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Portraying a character for over a decade can significantly affect an actor, especially one as distinctive as Sheldon Cooper. Jim Parsons’ portrayal of one-of-a-kind genius in the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory stands as a pinnacle of his career’s success. However, this achievement was not without its challenges.

A still from The Big Bang Theory | CBS

In parallel to his on-screen persona, the actor found himself adopting a disciplined lifestyle during his tenure on the sitcom. It also included abstaining from alcohol for almost a decade to focus on a healthy lifestyle.

The Big Bang Theory Sparked Jim Parsons’ Nine-Year Sobriety Commitment

While portraying the role of Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons went through a transformative phase in his life, as he started following an extreme lifestyle at the time. In his interview, for The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series, he recalled...

Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja’s Anniversary: Six years ago on May 8, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja embarked on a beautiful journey together, exchanging vows in a grand Indian wedding in Mumbai. Little did they know that two years prior, on the same date, their paths would first cross, laying the foundation for their enduring love story.

A Heartfelt Celebration

Today, on their anniversary, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja took to social media to express their love and gratitude for each other. Sonam Kapoor shared a heartfelt post on Instagram, showcasing a collection of cherished moments from their journey. From goofy selfies to tender snapshots with their little one Vayu, the post encapsulated the essence of their bond.

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A post shared by Sonam A Kapoor (@sonamkapoor)

An Expression of Love

Captioning her post, Sonam poured her heart out to Anand, declaring him as her anchor and safe place.

The new user interface of devices running Google TV includes a “Free TV Channels” shortcut and rounded app buttons. (Screen capture by The Desk)

When people say they “watch TV,” it means so much more than it did in the past. Today’s viewers seamlessly jump from hit shows to creator content, including watching YouTube Shorts on the big screen. Audiences are fluid, and to reach them when it matters most means showing up where they love to watch.

As an industry, it’s time to come together and forge a new path forward. At Google NewFront, we unveiled how Google’s Display & Video 360 has evolved to help marketers and media agencies win as streaming continues to transform. That means unifying their video ad buys to better scale and understand their audiences across streaming content.

Marketers who have unified their media buying with Display & Video 360 have seen a 120% higher return...

When Dune hit the theatres back in 2021, fans couldn’t believe that they had been treated to such a grand project. The movie’s ensemble, the location, meant that it was always going to reach a level that might be impossible to attain with a potential sequel. But Dune 2 has done just that. There might be mixed reviews about the sequel, but there is no denying the fact that they have done quite a job building up on the 2021 flick. And even Steven Spielberg can’t deny the same.

Steven Spielberg is in awe of Dune 2

Steven Spielberg is all praise for the sci-fi

Ever since the release of Dune 2, the praises have been flowing. Fans can’t get enough of the Timothee Chalamet starrer. And looks like they aren’t alone. In an appearance on DGA Director’s Cut podcast, Dune director Denis Villeneuve and Steven Spielberg sat down together.

The hit series “Squid Game” will be returning to Netflix for Season 2, and Netflix notes in a letter to shareholders this week – obtained by Variety – that it’s planned for this year.

Here’s the full letter from Netflix that was shared by Variety this afternoon:

Looking ahead, despite last year’s strikes pushing back the launch of some titles, we have a big, bold slate for 2024. Audiences will be able to choose from hit returning dramas like The Diplomat S2, Bridgerton S3, Squid Game S2 and Empress S2; unscripted series like Tour de France: Unchained S2, Love is Blind S6, F1: Drive to Survive S6 and Full Swing S2; and brand new shows like 3 Body Problem (based on the best selling novel and from the Game of Thrones showrunners), Griselda, The Gentlemen (from Guy Ritchie), Eric (starring Benedict Cumberbach), Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cien Años de Soledad...

CoSign alum Tkay Maidza has mapped out a 2024 North American tour in support of her latest album, Sweet Justice.

After kicking off the trek on February 8th in Seattle, the Zimbabwean-Australian artist will make stops in Chicago, Toronto, New York City, and more before wrapping up in Los Angeles on March 8th. See the full itinerary below.

An artist presale will begin on Wednesday, December 6th (use access code SW33TJUSTIC3) ahead of the general on-sale slated for Friday, December 8th via Ticketmaster.

Once tickets are on sale, you can also find them at StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

Get Tkay Maidza Tickets Here

Alongside the tour announcement, Maidza has unveiled a new music video for the Sweet Justice cut “Won One.” Watch the Munachi-directed clip below.

Tkay Maidza has finally announced the long-awaited follow-up to her 2016 self-titled debut. Sweet Justice, her second LP, arrives November 3rd via 4Ad, while lead single “Ring-a-Ling” is out now.

Lesser minds might call Sweet Justice a breakup album, but the project’s title comes more from Maidza’s newfound relationships with friends like Stint, Kaytranada, and Flume — who produced the record — rather than any ill will she could wish toward an ex. “Sweet Justice was a way for me to channel my emotions from what I’ve experienced in the last two years,” the rapper said in a statement. “It’s a diary of things and thoughts I’ve kept to myself. Making the record was a healing experience and I’m grateful to have worked with producers who have inspired me throughout my career.”

Rather than wallowing in the past, “Ring-a-Ling” sees Maidza happily independent in the present. “I...

Australia by way of Zimbabwe artist Tkay Maidza has released her new single “Silent Assassin.” Listen to it below.

“Silent Assassin” was produced by fellow Australian Flume and sees Maidza taking cues from Missy Elliot and Busta Rhymes. Over a pummeling club-ready beat, the artist warns listeners not to underestimate her. “You a fool tryna hack on this clip,” she raps. “I’m unanimous/ I’m jigsaw, not a quick fix.”

Watch the desert-set music video, directed by Milo Lee, below.

Working with Flume was a dream for our former CoSign, who wrote the song as a statement of self-empowerment and efficacy, boasting the unique sensibilities that separate her from the norm.

“I like to move in silence, but this song is a reminder that people shouldn’t count me out or underestimate my abilities; they should be afraid when I’m quiet as I come back more evolved,” Maidza said in a press release.

The competition has fully assembled.

On Thursday, Netflix unveiled the final new cast additions joining Lee Jung-jae in season 2 of the international hit series “Squid Game”.

Read More: ‘Squid Game’ Season 2: Netflix Reveals Which Actors Will Be Joining Lee Jung-jae

The new cast members include a range of veteran actors and rising stars in the Korean film and TV industry.

Joining the show are “Sweet Home” star Park Gyu-young, K-pop singer Jo Yu-ri from the group Iz*One, “Move to Heaven” actress Kang Ae-sim, “The Fortress” star Lee David, “Miss Granny star Lee Jin-uk, “Commitment” actor Choi Seung-hyun, “Missing Yoon” actor Roh Jae-won and “D.P” star Won Ji-an.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk is returning to helm the series after its successful first season, with Lee Jungjae back as Seong Gi-hun.

Netflix has previously announced that Lee Byung-hun will return as Front Man, while Wi Ha-joon will reprise the role of Hwang Jun-ho,...

The hit series “Squid Game” will be returning to Netflix for Season 2, and Netflix today announced the remaining cast that will be joining the second season of the global hit series.

This week, cast members and showrunners gathered for their first table read (pictured below), with the production of “Squid Game” Season 2 starting later this year.

From rising stars to veteran actors, the ensemble cast boasts a diverse range of talent and experiences. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who won an Emmy for the first season, will return to direct and executive produce the entire second season.

The additional cast includes:

Park Gyu-young: Well known for her role in Netflix series Sweet Home Seasons 1 and 2, she is also starring in the upcoming Netflix series Celebrity. Jo Yu-ri: The singer and actress is known as a former member of South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One. Kang Ae-sim: A highly respected theater and musical actress in Korea,...

Season 2 of Squid Game now has all of its players.

Netflix on Wednesday revealed eight final additions to the hit South Korean thriller’s long-awaited sophomore run, which as previously reported is bringing back Lee Jung-jae (as protagonist Seong Gi-hun), Lee Byung-Hun (as the Front Man), Wi Ha-jun (as Hwang Jun-ho, the cop who posed as a guard to find his brother) and Gong Yoo (as the game’s recruiter).

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Gillian Anderson's New Gig, Cancelled Queen Update and MoreWarrior Nun Creator Teases 'Epic' Return for Fantasy Series, Six Months After Netflix CancellationGlamorous' Miss Benny Breaks...

“Squid Game” Season 2 at Netflix is rounding out its cast, with the addition of eight new cast members.

New additions to the second season of the international hit series are: Park Gyu-young (“Sweet Home”), Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Lee Jin-uk, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, and Won Ji-an (“D.P.”). A picture of the new cast members can be seen below.

Netflix previously announced that Yim Si-Wan, Kang Ha-Neul, Park Sung-Hoon, and Yang Dong-Geun would also be joining the new season alongside returning cast members Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo, and Wi Ha-jun.

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the series, will return as writer, director and executive producer for the new season. Kim Ji-yeon will also executive produce. Firstman Studio will produce.

“Squid Game” exploded onto the TV scene in September 2021, with the first season eventually becoming the most-watched season of television in Netflix history with over 2.2 billion hours viewed,...

In four years, Denisia “Blu June” Andrews and Brittany “Chi” Coney went from co-writing a song Beyoncé was featured on to working on more than half of her latest album.

Better known as the creative duo Nova Wav, Blu June and Chi first received a co-writing credit on “Top Off,” the 2018 DJ Khaled track that features Future, Jay-Z and Queen Bey. More sessions rolled in, and Nova Wav wound up penning four songs on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s collaborative album, Everything Is Love, as well as Bey’s The Lion King: The Gift, including the Juneteenth anthem “Black Parade.”

On Renaissance, the superstar’s daring exploration of dance and house music, Blu June and Chi not only co-wrote eight of the 16 songs, they co-produced five tracks; Chi also engineered some of the songs, and Blu June sings background on “Alien Superstar” and “Pure/Honey.” Now the duo is nominated for three Grammy Awards,...

Click here to read the full article.

The BBC is on track to spend £100 million (121 million) on diverse and inclusive TV content by 2023/2024, a target it set for itself in 2020 in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

In the first progress update on the network’s Creative Diversity Commitment, the BBC said it had invested £44 million (53 million) on 67 diverse TV programs since 2021. These shows — including Tonight With Target, Then Barbara Met Alan, Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star and Dreaming Whilst Black — were made by 48 different independent production companies, the BBC said, 73 percent of which had diverse leaderships and 10 percent had never been commissioned by the BBC before.

A total of £4 million (4.8 million) had also been invested in supporting 90 diverse radio commissions, with the BBC confirming that this means it was “on track” to investing the full £112 million (135 million) targeted.

“The BBC is for everyone and audiences...

In the early moments of “Commitment Hasan,” Turkish writer-director Semih Kaplanoglu’s slow-burning morality tale, one could mistake the titular character for a weak, vulnerable individual others routinely walk all over. Portrayed with a quiet sense of stealth by Umut Karadag, Hasan is a fairly prosperous farmer and gardener tending to the family land he inherited from his father, a windswept, fecund place of tomato fields and apple orchards. In the opening sequence, he puts up a silent and losing fight against an arrogant engineer who drops by his plot unannounced and informs Hasan that an electrical pylon would soon be erected right in the middle of his field as part of the government’s plan to enhance the region’s power grid. Hasan sheepishly protests: Why wouldn’t they reroute the expansion and choose the vacant neighboring field instead? Predictably, his objections fall on deaf ears.

Soon though, Kaplanoglu...

Turkey’s Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, which historically has always been the country’s prime local cinema catalyst, stands as testimony that despite impediments due to the pandemic and the country’s economy Turkish filmmakers are in fine fettle.

“At the start of the year people said: ‘You will not be able to assemble 10 [Turkish] films due to the pandemic,’” because “they thought nothing was getting made,” says Antalya fest chief Ahmet Boyacıoğlu.

Instead, programmers for the event’s upcoming 58th edition that will run Oct. 2-9 in the sprawling resort city on Turkey’s Southern coast, received 44 submissions for the national competition that is at its core. And the 10 features they’ve selected rep “the strongest selection at Antalya in maybe the past 10 years,” he says.

Antalya’s artistic director Başak Emre points out that with the Turkish lira hitting all-time lows against Western currencies and waning local government...

The film is directed by Semih Kaplanoglu.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has picked up worldwide rights to Cannes Un Certain Regard selection Commitment Hasan from the Golden Bear- winning director Semih Kaplanoglu.

Additionally, Arp has acquired French rights from Films Boutique and plans to release the film theatrically later this year.

Commitment Hasan is about a man who makes his living by gardening and farming on the land he inherited from his father and is determined to stop an electricity pole being planted on his land.

Umut Karadağ, Filiz Bozok and Mahir Günşiray star in the film which Kaplanoglu has also produced with Furkan Yeşilnur.

Paul Verhoeven, Oliver Stone, Sean Baker, Asghar Farhadi, Tom McCarthy and Sean Penn are among the directors who will be represented in the official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from July 6-17 in the south of France.

Verhoeven, Baker and Farhadi will be represented in the main competition with “Benedetta,” “Red Rocket” and “A Hero,” respectively. “Spotlight” director McCarthy will screen his Matt Damon film “Stillwater” out of competition, while Stone will present the first two hours of his four-hour documentary about the John F. Kennedy assassination, “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.”

As previously announced, the festival will open with Leos Carax’s musical “Annette,” with music by the band Sparks, and will also include Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which was originally scheduled to premiere in Cannes last year.

After the Cannes press release had been sent out and general delegate Thierry...

At long last, the Cannes Film Festival returns this July. While it remains to be seen just how many journalists outside France will actually be able to attend, their lineup, with a competition jury chaired by Spike Lee, has now being unveiled.

With a few selections already confirmed––such as the highly anticipated trio of Leos Carax’s opener Annette, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta––Pierre Lescure, President of the Cannes Film Festival, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, presented the rest of the Official Selection of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

See the line up below and check back for Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week announcements.

Competition

Annette (Leos Carax)

The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson)

Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)

A Hero (Asghar Farhadi)

Tout S’est Bien Passe (Francois Ozon)

Tre Piani (Nanni Moretti)

Titane (Julia Ducournau)

Red Rocket (Sean Baker)

Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov)

France...

One of the fascinating things about the modern-day music industry is that an artist in one small corner of the world can find global success overnight. When it comes to music discovery, curation is crucial, and platforms like Spotify’s international emerging artist program, Radar, keep eager fans plugged into what’s hot and who’s up next in every genre around the world.

For Australian native, The Kid Laroi, his pop-rock hit “Without You,” remixed with a guest appearance from Miley Cyrus, underscores why he’s a major streaming success right now.

Teyana Taylor is set to release “The Album” on Friday, coinciding with Juneteenth, the day marking word of emancipation reaching enslaved African-Americans in the outermost territories in 1865.

To preview the project — featuring such music elites as Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Future, Kehlani, Quavo, Rick Ross and Davido, among others — Taylor threw a listening party at a private mansion in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, June 17. Variety was among the guests in attendance — many gathered in yellow protective gear and noting it was their first time at an event since going into isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event was hosted by Karrueche and Terrence J, the latter who declared at the start: “Teyana doesn’t f–k with a lot of people. Congrats on being a real one, you made the list.”

Among the stars sighted at the posh pad were Cardi B and Offset with their daughter Kulture,...

The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (Apamc) released their annual TV report card, grading the top four television networks for the 2018-2019 season assessing their progress toward diversity and inclusion of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) onscreen and behind the camera and although there was some progress, it wasn’t enough to make the needle move dramatically. In fact, it barely moved at all.

The report card evaluated the networks on the following categories: acting (regular and recurring), unscripted (hosts and contestants), writer/producers, directors, development, commitment to diversity and diversity department relationship. ABC had an overall grade of B while CBS came in at a B- and NBC scored a C, all on par with their 2017-2018 marks. Fox scored the lowest with a C-, but it is a remarkable increase from the F it received last season.

“Since the Apamc began meeting with the networks in 1999,” said Apamc chair Daniel Mayeda,...

Hey, if you needed someone to go undercover in South Korea, I guess one of the popular members of the boy band Big Bang is probably a pretty good choice. Well, not really, now that I think about it. Fortunately for Choi Seung-hyun’s character in Hong-soo Park’s “Commitment”, Myung-hoon is just a high school student. Which, I suppose, makes his infiltration kinda easier. Yeah, that makes way more sense. Anyhoo. Take a gander at the trailer for “Commitment”, including a poster and some images. Choi was also in John H. Lee’s “71: Into the Fire”, which I liked, even though it was a tad overblown. Whatever happened to Lee’s “The Killer” remake, anyway? Am I the only one still waiting for that movie? Probably… After his father’s botched espionage mission, North Korean Myung-hoon and his young sister Hye-in are sent to a labor prison camp.