It’s been another very busy week in the world of pop culture!
17.10.2023 - 15:07 / variety.com
Angelique Jackson Even if you think you know Tyler Perry’s story – his improbable rise from homeless playwright to billionaire media mogul with a dozen Madea movies in between — the first footage from the upcoming documentary “Maxine’s Baby” contextualizes it all in a new way. In August, Variety exclusively announced that the documentary was heading to Amazon MGM Studios. Directed by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz, the documentary aims to present an “tender, intimate portrait” of Perry, with its title as a nod to his late mother Willie Maxine Perry, who died in 2009, and the two-and-a-half-minute trailer teases what’s to come.
The trailer opens with Perry backstage before a big event — presumably the 2019 opening of his eponymous 330-acre studio in Atlanta, Ga. “How are you feeling right now sir?” Ortiz asks from behind the lens. “My problem with a lot of things in life is I can float above it.
That’s just from childhood, from abuse,” Perry says solemnly as pictures from his childhood flash by. He closes his eyes and explains: “So, every moment, it’s like, ‘You’re okay, you’re safe.’ It’s just the emotion. It’s just feeling.
It’s love.” Born Emmitt Perry Jr., he changed his name to Tyler Perry due to his estranged relationship with his abusive father. “I just could not understand how this man could look at me and hate me with such passion,” Perry recalls. But his father wasn’t his only adversary.
Once Perry arrived in Hollywood, he battled other naysayers, who couldn’t see the vision for his career. “I had all these people tell me what I would never be. Nobody said what I could be,” Perry adds.
It’s been another very busy week in the world of pop culture!
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are reportedly "fuming" as Prince William and Kate Middleton make plans to "storm the US".
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will return to IMAX cinemas for a series of encore screenings this week.The film will be re-released in IMAX theatres around the world for a week starting from this Thursday (November 2), including six locations where it will be presented in 70mm.As reported by Variety, the 70mm screenings are at AMC CityWalk Stadium 19 in Hollywood, AMC Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, AMC Lincoln Square in New York, AMC Metreon 16 in San Francisco, BFI London in the UK, and Melbourne Museum in Australia.You can buy tickets for the BFI London screenings here.Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is credited as the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project.
Caroline Brew editor Fellow Ozians, “Wicked” is not just getting a movie adaptation helmed by Jon M. Chu. The musical, currently celebrating its 20th anniversary on Broadway, will also be flying back to the Hollywood Pantages Theatre for a limited engagement beginning December 2024.
There’s real optimism in Hollywood that the actors and the studios are inching closer to a deal that would end the strike.
Ellise Shafer Max is honoring late “Friends” star Matthew Perry, who died on Saturday at the age of 54, with a tribute card at the start of each season of the sitcom on the streaming platform. “In memory of Matthew Perry 1969-2023,” reads the card, which flashes on screen for approximately five seconds before the iconic “Friends” opening sequence. All 10 seasons of “Friends” are currently available to stream on Max.
Adele is the latest celebrity to pay tribute to Matthew Perry.
AMC+.Bon Temps, La.: home to all manner of vampires, werewolves, a bar owner who can shape-shift into a dog, a waitress who is part fairy and that memorable season with the were-panthers. “True Blood” originally aired on HBO from 2008-2014, starring Anna Paquin, her now-husband Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, the late Nelsan Ellis, and Joe Manganiello. The ensemble drama was often messy — both literally, with blood and guts — and figuratively, with inconsistent writing.
Editors note: Michael Seitzman is a veteran film and TV writer and showrunner. He created the series Code Black and Intelligence and penned the Charlize Theron-starring movie North Country. In a guest column titled “Because Jews,” he shares is impassioned take on the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and its reverberations around Hollywood.
—are many things: Academy Award-winning actor, Goop founder, wellness connoisseur (or , depending on whom you ask). Call Paltrow what you want, but there's no denying the 51-year-old is consistent.When it comes to beauty, she's never been or anything else that comes with aging—so long as she's getting enough sleep and water.
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Shannon Lee, daughter of the legendary actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, recently told The Telegraph that she remains unaware why Quentin Tarantino decided to portray her father as “the a-hole” in his 2019 movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Shannon Lee spoke out against the film’s portrayal of Bruce Lee at the time, which led to a highly-publicized back and forth between her and Tarantino in many interviews. “It’s interesting. I actually don’t know,” Shannon says now about the reasoning behind Tarantino’s controversial portrayal of Bruce Lee.
EXCLUSIVE: Christine Günther and Chevy Chen, the co-founding heads of Berlin and Los Angeles-based production company Fireglory Pictures, first met in Germany via Doug Liman’s executive produced series Covert Affairs.
Sir Rod Stewart has admitted one of his biggest regrets is not seeing much of his Scots dad after he quit the UK for the US.
Kirk Douglas.Between them, a group of Jews whose families had lived in constant fear of persecution gave America, and the world, the golden age of cinema. Classics from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Singin’ in the Rain” to “Ben Hur” and “Gone with the Wind” exist because of them.So why, after the most heinous mass murders of Jews since the Holocaust, is Hollywood incapable of recognizing its own history — and why does it have such a Jew problem?In the days since the Hamas attacks in Israel, the powerful and the rich have truly exposed themselves.Maha Dakhil, co-head of motion pictures at CAA and agent to Tom Cruise, Madonna, Reese Witherspoon, Olivia Wilde, and American Israeli Natalie Portman, this week accused Israel of “genocide.”She re-posted, “You’re currently learning who supports genocide,” before adding her own caption: “That’s the line for me.” John Cusack, that one-time 80s heartthrob, wrote on X: “I was out at the Palestinian march in Chicago.
Wim Wenders and Thierry Frémaux signalled their support on Saturday for the Hollywood actors strike as the industrial action hits its 100th day.
Robin Williams’ longtime friends have recalled his heavy drug use, saying his addition to cocaine made him a “monster.”The beloved Hollywood sweetheart died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63.But before his acting career blew up, Williams was a stand-up comedian who struggled with a severe addiction to drugs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.In fact, Williams’ pal Allen Stephan reveals in Vice’s “The Dark Side of Comedy” documentary series that the “Mrs. Doubtfire” actor couldn’t go on stage and perform without cocaine.Revealing one conversation he had with the late actor at the time, Stephan remembered, “He said, ‘Know anyone with any blow? I have to go on and I can’t go on without any blow.’ And I sat down and said, ‘I’m going to help you.'”“He goes, ‘You have blow?’ I go, ‘No, are you out of your f–king mind? You’re Robin Williams!’ And then I think after that he wouldn’t get high when he had to perform.”The late actor’s longtime friend, Mike Binder, remembered Williams’ reaction to “a gram of coke” during the pair’s outing in Hollywood in the ’80s.“Robin said, ‘Let me take that.
Idina Menzel looked back on her marriage to Taye Diggs and some challenges that they faced in Hollywood.
Jonah Platt “What’s your favorite Jewish movie?” This is not a question you often hear. Ask it and you’re likely to get a furrowed brow, a scrunched nose, and then finally a, “Uh… ‘Schindler’s List?’”? Same goes for theater (“Fiddler on the Roof?”) and television (“Maisel?”). We don’t have a lot of options when it comes to Jewish stories onscreen, and the ones we do have are most often stories of strife, persecution and victimhood.
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There aren’t a lot of precedents in pop music for the pairing of Billie Eilish and Finneas, when it comes to brother-and-sister performing or songwriting duos. But in the world of music for films, it might not be too soon to start considering a comparison with a very famous married duo: Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the long-reigning king and queen of movie theme songs.
America Ferrera spoke candidly about her Hollywood experience in an essay for Glamour.