In brief: ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ trailer and more
The official trailer is out for Remarkably Bright Creatures, a new Netflix film based on the 2022 bestselling novel by Shelby Van Pelt. Sally Field plays Tova, a widow working at an aquarium who befriends an octopus named Marcellus. “Unbeknownst to Tova, Marcellus is on a mission to solve a mystery that will heal the widow’s heart and lead her to a life-changing discovery,” the movie’s description says. Lewis Pullman plays a young man who takes a maintenance job at the aquarium and has some healing of his own to do. The film debuts May 8 …
Legally Blonde returns to theaters next month for its 25th anniversary, with a bonus: A sneak peek at the upcoming Prime Video prequel series Elle. Plus, the original Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon, and Lexi Minetree, who plays the younger Elle in the series, have recorded a special introduction for the movie. Tickets are on sale now at FathomEntertainment.com …
Uma Thurman is returning for season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection. The actress will reprise her role as Charley, the former Special Ops officer who served as the right-hand woman for the serial killer-obsessed billionaire Leon Prater last season. As previously announced, Brian Cox is joining the cast of the Michael C. Hall drama as The New York Ripper. Dexter: Resurrection airs on Paramount+ …
Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. Blake Lively attends ‘Another Simple Favor’ New York Screening, April 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Animosity on the set of the film It Ends With Us was evident well before highly publicized lawsuits between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were filed, newly unsealed text messages show.
The messages, which are among the hundreds of documents the judge overseeing the civil claims ordered unsealed ahead of a hearing this week, show Lively and Baldoni venting to friends and colleagues during filming.
In a May 2023 text exchange between Lively and a journalist, Lively expresses her frustration with filming and says she “came home and cried” on one occasion. The actress also writes, “They’re just being creeps,” when referring to her co-star.
Texts between Baldoni and another actor show he was equally frustrated while making the movie. Baldoni, who also served as the film’s director, said in one message that Lively was threatening not to promote the movie if she was not allowed to take part in the edit.
In one message, he wrote, “She had the nuclear bomb. If she doesn’t promote the movie she can leak that I’m a bad person or that she felt unsafe with me and ‘all the stuff’ she has on me. Then she’s the victim.”
In a later text message, he wrote, “The risk to my family isn’t worth the creative integrity.”
Other unsealed documents include a text exchange between Lively and fellow actress Jenny Slate, who also appeared in the film.
Referring to Baldoni, Lively wrote, “I also saw something in him, was aware of a general vibe that I’m not into, and I pushed past it. Never again! Lesson learned.”
ABC News has reached out to Slate’s representative for comment.
Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us and accusing both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios of engaging in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
The two filed dueling lawsuits against each other in New York in the weeks that followed, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and further accusing Baldoni of retaliation, suing him for nearly $500 million in damages. Baldoni’s lawyer denied the allegations, stating at the time that they had “evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie” by Lively.
Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s public relations company Vision PR alleging extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had “robbed” him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively’s lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni’s suit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” they said in a statement at the time.
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June of last year, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint. Attorney Byran Freedman said at the time, “Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights. In the meantime, we are focusing on Ms. Lively’s claims. We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available and look forward to our day in court.”
Lively’s suit against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios is ongoing.
This week’s documents were unsealed ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 22. The trial is set to begin May 18.
A member of Lively’s legal team responded to the newly unsealed documents in a statement to ABC News, writing, “In his TedTalk to promote his brand as an advocate for women, Justin Baldoni said we must ‘listen to the women’…even if what they are saying is against you.’ See how he actually reacts in the bombshell new evidence released for the first time, which includes sworn testimony and contemporaneous messages from numerous women who actually worked with him.”
The statement continued, “The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit. The evidence includes Ms. Lively’s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.”
ABC News has reached out to Baldoni’s representatives for comment.
Rose Byrne may be fresh off her first Oscar nomination for her performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, but she already has another movie in theaters.
The actress stars in Tow, which follows the true story of Amanda Ogle, an unhoused woman living in her car on the streets of Seattle, Washington. After her Toyota Camry is stolen and impounded, she fights a relentless legal battle to reclaim her car and, in turn, her life.
Byrne told ABC Audio she got the chance to meet with the real-life Ogle while preparing for the role. They spent a few days together exploring neighborhoods in Seattle and seeing all of the locations that made her who she is.
“She’s extraordinary,” Byrne said of Ogle, noting “her stubbornness, her perseverance” and most of all her “self-respect and her value of wanting to fight this fight.”
“Which is really what it’s about. Less so the car, but about that drive,” Byrne said, pun not intended.
Byrne continued, “She was really struggling for the basic things and yet she was driven to make sure that she went up against this unbelievable monolith, this corporate monolith who couldn’t care less about this complaint.”
Her story “was very inspiring and unbelievable,” Byrne said. If she had to pick one thing about Ogle that speaks to her the most, Byrne said it was her unyielding dedication.
That stubbornness “was a thing I was fascinated with,” Byrne said, “her unwillingness to let it go.”
Stephen Graham wins best performance by a male actor in a limited series, anthology series, or a motion picture made for television at the 83rd annual Golden Globes. (Phil McCarten/CBS)
Adolescence star and co-creator Stephen Graham won a trophy at this year’s Golden Globes — but he also lost that same trophy not too long after the ceremony.
In a recent interview with the U.K. radio show Capital Breakfast, Graham told the story of how he lost his Golden Globe in the chaos that followed his Jan. 11 win for best actor in a limited series, anthology series or a motion picture made for television.
“I had to go straight from LA the day after to Madrid because I had to be on set the next day. It was weird, I had like three minutes to catch the plane,” Graham said. “It’s a next-level kind of thing. As I come off, a woman stood there with my name and she took me down the stairs, threw me in a car and drove me across the airport on the runway.”
The actor remembered being concerned that his suitcase — which had his Golden Globe inside of it — wasn’t going to make the plane.
“I went, ‘Excuse me, love? There’s no way you’re getting my suitcase on this plane if I’m in a car now,’ and she’s like, ‘Oh no, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it,’” Graham said. “And I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, you don’t understand,’ and she went, ‘I promise you, I promise you.’ Anyway, it didn’t land.”
Graham said his suitcase that contained Golden Globe was left in Atlanta. He put his trophy inside the suitcase because he found it too heavy.
“I wasn’t carrying that on me,” Graham said.
Luckily, the trophy wasn’t lost for long. Graham said he has since been reunited with his Golden Globe.
”But thankfully, thankfully, it turns up the day after. Two days after,” Graham said.
