Season 4 of 'Downton' to premiere

(EW.com) -- Downton Abbey has an official return date: Season 4 of the period drama will premiere on Jan. 5, 2014. The series will then run for eight straight weeks, until Feb. 23.

Season 3 broke ratings records for PBS, becoming its highest-rated drama in history. Next season will air in Britain in the fall before coming to America, and will include the return of Shirley MacLaine as the moneyed and less-mannered Martha Levinson, as well as several new faces such as Tom Cullen, Joanna David, and Gary Carr (playing the show's first black character), among others.

When EW talked to Abbey exec-producer Julian Fellowes earlier this year, he said that season 4s "spine" will be (no spoilers), "How Mary rebuilds her life."

See the full story on EW.com.

Via: Season 4 of 'Downton' to premiere

Hollywood applauds Jolie

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie announced in a New York Times op-ed article on Tuesday that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which doctors told her greatly increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Hollywood responded with a virtual standing ovation as several celebrities hailed Jolie for her bravery in both having the surgery and sharing her story to benefit others. Her partner of many years and father of her children, Brad Pitt, released a statement in part saying "Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie's choice, as well as many others like her, absolutely heroic."

He also thanked her medical team and said, "All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family."

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'Iron Man 3' beats 'Gatsby'

(EW) -- If second place is the first loser, then this week that's a pretty great place to be.

Warner Bros.' literary adaptation "The Great Gatsby" stunned the industry with a magnificent $51.1 million debut. Of course, that number wasn't large enough to take down Disney's superhero sequel, "Iron Man 3," which topped the box office for a second weekend with $72.5 million, but it's impressive nonetheless. Ah, the summer movie season: when films actually make money! (Provided that they're not called "Peeples.")

"Iron Man 3," which had the second best opening of all time last weekend with $174.1 million, fell 58 percent in its second frame a slimmer drop than "Iron Man 2" managed (59 percent) but a heftier one than "The Avengers" scored (50 percent).

"Iron Man 3's" gargantuan $72.5 million weekend gave it a sizzling $17,400 per theater average from 4,253 locations and lifted its domestic box office total to $284.9 million after just 10 days.

Internationally, the film is proving even more invincible. The $200 million Marvel title has now earned $664.1 million overseas, led by massive business in Asia. "Iron Man 3s" top two international markets are currently China ($95.3 million) and Korea ($54.1 million), and it has become the highest grossing film of all time in both Indonesia and Malaysia. Worldwide, "Iron Man 3" has grossed a truly jaw-dropping $949 million, guaranteeing it will surpass $1 billion sometime this week.

EW review: 'The Great Gatsby'

In second place, Baz Luhrmann's roaring '20s drama took in $51.1 million the third best opening weekend ever for a film that didn't hit No. 1. (In 2004, "The Day After Tomorrow" debuted with $68.7 million but trailed "Shrek 2." In 2009, "Sherlock Holmes" started with $62.3 million but couldn't overtake "Avatar.") The glossy F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton, broke out at the box office despite middling reviews and a "B" CinemaScore grade.

"This exceeded all our expectations," says Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' head of domestic distribution, who claims that scheduling the adult-oriented literary drama between blockbusters like "Iron Man 3" and "Star Trek Into Darkness" helped it stand out.

Indeed, "Gatsby" appealed to a different audience than most May action-spectacles. Whereas "Iron Man 3" was dominated by male viewers last weekend, "Gatsby" played to a core demographic of adult women. According to Warner Bros., ticket-buyers were 59 percent female and 69 percent were above the age of 25. When asked what drew those ticket buyers, Fellman says the film's Jay-Z-curated soundtrack definitely built buzz, but ultimately it came down to someone else: "Three little letters: L-E-O."

'The Great Gatsby' soundtrack and the rich history of the rock star composer

"The Great Gatsby's" marketing has relied heavily on Leonardo DiCaprio's mug and with good reason. DiCaprio has become one of the most exciting movie stars working today without ever signing up for a major franchise or donning superhero spandex. "Gatsby's" healthy debut marks his second best opening weekend ever, behind only 2010s "Inception," which started with $62.8 million. Hot on the heels of "Django Unchained," which wrangled $162.8 million total, DiCaprio is riding high at the box office.

But "Gatsby's" debut also marks a career high point for Australian director Baz Luhrmann. Before this weekend, the polarizing filmmaker's best opening weekend belonged to his sweeping romance "Australia," which bowed to $14.8 million in 2008. "The Great Gatsby" easily clobbered that figure, and it will quickly become his highest grossing film ever, surpassing "Moulin Rouge," which danced its way to $57 million total in 2001. Of course, "Gatsby" was undoubtedly Luhrmann's most expensive project, too. The film, which was shot in 3-D, cost about $105 million to produce (and reportedly would have cost about $190 million without Australian rebates), though audiences weren't overly excited about the 3-D effects. Only 33 percent of ticket sales were for 3-D showtimes.

Michael Bay's directorial effort "Pain & Gain" wound up in third place in its third weekend with $5 million, marking a slim 33 percent drop. The Paramount film, which stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, has now earned $41.6 million against a slim $26 million budget.

Shane Black and 'Iron Man 3': Who knew the 'Lethal Weapon' screenwriter would turn out to be a thrilling director?

Tyler Perry's latest producing effort, "Peeples," bombed in fourth place with a terrible $4.9 million from 2,041 theaters, making it the first true misfire associated with the Tyler Perry brand. The filmmaker only produced the movie (he typically writes and/or directs and/or stars in his films), but distributor Lionsgate marketed the film on his name, preceding its title with "Tyler Perry Presents." Fortunately, "Peeples," which stars "Scandal's" Kerry Washington alongside Craig Robinson and David Alan Grier, only cost the studio about $15 million. Audiences issued the film an unimpressive "B-" CinemaScore grade.

"42," now in its fifth weekend, almost surpassed "Peeples" (and it still could once final figures are released). The $40 million Jackie Robinson biopic earned $4.7 million, bringing its total to $84.7 million so far. Along with "Gatsby," "42" has been an encouraging performer for Warner Bros., which suffered misfires like "Beautiful Creatures," "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" and "Jack the Giant Slayer" in early 2013.

1. "Iron Man 3" -- $72.5 million

2. "The Great Gatsby" -- $51.1 million

3. "Pain & Gain" -- $5 million

4. "Peeples" -- $4.9 million

5. "42" -- $4.7 million

Check back next weekend for full box office coverage of "Star Trek Into Darkness," which earned an impressive $31 million from just seven international territories this weekend and will easily beam itself atop the domestic chart come Friday.

See the original story at EW.com.

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'HIMYM' unveils the mother

(EW.com) -- Yep, folks, we finally met the mother: Monday night's "How I Met Your Mother" revealed actress Cristin Milioti as the show's titular and, until now, extremely elusive character.

The unveiling took place in the final few seconds of the season 8 finale, as Milioti's yet-unnamed character simply walked up to a Long Island Rail Road ticket booth to purchase one ticket to the fictional Farhampton, presumably to go play in the band at the impending nuptials between Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders). The show didn't exactly spell out the reveal (casual fans could have missed it), but there was one key to knowing the doe-eyed girl was the mother: the bright yellow umbrella she was holding. That's the linchpin accessory the show's narrator and father Ted (Josh Radnor) previously set up as the woman's signature and identifying item.

EW was on set for the filming of the game-changing scene, and scored an exclusive interview with co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. The pair revealed, among many other things, that we likely would have met the mother in May 2013 no matter what: The original plan was for the show to end after just eight seasons (meaning it would have been over...now), with the mother briefly introduced in the series finale. Only after HIMYM was extended to nine seasons did Bays and Thomas make the decision to reveal the mother before the final season in tonight's episode. (Though it seems Ted won't be coming face-to-face with her until much later next season.)

EW: 'HIMYM' recap One ticket to Farhampton

While the scene answered the biggest burning question who was the woman at the center of the saga that Ted has been reliving for his kids (and viewers) since the show first launched in 2005? it left us with many, many more: Why do this now? Why didn't they cast a big, big star? Why wasn't the mother actually Robin? How was the long-awaited casting kept secret from the show's incredibly rabid followers? Read on as Bays and Thomas break down the Mother of all reveals.

Entertainment Weekly: It's already been announced that next season will be your last. With another year to go, why introduce the mother now?

Carter Bays: One of our hard and fast rules [when we thought we were doing eight seasons] was that we didn't want to meet her until the very end. We felt like, now that we're doing another year, let's find an interesting new twist.

Craig Thomas: We've talked here and there about letting the audience see the mother before Ted. Would that be fascinating or let some air out of the balloon? We were scared of it for a long time, but this past season, it came up, and it just fit in so well. Ultimately we view it like we've been honing in on this mother mystery for so long. In season one, it was like a shot of planet earth from outer space. And we've honed in and honed in and honed in, and we look at season nine as like now we're down to Google street view. We've gone from a super-wide shot to super-microscopic-tight, and it just felt right to see the mother's face and to give the audience that gift and that knowledge. There was something exciting about getting a little bit of her before Ted ever does. There was something that we felt like this audience who has stuck with us for all of these years we wanted to reward them with that.

EW: 'HIMYM' casting poll

Bays: And to give ourselves the gift of having something. We didn't want to do season 9 unless we had something that just got us really excited to write it. This concept got us very excited to write it and lent itself to a lot of great ideas that came out. The tipping point was when you have enough ideas that you're going to be bummed if you don't get to try these ideas, that's when it became worth it for us to do season 9, and part of that is revealing the mother. The idea of getting to know her, getting to know where she's coming from, it became too tantalizing to pass up. We always liked the poetic ending of you never really get to know her, you just see her face or something.

EW: Truly, this is pay-off for the fans.

Thomas: The thing we're proud about in this series, we were able to pack some real surprises into the conventional sitcom form. A lot of viewers have given up on meeting the mother prior to the final episode. There are a lot of people who think that's true. I think this will count as a genuine surprise for a lot of people. A lot of people think, "Oh, they got another year; we're never going to see her face this year." I think the way that the season ends, I'm hoping it will blow some people's minds and surprise them and make them want to tune in and see what the hell we're going to do with that.

EW: There wasn't a peep out there about this happening. Was the surprise element crucial to how you wanted this to roll out on screen?

Bays: It's an intended thing. And partly, it's a fun way to do it. It will be fun to see people's reactions. There's something about as far as how as our experience as the audience is reflected in Ted's experience as a single guy, I like the idea of you never know when it's going to happen, and when it does happen, it just happens and there she is. I think it's a way to put the audience in Ted's shoes a little bit even though he doesn't actually meet her in this episode.

EW: How did you keep the whole thing a secret?

Thomas: In the script we called the character "definitely not the mother," so it was very good code. We got very CIA and intense about it: We really didn't put it on paper; we never emailed the outline or the script. We literally just kept it on hard copies of paper that we messengered back and forth to people and then got the copies back and destroyed [them].

Bays: We had like a whole fake title. The script that we auditioned her from was titled "USC Student Thesis Film."

Thomas: Something no one in Hollywood would ever actually read.

Bays: All the extras from the scene with the mother are staff from How I Met Your Mother. They're all there. It was really fun.

EW: 'HIMYM' renewed for final season

EW: How did it feel to finally have Milioti on set and see it all play out?

Thomas: She just had to walk and say one line, but we were all freaking out and losing our minds. All she said was, "One ticket to Far Hampton, please." It was a very surreal moment. It was a moment we pictured for a lot of years, and ultimately it was great.

EW: It seems like people thought the mother would be a big star. Did you ever consider going that route?

Thomas: We didn't want it to be a big famous star because we didn't want the wider audience to have associations with whatever actress this would be, where it's like, "Oh, it's Anne Hathaway and I think blank of Anne Hathaway...." You're waiting years to meet this woman, and it's like, "Oh, he's in love with Amy Adams just like the rest of America is." The whole idea is that Ted's never seen this woman before, so it better feel that way to the audience." Cristin Milioti is she's a fantastic actress and she's been in [Broadway musica] Once, and it's a Tony-nominated, wonderful musical but she hasn't done a ton of big TV parts or bigger film parts. It seems so much more interesting and so much more ted to find someone special and unique and new, someone that we haven't seen before and the whole idea is that Ted's never seen this woman before, so it better feel that way to the audience.

Bays: I don't think it ever occurred to us. Honestly, exhibit A for us in the discussions was Cobie Smulders. In the pilot of our show, Ted sees [Cobie Smulders'] Robin for the first time and without naming names the part of Robin was offered to a pretty famous actress and she turned it down and then we ended up going with Cobie, who was our first choice from the beginning. Thank God we did for a million reasons but among those is the fact that when Ted's seeing her for the first time, America's seeing her for the first time the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive.

EW: Was there ever a moment when you thought about trying to make Robin the mother?

Bays: No. We've heard that question a lot. What always made the show interesting to us is that Ted meets the perfect woman, and it's [still] not his final love story.

For more How I Met Your Mother's big reveal as well as exclusive details about what fans can expect to happen in the show's ninth and final season -- pick up a copy of this week's Entertainment Weekly, available on newsstands May 17.

See the original story at EW.com.

Via: 'HIMYM' unveils the mother

'Everything is on the table' for 'Idol'

(EW.com) -- Fox broke its silence on the worrisome performance of former reality titan "American Idol" and reports that the network is planning to reboot the entire show including dumping its judges panel. Longtime Idol judge Randy Jackson quit last week after hearing the news, which still leaves Mariah Carey, Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj up for possible elimination.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters before the network's upfront presentation in New York City on Monday, Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly blamed the show's ratings decline on the age of the show and some creative changes that were made to season 12s format.

"More so than any one factor is the age of the show right now, but [also] maybe the format this year," Reilly said. "We expanded some of the middle rounds we did a boy-girl thing that went over three weeks that's really where the ratings took their biggest hit. The only thing I will confirm is next year, without getting into any specifics, our next season begins on the Friday morning after our [Idol] finale that's when we're really going to get to work in earnest."

EW: Fox unveils Fall schedule

Despite partly blaming the show's ratings decline on format tweaks, Reilly pledged there will be more format tweaks next year for lucky season 13: "The format will have a few fresh twists, that we've already identified, that will be a nice little jolt for next season."

Pressed on whether the remaining three judges will be "welcome" to return, Reilly said, "Welcome back? Absolutely. But everything at this point is on the table."

EW: Fall TV pilots 2013 series order list

And asked if the show will return to a three-judge panel, instead of four, Reilly replied, "Likely."

The 12-year-old reality franchise is down 23 percent to 15.2 million viewers for its Wednesday night performance shows this year, and has gone from the No. 1 show to a mere Top 5 show. Fox has won the broadcast season for a record eight consecutive years in a row. But "Idol" is a major part of Fox's success and the network will likely come in second place behind CBS this season.

Reilly added: "We can only confirm that one judge is not coming back, obviously in Randy. It was not a complete a shock. We've talked to Randy, we felt like it was time to move [on], we didn't know the exact timing of it. He's been a great partner for 12 years and there's not an ounce of ill-will there."

See the original story at EW.com.

Via: 'Everything is on the table' for 'Idol'

Walters to retire next year

(CNN) -- Longtime ABC News personality Barbara Walters will retire from TV journalism in 2014, ABC reported late Sunday, closing a chapter on one of the most storied careers in broadcast journalism history.

She is expected to make the announcement Monday on "The View," a daytime talker she created in 1997.

Walters, 83, will remain executive producer of that show.

"I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on 'The View' and with ABC News," she said.

"I created 'The View' and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it."

Rumors of Walters' retirement surfaced in March. But she soon squashed them, saying on "The View" that "if and when I might have an announcement to make, I will do it on this program."

Walters had a health scare in January when she suffered a cut on her forehead after falling on a stair while visiting the British ambassador's residence in Washington.

She underwent surgery to repair a heart valve three years ago.

"There's only one Barbara Walters," said ABC News President Ben Sherwood. "And we look forward to making her final year on television as remarkable, path-breaking and news-making as Barbara herself."

Walters' national broadcast career began in 1961 as a reporter, writer and panel member on NBC's "Today" show.

She was promoted to co-host in 1974, but she was hired away by ABC in 1976.

At ABC, she began "The Barbara Walters Specials" and "10 Most Fascinating People," which has become a regular year-end program.

Walters has interviewed every U.S. president and first lady since Richard and Pat Nixon.

Starting in 1984, she spent two decades as co-host and correspondent for ABC's news magazine show "20/20." She still reports on occasion.

Walters was born in Boston and has one daughter. She is expected to retire in the summer of 2014.

"I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain," Walters said. "I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women and OK, some men, too who will be taking my place."

Via: Walters to retire next year

The new 'Late Night' host

(CNN) -- "Saturday Night Live" writer-performer Seth Meyers will take over NBC's "Late Night" show next year when current host Jimmy Fallon moves to "The Tonight Show," NBC announced Sunday.

SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels will also be the executive producer of "Late Night with Seth Meyers." He was also named executive producer of "The Tonight Show" earlier this year when the network announced Fallon would replace Jay Leno.

No premiere date has been announced, but NBC has said Leno's exit and Fallon's debut will coincide with the Winter Olympics coverage in 2014.

All three shows will broadcast from NBC's New York headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. NBC announced in April that "Tonight" would relocate back to New York from Burbank, California. Johnny Carson moved the show there four decades ago to take advantage of Hollywood-based guests and Southern California's lifestyle.

How Twitter helped Fallon get Leno's job

Meyers, 39, would be the fourth comedian to host "Late Night" since it went on the air in 1982, starting with David Letterman and followed by Conan O'Brien and Fallon. "Seth couldn't be in better company," Michaels said.

"We think Seth is one of the brightest, most insightful comedy writers and performers of his generation," NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said in the official announcement.

Meyers has been the frontrunner in speculation about who would succeed Fallon.

Like Fallon before him, Meyers anchored SNL's "Weekend Update" desk. Along with being a performer, Meyers is the show's head writer. Meyers is currently in his 12th season with SNL.

"I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car," Meyers said in the NBC news release. "12:30 on NBC has long been incredible real estate. I hope I can do it justice."

Via: The new 'Late Night' host