Entertainment

Euphoria and White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney will join Dakota Johnson in Sony’s Marvel movie Madame Web, according to Deadline. Johnson will play the titular character — a.k.a Cassandra Webb — a mutant with psychic and other abilities, whose incredibly powerful mind inhabits the body of a paralyzed, elderly woman confined to a hospital bed. Her physical form is kept alive thanks to a life support system that features a network of tubes resembling a spider’s web. Sweeney’s character has not been revealed…

Starz has dropped a new trailer for Gaslit, the anthology series from Mr. Robot writer and director Robbie Pickering, based on the award-winning Slate podcast Slow Burn. Julia Roberts and Sean Penn star as Martha and John Mitchell in the series, which focuses on “the untold stories and forgotten characters of Watergate, from [Richard] Nixon’s opportunistic subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.” Gaslit premieres April 24 on Starz… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

Variety reports that Dune stars Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa are in final talks to present all eight Oscar categories cut from being shown in real-time during the telecast on ABC on March 27. The categories include original score, makeup and hairstyling, documentary short, film editing, production design, animated short, live action short and sound. Highlights of the untelevised hour will be edited into the telecast. Momoa and Brolin will also make appearances during the live show…

HBO has released the teaser trailer for the third season of Barry, the acclaimed dark comedy created, executive-produced and starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader. Hader plays the titular character, a depressed hitman from the Midwest who’s sent to Los Angeles to kill an aspiring actor, but decides instead to ditch his life of crime to become an actor himself. Henry Winkler co-stars, along with Stephen Root. Barry returns Sunday, April 24…

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Anne Hathaway tackles a complicated role in the new Apple TV+ series WeCrashed. The series, out Friday, chronicles the rise and fall of WeWork, its charismatic founder Adam Neumann, and his wife/WeWork Chief Branding Officer Rebekah Neumann.

Hathaway plays Rebekah and tells ABC Audio that while Rebekah may not seem like the most relatable person, we can certainly identify with “the very human experience of having a goal and falling short of it and what that must feel like.”

Rebekah is credited with coming up with the mission phrase of WeWork, which was “to elevate the world’s consciousness,” and Hathaway thinks Rebekah really believed in it.

“I think she wants to do good. I think she wants to make the world a better place. And I really do think she believed in the power of We,” says the Ocean’s Eight star.

A belief Hathaway doesn’t share with Neumann is the idea that one person can change the world.

“I believe that you can change yourself and you can be open about that process, but I don’t think that the world is going to be saved by one person doing good,” she explains. “I think it’s going to be saved by all of us doing good.”

Hathaway did benefit from picking up one of Rebekah’s habits.

“I do yoga now,” she shares. “Rebecca has much healthier habits than I do. So getting to live as her as for the better part of a year wound up being a very good thing for me.” 

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After less than a week behind bars, Jussie Smollett was released from jail Wednesday.

The release comes after an appeals court, in a two-one decision, agreed that the former Empire star should be released on bond pending the appeal of his conviction for lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack.

Smollett’s attorneys had argued that he would have finished the sentence by the time the appeal process was completed and that Smollett could be in danger of physical harm if he remained locked up in Cook County Jail. 

Smollett was let out on a personal recognizant bond of $150,000, which did not require him to put any money down, but he agrees to attend court as required. 

The actor’s attorneys said the actor broke down when they gave him the news he’d be freed.

“He pushed his hands on the glass and he was, his eyes got teary and I’ve never seen that, because he’s been very strong in there,” said attorney Nenye Uche. “And he said, ‘I nearly lost hope in our constitutional system.'”

Last week, Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of probation for lying to police about staging a hate crime attack against himself in Chicago, with the first 150 days of the sentence in Cook County Jail. He spend a total of six nights in jail before his release. 

A jury convicted Smollett in December on five felony counts of disorderly conduct — the charge filed when a person lies to police. He was acquitted on a sixth count.

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Fan favorite Norman Reedus is “recovering well” after suffering a concussion on the set of The Walking Dead.

That’s the word from his rep, Jeffrey Chassen, who tells Page Six that the actor, who plays Daryl Dixon on the long-running AMC series, suffered a head injury on March 11 on the show’s Georgia set. 

Chassen thanked fans for their concern, and noted that Reedus “will return to work soon.”

An AMC source told ABC Audio that the mishap will bump The Walking Dead‘s wrap date by a few days.

It was recently announced that Reedus’ crossbow-wielding survivor will join co-star Melissa McBride, who plays Carol Peletier, in their own as-yet-untitled TWD spin-off.

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The new Pixar film Turning Red premiered Friday on Disney+ and it’s causing a lot of conversation.

The animated film focuses on a tween girl who notices her body and emotions are changing, and when she gets to a place where she can’t control her emotions, she turns into a giant red panda. The whole thing is a metaphor for puberty — so which came first, the panda or the puberty?

“Initially, the very first kind of spark of the idea was like, Oh, like, wouldn’t it be so funny and cute if this teen girl uncontrollably poofed into a giant red panda?” writer and director Domee Shi tells ABC Audio, adding that making it “a metaphor for the big changes that we go through in life” came later as a way to justify to it her bosses. 

The topic of puberty is one that some feel is “too adult” for a Pixar film, but Shi says “its so not.”

“Every girl goes through getting their period and it’s not an adult topic,” she explains, adding that Turning Red is no different than other topics tackled by the animation studio “like death, like betrayal, like murder, revenge and jealousy. And I think all of these things are important to kind of teach kids about.”

Despite the critics, Shi wishes she had a film like this when she was younger and hopes that it inspires everyone to “embrace their own inner pandas.”

“Embrace all of the awkward, weird, messy parts of themselves that they’re kind of taught to put away or to hide,” she explains. “I think for girls especially…I hope they’re inspired to get big and take up space and be… loud and hairy and be weird. It’s OK. And it should be celebrated.”  

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After 19 seasons, more than 3,200 episodes, and 64 Daytime Emmy Awards, The Ellen DeGeneres Show will wrap up on Thursday, May 26 — and Ellen has lined up some big names to help her say goodbye. 

Producers of the series have announced that among DeGeneres’ final guests will be “longtime friends of the show,” including, former First Lady Michelle Obama; David Letterman; Jennifer Garner; Channing Tatum; Serena Williams; Diane Keaton; husband and wife Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo; and Ellen’s wife, Arrested Development vet Portia de Rossi.

“The lineup of special guests will pay tribute to the trailblazing host and share their favorite memories from DeGeneres’ 19 iconic seasons,” the show promises.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show first premiered on September 8, 2003. In May of 2021, and following a toxic work environment scandal that led to the dismissal of several high-ranking producers, Ellen announced she would be ending her talk show the following year.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kim Kardashian sat down with Ellen Degeneres on Wednesday, and raved about reaching a new chapter in her life with Pete Davidson. 

The chat happened just days after the reality star and fashion mogul, 41, went “Instagram official” with the 28-year-old Saturday Night Live cast member. “I guess it’s like not official until you post,” Kim joked. 

The pair have been linked since October 2021, eight months after she filed for divorce from Kanye West.

Kim explained that she showed restraint by only posting what pics she did of her and Pete last week. “I have the cutest pictures of us and I want to be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so cute!'” Kim told Ellen. “But then I’m like, ‘Don’t be so desperate. Don’t be posting so much, just give a glimpse.'”

The 41-year-old influencer added, “I haven’t dated in since before Instagram existed…I don’t know what the rules are.”

When the talk show host told the star of Hulu’s new show The Kardashians that she seemed more at ease than she’s been, Kim agreed, saying, “It feels good! I think it’s just in life…I just think I encourage my friends and the people that I love just to be happy.”

She added, “And I went for it. I was like, ‘You know what, I’m in my 40s, like f*** it, just go for it. Find your happiness.’ I went for it and I took my time. I found it and it feels so good. I want to hold on to that forever.”

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Judy Greer can now be seen in NBC’s based-on-real-life series The Truth About Pam, opposite Oscar winner Renee Zellweger, who plays Pam Hupp, a woman who allegedly murdered her friend in 2011 and tried to pin it on the friend’s husband. 

In Greer’s long career, she’s has appeared in beloved rom coms like 13 Going on 30, adventure movies like Jurassic World, slasher pics like the recent Halloween Kills, and she also has voiced the spacey, sex-crazed Cheryl Tunt on Archer since the animated series launched in 2009.

Greer is also part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Maggie Lang, the estranged wife of Paul Rudd‘s Scott Lang in the Ant-Man movies. Maggie’s a great mom, and is supportive of her ex-husband’s Avenging, but alas, Greer tells ABC Audio, her character has no superheroic abilities.

“I still wish I had a superpower. I’m still waiting for that,” Greer says, smiling. “I was like, ‘Can…my character just…have like one little superpower, like a baby one, like something tiny that…maybe like rubbed off on her at some point or something? No? Nothing?’…Maybe someday.”

Greer adds, modestly, “I would just like a tiny one, you know?”

As for getting to act in MCU projects, Judy says, “I think it’s always an honor to be asked to be a part of a massive franchise like that, of course. And so now I just want more,” adding with a laugh, “Never satisfied.”  

We’ll just have to wait and see if she gets her wish when the third film in the series, Ant-Man: Quantumania, hits theaters July 28, 2023.

The Truth About Pam airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and also streams on Peacock and Hulu.

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Mike Myers is back — and once again in prosthetic makeup — in the teaser to his new comedy adventure series The Pentaverate [pen-TAH-ver-uht].

In the series, the Austin Powers star Myers plays Ken Scarborough, a washed-up Canadian TV anchor who stumbles upon the existence of the titular secret society that has quietly steered world events for centuries, a la The King’s Man. 

The zany teaser also showcases The Hangover series star Ken Jeong as a Las Vegas casino mogul, Keegan-Michael Key as a nuclear physicist tapped by the secret group, and Debi Mazar, who acts as the Pentaverate’s secretary and “some would say the brains of the whole operation,” Netflix teases.

The series also stars Absolutely Fabulous‘ Jennifer Saunders, while Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, who narrates the teaser, serves as the show’s narrator. 

The Pentaverate premieres May 5 on Netflix.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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With the 94th Annual Academy Awards on March 27 fast approaching, the financial wonks at WalletHub have done a deep dive into the numbers for Hollywood’s biggest night. 

For example, WalletHub’s experts say the ceremony costs $42.9 million to pull off. The 50,000-square-foot Oscars red carpet alone, actually 30 rolls strung together, costs $24,700 bucks, and takes 18 workers to install over hundreds of hours.

Speaking of hundreds, the actual cost of the gold-plated prize is $400 — a pittance compared to what it’s worth to a winner’s financial bottom line with future roles, which can jump by 60% after a win, according to the site’s number crunchers.

The most expensive outfit ever worn to the Academy Awards was Cate Blanchett‘s 2014 red carpet look. She wore an Armani Privé dress embellished with $100,000 worth of Swarovski crystals, and her whole ensemble — complete with Chopard jewelry featuring 62 opals, plus a diamond bracelet and ring — was worth a record $18.1 million. 

That said, even that was bargain-basement compared to the 128-carat fancy yellow Tiffany diamond Lady Gaga wore around her neck in 2019. The $30 million necklace — a record for any Oscar jewelry piece — was a good luck charm, as she picked up a trophy that year for her A Star Is Born song “Shallow.”

WalletHub also noted it costs $80,000 for a couple to attend the most expensive Oscar party, Vanity Fair‘s post-show gala.

Lastly, an Oscars gift bag can contain more than $200,000 worth of SWAG, the site says. Last year’s offering also contained an NFT of the late Chadwick Boseman that was reportedly worth $1.2 million.

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