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Stars of iconic 00s drama reuniting on different show – but there's a twist

Stars of iconic 00s drama reuniting on different show – but there's a twist

The Sun5 days ago
STARS of an iconic noughties drama are reuniting on-screen nearly two decades later.
Two former castmates from the beloved series are teaming up again, only this time they're swapping politics for power-coupling.
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It's none other than West Wing legends Alison Janney and Bradley Whitford - back on our screens, but with a very unexpected twist.
The pair, who famously starred as press secretary C.J. Cregg and deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman in the iconic White House drama, are reuniting in Netflix's hit political series The Diplomat.
Only this time, they're ditching the corridors of power for domestic politics - playing a feuding husband and wife.
Fans of The West Wing are already buzzing over the on-screen reunion - but seeing the duo lock horns in a rocky marriage is a far cry from their old dynamic in the beloved series.
TV royalty Alison Janney has spilled the beans on her long-awaited reunion with The West Wing co-star Bradley Whitford — and fans are in for a treat.
The Hollywood duo are reuniting in season three of Netflix's hit political drama The Diplomat, with Whitford joining the cast as Todd Penn - husband to Janney's character, Vice President Grace Penn, who suddenly becomes President following a shock White House death.
Speaking at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards in LA, Janney, 64, couldn't hide her excitement: 'I knew everyone who hadn't worked with him before was in for the treat of their lives. He's not only a brilliant actor - he's hilarious. He had the whole crew in stitches.'
Showrunner Debora Cahn said the reunion has everyone on set buzzing: 'Seeing them work together again after all these years... it feels like we're doing something delicious.'
Season three of The Diplomat is expected to land on Netflix this autumn - and with two Emmy nods already, it's shaping up to be must-watch telly.
Hit political drama The West Wing was a TV juggernaut, scooping 26 Emmys and even winning Best Drama four years in a row.
The West Wing's Josh Lyman discusses nuclear war and a smallpox pandemic in season five
The all-star cast, which also included Martin Sheen, became household names - with fast-talking scenes and walk-and-talk moments now iconic.
The show was such a hit it raked in up to 17 million viewers per episode in its heyday and is still binged by fans nearly 20 years after it ended.
Even Barack Obama was a superfan, with The West Wing praised for its feel-good, idealistic take on American politics.
And with three Golden Globes and a Peabody Award under its belt, it's no wonder many still call it the greatest political drama of all time.
Now fans are buzzing to see Allison and Bradley back in action.
As it's the first time the TV favourites will have reunited on screen in years, viewers are eager to see if their chemistry is still sizzling.
And with The Diplomat already a smash hit for Netflix, their reunion could send season three sky-high.
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What I learned from running my own Squid Game
What I learned from running my own Squid Game

Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Spectator

What I learned from running my own Squid Game

You know how this story goes. The cameras are rolling. The audience is cruel. You're trapped in the game and the game is death and the game is going out live from the heart of the state of nature where empathy is weakness and you kill each other off until there's only one left. What will you do to survive? Who will you become if you do? This is the plot of Squid Game, Netflix's Korean mega-hit that just drew to its gory conclusion. It is also the plot of The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, The Running Man, Chain-Gang All-Stars and The Long Walk. We have spent several decades watching desperate people slaughter each other for survival to entertain the rich and stupid. Future generations will probably have thoughts about why we kept returning to this particular trope with the bloodthirsty voyeurism we associate with Ancient Rome. Obviously, these stories are meant to say something about human nature, and the depraved things desperate people can be made to do to each other; they're meant to say something about exploitation, and how easy it is to derive pleasure from someone else's pain. Squid Game says these things while shovelling its doomed characters through a lurid nightmare playground where they die in cruel and creative ways. After each deadly game, blood-spattered contestants are offered a chance to vote on whether to carry on playing. It's a simple referendum: if a majority votes to stay, they're all trapped in the death-match murder circus with only themselves to blame. If they object, a masked guard will accuse them of interrupting the free and fair elections and shoot them in the face. This is everything Squid Game has to say about representative democracy. 'I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society,' said director Hwang Dong-hyuk, just in case you didn't get the message. The whole thing is as subtle as a shopping-mall shooter. I'm reliably informed that the English-language translations strip away a degree of nuance, which probably helps audiences in parts of the Anglosphere where irony is an unaffordable foreign luxury and the experience of everyday economic humiliation feels a lot like being hit over the head with a huge blunt analogy. Squid Game does not want you confused about who the baddies are. There's a bored cabal of cartoon billionaires drinking scotch and throwing tantrums while they watch our heroes shove each other off cliffs. They smoke cigars and say things like 'I am a very hard man to please'. We never get to find out who they are or what their plan is, because it doesn't matter. How could it possibly matter? How could anything matter in a fake hotel lobby where all the furniture is naked ladies? This is how people who want to be rich think people who are rich ought to talk: like insurance salesmen cosplaying sexual villainy in a kink club for tourists. Nobody is supposed to be able to relate to the Squid Game villains. As it turns out, though, I can. There's an innocent explanation for how I came to run my own Reality Show of Death Game. Well, mostly innocent. I happen to have a secret other life as an immersive game designer. It's what I did instead of drugs during my divorce, after discovering that here, finally, was a hobby that would let me be a pretentious art wanker and a huge nerd at the same time. The games are intense – like escape rooms you have to solve with emotions. Many of them revolve around some species of social experiment – the kind that actual researchers can't do any more because it's inhumane. Famously, the 1971 Stanford prison experiment had to be shut down early after students who were cast as guards got far too excited about abusing their prisoners. The sort of people who pay actual money to play this kind of game are expecting to be made to feel things. They're expecting high stakes and horrible choices and wildly dramatic twists. The Death Game trope is an easy way to deliver all of that. Mine forced players to pick one of their friends to 'murder on live television'. It's a five-hour nightmare about social scapegoating with a pounding techno soundtrack. I had a lot going on at the time. I swotted up on Hobbes and Hayek. I took notes on Squid Game and its infinite derivatives. I gave the players character archetypes to choose from – the Diva, the Flirt, the Party Animal – and got them to imagine themselves in Big Brother if it were produced by actual George Orwell. I wrote and rewrote the script to make sure players wouldn't be able to opt out of picking one person to bully to death. I thought that it would be easy. Instead, I learned two surprising things. The first was that it's harder than you'd think to design a scenario where ordinary people plausibly hunt each other to death. Every time, my players tried their very hardest not to hurt each other, even when given every alibi to be evil. I created a whole rule system to punish acts of altruism, spent ages greasing the hinges on the beautiful hellbox I'd built for them, and still the ungrateful bastards kept trying to sacrifice themselves for one another. Even the ones who were explicitly cast as villains. Even when it was against the rules. It takes a lot of fiddly world-building to make violent self-interest feel reasonable. It takes a baroque notional dystopia and a guaranteed protection from social punishment. What you get is a manicured, hothouse-grown garden masquerading as a human jungle – an astroturfed Hobbesian state of nature where the cruelty is cultivated to make viewers feel comfortable in complicity. The story of these games scrapes the same nerves as the ritual reporting about shopping-mall riots on Black Friday – the ones that lasciviously describe working-class people walloping each other for a £100 discount on a dishwasher. The message is that people who have little are worse than people who have more. This is a wealthy person's nightmare of how poor people behave. The rich, of course, are rarely subject to this sort of moral voyeurism. But that story isn't true. In the real-life Lord of the Flies, the children actually worked together very successfully. In the real-life Stanford prison experiment, the guards had to be coached into cruelty. Real poverty, as sociologists like Rutger Bregman keep on telling us, is actually an inverse predictor of selfish behaviour. Not because poor people are more virtuous than anyone else, but because the rich and powerful can afford not to be. The rest of us, eventually, have to trust each other. The fantasy of these games is about freedom from social responsibility. In the Death Games, nobody has to make complex and demeaning ethical choices as an adult person in an inhumane economy. In the Death Games, it makes sense to light your integrity on fire to survive. But if we did, actually, live in a perfectly ruthless market economy where competition was the essence of survival, none of us would survive past puberty. The Death Games don't actually tell us anything about how life is. They show us how life feels. The second surprising thing I learned while running my own Squid Game is that nothing feels better than running Squid Game. If you need a rush, I highly recommend building a complicated social machine to make other people hurt each other, picking out a fun hyperpop soundtrack and then standing behind a production desk for five hours jerking their strings and cackling until they cry. People apparently like my game. It has run in multiple countries. And every time, it took me days to come down from the filthy dopamine high. It turns out that I love power. This was an ugly thing to discover, and there's an ugly feeling about watching a show like Squid Game – which is, to be clear, wildly entertaining. Voyeurism is participation, and the compulsive thrill of watching human beings hurt each other for money creates its own complicity. The audience is not innocent. Sit too close to the barrier at the beast show and you risk getting splashed with moral hazard.

What to Stream: Reneé Rapp, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' Elvis rarities, Anthony Mackie and Jason Momoa
What to Stream: Reneé Rapp, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' Elvis rarities, Anthony Mackie and Jason Momoa

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

What to Stream: Reneé Rapp, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' Elvis rarities, Anthony Mackie and Jason Momoa

Benicio Del Toro starring in Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme'and Reneé Rapp 's second studio album are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Jason Momoa brings his passion project 'Chief of War' to Apple TV+, there's a coxy Hobbit video game in Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game and 'Project Runway' tries out a new network home for its 21st season. New movies to stream from July 28-Aug. 3 – Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme' (streaming now on Peacock) stars Benicio Del Toro as Anatole 'Zsa-zsa' Korda, a wealthy and unscrupulous European industrialist. After the latest assassination attempt on his life, he decides to leave his estate to one of his many children, Lisel (Mia Threapleton), a novitiate. Michael Cera co-stars as a Norwegian insect expect named Bjørn. In her review, the AP's Jocelyn Noveck wrote that the film finds Anderson 'becoming even more, well, Wes Anderson than before.' – The Netflix romance 'My Oxford Year' (streaming Friday, Aug. 1) follows a young American student named Anna (Sofia Carson) in her long-dreamt-of year at Oxford University. Corey Mylchreest co-stars as a local love interest in the film directed by Iain Morris. – Movie soundtracks once played so much more of a role in popular culture. A new series on the Criterion Channel collects some of the films from the soundtrack's heyday, the 1990s, when songs from movies like 'Trainspotting' (1996) and 'Singles' (1992) dominated the airwaves and MTV. Also running this month on Criterion are 'Grosse Pointe Blank' (1997), 'So I Married an Axe Murderer' (1993) and 'Judgement Night' (1993). — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle New music to stream from July 28-Aug. 3 — The King of Rock 'n' Roll has returned. On Friday, Aug. 1, to celebrate what would've been Elvis Presley's 90th birthday year, a massive collection of 89 rarities will be released as a five-disc CD boxset – and on all digital platforms. Titled 'Sunset Boulevard,' the series pulls from Presley's 1970-1975 Los Angeles recording sessions and rehearsals at RCA's studios. There is no greater gift for the Elvis aficionado. — Reneé Rapp will release her second studio album on Friday, Aug. 1, the appropriately titled 'Bite Me.' The 12-track release is imbued with Rapp's edgy, lighthearted spirit — catchy R&B-pop songs about bad breakups and good hookups abound. It'll put some pep in your step. — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman New series to stream from July 28-Aug. 3 — 'Project Runway' has had quite a life since it debuted in 2004 on Bravo. After its first six seasons, the competition show about fashion design moved to Lifetime for 11 seasons, then back to Bravo for a few years, and its new home for season 21 is Freeform. Christian Siriano — who won the show's fourth season — is an executive producer, mentor and judge. He joins 'Project Runway' OG host Heidi Klum, celebrity stylist extraordinaire Law Roach and fashion editor Nina Garcia. It premieres Thursday and streams on Disney+ and Hulu. — Comedian Leanne Morgan stars in her own multi-cam sitcom for Netflix called 'Leanne,' debuting Thursday. Inspired by her own stand-up, Morgan plays a woman whose husband leaves her for another woman after more than three decades of marriage. Morgan stars alongside sitcom vets Kristen Johnston and Tim Daly. — Anthony Mackie's 'Twisted Metal' is back on Peacock for a second season of beginning Thursday. The show is adapted from a popular video game franchise and picks up about 7 months after the events of season one. —Jason Momoa brings his passion project 'Chief of War' to Apple TV+ on Friday, Aug. 1. Set in the late 18th century, Momoa plays Kauai, a nobleman and warrior, who plays a major part in the unification of the Hawaiian islands. The series is based on true events and is told from an Indigenous point-of-view. — Alicia Rancilio New video games to play from July 28-Aug. 3 — Games set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth usually want to drag us back to Mount Doom for another confrontation with the Dark Lord. But what if you're a Hobbit who just wants to hang out with your friends in your peaceful village? That's your mission in Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game. It's a cozy sim from Weta Workshop, the company behind the special effects in Peter Jackson's films. You can grow a garden, go fishing, trade with your neighbors and — most important for a Hobbit — cook and eat. It's about as far from Mordor as it gets, and you can start decorating your own Hobbit Hole on Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch or PC.

Michael J. Fox's forgotten fling with Nancy McKeon sparked friendship with future Melrose Place star
Michael J. Fox's forgotten fling with Nancy McKeon sparked friendship with future Melrose Place star

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Michael J. Fox's forgotten fling with Nancy McKeon sparked friendship with future Melrose Place star

Michael J. Fox has long been pals with Doug Savant, as they met via The Facts of Life star Nancy McKeon, who Fox dated in the mid-1980s. Savant, 61, chat about his longtime friendship with Fox, 64, to People at Lifetime's Summer Soirée event, held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel July 16. Savant spoke with the outlet in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the August 1985 release of the comedy Teen Wolf. Savant - who would find fame playing Matt Fielding on the nighttime soap Melrose Place in the 1990s - appeared in the film as a rookie actor opposite Fox. Fox was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s with his roles as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties and time traveling teen Marty McFly in the Back To The Future franchise. In the movie, Savant portrayed of Brad, a classmate and basketball teammate of Fox's lead character, Scott Howard, a teenage high school student who had the ability to transform into a wolf. Savant expounded to the outlet about his connection to Fox through McKeon - and how it tied into his Southern California roots. 'I grew up in Burbank, California, and I went to school with Philip McKeon and Nancy McKeon – Nancy McKeon from Facts of Life and Phil McKeon from Alice,' Savant said. 'And we were dear friends.' Savant said that he didn't tell Fox about his connection with McKeon, 59, specifically in an effort not to bother the star. 'I just wanted to do my job and be professional, but I had not said anything, said Savant, who also is known for playing Tom Scavo on the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives. Savant said that a week into production, Fox figured out the connection and confronted him about it. 'He went home and Nancy asked, "Who's in the movie with you? Let me see the call sheet." And she said, "Doug Savant? We were family friends."' Savant added, 'One day, Michael comes to work, he says, "Why didn't you tell me that?" He was upset with me that I had not told him.' After that, a fast friendship formed, according to Savant, who said that he 'had a great time' working with the beloved actor on Teen Wolf. Savant said that he looks back with nostalgia on his work on the motion picture: 'I have such great memories from that film.' He added of the movie's longevity: ' The movie has had a stunning lifetime, and people love it. 'They made sequels, and it resonated. So I'm just grateful to have been a small part of it. Savant said the movie was on TV while he was working on a new project and jarred his nostalgia. He recalled: 'The craft service person would play movies, and he puts on Teen Wolf. And there I was doing my job on a new show, but watching Teen Wolf in the craft service trailer.' Fox in 1985 met actress Tracy Pollan, who worked with him on Family Ties, but 'their relationship remained platonic, however, as they were both dating other people at the time,' People reported. They commenced dating after working together again on the 1988 movie Bright Lights, Big City, and married that same year. Fox and Pollan are parents to four adult children: son Sam Michael, 36, twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances, 30, and daughter Esmé Annabelle, 23. The Back To The Future star was 29 in 1991 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and went public with the information in 1998. He has spent the years since working tirelessly on charitable efforts toward funding research with a cure in mind.

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