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Report: Rachel Lindsay accepts Chris Harrison’s apology and is ready to "move forward"

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ABC/Paul Hebert(LOS ANGELES) — Following Chris Harrison’s apology Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America for comments he made in defense of current Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay is reportedly ready to forgive the franchise’s embattled host.

Following the interview, Lindsay told TMZ that she has accepted Harrison’s apology “because it’s what [she] needs to do to move forward with [her] life.”

Rachel tells the gossip website that she and Chris haven’t spoken directly since his GMA interview, but she watched it.

Kirkconnell’s past social media posts showed her “liking” a photo containing a Confederate flag, as well as photos of her attending an “Old South” plantation-themed party in 2018.

Harrison found himself at the center of a controversy, when, in a February 9 interview with Lindsay on Extra, he claimed that Kirkconnell was a victim of cancel culture.

In his GMA interview with Michael Strahan, Harrison walked back the comments, saying, “Antebellum parties are not O.K. Past, present, future, knowing what that represents is unacceptable.”

Harrison, who previously announced he was “stepping away” from The Bachelor, also made it clear he wants to return to show next season.

TMZ cites “sources close to Rachel” as saying she doesn’t believe it’s up to her to decide when he’s ready to come back, suggesting the final decision rests with him and the franchise.

In the meantime, author and TV personality Emmanuel Acho has been announced as Harrison’s “After the Final Rose” replacement, which airs March 15.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'A Quiet Place Part II', 'Fast & Furious 9' delayed again; 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' pushed to 2022

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“A Quiet Place Part II” — Jonny Cournoyer/Copyright © 2019 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved(NEW YORK) — The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the movie industry.

Deadline reports Paramount has changed the release date for A Quiet Place Part II to May 28, marking the fifth change for the movie’s opening.

Paramount originally scheduled the sequel for March 20, 2020. From there it was pushed to September 4, 2020, then April 2021 and, finally, September 17.

The first installment of A Quiet Place was a major hit for Paramount in 2018, delivering $188 million here in the states and over $340 million worldwide.

Meanwhile, Universal Pictures has also delayed the the theatrical release dates for two of its blockbusters

The ninth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, slated for a May 28 release, won’t hit theaters until June 25.  Despite New York City reopening theaters on Friday and Los Angeles expected to follow suit in the near future, Universal is waiting for overseas markets to lift restrictions, in hopes of having the film opening as many markets as possible, according to the entertainment website.

The Fast & Furious franchise has made over $5 billion around the world.

Additionally, Minions: The Rise of Gru, set to open July 2, will now open a year later on July 1, 2022.

Minions has been the studio’s most profitable franchise.  The four films have have combined for more than $3.7 billion worldwide.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

MLB All-Star reveals why he's opting out for 2021 season amid $70M contract

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Gabriel Christus / ESPN ImagesBy KELLY MCCARTHY, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Ian Desmond, a two-time Major League Baseball All-Star at the top of his professional game, stunned sports fans when he decided to stop playing.

The 35-year-old Colorado Rockies centerfielder and father of five spoke exclusively to ABC News’ Good Morning America in his first interview since opting out of a second consecutive season and revealed the complexities behind the catalysts for his decision to walk away from the diamond.

“There was a lot of things going on,” he said thinking back to last year. “We had the George Floyd events. We had the pandemic obviously was setting in, and my wife and I were about to have our fifth baby.”

Just last week Desmond took to social media to share his thoughts on the sport that shaped him and his future with Major League Baseball.

“Over the last few months, I’ve had tough conversations. I’ve asked a lot of questions and done a lot of thinking. For now, I’ve decided to opt out of the 2021 season,” he wrote in a post. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made this baseball season one that is a risk I am not comfortable taking.”

Part of those “tough conversations” included leaving behind his $13.56 million salary.

“I think the first one is walking away from a lot of money,” he said. “My desire to be with my family is greater than my desire to go back under these circumstances and play … that time with my kids is always so precious. So to me, that will always trump money.”

But other issues were at play for Desmond after he decided not to participate in the 2020 season.

“The biracial seat is a completely unique experience, and there are so many times you feel like you belong everywhere and nowhere at once,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

He told GMA that “like most biracial people will say it’s not that it’s necessarily racism, it’s more of– just constant — jabs. Like, ‘Oh, you’re not black because I don’t talk.’ And I said, ‘well, I don’t wear certain clothes. I don’t do certain things, listen to the music.’ But I’m also not necessarily white.”

Desmond called it “an internal feeling” of questioning “where exactly do I belong as a biracial man in the world and in the clubhouse?”

Now, he has made it his mission to make sure all kids feel like they belong and teamed up with The Boys and Girls Clubs of America to found Newtown Connection, an organization that aims to empower and educate underprivileged youth through sports.
 
“I hope that that kids of all colors, of all races, all ethnicities, all ethnicities, everything can experience the life lessons that come from playing baseball, perseverance, determination, character,” Desmond said. “I feel like it’s kind of being deprived in the inner cities and like the untouched areas. Baseball is a beautiful game and it’s got a rich history for a reason.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kelly Marie Tran on recording 'Raya and the Last Dragon' from home, and the movie's "delicious" melting pot

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Walt Disney Animation Studio(NEW YORK) — Like millions of others during the pandemic, actress Kelly Marie Tran was able to work from home — though her work was voicing the title role in Disney’s new animated film Raya and the Last Dragon. She did so while barricaded in a makeshift voice-over booth that she describes to ABC Audio as “very glamorous makeshift [pillow] fort.”

Tran adds that she felt a little bit less nervous about the role because she was able to do it from home.

“I think there’s always a little bit of nerves when you go into something like this, just recognizing how much bigger it is than you are and how much legacy these sort of movies come with,” she tells ABC Audio. “But, yeah, it was both a blessing and a curse to be able to not leave your house to do the job — but then also to have to deal with, y’know, Internet cutting out and the sound of construction happening outside.”

In the movie, Tran’s character Raya seeks out Sisu, the last dragon, who has the power to defeat an ancient menace that laid waste to Raya’s fictional home of Kumandra.

While fictional, Kumandra is reminiscent of Southeast Asia, and the cast — including Akwafina, Sandra Oh, The Good Doctor star and producer Daniel Dae-Kim, and Dr. Strange star Benedict Wong — shows the diversity of Asian talent.

The film also displays that diversity by using food as a literal melting pot to drive home a key point.

“Food plays such a big part in this movie…it can symbolize communities and how we can come together and bring the best parts of ourselves to make something delicious,” Tran laughs.  

The film opens today in theaters and is available On Demand on Disney+. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It was 'WandaVision' all along — finale crashes Disney+ servers

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Disney+/Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — Do not adjust your set…No, it wasn’t chaos magic, it was traffic — a lot of traffic — that caused Disney+ servers to crash upon today’s debut of the WandaVision finale. 

The ninth and final episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe spin-off caused major spikes in streaming that caused outages on the platform, mostly on the West Coast, where new episodes run at midnight. 

The Marvel Studios show stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, playing respectively, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and her android love Vision, who find themselves living life in an artificial reality of American sitcoms — a projection Olsen’s witchy character concocted to deal with her grief of losing him at the climax of Avengers: Infinity War.

The penultimate episode had Kathryn Hahn, formerly the odd couple’s nosy neighbor, revealing herself as Agatha Harkness, a legitimate witch from the pages of Marvel Comics who seeks Wanda’s power — and who in the show actually names her Scarlet Witch for the first time.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.