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For the past decade Zendaya‘s music career has seemed like a game-set-match. But on Friday (April 26), the Challengers star gave longtime fans a glimmer of hope that she could mount a return to the studio someday during a chat with Jennifer Hudson.
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But first, Hudson heaped praise on the 27-year-old multi-talented star, noting, “you’re so gifted, you’re musical, you write music, you sing… you dance! Oh my goodness. Where did the music come from?”
“I love music and it’s something that’s been special to me and being in the music industry… it didn’t kill the joy of music, but when you put music and business together it cannot feel so good,” Zendaya replied diplomatically. Hudson could totally relate, but wondered if one day Z might again share her music with fans if it felt right.
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“You know, I think if the right timing and it came… again, I like creating it for myself,” Zendaya said. “But if there was a moment maybe I would put out a little something. Don’t be crazy, we’ll see. But maybe… one day.”
The actress/singer, who has not released her own music in more than a decade, was most recently featured on Bobby Brackins’ 2015 single “My Jam” alongside Jeremih. She released her self-titled debut — and so far only full-length record — in 2013, an electro pop collection that featured the glitch pop single “Replay,” which topped out at Nov. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Dune: Part Two star also talked about her surprise jump-up with Labrinth at Coachella last year, explaining that English rapper/songwriter is “so talented” and such a “wonderful person” that there was no way she could not say no, despite her initial fears. “He asked me if I wanted to come out and perform and immediately I was like ‘oh, absolutely not.’ I was like ‘I can’t do that,’” she said, noting that she has “bad memories” of performing as a kid and that stage fright was a serious concern.
“I was like, ‘I can’t! I can’t do it! It drives me crazy! I’m too nervous. I don’t wanna not do good and I don’t wanna let people down,’” she recalled thinking. “And then I went to myself, ‘Dude, you can’t run from this. You can’t hide from this forever. You’re gonna want to be on a stage and perform live once in your life at least.’ And what better place to do it than with someone that I admire and I respect and it’s his set, not mine, so I can just enjoy being with him, and so I said yes and was like, ‘Why the hell did I do this!?’”
But after joining Lab for the final two songs of his set, “I’m Tired” and “All For Us” — which they collaborated on for her HBO series Euphoria — Z said she was a bit disappointed in herself, feeling it was not her best effort because she couldn’t hear the music over the audience noise. “[So] I was like, ‘We’re just going to have fun. I’m just going to look like I’m having fun and we’re going to deal with this later. Who knows what this sounds like?,’” she told herself.
Reflecting later, though, Z realized there was no reason to beat herself up because the reason she couldn’t hear anything was that hyped crowd was singing along with her at the top of their lungs, screaming and excited. “I was like, ‘be grateful and be happy about it!’,” she said, later appreciating the love and support she’d received.
Watch Zendaya talk about a possible return to music and her Coachella surprise with Hudson below.
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If you’ve ever heard even one note from Fantasia Barrino‘s mouth, you know that the American Idol season three winner and The Color Purple star is a force to be reckoned with. That explains why in her essay celebrating Fantasia for TIME magazine’s 2024 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World Golden […]
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Source: James Devaney / Getty
The single most sacred rule in MAGA world is to never go against “The King” so when Reacher star Alan Ritchson spit some hot facts about Cheeto Jesus, Trump’s cult 45 came right for him on social media.Earlier this month the man who’s been campaigning to be cast as the next Batman in James Gunn’s rebooted DCU made his feelings known about the current Republican nominee for President of The United States in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter calling him a “rapist and a con man” and wondered aloud how people of the Christian faith follow such an obvious charlatan saying “Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe. It is so antithetical to what Jesus was calling us to be and to do,” he explains. It also upsets him that some Christians have so closely aligned with former President Donald Trump. “Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to be treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal. I don’t understand it.”
He’s not wrong. The man who faithfully follows his Christian beliefs is asking what we’ve all been asking these past few years: How do y’all follow a man who’s the literal embodiment of the seven deadly sins?? Didn’t the Bible say something about the antichrist pretending to be a man of God and fooling everyone into following him and committing an insurrection, etc.?
While many in MAGA nation didn’t take notice of the swipe that Ritchson took at both Donald Trump and his “Christian” followers, Trump sycophant, Sebastian Gorka addressed the issue during an interview on his radio show, America First and put a big orange target on his back. According to the Huffpost, listeners spread the word about Ritchson’s criticism and took to social media to air him out and call on their fellow Trumpians to join in on the campaign of hate against the Hollywood star but at the same time others have come to show support for his views and he might’ve made a few new fans along the way.
Per Huffpost:
During his five-minute-plus rant, Gorka told Ritchson to “shut your pie hole” when it comes to “political views” and “keep doing your play acting.”
Many conservatives seemed incensed by Ritchson’s remarks and vowed to boycott “Reacher,” which follows a brawny vagabond ex-Army police officer with a taste for vigilantism.
While the backlash from the MAGA sect was loud, there were also plenty of people who applauded the star for speaking his mind.
We want Alan Ritchson to be The Batman now. Just sayin.’
What do y’all think of Alan Rtichson calling out Donald Trump and his Christian followers? Let us know in the comments section below and peep reactions in the gallery.
8. Snowflakes gonna Snowflake.
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Source: Momodu Mansaray / Getty / Keanu Reeves
It’s not often that we get perfect castings in films, but according to X, Paramount got this one right.
Multiple sources are telling The Hollywood Reporter that Keanu Reeves and his iconic voice will bring to life fan-favorite character Shadow The Hedgehog in the highly anticipated film Sonic 3.
The news first reported by The John Campea Show comes after Paramount had a strong showing at CinemaCon last week in Las Vegas, where attendees saw some early footage from Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
In the footage, attendees were happy to see that Jim Carrey is back as Dr. Robotnik, who is now depressed and overweight after being defeated by his long-time nemesis, Sonic.
Robotnik regains his mojo after creating Shadow, who is, in every sense, the dark version of the Blue Blur and has similar abilities.
Following a lackluster trailer that first introduced a hideous Sonic The Hedgehog design that Twitter bullied the studio into changing, the first movie raced into theaters in 2020, earning a whopping $319 million at the box office and becoming one of the last theatrical blockbusters right before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down.
Sonic 2 arrived in 2022, introducing more characters like Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), earning $404 million.
Reeves continues to stay quite busy in Hollywood, most recently starring in John Wick 4, bringing back Neo in The Matrix: Resurrections, reprising his role as John Wick in the upcoming spinoff John Wick Presents: The Ballerina, and a role in Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune.
Social Media Users Chime In On The Casting
Following the announcement, X, formerly Twitter, celebrates Reeves casting in the film.
“THIS IS GONNA BE THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” one X user wrote.
Another post read, “perfect casting.”
Some fans are disappointed because they wanted Star Wars star Hayden Christensen to voice Shadow.
If you ask us, this sounds like a win to us. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
2. We will be seated for this epicness.
3. Sonic fans we are eating
4. We would love to see it.
7. Howling
9. Yes, yes they do.
10. Continue to cook
Fans have been wondering for months whether Jewel and former Yellowstone star Kevin Costner are an item. The singer, 49, and actor, 69, set tongues a wagging when they appeared together at a tennis fundraiser on Necker Island in December, but to date neither has commented publicly on their reported situationship. Explore See latest videos, […]
Ryan Gosling absolutely crushed it as this year’s Academy Awards. The triple-threat superstar’s “I’m Just Ken” performance was a song-and-dance tour de force… which almost didn’t happen. On Thursday night (April 11) Gosling revealed to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that if he’d had his way the Barbie showstopper would have died in the pitch phase.
“The level of pressure on there… when the Oscars asked you to perform, they call you and they go, ‘Would you want to do ‘I’m Just Ken?” Do you immediately go, ‘Yeah, I have to do this!’ Or no?”
“100% no,” Gosling fired back. “There’s a lot of ways that can go wrong.” The always enthusiastic Fallon then proceeded to gush about how amazing the performance was, rattling off the guests — Slash, Mark Ronson — and then reading some of the glowing reviews calling it one of the best Oscar’s spots in years.
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Gosling told Fallon that his two daughters, 7 and 9, with partner Eva Mendes came to the rehearsals for the Oscars and their non-plussed take was: “Dad’s Kenning again.” In fact, he said, it was his kids’ interest in Barbie and complete disinterest in Ken that convinced him to do the movie. “It’s really been a team effort and they were on the film and they came to set when I filmed the number,” Gosling said. “But it’s also been like a lot of this has no context for them. It’s just like a lot of fake tan stains around the house.”
So, he invited them to the Oscars dress rehearsal to give them some context for what had been going on with the movie, since they’d never been to a big concert or one of his events before. “But they know all the choreography better than I do and the songs,” he said, demonstrating how his girls would show him the proper moves backstage between shots.
Gosling, who is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend for the third time — with musical guest Chris Stapleton — also revealed that Barbie director Greta Gerwig realized he was her Ken thanks to one of his most absurd previous SNL bits on “Weekend Update.”
The 2017 sketch was called “Guy Who Just Joined Soho House,” and the line that proved he had the right Kenergy for the job was “Aye, aye, Capt. Blackout reporting for booty!” “Who would have thought that Greta Gerwig was watching that going like, ‘That’s my Ken,’” Gosling laughed.
Gosling stars in the big screen reboot of 1980s stunt man TV series The Fall Guy, due in theaters on May 3.
Watch Gosling on The Tonight Show below.
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If you saw the just-released first trailer forJoker: Folie à Deux, you already know that the titular Batman baddie terrifyingly embodied by Joaquin Phoenix has truly found his black heart’s true love in his infamous henchwoman Harley Quinn, played this time around by Lady Gaga. And while Phoenix took home the best actor award at the […]
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Source: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty / Halle Bailey
Halle Bailey continues to be booked and busy in Hollywood.
Deadline reports that The Color Purple star and one-half of the music duo Chloe x Halle is joining the cast of the upcoming Universal coming-of-age film directed by director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and producer Pharrell Williams (Hidden Figures).
According to the website, Bailey’s role in the project remains a mystery and will be joining Kelvin Harrison Jr. and The Holdovers Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The film’s subject, Deadline reports, will be a musical that takes place in 1977 Virginia and draws inspiration from Williams’ childhood at Atlantis Apartments.
Handling the script for the project will be Martin Hynes (Toy Story 4) and Steven Levenson (Tick, Tick…Boom!). Williams and Mimi Valdés are producing under the i am OTHER banner alongside Gil Netter for Gil Netter Productions.
Halle Bailey Continues To Rack Up Movie Roles
Bailey’s involvement in this film comes from her performance in director Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple, in which she played Young Nettie in the movie based on the Broadway run of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
She also had snowflakes big mad when she starred in the live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which brought in over $569 million at the worldwide box office.
This is more positive news for Williams, who is currently the subject of a lawsuit from fellow Neptunes cofounder Chad Hugo.
Hugo claims Williams violated their agreement after attempting to secure the trademarks for The Neptunes’ name.
Williams “claims the move was not to ice out Hugo but to ensure no other people can get their slimy hands on The Neptunes name.”
Pusha-T, a longtime collaborator with the Neptunes, believes Hugo’s lawyer is trying to make money.
Joey Ramone‘s brother is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by Johnny Ramone’s widow over a planned Netflix movie about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and flimsy” and filing his own countersuit against her.
Johnny’s wife (Linda Cummings-Ramone) sued Joey’s brother (Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh) in January over allegations that he had “covertly” developed an “unauthorized” biopic, believed to be Netflix’s announced moving starring Pete Davidson as Joey. In the lawsuit, Linda said that any “authoritative story of the Ramones” would require her sign-off.
But in a sharply-worded response filed last month, Mickey’s attorneys argued that Linda had, in fact, already greenlit such a movie many years ago – and that her “baseless” lawsuit was simply one more step in a years-long plan to “install herself as the Queen of the Ramones.”
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“Ms. Cummings-Ramone’s main purpose is to embarrass, harass, and destroy the integrity of Mr. Hyman, create an utterly false narrative about him, rewrite her role in the history of the Ramones, and win a popularity contest in which, in her mind, she takes over … the legacy of a band of which she never was a member and had nothing to do with creatively,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote in the March 15 filing.
A representative for Linda did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
Joey (real name Jeffrey Ross Hyman) and Johnny (real name John William Cummings) were not actually brothers, and they had a notoriously chilly relationship during their decades as bandmates. In the years since the two passed away, that feud has seemingly continued between Mickey and Linda.
As the executors of Joey and Johnny’s respective estates, Mickey and Linda each own half of Ramones Productions Inc., the holding company that controls the band’s music and other assets. But that partnership has not gone smoothly, featuring multiple lawsuits and arbitrations over the past decade.
The latest legal scuffle was triggered in part by the plans for a movie version of I Slept With Joey Ramone, Mickey’s 2009 memoir, which Netflix announced in April 2021. In her January lawsuit, Linda said that such a project would need the sign-off of Ramones Productions and not just Joey’s estate.
“Ms. Ramone objects to defendants’ attempt to create a Ramones film without her involvement — not to be obstinate, but rather based on defendants’ disregard for [Ramones] assets and their conduct and treatment of Ms. Ramone and her late husband,” Linda’s attorneys wrote at the time. “To permit defendants alone to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones would be an injustice to the band and its legacy.”
But in his recent response, Mickey argued that the planned movie is about him and his brother, and is “not intended to be a ‘Ramones movie’ or a Ramones biopic.” And he pointed to a 2006 agreement in which he argued that Linda had already granted her approval to a film based on the I Slept With Joey Ramone book: “Ms. Cummings-Ramone did consent to Defendants’ development and production of a motion picture,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
In a copy of the alleged agreement filed in court, Ramones Productions granted approval to a company called Rosegarten Films to produce a movie based on the then-unpublished memoir. It’s unclear if that specific company is involved in the currently-planned film, but television and film producer Rory Rosegarten was listed an executive producer when Netflix announced the movie in 2021.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Mickey echoed his argument that the movie was not going to be about the Ramones as a band.
“The fact is, I did not write ‘I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir’ about my brother’s band and had no intention whatsoever of doing that,” he said. “I wrote a story about growing up with a big brother who endured a severe somatic malady at birth, and later developed neurogenic problems. That led to doctors making diagnoses that he would never be able to function on his own in society — and that big brother, with support from his family, proved those doctors wrong as he went on to do great things with his life and become an inspiration to millions.”
The recent court filings came as part of Mickey’s so-called answer to the Linda’s lawsuit, denying the many accusations leveled against him in her lawsuit. Along with it, he filed his own counterclaims against her, arguing that it was Linda who had actually breached their partnership agreement with a “pattern of egregious conduct.”
The counterclaims set the stage for potentially years of litigation over Linda and Mickey’s back-and-forth accusations. Just like Linda’s original lawsuit, Mickey’s new case covers a wide range of alleged wrongdoing in their joint management of the Ramones assets well beyond just the proposed movie.
“She is driven by an alternate agenda, including her own fame and vanity, as well as a self-serving desire to obstruct projects and control RPI for reasons which conflict with her fiduciary duties and cause her to avoid any modicum of cooperation with Mr. Hyman,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
We’ve seen a couple of images to date of Lady Gaga‘s turn as Harley Quinn in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux sequel. But now thanks to a TikTok video posted on Tuesday (April 2) we can finally hear what the Joker’s foil sounds like.
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In a pic post entitled “The world is a stage” — a tease for the first official trailer due out on April 9 — you hear Gaga’s Quinn whisper, “You’re Joker… you can do anything you want,” over trilling, ominous piano as the screen flashes images of Phoenix’s terrifying clown getting a shave, standing in a rainstorm, locked in a prison and dancing with Quinn.
Gaga will suit up as Quinn in the sequel to director Todd Phillips’ billion-dollar 2019’s global hit Joker, which is due out on October 4. Variety recently reported that the eagerly anticipated film leans heavily towards being “mostly a jukebox musical” that integrates at least 15 reinterpretations of “very well-known songs” and could contain one or two original soundtrack songs as well.
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Among the unnamed classics that are said to appear in the film are the 1953 song “That’s Entertainment,” a showstopper tune often associated with Judy Garland. And though music will reportedly play a major part in the film, Variety noted that Joker 2 is expected to “break the mold of traditional musicals.” No plot details have leaked yet about the movie, but it has been described as a drama with elements that take place around the notorious Arkham Asylum.
EW also noted that while previous Quinns have leaned into the character’s Brooklyn accent — including Arleen Sorkin, the voice actress who originated the role in Batman: The Animated Series, and Margot Robbie in the DC Extended Universe’s live-action films — Manhattan native Gaga’s take on Quinn appears to be accentless.
In addition to Gaga and Phoenix, the film stars Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), Catherine Keener (Incredibles 2) and Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin). Variety also reported on Wednesday (April 3) that the film has been rated R for “some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality and brief full nudity”; the previous film was also rated R for “strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images.”
Listen to Gaga’s Quinn voice here.
