| | | | | | What's news: The final season of Stranger Things will be split into 3 volumes. Lady Gaga will appear in the next season of Netflix's Wednesday. Nic Pizzolatto is keen to reunite with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson on a True Detective project. PBS is suing the Trump administration over the defunding effort. — Abid Rahman
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Patti LuPone Apologizes for Kecia Lewis, Audra McDonald Comments ►"I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right." Patti LuPone has apologized for the recent comments she made in a New Yorker profile about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis that’s had the theater world buzzing. “For as long as I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today. I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful,” she wrote on Instagram on Saturday. The apology comes after over 500 Broadway performers signed a letter reprimanding LuPone’s behavior. The story.
—🤝 Deal! 🤝 Taylor Swift has acquired her catalog for her six first albums in a deal with Shamrock Capital, re-uniting the superstar with her work six years after the original sale to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings sparked one of the most infamous disputes in the modern music business. On Friday, the singer-songwriter shared a handwritten letter to her fans on her website, revealing the big news. Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The news follows a years-long feud with Scooter Braun after he originally acquired Big Machine Records and her catalog of master recordings at the time. Ithaca sold Swift’s catalog to Shamrock in 2020 for a reported $300m. In the letter, Swift said she was “endlessly thankful” to Shamrock for making the deal. The story.
—So many coffeemakers. THR's Laurie Brookins talks to Julien’s Auctions about the massive June 18 estate sale of David Lynch's possessions. The auction spans the late writer-director's passions, from film to painting, woodworking, music, mid-century modern style — and his love of "a damn fine cup of coffee." The story.
—🏆 Elbows up! 🏆 A Canadian Screen Awards that put marginalized voices front and center and challenged the global political landscape saw The Apprentice, a film about a young Donald Trump, dominate the national film and TV awards on Sunday night. Director Ali Abbasi’s Trump origin story won best movie, while Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong earned top honors for best leading role. The best movie director prize went to Andrew Rankin for Universal Language, a deadpan comedy that riffs on Iranian cinema. The winners. |
PBS Sues Trump Administration Over Defunding Effort ►Fighting back. PBS and one of its affiliates in Minnesota has sued the Trump administration over its efforts to defund funding for the public broadcaster. The suit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., argues that the administration is violating PBS and its stations First Amendment rights, and that efforts to influence funding decisions from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are unlawful. Trump has signed both an executive order targeting funds for public broadcasting, and has pursued rescission packages, while also trying to get Congress to withhold funding from PBS' budget. The story.
—ICYMI. Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ former personal assistant testified at his sex trafficking trial Friday that she threw her phone across the room in terror and ran outside when she saw the hip-hop mogul calling her days after his longtime ex-girlfriend sued him two years ago. “It was just so triggering to see that,” said the assistant, who was identified in court only by the pseudonym “Mia.” She was the second of three women expected to testify at the federal trial in Manhattan that they were sexually abused by Combs. The story.
—More legal woes. Kevin Costner's company under which the epic western Horizon was produced has been sued for failing to pay for costume rentals. United Costume Corporation on Wednesday filed in Los Angeles Superior Court a breach of contract lawsuit against Horizon Series, Costner’s loan-out firm. It seeks roughly $350,000 for unpaid costume fees across Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 and its sequel. The latest suit comes after a stunt performer for Chapter 2 sued the production for sexual discrimination, harassment and retaliation, among other things, over an unscripted rape scene that was filmed without the presence of a contractually mandated intimacy coordinator in which she allegedly wasn’t properly notified. The story.
—Suit filed. Former crewmembers on Doctor Odyssey have sued 20th Television and parent company Disney over alleged sexual harassment and retaliation on the set of the medical drama. Caroline Mack, Alicia Haverland and Ava Steinbrenner, in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claim they were targets of an “unchecked campaign of sexual harassment” in which their supervisor bombarded them with sexual comments and unwanted touching. They say they were ultimately fired after they complained of the alleged misconduct to management. The story.
—Recession indicator. Four publications have reached the end of the road: In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and First for Women. McClatchy Media Company, which owns and operates the magazines, informed staff on Friday that all four will be sunsetting in the coming weeks when final issues are published by the end of June. It’s unclear how many employees are impacted by the layoffs. The news marks yet another blow to the media and magazine business, which has suffered widespread layoffs and cutbacks in recent years due to declining readership, algorithmic changes, a rise in AI and leaning toward social platforms like TikTok. The story. |
Netflix Wows Fans at Tudum Event ►📅 Dated, finally! 📅 Netflix has finally revealed when the long-awaited and fifth and final season of Stranger Things will debut. The streamer announced the final season of the coming-of-age sci-fi hit will air in three parts late this year. The first will premiere Nov. 26, followed by part two on Christmas Day and the series finale on New Year’s Eve. The news was announced at Netflix’s Tudum fan event at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles Saturday, with stars Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp running through some look-back clips before revealing the dates for season five via a teaser. The story.
—🎭 Gaga goes goth. 🎭 Netflix's hit Wednesday released the opening scene of its highly anticipated second season — and officially announced Lady Gaga as joining the cast. At Tudum, the streamer for the first time confirmed the singer-actress is joining the little monsters at Nevermore Academy, playing a still undisclosed guest role on the upcoming season of the hit series, which stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams as she attends a school for outcasts with unusual abilities. The story.
—🎭 New face. 🎭 Netflix’s live-action One Piece will introduce a key character in the show’s second season — one that won’t quite be live action. The series based on the long-running manga will have Tony Tony Chopper join the Straw Hat Pirates in season two. The streamer introduced the actress playing the character, Mikaela Hoover, at Tudum, with help from One Piece stars Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero and Taz Skylar. Hoover will provide Chopper’s voice and the face capture for the CG-animated character, who in One Piece lore is the ship’s doctor and a senior officer of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. The story.
More from Tudum 2025...
—Adam Sandler swings away in full Happy Gilmore 2 trailer
—Squid Game teases a final showdown in full S3 trailer
—Guillermo del Toro unveils chilling first Frankenstein trailer with Jacob Elordi as the monster |
Hulu's 'King of the Hill' Revival Reveals First Look ►📅 Dated! 📅 Hulu has set a date for its return to Arlen, Texas. The streamer has set an Aug. 4 premiere date for its King of the Hill revival, which will come a little more than 2 1/2 years after Hulu announced the show’s return. The 10-episode season is considered a continuation of the original show, which ran for 13 seasons on Fox from 1997-2010. The show will also acknowledge the passage of that time: The first still image from the show shows that Bobby Hill, a perpetual middle schooler during the original run, has grown up. The show’s opening credits feature the familiar alley setting and theme song by The Refreshments , but the time-lapse shows the passage of a number of years, including the Hill family moving out of and then back into their house. The story.
—Do it! True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has an idea for the franchise that would return it to its roots. During a recent appearance on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, Pizzolatto revealed he has an idea for a “story” that would reprise Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s characters from season one of the crime drama. Notably, the two stars led the first season of True Detective before the series went on to star a new batch of actors in every following installment. “I actually have another story for Cohle and Hart that, who knows, maybe we’ll do it one day,” he said, adding that while he hasn’t put pen to paper on the idea, they’ve had conversations “about getting back together and doing it” and both McConaughey and Harrelson “are open to it.” The story.
—🤝 "Mini first-look deal." 🤝 Universal Television and Emmy-nomninated writer and producer Charmaine DeGraté are entering into a new kind of first-look deal. DeGraté (House of the Dragon, Daisy Jones & The Six) will develop and produce projects for the studio through her Crestview banner — standard procedure for such agreements. But rather than a long-term commitment, the deal will be project-based at first, with the chance to extend into a longer-term partnership. Universal TV is calling it a “mini-first look” deal and pitching it as a way “to offer more creative pathways to partnership” in the current marketplace. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Nobody Wants This has a return date. The Netflix show will have its second-season premiere on Oct. 23, 2025. The show’s executive producers and cast made the announcement Sunday live on stage at Netflix’s FYSEE L.A. Emmy Event celebrating season one. Those in attendance included series creator Erin Foster, executive producer Sara Foster, executive producer/star Kristen Bell and cast members Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn. The story. |
'Karate Kid' Opens to Soft $21M ►Not great Daniel-san. While its fate isn’t yet sealed, Karate Kid: Legends opened behind expectations at the domestic box office, despite teaming original star Ralph Macchio and beloved action legend Jackie Chan, who starred in the 2010 redux. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Sony is estimating a third-place North American opening of $21m from 3,809 theaters for the male-fueled film. Heading into the weekend, tracking had the pic debuting to $25m; three weeks ago, that number was a far more promising $35m. Overseas, where it began rolling out early, Legends took in another $12m for an early foreign tally of $26m and $47m globally. Regardless of a soft opening, Sony remains confident that the PG-13 film will sport strong chops, thanks to an A- CinemaScore and solid exits. And its net production budget was a modest $45m before marketing. The box office report.
—🎭 Two more. 🎭 David Fincher’s sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is casting up as it prepares for a summer start of production. Scott Caan and Elizabeth Debicki are joining Brad Pitt in the feature that is being made by Netflix. Much of the project is shrouded in secrecy, but it is known to center on Cliff Booth, the former stuntman and body double to TV actor Rick Dalton, as seen in Tarantino’s 2019 film. It is set in a later time period than that movie. It is unclear how much of the material, if any, is based on Tarantino’s 2021 novel by the same name and which revealed more of Cliff’s backstory, including the death of his wife. The story.
—🎭 Meet the Grande parents. 🎭 Months after earning an Oscar nomination for her performance in Wicked, worldwide pop star Ariana Grande has finally found her next movie. The Grammy winning singer is set to join Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the newest installment of Universal’s comedy movies series, Meet the Parents. Blythe Danner and Teri Polo, who also starred in the initial trio of movies that were released over the course of the first decade of the 2000s, are expected to return, although those deals have yet to close. The story.
—🎭 Next up. 🎭 Issa Rae is driving toward her next feature project. The Emmy-nominated actress is set to produce and star in director Ninian Doff’s comedic thriller Good People, Bad Things. MRC is financing the movie that counts Rae’s Hoorae banner and Present Company Inc. as producers. Good People, Bad Things focuses on Rae as a stressed-out woman who finds herself lost in an apparently infinite parking garage and soon realizes she is not alone. The film marks Rae’s third MRC project, following 2020’s The Lovebirds and 2023’s American Fiction. The story. |
Loretta Swit 1937 - 2025 ►Trailblazer. Loretta Swit, the actress and animal activist forever known for her pioneering turn as the disciplined Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the acclaimed CBS sitcom M*A*S*H , has died. She was 87. Swit won two Emmys for her portrayal of the Army nurse — she was nominated 10 times, every year the show was on the air except the first — and appeared on 240 of the series’ 251 episodes during its sensational 11-season run. Apart from her acting career, Swit was an active supporter of animal welfare, serving on the boards of Actors and Others for Animals and The Wildlife Waystation and as a spokesperson for the Humane Society. In 2016, she founded SwitHeart Animal Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to ending animal cruelty. She used proceeds from her original artwork to raise funds. The obituary.
—"Our dear Loretta was so talented, beautiful and an exceptional friend." A host of Loretta Swit's M*A*S*H co-stars and other Hollywood notables took to social media to pay tribute to the late actress and animal rights activist. Alan Alda, Swit’s longtime M*A*S*H co-star, paid tribute to her on X. "Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it," Alda wrote on Friday. "She worked hard in showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person — with real feelings and ambitions." The reaction.
—Springfield legend. Alf Clausen, the veteran composer with two Emmy wins and 30 nominations whose whimsical scores brightened such television series as The Simpsons, Moonlighting and, purely coincidentally, ALF, has died. He was 84. Clausen died Thursday at his Valley Village home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Kaarin Clausen, told THR. He was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy about eight years ago. From The Simpsons ‘ second season in 1990 until its 28th in 2017, Clausen crafted many of the spirited melodies that contributed to the cutting-edge lunacy of the Fox animated show. From 23 Emmy nominations, he — along with lyricist Ken Keeler — won in 1997 and ’98 for the songs “We Put the Spring in Springfield” and “You’re Checkin’ In (A Musical Tribute to the Betty Ford Center).” The obituary.
—Veteran character actor. Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-winning actress known for her work on such shows as Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives, Young Sheldon and Dead to Me, died Friday. She was 71. Mahaffey died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. From 1991-94, she appeared on five episodes of CBS’ Northern Exposure over three seasons and received a supporting actress Emmy in 1992 for portraying the hypochondriac Eve, wife of Adam Arkin’s character. Known for playing eccentric characters, Mahaffey received a Spirit Award nomination for her turn as widowed American expat Madame Reynard in French Exit (2020) opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges as mother and son. The obituary. |
Film Review: 'The Love That Remains' ►"Visually arresting and bittersweet if a tad distant." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Hlynur Pálmason's The Love That Remains. A fisherman in Southeastern Iceland remains in denial about the end of his union with a struggling artist and his sidelined presence in their children’s lives. Starring Saga Gardarsdottir, Sverrir Gudnason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Grímur Hlynsson, Porgils Hlynsson, Ingvar Sigurdsson and Anders Mossling. The review.
In other news...
—The Crawleys are off to the races in first trailer for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
—Dexter Morgan and more serial killers unite in Dexter: Resurrection trailer
—Sherry Robb, literary agent, talent manager and producer, dies at 81
—Devin Harjes, Boardwalk Empire, Daredevil and Gotham actor, dies at 41
—Mike Sumler, Kool & the Gang hype man, dies at 71
What else we're reading...
—After Taylor Swift was able to buy her masters, Emily Yahr wonders what Taylor’s Versions mean now [WaPo]
—Riley McAtee reflects on the cast for Survivor 50, writing that it is mostly just confusing [Ringer]
—Hoai-Tran Bui talked to Wes Anderson about his new film, The Phoenician Scheme, and the auteur also discusses why he's not a "meme" and his thoughts on all the AI copycats [Inverse]
—Paula Mejía digs into why Gen Z isn't so keen on opening bar tabs, preferring to close out and pay after every single drink [NYT]
—Fascinating Krishna Pokharel and Tripti Lahiri story about 4 British climbers who ascended Everest after only 5 days of preparation as opposed to the usual weeks of altitude acclimatization [WSJ]
Today...
...in 2002, HBO premiered David Simon’s The Wire. The Baltimore-set crime drama ended up spanning five seasons, and to this day is considered by many to be one of the best television shows ever created. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Liam Cunningham (64), Kevin Feige (52), Morena Baccarin (46), Dana Carvey (70), Awkwafina (37), Jack Lowden (35), Wayne Brady (53), Justin Long (47), Wentworth Miller (53), Jewel Staite (43), Dominic Cooper (47), Brittany O'Grady (29), Zachary Quinto (48), Stacy Keach (84), Dennis Haysbert (71), Nikki Cox (47), Ethan Slater (33), Pip Torrens (65), Paul Greene (51), Amber Marshall (37), James Ransone (46), Jerry Mathers (77), Ol Parker (56), Alexa Barajas (25), Joanna Gleason (75), Navid Negahban (57), Lasse Hallström (79), Sterling Beaumon (30), Leah Cairns (51), Brittany Curran (35), Jeremy Ray Taylor (22), Madison Hu (23), Cheonguk Park (27), Joel Tobeck (54), Lilimar (25), Charles Haid (82), Jessica Sutton (32) |
| Renée Victor, the actress known for voicing Abuelita in Disney and Pixar's Coco and starring as Lupita in Showtime’s Weeds, has died. She was 86. The obituary. |
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