Category: Entertainment

Meet the British villains of Deadpool & Wolverine! The Marvel sequel, in theaters Friday, introduces fans to Mr. Paradox, a bureaucrat in the Time Variance Authority played by Matthew Macfadyen, and Cassandra Nova, played by Emma Corrin.

Cassandra’s the evil twin sister of X-Men founder Charles Xavier, and Corrin tells ABC Audio it was a “delicious” role to sink their teeth into.

Adds Corrin, “I mean, Cassandra’s a handful, and she’s unpredictable and keeps the boys guessing, which is great. And, yeah, it was a lot of fun.”

Cassandra can probe your deepest and darkest thoughts by physically sinking her fingers inside your body; Corrin says that in order to achieve that effect, they had to wear prosthetic fingers, which was a challenge.

“It’s like having fingers on your fingers,” they say. “But it feels interesting because you can’t, I couldn’t do anything once I had them on because they also had nails on them, which were very fragile. So, yeah, I couldn’t go to the bathroom by myself, which was humbling.”

Macfadyen is the Emmy-winning star of the HBO series Succession, playing Tom Wambsgans, and he talked to ABC Audio about who’s more conniving and power hungry: Tom or Mr. Paradox.

“They’re so sort of far apart and weirdly close together. I don’t think Tom is particularly power hungry and conniving. He just sort of thinks in the moment and rises without trace to the top,” he suggests.

Paradox, on the other hand, is “just sort of cross with where he is. He’s waiting for a universe to die and it’s taking too long. And so he … he decides to do something about it.”

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Jeff Goldblum is famously easygoing, but he’s anything but in the teaser for Kaos, Netflix’s forthcoming “fable.”

The present day-set show dips into ancient mythology, with Goldblum as a modern-day, vengeful Zeus.

“Humans, when they’re not scared, they’re not worshipping me,” he boasts, as he watches video footage of various disasters. 

The streaming service calls the show “an epic struggle between gods, humans and everything in between,” teasing humans who dare to defy the gods.

Of the rebels, Goldblum seethes, “I’m gonna wipe these f****** right off the face of the f****** earth.”

The series comes to Netflix on Aug. 29.

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The final episode of season 4 of The Boys may have been a downer, but it ended on a very high note.

ABC Audio has learned that the fourth installment of the show attracted 55 million viewers worldwide, according to Prime Video, and reached #1 in 170 countries.

Overall, viewership for the fourth season of the Emmy-nominated series based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s bestselling comic book series is up 20% versus the third.

Interestingly, for all the skewering the show did about American politics this season, 60% of the audience was in other countries, with strong performances in the U.K., Canada, Brazil, India, Germany, Italy, France, Mexico and Spain, according to the streamer.

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The Substance, a body horror movie starring Demi Moore that received a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes International Film Festival, will have its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival Sept. 5.

The pic will kick off the festival’s annual salute to all things shocking, its Midnight Madness lineup: “10 titles that celebrate the best in action, horror, shock, and fantasy cinema with midnight premieres at the historic (and allegedly haunted) Royal Alexandra Theatre,” according to organizers. 

The Substance also stars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, and writer-director Coralie Fargeat‘s film has Moore playing an aging Hollywood superstar so desperate to regain her looks that she signs up to inject herself with a mysterious serum that shares the title’s name.

However, and as expected, it turns out to be too good to be true. 

In a short video introducing this year’s Midnight Madness lineup, its lead programmer, Peter Kuplowsky, called the movie a masterpiece, adding, “It’s as good as you’ve heard.”

The movie comes to theaters nationwide on Sept. 20.

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On his Instagram, Pedro Pascal posted a photo of the core four members of Marvel Studios’ upcoming The Fantastic Four. “Our first mission together,” he captioned the photo.

Pascal, who plays the stretchy genius Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, is having his head cradled by Vanessa Kirby, who plays his onscreen love interest, Sue Storm, otherwise known as the Invisible Woman.

The Bear‘s Ebon Moss-Bachrach has his arms stretched around both her and Stranger Things veteran Joseph Quinn; Moss-Bachrach plays Ben Grimm/the Thing and Quinn plays Sue’s brother, the daredevil Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch.

The cast also includes Black Bird actor Paul Walter Hauser, The First Omen‘s Ralph Ineson, Poker Face‘s Natasha Lyonne and Ozark vet Julia Garner.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige previously confirmed to The Official Marvel Podcast that the film is a period piece set in the ’60s, though he hinted it may not necessarily be our 1960s.

Of a promotional image of Johnny flying in full “flame on” mode, Feige noted, “There were a lot of smart people who noticed that that cityscape didn’t look exactly like the New York that we know or the New York that existed in the ’60s in our world. Those are smart observations.”

The Fantastic Four is scheduled to release on July 25, 2025.

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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The anticipated bundle of streaming services Disney+, Max and Hulu that was first announced in May now has a price: The package will run $16.99 a month for an ad-supported version and $29.99 a month for an ad-free experience. 

According to the announcement, that works out to be 38% less than if you were to buy all three individually.

As reported, it’s an interesting collaboration, as most streaming services offer content bundles from within their corporate umbrella and don’t team up with competitors.

For example, Disney has been previously packaged with its sports brand ESPN, and Paramount+ with Showtime, the latter of which are both owned by parent company Viacom.

While ABC News’ parent company, Disney, is the majority shareholder of Hulu, Max is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to the announcement, the package provides “a wide selection of content from the biggest and most beloved portfolio of brands in entertainment including ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, Star Wars, Warner Bros., and many more.”

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Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere production company A24 announced that Mad Men alumna January Jones will be joining Fallout‘s Kyle MacLachlan and Oppenheimer‘s David Krumholtz in Altar, a new horror film.

The project hails from Westworld veteran writer Will Soodik and Egor Abramenko, the acclaimed Russian director behind the thriller Sputnik.

Plot details are under wraps, but the film, based on a short story by Philip Fracassi, “follows the summer of a young boy, forced to grow up faster than he ever imagined.” 

Newcomer Hudson Behling plays the youngster in the Chernin Entertainment co-production that also stars Lily Collias.

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Whether unwinding with a little “comfort watching” or re-bingeing an old favorite from pilot to finale, most people have hit play on their favorite series more than once.

And according to a new survey, The Office is the most popular series in the country to do just that.

Casino.ca polled 3,000 Americans and 3,000 Canadians as to which shows they watch over and over again, and for both American and Canadian viewers, The Office is the preferred choice.

In the U.S., the Steve Carell comedy was the top pick in 14 states, including California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Coming in second in the U.S. was Breaking Bad: The Emmy-winning drama was the #1 re-watched show in New Mexico, where the Bryan Cranston series is set, and six others, including Alabama, Florida and Nebraska.

Friends ranked third, topping the competition in four states, including New York, the home turf of Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler and Joey, and their fictional hangout Central Perk.

Fourth place was a tie with two other NBC shows, Seinfeld and Law & Order: SVU. Both New York City-based series were tops in three states, but New York wasn’t one of them.

Rounding out fifth place was another tie, with The Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, The Simpsons, Modern Family and Schitt’s Creek each being the top choice in two states.

Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.

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Jennifer Lopez is sharing pictures and videos from her Bridgerton-themed birthday party.

Lopez, who turned 55 on Wednesday, shared a video from her birthday celebration featuring outfits, music, horse and carriages fitting the Regency-era show’s style and theme.

The video Lopez shared on her Instagram featured a horse and carriage, quick-paced violin and a Regency ballroom dance with men dressed in long coats, white socks and loafers and women in white gloves and long dresses.

“Dearest Gentle Reader…And a splendid evening was had by all,” read Lopez’s caption on her birthday post, a nod to the show’s resident gossip maven Lady Whistledown.

Also included in the post were several images of Lopez in several outfits including an emerald green dress. Lopez posed for photos with guests, enjoyed a large multi-layered cake, and appeared to sing on a microphone for her guests.

The choice of a Bridgerton theme could be seen as slightly ironic, seeing as the Netflix phenomenon centers on all the drama the gossip pages can wreak on the lives of the rich and famous.

Lopez has weathered negative press recently: Headlines have hinted her marriage to Ben Affleck is in trouble, and in May, Lopez canceled her This Is Me…Live tour.

At the time, she released a statement saying “Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary. I promise I will make it up to you and we will all be together again. I love you all so much. Until next time…”

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Well, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the reason a The Facts of Life reboot didn’t happen. 

Mindy Cohn, who now appears on the Apple TV+ comedy Palm Royale, appeared on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live on Wednesday, revealing one of her three castmates from the ’80s sitcom was a “greedy b****” and ended up scuttling the in-development project. 

She wouldn’t say who it was, though her social media shows she’s still chummy with Kim Fields, who played Tootie, and Nancy McKeon, who played Jo — but there are no recent photos with Lisa Whelchel, who played the spoiled Blair.

“We got into talks and we hired a writer,” Mindy said. “The four of us got together on a Zoom — this was during COVID — and we had meetings with Norman [Lear] about it.”

But to paraphrase the show’s theme song, suddenly they found out one of the actresses thought the Facts of Life was all about them.

“One of the girls went behind [their] backs to try to make a separate deal for a spin-off deal just for herself,” Cohn revealed, adding the others were “devastated.”

“I’m just saying, for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a tidal wave of emotion around it,” Cohn expressed. 

Fellow guest Michael Hitchcock offered, “There’s always a greedy b****,” earning a high five from Cohn. “You know what … she was a greedy bitch,” Mindy agreed. 

Cohn says a possible reboot picked up steam after the Facts of Life segment on ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience special became a huge hit.

Now the reboot is “dead,” Cohn says, adding, “We were united for 40 years, and this kind of wrecked that. And … it’s really sad.”

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