Entertainment

Jennifer Lawrence has reportedly given birth to her first child with husband Cooke Maroney. 

According to public records obtained by TMZ, the actress gave birth recently in Los Angeles County. The sex and date of birth are unknown. 

Lawrence, 31, and Maroney, 37, who wed in a Rhode Island ceremony in 2019, confirmed they were expecting in September 2021. Shortly after the confirmation, the Hunger Games alum shared that she hopes to keep her child out of the spotlight. 

“If I was at a dinner party, and somebody was like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re expecting a baby,’ I wouldn’t be like, ‘God, I can’t talk about that. Get away from me, you psycho!’ But every instinct in my body wants to protect their privacy for the rest of their lives, as much as I can,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair in November. “I don’t want anyone to feel welcome into their existence. And I feel like that just starts with not including them in this part of my work.”

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Great news for those who fell in love with History Channel’s popular Vikings series.  After the series’ six-season run ended, the next chapter arrives Friday with Vikings: Valhalla, which documents the warriors’ historical battle against the King of England.

Creator Jeb Stuart tells ABC Audio the series takes place 125 years after the events of the original series and will explore the infamous “St. Brice’s Day massacre” of 1002.  Stuart says the massacre was orchestrated by the King of England, Aethelred the Unready, who ordered “the genocide of all Vikings living in England… because of immigration.”

Stuart says the king made a “calculated move,” hoping to take his targets by surprise because, at the time, “the Christian Vikings were fighting with the pagan Vikings.”  Stuart says the king thought his targets “would be too busy fighting among themselves to pay attention to what was going down in London — and he made a bad decision.”

Stuart says the event united the Vikings — much like how Americans put aside their differences to face a common enemy. “You got the Democrats and Republicans, and they’re all fighting at each other’s throats,” he described. “When there’s an attack from the outside, you suddenly become American again. And that’s actually what happened with the Vikings.”

Despite the modern-day comparison, Stuart says Vikings: Valhalla is steeped in history, and he strove to make the series as accurate as possible — even though it was a challenge.

“We take a lot of pride in the authenticity of this story,” he shares. “The Vikings did not have a written language, so it was an oral storytelling tradition. Even what we know about the Vikings, we primarily know about it from their enemies.” 

Vikings: Valhalla launches Friday, February 25, on Netflix.

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Marvel movie star and Academy Award-nominated The Power of the Dog actor Benedict Cumberbatch is getting that famously long famous name set in stone.

Cumberbatch will receive the 2,714th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Monday morning, in an award ceremony at which his Star Trek: Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige will honor him.

“Benedict Cumberbatch career spans across genres,” says Hollywood Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez in a statement. “[H]e is one of England’s prized exports, and we are proud to welcome him to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”

The Doctor Strange lead’s star will be located at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard; the ceremony will be livestreamed exclusively at WalkofFame.com.

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With an intense preview clip of the footage to come, Netflix has announced that the final seven episodes of its gritty drama Ozark will premiere on April 29. 

In the teaser, the series’ two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner, who plays Ruth Langmore, can be seen driving, tears in her eyes. As she speaks in a voiceover, flashes of upcoming scenes play out, including Ruth threatening Jason Bateman‘s and Laura Linney‘s characters, Marty and Wendy Byrde, with a shotgun.

We also see Ruth turning on a light to reveal a massive pile of likely laundered cartel cash.

In the voiceover, she says, “My childhood traumas are not like yours. You see, I’m a cursed Langmore. Long inured to violence and death. And in the case of a Langmore, not soon enough.” 

Having arrived at her destination, Ruth focuses on a pistol on the passenger’s seat, as the screen fades to black, replaced by a legend reading, “The end arrives sooner than you think.”

The first part of the hit show’s fourth and final season debuted on the streaming service January 21.

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Kerry Washington is celebrating Black History Month by transforming herself into several trailblazing Black women. “Black History is about more than just slavery and Jim Crow. Our history is a tapestry of beauty, culture, power, community, resilience, & strength. And through it all — the pain and the joy — Black women have held it down,” the Scandal star wrote in an Instagram post.

Throughout February, Washington has used wigs, makeup and props to bring awareness to historic Black women on her Instagram page. She’s honored Rosa Parks, the iconic woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in 1955. The Emmy winner has also portrayed Olympic gold medal winning track star Wilma Rudolph, and supermodel Beverly Johnson, with a social media series she calls “Black HERstory.”

In other news, Gabrielle Union is launching a content series with LinkedIn that will focus on uplifting Black and other underrepresented entrepreneurs through topics including gender equity and mental health in the workplace. The three-month series, called Getting Real with Gabrielle Union, will include videos and posts on Union’s LinkedIn profile. The series is part of LinkedIn’s ongoing #IAmProfessional campaign.

Finally, Issa Rae was among the winners Tuesday on the second night of the non-televised portion of the NAACP Image Awards. The 37-year-old actress was honored for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Insecure. The show received a total of 12 nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, and Rae is also up for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
. The 53rd NAACP Image Awards, hosted by Anthony Anderson, will air Saturday, February 26 at 8 p.m. on BET.

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In a year that saw Andrew Garfield nominated for an Oscar for playing Rent playwright Jonathan Larsontick…tick…Boom!, and winning praise for playing both televangelist Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Peter Parker No 3. in the blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, comes the teaser for his latest project.

The versatile British actor will play a religiously devout Mormon detective on the hunt for a double murderer in the series Under the Banner of Heaven, coming to Hulu from FX and Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and Academy Award-winning producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

Detective Pyre, played by Garfield, is an elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints “who is committed to his Church and family, but begins to question some of the Church’s teachings through his contact with a suspected murderer,” according to the network.

“The evidence points to things and beliefs that I’ve only ever heard whisperings about,” Garfield says, the only voice heard in the spooky snippet. “I wonder how something so horrific could have come to pass.”

Also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sam Worthington, Wyatt Russell, Billy Howle and Rory Culkin, among others, the true crime thriller series will be available exclusively on Hulu in 2022.

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The $4,750 black Armani dress Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle wore during her sit-down with husband Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey is being touted as 2021’s Dress of the Year by Bath, England’s Fashion Museum.

Specifically, it’s not the “screen-used” garment, to use movie industry parlance, but a version of the “triple silk georgette dress” donated by Armani that matches the one Markle wore during the headline-grabbing interview. 

The piece will become a part of Fashion Museum Bath’s “A History of Fashion in 100 Objects” exhibition. 

The “Dress of the Year” honor was bestowed upon the garment by last year’s winners, Dazed magazine’s Ibrahim Kamara and Gareth Wrighton. Their “Dress of Hope” snagged the honor for the pandemic year 2020. 

On the museum’s website, the designers called the Oprah interview “the definitive anti-establishment moment that will forever endure in the British collective consciousness.”

And in case you don’t think headlines about the so-called “runaway royals” are already hyperbolic enough, the designers continued about the enshrined ensemble: “Meghan’s wrap dress by Armani, worn to showcase a divine pregnancy, framed the Duchess in black against the bountiful landscaping of Tyler Perry‘s Hollywood garden. This look now, through sheer association with a viral television moment, is firmly engrained in our pop culture psyche.”

Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Bath’s manager, added, “…There are moments in history that are all about the dress…The softly structured Armani dress with beautiful appliquéd lotus flower motif was part of a carefully curated look, guaranteed to send messages, and to imprint itself in our consciousness time and time again.”

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While the movie is still raking in the dough in theaters, fans apparently can’t wait to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home at home.

The $1.83 billion-grossing Sony film has become the most pre-ordered title in the history of Vudu, Fandango’s video-on-demand service, besting previous pre-order champ Avengers: Endgame.

No Way Home will be released for rent or purchase on Blu-ray and streaming in SD, HDX and 4K UHD formats on Tuesday, March 22.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now the third highest-grossing movie ever, domestically. The film starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Willem Dafoe and Jamie Foxx, as well as Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, currently only ranks under Avengers: Endgame and Avatar— two movies that didn’t have to compete with a pandemic for their box office earnings.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures has teased the 80 minutes’ worth of special features that will be made available on Blu-ray and digital when Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into your living room, including behind-the-scenes peeks at the movie’s amazing stunts, a gag reel, interviews and more.

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He was a Maryland slave who taught himself to read and write, then escaped to New York disguised as a sailor. At just 20 years old, young Frederick Douglass took his first steps to becoming one of the most prominent voices in civil rights history. That journey is the focus of a new HBO documentary Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches.

Part of HBO’s Black History Month programming, the documentary spotlights five keys speeches in Douglass’ career, brought to life by actors Jeffrey Wright, Nicole Beharie, Jonathan Majors, Denzel Whitaker and Colman Domingo.

“I knew the ‘Cliff notes’ of Frederick Douglass to be honest,” Domingo tells ABC Audio. “And then I went deeper into his speeches. And how extraordinary they were…he was so bold, and articulate and intelligent.”

The Euphoria and Fear The Walking Dead star recites passages from Douglass’ 1863 speech “The Proclamation and a Negro Army” in the HBO project.

Colman says the 19th century activist’s words have a powerful resonance in light of present-day social issues. “…There’s always a direct link to the recent movements of Black Lives Matter,” Coleman asserts. “Always. Just saying ‘we matter’ See us as human. See us as fully invested, involved human beings.”

And if Douglass were actually here today? Domingo thinks there can be only one occupation for him: “I think he would be probably one of the dopest hip hop artists! Because he knows the power of music. And poetry. And getting the message out to young Black men….He would be more like an artist like Common, someone who is really in service of uplifting our people.” 

Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight, premieres tonight on HBO 9:00 p.m. ET.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) While there were plenty of explosions in George Miller‘s Oscar-winning action epic Mad Max: Fury Road, a new book details some of the major fireworks were between stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. 

The pair played, respectively, Max and Furiosa, who came to blows onscreen before ultimately teaming up to escape across the wasteland. However, their real-life relationship was no less volatile, according to New York Times columnist Kyle Buchanan‘s new book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.

According to excerpts from the U.K.’s Mirror, the pair clashed even before a frame was shot, and got into arguments so heated that a “threatened” Oscar winner Theron needed to be escorted at all times by a female producer on the project.

“It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand…I didn’t feel safe,” Theron says in the book. 

One exchange saw Theron, now 46, exploding about her 44-year-old co-star’s reported tardiness on set. “She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f***ing c*** a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,'” recalls cinematographer Mark Goellnicht.

“…[H]e charged up to her up and went, ‘What did you say to me?’ Goellnicht added.

Hardy seems to take the blame: “In hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways,” he admitted.

“The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me.”

The Venom series star added, “I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.”

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