October 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for WarnerMedia(NEW YORK) — Spike Lee is still processing the loss of Chadwick Boseman.

Boseman, who died in August from stage 4 colon cancer at age 43, starred in Lee’s Vietnam vet Netflix film, Da 5 Bloods. Lee tells Variety that looking back, he had no clue that Boseman was suffering.

“He did not look well, but my mind never took that he had cancer,” Lee said, before adding that “it was a very strenuous shoot.”

“It was 100 degrees every day,” he continues. “It was also at that time the worst air pollution in the world.”

Lee says because of the terrible conditions he could “understand why Chadwick didn’t tell [him]” about his illness.

“Because he didn’t want me to take it easy,” he said. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have made him do the stuff. And I respect him for that.”

Lee says he recently rewatched Da 5 Bloods with his wife Tonya, and admits the film “plays totally different” now that Boseman has passed. In fact, he notes the part in the film where Boseman’s character, Stormin’ Norman, is shown in angelic white light. Lee said he “felt it” as he was shooting the scene.

“It was God’s heavenly light,” he explained. “We didn’t have light. You know, Delroy [Lindo] is talking to the camera, talking about his conversation with God. We go up, and we come down and we find this heavenly light. It’s Chadwick standing in that light, in that pose. That was God up there. I don’t care what nobody says. That was God’s heavenly light, because that scene’s not lit. That’s natural light. And that was God sending heavenly light on Chadwick.”

“I mean it was hard to look at the film again for me since his transition. It is just a whole ’nother experience,” Lee adds.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

October 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Maarten de Boer(LOS ANGELES) — It looks like taping her season of The Bachelorette may have actually benefitted Clare Crawley.

“There were definitely a lot of emotions,” the 39-year-old told People magazine.  Season 16 of The Bachelorette was set to start filming in March before the pandemic shut down production.

“It was stressful.  But there were also honestly so many pros to it getting shut down,” adds Crawley.

Among the pros, was the ability to experience physical contact after several months of quarantining.

“Being a single woman during the pandemic, I spent months alone with my dog,” says Crawley.  “There was no physical touch, no contact and no face to face.  So just being able to hug on somebody and love on somebody was so amazing.  There was more of an appreciation.  And goosebumps!”

She adds the shutdown also allowed producers to pick a better crop of men for her.

“Producers were able to recast some of the guys and get some that were more appropriate for what I was looking for,” she says.

The Bachelorette returns for its 16th season next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

October 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic(LOS ANGELES) — Kristen Stewart sat down for an honest interview with InStyle magazine about her past, especially the pressure she faced when she was first romantically linked with another woman.

The Twilight actress was promoting her upcoming movie Happiest Season —  a film about a lesbian couple where one of the two women has yet to come out to her conservative parents — and admitted that she personally relates to the characters because of her own coming out experience. 

“The first time I ever dated a girl, I was immediately being asked if I was a lesbian. And it’s like, ‘God, I’m 21 years old,'” Stewart, 30, recounted. “I felt like maybe there were things that have hurt people I’ve been with.”

Because her romantic life immediately became a front page story, the actress explained she began closing herself off “not because I felt ashamed of being openly gay but because I didn’t like giving myself to the public.” 

Stewart added that her feelings about the media demanding such personal information from her “felt like such thievery.”

“The added pressure of representing a group of people, of representing queerness, wasn’t something I understood then,” added Stewart.  “I was being hounded about labeling myself.” 

“I did feel an enormous pressure, but it wasn’t put on me by the [LGBTQ+] community,” the SAG Award nominee added.  “I was a kid, and I felt personally affronted.”

Now things are different for Stewart, who happily admitted, “Now I relish it. I love the idea that anything I do with ease rubs off on somebody who is struggling.”

Happiest Season is slated to open in theaters November 25, 2020.

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

October 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/CRAIG SJODIN(NEW YORK) — If you’ve ever wondered what some of your favorite celebrities look like naked, you’re in luck because they just stripped down to deliver a message about voting. 

in a short video released on Wednesday, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Tiffany Haddish, Naomi Campbell, Josh Gad, Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler, and more appeared in the buff (from the waist up) and delivered a step-by-step on how to complete a mail-in ballot.

The entire act was also an amusing play on the term “naked ballot,” which the celebrities explain in the clip.   

“Do you know that your ballots can be naked?” Ryan Michelle Bathe asks.

Later in the clip, Schumer shares, “There are two envelopes you have to stuff your ballot in otherwise it’s called a naked ballot.” 

The stars sign off with a reminder for everyone to go vote. 

“Everyone’s voice matters in this election,” Handler declares and Silverman adds, “America needs you.”

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