October 13, 2019

Here's the Scoop...

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt explore the Amazon in the new trailer for Disney's upcoming action-adventure film, Jungle Cruise.

The clip, released on Friday, features Blunt as a determined explorer who wishes to find a legendary tree hidden in the amazon which possess healing powers.

Blunt enlists the help of a charismatic riverboat captain portrayed by Johnson to help take her on the voyage.

The duo encounter raging waters and mythical enemies while on their journey.

"If you believe in legends, you should believe in curses too," Johnson says to Blunt. "You're going to beg me to turn back."

Jungle Cruise, inspired by the classic Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme park ride of the same name, is set to arrive in theaters on July 24, 2020.

Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti also star with Jaume Collet-Serra serving as director.

Be Well,
Steve

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Matt Lauer denies rape allegation: 'It is categorically false'

Matt Lauer is denying claims that he raped a former NBC News co-worker in 2014.

The former Today anchor spoke out Wednesday following news that Ronan Farrow's new book, Catch and Kill, details Lauer's alleged rape of Brooke Nevils at the Sochi Olympics in February 2014.

Farrow interviewed Nevils, the former NBC News employee whose allegations of sexual misconduct led to Lauer's firing from Today in 2017, for his book, out Oct. 15. Nevils says that Lauer anally raped her in Sochi.

Lauer responded to Nevils' new claim in an open letter Wednesday. He said his sexual encounter with Nevils in Sochi was "consensual" and marked the start of an extramarital affair.

"Today, nearly two years after I was fired by NBC, old stories are being recycled, titillating details are being added, and a dangerous and defamatory new allegation is being made. All are being spread as part of a promotional effort to sell a book. It's outrageous," Lauer said.

"In a new book, it is alleged that an extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter I have previously admitted having, was in fact an assault. It is categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense," he added.

NBC News issued a statement Wednesday following the new allegations.

"Matt Lauer's conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time. That's why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague," the network said.

Statement from NBC News about the Matt Lauer allegations. pic.twitter.com/OcphdoziNW- TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 9, 2019

Catch and Kill recounts Farrow's investigation of Harvey Weinstein, who was accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple women, including actress Gwyneth Paltrow, in 2017.

'Sesame Street' tackles addiction with new Karli character

Sesame Street has started a new initiative to tackle the subject of parental addiction through the use of a new Muppet character named Karli.

The initiative involves offering children and parents access to videos, storybooks and interactive activities on the Sesame Street in Communities website that feature Karli and Elmo.

The activities are designed to help children and families cope with the challenges of addiction together.

Karli explains to Elmo in one of the clips how her mother -- who has struggled with substance abuse -- goes to meetings everyday so that she can stay healthy.

"My mom needs help learning to take better care of herself so she talks to people with the same problem," Karli tells Elmo.

"Children struggling with the effects of their parents' addiction need the support of safe friends, family members and other children dealing with the same problem," Sesame Street in Communities says.

Sesame Street previously tackled the issue of homelessness by using the character of Lily.

Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary DVD 10 Hours Of Footage For Just $5

LOOSE LIPS:

"On the Before movies, the first film I think I was paid maybe a tenth of what Ethan was paid, the second movie I think I was paid half. The third movie I said, 'Listen guys, if I'm not paid the same, I won't do it.'"
--Julie Delpy, on speaking out against the pay disparity between her and costar Ethan Hawke while filming the beloved Before trilogy, to Variety

??? Guess Who ???

Which former 'Santa Clarita Diet' star will host a daytime talk show for CBS in fall 2020?

Will Smith was inspired by his 23-year-old self in 'Gemini Man'

In Gemini Man, 51-year-old Will Smith portrays his 23-year-old self, exploring his own battle within.

"I loved the philosophical idea that we all plant the seeds of our own destruction," Smith said at a recent press conference for the movie, which opens in theaters Friday. "We are our own worst enemy. We make choices and we make decisions in our lives that set things in motion that we can't blame other people for."

In the movie, Henry (Smith) is a 51-year-old assassin who announces his retirement from the fictional Defense Intelligence Agency. When he is pursued by another assassin, he is shocked to see his own face staring back at him. Junior (Smith) is Henry's clone, now age 23. Henry's past literally has come to destroy him.

"I just thought it was a really clever and creative way to say that we are the architects of our ultimate rise or fall," Smith said. "It's a big part of why I love science fiction because you can put those things under really wild visual landscapes."

Ang Lee, who directed Gemini Man, saw the technical challenge as the next step after he directed Life of Pi, in which visual effects artists created a realistic tiger for his film. A realistic human would be even more difficult.

"I experienced the tiger in Life of Pi," Lee said. "I know with a human face, you're playing with fire. It's pretty scary but at the same time it's pretty exciting. So I signed on."

Lee and Smith agreed that the philosophical element was just as exciting as the technology. Lee related to Smith's philosophical idea about planting the seeds of one's own destruction.

"As soon as I hear a clone, a younger version, I just knew I'm old enough to deal with this stuff," Lee said. "If we put all this philosophical stuff in there, what kind of fun are we going to have?"

Computers could make Smith look like he was 23 again, but the actor still had to find a way to act as his 23-year-old self.

"You can't fake innocence," Smith said. "As a young actor, it's easier to play older, but [when you're] older, it's difficult to impossible to play younger. Once you know some stuff, it's in your eyes. It's in your cells."

Clay Varris (Clive Owen) created Junior and raised him to be the perfect specimen. That means Junior missed out on some of the normal teenage life experiences. Just playing a virgin was challenging to Smith.

"To try to have eyes that unknow sex, once you've had sex, you walk different," Smith said. "It's in your back. So their job in creating a digital human was to be able to sell that innocence and that youth."

When Smith was 23, he starred on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He had his first dramatic role in Six Degrees of Separation in 1993 when he was 25. Junior not only looks like Smith did in the early '90s, but he acts like Smith did then too.

Smith said Lee picked out scenes from Smith's work in Fresh Prince, Six Degrees, Bad Boys, Independence Day and Men in Black. Based on those, Smith crafted his Junior performance.

"We found these really honest moments in some of my early work," Smith said

Cloning makes a young version of Henry possible. Visual effects make a young version of Smith possible. Gemini Man then asks the audience what makes Henry and Junior such different people.

"One of the major discussions that we were having [was] in terms of nature versus nurture," Smith said. "If you're genetically identical, how much does your life experience affect the things that you say and do and feel?"

Junior grew up under Clay's guidance, and backstory reveals Henry escaped a difficult childhood.

"We were trying to draw as big a difference as possible as we could between the characters," Smith said. "Henry, who grew up in a brutal household, he had a tougher upbringing, while Junior had the perfect upbringing with Clive's character."

Smith said he saw Gemini Man as a way to explore the nature vs. nurture debate. Junior has Henry's DNA but a different father figure. Yet both went into the business of killing.

"In drawing those distinctions, it was interesting that it still came down to two men who had taken these gifts that they had and still turned them into [similar] things," Smith said. "[Their killings] were still going to create nightmares and were going to create a horrible end to this experience."

Gemini Man prompted Smith to look back at his 23-year-old self, and he realized his younger self had some admirable qualities that gradually faded away.

"My younger self was wildly and insanely aggressive," Smith said. "At 23 years old, I was naive and ambitious and aggressive. There's a power to naivety. There's a power that I'm actually trying to get back in my life right now."

Smith prefers to keep the Henry/Junior debates hypothetical. He sees human cloning on the horizon and worries about its consequences.

"We reach for poisoned honey a lot in order to overcome our pain and suffering," Smith said. "My opinion is that cloning will ultimately pan out to be poisoned honey. It will be a reach that will potentially come back and bite humanity in a way that we're probably not considering fully."

As for the groundbreaking technology, Lee hopes viewers don't ask how the studio made Will Smith young. He hopes viewers just believe Junior is a unique character.

"The biggest praise we have is nobody thinks about that," Lee said. "They just watch the movie and watch the story."

??? Guess Who ???

Which former 'Santa Clarita Diet' star will host a daytime talk show for CBS in fall 2020?

CBS announced on Thursday plans to air a new syndicated daytime talk show featuring Drew Barrymore as the host.

CBS is targeting a fall 2020 launch for the show which will be produced by CBS Television Distribution.

Barrymore, Chris Miller and Ember Truesdell are serving as executive producers.

"It is beyond my wildest dreams to have this oppoturnity for a daily talk show," Barrymore said in a statement. "I'm truly thrilled and honored to be creating this show with CBS."

Barrymore was previously featured on Netflix's horror comedy Santa Clarita Diet which was canceled after three seasons in April. She also served as a judge alongside RuPaul Charles and Faith Hill on CBS' The World's Best, which aired in February.

Barrymore's upcoming daytime talk show comes after NBC recently launched The Kelly Clarkson Show and ABC launched The Tamron Hall Show.