Entertainment

Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scored an estimated $185 million in its domestic debut, marking the biggest opening weekend of the year, the second-biggest pandemic opening — after Spider-Man: No Way Home — and the 11th-biggest North American opening of all time. The film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, did even better overseas, where it delivered an estimated $265 million, helping Doctor Strange 2‘s global debut soar to $450 million.

Coming in second was The Bad Guys with an estimated $9 million in its third week of release. The animated film has collected $57.6 million in North America to go along with $90.6 million overseas for a worldwide total of $148.1 million.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 finished in third place, grabbing an estimated $6.2 million. It’s five-week domestic total now stands at $169.9, to go along with $179 million internationally for a $349.4 million total global haul.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore pulled up in fourth place, earning just south of $4 million. The Harry Potter spinoff has earned a modest $86 million after four weeks, but has fared much better overseas, where it collected $277.7 million. It’s worldwide total currently stands at $363.7 million.

Rounding out the top five was the indie film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which delivered $3.3 million in its seventh week of release. Domestically, the Michelle Yeoh dark comedy has raked in $41.6 million in its first seven weeks of release and $3.9 million internationally, for a global tally of $45.4 million.

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The Top seven pulled double-duty on Sunday night’s episode of American Idol.

With help from mentor will.i.am, the contestants were tasked with singing two songs. The first challenge was to pick a song that’s gone viral on TikTok and the second was a song in honor of Mother’s Day.

Not everyone hit the stage live on Sunday, though. At the beginning of the show, Ryan Seacrest announced that both Fritz Hager and Noah Thompson tested positive for COVID-19 and were quarantined in their hotel rooms. However, as the saying goes “the show must go on,” so Fritz’s practice performances were used for Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie to judge, while Noah performed from his room.

Ryan also had the honor of surprising Christian Guardino with a video message from Michael Bublé, who invited the Idol contestant to sing with him during the finale show.

The host also revealed that whoever makes it into the Top five, will be whisked off to Resorts World Las Vegas to be mentored by Grammy-award winner and Idol alum Carrie Underwood.

After the night’s performances, here’s who made the Top five and who was eliminated.

Top Five:
Noah Thompson: “Painted Blue” Sundy Best and “Landslide” Fleetwood Mac
Nicolina: “Alone” Heart and “Light In The Hallway” Pentatonix
Huntergirl: “you broke me first” Tate McRae and “Like My Mother Does” Lauren Alaina
Leah Marlene: “Electric Love” Børns and “Sanctuary” Nashville Cast feat.Charles Esten, Lennon & Maisy
Fritz Hager: “All My Friends” Fritz Hager and “The Ocean” Fritz Hager

Eliminated:
Jay: “I Have Nothing” Whitney Houston and “A Song For Mama” Boys II Men
Christian Guardino: “Lonely” Justin Bieber and “Dear God” Smokie Norful 

American Idol returns Monday, May 9 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

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Call it box office magic: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scored some $36 million from sneak peek screenings in the U.S. alone on Thursday.

The film from Marvel Studios officially opened Friday.

The sequel, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the one-time Sorcerer Supreme, and also featuring Marvel movie veterans Benedict Wong, Elizabeth Olsen and Rachel McAdams, as well as newcomer Xochitl [SOH-chee] Gomez, previously opened overseas, and has already earned more than $85 million from those foreign markets, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The trade notes that Multiverse’s Thursday performance represents the eighth-largest sneak preview haul in history.

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

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Season two of the Apple TV+ spy thriller Tehran debuts today, with Glenn Close joining the cast as a Western woman Western woman living in Iran who has “a lot of secrets,” which she tells ABC Audio is what attracted her to the character.

Says Close, “I love characters that have a lot of secrets, that not all of them are revealed. And I love characters like that.”

Another reason was the show’s multiculturalism, which she applauds Apple TV+ for giving a global platform.

“Well I think this show is really…pioneering the platform that Apple TV+ has created for shows that are not English speaking, coming from various countries, telling stories that only they can tell.”

Close says the most challenging part of the role was learning to speak Iran’s primary language, Farsi

“I wanted to be an American speaking perfect Farsi…And it’s a very tricky language,” she explains. “And because of the time I had in studying it, I never could think in Farsi, which is, I think, the final step. So it still was just a series of sounds. I started to be able to understand each word more. But then you have to get the intonation right and you have to get the tempo right.”

Series regular Niv Sultan plays Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad hacker-agent whose failed mission to help destroy Iran’s nuclear reactor forces her to plan an operation that will place everyone dear to her in jeopardy. She tells ABC Audio that she felt more pressure heading into the show’s second season.

“After first season, we had expectations, we felt like the audience has expectations,” she says. “We had Glenn Close on board. So everything I can say, everything was much more stressful but exciting as well.”

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Twenty-three-year-old Isiah Lee, the man cops say tackled Dave Chappelle onstage at The Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, has pleaded not guilty to the four misdemeanor charges against him.

Lee is being held on $30,000 bail, and a judge on Friday also ordered the suspect not to come within 100 yards of Chappelle or the famed venue.

A bail review hearing scheduled for early next week.

On Thursday, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer issued a video statement announcing that he has filed four charges against Lee, including battery, promising the incident will be prosecuted “vigorously.” He noted, “this alleged attack must have consequences.”

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This Is Us star Chris Sullivan and his wife, Rachel Sullivan, are expecting their second child.

“We have wrapped my final scenes for #thisisus. What an incredible 6 years these have been,” the 41-year-old actor shared Thursday on Instagram, adding, “With every end, there is a new beginning…so here is a trailer of what’s to come.”

However, what appeared to be a post dedicated to the beloved NBC series turned out to be a setup for a bigger surprise, as an attached video showed the couple’s 21-month-old son, Bear, sporting a shirt with the words “only child” crossed out and “big brother” written below it. Bear then hands his father a sonogram photo.

“It’s a…girl!!!” read a caption at the end of the video, followed by “Arriving Nov 1…ish.”

Chris’ This Is Us cast mates shared their joy over the news in the comments.

Mandy Moore replied with five red heart emojis, while his on-screen wife Chrissy Metz responded with a party hat and heart emoji.

Jennifer Garner chimed in with “So much is happening — congratulations, you guys!!!” while Home Town’s Erin Napier added, “I can’t wait to squeeze this precious baby!!” followed by two hearts.

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Mike Hagerty, a veteran performer who appeared in dozens of movies, and on TV shows like Friends, Seinfeld and many others, has died. He was 67.

Hagerty’s might not have been a household name, but he was instantly recognizable for playing, among others, Mr. Treeger, Monica’s irascible building’s super, on Friends.

Hagerty can currently be seen in HBO Max dramedy Somebody Somewhere, playing the father to star Bridget Everett’s character. The actress posted to social media a message from Haggerty’s family, which noted the passing of “beloved character actor,” noting “his love of his hometown of Chicago and his family were the cornerstones of his life.”

“I loved Mike the instant i met him,” Everett said on Instagram. “We are devastated he has passed. Mike was adored by the entire cast and crew of Somebody Somewhere.”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) At an exclusive performance at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles Thursday night, Dave Chappelle unpacked the onstage attack that happened during one of his shows Tuesday evening.

At one point, Dave was joined onstage by someone who also knows something about getting assaulted on stage: Chris Rock.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chappelle started solo, explaining that the incident, for which 23-year-old Isiah Lee was arrested, left the comedian showered with support. Dave said his teenage son hugged him after the attack and said he loved him.

“A lot of people love me, it turns out,” Chappelle told the unpublicized show’s crowd, which reportedly included Kim Kardashian, Sean “Diddy” Combs, comedian Jeff Ross, and Yasiin Bey.

Dave mentioned those who’d reached out to him after the incident, including Louis C.K., who’s continued to enjoy Chappelle’s support after the Emmy-winning comedian was embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal.

After flying solo, Dave welcomed Rock to sit beside him, and they compared notes on their respective on-stage incidents.

“At least you got smacked by someone of repute!” Chappelle reportedly joked, noting, “I got smacked by a homeless guy with leaves in his hair.”

Rock reportedly countered by dissing Will Smith, saying “I got smacked by the softest n***a that ever rapped.”

Chappelle also revealed he felt he “had” to meet his alleged assailant to learn his motivation. According to THR, Dave said Lee appeared mentally ill, and the suspect admitted he attacked him to draw attention to the alleged assailant’s grandmother, who had been forced out of her Brooklyn neighborhood.

Los Angeles prosecutors have charged Lee with four misdemeanors, including battery. He’s being held on $30,000 bail.

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“Write what you know,” the old adage says, and Pete Davidson has certainly done that for new comedy material for which he mined his “weird year” dealing with Kayne West.

As most everybody on the planet knows, the SNL star is dating West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, and the Donda rapper hasn’t taken too kindly about it on social media.

“I’ve had a really weird year,” Davidson said during a recent performance as part of the streaming service’s ongoing Netflix Is A Joke festival.

“I had an AIDS scare this year,” Pete admitted. “People are like, wow…are you having a lot of unprotected sex? Are you sharing needles?’ And I’m like, ‘No. Kanye told me I have AIDS. And he’s a genius…so I should get it checked out.'”

Pete did, and declares, “My doctor said I don’t have AIDS. I just look like I have it.”

Davidson also sounded off on the custody issues between Kim and ‘Ye, noting, “Doesn’t anyone else secretly hope that Kanye pulls a Mrs. Doubtfire? I come home one day and they’re like, ‘This is the new housekeeper,’ and he’s like ‘What’s up, fam!'”

Pete also noted that given the high-profile nature of the controversy, friends really have no guidance for him.

“‘It looks pretty bad, bro. Good luck, sorry, here if you need…’ No advice, though,” Pete said to laughs.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Thursday’s seventh night of the streaming service’s Netflix Is a Joke festival featured an event called “Cobra Kai, Live and Bada**”, held at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Center.

Cast members were on hand for the celebration of the series, where it was announced that the fifth season of the Emmy-nominated show will be released September 9. 

The trailer for the fifth season was also revealed and subsequently posted online. The new footage shows Thomas Ian Griffith‘s Terry Silver on the march. “Our competition has closed up shop,” he gloats.

“This is what we’re up against, Ralph Macchio‘s Daniel LaRusso says. “…I have to take him down.”

“You’re playing with fire, Danny Boy,” Silver teases.

Netflix teases, “Following the shocking results of the All Valley Tournament, Season 5 finds Terry Silver expanding the Cobra Kai empire and trying to make his ‘No Mercy’ style of karate the only game in town. With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence setting karate aside to focus on repairing the damage he’s caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend for help.”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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