Month: March 2023

ABC has renewed the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy for Season 20. The network also announced that executive producer Meg Marinis will take the reins as showrunner next season, replacing the departing Krista Vernoff.  The Season 20 renewal now extends Grey’s Anatomy’s record as the longest-running primetime medical drama in TV history (Grey’s premiered on ABC back in 2005).   The show currently ranks as ABC’s top entertainment series in the key adults 18-49 demographic.

Marinis has been an executive producer on Grey’s since Season 15, having started as a writer’s production assistant on the show back in Season 3, working her way up to staff writer and then to EP, writing a total of 35 episodes. She’ll take over for Vernoff, who announced her departure from Grey’s and Station 19 back in January. Vernoff said in a statement: “It has been the privilege of a lifetime to be entrusted to run Grey’s Anatomy for the past six years and Station 19 for the last four. The passion of the dedicated fandoms and the impact that these shows have on hearts and minds cannot be overstated. The amount of talent in these two extraordinary casts and these two brilliant writers’ rooms is beyond measure — and these crews work magic week after week.”

Grey’s star Ellen Pompeo is no longer a full-time cast member; however, she’s slated to return as Meredith Grey periodically, including for May’s season finale, set to air Thursday, May 18.  The current cast includes new faces introduced at the start of Season 19 to play the new class of first-year surgical residents; and other regulars including Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens Jr. as Richard Webber, Kevin McKidd as Owen Hunt, Kim Raver as Teddy Altman, Kelly McCreary as Maggie Pierce, Anthony Hill as Winston Ndugu, Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd, Camilla Luddington as Jo Wilson, Chris Carmack as Link Lincoln and Jake Borelli as Levi Schmitt.

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Netflix shared a first-look photo of their upcoming new drama series The Diplomat, featuring Keri Russell.  The streaming service tweeted the photo with the caption: “Keri Russell stars in The Diplomat, a new series created by Debora Cahn (Homeland, The West Wing), premiering April 20. She plays a career diplomat who lands a high-profile job she’s unsuited for, with seismic implications for her marriage and political future — “

Russell plays Kate Wyler, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Wyler must handle international crises and build alliances while also navigating her rocky marriage to her husband and fellow diplomat, Hal (Rufus Sewell).

The Diplomat is created and executive produced by Debora Cahn (writer and producer of ‘Homeland’, ‘The West Wing’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.). Cahn said in a statement: “‘The Diplomat’ is a show about the transcendence and torture of long-term relationships. It’s hard to keep a relationship going, be it a marriage or a military alliance. We change, the world changes, and yet we want these relationships to go on forever … It’s a show about a bunch of good people doing their best to keep their global and personal partnerships intact without killing each other. In the world of diplomacy, you’re dealing with a lot of rule-bound, protocol-driven behavior, but underneath all that, these are people who sweat, and spill coffee on their clothes, and forget the name of the person they’re talking to. All of that is always bubbling under the grandeur and majesty of working with heads of state.”

The Diplomat premieres April 20 on Netflix.

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A stage musical adaptation of the NBC series “Smash” is heading to Broadway, expected to debut during the 2024-2025 season.  The new stage musical will be based on the NBC series of the same name, which aired for two seasons from 2012-2013.

Steven Spielberg, Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, who produced the original TV series, will serve as lead producers on the musical. Theater veteran Susan Stroman (“The Producers”) is directing the production, with a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Some Like It Hot,” Hairspray,” “Mary Poppins Returns”), who wrote “Let Me Be Your Star” and dozens of more songs for the television show, many of which will be used in the musical. Additional new material will be added to the Broadway production; additional details, including the cast, have yet to be announced.

Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Megan Hilty, Katharine McPhee and Christian Borle starred in “Smash,” which was created by Theresa Rebeck.  The stage version (like the TV version) will follow the process of mounting the musical “Bombshell,” about the life of Marilyn Monroe; however, producers say the Broadway adaptation will “depart liberally from the series.”

‘Smash’ Musical Heading To Broadway With Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron & Robert Greenblatt Producing

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‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ took first place at the box office, earning $73.5 million domestically in its opening weekend. The film easily beat ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods,’ now in its second weekend.

In North America, the fourth installment in the John Wick franchise bested the $56.8 million opening of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum — and marked Lionsgate’s biggest domestic opening of the pandemic era.

Directed by Chad Stahelski, ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’  once again stars Keanu Reeves as the expert assassin nicknamed Baba Yaga.  The cast also features Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick, who died earlier this month. The film is produced by Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Stahelski.

‘Scream VI’ took the No. 3 spot, with ‘Creed III’ following at No. 4, and ’65’ rounding out the top five.

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Actor Jonathan Majors, who currently stars in “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” was arrested on Saturday in New York City, accused of a domestic dispute. Majors plays the villain Kang in “Quantumania,” and in “Creed III” he plays Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson who goes up against Michael B. Jordan’s “Adonis Creed.”

NYPD officers were dispatched to a 911 call from an apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood at 11:14 a.m., where a preliminary investigation determined there had been a “domestic dispute” involving Majors, 33, and a 30-year-old woman, who told officers she had been assaulted. According to TMZ, law enforcement on the scene identified the woman as Majors’ girlfriend, who alleged that the couple got into a dispute in a taxi while returning home from a bar in Brooklyn.  The altercation escalated, with Majors allegedly slapping the victim in the face and placing his hands on her neck to choke her.  The woman was transported to a hospital with minor head and neck injuries in stable condition, and Majors was arrested at the scene.

Majors attorney, Priya Chaudhry, is expecting “all charges will be dropped imminently” in the assault case. Chaudhry maintained in a statement shared on Sunday that the actor is “completely innocent and is probably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows … We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently. This evidence includes video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations … The NYPD is required to make an arrest in these situations, and this is the only reason Mr. Majors was arrested. We expect these charges to be dropped soon.”

A judge released Majors without bail at his Saturday night arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. Prosecutors charged the actor with misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault and harassment. Majors is due back in court in May.

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