Month: February 2022

The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were held Sunday, February 27, simulcast live on TNT and TBS from The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California.

The casts of “Ted Lasso” and “Succession” won for their ensemble work in the best television comedy and drama categories, while the cast of “CODA” won for best motion picture ensemble. Jean Smart picked up the Best Actress in a Comedy statuette for Hacks, and Jason Sudeikis was awarded the Best Actor in a Comedy trophy for Ted Lasso.

Jessica Chastain won for Best Actress in a Film for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, while the Best Actor in a Film trophy went to Will Smith for King Richard. Ariana DeBose earned the honor for Best Supporting Actress for her role in West Side Story, and Troy Kotsur was named Best Supporting Actor for his performance in CODA.

Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-Yeon were voted Best Actor and Actress in a Drama Series for Squid Game. Kate Winslet took home the award for Best Actress in a TV Movie or Limited Series for Mare of Easttown, and Michael Keaton won the award for Best Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series for Dopesick.

Helen Mirren was honored with the SAG Life Achievement Award.

For the full list of SAG award winners, head here.   The 2022 SAG award ceremony will be available to stream on HBO Max on Monday.

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Theater legend Patti LuPone announced she has tested positive for COVID-19, and will be forced to miss performances of the Broadway musical Company.

LuPone tweeted Sunday: “Hi Dolls. I showed up for Saturday’s matinee, tested positive for Covid with 3 tests. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of the show for 10 days. I’m so sorry.”

The 72-year-old LuPone stars with Katrina Lenk, Matt Doyle and Christopher Fitzgerald in the show, which features Stephen Sondheim’s well-known songs, “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and “Being Alive.”  LuPone is expected to return to the show on March 8.

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“Dancing With The Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy shared a series of emotional videos on the situation unfolding in Ukraine, posting video clips from a balcony in Kyiv on Instagram and describing the scene in his home country.

Said Maksim in the first video clip: “I’m in Kyiv, contrary to what I probably should’ve done a while ago. Not that no one saw this coming, but everybody was hoping that the finality of this situation would be averted, that there wasn’t going to be these kind of aggressive measures.”

In a second video, an emotional Chmerkovskiy said: “You know me — I stay strong, and I don’t show it. But I want to go back home. And I realize that I have the way to — I realize that I have a different passport, and my family is far away.”  Maksim shared that he was “about to go into a bomb shelter because s**t’s going down,” before making a plea to Russia: “In 2022’s civilized world, this is not the way we do things. I think the Russians need to get up and actually say something, because no one’s opinion is being heard. This is all one man’s ambition of something, and however convenient it sounds in Moscow, however comfortable you are where you are in Russia, I just don’t think this is the right thing.”

Chmerkovskiy added: “I’m uneasy, I’m very scared … but I do know, at the very least, I have a chance. I have a passport and a way out. A lot of people here do not, and it’s f**king nonsense. I have [had] a f**king incredible pleasure to spend, on the ground, about six months now, and I’ve fell back in love — I never fell out of love, but I know now who these people are. I know who this country is, what it represents, what it stands for. And it’s completely not what is being portrayed to the Russian people in order to justify this invasion.”

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Filmmaker and actor Sean Penn is in Ukraine, as the country deals with a full-scale invasion of Russian military forces. The country’s presidential office said Thursday that Penn had arrived in the capital, Kyiv, to film a documentary about the conflict.

The Office of the President wrote in a Facebook post Thursday that Penn attended press briefings, met with Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and spoke to journalists and military personnel about the Russian invasion. Photos have also surfaced of Penn meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president’s office wrote on Facebook: “Sean Penn demonstrates the courage that many others, especially western politicians lack. The director specially came to Kiev to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.”

The 61-year-old actor is working on the project in collaboration with VICE Studios. Reports say that Penn flew to Kyiv earlier in the week and that he had previously traveled to Ukraine in November. During that trip, Penn also met with Russia-backed separatists.

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Netflix’s ‘Ozark‘ announced in a teaser trailer that Part 2 of Season 4 is set to premiere on April 29. The first seven episodes of Season 4 were released on the streaming service January 21.  The teaser focuses on Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), the 20-year-old heir of the Langmore clan, who seems to be at the brink of an emotional collapse after everything that happened in Part 1 of Ozark’s fourth season.

Along with series stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, returning cast members for the final season of Ozark include Sofia Hublitz as Marty and Wendy’s daughter Charlotte and Skylar Gaertner as their son Jonah. Ozark’s Season 4 cast also includes Jessica Frances Dukes, Damian Young, Alfonso Herrera, Adam Rothenberg, John Bedford Lloyd, Joseph Sikora, Bruno Bichir, CC Castillo, Katrina Lenk, Bruce Davison, Ali Stroker, and Veronica Falcón.

The final seven episodes of Ozark hit Netflix on April 29.  Check out the teaser trailer for Part 2 – here.

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Apple TV+ announced that Amanda Seyfried has been cast opposite Tom Holland in upcoming anthology series “The Crowded Room.”

“The Crowded Room,” from writer Akiva Goldsman, will explore inspirational stories of people who have struggled and learned to successfully live with mental illness. Season 1 is a 10-episode thriller based in part on Goldsman’s own life and Daniel Keyes’ biography “The Minds of Billy Milligan.”

Seyfried will play Rya, a clinical psychologist faced with the most challenging case of her career. Rya cannot help but put her patients first, all the while trying to balance her life as a single mother. As previously announced, Tom Holland plays the leading role of Danny Sullivan. Holland also executive produces alongside Goldsman. Kornel Mundruczo is attached as director and executive producer for the first season.

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