by tyler | Jul 6, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
The Twitter account for the Netflix series “Peaky Blinders” posted a message on Wednesday strongly disapproving of the use of footage of star Cillian Murphy as lead character Thomas Shelby in a Ron DeSantis video targeting the LGBTQ+ community, from the account @Proudelephantus. The video was retweeted by @DeSantisWarRoom, which is a campaign Twitter account for DeSantis’ presidential bid.
Other actors seen in the clip included Leonardo DiCaprio in “Wolf of Wall Street” and Brad Pitt in “Troy,” intercut with footage of DeSantis and newsclips pertaining to both his and Donald Trump’s LGBTQ+-related policies.
“We confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby’s character used within the video posted by Ron Desantis (sic) campaign was obtained without permission or official licence (sic),” the tweet from the “Peaky Blinders” production said.
“We do not support nor endorse the video’s narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner.”
CNN has reached out to the “Blinders” production as well as representatives for DeSantis for comment.
by tyler | Jun 30, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Alan Arkin, the Oscar-winning star of “Little Miss Sunshine,” has died, his family announced Friday.
He was 89.
“Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed,” his sons Adam, Matthew, and Anthony Arkin said in a statement to CNN.
Born in Brooklyn to Russian-German Jewish immigrant parents, his family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child.
Arkin attended Bennington College but left to form the music group, The Tarriers in which he sang and played guitar. The group didn’t stay together long but had a hit with “The Banana Boat Song” in 1957.
He then went on to become a founding member of the Second City improvisational troupe, and also continued to record music, including several children’s albums with his group, The Babysitter.
But acting was also a passion and Arkin won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut performance in the 1963 play “Enter Laughing” and a Drama Desk award for directing the 1968 play “Little Murders,” which he also directed for the big screen.
Arkin also directed the original Broadway version of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys,” which ran for more than 500 performances.
In his film work, he became one of a handful of actors to be Oscar nominated for their first starring role. In Arkin’s case, he was nominated for his role as as Rozanov in the 1966 war comedy, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.
He also earned Oscar nominations for his performances in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” (1967), and “Argo” (2012).
Most recently, Arkin was was nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards for his comedic turn in the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method.”
Fellow actors Viola Davis and Patton Oswalt paid tribute to Arkin on social media.
“Our work inspired a generation of actors and reminded us how powerful our art can shift us,” Davis wrote on Instagram. “Rest well! May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
“Did ANYONE have the range Alan Arkin had?,” Oswalt tweeted. “Hilarious, sinister, insane, tragic. No mood he couldn’t live in. RIP.”
Arkin is survived by his wife Suzanne, sons Matthew, Anthony and Adam, grandchildren Molly, Emmet, Atticus, and Abigail, and great grandson Elliott.
by tyler | Jun 30, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Actress Bonnie Morgan was almost cast as Topanga Lawrence on “Boy Meets World,” but says she lost the role because director David Trainer did not think she was “pretty enough.”
During an episode of “Pod Meets World,” Morgan spoke to podcast hosts and “Boy Meets World” stars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle to explain how she thought the role had been written specifically for her.
“Even the name was out of my parents’ love history,” she said. “It was the coolest thing ever.”
Morgan added that even though she thought the part was hers, when she arrived to set on day one, something felt wrong.
“It was the weirdest day of my life. Even as a kid I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I came in and all the adults were very short with me,” she said.
When Morgan failed to deliver her lines the way the director wanted, she was told to take her things home with her at the end of the day. The next day, her parents got a phone call.
“They fired you,” Morgan said her father told her.
She continued: “The director said that I couldn’t take direction, which was one thing I’d never been accused of. My agent immediately fought back on that one. It came out very quickly to my agent that the director didn’t think I was pretty enough. Literally did not think I was pretty enough, so that meant that a grown man, a boss, could lie and tell me I was untalented because the fact was he didn’t think I was pretty.”
She added that she’d never told the story before publicly.
by tyler | Jun 30, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
From wheels of cheese to black eyes, lately performers are getting a lot more from concertgoers than they asked for.
Aggressive behavior by people in the crowd at several recent summer concerts has artists calling for caution.
Kelsea Ballerini became the latest singer to be hit with an object onstage when an audience member tossed a bracelet, hitting her in the eye.
“It more so just scared me than hurt me. we all have triggers and layers of fears way deeper than what is shown, and that’s why i walked offstage to calm down and make sure myself, band and crew, and the crowd all felt safe to continue,” Ballerini said on social media after taking a pause during the show to check on her band.
After a man threw a phone at Bebe Rexha that hit her in the face during a New York concert earlier this month, Rexha revealed she needed stitches for her injuries.
Days later, singer Ava Max was slapped by a man who rushed the stage at a show in Los Angeles.
Pink was shocked in London when someone in the crowd tossed their mother’s ashes on stage while she was performing.
“I don’t know how I feel about this,” she told the crowd. She was also strangely handed a wheel of cheese during a recent performance.
Harry Styles has been hit in the grown by sunglasses and in the eye with Skittles. He recently got smacked in the face with flower stems thrown from the floor while performing at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium as part of his “Love On Tour.”
Charlie Puth weighed in on the tossing trend, asking fans to please cut it out.
“This trend of throwing things at performers while they are on stage must come to an end. (Bebe, Ava, AND NOW Kelsea Ballerini…) It’s so disrespectful and very dangerous. Please just enjoy the music I beg of you,” he tweeted.
Kelly Clarkson shared her take on what happened to Rexha, telling Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show that whoever threw the phone at her “should let her throw a telephone at his face, then he can experience that fun.”
She spoke about feeling vulnerable during performances.
“One time I was singing at this thing and my eyes were closed, so you’re even more vulnerable, and this person on live TV – on this show oversees – rushed to the stage and came up and hugged me, put their arms around me.”
“It was very scary, because at that moment I realized how vulnerable I was. I never thought like that before,” Clarkson added.
by tyler | Jun 29, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
The off-screen attention regarding Henry Cavill’s exit can’t help but bleed into the new season of “The Witcher,” which will mark the “Man of Steel” star’s last with the Netflix show. Based on the initial episodes, Cavill could leave on a relatively high note, thanks to a tighter, more focused third season, at least initially, than the second offered.
The books-turned-game-turned-series fantasy has become a significant franchise for Netflix, which explains why the streaming service will employ a “Stranger Things”-like approach by splicing the season into two parts, with the first five episodes dropping now and the remaining three on July 27.
Frankly, fan enthusiasm for “The Witcher” has always felt a trifle overdone, which hasn’t stopped Netflix from mining that passion, including a limited-series prequel, “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” and an animated movie to help kill the time between seasons.
The new episodes benefit from a simpler framework, as Cavill’s Witcher, the warrior Geralt of Rivia, is keeping the princess Ciri (Freya Allan) safely in hiding, while Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) trains her and seeks to explore and test the limits of her magical powers.
That set-up provides Geralt and Yennefer an opportunity to flirt and bond – even enjoying a few quieter moments together – while enhancing Cavill’s role beyond just dismembering monsters and looking perpetually grim, which has generally served as a description of the character’s past contours.
There’s obviously a lot more going on than that, but the underlying premise of a princess with a larger destiny and her stoic protector has always served as the show’s most accessible point of entry, fueled by Cavill’s superheroic pedigree. While Geralt is hardly a match for Kal-El, that still leaves the actor slated to replace him in the fourth season, Liam Hemsworth, with sizable shoes to fill.
When the show premiered in 2019, it seemed to arrive at a moment when everybody was launching similarly themed fare – amid the introduction of several new streaming services – in an effort to carve out their version of “Game of Thrones,” producing a lot of expensive casualties in the process, and high-profile gambles like “The Lord of the Rings” series and “House of the Dragon” from Amazon and HBO, respectively.
Having graduated to the point where the show has inspired its own nonalcoholic beer tie-in, credit “The Witcher” with being a survivor. The question now is how well it will weather the loss of its leading man.
“The Witcher” begins its third season June 29 on Netflix.
by tyler | Jun 29, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
It’s been six months since Stephen “tWitch” Boss, the amiable DJ for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and dancer who rose to fame on “So You Think You Can Dance,” died by suicide. Now his mother has opened up about her struggle with his death.
In an interview with People magazine, Connie Boss Alexander talked about the loss of her son, who died at age 40 .
“When I think about him, I try not to dwell on how he left this earth,” she said. “This is not totally the end. That is where my peace comes from.”
The Boss Alexander has two other sons, but shared a special bond with Boss.
“I’d been sick, so he texted to ask how I was feeling,” she said of their final communication.
“That was the last time we talked. To the extent that Stephen may have been in a Black depression — no, not Stephen,” Boss Alexander said. “He was so in tune with analyzing and trying to make himself better, reading self-help books, so this came as a complete shock.”
While she focuses on family, the grieving mother talked of still trying to come to terms with her loss.
“At this point, I’m in realization, I guess,” she said. “When I wake up in the morning, it does hit me that, oh my God, he really is not physically here. But then in my head I can hear him say, ‘Hey, Mom. I’m OK.’”
Boss Alexander said she continues to hold on to her son’s final words to her.
“He started that last text with, “I love you, Mom,’” she said. “And I responded, ‘I love you more.’”
