Category: Entertainment

  • ‘Peaky Blinders’ Helps U.K. Region Land Official Production Hub Status From British Film Commission

    ‘Peaky Blinders’ Helps U.K. Region Land Official Production Hub Status From British Film Commission

    “Peaky Blinders” may have given closely clipped back and sides haircuts a new lease of life, but it’s now helped a region of the U.K. land official backing as a center for high-end productions.

    The British Film Commission has announced that the West Midlands, home to the city of Birmingham and where “Peaky Blinders” is set and shot, has been named the U.K.’s eighth official regional production hub for scripted inward investment for film and high-end TV.

    According to the Commission, having served as production base for “Peaky Blinders,” the feature film “The Immortal Man” and the as-yet untitled “Peaky Blinders” spin-off series, the region has now fulfilled the criteria needed to receive official hub status.

    The West Midlands joins South-West England (Bristol); North-West England (Manchester and Liverpool); Yorkshire (Leeds); Northern Ireland (Belfast); Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh); Wales (Cardiff); and London & South-East England as an official production hub, lending its strength to a UK-wide offer which contributed £5.8 billion ($7.8 billion) to the UK economy in 2025.

    “As Tommy Shelby of the Peaky Blinders once said, ‘when you plan something well, there’s no need to rush.’ The growing success of the West Midlands as a U.K. production hub certainly bears this out. Over the course of nearly 15 years, the region has steadily grown in strength and stature, building skills, infrastructure and reputation,” said Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission.

    “With the West Midlands becoming an official regional production hub, our offer to the global film and TV industry now spans the length and breadth of the U.K.: wherever you base your production, you’re within a stone’s throw of world-class facilities, crew and talent, with access to one-of-a-kind locations and some of the world’s most stable, transparent and generous tax incentives.”

    The two upcoming “Peaky Blinders” spin-off series are being film at the recently opened in Birmingham’s Digbeth Loc. Studios, which was founded by show creator Steven Knight.

    “I’m thrilled that the West Midlands has been recognised as a fantastic place to make film and TV,” said Knight. The opening of Digbeth Loc. Studios is an important part of that ambition, providing a home for world-class film and television production in the heart of Birmingham. We are at the beginning of a journey, and we’ve got off to a great start. The West Midlands is always ambitious, and we believe we will create a global content making industry in our neighbourhood.”

    In addition to the region’s new hub status, the BBC previously announced plans to establish its future regional headquarters in The Tea Factory in Digbeth .

  • CBS News Correspondent Trevor Phillips Says Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss: ‘Will Either Change the World or Crash and Burn’

    CBS News Correspondent Trevor Phillips Says Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss: ‘Will Either Change the World or Crash and Burn’

    Recently-appointed CBS News correspondent Trevor Phillips has given a typically forthright assessment of his new boss, Bari Weiss.

    “Bari and her team have a huge tanker of a network news organisation to turn around, and they are assembling a little team on the bridge,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The great thing about her is that she’s one of those people who will either change the world or crash and burn. But when they crash and burn, it’s in technicolour.”

    Phillips, who has been a correspondent for the U.K.’s Sky News since 2021, was handpicked by CBS News editor-in-chief Weiss to join the Paramount-owned network as senior global affairs correspondent. He will also join “60 Minutes.” A veteran writer and broadcaster as well as a former politician, Phillips was previously chair of the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission and in 2022 was knighted for his services to equality and human rights .

    He is set to move across the pond this summer to take up the new role at CBS. “You know, I’m 72. It’s a great adventure,” he said of Weiss’s offer. “And who turns down adventures if someone is willing to take a chance on you?”

    To mark the move, Phillips gave a wide-ranging interview to the Telegraph, in which he gamely discussed some of the controversy that has swirled since Weiss was appointed to her role last year. “In the U.S., the controversy has been framed as, ‘CBS News is becoming anti-woke’. But that’s not what Bari is about,” Phillip said. “She has her own views, some of which I’m sympathetic to, some of which I’m not, but her point is that the media should be heterodox. There should be a variety of voices.”

    He wouldn’t comment on rumors that reporter Holly Williams, who works in CBS News’ London bureau, had been taken off an interview with right wing politician Nigel Farage in favor of Phillips, but said: “What’s interesting in politics now is this current of thought, represented by Farage, Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen, which essentially says the way we have done conventional politics is bust in a new world, and we need to do things differently. We keep trying to fit it into the old Right/Left duopoly, and I don’t think that’s quite right. The interviews I’m interested in doing will include that group [of leaders].”

    “I’m not the smoothest presenter on television or reader of the autocue, but I guess they think that I manage the chaos [of live guests] well,” Phillips added. “Broadcast journalism has, to some extent, become the creature of entertainment. We need to return to the business of reporting. To put it in its crassest terms, the story needs to come before the reporter. Too many people who do what I do put themselves between the viewer and the story, and that’s not our job.”

  • Nancy Guthrie Case Haunted by Sheriff’s Department’s Possible Mistakes

    Nancy Guthrie Case Haunted by Sheriff’s Department’s Possible Mistakes

    As the investigation into Nancy Guthrie‘s kidnapping case crosses the six-month mark, a new report from The Wall Street Journal is highlighting possible mistakes by the sheriff and lead investigators.

    The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, led by Chris Nanos, has been overseeing the investigation after Savannah Guthrie‘s mom was reported missing on Feb. 1. As of Aug. 2, Nancy hasn’t been found and there have been no arrests in the case.

    After reviewing personnel files obtained in public records requests and conducting interviews with current and former county and federal officials and people close to the case, the WSJ has found that there were concerns from the start of the investigation, including who Nanos appointed head of homicide, Sgt. David Stivers.

    According to personnel records, Stivers was reprimanded two months before Nancy was kidnapped for “poor judgment,” as he was blamed for delays securing crime-scene evidence in a homicide case. The charges in that case were ultimately dropped for insufficient evidence, The Journal reported.

    When it came to Nancy’s case, people familiar with the investigation said Stivers and his detectives ignored the dried blood on her front porch for hours after they arrived on Feb. 1, suspecting that the blood came from some unrelated cause. “They failed to seal off the property with police tape to protect sensitive crime-scene evidence, allowing reporters, livestreamers, and Amazon and pizza delivery drivers entry to the porch,” the WSJ wrote.

    After undergoing DNA analysis, the blood samples were later confirmed to be Nancy’s. It’s now believed to be connected to her kidnapping.

    The WSJ later reported that Nanos promoted Stivers to lieutenant in July. The new role will reportedly take effect in September.

    Lt. Heather Lappin — Nanos’ opponent in the November 2024 election, where he was running for reelection (he ultimately won after a recount) — told The Hollywood Reporter in February that Nanos had removed some of the department’s best detectives because they supported her election campaign. “A lot of the Guthrie case is just consequences of his really bad decision-making, the years of decimating his units,” she told THR at the time. “Three of our best homicide detectives, probably in [all of] southern Arizona, were removed from Homicide because they supported me [in the election].”

    People familiar with the matter also told the Journal that Nanos put Lappin on administrative leave weeks before Election Day and sidelined deputies who had supported Lappin after being reelected.

    The department’s senior pilot, who had backed Nanos’ challenger in the election, was also demoted to patrol duty days before Nancy’s kidnapping following a workplace complaint.

    This led to more delays in the investigation on Feb. 1, as the department struggled for hours to find a flight deputy to operate its search-and-rescue plane, a $1.7 million Cessna surveillance aircraft, equipped with both infrared and zoom-lens cameras. Flight data reviewed by The Journal showed that by the time the plane got up in the air to begin its search, it was getting too dark to use its zoom-lens cameras.

    The WSJ said that Nanos has disputed its findings. “I can assure everybody that we are working hard every day with all of our partners,” the sheriff said, including “corporate America,” which has “offered up some assistance with some of the brightest minds in this country.” He added, “This case is not cold.” THR has also reached out to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for comment.

    In addition to coming under fire from his own department, as Nanos was accused in March of hiding an extensive disciplinary record, the sheriff has also been criticized by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel.

    Neither Nanos and Patel has announced any further breaks in Nancy’s case, despite the latter also promising early on to lead the charge on the federal side. In May, during an interview on Sean Hannity’s Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast, Patel accused Nanos of sidelining FBI agents early in the investigation. “For four days, we were kept out of the investigation,” he said.

    The sheriff pushed back against those claims in an interview, stating that there weren’t any delays. If Patel “really believes that we tried to block them or keep them out of this or not share things,” Nanos said, “I, 100 percent, want him to call me because that’s the furthest from the truth.” According to The Journal, Nanos said he has never spoken to Patel.

    Throughout the case, Savannah has continued to take to social media, pleading for answers in her mom’s disappearance. On Saturday, after Nanos released a pair of ransom notes initially sent to the CBS affiliate in her home city of Tucson, Arizona, the Today co-anchor asked that anyone with information come forward.

    “We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward,” Savannah wrote on Instagram. “Someone knows something. Someone suspects something. Someone recognizes the writing in the ransom demand notes. Someone has noticed something different, strange, troubling or just unusual — perhaps with someone they deeply love. Perhaps they are afraid to come forward. Perhaps they are conflicted. Perhaps they are angry or upset for being in this situation. There is a way out — to tell what you know. You can do so anonymously. The reward is available.”

    The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the notes “purport to have been written by kidnappers.” The second note, which was sent to the CBS affiliate on Feb. 6, stated that Nancy “perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now.”

    Authorities said they decided to share the ransom notes publicly in hopes that someone recognizes “distinctive patterns of word choice, syntax and phraseology that reflect the writer’s unique linguistic style.”

  • Ariana Grande to “Step Back From Visibility” After Tour Ends Amid “Ongoing Public Scrutiny”

    Ariana Grande to “Step Back From Visibility” After Tour Ends Amid “Ongoing Public Scrutiny”

    Ariana Grande is planning to take a step back from the public eye after the Eternal Sunshine Tour wraps, including dropping out of Sunday in the Park with George.

    This decision comes after the Grammy-winning singer has faced a wave of online commentary surrounding her health and body over the last year. Most recently, discussions intensified after the release of her new music video for her song “Petal,” with many fans pointing out her noticeably thinner appearance in the footage.

    “Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” her rep shared in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday. Her tour concludes on Sept. 1 after her 10-show residency in London.

    “She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the rep added. “This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”

    Grande has been booked and busy the last few years, filming Wicked and Wicked: For Good, which released in 2024 and 2025, respectively. She had also been campaigning for awards for both films, ultimately earning a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda in the first film.

    On the music side, she dropped her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, in 2024, before heading out on a 3-month-long tour starting in June. She also just released her eighth studio album, Petal, at the end of July.

    A source close to the singer also told THR that her new album is “a fight song.” They added that it’s an “anthem about the love-hate relationship with the public and their toxicity. This album is not about any romantic partner or breakup in that way.”

    Grande next stars in Focker-in-Law, opposite Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, which hits theaters on Nov. 25. It’s unclear if Grande plans to participate in the film’s upcoming press tour.

    The “hate that i made you love me” singer was also set to appear, opposite her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey, in the West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. However, THR confirmed Grande will no longer be participating in the project, which opens at London’s Barbican Centre next summer. The production will cast another lead to replace Grande.

    “Following this evening’s announcement from Ariana Grande’s team, we can confirm that she has decided to step back from Sunday in the Park with George,” Empire Street Productions shared in a statement. “We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support. The production will open at the Barbican in summer 2027 as planned, and casting will be announced in due course.”

    People was first to report the news of Grande stepping back from visibility after the tour.

    Caitlin Huston contributed to this report.

  • Phil Collins Says He Almost Died in 2024 From Alcohol Abuse: ‘People Were Coming to Say Goodbye’

    Phil Collins Says He Almost Died in 2024 From Alcohol Abuse: ‘People Were Coming to Say Goodbye’

    Phil Collins recently told The Times of London that he almost died in 2024 from health complications stemming from alcohol abuse.

    The Genesis frontman explained that he was initially admitted to a Swiss hospital for alcohol addiction in late 2023. He was discharged at first, but was brought back in shortly after and placed into intensive care. Collins says he was mostly unconscious during his second stint at the hospital.

    “My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” Collins said. “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming. I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

    Collins recalled that his five children were rushed to his side, thinking their dad was about to die. He said that, at the time, “There were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing.”

    “I was very lucky to have come out of that,” he added. “Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since.”

    Collins has always been very open about his health troubles. In early 2026, he told BBC Two that he’s undergone five surgeries on his knee. In a more recent interview with BBC Breakfast, Collins said that he’s “healthier now than I have been for quite a while” and often considers getting back to recording and performing.

    “I would contemplate, yeah,” he said. “I’m constantly saying to myself, I better go back down to my studio at home.”

  • Morgan Wallen’s Year-Old Album Manages to Climb Back Atop the Charts

    Morgan Wallen’s Year-Old Album Manages to Climb Back Atop the Charts

    Morgan Wallen‘s I’m the Problem is back on top of Billboard‘s albums chart, the publication reported on Sunday, more than a year after the country star first released the project in May 2025, and over seven months since the album last reached number one back in January.

    I’m the Problem managed to best both Olivia Rodrigo‘s eight-week-old You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love and Charli XCX‘s brand new Music, Fashion, Film in one of the tightest chart races of the year so far. Wallen earned 80,000 units this week, while Rodrigo’s LP, which topped the charts for two weeks this summer, came in with just under 80,000 units. Charli’s Brat follow-up, meanwhile, opened with 78,000 units.

    While I’m the Problem hasn’t hit No. 1 since January, it’s been a chart monster overall, staying in the top 10 since its release over a year ago. It’s one of two top 10 albums for Wallen, with his 2023 album One Thing at a Time clocking in at seven this week. I’m the Problem has spent 63 weeks on the Billboard albums chart, while One Thing at a Time has racked 178 weeks.

    Wallen’s number one return comes as the singer released his latest song, “Been by Now,” last Friday. The question now becomes where that song will land on Monday’s new Hot 100 chart.

    Through all his controversies, Wallen remains the biggest streaming act in a country boom that’s also propelled the likes of Zach Bryan, Luke Combs and Ella Langley, the latter of whom currently has three songs in the top 10 on the Hot 100, including song of the summer contender “Choosin’ Texas.”

    For Rodrigo, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love has logged its fifth consecutive week at number two after spending its first two weeks atop the chart. For Charli, Music, Fashion, Film opens with a similar debut to Brat, which debuted with 77,000 units back in 2024.

  • ‘Jimmy’ Review: Woozily Seductive Mood Piece Wanders Europe in Pursuit of James Baldwin’s Spirit

    ‘Jimmy’ Review: Woozily Seductive Mood Piece Wanders Europe in Pursuit of James Baldwin’s Spirit

    “If not me, who?” said actor Billy Porter in a 2024 Guardian interview, explaining the rationale for his plan to direct and star in a biopic of Black queer author and activist James Baldwin. “Who’s going to tell it better than the Black gay man who embodies that in today’s age?” Porter was right that the movie industry has been unduly slow to engage with Baldwin as a subject and source, relative to white authors of equivalent renown; one presumes, however, that he didn’t know “Jimmy” would premiere later that year. The directorial debut of photographer Yashaddai Owens is no star vehicle, and is only glancingly a character study. Its depiction of Baldwin is shimmery and largely silent, alternating between ambient portraiture and first-person perspective, yet it feels keyed into his experience of the world in a way a more completely (and conventionally) dramatized film might not.

    Finally granted a U.S. release nearly two years after its Telluride world premiere, this 68-minute work occupies no clear lane. Though it’s ostensibly a narrative feature, following a version of Baldwin played by actor Benny O. Arthur through restless travels in Turkey and France, it’s light on story — and, until mere minutes before its close, shorn of dialogue — but heavy on circling mood. Owens shoots in monochrome on a Bolex 16mm camera, making no attempt to disguise the present-day backdrop to his subject’s midcentury wanderings, which occasionally lends “Jimmy” the sense of a cinematic walking tour, chasing the spirit of Baldwin rather than attempting to embody him outright. Given the candid, diaristic nature of its construction and presentation, it could equally be viewed as a nonfiction record of Owens and Arthur’s creative collaboration.

    For the first ten minutes or so, Baldwin is an invisible protagonist in “Jimmy,” as Owens’ roving camera assumes his gaze: We’re immersed directly into the chattering streets and dusty rural paths of Istanbul, where the author traveled repeatedly in the 1960s, and observe as he did its teeming density of life, both human and animal. Owens’ own photographic eye for storied faces and charged urban tableaux ensures this doesn’t feel like mere travelogue, as do the jittery, changeable bebop rhythms of Paco Andreo’s marvelous jazz score; a keen individual perspective emerges despite no accompanying narration or characterization.

    It’s only after this enigmatic Turkish prologue, when Baldwin relocates to Paris, that he becomes a physical presence in the film — with Arthur’s resemblance to the author assisted by the bleached-out, ink-blotted graininess of Owens’ lensing. Usually clad in high-waisted, cinch-backed khakis that impose a hint of period authenticity on these otherwise 21st-century images, the actor’s predominantly wordless performance gives Baldwin a quick, alert but inquisitive stride, a lone-wolf body language that owns its independent status, but sometimes projects a hungry, willing sexuality: We glimpse his flirtations with other men, fellow outsiders in the city’s Algerian quarter. And sometimes he merges entirely with the fabric of the city, shown only as a shadow or a translucent reflection on the scenery.

    Even at a little over an hour, “Jimmy” risks stretching its impressionistic conceit: Compared to, say, Raoul Peck’s rigorous, textually engaged Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” it’s a film that doesn’t aim to say much about Baldwin, but to feel and channel his general aura. Yet there is an arc to its jagged rambling, as he gradually finds not just his feet in Paris, but his voice too: He begins to write, as Andreo’s hitherto ceaselessly cascading score pauses for the amplified scritch of pencil on paper.

    Finally, in a film that mostly conjures the author’s mind and spirit without recourse to his words, “Jimmy” eventually lets him speak: Arthur reads crisply from Baldwin’s 1972 book “No Name in the Street,” verbalizing the anger, isolation and unrest that Owens has otherwise suggested in sensory terms. The specifics are needed, as Baldwin’s words bring bracing, embittered context to the film’s lustrous European tour. “My history in the West had, for its daily effect, placed me in such mortal danger that I had fled, all the way around the corner, to France,” he says. “Jimmy,” for all its beauty and curiosity, depicts not a great escape, but a renewed confrontation with the othering and alienation that Baldwin faced back home.

  • ‘House of the Dragon’: Gayle Rankin on That ‘F — ed Up’ Aemond-Alys-Alicent Scene, ‘Unbearable’ Family Dinner and Dragon Egg Plans

    ‘House of the Dragon’: Gayle Rankin on That ‘F — ed Up’ Aemond-Alys-Alicent Scene, ‘Unbearable’ Family Dinner and Dragon Egg Plans

    SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 7 of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max.

    Gayle Rankin‘s Alys Rivers has dealt with an Oedipus complex before during her time at Harrenhal, but this week’s “House of the Dragon” marked the first time Alys was directly dragged into the Targaryens’ incestuous scene herself.

    At the beginning of Episode 7, Season 3 of “House of the Dragon,” we see Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) has already carried out the mission given to her by Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and arrived at Harrenhal. Sent there in an attempt to lure Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) out so Rhaenyra’s men can finally kill him and properly secure Rhaenyra the Iron Throne, Alicent greets her son with maternal love and praise about his superiority to his siblings, which appears to be a tactic for lulling him into submission. But Alicent’s actions quickly turn much more intimate and soon the mother and son are having sex.

    It’s a jarring scene until it’s revealed Aemond has been hallucinating visions of his mother while having sex with his lover, Alys (Rankin), as part of a new plan to breed more Targaryens and build their own dynasty.

    Theo Whiteman/HBO

    Theo Whiteman/HBO

    “It was very intimate and very odd but very professional,” Rankin says of filming the sex scene between mother, son and son’s new girlfriend. “We tried to like make jokes, just to keep it lighthearted because those scenes are not easy and they’re complicated and very technical. So it was also just like it was another day at the office for being like a very odd, fucked-up scene.”

    From there, the episode’s mommy-issues plot thickens as the real Alicent does show up at Harrenhal and Alys tries (and fails) to convince Aemond his mother is not there to help him. Though they first have to go through what Rankin calls an “unbearable” family dinner, the episode ends with Alys being proven right: Alicent steals away in the night after poisoning Aemond and “idiot” Aemond comes crawling to a very annoyed Alys looking for help.

    Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone at Harrenhal and King’s Landing, Aemond’s brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) has been reunited with his very much alive dragon, Sunfyre, while Aemond’s dragon, Vhagar, is still MIA. This could prove to be a problem for Alys and Aemond, who are currently sitting on a supply of dragon eggs, but have no full-grown dragon to defend themselves with should Aegon or Rhaenyra choose to come their way on next week’s Season 3 finale.

    See below for more from Variety’s interview with Rankin about Episode 7 and what comes next.

    Do you think Alys’s feelings for Aemond are genuine?

    Yeah, I do. I think they’re not uncomplicated, like anyone, you know. Especially if you’re going through a war and you want a castle and you are a witch. But like those things aside, I think they really are.

    So if that’s the case, what is it about Aemond that she is so interested in? This is a very complicated woman who has been around for we’re not sure how long — so what is it about Aemond that appeals to her?

    I think he’s pretty unabashedly himself. I think that refreshing to her. I think that he’s, in some ways, very misunderstood. In some ways. And he has behaved horrendously but he’s also gotten, in some ways, what he’s wanted and I think she respects that. And I think they’re kind of like a dark power couple.

    Alys has revealed the dragon eggs to Aemond. She had Daemon there for quite a while and never chose to show him. What do you think drove her to decide that Aemond was the one to show them to? She had been asking Daemon for Harrenhal and wanted that castle, but still only chose to reveal the eggs to Aemond.

    I don’t think Daemon ever really let his guard down with Alys. Really, really, really. And then he broke her heart. And she’s prophetic and she also can read people like a book. So she knew that Daemon was never going to get there with her, and Daemon was not her answer. I think Aemond is a different story, and I think she knows that instinctively.

    The fact Alys even knows about the dragon eggs that have been hidden away for decades means she might have actually been around Harrenhal for as long as she claims she has. Just how old do you think Alys actually is?

    I think she’s like 400 years old. I mean, give or take. I think we’re gonna like find out more soon, but she could be 400 years old. Like, I believe her, that’s the thing. I think there’s a lot of skepticism about, is she telling the truth? Is she manipulating? I’m like, believe the woman.

    The opening scene for this one, what was it like for you all shooting that and figuring out what that would look like, because we transition from Aemond in bed with his mother to Aemond with Alys? And it’s the trippy Harrenhal hallucination kind of scene, but also seems very specific to what Aemond is actually thinking.

    It was very intimate and very odd but very professional. We tried to like make jokes, just to keep it lighthearted because those scenes are not easy and they’re complicated and very technical. So it was also just like it was another day at the office for being like a very odd, fucked-up scene.

    It seems like Alys takes this pretty well. Like, she takes it in stride when Aemond talks to her about how much he loves his mother when his mother actually does appear, and she’s like, “All you Targaryen boys want the same thing,” and is very clearly referring to these mother issues with Aemond here and Daemon before. What do you think makes it so that she is willing to put up with this dynamic? Is it because she sees that Alicent’s going to leave and how — and she’s just trying to get through this time as quickly as possible?

    I think she sees everything. I don’t think she sees everything, but she can see a lot. So there is a prophetic nature to who she is, and so she’s just like, “Wow! So we have to go through this? OK, here we go.”

    Ollie Upton/HBO

    Ollie Upton/HBO

    During that dinner sequence, it’s so weird that they’re all sitting on the same side and they’re on either side, surrounding him. What was it like filming that family dinner? Because as awkward as the first scene was, that dinner was very hard to watch.

    Oh, terrible! I mean awful, but I kind of loved it. I think Alys is in her element but also kind of terrified at the same time. But I think she feels like the stakes are very high, and I think Alys thrives in that. I think she intentionally wants it to feel unbearable. You know, because she wants her to go.

    She is ultimately proven right. We have Aemond come to her and he’s drugged by his mother or poisoned by his mother, and she just says “Idiot” before coming around to help him. Is this said with love? Is it said with resignation? Is it a combination of things?

    A combination. I think many people, and certainly many women, can probably relate to the tone.

    Going into the Season 3 finale, what do you think is the most likely way that we will see Alys eventually go? She’s lived for 400 years, so do you think she’ll make it to the end of this season at the very least? She doesn’t seem in immediate danger right now.

    I don’t feel like she’s in immediate danger of dying. I think she’s in immediate danger always, and maybe in immediate danger of something more emotionally profound happening, but not of dying. I think we have more time.

    Alys doesn’t know this year and neither does Aemond, but the audience finds out by the end of the episode that Sunfyre is still alive and reunited with Aegon. So now Aegon has Sunfyre back and Vhagar is still nowhere to be seen. You’ve said a lot now that you think Alys is often telling the truth, so does she genuinely not know where Vhagar is? Does she know when Vhagar might be coming back? Because they might need her with Sunfyre back in play.

    Girl, I know. Low-key, for real, I don’t think she knows. Like I don’t even know where Vhagar is. I, Gayle, do not even know where Vhagar is. You know what I mean? So I’m like, girl, where are you? Vhagar went to Crumbl Cookies and she needs to get back.

    I think it shows a lot of actual dedication to Aemond that she’s with him when he doesn’t have a dragon.

    Right? He has no dragon. I have dragon eggs. That’s the thing, I don’t really need him. But I think she might want him. I think it’s complicated.

    This interview has been edited and condensed.

  • Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock Surprise Fans at ‘Practical Magic’ Screening in Hollywood Forever Cemetery for L.A.’s Cinespia

    Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock Surprise Fans at ‘Practical Magic’ Screening in Hollywood Forever Cemetery for L.A.’s Cinespia

    Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman made a surprise appearance at a screening of “Practical Magic” on Saturday night in L.A.

    Attendees came to the place, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, for magic — and many, many Midnight Margaritas — but few expected an appearance by the Owens sisters themselves to introduce the 1998 cult classic.

    “Thank you so much for coming out tonight. Perfect movie to show in a cemetery,” Bullock, who stars as Sally Owens, said over the crowd’s roar of enthusiasm. “We should also thank the spirits that are floating around us as well because you’re on their seats.”

    Kidman, who plays Gilly, added: “Thank you for all your support for getting this 2nd film made that’s coming to you.”

    Then, Bullock introduced the “next generation” of Owens sisters: Joey King and Maisie Williams, who play Sally’s adult daughters in Warner Bros.’ sure-to-be-spellbinding sequel, in theaters Sept. 11. The duo sauntered on the screen with margaritas in hand. 

    “To the coven,” Kidman said, proposing that the crowd — clad in all types of 90s witchy attire, from flowy black robes and pointy hats “Practical Magic” t-shirts — raise their glasses. 

    “Maisie and I are so excited to be joining the coven as Kylie and Antonia,” King told the crowd. “We really hope you enjoy the new movie as much as we did making it.”

    “Practical Magic 2,” directed by Susanne Bier, “returns to a world steeped in moonlit mischief and powerful ancestral magic, as the Owens sisters must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all in a must-see cinematic event of fun, magic and mayhem.”

    The new movie follows 28 years later, as Sally bakes cakes and avoids men, while Gilly attracts men named Chad on Tinder. But the Owens family’s 300-year-old curse carries one generation forward, striking Sally daughter Kylie’s and her lover (Xolo Maridueña), who gets hit by a car while bicycling with several bouquets of roses. Kylie is determined to reverse the curse by any means necessary, forcing Sally and Gillian to band together to keep her away from the darkness and break the spell for good. Lee Pace also stars in the film, with Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest returning and Frances and Jet Owens, Sally and Gilly’s aunts. 

    Akiva Goldsman and Georgia Pritchett wrote the script for the sequel, which is based on the 2021 novel “The Book of Magic” by Alice Hoffman, the fourth in her “Practical Magic” book series. Denise DiNovi, Bullock and Kidman produced the Warner Bros. film. Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Donald Sabourin and Hoffman serve as executive producers.

    The special “Practical Magic” screening was part of Cinespia‘s annual lineup of exhibitions at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The outdoor screening series, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, has “The Mummy,” a double feature of Mia Goth’s “X” and “Pearl,” “Coming to America” and a 40th anniversary showing of “Labyrinth” scheduled for the month of August. Cinespia is presented by Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video.

  • ‘Hacks’ Stars Hannah Einbinder and Paul W. Downs on the Legacy of ‘Hacks’ and Which Character Needs a Spinoff First

    ‘Hacks’ Stars Hannah Einbinder and Paul W. Downs on the Legacy of ‘Hacks’ and Which Character Needs a Spinoff First

    Hannah Einbinder says working with Gillian Anderson on the new film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” has actually given her a new perspective on the end of “Hacks” and its legacy.

    “Doing all this press with Gillian for the movie, she talks about ‘X-Files’ constantly,” Einbinder tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “She’s asked about it constantly. It’s made me feel like, ‘oh, I’m gonna talk about “Hacks” for the rest of my life!’ I’m so happy that will always be something that I can come back to and meditate on and express gratitude for. When you are a part of something that has a deeply connected base of people who love it, that stays.”

    Meanwhile, given how many photo shoots and events Paul W. Downs and his “Hacks” co-star Megan Stalter seem to show up at, why isn’t there a Jimmy and Kayla spinoff in the works?

    “I would love for it to happen, and I have said this: You know we had a very specific plan for the way we wanted to end the story in the finale,” he says. “It’s such it’s so much pressure to deliver a satisfying ending … so, even to the last minute, even though we had this plan for a long time, we were like, ‘Should we stretch it out? Should we do two half seasons?’ But in the end, I’m so happy we stuck to our guns, and it resonated with people the way that it did. And because of that, I don’t I don’t want anything else to come after. I want that to be the last thing people remember.”

    When grilled about “Jimmy and Kayla,” he adds, “getting to play these characters and having these characters evolve as much as they have over the five seasons has been so gratifying that it’s terrifying to think there won’t be more between the two of us. But I think it would have to be something different.”

    OK … we’re getting somewhere. So what might a “Hacks” spinoff look like? “There’s so many characters in the show that if we could do a universe, I want to see Mayor Jo in her first election. I want to see Marty coming to to Vegas in the ’70s.”

    Einbinder likes the Mayor Jo idea. “‘Better Call Saul’ vibes,” she says. “Her just being a fucking absolute criminal. Are you kidding? I’m in the freaking seats with the popcorn on that one.”

    Give it time. Maybe we’ll wear them down! But for now, we’ve got Downs and Einbinder on this week’s Awards Circuit Podcast, where they talk more about the “Hacks” ending and what they’ve got in store next. Plus, they take the 10 Questions quiz!

    But first, on the Roundtable, Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu joins us to give some of her summer TV picks and hot takes on the Emmy noms. Listen below!

    He might be a bit biased, but Downs raves about Einbinder’s part in the upcoming slasher film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” which opens August 7. “I’ll give you the review,” he says. “This is a pull quote now from Variety. Absolutely beautiful, absolutely terrifying and absolutely funny. And Hannah is a revelation. She is such a star. I’m not even kidding. The stuff that she does, her range being on display yet again in this is really impressive.”

    As for Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, the trio has a number of projects in the works — including one in development with Kaley Cuoco — although she’s busy on something else right now, so schedules will have to align for their project. And then the trio also has another project they’re working on for HBO.

    “I can say it’s a it’s a limited series,” he says. “It’s an hourlong limited. I can say that. So it’s a slight tone shift, but there’s definitely going to be humor.”

    Einbinder says she’d be game to join them again for this next project. “I told Paul, Jen and Lucia that I want to be their non-problematic Rob Schneider. I just want to pop up in everything they do forever.”

    Meanwhile, Einbinder says she’s still thinking a lot about her time on “Hacks,” and how she found a video that she recorded for herself in Season 1. Now it feels like a bit of a time capsule: “It was in my trailer, and the sound is pretty muffled, and it’s kind of a shitty video, but I just was kind of reflecting, like kind of a diary, and one of the things that I said was ‘I think these people are going to mean so much to me.’”

    Einbinder’s come a long way in those six years since “Hacks” first became a reality. “Most nights when I get into bed and feel the relief of making it back to my bed at the end of a long day, I go, ‘wow.’ I just am filled with gratitude. This experience has made so much possible for me in every conceivable way. On an emotional level, obviously we have a very strong bond. When I was auditioning for Ava initially, I was opening for other comics on the road. That went away because of COVID, and the job I had before that was working at a coffee shop, and that also went away. I was just really, ‘I actually don’t know what I’m gonna do.’ And so just on every level, [this success] has never been lost on me.”


    10 QUESTIONS WITH HANNAH EINBINDER and PAUL W. DOWNS:

    1. Childhood nickname: Einbinder: “‘Pud,’ short for ‘Pudding.’ My parents called me that.” Downs: “‘Chubb.’ I think it came from my love of pasta and pizza. I think it honestly came from my love of Swiss Miss. I would take Swiss Miss packets with half and half, and I would make like a sludge that I would drink. It was my version of child cocaine, I guess.”

    2. Something you loved as a kid but can’t believe you were into it now: Downs: “I used to kind of collect these, they were basically little figurines that were like a dragon or an Excalibur or a wizard, and they were on amethyst. They were sold at a kiosk at the Rockaway Town Square Mall, and I was into these bizarre — I don’t know what that is. Fantasy figurines. They were also very like Sedona. You know, they were very like hippie figurines. I can’t believe I was so into that” Einbinder: “I have done so much inner child work that I have love and affection for the things that I maybe was into. I took baton. I had a baton unit. I was very into baton at one time. I did baton classes. I learned from a stripper named Heather. Thank you, Heather. She taught baton on the side. She was like, ‘I do flaming baton at my where I dance,’ and we were like, ‘We want to come see you dance, Heather!’ And she was like, ‘It’s not for kids.’”

    3. Go-to Karaoke or sing-in-the-shower song: Einbinder: “‘What’s Up,’ by 4 Non Blondes.” Downs: “‘All I Wanna Do’ by Sheryl Crow. It’s a real crowd pleaser.”

    4. Give me an alternate title for your show: [Not asked]

    5. What’s your secret talent?: Downs: “I can give a good massage.” Einbinder: “I can create a bubble ring underwater. Or a smoke ring. I can do that too. But that’s featured in the show ‘Hacks.’”

    6. Favorite ice cream flavor: Downs: “As a kid, I loved strawberry. Now I want like a like a dark chocolate double fudge chunk.” Einbinder: “Mint chip.”

    7. The one item you couldn’t live without: Einbinder: “Cell phone.” Downs: “I was gonna say toothpaste. You really want toothpaste.”

    8. What TV show in all of history do you wish you were a cast member of?: Einbinder: “‘Sopranos,’ ‘Mad Men.’” Downs: “Some of my favorite shows like ‘Arrested Development’ or ‘Succession’ or ‘Fleabag,’ I don’t know that I want to be on those shows. I think I want to be on ‘Friends.’ I think I would have had a blast.”

    9. Fictional character you most admire: [Not asked]

    10. Your favorite piece of advice: Einbinder: “‘Faster and funnier.’” Downs: “I’ve uttered those words. You know what else I uttered recently, and I’m taking a great piece of advice that Maya Angelou gave to Oprah, which is when someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. I think that’s a really good piece of advice.”

    Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.