February 24, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Amy Sussman/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — During a chat about his latest animated hit, Netflix’s Disenchantment,Simpsonscreator Matt Groening addressed the controversy over the long-running show’s white actors voicing characters of other races. 

The comments came on the heels of Harry Shearer’s announcement that he’d no longer voice Dr. Julius Hibbert, or any other Black characters — and Hank Azaria’s hanging up playing Indian-American Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on the show in 2017. 

“Times change, but I actually didn’t have a problem with the way we were doing it,” Groening tells the BBC. “All of our actors play dozens of characters each; it was never designed to exclude anyone.”

He seems to insist he was in a lose-lose position, something Trekker character Comic Book Guy might call a Kobayashi Maru quandary.

“At a certain point it doesn’t matter what you say,” Groening says. “You’re going to be attacked by whoever, you know?”

He added, “We’re not going out of our way to comfort bigots. On the other hand, if you do any kind of gesture and people perceive a weakness, you’ll be criticized.” 

Having actors voice characters of the same race didn’t just shake up The Simpsons. Last year, Kristen Bell pulled out before she played Molly — a biracial character — in the Apple TV plus animated comedy Central Park, and Jenny Slate, who is also white, was initially cast as the biracial character Missy in Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth. 

Slate also left the part behind, and was replaced by writer and comedian Ayo Edebiri, who is biracial.

“We’re trying to make it better,” Groening insisted about The Simpsons. “Bigotry and racism are still an incredible problem and it’s good to finally go for more equality and representation.”

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

February 24, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

“WandaVision” – Disney+/Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — Today, Disney had its Winter Television Critics Association gathering — virtually — and when it comes to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige’s presentation, there was a lot to unpack. 

Aside from the June 11 release date for Loki, however, Feige remained typically tight-lipped.

But he did leave just enough crumbs to keep fans guessing.

When asked about his MCU small-screen spin-offs, like the successful WandaVision and the upcoming Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Feige told journalists, “The fun of the MCU is obviously all of the crossover that we can do between series, between films…Sometimes they’ll go into a season two, sometimes it will go into a feature and then back into a series.”

Some examples include WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen’s upcoming appearance as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the forthcoming big-screen bow of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Feige also noted, “We’ve announced that [the character] Ms. Marvel, after her debut [as a titular show] on Disney+, will be going into the second Captain Marvel film.”

Feige also hinted at the fates of the Marvel TV heroes that were formerly on Netflix, which included Charlie Cox’s, Matt Murdoch/Daredevil — rumored to be appearing in the next Spider-Man film — as well as Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, and Mike Colter’s Luke Cage.

When asked if they could finally be brought into the MCU fold, Feige noted, “”I think we probably could. I’m not exactly sure of the exact contracts, but perhaps someday.” 

And while we’ve previously reported Disney Chairman Bob Iger insisted Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool would keep his “R”-rating for future adventures after Disney acquired that property from 20th Century Fox, Feige insists so far, there hasn’t been a reason to stray from the PG-13 rating in the MCU for other projects.

Disney is the parent company of ABC Audio.

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

February 24, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Toni Anne Barson/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Katharine McPhee: American Idol finalist, actress, singer, Broadway star and now, mother. A rep for the star has confirmed to People that Katharine and her husband, hitmaking pop producer David Foster, have welcomed their first child.