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Considering how Elle Fanning is known for her Hollywood career, you might have seen her as Princess Aurora from Maleficent or Catherine the Great in The Great. But did you know, there’s way more to this blonde powerhouse than meets the eye? Turns out, she’s not just your average star, she’s a royal darling wrapped in surprising facts!

Yes, from Royal Family connections to secret love for Marilyn Monroe, Elle Fanning has more to her than you’re aware of. Also, did we mention that she started acting beside her sister Dakota Fanning, before she could even talk properly? Well, if you’re already intrigued, buckle up to know 8 unknown facts about the star.

1. Elle Fanning has ties to the Royal Family Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora in Maleficent | image: Disney

Elle Fanning might just have a touch of royal sparkle in her veins! According to a historian from Ancestry.com,...

The hunt was on today at CinemaCon during the final presentation of the week thanks to the folks at Disney. Finally, Predator fans have received an update on Predator: Badlands, which will serve as the ninth installment in the long-running franchise. The title is set for a release on November 7, and will be preceded by another movie that’s been kept hush, hush. Dan Trachtenberg returns to his position as helmer following the massive success of 2022’s Prey, and now we can say that we’re totally back and ready to go on the hunt thanks to what we learned today at CinemaCon.

The footage opens in a predator showroom where trophies are being held. A spaceship zooms across the open land, and we see that it’s the predator who is being hunted. Elle Fanning appears to be a cyborg and the Predator is a warrior. “You’re hunting something,...

The Broadway musical, written by Bareilles and Jessie Nelson, was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Love, dreams, chosen family, and strength— all mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie. Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s musical adaptation of “Waitress” may have closed up shop on Broadway in 2021, but Joe’s Pie Diner is back open for business. The filmed production, which stars Bareilles in the lead role, premieres this Friday, Feb. 14, bringing the Tony Award-nominated musical to streaming for the first time.

See what baking can do: watch “Waitress: The Musical” this Friday with a subscription to Max!

How to Watch ‘Waitress: The Musical’ When: Friday, Feb. 14, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. Et Where: Max Stream: Watch with a subscription to Max. From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a Vpn. Everything you need to know to watch ‘Waitress: The Musical’

How to Watch ‘Waitress: The Musical...

Though Sophie Brooks’ sophomore feature “Oh, Hi!” serves a collective film made between mostly friends, the actual production took a long time to come together. Speaking with IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio at Sundance’s IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox, Brooks opened up about how the unique romantic comedy came out of a difficult time in her life and was first originated while she was in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“During that time, I was having a classic existential crisis about my career and life in general, and called my agent for guidance,” said Brooks, “and she challenged me to come up with an idea for a movie that could shoot during Covid, which meant limited locations and limited actors, and about 5 minutes after that call, I came up with the premise of the film.”

At the time, Brooks’ family was in the same pod as Molly Gordon’s, with Gordon’s mother,...

Waitress: The Musical will make its streaming debut Friday, February 14 on Max in the U.S.  Featuring the Broadway debut of acclaimed Tony®-winning singer, songwriter, and actress Sara Bareilles in the lead role, the musical is based on a motion picture of the same name also available on the platform starting February 1, written by the late Adrienne Shelly and starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion.  The music and lyrics are composed by Bareilles, for which she earned Tony® and Grammy® nominations, and the musical was adapted for the stage by Jessie Nelson. Waitress: The Musical brings the Tony®-nominated Broadway phenomenon to the big screen. ... Read more...

The Broadway adaptation of a beloved Nathan Fillion movie is coming to streaming next month. Fillion is best known for his breakout role as the roguish Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the cult-favorite sci-fi series Firefly. From his long-running turn as Richard Castle in the beloved crime dramedy Castle to his award-winning turn in the soap opera One Life to Live, Fillion has been a charismatic and engaging presence on television for 20-some years. However, his career spans television and film, including even voice work for animated series and video games (Halo 3), solidifying his status as a pop culture mainstay.

Broadway musicals have long formed the basis for successful movie adaptations, with the latest, Jon M. Chu's Wicked, becoming a cultural phenomenon. However, when a musical hits the big screen, it is often a traditional movie; it is rarer for an actual Broadway production to be filmed in its entirety and distributed to wider audiences.

If you weren’t able to get to New York in time to see Sara Bareilles’ star turn in Waitress: The Musical, the next best thing will soon be streaming on Max. The streaming platform will debut a movie version of the Broadway musical on February 14th, with Bareilles in the lead role, performing the songs she wrote herself.

Waitress: The Musical is based on the 2007 movie directed by Adrienne Shelly, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion. (Max will also begin streaming the original film on February 1st.) Bareilles received multiple Tony and Grammy nominations for her work on the music and lyrics for the production, which focuses on Jenna, the titular waitress and pie-maker at a small-town diner. Jenna wants to escape her loveless marriage, and her pie-making skills might give her the chance she needs.

Get Sara Bareilles Tickets Here

The production also features Charity Angél Dawson,...

If you weren’t able to get to New York in time to see Sara Bareilles’ star turn in Waitress: The Musical, the next best thing will soon be streaming on Max. The streaming platform will debut a movie version of the Broadway musical on February 14th, with Bareilles in the lead role, performing the songs she wrote herself.

Waitress: The Musical is based on the 2007 movie directed by Adrienne Shelly, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion. (Max will also begin streaming the original film on February 1st.) Bareilles received multiple Tony and Grammy nominations for her work on the music and lyrics for the production, which focuses on Jenna, the titular waitress and pie-maker at a small-town diner. Jenna wants to escape her loveless marriage, and her pie-making skills might give her the chance she needs.

Get Sara Bareilles Tickets Here

The production also features Charity Angél Dawson,...

Waitress: The Musical, a filmed version of the Tony-nominated Broadway hit, is set to stream on Max in the U.S. beginning on Valentine’s Day — Friday, February 14.

Marking the Broadway debut of singer-songwriter and actress Sara Bareilles, Waitress: The Musical is based on a film of the same name, written by the late Adrienne Shelly and starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, which will also be available on the platform starting February 1.

The story follows Jenna Hunterson (Bareilles), a waitress and expert pie maker stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. When a baking contest in a nearby county offers her a chance at escape, Jenna fights to reclaim a long-forgotten part of herself. Through the support of her fellow waitresses and an unexpected romance, she begins to find the courage to take a long-abandoned dream off the shelf.

In addition to starring, Bareilles composed the music and lyrics,...

J.J. Abrams signed a deal with Warner Bros. that is smaller than his previous deal in 2019, signaling the end of the mega-deal in Hollywood.

J.J. Abrams, the creator of hit shows like Lost who has worked on big-name franchise films like Star Wars and Star Trek, has undoubtedly accomplished a lot in his career. However--according to Variety, Warner Bros., the studio he's been working for since 2006, have signed a new deal with him for quite a bit less than previous deals, described as "more modest." The deal Abrams signed in 2019 with Warner Bros. was a five-year pact to the tune of an estimated $500 million. The deal was written in such a way that allowed Abrams to use a significant pool of money to get other writers signed for their own deals. However, due to Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, failing to meet certain financial and output milestones, he won't...

Back in June 2019, J.J. Abrams struck a huge deal with Warner Bros. worth $500 million, one of the biggest in Hollywood at the time. The deal allowed Abrams to not only create content but also recruit and mentor new talent through his Bad Robot production company.

The idea was for him to become a mogul, with his company becoming a mini-studio, incubating fresh voices. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, were set to lead the charge.

However, as of 2024, the deal has not played out as Warner Bros. might have hoped, Variety reports. While Abrams’ team had high ambitions, they struggled to meet financial and output targets. Bad Robot’s efforts, like setting deals with writers and producers such as Angela Robinson, Jessie Nelson, and Latoya Morgan, did not bear much fruit.

Some of the planned projects, like Robinson’s Madame X and Thomason’s Overlook, were scrapped by HBO Max,...

Back in June 2019, J.J. Abrams struck a massive overall deal that would keep him in the fold of Warner Bros., his home studio since 2006.

The five-year pact, pegged at $500 million at the time, had a unique structure that allowed Abrams to draw from a significant pool of money to sign other writers to overall deals. That positioned the multi-hyphenate behind “Felicity” and “Lost” as not just a content creator but a mogul whose Bad Robot production company would incubate the next generation of storytellers, with Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, overseeing the stable. Five and a half years later, Warner Bros. doesn’t have much to show for all the coin that it showered on Abrams, even as the value of the deal dropped by half because Bad Robot failed to reach the financial and output benchmarks that would have triggered the full $500 million. With less leverage than it...

Actor Timothée Chalamet is a critical darling, with many of his films receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews alongside commercial success. He was also nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name. However, despite a glowing career of critical acclaim, one film in Chalamet’s filmography remains a catastrophic failure.

Olivia Wilde in Love the Coopers

In 2015, Chalamet starred in the star-studded Holiday comedy film Love the Coopers. However, despite featuring the likes of Olivia Wilde and Diane Keaton, the film could not be saved from being a critical mistake in Chalamet’s career, becoming his lowest-rated film. Here is why Love the Coopers failed despite boasting one of the best ensemble casts for a comedy film.

Love the Coopers Remains Timothée Chalamet’s Lowest Rated Film on Rotten Tomatoes

Timothée Chalamet‘s career has soared recently with the actor receiving critical acclaim...

Warner Bros. TV has lined up a powerhouse creative team for an adaptation of Glennon Doyle’s best-selling book Untamed.

Sarah Paulson is set to star in the drama, and former Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 showrunner Krista Vernoff will adapt Doyle’s memoir. Warners and Bad Robot, which has rights to the book, plan to take the project to potential buyers in the coming weeks.

Reps for Warner Bros. TV and Bad Robot declined to comment.

Jessie Nelson (Apple’s Little Voice, Waitress: The Musical), Vernoff’s producing partner and husband Alexandre Schmitt and Andrew Stearn (via the trio’s Trip the Light Productions) will also serve as executive producers. Untamed marks Vernoff’s first TV project since she left Grey’s and Station 19 at the end of the 2022-23 season, as well as her first work after exiting an overall deal with ABC Signature.

The J.J. Abrams-led...

Pop music phenoms come and go, fall in and out of favor and sometimes fade into total obscurity. Very few remain relevant a decade removed from their initial success, and you can count on maybe two hands the number of artists who can knock out a new song or reissue and top the Billboard charts 50-plus years after their debut.

And then there's The Beatles.

From the moment they scored their first number one hit in the U.K. with 1963's "From Me to You," The Beatles drew on their multitude of musical influences — blues, country, rockabilly, and the sui generis soul sounds pulsating out of Motown — to create perfectly constructed, infectiously catchy singles that earwormed their way into the fabric of your being. Within three years of breaking big in the U.S., they released the pioneering folk-rock LP "Rubber Soul," flirted with psychedelia and raga on the expansive "Revolver,...

Sixteen fellows with a dozen projects will be headed to the mythic bunk beds and cabin life of Utah just prior to the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. Here their words on paper will be tested, tried and nurtured with valuable input from the likes of Michelle Satter, Ilyse McKimmie, Jessie Nelson and creative advisors Ritesh Batra, Linda Yvette Chávez, Scott Frank, Phil Hay, Marielle Heller, Walter Mosley, Nicole Perlman, Kemp Powers, Dee Rees, Howard Rodman, Dana Stevens, Joan Tewkesbury, Bill Wheeler, Tyger Williams, Virgil Williams, and Doug Wright. This year’s Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab folks include: Nikesh Shukla & Himesh Patel (Brown Baby), Kaitlin Fontana & Franchesca Ramsey (Cover Girl), Sylvia Khoury (Heather), Jane Casey Modderno (Here for the Weekend), Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (High Steel), Kristine Gerolaga (Lamok), Francesca Canepa & Miguel Ángel Papalini (La Otra Orilla), Diana Peralta (No Love Lost), Christian Moldes (Quince Kings), Hanna Gray Organschi (Rubber Hut), Sara Crow...

Collect your sugar, butter, and flour to bake something sweet because you’ll need a treat to enjoy alongside the newly-released Waitress: The Musical. The Broadway Show from writers Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson is based on the 2007 film Waitress starring Keri Russell and written by the late Adrienne Shelly. The musical, which first debuted on Broadway in 2016, follows Jenna Hunterson, a waitress and expert pie maker who is stuck in a small town and loveless marriage. (Credit: Courtesy of Bleecker Street) When a baking contest in a nearby country offers her a path to potential freedom, Jenna fights to reclaim the forgotten parts of herself with the help of her fellow waitresses and an unexpected romance. Celebrating friendships, dreams, and chosen family, Waitress has become a fan-favorite musical in recent years, making it the perfect time to tune in with the film now being available on video on demand.

After Broadway shut down due to the pandemic, “Waitress” received an arts grant from Chuck Schumer’s office that allowed the production to reopen in 2021. Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music and lyrics, said this opportunity inspired her and the team to make the most of their time back on stage by shooting a live recording.

Bleecker Street and Fathom Events will release “Waitress: The Musical” in theaters for a five-day series of nationwide special-event screenings, starting Dec. 7. Bareilles, who also plays the lead role of Jenna Hunterson in the film production, said shooting this live-capture helped bring the audience “closer to the emotionality of the performances.”

“The shift from just being in front of a live audience and then adding a camera is almost to just lean into the intimacy of it, to let each moment feel really truthful between two people or three people or whoever’s on stage,...

The 2016 Tony Awards were something of a rout: With its 11 wins, Hamilton was the only new musical to take home any trophies at all. But it wasn’t the only Broadway smash of the season. Waitress, the smaller-scale, utterly lovely adaptation of writer-director Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film, ran for nearly four years, finally closing in January 2020.

Like Hamilton, Waitress’s composer-lyricist would come to also star in the production: Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles appeared for three short stints in the lead role, causing the box office to surge each time. When theaters reopened, so, too, did Waitress, in a limited remounting in late 2021, designed in part to allow the cameras to capture Bareilles’s performance. This film was no doubt inspired by the artistic and commercial success of Hamilton’s “pro-shot,” as official films of stage performances have come to be known in the theater community.

As a film, this pro-shot...

Exclusive: Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Timothy V. Murphy (Appaloosa) and Bruce Greenwood (The Fall of the House of Usher) have boarded The Fabulous Four, a new comedy from Bleecker Street, which has entered production in Georgia under an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA.

Timothy V. Murphy and Bruce Greenwood

The actors join an ensemble that also includes Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, and Megan Mullally, as previously announced. Ralph takes over the role of Sissy Spacek, who was attached as of last fall but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Bleecker Street nabbed North American rights to the pic last October and will release the film in U.S. theaters in 2024. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and brokered the deal for U.S. rights, with Sierra/Affinity repping international sales.

Written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Cannes prize-winner best known for...

With more than 1,500 performances during its initial 2016-2020 Broadway run, and a subsequent three-month post-Covid-shutdown remount, Waitress: The Musical baked its way into the hearts of theatergoers, and in December folks who didn’t make it to New York City will get a chance to see what the fuss was about: Bleecker Street and Fathom Events have set nationwide special-event screenings for five nights only beginning December 7.

Bleecker and Fathom released a trailer today. Watch it above.

Starring composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles as small-town waitress and pie-maker Jenna Hunterson, the musical, with book by Jessie Nelson, is based on the 2007 motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly. Synopsis: When a baking contest in a nearby county offers Jenna a chance at escape a loveless marriage, the expert baker fights to reclaim a long-forgotten part of herself, and through the support of her fellow waitresses and an unexpected romance, begins to find the...

The Tony-nominated Waitress arrives in theaters on December 7, 2023 to kick off a five-day series of screenings. Starring composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles, the Broadway musical is based on Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film that starred Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, and Jeremy Sisto.

The production entered the record books as the first Broadway musical with a top creative team comprised of four women – book by Jessie Nelson, music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, choreography by Lorin Latarro, and direction by Diane Paulus. Opening in 2016, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre hosted 1,500+ performances of the musical, making it one of the longest-running shows in recent history.

Bareilles says Waitress changed her life, and composing the music was a gift.

“The film is funny and dark and feminine and irreverent and emotional and so very, very musical,” said Bareilles, recalling watching Shelly’s film for the first time. “I found a piece of myself in each of these...

For those who wanted to see “Waitress” on stage but couldn’t, or for those who want a more convenient route to see it again, Bleecker Street and Fathom Events are bringing it to a theater near you.

Tickets are on sale now for the five-day engagement, which will run from Dec. 7 through Dec. 11 with one or two shows offered daily. This isn’t unusual for Fathom, but it’s another example of theaters filling seats with less-conventional programming and demographically specific event films.

“Waitress” stars Sara Bareilles, who also wrote the music and lyrics, as a waitress and pie maker stuck in a loveless marriage with a baby on the way. A baking contest offers a chance at escape, as does an unexpected romance with a man who treats her right.

The show is based on the 2007 feature film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly. The film gained infamy...

Exclusive: Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to TIFF standout One Life, the James Hawes-directed drama that stars Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp, Marthe Keller, with Jonathan Pryce and Helena Bonham Carter. Scripted by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, the film is a production of See-Saw Films, which developed it alongside BBC Film. Bleecker Street is planning a 2024 theatrical release.

Based on the Barbara Winton book If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, One Life tells the true story of Nicholas “Nicky” Winton (Flynn), a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, Winton convinces Trevor Chadwick (Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue as many children as possible before the Nazis close the borders. Fifty years later, Nicky (Hopkins) is haunted by the...

Madison Wells Live will present a private industry reading of “Locker Room Talk,” a new play by Meghan Kennedy. Directed by Jessie Nelson, the reading will feature Sara Bareilles (“Into the Woods”), Sarita Choudhury (“And Just Like That”), Paige Gilbert (“Late Night”), Donna Murphy (“Passion”), Bonnie Milligan (“Kimberly Akimbo”), Gayle Rankin (“Glow”), Havana Rose Liu (“Bottoms”), Cecily Strong (“SNL”) and Charlotte Surak (“Waitress”).

The event will take place on Oct. 10, 2023 in New York City.

According to its official description, “Locker Room Talk” looks at a complicated, hilarious, diverse group of women in a locker room at a gym. It is an intimate exploration of how women communicate with each other as insecurities and issues around their bodies emerge. Madison Wells describes it as a “stripped-down comedy about female community, identity and connection.”

Kennedy is an award-winning playwright whose work includes “Napoli, Brooklyn” (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination); “Too Much, Too Much,...

Elysian Film Group, Anonymous Content and Bleecker Street have jointly acquired the U.K. rights to “The Boy and the Heron,” the first film from legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki in a decade. Elysian Film Group will release the film in U.K. cinemas later this year. “The Boy and the Heron” premiered to strong reviews at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the opening night attraction.

The Studio Ghibli production already opened in Japan over the summer, where it surpassed the first four-day box office of “Spirited Away,” the 2001 film that is considered to be one of Miyazaki’s masterpieces. The film will have its U.K. Premiere as a special presentation at the London Film Festival next month.

“The Boy and the Heron” is a hand-drawn, original story written and directed by the Oscar-winning director. Set against the backdrop of World War II, if follows...

Following its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s “Waitress: The Musical,” which is set for a nationwide release on Dec. 7, the studio announced Wednesday.

“Waitress: The Musical” will transform the Tony-nominated production to the big screen for audiences. Bareilles stars as Jenna Hunterson, a waitress and pie maker who finds herself stuck in a small town and loveless marriage. However, when Jenna gets the opportunity to take part in a baking contest outside of her town, she leaps at the chance to change her life.

Alongside Bareilles, “Waitress” stars Eric Anderson, Charity Angél Dawson, Christopher Fitzgerald, Drew Gehling, Caitlin Houlahan, Dakin Matthews and Joe Tippett. Michael Roiff, Barry and Fran Weissler, Bareilles, Nelson, and Paul Morphos serve as producers, with Alecia Parker as an executive producer.

The musical was one of the longest-running shows in recent Broadway history,...

Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to the filmed capture of Sara Bareilles’ Waitress: The Musical.

The film, which made its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, was captured in 2021, during the musical’s run on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Bareilles, who wrote the score to the musical, alongside a book by Jessie Nelson, also stars in the lead role.

Waitress: The Musical is scheduled to be released Dec. 7, 2023, in partnership with Fathom Events. This is the second partnership between Bleecker Street, the studio behind the upcoming Meg Ryan film, What Happens Later, and Fathom Events, after Guy Nattiv’s Golda, which was released with Fathom on August 23 in advance of its wider theatrical release. Bleecker Street is also behind the upcoming films Jules starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Mafia Mamma starring Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci.

Fathom has previously released other filmed musicals, including Bandstand,...

Bleecker Street has picked up U.S. rights to hit musical production Waitress: The Musical, from composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson, following its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The distributor is teaming with Fathom Events for a December 7 nationwide release of the show, which was captured live onstage in 2021 during its long Broadway run.

Based on Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 indie feature, Waitress: The Musical stars Bareilles as Jenna Hunterson, a waitress and expert piemaker stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. When a baking contest in a nearby county offers her a chance at escape, Jenna fights to reclaim a long-forgotten part of herself. Through the support of her fellow waitresses and an unexpected romance, Jenna begins to find the courage to take a long-abandoned dream off the shelf.

The film was directed by Brett Sullivan, while Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus directs for the...

Release marks second collaboration after Golda.

Bleecker Street has acquired US rights to Waitress: The Musical following its Tribeca world premiere and will partner with Fathom Events on a December 7 nationwide release.

The content was captured live on stage in 2021 during the musical’s reprise on Broadway and stars composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles in the lead role.

Based on the 2007 film directed by Adrienne Shelly and starring Keri Russell, the musical follows an expert pie baker stuck in a small town and loveless marriage who enters a life-changing baking contest.

Brett Sullivan directed the film and Jessie Nelson is creative advisor.

Ben Platt has apparently decided he’s no longer going to speak about his mega-producer father Marc Platt — and the internet is so not here for it.

During the press tour for his new film “Theater Camp,” which Platt cowrote with Molly Gordon (who herself is born to director Bryan Gordon and writer-director Jessie Nelson), a reporter for Rolling Stone asked him about being featured on New York Magazine’s infamous nepo baby cover from December.

“You were on the cover of New York Magazine’s Nepo Baby Issue. I’m curious what was your response to that? And what do you make of that whole discourse?” journalist Ej Dickson asked.

“We’re going to skip right over that if we can,” Platt responded.

“No comment?” Dickson responds.

The feature then indicated that Platt’s publicist intervened, saying, “If we could just focus on ‘Theater Camp,’ that would be great.

This interview was conducted before SAG-AFTRA authorized a strike on July 13.

In 2019, Molly Gordon worked for three days on Ramy, the Hulu show about a man exploring his faith in New York City, and it changed her life. She was 23, in the nascent stages of a career she had been dreaming about since childhood. That year, she had roles in Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart and Gene Stupnitsky’s Good Boys, but her time on set with creator Ramy Youssef and executive producer Chris Storer served as what she describes as a “turning point” creatively.

This summer, she marked another professional milestone with the July 14 release of Theater Camp, her screenwriting and directorial debut, which she had been working on for years with longtime friends Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman. Gordon also stars in the mockumentary-style comedy about an eccentric group of artists working to save their summer camp for kids from financial ruin.

Warning! This article contains Spoilers for The Bear season 2!Molly Gordon stars in The Bear season 2 as the new character Claire, who plays a significant role in Carmy’s story. The cast of The Bear season 2 has added plenty of rising stars for recurring roles and veteran actors for major cameos, including Molly Gordon as Claire, Will Poulter as Chef Luca, and Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy and Sugar’s mother Donna. Surprisingly, a large portion of The Bear season 2’s new characters are unrelated to the restaurant’s renovations, as much of the story is told as the established chefs train for new roles, focus on their family lives, and, in Carmy’s case, embark on romantic storylines.

Far more than the first outing, The Bear season 2 gives significant focus to the personal lives of the chefs at the title restaurant. In addition to showcasing Carmy’s love life for the first time,...

In hindsight, it’s quite amazing that anyone could watch Adrienne Shelly’s final film as a director and see it as anything but a movie. It was a good one, a simple story about a small-town woman who falls pregnant by her abusive lover and complicates matters by having an affair with her gynecologist. Starring Keri Russell, the film was funny, romantic, frankly feminist and pulled no punches when it needed to, and its modest success of the box office made it all the more tragic that Shelly, murdered in her own apartment by a construction worker in 2006, would never make another.

Taking that and putting it on the Broadway stage was probably not on anyone’s bingo card, yet this production — directed by Diane Paulus with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, and book by Jessie Nelson — sails by, even though it adds 40 minutes of running time to Shelly’s slender story.

The Sundance Institute has named the participants and projects set for the 2023 editions of a pair of its flagship programs: the Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive.

Lab participants will include Joseph Sackett (Cross Pollination), Sean Wang (Dìdi (弟弟)), Abinash Bikram Shah (Elephants in the Fog), Gabriela Ortega (Huella), Walter Thompson-Hernández (If I Go Will They Miss Me), Hadas Ayalon (In a Minute You’ll Be Gone), Bernardo Cubría, John Hibey & Joshua Penn Soskin (Kill Yr Idols), Dania Bdeir & Bane Fakih (Pigeon Wars), Rashad Frett & Lin Que Ayoung (Ricky), Farida Zahran (The Leftover Ladies), Masami Kawai (Valley of the Tall Grass) and Audrey Rosenberg (Wild Animals).

Those set for the Intensive are Keisha Rae Witherspoon & Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (Arc), Shireen Alihaji (Blue Veil), Spencer Cook & Parker Smith (Lame), Jesahel Newton-Bernal (Leche), Cynthia Lowen (Light Mass Energy), Rebin Zangana (Qareen), David Liu (Santa Anita), Urvashi Pathania (Skin), Ciara Leina`ala Lacy (Untitled...

It took 15 years for Disney's Disenchanted to finally see the light of day, but the inevitable comparisons to its predecessor Enchanted urge the question: is the sequel worth the long wait? Disenchanted attempts to raise the stakes by having its main character Giselle accidentally taking on the story's antagonistic role, while the movie also tries to properly weave its supporting cast and new characters in a different setting. Streaming on Disney+, Disenchanted introduces a newer generation of its beloved characters, appealing to both old and new audiences alike.

The sequel had been in the works for several years due to script and director changes and attempting to bring its entire main cast back, but Disenchanted's long delay was good for Disney in the long run. It may be very common nowadays for sequels to release decades after the original such as 2022's Hocus Pocus 2 and Top Gun: Maverick,...

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Elle Fanning is a gifted actress who is already a widely respected veteran at the age of just 24. She is the younger of two sisters — Dakota is four years older — who both made tremendous impressions as child performers en route to impressive careers as young adults, with no major personal bumps along the way. Of her work on the big screen, she is perhaps best known for 2010’s Somewhere and 2017’s The Beguiled, both directed by Sofia Coppola. But she has also starred in films big and small under the direction of, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, J.J. Abrams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe, Sally Potter, Jay Roach, Mike Mills, Nicolas Winding Refn, John Cameron Mitchell, Tony Scott, Terry George, Ben Affleck and Woody Allen.

This year, Fanning played substantial parts on and executive produced two TV programs, both for Hulu,...

“Enchanted” will always be known as the movie that introduced most of the world to Amy Adams, whisking her from the darling of indie films like “Drop Dead Gorgeous” and “Junebug” to one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors.

But a large part of the reason audiences fell in love with Amy Adams is because they fell under the spell of “Enchanted” as a whole. In director Kevin Lima and writer Bill Kelly’s 2007 film, Adams plays Giselle, a maiden of the mythical Andalasia who sings to forest critters and dreams of falling in love. She finds what she’s looking for in Prince Edward (James Marsden), but before they can go live happily ever after, his nefarious mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) sends her flying through a portal to New York City. There, Giselle crosses paths with cynical divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). Soon,...

Twenty years after the release of the Sean Penn–starring “I Am Sam,” director Jessie Nelson is looking back on her movie and celebrating that it couldn’t be made in the same way now.

“I wouldn’t make that movie today without a lead being from the [disability] community,” Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter. “But that movie would not have been made 20 years ago. It wasn’t like I had the choice: ‘Make that movie with a lead from the community, or not.’ It was ‘The only way this movie will get made is this.’ ”

Nelson’s journey with “I Am Sam” was apparently a winding one. According to THR, Nelson was fresh off the success of “Corrina, Corrina” when she and longtime friend Kristine Johnson began working on the script for “I Am Sam,” meeting with people from the community and their families. But Fox 2000 Pictures, with which Nelson had a deal,...

Updated: Waitress, the Broadway musical featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, has canceled its remaining performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, producers announced tonight. The decision was made after new cases of Covid were detected among the company and crew. The production was to have run through January 9.

Likewise, producers of the groundbreaking Thoughts of a Colored Man at the Golden Theatre announced that the December 22 performance of the show was its last. When Thoughts of a Colored Man opened in October, it made history as the first Broadway show to be written, directed by, starring and lead-produced by Black men. Like others, the Keenan Scott II play, directed by Steven H. Broadnax III, tried to navigate the rising Covid crisis in New York to no avail.

Producers Brian Moreland, Ron Simons, Diana Dimenna, Kandi Burruss, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Samira Wiley issued the following statement:

While this is...

Network: Apple TV+

Episodes: Nine (hour)

Seasons: One

TV show dates: July 10, 2020 -- August 21, 2020

Series status: Cancelled

Performers include: Brittany O'Grady, Sean Teale, Colton Ryan, Shalini Bathina, Kevin Valdez, and Phillip Johnson Richardson.

TV show description:      

A romantic comedy-drama series, the Little Voice TV show is a coming-of-age story set in the diverse musicality of New York. The show explores the universal journey of finding your authentic voice in your early 20s -- and the courage to use it.

Bess Alice King (O'Grady) is a uniquely talented performer who struggles to fulfill her dreams while handling rejection, dating drama, and family issues.

Sara Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, J.J. Abrams, and Ben Stephenson serve as executive producers on the series.

Little Voice has faded out at Apple TV+.

The streamer has officially canceled Sara Bareilles' songwriting drama, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Wednesday.

The sad announcement means Little Voice has become the streamer's first cancellation.

"A love letter to the diverse musicality of New York," is how Apple TV+ described the series ahead of its debut.

The series explored the universal journey of finding your authentic voice in your early 20s.

Bareilles (Waitress) provided original music for this fresh, intensely romantic tale of the search to find your true voice … and then the courage to use it.

Brittany O’Grady led the cast that also included Sean Teale, Colton Ryan, Shalini Bathina, Kevin Valdez, Phillip Johnson Richardson, and Chuck Cooper.

The series was produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

J.J. Abrams, Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, and Ben Stephenson (Westworld) served as executive producers.

News of the cancellation is not surprising.

Apple has opted not to pick up a second season of half-hour romantic dramedy Little Voice, from J.J. Abrams and the Waitress duo of Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson.

The show, which featured original music by Grammy and Tony Award nominee Bareilles, premiered last summer. It had a quiet run, drawing loyal but small audience compared to other recent half-hour Apple series such as Ted Lasso, Mythic Quest, Physical and Schmigadoon!

A love letter to the diverse musicality of New York, Little Voice, which shares the title of Bareilles’ breakthrough album, explored the universal journey of finding your authentic voice in your early 20s.

Nelson and Bareilles executive produced with Bad Robot’s Abrams and Ben Stephenson. Warner Bros. TV produced with Bad Robot.

Bareilles stars in another series, Peacock’s Girls5Eva, which has been renewed for a second season.

Little Voice has been silenced.

Apple TV+ has cancelled Sara Bareilles’ songwriting drama, per The Hollywood Reporter, meaning there will be no Season 2 for Bess & Co. Little Voice marks Apple TV+’s first series cancellation.

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Little Voice premiered in July 2020 on the streaming service. It tells the story of Bess (played by Star alum Brittany O’Grady), a New York City-based aspiring songwriter. Though Bareilles is an executive-producer on the series — alongside Jessie Nelson,...

Waitress, the hit Broadway musical that played more than 1,500 performances during its 2016-2020 run, will return for a limited, four-month engagement this September, with composer Sara Bareilles in the lead role, producers announced today.

Bareilles will star as the pie-making Jenna Hunterson when the show begins performances Sept. 2 at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre, continuing in the role through Oct. 17. Waitress, produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, will then continue through Jan. 9, 2022. Her replacement for the remainder of the run, as well as additional cast, was not announced.

“I couldn’t miss the opportunity to be there when Broadway welcomes audiences back into theaters that have been sitting dark for over a year,” Bareilles said in a statement. “It is a gift to get to revisit the beautiful story of Waitress, centered around hope, resilience, and the support of our chosen family. It’s so special to be able to...

Colton Ryan (Little Voice) is set to star opposite Elle Fanning in Hulu drama The Girl From Plainville, from The Post writer Liz Hannah and Dr. Death exec producer Patrick Macmanus.

Written by Hannah and Macmanus and produced by UCP, The Girl From Plainville stars Fanning as Michelle Carter and is inspired by the true story of her controversial “texting-suicide” case. Based off the Esquire article of the same name by Jesse Barron, the limited series will explore Carter’s relationship with Conrad Roy III and the events that led to his death and, later, her controversial conviction of involuntary manslaughter.

Ryan will play Coco, a sweet, caring young man grappling with anxiety and loneliness in a world he doesn’t feel he fits into. When he serendipitously meets Michelle Carter, he sees in her someone who understands his struggles and seems to see the real him. But his relationship...

Enchanted 2 has officially been confirmed by Disney for an upcoming release on the streaming service Disney+. This follows years of rumors and rumblings that the live-action musical comedy Enchanted would be getting a sequel, as despite efforts reportedly being made at Disney, the project just couldn't seem to get off the ground. This year, progress on the sequel - officially dubbed Disenchanted - seemed to finally be moving forward amid reports that Adam Shankman had signed on to write and direct while new songs were being written.

Speaking about the future of Disney+ on Thursday's Disney Investor Day presentation, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey verified that Disenchanted was in the works for the streaming service. It was also confirmed that original star Amy Adams would be back to reprise her iconic role of Giselle. No other details have yet been revealed about the sequel...

Apple TV+'s Little Voice hails from Jessie Nelson and Sara Bareilles, the power duo behind the Broadway hit, "Waitress."

It centers around a struggling artist in New York City, Bess King, who suffers from a bought of stage fright -- or awkwardness -- thanks to being laughed off a stage a year prior.

Bess is at a low in her personal life and her professional life, resulting in the perfect recipe for rich storylines and episodes that leave you wanting more. With a stellar cast and beautiful music, Little Voice is a show that everyone should check out.

The Music

The music, obviously, is sensational thanks to the artistic genius that is Sara Bareilles.

From songs like "Simple and True" to "Dear Hope," each piece of music perfectly represents where Bess is at in her life at that specific moment. The songs never feel forced and are seamlessly worked into the show.

ABC’s “The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!” returned from a three-week break to its lowest ratings yet.

The “Bachelor” highlight show scored a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49 and drew only 1.5 million, roughly a 20% drop on both metrics from the previous episode. It remains to be seen whether the show can boost things a little with its final episode of the summer next week.

NBC won the night overall, thanks to an “American Ninja Warrior” special which delivered a 0.5 rating and 3.5 million total viewers. The all-star special which aired on Monday was shot after season 11 finished. Later in the night, “Dateline” scored a 0.4 rating and 2.8 million viewers.

Over on CBS, “Love Island” fared better than its reality counterpart, ticking up to a 0.3 rating and 1.6 million viewers. That represents the dating show’s largest audience since the season 2 premiere a week ago. Leading into it, replays of “The Neighborhood” and “Young Sheldon” both scored a 0.4 rating.

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From the minds of Sara Bareilles, Jessie Nelson and J.J. Abrams comes Little Voice, the AppleTV+ drama all about an aspiring singer-songwriter’s journey toward her own voice. The venue: New York City, populated by so many voices seeking the soothing forces of music. The voice: Bess Alice King (Brittany O’Grady), who is right at the heart of the series as she bravely puts forward the songs she’s written only for herself and into the public eye — sometimes more successfully than others....