In brief: ‘The Simpsons’ gets a new voice actor, ‘Fortnite’ uses AI for James Earl Jones voice and more
The Simpsons is getting a bit of refresh with the addition of a new actor. Entertainment Weekly reports singer Kelly Macleod will now voice Milhouse Van Houten, the blue-haired best friend of Bart Simpson. The update comes after PamelaHayden, who voiced Milhouse for 35 years, announced her retirement from the show in November. Macleod will make her debut on Sunday’s season finale …
Warner Bros.’ Mickey 17 has found a streaming home at HBO Max. The sci-fi comedy film makes its debut on May 23, with a follow-up release the next day on HBO’s traditional channels. Mickey 17is the brain child of Academy Award-winning writer/director Bong Joon Ho, widely known for the hit film Parasite. It stars RobertPattinson as an “unlikely hero who has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job … to die, for a living.” Mickey 17 opened in theaters in March …
Fortnite fans now have the opportunity to speak and interact with Stars Wars‘ Darth Vader when playing the popular video game. Epic Games announced Friday that the new feature not only summons Darth Vader, but also includes the character’s iconic voice — that of JamesEarlJones. “We’re honored to feature the voice of the late Mr. Jones and we thank his estate for the opportunity to make this happen for players,” Epic said in a statement.
Harvey Weinstein has been convicted on one count of engaging in criminal sex but acquitted on the second in his sex crimes retrial in New York.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the rape count.
The verdict comes after some apparent discord in the jury room during deliberations.
On Monday, the jury foreperson wrote in a note to Judge Curtis Farber, “I need to talk to you about a situation that isn’t very good.” The foreperson was called into the judge’s chambers, where he said some jurors were “attacking, talking together, fight together” — adding, “I don’t like it” — according to a transcript of the closed encounter.
The foreperson said jurors were discussing Weinstein’s past.
When the judge summoned the entire jury that day, he reminded them to discuss only the evidence presented at trial and to be cordial.
Prosecutors said Weinstein “preyed on three women” as “he held unfettered power for over 30 years” in Hollywood, while the defense countered the producer did not coerce the women and claimed they were using him for his connections.
Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty and has said his sexual encounters were consensual. He did not testify during the trial, where he is being retried for sexually assaulting two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann, after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal. He is also charged with sexually assaulting a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the first trial. All three women have publicly come forward and testified during the trial.
“Harvey Weinstein had enormous control over those working in television and film. He decided who was in and who was out,” the prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, told the jury of seven women and five men at the start of the trial. “He held the golden ticket. The chance to make it or not.”
Lucey claimed that “no” was “not a word the defendant was used to hearing.”
Weinstein’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, agreed with prosecutors that Weinstein was a powerful man in the television and film industries, but he told the jury Weinstein did not coerce the women he’s accused of assaulting. Instead, Aidala claimed Weinstein engaged in “mutually beneficial relationships” that the attorney said have been going on in Hollywood for 100 years.
“They’re fooling around with him consensually,” Aidala claimed. “The casting couch was not a crime scene.”
In detailing the alleged sexual assaults, Lucey claimed that when Haley went to Weinstein’s Crosby Street apartment in July 2006 to discuss a production role on Project Runway, he allegedly “held her down” and subjected her to forcible sexual conduct.
Sokola was 16 when she met Weinstein in 2002 at a restaurant in the West Village shortly after signing a modeling contract to come to New York from Poland. Several years later, in 2006, Weinstein cast Sokola as an extra in The Nanny Diaries. After a lunch at a Manhattan hotel that year, Weinstein allegedly “pressed on her shoulders with enough force to get her down on the bed” and forced oral sex on the 19-year-old as she said, “Please do not do this,” Lucey claimed.
Lucey also claimed Weinstein allegedly forced Sokola to touch his genitals in a Manhattan apartment when she was 16. Weinstein is not charged in that alleged 2002 incident in the indictment, as it is outside the statute of limitations. But the judge has allowed Sokola to testify about it during the trial, along with a second alleged incident involving Weinstein she says occurred in 2004. Sokola previously filed a lawsuit in New York under the Child Victims Act over the alleged 2002 incident, which prosecutors said has since been settled.
In 2013, Weinstein allegedly subjected Mann to sex without her consent at a hotel, according to Lucey. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her after finding out she had a serious boyfriend who was an actor. Lucey claimed Mann had also engaged in sexual encounters with Weinstein that were not coerced out of fear of his power in the industry.
The new trial comes after the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s initial 2020 conviction last year, finding the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
Weinstein has also appealed his conviction in December 2022 on sex offenses in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison there.
If you are affected by abuse and needing support, or know someone who is, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). You can also chat online at thehotline.org or online.rainn.org, respectively.
Dominic Sessa will star as Anthony Bourdain in a new biopic about the late chef’s life.
A24 confirmed the casting news for the upcoming film, which will be called Tony, by reposting a post from Variety about the casting news on the social platform X.
Antonio Banderas will also appear in the movie, though his role is being kept under wraps. The film will take place in 1976 and cover the life-changing experiences Bourdain had working and living in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Bourdain enrolled in culinary school in 1978, two years after the film is set. He was the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in New York City and penned the 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Bourdain also received a posthumous Emmy for his work on the unscripted series’ No Reservations and Parts Unknown. He died in Strasbourg, France, in 2018 at age 61.
Matt Johnson is set to direct the biopic from a script written by Todd Barrels and Lou Howe. The project begins shooting in May.
Bourdain’s estate rep Kimberly Witherspoon serves as an executive producer on the film.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
Fans of Hamilton were satisfied when the original company of the show reunited onstage at the 78th annual Tony Awards.
Led by creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, more than two dozen members of the original cast of Hamilton took to the stage at Radio City Music Hall to perform a medley in honor of the show’s 10th anniversary.
The performance began with Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., who won a Tony for playing Aaron Burr in the musical, taking the stage to perform the first lines from the Act 1 closer “Non-Stop.”
They were quickly joined by their castmates, including Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Christopher Jackson and Jonathan Groff.
The medley included a number of snippets of fan-favorite tracks from the musical, including “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” “The Room Where it Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”
Eventually, the celebratory performance came full circle as the original cast ended by belting out the final snippet of “Non-Stop.”
This performance does not mark the end of the 10th anniversary celebrations. Odom is set to reprise his Tony-winning role at the Richard Rodgers Theatre this fall. He’ll return to Aaron Burr for a limited engagement starting on Sept. 9 and running through Nov. 26.
