Entertainment

While taking part in the Code Conference at the Beverly Hilton this week, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos shared some viewer numbers from the normally-secretive streaming service, and also teased a spin-off of one of its hit shows. 

Netflix has traditionally been close to its vest with viewer numbers, which tally how many minutes someone watches a given show or movie — even if they don’t finish it. 

With that in mind, Sarandos says Bridgerton‘s first season topped the list for its shows, with 625 million viewer hours.

When it comes to movies, Sandra Bullock‘s 2018 thriller Bird Box and Chris Hemsworth‘s sequel-bound 2020 action movie Extraction topped their charts with 282 and 231 million viewer hours, respectively.

However, for the many fans of the gang in Hawkins, Indiana, Sarandos let slip that a spin-off from Stranger Things is likely in the offing, according to Deadline. 

He referred to the supernatural show from the Duffer Bros. “a franchise being born,” and said the word “spin-offs,” when mentioning it; it might be an easy connection to make considering series star Millie Bobby Brown just signed her own production deal with the streaming service. 

Stranger Things‘ fourth season drops on Netflix in 2022.

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It seems that a disagreement over Rent put the friendship between Neil Patrick Harris and Miyam Bialik in jeopardy.

On Tuesday night’s episode of The Late Late Show, the newly minted co-Jeopardy! host confessed that, unlike Tony winner James Corden, she really isn’t into musicals, and even having her pal NPH starring in Rent didn’t shake that. 

“People expect that because I worked with Bette Midler and because I’m me, I’m supposed to love musicals. It’s not my thing,” Bialik confessed.

“Why do I have to like it?!” she said of musicals when Corden protested.

And therein lay the problem. 

“When everyone is clapping at the end and you say to your boyfriend next to you, ‘I don’t want to stand for this,’ and then you look up and Neil Patrick Harris is looking right at you…it’s a bad day,” Bialik recalled with a nervous laugh.

Backstage, she said the former How I Met Your Mother star confronted her: “‘Why did you say you weren’t going to stand up?’ He read my lips!”

Bialik admitted that after the incident, “We didn’t speak for a long time,” adding, “[Neil] says that he forgave me and he sent me flowers when he heard I was still carrying this terrible guilt.”

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The CBS adaptation of the 1994 James Cameron hit True Lies now has its main couple.

Variety reports that actress Ginger Gonzaga, who will be seen in the Marvel Studios Disney+ show She-Hulk and currently appears on NBC’s Kenan, will be playing Helen, which was Jamie Lee Curtis‘ role in the movie.

As in the movie, Helen is fed up with her workaday life as her husband travels for his boring day job. But after years of typical married life boredom, she discovers Harry has actually been a bullet-dodging deep-cover operative for a secretive spy agency. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger played Harry in the film; the trade reports Shameless veteran Steve Howey will be filling Arnold’s big shoes for the small-screen version.

Cameron, who adapted True Lies from the 1991 French film La Totale!, will executive-produce the series with his longtime Lightstorm Entertainment producer, Rae Sanchini. 

The original True Lies film, which made more than $378 million worldwide, also starred Tom Arnold as Harry’s bumbling partner, Albert “Gib” Gibson; actor-turned Oscar-winning producer Grant Heslov as their tech expert, Faisal; and the late Charlton Heston as their spy agency boss. The late Bill Paxton also starred as Simon, a “pathetic” used car salesman who pretends to be a secret agent to woo Helen behind her husband’s back.

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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has created an entertainment empire with his G-Unit music label, and several TV series, including the Power franchise and his latest production, BMF. Now he’s mentoring future entrepreneurs with a new business program for teenage students in Texas.

On Monday, he inducted 75 students from three Houston high schools into the G-Unity Business Lab, which he created and is partially funding with $300,000 from his G-Unity Foundation.

“When you grow up with the circumstances that I grew up under, it starts to feel like the biggest restraint is the financial restraint,” Jackson told the kids, according to the Houston Chronicle. “I worked really hard against that, like I did things to try to not to be under those circumstances. And I just want to be able to help provide programs that allow you the information to do it the right way.”

The students will attend a 12-week after-school program and learn business concepts. Then 50 Cent will select winners who will receive seed money to start their own companies.

Houston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II said students “will graduate with critical thinking opportunities and problem-solving possibilities, learning core business concepts, like writing a formal business plan, with the support of HISD teachers, Houston business leaders and the foundation.”

Meanwhile, Jackson, Snoop Dogg, T.I., Flo Rida, Monica, Kash Doll, La La Anthony and Jeremih were among the celebrities attending the BMF premiere on September 23 in Atlanta. The crime drama debuted Sunday night on Starz.

 

 

 

 

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Dave Chappelle is headed back to Netflix with The Closer, a brand-new stand-up comedy special that will premiere on October 5.

Netflix released a teaser on Wednesday which shows Chappelle on stage telling an audience that “Comedians have a responsibility to speak recklessly.” Billed as “the sixth chapter,” the special serves as a potential ending to the comedian’s previous specials, which include The Age of Spin, Deep in the Heart of Texas, Equanimity, The Bird Revelation, and Sticks & Stones. Stan Lathan, who directed Chappelle’s previous Netflix specials, also returns to direct The Closer.

In other news, Toni Braxton is deepening her relationship with Lifetime. According to Deadline, the singer has returned to the network to star and exec-produce a series of television movies based on the Hollis Morgan mystery book series by R. Franklin James. In the first film installment, tentatively called The Fallen Angels Book Club, Braxton plays Hollis Morgan, an “ex-con turned amateur sleuth who sets out to investigate a series of murders at her book club.” As previously reported, Braxton made her TV movie debut with Lifetime’s Twist of Faith. She later went on to executive-produce and star in two other projects for the network. The Fallen Angels Book Club is expected to premiere sometime in 2022.

Finally, Ruth Negga is teaming up with Daniel Craig for a Broadway production of Macbeth, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. This play marks Negga’s Broadway debut and Craig’s return to Broadway after recently ending his run as James Bond in No Time to Die. Negga will play Lady Macbeth, while Craig will take on the titular role. Directed by Tony winner Sam Gold, opening night for Macbeth is set for April 28, 2022 at the Lyceum Theatre. Additional casting has yet to be announced.

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Daniel Craig‘s latest and last James Bond adventure, No Time to Die, hits theaters October 8, but it’s just been announced that shortly thereafter, he’ll be tackling The Bard on Broadway in William Shakespeare‘s Macbeth.

Craig will be playing the title role opposite Preacher‘s Ruth Negga as his Machiavellian Lady at the historic Lyceum Theatre in New York City starting March 29 of 2022. 

According to the play’s website, “A tale of malice, matrimony and murder, Macbeth tells the story of one couple’s obsession with power — and their guilt after doing the unthinkable.” The producers promise, “this thrilling new production will capture the passion and ferocity of Shakespeare’s most haunting text like never before.”

The limited-run engagement ends on July 10 of next year. 

The director of the production will be Tony winner Sam Gold, who called the shots on an Off-Broadway production of Othello that starred Craig and acclaimed Selma actor David Oyelowo in the title role.

Tickets are available now at MacbethBroadway.com.

Speaking of the famous play, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand will be seen on the big screen in The Tragedy of Macbeth on December 25 for Oscar winning director Joel Coen.

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“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” turned 25 on Monday, and star Melissa Joan Hart didn’t let the milestone pass by without celebrating.

Sharing throwback photos of the cast, the 45-year-old actress took to Instagram to look back on the magical show, which also starred Caroline Rhea, Beth Broderick and more.

“It’s been brought to my attention that 25 years ago today Sept 27, 1996 our show first aired on ABC for 7 seasons,” she captioned the series of pictures. “The little engine that could we called it since it was in the shadows of the largely anticipated show #Clueless but it persevered and we got to steal @reddonovan to come over to our fun cast.”

“Tons of talented guest stars, musical acts and magic tv tricks over the years. Full of friendships and crazy memories, it was an incredible ride to be sure!” she continued. “Thanks for the love and support to help us do what we love to do, make people smile!! Happy #SabrinatheTeenageWitch Day!”

Ahead of the milestone anniversary, Hart chatted with ABC Audio about why she thinks the show was such a success. 

“It brings you to this escapism that the world is always looking for… And you’re looking for a happy ending,” the actress said. “Are you looking for this escapism of this girl who can do anything at the point of a finger? We all want that. We all dream of that.”

Something else fans dream about is a reboot of the popular sitcom. Not Hart, though. 

“I would never want to reboot it because it just ended so perfectly,” she candidly revealed. “How are you going to improve on that?” 

There actually has been a reboot, of sorts. Netflix aired Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a much darker comedic take on the character, for two seasons, ending in July of last year.

 

 

 

 

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Tyra Banks has gone viral, thanks to the outfit she changed into halfway through Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars. The supermodel changed into a larger-than-life crimson gown that was accentuated by oversized fan-shaped sleeves.

While the internet was intrigued by the look, some compared the dress to the frilled dilophosaurus dinosaur that killed Wayne Knight‘s character, Dennis Nedry, in Jurassic Park.

Banks shook off the comparisons on Tuesday when speaking with E!’s Daily Pop and revealed that the dress is actually an homage to her past life as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.

“There’s a base of that dress. It looks like a normal, beautiful dress from the ’90s,” she described. “Then I go on the stage in front of the audience and everybody, and I put on the wing thing. And everybody was like, ‘Oh!’ because they thought the first thing was the normal dress.”

“I call it Victoria’s Secret wangs. It’s not wings. It’s got an ‘A,'” the supermodel said of her outfit. “That’s how we did it.”

Dancing with the Stars will celebrate all things Britney Spears when it returns next Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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For fans of the bounty hunter who were left hanging by the after-credits scene in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, rest easy: The Book of Boba Fett now has a premiere date: December 29 on Disney+.

As the two-minute set-up teased, Temuera Morrison‘s legendary hunter and his enforcer, Ming-Na Wen‘s Fennec Shand, have taken over the crime syndicate once run by Jabba the Hutt, whose throne was being kept warm by his former majordomo Bib Fortuna — the pasty-faced alien with the tentacles sticking out of his head — after Jabba’s death in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. 

According to Disney+, the  new Star Wars adventure finds Fett and Shand “navigating the Galaxy’s underworld” after Fett dispatches Fortuna in The Mandalorian‘s finale. Disney+ also released a teaser poster for the show, showing Fett as he was in the finale’s closing moments, sitting on the throne with his still-warm blaster in his lap. 

Jon Favreau, the creator of the Emmy-winning The Mandalorian, is executive producing the new series, with his partner on that show, Dave Filoni, and life-long Star Wars fan-turned Mandalorian episode director Robert Rodriguez, along with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. Rodriguez got to realize a boyhood dream by bringing the bounty hunter back in his episode, “Chapter 14: The Tragedy.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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