December 9, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

NBC(LONDON) — Given the way 2020 has been, many of us might be feeling a little Grinch-like this holiday season. But Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! is hoping to bring some cheer back.

The NBC musical, filmed at the Troubadour Theatre in London, stars Glee actor Matthew Morrison as the anti-Christmas curmudgeon who eventually lets some love into his life with help from the people of Whoville.

Morrison tells ABC Audio he tried to set his Grinch portrayal apart from the others that came before him.

“First of all, this is a musical, so this Grinch sings and dances, but, you know, I didn’t want him to be a great dancer,” he says. “Actually, I pulled a lot from the Joker, just that kind of raw[ness], just someone who’s just misunderstood.”

Though the cast had to rehearse under strict COVID-19 guidelines — with masks and social distancing — Morrison is excited to return to the stage and bring people a theater experience from the comfort and safety of their homes.

“I miss being up on stage or being in front of the camera so much and I feel like I really just put all that energy…just wanting to express myself in the most positive way into this character,” Morrison says. “And I really just went for it. It was dangerous, it was liberating, it just…I took some really big swings in this, and I feel like I left it all out there, so I’m excited to see what the final product is.” 

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

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

December 9, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

AIMEE SPINKS/NETFLIX(LOS ANGELES) — For all its drawbacks, social media has spawned a couple of solid casting coups.  For example, there was that one fashion show photo of besties Rihanna and Academy Award-winner Lupita N’Yongo that led to a heist movie project backed by Ava Duvernay and Issa Rae. Also, a since-deleted fan tweet years ago recently led to Rosario Dawson being cast as Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian.

Now Charlize Theron is getting into the mix. On Saturday, a fan posted, “Lesbian Christmas rom coms are all well and good but what I REALLY want is a Die Hard where Charlize Theron goes on a rampage to save her wife.”

The tweet got 13,000 likes — including one from the Oscar-winner herself, who replied: “Where do I sign.”

Whether it becomes a reality is another thing, but with Theron’s proven action-movie chops in hit movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Netflix’s The Old Guard — and the recent success of Hulu’s LGBTQ rom-com Happiest Season — it’s not inconceivable.

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

December 9, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

L-R Cox, Taylor Schilling – NETFLIX(LOS ANGELES) — On November 29, actress Laverne Cox shared a story on Instagram about how she and a friend were attacked at a park in Los Angeles – an attack Cox said was aggressive and transphobic. She was clearly shaken in the post, and now she tells ABC Audio how she’s doing a little over a week later.

“I’m OK,” the Orange Is The New Black vet says. “It’s a day at a time. It’s a moment at a time. I wasn’t physically harmed or touched in the incident. And my friend who was is fine.“

The Emmy-Award winner added that she’s “grateful” that the situation did not escalate into something worse — and revealed that the incident brought up things that she’s been dealing with in therapy.

“What this incident did more than anything was trigger all of the other incidences of violence that I’ve experienced in my life over the years as a gender nonconforming kid and then later as a trans woman, as an adult,” she explains. “And so being able to stay present and use all my tools to not sort of go into, because the body doesn’t know if a trauma happened 20 years ago or five years ago, it experiences the trauma as if it’s happening right now once triggered.”

Cox co-stars in the movie Promising Young Woman, out Christmas day, which has themes of violence against women and believing them when they say they’ve been assaulted, and she shares that while she’s received a lot of support, she’s also faced skeptics.

“I’ve gotten so much support after what happened at Griffith Park, but there are a few people who were suggesting that it didn’t happen because I didn’t think to take out my phone and film it,” she says. “There’s something infuriating about that and sad.” 

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

December 9, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Byron Cohen(NEW YORK) — Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is in a situation of his own for slacking on completing his community service hours. 

According to TMZ, who has obtained documents, the Jersey Shore star has only completed 18 out of the 500 hours he was ordered to complete as part of his tax evasion sentence and his probation officer is not happy. So much so, that the officer is asking the judge to issue a warning. 

Reportedly, in the documents, the officer said she continually educated Mike on different organizations and options on where he could complete his volunteer hours and stated that he had hours scheduled in August but failed to follow through due to COVID-19 concerns. She also added that there are options to complete hours from home but the reality star has not put forth an effort to get it done. 

Mike served eight months in prison before being released in September 2019. 

The update on Mike’s community service comes after he and his wife, Lauren, announced that they are expecting their first child, a baby boy, due in May 2021. 

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

December 9, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Naya Rivera may be gone but her Christmas tradition of giving back will live on thanks to her Glee co-stars. 

The stars of the musical dram-edy, including Kevin McHale, Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Chord Overstreet, Matthew Morrison and more, have started a GoFundMe in honor of Rivera. The funds raised will go to Alexandria House in Los Angeles, a charity that provides “safe and supportive housing for women and children in the process of moving from emergency shelter to economic stability and permanent housing.”

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, Glee alum Jenna Ushkowitz explained that Rivera’s annual Christmas party, dubbed Snixxmas after her alter ego Snixx, would always turn into a charitable event, which is why they chose the GoFundMe to carry on the tradition. 

“Yeah so Naya actually, at Snixxmas, the party that she threw every year, would kind of turn it into a toy drive,” Ushkowitz explained. “And she worked with a bunch of different organizations, she was always very giving in how she could give back to the community. But Alexandria House was something that she had found more recently and kind of flew under the radar with it.  She would volunteer her time, she also raised funds for them earlier this year with her son Josey.”

The SNIXXMAS Charity Drive in Memory of Naya Rivera has already raised over $82,000, surpassing the initial goal of $50,000. The new goal is now set at $100,000.

Rivera died of an accidental drowning in July while on a boating trip with her son.  She was 33.

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