August 11, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Chris Cuffaio/NBCU Photo Bank(LOS ANGELES) — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is getting flipped-turned-upside down. 

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the highly-celebrated family sitcom that made Will Smith a star is being adapted into a drama series, based on a viral YouTube trailer created by writer Morgan Cooper.

As a Fresh Prince super-fan and co-executive producer, Cooper reimagined the hit series as a serious drama that tells the story of a Philadelphia teenager adjusting to his new life with his rich family in Los Angeles. 

Cooper created and directed the four-minute trailer in March 2019.  It’s since racked up over five million views, and ultimately caught Will’s attention. 

The new series, titled Bel-Air, has reportedly been in the works for over a year with the show’s original executive producers, who include Smith, Quincy Jones, and Benny Medina, as well as the show’s creators, Andy and Susan Borowitz.

Multiple streaming outlets, including Peacock, Netflix, and HBO Max, are currently bidding on the potential series, which is a co-production between Smith’s Westbrook Studios and the show’s original producers Universal TV.

Produced by Jones and Warner Bros, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ran from 1990-1996 on NBC. Smith became a  box office superstar after spending six seasons on the comedy series as the funny Philly street kid.

Smith virtually joined Alfonso Riberio, Tatyana Ali, Daphne Maxwell Reid, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and the rest of The Fresh Prince cast to pay respect to their late cast member James Avery, a.k.a. Uncle Phil, during a reunion special earlier this year. 

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

August 11, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for ReedPOP(NEW YORK) — Like San Diego Comic-Con before it, New York Comic Con — which last year attracted 250,000 fans to the Big Apple’s massive Jacob Javits Center — has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier in the day, a rep for the convention told ABC Audio that a Newsday article stating that the event was going to take place was “poorly researched” — and now we know why. 

In a brand-new statement from ReedPop, which runs the annual expo, as well as other pop culture conventions, fans were informed that doors won’t be opening this October. 

“While we’d much rather be giving you an update today on joining us at the Javits Center in October, it likely comes as no surprise that NYCC 2020’s physical event at the Javits will not be able to run as intended,” the statement read.

“We very sincerely appreciate your patience as we worked with the Javits and local officials to figure out what, if anything, could go on as planned this October.”

The convention will now be held virtually, via the new online portal New York Comic Con’s Metaverse, over the weekend of October 8-11.

“We are partnering with YouTube to bring to life four days of incredible content from the biggest studios, publishers and creators in the business,” ReedPop’s statement continued.

“This is your chance to interact with your favorite creators and celebrity guests, and most importantly, the opportunity to engage with other members of this vibrant community of ours.”

Incidentally, the Javits Center was pressed into service as a makeshift hospital while New York City was in its darkest days during the pandemic. However, after a pricey retrofit by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was shuttered after tending to just 1,000 patients.

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

August 11, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Mike Coppola/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Oscar-nominated actress and activist Sharon Stone has put pen to paper, with a new memoir called The Beauty of Living Twice, due out in March.

According to the publisher, 62-year-old Stone not only, “talks about the many roles she played, her life-changing friendships, and her accomplishments and disappointments,” but her memoir also examines her violent and traumatic childhood, and her battling back from a massive, near-fatal stroke she suffered in 2001.

The publisher promises, “She writes in chilling detail about the day she nearly died…and about the effects that stroke had on her health and family and on her fame and fortune.”

The book will also detail Stone’s activism for AIDS research and other causes. 

Knopf publishing senior editor Tim O’Connell calls The Beauty of Living Twice, “one the bravest memoirs I’ve ever read,” adding, “it’s a celebration of strength and resilience, a reckoning, and a call to activism.”

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

August 11, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Todd Wawrychuk(LOS ANGELES) — Despite a hat, face covering and sunglasses, a sharp-eyed paparazzo spotted Ellen Degeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi on a dog walk in Santa Barbara, and asked her how Ellen was holding up in the wake of the toxic work environment controversy surrounding her show. 

“She’s doing great,” de Rossi insisted, according to PageSix, with the Arrested Development co-star adding that reports DeGeneres was considering walking away from the show have been exaggerated.

When pressed if Ellen planned to go on with the program, de Rossi said plainly, “Yes, she is.” 

A Buzzfeed article back in July saw former and current show staffers blast a “toxic” work environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, touching off an investigation from Warner Bros. Television and prompting an apology from Ellen herself, who vowed the bullying and racial tensions some say they suffered on set would not be tolerated.

“I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again,” DeGeneres said in part in an email to staffers.

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

August 11, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Lara Solanki(LOS ANGELES) — A never-before-seen episode of the ABC series black-ish made nearly three years ago is now available to watch on Hulu.

“In November 2017, we made an episode of black-ish entitled ‘Please, Baby, Please.’ We were one year post-election and coming to the end of a year that left us, like many Americans, grappling with the state of our country and anxious about its future,” series creator Kenya Barris wrote in a statement posted Monday on Instagram and Twitter accounts.

He continued, “Those feelings poured onto the page, becoming 22 minutes of television that I was, and still am, incredibly proud of. ‘Please, Baby, Please’ didn’t make it to air that season and, while much has been speculated about its contents, the episode has never been seen publicly… until now.”

The episode’s description on the streaming site simply reads, “Dre reads a crying Devante a bedtime story.”

Barris said he asked Walt Disney Television to make the episode available in the wake of renewed interest in the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day.

“Recognizing the importance of this moment, they listened and agreed,” he added.

“I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves and, as was the case nearly three years ago, we hope it inspires some much-needed conversation — not only about what we were grappling with then or how it led to where we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly, how we get there together,” Barris explained.

Barris concluded by thanking ABC Entertainment “for allowing this moment to happen,” and thanking the entire black-ish family “for never shying away from tough conversations, making telling stories like this possible.”

By Carson Blackwelder
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.