TV/Film

07 Aug 2024

Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Step Into Emerald City in New ‘Wicked’ Teaser

All aboard to Emerald City!

With the Jon M. Chu-directed adaptation of Wicked just months away from release, a new teaser arrived on Wednesday (Aug. 7). Grande, who topped the Billboard 200 this year with her Eternal Sunshine LP, is set to star as Glinda the Good Witch, with Erivo, a two-time Academy Award nominee, taking on the iconic role of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

Both actresses appear in the 30-second clip, in which Elphaba receives an invitation to meet with the Wizard of Oz, played by Emmy nominee Jeff Goldblum. Glinda hops on the train to join her pal, before a scene flashes of fireworks coming from Emerald City. The duo ultimately enter the Wizard’s castle, where Goldblum’s character is seen talking into a microphone to speak as the Wizard through a huge mask in the air. “Welcome to Oz,” the screen reads.

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The fourth-longest-running Broadway show of all time, Wicked pulls inspiration from both the stage musical and the best-selling Gregory Maguire-penned novel of the same name.

The rest of the principal Wicked cast will feature Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Olivier winner Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq and Emmy nominee Bowen Yang as Pfannee.

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The first part of Wicked arrives in theaters on November 22.

07 Aug 2024

Busta Rhymes Visits Tom Hardy on Set & Tells Fans to ‘Stay Tuned’ For Potential Collab

Busta Rhymes visited Tom Hardy on a movie set Tuesday (Aug. 6) and teased a potentail collaboration with the actor.

Posting a picture with the actor and a video of them embracing on his Instagram, Rhymes wrote about how grateful he was to meet Hardy. “I keep telling y’all that blessings don’t, so we won’t ever stop, ever,” he wrote. “The incredible Tom Hardy and the Dragon, stay tuned.”

Hardy has been filming the third installment of his blockbuster Marvel franchise, titled Venom: The Last Dance. That fact has fans guessing the rapper will be making a cameo in the upcoming movie. The Oscar-nominated actor previously told BBC Radio 1 that for Venom’s voice, he drew inspiration from the Brooklyn rapper, among others. “I mix a little bit of Busta Rhymes, a little bit of Method and Redman, a little bit of James Brown, and ever so slightly an element of Richard Burton,” he said.

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The British actor is also a rapper on the side, where he goes by the name Frankie Pulitzer. He’s been featured on a handful of Czarface tracks over the years and some of the group’s songs from their Good Guys, Bad Guys EP were played during scenes of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. He also had his 1999 mixtape resurface on Bandcamp a few years back.

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In regards to said EP, Hardy is featured on the tracks “Today’s Special” and “Klyntar Czar. Frankie Pulitzer, who also goes by the alias Face Puller, opens the latter with the lines “Place your faith in my anger and aggression/Me and CZARFACE’ll make a dangerous connection/I suggest you get your money to pay for your protection/I’m stepping in the party with a saber as a weapon.”

Who knew Tom Hardy had bars like that?

Hopefully Busta bartered a cameo in the new Venom movie for a Face Puller guest verse on his upcoming album Blockbusta, which is slated to drop Nov. 24.

Check out Rhymes’ Instgram post here.

07 Aug 2024

Walmart Celebrates Emily Henry Adapter Yulin Kuang’s Spicy Debut Novel With Limited-Edition Hot Sauce

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Summer this year has proven to be a extra warm one thanks to a heatwave that has impacted most of the U.S. Book lovers especially have been turning up the temps even more with romance novels known for spicy scenes — including the BookTok-loved author Emily Henry who has not one, but numerous bestselling novels being turned into movies, according to Deadline. Screenwriter Yulin Kuang has stepped up to adapt two of Henry’s books (People We Meet On Vacation and Beach Read), but not before she released her own steamy book, and Walmart is helping her celebrate.

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The online retailer surprised the debut author with their exclusive hot sauce collection with Melinda’s Hot Sauce inspired by spicy romance books. The set comes with five different spice levels including mild, medium, hot, flaming and burning, complete with labels that give a Bridgerton-esque vibe. Kuang took the package as an opportunity to have a photoshoot with the hot sauces and her book, How to End a Love Story, which she posted on Instagram Aug. 1.

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“@walmart sent me some hot sauce so I gave my summer intern @shots_by_sophia a photo assignment and told her to come up with a concept. grid-worthy. ??️??” the caption reads.

Below you can shop the hot sauce while it’s still in stock, as well as discover where to find copies of her book How to End a Love Story in addition to the novels she’s bringing to screen.

spicy books hot sauce walmart

Walmart

Melinda’s Spicy Books Hot Sauce Variety Set

Inspired by the hot and romance-filled books you know and love, this hot sauce collection will bring the spice off your pages to heat up more than the connection of your latest book’s characters. You’ll have five different heat levels to choose from, depending on your preferences. Each sauce is made from locally sourced fruits and vegetables as well as chili peppers for some extra kick.

how to end a love story book cover

Amazon

‘How to End a Love Story’ by Yulin Kuang

$12.20

$12.20

$18.99

36% off

$19.23

$27.99

31% off

Kuang goes from screenwriter to author in her first-ever book that follows bestselling author Helen Zhang, who has scored a spot in the writer’s room for the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels. What she doesn’t expect though, is to see Grant Shepherd, a man who she hasn’t encountered in more than 13 years, after a tragic accident occurs. Now, the two must work together closely while reckoning with the past. As they grow closer, secrets come to light and the two realize their love story won’t be like any other.

orange people we meet on vacation book

Walmart

‘People We Meet on Vacation’ by Emily Henry

$8.48

$16

47% off

$8.48

$16

47% off

$8.48

In People We Meet on Vacation, two best friends Alex and Poppy have been taking the same week-long vacation together every year for more than a decade. Until two years ago when they ruined everything and haven’t spoken since. In an attempt to go back to a time when she felt really happy, Poppy convinces Alex to take one last vacation with her. Now, she must use that week to try and mend what was broken so long ago.

yellow beach read book cover

Walmart

‘Beach Read’ by Emily Henry

$9.33

$16

42% off

$9.33

$16

42% off

$9.33

Beach Read follows two authors: Augustus Everett, an acclaimed author of literary fiction, and January Andrews a romance book writer. The two have very little in common besides the fact that they both will be sharing neighboring beach houses for the next three months as they battle writer’s block. That is until one evening when the two decide to strike up a deal — he’ll spend the summer trying to write something more happy and she’ll attempt to write the next great American novel. As the two push each other out of their comfort zones, they begin to realize that maybe opposites really do attract.

For more product recommendations, check out ShopBillboard‘s roundups of the best Taylor Swift books, country music books and female musician memoirs.

07 Aug 2024

‘Deadpool’ Director Calls Taylor Swift Cameo Rumors ‘Slightly Baffling’: ‘It Was Never a Conversation’

In spite of a few assurances to the contrary, rumors that Taylor Swift would appear in the latest Deadpool movie have persisted for years — all the way up until the new film premiered last month, revealing that she wasn’t involved after all. But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly published Monday (Aug. 5), director Shawn Levy revealed that there was never any chance of the pop star joining the franchise to begin with, no matter how much fans may have hoped for it.

“It was so very loud,” Levy told the outlet of the internet buzz from Swifties hoping for a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, which hit theaters July 26. “I definitely had moments where I was worried I would disappoint people when they realized Taylor as Dazzler was not in the movie, but there’s no controlling the internet and rumors spread like wildfire.”

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Many of the rumors stemmed from the 14-time Grammy winner’s close friendships with the movie’s star, Ryan Reynolds, and his wife, actress Blake Lively. Levy is also pals with Swift, having appeared in her “All Too Well” short film in 2021, but according to him, “it was never a conversation” that the “Anti-Hero” singer might pop up in the Marvel film.  

“It was never even a seed of a discussion,” he added. “Obviously, Ryan and Blake, and myself — to a far lesser extent — have our own relationships in real life with Taylor. But yeah, those rumors were loud and slightly baffling, but nothing I said or did was going to make them quiet down until this movie came out.”

Before their hopes were shot, fans had been wanting to see Swift in a Deadpool film since as far back as 2016, when the star borrowed Reynolds’ actual superhero suit for her Halloween costume. Rumors that the crossover might actually happen only continued to fester when the Free Guy star sported a T-shirt with Swift’s cats, Meredith and Olivia, printed on it in 2018’s Deadpool 2, and again when he appeared to re-create the Evermore album in costume earlier this year.

Reynolds, however, shut down the rumors — or attempted to, at least — in a July appearance on The Tonight Show. “I wish,” he said when host Jimmy Fallon asked him point-blank whether Swift was in Deadpool & Wolverine.

“If I ever stop, she’d make a good Deadpool,” he added at the time. “She’s funny, funny, funny!”

06 Aug 2024

Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson & More Tapped for Ryan Murphy’s Hulu Legal Drama ‘All’s Fair’

Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash and Naomi Watts have joined Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close in the cast of Ryan Murphy’s Hulu legal drama All’s Fair.

Kardashian, who recently starred in Murphy’s American Horror Story: Delicate, will play a Los Angeles divorce lawyer in an all-female law firm, which is headed by Close’s character. One week after Halle Berry was announced to join the cast, news of her exit broke. Variety reported that she left the show due to a scheduling conflict.

“All’S FAIR… GET IN,” Taylor wrote on Instagram with a rose emoji while sharing the news on Tuesday (Aug. 6).

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Taylor is also gearing up with her directorial debut, Get Lite (starring Storm Reid), but she’s had quite the successful run in front of the camera: Her starring role in A Thousand And One earned her the best breakthrough performance award from the National Board of Review. Taylor also starred in the Jack Harlow-fronted White Men Can’t Jump remake and The Book of Clarence, which was co-produced by Jay-Z, last year. The 33-year-old multihyphenate is also slated to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming untitled feature, also featuring Alana Haim, and Tyler Perry’s Netflix film Straw.

Murphy serves as writer, director and executive producer on All’s Fair. Watts, Nash, Paulson, Close and Kardashian will not only star in the show but will also be credited as its executive producers. Jon Robin Baitz, Joe Baken, Jamie Pachino, Lyn Greene and Richard Levine are also writers and executive producers. Other executive producers include Kris Jenner, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson and Holly Jeter. 20th Television, in association with Ryan Murphy Television, is producing All’s Fair.

Taylor is repped by WME and Taylormade Management Group.

06 Aug 2024

Dennis Quaid Gets Emotional When Remembering Working With 2Pac on ‘Gang Related’

Dennis Quaid appeared on the PBD Podcast and talked about the time he starred opposite 2Pac, James Belushi and James Earl Jones in the 1997 movie Gang Related.

“That was so great,” the actor said of working with the rapper. “I was kinda familiar with 2Pac when we did that movie. We both loved Chinese food, it turns out. So, he and I would be in the trailer, like, every day. We had Chinese food five days in a row.”

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“At the time, I really didn’t know much about who he was,” Quaid continued. “I knew who he was, but it’s like we got in there and we talked about acting, we talked about growing up, we talked about our mothers. He had such a great heart. He was such a talented actor too and he had a thirst to learn.”

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“I didn’t know he was a poet, really, because that’s what he was. He told the story of how they tried to kill him before in New York, and it was hysterical the way he told it, but it was, like, for real. Then six months later he got killed,” he shared as his emotions started to get the best of him. “That one really hit me hard. It really did.”

Quaid then highlighted how vulnerable Pac was, and how much he could’ve given to the world: “He had so much to give the world, he really did. He would’ve wound up being such a uniter of people.”

The actor later added, “He was just a human being. He was a kid and he was a vulnerable person. He wasn’t like this ‘gangster,’ this, or that, or the other. He had a poet’s heart … It was his vulnerability and he had this curiosity about other people, including me. You never put the two of us together, eating Chinese food in a trailer. But there we were.”

Gang Related was one of several movies released posthumously after 2Pac’s September 1996 death; Gridlock’d, in which he starred alongside Tim Roth, arrived in January 1997.

Watch Quaid discuss the late rapper on the PBD Podcast below:

06 Aug 2024

Timothée Chalamet Bob Dylan Biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ Locked For Christmas Release

Timothée Chalamet‘s anticipated turn as a young Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown is getting an A-list release date. Searchlight Pictures announced on Tuesday (August 6) that the anticipated film from director James Mangold (Logan) will hit theaters on December 25.

That Christmas release date falls in the heart of what is typically considered Oscar bait season, when a number of prestige films that are thought to be Academy Award-worthy hit screens across the country in the hopes that any buzz or box-office boom will carry over into the Oscar nominations when they are announced on Jan. 17, 2025.

The film will feature the Dune star singing Dylan’s songs in a story set in New York in the early 1960s when, according to a description of the screenplay by Mangold and Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York), “an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.”

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It continues, “As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.” In addition to Chalemet as Dylan, the film will feature Edward Norton as folk legend Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Dylan’s early muse and girlfriend Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as fellow folkie Joan Baez and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.

Oscar nominee Chalemet drew early praise for his embodiment of the enigmatic folk rock icon in the first trailer that dropped in late July in which he sings Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s signature nasal wheeze and drops into some of the singer’s favorite New York hang spots, including Cafe Wha? and Gerde’s Folk City.

Watch the trailer for A Complete Unknown below.

06 Aug 2024

Clay Aiken’s Teen Son Makes His TV Debut in ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ Preview

Celebrity Family Feud is taking family to a whole new level this week, as Clay Aiken’s family takes on David Foster and Katharine McPhee Foster’s crew — and there’s even a link between the two.

In a clip shared exclusively with Billboard on Tuesday (Aug. 6), the American Idol season 2 star introduces his 15-year-old son Parker, who makes his TV debut on the game show. The teen, who bears a striking resemblance to his famous father, sweetly smiles upon his introduction.

Furthermore, Aiken proves that he and McPhee have more in common than just being American Idol runners-up when he introduces Parker’s mother, Jaymes, who also happens to be David Foster’s sister.

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“That’s David’s sister?” host Steve Harvey asks in disbelief, before Aiken explains, “That’s David’s sister and David’s nephew, yes. David’s sister Jaymes is on the right team,” he quips. “She wanted to win.”

Aiken and McPhee were the runners-up on the second and fifth seasons of American Idol, respectively. Aiken lost to Ruben Studdard, while McPhee came in second to Taylor Hicks. Both went on to have well-loved music careers, with Aiken most recently teaming up with Studdard in 2023 for a Christmas stage show as well as a joint tour — Twenty the Tour — across the United States and Canada.

McPhee and Foster, who have been married since 2019, released their Christmas Songs album in 2023 and share 3-year-old son Rennie.

Watch the exclusive Celebrity Family Feud clip below, and watch the full episode on Tuesday night (Aug. 6) at 8 p.m. ET on ABC before it streams the next day on Hulu.

01 Aug 2024

Janet Yang Re-Elected President of Motion Picture Academy

Producer Janet Yang was re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s board of governors, the Academy announced on Thursday (Aug. 1).

Yang is beginning her third term as president and her sixth year as a governor-at-large, a position for which she was nominated by sitting Academy president David Rubin in 2019 and elected by the board of governors in 2022.

Yang is the fourth woman to serve as president of the Academy. Oscar-winning actress Bette Davis was the first in 1941, though she resigned after just two months in the post. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Fay Kanin served from 1979-83; Film marketing and PR executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs served from 2013-17.

A member of the Academy’s producers branch since 2002, Yang previously served on the board as vp and chair of the membership committee and, prior to that, the membership and governance committee.

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Yang’s film producing credits include South Central, The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Zero Effect, Savior, The Weight of Water, High Crimes and the Oscar-nominated animated feature Over the Moon. She won a Primetime Emmy in 1995 for the HBO film Indictment: The McMartin Trial, which was voted outstanding made for television movie.

In other news, film composer Lesley Barber, one of three members of the board of governors representing the music branch, was elected to an officer position for the first time. She is a vp and chair of the membership committee.

Barber is best known for her score for Kenneth Lonergan’s Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea. Her other credits include Late Night, Mansfield Park, Irreplaceable You, How to Change the World and You Can Count on Me.

Here is a list of the other four people who were elected to officer positions by the board:

  •     DeVon Franklin, vp (chair, equity and inclusion committee)
  •     Donna Gigliotti, vp/treasurer (chair, finance committee)
  •     Lynette Howell Taylor, vp (chair, awards committee)
  • Howard A. Rodman, vp/secretary (chair, governance committee)

Franklin, Howell Taylor and Rodman were re-elected as officers. Gigliotti previously served as an officer. 

“I am thrilled to have Janet return as Academy president for a third term to continue our great work of the past two years,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “I also am so pleased to welcome this year’s incredible slate of dedicated board officers.”

The 55-member board of governors includes three members who represent the music branch: Barber, Charles Fox (“I Got a Name,” “Ready to Take a Chance Again”) and Richard Gibbs (Say Anything, Dr. Dolittle).

Board members may serve up to two three-year terms (consecutive or non-consecutive), followed by a two-year hiatus, after which eligibility renews for up to two additional three-year terms for a lifetime maximum of 12 years.  Officers serve one-year terms, with a maximum of four consecutive years in any one office.

For a complete listing of the Academy’s 2024-25 board of governors, click here.

01 Aug 2024

RIIZE’s ‘RIIZING Day’ Concert Is Broadcasting Live in Theaters Worldwide

RIIZE are heading to the big screen.

The K-pop boy band’s RIIZING Day concert, which is taking place in Seoul, South Korea, on September 13, will be broadcasting live in cinemas worldwide for fans to enjoy, according to distributors Trafalgar Releasing and CJ 4DPlex and reported by NME.

Fans will be able to watch the concert from the boyband — consisting of members Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee and Anton — as it’s happening, including “spectacular performances [and] celebrated hits from their debut mini-album, RIIZING.”

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“Trafalgar Releasing is proud to partner again with CJ 4DPlex to bring RIIZE’s monumental tour finale to cinemas worldwide as a live broadcast,” said Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby in a press statement. “We are excited to celebrate one of K-pop’s fastest-growing talents and share this electrifying experience with BRIIZE around the globe.”

Tickets to the live broadcast will go on sale starting Wednesday (Aug. 7) at 2 a.m. PT/5 a.m. ET at riizeincinemas.com. 

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In a recent Billboard profile story, RIIZE described their music as “emotional pop,” as Anton added, “because we hope that people can relate to it emotionally. The members all do, and I think that’s what our fans want from us as well.”