Month: July 2022

The producers of the Broadway show “Funny Girl” announced that the former “Glee” star and Emmy nominee Lea Michele will be replacing Beanie Feldstein in the title role of Fanny Brice, beginning on Sept. 6.  Michele will be joined by four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh, who will replace Jane Lynch in the role of Fanny Brice’s mother.

Michele wrote on Instagram after the news was announced:  “A dream come true is an understatement  I’m so incredibly honored to join this amazing cast and production and return to the stage playing Fanny Brice on Broadway. See you September 6th.”

Feldstein and Lynch were expected to leave the show on Sept. 25, however Feldstein just announced on Instagram that she would be leaving the Broadway musical on July 31, two months earlier than expected.  The 29-year-old wrote: “Playing Fanny Brice on Broadway has been a lifelong dream of mine, and doing so for the last few months has been a great joy and true honor. Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.”  Feldstein concluded, “The people I have had the great joy of bringing ‘Funny Girl’ to life with every night, both on and off the stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans and I hope you continue to join them on Henry Street after I depart on July 31st.”

“Fanny Brice” standby Julie Benko is schedule to perform the play’s title role from August 2 to Sept. 4 and on Thursdays thereafter beginning Sept. 8. The show marks the first Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” since it premiered in 1964, with Barbra Streisand giving a now iconic performance as comedian Fanny Brice.

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The 2022 Emmy nominations were announced by J.B. Smoove and Melissa Fumero on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, with the drama series ‘Succession’ leading the field with the most nominations overall at 25. The comedy series ‘Ted Lasso’ and the limited series ‘White Lotus’ earned 20 nods apiece.

Euphoria, Ozark and Only Murders in the Building were also among the shows with multiple Emmy nominations. Zendaya became the youngest two-time Emmy acting nominee at age 25, and the youngest producing nominee for Euphoria. Her co-star Sydney Sweeney was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in both the comedy and drama categories for Euphoria and White Lotus.

32-year-old Quinta Brunson is now the first Black artist to earn three Emmy nominations for Best Comedy, Best Lead Actress in a Comedy and Best Writing for a Comedy for Abbott Elementary, and is also the youngest actress to be nominated for Lead Actress in a Comedy.

This year’s winners will be announced during the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 12, airing live at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

For the full list of nominations, head here.

Lea Michele Is Broadway’s New ‘Funny Girl’ Replacing Beanie Feldstein, Says “A Dream Come True Is An Understatement” – Update

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Amber Heard is seeking a mistrial after a jury in Fairfax County, Va., ruled largely in favor of her ex-husband Johnny Depp during their highly publicized defamation trial.  According to redacted court documents published by Deadline, Heard’s attorneys requested that Judge Penney Azcarate throw out the $10.35 million verdict awarded to Depp over allegations that one of the jurors had not actually been summoned to participate in the trial.

The court documents were filed to supplement an earlier filing from June in which Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft first claimed that Juror 15 was not the same person listed on the jury panel. Bredehoft alleged that the intended juror and the actual juror have the same last name and address but that the person who had been summoned to participate was born in 1945 and that the person who participated was born in 1970.  Bredhoft wrote in the document that a “mistrial should be declared and a new trial ordered,” arguing that Heard’s legal right to due process was compromised.

The 58-year-old Depp filed the $50 million lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard, 35, after she published a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post claiming that she was a victim of domestic violence, though didn’t name him. Heard countersued Depp for $100 million.

Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The court also awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Heard for her counterclaim that she had been defamed by Depp’s attorney (who had referred to her allegations of domestic violence as a “hoax.”).

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Disney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth standalone Thor Marvel movie, won the weekend box office with $143 million in its opening weekend.  “Thor 4” had a bigger opening weekend than 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” which opened to $123 million in North America. “Love and Thunder” also had the third-biggest opening weekend of the year behind “Jurassic World Dominion” ($145 million) and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($185 million). At the international box office, “Love and Thunder” opened ahead of expectations with $159 million from 47 markets, with $302 million in earnings globally.

“Thor: Ragnarok” filmmaker Taika Waititi returned to direct “Love and Thunder,” which follows Chris Hemsworth’s Thor as he teams up with his former beau Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who now wields her own hammer as the Mighty Thor.

Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” took 2nd place with $45.5 million in earnings, falling 57% from its opening weekend. At No. 3 was Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick”, brining in $15.5 million in its seventh weekend of release.  Director Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic “Elvis” landed in fourth place with $11 million, and Universal’s “Jurassic World Dominion” took the fifth slot, earning $8.4 million in its fifth weekend on the big screen.

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Vernon Winfrey, father of Oprah Winfrey and a former member of the Nashville Metro Council, died late Friday at the age of 88, Oprah confirmed. Winfrey wrote on Instagram: “Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside, I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath. We could feel Peace enter the room at his passing.” 

The post was accompanied by a video of gospel singer Wintley Phipps serenading Vernon Winfrey at a “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” Oprah organized in his Nashville back yard on July 4.  Oprah wrote: “Less than a week ago we honored my father in his own backyard. My friend and gospel singer Wintley Phipps saluted him with song. He FELT the love and reveled in it until he could no longer speak.”  A tribute post on Oprah Daily, Winfrey’s website, said the celebration had been a surprise for the older Winfrey, who was initially led to believe he was attending a Fourth of July barbecue.

Winfrey’s mother, Vernita Lee, died at the age of 83 in 2018.  Vernon Winfrey owned and operated Nashville’s Winfrey Barber & Beauty Shop for more than 50 years. Nashville Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter:  “I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Vernon Winfrey. Vernon served on Metro Council for 16 years and dedicated his life to entrepreneurship, barbering, and mentoring young men in the community. An Army veteran and deacon, he leaves behind a legacy of service.”

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Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer — known as the Duffer Brothers — are developing a new stage play based off their hit Netflix series. The play is one of several projects the Duffers confirmed they’re working on with their new company, Upside Down Pictures, which is part of their new deal with Netflix.  There are several projects in the works, including a Stranger Things spin-off series “based on an original idea by the Duffer Brothers” (no other details were given).

The only details released about the play were that it would be “set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things,” and that it will be co-produced and directed by film and theatrical director Stephen Daldry.

Stranger Things’ fourth season aired in two parts on Netflix, with the second half of the season dropping on July 1. At the time the fourth season was officially announced, the Duffer Brothers also confirmed that Season Five would be the show’s last.

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