TV

Meghan Markle nominated for a Teen Choice Award. Kensington Palace had better make room for a surfboard. Meghan Markle has been nominated for the Choice Style Icon award at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards, making her the first royal to ever be considered for an honor at FOX's annual ceremony. The Duchess of Sussex, who wed Prince Harry in May, is up against Blake Lively, Harry Styles, Chadwick Boseman, Zendaya and Migos for the surfboard trophy. To say that the public pays attention to Markle's fashion choices would be a gross understatement. Her wedding dress spawned its own news cycle, and she's been both celebrated and criticized for breaking royal protocol with her outfits. Most items Markle wears immediately sell out, which likely explains Stella McCartney's recent decision to sell replicas of the gown she designed for the Duchess' wedding reception. Markle is highly unlikely to attend this year's Teen Choice Awards, which will be held on August 12 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Still, fans of her style can vote for the royal on the Teen Choice 2018 website. (PageSix)

A Set It Up Sequel Could Be in the Works. On June 15, the same day her new movie Set It Up debuted on Netflix, Zoey Deutch took to Instagram to ask one of the most important questions of our time: "So ummm... do we get to make a second or wut?" Everyone whose watched the charming romantic comedy about two overworked assistants attempting to set up their demanding bosses is asking the same thing, wanting to spend even more time in the rat-a-tat-tat world created by writer Katie Silberman and director Claire Scanlon. Fortunately for us, they seem to want to spend more time with Harper (Deutch), Charlie (Glenn Powell), Kirsten (Lucy Liu) and Rick (Taye Diggs), too. "Katie's already come up with the idea. She already has a plan. We were joking about it on set," Scanlon told E! News in a phone interview. "We really like these characters!" But on-set joking does not a sequel yet make, with Scanlon sharing some a few ideas that have been tossed around. "[Katie] was like, 'They go to a wedding! They want to set up their friends at a wedding!' I was like, 'No the sequel should be about Rick and Kirsten!' They're not getting together, but their respective relationships." For Scanlon, she's more interested in shifting the focus from Charlie and Harper to Rick and more specifically Kirsten, the successful and striking sports journalist who has standards -- both professionally and personally -- higher than her heels. "To me what would be interesting to see is Kirsten, where does she go next? The character Rick has clearly opened a door or her and made her realize, 'I'm worthy of a personal life and I deserve this,'" Scanlon said. "I'd love to see where that goes. Honestly, it's the Kirsten character that I would want to explore. There's a world out there that you would want to explore. It'd be interesting to see where it goes." Scanlon had previously shared that a scene that ended up on the cutting room floor that revealed some of Kirsten's backstory via a telling lunch with her mother. "Her mom is just very -- not intentionally -- dismissive and holds a very high standard, [and] looks down on the sports journalism website." Regardless of whether or not a Set It Up sequel comes to fruition, Netflix has leaned into the romantic-comedy genre, with a handful of movies being released this summer, including The Kissing Booth (already a massive success), Like Father (starring Kristen Bell) and To All the Boys I've Loved Before (based on a bestselling YA novel), among others. "Here's the thing: they know what people want to watch, they know more than studios know, and they really can figure all this stuff out and as a result, they are programming accordingly," Scanlon said of the online streaming giant. "It's terrific. I'm thrilled." Ditto. Set It Up is currently available to stream on Netflix. (Eonline)

The Bachelorette Gets Fed Up and Leaves a Man in the Desert. Ah Las Vegas, the perfect place to...roll the dice on love? The Bachelorette took a little trip to Sin City mostly to make a whole bunch of gambling puns and also ride camels. There was also some classic canoodling in a hot tub in the middle of the desert, a two-on-one we'll get to in a bit, and one of the worst dates in the history of this show at least in terms of general embarrassment. On a giant group date, Wayne Newton arrived to trend on Twitter for a bit and teach the men how to sing the tune of "Danke Schoen" into a woman's face, then had them write their own lyrics to the song to then sing to Becca on stage in front of other humans. It was an absolute nightmare that mortified us to our core, and to be honest, we fast forwarded through most of it. (We also fast forwarded through most of the hot tub canoodling with Colton. We don't have time for this!) After we died that small death, we then watched Becca make out with Bad Instagrammer Garrett while Eddie from Friends spiraled out of control, as if someone had killed his fish or something. If he didn't get a rose then, he was never gonna get a rose. How could Blake get the rose over him? He might as well go home! Speaking of meltdowns, it was time to head to the desert for that inevitable two-on-one date, which classically finds two contestants fighting it out near a bed in some kind of beautiful but desolate landscape, where one of them gets left behind. Monday night's contenders were Male Model Jordan and David the Chicken. David the Chicken has hated Male Model Jordan since the beginning and can only talk about how much he hates Male Model Jordan. Male Model Jordan has been too involved in himself to care much about David the Chicken, so it's a hate-hate relationship, but it's a bit tilted in one direction. The only thing we know about David is that he hates Jordan and his golden underpants, and that's simply not enough to root for him. We know a lot about Jordan at this point, and weirdly the golden underpants are the least annoying thing about him. We can laugh at a pair of golden underpants every once in a while! And we even started to momentarily feel for Jordan when he opened up about his parents, which is much more than David has opened up about. We got to the point where if Becca was going to send one guy home, we were rooting for it to be the Chicken. Just for like, a second. And apparently Becca felt the same, because she left David in the Valley of Fire and drove off with Jordan for dinner. He was extremely himself, but he also did ask Becca actual questions like "what do you do with your free time?," and she asked him actual questions like "How accurate is Zoolander?" Suddenly, it became clear that Becca kept this dude for one hell of an entertaining dinner and girl, we get it. 100%. (Imagine how boring the dinner with David would have been!) After Becca had been thoroughly entertained and had gotten him to do his Blue Steel, she dropped the truth on Jordan: their relationship was not a thing, and he had to go home, which he did. And honestly, everything happened exactly as it should have. At the cocktail party, Becca confronted Eddie from Friends about how she didn't kill his fish and he didn't seem interested in taking initiative with her, but he did seem totally interested in talking about how Becca didn't seem to be interested in him. It got to the point where Eddie from Friends was not worth keeping, especially when he rudely interrupted Becca's conversation with Wills about how she's still cool even though she's a nerd, but she's a dorky nerd, and they just sat down like two minutes ago, Eddie from Friends. Wills agreed to let Eddie (Chris?) talk to Becca for two minutes, so after two minutes of Eddie's sputtering apology, he came back. Eddie refused to leave because his time was so serious and important and what about his fish, man? If we were Becca, we would have just slipped away while they were arguing. But we would have also done what Becca actually did, which is immediately snuggle up to Wills when Eddie finally left and jump right back into the convo about being nerds. Eddie went back to the other guys and just really bitched and moaned about his "fustrating" struggles, which were entirely caused by his own self and his mental breakdown over the fact that his fish was gone and yes, he's on a show with other guys, and eventually Becca had another convo with him that also went nowhere. And yet...Eddie got the rose, and Lumberjack John got the boot. Next week, the whole gang heads to the place known for lovers, which is obviously Richmond, Virginia! Woo! Toast to Richmond, Virginia! The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC. (Eonline)

Russell Crowe to play Roger Ailes in Showtime series on rise of Fox News. Showtime has greenlit a limited series that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the rise of Fox News and landed a top celebrity to play the cable news network's controversial former chief Roger Ailes. Russell Crowe, in his first regular TV role, has been cast in an eight-episode drama series titled The Loudest Voice in the Room, which is based on journalist Gabriel Sherman's bestselling book of the same title. The Gladiator star and Oscar winner will tackle the role of the executive who built and ran the Fox News empire. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) will executive produce the drama along with Jason Blum (Get Out). Ailes is credited with reshaping television news across several decades, including running Fox News for 20 years. He was forced out of the company in 2016 after being accused of sexually harassing Fox News staffers, and then died a year later. "In many ways, the collision between the media and politics has come to define the world we live in today," Showtime president and CEO David Nevins said in a statement. "We've seen this phenomenon depicted on screen as far back as the story of Charles Foster Kane, and it finds contemporary embodiment in the rise and fall of Roger Ailes. With Russell Crowe in the lead role, this limited series promises to be a defining story for this era." While it's unclear how closely the series will adhere to the book version of The Loudest Voice in the Room, the book was considered an "unflattering portrait" and received a bit of criticism for failing to land an interview with Ailes himself (though the author reportedly repeatedly tried to get him). Here's a detailed official description of the series from Showtime: "To understand the events that led to the rise of Donald Trump, one must understand Ailes. The upcoming limited series takes on that challenge, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party's de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in Ailes' life, including an initial meeting with Richard Nixon on the set of The Mike Douglas Show that gave birth to Ailes' political career and the sexual harassment accusations and settlements that brought his Fox News reign to an end." Continues the description: "Told through multiple points of view, the limited series aims to shed light on the psychology that drives the political process from the top down. McCarthy's deft handling of similarly complex, high-stakes storytelling in Spotlight earned him an Oscar for co-writing 2017's Academy Award winner for best picture, plus an Oscar nomination for directing. For the primary source material, The Loudest Voice in the Room, Sherman interviewed more than 600 people." Depending on the format of the storytelling, the greenlight means we might also get some very interesting casting announcements in the near future as actors might be tapped to play real-life former Fox News personalities such as Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly. That's not confirmed yet, however. There's also no premiere date yet set for the project, though we're hearing a 2019 debut is likely. (Entertainment Weekly)

Banijay Launches Italian Studios for Original Content. The Rome-based company will be headed by former Endemol Shine executive Massimo Del Frate. Banijay Group is launching a dedicated Roman outpost with a new company, Banijay Studios Italy. The new operation will be entirely focused on high-quality scripted content for local broadcasters and OTT platforms. In addition to developing new original content for local broadcasters, Banijay Studios Italy will also explore ways to locally adapt Banijay Group's extensive content catalog. Banijay Studios Italy will be led by Head of Drama, Massimo Del Frate who previously held the same title at Endemol Shine Italy. The creation of the Roman company marks one more step in Banijay's global footprint. Their wide-ranging unscripted hits include Survivor, Temptation Island and Wife Swap, and scripted shows to date include Versailles and Occupied. "Furthering and diversifying our scripted position in the market, we are confident the business has what it takes to build an impressive portfolio and become a key player in the Italian drama ecosystem," commented Banijay Group COO Peter Langenberg. Banijay previously has had deals with multiple production companies in Italy, including DRY, Don't Repeat Yourself, producers of the incredibly popular Italian versions of X Factor, Masterchef and Next Top Model. (Hollywood Reporter)

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