Entertainment

Ted Lasso Emmy winner Jason Sudeikis, The Mandalorian‘s Rosario Dawson, and Star Wars star Mark Hamill are taking part in an all-star virtual reading of the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, benefiting The Ed Asner Family Center (TEAFC), a charity dedicated to helping people with special needs and their families.

This year, Sudeikis will play Jimmy Stewart‘s role of George Bailey, while his real-life uncle, Cheers alum George Wendt, will play George’s forgetful Uncle Billy. 

Asner, who died in August, participated in last year’s event, which featured SNL‘s Pete Davidson as George Bailey. 

This year’s one-night-only event, hosted again by Tom Bergeron, also features Martin Sheen, Mandy Patinkin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Futurama‘s Phil Lamarr, Ron Funches, Ed Harris and more. 

The event, in partnership with Turner Classic Movies and sponsored by MeTV, takes place Sunday, December 5, 2021, at 8 a.m. Eastern time. For a minimum donation of $25, you can stream the virtual table read performance, but commemorative artwork and will also be available at TEAFC.org/wonderful.

Matt Asner, son of Ed Asner & Co-Founder of The Ed Asner Family Center, said of the event, “My father’s passing has left an indescribable hole in my heart. For our annual fundraising gala this year, I want to honor my father’s legacy as both a legendary actor and a staunch advocate for people of all abilities.”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kristen Stewart announced Tuesday that she’s engaged to Dylan Meyer.

The Spencer actress revealed her good news on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, opening up about how the proposal went down.

“We’re marrying, we’re totally gonna do it,” Stewart, 31, said. “I wanted to be proposed to, so I think I very distinctly carved out what I wanted, and she nailed it. It was really cute, she did very well. We’re marrying, it’s happening.” The Twilight alum previously told host Howard Stern in November 2019 she wanted to pop the question to Meyer. 

Stewart added that she wants to keep their big day “chill” and she doesn’t want to wear a traditional wedding dress. “I want to stay home. I want to be in L.A. so everyone can come. I want it to be pretty chill,” she said. “I don’t want anyone walking anyone down any aisles. We’re just gonna stand, do vows and f****** party after.”

Stewart said she plans to wear “the best pair of Levi’s ever” for the ceremony and “an old T-shirt that has a tuxedo printed on it,” which she hopes will make Meyer “laugh hysterically.”

While Stewart has no social media, Meyer has given fans a glimpse into their romance on her Instagram. Meyer first shared a snap of them kissing in October 2019 and shared birthday tributes for Stewart last year and this year.

Most recently, Meyer gushed over Stewart portraying Princess Diana on the big screen, writing, “awful proud of this hard-working princess.”

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On November 2, 2001, Disney/Pixar released Monsters, Inc., one of Pixar’s most enduring franchises. 

The toon starred the voice of Billy Crystal as one-eyed would-be funnyman Mike Wazowski and John Goodman as his fuzzy buddy, James P. “Sully” Sullivan.

The movie’s conceit is that their City of Monstropolis is powered by the energy generated by kids’ screams, so Monstropolis employs its citizens to spook children every night by emerging from their closets. Goodman’s Sully is the top scarer at their titular company — though Steve Buscemi‘s scaly chameleon-like Randall is close on his tail. 

The two best friends encounter a problem, however, when a little girl named Boo accidentally tags along with Sully back to the company, forcing the pair to find a way to get her home. 

Monsters Inc., directed by Pete Docter, went on to earn more than $574 million dollars worldwide, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It also spawned the 2013 feature Monsters University, as well as shorts featuring the characters, and the new Disney+ series Monsters at Work.

Crystal and Goodman told ABC Audio they’re not surprised by the original movie’s longevity.

“No, I’m not,” Crystal says, “because, you know, it’s it was so meaningful to people and then it became generational. The kids who were six or seven…now those people are almost 30. And so now they’re sharing it with their kids.”

Goodman agreed. “This stands the test of time. People that I run into, that’s usually the first thing they say is, ‘There’s Sully!'” says Goodman. “I am proud of that, to be able to be a part of these artists worlds.”  

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Tyler Perry is ready to take a step back from the writers room. Following the backlash he received after revealing that he’s the sole writer for his scripted series, Perry now says he’s looking to enlist some directors and writers to handle his projects in the next few years.

“I’m the volume guy for about three or four more years,” Perry tells The Hollywood Reporter of his time left in handling multiple jobs on his projects. “My plan is to relinquish to a lot more directors and writers to take over a lot of these shows that I’ve started.”

Perry says his new role will now be a lot “more of… overseeing, rather than doing the hands-on work.”

“For the past six weeks, I was in the mountains. I wrote 72 episodes of television — just me in a room by myself, sitting out there, looking at the moose and the mountains,” he shares, describing his daily practice while away. “I love it. And I love directing for 12- or 15-hour days.”

However, Perry admits that while he’s definitely a workaholic, he also knows the importance of some quality downtime.

“But I realize there’s so much more that I could be doing if I were to hand some of the other stuff off — rather than doing it all myself,” he adds.

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Eternals star Gemma Chan said in a new interview that she once felt she had to hide her Asian roots in order to “blend in.”

Speaking to Porter magazine, the 38-year-old actress, who was born to Chinese immigrants, recalled growing up in a mostly-white neighborhood in Kent, England. Chan said she felt “like I was kind of between two cultures” when she was younger because she was regularly complimented on her “good English.”

In addition, she also grappled with wanting to “blend into the background,”especially when her grandmother started to haggle loudly during family shopping trips. “No one could out-haggle her, though,” Chan remarked.

The actress admitted her desire to fit into a particular mold lessened over the years and said, “One of the nicest things about getting older has been reconnecting and feeling like I can embrace and celebrate the Asian side of my heritage.”

“I’ve met so many incredible people, so many more Asians than I knew when I was growing up, in my line of work,” she continued, adding how proud she is to share her culture through movies that “define our own narratives”

“[It]ensures that we have our stories told and ensures that we have a place in popular culture and consciousnesses,” the Crazy Rich Asians star explained. “With the absence of that, stereotypes and prejudices grow.”

Chan also revealed how her family reacted to her global fame, saying, “I do know they’re incredibly proud. And more than anything, they’re relieved that both my sister [Helen] and I are okay.”

The actress then shared her Chinese name, saying her parents named her Chén Jìng and her sister Chén Ning.

“[The combination of Níngjìng] means tranquility, or quiet,” Chan said with a laugh. “So my parents called us ‘peace and quiet!'”

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While The Simpsons has poked fun at Disney over the years before ABC News’ parent company bought 20th Century Fox, Bart, Homer and company will soon be appearing with their synergistic siblings in a new short.

As part of Disney+ Day celebrations on November 12, the streaming service will debut The Simpsons in Plusaversary, the third in a series of Simpsons shorts that can be found on Disney+. 

This time around, the residents of Springfield will be attending a Disney+ party, and everyone from across the streaming service are invited…except Homer. 

A promotional image posted at Disney+’s social media pages shows Homer and Goofy gabbing at Moe’s Tavern.

This is the third crossover short featuring “Our Favorite Family” and Disney properties, including the previously released Maggie Simpson in the Star Wars-centered The Force Awakens from Its Nap and the Marvel-themed The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, which featured the voice of Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston.

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Director Christopher Nolan‘s movie Oppenheimer, about J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the atomic bomb, has just added some nuclear level star power. 

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon will join Nolan repeat player Cillian Murphy in the project; he’s playing the titular scientist.

The trade notes Damon will play Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the military director of the secret Manhattan Project that was behind the atomic bomb’s creation. 

For his part, Downey, will reportedly play Lewis Strauss, the Atomic Energy Commissioner who ended up getting Oppenheimer’s security clearance revoked after the scientist felt conflicted about unleashing the devastating power on the world. 

Emily Blunt, who starred in this year’s hits A Quiet Place Part II and Jungle Cruise, will reportedly play Kitty Oppenheimer, the physicist’s wife, in the project that’s based on the Pulitzer-winning 2005 book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

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Jessica Simpson celebrated being four years sober on Monday by sharing an unflinching look at her battle with alcoholism.

To mark the milestone, the fashion mogul shared a haunting throwback photo where she looks almost unrecognizable and explained it was taken on the day she vowed to stop drinking. Simpson’s face is red, puffy and streaked with tears as she sits in what appears to be her living room.

“This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself,” the singer writes. “I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore. I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity. Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol.”

Simpson said she knew in that moment that drinking “kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction” and that she “was exhausted” from the pain.

“I wanted to live as a leader,” she continued, noting that in order to do so, she had to never look back “with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make.”

Simpson then opened up about the “stigma around the word alcoholism” and explained what it means to commit to a sober lifestyle.

“The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage. The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was,” she said. “I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do.”

Simpson says she now embraces every part of herself, including the “parts of my life that are just sad,” and that makes her “free.”

 

 

 

 

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When Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot returns for its upcoming second season on November 24, the show will pay tribute to original cast member Dustin Diamond, who died of lung cancer in February at the age of 44.

Diamond, who played Samuel “Screech” Powers from the show’s inception in 1989, through its College Years and New Class spinoffs — 12 years in all — was referenced in the first season of the reboot, though he was not invited onto it as a guest star.

Executive producer Franco Bario, who also produced the original series, tells Variety he spoke with Diamond ahead of the season one premiere to “fill him in on the Screech mentions in the first season and how those may lead us to possible stories that would include him in season two.” However, after learning of Diamond’s death, Bario and showrunner Tracey Wigfield decided to celebrate Dustin as an actor and Screech as a character in season two.

“I didn’t know him and I hadn’t met him,” Wigfield tells Variety. “Just thinking about it as a fan, I knew we wanted to do more than just putting a picture of him up at the end.”

After pitching the idea to original cast members Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen and Lark Voorhies, who appear on the show in different capacities, Wigfield and Bario wrote a scene in which the five OG cast members would reunite at the group’s favorite hangout, The Max, to remember their friend.

The tribute to Diamond also includes clips of him in the original series, to demonstrate that he was not just “an outrageous character” or “the butt of a joke,” but “to show how important he was to the show the other characters.”

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Dave Bautista wants the world to know that he’s more than just an “action guy.”

In his latest film, Dune, Bautista says he had the chance to show his skillset as an actor when took on the role of Glossu Rabban, an enforcer for his evil uncle Baron Harkonnen.

“The thing with this character was it just gave me an opportunity to showcase a different type of performance,” Bautista tells ABC Audio. “And that’s what I really love about working with [director Denis Villeneuve], I get an opportunity to show myself as a performer in a different light.”

That different light, Bautista explains, is embodied in his Dune character, who he says is solely motivated by both cruelty and power.

“Like he really wants to be cruel,” Bautista shares. “He’s waiting for the OK from his uncle to say, ‘OK, Rabban, be cruel.'” That’s all he’s waiting for, because that’s all he cares about…”

As simple as his character’s motivation is in the sci-fi drama, Bautista says he’s thankful for his villainous role, which also offered him the opportunity to step away from his “action guy” persona.

“I’m not just a guy in Guardians [of the Galaxy] walking around shirtless and saying stupid s***,” he laughs. “[The role] really just gives me the opportunity to just play these like really, really deep characters. So that’s a blessing.”

Dune, also starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, is in theaters. Meanwhile, Dune part two is scheduled for release sometime in 2023.

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