Jennifer Stone to return as Harper Finkle in ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’
Selena Gomez and Jennifer Stone on the ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ set. (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Harper Finkle and Alex Russo are reuniting.
Jennifer Stone is set to reprise her Wizards of Waverly Place role of Harper Finkle in the final season of its spinoff series Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
Harper is the eccentric human best friend of Selena Gomez’s beloved wizard Alex Russo.
Disney announced earlier in April that Wizards Beyond Waverly Place will return for its final chapter this summer. Production on the new episodes started this month.
Gomez is set to make her directorial debut as she helms the premiere episode of this final chapter in the Russo family’s story. In addition to directing, Gomez will reprise her role of Alex over multiple episodes and continue executive producing.
Stone made a return to acting after she took a hiatus to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She graduated in 2019 with plans to resume acting full-time, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and she stepped into the emergency room and served on the front lines. Now, Stone balances ER shifts with her love of acting, according to a press release.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place stars David Henrie as Justin Russo and Janice LeAnn Brown as the young wizard Billie. Alkaio Thiele, Max Matenko, Taylor Cora and Mimi Gianopulos also make up the main cast.
This final chapter of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is being billed as a special four-part event.
“Billie, still reeling from losing Alex at the end of season 2, discovers that the only way to rescue her mother is to reunite with her long-lost father,” according to an official description from Disney. “As her family bands together to find Alex, Billie realizes that their combined power is the only way the Russos can defeat the evil plaguing them.”
A federal judge in New York on Thursday gutted much of Blake Lively’s case against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, including her claims she was subjected to sexual harassment on set.
Lively is allowed to pursue certain claims of retaliation against Baldoni’s public relations team over alleged harm to her reputation, according to the ruling by Judge Lewis Liman.
The decision comes one month before the scheduled start of the trial while the two sides have been in settlement negotiations.
In his ruling, Liman said some of Baldoni’s conduct “was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters” in a sexually charged movie like It Ends With Us.
“That Baldoni suggested scenes involving sexual acts in the context of developing a motion picture involving such adult themes did not create a ‘sexually objectionable environment’ or an environment hostile to women (or to men) because of sex,” Liman added.
Liman is allowing Lively to pursue her claims of an orchestrated smear campaign by Baldoni’s PR team, which Liman said, “at least arguably crossed the line.”
“The reputational effects have been particularly severe given the nature of Lively’s profession, which places a heavy emphasis on personal and professional marketability,” Liman wrote.
Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, told ABC News in a statement: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.”
“For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted,” McCawley added. “She looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.”
McCawley ended the statement by saying, “Sexual harassment isn’t going forward not because the defendants did nothing wrong but because the court determined Blake Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee.”
Meanwhile, Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach of Baldoni’s legal team, said in a statement to ABC News: “We’re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel.”
“These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the Court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided,” Baldoni’s legal team added. “What’s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.”
In February, the two actors and their attorneys attended a court-ordered settlement conference at the United States District Court in New York, in an attempt to reach a settlement in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni but were unsuccessful.
The court-ordered settlement conference was a last-ditch attempt at resolving the legal battle that has now stretched on for more than a year.
Lively 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” her reputation.
The two later filed lawsuits against each other in New York, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and accusing Baldoni and Wayfarer of allegedly engaging in “unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing” to ruin her reputation in a lawsuit seeking $500 million in damages.
Baldoni’s attorney denied the allegations.
Shortly after Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the couple’s publicist for 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.”
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit last June, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint.
Taylor Frankie Paul and 18 other former leads of ‘The Bachelorette’ in ‘The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose.’ (John Fleenor/ Disney)
Bachelor Nation, get ready to welcome a brand-new Bachelorette to the franchise.
ABC has announced that a special preview of Taylor Frankie Paul‘s upcoming season of The Bachelorette is coming very soon. The special, which is called The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose, will debut on ABC and Hulu immediately after the Oscars live telecast on March 15.
The new special will find 18 former Bachelorettes gathered together to look back on all of their respective journeys and offer advice to the newest leading lady, Paul.
Former Bachelorettes who will be featured on the special event are Trista Sutter, Meredith Phillips, DeAnnaPappas, Ali Fedotowsky-Manno, Ashley Hebert-Rosenbaum, Emily Maynard-Johnson, Desiree Siegfried, Andi Dorfman-Hart, Kaitlyn Bristowe, JoJo Fletcher, Rachel Lindsay, Becca Kufrin, HannahBrown-Woolard, Tayshia Adams, Katie Thurston, Rachel Recchia, Charity Lawson and Joan Vassos, who is the franchise’s first-ever Golden Bachelorette.
“Consider this our first date. Watch The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose, a special preview of Taylor’s season following the live telecast of The Oscars March 15,” the official Bachelorette account posted to Instagram on Wednesday.
The Bachelorette‘s new season premieres March 22 on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
For All Mankind has been renewed for a sixth and final season on Apple TV. This announcement comes just ahead of the season 5 debut, which premieres on Friday. A new episode of the fifth season will debut weekly until the May 29 finale. A spinoff called Star City then makes its debut on the same date. “Getting to explore the For All Mankind universe over six seasons has been an amazing privilege, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to finish the story the way we’ve always hoped,” said creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi …
Jumanji 3 will now release two weeks later than originally planned. Sony Pictures has shifted the theatrical release of Jumanji 3 from its previous date of Dec. 11 to the more festive date of Dec. 25. This shift means it will release after the launches of Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday, both of which arrive in theaters on Dec. 18. Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito and Nick Jonas star in the new Jumanji sequel …
Criminal Minds: Evolution will premiere season 19 to Paramount+ on May 28. The show has also been renewed for its 20th season, which will release in 2027. Heated Rivalry breakout Connor Storrie is set to guest star in the upcoming season …
