A Strange Loop’s Michael R. Jackson and Company’s Matt Doyle Talk Diversity on Broadway

James Marsden is good at keeping fans on their toes. Following his Emmy-nominated success with ‘Jury Duty,’ Marsden has three very different projects in 2024, the first being Michael Keaton’s ‘Knox Goes Away’ (March 15). “I like to take opportunities that are very different tone, and this was just like, ‘Wow, you’re in the company of great people here and how would I ever say no to this?’” Later this year he’ll star in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3.’ He says part of the franchise’s success is that they’ve always wanted to “be like ‘Fast and Furious’ meets one of those films. We want there to be action, we want the jokes to be smart.” If that’s not enough, he’ll also appear in Jerry Seinfeld’s ‘Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.’ While raspberry is Marsden’s flavor of choice, growing up, “Pop-Tarts was a luxury thing that I’d go to the bus stop and see my other friends eating. Like, what’s this shiny aluminum- encased treat?” At this point, Marsden is proud of his genre-shifting career; he credits it with always aligning “yourself as much as you can with the best directors and the best material.” 

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Well, the day has arrived, we have a winner of season two of Peacock’s ‘The Traitors.’ Or is it winners? Well, you’ll just have to listen to Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott talk exclusively with them. (You see how we’re intentionally not revealing their name or names? You’re welcome!) 

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Understanding the balance between dark comedy and mystery is a unique quality of Annette Bening, which she puts to good use in Peacock’s limited series Apples Never Fall (March 14), based on Liane Moriarty’s book. “Everybody has a secret, and that’s fun.” Bening plays Joy Delaney, the matriarch of a seemingly perfect family who suddenly disappears. “Even in the best comedies, there’s a deep dis-ease inside of people that we’re trying to dramatize.” In typical Bening style, she’s able to show this dance between genres with such subtlety. “A lot of times in film, the moments that we remember characters are often quiet [ones].” Describing the story as “juicy,” Bening says, “right now we all need a certain amount of entertainment.” Recently she did just that in the film Nyad, playing the real-life Diana Nyad, who broke records swimming from Cuba to Florida coached by her friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster). The role earned her an Academy Award nomination. “This idea of chosen family is very familiar to [queer] people. And it’s just important that people see that.” 

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Whatever you do, don’t call Gayle King an icon. “Diana Ross, to me, is an icon.” Fair. But one moniker she is fine with is America’s best friend. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I like that.” And it fits, considering her many titles: center anchor of CBS Mornings, editor at large of Oprah Daily, co-host of CNN’s King Charles. “If I get five [hours of sleep a night], I'm doing the hula.” At CBS Mornings, it’s the combination of King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson that creates a dynamic unlike any other morning show. “We can educate, we can inform and entertain without being a comedy show.” And that’s because of what each of them brings to the show. “Clearly, people like watching people that they think like each other and enjoy working with each other. We certainly have that down on lock. But I think that we each bring something different to the table.” Even though she says she’s not “out here looking for more work,” she’s also never going to turn down an opportunity. “I just have so many varied interests in all different types of things. That has served me well over the years.” “I say this all the time, I have a front-row seat to history. And I like it.” 

Read the feature on Gayle King: https://www.newsweek.com/2024/03/15/gayle-king-not-just-oprahs-best-friend-shes-americas-best-friend-1874854.html 

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A new season of CBS’ Survivor is upon us, and former player Rob Cesternino stopped by to talk with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott about the new season, his recent chat with Jeff Probst, and his crazy popular podcast Rob Has a Podcast.  

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YouTube star Grace Helbig talks with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott about her recent breast cancer diagnosis and everything she’s learned since. Grace and H. Alan have been friends for years, but one thing they never thought they’d have in common would be cancer. They chat about that, what it was like to go to the same chemo center in Beverly Hills, and all the things that cancer has taught them.  

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Carrie Preston is ready to step into the spotlight. The Emmy-winning veteran character actress will helm the title role in Elsbeth on CBS (February 29), playing Elsbeth Tascioni, a character she originated 14 years ago on The Good Wife and its spinoff The Good Fight. “When this part came along, what was happening on the page was so extraordinary for television, because she was so unusual.” We now find the colorful lawyer assisting the NYPD in solving crimes. “People don’t quite know what to do with her either, and she knows that. She’s not like the other kids.” And Preston, best known for her supporting performances on True Blood and Claws, says, “I’m more prepared for it than I would have been in my 20s when I was just sort of dreaming about it.” But she’s still finding acclaim in smaller roles, too. She recently appeared in a small but key role in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-nominated film The Holdovers. “I knew watching other Alexander movies that he was going to treat my character with the same amount of care that he treated [the main] three, and it comes across.” 

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Survivor’s Parvati Shallow chats with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott about being discovered as a traitor on Peacock’s ‘The Traitors,’ why she aligned with Big Brother’s Dan Gheesling against Phaedra Parks from ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ The Bachelor’s Peter Weber game play, and those iconic headbands. Stick with the Parting Shot, because we’ll be having lots more chats with players from ‘The Traitors.’  

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We’re in the middle of a Jodie Foster renaissance. The two-time Oscar winner is not only starring in one of the hottest limited series on TV right now, HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, but also picked up yet another Oscar nomination for her performance in Netflix’s Nyad. For True Detective, Foster responded to the balance between drama and horror, which she says is partly due to the landscape of where it’s set: Alaska. “That primitive connection with nature and 80 percent of the population is Inuit. You can’t not have the spiritual world. That’s so much a part of their life.” All of those factors make Alaska “fantastic [for storytelling],” Foster told Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott. And part of the reason why Foster was so excited for True Detective is because mainstream film distributors have “abandoned storytelling” for “franchise films or Marvel movies.” But now, because of this shift, that complex storytelling is available on streaming. “We have these wonderful limited series and long, episodic things, and now people are finally discovering that they can see their films that way too.” 

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Celebrated director Rob Reiner is worried about the rise of Christian nationalism—the use of Christian values to push a political agenda—and its impact on democracy. “A lot of people are unwittingly being drawn into this movement,” Reiner told Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott. To highlight this, Reiner teamed up with director Dan Partland to produce the documentary God & Country (February 16). “We have to make a distinction between Christianity and Christian nationalism, because you’ll see that we have conservative Christian evangelicals who talk specifically about how not only is Christian nationalism hurting the country and democracy, but it’s hurting Christianity.” Reiner is direct about laying some blame for Christian nationalism’s rise. “I can criticize [Donald] Trump because he’s the one who’s roping these people into this thinking,” citing January 6 as a prime example. “Trump is a cult, and people who follow the cult are vulnerable.” But he sympathizes with those impacted. “They’re looking for meaning, they’re looking for a direction, and you can get swept up in something [like that].” 

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