Category: Entertainment

Actor Josh Brolin is opening up about his sobriety after cutting out alcohol over a decade ago.

The Dune: Part Two actor discussed maintaining his sobriety and life events that led him to become sober in a recent interview with British paper The Times published on Saturday.

“I was born to drink. I was birthed to drink. My mother drank exactly like I did, and I was raised to be a man and drink like the male equivalent of my mother,” writes Brolin in an excerpt of his new memoir, From Under the Truck, obtained by The Times.

Brolin told The Times he had decided to commit himself to sobriety after visiting his grandmother on her deathbed when he was intoxicated in 2013.

“I knew that was going to be the last time I drank,” said Brolin, who entered rehab, according to The Times interview.

Brolin, who is 56, said aging has made being sober all the more easy.

“I like getting older. It’s like a great excuse to finally go, ‘OK, just mellow out, you don’t need to constantly spin,'” he said.

In reflecting on his sobriety, Brolin shared that he has enjoyed staying away from drinking.

“I love being sober. I have more fun,” he said. “There’s nothing that I go through that I am absolutely certain wouldn’t be worse if I was drinking.”

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Gladiator II star Paul Mescal has been announced as the guest host for the Dec. 7 episode of Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Shaboozey. The announcement was made during the NBC late night sketch comedy show’s Nov. 16 episode featuring Charli XCX as host and musical guest. Gladiator II — also starring Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington — opens in theaters Nov. 21 …

The U.S. postal service announced it will honor the late Betty White with her own stamp, coming out in 2025. The comedic actress, who died Dec. 31, 2021 at the age of 99, entertained TV audiences for seven decades on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, among others and was also an animal advocate. Dale Stephanos created the digital illustration based on a 2010 photograph by Kwaku Alston. Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp …

Netflix‘s livestream of the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight attracted 60 million households, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams according to the streaming service. The co-main event fight featuring Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano was seen in nearly 50 million homes. The bouts, held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, resulted in victories for Paul and Taylor …

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Red One — starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans — had a disappointing debut, delivering an estimated $34 million at the domestic box office against a $250 million budget.

The holiday film, also starring J.K. Simmons as Santa, along with Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt and Lucy Liu, added an estimated $14.7 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $84.1 million.

Venom: The Last Dance fell to second place after spending three weeks at No. 1, collecting an estimated $7.3 million. That brings its four-week North American haul to $127.6 million and $436.1 million globally.

Third place went to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with an estimated $5.4 million, bringing its two-week North American tally to $19.9 million.

Heretic landed in fourth, grabbing an estimated $5.16 million in its second week of release. The horror film, starring Hugh Grant, has delivered a total of $20.4 million domestically.

Rounding out the top five was the animated feature The Wild Robot, earning an estimated $4.3 million. Its eight week tally now stands at $137.7 million in North America and $308 million worldwide.

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Much like Texas, it seems like reboots are also forever.

According to Variety, Universal Television is working on bringing back the high school football drama Friday Night Lights with a new storyline and characters.

The original Friday Night Lights show ran from 2006 to 2011 and centered around the fictional Dillon Panthers high school football team in West Texas. It was inspired by the 1990 book of the same name and its 2004 film adaptation, both of which were about the real-life Permian High School Panthers of Odessa, Texas.

The show starred Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor, coach of the Dillon Panthers and, in later seasons, the school’s crosstown rivals, the East Dillon Lions. Connie Britton, who also starred in the FNL film, played Eric’s wife and Dillon High faculty member, Tami Taylor.

Among those who portrayed the players and students were Zach Gilford, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Porter, Minka Kelly, Gaius Charles and Adrianne Palicki, as well as Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Plemons in early breakout roles.

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Ready, set, binge! Here’s a look at some of the new movies and TV shows streaming this weekend:

Apple TV+
Bad Sisters: We’ve been dying for it to return. Check out season 2 of the dark comedy.

Silo: The show about the last 10,000 people on Earth returns. Watch the premiere of season 2.

Hulu
Say Nothing: Follow a story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland in the new limited series.

Prime Video
Cross: Based on characters created by James Patterson, meet detective Alex Cross in the new series.

Netflix
Cobra Kai: The fight is going global. The crew faces old enemies in part 2 of season 6.

Max
Dune: Prophecy: Watch the beginnings of the Sisterhood in the new series.

That’s all for this week’s Weekend Watchlist – happy streaming!

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Cross debuts on Prime Video Friday. Aldis Hodge stars as brilliant criminal psychologist Alex Cross, the hero from James Patterson‘s bestselling book series.

ABC Audio caught up with Hodge, who described how he brought his own flavor to the character, who had been previously played by Morgan Freeman in the 1997 hits Kiss the Girls and 2001’s Along Came a Spider, and then by Tyler Perry in 2012’s Alex Cross.

“The flavor was tied to my honest nature,” Hodge said at New York Comic Con. “Every time I approach a character, it starts with: What is his ‘why,’ who is he as a man? And the first time I sat down with [show creator Ben Watkins] to talk about this, we didn’t even talk about the character development. We talked about who we were personally, and that’s what fed into who the character became.” 

Hodge continues, “So I don’t even have to worry about who [Cross] is, I already know him. And now we just have to figure out how he approaches and figures out situations. It makes it really seamless,” Hodge says. 

The series centers on Cross’ hunt for a sadistic serial killer. “As Alex and his partner, John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa), track this killer, a mysterious threat from Cross’ past appears, aiming to destroy what he’s done to keep his grieving family, career, and life together,” the show’s synopsis teases.

Cross has already been renewed for a second season.

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The new Disney+ short film An Almost Christmas Story is inspired by the true story of an owl who was found inside the Rockefeller Christmas tree in New York City. In this version, the owl can talk, and his adventure is narrated by John C. Reilly.

In taking on the role, Reilly, who also performs four songs in the short, tells ABC Audio he was inspired by the late Burl Ives‘ Snowman narrator character in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

“I thought, ‘I’ve learned so much music from Burl Ives, wouldn’t it be cool to, like, step into his shoes?'” says Reilly, who also stars in a stage production called Mister Romantic. “Or at least perform a role that was similar to what he’s done in the past.”

An Almost Christmas Story also hearkens back to the look of those classic holiday specials in its animation style, though it was made digitally instead of with traditional stop-motion. Still, Reilly wanted to get a stop-motion figure of his character made, even though he laughs he was “hoping it would look less like me.”

“I was like, ‘But will you please still make mine?'” Reilly says. “Then [director] David Lowery‘s like, ‘Yeah! Totally, we should still make yours!’ So I’m gonna have to ask Disney where that thing is.”

As for the film itself, you can expect a heartwarming tale and some adorable animals, which Reilly feels might bring some comfort amid stressful times, personal or otherwise.

“Somehow I think [the film] really does meet the moment for the way people are feeling right now in the world,” Reilly says. “So I’m happy to spread a little love and a little empathy with this.” 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Conan O’Brien will host the 2025 Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday, marking his first time hosting the star-studded awards show.

“America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars,” the Emmy-winning television host, writer, producer and comedian said in a press release.

O’Brien is best known for hosting Late Night with Conan O’Brien from 1993 to 2009, stepping in after David Letterman‘s departure, and Conan from 2010 to 2021. Prior to that, he was a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons.

Since 2018, he’s hosted the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Most recently, he’s also starred in the travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go on Max.

The 97th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 2, 2025, live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PT on ABC, and will be broadcast in over 200 territories worldwide.

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Barry Keoghan’s latest film is director Andrea Arnold’s coming-of-age drama, Bird.

It follows Bailey, a young girl who lives with her devoted but chaotic single dad, Bug, played by Keoghan. This marks the actor’s first time playing a father, but it’s something he knows well — as dad to his 2-year-old son, Brando.

“I’m glad that I got to be part of this because I just got to find a lot, selfishly, about myself as well. During it and during the journey of it,” Keoghan told ABC Audio.

The actor described how exactly he saw himself in his character.

“I think men are very childlike and very, you know, the mommy boy kind of mentality,” Keoghan said. “Ironically, I sort of have that mentality. I did sort of have that mentality. You know, wanting to be almost mothered and looked after … I realized making this movie that [those] are traits that aren’t necessarily gonna lend itself to you in the best way.”

Bug’s journey to fatherhood is one that resonated with Keoghan.

“[If] you have a child … at some stage you’ve got to get out of that frame of mind of you being looked after and look after your little one,” Keoghan said.

Speaking of, Keoghan wants to keep looking after the young actors he worked with on Bird.

“I like to look out for people around me, and especially kids. I want to be that sort of person that they can always get in touch with,” Keoghan said. “When I was younger and I was going on to the movies, I had that source, and I had that person in Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy and all of those incredible people that I had … I want to be that for Jason [Buda] and Nykiya [Adams].”

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Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner is reportedly in talks to play Laura Croft in Prime Video’s series adaptation of the video game franchise Tomb Raider, according to Deadline. The series has been a pet project for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who’ll write and executive produce the project. “Lara Croft means a lot to me, as she does to many, and I can’t wait to go on this adventure. Bats ‘n all,” Waller-Bridge said back in May. Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander previously played the titular character on the big screen …

Hoda Kotb, who announced back in September that she would be leaving NBC’s TODAY show, revealed on the Thursday episode that her last day will be Jan. 10. It was also announced that Craig Melvin will be taking over as Savannah Guthrie‘s co-host on Jan. 13. Melvin will continue to serve as a third-hour co-host alongside Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer. TODAY‘s fourth hour, which Kotb currently co-hosts alongside Jenna Bush Hager, will become TODAY with Jenna & Friends starting Jan. 13. The show will feature a rotating cast of fill-in co-hosts until a permanent host is named …

Haley Lu Richardson has been tapped to star opposite Emilia Clarke in the upcoming Peacock series Ponies, according to Variety. The series takes place in 1977 Moscow, centering on two “ponies,” or “persons of no interest” in intelligence speak. The pair “work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives,” per the streaming service …

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