Entertainment

While William Petersen‘s Gil Grissom and Jorja Fox‘s Sara Sidle won’t be returning for the second season of CBS’ hit C.S.I. reboot, another familiar face will be. 

Marg Helgenberger, currently co-starring on the OWN legal drama All Rise, will return as crime scene investigator Catherine Willows when C.S.I. Vegas returns this fall, ABC Audio has confirmed. 

Helgenberger will appear on the third season of All Rise, which recently moved to OWN from CBS, starting in June, as she gets back on the beat with the Sin City C.S.I. production team for the forthcoming new season. And it looks like she was in the shows creator’s sights for some time.

Anthony Zuiker had hinted to Entertainment Tonight last year that he’d be “personally lobbying” for a particular co-star from the original series to return if C.S.I. Vegas was picked up for a sophomore frame. He also mentioned cast members from the show’s spin-offs C.S.I.: Miami, C.S.I.: New York and C.S.I.: Cyber could also follow. 

“[A]ll four of those shows are wide open for possibilities,” Zuiker teased.

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While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is still officially mum, The Hollywood Reporter reports that the producers of the Oscars are planning to stage a March 27 telecast that would look very different than its predecessors.

In what it described as a “multi-emcee Palooza,” the trade reveals that the 94th annual awards show will feature multiple hosts, with each host topping an hour-long portion of the telecast.

It’s thought that varying the hosts would not only broaden the demographic appeal of the lately ratings-challenged telecast, but also serve to take the pressure off a singular emcee, long seen as a high-profile, but potentially thankless job.

This year’s event will be the first with an official host since Jimmy Kimmel left the stage in 2018. The telecast went without a host in 2019, and saw a ratings bump, but last year’s also-host-free event managed an Oscars-worst audience of around 10 million people.

By comparison, 2004’s telecast, which saw Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King triumph, attracted 46 million viewers. 

The 94th Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC starting at 8 p.m. ET on March 27 from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, marking the award show’s return to Oscars’ traditional venue following last year’s COVID-limited event at Los Angeles’ Union Station.

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(SPOILERS AHEAD) Among the multiverse mash-ups that helped make Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home one of the highest-grossing movies of all time was Charlie Cox returning as Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who moonlights as the Marvel hero Daredevil. 

Cox’s portrayal of the vigilante and his tortured alter-ego was a fan favorite, as was the Netflix series that ended in 2018 after three seasons, so seeing Cox back on the big screen playing the legal counsel for Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker in one scene was a huge moment. 

Cox tells The Hollywood Reporter that the secret cameo started with a phone call from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige way back in 2020 — which Cox initially thought was a prank. “It was a pretty surreal moment, I’m not going to lie,” the British actor tells the trade. “Kevin said, ‘…I wanted to make sure that you, in principle, are interested.’ And I was like, ‘I’m very interested.'”

Cox recalls, “And then I didn’t hear from anyone for two months. And I got to the point where I wondered if I dreamt it.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t a dream — except for fans, when Murdock’s brief appearance solidified Cox’s, and Daredevil’s, official entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Director Jon Watts even built in a few seconds’ pause in the dialog in anticipation of the audience reaction to Murdock’s surprise appearance.

“It’s a big moment, not just for me, but for the character,” Cox explains, anticipating the scene would be “great for Matt…I feel attached to him, even though that sounds a bit strange.”

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Marry Me, a new romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, hits theaters and the Peacock streaming service today.

Lopez, 52, not only stars in the film, she also worked simultaneously on the soundtrack, which she said was a first for her and “such a pleasure.  It’s like my two worlds coming together.”

Lopez added, “Making an album…was great because they really allowed me to input into where and when and what these musical moments would be for this character.”

In Marry Me, Lopez plays Kat Valdez, a pop superstar who, after finding out her fiancé is cheating on her, decides to marry one of her fans. When asked about how she and the character relate to each other, J-Lo admitted, “I think there’s a lot of us in each other.”

“This wasn’t a role where I had to research what it was like to be a famous recording artist…I understand what all of that is already,” she continued. “I think the difficult part was…the idea of showing what it’s really like inside my bedroom when something goes wrong and you suffer a heartbreak like this in front of the whole world.”

Marry Me is out just in time for Valentine’s Day.  So how would Lopez like to celebrate the occasion?

“The ideal Valentine’s Day for me is just me and my partner alone in a place where we don’t have to worry about people watching us,” she shared. “Where it wouldn’t be a bunch of paparazzi, where we can have some private moments and really talk about life and and love and just really appreciating the company and being in love and being together.”

Marry Me also stars Owen Wilson, Maluma, and Sarah Silverman. 

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AMC on Thursday announced the premiere dates for the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul. The seven-episode first part of season six will debut on April 18 on AMC and AMC+ with back-to-back episodes. Part two, consisting of six episodes, will begin rolling out on July 11. AMC also revealed three new original short-form series connected to the world of Better Call Saul debuting this spring, including the animated series Slippin’ Jimmy, Cooper’s Bar — starring Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn — and new episodes of the Better Call Saul Employee Training Video series…

Disney+’s Beauty and the Beast prequel series has been put on hold amid delays with creative elements and scheduling challenges with its cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Insiders tell the outlet that the show will eventually be made, but it’s unclear if the cast — including stars Josh Gad and Luke Evans — will be available when, and if, that actually happens. Gad confirmed the news on Twitter, writing in part, “Sadly, ‘Tis true. We tried to make it all work but under the gun it wasn’t meant to be… for now.” Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola will receive the ICG Publicists Guild‘s Lifetime Achievement Award at the in-person 59th annual Publicists Awards on March 25 at the Beverly Hilton. The guild calls Coppola an “epoch-making writer, director and producer” and “an auteur and innovator in complete command of the medium.” In addition to The Godfather trilogy, Coppola’s credits include 1974’s The Conversation — which he co-wrote — and 1979’s Apocalypse Now. He also produced George Lucas’ Best Picture nominee American Graffiti…

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This weekend, the long awaited Fresh Prince reboot, Bel-Air, arrives on your screens. The drama flips the script on the original sitcom version — this is a darker, more realistic take on the story of a kid who moves from the rough streets of west Philly to the manicured sidewalks of Bel-Air.

Newcomer Jabari Banks takes over the role that made Will Smith a household name, and he tells ABC Audio that this new version might ruffle the feathers of some fans, and that’s ok.

“We’re not taking away from the original,” he says. “I think we’re just expanding upon that. And so if people are interested in seeing that, it’s going to be super exciting watching.”

And for fans of the original, Banks promises, “There’s a lot of callbacks to the original. A lot of Easter eggs that are going to excite people.”

Jabari wasn’t even born when the original Fresh Prince aired, but he’s no a stranger to the show.

“My family had the six-season box set in our house, and that would just be on repeat all the time…And so it’s really raised me in a way,” notes Banks. “I dressed up as the Fresh Prince in high school for character day, and made all my friends dress up as the rest of the characters.”

Banks says Smith has become a mentor to him, warning the 23-year-old that he’ll face “a lot of ups and downs” in his career. but, “through it all, just stay grounded.”

Bel-Air will debut with three episodes streaming Sunday on Peacock, and on NBC after the Super Bowl. New episodes will stream weekly after that, and Banks says he’s thrilled: “It’s amazing and during Black History Month…[I’m] so grateful.”

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Valentine’s Day is coming up fast, but don’t expect NFL star Rob Gronkowski to be among the crowd of procrastinators scrambling to whip up some last-minute plans.  The Buccaneers tight end, who’s been dating Wipeout host Camille Kostek, told ABC Audio he knows exactly how to “be a good boyfriend.”

“She loves New York City, so I might have to take her on a date… She loves the Four Seasons,” Gronkowski declared when asked about his V-Day plans. “I shall take her up to New York City [and to] a nice restaurant there.”

While Gronk will also “bring some flowers” — a Valentine’s Day staple — he says his plans for spoiling his girlfriend rotten will cross over several state lines.  

“She loves it up north… She loves the snow,” said Gronkowski, noting Kostek is a Connecticut native and is overdue for a visit back home. “We’ve been down here in Florida and it’s kind of very nice every day.  [NYC] is by Connecticut, so [we’re] stopping by her parents after.”  Overall, Gronkowski says his main objective is to “just be the good boyfriend that I am!”

Luckily for Kostek, after spending her days in the Sunshine State, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model could be reunited with her beloved snow this weekend. According to ABC affiliate WTNH, Connecticut is expected to receive between one to three inches of snow on Sunday. 

Kostek, 29, and Gronkowski, 32, first met when she was a cheerleader for the New England Patriots in 2013.  The private couple began dating in 2015 and, in November, celebrated the eighth anniversary of their first meeting.

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A proud posting of the latest star re-created by the artists of Madame Tussauds in London has some Zendaya fans crying foul. 

The wax figure is dressed and posed in a hot pink Stella McCartney suit Zendaya wore at a 2016 red carpet Humane Society of the United States event. However, some critics are saying no way to the representation of the Spider-Man: No Way Home star’s likeness. 

“Zendaya deserved better,” opined one fan. 

“How does this both look like her and look nothing like her at the same time???” griped another. 

“[W]hat in the kylie jenner?” another snarked.

“Lmao that’s not zendaya, it’s more like stormi in future,” said yet another fan, referencing Kylie Jenner‘s 4-year-old daughter with Travis Scott.

“The wax version of Zendaya looks like she wants to speak to the manager,” another offered of the replica’s nonplussed expression.

In 2020, Zendaya herself visited Toussads in London and posed with a pair of her wax stand-ins, calling them “pretty fabulous.”

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Universal dropped the action-packed new trailer to Jurassic Park: Dominion, and it’s a doozy. Not only does it reunite original Jurassic Park series stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, it has them joining Jurassic World‘s Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard during what’s become an extinction-level event. 

And by “extinction level,” we’re talking humans, not dinos.

The preview begins with the voice of the late Richard Attenborough‘s Dr. Hammond from the original film, talking about why he played God to launch his amusement park, as we see the results, years later: Dinosaurs running loose everywhere.

One scene has a herd of dinos running free like mustangs on snow-covered plains; eventually we see Pratt’s Owen Grady on horseback, herding them as they run. 

Owen later tries to convince Howard’s Claire Dearing to help him protect their raptor pal Blue and her baby. “Humans and dinosaurs can’t co-exist,” she insists. “We created an ecological disaster!”

As the preview progresses, it becomes obvious that the situation is out of control, and who better to tap to help than Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant and Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler and Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm. 

“We not only lack dominion over nature,” Malcolm notes later in the trailer, “we’re subordinate to it.”

As proof, we see our heroes being stalked, all over the world, by all manner of thunder lizards. One shot shows Owen and Claire on a plane that’s attacked mid-air by a giant pterodactyl. 

Another scene shows Grant, Malcolm, Sattler and the gang in the crosshairs of a massive dinosaur. “Don’t move,” they say in unison, in a callback to the 1993 original. 

“Bigger!” Malcolm whispers. “Why do they always have to go bigger!?”

Jurassic World: Dominion, the last in director Colin Trevorrow‘s trilogy, opens June 10.

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Power Book IV: Force, the third spin-off from executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson‘s Power franchise, scored big ratings for Starz. 

The Hollywood Reporter notes the show’s debut Sunday night, centering on Joseph Secura‘s Tommy, scored 3.3 million viewers — the biggest numbers ever for the cable network. 

50 tells ABC Audio that he always had faith in launching a franchise — even when Starz initially passed on the first show. Re-working the music and adding his own, changed the network execs’ minds.

“Once you have the hit, it’s easy to kind of massage the idea of more of it,” 50 says. “And I’m saying, what you need is to convince them that the Universe will work.”

And, “it’s working,” Jackson says of the original show, and its first three spin-offs Book II: Ghost, and Book III: Raising Kanan. He adds with a laugh, “You know, they looking at it going, number-one, number-two and number-three [shows] in African-American and Latino households!”

Shane Harper, who plays Vic, notes, “When you go online, you see the fans reactions, and you see…you know, the millions and millions of views and the like 100 percent approval rating. You know, you look at the trailer, and it’s like…15,000 thumbs up, zero thumbs down. That’s the kind of show that we’re on, and we’re on the ‘Tommy Show’, and that’s like the most exciting part about it.”

For Gabrielle Ryan, who plays Gloria, “It’s definitely a dream to be part of this, and to be part of this Power Universe, you know, it’s a cultural phenomenon. 50 Cent and [co-producers] Courtney Kemp and Mike Canton have created is just amazing, and to be part of it, especially the Tommy spinoff, is just it’s surreal.”

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