Taraji P. Henson Fired Her Team After ‘Empire’ Success Led Nowhere and Cookie Spinoff Failed: ‘Everybody Had to F—ing Go…They Had Nothing Set Up’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “True Detective: Night Country” showrunner Issa López took to X (formerly Twitter) the day after her season debuted on HBO and Max to urge fans to fight back against toxic trolls on Rotten Tomatoes. While the fourth season of the HBO crime series has earned glowing reviews (it boasts a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score from 73 reviews), there’s apparently a section of the fandom unhappy with the new direction of the show (the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is at 69%).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig doesn’t seem too upset over the polarizing “Barbie” joke Jo Koy made during his gig hosting the 2024 Golden Globes. Koy received mostly negative reviews for his hosting stint, and the “Barbie” joke led to backlash on social media as many viewers thought Koy was being reductive and sexist toward the film. During his opening monologue, Koy tipped his hat to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon by jokingly comparing Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “‘Oppenheimer’ is based on the 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project — and ‘Barbie’ is about a plastic doll with big boobies,” he joked as the audience responded with a muted laugh.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director As promised, Jeremy Renner is kicking off 2024 by returning to acting. The Oscar nominee took to Instagram to post a selfie from his first day on the set of “Mayor of Kingstown” Season 3, which notably marks his high-profile return to acting following his near-fatal snow plow accident last year. “Day one on set,” Renner’s caption reads.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steve Martin recently took to Threads to defend stand-up comedian Jo Koy, who earned largely negative reviews for his gig hosting the 2024 Golden Globe Awards. Variety’s television critic Alison Herman, for instance, wrote that Koy was “woefully unqualified” to be the host, while outlets such as Vanity Fair delivered even more scathing pans by calling the show a “near-total disaster.” “I tip my hat to anyone who steps out on stage to host a live awards show,” wrote Martin, who is a hosting legend thanks to three stints emceeing the Academy Awards.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Barry Keoghan has successfully made the jump from Oscar-nominated actor to internet thirst trap/boyfriend thanks to the success of “Saltburn.” Emerald Fennell’s thriller has turned the 31-year-old actor into a new kind of sex symbol thanks to scenes in which he slurps Jacob Elordi’s bathwater, has sex with a grave and goes full frontal for an extended long take in which he dances to “Murder on the Dancefloor.” The actor told GQ magazine that he’s finally being seen as a man and not just a “freak child” in the aftermath of “Saltburn,” and it feels good. Sometimes you just have to let your manhood all hang out. “It’s nice, man,” Keoghan said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hannah Waddingham revealed during the official Golden Globes pre-show presented by Variety and Entertainment Tonight that she was accompanied by 4,500 active members of the military when she first flew onto the set of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible 8.” It was announced last March that the “Ted Lasso” Emmy winner was joining Cruise and the “Mission: Impossible” gang in the highly-anticipated eighth installment of the action series. Waddingham’s role in the film is not yet known. “He’s lovely and fabulous to work for and that’s it,” Waddingham said about working with Tom Cruise.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Spielberg memorably thanked Tom Cruise last year for saving the movie business with “Top Gun: Maverick,” but it appears Meryl Streep has a different selection. While attending this year’s Palm Springs Film Awards, the Oscar winner called out Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” for saving the movies and “all of our jobs” last summer. The blockbuster comedy was the highest grossing movie of 2023 with $1.4 billion in ticket sales.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Katt Williams’ recent interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast has gone viral for a handful of soundbites and revelations made by the comedian. Williams made his film debut playing Money Mike in the 2002 comedy “Friday After Next,” which he revealed originally included a sexual assault scene that he refused to participate in (via BuzzFeed).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Claire Foy recently appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast while on the press tour for “All of Us Strangers” and was asked to reveal the worst acting note she ever got on set from a director. She didn’t hesitate to answer: “Start acting, darling!” “First job I ever did on TV, which was ‘Being Human.’ The pilot, with Russell Tovey and Andrea Riseborough.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeffrey Wright‘s latest stop on his “American Fiction” press tour was a cast interview with Entertainment Weekly in which he shocked his co-stars with a story about how he once refused a studio’s request to censor his dialogue. The Emmy winner starred in Ang Lee’s 1999 Civil War drama “Ride With the Devil” as a former slave fighting for his freedom. “In this scene in which he has this kind of the apex of his awakening and his need to emancipate himself, he says, ‘Being that man’s friend was no more than being his n—–.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jordan Peele is not ready to disclose any information about his next movie, which will serve as the follow-up to his 2022 science-fiction thriller “Nope,” but he does think it could be “my favorite movie” as long as he makes it right — no pressure. Peele was supposed to already be making his fourth solo directorial effort with Universal Pictures, but the Hollywood strikes delayed the project in 2023 and filming isn’t likely to start until later this year. “This has been…obviously, it’s been an interesting year because the writer’s strike had had me in a state of listening, and that’s where I need to be,” Peele said on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast when asked about his new movie.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Batman Returns” screenwriter Daniel Waters participated in a recent discussion about the Tim Burton-directed sequel (via IndieWire) and revealed the collaborators’ clashing visions for a spinoff project centered on Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman. Waters was envisioning a satirical take on the comic book movie genre, something he says was more akin to Prime Video’s “The Boys” these days, but Burton had something far more risky up his sleeve.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The career of Scott Frank got a lengthy deep dive courtesy of a profile in The New Yorker that revealed the writer-director has a $300,000 weekly fee as a Hollywood script doctor. Frank acknowledges this fee is “insane,” but being a script doctor is how he’s made a life for himself despite being a credited screenwriter on films by Steven Soderbergh (“Out of Sight”), Barry Sonnenfield (“Get Shorty”), James Mangold (“The Wolverine,” “Logan”) and more.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Paul Schrader wrote Martin Scorsese‘s “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull,” and it appears he would’ve handled things differently had he been the one to pen “Killers of the Flower Moon.” In a recent interview with France’s Le Monde, Schrader called “Flower Moon” a “good movie” but one that could’ve been better had DiCaprio been playing the FBI agent investigating the Osage murders. “Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director If you don’t know the actor Milana Vayntrub by name, then chances are high that you would recognize her face. Since 2013, Vayntrub has been the on-and-off again star of many AT&T commercials as the character Lily, a jolly AT&T employee who has comedic interactions with customers at a store. Vayntrub’s Lily was the face of a national AT&T campaign for three years before she took a hiatus and revived the character in 2020 for a series of pandemic-themed commercials.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jessica Chastain started 2023 by telling Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live” that she was open to reading a script for the film adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” The Oscar-winning actor has long been fans’ top choice to play the title character, a reclusive old Hollywood star who reflects on her life during a final interview with an unknown journalist. “I do know there is an online thing about it,” Chastain said when asked about the fan casting. “Sure, send me a script.” Cut to the end to the year, and Chastain is officially closing the book on starring in a “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” movie.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hannah Waddingham appeared on the Christmas episode of ITV’s “James Martin’s Saturday Morning” (via The Independent) and revealed she’s ready to defend Tom Cruise against his critics after working with the Oscar nominee on the upcoming “Mission: Impossible 8.” It was announced in March that the “Ted Lasso” Emmy winner was joining Cruise and the “Mission: Impossible” gang in the eighth installment, which was originally designed as the second part to “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” Waddingham’s “Mission: Impossible 8” character has not yet been revealed, but she said she spent five intense days with Cruise filming the action tentpole on the USS George H.W. Bush fighter carrier.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Zack Snyder has spent the last several years attempting to launch new IP for Netflix, be it his action zombie epic “Army of the Dead” or his new space opera franchise “Rebel Moon,” but the 57-year-old filmmaker is better known for putting his stamp on famed IP, from “Watchmen” to “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League.” Would he ever return to tackling a pre-existing franchise? “I mean, like, how much IP is there?” Snyder recently said in an interview with The Atlantic before thinking of at least one bit of IP he might like to tackle one day. “It’d be cool to see, like, 20-year-old James Bond,” Snyder said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Colman Domingo is having a banner year thanks to acclaimed performances in “Rustin” and “The Color Purple,” the latter of which opened to a triumphant $18 million on Christmas Day. But things were considerably different for the actor back in 2014. Despite being a Tony nominee for “The Scottsboro Boys,” Domingo couldn’t get his screen acting career off the ground.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Zack Snyder is currently leading the Netflix charts with his space opera “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire,” and he recently got a huge sign of support from none other than Christopher Nolan. In a profile published by The Atlantic, Nolan said Snyder’s influence on cinema is so dominant that part of his touch can be felt in any “superhero science-fiction film coming out these days.” Nolan served as a producer on Snyder’s “Man of Steel” (2013), which was based on a story Nolan cracked with his “Dark Knight” trilogy co-writer David S. Goyer.