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Carole Baskin reportedly in talks to join 'Dancing With The Stars'

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Courtesy of Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — Will Carole Baskin be joining the cast of Dancing With The Stars? Possibly. 

Sources shared with E! News that Baskin, 59, is one of the celebrities in talks to compete for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy on Season 29 of the popular ABC dance competition series. 

Baskin gained notoriety after being featured as one of the main subjects in the Netflix docuseries Tiger King and being accused of killing her ex-husband by the show’s star, Joe Exotic.

Tiger King aside, she is an animal rights activist and is the CEO of a non-profit animal sanctuary in Florida. She’s also a YouTuber. 

Whether or not she will add DWTS contestant to that list remains a mystery, though — but not for long. The entire cast for the upcoming season will be announced on Wednesday, September 2 on Good Morning America. 

The only confirmed cast member is former star of ABC’s The Bachelorette, Kaitlyn Bristowe. Sources revealed that other stars in talks of joining are Chrishell Stause (ex of This Is Us star Justin Hartley and star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset), AJ McLean (member of the Backstreet Boys), and Anne Heche (actress known for roles on Quantico and Chicago P.D.).

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

No audience, no red carpet, and 140 live feeds: producers prep this year's remote Emmys telecast

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ABC/Jeff Lipsky(LOS ANGELES) — Like millions of Americans in COVID-19 lockdown, it seems celebrities will be ordering in — when it comes to the Emmy Awards, that is. 

Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart, the executive producers of September’s 72nd Emmy Awards, explained to Variety just how they plan to pull off a telecast unlike any other in the award show’s history. 

Jimmy Kimmel will be hosting live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles — across the street from the Emmys’ usual digs, the Microsoft Center — but he’ll be playing to an empty house.

The Staples Center was chosen, the producers explained, because it was large enough to ensure social distancing rules for crews, and it was the only such venue that could handle as many as 140 live camera feeds coming in from performers and nominees, wherever they may be.

“[W]e’re going to take cameras to where they are,” Hudlin says of the celebs. “They might be at home, they might be in the garden, might be in a hotel, they might be standing on the side of the street. It doesn’t really matter, wherever they feel comfortable. But we want to bring every nominee that we can logistically, live into the show.”

The producers are even willing to have a nominee’s family member shoot the action, if a star isn’t willing to have a crew member enter the family’s quarantine “bubble.”

Stewart explains the goal is to avoid the now-ubiquitous Zoom-box interface. “We’re not trying to make the Zoomies, we’re trying to make the Emmys,” he jokes.  “We shouldn’t lose sight that Emmys are prestigious awards, and we’re not giving them out for fun, we’re giving them out to reflect excellence.”

The telecast will air September 20 at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.

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

See Brendan Gleeson transform into President Trump in Showtime's 'The Comey Rule'

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Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS(LOS ANGELES) — Showtime has revealed the first full-length trailer for The Comey Rule, a two-part thriller based on controversial former FBI director James Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty. 

However, it’s Scottish actor Brendan Gleeson’s transformation into President Donald Trump that arguably steals the show. Thanks to a perfectly styled wispy blonde wig, and an impressive vocal imitation of the reality show star-turned commander-in-chief, Gleeson hits all the right notes.

The film traces Comey’s involvement in Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, and later, after her defeat in the presidential election, it addresses President Trump’s alleged involvement in what became known as the Russiagate scandal. 

Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, was investigated and found to have violated Justice Department and FBI policies in his handling of memos he said detailed conversations with the president — memos he’s shown scribbling in the trailer for the film, which also stars Jeff Daniels as Comey, Oscar-winner Holly Hunter as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and Kingsley Ben-Adir as President Obama.

The Comey Rule debuts on Showtime on September 27.

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

Cruel to be Kind: Yes, that really was Colin Farrell — not Richard Kind — as Penguin in 'The Batman' trailer

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Warner Bros. Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — Amid the hype of director Matt Reeves’ reveal of The Batman trailer during the DC Fandome event over the weekend, it was easy to overlook actor Colin Farrell hiding in plain sight as the Penguin. 

That’s right: among the buzz-worthy first footage of Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, and Zoe Kravitz as Selena Kyle/Catwoman, there appeared a gruff, balding, burly dude, who exclaims, mid-chase of Batman, “This guy is crazy!”

You’d be perfectly justified in not noticing, but that guy was Farrell, in heavy makeup. 

So unrecognizable was the handsome Irish star of the Fantastic Beasts sequel and the recent Artemis Fowl, that the Internet mistook him for who his character actually looks like: character actor Richard Kind. 

Twitter has gone a-twitter with people pointing out the similarities between the movie’s Oswald Cobblepot — that’s the Penguin’s actual name — and Kind, the affable Mad About You and Curb Your Enthusiasm player, with one user posting, “Richard Kind watching The Batman trailer, following it with a modified meme of Dwight from The Office declaring “Identity theft is not a joke, Colin.”

Another declared, “Colin Farrell’s got a career as a Richard Kind impersonator if ‘The Batman’ ends up bombing.”

Certainly, Reeves’ Penguin is a more subtle take on the usually umbrella-wielding baddie that fans are used to.  The last time he was portrayed on the big screen was by a scenery-and-fish-chewing Danny DeVito, also heavily made-up and in a waddling fat suit, in Tim Burton’s 1992’s Batman Returns.  More recently, Robin Lord Taylor played the character for five seasons on TV’s Gotham.

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

Courtney B. Vance hopes 'Lovecraft Country' becomes "event TV" and has the cultural impact of 'Black Panther'

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Eli Joshua Ade/HBO(NEW YORK) — Courtney B. Vance’s new HBO series, Lovecraft Country, is taking viewers on a wild ride during the segregated 1950s.

While portraying an altruistic and noble uncle to Jonathan Majors’ Atticus was undoubtedly of interest to Vance, the actor tells ABC Audio that he was actually “drawn to the project” because of the creator Misha Green’s vision.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about it,” he says. “She sat me down and told me the story. And I just said, ‘I’m in. Let’s go.’ I know her vision is big. It always has been.”

Although fans may not get to see Courtney on every episode, the Emmy-Award winner says he can “only imagine what we’re all in store for” during the season. In fact, Vance says he already has high hopes on just how impactful the series will be.

“I’m excited about the possibility of this turning into what everyone had at HBO — and Misha had in their minds — which is this is going to be a seven, eight year journey,” he says. “That it becomes what Game of Thrones was, which is event TV.”

“That’s what these series do to people,” Vance continues. “They force you to talk about it and what’s coming up. ‘I can’t wait till Sunday!’ You know, it’s that, ‘The new season is here! It’s here!’ and everybody’s tweeting about [it.]”

If those aspirations aren’t enough, Vance says he’d even like to see the series have the cultural impact of a Black Panther.

“It’s what Black Panther was when people were saying, ‘I got the trailer…Can you believe it?,'” he says. “And everybody’s talking about it. That to me is what the ultimate goal and… ultimate satisfaction would be. And that will be revolutionary.”

Lovecraft Country airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.