November 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

BBC America(LOS ANGELES) — These days, Charlie Hunnam is perhaps best known for his role in the gritty Sons of Anarchy but, once upon a time, he was to star in the rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A main role in the Jason Segel movie was written specifically for him, but Hunnam turned it down. It wasn’t publicly known why he made this choice, until now. 

Speaking with Collider, the English actor revealed why he chose to leave the project, which saw Russell Brand take his place as a lethario rock star. 

“It’s funny, I’ll tell you a little story. Jason Segel wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall for he and I to do together, and he wrote that [Russell Brand] role [of Aldous Snow] for me,” he said. “I went and I did the table read and it was very successful. Judd [Apatow] was producing.”

“I was in a dark night of the soul in my career, at that point, and felt as though I needed to seize the trajectory and that just wasn’t really aligning with, at that period of my life and career, what I wanted to be doing,” he continued. “Jason was one of my best friends, which is why he wrote the film for me, but I had to tell him, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m not gonna do this.’

The King Arthur star added, “It was one of those things where that wasn’t very well received by the inner circle of that production. I had to stand my ground and say, ‘Listen, it’s nothing personal. I’m just following my North star. I’m just in a weird spot and I’m trying to define for myself what the path forward is.'”

Hunnam also shared that he realized that he made the right decision to step away from the 2008 comedy after seeing Brand’s performance.

“…there’s no way I could have done it justice the way Russell Brand did,” Hunnam admitted.

In fact, Brand reprised the role of Aldous Snow in the 2010 comedy Get Him To The Greek.

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Ollie Millington/Redferns(LOS ANGELES) — Just like millions of other Americans, election day was an emotional rollercoaster ride for actor and musician David Duchovny.

The X-Files and Californication veteran told ABC Audio about his state of mind as the states’ votes are being tallied, and his new single, “Layin’ On The Tracks,” which he calls both “personal and political.”

“Well, I have to say, last night was dark, I felt really dismayed. It felt like 2016 all over again,” Duchovny tells ABC Audio. “And then when I woke up this morning, I was like…this is exactly what smart people said was going to happen.”

“They knew that Trump would have a lead from the ‘on the day’ vote, and just relax and count all the votes!” he explains. “And now that we’re doing that, I feel really good…just because I felt so bad thinking about four more years of that guy.”

However, Duchovny is pragmatic about the results. He admits. “Even if it turns out to be the case, at least I’ve got today to feel hopeful and like light…You know, Joe Biden being in there doesn’t make problems go away. But s***! It’s just it’s like a load off my chest just thinking that it’s possible.”

As for his single, Duchovny noted, “I’ve never written a song that was pointedly political like that…I suppose some songs are political just by their nature…this one [doesn’t] specifically name-check Trump, but it calls him out very specifically.”

While he adds that he doesn’t normally, “like to kind of tie my thing to a moment,” he pushed to release the song before November 3, “just because the song is different before the election than after…And I wanted the version before the election to have a chance.” 

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Walt Disney Records(NEW YORK) — People can’t seem to get enough of Frozen II.  Case in point, the sequel’s soundtrack has officially shattered a record achieved by the first movie. The Frozen II soundtrack, released November 2019, has spent nearly a year on the Billboard Soundtracks chart. 

Featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Evan Rachel Wood and Jonathan Groff, the album has shown itself on the Billboard list for 45 nonconsecutive weeks.  Not only that, the album never slipped below second place during its nearly yearlong run.

Either way, this feat puts the original Frozen soundtrack’s impressive chart record on ice.   

The 2013 album for the first Frozen movie, which featured the smash-hit single “Let It Go,” made a 44-week run on the Soundtrack’s chart.

As for the Frozen II soundtrack’s impressive show at the top of the chart, it now ties with two other albums for having the third most weeks in the number one spot.  Frozen 2 now ties with 2001’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? and 2017’s The Greatest Showman for notching 34 weeks in the top position.

Those three albums also bowed on the Billboard 200, which tracks all album sales regardless of genre.

While the Frozen II soundtrack has outperformed the original Frozen on the charts, it still has ways to go before it comes even close to the sales numbers its predecessor enjoyed.  

The sequel’s album has sold roughly 371,000 copies as of November 2020 — compared to the Frozen soundtrack’s unprecedented four million plus album sales.  

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.