August 13, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

FOX Image Collection via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Last month, Glee star Naya Rivera tragically drowned in California’s Lake Piru; her four-year-old son was found safe in a boat.  Gloria Estefan played the mother of Rivera’s Glee character, Santana, in two episodes of the hit Fox series and tells ABC Audio that while Rivera’s loss is “brutal,” she’s left behind “a wonderful legacy.”

“When I shot the first season, that show was at the peak of fame. So there was a lot of young people in that show that may have had a tougher time dealing with fame and weren’t that friendly,” Gloria recalls. “Naya always had her feet on the ground and was warm and welcoming and lovely.”

Praising Rivera as a “triple threat” who could sing, dance and act, Gloria says that Naya was discussing a possible music career with her husband, producer Emilio Estefan.

“She was talking to Emilio…about doing music and then she got married and had her baby, so she got sidetracked…,” notes Gloria. “But she was always lovely and warm and generous. We talked a lot on the set…[and] afterwards.”

The “Conga” singer says when Rivera first went missing, she held out hope that she’d survived.

“Because I’m a boater and I’m a mom, I was hoping that maybe what had happened is that after she put the baby on the boat, maybe she’d gotten pulled away by a current and could somehow find her way to the shore,” Gloria recalls.

“I can only imagine those last moments. It’s brutal,” she says sadly.

But, Gloria concludes, “She leaves behind a wonderful legacy. I’ve sent a lot of prayers and good thoughts to that baby boy and her family. She was very beloved on that [Glee] set and was a great human being.” 

Gloria’s new album Brazil305 comes out on Friday.

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

August 13, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Monty Brinton/CBS 2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — CBS has announced it has renewed the reality competition series Tough as Nails for a second season, a month after it debuted.

The Phil Keoghan-hosted show salutes everyday heroes, from fishermen to firefighters, by having them compete in a series of real-world physical, mental and skills challenges.

Keoghan tells ABC Audio that even though the show was conceived and shot before the COVID-19 pandemic brought home the importance of essential workers, Tough As Nails was conceived to celebrate the people that have always provided for us. The multiple-Emmy winning Amazing Race veteran explains the authenticity of the new series, and the contestants they choose, are key to the show’s success.

“You’re competing for real money,” says Keoghan.  “And believe me, these people understand the value of a dollar. Every single one of them, because they work really hard.”

Keoghan adds, “They’re competing on real job sites. We haven’t…built sets, or it’s not an obstacle course or anything like that. It’s it’s real job sites. So we go to farms and we go to factories, we go to a pick-a-part. They are competing in real job sites, doing real jobs, building fences. And that’s to me what has gives the show its authenticity.”  

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

August 13, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic(LONDON) — Acclaimed composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, like many in the entertainment industry, is looking forward to the day when theaters can reopen safely.  He also has made it known that he will do anything to save live theater. 

The Tony Award winner announced Wednesday that he’s volunteered to help in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Webber, 72, will officially join the vaccine trial helmed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on Thursday, which has reportedly shown promising results.

“I am excited that tomorrow I am going to be vaccinated for the Oxford Covid 19 trial,” the Cats composer announced in a tweet. “I’ll do anything to prove that theatres can re-open safely.”

Webber has remained a staunch critic of theater closures in England, saying the extended blackout threatens their very survival.  

Already, there has been some casualties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the U.S., Disney’s Frozen on Broadway — that opened in March 2018 –became the first Broadway giant to announce its permanent closure.

Thomas Schumacher, president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, cited the “industry-wide shutdown and resulting economic fallout” from the COVID-19 pandemic as to why the beloved show won’t return once the Great White Way’s lights turn back on in January.

Other Broadway shows that also announced their closures include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Hangmen.

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

August 13, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Credit: Mindy Tucker(LOS ANGELES) — Author/comedian Sarah Cooper, who has become a viral sensation with her impersonations of President Donald Trump on TikTok, has landed her own Netflix special, titled Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine, the streamer announced on Wednesday.

The special, directed by Orange Is the New Black alum Natasha Lyonne and executive produced by Saturday Night Live vet Maya Rudolph, will feature a “vignettes dealing with issues of politics, race, gender, class and other light subjects,” according to Netflix.

Cooper, 42, will also be “joined by a fantastic array of special guests who will participate in short interviews, sketches and more shenanigans.”

Cooper, whose satirical lip-sync impressions of the president have gained mainstream attention over the past several months, have earned her praise from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Stiller, Halle Berry, Cher and Jerry Seinfeld, among others.

Prior to that, Cooper was a writer and correspondent on the CBS All Access pilot Old News, which was produced by Stephen Colbert, and wrote the best-selling books 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and How to be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings.

She also guest hosted Tuesday’s edition of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine is set to premiere sometime in the fall.

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

August 13, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

iStock/KLH49(LOS ANGELES) — AMC Theaters is taking steps to reopen after shuttering its chain worldwide months ago due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  

In an email release to the company’s “A List” members on Wednesday, the theater chain announced that movies will once again light up their screens starting August 20. 

Should all go well, the company hopes to have roughly two-thirds of its franchises up and running once again by September 3.

The email states that “AMC Theaters are reopening” and that “We already have opened more than half of our theaters in Europe and the Middle East, safely and without incident, and will open all by August 26.”

Turning its focus to America, the Kansas-based company attested, “Here in the United States, we will begin opening AMC with more than 100 theaters resuming operations on August 20, and continuing such that about two-thirds of our theaters across the country should be open no later than September 3.”

The statement furthers, “The remaining AMC locations will open after we get further clearance from state and local authorities that it is safe to do so.”

Those eager to watch a movie on the big screen can check the opening status of their local AMC starting Thursday on the company’s website or by downloading its mobile app.

Among the spate of new movies the chain is readying to premiere are The New Mutants, Tenet and Unhinged. 

Due to several blockbusters pushing back their premiere dates or opting for the streaming route in light of the ongoing pandemic, AMC said it will fill the gaps in its schedules with hit films, like Beauty and the Beast and Inception.

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