Jesse Williams on appearing nude in Broadway’s ‘Take Me Out’: “It’s a body”

Jesse Williams on appearing nude in Broadway’s ‘Take Me Out’: “It’s a body”
Jesse Williams on appearing nude in Broadway’s ‘Take Me Out’: “It’s a body”
ABC/Lou Rocco

When it comes to being nude, Jesse Williams says it’s not big deal. 

The actor, who currently stars in the Broadway play Take Me Out, appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen just hours after nude images of him from the play leaked online Monday, and said that he’s learned to be OK with being in the buff. 

“It’s a body,” he said. “Once you see it, you realize it’s whatever, it’s a body. I just have to make it not that big of a deal.”

Although the internet had a field day commenting on the leaked photos, Second Stage Theater, which produces Take Me Out, slammed the audience member responsible for the leak. 

“Second Stage Theater has worked to ensure the privacy of the ‘Take Me Out’ company by creating a phone-free space with locked phone cases at all performances. We are appalled that this policy has been violated and unauthorized footage of our acting company has been posted,” they wrote in an Instagram post. “It is deeply unfortunate that one audience member chose to disrespect the production, their fellow audience members, and, most importantly, the cast in this manner.”

“Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” the post continued. “Posting it on the internet is a gross and unacceptable violation of trust between the actor and audience forged in the theater community. We are actively pursuing takedown requests and ask that no one participates in the distribution of these images. Second Stage is also adding additional staff at the theater to enforce the policy.”

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‘Succession’ actor James Cromwell glues hand to Starbucks counter in protest of vegan milk charge

‘Succession’ actor James Cromwell glues hand to Starbucks counter in protest of vegan milk charge
‘Succession’ actor James Cromwell glues hand to Starbucks counter in protest of vegan milk charge
Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Succession actor James Cromwell and another man superglued their hands to a Starbucks counter in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday to protest the company’s policy of charging extra for vegan milk, as other activists held signs protesting the policy.

“Non-dairy products all over the world…France, they give these things away. There’s no charge for it. Here, there’s an exorbitant charge,” Cromwell noted during the stunt. “Why, when it’s so important now to address climate change and to understand the violence to animals to go on to make dairy products that are served here? There’s no reason for it except greed.”

“My friends at PETA and I are calling on Starbucks to stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks,” Cromwell continued, reading from a prepared statement. “We all have a stake in the life-and-death matter of the climate catastrophe, and Starbucks should do its part by ending its vegan upcharge.”

“When will you stop raking in huge profits while customers, animals, and the environment suffer? When will you stop penalizing people for their ethnicities, their morals? The senseless upcharge hurts animals,” he added.

PETA has been calling out the surcharge for years, and last month, two activists glued themselves to the cafe counters at Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters in protest.

Police eventually arrived on the scene and asked the protesters to leave, which they did about 30 minutes later.

Cromwell became a vegetarian in 1974 and turned vegan while playing Farmer Hoggett in the 1995 movie Babe.

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‘Doctor Strange’ sequel screenwriter talks spoilers, new ‘Star Wars’ script

‘Doctor Strange’ sequel screenwriter talks spoilers, new ‘Star Wars’ script
‘Doctor Strange’ sequel screenwriter talks spoilers, new ‘Star Wars’ script
Getty Images for Disney/Michael Kovac

(SPOILERS) Michael Waldron, who broke open Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Multiverse with the hit Disney+ series Loki, is spilling spoilers about his latest success, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The movie has Elizabeth Olsen‘s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch “breaking bad,” as the writer puts it, after she got a hold of a black magic book called the Darkhold in the close of the Emmy-nominated series WandaVision.

Some had griped online that Wanda’s movie move to the dark side undoes her arc in WandaVision, which ends with her coming to terms with the loss of her love, Paul Bettany‘s Vision.

Waldron doesn’t see it that way, saying, “My interpretation of WandaVision is that she confronts her grief and she lets go of the people she has under her control, but I don’t think she necessarily resolves her grief in that show, and I don’t think she resolves her anger.”

He continues, “You see in the final scene of WandaVision — the mistake that our Wanda makes is she opens the Darkhold. So yeah, that was how I arrived there. It made sense to me and it made sense to our teams because we built the story.”

With Doctor Strange out of the way, Waldron is again working “in earnest” with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige on a hush-hush Star Wars feature script.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Waldron teases, adding, “I’m enjoying having the freedom on that to do something that’s not necessarily a sequel or anything….it just doesn’t have a bunch of TV shows and movies that you’re servicing on top of it, the way I did with Doctor Strange.”

He calls dabbling in that galaxy far, far away, “nice,” adding, “It feels like a different exercise.”

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

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‘Scream’ reboot cast reuniting for sixth film

‘Scream’ reboot cast reuniting for sixth film
‘Scream’ reboot cast reuniting for sixth film
Paramount Pictures

The fifth Scream film, which debuted this year for the series’ 25th anniversary, has spawned a sequel. Paramount Pictures has announced that a sixth film has been given the go-ahead, with Ghostface Killer survivors played by Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Jenna Ortega returning.

Scream series O.G. Courteney Cox will also be back as Gale Weathers, she told the Just for Variety podcast back in March, teasing that production would get underway this summer.

The film is slated for a March 31, 2023, release.

A sequel to the fifth Scream was something of a no-brainer — the modestly budgeted 2022 movie earned $140 million worldwide, and reunited Cox with her series co-star Neve Campbell and the Friends alum’s ex-husband and former Scream partner David Arquette.

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Celebrity chef Mario Batali found not guilty of indecent assault, battery

Celebrity chef Mario Batali found not guilty of indecent assault, battery
Celebrity chef Mario Batali found not guilty of indecent assault, battery
Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Celebrity chef Mario Batali has been found not guilty of indecent assault and battery for an alleged 2017 incident in Boston.

Natalie Tene, 32, said Batali forcibly kissed her and grabbed her breasts, buttocks and groin after meeting him in a Boston bar while having a drink with a friend in March 2017.

Judge James Stanton ultimately decided after two days of testimony and two hours of deliberation in Boston that while Batali “did not cover himself in glory, especially for a person of his stature,” the defendant had “serious credibility issues” and “a financial motive” for making the accusations.

Stanton rendered the verdict directly since Batali waived his right to a jury trial.

On Monday, at the start of the trial, Tene said she was speaking out “to be able to take control of what happened,” while Batali’s defense accused her of fabricating the account and showed text messages in which a friend advised her to “play up the story” to collect money from Batali, to which Tene replied “of course.”

Batali, 61, maintained that he was not guilty of the allegations. Tene has also filed a civil complaint for unspecified damages based on the same allegations.

In 2017, Battali was asked to step away from the ABC show The Chew, which he co-hosted, on the heels of a report from the blog Eater that multiple women had accused him of sexual harassment or misconduct.

In a statement to ABC News at the time, Batali did not deny the allegations and apologized to the people he has “mistreated and hurt.” He also stepped away from the day-to-day operations of his restaurant group in the wake of the Eater article.

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Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ wallet, Indiana Jones’ Holy Grail diary and more hitting the auction block

Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ wallet, Indiana Jones’ Holy Grail diary and more hitting the auction block
Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ wallet, Indiana Jones’ Holy Grail diary and more hitting the auction block
Prop Store

The U.K.-based auction house Prop Store is readying another collection of highly prized movie memorabilia ahead of an auction in Los Angeles beginning Tuesday, June 21.

Some of the props and other collectibles will be the Holy Grail for movie fans — in some cases, almost literally.

The Holy Grail diary kept by Sean Connery‘s Henry Jones Sr., and given to his son, Harrison Ford‘s Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr., in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is up for grabs, with pre-sale estimates putting its hammer price at an estimated $60,000-$80,000.

Also going under the hammer is Samuel L. Jackson‘s ‘Bad Mother Fu**er’ wallet from Pulp Fiction. The brown billfold has an extra bit of provenance for Fiction fans: Legend has it it was Quentin Tarantino‘s before he gave it to Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield. The wallet is estimated to fetch from $30,000-$50,000.

Tom Hanks‘ buddy Wilson, the volleyball from the 2000 film Cast Away, can be yours, too. The screen-used prop is estimated to sell for anywhere from $80,000-$120,000.

Other props include a screen-matched ILM “Red Leader” X-Wing starfighter model miniature from Star Wars: A New Hope (pre-sale estimate $500,000-$1,000,000); Chris Hemsworth‘s stunt Mjolnir hammer from Thor ($100,000-$150,000), and a Gizmo puppet from 1989’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch ($80,000- $120,000).

The auction will run from June 21 to 24, but if you can’t afford the items, feel free to window shop on Prop Store’s website.

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Michelle Williams expecting baby #2 with husband Thomas Kail

Michelle Williams expecting baby #2 with husband Thomas Kail
Michelle Williams expecting baby #2 with husband Thomas Kail
Steve Granitz/WireImage

Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams is expecting her third child, the second with her Hamilton director husband, Thomas Kail.

“It’s totally joyous!” Williams expressed to Variety. She and Kail welcomed their first child, son Hart, during the pandemic. She also has a 16-year-old daughter Matilda, from her relationship with the late Heath Ledger.

The 41-year-old Williams said of her news, “As the years go on, you sort of wonder what they might hold for you or not hold for you. It’s exciting to discover that something you want again and again, is available one more time. That good fortune is not lost on me or my family.”

She also shared having Hart during the lockdown days, saying, “it was a reminder that life goes on.”

“The world we brought a baby into is not the world we thought we were bringing a baby into, but the baby is ignorant of that. He experiences the unmitigated joy of discovery and the happiness of a loving home,” says Williams.

The Golden Globe and Emmy winner also tells the trade that being a mom helps her with her day job. “There’s nothing that makes you committed to a better world than raising a great kid. It’s the ultimate creative act,” she says.

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In Brief: Bob Saget tribute debuts June 10; ‘The Lost City’ streams, and more

In Brief: Bob Saget tribute debuts June 10; ‘The Lost City’ streams, and more
In Brief: Bob Saget tribute debuts June 10; ‘The Lost City’ streams, and more

The premiere date for Netflix’s A Tribute to Bob Saget, a celebration of the comedian and actor’s life in comedy with his friends and family, is June 10, the streaming service announced as part of its Netflix Is a Joke festival. The event, filmed at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood following Saget’s January 9 death, featured many big names, including his Full House co-star John StamosJim CarreyChris RockJeffrey Ross, and John Mayer

The Lost City, the rom-com adventure starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, is coming to Paramount+ on Tuesday. The film has Bullock playing a reclusive romance novelist who gets kidnapped by a weirdo billionaire played by Daniel Radcliffe, while Channing Tatum plays her Fabio-like cover model who attempts to rescue her. Brad Pitt also stars as a mercenary far better suited for such an operation…

Norway’s equivalent of the Emmy Awards, the Gullruten Awards, were held on Saturday night, and while many of the country’s biggest stars aren’t well-known here, the opening number would have been pretty familiar to U.S. audiences: The stars all assembled to imitate the “Peacemaker dance.” The hit HBO Max show opens with the show’s cast doing a straight-faced, coordinated dance to Wigwam‘s “Do You Wanna Taste It.” To his social media followers, Peacemaker creator James Gunn pointed out the awards show tribute, noting of their imitation, “…A little too much smiling, but I know it’s hard to hold back when you wanna taste Wigwam”…

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring and executive-produced by John Krasinski, will end with its fourth season, currently in production, sources tell Deadline. However, that won’t be the end of the franchise, according to the outlet, which reports Amazon Prime Video is developing a potential spinoff series starring Michael Peña as Ding Chavez — another character from Clancy’s Jack Ryan literary universe. Peña will be introduced in the final episode of the upcoming third season before joining the cast full-time in season four. Amazon announced Peña’s addition to the cast in the season-four pickup announcement in October without revealing his character. Returning for Jack Ryan‘s third season, besides Krasinski, are Wendell Pierce as James Greer and Michael Kelly as Mike November…

CBS has renewed all three shows from Dick Wolf‘s FBI franchise — flagship show FBI and spinoffs FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International — for two more seasons, the network announced on Monday. The multi-year pickups will take FBI through its sixth season in 2023-24, Most Wanted through its fifth and International to its third. With the FBI pickups, seven of the nine scripted series Wolf has on broadcast TV are set to return in 2022-23. NBC’s Chicago trio and Law & Order: SVU are all in the second year of three-season pickups, announced in 2020…

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Kelly Ripa tests positive for COVID-19

Kelly Ripa tests positive for COVID-19
Kelly Ripa tests positive for COVID-19
Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Live with Kelly and Ryan may look a little different for a few episodes because co-host Kelly Ripa has tested positive for COVID-19. 

The 51-year-old, who co-hosts the show with Ryan Seacrest, took to Instgram on Tuesday to share the news, writing, “Unfortunately i tested positive for covid-19 this weekend, but thankfully i am fully vaccinated and boosted, and today’s show was already pre taped last week.”

“I am taking all necessary precautions and looking forward to returning to normal life as soon as the standard quarantine time is over,” she continued. “On a lighter note, i did receive the peace and quiet i requested for Mother’s Day. Thanks for understanding, Xo, Kelly.”

Ripa did not confirm the exact date she is expected to return to the show.

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‘The Late Show’ pausing taping episodes while Stephen Colbert has a “recurrence of COVID”

‘The Late Show’ pausing taping episodes while Stephen Colbert has a “recurrence of COVID”
‘The Late Show’ pausing taping episodes while Stephen Colbert has a “recurrence of COVID”
CBS/Mary Ellen Matthews

While he resumed taping of The Late Show last week after testing positive for COVID, Stephen Colbert is back to isolation.  

“Stephen is experiencing symptoms consistent with a recurrence of COVID,” The Late Show‘s Twitter feed announced Monday. “Out of an abundance of caution for his staff, guests, and audience, he will be isolating for a few additional days. The Late Show will not be taping new episodes until further notice.”

Colbert himself, who is vaccinated and boosted, replied to the post, noting, “WORST. SEQUEL. EVER.”

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