'Phantom of the Opera' Main Actor Out, Understudy Laird Mackintosh Will Step in For Final Performance on Broadway!

Yellowjackets has returned for a second season, and some of its horrifying scenes have left fans wondering if it’s all based on true events.Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the mystery thriller series follows a girls’ football team in 1996 who, while travelling to a tournament in Seattle, crash-land in the Canadian wilderness and are left stranded for nineteen months. Between their attempts to survive, the show also jumps to their adult lives in the present day.Early episodes in the second season have introduced the show’s first acts of cannibalism, which were teased in the first run of episodes.The series’ first season received seven nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards last year, including Outstanding Drama Series and acting nods for Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci.Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sophie Nelisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty and Juliette Lewis also star in the series.New additions to the cast for season two include Lauren Ambrode (Six Feet Under) as the adult version of Vanessa Palmer, Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) as the adult version of Courtney Eaton, and Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings) as citizen detective Walter.While the show itself isn’t based on a true story, creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have confirmed that it was partly inspired by two real-life events: The Donner Party and the 1972 Andes Flight Disaster.The Donner Party was a group of 19th century American pioneers who attempted to migrate to California from the Midwest on wagons.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “I am Black woman; hear me roar!” The hilarity of Black women on television has been sorely missed and ignored by the Television Academy over multiple decades. However, this year’s slate of outstanding lead and supporting comedy actress seem to be the two spots preventing an #EmmysSoWhite moment from occurring. Quinta Brunson is the front-runner to win her first acting Emmy for her charming turn as Janine Teagues, the optimistic 2nd-grade teacher from ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” With a beautiful sophomore season in the books and the added benefit of Jean Smart being out of the competition for “Hacks,” she seems perfectly aligned with the Emmy cosmos to land much-deserved recognition. The possible recognition would be long overdue for Black comedians on television.

The strike has begun, Insiders. The industrial action, the first in the U.S. since 2007-08, dominated news coverage in film and TV this week but there’s been plenty more going around the world. Jesse Whittock here to take you through. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter here.

K-pop soloist Kwon Eun-bi and boyband KINGDOM are set to perform at K-Fest in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa.The Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in Ottawa in Ontario, Canada has announced that soloist and ex-IZ*ONE leader Kwon Eun-bi and boyband KINGDOM will be performing at its upcoming K-Fest event on June 10 (Saturday).The festival celebrates the 60th diplomatic anniversary between Korea and Canada, and also acts as the main event of the KCC-hosted 2023 Korea Week. Kwon Eun-bi and KINGDOM are set to perform as part of the event’s grand finale from 8:30pm EDT.K-Fest will be held at Lansdowne Park, Great Lawn, and will take place from 2pm to 10pm EDT.

Jennie Punter With Hot Docs’ marquee market event the Forum and its sidebar operations back to live action, and the festival’s 30th anniversary adding a layer of buzzy excitement, docmakers and industry pros from Western Canada are hauling out a bumper crop of adventurous docs for audiences and buyers, and chatting in the real world about new projects with potential Canadian and international partners and funders. Nine Western Canada-made doc features span Hot Docs’ programs, with stories that go deeper into landscapes and beyond cultural stereotypes. Kathleen Jayme’s and Asia Youngman’s “I’m Just Here for the Riot” (ESPN 30 for 30), about violence that erupted after the Vancouver Canucks’ loss of the Stanley Cup final in 2011, is one of three titles world-premiering in the Canadian Spectrum competition.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday. Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

I'm A Celebrity ...Get Me Out Of Here! viewers were fuming as the new legends edition of the hit ITV show had them venting about the same issue. A host of famous faces have been together from over 20 years of the hit ITV reality show, this time set in South Africa instead of Australia.

Emily Longeretta Thirteen years ago, “Sister Wives” shocked viewers when it debuted on TLC, following the ins and outs of the polygamist Brown family — Kody Brown, his four wives, Robyn, Meri, Janelle and Christine, and their 18 children. Viewers flocked to the screen. “We needed to be heard, polygamous people,” Christine says now. “We wanted people to know that we’re just regular people who are just doing our best to raise kids and have a big, great, awesome, happy family.” Howard Lee, president of Discovery Networks and TLC, recalls the first time he saw the non-traditional Brown family. “We knew we had something special,” he says. “It was completely different from anything that we all consider what defines family.”

Frank Ocean is no longer set to headline the second weekend of Coachella after a divisive and poorly received performance last Sunday.A rep for the singer released a statement to ET confirming, «Frank Ocean will not be performing at weekend 2 of Coachella.»«After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity.»The rep's statement said that, «on doctor’s advice,» Ocean will not perform again «due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.»The statement included remarks from Ocean himself, who commented on his first weekend set, sharing, «It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos.

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills, 90210) has signed on to star in Ctrl Alt Del, an indie drama marking the feature directorial debut of Eastsiders creator Kit Williamson.

Ariana Grande was pictured in her Glinda attire for the first time as she filmed “Wicked” this week.

Prince Harry is likely to find comfort in Princess Eugenie at King Charles' Coronation next month, as he is expected to get the cold shoulder from the rest of The Firm.

EXCLUSIVE: Asia-focused production, financing and sales outfit EST Studios has acquired international sales rights to Canneseries selection Streams Flow From A River, produced by Canada’s Fae Pictures. 

Ryan Reynolds is getting candid about his growing family. The actor and his wife, Blake Lively, recently welcomed their fourth child, but have been keeping mum on details surrounding their new addition.One insight Reynolds is now sharing is which transition has been the most challenging as their brood expands. «You know, two to three [kids] was a huge jump,» the actor told ET Canada at the Canadian Screen Awards on Friday. «Three to four, less so.

Broadway performance of “The Phantom of the Opera” was for phamily. The famous chandelier fell one last time over the heads of an invitation-only crowd at the Majestic Theatre, where the show’s composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh were joined not only by famous friends and well-wishers, including Glenn Close and Lin-Manuel Miranda, but also former Phantoms, like Hugh Panaro and Howard McGillin, and former Christines, including Sarah Brightman (the 1988 original) and Sierra Boggess. They were surrounded by a host of past cast, crew and industry workers who had been affiliated with the show and its creatives over the course of its record-breaking run, the longest in Broadway history. There were even a few attendees in full Phantom attire, both the elaborate, skeleton-faced masquerade outfit and the iconic half-mask-and-cape ensemble.

The Canadian Screen Awards airs tonight, with Samantha Bee hosting the pre-recorded special featuring highlights from the four days of award events that concluded Friday.

Veteran British actor Murray Melvin who’s best known for his role in “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Taste of Honey” and the “Doctor Who” spin-off “Torchwood,” died April 14 at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He was 90.London-based creative director Kerry Kyriacos Michael made the announcement on Twitter and said Melvin died after taking a bad fall in December “from which he never fully recovered.” “He was one of my closest friends and will be missed by so many of us who had the privilege to know him,” Michael wrote.He had a fall in December, from which he never fully recovered.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If Lars von Trier hadn’t grown top-heavy with the mythology of his self-importance (I’d say that happened around the time of “Antichrist,” in 2009), he might have tossed off a movie like “Sick of Myself” — a social satire in the form of a queasy drama of body horror, and a movie whose disturbing bad-boy tastelessness recalls Von Trier’s “The Idiots,” with a touch of David Cronenberg. This is the second feature by Kristoffer Borgli, the Norwegian writer-director whose first film, “Drib” (2017), was a send-up of the marketing industry, and in a way the new movie is about marketing too. This one, though, takes a viscerally upsetting look at just how far an individual will go to gain attention in the new era of social-media addiction.

Christopher Vourlias Set to make history as the first African show to take part in Canneseries’ main competition, South African extreme sports action drama “Spinners” offers a gripping portrait of life in Cape Town’s hardscrabble Southside — and the latest sign of a growing push for shows from the Global South in the international TV industry. The series follows 17-year-old Ethan (Cantona James), who’s looking for a way out of the Southside’s bloody cycle of gang violence through spinning, a South African extreme motorsport that features drivers performing daredevil stunts — such as leaning out of windows or standing on the roof — while driving at high speeds.

ET Canada is kicking off Canadian Screen Week with a bang! Our team is proud to be the recipient of three CSA awards, received today, on day one of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s annual week-long celebration of the best in Canadian film, TV and digital media.