Entertainment

For Bridgerton fans who’d like nothing more than to sleep with star Jonathan Bailey, there’s now an app for that.

The actor, who plays dashing, romantic Anthony Bridgerton on the hit series, has voiced a Sleep Story for the wellness app Calm.

British actor Bailey’s dulcet tones can be heard on “Love Letter from an Englishman.” Set to snooze-inducing violin music, it’s the calming tale of “The captain of the HMS Dreamscape, who sets sail across tropical waters in the 1800s in search of a rare and beautiful flower for his beloved.”

The Bridgerton actor is following in the footsteps of last season’s stud Regé-Jean Page, who also voiced a Sleep Story for the app.

“I’ve listened to many Sleep Stories over the years narrated by an eclectic mix of super talented readers, so it’s an honour to release my own,” Bailey said in a statement. “I hope people cosily doze off as they set sail with me…”

He adds, “I know how hard it can be to silence your mind at night. I hope my sleep story…will take people on a soothing romantic journey into a deep energizing slumber.”

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Frank Langella has been axed from Netflix’s limited series The Fall of the House of Usher following an investigation into his alleged misconduct on set.

Sources tell Deadline that the Frost/Nixon actor was the subject of an investigation that determined he was involved in unacceptable conduct on set.

Langella was set to play Roderick Usher in the eight-episode series, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The part is being recast and the scenes Langella has already filmed will be re-shot.

Langella had not been scheduled to work this week, according to the outlet. Filming on the series will reportedly continue with scenes not involving the Roderick Usher character until a new actor is cast.

TMZ reported on Tuesday that the investigation was launched after the 84-year-old actor was accused of sexual harassment, including making inappropriate comments to a female co-star on set during work.

The Fall of the House of Usher also stars Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly and Mark Hamill.

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Game of Thrones actor Joseph Gatt is responding to allegations of that he engaged in “online sexually explicit communication with a minor.”

Taking to social media, Gatt, 50, defended himself in a statement beginning, “I obviously want to address the absolutely horrifying and completely untrue allegations recently leveled against me. They are 100% categorically wrong and reckless.”

“I have confirmed errors and misleading information in today’s press release,” he continued. “I am fully cooperating with police and LAPD to get to the bottom of this. I look forward to clearing my good name.”

Gatt then thanked his friends and supporters and said “for legal reasons I cannot comment further on social media.”

On April 6, Gatt was arrested at his LA-area home on suspicion of engaging in “online sexually explicit communication with a minor” by detectives from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to the Los Angeles Police Department Wednesday, Los Angeles police reached out to the public in search of people who may have been victimized by him.

Detectives served a search warrant at Gatt’s home, “after they received information that Gatt had been engaged in online sexually explicit communication with a minor across state lines,” according to an LAPD statement.

Gatt was arrested on a felony warrant for “contact with a minor for sexual offense,” police said. Details of his alleged crime were not released.

Gatt had a minor role in Game of Thrones, playing one of the Free Folk in season four. His other acting credits include NCIS: New Orleans, Thor and Star Trek Into Darkness, according to IMDb.

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For All Mankind‘s Jodi Balfour has landed a major recurring role on Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning series Ted Lasso, according to Deadline. She’s the first known cast addition for the show’s upcoming third season. Balfour will play Jack, “a charming venture capitalist.” She joins Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster and Nick Mohammed on the series…

Salma Hayek is joining the cast of Channing Tatum’s new Magic Mike sequel for HBO Max, replacing Thandiwe Newton. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. told Variety on Wednesday that Newton “made the difficult decision to step away from the production…to deal with family matters.” In Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Tatum returns as male stripper Mike Lane, a character that was loosely based on his own experiences as a stripper in Florida. The movies have grossed more than $285 million in theaters worldwide…

Kristen Stewart has joined the cast of Love Lies Bleeding, a romantic thriller set in the world of bodybuilding, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The story is centered on the extreme qualities it takes to succeed in the competitive world of bodybuilding, sources tell the outlet. Stewart earned her first Oscar nomination earlier this year for playing future Princess of Wales Diana Spencer in the biopic Spencer…

Jesse L. Martin is leaving the CW’s The Flash after eight seasons for a lead role in NBC’s drama pilot The Irrational, according to Deadline. While he’ll longer be a series regular on The Flash, he is expected to appear in multiple episodes of the DC drama’s upcoming ninth season. Martin, whose contract is up at the end of the current season, hasn’t been approached to return, leaving him available for pilots and series. The pilot for The Irrational, which Martin will also produce, will be shot in late May-early June in Vancouver, where The Flash also films. It won’t be in consideration for NBC’s fall schedule, Deadline says…

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HBO Max’s new hit series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, airing Sundays, shines a light on the experiences of some of the often forgotten but essential players of the Showtime-era Lakers.

One of them was Norm Nixon, played by his son DeVaughn Nixon in the series. He tells ABC Audio, “some of the players that were such an integral part of the team in the Championship were a little bit overlooked by the shine, the glitz, and the glamour.”

“My dad really wasn’t too into, you know, my dad really wasn’t too into that, and celebrity now is different than what it was today,” he explains. “So if you weren’t a media person and you stayed out from that and you stayed away from that, I don’t think that you would have been recognized.”

In contrast, DeVaughn says Earvin “Magic” Johnson “had a charismatic personality, and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] was pretty nondescript…but I mean, he was one of the most dominant players, arguably ever in the game.”

“I think that the show does a really good job of showing just how important [my father] was to the entire team and the entire…championship.”

“A lot of people don’t know he was as good as he was,” notes DeVaughn. “And I’m not just saying this because it was my dad. I mean, the facts are there. He can look it up on YouTube. You know, he dropped 20 in 10. You know, he actually led the team in assists two years when Magic Johnson was on the team.”

“So, those [are] some of those facts, you know, like I said, were overlooked,” he adds. And I think that was the part that, you know, people might have misinterpreted that, you know, my dad was a dog.”

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Last night, as reported, Gilbert Gottfried‘s fans, both famous and not, took to social media to mourn the comedian’s passing. But he was applauded on Broadway, too, thanks to the cast of Disney’s Aladdin the Musical. 

After the performance of the show on Tuesday evening, Don Darryl Rivera, who plays Iago, stepped forward, still in costume. “We’d like to take a moment to salute a comedy legend,” the actor began. “A funny man with an indelible voice. The man who breathed life into Iago for the animated film, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.”

Rivera continued, “I along with five other actors worldwide have the distinct privilege to bring Iago to life on stage and I think one of the main reasons this character is who he is, is because of what Gilbert brought to the animated film: his comedy and that voice.”

The actor added, “That voice, that voice that The New York Times once said ‘sounded like a busted Cuisinart,'” drawing laughter from the audience.

Rivera recalled that he first met Gottfried after a show, remembering that “he put his arm around me, and we snapped a few photos.”

He then pulled a copy of Aladdin on VHS from his costume and revealed he’d asked Gilbert to sign it when they met.

“He signed it for me, and it’s still one of my most treasured possessions,” said Rivera, who called Gottfried “really kind and sweet, and surprisingly soft-spoken.” 

Rivera closed his tribute by saying, “Mr. Gottfried, thank you for the laughs,” bringing the house down.

Gottfried died early Tuesday morning from Recurrent Ventricular Tachycardia due to Myotonic Dystrophy type II. He was 67.

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In a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday, Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor forcible touching charge to resolve his forcible touching and sex assault case in Manhattan.

The actor had been accused of forcibly kissing a woman at a nightclub in September 2018. He also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019.

The actor could avoid jail time if he continues for six more months the alcohol and behavior modification treatment he began in 2019, and have no new arrests.  If he does both, the Jerry Maguire star is allowed to re-plead to a lesser charge of Harassment in the Second Degree, with a sentence of time served and a permanent stay of sealing. If he does not comply, he faces up to one year in jail.

Gooding’s next court date is October 13, 2022.

Gooding, 53, was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman said he squeezed her breast at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in Times Square. Prosecutors added additional charges after two other women came forward and accused him of unwanted sexual overtures, including a server at TAO Downtown and another woman at the nightclub LAVO.

Gooding had long denied the charges, with his attorneys contending he was unfairly accused in the fervor of the #MeToo era.

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Amanda Bynes hasn’t said anything on her social media since her mother’s conservatorship of her affairs was terminated last month, but on her Instagram, she just posted that she and her fiancé, Paul Michael, have just dropped a single. 

“Diamonds,” a song on which Michael raps, and Bynes provides the chorus, is available on Spotify and other streaming services.

“Diamonds, diamonds, diamonds on my neck, on my wrist,” Bynes chants, following with what sounds like, “diamonds, diamonds, diamonds on my fish, yeah I wish.” 

While not assessing the quality of the track, which is apparently about partying and dropping money in Los Angeles, Bynes’ rapping style might be judged to be culturally questionable.

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The nominations are out for the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards, spotlighting 2021’s “most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media2.”

Among the nominees this year are Questlove‘s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Hulu’s opioid crisis drama Dopesick, which previously earned Michael Keaton an Emmy award, and ABC’s reboot of The Wonder Years.

Other nominees in the Entertainment category include Netflix’s lockdown comedy special Bo Burnham: Inside; Hulu’s coming of age comedy Pen15; HBO Max’s post-apocalyptic drama Station Eleven; FX’s heralded comedy Reservation Dogs, HBO Max’s Sort Of; HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy Hacks; The Underground Railroad from Amazon Studios; Showtime’s black comedy Yellowjackets; PBS’ miniseries The Long Song, and Peacock’s punk music-celebrating series We Are Lady Parts.

“Demonstrating the immense power of stories, these nominees exposed our societal failures and celebrated the best of the human spirit,” noted the organization’s executive director Jeffrey Jones. “They are all worthy of recognition, and Peabody is proud to celebrate them.”

All told, PBS led the nominations with thirteen; HBO earned eight; Hulu and Netflix tied with five nominations; The New York Times and NBC both earned four; and ABC, Amazon Prime, BBC, and Showtime tied with two apiece.

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Amy Schumer made a remote appearance on Sirius/XM’s The Howard Stern Show Wednesday, and she held little back about her recent stint as Oscars co-host.

“I don’t think it was traumatizing for me, I think it was traumatizing for all of us,” she said of Will Smith‘s slapping and then cursing out Chris Rock, after he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, during the broadcast.

“It was upsetting as a person,” Billboard quoted the comedian aS saying.  “I was in an abusive relationship years ago. …I thought right away, ‘Oh my God, Will Smith must be in so much pain.’ I felt bad for him, too. That’s probably not the right instinct,” she admitted. 

Amy added, “To see your friend get hit and, also Will Smith, who we’ve all loved forever…it was upsetting for so many reasons.

Calling it “shocking,” she added that as a stand-up, having the video endure forever would be a “nightmare.” 

As for how Rock has dealt with the situation, Schumer said, “[H]e knows what he’s doing. I have a bad poker face, and I need to share what’s on my mind in a compulsive way. But I think he’s really smart…He hasn’t spoken publicly about it, so I shouldn’t speak for him. He’s a pro, he’s a sweetheart.”

The incident had another “trigger” for Schumer, as she suffers from trichotillomania, a condition that makes her compulsively pull out her hair.

Seeing as Jada’s baldness, which Rock made fun of, was caused in part by her alopecia, Schumer told Stern, “Growing up, if somebody talked about my hair, it was like the biggest fear of my life, and I’m sure that’s a big deal for their family.”

Schumer also revealed her Hulu show, Life & Beth, was renewed for a second season.

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