‘Party Down’ Review: Party Hearty

Ghost shirts, which are sacred to certain Indigenous communities, were thought to guard the wearer against bullets through spiritual power. This precious heirloom is at the center of Tony Tost’s directorial debut film at SXSW, Americana. This western dramedy has some tricks up its sleeve, thanks to the brilliant writing and the script’s comedic timing. It boasts a big cast of actors including Sydney Sweeney, Halsey, Paul Walter Hauser, Zahn McClarnon, Simon Rex, Eric Dane and Gavin Maddox Bergman.

, Jennifer Garner is a welcome addition to the cast of the Starz comedy as Evie, a film producer who falls for Henry (Adam Scott) and starts spending more and more time with him while he spends time working for the titular catering company. By episode four, «KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau,» which debuted on Friday, their relationship is in full swing when the two decide to spend his latest shift working a pre-concert Malibu luau on mushrooms. But they're not the only ones who decide to take the hallucinogenic, with the rest of the team -- played by Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoë Chao -- joining in on the hilariously unexpected adventures that follow, especially for Garner's character, whose emotional ups and downs allow the 50-year-old actress' comedic chops to really shine. «It was terrifying,» Garner tells ET's Will Marfuggi about learning what she had to do in the episode.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were not invited to Sir Elton John’s annual Oscars bash, a royal expert has said. The snub proves the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are “nobodies in Hollywood”, author Tom Bower added. Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, failed to appear at any Academy Awards 2023 events over the weekend.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Sometimes, when a documentary has a great subject, it can explore that subject with an intimacy that’s arresting, only to treat other aspects of the story with a kind of cavalier casualness. “Love to Love You Donna Summer” is that kind of documentary. Co-directed by Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano (who is Summer’s daughter), it’s full of home movies and photographs and archival footage of Donna Summer, and it creates an eye-opening portrait of the ambitious yet deeply disconsolate woman she was. We see her when she was growing up in Boston, where she sang gospel in church and felt a gift passing through her, knowing that she was going to be famous, or when she moved to Munich in 1968, at 19, to be in the German production of “Hair” (there’s a startling clip of her onstage, in long dark pigtails, singing “Aquarius” in German), or later on, after she’d become a pop star, at home with her daughters, lost in the empty mirror of fame.

Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson has revealed an amazing story that she and the late Princess Diana, who were close friends after they both embarked on relationships with members of the Royal Family, got arrested at the former's hen party. Fergie, who married Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, in July 1986, after an incredibly short engagement following the Royal's proposal in February of the same year, said they both got in trouble when they dressed up as police officers. The Duchess of York, 63, has recalled how she embarked on a hilarious night out with the then Princess of Wales, who had married then-Prince Charles in 1981.

Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson have gotten into some trouble! On Tuesday's episode of, Fergie dished on the time she and Diana got arrested ahead of her 1986 wedding to Prince Andrew for impersonating police officers. The Duchess of York revealed that she and Diana were out for her bachelorette (Hen Party) and decided it would be clever to dress up as policewomen for the occasion. However, their night of trouble started with them getting kicked out of a bar. «We went into this nightclub,» Ferguson tells Clarkson about their night out.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic If they ever make a sequel to “The Celluloid Closet” — the landmark doc about the history of LGBT representation on screen — Lukas Gage should warrant at least two mentions. First, there’s the scene from the first season of “White Lotus” where Jake Lacy barges into the resort manager’s office, only to find Gage getting his salad tossed (a history-making moment for gay TV fans). And now there’s “Down Low,” an over-the-top, bottom-trawling comedy that wants to be for the gay community what “The Hangover” was to the mainstream — which is to say, wildly irreverent and incredibly wrong. Starring openly gay “Heroes” villain Zachary Quinto as Gary, a recently divorced, richie-rich zaddy hoping for a happy ending, “Down Low” doesn’t quite understand its own title — code within the Black and Latino community for men who consider themselves straight while having sex with other men — but that’s OK. “Down Low” is still light-years ahead of mainstream movies (including last year’s “Bros”) as debuting feature director Rightor Doyle delivers what an entire contingent of queer audiences have been asking for all their lives: namely, a comedy that’s as raunchy and inappropriate as the jokes they make between themselves. While nowhere near as extreme (or enjoyable) as 2009’s “I Love You Phillip Morris,” it’s still a rare enough occurrence to earn a dedicated following.

Uh oh… Is this a sign of the end?!

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief At 11:30 p.m., Daniel Kwan was ready for a late dinner. The movie that he co-directed — “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — had swept the 95th annual Academy Awards, winning a historic seven statues, including best picture and best director. But he hadn’t had a bite to eat in hours. So at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party, he grabbed an In-N-Out burger from a tray to refuel. But before he could dig in, he was greeted by one of his many fans — named Steven Spielberg. The man who saw his cinematic memoir, “The Fabelmans,” get crushed by the Daniels (as Kwan and his collaborator Daniel Scheinert are called) didn’t seem the least bit upset.

Elton John hosts an annual Academy Awards viewing party and he was joined by his husband David Furnish at this year’s event!

Sadly Bernadette Peters couldn’t make it.

Katie Reul editor Nick Offerman plays a food-obsessed neo-Nazi in an upcoming episode of Starz’s “Party Down.” In a clip exclusive to Variety, Offerman’s alt-right character compliments the food cooked by Party Down’s head chef Lucy, played by Zoë Chao. As a flustered Chao picks up a knife for self-defense, Offerman praises her: “I just wanted to offer my sincere compliments. The food is sublime.” Premiering on Feb. 24 with episodes releasing weekly, Season 3 of “Party Down” picks up a decade after the first two seasons, which aired in 2009 and 2010. Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr and Megan Mullally (Offerman’s real-life wife) reprise their original roles. “Party Down” is created by John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd.

Adam Scott, Ken Marino and others, is officially back with new episodes after being revived for season 3 on Starz. The newest installment, which comes 13 years after the series first ended, reunites most of the original cast, with one notable exception: Lizzy Caplan as struggling comedian and Henry Pollard's (Scott) on-and-off love interest, Casey Klein. «Lizzy wanted to do it badly.

Adam Scott and the old gang are retying their iconic pink bow ties for a brand new season of the cult-favorite 2009 workplace comedy. Over a decade since season 2 aired, the raunchy catering crew will reunite for a six-episode revival on Friday, February 24.Created by John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd, follows a ragtag team of Hollywood wannabes who moonlight as caterers. The series’ original ensemble cast featured plenty of now-familiar faces in comedy, including Scott, Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan, Ryan Hansen, Martin Starr, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally.

“Party Down,” there’s essentially been talk of some kind of reunion or continuation since it was canceled in 2010. At long last, 13 years later, Season 3 has arrived.The half-hour comedy series launched in 2009, a story of Hollywood malaise as told through the eyes of the workers at a catering company, with each episode taking place at a different event.

Ethan Shanfeld “Party Down” was an underdog show about underdogs — out-of-luck caterers who dreamed of one day rubbing shoulders with Hollywood rainmakers rather than serving them hors d’oeuvres. In the series, which ran on Starz for two seasons (2009-10), an ensemble cast led by Adam Scott and Ken Marino paraded around Los Angeles, working funerals, orgies and everything in between. The scrappy comedy got creative with a small budget, centering episodes around a corporate picnic or a one-man birthday party, which didn’t require hiring extras. Showrunner and co-creator John Enbom says the team wouldn’t pitch a “dog wedding,” for example, because they knew they “couldn’t afford to hire 20 animal trainers.”

Jennifer Garner and James Marsden have joined the cast of Starz’s Party Down for season three and they joined the returning stars at the red carpet premiere!

Julia MacCary editor What would happen if “Glee” cutthroat cheer coach Sue Sylvester met ditzy “Party Down” actor Constance Carmell? Well, according to Jane Lynch, the performer behind both characters, the two would actually get along quite nicely. “I think they’d be fast friends,” Lynch told Variety at the Season 3 premiere of “Party Down.” “Constance is not the smartest person in the world, but she’s confident in her own goodness. And she has great self-esteem, and deep down inside Sue Sylvester does not. They would be a great…good cop, bad cop. They could do a comic cop show, but I would have to play both characters, and it would be a lot more. Wouldn’t it be great, though?”

Jennifer Garner has become a veteran actress since her breakout role as Sydney Bristow on Alias, but even after twenty plus years in the industry, she can still admit to her shortcomings.The actress stars in the new third season of the cult-classic comedy Party Down, also starring Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, and Megan Mullally.Despite having undertaken all sorts of challenges throughout her career, there's one that was required of her while filming the upcoming reboot that she really needed help with: pretending to be inebriated.WATCH: Jennifer Garner transforms into a dolphin in memorable throwbackMORE: Jennifer Garner's appearance gets fans talking as she poses in the showerSpeaking with Entertainment Tonight at the red carpet premiere of the comedy's new season – its first in thirteen years – Jennifer detailed her fears when it came to filming a scene in which her character is high on magic mushrooms.She confessed that she actually hasn't even seen the episode, and recalling the filming process, she said: "It was terrifying."MORE: Jennifer Garner joins J-Lo and Ben Affleck for daughter Seraphina's musical eventThe star explained: "Any time I have to play inebriated, or any altering anything – to me… I don't have a lot of experience." The actress is a guest star on the new seasonHowever, she certainly had full support throughout the process from the makers of the show, and she added: "Ken Marino really held my hand, and he was an amazing director."DISCOVER: Taylor Kinney rocks bright red lipstick in first pictures after Chicago Fire departureDISCOVER: The Rookie star Nathan Fillion's secret struggle with ongoing condition revealed"He really made me feel as good as one can feel when they are

Jennifer Garner isn’t afraid to step outside her comfort zone for comedy. The actress joined the new third season of the cult comedy classic “Party Down”, and one particular episode called for her character to trip out on magic mushrooms — which was an experience she’s not particular familiar with.