Category: 5. Entertainment

There are plenty of shows about weddings at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Linus Karp and Joseph Martin star in one, the inordinately long-titled The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)).

But on Saturday, they became the first couple to marry onstage as part of the official Fringe programme.

Their wedding in the 750-seat Pleasance Grand was ticketed with friends and family seated alongside other performers and fringe goers.

“We’ve been a real life couple for 11 years and we’re having a sort of a small ceremony in September but we wanted to do the legal bit first and we thought Edinburgh’s a very special place for us so why not do it there?” says Joseph.

Both grooms were in outfits designed by Edinburgh based Cosimo Damiano Angiulli (Simo the label) and came down the aisles to their own distinctive theme tunes.

“There was a moment where we left the stage just before the audience were led in and I felt the nerves kick in a little bit,” says Joseph.

“But then show mode kicked in and bizarrely, it felt like the natural place for us to be at that point. We’re at home. “

The ceremony was conducted by Jackie Blackburn from Edinburgh City Council.

“I have been involved in many unique ceremonies but none quite on the scale of this,” she says.

“It was by far the largest venue and greatest number of guests I’ve officiated in front of.

“My favourite part of their ceremony was when the grooms made their vows and declarations to each other – they were so sincere as in addition to the required legalities they had written their own personal vows, it was like a period of calm in the midst of magical romantic mayhem.”

Joseph, who is from Northamptonshire, vowed to continue to enable Linus’s “insane ideas” – as he dressed as Princes Diana and Gwyneth Paltrow for their other shows Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, and Gwyneth Goes Skiing.

Linus, who’s from Sweden, described Joseph as the “sweetest most ridiculous person” and said he couldn’t wait to create “more stupid fringe shows” together.

Both sets of parents joined their sons on stage where Linus’s mother Elisabeth Ljunggren said they were happy to share their day.

“Love is a gift to cherish and care for, every day in good times and bad, in sickness and health,” she said.

“We love you both to the moon and back.”

Fellow performers including Sooz Kemper, Emily Lamey and theatre company Recent Cutbacks provided the entertainment, and guests were invited to donate to charity or buy tickets to their shows in lieu of gifts.

The happy couple had just over an hour with their guests in the outdoor bar before they had to leave for that day’s performance.

Meanwhile with US and UK dates in September and December, there’s little time for a honeymoon either.

“I’m not sure there’ll be time for a real honeymoon for a little while at least but performing at the fringe is very much a honeymoon in itself, very relaxing,” says Linus.

“Maybe we’ll climb Arthur’s seat. That seems like a good way to celebrate our Scottish wedding.”

It’s been a courtship lasting over 20 years, but Honeymoon with Harry is one love story that Hollywood can’t quit.

Amazon MGM has landed the rights to the long-in-the-works feature dramedy, setting Kevin Costner and Jake Gyllenhaal to star.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are on board to direct the project that has a script by Dan Fogelman. The trio were behind the well-regarded dramedy Crazy, Stupid, Love and worked together on the Fogelman-created Hulu series Paradise.

The project has been in the works since 2004, and is based on a then unpublished novel by Bart Baker, it told the story of a man (Gyllenhaal) as he decides to go on a honeymoon with his would-be father-in-law (Costner) after his fiancée dies two days before their wedding.

Fogelman is producing along with Mike Karz of Gulfstream Pictures. Another notable name on the producer list is Jennifer Salke, the former head of Amazon MGM, who will produce via her newly launched Sullivan Street Productions banner. Honeymoon with Harry will mark Salke’s first project with Amazon MGM and her producing debut.

Karz first set up Honeymoon at New Line Cinema 21 years ago, and he project always attracted the A-list. Paul Haggis, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning Crash, wrote a draft and was going to direct a version that had Vince Vaughn and Jack Nicholson circling. Jonathan Demme also flirted with it when it had a script by Jenny Lumet, the writer of Rachel Getting Married and co-creator of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.  

Fogelman first came on board to write it in 2015, when New Line had Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro as the intended leads. And in 2017, Nick Cassavetes was attached to direct.

Karz never gave up on it and, when the rights eventually lapsed, he tenaciously worked to find it a new home, keeping the Fogelman version.

Honeymoon reunites Karz and his Gulfstream Pictures with Amazon MGM as he recently produced the romantic comedy Upgraded, starring Camila Mendes, and One Fast Move, starring KJ Apa and Eric Dane, for the streamer.

Gyllenhaal is an Amazon favorite thanks to starring in last year’s remake of Road House, which became one of streamer’s biggest hits ever. A sequel is prepping to shoot later this fall. The actor also starred in Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent, which put him in the Emmy race this year with a nom for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie.

Costner, the Dances with Wolves Oscar winner and former star of Yellowstone, has spent the last several years working on his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga, an ambitious multi-part Western. Only two of the four parts have been made, and only the first one was released.  

Gyllenhaal is reped by WME and Goodman, Genow while Costner is represented by WME.

Ficarra and Requa are repped by CAA and McKuin Frankel and Fogelman by WME.  

Joey Bada$$ is hitting the road this fall, and he’s bringing some wordsmiths with him. The Brooklyn rapper announced the Dark Aura Tour on Monday (Aug. 18), which is set to kick off in October and will feature Ab-Soul and Rapsody as special guests.

The North American trek will run through Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville and hit Joey’s hometown of Brooklyn before wrapping up in Philadelphia on Nov. 20.

Pre-sale tickets go on sale starting on Tuesday (Aug. 19), while the general public gets in on the action come Thursday morning (Aug. 21).

The 30-year-old turned the heat up a few notches with his menacing “Dark Aura” single on Monday, which will land on Joey’s Lonely at the Top album arriving on Aug. 29.

“Please don’t push me, I’m too close to the edge/ Gotta know the ledge, knowledge is power, that’s what my OG said,” he raps in an homage to Melle Mel’s bars on hip-hop staple “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.

Joey Bada$$ had Lonely at the Top ready for Aug. 1, but chalked up the album delay to his label’s (Columbia Records) doing.

“The album is not dropping Aug. 1. I’m f—king sorry. I’m ashamed, I’m f—king disappointed,” he told fans on social media in late July. “I wanted to take accountability and responsibility because I’m not ever gon’ leave y’all high and dry.”

Joey continued: “My s—t got pushed back because the label pushed my s—t back. My album is signed, sealed and delivered over a month ago. This ain’t ‘cause of no sample clearances. This ain’t ‘cause of no features. This ain’t ‘cause of no clashing with another artist on the date. This is literally an Exhibit A of the label getting in the artist’s way … I’ve been moving on rogue time.”

Find all of the Dark Aura Tour dates below.

Everyone can use an editor, and Shakespeare is no exception. Fortunately, he married one.

Tired of being cooped up with the kids in Stratford-upon-Avon, Anne (Teal Wicks), wife of the great playwright, pops down to London to see the first performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” The new tragic ending that Shakespeare (Corey Mach) proudly previews to the company strikes her as completely wrongheaded.

“What if … Juliet doesn’t kill herself?” she proposes. As strong-willed as her husband, she doesn’t wish to argue the point. She merely wants to put her idea to the test.

Behold the premise of “& Juliet,” the euphoric dance party of a musical that updates Shakespeare with a dose of 21st century female empowerment. The production, which opened Friday at the Ahmanson Theatre under the fizzy direction of Luke Sheppard, reimagines a new post-Romeo life for Juliet while riding a magic carpet of chart-toppers from juggernaut Swedish producer Max Martin, who has spun gold with Katy Perry, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, among other pop titans.

This good-time jukebox musical relies as much on its wit as on its catalog of pop hits. The show’s music and lyrics are credited to Max Martin and friends — which sounds like a low-key cool table at the Grammy Awards. The clever book by Emmy winner David West Read (“Schitt’s Creek”) creates a world that can contain the show’s musical riches without having to shoehorn in songs in the shameless fashion of “Mamma Mia!”

Take, for instance, one of the early numbers, “I Want It That Way,” a pop ballad made famous by the Backstreet Boys. Anne starts singing the song when Shakespeare initially resists her idea of giving Juliet back her life. She wants him to go along with her suggested changes not because she’s sure she’s right but because she wants him to trust her as an equal partner. The song is redeployed in a way that has little bearing on the lyrics but somehow feels coherent with the original emotion.

Obviously, this is a commercial musical and not a literary masterpiece on par with Shakespeare’s tragedy of ill-starred lovers. “& Juliet” would have trouble withstanding detailed scrutiny of its plot or probing interrogation of Juliet’s character arc. But Read smartly establishes just the right party atmosphere.

Juliet (a vibrant Rachel Webb), having survived the tragedy once scripted for her, travels from Verona to Paris with an entourage to escape her parents, who want to send her to a nunnery for having married Romeo behind their backs. Her clique includes Angélique (Kathryn Allison), her nurse and confidant; May (Nick Drake), her nonbinary bestie; and April, her newbie sidekick out for fun who Anne plays in disguise. Shakespeare casts himself as the carriage driver, allowing him to tag along and keep tabs on the cockeyed direction his play is going.

In Paris, the crew heads directly to the Renaissance Ball, which has the look and feel of a modern-day mega-club. Entry is barred to Juliet, but not because she’s ridiculously underage. Her name isn’t on the exclusive guest list. So through the back door, Juliet and her traveling companions sashay as the production erupts in “Blow,” the Kesha song that encourages everyone to get their drink on and let loose.

The dance setting — kinetically envisioned by scenic designer Soutra Gilmour, lighting designer Howard Hudson, sound designer Gareth Owen and video and projection designer Andrzej Goulding into a Dionysian video paradise — provides the all-purpose license for Martin’s music. It’s the atmosphere and the energy that matter most. Paloma Young’s extravagant costumes raise the level of decadent hedonism.

In this welcoming new context — imagine “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” suffused with girl power — there’s never anything odd about the characters grinding and wailing like karaoke superstars. The ecstatic motion of Jennifer Weber’s choreography renders dramatic logic irrelevant.

But love is the name of the game, and both Juliet and May fall for François (Mateus Leite Cardoso), a young musician with a geeky sense of humor who’s still figuring out his identity. May doesn’t expect romance to be part of their fate. In the Spears song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” they give powerful expression to an inner confusion this musical romance is determined to sort out with an appropriate partner.

Unlike for the original characters, a happy ending is no longer off-limits. Shakespeare and Anne wrestle to get the upper hand of a plot that seems to have a mind of its own. Shakespeare pulls a coup at the end of the first act that I won’t spoil except to say that what’s good for the goose proves dramaturgically viable for the gander.

This spirited competition stays in the background, but their marital happiness matters to us. Mach’s Shakespeare has the cocky strut of a rapper-producer with a long list of colossal hits. Wicks gives Anne the heartfelt complexity of one of her husband’s bright comic heroines. There’s a quality of intelligent feeling redolent of Rosalind in “As You Like It” in Wicks’ affecting characterization and luscious singing.

But the musical belongs to Juliet, and Webb has the vocal prowess to hijack the stage whenever she’s soaring in song. If Juliet’s character is still a work in progress, Webb endows her with a maturity beyond her years. She makes us grateful that the Capulet daughter is getting another crack at life. When the big musical guns are brought out late in the second act (“Stronger,” “Roar”), she delivers them as emancipatory anthems, fueled by hard-won epiphanies.

Allison’s Angélique is just as much a standout, renewing the bawdy earthiness of Shakespeare’s nurse with contemporary sass and rousing singing. If the supporting cast of men doesn’t make as deep an impression, the festive comic universe is nonetheless boldly brought to life.

“& Juliet” bestows the alternative ending everyone wishes they could script for themselves — a second chance to get it right. This feel-good musical is just what the doctor ordered in these far less carefree times.

Music, more than a product or anything else, is a sacred act. That’s the prevailing premise of director Contessa Gayles’ award-winning Songs From The Hole, a 90-minute documentary on Netflix that highlights Long Beach native, artist and activist James “JJ’88” Jacobs’ evolution from a wayward 15-year-old who committed a murder into a beacon of what he calls the “utility of nonviolence, art to tell stories, and being vulnerable.” In the documentary, which won 10 awards on the 2024 film festival circuit, Gayles expertly weaves jailhouse phone calls with JJ’88 with a visual album that he crafted in prison, as well as a harrowing fly-on-the-wall chronicle of how his family supported him throughout his incarceration and repeated attempts at freedom. 

JJ’88 was freed from prison in 2022 after 18 years. But before he was physically liberated, he was spiritually liberated by a chance encounter with the man who killed his brother. The documentary is a glimpse of the practicality and necessity of restorative justice that shares themes with Gayles’ 2018 CNN documentary The Feminist on Cellblock Y, about then-incarcerated producer Richie Reseda starting a prison feminist group (Reseda is a co-producer on Songs From The Hole and made the beats that JJ’88 rapped over). According to Gayles and JJ’88, who spoke on the doc at a screening in July in New York City, it was made over several years, and began while he was still incarcerated, which presented logistical issues (JJ’88 came home eight months into the editing process). JJ’88 had written the treatment for the visual album after being inspired by Beyoncé’s Lemonade and self-titled albums, bonding together songs he wrote while in solitary confinement, and recorded with Reseda’s help. 

Gayles said she completed about one music video per month, then weaved them into the rest of the footage. There was initially consideration of visually demarcating the music videos from the raw documentary footage with different aspect ratios, but she decided that everything should remain uniform. It was the right choice; the seamless visual presentation allowed her to keep things lively while JJ’88 is talking, alternating old photos and video of the Jacobs family with familiar conceits from the visual album, which, derived from his life experience, centers young Black men, mothers, and the justice system. There are repeated appearances from an adolescent and incarcerated man playing JJ’88, and another male who portraying his brother Victor, who was killed three days after JJ’88 fatally shot a man in what he admits was a “senseless” act of trying to bolster his street reputation. Recurring scenes of children dancing cue to the inner child that Jacobs, and too many other Black men, lose to the streets. 

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The layered videos and songs feel unmistakably inspired by the artistry of a Kendrick Lamar or Vince Staples, often culling themes of faith, morality, family, and violence. During a song lamenting “crime waves,” two boys jump in the ocean, drowning as JJ’88 raps about the treachery of the Long Beach streets. JJ’88, a representation of incarcerated people, returns from the water a man in prison blues, while Victor, symbolizing men prematurely lost to violence, is still a child. They both walk up to a maternal figure on the sands. 

And Gayles does a great job of leading up to each video with resonant quotes from JJ’88’s support system: his mother Janine, father William, stepmother Jackie, sister Reneasha, and wife Indigo. During one juncture, William, a preacher, talks about how he maintains his faith that JJ’88 will come home from his life sentence. The documentary then shows a video of him delivering a sermon, bellowing, “I have a little praise song that I wanna sing,” which seamlessly slips into JJ’88’s reflective “wake up.” The song is bookended with another clip of his father asking, “Have you ever been in jail? A spiritual jail?”

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The documentary does a good job of highlighting a support system that many men in JJ’88’s former position, doing life in jail, don’t have. There are warm moments, such as him singing with his wife Indigo, joking about getting older with his mother and sister, and celebrating with them when state officials co-sign his deservedness for early release. They’re also there for him in his low moments, such as when his father consoles him after a parole denial. The documentary fleshes out his relationship with each family member and lays out the stakes in a way that the viewer is just as crushed as William when the jail call cuts off before he can give his full farewell. 

During the conversation, JJ’88 tearfully laments, “they don’t believe me,” to his father, telling him that the parole board used his appearance on a music project called Defund The Sheriff against him. The moment was yet another glimpse of the justice system scapegoating hip-hop for its own agenda; in this case, it kept JJ’88 incarcerated. The documentary highlights hip-hop as a tool that helped JJ’88 parse his feelings and rehabilitate, the buzzword that prison advocates claim the system exists for. But to the state, during that particular parole meeting, his music was merely a threat. As a music writer, I’ve become accustomed to how artists have historically marketed authenticity and clamored for listeners to believe their lyrics connote real-life violence. But we see JJ’88, who actually lived the treachery of the streets  — and learned the error of it — desperate to shed any negative connotation of his art. When he wants to be believed as a productive human being, while his music peers want to be believed as living their raps, it makes you rethink what believability is worth from people who can’t see your humanity.  

The documentary is a strong case for the benefits of restorative justice. During one scene, Indigo notes that she was a victim of sexual assault and was “retraumatized” by the criminal process. While she was looking for “closure, justice, healing, validation,” she realized the system wasn’t apt to offer that, dishing one of the documentary’s strongest lines: “The system is not prioritizing me, it’s prioritizing punishment, and my healing could never be found in someone else’s punishment.” 

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Early in the documentary, JJ’88 meets a man named “J” while in prison, and has a powerful discussion with him about regretting being in jail for murder, but also realizing that, as JJ’88 says later, “my shortcomings don’t diminish my good.” He admits that “J” embracing his humanity helped him do the same, leading him to confront the “grief, cowardice, shame, and heartache” he faced after committing a murder. Society essentially asks the accused to deny their actions to attempt to beat a case or avoid public scrutiny, but it was only through JJ’88’s admission and reflection on his darkness that he was able to heal and forgive himself. And when he shows mercy to “J,” real name Jamaal Smith, after realizing he killed his brother, he acknowledged his ability to forgive his brother’s killer as the atonement for his own sins. Who knows what his healing would have looked like without talking to the very man who killed his brother — the circumstance speaks to the possibility of a system where victims can talk with violators, especially ones allowed to interrogate their regret outside the brutality of prison. JJ’88 said he figured his brother’s killer was “another one of us,” speaking to the hordes of men disillusioned by the system. And just like JJ’88 was able to see his humanity in Jamaal, hopefully viewers can see their capacity for forgiveness, reflection, and growth in him. 

While in solitary confinement, JJ’88 admits that he felt called by God and began writing his raps with no expectations of them. It’s refreshing to hear an artist — a pretty good one — say that in our increasingly callous, numbers-obsessed ecosystem. His experience reflects the genesis of music-making, when it was simply a chance for everyday people to express themselves and make sense of our world. When songs were first sung, there was no option to become an unimpeachable celebrity from it, just a chance to vent, or rejoice, or go wherever one’s imagination took them. Songs From The Hole might not make the number-tabulating stan armies back down from mast and live in harmony, but hopefully it will encourage some of us to be more precious with artistry and artists. While few of them have a story as cinematic as JJ’88’s, who is pursuing a career as a professional musician, they all deserve consideration as people just like us who decided to share with the world. 

Alicia Vikander suffers from immense mom guilt just like all working moms.

Alicia, who shares two sons with husband Michael Fassbender, feels guilty for about working and missing time with her kids.

In an interview with British Vogue, the actress noted that she and Michael make sure they never work at the same time so that one parent is always at home with the kids.

“It can be very long days, and a lot of the time you will leave before the kids get up and then maybe not be back before they sleep. So knowing that one parent is always home. With all the parent and mum guilt that you already carry with you constantly – I am battling that a lot, all the time,” she shared.

However, the Tomb Raider star is working on finding balance in her life: “I am preparing for two jobs at the moment, and I have come to a point where I’m finding the balance between work and having a family.”

“I narrow it down to two things now – the people I really want to work with, and the projects that I feel are going to be a creative, joyous time. I am privileged that I have the choice of whether I work on these big things,” she said. 

Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender began dating after meeting on the set of The Light Between Oceans in 2014. They tied the knot in 2017 and welcomed their first son in 2021.

Lily Collins recently turned heads with her elegant outfit while shooting season five of Emily in Paris in Italy.

The 36-year-old actress, known for her role as Emily Cooper in the romantic-comedy-drama, was spotted filming for the upcoming season.

On Sunday, August 17, the Inheritance star was seen in Venice wearing a chic polka dot co-ord set while talking on the phone.

Collins completed her look with jewellery, bold red lipstick, and full-glam makeup.

Later, the Love, Rosie actress stunned in a bold red mini dress paired with sheer matching tights, highlighting her toned legs and showcasing the diva side of her character.

Over the weekend, Collins was also photographed strolling through the streets of Venice for lunch.

While Paris remains the central setting of the show, the new season will also feature glimpses of Rome and Venice.

For the unversed, Emily in Paris season five is expected to premiere on Netflix by the end of this year.

It is pertinent to mention that Camille Razat has bid farewell to the series and will not be returning for the upcoming season.

Bonnie Blue just announced she wants to steal Travis Kelce from pop sensation, Taylor Swift.

The 26-year-old adult content creator has confessed she’s a big fan of the Kansas City Chiefs player because he looks like he’s “quite good with his hands.”

“I quite like Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. I think he’s quite hot. Quite good with his hands as well. I quite enjoy watching him on the pitch,” Bonnie told The Mirror US.

When asked if she believes she can steal the sportsman away from the Reputation album-maker, she responded, “One hundred per cent. We’re both blonde. She sings and I have all the talent so I say I would win over Taylor Swift.”

This comes after Bonnie revealed that her last relationship was with a fan, recalling meeting the “good looking” guy during one of her intimate stunts and decided to go on a few dates with him before things faded away.

In an interview with Us Weekly, she said: “The last person I sort of dated was actually in one of my queues back in September from the Freshers content. I saw him and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this guy’s good looking. Is he here for me or is he in the wrong queue? Is he OK?’”

Bonnie further recalled, “He was so sweet, so nice. And then after that we did some arcade dates. We went to the cinema a few times, a few hotel stays.”

Additionally, the explicit content creator also opened up about her separation with husband, Oliver Davidson – who met when they were 14 and split in 2023.

Bonnie- whose real name is Tia Billinger, revealed, “There was no bad blood, there was no cheating [and] no aggression or anything in the relationship.”

“A lot of couples then stay in that relationship because it’s the easy thing to do and you’ve got a lot of memories with someone. But we both got to a point where I was like, ‘I think we’d be happier if it was with someone else in the future or if we’re just not together at this moment in time,’” Bonnie added before concluding with the statement, “So that was the decision we came to.”

Apple TV+’s The Studio has already made history with its 23 Emmy nominations being the most ever for a debut season of a comedy series, and tied for the most ever in a single season of any comedy series. A lot of that credit should go directly to the actors, since fully 10 of those nominations are in the acting categories including no less that five out of six in the Guest Actor Comedy Series category.

So, with that kind of support from their fellow actors, it is only natural that even on the eve of final Emmy voting beginning, six actors from The Studio gathered at the new Meryl Streep Theatre at SAG-AFTRA headquarters in L.A.’s Wilshire district to join me for a rollicking Apple TV+ x Deadline: ‘The Studio’ Q&A in front of a packed audience of about 100 SAG TV Nominating Committee members (the total overall that makes nominations are 2,500 randomly chosen SAG-AFTRA members).

Watch out conversation here, and scroll down for photos from the event.

The series debuted after eligibility for the 2025 SAG, Golden Globes and Critics Choice ceremonies, so come 2026 it will be the first time around for the series at those shows (post-Emmys), where Apple TV+ is hoping it sets more records.

The event Saturday was presented by Apple TV+ in association with Deadline and featured star/co-creator/writer/director/and executive producer Seth Rogen, who plays studio head Matt Remick and who has personally received four nominations including Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; Kathryn Hahn, who plays marketing head Maya Mason and is nominated for Supporting Actress Comedy; Chase Sui Wonders as studio exec Quinn Hackett; Bryan Cranston up for Guest Actor as Chairman Griffin Mill and Remick’s boss; Keyla Monterroso Mejia as assistant Petra; and Dewayne Perkins as another studio employee, Tyler. I pointed out it is a shame the Emmys don’t have an ensemble category like SAG does because this entire cast is worthy of recognition.

As for all the Emmy glory, Rogen said he was surprised. “It’s great. I was not expecting it at all. I never expect any awards attention in any way, shape or form. But not shockingly, Hollywood’s somewhat of an ego-driven industry. And so, you know, people with egos like when you talk about them. And maybe that’s not lost on me,” he said. “But honestly, I was actually very worried that people within the industry would feel as though we weren’t representing it properly or that our sentiments towards it would be vastly different than their sentiments. I was actually quite aware that a lot of people in the industry would watch the show, and or at least check it out.”

As for the inspiration for the show and where they get their ideas, it was right in front of them, Rogen says. “I’d say it’s entirely based on our experiences or on people we met with, pretty much all the heads of every studio, while we were writing the show, and we’re continuing to meet with them as we write the second season on the show,” he admitted. “It’s funny, now they just give us notes on the first season of the show, because they are studio heads, they’re incapable of not giving notes. But yeah, we really tried to mine our resources as far as stories go. And a lot of it is stuff that me and Evan (Goldberg), my creative partner, have personally experienced.”

Hahn, whose physical look for the show is hilarious and calls it her “armor” as a marketer, says there wasn’t one person in Hollywood she has based her character on, though she gets plenty of people guessing who it is anyway. “So I wouldn’t say anyone specific, but I certainly also have gotten phone calls or texts from people asking me if it was them,” she laughed.

Wonders plays a young exec who drives a Mini Cooper and is battling another exec Sal Saperstein for a personal parking spot in one episode, something she says clearly hits close to home in the culture of a movie studio. “I mean, every lot has these named parking spaces that in this exclusive-like titular thing of ‘This is reserved for XYZ’,” she said. “And it’s funny, I went into a meeting the other day on a lot, and I met with a junior exec and she’s like, ‘I drive a Mini Cooper. Is this based on me?’ And I so I’ve kind of started to indulge everybody and just feel like, ‘Yeah, it is’.”

Cranston, whose character in the two-part season-finale gets accidentally stoned out of his mind, found the wild comic situations refreshing to do. “It’s so good. Seth and Evan create an environment where they say, ‘just go and play’,” he said. “So there’s like the 14th take of these scenes outside where I’m on the fountain in Vegas with Aphrodite or whoever it is. And I just wanted to make the writers laugh or watching. So I’m orally copulating the statue and I mean, I am just thinking this is never going to be in and they’re going to choose something else.” (Spoiler alert: they put it in).

“So every time we did a scene, collectively or individually, it was like, yeah, let’s get these plot points in. We need to say this or do that. And then, you know, whatever you have, bring something, say something, do something, whatever you like. That kind of freedom then stimulates us because it is warranted and welcomed.”

Cranston as studio kingpin Griffin Mill (he suggested they make him 82 years old) is one of five nominated for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and is considered the frontrunner in the category for a character that really shows his go-for-broke comic chops. But consider the names competing against him from their cameos on the show: Martin Scorsese, Dave Franco, Anthony Mackie and Ron Howard — who are all playing themselves. In fact, though he has been nominated 14 times for Emmys as a producer or director and won three statuettes, this represents the first time that Howard has received an Emmy acting nomination in a career that started in front of the cameras as a child actor in the late ’50s.

“I saw something in the guy. You know, it was, ‘Give the kid a break’,” Rogen laughs. “He’s been acting since his credited name was Little Ronny Howard. Like he had the weird ‘little’ in his name. Now you have to be a SoundCloud rapper to have that in your name. I think he was an embryo. So it took that big fight scene, to finally, unleash the rage.”