Jimmy Fallon has been talking about his new Christmas album for a while, but on Oct. 21 he revealed the track listing and which stars will be joining him for the project.
The album, called Holiday Seasoning, is made up of all original songs. Among the artists joining him are the Jonas Brothers for a track called “Holiday” and Justin Timberlake for a song called “You’ll Be There.” Also performing with Fallon are “Weird Al” Yankovic and the Tonight Show band The Roots on the song “New Year’s Eve Polka (5-4-3-2-1).” The Roots also join Fallon for the song “Hey Rudy.”
Other guests include Will Ferrell on the song “One Glove,” Chelsea Handler on the song “Merry Happy Christmas” and model/actress Cara Delevingne on “Hallmark Movie.”
Holiday Seasoning also features the previously released single “Wrap Me Up” with Meghan Trainor, which was a radio hit last year. Other previously released tracks include the 2021 track “It Was A … (Masked Christmas),” which Fallon recorded with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion, and Fallon’s 2022 duet with Dolly Parton, “Almost Too Early for Christmas.”
Zoe Saldaña has a record-breaking box office track record: Her movies have made more than $14 billion, and she is the only actress to have four movies make more than 2 billion bucks with 2009’s Avatar, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water.
That said, she tells Variety that somewhere along the way she lost her “spark” — which she found, along with Oscar buzz, for the musical drama Emilia Pérez.
She confesses to the trade, “I felt stuck, in the sense that I was taking things for granted too much. I entered this cycle of doing these sequels, and for some reason I became cavalier with them.”
She also adds, “I wish I could go back and do a better job for [her Marvel character] Gamora and Uhura [in the Star Trek franchise],” commenting, “I think I did enough, but I could have done more. That’s just how I am.”
Although her dyslexia and her own “self-sabotage” make auditioning difficult — and she hadn’t done so in a while, what with all the sequels — she auditioned for French filmmaker Jacques Audiard for Emilia via Zoom. Twice, in fact.
He tells the trade she “constantly dazzled” him as Rita.
“Rita was supposed to be only 25 years old; however, as soon as I had Zoe in front of me, I realized that I’d been mistaken all along,” Audiard says.
The actress now says, “I just have this brand-new little spark. And I feel like Emilia really did that for me.”
Emilia Pérez, which is also generating Oscar buzz for Zoe’s co-star Selena Gomez, opens in select theaters in November and on Netflix Nov. 13.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Members of the “Central Park Five” filed a defamation suit against former President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of spreading “false, misleading and defamatory” statements about their 1989 case during the Sept. 10 ABC News presidential debate, according to a new court filing.
Attorneys representing the five men — Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise — filed their civil suit against Trump in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking monetary damages over his statements, which they say have caused them “severe emotional distress and reputational damage.”
The five men, then teenagers, were accused of the violent rape of a female jogger in Central Park in April 1989. The five, who always maintained their innocence, were convicted and served years in prison. A decade after the attack, a different man confessed to the crime, which was confirmed through DNA analysis.
During the debate, Trump was responding to a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris in which she revisited his full-page ad in The New York Times in the wake of the incident that called for the execution of the Central Park Five when he said the following: “[T]hey come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people including Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty.”
The lawsuit points out that Trump’s statements were false in multiple respects — noting none of the members of the Central Park Five ever entered guilty pleas in the case, none of the victims of the Central Park assaults were killed, and the mayor at the time of the assaults was Ed Koch — who did not agree with Trump’s position in the full-page ad.
“Defendant Trump’s conduct at the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and it was intended to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit stated.
Trump’s attorneys have not yet entered an appearance on the court docket as of Monday morning.
“This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said in response to an inquiry about the lawsuit.
According to the court filing, one of the Central Park Five members, Salaam, was actually present at the debate and sought to confront Trump over his statements in the spin room afterward.
Salaam says he repeatedly shouted questions to Trump, saying, “Will you apologize to the Exonerated Five?” and, “Sir, what do you say to a member of the Central Park Five, sir?”
Trump reportedly responded to him at one point, “Ah, you’re on my side then,” to which Salaam responded, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
“Plaintiff Salaam was attempting to politely dialogue with Defendant Trump about the false and defamatory statements that Defendant Trump had made about Plaintiffs less than an hour earlier, but Defendant Trump refused to engage with him in dialogue,” the lawsuit stated.
The five men’s convictions were vacated in 2002 and Wise, who was still in prison at the time, was released early. The group sued New York City in 2003 and after a decadelong standstill, the lawsuit was settled for $41 million. The city did not admit to any misconduct by its police department or prosecutors.
Salaam was elected to the New York City Council last year, representing northern Manhattan, including Harlem, East Harlem, parts of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights.
Aldis Hodge plays brilliant criminal psychologist Alex Cross in the forthcoming Prime Video series based on James Patterson‘s bestselling book series, and at New York Comic Con on Friday he talked about Cross with ABC Audio.
From the drop — a trailer of the show — fans were all in, the actor says. “The fan reaction really blew me away. I kept looking at YouTube, and it said over 14 million views, I’m talking within the first six days, and it kept growing.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” he said.
Hodge continued, “The fan reaction being so strong, it really just validates all the hard work of the entire team … and it lets me know just how special this is to the audience.”
The series was renewed for a second season before production was even completed on the first, which Hodge said “shows a great deal of faith and belief in us, and gives us all a great deal of confidence.”
He adds, “We came into a second season not comfortable — because we know we set a bar and we have to surpass that bar in the next one. But we know we have real support, and it is at times rare to have that kind of support … when you put your heart into something.”
Aldis says, “It just elevates things and makes us go harder.”
He adds with a laugh, “We still hopes this first season bangs, now, don’t get me wrong! But we want every season to be an elevation of the predecessor.”
(WASHINGTON, DC) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, said Donald Trump is “spiraling down” after being asked on ABC’s “The View” about the former president’s recent lewd comments.
“It’s very clear that, as you said, Donald Trump is spiraling down, unhinged,” Walz said. “What worries me about these comments, some of these are just so strange that they’re hard to imagine, are the dangerous ones in the middle of that — the ‘enemy from within’ and some of that.”
Walz quickly switched gears, though, to talking about how Trump’s comments stand in contrast with the optimistic vision the Harris campaign is pitching to voters.
“But on the flip side of that is the message that’s starting to break through is this opportunity economy, a new way forward,” Walz said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — Twenty-six people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit North Carolina, weeks after the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene, officials said Monday.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, wreaking havoc across the Southeast from Florida to Virginia. Helene destroyed homes and roads, stranded residents without cellphone service and water, and claimed the lives of nearly 250 people throughout the Southeast.
At least 95 of Helene’s fatalities were in North Carolina, officials said. Gov. Roy Cooper called Helene “the deadliest and most devastating storm” in the state’s history.
“It hurts the very people we are all trying to help,” he said. “It discourages and makes people fearful of signing up for help. It enables scam artists and it hurts the morale of government officials, first responders and soldiers who are on the ground trying to help.”
Former President Donald Trump is set to visit to the hard-hit city of Asheville on Monday to survey damage from the storm.
Cooper said he’s asking the former president to “not share lies or misinformation while he is here.”
Cooper said the White House “responded quickly and positively to our request from FEMA, which has had 1,400 staff on the ground and has registered 206,000 people for individual assistance, and distributed $124 million directly to people who need it.”
“As for long-term recovery, state and local government will be all in, along with the federal government,” Cooper said. “This will take billions of dollars and years of bipartisan focus from everyone working together to make it happen — from new roads and bridges to public building to water supplies to people’s homes.”
FEMA is now launching a “new initiative” to hire community liaisons in North Carolina’s impacted counties, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced Monday.
“We know that so many people have temporarily lost their jobs. We know that others just want to be able to give back, and we want to help keep people in these communities while they recover,” she said. “So these new community liaisons are going to work alongside us at FEMA to make sure that they are the local voice, the trusted voice in their community, and that they can share with us the local considerations and the concerns, so we can include them as part of this recovery. They’re going to be embedded in every county, working directly with county administrators, mayors and community leaders, bridging their concerns with our FEMA staff. And these jobs are available for people to apply right now.”
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is no stranger to the Comic Con experience, but it still floors him how fans have reacted to him since he joined The Walking Dead universe as Negan.
“I mean, I had been in the kind of the comic book world for a little bit. I’d done, you know, Watchmen and The Losers. So I’d done some stuff. But Walking Dead, when I came in in season 6 was a whole ‘nother world.”
He adds, “I mean … it was huge. And I don’t think there’s any way to get to prepare yourself.”
He continues, “Yeah, it was nuts.”
“It still is!” said Morgan, who was sharing a press conference with his Walking Dead: Dead City co-star Lauren Cohan. “I still, you know, see stuff … you see people dressed as our characters or any number of toys and action figures, I think that it’s always a lot — in a good way.”
“Never gets old!” Cohan enthuses. “It’s exciting!” he agrees.
Also at New York Comic Con over the weekend, the pair debuted a teaser to the second season of their hit AMC show Walking Dead: Dead City, which the actors also executive produce. It debuts in the spring of 2025.
Joel Angel Juarez for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON, DC) — Vice President Kamala Harris will do a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday — the day before in-person voting begins in Wisconsin.
With roughly two weeks until Election Day, the effort is part of the Harris campaign’s effort to reach swing voters in the crucial battleground states. Harris will speak with Cheney in the suburban areas of Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
The conversations will be moderated by Bulwark publisher and longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell and conservative radio host and writer Charlie Sykes.
Both Harris and former President Donald Trump have events scheduled for battleground states this week as they work to win over voters in what’s expected to be a close contest. On Monday, Trump is spending time in in the battleground state of North Carolina.
Cheney voted to impeach Trump following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and was vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. She received backlash from Trump and other Republicans for her criticism of the former president and was censured by the Republican National Committee.
Cheney is among a handful of prominent Republicans, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who have pledged to support Harris’ bid.
Harris’ events this week will feature more interactivity where voters see the vice president taking questions — including during her town hall with CNN on Wednesday in Pennsylvania.
ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
Gosling and Mendes in 2017 – Robert Kamau/GC Images
Believe it or not, Eva Mendes says she “never considered herself” beautiful — but it’s her longtime partner Ryan Gosling who makes her feel “really f****** sexy.”
That’s what the actress, mom, author and entrepreneur tells the Times of London in a new interview about her life and career.
On the latter, she’s frank. “I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress,” Eva says, allowing, “I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”
Two of those films are 2013’s The Place Beyond the Pines, on which she met her Barbie star beau and the mother of her two children, Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, 8, and 2014’s Lost River, the 50-year-old’s last film and Ryan’s directorial debut.
“He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before,” she says.
On that note, the actress credits Gosling with something else.
“I feel really f****** sexy at times,” Mendes says. “The way my man looks at me is just … at times I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ That might not sit well with people, but so much of how I feel is a reflection of what he’s giving me.”
She adds, “There’s so many things that can make me feel sexy and I’d say that I feel more sexy than not. I guess because I’ve never considered myself beautiful, but I’ve always felt very sexy.”
For the record, Eva says she was “totally fine” with turning 50, adding, “It’s just that number sounds crazy.”
