Sia defends casting Maddie Ziegler as autistic teen in new film

Kanye West is at it again.

Model moms! Pregnant Rihanna plans to emulate a pair of Real Housewives cast members while raising her first baby.

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In a new trailer for the hotly-anticipated Hulu series Kardashians, Kourtney Kardashian reveals that she's undergoing IVF to help her conceive a baby with fiance Travis Barker.The 42 year old said the experience hasn't been totally easy, and has triggered unwanted side effects that she considers to be perimenopause symptoms. "The medication that they’ve been giving me, they put me into menopause," she claimed, prompting her mum, Kris Jenner to ask, "Based off of what? A drug?"  "Yes," Kourtney replied.

Mrs Hinch has given fans an update on the progress being made at the ongoing refurbishments at Hinch Farm. The 31-year-old has shared a photo of the completed bathroom for one year old Lennie which features an impressive freestanding bath. "Yay! Lennie's bath is finally in guys," the star shared on Instagram alongside a photo of her buy.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNetflix has commisioned a new “Kung Fu Panda” animated series with Jack Black returning to voice the main character, Po.In the series, titled “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight,” a mysterious pair of weasels set their sights on a collection of four powerful weapons. Po must leave his home to embark on a globe-trotting quest for redemption and justice that finds him partnered up with a no-nonsense English knight named Wandering Blade.

Whether it’s how we do our work, keep in touch with our friends, or even how we stay in shape, our everyday lives are increasingly dominated by the online world. Despite the move to online, much of the Internet remains unregulated and many behaviours - including the sending of unsolicited pictures - aren’t treated with the same force as they would be if they took place in the ‘real’ world.

Aldi have served up a designer dupe that has fooled shoppers into thinking it is something far more expensive. A 99p cleaning product is being hailed as an absolute match for a Marc Jacobs designer perfume.

This Morning presenter Josie Gibson fought back tears as she opened up on losing four friends who tragically took their own lives.The 37 year old TV star, who is standing in for usual host Holly Willoughby after she tested positive for Covid-19, revealed she’d lost four people she knew to suicide in a frank conversation about the public’s struggle to access mental health services. Josie and co-host Phillip Schofield were joined by Doctor Nighat Arif to discuss how people’s mental health has been impacted by the pandemic and what is out there to help those who are in need.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticNetflix has once again found a criminal case whose oddity, extremity, and seeming delusion make for an interesting story. “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentCarol Polakoff, a two-time Directors Guild of America award winner, is teaming with “Exodus” producer Denise O’Dell to adapt to the big screen “Speak Sunlight,” American writer Alan Jolis’ much-loved memoir. Now in pre-production and scheduled to shoot from May 8, the high-profile title is produced by Madrid-based Babieka Films, most recently behind Netflix hit “The Paramedic,”  and L.A.’s Viewfinder Pictures. “Speak Sunlight” (“La Voz del Sol”) marks the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter Polakoff whose curriculum includes two DGA wins and three Daytime Emmy Awards nominations for “ABC Afterschool Specials.” Most recently, Polakoff produced Daniel Rosenberg’s 2020 Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which won a Cannes Label for making the cut in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category. To film in Spanish, with a smattering of French, “Speak Sunlight” is written by Polakoff with a Spanish version from Natxo López, a creator of top primetime series such as “Perdida” and “Unauthorised Living.” López also co-wrote the just-out Amazon Studios hit “Operation Black Tide,” the subject of a case study panel at Series Mania on March 23.A heartfelt coming of age tale set in Paris and majorly Pamplona in 1965, “Speak Sunlight” is based on the memoir of the same title by Jolis, who died aged just 46 in 2000. It drinks from his childhood memories as the son of posh but distant American parents in Paris who is really looked after by the family’s cook, Maruja, a force of nature, and her husband, Manolo, the butler. In 1965, they take Alanito off to Pamplona, where he awakes to a vivid sensual world and grows up emotionally.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGrammy-nominated rapper and Variety Hitmakers cover star Jack Harlow has announced that his second major-label album, “Come Home the Kids Miss You,” will be released May 6 via Generation Now/Atlantic Records. The album will feature the single “Nail Tech,” which was released last month.Harlow talked with Variety about the album last November.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorRooster Teeth recruited Adam Bersin to lead marketing for WarnerMedia’s fandom-focused entertainment division.Bersin most recently served as Amazon Studios’ global creative marketing lead for sci-fi, fantasy, superhero and adult animated content. While at Amazon, he headed up marketing for “The Boys,” one of Prime Video’s biggest franchises.Before joining Amazon Studios in September 2017, Bersin was marketing director for FX, where he launched campaigns for “American Horror Story,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Fargo” and other shows.

Chris Willman Music WriterJoni Mitchell will be getting her own SiriusXM channel, starting today, pegged to her upcoming pre-Grammys MusiCares honor as that org’s person of the year.The time-limited Mitchell channel will be on the service in different time frames in its app and satellite iterations. It starts earlier on the SiriusX app, premiering today and running for about a month, through April 14.

Sia has expressed regret over responding to criticism of her decision to cast a neurotypical actor as the non-verbal autistic lead in her upcoming new film, Music.Many took to social media in November to voice their criticism following the release of the film’s first trailer, which shows Maddie Ziegler, who is not autistic, playing the role of a nonverbal autistic teenager named Music.Sia responded to a number of comments on Twitter, saying she had consulted autistic people and allies on the film and that she had cast Ziegler only after trying to work with a “beautiful young girl non-verbal on the spectrum” who “found [the project] unpleasant and stressful.”In response to one user, who identified themselves as an autistic actor among many

Sia is adding more controversy to her upcoming movie ‘Music,’ admitting how she changed her mind and made the casting decision to replace Shia LaBeouf with Kate Hudson.The 45-year-old singer is making her directorial debut, recently releasing the trailer for the film and revealing that her usual leading lady Maddie Ziegler will be portraying an autistic girl.Fans of the hitmaker were quick to categorize her casting choices as insensitive, accusing her of ableism and lack of research during the pre-production stage of the project.One Twitter user commented, “You should know better than to allow able-bodied & neurotypical to represent the disabled community,” adding that it’s “incredibly offensive,” and resulting in the singer having some

Sia has revealed she replaced Shia LaBeouf with Kate Hudson in her forthcoming directorial debut, days after calling him a “pathological liar” who “conned” her into a relationship. On Sunday (13 December), Sia voiced her support for musician FKA twigs after she filed a lawsuit against LaBeouf, who was formerly her boyfriend.

Sia has replaced Shia LaBeouf with Kate Hudson in her upcoming film Music, the singer has revealed.The news comes just days after Sia accused LaBeouf of being a “pathological liar” who “conned” her into an adulterous relationship as she spoke out against the actor following FKA Twigs’ legal action last week over allegations of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress against LaBeouf.“I was going to do a narrative film, and in fact, Shia LaBeouf was cast to play Kate’s character,” Sia told Australia’s Studio 10 this week. “I asked for a meeting with her, and she said she was born to do it.

Sia reworked her directorial debut to cast Kate Hudson in the lead role, after ditching Shia LaBeouf from the project. The Chandelier hitmaker revealed she initially tapped the Transformers star to lead the cast of Music but ended up making the film with Hudson, instead.

Sia is defending her decision to cast Maddie Ziegler as a character with autism in her upcoming movie Music.

Sia further discussed her decision to have Maddie Ziegler play a character with autism in her new movie “Music” during an interview with Australia’s “10 News First”.