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Laurie Metcalf Talks Scott Rudin, Roseanne Barr In New Yorker Profile

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Laurie Metcalf, currently starring in the hit Broadway revival Death of a Salesman co-starring Nathan Lane, speaks emotionally about the show’s producer (and her frequent collaborator) Scott Rudin in a lengthy New Yorker profile out today.

“It’s so touchy,” she tells writer Michael Schulman, who notes in the profile that Metcalf teared up when speaking about a rift with Chicago’s Steppenwolf theater company over her involvement with the controversial producer. “It’s so hard.”

Schulman writes, “When I asked Metcalf about her decision to work with Rudin again, she fumbled for words before taking a piece of notebook paper from her fanny pack. She had reread his [New York] Times interview and jotted down notes. ‘He talked about his therapy, he apologized, he owned what he said, he reflected on it,’ she said, haltingly. ‘He was in the process of rehabilitation. So I just think that, unless we think there is no possibility of real rehabilitation, then we shouldn’t ask people to try and do it.’ She sighed, unsure of herself. ‘I knew you would ask me at some point.’”

Rudin recently returned to producing on Broadway following what proved a temporary hiatus prompted by bullying and workplace abuse allegations in 2021 from former staff members. His first post-break Broadway production was Little Bear Ridge Road last fall, starring Metcalf and directed by Joe Mantello, who also directs Salesman and has worked frequently with both Metcalf and Rudin.

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in ‘Little Bear Ridge Road’

Michael Brosilow

Little Bear Ridge Road premiered at Steppenwolf in 2024, and an impressed Rudin offered to transfer the production to New York; the Chicago theater company, where Metcalf began her career decades ago, but Steppenwolf refused to collaborate with Rudin. Metcalf, according to the New Yorker, threatened to quit her longtime theatrical home unless it gave up the rights to the play to allow the Broadway staging, which ultimately was produced by Rudin and Barry Diller.

Asked about the Steppenwolf situation, Metcalf tearfully tells the New Yorker, “I can’t really go into that, because that’s something I haven’t even figured out for myself, my relationship back there.” She is not involved in the Chicago company’s current and 50th season. Crying as she folds up a piece of notebook paper, Metcalf tells the magazine, “I want my own celebration of that, and I want to celebrate it with some of the Old Guard. I want to go back in time, and I want to be brave with the people who taught me to be brave. I don’t want to worry if something is not P.C. – not to trigger people. Just to be daring. Controversial, if it wants to be. Back then, we didn’t have to be so scared that we were going to step on somebody’s toes and get brought down. We won’t call it the fiftieth. We’ll call it something else. It’ll be like getting the band back together for one last tour, you know?”

Metcalf discusses another controversial colleague in the New Yorker piece. On meeting Roseanne Barr, with whom she would costar as sister Jackie on her TV career breakthrough Roseanne, Metcalf says, “I was intimidated by her, because she was self-made.” The two got along well and reunited for the 2018 revival series, which was canceled after nine episodes when Barr, increasingly given to QAnon-style rants, posted a racist tweet about Barack Obama’s former adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Metcalf, who at the time was in New York performing in the Edward Albee play Three Tall Women, learned of the series’ cancellation from a news chyron. On returning for the re-branded The Conners, Metcalf recalls, “There was just a general sadness around the whole place.” She says she has not spoken to Barr since.

“There’s nothing controversial,” she tells the New Yorker. “We just haven’t spoken since we said goodbye at the end of the reboot.”

Asked if she was angry at Barr “for blowing up her own show,” Metcalf “laughed ruefully and replied, ‘I don’t even know how to answer that.’”

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Chris Hansen Reviews Robert Pattinson ‘Primetime’ Move, Not a Fan

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Former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen was interviewed on his podcast Friday to give his unfiltered reaction to A24‘s unauthorized, dramatized film about parts of his life, Primetime, which he called overly dramatic, detached from reality, and a “fever dream” — while giving Robert Pattinson‘s performance a “D” grade.

Primetime, which opens Friday in the U.S., is set in 2006 and follows Pattinson’s fictionalized version of Hansen as the popular To Catch a Predator segment on NBC’s Dateline grows into its own primetime block on the network. On the show, Hansen blurred journalistic lines by working with law enforcement and the watchdog group Perverted Justice to intercept adult men as they arrived, unbeknownst to them, at a sting house to meet a minor they’d met online for sex. The men were typically arrested as a result. The series drew mixed reactions, with concerns about potential entrapment-law violations at the forefront of the criticism.

In a brief segment produced for his video podcast, Have a Seat with Chris Hansen, the former NBC News journalist is seen exiting a Times Square AMC after viewing the film for the first time at a Thursday night screening — his first look at the indie drama since its theatrical release. He’s then asked for his first reaction to the Lance Oppenheim-directed film.

“It’s hard for me to — obviously, I’m not a judge, because the character is based on me,” he said. “I think because the character is so detached from reality, from anything I’ve ever experienced then or now doing the investigations — I’m not sure what the point of it was.”

The rest of the podcast episode has Hansen discussing the film, its director and Pattinson’s portrayal of him with Fox News’ Jesse Watters. Hansen railed against the movie throughout.

Oppenheim has said he conceived Primetime after receiving a personalized Cameo video from the To Catch a Predator host. Hansen said on his podcast that he spoke to a mutual friend before seeing the film, and that Oppenheim told the friend it was “something to the effect of, ‘a love letter to Chris Hansen, and it gets a little weird in the storytelling.’”

Hansen also flagged inaccuracies in the fictionalized version of his life — including scenes involving Jeff Zucker and Stone Phillips that he insists never happened — and said absolutely nothing in the film was close to reality. He assured viewers he’s not the ratings-obsessed figure the script conjures. His biggest gripe, he said, is that the film portrays him as an aloof parent, which he says is far from how he relates to his kids. As for Pattinson’s take on Hansen circa 2006, Hansen had few kind words.

“He’s got work to do. I’m kind of the only guy that counts for this, right?” he said.

Days before seeing the movie, Hansen spoke with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Seth Abramovich about what he knew of the film. A24 hadn’t reached out to him or the production to explain the premise or ask for his input, he said.

“Based upon what I’ve seen in the trailer and my understanding of what’s been written about the film, they wanted to create something much darker and way more dramatic,” he said. “I think it’s an insult to the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators. They’ve turned something that is very positive, very challenging and not without risk into what is essentially a horror film.”

On Friday, after viewing Primetime, he doubled down with a direct swipe at Oppenheim.

“You have to question the motives of not coming forward and talking to me or anybody I’ve worked closely with over the years,” he said. “They didn’t want to hear that Chris Hansen is a good guy. They didn’t want to hear that this work is important. This director had a dark image of what he wanted to do. He wanted to create a horror-like film with interesting photography, and didn’t want to hear anything else.”

Hansen continues identifying and capturing potential child predators on Takedown with Chris Hansen. Earlier on Friday, Hansen’s TruBlu streaming network dropped the trailer for I’m Chris Hansen, a documentary centered around the host.

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White House Again Blocks CNN From Covering Trump On Air Force One

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The White House has blocked CNN from flying on Air Force One as the TV pool network traveling with Donald Trump on his trip to Tennessee on Saturday.

A CNN spokesperson confirmed reports that the network was pulled from its scheduled rotation providing coverage of the president.

Trump banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House grounds last week, but a federal judge ordered credentials reinstated on Thursday, concluding that it was a violation of due process rights.

The judge did not rule on another action by the White House: After Trump issued the ban, on Sunday the White House pulled CNN from the TV pool rotation. The other four networks in the rotation — CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox — declined to replace CNN, suspending coverage for most of the week. That meant a dearth of video images from the White House. The TV pool resumed earlier on Friday when CNN was reinstated.

Now it is being blocked again, per the network.

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Chris Hansen Finally Saw ‘Primetime’, Still Not A Fan

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After weeks of providing A24‘s Primetime with free press, Chris Hansen has finally seen the Lance Oppenheim-helmed thriller.

On Friday, the former To Catch a Predator host teased his reaction after catching a screening of the movie, which is now in theaters, based on Esquire‘s depiction of Hansen in the 2007 article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die” with Robert Pattinson portraying him.

“It was so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality,” said Hansen in a video shared on X. “Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was.”

At the Venice Film Festival premiere, Pattinson recently said that he hopes Hansen sees the film as “some kind of compliment” from those he’s inspired.

Meanwhile, Hansen’s official review of the film comes amid a rollercoaster of reactions he’s had to the project, including contemplating legal action and purchasing ad space before upcoming screenings of the movie to promote his true-crime streaming network TruBlu, where he continues his sting investigations.

After Hansen recently confirmed he’s “going to see” the movie, following an invite from the production team to a private screening, he appeared last month on Fox News, claiming he was asked to sign “a very restrictive agreement” to attend the advanced screening.

The form was an NDA that all preview audiences are asked to sign a week in advance to view in an unreleased film, in order to prevent spoilers and protect IP. Hansen reportedly refused to sign, and therefore, wasn’t allowed to screen the film.

Now in theaters, Primetime follows Chris Hansen (Pattinson) as he attempts to make television history with NBC’s To Catch a Predator (2004-’07), a hidden camera show that set up stings for adult men seeking sex from minors online.

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