Thompson said the confrontation last March during the Oscars in which Will Smith attacked presenter Chris Rock over a joke directed at Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, was both unsettling and avoidable. “It kind of just threw the entire world off guard, basically, and that won’t happen again,” Thompson told the Associated Press. “Even if I am roasting (someone), it shouldn’t come across as any sort of malice.”
The Sept. 12 Emmy ceremony will air live on NBC and be carried on its streaming sibling Peacock. Top nominees include the dramas Succession and Squid Game and comedies Ted Lasso, Hacks and Only Murders in the Building.
Kelly Clarkson‘s days as Simon Cowell’s America’s Got Talent seat filler are over. NBC announced Monday that Saturday Night Live vet Kenan Thompson will step in for the injured Cowell in this week’s live episodes (airing Tuesday and Wednesday). Thompson succeeds Clarkson, who occupied Cowell’s seat last week.
Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured Saturday Night Live cast member, will serve as MC of this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the annual media jamboree that has become a flash point on free expression in the Trump era. The dinner, to be held April 25, is also set to feature a repeat performance by Hasan Minhaj, the former Daily Host personality and current host of Patriot Act on Netflix. Minhaj was the featured entertainer at the 2017 edition of the event.
