December 23, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

(LOS ANGELES) — Jamie Foxx plays the lead in the new Disney/Pixar movie Soul, the first Black man to play the lead in a Pixar film.  In a chat with ABC’s Popcorn with Peter Travers, the Oscar-winner joked he’s, “got the whole Black race on [his] back” with the project.

“I’m carrying them, baby!” Foxx declared.  But on a more serious note, the importance of the opportunity wasn’t lost on him.

“You know what, it’s great,” he said. “It’s great to have things like this, man. And if you think about what we’ve gone through this past year you know … humanity needs a shot in the arm of soul, and goodness and happiness and smiles…” 

In Soul, Foxx plays a middle school music teacher who, after an accident, must find the music in him — as well as find his way back from the afterlife.

Foxx said the landmark role is a “reminder that we live in a place, especially in America, that is full freedoms that in other places of the world we just don’t have. And so, you know, to be able to have something like this, and to be able to be an African American, Black man, who’s you know owning, donning [sic] the first Pixar film, we welcome it!”

He adds, “It’s wonderful that Pixar is doing this, and I accept that honor.”

The role had other perks, too, Foxx joked to Travers. “Both of my daughters said, ‘Dad, you finally made it.'”

Jamie explained, “Especially my younger daughter [Annalise, who’s 11], she didn’t get a chance to witness all the things I’d done 25, 30 years ago. So for her, this was a big big thing.”

Soul debuts on Disney+ on Christmas Day

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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

December 23, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Credit: Rachel Braunigan(NEW YORK) — Twelve-year-old Iowa boy Gideon Kidd has become famous on Twitter for his “I’ve Pet that Dog” account, where he documents all the dogs he’s petted — more than a thousand and counting.  He’s just released his first book, Pet That Dog!, and tells ABC Audio why it’s a perfect holiday gift for any canine-loving kid.

“It would be, I think, a good Christmas gift because it’s …a pretty decently long book,” he explains. “And it has tons of cool facts that kids or adults could learn about, and it teaches you to love dogs.”

The book features tips on meeting, petting, caring for and training dogs, and also spotlights famous dogs throughout history. So, as the expert, what kind of dog does Gideon like to pet the most?

“I like really little dogs like Chihuahuas and really big dogs like St. Bernards or Mastiffs,” he reveals, noting that the little ones are “so, so, so adorable,” while the big dogs are “normally very fluffy and really playful.” 

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has curtailed Gideon’s dog-petting: In recent months, he’s simply been posts photos of dogs that people send him, highlighting them as ones he’d love to pet if we weren’t all on lockdown.

“Basically, we just said, ‘Oh, that dog is really cute and he has a good amount of information on him. Let’s do this one.’ Or like, ‘These pictures are really good and this pup is adorable,'” Gideon says of how he chooses which dogs to feature. 

But, he notes, “I’m really, really looking forward to going back out and meeting some dogs.”

Gideon’s goal is to pet a million dogs — so is a world petting tour something he’d like to do someday?

“Oh my God, that would be my heaven!” he laughs. “It’d be awesome!”

By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 23, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Inc.(LOS ANGELES) — Three Oscar winners — two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, plus Jared Leto and Rami Malek — can be seen in the tense new trailer for the drama The Little Things. 

In the film, Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Malek plays a Los Angeles sheriff who teams up with an unlikely partner, a local deputy played by Washington, to crack a serial killer case. 

Leto, who’s pale with long, unkempt hair, looks every bit the part as their prime suspect, who is apparently harder to catch than they think. “He knew all the details, but he wasn’t within 10 miles of the killing,” a fellow cop tells Washington and Malek.

What unfolds is a cat and mouse game between the cops and the suspect. “It’s the little things that rip you apart,” Denzel’s character tells his younger partner. “It’s the little things that get you caught.”

The Little Things is scheduled for a January 21, 2021 release in theaters, and also as part of that recently-announced HBO Max release deal.

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

December 23, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

RCF/MEGA/GC Images(NEW YORK) — While HBO Max already snagged the entire cast of Friends for a much-hyped reunion, sources say don’t expect the same thing for a rumored “revisit” of Sex and the City. Page Six reports Kim Cattrall, who famously played sexy Samantha on the hit show and a pair of big-screen adaptations, apparently isn’t willing to participate. 

Last year, the show’s Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker, told Entertainment Tonight she’d be up for a “revisit” by “doing some episodes” of a new Sex series, explaining, “I wouldn’t call it a reboot.” At the time, the actress said of the show’s characters, “I’d like to see where all of them are. I’m curious, the world has changed even since the movie… technology and social media…sexual politics and the #MeToo movement…I think Carrie Bradshaw would just be so greedy to share her feelings and thoughts.”

That may be the case, but Page Six says Carrie, Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda and Kristen Davis’ Charlotte will likely be navigating the modern world without Samantha.  While Parker has insisted there’s “no catfight” between her and Cattrall, tensions between the two have apparently not thawed.

When Cattrall’s brother died unexpectedly in 2018, SJP’s message of condolence to her former co-star was rebuffed by Cattrall on Instagram. “Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” she told Parker, adding “Let me make this VERY clear…You are not my family. You are not my friend.”

That icy exchange aside, Cattrall insisted in 2018 she’d, “made an empowered decision” in her life “to end one chapter and start another,” denying to interviewer Piers Morgan that her “diva demands” derailed a third Sex and the City film that was reportedly weeks from getting underway. 

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

December 23, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of Netflix(NEW YORK) — George Clooney is not one to shy away from challenges, but when it came to making his first Netflix film, The Midnight Sky, he admits he took on a lot.

“Look, this was a big, tall order because it was one of the more difficult acting jobs I’ve ever had,” Clooney tells ABC Audio. “And it’s certainly the most difficult directing job I’ve ever had.”

Clooney, who also serves as the film’s producer, says he picked the project, which is based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, because he felt it was “really interesting and timely.”

“I felt like it was a good time to talk about all of these kind of issues,” he says. “And I thought it was an entertaining, smart movie. So it seemed like if you’re going to do it, this is the right one to do it on.”

The film, also starring Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, follows Clooney’s character of Augustine, a scientist in the Arctic who races to stop astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe. Clooney says the film is really about his character “com[ing] to terms with his own regrets and his seeking redemption along the way.”

“And I think that that’s sort of what drives him the whole way,” he says. “So maybe that sort of blinds him to everything else.”

While Clooney admits it was a heavy lift to make a project set in both outer space and the Arctic, the Oscar-winner jokes that the real challenge was dealing with Clooney himself.

“Well, George Clooney is a pain in the [butt] to direct. I’m going to tell you right now,” he quips. “He doesn’t listen to the director.” 

The Midnight Sky is now streaming on Netflix.

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