July 21, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Walt Disney Television/Lou Rocco(LOS ANGELES) — Actress Anna Camp is hoping fans learn from her mistake: she claims she contracted COVID-19 after skipping her mask “one time.”

“I was incredibly safe. I wore a mask. I used hand sanitizer,” the Pitch Perfect series star writes on Instagram.  “One time, when the world was starting to open up, I decided to forgo wearing my mask. One. Time. And I ended up getting it.”

Camp noted, “I was extremely sick for over three weeks…People are saying it’s like having the flu, but I’ve had the flu, and this is absolutely not that.” 

She says she’s since tested negative for the virus but claims she still has lingering symptoms. 

Camp adds, “The panic of contracting a virus that is basically untreatable and is so new that no one knows the long term irreparable damage it does to your immune system is unbelievably stressful. Completely losing my sense of smell and taste without knowing when or even if they will return is extremely disorienting. I’m only smelling about 30 percent of how I used to now.”

She also says she’s still suffering from dizziness, fatigue and gastrointestinal symptoms. 

“I’m lucky. Because I didn’t die,” she writes.  “But people are. Please wear ur mask. It can happen any time. And it can happen to anyone…Wearing a mask is saving lives.”

Camp closes with thanking those who reached out to her while she was ill, and one other request: “Let’s all do our part and wear a mask. I don’t want any of you to go through what I did. Even though it’s a little thing, it can have a huge impact, and it’s so incredibly easy to do.”

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

July 21, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Sideshow Collectibles(LOS ANGELES) — The little face that launched a thousand memes, “Baby Yoda” can already be yours, thanks to plenty of Mandalorian merchandise, but Sideshow Collectibles just unveiled for pre-sale a stunning replica that looks as if “The Child” waddled right off the screen. 

Standing 16.5” tall — which is the mysterious life form’s official life-size, for the record — Sideshow’s The Child Life-Size Figure is wrapped in a tan fabric swaddling coat, has the character’s adorably fuzzy hair, and comes with the silver shift knob from the Mandalorian’s ship, the Razor Crest, which, fans can tell you, the baby likes to toy with on the show.

The mixed media replica costs $375.  Info on pre-orders and payment options are are on the company’s website. 

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

July 21, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Ali Goldstein(LOS ANGELES) — Perhaps it’s no surprise, but the TV doctors on Grey’s Anatomy are going to have to tackle a very real crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We’re going to address this pandemic for sure,” said Grey’s Anatomy executive producer Krista Vernoff during the “Quaranstreaming: Comfort TV That Keeps Us Going” panel on Emmys.com. “There’s no way to be a long-running medical show and not do the medical story of our lifetimes.”

The panel, which is hosted by the Television Academy and streams in full Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, also featured Grey‘s stars Chandra Wilson and Kevin McKidd.

Vernoff explained, “Every year, we have doctors come and tell us their stories, and usually they’re telling their funniest or craziest stories. This year, it has felt more like therapy. The doctors come in…they are literally shaking and trying not to cry, they’re pale, and they’re talking about it as war — a war that they were not trained for.”

Calling hearing the stories of both healthcare workers and COVID patients “painful,” Vernoff noted, “I feel like our show has an opportunity and a responsibility to tell some of those stories.” 

Season 17 of Grey‘s Anatomy hasn’t started shooting because of the pandemic, but Vernoff says the writers’ gears are turning: “Our conversations have been constantly about how do we keep alive humor and romance while we tell these really painful stories.”

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

July 21, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

CBS ©2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved(LOS ANGELES) — (NOTE LANGUAGE) The firing of CBS TV executive Peter Lenkov has become the subject of a Vanity Fair article that interviewed 30 former employees who described the bullying and other tactics allegedly employed by the recently-terminated showrunner.

One of these is Lucas Till, the star of MacGyver; Lenkov produced that show as well as CBS’ Hawaii Five-O, and Magnum P.I. reboots. Till claims Lenkov nearly drove him to suicide, the article explains. 

“The way Peter treats people is just unacceptable,” the 29-year-old actor said. “I was suicidal that first year on the show, because of the way he made me feel. But the way he’s treated the people around me — that’s just my breaking point.”

While Lenkov’s attorney vehemently denied Till’s allegations, the actor claims he was repeatedly body shamed by the former producer, and says when he complained back in 2017, CBS HR didn’t take him seriously. “I think they just took it as some crazy actor trying to get more money,” Till said.  

However, the magazine says Till’s complaints were a big part of Lenkov’s eventual termination. The actor said, “There was always something about my appearance that wouldn’t please him…Just like the time he screamed at [a director] ‘Oh, my fing God! Tuck his shirt in, he looks like a little fing boy.'”

Till, who also starred in X-Men: First Class, said, “I’ve struggled with maintaining ‘man weight’ on the show because of the stress, no time to work out, and an unpredictable schedule for proper nourishment.”

Lenkov was fired July 7, and issued a statement at the time saying in part, “It’s difficult to hear that the working environment I ran was not the working environment my colleagues deserved, and for that, I am deeply sorry.”

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

July 21, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of L-Murder

(NEW YORK) — Comedian and actress Luenell is having a difficult time keeping quiet about her amazing experience filming the Coming to America sequel, which is due out in December.

The new film, which brings back original cast members Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones and Shari Headley, is said to follow Murphy as the present day Akeem Joffer, who is about to become king of Zumunda. However, before Akeem officially takes on his kingly duties, the prince learns about a long-lost son and returns to America to “meet his unlikely heir to the throne.”

Luenell tells ABC Audio that the hardest part about keeping quiet about the upcoming film is not sharing any of her fun memories.

“The thing that is killing me is I have a phone full of pictures, behind the scenes, that I haven’t been able to post or share one photo,” she says. “It’s making me have high blood pressure, not being able to post any of the pictures. But soon, in December.”

Since there’s been a lot of speculation about the film already, including false information about the cast, Luenell says she’s making sure her fans have all the facts.

“There’s a fake Coming to America poster that’s out right now that says that it comes out in August,” she says. “It doesn’t. It comes out in December.”

“They say it’s Coming to America 2, but it’s actually called Coming 2 America: The Quest,” Luenell continues. “And it has Tiffany Haddish in the photo, too, but she’s not even in the movie. So if you see something about Coming to America that’s fake, fake, fake. Nothing has been released yet.”

Coming 2 America: The Quest is scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2020.

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