On Thursday, as part of its Pride Month festivities, Peacock released Queer as Folk.
The third iteration of the originally British series is executive produced by trans writer Jaclyn Moore, and centers on a group of LGBTQ+ friends in New Orleans both before and after a homophobic attack.
Compared to the originals, the new show opens the lens further on the queer community, following trans folk, gender-fluid characters and gay people of color.
Moore explains, “I think it’s really important that we take the time, especially during Pride Month, to celebrate all aspects of the queer community … Usually with queer and trans people, it feels like we are we’re either sidekicks or we’re, you know, put-upon saints that are like martyred.”
The producer clarifies with a laugh, “Look, we are put upon in a lot of ways. Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know any queer people in my life that aren’t a little messy or complicated. And so getting to tell that story during Pride Month feels really special.”
Peacock has renewed Kevin Hart‘s acclaimed series Hart to Heart for a second season, the streamer announced on Wednesday. “After an incredible first season of Heart to Heart, I couldn’t wait to get back in the chair to have more raw and hilarious conversations with some of the best in the business,” Hart said in a statement. “There is something special about sitting down with a glass of wine, it brings out honesty and hilarity in guests and delivers real conversations that you won’t get anywhere else.” The guest list for season two, kicking off July 14, includes Pete Davidson, Simu Liu, Tracee Ellis Ross, JAY-Z, Saweetie, Kristen Stewart, Mike Tyson, Mark Wahlberg, Tyler Perry, Chris Rock and Seth McFarlane…
Hulu on Wednesday released a new teaser for Mike, “an unauthorized and no-holds-barred look at the life of Mike Tyson,” premiering August 25. The eight-episode series from I Tonya screenwriter Steven Rogers “explores the tumultuous ups and downs of Tyson’s boxing career and personal life — from being a beloved global athlete to a pariah and back again.” Moonlight‘s Trevante Rhodes and Fences‘ Russell Hornsby star, with guest stars Harvey Keitel, Laura Harrier and Li Eubanks…
Five months after Bob Saget‘s tragic death, some of his friends are celebrating his life and legacy in a new Netflix special, Dirty Daddy: A Tribute to Bob Saget, launching Friday. Among those paying tribute are Saget’s former Full House co-stars John Stamos, Candace Cameron Bure and Dave Coulier, along with Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jim Carrey, Michael Keaton, Tim Allen, Jeff Ross, Paul Rodriguez, Jon Lovitz and Seth Green. Saget’s widow, Kelly Rizzo-Saget, and their daughters Lara and Aubrey Saget are also on board. The 65-year-old comedian died January 9 in an Orlando hotel room of apparent head trauma following a stand-up performance… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)
Two years after its cancellation by AMC amid protests against police brutality, the reality show Live PD is set to return with a new name and a new television home, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The program, renamed On Patrol: Live, will air on the independent cable and satellite TV channel Reelz. Live PD regular Sean Larkin will appear on the show, joined by Curtis Wilson, who had appeared on several Live PD episodes, along with host and executive producer Dan Abrams, who tells THR the new show will also feature civilian ride-alongs and new police departments, which “fundamentally changes the fabric of the show”…
Nick Cannon is looking forward to getting a vasectomy. Not in the traditional sense, though: this vasectomy is an ice-cold drink made with Ryan Reynolds‘ Aviation gin.
On Wednesday, Ryan shared a comical commercial where Nick gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to make an alcoholic beverage called ‘The Vasectomy,’ which consists of cranberry juice, tonic water, lemon juice and Aviation gin.
“It’s almost Father’s Day and the one and only Ryan Reynolds asked me to help us all celebrate with the mother of all cocktails, ‘The Vasectomy.’ Lord knows I need one,” Nick says in the video.
After the Wild ‘N Out star finishes making the drink, Ryan joins him. “I’ll take it from here, Nick,” he says before taking a sip. “I have three kids.”
“I have eight,” Nick quips, causing Ryan to spit out the fresh cocktail. He then gives the Drumline alum a hug before joking, “No wonder you have eight kids, you smell amazing!”
The hilarious commercial comes shortly after the June 7 episode of the Lip Servicepodcast, where Nick teased that he’s planning on having more children, stating the “stork is on the way.”
Nick shares 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with his ex-wife, Mariah Carey. He also has 4-year-old son, Golden, and 17-month-old daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell. Abby De La Rosa is the mother of his 11-month-old twins, Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir. Nick is also expecting a baby with Bre Tiesi. Nick and Alyssa Scott‘s 5-month-old son, Zen ,died of brain cancer in December.
Ryan shares three daughters — James, 7, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2 — with his wife, Blake Lively.
Gary Mitchell/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ezra Miller has found himself in more legal trouble.
On Tuesday, attorney and activist Chase Iron Eyes and his wife, Sara Jumping Eagle, filed court documents in Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Court alleging that Miller has been “physically and emotionally abusing” as well as “psychologically manipulating, physically intimidating, and endangering the safety and welfare” of their daughter, Tokata Iron Eyes, according to court documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
The parents allege that Miller and Tokata met during the 2016 Standing Rock Reservation protests in North Dakota, when she was 12 and Miller was 23, and that Miller, who goes by they/them pronouns, has been grooming Tokata ever since.
The complaint goes on to say that Miller flew Tokata to London in 2017 to visit the studio where he filmed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She was allegedly 14 at the time of the trip and Ezra was 25.
Tokata’s parents further claim that Ezra supplied their underage daughter with alcohol, marijuana and LSD, and disrupted her schooling at a private institute in Massachusetts so much, she dropped out in December 2021.
Shortly after arriving home, Tokata’s parents say she fled to NYC to reunite with Ezra, and from there, the pair has been traveling together to Vermont, Hawaii and Los Angeles.
Tokata’s parents claim that Miller is displaying “cult-like and psychologically manipulative, controlling behavior” toward their daughter, as well as “classic abusive intimate partner violence behavior” and “sexual predatory behavior.”
However, in a Monday Instagram post, Tokata denied the claims, insisting in part that her “comrade” Ezra has simply helped her through a difficult time.
Tokata’s parents are asking the court to step in and issue an order of protection against Ezra on behalf of their daughter. A hearing is set for next month.
President Joe Biden appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night to discuss the recent string of mass shootings in the U.S., including one in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 elementary school children and two teachers dead.
Kimmel asked the president why he couldn’t issue an executive order, noting that former president Donald Trump “passed those out like Halloween candy.”
Biden answered that he doesn’t want to “emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution” by issuing many executive orders. “I have issued executive orders, within the power of the presidency, to be able to deal with these — everything having to do with guns, gun ownership — all the things within my power,” he explained. “But what I don’t want to do, and I’m not being facetious, is emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.”
“I often get asked, well the Republicans don’t play it square, why do you play it square,” added Biden. “Well, guess what? If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy.”
When Kimmel jokingly asked the president about his process for flushing documents down the toilet, Biden quipped, “I ask Trump.”
President Biden also touched on a number of other issues during the interview, including, Roe vs. Wade, inflation, the negative impact of the pandemic on families and mental health care.
The appearance was the president’s first in-studio appearance on a late night talk show since being inaugurated in January 2021. Biden last appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September 2019, in the midst of his campaign during the Democratic Party presidential primary. The president guested on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in December 2021, though he appeared via video. Biden has also appeared on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, most recently in September 2019.
Kristen Stewarttook to Instagram Wednesday to say she’s “scarily excited” to announce she’s co-producing “the most gayest, most funnest, most titillating queer ghost-hunting show ever.”
The Oscar nominee goes on to explain she’s paired up with Scout, the production company behind gay-friendly hits Queer Eye and The Hype, and is looking for contestants for the series.
Stewart made the call on a selfie-shot video on her hairstylist and friend CJ Romero‘s social media accounts.
“We need to find the most incredible LGBTQ+ ghost hunters, paranormal specialists, mediums, psychics, investigators who will lead the pack on this super gay ghost-hunting adventure,” the Spencer star said.
“Can’t wait to see what you ghouls bring us!” she captioned the post, providing a link for interested hunters.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman is producing an animated series about the paranormal investigators and eliminators, according to Variety.
Reitman, who co-wrote the big-screen hit with Gil Kenan, is reteaming with him as executive producers of the project, according to the trade.
Reitman is the son of the late Ivan Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, and the executive producer of Afterlife. Ivan died in February of this year.
Nothing yet is known about the new project, but it would be the third animated adventures of the boys in gray, following The Real Ghostbusters run from 1986-1991. In 1997, there was a shorter-lived cartoon called Extreme Ghostbusters.
Apple TV+ has released the first trailer for its upcoming thriller Black Bird, one of the final performances from Ray Liotta, who died suddenly last month.
In the film, Liotta plays the incarcerated dad of Kingsman series lead Taron Edgerton, playing clean-cut Jimmy Keene, who is facing a 10-year stint in prison himself.
“I never wanted this for you,” the Goodfellas alum tells his onscreen son in the adaptation of the real-life memoir In With The Devil.
“Dad. Tell me there’s a way out of this,” Egerton’s Keene desperately says.
“Not a quick one,” his dad replies.
As it turns out, he’s right. Prosecutors make a deal with the young inmate: transfer to a maximum security prison for the criminally insane and try to get a confession from jailed serial killer Larry Hall, creepily played by I, Tonya‘s Paul Walter Hauser.
“You want me to check into hell and befriend the demon,” Keene says in response.
“You think you could be in danger. You are in danger,” Hall later taunts him.
The film debuts July 8 on Apple TV+.
Liotta passed away in his sleep while in the Dominican Republic, where he was working on a film. The 67-year-old completed work on Black Bird and another film, Cocaine Bear, before his death.
Other projects on which he worked, a drama about the L.A. Riots called April 29, 1992, and The Substance, are still in production.
Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew, Johnny Depp‘s lawyers in the high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, said Depp was “over the moon” with the verdict.
“It was like the weight of the world had been taken off his shoulders and I feel that finally after six years he’s gotten his life back,” Chew told GMA co-anchor George Stephanopoulos about Depp.
On June 1, a jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages over Heard’s 2018 Washington Post op-ed, in which she alleged to be a victim of domestic abuse, despite her abuser not being named in the piece.
Depp will receive a total of $10.35 million due to Virginia state law capping punitive damages at $350,000.
The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for comments made by Depp’s former attorney.
Vasquez said Depp had an opportunity “to speak the truth for the first time” at the trial.
“It was six years in the making, and I think he was able to connect with the jury and the general public and tell what really happened in this relationship,” she continued.
When asked about a previously released statement from Heard’s spokesperson that said the verdict was “setting back decades of how women can be treated in the courtroom,” Vasquez pushed back.
“We’re only speaking about what happened in this case, right? And the facts in this case were overwhelmingly positive for Johnny and the verdict speaks for itself,” she said.
Vasquez also denied that the verdict was a setback to the #MeToo movement, saying, “I think our response to that is we encourage any victim to come forward — domestic violence doesn’t have a gender.”
Vasquez said her team’s cross-examination of Heard was focused on “using her words against her,” saying it was “very important” to them that “every question that was asked was tied to something she had said previously.”
Chew said there was “a real contrast” between Heard and Depp on the stand.
“Johnny took ownership of a lot of things and it seemed at times, and perhaps it came through to the jury, that she had an answer for everything and she wasn’t taking accountability for anything, and I think that made a difference,” he said.
For the 21st year, Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal are launching their Tribeca Film Festival, which gets underway in New York City Wednesday night.
The festival was started as a way to bring much-needed economic recovery to Lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, but for the past two years the pandemic left its mark on the annual event.
2022’s fest is especially meaningful, De Niro tells ABC Audio. “It means we’re back,” he says of his native New York City.
“Everybody’s coming out, and we’re looking forward to coming out. … I think it’ll be great.”
He adds, “And we’re hopefully through this [pandemic]. We might not fully be through it. But … the light is more than at the end of the tunnel. So let’s celebrate.”
Part of that celebration is a retrospective of De Niro’s crime classic Heat, which will also feature another Oscar winner, his former co-star Al Pacino.
Rosenthal says the content of this year’s festival also reflects the tough times the city went through because of COVID. “It’s also perseverance and getting through even some of the darkest days.”
“We have a film called Broadway Rising about what happened to Broadway, not just the stars of Broadway, the dry cleaners, the, you know … the locksmiths, everybody [who was affected],” she adds.
“… It’s New Yorkers who have persevered and have gotten through. And we’re going to have some fun, too!”
All told, 150 filmmakers from 40 countries will screen their work there; 110 feature films, as well as shorts and documentaries, will unspool through June 19. For those who can’t make the festival, or its outdoor screenings throughout the city, the pandemic-born Tribeca At Home will allow movie fans to tune in virtually.
As previously reported, this year’s fest kicks off with Jennifer Lopez‘s Netflix documentary, Halftime.
