George Miller, the visionary director behind the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, is back at it with another madcap movie adventure.
The trailer to Miller’s latest, called Three Thousand Years of Longing, has Idris Elba playing a djinn — that is, a genie — who comes to be in the service of Tilda Swinton‘s bookish, self-described “solitary creature” Alithea.
“I have a question,” she asks him. “What does one do with three wishes?”
“You’ll see,” he replies.
What follows is a trippy visual tour of the heart’s desires, from apparent orgies to fantastic battlefields, melting spiders and a mandolin — a mix that perfectly fits the trailer’s promotional copy stating the movie hails “from the genius mind of George Miller.”
Austin St. John, who played the Red Ranger in the hit ’90s show Power Rangers, has been charged in an alleged scam of funds from the CARES Act for COVID relief.
The Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office this week unsealed charges against St. John, who was born Jason Gieger, claiming he was among 18 people who allegedly obtained fraudulent Payment Protection Program loans to the tune of $3.5 million and kept the money.
The fraudulent loan applications said the funds were needed for utility payments, payroll and health benefits for their businesses affected by the pandemic.
“Instead, the defendants … transferred money to their personal accounts, and spent the funds on various personal purchases,” the authorities say.
The defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in federal prison, the Department of Justice says.
COVID-19 relief scams have cost the government — and thusly, American taxpayers — hundreds of millions of dollars since the pandemic began.
Heartstopper fans got double the good news on Friday.
The hit Netflix teen show has officially been renewed for seasons two and three. The series, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, debuted in April and has since launched its young cast to social media stardom.
The LGBTQ-themed series follows the love story between two British teens: the shy, nerdy Charlie Spring, played by newcomer Joe Locke, and the popular rugby player Nick Nelson, played by Kit Connor.
Heartstopper has been embraced by critics, as well as fans, scoring the elusive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has also topped Variety’s Trending TV chart over the past four weeks. In its first week of release, Heartstopper racked up 1.05 million engagements on Twitter.
Downton is back! The new film Downton Abbey: A New Era is in theaters now, and actress Michelle Dockery – who has been with the series since season one – warns that fans may shed a tear or two.
“It’s very emotional,” she tells ABC Audio. “I feel like you could cry laughing as well, there’s lots of emotions in this film.”
Those emotions made Dockery work hard to stay in character as Lady Mary, who is known for her snide observations and cold demeanor. “The challenge is sometimes holding it back as Michelle and trying to stay like Lady Mary … a bit more stoic, and not blubber.”
A New Era is the sequel to 2019’s smash hit Downton Abbey, which saw the beloved Crawley family all follow one singular plot of welcoming the king and queen of England into their estate. In this film, the cast gets split into two – with half journeying to a home in the south of France, and the others holding down the fort while a film crew shoots at Downton.
“Downton has always been visually very cinematic, even in the TV show. So that transition from the small screen to the big screen really worked the first time around. And the second time it feels like it’s on an even bigger scale,” Dockery says.
Lady Mary is part of the group who stays at Downton, and Dockery acknowledges the plot’s meta, self-referential nature: “There’s something about the movie within the movie, and France. It adds an even more extravagant layer.”
The actress hopes its extravagance will entice fans, maybe even those who haven’t yet returned to movie theaters, to go out and see the film. “It’s an event, isn’t it? Downton always feels like a bit of an event,” she says.
As any caregiver can tell you, it’s not an easy job to tend to an ailing loved one. That’s what Emma Heming Willis, the wife of Die Hard star Bruce Willis, has found in the wake of his aphasia diagnosis.
“[The] amount of care for everyone else within my household had taken a toll on my mental health and overall health,” the model says in an interview with the motherhood-focused website The Bump. “And it served no one in my family.”
She adds, “I put my family’s needs above my own, which I found does not make me any kind of hero.”
Emma is mom to Willis’ youngest daughters Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, 8, and stepmom to Willis’ daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore: Rumer, 33, Scout, 30, and 28-year-old Tallulah.
She explained her “struggle” with maintaining her self-care routine in the interview, considering her younger daughters and her caring for her husband.
“Someone told me not long ago that when you over-care for someone, you end up under-caring for yourself. That stopped me in my tracks and really resonated with me,” she said.
Instead, the 43-year-old now focuses on her “baseline” needs, calling exercise “a must” for her.
“It’s a time I can disconnect and can do something that I know makes me feel good overall. I think it’s important to find that one thing that makes you feel good and build from there.”
Emma co-signed an Instagram post with Moore and Willis’ daughters in March that revealed 67-year-old Bruce was stepping away from acting as he deals with the degenerative neurological condition.
Depp and Green in 2012 — Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
As the Johnny Depp‘s defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard rolls on, another star has weighed in. Eva Green, who starred opposite Depp in the 2012 dark comedy Dark Shadows, took to Instagram to defend him.
“I have no doubt Johnny will emerge with his good name and wonderful heart revealed to the world, and life will be better than it ever was for him and his family,” wrote the actress, next to a photo of the pair together.
Green, who shot to stardom after playing Daniel Craig‘s love interest, Vesper Lynd, in Casino Royale, joins Ireland Baldwin, Chris Rock and Joe Rogan in defending the actor amid his bruising court battle.
Depp is suing Heard for defamation over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed that he claims derailed his career when Heard obliquely accused him of being a domestic abuser. Both stars have leveled accusations of violence against each other throughout the trial, which resumes Monday.
Four shows into its third season, HBO has renewed Barry, the dark comedy starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, for a fourth season, the premium cable channel announced on Thursday. Hader won an Emmy for playing the titular character, a depressed hitman from the Midwest who’s sent to Los Angeles to kill an aspiring actor, but decides instead to ditch his life of crime to become an actor himself. Fellow Emmy-winner Henry Winkler co-stars, along with Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg and Anthony Carrigan…
Aquaman star Jason Momoa is attached to star in the Universal Studios action-comedy Shots! Shots! Shots! according to The Hollywood Reporter. Details are being kept under wraps, but the film, which Momoa will also co-produce, is described as “a family-centric adventure that has tones of James Cameron’s True Lies, Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise and recent Paramount hit The Lost City,” per THR…
Scott Eastwood is returning to the Fast and Furious franchise with Fast X. According toThe Hollywood Reporter, the Suicide Squad co-star will be reprising his role as Little Nobody, the government agent assistant he played opposite Kurt Russell‘s mysterious Mr. Nobody in the series’ eighth installment…
Veteran stage and screen actor John Aylward, best known playing Dr. Donald Anspaugh on ER and former DNC chairman Barry Goodwin on The West Wing, died Monday at his home in Seattle, according to Deadline. He was 75. Aylward’s death was confirmed by his wife, Mary Fields, to his longtime agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs. Aylward had been in declining health, according to Fields. In addition to his TV work, Aylward most recently appeared in such films as Instinct, A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Way Back and Water for Elephants…
It’s Chip ‘n Dale, for a new generation. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, a Roger Rabbit-style revival of the early 90s cartoon that premieres today on Disney+.
The Lonely Island‘s Akiva Schaffer directed the film, tells ABC Audio that its mix of live-action and animation “allowed for this Roger Rabbit world,” but on a whole new level.
“There’s been 30 years of technology that has changed animation so much with so many different styles,” he explains, “and the fun of getting to see them all together was really enticing to me.”
Akiva says that like Roger Rabbit, the movie features so many animated characters and Easter eggs, animation fans are going to go crazy — and it’s not just Disney.
“Third party characters that aren’t Disney was super important because, you know, Roger Rabbit had like Looney Tunes and all that stuff and it felt so much bigger because of that,” he shares. “So in the same way, to keep it from feeling like a Disney+ ad and to just be a love letter to animation. So it was the lawyers deserve, you know, a big bottle of wine.”
Kiki Layne is one of the only humans in the movie, and the The If Beale Street Could Talk and Coming 2 America star says acting alongside a bunch of animated animals brought her back to her early days.
“It’s just fun to play make believe. Like, you know, it took me back, You know, even the fact that I was acting by myself, I thought, yeah, that’s what I used to do in my bedroom,” she reveals. “You know, I take my Barbies and stuffed animals and create a whole new world in my bedroom. That’s where it starts.”
Twenty-three-year-old Isaiah Lee, the man still behind bars after being charged with tackling Dave Chappelle onstage, has been slapped with an attempted murder charge.
However, controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today the charge wasn’t related to Lee’s alleged assault of the comedian earlier this month.
Gascón on Thursday says a man who had been stabbed in December identified Lee, his former roommate, as his attacker. “The publicity generated by the attack on Mr. Chappelle helped police solve this crime,” he noted.
Lee was found to have had a gun-shaped knife when the alleged attack of Chappelle happened, but the LA DA’s Office, which has been under fire for what critics see as Gascón’s soft on crime policies, didn’t charge Lee with any felonies. Instead, he was charged with four misdemeanors, for which he recently pleaded not guilty, and a judge refused to reduce his $30,000 bail and release him.
Gascón added of Thursday’s new charge, “The incident that occurred at the Hollywood Bowl was misdemeanor conduct and rightfully referred to the City Attorney’s Office. Based on the nature and severity of the December attack, Mr. Lee is now facing felony charges which my office will prosecute.”
The Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation case rolled on in a Fairfax, Virginia courtroom today, with the jury listening to hours of pre-taped testimony from various people involved with the former couple.
As reported, Depp is suing heard for $50 million for defamation, claiming her 2018 Washington Post op-ed devastated his career when it falsely branded him as a domestic abuser.
One of the tapes the jury heard today was from 2019, when actress Ellen Barkin testified about the actor, whom she briefly dated in the 1990s. “We had a romantic relationship,” Barkin said in the video deposition, before adding, “Actually, can we change that to ‘sexual’?”
Depp’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas co-star said Depp was “always drunk” and witnessed him throwing a bottle against a hotel wall during an argument with some of his associates.
There was also taped testimony from more recently, January of this year, from the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s former psychiatrist. Dr. Alan Blaustein testified Depp used drugs and alcohol to cope with “psychic wounds” and anxiety. The therapist also claimed the actor told him he was hesitant to marry Heard.
Heard is counter-suing Depp for $100 million, and her attorneys had the jury hear from Heard’s former agent, who claimed Heard’s op-ed actually hurt her own career.
Jessica Kovacevi noted that Heard’s level of fame should have been on par with that of Bond girl Ana De Armas if it weren’t for blowback she says the actress received in the wake of the bombshell article.
