ABC/Heidi Gutman(NEW YORK) — As is the case every year, the US Open gala will serve up lots of stars, and this year’s will be no different — except that they’ll be there virtually.
The tennis championship gets underway next week without spectators, but Page Six reports there will be no shortage of stars for the opening night party, which aims to raise $5 million for Rally to Rebuild, which supports National Junior Tennis and Learning.
This year, however, the stars will shine via Zoom.
USTA Foundation mainstay Alec Baldwin will speak, as will Dr. Oz, Katie Couric, Shark Tank stars Daymond John and Robert Herjavec, and Mike Tyson, as well as tennis legends Chris Evert and John McEnroe.
Based on Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod’s 1982 graphic novel of the same name, the movie centers on a group of young enhanced patients of a facility meant to put their mutant capabilities — and their psychological limits — to the test.
The patients/test subjects, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, Game of Thrones veteran Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, and Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton, must band together to survive in the creepy facility, which was filmed at the old Medfield State Hospital in Massachusetts.
Shooting in the abandoned psychiatric hospital made acting in a creepy movie very easy indeed, the stars tell ABC News.
Heaton set the scene, explaining, “There were creepy stories, I met the groundskeeper on a really rainy day. …And then he told us, ‘Oh, there’s this attic room; someone…hung [sic] themselves in that room.’ Thankfully, we’d already shot in there.”
He adds, “in terms of shooting…I think it really helps the film feel, you know, authentic at least.”
Williams says, “[Y]ou can really fill this space with, like whatever you want to mentally project onto it, you know, and like there are all these spooky ghost stories going around. And like, I think a lot of women were, like, lobotomized there. And so, like that alone kind of just makes you feel like quite uncomfortable.”
Zaga adds, “The one element that was really present for me was the smell….It just creeps into your soul like this, this smell you can’t fake of, you know, [an] old abandoned place.” However, he allows, “I was so hyped to shoot such an exciting movie that it was hard to feel scared.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Amber Riley delivered a touching tribute to her late friend and former Glee co-star Naya Rivera on Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Riley, performed “A Moment” as photos of Rivera appeared on a screen beside Riley, including one of Naya holding her four-year-old son Josey as Riley powerfully belted out the ballad.
Earlier, Riley got some encouragement from another one of her former Glee co-stars, including Chord Overstreet, who tweeted, “I can’t wait to see this amber!! You’re gonna crush it! Love you Amb!”
Rivera died July 8 in Lake Piru, California from an accidental drowning. Josey was found safe on a pontoon boat she had rented earlier that day.
Courtesy of Orion Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — With the COVID-19 pandemic upending the movie and television industry, a brand new film hits the big screen today, Bill and Ted Face the Music, and stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters believe the movie couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
With theaters opening back up after a long pause, albeit now at limited capacity, Reeves was first asked by ABC Audio if he thinks the film, which is about Bill and Ted saving the world again, can save the beleaguered box office.
“I hope so,” he expressed. “Hopefully people can feel safe and go to the movies because I know I miss going to the movies.”
The 55-year-old Reeves, who plays Ted, also shared his vision of what a perfect opening night would look like, “I personally wish that I could go have an opening of Bill and Ted and invite all my friends and eat some popcorn and laugh and feel good.”
Reeves knows he’s not the only one who misses laughing with other people and, because of this pandemic, the world is in an emotional place that needs a Bill and Ted comeback.
“Bill and Ted Face the Music is really about family and community, that we’re all in this together,” he noted. “Let’s let’s laugh, let’s love, let’s be excellent! Party on, man.”
Volleying off the sentiment, Winters says Bill and Ted share an important message that the globe is desperate to hear due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“[It] is very much about people coming together and about community,” Said Winters, adding that the theme is present in all three films. “[It’s] about the importance of of humanity being open and being one.”
Bill and Ted Face the Music is in theaters now and available for streaming rental this weekend.
Disney(LOS ANGELES) — Disney announced Thursday that Star Wars sequel star Kelly Marie Tran will voice the title character in the upcoming animated film Raya and the Last Dragon.
The announcement didn’t mention that Canadian actress Cassie Steele was at one time supposed to voice Raya, and was even promoted as such during last year’s Disney D23 expo. Tran is of Southeast Asian descent, and the film’s animators apparently looked to countries in that region for design inspiration.
The project centers on warrior princess Raya’s quest to find the last surviving dragon in the fantasy world of Kumandra, to battle against a race of sinister monsters bent on ruling the land. Raya’s unlikely partner, a water dragon known as Sisu, will be voiced by Akwafina.
In announcing the casting news, Disney shared an image of the warrior along with her sidekick, an armadillo-like insect that’s large enough to ride.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Raya and the Last Dragon opens in U.S. theaters on March 12, 2021.
ABC/Heidi Gutman(NEW YORK) — As is the case every year, the US Open gala will serve up lots of stars, and this year’s will be no different — except that they’ll be there virtually. 
