Category: Entertainment

Buffy The Vampire Slayer actor Nicholas Brendon has passed away at the age of 54. The news was announced in a statement posted on Brendon’s Facebook page.

“We are heartbroken to share the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He passed in his sleep of natural causes,” reads the statement. “Most people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years. In recent years Nicky has found his passion in painting and art. Nicky loved to share his enthusiastic talent with his family, friends and fans.”

“He was passionate, sensitive, and endlessly driven to create. Those who truly knew him understood that his art was one of the purest reflections of who he was,” the post continues. “Our family asks for privacy during this time as we grieve his loss and celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart.”

Brendon rose to fame playing Xander Harris on all seven seasons of the hit WB series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan. He also had a recurring role on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, and appeared in the short-lived Fox series Kitchen Confidential, based on the book by chef Anthony Bourdain.

Outside of TV, he appeared in several films, including the 2000 comedy Psycho Beach Party, which also starred Lauren Ambrose and Amy Adams, and the 2002 horror film Demon Island.

Brendon was frequently in the news for legal troubles: He’d been arrested multiple times, with his first arrest happening 2010. Charges he faced over the years included resisting arrest, battery, felony vandalism, malicious injury and more. He also dealt with substance abuse issues, and went to rehab for addiction to alcohol and sleeping pills.

Brendon is the second member of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer cast to die in recent years. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s sister, Dawn Summers, passed away in 2025.

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Tributes are pouring in for Chuck Norris.

The actor and martial artist, known for starring in the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger and films like The Delta Force and The Expendables 2, died Thursday morning. He was 86.

On Friday, many across Hollywood and beyond paid tribute to Norris on social media and shared memories of him, including his Expendables 2 co-stars Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Stallone shared a photo with Norris on the set of the 2012 action film and captioned the post, “I had a great time working with Chuck. He was All American in every way. Great man and my condolences to his wonderful family.”

Van Damme added in his post, in which he included photos of Norris over the years, “Deepest condolences on the passing of my friend, Chuck Norris. We knew each other from my early days, and I always respected the man he was. My heart and prayers are with his family. He will never be forgotten.”

Expendables 2 actor Dolph Lundgren also took to Instagram to post a photo of Norris. He wrote in the caption, “Chuck Norris is the champ. Ever since I was a young martial artist and later getting into movies, I always looked up to him as a role model. Someone who had the respect, humility and strength it takes to be a man. We will miss you, my friend.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kevin Hart is getting his own roast.

The comedian is going to be roasted live on Netflix during the final night of Netflix is a Joke Fest in Los Angeles. Fellow comedian Shane Gillis is set to host the event, which will air live to the streaming platform on May 10.

Hart took to Instagram to announce the roast and share his excitement over it.

“It’s going down MOTHER F******!!!!!!! This is what you want????? Ok FINE!!!!! Let’s get active then…. Just remember that I get the f****** MICROPHONE LAST!!!!!!” Hart captioned his post.

He continued, “There has never been a comedian that has sat in the chair ….. I will be the first …. I can take all of the hard punches…. Bring it B******!!!!!! I’m not even close to scared….. this is what I do m************ ….. let’s f****** gooooooooooooooo…… U better buckle up…. This will be the biggest and the best live event EVER!!!!!!!!!!!”

The Roast of Kevin Hart will be executive produced by Casey Patterson, Jeff Ross, Amy Zvi, Dave Becky and Hart.

A 2024 Netflix live event called The Roast of Tom Brady spent three weeks on the platform’s global top 10 chart, earning 19.2 million views during that time. To date, it has earned 26 million total views.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Cameras have started rolling on the Assassin’s Creed live-action TV series.

Netflix has announced that the upcoming series adaptation of the popular video game franchises has started filming in Rome, Italy.

The show’s original story will be set in Rome in 64 AD, with production taking place at Cinecittà Studios.

The TV show will be a high-octane thriller about “the secret war between two shadowy factions — one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will,” according to its official logline. “The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”

The Assassin’s Creed video game franchise arrived in 2007 from the video game publisher Ubisoft. This upcoming show is nearly five years in the making, becoming the first series developed under Netflix’s agreement with Ubisoft.

Emmy nominees Roberto Patino and David Wiener created the series, and will serve as showrunners and executive producers.

The show’s previously announced cast includes Lola Petticrew, Toby Wallace, Zachary Hart, Laura Marcus, Tanzyn Crawford, Nabhann Rizwan, Claes Bang, Noomi Rapace, Ramzy Bedia, Sean Harris and Corrado Invernizzi.

Four new recurring cast members have joined the show’s ensemble: Sandra Guldberg-Kampp, Youssef Kerkour, Mirren Mack and Louis McCartney.

Assassin’s Creed is one of the bestselling series in video game history with over 230 million units sold, according to Netflix.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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

Apple TV
Imperfect Women: Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington and Kate Mara star in the new drama series.

Netflix
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man: Cillian Murphy returns to the role of Tommy Shelby in this new movie.

HBO
The Comeback: Lisa Kudrow stars in the third and final season of the comedy series.

Movie theaters
Project Hail Mary: Ryan Gosling goes to space in the new movie based on the bestselling book.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come: The horror movie sequel stars Samara Weaving.

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

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Actor Chuck Norris, the martial artist known for a string of hit action movies and the series Walker, Texas Ranger, has died, according to his family. He was 86.

“It is with heavy hearts that our family shares the sudden passing of our beloved Chuck Norris yesterday morning,” Norris’ family said Friday in a statement shared on his Instagram page. “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”

The family said Norris was “a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, an incredible brother, and the heart of our family.”

“While our hearts are broken, we are deeply grateful for the life he lived and for the unforgettable moments we were blessed to share with him,” the family statement continued. “The love and support he received from fans around the world meant so much to him, and our family is truly thankful for it. To him, you were not just fans, you were his friends.”

Norris’ family said the actor had been recently hospitalized but did not share further details on his condition.

The actor turned 86 on March 10, just days before his death. He shared a video of himself boxing on his birthday, saying in the video, “I don’t age. I level up.”

Norris, born Carlos Ray Norris, was born in Oklahoma but spent much of his childhood in California. He learned karate while serving in the U.S. Air Force in South Korea, with the hopes of becoming a police officer after his service, he told The New York Times in a 1985 interview.

When he returned to Southern California after his military service, he instead opened a chain of karate schools.

It was through teaching karate that Norris was introduced to acting when he instructed the late Steve McQueen and McQueen’s son, he told the Times.

“He told me that I should think about projecting a presence, and never do a part that had a lot of dialogue,” Norris said of McQueen’s advice. “He told me, ‘Movies are visual, and when you try to verbalize something, you’re going to lose the audience.’ He said to let the character actors lay out the plot, and that when there were important things to say, you say it, and people will remember.”

From that fateful meeting with McQueen, Norris went on to have an acting career that spanned several decades and featured starring roles in blockbuster action movies including The Way of the Dragon, Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, The Delta Force and Invasion U.S.A.

In the 1990s, Norris became a television star with the series Walker, Texas Ranger, which he both starred in and executive produced.

In addition to acting, Norris was an author, including of his 2004 autobiography, Against All Odds: My Story.

Offscreen, Norris also entered the political arena, endorsing and campaigning for several conservative candidates over the years.

In his later years, Norris reached unexpected online fame when jokes known as “Chuck Norris Facts” went viral online, touting Norris’ seeming invincibility with lines like, “Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep. He waits.”

Norris revealed his personal favorite in 2008, telling Extra, “My favorite is that they wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn’t tough enough for his beard.”

Norris capitalized on his online fame, growing a social media following of nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, where he continued to post everything from his workouts to life advice until the time of his death.

Norris is survived by his wife of nearly 30 years, Gena O’Kelly, with whom he shared two children, twins Dakota Norris and Danilee Norris.

Norris is also survived by three other adult children, two sons, Eric Norris and Mike Norris, and a daughter, Dina Norris.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The first look at Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film has arrived. Apple Original Films has released the first photo from the movie set of What Happens at Night, announcing that production has started on the project. It features Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in costume as they walk through a snowy landscape. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio posted the photo on their Instagram pages …

Maya Hawke is set to star in Netflix’s adaptation of the bestselling book The God of the Woods. The actress will play Judy Luptack, the first female investigator in the male-dominated Bureau of Criminal Investigation, in the series. The show follows Judy as she is assigned to unravel the disappearance of a young girl from a summer camp in upstate New York, according to a description from Netflix …

Speaking of Netflix, a new limited series starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson is heading to the platform as another one of the books by Call Me By Your Name writer André Aciman is getting adapted for the screen. Taylor-Johnson will star in Enigma Variations, a limited series that tells the story of a man who is remade by his many lovers over the span of 10 years …

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Hope Valley: 1874, the prequel series to When Calls the Heart, premieres Saturday on Hallmark+, and star Jill Hennessy thinks it provides “a little bit of an escape.”

Hope Valley: 1874 follows Rebecca Clarke and her daughter, who settle in a Western Canadian frontier town where Hennessy’s character, Hattie Quinn, runs the trading post. “She’s sort of the go-between and the hub of all these people,” Hennessy tells ABC Audio of Hattie, who’s a widow and single mother.

“She’s sorta used to living on her own, but deeply afraid of her daughter moving off, trying not to confront how scared she is: ‘Oh my gosh, but what will I do when she leaves me?'”

Hennessy says Hope Valley will please When Calls the Heart fans aka Hearties, while offering some key differences.

“In this show, I think they’re gonna get all of the warmth and the romance aspect, in a structure, though, that goes a little broader, can be a little darker, a little more gritty,” she explains.

She adds that the series has “a lot of focus on women’s relationships, and women and men in a friendship/survival kind of way, where there’s no competition, there’s no bitterness, and people are just trying to make it through the day.”

Hennessy, a veteran of shows like Law & Order, Crossing Jordan and Yellowstone, says there’s a “sweetness” to Hope Valley, which she says is “so nice to go to … with everything that’s happening in the world.”

“Even as an actor … it’s kind of nice to get there, and put on the petticoat and the corset, and work with nice people,” she adds. “This is just one of the nicest casts. It is very appealing. It’s a nice — how can I say? — a little bit of an escape.” 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Hope Valley: 1874, the prequel series to When Calls the Heart, premieres Saturday on Hallmark+, and star Jill Hennessy thinks it provides “a little bit of an escape.”

Hope Valley: 1874 follows Rebecca Clarke and her daughter, who settle in a Western Canadian frontier town where Hennessy’s character, Hattie Quinn, runs the trading post. “She’s sort of the go-between and the hub of all these people,” Hennessy tells ABC Audio of Hattie, who’s a widow and single mother.

“She’s sorta used to living on her own, but deeply afraid of her daughter moving off, trying not to confront how scared she is: ‘Oh my gosh, but what will I do when she leaves me?'”

Hennessy says Hope Valley will please When Calls the Heart fans aka Hearties, while offering some key differences.

“In this show, I think they’re gonna get all of the warmth and the romance aspect, in a structure, though, that goes a little broader, can be a little darker, a little more gritty,” she explains.

She adds that the series has “a lot of focus on women’s relationships, and women and men in a friendship/survival kind of way, where there’s no competition, there’s no bitterness, and people are just trying to make it through the day.”

Hennessy, a veteran of shows like Law & Order, Crossing Jordan and Yellowstone, says there’s a “sweetness” to Hope Valley, which she says is “so nice to go to … with everything that’s happening in the world.”

“Even as an actor … it’s kind of nice to get there, and put on the petticoat and the corset, and work with nice people,” she adds. “This is just one of the nicest casts. It is very appealing. It’s a nice — how can I say? — a little bit of an escape.” 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Chicken jockey, as they say.

Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of the currently untitled sequel to A Minecraft Movie, ABC Audio has confirmed.

Dunst will play Alex, one of the primary avatars in the Minecraft video game, in the upcoming sequel. She joins a cast that also includes Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Matt Berry and Jennifer Coolidge.

Warner Bros. Pictures announced its plans to make A Minecraft Movie sequel in October 2025. The film will arrive in theaters on July 23, 2027.

At the time it was announced, Warner Bros. shared a post to its Instagram with two pickaxes and the scheduled release date underneath.

“Building terrain. See you in theaters July 23 2027. #Minecraft,” the post’s caption reads.

Jared Hess directed the first film. He’s set to return to helm the sequel from a screenplay he wrote with Chris Galletta. Its plot is being kept under wraps.

A Minecraft Movie was released on April 4, 2025. The film grossed $424 million in the U.S. and almost $1 billion worldwide.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.