Entertainment

John McEnroe is having a bit of a moment.

The tennis legend has been narrating Devi’s ups and downs on the popular Netflix comedy series Never Have I Ever for three seasons now, but in the new Showtime documentary McEnroe, he’s finally telling his own story. He tells ABC Audio all about what it was like to get introspective about his life and career.

“I was a little bit like, why the hell did they wanna do something about me? I’m sixty plus years old,” McEnroe says. “And so, you’re flattered I guess. I suppose I was in a way that people still care enough to do something and commit to doing it.”

The documentary was not afraid to dive deep into McEnroe’s infamous on-court outbursts, with the athlete noting that he’s not exactly sure where his anger comes from but that he does have an idea.

“Growing up in New York City is a high-octane type of energy. Bustling through the subways and the trains, there’s an energy that you’re just used to,” McEnroe says. “I had a loud dinner table.”

Even to this day, McEnroe says he still gets mad when he thinks about some of the calls that set him off during matches.

“Half these people that were on the court calling the lines, they’d be falling asleep or they’d be old people. I’m like, how the hell that people think that they can see it better than I can see it? I’ve got 20-15 vision, and these people are insisting that I’ve gotten it wrong every time,” McEnroe says. “You know, I’ve got to be right once in a while.”

McEnroe is available to stream now on Showtime.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen starred opposite Jason Momoa in the billion-dollar-grossing Aquaman as the baddie David Kane/Manta, but he says superhero movies ironically don’t require a lot of heavy lifting — at least from an acting perspective.

“Everything should be about getting to the truth. But sometimes you got to know which movie or genre you’re in,” he tells Vulture.

“Something like Aquaman, that’s clown work,” he says, comparing another one of his films. “Aquaman is not The Trial of the Chicago 7. You gotta get over yourself.”

That said, the star says that like any good villain does, even a comic book gig can let an actor hide some good tricks up his sleeve.

“In order to survive and to do it well, you have to play that game and then be crafty about when you want to surprise the audience, the director, or yourself with a little bit of ‘Wow, I didn’t expect to see a Chekhovian thing or August Wilson and Aquaman, but I did,” he continues.

Abdul-Mateen is debuting soon on Broadway with the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks‘ Pulitzer-winning Topdog/Underdog opposite Straight Outta Compton‘s Corey Hawkins. In 2023, he’ll appear again as Manta in the sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

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Lindsay Lohan‘s second project in her deal with Netflix has just been announced. The streaming service behind LiLo’s upcoming holiday film Falling for Christmas just announced she will star in a romantic comedy called Irish Wish.

Lohan will reteam with her Christmas movie director Janeen Damian for the project. She’ll take on the role of Maddie, who sees the love of her life getting engaged to her best friend.

“Maddie puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland,” the producers explain, but just before the pair are set to marry, “Maddie makes a spontaneous wish for true love, only to wake up as the bride-to-be.”

“With her dream seeming to come true, Maddie soon realizes that her real soulmate is someone else entirely,” Netflix teases.

In February of this year and with her legal troubles in the rearview mirror, Lohan told Good Morning America she was ready for a comeback. “I think it takes time — just really a lot of soul-searching and taking time for you,” she explained. “And really, a lot of it was change of scenery, people, places and things — a lot of that made a big difference.”

Lindsay added, “Not filming for so long and not, you know, making movies for a long time, especially during the pandemic, that really made me appreciate it more and miss it so much more that I knew I was ready to come back.”

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No, it’s not a Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman reboot, but it’s close: ABC Audio has confirmed that Jane Seymour and her former co-star Joe Lando are getting back together for a Lifetime Christmas movie.

As part of the network’s It’s A Wonderful Lifetime line-up, the Toni Braxton-produced A Christmas Spark will bring the actors back together in a romantic movie that will have Seymour playing recently widowed Molly, “who has lost her zest for life and given up on ever finding love again.”

Lifetime teases, “But when she decides to visit her daughter for Christmas, she has no idea what holiday magic is in store for her. A former drama teacher, Molly reluctantly takes on the job of directing the town’s Christmas pageant and soon finds herself falling for her leading man, Hank (Lando), the town’s most eligible bachelor.”

As the unlikely pair finds love, Molly, “rediscovers her inner free spirit and finds a new lease on life…”

The project is among a trio of new holiday movies announced Thursday by the network, including Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas starring Grammy winner Franklin and Power‘s Naturi Naughton, and Merry Swissmas starring Full House‘s Jodie Sweetin and David Pinard.

Debuting on November 5, Merry Swissmas kicks off Lifetime’s holiday movie season; the full schedule will be revealed later in the fall.

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Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary this week while on the Mediterranean island of Menorca for their annual “Wade World Tour.”

“It’s been 8 years now married to my best friend and a lifetime to go. There have been tears and tantrums, triumphs and tremendous gratitude of our love,” Gabrielle posted on Instagram with a montage of photos and videos from the couple’s wedding day, vacations they’ve taken together, family moments and more.

“I love your evolution and your readiness to look at yourself FIRST before pointing any fingers. I love watching you throw caution to the wind and lead in ways we’ve never seen before,” the Think Like A Man star continued. “May this journey of ours always be filled with joy and laughter and compassion and grace. I love you baby, forever. Happy Anniversary”

Wade shared a gallery of photos of his wife and commented, “8 of them thangs already!? That’s the way ‘our’ love goes! Happy Anniversary G “Mutha**** Union.”

The NAACP Image Award-winning actress and the former NBA star were married in 2014 at the Chateau Artisan Castle in Miami. They are parents to 3-year-old daughter, Kaavia, as well as Wade’s 20-year-old son, Zaire, 15-year-old daughter, Zaya and 8-year-old son, Xavier.

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There are more changes afoot at Rockefeller Center’s famous Studio 8H.

Deadline reports that full-time Saturday Night Live cast members Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor won’t be back for season 48 of the Emmy-winning sketch show. Both characters were named featured players at SNL in 2016.

In that time, Villaseñor, who was the show’s second Latina cast member, became noted for her facility with impressions of Kristen Wiig, Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga among others, while Moffat was a utility player who played Eric Trump but was possibly best known for playing the smarmy preppie Guy Who Just Bought a Boat.

The trade also reports that newcomer Aristotle Athari won’t be back when SNL returns on NBC on October 2.

In May, it was announced that Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney and Aidy Bryant would be leaving the show.

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Ahead of her already well-selling stint on Broadway as the lead of Funny Girl, Lea Michele is getting serious about the controversy that has surrounded her.

Back in 2020, a social media post in support of the Black Lives Matter movement led some of her former Glee co-stars to tee off, with Samantha Marie Ware saying Lea had made her “first television gig a living hell.”

Others piled on about Michele’s alleged diva behavior, including co–star Heather Morris, and Michelle quickly lost an endorsement deal with food prep company HelloFresh.

To The New York Times, Michele said the period led to an “intense time of reflection.”

“I have an edge to me,” she told the paper. “I work really hard. I leave no room for mistakes. That level of perfectionism, or that pressure of perfectionism, left me with a lot of blind spots.”

Having taken the time to look within, Michele said, “I really understand the importance and value now of being a leader. It means not only going and doing a good job when the camera’s rolling, but also when it’s not. And that wasn’t always the most important thing for me.”

She added of her Funny Girl cast mates, “Everyone here has been through a lot, and I just have to come in and be prepared and do a good job and be respectful of the fact that this is their space.”

Michele, who returns to the Great White Way on September 6, also used the Times to tackle another persistent rumor: that she’s illiterate.

“I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day…It’s sad,” she said. “It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case.”

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Things are not what they seem in the new Netflix series Devil in Ohio. Emily Deschanel stars as a psychiatrist who shelters a new patient who has just escaped from a cult, and she told ABC Audio she was drawn to the show because it was based on a true story.

“I’m fascinated by cults. I’m fascinated by psychology and why people do certain things,” Deschanel said. “Knowing this was inspired by true events was just something I really wanted to dive into and understand.”

Madeleine Arthur plays Mae, the cult escapee, and says she was interested in getting to unravel the complicated nature of her character. “I just love a challenge, and Mae was a challenge,” Arthur said. “There was so many different complexities to explore with her that, for me, as an actor, is like a dream.”

Playing a traumatized character can lend itself to getting stuck in an intense headspace. Arthur said usually she could “shake it off at the end of the day,” but she also had a different method for decompressing on days with big breaks between her scenes.

“Sometimes if I had a scene or two off, I would watch Ted Lasso in between and then reset,” Arthur said. “I can shake it off and go about the day.”

As for unraveling the series’ mysteries, Deschanel teased that it’ll keep you guessing until the very end. “I think there’s lots of amazing twists and turns. So, you’ll think you understand one thing and then it’ll switch and then it’ll switch again,” she said. “It really keeps you guessing pretty much until the last moment.”

All episodes of Devil in Ohio drop Friday on Netflix.

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Tyrese was ordered in a divorce hearing to pay over $10,000 a month in child support to his estranged wife, Samantha Lee Gibson.

Fulton County, Georgia, Judge Kevin F. Farmer ruled that Samantha will receive $10,690 per month, according to TMZ. She will split child care and education costs for their 3-year-old daughter, Soraya, with the singer/actor.

Tyrese will also pay the same amount in child support to his ex-wife, Norma Mitchell. They share 15-year-old daughter Shayla, who lives in California.

Farmer declared Tyrese and Samantha legally single and denied spousal support for each party.

“This is not a punishment for you,” the judge told the 43-year-old entertainer. “Put that money where it belongs, in the child. … I want you both to love your kid, and I want you both to tell your kid to love the other parent, because that’s how we get successful human beings.”

“Nobody won here and nobody lost,” Farmer continued. “The kid lost, because she doesn’t have her parents together. Minimize the effects of that loss. Minimize it in every way, shape and form you can.”

Tyrese and Samantha married on Valentine’s Day in 2017. She filed for divorce in September 2020, and claimed that he cut her off financially and locked her out of their house. Samantha had requested $20,000 in monthly child support.

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In New York City Wednesday night, Amazon Studios prepared a special feast inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Middle-earth and the streaming service’s about-to-debut The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

At the helm of the event was Ethiopian-born Swedish-American celebrity chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, who was tasked with transporting guests gastronomically to the Second Age, and into the dining halls of the respective kingdoms of Dwarves and Elves and men.

On the menu was a fried chicken dish inspired by the realm of the Ñoldorin Elves called Eregion; a spiced lamb shoulder that could have been found within the stone walls of the Dwarf kingdom of Moria; and an almond cake to celebrate the establishment of Númenor, the human Kingdom of Man.

ABC Audio caught up with Samuelsson after the feast, and he said it was a thrill “just to be asked, being such a fan of the show and the books, to the films.”

He added, “You know, coming from a Nordic background like it was, like foraging: some of the foods — I really felt like, ‘OK, I’m inspired by this, I can do this, let’s have some fun with this!'”

“It was super fun,” he continued. “You’ve got to kind of, like, put your ‘serious chef hat’ away and just be like, ‘I’m going to go for it.'”

Those who use Amazon Echo devices can now ask Alexa for all of Samuelsson’s Middle-earth recipes.

“Alexa also gives you just sort of [a] tool to really engage,” the chef said.

“And now food is really part of pop culture, right? Because this is entertainment, technology and bringing people together, what can be better than that?”

The Rings of Power debuts today on Amazon Prime.

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