The daily gossip: Sylvester Stallone is rebooting Cliffhanger, Matthew Lawrence alleges agency fired him after he didn't strip for director, and more

1. Sylvester Stallone is rebooting 'Cliffhanger'

Sylvester Stallone won't leave Cliffhanger fans hanging any longer. The actor is returning to star in a reboot of his hit 1993 action thriller, which has often been described as "Die Hard on a mountain." Angel Has Fallen's Ric Roman Waugh is directing the reboot, which will feature an ensemble cast in addition to Stallone returning as mountain climber Gabe Walker. "It's going to be a great challenge and blast taking this franchise to new heights, a responsibility I don't take lightly," Waugh said. For Stallone, whose company Balboa Productions is producing, this will mark a return to another one of his iconic films after he exited the Rocky franchise and sat out this year's Creed III. He has gone to war against Rocky producer Irwin Winkler over the rights to that series. In lieu of reprising Rocky again, though, can Stallone help Cliffhanger reach its peak? Clearly, there ain't no mountain high enough to keep Hollywood away from a reboot.

Variety Deadline

2. Matthew Lawrence alleges agency fired him after he didn't strip for director

Actor Matthew Lawrence is opening up about a disturbing "casting couch" experience he claims led his own agency to dump him. On the Brotherly Love podcast, the Boy Meets World star alleged he once "went to the hotel room" of a "very prominent, Oscar award-winning director, who showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, and said he needed to take Polaroids of me and that if I did X, Y, and Z, I would be the next Marvel character." He went on to claim that his agency fired him because refused to do so and "left this director's room." Lawrence didn't name the director or the agency, but he noted he was sharing the story to underline that "both men and women in this industry" have had experiences like this, arguing there's a "double standard" in that "our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Brotherly Love

3. Sophie Turner asks fans to 'please delete' video of her daughter she accidentally posted

Sophie Turner made an Instagram whoopsie. The Game of Thrones star said on her Instagram story she accidentally shared a video of her daughter with Joe Jonas earlier in the day. "We have always advocated for our kids' rights to privacy so sharing this publicly is something that is against anything I stand for," she wrote. "Our children deserve the right to grow up out of the public eye, to learn and grow in private." Turner and Jonas have been married since 2019, and they have two daughters, the oldest born in 2020 and the youngest born in 2022. But she told Elle that she doesn't want her kids to have to "deal with" being in the spotlight, adding, "I also feel quite strongly about my daughter not becoming a nepotism child." So after her "honest mistake," Turner urged any fans who have reposted the video to "please delete" it. You heard the Queen in the North.

Instagram

4. Mila Kunis isn't in 'Fantastic Four,' but 'I know who is'

She knows something you don't know. Over the weekend, Twitter was ablaze with rumors that Mila Kunis might play either Sue Storm or a female version of The Thing in Marvel's upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. But Kunis recently denied the rumors on The Late Late Show with James Corden, explaining she simply met with the film's director, Matt Shakman, and everyone jumped to conclusions. "We went out to a deli and we had lunch together, and then the next day, I was somehow in Fantastic Four," Kunis said. "I am not in Fantastic Four." But Kunis also teased, "I know who is." She couldn't reveal more without getting taken out by Disney's snipers, but this is the first we're hearing that someone has apparently landed one of the film's coveted roles. It's anyone's guess who that is, but if it's an actor Kunis knows personally, don't be shocked to hear Peter Griffin's laugh coming out of Reed Richards in 2025.

The Hollywood Reporter

5. Taylor Swift deletes video explaining how 'Lavender Haze' was inspired by Joe Alwyn

The lavender haze has passed. Taylor Swift has reportedly deleted a video from the rollout of her album Midnights where she explained how the song "Lavender Haze" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Alwyn. In the video, Swift told fans her song was about trying to avoid being pulled out of the "all-encompassing love glow" of a romance, and it was one of many songs she wrote while dating Alwyn. "[In] my relationship for six years, we've had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it," she said. "And so this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff." But after it was revealed last month that Swift and Alwyn have split, People notes the video has now disappeared from her Instagram page, perhaps indicating she plans to rewrite history by claiming the song was actually about Grimace all along.

People