Gillian Anderson Signs First-Look Television Deal With Netflix (EXCLUSIVE)

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorMichelle Pfeiffer didn’t know much about Betty Ford before she signed on to play her in the new Showtime anthology series “The First Lady.”“I really only knew about, of course, the Betty Ford Center, which is I think what she’s the most famous for,” Pfeiffer told me at the show’s premiere on Thursday at the DGA building in Los Angeles. “And I knew that she came out and was open and transparent about her own issues with substance abuse and alcoholism, which was very, very taboo at the time.

The stars of The First Lady are hitting the red carpet!

Three iconic actresses are playing three iconic women of history.

Gillian Anderson recalled the first time she met Bill Clinton and was charmed by the former president.

Gillian Anderson is looking back at the time she met Bill Clinton.

upcoming series, “The First Lady” — but she met a certain president way back when. The 53-year-old recalled meeting former President Bill Clinton back on his campaign trail in 1992 during a chat on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday evening. “The Crown” alum found herself attending a luncheon with the prez-to-be, now 75, 30 years ago. Anderson remembered being so awestruck by Clinton, that she wanted him to phone her afterwards.“He did the most miraculous thing in the world, he shakes your hand, then he grabs your elbow and at the same time he holds your arm further up,” she told host Kimmel, 54. The “X-Files” actress went on, “[It was a] slightly intimate little thing.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticAs Chicago lawyer Michelle Obama becomes First Lady Michelle Obama in Showtime’s newest drama, her predecessor Laura Bush offers some words of advice and comfort. “You may think you have nothing in common with the First Ladies before you,” Laura tells her, “[but] trust me when I say we all felt that way.” Here, Laura Bush acts as both some benign voice of reason (an odd choice) and also as a mouthpiece for “The First Lady” writ large (odder), which tackles the stories of three First Ladies who share little beyond the fact of living in the White House (oddest, by a mile).There’s Michelle, played by Viola Davis with Obama’s familiar cadence (if also some very exaggerated stenciled half-moon eyebrows).

Ben Stiller’s former production partner Nicholas Weinstock has struck a first-look deal with Fremantle.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has revealed several images and a trailer for “365 Days: This Day,” the sequel to “365 Days,” which was a smash hit for the service. The sequel will stream from Apr.

If Showtime’s new series “The First Lady” is to be believed, being the president’s wife is one of the most thankless and frustrating jobs on the planet. First ladies have given up their own ambitions, livelihoods, friends, and personalities, all in service of their presidential husbands.

Tracee Ellis Ross wasn’t always a fan of Anthony Anderson, and she’s not afraid to share her honest opinion of her Black-ish co-star.

The Bubble is the latest comedy with a star studded cast to drop on Netflix.

The revolution has arrived in the first teaser for Danny Boyles’s Sex Pistols limited series, “Pistol”.

Gillian Anderson may have lost her usual composure as she searched for words on stage in Cannes on Friday to express what she felt about being given Variety’s 2022 Icon Award.Taking to the stage at the opening ceremony of French TV festival Canneseries to pick up the award, the star – soon to be seen in Showtime’s “The First Lady,” where she plays Eleanor Roosevelt – accepted Variety’s 2022 Icon Award with a mixture of elation and humility. Sporting an elegant multicoloured leather dress, she’d been greeted when walking to the stage by an enormous, heartfelt roar of applause from the packed main auditorium at Cannes’ legendary Palais des Festivals, also site of the Cannes Festival.  “I Googled what ‘icon’ actually meant to see how I identified with being given this award,” she said hesitantly, beginning her speech.“What I can certainly say is that I have played a lot of iconic women in my very long career. Women who have come through barriers and decades to stand above the rest in dramas and in our hearts,” Anderson said. And she listed just a few:: Dana Scully, Miss Havisham, Margo Channing, Blanche DuBois, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Margaret Thatcher, Eleanor Roosevelt and David Bowie.

Manori Ravindran International EditorFew people can say their comfort zone is in playing strong women, but for Gillian Anderson, it ’s become something of a personal brand.The American-British actor, who was once best-known for her skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully in Fox’s long-running sci-fi hit “The X-Files,” has gone on to play detective Stella Gibson in “The Fall,” notorious British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” and sex therapist Jean Milburn in “Sex Education.” (And you wouldn’t want to cross any of them.)Anderson — who will receive the Variety Icon Award in a ceremony at CannesSeries on April 1 — will next be seen portraying the rarely dramatized Eleanor Roosevelt, opposite Viola Davis’ Michelle Obama and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Betty Ford, in Showtime’s drama “The First Lady.” But portraying no-nonsense women didn’t begin as a conscious choice for Anderson. In 1993, she recognized a “stark difference” between the Dana Scully role and “pretty much everything else on television at the time,” though, at age 24, she wouldn’t have labelled Scully as the feminist icon she’d come to represent.“I don’t think it was as clear-cut in my mind as being, ‘Oh, this is a feminist character,’” she says.

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you remember what adventures you fantasized about having? While some of us may not recall the answers to these questions, Richard Linklater (“Boyhood“) has used his childhood fantasy to create his new film “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood.” While the space race reached its peak with the launch of NASA’s Apollo Program (1968-1972), the wonder of those years carries on.

Pamela Anderson in the acclaimed Hulu series,, Lily James is excited to see her real-life counterpart tell her story in the upcoming documentary for Netflix. “I cant wait to watch it and learn more,” James tells ET’s Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner while walking the red carpet at the 94th Academy Awards, where she’ll be presenting. “I mean, of course, we could only do our best based on all the information we had.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios, the commercial arm of U.K. broadcaster BBC, has revealed a first look and development deal with London-based talent and entertainment company Diving Bell Group.Founded by Kim Butler and Justin Girdler in 2017, Diving Bell represents creators and innovators in the purpose-led space including model, trans activist and cultural figure Munroe Bergdorf; feminist author, illustrator and influencer Florence Given (“Women Don’t Owe You Pretty,” “Octopus”); Gina Martin, who successfully led the national campaign to make upskirting illegal; and Emma Gannon whose careers podcast “Ctrl Alt Delete” has amassed over 10 million downloads.The deal gives BBC Studios a first look at content ideas from Diving Bell clients for the purpose of collaborating to develop these ideas and pitch for commissions.