February 12, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Here’s a gloomy way to celebrate Valentine’s Day: watch The Silence of the Lambs.

Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of the thriller, which was based on the Thomas Harris novel of the same name and introduced the world to Anthony Hopkins’ take on Hannibal Lecter. Lecter was a brilliant psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer to whom authorities, including Jodie Foster’s FBI trainee Clarice Starling, turned to track down another serial killer named Buffalo Bill.

The Silence of the Lambs won five Academy Awards, including best picture, best actor for Hopkins, best actress for Foster and best director for the late Jonathan Demme.  It also earned $130 million at the domestic box office, on a budget of $19 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Hopkins went on to reprise the role of Lecter in 2001’s Hannibal and 2002’s Red Dragon. More recently, Lecter was played by Mads Mikkelsen in the NBC series Hannibal.

Foster and Hopkins reminisced about The Silence of the Lambs and reflected on the 30th anniversary in a Variety Actors on Actors virtual chat last month.  Hopkins admitted that when his agent first sent him the script to read, he was thrown off by the title, asking, “Is it a children’s story?”

Timed to the 30th anniversary of the Oscar-winning film, CBS on Thursday launched Clarice, a spin-off centering on the character, starring Pretty Little Liars‘ Rebecca Breeds in the title role.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

February 12, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Rick Rowell(LOS ANGELES) — Rebel Wilson successfully undertook her “year of health,” dropping more than 60 pounds.  She’s taking her recent break-up from 29-year-old Anheuser-Busch heir Jacob Busch in stride, too. 

“Any kind of breakup is hard and not ideal,” the Pitch Perfect series star tells Extra.

“I feel like, I don’t know if it’s turning 40 or coming into your own… I feel in a really good place,” she says.  “I am so busy with work, doing [my new show] Pooch Perfect now, and I have three movies to shoot after this.”

Regarding her weight loss, Rebel says, “This is the first time I haven’t gained any weight back,” adding, “I think because I approached it from all areas.” In addition to walking a lot, Rebel said, “the biggest thing that I haven’t ever worked on was the emotional side, what I suffered from, I guess, as classical emotional eating… so I really worked on that side.”

Wilson tells Extra that the new Pooch Perfect show — a competition dog grooming series — hits close to home, as her family used to have a traveling dog grooming service. Pooch Perfect will debut March 30 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

February 12, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Sean Rayford/Getty Images(TEXAS) — (NOTE LANGUAGE) Almost two months ago, Dave Chappelle requested his comedy series, Chappelle’s Show be removed from Netflix, over issues of unfair compensation.

Now he said he’s changed his mind, after a new deal was made.

In a nearly 11-minute stand-up monologue posted to Instagram and YouTube Thursday, titled “Redemption,” the comic revealed that his show, which originally aired on Comedy Central, will be returning to Netflix Friday. 

“I know where my power lies,” said Chappelle after summarizing his dispute with Comedy Central.  “I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God almighty for you, you did,” Chappelle told the audience. “When you stopped watching it, they called me. I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”

The footage appears to be from Dave’s recent tour in Austin, Texas, which was cancelled late last month after he tested positive for COVID-19. 

“Now you guys might have seen in the news that I caught coronavirus recently and I did. Oops,” he admitted, noting that he tried his best to safe by “enduring invasive tests and wearing masks.”

By Rachel George
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

February 12, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Dominik Bindl/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Eliza Dushku has joined her other Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-stars in applauding Charisma Carpenter’s recent revelations of “abuse” she claims she suffered during production from show creator Joss Whedon. 

Dushku, who played Faith on the show, Instagrammed Carpenter about her “powerful” message. “[M]y heart aches for you & I’m so sorry you have held this for so long,” Dushku wrote.

“Thank you. I hadn’t known it and I won’t forget it.”

She also said, “Neglecting to ‘name’ the power/gender/sexual/racial abuse epidemic in the entertainment industry (and for that matter society in general), enables the abusers and only emboldens and ultimately fortifies abusive systems.”

This isn’t the first time Dushku has spoken out on these matters. In 2018, she claimed that as a 12-year-old she was groomed and “sexually molested” by the then-36-year-old stunt coordinator Joel Kramer when the pair worked on the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger film True Lies. 

At the time, a “gutted” Kramer told The Hollywood Reporter the accusations were “atrocious lies,” and added, “We took care of her like she was our kid.” 

Eliza Dushku also claimed in 2018 that she was constantly sexually harassed by lewd jokes and comments on the set of Bull by co-star Michael Weatherly — and that when she objected to them, she was fired.  She revealed later that she’d received a settlement from CBS of $9.5 million, equal to what her contract had stipulated she would’ve earned for six seasons on the legal drama, even though she appeared in just one.

Weatherly subsequently issued a statement saying he was “mortified” when he learned he’d offended Dushku “and immediately apologized.” He added, “After reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza.”

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

February 12, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

STX Films/Graham Bartholomew(LOS ANGELES) — With The Mauritanian, Jodie Foster did something she rarely does: she took a role based on a real person. She plays Nancy Hollander in the film, a no-nonsense red-lipsticked lawyer who takes up the case of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi, played by Tahar Rahim.

“Yeah, I don’t really like playing real people,” Foster, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role, admits to ABC Audio. “I’ve only done it once before,” she says of playing Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King, “And the person that I played was like, had been dead for two hundred years. It made a little bit easier.”

But she adds that Nancy was too “amazing” of a character to pass up, though Foster admits she did give her Nancy a bit of “meaner” edge.

“[Nancy] definitely pointed out like, you know, ‘I would never be that rude to somebody,'” Foster laughs. “And I was like, well, that’s why they call it movies! You know, she understood.”

While the film takes place in the years following 9/11, Foster says it’s, “very relevant to what’s going on right now” in our country.

“The rule of law is so important to how our government works, how we work as humans,” she says. “I was there during 9/11 like we all were in America and the kind of fear and terror that we felt. Why we need democratic institutions is so that we can do justice without being biased by our emotions.”

The Mauritanian, also starring Shailene Woodley and Benedict Cumberbatch, hits theaters today.

By Andrea Tuccillo
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.