Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
STARS ON SCREEN
The return trip: Goodbye, Hawaii. Hello, Italy. And welcome back, Jennifer Coolidge. The actress/comedian’s performance as Tanya McQuoid in HBO’s “The White Lotus” earned her several award nominations. And ever since the premium cable network renewed the social satire for a second season, Coolidge’s return had been expected though not officially confirmed — until recently.
We now know that Coolidge’s character will be among the guests vacationing at an exclusive Italian resort in Season 2, which, despite the change of locale, should feature a similar format to the first installment set in Maui, Hawaii.
Other on-screen guests include Bert Di Grasso, played by F. Murray Abraham (“Homeland”), who is traveling with his son Dominic (Michael Imperioli, “The Sopranos”) and grandson Albie (Adam DiMarco, “The Order”); Tom Hollander (“The King’s Man,” 2021) as Quentin, an English expat who is vacationing with his friends and nephew; and Haley Lu Richardson (“The Edge of Seventeen,” 2016) as Portia, a young woman traveling with her boss.
Aubrey Plaza (“Parks and Recreation”) was one of the first announced stars of the show’s second season. She will play the role of Harper Spiller, who is vacationing with her husband, Ethan (Will Sharpe, “Flowers”), and another married couple, Daphne (Meghann Fahy, “The Bold Type”) and Cameron Babcock (Theo James, 2014’s “Divergent”). Newcomer Leo Woodall also has a recurring role as a “magnetic” guest.
Filming began last month in Sicily, where the luxurious Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina is reportedly standing in for the next plush White Lotus hotel property. The formerconvent-turned-five-star-resort has been closed to guests in order to accommodate filming but is slated to reopen later this week.
J.Hud Talks: Fresh off her recent wins at the 2022 NAACP Image Awards, Jennifer Hudson (“Respect,” 2021) remains one Tony Award shy of achieving coveted EGOT status. But if that’s truly a goal, it will have to wait, because the actress/singer has once again set her sights on daytime television.
Already a Daytime Emmy winner for her role as an executive producer of “Baba Yaga,” the Oscar and Grammy winner has teamed up with Warner Bros. to launch her very own syndicated daytime talk show, “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” which is set to debut on Fox- and Hearst-owned stations this fall.
“The Jennifer Hudson Show” will fill the void left by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on those stations once the flagship talk show ends its run. This also means two “American Idol” alumnae will be fronting daytime shows this fall, when “The Kelly Clarkson Show” slides into the soon-to-be-vacated “Ellen” time slot on NBC stations.
Hudson’s test show was shot on the “Ellen” stage and overseen by “Ellen” executive producers Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly, but it won’t be a repackaged “Ellen”: J.Hud and Warner Bros. executives insist that “The Jennifer Hudson Show” is an entirely different/ new concept.
“People from around the world have been a part of my journey from the beginning … and I’m so ready to join their journey as we sit down and talk about the things that inspire and move us all,” Hudson said in a statement. “I have always loved people, and I cannot wait to connect on a deeper level and let audiences see the different sides of who I am, the human being, in return.”
She finished by saying, “I couldn’t be more thrilled to do it alongside this incredible team.
We’re about to have a lot of fun and shake things up a little bit!”
Million-dollar ‘Survivor’:
Now in its 42nd season, CBS’s “Survivor” is still going strong and is already actively casting for Season 43, to be taped sometime between mid-May and early July (according to the casting call). But it seems NBC now wants to get into the game — and it wants to up the ante, too.
NBC’s “Million Dollar Island” is being touted as a supersized version of “Survivor” because it will feature 100 contestants (instead of 16 to 20) who will spend 50 days (instead of 39) competing on the island. Although this supersized approach won’t apply to the grand prize, which is $1 million — the same amount awarded by CBS to each Sole Survivor. But the two shows differ in a few other ways.
According to NBC, contestants on “Million Dollar Island” must “forge friendships and build alliances as they plot to stay on a remote desert island for up to 50 days and compete to win their share of the ultimate $1 million prize. Upon arrival, each contestant is given a bracelet worth $10,000. During their time on the island, contestants gain and lose bracelets through various challenges, but when a player leaves the island, they must choose who will receive their portion of the money. In this intense competition, the strength of your personal bonds is just as important as being the ultimate player.”
Although NBC is clearly hoping to replicate “Survivor’s” rating success, “Million Dollar Island” is actually based on a Dutch reality show that premiered earlier this month in the Netherlands.