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Kyra Sedgwick explains why 'Call Your Mother' hits home for empty nesters

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ABC/Jessica Brooks(LOS ANGELES) — While some parents rejoice in being empty nesters, others hate it.  Call Your Mother, ABC’s brand new series that premieres Wednesday night, follows the adventures of a single mother who is the latter.

Kyra Sedgwick stars as Jean Raines, a retired widow who struggles to rediscover herself now that her children are grown.  Tired of living apart from her kids, she decides to pack up and move to Los Angeles to keep an eye on them. 

Unfortunately for her, her children don’t think they need her in their life as much as they do.

Sedgwick tells ABC Audio that, when she first read the script, she realized that the show was going to be something special.

“It’s just hilarious,” the Emmy Winner gushed. “There’s something about the style of it, the patter, the music of it that I really love…  It’s very smart, very witty.”

Sedgwick adds that the series also hits home because it reminds her of how she tries to stay in touch with her adult children, whom she shares with husband Kevin Bacon.

“My daughter doesn’t pick up, but my son almost always picks up. I love them both,” she explained, noting that she appreciates it when her son answers her calls just to tell her he is unable to chat.   

Unlike Sedgwick’s real-life daughter, her on-screen daughter admits that she is always on the phone with her mom.

Rachel Sennott, who plays Jackie Raines, admits, “I called [my mother] last night.”

“I asked her to mail me a dress,” explains Sennot, 25. “All my stuff is back at my parents’ house… And then I keep being like, ‘I think I want that sweater. I think I want that dress.'” 

Call Your Mother airs tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC. 

By Megan Stone & Jason Nathanson
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

"It's serious" – 'Saved by the Bell' star Dustin Diamond reportedly hospitalized

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Noel Vasquez/Getty Images(FLORIDA) — Dustin Diamond, who famously played Screech in the ’90s teen sitcom Saved by the Bell, has been hospitalized in Florida for what TMZ says is a cancer-related cause.

“It’s serious, but we don’t know how serious yet,” a spokesperson for the actor tells Entertainment Weekly,  but didn’t confirm the cancer report. The 44-year-old “will probably go home after treatments” said the rep, who adds, “We just want him to get well soon.”

Diamond was reportedly feeling unwell, according to TMZ, which broke the illness news, and was reportedly suffering pain “all over his body and [had] a general sense of unease.”

Diamond didn’t join former Saved by the Bell cast mates Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen and Lark Voorhies for the new revival on Peacock.  In a recent episode, Lopez’s A.C. Slater comments that Screech is currently in orbit, working on the International Space Station with his robot sidekick, Kevin.

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

Gal Gadot, Dwayne "Uncle Handsome" Johnson, Ryan Reynolds unveil Netflix's star-packed 2021 slate

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Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — Get your comfy binging pants on, because Netflix has some plans for you this year.

The co-stars of the upcoming action flick Red Notice — Gal Gadot, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ryan Reynolds — can be seen introducing the 2021 line-up of Netflix original movies as part of a new promotional “sizzle reel” of what’s to come.

And if Deadpool, Wonder Woman, and, well, The Rock — who introduces himself as “Uncle Handsome” — isn’t enough, the promotional video includes snippets of chats of others who worked in front of and behind the camera for the streaming giant’s upcoming projects.

They include Oscar winners Halle Berry, Amy Adams, Regina King and Octavia Spencer; Grammy, Tony, and Emmy-winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda; MCU and Extraction star Chris Hemsworth, and others. 

“What I love about movies is that they can make you feel every emotion,” King offers.

“I love that I’m finally directing my first movie, says Bruised helmer Berry — an emotion shared by Miranda, who called the shots on his first movie, Tick Tick…Boom for Netflix. “Jinx! You owe me a Coke,” both stars say, pointing virtually at each other via split-screen.

“I love movies that keep you guessing,” admits Adams, who will be seen in The Woman in the Window.

“I love movies that get you into the action,” says Jason Momoa, star of Sweet Girl. 

“We truly love movies,” Reynolds says, bringing it home.

“We do,” Johnson adds, “But what we really love is making movies for fans like you.”

After revealing the titles of dozens of films — including the already Oscar-buzzy Malcolm and Marie with Zendaya and John David Washington and never-before-seen shots from Red Notice — a title card reads, “We’re Just Getting Started.”

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

'The Resident' returns: Malcolm-Jamal Warner talks shooting the medical drama in the time of COVID-19

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©2019 Fox Media LLC. Cr: Miranda Penn Turin/FOX(NEW YORK) — The hit medical drama The Resident returns tonight on Fox following a pandemic production delay last spring. 

The series eventually returned to shoot under strict COVID-19 safety protocols. “It’s weird because, you know, I definitely feel like outside of my home, the set is the absolute safest place I can possibly be,” co-star Malcolm-Jamal Warner tells ABC Audio.

That being said, the rules are out of the ordinary — even on a show where the TV doctors are seen masked up, he explains.

“There is something very…challenging about [it]. The whole crew wears masks and face shields all the time, and we wear masks even throughout rehearsal,” Warner says. “The only time we take our mask off is when they yell action.”

Warner, who plays ace surgeon A.J. Austin, says the process actually “keeps it fresh” for the actors — and provides some measure of comic relief.

“Literally, every time I take my mask off to shoot, brother is coming in to comb my beard out,” he laughs.  “Then they have someone from wardrobe with the lint brush to make sure there’s no hair on my shirt. Like every single take, that’s part of the process.”

Incidentally, The Resident last season dealt with a killer microbe on the loose at Chastain Memorial Hospital, sparking an emergency medical lockdown.  That episode ran with a disclaimer that the plot preceded the pandemic.  The sad irony wasn’t lost on Warner.

“It was 100 percent surreal because when they wrote that episode, there was no COVID, you know, there was no knowledge of COVID,” he says.  “So to see that play out — it was weird.”  

The Resident, which also stars Emily VanCamp, Matt Czuchry, Bruce Greenwood, and airs at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

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

A good thing: Martha Stewart insists she didn't "jump the line" for the COVID-19 vaccine

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David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Add lifestyle guru Martha Stewart’s name to the growing list of celebrities who have gotten their COVID-19 vaccine. 

“I was vaccinated today in a designated vaccine pod near the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai Downtown,” the 79-year-old posted to Instagram, along with video of her getting the coveted jab.  It doesn’t appear that she added any handmade glass bowls or other “Martha” accents to the setting.

As if anticipating some Internet backlash, Stewart insisted, “To allay your concerns that I jumped the line know that I am in the approved age group for this batch of vaccines and I waited in line with others,” explaining “10,000 applications were received by Mount Sinai right after the state released this batch of vaccines.”

Monday’s vaccine distributions came after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took flak for what some critics say was a needlessly, and dangerously, micromanaged response to the vaccine’s distribution in the Empire State.  One hospital in New Rochelle, New York, for example, is facing fines for distributing the vaccine to first responders and teachers before officially allowed to do so.

The injections were officially made available to teachers, cops, and the elderly in New York on Monday.  The latter group bore the brunt of deaths from the virus in New York, with an estimated 6,200 killed in nursing homes alone, after a state directive ordered those suffering from COVID-19 back into the facilities, which were not prepared for the pandemic.

Stewart joins the growing list of A-listers of advanced age that have gotten the vaccine, including Ian McKellan, 81, Joan Collins, 87, and director Oliver Stone, 74, who received the Russian version of the shot while filming there.

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