Kate Beckinsale fires back… Lena Dunham’s next project… ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 21… Will Smith hoping to win a reprieve… and Ellen DeGeneres abruptly cancels shows on her comedy tour…

Listen to “Showbiz – Jul 10, 2024” on Spreaker.

 

Back in March, Kate Beckinsale posted some very concerning photos from her hospital bed, looking very frail and sad. She ended up being hospitalized for weeks, but wouldn’t reveal what was wrong….until now. Trolls were brutal over the amount of weight Kate lost, but apparently the ones about her bottom shrinking really sent her over the edge. So on her Instagram, Kate finally revealed that she had been grieving over the sudden death of her stepfather and her mom’s Stage 4 cancer diagnosis. She said she ended up spending six weeks in the hospital because the grief “burned a hole” in her esophagus, causing her to “vomit copious amounts of blood.” Kate said, “I found eating very hard and I just worked very very hard on a movie that was actually quite triggering because it also involved the theme of the death of my father so I’m not really concerned about what you think about my a**.”

After spending 3 years developing and writing a script, Lena Dunham has dropped out of the Polly Pocket movie. Is Greta Gerwig to blame? Lena says the way Greta put her stamp all over Barbie made her realize Polly Pocket just wasn’t for her. She told the New Yorker, “I felt like, unless I can do it that way, I’m not going to do it. I don’t think I have that in me. I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make. No one but me could make it. And I did think other people could make Polly Pocket.” This is obviously a major setback, but Mattel says the movie is still in “active development.” Lena also said she will not star in her semi-autobiographical Netflix series Too Much because of all the body-shaming she’s dealt with over the years. She said, “I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced around Girls at this point in my life. Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again.”

When Grey’s Anatomy returns for Season 21 this fall, Meredith Grey will be making a few rounds! Ellen Pompeo has held the title role since the show launched in 2005. In January 2018, she renewed her contract for 2 more seasons, earning more than $20M per year, making her the highest-paid actress in television. But after a while…it’s not about the money. Ellen decided to take a big step back, still serving as an executive producer and the show’s primary narrator, but appearing in fewer episodes. In Season 19, she appeared in 8 out of 22 episodes. In Season 20, Ellen was in only 4 episodes, but the season was shortened to 10 episodes because of the writers and actors’ strikes. Now we’re hearing, Ellen will appear in at least 7 episodes of the upcoming season, hopefully satisfying die-hard fans’ appetite for more Meredith Grey.

Will Smith still has 8 years to go in his 10-year Oscar ban. That’s the punishment the Academy handed down after he hauled off and slapped Chris Rock across the face. But a source told In Touch that Will is begging the Academy to lift the ban. Will said not only has he apologized profusely, but based on the success of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, it’s obvious that the audience has forgiven him. But Will has some bigger obstacles to overcome. First, not all members of the ACADEMY have forgiven Will — particularly Chris Rock. In fact, some members believe Will should have been arrested for what he did! The source told In Touch, “The moment everybody is waiting for is for Chris and Will to publicly and genuinely bury the hatchet. That’s going to give the Academy the confidence to revisit their decision.”

What’s going on with Ellen DeGeneres? She’s currently on her 32-date comeback tour she’s calling Ellen’s Last Stand…..Up, which will culminate in a one-hour Netflix special to be filmed sometime this fall. At her show last week in Santa Rosa, California, Ellen told the audience, “This is the last time you’re going to see me,” before adding, “After my Netflix special, I’m done.” But will she make it that far? Ellen reminded the audience — in case we all forgot — that she got kicked out of show business for being mean. She joked, “I used to say, ‘I don’t care what people say about me.’ Now I realize I said that during the height of my popularity.” But she got serious when she told the crowd, “I can be demanding and impatient and tough. I am a strong woman. I am many things. But I am not mean.” But something must be going on behind the scenes because without explanation, Ellen canceled four upcoming shows in Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. Ticket holders for those shows were told, “You don’t need to do a thing. We’ll issue a refund to the original method of payment used at time of purchase, as soon as funds are received from the Event Organizer.” Her next performance is scheduled for this Saturday at ACL Live in Austin.

 

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