HBO’s Euphoria returned April 19 with its second Season 3 episode, “America My Dream,” prompting a wave of criticism focused on Sydney Sweeney’s character Cassie. The episode includes a montage of Cassie creating explicit OnlyFans content — topless and fully nude shots, an ice-cream gag, a sheer American-flag costume, a baseball-themed shoot, a puppy-play sequence and a contentious scene in which the character poses as an “adult baby” with a pacifier and diaper. Viewers on social media described the material as disturbing, degrading and gratuitous; some called for boycotts while others defended the creative choice. Coverage notes the episode also features the return of Eric Dane. Commentators and outlets including Variety have framed the scenes as both a continuation of Cassie’s arc — seeking money for an extravagant wedding — and as a meta use of Sweeney’s public persona. The debate has touched on Sweeney’s previous comments about sexualisation in her career and the showrunner Sam Levinson’s history of provocative storytelling.

A24 and Bandai Namco have begun production on a live-action feature adaptation of the hit video game Elden Ring, with Alex Garland confirmed as writer-director. The studio announced a March 3, 2028 theatrical release and said the film will be optimized for IMAX. Principal photography is under way in the United Kingdom this spring, with reports citing a budget in excess of $100 million and roughly 100 days of shooting. The assembled ensemble includes Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Ruby Cruz, Nick Offerman, John Hodgkinson, Jefferson Hall, Emma Laird and Peter Serafinowicz. Producers include Peter Rice, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich alongside George R.R. Martin and Vince Gerardis; FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki is also guiding the project. The film adapts the 2022 dark-fantasy RPG that has sold more than 30 million copies and won hundreds of Game of the Year awards.

Patrick Muldoon, the American actor best known for roles on Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place and for his turn in the film Starship Troopers, has died at 57. According to family and entertainment outlets, Muldoon suffered a sudden heart attack at his Beverly Hills home on April 19, 2026; his partner, Miriam Rothbart, found him unconscious and paramedics were unable to revive him, his sister Shana Muldoon‑Zappa told TMZ. The actor’s manager confirmed the death to Variety and Deadline reported the cause as a heart attack. Muldoon rose to prominence as Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives (1992–95; returned 2011–12), played Richard Hart on Melrose Place in the mid‑1990s and was Zander Barcalow in Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 Starship Troopers. He also worked as a producer and was an executive producer on projects including Kockroach, which is in production in Australia, and had a new film, Dirty Hands, slated for release on April 24. Tributes poured in from colleagues including Alison Sweeney and Dina Meyer. He is survived by his partner, parents, sister Shana Muldoon‑Zappa and extended family.

Australian actor Rebel Wilson appeared in the Federal Court in Sydney on April 20, 2026, as a nine‑day defamation trial opened brought by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actress in Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb. MacInnes says a series of Instagram posts by Wilson beginning in 2024 falsely suggested MacInnes privately told Wilson she had been sexually harassed by producer Amanda Ghost and later recanted in exchange for career opportunities. MacInnes denies the allegations and is seeking aggravated damages and a court order to stop Wilson repeating the claims. Court filings and opening statements detailed a September 2023 Bondi swim and a shared bath after Ghost suffered a medical episode, with the central dispute being whether MacInnes told Wilson she felt uncomfortable and later changed her account. MacInnes’s lawyers also alleged Wilson redacted or failed to produce texts, used PR firms and private investigators, and took defamation insurance; Wilson denies wrongdoing and has signalled defences including truth. The Deb premiered at TIFF in 2024 and its Australian release was delayed amid the litigation; related suits in the U.S. and New South Wales have also been reported.

Emmy-winning writer‑director Lee Sung Jin says multiple real‑life moments shaped season two of Netflix’s anthology series Beef, which began streaming in April 2026. In interviews with The Hollywood Reporter, People, Deadline and others, Lee described how overhearing a heated domestic argument, a prolonged emergency‑room wait he experienced with his wife, and a month using a Montecito country club membership informed the season’s central conflicts. The new installment relocates the story to a California country club and follows two couples — millennial bosses (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan) and a Gen‑Z staff pair (Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny) — whose lives entangle after the younger couple witnesses a violent quarrel and later seek favors including health insurance. Lee detailed pitching Melton in person at a Gold House dinner and said he often wrote scenes by transcribing real dialogue from his notes app. He also confirmed he recently renewed an overall deal with Netflix. Season two foregrounds class divides, generational tensions and healthcare access as recurring themes.