Michael B. Jordan to direct his remake of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’

School is officially back in session. Abbott Elementary has returned for its fourth season, with the premiere episode available to stream on Hulu.

Lisa Ann Walter, who plays second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti, told ABC Audio what she’d like to see this season at the Disney Upfront event back in May.

“I would love to have Melissa and Ava go in on something together,” Walter said. “Every woman on the show is an alpha … and it’s fun to see them mix it up.”

Walter even pitched an entire storyline.

“Maybe Barbara and Melissa get into a fight and then Melissa and Ava work on something. And then Barbara gets mad,” Walter said, before referencing her season 3 storyline with Chris Perfetti’s Jacob Hill.

“I’m going to tell you, here’s the truth. When the Jacob character moved in with Melissa and I started to become friends with him, Sheryl Lee Ralph started getting snippy. She really did,” Walter said. “She goes, ‘You’re supposed to be my friend.’ I was like, ‘They wrote lines, Sheryl.’”

Another cast member excited for this season is William Stanford Davis, who plays the school janitor, Mr. Johnson. He says he’s looking forward to more of Mr. Johnson’s “opinionated self about everything.”

“I’m hoping to work in more scenes with Quinta [Brunson],” Davis said. “I worked a lot with the guys and with Melissa, so I’m looking forward to especially getting under Barbara’s skin. I hope I can tell the writers that. Cause I’m afraid of Barbara Howard.”

The show is known for having famous guest stars. So, which actor does Davis wish would join the Abbott Elementary family?

“I’ve often told them I wanted Halle Berry to be my love interest,” Davis said. “So, you know, if you know anybody who can make that happen.”

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While he’s been scanned digitally during his tenure with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Robert Downey Jr. is warning “all future executives” against the idea of reanimating him using computer graphics tech. 

In a sit-down with the On with Kara Swisher podcast, Downey talked about McNeal, his Broadway debut, which deals with artificial intelligence. 

The conversation soon switched to one of the sticking points of the recent Hollywood strikes: studios using digital replicas of actors without their permission.

With regard to his previous digital likenesses — and their possible future use — Downey said of the Marvel Cinematic Universe gang, “I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me.” 

That said, he warned anyone else from doing so. “I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec,” he said, using a Hollywood term for a trial balloon script project.

“You’ll be dead,” Swisher noted, to which Downey replied, “I know, but my law firm will still be very active.”

Downey also admitted that despite the ubiquity of AI like Chat GPT and other tech, “I haven’t really played with any of these things,” adding of the play, “I wanted to maintain a bit of innocence going into this, and really have the character’s point of view, as this is taking place in the supposed near future, where it will all be different anyway.”

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Ted Danson is making amends with Kelsey Grammer several years after a dispute while the pair acted on Cheers together.

Grammer appeared on Danson and Woody Harrelson‘s SiriusXM podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name on Wednesday, where he reunited with his former co-stars.

“I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you, during the Cheers years,” Danson told Grammer, who seemed to recall the moment.

“I have a memory of getting angry at you once,” Danson continued. “I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer.”

“I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you,” Danson said. “No, I don’t feel like. I apologize to you and me that I sat back.”

After reminiscing about their time together, Grammer responded kindly, saying, “My love for you has always been as easy as the day, you know, as easy as the sunrise, so, whatever.”

Cheers ran from 1982 to 1993 and followed the story of the goings-on of a Boston bar. Along with Danson, Grammer and Harrelson, the cast included Shelley Long, Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt.

After his time on Cheers, where he starred as Frasier Crane, Grammer starred in the Emmy-winning spin-off Frasier, where he reprised his beloved role from 1993 to 2004. The show was revived in 2023.

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