Joy Behar talks her return to the stage in her new play ‘My First Ex-Husband’
ABC/Jeff Lipsky
Joy Behar returns to the stage in her new play, My First Ex-Husband.
Written by Behar over the span of 12 years, the new show features a rotating cast of actresses playing women who tell stories about the people they used to be married to. While fictional, the play is based on interviews Behar conducted with women in her life. It opens off-Broadway on Thursday, and The View co-host says it’s great to finally be producing something she spent so much time writing.
“I had to find people who were willing to talk about their first marriage,” Behar said. “Everything is anonymous, obviously, and the names are changed. The places are changed, the dates, all sorts of things. No one will recognize who they are. So, that took a while.”
Performing alongside Behar is one of her best friends of over 40 years, actress Susie Essman.
“People say to me, ‘How come you never had a fight with each other?’ We never fought. We never had a problem. And I’ve had girlfriends that have ghosted me or I’ve ghosted them over the years, you know. But not her,” Behar said.
She says she loves performing her own comedy for the instant feedback of laughter.
“With the drama, you don’t know if they’re crying. You don’t even know if they’re moved or touched. You can’t tell,” Behar said. “I like to have that immediate response. It might be my own insecurities, I don’t know. But that’s what it is. So, I like comedy.”
While My First Ex-Husband is funny, Behar says it has its serious moments.
“I was surprised at how funny it was, frankly,” Behar said. “Because it is poignant. I mean, a divorce is not a happy occasion. And yet, when you talk about what happened in retrospect and with distance, it’s funny.”
The world of Inside Out expands in the new series Dream Productions.
Taking place between Inside Out and Inside Out 2, Dream Productions follows the studio inside Riley’s head that creates the dreams she has every night. It’s Pixar’s first TV show and will be available on Disney+ on Wednesday.
Paula Pell stars as acclaimed director Paula Persimmon, and while she had small roles in the Inside Out films, she told ABC Audio how special it is to be a part of the Pixar family in this way.
“I was thrilled to be the small parts I was in the big movies,” Pell said. “To have my character specifically spin off into this story was so moving to me and touching and exhilarating.”
Pell said she actually didn’t believe Pixar when they approached her about the show, but after learning the story she understood why.
“They know how to tell a great story,” Pell said. “There’s nothing better than Pixar. They just do it in a way where everyone goes, ‘Oh my God.’ They walk out of Pixar movies like, ‘Well, that’s the gold standard right there.'”
Paula Persimmon faces a nightmare of her own throughout the show. Riley’s growing up, and that means her dreams need to grow up, too. Pell said she could relate to her character in more than just having the same first name.
“I just turned 61 … I spent so many years being younger and doing comedy and writing and all that. And then as I aged, I started feeling that, in my 40s and 50s and then in my 60s, the fear of becoming insignificant,” Pell said.
It’s a fear Paula Persimmon shares.
“It is a wonderful lesson that you can keep invigorating yourself and become as fresh as a daisy with your new thoughts and your new ideas, because that never goes away,” Pell said. “The only way it’ll go away is if you sabotage your own self.”
Joey King and Cooper Koch will reveal this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations. The announcement will take place Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. PT and will stream exclusively on Netflix’s YouTube channel. The first nominees announced will be those for outstanding action performance in a stunt ensemble, which will be revealed by SAG Awards committee members JasonGeorge and Elizabeth McLaughlin. The 31st annual SAG Awards will stream live on Netflix on Sunday, Feb. 23 …
Grimm is the latest show to be developing a reboot. The supernatural drama series is looking to return in the form of a movie, Deadline reports. Peacock is developing the film, with Drop Dead Diva creator Josh Berman writing and executive producing it along with the original show’s creative team, including co-creators David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf, and showrunners Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner …
Timothée Chalamet‘s lookalike contest winner walked the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night, where he finally met his celebrity doppelgänger. Miles Mitchell, who won the Chalamet lookalike contest in October, posed for a photo with the A Complete Unknown actor. “It was definitely probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life, by far. They called me Friday night at 9:00 p.m. asking me to go on a morning flight to LA,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t even have anything to wear. I literally bought a tuxedo arriving into LA, because I had zero time to prepare for a red carpet outfit.” …
Blake Lively‘s lawyers have issued a statement amid the ongoing legal feud between her and Justin Baldoni.
In the new statement, released Jan. 7, Lively’s lawyers said, “Ms. Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, backed by concrete facts. This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set.”
The statement, issued on Lively’s behalf, also claimed that Baldoni’s response — his lawsuit filed Dec. 31 against The New York Times — was allegedly meant to “launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”
The statement continued, “While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim.”
“These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct,” the statement concluded. “Most importantly, media statements are not a defense to Ms. Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”
The statement from Lively’s camp comes after Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy for publishing a story detailing Lively’s initial claims against him, including sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against Lively during the production of the film It Ends with Us, which Baldoni also directed and starred in with Lively. The lawsuit came after Lively’s initial complaint, filed Dec. 20, and subsequent lawsuit, filed Dec. 31, against Baldoni.
In a statement to Good Morning America addressing Lively’s latest comments, Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said, “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint. We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie. None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”
Read more about the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni below.
Lively’s initial complaint
Lively first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in late December, alleging “severe emotional distress” after she said Baldoni and key stakeholders in the film sexually harassed her and attempted, along with Baldoni’s production company, to orchestrate a smear campaign against her.
The complaint was detailed in a New York Times article titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” Included in the report were details surrounding a January 2024 “all hands” meeting — held “prior to resuming filming of It Ends With Us,” according to the complaint — that was held to address Lively’s workplace concerns, adding that it was attended by key stakeholders in the film and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
According to the complaint, Lively said she laid out specific demands at that meeting to ensure a safe and professional working environment.
Lively claimed Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, which produced It Ends With Us, then engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation, according to the complaint. The complaint included alleged texts from Baldoni’s publicist to a Wayfarer publicist, who allegedly wrote that Baldoni “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” and “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, denied the allegations.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman said in a statement to ABC News at the time, in response to Lively’s initial complaint. He claimed Lively’s complaint was “yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film […].”
Lively was criticized during the It Ends with Us tour for her conduct during press interviews and from some who felt she did not highlight the film’s focus of domestic violence enough.
Baldoni’s lawsuit against The New York Times
On Dec. 31, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy, after it published the article about Lively’s complaint.
The lawsuit claimed the Times, which included the alleged text messages and email exchanges between Baldoni’s publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, had relied on “cherry-picked” and altered communications, with details “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced” to “mislead.”
Baldoni is seeking $250 million in damages in his suit against the Times and also listed nine other co-plaintiffs, including Wayfarer Studios LLC and his publicists, Abel and Nathan.
Freedman claimed in a statement to GMA that the Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
A Times spokesperson told GMA that they “plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported,” the spokesperson continued. “It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”
“To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error,” the spokesperson claimed. “We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”
Lively files lawsuit against Baldoni and other defendants for sexual harassment
Also on Dec. 31, Lively formalized her initial California Civil Rights Department complaint into a lawsuit, which reiterated details she previously presented in her complaint.
Attorneys for Lively said in a statement that the actress’s “decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
“As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” Lively’s attorneys claimed. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
Both Baldoni and Lively are seeking a jury trial.
GMA has reached out to Baldoni’s rep for comment about Lively’s lawsuit.
