August 2, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images(UTAH) — Wilford Brimley, the actor known for such films as Cocoon and The Natural, has died at 85.

His manager, Lynda Bensky, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he passed away on Saturday morning in a Utah hospital. He had been on dialysis and had other medical issues, Bensky said.

“Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust,” Bensky said in a statement to THR. “He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He had a tough exterior and a tender heart. I’m sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend’s wonderful stories. He was one of a kind.”

The mustached Salt Lake City native had a colorful life before catching his big break, serving as a blacksmith, rodeo rider, Hollywood extra and bodyguard for Howard Hughes. He scored a role in 1979’s The China Syndrome opposite Jack Lemmon, and later landed a part in Sydney Pollack’s 1981 film Absence of Malice. Roles in films like Tender Mercies, Cocoon, and The Natural followed.

Brimley also became famous for his commercial work touting Quaker Oats and diabetes testing. He embraced being known as the “diabeetus guy” after his pronunciation of the word sparked countless memes across the Internet.

More recently, Brimely appeared in the 2009 film Did You Hear About the Morgans?, starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Brimley is survived by his second wife Beverly and three sons.

Ron Howard, who directed Brimley in Cocoon, remembered him on Twitter Sunday.

“We didn’t always see eye 2 eye but I owe this Cocoon scene to Wilford who asked me to throw out the script & let him improvise while fishing w/the boy,” he wrote. “I agreed & shot a few 3-camera set-ups & he was brilliant & honest.”

“He was a very inventive and thoughtful actor,” Howard added. “His influence on the movie was wonderful.”

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Nat Geo(LOS ANGELES) — The Camp Fire is remembered as one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. The fire left the close-knit community of Paradise, California charred within minutes.

The fire that ripped through towns in November 2018 is now the center of a new National Geographic documentary called Rebuilding Paradise. Directed by Ron Howard, the documentary respectfully goes through the town of Paradise and follows survivors through the year, as they struggle to rebuild.

Michelle John, a school superintendent in Paradise who lived in the community for 30 years, is one of the survivors who shares her experience with the documentary and recalls that fateful day.

“It was just the perfect storm and the first thing you have to think of is life,” she tells ABC Audio. “You forget about property, you forget about everything. You’re just saving people’s lives.”

Woody Culleton, a former mayor of Paradise, moved back into his rebuilt home in late 2019 with his wife. He praises Ron Howard’s ability to tell the story of Paradise and capture the strength of the small town, and says the documentary held importance for him personally.

“I hope people enjoy it and learn from it. For us personally, myself, my wife, my daughter, it has been a healing experience,” he explains.  

In an interview with Good Morning America this week, Ron Howard shared the reason he decided to film this documentary.

“My mother-in-law lived the last five years of her life in Paradise, that’s a town that I knew,” Howard explained. “Our team and us, we just started talking about … can that town even come back from that? What would rebuilding Paradise really be? And the answer was to go see.”

Rebuilding Paradise opens in select theaters and virtually July 31.  

Rebuilding Paradise Trailer (2020)

By Dana Schaeffer
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dominik Bindl/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Stephanie Hsu, who joined the cast of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Mei Lin for its third season, says the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired her to stop “deleting” herself as Asian actress.

Hsu, who got her big break in 2017’s Spongebob Squarepants, the Broadway Musical, tells Entertainment Tonight, “It’s funny because this time in quarantine with everything that is happening — not only with COVID, but with Black Lives Matter and the way that the entertainment industry is responding — I’ve been really reckoning on an even deeper level with my relationship to race.”

“For so long, I never really intended to be on Broadway.  A lot of that had to do with the fact that no one looked like me, so I kind of deleted it from my realm of possibility,” she continues.  “And I’ve never really let race get in my way because if I thought about it for too long, I think I would just be sad and feel like it would be impossible.”

Adds Hsu, “My way of coping was always like, “If this is something you want to [do]… Don’t even ask that silly question. Just do it, just go.  Just find people that you love working with and make things that you’re passionate about.”

Stephanie says landing the role as Mei has helped her even further in acknowledging her relationship with her Asian heritage.

“It’s kind of crazy that before I read the script that I said to myself, ‘What kind of Chinese character could exist in the 1950s?’…I just assumed that it couldn’t be possible.  And that type of deletion of self runs so deep in a way that I forget sometimes.  And I’m really aware. Like, damn, wow.  I didn’t think that that could be possible.”

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Jeff Lipsky/NBC(LOS ANGELES) — This Is Us star Chris Sullivan welcomed a new member into his family, a baby boy, on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old actor confirmed his newborn’s arrival on Thursday, where he gushed about being a dad for the first time.

“HE HAS ARRIVED! 8lbs of beautiful baby boy,” Sullivan excitedly announced on Instagram.  “Witnessing @therealrachelsullivan bring our first son into this world, after 20 hours of labor, was one of the great honors of my life.”

“It was primal and intentional and I have never been more in love with this powerful woman,” the Emmy nominee continued before assuring fans that everything went smoothly.

“She and baby are resting and recovering well,” He disclosed.  “Everyone is healthy and exhausted.”

While Sullivan didn’t reveal his newborn’s name on social media, he later told People what he and his wife Rachel have chosen to call their son.

They named their boy Bear Maxwell Sullivan and Sullivan revealed there was a fun reason why they didn’t announce it right away.

“As far as the name announcement goes, we designed a puzzle to send to our family members as a fun way to announce his name and to keep us all connected during quarantine — kind of a group activity to reach across the land,” the actor explained. “It’s both information and something to do. And the reveal of our first son’s name.” 

Sullivan said his little game was a hit.  “Everybody had a great time,” He noted. “It was kind of set up like a contest — everyone had a time when they could start and everyone had to send us a photo when it was finished.”

Unfortunately, his family will have to wait a “few months” before they can meet his little boy.  Sullivan assured, however, “Everyone is very excited to meet Bear.”

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

July 31, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dean Buscher(LOS ANGELES) — KJ Apa just can’t catch a break these days when it comes to getting injured. 

The Riverdale star recently revealed that he received stitches in his head after attempting to do a stunt while on the set of the Michael Bay produced film Songbird — a romantic thriller due in theaters in 2021.  

He first made note of his wound on Wednesday when he posted an Instagram photo of himself laughing as medical personnel handled the situation. In a second pic, he showed off the bloody collar of the T-shirt and captioned the post, “stunts.”

The 23-year-old actor further detailed the incident and gave a closer look at the injury in his Instagram Stories on Thursday. 

“I split my head open yesterday,” he explained. “I don’t know if you guys can see that, but I have two stitches in there — metal stitches.”

The stitches are just the latest source of trauma for Apa. Back on July 19, he revealed that a shard of metal got stuck in his eyeball and shared the painful video footage of someone removing it.

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