Entertainment

Halle Bailey has enjoyed musical success with her older sister Chloe as the duo Chloe x Halle, and now she feels she’s maturing as a woman with her starring role in The Little Mermaid.

Bailey portrays the underwater Disney princess Ariel in the upcoming live-action film.

“I’d definitely say coming into this film I was a lot more, I think, just young-minded and a bit more not sure of myself so much,” the 22-year-old entertainer tells People. “The whole experience of filming, in more ways than one, mirrored Ariel’s journey of finding herself and her voice.”

Disney debuted the official teaser trailer Friday at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and it earned over 104 million global views, according to Variety.

Zendaya, Halle Berry, Keke Palmer, Nicki Minaj and Amanda Gorman were among the celebrities praising the clip on Twitter.

In the teaser trailer, Bailey swims under water, leads viewers through her treasure trove and sings some of the lyrics to the iconic song “Part of Your World.”

“I remember at the end of filming, wrap day, I was just sobbing because I truly felt like I had come out of this cocoon with Ariel,” Bailey adds.

She says the film has “changed my perspective on everything” and “impacted my life in so many ways.” Bailey hopes that Black girls will be inspired by her performance.

“The fact that now it’s getting to be played by me, a person who looks like me, woman of color, I’m just like, wow, I’m so grateful what it will do for all the other little Black and brown boys and girls who will see themselves in me,” she says.

The Little Mermaid opens in theaters May 26, 2023.

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Though he’s currently being buoyed by positive reviews for his role in Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whale, Brendan Fraser explains he was disappointed by Warner Bros. Discovery shelving Batgirl.

Fraser was to play the heavy Firefly in the film, which, as reported, was pulled by the studio and won’t likely ever see the light of day.

In a sit-down with Black Swan director Aronofsky at the Toronto International Film Festival, Fraser told Variety of the aborted project, “The fans really wanted to see this film made,” calling lead Leslie Grace, who played Batgirl/Barbara Gordon, “a dynamo.”

Initially bound for HBO Max, Batgirl appears to be partially a casualty of the current entertainment landscape, the actor said. “The movie was shot and conceived for a smaller screen. In this age that we’ve come out of now between streaming service versus theatrical release, it wound up being the canary in the coal mine.”

He added, “What did we learn from this? Work with trusted filmmakers, like Darren.”

Fraser was asked about the Oscar buzz surrounding The Whale, in which he plays a morbidly obese father trying to make amends; the trade notes he did so by quoting Moby Dick:

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.”

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It’s arguably hard to remember now, seeing as she’s got EGOT status to her name, but Jennifer Hudson only placed sixth on American Idol.

On the debut of The Jennifer Hudson Show Monday, in their first sit down since her less-than-stellar performance, JHud chatted with Simon Cowell about that fateful elimination.

“That night, I will never forget,” said the tough-talking former Idol judge. “I was thinking, ‘Who chose stupid Barry Manilow Week?” Cowell said, rolling his eyes. “Wasn’t me!”

“It wasn’t my idea,” he insisted.

Hudson recalled the song she performed was “Weekend in New England,” about which Cowell recalled thinking, “Not a great song.”

“Not your fault,” he said.

Hudson then said Cowell “flipped the script” on her by asking her a deep question: “If you were going to go back in time, would you have changed the song, or kept things the way they were?”

Hudson said no: “Because that song led me to get Dreamgirls, hon.” Hudson won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 2006 film.

Hudson explained, “By the time I was eliminated, I felt like I got an opportunity to display who I was as an artist, so I was OK with being eliminated.”

“And then once I was, I was like, ‘You know what? You’re walking away with your talent. You’re walking away with your gift.’ This competition may be over, but … your love and your drive isn’t.”

JHud added, “Too often people give up and think that’s the end of the road and I said, ‘No, I’ll be back. And I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I will sing my way to it.'”

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The late Chadwick Boseman and Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross were named Disney Legends over the weekend at the D23 Expo: Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, CA.

Boseman’s brother, Derrick Boseman, accepted the award on his brother’s behalf.

“I think about how he honored our parents. How he honored his family. How he honored even his friends, and he made sure that his friends had good careers,” Boseman said, according to Variety. “How he honored all the contracts that he signed. He honored them with his blood, his sweat, his tears, as he played these roles and he was taking chemo at the same time.”

The Disney Legends Award is given to an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Disney legacy. Boseman, who died in 2020 from cancer, was recognized posthumously for his role as King T’Challa in Black Panther.

Anderson, who grew up near Disneyland in Compton, CA, remembered how Disney inspired him. “Disney has always been a part of my life, my upbringing, my childhood and it has informed me and allowed me to be the entertainer and the man that I am today,” the eight-time NAACP Image Award winner said, according to Deadline. “Disney has taught all of us to dream, and to dream big.”

Ross thanked Disney for giving a platform to Black-ish that “truly changed the landscape of modern television.”
“It feels really legendary to advocate for and breath life into a joyful Black woman for eight years on a great show,” the 49-year-old actress said. 

She also hopes Black-ish paves the way for “more Black women-centered stories that reflect the truth and diversity of who we are in the world.”

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Saturday Night Live will be back on October 1.

That’s the word from the iconic sketch show’s official social media accounts, which posted the date along with a highlight reel from its long history and a simple caption: “SEASON 48.”

The subsequent shows will be on October 8 and the 15th; no guests have been announced for the first shows of the new season.

In the past few weeks, SNL has polled followers as to whom should host and act as the musical guests this year.

SNL‘s largest cast ever has been culled down some recently: As reported, mainstays Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson and Aidy Bryant stepped away before the summer, along with Kyle Mooney. More recently, it was announced that Melissa Villaseñor, Alex Moffat and Aristotle Athari wouldn’t be back, either.

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Among the new trailers to debut during Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California over the weekend were the sneak peeks at the long-awaited sequels Hocus Pocus 2, The Santa Clauses, and Disenchanted. The preview of the former shows how a teen girl, played by Gossip Girl‘s Whitney Peak, brings back to life the witchy Sanderson Sisters, played again by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. The Santa Clauses has Tim Allen back as Scott Calvin, now 65, and ready to hang up his jingle bells for good, while Disenchanted has Enchanted stars Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey moving out of their New York City home to a magical suburb. But the couple finds their picture-perfect home is anything but…

Amazon Prime has canceled Paper Girls, the sci-fi series based on Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s graphic novel, after one season. Sources tell Deadline that producers are shopping the series to other outlets. Paper Girls follows four young girls who, while out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween in 1988, “become unwittingly caught in a conflict between warring factions of time-travelers, sending them on an adventure through time that will save the world,” per the streamer. Ali Wong stars in the series, along with Sofia Rosinksy, Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet and Fina Strazza…

Actress Marsha Hunt, best known for her roles in films like Pride and Prejudice, died on September 7 of natural causes at her Sherman Oaks home in Los Angeles, according to Variety. She was 104. Hunt starred in more than 60 films and appeared in more than 30 stage productions. Although she was never a member of the Communist Party, she was blacklisted by Hollywood executives for protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee. She joined other prominent film figures like John Huston, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in establishing a group called the Committee for the First Amendment, which sought to protest HUAC’s actions…

After missing Saturday’s performance of Broadway’s Funny Girl due to “early signs and symptoms of COVID,” Lea Michele confirmed on Sunday that she has tested positive for the virus. “Due to current Broadway protocols, she will return on Tuesday, September 20th,” the play’s producers said a statement obtained by Variety. The news of Michele’s absence came just days after the Glee alum star made her debut in the Broadway revival. At her opening night performance on Tuesday, Michele was greeted with six standing ovations over the course of the three-hour musical…

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Thousands of Marvel and Lucasfilm fans attending Disney’s D23 Expo over the weekend in Anaheim, California got a peek at some the studios’ biggest streaming and theatrical titles coming to Disney+ in the coming months and beyond.

Fans got a glimpse of trailers for the Diego Luna-led Andor, streaming September 21, and Willow, the new George Lucas and Ron Howard-inspired live-action fantasy adventure series, launching November 30.

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni debuted the trailer for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — six brand-new animated shorts featuring two distinctly different Jedi — Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku. Ahsoka also gets her own live-action series, starring Rosario Dawson, slated for a 2023 release.

Favreau, Filoni, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, along with star Jude Law introduced The Mandalorian spinoff, and shared the trailer for season three of The Mandalorian.

Marvel studios head Kevin Feige unveiled the trailers for the “fun-scary” Werewolf by Night, streaming October 7. He also was joined by Secret Invasion star Don Cheadle to introduce the trailer for the new show, also featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders, reprising their respective roles as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, the Skrull introduced in Captain Marvel.

Cheadle also teased the upcoming Armor Wars, which will also feature his Colonel James Rhodes character in new suits and different types of armor.

Attendees also got updates on Loki season 2, Echo and Daredevil: Born Again, as well as feature films Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Fantastic Four, Captain America: New World Order, Thunderbolts and The Marvels.

Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios are owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Amid a sluggish late summer box office, The Airbnb horror film Barbarian — starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long — debuted at #1 with an estimated $10 million. It’s the first film in three weeks to hit double digits in its opening weekend.

The Marvel-style Bollywood film Brahmastra Part One: Shiva, debuted in second place with an estimated $4.4 million, one of the biggest North American openings for an Indian film. Worldwide, Brahmastra has grabbed a total of $26.5 million.

Bullet Train pulled up in third place, earning an estimated $3.25 million in its sixth week of release. Its North American tally now stands at $92.5 million, with a global total of $212 million.

After reclaiming first place last week, Top Gun: Maverick fell to number four, collecting an estimated $3.7 million. That brings its domestic haul to $705.6 million, and $1.453 billion globally. It now surpasses Frozen as the 11th highest-grossing film of all time worldwide

Rounding out the top five was DC League of Super-Pets, with an estimated $2.84 million, bringing its seven-week North American total to $85.4 million.

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With the Creative Arts Emmys in the rearview mirror, all eyes in Hollywood are focusing on Monday night’s 74th annual Emmy Awards.

With so much to choose from, and some of the usual Emmy magnets like Netflix’s The Crown out of contention this year, some surprises are to be expected during the Kenan Thompson-hosted event airing live on NBC.

Officially, HBO’s Succession leads the pack with 25 nominations, and the cable network’s The White Lotus scored 20 in the limited drama series category.

However, this year Squid Game could shock viewers again. It became the first non-English-speaking show to ever be nominated in the Outstanding Drama category, and the show’s global audience on Netflix has yet to be touched.

What’s more, with Better Call Saul wrapping up on AMC this year, and its lead Bob Odenkirk surviving a near-fatal heart attack to finish it, there could be a strong sympathy vote for its star.

On the comedy side of things, Apple TV+’s previous Emmy sweeper, Ted Lasso, was also nominated for 20 awards, but HBO’s Hacks and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building were close behind with 17 nods.

Some are speculating that with Lasso and Hacks having already won Emmys, the door could be open for Only Murders and the freshman comedy Abbot Elementary to make some noise.

On the latter, show creator Quinta Brunson made history when she became the first Black woman to be nominated in the comedy category for writing, acting and producing in the same year. Even if she doesn’t score that historic hat trick, she could become only the second Black person ever to win as a producer in that category if the show wins.

When it comes to other possible historic firsts, Selena Gomez could become the first Latina to win as the producer of a show she also stars in for Only Murders.

Further, Zendaya could be the youngest person to win a title for producing, if Euphoria wins Outstanding Drama Series.

As they say in TV, stay tuned.

The 74th annual Emmy Awards start at 8 p.m. on September 12 on NBC.

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25 years later, a Good Burger sequel may finally be on the way. 

While promoting his book Prank Day, Kel Mitchell, who starred in the ’90s Nickelodeon film alongside Kenan Thompson, teased the idea of a potential sequel of the iconic ’90s Nickelodeon film.

“Oh, what can I tell you? Let’s just say deliveries are still going out for Good Burger,” the Emmy-nominated actor tells ABC Audio. “You know, we’re open 24 hours. I’ll just say that. Okay. Every day. Good burger is still open.”

The comments come about a month after Kenan Thompson, who also starred in the film, told Jimmy Fallon he would like to do a sequel to the movie.

“We are working harder on it than ever, so it’s about meeting the numbers, letting them numbers match up. ‘Cause I need them numbers,” the Saturday Night Live star said. 

While the logistics for Good Burger sequel are being worked out, Kel is keeping busy with many endeavors including his latest book, Prank Day, a comedy-fantasy illustrated novel for kids and tweens.

“Prank Day is about a kid named Chase, that on April 1st, he does a bunch of pranks, but then on April 2nd, all the pranks come true,” he explains. “So he has to figure out why there are flying spiders flying through the sky, why there are refrigerators running through his neighborhood, and clowns coming out of the toilet. He has to figure it out. So, yeah, it’s just an awesome, awesome fun book.”

So, what’s the craziest prank Kel’s ever pulled? He used Krazy Glue to glue a friend to their chair. 

“When the bell rang he… couldn’t get up,” he laughs, before warning, “I got in trouble for that one. So, don’t do that.”

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