Last year, comic Kathy Griffinappeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after undergoing successful lung cancer surgery, and explained how her changed voice — which she described as “Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe” — was a temporary side-effect of the operation.
However, in a social media post to fans this week, Griffin fears the change might be permanent.
“I’m sick to death of not having my voice and am terrified it will never get better, because they said it would by now and it isn’t,” she vented.
The Emmy winner explained she was going to suffer through another exploratory procedure on her vocal cords, which had been damaged by intubation before surgery.
That said, Griffin hasn’t lost her sense of humor: She joked online that she’d donate her remaining lung to Hillary Clinton, following news the former first lady and presidential candidate contracted COVID-19. “We are in negotiations,” Griffin joked of the exchange.
For her part, Clinton replied, “I appreciate the concern, but I’ll be fine. Keep your lobes.”
In honor of the 94th Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday, here’s a look at some of the nominated films that are available to watch on streaming. Let’s start with HBO Max.
Witness the sci-fic epic Dune, which earned an impressive 10 nominations and became the sixth film in Oscar history to be nominated in all seven technical categories. The Japanese film Drive My Car, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature, can also be streamed for free on HBO Max.
Over on Disney+, discover the magical Madrigal family in Encanto, which picked up nominations for best animated feature, best score, and best original song. There’s also West Side Story, which racked up seven nominations, including best supporting actress for Ariana DeBose as Anita –- the same role which won Rita Moreno her Oscar in 1962.
On Apple TV+, watch the heartwarming drama CODA, which earned three nominations in the best picture, adapted screenplay, and best supporting actor categories.
On Hulu, you can catch up with Spencer, the Princess Diana biopic that earned Kristen Stewart a Best Actress nomination, as well as The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which earned a pair of nominations: Best Actress for Jessica Chastain, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling for the team that transformed her into the titular televangelist.
Amazon Studios produced Being The Ricardos, and it’s streaming on Amazon Prime. The film earned a trio of nominations: Best Actor for Javier Bardem, Best Actress for Nicole Kidman and Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash Oscar winner JK Simmons.
And, finally, on Netflix, you can watch Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which leads the pack with a whopping 12 nominations, including Best Picture.
The streaming service is also home to tick…tick…BOOM!, which earned a pair, including a Best Actor nom for Andrew Garfield.
Nightmare Alley, Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro‘s noir drama starring Oscar winners Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett can also be found on Netflix. The film picked up nominations for Best Picture, Production Design, Costume Design and Cinematography.
The streaming service is also home to Don’t Look Up, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, which earned nominations for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Editing and Score.
If you don’t have any of these paid streaming services, you can rent the nominated films for a price on YouTube, Apple TV, Vudu, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video. That’s where you can catch up with Belfast, which scored nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for Kenneth Branagh, Best Supporting Actor (Ciaran Hinds), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, and Best Song, for Van Morrison‘s “Down to Joy”.
Make sure to tune into the live Academy Awards ceremony Sunday, March 27 at 8 p.m., only on ABC. Happy streaming!
Love is in the air at Netflix. Ahead of Love Is Blind‘s third season premiere, the streaming service has renewed the series for seasons four and five. The reality dating show, and its spinoff, Love Is Blind: After the Altar, will debut later this year. Netflix has also ordered a U.S. version of the Australian hit, Love on the Spectrum, described as “an insightful and warm hearted docureality series following people on the autism spectrum.” Lastly, Indian Matchmaking, featuring Sima Taparia, who helps singles find love, returns for season two, and has already been greenlit for a third. Premiere dates have yet to be announced…
Blonde, Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic starring Deep Water‘s Ana de Armas, has officially been slapped with the adults only NC-17 rating for “some sexual content,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. It’s not news to director Andrew Dominik, who predicted as much back in February when he told Screen Daily, “It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.” Blonde co-stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson. Netflix has not announced any release plan or date as of yet…
Seth Rogen is set to join Bill Murray in Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut Being Mortal, sources tell Deadline. Ansari is also on board to co-star from a script he wrote. The project is being adapted from Atul Gawande’s 2014 nonfiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, which centers on aging, patients’ anxieties regarding death, and doctor’s tendencies to fall back on false hope — as having the potential to “change medicine — and lives.” Plot details have not been announced…
Shonda Rhimes is celebrated for changing television with her shows, such as Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder, but she doesn’t consider herself a trailblazer.
Speaking with ABC Audio, the Shondaland CEO chatted about her inclusive shows that feature diverse casts and strong female leads. While speaking of the latter, which earned her significant praise, Rhimes admitted, “I don’t know that these concepts are forward thinking.”
“The idea that women are gutsy, intelligent and relatable — that they’re smart and strong — that’s not a forward-thinking concept,” the Emmy nominee explained, adding that she fashioned such characters to reflect “the women around me that I know. I was writing stories about women that I knew.”
Rhimes also said she didn’t have to “convince anybody” at any given network to give her shows a chance, even though critics have previously praised them for breaking the mold — because “good storytelling works for itself.”
“I was lucky that the stories we were telling were compelling enough that the networks were interested,” Rhimes expressed, adding, “I also think there were a lot of women at those networks who saw women in those shows who were also like themselves.”
Bridgerton drew buzz for featuring people of color in positions of power in Regency-era England — most notably casting Golda Rosheuvel, a Black actress, as Queen Charlotte. The show, which has become one of Netflix’s top original series, returns for its second season on Friday.
Said Rhimes of why she will continually feature diverse casts in her shows, “People want to see themselves represented on television. They just do.”
Break out your corsets and top hats, season two of Bridgerton drops today on Netflix! And there’s some new blood this time around, in the form of the Sharma sisters. Simone Ashley joins the cast this season as Kate Sharma, and tells ABC Audio she plays a protective big sister.
“They return to London, her and her family, and the stakes are really high,” notes Ashley. “Kate really wants Edwina to marry off the true love, but also to marry an Englishman of nobility to make sure she’s taken care of and then her mum can be taken care of as well.”
Charithra Chandran joins the series as Edwina, who’s looking for love and finds herself in the process.
“At the beginning of the season, she’s very naive, willing to be submissive under the belief that others know what’s better for her than herself,” she explains. “What you really see through the season and particularly in the later episodes, is her coming of age, her finding her independence and her self-identity.”
Chandran says joining a hit show in season two is both “nerve wracking and exciting for the exact same reasons.”
She adds, “It’s both this big thing that is so well-loved and received, and that makes it exciting. But it also makes it nerve wracking because you know you want to make everyone proud.
Unlike Edwina, Kate isn’t looking for love, but finds it anyway in Jonathan Bailey‘s Anthony Bridgerton, adding a “Scandalous” new dynamic to the show’s second season.
“There’s a lot of obstacles in the way between Kate and Anthony finally getting with each other…it brings up the subject of family more so, because Kate’s out there to protect her little sister and Anthony’s dedication to his family…there’s just much more drama.”
Amy Schumersat down with Ellen DeGeneres for a taping of an April segment for the final season of Ellen’s chat show, during which Amy admitted she’s expecting some blowback from her Oscars gig this Sunday night.
Schumer, fellow comic Wanda Sykes and actress Regina Hall are co-hosting the 94th installment of the awards ceremony, airing on ABC.
Amy emerged from backstage wearing an exact copy of the outfit Ellen was wearing — a cream-colored jacket over a white shirt and jeans. To literally top it off, Schumer wore a short-cropped wig approximating Ellen’s ‘do.
“Am I not taking over the show?” Amy asked in mock confusion. “They invited me, and you’re wrapping things up, and I thought I was becoming…taking over the show. Is that not the plan?”
Ellen joked, “I would love it, but I didn’t know anything about it,” then told the audience, “But let’s have her take over the show,” who applauded.
After Amy ditched the wig, Ellen asked Schumer about her upcoming Oscars stint. By the time the interview airs April 20, Amy predicted she’ll be “freshly canceled.”
“Are you gonna be edgy?” Ellen asked.
Amy answered, “It’s not that I make the plan, it’s just I have no impulse control, so…I think it, and then it’s too late, I’m over.”
Amy said she’s not nervous about the show, crediting her background in stand-up, but she admitted that she’s had trouble sleeping lately.
Schumer asked for some advice from Ellen, a former Oscars host herself. “I think just have fun,” Ellen offered. “You’re gonna look out there [at the audience] and you know everybody, and everybody knows you. That helps.”
The pair jokingly agreed that if Oscar nominee Javier Bardem catches Amy’s eye, she should just stare at him.
Full House alum Dave Coulier is opening up about how he cut alcohol out of his life, by sharing a throwback photo of his cut-up face.
“I was a drunk. Yes. An alcoholic,” the 62-year-old actor said in a lengthy Instagram post Thursday. But then he shared the good news, writing, “I’ve been alcohol free since January 1, 2020.”
“When I drank, I was the life of the party. I could make people laugh until they fell down. In this picture I was the one who fell down,” he recounted. “Not because I was playing hockey or doing the things I love — like chopping wood or doing construction, golfing, fishing or flying airplanes. I was hammered and fell up some stairs made of stone.”
Coulier said he loved having “beers with the boys,” but he eventually came to the realization that, as he put it, “I loved booze, but it didn’t love me back.”
He went on to note that he decided to quit drinking “for my own well-being, my family and for those around me who I love so dearly.”
Coulier gave a shout-out to his wife of nearly eight years, Melissa, specifically for supporting his sobriety and staying by his side throughout the journey.
“The psychological and physical transformation has been amazing,” he concluded. “The sky is more blue, my heart is no longer closed, and I enjoy making people laugh until they fall down more than ever before.”
Melissa, who married the comedian in July 2014, replied in the comments section, “SO proud of you. I love you and your strength so much!!”
She wasn’t alone in her support: Coulier’s heartfelt post has more than 120,000 likes as of Thursday afternoon.
(SPOILERS) While he does appear opposite Paul Dano‘s Riddler near the end of The Batman, Barry Keoghan‘s Joker also had a face-off with Robert Pattinson‘s Caped Crusader in a scene that was deleted from the film.
Director Matt Reeves has just released that scene online.
You can see the segment either by solving some riddles on the ripped-from-the-movie website rataalada.com, or, if you’re not up to the challenge, on YouTube.
In the segment, Batman visits the Clown Prince of Crime imprisoned at Arkham Asylum to try to get some clues about Dano’s character, who at this point is still on the loose, serial killing Gotham City officials.
Batman slides photos of Riddler’s bloody handiwork through a partition into Joker’s cell.
“I thought you’d be curious,” Batman tells the baddie through the glass.
“You think I get off on this stuff?” Keoghan’s villain responds. “Don’t you?” Bats quips back.
“His violence is so baroque,” Joker purrs, as he admires the crime-scene photos.
“He’s a nobody who wants to be somebody,” he declares. “This is very, very personal.”
“Why is he writing to me?” Pattinson’s character asks of Riddler’s hints to him.
“Maybe he’s a fan?” Joker says, giggling.
Joker accuses Batman of dragging his feet, saying of the victims, “You think they deserved it!” before letting loose with a chilling cackle.
Keoghan’s out-of-focus face becomes clearer as the conversation reaches its climax. His face and head are heavily scarred, and his fingers bloodied. A shock of green hair remains, sprouting from his burned scalp.
The scene is intentionally reminiscent of some of Reeves’ inspirations for his hit: David Fincher‘s Netflix series Manhunter, in which a pair of FBI agents interviewed notorious murderers, as well as Clarice and Hannibal Lecter’s exchanges in The Silence of the Lambs.
The new horror movie Umma, in theaters now, focuses on generational trauma and mothers and daughters, told through the lens of a Korean-American family.
It’s written and directed by Iris K. Shim, who tells ABC Audio she’s thrilled that the movie seems to be part of a trend of movies and TV shows written and directed by women of Asian descent, including Pixar’s Turning Red and Apple TV+’s Pachinko.
“That is pretty wild, I think this month in particular, there’s just so much content being released that either feature Asian-American characters or were created by Asian-Americans. And I mean, it’s really exciting. It’s a moment that I’ve waiting for all my life,” she says.
Adds Shim, “When I was younger, being able to see myself on screen was impossible. And even when I did see Asian faces, they were mostly Asian movies from Asia…so I think like having this opportunity to really shine a light on this specific experience is incredible,” says Shim, who admits being “a little bit worried about featuring Korean-American characters” at the start.
Umma — Korean for “mother” — stars Sandra Oh as a mother haunted by the prospect of turning into her own estranged mother after her remains arrive from Korea. Fivel Stewart, who plays Oh’s daughter, notes that after years of being on the margins, it seems like the opportunities for Asian women in Hollywood are growing.
“I did a show called Atypical, and the showrunner was of Asian descent, and then one of the main producers which was half Asian as well,” she explains. “So I do think that we are here and we are here to stay…I think that this is just the stepping stone to what could be.”
Following Tuesday’s termination of her nearly nine-year-long conservatorship, Amanda Bynes is in demand, according to her attorney.
David A. Esquibias tells Entertainment Tonight, “While Amanda’s being flooded with [interview] offers…she’s not ready to talk and is laying [sic] low for a while.”
He added, “Several production companies reached out to her team about filming documentaries or a potential reality show on her life moving forward.”
Through Esquibias, Bynes noted after a Los Angeles judge’s decision, “words can’t describe how I feel.” She called it “wonderful news,” adding, “I would like to thank my fans for their love and well wishes during this time.”
She further explained in her statement, “In the last several years, I have been working hard to improve my health so that I can live and work independently, and I will continue to prioritize my well-being in this next chapter. I am excited about my upcoming endeavors, including my fragrance line, and look forward to sharing more when I can.”
Bynes’ mother, Lynn Bynes, was put temporarily in charge of Bynes’ affairs following a 2013 incident in which the Easy A and The Amanda Show actress reportedly started a small fire in a neighbor’s driveway, which came on the heels of previous erratic behavior. After the driveway incident, the actress was placed on a temporary psychiatric hold.
The conservatorship was reinstated in 2014, the same year Bynes revealed she’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
After the decision to end the conservatorship, Lynn Bynes told ET in a statement that she’s “very happy and proud of Amanda for everything that she’s done and come through,” and said she’s, “looking forward to…having a mother-daughter relationship rather than a conservator-conservatee relationship.”
