Category: Entertainment

Tom Hanks isn’t Batman — but apparently fans think he is.

The Oscar winner appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and revealed that despite being one of the most famous actors in Hollywood, fans confuse him for Michael Keaton “all the time.” 

“Yeah, me and him are, you know, some form of odd doppelgänger back from a long time ago,” he explains. “They don’t say ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘ to me exactly. But a lot of time, ‘Hey, were you in that?’ You know, I get that.”

The two men do share a similar comedy background, and they came up in the business around the same time. In fact, Keaton revealed back in 2012 that he was up for a starring role in Splash, the 1984 Ron Howard hit that helped catapult Hanks to movie stardom. However, Keaton turned the role down so that he wouldn’t get typecast in comedies after the success of 1983’s Mr. Mom.

Some time ago, there were rumors Hanks was offered the role of the Caped Crusader before Keaton donned the cape and cowl in 1989’s Tim Burton blockbuster Batman, which he recently reprised in The Flash. 

However, Hanks poured cold water on that rumor on the Graham Norton Show, joking the very idea was “comical.” Hanks clarified he was “never” offered the role, adding with a laugh, “Can you imagine me in that suit?”

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Christina Applegate is opening up about the pain she experiences from multiple sclerosis.

The Married… with Children alum, 52, shared her latest health update during the Nov. 5 episode of the MeSsy podcast she co-hosts with fellow actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.

“I lay in bed screaming,” she continued, attributing that to “the sharp pains, the ache, the squeezing.”

“I can’t even pick up my phone sometimes, ’cause now it’s traveled into my hands,” she detailed. “So I’ll, like, try to go get my phone or get my remote to turn on the TV or whatever, and I can’t — sometimes I can’t even hold ’em. I can’t open bottles now.”

Applegate said that while her outside may look fine, it’s just because people can’t see what’s going on inside.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks myelin, the tissue that coats nerve fibers within the central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health.

MS can be unpredictable, causing differing symptoms with variable timing and frequency from fatigue, numbness or tingling, weakness, dizziness and vertigo to rendering a person unable to write, speak or walk in the most severe cases, according to the NIH. Individually, MS symptoms can vary, ranging from mild to extreme pain during a flare-up of the disease.

There is currently no known cure for MS.

Applegate, who was diagnosed with the chronic disease in 2021, told Good Morning America in March 2024 that living with MS was “kind of hell.”

“They call it the invisible disease. It can be very lonely because it’s hard to explain to people,” she said at the time. “I’m in excruciating pain, but I’m just used to it now.”

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Peter and Bobby Farrelly exploded on the comedy scene with 1994’s hit Dumb and Dumber, and also scored with 1996’s Kingpin and 1998’s There’s Something About Mary, but they haven’t made a movie together since the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To. 

In the interim, Peter Farrelly became an Oscar winner thanks to the 2018 drama Green Book, but as the pair tell Entertainment Weekly, they’re back to the funny with the Jack Black Christmas comedy Dear Santa. 

The magazine has a first look at the project, which centers on a kid (Robert Timothy Smith) who desperately wants to prove to his friends that Santa is real, so he writes a letter to the big guy — except he misspells Santa as “Satan.”

Enter Jack Black as the latter, who is so flattered he got a letter that he shows up instead. Bobby Farrelly says reuniting with their Shallow Hal star was a no-brainer. Explaining his Satan is “diabolical, but in a fun way,” Bobby says, “there’s a little bit of mischievous to him at all times, but he’s eminently likable, and that’s just Jack.”

He adds, “We never wanted to make it a horror movie or something like that. We wanted it to be comical. So it was a delicate [balance] of playing this iconic character but doing it in a way that the audience can have some fun with it. And Jack was the perfect guy.”

The Farrelly brothers explained their idea for the film goes back more than 15 years, and they credited Loudermilk writer Ricky Blitt with breathing new life into the project, which Peter co-wrote, and Bobby directed. 

Dear Santa hits Paramount+ and digital platforms on Nov. 25.

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Yara Shahidi and Keith Powers are in talks to star in a coming-of-age romance called Bloom, as are Kedar Williams-Stirling and Renée Elise Goldsberry, Deadline reports.

Directed by Cole Swanson, who also wrote the script, Bloom follows Ace (Williams-Stirling), a young, talented Black artist, who moves to Italy for university and winds up on a journey of self-discovery. Along the way, he finds love and friendship within “a defiant and opulent circle of wealthy young Black adults deemed ‘The Casa Rosa Kids,'” some of whom navigate a “steamy love triangle.” Bloom has been described as Love Jones set in Italy.
 

Bloom will mark the feature debut of Swanson. Pineloft Entertainment will produce alongside Jolene Rodriguez of Broken English Productions, while UK-based 1PLUS1 Productions and Adam Strawford come together for music consulting.

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To commemorate November 6 — aka “Stranger Things Day,” aka the day Will Byers was sucked into the Upside Down — Netflix revealed Stranger Things will return in 2025, as well as the titles for all eight remaining episodes of the streaming phenomenon’s fifth and final season.

“In the fall of 1987, one last adventure begins … ” Netflix teased in a series of title cards.

Here are the titles — let your imagination run as to what they could mean: 

Episode 1

“The Crawl”

Episode 2

“The Vanishing of …”

Episode 3

“The Turnbow Trap”

Episode 4

“Sorcerer”

Episode 5

“Shock Jock”

Episode 6

“Escape From Camazotz”

Episode 7

“The Bridge”

Episode 8

“The Rightside Up”

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Pretty Little Liars alum Lucy Hale has been tapped to star in the forthcoming sci-fi thriller White Mars, according to Deadline. The film, set in an isolated research facility in Antarctica, follows microbiologist Sammie — played by Hale — who tries to save her fellow crew members from a malevolent entity bent on killing them all, per the outlet …

Variety reports Daisy Ridley will reunite with her Cleaner director Martin Campbell for the action thriller Dedication. Ridley will play Major Billie Jean Parker, “a decorated Marine Corps commander who is relieved of duty after a high-stakes mission in the Philippines results in civilian casualties, despite capturing anarchist leader Omar Romatas,” according to the outlet. She’s forced back into action by Romatas’ vengeful son, who launches an attack on an event she attends and takes hostages …

Grown-ish alum Yara Shahidi is in talks to star in the coming-of-age comedy Bloom, along with Sex Education‘s Kedar Williams-Stirling, Uglies‘ Keith Powers and Renée Elise Goldsberry, the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway’s Hamilton, according to Deadline. The movie centers on “a young and gifted Black artist,” played by Williams-Stirling, who moves to Italy on a college scholarship and “forges unexpected friendships and ignites a passionate romance, all within the captivating orbit of a defiant and opulent circle of wealthy young Black adults deemed ‘The Casa Rosa Kids,'” per the entertainment website …

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After a slow start, Tyler Perry‘s Netflix drama Beauty in Black has climbed to #1 on the streaming service’s TV chart.

The series debuted in fourth place when it premiered on Oct. 28, but rose to first place for the week of Oct. 28-Nov. 3, hitting 8.7 million views in its first full week of streaming, according to Netflix.

Beauty in Black, starring Taylor Polidore, follows two women — one fighting for survival after being forced out by her mother, the other running a prosperous company.

Elsewhere on the Netflix TV chart, Territory fell to second place, The Diplomat came in third, This Is the Zodiac Speaking took fourth place and The Lincoln Lawyer rounded out the top five.

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Colman Domingo will be honored at the Palms Springs International Film Awards, taking place during the annual festival in January. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s set to receive the actor Spotlight Award for his work in the movie Sing Sing.

“We are so thrilled to honor the remarkable talent of Colman Domingo at the Palm Springs International Film Awards for the second year in a row. In Sing Sing, Colman Domingo delivers another outstanding performance based on the true story of the wrongfully convicted Divine G, who finds purpose in prison through stage acting,” says Nachhattar Singh Chandi, chairman for the festival. “For this incredibly raw and captivating performance, it is our honor to present the Spotlight Award, Actor to Colman Domingo.”

Colman is a repeat winner, as he won the award last year for his performance in the movie Rustin. 

The 2025 presentation is slated for Jan. 3, the second day of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, starting Jan. 2 and ending Jan. 13.

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Titanic heavy Billy Zane is totally transformed into Marlon Brando in the new trailer for the based-on-real-life comedy film Waltzing with Brando. 

The snippet shows Zane as Brando as the public knew him, both on set on The Godfather and in a legendary Dick Cavett interview. But it also shows the eccentric actor’s private life and his dream of building a home — and a resort — on an uninhabited Tahitian atoll. 

“It’s more beautiful than words can describe, and cinematography can capture, and I want to move there,” he tells Jon Heder‘s character, a Los Angeles architect tapped by Brando to make the impossible dream happen. 

The film is an adaptation of the 2011 memoir of the same name from the architect who lived the experience, Bernard Judge.

The trailer shows that Judge was unconvinced. “To live out there with even a moderate amount of convenience would be a monumental undertaking,” Heder’s Judge protests, seeing as the atoll was cut off from potable water and electricity.

Zane’s Brando was undeterred, however, in the trailer showing off his experiments with using electric eels to provide current and devising a system to manufacture drinking water “from my own urine.” 

The latter was revealed mid-sip to Heder’s character, who unknowingly tried a sample.

The film that also stars Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Corddry and Tia Carrere will have its world premiere at the Torino Film Festival in late November.

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While the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service is officially mum so far, The Hollywood Reporter says Juror #2, likely the final film from 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, will debut on Max around December. 

The straight-to-streaming moves made in the past by then-HBO Max were controversial in 2021 — when the studio’s entire lineup, including Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune, debuted in theaters and on streaming on the same day. The strategy was both to build up the then-fledgling streaming service’s subscriber base and to service post-pandemic movie fans who were not ready to return to theaters. 

That said, some in the industry griped the move took a toll on the films’ box office potential.

However, the trade says the Hollywood icon gave his blessing to the release plan for the older-skewing courtroom drama that stars Nicholas Hoult, J.K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland.

Juror #2 has already had a limited theatrical release so that it can qualify for Oscar consideration, and the critics who’ve seen it have given the movie a 91% score on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

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