11/22/21 Entertainment News
–Actor Art LaFleur, best known for playing Babe Ruth in The Sandlot, has died after a 10-year battle with A-typical Parkinson’s, his wife Shelley confirmed on Facebook. He was 78. LaFleur was also known for The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3, in which he played the Tooth Fairy, and as Chick Gandil, the ghost White Sox first baseman in Field of Dreams. His other film roles included Beethoven’s 4th, the coach in A Cinderella Story and A Snow Globe Christmas. His numerous TV credits included Charlie’s Angels, Lou Grant, Soap, Benson, Hill St. Blues, The A-Team. Doogie Howser, M.D., Matlock and E.R. He also had a recurring role on the late 1990s series Hyperion Bay. One of his last appearances was in Key and Peele in 2015…
–Kal Penn has been tapped to play the male lead in the FX comedy pilot Belated, according to Deadline. The half-hour comedy follows Owen — played by Penn — “a recently out man in his 40s, and his ex-wife Diana as they attempt to find their new normal and take on new relationships while continuing to co-parent together,” per the outlet. Belated also follows “an unexpected intergenerational friendship between Owen and Clay, a 17-year-old trans teen.” Penn, 44, came out a couple of weeks ago, announcing his engagement to his partner of 11 years in his memoir You Can’t Be Serious, published on November 2…
–Comedian Peter Aykroyd, best known for his stint on Saturday Night Live, has died at the age of 66, the NBC sketch comedy show shared via Twitter on Sunday. A cause of death has not yet been revealed. Aykroyd began his comedy career on SCTV before joining his older brother Dan on SNL as a featured player and writer in 1979. Aykroyd also had roles in movies such as Java Junkie, Coneheads, Spies Like Us and Justice. SNL paid tribute to Peter following Simu Liu’s hosting debut…
— Sunday night’s American Music Awards will be remembered for making history. The show brought two huge acts from the 1980s, New Edition and New Kids On The Block, on stage to face off in the so-called “Battle of Boston.” Host Cardi B noted she hadn’t even been born yet when these two boy bands were making their mark, but the significance of the event wasn’t lost on her. Neither was it lost on Gen X Twitter, which unsurprisingly had a bit of a freakout over the moment. The two bands brought their best ammo, performing medleys of their old hits.
— A sequel to the 1984 blockbuster “Ghostbusters” is the top movie in North America. “Ghostbusters — Afterlife” earned 44-million-dollars in its first weekend in theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Coming in second is “Eternals” with nearly eleven-million-bucks. In third place is “Clifford the Big Red Dog” with eight-and-a-half-million-dollars. Rounding out the Top Five are “King Richard” starring Will Smith followed by “Dune.” The James Bond picture “No Time to Die” finished in seventh place.
— A new documentary will look at the relationship between actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Discovery has commissioned the two-episode series called “Johnny vs. Amber.” It’s coming to Discovery Plus this fall. Heard filed for divorce back in 2016 and the High Court in the United Kingdom had to get involved. It ruled against Depp. Each film will be from one of their points of view, and lawyers will take part in the interviews.
— Nearly 200 lawsuits have been filed so far after the deadly crowd surge at a Houston music festival earlier this month. The family attorney of 27-year-old Danish Baig filed a lawsuit Friday, saying, “The last time Danish’s fiance heard his voice was him screaming her name out in terror while he was trying to save her life.” The crowd surge at the Astroworld festival happened as rapper Travis Scott was performing. Ten people were killed.
— Will Smith is revealing he was able to launch his career despite going broke for failing to pay his taxes with the help of a ten-thousand-dollar loan from a drug dealer. The star shared the personal story Thursday to fellow actor Idris Elbra during a promotion for his new autobiography “Will” at the Savoy Theatre in London. Smith said after getting into financial troubles in the early 90s, he asked a friend, who he described as “purveyor of neighborhood pharmaceuticals,” for the loan, and then promptly sold everything to move to Los Angeles. His lead role on the “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” saved him from having to file bankruptcy, and, according to Smith’s biography, 70-percent of his salary during the first three seasons of the show went back to the IRS.
— The Conservative Political Action Conference is not allowing any of the Sesame Street muppets to attend its annual meeting in Florida next year. CPAC tweeted a number of times this week about the decision to not let Big Bird, Elmo and other characters attend the conference in Orlando. The organization has not been pleased with the children’s show’s promotion of the COVID-19 vaccine. The president of CPAC also called for the defunding of PBS in a tweet last week after the show announced it would debut its first ever Asian American muppet.
— The Tiger King is no longer in Texas. Joe Exotic has been transferred from a federal prison in Fort Worth to a federal medical center in North Carolina. A social media account, run by Joseph Maldonado-Passage’s attorney, claims he has been diagnosed with cancer. The transfer is reportedly part of his treatment. The Butner correctional complex was home to a number of celebrity inmates, including the late Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. It was earlier this week that a second season of Tiger King made its debut on Netflix.
— Saturday Night Live is revealing its hosts and musical guests for the month of December. Billie Eilish will be doing double duty, hosting and performing on December 11th. The following week on December 18th, newly crowned People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” Paul Rudd will host with Charlie X-C-X as musical guest. Eilish made her SNL debut in September 2019 while Charlie X-C-X previously performed in 2014.
