September 25, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Palm Tree Records(LOS ANGELES) — Vin Diesel can now check two items off the triple threat list: actor and singer. The Fast & Furious star dropped his surprise debut single on Friday titled “Feel Like I Do.” 

Fans will recognize the 53-year-old actor’s rugged voice, which is backed a summery-sounding electronic melody and pulsing beat.

The lighthearted number finds the actor-turned-singer bitten by the love bug, with lyrics like “I don’t know/But it feels like I do/And I was frozen when you walked in the room/’Cause every single word/It just makes my stomach turn/’Cause I don’t know you/But it feels like I do.”  

“For so long, I have been promising to release music… encouraged by you, to step out of my comfort zone. Thank you for believing in me,” Diesel wrote to fans in an Instagram post. “As always, I hope to make you proud.” 

“Feel Like I Do” was written and produced by Petey Martin, co-writer behind the song “Ashes” that was recorded by Celine Dion and is featured on the Deadpool 2 soundtrack.

By Cillea Houghton
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

September 25, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.(VANCOUVER) — The cast of Riverdale is back in action, but life on set is different amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Thursday, series star KJ Apa shared an enlightening video on Instagram that shows how he and co-star Camila Mendes have to prepare for makeout scenes during pandemic times. 

“Our new normal is washing our mouths before every take of a make-out scene…” he explains in the caption.

In the video, KJ and Camila are seen taking a shot of mouthwash, blank expressions on their faces as they swish for at least 30 seconds, spitting the liquid into individual plastic bags handed to them by people wearing latex gloves.

Fans lit up the comment section with their amusement, with one joking “the chemistry is so intense I can feel it from here,” accompanied by crying laughing emojis, while another confesses, “idk why but this has me DYING.”

Riverdale recently returned to Vancouver, Canada for production on season five, which is expected to debut on the CW in January.

By Cillea Houghton
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

September 25, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Walt Disney Television/Yolanda Perez(LOS ANGELES) — Dax Shepard has seldom been silent about his battles with addiction.  Now the actor and director has revealed a recent relapse in an extremely personal episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, released Friday.

The father of two said he’d been taking prescription pain meds for years, with the knowledge of family and sponsors, to deal with pain issues from injuries.  But things became problematic due to problems with his hand and shoulder that began around six months ago, and he began lying about his increasing dependence and dosage.

He admitted he was lying to people in his life while taking excessive amounts of pain medicine he’d been prescribed, buying pills and carrying around this “enormous secret.”

Shepard, 45, said he recently revealed what was going on to his wife, actress Kristen Bell, and to his podcast producer, Monica Padman.

In the episode, recorded Monday, Sept. 21, he announced he was seven days sober.

The actor explained that he went to several AA meetings following his confession to those closest to him.  On Sept. 1, the day Shepard and his family celebrated his 16th year sober, he said he went to a meeting and received so much “kindness” and “unconditional love” from his peers.

He said he was honest about his addiction and opened up further about his struggles.  “It was very emotional,” he said about the meeting. “It was a really surreal kind of experience.”

Shepard’s admission on his podcast was met with hundreds of supportive comments across social media, praising him for his honesty.

In a post on Instagram, the actor described “Day 7” as, “An episode I hoped I’d never have to record, but one I felt I owed to all the beautiful Armcheries who have been on this ride with me for the last couple years.”

By Hayley FitzPatrick
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

September 25, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Matthias Clamer/FX (LOS ANGELES) — Season 4 of Fargo premieres Sunday night on FX and it’s been a while since we last saw new episodes of the critically acclaimed series considering that season 3 premiered in 2017. Although that was partially due to the pandemic, series creator Noah Hawley tells ABC Audio the extra time gave him some breathing room not typical for the usually speedy way in which television is made.

“It was good to have a few months to live with the material, to watch the cuts, to take a break from the cuts, to go back and go, oh yeah, this one feels long to me now and you know, to be able to calibrate more,” he explained. “Hopefully we really are telling the best story we can tell.”

This season, which looks at America’s relationship to money and focuses on two vastly different families — one Italian and the other Black, which is led by Chris Rock. And although Hawley is white, he expressed it was very important to him that the characters depicted on screen had representation in the creation of the stories.

“In the writers that we hired and the directors that we hired, you know, we we really made sure that that, you know, this wasn’t going to be an act of appropriation,” he shared, adding that the comedian was the “perfect partner.” 

“… you know, nothing’s sacred to Chris. He’s not a P.C. guy. So we could have a very honest conversation and really have a back and forth,” he says. 

In addition to seeing Rock take the lead, viewers will notice the series takes a jump from the upper North West of the United States to Kansas City, and the reason for that is simple. 

“To avoid repetition on some level,” Hawley admitted.

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

September 25, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Shout! Studios(NEW YORK) — Gugu Mbatha-Raw says she hoped “to honor” Jennifer Hosten in the new British comedy, Misbehaviour.

In the film, which follows the newly formed woman’s liberation movement and their disruption of the Miss World competition broadcast in 1970, Mbatha-Raw plays Hosten, the Miss Grenada contestant. Mbatha-Raw tells ABC Audio that she went to great lengths to get the portrayal right.

“It’s always a responsibility playing a real person, especially when they’re still around to have an opinion of what you are doing,” she says. “And of course, you want to honor them. And I was really fortunate enough to actually meet Jennifer in person while I was doing the research.”

Mbatha-Raw says she then asked Hosten to meet her in Grenada to get a better feel of her origins.

“I just thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to meet her in her home environment,” she explains. “In her mother island, and really have a relaxed way to understand her culture and spend some quality time with her.”

“So it was a wonderful experience because she showed me around the island, she told me lots of stories,” Mbatha-Raw continues. “[I]t was very enriching to develop a relationship with her and also to observe her. I listened to her accent and to understand her energy, and really have all of that to draw upon.”

While being in Grenada was a big help to fine-tune her portrayal, Mbatha-Raw says she ultimately sought some professional assistance when it came to perfecting Hosten’s “really specific accent.”

“It was nerve wracking,” Mbatha-Raw says. “Her accent is sort of a fusion in itself. So, I worked with an amazing dialect coach [who] helped me hone the rhythms and figure out what would work for the film.”

Misbehaviour‘s now available on VOD.