Author: business

Christine Baranski, who starred in the ABBA-led movie musical “Mamma Mia!” and its 2018 sequel, revealed one of her costars despised the film’s elaborate dance numbers during a May 7 interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Baranski, 73, played Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the 2008 romantic comedy about a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) who schemes to meet her biological father at her wedding by inviting three men from her mother’s past to the ceremony.

The trio of unwitting men — Sam Carmichael, Harry Bright and Bill Anderson — were portrayed by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård, respectively.

The film, which grossed $610 million worldwide, spawned the sequel “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” And while all three actors were reluctant to show off their dance moves, Skarsgård had the least boogie spirit the second time around, according to Baranski.

The former first lady, 61, dedicated the May 7 episode of her “IMO” podcast, which she co-hosts with brother Craig Robinson, to having a frank conversation about how they have coped with their mother Marian Robinson’s death in May 2024.

“That’s sort of the darned thing about being a grown-up. When you lose your parents, you’re next up,” Michelle Obama said as part of the siblings’ response to a listener’s question. “I guess if anything with mom’s loss, I thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older.”

She then recalled, “Because Barack was saying, ‘Well, you’re next up.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not really ready to be next up.’ I told him, ‘You’re next up. And Craig is next up.’”

But the episode featured a majorly hot spiritual development: Former Pinecone Trooper Pete Martino (Richie Moriarty), the ghost with the fatal archery arrow still stuck through his neck, finally hit the lip target with fellow spirit Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock), the 1920s Prohibition-era jazz singer and poisoning victim.

Their long-awaited smooch was so otherworldly smoking that Alberta could only gasp, “Oh, my!”

“It’s a kiss that’s been a long time in the making,” says executive producer Joe Wiseman, who writes the CBS hit comedy with fellow executive producer Joe Port. “Pete has always had a thing for Alberta. And during past seasons, we’ve chipped away at Alberta’s reluctance about Pete. It finally pays off in the finale.”

Food Network star Ree Drummond revealed in a blog post published April 30 that, after “a few fluctuations,” she is returning to the “original method” that helped kickstart her health journey and led her to lose over 50 pounds.

“The game changer for me is two-fold: First, I’m building muscle again, which is crucial. I do lunges, squats, deadlifts, and floor exercises with ankle weights. Second, I’m eating more protein and keeping it a higher percentage of my calories.” Drummond wrote. “This time, I am not weighing my food and counting calories.”

After her dramatic weight loss in 2021, Drummond wrote, “Bottom line, starting at the end of 2023 I stopped exercising and kinda stopped paying attention to what I was eating.”

The mom and grandmother told fans that despite skipping alcohol for four months during her last lifestyle change, she drinks white wine and tops it off with Topo Chico sparkling water “so it’s kind of a wine spritzer type of thing” as a way to indulge.

In an interview with People magazine published May 7, the “Modern Family” star, 27, reflected on being subjected to negative comments scrutinizing her appearance while she was a child actor. Winter played Alex Dunphy, the middle child of the Dunphy family, on the ABC sitcom for 11 seasons.

“It was every headline I read about myself, like, grown people writing articles about me saying how I looked terrible or pregnant or like a fat slut,” Winter shared. “I mean, I was 14. It totally damaged my self-esteem.”

She continued, “I understood what it was like to be hated. No matter what I was going through, I was a target. It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘I love this version of me.’”

Winter grew up in the public eye starring on “Modern Family,” which debuted on ABC in 2009, when she was 11, and ended in 2020, when she was 22. She started acting at the age of four and before “Modern Family” had already appeared in films like “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and shows like “Nip/Tuck.”

Rather than laughter, Morgan’s appearance might make you cry as the comic actor talks about Zoey, his 90-pound octopus he gave up after realizing how short the cephalopod’s lifespan is.

“I got tired of being sad,” Morgan, 56, says while tearing up in this exclusive series clip.

“I learned so much about them, because I would just sit there and watch my octopus,” says Morgan. “The thing that I learned most about them is that they taught me how to survive, no matter how long it’s for. They taught me how to live in an environment that can be sometimes hostile. She gave me knowledge. She gave me wisdom and understanding. Thank you, Zoey.”