Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are both singers, as well as actors, and they’ll be able to show off both talents in an upcoming movie inspired by Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Diamond.
The two are co-starring in a new film called Song Sung Blue, after Diamond’s 1972 hit of the same name. They will play struggling musicians who form a Neil Diamond tribute band, proving that, according to a press release, “it’s never too late to find love and follow your dreams.”
The movie is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name, about a real-life Neil Diamond impersonator who married a Patsy Cline impersonator.
This won’t be the first time that a Neil Diamond tribute band has been the subject of a film. The 2001 movie Saving Silverman was about childhood best friends, played by Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn and Jack Black, who honor the singer with a tribute band called Diamonds in the Rough. Diamond has a cameo in that film.
HBO has revealed Genius: MLK/X star Aaron Pierre has been tapped to play John Stewart in HBO’s upcoming Green Lantern series, joining Kyle Chandler, who Deadline reports will play Green Lantern/Hal Jordan. Lanterns, DC Studios’ first live-action series under co-chairmen/co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland,” per the studio …
Max has released a teaser trailer for season 3 of Mindy Kaling‘s comedy series The Sex Lives of College Girls, which follows a group of college students at New England’s prestigious Essex College. The series returns Nov. 21, followed by one new episode weekly at 9 p.m. ET through Jan. 23 on Max …
Nate Bargatze, who recently hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time in as many years, is returning to Netflix for a pair of standup comedy specials, according to Deadline. The first, Your Friend, Nate Bargatze, will debut on Dec. 24. Bargatze’s first two Netflix specials, The Tennessee Kid and The Greatest Average American, aired in 2019 and 2021, respectively. He chose Prime Video as the outlet for his last special, 2023’s Hello World …
Well, it looks like Kathy Bates isn’t retiring after Matlock after all.
Bates stopped by ABC’s On the Red Carpet show before Sunday night’s 76th Emmy Awards, where she threw cold water on a New York Times story that Madeline Matlock in the forthcoming CBS reboot would be her final role.
As much as she said she was “flattered” that the retirement report “went around the globe,” Bates told ABC’s George Pennacchio that she was “misunderstood.”
“I think it was misunderstood because I … had one foot out the door until I read Jennie [Snyder] Urman‘s script and I was like, ‘OK, now we’re talking. And I want the show [Matlock] to run for years and years,” she said.
The original series of Matlock ran from 1986 to 1995, starring Andy Griffith as a defense lawyer named Benjamin Matlock.
The reboot show will chronicle Bates’ character, who rejoins the law workforce as a senior, scoring legal victories in courtrooms. In the interview with the New York Times to discuss the show, she said she felt like she was called to do the role, especially after experiencing some injustices in the early days of her career.
“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said at the time. “And it’s exhausting.”
Despite her success, when reflecting on her acting career, she only recalled some of the blunders, telling the New York Times, “I never felt dressed right or well.”
“I felt like a misfit,” she said. “It’s that line in Misery when Annie says, ‘I’m not a movie star.’ I’m not.”
Her comments notwithstanding, a source told ABC News on Monday that “it is understood that Bates changed her mind [about retiring] after doing Matlock.”
Matlock will premiere on CBS Sept. 22 and will be available to stream on Paramount+.
