MagazinAisle

Category: Entertainment

  • Sydney Sweeney’s Work in ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Is Complicated and Compelling

    Sydney Sweeney’s Work in ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Is Complicated and Compelling

    SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “America My Dream,” Season 3, Episode 2 of “Euphoria,” now streaming on HBO Max.

    A funny thing has happened to Sydney Sweeney since the second season of “Euphoria” aired. She became one of the biggest stars in the world.

    She’s not alone in that, among her HBO castmates. Since 2022, when the teen drama signed off for what would become a four-year hiatus, Zendaya has proven herself a reliable anchor for both sophisticated dark comedies like “Challengers” and “The Drama” and blockbusters such as “Dune” and the upcoming “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Jacob Elordi, meanwhile, has just this year been nominated for an Oscar for “Frankenstein” and led “Wuthering Heights.” But Sweeney’s fame has had a bit of an edge. And “Euphoria,” now back on the air, isn’t merely allowing the actress to do her best work in years; it’s playing off of the by-now familiar Sweeney image in sharp and intriguing ways.

    In the time-jumped third season, Sweeney’s Cassie has gotten what she always wanted. Elordi’s Nate has chosen her, and the two are engaged. Her happily-ever-after, though, comes with complications: In order to finance the dream wedding she believes she deserves — and, possibly, for reasons lying closer to kink than to pragmatism — Cassie has taken up a sideline as an OnlyFans model. Performing for her unseen audience in states of undress and role-playing characters including a subservient dog, Cassie seems, for once, as if she has never, ever been happier. 

    All of which exists in counterpoint to the past few years of Sweeney’s life in public. Sweeney is unabashed about leveraging her appearance and form both in art and in advertisements; her much-discussed “good jeans” campaign for American Eagle played off of the idea that the viewer is ogling Sweeney, while her deal with soapmaker Dr. Squatch to sell soap purportedly containing her bathwater took the same premise to a certain endpoint. Seizing the means of production for herself and making, rather than merely pitching, a product, Sweeney came up with a line of lingerie — a brand that she wears in her puppy play scene on “Euphoria.” 

    Observing Sweeney’s career and interviewing her, I’ve been consistently struck by her frank understanding of what Hollywood wants of her, and her ability to deliver it. (In her 2023 Variety cover story, Sweeney said that she asks “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson to amp up Cassie’s mania: “Give me more. I’m going to show you what I have. There’s so much to this girl.”) Up to this point, though, Sweeney’s recent career has been operating on two tracks. In ads, she contorts herself into an object of fantasy; in movies, she’s often disarmingly low-key, particularly in her 2025 offerings. In “The Housemaid,” which turned into a zeitgeist smash over the holidays last year, Sweeney plays a woman who is tamped-down by the script’s design. Her Millie is a meek service employee in the home of two vastly more emotionally labile creatures (played by Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar); when Sweeney finally gets to blow up, late in the film, it’s cathartic, and a reminder of just how much she’s been holding in reserve. 

    Sweeney similarly cedes the fireworks to basically every other member of the ensemble of last year’s undersung survival drama “Eden”; Ana de Armas and Jude Law get to play grand and operatic emotions while Sweeney’s Margret, a mild-mannered woman of faith, grits her teeth. And Sweeney’s bid for awards attention with the boxing drama “Christy” forewent “Rocky”-style inspiration in favor of a sort of haunted naturalism. Festival-goers responded, but the film proved perhaps too dour for audiences, and for the Academy. Its great triumph may have been as a calling card for the future: Working as an executive producer and freed from the demand to make a crowd-pleaser, this was the kind of work Sweeney wanted to do. The ads, for months prior to “Christy” the headline about Sweeney, were in service of a more interesting project.

    That project continues with a role that, now, brings together Sweeney’s two disparate personas, as actress and as object. And the show that brought Sweeney to fame continues to know just how to use her. Sweeney’s ability to inhabit flatness and quiet, so present in all of her work last year, is a part of the “Euphoria” palette, too: People forget that, after fantasizing about screaming at her friends in the Euphoria High bathroom, Cassie goes eerily silent. It’s this studied blandness that makes Cassie’s emotional eruptions all the more pronounced.

    But “Euphoria,” too, is archly aware of Sweeney’s past few years. On the most literal of levels, a woman known for pitching herself as the product playing a camgirl is a joke that lands. But it’s the joy and brio that Sweeney brings to Cassie that bring it to the next level. Cassie struggled through high school with trying to identify her real self; to return once more to the bathroom scene, perhaps the show’s most famous sequence, it’s why she dressed up like an extra from “Oklahoma!” Maybe that could have been the real her — or it was, for a day. Cassie, like so many of us, ultimately defines herself by the way that she is seen. 

    Sometimes, that definition happens by identifying what Cassie doesn’t want. In the season’s second episode, when her beloved fiancé insists she shut down her OnlyFans, Cassie’s eyes flare with a barely controlled anger, before she catches herself. And earlier in the episode, Cassie’s conversation with Maddy (Alexa Demie) has an explosive charge. Cassie and Maddy had, earlier in the series, been opposing sides of a love triangle, competing for the attentions of Nate; Cassie has notionally won, and is choosing, in conversation with her former friend and rival, to be as magnanimous as she can. She ought to have asked for Maddy’s blessing, Cassie declares, and she regrets it, although her romance was unstoppable. “What Nate and I were feeling for each other was obviously real,” she says over a poolside Aperol spritz. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be getting married.” 

    Sweeney delivers the line with the kind of naiveté only a shrewd performer can deploy: One can see that Cassie is willing herself to believe this, and casting herself in a grand drama of love and friendship. “I feel like I found the love of my life, at the expense of the other love of my life,” she declares, trailing off theatrically. Yes, Cassie wants to be seen as hot by men who are willing to pay for the privilege; she also wants to be seen as lovable by Maddy. Does Cassie truly believe that she ought to have asked for Maddy’s permission to get married? Well, she wants to be the kind of person who would believe that — and that’s good enough. 

    This is high-wire acting of a sort that’s less noisy than some of Sweeney’s past “Euphoria” work, although Sweeney and Demie get to some kooky places as their time together on screen goes on. (Cassie, pleading for Maddy’s help to improve her OnlyFans, bugs her eyes as she declares she might be able to become “a big fish in a big pond.”) But it’s crafty and resourceful work by a performer who — unlike the character she’s playing — seems truly to know herself. And it unites, at last, all the ways we see Sweeney into one complicated, compelling package. 

  • Microdrama Takes Center Stage at Cairns Crocodiles as FlareFlow Data Shows Australia Outperforming Global Markets (EXCLUSIVE)

    Microdrama Takes Center Stage at Cairns Crocodiles as FlareFlow Data Shows Australia Outperforming Global Markets (EXCLUSIVE)

    Vertical drama is entering Australia’s mainstream screen industry conversation, with Cairns Crocodiles set to host a dedicated microdrama panel that brings together platform executives, broadcasters and content creators at the annual APAC creativity festival.

    Tim Oh, general manager of leader microdrama company COL Group International, is scheduled to appear at the Queensland event alongside Nikyah Hutchings, executive producer of commercial and partnerships at NITV, in a session titled The Maestros of Microdramas. The panel will examine how the format is reshaping storytelling habits, brand integration and creative opportunity across the region.

    “Australia has been quietly outperforming every other market on [microdrama platform] FlareFlow for some time now, in revenue per user, in audience depth, and in how quickly new users convert,” Oh said. “To give you a sense of the scale, Australia’s new user payment rate is close to 20%, more than double what we see in most other developed markets.”

    “Vertical is not coming to Australia,” Oh added. “It is already here, and it is working better here than almost anywhere else in the world. The question now is how we build on that together.”

    Hutchings recently claimed the Grand Prix at the B&T 30 Under 30 awards after winning the media sales and account management category. She oversees NITV’s commercial content slate and contributes to SBS’s “Australia Explained” series. “Microdramas are changing how culture shows up on our phones and is this exciting meeting point of culture, tech and money,” she said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down with Tim Oh in Cairns about how vertical storytelling can open up new opportunities and make space for more voices, and what they really mean for creators, broadcasters and brands.”

    The format has tended to be discussed in Australian industry circles as a mobile or platform phenomenon rather than a storytelling one. “Disruption is happening and the future is not yet written,” said Catherine de Clare, co-curator of the film and screen track at Cairns Crocodiles. “We want creatives and business leaders to start thinking about what opportunities are out there and what kind of world we want to build.”

    The panel will also address the question of brands moving into microdrama, as the format is projected by some analysts to reach box office parity with Hollywood releases this year. Cairns Crocodiles, which positions itself at the intersection of Australian and Asian media markets, has expanded in recent years as a site for cross-regional deal-making and format development.

  • ‘Euphoria’ Defecating Pig Starts a Drug War, With Rue Stuck in the Middle

    [This story contains spoilers from the second episode of Euphoria season three.]

    Martha Kelly is as surprised watching Euphoria as the rest of us. The comedian and character actor, who received her first Emmy nomination for her menacingly deadpan turn as drug-dealer Laurie last season, came back this year for season three to wreak more havoc for Rue (Zendaya), even with the five-year time jump. This much Kelly knows: Laurie drew her former teenage hostage back into her web, “offering” to employ her to work off her debt, only for Rue to again escape — this time into the home of another drug lord, Laurie’s seeming rival Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). As for everything else happening in the show, though? “I don’t know a lot of what happens this season because I only saw my own scenes,” Kelly says. 

    Much about Euphoria has been a discovery for Kelly, who made her acting debut to wide acclaim in Zach Galifianakis’s Baskets. She came into the show intimidated by the caliber of talent and intensity of focus given to every frame, and was worn out by the deeply disturbing material she was given in season two. But as the second episode of this third season clarifies, that load has lightened a little bit: The installment initiates the brewing feud between Laurie and Alamo, with her calling him a “fucking pig” over a tense phone call before he sends a literal, defecating pig over to her home in retaliation. Kelly at least knows what happens next in that world, but she’s not telling — only that, yeah, she wants Rue back, and she may not know the best way to go about that.  

    ***

    How is Euphoria mania going for you?

    Anytime in my life when I’m leading up to something exciting, I just get paralyzed with dread — and then once it aired, it was really fun.

    It’s got to feel like you’re in a Marvel movie or something, with all of the secrets you must be keeping. How are you managing? 

    I try not to say anything about specific things that happen, and I’m still not really talking a lot about even the first episode in my TikToks because I’ve seen the first three episodes and I don’t want to mix up what happens accidentally. The other thing that makes it easy is: In every episode I’ve seen so far, there’s stuff that happens that I was like, “That’s wild.”

    What was the biggest surprise of the first two episodes for you?

    Rue driving over the wall in Mexico. Rue and Faye having to swallow all those balloons.

    I’m surprised you didn’t know about that part!

    I really didn’t know that! I mean, I knew that they smuggled drugs, but I didn’t know how that was done, so I thought they had one large bag of drugs that they somehow got down, or maybe they got implanted or something. And I didn’t know any of the stuff about Maddie or Lexi. I didn’t know anything about Cassie and Nate. I didn’t know about Rue going to Alamo’s house and all that stuff that happened. I didn’t know about any of that. 

    When you got into it for season three, did you feel more comfortable in the role? Was there anything you wanted to play around with?

    In season two, all my scenes were on a sound stage. That was Laurie’s dark, ominous home, and all of the material was really heavy and honestly upsetting. Whereas season three, she’s still a dangerous, terrible villain, but it’s in a different location — we shot on location — and there are other actors in it. Rue, thank God, is not a child anymore and there’s not a lot of the kind of skin crawling, “Laurie is a predator and we don’t know how far she’ll go with a kid” — which is what season two was like. So this was more fun for sure. And also you get to see Laurie as not the smartest business person.

    This season overall is a bit more comic, so that fits into what you’re talking about, I think. 

    A lot of the characters, in the five-year time jump, have fallen from the high hopes that we had for them as an audience when they were in high school — which sadly often happens for people out of high school, who have a great time and then get out in the world and things aren’t as amazing in your early twenties as you hope. Laurie gave a suitcase full of drugs to a teenager and then kidnapped her and then passed out high allowing this girl to escape. So it’s already like, yeah, of course this character is going to have fallen a little. (Laughs) 

    Within the first three episodes, my biggest laugh remains when you just rattled off the amount that Rue owes you, from the season premiere.

    When I said that number, I was like, this must be a joke. It can’t really be the amount she would owe. I made a video on TikTok yesterday saying, “I don’t even know if the math is right or if it’s just supposed to be an exaggeration.” Some people in the comments were like, “No, the math is correct. That is what it would be with that wild interest.” And I’m like, “Wow.”

    Kelly in Euphoria.

    The second episode fully establishes the tension between Laurie and Alamo — with Rue caught in the middle. She sort of loses control by calling him a “fucking pig.” Then he sends a literal pig her way. What’s going on there?

    One of my shortcomings as an actor is that I don’t ask that many questions about the motivations of characters except for when we’re about to shoot a scene. “Is this line supposed to be angry?” But I didn’t actually ask Sam about that. My impression is that Laurie, like a lot of narcissists or sociopaths — whichever she is, maybe both — has convinced herself that she cares about Rue, although nothing about the way that she forces Rue into being a drug mule is caring. She has convinced herself that she has some kind of attachment to her and also is feeling like maybe she’s getting a little bit more on top again by having Rue.

    So she found her and she’s making her run drugs for them — and then Rue goes with Alamo. They have a contentious past that started out not as enemies, and then by the time this season starts, she’s selling drugs to him — because partly she’s not a great business person and also because like, “Well, I’ll sell drugs to anybody.” But she thinks he’s a bad person. There’s something weird about people like Laurie where if they meet someone who’s as bad as them or worse, especially if that person hurts them personally, their sense of injustice and outrage is completely clueless. Normal people would go, “You’re kind of awful too.” But people like her are like, “How could anyone do this to me?”

    You’re a comic actor and took on this very intense, dramatic role back in season two. What was it like joining the world?

    I had a great time shooting it. I really love Sam Levinson and Zendaya and everybody I got to work with — it’s a great crew. But I was very nervous about it coming out because I thought Euphoria fans tended to be pretty young and very passionate and very sensitive, so I was prepared for them to hate the character — and possibly hate me by association. I was also very insecure about my acting because the cast on that show is way up here, and I’m a comedic character actor. I was like, “There’s a chance people are going to be like, This bitch ruined our favorite show.” I was really, really relieved and happy when that wasn’t the reaction. 

    I would imagine it’s a very different group of fans stopping you on the street than Baskets fans.

    I love Baskets fans too. It was a really important part of my life and I love the people on that show. The Euphoria fans are more prone in public — because a lot of them are Gen Z — to shy-laugh a little bit and say, “Do you play Laurie on Euphoria?” I say yes, they say something nice and then they’ll often say, “Can I get a picture with you?” And I always say “Yes, as long as you don’t mind that I’m not good at taking pictures.” And then they take a selfie with me and then they go, “thank you, love you” or whatever. Not always “love you” but very sweet. Then they go about their business.

    Given your anxieties about doing something in such a different register, did you watch the second season? If so, what was that like?

    I always watch myself. I’m like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown — where I am Lucy and Charlie Brown. While I watch it I go, “Maybe this is the thing where I’ll be like, Hey, maybe I am a good actor.” And then I watch it and I go, ugh — about the way I look on screen and my acting ability. But the longer that I’ve been lucky enough to do this, the more I’ve tried to go into it being like everybody’s job has stuff that’s hard. And if the hardest thing for this great job is seeing myself on screen, who cares?

    Did you think about how to make her scary, within your particular skillset?

    I think that honestly, I just think that Sam’s writing and Zendaya’s acting are really what make her scary. He decided to create a mild-mannered sociopath; in real life, those are the scariest people, the disarming, vulnerable, seemingly nice ones who have no conscience. I kind of talk and have the same mannerisms in every role, so he just wrote it to where that’s how it would be me just acting the way I do and everything I’m in, honestly. 

    What has it been like to shape the character opposite Zendaya? What does she bring to those scenes for you? 

    I was really intimidated in season two partly because she’s really gifted. She’d be just making small talk with someone touching up her makeup, or with Sam or someone else in the crew, and then it’s like, “Okay, camera rolling, action” — and she could go right into really deep emotions. It is a high level of natural talent and a high level of skill and discipline. It’s a thrill to work with. It made me excited to get to work with her also just because she doesn’t act like one of the most famous people in the world on set. She acts like everybody else, so she doesn’t make it intimidating — her talent is intimidating.

    As you mentioned earlier, there’s a lot going on in Laurie’s house this season — we see her associates, we see her bird. What was working in the space like? 

    There was also a rat that lives in that house that we all got to see. He had a penchant for coming out once the camera was rolling, getting in the shot and sometimes scaring people. This house was a location in the movie Nope, and it also was in an episode of Baskets. The second or third day shooting there, Jeff Barnett, our stunt coordinator was also stunt coordinator on Baskets, was there; I was like, “This looks so much like that house,” and that was almost 10 years ago. I asked Jeff and he said “This is the house.” So that was fun. It’s way more fun to be part of a group all in it together than to just be a creepy, despicable character being terrible to a kid in a dark sound stage.

    ***

    Euphoria releases new episodes Sundays at 6 p.m. PT on HBO Max.

  • Taylor Frankie Paul Posts About “Ugly Parts” of “Healing” After Learning She Won’t Face Additional Domestic Violence Charges

    Taylor Frankie Paul has reacted to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office announcing they are not filing charges against her following two separate investigations into domestic violence allegations.

    “Here come the ugly parts of what healing actually looks like,” she began a lengthy post Sunday on Instagram. “If you know me you know I’ll admit my parts, flaws, and faults. I’m well aware thats apart of it. We’ll get there. This public atrocity that I not only lived through once but twice now, on even a bigger scale was ultimately the cost to my freedom. I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy or even the ones who publicized it. I cried on my knees in pain while also saying THANK YOU 🙏🏼”

    Paul then acknowledged that she’s still feeling the emotional effects of all that’s transpired and shared some symbolism she saw in the timing of learning the charges were dropped.

    “We have a road ahead but regardless I’m forever freed from a certain living hell I couldn’t find my way out of,” she continued. “Metaphorically someone witnessed me bleeding out and poured salt all over me… somehow I’m still here.. as we can see barely because I believe God held me through and sent help plus an army which makes me cry because, thank you to all of you that supported even without full context 🙏🏼 God undoubtedly had a hand in this because after waiting 7 weeks on the 7th day EXACTLY I received the call all charges dropped. Those are his numbers symbolic for his plans which I’m nervous to see what’s in store … steps moving forward are the very basics. We’re working on eating, movement, rest, and retraining the nervous system. I’ll be sharing the process, because if my worst is shared better bet I’ll share the rebuilding too.”

    The post included three selfies of Paul, in which she’s hiding her face with her phone.

    In another post on her Instagram Stories on Sunday, Paul wrote, “I diagnosed with PTSD about two years ago which I assume is now cptsd [complex post-traumatic stress disorder]…by more than one therapist for all those that assumed diagnoses.”

    In March, it was reported that The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives paused filming following an alleged February domestic incident between Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen that was being investigated by the Draper City Police Department. On March 25, it was later revealed that Paul was under investigation for an alleged third domestic violence incident involving her and Mortensen in 2024, which was being led by the West Jordan Police Department. (Prior, Paul was arrested in 2023 for another incident with Mortensen, with the fallout being documented on season one of Mormon Wives.)

    Salt Lake City’s ABC 4 confirmed April 14 that the DA will not be filing charges against Paul for either of those alleged incidents. The outlet noted that because incidents occurred over three years ago, the statute of limitations has expired for those events, per the DA.

    The events that occurred within the statute of limitations reportedly “lack sufficient evidence to support filing criminal charges where the state must be able to prove such allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.”

    “Such incidents lack specificity as to when and what actually occurred or corroboration,” the Salt Lake City DA’s report notes, per ABC 4. “Based on the evidence submitted for screening by the Draper Police Department and West Jordan Police Department, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declines to file any charges.”

    After the investigation tied to the alleged February incident was made public, a video of the events leading to Paul’s 2023 arrest was leaked to TMZ on March 19. The video showed Paul throwing barstools at Mortensen while her daughter present; a few hours later, ABC pulled Paul’s Bachelorette season, which was set to air on March 22.

    After the network revealed the decision, a rep for Paul released a statement thanking ABC for their support.

    “Taylor is very grateful for ABC’s support as she prioritizes her family’s safety and security,” a spokesperson for Paul said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm.”

    On April 7, Paul and Mortensen appeared in court over an existing order of protection he had filed against the Mormon Wives star. An hour before their appearance, Paul filed a temporary restraining order against Mortensen, which she was granted.

    In Paul’s filing, which was obtained by THR, she alleges that Mortensen has a “pattern of abusive conduct and coercive control.” She recounted several alleged incidents in the filing, and alleged that as the premiere for her season of The Bachelorette grew closer, “Dakota became increasingly possessive.”

    During an incident on Feb. 23, which was under investigation, Paul alleged that Mortensen came to her home where her three children were asleep to talk about their relationship, a day after they got into a verbal altercation about the same topic, and they entered his vehicle to talk, and he drove away without her consent.

    In the filing, Paul claims she “pleaded with him to make me home, but he continued driving away,” and they began to argue, and then Mortensen “became physically violent.”

    “The parties argued and Dakota assaulted Taylor by slamming her head against the dashboard of his truck and striking her knee and elbow,” the filing alleges, which also included photos of Paul’s bruises and screenshots of text messages between the two.

    On March 20, NBC News reported on a Zoom call the Mormon Wives cast had with Disney execs, where they voiced concerns about continuing to film with Paul. A source close to the situation told THR that the cast call with Disney execs was held so the executives could inform the women that the show was going on pause amid their own investigation. The women were informed that filming for season five was to be paused until production’s investigation, which is separate from the law enforcement investigation, concludes. 

  • Frank Marshall Says ESPN Pulled His Doc ‘Rachel, Breathe’ “An Hour Before Broadcast” Over Rights Disagreement

    Frank Marshall Says ESPN Pulled His Doc ‘Rachel, Breathe’ “An Hour Before Broadcast” Over Rights Disagreement

    Director Frank Marshall says his documentary Rachel, Breathe was pulled from ESPN2 shortly before it was supposed to air Sunday night due to a disagreement with the network over rights to the project.

    “I’m sad to report that RACHEL, BREATHE, will not premiere on ESPN2 today,” Marshall posted on X on Sunday. “After several days of negotiations that should have been very simple and were not about money, but rights, the ESPN lawyers stopped talking to us an hour before broadcast and said, ‘sign it now or we are pulling the show’. I’m extremely disappointed for Rachel and John and entire team that spent 2 years making this film about hope, love and friendship.  We remain genuinely excited for the day this documentary reaches the world, it is simply not tonight. And just like Rachel, we remain resilient and the moment I know where and when the premiere is, you will hear from me.”

    Marshall directed and was a producer on the doc. According to a synopsis on The Kennedy/Marshall Company’s website: “Rachel, Breathe is an intimate exploration of the transformative power of running through the miraculous story of marathoner Rachel Foster. Five months after waking up from a coma no one expected her to emerge from, Rachel accomplished the unthinkable and completed the 2023 Boston Marathon. Despite the victory of that moment and feeling like she was on the path to a full recovery of her life as it was, new challenges arise. The film follows Rachel, now preparing to run the 2025 Boston Marathon as a reclamation of self, to prove that though her reality has changed, her essence remains the same. Interweaving Rachel’s journey to run Boston past and present, the film explores themes of loss, love, grit, friendship, redemption and transcendence.”

    According to a previous X post by Marshall, the doc was scheduled to premiere at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2, with a repeat airing on April 20 following coverage of the 130th Boston Marathon. A search on the ESPN2 website does not generate any results, but a look at the YouTube TV listings shows the doc scheduled to air at 9:30 am PT on Monday.

    Marshall produced along with Aly Parker, Tony Rosenthal and Joanna Forscher, the latter of whom is also credited as writer on the documentary.

    The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to ESPN for comment.

  • ‘Fallen Angels’ Broadway Review: Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara Sparkle in Lackluster Noël Coward Revival

    ‘Fallen Angels’ Broadway Review: Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara Sparkle in Lackluster Noël Coward Revival

    There’s a bit of acting advice that’s often ascribed to Noël Coward: “Speak clearly and don’t bump into the furniture.”

    But if you’re Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne, by all means, slide down the staircase, nosedive over the settee and slur your words while tossing back two strong martinis and a case of Dom Pérignon. The actors check every one of those boxes during the drunken high point of “Fallen Angels,” the revival of a nearly forgotten Coward play that’s being performed on Broadway for the first time in 70 years.

    The show follows two upper-crust friends, Julia (O’Hara) and Jane (Byrne), who discover their former lover Maurice (Mark Consuelos) has touched down in London while their husbands are on a golf trip. Excited, yet anxious, over the prospect of reconnecting with the man that got away, the pair fortifies themselves with cocktails and bubbly during a boozy dinner. “Champagne is a great strengthener,” Julia assures Jane, who is worried that the two will “go down like ninepins” if Maurice is as “attractive and glamorous as ever.”

    But instead of paving the way for some good ol’ fashioned infidelity, the liquid courage causes the women to turn on each other, with the evening devolving into inebriated insults and recriminations. And the two stars, who at first seem to be playing in different registers with O’Hara launching her punchlines towards the balcony and Byrne aiming for the second row, harmonize to deliver a master class in physical comedy. It’s demented, hilarious fun to see Byrne kick off her heels and rappel down her chair or witness O’Hara dipping her after-dinner strawberries into her Cordial Medoc as though dunking shrimp into cocktail sauce. The two are so silly, so loopily in synch, that the scene, which occurs halfway through the second act, lifts the entire show, giving it a buoyancy that has been lacking during its exposition-heavy beginning.

    So what to make of “Fallen Angels”? First produced in 1925 when Coward was just 24, it was an attempt to put a stiff upper lip spin on French farce. Although scandalous in its day for its frank depiction of female desire and open discussion of infidelity and premarital sex (Maurice “had” Julia in Pisa and Jane in Venice and “Florence and Florence”), the show seems positively tame post-“Sex and the City,” “Bottoms” and “Booksmart.” When it premiered it was nearly banned by the censors, and Coward had to tone things down to get the Lord Chamberlain’s seal of approval. He added the naughty bits back in during a 1958 revision, but the show could have benefitted from a full rewrite, not just a polish.

    There are some lines that have Coward’s trademark sparkle (“I have heard that the worst part of parenting is the children”), while others feel like the product of a young playwright still trying to find his voice. And the main characters are little more than soused ciphers, whose one defining trait is their barely contained horniness. They lack the shading — the pathos hiding behind elegantly crafted quips — that Coward brought to the protagonists of his masterpieces, “Private Lives” and “Design for Living.”

    Roundabout Theater Company’s Interim Director Scott Ellis directs “Fallen Angels” with screwball flair, staging the crossed-wire mishaps, bedroom hijinks and tipsy pratfalls like a Jazz Age “Noises Off.” He also wisely encourages O’Hara and Byrne to go-for-broke and milk every punchline, but Ellis has less success coaxing memorable performances from the show’s supporting players. Aasif Mandvi and Christopher Fitzgerald barely register as Jane and Julia’s oblivious husbands, while Consuelos, who plays Maurice as a suave cuckolder with a dodgy European accent, should probably stick to daytime TV. But Tracee Chimo, who plays a bubbly, know-it-all maid, is a standout. Likewise, David Rockwell’s set, an elegant Art Deco dining and drawing room where much of the action unfolds, provides a stylish backdrop to the proceedings, while the chandelier that soars over the stage also serves as a sight gag that ends the show on a slyly subversive note.

    If only the 90 minutes that preceded that killer capper had more fizz to them. O’Hara and Byrne may be bleeding for every laugh, but you can’t ignore the fact that “Fallen Angels” is one of Coward’s lesser works. The play proves that even in his twenties, he was already perfecting his transgressive wit.

    However, the other elements of Coward’s genius, that alchemy of humor and humanity that made him one of the last century’s greatest playwrights, would come with age.

  • ‘The Facts of Life’ Star Mindy Cohn Says She Is Fighting Cancer for a Second Time

    ‘The Facts of Life’ Star Mindy Cohn Says She Is Fighting Cancer for a Second Time

    Mindy Cohn took to Instagram on Sunday to reveal that she’s battling cancer for a second time.

    “Have been off social media for a while ‘cuz I had to go kick cancer’s ass,” Cohn wrote. “I did so with the extraordinary help of Providence Saint John’s hospital staff, especially my nurses Finja, Patty and Courtney and my hero, the phenomenal oncology surgeon [Anton Bilchik]…. Thank you to my family… who have been my advocates and always on the ready to help me when it’s ‘my turn.’ Recouping for another couple of weeks and then ready for my next adventure. Onwards! F**K Cancer!”

    In a 2017 interview with People, Cohn revealed that she had been secretly recovering from breast cancer for the past five years.

    “I kept that secret for a long time,” she said at the time. “I’ve always been an optimist, but the cancer metastasized. It kept spreading and coming back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it would. And then I’d wait for another shoe to drop, and it would. I was frustrated and enraged. I couldn’t control any of this. I couldn’t fix it.”

    Cohn is best known for playing Natalie Green on the NBC sitcom “The Facts of Life.” The show ran for nine seasons from 1979 to 1988. Most recently, she starred as Ann Holiday on the Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale.” She also appeared in the comedy film “Influenced” alongside Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow.

    Cohn received several comments of support on her post from stars like Octavia Spencer, Rhea Seehorn, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Paulson.

  • Barack Obama Says His and Michelle’s Production Company Higher Ground Will Go Independent After Netflix Deal Ends

    Barack Obama Says His and Michelle’s Production Company Higher Ground Will Go Independent After Netflix Deal Ends

    Barack and Michelle Obama‘s production company Higher Ground is transitioning to an independent operation following eight years at Netflix.

    Barack Obama shared the news at an event held Saturday in Philadelphia that featured leaders in media, sports and entertainment as part of a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Speaking on separate panels, both Barack and Michelle Obama talked about their work with Higher Ground.

    The former president specifically noted that after eight years of working exclusively with Netflix and being “very grateful for the launch that happened,” the Obamas are “in the process now of transitioning to a more independent [company] where we can work with a bunch of different studios.”

    The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a rep for Higher Ground for comment.

    The Obamas inked their producing deal with Netflix in 2018. In 2024, Higher Ground and Netflix extended their partnership, with Higher Ground transitioning to a multiyear first-look deal for all of its film and TV projects.

    Higher Ground’s recent projects with Netflix include Oscar-nominated films Rustin, American Symphony and Crip Camp and the Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning film American Factory as well as the Will Forte series Bodkin and Sam Esmail’s apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind.

    More recently, Higher Ground has been setting up projects outside of Netflix, including the HBO sketch comedy series Life Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, from creator Larry David and Jeff Schaffer, which premieres in June. The project was was announced last month at SXSW during a panel with David and Schaffer.

    Saturday’s event in Philadelphia also featured Joe and Dr. Jill Biden, Bill and Hilary Clinton and George W. Bush as well as Nicole Kidman, Tina Fey, Colin Jost, Garth Brooks, Tom Brady, Ted Danson, Kate McKinnon, Jason Kelce, Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb.

    Abbey White contributed to this report.

  • ‘Facts of Life’ Star Mindy Cohn Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

    ‘Facts of Life’ Star Mindy Cohn Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

    Mindy Cohn, best known for her role as Natalie in the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life, revealed Sunday that she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time.

    On Instagram, the actress posted a photo of her lying in a hospital bed with the caption: “have been off social media for awhile ‘ cuz i had to go kick cancer’s ass.”

    In the photo, Cohn is smiling and giving a thumbs-up. In her post, she thanked the staff of Providence Saint John’s Hospital, located in Santa Monica, and her “phenomenal” oncology surgeon, Dr. Anton Bilchik.

    She also thanked close friends including The Morning Show actress Tara Karsian and The Rookie star Gregory Zarian, along with his husband, John Stewart.

    They “have been my advocates and always on the ready to help me when it’s ‘my turn’. recouping for another couple of weeks and then ready for my next adventure. onwards! F**K Cancer!” she ended the post.

    This is the second time Cohn has battled cancer. In 2017, she revealed that she’d had a five-year battle with breast cancer.

    “I kept that secret for a long time,” she told People at the time. “I’ve always been an optimist, but the cancer metastasized. It kept spreading and coming back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it would. And then I’d wait for another shoe to drop, and it would. I was frustrated and enraged. I couldn’t control any of this. I couldn’t fix it.”

    Cohn was one of the stars of Facts of Life for its entire nine-season run from 1979-88. More recently, she co-starred opposite Kristen Wiig in Apple TV+’s Palm Royale.

    Cohn received a flood of well wishes from famous faces in the comment section of her most recent post, including Sarah Paulson, who wrote “Sending love … your way.” Rhea Seehorn wrote: “MINDY!!!! F**CK that nonsense!!!! Sending you love and healing to the moon and back!”

    Other well wishers included Octavia Spencer, Chelsea Handler, Vicki Lawrence, Helen Hunt, Lucy Hale, Daphne Zuniga, Peri Gilpin, Johnny Weir and Holly Peete.

    Read her full post below.

  • Asobi System Artists, Executives on Global Aspirations and Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026

    Asobi System Artists, Executives on Global Aspirations and Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026

    A day after J-pop fans gathered at Honolulu’s Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell for a one-night-only concert, Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026, the artists and executives of Asobi System congregated backstage to discuss the event and the company’s global aspirations.

    As J-pop continues to move further into the U.S. market, Japanese entertainment companies and labels are looking for ways to connect artists with both longtime and potential fans in what was a previously untapped market. Bringing Asobi Expo, an event meant to gather and showcase artists from the Asobi System family, to the U.S. is one way some labels are introducing talent stateside. Other events similar to it, like Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association’s Matsuri event held last year in Los Angeles, are label agnostic.

    “I thought that was really important to bring [the event] abroad, to really spread the Japanese culture,” Asobi System CEO and founder of Yusuke Nakagawa, tells The Hollywood Reporter. The entertainment company, which he founded in 2007, works to showcase and spread Japan’s famed harajuku culture, which is essentially a collection of eclectic and diverse subcultures.

    That Harajuku culture is on display plenty, all the way down to the variety of artists Nakagawa has picked for the Honolulu edition of Asobi Expo. There’s the high-energy, out-of-box Atarashii Gakko!, the adorable and endearing Kawaii Labs girl group Fruits Zipper and the veteran Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. The event’s audience featured a fair share of supporters for each act, a mix of both local residents and diehard fans who flew in from Japan.

    Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026.

    Hisashi Uchida, Taku Miyazawa

    Nakagawa says he felt that Hawaii was the perfect location to expand Asobi Expo into the U.S. “I thought it was a really good place, where the Japanese people would be happy to come and the local people [would] have a lot of support,” he says.

    “It was our first time in Hawaii,” says Suzuka of Atarashii Gakko! The four-member girl group is no stranger to performing in the U.S., having previously performed at Coachella and headlining a North American tour of their own.

    “The audience was really enjoying [the] different artists, so I thought maybe that’s the atmosphere of Hawaii, that you get to be more relaxed. I thought that was really good,” the singer continues. She says they put together a setlist that they knew the crowd would enjoy.

    “Even the Japanese people that traveled over here, they seemed to have more energy or were yelling in a higher tone or [had] more body movement,” she continues. “We actually got hyped watching the audience. And, as a team, I was really grateful that we all got to travel together with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Fruits Zipper, but also [with] the Asobi System staff.”

    Fruits Zipper, hailing from Asobi System’s sublabel, Kawaii Labs, is admittedly a bit to newer the U.S. market, but the girl group — which operates on a system of each member being assigned a color — had a large fan presence at the Honolulu concert.

    “It’s always nice to see that there are fans outside Japan because we never get to meet the person,” Noel, whose color in the group is yellow, explains. The 22-year-old is the group’s main fluent English-language speaker, having been born in Germany and raised in Japan.

    The word “kawaii” means cute or adorable in Japanese, which is exactly the vibe that Fruits Zipper’s visual aesthetic and sound conveys. The label, much like its parent company, aims to bring Harajuku culture to the global stage. Kawaii Labs, led by Misa Kimura, oversees several girl groups, including Cutie Street, who have been going viral internationally following music show promotions in Korea.

    J-pop girl group Fruits Zipper.

    Hisashi Uchida, Taku Miyazawa

    “One of the main thing Kawaii Labs strives to do is to bring the Japanese idol culture to the world, so when we do anything abroad like in U.S. and elsewhere, we don’t try to customize it to that region,” Kimura explains. The 35-year-old serves as the project’s leader and producer for Fruits Zipper and Cutie Street, along Candy Tune and Sweet Steady.

    “In the case of the U.S., they think [this kind of group] is a breath of fresh air,” the producer says. “It’s just completely different than what they’re used to.”

    Kimura was once in the J-pop scene herself, having previously been the leader of idol group Musubizm. The producer’s experience as both an executive and a former idol makes her uniquely qualified in conveying just how much J-pop has grown globally. “I’m very happy to see that the Japanese culture is actually spreading in different countries, even in places that I didn’t think it was there,” she says. “I’m very happy to [be able] see that in person.”

    Asobi System and Asobi Expo plan to continue their global growth, says Nakagawa. “Watching the audience’s reaction really touched me. It was really very emotional and made me realize I really want to [bring this to] L.A., Miami, London, Paris,” the executive explains.

    “The music is so different when you experience it [in person], not just on the social media side [or] listening to it,” he continues. “It’s a challenge to bring [the show] over and then to find the right artists that will be able to communicate to the audience, but it’s something we want to think about and challenge ourselves to make it happen.”