Entertainment

Ray J has been released from a Miami hospital and is back home after suffering from pneumonia.

TMZ reports that he was released over the weekend. The Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star is no longer using an inhaler and needing oxygen.

As previously reported, last week the singer/actor was feeling positive about his recovery. “I appreciate all the love and support from everybody,” Ray J said in a message that his manager, David Weintraub, shared with People. “Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, and I will be back up and running soon.”

Weintraub added that the illness was “not the contagious kind,” and that Ray does not have COVID-19, despite initially being placed in the hospital’s COVID unit. “They gave him multiple COVID tests, and he tested negative for all of them,” said Weintraub.

The manager added the illness is a result of the 40-year-old entertainer being a workaholic — shooting Love & Hip Hop, developing and promoting products through his Raycon brand, and producing new music.

Shortly after announcing that he was taken to the hospital, Ray J filed to divorce his wife of five years, Princess Love. The “Wait a Minute” singer cited irreconcilable differences as cause for their separation. Ray J is seeking joint custody of his and Love’s two children — Melody, 3, and Epik, 1.

Cracks in their relationship started to show last November, when the model accused her husband of leaving her “stranded” in Las Vegas and threatened to divorce him.

This latest filing marks the third time that the pair have tried to separate. Their first separation was in May 2020, but the couple patched things up that July and Love asked the court to dismiss her request. Four months later, Ray J was the one to file for divorce.

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The Television Academy Foundation, the charitable arm of the Television Academy, has announced the establishment of the Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowship Fund, in honor of the beloved Jeopardy! host who died of pancreatic cancer in 2020. 

The foundation, launched with a gift of $50,000 from Jeopardy! Executive Producer Harry Friedman and his Harry & Judy Friedman Family Foundation, the fund will provide “a select number of need-based fellowships” to college and university educators. 

The Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowships will fund these educators’ participation in the Television Academy Foundation’s annual Faculty Conference. The event, which “connects college classrooms with the television industry by providing media professors with curriculum-enhancing seminars on the latest in the art, science and business of television,” will be held virtually from November 15-17. Other funds from the charity will support the conference itself. 

When the conference returns to an in-person format, the fellowships will fund educators’ travel and lodging to the event. Fittingly, one of this year’s conference panels is called, “The Art of the Game: Careers in Quiz and Game Shows,” in which 19-time Emmy winner Friedman will participate.

Initially, 25 college and/or university educators from across the country will be granted the fellowships; those who wish to apply can find out more information at  TelevisionAcademy.com/faculty-seminar.

In a statement, Friedman said the fellowships “will serve as a lasting tribute to our dear friend’s life and work.” 

Trebek began hosting Jeopardy! when it launched on syndication in 1984, and continued until shortly before his death at age 80.

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A Robin Williams biopic hasn’t been announced, but if there were one, fans are rooting for actor Jamie Costa to get the starring role.

On Monday, Costa shared a five-minute-long video to YouTube, titled “ROBIN Test Footage Scene,” featuring his impersonation of a young Williams on the set of Mork & Mindy in 1982. Everything from Costa’s appearance to his mannerisms could leave even the biggest fan wondering who they were really watching. So, it’s no wonder viewers raved over his performance and are advocating for Costa to play Williams in a movie about the late actor’s life. 

One user commented, “This is a FANTASTIC impression of Robin Williams. If there is ever a biopic, they better cast you.”

Another echoed the same sentiment, writing, “This isn’t a mere impression; this is one of the highest caliber, basically an embodiment of Robin himself.” 

While many praised Costa’s acting, the moment was bittersweet for Williams daughter, Zelda, who took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the clip, which imagines Williams’ reaction to learning the news that his friend John Belushi had died.

“Guys, I’m only saying this because I don’t think it’ll stop until I acknowledge it… please, stop sending me the ‘test footage’. I’ve seen it,” she wrote, adding, “Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn’t against him, but y’all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird.”

Robin Williams was 63 years old when he died by suicide in 2014.

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

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(SPOILERS AHEAD) Julianna Margulies plays a lesbian on season two of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, and she’s not at all worried about possible blowback from gay actors.

“Who’s to say I haven’t had my own gay experiences?” Margulies said on the Just for Variety podcast. “We’re making assumptions.”

Margulies plays an out TV news reporter who ends up dating Bradley, played by Reese Witherspoon. Julianna thinks it makes for a surprising but welcome twist to the show’s storyline, which is what drew her to the role.

“You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance they brought in a woman,” Margulies explains. “Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women. They dress for women. We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. We want to impress each other much more… It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. This is great.’”

The Good Wife alum admits there was some talk of her casting drawing fire from the LBGTQ community.

“I know there was some trepidation of ‘will lesbian actresses be angry?’ and I can tell you I would never, ever be angry if a lesbian played a straight woman,” notes Margulies.

Season two of The Morning Show is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.

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Rob Lowe‘s podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe recently hosted Jennifer Aniston, and the star of The Morning Show got real about the real tears she shed during Friends: The Reunion Special. 

Lowe told Entertainment Tonight he was the “perfect” person for the star to unpack that experience with.

During their chat, Aniston admitted it was “kind of hard to time travel,” for the much-hyped HBO Max special, and the experience took her and her fellow former cast members “down way harder than we anticipated.”

She expressed, “Going back there, it’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy ’cause a lot has changed. We have all gone down different roads, some easy and some not so easy, for each of us. It was brutal. And you also can’t turn it off… There are cameras everywhere, and I can’t stop crying.”

Lowe told ET the revelations were the “perfect example” why he makes a good sounding board for his celebrity…friends. 

“Jen Aniston gives a lot of interviews… so do all of the people I talk to, but I feel like there are questions I want to ask them that I don’t think other people are gonna ask them.” 

“I had done a Parks and Rec reunion,” Lowe explained. “I had done a West Wing reunion, so when I talked to Jen about her Friends reunion, just the fact that it was something both of us have done I think enabled her to open up and talk about [it]…in a way that she never had before, that was how melancholy it was for her.”

“I totally got it,” Lowe said, adding of those kinds of get-togethers, “It’s very bittersweet.”

 

 

 

 

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At Tuesday’s costume party premiere for her new film Halloween Kills, Jamie Lee Curtis honored her late mother, Janet Leigh, by dressing up as her famous character from Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1960 thriller, Psycho.

“Honoring my mother in ALL her gory…I meant glory!” the 62-year-old actress captioned an Instagram photo of her in a belted, buttoned-up blue dress, black pumps and short blonde wig. She completed the look with a black handbag and a bloody shower curtain draped over her arm.

Leigh is best remembered for her famous shower scene in Psycho, during which her character, Marion Crane, is stabbed to death by Anthony Perkins‘ serial killer, Norman Bates.

Halloween Kills opens nationwide on Friday.

 

 

 

 

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Howie Mandel is home from the hospital after passing out at a Los Angeles Starbucks on Wednesday.

“I am home and doing better,” Mandel assured fans on Twitter that evening.

“I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar,” he continued. “I appreciate the great doctors and nurses that took such good care of me. Thank you to everyone who reached out but I am doing ok!”

TMZ reported earlier in the day that the 65-year-old America’s Got Talent judge was at his local Starbucks with his wife and friends when he suddenly passed out and fell over before.

Paramedics were reportedly called to the scene, but eyewitnesses tell the gossip website that Mandel, who had been placed on a nearby cement bench, was able to sit up by the time paramedics arrived.

Earlier this week, the St. Elsewhere alum shared that he had undergone an endoscopy and a colonoscopy.

“Colonoscopy,” he captioned the clip on Instagram. “Recovery audition.”

I am home and doing better. I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar. I appreciate the great doctors and nurses that took such good care of me. Thank you to everyone who reached out but I am doing ok!

— Howie Mandel (@howiemandel) October 14, 2021

 

 

 

 

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Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly recently celebrated their first anniversary and, on Wednesday, provided a candid glimpse into their relationship when taking the GQ “Couple’s Quiz.”

True to form, their answers were a mix of sweet, spicy and pure chaos.

Their interview starts off with the two telling the story of how they first met — which was at a GQ party — where Megan’s first words to MGK were “You smell like weed.”

“And I said,” Kelly smirked, “‘I am weed.'” Apparently, he vanished right after that bizarre first exchange.

Megan then grilled the “my ex’s best friend” singer over how well he knows her in a series of rapid-fire questions.  

MGK knows that his lover has “being abducted by a UFO” on her bucket list, that loud chewing is her “pet peeve,” her favorite book AND movie is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and that her hidden talent is being “an almanac and an encyclopedia and a dictionary all in one.”

MGK’s most hilarious fail came when he forgot Megan played April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  In all, he answered 28.5 out of 31 questions correctly. 

When the roles were reversed, Megan correctly answered 29 questions.  She revealed MGK prefers his coffee “black and bitter” — but that she makes his morning brew with oat milk and sugar “to sweeten you up” — and that he’s a secret fan of Nicole Kidman and is invested in Nine Perfect Strangers and The Undoing.

The Jennifer’s Body star also ratted out her boyfriend’s work/life balance by calling him out for rarely taking any days off and also said his favorite place is “Travis [Barker]’s studio.”

But, when it came to teasing her boyfriend’s upcoming sixth studio album Born with Horns, she agreed it is “very good.”

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It’s been about nine years since Grey’s Anatomy fans have seen Dr. Addison Montgomery and, on Thursday, that dry spell finally ends.

Kate Walsh, who plays the self-assured surgeon, will make her grand return to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in the episode titled “Hotter Than Hell.”

Series star Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey, spoke with Entertainment Tonight and teased what brought Addison back to Seattle and what that possibly means for Meredith because the two share a rather complicated history together.

“We are doing a surgery together,” said Pompeo. “Addison Montgomery is presented with a super challenging surgery and she needs some help. So she says, ‘Please get me Meredith Grey,’ and then I come in and we do this surgery together.”

Pompeo also hinted that Addison’s upcoming arc will span at least three episodes, but refused to provide further details.

“Kate and I had a great time working together. I haven’t really seen her in a really long time because of the pandemic,” the actress shared.  “And she moved [to] Australia and so it was really, really nice to see her and it was really fun to get to work with her.”

Addison first appeared in the show’s season 1 finale and iconically introduced herself as the wife of Patrick Dempsey‘s Derek Shepherd before extending a hand and telling Meredith, “And you must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband.”

Walsh departed Grey’s at the end of the third season in 2007 to star in her character’s own six-season spinoff, Private Practice, which wrapped in 2013.

Grey’s Anatomy, now in its 18th season, airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Theater-chain owners might just start exhaling after hearing this news. Following the strong showings of the Marvel Studios films Black Widow and Shang-Chi, tickets for the studio’s next film, Eternals, are already selling better than those for its predecessors.

In fact, Deadline reports that Eternals earned $2.6 million in its first 24 hours of pre-sales — that’s 86% better than Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and 30% greater than pre-sales for Black Widow.

Shang-Chi went on to earn more than $402 million worldwide, while Black Widow reportedly earned over $397 million. However, unlike Shang-Chi, the latter film, which came out July 7, was controversially released simultaneously in theaters and via Disney+ Premiere Access. That prompted a lawsuit from star and executive producer Scarlett Johansson, who had claimed the strategy cut into theatrical profits — and thus her bottom line. The suit was eventually settled.

Eternals, which stars Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Angelina Jolie and Richard Madden, and which was directed by Nomadland Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, opens November 5.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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