In brief: ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ renewed for season 2, and more
The ladies of MomTok are coming back for more. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has been renewed for a fourth season on Hulu. The third season debuted on Nov. 13 as the #1 show on Hulu’s Top 15 Today list. Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC News …
Film fans, rejoice! Popular releases and award hopefuls One Battle After Anotherand Sinners are returning to select IMAX 70mm for one week only, starting Dec. 12. Check your local listings to find a showing at a theater near you …
The Scrubs reboot has released its first teaser. Original Scrubs actors Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke star in the series, along with new faces to Sacred Heart including Vanessa Bayer and Joel Kim Booster. The new series is set to premiere on Feb. 25 on ABC …
‘Wheel of Fortune’ crowns biggest winner in show’s history. (ABC)
A Connecticut woman became the biggest winner in Wheel of Fortune history Tuesday night after taking home more than $1 million in prizes.
Christina Derevjanik of Stamford, Connecticut, won a total of $1,035,155, becoming only the fourth contestant ever to land the show’s $1 million grand prize and the first since Ryan Seacrest took over as host, according to a press release.
Over the course of the game, Derevjanik collected $35,155 in cash and prizes, including trips to Montana and Tokyo, before advancing to the bonus round. She chose the category “Living Things” and correctly solved the puzzle, “PACK OF COYOTES.”
Seacrest then revealed the $1 million envelope, sparking confetti and cheers as Derevjanik celebrated her historic win.
Co-host Vanna White hugged her, saying, “I’m so happy for you!” Seacrest added, “Congratulations, you’re my first million-dollar winner. I have a tear in my eye.”
Following the episode, Seacrest told her she had become the biggest winner in the show’s history, to which Derevjanik responded, “I have no words!”
Derevjanik later admitted, “I was trying to manifest this. I was hoping for confetti, but I never thought it would actually happen.”
Outside the game show spotlight, Derevjanik works in marketing for a utilities company. In her free time, she enjoys solving puzzles, watching Hallmark movies and hiking with her dog, Hazel. An avid runner, she has completed 11 half marathons and one full marathon.
The $1 million grand prize wedge was first introduced in 2008 during the show’s 26th season.
To claim it, contestants must land on the wedge, solve the puzzle and make it to the bonus round without hitting bankruptcy.
The prize has only been awarded three times before, including to Michelle Lowenstein in 2008, Autumn Erhard in 2013 and Sarah Manchester in 2014.
Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy in ‘The Morning Show.’ (Apple TV)
Apple’s streaming service is leaving the plus behind.
Apple TV+ is rebranding to Apple TV, the company announced on Monday. The name change was revealed in a press release announcing the streaming release date for F1: The Movie.
Toward the end of the press release, Apple announced that Apple TV+ will now be known as Apple TV. The company referred to the rebrand as “a vibrant new identity.”
This marks the first name change in the platform’s history. The streaming service launched on Nov. 1, 2019, with eight original series and one documentary. Among the original slate of programming was Dickinson, The Morning Show, For All Mankind, See and Servant.
The service formerly known as Apple TV+ made history when it became the first streaming platform to win the Academy Award for best picture. It won for its 2021 drama film CODA. Several of its shows, including Ted Lasso and Severance, have received awards attention at the Emmys.
Billie Lourd and Carrie Fisher attend the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 7th annual Governors Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on November 14, 2015, in Hollywood, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Billie Lourd is mourning her mother, Carrie Fisher.
Fisher died at age 60 in December 2016 following a heart attack. Lourd took to Instagram on Tuesday to pay tribute to her mother on what would have been Fisher’s 69th birthday. She shared a photo of herself, Fisher and her maternal grandmother, the late Debbie Reynolds, alongside a lengthy caption.
“My mom would’ve been 69 years old today. Which still feels shockingly young because this is the 9th birthday of hers I’ve ‘celebrated’ without her. It feels like she has been dead so long that she should be 100 at this point? It feels more okay for a 100 year old person to be dead? But not a 69 year old,” Lourd wrote.
Lourd then went on to express how Fisher never got to meet her grandchildren. Lourd shares two children — a 5-year-old son named Kingston Fisher Lourd Rydell and 3-year-old daughter named Jackson Joanne Lourd Rydell — with husband Austen Rydell.
“The other night my son asked me how she died – I told him that she didn’t take care of her body – telling him the truth without telling him the whole truth. ‘Oh but I take care of my body!’ Yes I replied, ‘Yes you do! And I do too and daddy does too!'” Lourd wrote. “Death isn’t looming at our doorsteps the way it always was for her. That’s a conversation for later years. He didn’t push me for more answers so we left it at that. But it broke my heart.”
While Lourd wrote about her grief, she also said she wanted Fisher’s birthday to “have some happy in it.”
“Especially for my kids. She was a brilliant magical human and I want them to know that,” Lourd wrote. “Grief is a weird soup of feelings and there are a lot of ingredients in it that are hard to swallow, but ultimately I think the soup has made me healthier – more cognizant of how short life is and more appreciative of all the happy in my life.”
