Category: Entertainment

Friday night is the start of a star-studded weekend of TV festivities celebrating the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, which aired its first episode Oct. 11, 1975.

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert will stream live from Radio City Music Hall Friday night on Peacock. Hosted by former cast member Jimmy Fallon, it will include performances by Backstreet Boys, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Coldplay‘s Chris Martin, Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder and Bonnie Raitt.

Asked why he thinks SNL has lasted for five decades, Fallon tells ABC Audio, “I think the constant change, [the] evolution, there’s always a new cast. There are always new guest hosts, there’s new musical guests.”

“It’s always going with the times,” he adds. “And they never stopped. They never slowed down. They always kept moving. And a rolling stone gathers no moss.”

On Feb. 15, NBC will rebroadcast the documentary Ladies and Gentleman … 50 Years of SNL Music, then air the very first SNL episode at 11:30 p.m. ET.

On Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. ET,  SNL50: The Anniversary Special airs live on NBC and streams on Peacock, featuring dozens of cast members past and present, as well as various celebrities who’ve appeared on the show over the years.

Guests include Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Fallon, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Pete Davidson, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Kim Kardashian, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson.

Former cast member Kyle Mooney says SNL has lasted so long because of its “incredibly special live component” and suggests creator Lorne Michaels is “just very good about finding young, cool, creative talent and incredibly funny people.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

FX’s new limited series Dying for Sex is premiering Friday, April 4, on Hulu. The eight-episode series stars Michelle Williams as a woman who finds out she has terminal cancer and decides to leave her husband to explore her sexual desires with the time she has left. The show also stars Jenny Slate and Jay Duplass …

Miranda July’s 2024 book, All Fours, is getting the small-screen treatment. Starz has announced it will be adapting the novel, about a woman in her 40s who has a sexual awakening after an extramarital affair. “Rather than shying away from all the messy contradictions within sexuality and desire, Starz really digs into the reality of who women are and what we want, which makes it the perfect place to bring my novel to life,” July says in a statement. “This is going to be wild.” …

The Oscar-nominated film Sing Sing is making its streaming debut March 21 on Max. Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo, is about the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York’s Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, where inmates put together theatrical productions as a creative outlet while behind bars. It was initially released in theaters last July …

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In Captain America: Brave New World, Anthony Mackie returns to his high-flying character Sam Wilson. But he’s no longer the Falcon — this time around, he’s taken up the mantle of Captain America.

The film arrives in theaters Friday. Mackie told ABC News that director Julius Onah had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with Sam’s Falcon wings to differentiate his Cap from Chris Evans‘ portrayal.

“He wanted to make him more of an aerial combat specialist,” Mackie said. “Because he didn’t take the super serum, his fighting style is different, is more brutal, is more aggressive, is more of an attack.”

Mackie says his Cap is also in touch with his emotions.

“Sam Wilson, when we first met him, he was a counselor,” Mackie said. “There was a certain level of humanity and that came along with this character.”

Danny Ramirez plays Joaquin Torres in the film, taking over the title of the Falcon. He said watching Mackie take over the role of Cap helped him step into his own role.

“Starting it that way allowed for my version of Falcon to be more like myself than necessarily trying to emulate exactly what someone else did … Joaquin is an eager, young son of a gun that’s trying to prove himself and trying to impress and kind of prove that he belongs.”

After being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for so long, Mackie says it never gets old.

“I’m so lucky to make a living at what I wanted to do since I was 7 years old. And this movie kind of reintroduced me to that,” Mackie said. “Danny will come to set every day, and he was just like a little jumping bean … his excitement for the role, his excitement for the opportunity, it reignited that in me.” 

Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg had a mini Sex and the City reunion.

Nixon took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a photo of her and Eigenberg seemingly on the set of And Just Like That…, the iconic show’s sequel series.

The actors, who played Miranda Hobbes and Steve Brady, are seen bundled up, with Nixon wearing a puffer jacket over a sweater and Eigenberg wearing a jean jacket over a flannel shirt.

“Fancy seeing you here,” she captioned the post.

The costars are friendly in real life, but their onscreen counterparts have had a roller-coaster relationship.

After falling in love on Sex and the City, Miranda and Steve have since split in the sequel series.

And Just Like That… has been renewed for a third season.

Sex and the City alum Kim Cattrall confirmed she won’t be back after her cameo last season. Rosie O’Donnell and Patti LuPone will be joining Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and others in the cast for season 3.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg had a mini Sex and the City reunion.

Nixon took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a photo of her and Eigenberg seemingly on the set of And Just Like That…, the iconic show’s sequel series.

The actors, who played Miranda Hobbes and Steve Brady, are seen bundled up, with Nixon wearing a puffer jacket over a sweater and Eigenberg wearing a jean jacket over a flannel shirt.

“Fancy seeing you here,” she captioned the post.

The costars are friendly in real life, but their onscreen counterparts have had a roller-coaster relationship.

After falling in love on Sex and the City, Miranda and Steve have since split in the sequel series.

And Just Like That… has been renewed for a third season.

Sex and the City alum Kim Cattrall confirmed she won’t be back after her cameo last season. Rosie O’Donnell and Patti LuPone will be joining Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and others in the cast for season 3.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Reese Witherspoon announced Thursday that Lexi Minetree has been cast as young Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle.

Witherspoon, who originated the role in the Legally Blonde films released in 2001 and 2003, shared a video to Instagram of her revealing the news to Minetree.

“Your audition tape was amazing, as we talked about, and we had to make a really hard decision the other day,” Witherspoon tells Minetree in the video. “And we wanted to tell you in person, because you’ve just worked really hard, and we just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to audition anymore — because you got the part. You’re Elle Woods.”

Minetree, through tears, asks Witherspoon for a hug and the two embrace before calling Minetree’s mother.

“Y’all sound exactly alike,” Minetree’s mom says after they tell her the news.

“Isn’t it crazy? When I saw her tape I was like, ‘Are we the same person?’ This is so weird,” Witherspoon responds.

In a post on her Instagram page, Minetree wrote that her “brain is going nuts” over the news and went on to thank Witherspoon for “handing me down Elle Woods.”

“I already love her so so much, I promise she’s in good hands,” she added. “P.S. thank you for showing me how amazing I am going to look in the future, soooo looking forward to that.”

Prime Video announced during its upfront presentation in May 2024 that it had ordered a Legally Blonde prequel series, titled Elle, from Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine.

According to the streamer, the series, which was created by Laura Kittrell, will follow Woods during her high school years “as we learn about the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman we came to know and love in the first Legally Blonde film.”

Witherspoon will also act as an executive producer.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sadie Sink is on a quest to save a cherished family heirloom in the trailer for O’Dessa.

The original rock opera is set to premiere on Hulu on March 13. Written and directed by Geremy Jasper, the film follows a farm girl, played by Sink, who heads out on an epic quest.

“Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love — but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test,” the film’s logline reads.

Jasper collaborated with Jason Binnick to write and produce 16 original songs for the film, as the pair previously did on Jasper’s debut feature, the 2017 film Patti Cake$.

Kelvin Harrison Jr., Murray Bartlett and Regina Hall also star in the film.

“Name’s O’Dessa,” Sink says in the trailer. “My daddy used to tell me my singing had the power to bring light to the darkness and change things.”

As the trailer goes on, O’Dessa makes her way to Satylite City, which is described to her as a depraved and sinful place. There, she finds romance with Euri Dervish, played by Harrison Jr., and discovers the evil Plutonovitch, played by Bartlett.

“This world is cruel, O’Dessa,” Euri tells her in the trailer. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be,” she responds.

Michael Gottwald and Noah Stahl produced the film, which debuts at the 2025 South by Southwest Film and TV Festival on March 8.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It’s official — Prime Video is headed back to Middle-earth.

The streamer has renewed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for a third season, it confirmed Thursday. In fact, season 3 is currently in preproduction and will begin filming this spring at its new production home, Shepperton Studios in England.

Additionally, Prime Video announced three directors helming this new season, including returning directors Charlotte Brändström and Sanaa Hamri. Stefan Schwartz will mark his first involvement with the series.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues to captivate audiences worldwide, and we’re thrilled that a third season is underway. The creative team has an extraordinary vision of what’s to come with stories that have left us enchanted and enthralled,” the head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, Vernon Sanders, said. “We look forward to continuing this epic journey, for our global customers, delving even deeper into the legendary tales that shaped Middle-earth.”

According to the official logline, season 3 will feature a time jump. “Jumping forward several years from the events of season 2, season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last,” the logline reads.

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered on Aug. 29 and finished dropping episodes on Oct. 3. The show stars Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Charlie Vickers, Sophia Nomvete and Markella Kavenagh.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you don’t have plans for Valentine’s Day, perhaps you could spend the night at the movie theater. A24’s Babygirl is headed back to theaters on the weekend of Feb. 14. Directed by Halina Reijn, Babygirl stars Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas. It follows a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line when she starts an affair with one of her much-younger interns …

Speaking of A24, another one of its films will soon be available to stream at home. The horror film Heretic, starring Hugh Grant, makes its streaming debut on Max on March 7. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic also stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. The story follows two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are ensnared in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse when they knock on the door of Mr. Reed, played by Grant …

Team Jacob fans can rejoice. Taylor Lautner will star in and executive produce a series called Taylor Lautner: Werewolf Hunter, as Variety first reported. The scripted show will follow a self-aware premise, where Lautner will play himself in a world where he got drawn into a secret society of werewolf trackers after he wrapped on the final Twilight film. “As he navigates his double life—Hollywood actor by day, supernatural warrior by night— Taylor must wrestle with the ultimate irony: fighting the very creatures that made him famous,” the show’s official logline reads …

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Strong has found his next project.

The actor is set to star in a TV series adaptation of the Ira Levin novel The Boys From Brazil for Netflix, Variety reports.

Peter Morgan, who created The Crown, will write the series and executive produce along with Suzanne Mackie from Orchid Pictures.

The Boys From Brazil follows Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann as he receives a tip that Dr. Josef Mengele is alive and living under a different name in Brazil. He then travels to the country to track him down, only to discover a sinister conspiracy.

Strong will star as Liebermann in the show, marking his first series regular role after the end of HBO’s Succession, where he starred as Kendall Roy for four seasons.

Levin’s novel was originally published in 1976. It was adapted into a film in 1978 that starred Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.