Photo: Twitter

Made for Love has been pulled out from HBO Max.

Following two seasons of being on air, the science fiction black comedy-drama based on Allisa Nutting’s 2017 novel of the same name has been called off.

“We are tremendously grateful for the truly spectacular journey of these past two seasons, courtesy of Alissa Nutting, Christina Lee, Cristin, Billy, Ray, and the entire Made for Love cast and creative team – especially Zelda the talking dolphin and everyone’s favorite synthetic love interest, Diane,” a representative of HBO Max said in an interview with EW on Friday. 

“Like a Gogol chip, the series will always be on our minds.” 

Made for Love was initially released in 2021 and told the tale of Hazel (Milioti), a wife of a billionaire tech magnate who left her husband, Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), later finding that he had placed a surveillance chip in her brain. 

Read Also: Glass Menagerie is Amy Adams’ Top Game, Says Critics

The second season wrapped up on a cliffhanger, as Hazel trapped her husband’s consciousness inside his body and enabled her to helm Gogol. She is also six months pregnant with their baby. 

Milioti told EW that she had a whole list of ideas for the third season if it were to happen.

“What does someone who has gone through what she’s gone through does with that much power? And she’s really unpredictable,” she stated.

“You’re always like, ‘Oh God, don’t do that.’ She can’t really communicate well, she doesn’t think before she leaps, all these things, but you still really understand why. And I wonder now that she is untethered, I would want to explore what that does to someone like Hazel.” 

The first season had Lee as the executive producer, later joined by Nutting for the second season. Made for Love also featured Dan Bakkendahl, Noma Dumezweni, Caleb Foote, and Sarunas J. Jackson.

Read Also: Stranger Things’ Joe Quinn Talks About the Season 4 Villain

Photo: Flipboard

Melissa McCarthy, who has been impersonating her comedy hero Chris Farley for years, wears the jacket he wore during Saturday Night Live’s 40th-anniversary special. 

“It was really his jacket and they just kind of like clipped it back,” McCarthy said in an interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM. “And they’re like, ‘We’re gonna take it in, but we don’t wanna damage it. And we’re gonna do all this.” 

When she finally got dressed, it was “really wild” because everyone had to process for a moment that McCarthy was now portraying the late comedian.

Nothing could help to calm her down.

“It was the one time right before I came through the door, I was so nervous,” stated McCarthy. 

“That the sweet stage manager came up, and he goes, ‘Honey, are you okay?’ My legs were bouncing to the point where I couldn’t, I was holding onto the door. And I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can get the handle open.’ Because I couldn’t, I was not in control of my body. And I’ve never done that before. I was just rattled.” 

Read Also: SNL is a Memorable Show for Pete Davidson

The multi-award-winning star was so nervous that she called her husband, Ben Falcone, to talk about it before appearing on stage. Falcone told her that Farley would never do something like that halfway, and neither should she. 

“Come through that door like a train. Do it to make him proud,” he said. 

“I literally was like, ‘I’m either gonna blackout, or I’m gonna come through like a train,” McCarthy added. “So, thank, thank God, I think I picked the train.” 

In an effort to deject David Spade and Christina Applegate from using drugs, Matt Foley was released to SNL. Farley and Bob Odenkirk made the character during the days when they were doing improv at Second City. The character is now considered one of the most iconic sketches in SNL history. 

“When Chris Farley did the ‘down by the river’ Matt Foley, I was in that,” a cast member from 1990 to 1994 named Julia Sweeney said during a “Women of SNL” panel a few years ago. 

“They had to cut around me because I was laughing. Because it was like I had the best seat in the house for the funniest friggin’ thing that was happening on the planet.”

Read Also: Oscar Isaac and Zoë Kravitz Will Host SNL This March

Image Source: www.latimes.com

On Thursday, daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres announced that she would be leaving her position with the program after nearly 20 years, saying the show “forever changed my life.” 

The last hour of The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been devoted to a lengthy discussion about how much better things have gotten since the series started back in 2003. Ellen stressed that she “couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show” when it began or mention her wife, Portia de Rossi, due to gay marriage not being legal at the time. 

“Now I say ‘wife’ all the time,” she stated. 

Emphasizing that there was resistance to the series and that some handed it a chance of thriving, DeGeneres vowed that her hiatus wouldn’t be long. 

“Today is not the end of a relationship; it’s more of a little break,” she stated. “You can see other talk shows now.” 

The program created an interactive slideshow of the footage from DeGeneres’ 3,200 episodes. It included her tearfully expressing her gratitude to the audience following a successful taping of the first episode, and other highlights of her career, like hosting the Oscars and being given the Mark Twain Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Jennifer Aniston was the first guest on DeGeneres’ show, and she handed her a welcome mat that said, “Thanks for the memories.” 

The show has been getting a lot of attention from celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, who came last week to discuss the homely factor of the series. Other guests on this episode were Billie Eilish and Pink. “You help people find their joy,” said Pink, who performed in the show. 

DeGeneres expressed her thanks to her staff, producers, and loyal viewers. 

“If I’ve done anything in the past 19 years, I hope I’ve inspired you to be yourself – your true, authentic self,” said the comic, who outed herself on her ABC sitcom, Ellen, in 1997. 

There were no statements in the last episode that talked about the show’s controversies over the last few years, such as reports of toxic culture that resulted in DeGeneres apologizing to her staff in 2020. 

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is distributed by Warner Bros. Television, a Warner Bros. Discovery unit.

Photo: E Online

There’s nothing more heart-wrenching than saying goodbye to something you love. But, when the time comes, it can be hard—especially on a show such as This Is Us, where there are always many surprises around every corner. 

The cast of the show got together on a hot April day in Los Angeles to pose for EW’s digital cover. The ambiance was summer casual – it felt more like a BBQ than anything else, but they did discuss how things will end with this series eventually coming to a close on May 24. 

“How do you guys feel about saying goodbye to your characters?” asked Mandy Moore to her co-stars during the Around the Table shoot. “Because that’s something that I feel like I’ve just started digesting, and I’m like, you have to actually say goodbye to these people. Like, they will no longer exist anymore.”

“And you have to literally say goodbye because Rebecca really says goodbye in these last couple episodes,” Susan Kelechi Watson tells Moore. 

And a while ago, she felt the same when she was co-writing Beth’s final episode in season 6 (Our Little Island Girl: Part 2). 

“I remember before we even started,” states Watson, “starting to already feel the ending starting to happen, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you know? You really do feel like, all the years.'”

“I don’t know how to say goodbye,” concludes Moore.

“I’m not going to,” Jon Huertas, who portrays Jack’s best friend and Rebecca’s second husband, Miguel, says. “The hair department let me keep the old man wig.”

Meanwhile, for Milo Ventimiglia (Jack), the farewell brought an additional chunk of lament. As Jack’s scenes occur in the past (considering his early death), the patriarch and the adult Big Three did not have a chance to meet. 

“I’ve been consistently saying that’s the one heartbreaking thing for me,” Ventimiglia reveals, “is I don’t get to share time with all of you on set.”

“But you’re always with us,” comforts Chrissy Metz. 

The broad-spanning, free-wheeling discussion brought up the obstacles for Metz and Chris Sullivan (Toby) in playing Kate and Toby’s split. 

“I didn’t expect Kate and Toby to not make it,” Metz claims. “I knew somebody wasn’t going to. I just didn’t know it was gonna be Kate and Toby.”

When Sterling K. Brown (Randall) asks his onscreen sister how she feels about it, she faces Sullivan and says, “I don’t like it. No, that’s my dawg. This is my Chris. It’s like, I miss you, you know?” 

The discussion also went to who was the most excellent crier among the cast. And some talk about what it even means. 

“Either Chrissy or Mandy, they always make me cry every time in the scene,” states Brown, the portrayer of the iconic one tear rolling down his face. 

However, he divulges that it was the opposite at the back of the camera.

“Backstage is constant laughter,” Brown states. “And I don’t know if it’s just who we are as a group of people; we sort of just enjoy each other. When the show is as heavy as it is, people think we live in that the whole time. I don’t think so. I think that would be too difficult to just carry that kind of weight the whole time. So we do what we need to, in order to release.” 

Sullivan then adds: “I’ve only had a few scenes with Justin (Hartley). And every single one of them ends with me in tears, trying to hold in laughter.”

Photo: BBC

The Derry Girls’ final episode was received positively by critics and fans alike.

The ending of the Channel 4 sitcom – chronicles five high school students in the 1990s who must explore their teenage years versus the backdrop of the Troubles –  was received by critics with praises. The show’s writer and creator, Lisa McGee, received numerous compliments for her work on this series, with many critics giving it five stars review. 

“The extended finale had it all,” said Anita Singh from The Telegraph. “It was poignant, heartwarming and hilarious.” 

“It took the elements that have always made up the show – the Troubles and the growing pains of teenage friends – to a higher level. Never did I think hearing a Corrs song would reduce me to tears, but here we are.” 

Derry Girls was launched in 2018, featuring Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, and Dylan Llewellyn. 

The series’ two final episodes centered on Orla and Erin’s joint 18th birthday party and the group’s effort to get tickets for Fatboy Slim’s performance at Derry’s Halloween Festival. 

Although, the finale’s events occurred against the backdrop of the Good Friday Agreement, which took a conclusion to a duration of the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. 

“It will have brought many viewers right back to 1998,” wrote Derry Journal’s Brendan McDaid, “the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (as narrated by real-life journalist Donna Traynor) and the subsequent referendum which put the public seal of approval on a new dawn for the north of Ireland, with people north and south voting overwhelmingly in favour.” 

“The finale was packed with special moments,” he further stated. “They have all done Derry proud.” 

The Belfast Telegraph’s Maureen Coleman stated: “This final instalment is a fabulous piece of work that had me howling with laughter one minute and weeping the next. 

“McGee has made this ability to flip our emotions her calling card, and she does it so well. It’s a gift.” 

“Rather than resting on its laurels, it pushed itself to new heights,” wrote Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian, as she hailed the finale “a triumph” in her five-star review. 

“It took a while for Derry Girls to establish itself as that rare thing, a modern comedy classic, but now it feels like it has always been there. There’s a strong sense that though it will be missed, it hasn’t outstayed its welcome. Instead, it has been absolutely cracker.” 

The finale received a four-star review from Rachael O’Connor or Metro, saying, “It’s been an absolutely wild ride with dazzling cameos, laugh-out-loud moments and devastating scenes centred around the undercurrent of the Troubles.

“It was a serious feat to successfully set a sitcom to the backdrop of the horrors in Northern Ireland and struggle for peace, but creator Lisa McGee never put a foot wrong,” she added. “The show has always been at its strongest when combining the insulated, selfish lives of teenagers and their personal dramas with the earth-shattering real-life atrocities of the time.” 

“What a farewell,” said The Times’ Carol Midgley, who also gave the show’s finale five stars. “Derry Girls bowed out forever in a finale special that was funny, profound, sharp, political, sentimental, and pretty much perfect.

“Practically every beat of Lisa McGee’s comedy was exquisitely judged, balancing just the right amount of pathos with wit and a good dose of Uncle Colm, the world’s most boring man, who feels like a Father Ted character.”

Photo: EW

The Simpsons has been on television for as long as our childhood, with the season 33 finale airing this Sunday. So naturally, therefore, some aspects of its premise do not entirely reflect the reality of the modern economy. 

In the upcoming episode, we will find out how Homer (Dan Castellaneta) could afford a house and car with just a single income.

X-Men star Hugh Jackman will make an appearance in the upcoming season finale to spell out the history of the American was middle class, in a song number, of course. 

We get our first look at Jackman flaunting his singing chops in a recent EW exclusive preview from The Simpsons. It is the actor’s first appearance in the animated series after rejecting a previous offer due to a scheduling conflict. 

“My understanding is that we offered him a part a few years ago, and he wanted to do it but was swamped for time,” says Tim Long, an episode writer, in an interview with EW. 

“This time, he was available and gave us an enthusiastic yes! He also loved the part and the song we wrote for him, which I think really play to his enormous talents.” 

The episode follows Jackman voicing a janitor at the nuclear power plant where Homer works. Bart (Nancy Cartwright) went with his father to the workplace, where the janitor spells out how the era after World War II offered prosperity to the American middle class that enabled individuals such as Homer to thrive even with their failings. 

But then “gradually, it all went to hell,” as Jackman sings. 

“We were intrigued and amused by an article in The Atlantic titled, ‘The Life in the Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable,'” says Long. 

“At first, we thought it was pretty funny. The Simpsons is a cartoon, after all, and the show’s relationship with money is very fungible. Homer once got his hands on a trillion-dollar bill and immediately tried to use it in a soda machine.” 

Long adds, “but the more we thought about it, the more we thought The Atlantic had a point. Homer really does belong to the last generation of people who can hold a good, middle-class job with benefits for life without some sort of higher degree.

“There’s no way Bart will have that. And then, after ruminating about that for a few days, we came to the inevitable conclusion: It’s got to be a musical! And we gotta get both Hugh Jackman and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich! From there, it all kinda came together.” 

Long is telling the truth. While he isn’t seen in the EW exclusive preview, Reich, who was the US Labor Secretary during President Bill Clinton’s term, does appear in the episode as himself to aid in elaborating the history of the American middle-class recession.