Ben Whishaw Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Will & Grace star Eric McCormack has defended straight actors playing LGBTQ+ roles.McCormack, who is best known for playing Will Truman on NBC sitcom Will & Grace, spoke recently about his casting as a gay character, and how straight actors should still be able to play LGBTQ+ roles.Speaking on Good Morning Britain earlier this week, the actor said: “There’s no part I’ve ever played where I wasn’t playing something I’m not. It’s part of the gig.

“Mary Poppins” movie due to “discriminatory language.”The Disney movie, which came out in 1964, stars Julie Andrews as magical governess Mary Poppins and Dick Van Dyke as her chimney-sweep sidekick, Bert.It snared 13 Oscar nominations — including one for Best Picture — and won five Academy Awards, including one for Andrews as Best Actress. It is being re-released in some movie theaters in the UK next month to celebrate its 60th anniversary.The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) changed the “Mary Poppins” rating from U — meaning that it contained “no material likely to offend or harm” and is suitable for audiences four years and older — to PG, which delineates “discriminatory language,” and that some scenes may be unsuitable for young children, though unaccompanied children of any age may watch, according to The Independent.The offending language in question is the use of the word “hottentots,” which is used in the movie by Admiral Boom (Reginald Owen), including one instance in which he refers to chimney sweeps (like Bert) whose faces are covered in soot.A BBFC spokesperson told Variety that the film “includes two uses of the discriminatory term ‘hottentots.’ While ‘Mary Poppins’ has historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U.“We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language.”The word is a racially insensitive term for the Khoekhoe, an indigenous group of nomadic herders in South Africa.The slur was adopted by Dutch settlers in South Africa, thought to imitate their language, but was later used to refer to all black people, according to The Independent.

Paddington in Peru, the third film featuring the beloved bear, has received an official UK release date of November 8, 2024.READ MORE: ‘Paddington 2’ – Film ReviewThe film recently completed filming, with on-set locations including London, Colombia and Peru itself. US audiences will have to wait longer than those in Britain to see it, however, with the American release date set at January 17, 2025.The film will be directed by Dougal Wilson, in his directorial debut.

Will “Black Doves” be Netflix‘s answer to James Bond and John Le Carré? Variety reports that Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire join Keira Knightley on the cast of the streamer’s upcoming spy series, which sounds like perfect fare for those who love shaken martinis and suave espionage in equal measure. READ MORE: ‘The Lazarus Project’ TV Review: Joe Barton’s Clever Sci-Fi Import Puts A New Spin On An Old Concept Set in Christmastime London, the spy thriller follows Knightley’s Helen Webb, a politician’s wife and professional spy who’s spent years passing on her husband’s secrets to the shadowy organization she works for.

Most people know Alice Englert as the daughter of the great New Zealand auteur Jane Campion. And some may know her as an actress from films like “Them That Follow,” “Body Brokers,” and Campion‘s “The Power Of The Dog.” But Englert is a filmmaker, too, and her feature debut, “Bad Behavior,” is ready for its theatrical release in New Zealand next month.

When it comes to “Passages,” Ira Sachs’ witty, wise and very sexy Parisian drama, it all started with Franz Rogowski, who plays the film’s self-absorbed film director, Tomas. “I had seen Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” starring Franz,” remembers Sachs, the auteur of richly textured, grown-up gems such as “Love is Strange,” “Little Men” and “Keep the Lights On,” recently joining me for an interview about his latest, opening in theaters this week.

In a move that harkens back to the 1950s while simultaneously echoing the ongoing censorship of depictions of LGBTQ identity nationwide, the Motion Picture Association has given the upcoming queer film Passages an NC-17 rating.“We hunger for movies that are in any proximity to our own experience,” director Ira Sachs told Los Angeles Times, “and to find a movie like this, which is then shut out, is, to me, depressing and reactionary.”To be sure, the Sundance drama is quite sensual — it centers on a Parisian love triangle between a movie director (Franz Rogowski), his artist husband (Ben Whishaw), and a teacher (Adèle Exarchopoulos).And yes, it has its fair share of sex and nudity — including a two-minute scene of the two husbands shot in a single take. But none of the scenes are particularly indelicate or over-the-top, the film’s distributor MUBI said in a statement.For Sachs, the rating is “a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”“MUBI has officially rejected this NC-17 rating,” the film’s distributor said, per Variety.

An NC-17 rating for a film may as well be a scarlet letter branded on it before release, limiting its audiences and causing certain theaters not to carry it at all. But that branding won’t stop MUBI and Ira Sachs from debuting “Passages,” Sachs’ latest, in theaters next month.

Our review from Sundance put it perfectly in its opening line. Filmmaker “Ira Sachs prefers relationships of the doomed variety.” Throughout the indie writer/director’s career, Sachs has— in films like “Love Is Strange,” “Little Men,” “Keep the Lights On” and especially in his debut, “The Delta”—explored the difficulties and traumas of love and how the best intentions can go sour.

Alice Englert, daughter of director Jane Campion, has steadily built a reputation as an actress over the past ten years with “Ginger & Rosa,” “Top Of The Lake,” and elsewhere. And now she’ll try her hand at directing with her feature debut, “Bad Behavior.” READ MORE: ‘This Is Going To Hurt’: Ben Whishaw Leads A New Medical Dramedy On AMC+ Deadline reports that Englert will write, star in, and direct the new film, set to begin production in New Zealand soon.

Platinum Jubilee over the weekend. After the pair snacked on tea and marmalade sandwiches in a two-minute video, the British teddy is now being called out by “Downton Abbey” star Hugh Bonneville.Bonneville, 58, — who played Henry Brown in the “Paddington” films — jokingly accused the bear of stealing utensils from the 96-year-old monarch.The “Notting Hill” star tweeted Sunday, “Hmm @paddingtonbear, there’s an unfamiliar teaspoon in the kitchen drawer at 32 Windsor Gardens… any ideas?” The children’s literary icon denied any wrongdoing, tweeting back: “I’m sorry I don’t.

Ben Whishaw (“A Very English Scandal,” “Fargo”) and premieres June 2 on AMC+ and Sundance Now. It’s adapted from British writer Adam Kay’s bestselling book, based on the diaries he kept during his six-year career as a physician in the UK specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. Kay also wrote the series, which meanders along before taking a brutally dark “didn’t see that one coming” turn later on.

It’s unclear what the James Bond film franchise is going to look like after “No Time to Die.” We know Daniel Craig is departing the role, but we’re not sure if the series will have another soft reboot or if the version of the character created by Craig will continue on with another actor in the role. But if it’s up to actor Ben Whishaw, who plays Q in the most recent Bond iteration, the franchise would undergo a massive overhaul.

When “Surge” debuted at Sundance in January (a full nine months before its release) the Ben Whishaw-starring thriller seemed like a surefire success—a modern-day “Taxi Driver” or realistic “Joker.” But this week, the film has been dumped on VOD with a little advertisement, promotion, or reviews.

There’s mannered, there’s manic, and then there’s the malfunctioning pinball-machine delirium that Ben Whishaw brings to “Surge”: a blinking, buzzing, flashing clatter of hyper-accelerated impulses, chicken-fried synapses and staggered hypnic jerks that never culminate in sleep.