Month: November 2021

Leonardo DiCaprio will play cult leader Jim Jones in an upcoming film. The new film will explore how Jones orchestrated the Jonestown mass suicide that caused over 900 deaths in November 1978.

Jones founded the Peoples Temple religious organization in Indianapolis in 1955 and constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974. When U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his delegation arrived to investigate Jonestown in 1978, they were killed by Jones’ followers. Following the killings, Jones ordered a mass murder-suicide among his followers by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid.  The mass suicide claimed the lives of over 900 people in November 1978.

Deadline confirmed that DiCaprio, 46, will star in the biopic as Jones. Venom writer Scott Rosenberg wrote the script and will executive produce with DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson.

Next up for DiCaprio is a starring role in the Netflix film Don’t Look Up and Martin Scorsese’s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon.

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Alanis Morissette, the singer/songwriter behind the multi-million-selling album Jagged Little Pill, will be the inspiration for a new ABC sitcom.  Titled Relatable, the sitcom is a single-camera comedy that follows a 40-something woman, married with three kids, who spent her young adult life as an international rock star, famous for her self-penned anthems of female rage and teen angst. Now this “voice of her generation,” although deeply bonded with her family, can’t quite get the next generation living in her house to listen to her.. While the main character is based on the life of Morissette, it will be a fictitious portrayal; Morissette’s life will serve to “loosely inform” the writing and stories though characters are fictional and non-biographical.

Morissette will serve as an executive producer and will provide an original soundtrack for the series. Alongside her are co-creators Elizabeth Beckwith (the supervising producer on The Goldbergs) and Christopher Moynihan (the creator of Marlon).

Morissette currently serves as a judge on Fox’s competition series Alter Ego, and recently released her ninth studio album. She also kicked off a world tour celebrating 25 years of Jagged Little Pill, and Jagged Little Pill: The Musical made its debut on Broadway in 2019.

Alanis Morissette is making a sitcom inspired by her life

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E! and NBC announced that actor/comedian Kenan Thompson will host the 2021 People’s Choice Awards. Thompson, 43, will host the 47th annual awards show set to air in December.  In addition to hosting, Thompson is nominated at the PCAs for The Comedy TV Star and The Male TV star for his work on Saturday Night Live.

Thompson said in a statement: “I can’t believe I get to host the PCAs! I’m beyond blessed to be nominated twice and part of two more nominations for SNL. Good times indeed!  Congrats to all the nominees — we already won!!” Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member on SNL, which returned for a 47th season in October. He also stars in and executive produces the NBC comedy series Kenan.

The People’s Choice Awards will air Dec. 7 at 9 p.m. EST on NBC and E!.

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Amazon Studios has released the first official, full-length trailer for ‘Being the Ricardos’ featuring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  You can view the trailer – here.

The film by Aaron Sorkin follows the famous pair during one critical production week of their sitcom, ‘I Love Lucy,’ which comes at a time when they’re being threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear, and cultural taboos. The trailer shows Kidman and Bardem playing Lucy and Desi, who perform scenes from ‘I Love Lucy’ throughout the movie while also dealing with the real-life drama in their lives.

Being the Ricardos also stars Jake Lacy, J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda and Alia Shawkat and will hit theaters Dec. 10. It will be available on Amazon Prime Video beginning Dec. 21.

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Netflix released a teaser for Stranger Things Season 4, and the 70-second preview for the upcoming season of the supernatural adventure series shares a voiceover of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) reading a letter she wrote to Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in Indiana, lamenting how it is 185 days since they have been apart.

Eleven shares she is adapting to her new life in California with Will (Noah Schnapp,) Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton,) and can’t wait to see Mike on spring break; but while she imagines date nights roller skating, the trailer also includes scenes of car chases, shootouts and helicopter landings.

The new season of Stranger Things Season 4 is slated to begin streaming in 2022.   Take a look at the trailer – here.

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People Magazine has named 52-year-old actor Paul Rudd as their ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ for 2021. Rudd was announced as the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ in an extended comedy sketch during “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night. The actor joins a long-list of Sexiest Men Alive honorees, including last year’s honoree Michael B. Jordan, and previous title holders George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Legend, Idris Elba, Chris Hemsworth, and Channing Tatum.  Rudd told People Magazine he hopes he’ll be invited to “some of those sexy dinners with Clooney and Pitt and B Jordan” and added, “I’m going to lean into it hard. I’m going to own this. I’m not going to try and be like, ‘Oh I’m so modest.’ I’m getting business cards made. But all of my friends will destroy me and I expect them to. And that’s why they’re my friends.”