November 12, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

C Flanigan/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — In a new series of essays titled No One Asked for This, Cazzie David, the daughter of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, is detailing her apparently painful breakup with Saturday Night Live‘s Pete Davidson.

David, 26, dated Davidson for two years. As reported by The Los Angeles Times, in the one essay detailing their coupling, David notes she decided to break things off with him in part because both suffered from mental health issues. Davidson, also 26, has publicly acknowledged addiction issues and hitting “rock bottom,” including engaging in cutting.

However, David says she tried to patch things up with the SNL cast member, but he’d already moved on to a short-but-much-hyped relationship with Ariana Grande, something that devastated David.  She says she was tortured by the couple’s “immediately falling in love, accompanied by audio of her baby voice whispering sweet nothings in his ear, dubbed over his past declarations of love and trust to me,” according to the paper.

David explains how she turned to weed to try to dull the pain, and “shaking uncontrollably” in her dad’s arms on airline flight.

At one point, she woke up “screaming in agony,” and Larry tried to put things in perspective to shake her out of her funk. He reportedly told her, “Cazzie, come on! Your ancestors survived the Holocaust.”

All the drama aside, David and Davidson have apparently patched things up. She reportedly writes to him in the acknowledgements, “I love you. Your bravery inspires me and your friendship means the world to me.”

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

November 12, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

IFP Gotham Awards(NEW YORK) — While the Academy Awards has gotten high-profile static for shunning female filmmakers, nobody is going to say that about the Independent Film Project’s Gotham Awards. This year, every nominated filmmaker in the Best Feature category is a woman. 

Kitty Green got the nod for her movie The Assistant; Kelly Reichardt was nominated for First Cow; Eliza Hittman got the nod for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always; Erika James was recognized for her indie, Relic; and Chloe Zhao, who is directing Marvel Studios’ upcoming The Eternals, was nominated for Nomadland.

Other nominees of note include a posthumous Best Actor nom for Chadwick Boseman for his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — a recognition most insiders agree will be repeated as award season ramps up.

Here are the nominees in the other major categories: 

Best Actor
Chadwick Boseman — Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 
Riz Ahmed — Sound of Metal 
Jude Law — The Nest  
John Magaro — First Cow 
Jesse Plemons — I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Best Actress
Nicole Beharie — Miss Juneteenth 
Jessie Buckley — I’m Thinking of Ending Things 
Yuh-Jung Youn — Minari 
Carrie Coon — The Nest 
Frances McDormand — Nomadland

Breakthrough Actor
Jasmine Batchelor — The Surrogate 
Kingsley Ben-Adir — One Night in Miami… 
Sidney Flanigan — Never Rarely Sometimes Always 
Orion Lee — First Cow 
Kelly O’Sullivan — Saint Frances

Best Screenplay
Bad Education — Mike Makowsky  
First Cow — Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt  
The Forty-Year-Old Version — Radha Blank 
Fourteen — Dan Sallitt 
The Vast of Night” — James Montague, Craig Sanger 

The IFP Gotham Awards will be held Monday, January 11, 2021 in New York City.

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

November 12, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Sarah Hyland — ABC(LOS ANGELES) — (NOTE NATURE, CONTENT) With schools debating how and when to introduce children to sex education, actresses Hilary Duff, Ashley Benson and Sarah Hyland made the case that the entire curriculum needs to be updated.

For the most recent episode of Lady Parts, the three women chatted with OB/GYN Dr. Sherry Ross about the misconceptions they had about sex and puberty — as well as how they could of benefitted from a more open and honest lesson plan in their youth.

“I don’t feel like I had the proper sex education at all,” Benson lamented, adding she “went to a Christian school growing up and so it wasn’t really explained in the right way, in my opinion.”

Duff, who is expecting her third child, agreed that she was missing important pieces of information when she learned about it in school, revealing the major misconceptions she had about sex when she was younger.

“Well, I thought the first time you have sex you’re going to get pregnant,” the Disney Channel star admitted.

The three also discussed the misconceptions of consent, female pleasure and safe sex.  The actresses agreed that schools should openly discuss all those matters because it will help young girls make more informed decisions and learn that their desires and feelings about the topic are normal.

The three also stressed that young girls should know that going through puberty doesn’t mean they’re automatically expected to want to have sex and that it’s okay to not be ready.

Hyland, Benson and Duff also focused on puberty and how little they felt they knew about their own bodies growing up, from having their first period to learning when to schedule their first appointment at the gynecologist.

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

November 12, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of Macy’s(NEW YORK) — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is officially two weeks away and, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this show will look a little different this year.  Despite deviating from several longstanding traditions, the parade remains committed to delighting families nationwide as it celebrates its 96th anniversary.

Instead of waves of spectators hugging the famed two-and-a-half mile route, the parade will be filmed in front of New York City’s flagship Macy’s store without an audience.

This year’s parade — kicked off by the iconic Tom Turkey float — will salute Broadway, which shut down in March due to the pandemic, and feature an array of fan favorite musicals.

Macy’s announced the acts singing and dancing on Thanksgiving include Hamilton, Jagged Little Pill, The Life and Times of the Temptations, Mean Girls and Ain’t Too Proud.

Parade organizers say the Broadway performances will be filmed ahead of time.

Macy’s also announced the 20 diverse artists who sing their hearts out on Thanksgiving.  Included in this year’s lineup are Ally Brooke, Bebe Rexha, Brett Young, Camille Schrier, CNCO, Dolly Parton, Ella Mai, Jimmie Allen, Jordin Sparks, Karol G, Keke Palmer, Lauren Alaina, Leslie Odom Jr., Noah Cyrus, Patti Labelle, Pentatonix, Sebastian Yatra, Sofia Carson and Tori Kelly.

In addition to several show-stopping Broadway numbers, musical performances and an appearance of the New York City Ballet, the parade confirmed that 18 giant balloons will fly at this year’s event.  

Among the recognizable characters floating high above Macy’s will be Snoopy, Pikachu, Chase from Paw Patrol, Spongebob Squarepants, Elf on the Shelf, Ronald McDonald, Poppy and Branch from Trolls, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Smokey Bear, The Boss Baby and many others.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs two weeks from today, on Thursday, November 26 at 9 a.m. EST on NBC.

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

November 12, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Selena Gomez is reaching new heights with a major new movie role.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the singer is set to star in a biopic about inspirational Peruvian mountaineer Silvia Vásquez-Lavado.

The film, In the Shadow of the Mountain, is based on the upcoming memoir by Vásquez-Lavado of the same name. It follows her journey to become the first Peruvian woman to summit Mt. Everest and the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits, a challenge to reach the peak of the highest mountain on each continent.

Vásquez-Lavado, who was a victim of childhood assault, later became an advocate for survivors using the healing powers of mountaineering. She organized treks to Mt. Everest’s base camp for other female survivors.

In addition to starring, Selena will also be producing In the Shadow of the Mountain through her July Moon Productions.

The In the Shadow of the Mountain memoir is scheduled to publish in winter 2022. No word on when filming gets underway.

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