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      Jay Leno Apologizes for Years of Anti-Asian Jokes

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      The comedian said it was not “another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part.”Jay Leno, the longtime “Tonight Show” host, apologized for a history of making anti-Asian jokes, saying that at the time he “genuinely thought them to be harmless” but now hopes for forgiveness from Asian-Americans.The comedian said in a joint statement with the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, a watchdog group that tracks anti-Asian comments and incidents in the media and entertainment industries, that he had an attitude at the time that “some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it.” Whenever the show received a complaint, he said, the response was divided into two camps: “We need to deal with this” or “screw ’em if they can’t take a joke.”“Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong,” Mr. Leno said. “That is why I am issuing this apology. I do not consider this particular case to be another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part.”It was a recent realization. In 2019, Mr. Leno, who hosted “The Tonight Show” from 1992 to 2014, made an offensive anti-Asian joke while filming a commercial for “America’s Got Talent,” the actor and producer Gabrielle Union told Variety.MANAA, the watchdog group, had complained for decades about Mr. Leno’s jokes that relied on stereotypes of Asians, to no avail. Rob Chan, the president of the group, said in the statement that he was “happy that Jay came around, and that we will be working together in the future.”Mr. Leno is slated to host a rebooted game show, “You Bet Your Life,” starting in the fall.Mr. Leno’s apology came as Asian-Americans have endured rising discrimination and racist language during the coronavirus pandemic, while also processing the trauma of a recent mass shooting in the Atlanta area in which six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent. Mr. Leno said he would be “deeply hurt and ashamed if somehow my words did anything to incite this violence.”Some Asian-Americans have long argued that their concerns about anti-Asian speech are frequently dismissed as trivial. Asian-Americans have historically been underrepresented in Hollywood and in comedy, and in 2016, a bit by the comedian Chris Rock that relied on Asian stereotypes made it to the Oscars ceremony.While late-night comedians pick a variety of targets, it’s not the first time Mr. Leno has been criticized for jokes that got laughs at the time. Recently, a documentary about Britney Spears by The New York Times brought increased scrutiny to jokes by several late-night hosts about her mental health. Mr. Leno has not apologized to the singer, though others, including Justin Timberlake and some publications, have said they regret their behavior.Azi Paybarah contributed reporting. More

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      Creator of ‘All Rise’ on CBS Is Fired After Writers’ Complaints

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      Greg Spottiswood had faced numerous complaints over the way issues of race and gender were addressed on the show, a rare prime-time CBS drama with a Black woman as a protagonist.Warner Bros. Television has fired the showrunner and creator of the CBS show “All Rise,” Greg Spottiswood, after a second investigation into allegations regarding how he dealt with the show’s writers, including in conversations involving race. “Warner Bros. Television has relieved ‘All Rise’ executive producer Greg Spottiswood of his duties, effective immediately,” the studio said Wednesday night in a statement. “We remain committed, at all times, to providing a safe and inclusive working environment on our productions and for all employees.”Mr. Spottiswood had previously been investigated for his treatment of the writing staff during the first season of the CBS procedural, which debuted in September 2019 and stars a Black actress, Simone Missick, as the show’s protagonist, an idealistic Los Angeles judge. The studio kept Mr. Spottiswood, who is white, in charge of the show, and provided him a corporate coach to advise him. It also hired a new co-showrunner, Dee Harris-Lawrence, after his original co-showrunner, Sunil Nayar, left the production.Five of the original seven members of the “All Rise” writing staff left the show because of his treatment of them and the way the show, under his direction, depicted race and gender, The New York Times reported in August. Among those who departed were the series’ three highest-ranking writers of color, including Shernold Edwards, a Black woman who departed in November 2019 after multiple disagreements with Mr. Spottiswood.“We had to do so much behind the scenes to keep these scripts from being racist and offensive,” Ms. Edwards told The Times.At the time, Mr. Spottiswood said he was aware of the problems with his leadership and pledged to do better.“All Rise” has been celebrated by CBS after its prime-time lineup had been criticized for its lack of diversity. It has been applauded both for its inclusive cast and its equally diverse writers room. Yet the writing staff from the original season said problems were apparent from the start.Mr. Nayar, for one, complained of being sidelined by Mr. Spottiswood, claiming he was interested only in having Mr. Nayar appear at public events with the title of executive producer but did not give him the duties to match that position.“It became clear to me, when I left the show, that I was only there because I’m the brown guy,” Mr. Nayar said in an interview at the time. “Greg hired me to be his brown guy.”The most recent investigation was again focused on statements Mr. Spottiswood was said to have made in the writers’ room. After the studio’s inquiry, Mr. Spottiswood was also dropped as a client by his talent representatives at the Agency for the Performing Arts. The agency had represented him since 2015.A lawyer for Mr. Spottiswood did not respond to a request for comment.Ms. Harris-Lawrence will take over Mr. Spottiswood’s responsibilities for the remainder of the season. The show is in production on its 15th episode of its 17-episode season. Production is scheduled to conclude next month. More

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      The ‘Solar Opposites’ Creators Apologize for Their Clairvoyance

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      Who knew an animated series about misanthropic space aliens could feel so relevant? Mike McMahan and Justin Roiland explained ahead of Season 2 why it isn’t their fault.Half of them hate it, half of them love it. But nobody knows more about American pop culture than the aliens in “Solar Opposites,” who have crash-landed in suburbia and absorbed the culture as voraciously as Daryl Hannah’s TV-addicted mermaid in “Splash.” Justin Roiland, who created the animated series for Hulu with Mike McMahan, believes he would do the same thing if he found himself on their home, on the utopian planet of Shlorp.“I would be up all night watching their TV,” Roiland said in a group video call earlier this month. “I’d know more than they did about their own stupid movies and culture and pop culture. It makes sense that these aliens would just have this insane list of like all these stupid things that they’ve watched.”That level of pop obsession carries over from their work on “Rick and Morty,” the Adult Swim hit Roiland created with Dan Harmon, for which he also voiced both title characters. McMahan wrote scripts for all four seasons of that show, and the two seem to anticipate a self-awareness from their audience that allows their creations to speak in winking shorthand. Terry (voiced by Thomas Middleditch), a frog-mouthed connoisseur of trash art and junk food, often refers to his makeshift Shlorpian family as “the solar opposites,” as if he knows they’re in a TV show. (A lot of jokes come at Hulu’s expense, too.) Korvo (Roiland), his sour egghead counterpart, is able to “sci-fi” his way in and out of sticky situations with an endless supply of high-tech, plot-resolving gizmos.The series is in many respects an affectionate riff on family sitcoms. “When we do switch into sitcom mode, we want our family to feel like a family,” McMahan said.FOXAmong the gizmos deployed in the eight-episode second season, which arrives in full on Friday, is a “Lake House” device: a mailbox that sends messages back and forth from separate points in time, a reference to the high-concept 2006 romance of the same name starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Then there’s a single-use gun that converts a natural landscape into thriving urban center, with one hilariously grisly twist.Roiland and McMahan’s penchant for pocket universes continues this season with more intrigue inside “the Wall,” a terrarium that the high school misanthrope Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), Korvo’s “replicant,” has filled with the miniaturized bodies of people he dislikes. As Yumyulack and Jesse (Mary Mack), Terry’s cheery replicant, go obliviously about their teenage lives, the miniature society of the Wall evolves behind them, as the former resistance hero Tim (Andy Daly) becomes the new lord of the flies — or, perhaps, the terror of tiny town.Speaking from their home offices in Los Angeles, Roiland and McMahan talked about their own love-hate relationship with pop culture, how the show fiddles with sitcom and sci-fi conventions and where the real world intersected with the sandbox society of the Wall. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. (The conversation took place before accusations of sexual misconduct against Middleditch were reported by the Los Angeles Times; Hulu declined to comment on the accusations.)“Solar Opposites” is a situation comedy. There’s a family in a house. There’s an odd couple at the center of it. It has a fish-out-of-water quality to it. How do you see the show fitting into that tradition?MIKE McMAHAN: We grew up watching those shows and loving those shows and wanted a show that felt like, at a distance or at certain moments, it lived in the world that those shows created — or if not the world, at least in the format or at least the comfort level that audiences would have with it.JUSTIN ROILAND: There’s something really fun and whimsical about these characters and the fact we’re putting them in a sitcom-y world allows us to do some of the insane [expletive] we want to do that we’ve never seen in that framework.McMAHAN: At the same time, when we do switch into sitcom mode, we want our family to feel like a family. Terry and Korvo love each other, and they love the replicants, and they love the family that they’re in. And so we have these emotional stories we’re telling, and then [expletive] goes off the rails all the time.The alien characters in “Solar Opposites” often speak in winking shorthand that is self-aware and deeply versed in American culture.FOXAs for that science-fiction part of the show, the characters here often use the term “sci-fi” to explain whatever gadget they might be using to get out of scrapes. How do you see “Solar Opposites” fitting into that tradition?McMAHAN: That’s something Justin and Dan [Harmon] really created with the pilot of “Rick and Morty” because Rick is able to call things out and be like, “Look, this is just some sci-fi [expletive] we’re dealing with today.” It’s a very Rick sentiment. And then once we’d worked on “Rick and Morty” for a number of seasons, it just felt good. There were some things in “Solar Opposites” that felt like they were conventions we could just do away with.One of them was, we didn’t want to do a show where a human on the street would be like, “Ahhh, an alien!” It was more interesting to us to have everybody be fine with it.ROILAND: I think for me it’s important not to get caught up in the silly gun and how does it work, you know what I mean? It’s more about the emotional core of the characters and what are they going through. What are these characters feeling? How do I relate to them? It doesn’t matter that somebody got a schmoogie schmoogun, and what does it do?McMAHAN: We get freed up to get to have fun and make more jokes when you’re tracking what the characters want, as opposed to how the tech works. And at the same time, we were like, “Let’s lean into the absurdity of sci-fi.” It’s like how Doctor Who’s Tardis can be bigger on the inside than on the outside. You go, “Ah, it’s sci-fi stuff. It’s a static work bubble or whatever …”ROILAND: Yeah. It’s like an iPhone to somebody from the early ’90 or early ’80s. It’d be like, “What is this?”McMAHAN: “Look at this magic.”ROILAND: “It’s magic, don’t worry about it.”McMAHAN: Whenever we need it for jokes, [the aliens] can open up a panel on the ship and be like, “Oh, here’s the gun that turns you into an elephant for this episode.” Because the point of the sci-fi isn’t, “Wow. We’ve really gamed out that somebody will one day be able to make an elephant gun.” It’s more, would it be wrong to use this elephant gun in this situation?Fundamental to the show is the premise that half of the Solars like the planet and half do not. But the basis of their disagreement seems to be rooted specifically in American pop culture and the way it has shaped humankind. Do you feel that conflict within yourselves? Is their disagreement an expression of that? Of both loving and hating American pop culture?McMAHAN: One hundred percent.ROILAND: Yeah, absolutely. There’s so much stuff to love and hate. To me, it’s funny that these aliens know more about [expletive] than I do even.McMAHAN: We’re both kids of the ’80s. We both grew up just loving TV and comics and video games and toys, and just the packaging and food that you have to cook in the microwave, and oatmeal that you can put sugar dinosaur eggs in.ROILAND: But at the same time, we know we’re self-hating consumers. We know that that’s bad for the environment and we have to do better. And it’s important to us that we leave the world a better place than we found it. And that’s hard when we also want toys.McMahan and Roiland weren’t worried about explaining all the sci-fi tech. “It’s important not to get caught up in the silly gun and how does it work,” Roiland said.Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesI wouldn’t describe “Solar Opposites” as a terribly political show, but do you see the Wall as a way to kind of comment on how societies are built? Are there opportunities that this “Lord of the Flies” situation has given you?McMAHAN: Absolutely. From the pitch, that’s what it was.ROILAND: Let’s just be honest. Let’s get it out there, I was playing that … what was that game?McMAHAN: The Vault-Tec game.ROILAND: Yeah. The“Fallout Shelter” game.McMAHAN: There’s iOS games where you control little worlds, and you have to manage the food.ROILAND: And they had just announced it at E3 [an annual gaming expo], and they’re like, “And it’s free and it’s available right now.” So I downloaded it. This is around the time we were developing the show and I’m playing it and I was like: “Oh my God, wouldn’t it be fun to just have these kids shrinking humans? And then let’s just play with society.”What would a small town look like in the wall of these kids’ room? How would they form law? Because at that point it’s like: “Hey, we’re not in America anymore. We’re not in anywhere on Earth. We’re in our own ecosystem. We make the law. We make the rules.” And it’s sort of like how a pod in a prison might work. You know what I mean? It’s like: “Who knows if the strongest are going to be the ones making the law? Or the most intelligent?”But anyway, yes, it’s very fascinating to play around in that sandbox because humans are very interesting and society is interesting. How did we end up where we are now? It’s ridiculous. And when is it going to collapse? Tomorrow? A couple of days from now?McMAHAN: When we started writing “Solar Opposites,” we weren’t paying attention to politics. This was pre-2016. This was before I knew the name of everybody in the cabinet and who the secretary of the Treasury is, and I think we’re all, maybe against our own best wishes, our own wishes, more political than we used to be. And what we originally were trying to build in the Wall is, we wanted something that felt comfortably serialized in a mythologically broad and storytelling way — where you understand that when communities are created in a crisis that heroes and villains rise. We grew up seeing stories like that. You see that with, like, you said, “Lord of the Flies.” I would say, “Under the Dome” or “Escape From New York.” It’s a very sci-fi sort of sensibility.ROILAND: It was so funny to Trojan horse that dramatic human story into this crazy comedy.McMAHAN: Sorry we accurately predicted this weird proto-fascist era with our Wall story. That was our bad. More

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      Cole Sprouse Claims to Re-Watch 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody' When Drunk

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      WENN/Instar

      During an episode of Vogue’s 73 Questions, the ‘Riverdale’ star admits to ‘still have a really deep fondness’ for the Disney Channel series he fronted with twin brother Dylan Sprouse.

      Mar 25, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Cole Sprouse watches his old kids show “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” when he’s drunk.

      The actor starred in the Disney Channel series alongside his twin brother Dylan Sprouse when they were children, and although he doesn’t enjoy watching himself, he does occasionally sit down to check out an episode.

      During an episode of Vogue’s “73 Questions”, the star said, “I know it sounds cheesy (but) I still have a really deep fondness for ‘The Suite Life’.”

      Asked if he has ever re-watched the series, he added, “When I’m drunk or feeling really narcissistic, yeah. I don’t really like to watch anything I do, so I try to stay away from it.”

      Cole, who also starred on the spin-off series “The Suite Life on Deck”, recently said he would “absolutely not” consider a “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” reboot, as he weighed in on the announcement that “Sex and the City” is getting a revival series.

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      “Reboots are a tricky thing…,” he said. “The original shows, when they become successful, sit in this little golden plate of nostalgia and when you modernize it and go back to it, it has the potential to really disenfranchise the original fanbase, so it’s a very, very touchy thing…”

      “I’m asked all the time if Dylan and I are going to do a Suite Life reboot, and I go, ‘No, absolutely not.’ ”

      And last year, Dylan took to Instagram to mark 18 years since the show first aired with a touching tribute to all those involved in creating the series.

      He wrote, “It was so long ago that the cold open of the pilot episode was Cole searching for non-existent armpit hair on me. A lot had happened in our lives that was difficult then and this show, in a way, saved us. 1,000 years of gratitude to all involved. I love you all and I’m glad this show can still give families the nostalgia they once had when watching it. I’ll keep those memories forever.”

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      2021 NAACP Image Awards: Trevor Noah and Jada Pinkett Smith Are Among Big Winners

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      WENN/Avalon

      While Trevor gets recognized for his hosting role and Jada picks up prize for her talk show series, Jamie Foxx’s ‘Soul’ takes home two trophies on the third night of the awards show.

      Mar 25, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Trevor Noah and Jada Pinkett Smith’s TV and Internet hits and Jamie Foxx’s beloved film “Soul” were among the big winners at the third night of the 2021 NAACP Image Awards in America on Wednesday, March 24.

      Comedian Noah picked up the Outstanding Host in a Talk or News/Information (Series or Special) for his work on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, while Jada, her daughter Willow Smith and mum Adrienne Banfield-Norris claimed the Image Award for Outstanding Talk Series for their Facebook Watch series “Red Table Talk”.

        See also…

      Meanwhile, “Soul” took home trophies for Outstanding Animated Motion Picture and the film’s star, Jamie Foxx, scored the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance – Motion Picture. Another Disney hit, “Doc McStuffins”, also doubled up, landing the Outstanding Animated Series, while Laya DeLeon Hayes’ voice talents earned her the award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television).

      The full list of NCAAP Image Awards winners over the past three nights is:

      Outstanding Talk Series: “Red Table Talk”
      Outstanding Reality Program/Reality Competition or Game Show: “Celebrity Family Feud”
      Outstanding Variety Show (Series or Special): “VERZUZ”
      Outstanding News/Information (Series or Special): “The New York Times Presents: The Killing of Breonna Taylor”
      Outstanding Children’s Program: “Family Reunion”
      Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Limited-Series): Marsai Martin – “Black-ish”
      Outstanding Animated Series: “Doc McStuffins”
      Outstanding Animated Motion Picture: “Soul”
      Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television): Laya DeLeon Hayes – “Doc McStuffins”
      Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance – Motion Picture: Jamie Foxx – “Soul”
      Outstanding Host in a Talk or News/Information (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble: Trevor Noah – “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”
      Outstanding Host in a Reality/Reality Competition, Game Show or Variety (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble: Steve Harvey – “Celebrity Family Feud”
      Outstanding Guest Performance – Comedy or Drama Series: Loretta Devine – “P-Valley”
      Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Television): Raynelle Swilling – “Cherish the Day”
      Special Award – Founder’s Award: Toni Vaz
      Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: Michaela Coel – “I May Destroy You” (Episode 112 ‘Ego Death’)
      Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series: Attica Locke – “Little Fires Everywhere” (Episode 104 ‘The Spider Web’)
      Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie or Special: Geri Cole – “The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special”
      Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture: Radha Blank – “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
      Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series: Anya Adams – “Black-ish” (Episode 611 ‘Hair Day’)
      Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series: Hanelle Culpepper – “Star Trek: Picard” (Episode 101 ‘Remembrance’)
      Outstanding Directing in a Television Movie or Special: Eugene Ashe – “Sylvie’s Love”
      Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture: Gina Prince-Bythewood – “The Old Guard”
      Outstanding Short Form Series – Comedy or Drama: “#FreeRayshawn”
      Outstanding Performance in a Short Form: Laurence Fishburne – “#FreeRayshawn”
      Outstanding Short Form Series – Reality/Nonfiction: Between The Scenes – “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”
      Outstanding Short-Film (Live Action): “Black Boy Joy”
      Outstanding Short-Film (Animated): “Canvas”
      Special Award – Spingarn Medal: Misty Copeland
      Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction: “The Awkward Black Man” – Walter Mosley
      Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction: “A Promised Land” – Barack Obama
      Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author: “We’re Better Than This” – Elijah Cummings
      Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography: The Dead Are Arising” – Les Payne, Tamara Payne
      Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional: “Vegetable Kingdom” – Bryant Terry
      Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry: “The Age of Phillis” – Honoree Jeffers
      Outstanding Literary Work – Children: “She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm” – Katheryn Russell-Brown, Eric Velasquez
      Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens: “Before the Ever After” – Jacqueline Woodson
      Outstanding Directing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture): Keith McQuirter – “By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem”
      Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture): Melissa Haizlip – “Mr. SOUL!”
      Outstanding Documentary (Film): “John Lewis: Good Trouble”
      Outstanding Documentary (Television – Series or Special): “The Last Dance”
      Special Award – Youth Activist of the Year: Madison Potts
      Special Award – Activist of the Year: Reverend Dr. Wendell Anthony

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      Jimmy Fallon Pities the Suez Canal’s ‘Dockblocker’

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      “If you look closely, the ship has a tiny bumper sticker that says ‘student driver,’” Fallon said of the vessel that’s causing a world-class traffic jam.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘We’ve All Been There’A giant container ship is blocking the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important maritime arteries, causing a traffic jam of more than 100 ships at each end.“Yeah, that’s a tough day for that captain. Right now he’s trending worldwide on Twitter as #dockblocker,” Jimmy Fallon joked on Wednesday.“If you look closely, the ship has a tiny bumper sticker that says ‘student driver.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Do you know how stressful it is to parallel-park when there’s someone behind you? Imagine blocking a whole hemisphere.” — JIMMY FALLON“And I feel so bad for the captain of that ship that got stuck in the canal because, like, we’ve all been there, trying to make a U-turn on a narrow street. But now imagine how much more stressful it must be when you know that if you back up wrong, you might bump Egypt.” — TREVOR NOAH“I also feel bad for the guys behind that ship, because it’s not like there’s a lot of alternate routes. Can you imagine if you are on one of those ships looking at your Waze app like, ‘What? Go around Africa?’” — TREVOR NOAH“What this situation really shows is how even in this age of technology, we still depend on old-school things like cargo ships and canals. I mean, think about it: Right now we can use our wireless computer phone to buy a hologram with cryptocurrency, but at the same time, big boat got stuck, water too small.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Extra Packaging Edition)“I get it — after a year of quarantine, nothing fits anymore. They should have put that ship into their stretchy canal. You know, the one that looks like denim, but gives, and it’s smart enough to go from sofa to brunch.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“But when you look at how big that ship is, I’m not surprised it got stuck. And the crazy thing is that whole ship is just delivering two AA batteries. Yeah, the rest is just extra packaging.” — TREVOR NOAH“I’ll give you a sense of how huge these container ships are: This one is as long as New York’s Empire State Building is tall. Well, there’s your problem. You should have sailed it through upright.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Daily Show” correspondent Dulcé Sloan chronicles the oft-ignored history of female athlete-activists.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightMaya Rudolph will catch up with her former “Saturday Night Live” co-star Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This Out“Illustrating superheroes requires imagination, but drawing a Black nerd merely requires a mirror,” says the comic book artist Brian Stelfreeze, who created these panels for T: The New York Times Style Magazine.Brian StelfreezeBlack nerds are finally having their long-awaited cultural moment. More

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      'The Masked Singer' Recap: Raccoon Is Eliminated While Wild Card Contestant Stays

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      FOX/Michael Becker

      Kicking off the night is Russian Doll who brings a third singer for their performance of Shawn Mendes’ ‘Wonder’ in the the Group A Wildcard Round of the popular FOX series.

      Mar 25, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      “The Masked Singer” returned with a new episode on Wednesday, March 24. In the episode, the contestants from Group A, including Seashell, Raccoon, Robopine and Russian Doll, took the stage for the Group A Wildcard Round.

      Kicking off the night was Russian Doll who brought a third singer for their performance of Shawn Mendes’ “Wonder”. In their clue package, one of them claimed that they “haven’t always been in unison.” They also mentioned about an accident that almost killed one of them. Other clues included a banjo, three planets, “HELP” on letter blocks, a fire engine toy and a high-five. Judges Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke, who were joined by guest panelist Joel McHale, named Lady A (Lady Antebellum), Boyz II Men and Sugarland for their guesses.

      The next singer was Raccoon. He mentioned in his clue package that he started his career as a fighter. “My uncle taught me how to box and I trained harder than anyone,” Raccoon said. “One day I became a champion. Decades later, I retired my glove until I was asked to train a Hollywood leading man. Eventually, I wasn’t just training the leading man — I was the leading man.”

      He sang “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash that night. The panelist guessed Tony Danza, Danny DeVito, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight.

        See also…

      Up next was Robophine, who belted out a rendition of John Legend’s “All of Me”. It was such an empotional performance as it moved Nicole to tears. “I have never been more compelled at any other performance on any other season ever,” Nicole said.

      As for the clue package, Robophine mentioned about admiration to construction workers and stuffed cat. Nicole believed that Jason Derulo might be under the custome, while others named Wesley Snipes and Eddie Murphy.

      Following it up was Seashell who hit the stage to deliver a powerful performance of Demi Lovato’s “Confident”. Seashell’s clue package featured baseballs, bagels, eggs, a pitcher of milk, succulents, a cat and a two-minute stopwatch.

      Later, Orca, the show’s first wildcard contestant, took the stage to sing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. “I was 24 and closer to becoming a punchline than achieving my goal of becoming a big star,” Orca shared. “My dad told me if I didn’t make waves by 25, it was time to move on. The clock was ticking, I had to hustle. So I improvised. I hid my audition tapes inside boxes of pizza and delivered them all around the town.” Among the guesses were The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Kevin Bacon and Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl.

      It was time for the judges and virual audience to vote. Eventually they decided to keep Orca on the competition and Raccoon was unfortunately sent home. As he took off his mask, it was revealed that Raccoon was actor Danny Trejo.

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      Miley Cyrus Gets Reply From Fictitious Character for Letter on 'Hannah Montana' 15th Anniversary

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      Disney/Joel Warren

      The ‘High School Musical’ star has welcomed her first child with husband Christopher French and took it to her Instagram account to share details and first picture of the baby boy.

      Mar 25, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Miley Cyrus marked the 15th anniversary of the launch of her hit Disney series “Hannah Montana” on Wednesday, March 24, by writing her teenage character a letter.

      Now 28, the singer and actress shared the handwritten note on social media, calling her former TV favorite “a rocket that flew me to the moon + never brought me back down.”

      “We had an equal exchange in which you provided a superlative amount of fame in return for the anonymity I could gift to you,” Miley wrote. “But a lot has changed since then… . ”

      “I am indebted not only to you Hannah but to any + everyone who believed in me from the beginning. You have all my loyalty and the deepest appreciation until the end.”

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      The “Wrecking Ball” star also thanked her team at Disney, cast members and special guests, crew, agents and managers, adding, “ESPECIALLY my mommy who took me to every lesson + audition even when it required leaving town or making a cross-country move which my siblings so selflessly underwent.”

      Oddly enough, Miley got a reply from the fictitious character. Hannah Montana wrote back, “Nice to hear from you @MileyCyrus. It’s only been a decade,” on the show’s official Twitter account.

      Hannah Montana replied to Miley Cyrus’ letter.

      Miley’s Twitter hashtag #HMForever has since been retweeted by many social media users. “I Love You Hannah I Missed You So Much #HMForever,” one tweet read. Another user chirped, “Wow it’s been 15 years since Hannah Montana and that show basically created me lol. My 3rd grade talent for the talent show was ‘being the best at being Hannah Montana.’ I wore a bright a** blonde wig and had a HM microphone. I’ll forever love this show. #HMForever”

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