Saturday Night Live set to return
NEW YORK — Five months after cutting its season short because of the writers strike, “Saturday Night Live” is returning to TV.
The long-running sketch comedy show will premiere Season 49 on Oct. 14, NBC announced Wednesday. Former cast member Pete Davidson will host, making good on a plan to have him host last May. The comedian will be joined by first-time musical guest Ice Spice.
The following week, Bad Bunny will pull double duty as host and musical guest. While the Grammy winner has performed on the show before, it'll be his hosting debut.
The entire cast from Season 48 will return, along with one new addition: Chloe Troast, as a featured player.
Davidson had been set to host May 6, alongside musical guest Lil Uzi Vert, but his episode was the first to be cut after the writers strike started just days before. The writers strike was declared over Sept. 26 after Writers Guild of America board members approved a contract agreement with studios. While Hollywood actors are still on strike for most television and theatrical work, the “SNL” cast can resume performing as variety shows operate under a different contract.
Other late-night shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” have also returned.
“I’m excited to do some more ‘SNL,’” cast member James Austin Johnson, known for impressions of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, told The Associated Press earlier this week. “It moves quick.”
Julia Ormond sues Harvey Weinstein saying he assaulted her; accuses CAA, Disney, Miramax of enabling
NEW YORK — Julia Ormond, who starred in films alongside the likes of Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford in the 1990s before her spotlight faded, filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 1995 and then hindering her career.
Ormond, who also accuses The Walt Disney Co., Miramax and her former agents of knowing Weinstein was a problem but doing nothing about it, filed the case in state Supreme Court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act , a law passed last year that allows a temporary window for those who allege sexual assault to file past the state's normal deadlines.
In her suit, Ormond says she was a star on the rise when she met Weinstein in 1994. She says she kept in touch with him to discuss scripts and projects, and in 1995 entered into a production agreement with Miramax, where he was co-chairman. She accuses him of committing sexual battery against her in December 1995 after a business meeting, and then retaliating against her and negatively affecting her career after she confronted him weeks later.
The British actress says she told her U.S. agents at the time, Creative Artists Agency, but received no support and was advised not to take any legal action or other steps. She accuses CAA, Disney and Miramax, saying that they knew Weinstein presented a danger to women but did nothing to stop him or to help her.
According to the filing, “none of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of assaulting women because he was too important, too powerful, and made them too much money."
The lawsuit marks the first time Ormond has publicly accused Weinstein of sexual assault. The Associated Press generally doesn't name the alleged victims of sexual assault, but is in this case because Ormond has spoken publicly about it, including in an interview with Variety.
Weinstein, 71, was convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020 and is in prison in the state. Last year, he also was convicted of another rape in Los Angeles. He has appealed both convictions.
Weinstein attorney Imran Ansari said his client “categorically denies the allegations made against him by Julia Ormond and he is prepared to vehemently defend himself.”
Emails seeking comment were sent to CAA, Disney and Miramax.
Ormond's films include “Legends of the Fall” with Pitt; “Sabrina” with Ford, and “First Knight” with Sean Connery and Richard Gere.
George Takei picture book on his years in internment camps will be published next spring
NEW YORK — “Star Trek” actor and political activist George Takei has a picture book scheduled for next spring that draws upon his early childhood years spent in internment camps for Japanese Americans.
Crown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that Takei's “My Lost Freedom,” illustrated by Michelle Lee, will be published April 30, 2024. Takei, 86, spent three years in three different camps during World War II. The camps were established after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing the forced removal on the West Coast of those considered security risks, leading to the incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans.
“My childhood behind barbed wire fences is the reason I became an activist,” Takei said in a statement. "It was clear that the story about the injustices Japanese Americans faced should also be told in a way that young children and their caregivers could understand. Especially in today’s political climate, my mission is to convey this chapter of American history to children so that we can all grow up knowing both the fragility and the importance of democracy and our participation in it.”
Takei's previous books include “Oh Myyy!: There Goes The Internet,” about his substantial social media following, and the autobiography “To the Stars.”
Crown Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House.
