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This post contains spoilers from Paramount+'s Happy Face episode 7, “My Jesperson Girls.”

We’ve reached the Happy Face penultimate episode, my friends, and it's a curveball we never saw coming (but that makes total sense). Bombshells have abounded throughout the Paramount+ series, but episode 7 drops earth-shattering revelations that change everything about our narrative and alter our characters’ lives on a much grander scale. In this penultimate recap, Happy Face (Dennis Quaid) unnervingly asserts his dominance, Melissa (Annaleigh Ashford) is hit with revelations about her past that break her, and Ben (James Wolk) makes a risky move to protect his family.

Happy Face asserts his dominance

After discovering Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Keith’s relationship, Melissa and Ben take her phone away and relocate the family to an Oregon hotel room so they can confront Keith. While her mother watches the kids, Melissa and Ben head to the prison.

Ben is uncomfortable being there.

This post contains spoilers from Paramount+’s Happy Face episode 6, “Lorelai.”

On the heels of episode 5, everyone is panicking on top of feeling desperate. We all thought D.A. Calloway (Michael O'Neill) was going to release Elijah (Damon Gupton) from prison, but instead he charged him as a co-conspirator with Keith Jesperson, aka Happy Face (Dennis Quaid), in killing Heather Richmond. Episode 6 picks up right in the thicket of everyone’s panic, only to see more drama unfold and more bombshell revelations.

This recap finds Melissa (Annaleigh Ashford) and Ivy (Tamera Tomakili) making some crucial discoveries, even catching Joyce (Marci T. House) in a lie that could negate their efforts and destroy Elijah’s case, as Calloway offers Happy Face a deal. Elsewhere, Ben (James Wolk) loses his promotion at work due to his family drama, Happy Face rescues Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) after some cruel bullying, and Elijah’s fate is revealed.

This scene-by-scene recap of Happy Face Season 1 Episode 6 finds Elijah free and Hazel stranded.

Melissa gets her dad on the phone, asking him about Elijah. He’s never met Elijah. Denise is done with the Da and asks to speak with Keith, who says he killed Heather. He tells her he’s working in the kitchen at the Oregon State Penitentiary. He’s got a job and friends? Well, she’ll rectify that.

He asks Melissa if she received the photo of Brendan. She didn’t ask him to do that. But nobody hurts his little girl.

(Ed Araquel/Paramount+)

Josh finds Hazel looking at the drawings. When she tells John about the motel and the trophies, he discovers it’s four hours away. He almost kisses her, but she turns away. He says they should go after lunch tomorrow.

Melissa interviews Denise. She plans on throwing Calloway under the rug.

In the previous episode of Happy Face, Hazel had called her grandfather, the serial killer Keith Jesperson, and had a long chat with him. Melissa and Ben had no clue about what she was up to, as she knew that they would approve of her actions. Keith, on the other hand, had told Melissa where he had hidden the wrench he had used to kill Heather. Melissa and Ivy believed that they would easily be able to prove that Elijah was innocent, but that’s when Calloway threw a curveball at them. The Da office made a public statement where they told the media that they were going to treat Elijah and Keith as co-conspirators since they believed that both of them had acted together. Calloway was just trying to save his reputation, and he knew that he would have to win the case anyhow. So, let’s find out...

Is there no food safe from Dennis Quaid’s villainous personas? You’ve seen him absolutely mangle and gulp down a plate of shrimp in The Substance, and today, Collider has an exclusive first look at the upcoming episode of Happy Face, during which a sandwich becomes the object of his character’s desire. Quaid’s latest role might just be his darkest yet, as he appears in the Paramount+ series as real-life serial killer, Keith Jesperson. The show centers around the murderer’s ploy to weasel his way back into the life of his daughter, Melissa (Annaleigh Ashford), after years and years of no contact.

A showdown is brewing in our exclusive first look at this week’s episode of Happy Face between Quaid’s Keith Jespersen and Michael O’Neill’s district attorney, Craig Calloway. Dressed in his bright orange prison garb, Jesperson sits down across from Calloway and...

We’re closing in on the end of our coverage for Happy Face.

Unfortunately, the show doesn’t seem to be the hit that I had hoped, but I have two more scene-by-scene recaps available.

They were meant to be supplementary coverage for the reviews, but I’m sharing them here even without the reviews. Thanks to those of you who stopped by!

(Ed Araquel/Paramount+)

A boy leaves home early before sunrise. Elijah is dreaming, and he’s rudely awakened by a call to his room.

The weapon is being processed while Melissa unpacks at home after her latest trip.

Hazel goes into a convenience store to buy some candy and a burner phone. At home, Melissa notices her new shoes. She wants to hear everything she missed. Does she want to ask her anything? Hazel thinks it’s no big deal to have had an abortion in high school.

In the previous episode of Happy Face, Melissa was finally able to find the murder weapon with which Heather had been killed. Before that she came to know that it was her father who had leaked the news of her abortion, and so she went to meet him in prison. She was sick and tired of Keith’s psychopathic tendencies, and she no longer wanted to waste any time figuring out what his motives and intentions were. Melissa and Ivy breathed a sigh of relief after they found the murder weapon, and they believed that they would be able to close the case and prove Elijah’s innocence very soon. But they had no clue that it was not going to be such an easy road for them. So, let’s recap the events of Happy Face episode 5 to find out more

Spoiler Alert

What was happening between Ben and Melissa?...

Before he was a Ghostbusterand an Oscar-nominee, Bill Murray was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, where he entertained late-night audiences from 1977 to 1980. Now, the Golden Globe-winning Lost in Translation star, who attended the 50th anniversary of SNL on Feb. 16, is reflecting on what the experience was like.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Murray appeared on SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning with host Sway Calloway and talked about what the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live meant to him. “It was surprisingly emotional. I wept three times in the show. It really got to me,” Murray said.

When Calloway asked what he wept for, Murray started off by telling a joke, “Oh, there were sketches that were dying,” he said. “No, I’m kidding.”

Related'He Was a Tough Nut': Bill Murray Recalls Working With Gene Hackman on The Royal Tenenbaums

Bill Murray starred with Gene Hackman in the 2001 Wes Anderson...

Mentorship and building a network that cultivates sustainable careers is at the core of Hoorae Media, the independent production company founded by Issa Rae. And that ethos continues with the company’s talent management firm ColorCreative, which takes on a “360” approach to reveal its clients’ full potential.

ColorCreative began as a networking space where Rae and cofounder Deniese Davis passed along constructive career advice to emerging creators in the entertainment business following the success of Rae’s hit YouTube series “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl.” In 2019, ColorCreative hired its first manager, Ashley Calloway, and that’s when a seedling of an idea bloomed into the two plotting their own stake in the talent management industry.

Today, Talitha Watkins serves as president and head of ColorCreative Management.

“Issa and Deniese [were] kind of looking at what was there and saying, ‘Hmm, I wonder if we turn this into a full-fledged management company?...

Christmas movies are a dime a dozen — especially when the Holiday season is just around the corner. The priorities of these movies are pretty straightforward. They are either about the togetherness that the season brings for families – a good narrative would use this aspect to either bring estranged ones together or dysfunctional ones closer. Subsequently, there are those movies that take the holiday spirit head-on, and push the viewers, and humans in general, to be at least a little bit kinder to each other. And then there are some that use the ‘saving Christmas’ narrative; the big-ol-grinch trying to mess things up followed up by a redemption of sorts.

“Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza” wants to be all of them at once. It follows three teenage high schoolers – Aj (Fey Soetan), Logan (Emmet Smith), and Keyara (Shanel Cheatham) who represent the geeks of the grade. The three have been best...

Ahead of Hurricane Milton, influencer Caroline Calloway informed her followers that she wouldn’t evacuate her house in Florida despite it being directly in Milton’s path.

Calloway, 32, rose to popularity on social media as she documented her time at Cambridge University and became one of the first Instagram influencers.

In a now-deleted Instagram story on October 8, Calloway quipped, “So if you’ve been following Hurricane Milton, um, I’m going to die!”

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She continued, “It’s supposed to make landfall in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. I’m in Sarasota, I live on the water, it’s zone A, mandatory evacuation.”

Calloway tried to justify her reasons for ignoring the mandatory evacuation: “I can’t drive, first of all. Second of all, the airport is closed. Third of all, the last time I evacuated for a hurricane,...

All along the coast of Florida, residents of the Sunshine State are preparing their homes and businesses to withstand the Category 4 force of Hurricane Milton. Millions of Floridians are leaving their homes as local and national officials encourage residents to heed mandatory evacuation orders. But online, staying put and riding out the storm has become the go-to way to get some easy clout — and it’s enraging people who are actually stuck where they are.

Milton is scheduled to make landfall sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, bringing with...

Comedic actress Marla Gibbs, known for her iconic role as the sassy housekeeper on the 70s sitcom The Jeffersons, and filmmaker Kim Calloway sat down to discuss their new short film, Mildred 4 A Million, in their new uInterview.

Mildred 4 a Million follows a 93-year-old great-grandmother as she tries to form a relationship with her screen-obsessed, seven-year-old great-granddaughter. As part of her quest to connect, Mildred (Gibbs) sets out to get a million TikTok followers.

Calloway, who wrote the film based on observation of her own family, explained the casting for the short. “I reached out via our amazing casting directors when it came time to look for Mildred,” she told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “And I read an article that Marla was just as sharp and energetic as ever and that she wanted to work. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I grew up watching her on television, I wonder...

Netflix is turning up the heat with its latest addition, Fire Country! Originally a CBS drama, this sizzling series has captivated audiences and built a loyal fan base -- and now season 1 is ready to light up your Netflix queue!

For those just discovering the series, here’s a sizzling sneak peek courtesy of IMDb:

A young convict joins a firefighting program looking for redemption and a shortened prison sentence. He and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.IMDb

Intrigued? You should be! Whether you're a longtime fan or a newcomer ready to dive into the flames, we’re here to stoke your curiosity and introduce you to the talented cast that brings this blazing drama to life.

Join us as we get to know the heroic Cal Fire crew from Fire Country season 1 below! But before we meet these brave firefighters,...

Exclusive: Lil Rel Howery, Janelle James, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Maude Apatow and Katt Williams have joined TriStar’s untitled buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and four-time Grammy-winning musician Sza. Joshua Neal, Aziza Scott and Patrick Cage will also star.

The logline is being kept under wraps. Lawrence Lamont is directing with the screenplay written by Syreeta Singleton. Producing is Hoorae’s Issa Rae and Sara Diya Rastogi, ColorCreative’s Deniese Davis and Macro Film Studios’ Charles D. King, James Lopez and Poppy Hanks. Singleton is co-producing. Big Boss’ Palmer and Sharon Palmer are executive producing. Macro Film Studios is also co-financing.

The project came together from the CoCre lab at Sony Pictures, a previous pact between ColorCreative and Sony to source and incubate emerging, diverse screenwriters to develop and write their first studio feature based on original ideas.

Howery is continuing to busy, recently starring in Vacation Friends 2,...

Erica Ash, who spent two seasons on the Fox sketch comedy show Mad TV and also stood out on the BET reality spoof Real Husbands of Hollywood and the Starz comedy-drama Survivor’s Remorse, has died. She was 46.

Ash died Sunday in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer, her publicist Elizabeth Much told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Erica was an amazing woman and talented entertainer who touched countless lives with her sharp wit, humor and genuine zest for life,” her family said in a statement. “Her memory will live eternally in our hearts.”

She also starred as the fierce public defender Gwen Sullivan on the 2018 BET drama In Contempt.

Ash first made an impression by starring on the first two seasons (2006-08) of Logo’s The Big Gay Sketch Show, produced by Rosie O’Donnell, and she appeared on the big screen in films including Scary Movie V (2013), Uncle Drew (2018), The Big Bend...

We all know he’s guilty — even the New York appeals court majority that ordered a new trial for Harvey Weinstein knows it. That makes the narrow, 4-3 reversal of Weinstein’s conviction all the more enraging.

Anyone who has ever watched a cop show knows how difficult it is to get a conviction in a sexual assault case. Yet the court majority found that the trial judge made an “egregious” mistake in letting three women testify about alleged sexual assaults even though their claims were not part of the charges against Weinstein (known as “Molineux witnesses”). Without that testimony, the majority concluded that Weinstein might have walked.

Dissenting Judge Anthony Cannataro wrote that the decision was “endangering decades of progress in this incredibly complex and nuanced area of law.” What message does the New York appeals court ruling send? In a new trial, the women whose testimony achieved the...

Warning: Spoilers about Fire Country season 2, episode 5 ahead.

Fire Country season 2, episode 5 changed the show forever with a tragic ending that will impact future episodes. Cara's death in the aftermath of a firenado was necessary for the show's emotional impact, as explained by the cast. The loss of Cara will push the characters in new directions and fill emotional gaps in their lives, while breaking fans' hearts.

The shocking ending of Fire Country season 2, episode 5 has changed the show forever. Led by Max Thieriot (Bode), Kevin Alejandro (Manny), Jordan Calloway (Jake), and Sabina Gadecki-Rich (Cara), among numerous other actors, the show follows Bode, a prisoner who joins the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. As a member of Cal Fire, Bode faces drama, loss, and raging fires that threaten the deaths of everyone in the vicinity. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in season 2, episode 5, as the fires took one nurse's life.

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for Fire Country Season 2 Episode 5 “This Storm Will Pass.”] For Jake (Jordan Calloway), the latest Fire Country does start with something that makes us laugh: He spills about Genevieve possibly being Bode’s (Max Thieriot) daughter to Vince (Billy Burke), Sharon (Diane Farr), and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila)—a.k.a. Bode’s father, mother, and ex-girlfriend—because he needs someone to know as a fire tornado rages around them. But then it all takes a turn, when it becomes clear that Jake’s girlfriend Cara (Sabina Gadecki)—he was thinking of proposing!—is dying of injuries sustained in the ambulance crash at the end of the previous episode. All Jake can do is say goodbye to her over the radio (“I was a different person before we fell in love. … I was going to tell you thank you for loving me. I love you. I will always love you.”). Below, Calloway...

In a Halloween world where every person is a monster, a vampire, a skeleton, a werewolf, a demon, or a creature that hides under the stairs, who could possibly be a villain? In Henry Selick's 1993 stop-motion animated fantasy "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Jack Skellington is the community's most famous local hero, but he is not a killer. Indeed, Jack seems to be good-hearted (if he had a heart) and secretly longs for romance. The local mad scientist Dr. Finkelstein (William Hickey) can resurrect dead skeletons, but he doesn't want to take lives. Even the two-faced Mayor (Glenn Shadix) is more ineffectual than evil. 

The only monster in Halloween Town that truly longs for violence and aches to kill people with his own hands is Oogie Boogie, a.k.a. the Boogeyman (Ken Page). As imagined by the film's designer, Tim Burton, Oogie Boogie is a large, empty-eyed burlap sack full of bugs and snakes.

Bodies episode 5 opened with the 1941 timeline. After Esther’s death, Whiteman, with a stab wound in his stomach, entered a synagogue. Whiteman was actually a Jewish man, Karl Weissman, who took this British name to fit in better with the British people. The rabbi of the church consoled Whiteman after he confessed that he was the reason for the death of a little child.

Spoilers Ahead

Who Saved Polly Hillinghead?

Whiteman sneaked into the commissioner’s office and threatened him with a gun. But Whiteman didn’t want to do any harm to him; rather, he wanted his help. He told Commissioner Calloway everything about his past. He revealed that he was in gambling debt and did the job of a middleman to pay his debts. When the lady from the secret agency called him and asked him to kill Cozen, he did, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill Esther.

Jada Pinkett Smith, apparently, is nowhere near done opening up about the intimate details of her and Will Smith’s relationship, as she said the two have discussed collaborating on a book.

As Pinkett Smith’s memoir “Worthy” hit shelves on Tuesday, the actress shared on SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” with Sway Calloway that there’s a possibility that she would work on a second installment to the book — and it would be cowritten by her actor-husband.

“I know it seems like it’s a lot of life because it is a lot of life in the book, but it’s very streamlined,” Pinkett Smith said. “There’s layers and layers and layers and layers. There’s no way I could have put it all in one book. There’s no way, you know, so there’s definitely other books to come.”

She continued: “I mean, even Will...

The greatest Western movie endings of all time come from throughout the genre's long history. As it is the last thing that viewers see, great endings are crucial in influencing how a movie is remembered by its audiences. From romantic rides into the sunset and heroic farewells, to brutal final showdowns and the bleak or poignant endings of revisionist anti-Westerns, the genre's best third acts are a mixed bag of thematic conclusions.

Apart from movies that are critically acclaimed as the best Westerns ever made, less popular and more recent entries into the genre have contributed their fair share of perfect endings as well. With the American Western being as old as filmmaking itself, it's difficult to determine exactly how many Westerns ended on a perfect note, but there are many that deserve a place in this special category. For those looking for movies about the Wild West that are...

This will be the last interview Caroline Calloway gives before she’s officially a memoirist. A scammer? Perhaps. Guided by grandiose ambitions? Definitely. But she’s about to have fulfilled the largest, most infamous promise she’s known for having broken: She finally wrote a book.

For those who aren’t terminally online, Calloway is a 31-year-old “It Girl” — or “satanic shroom trip,” depending on your persuasion — living in Sarasota, Florida who performs for “the theater of the internet” and enjoys pinning orchids in her hair. Before that, starting around...

Exclusive: BET Her has greenlit Black Girl, Erupted from director and star, Vanessa Bell Calloway (This Is Us), and executive producer, Tressa Azarel Smallwood of MegaMind Media. The project is the first feature film under the BET Her Presents: The Couch franchise.

Written by Tiffany Yancey, Black Girl, Erupted follows Reina (Khalilah Joi), a woman paying her dues at a law firm while facing microaggressions from co-workers and her boss Mr. Horowitz (Eric Roberts). Reina’s parents, Cassandra (Vanessa E. Williams), and Donald (Rodney Van Johnson), favor their younger daughter, Reilly, (Janeva Stoute), and consistently remind Reina not to be the “angry black woman” at the firm. The pressure to be perfect and uphold the family’s image wreaks havoc on Reina’s mental state.

B.J. Britt, Kareem Grimes, Brely Evans and Asia’h Epperson also star.

The film reunites Calloway with Smallwood, who has overseen the production of all the...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Forbidden Zone"

Where You Can Stream It: Tubi, Kanopy, Night Flight, Plex, Flixfling

The Pitch: Back in 1972, one Richard Elfman, then only a lad of 23, founded a musical theater troupe on the streets of Los Angeles called the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. This was after performing music in Paris and being involved in numerous theater projects throughout his youth. The Mystic Knights were a massive band, consisting of 15 members, and dedicated to performing old songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. For an early glimpse of what kind of act the Mystic Knights performed, check out their appearance on "The Gong Show" in 1976. Richard is the one in the miniature rocket ship playing the train whistle.

Polaris, the television network and digital platform owned by radio personality Sway Calloway and Rahman J. Dukes, is partnering with Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group (Amg) free-streaming digital platform, Hbcu Go in an exclusive deal to create content for the video on demand service as well as Amg’s other properties including The Grio.

The programming will be focused on culture, music and news with special coverage around cultural moments including a special celebrating the 50th year anniversary of Hip Hop, and an investigative series around Jam Master Jay.

“It’s important for us to showcase not only the amazing sports and news programming, but also the heartbeat of the Hbcu and Black Experience – our culture,” said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group. “This new partnership with Polaris will provide amazing programming for our Hbcu Go and TheGrio audiences highlighting music, Black culture and more.

This weekend, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is hosting the Regeneration Summit: A Celebration of Black Cinema in honor of their ongoing exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, which has been extended through July 16. The three-day festival, which runs Feb. 3-5, will feature live entertainment, workshops, panel discussions and screenings with guests including Julie Dash, Carla Hayden, Janaya Future Khan, Shola Lynch, Justice Maya Singleton and others.

“Our exhibition, Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, is like no other museum exhibition in that it celebrates Black participation in American cinema from the turn of the 19th century all the way through the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1970s,” Amy Homma, Chief Audience Officer of the Academy Museum, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We want visitors to understand, celebrate and uplift this history. So what better way to do that than to complement the exhibition with a weekend-long festival?”

Stars and Icons, ‘Regeneration: Black...

Fire Country has been so hot for CBS that it’s already been renewed for a second season and has scored the prime spot after the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, January 29. And sparks are going to continue to fly, stars Max Thieriot (who plays Bode and also serves as an executive producer), Jordan Calloway (Jake), and Stephanie Arcila (Gabriela) promised when they sat down with TV Insider’s Jim Halterman. While Jake isn’t just going to step aside without “a little bit of a fight” after his and Gabriela’s relationship ended due to her feelings for Bode, Calloway notes how meaningful the relationship between the two men is. (They’re slowly reconnecting after an estrangement following Bode’s sister’s death; Jake had broken up with her that night.) Bode “is his best friend, his brother, and so that’s going to be more of a harder pill for him to swallow,...

When cameras rolled on the Viennese location shoot of "The Third Man" in October 1948, director Carol Reed's villain wasn't even in the city. Orson Welles had signed on to play shady racketeer Harry Lime, but in a bid to raise his fee (via BBC Four), he wouldn't agree to arrive until absolutely necessary. With Welles' reputation as an unreliable troublemaker, Reed might have been forgiven for privately wondering if he was going to show up at all. In the meantime, he shot around him, using a body double and hiding the character in the film's celebrated shadows (via Financial Times). Would Reed's decision to fight powerful producer David O. Selznick on casting the maverick come back to haunt him?

Thankfully, Welles kept to his word and arrived by train in Vienna on the date agreed -- Reed said in an interview with journalist and author Charles Thomas Samuels for...

Consider the November 18 episode of Fire Country your reminder that taking selfies on a cliff is not recommended! When a female hiker falls and suffers broken bones, the Cal Fire crew attempts a difficult mountainside rescue. Complicating it further: Mother Nature and the fact that the guys making the climb are Battalion 1608 engineer Jake (Jordan Calloway) and inmate firefighter Bode (Max Thieriot), who have serious history. Eve (Jules Latimer) is there “to delegate and make sure we don’t go after each other’s head,” says Calloway. (Credit: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS) The men still haven’t forgiven each other for the night Bode’s sister died years ago. Jake broke her heart, and as Bode drove her home from Jake’s house, he lost control of the car. Now Bode, who spiraled and has been serving time for armed robbery, is getting closer to Jake’s empathetic girlfriend, Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila...

Click here to read the full article.

As a showcase for Max Thieriot’s appeal, Fire Country is working overtime. Playing Bode, who joins California’s inmate firefighter program in order to reduce his sentence, he has down pat the musclebound stature and puppy-dog expression of a brooding hunk with a heart of gold — and ample time to show off both, thanks to a script that, in the first two hourlong episodes, seizes every opportunity to paint Bode as a uniquely brave and brilliant soul.

To be sure, Bode is no saint — we learn early on that the reason he was incarcerated in the first place was that he pled guilty to armed robbery. He’s simply a scruffy knight in fire-resistant armor, tailor-made for audiences to admire and swoon over. The gambit works possibly too well: So overwhelming is the Bode-ness of it all that Fire Country leaves little...

In our Q&a series "Popsugar Crush," we get to know some of our favorite celebs' more intimate details - from their first celebrity crush to the best love advice they've ever received. This month, we're crushing on "Fire Country" star Jordan Calloway.

On the surface, CBS's new first-responder procedural drama "Fire Country" may seem to just be about a bunch of really beautiful people fighting fires. But the series is so much more than that - especially to star Jordan Calloway. While the cast is not comprised of actual smoke jumpers and the drama is fictional, the issue of wildfires in Northern California, where the show is set, is very real. In fact, Calloway, who hails from Aberdeen, CA, has been affected by them firsthand.

"I remember the 1996 [wildfires in Southern California]. That was one of the ones that we evacuated in," Calloway tells Popsugar. "I just remember all the hills being on fire and burning.

"Not Okay," the new film by writer/director Quinn Shephard starring Zoey Deutch, is a satire of influencers and the terminally online. So it makes sense that they got one of the internet's most controversial influencers to make a cameo in the movie: Caroline Calloway. How did the duo make the shocking appearance happen?

"I think I DMed her and asked her," Shephard tells Popsugar. "I think we also sent a script through her agent, and then we drank a lot of rosé together. I found out that she was down to do it through an Instagram story that she posted."

"Zoey and I were going through a number of attempted recruitments of different cameos for that scene," she explains, but Calloway was "down to make fun of herself." "It was a challenge to find people, [who] not only were down to make fun of themselves, but also their entire team...

[Editor’s note: The following story contains spoilers for “Not Okay.”]

That viral influencer and alleged scammer Caroline Calloway appears in Quinn Shephard’s hilarious internet satire “Not Okay” isn’t a surprise: The figuratively canceled Instagram personality (and literally canceled author) repeatedly touted her involvement in the Hulu film with tweets and retweets (of course!) for all manner of marketing materials, including the trailer that features Calloway appearing as, well, herself.

Given the subject matter of the film, it’s canny casting defined. Shephard’s sophomore outing follows wannabe influencer Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch) as she lies her way into viral fame and must face the fallout of her own scam. Although not as well known as scammer brethren like Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes, or Martin Shrekli, Calloway is infamous to a certain class of the very online who are also the kind of people who will enjoy Shephard’s (very smart) film. (Need a Calloway primer? This 2020 Guardian piece does that and more.

With June comes summer, and Netflix’s selection of films this month reflects that. The streamer has added several new films to watch for the month of June, including classics alongside some of their newer originals. Some of the movies that didn’t make the cut for this list, but are still new to Netflix in June include “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Hurt Locker” and “Titanic.”

The following batch of films offers something many an audience member, from the heartfelt stories that have their ups and downs, animated films that still teach solid lessons and even an inspirational sports movie.

Read on to discover or re-discover the best new movies on Netflix this month.

“Steel Magnolias” (1989) Columbia Pictures

Boasting a brilliant cast of powerful female actresses, “Steel Magnolias” compliments “Hustle” and “We Are Marshall” in the vein of triumphs and tragedies. M...

Exclusive: Tami Roman (Tami Ever After) is set as a series regular opposite comedian Ms. Pat and J. Bernard Calloway in Hulu’s The Ms. Pat Show, a pilot from the Empire duo of co-creator/executive Lee Daniels and executive producer Brian Grazer, Imagine Television and Fox 21 Studios, a division of Disney TV Studios.

The Ms. Pat Show is based on Ms. Pat’s stand-up comedy and memoir. It tells the story of a former convicted felon turned suburban mom (Ms. Pat), whose hustle and resilient spirit were forged on the streets of Atlanta. To much reserve, she now finds herself in conservative middle America alongside her penny-pinching husband (Calloway), a struggle of a sister, and two distinct sets of kids raised under very different circumstances.

Roman will play Denise, Pat’s sister.

Debbie Allen is directing from a script by Jordan E. Cooper, who was a writer on Daniels’ Fox drama Star.