March 19, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC(TEXAS) — The mask mandate in Texas may be long gone, but Matthew McConaughey is urging Texans to keep “masking up.”

The 51-year-old actor, who lives in Austin, appeared recently on CBS This Morning and shared his opinion on Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to lift the statewide requirement for face coverings. 

“I was a little dumbfounded by the decision,” the Oscar winner admitted. “I understand ‘Go back to work.’ What I did not understand was, pull the mask mandate.”

“Look, we’re on our way,” he continued. “The mask is just this minor inconvenience. And I think I just want to remind not only Texans, but everybody out there, in my opinion, it’s not the mask we’re afraid of… it’s the word mandate. Alright? So let’s not let the word mandate get in the way of the practical use of this little tool called a mask.”

McConaughey reasoned with viewers, stating that masks are “a small inconvenience today for more freedom tomorrow” and that now Texan’s have the choice on whether they wear one. 

“If you have the choice, keep masking up It’s proven to help,” the actor pleaded. “We don’t have much longer in this. We’ll get through this. Thank you.”

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 19, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy Reelgood(LOS ANGELES) — Oprah Winfrey’s recent chat with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did more than spark a response from the Queen. It also shook up The Crown — the Netflix show, that is.

Analysis of viewing data from streaming service aggregator Reelgood showed that the Emmy-winning series saw its daily streaming spike to double its usual daily audience following the much hyped, and much seen, interview with the runaway royals. 

What’s more, the company also noted viewing spikes after key “real life” crown moments, such as the Queen issuing a statement regarding alleged racism, which was spurred by the chat.

After the Oprah interview — which followed The Crown‘s four wins at the Golden Globes, perhaps adding to interest — the show rose to the #9-ranked Netflix show among the two million viewers and 300 streaming service choices on the Reelgood platform.

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

March 19, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

National Geographic/Richard DuCree(LOS ANGELES) — Courtney B. Vance shares a rare side of himself in the upcoming anthology series Genius: Aretha.

Vance, who plays Aretha Franklin’s father, C.L. Franklin, tells ABC Audio that channeling the “singing preacher” demanded a lot from him.

“We’re gonna hear some singing from me, so I definitely had to flex the cords and get my lung capacity and my endurance up,” he says. “Because you’re doing things seven and eight and 10 and 20 times and from different angles.”

“So by the time you’ve finished — I’m drenched,” Vance explains. “And then we got to get ready for the next one… But it was a wonderful challenge.”

His unique challenge, Vance explains, had a lot to do with tapping into C.L.’s intense persona, which he calls a “force of nature.”

“C.L. was his own universe,” Vance says, before adding that Mr. Franklin was also very different from his other pastor role of Reverend Henry Biggs in 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife — which starred the late great Whitney Houston. 

“Reverend Biggs… was just trying to hang on and figure out what the heck was going on in his marriage and his church [and] bring everything together,” Vance says. “But C.L. dominated every room he was in.”

Still, the Emmy-Award winner says C.L.’s story in Genius is a relatable one.

“It’s the same journey,” he says. “These folks came up from sharecropping in the Deep South and came to these towns… Memphis and then into Detroit… by force of his own will and charisma [and] turned himself into a national figure: the singing preacher.”

“He was the superstar until he pushed his daughter out [in front]… because she was a prodigy. She was a ‘genius,'” he quips.   

Genius: Aretha premieres Sunday, March 21 at 9 p.m. ET on Nat Geo.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 19, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Rick Rowell(LOS ANGELES) — What made Aretha Franklin a genius?  That topic is explored in the limited series Genius: Aretha, premiering Sunday night on National Geographic, and then the next day on Hulu.

Emmy-winner Cynthia Erivo, who plays Franklin in the series, had some answers when she spoke to ABC Audio.

“She didn’t read music…but was able to compose it,” she says. “And she was basically a concert pianist without being able to read music, which is, how do you do that? I don’t know.”

Erivo met the Queen of Soul a couple of times.  First in 2015 when Franklin praised Erivo’s performance in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple.  They met again at the Kennedy Center Honors a year later, where she recalls Franklin saying, “You’re the girl that can sing, right?”

The Harriet star was obviously flattered by the compliment, but that made playing the legendary artist an even more daunting task.

“I’m thinking she told me that, I better do her justice.  And I hope that she was right.  Because I don’t want to do her an injustice and I don’t want to not make her proud,” she explains.  “So it’s definitely a lovely vote of confidence.  But there’s part of me that’s just like I hope I do this in the right way.”

You’re bound to learn some things about Aretha from watching the show that you didn’t already know.  Some things even surprised Erivo.

“I did know, but I guess I didn’t know in as much detail about the activism that she had a part of,” notes Erivo.  “I didn’t know that she was so serious about civil rights and that she was so involved in it.”  

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