August 20, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

(NEW YORK) — In the new movie Stage Mother, Australian actress Jacki Weaver plays a conservative Texas choir director who finds herself the owner of a San Francisco drag club following the death of her estranged son.

Her character, Maybelline Metcalf, must learn to embrace the LGBTQ community her son was a part of and reconcile the fact that she didn’t accept him while he was alive.

The Oscar-nominated Weaver is quite the opposite of her character, having embraced the gay community all her life. She tells ABC Audio she was less like a stage mother on set and more like everyone’s “wicked girlfriend.”

“I’ve moved in gay circles and in drag circles all my life since I was 15, because Sydney’s a very gay city,” she says. “You know, nothing about that world has ever shocked me.”

After attending her first drag show at 15, Weaver says she became fascinated with the art form. She later went on to star in the Australian stage version of quintessential drag musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

“My husband, even now, we love to go to a drag show,” she says. “We think it’s great fun.”

Stage Mother, also starring Adrian Grenier, Lucy Liu, Jackie Beat and Mya Taylor, comes out August 21.

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

August 20, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Aubrey Plaza as Cleopatra in ‘Drunk History’; Image courtesy Comedy Central(NEW YORK) — Say so long to Drunk History.

The current sixth season of the Comedy Central series will be the show’s last, according to Variety.

Created by Derek Waters, who also appeared in most every episode, Drunk History began in 2007 as a Funny or Die online series then briefly jumped to HBO before moving to Comedy Central in 2013.  Each show features a seriously wasted stand-up comic describing historical events, while those events are re-enacted by celebs in full costume, lip-syncing to the narrator’s drunken ramblings.

Celebs who’ve appeared on Drunk History over the years include Will Ferrell, Winona Ryder, Octavia Spencer, Kristen Wiig, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Bob Odenkirk, Seth Rogen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tiffany Haddish and dozens more.

Production on the current Drunk History season was halted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the cancellation announcement apparently won’t be resumed.

By Christopher Watson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 20, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

NicolasMcComber/iStock(NEW YORK) — For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted them to close their doors more than five months ago, movie theater chain AMC is reopening 100 cinemas today — and charging a mere 15 cents a ticket.

If you want to take advantage of the super-low ticket price, you’ll have to hit your local AMC today.  It’s a one-day only deal, in celebration of the cinema chain’s 100th anniversary, reflecting ticket prices in 1920, when AMC “began operations with a single movie screen in Kansas City, Missouri,” according to the chain’s announcement.

As for what’s playing, it’s mostly guaranteed crowd-pleasers like Back to the Future and The Goonies, plus more recent hits like Marvel’s Black Panther and Sonic the Hedgehog.  After today, AMC will screen other retro favorites including Ghostbusters, Grease, Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back and a special 10th anniversary Inception screening, all for $5 a ticket, plus special concessions prices.

An additional 300 AMC theaters will reopen over the next few weeks, ahead of the premieres of The New Mutants on August 28 and Tenet on September 3.

“We are thrilled to once again open our doors to American moviegoers who are looking for an opportunity to get out of their houses and apartments and escape into the magic of the movies,” said AMC President and CEO Adam Aron in a statement.

You can check AMC’s website to see what theaters in your area may be open, as well as when and what’s playing.  You’ll also find a list of COVID-19 precautions AMC theaters have put into place.

By Christopher Watson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 20, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Robin L Marshall/Getty Images for OWN(ST. LOUIS) — James Timothy Norman, reality TV star of Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, has been arrested and charged with orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot against his 18-year-old nephew.

On Tuesday, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Norman, the son of Sweetie Pie’s owner Robbie Montgomery, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder that resulted in death, according to a complaint.

Andre Montgomery — his nephew and Robbie’s grandson — was fatally shot in 2016.

Reports allege Norman conspired with a woman named Terica Ellis to collect his nephew’s insurance money.

Federal authorities allege that in 2014, Norman took out a $450,000 life insurance policy on his nephew, with himself as the sole beneficiary. Allegedly, Norman flew to St. Louis from his Los Angeles home and Ellis traveled from Memphis, Tennessee. 

Prosecutors say on the day of the murder, Ellis used a temporary phone to find Montgomery’s exact location and alert Norman of his whereabouts. A criminal complaint placed Ellis’ phone near Montgomery’s location at the time of his death. Ellis traveled back to Memphis following the murder.

Allegedly, Ellis later deposited more than $9,000 in cash into several bank accounts. A week after Andre’s murder, Norman contacted the life insurance company in an attempt to collect on his nephew’s policy. 

Ellis was hit with the same charges in July. 

Both Norman and Andre appeared on the reality TV series, Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, which aired for nine seasons between 2011-2018 on OWN. The show focused on Robbie and her family-run soul food restaurant in the St. Louis area, Sweetie Pie’s.

By Rachel George
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 20, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Derek Blanks(LOS ANGELES) — Brandy says the past eight years haven’t been easy, which is why fans had to wait so long for new music.  In an interview with People, the “I Wanna Be Down” singer opened up about her mental health struggles and how her daughter Sy’rai saved her.

“I was a little bit lost eight years ago musically, creatively, spiritually,” Brandy admitted when speaking about the long wait for the B7 album. “I had to pull myself together, I had to pull it all together and make it all make sense.”

Brandy, 41, says she first fell into a dark place following her 2006 crash, which resulted in the death of a 38-year-old woman. 

“I remember laying in bed super depressed,” she recounted, adding that her depressive thoughts turned into suicide ideation.  Thankfully, she had someone to pull her out of that dark spiral: Sy’rai.

“I [told] myself, ‘So, you’re just going to go out like this? That’s wack. You have a daughter. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for her because this is not the way to leave a mark in her life,'” said Brandy.  

“If Sy’rai wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be either,” the Moesha star attested.  “The place that I was in, it just felt like I wasn’t going to make it through.”

Sy’rai, whom she shares with ex Robert Smith, graduated from high school this year.  Before the 18-year-old headed off to college, she stepped into the recording studio with her mom to cut “High Heels,” which is the eleventh track off the B7 album.

“I’m in a place now where I can be proud of moving in the right direction,” Brandy concluded, adding that she works on her mental health through therapy.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even if it feels like it, you are not alone.

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