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Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach
TV & Streaming

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Dylan Efron Suffers Injury — Will He Dance on Halloween Night?

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Three days before he’s due to hit the dance floor again, Dylan Efron has been injured. The Season 34 Dancing With the Stars contestant shared an unexpected update with fans on Saturday, October 25, along with photos from his visit to the doctor.

“Broke my nose, but dont need it to dance 🕺,” he captioned an Instagram post, confirming that he’ll still be able to dance with his pro partner, Daniella Karagach, during Tuesday’s live show. He also thanked Karagach, her husband, Pasha Pashkov, and Pashkov’s Season 34 partner, Danielle Fishel, for supporting him amid the setback.

“I’m seriously all good- but I’ll never forget the way Dani, Pasha and Danielle WOULDN’T leave me side when it happened, warms my heart to have friends like them ❤️,” he concluded.

The comments section was filled with supportive messages. “I hope you’re ok brother. sending you love,” Season 34 pro Mark Ballas wrote, while Valentin Chmerkovskiy said, “Oh em gee.” Emma Slater added, “WHAT?!! @dylanefron hope you’re ok!” to which Efron replied, ” all good 🙂 already back and practicing.”

Of course, Efron’s pal from The Traitors, Rob Mariano, also weighed in, writing, “Keep him in line @daniellakaragach ❤️.”

Efron and the other eight remaining contestants will perform again on October 28 for Halloween Night. This week, Efron and Karagach are dancing a Viennese waltz to “Can’t Help Falling in Love (Dark)” by Tommee Profitt & Brooke.

So far, Week 5 was Efron’s standout week. He danced a contemporary routine that he dedicated to his younger sister, Olivia, and earned a 36 out of 40 from the judges. The high score put him on top of the leaderboard for the first time.

During Week 6, Efron was more towards the bottom of the pack, scoring a 32 out of 40 for his rumba on Wicked night. The competition is heating up now, so he and everyone else will have to bring it to stay in the competition.

Dancing With the Stars, Season 34, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC

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Jeremy Strong on 'Springsteen' and Mark Zuckerberg
TV & Streaming

Jeremy Strong on ‘Springsteen’ and Mark Zuckerberg

by jummy84
written by jummy84

While Oscar nominee Jeremy Strong (“The Apprentice”) could be back at the Oscars for the second year in a row for his subtle, moving performance as manager Jon Landau in “Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” he’s neither rooting for himself nor for another character actor he admires, Sean Penn in “One Battle After Another.” As a member of this year’s Cannes jury, Strong is an unabashed fan of Norway’s Cannes prize-winning Oscar entry, “Sentimental Value.” “Give Stellan Skarsgård the Oscar, please,” he said as we sat down at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.

I can’t help but notice his rusty, close-cropped haircut. He’s in prep to play Mark Zuckerberg in writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to 2010’s “The Social Network,” “The Social Reckoning” (October 9, 2026), set 17 years later and without Jesse Eisenberg. It covers a stretch between 2018 and 2021, when Facebook moved from “move fast and break things,” said Strong, to “move fast with stable infrastructure. This also tells the story of the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on the Facebook Files.” (He reunites with Jeremy Allen White, who plays Springsteen in “Deliver Me from Nowhere.”)

Linda Blair in 'Exorcist II: The Heretic'

As soon as Strong got wind of a follow-up to “The Social Network,” he told Sorkin that he had always wanted to play Zuckerberg. Strong played Jerry Rubin in Best Picture nominee “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which Sorkin wrote and directed, and starred in Sorkin’s directorial debut “Molly’s Game.” “The Social Reckoning” screenplay is “one of the best scripts I’ve ever read,” said Strong. “It touches the third rail, the axis of much of the issues and maladies of our time.”

Per usual, Strong is hoovering up everything he can about Zuckerberg. His prep, influenced by early mentor Daniel Day-Lewis, involves a “deep dive on everything,” he said, “trying to understand and defend a point of view of a character, what it is they believe in, what they’re fighting for, maybe understand what might be blind spots. But the most important thing for me is an empathic connection to a person. We live in an age when there’s a lot of judgment, a lot of maligning of people. We would all do well to walk a day in anybody’s shoes before casting aspersions and judgment.”

Jeremy Strong Mark Zuckerberg
Jeremy Strong and Mark ZuckerbergGetty Images

Zuckerberg, who at 41 is still running Facebook, is “a real person with a family,” said Strong, who is 46 and has three kids. “He is someone who has shaped the world we live in. I feel an enormous responsibility for accuracy and understanding.”

Zuckerberg is just one of a gallery of real people that Strong has taken on, including powerbroker Roy Cohn, one of the most maligned figures in New York, who Strong not only made believable but empathetic in “The Apprentice.” “I find Roy’s journey a tragic journey,” he said. “I find Kendall Roy’s journey [in the Emmy-winning ‘Succession’], even though he’s a composite character, a tragic journey.”

Day-Lewis gave Strong “a kind of permission,” he said, “by witnessing a level of commitment and a level of preparation and courage and a willingness to just go way the fuck out on the limb,” he said. Strong also admires Anthony Hopkins, his co-star on James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” who has played Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pablo Picasso, C.S. Lewis, and John Quincy Adams. Strong is drawn to historic characters, he said: “Those are the best stories with the most complex stories and the highest stakes.”

'The Apprentice'
‘The Apprentice’Briarcliff Entertainment

In “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” Strong plays a real person, Jon Landau, an influential music critic who proclaimed Springsteen as the future of rock in the pages of Rolling Stone and quietly and firmly, behind the scenes, helped his friend to manage his career and recover from debilitating depression. The film is set during the 1982 recording of “Nebraska,” a bare-bones acoustic album of dark songs that Springsteen needed to get off his chest before he could publish such rock anthems as “Born in the U.S.A.,” which he had already written, that would make him a rock legend.

Having gotten to work closely with Springsteen on “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” Strong is a fan: “I’ve just come out of this press conference with Bruce, who gives 10,000 percent. I admire him perhaps more than I admire anyone on this earth: his humility, his devotion, his commitment. It’s about how much he gives, his sincerity, his generosity of spirit.”

Movingly, “Deliver Me from Nowhere” shows how Landau cares for Springsteen and stands up for him at a time when he needs support. “At this moment in time, 1982, it is not a given that Bruce would go on to be the Bruce Springsteen we know him to be today,” said Strong, “simply because of his struggles with mental health and depression, as William Styron said, ‘a darkness visible,’ and that darkness was pressing down on him, and he did not have the equipment internally to handle it. It’s not something anyone can handle on their own.”

A few years older than Springsteen, Landau “was a father figure to Bruce at this time,” said Strong, “had been in therapy, had had a broader education, was steeped in literature and the history of art and the history of music, and he was able to help Bruce take this step to getting professional help. He was almost like a therapist himself, and he understood that the only way out is through. This movie that Scott Cooper has made is the story of Bruce shaking hands with his own past, his trauma, the wounds that we all carry and that often remain untreated or buried. And so this is about the album ‘Nebraska,’ the unearthing of that trauma and the repairing of trauma through art.”

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, (aka DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE), Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau, 2025. © 20th Century Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Jeremy Strong in ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere‘©20th Century Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection

“Nebraska” also marked a moment in time before Springsteen was about to hit big. “James Baldwin once used the phrase ‘trying to find an honest place to stand,’” said Strong. “Bruce was looking to find that honest place to stand. He was lost in the vortex of this world that we’re in, the pressures and expectations of success, fame. And Bruce needed to locate. Bruce said once that all of his songs are about a person trying to find and save some part of himself. And Bruce, at this time in 1982, needed to find and save some part of himself. And Jon Landau had the compassion, love, devotion, depth of understanding, and insight to support and enable that.”

Landau also had to be savvy enough to manage CBS Records. It’s surprising the executives went along with “Nebraska” at all. Landau had to coax them into it. “‘The River’ was a massive album,” said Strong, “but he wasn’t yet in the stratosphere that he then went on to be. When Jon Landau goes into Columbia Records and sits down with Al Teller, people listen to Jon Landau. He had an authority, but he also was a bodyguard for what is sacred. Jon was perceiving what was essential in that record and why it was essential for fertilizing the growth of Bruce Springsteen, the artist. He was not perceiving in a calculated way why this would or wouldn’t be a savvy career move — not that he didn’t give a shit about career, because he did.”

Strong and Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen bonded effectively to create this close relationship. “Easily and almost without words,” said Strong. “I’ve admired Jeremy for a long time. Part of what you do is you create a dynamic that mirrors a dynamic, and it was easy for me to feel a devotion and a love for Jeremy, also given what was at stake, similar to Sebastian [Stan] having to play Donald Trump, a character that is an iconic, monolithic character. You are vulnerable. You are up there like Philippe Petit, walking on that high wire. So it was easy for me to feel a solicitude, a protectiveness, and an empathy and care for him. You look after him a bit without words, let him know that you’re there for him, which is what Jon does. They don’t talk a lot.”

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, (aka DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE), Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau, 2025. © 20th Century Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’©20th Century Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection

One key scene between the two men involves a piece of music, instigated by Strong. “In the early ’70s, they used to come over to each other’s house and listen to records,” said Strong. “They would play each other music all night. And it was the night before we were shooting this scene, where Jon goes over to Bruce’s house in Colts Neck, a beautifully scripted scene where they say the things that they’re feeling to each other. Jon expresses his deep concern for Bruce, his wish for what the road trip will be. I felt a sense that the Jon that I had come to understand might not have worded all those things as overtly, and I had an instinct that maybe I should play him a song in the scene. I sent Bruce and Jon some texts. I asked them: ‘I’m thinking of playing a record for you in the scene tomorrow. If you were going to play a song, if you were trying to save your friend’s life, what song would you play?’”

The three men exchanged texts for three hours. Strong listened to each song suggestion. Springsteen went to bed. About 45 minutes later, he texted Strong and Landau: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers’ “Last Mile of the Way.” “I listened to it,” said Strong, “and was floored. It’s emotionally huge, and it’s the story of the movie. It’s about passing through a dark valley before you get to arrive somewhere.”

The next day, Scott Cooper shot the scene as scripted. Strong had secretly asked the sound mixer and prop department to prepare a cassette with the song on it and have the boom box in the room. And after they shot the scene, he said, “Scott, can I try something?” And Cooper said, “Can you tell me what it is?” And I said, “No, I’d rather not.”

Strong also asked White if he wanted to know what he was going to do. He said, “No.” “That’s what’s in the movie,” said Strong. “It’s a big-budget Disney studio movie, but it has a Cassavetes soul. There’s a spiritual dimension to that song and that sequence in the movie. It captured something about them and their essence and their journey.”

Next up: Strong plays the lead in the remake of “The Boys from Brazil,” a limited series written by Peter Morgan (“The Crown”). “It’s a five-hour film that Bob Elswit is shooting, an allegory of the rise of fascism in the world.” Also in the works is a Paramount six-hour limited series created by Tobias Lindholm about September 11 first responders. “There’s an embarrassment of riches right now,” said Strong, “and I don’t take it for granted.”

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Gus Van Sant Talks 'Dead Man's Wire' and River Phoenix Memories
TV & Streaming

Gus Van Sant Talks ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ and River Phoenix Memories

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Gus Van Sant is still moving.

“I think a lot of the films I’ve made, even unintentionally, have been based on real things,” Van Sant says with his familiar mix of understatement and curiosity. “That’s a genre, I guess. I’ve always been drawn to what makes people do what they do.”

In “Dead Man’s Wire,” Van Sant’s latest film, which premiered at AFI Film Festival on Saturday, that fascination becomes electrified — literally. The historical true-crime drama, based on the real-life 1977 Tony Kiritsis hostage case, unfolds like a pressure cooker between desperation and spectacle.

“When I read the script,” he recalls, “there were links embedded in it — you could click them and hear the real 911 calls. Tony talked so fast, like Scorsese on a cocaine bender, cracking jokes and losing his temper. I thought, ‘This is an amazing character.’”

Van Sant’s words carry a quiet thrill, the sound of an auteur who has spent a career balancing empathy and danger. From “Drugstore Cowboy” and “My Own Private Idaho” to the Oscar-nominated “Good Will Hunting” and “Milk,” he’s never chased a single genre; only human behavior.

“The story had this weird barnstormer energy,” he shares. “We were meeting in the Soho House, and the producer said, ‘We have to start shooting in Louisville in two months.’ That was the most appealing thing — just hitting the road like Huckleberry Finn.”

Now 73, Van Sant is nostalgic when talking about creative chaos. “The best thing about film is still the accident,” he says. “River Phoenix used to love when something unexpected happened on set. He’d come alive inside those moments — he could feel his character reacting in real time.”

That memory lingers, as does the one of the fog machines at the 1998 Oscars that made him physically ill while “Good Will Hunting” (1997) lost most of its awards to “Titanic.”

“I’m allergic to stage fog now,” he says with a chuckle. “So I never use it on set.”

It’s been seven years since his last theatrical film (“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot”), but Van Sant is back with a story that echoes his fascination with real American tragedy and absurdity — a director drawn, as ever, to the ragged edge between empathy and obsession.

With “Dead Man’s Wire,” Van Sant delivers his most arresting and charged work since “Milk.” The film hums with the restless energy that defined his early 1970s-like masterpieces while showcasing a sharpened maturity in tone and control. Skarsgård gives a career-best performance, grounding Tony Kiritsis’ volatility with flashes of humor and heartbreak, while Dacre Montgomery and Colman Domingo deliver richly textured performances. Dark horses for the Oscars? Of course. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be considered. In particular, Van Sant’s direction is at once intimate and explosive, framing the chaos with empathy, allowing the audience to feel the pulse of desperation behind every decision. The film’s screenplay, adapted from real events by first-time screenwriter Austin Kolodney, is infused with humanism and dark wit, standing as one of the year’s finest.

In a wide-ranging interview with Variety, Van Sant talks about his past, present and future in the industry he’s spent over four decades mastering.

‘Dead Man’s Wire”

Stefania Rosini SMPSP

Looking at your filmography, this fits with your interest in real-life characters and crimes.

Yeah, I think so. A lot of my films, even the fictional ones, are based on something from the real world — a news story or an article. “Drugstore Cowboy,” “Elephant,” and “Last Days” all came from that impulse. It’s not “true crime” like television, but it’s about what makes someone act a certain way — that question inside the crime.

How did you settle on Bill Skarsgård for Tony and Dacre Montgomery for Richard?

Casting was probably as important as the script. I was at a spa one weekend, listening to ambient music, trying to decide if I should jump into this project immediately — we had to start shooting in November. I’d always wanted to work with Bill. I’d offered him roles before that didn’t happen. He has this fascinating career — horror films, yes, but he’s like Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces. He’s also 10 years younger than the real Tony, which made it interesting.

Dacre I knew because of his audition tape for “Stranger Things.” It’s one of those legendary tapes actors pass around — perfect lighting, perfect eyelines. I didn’t even watch the show at first, just his scenes. He felt new, unpredictable, and that was what the movie needed.

And Colman Domingo as the radio DJ — it’s such an inspired choice.

We actually modeled that character after the DJ in “The Warriors.” That was in the script. We had a few actors pass before Colman came aboard. He was working with our producer, Cassian Elwes, on another project and said, “I’d love to work with Gus.” He was perfect — his presence grounds the film.

Fans always ask if you’d ever revisit “Drugstore Cowboy.”

Actually, there are screenplays that the same writer wrote — James Fogle. There were four different ones, and one of them is called “Satan’s Sandbox,” that I think James Franco wanted to do, but that was the one I kind of preferred. It’s set in San Quentin prison. And actually, when we met him and made the movie, he was in Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington State, and so he had some stories when they were out of prison, like “Drugstore Cowboy,” when they were running around, selling drugs and stealing drugs. So there are other ones, yeah, there are other ones that exist.

River Phoenix was so prolific in your cinema journey. He definitely is one of the core reasons I, myself, fell in love with movies. How often does he cross your mind?

I mean, I think about him all the time — there’s a picture on the wall of him. He was sort of like, you know, a very great collaborator. And we only did that one piece, and we were planning on — he was planning on being in what turned out to be “Milk.” But that didn’t happen till later, before he died, so there was a project that we were talking about. But, yeah, he was very spontaneous. He loved to improvise. That was his favorite thing. And I don’t think he got to, necessarily, depending on who he was working with, go off the page and improvise. It probably wasn’t the type of films that he was doing — he was doing traditional pieces that were pretty much, like, securely in Hollywood. You know, he was doing traditional pieces, that’s what he was offered.

And in that environment, you’re not making a film like — you know, like you’re mentioning Scorsese — where they improvise whole scenes. And when we did, he found out that I liked it, you know, that I was okay if he just did something for like five minutes that wasn’t even in the screenplay, because then he could actually research stuff, and he could feel very open about what he was playing. So that was kind of magical, that he liked it, and he had not been able to do it. So he was very excited about it, because he wasn’t normally doing it.

I don’t know, there’s lots of things. His upbringing was such that he didn’t really have a lot of film history connected to his memory banks. He was homeschooled, so he didn’t have a lot of teaching that he knew about concerning war. His homeschooling consisted of, like, no war. So characters like General MacArthur weren’t in his world — he didn’t know who they were. And then conversely, he didn’t know what humor was. He didn’t know what, like, a quote-unquote joke was, until he was nine, he said.

He found that out because he went to a traditional school — a public school — and kids were telling jokes. It was an era when kids were all about jokes. He didn’t know what they were; they were just like a foreign thing to him. He also didn’t have a smile, which people don’t necessarily know. He told me that — he said, ‘Well, I don’t have a smile.’ And I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ And then he smiled and showed me his smile, and I said, ‘Oh yeah, I don’t see that smile in your films.’

So he had this interesting thing — for a movie star, an interesting absence of that kind of giant smile. But meanwhile, he was very funny, and his most favorite thing was just to laugh and tell stories.

You’ve been nominated twice for an Oscar. What do you remember about those mornings?

Mostly that I didn’t realize when the announcements were happening. I woke up to a bunch of phone calls. It’s the big Hollywood prize — it feels great. At the ceremony for “Good Will Hunting,” they unveiled this huge Titanic ship set, and fog rolled out everywhere. I got so sick sitting there, I swore I’d never use fog on my sets again.

There’s a lot of talk about the “death” of cinema. Do you believe that?

Not at all. Movies always follow technology — from nickelodeons to iPhones. What matters is the gathering, that communal experience. The art form isn’t dying; it’s just shifting. The best films of the 1920s were miracles because nobody knew what cinema was yet. We’re in another one of those periods of discovery.

Can we expect another film soon? Or do we have to wait another seven years?

I hope so. I did the Gucci project and six hours of “Feud,” so I haven’t been idle. There are hundreds of ideas — digital files full of them. Some might take decades, like “Milk” did. But they’re there, waiting.

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Mariska Hargitay Reveals She Tested For 'Friends' 'So Many Times'
TV & Streaming

Mariska Hargitay Reveals She Tested For ‘Friends’ ‘So Many Times’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Before Mariska Hargitay ended up as “America’s sweetheart sex cop,” as she aptly described herself on her Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast appearance, the veteran TV actor thought she would be a comedian and tested for Friends “many times.”

Discussing her affinity for comedy with the Parks and Recreation alumna, Hargitay said “all I wanted to be was you,” reflecting on having come up through The Groundlings, the famed Saturday Night Live pipeline improv school and sketch comedy troupe.

“I did a lot of [comedy auditions],” Hargitay told Poehler about going out for comedic roles at the beginning of her career. “I did Seinfeld, and I did Single Guy, and I tested for Friends so many times.”

When asked which part she auditioned for, Hargitay said, “I think it’s Monica — so long ago, again. But I always thought that I would end up being on a sitcom or doing comedy, that’s what I thought.”

However, a chance encounter with a psychic, who had come highly recommended by her friends, revealed to her a different destiny.

At the time, the My Mom Jayne documentarian had just wrapped her time as Cynthia Hooper on ER and was a “struggling actor.” Via her development deal at DreamWorks, she was then working on a dramedy in the vein of Ally McBeal. But while on a routine trip to New York City, she visited a psychic in Long Island at her friends’ behest, who “started saying all this amazing stuff to me.”

“He said to me, Amy, ‘You see that face you’re doing right now? You see that face?’ … I said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘You’re gonna be famous for that face. You’re moving to New York, and you’re gonna be famous for that face,’” she recalled. “And I said, ‘Uh, no, I live in L.A., and I’m gonna be a comedian because I’m funny, and I’m pretty, and that is a deadly combination.’ And he looks at me — and this is my favorite moment in my life — and he goes like this, ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass what you say.’”

She concluded, “Six months later, swear to God, I got SVU.”

Hargitay has portrayed no-nonsense and fiercely protective New York Police Department officer-turned-captain Olivia Benson in Law & Order: SVU since 1999. The Dick Wolf-created NBC mainstay is currently airing its 27th season.

Watch the full episode below:

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How to watch Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints online with Hulu + Live TV, livestream
TV & Streaming

Watch NFL Game Online with Hulu + Live TV

by jummy84
written by jummy84

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

With the NFL season going into Week 8, Tampa Bay and New Orleans are battling each other on the gridiron, as fierce NFC South rivals. Although the Saints have a losing record, they could be spoilers for the Bucs who are looking to win the division and secure a spot in the playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-2) battle the New Orleans Saints (1-6) at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Sunday, Oct. 26 starting at 1:05 p.m. PT/4:05 p.m. ET. The game broadcasts on Fox, which is available to stream online with Hulu + Live TV.

At a Glance: Watch Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints online

  • When: Sunday, Oct. 26
  • Location: Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
  • TV channel: Fox
  • Stream online: Hulu + Live TV

Ahead, you’ll find more details on how to watch the Bucs-Saints game online.

How to Watch Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints Online Without Cable

Since Bucs vs. Saints airs on Fox, it’s streamable on web-based cable services that carry the networks. Hulu + Live TV has a three-day free trial, allowing sports fans to watch the game for free.

Hulu

Best for Streaming Bundles

Hulu + Live TV

To watch the Bucs-Saints game online on Fox, a subscription to Hulu + Live TV is a fantastic option with plans starting at $82.99 per month.

Meanwhile, Hulu + Live TV has access to 95+ live channels — including ABC, BET, CBS, Discovery Channel, Fox Sports, Game Show Network, Hallmark Channel, Investigation Discovery, NBC, OWN, PBS, QVC, Smithsonian Channel, TCM, USA Network, VH1 and many others.

The streaming service also comes with Hulu’s entire streaming catalog, as well as, access to Disney+ and ESPN Unlimited. To go ad-free for Hulu and Disney+, the live TV service goes for $95.99 per month. If you only want Hulu + Live TV without Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN Unlimited, a subscription goes for $81.99 per month.

In addition, Hulu + Live TV is available to stream on a wide range of devices, including smart TVs, Apple devices (including the iPhone, iPad, and TV 4K), Android smartphones and tablets, Google TV, Roku, Fire TV Stick 4K and other internet-connected devices through the Hulu app. It’s also available to stream on laptops and desktop computers via web browsers, like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge and more. But no matter how you choose to watch, you’re allowed to stream up to two devices at the same time.

Currently, Hulu + Live TV has a three-day free trial to get started.

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Strictly fans "gutted" as they spot Stefan Dennis with fellow injured celeb
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Strictly fans “gutted” as they spot Stefan Dennis with fellow injured celeb

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Strictly Come Dancing’s Icons Week was full of impressive performances, fabulous costumes and even a couple of starry cameos, but fans were sad to see two former contestants watching on from the sidelines due to injury.

Earlier this week, Neighbours favourite Stefan Dennis had to withdraw from the competition after tearing his calf, meaning he and his pro partner Dianne Buswell were no longer in the Strictly line-up.

Before any of tonight’s (25th October) routines, hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman shared a message of support for Stefan, who was sitting in the audience.

“Stefan and Dianne had to sadly withdraw from the competition this week as Stefan sustained an injury,” Claudia told viewers. “He’s here with us tonight. We love you Stefan.”

Tess added: “Lots of love to you Stefan from all of us.”

It was particularly poignant, as fans noticed that he was sitting next to Dani Dyer, who was also forced to pull out of this season before the live shows had even begun after fracturing her ankle.

Dani Dyer and Stefan Dennis on Strictly Come Dancing. BBC

One viewer wrote on X: “aww stefan and dani… my two faves injured… GUTTED!!!! heartbroken mate!!”

Another wrote: “awwww bless stefan and dani sat in the audience!!! i bet it’s so hard for them to 🙁 but so glad they get the experience some of the magic still.”

After Dani – who had been partnered with Nikita Kuzmin – dropped out of the show, she was replaced by a fellow former Love Island star, Amber Davies.

Elsewhere on tonight’s episode of Strictly, Tess and Claudia thanked fans for their “beautiful messages” following the news that they will both be leaving the show this year, and Ellie Goldstein and Vicky Pattison were surprised by two of their music icons.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 26th October at 7:15pm.

Add Strictly Come Dancing to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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June Lockhart in
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‘Lassie’ & ‘Lost in Space’ Actress Was 100

by jummy84
written by jummy84

What To Know

  • June Lockhart, renowned for her roles in “Lassie” and “Lost in Space,” died at age 100 of natural causes in Santa Monica, surrounded by family.
  • Her prolific career spanned stage, film, and television, earning her two Hollywood Walk of Fame stars, multiple Emmy nominations, and a Tony Award.
  • Fans and colleagues paid tribute on social media, celebrating her talent, kindness, and lasting impact on classic television and the entertainment industry.

June Lockhart — the iconic actress known for her roles in Lassie, Lost in Space, Meet Me in St. Louis, and more — is dead at 100.

On Thursday, October 23, the ’50s and ’60s star died of natural causes in Santa Monica, California, People reported. She had her daughter, June Elizabeth, and her granddaughter, Christianna, by her side when she died.

In 1925, Lockhart was born to actor Gene Lockhart and actress Kathleen Lockhart. She made her stage debut at 8, later appearing alongside her parents in 1938’s A Christmas Carol as their onscreen daughter.

Lockhart most notably played Ruth Martin in Lassie and Dr. Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space. She also appeared in TV shows like Magnum, P.I., Knots Landing, Marcus Welby, M.D., Murder, She Wrote, Full House, General Hospital, Grey’s Anatomy, Babylon 5, Roseanne, and many more. Film-wise, she was best known for appearing in A Christmas Carol, Meet Me in St. Louis, She-Wolf of London, Bury Me Dead, and others.

During her career, Lockhart had two stars featured on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — one for TV and a second for film. She was a two-time Primetime Emmy Awards nominee and a Tony Awards winner.

Lockhart married John F. Maloney in 1951, and they welcomed two daughters, Anne and June Elizabeth. She and Maloney divorced in 1959.

In the wake of the legendary actress’ death, fans took to social media to share tributes. One X user wrote, “Thank you for your unforgettable performances. You’ll live on in the hearts of your fans. Rest in peace. ❤️.”

Another fan shared via X, “100 years of grace, talent, and storytelling. 🎬 June Lockhart’s legacy will forever live in the hearts of classic TV lovers.”

Someone else echoed, “RIP June Lockhart, a life very well-lived, beloved by all. I used to watch Lost in Space religiously.”

A different X user wrote, “A remarkable life and career spanning decades. June Lockhart brought joy to millions through her iconic roles. She will be remembered fondly. 🎬”

Meanwhile, yet another X user shared, “If it hadn’t been for my dearest and oldest friend, June Lockhart, I wouldn’t have become the celebrated costume designer I became. June promoted and encouraged me throughout the 55 years we have known each other. What a sensational and fantastic LADY!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.”

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Oscar Winners Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers Talk 'The Eyes of Ghana'
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Oscar Winners Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers Talk ‘The Eyes of Ghana’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Their most creative collaboration, 2023’s “The Last Repair Shop,” led director Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers to a Best Documentary Short Oscar win the next year. But it wasn’t a given Bowers would compose the score for Proudfoot’s feature debut, “The Eyes of Ghana.”

“Because it’s a lot of work, right? It’s like, ‘OK, it’s six months of my life,’” Proudfoot told IndieWire during an interview at the 2025 Middleburg Film Festival. “When you decide, ‘OK, this project feels like it’s part of my body of work,’ it’s a big decision, one that I take seriously.”

Though he has mostly worked as a film and TV composer on projects like “Green Book,” “Bridgerton,” and Original Score nominee “The Wild Robot,” Bowers’ work with Proudfoot also includes the Oscar-nominated short “A Concerto Is a Conversation” as co-director. But joining him on this newer, longer, global venture has the composer excited “just be a part of what was already being created.”

Linda Blair in 'Exorcist II: The Heretic'

“The Eyes of Ghana” is seen through the eyes of Chris Hesse, a Ghanaian filmmaker who documented the rise of President Kwame Nkrumah, known as the man who liberated the African continent. Furthermore, when colonizers attempted to burn all evidence of Nkrumah’s time as a revolutionary leader, Hesse snuck his reels out of Ghana, and into a London vault, where the footage has spent decades inside, waiting to be digitized.

As someone who grew up in Nova Scotia, Proudfoot was completely unaware of most of this history. While in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic, shooting a film for UNICEF, “the whole van of us, the crew, we’re driving down this main thoroughfare, and I saw this unusually shaped building and a statue of a man pointing. And I said, ‘What’s that?’ They said, ‘Oh, that’s the mausoleum for Kwame Nkrumah.’ And I said, ‘Who’s Kwame Nkrumah?’ Every Ghanaian in the vehicle turned around and looked at me like ‘What the hell?,” said the director. “We know Gandhi, we know Martin Luther King Jr., we know all these figures from history who are responsible for leading a movement that changed the course of a continent or hundreds of millions of people. But Kwame Nkrumah, I opened the file folder of my mind, and there’s nothing there.”

'The Eyes of Ghana' director Ben Proudfoot and composer Kris Bowers speak to a fellow attendee of the 2025 Middleburg Film Festival.
‘The Eyes of Ghana’ director Ben Proudfoot and composer Kris Bowers speak to a fellow attendee of the 2025 Middleburg Film Festival.Shannon Finney

Naturally curious, Proudfoot inquired whether he could speak to anyone who knew the politician, and his crew excitedly pointed him toward Hesse, a now-nonagenarian who worked as Nkrumah’s personal cinematographer, shooting everything on 16mm and 35mm. Though they were 60 years and an ocean apart, Proudfoot and Hesse became fast friends united in the idea of getting the word out there to maintain this treasure trove of footage. “That’s my mission in life,” Hesse told the director.

Nkrumah was crucial in jumpstarting the Ghanaian film industry, building a studio to produce work that conveys an Africa that defies the expectations promoted by colonizers. “If I say, ‘Oh, here’s a documentary set in Africa,’ you immediately have certain expectations of what that might be, based on documentaries you’ve seen in the past or world hunger infomercials on the TV or whatever. Which is not a broad understanding of what’s going on, which was Kwame Nkrumah’s whole point in the first place,” said Proudfoot. 

Through the subject of his film, the director shows how an important part of Ghana’s modern history is entwined with a love of cinema. “We’re making a film not about Kwame Nkrumah, not about Ghana, we’re making a film about Chris Hesse and his experience and how he views it. And Chris Hesse is an extraordinary film artist, a cinematographer,” said Proudfoot. “So if you’re making a film about a filmmaker, you need to bring the best of everything to the table.” The director boasted how “huge swaths of the movie are shot in IMAX 70mm,” particularly in the film’s emotional conclusion, which was shot on 5-perf, 65mm celluloid on an IMAX camera. “That literal camera that we used, that came to Ghana, came from the set of ‘Sinners.’ Same camera.”

Like Proudfoot, Bowers had not heard of Nkrumah, nor had he been to Ghana. Bower said, “I’ve always just been really curious about any sort of scoring of an African project.” Upon formally accepting the offer to once again work with his friend Proudfoot, Bowers said, “I’m aware of the deep history and tradition with music, and so that was my first bit of excitement as a composer, trying to figure out how to incorporate some of that into the score.”

The gyil, the atenteben, and the talking drum were the three key instruments that helped him achieve a more African sound. “I would ask about the gyil, which is a mallet instrument, and was asking, ‘What key does that play in typically?’ So if I write, I can write in that key. And the musician I was speaking with was like, ‘Well, actually that’s usually tuned to whomever the singer is.’ And so that made me inspired to tune themes to each of the characters’ speaking voices and [spend] time transcribing the way they spoke, to see what key range did they speak in.” For instance, the charismatic Hesse was in the key of F Mixolydian. 

Composer Kris Bowers at the 2025 Middleburg Film Festival.
Composer Kris Bowers at the 2025 Middleburg Film Festival.Shannon Finney

To play the atenteben, a bamboo flute, Bowers recruited Dela Botri based on impressive videos of the Ghanaian musician performing. “You could watch him playing jazz riffs and all this stuff. So we were like, ‘OK, we’ve got to get that guy,’” said the composer. Bowers was hesitant to use the talking drum after the instrument’s prominence in Ludwig Göransson’s Oscar-winning “Black Panther” score, but ultimately, “it’s such a huge part of Ghanaian history that it felt like I can’t not put that in there. And also, it felt weird that ‘Black Panther’ for some reason would make it so that I can’t use an instrument when I’m writing a score for an African film.”

Bowers did, however, come to a point where inspiration began getting in the way of execution. “My first pass of writing some of the cues, taking all this information, again, I spent a month studying this stuff, I tried writing a score from a Ghanaian perspective. And it was something that wasn’t quite fitting with the film,” said the composer. “The more Ben and I talked about it, the more I realized it was my own fear of not representing the country well, and music well in that way… This movie is about the power of and the love for cinema, and so [Ben] really encouraged me and helped me embrace just taking everything I know about film music, and I’ve learned now about Ghanaian music, and just try to make this as great as possible.”

He concluded, “I’m not Ghanaian. It actually would be more disrespectful for me to try to pretend like I could write this Ghanaian score. But more so, just try to take as much information as I can and be influenced and informed by that and write music from my heart at that point.”

Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Ben Proudfoot, guests, Brandon Somerhalder and Anita Afono attend the premiere of 'The Eyes of Ghana' during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Ben Proudfoot, guests, Brandon Somerhalder, and Anita Afono attend the premiere of ‘The Eyes of Ghana’ during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.Olivia Wong/Getty Images

Producer Moses Bwayo (and co-director of recent Best Documentary Feature nominee “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”) helped convince the prolific, Oscar-winning shorts director Proudfoot to make this his feature directorial debut.

“My philosophy is that it is our duty as filmmakers not to waste anybody’s time. And sometimes when you make a movie, the idea is that people want to escape. Certainly, I do. When I turn on a movie before I go to bed or on a Saturday afternoon or whatever, I want to go into a world for a few hours. I’m happy that it’s long,” he said. “But oftentimes with documentaries … you want to understand, you want to learn something, you want to solve the mystery, you want to meet these people, you want to come out enlightened, informed, inspired. And so if that’s the reason why you’re watching the movie — which is different, there’s a different kind of intention — you don’t want to spend more time than you need to. A lot of documentaries, especially over the last 10 years, have been designed to suck up as much of your time as possible. That’s why I’ve been so interested in short films, because it’s the opposite.”

He added, “With this film, even though it’s in the category of a feature-length documentary, it’s a lot packed into 89 minutes. As my career has gone on, what I’m committed to less so is format, of short form or feature film, and more just elegance and a richness. It couldn’t have been any shorter. And that the audience feels like, ‘Wow, I took in a lot, I went from knowing nothing about this to knowing a lot, caring a lot,’ that interests me.”

Ultimately, “The Eyes of Ghana” stealthily circles back to the kind of format Proudfoot is known for, making reference to producer and film subject Anita Afonu’s project “Perished Diamonds,” which covers the history of Ghanaian cinema in 40 minutes, plus all of Hesse’s work. “Those reels that are in the archive, they’re mainly short documentaries. So at the end, it might be a feature documentary, but it’s about an archive of short documentaries, so I can’t escape it,” said the director.

'The Eyes of Ghana' subject Chris Hesse.
‘The Eyes of Ghana’ subject Chris Hesse.Breakwater Studios

This resurfacing of Hesse’s footage is “the opposite of what’s happening in America and a lot of the world, which is history being erased, not being able to talk about a war on information. And this is an opening and a blooming of new history, which I think is very exciting,” said Proudfoot. “We’re very proud to be a part of that and drawing attention to that, not just in Ghana, but really across all Africa. Chris traveled all across the continent telling stories in all kinds of countries, because Kwame Nkrumah would lend out his film unit to all these other liberation movements. So it’s continent-wide, really.”

“The Eyes of Ghana” is the first independent feature produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, and has yet to find a distributor, but Proudfoot’s urgency lies more with encouraging the digitization of Hesse’s archive than rushing into a deal to release the film in theaters. “It’s just about remembering why we made this movie and continuing to pound the pavement and find people who get it, who understand it, and who believe this is an important story that must be told,” he said. “These kinds of stories, often African narratives, they just get left off. ‘It’s not relevant, it’s not important.’ It is important.”

Proudfoot added, “Part of what we’re doing with the film is helping Chris in his mission to reframe this archive, not as a nice-to-have, but as an essential piece of history.”

To Proudfoot, “The highest and best use of documentary is to get people to pay attention, and let’s face it, do something about it. Not just say, ‘That’s a nice documentary.’ [claps] ‘Here’s an award,’ or ‘We think you’re great.’ So what? This archive, if we don’t pay attention, it’s going to be gone in 15 years,” he said. “That’s what happens to cinema, that’s what happens to celluloid. So that’s our hope, whether it’s the distributor or whether it’s finding somebody who really cares about this, who has a connection to it, it must make a difference in the world. Entertainment, for me, it’s not enough. I think it must help solve that problem.”

“The Eyes of Ghana” world-premiered at TIFF before playing Middleburg. It is currently seeking a U.S. distributor.

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June Lockhart, ‘Lost In Space’ and ‘Lassie’ Star, Dies at 100
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June Lockhart, ‘Lost In Space’ and ‘Lassie’ Star, Dies at 100

by jummy84
written by jummy84

June Lockhart, a popular actress of the 1950s and ’60s known for her roles in “Lost In Space,” “Lassie” and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” died of natural causes on Oct. 23 in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 100. Lockhart became known for her performances as Timmy’s foster mother, Ruth Martin, on the CBS series […]

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Thora Birch Is "Super Open" To 'Hocus Pocus 3' Return
TV & Streaming

Thora Birch Is “Super Open” To ‘Hocus Pocus 3’ Return

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Although a few fan-favorites were missing from Disney‘s Hocus Pocus 2, the trilogy has a chance to bring back the OGs.

Thora Birch, who starred as Dani Dennison in the original 1993 cult classic, revealed that she’s “super open” to reprising the role more than 30 years later as a third film is in development following the sequel’s success on Disney+.

“Yeah, I’d like to know what they land on for how Dani wound up. I’m super open to the idea,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “They love talking about this stuff, so we’ll see.”

In Hocus Pocus, Dani, her older brother Max (Omri Katz) and his crush Allison (Vinessa Shaw) have to save the children of Salem, Massachusetts after accidentally awaking the witch Sanderson sisters from their 300-year slumber.

Although Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy reprised their roles as the magical trio for the 2022 sequel, Birch, Katz and Shaw were not present for the onscreen reunion.

Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker in ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ (2022)

Matt Kennedy / Disney+ / Courtesy Everett Collection

Last week, Midler revealed that she’s read a script for the third film, and “a lot of it was brilliant” but “all those logistical things” have to be sorted before production can begin.

After starring as Salem witch Winifred Sanderson in the original Hocus Pocus (1993), Midler reunited with Parker and Najimy for the long-awaited sequel, which set a streaming record for Disney+ with 2.7 billion minutes of viewing in a week.

Following the sequel’s success, Sean Bailey, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, confirmed a third movie was in development.

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