by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Utensils down. After 17 years and 20 seasons, Padma Lakshmi has announced she will step aside as host and judge of the cooking competition series, “Top Chef.”
“After much soul searching, I have made the difficult decision to leave Top Chef,” Lakshmi wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. “Having completed a glorious 20th season as host and executive producer, I am extremely proud to have been part of building such a successful show.”
“I feel it’s time to move on and make space for Taste the Nation, my books and other creative pursuits,” she added, referencing her Hulu series and New York Times bestselling books.
Lakshmi received 13 Emmy nominations for her work on the show. She has starred on the long-running series since its second season.
“We are grateful to Padma for being a consummate host, judge and executive producer, and for bringing her ingenuity and exceptional palate to each episode where she ate every bite of food on the series for over 17 years and 19 seasons,” an NBC Universal spokesperson said in a statement. “She will always be part of the Top Chef and the NBCUniversal family and has a seat at the judges’ table anytime.”
No replacement for Lakshmi has been named.
She described the “Top Chef” cast and crew as family and said she would “miss working alongside them dearly.” Lakshmi concluded her post with a message of gratitude to the show’s viewers.
“I am deeply thankful to all of you for so many years of love and support.”
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Actress Shannen Doherty is letting her social media followers in on the spread of her breast cancer.
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” star on Tuesday posted a video on her verified Instagram account of her receiving treatment as tears filled her eyes. The caption on the video began, “January 12, 2023.”
“On January 5th, my ct scan showed Mets in my brain. Yesterdays video was showing the process of getting fitted for the mask which you wear during radiation to your brain,” the caption reads. “January 12, the first round of radiation took place.”
“My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life,” Doherty, 52, wrote. “I am fortunate as I have great doctors like Dr Amin (Mirhadi) and the amazing techs at cedar sinai. But that fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like.”
The “Charmed” star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 that went into remission two years later. In 2020, Doherty announced the cancer had returned, spread and was stage 4.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Simon Cowell hit the golden buzzer for a very special contestant on “America’s Got Talent.”
Seventeen-year-old Putri Ariani blew the judges away with her audition, receiving a standing ovation from the audience and the judges following her performance.
“They are going crazy for you,” judge Sofia Vergara told her.
Ariani auditioned with an original song then Cowell asked her to perform another. Ariani sang “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word,” to thunderous applause.
“We are all mesmerized by you, your voice, you are an angel,” judge Heidi Klum told her.
Howie Mandel added, “A lot of people don’ believe in angels and I think one just landed on our stage. You are a superstar.”
As for Cowell, he praised her, calling her voice “distinct,” and her performance “really good.”
“I think we are all feeling the same thing. You’re 17. You write songs. You’ve got an amazing, distinct voice, I mean really, really good. You have a kind of glow about you,” he said.
Cowell then hit the Golden Buzzer, saying, “I don’t know whether this is going to make a difference or not, however …”
Each judge gets one Golden Buzzer, which automatically moves that contestant to the live shows beginning on Aug. 22.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Elliot Page is sharing a lot in his new memoir.
In “Pageboy,” the star writes that he “was taken aback the moment” he saw “Juno” co-star, Olivia Thirlby.
At the time, he was portraying a pregnant teen girl in the 2007 independent film.
Page came out as gay in 2014 before announcing he is transgender in December 2020.
In his memoir, Page writes that Thirlby was “the first woman I had a suitably consensual sexual relationship with.”
“We were the same age, but she seemed so much older, capable, and centered,” Page, who was 20 at the time, writes. “Sexually open, far removed from where I was at the time. But the chemistry was palpable, it pulled me in.”
Thirlby “had much more experience,” Page said, and the pair “became friends quickly, spending a lot of time together.”
Things became intimate, Page writes, after Thirlby announced, “I’m really attracted to you,” and Page responded likewise.
“What were we thinking? We thought we were subtle. Being intimate with Olivia helped my shame dissipate. I didn’t see a glint of it in her eyes and I wanted that – done feeling wretched about who I am.”
Thirlby first spoke publicly about being bisexual in a 2011 interview with Brooklyn Magazine.
In 2014, she married Jacques Pienaar whom she met on the set of the 2012 film, “Dredd.”
CNN has reached out to reps for Thirlby for comment.
by tyler | Jun 7, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
Actress Shannen Doherty is letting her social media followers in on the spread of her breast cancer.
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” star on Tuesday posted a video on her verified Instagram account of her receiving treatment as tears filled her eyes. The caption on the video began, “January 12, 2023.”
“On January 5th, my ct scan showed Mets in my brain. Yesterdays video was showing the process of getting fitted for the mask which you wear during radiation to your brain,” the caption reads. “January 12, the first round of radiation took place.”
“My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life,” Doherty, 52, wrote. “I am fortunate as I have great doctors like Dr Amin (Mirhadi) and the amazing techs at cedar sinai. But that fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like.”
The “Charmed” star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 that went into remission two years later. In 2020, Doherty announced the cancer had returned, spread and was stage 4.
by tyler | Jun 6, 2023 | CNN, entertainment
If you thought Poorna Jagannathan was not to be played with as mom Nalini Vishwakumar on “Never Have I Ever,” just wait. The actress from the hit Netflix series is next set to play a mafia head in the forthcoming comedy “The Out-Laws” and an “aunty-gangster” in the upcoming series “Deli Boys.”
For Jagannathan, it’s a thrill to see new types of roles opening up for women who look like her.
“I think finally our outsides are beginning to match our insides,” she told CNN. “The portrayals of us are beginning to actually reflect who we really are. They are beginning to mirror our real lives – our desires, our heartbreak and our joy. And it’s an exhilarating thing to be part of closing that outside-inside gap.”
Jagannathan has long been hailed for her talent, including for her critically acclaimed role as Safar Khan in the 2016 HBO miniseries “The Night Of” (HBO is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery).
She credits those women of color behind the scenes – including “Never Have I ever” co-creator Mindy Kaling and uber producer Shonda Rhimes – with creating projects that have opened up opportunities.
“I think female creators of color, like Mindy and Shonda, are the ones pushing the stories of strong female characters out,” Jagannathan said. “But I think places like Netflix are able to really listen to viewers, especially viewers of color, who are demanding to see their identities reflected back to them.”
More diversity also means chances to take on fun roles, like playing tough-as-nails crime boss Rehan in “The Out-Laws.”
The film stars Adam DeVine as a straight-laced bank manager who suspects that his far from conventional future in-laws, played by Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin, might be criminals.
Jagannathan jumped at the chance to play a villain.
“I grew up on Bond and Benny Hill and this script hit me in my sweet spot. To prepare, I watched all the Bond movies, and this character is a composite of all my favorite Bond villains,” she said. “It’s rare to see a south Asian female playing the villain because I think to play the villain you need to be given a lot of power. And we’re rarely portrayed as that powerful in the media.”
Having just turned 50 in real life, the star is leaning in to taking on work that excites her.
“The next series I’m doing – ‘Deli Boys’ – I’m playing an aunty-gangster,” she described. “I think after running a household full of Indian women (on ‘Never Have I Ever’), the next logical step is to run a mafia den. But I’m excited to enter my 50s as a gangster. It feels ridiculously right.”
“Deli Boys,” which also stars Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh, has been picked up by Hulu for streaming at a later date.
“Never Have I Ever” debuts its fourth season on Thursday, and “The Out-Laws” debuts on July 7.
