Entertainment

Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia, the first Bachelorettes to co-star in a full season, meet their 32 potential suitors on the season 19 premiere, debuting Monday night on ABC.

The ladies established a tight bond on Clayton Echard‘s The Bachelor season, which ended with their shocking double elimination. They told Good Morning America that their bond will be on full display throughout their Bachelorette experience.

“We do have the same journey but, in a way, our own, and people get to see two different love stories and our friendship along the way,” Recchia said.

Windey added that, while they didn’t really have a game plan for the season going into it, they had “lots of open communication” because they didn’t want to jeopardize their friendship.

“We were really lucky, because when Bachelorettes before have gone through this, it can be very isolating and you do really just have to rely on yourself,” she said. 

In addition to each other, the Bachelorettes also had host Jesse Palmer — who first met them as he hosted Echard’s Bachelor season — to lean on.

“He knew our ins and outs and what we had been through, so he knew our personalities, he knew who we are as women, and was able to support us accordingly,” Windey said.

But Palmer wasn’t only a source of comfort throughout their season. “I think we gave Jesse a little bit of trouble,” Recchia joked. “He’s never had Bachelorettes before — let alone two of us.”

Both ladies said going through this unique adventure together was a chance for their own individual growth.

“Just having Rachel by my side,” Windey added, “I got to learn so much from her and grow as a person.”

The Bachelorette season 19 premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Oprah Winfrey is paying tribute to her late father, Vernon Winfrey.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Oprah shared a short video of her father, who died Friday of cancer. He was 88.

“Vernon Winfrey 1933-2022,” she wrote. “Less than a week ago we honored my father in his own backyard. My friend and gospel singer Wintley Phipps saluted him with song. He FELT the love and reveled in it until he could no longer speak.”

“Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside, I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath. We could feel Peace enter the room at his passing,” Oprah continued, “That Peace still abides. All is well. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.”

Vernon was a former councilman and operated a barbershop in Nashville for over 50 years prior to his death.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Goodbye, gorgeous. Beanie Feldstein will leave the Broadway revival of Funny Girl on July 31 — nearly two months before her scheduled exit — The Booksmart actress announced in a statement on Instagram. She attributed the move to a decision by producers “to take the show in a different direction,” but didn’t elaborate. The casting change, originally set for December, also included the planned departure of co-star Jane Lynch. It’s unclear if Lynch will also make an early exit…

It’s the age of director’s cuts, but don’t expect one from Thor: Love and Thunder helmer Taika Waititi. “Director’s cuts are not good,” Waititi tells NME. “I’ve been thinking about director’s cuts. I watch director’s cuts of a lot of other directors.” He adds, “Directors need to be controlled sometimes, and if I was to say, ‘ah, you wanna watch my director’s cut? It’s four and a half hours long!’ It’s not good, at four and a half hours. There’s a lot of cup-of-tea breaks in there, you don’t even have to pause it.” Thor: Love and Thunder is doing just fine the way it is: the film opened over the weekend with an estimated $143 million domestically…

Veteran character actor, L.Q. Jones, whose list of screen credits includes Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, died of natural causes Saturday at his home in Hollywood. He was 94. His death was confirmed by his grandson, Erté deGarces. Jones’ other big-screen appearances include The Mask of Zorro, The Patriot and Casino. His TV career consisted mainly Westerns, such as Gunsmoke, The Virginian and Bonanza. Beyond acting, he produced, directed and wrote the 1975 post-apocalyptic cult classic black comedy A Boy and His Dog, adapted from the novella by Harlan Ellison…

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Thor: Love and Thunder debuted in first place at the weekend box office, grabbing an estimated $143 million. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth starring Chris Hemsworth‘s God of Thunder was the biggest opening for a Thor movie — beating Thor: Ragnarok‘s $122.7 million — and the third-biggest movie bow of the year.

Love and Thunder — which also featured Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson, reprising their respective roles as Jane Foster and Valkyrie, and Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher — grossed $302 million worldwide.

Minions: The Rise of Gru slipped to second place, delivering an estimated $45.6 million in its second week of release. Its domestic total now sits at $210 million, with a global tally of $400 million.

Top Gun: Maverick took third place, earning an estimated $15.5 million. Its seven-week North American haul currently sits at $597 million. Globally, the Top Gun sequel has collected $1.184 billion.

Fourth place belongs to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, grabbing an estimated $11 million and bringing its
three-week tally to $155 million.

Rounding out the top five is Jurassic World: Dominion with an estimated $8.4 million, bringing its domestic gross to $350 million after five weeks. The film has earned $876 million worldwide.

Finishing just outside the top five is The Black Phone, earning an estimated $7.7 million, bringing its two-week total to $62 million. It’s now the top-grossing non-sequel horror film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A new father-son duo is heading toward your screens, with Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe starring in a new Netflix comedy titled Unstable.

The series is set to hit the streamer next year, but while promoting his collaboration with Atkins — which includes yummy low carb treats like an Iced Chai Latte Protein Shake, Peanut Butter Cups and Peppermint Patties — he dished about the upcoming series and what it was like working with his youngest son. 

“It’s super gratifying. I’m very proud of him,” Lowe expressed, before teasing that his “oldest son went into actual real business” as a lawyer working in finance. “My youngest son, [he] went into the family business and we co-created this show.”

Not only did the duo create the show, the longtime actor revealed that “it’s based on a father and son relationship very similar to ours.”

“Johnny likes to troll me on social media and people have really liked it, much to my chagrin,” Lowe admitted. “So we use that relationship as the basis for creating these two characters in the show, and it’s been a blast…to see it all come to fruition is really, really super incredible.”

As described by Netflix, Rob “plays the eccentric head of a cutting-edge biotech firm” while John, “his introverted and socially awkward son … comes to work for him and finds that he has to save his father from utter ruin in the process.”

Lowe also revealed that the show started filming this summer and with the season in full swing, the actor shared some tips on how he stays fit. 

“It’s diet… but also like your mindset,” he said. “Between that and being active, I think makes one feel and seem younger and then it all goes springs from there.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tony Sirico, known for his scene-stealing role as Paul ‘Paulie Walnuts’ Gualtieri on The Sopranos, has died. He was 79.

No cause of death has been released.

Sirico’s brother, Rev. Robert Sirico, announced the news on Facebook Friday. “It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony ‘Tony’ Sirico wishes to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022,” Robert wrote.

“The family is deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayer and condolences and requests that the public respect its privacy in this time of bereavement,” the post continued. ​”Memorial donations may be made in his honor to Wounded Warriors, St. Jude’s Hospital and the Acton Institute.”

According to the post, Sirico is survived by his two children Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, as well as grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews and many other relatives.

Sirico’s Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli shared a tribute post on Instagram Friday, writing in part, “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good. And we had a lot of laughs.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

When any film makes a billion bucks, it’s all but guaranteed its movie studio wants to talk “sequel.” But in the case of Top Gun: Maverick, it all comes down to one person: Tom Cruise.

Considering the fact the biggest hit of his career came 36 years after the hit original, it’s unlikely we have to wait that long for a follow-up — if there will be any.

Still, co-star Miles Teller, who plays Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Anthony Edwards‘ character “Goose” from the first movie, told Entertainment Tonight that he’s had “conversations about it” with Cruise.

“That would be great, but that’s all up to TC, that’s all up to Tom,” Teller says.

The film has Cruise’s AARP-qualified ace Navy pilot having to train a new squad of young hotshots for a dangerous mission. Teller’s fellow flyers included Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis and Glen Powell.

However, even if a sequel doesn’t come to pass, the actor is satisfied. He says of the now-60-year-old star, “For him to share Top Gun with me and a lot of these other young actors, it’s just been such a wild ride, and it’s still going.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Julius Onah, the Nigerian-born director of 2018’s hit The Cloverfield Paradox, has been handed the reins to the next Captain America movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Marvel Studios is characteristically mum at this point, but the trade says he’s the man that will get Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson to take flight in his first big-screen mission as Captain America.

As previously reported, the project is being written by Malcolm Spellman, who created, co-wrote, and produced the hit Disney+ show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Another vet from the show’s writers’ room, Dalan Musson, is co-writing the screenplay.

The Emmy-nominated series picked up where Avengers: Endgame left off: After Chris Evans‘ Steve Rogers passed the shield and Cap mantle to Wilson, the series showed him grappling with what it means for a Black man in America to take up the stars and stripes on his vibranium shield.

The show ended with him embracing the title and vowing to do what he could to honor it.

There’s no word yet when the fourth Captain America is coming to theaters, but it’s expected Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige could reveal it at San Diego Comic-Con later this month.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Thor: Love and Thunder officially opened Friday, but thanks to sneak preview screenings on Thursday, the movie made nearly 30 million bucks. Deadline reports that performance was the second-best sneak preview haul of 2022 behind the $36 million made by another Marvel Studios film: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The all-time sneak preview champ for the MCU was 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which took in $60 million in the U.S. before its official opening date.

Thor: Love and Thunder, which stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, writer-director Taika Waititi, Christian Bale, and Russell Crowe, has made an additional $48.6 million from the foreign box office, totaling up to nearly $78 million worldwide.

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jennifer Aniston took to her Instagram to urge donations to a fund set up on behalf of a crew member on The Morning Show, who died in a motorcycle crash on July 4.

Erik Gunnar Mortensen, 39, was killed in the accident on a Southern California highway, leaving behind a wife, Keely, and their 2-year-old son Lars.

“This past week we suddenly and tragically lost Gunnar Mortensen,” Aniston posted, calling him, “One of the bright lights on our @themorningshow set.”

She added, “As camera assistant, he was so skilled and dedicated to his job. We are going to miss you, Gunnar.”

The Emmy-nominated actress and producer also pointed her 40.7 million followers to a GoFundMe set up by Mortensen’s union, Local 600, “to help raise funds for his family at this difficult time.” As of Friday, the campaign has raised more than $130,000.

Among those who have kicked in include E.R. director Mimi Leder, who donated $5,000, Mark and Jay Duplass, who directed Uncut Gems and who matched that sum, and The Morning Show‘s Billy Crudup, who donated $3,000.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.