In brief: ‘Rooster’ gets a season 2, ‘Wednesday’ casting, and more
Heated Rivalry, The Pitt and Pluribus are among the nominees for the 86th Peabody Awards in the entertainment category. Also among the 15 entertainment nominees this year: Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Adolescence and Andor. The Peabody Awards will take place in Los Angeles on May 31 …
Steve Carell’s HBO series, Rooster, has been renewed for a second season. The first four episodes of season 1 have averaged 5.8 million U.S. viewers, according to the network, making it the most-watched freshman HBO comedy in over a decade. New episodes are airing Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT …
Wednesday is adding some new faces to season 3. Lena Headey, Andrew McCarthy and James Lance will be guest starring in the new season of the Netflix Addams Family series, which is currently in production. Jenna Ortega stars as the title character …
Cast of ‘Tyler Perry’s Where There’s Smoke’ begins production in Atlanta (Courtesy of Netflix)
Step aside Chicago Fire and 9-1-1, there’s a new firefighter drama series on the way. Netflix has announced Tyler Perry’s Where There’s Smoke, his latest project as part of his going partnership with the streamer.
Where There’s Smoke will follow the personal and professional lives of a group of firefighters in 16 hourlong episodes, all of which Perry wrote, directed and produced. Helping to bring the story to life are stars Tyler Lepley, Da’Vinci, Mike Merrill, Eltony Williams, Brittany S. Hall, Brock O’Hurn and Karen Obilom, who have all worked on previous Tyler Perry projects, as well as real-life fire captain Joe Hunter, Mariah Goodie, Jordan Rodriguez and Judi Moon.
Angi Bones and Tony Strickland of Tyler Perry Studios also lend their hand, serving as producers for Where There’s Smoke, which has officially kicked off production in Atlanta.
In the meantime, part 2 of the second season of Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black is set to make its premiere on March 19.
A star-studded group of actors has joined the cast of Molly Gordon’s upcoming comedy film Peaked. Deadline reports that Laura Dern, Simone Ashley, Levon Hawke and Gabby Windey are set to appear in the upcoming film, which Gordon will direct and star in. Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie is also in talks to star. The movie follows two girls who traumatized others in high school as they try to relive their glory days at their 10-year reunion …
Damon Wayans Jr. is set to star in a new drama series pilot for NBC. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor will star in Puzzled. It is based on Danielle Trussoni’s Puzzle Master novels. Wayans will play Mike, a former college athlete who suffered a traumatic brain injury that caused him to develop acquired savant syndrome …
Leo Woodall is joining forces with Sydney Sweeney. Deadline reports that the actor is set to star alongside Sweeney in the film adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel Custom of the Country. Sweeney is set to play protagonist Undine Spragg in the film, while Josie Rourke will direct the movie from a script she adapted from Wharton’s book …
Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton in ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2.’ (20th Century Studios)
A New York City-based stylist says she believes she’s the real-life inspiration behind the character Emily Charlton from the popular book The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.
The character was played by Emily Blunt in the 2006 film of the same name, the predecessor to the forthcoming sequel, which also stars Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
Leslie Fremar, an assistant at Vogue in the 1990s, appeared on a recent episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast. She shared with host Chloe Malle — Vogue‘s current head of editorial content — how she learned of the character and Weisberger’s 2004 book.
“I get a call from Anna [Wintour’s] office saying that she wanted to see me. I was petrified, but she said, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger?’ And I said, ‘She was your junior assistant,’ and she’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us, and you’re worse than me,'” Fremar recalled.
“I definitely told her a million girls would kill for the job,” she added.
Streep portrayed the fictional Runway magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly in the original film, a character widely believed to be inspired by former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Hathaway played Miranda’s second assistant, Andrea Sachs, and Blunt played Miranda’s first assistant, Emily Charlton.
A sequel, called The Devil Wears Prada 2, is set to be released in theaters on May 1.
Fremar said after she learned about the book and what Weisberger had written, she felt “betrayed,” but never spoke to Weisberger again after their time as co-workers ended.
“There’s nothing to be said,” Fremar added of what she might say if the two ever meet again.
ABC News has reached out to Weisberger through her publisher, Random House, for comment.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and 20th Century Studios.
