Category: Entertainment

On Thursday’s installment of The Jennifer Hudson show, Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance talked about his anticipation of receiving one of the biggest honors in showbiz, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Vance is following in the Walk of Fame footsteps of his award-winning wife, Angela Bassett. 

“Angela got hers I think back in ’07, and the [children] were 2,” he said of their fraternal twins, Bronwyn Golden Vance and Slater Josiah Vance, who are now 18. 

“Aw, they were babies!” J. Hud gushed to a throwback photo of the family at Bassett’s ceremony. 

Grotesquerie star and executive producer Vance said they still need to schedule his ceremony, but added, “It’s such a blessing to be in the class of ’24-’25.”

Vance will be in good company: When the next slate of nominees was announced back in June, it was revealed that some of the actor’s “class” will include actress Nia Long, actor-director Bill Duke, Sherri Shepherd, Fantasia, Colin Farrell and Jane Fonda.

According to the organization’s website, upcoming star ceremonies are usually announced 10 days prior to dedication.

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The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out former Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying about a 2019 hate crime.

Smollett was found guilty in 2021 for faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to the police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because, in 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

In its decision, filed on Thursday, the court stated they are resolving a “question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants.”

The court stated it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement and the actor performed the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that it is “fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment.”

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied,” it said.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision cancels earlier rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.

A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from him filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.

He was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve 30 months of felony probation.

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Matthew McConaughey says it took turning down a $14.5 million payday for Hollywood to take him seriously in dramatic roles.

The actor appeared on tennis pro Nick Kyrgios‘ Good Trouble podcast and revealed he left Hollywood for Texas because he kept getting scripts for romantic comedies. 

After a string of successful ones, like How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner, he wanted more.

“When I was rolling with the rom-coms, and I was the ‘rom-com dude,’ that was my lane and I liked that lane. That lane paid well … I was so strong in that lane that anything outside that lane – dramas and stuff that I want[ed] to do … Hollywood said, ‘No, no, no. You should stay there.'”

He added, “So, since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I … moved down to the ranch in Texas.”

He reportedly told his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, “I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.”

The actor and author says he stuck to his guns even after studios sweetened the deal with a potential paycheck as high as $14.5 million. “That was probably seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me because it really sent the signal, ‘He ain’t f****** bluffing,'” McConaughey recalled, noting the gambit worked.

He insists, “The devil’s in the infinite yeses, not the no’s. ‘No’ becomes more important than ‘yes.'”

McConaughey says N-O is even more important if you’ve become successful. “We can all look around and see we’ve over-leveraged our life with yeses and going, ‘I’m making C-minuses and all this s*** in my life because I said yes to too many things.'”

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While at Disney’s APAC Content Showcase Wednesday at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Anthony Mackie shed a little light on his upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, Captain America: Brave New World. 

The movie, which debuts in theaters Feb. 14, will be Mackie’s first after his character Sam Wilson took on the mantle of Captain America in the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

According to Deadline, Mackie said his character — which fans met as a veteran counselor in Captain America: The Winter Soldier — is staying true to his roots. 

“He’s still a [counselor]. He’s still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he’s a leader of his community in the country,” Mackie reportedly said. 

Unlike Chris Evans‘ Steve Rogers, however, Wilson never took the super soldier cocktail that gave Steve’s Cap his superior strength. 

“When you don’t have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of [fighting],” the actor said, explaining that “he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist.”

That said, the trailer to the movie shows him going toe-to-toe with Harrison Ford‘s Red Hulk. 

The trade also reports head Kevin Feige made a virtual appearance and revealed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is about to wrap, and with its debut in July, “Marvel’s First Family … [goes] right into the next Avengers movies.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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Robert Pattinson is teaming up with his Tenet director Christopher Nolan again, according to Variety. The actor is reportedly joining the filmmaker’s secretive next project at Universal Pictures. The cast already includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya …

Storm Reid won’t be returning to Euphoria for season 3. The actress, who played Gia, the younger sister of Zendaya’s character, Rue, confirmed the news to Rotten Tomatoes on the Governors Awards red carpet. “Unfortunately, Gia’s not returning to the third season, but I am so, so indebted to the cast and the crew of that show, to HBO,” she said. The third season is set to begin production in January …

Emily is heading back to Paris. According to Variety, the fifth season of the Lily Collins-starring Netflix series will begin filming in May. It will also partly shoot in Rome. Collins will return alongside co-star Lucas Bravo, who plays French chef Gabriel in the series …

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It’s time for sophomore year at Essex College.

The Sex Lives of College Girls returns for season 3 on Thursday with many new changes – including Reneé Rapp taking a step back from the show.

Rapp, who stars as Leighton Murray, will appear in three episodes before she departs from the Max series. Alyah Chanelle Scott, who plays Whitney Chase, told ABC Audio she’ll still see her close friend, but that it was strange to say goodbye to Rapp in character.

“I wasn’t prepared for that level of emotion, that weird dynamic shift in the group. But it’s cool because it happens in real time. Like, we are actively crying and saying goodbye,” Scott said. “There was so much emotion and so much release. And it was bittersweet, but also you feel so happy for her and the journey that she’s on separately of the show and all the things that she’s always wanted to do that she’s getting to do.”

Pauline Chalamet, who plays Kimberly Finkle, expressed similar feelings.

“It’s really bittersweet, obviously, because the four of us were like a family, but I think it’s just very emblematic and representative of what happens in college,” Chalamet said, noting the scene where they said goodbye to Rapp “allowed us to play out in the show what we were also feeling in real life. And that’s really such a privilege.”

Showrunner Justin Noble said the only way Leighton could depart was with a bang.

“The only thing Leighton does is win. So obviously we had to send her off with a big win,” Noble said. “I think it shows that Leighton has sort of excelled in the assignment of what college is, just faster than the others … and in a show about finding yourself, she just found herself a little earlier.”

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“Is this the untimely end of Milhouse?” Pamela Hayden, a 35-year veteran of The Simpsons, will have her last performance on the long-running animated series on Sunday.

Hayden, who famously voices Bart’s friend Milhouse Van Houten but also lends her voice to the town bully Jimbo Jones, as well as other residents of the fictional animated town, is stepping away from the show. 

The Simpsons‘ official social media platforms bade a fond farewell to the performer, writing, “Thank you for 35 years of Milhouse and so many more, Pamela Hayden!”

The message came with a reel of Hayden’s work, both in the recording booth and her characters as their animated selves throughout the years. 

“As you retire from The Simpsons, we celebrate you,” an animated title card reads. The actress also says her “main guy” Milhouse might be dismissed as a nerd, but the thing she loves about him is that “no matter how many times he gets knocked down, he gets back up, again. I love the little guy.” 

“Your voice made us laugh and fall in love with Milhouse,” the title card concludes. “We will miss you!”

The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu.

It’s not known who will voice her characters going forward.

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Anne Hathaway is taking on Colleen Hoover‘s latest film adaptation.

The popular author’s novel Verity is becoming a film for Amazon MGM Studios, and Hathaway has been tapped to star. The actress will reteam with director Michael Showalter, who helmed her hit Amazon rom-com The Idea of You.

Verity is based on the New York Times #1 bestseller of the same name, with a script by Nick Antosca. Sources tell Deadline the film will get a theatrical release.

This is the latest Hoover novel to be adapted to film, after her other bestseller It Ends with Us was released in theaters back in August. It made $346 million at the worldwide box office.

Verity follows a struggling writer who accepts a job finishing the remaining books in a successful mystery series, whose author, played by Hathaway, is unable to finish after befalling a mysterious accident.

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Viola Davis has been named the recipient of the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Wednesday. She’ll be recognized at the annual show for her outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.

“Viola Davis is a luminary whose profound talent has continuously shifted the lens through which we see and understand film,” Golden Globes President Helen Hoehne said in a statement. “Presenting her with the 2025 Cecil B. DeMille Award is not only an honor but a reflection of our admiration for her relentless dedication to her craft and her monumental impact on the industry.”

She continued, “Viola’s courage in portraying complex, powerful characters has broken barriers and paved new paths, making her an emblem of excellence and an ideal recipient of this prestigious award.”

Viola, an EGOT winner, earned an Emmy for her performance as Annalise Keating on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. She won the Best Audio Narration Grammy for her memoir, Finding Me; an Oscar for her onscreen and offscreen work on Fences; and a Tony for Best Featured Actress in the play King Hedley II.

Davis has also won seven Golden Globes throughout the course of her career, taking home awards for How to Get Away with Murder, Fences, The Woman King, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Help and Doubt.

She’s set to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 82nd annual Golden Globes, joining previous recipients Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and more.

“Thrilled! Overwhelmed! Honored! Thank you @GoldenGlobes,” Viola wrote of the honor on Instagram.

The 2025 Golden Globe Awards air live on CBS and Paramount Jan. 5 starting at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. 

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Denzel Washington is one of the most famous people on the planet, but he shows a new side of himself in a first-person feature in Esquire.

Denzel looks back at having “one foot” in the rough streets of Mount Vernon, New York, growing up, and tracks his life from then to today. 

In his youth, Denzel explained, “I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out. And I never got strung out on liquor. I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that — which is what it was at first. And that’s a very sub­tle thing. I mean, I drank the best.”

He said he’d down two bottles of “the best” on the daily, but clarified, “I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work. … However many months of shooting, bang, it’s time to go. Then, boom. Three months of wine, then time to go back to work.”

Denzel said he’ll be sober 10 years this December.

Now 70, Washington says his “little brother” Lenny Kravitz hooked him up with a trainer. “Things are opening up for me now — like being seventy,” Denzel says. 

“It’s real. And it’s okay. This is the last chapter — if I get another thirty, what do I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven.”

Of his faith, Denzel says, “I know now. God is real. God is love. God is the only way. God is the true way. God blesses. It’s my job to lift God up, to give Him praise, to make sure that anyone and everyone I speak to the rest of my life understands that He is responsible for me.”

“I’m unafraid. I don’t care what anyone thinks,” Washington says, adding of his faith, “you can’t talk like that and win Oscars. … It’s not talked about in this town. It’s not talked about.”

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