COMING SOON
Out this week
* Albums
- Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish: Second album by the American singer; follows her 2019 debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?; includes the singles ‘My Future’, ‘Therefore I Am’, ‘Your Power’, ‘Lost Cause’, and ‘NDA’.
- Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night by Bleachers: The indie pop act’s third record, the follow-up to 2017’s Gone Now; includes the single ‘Chinatown’ (featuring Bruce Springsteen).
* Movies
- Jungle Cruise (starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, Édgar Ramírez) – fantasy adventure, based on Walt Disney’s theme park attraction; a riverboat captain (Johnson), a British scientist (Blunt), and her brother (Whitehall) go on a mission into a jungle to find a tree believed to possess healing powers.
- Stillwater (starring Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin) – crime drama, loosely based on the story of Amanda Knox; a father (Damon) tries to clear his estranged daughter’s (Breslin) name after she is accused of murdering her friend in France.
- Nine Days (starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård) – supernatural drama; a reclusive man (Duke) interviews five unborn human souls to determine which one should be born.
- Ride the Eagle (starring Jake Johnson, D’Arcy Carden, J.K. Simmons, Susan Sarandon) – comedy; a man (Johnson) has to complete an elaborate to-do list before he gets the inheritance left by his estranged mother (Sarandon).
Star
Lisa Valerie Kudrow
- Born on 30th July 1963 in Los Angeles, U.S.
- Received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Vassar College. Hoped to become an expert on headaches like her physician father.
- Began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings.
- Tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but was not hired; Julia Sweeney was chosen instead.
- Had a recurring role as Ursula Buffay on the sitcom Mad About You, which led to her breakthrough role as Ursula’s twin Phoebe Buffay on the global hit sitcom Friends (1994 – 2004).
- Has since gone on to star in television series including The Comeback (2005, 2014) and Web Therapy (2011 – 2015), as well as appeared in films like Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), The Opposite of Sex (1997), Analyze This (1999), and The Girl on the Train (2016).
- Is a producer on the reality program Who Do You Think You Are (2010 – present).
- Has been married to French advertising executive Michel Stern since 1995. They have a son, Julian (born in 1998).
Also born today: Diana Vickers, Yvonne Strahovski, Seth Avett, Jaime Pressly, Tom Green, Simon Baker, Terry Crews, Vivica A. Fox, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Linklater, Kate Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Spotlight
Black Widow
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz
Director: Cate Shortland
Tagline: She’s done running from her past.
- Action adventure; Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) confronts a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past.
- Is the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first film in Phase Four of the MCU.
- Was delayed three times from an original May 2020 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Had an estimated budget of around $200 million. Has grossed nearly $280 million worldwide as well as $60 million in Disney+ global revenue in its opening weekend.Has generated mostly positive reviews, earning praise, in particular, for Johansson and Pugh’s performances.
- Score composed by Lorne Balfe.
- Sets up Yelena Belova’s (Pugh) involvement in the Disney+ Hawkeye series.