Robin Thede Wants Hollywood to Realize 'Finding Talented Women of Color Is Not Hard' (Exclusive)

American comedian and actor Kevin Hart will be in Manchester this week for a huge stand-up gig as part of his UK arena tour.

Rachel Weisz is singing Brendan Fraser's praises and calling his Oscar-winning performance in «staggering good.»During the New York City premiere of her new Prime Video series, , the Oscar-winning actress glowingly spoke to ET about her former co-star. Fraser and Weisz starred in the 1999 adventure/horror film. And, ahead of the film's 25th anniversary next year, Weisz is ecstatic to talk all things Fraser, especially after such a remarkable year in Hollywood.«It's the renaissance right now isn't it, yeah,» she said.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Robin Thede ain’t here for any more Emmy snubs for the hilarious Black women from “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” “We’re showing you the characters behind the characters,” she recently told Variety at a Q&A panel. “I love it. You see the full range of actors on the show. But I want to note that none of the show’s actors have ever been nominated for an Emmy, and they deserve it.” Four seasons into the groundbreaking HBO series, the creative minds and strategists hope to change that. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Emmy predictions.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Hollywood is a “uniquely American” construct that is deeply intertwined with the concept of the United States as a land of rags-to-riches opportunity. That’s the view shared by David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chair of investment giant Carlyle Group, after his visit to the Hollywood hills for an episode of his new PBS series “Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories.” “The whole culture of Hollywood is one that is uniquely American,” Rubenstein says on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” in discussing the episode of “Iconic America” that is devoted to the Hollywood sign. The series debuts April 26. “What we try to do in these so-called symbols of our country, is to talk about things that are really uniquely American. Obviously there’s Bollywood in India, but generally, if you think about making movies, you think about Hollywood, and a uniquely American kind of enterprise,” Rubenstein says.

EXCLUSIVE: Daredevil: Born Again actress Sandrine Holt has joined David Cronenberg’s next movie, The Shrouds opposite Guy Pearce, Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.

It’s time to break out the good hair and sip on some celebratory champagne because HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show has returned for its fourth season tonight. Keeping in theme with the series’ previous seasons, creator and star Robin Thede, alongside her mainstay cast members Gabrielle Dennis and Skye Townsend, continues to highlight the niche inner workings of the Black American community through absurdist humor and topical commentary. Season 4 ushers in three series newcomers, TikTok personality DaMya Gurley, The Voice star Tamara Jade, actress Angel Laketa Moore along with a special bevy of guest stars including Jackée Harry, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Colman Domingo, who suffers a hilariously awkward interview with fan-favorite character Dr. Hadassah Olayinka Ali-Youngman Pre-PhD.

 means new sketches, major guest stars and lots of laughs behind the camera. When asked what fans can expect from season 4, creator and star Robin Thede shared her excitement for viewers to see the «bigger» installment. «It is broader — not that we're comfortable, because you can never be comfortable, right? It's a blessing to be four seasons of anything, right? But I think for us, we're just like, let's just go there with everything,» she told ET's Nischelle Turner.

Johnny Depp has another defender in his first wife, Lori Allison. Allison, who was married to Depp from 1983 to 1985, appeared on the "Popcorned Planet" podcast and defended her ex and revealed her intense dislike for Amber Heard. "I had met her before.

McKinley Franklin author Producer Jolene Rodriguez has announced that Julio Macias and Danube Hermosillo are set to star in the upcoming action-packed thriller film “Atypical Pirate,” to be directed by Ruben Islas. Rodriguez was named one of Variety’s 10 emerging producers to watch in 2023, known for her feature film “Righteous Thieves.”  Macias is known for his roles in several popular television series, including “On My Block,” “Selena,” “The Rookie,” “Promised Land” and “Young Dario.” He joins Hermosillo, known for her roles in “Shameless,” “Everything, Everything,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Julie & The Phantoms.” Hermosillo, too, recently starred in Rodriguez’s “Righteous Thieves.”

Taika Waititi  projects. Yes, they're still happening, though it's still very much unclear exactly as to .ET's Ash Crossan spoke to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy at the event in London, and she essentially reminded fans that no project is ever completely dead in Hollywood. When asked about the Lando series and Waititi's project, Kennedy said they're undoubtedly still in the works.«Oh yeah, all that's underway,» she told ET.

Emily Longeretta Kathryn Hahn hadn’t read Cheryl Strayed’s book “Tiny Beautiful Things” before signing on to the Hulu limited series. But she knew from the moment she got to know the lead character that she wanted the role. Clare is a writer whose life is in shambles — her marriage isn’t in a good place, she’s still grieving the death of her mother and she’s struggling to connect with her teenage daughter. When a former colleague offers her to be come Sugar, a popular, anonymous advice columnist, she reluctantly takes a chance. “Clare doesn’t know all the answers and is a work in progress herself, like we all are. It’s through her shame, and grief and depths of self unworthiness, she finds this shockingly awake and honest voice that she doesn’t know that she has. But I think it’s so pure and hilarious,” says Hahn. “It was impossible to say no to.”

Los Angeles Times that after her audition for Ruben Östlund’s Triangle Of Sadness, she decided to step away from Hollywood.“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,’” Ratajkowski told the publication. “I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?’”Ratajkowski said that following her role in 2014’s Gone Girl, her team tried to secure her roles that demonstrated she was a “serious actress with longevity.”Eventually, Ratajkowski parted ways with her acting agent, commercial rep and manager in early 2020 after no longer wanting to make herself “digestible to powerful men in Hollywood” and at the whim of “power dynamics and the power that is held by boys clubs.”She continued: “I didn’t trust them.

the Los Angeles Times, saying she “felt like a piece of meat” having to impress the men who control the movie biz. Ratajkowksi shot to fame in 2013 after appearing in the raunchy music video for Robin Thicke’s hit track, “Blurred Lines.”The brunette soon transitioned to acting, making her big-screen debut in 2014’s “Gone Girl.” She subsequently starred in a slew of movies including “We Are Your Friends” and “I Feel Pretty.”But the beauty hasn’t been seen on-screen since 2019’s “Lying and Stealing,” and she failed to secure a part in last year’s hit film “Triangle of Sadness.”However, Ratajkowski told the Times that she doesn’t miss making movies.“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,'” she explained, saying she’s found creative fulfillment in other areas.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Emily Ratajkowski announced in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times that she has basically quit acting because Hollywood is so “fucked up.” The supermodel started her acting career in a major way with a supporting role opposite Ben Affleck in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl.” Ratajkowski played Andie Fitzgerald, a student of Nick Dunne’s (Affleck) who is also having an affair with him. She went on to star in films such as “We Are Your Friends” and “I Feel Pretty,” but she hasn’t acted in a movie since 2019’s “Lying and Stealing.” “I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,’” Ratajkowski said about quitting her acting career. “I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?’”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” the controversial filmmaker’s 50th movie, has found a French distributor. Metropolitan FilmExport, one of country’s biggest independent distributors, has come on board to release the movie in France. The release date has not yet been set, but sources close to the film say it could world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Metropolitan FilmExport has never handled a movie directed by Allen before as it typically focuses on commercial U.S. movies such as the “Hunger Games” franchise and “Evil Dead Rises.” While Allen’s movies have also always been widely popular in France, his previous film “Rifkin’s Festival” sold under 100,000 tickets for Apollo Films after world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival. It was the director’s worst B.O. performance in France. Budgeted in the $20-million range, “Coup de Chance” was a pricey acquisition that not many French distributors could afford to gamble on.

 are back! HBO released the official trailer for season 4 of the Emmy-winning sketch comedy series on Wednesday, and viewers will be getting even more hilarity and show-stopping guest stars than ever before.The trailer for the series features the familiar faces of series regulars Robin Thede, Gabrielle Dennis and Skye Townsend in various sketches including the return of  «A Black Lady Courtroom» and our favorite pastel-representing gang members. Season 4 also introduces three new featured players -- DaMya Gurley, Tamara Jade, Angel Laketa Moore -- and more than 20 celebrity guest stars, including Omarion, Bobby Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, Colman Domingo, Kyla Pratt, Sam Richardson, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jackée Harry, Tank, Jay Ellis and Kel Mitchell. The HBO series has received 13 Primetime Emmy nominations and three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming. The series, which debuted in August 2019, concluded its third season on May 2022 and was renewed the next month.

Sweet baby Jesus! Sheryl Lee Ralph has received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Barbara Howard on ABC’s Abbott Elementary — but that wasn’t always the role she wanted to play.  

journalist Graham Bensinger whether there was any truth to the 69-year-old “Happy Days” alum crossing over to the adult film industry, Ron laughed but admitted, “Well, it’s true that it went through my mind.“It endured as a serious idea for probably two and a half to three seconds,” the former child star declared.Specifically, in the 1970s, Howard entertained directing a cheekily-titled skin flick, “Opie Gets Laid” — not to be confused with a same-titled 2005 rom-com — in which the main character’s first name would mirror the one from Ron’s more innocent days on the 1960s sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.”“Yeah, ‘Opie Gets Laid’ would have probably made Ron a million dollars and he could have gone off and made a movie, but I’m glad he steered away from that because I don’t think anyone really wanted to see Opie get laid,” his brother, actor Clint Howard, 63, separately told Bensinger, covering his eyes. Ron’s daughter, “Jurassic World” star Bryce Dallas Howard, 42, also admitted that she’s relieved her father decided against partaking in porn.

Ron Howard found fame in front of the camera at an early age, portraying Opie Taylor on "The Andy Griffith Show" before starring on "Happy Days." But during an interview with Graham Bensinger, Howard admitted his rise to the top as one of the world's most coveted directors wasn't an easy climb. As he worked on "Happy Days," Howard said he was losing patience not being able to fulfill his true dreams of becoming a filmmaker.  A rumor was put to rest that Ron's first vision was creating a wild new version of an old character.

Natasha Lyonne if she’s irritable today. She just quit smoking, which is no small feat for someone who’s so synonymous with the habit that there’s an Instagram account dedicated to the coolness of her taking a drag. “I’ve been putting it off for so long,” she tells me, pointing to the small Nicorette pack on the coffee table in her East Village apartment. “I’m naturally wired for self-destructive crutches. I fucking love a vice.” Though she admits there are “immense” consequences of raging nicotine withdrawal, the health benefits far outweigh the discomfort (at least, that’s what she’s telling herself).