Freaky, Fierce and In Session (August 4 – 10)

HOLLYWOOD BRIEFING

By C.L. Gaber

Your weekly entertainment report that focuses on the legal profession and pure R&R for the legally minded.

QUICK INTERROGATION: Jamie Lee Curtis, star of “Freakier Friday” opening August 8.

            It takes a lot to scare Jamie Lee Curtis. The original scream queen and Oscar winner doesn’t get the chills from adding a few candles to a birthday cake. Now 66, she insists, “I’m just completely content just to be me right now. It’s the self-knowledge that you gain with the years. You also find a boldness to say, ‘If not now, then when?’” 

            Curtis has hit her stride now with a major summer movie, this week’s sequel “Freakier Friday,” in theaters, plus a new holiday film bringing James L. Brooks back to the big screen. It’s future Oscar bait called “Ella McCay” with Woody Harrelson and Albert Brooks. 

“Freakier Friday” is part two to her 2003 hit, “Freaky Friday,” a box office hit and family favorite. Now, it’s 22 years later and Tess (Curtis) and Anna Coleman (Lohan) are dealing with their ever-changing family dynamics. Anna is engaged and has a teen daughter named Harper who is about to gain a step-sister named Lily. A fortune teller at Anna’s bachelorette party results in another major body swap… a four-way switch. Tess swaps with Lily and Anna swaps with Harper. 

Curtis says that “it’s the kind of fun that brings you to the movies.” 

The daughter of acting legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh isn’t done. She just shot a new series based on Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta novels with Nicole Kidman and stars on “The Bear,” which earned her a recent Emmy nomination.  A “Murder She Wrote” reboot is also in the works. 

Curtis and husband, actor-writer Christopher Guest live in Los Angeles and are parents of two grown daughters, Annie and Ruby. 

Q: You are part of the reason “Freakier Friday” happened. 

JLC: “Yes, I called Bob Iger, CEO of Disney and said, ‘Look, I don’t know if you’re planning on doing a sequel, but Lindsay is old enough to have a teenager now, and I’m telling you the market for this movie exists.’ I said, ‘Guys, I have one word for you: ‘Barbie.’ The audience that was there for ‘Barbie’ will be there.’ In life, you have to make that call. You never know what will happen.” 

Q: Is it true that you almost didn’t even star in the original film.

JLC:  “The actress who was supposed to do it stepped away. My agent called me when I was on a book tour called me and said, ‘Disney has asked you to step in.’ That was a Thursday. I read the script on a Friday. I flew home and met the director on Saturday. My hair was dyed red on Sunday and I was working on the set on Monday. Meanwhile, I had a five-year-old and 15-year-old at home. I was playing a 15-year-old and a 45-year-old. It was insane and a wonderful surprise.” 

Q: Wait. Weren’t you supposed to have a career in the law profession? 

JLC: “In college, I majored in criminology and minored in being a little sister at a frat. I was never going to be an actor. I was going to be a police officer. Then, I came home from college, ran into a guy who used to teach tennis, but was now managing actors. He said, ‘They’re looking for Nancy Drew at Universal.’ Of course, I didn’t get that part, but they said, ‘We like you.’ That’s all it takes in life sometimes. Someone likes you! Eventually, I ended up signing a seven-year contract with Universal and quit college to go into show offbusiness…I mean show business.” 

Q: You’re always so Zen. What is the secret? 

JLC: “I’m always asking myself, ‘is whatever is going on going to affected me for five minutes, five hours, five days, five months or five years. Five years demands all hand on deck to circle around this problem. If it’s only a five-minute problem, I write it off to ‘it’s not that big of a deal.’” 

Q: What is your secret weapon? 

JLC: “You’re lucky if you carry the goodwill of friends. My friends, and of course my husband and family, wanted the Oscar for me more than anyone else. Be grateful for those people who relate to you. You’re lucky if people are rooting for you in life.” 

WE DON’T OBJECT : 

Here is the latest and greatest in upcoming legal streaming shows and movies: 

On the small screen: 

Cue the iconic sound…dun dun. Olivia Benson, your summer vacation is about to be over. 

NBC just announced premiere week for NBC’s most iconic shows about the law. There will be a three-hour block of them on Thursday nights, which shouldn’t have anyone objecting. “Law & Order: SUV” Season 27 and “Law & Order” Season 25 will begin their next seasons with new episodes on September 25. They will stream the next day on Peacock streaming. 

Scoop on the new season: Octavio Pisano (Det. Joe Velasco) and Juliana Aiden Martinez (Det. Kate Silva) have exited after Season 26. Kelli Giddish, will be back full-time as a series regular, resuming her role as Sergeant Amanda Rollins.  “We’re a unit. It’s so sacred to me,” says Mariska Hargitay who will be back as Olivia Benson. 

Meanwhile, the “SVU” spinoff “Organized Crime,” starring Christopher Meloni, is also back on September 25 on NBC with older episodes airing on Peacock.  

“Family Law.” Over at the CW, they’ve been quietly getting into some legal-ese this summer with the Canadian legal drama “Family Law.” The premise: Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite) is a personal injury lawyer and recovering alcoholic who likes to shift the blame. Her life has hit the skids when her husband kicks her out of the family home for drinking. One bender later, she shows up in court drunk. The verdict is she will be suspended, fined and can only practice law again if she can find a senior lawyer who will mentor her for a one-year probationary period. 

The only one who will do this is Harry Svensson (Victor Garber) who runs the top family law practice around. The only issue is he is also her estranged father who dumped his daughter and her “complex “mother for his secretary when Abby was seven. Father-daughter must work together on cases now including a surrogate who is blind-sided by the revelation that one of the twins she carried for her best friend is actually her biological child. Season four episodes are airing now. Earlier seasons can be streamed on Hulu and Fubo TV. 

Soon-to-be-Streaming

Can men and women just stay friends? That’s the question in season 2 of “Platonic” streaming on Apple TV +. The series stars Rose Byrne as Sylvia, a LA based lawyer (turned event planner) and mom married to Charlie, another lawyer. She’s taking a break from the law to open an event planning business. Enter her free- spirited childhood pal Will played by Seth Rogen who comes back into her life full throttle as “just a best friend.” 

In season 2, the duo deals with midlife hurdles including his upcoming wedding to his boss, a woman no one can stand. By the way, Sylvia is planning the wedding – begrudgingly.  The cast also includes Luke Macfarlane and Carla Gallo along with Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett. New episodes drop on August 6.

Catch a Legal Classic: 

“Clueless.” The screen classic turns 30 this year . . . and it’s not just about teen spirit. In the opening minutes of “Clueless,” Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz describes her lawyer father Mel who charges $500 an hour. “Daddy’s a litigator. Those are the scariest kind of lawyer. Even Lucy, our maid, is terrified of him. And daddy’s so good he gets $500 an hour to fight with people. But he fights with me for free because I’m his daughter.” 

Always the lawyer/Dad, Mel even teaches Cher that her report card grades are just an opening offer. When her father asks for her grades, the savvy teen responds, “Some teachers are trying to low-ball me, Daddy. And I know how you say, ‘Never accept a first offer,’ so I figure these grades are just a jumping-off point to start negotiations.” 

Amid exploring high school life in Beverly Hills, Cher even helps her father get ready for a big upcoming case along with her step-brother Josh (Paul Rudd). As for those grades, the litigator looks at how his daughter has basically argued and talked her way into A’s and B’s and says in a proud pop voice, “Honey, I couldn’t be happier than if they were based on real grades.” 

You can stream “Clueless” on Netflix, Peacock and Paramount +.