Zack Sharf Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hunter Schafer said in a new GQ cover story that she has been strategic in trying to shift the public’s focus away from her gender identity as a transgender person. The “Euphoria” favorite does not want her identity to be the sole talking point about her and has at times tried to avoid saying the word “trans” during interviews in order to ensure her career is not solely defined by her gender identity. “It has not just happened naturally by any means.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Francis Ford Coppola revealed in a preview of “Megalopolis” in Vanity Fair that he rewrote the script around 300 times before self-financing the passion project for $120 million by selling part of his winery estate in Northern California. The epic is set to world premiere in competition at the Cannes FIlm Festival in May. A first look photo from “Megalopolis” has debuted featuring Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in their leading roles.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ethan Hawke was nominated at the 2002 Oscars for best supporting actor for his performance in Antoine Fuqua’s crime thriller “Training Day.” He lost the prize to Jim Broadbent (“Iris”), but he immediately got some much-needed perspective from his “Training Day” co-star Denzel Washington, who happened to win the Oscar that same night for best actor. During a recent interview on Max’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” series, the host asked Hawke about a story he heard in which Washington leaned over to Hawke after the latter’s Oscar loss and whispered in his ear: “It’s better that you didn’t win. Losing was better.” “You don’t want an award to improve your status.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo were responsible for some of Marvel’s biggest box office hits, from “Captain America: Civil War” to “Avengers: Endgame,” but they don’t necessarily believe superhero fatigue is to blame for the studio’s recent struggles. Marvel had a tough 2023 with two flops: “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels.” Speaking recently to GamesRadar+, the directors said that Marvel’s current issues boil down to the changes in how people absorb media: It’s a Hollywood-wide issue, not just a Marvel one.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Deadpool and Wolverine” is set to be one of the biggest films of the summer, and fan theories are already flying around the internet regarding what Marvel could have in store for what looks like a bonkers trip across a multiverse populated by characters previously owned by 20th Century Fox and now owned by Disney. Whatever goes down in the sequel, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, prior knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will not be a mandatory requirement in order to enjoy it. That’s according to the film’s director, Shawn Levy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Pauly Shore wrote on Instagram that he was “up all night crying” after Richard Simmons continued to publicly distance himself from the biopic on his life that Shore is attached to star in. Furthermore, Simmons revealed on his social media platforms that he’s talking to film studios about making his own biopic. “I just read that a man that I don’t know is writing my bio pic starring Pauly Shore,” Simmons posted earlier this week.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Melanie Lynskey recently told People magazine that her husband and fellow actor Jason Ritter has sacrificed his own career in recent years so that hers could flourish. Lynskey has been on a roll lately with an Emmy-nominated and series regular role on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” plus acclaimed supporting turns in “The Last of Us,” “Candy” and more. None of this career success would be possible had Ritter not put his own acting career on pause to help raise their five-year-old daughter while Lynskey took acting gigs.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Aaron Sorkin confirmed during a live recording of “The Town” podcast that he is currently working on some kind of sequel to “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s acclaimed 2010 drama about the creation of Facebook that won Sorkin the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. “Look, yeah, I’ll be writing about this,” Sorkin said about the social media company’s recent years. “I blame Facebook for January 6.” Sorkin would not answer why he blamed Facebook for Trump supporters storming the U.S.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Robert Downey Jr. elated Marvel fans earlier this month when he told Esquire magazine that he would “happily” return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark/Iron Man following his Oscar win for best supporting actor in March.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jessica Lange spoke critically of present-day Hollywood during a recent interview with Vulture, saying “there should be a law against it” when the topic came up about Warner Bros. Discovery axing already-shot movies like “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme” for tax write-off purposes.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Emily Blunt is staunchly opposed to algorithms making any decisions in Hollywood. Ahead of the release of her summer tentpole “The Fall Guy,” the Oscar nominee joined co-star Ryan Gosling for a Vanity Fair Italy cover story in which she expressed frustration over algorithm-driven decision making.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director It’s been well over a year since news first broke that Disney was moving forward with “The Princess Diaries 3.” Anne Hathaway can’t reveal any details, but she did assure fans in a recent V magazine interview that development continues on the long-anticipated sequel, and the intention remains to get it off the ground. “We’re in a good place,” Hathaway said. “That’s all I can say.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Angelina Jolie‘s scrapped “Cleopatra” movie was part romance epic and part “political thriller with assassinations and sex,” according to the movie’s original screenwriter Brian Helgeland. The Oscar-winning actor was set to play the Egyptian queen in a tentpole for Sony Pictures that once courted director David Fincher to helm. It never got off the ground.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sylvester Stallone revealed on the TMZ special “Arnold & Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons” (via The Daily Mail) that a near career-ending injury in the lead up to “Rocky II” threatened to end the boxing franchise before its first sequel got off the ground. Stallone was training with bodybuilder Franco Columbu about a month and a half before the “Rocky 2” shoot when he ripped his pec muscle right off the bone. “So, I go down, and it’s maybe only 200 [lbs].

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Brian Helgeland’s illustrious Hollywood career includes winning an Oscar for writing “L.A Confidential,” directing Heath Ledger’s beloved 2001 comedy “A Knight’s Tale” and scripting films such as “Man on Fire” and “Mystic River.” It also could’ve included a “Game of Thrones” spinoff series had HBO moved forward on his pitch, which was titled “Ten Thousand Ships” and centered on Queen Nymeria. “It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original,” Helgeland recently told Inverse about his spinoff.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “A Knight’s Tale” director Brian Helgeland revealed in a career retrospective interview with Inverse that his efforts to make a sequel to his 2001 medieval action-comedy classic were apparently thwarted by the Netflix algorithm. “When we finished ‘A Knight’s Tale,’ we were already thinking about making the sequel as a pirate film,” Helgeland said. “The plot revolved around Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell) kidnapping Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and taking her to Constantinople.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Patrick Warburton has voiced Joe Swanson on “Family Guy” since the show’s first season 25 years ago, but the role has never exactly gotten his family’s seal of approval. During a recent PaleyFest LA event celebrating “Family Guy’s” 25th anniversary (via People magazine), Warburton revealed that his parents hate the Seth MacFarlane-created animated comedy and their disdain for the show went so far that Warburton’s mom once tried to get “Family Guy” canceled. “They hate the show even more today than they did 25 years ago,” Warburton said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Mad Max” fans know that topping “Fury Road” is most likely an impossible task, but it sounds like the upcoming prequel “Furiosa” has a few action-packed tricks up its sleeve to deliver the goods. Speaking to Total Film magazine, director George Miller’s longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell let it slip that “Furiosa” contains “one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot” and required 200 stunt people on set daily.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Giancarlo Esposito appeared on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s “Jim & Sam” show while promoting his new AMC drama series “Parish” and revealed that he was so broke prior to landing his iconic role of Gus Fring on “Breaking Bad” that he once considered arranging his own murder so that his children could have some financial protection courtesy of his life insurance money. The actor considered this around 2008, a year before “Breaking Bad” inextricably changed his career by making him an iconic villain and opening the door for roles in “The Mandalorian,” “The Boys” and more. Asked how he got out of near bankruptcy around 2008, Esposito said, “My way out in my brain was…’Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jerrod Carmichael appeared on a recent episode of “The Breakfast Club” (via Rolling Stone) and said: “I deeply regret saying anything about Dave Chappelle to the press. I want to say that I’m sorry for that.” Carmichael previously gave interviews to Esquire and GQ in which he criticized Chappelle’s legacy of making jokes about transgender people. Carmichael now noted that his frustration with Chappelle had only to do with the comedian repeatedly making jokes about the same topic and not the morality of the jokes themselves.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “The Sopranos” fans got thrown a curveball in 2021 when Edie Falco revealed for the first time on an Atlantic podcast that she once reunited with James Gandolfini to reprise Tony and Carmela Soprano for a bizarre clip set two years after the events of the series finale, which infamously ended with a cut-to-black that left Tony’s fate in the balance. The purpose of the clip was to help the New York Knicks basketball organization lure LeBron James to the team. Gandolfini and Falco shot the “Sopranos” reunion in 2010 as James was becoming a free agent after his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expired.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Micheal Douglas went viral last year when he told THR on the “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” red carpet that he would only be interested in returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Hank Pym in a fourth “Ant-Man” movie “as long as I can die.” It turns out that was actually Douglas’ wish for “Quantumania.” Appearing on “The View” (via Entertainment Weekly) to promote his new Apple TV+ historical drama series “Franklin,” Douglas revealed that he actually wanted to be killed off from the MCU in the third “Ant-Man” movie. He even asked for a huge special effects bonanza to help send Hank Pym into the great beyond.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Olivia Williams has given acclaimed performances in “Rushmore,” “The Sixth Sense” and “An Education.” She recently appeared as Camilla Parker Bowles in the final two seasons of Netflix’s popular drama series “The Crown.” But for many people, the British actor will always be Felicity from the Season 4 finale of “Friends.” Williams once called guest starring on the NBC sitcom “harrowing,” and she recently opened up to The Independent about the reasons why it wasn’t the best experience in a recent interview. “Gosh. Well, just as an example, I was taken to the studio in a shared car with a wonderful actress whose character, I think, was called ‘Old Woman’,” Williams said, noting this actor was “distinguished” and “very good” but “at one point, a producer – who shall remain nameless – just yelled at her: ‘You’re not funny!’ And she didn’t come back the next day.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Hemsworth recently revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he tried hard to land a role in a Kevin Costner-directed project only to learn that Costner had cast himself as the character instead. The “Thor” star did not reveal what the movie was, although he described it as something “abstract and interesting …a small story about a man and a woman.” “There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role],’” Hemsworth said. “I’d love [to have] him as a director.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Megan Fox finally weighed in on the “Love Is Blind” controversy that erupted earlier this year when Season 6 cast member Chelsea Blackwell told her eventual fiancé Jimmy Presnell that Fox was her celebrity doppelgänger. Presnell ended up telling Blackwell that wasn’t true, while “Love Is Blind” viewers bombarded social media platforms to roast and mock Blackwell for a comparison many thought wasn’t accurate. “I’ve never had more people text me about something,” Fox told E! News’ “The Rundown.” “I don’t really watch TV very much.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Even Stevens” and “Kim Possible” actor Christy Carlson Romano revealed on “Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that she is not going to watch the Investigation Discovery documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” because “it’s extremely triggering” and “I’ve made a choice for several reasons to opt out of watching that imagery.” She also said that she once turned down the network’s request for her to participate in a similar kind of doc. “Quiet on Set” explores misconduct and abuse allegations behind the scenes at Nickelodeon in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Rebecca Ferguson went viral during her “Dune: Part Two” press tour in late February after she revealed on the “Reign With Josh Smith” podcast that she once had an “idiot” co-star who made her cry on set. The story led to a guessing game across social media platforms where people tried to figure out who exactly Ferguson was talking about, although the actor recently said on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” that she was “not expecting” that to be the takeaway from her comments. “Number one, yes, I kind of enjoyed the grab,” Ferguson admitted.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The trailer launch for “Joker: Folie à Deux” was no laughing matter for Warner Bros. The marketing for the studio’s upcoming DC sequel, headlined by Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, got off to a stellar start with 167 million viewers in its first 24 hours. The teaser trailer went online right after it debuted at Warner Bros.’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Daniel Radcliffe was treated to an unexpected moment during an appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast alongside his “Merrily We Roll Along” co-stars Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. Podcast host Josh Horowitz played a clip from his Alan Rickman interview in 2016, which Radcliffe had never seen before. Rickman and Radcliffe were co-stars for a decade in the “Harry Potter” film series.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dave Bautista and Eric Nam are set to headline the voice cast for the upcoming “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie in development at Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios. The film’s working title is “Aang: The Last Airbender.” The news was announced during Paramount’s slate presentation at CinemaCon. Joining Bautista and Nam in the voice cast are Dionne Quan, Jessica Matten and Roman Zaragoza.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jonathan Nolan appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast to tout his latest television series, Prime Video’s “Fallout,” but the conversation touched on Nolan’s time co-writing Batman movies with his brother, Christopher Nolan. The siblings share screenwriting credit on 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Jonathan admitted that he was pushing for the Riddler to be the primary villain of “Rises” and not Bane, which is what Christopher and David S. Goyer were planning.