| Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Kate Beckinsale is “highly” doubtful that another “Underworld” will be made, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t up for playing Selene in a sixth movie. “I really wanted them to do an ‘Underworld’-‘Blade’ mashup. What a duo that would be,” she told me at the premiere of her action thriller “Jolt” at the San Vicente Bungalows. “I would definitely do that, but I think they just wanted to reboot ‘Blade’ as ‘Blade’ so they didn’t go for it.” Beckinsale also revealed that it wouldn’t be hard for her to slip into Selene’s signature black leather pants because she still has a pair. “I know exactly where they are,” she said. “You never know who you want to impress.” ... Cynthia Erivo has not only never played the Hollywood Bowl — she’s never even been to the iconic venue in the Cahuenga Pass. That’s all about to change on July 30 when she headlines with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The concert will include her own music as well as songs made famous by Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and Roberta Flack . “It’s going to be a really special, beautiful night, and I can’t wait,” she tells me from her home in Los Angeles. “We were supposed to do it a couple of years ago, and then with the pandemic and whatnot, it didn’t happen. But now it feels like the perfect time actually.” Ricky Minor is directing and “full-on” floral arrangements on the stage will be designed by Maurice Harris of the Echo Park-based Bloom & Plume. Her pre-show morning workout will usually include a run because “that warms everything up,” Erivo says. On Erivo’s playlist these days are Nao, Allegra, The Story, Shakka and Faith Evans . “I’m an eclectic audience,” she says. “I will listen to many things.” I spoke with Erivo just days after she earned an Emmy nomination for her work as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha.” Fellow nominees are Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”), Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Elizabeth Olsen (“WandaVision”) and Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”). “This list is crazy,” Erivo says. “These women are incredible.” She and Coel are longtime friends. “We’ve known each other since we were 15 or 16,” Erivo says. “We’re really, really close. She’s like family. She was on the phone [after the nominations were announced] going, ‘Babe, babe. What is this life?’” … Candace Bushnell is getting really close to a New York opening for her solo show “Is There Still Sex In the City?,” based on her 2019 book of the same name. She just wrapped a sold-out workshop run at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa. Bushnell says she can’t believe she received standing ovations: “I didn’t know what to do. I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’ and then I just kind of skittled off the stage.” That said, she’s always had dreams of performing theater. “When I first came to New York in 1977 and I was a kid, I thought about being an actress and being on Broadway,” she tells me. “My dream was to be a playwright. But that just seemed impossible.” It’s not as if writing didn’t work out for her — 24 years ago next month she published her anthology “Sex and the City,” which was the basis for the HBO series and two movies. A revival for HBO Max is being shot in NYC. “They’re rebooting every- thing else. If they didn’t reboot ‘Sex and the City,’ it’s like, come on,” Bushnell says. “It’s a no-brainer.” Bushnell chooses her words carefully when talking about the original “SATC,” which ran for six seasons before ending in 2004. “I think back on the pilot,” she says. “The pilot is so different than how it evolved. The pilot was a dark, independent movie directed by Susan Seidelman , who was one of the only like 4 percent women directors in America. That was so cool. It looked so cool. Nobody knew exactly what it was about. All of the characters were from the book. I think half or three quarters of the lines of the pilot were from the book. It was so New York. I don’t know anything about the reboot because I’m not involved. But I see the photos and it’s a huge glossy show. It’s like ‘Star Wars.’” Bushnell would like to see “Is There Still Sex in the City?” follow the path of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s play-turned-television-series “Fleabag”: “I’d love to do it in a creative and very hands-on way for me, with maybe me acting in it.” Producers of the stage show include Alexander Fraser, Robyn Goodman, Josh Fiedler and Marc Johnson. “We knew Candace had a following, but the surprise is how even audiences who don’t know ‘Sex in the City’ love the show and Candace’s story of rebuilding her life after 50,” Fraser tells me. “We’ve doubled our original box office goals!" Carla Gugino may have done a lot of action work in two of her latest projects — the series “Jett” (now on HBO Max) and the Netflix movie “Gunpowder Milkshake” — but she’s happy to report that she made it through both productions uninjured. But a day off from filming the upcoming “Leopard Skin” in the Dominican Republic earlier this year proved catastrophic. “I went on this amazing hike and I was coming down a hill and I broke my wrist really badly,” Gugino tells me from her home in New York City. “I broke all the bones all the way across and then had a bunch of complications because I had to have a bonesetter on. It made me look like RoboCop, but it was a massive metal thing that was literally drilled into my bones that I had to have on for seven weeks. Then it didn’t heal because the bone was pulled too far apart, so I had to have a second surgery seven weeks ago. I now am bionic.” KEEP READING... Subscribe to the "Just for Variety" newsletter here. |
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| | Exclusive dating app The Lox Club is hosting its first Los Angeles-based in-person event on July 29. Though billed as the “private, membership-based dating app for Jews with ridiculously high standards,” the app is open to all religions, races, gender identities and sexualities. Austin Kevitch (pictured above), the 30-year-old CEO and co-founder of The Lox Club, tells Variety that the event — similar ones that have been held in New York and Miami — will be modeled after the app’s aesthetic of a speakeasy hidden in a deli. KEEP READING... |
When Tyra Banks decided to open her ice cream shop Smize in Santa Monica, she sought out an “aerated dessert consultant” to advise her. Luckily Dr. Maya Warren, an ice cream scientist, had just come off a stint advising Cold Stone Creamery’s international operations. The “America’s Next Top Model” creator and entrepreneur had come up with the Smize concept, but Warren took on product development, refining flavors and helping create the signature Smize surprise that Banks asked for — a cookie-dough truffle at the bottom of each container. What exactly does an ice cream scientist do? “I can be an extension of her taste buds but on a technical level,” Warren explains. KEEP READING... |
Octavia Spencer has joined “Right to Try,” a documentary short about an HIV cure treatment trial, as a producer through her production company Orit Entertainment. Spencer will produce along with her partner Brian Clisham and creative executive Stephanie Kluft. The doc, directed by “The Late Late Show With James Corden” producer Zeberiah Newman, tells the story of casting director Jeffrey Drew’s participation in an experimental trial for an HIV cure. The team, which also includes Andrew Carlberg, producer of the Oscar-winning short “Skin,” is hoping to find a distributor in time to release the film on Dec. 1 to mark the 40th anniversary of World AIDS Day. “The sacrifices and the potential sacrifices that Jeffrey made in an effort to cure HIV, which 38 million people worldwide are battling, is a heroic journey that everyone should know about,” Clisham tells Variety. KEEP READING... |
Where I'm Eating Molly Shannon Actor, "The White Lotus Osteria Mamma 5732 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles "I love the pesto, I love the linguini, I just love everything." |
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Find out who's getting married, who are new parents and more... Laura Potesta and Matthew Kugler were married on June 5 at a private residence in Hancock Park. Potesta is a publicist at Rogers & Cowan PMK; Kugler is a writer and producer with Treefort Media. Freida Pinto and Cory Tran are expecting their first child. The “Slumdog Millionaire” actor made the announcement on June 28 on Instagram, posting two baby-bump photos and writing, “Baby Tran, coming this Fall!” Tran is a photographer. Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin are expecting their second child. Graham made the announcement on July 13 on Instagram, posting a baby-bump photo and writing, “The past year has been full of tiny surprises, big griefs, familiar beginnings and new stories. i’m just beginning to process and celebrate what this next chapter means for us .” Their son, Isaac, is 18 months old. Graham is a supermodel; Ervin is a cinematographer. |
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