A member of Michael Jackson’s family is taking aim at the media in the lead-up to Lionsgate‘s biopic launching this weekend.
Michael hits theaters and Imax on Friday and stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in his feature debut as the pop music icon. Colman Domingo portrays the singer’s father, Joe Jackson, while Nia Long plays his mother, Katherine. Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, Kat Graham, Larenz Tate and Derek Luke round out the cast for director Antoine Fuqua‘s movie that tells the story of Michael Jackson‘s upbringing and rise to fame, with the film’s narrative ending in the 1980s.
Taj Jackson, a musician and producer whose father is Michael Jackson’s brother Tito Jackson, took to social media Tuesday to chide the media over its coverage of the late music superstar. Michael Jackson’s Grammy-winning career included not only 1982’s Thriller, which remains the best-selling album of all time, and such enduring hits as “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” but also a number of scandals and legal issues.
“Sorry media, u don’t get to control the narrative anymore of who Michael Jackson truly was,” Taj Jackson wrote on X. “The public gets to watch this movie…they will decide for themselves. And you can’t handle that.”
In a follow-up post, he added, “Can’t wait till some critics have to eat crow. And yes I will be that petty.”
Can’t wait till some critics have to eat crow. And yes I will be that petty.
Michael is set to make plenty of noise at the box office as it heads for a domestic opening that is likely to surpass $65 million. The critical response has been more muted, as the film currently holds a 36 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. In his Michaelreview for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney called the feature “surprisingly affecting” and also noted, “The film leaves itself open to accusations of making Michael a saint, which will not sit well with the cancel crowd.”
THRpreviously reported that an initial, longer version of the movie was set to feature scenes showing the star dealing with child sexual abuse allegations. The third act included a portrayal of an accuser whose past settlement with the performer’s estate stipulated that he would never be dramatized, leading the film to be retooled. A second movie focusing on the latter portion of Jackson’s life prior to his 2009 death has been in development from Lionsgate.
Taj Jackson has been a vocal defender of his uncle’s legacy and previously spoke out about the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which centered on two individuals who had accused Michael Jackson of abusing them as children. At that time, Taj Jackson called the allegations false and defamatory.
Sam Reid plays the camp vampire rock star Lestat de Lioncourt looking to set the record straight after being alive and undead for 265 years in the official trailer for AMC’s The Vampire Lestat drama that dropped on Wednesday.
The Interview With The Vampireseries, based on the late Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles books, has been retitled for the third season, as Reid’s character looks to reclaim his centuries-old story as an immortal, yet turbulent rock star.
“It’s my era. I’m a rock star now,” a strutting de Lioncourt says at one point in the stylized and fast-paced teaser trailer, with one camera angle revealing the celebrity touring performer’s boots have the word “Hate” on one sole and “Me” on the other.
But, as he attempts to set the record straight with a “rewrite” of the Vampire Chronicles, de Lioncourt’s life begins to spin out of control as he is haunted by the muses from his rebellious past.
“I’m immortal… I’ve been a monster. This is my reckoning,” Reid’s character cries out as AMC reveals the latest series from its Immortal Universe that in the teaser has Lestat playing his version of Billy Idol’s catchy “Dancing With Myself” track.
Along with Reid, The Vampire Lestat stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Bogosian, Delainey Hayles and Jennifer Ehle and is executive produced by Mark Johnson, creator, writer and showrunner Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, Christopher Rice and Anne Rice.
Writer-director Jon Favreau successfully launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008’s Iron Man, but there was one MCU move he admits that he resisted behind the scenes: killing off Robert Downey Jr.’s beloved Tony Stark in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday to promote his upcoming Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu, Favreau says he called up Anthony and Joe Russo to push back against their plan to end the character he helped create.
“I talked to the Russos, I said ‘I don’t know if people are gonna like … I don’t know, it’s really going to impact people because they were kids that grew up with that character,” Favreau said. “But I have to tell you, it was handled so well by them. And Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Robert did such a wonderful job acting, and I think it added a poignancy to it. I think they did a wonderful job. I was wrong.”
Favreau admitted even he got emotional when he watched the film. “I was choked up,” he said. “Even though it’s a movie, those people, those characters, have been part of my life for so long.”
Favreau added he’s “excited to see” Downey as Doctor Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. He noted the “smartest thing I ever did” was give himself a cameo as the character Happy Hogan in the first Iron Man movie, because he’s been invited back to appear so many times in the franchise that the role has “put my kids through school.”
Asked who is “scarier,” Star Wars fans or MCU fans, Favreau diplomatically replied they’re “equally invested” in their respective franchises, but Star Wars fans have a longer attachment given the first film came out in 1977.
Favreau showed a new clip from TheMandalorian and Grogu, which you can watch around the 9-minute mark in the footage below. The film opens May 22.
Netflix is nearing a deal to buy the historic Radford Studio Center lot, a purchase that would give the entertainment giant ownership of a major Los Angeles production campus.
Goldman Sachs, which took over the property earlier this year, is expected to sell the property for roughly $330 million, a source familiar with the deal tells The Hollywood Reporter, describing the agreement as “all but done.”
According to the source, Netflix didn’t participate in the first round of bids, which didn’t include other major studios and started roughly two months ago. Offers, most of which didn’t hit $300 million, were mostly submitted by entities looking for what could be a generational discount on the 55-acre property.
The sale is the first deal of its kind involving a major production campus in more than five years. It’s expected to set a baseline for lenders to rely on when renewing loans for comparable properties. “This is going to set the bar,” the source adds.
The buy could shake up Netflix’s base of operations in Los Angeles. For years, it has been the anchor tenant at Sunset Studios, making the ICON building its L.A. headquarters and occupying the EPIC and CUE buildings as part of the complex on Sunset Boulevard.
The streaming giant has a lease on those buildings through 2031 with the owner, Hudson Pacific Properties, which receives $27 million in base annualized rent from Netflix. As of early March, Hudson Pacific CEO Victor Coleman said at an investor conference that “our conversations with them are fluid” regarding future leases.
Netflix is the No. 2 tenant for Hudson Pacific among its office tenants, occupying 722,305 square feet of space, just behind Google, so a loss of the streaming giant would be a big one for the soundstage operator. (Amazon is its No. 3 tenant, and the company also has tech giants like Salesforce, PayPal and Elon Musk’s X AI leasing its properties.)
“We remain fully engaged with Netflix and believe this portfolio is the optimal long-term solution for their L.A. office needs, given the quality, location and expansion potential of these assets,” Coleman had said on the company’s February earnings call.
Netflix leases its Sunset Bronson Studios location (pictured during the 2023 labor strikes).
Tiffany Taylor/THR Staff
Radford, meanwhile, counts iconic titles like Seinfeld and Gilligan’s Island among the classic shows that have filmed on its soundstages. But even in corporate materials it describes itself as facing “decades of under-investment,” and renovation plans have been put in motion.
The historic studio was in the hands of the then-named ViacomCBS corp until 2021 when it was sold — as part of a slimming down of the Shari Redstone-run Paramount empire — to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management for $1.85 billion.
The Michael Hackman-led firm had bet that studio infrastructure would be a hot commodity as majors had been bulking up on spending for streaming shows near the height of what was then a race to catch up to Netflix. Wall Street and private equity firms also saw the upside in studio lot infrastructure at the time, which was not too far removed from the COVID-19 pandemic, when office space was seen as a shakier bet.
Then, ahead of the 2023 dual labor strikes from the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA, the content spend pullback hit and stage occupancy started waning. (Now uncertainty about how AI workflows will impact content creation also factor in to big bets on soundstage infrastructure.)
Netflix could strike the deal as the value of L.A. studio real estate plunges amid a historic production slump in the region. Major soundstages recorded a 62 percent occupancy rate during the first six months of 2025, down one percent from anemic levels recorded in 2024, according to data released from local film office FilmLA in March. From 2016 to 2022, soundstages participating in the survey reported an average occupancy rate of at least 90 percent.
The filming downturn hit Radford, which has 22 soundstages, especially hard since fixed operating costs remain the same regardless of how many productions shoot on the property.
A green screen on set at the Radford lot in Studio City circa 2018.
Photographed By Yuri Hasegawa
Investment bank Goldman Sachs had taken over the Radford lot after Hackman defaulted on its mortgage, Bloomberg reported in January, citing a letter to investors that wasn’t made public. Hackman also operates the historic Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles, the Sony Pictures Animation Campus in Culver City and more major soundstages and production facilities.
Last year Hackman put a “For Sale” sign on a Raleigh sibling location, Saticoy Studios in Van Nuys, at an $18 million price tag, with an exec at the company telling THR that it was “non-core to our wider studio portfolio, which focuses on larger, flagship properties.” The main Raleigh Studios location, located on Melrose Avenue, has Netflix as the anchor tenant through 2031 as well.
That would mean that by 2031, Netflix may be able to be on the move at both Sunset and Raleigh studios should it choose to do so. And a Radford lot purchase — it boasts 22 soundstages, three backlot sets, 18 office buildings and 20 bungalows — could make for suitable new digs for Ted Sarandos and Co. in L.A. to go along with its restored Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.
Netflix, which just received a $2.8 billion break up fee in connection with its abandoned pursuit of Warner Bros., has made an effort to build its soundstage bases over the years, outside of its L.A. office. Those include the formerly named ABQ Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico as well as $1 billion to build its East coast base at the former site of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey (which won’t be ready for a few years).
That’s not counting the Los Gatos-based company’s expanding global office and studio space portfolio. This year alone, Netflix unveiled its Mexico City headquarters, opened a Buenos Aires, Argentina office and touted an expansion of its Poland central European hub as it builds infrastructure to provide a content pipeline to serve its 325 million subscribers.
Sunset Studios soundstage operator Hudson Pacific, meanwhile, has looked to the East coast for an expansion, opening its purpose-built Sunset Pier 94 Studios in Manhattan in January with Paramount Television Studios’ Dexter: Resurrection signing on to produce its second season at the location.
April 22 Story updated throughout with additional reporting.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that production on season five of Mormon Wives will resume following a filming pause initiated by an internal investigation surrounding Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen. Details on when cameras will pick up were not outlined, nor were any cast details, including Paul’s status with the series.
Speculation on if Paul would return was swift. Per a source close to Paul, THR has learned that the ball is in her court. The team behind the show wants her to return and has been supportive of Paul amid the turbulence she’s faced over the past few months, but only if and when she is ready.
Earlier on Wednesday, when People reported that production was picking back up without Paul and Mortensen, Paul disputed in Instagram comments, “Interesting, that’s not the call I got.”
News of production resuming on Mormon Wives arrived a day before Hulu‘s Gel Real House on Wednesday, which will spotlight the streamer and ABC’s unscripted slate.
Reports that the Emmy-nominated Hulu series halted filming on its fifth season broke in mid-March, amid an alleged domestic incident involving the then-Bachelorette star and her ex. At the time, a spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department told People there was an open domestic assault investigation between Paul and Mortensen, with allegations made in both directions.
A video of the events leading up to Paul’s prior 2023 arrest was then leaked, showing the reality star throwing barstools at Mortensen while her daughter was present. Hours later, ABC decided to pull her 22nd season of The Bachelorette only three days before it was scheduled for a March 22 premiere.
The next day after the video published on TMZ, NBC News obtained audio of a Zoom call held on March 7 with the Mormon Wives cast and three Disney executives, where they voiced concerns of continuing the series with Paul amid the investigation. THR confirmed that Mormon Wives production launched their own internal investigation into the conflicting claims, and that Mormon Wives filming was to remain paused until that probe concluded.
On March 25, NBC News reported that Paul was under investigation for an alleged third domestic violence incident, also involving her ex Mortensen, that allegedly occurred in 2024. (All three alleged incidents have involved Paul and Mortensen.)
However, on April 7, Paul filed a temporary restraining order against Mortensen, which she was granted. In Paul’s filing, which THR obtained, she recounted several alleged abusive incidents involving Mortensen, including a Feb. 23 event where she says he “became physically violent,” and slammed her head on the dashboard of his truck. (The filing included photos of Paul’s bruises and screenshots of text messages between the two.)
Then on April 14, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office revealed they would not pursue new charges against Paul following the separate investigations led by the Draper Police Department and West Jordan Police Department.
Hulu has not yet commented on Paul’s status with filming now back up, and ABC has not made any statements about if her Bachelorette season could be revived.
[This story contains spoilers from The Boys season five, episode four, “King of Hell.”]
Erin Moriarty can’t bring herself to watch The Boys’ final season. Of course, she loves the show and her signature role of Annie “Starlight” January, but she isn’t ready to revisit such a debilitating time in her life.
In June of 2025, Moriarty went public with her then-recent Graves’ disease diagnosis. At that point, she was six months into filming The Boys season five, and her doctor’s conclusion immediately explained why she hadn’t been feeling like herself throughout production. Her various symptoms, including chronic fatigue and nausea, soon fell by the wayside thanks to immediate treatment, and she finally felt human again in time for the series finale.
“It did lead to me not being as present for Annie during this final season as I would’ve hoped, and that was super painful for me. I thought, Oh my God, I’m failing Annie and I’m failing our audience,” Moriarty tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was like I was offline for the first six to seven episodes, and then I came back online. I finally felt present at the very end of season five.”
Moriarty is also offering her thoughts on season five’s fourth episode, “King of Hell.”
Rattled by Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) latest brush with death, Annie decides to leave her boyfriend and allies behind to track down her estranged father, Rick (Tim Daly). Annie’s mother, Donna (Ann Cusack), originally claimed that Rick walked out on them due to shoddy investments. But in the season one finale, Annie exposed that lie after confronting her mother about her superpowers being created in a lab, not by God, as she had led her to believe. Donna still didn’t come completely clean, insisting that Rick left after regretting their decision to inject Annie with the superhero serum known as Compound V. Annie then speculated at the time that her father probably didn’t want to lie about the nature of her powers.
Annie’s theory proved to be correct when Rick confirms that Donna’s pious fraud caused him to leave. He also reveals that he proudly tracked Annie/Starlight’s accomplishments from afar and urged her not to turn her back on the people she loves like he did.
“He really galvanizes her and catalyzes her to find herself and her heroism for the remainder of the season. If she had previously gone to her father for this information, it would’ve fueled further resentment toward her mother,” Moriarty tells The Hollywood Reporter. “That would’ve negated her ability to move forward in her story. But right now, she’s like, ‘You know what? Mom did the best she could.’ It’s a testament to Annie’s emotional maturation at this point.”
As for the upcoming May 20 series finale of showrunner Eric Kripke’s superhero satire, Moriarty believes it will leave the audience both satisfied and heartbroken.
“It’s a heartbreaking episode. It’s not overtly cynical. When I read the finale as a script, it was my favorite episode this season, as it should be,” Moriarty shares. “I think the audience is going to be so immensely satisfied by the finale. I never like to give a resolute prediction like that, and I never have, but I’m saying it now because I have so much excitement and confidence in it.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Moriarty also discusses Annie’s new bad habit she recommended in between seasons, before revisiting the show’s collective anxiety surrounding season four’s finale.
***
You probably shed most of your tears during production, but now that we’re halfway through The Boys’ final season, what are your emotions at the moment?
It’s very bittersweet. I sound like a broken record, because that’s the term we all keep coming back to, but there aren’t words to suffice this moment in time. The mourning and goodbye to my character happened when season five wrapped. But now that the world is watching our final season, I’m experiencing a very, very sharp sense of extreme gratitude. Sincere gratitude gets me emotional, it all still feels so surreal to me. I still feel like it was yesterday that I was auditioning for the role.
When we were filming season five, I was very much in a pre-mourning phase about the show coming to an end. It was such an emotionally pregnant period of time that I tried to balance my feeling of pre-mourning with a level of presence that hadn’t existed in previous seasons.
Annie January aka Starlight (Erin Moriarty) in The Boys season five.
Jasper Savage/Amazon Prime Video
Annie is battle weary this season. She even has a vaping habit now. She was worried about what Hughie might think of her actions during their year apart. How much detail did [showrunner] Eric Kripke offer you about that missing time period between seasons four and five?
I’m very fortunate that Eric Kripke gave me a lot. Between seasons, we would always sit down and discuss what has transpired. It was really important because no season has started right after the previous season concluded. A significant amount of time passed between seasons, so meeting with Eric became a really integral part of my preparation process each season.
The cool thing about Eric is that he informs us circumstantially about what has happened, but he also allows collaboration at that point. I said to him, “I want Annnie to pick up a nervous habit that allows her to have micro-escapist moments as scenes are transpiring.” She’s still metabolizing the trauma that has happened in earlier seasons, but what has happened in between seasons four and five has been the hardest for her to swallow. There have been so many casualties as a result of this Starlighter Movement that she’s at the head of, and she’s at her most stressful breaking point.
I even deem her as being suicidal. She sees that the only redemptive way for her to become a hero is to sacrifice herself in honor of the casualties that resulted from the Starlighter Movement. So I wanted there to be this new flavor of Annie, and I wanted her to pick up a mannerism that reflected the stress of what she’s going through right now. I’ve always tried to make sure that Annie, although she’s a superhero, remains human forward. And those moments of stress represented through vaping and other things felt very human to me.
I watched your interview with David Dastmalchian, and it sounds like you were going through a lot during the final season, health-wise. I don’t mean to trivialize Graves’ disease, but did it end up serving the character’s weariness at all?
I wish I could say that it did. I’ve been open about this, and I will continue to be open about this. I’ve got no hesitation around it. It’s important for me to be vocal about autoimmune diseases. I was starting to feel so ill, and even though I come from a family of doctors, no one thought to say, “Go get your levels tested.” So it did lead to me not being as present for Annie during this final season as I would’ve hoped, and that was super painful for me. It was like I was offline for the first six to seven episodes, and then I came back online. I finally felt present at the very end of season five.
I wish I could have used it to enhance or to relate to her weariness, but to be honest, I was on set every day just really, really, really struggling to get through it all. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a really supportive cast and crew, but it was really scary at times. For example, I’ve watched every season of The Boys. I love this show so much. But I’m not watching the final season simply because it’s really important for me at this moment in time to put my psychological health above all other things.
I wasn’t able to transcend the physical and mental toll that this disease took on me until episode seven. It’s a testament to how profoundly impactful these autoimmune diseases can be, and I don’t think that people are aware to the degree that they can be. So I wish I was able to say it served the character, but unfortunately, it was a matter of getting through every day. The psychological toll that it took on me, I’ll be able to use it in the future, but I couldn’t while it was going on simultaneously. Sadly not.
Thank you for your candor. Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) near-death in the third episode traumatized Annie to the point where she finally tracks down her estranged father (Tim Dalys’ Rick) after all these years. Her mom (Ann Cusack’s Donna) originally told her that her father left them over bad investments, but then she later divulged that he regretted their decision to inject Annie with Compound V. He then clarified in the fourth episode that he actually left in protest of her mom’s dogma that Annie was a Chosen One. How do you think this revelation affects her relationship with her mom, if at all?
That’s an interesting question. Annie’s relationship with her mother is very much one that many people can relate to. Every parent is a flawed parent. But at this point in time, Annie is able to look at things with nuance. She’s had an immense amount of distance from Donna, and I think she’s reached an emotionally mature enough point where it’s not going to fuel more resentment toward her. This episode was really about her relationship with her father. It was about what she needed from her father and not about feeling more resentment toward her mother.
Annie’s dad gave her exactly what she needed in this episode to keep going without it fueling more toxicity with her mother. He really galvanizes her and catalyzes her to find herself and her heroism for the remainder of the season. There’s this kismet alignment with these characters at this moment in time. If she had previously gone to her father for this information, it would’ve fueled further resentment toward her mother, and that would’ve eaten away at her and negated her ability to move forward in her story. She would’ve confronted her mother about how she lied to her. But right now, she’s like, “You know what? Mom did the best she could. ” It’s a testament to Anne’s emotional maturation at this point.
The series finale is still under lock and key. Have you let yourself wonder how the audience might receive it?
I have because I’m excited for the audience to see the finale. When I read the finale script, it was my favorite episode this season, as it should be. Our showrunner and our writers are so cognizant of the fact that the finale is such an integral part of this entire story. They have worked so relentlessly hard to ultimately honor what they believe our audience will want. That’s what we’ve all been working for, and that’s why we were able to end the show with integrity. I really believe the writers did that. I’m just excited for fans to see it. I think the audience is going to be so immensely satisfied by the finale. I never like to give a resolute prediction like that, and I never have, but I’m saying it now because I have so much excitement and confidence in it.
Is it shocking in The Boys’ patented fashion?
Shocking? Yes, but by the time that episode eight airs, so many shocking moments will have happened that I think it will be more satisfying and heartbreaking. Heartbreaking would be the word that I would use. At that point, the audience will have been heartbroken by many characters that are lost along the way. Our showrunner has said that will happen, so it’s not a spoiler.
It’s a heartbreaking episode. It’s not overtly cynical. But it’s still an episode that really drives home the finality of the show and the characters that we’ve all become emotionally invested in, whether they’re good or bad. The point of the show is that these characters are nuanced. They aren’t black and white. So the losses of characters that you thought you weren’t rooting for can all of a sudden be emotional because no one is all bad and no one is all good on this show.
Have actors from the more conventional superhero projects ever expressed to you in private how they wish their show or movie could do the risqué things that The Boys does every episode?
They have. (Laughs.) They’ve also come up to me and said that they want the catharsis that us Boys actors are lucky to be a part of when it comes to taking on topical issues. There’s so much, pardon my language, shit going on in the world, and whether it’s social or political commentary, I know that a lot of us have benefited from the cathartic element of being a part of a show that doesn’t ignore those things. So other actors will primarily come up to me and say, “I wish I was on a show that wasn’t just specifically catered toward the genre, but also deals with the things that we’re all observing and feeling uneasy about.”
Sometimes, the show responds to events that have already happened, and other times, it foretells what is about to happen. Is there an example of real-world relevance that stands out above the rest?
Yes, there was something in the season four finale that eerily paralleled the real world and was very much connected to myself. I played two characters in that episode: Annie and a shapeshifter. And my shapeshifter character attempts to assassinate the President-elect [Jim Beaver’s Robert Singer]. The episode title was originally called “Assassination Run,” but we had to rename the episode because it was set to air five days after the [July 13, 2024] assassination attempt against Trump. We shot the episode a year before it was released [on July 18, 2024].
We contemplated not airing that episode for my own safety. We didn’t know if I would get death threats. I had to do media training for that episode. But that eerie alignment and close proximity of time was insane. Of course, no one could have predicted that. I remember sitting at my friend’s house and being a little bit scared in anticipation of the episode airing.
That being said, Amazon and my showrunner were so respectful. We all got on the phone to speak about it, and I was all for the episode airing. But in terms of paralleling the outside world, I never could have imagined something more eerily aligned than that.
Annie’s overall arc is still unfolding, but how would you summarize your own arc from when you first stepped onto the set of the pilot? Have you been able to wrap your head around your entire experience in that way yet?
First and foremost, I’m just so grateful. That is the predominating feeling. I know I’ve grown and evolved with this show. I’ve learned so much, personally and professionally, that I’ll take with me forever. But it’s going to take a few years to truly absorb the entire experience in my mind and figure out how much the show has affected me and how much I’ve grown from it.
There’s this very meta element to Starlight. When she joined the Seven, people on the street suddenly called out her name. Simultaneously, I was starting to be known as Starlight too. A lot of what Annie has gone through has weirdly paralleled my own life. This character is known for her purity, and as I’ve gotten older and grown with the character, people have also expected me to retain that initial pure element to Annie. So we have both matured over time.
I’ve learned a lot from how she’s constantly questioning whether or not she’s doing good. I’ve learned that as long as you’re questioning yourself and trying to do good, it means you’re a good person. As a Type A or Type A-minus person, I would constantly question whether I was doing enough for this character and the audience. When I got sick during the final season, I thought, Oh my God, I’m failing Annie and I’m failing our audience.
So playing Annie as she’s questioning whether or not she’s doing good is a testament to the fact that she is doing good, and it was healing for me and my own questions. If I was able to say that Annie is good merely by trying to do good in every situation that she enters, then that meant that I’d done my best by constantly trying to do my best for the character and the audience. So I no longer question whether I’ve done right by Annie and the audience, and that’s been my ultimate goal.
*** The Boys season five is currently streaming new episodes every Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is gearing up for its 11th season, and with that, the new batch of queens competing for a spot in Drag Race Hall of Fame and $200,000.
The new installment will hit Paramount+ on May 8, with a special two-episode premiere. The Tournament of All Stars format that was introduced during last year’s 10th season will return for the upcoming season, with a batch of 18 (yes, 18!) drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race past.
The queens will be split into three groups of six, where they will compete in their own bracket across three episodes. There, they will earn points, and the contestants with the highest point totals will advance to the semi-finals and compete against their fellow top queens from the other groups in another round of fierce competition.
The All Stars season 11 cast includes a myriad of queens from the show, including a few competitors who have already returned for All Stars in seasons prior.
The cast announcement for season 11 of All Stars arrived just a few days after the winner of season 18 of the main series, Myki Meeks, was crowned. Additionally, new episodes of the adjoining series RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Untucked, which tracks the queens behind-the-scenes and in between challenges, will stream exclusively on Paramount+ on May 8.
See the full cast list of returning Drag Race queens, and their accompanying bios provided by the streamer, below.
A’Keria C. Davenport (Season 11, All Stars 6)
“Ms. Ass Almighty, A’keria C. Davenport, is back, serving up her signature sass, class, and, of course, all that ass! This Davenport family femme fatale made a big impression on season 11 and All Stars 6. Now, this pageant powerhouse is ready to conquer the competition and bring the coveted All Stars champion title home to Texas.”
April Carrión (Season 6)
“Since serving sizzle and sass on season 6, the Puerto Rican princess April Carrión has evolved into a picante powerhouse serving gorgeous looks and body-ody-ody. A veteran of the L.A. stages who’s also toured internationally, April plans to keep calm and ‘Carrión’ all the way to the Drag Race Hall of Fame!”
Aura Mayari (Season 15)
“The Filipina moon goddess from season 15, Aura Mayari has re-emerged on a quest for All Stars Glory. An otherworldly, high-energy Chicago performer who’s been wowing L.A. stages, Aura is primed and poised to light up the Main Stage and collect the ultimate cash tip of $200,000!”
Crystal Methyd (Season 12)
“Crystal Methyd is back to make America glitter again! Crystal’s colorful aesthetics, kooky personality, and screwball performances have made her a staple on stages all over the world. Always surprising, the season 12 finalist has proven there’s a method to her madness, which may just take her all the way to the top!”
Hershii LiqCour-Jeté (Season 16)
“Hershii Liqcour-Jeté is bringing her signature glam auntie drag back to the Main Stage, claiming the first time was a trial run. The dazzling down-to-earth L.A. mama who sashayed into our hearts in season 16 is clocking in to work, and will do anything it takes to collect the ultimate payday of $200,000.”
Jasmine Kennedie (Season 14)
“The Mouth Almighty, Jasmine Kennedie, is a fierce firecracker both on the stage and in the werkroom. A season 14 diva who can dance, deliver drama, and serve goofy and gorgeous, Jasmine has perfected her showgirl skills in Drag Race Live in Vegas, and has proven that she’s ready for the Hall of Fame. This is her moment!”
Joey Jay (Season 13)
“Back and gayer than ever, all the way from season 13, it’s funny and fresh Joey Jay! Get ready to get to know this dishy drag dynamo all over again. The once wigless wonder has manifested and marinated in her own drag finishing school, and is ready to graduate as the ponytailed star pupil of All Stars 11.”
Kennedy Davenport (Season 7, All Stars 3)
“Fresh from Drag Race Live in Vegas, Kennedy Davenport is kicking down the tournament doors to snatch the one title that has eluded her. A glamazon bitch always ready for the runway, Kennedy also packs killer comedy chops! This season 7 and All Stars 3 veteran has come close to winning every time she’s competed, so it’s safe to say that this Dancing Diva of Texas is the ultimate contender for the crown!”
Lucky Starzzz (Season 17)
“A cartoon come to life, Lucky Starzzz is a one-of-a-kind queen who mixes kitsch, couture and crazy club-kid energy! A colorful artiste with over-the-top aesthetics, Lucky has been honing her craft since season 17 and is ready to shine like the stellar queen she is! Trust – you will be feeling Lucky!”
Dawn (Season 16)
“Good Morning! Brooklyn’s dynamic drag elf, Dawn, is ready to wake up All Stars 11. The high-concept queen from season 16 returns with her mischievous spirit and her unfiltered attitude. Undaunted, this quirky contender is gonna give her competitors beautiful nightmares as she follows her drag dreams to the Hall of Fame.”
Morphine Love Dion (Season 16)
“The OG Drag Race Dion is back! Serving beauty and booty, Morphine Love Dion has returned to mesmerize the Main Stage. This BBL goddess and Miami icon was the Lipsync Assassin of season 16, snatching the crown of ‘Queen of She Already Done Had Herses.’ This time, she’s all about that mug, those moves, and making herself the All Stars winner!”
Morgan McMichaels (Season 2, All Stars 3)
“Fix your mug, because the Queen of the L.A. scene, Morgan McMichaels, is back to storm the competition! A beloved Drag Race veteran (season 2, All Stars 3) and a recent ‘Entertainer of the Year’ winner, Morgan is one powerful prize fighter who’s coming out swinging in her quest for a spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. So why you mad, tho? “
Mystique Summers (Season 2)
“Bitch, she used to be from Chicago, but season 2 sensation Mystique Summers is now a Texas girl, definitely ready to whoop some Drag Race ass all over again! 16 years later, she’s returning as a sleek seasoned veteran, so clock the curves and clock the skin, because Mystique is ready to snatch the win!”
Salina EsTitties (Season 15)
“Lights, camera, action! Season 15’s Salina EsTitties is ready for her closeup. A true Hollywood girl, when this luscious and lively Latina isn’t performing on the best L.A. stages, she’s a one-stop production shop serving up her own viral videos. With big ideas and bodacious drag, she’s hot and hustling for the crown!”
Sam Star (Season 17)
“The Southern supermodel with a Drag Race pedigree, Sam Star puts the ‘bam’ in Alabama! Returning to the competition following her impressive season 17 Top 4 placement, Sam’s a quadruple threat — she can sing, dance, sew, and act. This time around, this killer competitor plans to deliver pageant perfection — with a few tricks up her sleeve. “
Shuga Cain (Season 11)
“How sweet it is to be reunited with the delightful and delectable Shuga Cain! As a queen who had ditched a corporate career for Drag Race season 11, she was instantly known for her comedy prowess and gorgeous gowns. Now she’s back, even more seasoned, and still giving us a Shuga rush! Yum!”
Silky Nutmeg Ganache (Season 11, All Stars 6)
“Must-see TV, the Reverend Doctor Silky Nutmeg Ganache is making a housecall to secure her place in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. The undeniable star of season 11, All Stars 6, and several franchise spinoffs, Miss Silk always serves up the good milk. An author, chef, and entrepreneur, Silky is a true renaissance woman, always ready to munch-munch and crunch-crunch the competition.”
Vivacious (Season 6)
“Mother has arrived — again! The iconic New York club queen, Vivacious, is back to school the children, with the one and only Ornacia in tow. The Jamaican drag legend from season 6 is geared up to gag us all with lively looks, unforgettable one-liners, and fresh flavor as she stakes her claim on the All Stars crown.”
The new crime drama from the director of The Immigrant, Two Lovers and We Own The Night, is a late addition to the competition line-up at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Featuring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller, the film will bring some much-needed star power to the event, which runs May 12-23.
Neon has swooped in to take North American rights to the film ahead of its festival bow. Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox’s The Veterans are representing international sales rights on the movie, with CAA Media Finance handling North American rights.
When he unveiled his 2026 lineup on April 8, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said it wasn’t complete, and there was widespread speculation that Gray’s film would be added to the list. French distributor SND recently boarded the film for local distribution, adding to the speculation it would be Cannes-bound. Gray is a favorite on the Croisette, with five of his previous films, including his last feature, Armageddon Time, screening in competition. He was part of the Cannes jury in 2009.
His new film is thought to be a return to Gray’s early, more genre-inflected work. Driver and Teller play two brothers whose pursuit of the American Dream gets tied up in a deadly Russian mafia scheme that tests their relationship and gets them entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme that threatens their family and their bond to one another.
Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong were initially cast in the film but dropped out due to other commitments, with Johansson and Teller replacing them. The casting reunites Johansson and Driver after 2019’s Marriage Story, for which they both earned Oscar nominations.
Paper Tiger was produced by Rodrigo Teixeira for his RT Features banner and Anthony Katagas for AK Productions alongside Raffaella Leone, Gary Farkas, Marco Perego, Carlo Salem and Andrea Bucko. Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Riccardo Maddalosso and Emily Salveson are executive producers.
Neon, which has released the past six Palme d’Or winners domestically, has several horses in this year’s race. Alongside Paper Tiger, Tom Quinn’s indie distributor has also secured Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box, Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, and Na Hong-jin’s Hope.
The Malta Film Commission is putting the pieces together for a fourth installment of its Mediterrane Film Festival, set to take place on the island’s capital city of Valletta from June 21-28.
It may be hard to top last year’s event — a milestone moment for Malta that celebrated the island’s 100-year history as a filmmaking hub dating back to the first production that shot there, 1925’s Sons of the Sea — but festival director Pierre Agius and curator Mark Adams have a plan in place for the program, anchored by the theme “Beyond Together.”
The film program will expand from three to five strands: Big Screen Competition featuring the best of mainstream cinema, Mediterranean Competition featuring new cinema from the Mediterranean region with a spotlight on local stories and talent, Mare Nostrum for films with an environmental message, Best of the World for new cinema from around the world to Malta and Malta Focus for specifically local films (shorts and features) that highlight island talent.
Also on the horizon will be screenings followed by filmmaker Q&As that will take place at Valletta’s Embassy Cinema, events at two outdoor screening venues, Upper Barrakka Gardens and Fort Ricasoli Counterguard, and other custom programming, panels and masterclasses from boldfaced names. Previous speakers include filmmaker Mike Leigh, editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Oscar-winners Nathan Crowley and Rick Carter, filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke, casting director Margery Simkin, and blockbuster filmmakers Jon Watts and Jake Schreier.
Competition titles will be screened by a jury of creatives, tasked with selecting the winners of the Golden Bee Awards. The honors will be doled out at a gala on June 28. Russell Crowe turned up last year to accept a film legend award, underscored by his work in Gladiator, which filmed in Malta.
“The Mediterrane Film Festival continues to grow as a platform that connects Malta to the global film industry. Furthermore, it continues to reflect Malta’s long-term vision for film infrastructure, including the development of the land-sea super stage,” explained Malta Film commissioner Johann Grech, who last year played host to a variety of production insiders to promote the island’s rich 40 percent tax rebate incentive to keep cameras rolling in 2025 and beyond. “With the 2026 edition, we are not only expanding the Festival’s programme, but strengthening its role as a meeting point for talent, ideas, and opportunity. ‘Beyond Together’ reflects exactly where we are heading — building partnerships, attracting productions, and positioning Malta as a serious and competitive player in the international film landscape.”
Added Agius: “Our focus for 2026 is clear — to elevate both the audience experience and the industry relevance of the Festival. By expanding the programme and strengthening our international collaborations, we are creating a Festival that is both culturally meaningful and globally connected.”
Ticket sales for all screenings will be donated to the local Maltese cancer charity Puttinu Cares.
It was 1983, and a 26-year-old producer named Brian Grazer was sitting across from the most feared man in Hollywood.
Ray Stark had a rival mermaid movie loaded with Warren Beatty, Jessica Lange, Herbert Ross directing and Robert Towne writing the script. Grazer had a scrappy fairy tale at Disney — a studio whose most recent live-action release was Gus, a flop about a field goal-kicking mule — and a leading man whose cross-dressing sitcom had just been canceled.
Stark’s message was simple.
“He threatened to just crush me,” Grazer says. “That I ‘Have nothing. Nothing.’ They’d ‘kill’ me.”
Then came the offer: 5 percent of the first-dollar gross if Disney would kill Splash. Disney said no, however, and Splash opened March 9, 1984. It became a top-10 hit, made Tom Hanks a movie star overnight, invented the Touchstone label, cracked March open as a release window, birthed Imagine Entertainment and gave the English language a new girl’s name: Madison.
Sitting down with It Happened in Hollywood, Grazer and Ron Howard lay out how one of the great sleeper hits of the decade almost never existed — and how close it came, repeatedly, to disappearing.
The origin is pure Grazer: At 25, producing a TV movie on Zuma Beach, he spotted “the hottest girl at USC, literally,” who had never given him the time of day. Then someone whispered: That’s the producer. “Seconds later, she’s asking me out,” he recalls.
A parade of newly interested women followed. Grazer found it clarifying, if vexing. Were they into him for him — or for what he could do for them? He went home and wrote down, literally, the attributes of someone who might actually love him back.
“That became the mermaid,” he says.
The script bounced through United Artists, Warner Bros. and nearly every studio in town. Nobody wanted to touch it. Not with Beatty circling and the powerful Stark looming. Executives didn’t say no —they just vanished.
Eventually, the project landed at Disney — a move that, at the time, felt like a step down. This was pre-Renaissance Disney. Howard for one wasn’t convinced.
“That is really the minor leagues,” he recalls thinking.
But Disney was eager, on one condition: the mermaid needed a bikini top.
“That was a no-go,” Howard says. What followed was a surreal pitch to Disney’s seven-person board, where Grazer found himself explaining mermaid logic to chairman Card Walker. The compromise — long hair, body stocking, no visible nudity — got them over the line.
Then Stark called. When the bribe didn’t land, the pressure shifted to Disney chairman Ron Miller, Walt Disney’s son-in-law and, as Grazer puts it, “a tough guy.”
His response, per Grazer: “We’re doing it anyway. Fuck you. “
Now they had a greenlight — and a race. Howard, coming off Night Shift, promised he’d beat Ross to theaters. “I’m 26 years old. He’s not going to beat me,” he remembers telling them.
Grazer remembers it more vividly: “You said you’d be like a military grunt climbing under barbed wire.”
Howard shrugs. “Yeah, I probably did.”
But Ross’s movie never materialized. Splash did.
The casting followed the same pattern: almost everyone said no. John Travolta passed. Richard Dreyfuss passed. Others declined without meetings. One agent reportedly sneered that his client would “never act in a movie with Ron Howard and Tom Hanks.”
Tom Hanks, at that point, wasn’t Tom Hanks. He auditioned for the brother role — the John Candy part — after a tip from writer Lowell Ganz. “He was crackling with intelligence,” Howard says. After the audition, Howard and Grazer looked at each other. “Could he be the lead?” they both wondered. Grazer went in and sold it.
As for the mermaid, Daryl Hannah had already made an impression in Blade Runner. Then she walked in and said she’d spent her childhood practicing underwater breathing with a garden hose. “I’ve dreamed of being a mermaid all my life,” she told them, landing her the part.
She also got sealed into a custom tail that took hours to remove, swam without a mask and outperformed professional “mermaids” in test tanks. Bathroom breaks were not an option.
The shoot itself was controlled chaos. The East River jump required stunt performers to be inoculated against typhus. (“Then, you could get typhus,” Howard notes.) At the Statue of Liberty, they had to wrap before the first ferry arrived. Howard had a 102-degree fever. They pulled off 63 setups before 7:45 a.m.
Splash: Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah in the 1984 feature.
Courtesy Everett Collection
And then there’s the lobster scene. Hannah, a strict vegetarian, was handed a fake lobster stuffed with string cheese and potatoes. It didn’t work. Howard demonstrated by biting into a real claw. Hannah tried once, screamed and dropped it. Then she did it again; that’s the take in the movie.
By the time exhibitors saw Splash, the reaction flipped instantly. (“They all wanted it,” Grazer says.) The film opened in March — a dead zone at the time — and became a top-10 hit. Disney created Touchstone to release it. March became viable. High-concept comedy got a new blueprint. And “Madison,” pulled from a Manhattan street sign, became one of the most popular baby names in America.
The closest Grazer came to quitting wasn’t Stark. It was the slow accumulation of rejection. “I was so embarrassed,” he says, recalling how people would actively avoid him at social events, worried he’d try to sell them on his “mermaid movie.”
What kept him going, improbably, was Steven Spielberg — who had E.T. put into turnaround, as star Henry Thomas detailed in another recent episode of It Happened in Hollywood, whose current season is taking a closer look at the magical films of 1980s.
“I thought, this guy made Jaws and Raiders. I can’t take this personally,” Grazer says.
Howard’s memory of the shoot is almost the opposite of the fight to get there.
“It was one of the least stressful movies I’ve ever made,” he says. “Once we were rolling, it was working.”
The full episode of It Happened in Hollywood with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. Splash is streaming on Disney+.
