treasure. 

Unlike the game, Holland’s Drake is a bartender when he meets Wahlberg’s Sully, who recruits him for the lucrative quest. They soon run afoul of a baddie played by Antonio Banderas, who also wants the lost gold. 

Holland is dressed for the job, as Drake’s now well-known white shirt, brown pants and shoulder holster are on full display, and here — as in the game — Holland’s Drake can be seen dodging bullets and booby traps, and even dangling from a plane in midair.

That said, some Uncharted fans are still bummed that the role didn’t go to the guy Nathan Drake was made to look like: Nathan Fillion. Although actor Nolan North provided Drake’s voice in the games, The Rookie star was in the mix back in 2016, when Sony Pictures first began thinking of an Uncharted movie. Fillion even starred as Drake in a viral fan film that also starred Stephen Lang as Sully.

However, when asked recently about the upcoming film, Fillion was diplomatic. “My only regret is that we had to wait so very, very long…[to] actually see some Uncharted stuff,” Fillion told GamingBible. “Other than that, I think all my boxes have been checked,” Fillion went on. “I’m pretty excited to see what they do with that. I love movies and those guys have never let us down; Tom Holland, come on, Mark Wahlberg? We’re gonna have a great time.”

(Second video contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Director Nia DaCosta, who is set to helm The Marvels, the sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, is no stranger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  That said, she has her own thoughts on who’s to blame for Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War that wiped out half the universe.

Ever since Infinity War‘s release in 2018, fans have blamed Star-Lord’s inability to control his feelings, Thor’s overconfidence, and the decisions made by characters like Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff as the reasons Thanos succeeded. However, speaking to Inverse, DaCosta argues that Captain America’s decision to not sacrifice Vision places him squarely at fault for Thanos’ victory.

“Something I like to say a bit flippantly about Captain America is that the Snap is all his fault because he was trying to do his best, trying to do the right thing. There is a world in which he’s a villain because, at the end of the day, he should have just sacrificed Vision,” she says.

“[Captain America] chose one robot’s life, albeit a sentient one, over literally the entire universe,” she explains. “There’s a sort of anti-hero in that if you want to look at it through that lens. People would say I’m crazy for thinking that way, but there’s something connected to the journey of the anti-hero and the hero.”

Explaining the difference between the two, DaCosta says, “The hero’s pain is something that spurs them to martyr themselves,” she adds, “and an anti-hero’s pain is a thing that kind of starts their journey as opposed to ending it.”

The Marvels is slated to hit theaters on November 11, 2022.

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Blake Lively defended her three young daughters’ privacy on Wednesday after an Instagram user shared photos a member of the paparazzi took of them.

The Gossip Girl alum did not mince words when shaming the Hollywood Star Kids Instagram account and insinuated that they had gone back on their word not to post such images.

“This is so disturbing,” Lively commented in the now-deleted post, but has since shared her remarks to her Instagram story. “I’ve personally shared with you that these men stalk and harass my children. And you are still posting. You said you would stop. You personally promised me.”

She continued, “This is not casual appreciation. This is YOU also exploiting very young children. Please. Delete. Please. Some parents are ok with this. We. Are. NOT.”

Lively, who is married to Free Guy‘s Ryan Reynolds, also shouted out those who unfollowed the account by expressing, “YOU make ALL the difference. Thank you for your integrity.”

In July, Lively detailed a “frightening” experience where a man would not stop “stalking” her children, as she put it, and kept taking photographs of them.

The actress said she would “calmly approach the photographer… in order to speak to him” but he would “run away. And jump out again at the next block.”

Lively issued a demand to media outlets, asking them to stop paying photographers to “hide and hunt children.”  She also requested they run background checks on photographers and remarked, “Do you simply not care about the safety of children?”

She also called upon her followers to “stop following and block any publications or handles who publish kid’s pictures.”  The actress suggested more outlets may cease sharing “photos of children obtained by men frightening and stalking them” if enough readers take a stand.

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With the practices of meatless Mondays and sustainable eating growing in popularity, it begs to question if the the way we consume food is evolving out of necessity.  That is the premise of restauranteur David Chang‘s new show, The Next Thing You Eat.

Speaking with ABC Audio, Chang says the new series takes a hard look at the future of food and the challenges ahead.

“Everybody wants to eat more delicious things,” the chef acknowledged, but warned changes are needed to keep up with the rising demand. “By the year 2050, we’re not going to have enough protein to feed the world.”

Chang sees a potential solution in utilizing lab grown protein and tried synthetic salmon to see how it measured up to wild caught fish.

“It was really good,” he marveled and admitted “it melted my brain” to realize what he had on his plate was the product of sustainable science — not fishing.

“We have the ability to recreate [meat] in a way that does almost no damage and there’s no suffering,” the Eat a Peach author continued, but recognized that not everyone will be as willing to make the switch. “If it allows people to eat better fish more affordably, why would you be against that?”

Chang added that the technology can do far more than grow salmon and remarked, “We’re at that point where you can eat potentially anything.”

“The problem is, can it become cost effective?,” Chang added, leaving that questioned to be explored in his new show, The Next Thing You Eat, which is streaming now on Hulu. 

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Ruby Rose has stunned fans with claims that the actress and activist was fired from her former show, Batwoman, for speaking out against the show’s producers.

Rose, initially blamed their exit on an injury she suffered on set that left her with two herniated discs in her back. However, in an Instagram story, Rose changed her tune, telling fans she was fired for speaking out about the working conditions on set. 

“To my dear, dear fans still asking if I will return to that awful show, I wouldn’t return for any amount of money nor if a gun were to my head,” Rose posted in the lengthy story. “…NOR DID I QUIT,” she continued.  “Any threats, any bullying tactics or blackmail would not make me stand down.”

Rose explained that executives at Warner Bros. forced the star to return to set 10 days after her back injury. The Instagram story showed Rose’s MRIs and her getting prepped for surgery.

Rose also claimed that showrunner Caroline Dries pushed the Batwoman cast and crew to keep working during the pandemic, even after other CW shows were shut down.

The John Wick: Chapter 3 veteran also claims a production assistant was left a “quadriplegic” by an on-set accident, and another crew member suffered third-degree burns. “We were given no therapy after watching the skin fall off his face,” Rose writes.

She also claimed co-star Dougray Scott “abused women” on set, and in the message — in which Dries, Berlanti productions and producer Sarah Schecter were tagged — claimed she will go public about her time on the set. 

“I will come for you so that what happened to me never happens to another person again,” Rose said. “And so I can finally take back my life and the truth. Shame on you.”

In a statement to Deadline, Warner Bros. refuted Rose’s claims, calling it “revisionist history” and saying Rose was not asked back for season two because of “multiple complaints” about her workplace behavior. Dougray Scott also refuted the claims to TVLine, calling them “entirely made up.”

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Not even a day after Netflix head Ted Sarandos told Variety he “screwed up” about how he handled the company’s controversial Dave Chappelle special The Closer, comes a coordinated protest from trans employees and allies.

The hit special had been called transphobic by some, and even hate speech by others. 

Netflix employees staged a virtual walkout Wednesday, during which organizers declared “participating staffers will not do any work for Netflix and instead engage in content that does support the trans community and donate to charities,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

As that happens internally, supporters initially gathered at Netflix’s offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles to have their voices heard, but according to organizer Ashlee Marie Preston, the crowd grew too large at that location and moved to a nearby street. Several stars, including Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness, former Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramirez, and The Good Place‘s Jameela Jamil supported the protest, in a video introduced by Preston.

Preston also announced that Sarandon will be presented with a “list of demands” from the streaming service. 

According to The Verge, that list of demands from Netflix’s Trans Employee Resource Group (ERG) includes “steps…to begin to repair the relationship between the Company, our colleagues, and our audience.”

Specifically, the ERG wants Netflix, “to adopt measures in the areas of Content Investment, Employee Relations and Safety, and Harm Reduction, all of which are necessary to avoid future instances of platforming transphobia and hate speech, and to account for the harm we have caused.”

The Closer, in which Chappelle also railed against “cancel culture,” has become a hot potato for the streaming service. Amid the initial outcry, Sarandos defended it and Chappelle, noting freedom of speech and claiming that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”

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Lifetime has tapped an all-star cast for their winter 2022 film lineup.

The network announced they’re developing three new thrillers for next year’s holiday season. Those films include Single Black Female starring Raven Goodwin and Amber Riley as new best friends dealing with dark secrets; Line Sisters, a sorority sister drama headlined by LeToya Luckett and Kierra Sheard-Kelly; and Vanished: Searching for My Sister, which features Tatyana Ali in a dual role of twin sisters. Official release dates for the films have yet to be announced.

In other news, Amanda Lipitz, the award-winning director behind 2017’s Step, a documentary about a high school step team in inner-city Baltimore, has released a new documentary called Found. The feature follows three adopted American teenage girls who discover that they’re blood-related cousins and travel back to China together in search of answers. This is a personal story for Lipitz, who is aunt of one of the three adopted girls, Chloe Lipitz. Found is now available to stream on Netflix.

Finally, Paramount+ has released the official trailer to their upcoming The Game reboot. As previously noted, the 10-episode series will now take place in Las Vegas and will star many of the original cast members in their original roles. This includes Wendy Raquel Robinson as sports agent Tasha Mack, Hosea Chanchez as former star quarterback Malik Wright, and Pooch Hall as former footballer Derwin Davis. The new series is said to center on a “modern-day examination of Black culture through the prism of pro football.” Executive-produced by Mara Brock Akil, The Game launches on Paramount+ Thursday, November 11.

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