'The Gilded Age' Season 2 Surprise: 1 Series Regular Exits & Several Guest Stars Upped to Series Regulars (Plus, See Who's Confirmed to Return)

Hunter Ingram The first season of AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire” builds a textured, vibrant world, only to watchit burn and bleed. Anne Rice’s beloved story of long-dead vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) and his latest creation, Louis (Jacob Anderson), chronicles a relationship baptized in blood, fueled by passion and gutted by betrayal. Thanks to the series’ crafts teams, Louis and Lestat’s bond lives and dies (and lives again) according to a visually cohesive language that congeals around one thing — color. Production designer Mara LePereSchloop and costume designer Carol Cutshall spent days with fabrics in hand, curating the color palette for the series, which shifts Rice’s 19th-century New Orleans story to the early 20th century and the city’s redlight district Storyville.

Whitney Friedlander Whether it’s a collision in an office elevator or a case of mistaken identities, fans of romantic comedies have a love-hate relationship with meet-cutes: The central couple must meet somehow and, since this is a love story, preferably they should do so in a cute way. But how many more white shirts must be killed in the name of clumsy-cute trip-and-falls while holding cups of coffee or orange juice?  For serialized romances, the challenge is even greater. Directors and writers must create interesting run-ins for characters to help sustain interest for longer than it takes for audiences to eat a bucket of popcorn.  “I feel like the bar now is, if you are expected to figure out a meet-cute, it has to be your new slightly subversive never-before-seen version of it,” says director Jay Karas. “I don’t think it’s a trope that we can totally get away from, because people have to meet somehow, and it’s just about how do you modernize it.” 

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Molto bene! Food Network has renewed its new Italian cooking competition “Ciao House,” hosted by Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabriele Bertaccini, for a second season. “Shot on-location in Italy, the series takes ten rising culinary stars on the journey of a lifetime to live in a breathtaking Italian villa and compete against each other as individuals and in teams to prove their mastery of Italian cooking techniques and dishes,” per Food Network’s logline. “Each episode’s culinary challenges are steeped in tradition and the competitors must also navigate alliances and rivalries as they pick their own teams and each week, the losing team must vote off one of their own. In the end, the last chef standing wins a life-changing grand prize: an immersive culinary education across Italy, training with renowned Italian master chefs.”

As part of their pre-season preparations, Rangers will head to Germany for a friendly against TSG Hoffenheim.

A call has been made to reopen a historic Perthshire castle closed to the public for over a year.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristen Davis are celebrating 25 years of Sex and the City!

The work of unpaid carers across South Lanarkshire has been praised as Carers’ Week takes place.

Next season’s Viaplay Cup champions will bank a record breaking sum after SPFL chiefs revealed a bumper £3million in prize money and TV income for the League Cup.

with your complexion, and it's called color analysis: a stylist-approved technique for identifying your seasonal color palette.I discovered this method six months ago when a video on happened upon my Instagram “Explore” page. I had never thought about color contrast and how it could impact the color combinations I should wear, let alone the ones I put on my face.

Getting candid. Amy Schumer did not hold back on the topic of Ozempic — including what caused her to stop using the medication for weight loss.

Roe to the rescue! Skyler Samuels has big shoes to fill as the title character on the revived Hallmark franchise Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.

It might sound like a backhanded compliment, but Downtown Owl feels more like a pilot than a feature film and may yet yield a series. In today’s market, that could work out just fine for directors Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe, who, after a choppy start, finesse Chuck Klosterman’s digressive 2007 novel into a thoughtful, broad-canvas ensemble piece. T Bone Burnett helps nail things down with an eclectic alt-country score and soundtrack, infused with the music and spirit of Elvis Costello, but it’s Rabe that holds it all together onscreen with a controlled yet still wildly uninhibited performance.

The Megyn Kelly Show.”Carlson has now released two episodes of his show on Twitter, which his legal team believes is in bounds because the social media platform is not a direct Fox News competitor. But the network sees things differently, and sent a letter to Carlson this week saying the 11-minute debut episode was in violation of their contract, which reportedly runs through 2025.“This is how panicked they are about Tucker 2.0,” Kelly said, speaking with her guest, writer and Tucker Carlson biographer Chadwick Moore.Kelly also got into the still-unknown sources of leaked video footage published by Media Matters, with multiple instances of Carlson making crass and unflattering comments in between takes, and the infamous “that’s not how white men fight” text message, and other materials from the Dominion litigation, obtained by the New York Times.Kelly wondered, as anyone would, why a former Deadspin writer whose Florida home was recently searched would have anything to do with the leaks, and repeated her claim that Fox has internally warned an employee about leaks being grounds for termination.

Niall Horan’s girlfriend, Amelia Woolley, has had a lot of songs written about her.

Shawn Mendes has been accused of attempting to profit off the wildfire smoke engulfing New York City with the release of his new song. Mendes surprise dropped his song "WHAT THE H--- ARE WE DYING FOR?" on Friday at midnight.The promotional material for the song used a photo of the New York City skyline. New York City has been hit with an orange haze as more than 100 wildfires burned in Quebec on Tuesday.The city is experiencing the worst air quality in recorded history due to the Canadian wildfires, per FOX Weather’s analysis of EPA historical data.

Kate Aurthur editor SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “With Open Eyes,” the series finale of HBO’s “Succession,” now streaming on Max. During their cover story for Variety’s Actors on Actors, Claire Danes — who’s starred in a number of TV shows, including “Homeland” and FX’s recent limited series “Fleishman Is in Trouble” — asked Kieran Culkin whether he’d ever done episodic television before “Succession.” The answer, even though Culkin has been acting since he was a child, was no. Danes laughed, and said, “So you just thought, ‘No, I’m just going to do the best one, and start right there.’”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Composer Daniel Pemberton pushed a few boundaries and “made something really creative and different” when he scored 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” When he returned to score the sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” he knew he would have to “push it as far as we can go.” Pemberton says he had to build the score from the ground up, which was complicated. “You’re trying not to make a score that sounds like other film scores. You’re trying to invent your own language.” Inventing that language took experimentation, research and failure. He explains, “I spent two years researching and developing this score, going through ideas, coming up with concepts and throwing them out.”

Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes worked together on Burr Steers’ 2002 indie “Igby Goes Down,” in which Culkin played the angst-ridden 17-year-old title character to Danes’ slightly older Manhattan socialite Sookie Sapperstein. All these years later, Danes is visibly pregnant, and they chat like old pals about the difficulty of naming her third child with Hugh Dancy. “‘Cyrus,’ we came to pretty readily. ‘Rowan,’ we had to fight harder for. This one is impossible,” she says. “I realized the movie you and I did together is over half of our lives ago,” Culkin says.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. After setting a franchise record with a huge $58 million debut at the box office, “Creed 3” is finally available to stream on Prime Video. In the third installment of the sports drama series, directed by Michael B.

Jordan Moreau The Autobots are rolling out once again at the box office. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” picked up $8.8 million at the domestic box office in Thursday previews. It’s revving up to battle last week’s No. 1 movie, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” in its opening weekend. Paramount’s “Rise of the Beasts” is looking to bring in $50 million to $60 million this weekend, but its box office wheels may get caught in the web of “Across the Spider-Verse,” which is aiming for $45 million to $55 million in its sophomore outing. Last week, Sony’s Spidey sequel opened with a massive $120 million.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Leslie Grace has a very personal reason for deciding to become what she calls an “ambassador” for “Translators,” a new documentary short about bilingual Latino children in the U.S. who become translators for their Spanish-speaking parents. “I’m first generation Dominican American,” the “In the Heights” star tells me. “My grandmother relied on her kids — my mom and her siblings — and then her grandkids. It’s a very common thing when I see my grandmother that my sister or I or my cousins, we take turns sharing the mail and translating for her.” The doc, directed by Emmy winner Rudy Valdez, highlights several families in which the children help navigate their parents’ lives, from explaining bills that need to be paid to the tremendous worry of having to translate proper medical care for their siblings. “I’m really excited for people that haven’t had this experience to be able to witness it through the doc,” Grace says. “Also there may be some assumptions and misconceptions that you might have about someone who doesn’t speak a language or even speaks English with an accent.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Long before Margot Robbie boarded the “Barbie” movie and got Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach to write the screenplay, it was Amy Schumer who was set to headline the project. Back in 2016, Sony Pictures had the rights to “Barbie” and cast Schumer to star in a movie based on an original idea and screenplay by Hilary Winston. Schumer and her sister, Kim Caramele, planned rewrites, but the comedian exited the movie less than a year later. “Sadly, I’m no longer able to commit to Barbie due to scheduling conflicts,” the actor said in a statement to Variety at the time. “The film has so much promise, and Sony and Mattel have been great partners. I’m bummed, but look forward to seeing Barbie on the big screen.”

, but she does have a great sense of humor about it. And she's not afraid to take an untraditional route to looking for love—like shouting at soccer players from the sidelines. As a joke, of course. As she often does, Gomez poked fun at her single status in a TikTok video, which shows the actor wrapped in a blanket on the grass, watching a backyard soccer match from the sidelines with friends.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

, a 90's fashion essential worn by , Sofia Coppola, and as a red carpet must-have. The answer? A silky jumpsuit or pantsuit. Same vibes, just a little more covered up.Whether it's neon yellow, nude, or lace-stitched black, slip dresses have held a special place in Eva Longoria's wardrobe before.

Rangers are reportedly ramping up their bid to land Sam Lammers this summer as Michael Beale targets a trio of signings.

If you're on the hunt for a refreshing new booze flavour for the summer, then you'll be excited to hear that Baileys is about to drop a new flavour soon.

Manchester United supporters desperate for news on the Old Trafford takeover continue to wait for developments.

Meet Frankie Bird!

N-Dubz have announced that they will be releasing their first album in 13 years, their long-awaited fourth album ‘Timeless’.The trio returned to music last year with their single ‘Charmer’ and embarked on their reunion arena tour around the UK.Now, the UK rap trio have posted the artwork and trailer for new album ‘Timeless’, revealing that the record will be released on August 4 and is now available for pre-order. A press release describes ‘Timeless’ as “some of their best work yet” and tackles issues such as toxic relationships, mental health, and growing up in inner-city London.The band have also shared their new single ‘Habibti’, described as “a Michael Jackson-inspired sexy summertime banger about texting back-and-forth with a new beau”.A post shared by N-Dubz (@n_dubz)In the past week, the trio have been teasing the announcement by sharing candid videos from photo shoots and studio sessions.A post shared by N-Dubz (@n_dubz)A post shared by N-Dubz (@n_dubz)A post shared by N-Dubz (@n_dubz)A post shared by N-Dubz (@n_dubz) Tulisa alluded to the new album in an Instagram post in March, showing the mansion the group rented out for their recording space.N-Dubz have released two singles this year so far: with ‘Trust No One (Tour Bus Freestyle)’ arriving in February after being recorded on the bus during their sold-out 27-stop arena tour, before they dropped the electro–pop track ‘February’ and signed a new global deal with EMI Records.N-Dubz found early success with three consecutive platinum-selling albums: 2008’s ‘Uncle B’, 2009’s ‘Against All Odds’ and 2010’s ‘Love.Live.Life’.

Metallica played the first of their two headline sets at this year’s Download festival. Check out the full setlist and footage of the moment below.The Thrash metal pioneers took to the Donington Park stage for the ninth time last night (June 8), for what was the first of their two headline slots at the 2023 instalment of the heavy metal festival.As previously promised, the two sets will contain material from across their four-decade-long discography, and no two songs will be repeated on either night — making room for some lesser-played tracks to come out of the woodwork.This was proven with their performance last night, which included their most famous tracks including ‘Sad But True’, ‘Seek & Destroy’ and ‘Leper Messiah’, as well as material from their latest studio album ‘72 Seasons’, such as ‘Lux Æterna’, ‘Screaming Suicide’ and ‘Sleepwalk My Life Away’.With some of their mammoth hits like ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘One’ and ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ left off their set — and undoubtedly set to appear tomorrow night (June 10) — James Hetfield and co. instead made space for lesser-played tracks.

As often proves the case with talky indies, a single visual flourish in “Downtown Owl” emerges to ensure the film does not become a mere plot and dialogue delivery mechanism. Here, that’s the long lens shot, which flattens out images at the edges to incorporate more information in the visual field.

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” began its domestic box office sprint on Thursday with $8.8 million in preview screening grosses. That is on par with (sans inflation) the $8.8 million earned via Tuesday previews for “Transformers: The Last Knight” in June of 2017 and the $8.75 million Thursday preview gross of “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in 2014.

Donald Trump’s second indictment. According to the MSNBC host, those responses are nothing but “sleazy” sentiments that demonstrate an “absolute contempt for the United States of America.”The second indictment officially came down on Thursday, as part of Jack Smith’s ongoing investigation into the mishandling of classified documents that were eventually seized from Mar-a-Lago.

Comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan will do a four-arena tour together this fall. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Maci Bookout is showing some unexpected support for her ex during his interminable legal battle.