Joseph Fiennes Says Playing Michael Jackson Was the ‘Wrong Decision’ and a ‘Bad Mistake’: ‘I Asked the Broadcaster to Pull It’

“Vanderpump Rules” experienced its most buzz-worthy season ever thanks to “Scandoval” and the fallout over Tom Sandoval’s cheating scandal.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are embracing the relaxing warmth of the summer sun.

Kelly Clarkson got a lot of help from medication.

Coronation Street star Samia Longchambon has shared why she took some time away from the cobbles to challenge herself in a new show. The actress, who plays Maria Windass in the ITV soap, revealed back in April that she is one of the celebrities taking part in the next series of Cooking With The Stars.

Spike Lee has revealed the piece of advice he received from Michael Jackson that influenced his long and incredibly diverse career.

Niall Horan opens up about One Direction’s immediate success after forming the band on “The X Factor” in 2010. 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

William Earl Wednesday’s genre-bashing fifth album, “Rat Saw God,” demands immediate attention. The Asheville-based quintet is fronted by powerhouse singer and guitarist Karly Hartzman, who spins vivid portraits of mundane American life (one gorgeous example, from “Quarry”: “Old bitter lady sits catty-corner to the aftershock from the quarry / She says, ‘America’s a spoiled child that’s ignorant of grief’ / But then she gives out full-size candy bars on Halloween”). Meanwhile, guitarist MJ “Jake” Lenderman and lap steel player Xandy Chelmis create a lush, shoegazey bed for the group’s songs, which thrum along with bassist Margo Schultz and drummer Alan Miller’s precise playing. Ahead of the band’s sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 20, Variety spoke with Hartzman about how her unconventional upbringing brings a specificity to her lyrics, writing with Lenderman, her bandmate and boyfriend, and early plans for their next album.

“Gone Girl” almost had a different star.

Michael Cera is recalling his time with Rihanna on the set of This Is the End and remembering the slap the singer gave him in the film which turned out to be real.

Wes Anderson has stated that Netflix was the perfect place for his new short film, because “it’s not really a movie”.The director, whose new film Asteroid City will arrive in cinemas later this month, has directed a Roald Dahl adaptation for the streaming service, which is set to be released later this year.Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which is based on Dahl’s short story collection from 1977, stars Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ben Kingsley.In a new interview with IndieWire, the director revealed that his new film will be just 37 minutes long. He said that he had wanted to adapt the short story collection for 20 years, but “by the time I was ready to do it”, the rights to Dahl’s works had been sold to Netflix.“Suddenly, in essence, there was nowhere else you could do it since they own it,” Anderson said, suggesting he only worked with Netflix because he had no choice.The director then added: “But beyond it, because it’s a 37-minute movie, [Netflix] was the perfect place to do it because it’s not really a movie.”Anderson said that he “had only a good experience with Netflix”, but added: “I’m very happy to be putting Asteroid City in cinemas.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentGlenda Jackson, who segued from a successful actress — Oscars for “Women in Love” and “A Touch of Class” and two Emmys for “Elizabeth R” — into a 23-year career as member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, has died. She was 87.  Jackson died after a brief illness at her home in London, her agent Lionel Larner said. “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side. She recently completed filming ‘The Great Escaper’ in which she co-starred with Michael Caine,” Larner said in a statement. Aside from her prize-winning roles, Jackson gave terrific performances in such films as 1967’s “Marat/Sade” (as Charlotte Corday), “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1971, as a member of a bisexual love triangle) and on TV in “The Patricia Neal Story,” a 1981 work about that actress’s stroke and recovery with husband Roald Dahl. A defining role in Jackson’s career was Queen Elizabeth I in the six-episode 1971 TV miniseries “Elizabeth R,” in which the character aged from teenage girl to old woman. She also played Elizabeth in the film “Mary, Queen of Scots,” opposite Vanessa Redgrave, that same year.

Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire have a “Spider-Boys” group chat.

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed actor Roman Banks for representation.

The positive response to the Dutch reality series De Verraders has brought different versions of The Traitors to many countries, but executive producer Toni Ireland says the biggest challenge for her was to ensure that the U.S. production stood out in the crowd. Peacock’s The Traitors brings together a group of everyday people and reality TV stars in an elaborate murder-mystery competition hosted by Alan Cumming. Perhaps the biggest change in the U.S. series was in how the game ended, which led to a shocking finale where the group needed to unanimously decide to either trust their fellow finalists and split the money or call for another elimination vote if they believe a traitor is still among them.

It’s been well over six years since Joseph Fiennes appeared as Michael Jackson in a controversial never-to-be-air episode of the British fantasy series Urban Myths, and he still has regrets.

Harvey Weinstein bullied him out of a Hollywood deal.Fiennes was cast by Weinstein in 1998’s Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love, and revealed that other lucrative offers were soon on the table afterwards.However, in a new interview with The Observer, the actor claimed that the disgraced producer tried to block a deal for his appearance in a new movie.According to Fiennes, Weinstein invited him to his hotel room and told him to decline the opportunity or he would no longer work in Hollywood.“It was a bullying tactic that didn’t sit well,” Fiennes said. “The way he explained it was a shock to me.“But I suddenly sat in the room very present, and happy and strong in myself to say, you know what, I’m not beholden to that.

Michael Arden won his first Tony Award tonight and one moment during his speech was silenced by CBS even though it got a rapturous applause by the audience.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Documentarian Emily Wachtel met Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward when she was two years old. They were neighbors in Westport. Conn, the dearest of family friends. “I knew them my whole life,” says Wachtel. “They are the reason I am in film.”  Wachtel, producer of CNN’s six-part docuseries “The Last Movie Stars,” which paints a sweeping, intimate, romantic portrait of the life, love and careers of Newman and Woodward, describes her childhood with the famed couple as if something out of a suburban New England dream.  “They were incredible people,” says Wachtel. “I was so young when I met them, and I didn’t understand what a movie star was at the time. But part of that is because they were so real. They’d pick you up to go to birthday parties, Joanne made sweaters. They had this big, beautiful barn on the property and they would entertain almost every weekend. Not in a formal way, but with everyone. Not necessarily actors. It was neighbors and friends from all walks of life. They would have everybody over and make hamburgers. They screened movies. I saw a lot of old movies with them, from ‘Lady in the Tramp’ to ‘The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.’ It was just part of the fabric of that household. And it was a gift.” 

Steve Coogan has said that he and Rob Brydon should make another series of The Trip.Appearing on his co-star’s Brydon & podcoast, the Alan Partridge star revealed that he was meeting with their director Michael Winterbottom on the day of recording, giving the biggest indication yet that they will make a fifth series of their mockumentary.“I think certainly there will be more stuff to say, because middle age is different to just getting old,” said Coogan. “I think we should do another one, at a time and place to be determined.”Brydon added: “I always say to people, if Steve is still alive in 10 years, I would [do another series].