TV updates… Blake Lively has just been cast… TJ Holmes & Amy Robach begin mediation with ABC… Rick Astley sues… and Taylor Swift shares new “Lavender Haze” video
Listen to “Showbiz – Jan 27, 2023” on Spreaker.
Yesterday Fox announced they renewed all your favorite animated series geared towards adults. They ordered two more seasons each of “The Simpsons,” “The Family Guy,” and “Bob’s Burgers.” That will take “The Simpsons” through Season 36… “The Family Guy” through Season 23 … and “Bob’s Burgers” through Season 15! But there’s another animated series that will not be enjoying seemingly never-ending renewals. After only one season, HBO Max is said to be THISCLOSE to announcing the cancelation of “Velma.” This is Mindy Kaling’s re-imagined story of the bespectacled and beloved “Scooby Doo” character. The show has only been out for 2 weeks, but it is now officially the worst-rated animated show in IMDb history. With over 52K votes, “Velma” has a user rating of 1.3 out of 10. Why are people not feeling it? While it’s a “Scooby Doo” spinoff, there’ s no connection to it. Viewers are saying they just don’t like the characters. They’re too mean. And it’s also filled with lots of violence, language and teen sexuality. For instance, there’s one scene where Velma is trying to reconnect with her dad. They decide to go to their favorite restaurant, only to find out it’s been turned into a strip club. They go in anyway. At one point, Velma tries to get her dad’s attention by getting on stage and pole-dancing for him. But if that sounds like the show for you, new episodes come out every Thursday through Feb. 9.
Kind of wild to think ‘The Simpsons’ will outlive us all. https://t.co/hu9rm1LviF
— ScreenCrush (@screencrushnews) January 27, 2023
I’m so honored to voice Velma in this hilarious (and sometimes very scary!!) show, created by @CBGrandy and featuring some of the most killer actors in every role! It’s out RIGHT NOW GUYS on @hbomax! @velmatheseries pic.twitter.com/J7u7ZNHzdU
— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) January 12, 2023
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Colleen Hoover listens to our show and even follows some of us on Instagram! So it was fun to see her announce on her IG Story yesterday that Blake Lively has been cast as Lily in the upcoming movie based on her book It Ends With Us. This is her first movie role since 2020’s “The Rhythm Section.” No word on when the filming of It Ends With Us is set to begin, but it’s going to be a minute because Blake is still pregnant with her fourth child. She and Ryan Reynolds have 3 daughters, 8-year-old James, 6-year-old Inez and 3-year-old Betty. Blake is probably due any day now because when she announced her pregnancy in September, she was pretty far along. Confirming the announcement, Blake posted a photo of herself with long, brown hair as the Smashing Pumpkins’ song “Lily (My One and Only) played. Colleen also announced that Justin Baldoni — who you may remember from “Jane the Virgin” — has been cast as Ryle. Justin is also directing and producing the movie through his production company. Colleen’s book was published in 2016 and by 2019, it has sold over a million copies. But in late 2021, the book became popular on TikTok and ended up being the top-selling print book in 2022, staying on the NY Times Best Seller List for over 90 weeks.
Blake Lively will be playing Lily in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s ‘IT ENDS WITH US.’ pic.twitter.com/Cfn5LfhtkM
— Pop Tingz (@ThePopTingz) January 27, 2023
The mediation has begun. T.J. Holmes, Amy Robach and their lawyers met with ABC brass yesterday by Zoom to figure out what happens next. A source told Page Six ABC is upset about leaks in negotiations being released to the press. In fact, we’re not even supposed to know that mediation began yesterday! Negotiations are expected to last through the weekend and possibly into next week.
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach going to ‘war’ with ABC https://t.co/BTx9rkeUjw pic.twitter.com/CbSBabPw91
— Page Six (@PageSix) January 26, 2023
You can Rick Roll all you want, but Rick Astley draws the line when you try to imitate him. Rick has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Yung Gravy over his single “Betty (Get Money).” Yung Gravy and his team did pay for the right to use the instrumentals from Rick’s 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” But Rick’s lawsuit says they were not authorized to reproduce his vocals by using someone who sounds almost identical to him. Rick claims in his suit that Yung Gravy cost him some potentially lucrative future collaboration opportunities.
Rick Astley has sued Yung Gravy https://t.co/TkylsdUD1n
— billboard (@billboard) January 27, 2023
Taylor Swift posted a video teaser on her Instagram yesterday, captioning it, “Meet me at midnight…for the Lavender Haze music video premiere (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)” And that’s what millions of Swifties did. After the video debuted on Taylor’s YouTube channel, she went back to IG to post a series of photos from the video, captioning them, “The Lavender Haze video is out now. There is lots of lavender. There is lots of haze. There is my incredible costar @laith_ashley who I absolutely adored working with. This was the first video I wrote out of the 3 that have been released, and this one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it.” In its first 9 hours of release, the video surpassed 3M views. And fans are having lots of fun finding all of Taylor’s hidden Easter eggs!
