Tonight, ABC is relaunching its beloved series The Wonder Years from a new perspective.
Narrated by Don Cheadle, the show is set in the late 1960s, and centers on a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama.
Aside from serving as a director on tonight’s pilot, Fred Savage himself is one of the executive producers, along with Empire‘s Lee Daniels.
E.J. Williams plays Dean, who is taking the place of Savage’s Kevin Arnold in the original. The young actor explains his parents were big fans of the first show, which ran from 1988-1993 on the network.
Saycon Sengbloh plays Dean’s mother Lillian. “I always tell people I think I went to high school with Fred Savage. No, I didn’t. But I think I grew up with him because…I totally was into the show,” she enthuses.
For his part, Williams was a big fan of having Savage so connected to the reboot. “I probably should have warned Fred when I first met him, but I’d definitely ask him a lot of questions to the point that he might get annoyed with me,” EJ jokes.
“But…he directs and he’s an executive producer on it. So it’s not like he’s going anywhere.”
With the show centering on a Black family, The Wonder Years deals with topics the Arnolds didn’t have to face. Twelve-year-old Williams explains he used to switch the channel from footage of those times of racial strife.
“Now that I’m in a situation where my character is my age, dealing with these things, it’s like I mean, I’m stuck with it now.”
He adds, “But it’s definitely great being able to hear experiences and seeing the joy and laughter side of all the madness.”
(LAS VEGAS) — Four years ago, the poorest owner in the NFL committed over $1.1 billion he didn’t have toward building a $1.9 billion stadium in Las Vegas, at a time when NFL policies forbid team owners, staffers and players from even appearing to have connections to gambling.
Three years ago, he lured the franchise’s famous former head coach out of the announcers’ booth and back onto his sideline with a 10-year, $100 million contract. At the end of the following season, he hired the NFL Network’s top draft analyst to run his front office. Last season, his team played their home games in the brand-new, gleaming black Allegiant Stadium — but without any fans (or gameday revenue to pay down the attendant debt).
Mark Davis bet everything — his team, his fortune, and his father’s legacy — on this season being a success.
It didn’t look like it was going to pay off. Head coach Jon Gruden’s first three seasons back in black (19-29, .396 win percentage) were significantly worse than the three years under his predecessor, Jack Del Rio (25-23, .521). General manager Mike Mayock’s transition from mock drafts to real drafts has been bumpy, with Gregg Rosenthal of the NFL Network ranking him and Gruden as the worst-drafting front office in the league. Team President Marc Badain, who had spent all 30 years of his professional career with the organization, resigned days before training camp with little explanation. Mayock admitted before this season that his job likely depended on the Raiders making the playoffs, and FiveThirtyEight’s preseason NFL predictions gave them just a 24 percent chance to do it.
After two weeks, the Las Vegas (née Oakland, née Los Angeles, née Oakland) Raiders are 2-0, having knocked off the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers by a combined score of 59-44. Quarterback Derek Carr leads the NFL in passing yards with 817, nearly 130 yards ahead of second place. The team is No. 2 in the NFL in Sports-Reference.com’s predictive Simple Rating System metric.
Is this a mirage in the desert, or are the Raiders for real?
Right off the bat, there’s room for skepticism: Simple Rating System, predictive as it is, pretty much only takes into account a team’s opponents and average point differential. This early in the season, it’s not even as predictive as point spread or point differential alone.
On the field, the Raiders boast the No. 7 scoring offense and No. 1 yardage offense so far this year. They rank seventh in yards per play and are tied for fifth in per-drive scoring rate. Though they can’t run the ball for beans, Gruden’s play-calling is drawing raves — and has Carr playing the best football of his life. The three-time Pro Bowler has the fourth-highest quarterback passing grade on Pro Football Focus, and he ranks fourth in Football Outsiders’ Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR). (Carr injured his ankle in last week’s win over the Steelers, though, and is currently questionable for Week 3.)
Defensively, the Raiders are closer to the middle of the pack. They are tied for 10th in scoring defense and 16th in yards allowed. They’re 16th in Football Outsiders’ defensive Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA). But PFF loves the tape of defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s unit, grading them the sixth-best overall defense, with the league’s No. 1 pass rush.
That pass-rush dominance shows up in the stat column, too. Despite blitzing less often than any other team, the Raiders rank 15th in pressure rate, according to ESPN Stats & Information Group. Mayock’s first-ever draft pick — defensive end Clelin Ferrell, taken No. 4 overall in 2019 — may never be productive. But the edge-rusher Mayock took 102 picks later, Maxx Crosby, has blossomed into a stud: two sacks, eight tackles, three tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits season alone, not to mention the highest overall PFF grade of any defender in the league. Right behind Crosby, in ninth place, is 2021 free-agent class headliner Yannick Ngakoue.
The Raiders do have significant flaws. Their offensive line ranks dead last in PFF’s run-blocking grades and 16th in pass protection. They’re also the league’s worst tackling team, according to PFF. That’s partly why they’re only a decent defense, despite dominant players up front. All told, the Raiders are still outside of the top 10 in most predictive team-strength metrics.
But look how much these two opening wins have impressed the models:
Vegas has made huge leaps in the models
Rankings and playoff odds in five models for the Las Vegas Raiders before Week 1 and before Week 3 of the 2021 season
RANKINGS
PLAYOFF ODDS
METRIC
W1
W3
DIFF.
W1
W3
DIFF.
Football Outsiders DVOA
21
19
+2
31.5%
49.5%
+18.0
ESPN FPI
25
19
+6
17.0
50.4
+33.4
PFF Power Rankings
21
12
+9
49.0
59.0
+10.0
Jeff Sagarin
23
13
+10
—
—
—
FiveThirtyEight Elo
24
13
+11
24.0
54.0
+30.0
Before Week 1, the Raiders ranked no better than 21st in any of these five predictive team-strength metrics. After Week 2, they’re 12th in both FiveThirtyEight’s Elo projections and PFF’s Power Rankings and at least in the teens everywhere else.
Jeff Sagarin’s model doesn’t predict playoff odds, but the other four metrics do, and after playing two games, the Raiders’ chances of making the postseason have jumped from a range of 17 to 49 percent to 50 to 60 percent. According to Rotowire, the Raiders’ betting odds of making the playoffs are now at +100, with an implied probability of 47.8 percent. Even though those odds are much better than the preseason high of +340, every predictive model we looked at thinks the Raiders are more “for real” than betting markets do.
Is it really the right time to get on board the Raiders bandwagon? Maybe not. But many NFL observers were skeptical of Davis — who, to put it mildly, zigs where most NFL owners tend to zag — and his ability to get a new stadium built without another team involved. Or attract attention in attraction-saturated Las Vegas. Or bring Gruden back into the fold. Or build a roster without the help of longtime Raiders execs like Badain, former general manager Reggie McKenzie or former CEO Amy Trask.
Yet Vegas is the hottest ticket in football, Gruden is prowling the sidelines, and the Raiders have better-than-even odds to make their third trip to the playoffs since Gruden left 20 years ago.
Davis bet it all on (silver and) black, and he’s going to let it ride.
#FreeBritney is becoming closer to reality than you might think, the singer’s lawyer says.
According to documents obtained by ABC News,Mathew Rosengart told a judge on Wednesday that he expects that Britney’s conservatorship, which has been in place for 13 years, to be “completely and inevitably” ended by the fall. It’s something that the singer asked for earlier this year in comments in a Los Angeles court.
The lawyer made those statements in a court filing in which he also stated that his priority is having Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, removed as conservator. Rosengart has asked Judge Brenda Penny to replace him by September 29 with someone else on a “temporary” basis.
The urgency is apparently due to Britney’s recent engagement to her boyfriend, Sam Asghari. It seems that Britney needs a prenup before she and Sam can tie the knot, and that would require the involvement of her conservator. Rosengart argues that, given the fact that Britney and her dad aren’t exactly on good terms — she previously stated that he should be “in jail” — Mr. Spears’ involvement would be unhelpful in getting that done.
Earlier this month, Jamie himself asked the court to end the conservatorship, and on Wednesday, Rosengart said that since Mr. Spears “fully consents” to this step, he’s going to file a motion to terminate it once Britney’s dad is removed.
In addition, Rosengart said he wants to depose Jamie in connection with his accusations that the elder Spears had abused his position while in control over his daughter’s finances, and also wants an evidentiary hearing. Mr. Spears has denied any wrongdoing.
You might have missed it during his Emmy acceptance speech — seeing as much of it was censored — but Ted Lasso‘s heartthrob Brett Goldstein is spoken for.
The F-bomb-loving actor who plays, well, F-bomb-loving soccer star Roy Kent, sent love to his girlfriend Beth during the speech, and Page Six has figured out that Beth is British actress and comedienne Beth Rylance.
On Emmy night, Rylance — who isn’t related to award-winning actor Mark Rylance, for the record — posted Goldstein’s speech to Instagram, noting, “I wanna cry so bad, but I don’t think I can spare the moisture.”
Prior to his win, Beth tweeted that on Sunday, she was up to far more mundane tasks as Brett was preparing for his big night. “Today is the day that my boyfriend goes to the Emmy’s as a Best Supporting Actor nominee and I am at home on my second load of laundry,” she posted, before cheekily adding, “Just to confirm, my boyfriend is Kenan Thompson off of SNL.”
Rylance tweeted on Tuesday, “My godmother has just [texted] me to say congratulations on my boyfriend’s Grammy award and this is why I love her.” (VIDEO CONTAINS UNCENSORED PROFANITY)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday worked to salvage his sweeping legislative agenda as Democratic infighting imperiled his ambitious goals on infrastructure, climate change, and Americans’ relationship with government into peril.
The president planned to host a series of Democratic congressional leaders and factions at the White House, with the goal of pushing two pieces of legislation to the finish line: the bipartisan $1.2 trillion physical infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate but faces challenges in the House, and a potentially much larger bill with hundreds of billions of dollars for “human infrastructure” — funding for child care, eldercare, universal preschool, free community college, combating climate change, and a host of other Democratic priorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters late Tuesday that she intends to put the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor next week — as early as Monday — for consideration, but it’s unclear if and when the lower chamber will vote on the bill.
Pelosi and Democratic leadership have urged their entire caucus to support the bill, despite the fact that the $3.5 trillion bill is still weeks away from completion and progressives have said they won’t support the bipartisan bill unless the larger social bill is passed. Historically, Pelosi is loath to put a bill on the floor that will fail, so leadership must decide soon how they intend to play this.
Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who met with Pelosi on Tuesday for 90 minutes in her office and is expected to meet with Biden later Wednesday — told ABC News that more than half of her caucus, which stands at nearly 100 members, is ready to tank the bipartisan infrastructure bill if the larger progressive bill isn’t ready by next week.
Meanwhile, moderate Democrats in both houses of Congress oppose some specific items in the larger bill — which Biden calls his “Build Back Better agenda” — as well as its overall price tag. They’ve threatened to tank that bill if significant changes aren’t made to it — changes the progressives adamantly oppose.
“Our belief is that it’s not, it’s not a random number, it’s about what we are putting into the bill and what we’re willing to take out. So if there are people who say they want a smaller bill, are they going to take out childcare or are they going to take out housing or are they going to take out climate change efforts? What is it that we’re going to take out? For us, it’s never been a $3.5 trillion bill. It’s a $0 bill, because there was plenty of money to pay for the entire thing,” Jayapal told ABC News.
With his agenda at risk, Biden planned to host Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at 2 p.m., followed by House Democratic moderates and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has been leading the charge against the larger spending bill, according to people familiar with the meetings. Later, at 5:30 p.m., he’ll meet with Jayapal of Washington, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
“I hope he is the secret sauce,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said of Biden late Tuesday night.
“The president of the United States is always a very influential figure, and I know he wants both bills passed,” Hoyer told reporters.
Biden senior adviser Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, will travel to the Hill to meet with House Democrats around 3 p.m., according to a person familiar with that meeting.
Manchin has said for months he believes there should be a “strategic pause” before Congress takes up the reconciliation bill, citing his concerns about spending. His opposition to the price tag runs in tandem with Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Either one of them could tank the progressive bill from becoming law.
Separately, progressives are insisting that a pathway to citizenship is included in the bill. The Senate parliamentarian dealt a blow to Democrats late Sunday after ruling that immigration reform does not have a direct budgetary impact and therefor could not be included in the reconciliation bill.
Schumer and other Democrats expressed deep disappointment and vowed to continue fighting for new pathways to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.
The messy legislative fight carries high stakes with next year’s midterms looming and the president hoping to chalk up a major win Democrats can point to as his approval sags after a much criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Biden must also contend with a looming possible government shutdown on Oct. 1. Democrats in the House passed a short-term spending bill late Tuesday that would punt the shutdown fight to Dec. 3. The legislation also provides billions in aid for emergency disaster relief and Afghan evacuees. It also suspends the debt limit to December 2022.
But Senate Republicans have vowed to block any legislation that would lift or suspend the debt limit.
Senate Republicans say they oppose suspending the debt limit because of additional spending measures Democrats are currently crafting — even though the debt limit does not authorize new spending and is instead paying off previous debt, much of it incurred during the Trump administration.
Senate Democrats have countered that they have lifted the debt limit with Republicans under the Trump administration on multiple occasions and say it’s a bipartisan responsibility.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said if Congress does not act to raise the debt limit, the U.S. could default on its debt sometime in October, potentially triggering an “economic catastrophe.”
Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said for weeks they will oppose any measure that raises the debt ceiling, insisting that Democrats can do it alone given their control over all three branches of government.
“Since Democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get Senate Republicans’ help with raising the debt limit. I’ve explained this clearly and consistently for over two months,” McConnell said on the Senate floor earlier this week.
Biden has often touted the deal-making skills he honed over decades in the Senate, and the next few days will put his abilities to the test.
(NEW YORK) — A mom who is in the final stage in her fight against ovarian cancer is sharing the details of her “gritty story” to help educate and inform women.
Dr. Nadia Chaudhri, a 44-year-old neuroscientist and professor from Montreal, Canada, has been battling Stage 3 ovarian cancer for the past year, undergoing a hysterectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy.
In May, Chaudhri, the mom of a 6-year-old son, was hospitalized again and learned the cancer had returned, forcing her to tell her son that her cancer was now terminal.
She shared on Twitter this month that she is now receiving palliative care and preparing herself and her family for the reality that she will not be “coming home from this hospital visit.”
I am flooding my Sun with presents. Anything that will remind him of Mama. Today as he left the hospital he said ‘see you tomorrow, although you might also be dead.’ That hurt until I realized he knew I wasn’t coming home from this hospital visit. pic.twitter.com/jP4QKTN1vV
Chaudhri is using her time in the hospital to send a powerful message to women about ovarian cancer, which causes more deaths each year than any other gynecologic cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Ovarian cancer comes in many forms & treatments are more advanced for some forms than others, but he bottom line is that ovarian cancer research is underfunded,” she wrote. “We also need more awareness of symptoms because early detection improves prognosis dramatically.”
Chaudhri’s six-month journey to an ovarian cancer diagnosis began in January 2020 when she started to feel symptoms like fatigue, abdominal pain, lower back pain and changes in urination.
After being treated with three courses of antibiotics for what was misdiagnosed as a urinary tract infection, Chaudhri said she continued to have symptoms like fatigue and abdominal pain.
The topic of cancer only came up once she underwent a second ultrasound.
She showed the results to her uncle, a gynecologist, who suggested a blood test for cancer markers, which led to further tests, according to Chaudhri.
“Two weeks later I had a laparotomy. They cut me open from sternum to pubic bone. Indeed, I had cancer,” she wrote. “They removed all of the visible disease in a four hour surgery. It happened on June 10 2020. About 6 months after I first started ‘feeling bad.’”
In January 2020 I started feeling unwell. I was tired, had vague abdominal pain, severe lower back pain & a mild increase in frequency to urinate.
Chaudhri went on to describe the details of her treatment for ovarian cancer, including multiple rounds of chemotherapy and several attempts at clinical trials.
“Know your bodies,” Chaudhri urged women. “Pay attention to fatigue and changes in bowel/urinary tract movements. Make sure you understand all the words on a medical report. Do not dismiss your pain or malaise. Find the expert doctors.”
What women should know about ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer originates in the ovaries, which make female hormones and produce eggs, or in the nearby areas of the fallopian tubes and the peritoneum, the tissue that lines your abdominal wall, according to the CDC.
A woman’s risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 78, while her lifetime chance of dying from ovarian cancer is about 1 in 108, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Ovarian cancer can affect females of all ages and races but is most common in women ages 63 and older and is more common in white women than Black women, according to the ACS.
While early signs of ovarian cancer can be vague, the main symptoms are abdominal pain or pelvic pain, bloating and an increase in urination, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OBGYN.
“If these symptoms or others last for more than half the month you want to alert a gynecologist and, again, talk about the fact that it could possibly be ovarian cancer,” Ashton said on “Good Morning America” in June, after Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for CNN, announced her own ovarian cancer diagnosis.
It is particularly important for women to pay attention to symptoms of ovarian cancer and speak openly with their doctor because there is currently no reliable way to screen for the disease, according to Ashton.
In some cases, targeted use of pelvic scans and sonograms or a CA-125 blood test may be used to detect ovarian cancer, but additional testing is “not one size fits all and it is not recommended for all women,” explained Ashton.
Treatment for ovarian cancer usually involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, according to the CDC.
While there is no known way to prevent ovarian cancer, there are things associated with lowering the risk of getting ovarian cancer, including using birth control for five or more years, having given birth, breastfeeding, having had a hysterectomy, having had your ovaries removed and having had a tubal litigation, according to the CDC.
The Rolling Stones have premiered an official music video for “Living in the Heart of Love,” a recently released archival track that also will appear on the upcoming deluxe 40th anniversary issue of the band’s 1981 album, Tattoo You.
The clip, which you can check out now at The Stones’ official YouTube channel, was shot in Paris and was directed by veteran video director Charles Mehling.
The video follows and young French woman and her friends as they enjoy an evening in Paris filled with partying, bar-hopping and romance. Scenes from an archival Rolling Stones music video pop up in the clip, as various people are shown watching the band on a laptop. The “Living in the Heart of Love” video ends with a brief tribute to late Stones drummer Charlie Watts, with a message reading “Charlie is my darling” appearing on screen during the final scene.
Charlie Is My Darling is the title of an unreleased 1966 documentary about The Stones, a restored version of which came out in 2012.
“Living in the Heart of Love” is one of nine previously unreleased bonus tracks originally recorded around the time of Tattoo You that will be featured on the expanded reissue, which is due out October 22. The rollicking rock tune currently is available as a digital single and via streaming services.
As previously reported, the Super Deluxe edition of the Tattoo You reissue will be available as either a four-CD or five-LP vinyl set. It includes a newly mastered version of the original album, the nine unreleased tracks, and a two-disc live collection dubbed Still Life: Wembley Stadium 1982, featuring a 26-song performance The Stones gave at the famed London venue in June ’82.
If Billy Porter ever had the chance to speak to the late Elizabeth Taylor, he knows exactly what he’d say to her: “Thank you.”
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Porter reacted to being honored by the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation with their prestigious Commitment to End AIDS Award. Saying he was “humbled” by the honor, the Cinderella star couldn’t hold back the overwhelming appreciation he has for the late actress.
“You know, I have been gay a long time. I’ve been out since the ’80s, when it wasn’t so popular. HIV was around, Elizabeth Taylor was one of the first people in the public eye with celebrity to show the world how to love, to show the world what unconditional love looks like,” Porter said. “And all these years later to be honored in her name is… takes my breath away.”
And, although Taylor passed before the two could meet, Porter says that he would tell the actress, “Thank you,” if ever given the chance.
Porter, who revealed in May that he’s been HIV positive for 14 years, reflected on his advocacy work and what this award signifies in his journey.
“To be seen, inside of a space where I was not for a long time and not only not seen, but dismissed from the conversation… it is breathtaking to me that in the choosing of myself, in the choosing of my truth and my authenticity, my life has transformed and it’s magical,” he explained, noting that it also reflects a positive shift in public opinion.
Said Porter, “There is an evolution that’s going on. We’ve come a long way. And I know sometimes that’s hard to see because there’s so much negativity, but we also have to remember how far we’ve come.”
If you’ve watched Pink‘s documentary All I Know So Far, you know that her two kids, Willow and Jameson, can be a handful sometimes — especially Jameson. But now she claims she’s found a way to get them to take it down a notch.
Pink has partnered with the Calm app to promote its lineup of children’s bedtime stories, read by celebrities like Kate Winslet, Leona Lewis, Anna Kendrick, LeVar Burton and more. She’s done a one-minute voiceover for an ad, in which she says, “Hi, I’m Pink, and I’ve got a bedtime secret that’ll make you think/Once upon a #CalmKids in a land chockful of snooze/Sleep stories help gets your nights back/with calming tales kids get to choose.”
After describing some of the stories that are on offer on the app, Pink concludes, “Sleep stories that entertain, soothe and create laughter/and once the lights are all turned off/It’s sleepily ever after.” Pink’s voice is pretty calming, too, though it’s unclear whether she’ll be reading a book for the app in the future.
“I am SO proud to partner with @Calm to help parents and caregivers everywhere find their sleepily ever after with #CalmKids,” Pink writes on her socials. “Turns out…my kids now look forward to an early bedtime.”
Sabrina the Teenage Witch turns 25 next Monday. Ahead of the milestone anniversary, star Melissa Joan Hart is looking back at what made the show such a success.
“It brings you to this escapism that the world is always looking for… And you’re looking for a happy ending,” said Hart, 45, tells ABC Audio. “Are you looking for this escapism of this girl who can do anything at the point of a finger? We all want that. We all dream of that.”
Hart said that desire of wanting to use magic to “solve my problems” and make life easier is what “people are always looking for” — even today.
Beyond the “fun” and “adventure” the lighthearted sitcom offered, Hart says Sabrina was also enhanced by its “great guest stars [and] fun music.”
“So it’s starting to be nostalgic. But, I think it also still does hold up in a way,” she remarked.
Hart also said Sabrina‘s finale is also what made the show so special. The fantasy sitcom ended with Sabrina and her high school sweetheart, Harvey Kinkle — played by Nate Richert, riding away on a motorcycle while No Doubt‘s “Running” plays in the background.
“I think it was such a perfect ending. It was so perfect,” Hart declared, adding that she thinks the two would still be together after everything they went through: “They ran off, they had kids [and] the kids have magic powers.”
Because the show ended on such a high note, Hart revealed, “I would never want to reboot it because it just ended so perfectly. How are you going to improve on that?”
Sabrina ran between 1996 to 2003 for seven seasons. It also spawned an animated spinoff, two TV movies, and the Netflix reboot Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which aired for two seasons.
