The daily gossip: Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk has been canceled, Rihanna to become a Smurf, and more
Today's top entertainment and celebrity news
- 1. Jada Pinkett Smith's 'Red Table Talk' has been canceled
- 2. Rihanna to become Smurfette in a new 'Smurfs' movie
- 3. Glen Powell and Gigi Paris reportedly split
- 4. Amazon's new Russo brothers show panned as a '$300 million debacle'
- 5. A 'Dodgeball' sequel is officially in the works
1. Jada Pinkett Smith's 'Red Table Talk' has been canceled
The red table has hit a red light. Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk has been canceled, as Meta is pulling the plug on original Facebook Watch programming, according to Deadline. The talk show, which launched in 2018, consisted of a series of interviews and conversations at the titular red table featuring Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow Smith, and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris. This was also famously the venue where Pinkett Smith discussed her relationship with August Alsina while she and her husband Will Smith were separated. A statement shared by Pinkett Smith on Instagram said "we are sorry to see the entire team disband." But it added that "we at Red Table are in talks of finding a new home," so it's possible she could still entangle herself with a new streaming partner soon.
2. Rihanna to become Smurfette in a new 'Smurfs' movie
She's got Smurfs on the brain. Rihanna will voice Smurfette in a new Smurfs movie for Paramount that she's also producing, because why not? The news was announced at CinemaCon, with Rihanna coming on stage to discuss the project and joke that she "tried to get the Papa Smurf role" instead. The singer, who is currently pregnant with her second child, also teased that her version of Smurfette is a "bada--" and said she hopes the film "gives me a little bit of cool points with my kids one day." She'll also write original songs for the 2025 film, which is shaping up to be surprisingly existential, as it will ask the question, "What is a Smurf?" Paramount also declared that Rihanna being involved provides an "enormous opportunity" to "elevate the cultural touchstone of The Smurfs universe." It's all part of Rihanna's master plan to check off the "O" in "EGOT" by winning the inaugural Academy Award for Best Performance as a Smurf.
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3. Glen Powell and Gigi Paris reportedly split
Glen Powell has gone from the danger zone to the single zone. The Top Gun: Maverick star and his girlfriend, Gigi Paris, have reportedly broken up. The news comes amid speculation that Powell's chemistry with co-star Sydney Sweeney might indicate there's something romantic going on between them. "Know your worth & onto the next," Paris cryptically posted on Instagram. But People reports Powell and Paris broke up weeks ago. "Gigi is aware that Glen and Sydney never hooked up," a source told the outlet, which also quoted a source who said the split "wasn't about infidelity" but was because "she's on different coasts modeling, he's on different coasts filming." The affair speculation only gained steam after Paris unfollowed Sweeney on Instagram, but People's source insisted this was simply "because Sydney never followed her back." Sweeney is reportedly still engaged to Jonathan Davino, so that video of her falling into Powell's arms is surely just a totally normal thing platonic friends do all the time.
4. Amazon's new Russo brothers show panned as a '$300 million debacle'
And the crowd goes mild. The reviews are in for Citadel, Amazon's new spy thriller series from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and to say they're mixed would be generous. The show, which is meant to launch numerous spinoffs, is reported to have an eye-popping $300 million budget, making it one of the most expensive shows of all time. But Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall wrote that it's "bland, generic, and almost shockingly cheap-looking, given the price tag," while The A.V. Club's Saloni Gajjar dubbed it "generic genre garbage." Slashfilm's Jacob Hall also tweeted that it's the "worst new show I've seen in a long time" and a "$300 million debacle." Joe Russo recently predicted that artificial intelligence will be able to make a movie within two years, but it sounds like his new show will leave you with the impression that this day has already come.
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5. A 'Dodgeball' sequel is officially in the works
If you can dodge a wrench and you can dodge a ball, you probably still can't dodge a sequel. A follow-up to the 2004 Vince Vaughn comedy Dodgeball is officially in the works at 20th Century Studios, with Vaughn set to return and likely produce it, according to Deadline. Vaughn and Ben Stiller led the original film about a group of characters who enter a dodgeball tournament to save their gym. Original star Justin Long previously told Comicbook.com that Vaughn has a "great idea for a sequel," though Stiller was apparently a "little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that." The Deadline report doesn't mention whether Stiller or the original director will return. Still, attempting a second outing all these years later is a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them.
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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