July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dominik Bindl/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Stephanie Hsu, who joined the cast of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Mei Lin for its third season, says the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired her to stop “deleting” herself as Asian actress.

Hsu, who got her big break in 2017’s Spongebob Squarepants, the Broadway Musical, tells Entertainment Tonight, “It’s funny because this time in quarantine with everything that is happening — not only with COVID, but with Black Lives Matter and the way that the entertainment industry is responding — I’ve been really reckoning on an even deeper level with my relationship to race.”

“For so long, I never really intended to be on Broadway.  A lot of that had to do with the fact that no one looked like me, so I kind of deleted it from my realm of possibility,” she continues.  “And I’ve never really let race get in my way because if I thought about it for too long, I think I would just be sad and feel like it would be impossible.”

Adds Hsu, “My way of coping was always like, “If this is something you want to [do]… Don’t even ask that silly question. Just do it, just go.  Just find people that you love working with and make things that you’re passionate about.”

Stephanie says landing the role as Mei has helped her even further in acknowledging her relationship with her Asian heritage.

“It’s kind of crazy that before I read the script that I said to myself, ‘What kind of Chinese character could exist in the 1950s?’…I just assumed that it couldn’t be possible.  And that type of deletion of self runs so deep in a way that I forget sometimes.  And I’m really aware. Like, damn, wow.  I didn’t think that that could be possible.”

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Jeff Lipsky/NBC(LOS ANGELES) — This Is Us star Chris Sullivan welcomed a new member into his family, a baby boy, on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old actor confirmed his newborn’s arrival on Thursday, where he gushed about being a dad for the first time.

“HE HAS ARRIVED! 8lbs of beautiful baby boy,” Sullivan excitedly announced on Instagram.  “Witnessing @therealrachelsullivan bring our first son into this world, after 20 hours of labor, was one of the great honors of my life.”

“It was primal and intentional and I have never been more in love with this powerful woman,” the Emmy nominee continued before assuring fans that everything went smoothly.

“She and baby are resting and recovering well,” He disclosed.  “Everyone is healthy and exhausted.”

While Sullivan didn’t reveal his newborn’s name on social media, he later told People what he and his wife Rachel have chosen to call their son.

They named their boy Bear Maxwell Sullivan and Sullivan revealed there was a fun reason why they didn’t announce it right away.

“As far as the name announcement goes, we designed a puzzle to send to our family members as a fun way to announce his name and to keep us all connected during quarantine — kind of a group activity to reach across the land,” the actor explained. “It’s both information and something to do. And the reveal of our first son’s name.” 

Sullivan said his little game was a hit.  “Everybody had a great time,” He noted. “It was kind of set up like a contest — everyone had a time when they could start and everyone had to send us a photo when it was finished.”

Unfortunately, his family will have to wait a “few months” before they can meet his little boy.  Sullivan assured, however, “Everyone is very excited to meet Bear.”

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dean Buscher(LOS ANGELES) — KJ Apa just can’t catch a break these days when it comes to getting injured. 

The Riverdale star recently revealed that he received stitches in his head after attempting to do a stunt while on the set of the Michael Bay produced film Songbird — a romantic thriller due in theaters in 2021.  

He first made note of his wound on Wednesday when he posted an Instagram photo of himself laughing as medical personnel handled the situation. In a second pic, he showed off the bloody collar of the T-shirt and captioned the post, “stunts.”

The 23-year-old actor further detailed the incident and gave a closer look at the injury in his Instagram Stories on Thursday. 

“I split my head open yesterday,” he explained. “I don’t know if you guys can see that, but I have two stitches in there — metal stitches.”

The stitches are just the latest source of trauma for Apa. Back on July 19, he revealed that a shard of metal got stuck in his eyeball and shared the painful video footage of someone removing it.

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Netflix/Christian Black(LOS ANGELES) — Ryan Reynolds has just announced a program called the Group Effort Initiative, which “COVID-willing” will see him train 20 people of color to work on his next film project — on his dime. 

The affable actor made the announcement via video, in which he explained that the effort, in partnership with Netflix and Skydance Productions, will train those people to work on film sets, with their pay, travel, and lodging coming from Reynolds’ salary.

“Making a film is a group effort, but for entirely too long that group has systemically excluded black, indigenous, people of color and several other marginalized communities,” the Deadpool series star and entrepreneur says, explaining that they will take submissions from applicants of all ages. “Because it’s never too late. I myself am way older than I appear on set, and so you’ll get to see what Ryan Reynolds really looks like,” he quipped as a picture of an elderly man wearing a Deadpool suit pops up above him.

The set in question is likely a time travel thriller for Netflix that Reynolds will make with his Free Guy director Shawn Levy.

The recruits will, “spend their days on set learning from professionals and getting real-life experience that they can then parlay into another job and another job and hopefully — if they’re not too disillusioned — a career in the film industry.”

Interested applicants are asked to go register at GroupEffortInitiative.com so they can be kept abreast as to when the application process begins.

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