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‘Big Little Lies’: Meryl Streep Makes Her Debut in First Photo

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'Big Little Lies': Meryl Streep Makes Her Debut in First Photo

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Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies

Yep, she's a series regular in the second season of HBO's Emmy-winning drama.

Meryl Streep has arrived on the set of HBO's Big Little Lies.

Star Nicole Kidman on Thursday shared the first image of her new co-star on the Emmy-winning limited series turned drama.
"First day on the set with Meryl and 'my' darling boys!" Kidman captioned her Instagram post.

The Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress will play Mary Louise Wright, the mother to the abusive Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgard), who (spoiler alert!) was revealed to have been the one who died during the Emmy-winning first season of the David E. Kelley drama based on the Liane Moriarty novel. (Skarsgard is said to be returning in some capacity for season two.)

Mary Louise Wright is described as a woman who is concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren following her son Perry's death. She arrives in Monterey searching for answers. (Fun fact: Kelley told The Hollywood Reporter in October that Streep and Tom Hanks were his dream casting goals for Big Little Lies.)

Check out the first photo, below, and click here for all the details about season two (so far).

First day on the set with Meryl and “my” darling boys! #BigLittleLies

A post shared by Nicole Kidman (@nicolekidman) on

Meryl Streep Big Little Lies
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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Discovery Channel Orders Off-the-Grid Survival Show ‘Book of Hines’ (Exclusive)

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Discovery Channel Orders Off-the-Grid Survival Show 'Book of Hines' (Exclusive)

In the forthcoming TV series, a former intelligence officer decides to move his family far from the rest of society.

Discovery Channel has ordered a new reality TV series tentatively titled Book of Hines, which centers on one family's attempt to live beyond the reach of modern society.

Book of Hines follows former intelligence officer Brett Hines, whose distrust of the modern way of life and the dangers associated with it inspires him to move his family off-the-grid. To get by in the outdoors, he uses the survival skills he learned in the military, but he often defers to his family for support.

Wendy, his wife, keeps their homestead in tact; his oldest son, Michael, is the "outdoors specialist"; his younger son, Nathan, is the mechanic, forging tools and weapons when needed; and his oldest daughter, Sarah, is married and organizes and delegates household tasks. Other family members include Joshua, who keeps the peace in the house, as well as the three youngest children: Ariel, Evelyn and Daniel, who are trying to navigate the new living situation.

With their lifestyle experiment now two years in, the show, which includes self-shot footage, finds the Hines family at their breaking point: Should they stick to living outside of society, or should they give up the grand plan?

Produced for Discovery Channel by This Is Not a Test (I Am Jazz), Book of Hines is executive produced by Colin Miller and Aengus James for This Is Not a Test and John Slaughter and Jessica Mollo for Discovery.

Book of Hines will be the newest addition to Discovery Channel's lineup of unscripted TV that includes Naked and Afraid and Gold Rush. The network, also known for its annual, long-running Shark Week, has over the last few decades invested in a slate of nonfiction programming that now reaches 100.8 million U.S. homes and 224 countries and territories.

Discovery Channel
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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TV Ratings: ‘Empire’ Drops, Still on Top; ‘Alex, Inc.’ Dims

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TV Ratings: 'Empire' Drops, Still on Top; 'Alex, Inc.' Dims

The ABC freshman comedy shrinks between 'The Goldbergs' and 'Modern Family.'

Fox nabbed another Wednesday win thanks to a returned Empire, though the drama shed three-tenths of a ratings point from the previous week.

With an average 1.7 rating among adults 18-49, Empire narrowly passed CBS' Survivor to lead the evening's original broadcast telecasts. Lead-out Star was also off from its week-ago return, though not by as much, averaging a 1.3 rating in the key demo.

On ABC, the second episode of Alex, Inc. (0.9 adults) saw viewers exit the network between steady episodes of The Goldbergs (1.3 adults) and Modern Family (1.5 adults). American Housewife (1.2 adults) and Designated Survivor (0.7 adults) each held.

CBS' Survivor earned a 1.6 rating in the key demo before an encore NCIS and a new Criminal Minds (0.9 adults). On NBC, only The Blacklist was new with a 0.9 rating.

Life Sentence aired its last Wednesday episode on The CW, pulling a 0.2 rating in the key demo and 440,000 viewers. It moves to Fridays later in April.

TV Ratings
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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Jordan Peele Is Making a Lorena Bobbitt Docuseries for Amazon

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Jordan Peele Is Making a Lorena Bobbitt Docuseries for Amazon

The Virginia woman infamously cut off her husband's penis with a kitchen knife in 1993.

Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw shingle is spearheading a Lorena Bobbitt docuseries for Amazon.

The four-part project, with Bobbitt's full participation, will tackle the infamous 1993 incident and ensuing media frenzy that made the Virginia woman famous. (Bobbitt, in an act of retribution for alleged domestic violence, severed then-husband John Wayne Bobbitt's penis with a kitchen knife and threw it into a field.)

"When we hear the name 'Bobbitt,' we think of one of the most sensational incidents to ever be catapulted into a full-blown media spectacle," said Peele. "With this project, Lorena has a platform to tell her truth as well as engage in a critical conversation about gender dynamics, abuse and her demand for justice. This is Lorena's story, and we're honored to help her tell it."

The project, simply titled Lorena, is described as a fresh perspective on the event and its role in creating the 24-hour news cycle — preceding the O.J. Simpson trial by just a year. Joshua Rofe is directing.

"Jordan has proven himself as a captivating voice of social critique, and we are excited to work with him on this project," said Amazon originals head of unscripted Heather Schuster. "Lorena reframes Lorena Bobbitt's story around issues of sexism and domestic abuse and offers Prime members an exclusive new view into how America got her story wrong and maybe continues to get it wrong."

Lorena is executive produced by Peele and Win Rosenfeld for Monkeypaw, Rofe and Steven J. Berger for Number 19 and Jenna Santoianni and Tom Lesinski for Sonar Entertainment.


Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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Amazon Prime Nabs ‘Friday Night Lights’ Streaming Rights

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Amazon Prime Nabs 'Friday Night Lights' Streaming Rights

The service makes the beloved series available to fans again months after Netflix stopped streaming the high school football drama.

Rejoice, Friday Night Lights fans, your beloved series is streaming on a high-profile subscription service once more!

All five seasons of Jason Katims' beloved NBC-turned-DirecTV high school football drama are now streaming on Amazon Prime, six months after Netflix dropped Friday Night Lights from its service.

Since then the series has been absent from popular subscription streaming services Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Still, the show is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon Video and other digital platforms.

The drama, which starred Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, was streaming for Amazon Prime members several years ago but hasn't been on the service since then.

Along with FNL, Amazon Prime has added other NBCUniversal library series Parks and Recreation, which is also available on Netflix and Hulu, as well as House and Eureka. With these additions, Prime Video becomes the only streaming service to offer access to all seasons of House and Eureka.

Friday Night Lights
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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‘Survivor: Ghost Island’ Unearths More Curses in “Gotta Risk It for the Biscuit”

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'Survivor: Ghost Island' Unearths More Curses in "Gotta Risk It for the Biscuit"

Idols and advantages aplenty are unearthed in a 'Survivor' episode that featured a surprising amount of Eliza Orlins.

[This recap contains spoilers for the April 4 episode of Survivor: Ghost Island.]

The hero of this week's episode of Survivor: Ghost Island was not, in fact, one of this season's remaining 14 castaways struggling to reverse curses in Fiji.

The hero of this week's Survivor: Ghost Island was a two-time former player with fourth and tenth place finishes under her belt.

Yes, all hail Eliza Orlins, perhaps the all-time reaction queen of Survivor.

Now is it a good sign that the most memorable moments in a new episode of Survivor were Eliza's classic "It's a f***ing stick!" reply to Jason's attempt to show off Ozzy's fake idol and then Eliza's drop-jawed incredulity at Erik sacrificing his immunity to Natalie before the show's most legendary blindside? Well, maybe not, even if most fans would probably rank Survivor: Micronesia as a Top 10 or Top 5 season.

Regardless of who won challenges on Wednesday and who went to Tribal Council and who was voted out, my takeaway is that if I found a Survivor genie, one of the first things I'd wish for would be to have Eliza do picture-in-picture reactive commentary to every episode. I'm not looking for her to talk through episodes, though certainly she was funny enough that that might be amusing. I just want Eliza expressing shock or mockery or joy or sheer contempt in the lower left-hand corner of my screen. Perhaps a reasonable compromise might be to have Eliza on every Survivor jury, available for amazed cutaways whenever appropriate. Is that too much to ask?

There's no way that Eliza could have expected to see herself so much on this week's Survivor, in which she was a much more active part of the episode than Jenna, Laurel, Angela or even the normally voluble Sea-Bass.

Other than "Geez, we miss Eliza," the episode was split into two thematic halves.

The first half was "Oh right, last week's episode had no Ghost Island and no idols and, thus, was a bit of a bore."

The first 20 minutes of the episode saw Michael, facing inevitable elimination in the face of another New New Malolo defeat, going wandering and finding the aforementioned stick that Ozzy hid as an idol that Jason thought was real and Eliza knew was just a f***ing stick. After telling us that all three people who had touched the stick were eliminated and therefore that the stick was cursed, we were instructed, "For 10 years, the stick has been living on Ghost Island gaining power."

Let's just leave aside how weird it is for Survivor to be spinning fiction like this.

No. Actually, let's not. Come on, Survivor. That stick has not being on Ghost Island for 10 years. It was not on Ghost Island TONIGHT. I'm not even completely convinced that anybody would know whether or not it was truly the stick Ozzy hid, but let's pretend it is. Why are you making me buy some sort of magical Pinocchio-like fairy tail about a stick that so badly wished to become a real immunity idol that it became one? Be better than this, Survivor!

So Michael has an idol now.

And Wendell has an idol now, thanks to a similar process of transmogrification. To hear Survivor tell it, the immunity necklace that Erik gave to Natalie has also been living on Ghost Island for 10 years and it also became a real idol. Have Stick and Necklace at least been living on the island together? Are they in love? Do they have little castaway-protecting babies? Is there some magic process of renewal that takes place on Ghost Island after 10 years? Is there a ceremony? "I now dub thee a real immunity idol, arise Stick!"

Anyway… So Wendell has an idol now.

We also got a triumphant return to Ghost Island for Kellyn. Last time she was there, she resisted a 50-50 game of chance because she didn't want to lose her vote and even if she wasn't completely validated — she still could have WON, after all — she wasn't made to look bad. A couple episodes later, a couple steps closer to the merge, Kellyn was tempted by better odds and a 66-33 game of chance and she played and was given the stolen vote advantage that Michaela sat and pouted above, that Sarah found and that contributed to Michaela being sent home.

Now let's discuss: That advantage? Not cursed. Michaela was cursed. She was ornery and didn't look down and she went home. The advantage was found by Sarah, who was paying attention, and it was a key piece of how she was able to put together her season-winning run. Not only should we not blame the advantage for not being found by Michaela, we should hail the integral role the advantage played in a million dollar victory.

Don't blame the advantage! There is no curse!

Anyway… Kellyn has a bonus vote at a future Tribal.

Going forward, Domenick, Wendell and Michael all have idols, Domenick has additional immunity at two future Tribals including next week, and Kellyn has a bonus vote. This sets us up for some craziness going forward, right?

Well, the result of Wednesday's episode was the opposite of crazy. For all of those idols, no idol was played and no idol was discussed in the episode's vote, which came down to that universal and frequent Survivor question: Is it better to maintain tribal loyalties or to vote out somebody who's annoying you the first chance you get?

New New Naviti made the latter choice after they lost an immunity challenge that caused Jeff Probst to cheer multiple times that Malolo had broken its curse. Malolo, which got so sick of Probst telling them they were one of the worst tribes in Survivor history, even if it wasn't really true, that they burnt their tribal banner in a ritual exorcism of sorts, didn't come out and magically dominated the week's immunity challenge. Malolo finished second, far behind the dominant new tribe of Yanuya. At this point in the game, second still counts as a win especially if you're the worst tribe in Survivor history, which Malolo was not.

That sent New New Naviti to Tribal facing a basic choice: Do you vote out either Donathan or Libby, because they're accursed Malolos in need of purification? Or do you vote out Bradley because he's annoying as hell?

Bradley's fate is probably what my fate would be if I ever went on Survivor. The dude just couldn't shut his mouth and he believed that being argumentative and being conversational are the same thing. Trust me Bradley, I get it! Should Bradley have known better than to badger Donathan during the reward challenge when Donathan was doing the opposite of anything wrong? Yes! Should he have resisted making snide comments about Domenick's immunity performance when Domenick was going out of his way to be humble? Yes! But how do you know better if you're the sort of guy who gives your gameplay an A+, which Bradley did just last week. Domenick and Chelsea at least had some consideration that they had to give to maintaining Malolo loyalty, but at this point if there's a merge next week, Naviti still has a solid numbers advantage and nobody's really going to miss Bradley. It represents another narrow escape for Libby, whose hotness is perhaps second only to Chris' physical strength when it comes to post-merge threats.

Let's get to some Bottom Lines…

Bottom Line, I. In typical Probstian fashion, Jeff decided to push the Malolo Curse narrative so aggressively to start this episode — "A tribe that could very well be cursed, appears to be cursed," he yelled at some point in the reward challenge — that its end was inevitable. I would refer to this as the Jeff Probst Curse, that once you start referring constantly to a different curse, it will get broken. If Jeff Probst had had public discourse on the Curse of the Bambino before the start of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, John McNamara would have put Dave Stapleton in as a defensive replacement for Bill Buckner at the end of the game. For all of Desiree's talk about "bad juju," there was very little pomp or circumstance to the burning of the Malolo flag. No prayers were said. No ashes were scattered. The flag definitely didn't have to go live on Ghost Island for 10 years. They just burnt that sucker and went out and got lucky at the immunity challenge.

Bottom Line, II. Bradley was appreciative enough of being blindsided, which he claimed was every Survivor superfan's dream. I don't know if his exit included quite as much hubris as I might have dreamed of, but his eyes definitely went extremely wide when Probst read the damning second vote against him. He also had one of the most vocal walks off into the jungle after his torch snuffing with such wisdom as, "Adventure of a lifetime. Oh my God. Wow. Damn. That's crazy."

Bottom Line, III. Why did it take so long for anybody to remember that the reward challenge with the ropes had been done before and that the secret then had been to have three players hold the ropes taut and one player just going back and forth stacking blocks? Why did Probst keep calling it a controversial strategy? It's not! For the future: It's the only strategy! You're superfans, people! Remember this stuff.

Bottom Line, IV. There was so much idol stuff going on in this episode that there was no time at all for human moments. Did anybody cry and talk about how they're starting their lives over? No, they did not.

Bottom Line, V. Other random stuff: Donathan has been becoming weirdly competent lately. Chris has not attempted to freestyle rap nearly enough.Kellyn had the episodic title quote. And Wendell saying that the reward challenge win was for his girlfriend and getting the tribe to sing happy birthday to his girlfriend was strange.

Bottom Line, VI. Seriously. Eliza on every jury.

Be sure to check out all of Josh Wigler's great interviews!

Survivor
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

TV

Bill Clinton Impeachment Drama Series Scrapped at History

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Bill Clinton Impeachment Drama Series Scrapped at History

Bill Clinton

Marking the second Monica Lewinsky-focused scripted show to be abandoned.

Ryan Murphy isn't the only one scrapping scripted projects about Monica Lewinsky.

Hours after The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported that the prolific showrunner had canceled plans for a Lewinsky-themed season of FX anthology American Crime Story, History has done the same with its Bill Clinton impeachment drama.

Picked up straight to series in September, The Breach: Inside the Impeachment of Bill Clinton was set to be a six-part scripted series from Emmy winner R.J. Cutler (Nashville). The project was poised to be based on Peter Baker’s New York Times best-seller The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton. Described as a political thriller, the series was to offer a detailed account of how the Lewinsky scandal unfolded, taking viewers inside the war rooms on both sides of the political aisle, the clashes among the president's advisers, the secret negotiations between the White House and Congress and the pressure from both sides to either push Clinton out or force him to resign.

Cutler wrote the script alongside David K. Israel and was also set to direct and executive produce alongside A+E Studios' Barry Jossen. FremantleMedia North America was on board to produce. The project began a casting search for an actor to play Clinton but had trouble casting the lead. An A&E spokesperson told THR that the creative decision to scrap The Breach was made "a while ago."

Murphy, meanwhile, optioned Jeffrey Toobin's A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President in January 2017, eyeing a reunion with the author whose source material inspired the Emmy-winning People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. The prolific showrunner, who recently inked a $300 million deal to move to Netflix, had wanted to cast a newcomer as Lewinsky. Murphy told THR as part of this week's cover story that he had second thoughts about taking on Lewinsky's story.

"I told her, 'Nobody should tell your story but you, and it's kind of gross if they do,'" Murphy recalls telling Lewinsky at a Hollywood party. " 'If you want to produce it with me, I would love that; but you should be the producer and you should make all the goddamn money.'"

History Channel
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com

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‘Game of Thrones’ Podcast: The Worst Decision House Stark Ever Made

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'Game of Thrones' Podcast: The Worst Decision House Stark Ever Made

This week's 'Winter Was Here' podcast focuses on season three, episode five, 'Kissed by Fire.'

[This story contains full spoilers through seven seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones.]

It feels like a futile exercise to rank the bad moves executed by the Starks over the course of Game of Thrones. Does Ned Stark (Sean Bean) refusing to back Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony) take the top spot? Does his litany of mistakes begin even earlier — accepting the role of Hand of the King at the start of the series? If we're factoring Jon Snow (Kit Harington) into the equation, there's a long list of missteps as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch to consider, not to mention his choice to stand in the middle of a battlefield with the entire Bolton forces storming right in his direction.

Then there's the Red Wedding to consider, and the lead-up to the grisly event. Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), Walder Frey (David Bradley) and Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton) certainly deserve the lion's share of the credit for pulling off the biggest and most vicious blindside in Game of Thrones history, but the monumental mass-murder simply wouldn't have occurred without a big assist from the Starks themselves — specifically the King in the North himself, Robb Stark (Richard Madden).

Robb's decision to diss House Frey by marrying Talisa (Oona Chaplin) certainly laid the groundwork for his eventual fate, but the move that sealed the deadly deal arrives in "Kissed by Fire," the fifth episode of Thrones' third season. After an act of treason, Lord Rickard Karstark (John Stahl) winds up on the wrong end of Robb Stark's sword, executed despite protests from everyone in the King in the North's camp. As a result, the large swath of Karstark loyalists leave the Northern Army, leaving Robb in a big spot of trouble. It's bad timing, too: Robb has just formulated a brilliant plan to capture Casterly Rock from the Lannisters, but it's a mission he can't accomplish with his current numbers. Eureka! A light bulb goes off, as Robb arrives at his brightest idea yet: he'll replace the Karstarks with soldiers from House Frey, one of very few houses yet to weigh in on the War of the Five Kings.

What strikes Robb as a great idea on paper is actually a disastrous one in practice, as everyone who has watched beyond this point in the series knows all too well. But shouldn't it be an obviously awful move on paper for Robb as well, given all the times Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) warned Robb about Walder Frey and his uncanny capacity to hold and act on a grudge? For someone who made a name for himself based on cunning battle tactics, Robb's decision to woo the Freys is not only an all-time awful plan, but one that's largely out of character — and one that will directly lead to more deaths than just his own.

Beyond Robb's bad decision, here's what else we're covering this week on "Winter Was Here," the Game of Thrones rewatch podcast collaboration between The Hollywood Reporter and Post Show Recaps:

• The origin story of the Kingslayer, easily the finest Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) moment yet;

• How the impending marriage between Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) may impact the final season of Game of Thrones;

• Why the battle between Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) and the Hound (Rory McCann) doesn't quite live up to the hype;

• The extremely odd nature of this episode's Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) storyline;

• And more!

Listen to the podcast in the player below:

Make sure you don't miss an episode of "Winter Was Here" by subscribing to the show on iTunes or your podcast catcher of choice. Send in your comments and questions using the podcast's email address [email protected] or our feedback form. Keep checking THR.com/GameofThrones for news, interviews, theories and more.

"Winter Was Here," and so is this handy guide collecting every episode of the podcast:

• Season 1, Episode 1: "Winter Is Coming"
• Season 1, Episode 2: "The Kingsroad"
• Season 1, Episode 3: "Lord Snow"
• Season 1, Episode 4: "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things"
• Season 1, Episode 5: "The Wolf and the Lion"
• Season 1, Episode 6: "A Golden Crown"
• Season 1, Episode 7: "You Win or You Die"
• Season 1, Episode 8: "The Pointy End"
• Season 1, Episode 9: "Baelor"
• Season 1, Episode 10: "Fire and Blood"
• Season 1 in Review: Feedback and Theories
• Season 2, Episode 1: "The North Remembers"
• Season 2, Episode 2: "The Night Lands"
• Season 2, Episode 3: "What Is Dead May Never Die"
• Season 2, Episode 4: "Garden of Bones"
• Season 2, Episode 5: "The Ghost of Harrenhal"
• Season 2, Episode 6: "The Old Gods and the New"
• Season 2, Episode 7: "A Man Without Honor"
• Season 2, Episode 8: "The Prince of Winterfell"
• Season 2, Episode 9: "Blackwater"
• Season 2, Episode 10: "Valar Morghulis"
• Season 3, Episode 1: "Valar Dohaeris"
• Season 3, Episode 2: "Dark Wings, Dark Words"
• Season 3, Episode 3: "Walk of Punishment"
• Season 3, Episode 4: "And Now His Watch is Ended"
• Season 3, Episode 5: "Kissed by Fire"

Game of Thrones
Read the full article – Hollywoodreporter.com