Television

[embedded content]The NBC drama “Smash,” though both loved and abhorred when it premiered in 2012, has since grown into a cult favorite among theater buffs. There were flashy musical numbers! Christian Borle sitting at a piano! The high stakes of putting on a show! (Critics were less thrilled.)But the series — about two songwriters creating a Broadway-bound Marilyn Monroe bio-musical and the potential stars competing for the leading role — burned bright and short, canceled after two seasons of disastrous ratings. Now, for the “Smash” loyalists waiting for a comeback, there is a glimmer of good news: The series is being reimagined for the stage, where perhaps it belonged all along.The adaptation will be based on the soapy ups and downs of “Smash” — not its fictional show-within-a-show “Bombshell,” as originally announced under a different production team five years ago, nor its other show-within-a-show, the grittier downtown “Hit List,” that was staged as a concert at 54 Below after the demise of the series in 2013.And though the musical will include many of the same songs written for television by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the plot will “depart liberally from the series,” the production said in a release.The stage musical has not announced any timeline, but it boasts a hefty slate of producers: Steven Spielberg, who served as an executive producer on the series; Robert Greenblatt, who was chairman of NBC Entertainment when “Smash” was on the air; and Neil Meron, another “Smash” executive producer who also produced the movie musicals “Chicago” in 2002 and “Hairspray” in 2007.Bob Martin, who wrote the books for “The Prom” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” will write the book for “Smash” with Rick Elice, who penned “Jersey Boys” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.”And Joshua Bergasse, who won an Emmy Award for his choreography in the original series, will return to the same role for the musical.The original cast of “Smash” included a slew of familiar faces from Broadway: Borle, Megan Hilty, Jeremy Jordan, Leslie Odom Jr., Brian d’Arcy James, Krysta Rodriguez and others. Some, like Debra Messing and Katharine McPhee, would go on to play leading Broadway roles after the series ended.“Smash” was also known for bringing aboard an array of powerhouse guest stars, including Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli and a pre-“Hamilton” Lin-Manuel Miranda. More

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.Mail InsecurityOn Wednesday, President Trump incorrectly asserted that Michigan and Nevada were engaging in voter fraud, accusing both states of sending mail ballots to its residents. His comments were followed by a threat to pull federal funding from these states and any others that allowed voting by mail.“I guess in Trump’s mind, voting should be like your wife smiling at you: once a year, in public, and never at home,” Trevor Noah joked on Wednesday night’s “The Daily Social Distancing Show.”[embedded content]“There are two surefire ways to piss Donald Trump off: showing him that shirtless photo of Obama, and giving people access to mail-in votes.” — TREVOR NOAH“President Trump today accused officials in Michigan of illegally sending out almost eight million absentee ballots and claimed he would withhold funding from the state if they, quote, ‘want to go down this voter fraud path.’ Yeah, you’d hate for us to get rid of our foolproof system of showing up to an abandoned library where an octogenarian looks for your name in a big binder, can’t find it, then finally says, ‘I don’t know. Just go ahead.’” — SETH MEYERS“And, by the way, Michigan isn’t sending out ballots, they’re sending out mail-in ballot applications, just like a bunch of Republican states are also doing. So clearly Trump is just looking for an excuse to avoid losing. As the election gets closer, Trump is going to get crazier. He’s going to be like one of those second-graders playing sports. [imitating Trump] ‘The results from Wisconsin don’t count. I didn’t say I was ready. Didn’t say I was ready. OK, I’m ready now — Florida, I win!’” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Georgia Edition)“The Georgia Department of Public Health posted a bar chart that appeared to show that new confirmed cases had dropped each day over two weeks. Good news, until it turned out that chart put the days in the wrong order. The Georgia Department of Public Health is just a little confused. It explains their sign, ‘Put a mask on your elbow and cough directly into the face.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now, we know Georgia did this because they left the dates on the chart. Apparently, in the Peach State, the calendar goes April 30, May 4, May 6, May 5, May 2, May 7, and then April 26. Come on, Georgia. At least try to hide the lie. When your parents come home to a house full of teenagers and alcohol, you don’t say, ‘No, I didn’t have a party while you were gone. My party is scheduled for next Friday, which, as you know, here in Georgia, was last Tuesday — and I have coronavirus.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“But take it from me, Georgia: cheating only hurts you in the long run. Yeah. When I was in school, I forged straight A’s on my biology report card instead of studying, and to this day, I still don’t know where my labia is.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Bits Worth WatchingKaren Chee, a writer with “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” shares how she’s celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month by doing things like being “grateful” to a man who tells her to “go back to Korea” — since, she notes, South Korea has controlled the coronavirus epidemic.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightJoe Biden will chat about the latest malarkey with Stephen Colbert on Thursday’s “A Late Show.”Also, Check This OutImageThe New York Times Book Review’s Summer Reading special has its selections for the best things to read during the warm-weather months. More

The CW

The actor playing F.P. Jones on the teen drama series announced his exit back in February after his castmate Marisol Nichols went public with her decision to leave the show.
May 21, 2020
AceShowbiz – Actor Skeet Ulrich has stunned “Riverdale” fans by revealing he quit the show because he got bored playing F.P. Jones.
Ulrich announced he was leaving the hit show in February and at the time released a statement noting the friendships he had made on the set.
“I will miss seeing everyone on a daily basis,” he said, adding, “I’m proud to have been part of such a talented group of people, in front of the camera and behind. But I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on to explore other creative opportunities.”
Now, in an honest Instagram Live video, the actor explains he just didn’t like his character.
“I’m leaving ‘Riverdale’ because I got bored creatively,” he said, while hanging out by his pool. “How’s that? The most honest answer.”
The actor has portrayed F.P. Jones in the teen drama since it launched in 2017.
His decision to quit the show came shortly after castmate Marisol Nichols announced she was leaving “Riverdale”.
The actress, who portrays Hermione Lodge on the show, released a statement to TVLine, which read: “I had an incredible time bringing Hermione Lodge to life and working with my amazing cast, who became family. We had so many wonderful times together during the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We really do have the best fans ever. I am looking forward to the next chapter and am excited about the future.”
Commenting on the exits, “Riverdale” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said, “Part of life in ‘Riverdale’ – and part of growing up – is saying goodbye to people. I’m grateful to Skeet and Marisol for their incredible work on the show these last four years, and we all wish them well on their future endeavors. F.P. and Hermione will never be far from our hearts. And, of course, they’re always welcome back in ‘Riverdale’.”
Neither castmate will return for the fifth season of the show.

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FOX

Prior to the big revelation in the finale of the FOX singing competition show, the Top 3, the Night Angel, the Frog and the Turtle, hit the stage to perform for the last time.
May 21, 2020
AceShowbiz – Following weeks of intense competition, “The Masked Singer” has finally crowned its season 3 winner in its finale, which aired on Wednesday, May 20. Prior to the big revelation, the Top 3, the Night Angel, the Frog and the Turtle, hit the stage to perform for the last time.
Kicking off the night was the Frog, who took the stage for stunning performance of “Bad Boy for Life” by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Black Rob and Mark Curry. Panelist Jenny McCarthy still went with her guess that the Frog was Bow Wow, while Robin Thicke guessed Romeo Miller. Ken Jeong thought he could be Kid Cudi, and Nicole Scherzinger guessed M.C. Hammer.
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Next up was the Turtle. For the finale, he offered a heartfelt performance of Lewis Capaldi’s “Before You Go”. Nicole believed that the Turtle was Jesse McCartney, and Jenny went with Nick Carter.
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Concluding the night was the Night Angel who belted out Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High”. Among the guesses were Taraji P. Henson and Kandi Burruss.
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Later, it was time to announce the results. After the Frog was named as the third place finisher, he unmasked himself to reveal that he’s indeed Bow Wow! The Turtle then was revealed as the runner-up, which meant that the winner of the current season 3 was the Night Angel!
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Before viewers got to know the Night Angel’s real identity, the Turtle was unmasked. Among the final guesses were Nick Jonas, Jesse McCartney and Adam Lambert. The panelists got it correct because the Turtle was Jesse McCartney!
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As for the Night Angel, the panelists threw names including Taraji P. Henson, Tisha Campbell and Kandi Burruss as their final guesses. The Night Angel was later revealed to be none other that Xscape singer and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi!

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Remember “Date Night,” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey? I didn’t either, until I saw “The Lovebirds” and tried to think of another movie that had similarly squandered the appeal of two popular comic performers in a rom-com caper that managed to be both frantic and lazy.There are other examples, of course, and it’s possible to prefer some of them to others. This one, starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani, starts out promisingly, and not just because it stars Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani. The opening sequence shows their characters, Leilani and Jibran, falling in love in the kind of montage that usually comes midway through a movie like this. Then suddenly it’s four years later, and they’re on the verge of breaking up, having worn out each other’s patience. It all unfolds quickly enough to be interesting, to make you want to get to know this pair a little better.[embedded content]That never happens. Jibran is a documentary filmmaker, while Leilani works in advertising. In writing that sentence, I have now given the matter at least as much thought as the filmmakers did. Both halves of the couple are a little bit nerdy and a little bit neurotic, in ways that might be familiar to fans of “Insecure” or “Silicon Valley.” They squabble about Instagram and “The Amazing Race,” and seem to have no opinions about much of anything.Maybe that’s unfair. They both like crudités, and they sing along with Katy Perry’s “Firework” when it comes on the radio in a ride-share car. This may be a good time — or maybe exactly the wrong time — to mention that Jibran and Leilani live in New Orleans, a city known for food and music. I’m a big fan of raw vegetables and reluctant to talk trash about a celebrity, but come on.As if to distract from the blandness of its main characters, “The Lovebirds” — directed by Michael Showalter from a script by Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall — half-bakes a busy plot involving murder, police corruption and an elaborate blackmail scheme in which printed photographs of sex acts are mailed around in envelopes. On the run from both cops and killers, Jibran and Leilani wind up at what looks like an “Eyes Wide Shut” theme party, with masked revelers, group sex and mumbo-jumbo incantations.That sounds funnier than it is — a comic setup with everything but actual laughs. Rae and Nanjiani do their best, but neither the dialogue nor the direction serves their talents adequately. The flatness of the jokes and gags in “The Lovebirds” might suggest a made-for-streaming rush job, but this movie was originally going to be released in theaters by Paramount. Current circumstances make it easier to skip, but perhaps not as satisfying.The LovebirdsRated R. Mostly talk. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

Instagram

This arrives after Egypt Criss announces her exit from the WE tv reality series, saying, ‘I respect myself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves me, grows me or makes me happy.’
May 21, 2020
AceShowbiz – While most of “Growing Up Hip Hop” stars, including Romeo Miller and Egypt Criss, took to their respective social media accounts to call out the show’s producers, Lil Twist was not one of them. If anything, the rapper blasted his co-stars who accused the show’s producers of orchestrating drama for ratings.
Writing on his Twitter account, Twist stated on Tuesday, May 19, “Ima keep it 100 I find it kind of fake that NOW AFTER 5 SEASONS these people talking bout how they being portrayed… I ain’t even been on a full 2 seasons these producers don’t know me like they know y’all.. y’all been in business with these folk way longer than I have.”
In another tweet he said, “Tryna make it seem to the masses that this s**t is all scripted and written up to LOOK like the way it’s actually being shown.. LISTEN PEOPLE THIS S**T IS 100 percent real.. of course the producers gone do they job to keep up with what WE ARE giving them.. day after day….”
“So if it is fake…. why I don’t look like a weird a** crybaby that’s b****in over a joke?” he continued. “Or why I don’t like a n****a that paint his face and wear press on nails? Ohh that’s cause I’m only give these producers and the people that watch WHAT I WANT THEM TO SEE . can’t trick twist.”
Concluding his rant, Twist stated, “Moral of the story ONLY GIVE OFF WHAT U WANT THE WORLD TO SEE, AND DONT GET MAD WHEN THEY SEE IT AND MAKE AN OPINION ON IT. ITS TV. #ItWasAllGoodJustAWeekAgo #NowItsAnACTUALCoolN_OnTheShowEverybodyQuittin coo now we get to see something entertaining.”
This arrives after Egypt announced her exit from the WE tv reality series. “I respect myself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves me, grows me or makes me happy,” she said on Instagram. “It’s time for me to rise from the ashes from being falsely represented to you, the people I love most, which is why I have decided to resign from Growing Up Hip Hop.”
Egypt isn’t the only cast member who is critical towards the way they’re portrayed on “Growing Up Hip Hop”. Romeo previously slammed “Growing Up Hip Hop” producers for allegedly creating “fake drama” with Angela Simmons.
Responding to an article which claimed that “things get awkward” between him and Angela, Romeo tweeted in February, “Literally was dealing with my autie death and hopped on a plane right after this scene to make her funeral.Great editing tho. Was literally in and out and came to show love to Egypt for HER engagement.” He added, “Yall gotta stop with the fake drama, but that’s why I left the show.”

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Twelve years since the ending of ‘Zoey 101’, the younger sister of Britney Spears is making a return to the small screen by taking on the role of Noreen Fitzgibbons on ‘Sweet Magnolias’.
May 20, 2020
AceShowbiz – Jamie Lynn Spears is convinced she was destined to make her acting return in new TV series “Sweet Magnolias” because so many aspects of the project mirrored her own life.
Britney Spears’ little sister hasn’t flexed her acting muscles since her Nickelodeon show “Zoey 101” ended in 2008, when she became a teenage mum with the birth of her first child.
She subsequently reinvented herself as a country singer, but the 29 year old, now a mother-of-two, is back onscreen in the Netflix adaptation of author Sherryl Woods’ hit book series, which revolves around a trio of childhood best friends in the small town of Serenity, South Carolina.
“I had been in denial, not really admitting to myself how much I missed acting,” Jamie Lynn tells The Hollywood Reporter.

“I was working on my music for a while and then I focused on my family for a bit. With acting, I was just waiting for a project that made sense.”
Jamie Lynn was drawn to the role of Noreen Fitzgibbons, a young nurse who falls pregnant after an affair with Chris Klein’s character, Dr. Bill Townsend, because she could relate to so much of her TV alter ego’s story.
“It didn’t even feel like acting,” she explains. “Although it was nerve-racking to get back in front of the camera, this felt very natural for me.
“I remember being 16 years old, being pregnant in a small town. And then on top of it, the whole world was watching. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t view myself as a victim. And with Noreen, it was important to not play the victim either. She put herself in a compromising situation. She’s a young girl who made some adult decisions and she’s trying to take some responsibility for that. That was me, too.”
And it wasn’t just the Fitzgibbons parallels which struck a chord with Jamie Lynn – the fictional town shares the same name as the Spears family’s estate in Louisiana, while her eldest child is called Maddie – just like the main character, played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher.
“There were so many little nods from the universe, telling me that this is what I was supposed to be doing,” she says.
“Number one, Serenity being the name of the town. That’s a big part of my life, that word in general. Also, we shot in this small town (in Covington, Georgia) that happened to be where my first music producer’s wife is from. Her mother came in and watched Ivey (her two-year-old daughter) for me one night while I was on set, because I knew them. It was just so bizarre, but in a cool way.
“Everything literally was just meant to be.”
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Season one of “Sweet Magnolias” premiered on Netflix on Tuesday, May 19.

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WENN

Teaming up with producers at UMC and officials at the American Black Film Festival to launch the Shoot Your Shot casting call, the rap pioneer invites wannabe actors to apply for the role.
May 20, 2020
AceShowbiz – Rap pioneer MC Lyte has launched a U.S.-wide talent search to find her new co-star for an upcoming sitcom.
The hip-hop icon is developing a new half-hour series called “Partners in Rhyme”, which will centre on a female foster kid and social media star who is convinced she will become the next Cardi B.
Lyte, real name Lana Moorer, will feature as a record label executive tasked with taking the teen under her wing, and to find her young co-star, she has teamed up with producers at U.S. network UMC (Urban Movie Channel) and officials at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) to launch the Shoot Your Shot casting call, inviting wannabe actors to apply for the role.
Five finalists will perform at the planned ABFF event in Miami, Florida later this year, when a winner will be chosen as the show’s lead.
Lyte, who has featured in TV series like “Power, “S.W.A.T.”, and “Queen of the South”, is working with “Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show” executive producer Bentley Kyle Evans on the project.
In a statement issued to Deadline.com, she writes, “It’s an honor to be in business with UMC for ‘Partners in Rhyme’.”
“Teaming up with Bentley Evans and Harvest Studios made the creative process an amazing journey. I’m even more excited that my production company, Sunni Gyrl, led by Lynn Richardson, who also serves as Executive Producer, has planted its feet in the production world. I’m excited to see all of the casting submissions and find our co-star.”
“Partners in Rhyme” is expected to debut its pilot episode at the 2021 ABFF, before premiering on UMC.

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