Category: Uncategorized

  • Black Mirror season 7 trailer teases return of the USS Callister

    Black Mirror season 7 trailer teases return of the USS Callister

    The British sci-fi series is back for “six electrifying stories,” including the sequel to USS Calister, the Emmy-award-winning episode that opened season 4. The first sequel in Black Mirror history followed an unpopular video game programmer (Jesse Plemons) who created a Star Trek-like video game with digital clones of his coworkers. Stars from USS Callister returning for the sequel are Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, and Billy Magnussen.

    “Fans of the show will recognize the cast of a certain spaceship from one of our episodes reappearing,” series creator Charlie Brooker told Netflix. “We’ve done a sequel for the first time in Black Mirror history. Normally, I kill off all the characters at the end of an episode, [but] I kept some of ’em alive. I’m growing as a human.”

    The USS Callister is not the only episode featuring familiar characters. Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry return as Tuckersoft employees Colin Ritman and Mohan Thakur. The duo was featured in Bandersnatch, the 2018 interactive film where fans could choose their own adventure to provide different endings.

    Netflix remains secretive about the other episodes in season 7. However, the star-studded cast has been revealed. It includes Michele Austin, Awkwafina, Milanka Brooks, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Patsy Ferran, Paul Giamatti, Lewis Gribben, Osy Ikhile, Rashida Jones, Siena Kelly, Rosy McEwen, Josh Finan, James Nelson-Joyce, Chris O’Dowd, Issa Rae, Paul G. Raymond, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jay Simpson, Ben Bailey Smith, Harriet Walter, and Michael Workéyè.

    Black Mirror is created by Emmy winner Charlie Brooker, who executive produces with Jessica Rhoades and Annabel Jones. The first two seasons of Black Mirror and a Christmas special aired on British Channel 4. Subsequent seasons have all aired on Netflix.

  • ‘Freakier Friday’ Trailer: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan Swap Bodies Once Again 22 Years After Original Movie

    ‘Freakier Friday’ Trailer: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan Swap Bodies Once Again 22 Years After Original Movie

    ‘Freakier Friday’ Trailer: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan Swap Bodies Once Again 22 Years After Original Movie

    Selena Kuznikov

    March 14, 2025 at 5:09 PM

    The trailer for Nisha Ganatra’s “Freakier Friday,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, has been unveiled. The film is a sequel to the 2003 comedy “Freaky Friday,” starring Curtis and Lohan as mother-daughter duo Tess and Anna Coleman.

    According to a press release from The Walt Disney Company, the sequel features a “multigenerational twist,” with the film picking up many years after Tess and Anna originally swapped bodies. Anna has a daughter of her own, plus a soon-to-be stepdaughter. Tess and Anna navigate the challenges that come with merging two families and “discover that lightning might indeed strike twice.” The trailer reveals that this time it’s a four-way body swap as Anna, Tess and Anna’s daughter and step-daughter all wake up in different bodies.

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    Joining Curtis and Lohan are returning stars Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Haley Hudson, Lucille Soong, Stephen Tobolowsky and Rosalind Chao. “The Acolyte” star Manny Jacinto, “Never Have I Ever” breakout Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Sophia Hammons and Julia Butters have joined the sequel.

    The original film, based on Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel of the same name, follows Tess and Anna, a mother-daughter pair. Tess, a widowed mother, is prepping for a big wedding while musician Anna gears up for a gig that could make or break her band. When the two receive a mystical fortune cookie that causes them to swap bodies, they’re forced to accept each other unconditionally.

    Disney officially announced in March 2024 that the sequel was moving forward, with Ganatra directing. The filmmaker and screenwriter has helmed episodes of Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales” and Max’s “And Just Like That…” and directed feature films “The High Note,” starring Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis Ross, and “Late Night,” starring Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson.

    Andrew Gunn, who produced the first movie, is producing the sequel alongside former Disney exec Kristin Burr, with a script from “Dollface” creator Jordan Weiss.

    The film is set to release in 2025. Watch the trailer below.

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  • ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Officially A Go With Jason Sudeikis; Juno Temple In Negotiations To Join Returning Cast As Apple Series Heads To Kansas

    ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Officially A Go With Jason Sudeikis; Juno Temple In Negotiations To Join Returning Cast As Apple Series Heads To Kansas

    You better believe it: Ted Lasso is officially back as Apple TV+ has greenlighted a fourth season of its flagship comedy series, with Jason Sudeikis set to return as star and executive producer.

    According to sources, Juno Temple, who played Keeley in the first three seasons, is in negotiations to rejoin fellow original cast members Sudeikis (Coach Lasso) as well as Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca), Brett Goldstein (Roy) and Jeremy Swift (Leslie) who were locked in for the new installment back in August.

    And, picking up where Season 3 left off, I hear the Season 4 premiere episode will film in Kansas (likely Kansas City) before Ted Lasso heads back to the UK. Casting of new roles is expected to begin shortly, with production eying a July start, sources said.

    The official renewal announcement for the Warner Bros TV-produced series comes as its Season 4 writing team, featuring mostly Ted Lasso alums, has already been working on scripts for a couple of months. If hear the writers room is led by co-showrunners Sudeikis and new series addition Jack Burditt (Modern Family, 30 Rock), a comedy veteran who recently played a key role on the first season of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This.

    In his first public comments about Season 4 of Ted Lasso, the usually tightlipped Sudeikis remained cryptic while providing some clues about the direction the show may be taking.

    “As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap, in season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be,” he said in a statement.

    Not surprisingly, AFC Richmond, the fictional English football club where Ted was a coach for three seasons, will again be the setting for the show despite his departure at the end of Season 3 to return to his native Kansas. However, Sudeikis spoke of the “folks” at the club, not necessarily the players.

    That jibes with the fact that all original cast members secured to return full time so far play characters on Richmond’s management/coaching side, not the players, whose trials and tribulations were chronicled over the first three seasons.

    The “leap before they look” reference would fit one popular fan theory. In the Season 3 finale, Keeley and Rebecca, somewhat impulsively, partnered on a potential new venture, AFC Richmond women’s team. That was seen as possibly kicking off the next chapter in the Ted Lasso franchise, and it would qualify as a leap of faith.

    The last time we saw Ted at the end of the Season 3 finale, he was coaching his son on a soccer field in Kansas. The handful of Kansas-set scenes in the first three seasons were actually filmed in California, so this would be the first time Kansas native Sudeikis & Co. would be heading to the Sunflower State for the show.

    The march toward the long-awaited fourth season of Ted Lasso started in August when the hit comedy’s studio Warner Bros Television picked up the options on three original cast members who had been contracted under the aegis of the UK acting union Equity: Waddingham, Goldstein and Swift.

    Not picked up at the time was Phil Dunster (Jamie), presumably due to a conflict with another series. He has since signed on for a series regular role on a new HBO comedy from Ted Lasso executive producer Bill Lawrence and Warner Bros TV but could potentially reprise his role in some limited capacity, with fellow Brit Nick Mohammed (Nate) teasing a possible Ted Lasso return in January.

    As Deadline reported in August, the next step for the studio was to make deals with cast members under SAG-AFTRA contracts whose options had expired. That included Sudeikis, Temple and Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard).

    Sudeikis has still closed a big new deal that includes his acting services in addition to writing-producing. Temple has been in negotiations for a couple of months, with a scheduling conflict believed to be the sticking point though sources are optimistic that an agreement can be reached. I hear that currently, there is no acting deal in place for Hunt but that should not be a reason for concern. Alongside Sudeikis and fellow OG cast member Goldstein, he already has been working in the writers room.

    Sudeikis, Hunt and Goldstein are executive producers alongside fellow returning Ted Lasso writers-producers Joe Kelly, Jane Becker, Jamie Lee, Bill Wrubel and Leann Bowen. Also back in the Ted Lasso writers room are Phoebe Walsh and Sarah Walker as producers, Sasha Garron as co-producer, and Dylan Marron as story editor. In addition to executive producer/co-showrunner Burditt, who has signed an overall deal with Apple TV+ upon joining the show, new to the team is staff writer Julia Lindon.

    Lawrence, who developed the series with Sudeikis, Kelly and Hunt, is a non-writing executive producer via his Doozer Productions alongside the company’s Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer.

    With its uplifting tone, aspirational storytelling and a good-natured, mild-mannered and optimistic lead character, Ted Lasso was the perfect show to launch at the height of the pandemic in August 2020. The comedy became an instant global hit and Apple’s signature and — until recently — most-watched original series ever.

    In addition to its immense popularity and marquee pop culture status, Ted Lasso earned 13 Emmy Awards during its original three-season run, including two back-to-back Outstanding Comedy Series trophies and acting wins for Sudeikis (2), Goldstein (2) and Waddingham.

    “Ted Lasso has been nothing short of a juggernaut, inspiring a passionate fanbase all over the world, and delivering endless joy and laughter, all while spreading kindness, compassion and unwavering belief,” said Matt Cherniss, head of programming for Apple TV+. “Everyone at Apple is thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Jason and the brilliant creative minds behind this show.”

    Sudeikis had originally conceived the comedy as a three-season story arc and he stuck with the plan despite the series’ enormous success. But he didn’t shut the door to more Ted Lasso completely — which is why Season 3 was not labeled as final despite its last episode’s “So Long, Farewell” title.

    Since the Season 3 finale aired in May 2023, Apple TV+ as well as Warner Bros TV had been looking to bring the show back, with hopes always hinging on Sudeikis’ participation. Once he was on board (unofficially at first), the two companies moved in to figure out the budget and make deals with actors and writers for a fourth season.

    “If ever there was a show the world needed more of right now, it would be Ted Lasso,” Channing Dungey, Chairman and CEO, Warner Bros. Television Group and WBD US Networks, said. “We — along with countless fans around the globe — have been rooting for another season, and it is an incredible feeling to be able to say, ‘Yes, it’s happening!’ We thank our partners at Apple and can’t wait for Jason and the entire Ted Lasso dream team to step back onto the pitch and deliver another season of this phenomenal series.”

    Ted Lasso is produced by Doozer Productions in association with Warner Bros Television and Universal Television, a division of NBCUniversal Content. The series is based on the preexisting format and characters from NBC Sports.

  • Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara star on album

    Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara star on album

    NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Salonga stepped onto a Manhattan stage last spring and sang something unusual for her — “Edelweiss” from the musical “The Sound of Music,” a song usually performed by the paternal Captain von Trapp.

    It was part of MCC Theater’s annual “Miscast” gala that’s celebrating 25 years with an album of top musical theater stars performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. It drops March 28.

    In addition to Salonga, the album has performances by an A-list of Broadway: Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt, Kelli O’Hara, Katrina Lenk, Stephanie J. Block, Rachel Zegler, Raúl Esparza, Heather Headley, Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel.

    Zegler channeled her inner green ogre for “Who I’d Be” from “Shrek,” and Lenk borrowed Tevye’s “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Headley, who originated the role of Nala in “The Lion King,” instead sang Simba’s moving ballad “Endless Night.”

    “We have some that are just funny and silly. We have some that actually change the meaning of a song when someone sings them. We have some that’s just a phenomenal person singing a phenomenal song and that’s enough,” says Scott Galina, manager of musical programming and development at MCC. “So it really feels like it captures the breadth of the way a ‘Miscast’ performance can land.”

    Other highlights include a live version of “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent” by Tveit and Creel, a capture made more special because of the death of Creel last year. And Groff and Jordan sing the two divas’ anthem “Let Me Be Your Star” from “Smash.”

    Noblezada gets muscular singing “Go the Distance” from “Hercules,” and Platt gets in a green mood to sing Elphaba’s “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked.” O’Hara submits a tender “Beautiful City” from “Godspell,” while married couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson sing “The Human Heart” from “Once on This Island.”

    “There’s not a track on the album that you get to and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a skip,’” says Will Van Dyke, musical director for “Miscast” for the past six years. “That’s like my goal in everything — you never want to have a skip track on there.”

    MCC Theater is a nonprofit, off-Broadway company that delights with its spring gala “Miscast” surprises, which started in 2001 and went online for a few years during the pandemic. To make the new album, the performers were asked to recreate their live songs in the studio, giving engineers a cleaner sound.

    Whittling down the various performances over the decades to fit on a 12-album collection — called “MCC Theater’s Miscast: The Studio Sessions” — wasn’t easy but some songs popped out for having made a lasting impact.

    “Katrina Lenk is still hearing about people who talk about her singing ‘If I Were a Rich Man,’” says Galina. “These are moments that have become bigger for these people than we certainly ever could have intended.”

    MCC Theater will celebrate its 25th anniversary on April 7 with a “Miscast” gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom. It will honor Sheryl Lee Ralph and MCC Youth Company alum and artist Travis Raeburn.

    The “Miscast25” lineup will feature performances by Tituss Burgess, Cole Escola, Jordan Fisher, Steven Pasquale, Nicole Scherzinger, Britton Smith, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, Jordan Tyson, Michael Urie and Tveit. Funds raised by the gala and the album go back to MCC Theater.

    Over the years, “Miscast” has seen the landscape of Broadway change with more unconventional choices in race, gender and age. Galina points to a recent gender-swapped version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” that transformed the male lead Bobbie into a woman.

    “A lot of years before my time at ‘Miscast,’ you would have women singing ‘Being Alive’ from ‘Company’ or ‘Mary Me a Little’ from ‘Company,’” he says. “And now there’s been a production on Broadway with a woman playing Bobbie. So, there are no rules around that anymore, which is amazing.”

  • Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara Star on Album

    Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara Star on Album

    MCC Theater is celebrating its 25th anniversary anniversary with an album of Broadway A-listers — including Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt, Kelli O’Hara and Katrina Lenk — performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. (Joy Machine Records via AP)

    NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Salonga stepped onto a Manhattan stage last spring and sang something unusual for her — “Edelweiss” from the musical “The Sound of Music,” a song usually performed by the paternal Captain von Trapp.

    It was part of MCC Theater’s annual “Miscast” gala that’s celebrating 25 years with an album of top musical theater stars performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. It drops March 28.

    In addition to Salonga, the album has performances by an A-list of Broadway: Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt, Kelli O’Hara, Katrina Lenk, Stephanie J. Block, Rachel Zegler, Raúl Esparza, Heather Headley, Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel.

    Zegler channeled her inner green ogre for “Who I’d Be” from “Shrek,” and Lenk borrowed Tevye’s “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Headley, who originated the role of Nala in “The Lion King,” instead sang Simba’s moving ballad “Endless Night.”

    “We have some that are just funny and silly. We have some that actually change the meaning of a song when someone sings them. We have some that’s just a phenomenal person singing a phenomenal song and that’s enough,” says Scott Galina, manager of musical programming and development at MCC. “So it really feels like it captures the breadth of the way a ‘Miscast’ performance can land.”

    Other highlights include a live version of “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent” by Tveit and Creel, a capture made more special because of the death of Creel last year. And Groff and Jordan sing the two divas’ anthem “Let Me Be Your Star” from “Smash.”

    Noblezada gets muscular singing “Go the Distance” from “Hercules,” and Platt gets in a green mood to sing Elphaba’s “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked.” O’Hara submits a tender “Beautiful City” from “Godspell,” while married couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson sing “The Human Heart” from “Once on This Island.”

    “There’s not a track on the album that you get to and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a skip,’” says Will Van Dyke, musical director for “Miscast” for the past six years. “That’s like my goal in everything — you never want to have a skip track on there.”

    MCC Theater is a nonprofit, off-Broadway company that delights with its spring gala “Miscast” surprises, which started in 2001 and went online for a few years during the pandemic. To make the new album, the performers were asked to recreate their live songs in the studio, giving engineers a cleaner sound.

    Whittling down the various performances over the decades to fit on a 12-album collection — called “MCC Theater’s Miscast: The Studio Sessions” — wasn’t easy but some songs popped out for having made a lasting impact.

    “Katrina Lenk is still hearing about people who talk about her singing ‘If I Were a Rich Man,’” says Galina. “These are moments that have become bigger for these people than we certainly ever could have intended.”

    MCC Theater will celebrate its 25th anniversary on April 7 with a “Miscast” gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom. It will honor Sheryl Lee Ralph and MCC Youth Company alum and artist Travis Raeburn.

    The “Miscast25” lineup will feature performances by Tituss Burgess, Cole Escola, Jordan Fisher, Steven Pasquale, Nicole Scherzinger, Britton Smith, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, Jordan Tyson, Michael Urie and Tveit. Funds raised by the gala and the album go back to MCC Theater.

    Over the years, “Miscast” has seen the landscape of Broadway change with more unconventional choices in race, gender and age. Galina points to a recent gender-swapped version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” that transformed the male lead Bobbie into a woman.

    “A lot of years before my time at ‘Miscast,’ you would have women singing ‘Being Alive’ from ‘Company’ or ‘Mary Me a Little’ from ‘Company,’” he says. “And now there’s been a production on Broadway with a woman playing Bobbie. So, there are no rules around that anymore, which is amazing.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accuses CNN of altering, destroying video of rapper assaulting ex Cassie Ventura

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accuses CNN of altering, destroying video of rapper assaulting ex Cassie Ventura

    Newly released security video from a Los Angeles hotel appears to show the billionaire mogul brutally assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the hallway. (Obtained exclusively by CNN)

    Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense accused CNN of altering and destroying a video showing the rapper physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

    Hotel surveillance footage, released by the outlet last May, showed Combs and Cassie Ventura engaged in a physical altercation. While the footage has been provided to Combs’ defense in his federal sex trafficking trial, the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper now claims it has been “substantially altered.”

    “The defense has confirmed, through a forensic video analysis of the CNN footage that the government provided to this Court and of the footage provided by CNN in response to the defense subpoena, that all CNN video footage was substantially altered in significant respects,” Combs’ legal team wrote in a letter filed in court Thursday and obtained by Fox News Digital. “This includes covering the time stamp and then changing the video sequence. It also includes speeding up the video to make it falsely appear that the actions in the video are taking place faster than they are. As a result, the CNN videos do not fairly and accurately depict the events in question.”

    “Finally, the defense has confirmed that CNN purchased the only known copy of the Hotel’s surveillance footage, uploaded that footage into a free editing software, altered the video; and then destroyed the original footage even though it knew about and repeatedly reported about the federal investigation.”

    SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS REACTS TO VIRAL VIDEO OF HIM ALLEGEDLY BEATING CASSIE: ‘I’M DISGUSTED’

    CNN denied the allegations, stating that the original copy still exists.

    “CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source,” a spokesperson for CNN told Fox News Digital. “CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”

    Diddy’s homes were raided in connection with a human trafficking investigation in March 2024. The video of Combs with Cassie, which featured a physical altercation that occurred in 2016, was published in May 2024. The musician had accused Combs of physical and sexual abuse in November 2023 through a civil lawsuit that she withdrew one day later.

    “CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source. CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”

    — CNN spokesperson

    Combs was later arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution in September 2024.

    The rapper was arrested at a hotel in New York, a source confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

    CASSIE’S LAWYER CRITICIZES DIDDY’S ‘DISINGENUOUS’ APOLOGY VIDEO AS STARS REACT TO HOTEL ASSAULT STATEMENT

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    Diddy apologized for the behavior in the video, six months after settling Cassie’s sexual abuse lawsuit.

    “My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” Combs said in a statement shared to social media after the video aired. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.”

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    Combs is currently behind bars as he awaits trial. Judge Arun Subramanian scheduled the rapper’s trial to begin on May 5. The prosecution expects the government’s case to take six weeks to lay out, while Diddy’s legal team now estimates needing two weeks to argue the rapper’s defense.

    Authorities alleged Combs ran a criminal enterprise through his businesses, including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises and Combs Global, among others. He used “firearms, threats of violence, coercion, and verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse” to fulfill his sexual desires, according to the unsealed indictment obtained by Fox News Digital.

    Combs and his employees would “intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Comb’s orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs allegedly then used force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs referred to as, among other things, ‘Freak Offs.’”

  • Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara star on album

    Broadway’s Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt and Kelli O’Hara star on album

    NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Salonga stepped onto a Manhattan stage last spring and sang something unusual for her — “Edelweiss” from the musical “The Sound of Music,” a song usually performed by the paternal Captain von Trapp.

    It was part of MCC Theater’s annual “Miscast” gala that’s celebrating 25 years with an album of top musical theater stars performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. It drops March 28.

    In addition to Salonga, the album has performances by an A-list of Broadway: Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt, Kelli O’Hara, Katrina Lenk, Stephanie J. Block, Rachel Zegler, Raúl Esparza, Heather Headley, Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel.

    Zegler channeled her inner green ogre for “Who I’d Be” from “Shrek,” and Lenk borrowed Tevye’s “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Headley, who originated the role of Nala in “The Lion King,” instead sang Simba’s moving ballad “Endless Night.”

    “We have some that are just funny and silly. We have some that actually change the meaning of a song when someone sings them. We have some that’s just a phenomenal person singing a phenomenal song and that’s enough,” says Scott Galina, manager of musical programming and development at MCC. “So it really feels like it captures the breadth of the way a ‘Miscast’ performance can land.”

    Other highlights include a live version of “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent” by Tveit and Creel, a capture made more special because of the death of Creel last year. And Groff and Jordan sing the two divas’ anthem “Let Me Be Your Star” from “Smash.”

    Noblezada gets muscular singing “Go the Distance” from “Hercules,” and Platt gets in a green mood to sing Elphaba’s “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked.” O’Hara submits a tender “Beautiful City” from “Godspell,” while married couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson sing “The Human Heart” from “Once on This Island.”

    “There’s not a track on the album that you get to and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a skip,’” says Will Van Dyke, musical director for “Miscast” for the past six years. “That’s like my goal in everything — you never want to have a skip track on there.”

    MCC Theater is a nonprofit, off-Broadway company that delights with its spring gala “Miscast” surprises, which started in 2001 and went online for a few years during the pandemic. To make the new album, the performers were asked to recreate their live songs in the studio, giving engineers a cleaner sound.

    Whittling down the various performances over the decades to fit on a 12-album collection — called “MCC Theater’s Miscast: The Studio Sessions” — wasn’t easy but some songs popped out for having made a lasting impact.

    “Katrina Lenk is still hearing about people who talk about her singing ‘If I Were a Rich Man,’” says Galina. “These are moments that have become bigger for these people than we certainly ever could have intended.”

    MCC Theater will celebrate its 25th anniversary on April 7 with a “Miscast” gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom. It will honor Sheryl Lee Ralph and MCC Youth Company alum and artist Travis Raeburn.

    The “Miscast25” lineup will feature performances by Tituss Burgess, Cole Escola, Jordan Fisher, Steven Pasquale, Nicole Scherzinger, Britton Smith, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, Jordan Tyson, Michael Urie and Tveit. Funds raised by the gala and the album go back to MCC Theater.

    Over the years, “Miscast” has seen the landscape of Broadway change with more unconventional choices in race, gender and age. Galina points to a recent gender-swapped version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” that transformed the male lead Bobbie into a woman.

    “A lot of years before my time at ‘Miscast,’ you would have women singing ‘Being Alive’ from ‘Company’ or ‘Mary Me a Little’ from ‘Company,’” he says. “And now there’s been a production on Broadway with a woman playing Bobbie. So, there are no rules around that anymore, which is amazing.”

  • ‘Ghost Adventures’ star Aaron Goodwin files for divorce after…

    ‘Ghost Adventures’ star Aaron Goodwin files for divorce after…

    “Ghost Adventures” star Aaron Goodwin has filed for divorce from his wife Victoria after she allegedly tried to pay a hitman to kill her husband in a chilling murder-for-hire plot.

    The TV star, 48, on Wednesday filed a complaint for divorce in Clark County, Nev. from Victoria, 32, asking for neither party to be granted alimony, Us Weekly reports.

    Goodwin also asked the court to award him “his reasonable costs, expenses and attorney fees incurred herein,” adding a request for his his separate assets and debts be confirmed.

    As for the reason for the filing, Goodwin stated that his and Victoria’s “views, tastes, likes and dislikes” have become “incompatible to the extent that it has become impossible for them to live together as husband and wife in marital harmony.”

    “There is no possibility of reconciliation between husband and wife,” he added in the filing, the outlet reports.

    The couple tied the knot at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion in California in August 2022 and reside in Las Vegas.

    However, Goodwin listed the duo’s marriage date “on or about May 4, 2020” in the filing, the outlet adds.

    The Post has reached out to Goodwin’s reps for comment.

    Last week, Victoria was arrested and charged for solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to murder, after an investigation allegedly unearthed her sinister plot, TMZ reported.

    The wife of the TV paranormal investigator had allegedly been messaging an inmate at an undisclosed Florida prison since October 2024, openly expressing wanting to kill Goodwin to get out of her marriage.

    “Am I a bad person? Because I chose to end his existence. Not divorce,” police cited Victoria texting the inmate.

    She allegedly offered $11,515 to pay for the job and passed along info about her husband’s location to the inmate to provide to a hitman he was communicating with to pull off the kill.

    The 48-year-old paranormal investigator was allegedly filming “Ghost Adventures” in California when the hit was meant to go down.

    “He’s asleep right now in the hotel room … I need to know what’s going on. Can I get an update. Was it done?” the inmate texted the hitman, according to police.

    It’s unclear what happened with the hitman, but police claim that Victoria made a down payment of $2,500 to have her ghost-hunting husband killed.

    Cops said the alleged murder-for-hire plot was only discovered after corrections officers confiscated the Florida inmate’s phone as contraband, TMZ reported, citing law enforcement.

    Victoria has denied ever wanting to have her husband killed, according to the report, and allegedly told investigators that she was only “daydreaming or fantasizing about being without her husband.”

  • Doug Kiker, ‘American Idol’ hopeful who made Katy Perry cry, dead at 32

    Doug Kiker, ‘American Idol’ hopeful who made Katy Perry cry, dead at 32

    Doug Kiker, an American Idol contestant who went viral after he became known as the “Singing Garbage Man,” has died at age 32.

    Kiker’s cause of death is under investigation, according to several media reports.

    “It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the passing of my brother Douglas Kiker he was sooo loved and will be missed by so many! Your singing with the Angel’s now Bubba Please pray for our family as we go threw this very difficult time (sic),” his sister Angela Evans wrote in a Facebook post.

    “We lost an amazing person today,” his other sister Donna Kiker Carrillos-Ramirez added in a second Facebook message. “He had the biggest smile and knew how to make you laugh. I know I didn’t raise him but I never stopped loving him. My parents did an amazing job with him. Douglas Kiker you will forever be missed. Fly high. Say hey to grandma.”

    The Alabama garbage collector wowed Idol judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan on the Season 18 premiere back in 2020 with his cover of of Rascal Flatts’ Bless the Broken Road.

    In his introduction, Kiker said that he had had never performed in front of an audience before and only sung when he was collecting trash.

    “That was not garbage. It was greatness,” Perry reacted tearfully to his rendition. “You just stay who you are and you’re going to go so far. And you’re going to take your daughter to all the highest heights.”

    When Perry asked him what he thought he could do as a singer, Kiker said he was still “trying to figure that out.”

    “I want us all to let you know that you’re a hell of a man,” Richie said. “For a man who has no idea what his voice can do, for a man who has no idea what key he’s singing in, for a man who has no idea who the heck he can be, he’s here to do one thing: He’s trying to show his daughter that he’s somebody.”

    Kiker was handed a golden ticket and sent straight on to Hollywood, but was eliminated early on in the singing competition.

    Kiker’s audition video racked up more than 200 million video views across all platforms, according to Yahoo! Idol expert, Lyndsey Parker, and he was brought back for a virtual encore during the Season 18 finale.

    The aspiring singer tried to keep the momentum going, launching a crowd-funding campaign called “From Garbage to Greatness” to record his debut album on Indiegogo. But the effort fell short of its stated $25,000 goal, raising only $5,581.

    In 2021, TMZ reported that Kiker had been arrested on charges of domestic violence.

    In one of his final social media posts back in 2022, Kiker promised he was going to “strive everyday to be my best self.”

    “To all the people that have shown your love and support!!!! I appreciate you!!!! I may have been down but don’t ever count me out I refuse to give up on all the people rooting for the dreamers of the world as long there’s breath in me I’m gonna live and strive everyday to be my best self and show that I’m not just talk,” he wrote on Instagram.

    Kiker’s family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover his funeral expenses and “say goodbye to one of the most sincere souls.”

    “We are now left with the difficult task of bringing him home and covering funeral expenses. We are reaching out for help to honor Douglas’s memory and give him a proper farewell,” the GoFundMe reads.

    According to TMZ, Doug is survived by two children that he shares with ex-fiancee Valerie Cook.

  • Chappell Roan Gets the Job Done with New Single “The Giver”

    Chappell Roan Gets the Job Done with New Single “The Giver”

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    On Thursday, the Midwestern Princess herself released her long awaited new single “The Giver” for fans. Roan first teased the song during her Saturday Night Live debut last fall, but it wasn’t until today that fans were able to stream the song on demand — and trust us, you’ll be streaming this one over and over again. The singer’s latest comes after she experienced a whirlwind year with history-making festival sets, multiple inescapable summer hits, and of course her recent Grammy win for Best New Artist.

    While “The Giver” embraces that traditional twang that so many country songs have (the first 30 seconds you can’t help but think of old-school Shania Twain) the track’s lyrics are anything but run of the mill. Roan recently shared that she thought it would be “funny” to release a “lesbian country song” bringing together her Midwestern upbringing and her openly queer identity.

    “I’m trying to really articulate that it’s not me trying to cross genres and be like, ‘Hey, you know, look at me.’ I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song,” Roan said in a recent interview with Amazon Music. “That’s not what I feel like I’m doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”

    She continued, “I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think, the essence of country music is, for me, which is nostalgia, and fun in the summertime, and the fiddle, and the banjo feeling like country queen. It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn’t let me feel. I think it’s interesting and I had to do it. I had to do it for myself to know what is it actually like to write a country song and perform it next to ‘Casual’ or next to ‘My Kink Is Karma’ or next to ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ — I just had to do myself justice.”

    Roan also shared more on the inspiration behind the new song on Instagram, where over recent weeks she’s teased the single’s release with curated photos of her dressed for different “jobs”, nodding to the song’s lyrics.

    “Dan Nigro and I wrote this together and it was so fun!!! We’ve never done a country song and I have such a special place in my heart for country music. I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars,” she wrote. “Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album??? My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on cuntry xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall *✲☆⋆”