December 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Red Table Talk/Facebook Watch(LOS ANGELES) — Just weeks after actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, reported to prison for their roles in the so-called “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, their daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli, is speaking out about what happened.

In an interview with Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the 21-year-old admitted her life of privilege made her naive to the ramifications of her parents’ actions.

For her part, Banfield-Norris made it plain she was against the appearance. You know, I fought it tooth and nail,” she commented. “I just found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story. I feel like here we are, [a] white woman coming to Black women for support when we don’t get the same from them.” She added, “It’s…bothersome to me on so many levels. Her being here is the epitome of white privilege to me.”

Giannulli later said of her situation, “I don’t deserve pity. We messed up.”

“I took my privilege and all my blessings for granted and I never thought anything of it,” Giannulli added. “That’s what really rocked me. I was like…You need to talk about this….and then you need to move forward and do better.'”

After pleading guilty to conspiracy charges earlier this year, Loughlin, 56, began her two-month jail in late October. Her husband, 57, began serving his five-month sentence on Nov. 19.

The couple was accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California by fraudulently having them added as crew team recruits.

“They didn’t really have much to say except, like, ‘I’m so sorry. I really messed up in trying to give the best to you and [your] sister [22-year-old Isabella],'” Giannulli said.

“But they wanted to give it to us a little too much,” she added.

“…I’m not gonna judge them for a mistake they made,” she said. “And although it’s a big one, they’re gonna pay the price for it.”

Giannulli said she learned of the charges against her parents during spring break, and she never returned to USC.

“I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, clearly, so there was no point in me trying to go back,” she said.

By Good Morning America
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

NBC(NEW YORK) — Mariah Carey is addressing rumors about a potential screen adaptation of her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday, the singer and Christmas queen said adapting her book into a TV series or movie was her plan from the beginning.

“I really feel like it should. That was always my goal,” she said. “But it was really important to write the book first ’cause there’s so much and then to kind of pick and choose how we translate that.”

Fallon questioned Mariah on whether her Precious director, Lee Daniels, would be on board for the project.

“We love Lee. He’s one of my dearest friends and he gets me in a way that most people don’t,” Mariah said. “But I’m not allowed to say yes, no, maybe so. Only Lee tells you little leaks about things.”

And as for who could be worthy of taking on the iconic role of Mariah, the singer admits that could be a tough decision.

“I don’t know. We’re figuring out different takes on that,” she said, adding, “…They’re going to have to have quite the range.”

Meanwhile Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special is a holiday hit for Apple TV+. According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources close to the streaming platform say the special is number one on Apple TV+ in 100 countries. Apple TV+ does not release viewership data.

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

December 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Jonny Marlow(NEW YORK) — Actor Brandon Kyle Goodman entered the writers room for season four of Netflix’s hit animated series, Big Mouth.

Despite fans’ positive reactions on social media, he tells ABC Audio his first time writing for a television series was a “challenging” experience. 

“The transition from actor to television writer was challenging,” says Goodman. “It’s just a different muscle of the brain, a different muscle of the body and spirit to flex.”

He said he personally dealt with feelings of “self doubt” and “fear” due to working alongside experienced talents like SNL‘s Maya Rudolph, Oscar-winner Jordan Peele and some of the “funniest people in the industry that are writing on [Big Mouth], that are voice [characters] on that show and animating that show.”

“It was intimidating so there was a lot of personal work to get over that hurdle,” Goodman admitted. “But I did it and I’m very, very proud of my work on the show.”  (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)

In season four of Big Mouth, writer and comedian Ayo Edebiri made her debut as the new voice of the show’s biracial character, Missy, a role actress Jenny Slate stepped down from in June.

Twitter fans especially love the show’s references to today’s hottest artists and entertainers. In episode two, Missy’s visited her cousins in Atlanta who had cartoon posters of the City Girls, SZA and Rico Nasty plastered on their bedroom walls. And one of Missy’s cousins just so happened to be Emmy-winning filmmaker Lena Waithe. 

Other season four episodes featured Lil Yachty, Seth Rogen and This is Us star Sterling K. Brown as Michaelgelo. 

All four seasons of Big Mouth are available now on Netflix.

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

December 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Gavin Bond(NEW YORK) — Most of us can’t wait for the calendar to flip from 2020 to 2021, and now we know with whom we’ll be celebrating — at least on TV. 
Ryan Seacrest will return to host Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021, and once again he’ll be joined by Lucy Hale — but this time Pose star Billy Porter is coming along for the ride. 

Porter, an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner, hosted the telecast’s festivities from New Orleans last year, but this year he’s coming to the Big Apple for the biggest New Year’s Eve party in the world. 

“2020 has been a trying year for the world and I’m thrilled to have Billy and Lucy join me in ushering in a new year with fresh beginnings,” said Seacrest in a statement. “We look forward to making sure it’s a night for everyone to remember.”

Leading the party on the West Coast will once again be multi-platinum recording artist Ciara.

Seacrest’s 16th year as host of America’s most-watched New Year’s Eve special kicks off on Thursday, Dec. 31, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on ABC. 

While the traditional crowds of Times Square won’t be there this year, thanks to COVID-19, the telecast promises to bring out some major star power in the form of musical performances from the “crossroads of the world” and across the country; artists and other guests will be revealed in the coming weeks.

December 8, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Melinda Sue Gordon; ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — Hindsight is 20/20 but Tenet director Christopher Nolan is feeling “very lucky” that he was still able to release his film in theaters amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It was great to see how audiences in places where the virus had been managed carefully and efficiently, where they could safely go back to movie theaters, people came back in great numbers,” he told Entertainment Tonight.

Even so, Nolan admitted that there was some “frustration” that arose as well around not being able to travel and experience the film with audiences across the globe. 

“But at the end of the day, 2020 has been a year of tremendous adversity for everybody on the planet, so we feel very lucky — I feel very lucky — to have been working and to have been engaged in a creative pursuit,” he said.  

Nolan was one of the first directors to release a film in theaters in the middle of the global pandemic, and it doesn’t seem like many are following in his footsteps.

It was also recently announced that Warner Bros. made a deal to simultaneously debut their 2021 blockbusters both in theaters and on HBO Max, a decision which Nolan said left him in “disbelief.”

“There’s such controversy around it, because they didn’t tell anyone,” he explained. “They’ve got some of the top filmmakers in the world, they’ve got some of the biggest stars in the world who worked for years in some cases on these projects very close to their hearts that are meant to be big-screen experiences… And now they’re being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service — for the fledgling streaming service — without any consultation.”

Nolan added, “They deserved to be consulted and spoken to about what was going to happen to their work.”

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