Zack Sharf Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sylvester Stallone appeared on a recent episode of “The Tonight Show” and gave Ryan Gosling his blessing to star as the next Rambo in a potential revival of Stallone’s iconic action franchise. Stallone played the eponymous United States Army Special Forces veteran in five movies. The first “Rambo” opened in 1982.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Before Samuel L. Jackson became synonymous with the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to his decades-long role as Nick Fury, it was “Star Wars” that was the first Hollywood mega-franchise to open its doors for the beloved actor. Jackson played Jedi master Mace Windu in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequel trilogy, and it’s a role he appears quite eager to play again despite Mace being killed off in 2015’s “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” after Anakin severs his hand with a lightsaber, and Emperor Palpatine electrocutes him and sends him flying out of a building window.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kate Winslet said in a new interview with Net-a-Porter that she actively took roles in smaller, independent films after the record-breaking success of “Titanic” because the fame that resulted in starring in James Cameron’s epic was “horrible.” Winslet was just 22 years old when “Titanic” opened in 1997 and became a cultural phenomenon. It won 11 Oscars, including best picture, and became the highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the first to gross $1 billion worldwide. To say it turned Winslet and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio into overnight superstars would be an understatement.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ahead of his return as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart stopped by “CBS Mornings” to explain why it was finally time to return to his old job. Stewart hosted the network’s flagship news show from 1999 to 2015. He’ll now be hosting only Monday episodes throughout the 2024 election cycle.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dwayne Johnson railed against journalist Nick Sortor on X (formerly Twitter) over “toxic, false clickbait garbage” after the latter framed Johnson’s appearance at a recent WWE press conference in a way that called out the superstar’s relief efforts in Maui. A video from the WWE event showed Johnson getting booed by the crowd.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jon Cryer appeared on the Feb. 9 episode of “The View” and more or less shot down the idea of a “Two and a Half Men” reboot ever being made. Cryer starred on the CBS mega-hit sitcom for 12 seasons, eight of which he co-headlined with Charlie Sheen.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Christopher Nolan appeared on “The Late Show” for a lengthy discussion with Stephen Colbert in which the filmmaker heaped praise on his “Oppenheimer” star Robert Downey Jr., who is widely considered the Oscar frontrunner for best supporting actor. Nolan said he always wanted to work with Downey because of his “generosity” and “charisma.” The director went on to call Downey’s role as Iron Man, which birthed the Marvel Cinematic Universe and carried it for a decade, one of the most important casting decisions ever made. “With anybody you work with, with actors…you’re looking for some kind of connection emotionally, empathetically,” Nolan said about being drawn to Downey.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Whenever Denis Villeneuve decides it’s time to make a third “Dune” movie, Zendaya is ready to reprise her role of Chani. During a cast interview with Fandango ahead of “Dune: Part Two” opening in theaters, Zendaya said returning for a potential “Dune Messiah” movie is a no brainer. Villeneuve has already stated publicly that his dream is to make a third “Dune” film — he confirmed in December that a script for the project is almost finished.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hayden Panettiere said in a recent interview with The Messenger that filming “Nashville” was “very traumatizing because I felt like I was acting out my own life.” The actor played country pop singer Juliette Barnes on the ABC musical drama, which ran for six seasons and 124 episodes between 2012 and 2018. Panettiere suggested the show’s writers often pulled from her real life while crafting Juliette’s storylines, which was emotionally traumatizing for her as storylines used her real-life struggle with alcoholism. “Straight from the beginning, it was like, I’m dating a football player, [and then] Juliette dates a football player,” Panettiere said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The debate around Oscar snubs exploded following the announcement of the 2024 Academy Award nominations, which now infamously excluded “Barbie” filmmaker Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie from the best director and actress races. Michelle Yeoh, who won the best actress Oscar last year for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” was asked to weigh in on the controversy during a recent interview on “Today.” “Joy and disappointment, it seems to go hand in hand,” Yeoh said. “There’s not enough nominations to go around.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Succession” Emmy winner Sarah Snook said on a recent episode of BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program that she was too “young and naive” to push back against a film producer who openly berated her for eating cake on set. It was one of two instanced of body shaming that Snook remembered during an interview with The Sunday Times published earlier this month.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director How do you choose between Tom Cruise and Quentin Tarantino? It’s a dilemma Austin Butler faced before his Oscar-nominated performance in “Elvis” turned him into a global star. During an interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast (via People) while promoting his new Apple TV+ series “Masters of the Air,” Butler confirmed reports he was in the running to star opposite Cruise in the blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick.” “I ended up having to choose between going to the screen test for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino,” Butler said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Whoopi Goldberg is an Oscars legend, having won an Academy Award for “Ghost” and hosted the ceremony four times and served as an Academy board member. So perhaps moviegoers might want to listen to Goldberg when she says there are no such thing as Oscar snubs amid the uproar over Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie missing out on nominations for best director and best actress, respectively, at the 2024 Oscars. “Barbie” earned a total of eight nominations, including best picture, and Gerwig is a nominee for screenwriting and so is Robbie as one of the film’s producers.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sofia Vergara is taking on her most dramatic role yet in Netflix’s “Griselda,” in which she plays infamous Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. The show marks a rare opportunity for Vergara to flex her dramatic acting muscles as her career has largely been defined by comedy projects, from playing Gloria Pritchett on ABC’s “Modern Family” (which ran for 11 seasons and garnered Vergara four Emmy nominations) to films like 2015’s “Hot Pursuit” with Reese Witherspoon. “I’m always looking for characters because there’s not much that I can play with this stupid accent,” Vergara recently told the Los Angeles Times, poking fun at herself.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Eva Mendes celebrated partner Ryan Gosling‘s latest Oscar nomination by putting his haters on blast. Gosling is nominated for best supporting actor at the 2024 Academy Awards thanks to his performance as Ken in the blockbuster comedy “Barbie,” which earned a total of eight Oscar nominations. Gosling’s casting was originally divisive, as social media debates erupted over whether or not he was too old to play the doll.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sofia Coppola continues to shed light on her unrealized adaptation of Edith Wharton’s “The Custom of the Country,” which she was developing as a five-episode series for Apple TV+. In a new interview with the New Yorker, it’s revealed for the first time that Coppola had cast Oscar nominee Florence Pugh to star in the lead role of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who attempts to ascend in New York City society. News broke in May 2020 that Sofia Coppola was partnering with Apple TV+ on “The Custom of the Country.” By the end of 2021, the project was killed.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Emma Stone‘s quest to compete on “Jeopardy!” got a promising update courtesy of the game show’s host Ken Jennings, who said during an interview on “Live With Kelly and Mark” that the “La La Land” Oscar winner would be welcomed on the game show “in a heartbeat.” Now it’s your move, Stone. During an appearance on Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast earlier this month, Stone went viral for revealing she is a “Jeopardy!” junkie and applies to be a contestant on the game show every year. “I apply every June,” Stone said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Will Ferrell touched down at the Sundance Film Festival to world premiere the new documentary “Will & Harper,” which centers on the relationship between the beloved comedian and his best friend Harper Steele as they take a road trip. The two met during their days on “Saturday Night Live,” which Harper wrote for from 1995 to 2008.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sebastian Stan is back at Sundance this year for the world premiere of A24’s “A Different Man,” co-starring Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve. The three actors joined director Aaron Schimberg at the Variety Studio presented by Audible to discuss the film, which centers on an aspiring actor with a facial disability who undergoes a radical medical procedure to transform his appearance that proves to be his downfall.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Pauly Shore is responding to Richard Simmons after the fitness icon disavowed the upcoming biopic in which Shore is set to play him. Shore stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Audible while at the Sundance Film Festival and said his Simmons movie is “all about love,” with or without the real Simmons’ blessing. “My come from has always been love,” Shore said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kerry Washington joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible at the Sundance Film Festival, where she is an executive producer on the documentary “Daughters.” The movie centers on four girls in Washington D.C. as they prepare for a Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers. “People always ask me why I’m drawn to political work,” Washington said about boarding the documentary.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the boldest movies premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival is “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” directed by Kobi Libii. The film takes aim at the Magical Negro stereotype and centers on a young man (Justice Smith) who is recruited into a society in which African American members are tasked with ensuring that white people’s lives remain easy. Libii, Smith and co-star David Alan Grier visited the Variety Studio presented by Audible and spoke about the reactions to their button-pushing satire.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the most anticipated documentary premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival is “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” which tracks the eponymous star’s rise to Hollywood icon and the near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Reeve’s children — Will, Matthew and Alexandra — appear as subjects in the movie and joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible to discuss their father’s legacy. Alexandra called the documentary a “beautiful gift” because it’s rare to “see your parent’s life told in its totality…to see a life well lived on screen and in its full complexity.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dominic Fike appeared at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while attending the Sundance Film Festival and compared his experiences playing a character struggling with drug addiction on HBO’s “Euphoria” and his new Sundance premiere, “Little Death.” The latter title marks the feature directorial debut of music video helmer Jack Begert, who happens to be one of Fike’s friends. Fike has been open in the past about his real-life addiction struggles, so his proximity to Berget made playing a drug addiction in “Little Death” a bit easier than playing one in “Euphoria.” “I’ve done that before, like acted like a drug addict,” Fike said. “I actually am a pretty big drug addict myself, believe it or not.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jesse Eisenberg is officially giving his Lex Luthor advice to Nicholas Hoult, and it’s blunt: “Don’t watch me!” During an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while attending the Sundance Film Festival, Eisenberg suggested Hoult should forge his own path and not pay attention to Eisenberg’s own work as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s DC Universe. “Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it,” Eisenberg added to Variety‘s Matt Donnelly about playing the DC villain for a short time.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Melissa Barrera weighed in on her controversial exit from the “Scream” franchise while attending the Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of her latest horror movie, “Your Monster.” “Honestly, I think I finally am becoming who I’m supposed to be in life, and the last few months have been a big awakening of that,” Barrera told the Associated Press when asked about her “Scream” exit. “I’m just so grateful for everything that’s happened.” Barrera played Sam Carpenter, the daughter of Billy Loomis (played by Skeet Ulrich in the original films), in 2022’s “Scream” and 2023’s “Scream 6,” the latter of which set a franchise box office record with $108 million at the domestic box office.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jodie Foster said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while at the Sundance Film Festival that the $1.4 billion success of “Barbie” helps prove that Hollywood no longer views women directors as too much of a risk. That wasn’t always the case, as Foster often saw women filmmakers being marginalized during her career ascent in Hollywood. “I’ve had the beauty of being able to be in the business since the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and so on,” Foster said to Variety’s Rebecca Rubin.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kelly Osbourne earned backlash in 2015 when a comment she made on “The View” was widely slammed as racist. Osbourne was addressing Donald Trump’s policy on immigration at the time alongside hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez when she said, “If you kick every Latino out of this country then who is going to be cleaning your toilets, Donald Trump?” She later acknowledged her “poor choice of words,” but stressed: “I will not apologize for being racist as I am NOT.” The clip of Osbourne saying “If you kick every Latino out of this country” has now reemerged on TikTok and become its own meme, with users spouting their own ridiculous takes on stereotypes.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Rob Lowe might want to double check who he is sending text messages to in the future. During a recent visit to “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the ” 9-1-1: Lone Star” actor revealed that he accidentally texted Bradley Cooper a congratulations for winning a Golden Globe thinking the message was going to Robert Downey Jr. The mishap was a bit awkward considering Cooper was nominated for a golden globe for “Maestro” but lost the best actor in a motion picture drama category to Cillian Murphy from “Oppenheimer.” “Downey does this amazing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, and I’m so excited for him so I text him, ‘So glad you won.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dana Carvey has returned to the “Fly on the Wall” podcast for the first time since his son, Dex, died last fall (via Entertainment Weekly). The podcast is jointly hosted by Carvey and David Spade and features the “Saturday Night Live” alums telling behind-the-scenes stories from their time on the NBC sketch comedy series. In Carvey’s absence, the podcast aired previously recorded interviews with the likes of Dan Aykroyd, David Byrne and more with only Spade as host.