Here's the Scoop...
I'm so sorry. I forget to wish you a Happy Easter, yesterday! I've been so busy lately that I can't even remember what day it is. It's Monday, right?
Lots of great stories from LA-LA-Land await you in today's issue and on our website
CelebrityNooz.com. Please Read, Visit, and Enjoy!
Be Well,
Steve
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Drew Barrymore says an 'E.T.' sequel won't happen
E.T. star Drew Barrymore says a sequel to the 1982 movie is unlikely.
The 43-year-old actress, who played Gertie in the film, explained on Wednesday's episode of Watch What Happens Live that director Steven Spielberg made the film "just as it should be."
"I will say in the early 80s, there was not always a lot of talk of sequels," Barrymore said of the present-day craze for sequels and revivals. "[Spielberg] never wanted to make them because he felt like what he did was just as it should be."
"I remember being seven and staying at his house for the weekend -- he was a 'godfather' to me," she added. "He said, 'No, we're never going to make a sequel. It's just as it is.' That was his philosophy, so who was I to ever question it?"
Barrymore later said on the after-show that she'd be open to collaborating again with actor Adam Sandler. The pair co-starred in the movies The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Blended.
"Adam and I text all the time about our next thing, and we're like, 'We're so fat. We're so old. What the [expletive]?'" Barrymore said.
"Like, literally, the last thing I suggested to him was like, 'On Golden Pond question mark,'" she added.
Barrymore presently stars on the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet, which returned for a second season this month. She previously told The Toronto Sun that Spielberg "does not ever want to make" a sequel to E.T.
Rapper DMX sentenced to one year in prison for tax evasion
Rapper DMX was sentenced to one year in prison for tax evasion in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
DMX, real name Earl Simmons, received his sentence Wednesday from Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who listened to the musician's track "Slippin" during court proceedings. The rapper's attorney, Murray Richman, said the song showcases how hard DMX's life had been.
Rakoff said that DMX needed to be punished for his "particularly brazen and blatant" crime. "In the court's view Mr. Simmons is a good man, a very far from perfect man," Rakoff said, The New York Times reported. "In many ways he is, to give the cliche, his own worst enemy."
DMX's prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, TMZ reported. Federal prosecutors wanted the maximum sentence of five years in prison.
DMX was originally arrested in July on 14 charges related to tax fraud. The Department of Justice said he avoided paying $1.7 million in taxes over several years. He then pleaded guilty to the charges in December.
"Earl Simmons admitted to systematically cheating on his taxes. By insisting to be paid in cash whenever possible and having royalty payments diverted to the accounts of financial surrogates, Simmons concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of income from the IRS," acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim said after DMX pleaded guilty.
"Simmons made a choice between 'Right or Wrong,' and did the right thing, admitting his guilt, and agreeing to pay his tax liabilities. No matter who you are or whatever fame you may have achieved, the law applies equally to all, and no one is exempt from the shared obligation to pay our taxes," he continued.
LOOSE LIPS:
"You should see our closets, it's so funny. I would say that he likes fashion more than I like fashion. I would say he's changed his haircut in one year more than I've changed in my whole life."
--Gisele Bündchen, on husband Tom Brady, to WSJ Magazine
??? Guess Who ???
Which 'Unfortunate Events' star said that kids crave dark humor?
Scarlett Johansson to star in director Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit'
Scarlett Johansson is set to star in the next film from director Taika Waititi, a World War II film titled Jojo Rabbit.
Johansson is in final negotiations to appear in the film, Variety reported. Waititi recently helmed Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok and is known for directing Hunt for the Wilderpeople and the vampire-centric comedy What We Do in the Shadows which is being turned into a television pilot for FX.
Jojo Rabbit will follow a young German boy in Hitler's army who finds out that his mother, played by Johansson, is hiding a Jewish girl inside their home, Deadline reported.
Waititi wrote the script and is producing alongside Carthew Neal and Chelsea Winstanley. Production on the film is expected to begin this spring.
Johansson will next be seen reprising her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War and voices a character in director Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs.
'Narcos' star Pedro Pascal joins cast of 'Wonder Woman 2'
Narcos star Pedro Pascal has been cast in Warner Bros.' upcoming superhero sequel Wonder Woman 2 from returning director Patty Jenkins.
Pascal is said to have been cast in a key role in the film with exact plot details under wraps, Variety reported. The film will be set in the 1980s during the Cold War and will once again feature Gal Gadot as the titular character along with Kristen Wiig portraying villain Cheetah.
Wonder Woman 2 is a reunion for Pascal and Jenkins who previously worked together on television movie Exposed.
Pascal is best known for portraying DEA agent Javier Pena on Netflix's Narcos and previously appeared as Oberyn Martell in HBO's Game of Thrones. The actor has starred in Kingsman: The Golden Circle and will next be seen in the upcoming sequel to The Equalizer and Netflix's Triple Frontier.
Wonder Woman 2 is set to arrive in theaters on Nov. 1, 2019.
??? Guess Who ???
Which 'Unfortunate Events' star said that kids crave dark humor?
Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the villainous Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events, appreciates that kids -- including his own -- crave dark humor.
"They'd rather read the Grimm's fairytale and have something caustic happen as the moral, as opposed to being fed a happy tale with a happy ending and, so, I think because of that hunger, it's easy to delve into that," Harris told reporters at a recent roundtable in New York.
Harris has 7-year-old twins, Gideon and Harper, with husband David Burtka.
Famous for his work in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother and known as the go-to emcee for numerous awards shows, the Emmy and Tony winner said he is now drawn to projects he can share with his son and daughter.
"As a parent, I became highly aware of what they can watch because I didn't think about that when we didn't have kids," he said. "We just watched whatever was on TV, but you have to be aware of not only what they are watching actively, but what they are hearing passively and it's just a different conversation."
But the show is intended to appeal to all viewers, not just children, Harris, 44, emphasized.
"We can hit the kids. They can be spooked, but still hopeful. We can hit the adults that don't have kids, but still think it is cool. We can hit the Comic Con gang and they can watch it multiple times and pickup weird Easter eggs and follow clues. And we try to be loud, so the older people can at least hear us," he quipped.
Season 2 of the pitch-black comedy -- in which Harris plays the frequently disguised villain Count Olaf -- is to debut on Friday. Based on the beloved series of novels by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), the show co-stars Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes and baby Presley Smith as the hard-luck Baudelaire orphans whom Olaf is obsessed with swindling.
Given his own history as a young performer, Harris said it has been fascinating to watch Weissman and Hynes grow "both in size and emotional stature" over the past two seasons.
"I'm very proud of both of them. It's such a challenge as an actor to be comfortable enough to challenge. Because you are often being pulled from school and you're plopped on your mark and you're told to say [your lines] quickly and to not ask questions because if you ask questions, then they have to re-light [the scene] and that takes time and then as soon as they are done, they have to go back to school," the actor explained.
He said he encouraged the young actors to speak up.
"If they have thoughts or opinions about how something could be different, they should voice them because they are leads in the show," he said.
His own children don't seem interested in show business careers of their own.
"They're both extroverts in their own way," the erstwhile Doogie Howser said. "I'm certainly not pushing them toward a professional career in any way, just because I'm privy to the pitfalls that come with it, which is mostly an emotional mettle that is required that I wouldn't instill upon someone, unless that's what they really, really, really could only do.
"And [my children] see the process so much that they are probably less entranced by it and enchanted by it because they know that I fly back and forth from Vancouver to New York and that it takes three hours to get into prosthetics and I am tired a lot."
Instead they do gymnastics.
"Gideon loves robots and chess and [Harper] loves to sing, so who knows? I'll keep them away from a proper spotlight for as long as they will let me," Harris added.