Category: Entertainment

Dearest gentle reader, get prepared for exciting news regarding a Bridgerton spinoff.

Netflix and Shondaland have announced an upcoming limited series centered around the Bridgerton family’s matriarch, Lady Violet.

The currently untitled Bridgerton project will be similar to the hit series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. It will follow the early years of a younger Lady Violet and tell the story of her romance with Viscount Edmund Bridgerton.

Shonda Rhimes serves as a co-showrunner, executive producer and writer on the series alongside Nicholas Nardini. Tom Verica is set to direct and executive produce.

The news of this upcoming spinoff comes as season 5 of Bridgerton is being filmed in London. The new season will feature the middle Bridgerton daughter Francesca as its lead. It will also be the first season of the series to have a queer couple at the forefront of the story.

“Two years after losing her beloved husband John, Fran decides to reenter the marriage mart for practical reasons,” the season’s official logline reads. “But when John’s cousin Michaela returns to London to tend to the Kilmartin estate, Fran’s complicated feelings will have her questioning whether to stick to her pragmatic intentions or pursue her inner passions.”

Hannah Dodd will once again star as Francesca Stirling, the Countess of Kilmartin, in season 5. Francesca, who “has long felt out of place in the world,” according to a description from Netflix, “will make discoveries about herself that could change everything” in the new season.

Masali Baduza will return as Michaela Stirling, Francesca’s love interest and the cousin of her late husband. Underneath her “charming and vivacious exterior hides a vulnerable young woman who is quick to run the second she feels discomfort. But this season, Michaela must face her vulnerability head-on as she’s forced to navigate her relationship to her late cousin’s legacy — and to Francesca,” according to a description from Netflix.

Bridgerton season 5 will consist of eight episodes. Jess Brownell serves as its showrunner and executive producer, while Rhimes, Verica, Betsy Beers and Chris Van Dusen also executive produce.

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We’re seated for the official All’s Fair season 2 trailer. The lawyers at Grant, Ronson & Greene are back for another season of scandal in the new trailer, featuring series stars Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close. We also catch glimpses of guest stars Denise Richards, Jaime Pressly and Margo Martindale as the firm faces new threats, new divorce cases and new drama. The first three episodes of season 2 will drop Nov. 4 on Hulu …

Ahead of Elsbeth’s season 4 premiere, CBS has added new cast members to the crime series, Variety reports. Uzo Abuda, Tyne Daly and Christine Ebersole join the cast for the new season of the “howdunit” drama that follows Carrie Preston’s Elsbeth, a quirky attorney who solves crimes for the NYPD. Ebersole will have a recurring role as Elsbeth’s mother, while Abuda and Daly will guest star. Elsbeth season 4 premieres Thursday on CBS …

Emilia Clarke and Josh Brolin have signed on for A Roadmap to Happiness, according to Deadline. The docuseries will see author, podcaster and presenter Darin Olien travel across the world with various actors in search of the happiest people on Earth. Clarke will join Olien in Portugal, while Brolin will visit Finland for the series finale. It was previously announced that Jason Momoa, Shailene Woodley, Elijah Wood and Alec Baldwin would be traveling with Olien as he explores “what constitutes happiness in different cultures.” …

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Glen Powell is opening up about why he refrains from speaking publicly about politics.

In a recent interview with Esquire, Powell explained why he doesn’t make it a point to talk about politics despite his mother having worked at the U.S. Treasury Department during the Reagan administration.

“Over time, I realized that politics divide people,” Powell said. “People trying to prove their point — for me, it’s the worst version of a conversation. I genuinely do not like the discourse. It’s not as healthy as it once was.”

The actor continued by explaining that he believes engaging in politics “is not presently possible.”

“I applaud people for jumping into those things and fighting for what they believe in. If I were a political person, I would be talking about it. For me, my calling is elsewhere,” Powell said.

The actor said that despite his mother’s profession, politics were never dinner table conversation growing up. “Thank God,” he said of the fact.

Elsewhere in the interview Powell addressed why his film The Running Man flopped after he starred in popular films such as Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone but You and Twisters. The actor attributed its poor box office performance to the Paramount layoffs that occurred in October 2025.

“They let go of an entire marketing department a month before our movie came out in the middle of a merger,” Powell said.

The Running Man was followed up with Powell’s 2026 thriller How to Make a Killing, which also didn’t make a splash at the box office.

“There were a lot of issues with that,” Powell said. “There just was not enough time to do it properly. I look back on that one as an example of going, You know what, there’s no rush.”

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The pros from the Dancing with the Stars ballroom are going back on tour.

Many of the professional dancers from the hit reality competition series are set to appear on the upcoming Dancing with the Stars: LIVE! tour.

The 60-show tour will take place across North America in 2027 and will include its first-ever stop in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. It all starts with the first show on Jan. 21, 2027, in Manchester, New Hampshire, and will span from winter throughout the spring with a final stop in Duluth, Georgia, on April 11, 2027.

The professional dancers who will set out on this upcoming tour are Brandon Armstrong, Rylee Arnold, Alan Bersten, Hailey Bills, Sharna Burgess, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Jenna Johnson, Emma Slater, Ezra Sosa, Britt Stewart and Adele Zaikman. DWTS troupe members Kamri Peterson, Onye Stevenson, Jaxon Willard and Carter Williams will also tag along on the journey.

Even more celebrity guests are promised to be announced at a later date. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour choreographer Mandy Moore directs the tour. Tickets go on sale to the public on Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. local time on DWTSTour.com.

“We could not be more excited for the fans of DWTS to attend shows across the country next year and see this all-new spectacle that the truly world class dancers and our brilliant creative team are dreaming up. It is an exhilarating experience getting to witness the sheer talent and showmanship exhibited in these live shows. Seeing fans scream and shout is so uplifting as fans get the chance to connect with the stars they know and love from the TV show. We are so pumped for this tour and we are dreaming big! We will see everyone on the road in 2027,” Jared Paul of Faculty Inc said in a press release.

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If you’re on the hunt for more of The Hunting Wives, you’re in luck.

Netflix has renewed the popular series for a third season ahead of season 2’s debut. The second season premieres on Nov. 26.

Both season 2 and season 3 will release exclusively as a Netflix branded series in nearly all countries where the streaming service is available. They will each consist of eight new episodes.

Rebecca Cutter created The Hunting Wives and serves as its showrunner, writer and executive producer. The series is based on the novel by May Cobb.

“I’m so stoked to be heading back to Maple Brook, and I promise that once you’ve finished season 2, you’ll be desperate to see what happens next. Buckle up, because season 3 will be even more scandalous and twisted,” Cutter said.

Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman will reprise their roles of Sophie and Margo in these new seasons. Also returning in season 2 are Jaime Ray Newman, Dermot Mulroney, Evan Jonigkeit and George Ferrier. Karen Rodriguez and Hunter Emery will reprise their roles of Deputy Salazar and Deputy Flynn as series regulars, while Branton Box will also return in the guest star role of Sheriff Johnny.

New cast members for season 2 are John Stamos, Dale Dickey, Cam Gigandet, Kim Matula and Alex FitzAlan. Stamos will play the role of Chase Brylan, while Dickey will play Zelda Moffitt and Gigandet will take on the role of Gentle John Moffitt.

“At the start of season 2, Sophie and Margo are on the outs. But soon enough, old secrets and new foes force them back together,” according to its official logline. “As they play their dangerous games the question arises. Are they the hunters or the hunted?”

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Eva Marie Saint, the Oscar-winning actress known for performances in classic films such as On the Waterfront and North by Northwest, died on Tuesday. She was 102.

Saint died of natural causes while surrounded by family and loved ones at her home in Los Angeles, according to her representative. Before her death, Saint was the oldest living Oscar winner.

Her long career in the entertainment business spanned over 70 years and included work in a variety of art mediums, such as film, television, stage and radio.

It was her performance in the 1953 Broadway play The Trip to Bountiful that captured the attention of director Elia Kazan. He cast her in her first-ever screen role opposite Marlon Brando in the 1954 film On the Waterfront. She was honored with the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance.

Saint also appeared in notable films such as North by Northwest, That Certain Feeling, Exodus, All Fall Down, 36 Hours, The Sandpiper, Loving, Nothing in Common, Because of Winn-Dixie, Superman Returns and Winter’s Tale.

On TV, Saint is known for her performances in Middle of the Night, a live TV musical adaptation of Our Town, Taxi!!, How the West Was Won, People Like Us and the 1996 Titanic miniseries. She also voiced a recurring character on the animated series The Legend of Korra.

The actress grew up in both Albany and Delmar, New York, before attending Bowling Green State University in Ohio. After graduation, she moved to New York City, where she studied at The American Theatre Wing and with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio.

Saint was married to Jeffrey Hayden for 65 years before his death in December 2016. She is survived by her two children, Darrell Hayden and Laurette Hayden, her four grandchildren and her two great grandchildren.

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Hayden Panettiere’s ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko believes that someone outside of Panettiere’s family sold some of her possessions, including her jewelry, to a pawn shop, according to a new court filing.

The claim is part of a new supplement to Klitschko’s earlier petition with the Los Angeles County probate court, which was filed in September and sought to have him be made the temporary guardian of his and Panettiere’s daughter, Kaya Klitschko, whom they welcomed in 2014. The petition had raised concerns about the preservation of the late actress’s estate.

According to the new filing, the pawn shop has “declined to disclose specific item information without being contacted by law enforcement” and there’s a risk that Panettiere’s items “will be sold, transferred or otherwise rendered unrecoverable,” causing a “direct financial detriment of Kaya.”

In addition to seeking guardianship of his daughter, Klitschko is asking the court to grant him the ability to “request and authorize law enforcement investigation into the recovery of Hayden’s property believed to have been misappropriated.”

Panettiere died in August after she was found unresponsive at a South Carolina apartment. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office in Greenville, South Carolina, said in a statement the 36-year-old actress died as a result of an accidental overdose of drugs, including fentanyl, 4-ANPP, alprazolam, methocarbamol and quetiapine.

The investigation into Panettiere’s death remains ongoing, with the focus likely shifting to the source of the fentanyl. Sources previously told ABC News the investigation could be honing in on street-level drug dealers who may have provided drugs to the late actress.

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Jessica Biel has joined the cast of the upcoming film Playmates. The actress will play a fictional wife of Hugh Hefner in the Searchlight Pictures production that’s inspired by director Lorraine Nicholson’s experience growing up at the Playboy Mansion. Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Pullman and India Elle are also set to star in the movie …

It seems Steven Spielberg is returning to the robots. Deadline reports the legendary director will serve as an executive producer on the eighth Transformers film for Paramount Pictures. ABC Audio has reached out to the studio for confirmation. The outlet reports Spielberg will oversee all creative aspects of the upcoming live-action Transformers film, with Michael Bay in early talks to also return as director …

The official trailer for The Good Daughter has arrived. Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy star in this suspenseful thriller following sisters Charlotte (Fahy) and Samantha (Byrne). The sisters have spent 20 years thinking about a night of violence they experienced, when another attack hits their town. The Good Daughter premieres Nov. 12 on Peacock. Brendan Gleeson, Olivia Williams and Harper Steele also star …

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Arnold Schwarzenegger is teaming up with James Patterson.

The actor and former governor of California co-wrote an upcoming book titled The Protector with Patterson, one of the world’s most widely read authors. This marks Schwarzenegger’s debut as a novelist. It will be published by Little, Brown and Company on Oct. 4, 2027.

The new novel is set in modern-day Los Angeles. It follows a Catholic priest named Father Viktor Brennan, a military veteran who is new to a small parish plagued by violence.

“Father Brennan confronts the criminals threatening the community he’s vowed to protect, even as his courageous actions endanger his life, and reveal clues to his mysterious past,” according to an official description.

The character of Father Viktor Brennan takes inspiration from both Schwarzenegger and Patterson’s Catholic backgrounds.

“I grew up Catholic, I went to church, went to Catholic school, I learned the Bible and my catechisms,” Schwarzenegger said in a press release. “And from those days I remember a phrase that is relevant today: A servant’s heart. It means something larger than yourself. This is a story I’ve had in my mind for decades. And I finally found the man to turn my vision into words on a page.”

Patterson said that “Arnold has had about five careers already. I figured novelist was overdue.”

He continued, “You don’t have to spend much time with Arnold to realize he’s a storyteller. He knows what makes a hero interesting, what makes a villain dangerous, and how to keep an audience entertained.”

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The estate of Dolly Parton alleges that her nephew Bryan Seaver, who previously served as the late singer’s longtime head of security, is using barbed wire and a “no trespassing” sign to evade a lawsuit, according to a new court filing.

Seaver, the son of one of Parton’s 11 siblings, is being sued by She’s Alive LLC, the company overseeing Parton’s business empire, for allegedly threatening and extorting the estate of Parton, who died on Aug. 25 after a brief battle with cancer.

According to the court filing, submitted Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, a process server who tried to deliver court documents to Seaver observed that his residence has a “no-trespassing sign in the front yard and barbed wire draped across the handrails leading to the front door.”

“Mr. Seaver attempted to evade service of process, and this Court should not reward that behavior,” the filing states, adding that the server attempted to serve him three times. The estate also alleges that Seaver did not do anything to retain counsel despite saying that he would.

In the new filing, the estate asks the court to deny Seaver’s request for an extension in the case.

Last month, Parton’s estate was granted a temporary restraining order against Seaver — the family member who officially announced Parton’s death in a video message shared on her social media — and his security company.

A Tennessee judge ruled on Sept. 23 that Seaver and his company show a “present and continuing disruption and threat” to She’s Alive.

When reached by email on Tuesday, Seaver told ABC News the restraining order prevents him from speaking publicly about the case.

He previously denied the allegations against him and said he was fired as Parton’s head of security over what he calls “contrived threats.”

“I was fired. After the estate negotiated with me and my company for services in perpetuity and agreed to that service provision from my company,” Seaver said in a Sept. 23 statement to ABC News. “A week later they fired me for these contrived ‘threats.'”

A representative for Parton’s estate did not immediately reply to ABC News.

In its latest filing, the estate is asking that the temporary restraining order against Seaver and his company be converted into a temporary injunction.

Parton, who became known for her entrepreneurial skills in addition to her music prowess, left behind a multimillion dollar estate, including the Dollywood amusement park.

She and her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, who died last year, had no children.

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