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Dozens of Jewish artists are defending Mark Ruffalo after Paramount Skydance branded the actor’s criticisms about software company Oracle Corp. as “antisemitic tropes.”

Support for the actor comes as Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison has struggled to get its $111-billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger over the finish line amid considerable opposition.

Ruffalo has long been an irritant to Paramount as he is a leading figure in a high-profile Hollywood campaign to block the merger. In an Instagram post late last month, Ruffalo blasted Larry Ellison’s Texas-based software company Oracle for assisting with technology to help Israeli military efforts, including in Gaza — a conflict that Ruffalo and other progressive activists have opposed because of the killing of Palestinians.

In an open letter, signed by more than 150 filmmakers, academics, writers and even a few rabbis, the group denounced “the outrageous smear campaign against our respected colleague Mark Ruffalo.”

“Enough with the false and dangerous weaponization of charges of antisemitism against those who are brave enough to point out the obvious: that the assault on the Palestinian people and the assault on our liberties at home are deeply interconnected, and there is nothing antisemitic about recognizing that fact,” the group wrote.

Tuesday’s letter was signed by several high-profile filmmakers, including Joel Coen, Hannah Einbinder, Tony Kushner, Lisa Cholodenko, Ilana Glazer, Frances Fisher, Todd Haynes and Sarah Kunstler.

The group tied David Ellison’s merger ambitions to his billionaire father’s expansive network of businesses, which now include TikTok. Larry Ellison is personally guaranteeing the equity needed for Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and the family will become controlling owners of the merged entity.

However, the Hollywood merger is stalled because of an antitrust lawsuit brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and 11 other Democratic state attorneys general, including from New York, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon. Paramount agreed to pause the transaction until the court case can be decided.

A trial is set for March 2 in Oakland, but Paramount has been agitating for industry leaders and politicians to pressure Bonta to force a settlement that would allow the deal to go through.

“The proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery is no mere combination of two huge multinational companies,” the group wrote in the letter. “Yes, it will destroy thousands upon thousands of livelihoods. Yes, it will further consolidate the oligarchic control of our media (witness the gutting of CBS News). Yes, it will strangle competition and creativity in film and television production and distribution.”

The group painted the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger as “part of a larger project of tech-driven domination, a project Larry Ellison and his partners have never been shy about trumpeting — and one they themselves have explicitly linked to their support for the ongoing depredations being visited on the people of Palestine and their silencing of critics of those horrors,” the group wrote.

Paramount declined to comment.

The merger fight has grown increasingly ugly in recent weeks after Paramount threatened to leave California if Bonta continued his court fight to unravel the deal. Paramount suggested it would pull up stakes from its Melrose Avenue film studio as soon as this fall.

Then, on Aug. 21, the company accused Ruffalo of injecting “antisemitic tropes” into the opposition campaign to thwart the industry-reshaping merger that would bring HBO, CBS News, CNN, TBS and the Warner Bros. and Paramount film and TV studios under the same roof.

Leaders of prominent Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, came to Paramount’s defense, blasting the Emmy-winning actor known for playing the Hulk and roles in productions for HBO.

Ruffalo defended himself, saying he was not being antisemitic. He said he was speaking out against Oracle’s use of technology to assist Israel’s military in the war in Gaza, “what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” Ruffalo wrote in his post.

Paramount leaders have branded some of the opposition to the deal as “antisemitic.”

“Pointing out the crucial connections between what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism,” the group wrote in the open letter. “It is, for us, the very essence of Jewish ethical duty.”

The letter cited recent polls that reflect a majority of “American Jews now agree that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza; and four in ten even agree that these crimes amount to genocide,” the group wrote. “Do those attacking Mark Ruffalo as an antisemite seriously believe that all these American Jews are antisemites too?”

Bonta abruptly canceled settlement talks last week, but extended an olive branch to Paramount by saying he would be willing to meet with the company to discuss ways to address his antitrust concerns.

A new three-part documentary series on Netflix will explore the life and struggles of Matthew Perry and feature an interview with his sister Mia Perry Bowick, along with unreleased photos and videos from the private archive of the Perry family.

“The One About Matthew Perry” will premiere on the streaming platform Oct. 27, according to an announcement by Netflix on Tuesday. The docuseries, directed and executive produced by award-winning director Mary Robertson (“Quiet on Set”), will tell the story of Perry and his journey from rising comedic star to the man behind the Emmy-nominated role of Chandler Bing on “Friends.”

“Through his many films, TV and stage performances, and his unforgettable portrayal of Chandler Bing, he made millions of us laugh, connect, and feel a little less alone,” Robertson said in a statement. “He also gave us so much more by bravely speaking about addiction. Yet the public only knew part of his story. That’s why we set out to make this series: to let the people who knew and loved Matthew reveal the person behind the public figure.”

The documentary will explore new details about Perry’s private struggles with prescription painkillers and alcohol through firsthand memories from his family and collaborators. The actor died in 2023 from acute effects of ketamine, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner. Five people were sentenced to prison for supplying Perry with the drug, including his assistant, two doctors, a former drug counselor and a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine queen.”

Perry Bowick hopes the series gives everyone who loved him an appreciation of who he truly was and the legacy he leaves behind.

“It’s taken time for me to feel ready to share these memories and what it was like to love Matthew through all the complexity of his life — to see him as a whole person, not just as Chandler, and not just as someone who struggled with addiction,” she said in a statement.

“The One About Matthew Perry” is the latest documentary about the late actor; “Matthew Perry: An American Tragedy” was released on Peacock last year. The Netflix docuseries is produced by Maxine Productions, a part of Sony Pictures Television. Lisa Kalikow, Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman are executive producers along with Robertson, Lora Moftah is co-executive producer and Jessica Call is producer.

Hollywood A-listers are more comfortable than ever with cloning their voice and likeness to create a new stream of income, despite the threat of viewer backlash to artificial intelligence.

Sunny Hostin of the popular daily talk show “The View” has licensed her image and likeness to AI production studio Fountain 0, which will make film adaptations of her novels.

“To be able to bring my novels to life in movie and TV form, and actually have my image inserted in the productions, so that audiences can relate to me through my stories beyond my role as an author, is incredibly exciting to me,” Hostin said in a statement.

“AI can give me a way to both more fully develop, and more fully immerse myself in, IP I have developed,” she said.

The Overton window for acceptable AI use in Hollywood continues to widen as Hollywood actors, television hosts, and influencers embrace cloning with protections and compensation. As high-quality synthetic re-creations become cheap and accessible, cloning has become a more desirable option for studios struggling with runaway production costs.

Audiences will be subject to more AI content on the big screen that’s indistinguishable from real human performances.

Fountain 0 is the producer behind “Dreams of Violets,” a fully AI-generated film inspired by anti-government protests in Tehran. The 75-minute drama was made with a budget of $2,000 without a cast or a crew, and was the first fully AI-generated film accepted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

“We are incredibly gratified that Sunny is willing to be the talent pioneer willing to step out and take advantage of this new form of creative expression,” said Ash Koosha, co-founder and CEO of Fountain 0, in a release.

The production company will be releasing its second fully AI-generated film, “Odysseus: The Fall,” later this year. The film uses the likeness of many people, including the film’s creator Koosha, who stars as Odysseus.

Fountain 0’s executive chariman told CNBC that the film is designed to ride the buzz around Christopher Nolan’s ‘’The Odyssey” and give people the opportunity to compare the height of human filmmaking with AI filmmaking.

Proponents of AI argue that it allows writers and creators to take on blockbuster-scale films without financial constraints. Many creators oppose AI because it could replace humans and was built using the unauthorized scraping of creative works used to train generative AI video and image models.

Online reactions to news of Hostin’s cloning were fierce.

“Basically, no film studio wants to give her the budget to turn her books into a movie with real actors, so she’s resorting to AI studios,” wrote one person on Reddit.

Hollywood has fought hard for protections from AI in the prolonged writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023. SAG-AFTRA, the union representing about 160,000 actors and other performers, has been demanding informed consent, fair compensation, more control and transparency over the use of digital replicas.

The latest agreement, signed in June, introduced limits on studios’ use of digital replicas. The contract requires studios to notify actors before using their voices to create a replica. After a project is complete, actors must sign off and be paid the equivalent of an in-person performance if their replica is used.

Additionally, studios need to pay residuals to digital replicas used in reruns, and replicas cannot be used during a strike.

Hiring fully AI-generated characters such as Tilly Norwood, created without hiring a human performer, is not impossible but comes with a very high threshold for use under the 2026 union contract. Producers must notify the union in advance and prove the AI character brings “significant additional value” to the role.

Still, a fissure remains between those actors who stay morally opposed to cloning, and those who embrace this new reality.

ElevenLabs’ voice marketplace features clones of dozens of personalities — including actress Judy Garland, physicist Richard Feynman and popular characters such as Mr. Potato Head for creators to legally license and get compensated for their use.

This has created a contentious ecosystem in which A-listers are gaining millions from cloning with safeguards and building a new stream of passive income from their intellectual property, while early-career actors complain that their likenesses are being misappropriated and opportunities are being driven away. A massive lobbying effort is underway to institute a uniform standard for protecting an individual’s voice and likeness as property rights.

The back-to-back news this week of the deaths of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry — both at age 80 — felt like an unfair and twisted threat to our peace.

Both were extraordinary cultural forces whose screen and stage work lit up and shaped our lives, so its no wonder the emotional whirlpool led to one large group chat on social media, with fans posting favorite performance clips and interview soundbites. I took comfort in many, including Parton singing “Jolene” at the Grand Ole Opry in 1988 and eight minutes of Curry in the frantic “how it was done” climax in “Clue” (1985), which he reportedly performed so intensely he had to be taken to the hospital for high blood pressure.

Our writers captured the depth of the legacy each leaves behind.

Greg Braxton reflected on Curry’s significant contribution to the twisted image of clowns with his terrifying portrayal of Pennywise in “It.” Robert Lloyd took on highlighting the actor’s most memorable roles on TV. And in his appreciation of Curry, Steve Appleford praised how Curry’s roles “turned out wilder and more varied than he might have expected but his seriousness and sense of fun never faded, pushing boundaries and himself. No one was ever bored watching Tim Curry onscreen.” (Appleford spoke with Curry in 2025 for his final interview published in The Times; I encourage you to read it.)

Meanwhile, Mikael Wood waxed on Parton’s storytelling prowess in her music. Lloyd looked at her legacy on the small screen, where she appeared in variety shows (two of her own), specials, TV movies, guest shots, interviews and music videos — contending it’s where “much of America met Dolly.” Mary McNamara explored Parton’s unexpected persona as a feminist icon. And Emily St. Martin reminded us of Parton’s contributions to literacy.

The country music superstar’s performance in 1982’s “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, is one of our streaming recommendations this week. (For those seeking community while celebrating the life of Parton, AMC Theatres announced screenings for the film, as well as “Steel Magnolias,” in select locations through Sept. 2.) Our other streaming suggestion, if you need a life vest to keep afloat through the tears, is a series featuring veteran fashion police partners reuniting again — this time, to dole out critiques of fictional characters.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, we spoke with actor Kristen Johnston about the Season 2 return of “Leanne.” Best known for her role as Sally Solomon in the hit ’90s sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun,” Johnston has built a career bringing laughs to comedies like TV Land’s “The Exes” and CBS’ “Mom.” Lately, she’s been bringing her seasoned comedy skills to Netflix’s multi-cam sitcom, which captures the messy (and funny) experiences of women navigating midlife — like dealing with menopause or the horrors of the modern dating scene. Stand-up comedian Leanne Morgan stars as the titular character, while Johnston plays her brutally honest sister, Carol.

“Not every show has to be, you know, medieval dragons,” Johnston says. “There’s room for a couple of silly women in their 50s trying to figure it out.” Read more from Johnston in Guest Spot. In the meantime, I’m off to mix and bake a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar and a cuppa fruit cocktail with the juice at 350 till it’s gold and bubbly. See you next week. — Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Dolly Parton as Miss Mona in the 1982 movie “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

(Universal Pictures)

“The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (VOD)

Dolly Parton cemented her movie star status with her feature debut “9 to 5” alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. But outside of the irresistible title song, Parton did not sing in the film. She makes up for it with her second film, 1982’s “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Adapted from the Broadway musical, the country superstar dazzles as Miss Mona Stangley, the proprietress of the popular “Chicken Ranch” brothel. With her characteristic down-home charm, she makes her place of business seem as wholesome as apple (“There’s lots of goodwill and maybe one small thrill, but there’s nothing dirty going on,” she sings in the opening number). Parton also contributed two extra songs to the soundtrack alongside the original Broadway score, including her hit “I Will Always Love You.” — Greg Braxton

Clinton Kelly, left, and Stacy London in “Why’d They Wear That?”

(Jordan Petsy / Simple Alien)

“Why’d They Wear That?” (YouTube)

Stacy London and Clinton Kelly are back with a third “Wear” show, after “What Not To Wear” and last year’s “Wear Whatever the F You Want.” This one’s for the Stacy and Clinton fans, as it removes the clients and makeover elements and sits the hosts on a bed together in front of a TV as they critique what characters wear in the movies, viewing film through the lens of clothing, hair and makeup. (It’s very smart.) The films and actors they highlight are meaningful to one or the other — they don’t always agree — which is to say they broadly represent the tastes of people born in 1969. The range of subjects encompasses “Meatballs,” “Poltergeist,” “Best in Show,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” in which episode you will learn that London views Darth Vader as “the Karl Lagerfeld of outer space” (“monochromatic dressing … quiet luxury and he doesn’t change — he invests in his pieces”). One episode is a tribute to Catherine O’Hara. With no one’s feelings to dance around, they can be as critical as they like, but snark isn’t the point so much as celebration and the delight of old friends sharing their own, often self-deprecating stories. Come for the analysis, stay for the laughter, or vice versa. — Robert Lloyd

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Leanne Morgan, left, and Kristen Johnston in Season 2 of “Leanne.”

(Patrick Mcelhenney / Netflix)

In “Leanne,” Kristen Johnston plays the ultimate ride-or-die sister you want in your corner — she turns chaotic moments into fun, tells the hard truths and provides unwavering emotional support. The Netflix sitcom stars comedienne Leanne Morgan as a woman trying to rebuild her life after her husband of 33 years left her for someone else. Helping her navigate the emotional rubble is her family, including her fiercely loyal, unfiltered, twice-divorced sister, Carol (Johnston). As Leanne confronts more change in Season 2, like turning 60 and coming to terms with aging parents that require more care, Carol remains a blunt support system. Over the phone, Johnston discussed her connection to the themes explored in the comedy and the genre of TV that has her hooked these days. — Y.V.

Change continues to be a theme in Season 2. It opens with Leanne resisting the idea of turning 60 and still not ready to be alone with herself. Carol is there to remind her that she’s capable. Tell me about your 50s, Kristen. How are you feeling about this stage of your life and the prospect of turning 60?

Oh my God! Honestly, I never even thought I’d make it to my 50s. So, the fact that I’m still here is a pretty big miracle. My 50s has just continued to be about trying to figure out my place in the world and deepening my friendships with my friends, my family. That’s about it.

Are there things you used to worry about that now you’re like, “I can handle that”?

I used to worry about everything, and now I really couldn’t give a s—. I don’t live for other people’s opinions anymore, and that was probably something I lived for for a long time. When you get fame really early, you just condition yourself to not make anyone upset and not get found out by the tabloids or be stalked. I don’t know. I do enjoy really just trying to live. Other people’s opinions matter to me, but they’re not the reason I do or don’t do anything.

You and Leanne both get a chance to play with the idea of getting older early in the season with a daydream sequence about being in the retirement home. What was that like? It hits at such a big topic that many people come to grips with at some point, which is the idea of caring for aging parents.

That’s a huge topic this season, and it one it matters to me because my mom is still here — thank God. But it’s stuff that really comes up a lot. When it’s time to get them into a home, it’s so hard, and of course, they never want to go. Who would? But literally doing that scene was so great because I’m so into prosthetics and makeup. We had a lot of fun coming up with what each of us would be.

Kristen Johnston, left, and Leanne Morgan in “Leanne.”

(Patrick Mcelhenney / Netflix)

The bond between Leanne and Carol is such an important element of the show. What do you think this show really gets right about sisterhood?

It feels very real. You have one who’s a black sheep and always blamed for everything, then you’ve got one who’s the Goody Two-shoes and got married at the right time and had kids. Carol did none of that. But throughout that, and much more important than the rivalry and being mad at each other or whatever, is just this absolute unending love. And I feel very sisterly towards Leanne. I get really emotional about her because I feel like she’s my sister. They’re pretty easy scenes to act.

You’ve worked in multi-cam sitcoms across broadcast, cable and streaming. Do you feel a difference?

I don’t know if it’s as much that they’re different, but the times sure have been different. I’m from the era where we would have the head of the studio come to every taping and send us cards and thank you or call you to come over to his house for his 60th birthday or whatever. That doesn’t really happen anymore. I’m from this other era, which really felt more personal and felt more one-on-one. Now it really just feels like, “Don’t look at me. I just want thanks for the paycheck.”

And it seems hard to even gauge how well the shows are doing.

Exactly. Leanne was so nervous about all that at first, and I just said, “Look, all we can do is our our best. Let’s just be funny and have fun, and everything else is above our pay grade.” So she went with that. That’s how we kind of roll.

OK, tell me — how often are you asked about the “Splat!” episode of “Sex and the City”? How often do people come up to you about Lexi?

It’s crazy. It’s all anybody wants to talk about, any podcasters or anything. Really, I would say 80% of the conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks are focused mainly on that.

What does that tell you that a role that was a one-off could have that kind of lasting impact?

It’s the shock of what happens in that scene more than almost anything. There was kind of this angry “I’m gonna live no matter what” vibe to her. So to watch her fall to her death out of her own hubris, it’s just a perfect little encapsulation of a moment in New York City, and I think that’s why people love it. It’s also probably one of the bigger, bigger acting choices I’ve ever made. That was Michael Patrick King. I can’t believe it still matters to people, but obviously, I’m thrilled it does. I did like three takes [of the fall]. And it could have been the stunt woman [who made the cut]. I honestly don’t know who they cut to for what.

Because when people say, “Are you a Carrie? Are you a Charlotte?” A lot of people say, “I’m Lexi.”

They tell me that all the time. I just go, “Oh, babes.” I wouldn’t really want to cling to her as like an inspiration for your character, but I think what they mean is they’re probably bawdy. There are worse things to be in life.

What’s the most recent thing you watched that you’re obsessed with?

I’ve gone down the K-drama rabbit hole. And something I loved is this C-drama called “Pursuit of Jade” on Netflix. It’s so well-done, really good and very thrilling. A period show. Love it. I’ve been sucked into that. Oh, for K-drama — “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.” That’s pretty much where I’ve been living.

What’s your go-to comfort watch?

I like spooky, weird stuff like “True Detective,” “Broadchurch.” I just did a rewatch. I can’t believe “Broadchurch” is my comfort show. Anything with really good character development, fantastic acting. I love it.

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After Tim Curry finished playing the flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter — first onstage, then in the 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — the actor never returned to the role that made him famous. Not once, over decades of “Rocky Horror” revivals from the West End to Broadway, did he ever put those fishnets back on.

For Curry, who died Tuesday at 80 in Los Angeles, there were too many characters to play, and too much fun to be had, for him to spend much time looking back.

“I’ve always moved on,” Curry told me last year, sitting in the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip, where he’d played Frank to great acclaim in 1974, after originating the role in London. “That was part of the attraction of being an actor. I really didn’t want to come out of the same box every time.”

Last year, as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was being celebrated for its 50th anniversary, he agreed to meet at the Roxy, which he called “another home for me.” The stage show there had been a local sensation, and it was clear he still had pride and great affection for his role in the movie adaptation, which remains the longest continuous theatrical release in film history.

A stroke in 2012 left him partially paralyzed, interrupting a busy acting career. But he was quick to laugh and joke as he remembered playing Frank, including his nightly entrance at the Roxy, marching down a catwalk in heels and Dracula cape. The long life that “Rocky Horror” has enjoyed as a midnight movie, with shadow casts of costumed fans lip-syncing along, was a surprise to everyone.

Frank-N-Furter was a vivid invitation to fans to let their own freak flag fly. Even amid the era’s accelerating glam rock movement, “Rocky Horror” pushed the boundaries of mainstream pop culture as an outré musical about a mad scientist with a theme song called “Sweet Transvestite.”

“It was part of the sexual revolution, really,” Curry said of the film and its audience. “Experiment was in the air and it was palpable. I gave them permission to be who they discovered they wanted to be. I’m proud of that.”

He was also pleased with other roles that showed off his gifts, including a 1982 film version of “Annie,” directed by John Huston. Curry was the playfully crooked Rooster Hannigan, and had a standout scene singing and dancing in a pencil mustache and slicked back hair to “Easy Street,” alongside Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters.

Tim Curry, left, in the 1985 movie “Clue.”

(American Cinematheque)

In 1996’s “Muppet Treasure Island,” Curry was a duplicitous but layered Long John Silver, a wild-eyed pirate motivated by greed but with a hint of humanity, as he sang songs and grappled with the strange, felt-covered puppet heroes.

“I love the Muppets,” he said last year. “One of the things that used to fascinate me was that the Muppeteers, when they had the Muppet on their hand, would only speak to you as the character. If you said, ‘Hello’ or ‘What’s the weather like outside,’ they would tell you as the character.”

Never humorless, Curry played the ruthlessly villainous Cardinal Richelieu in the 1993 adaptation of “The Three Musketeers.” Conceived as a vehicle for several Brat Pack actors of the time including Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, the film nonetheless belonged to Curry, who relished every line of villainy. The actor again stole the show with theatrical flair as the Lord of Darkness in Ridley Scott’s bleak 1985 fantasy “Legend,” playing a demonic horned figure opposite Tom Cruise.

Curry brought the same energy to more relatable comedic roles in the beloved ensemble mystery “Clue” as the highly suspect Wadsworth the Butler, and “Home Alone 2,” as a four-star hotel concierge outmatched by a 10-year-old boy hero.

“Rocky Horror” gave him a film career and even led to a music sideline, with the 1979 radio hit “I Do the Rock.”

“When I did ‘Hair’ in London, my first gig, I was not sure whether I wanted to be a singer or an actor,” Curry told me. “And doing that show kind of postponed the decision long enough and I realized that I really wanted to be an actor more than anything, and I took it very seriously. And worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I saw myself having the trajectory of a serious English actor.”

The roles turned out wilder and more varied than he might have expected but his seriousness and sense of fun never faded, pushing boundaries and himself. No one was ever bored watching Tim Curry onscreen.

British actor Tim Curry, who famously commanded attention as the seductive mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in cult classic oddball musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” has died. He was 80.

The Daytime Emmy-winning actor’s longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz confirmed that Curry died Wednesday at his home in Toluca Lake, in a statement shared with The Times. A cause of death was not revealed. The Cheshire native suffered a stroke in 2013, impairing his ability to walk. Though he remained in a wheelchair until his death, the actor continued working through his final years.

“Though widely known for his inimitable, flamboyant characters and colorful stage performances,” the statement said of Curry, “his greatest legacies to those who knew him were his curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart, both of which remained open and filled with anticipation until his final breath.”

Curry is best known for originating the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the self-proclaimed “Sweet Transvestite” and purveyor of pleasure who guides a stranded young couple — and audiences — through an unpredictable evening of sexual exploration and liberation. He debuted the offbeat experimental musical in fishnets and pearls in 1973 on the tiny stage upstairs at the Royal Court Theater in London, where it first became an underground sensation.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” hit the big screen in 1975, with Susan Sarandon as Janet and Barry Bostwick as Brad. A rock ‘n’ roll take on sci-fi and horror B-movies, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” became the original midnight movie that endeared generations of audiences with its flamboyant characters, spawned interactive screenings across the country and secured its spot in the pop culture lexicon.

“It was part of the sexual revolution, really,” Curry told The Times in 2025 upon the film’s 50th anniversary. “Experiment was in the air and it was palpable. I gave them permission to be who they discovered they wanted to be. I’m proud of that.”

Curry flexed his versatile acting through more than Frank-N-Furter’s showy elevator debut and his vulnerable “I’m Going Home” finale. He was also a sinister Pennywise in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s “It,” a secretive butler named Wadsworth in “Clue,” and the evil Lord of Darkness in “Legend.” A screen chameleon capable of morphing from the supernatural to the pedestrian, Curry was also known for his work as fabled pirate Long John Silver in “Muppet Treasure Island” and as a skeptical hotel concierge in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

He was a prolific voice actor known for the environmental classic “FernGully: The Last Rainforest” and TV series “The Wild Thornberries,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Over the Garden Wall” and “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.”

Timothy James Curry was born April 19, 1946, to father Jim Curry, a Navy chaplain, and mother Maura Curry. After losing his father at age 12, Curry earned a scholarship to the Kingswood School in Bath. Curry’s grandfather took him to music halls, fostering his love for the art.

“I was really taken with the great Technicolor musicals; it’s the form that’s closest to my heart in a way,” Curry told The Times in 1992. “It’s the most comfortable synthesis of all the things I do.”

School productions eventually led Curry to the University of Birmingham, where he studied drama and English from 1965 to 1968, according to his website.

Curry made his professional debut in 1968 in the original London production of “Hair.” He had fibbed about having previous professional experience and an Equity card, but the production team thought Curry’s talents were reason enough to sponsor him. After he starred in several productions including “Titus Andronicus,” “Cinderella” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” co-star Richard O’Brien in 1973 invited the actor to audition for a new work — one that would later solidify Curry as a generational screen and stage icon.

With Curry anchoring as Frank-N-Furter, O’Brien’s “Rocky Horror Picture Show” first came to life at the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs. Then larger venues overseas included L.A.’s Roxy Theatre. Eventually, with the support of producer Lou Adler, the show made it to the screen. The same year “Rocky Horror Picture Show” hit cinemas in 1975, its Broadway run at the Belasco Theatre shuttered after 45 showings and negative reviews. Over the years, harsh criticism proved no match for “Rocky Horror Picture Show’s” unexpected staying power.

The musical had been revived numerous times in New York and London, including in 2001 with the Broadway revival earning multiple Tony Award nominations including a nomination for revival of a musical.

The “Rocky Horror Picture Show” film and Curry’s melodramatic Frank-N-Furter have remained cultural touchstones, spawning the popular “anticipation” online meme and inspiring spoofs on “Glee,” “The Simpsons” and a beloved character (with hormone-manipulating abilities) in the popular Japanese manga and anime “One Piece.”

To Curry, Frank-N-Furter was more than just that “sweet transvestite” obsessed with manufacturing the perfect man.

“He’s a fairly complex guy,” he told The Times in 1974. “He just takes anything he can get. He’s not fussy, really. Though I think he’s something of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.”

Through the late 70s to early aughts, Curry balanced stage commitments with screen projects and musical endeavors. His stage resumé includes productions of Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties” for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the title role in playwright Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” (that would earn him a Tony nomination) and Joseph Papp’s take on “Pirates of Penzance.” All the while, he gained fame for roles in “Annie,” “Clue,” “Home Alone 2” and “Addams Family Reunion.” As a recording artist, Curry released three albums between 1978 and 1981: “Read My Lips,” “Fearless” and “Simplicity.”

In 1988 Curry returned stateside for a U.S. tour of “Me & My Girl,” which he followed with a residency at the Pantages. It was then the actor decided to permanently return to Los Angeles as a resident. His move to Southern California coincided with the beginning of his Emmy-winning voice acting career, which started with a role for Hanna Barbera’s animated adaptation of “The Creation.”

Curry won his Daytime Emmy Award in 1991 for voicing Captain Hook in “Peter Pan and the Pirates” and earned a Grammy nomination in 2002 for the audiobook of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” He performed voice roles for video games including television and film tie-ins “Brutal Legend” and “Dragon Age: Origins.”

The British star primarily worked in voice roles after he suffered a major stroke in 2013. Since then, Curry had been in a wheelchair, with on-screen cameos including as the criminologist in the 2016 TV remake of “Rocky Horror.” Still, the image of Curry’s fierce Frank-N-Furter continues to pervade pop culture — even if that wasn’t his original intention.

“None of it was planned, really. I just knew I had to take risks,” he told The Times in 1974. “Life is like acting in that way. You’ve got to take risks. If you take big risks, it’s then up to you whether or not you pull it off.”

More than 50 years after that interview, Curry told The Times that he had no doubt in what he was doing. Revisiting his home away from home, the Roxy Theatre, in the fall of 2025, Curry said it had become “my stomping ground.”

“I had to appear as though I owned it — and I kind of did.”

DOWNTON Abbey and Harry Potter star Dame Maggie Smith left a £16million fortune to her two actor sons, probate records published nearly two years after her death reveal.

The double Oscar winner, who died at a London hospital in September 2024 at the age of 89, left a net estate valued at £15,977,325.

Her will divides the bulk of that fortune equally between her sons Christopher Stephens, who works under the stage name Chris Larkin, and Toby Stephens.

She also left her West Sussex farmhouse, Douglas Lake Farm at Fittleworth, to a family trust she had set up with the two brothers in 2019.

The five-bedroom house, where she raised her sons and lived for more than 40 years, sits on a secluded plot with barns, a stable and a vineyard.

Born Margaret Natalie Smith in Ilford, Essex, in 1934, she was brought up in Oxford and made her stage debut at the Oxford Playhouse aged 17.

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She won her first Oscar in 1970 for playing the teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and a second in 1979 for California Suite.

She was made a Dame in 1990 and her other films included A Room with a View, Sister Act, Gosford Park and The Lady in the Van.

A generation of children knew her as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, a role she played across a decade from 2001 to 2011.

Her role as the acid-tongued Violet Crawley in six series of ITV’s Downton Abbey from 2010 won her three Emmy awards and a fresh television audience around the world.

In all she won two Oscars, seven Baftas, four Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Tony award, and was appointed a Companion of Honour by the late Queen in 2014.

King Charles and Queen Camilla also paid tribute, saying: “As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage.”

Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe, said: “I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.”

Hugh Bonneville, who played her son in Downton Abbey, said: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.

“She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances.”

Her sons announced her death in a statement issued through her publicist, in which they thanked hospital staff for their care during her final days.

They said: “An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”

She married the actor Robert Stephens in 1967, the father of her two sons, and after their divorce married the playwright Beverley Cross in the mid-1970s.

Mr Cross wrote the musical Half a Sixpence and the screenplays for the fantasy adventure films Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans.

Her will directs that any copyright, royalties and unpublished works she inherited from him after his death in 1998 should be shared out separately.

The proceeds are split equally between his daughter Philippa Maughan, his son Shaun Cross and her own two sons.

She signed the will in September 1996, when Mr Cross was still alive and named as her main beneficiary, but he died 18 months later.

The full value of everything she owned came to £16,003,613, with debts and expenses of just over £26,000 taken off to reach the final figure.

Speaking in a magazine interview in 2019, she was dismissive of the two roles that had made her famous to a new generation of viewers.

She said: “It wasn’t what you’d call satisfying. I didn’t really feel I was acting.”

She added that she was grateful for both jobs, which between them introduced her to millions of filmgoers who had never seen her on stage.

Dame Maggie once summed her life up by saying: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act and one’s still acting.”

TWO huge British actors were seen singing and dancing along in a festival crowd this weekend as they cheered on a musical act on-stage.

The stars attempted to go incognito in baseball caps and shades at All Points East festival, with one of them there to support his pop-star wife.

Rose Gray belted out songs I Don’t Speak French and Club To Your Arms on the East Stage at the festival held in London’s Victoria Park.

And cheering her on from the crowd was none other than actor husband Harris Dickinson, joined by Irish heartthrob Paul Mescal.

The pair – who are both starring in the upcoming Beatles biopics – were unsuspectingly captured on camera by a fan, dancing and jumping up and down to the music.

Mescal, sported a white and green Gaelic football shirt with a black cap, while Harris donned a black t-shirt and a maroon hat.

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The two appear to have formed a bond since filming on the four Beatles movies and enjoyed some downtime together in East London during the sunny weather.

Paul Mescal plays Paul McCartney in the Sam Mendes-directed films, with Harris Dickinson portraying John Lennon.

They’re joined by Oscar-nominated Barry Keoghan who plays drummer Ringo Starr, with Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn rounding out the quartet as George Harrison.

Harris and Rose quietly tied the knot this May, after the BabyGirl actor popped the question last spring.

The two, who are childhood sweethearts and met at school, wed at Islington Town Hall in London.

A source told The Sun at the time: “Harris and Rose’s ceremony was very Harris and Rose: cool, calm, low-key and full of love.

“They’re not at all showy despite being one of the hottest couples in town who get invited to all the best parties in town. This was for them and no-one else.”

Choose your own adventure: would you rather travel vicariously with Sean Duffy or Conan O’Brien as your guide?

“Great American Road Trip,” the reality series from the Department of Transportation starring Secretary Duffy and his family, finally launched this week on YouTube after months of delays. Originally set to premiere in June, ahead of the nation’s 250th celebration, it follows Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and their nine children as they travel through seven states. While the couple has roots on MTV’s “The Real World,” their new TV venture doesn’t seem destined to have the same cultural impact. The six episodes of the series — as of publication time — have just over 14,000 views combined.

Meanwhile, over on HBO Max, O’Brien is back for more unpredictable cross-cultural exchanges with the return of his travel series. Now in its third season, “Conan O’Brien Must Go” follows the comedian and podcast host around the world as he interacts with fans and provides glimpses of everyday life abroad with his blend of improvisational comedy and an affinity for situations that embrace the absurd. The season kicks off with a trip to India, a major feat considering the show has faced years of permit delays related to a remote segment for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” that aired in 2004. I spoke with executive producer and director Mike Sweeney about the latest stops in the show’s world tour.

Plus, our writers recommend two TV dramas that feature formidable women — one is a former city slicker solving mysteries in the Montana wilderness, the other is a detective trying to untangle a missing woman’s case while her personal life is falling apart.

But before I set you on your streaming way, I want to also share our guide to some of Hayden Panettiere’s most notable work. When news broke this week about her sudden death at age 36, it came as an extraordinary shock. Panettiere had been working in front of the camera since she was in diapers, appearing in commercials and, by age 4, making the rounds in the soap opera circuit. Like many millennials, my first exposure to her talent was in Disney’s 2000 sports drama “Remember the Titans,” where she (at age 10) played the spunky, football-loving daughter of a high school assistant coach — and delivered the line that helped signal the prep sport was bigger than Christmas in Virginia. Though her career was cut far too short, she was part of some memorable projects, including “Heroes” and “Nashville,” that are worth revisiting.

Her influence, though, extends beyond her screen work. In her appreciation of Panettiere, culture critic Mary McNamara wrote of the Panettiere’s candidness about her mental health struggles, which included bringing awareness to the realities of postpartum depression: “Panettiere spoke up when she could have remained silent. She called out a truth that has been too long ignored and gave millions of women a chance to ask for help. She might not have saved the world, but she threw a big part of it a lifeline.” — Yvonne Villarreal

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Tracy Spiridakos as Anna Pigeon and Paulina Alexis as Zoey Bear Child in “Anna Pigeon.”

(Michelle Faye / USA Network)

“Anna Pigeon” (USA Network)

This highly watchable, lightly addictive, woodsy episodic procedural dishes up meat and potatoes entertainment, or perhaps one should say “poutine,” given that almost all the talent involved is Canadian, as is the impressive scenery. Tracy Spiridakos (“Chicago P.D.”), just the right number of hairs out of place, plays Anna, a New York City stage manager turned federal park ranger after a personal tragedy. In Nevada Barr’s series of novels, the heroine works at a new park from book to book; here, we’re in Montana’s Glacier Park (it does run right up to Canada), the setting of the 2001 “Blood Lure,” with Anna apparently ready to stay put as long as the TV series lasts. (The first Pigeon novel, “Track of the Cat,” from 1993, informs the pilot, directed by Leah Thompson, not Canadian.) Missing persons, bank robbers, litterbug campers and an aggressive grouse bring the trouble. And murderers, of course. Community is a theme; there’s a handsome bartender for romance, a rich villain to hiss. There’s a talent show. The cherry on this sundae is Paulina Alexis, Willie Jack from “Reservation Dogs,” as Anna’s sidekick, enlivening the ensemble with her centered, serious, quietly humorous energy. — Robert Lloyd

Eve Myles as Annie Cassidy and David Morrissey as Michael Polly in “Gone.”

(James Pardon / Britbox)

“Gone” (Britbox)

Like many British murder mysteries, “Gone” opens in a picturesque portion of that green and pleasant land, in this case the rugby pitch of a stately boys school outside Bristol. Overseeing the home team is headmaster/rugby coach Michael Polly (David Morrissey) who has the mien and manner of a perpetually disappointed tyrant. When Polly’s wife, Sarah, cannot be found at the home they share with their adult daughter, Alana (Emma Appleton), it’s difficult to tell how he’s feeling, if anything. He certainly will not allow a missing wife to interfere with his task of molding boys into men, not with exams and a Very Important rugby final coming up. When he finally reports her absence to the police, it is pretty clear to everyone, especially Det. Sgt. Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles), that he knows more than he’s telling. But is it British reticence, or something more sinister?

Those accustomed to the speedy lab results and instant deductions of a standard police procedural may find themselves, at least initially, shouting out instructions and demands — how can the forensics report be so scanty? why is [fill in the blank] not brought in for questioning? But the show is, essentially, a psychological drama wrapped in a murder mystery. Anchored by splendidly counterintuitive performances by Morrissey and Myles, “Gone” will wrap up its case over six tense and twisty episodes. But the questions it raises — about the insidious power of abusive relationships, the complexity of human emotions and the peril of considering secrecy as protection — linger long after immediate justice is served. — Mary McNamara

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Conan O’Brien in a segment filmed in Morocco for Season 3 of “Conan O’Brien Must Go.”

(Team Coco / HBO)

As a member of the growing subgenre of celebrity travelogue, Conan O’Brien has cuddled with Javier Bardem in Spain, dressed up as Sigmund Freud in Vienna and faced off against a Muay Thai fighter in Thailand. The new season of “Conan O’Brien Must Go” has the frequent flier funnyman visiting India, the Netherlands, Morocco and the Philippines — meeting his international fans and testing how well his improvisational humor translates. I spoke with his longtime collaborator Mike Sweeney, co-writer and director on every episode, about this season’s locations and O’Brien’s SPF needs. — Y.V.

The series is a chance for Conan to interact with international fans, particularly those that have been on the podcast. Why do you think Conan’s style of humor travels so well?

He’s fearless. I think that helps. He genuinely loves people, and he has to make people laugh. He has to make people laugh all the time in the United States. And then if you put him in another country, he’s going to figure out how to get his laughs over there, even if no one speaks English. It’s literally like being thrown in a room where he’s got to find his oxygen, and he’s gonna find it by getting laughs everywhere he goes. I’m sure the fact we have a camera with us, people are curious. They tend to attract people who want to open up and play around. People can spot him from a mile away. That also helps. That’s another key to a good travel show — have a really tall orange-haired host.

The first episode is set in India. Things start with him trying to get on a crowded commuter train. What were some moments from that episode that stand out to you?

Yes, we wanted to go in the famous Mumbai commuter trains. Boy, the amount of red tape to get permission to even go down on the platform was crazy. We had to do it several months out. But we loved that [segment]. We loved playing street cricket. He had a young man teaching him, named Veer [Pandey], who was very funny and kind of dismissive of Conan, and that’s kind of Conan’s sweet spot.

Some countries have incredible restrictions — you might need permits to talk to people in the street, you’re dealing with curveballs. And a lot of what Conan does is improvised and you don’t want rules to get in the way. How how do you deal with that?

It varies from country to country. You get a feel for it early on and go, “Oh, we need figure things out far in advance here. You’re getting to a very important point, which is: How much red tape is there in each country? India — a ton. We knew that because we almost shot there in 2018 [for “Conan Without Borders”] and it fell through ultimately because of all this red tape. We knew we really had to have a running start with India. But the Philippines, they were pretty cool. Same with the Netherlands. You know what the big issue is nowadays? Drones, where they let you shoot with drones.

Conan O’Brien during a Bollywood segment in his travel series.

(Team Coco / HBO)

What’s it like doing a travel show as the current administration puts stress on international relations? Did you notice any shifts this season on how you were either received or what’s possible to get cleared because you’re an American show?

Not overtly. Nothing was represented as like, “Oh, you want to come shoot here? Well, we’ll teach you a lesson.” I’d say really surprisingly, it was business as usual in terms of getting permissions to shoot. What’s going on in the crazy United States really wouldn’t come up that much because the things we’re doing are apolitical, which is usually how we like to do it. It’s Conan connecting with people and, in a way, be a political statement because it comes down to respecting other cultures and wanting to learn about other cultures and bridging gaps that way.

There was that moment on the commuter train where a passenger rebuffs Conan by saying, “Fake a— liberal media.” And Conan just rolls with it.

Yes, it’s just like, “Oh, they they even have people calling stuff out like that over here.” It was almost like, “OK, I feel at home. Thank you.”

We all saw that Conan, famous for his red pompadour hairstyle, recently made headlines for a slick, oily hairdo, which was the result of a severe scalp sunburn. In the Morocco episode, there’s a sun-heavy segment. Were you worried about his scalp then? How much budget goes to Conan’s SPF needs?

He’s self-regulating because he has to be that way in California. He has to be that way on a cloudy day in Cape Cod. It’s just ingrained in him, his sun protection. I don’t even think about it. It was business as usual for him in Morocco.

What’s a show you’re currently obsessed with or recommending to people?

We loved “Widow’s Bay” [Apple TV], of course. I sound like everyone else, but also Katie Dippold is great. She was an intern at “Conan,” and I’ve seen her a few times over because we kind of lived near each other in Los Feliz. But she’s just delightful. We’re so happy for her, and plus that show was just amazing. And my wife and I dipped back into “Slow Horses.”

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As online speculation swirls around Brian Hickerson — an on-again, off-again boyfriend of Hayden Panettiere who was present when she was found in cardiac arrest — his brother is speaking out to tell their side of the story.

Zach Hickerson spoke with TMZ on Friday, almost a week after Panettiere died of an apparent overdose, and following days of increasing scrutiny over Brian’s involvement in her life.

“The truth will come out as the authorities complete and release additional details from the investigation,” Zach Hickerson said in a statement to the outlet. “And that is important because the people who loved and adored Hayden deserve the truth.”

Internet would-be sleuths have popped up in Zach’s comments on social media this week, probing Brian’s behavior and previous conduct.

On Wednesday, Panettiere’s former West Hollywood neighbor Mia Terrazas told “Inside Edition” that she was “terrified” of Brian, and that the apartment complex at one point had signs posted warning passersby to call the police if anyone spotted him. On Thursday, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, pointed blame for the actor’s death toward Brian.

But on Friday, Zach said that it was Brian who gave Panettiere a dose of Narcan — a medication that can quickly reverse or reduce the effects of an opioid overdose — after the brothers discovered she was unconscious at the Greenville, S.C., Airbnb where they were staying.

“I want to clarify my involvement in an effort to keep the focus on the fact that we lost one of the most precious individuals on this earth and to allow those that cared about her to mourn without additional noise, chaos, and misinformation being created and propagated by the media as well as the public,” he told TMZ.

Zach told the outlet that he made plans to get lunch and play indoor golf with his brother and the actor after church on Sunday morning. When he attempted unsuccessfully to reach them, he drove to the rental home and “knocked loudly, which apparently woke Brian up from a nap they were both taking on the pull-out couch bed in the living room.”

When they realized Panettiere was unconscious, “I immediately called 911 and Brian gave her Narcan. We then jointly performed CPR while 911 was on speaker until Fire and EMS arrived. At that point we watched as they tried every measure possible to save her life.”

According to a report from Greenville, S.C., police, Zach was “very emotional” as paramedics attempted to revive Panettiere, and Brian “did not become emotional” until paramedics declared that she was dead.

Over the course of Brian’s volatile relationship with the actor, he was arrested multiple times on suspicion of domestic violence against Panettiere. Those include in May 2019 in Los Angeles (charges were later dismissed when prosecutors couldn’t secure a material witness) and again on Valentine’s Day 2020 in Wyoming (misdemeanor battery charges were eventually dropped). Following an eight-count criminal indictment in July 2020 that covered multiple violent incidents between May 2019 and January 2020, Brian pleaded no contest in April 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.

He was sentenced to 45 days in jail (but served 13 days due to credit for time served) along with four years of formal probation, mandatory domestic violence classes, and a five-year protective order.

Three days before Panettiere’s death, Brian attempted to expunge and reduce his past felony charges but was denied by a Los Angeles judge. He made the same request in July 2025, which was also denied.

“Hayden was one of my dearest and closest friends that I loved and cared about for the last 8 years,” Zach said in his statement to TMZ. “Out of respect for her loved ones, the speculation and sensationalism of her death needs to end until the facts can be released from the investigation.”

The Killing Eve star, who is just 33, follows the likes of David Suchet, Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov

Here’s the first glimpse of Edward Bluemel as one of the world’s most famous detectives, Hercule Poirot. And – as tradition dictates – he still has the character’s tradement moustache.

The actor, best known for his roles in Killing Eve and A Discovery of Witches, is the youngest to take on the role created by Agatha Christie back in 1916. The 33-year old will take the lead in the BBC’s upcoming adaptations, called simply Hercule, having previously appeared in the Netflix version of Christie’s The Seven Dials.

The BBC has struck a three-series deal with the the author’s estate for an “ambitious reimagining”, to be set in the 1920s. Made by Poldark production company Mammoth Screen, the first six-part run is due to air next year and will tell the origin story of the famous sleuth, as he first arrives in the UK from Belgium.

Providng an “epic portrait” of Britain between the wars, it puts three of Christie’s most celebrated stories under the spotlight, including her first Poirot tale The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The series also charts Poirot’s burgeoning friendship with Captain Arthur Hastings and his early encounters with Scotland Yard’s James Japp.

Edward, who has also appeared in We Might Regret This and My Lady Jane, said he was thrilled to have landed the plum role. “I feel very lucky to have been trusted with such an iconic character who has been played by so many great actors. I can’t wait to continue Hercule’s legacy.”

BBC drama boss Lindsay Salt said the team had been blown away by Bluemel’s “charm, dynamism and wit”. “From the first moments of Edward’s audition we knew we’d found the perfect actor for Hercule, with a performance that feels both fresh and exciting,” she said. “Hercule Poirot is one of the greatest and most loved characters of all time, and bringing him back to the BBC is a real privilege.”

Albert Finney was previously the youngest actor to have taken on the role of Poirot, having landed the role for the 1974 film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express when he was just 37 years old. But make-up artists spent many hours at the start of each day on set adding a fake nose and cosmetics to make him look like a man in his fifties – while he slept.

David Suchet look on the role at the age of 42 and played him on and off, for ITV, until he was 67. Kenneth Brannagh has played Poirot three times, his first came when he was 55, and Peter Ustinov kicked off his stint in 1978 at the age of 57.

James Nesbitt has also been announced for his first TV costume drama role in the first series. Other cast announced alongside the Cold Feet star include Friday Night Dinner’s Tamsin Greig, Oppenheimer’s James D’Arcy, Game of Thrones’ Jack Gleeson, Smoggie Queens’ Phil Dunning and Juice’s Mawaan Rizwan.

James Prichard, executive producer for Agatha Christie Limited and the author’s grandson said that Edward had been selected with great care. “My father had the privilege of working with David Suchet for nearly 25 years, and I now have the good fortune of being able to share my great grandmother’s brilliant stories with a new generation of viewers,” he explained.

“Edward Bluemel is an extremely talented performer and will make a great addition to the long line of actors that have played this celebrated character, aided and abetted by Benji Walters’ thoughtful scripts. I cannot wait to see Edward on screen as Hercule Poirot.”

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Hayden Panettiere was candid in her memoir and book tour interviews about the extensive abuse by on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson. Now he’s under the microscope as new details surrounding her death and their relationship emerge.

On Thursday, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, whom the “Nashville” actor had a strained relationship with, pointed blame for the actor’s death toward an unnamed individual, but earlier this week she outright named Hickerson.

“Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” she said in a statement to “Entertainment Tonight.” “It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.”⁠

⁠”It leads me to believe there are still questions surrounding what happened,” she said. “And I think we are all looking for answers.”⁠

And earlier this week, she told NBC, “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that was Brian Hickerson.”

Hickerson broke his silence for the first time since Panettiere died Sunday of an apparent overdose as his attorney Sloan Ellis made a statement on his behalf. “Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Ellis told TMZ. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.”

“Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”

Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson were present when emergency responders found Panettiere in cardiac arrest on Sunday. According to a report from Greenville, S.C., police, Zach was “very emotional” as paramedics attempted to revive Panettiere, and Brian “did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased.”

According to TMZ, Narcan — a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose — was found at the scene, but it’s unclear whether it was used on Panettiere.

Brian and Zach Hickerson did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

In the actor’s memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” which she published in May, she wrote that she and Hickerson met in 2018 at a West Hollywood bar. They fell fast into a whirlwind romance that soured after alcohol-fueled fights turned violent. “It was easy. The easiest happiness that I had come by in a long time,” she wrote in the memoir. “Then, one day, when we were on our second bottle of wine — the bottle that suffocates all the magic and obliterates your defenses — everything changed.”

Hickerson was arrested multiple times on suspicion of domestic violence against Panettiere, beginning in May 2019 in Los Angeles (the charges were later dismissed when prosecutors couldn’t secure a material witness) and again on Valentine’s Day in 2020 in Wyoming (misdemeanor battery charges were eventually dropped). Following an eight-count criminal indictment in July 2020 that covered multiple violent incidents between May 2019 and January 2020, Hickerson pleaded no contest in April 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend. He was sentenced to 45 days in county jail (but served 13 days due to credit for time served) along with four years of formal probation, mandatory domestic violence classes, and a five-year protective order.

After his 2019 arrest was covered in the press, Panettiere wrote that she and Brian “shut ourselves inside” to avoid paparazzi and that she screened calls from friends and family who phoned and texted “constantly,” worried that she was in a “dangerous situation with Brian.”

“What I never told them was that the abuse I’d endured didn’t feel as bad as the thought of being alone,” she wrote.

In “This Is Me,” she graphically detailed the abuse. She claimed that, during one attack, he punched her in the face repeatedly and secretly recorded himself saying, “Why did you hit yourself?” and “You’re all bruised, why did you do that to yourself?” When he was subsequently booked on charges of felony domestic assault, he pleaded not guilty and claimed that Panettiere had done it to herself.

“I didn’t know the person Brian turned into when he started raging,” she wrote. “This other Brian seemed to be dissociating, like the rational Dr. Jekyll part of his brain shut off while the violent Mr. Hyde took over. I was sure he must have a serious mental illness, like bipolar or borderline personality disorder, that could make him change so quickly.”

She continued: “On July 16, 2020, authorities in LA arrested Brian again, charging him with four domestic assault felonies, one misdemeanor count of battery; two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon (in particular, our garage floor and the stairs, both of which he’d once smashed my body into); and one felony count of dissuading a witness from prosecuting a crime.

“That witness was me. After we’d come back from Wyoming, Brian had called and tried to talk me out of pressing charges against him. As my heart broke into a million pieces, I told him it was too late, and then I told the police.”

Three days before Panettiere’s death, Hickerson attempted to expunge and reduce his past felony charges but was denied by a Los Angeles judge. He made the same request last July, which was denied.

During the press tour for “This Is Me,” Panettiere told podcaster Jay Shetty that she had cut ties with Hickerson but that, historically, he’d always found a way to reconnect just as she thought she was finally free of him. Reportedly, the two reconnected just weeks before her death.

“I thought I had gotten out of it and gotten away from it. … Abusers weave themselves like weeds into your life, and there’s always something that they left behind,” she told Shetty. “There’s always something that they have to come back for. There was always something that they find to keep that connection, keep you on the hook, keep that connection with you, no matter where you you go.”

In May, after Panettiere’s interview with Shetty went live, Hickerson spoke with TMZ and appeared intoxicated and slurred as he spoke about the actor. “Hayden Panettiere is the sweetest thing in the world,” he said. “It’s not about who you spend Saturday night with, it’s who you spend all day Sunday with, and Hayden Panettiere is a Sunday girl.”

“I would be an idiot not to walk away from her and let her flourish in her career,” he continued. “So we probably wouldn’t be good together. I’d like to see what she’s gonna do with the next like 30 years of her career, she’ll always hold a special place in my heart … we’re good buddies.”

Earlier this year, Colman Domingo devoted a portion of his monologue on “Saturday Night Live” to a few things he is famous for. One example? “When you come to my house, the vibes are spectacular.”

Those vibes must have transitive properties: On a recent morning in a borrowed backyard in Santa Monica, the vibes were as impeccable as one of the actor’s famously natty red-carpet looks. Posing for photos poolside, Domingo was the picture of laid-back charm, chatting with the crew in that commanding leather-and-gravel voice and flashing a toothsome smile.

With four projects in 2026 alone and more than 100 credits across film, television and the stage dating back to 1994, you definitely know Domingo from something. Increasingly, people recognize him from several things. Or, as the case may be with a performer of his caliber, they don’t — and that has been the highest compliment of all for the 56-year-old Philly native.

“It is the wildest thing,” says Domingo, stretched out on a sectional in the shade. He recounts how people have approached him about his role as Danny, the elegantly snarky architect on the Netflix comedy “The Four Seasons,” and were flummoxed to discover that he also plays the tightly wound Ali, he of shaken faith and sawed-off shotgun, on the recently concluded HBO drama “Euphoria.” “I’ve had so many people who saw me as one character, but they didn’t know I played the other character, even if they watched both. They’re like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s the same guy?’”

Domingo in “Euphoria.”

(Patrick Wymore / HBO)

That’s the same guy. Familiarity has bred respect as Domingo nabbed Emmy nominations for both roles for the second time — supporting actor in a comedy for “The Four Seasons” and guest actor in a drama for “Euphoria,” a trophy he took home in 2022.

“I get the yin and yang,” he says of the pleasure and challenge of inhabiting men from such different worlds.

Domingo credits “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson with the complexities of Ali’s journey, which were showcased in the finale in breathtaking extremes of violence and grace and included a poignant monologue about the limits of empathy as he grieved the loss of his sponsee Rue (Zendaya). “It was so beautiful,” says Domingo of the conclusion of his arc. “Sam gave me words that are not just for Rue. They’re like a prayer for the world, sitting down at tables and having the hard conversations and trying to get people to come to their personal truths. To have a breakthrough in their lives. That’s how he’s been utilizing me for the series.”

(Evan Mulling / For The Times)

Conversely, Tina Fey and the writing staff of “The Four Seasons” have been using Domingo’s Danny as, among other things, a brutally effective vehicle to deploy acidic one-liners. (A favorite: “This the town Tracy Chapman sped away from.”)

“He is fictitious, but in many ways there’s a lot more of me in him than I personally have seen [in my previous characters],” he says of the man whose bravado masks an unsettled energy as he encounters the challenges of midlife. “Even in my notes to Tina and the showrunners, I started to craft a character that was closer to myself. I’m like, ‘I don’t see the mes in the world, queer men who are mostly in heteronormative worlds and how we activate and how we love and our friendships that are not just based on the fact that we are queer.’”

Domingo’s own midlife — conversations about fiber and the proliferation of readers in every room aside — is enviable. In addition to the two series, he appeared in two of the most talked-about films of the year, the blockbuster Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” and Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller “Disclosure Day.” In another instance of playing a set of disparate characters, he was the imperious patriarch Joe Jackson in the former and the rebellious, empathetic whistleblower Hugo Wakefield in the latter.

“I wanted to challenge myself in different spaces,” says Domingo with gratitude for those roles as well as other 2026 opportunities, like his “SNL” appearance — which brought him back to his “Big Gay Sketch Show” days — and his recent guest-hosting stint on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “I never want to get caught up just doing the same thing.” He recalls a time when he played a couple of villains in a row and similar offers poured in. “I thought, ‘Oh no, I’ve done that.’ I knew it was time to move on to something else. And even ‘The Four Seasons,’ when that came along, I had been going back to back with dramatic roles — ‘Sing Sing,’ ‘The Color Purple,’ ‘Rustin.’ It takes a little toll on you.”

Domingo with Marco Calvani in “The Four Seasons.”

(Emily V. Aragones / Netflix)

Fortunately, all of that work has helped Domingo amass a very comfy set of laurels (upon which he refuses to rest). While his success has been a slow burn, including years of work on Broadway as an actor and playwright — Domingo co-wrote the book for “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” as well as several straight plays — and his stint as a series regular on “Fear the Walking Dead” the last five years lighted the fuse on the rocket.

In that time, Domingo has won four NAACP Image Awards, been nominated for back-to-back lead actor Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTA awards, and received a second Tony Award nomination, this one for best play as a co-producer of the “Hamlet” adaptation “Fat Ham.” (His previous Tony nod came in 2011 for featured actor in a musical for “The Scottsboro Boys.”)

Colman Domingo.

(Evan Mulling / For The Times)

“I’m very happy that this has happened the way it has,” he says of this golden period of work and creativity in his 50s. It’s not that he wouldn’t have appreciated or been ready for it in his youth, he says, but he has seen the pitfalls of success that happens too young. “At this age, I know myself. I know what I need. I have boundaries. I know how to still be a person in the world. And that’s the part that’s important to me, which is not being so isolated.”

There’s little danger of that given how often he is now stopped on the street. But he is cheered by the interactions because, whether fans love him as a good guy, a bad guy or a character in between, they all want the same thing. “Whatever I’ve done, people always ask, ‘Can I have a hug?’” Maybe the vibes are not about the house, but Domingo himself.

Hayden Panettiere spent much of her life in front of a camera, beginning her acting career before she was even a year old, starring in commercials. At the tender age of 4, she landed her big break with a recurring role on the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live,” which led to a role on another soap opera, CBS’ “Guiding Light.” Over the years, she performed in a number of films and TV series, landing notable roles that made her a staple of network television. In addition to her onscreen work, she did voice acting for animated films like “A Bug’s Life” and “Dinosaur,” as well as the video game franchises “Kingdom Hearts” and “Until Dawn.”

The actor, who died Sunday at 36, was a versatile performer whose no-nonsense attitude and vocal range added depth to roles. Here is a guide to some of her notable work.

‘Remember the Titans’

Disney’s 2000 sports drama was based on the real story of Herman Boone, a Black football coach who was installed as head coach at the desegregated T.C. Williams High School in Arlington, Va., and led the team to a perfect season and state championship. In the film, Panettiere plays Sheryl Yoast, the young daughter of coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), whose job Boone is given by the school district to placate Black community members as racial tensions rise. Panettiere’s Sheryl makes an impression right away, with a fiery speech directed at an official who comes to tell Yoast that Boone will now be head football coach of T.C. Williams. “You can’t just walk in here and take my daddy’s job away,” she cries as she stomps away, but not before kicking said official in the back of the leg. Later, she understands the implications of the decision, even if it comes at the cost of her father’s selection into the high school football hall of fame, preferring to put the team and their teamwork first: “Bunch of old rednecks … Let’s knock ‘em dead at state, coach.” (Watch on Hulu and Disney+.) — Maira Garcia

‘Ice Princess’

In Disney’s 2005 film, Panettiere was a little too good at playing the popular mean girl. She was even better at playing the popular mean girl who lets her icy walls melt away to welcome in the new girl. As talented figure skater Gennifer Harwood, Panettiere faithfully portrayed the evolution of friendships — especially for young women — in highly competitive sports and the tension between young athletes and their well-intended, but overbearing parents. While Panettiere could stand on her own talents, her performance was even more memorable for the dynamic she shared with screen partner Michelle Trachtenberg. The latter played Casey, a student with Ivy League ambitions whose interest in physics brings her to the figure skating world. Trachtenberg died in 2025 at 39. (Watch on Disney+.) — Alexandra Del Rosario

‘Heroes’

Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) with her father Noah (Jack Coleman), also known as H.R.G., in NBC’s “Heroes.”

(Chris Haston / NBC)

This superhero series was a hit from the moment it debuted in 2006. An international cast fueled a show that featured people gifted with superpowers around the world that had a mysteriously ominous connection. At its heart was Panettiere’s Claire Bennet. An unbreakable high school cheerleader, she embraced the role of hero, facing pushback from a shadowy government group, serial killers and a twisted family dynamic. Panettiere became the face of NBC’s freshman ensemble success story, and despite an industry work stoppage and dwindling fan support afterward, the show’s viral campaign — “Save the cheerleader, save the world” — centered her, and her character’s courage, on a bona fide fandom-generating ride that ended way too soon in 2010, after four seasons. (Watch on Netflix and Tubi.) — Jevon Phillips

‘Scream’ franchise

Hayden Panettiere at the premiere of “Scream VI” in New York City in 2023.

(Nina Westervelt / Variety via Getty Images)

The actor joined the hit horror franchise in 2011’s “Scream 4” as Kirby Reed, a Woodsboro High student who is a horror film buff. One of that film’s memorable scenes featured Kirby in a tense trivia telephone showdown with the Ghostface killer, rushing through the titles of several slasher films while attempting to save one of her friends.

Although Kirby was seemingly killed off, she returned as an FBI agent in 2023‘s “Scream VI” when the franchise continued with younger characters and moved its setting to New York. “Scream” fans cheered during an early screening when Panettiere’s character appeared — she and Courtney Cox were one of the few “Scream” veterans to return for the new film.

Panettiere’s hair was longer and her role was expanded in the new “Scream.” Kirby explained that she had survived the Ghostface attack: “I was technically dead for four minutes. When I was revived, I got mad … I wanted the monsters to be afraid of me.”

Kirby also engaged in another trivia back-and-forth with Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) where they agreed on the best “Nightmare on Elm Street” (“the original”) and that “Psycho 2” was “underrated,” but disagreed on the best “Friday the 13th” sequel. Although she is investigating a new set of Ghostface killings, Kirby later becomes a prime suspect. (Watch all on Paramount+.) — Greg Braxton

‘Nashville’

In ABC’s “Nashville,” Juliette Barnes’ storyline was infused with personal struggles similar to Panettiere’s.

(Katherine Bomboy-Thornton / ABC)

Panettiere was noticeably more mature when she became a co-lead role in ABC’s “Nashville” as Juliette Barnes, a crossover singer with more than a few similarities to Taylor Swift. The music-flavored drama, which premiered in 2012, starred Connie Britton as country star Rayna Jaymes, whose career was on the downturn at the same time Barnes was climbing the charts.

The actor injects her “Nashville” character with a mix of sexiness, snark and edge as Barnes becomes rivals with Jaymes. When the two first meet in a dressing room during the pilot, Jaymes is gracious while Barnes is condescending.

Panettiere said in an interview that she was tense during that scene. particularly since it was the first time the two actors had met. She said she apologized to Britton repeatedly saying, “‘I am so sorry!’ Because it was our first experience together, and I didn’t want to step on toes. Sometimes it gets real, very real, you know?”

While filming the series, Panetierre gave birth to her daughter in 2014. She detailed her struggles with postpartum depression in interviews, saying the condition was “scary and needed to be talked about.” In the series, Barnes also suffered from postpartum depression during the show’s third and fourth seasons. (Watch on Pluto TV and Netflix.) — G.B.

‘Kingdom Hearts’

Square Enix’s beloved video game series was my personal introduction to Panettiere and her acting abilities. In the first two installments, Panettiere voiced the kind island kid turned princess Kairi for the games’ English dub. Before protagonist Sora’s (voiced by a young Haley Joel Osment) world descends into darkness, Panettiere’s Kairi is playful and tender early in “Kingdom Hearts 1.” In the slightly more complicated “Kingdom Hearts 2” Panettiere’s older Kairi is contemplative, defiant and desperate to help all her friends. Kairi’s scenes are often accompanied by the powerful score from composer Yoko Shimomura, amplifying the emotion that has driven the games’ fanbase for more than two decades.

“Don’t ever forget. Wherever you go, I’m always with you,” Panettiere’s Kairi says in a memorable cut scene. — A.D.R.

EastEnders’ Sean Slater is back on the BBC soap with actor Rob Kazinsky soon reprising the role for fresh drama and ‘heartfelt chaos’ while the reason for his comeback is under wraps

Sean Slater is returning EastEnders, the BBC soap has confirmed.

Actor Rob Kazinsky will reprise his role, with it expected to be a full-time appearance. The show has not revealed how long he is back, with no suggestion it will be a small stint like his previous returns.

Instead, the soap has teased a mystery storyline will trigger his comeback, with actor Rob pictured on set. His character Sean was last seen in 2022 briefly, having made an earlier return a year earlier in 2021.

Prior to this, Sean’s first comeback after years away from Walford came in 2019, 10 years after he left the Square for good in 2009. The popular character will rejoin the Slaters later this year, with his reasons for heading back to the show set to become clear closer to his arrival.

Actor Rob has teased “heartfelt chaos” when he heads back, while the soap also promised more drama from the character. A statement read: “Sean returns later this year, and if his previous stints are anything to go by, it’s only a matter of time before Sean will find himself embroiled in drama.”

On returning to EastEnders, actor Rob said he is happy to be back and exploring who Sean is all these years later. He said: “I left EastEnders in 2008 as a 23-year-old boy and was lucky to spend the next 19 years of my life working around the world.

“Always championing EastEnders and stating the fact that one day I wanted to walk in Sean’s Shoes again. But this time as a man to see who Sean the man might also be.

“I wanted to do it for Sean, I wanted to do it for the fans that have supported me in every role since I left the Square but, mostly, I wanted to do it for me. I’m home, and I can’t wait to bring a new level of heartfelt chaos to Albert Square in the way only Sean Slater can.”

Executive Producer of EastEnders Ben Wadey also teased what cans can expect from Sean being back onscreen. Ben shared: “I’m delighted to welcome Rob Kazinsky back to EastEnders as he reprises the role of Sean Slater later this year.

“Sean Slater was a big part of the Slater family and as viewers will already know, where Sean goes, drama is not far behind.” More will be revealed soon about when Sean will come back and why he’s returning to Walford.

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

When the doors to the emergency room in “The Pitt” swing open and a new patient arrives, we, like the doctors, are on high alert, wondering what the acclaimed medical drama is about to throw at us.

We know two things: The actors will be superb. And it’s best not to become too attached to the characters they’re playing.

Five of those actors earned Emmy nominations for Season 2 guest turns on “The Pitt” last month, a long-overdue return to the time when the guest categories regularly rewarded working actors doing exemplary work.

Even better: Two of the five “Pitt” nominees self-submitted their performances after HBO Max, looking to streamline its submissions in the guest categories, did not put them forward.

If you watched the second season of the show, you could probably name the actors who made the Emmys’ guest list: Tina Ivlev, heartbreaking as the sexual assault survivor; Brittany Allen, poignant as the dying mom; Tal Anderson, combative and funny as Dr. King’s neurodivergent sister, who craves independence from her protective sibling; Ernest Harden Jr., devastating as the doomed Louie; and Jeff Kober, who, playing Dr. Robby’s motorcycle mechanic, has some of the most affecting scenes in the season.

HBO Max entered Ivlev, Harden and Anderson, leaving Allen and Kober to pony up the $225 to submit themselves, joining the ranks of 84 entrants for guest actor and 51 for guest actress. (To be eligible to compete in guest, actors must appear in less than 50% of a show’s eligible episodes.) Eight other actors appearing on “The Pitt” also self-submitted.

“The three actors that HBO put forward delivered beautiful, human work that resonated deeply with audiences, and they were in a tough position having so many actors who had all delivered great performances,” Allen told me over a call from her Pasadena home.

“Though at first there was a moment of disappointment, I quickly moved on from that,” Allen continues. “I didn’t take it personally because as an actor, you get good at not taking things personally.”

Kober, calling from the Valley, signs off on that sentiment. He won a daytime Emmy in 2022 for “General Hospital” after he submitted himself.

“I guess that’s how the Emmys work for me,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know any other way.”

There is precedent for self-submission success at the Emmys. Three “Game of Thrones” cast members — Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen and Carice van Houten — entered themselves in 2019 and were nominated. Kelly Jenrette did the same in 2018 for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and earned a nod.

For Allen, it came down to believing in herself and the work she did on “The Pitt.” As her seven-episode arc aired, strangers often stopped her at her local Trader Joe’s and at the park with her 3-year-old son to tell her how moved they were by her performance and her character Roxie’s decision to accept that her life was coming to an end and say goodbye.

But, good as it was and seen as it was, that work didn’t translate into landing an agent. Having recently turned 40, Allen figured she had nothing to lose, having reached an age where she wasn’t “as worried about being perceived as the quiet little girl who doesn’t ruffle any feathers.”

In a challenging industry, that approach has resonated deeply with her peers.

“I’ve had similar moments in the past where I’ve had a memorable role on a high-profile show and I’ve thought, ‘Maybe this will make it a little easier moving forward’ and it hasn’t,” Allen says. “So if ever there was a time to go, ‘I’m going to try to put my name out there in a way that might make me a little more bankable,’ this is it.”

Kober, 72, has had ups and downs over the course of his 40-year acting career and like Duke, the grounded mentor he played on “The Pitt,” he possesses a calm acuity when talking about the profession.

“Acting is the most profoundly spiritual career a person could have because you don’t get into it unless you need approval, and then when you get that approval, you find it doesn’t do a thing for you,” Kober says. “Then you’ve got to find a way to do something with this thing you love that isn’t about getting approval. It’s only when you’re not working for that when you know the work matters.”

With his shoulder-length hair, goatee and go-with-the-flow manner, Kober gives off distinct vibes of another Jeff — Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski.

“I have heard that comparison made,” Kober says, smiling.

Both Kober and Allen express deep appreciation for “The Pitt” as a workplace where actors can come in and do the kind of work that they aspire to do, work that resonates with audiences and reminds them why they entered the profession in the first place.

“I love being on set,” Allen says, “so going to Warner Bros. every morning as the sun rose and watching that miniature city come to life and having the privilege of working in an environment that is so ripe for accessing truth and play and shared humanity was a gift. When Roxie came along, I saw it as the epitome of what I want to offer as an actor and as a person in this life.”

Because of her character’s fate, Allen will not be returning to “The Pitt.” The fate of Duke, diagnosed with a life-threatening ascending aortic aneurysm, is ambiguous. Dr. Robby encourages him to follow up with further tests, which Duke agrees to do if Robby promises to return from his sabbatical and let him take his Triumph Bonneville for a ride.

So … Duke’s coming back, right?

“One would think,” Kober says, hopeful. But then, he jokes that maybe there will be a line next season where someone in the ER says, “Did you hear about Duke? What a shame.”

“Or he could come back in Season 4, who knows,” Kober adds, noting he has heard nothing from the show’s producers. “One thing I’ve learned over the years as an actor is the importance of letting go. That’s the life of an actor.”

Christy Knowings, an actor best known for the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series “All That,” has died. She was 46.

According to her father, Charles Dunn, Knowings died Tuesday in Long Beach after she suffered a severe asthma attack on Aug. 7 and went into cardiac arrest. The actor had been on life support for several days.

Knowings joined Nickelodeon’s sketch show for kids and teens, “All That,” in 1997 when she was a teenager trying to break into the business. She impressed casting directors with a repertoire of characters and accents she’d been perfecting since she was 4 years old.

“I filmed a bunch of different characters, and then a week after that, producers and writers from ‘All That’ flew out from Hollywood to come see me in New York, and that’s all she wrote,” Knowings said during a 2019 interview. “Five minutes later, I was asked if I wanted to move to California.”

On “All That,” Knowings joined an all-star cast that included Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes, Kel Mitchell, Nick Cannon and Gabriel Iglesias, to name a few. She stayed with the sketch show for three seasons, departing in 2000.

Following “All That,” she appeared on “Sesame Street” across three episodes in twin-themed sketches.

“Sesame Street” posted a tribute for the actor on social media, writing, “Sesame Workshop mourns the loss of Christy Knowings, who appeared on Sesame Street alongside her brother, cast member Chris Knowings. Our deepest condolences go out to Chris and his family.”

Christy Lorraine Knowings was born Feb. 25, 1980, in the Bronx. She attended Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts School and started honing her skills as a character actor from an early age.

“I did impersonations, but my thing was really creating new characters, and the characters would stem from different dialects,” she told the Pop Culture With Pat podcast.

“I was pretty good … Even if I had a small role playing a judge at a science fair, I would still try and make that character stand out by using a different accent or doing something a little dangerous. Didn’t always work! But most of the time it did.”

In 2019, ahead of the 25th anniversary of “All That,” Knowings spoke with Bustle about the way the show was ahead of its time. The Native American Afro-Latina actor said the cultural nuances brought by the diverse cast were celebrated.

“People tell me, especially Black ‘90s kids who were watching for my seasons, they’re like, ‘We really paid attention to you because you were the only Black girl!’ I was there to represent them in a way and I didn’t even realize it at the time because social media was not a thing,” she said.

“‘All That’ showcased the unity that we all wanted, needed and still need in a very humorous way. We brought each other together in a very lighthearted way. With Amanda and I doing ‘Whateverrr!’ you didn’t see a Black girl and a white girl, you just saw these two insane girls who loved the same guys. We both loved Leonardo DiCaprio and we both loved Kobe Bryant! I think we pushed a lot of boundaries.”

Knowings’ “All That” castmates posted tributes to her on social media.

Thompson, now a “Saturday Night Live” star, wrote alongside a photo of Knowings, “Man this one hit hard!!! Rest well Christy!!! Never could have imagined this day!! Sending so much love to her family!! She was a real one and one of the funniest people out here!!! Gonna miss you buddy!!!”

Alisa Reyes wrote that Christy was “not only an immensely talented actress, singer, and artist, but she was also a star seed, a light worker, and a true uplifter of humanity … Her frequency and vibration are now soaring into the ethers, and I can already feel her magic sprinkling upon us like stardust.”

Lisa Foiles posted a tribute on Facebook, writing, “It doesn’t feel fair when we lose one of our own. Christy was mesmerizing to me on ‘All That.’ I studied her facial expressions, her commitment to a bit, her talent for comedy way beyond her years. I dreamed of being in her shoes — and even when I joined the show, I knew they were impossibly big shoes to fill. She was a comedic icon to me, and when I finally got to meet her, her kindness matched her talent. Take some time to let her make you laugh today. RIP Christy Knowings.”

Knowings is survived by her father, twin brother, mother Rénee Knowings Dunn and siblings Charles Dunn Jr., Ashley Dunn Ledger, Yavonka Vega, Tamea Dunn and Lee Elder.

Mark Rydell, the Oscar-nominated director of the sentimental blockbuster “On Golden Pond” who worked with such Hollywood heavyweights as Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Steve McQueen and John Wayne, has died. He was 97.

His daughter, Amy Rydell, told the Hollywood Reporter that her father died Thursday of natural causes at a retirement community for the entertainment industry in Woodland Hills.

“Hard to put into words how much I loved my dad,” she posted Friday on her Instagram account. “He was truly one of a kind. Funniest and most talented person I’ve ever known.”

10 Oscar nominations

“On Golden Pond,” his 1981 film that teamed Fonda with Hepburn and his daughter, Jane Fonda, was nominated for 10 Oscars. Henry Fonda and Hepburn won leading acting honors, and the film won for screenplay, which Ernest Thompson adapted from his play of the same name. Rydell was nominated for directing but lost to Warren Beatty for “Reds.”

It earned more than $119 million at the box office, making it the second-highest-grossing film that year behind “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

“On Golden Pond” was Henry Fonda’s final movie role. He starred as Norman Thayer, an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life after his teenage grandson spends the summer with him and his wife, Ethel (played by Hepburn), at their cottage in New England. The film’s story resembled Fonda’s real-life relationship with daughter Jane, who said working on the movie together helped resolve some of their issues. The elder Fonda, at 77, died months after winning his only Oscar.

Rydell’s other Oscar-nominated films were “The Fox” in 1967, “The Reivers” with McQueen in 1969, “Cinderella Liberty” with James Caan and Marsha Mason in 1973, “The Rose” with Bette Midler in 1979 and “The River” with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek in 1984.

Born Mortimer Harold Rydell on March 23, 1929 in New York City, he studied with legendary jazz pianist Teddy Wilson at the Julliard School of Music. During a stint in the Army, he spent two years in Japan developing entertainment for military personnel. He majored in English and philosophy at New York University.

Early acting career

He turned to acting when he won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Among his early roles were parts on the CBS soap operas “The Edge of Night” and “As the World Turns.”

Rydell made his Broadway debut in “Seagulls Over Sorrento” with Rod Steiger. In 1956, he made his movie acting debut opposite John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo in Don Siegel’s “Crime in the Streets.”

Among his film acting credits were Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” in 1973 and Woody Allen’s “Hollywood Ending” in 2002.

Rydell moved into directing television, including episodes of “Mr. Novak,” “Ben Casey,” “I Spy,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Long, Hot Summer,” “The Fugitive” and “Gunsmoke.”

He made his feature film directorial debut with 1967’s “The Fox” starring Sandy Dennis, and it was a hit.

Two years later, Rydell directed McQueen in the comedy-drama “The Reivers.”

Teaming with Sydney Pollack

Rydell and Sydney Pollack, who became friends during their acting days, formed Sanford Productions in 1971. Among their efforts were the films “Jeremiah Johnson” starring Robert Redford and “Scarecrow” with Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s top honor, the Palme d’Or.

Rydell directed Wayne in 1972’s “The Cowboys.” He reunited with Caan for the 1976 flop “Harry and Walter Go to New York.”

Rydell scored a major hit with 1979’s “The Rose,” with Midler in her Oscar-nominated role as a self-destructive rock star loosely based on Janis Joplin.

Rydell reteamed with Caan and Midler in “For the Boys” in 1991, but it wasn’t successful.

“He was an actor of note before he became a director, and I was so lucky to have met him when I did; he taught me so much on ‘The Rose’ and later on ‘For The Boys,’” Midler posted on Instagram. “Two Oscars nominations both because of him. He was the actor’s whisperer; just a few words was all it took to understand what was needed. Devoted to Meisner. So many happy memories.”

TV movies and series among his credits

Rydell directed the pilot of the hit ABC drama “Family” in 1976.

Among his TV movie directing credits were “McBride and Groom,” “Crime of the Century” with Isabella Rossellini and Stephen Rea, and “James Dean,” which earned actor James Franco a Golden Globe award and in which Rydell also appeared, as Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner.

He directed the movies “Intersection” in 1994 and “Even Money” in 2006.

In 2009, Rydell, Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau and screenwriter Lyle Kessler taught a film workshop at UCLA. Rydell and Landau were co-artistic directors of the Actors Studio West, teaching and coaching actors, writers and directors.

“All great art rests on telling the truth,” Rydell told UCLA’s student newspaper the Daily Bruin. “The real pursuit of an artist is to tell the truth.”

Besides his daughter, he is survived by son Christopher. The siblings who went into acting were from his first marriage to actor Joanne Linville. He had another son, Alexander, from his second marriage to producer Esther Rydell.

Harris writes for the Associated Press.

A new young adult series has entered the chat.

“Sterling Point” has all the hallmarks of your usual YA obsession — yearning, an awkward love triangle, a lack of adult supervision, an enviable waterfront setting and complicated friendships. Unlike most other YA series of the moment, it’s an original story that isn’t based on a book. Created by Megan Park, the writer-director behind Sundance hit “My Old Ass” and an actor with roots in the coming-of-age circuit in shows like “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” the heartfelt drama centers heavily on the complex relationship between two teens who discover they’re half sisters after a death exposes a deep family secret.

It’s the latest series helping Prime Video step further into its WB/The CW era as a go-to destination for younger audiences, joining hits that include “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Every Year After,” “We Were Liars” and “Off Campus.” Not to show my millennial wrinkles, but unless the streamer invests in a campaign that evokes the spirit of late ‘90s marketing push known as “The Faces of WB,” what’s even the point of it all? Until then, in this week’s Guest Spot, we spoke with Park about the series that has teen drama enthusiasts hooked.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend a six-part British television drama that recounts the tragic 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and a 2007 stoner comedy directed by Gregg Araki that will help you mellow out and pregame this weekend’s latest addition to the genre. — Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Phyllis Logan, left, Molly Geddes and Cora Bissett in “The Bombing of Pan Am 103.”

(Netflix)

“The Bombing of Pan Am 103” (Netflix)

Admittedly, I didn’t know a lot about the Pan Am flight disaster that this miniseries depicts, but I’m glad that’s no longer the case. This BBC production (it debuted in the U.K. last year) depicts the stories of American and Scottish investigators who spent more than a decade combing through evidence, clues and tips to bring justice to the families affected by the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. In 1988, the commercial jetliner was transporting 259 people, including 190 Americans, when it exploded over the skies of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and 11 Scots on the ground. Until the events of Sept. 11, 2001, it was one of the most lethal acts of air terrorism, according to the FBI. In the series, we see the gravity of the disaster, but also a deep layer of humanity, showing how Lockerbie and its citizens were irrevocably changed, yet their compassion never wavered, whether for each other or the victims’ families, who formed a lasting bond in an unlikely place. The main characters in the show are based on real-life people: Connor Swindells is DS Ed McCusker, who helped lead the investigation in Scotland; Patrick J. Adams is FBI Agent Dick Marquise, who led the American investigation; and the brilliant Merritt Wever is Kathryn Turman, a tireless advocate whose work led to reforms and services for families of victims. Be prepared to watch with a box of tissues. — Maira Garcia

Anna Faris, John Krasinski, center, Michael Shamus Wiles in 2007’s “Smiley Face.”

(Lacey Terrell / First Look Pictures)

“Smiley Face” (Prime Video)

This has been a stand-out summer for highbrow discourse about Homeric adaptations. As a reward, let’s get stupid with Gregg Araki’s 2007 stoner flick “Smiley Face,” a giddy, silly romp about a slacker (Anna Faris) whose troubles start when she snarfs a plate of pot cupcakes for breakfast. Her misadventures treat us to a tour of L.A. — from a Hollywood casting office to the Venice Beach boardwalk, with a pit stop at a meat-packing plant in El Monte. Even better, it’s a tour de force performance from Faris, who plays an impulsive mess with the fearlessness of a clown leaping into a kiddie pool of pudding. She deserved to make a dozen more movies just like it. (The “Scary Movie” franchise only halfway counts.) If “Smiley Face” gives you the munchies for a great new comedy, check out “The Wrong Girls” with Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat and Araki’s latest farce, “I Want Your Sex,” which stars a ferociously funny Olivia Wilde. — Amy Nicholson

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Ella Rubin and Amélie Hoeferle in “Sterling Point.”

(Prime Video)

The enemies-to-lovers romance trope in a teen drama? It’s been done. “Sterling Point” anchors its premise on an enemies(ish)-to-sisters storyline. The coming-of-age drama opens with 17-year-old twins, Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin) and her twin brother Connor (Keen Ruffalo), who were raised in New York City and inherit a Canadian island following the death of their estranged grandfather. The series follows Annie as she sets out to the island and encounters Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle), the half sister she didn’t know existed until she arrived there. Their initial friction gives way to a tight bond as they piece together emotionally heavy family secrets.

The series hails from Megan Park, who has become known for her nuanced stories about young people with films like “The Fallout,” a drama starring Jenna Ortega about the aftermath of a school shooting, and the Aubrey Plaza-led “My Old Ass,” about a teenager who meets her older self while on a mushroom trip. Over video call, Park discussed the “Sterling Point’s” origins, her hopes for Season 2 and the coming-of-age stories that she admired growing up. — Y.V.

Many series about and catering to young adults right now, some of which are part of Prime Video’s lineup, are based on books that have built-in fan bases. Did that make “Sterling Point” a harder sell? What was your experience of pitching it?

Yes, I think people are always more nervous to take a risk on something brand new when you’re like, “This is just a weird idea I had in my brain, but trust me I think it’ll work.” But I was really lucky with Amazon being so supportive because they had just acquired “My Old Ass” and I think they understood the voice and the stories that I was wanting to tell with the show. I was shocked that people were willing to take the risk of being like, we’re going to go in a writers room and we’re going to figure out the show in an old-school way; we’re not going to rely on any kind of built-in audience or IP. I’m very thankful for Amazon for taking that chance on us. It’s not that I’m against adapting IP. I’m sure I would do that at some point, but I had an idea and somebody still wanted to listen to it, so I feel very grateful for that.

What inspired this story ?

I wanted to try [writing for] TV because I was like, “Well, eight hours is a lot more content than just making a movie.” That was a fun challenge to me. When I was acting, I spent so many years doing TV, so it felt like home. For me, it was the sisterhood story and sort of the the idea of these two young women who are connected by this woman that they don’t know and don’t feel like her death has necessarily affected either one of them, and it has very much affected both of them. I thought it was an interesting idea to explore, nature versus nurture. I come from a family where there’s a lot of adoption, and I had also never really seen a character like Annie where they were adopted and they didn’t have the desire to seek out their biological family, and that was just something they were fine with. That’s been an experience of a lot of people in my family. Oftentimes, [we see] stories about you know people wanting to find their biological family. Both of them exist, but I hadn’t seen the latter in a lot of things. I was excited to explore that.

Daniel Quinn-Toye, Bo Bragason and Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie in “Sterling Point.”

(Prime Video)

Identity, and how that’s shaped by our parents, drives so much of the story. What interested you in that parent-child or just familial dynamic?

I’ve always just loved stories that are about that; family dynamics are the most interesting to me because they’re so full of triggers, and everybody has some kind of crazy story within their family, or a mystery. At that age, you’re finally realizing your parents are just people too, and they maybe don’t know everything. And maybe you have different ideas or thoughts about how the world works than your parents, and that can sometimes not go over very well. It is an interesting time. And as a mom now with children — I have a 2- and 6-year-old — you think a lot about like, “Wow, how are my kids going to feel about A, B, and C when they’re this age? What’s my relationship going to be with them as teenagers and adults?” It’s so wild to think about. I was also writing it, thinking about a lot about the mom and the parents POV as well.

The show has romance or feelings of infatuation that are a hallmark of young adult dramas, but it’s not the focus of the show. It’s the relationship between the sisters. There’ve been studies saying that teens want less sex in TV and movies, that they prefer watching stories about deep friendships or platonic relationships. Was that top of mind for you at all?

You’re the first person who’s asked me that, and I feel like yes. We love a love triangle, we love a love story — it’s so fun and such an escape; it’s almost like an essential part of a show in a way. But especially this generation, their friendships are deeply important and they live at home longer, statistically. Their relationships, their parents, are a lot different than maybe millennials’. When I was in high school, I was never involved in romantic relationships. That was a later part of life, and I feel like I’ve talked to a lot of people, they were like, I wasn’t dating really in high school. I was not ready and not there yet. You don’t often see that. And so it was fun to have this this North Star that the real love story and the real heart of the show is the sisterhood, and I hope that sets the show apart in an exciting way, because it felt that way when we were writing it.

The season ends with Annie and Ramona essentially swapping locations. What are you interested in exploring in a Season 2 with these characters?

I have a whole bunch of ideas left, so we shall see. There’s a lot between these two young women having now experienced each other’s lives fully that is going to be really interesting to explore and pick up, hopefully, if we get the chance to. Listen, eight hours seem like a lot, but once you get into it, you’re like, “Wait, man, there’s eight hours more that I think I could get deeper into A, B, and C.” And there’s so many great supporting characters in the show, and we had stuff [for them] that we wanted to fit in for them in Season 1 that we just couldn’t fit in. Season 2 could be fun in that way, where you know these people and know the world, and now you can go more into [who they are.] Who is Oona’s mom? There’s all these other characters who we can get more into their world as well.

The YA genre is thriving right now. And it’s not even just young people tuning in — I feel like I see so many TikToks from millennials and Gen X talking about their obsession with them. Why do you think we’re still turning to these types of stories later in adulthood?

Because it’s nostalgic. It’s such a defining time in every single person’s life. It’s why young people are finding shows that we grew up on, like “One Tree Hill” or “Dawson’s Creek.” And why women in their 50s or 60s are still relating to the newer shows like “Off Campus” and and “Elle.” It doesn’t matter the era; it’s just the unique sort of idea that it’s the first this, the first that; the defining moments of our lives in so many ways.

In the spirit of this series, what were some of the coming-of-age films, TV series or books that shaped you?

I grew up in like the era of such great coming-of-age comedies — “Clueless” was a big one for me — and really epic rom-coms like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Those movies really stuck with me. I would say that Chris Columbus, as a filmmaker, makes movies like “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Step Mom” — those movies that are such wild ideas or really sad things, but you’re also unexpectedly crying. In “Mrs. Doubtfire,” you’re like, oh, this is a story about a dad who misses his kids, but it’s so heartfelt but also funny at the same time.” I want to make things that are heartfelt, which isn’t necessarily a cool word to some people. I think it’s cool because I want to make things that are meaningful but also lead with their heart, and you’re surprised when the emotion comes. It’s not just super, super dark or super, super light and fluffy; it hopefully falls perfectly right in the middle.

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For every actor, musician, writer and artist who has become a wealthy and enduring celebrity, exponentially more of them have enjoyed a brief, shining moment, never to be heard of again. What separates those who last from those who fade away? Is it luck, talent, drive, destiny? All of the above?

It’s an intriguing question that may have no definitive answer, but one that director Kent Jones (2018’s acclaimed “Diane”) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Samy Burch (“May December”) lovingly and lyrically consider in the often first-rate “Late Fame.” The film is based on an 1895 novella by Arthur Schnitzler (also author of the book that became “Eyes Wide Shut”), which went unpublished until 2014.

A quietly captivating Willem Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a New York post office veteran of 37 years in a seemingly satisfying if decidedly low-key existence. For him, it’s work, then maybe a game of pool with his blue-collar buddies at a local bar (though he’s six years sober) and a solo return to his Greenwich Village walk-up.

That is, until one night, he’s approached outside his apartment building by a somewhat affected but seemingly earnest young man who goes by his last name, Meyers (Edmund Donovan). With his elevated speech, tony air and throwback attire, he’s like someone from another era; you could see him as one of Jay Gatsby’s pals or a bon vivant who drops by on “Downton Abbey.”

Meyers proceeds to tell an astonished Ed that he’s a huge fan of his long-forgotten 1979 poetry collection entitled “Way Past Go,” the postal worker’s fleeting brush with literary success. “They just slap you across the face with their style and with their relevancy,” extols Meyers of the poems. “They’re timeless.”

Really, what writer, no matter how detached from their past, could resist that kind of sweet talk?

A meet-up with Meyers’ “artistic community,” a circle of so-called intellectuals known as the Enthusiasm Society, leads Ed to humbly dip a toe back into his vanished creative side. He’s not unaware that Meyers’ mostly 20-something male friends have — like many — romanticized the gritty abandon of lower Manhattan’s bygone literary scene and perhaps Ed’s tenuous place in it. They might be poseurs tossing around references to Ginsberg and Bukowski, but the welcome mat the group offers Ed is enticing and inspiring.

Still, a visit to Meyers’ sleek apartment, admittedly paid for by his parents, confirms for Ed the kind of youthful privilege at play here, so unlike the scrappier downtown bohemia of his own artistic heyday.

The wild card in the Society is Gloria (Greta Lee, dazzlingly good), an impish sprite who’s hard to pin down. Is she really a working stage actor? Ed gets swept up in her performative antics and elusive, larger-than-life allure. (She’s older than her fellow Society members but decades younger than Ed.) When they develop a teasing flirtation, it’s one of the less credible turns here, given how authentic Ed is — and how dubious she appears (though some truth on that front will later unfold).

This tilt toward Gloria causes the film to lose its way a bit, pulling focus from the more potentially vital mentor-disciple dynamic between Ed and the anxious, navel-gazing Meyers. Plus, Donovan is excellent here, so less of him is, well, less.

That said, there’s a bravura second-act scene that finds Gloria performing an impassioned version of the 1929 Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill torch song “Surabaya Johnny” for an appreciative cabaret audience, one that includes a rapt Ed. It verifies Gloria’s singing talent and proves a perfect match for her showy, cagey persona: the love child of Marlene Dietrich and Sally Bowles.

If the story has a through line, it concerns the planning and execution of an evening of live readings from the Society’s works, with a new poem from Ed as its centerpiece. A few of the obstacles layered in — Ed’s struggle to write and some show-night personality conflicts — feel a tad obligatory. But the event itself has its high points, including the piece Ed finally reads.

In addition, an awkward meeting between Ed and a smooth literary agent (Jake Lacy), along with a mini-subplot involving phone calls from Ed’s frustrated sister about their dying brother, come off slightly wedged in. Not much payoff there.

No matter. There’s wisdom and depth to the film’s themes of growing old, dashed dreams and the magic of rediscovery, plus a deliciously ironic final twist. Jones manages his superb cast with aplomb and cinematographer Wyatt Garfield evocatively captures lower Manhattan’s wintry, burnished glow.

When she’s not showing off her brainiac skills, The Chase star Jenny Ryan is loved-up with her actor partner

Jenny Ryan is a firm favourite on The Chase – but who is her real-life boyfriend?

The brainiac shot to fame when she joined the ITV quiz show – hosted by Bradley Walsh – back in 2025. Since then, Jenny has become a regular on TV screens.

From stints on Celebrity X Factor to the new spin-off programme, The Chase Around The World, Jenny, also known as the Vixen, has remained booked and busy.

But away from the TV sets, Jenny is loved-up with her long-term boyfriend, Thom Tuck who also happens to work in the showbiz and entertainment industry.

Over the years, Thom has appeared in the likes of a number of hit shows, including The Crown, Fresh Meat and Babylon. He’s also shown off his talents on stage, performing in theatre productions of Death of A Salesman and Three Sisters.

Thom was also nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe for Thom Tuck Goes Straight-to-DVD. The show managed to get adapted to BBC Radio too.

But that’s not all, as Thom is one-third of the acclaimed sketch troupe The Penny Dreadfuls who have made series for Radio 4 and several audio dramas.

What’s more, Jenny and Thom even worked together when they co-starred in the pantomime production of Sleeping Beauty at the Wyvern Theatre in 2025, in which Jenny played the Wicked Fairy Carabosse and Thom played King Keir.

The pair also appeared on Celebrity Escape To The Country in 2023, and shared their plans to move from the city “back home” to the countryside near her hometown of Bolton.

Looking to relocate with a budget of £850,000 Jenny and Thom were shown an array of residences, turning down the first one but falling totally in love with the second one.

After the show aired, Jenny issued an update to fans a year later on her and Thom’s living situation, revealing on Instagram that she sadly did not buy the house.

She explained that before she could even get another viewing, another person put an offer on the property. Jenny then said she was not surprised another house hunter had bought the property but quipped “the search continues”.

The Chase Around The World airs every Thursday at 9pm on ITV1

AN A-list Hollywood actor was spotted shopping at a Pokémon market in Brighton – but would you have been able to recognise him in the crowds?

A TikTok user shared a snap of the star, 48, looking around a gymnasium in a white cap and glasses.

Molly Wheatley, user name @xo_mxlly_ox, captioned the snap: “That’s just a random man in a white hat…”

But then in the next slide she revealed exactly who it was, as she posed for a picture with none other than Tom Hardy.

Fans rushed to the comments section to swoon over the Venom star, with one writing: “WOAH.”

Another said: “my jaw hit the floor.”

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“I knew it was him before the second picture. I KNOW THAT HANDSOME MAN FROM A MILE OFF,” a third chimed in.

A fourth added: “Idk you but I hate you!!”

A fifth chimed in: “I would simply keel over.”

A sixth joked: “He is a pretty good tom hardy look alike tbf.”

Tom, who was born in Hammersmith, London, is a well known English actor who has starred in a number of popular films and TV shows since shooting to fame in the late 90s.

Some of his movie roles include in Star Trek: Nemesis, RocknRolla, Bronson, Warrior, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, Dunkirk, Venom, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Bikeriders and Havoc.

Meanwhile he’s also been in Wuthering Heights, Peaky Blinders, Taboo, Oliver Twist, and most recently MobLand.

He has also won the Rising Star Award at the British Academy Film Awards in 2011, as well as the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actor in an Action Movie in 2015.

And fans will be over the moon to know that Tom is reprising his role as Harry Da Souza on MobLand, after it was said that the hunky actor had been fired from the Paramount+ hit.

Deadline confirmed the integral cast – which is also made up of Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren – will remain for the third instalment, and that includes Tom.

And last month The Sun exclusively revealed a world-exclusive first look at the upcoming action.