Yara Shahidi, Keith Powers and more in talks to star in coming-of-age romance, ‘Bloom’
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Yara Shahidi and Keith Powers are in talks to star in a coming-of-age romance called Bloom, as are Kedar Williams-Stirling and Renée Elise Goldsberry, Deadline reports.
Directed by Cole Swanson, who also wrote the script, Bloom follows Ace (Williams-Stirling), a young, talented Black artist, who moves to Italy for university and winds up on a journey of self-discovery. Along the way, he finds love and friendship within “a defiant and opulent circle of wealthy young Black adults deemed ‘The Casa Rosa Kids,'” some of whom navigate a “steamy love triangle.” Bloom has been described as Love Jonesset in Italy.
Bloom will mark the feature debut of Swanson. Pineloft Entertainment will produce alongside Jolene Rodriguez of Broken English Productions, while UK-based 1PLUS1 Productions and Adam Strawford come together for music consulting.
Dominic West has landed a guest-starring role in the upcoming Paramount+ with Showtime series The Agency alongside Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith and Richard Gere, according to Variety. Based on the hit French spy show The Bureau, The Agency follows a covert CIA agent, played by Fassbender, home from a six-year mission in Damascus. As he’s struggling to let go of his false identity and the woman with whom he had an affair, he gets caught between a French foreign intelligence agency and the CIA. West will play the director of the CIA. The series is set to launch with two episodes streaming Nov. 29 before its linear TV debut on Dec. 1 …
Mattel’s animated Bob the Builder feature, being co-produced by ShadowMachine and Jennifer Lopez‘s Nuyorican Productions, has landed at Amazon MGM Studios, sources tell Deadline. Actor and recording artist Anthony Ramos, best known for his roles in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton and the film version of In the Heights, is slated to star as Roberto aka Bob, who visits Puerto Rico on a construction job and is confronted with “issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build,” according to Mattel’s announcement …
Big Brother Reindeer Games won’t return for a second season, according to Entertainment Weekly. Big Brother co-producer Rich Meehan tells Entertainment Weekly that’s mainly due to scheduling problems, explaining, “Because we started so late this season and CBS’ fall schedule starts so late this season, everything just pushes back. So if there’s not airtime, there’s not much you can do for that.” Adds Meehan, “Hopefully, we’re in a new year and everything looks like it’s going to be smooth sailing and everything’s worked out, so hopefully, maybe next year. That’s the goal” …
Costume retailer Spirit Halloween is trying to have the last laugh at Saturday Night Live, after the show’s 50th season contained a fake commercial spoofing it.
“We are great at raising things back from the dead,” read a Spirit Halloween post on X, showing a costume package with SNL‘s anniversary logo, described as “Irrelevant 50-year-old TV show.” The accessories therein were listed as “dated references, unknown cast members, and shrinking ratings.”
The SNL sketch spoofed how the stores pop up in abandoned storefronts across the country “for six weeks before bouncing,” according to a voice-over by Heidi Gardner.
“Times may be good on Wall Street, but on Main Street, communities are struggling,” she says. “Closed stores, shuttered businesses, empty parking lots. When hard times hit, it’s easy to feel like no one cares. But help is on the way because when others leave, we show up.”
Chloe Fineman adds, “We’re here providing vulnerable communities with the things they need most: wigs that give you a rash, single-use fog machines and costumes of famous characters tweaked just enough to avoid a lawsuit.” On the latter, a costume listed as “Candy Slave” is obviously an Oompa Loompa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example.
Gardner also touts how the company provides “six-week jobs for some of America’s hardest-hit perverts,” with a scuzzy Mikey Day advising an under-18 customer that he’s “not legally allowed” to talk to her.
At one point, a little girl asks Fineman if they have a Taylor Swift costume, only for the employee to happily hand her a “Blonde Singing Woman” one. “That’s not Taylor Swift!” the little Swiftie protests, only to have Fineman boop the girl’s nose, saying, “Neither are you.”
It seems like forever ago that we were all obsessing about the Netflix series Wednesday, but filming for season 2 is underway, and according to Variety and Entertainment Weekly, none other than Lady Gaga will be making an appearance.
Her inclusion in the show isn’t random, though. In 2022, Gaga’s 2011 song “Bloody Mary” went viral on TikTok during season 1 of the Addams Family spin-off after fans sped it up and used it to soundtrack footage of Jenna Ortega, as Wednesday, doing her now-iconic dance.
The song, from Gaga’s Born This Way album, was never released as a single, but once the song took off online, it shot to #10 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart. Gaga even made her own TikTokdoing the dance.
According to Variety, the show is currently filming in Ireland, and Gaga’s role — which is currently unknown — will be a cameo. Sources tell the publication they wanted her to play a larger role, but they couldn’t work out the scheduling.
This won’t be the first time Gaga’s done TV: She appeared in season 5 of American Horror Story and even won a Golden Globe for it.
