More stories

  • in

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sues NBC Over Documentary That He Says Defamed Him

    The documentary, “Diddy: Making of a Bad Boy,” began streaming on NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform last month.Sean Combs, the music mogul facing federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges, sued NBCUniversal and its streaming service Peacock on Wednesday, accusing them of airing a documentary that “shamelessly advances conspiracy theories” about him.The documentary, “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” is one of several about Mr. Combs’s life and career that have been developed amid mounting allegations of sexual abuse and violence that led to the criminal charges and more than three dozen civil lawsuits.Mr. Combs, who is in a Brooklyn jail awaiting his criminal trial, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has denied sexually assaulting anyone and has depicted the allegations as fabrications or distorted accounts of consensual sex. In recent weeks, he has begun to go on the offensive, filing lawsuits against people and companies he says have defamed him.The newest defamation suit focuses in part on a segment of the Peacock documentary in which one interview subject asserts that Kim Porter, Mr. Combs’s longtime girlfriend with whom the mogul had three children, had been murdered.The documentary includes an image of Ms. Porter’s autopsy report, which says she died of lobar pneumonia, and notes that the local police did not suspect foul play. She died in 2018 at 47 years old.But it also includes an interview with Albert Joseph Brown, a former singer who goes by the name Al B. Sure!, that the suit characterizes as defamatory. In the interview, Mr. Brown, who had a child with Ms. Porter, describes seeing her and says, “It was two, three weeks prior to her murder — am I supposed to say ‘allegedly’?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Ralph Macchio on Getting In His Final Kicks in ‘Cobra Kai’

    When Ralph Macchio was first approached about doing a “Karate Kid” series about the adult lives of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, he was skeptical.“I was like, ‘I’m a car salesman?’” said Macchio, who starred in the original 1984 film as Daniel, a teenage transplant to Southern California, who learns karate and defeats his bully, Johnny (William Zabka), on the mat.“They didn’t have me at hello,” he said.But at a meeting that lasted over three hours in the courtyard of the Greenwich Hotel, in Lower Manhattan, the creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg won him over with their vision for that series, “Cobra Kai.” It wasn’t only a nostalgia play. It also looked to introduce a whole new generation of karate kids.“As they started talking about the younger characters — Miguel, Samantha, that next generation — and the parenting part,” Macchio said, “I started leaning forward.”Now, six seasons later, “Cobra Kai,” which is set in the San Fernando Valley approximately 30 years after the events of “The Karate Kid,” will release its final five episodes on Netflix on Thursday. The series, which stars Macchio and Zabka, puts a new lens on Johnny, who begins as a deadbeat dad, haunted by his fall from grace in the 1980s, but finds new purpose in reopening the Cobra Kai dojo and reigniting his rivalry with Daniel.Macchio in the sixth and final season of “Cobra Kai.” “It ends in a way that has all those ’80s movie feels and cheers and tears, and yet sees it through a ‘Cobra Kai’ kind of lens,” Macchio said.Curtis Bonds Baker/NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ Is a Scammer Docudrama With Bite

    The Netflix series, starring Kaitlyn Dever, tells the story of an Australian blogger who found fame and money by lying about having cancer.“Apple Cider Vinegar,” on Netflix, is the latest scammer docudrama, another galling true story zhuzhed up for maximum bingeyness. This one is about two scams, though: an Australian woman perpetrating a cancer fraud, and the wellness industry more broadly.Kaitlyn Dever stars as Belle Gibson, who rose to fame as a cancer and food blogger. The show weaves her story together with that of two other characters who actually do have cancer: Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Belle’s blogger idol, who is convinced she can heal her own cancer, and later her mother’s, with juicing, and Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), a breast-cancer patient desperate for alternatives to the brutality of chemotherapy. Presumably “Coffee Enema” was not as enticing a title as “Apple Cider Vinegar,” but that pseudoscientific practice occupies a lot screen time here. A lot.The story unfolds in jumbled timelines, mostly between 2009 and 2015. The size and gnarliness of the lesions on Milla’s arms situate where she is in her prognosis, and Lucy grows increasingly wan. Belle’s “journey,” in contrast, is told by the state of her veneers — the brighter and shinier, the more recent. Belle’s grifts began in her teens, but she started honing her cancer story on mommy message boards as a young mother. “One of the worst things that can happen to a person happened to me!” she declares, lapping up each molecule of pity she can wring from others.“Vinegar” has more depth and bite than many other scam stories, with more hypotheses about what might motivate someone to perpetrate social frauds: bad mom, absent dad, rapacious need for attention — the same things that lead a lot of people to a life on the stage. Alienation and desperation are powerful motivators, and Devers’s performance makes Belle just sympathetic enough to reel you in.For those who want more from the world of cancer frauds, the documentary series “Scamanda,” based on a podcast of the same name, airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. (Episodes arrive the next day on Hulu; the series debuted on Jan. 30.) Amanda Riley lied for years about having cancer, blogging about it and giving talks at her church, scamming friends and community members out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where “Vinegar” focuses on the perpetrator, “Scamanda” is more concerned with the victims, with their humiliation and revulsion over being had. It’s a mediocre doc, but the story is wild. More

  • in

    ‘Kinda Pregnant’ Review: The Belly of the Beast

    Amy Schumer plays a jealous best friend who fakes her own pregnancy in this Netflix comedy filled with dopey men and miserable women.If the aftermath of the pandemic saw a number of horror movies about the miseries of maternity, another subgenre is making a comeback: the pregnancy comedy. Like “Babes” before it, Tyler Spindel’s “Kinda Pregnant” (on Netflix) takes childbearing, rearing and regretting and spins them into a romp.Starring a feral Amy Schumer, this clunker of a movie opens with a first act that appears filched from “Legally Blonde”: a marriage proposal that isn’t. The romantic letdown — which finds our heroine, Lainy (Schumer), shrieking in Spanx in public — coincides with the pregnancy of her bestie, Kate (Jillian Bell). What’s left for a gal to do other than don a silicone belly in envy?The potential of this bizarre prenatal cosplay for blows — and burns, and a stab wound — to Lainy’s fake stomach does not go overlooked, although the traditional cycle of the seasons seems to have been. Despite tracing Kate’s gestation from autumn to spring, the movie’s weather and attire are all over the place.Most egregiously, the world of “Kinda Pregnant” is filled with dopey men and despairing women whose torments, parental or otherwise, make for a land mine of comedy duds. Will Forte, playing a deus ex man-child, does manage to pull off a few funny lines and some real chemistry with Schumer. But this is a movie less interested in relationships than in the sundry items, from a balloon to a rotisserie chicken, that Lainy can stuff under her shirt to fake a baby bump.Kinda PregnantRated R for foul language and rotisserie chicken gags. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

  • in

    The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in February

    This month’s new arrivals include an insightful docudrama about a fraudulent wellness blogger and a rare TV role for Robert De Niro.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles for U.S. subscribers. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘Apple Cider Vinegar’Starts streaming: Feb. 6The Australian mini-series “Apple Cider Vinegar” is a fictionalized version of a true story about Belle Gibson, a wellness influencer who became the center of a scandal when she admitted to lying about overcoming cancer through strict dieting. Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle, who becomes addicted to the positive attention she receives — not to mention the money — when she begins sharing her made-up story on social media. Alycia Debnam-Carey plays Milla, another alternative health advocate who becomes first an inspiration to Belle and then a rival for likes and clicks — although her testimonials, too, are not strictly on the level. Aisha Dee rounds out the main cast as Chanelle, a friend of Milla’s who works with Belle and gets caught in the middle of the escalating quackery.‘La Dolce Villa’Starts streaming: Feb. 13This romantic comedy offers two main attractions. One is Scott Foley, a veteran TV actor with a disarming screen presence. He plays Eric, a busy business consultant and widower who puts his career on hold to help his daughter, Olivia (Maia Reficco), extract value from a suspiciously cheap piece of rural Italian real estate. The movie’s other big star is its sun-dappled location, where these two Americans discover some unexpected passions: Eric for cooking and the local dignitary Francesca (Violante Placido); and Olivia for interior design and the charming local restaurateur Giovanni (Giuseppe Futia). Directed by Mark Waters (“Mean Girls,” “Freaky Friday”), “La Dolce Villa” emphasizes the sensual seductions of the European countryside.‘Court of Gold’Starts streaming: Feb. 18When the U.S. Olympic Team first started sending N.B.A. players to compete internationally in 1992, the idea was to grow the sport of basketball so that one day, the United States would not, by default, have the most dominant players. This past summer’s Paris Olympics saw that plan fully coming to fruition, as the United States was tested night after night by the new N.B.A. superstars from Canada, Serbia, France and elsewhere. The documentary series “Court of Gold” offers behind the scenes access with the Americans as they prepare for a real challenge. The director Jake Rogal also spends time with the other top competitors, who no longer fear the United States the way teams did 30 years ago. Across six episodes, the series tells the story of a dramatic Olympics tournament, with twists and comebacks and a lot of pride on the line.‘Zero Day’Starts streaming: Feb. 20Robert De Niro takes his first regular role in an American TV series in this political thriller, playing George Mullen, a former U.S. president who gets pulled back into public service during a national emergency. When a global cyberattack results in widespread destruction and fatalities, the aged but still popular Mullen is asked to head a commission to uncover who was responsible, with vast and possibly unconstitutional powers at his command. The stacked cast also includes Lizzy Caplan as Mullen’s politically ambitious daughter, Joan Allen as his worried wife and Angela Bassett as the current president, who has reluctantly called for her predecessor’s help. Jesse Plemons, Matthew Modine, Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Gaby Hoffmann, Connie Britton and Clark Gregg play various friends and foes who — even when they appear to be on Mullen’s side — have their own mysterious agendas.‘Running Point’Starts streaming: Feb. 27Based loosely on the life of the Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss, this fast-paced sports sitcom has Kate Hudson playing Isla Gordon, a basketball-savvy executive in the offices of the Los Angeles Waves. When a family scandal leaves Isla in charge of the team her father and brothers ran for decades, she has to overcome industry sexism, fan skepticism and various boardroom struggles to put the floundering franchise in position for a playoff run. “Running Point” is run by the “Mindy Project” writer-producer team of Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, with Buss as an executive producer. They pepper underdog story beats throughout a close-up look at an often overlooked woman, trying to prove she can handle pro basketball’s big personalities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    ‘Emilia Pérez’ and the New Era of Online Oscar Scandals

    As Karla Sofía Gascón’s resurfaced social media posts upend the campaign for the year’s most-nominated film, what happens now?Last August, when I first met and interviewed the “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, she told me that she was not the type of person to back down from a conflict.“I’m a great warrior,” Gascón said then. “I love to fight. If it was up to me, I would go to all the talk shows and fight with everybody all the time.”She shared this to illustrate how fraught her life had become in the years leading up to “Emilia Pérez,” when Gascón, previously known to Mexican audiences for her work in telenovelas, came out publicly as a trans woman. But that hint at her combative nature could also have been considered something of a sneak preview, now that the newly Oscar-nominated actress has become embroiled in a scandal — and embarked on a defiant media blitz — that has imperiled both her career and the formerly front-running awards campaign of “Emilia Pérez.”As recently as last week, the 52-year-old actress and the Spanish-language musical she stars in were riding high. With a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, “Emilia Pérez” represented Netflix’s strongest shot at finally nabbing its first best-picture trophy, while Gascón had already made history as the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Gascón is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Pathé FilmsThen, last Wednesday, the journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed years-old posts Gascón had written on X that denigrated Muslims (saying Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured”), called George Floyd a “drug-addicted con artist,” and criticized the diverse winners of the 2021 Oscar telecast (“I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8-M”). In a statement issued by Netflix the next day, Gascón apologized for the posts. But instead of allowing the dust to settle, the star took matters into her own hands.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Labor Board Classifies ‘Love Is Blind’ Contestants as Employees

    The National Labor Relations Board’s case against the Netflix hit could have ripple effects across the reality TV industry.The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the hit reality show “Love Is Blind” on Wednesday in which it classified the show’s contestants as employees, opening a case that could have ripple effects across the reality television industry.The complaint by the labor board’s regional office in Minnesota says that the show committed several labor violations, including unlawful contractual terms related to confidentiality and noncompete provisions.By classifying the cast members — who date and sometimes marry other singles on the show — as employees with certain federal legal protections, the complaint opens the door to possible unionization. It is one of the labor board’s first forays into reality television and a major development in the effort by some onscreen personalities to change the industry through the legal system.Several contestants on “Love Is Blind,” which streams on Netflix and has been one of the buzziest dating shows since its debut in 2020, have come forward in lawsuits, in interviews and on social media with objections to the restrictions outlined in their contracts.One contestant, Renee Poche, became involved in a legal dispute with the show after she publicly accused the production of allowing her to become engaged, in front of TV cameras, to a man “who was unemployed with a negative balance in his bank account.” She said in court papers that after she had made “limited public remarks about her distressing time on the program,” one of the companies behind the production initiated arbitration proceedings against her, accusing her of violating her nondisclosure agreement and seeking $4 million. (Poche, a veterinarian who lives in Texas, said she had earned a stipend of $1,000 per week, adding up to a total of $8,000.)Two “Love Is Blind” participants — Poche and Nick Thompson — submitted complaints to the labor board, resulting in an investigation into the policies and practices of the production companies behind the show, which include Kinetic Content and Delirium TV.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Jamie Foxx’s ‘What Happened Was…’ and Other Comedy Specials to Watch

    The show is both an act of gratitude and a stand-up special. It’s one of four new comedy hours worth checking out.The latest batch of comedy specials worth watching starts with a much anticipated one from Jamie Foxx and includes hours from Matthew Broussard, Anthony Jeselnik and Fortune Feimster.Jamie Foxx ‘What Had Happened Was …’(Stream it on Netflix)In April 2023, news broke that Jamie Foxx had been hospitalized in Atlanta with what his daughter described on Instagram as a “medical complication.” Not much else was revealed, and in the vacuum of information, rumors spread. When a photo of Foxx appeared online, some conspiracy-minded types called it a clone. Katt Williams even jokingly questioned and made fun of his “mysterious illness.”Now Foxx says he wants to set the record straight. Speaking in a theater a few hundred yards from the hospital where he says his life was saved, Foxx enters wearing sunglasses but takes them off quickly to wipe away tears. He says he experienced a brain bleed, suffered a stroke, temporarily lost the ability to walk and doesn’t remember 20 days of his life. It’s a moving performance that feels like part of a growing trend of how comics deal with medical catastrophe.Tig Notaro did a famous hour about flirting with death not long after she got a cancer diagnosis. Keith Robinson also turned his two strokes into irreverent comedy. Foxx’s special is a much more polished production and sentimental affair. He tells a few jokes, pays tribute to his family repeatedly (he brings two daughters onstage) and preaches the virtues of prayer and comedy (“If I could stay funny, I could stay alive”). His most amusing moments involve his gift for impressions, including a riotous imagining of Denzel Washington if he, like Foxx, needed help going to the bathroom in a hospital. Foxx also does an excellent Katt Williams. But this isn’t a stand-up special so much as a celebration, an act of gratitude and the kind of emotive video often posted on Instagram.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More