Jimmy Kimmel Issued An Apology

Primetime schedule this fall… Ellen Digital Network has new projects… Miley Cyrus on getting sober… Mel Gibson denies renewed allegations… and Jimmy Kimmel has issued an apology

Remember back when we used to look forward to September because all our favorite TV shows returned with new episodes and we got to discover some new favorites? Coronavirus changed all that this year. Hollywood has been shut down since mid-March and shows are being bumped back, but the networks are still forging ahead with new show announcements. ABC is giving us “Call Your Mother,” a sitcom starring Kyra Sedgwick as an empty-nester who moves across the country to be closer to her kids. Leslie Jones will host the revival of the gameshow “Supermarket Sweep.” CBS is adding a new Chuck Lorre sitcom called “B Positive,” about a therapist and newly divorced dad with B-positive blood who needs a kidney donor. Queen Latifah will star in a reboot of “The Equalizer.” Over on Fox, Kim Cattrall said no to another “Sex and the City” movie, but she said yes to starring in a new family drama called “Filthy Rich. We’re also getting a new sci-fi drama starring John Slattery, and season one of “LA’s Finest” starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba, which originally aired on Spectrum. And NBC is bringing Chris Meloni back his “SVU” character Elliott Stabler in another “Law & Order” offshoot called, “Organized Crime.” But it’s back to the writers’ room for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” In light of what’s happening in our country, Terry Crews said they’re scrapping four episodes already written for the upcoming season.

Ellen Degeneres doesn’t have enough going on right now, so she’s launching the Ellen Digital Network, in partnership with Warner Bros. Digital Networks. Among the nine new shows announced so far are “Help Me Gen Z with Ellie Kemper.” Ellie will sit down with groups of Gen Z kids to talk about trends and to get their perspectives on life. Sarah Hyland hosts “Lady Parts” with Dr. Sherry Ross, aka OB/GYN to the stars. They’ll be joined by celebrity guests for open conversations about the female body and sex. Tiffany Haddish is also getting a show, but we don’t have any details on that one yet.

In a new interview with Variety, Miley Cyrus said she’s six months sober, going to therapy and she’s loving every minute of it. It all started with her vocal surgery back in November. Miley wasn’t allowed to talk for four whole weeks, and said it really prepared her for the stillness and quietness of social distancing. But it also got her right arm really ripped “from yelling at her mom and trying to do meetings” while scribbling on a whiteboard! As far as her sobriety, Miley said, “It’s really hard because especially being young, there’s that stigma of ‘you’re no fun.’ It’s like, ‘honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I’m fun.’ The thing that I love about it is waking up 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. I don’t want to wake up feeling groggy. I want to wake up feeling ready.”

Mel Gibson’s rep said she was lying 10 years ago and she’s lying now. Winona Ryder recently gave an interview to The Times UK recounting her run-in with Mel at a Hollywood party in 1995. It’s the same story she told GQ in 2010. Winona was at the party with celebrity makeup artist Kevin Aucoin, who has since passed away. Winona claims that when Mel found out Kevin was gay, he said, “Oh, wait, am I gonna get AIDS?” And when Mel found out Winona was Jewish, she said he asked her, “You’re not an over dodger, are you?” He was referring to the Jewish people who died in Nazi death camps. In an email statement to The Post, Mel’s rep said, “This is 100% untrue. She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now.” As far as Winona’s claim that Mel had reached out to apologize for offending her, the rep said, she lied about that, too. He said, “He did reach out to her, many years ago, to confront her about her lies, and she refused to address it with him.”

After his past came back to haunt him, Jimmy Kimmel is apologizing for old sketches he performed wearing black face and for using the N-word in a parody song. In his statement, Jimmy said in part, “I have long been reluctant to address this, as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us. That delay was a mistake…I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke…I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head. I’ve done dozens of impressions of famous people…In each case, I thought of them as impersonations of celebrities and nothing more. Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices. I believe that I have evolved and matured over the last twenty-plus years, and I hope that is evident to anyone who watches my show. I know that this will not be the last I hear of this and that it will be used again to try to quiet me, but I love this country too much to allow that. I won’t be bullied into silence by those who feign outrage to advance their oppressive and genuinely racist agendas…” As far as the timing of his summer vacation, Jimmy said he wasn’t dodging any of this. He said, “My summer vacation has been planned for more than a year and includes the next two summers off as well. I will be back to work in September.”

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