Iconic panel show Mock the Week is set to return to screens in 2026, four years after it was axed by the BBC, and will be broadcast on a free-to-air rival challenge
13:41, 20 Oct 2025Updated 13:42, 20 Oct 2025
Mock the Week is making a huge comeback(Image: BBC)
Mock the Week was axed from television four years ago, but the BBC panel show is now poised for a spectacular return next year. The satirical news commentary programme, which launched the careers of Hugh Dennis, Frankie Boyle, and Russell Howard, is scheduled to make its comeback on screens in 2026.
Initially debuting back in 2005, Mock the Week offered a comedic take on weekly news stories and quickly established itself as a broadcasting favourite. The half-hour comedy format eventually concluded in 2022 following 17 years on air, but its return has now been officially announced.
This time around, the programme will air on TLC, as the channel transitions to free-to-air broadcasting in the UK come January 2026, delivering additional scripted and unscripted programming, reports the Express.
Warner Bros. Discovery released a statement confirming the show’s revival, produced by Angst Productions, would provide the “much-loved” format with a “new look”.
Cast announcements remain pending, though supporters are eager to witness Hugh, Frankie, Russell, and fellow comedian Andy Parsons grace screens once again.
TLC operates as a television network in America, which Warner Bros. Discovery has recently chosen to introduce on Freeview in Britain, simultaneously discontinuing HGTV.
The UK debut of TLC will additionally showcase scripted programming including The Big Bang Theory and its enduring comedy-drama offshoot, Young Sheldon.
The show, which first aired in 2005, was cancelled back in 2022 with host Dara O’Briain sharing a sad statement at the time. “That’s it folks, the UK has finally run out of news,” he said.
“The storylines were getting crazier and crazier – global pandemics, divorce from Europe, novelty short-term prime ministers. It couldn’t go on.”
Earlier this year, Mock the Week star Milton Jones announced that he was ‘cancer free’ after undergoing surgery. The stand-up comic cancelled a number of dates earlier this year after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
However, he said in August that he is “in a completely different place” now. He said in a statement: “A few months ago, I had to stop my tour Ha! Milton because I needed treatment for prostate cancer. I’m glad to say I’ve had that treatment and am now cancer free!”
Milton continued to the PA News Agency: “So, many thanks to all the doctors and nurses who helped me get better – I couldn’t do their job (I tried, but apparently you have to be qualified).
“A big thank you to my family, friends, all those who helped reschedule things and the many others who have been so nice to me.
The Pentagon issued a statement blasting the streamer’s programming and leadership Friday following an inquiry about the new series “Boots” from Entertainment Weekly. While the response from Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson did not directly address the gay coming-of-age military show, it did slam Netflix for following an “ideological agenda” that “feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos,” Wilson’s statement said. “Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight. We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
Based on Greg Cope White’s 2016 memoir “The Pink Marine,” “Boots” follows Cam Cope (Miles Heizer), a gay teenager who enlists in the Marines at a time when being gay in the military was still a crime. Noting the show’s timely themes, Times television critic Robert Lloyd called it a “perfectly decent, good-hearted, unsurprisingly sentimental miniseries” in his review.
The show’s creatives also worked closely with several advisors with past military experience to authentically portray the Marines and military life in the 1990s.
The Pentagon’s criticism against Netflix follows the recent campaign led by billionaire Elon Musk calling for people to cancel their subscriptions to the streamer. The on-again/off-again Trump ally railed against Netflix on X earlier this month after clips of “Dead End: Paranormal Park,” an animated Netflix series featuring a trans character, was making the rounds on the social media platform. The show was canceled after its second season was released in 2022.
Despite being the target of right-wing ire, Netflix also has a history of being called out for its anti-trans programming. In 2021, transphobic remarks made by comedian Dave Chappelle in his special “The Closer” led to protests, walkouts and even a resignation of a trans employee. The streamer followed that in 2022 by releasing a comedy special from Ricky Gervais that also featured transphobic material.
PHOENIX — Marcus Smart estimated he’ll be limited to about 20 to 25 minutes in his Lakers preseason debut Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns as he returns from Achilles tendinopathy.
Speaking after the team’s shootaround Tuesday, the 31-year-old guard said the rash of Achilles injuries suffered by NBA stars recently — including three during the playoffs last season — made his initial diagnosis frightening, but he took a cautious approach with the Lakers staff to ensure he was ready for the season.
“It wasn’t scary in the fact of understanding that tendinopathy, we all kind of have it playing over the time,” said Smart, who is entering his 12th NBA season. “Just making sure you do everything you need to do, to make sure that you can get back out here, or to be able to say, ‘No, I can’t.’ So you got to test it, unfortunately, and you got to see where you’re at. So we’ve done all the tests on the court, off the court and we’re feeling fast, feeling good so we want to give it a shot.”
Guard Luka Doncic is also expected to make his preseason debut after he was on a modified training schedule following a busy summer spent with the Slovenian national team. Coach JJ Redick said Monday after practice that Doncic and the team’s training staff had yet to determine a minutes restriction on Doncic, but expects that the five-time All-Star will see an increased workload by the time he suits up again for his second preseason game.
The Lakers will follow Tuesday’s game in Phoenix with a game against Doncic’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks, in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Because of the back-to-back schedule, it’s likely Doncic will play again Friday at Crypto.com Arena against the Sacramento Kings.
Since they are playing four games in six days, the Lakers ruled out guard Gabe Vincent, forwards Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt and center Jaxson Hayes for Tuesday’s preseason game.
Rookie guard Adou Thiero [knee] has progressed to on-court activities, the team announced Tuesday, after the second-round draft pick was battling swelling in a knee. He will be re-evaluated in two to three weeks.
Natalia Bryant has made her debut as a creative director with a short film that features a subject matter with which she’s very familiar.
The 70-second piece is called “Forever Iconic: Purple and Gold Always,” and it’s all about the worldwide impact of the Lakers — something Bryant has experienced throughout her life as the oldest daughter of one of the Lakers’ great icons, Kobe Bryant.
The film, posted online Wednesday by the Lakers, is a fast-paced tribute to the team and its fans. It features a number of celebrity cameos — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani takes batting practice wearing a Lakers cap; current Lakers star Luka Doncic yells “Kobe!” as he shoots a towel into a hamper; fashion designer Jeff Hamilton creates a number of Lakers jackets; actor Brenda Song obsessively watches and cheers for the team on her computer; Lakers legend Magic Johnson declares, “It’s Showtime, baby!”
Mixed in are shots of regular fans paying tribute to the team in their own ways.
“This project was an amazing, collaborative environment with such creative people and we all came together to try and portray the Lakers’ impact, not only in L.A. but around the world,” Natalia Bryant said in a statement released by the Lakers. “Everyone has their own connection to the Lakers. I hope those who already love this team watch this project and remember what that pride feels like. And if you’re not a Lakers fan yet, I hope you watch this, and it makes you want to be.”
Natalia Bryant’s first short film as a creative director is “Forever Iconic: Purple and Gold Always.”
(Los Angeles Lakers)
Bryant, who graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in May, included some famous Lakers clips, such as LeBron James arguing, “It’s our ball, ain’t it?” and her father hitting a buzzer-beating shot against the Phoenix Suns during the 2006 playoffs.
“Such an honor to be apart of this project!” Bryant wrote on Instagram. “Thank you @lakers for having me join as creative director💛lakers family forever”
Lakers controlling owner and president Jeanie Buss also posted the video on Instagram.
“Cheers to the millions of fans around the world who make the Lakers the most popular team in the NBA!!” Buss wrote. “You are the best fans in the league. Congratulations and huge thanks to the amazing @nataliabryant who helped bring this film to life for her creative director debut.”
Lakers superfan Song also posted a number of photos related to the project on Instagram, including one of herself with Bryant.
Over the last decade or so, publishers of American genre fiction have borrowed a page from Hollywood’s playbook by essentially packaging novels like films, grafting together collaborators from two different A-lists: those that feature bestselling novelists and major celebrities. Large commercial rewards have been reaped from these crossbred literary partnerships. Bill and Hillary Clinton, to name just two examples, have both enjoyed bestsellers with big-time writing partners James Patterson and Louise Penny, respectively.
Now we have Reese Witherspoon, already a major force in American publishing, teaming up with Harlan Coben, one of the world’s biggest selling thriller writers, to create “Gone Before Goodbye,” a book that taps into our fascination with the follies of the impossibly rich at the same time that it ponders real questions about the ethics of social engineering via medical advances in organ regeneration.
Now, it must be said that book critics are cynical snobs by nature, and something like “Gone Before Goodbye,” which at first blush seems to have been a project drummed up in a talent agency conference room, is prone to be received with a derisory scoff and a stiff-armed shove from those who are just waiting to sink their teeth into the new Thomas Pynchon novel. But this is Harlan Coben and Reese Witherspoon we’re talking about here, two formidable talents whose track record for delivering smart entertainment is unimpeachable. “Gone Before Goodbye” is not some magpie creature patched together from shopworn thriller tropes, even if certain plot elements feel a bit much. Instead, what the two authors have delivered is a story that pulls the reader deep into a rarefied world where ethics are mere technicalities and the needs of the rich take precedence over petty trivialities like, say, morality.
The book’s protagonist, Maggie McCabe, a brilliant Army combat surgeon who, along with her husband, Marc, and their friend Trace, teamed up after college to create WorldCures Alliance, “one of the world’s most dynamic charities, specializing in providing medical services for the most impoverished,” working as field surgeons risking their lives on the front lines in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The trio once had big plans centered on the prototype of an artificial heart they designed, THUMPR7, which they were convinced would change the world by extending the lives of millions, rich, poor or otherwise.
When the book begins, these plans have been torn asunder: Marc, as it transpires, has been killed in a rebel attack on a refugee camp in Libya. Trace has gone missing along with the artificial heart prototype. And Maggie has lost her medical license due to a hiccup of bad judgment on her part. At loose ends and broke, Maggie, and the reader, are then swept into a strange adventure when a successful cosmetic surgeon named Evan Barlow approaches her with an offer to wipe out her family’s debts in exchange for Maggie committing to perform surgery for a client in Russia who is willing to pay her millions.
Off Maggie goes into the dirty world of the Russian oligarchy, in a city called Rublevka, “perhaps the wealthiest residential area in the world,” where a shady creep named Oleg Ragoravich, one of the 10 wealthiest and most reclusive Russian billionaires, has a job for her. It’s well below Maggie’s pay grade: Oleg wants augmentation mammoplasty for his mistress Nadia. Ragoravich is predictably oleaginous, a man with a file cabinet full of hidden agendas, but he is charmingly persuasive, and the money has already been wired into Maggie’s account. She is in before she even has a chance to back out.
Naturally, there is a great deal more involved than a simple boob job. Without giving too much away, Witherspoon and Coben in this novel have tapped into the wealthy’s obsession with using technology to foster super-agers. As the stakes get higher, the plot ripples out into larger and larger concentric circles that envelop Maggie’s life and everyone in it. But there is so much to take in while this happens, so much voyeuristic pleasure to be had as Maggie acclimates into an almost impossibly lush and lavish world that toggles between Russia and Dubai, the de facto playground for raffish oligarchs intent on bad behavior.
Witherspoon and Coben revel in the details. The plane that spirits Maggie from New York to Russia is a “full-size 180-seat Airbus A320 renovated for private use,” kitted out with a 65-inch contoured TV, a gourmet kitchen and a marble ensuite bathroom with an “oversize rain showerhead.” Ragoravich’s dacha is a “garish and almost grotesque” palace clad in marble that makes Maggie think of Versailles, but in a way that makes Versailles seem dumpy. Everything within is “not so much an attempt to classily suggest opulence and power as to batter you with it.” This is the kind of thriller that invites you into a gilded empyrean that compels you and repels you in equal measure.
The book’s plot mechanics hum along with great pace and verve, even if a few of its particulars are too far-fetched to swallow. With “Gone Before Goodbye,” the two authors deliver a fun ride into a shadow land where the rich are convinced that money can insulate them from everything, including their own mortality — even if they have to murder a few people to get there.
Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”
Match of the Day’s Wayne Rooney says new Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens “did a lot of good things” in his debut for the club during their 2-0 win over Sunderland in the Premier League.
Cricketing wisdom would tell you that you can’t win a 100-over game in the first over, but you can go a long way to losing it.
That is certainly how Pakistan will view it with two of their top three – Omaima Sohail and Ameen – gone for golden ducks thanks to the new-ball brilliance of Marufa Akter.
The 20-year-old had the ball hooping from the off and with just her fifth delivery she produced a superb swinging delivery that beat Omaima through the gate and crashed into middle and leg.
Next ball she was at it again. Slightly wider this time, but the same prodigious swing back into the right-hander – with a bit of help from Ameen’s inside edge – made a mess of the stumps once more.
“How Marufa bowled in the powerplay – she stole the show!” Joty said after the match.
“She’s very young, but she’s very mature and she knows her role very well. Everyone backed her up very well, but she was incredible.”
It was Ameen’s first duck in a one-day international since February 2019 and, given the form she has been in, it seemed to shock Pakistan.
With scores of 121 not out, 122, 50 not out and 37 not out in her past four innings, the significance of Ameen’s wicket for Bangladesh was huge.
Marufa’s impact lessened once the swing diminished, but the Bangladesh spinners were ready and waiting to do their part.
All six bowlers used claimed at least one wicket, with leg-spinner Shorna Akter taking 3-5 and left-armer Nahida Akter 2-19.
There was no respite for Pakistan, and any hopes they had of defending such a low total were scuppered by the class and coolness of Jhilik on debut.
Leonardo DiCaprio can still draw audiences to movie theaters.
His latest film, “One Battle After Another,” landed in the top spot at the box office this weekend, hauling in $22.4 million in the U.S. and Canada. Globally, the film made $48.5 million in its opening weekend. Industry analyst estimates had pegged the film’s debut at $20 million to $25 million, though some had predicted $30 million or more. Studio sources expected the film to bring in $20 million in its domestic opening.
Written and directed by auteur filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another” tells the story of a one-time revolutionary, played by DiCaprio, who must band together with old friends and community members to rescue his daughter from a former enemy. The film, which is loosely based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, also stars Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro and Regina Hall. Its budget was $130 million.
“One Battle After Another” had strong interest from Hollywood cinephiles, but there were questions about whether it would connect with more casual moviegoers, particularly since early marketing was more ambiguous about its genre. In addition, adult dramas have not performed at the box office as they did before the pandemic, as older audiences have been slower to return to theaters. Fans of DiCaprio, who may have followed his career since his turn in 1997’s “Titanic,” fall into that group.
But the film notched a solid 98% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and has benefited from buzz about its awards potential.
“One Battle After Another” marks the latest win for Warner Bros. The studio has had a string of success at the theaters starting with April’s “A Minecraft Movie,” which has grossed a total of $957 million. That streak continued with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” James Gunn’s “Superman,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” and the latest installments of franchises like “The Conjuring” and “Final Destination.” It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the studio and its film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, who earlier this year were reportedly on the hot seat for under-performing films.
At that time, “One Battle After Another” was seen as an especially risky bet for De Luca and Abdy, but the success of the rest of the year’s lineup has reduced the pressure on this film, said Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and founder of site Box Office Theory.
“They’re in an envious position right now because they don’t need this movie to over-perform,” he said. “‘One Battle After Another’ is a little bit of a cherry on top.”
“Gabby’s Dollhouse” came in second place at the box office this weekend, grossing $13.5 million. “Demon Slayer,” “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and “The Strangers: Chapter 2” rounded out the top five.
Britain’s James DeGale earned victory by unanimous decision against Matt Floyd on his bare-knuckle boxing debut in Manchester.
DeGale, an Olympic gold medallist and former two-time IBF super-middleweight champion, came out on top of a scrappy affair with the judges scoring it 48-43, 48-43 and 47-44 in his favour.
Australian Floyd was deducted three points during the fight for headbutting DeGale and putting him in a headlock, with the 39-year-old Briton doing some of his best work via his jab.
“The holding and punching, it’s crazy stuff. But I’m 1-0 and that’s all that matters,” said DeGale.
“He was tough but in a boxing fight he wouldn’t last two rounds.”
The bout was DeGale’s first since a punishing loss to Chris Eubank Jr six years ago that ended his career.
DeGale made history as Britain’s first boxer to win both Olympic gold and a professional world title in 2015.
There’s precisely one surprising moment in Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut “Eleanor the Great,” written by Tory Kamen. It’s the impetus for the entire drama that unfolds in this film, and it feels genuinely risky — a taboo that will be hard for this film to resolve. Yet, everything that unfolds around this moment is entirely predictable.
Also unsurprising? That star June Squibb’s warm, humorous and slightly spiky performance elevates the wobbly material and tentative direction. If Johansson nails anything, it’s in allowing the 95-year-old Squibb to shine in only her second starring role (the first being last year’s action-comedy “Thelma”). For any flaws or faults of “Eleanor the Great” — and there are some — Squibb still might make you cry, even if you don’t want to.
That’s the good part about “Eleanor the Great,” which is a bit thin and treacly, despite its high-wire premise. The record-scratch startle that jump-starts the dramatic arc occurs when Eleanor (Squibb) is trying to figure out what to do with herself at a Manhattan Jewish community center after recently relocating from Florida. Her lifelong best friend and later-in-life roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar) has recently died, so Eleanor has moved in with her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), in New York City.
Harried Lisa sends Eleanor off to the JCC for a choir class, but the impulsive and feisty nonagenarian pooh-poohs the Broadway singing and instead follows a friendly face into a support group — for Holocaust survivors, she’s alarmed to discover. Yet put on the spot when they ask her to share her story of survival, Eleanor shares Bessie’s personal history of escaping a Polish concentration camp instead, with horrific details she learned from her friend over sleepless nights of tortured memories.
Eleanor’s lie could have been a small deception that played out over one afternoon, never to be spoken of again if she just ghosted the regular meeting, but there’s a wrinkle: an NYU student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who wants to profile Eleanor for her journalism class. Eleanor initially makes the right choice, declining to participate, before making the wrong one, calling Nina and inviting her over when her own grandson doesn’t show up for Shabbat dinner. Thus begins a friendship built on a lie, and we know where this is going.
Nina and Eleanor continue their relationship beyond its journalistic origins because they’re both lonely and in mourning: Eleanor for Bessie, and Nina for her mother, also a recent loss. They both struggle to connect with their immediate families, Eleanor with terminally criticized daughter Lisa, and Nina with Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), her TV anchor father, paralyzed with grief over the death of his wife. And so they find an unlikely friend in each other, for lunches and bat mitzvah crashing and trips to Coney Island.
Eleanor decides to have a bat mitzvah herself, claiming she never had one due to the war (the reality is that she converted for marriage), but it feels mostly like a device for a big dramatic explosion of a revelation. It also serves the purpose of justifying Eleanor’s well-intentioned deception with lessons from the Torah.
It’s hard to stomach her continued lying, which is perhaps why the script keeps her mostly out of the support group — where the comparison to the real survivors would be too much to bear — and in the confines of a friendship with a college student far removed from that reality. Johansson also makes the choice to flash back to Bessie’s recounting of her life story when Eleanor is speaking, almost as if she’s channeling her friend and her pain. The stated intent is to share Bessie’s story when she no longer can, and surprisingly, everyone accepts this, perhaps because Squibb is too endearing to stay mad at.
Johansson’s direction is serviceable if unremarkable, and one has to wonder why this particular script spoke to her. Though it is morally complex and modest in scope, it doesn’t dive deep enough into the nuance here, opting for surface-level emotions. It’s Squibb’s performance and appealing screen presence that enable this all to work — if it does. Kellyman is terrific opposite Squibb, but this unconventional friendship tale is the kind of slight human interest story that slips from your consciousness almost as soon as it has made its brief impression.
Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
‘Eleanor the Great’
Rated: PG-13, for thematic elements, some language and suggestive references
JAMES DeGALE will make his bare-knuckle fighting debut on Saturday night.
The former boxing world champion and Olympic gold medalist returns to combat sports against Australian Matt Floyd in Manchester.
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James DeGale has been out of action since he lost to Chris Eubank Jr in 2019Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
DeGale has been out of action since he retired from boxing in 2019 following defeat to Chris Eubank Jr.
The Londoner, who became the first British boxer to win both an Olympic gold medal and a professional world title, will be looking to get back to fighting for silverware.
DeGale tops a huge Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship card with the highly anticipated bout between reality TV stars Aaron Chalmers and Jack Fincham also on the bill.
SunSport brings you all the details you need ahead of Saturday’s huge BKFC 81 event.
When is James DeGale vs Matt Floyd?
DeGale vs Floyd will take place on Saturday, September 27.
The show will begin at 6pm BST.
The main event will likely begin at approximately 10.30pm BST.
Manchester’s AO Arena will host.
What TV channel is James DeGale vs Matt Floyd on and can it be live streamed?
DeGale vs Floyd will be broadcast live on DAZN, which is available in over 200 countries with a subscription.
If you are not currently a DAZN member, monthly and annual subscriptions are available.
An Annual Super Saver subscription is a one-off payment of £119.99 for 12 months access (£14.99 per month if paying in monthly instalments).
And a Monthly Flexible pass, which can be cancelled at any time, is £24.99 per month.
Alternatively, you can follow the action as it happens via SunSport‘s LIVE blog.
“It feels amazing,” said the Liverpool-born midfielder afterwards. “It takes the pressure off a little bit. Now I can get flowing into the season.
“The main thing for me was getting on to the pitch, making those connections with the girls and getting stuck in.
“I really enjoyed it out there and I am really happy with my debut.”
When Clinton switched Manchester clubs just hours before the transfer window closed, she stated on Instagram, external that she and United “weren’t on the same page”.
“She looked happy when she came on and looked like she enjoyed the game,” said Chelsea goalkeeper Becky Spencer, who played with Clinton at Spurs during her loan spell during the 2023-24 campaign.
Clinton undoubtedly adds further depth to a stacked squad of players at new City manager Andree Jeglertz’s disposal.
“I’m so happy for her because she has been working very good since she’s been with the team and deserved to get minutes,” said the Swede.
“Grace is a great player with the ball, she is working on finding the ball in different spaces and engaging the backline.
“But she is also working very hard to fit into the group and the team, and how we play – that will take some time for her.
“She wanted to be on the ball, she’s playing with a lot of confidence so I’m happy for her.”
It looks like wowing the judges on “Dancing With the Stars” is now an Irwin family tradition.
Robert Irwin hit the stage Tuesday for the first time with pro partner Witney Carson on the Season 34 premiere of “Dancing With the Stars,” knocking out an upbeat jive set to “Born to Be Wild.” The first thing the wildlife conservationist did after nailing the routine was run to hug his sister, Bindi Irwin, who was in the audience along with other family and friends.
The judges called the performance, which closed out the night, “absolutely brilliant.”
“Crocs are my comfort zone, dancing is not,” Robert Irwin said in the introductory package that was shown right before his performance. In the same compilation, Carson explained that a jive is difficult for a first dance and praised Irwin’s positivity.
Bruno Tonioli was the first judge to address the pair, getting on his feet to tell Irwin that the performance “wasn’t [just] good, that was great.”
Derek Hough, who was Bindi’s pro partner when they won the Mirror Ball during “Dancing With the Stars” Season 21, told Robert that he was “so relieved because you had some big shoes to fill.”
“You didn’t just fill them; you owned those shoes,” said Hough, who asked if Irwin had been practicing for this moment for the last 10 years. “That was probably the best first dance I’ve ever seen on this show.”
Earlier in the episode, Irwin said that when he watched his sister win 10 years ago, he had thought, “One day, that’s going to be me.”
Watching Bindi win in 2015 also served as preparation for Robert.
“I feel like I had a good idea of what this show was about coming into it, cause my sister had done it,” Irvin told E! News. “Bindi just said, ‘Take a breath and enjoy every single second of it … really try and enjoy this cause it goes by so fast.’”
Irwin and Carson was awarded 15 points, which put them in a tie for top marks alongside team Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas.
MANCHESTER UNITED fans are calling for a club legend to replace struggling manager Ruben Amorim at the helm.
This comes after the five-time Premier League champion made his punditry debut at Amazon Prime during the Champions League‘s opening week.
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Manchester United fans have called for a club legend to replace manager Ruben AmorimCredit: Chris Foxwell/ProSports/Shutterstock
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Man Utd fans want Michael Carrick to become the next managerCredit: Katie Chan/Every Second Media
That is none other than United hero Michael Carrick, who was joined by fellow club icons Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney, with whom he won the Champions League in 2008.
And Man Utd fans were left in awe with the ex-England international’s knowledge and insight while discussing tactics at the studio ahead of his other former club Tottenham‘s clash with Villarreal.
So much so that a number of the Red Devils’ faithful took to social media calling for minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to bring the former Middlesbrough manager to the Old Trafford hotseat.
One fan tweeted: “I want Carrick!”
Another commented: “Would give Carrick a run.”
A third wrote: “Give Carrick at a run at it. If he’s good give him a permanent.”
This fan said: “Why is Carrick doing punditry? He should be at home planning the filthy 4-2-3-1 he’s gonna cook up for us in a few weeks.”
That one posted: “Carrick such an intelligent and good pundit.”
And another fan stated: “Michael Carrick doing punditry for Amazon, bring him to the club.”
This comes amid United‘s worst ever Premier League start which has seen Amorim’s men lose two of their first four matches, of which they barely won one.
David Beckham says he’s ‘fed up’ as he makes rare public comments about Man Utd problems
This follows the Manchester giants’ worst ever Prem finish last season, which saw them sink to 15th place under the Portuguese tactician.
But club bosses are continuing to back the 40-year-old as it is still early in the season.
Nevertheless, Man Utd would have to pay the ex-Sporting Lisbon boss a huge severance fee if they sack him before November 1.
Amorim would be in line to pocket a whopping £12million if he is axed before the first anniversary of him taking the job.
The United head coach’s coaching staff would also be in line for a pay-off if Ratcliffe decided to pull the plug.
BBC Countryfile viewers were left unimpressed as the show dedicated an episode to The Archers, with one person spotting a huge blunder as they took to social media.
During the latest episode of BBC’s Countryfile, Matt Baker and Charlotte Smith ventured to a charming Worcestershire village called Inkberrow.
The location served as inspiration for the enduring BBC radio soap, The Archers, which launched in the 1950s and is based in the fictional village of Ambridge.
From the programme’s opening, it was evident Charlotte was absolutely thrilled with the special episode, as her co-presenter Matt, who recently provided fans with an update, revealed she’s a devoted follower.
Whilst seated outdoors at a pub clutching two pints, Matt informed viewers: “Oh, we’re making Charlotte’s dreams come true today!”
Following a celebratory toast with their beverages, Charlotte responded: “Now, for me, we are in the centre of the known fictional universe, the Bull at Ambridge.”
Matt Baker was presenting this week’s Countryfile(Image: BBC)
Matt continued: “This is home to the Archers and Charlotte is a massive fan.”
Throughout the programme, the BBC presenter revealed to audiences she’s been following the radio soap for 30 years and adores it, reports the Express.
She continued: “I’m not alone! Millions of people tune in every day for agricultural escapism.”
As the show progressed, Charlotte chose to attempt cricket, one of the primary sports featured within the BBC radio soap.
The pair were exploring the village that inspired The Archers(Image: BBC)
Donning a jersey from the fictional village squad, it appeared the BBC presenter astonished herself, having never participated in the sport previously.
Following her admission that she’d never wielded a bat before, Charlotte remarked: “I think I might be taking up cricket!”
As the episode concluded, she informed viewers that they could tune into BBC Radio 4 to listen to The Archers, featuring a familiar voice, as she was making an appearance in the episode.
However, it didn’t take long for viewers to share their thoughts on the episode, with one eagle-eyed fan spotting a significant scheduling error.
Charlotte confessed she was a big fan of the BBC soap(Image: BBC)
Taking to social media, they penned: “So #Countryfile have an #thearchers themed episode tonight, which is a lovely idea. However it doesn’t finish until 7.15pm so clashes with an actual episode of The Archers! I wish someone at the BBC had thought about the scheduling a bit more.”
One disgruntled viewer remarked: “BBC #countryfile promoting BBC #thearchers – you couldn’t make it up.”
Another chimed in: “I think I’d rather watch a repeat of the episode where they discuss photographs.”
Another viewer added: “#Countryfile really needs to take a break and come up with some relevant material @bbcone.”
Maruja’s music isn’t merely following the times; it’s a reflection of them.
The rock band, whose debut album “Pain to Power” was released Friday, has carved out a niche in today’s music scene, garnering praise and raising eyebrows for their innovative instrumentation and song composition.
But the Manchester-born quartet — Harry Wilkinson, Matt Buonaccorsi, Joe Carroll and Jacob Hayes — has already done the forming, recording, and touring trifecta.
This can largely be credited to their three EPs, “Knocknarea,” “Connla’s Well” and Tir na nÓg,” released in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Each project draws on elements of post-punk, jazz rock and art rock that blend in an enthusiastic musical cocktail.
“We began touring, and then it kind of hasn’t stopped since,” Carroll says with a laugh, via a Zoom call. “That was about two and a half years ago… towards the end of last year, we did about four months, 47 shows all around Europe.”
And they haven’t let up. As soon as they got home from touring, they were right back to it. Altogether, the “best ideas” of “Pain to Power” were written and recorded over the span of two months: January and February of this year, when the band made the studio its second home.
“We had to just go ‘ham’ in the studio for six days a week. It’s pretty hardcore,” he says.
Some tracks had “spawned from jams” before being shelved for a while: “Some of them took two hours, some of them took two years,” he puts it plainly.
But this wasn’t an issue for the band, as they picked up those “jams” like they’d never put them down.
“All the songs we’ve written, they feel like they’re still within the same world, but just through different filters sometimes,” Buonaccorsi says.
“Born to Die,” which existed for the better part of the last couple of years, represents the halfway point in the album and features one of its most impressive sonic shifts. It also takes on the herculean task of merging many of the ongoing tones and deepest themes of the project.
“I know what this life is worth / We are universal spirits / And our kingdom is this Earth,” Wilkinson opens, as if a light has shone down on him.
The song is soft, with a distant, wailing sax peeking in for a brief moment among drum lines. It’s almost symphonic, carrying on for almost seven minutes before descending into a lulling silence.
“Our feelings are just visitors / Competing for attention / Avoiding every trigger / While still reaching for ascension,” he continues, in a quasi-monologue.
Hayes breaks in, thrashing his drums alongside Wilkinson’s guitar and an enthralling bass line from Buanoccorsi. Naturally, Carroll’s sax follows suit. The song then recedes into serenity once again, before picking up on “Break The Tension.”
It’s an exhilarating ride that carries on over the rest of the album, ebbing and flowing between chaos and calm. A lot of “Pain to Power’s” strength is in its latter half, and particularly across the three track run that is “Trenches,” “Zaytoun” and “Reconcile,” the album’s nearly 10-minute closer.
“What you’re seeing is these notions of pain that we are getting out of us in these songs,” Wilkinson explains. “These aggressive songs like ‘Bloodsport,’ ‘Look Down On Us’… we’re turning all of that aggression and that pain and anger into something beautiful, and that’s reflected in a track like ‘Saoirse.’”
“It’s quite a dynamic album,” Buonaccorsi adds. “You’ve got quieter songs, more intimate songs, and you’ve got loud, bombastic, crazy, aggressive songs, but they all still feel like they’re part of the same sonic universe.”
“Saoirse,” the third track on the album, reflects the somber first half of “Born to Die.”
“It’s our differences that make us beautiful,” Wilkinson sings repeatedly, like he’s muttering out a mantra. Sure, it’s a bit on-the-nose, but it embodies what Maruja is all about.
“Saoirse,” which translates to “freedom” or “liberty” in Irish, has historically morphed into a term representing the country’s desire for independence from British rule and cultural autonomy. These allusions to Ireland are ever-present in the band’s creations, with titles such as “Tir na nÓg” and “Connla’s Well” specked across their discography.
But how did a British outfit become synonymous with Irish activism?
“When we were recording ‘Knockarea,’ my dad started getting really ill and that led to me connecting with his parents a lot more, and they told me about my great-granddad, who was a photographer,” Carroll remembers.
“We ended up using all of his photos for the early stages of the music… all the black and white stuff is my great granddad’s photos in Ireland… I got really into my Irish heritage, and I’m really proud of it… and feel very connected to the culture and the land,” he continues.
The group says it has a strong correlation with their avid support for Palestinian rights, which the Irish have shown for decades: “They were the first Western government to speak up in public support for the Palestinian people,” Hayes says.
In that, they’re also speaking out against their home, Britain, which they say is “entirely complicit” in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“The colonization of Ireland from the British Empire, and then the… secret police of the Black and Tans [in Palestine] is a direct relation to the colonialist and imperialist ways of the British government today,” Hayes says.
According to the Irish Times, Winston Churchill demanded a “picked force of white gendarmerie” be deployed in Palestine after facing unrest in 1921. The force was composed of “members of both” his Auxiliaries and Black and Tans, who were “assigned to Palestine once their presence in Ireland was no longer deemed necessary.”
“In England, we just see this deranged hypocrisy continue to lord over our political landscape,” he adds. “We want to give voice to those who are voiceless… If we can help raise awareness, raise a message, and… highlight the complicity of our government, we’ve got to do it.”
On “Bloodsport,” this is clear, with Wilkinson crying out pleas to the world.
“Complicit in the narrative of pacified killings it’s a / Sore sight when you gotta choose / The lesser of two evils either one will prove / That we’re socially in apathy what’s left to lose?”
Their activism is heavily tied to their music and has undoubtedly contributed to some of the band’s recognition on a global scale. But, to them, it’s just part of their responsibility, and their music is an indication of that.
“We’re just reflecting our environment,” he explains. “Our lives are downtrodden with politics and with war and with the world suffering.”
Buonaccorsi chimes in, referencing a quote from “the great” Nina Simone: “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.”
“It’s our job… to speak about things that really matter to us, things that we feel like should not be happening in this world,” he says. “The barbarity and horror that we’ve never been able to see in our lifetimes… now, we see it before our eyes on phone screens.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Lewis Crocker can cause a shock tonight.
Hearn said: “Lewis, I think mentally he’s in a much better place because he’s not putting any pressure on himself.
“Paddy’s the big favourite in the fight because of how the first fight played out, but I think this will be a totally different Lewis Crocker.
“I think physically he looks totally different this time around, and he has to be better.
“I thought he was poor in the first fight, and I think he knows he was poor in the first fight.
“I think Paddy Donovan has to be the favourite going into the fight, but I think Lewis Crocker’s well in this and is Paddy a little bit too complacent?
“He wouldn’t have trained that way because Andy [Lee] wouldn’t let him.
“I know that’s not a technical term, but Lewis Crocker can punch and punch hard.
“He’s got to take chances, he’s gotta roll the dice, and he’s gotta let his hands go and if he does, you’re gonna get a thriller.
“I mean we’re gonna have close to 20,000 here at Windsor Park, it’s gonna be absolutely wild.”
The Latina actor-writer, best known for her role in Nickelodeon’s “Los Casagrandes,” meets grief with comedy in her one-woman show, which details the process of caring for her aging mother with Alzheimer’s disease.
How does one care for their aging parent without losing sight of their own identity?
The first thing Roxana Ortega will say is: “We have to not abandon ourselves.”
The L.A.-born Latina actress outlines the deeply emotional process of caring for an aging parent in her first play, “Am I Roxie?,” which premieres Sept. 11 and kicks off the Geffen Playhouse’s 2025-26 season.
The production will remain through Oct. 5 at the Gil Cates Theater and is directed by Bernardo Cubría, (“Crabs in a Bucket” and “The Play You Want”).
Ortega’s one-woman show was inspired by her mother, Carmen, whose memory is in decline due to Alzheimer’s disease. Bounded by her commitment to being the perfect Latina daughter, Ortega illustrates how she stepped up to provide caregiving duties, while trying to sustain her acting career — even if it was just a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich commercial.
“This show to me is about how to not abandon ourselves in a time of such great darkness,” says Ortega through a video call.
Onstage, Ortega masterfully transforms her solo act into an ensemble performance, through her many quirky accents and mannerisms alone; her characters range from her three Peruvian tías to an imaginary cholo critic and a perky, silicone-bloated nurse.
Capturing a broad emotional spectrum, from joy to grief, it is clear that Ortega — a former troupe member of the Groundlings Sunday Company — showcases a lifetime of skills on the Westwood stage.
“Everything just merged as I was trying to write about what was happening,” says Ortega. “I was also leaving sketch comedy [group] the Groundlings, so I was finding my own voice. All those things merged to birth this, a perfect combination of so many desires and dreams I’ve had.”
With over 80 acting credits to her name, the multi-hyphenate artist is best known for voicing the melodramatic Frida Casagrande from Nickelodeon’s Emmy-winning show “The Casagrandes,” an animated sitcom about a family living in the fictional Great Lakes City. Other notable credits include Netflix’s “Grand-Daddy Day Care” and “Santa Clarita Diet,” Warner Bros.‘ “Miss Congeniality 2” as well as the popular Fox series “New Girl.”
Audiences should buckle up — preferably with tissues at the ready — for a roller coaster of emotions, as they witness Ortega relinquish control over an unchangeable fate, while holding compassion for her mother and herself in “Am I Roxie?”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Your one-woman show, “Am I Roxie?,” explores your personal journey as a caretaker for your aging parent, but it also focuses on your artistic aspirations. Can you walk me through your decision to make this the subject of your next project?
I’ve always wanted to turn my personal material into art; most artists do feel that way. I had been doing it for quite a while in sketch comedy, [by] taking characters like my tías, who I find to be so hysterical, and trying to put them into things. So I knew somewhere in the back of my brain — or in the middle — that I wanted to do a show about my family. I watched Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s “Lackawanna Blues,” so I always wanted to do that.
This play approaches heavy topics with humor. How did you strike that balance?
I think that’s just the way my brain works. I think a lot of comedians are this way; we’re always looking for laughs and maybe that’s how we survive ’cause we are very sensitive people — I’m very sensitive and very intense, so laughter is that levity.
Through the development process, we did have some discussions about certain moments. Do we want people to laugh when I’m in the chaise longue texting, “Is [my mom] still alive?” We had more “Shark Tank” sounds running through that and then changed it.
Caregiving is obviously a huge endeavor for Latinos — Latina women, more specifically. How do you make sense of the idea of care now?
I [think of] abandonment. There’s something so primal when somebody is aging and you can tell, “This person was in charge of me; they’re so vulnerable; now they need me. Oh my god, I can’t abandon them, right?” You feel like, “I don’t want to be abandoned, so I don’t want to abandon them.” It really shocked me how strong that urge was and I think we also have to not abandon ourselves. We absolutely cannot.
If you go into the caregiving world, they talk about care like: “Here’s your pills, here’s the food and we have some music coming in.” Maybe if you’re lucky, there’s bingo — but my mom wouldn’t play bingo! Are you f— kidding me? Care should be individualized. It should address the spirit.
Guilt creeps up in this play disguised as your inner Latina critic every time you do something that feels selfish in light of your mom’s situation. What relationship do you have with your inner critic now?
I definitely feel like I’ve gone through a journey from fear to love with the task of caregiving and even in relation to myself; I learned to love myself more, which is part of caring for yourself.
In this process of putting [my story] out there, of just being so gentle with myself and saying, “No matter what happens, no matter how it’s received, I’m not going to put my identity on the line.” There will be no beating myself up. There will be no, “Now you’re terrible because this, this, this …” It’s always a practice. Life is too short for us to feel bad.
There’s no benefit to suffering, and most of our suffering we do to ourselves through that critic by giving it power. And in our culture, sometimes it’s glorified.
You’re an overachiever, a Berkeley grad and former Groundlings member. But in “Am I Roxie?,” you balance the urgency of achieving your goals with the grief of losing a parent who is still alive. How did it feel to not give up on your dreams?
I felt like a terrible daughter. It’s hard. There’s a point in the show when I leave my mom and she says, “Don’t leave me here,” and I leave her and go to an audition. That’s a hard moment and I can tell that the audience is like, “How could you do that?” It feels vulnerable to show that I did that. But then, how does a mother leave their child at kindergarten? How can you find the balance where you are nurturing yourself and nurturing somebody else?
It was hard. I would beat myself up a lot and cry about feeling so terrible. And then go the next day to absolve myself. The more [my mom] found other relationships with a caregiver, the more I felt like, “Okay, she’s safe.”
Motherhood is also at the core of your story — not just with your mother, but as you explore your own fertility journey. How did your concept of motherhood change after caring for your mother?
What I didn’t explicitly say in the play is that I am a mother. I mothered my mother. Now, not everyone who is a mother by having a baby is necessarily a “mothering mother.” Something that this disease taught me is what these words really mean. What is it to be a sister? What is it to be a mother? What I learned in caring for my mom is that I am a mother, because I was able to nurture on such a deep level. Even when all the signs showed that she’s not there anymore. A mother knows her baby. She was my baby at the end.
After our fertility journey, 10 years of trying, me birthing this piece of art was me mothering my creativity into existence.
You don’t mention Alzheimer’s by name until that very end. Why?
Part of it was accepting the journey and being able to say the diagnosis. Sometimes there’s an avoidance around Alzheimer’s. Nobody wants to say the word or talk about the disease ’cause it’s sad. So I wanted to make it a moment when I actually said it so that we can see the weight of it. Hopefully viewers will leave the theater being able to speak about it and to know it in an intimate way. Naming it is so important, so we can take the sting and discomfort off.
There are tender moments onstage where you let out tears. What is it like to relive those real-life moments on stage every night?
It is so difficult, more difficult than I thought it would be. My mom is onstage with me when I walk out there. I take her hand and I put her in that little opera chair next to me and we are together. Saying goodbye to her every night is hard.
TORONTO — In introducing the Saturday night TIFF world premiere of “Good Fortune,” his feature debut as a writer-director, comedian Aziz Ansari told the audience the three words that are scary in Hollywood right now: original theatrical comedy. But the one word that is never scary is Keanu.
Speaking from the stage of the festival’s Roy Thomson Hall, Ansari recalled that his star Keanu Reeves broke his kneecap early in production.
“I found out he broke his kneecap and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Ansari continued, Reeves himself standing onstage just a few feet away. “It was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is Keanu going to say? Is he going to need some time off? Is he going to drop out of the movie?’”
“And you know what Keanu said?” Ansari added. “Nothing. He just kept showing up to work and never complained, not once,” Ansari said. “He worked through what surely must have been excruciating pain and delivered a hilarious, touching performance, and he is the soul of this movie.”
The film opens with Reeves standing atop L.A.’s iconic Griffith Observatory with a small pair of angel wings on his back. Reeves, in a change of pace from his recent action work in the “John Wick” movies, plays Gabriel, a low-level angel given the task of stopping people from texting and driving. That is until he sees Arj (Ansari), who is struggling to make ends meet while working both at a big-box hardware store and as a food delivery driver.
Hoping to show him the grass isn’t always greener, Gabriel switches Arj’s life with that of Jeff (Seth Rogen), an ultrarich tech investor whose days seem to largely consist of going back and forth between his sauna and his cold plunge.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Arj much prefers Jeff’s life to his own and is reluctant to switch back. The situation becomes more complicated for Gabriel as he loses his job as an angel and must learn the tribulations and joys of being human, while still trying to fix the problem with Arj and Jeff.
For all the film’s gentle humor and quietly humanist spirit, “Good Fortune” is also rife with a palpable anger at the income inequality that motivates its story, the reality that robots are replacing the work of humans and that the excesses of the few seem predicated on the deprivation of many.
Aziz Ansari, left, and Keanu Reeves in the movie “Good Fortune.”
(Eddy Chen / Lionsgate)
The day after the film’s premiere, 42-year-old Ansari is upbeat and dapper in a gray plaid coat, black turtleneck and black slacks as he sat down for an interview in Toronto to discuss the movie and all that led up to it. After the end of his Emmy-winning series “Master of None” in 2021, Ansari had begun shooting a feature called “Being Mortal” that was shut down in 2022 a few weeks into production over allegations of misconduct by its star Bill Murray. Then production of “Good Fortune,” Ansari’s pivot away from “Being Mortal,” was delayed by the Hollywood labor strikes of 2023. Seemingly at long last, Ansari’s debut opens Oct. 17.
When “Being Mortal” got shut down, did you feel like, “Am I ever going to get to make a movie?”
I didn’t feel that way. Steven Spielberg has this story of — what’s the movie he did? “1941.” That didn’t do well and he was like, just immediately throw yourself in another thing. And I really thought about that, and that’s what I did. I just immediately went into “Good Fortune.” I mean, I had a couple of days where I was like,“Oh, no” and it was also so shocking. I think your mind doesn’t process it because it’s not really sinking in that this is what’s really happening. It probably still a piece of me [in which] it hasn’t really sunk in. It was definitely disappointing, but part of me is like, this is what needed to happen. This is the movie that should be out first.
“Being Mortal,” it’s funny, but it’s heavy. The Atul Gawande book, it’s about end-of-life issues. So it’s like, “Oh, OK. It’s another heavy drama thing.” People may have just gotten pissed, like, “What’s this guy doing?” So “Good Fortune” is definitely, to me, if you like those first two seasons of “Master of None,” I feel like what you’d hope I’d do is kind of evolve that style into a feature film and raise the level of it by having Seth and Keanu and Keke [Palmer] and Sandra [Oh], and as a feature film rather than a show.
As sweet and funny as the movie is, there also is a real righteous anger behind it. Where does that come from?
I think I got it from when I was interviewing all these people about the subject matter in the film, when I was doing research to write the Arj character. That attitude seeps in there.
“It was definitely disappointing, but part of me is like, this is what needed to happen,” Ansari says of “Being Mortal,” his first attempt at directing a feature, one that ran into production troubles with its star, Bill Murray,
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
During the opening credits of the movie, you say the line“The American Dream is dead.”
But that’s a frustration a lot of people like that guy Arj feel.
But then, you are a very successful entertainer —
Oh, yeah. Me and Seth are Jeff, no question.
How do you reconcile that? Are you concerned some people might dismiss the movie out of hand for that simple reason?
If you’re writing, you have to be able to write outside your own experience — for someone who’s like Arj, who doesn’t have the platform to tell these stories. When I did “Master of None,” we did an episode called “New York, I Love You.” And there was a segment about taxi drivers, a segment about a doorman and a segment about a woman who’s deaf. And doing that episode taught me a process of interviewing people and figuring out how to get these stories right when they’re not your experience. We did an episode in Season 3 about a woman going through IVF. I’d never done that or anything, and it had never been a part of my life. But I talked to all these people, and from the feedback I got, we got it right. And that’s what I did with this.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but for a movie coming out from a Hollywood studio, Seth gives a speech at the end that is politically radical, about how rich people can’t expect to have so much without others getting angry.
It’s kind of nuts. Some of the stuff that’s in there, I’m like, “Whoa, we really got away with something here.” Some of the stuff that’s in there, and the trailer kind of hides a little bit of that stuff, I think there are people that’d be like, “Oh, s—.”
At the premiere, there was big applause for the line, “F— AI.” Is that your feeling as well?
I’d rather say that I’m pro-human. I’m pro-people.
Keanu Reeves, left, Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari in the movie “Good Fortune.”
(Eddy Chen / Lionsgate)
The movie is very ambitious in combining the character stories and the attention to the notion of income inequality. Was it hard for you in balancing the characters and that theme? Was the work of that more when you were writing it or when you were editing what you’d shot?
It was both. And that’s the difference between a TV show and a movie. You have a different canvas. But it was a tough thing to do. And it was my first time doing it. I remember writing a second one while I was editing, and it was such a great help because you kind of see a few moves ahead. You’re like, “Oh, wait a second, I should get to this faster.” You kind of can see your mistakes a little bit in an earlier stage because you have more experience. This is another reason I really want to get into it again and start working on the next thing because I feel like I learned a lot from it.
That’s the thing that’s so interesting about doing stand-up and doing filmmaking. Stand-up, it’s so easy to “get to the gym,” right? If I really wanted to go to do stand-up tonight, I could do it. I could go find a club in Toronto and jump on a show. But If I wanted to go direct, that’s a big journey to get to the gym. So you have fewer opportunities to kind of get the reps in.
Shooting a movie is in L.A. has become such an economic and political issue for the city. Was that a consideration in making the movie in Los Angeles?
I wanted it to be in L.A., I felt like this movie had to be set in L.A. Jeff’s not going to be living in whatever place that gives you the tax credit. And L.A. really is the perfect backdrop for the story to me. And it was challenging, but you also get the benefit of working with some of the greatest technicians in the world in L.A. And I also just love being a part of the lineage of films that are set in L.A. I watched that documentary, “Los Angeles Plays itself,” and that was so fun to watch that and just see how every movie has its own L.A., whether it’s “Heat” or “Tangerine” or “Chinatown.”
And I feel like “Good Fortune” has its L.A., and it’s exciting to show some of these neighborhoods, to see people responding to seeing Eagle Rock or Los Feliz. Whenever I was writing the movie, I always thought about that taco place in Hollywood — it’s across the street from Jitlada. I always thought about that place. I thought there was something so cinematic, and it was a hard location to clear. And our guy [location manager] Jay Traynor, he made it happen. And finding Jeff’s house was so hard. But it all came together, and I loved showing Koreatown and that Gabriel works at a Korean barbecue restaurant. Just showing all these parts of L.A.
I want to be sure to ask you about working with Keanu. People are really responding to this role. And I’m having a hard time putting my finger on what that is about.
No, I’m feeling this. Even since [the premiere], I’m feeling it. I knew people would like him, but it’s hitting on another level.
Why do you think that is? What is the alchemy of Keanu in that role?
I was thinking about this when I was eating lunch. If you look at the roles he’s done that are comedic, whether it’s in “Bill & Ted” or in “Parenthood,” there’s this innocence, this sweetness and this kindness that’s in there. And then Gabriel, to me, is the progression of that. And it’s also that you have Keanu at 61, where when I first met him, I was like, “Hey, there’s something about you that people are responding to and who you are as a real person that I don’t think I’ve seen onscreen. And I think you can show some of that with Gabriel.”
It also has all of his comedy superpowers just dialed to the max. And we were just having so much fun. It just became playtime. We were coming up with bits all the time: Oh, he’s never used the internet before. Let’s just write a quick scene where he’s using the internet for the first time. What’s he gonna do? He’s gonna look at photos of baby elephants. It became such a fun joke bag. You could just make him do anything. And it was funny, the guy’s never done anything — if he takes a bite of a taco goes, “Wow!” It’s really the funniest character I’ve ever written for.
While some flag football teams have been playing for weeks, one of the City Section’s expected top teams, Birmingham, finally debuts on Wednesday at Arleta.
Coach Jim Rose has only two seniors on his team and has been working to get his players familiar with new rules, from punting to the defense getting to be only one yard away from the line of scrimmage before hiking the ball.
Bella Gonzalez, a second baseman on the softball team, will handle quarterbacking duties early while waiting for the No. 1 quarterback to recover from a knee injury.
Rose is particularly excited about freshman Ellie St. Hubert, a safety and receiver. “She is really good,” Rose said.
Banning is the defending City Open Division champion. Birmingham won the first title in 2023.
“We always think we’re going to be one of the top teams,” Rose said. “Athletically we’re better than last season.”
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