November 5, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Warner Bros./HBO Max(LOS ANGELES) — Warner Bros., who is behind the HBO Max remake of The Witches, apologized to the disability community for how the villains were depicted in the movie.

The fallout, according to Deadline, was sparked over a key difference between the 2020 remake and the Roald Dahl classic book and — by extension — the original 1990 film.

The witches in the HBO Max reimagining have three long fingers and not “claws instead of fingernails,” as stated in the original book, which upset the disability community.

Amy Marren, an English Paralympic swimmer, explained on Tuesday why she found that alteration so troubling.

While Marren is a “huge advocate of celebrating differences and especially limb differences,” she says giving those traits to villains does more harm than good.  The athlete also pointed out that doctors will fashion similar three-fingered hands for disabled children or adults to help them live a normal life.

“My fear is that children will watch this film, unaware that it massively exaggerates the Roald Dahl original and that limb differences [are] to be feared,” Marren wrote. “I am fully aware that this is a film, and these are Witches.  But Witches are essentially monsters.”

The Paralympic Games, retweeted Marren’s statement and expressed on their official Twitter, “Limb difference is not scary.  Differences should be celebrated and disability has to be normalised.”

Warner Bros. said in a statement to Deadline that they are “deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities, and regret any offense caused.”

“It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them,” the company maintained.

The Witches, starring Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer and narrated by Chris Rock, premiered on HBO Max on October 22.

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

November 5, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival(NEW YORK) — Michael J. Fox, who first announced he had Parkinson’s in 1998, opened up about his illness and the new challenges he faces.

In an intimate interview with People, the 59-year-old Back to the Future star revealed that  Parkinson’s is starting to infringe on his ability to act.

“My short-term memory is shot,” he admitted.

“I always had a real proficiency for lines and memorization. And I had some extreme situations where the last couple of jobs I did were actually really word-heavy parts.  I struggled during both of them,” confessed the Emmy Award winner, who isn’t sure if he’ll return to acting.

Despite that, the Good Wife alum refuses to slow down.  He’s focusing his creativity on writing and, already, has published three books.  His fourth, No Time Like the Future, is due out November 17.

“My guitar playing is no good. My sketching is no good anymore, my dancing never was good, and acting is getting tougher to do. So it’s down to writing,” joked Fox.  “Luckily, I really enjoy it.”

The Golden Globe winner also expressed that he is always optimistic about the future, telling People, “Optimism is sustainable when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from that is acceptance.”

“Accepting that this thing has happened, and you accept it for what it is,” Fox furthered. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t endeavor to change. It doesn’t mean you have to accept it as a punishment or a penance, but just put it in its proper place. Then see how much the rest of your life you have to thrive in, and then you can move on.”

Fox, who turns 60 next summer, added that his optimism delivered him “through the darkest times.”

“Life is rich. Life is good,” he concluded.

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

November 5, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

BRIDGET BENNETT/30240120A/AFP via Getty Images, Tasos Katopodis/WireImage, Alex Wong/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Jimmy Kimmel figured we could all use a break from the exhausting election coverage, so on Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! he presented a politics edition of “Mean Tweets.”

Here’s a sample:

“Bernie Sanders seems like the type of guy who’d return a single piece of fruit to Walmart and hold up the line for an hour.”

The Vermont senator clarified, “Well, not quite, but I do hope that the workers of Walmart can eventually earn a living wage with decent benefits.”

“If Templeton the rat from Charlotte’s Web had a successful rat cousin he hated for being an unctuous slimeball, it would be Ted Cruz.”

“Andrew Yang has terrible hair and can’t be president. It’s not fair but it’s the truth.”

“Have you seen our current president’s hair?” was Yang’s answer.

“I’m not the kind of person who collects and stores cat piss, for starters, I don’t even any cats, but if I were, I guarantee it would take hulk-like strength to keep me from throwing collected stored, warmed-up cat piss into John Kasich’s face.”

“You’re kind of sick, aren’t you?” Replied Kasich.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s mean tweeter kept his short and sweet: “Mayor Pete looks like Howdy Doody if Howdy Doody was a f****** Narc.”

“Mike Bloomberg saying he’s running for president is like finding out Nickelback is playing the Super Bowl halftime show.”

Joked Bloomberg, “I like Nickelback.”

Other recipients of “Mean Tweets” included Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Anthony Scaramucci, Al Franken and Adam Schiff.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 ET on ABC.

November 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

BBC America(LOS ANGELES) — These days, Charlie Hunnam is perhaps best known for his role in the gritty Sons of Anarchy but, once upon a time, he was to star in the rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A main role in the Jason Segel movie was written specifically for him, but Hunnam turned it down. It wasn’t publicly known why he made this choice, until now. 

Speaking with Collider, the English actor revealed why he chose to leave the project, which saw Russell Brand take his place as a lethario rock star. 

“It’s funny, I’ll tell you a little story. Jason Segel wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall for he and I to do together, and he wrote that [Russell Brand] role [of Aldous Snow] for me,” he said. “I went and I did the table read and it was very successful. Judd [Apatow] was producing.”

“I was in a dark night of the soul in my career, at that point, and felt as though I needed to seize the trajectory and that just wasn’t really aligning with, at that period of my life and career, what I wanted to be doing,” he continued. “Jason was one of my best friends, which is why he wrote the film for me, but I had to tell him, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m not gonna do this.’

The King Arthur star added, “It was one of those things where that wasn’t very well received by the inner circle of that production. I had to stand my ground and say, ‘Listen, it’s nothing personal. I’m just following my North star. I’m just in a weird spot and I’m trying to define for myself what the path forward is.'”

Hunnam also shared that he realized that he made the right decision to step away from the 2008 comedy after seeing Brand’s performance.

“…there’s no way I could have done it justice the way Russell Brand did,” Hunnam admitted.

In fact, Brand reprised the role of Aldous Snow in the 2010 comedy Get Him To The Greek.

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

November 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Ollie Millington/Redferns(LOS ANGELES) — Just like millions of other Americans, election day was an emotional rollercoaster ride for actor and musician David Duchovny.

The X-Files and Californication veteran told ABC Audio about his state of mind as the states’ votes are being tallied, and his new single, “Layin’ On The Tracks,” which he calls both “personal and political.”

“Well, I have to say, last night was dark, I felt really dismayed. It felt like 2016 all over again,” Duchovny tells ABC Audio. “And then when I woke up this morning, I was like…this is exactly what smart people said was going to happen.”

“They knew that Trump would have a lead from the ‘on the day’ vote, and just relax and count all the votes!” he explains. “And now that we’re doing that, I feel really good…just because I felt so bad thinking about four more years of that guy.”

However, Duchovny is pragmatic about the results. He admits. “Even if it turns out to be the case, at least I’ve got today to feel hopeful and like light…You know, Joe Biden being in there doesn’t make problems go away. But s***! It’s just it’s like a load off my chest just thinking that it’s possible.”

As for his single, Duchovny noted, “I’ve never written a song that was pointedly political like that…I suppose some songs are political just by their nature…this one [doesn’t] specifically name-check Trump, but it calls him out very specifically.”

While he adds that he doesn’t normally, “like to kind of tie my thing to a moment,” he pushed to release the song before November 3, “just because the song is different before the election than after…And I wanted the version before the election to have a chance.” 

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